How God’s Grace Makes Imperfect People Holy

God’s call to be holy can feel impossible when we see our flaws and failures—but His grace changes everything. In this message from 1 Peter 1:14–21 and 2:1–3, Pastor Chris Teien shows how holiness is not something we earn but something God produces in us as we follow Christ. Learn how to leave behind old desires, walk in reverent awe, and grow through God’s Word even when you don’t feel like you measure up. 

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2285086/episodes/18037753

Key Points:

1. Leave Behind Your Old Desires (1 Peter 1:14–16) – Holiness begins with turning from our past ways and letting Christ reshape what we love. God calls us to be holy because He is holy—and His Spirit empowers what our strength cannot.
2. Live with Reverent Awe of God (1 Peter 1:17–21) – We live to please the Father, not out of fear of rejection, but out of love and gratitude for the One who redeemed us with the precious blood of Christ.
3. Lean into the Pure Word That Helps You Grow (1 Peter 2:1–3) – Spiritual growth comes from craving God’s Word. The more we take it in, the more His grace transforms us from the inside out.

Personal Stories from Pastor Chris:
 Pastor Chris shares how his own desires once centered on material things until God changed his heart. He also reflects on how the church’s witness has shifted—from postcards and door-to-door visits to living out faith authentically in everyday relationships—showing that true holiness is visible wherever we go.

Notable Quotes:

• “Holiness isn’t about perfection—it’s about direction.”
• “When you don’t measure up, God’s grace still keeps working in you.”
• “We were bought with the precious blood of Christ, not with silver or gold.”

Actionable Takeaways:

• Heart reflection: Ask God where your desires need to change so you can reflect His holiness.
• Daily application: Live each day aware of God’s presence, seeking to please Him as the audience of One.
• Spiritual step: Spend time in Scripture this week, not out of duty but desire, trusting His Word to shape your character.
• Next step: Let grace, not guilt, be what moves you toward a holy life.

Scripture References:
 1 Peter 1:14–21; 2:1–3; Leviticus 19:2; 2 Corinthians 7:1; Hebrews 12:14; 1 Corinthians 6:19–20; Romans 8:1–4; 2 Timothy 2:20–21

Keywords: grace, holiness, 1 Peter, sanctification, Christian growth, God’s Word, redemption, transformation, spiritual life, faith in action

Challenge:
 Don’t give up when you fall short. God’s grace is greater than your weakness—and He is still making you holy as you walk with Him.

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The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:16

