Make An Impact

11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

Four principles will help you make maximum impact

Realize Your Identity (1 Peter 2:11a)

Beloved

Peter used the word beloved eight times in 1 and 2 Peter

Like Billy Graham: "God loves you”

This Is The Connecting Before The Correcting

So that your incentive to do what He says to do is because you love the One who loves you

Sojourners (Travelers)

Literally means alongside the house

We live alongside people who make this world their home

Pilgrims (Visitors)

A traveler; someone who stops by temporarily but is on the move

You're loved by God, but you are not a local —you're a foreigner

John 15:19 “In not of”

Philippians 3:20 “Citizens Of Heaven”

Not Springfield, Oregon, USA, But Heaven

Visiting In Laws - Things I would Change About Their House, But It’s Not Mine

Because we are citizens of heaven, we will always be square pegs in round holes

When we forget who we are, we start living like perpetual citizens of earth rather than eternal citizens of heaven

Knowing our identity will give us proper balance in life

It will also give us proper incentive

Samuel Morris heard the Lord say, "You're not home yet"

We need to remember we're loved by God, but we're just passing through

Resist Your Impulses (1 Peter 2:11b)

Knowing who we are will help us know what to do when impulses come

The Internal Battles

If you're going to live a godly life on the outside, it begins by living a godly life on the inside

Your soul is saved, but it's incarcerated by your human fallen nature, the flesh

1 Corinthians 10:13 ‘common to man”

Everyone has the impulse to do wrong things

"Every baby starts life as a little savage. He is completely selfish and self-centered. He wants what he wants when he wants it —his bottle, his mother's attention, his playmate's toy, his uncle's watch. Deny him these wants, and he seethes with rage and aggressiveness, which would be murderous, were he not so helpless.... If permitted to continue in the self-centered world of his infancy, given free rein to his impulsive actions to satisfy his wants, every child would grow up a criminal, a thief, a killer, a rapist" —Minnesota Crime Commission

The Spiritual War

Galatians 5:17; lusts = wars

"I have had more trouble with D.L. Moody than with any other man who has ever crossed my path" —D.L. Moody

War means to carry out a long-term military campaign; how the Romans fought and conquered

Galatians 5:19-21"Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies---" and just about now you're going, "Okay, okay, I get it." But he keeps going, "Outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies"---and you're going, "Okay. I got it." But he keeps going, "Envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries," and then he says, "and the like," which is his way of saying, "etcetera, etcetera, etcetera," implying this is an endless list.

The solution: Galatians 5:16"This I say then: Walk in the spirit, and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh."

If we live a Spirit-led life, we will have the power to abstain from fleshly lusts

To abstain is to hold them away from you; don't let them in

John Bunyan's The Holy War: when the Enemy comes, close the gate

Grey And They Coyote

Troops Always Rocking Gear

We're in a war zone; Ephesians 6:11 :Whole Armor Of God”

Why Satan Does Not Attack Us, We Defeat Ourselves

Reveal Your Integrity (1 Peter 2:12a)

What is private and inward must become public and outward

Before Your World

"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" (v. 12, NIV)

Unbelievers study us; they're watching to see if we fail

They did it with Jesus: Matthew 11:19; Luke 7:34; John 8:41

They Did It To Paul: Acts 24:5 - Riots

Early Christians in the Roman Empire were accused of being cannibals (Matt. 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; 1 Cor. 11:23-25), incest, and atheism

Peter was saying live so noble a life that any of those accusations won't stick

For Your God

Government

Boss

Wife

We as Christians are onstage; the bright light of the unbeliever is on us

What are they seeing?

At The Gym With Tony

"A saint is one who makes it easy to believe in Jesus" —Ruth Graham

"Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died" —Erma Bombeck

Remember Your Intention (v. 12b)

The ultimate goal is what it will do to unbelievers

"Day of visitation" is an Old Testament phrase used to describe when God visits the earth with blessing or judgment

God Glorified in Blessing

Ruth 1:6

God showed up with blessing

God Glorified in Judgment

Zechariah 10:3

Peter was speaking of the second coming of Christ; it'll be a day of good news for some and a day of bad news for others

How can a person who is observing a Christian glorify God on the day of visitation?

Your lifestyle will push them right over into receiving Christ themselves

Or Philippians 2:10-11 - Every Knee Will Bow

The first is better

Closing

To Christians: life is built on character

Character is built on choices and decisions

Every decision you make, large or small, does to your life what a sculptor's chisel does to a block of marble —shapes it

As it shapes who you are, it shapes how people looking at you will view the God you say you serve

That Is Why This Is So Important

To the unbeliever: no Christian over the last 2,000 years has been perfect

Complaining about hypocrites in the church is no excuse

In the last day, you're not going to have to sit before hypocrites to be judged; you'll only stand before God

There's room for one more hypocrite

Paul sets the example in 1 Timothy 1:15

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