Thank you, Sarah. If y'all would open your Bibles to first Peter chapter 1. We're actually gonna look at the exact same text we looked at last week. And actually, Sarah pretty much just walked through chapter 1 of first Peter. I love it just even hearing you, Sarah, talk about going to the gospels and Jesus drawing you to himself, and I mean, that's that's first Peter, born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God.
Jeffrey Heine:Thank you. We'll begin reading in chapter 13 or chapter 1 verse 13. Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy.
Jeffrey Heine:And if you call on him as father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile. Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, Not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for your sake. Who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for sincere brotherly love, Love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God.
Jeffrey Heine:For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you. So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk.
Jeffrey Heine:That by it, you may grow up to salvation. If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Pray with me. Our father, we thank you for your word. Lord, just how even hearing your word through the power of your spirit, walls begin coming down.
Jeffrey Heine:New life begins being breathed into us. So god speak. Your words are life. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away, and no one would remember them. But Lord, may your words remain and may they change us.
Jeffrey Heine:We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. When our youngest child, Georgia, was born, 6 years ago, it was a very scary time because we had some complicated well, Lauren had some complications during labor. I didn't have any problems. And there had to be an emergency c section.
Jeffrey Heine:I I remember the nurse just calmly looking at me and saying, I need you to pull everything off the wall. I was like, Yeah. Just start pulling stuff. And then it was NASCAR. I mean, all these, you know, these doctors and these nurses coming in, and, Georgia was born about 7, 8 minutes later.
Jeffrey Heine:And so it was this crazy, chaotic, just scary time, and I didn't even get to see, Georgia being born, because by the time I was putting on my scrubs, they had already wheeled her out. And, she was going to the, to the NICU, and and and so I didn't even know what to do. And finally, when I made my way there, and they finally got her to breathe a few minutes later, and, we heard that cry, and I was just so relieved. I'm like, yes. Alright.
Jeffrey Heine:She's alive. And then I went and I looked at her. I was like, this is not my baby. I mean, y'all seen my girls, you know what a Brooks girl is going to look like. Okay?
Jeffrey Heine:You know, Lauren and I kind of look alike. You know, our kids, they all look alike. You know what a Brooks girl is going to look like. This child was £10, had jet black hair, and had a dark complexion. And yet they were saying this was my child, but nobody saw the baby being born.
Jeffrey Heine:And they were just wheeled out, and they never ever once put an ID bracelet on Georgia. And so I was, you know, I went from so relieved, yes, to, like, mhmm. So even, you know, hours later, when Lauren finally came to and they they brought the baby to Lauren, her first words were, this is not my baby. First words. And I began looking around the hospital at other babies, seeing if I could find some that that might look more like ours.
Jeffrey Heine:Well, you've seen Georgia now. I mean, she's a Brooks. I mean, there's there's no way around it. She looks just like her sisters. Because as a whole, as children grow up, you know, they they have the traits of their parents.
Jeffrey Heine:They look like their parents. That's what first Peter is about. It's the same language, same theme is running through 1st Peter. I'm not sure if you've noticed it, but there's a lot of birth language in 1st Peter. Verse 3, God has caused us to be born again.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, verse 14, as obedient children, do not be conformed to. You know, verse 17, if you call on God as father. Verse 23, since you have been born again. Chapter 2 verse 2, like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow. And so what Peter is telling us here is that if God is truly your father, if he's truly your father, then you're gonna start to look like him.
Jeffrey Heine:It might not be immediate, might not be at first, might look nothing like him at first, but over time you are to certainly grow to look like your father. This is the foundation on which our call to be holy stands. We are to be holy because our father is holy, and we're gonna look like him. And now before we were God's children, this wasn't possible. Before we were God's children, we had bad hearts.
Jeffrey Heine:We were his enemies. We had a sinful nature. We were spiritually dead. But now that God has given us life, that his spirit is inside us, that we have been reborn, we have new hearts. This means that once that once was impossible is now possible.
Jeffrey Heine:We will begin to look like him. We can actually grow in holiness. It's not just possible. It is to be expected in the life of a believer. Let me define holiness for you.
Jeffrey Heine:Last week, we spent a long time talking about the holiness of God. The the basic meaning of the word holy, as it applies to God is is other. That's what holy means, the word kadosh, it means other or not like us or altogether separate. So God is completely different from us. And that's how holiness is applied to God.
Jeffrey Heine:Now, holiness applied to us is going to be a little bit different, although the basic principles still apply. The basic meaning is still the same. There's still the idea of otherness, separateness. For us to be holy means that we will now be other or we will now be separate from the world. That as children of God, we are no longer going to look like the rest of humanity.
