We want to thank you for listening to this week's sermon from Harvest Bible Chapel, Kansas City. We pray that you will be encouraged and challenged by God's Word today. If you would like more information about Harvest, please visit our website at www.harvestkansascity.org. And now, here's Pastor Jeff Terrell. Let's grab our Bibles, and our notes, and our pens, and let's start taking notes and learn from God's Word so that we can live differently this week. Number one, I want you to see that we need to refresh our motivation. As rocks, as living stones, we need to refresh our motivation. What motivates us when we get up in the morning? What motivates us when we come in to a worship service on Sunday? What motivates us to open God's word on a daily basis and read it? Thankfully, God's Word gives us that motivation. And isn't that God's gracious provision to us? That when He gives instruction, He gives us reasons to be motivated. And we see that in the first three verses. In fact, the command in verse two is like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk. You know, as Sal was praying, there's a sweet little baby that was crying, and I love that. You know, as a dad who's had little babies, just know that as a pastor also, I'm not like, oh, take that kid somewhere else. That's not how I'm thinking. I get it, and I love that, and that just tells us that God is raising up another generation that we can influence for the gospel. But I was praying that the Holy Spirit would cause that baby to cry right now. because you see what it says in verse two. It says, like newborn infants, long for the spiritual milk, and then, wah, and then it would have been perfect. But he just didn't orchestrate that, so I'm gonna have to unpack it just by words. But the command here is, like newborn infants, long for, or the New American Standard says, crave pure spiritual milk. And the spiritual milk is actually the word of God. You can see that back in chapter one in verse 23. The Word of God. And some of you that have been coming to Harvest for a while are like, here we go again, another message that encourages us to dig into God's Word more. You ever feel like that? Like, man, why do we keep beating this nail over and over and over again? You know, I think if you were to take a poll in the small groups here at Harvest of people who would say that they are in God's Word as much as they should be, most people would say no. In fact, it's fascinating to listen to our men's groups as we're going around the room talking about what are you learning in God's word, what is he teaching about himself, and how are you living differently as a result? Usually the men will respond, I need to be in God's word more. And so here, what Peter is saying is that he's saying we need to be craving God's word, but I don't want to focus on the command so much as I want to focus on the motivation. And it begins in verse one. It says, so, or therefore, put away all malice, and then he gives this list of vices that are internal. And you would think that Peter would focus on some of the outward characteristics of unrighteous behavior. But he's focusing on the internal, and what's the clue here is that it says so. That's the word therefore in the original language. And so it's pointing us back to verse 22. The key to the passage that Chad was preaching last week is the command in chapter 22 that says that we are to earnestly love one another. That's the command. That's the practical that Peter is saying is that in this environment where you're being persecuted, as you look around and you see there are other people that name the name of Jesus Christ, we are to earnestly love one another. Now that's difficult to do, isn't it? It's difficult to do in the church, it's difficult to do in family circles, and in the workplace, and in the classroom. It's difficult to genuinely love one another. And the reasons for that are because of this list. These are the invaders against true love. Look what it says, it says malice. That's a catch-all word that's used for all types of ill will toward other people. Deceit, we're familiar with that one. Hypocrisy, we're familiar with that. And envy, but let me focus on slander. We often think that slander is a cutting remark, where it's something where we are genuinely putting down someone else to disparage them in front of others. But I love what Tom Schreiner said. Tom Schreiner said that these can be specifically or strategically placed comments to undermine somebody subtly. This is like our sitcoms today. How many sitcoms do you watch, or maybe the Disney Channel for teens, and let me just tell you, that is just, there's some funny stuff on that, but it is just teardown after teardown after teardown, isn't it? But it's done in such a way, it's so insidious that it's just well-timed and it's got enough humor in it that we all laugh at it, but what it's doing is it's slandering someone. So I just wanna pause right now and just ask you, is this characteristic of your life? Are you somebody who's characterized by these insidious comments that are strategically timed that maybe produce a laugh, but have as their goal to tear somebody down? Now what's interesting is the original language is actually, it portrays something that the English doesn't bring across. It looks