HOW TO LIVE A HOLY LIFE FOR GOD
Real Hope In Real Times - Part 5

Text- 1 Peter 1:13-16

Introduction

This morning I am going to continue with the study we have been doing in the book of First Peter.

Our text is found in 1 Peter 1:13-16 and the title of my message is, "How To Live A Holy Life For God."

In the society in which we are living today there is a great need for all of us as Christians to live holy lives.

In our society today there are many things that hinder us from living holy lives.

Many of these things appeal to the way we think as Christians.  For instance:

• The television programs that we watch affect our minds.
• The kind of music we listen to on the radio can affect our minds.
• The kind of books we read and movie's we watch at the theater can affect our minds.
  

The Bible teaches us that there is a direct relationship between the mind and living a holy life.

Daniel 1:8 But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king's choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself.  (NASB)

The mind as we know is a very complicated part of our human body.

While on the one hand it is able to receive millions of messages at a time, it can become very confused.

A pastor went to visit with a woman from his church who had twins.  When he arrived he asked the mother how she could tell which child was which.  "This one," said the mother, pointing, "is this, and that one is that one is that."  "But," said the preacher, pointing, "couldn't this one be this, also."  "Yes," said the mother, "then, of course, that one could be that."  "How do you manage to separate them?" asked the pastor.  "We seldom do," explained the mother, "but when we want to, we put one in one room and the other in another room."  "How do you know which one you are putting in each room?" asked the preacher.  "We look and see which is in the other room and then we know that the other is in the other room."  "But if one of them was in the house, and the other was away somewhere, would you be able to tell which was in the house?" asked the pastor.  "Oh, yes," said the mother.  "We'd just look at him and then we'd know that the one we saw was the one in the house.  Naturally, the one away would be the other.  There are only two of them, which makes it easy."  "If you say so," responded the pastor, "if you had quintuplets it would have driven me out of my mind."

Our ability as Christians to live a holy life for God is greatly affected by our minds.

This morning I would like us to see four characteristics of the Christian mind that are needed in order to live a holy life for God on a daily basis.