BE DIFFERENT BY ACTING DIFFERENT
Real Hope In Real Times Part 11

Text - 1 Peter 2:11-12

Introduction

This morning I am going to continue with my series of sermons from the book of First Peter and our text is found in 1 Peter 2:11-12.  Inside your bulletin you’ll find a sermon insert with the outline for today’s message.  I encourage you to follow along with that and fill in the answers.  You might also want to take that home with you and use it in your own personal devotion with God.  Since we don’t have a lot of time on Sunday morning to go into great detail, you might want to do some further study on your own and use these notes as a guide.

The Bible says that the Bereans examined the Scriptures daily to see whether the things Paul said to them were from God.  I encourage you to do the same.  Never allow someone else to do your studying for you.  You’ll never remember anything from the Bible that way. Study for yourself!

1 Peter 2:11-12  Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul.  12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may on account of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.  (NASB)

Let us pray:

Father we ask that you would bless the reading of your word today.  Help us to take into our hearts and minds the lessons and principles that You want us to learn from it.  That we might apply it to our life and grow as Your people.  Help us to focus this morning on the meaning of this passage for our lives so we can understand what You expect of us as Your people so we will behave properly as Christians and be able to bring honor and glory to Your name.  In Jesus name we pray.  Amen.

With this passage, we come to the end of the first main division in this book dealing with the believer's salvation.  Remember, Peter wanted his readers to realize that they had hope in Jesus Christ.

These were people who had been scattered into many different areas.  They were severely persecuted because their stand and faith in Jesus Christ.  We might not be able to identify too much with that today because in our country we have a great amount of freedom to proclaim openly our faith in Jesus Christ.

But sometimes we do find ourselves having problems in our life because we are Christians.  After all, Satan isn’t happy with us if we are trying to serve God.  So he will sometimes throw obstacles in our way to keep us from serving God in an acceptable manner.  And because of Satan we sometimes experience problems in our life.

During those times, we sometimes have a tendency to take our eyes off of Christ and to think about the problems we are experiencing.  As a result, we sometimes get depressed, discouraged and forget about the hope that we have in Jesus.

The people Peter wrote to were at a point in their life when they needed to remember the hope that they had through Jesus Christ.  They were being severely persecuted, they were discouraged, depressed and scattered into places where they didn’t know the people, the customs and were feeling very alone.

So, Peter wrote to them to encourage them and help them to remember the hope that they had in Christ.

I believe that is a very practical message for us today.  God has given us real hope in real times.  Whenever you’re going some kind of trial, a difficulty in your life, or when you’re in the valley so-to-speak, don’t forget the hope that you have in Christ!  We have hope!  If you’re a believer, you have hope in Jesus!

Now, Peter has been describing for us so far, the hope that we have through the salvation in Jesus Christ.  And, if you are saved, there are certain things that should be seen in your life and that you should be doing.

In these verses Peter describes for us the fruit of our salvation and shows us that a Christian is supposed to live a certain way.  As we look deeper into our text today I’d like us to look at three ways we as Christians ought act different because we are different.