in verse one that Peter is saying that we are to put away these things, doesn't it? And yet in the original language it says, having already put these things away. See, when we are followers of Jesus Christ, this is no longer us. We are a new nature, 2 Corinthians 5, 17 says. The old is gone. We have laid it aside. In fact, that's what this Greek word means. It means to take it off. In fact, hundreds of years after this was written, the Christians developed a tradition in their baptism ceremony. And what they would do is they would come to the waters and they would take their garment and they would take it off and lay it aside and put on a white robe. And that was illustrating what happens when we come to Christ. Is that when we come to Christ, we take our old garments and we put them away. What Peter is saying here is you've already done this. So when these attributes, when these characteristics, when these mindsets begin creeping into your heart, this is the old man. And what he's saying is we need to be on alert for these invaders. Now how do we do that? Well, verse two is the solution. We are too long or crave for the pure spiritual milk. I don't know about you, but I don't just naturally crave to read the word of God. Do any of you? I mean, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, apart from his illuminating the treasure trove of Scripture in our hearts and in our minds, we don't just naturally wake up on a Saturday morning and say, I wanna read God's word. And so we have to cultivate this. We have to cultivate it by understanding who we are in Christ, but cultivate this by understanding the value that the word of God brings to us. And it's right there in the text, do you see it? It says, crave the what? The pure, the pure. This is void of imperfections, void of inconsistencies, and yet look at all of the authority sources that we have in our lives, and so many of them are wrought with imperfection, aren't they? Think about the scientific studies that come out that chocolate is bad for you, and then a year later, chocolate is good. Good for you. And now it's dark chocolate and no sugar, and there's value in this, but all you have to do is just wait a little while, and somebody's gonna come out and say something different. Think about healthcare or nutrition. And think about how many times, remember years ago, some of you are too young to remember this, but remember when everything was about no fat. And now we realize, hey, there's actually some fat that's good for you, and if you're just completely no fat, that can actually be detrimental to your health. Here's my point in sharing this, is that all of these other sources of authority in our lives have value, but they're wrought with imperfections. This is the one source of authority in our lives that is free from imperfections. It is pure. Even, listen to this, even preachers and Christian authors are wrought with imperfections. I know that sounds like I'm shooting myself in the foot, but what I'm trying to do is move us beyond looking at the preacher, beyond the author of a book, and seeing how does it relate to scripture? Because we have a plumb line that God has given us, and it is the pure spiritual milk. The word spiritual means reasonable. And it's actually used by Peter to differentiate between the milk that he's referring to and the milk that that baby was probably crying for just a few moments ago. This is spiritual, reasonable milk. And it has value. Do you see the second half of verse two? So that, this is the Greek word hinna, my favorite word in the New Testament, so that by it you may grow up into salvation. The value of spiritual milk is the same value of physical milk. Physical milk causes a physical body to grow up and mature. The value of the spiritual milk of the word is to grow us up spiritually so that we can mature. Now the fact of the matter is is that we receive salvation at a point in our lives, don't we? We are justified, we are set apart. when you acknowledge and admit that you are a sinner and cannot save yourself, when you believe that the person and work of Jesus Christ is sufficient to save you, and when you confess your sins and commit your life to Him, at that moment in time, you receive the justification of God through the blood of Jesus Christ. And that's something to celebrate, isn't it? But listen, it's a process. Because there are a lot of people who pray a prayer like that because of emotion. And we think of summer camps, that those are often illustrations of that, that, you know what, there's a bunch of people walking forward, and man, I like that message, and I've got tears coming down from my eyes, and so I'm gonna go forward, and I pray a prayer, and some people do that because of emotion. Other people do it to get the girl, don't they? Some girl that they're attracted to, she's a follower of Jesus Christ, and so the person says, hey, you know what, I wanna be with that girl, and so she's a follower of Christ, so I'll pray a prayer, I'll do whatever it takes. And then some people do it to avoid punishment, don't they? I was reading in an article this last week that there was a, it was actually the young man that Chad referenced in his message last week. I was fascinated with that story. Down in Texas, he orchestrated the murder of his mom and