War and Peace - Part A
Scripture Reference: 1 Peter 2:11-12
Visit the series page: Exiles: A study in 1 Peter
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Sermon Series: Spiritual Exiles
Message: War and Peace
Airdates: 9/30-10/01/26
Programs: 2368 and 2369
And let me add my good morning to you and great to see you here this weekend after our big Easter weekend. And I just want to take a moment and say thank you to so many volunteers and people that came together to pull all those services off, Good Friday services and then of course our Easter services. We've just got great reports from all the campuses. And just thank you for parking far away, coming early, sitting close, being hospitable, all those things that we encouraged. It was really a great weekend.
We heard of a couple of adult men that received Christ as their savior as one indication of some encouragement, and we're happy about that. Our two new campuses had their first Easter, Gary and at Hobart Portage, and just great reports from both of those campuses. So really exciting. And by the way, need to say good morning to our Hobart Portage and Cedar Lake. Good to see you this morning, kind of.
And thank you for joining here. And I also wanna mention to to all of our campuses that we are next weekend, we're gonna spend a little bit of time talking about the church and kinda where we're at, talk about mission them, give some updates on some things. So I hope you'll come back as we as we kinda get everybody on the same page. I have here a book, a little book, just a little book here. It's called War and Peace.
Anybody read War and Peace? I see a few hands going up. I don't think anybody first service raised their hand. But War and Peace, it's kinda it's one of these books if you've you've not read it, you've probably heard of it. It's one of those books that just seeing somebody at the airport or coffee shop reading War and Peace, it's like impressive, isn't it?
You think, wow, that person they're they're kinda serious about reading because they're reading War and and Peace. I've not read this, but the title of the book is a is a great outline for our passage today. And I I just wanna note to you that it's war and peace. It's not war instead of peace. It's not war then peace.
It's war and peace. And as Christians, we get that. There is in the living of the Christian life, there is war and peace. We are in a battle Internally, especially, we are in a in a kind of war. But then externally, we are we are called and trying to express peace and beauty and love.
And so we have this kind of dualism going on internally, Iwo Jima, externally, Beethoven's fifth. Right? That's the that's kind of the struggle of being of being a Christian. And Peter is going to explore this and give us some expectations today. And we're coming off this is our series in First Peter, exiles.
We're coming off some wonderful verses, verses eight and nine and and ten, where he just summarizes what the church is and and who we are. We're a holy nation. We're a royal priesthood, people of his own of his own possession. We are in this world, we are declaring the greatness and the glories and the excellencies of the God who called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light. And so real high point kind of verses in the letter.
And now Peter does war and peace. Let me read our text, and then we will do our exposition and application. Here is what Peter writes to us today. “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which war against your soul. 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 his visitation.”
So there is God's word to us today, and I want you to see just if you if you were if we were to read the rest of the letter, you would look back at these verses and say, those are really pivotal verses. Like, those are the verses where Peter goes from a more doctrinal explanation of the gospel and who the church is on the basis of new life in Christ and and resurrection into a very practical, what does it look like for this church to live in a hostile world, in a world where people don't aren't inclined to to liking us? What does it look like for the church to be faithful in its witness in a world set against it? So pivotal verses here. Verse 11 is war.
Verse 12 is peace. K. So we begin with the war part. And, here's how he begins this little section here. “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles.”
There we have, the the words that we get our whole series title from. You might say, well, why do they call it exiles? There you go. There's another example. Sojourners and exiles.
They are nearly synonyms. Both of them are describing people that are living somewhere where they don't primarily belong. Living somewhere not their place of birth, living somewhere not where their heart is. We get this a little bit in Indiana every football season where we live in Indiana, right? But during football season, if you drive through neighborhoods, you'll often see people that have flags out front of their house, right?
They live in Indiana, but the flag will say Ohio State University or Michigan. Right? Or now this is the only acceptable one, University of Iowa. I love to see those. Those are fine.
You can do that. The others though are saying something, aren't they? They're living in Indiana, but the flags are indicating that their hearts are elsewhere. So that if you went to the door of somebody who had that kind of a flag, you could knock on the door, and you and when they answer you, you could just say, you're not from around here, are you? And nine times out of 10, no.
