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This morning's scripture is from First Peter one thirteen through sixteen. Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set you your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you as a 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 will be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy.

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And so the CEO of this shoe company, he sent his top two salesmen to this remote island to sell some shoes to a new market. These two salesmen, they took the same flight, they landed in the same airport, they stayed in the same hotel, two different rooms. The first salesman, he walks into his room, sets his bags down, pulls the curtains on his window, and he looks down to the busy streets and the busy marketplace, and he sees thousands of people down below. But he notices one thing: nobody is wearing shoes. And he's super discouraged. He sits down, he calls the CEO and says, I'm cutting my trip short. I'm coming home early. This is a waste of my time. Clearly, nobody here buys shoes. Around the same time, the other salesman, he is uh he's walking into his room, sets down his bags, pulls the curtains, and sees the same scene. Thousands of people in the streets and in the marketplace. He notices the same thing. No one's wearing shoes. But he starts jumping for joy in his hotel room. He's so excited. He calls the CEO, he says, Extend my trip, send more shoes. Nobody here has bought shoes yet. But the moment I go down there, I'm gonna sell out and I'm gonna need more shoes. And sure enough, he sold out in an hour the inventory that he brought. Now, these salesmen have a lot in common. They work for the same company, they're selling the same products, they took the same flight, they stayed in the same hotel, they had the same task. The biggest difference between these two salesmen was their mindset. One salesman saw that nobody was wearing shoes and he got discouraged and went home. Zero sales. The other salesman saw that nobody was wearing shoes and he got encouraged by the opportunity, record sales. But it was all connected to their mindset. You see, church, something very similar is true of you today. You are part of an awesome church, and you have abundant opportunities to grow in your faith and grow in your relationship with Christ. What's going to determine your spiritual growth ultimately is your mindset. Do you see the opportunities right in front of you, and are you grabbing a hold of them? Now I know that some of you in the room, you're thinking to yourself, whoa, whoa, whoa, that word mindset, this sounds a lot like a self-help TED talk, okay? No, that's it's not a promise. We don't do self-help, do better, try harder talks at our church, okay? That's not what we do. But we are about to study the Word of God. And as many of you already know, the Word of God has a lot to say about our minds. It has a lot to say about our mindset. Because ultimately, correct thinking leads to correct feeling and correct acting, which leads to growth in Christ. And so if you're not growing in Christ, ultimately, brothers and sisters, it can be traced all the way back to your mindset and what you think about. And so as we seek a mindset for growing in Christ this morning, Peter has a lot to tell us about that mindset. And so if you haven't already, turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1, as we discover a mindset for growing in Christ. Hey, this morning we are continuing our living hope sermon series through the books of 1st and 2 Peter. Today's the third installment of the series. We're still in the beginnings of the series. Two weeks ago, in week one of the series, we talked about hope. Last week, in week two of the series, we talked all about joy. And today, in week three of the series, we're talking about our minds, our mindset. Now, brothers and sisters, this morning we're only studying four verses. 1 Peter 1, 13 through 16, but they are dense verses. We have a lot to get to today. So let's go ahead and jump straight into our notes. Church, if you're taking notes this morning, number one on your notes is this think about your thinking. If you want a mindset for growing in Christ, then you might pause sometimes and think about what you're thinking about. Look with me in the first half of verse 13 in 1 Peter chapter 1. In 1 Peter 1 13, Peter says, Therefore, prepare your minds for action and be sober-minded. Preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded. Now this verse starts with the word therefore. And as the saying goes, whenever you see therefore in the scriptures, you always have to look back and see what the therefore is therefore. And so when you look back in verses 1 through 12 of chapter 1, you discover that Peter gave us a grand description of our salvation. He also described for us the God of our salvation. He talked a lot about the apostles and the prophets and the angels. There's a lot of description going on in the first 12 verses of this chapter. There's a little bit of instruction, but mostly description. In verse 13, Peter takes a turn and is about to give us a lot of instruction. Therefore, based on this grand description of your salvation and the God of your salvation, here's what you should do, therefore. Peter goes on in verse 13 and says, preparing your minds and being sober-minded. He uses that word mind twice already in our passage today. In seminary, I read this book called The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. It came out in the 1990s. And the premise of this book is basically the scandal of the evangelical mind is that there really is no evangelical mind anymore. Christians sometimes struggle to use their minds and love God with all their minds, like Jesus tells us to in Matthew chapter 22, verse 37. Now I am pleased to report that may be the general case, generally speaking, of Christianity across our nation, but that's not the case at our church. We are led by a senior pastor, Cliff Lee, who loves the Lord deeply with his mind and encourages the rest of us to do the same. And so at First Baptist Church Leesburg, we obey the command in Matthew 22, 37, not just to love the Lord with all of our heart and soul and strength, but also to love the Lord with our minds. Your mind is very important to your faith. We don't have a mindless faith. We have a rational faith, an intellectual faith. Peter begins by telling