his younger sister and almost the murder of his dad. And it said in this article, written from a secular worldview, it says that the young boy found religion, and it said, of course. But isn't that typically what happens when somebody's on death row, is they find religion, air quotes? That's what the world thinks. Here's my point in sharing these illustrations, is that many people pray a prayer, many people have a religious experience because of a lot of different motivations, and so it begs the question, was that experience real? And so that's what this is referring to. This is how we can tell whether or not it's real. Are you maturing? Because a true follower of Jesus Christ puts the old man off, puts the new man on, and the natural outworking of that is that we grow to be more like Christ. And there will be stages of our lives where that growth is a lot slower than others. But always there will be growth if the salvation is authentic. And so how do you tell? By drinking the spiritual milk and growing to be more like Christ. I mean, that's a pretty good motivator, isn't it? But then look at verse three. If indeed, that's a difficult translation in the English, but it would kind of be like this, as Peter is saying, hey, you've tasted this, right? I mean, we're followers of Christ. You've experienced this, right? I mean, come on, let's just be nodding our heads. Let's give a hearty amen. That's essentially what he's saying here. And what have you tasted? That the Lord is good. Eyes up here for a minute. Have you tasted that the Lord is good? What does that mean to you, that the Lord is good? Sometimes we have to take off our horizontal lenses and we have to put on our vertical lenses to be able to see His goodness, don't we? Because I know there's some of you out here that have been through a difficult 2018. There's some of you that are getting ready to celebrate anniversaries of tragedies. There's some of you who are going through trials in your life right now who you would say, I would not wish this on my worst enemy. and yet isn't God still good? See, the fact of the matter is is that God chooses to save some, and in that, that is infinite goodness. So many times we think about the doctrines of grace. We think about the Calvinism, if you will, and the unconditional election and the limited atonement and the irresistible grace and the perseverance of the saints, and we struggle with some of those things in our humanity, but we forget the T, the total depravity. is that all of us enter into the world totally depraved, with no spiritual abilities whatsoever, living for ourselves, Ephesians 2, 1 through 3 says. And in those moments when we start to struggle with, man, is God really good? Man, remind yourself of your total depravity, and that God has chosen to reveal himself to you, and that is goodness, isn't it? So as stones, as these rocks, we are reminded to crave the sincere, the pure spiritual milk, but there's motivation with it. And I love what he says in verse two, like newborn infants. And all you have to do is just sit around our church for a while because God has blessed us with a lot of young families. If you want to see this firsthand, go into the infant room. You have to go through a background check. but go into the infant room and serve in there, and just watch how those little bundles, aren't they just cute? They got those big eyes, and they're just cooing, and they're just looking at you, but all of a sudden, that stomach growls, doesn't it? And that little cute cooing baby goes from zero to 100, boom, like that, doesn't it? blood curling screams, ah, and we're trying to bring up blankies and babas and binkies and all those things. And listen, those only temporarily satisfy because what are they longing for? They're longing for the milk. That's the only thing that satisfies. And that is the point that Peter is conveying in this analogy. Beloved, what's the first thing you turn to in the morning when you wake up? Is it social media? Is it the news? Is it the scores from the night before? And I'm not saying this morning is when you have to read God's word, but I'm asking you, look at the patterns of your life and ask yourself, are you craving the spiritual milk of the word? And if not, remember these motivations. Refresh your motivations. Number two, recall your valuator. Recall your evaluator. Evaluator is somebody who places a value on something, or maybe an appraiser would be a better one. But recall your evaluator. Verse five says, you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up to a spiritual house. The valuator, Peter, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is saying that, hey, we are living stones, we are not dead stones. Now, what you're gonna see in these verses is a lot of analogies back to the Old Testament and back to Judaism. Because that's the foundation of the gospel of the New Testament is the Old Testament. Listen, if you do not study the Old Testament, we're missing out. That's why we spent almost 50 weeks in the book of Genesis is to remind ourselves of the foundation of the gospels. In fact, by the time you get to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they're assuming that you have a full understanding of the Old Testament. When Peter was teaching the new Christians in the