I was born in Ohio, and and I I cheer for the Buckeyes. Or I was born in Michigan, I cheer for, the Wolverines. So the flags in their hearts are saying something different. And as Christians, we are exiles and sojourners in this way. We live in this world.
Right? We're we we live here. We're called to live here. But God has done this wonderful work in our lives, hasn't he? Amen?
And so thankful for the grace of God in our life where he has now changed our hearts and and our our sense of belonging is not primarily in this world. Our our sense of belonging is the kingdom of God. This Paul writes in Colossians, for example, that “we are to set our minds on things above, not on earthly things.” So our affections and our hearts are are now for the kingdom of God and the future eternal life that's gonna be with him. This is what the writer of Hebrews, for example, talks about in Hebrews 11 where he lists the the hall of faith.
Right? All of these different people in the Old Testament, remarkable saints. All of them were looking to a city, a future city, the city of God. They endured persecution here, but their hope was set was set there. Moses gives up all of the treasures of Egypt because why?
His real treasure was Christ. We're called to that kind of a perspective living in this world as sojourners and exiles. So maybe I could ask you right now, what do the flags of your heart say? Where do you belong in your affections? Are you actually in exile?
Are you a sojourner? Peter, well, what does that look like? Like, I don't have flags. It's a nice picture of Pastor Steve, but I don't have flags. What what does it look like to live in this world but to have our hearts and minds set on another?
Peter urges us, essentially, first of all, to go to war. K? War and peace. He says, you gotta realize that you are in a war. Here's the here's the text.
We're called to abstain from the passions of the flesh. The passions of the flesh. What is that talking about? Well, passion's good. Right?
We ought to be passionate people. There's nothing wrong with passionate. Desires are good. God made us filled with desires, and those are not inherently bad either. What he is talking about here is the passions of the flesh.
These are human passions left unchecked. These are human passions without law, without conscience, without consequence, without a sense of judgment, without the sense of God. These are illicit desires. This is man left to his own devices where his heart and his mind can do jolly well whatever they want to do. The passions of the flesh.
Where do they come from? You might say, well, okay. That's interesting. But, like, how did I get these kind of passions, or where are they located? Here's where Jesus locates the problem.
Matthew 15. “For out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander.” Yeah. That's in you. It's in every single one of us.
How did these things get inside of us? Well, the Bible tells how that happened. Right? We go back into the Garden of Eden. God makes Adam and Eve their hearts, their desire, their every desire is for the Lord and for pleasing him and that relationship that they'd enjoyed with him and with one another.
But when Adam and Eve rebelled against God, the Bible says that that heart, those desires that all the way to the core had always been good and holy, now we have died spiritually. And as we die spiritually, there enters into now our hearts another set of desires, another power, another force, indeed, an enemy. You have an enemy lurking inside of you. Every single one of us do. And that enemy is set against God.
That enemy does not delight in God, does not delight in the will of God, does not delight in obedience to God. Rather, it delights in the opposite of all of that. It delights in what is illicit. It delights in sensuality. It delights in things that are are evil, actually.
It delights in evil. This enemy inside our hearts. So the story of human history is not one of basically good people doing occasionally bad things. It is the story of fundamentally bad people occasionally doing good things, sometimes often doing good things. But the problem is that we retain in our hearts what Jeremiah calls “a desperately wicked heart.”
It is inclined to evil. It delights in sin. This is the depravity of man. The Bible, that's what theologians call it, the depravity of man. Our hearts have that.
You have that. K? We are bankrupt. We are we are morally defaulted. Our our setting inside is pride and self love.
I didn't expect an amen there. How about people you know? Pride and self love. Amen to that? It's all around us, all these other people
Right? The goal of this message is for us to realize the problem is not the primarily the world around me. The problem is not the liberal media. The problem is not the Republicans or the Democrats. The problem is not all of these other people.
The problem with the world is me. It is my heart. It is my depravity. You know, if you're in a war, it's important that you identify who the enemy is, isn't it? It's generally easy in a war because it's the people that are shooting at you.
