Review / Introduction:
Your walk with Christ determines your witness for Christ!
Matthew 5:16 - In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
1 Peter 3:15 - but in your hearts, regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.
Proverbs 28:1 - ...the righteous are bold as a lion.
Three Things You Need to Know to Be a Bold Witness (1 Peter 2:11-12):
- Know what you are: Alien. (1 Peter 2:11a)
- Know what to fight: Your Sin. (1 Peter 2:11b)
- Know how to act: Honorable. (1 Peter 2:12)
Philippians 3:20 - But our citizenship is in heaven...
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:35-00:39
Open up your Bibles with me, please, to the book of 1 Peter.
00:40-00:41
We're going to be in chapter 2.
00:43-00:48
We are on the tail end of a four-week series called Harvest DNA.
00:50-00:59
And we're basically just answering one question, and the question is, "What kind of church is this?" Well, we are a church that sits on four pillars.
00:59-01:03
And the first pillar is proclaiming the authority of God's Word without apology.
01:04-01:06
We believe that God wrote this book.
01:06-01:15
So when I, or next week Dan Thompson is going to be bringing the message, when we stand up, we are proclaiming the Word of God.
01:16-01:19
So much as we communicate what God said in His Word.
01:20-01:21
We do that without apology.
01:22-01:25
The second pillar is lifting high the name of Jesus in worship.
01:28-01:31
There's something special to our Lord about worship.
01:31-01:33
The biggest book in your Bible is Psalms.
01:34-01:35
And that's corporate worship, right?
01:36-01:41
And Jesus told the woman at the well that the Father is seeking people to worship Him in spirit and in truth.
01:43-01:44
That's our second pillar.
01:44-01:51
"Lifting high the name of Jesus through worship." Our third pillar we talked about last week is "believing firmly in the power of prayer." We saw that last week, didn't we?
01:51-01:53
Jesus said, "Ask and you will receive.
01:53-01:54
Seek and you will find.
01:54-01:59
Knock and it will be opened to you." Our fourth pillar.
02:01-02:08
of a church is this, our fourth pillar is sharing the good news of Jesus with boldness.
02:11-02:26
Many many years ago when Aaron and I were first married, she was actually getting ready to go to work and she was just about to go out the door and somebody showed up at our door and it was this guy selling meat out of the back of a truck.
02:28-02:40
So Erin's on her way to work and this guy's like, "Hey, you know, he probably had a better sales pitch than I'm selling meat off the back of a truck." But anyways, Erin's like, "Hey, Jeff, just, she goes, could you talk to this guy?
02:40-02:47
I gotta go." So Erin jumps in and she's like, "Just, I'm like, what do you want me to do?" She is, Erin goes, "Just do whatever you think.
02:47-02:54
I gotta go." You can tell this was, Matt and Lexi, this was early on in our marriage because she trusted me to just do what I think.
02:56-02:56
She's learned.
02:58-02:59
But anyways, you can just do what you think.
02:59-03:09
So this guy, he pulls out this chest, this giant white chest, and he starts showing me all this meat that he had.
03:09-03:13
He goes, "Hey, I got some T-bones here." He had something called a rump roast.
03:13-03:18
And he's like, "I got soup bones here." And then he pulls out this pack.
03:18-03:20
He goes, "This is Delmonica right here.
03:21-03:41
"It's a Cadillac of the cow." And I'm just standing there like, "Whoa." And, well, long story short, I ended up, I'm ashamed I have to confess this, but I ended up buying about $500 worth of meat off this guy out of the back of his truck.
03:43-03:44
And she stayed with me.
03:45-03:51
But anyways, later on that day, she, okay, and you guys that are married, you know, the husbands, you know what's coming next, right?
03:52-03:55
Because now I, it seemed like such a good idea at the time.
03:56-03:59
But then when Aaron called all of a sudden, I'm like, maybe that wasn't such a good idea.
04:00-04:23
But Aaron's like, "Hey, what happened with that meat guy?" And I'm like, "I bought some." She's like, "How much did you buy?" And I'm like, "About $500 worth." She goes, "What?" And I'm like, "But it was the Cadillac of the cow." But I was just persuaded by that guy because he was compelling.