churches, when Paul was teaching the new Christians in the churches the gospel of Jesus Christ, he was building upon the foundation of the Old Testament. That's what Ephesians 2, 20 through 22 says. And so that's why we have all of these analogies here. And so let's walk through some of them. Verse four is really where this whole valuation begins. It says, as you come to him, which by the way, let me just stop right there. That's an amazing phrase. The word is written in such a way as as you are coming to him, coming to God of the universe was staggering for the first century church. And it should be for us today. See, back in the Old Testament times, you had to have a group of men that were descendants of Levi and of Aaron that would be the ones who would bring the prayers and the repentance and confession of the people to God himself. People could not access him directly. But because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ and the veil of the holy of holies was torn in two, now we have direct access to God of the universe. Isn't that amazing? We need to grow in our amazement of that. That's what Hebrews 10 says. In fact, Hebrews, the author of Hebrews is walking through, just reflecting on the priesthood, and we're gonna get to that here in a minute, and he's walking through. Man, do you remember those old days where the priest had to shed the blood, and that was the only access that we had to the Father, and now the veil's been torn, and now we have direct access, and so he gets to 10, 24, and 25, and he's like, so why would we forsake the assembling of ourselves together to worship this God? He says, as you yourselves are coming to him, a living stone. But look at this contrast. It was rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious. Isn't that awesome? I mean, just think about the rejection side of things. Think through this with me. Garage sales. We all have garage sales, don't we? Isn't there a box that we usually put out there that we're like, hey, I'd really like to get something for this, but I really don't want it around my house anymore. And what do we typically do is in that box we just say everything's for a nickel. And that's essentially the way the Jews viewed Jesus. As we reject this stone. In fact look what it says though in verse seven. It says the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. That's awesome. You say why is that awesome? Well because the cornerstone was a stone in the building that was essential, that if you took it out, the whole building collapsed. And so you see the analogy here is that the builders should be interested in what stone? The cornerstone. And yet they rejected the very stone that was essential for their system that they were building. See, they were building this religious system. The builders were looking for all the stones and they're saying, I'll take this one, I'll take this one, to construct a system of religion for their God. But the very stone that they needed, that was essential for their building, they rejected it and put it in the nickel for everything box. And you look at the value that is placed on it. In the sight of God, verse four, chosen and precious. You know, I'm looking out at a lot of great people this morning. You all are well-dressed. Most of you have smiles on your faces. Most of you are awake. And as I'm looking out on you, though, I don't know what's going on in your heart of hearts. But I would bet there's some of you that I'm looking at right now, I'm not thinking of anyone in particular, that has a pretty low-value view of yourself. that maybe you've been beat up by family members, spouse, children, managers, and you might consider yourself something other than God is, but look at what he says about you. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, verse five, you yourselves like living stones, just like Jesus. He is the chief cornerstone. He is the stone that is essential for the building. But listen, we are all part of the building. Isn't that awesome? And we don't have to worry about what the world says about us. We don't have to worry about what our family members say about us. We don't have to worry about what anybody else, including ourselves, say about us. Look at the valuator. He says that you are a living stone being built up to a spiritual house, making our house that he's building through us superior to the temple in Jerusalem. Oh man, we don't have time to dig into this, but it's awesome. We'll grab a coffee if you wanna hear about this more. But the whole concept of God's presence throughout the Old Testament, it began in the tabernacle. Remember when Moses brought the people out of Egypt and they built a tabernacle that was designed with the Ark of the Covenant to be where the presence of God was, a physical place. And then when they got to Jerusalem, there was this massive, beautiful temple that Solomon built that was the place where the presence of God could be seen and experienced. But now he's saying, no, no, no, superior to that. We are a spiritual house, a holy priesthood. We'll get into that in just a moment. To offer spiritual sacrifice is acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. This is what the evaluator says. This is what scripture says. That's why it says in verse six, and it stands in scripture. That