Jeffrey Heine:We're gonna think differently than the rest of the world thinks. We're going to do things differently. We're gonna love things that they hate, and we're gonna hate things that they love. So we are separated from the world, and we're separated unto God. We've been we've been put aside, taken, snatched up, put aside for use by God.
Jeffrey Heine:Think of it this way, I have a tool shed and probably like most tool sheds, you have a giant coffee can, old coffee can that just collects all different nuts, bolts, screws, everything. And if I have to do a project, and I know that, well, there's things I need somewhere in there, I I dump the entire contents out, you know, there's 100 and 100 of screws and nuts. And then I I set apart the ones I need. I picked them up and I put them over here, and I make a pile here set apart for whatever I'm going to use them for. But these things are being set as our set aside for my purposes.
Jeffrey Heine:That's what holiness means. God has taken us. He has set us aside. He said, now I use you for my purpose. So we're now completely at God's disposal.
Jeffrey Heine:So so for us to be holy means that we are wholly his, just like we just sang. We're we're wholly his, w h o l l y. Let me make sure I got that right, I did. We're wholly his, wholly devoted to God. We've been set aside to be used at his disposal.
Jeffrey Heine:For those of you who are reading through the Bible reading plan, you just, you know, you finished up Leviticus. For those of you didn't, a lot of people said the 3rd chapter Leviticus is so familiar to them because that's usually where they stop every year. And then they get to that again and again. But but if you went through Leviticus, and you still had clear mind, and you were alert, and he came to chapter 27, you even saw the word holy applied to tithes. It's not just applied to people, but but even to things, and and holy tithe is money that's been taken out of a general collection, set aside to be completely used for God's purposes.
Jeffrey Heine:It is a holy tithe. This is money devoted to the Lord. As Christians, we are to be wholly devoted to the Lord. This means we will do what he wants us to do. We will live the way that the Lord wants us to live.
Jeffrey Heine:Now, this currently rubs a lot of Christians the wrong way. That's alright, because we talked about being rubbed the wrong way last week. That's a good thing. That's what transformation looks like being rubbed the wrong way. But it it rubs a lot of Christians the wrong way.
Jeffrey Heine:The Christians who like to celebrate what we would call freedom in Christ. We are free in Christ, and by this, what people who are always celebrating freedom in Christ, freedom in Christ, what they many times mean by this is we are now free to do whatever we want to do. We are free to live a life of sin. So they say we are free to have the same passions, the same foul mouths, the same lust, the same materialism as the rest of the world. We are free to do those things because we are saved by grace.
Jeffrey Heine:And so for many Christians, this this call to live a holy life is viewed immediately as legalism. You're calling me to nothing but law, and to rules, and to lifeless legalism. So stay away. But hear me, you are not free to sin. God has set you free.
Jeffrey Heine:He has set you free from the law of sin and death, but you are not free to go on living a sinful life. So, so do not ever use your freedom in Christ as an excuse to just do whatever you want to do. Galatians 513, for you were called to freedom brothers, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. 1st Peter 2, live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover up for evil. Do you know how many commands there are in the New Testament?
Jeffrey Heine:I don't. I was actually hoping one of you would tell me I don't. I didn't have time to go through them all. I I there are so many, you you you kind of lost track, it was gonna take more time than I could give. Let me give you a few though.
Jeffrey Heine:We're commanded in Romans 12 to rejoice, to be patient, to be constant in prayer. We're commanded in 1st Thessalonians to admonish the idol, to encourage the fainthearted, to help the weak. We are commanded in Colossians 3 that we must forgive, and also that we must put to death things like sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry. In the very text in 1st Peter, we're told to put away malice, hypocrisy, envy and slander. You you have a lot of commands in the new covenant that you are to keep.
Jeffrey Heine:As a Christian, you might be free, but you're not free to go on sinning. But here we don't ever think of this as somehow being restrictive, like, okay, now God's just he's putting rules, and he's he's holding me back. Or he's somehow, he's holding out on me. He doesn't want me to have a joyful life. He wants me to be some, you know, joyless Christian.
Jeffrey Heine:Alright. Confession. How how many of you, if you heard that I was preaching or some of you did, I'm preaching on our call to be holy. How many of you are like, oh, great. I would rather be watching the World Cup.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, come on. Yeah. Our call to be holy, they're like, oh, how dull, how boring our call to be holy. That's death to any podcast. If you put our call to be holy, it's just gonna tank.
Jeffrey Heine:Do something about sexuality, and it's like it's it's it hits all over. But nobody wants to hear a sermon on how we can be holy. Because we associate holiness with lifeless legalism and we want to be free from that. But listen, an eagle is not free to swim. A fish is not free to fly.