It's the people that want to destroy you. It is the these are the people that are the enemy. Look how Peter describes our enemy. These desires, he says, which wage war against your soul. The Greek word there for war, that's not made up.
It is actually it's a military word. It is describing a kind of battle. So think of a famous battle like Iwo Jima or something like that. Carnage everywhere, an enemy trying everything it can to destroy. That is going on within the human heart.
It's going on within the Christian heart, I should say. The unbeliever has no battle. The unbeliever does not have any there there's no conflict inside. We have conflict because by God's grace, we have received this salvation. And what part of what God does when we are when we become Christians is that he gives us a new heart.
Right? And with that new heart are all of these desires for the will of God and for pleasing God and the things of God. But we retain in our personhood the old self, the old man, and all those old desires. That is the enemy in Peter's language here. And there is a war going on.
It is a real battle. And this enemy is a real enemy. I am not talking here metaphorically. I'm not giving an illustration. This is not analogy.
There is a real enemy within you. And I wonder if you're aware of it. I wonder if you realize that you are in a war. You know, it would be a really terrible thing to be in a war and not realize it. Imagine a guy on the on the on the beach of Normandy, 06/06/1944, looking for seashells.
What are all these bombs doing here and all of these soldiers? And what's the of the machine gun? And what is going on here? Somebody says, it's D-Day. Oh, but look at these shells.
They're so wonderful and beautiful. If you're in a battle, you better realize it. If you're in a war, you better realize it. And, basically, the point of this message is that we are in a war, and I believe most Christians live their day and they don't realize it. Walk into the day thinking, hey.
It's just another day, unaware that there is within us an active, real force that wants to destroy the good that God is doing in our life. And he is an enemy that must be defeated. So in this war, let's just draw up the sides here. On the one side, you have the heart, the new heart of the Christian, and those desires that the spirit has brought to us that can be also fanned into flame. And these are desires for holy obedience and joy and the glory of God.
This is the side of love, and this is the side of all the goodness of God being lived out in our life, conforming to the likeness of Jesus. On the other side is what we're calling the enemy. This is the flesh. This is the old regime. These are the desires prior to salvation that dominated my life.
This is sin and all of its corruption and all of its destruction and all of the things that God promises to punish in our life. Those are the two sides. And that battle is going on in every one of us. Be honest. Are you aware of it?
Are you aware of it? Here's other scriptures that talk about this. Romans eight, “for if you live according to the flesh, you will die.” How about that for a verse? Live according to these desires, let them dominate your life, you will die.
“But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live, but I say walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” You see that kind of a dualism there. Right? If you live this way, you're not gonna gratify the desires of the flesh.
“For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For they are at war with each other to keep you from doing the things that you want to do.” Read Romans seven. It's an entire chapter describing this battle, this strife, this war that goes on in the heart of the Christian. You say, well, how does he how if I got this enemy inside of me that's lurking, how does he how does he exactly wage war?
We have to realize the battlefield within us is for our minds, for our hearts, and for our souls. What desires are going to rule us? What affections are we going to say that's the way that I'm going to go? And part of this challenge for us is that the desires that the the flesh is seeking to cultivate in us and to to lead us by in the world are normal. Hear me, Bethel Church.
In the world, they are normal and acceptable. That's just the way that we live. That's the way that we roll as we live by those passions and desires. And so you can easily live in the world, and it comes at you all the time and peer pressure and expectation and everybody you know lives this way. And then you live that way, and lo and behold, it's the enemy that is winning that battle.
Sometimes it's hard to spot the enemy, but it's not hard to spot his effect. Paul writes this to the Galatians about the effects of living according to the flesh. “Now the works of the flesh are evident, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these, I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” So what do we think when we see that kind of thing pop up in the life of a Christian or in the church? What do we think?
We think, ah, we've spotted the enemy. There he is. We see his his his signature. We see his fingerprints over this. Because whenever the enemy is is is winning, that's what it looks like.
This is just one sermon. I can't hit everything about this in this one sermon. I just want to focus on Paul's strategy. You say, wow. I got this enemy inside of me.