us, preparing your minds. Now that phrase preparing your minds is a very plain phrase in English, but in the Greek it has a deeper layer of meaning. What it really says in the Greek is girding up the loins of your mind, is what 1 Peter 1 13 says. Now I'll give a nod to my King James friends. I'm in the English Standard Version here, but in the King James it does say, girding up the loins of your minds. In the first century, men and women wore long robes and long tunics. And when they needed to prepare to move swiftly or to run, they would pick up their robes or their tunics to about knee height and then tuck the excess into their belt and fasten their belt tightly. This was especially true when they were perhaps getting ready to go to battle. One of the most famous times that the Lord told his people to gird up their loins was in Exodus chapter 12, verse 11. This is the very first Passover. And the Lord tells his people, I want you to eat the first Passover meal with your loins girded, your belts fastened, your sandals strapped, and your staff nearby, because you might have to move in haste. You're eating the first Passover meal in a foreign, hostile land in Egypt, and so be ready to eat it and go. Exodus 12, 11. Now that's really cool and all, but what does it mean to gird up the loins of your mind? How do we do that? Paul helps us out a little bit here in Ephesians chapter 6. In Ephesians 6, Paul tells us to put on the full armor of God. And many of you know this passage well. Paul goes on to describe different pieces of the armor. In Ephesians chapter 6, verse 14, Paul tells us to put on the belt of truth. There it is. If you're gonna gird up the loins of your mind, you've got to gather up all your loose and fleeting thoughts and tuck them into the belt of truth. 2 Corinthians 10, 5 is another place Paul tells us to take every thought captive. Take those loose and fleeting thoughts captive and tuck them into the belt of truth in your mind and tighten fast that belt of truth in your mind. That's how you gird up the loins of your mind. Fill your mind with truth, and then weaponize the truth in your mind to destroy the lies of the enemy in your mind. Gird up the loins of your mind. Prepare your mind for action. Peter goes on in verse 13 to say, being sober-minded. Now, what Peter is not talking about in this verse is physical sobriety. There are other verses in the Bible that prohibit physical drunkenness and speak to physical sobriety, but that's not 1 Peter 1.13. Peter is not talking about sobriety with regard to consumption of the mouth. He's here talking about sobriety with regard to consumption of the eyes and consumption of the ears. Don't be intoxicated with worldly thinking. It makes it hard to walk straight. I know several of you who worked in law enforcement previously, and perhaps one time you pulled somebody over and conducted a field sobriety test. One of the most common field sobriety tests is asking a driver to get out of the vehicle and try walking a straight line. Generally, if someone is physically intoxicated, they will struggle to walk a straight line. The same is true of your mind. If you're intoxicated with worldly thinking, then you'll struggle to walk straight. Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1, that we should walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called. Ephesians 4 1. Well, if you're intoxicated with worldly thinking, you're going to struggle in your spiritual walk. We should be sober-minded. We should have a calm and steady and stable and sober mind. And if we need to recover a sober mind, then perhaps we need to think about what we're thinking about. Take a moment to pause and think about your thinking. In the year 1902, there was a small company that was founded called the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company. You may know it better today as 3M. It's a pretty big company these days. In 1968, there was an employee of 3M named Spencer Silver, and he was tasked with creating the strongest adhesive the world has ever seen. In one of Silver's attempts, he did the exact opposite. He created the weakest adhesive the world has ever seen. And he started sticking it to stuff and realizing that it stuck, but you could pull it off pretty easily without damaging the thing it was stuck to, and you could restick it to someone else. And he was so frustrated he thought of it as a failure and filed it away. A couple of years later, there was another 3M employee named Arthur Frye. Arthur Frye was singing in his church choir, of all things, and he was frustrated because he kept losing his place in his hymn book. And he's like, if I just had a way for my bookmark to stick to the page in my hymn book without damaging my hymn book, that would be awesome. And then he remembered Spencer Silver's failed attempt at creating an adhesive. And Arthur Fry took that adhesive, thought about it differently, and accidentally created what we know today as the post-it note, as the sticky note. A worldwide household and office staple. You see, you had one employee, Spencer Silver, who was stuck in an old way of thinking. But you had another employee, Arthur Fry, who was willing to think about his thinking and think differently about this adhesive. It's not a failed attempt, it's an opportunity for new growth. And I wonder about you this morning, brothers and sisters. I wonder if you're struggling in your relationship with Jesus, if you're struggling in your spiritual growth, because you're stuck in an old way of thinking. Or you're stuck in one way of thinking. Would you take a moment today or this week to pause and think about your thinking? Gird up the loins of your mind. Tuck your fleeting thoughts into the belt of truth. Be sober-minded. Outweigh the worldly thinking that you're taking in with godly thinking from his word. Take a moment this week to think about your thinking. It'll help you grow in your relationship with Christ. Hey, Oxford Campus. Number two on your notes is this. Number two, expect complete freedom in Christ. If you want a mindset for growing in Christ, then you have to expect that He's going to give you complete freedom one day. Hey, look with me in the second half of verse 13 in 1 Peter chapter 1. Peter goes on to tell us set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now that word set, in the grand scheme of verse 13, that word set is really the main verb. That's really what we're supposed to be doing, is setting