04:25-04:27
And he was talking about a frozen dead cow.
04:29-04:36
But you know, I think about that guy because we too, true or false, we too have a job of persuading people, don't we?
04:37-04:46
We have a job of compelling people, of boldly sharing with people the difference that Jesus Christ makes in your life.
04:48-04:59
I'll be honest with you, when the elders had asked me to preach through the four pillars of the church, Thinking about this one, I was like, well, how many sermons have we had about witnessing in the past three years?
05:00-05:03
We've been going through the book of Acts for three years, right?
05:03-05:04
And we're almost done.
05:04-05:06
But how many sermons about witnessing?
05:07-05:14
And we spend so much time talking about things like having the right message.
05:15-05:17
You know, having the right message, that's important.
05:19-05:21
But there's something else that comes first.
05:22-05:24
We've talked about having the right attitude.
05:25-05:26
And that's important.
05:27-05:30
But there's something else that has to come first.
05:30-05:32
We've talked about dealing with haters.
05:34-05:35
And that's important.
05:36-05:37
But there's something else that has to come first.
05:38-05:39
We've talked about prayer.
05:39-05:46
Hey, prayer is important, but there's something else that has to come first.
05:47-05:52
There's something so foundational to your witness for Christ that none of us have the right attitude to do.
05:52-05:54
None of these things are going to happen.
05:54-06:01
Or, on the off chance that they do, they will not be affected.
06:03-06:06
So one main point today, and the point is this.
06:07-06:13
Your walk with Christ determines your witness for Christ.
06:15-06:17
That would be a great sentence to write down.
06:18-06:21
Your walk with Christ determines your witness for Christ.
06:22-06:25
Every true believer wants to be a better witness, right?
06:26-06:27
Here's where it has to start.
06:27-06:31
It has to start with your walk with Christ.
06:32-06:42
Your walk with Christ determines your witness for Christ, and I know we've got some skeptics right here that are going to say, "You're going to have to prove that to me, and I'll be glad to." Here's a few verses I want you to consider.
06:43-06:45
Think of Jesus in Matthew 5, Sermon on the Mount.
06:46-06:58
Jesus said, "In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." So you see, Jesus said in order for your light to shine, what has to happen first?
06:58-07:00
God has to be shining His light in you, right?
07:01-07:02
You don't have any light of your own.
07:02-07:03
You're like the moon.
07:03-07:05
All you can do is reflect light.
07:06-07:12
And Jesus said the way people are going to glorify God is when they see the light of the Lord shining through you.
07:13-07:16
Actually, 1 Peter 3.15, a lot of people probably have this verse memorized.
07:17-07:27
The second part of the verse that we're familiar with says, "Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you." Can't have a sermon about witnessing without that verse, right?
07:28-07:29
We all know that verse.
07:31-07:32
But do you know what the first part of that verse says?
07:33-07:34
Put that up.
07:34-07:41
"But in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy." Do you see? It has to start in here.
07:42-07:45
It has to start in here before it goes out here.
07:47-07:50
Proverbs 28 verse 1, this is our theme verse of the year.
07:52-08:08
The second half says, "The righteous are bold as a lion." As we're talking about sharing the good news of Jesus with boldness, who's bold according to Proverbs 28.1?
08:08-08:09
Who's bold?
08:09-08:12
The well-informed are bold as a lion?
08:13-08:13
No, it doesn't say that.
08:14-08:16
Does it say the Bible student is bold as a lion?
08:16-08:17
No, it doesn't say that either.
08:18-08:21
How about the longest tenured Christian is bold as a lion?
08:21-08:22
It doesn't say that either.
08:23-08:25
It says the righteous are bold as a lion.
08:25-08:26
Who's a bold witness?
08:26-08:33
The person that has the righteousness of Christ that God gives to those who receive Him.
08:35-08:37
So if you wanna be a bold witness, here's three things you need to know.
08:39-08:42
And we're gonna take these from 1 Peter 2.
08:42-08:43
We're gonna look just at two verses today.
08:45-08:46
Verses 11 and 12.
08:46-08:48
Three things you need to know to be a bold witness.