means this is undeniable. You cannot argue against this. But the value, look what the value is, verse seven. So the honor is for you who believe. Have you believed? I mean, we are talking about the ultimate cornerstone. We are talking about a chosen and precious treasure that is found in Jesus Christ that is extended to his children through his blood. Do you believe that? If you do, then this is honor, this is value to you. This is what the valuator and the appraiser is saying about your life. But for those who do not believe, it's the stone that the builders rejected. It's a stone of stumbling, verse eight, and a rock of offense. Look at this, they stumble, why? Because they disobey the word. Let's just stop right there. This is always God's purview. God's perspective of us is summarized here. Do you obey or do you disobey the word? That's his valuation of you. And only those who have given their lives to Jesus Christ have the ability to obey his word. And then all of this has been predicted by God, but then look at the end of verse eight, as they were destined to do. What an interesting phrase. The disobedience of those living in darkness was destined, it was orchestrated, it was designed by God. But listen, we've gone into this with great detail in the book of Jonah, but let me just summarize it. This was God's plan, but yet we are responsible. That is a difficult concept for our human brains to wrap around, but here's what Peter is intending to communicate to his friends that were living in northern Turkey at the time, as he was reminding them of the confidence they have in Christ. It's that the God of the universe, as these people were persecuting them and bringing them to the courts and they were blaspheming God, he was reminding them that not only is this part of something God predicted, this is something that God has orchestrated. Remember that the next time you are persecuted. Yes, that individual is responsible, but listen, this is all part of God's design, the valuator. Now, we have a lot of different opinions, and we like to say what we think the value of ourselves are, and whether we agree with verse eight or not, and we like to consider ourselves sovereign, but at the end of the day, what matters is what the appraiser says, isn't it? Reminds me of 2017, Lauren and Lisa, let me make sure that I pronounce their last name correctly. Kreitzler, some of you have heard this. There's a picture I want to throw up on the screen here. Lauren and Lisa had this rug that they had received from his grandmother. And when they were going through, after she passed away, all of her possessions, Lauren says that his mom and his sister were grabbing all kinds of different things that they placed value on, and then this rug dropped out. And Lauren asked his sister, don't you want this? And she says, that old thing? No. And so Lauren held on to it. It was a family heirloom. They actually used it for the bed for their kitty litter. And then one day, that all changed. They pulled that rug out, and a friend of theirs went to Antiques Roadshow. And the person was evaluating it and said, do you know what this is? This is a Navajo chief blanket that is extremely rare. And that appraiser said at the time, I think it could be anywhere from 250 to $500,000. Now you need to understand, this Kreitzler family was living like most Americans are today, and that is paycheck to paycheck, having a difficult time making ends meet. So for them, they're thinking 250 to 500,000, that's amazing. Well listen, at auction it sold for, get this, $1.5 million. That was a kitty litter bed. And now it changed their lives forever. What was the difference? It was the appraiser. The appraiser that recognized the value. Beloved, that's where we are today. We might consider ourselves gray stones just like this. But beloved, if you are in Jesus Christ, the evaluator says, no, you are chosen and precious in his sight. Will you walk out of here being reminded of that as your evaluation? See, the world might see you as that rug that has no value, that there's, place it under the kitty litter, but beloved, if you are in Christ, you are chosen and precious. Remember that as your evaluator. But three, recalibrate your value. Recalibrate your value. See, the value of something is only actually realized when it's actually used or sold, isn't it? And that's what I love, is when we get to verse nine, we're reminded that the value is placed on us, but it's intended for a purpose. Verse nine, in contrast to those who are living in darkness, who are stumbling because they were disobeying the word as they were destined to do, look at verse nine, but you. I love but you passages. Write down Ephesians 2.4, that's my favorite. Ephesians 2.1-3, you were this, you were dead in your trespasses and sins, but verse four, but God. Here it says, those were living in disobedience to the word and in darkness, but you, look at these words, are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. These are descriptions, again, that hearken back to the Old Testament. And what Peter is saying is that look back in a day and age where it was all about ethnicity, it was all about circumcision, it was all about a specific exclusive people group that could bring you into relationship with God, but you now are chosen