He wants to destroy me. I'm in a battle every single day. What do I do about this? Beyond being aware of the battle, here's Peter's advice. Abstain.
Thank you, Peter. Don't do it. And actually, the word abstain, it's it's a it's a geography word. It's a distance word. K?
If this is where the flesh is leading me, then I am going to if that's east, then I'm going west. I am going to distance myself as far as I can from all of those things because that's the flesh. I have been freed from that. That's my old way of life. I don't want to live that way.
I have a new heart. I want to live for the glory of God. And so I'm going to I'm going to run from these things. This is this is Joseph and Potiphar's wife who comes to him and says, sleep with me. What does Joseph do?
He says, well, I'll go into the bedroom, but I ain't sleeping with you. Is that what he did? No. What did Joseph do? He created distance.
He ran. He ran. Here's other passages saying the same thing. Flee youthful lust. Young people and old people, we still have these lusts inside of us.
What's the best thing to do with them? Run. Create distance. Romans 13, make no provision for the flesh. Galatians five, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the flesh.
These and other passages. Here's my goal though. My goal for the church is that this message would wake us up to the battle, to wake us up that every day that I wake up, I am I am like a soldier. I am entering into a battlefield, and the the it's a war for my soul. And the consequences are huge.
Be a pastor. And here's what's the kind of thing that you hear. People say this. I never thought somebody like me could do something like that. Or they'll say, oh, you know, that that wasn't the real me.
When actually, that might have been your clearest look into the depravity of your own heart. It is not that that is not the real you. It is most certainly the real us. We need to wake up. It's kinda like 09:11.
America woke up and realized, oh, wow. There's an enemy. And the church slumbers along in the day to day of life thinking that I'm just living this day. There's nothing really for me to be worried about. And all the while, the enemy lurks within us seeking moments to dominate and to take over.
And he he he drags us down with compromises and with wrong thinking and with friends and influences and whatever temptations. He seeks to drag us down and destroy God's good work in us. And how often we see that? All of a sudden, so and so, they're like, bam, down they go. And we're like, what happened?
And you look into the story, and it's a series of steps down and down and down of giving in, of of submitting and surrendering to a whole set of desires, the passions of the flesh. And then all of a sudden, the bomb goes off. And the home is destroyed, and the marriage is destroyed, and the family is destroyed, and the person's destroyed. We are in a battle, friends. And I I love you.
I want God's best in your life. You will not have it without fighting. K? Without fighting this war. And I've got to ask you, are you in the battle?
First thing, be aware of it. Secondly, actively fight against it. Create distance. Abstain. Now the message is war and peace.
Right? So what about the peace part? You might look at this and say, man, the stakes are high, and they are high. The stakes are high for my life, and they are high for your life. Peter's really worried about, like, me individually, primarily.
Wrong. That is not Peter's primary concern here. Peter is much more concerned with the witness and the testimony of the local church in its community and the lives that those Christians in that church live as a kind of it gives credibility it's a terrible sentence. Sorry, Leo. The lives lived by the Christians as a faithful witness to the claims of Christianity and that local church living in that hostile environment.
That's what he's concerned about. And we see that now as he as he it's one sentence. Okay? This is one sentence, verses eleven and twelve. It's one thought.
So we abstain from the fleshly desires. And now he says, “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.” So Peter, as often we find in the New Testament, there's something not to do and there is something to do. What are we not to do? We are not to submit to the illicit desires of the flesh.
What are we to do? And what we are to do is to live honorably amongst a living or a watching world. Now the Gentiles here, by the way, he's not talking ethnically here. It's not non Jews that he has in mind. It's spiritually.
These are unbelievers that we are to live out our lives in front of. And Peter says, keep your conduct, your lives before this watching unbelieving world. Make sure they have a quality about them. K? And what's the quality?
What do you see there? Keep your conduct among the Gentiles. What's the next word? Honorable. It's the Greek word it's just the Greek word for what is good, what is what is beautiful, what is lovely.