08:49-08:51
We're gonna kind of work through these verses together.
08:54-08:56
Number one, jot this down.
08:56-08:58
Know what you are.
08:58-08:59
You wanna be a bold witness?
09:00-09:01
First of all, you need to know what you are.
09:04-09:05
You are an alien.
09:08-09:10
Now when I say the word alien, what do you think of?
09:11-09:14
Well, it depends on how old you are, right?
09:16-09:19
For some people, you might have thought of Mork from "Ork".
09:21-09:23
How many people know Mork from "Ork"?
09:23-09:25
Okay, more than I figured.
09:26-09:27
For some of you, you might have thought of Alf.
09:29-09:29
Remember Alf?
09:31-09:33
Some of you might have thought of E.T.
09:33-09:34
Who thought of E.T. as soon as I said alien?
09:35-09:36
Okay, I thought I heard some people say that.
09:38-09:39
Some of you may have thought of the predator.
09:41-09:42
Would you like to hear my imitation of the predator?
09:44-09:44
All right, you ready?
09:48-09:48
(imitating predator)
09:49-09:51
Like, what do you do all week, Pastor Jeff?
09:52-09:52
(congregation laughing)
09:55-09:56
Working on my predator imitation.
09:57-09:58
Some of you might've thought of Superman.
10:00-10:12
Or some of you might've thought of that, remember that movie "Alien" and then there were aliens and more aliens and a big scorpion looking thing with the head and the thing that comes out of its mouth, you know what I'm talking about?
10:12-10:14
Some of you may have thought about that.
10:16-10:30
Actually, look at 1 Peter 2.11, it says, "Beloved, I urge you as sojourners in exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh." Let's stop there.
10:30-10:33
He says, first of all, here's your identity, church.
10:35-10:38
You're a sojourner and an exile.
10:38-10:40
Now these words in the Greek, they're interesting words.
10:41-10:46
Sojourner in the Greek literally means, I dwell near people not of my kind.
10:46-10:48
That's what a sojourner is in the Greek.
10:48-10:50
I dwell near people not of my kind.
10:51-10:59
And an exile, that's a compound word in the Greek that literally translates to nearby stranger.
11:02-11:08
So biblically, when we talk about aliens, biblically, we are the aliens.
11:09-11:15
Despite all the stuff you hear in the news about whatever, building walls or whatever to keep aliens out, here's the reality.
11:15-11:19
If you're a born again believer in Jesus Christ, you are the alien.
11:21-11:31
Meaning you're not of this place, you are living here temporarily beside people who aren't of your kind, worldly people.
11:31-11:40
That's why Philippians 3.20, Paul says, "But our citizenship is in heaven." That's why you are an alien if you're a follower of Christ.
11:40-11:42
You're a citizen of heaven.
11:44-11:51
In March, Russ House from our church is going to India and you're going to be helping to build a training center for pastors, correct?
11:52-11:56
Now I'm gonna go way out on a limb, I'm gonna assume there's some things you're not going to do while you're in India.
11:57-11:58
And correct me if I'm wrong.
11:58-12:00
I'm going to assume that you're not gonna buy a house.
12:01-12:05
I'm going to assume that you're not going to buy furniture for this house you're not going to buy.
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You're not going to decorate around the furniture that you're not buying for the house you're not going to buy and I'm going to assume that you're not going to landscape.
12:15-12:16
Those are all correct.
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Do you know how I knew that?
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And we didn't talk about this beforehand.
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The reason, Russ wouldn't go over there and buy a house and furniture and all this stuff, why?
12:25-12:27
Because he's not staying there, right?
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It would be really dumb.
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Could you imagine Missy, like Russ was like, "Hey, I bought a house in India." Her reaction would be like Aaron when I bought the 500 pounds of truck meat.
12:40-12:42
But you see, he's not staying there.
12:44-12:48
He's only going to be there for a short amount of time.
12:49-12:52
So because of that mindset, you're gonna be packing as light as possible, correct?
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Because you know, I'm just a passing through.
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And do you realize that same principle applies to us for our lives on this earth.
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And sometimes, Gildi, we act like we're going to be here forever.
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And we're just a passing through.
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So let me ask you this morning, are you a sojourner?