race. And what's interesting, and I don't want to get into too much technical here to be able to distract us from the point, but Peter is using corporate singulars. You may say, what's a corporate singular? A corporate singular is a word like nation. Nation is singular, but it's describing what? A whole bunch of people. Family, singular, whole bunch of people. Team, you get it? That's what he's doing here is he's saying, you are a chosen race, a corporate singular, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. And see, here's why I wanna draw that out is because I think here in the West, we like to focus on our individual relationship with God, don't we? It's my private, personal relationship with God. No, it is, but it's all about the corporate. It's about the church. We all have individual privileges and roles that we play, but it's all about the body of Christ, corporate singular. Now it does beg the question, and there are systematic, there are theological systems that would say, well, here you go, this means that the church has replaced Israel. Well, I love what Tom Schreiner says. He says, the church has not replaced Israel. He says, the privileges belonging to Israel now belong to the church of Christ. Isn't that awesome? You can go back to Deuteronomy chapter seven and you can see the tremendous value that was placed on the Jews by God's choosing of them. And look at the whole Old Testament and see the privileged relationship that God had for Israel. And now we as the church have access to that privilege. That's amazing. But the church has not replaced Israel in that God still has a specific plan for ethnic Israel. But what Peter is doing for the Christians of that day and reminding us is that all these spiritual privileges that Israel got to experience in the Old Testament are now ours in Christ. That's the value, but it's only realized when we live it out. Look at verse five. There's that word again, a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices. See, the value that is placed on us as a priesthood is that we might offer up spiritual sacrifices. Reminds me of Romans 12 in verse one. Some of you are familiar with that. Paul says, and I'm gonna mix all of the different translations through my memorization, but I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you present yourselves a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your act of worship. That's the privilege that we have as priests, is we actually get to offer up to our God living sacrifice. And you might say, okay, pastor, what is that? Is it sheep? Is it goat? I'm willing to do anything. No, the clue is found at the end of verse five. It's through Jesus Christ. Would you underline that? So listen to this, anything that you do in your life that is for and through Christ is an acceptable living sacrifice. Is that what you've done by being here this morning? As you walk out, instead of letting the door slam behind you, you look back and see is there somebody coming, and if they are, you hold it for them, and you do that for Christ and through his strength. Guess what? That's a sacrifice. Beloved, anything in our lives that we do for and through Christ qualifies as an outworking of our priesthood, spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Christ. Isn't that amazing? All of this from these little rocks. Value. Verse nine continues to say how we live out our value. It says that you may proclaim the excellencies of him. That means literally to publish abroad the excellencies of Christ, and yet how many times do we publish abroad the excellencies of Jeff? Don't we do that? I mean, we open the door for somebody because it's almost like this little drug shot that we get from somebody saying, thank you, sonny. I mean, don't we just long for the praise of men? And yet, what this is saying is that the outworking of our priesthood and our spiritual sacrifices is to bring glory and to publish abroad the name of Christ, and we'll see that in 1 Peter chapter three. Oh, I love this, more could be said, but look what it says. What are the excellencies of him? It's that he called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. I mean, we were all dark like those individuals in verse eight. We were all disobeying the word of God. I mean, that is darkness, isn't it? I mean, there's no body that is born with some little spark of spiritual light in our lives. We are born destitute and dark. And so for any of us who can see the light of Christ, that is marvelous, isn't it? So we proclaim that by living out our spiritual sacrifice. Verse 10, once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. You can write down Hosea chapter one, verse six, seven, nine, and 10. Hosea was told to name two of his children, not by people and no mercy. No people, no mercy. That were their names. Don't use those if you're expecting. But the illustration that God was using through that in Hosea was to let the people of God know that you will be for a season of time not my people. You will be for a season of time those who do not receive my mercy. But even back in Hosea it says, but there will be a time you will once again be my people. There will once again be a time where you will receive mercy. And what Peter is saying is that remember Ephesians chapter two, we were once a