Jeffrey Heine:To try to do so, if they were to try to do those things, they would live in constant frustration, or possibly it would result in their death. They find freedom in doing what they were created to do. An eagle is most free when it's soaring because that's what God created it to do. The fish is most free when it is swimming, because that is what was created to do. You are most free when you pursue a life of holiness, because that is what you were created to do.
Jeffrey Heine:Freedom comes not by going against your nature, by embracing it, and you have been given a new nature. As Christians, you've become a new creation. The old is gone. The new has come. You once were not a child of God, but now you are a child of God.
Jeffrey Heine:And so now you are free to look like your father. You didn't have that freedom before, but now you're free to do so. And your father is holy. He is beautiful. And to be in his presence is joy.
Jeffrey Heine:You want to be like him. Now I'm sure as I look around this room that there's got to be some people here struggling with this. Because right now you're hearing this language about having a new heart, being a new creation, and and having a new desires, having this new nature, and you're thinking, what? A new I mean, I still sin, I still want to sin, I still have all these worldly desires, I still, like, long to do these things. So what is happening?
Jeffrey Heine:We looked at that last week when we said that God has declared you holy, and now you are growing to become the very thing he has already declared. So so you're growing there, not there yet, he's declared you holy, and now you're growing, you're becoming the person he has already declared you to be. And that means there are struggles. You don't start off as a fully mature child of God. You start off as a baby, kicking and screaming.
Jeffrey Heine:You grow a little and you start off still rebelling. One of your first words is mine mine, and and your father's got to teach you. No. No. Then you're like, me do.
Jeffrey Heine:Do myself. No, we gotta teach you. Don't always do yourself. God does the same thing with us. He's growing us, but it's not instant.
Jeffrey Heine:Think of it this way. Paul tells us in his letter to the Colossians, that God has transferred us. He's delivered us out of the domain of darkness, and he has transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son. That's what he's done. He's transferred us from from Satan's kingdom, the domain of darkness, and he's planted us into the kingdom of his beloved son.
Jeffrey Heine:But I want you to when you picture that imagery there, picture a a giant wall between the 2 kingdoms. And just because you have been plucked up and taken to the other, you can still hear the voice of your old task master coming over the wall. You'll still hear it. And because for so long, you were slaves to to his voice, when you hear it, sometimes you instantly still respond. And it's crazy, you know, because you are not in that kingdom anymore.
Jeffrey Heine:Yet you were so programmed to obey his voice for so long that you keep doing so. And it takes time to begin to learn, to love, and to trust more and more the voice of your new king, and to hear his voice only. Over time, you should be listening to Satan less and less, and Jesus more and more. The question isn't, do you sin? The question is, are you struggling with it?
Jeffrey Heine:Do you hate it when you do? And are you growing in obedience to the Lord? Because children of God grow in obedience to God, And that's the heart of what Peter is saying in this section. If you're still wondering how this whole idea works with grace, that we're to do, do, do, yet we're saved by grace. Look at verse 22.
Jeffrey Heine:This is we say this a lot. This is a dense verse. This is a verse you can land on for quite a while. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for sincere brotherly love, Love one another earnestly from a pure heart. That first phrase probably rubs a number of us the wrong way.
Jeffrey Heine:Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth. So obeying God is what purifies you. You are doing something. You are obeying, and in that process of obeying, you become more and more pure. But then he gets to the second part of this verse, and it says, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.
Jeffrey Heine:So so then Peter gives you a command. Now let me give you a command you're to obey. And the only reason you can obey it is because God's given you a pure heart. Can can you see the problem here? He first starts off saying, you have to obey in order to become pure.
Jeffrey Heine:Then he says, you have to have a pure heart in order to obey. It's a circular argument. He says, obedience leads to purity, yet you can't obey unless you're pure. And you're like, so what is it? This is like this this circle going around, which is first.
Jeffrey Heine:What is it grace? Is it is it what you do? Peter says, yes. Yes. Says think of it this way, when God gives you a new heart or a new nature, Think of it like an engine.
Jeffrey Heine:He's giving you an engine that's running. That's already running. Running in obedience out of a new heart, and so you're constantly obeying more, and you're getting purified more, and those things are coming out of a new heart. It's not where does it start? God gives you this in motion.
Jeffrey Heine:Alright? He gives you this, And and if any of these things are lacking, if you're not obeying, you're not pure. It means likely that engine was never put in you, or it's broken down in some level. These things are happening to the children of God. You're purified by your obedience, and you obey him because you are pure.
Jeffrey Heine:So how do we grow in holiness? Well, I mean, we just read you have to obey. So I guess, how do you grow in obedience or in holiness? Peter gives us a number of reasons. We're just gonna look at 2.