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Are you an earth dweller?
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Are you living for here and now?
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Are you living for then and there?
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Because if you're living for here and now, that's a bad idea because no one has ever stayed here permanently.
13:30-13:37
The reality is we're to hold lightly to the earth and we're to hold tightly to our faith and somehow we get that backwards.
13:37-13:47
And then when it comes to witnessing, church, church, when it comes to witnessing, we have a tendency to compromise and go with the world.
13:49-13:51
We embrace the world's values.
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We want to imitate the world even in the church.
13:55-14:00
And we think, we think in the church, if we imitate the world, we're going to draw the world.
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Here's what ends up happening.
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We tell the world, "Hey, I'm just like you." And their response is, "Well, then what do you have to offer me?" Because the appeal of the gospel is that Jesus followers are not the same as everyone else.
14:21-14:26
We are citizens of heaven passing through, holding different values and purposes.
14:27-14:29
So first of all, you're gonna start here, know what you are, you're an alien.
14:31-14:35
Number two, know what to fight, your sin.
14:37-14:38
You gotta fight your sin.
14:41-14:42
Look at the second part of verse 11.
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He says, "As sojourners and exiles, "abstain from the passions of the flesh," look at this, "which wage war against your soul." Our war isn't with the world.
14:57-15:02
And in our hotly contested political climate, sometimes we act that way, right?
15:03-15:04
Our war is with the world.
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Our war is not with the world.
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Our war is with our sin.
15:09-15:11
That's why Peter calls it the passions.
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The passions.
15:13-15:17
We have this - if you're a born again believer in Christ, do you realize what you are?
15:19-15:21
You have this new nature.
15:21-15:22
You are born again.
15:23-15:31
You have the Holy Spirit living inside you, but what the Holy Spirit is living inside is this old, decaying, corrupted body.
15:31-15:33
It's what the Bible calls the flesh.
15:34-15:38
And this flesh is corrupt and still wants to sin.
15:39-15:41
My body still wants to sin.
15:41-15:51
My body still has these fallen, corrupt passions in them that this new nature that I have in Christ Fighting!
15:53-15:59
That's why Paul says in Galatians 5, he says these two things are at war so you don't do the things that you want to do, right?
16:00-16:01
Romans 7, same thing.
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That's why there's a war going on.
16:05-16:12
You need to wage war against the passions of the flesh because they're waging war against you.
16:14-16:16
What is it in your life that you want to keep from God?
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What is it in your life that you've got to have now?
16:20-16:23
What is your favorite sin?
16:25-16:26
What if we just passed the microphone around?
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What's your favorite sin?
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You know what it is.
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Is it sexual in nature?
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That's for a lot of people.
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Is it hatred?
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Is it addiction of some kind to some substance?
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Is it complaining?
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I understand that sin is the real enemy here.
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Specifically, my sin is my real enemy.
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My sin seeks to distract me.
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My sin seeks to discourage me.
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My sin seeks to enslave me.
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In Christ it can't condemn me.
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But if I ignore the war that it is trying to wage against my soul, if I make excuses for my sin, tolerate my sin instead of turning from my sin, it's going to render me spiritually weak and ineffective.
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It's going to leave me wondering where the abundant life is that Christ promised.
17:32-17:33
Oh, it's there.
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I'm just unwilling to deal with my sinful passions that are waging war on my soul, and embrace what Christ freely offers instead.
17:46-18:02
To paraphrase D.L. Moody, "The person that I have the most problems with in this world is Jeff Miller." Now, D.L. Moody didn't say that he had the most problems with me.
18:03-18:06
His quote was, he was his biggest problem.
18:06-18:09
And I read that this week and I thought I can identify with that.
18:09-18:22
I think of the past 20, however many years of ministry I've been involved in, by far my biggest adversary, my biggest problem person in any church I've ever been to, is this guy right here.
18:23-18:25
There's a war being waged.
18:27-18:31
I kind of like to hear that because he doesn't say battle.
18:31-18:37
He doesn't say battle, and that's encouraging for me because you may lose some battles along the way, right?
18:38-18:40
But victory's already been won.
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That's the good news of Jesus Christ.
