Sermon Tone Analysis

ATTN

Ever make excuses?

I do.

Ever since my 50th birthday I’ve had in the back of my mind that I needed to go see the doctor and get one of those tests.

You know what I’m talking about.

The one they give you when you turn 50.

They call it a “colonoscopy,” but I really think its more like torture.

It kind of defies logic, too.

I mean why would you go through all the trouble and discomfort of that whole deal just to open yourself up to receive bad news.

Wow! Let me sign up for that!

And why don’t you just stick your finger in my eye while we’re at it!

We really do avoid things that make us uncomfortable.

Which is why many believers avoid sharing their faith.

They find it to be an uncomfortable experience.

In fact, as I was studying for this message I actually ran across a website in which a Christian speaker was advertising a recording of his message entitled, “I hate witnessing.”

He probably expressed the feelings of many with that title whether they would ever admit it or not.

Many people hate the thoughts of witnessing.

NEED

And there are many reasons for it.

For one thing you may be frustrated by it.

You know it’s something you’re supposed to do, but like the colonoscopy you avoid, you feel bad whenever you think about it.

You feel like you’re letting God down and like you’re a second-rate believer.

Every time you try to break out of your silence, you fall flat on your face.

You stammer and studder, or even if you speak clearly, you are constantly rejected.

Every attempt to share your faith has ended in frustration for you, so you’ve just quit.

Others are fearful.

They’re afraid of rejection or they are afraid they’ll say the wrong thing.

They’re scared they’ll try to witness and run into the one atheist in town who asks the unanswerable questions.

They’re afraid they’ll be stumped or just get into an argument they can’t win.

They’re afraid.

Others avoid it because the whole process feels fake to them.

Like the salesman with the toothy grin and the “deal of a lifetime,” they feel like others look at them with disdain and distrust.

There’s something really plastic about the whole process that makes them uncomfortable, so whenever GROW visitation night rolls around, they all of a sudden have other commitments.

BACKGROUND

Well, if you feel frustrated or fearful or fake this morning when it comes to your witnessing, I want you to listen.

In our text, 1 Peter 2:11-12, we discover the three main obstacles to effective evangelism and also how they can be overcome.

Look at that text with me:

Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, 12 having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.

The persecuted believers of Peter’s day needed this message.

If we think our world is hostile, we don’t even have a clue!

Their world didn’t just have hostile attitudes towards believers, those hostile attitudes came out in hostile actions!

What was their response to be? Were they to form a league of Christian retaliation?

Were they to retreat from the world and give up?

O no!

In fact the key phrase in this little paragraph of scripture is there in v 12.

They were to behave in such a way, Peter says, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.

According to some of the commentaries I read on this passage, the day of visitation, in this instance, spoke to these people coming to faith in Christ.

When they observed the conduct of these believers, Peter says that the potential is there that, through their witness and the power of God, unbelievers will be moved to become believers!

Which just leads me to this point: Even though the world is hostile; Even though there are many objections out there to faith in Christ; even though many think that, as Bishop Spong said in his book, Christianity must Change or Die, that the day of Christian influence has passed.

Even though all of this may be true, you and I can overcome the objections of the world and we can have impact.

This passage tells us how.

Peter gives us the three major objections the world offers to Christianity and how those objections can be handled.

What are they?

Well the first one is this:

DIVISION 1: THE OBJECTION OF HYPOCRISY.

EXP

Ask the unchurched why they don’t attend and chances are the first thing they’ll say is this: “I don’t go to church because the church is filled with what?

That’s right: “Hypocrites.”

Consider these examples:

Erin, age thirty, says her husband abused her, “even though he taught Bible studies about how husbands should love their wives.”

Now she is divorced; her faith has taken a beating.

Victoria is a 24-year old single mom.

She described the impact of hypocrisy this way: “Everyone in my church gave me advice about how to raise my son, but a lot of the time they seemed to be reminding me that I have no husband—and besides, most of them were not following their own advice.

It made it hard to care what they said.

They were not practicing what they preached.”

She is not currently attending church.

I could go on and on and on.

And I could point out much more blatant examples than these.

There seems to be no end to the examples to hypocrisy.

The question is, how do you overcome it.

I think Peter gives us the answer in 2:11 when he says, Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.

What Peter is describing here is genuine holiness, that is, a holiness that comes from the soul.

What do I mean when I say genuine soulful holiness?

Well, it begins with an attitude.

Peter says, Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims.

Foreigners in a country are automatically, in many ways, withdrawn from that culture.

That may happen because they don’t want to be a part of the culture, or it may happen because they aren’t allowed to be a part of the culture.

Whatever the reason, they are set apart in many ways.

As a citizen of God’s holy nation and His royal priesthood, we are aliens in this world and we need to understand that.

Christian, don’t be surprised when you don’t fit in!

Don’t be shocked that the world pursues adultery, or homosexuality, or drug addiction, or dishonest dealings.

It’s really par for the course.

It is to be expected in a sin-dominated society.

But what Peter is saying is that our attitude needs to be different.

We, as believers, but remember we are foreigners and we are not supposed to fit in here!

We don’t adapt to some things.

We don’t compromise the written word of God.

We have an holy attitude.

Genuine holiness begins with an attitude, but it doesn’t stop there.

A genuinely holy attitude leads to action.

Peter says, Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts.

To abstain means to avoid an action or restrain yourself from doing something.

The thing we are to restrain are our “fleshly lusts.”

Fleshly lusts are the natural impulses that well up in our sinful nature.

Now all natural impulses are not bad, but they are bad when they are indulged for the wrong purpose, or in ways that contradict God’s word.

Will you notice the how Peter goes on to characterize these fleshly lusts?

He says that we must avoid or restrain ourselves from them for a very specific reason.

Look! Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.

The Greek word for “soul” is psyche.

It is word from which we get our word, psychology.