How to live a holy life in an unholy world. You know, God is holy. That means that God is perfect in every way. And we are told that we are supposed to be holy as He is holy, and that is a tall order. So the more you grow in Christ, the more you read God's word, the more you realize that you do not measure up. And hopefully that instills within you a holy discontent that says, I might not be perfect today, but as I travel, as I do my work, as I do whatever, that as I go on this path with the Lord, that every time I fall, I'm going to get up. Maybe I'll apologize to somebody I offended or whatever. I'm going to get up and I'm going to keep moving forward in the direction of God's holiness. So we're in a series right now, and I want to, a series on living with hope in a hostile world. And I want to take some portions of 1st and 2 Peter and talk about that today. So I'm going to read the passage and then I will introduce it a little more, and then I will go through the passage again, so you hear it twice. But it's not too long of a passage. 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 13 through 21, and then chapter 2, verses 1 through 3. I'll be reading out of the NIV. Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance, but just as he who has called you is holy, so be holy in all you do. For it is written, Be holy, because I am holy. Since you call on a father who judges each person's work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear, for you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but he was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. Now, chapter two, verse one. Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind, like newborn babies, craves pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. So that is the passage that we want to look at today. But every generation of Christians has struggled with the culture in which they live. It seems like even in Peter's time, in Paul's time, Rome pushed back against the Christians that wanted to pursue morality, wanted to live for Christ, who said that Jesus was the only way and all the other false gods of the day were not acceptable. And so then they were seen as a threat to the society. They were Christians who were seen as a threat and even canceled. And we see stuff like that happening even today. Yet Peter didn't tell these Christians who are being persecuted, these Christians who are often separated from large church groups. Many of these dispersed Christians were far away from large churches, from encouraging groups. Maybe they were in just a small group, and Peter wrote to these persecuted Christians not to just hide away, but to get involved in society, to live out their faith, not to run away, but to run to the people and to live out their faith before them. So last week we saw that hope is alive because of the resurrection of Christ when we looked at 1 Peter 1:1 through 13. So that was hope when you're going through a hard time, when you're going through a persecuted time, when life doesn't seem to be working out for you, or when people are talking against you because of your faith in Christ. When you hold on to hope in the resurrection of Christ, that can get you through. But it's not just enough to hold on to a hope. God wants you to move forward in holiness, wants you to move forward in holiness. And sometimes people misunderstand what holiness is. Sometimes people think of a monk that like lives in a monastery and is away from every form of temptation and all they do is read scripture, and that's not it. That's not how you reach the world for Christ. For us to hide away behind these walls isn't any way we're going to influence people for Christ. Isn't any way we are going to make a difference for Christ? The world has changed in so many ways. And I pray all the time, how can I reach my community for Christ? And so when I planted the church many years ago, I we sent out thousands of postcards. And back then, colored postcards were good. And actually, we had other churches that gave us money invested in us so we could afford it. So we could afford to spend a couple thousand dollars on postcards, sending out postcards, making a difference. So currently, this church does not have a couple thousand dollars to work to send out postcards. And actually, the return on your investment for postcards is a lot lower these days than they were. Another thing that we'd often do is we go around and we'd hang literature on doors. And sometimes that works. We'd maybe put out a thousand things and get one new family to church. And sometimes, especially in the old days, we'd knock on people's doors and wait for them to answer the door and then want to talk to them about church, ask them what we could pray about for them and everything. And I don't know how it works in your community, but especially among young people, you're not going to get past their ring doorbell. You might be able to have a conversation with them watching the ring doorbell, or you might get the automated message and that says leave a message. I don't know if you've experienced that before, but those doorbells talk, and then they like ask you to leave a message, and then they send on the app something to the other person. So I'm not really sure if going door to door is good. One of my friends went door to churches went door to door and they gave people stuff. So they're like, hey, we're from such and such church, and so we just want to bless you. And so here's a two-liter bottle of Coke or diet coke, whatever you'd like. And now people probably be suspicious you're trying to poison them. And so I don't know if that would work either. But I think prayer works, and I think living out your Christian life before other people, wherever you live, wherever you work, people will take notice, and they might even come up to you and ask you, why are you different? Why don't you use words like other people in the culture? Why don't you swear like everybody else? Or why do you have so much joy? Or how are you so confident? Or what is this thing that you have with Christ? And society is always changing. Society, sometimes you'll find groups of people that just love to hear about Jesus. And so then it's good to ride the wave of popularity in the culture. Christmas is like that, as a matter of fact. Christmas is the one time