18:43-19:02
want. So I want to encourage you today, maybe somebody sitting here today is fresh off of a loss. I want to encourage you to get back at it. You know what a boxer loses a round? Okay, well you just come out swinging harder the next round.
19:03-19:12
Or maybe a mom with all these kids has a really rough day. Okay, we're gonna put a We're gonna plan together and we're gonna come out tomorrow and do better.
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Did you lose your round with your sin?
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Well let's change the strategy.
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Come out more determined to win.
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I want you to see here, please don't miss this.
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If you miss everything else I say today except one thing, please catch this.
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This is the strategy that you must employ in your war on sin.
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Please hear me.
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It's right here in the text.
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I'm not making this up.
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He says, "To abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul." Here's your strategy for battle.
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Are you ready?
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It's abstaining.
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You know what that word literally means?
19:55-19:58
It means put distance between.
20:00-20:01
That is how you battle your sin.
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You put distance between it.
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between you and your sin.
20:09-20:23
Okay, so if we have a guy here today saying, "You know, Pastor Jeff, you're right, I need to battle this drinking problem that I have, so I'm going to be taking my Bible to the bar from now on." Bad idea.
20:25-20:37
Or the person that says, "You know, I've really been struggling with lust in my life, so I'm going to be asking my small group to meet with me at the Gentleman's Club." It sounds foolish. It is.
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Maybe somebody here is thinking, "You know what? You're right about this battling the sin thing.
20:45-21:03
I'm going to be going on a retreat to Rivers Casino to seek the Lord about my gambling problem." Don't try to fight your sin head on because listen, you will lose every single time you try to fight your sin head on.
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Not me, yes you.
21:05-21:12
You mean to tell me Adam and Eve, who didn't even have a sin nature when they were tempted, they fell into sin.
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They couldn't stand up to the temptation.
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And you think you, living in a fallen, corrupt, sinful body, you think you're gonna face temptation head on and you're gonna come out stellar?
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You think you're just gonna walk right into temptation?
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And it's not gonna affect me.
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You are foolish if you think that.
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That's why Peter says, here's the strategy, abstain, get away from it, put some distance between you and your sin so you're not even in the same zip code.
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What did Jesus teach us to pray about this?
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Remember the Lord's prayer?
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Father, art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
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Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
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Give us this day our daily bread.
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Give us this day our daily bread.
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What's the part about lead us?
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How's that go?
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Lead us not, what?
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Oh, do you think this is what Jesus was talking about?
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Notice Jesus didn't say lead us not into sin.
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It's like taking an even wider path.
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I don't even wanna be in the place where I might be tempted with sin.
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So here's a surefire way to not lose your fight against sin.
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You ready for this?
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Here's a surefire way to not lose the fight.
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Determine the place where sin could tempt you.
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Determine the circumstance where sin wants to fight you and don't show up.
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You will never lose every fight you refuse to show up to.
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That's why Peter says to abstain.
22:53-22:54
What do you need to do today?
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What do you need to do today to put some distance between you and your sin?
22:59-23:01
Put filters on your computer?
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Put your computer in the garbage?
23:06-23:07
Is there a place that you need to stop going?
23:09-23:13
Do you need to track down Ryan and Sarah so you have some small group accountability?
23:13-23:15
Some people who love you?
23:17-23:21
Who are going to help you make sure that you're keeping your distance?
23:22-23:28
Like, "Wait a minute, I thought we were talking about, I thought we were talking about witnessing today." Well, this is the point.
23:28-23:31
Your walk with Christ determines your witness for Christ.
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Because look at verse 12, as we wind down here.
23:36-23:47
Verse 12, "Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable." So you see, all this inward stuff is going to be flowing out, right?
23:47-23:53
"Keep your conduct among the Gentiles." When he says Gentiles, that's just a euphemism for unbelievers, right?
23:53-23:54
I think we all get that.
23:56-24:10
"Your conduct among the Gentiles is honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds, and glorify God on the day of visitation." Speak against you.
24:10-24:24
The world, the Gentiles, they love to misrepresent followers of Christ, to the point of calling us "evildoers." More and more and more and more.
