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[2843.66 --> 2849.66] 1 Peter 2, starting at verse 11. |
[2849.66 --> 2863.66] Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your soul. |
[2863.66 --> 2875.66] Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. |
[2875.66 --> 2891.66] Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human authority, whether to the emperor as the supreme authority, or to governors who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. |
[2891.66 --> 2898.66] For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. |
[2898.66 --> 2902.66] Live as free people. |
[2902.66 --> 2906.66] But do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil. |
[2906.66 --> 2910.66] Live as God's slaves. |
[2910.66 --> 2913.66] Show proper respect to everyone. |
[2913.66 --> 2915.66] Love the family of believers. |
[2915.66 --> 2916.66] Fear God. |
[2916.66 --> 2918.66] Honor the emperor. |
[2918.66 --> 2919.66] The emperor. |
[2919.66 --> 2921.66] This is the word of the Lord. |
[2921.66 --> 2947.66] Now, for those of you who have been following along in this series, either here in person or online, you will recall that we have available for you and for your personal study or your care group study, a bit of a Bible study that doesn't necessarily parallel this work because you can move through it at different paces, but allows you to dig deep into the processing of this work. |
[2947.66 --> 2954.66] And so, if you haven't heard about that, or if you would like a copy of this, you can talk to me after and we'll get that situated. |
[2954.66 --> 2964.66] Now, Peter starts this section of his letter by saying, dear friends. |
[2964.66 --> 2989.66] And now, while it is likely true that the recipients of this letter are dear friends of Peter or that he considers them as such, what I want you to hear first and foremost is that the word that's used there, this letter was originally written in Greek, and the Greek word that is used there is agapetoi, which means literally beloved. |
[2989.66 --> 2990.66] Beloved. |
[2991.56 --> 2992.20] Beloved. |
[2992.62 --> 2999.58] And so, this is more than Friends of Peter, this is ultimately about being beloved. |
[3000.26 --> 3001.76] But beloved by whom? |
[3003.58 --> 3008.20] Because ultimately, this is about being beloved or loved of God. |
[3009.18 --> 3015.42] And Peter has been spending time reminding us that we are chosen by God and precious to Him. |
[3015.42 --> 3020.50] Pastor Kevin looked at this last week for us, that we are his special possession. |
[3021.64 --> 3024.28] This is the ground of our identity. |
[3024.86 --> 3032.62] This is the firm foundation of which Jesus is the cornerstone for your life and for yourself. |
[3033.46 --> 3039.66] As a chosen people, by grace through faith, you are loved of God. |
[3039.66 --> 3049.22] Or, to put it another way, you are loved of God, and so, by grace through faith, he has chosen you. |
[3050.10 --> 3056.18] He has made you for his own, adopted you as heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. |
[3056.34 --> 3064.04] You are lavishly loved of the Father, and he has called you a son or a daughter. |
[3064.04 --> 3068.72] And you have received this from him. |
[3069.66 --> 3078.14] And because you are beloved of him, you also become more in him. |
[3079.96 --> 3087.10] Peter writes, beloved, I urge you as foreigners and exiles. |
[3088.10 --> 3090.98] This is all identity language, right? |
[3091.12 --> 3094.68] Beloved, foreigners, and exiles. |
[3094.68 --> 3107.02] Now, the older translation of the NIV that maybe you have or that you read from, the older one than the one we are currently using anyway, there says strangers and aliens. |
[3108.10 --> 3110.06] Now, you might read the ESV. |
[3110.20 --> 3111.64] That's another translation that I like. |
[3111.70 --> 3114.16] It says sojourners and exiles. |
[3114.16 --> 3123.10] Or maybe you're old enough or of a particular generation to remember the King James Version that says strangers and pilgrims. |
[3124.02 --> 3124.88] But here's the point, right? |
[3124.96 --> 3132.20] Being loved of God, beloved of God, being his beloved puts you in a relationship with God. |
[3132.20 --> 3142.04] And being in a relationship with God changes your relationship to the world and changes your relationships in the world. |
[3143.08 --> 3148.58] No longer do you feel at home here, completely comfortable and settled. |
[3148.58 --> 3153.22] Instead, Peter says, you are a foreigner. |
[3153.62 --> 3154.90] You are an exile. |