people that were not a people. But now we're the people of God. We were once a people who had not received mercy, but now we have received mercy, and what he's trying to do is get us to a place where we live differently. You know, in 1989, I was a collector of baseball cards, and there was one baseball card in particular, some of you may be familiar with this. There was one baseball player that had something written on the bottom of his bat that I will not share in the sermon. It was very inappropriate. but the manufacturer didn't catch it, and so they published a lot of these baseball cards, and so as you can imagine, it became very, very valuable. Now, as a collector of baseball cards, I was watching the Beckett Price Guide, and I saw that this card was valued at $500 and rapidly increasing, and I had two of them. And so for me, I was convinced that this would be my ticket to college tuition. What's sad is that those two cards are still in my basement in a box somewhere. And you know what Beckett says? They're worth $5 a piece. Listen, here's my point is that the value is only realized when we actually use it or we sell it. And so what this passage is saying is that yes, we are living stones, we are a chosen race, we are a holy priesthood, we are a chosen nation set apart for his own possession to live it out. Which is going to be the whole second half of 1 Peter and it bridges to verse 11 and the final point of the passage this morning. Which is to redeem your mission. Redeem your mission. And by redeem, what I mean by this is carry out or fulfill. Redeem your mission. Verse 11, beloved. I love that. Some of you are like, why do you say beloved from time to time in sermons? It's because I want you to remember what Peter's reminding his original audience, and that is that we love you. Because sometimes, man, those exhortations come out hard and heavy, don't they? And you walk out and you're like, oh man, I gotta do something different. I gotta live differently. But it's all out of love. And I can preach this because I've already preached it to myself. And so I'm saying what Peter's saying here is beloved, I urge you, abstain from the passions of the flesh. Abstain means to avoid completely. It's the idea of a sentry that is placed outside of a military camp, who when it sees any evidence of the enemy, it takes care of it and it rids it. And so what does it say? To abstain and get rid of the passions of the flesh. You might say, well, what are the passions of the flesh? Listen to this. They are anything that distracts or numbs us to the unmatched value of reflecting Christ. It's anything that distracts or numbs us to the unmatched value of reflecting Christ. Any thoughts, any speech, any entertainment, anything that distracts or numbs us from the unmatched value of Jesus Christ. He says abstain, avoid it. Verse 12, keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable This is the way that we are supposed to be living. This is our mission. What I love about this is that he reminds them in verse 11 why we are to live this way. Do you see what it says? I urge you as sojourners and exiles, this is who we are. We are temporary residents in this life. We are away from our homeland. Our homeland is not Jerusalem. Our homeland is in the heavens with Jesus Christ. And so as we live in this life, we are living as exiles and sojourners. And listen, if you live differently, if you abstain from the passions of the flesh, if you go back to verse one and you are getting rid of any vestiges of malice in that list, you will be viewed upon as weird at a minimum or persecuted literally in this life, won't you? It reminds me, when I was growing up, our family had a commitment. And I'll be perfectly honest with you, moment of transparency, I did not enjoy this commitment as a young person. But here's what the commitment was, is that when it came to sports, we would not allow sports to make as a pattern us not being at church. And so before the season even started, when we talked to our coach, we were like, hey, we just wanna be up front with you, is that unless we're out of town, we will not be missing church. And the coach was like, yeah, okay, no problem. That includes championship games. And as a ball player, I'm like, wait, what? In fact, there was a moment, I remember my senior year, Regional tournament, American Legion, I was the starting pitcher. Game started at one, guess what? We went to church. And I had my uniform under my suit, I was the starting pitcher, and my coach knew, hey, they're not gonna be here until church is out. Now listen, I was like, I don't even remember what the sermon was, I was waiting for that last note, I'm like, dad, dad, dad, and he's like, nope, nope. But listen to me, look at me, I appreciate that now. And you know what those people that were watching knew? Is they knew that there is a commitment that was most important to us, and it wasn't the tournament, it wasn't the championship game, it wasn't anything this life has to offer, it was Christ. And I didn't get that then, but I see that now. And listen, parents, I commend that to you. And you're like, well, you know, Jeff, you grew up in a different era. Yes, I did, but listen to this. It's what Peter was exhorting his original audience. And yes, they may think that you're