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Christian, you are going to be branded as an evildoer just because you say, "I believe the Bible is the Word of God." That is happening more and more.
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So I'm just - spoiler alert - it's going to happen.
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If you say, "Well, I believe the Bible says that life begins in conception.
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That's why I am pro-life.
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That's why the Bible would lead me to believe pro-life.
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People are gonna say, "You're a rotten person for saying a woman shouldn't have a choice in what she does with her own body.
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What a evil, wicked person you are that would take that right away from the woman.
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What about the right of the baby?" You can say, "Well, I believe what the Bible says about marriage.
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One man, one woman, one lifetime.
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and that's what I believe, you're gonna be branded as an evildoer for just saying, I just, I believe.
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Notice there was no, I'm condemning anybody else in that statement.
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Remember that happened with Chick-fil-A a few years ago, right?
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Like the head guy was like, I believe in biblical traditional marriage or whatever.
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And everybody was like, boo, your sandwiches taste like hate and racism.
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And like, what?
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He didn't say anything about, all he said was, I believe this.
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That's exactly what Peter's talking about here.
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The world is looking for reasons to reject the gospel, and they want to use you as the focal point of their rejection.
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But when you are sincerely walking with the Lord, and He is doing stuff in you, and He is doing stuff through you, and you are blessing the people who are cursing you, when you are encouraging the people who are insulting you, when you are doing good to those who would do you harm, when they see that you're always looking to do, as Peter says, the honorable thing, the day is going to come when God shows up in their lives. And that day, according to Peter, is called the day of visitation.
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The day of visitation.
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I dropped this cross reference down, Luke 19.44.
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What is the day of visitation?
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That's kind of a weird term. What does that mean?
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That just means the day God shows up to save them.
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That's the day the lights come on in their lives.
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That's the day that they realize their sin has brought them nothing but misery.
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The day that God's Holy Spirit is speaking to them, calling them to receive Christ.
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Peter says they're going to remember your good deeds.
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They're going to remember your conduct.
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And that is going to lead them to glorify God.
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In other words, that's going to lead them to receive Jesus Christ.
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So now do you see why your walk with Christ determines your witness for Christ.
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So know how to act honorable.
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Honorable.
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Let Christ change you.
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Let the world see the changes that Christ made in you, and you will be a bold witness.
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Every Christ follower wants to lead others to follow Christ, but you can't lead anyone to a place that you're not in.
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So do you want to be a bold witness?
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Know what you are. You are an alien.
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Secondly, know what to fight.
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Your sin, it's waging war against you, and you're going to fight by not showing up, right?
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Thirdly, know how to act honorable.
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Honorable, so that when the Lord shows up, they're going to remember, "Ah, I see how Christ was at work in those people's lives." Your walk with Christ determines your witness for Christ.
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, You have called us to be witnesses, but before even that, You have called us to be holy.
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Father, there's not a single one of us in this room, there's not a single one of us on this planet that have the capability of being holy ourselves.
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Your Word tells us that You have given us Your holiness, You have given us Your righteousness through Jesus Christ.
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And You have empowered us by Your Spirit to continue to grow and mature and develop to be more and more practically holy.
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Father, today I pray that we would be people who are determined that we're going to cooperate with You.
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We'd stop clinging so tightly to the things of the earth.
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Father, today I pray that You would be very specific with us Father, show us our point of temptation and show us how we can not show up to even fight it.
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Show us how to abstain.
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Father, show us how we can love the lost people around us in such a way that the day's going to come, the lights are going to come on, God.
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You're on a seeking mission.
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And they're going to remember the witness of Christians put in their lives, Father.
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This is all to Your glory and honor.
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Make us bold witnesses, Father.
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Let us start with a sincere, authentic, growing, personal walk with Christ.
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In whose name we pray, Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read 1 Peter 2:11-12
What is the connection between your walk with Christ and your witness for Christ? Why?
How do passions wage war on your soul? Even though a believer cannot lose their salvation, how is sin still harmful to the soul?
How would you instruct someone wanting to fight their "besetting" sin?
Breakout Questions:
How, specifically / personally, do you need to "put distance" between you and your sin? Pray for each other to apply wisdom in this war on sin.