of the year that it's really easy to tell people about Christ. You know, Mary Christmas, or celebrating Jesus' birth, and put your manger scene out on the lawn and do all those things. That's a time of the year that it's really good. Middle of summer, people might think that you're strange. There's a guy in my neighborhood that cut down some trees, put up a monstrous cross and a big cross in his yard and a banner about Jesus, and I thought that was pretty cool. So I stopped and told him. But do what you can. But more than anything, try each day to live a life of holiness. Try each day to live a life that people can see your faith. People can see your faith in action. Try to live out your faith before your kids, your grandkids, your neighbors, your friends at work. So many ways that we can do this to pursue holiness. Why does it matter? Well, back in that day, they felt pressure to conform. The people that were this was written to, they just wanted to hide away. They could avoid persecution. They could avoid job loss, they could avoid all sorts of trouble, that they just keep their mouth shut and not say anything about Jesus. And maybe that's how you feel today, too. There's a high possibility that if you're gonna get excited about living for Jesus, that it could affect your career. It could affect your opportunity to succeed in different areas of life. It might affect your opportunities and civil government or whatever you want to run for or be part of. But don't pursue what the world pursues and thinks, think that's it. You know, the world now has idols of success, they have idols of pleasure, popularity, and we experience the same hostility towards the truth as they do. So we shouldn't be surprised when we're persecuted for our faith, because Jesus said that if you're gonna follow me, just as I was persecuted, so you will be. They will talk against you. And I just read in this passage that we're foreigners in this world, that this world is not our home. We're citizens of heaven, we're just a passing through. All those great songs we could sing about that. But the world, just like in Peter's time, the world needs the same hope. We need to share the same hope, the same salvation. And when we do, in the spiritual battle that we're in, we have an opportunity to rescue people from the flames of hell, to rescue people from eternal damnation so that they can experience eternal life. And when your life is spent and you look back on it and you think about what you invested, and you could have afforded a boat payment or a boat if you hadn't been faithful to give to the church. You could have afforded this, you could have done all these other things if you hadn't put Christ first. You could have done so many other things on a Sunday morning if you hadn't put Christ first, but instead you chose to put Jesus first. And someday I think Jesus will help when you're judged for the works that you've done in this life. Maybe he will help you to see how your investment made a difference, how your investment changed lives, how your investment helped people to find Christ, to grow in Christ, to live for Christ. So those are all good things. And before I talk about holiness, and it seems like a list of things that you should do and shouldn't do, and it seems overwhelming, know that if you are truly in Christ, if you are saved, if when you we believe that when you are saved, you receive the Holy Spirit. If you have the Holy Spirit living in you, if you're yielding to the Holy Spirit, if he's filling you, that is going to produce holiness in you. So it's not that you have to just live the list and do everything you can to make yourself perfect and holy. It's that you're so in love with Jesus and you're following God's word and you're doing all of these things that are keeping you tight with Jesus that you want to live this way, you want to live a holy life, you want to please God the Father, you want to do all of these things because you discover that it is the best life ever. It is the most joyful life ever. You might suffer with persecution, but you will still have joy. You will go through hard times and people might even talk against you, and family might even desert you. Culture could cancel you, but you will still have the joy of the Lord as you seek to please the audience of one. So this is a great passage to talk about these things. So, number one, leave behind your old desires. Now, if you've been a Christian for a long time, maybe you don't feel a lot of these old desires as much as you did in the beginning when you began your Christian life, and before everything about you, all your desires were just around whatever you wanted. So I think I've shared before that my desires were cars. I wanted awesome cars, I wanted a lot of awesome cars. So it was my dream to fill a garage, my stable full of a lot of cars, different types of cars, foreign cars, American cars, very fast cars, expensive cars, and that was my desire. But as I continued to grow in Christ, even if you offered me some of those things, I wouldn't want them. Matter of fact, if you were to give me a hundred thousand dollar car right now, I probably wouldn't keep it for myself. I'd sell it and invest it into church ministry. And because my heart has changed, my desire has changed. And now when I prayed about it, my my question was, why do I want these things so much? And it came down to I want these things so much so that the people in the world will value me, the people in the world will think I'm something. And I've seen so many people like that. Their identity is in their sport, or their identity is in their business, or their identity is in their boat or their car. And so sometimes they like, oh, you're the guy with the 67 Corvette, the identity. And they're, yeah, I'm the guy with the 67 Corvette. You don't know anything else about him, but everybody likes him because he's got that Corvette. And so when you're living in Christ, when you're investing in the kingdom, you don't lose sleep over people stealing your pride and joy in the parking lot or out of the garage or whatever, but we leave behind our old desires. So it starts out with obedient children. So when we came to Jesus, when we came to faith in Jesus, we were adopted into God's family. So we are children of the Father. We are brothers and sisters in Christ, and