Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

In Philippians 2:12, The Apostle Paul encourages us to… “...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;”

This does not mean that we are to “work for our salvation”… Because we cannot earn it… It is a free gift.

But to work out our salvation is referring to our responsibility, as believers, to be obedient to living a life that would honor and glorify God… being obedient to the goal of becoming more like Christ each and everyday....

The Christian Music Group “Sidewalk Prophets” sing a song entitled... “Live Like That”… It is a challenge to live a better life for Christ… Here are some of the lyrics...

“Sometimes I think

What will people say of me

When I'm only just a memory

When I'm home where my soul belongs

Was I love

When no one else would show up

Was I Jesus to the least of those

Was my worship more than just a song

I want to live like that

And give it all I have

So that everything I say and do

Points to You

Am I proof

That You are who you say You are

That grace can really change a heart

Do I live like Your love is true

People pass

And even if they don't know my name

Is there evidence that I've been changed

When they see me, do they see You

I want to live like that

And give it all I have

So that everything I say and do

Points to You”

As we continue in our study of 1 Peter, Peter is going to give us some guidelines as to how we can... and should be... working out our salvation… Lets look at our passage together… (Read vv.13-16)

Meat:

In recent weeks we have considered the gracious salvation provided for humanity and the hope we have in Christ, even in the midst of great difficulty.

Having assured believers in their faith through the certainty of God’s promises, Peter now turns his attention to the life we are to live following salvation.

We know this because of the word “Therefore” in v.13… Everything Peter has said up to this point has been stating facts concerning salvation and life in Christ.

But Now he begins to give us some guidelines and actually, they can be seen as commands, to us as Believers.

Basically, Peter is saying… “Ok, now that you have recieved this free gift of salvation here is what Christ expects”…

Guidelines For Believers…

In order for you to “Work Out Your Salvation”… you must first…

1. Prepare Your Mind

1 Peter 1:13 “13 Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;”

Peter said to “Gird up the loins of your mind”… In ancient times people wore long flowing tunics.

Around the tunic in the midsection they would wear a girdle (belt)… These long garments would get in the way when fighting or working.

When the Hebrews went to battle with the Philistines, the men would lift the hem of their tunic up and tuck it into their girdle.

This provided more freedom of movement.

And the garment would no longer be a hindrance in the midst of hard labor or battle.

When Peter says “gird up the loins of your mind” he is saying to "get ready for battle".

Here in the U.S. we are very blessed to have many different ways to read God’s Word.

Hard copy Bible, Apps on phones or tablets, computers… but there are Christians around the world today that could be killed for even possessing a copy of God’s Word...

What if your Bible was taken away?? What if every Bible you owned was taken away and any device that had the ability to have the Bible on it, was confiscated and destroyed… Would your mind be prepared??

One of the best ways to prepare your mind is …

1.1 Through Scripture Memorization

Many Christians allow themselves the luxury of laziness.

Scripture memorization has seemingly become a thing of the past.

For us as believers, there is no room for mental laziness.

Satan will do whatever it takes to get control of our mind.

We are in a battle.

I will take this a step further and say that memorizing Scripture is a good start, but it isn’t enough.

We have to study it and understand what the verses are saying, so that we know the truth.

Ephesians 4:14 says… “14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,”

We need to know the truth, so that when Satan tries to use God’s Word to deceive us (and he will, because he did it to Eve and he did it to Christ)… when he tries to use God’s Word to deceive us, our alert systems will go off and say “nope, something is not right here”…

As Christians, we must be prepared mentally.

We must remove anything from our minds that would hinder our ability to withstand the ungodly thoughts and ideas that Satan tries to implant into our minds.

This Takes Discipline…

1.2 It Takes Discipline

Or as Peter says “Be Sober”… The Greek word that is used here is pronounced “Nepho” (Nay-fo)… it means - To be vigilant, watching.

prepared.

- "calm and collected in spirit, to be temperate, circumspect,".

This carries the idea of having mental and self control.

There are things that intoxicate the mind… Worry, Anger, Bitterness, Jealousy and Resentment.

When we dwell on these things (and many others) it clouds our mind and interferes with our judgment.

If you try to fight a battle when your mind is focused on something else you will be overtaken by the enemy!

It takes discipline to remove those things from our mind that will distract us from the task at hand… That is why Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8

Paul also says in Titus 2:12

It takes discipline to prepare our minds… but it also take motivation…

1.3 It Takes Motivation

Peter shares that motivation at the end of verse 13… “and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;”

Peter tells us to focus on the grace that we will receive when Christ returns:

new bodies,

we will rule with Christ,

and, if we are alive when Jesus comes to rapture the Church, we will escape death…

This is our great hope as Christians… Again I remind you that the people this epistle was addressed to were enduring great sufferings.

This hope was motivation for them to endure the great trials they were facing.

It is also our motivation to press on today!

We are living in the here and now but we do so, looking forward to the future.

We are looking forward to the day that we are able to see “Our Living Hope”, Jesus Christ, face to face…

In this one verse we see that in order to prepare our minds, we need to remove worldly things and focus on Godly things.

Which takes discipline… however, we do have great form of motivation!…

Our second guideline (or command) that Peter gives us, for working out our salvation, is…

2. Be Obedient

1 Peter 1:14 “14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance;”

As Christians we are the CHILDREN OF GOD!

We are to live as obedient children.

We do this by Obeying God's commands, Looking to Him for guidance and direction, Submitting to His will and Having confidence in Him at all times.

Just as the song goes… “Obedience is the very best way to show that you believe”

When we are obedient to God’s commands and submissive to His will for our lives,

We are in the best position to receive blessings from Him

We are in the best position to not receive any spiritual spankings....

Being obedient means that we will be

2.1 Transforming and Not Conforming

“ not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance;”