Make the mark of your lives have a kind of quality about them that has an inherent moral and spiritual goodness about them. Now why do you suppose Peter, concerned for the church living in a hostile community, why would his concern be the quality of the lives that are being lived? Well, it's because there is something that happens when real Christianity shows up in a secular environment. People see things they don't see anywhere else. What is what is Christianity all about?
It is about Jesus leaving his glorious throne, coming into this broken and sick world, living amongst us, teaching, healing, dying for our sins, all of it as an expression of love. And Christians now receiving this love from God with a new heart and new desires now turning horizontally and expressing this love to the world around. So guess what the world gets when Christianity is real and authentic? They get justice. They get sacrificial love.
They get kindness. They get generosity, a magnanimous type spirit, a selflessness like Jesus was selfless. Where real Christians are and where real Christianity is, that's what it feels like. Where do you get that in the secular world? Nowhere.
That world is dominated by the passions and the desires of the flesh. Love our self love and pride. You step into a world of self love and pride with selflessness and humility, and they're like, what is this? What is this all about? I hadn't seen that anywhere else.
And it causes them to wonder, what's this all about? And Peter assumes that Christians and real churches are gonna look like that, that their lifestyle is gonna create a kind of holy curiosity so that, he says, when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. That sounds like doublespeak, doesn't it? Live such gloriously good lives amongst the people that when they slander you and they call you evildoers, do good and they'll call you evildoers. What?
How does that work? I wanna illustrate this way. In light of the Masters Tournament, which is going on this week, the greatest week of the year other than Easter and Christmas. The greatest week of the year is the Masters golf tournament. So in light of that, I want to tell a golf just give a golf illustration of this.
I've told this story before over the years. But true story. Years ago, there was a Pro Am golf tournament going on. And a Pro Am is where you have the PGA professionals, and they match them with amateurs who get to play in the tournament, get to play with the PGA players. They raise money for things, kind of thing.
So there was a Pro Am tournament. And Billy Graham was playing in that Pro Am tournament. Well, ironically, matched with him in his foursome was a PGA player who was a notorious bad boy on tour. K? Well, a friend of the PGA tour saw that this guy was matched with Billy Graham, and he thought it was quite humorous and was kind of teasing him about, oh, you're with Billy Graham and la la la.
So he was anxious to see how this was all going to play out. So they play their 18 holes, and the friend, when it's all done, he looks out on the range, and there is the PGA player. And he can tell that that guy on the he is just fuming mad. Right? He's out there.
He's just hitting those balls just as hard as he can. And you think, oh, no. Something went terribly wrong. And so he rushes out to his friend, and he goes, hey. You played with Billy Graham.
You're so mad. What did he say to you? And the player is just like, and he says, he didn't say anything. What's going on there? What is what's going on there?
The obvious moral goodness of the life and ministry of Billy Graham really bothered that guy. Billy Graham didn't have to say anything. There was in his one commentator called it luminous goodness about his life that said something without words to the bad boy PGA golfer. And he probably would have called Billy Graham a good for nothing blankety blank and this, that, and the other, accuse him of all kinds of things. But there was something happening spiritually inside that guy's heart, wasn't there?
There was a kind of curiosity. That's what he is getting at here. Live such lives amongst the pagans, the unbelievers, that though they accuse you of all kinds of evil, there will be in their hearts a kind of wondering when they see the sort of things that you're doing with your life and the values that you have. It makes them wonder, maybe there's something to this after all. How many of us deal with negativity in the workplace or negativity with family or friends because they know we're Christians?
We have a family in this service right now who you might remember a few weeks ago, we we looked at the the stone of stumbling, that Jesus is the stone that was rejected, and we made the point that when people reject us, it's not so much us that they are rejecting as it goes all the way back to the stone that was rejected. It goes back to Jesus. That's what really where the rub is. And we have to keep that in mind. Well, family that's in the service right now, they came up to me after the service, tears in their eyes.
They're getting ready to go on the mission field. They're going to a place where their Christianity will not accepted by the people around them. They don't like it at all. And they came up and they just said, we have got to keep that in mind. It's not us they are rejecting.