Jeffrey Heine:First, he says that we are to, to renew our minds, really. Look at verse 13 and 14. Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. This sounds familiar.
Jeffrey Heine:It's because Paul pretty much says the exact same thing in Romans 12, when he says this. When he says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. This is what Peter is saying. And we briefly looked at this last week, this whole idea of preparing your minds. Literally in Greek, it's the gird up the loins of your mind, doesn't really translate that well here, that idiom.
Jeffrey Heine:So we would say it's like rolling up your sleeves. It's getting ready to to work. It's time to think hard. And he says, be sober minded. And what he means by that is before you were children of God, you used to be under the influence of something.
Jeffrey Heine:You were under the influence of of every passing fad. You were the under the influence of every op ed out there that you read. You're under the influence of every blog telling you what you should do. You're you're under the influence of all these things, and say, no. Be sober minded.
Jeffrey Heine:Think. God is renewing your mind. You know, I know, several people who refuse to be Christians because they say, you know, I just don't want to shut off my mind and just have to believe. Perhaps you know people like that. I don't I don't wanna have to turn off my mind and just believe, But that's not Christianity.
Jeffrey Heine:You were told to have faith. You were told to believe, but you're never told for that to be mindless. As a matter of fact, you're commanded the opposite. And one of my favorite examples of this is Jesus. You read through the gospels, alright, He's surrounded by some anxious fearful disciples.
Jeffrey Heine:So they're struggling with this, and so they go to Jesus. And and Jesus does not say to these anxious struggling men, hey, you know what? You just got to let go and let God. That's pretty much, you know, that's that's pretty much kind of the key to everything. Yeah.
Jeffrey Heine:Just I know there's a lot of things that, you know, for you to stress about, and just just don't let your mind go there. Just don't think about those things. You just gotta believe. So he didn't give the advice that many of us would give people, basically. What he said to these anxious fearful people is think.
Jeffrey Heine:And so so you struggle with worry, anxiety. Have you considered the birds? They don't have barns. They're not sowing and reaping, yet they're not hungry. Have you considered the lilies?
Jeffrey Heine:Have you thought about them? Have you stopped once and just looked and thought deeply about them? They're beautiful. They're clothed better than any king. Have you thought about, am I worth more than them?
Jeffrey Heine:Yes. Logical conclusion? God will take care of you. The key is not to shut off your mind to get rid of all these fears and anxieties. The key is to engage it, To think deeply about these things.
Jeffrey Heine:Holiness doesn't just happen to you. You're gonna have to think about it. You're gonna need to think through your faith. You're gonna need to think deeply on God's word. Because let me tell you, every every other little opinion thing out there, new new legislation, new new like the op eds that are out.
Jeffrey Heine:All those things are like grass, and they fade. The word of God remains. We think deeply about his word, and we become shaped by that. That leads to holiness. That leads to the realities and joys of knowing Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:2nd, we grow in holiness by remembering the gospel. Now Paul says to the Corinthians, you've been bought with a price, therefore, glorify God with your body. Basically, remember the gospel, now glorify God with your body. Peter is saying the same thing here in verse 18. When he says, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:When you sin, Christ isn't up there like reaching in his pocket, like, hey, what what can I give to make this right? Like, is there is there something? Is there some kind of like gold? Is there some kind of fine that I need to pay? Our sin cost way more than that.
Jeffrey Heine:Our sin cost the blood of Jesus, and if we understand that, if we think about that, we might not just do that sin. If we can just so nonchalantly just go about doing sin, means we don't understand what it cost our savior. We haven't thought about it. Peter says, you were bought with his blood. Look to the cross.
Jeffrey Heine:Live a holy life. Let me end at the cross. Let me end here. The cross is our hope for a life of holiness. We can live a holy life because Jesus is the one who lived a holy holy life.
Jeffrey Heine:Wholly devoted to his father. Jesus succeeded where all of us failed. We already heard it earlier. He lived the perfect life we should have lived. He died the death we should have died.
Jeffrey Heine:And he did so, not so that we might remain the same people. Jesus did not go to hell and back, so that there would be no change in you. He did that and he gave us a spirit, so that we might become children of God, and that we might look like his father. The gospel makes that possible. Pray with me.
Jeffrey Heine:Our father, we want to look like you. Lord, I'm reminded of Augustine's prayer, command what you wish, but give what you command. And you have done that. You have commanded that we be holy, and then you have declared us holy. And as your children, we are growing into that.
Jeffrey Heine:And I pray we would grow into that. Lord, that we would understand the gospel and what it means. The new birth and what it means. We would not be content in just being babies, just being alive, but that we would grow to become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. To grant us this, Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.