weird. You may not make the club team. You may not get that starting position. You might lose that position to somebody else. Your team might lose the championship game. But listen, it's so much more important than that. And that's what Peter is saying. As he's saying, beloved, this is temporary. How many people spend thousands of dollars for club teams thinking that it will produce a scholarship, it will produce professional athletics, and then they get to that senior and they're like, well, you know, it's not really turning out the way that I thought it would. It's temporary. And listen, I'm beating on that nail because I lived it, but it's whatever nail you can find in your life that the Holy Spirit reveals to you. The mission, beloved, is that we are sojourners and exiles. We are living for Christ and we're abstaining from anything that competes with him. Why is it? Look what the text says. It says in verse 11, these passions wage war against your souls. This is not something to mess around with. These passions are waging war for yourselves. Listen, if we would live out these two verses, there would be no such thing as intensive biblical counseling. The people who come for intensive biblical counseling have dropped the ball at some aspect of abstaining from the passions of the flesh. And we all can get there, and that's why we need the body of Christ. Now what is the ultimate goal of this? Look at verse 12. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles. You know that Gentiles word is actually, I wish they would have translated that differently. I wish that they would have translated that keep your conduct among the unbelieving world. Because the word Gentiles makes it sound like it's a Jew-Gentile thing. That's not what it is. It's believers, unbelievers. And so here it says that your conduct among unbelieving world is honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers, and listen, they will. I mean, the sports analogy, go to the original context of this passage, there wasn't empire-wide persecution, but they were persecuting them because they thought they were weird. The words that they used for their worship, like this is a body of Christ and we are consuming the body of Christ and the blood of Christ, people were saying, hey, these people are cannibals. And so they would use the vocabulary of Christianity against them and bring accusations. And so they were bringing against them accusations of them being evildoers. But look at this. When they speak of you against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on a day of visitation. Now I read that a little differently than your English translations, didn't I? It's because literally that article, the, is not there. And so many commentators believe that this is referring to the end times and judgment. I believe that that's not what this is referring to. I believe what this means is that there will be some of those who slandered you one day, that there will be a day when God visits them and opens their eyes to realize, wait a minute, it's true. And they will give their lives to Jesus Christ. Beloved, that's what the rest of 1 Peter is about, is how do we live this out? How do we live practically in the world around us, with the government, and with our workplaces, and in the home, and in the church, and as elders, and how do we live this out practically, bringing glory to God, offering Him our acceptable spiritual worship, and showing to the onlooking world what the true gospel looks like when it's lived out? That's the rest of 1 Peter. Let's bow our head and close our eyes. Beloved, this is the living stone that we are. And when we are reminded of who we are and what is expected of us, we are able to bring glory to God and point others to Him. And so this morning, I want you to just take a moment and reflect on this passage. And do so individually. And evaluate, first of all, are you a living stone? Have you surrendered your life to the chief cornerstone that the world rejected? Have you admitted that you're a sinner, believed in the person and work of Christ, and committed your life to him by turning from your sin? If you haven't, would you do that right now in your seats? Beloved, if you have, are you going to live differently from what you've learned? You see this stone that I'm holding in my hand, actually on the other side has a heart printed on it. So this stone in our family is very valuable. It's called the love rock. So we will hide it in our possessions with a member of our family and then they hide it in somebody else's. And what it communicates is that love that we have that's unconditional for one another. That's the value of this stone. But infinitely more, the value of us as living stones is that we have been transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Father, I thank you for the living stone that is Jesus Christ. I thank you for the reminder that Peter gave his original audience that we can draft off of, that we can learn from. Amazing that a context that was specific to the first century is still so relevant and practical for us today. And so will you take your word, Father, through your Holy Spirit and for the glory of Christ, will you penetrate our souls? and bear much fruit for the gospel. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.