It's the stone, the precious cornerstone that they are rejecting. You know, there's only ever been one perfect human being who's ever lived, and he was accused of being born illegitimately, plotting to overthrow Rome, and be king of demon possession, blasphemy, and mental derangement. That was Jesus. The early Christians were viewed with suspicion and hostility because they didn't go along with the lifestyle of the Greco Roman sexual, etcetera, lifestyle. They were viewed like, hey.
What is wrong with you people? Right? This is like the way we roll around here. What is wrong with you? Why aren't you being a part of this?
He's going to say, I think in chapter five, they're shocked that you don't indulge in all the same things that they indulge in. If I may pull a thought from recent headlines, to believe that marriage is between a man and a woman is increasingly being accused of being hateful and to be a bigot. Now we look at that and we say, it's about love. Right? Husband and wife, the love of Jesus and the church.
It's a beautiful picture of sacrificial love for one. That marriage is about love. But increasingly, in our day, our perspective on marriage is being viewed as bigotry and prejudice and is actually hateful as one easy example of what we're looking at here. The church should exhibit a kind of life, a kind of ethos that causes the very different moral and spiritual world around us to wonder, what is that all about? And when there is an obvious kind of good being done for others, it makes them wonder if maybe there's something to it after all.
So that the PGA player who is exasperated by being with Billy Graham might reconsider his prejudice when he thinks about the gentleness that Billy Graham had, the kind words that Billy Graham had, and how he was a man much different than he expected. Here's how Jesus said it. “In the same way, let your light shine before others so they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven.” Same thought. In fact, commentators think Peter's basically quoting Jesus from the sermon on the mount. Jesus’ light is Peter’s good deeds and the result of all of this is that the unbeliever worships God.
Day of visitation, we don't exactly know what that is. Probably in the future, the culmination of all things, final judgment. But the point is this: our lives are intended by God to be a silent but powerful witness to the reality of the Holy Spirit in our life and to all of the claims of Christianity. Our lives are that witness. You might say, "That's right, we've got to get out there, we've got to preach it louder." Well, maybe. But mostly what he is talking about here is the good deeds of our life: the way, the lifestyle, the conduct of our lives.
Here's an easy example. If you look at chapter 3, verse 1: "Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives." You see him making the point there. The woman who is married to an unbeliever, what does she need to do? Does she need to berate him with the gospel? That is not what he is saying. In that most intimate human relationship, there ought to be a daily silent witness to the reality of Christianity in the way that wife is a wife to her unbelieving husband. It's like he is her mission field, and she wins him by her life.
Now I want to give an illustration of this. I've got to tell you, I'm going to use it again when I preach this passage in a few weeks, but it fits so well here. Many years ago, let's say sixteen years ago, I was fairly new at the church, and we got a call that there was an elderly woman in our church whose husband was an unbeliever, and he was dying in the hospital. The kids were Christian, the wife was a Christian, they had prayed for years, and they viewed this as one last chance for him to become a Christian. "Pastor Steve, will you go see him?" I had never met the guy. I had heard a few stories, a few notorious stories, about him, but I said I would go.
So I go to the hospital, and I remember this as clear as day. I go into the room, and here's this guy. He's on the bed, tubes everywhere. He may be dazed from dying, but he still has his faculties; he's still with it. He's lying there, and on the other side of the bed is his wife, I'll call her Jan, holding his hand and stroking it. She's a frail, elderly woman. So I go in, and there's a chair I can sit in next to him, so I sit down and make some small talk, just to break the ice. I don't know the guy at all, so just some small talk.
From the moment I walked in, I could tell he had no interest in what I was saying and would rather I hadn't come, but here was the elderly woman, and here were the people praying, so I soldiered on. So I'm making small talk with this guy, and he very abruptly, and kind of rudely, stops me and says, "Pastor, if you have something you need to say, say it, because I've got to go to the bathroom." I'm sitting in the chair, and just the way he said it, the scornful, disdainful way he said it, it kind of got to me. I don't know what my seminary would say about the way I responded, but here's what I did.