so that's where our faith is to be. And so we are to be trusting and we are to be following. And Jesus said that it's good to have a child like faith. And then it says, Do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance, because you didn't know any better, because that's just the way the world was and what you thought was important and the way that you thought you needed to live. But it says, Just as he who called you is holy, so be holy and all of you do. Be holy in all you do, for it is written, Be holy because I am holy. So Peter didn't make that up. Actually, it comes out of Leviticus. It was restated from Leviticus, Leviticus 19, 2. God says, Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them, Be holy, because I, the Lord your God, am holy. Leviticus 19 2. So holy means to be set apart, consecrated, belonging to God. The phrase be holy in the imperative, it literally means become holy in all of your content conduct. Holiness is not about pretending, it's about becoming, it's the spirit-empowered process of being shaped into the likeness of the God who saved you. And John Stott wrote, the concept of holiness lies at the heart of the Christian message. God's purpose is to create a people who are like Himself, reflecting His moral character. So that's a good thing. So this holiness is positional, but it is also transformational in your life. So when you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are seen as holy, sanctified. You are right in God's eyes. You are forgiven of the sins of the past, the sins of today, and the sins of tomorrow because of what Christ did. But from a progressive standpoint, as you live out your day-to-day, you might fall into sin. You'll ask the Lord to confess, you'll confess that sin, ask to be forgiven of that sin, and move forward, and you'll keep moving forward in holiness. I don't think we ever totally arrive in perfect holiness because there are so many areas of life that we cover. But we keep moving forward. Be holy because I am holy. That means that Christians, Christ followers, we're supposed to mirror God's holiness. We're supposed to be like God the Father. We are supposed to live our lives reflecting Jesus. And Exodus 19:5 set the pattern in the Old Testament. Now, if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And then Paul picked that up in 2 Corinthians 7 1, and he said, Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. God expects us to be holy. He wants us to be holy. One more Hebrews 12 14 says, Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy. Without holiness, no one will see the Lord. So holiness is not sinless perfection. So many people think that they need to clean their lives up before they come to Christ, or they pray to prayer to receive Christ, which is a great way actually to start a personal relationship with Jesus, to turn from your sin, to repent, and want to follow Jesus, maybe talking to him in prayer, saying, Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner. Please forgive me of my sin and come into my life and save me. I want to follow you, and when you truly mean it, and it fully clicks and you start following Jesus, that's life-changing and transformational. But if somebody doesn't come alongside them and help them to understand what it means to truly be a Christian and to know the source of their salvation and what Christ has done to make their salvation possible, then a lot of people just go into works and they're like, okay, I get a second chance to do everything right. I gotta be perfect, I gotta do it right, because if I don't, then Jesus is gonna leave me. Jesus is gonna fire me. Jesus is gonna kick me off the team. Because that's the way it works in our culture, right? You don't perform at work, they fire you. You don't perform on the team, they bench you or kick you off the team. When life goes on and people are unhappy with your performance, then you know that there could be a day when they send you packing. And so in Jesus, when we are truly saved in Christ, we are adopted as children of God. We will never be unadopted. Jesus might put us on the bench, but he's never gonna kick us off the team. If there's sin in our life, if there's besetting sin that's pulling us down, the Bible says that God disciplines us as his children, but we are still in the game. Actually, the ultimate form of discipline would be for God to take you out of this life physically, but it doesn't, you death, but it doesn't mean that you're still not saved. So I don't know what you think, but I believe that when you are truly saved, that you are eternally forever saved. I believe that when you truly are in Christ, that you will not lose your salvation. That isn't crazy grace that says, okay, then you can do whatever you want. Matter of fact, if you continue to live in sin, if you say, Oh, I'm saved, I know I'm saved, but you continue to live in sin and continue to do all these things that other Christians can see is clear sin and you don't care. It doesn't bother you. You don't want to repent of it. I would wonder if you were truly saved, but that's a message for another day. But be holy because I am holy. Number two, number two, live with reverent awe of God. Live with reverent awe of God. Long time ago, everybody used to say, Oh, that's awesome. Everything's awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome. You know, it's truly awesome is God, his creation, his love for us, the way he transforms lives, the way he can heal and help, the way that he can provide, the way that he works in families, the way that he can work in society, everything about God, the way that he gives us his word, the way that he had a plan from the very beginning when Adam and Eve messed up for a Savior, for Jesus to come take care of our sin, the way that the plan wasn't for us to be left alone, but for us to always have the Holy Spirit. That is totally awesome. Since you call on a Father who judges each person work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. So people say that that is such a weird, wrong message. Who would fear a loving God? Who would why would we fear the God who loves us and cares for us so much? But you got to get a handle of what kind of fear we're talking about. We're talking about a respect. We're talking about a love, a care. When you really care, when