[3155.70 --> 3162.50] Because you are loved of God, you love what he loves and you love the way that he loves. |
[3163.82 --> 3169.86] And when you do that, that will make you a stranger and an alien in the world. |
[3169.86 --> 3182.02] Because you are loved by God, because you love what he loves and you love the way that he loves, you will be strangers and aliens, foreigners and exiles in a world that doesn't know him. |
[3185.00 --> 3194.94] I want to be bold with you this morning because the time is coming and has now come when you too will have to be bold about it. |
[3194.94 --> 3209.30] Because if your life isn't foreign, if your life isn't strangely incomprehensible or uniquely different, if you don't seem to be at least a little bit weird to those people in your life or work or school or neighborhood, |
[3209.82 --> 3214.16] what are you really basing your life on? |
[3215.26 --> 3219.34] Who or what are you really being defined by? |
[3219.34 --> 3229.70] If you look and act and sound exactly the same and have the same hopes and dreams for your life, are you really any different? |
[3230.62 --> 3234.32] And if you're not different, what's the point? |
[3237.04 --> 3242.26] Like I said, a time is coming, and maybe it's already come, when we will have to decide. |
[3242.26 --> 3254.16] In a post-Christian culture, in a time of secular paganism, meaningful, committed, gospel-centered, Jesus-exalting, God-glorifying Christianity, |
[3254.36 --> 3257.08] we'll not be able to hide in the mainstream. |
[3258.42 --> 3266.66] Instead, we're going to have to stand against the flow of culture and the tides of idolatry, whatever form it's going to take in today's world. |
[3266.66 --> 3277.54] The reality of living as exiles in the world is this new reality for us. |
[3278.26 --> 3280.90] And that's what Peter is urging us in. |
[3280.98 --> 3281.16] He says, |
[3281.28 --> 3290.88] I urge you, beloved, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your soul. |
[3291.84 --> 3293.22] And so hear that, right? |
[3293.26 --> 3294.48] There's more identity language. |
[3294.48 --> 3301.42] Beloved, foreigner, exile, and now warriors. |
[3302.90 --> 3304.26] You are at war. |
[3305.08 --> 3307.00] And it's a war for your soul. |
[3307.12 --> 3308.74] It's a war against sin. |
[3309.86 --> 3312.90] I want to acknowledge here that this probably isn't politically correct. |
[3313.84 --> 3317.02] And this maybe offends your modern sensibility, |
[3317.36 --> 3322.28] and this definitely contradicts the social value of tolerance that is so common in our world today. |
[3322.28 --> 3324.14] But you are at war. |
[3324.28 --> 3327.32] To be a Christian is to be at war. |
[3327.54 --> 3330.16] But, and I'm going to slow down, |
[3330.94 --> 3332.98] and I'm going to lean in, and I'm going to ask you to lean in, |
[3333.20 --> 3334.56] because I want you to listen carefully. |
[3335.36 --> 3338.38] You are at war, but, and here it is, |
[3338.90 --> 3343.22] first and foremost, you are not at war against a political ideology. |
[3343.22 --> 3348.50] You are not at war against a cultural morality or against a cultural immorality. |
[3348.70 --> 3352.54] You are not at war, first and foremost, against flesh and blood. |
[3352.88 --> 3356.42] You are at war with your sinful desires. |
[3357.28 --> 3357.38] Right? |
[3357.44 --> 3361.16] Your war is first here, and it is second here. |
[3361.38 --> 3365.46] And really, only after you lose this war and this war in your heart and in your head, |
[3365.46 --> 3367.32] and you act on those sinful desires, |
[3367.44 --> 3370.62] does your war move out of here and into the world? |
[3373.20 --> 3377.48] The problem is that so many of us, so many of you, |
[3379.08 --> 3385.46] especially if you lived and came to formation in the 20th century, |
[3386.26 --> 3390.84] did so in a time when we could talk about a Christian culture. |
[3390.84 --> 3391.62] Right? |
[3391.68 --> 3396.16] When the only real religious divide was whether you were Protestant or Catholic. |
[3398.06 --> 3400.00] Now, sure, by the end of the 20th century, |
[3400.14 --> 3404.14] atheism has sort of emerged into the upper echelons of society, |
[3404.26 --> 3406.58] but the average person, if not a Christian, |
[3406.82 --> 3409.84] was still likely a theist or a deist, |
[3409.92 --> 3411.66] or at most, they were an agnostic. |
[3413.54 --> 3416.62] And because that was the dominant sort of cultural milieu, |
[3416.86 --> 3420.28] the dominant cultural context in which so many of us came up, |
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