I rose up in my chair, got in his face, pointed my finger at him, and said, "Let me tell you something. You are about to die, and without Jesus you are going to hell. You've denied it your entire life, but you can't deny it in your wife." And there she was, over there, rubbing his hand like this. As I got in his face, in that moment where the pressure is rising and the blood is rushing to his face, the moment I said "his wife," he softened, turned over to her, and said, "Yep, you're right. She is one fine cookie." That's exactly what he said.
Think with me for a moment about this woman. Decades of raising the kids, hauling them to church, reading the Bible in the home, with no support from this guy whatsoever. Decades of being a wife to this guy, and all the responsibilities that entails, decade after decade after decade, faithfully doing that. This guy, tough as nails, but on his deathbed, he has to acknowledge there is something to this Christianity, because he had seen it in the life of his wife.
What is the church called to do? We are called to live it out, with faithful kindness and witness, with love, graciousness, encouragement, being a blessing to the city and community, doing all we can to alleviate human suffering, being involved in people's lives. It's the kind gesture, the tender word, the kind of thing the world can't explain away. Those things will bear witness to the reality of a risen Savior. I love that story.
So let Peter challenge us here. I want to ask this question. Does my life make the case for Jesus and the gospel? To ask, if an unbeliever were to watch my life up close, would it draw their heart to the claims of Christianity? And we're not talking about perfection here. The gospel tells us we need grace every day. But there is an effect the Spirit of God has in the heart of the Christian and in the life of a Christian that is so countercultural, so counter worldly, that it is itself an argument for the gospel. Would an unbeliever be drawn to the possibility that Jesus is risen from the dead because of your life? Live beautiful lives in this hostile world. Even those who hate you will wonder in their hearts if maybe there is something to it. And that wondering may open their heart, not just to think, but to actually believe. Yep, she's one fine cookie.
And with that, I'd like to ask that all of our campus would please rise for a moment. Campus pastors, if you would take over the leadership of this moment. Can we bow our heads? I'd like a time of self-reflection here as a congregation. I want to ask first, are you in the battle? Or are you like that guy on June 6th, 1944, looking for seashells in Normandy, completely unaware of the battle raging within you?
And we pray to the Lord right now. God, I want to engage in that. I want to follow the path of the Holy Spirit. I want to be led by the Spirit. I don't want to give in to those things that lead to death, that lead to destruction. Help me. Maybe in reflection you think, "That list of the flesh, that's the way I live." Maybe pray to God about that, repent, ask Him to help you walk in this new life that Jesus is creating in you.
How about the whole matter of living good deeds in a hostile world? How are we doing as a church? How are we doing here at this campus? What would Crown Point and the area around us say? What would they say about Bethel Church? How about the unbelievers in your sphere? Is there a quality about your life that draws a kind of curiosity? And if not, why not? Pray, "God, help me to be that kind of witness. Help me to be that kind of gospel missionary. Help me to live it out."
Imagine the effect on our church, on all of our people, if we were on mission with this. What would Northwest Indiana think?
Heavenly Father, I pray over these truths. I pray over this passage. There is just so much to say in a world where it's so easy for us to compromise and be the dead fish going down the stream, along with the rest of the culture, on the stream to hell. And yet Jesus is risen from the dead. There is new life in Him. We believe that, and God, I pray that You would help us cultivate that, and pursue that, and abstain from the one and fight the battle for the other. I pray that we would be a church where the quality of our lives would lead the people around us to wonder, "What is it about those people?" Help us to love. Help us to care about pain. Help us to go the extra mile. Help us to be like the first, second, and third century Christians, where children were dumped in the streets and Christians would save them and raise them, where the plagues would come and Christians would minister to those who were sick, causing the Romans to famously look on and say, "See how they love one another."
Oh God, cultivate that in our congregation. Forgive us for our failures. May we be a church, a lighthouse of truth lived out in very observable and challenging moments, that we might draw many, many, many to the cross of Jesus and to faith in Him. We thank You for this high calling and privilege. We love You, and we pray this in Your holy name. Amen. Amen.
* This transcript was generated using AI transcription technology and reviewed for accuracy but may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for precise wording