you really love somebody, you want to do everything you can to do what's right, to try to please the person, to not disappoint them, to not do the wrong thing. I've mentioned this before, but it's a great thing when you're so connected to your children that they don't want to do the wrong thing because they don't want to break your heart. They sit there and they're like, Man, I don't want to do this because my parents would just be so sad. They would be so disappointed. I don't want to. I know they love me, but I don't want them. I don't want to break their hearts. And we do the same thing for God the Father when we say, I don't want to do this, I don't want to break God's heart. And we also might say, just like a child might say, I don't want to do this because I'll get disciplined. I might get grounded, I might lose privileges, I might lose opportunity. In the same way, if God disciplines his children, I don't want to do this because I might lose opportunity, I might lose blessing, I might lose great things that God could do if I would choose to do the right thing. But that God would judge us, that God will judge us at the end of our days, that God will judge us for the things. For those believers, we won't be judged as to if we're saved or not saved. We'll be judged for what we did with the lives that we had. We'll be judged for the things that we did in the body, the things that we did in the Lord. Hang on one second. Yeah, okay. Verse 18. For you that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect defect. So there was a payment made. Jesus made the ultimate payment. It wasn't from the earth's minerals, it wasn't from silver or gold. It was Jesus who shed his blood. Jesus who cares? Jesus who doesn't just want to save us and rescue us from hell, he wants to transform our lives. Lives. And a couple weeks ago we talked about Romans 7 and the struggle that Paul had to do the right stuff. And then it said, therefore, in Romans 8.1, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And so there is no condemnation, but there still is reward. 2 Corinthians 5.10, for we all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. So a judgment based on the things we did in this life, a judgment that might make a difference for what happens in the next age of the millennium, of Jesus reigning and ruling. Will we have more privileges? Will we have more opportunity? Will we have more reward? Because we were faithful in this life, because we put off all the things we could have had in this life as we invested in the next life. All of those things are things that we can ponder from Scripture and good. But we were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. Jesus was perfect. Jesus is perfect. And that is our goal to become more and more like Jesus. Do you know that in the 1800s, during the abolitionist times, that some people with money and resources would go to slave auctions and that they would buy slaves, that they would sit there and as the auctioner droned on. I don't know, some people had more money than others. I don't know how many they were able to do, but they would bid on these slaves. And after they won the slave, they would tell the slave that purchased you, you're mine to do whatever I want with, and you are free. I have purchased your freedom. And Jesus did the same thing for us. He purchased our freedom. But 1 Corinthians 6 19 says, You are not your own. You were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. Verse 20, he was chosen before the creation of the world and revealed in these times, last times, for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. And when you are being persecuted, have you ever read the Fox's Book of Martyrs? It's like a journal or list of people who are persecuted for their faith and the hard things that they went through and the thoughts that they had and the confidence that they had. I hope that never happens to us. I hope we don't have to face that type of persecution. But if it happened in the past, it probably can happen again. But your confidence in that time, or your confidence when you know that you are about to die, and I've had the privilege to be with some people in the church when they're about to die. Those who are truly saved have this confidence that the next stage, the next step through that door is Jesus in heaven, and their confidence is in Jesus Christ. And so as they move forward, hopefully they were able to share their testimony before it got to that point. But what's your testimony? Do you share that with people? What your life was like before you came to Christ, how you came to Christ, and what your life has been like since. Those are good things to think about. Those are good things. And when you go through this life, think about trying to please the audience of one. I do that sometimes. Sometimes I'm like, I just gotta get up there and share what the Bible says and just try to please God in what I do and not try to please the people. Not try to, I don't, I want it to be a scriptural message, not a TED talk. So I don't want a bunch of people to go, oh, that was so fun and entertaining. I would rather have life-changing and transformational would be good. So if you don't fall asleep, that's good too. But a Christian businessman once made himself a little card that said, please the audience of one. And as he went through the day, when he'd go to meetings, when he'd make sales transactions, when he'd try to get new clients and everything, he would try to do everything he could to make sure he honored God and all of his transactions and all of the ways that he lived in the way that he didn't compromise to please the audience of one. Number three, lean into the pure word that helps you grow. D.A. Carson said, People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people drift toward compromise and call it tolerance, or they drift toward disobedience and call it freedom. And that is not the way that we are to live our lives. Matter of fact, Peter throws this out and then he gives a list of some things that people in that time struggled with, and maybe things that we might struggle with too. He says, Therefore, so therefore means that all that stuff I just told you. Okay, as a result of this, here's your action step: rid yourselves. So that's like taking off your old dirty clothing, taking off your muddy clothing, taking off whatever clothing, and because it needs to be cleansed, because it's not good. To rid yourselves of all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. So malicious behavior means doing evil despite the good that has been received. The desire to harm other people, malice may be hidden behind good actions, it's ill will toward others. Deceit means deliberately tricking or misleading by lying, manipulation or dishonesty. Hypocrisy means people say one thing but do another, pretending to be something they're not, presenting good motives that mask selfish desires or intentions. So envy is like jealousy, meaning desiring something possessed by someone else. This causes discontent and resentment as believers make unhealthy comparisons to one another. It also makes them unable to be thankful for the good that comes to others. And slander is backstabbing, meaning destroying another's good reputation by lies, gossip, rumor spreading, etc. So Colossians 3.10 echoes that. Colossians 3.10 says, but now you must rid yourselves of all such things, such things as such as these anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on a new self. The no have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator. So how do we do this? This is going to be so hard to be like trying to live this list, but Peter says, It's not you just trying to be your best. It's not just you trying to be on your best behavior, but he says, like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. Psalm 119, 103 says about God's word, how sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey in my mouth. Jesus quoted Deuteronomy in Matthew 4.4, when he says it is written, Man shall not live on bread alone, but by on every but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. So in Hebrews chapter 5, it talks about meat. But here Peter is just saying, hey, you know, the word. You need the word. You need to get the word in your life. So as you read God's word and as you apply it to your life, then you have a basis for what you believe. You have a basis for what you put into practice, you have a way to back up your convictions. When people ask questions about why do we do that or why don't we do that or why don't we support that or whatever, it is so great when you can take them to scripture and help them to see in the pages of the Bible what it says about that topic and that thing, so that they can see that it wasn't your idea, it wasn't your philosophy, it wasn't a tradition that's been passed on, but it is something from God's word. And so they can see it in scripture, and maybe then it will become their conviction. It is so much better when good behavior is based on scriptural principles, when the things that you do, the way that you choose to live your life, is set up so that you can live out the word of God. So you're not living out your morality, you're not living out your politeness, you're not living out your goodness, you're living out Jesus and God's word in a way that makes a difference. You just know it's the right thing to do, you just know it's the right way to live, and you can even go back to the passages of Scripture. Sometimes the Holy Spirit even brings those scripture passages to mind, and that is a great way to live. So just think about that, to be holy in all the ways you live. And then I just wanted to throw this out there too, as a cross-reference, because I want to be used by God. I want to make a difference in the world, I want to make a difference with the time that I have. Maybe we get 70 years, maybe we get 80, 90 years, I don't know. But the clock is ticking, and my wife and I, we just celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary. So, yeah, I'm hopefully we'll make it to 50, 60, maybe 70 years. I don't know. But 2 Timothy 2, in a wealthy home, some utensils are made of gold and silver, and some are made of wood and clay. The expensive utensils are used for special occasions, and the cheap ones are for everyday use. If you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean, and you'll be ready for the master to use you for every good work. Isn't that what you want? Don't you want to be used by God? It didn't say that you had to be a utensil of gold or silver to be used. What it's really saying is that a utensil made of gold that's dirty, that's gross, isn't going to get used. It's just going to be cast aside. You could be of a lower quality, you could be made of wood and clay. And a clay utensil that's clean and sanitary will get used. Just the other day I went to a restaurant and got the water cup, and the water cup had the water in it, and everything about it was great. But then there was something gross on the cup. My wife looked at it and she's like, What's that? And so we put it aside and went and got a clean one with water. And you would probably do the same thing. But to live your life in a clean way so that God could use you to live your life so that you will be ready for the master to use you for every good work, to be prepared, to be ready to serve, to be ready to speak up, to be ready to take a leadership opportunity, to be ready to come along, some somebody that's struggling, and to make a difference in their life. So next week we're gonna get together and we're going to talk about how we're chosen by God to accomplish his works as we continue to skim through first Peter. But again, be holy in all you do, just like God is. That is a good thing. So I'm gonna pray, and the worship team is gonna come forward here, and that will be good too. But next Sunday, chosen and sent, your place in God's story. Lord Jesus, it is so easy to talk about being holy. It is so easy to talk about just walking in the spirit and being enabled to do the right things every day. But I know that there's a struggle, I know that there's a spiritual battle, I know that Satan tries to trip us up, especially in the areas where we're most susceptible to temptation. I pray that you would help us to put on the full armor of God. I pray that you would help us to live wisely in this world, and I pray that you would help us to make an eternal difference with the days and time and the resources that you give us, and we give all the glory to you. So, Jesus, we just thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.