our hope. The two verbs that we just talked about, preparing and being, those verbs serve the main verb, set. And so if you look at the phrase set your hope and you ask the question, how do I set my hope? Well, the answer came before it. You prepare your mind for actions and gird up the loins of your mind. You're sober-minded. You be sober-minded. That's how you set your hope fully on the grace that will be revealed to us at the coming of Jesus Christ. Set your hope. What are we supposed to set? We're supposed to set our hope. I heard a helpful distinction between hope and faith this week. One preacher said that faith and hope, they basically have the same substance: believing God. But faith is believing God in the present, while hope is believing God for the future. Faith is believing that God really did what he says he did, and that matters for me right now. Hope is believing that God will do what he says he will do and hasn't done yet, and that matters for me right now. To put it plainly, faith accepts, hope expects. It's the same substance, but two very different things. We are supposed to set our hope on the grace that will be brought to us at the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I find it interesting here that the object, the direct object of our faith in verse 13 is not the person, Jesus himself. Oftentimes in the scriptures, we are told to set our hope on Christ, our hope in Christ. I think of Ephesians chapter 1, verse 12, where Paul says very plainly, hope in Christ. But here in verse 13, Peter says, hope in the grace of Christ. The person of Christ is the indirect object of our hope, and the grace of Christ is the direct object of our hope. Now I don't think this is any sort of contradiction in the scriptures. I think it's just a deeper layer and a deeper level of hope. When Christ finally comes, and when we are finally and forever in his presence, he has more gifts to graciously bestow upon us than what we've already received. He has an inheritance for us, he's preparing for us a place in his Father's house. He's going to be gracious to us when we see him finally and forever. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2.8 that by grace we were saved from the penalty of our sins. And then Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1.13, by grace we will be saved from the presence of sin one day. But it's always by grace. And you can set your hope in the grace that will be revealed to you when Jesus finally comes. You should expect complete freedom in Jesus Christ one day. You know, Hannah and I, we have three children. Their ages are four and three and two. And I know all of you are bracing yourself for a story about Gunner right now, okay? But I'm gonna give the guy a week off, alright? He's taking a break this week. Okay, our our our middle child, Piper, she's three years old. And uh Piper, she's super sweet. One of the things she's been telling us recently is uh she's been telling us, I can't wait to be a mom one day. And she'll tell Hannah, I can't wait to be a mom one day, just like you. And when I have babies, I'm gonna cook for them, I'm gonna give my babies a bath, and then we'll ask her, well, how many babies are you gonna have? And she'll say, 20. We'll say, all right, well, maybe, maybe something in the single digits. Let's let's be a little more attainable here. But what she likes to do is she she has such a, she will be a mom one day. Hannah and I really believe that she'll be a great mom one day. But she she's so committed to this expectation that she'll be a mom one day, that she's practicing being a mom right now. One of their favorite things to do, my three kids, is to play family. Piper's the mom, and May and Gunner are her kids. And she gives them pretend baths, and she cooks them pretend food. And it's really confusing when May is yelling for mom, but she's really just yelling for Piper because they're pretending. But Piper has such a commitment to this expectation that she'll be a mom one day that she's practicing now. And I wonder this morning, church, I wonder if you have such a commitment to your expectation of freedom in Christ one day that you're practicing now. I wonder if you're expecting to spend forever in heaven with God praising him. And you're expecting that so strongly that you're willing to practice now. That you're willing to gather with God's people every single Sunday morning and sing to him and praise him. We've got heaven rehearsal in this room every Sunday at 9 45 a.m. We sing to the Lord of the universe. I wonder if you're so strongly expecting freedom in Christ one day, true everlasting peace, that you're willing right now to take your concerns and your worries and your anxieties and cast them upon Jesus because he cares for you. I wonder if you're so strongly expecting freedom from the very presence of sin one day that you're willing to practice freedom from sin today. You're willing to purge your life of sin today because you're looking forward to that day when sin will be no more. You see, brothers and sisters, your future expectations have serious influence on your present experiences. And if your present experience is stagnant spiritual growth, perhaps you're not truly and fully expecting freedom in Christ one day. Perhaps you need to reconsider where you've set your hope and what you're hoping in. If you're hoping in the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, if you're expecting complete freedom in Christ one day, if you're truly and fully expecting that, your present experience right now, today, in 2026, should be growth in Christ. Expect freedom in Christ one day. Hey, brothers and sisters, number three on your notes is this. Number three, consistently put your old nature to death. If you want a mindset for growing in Christ, then every day, constantly, consistently, you've got to put your old nature to death. Look with me in verse 14 of today's passage in 1 Peter chapter 1. In verse 14, Peter says, As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. In the beginning of that verse, Peter refers to us as children of God. It's another reference to our new birth, to how we've been born again. A concept that Peter, he first introduces it in verse 3 of chapter 1. And here it is again in verse 14. We are children of God. But Peter calls us obedient children. In the English, the word obedient, it kind of looks like an adjective. It kind of looks like a descriptor. But perhaps a better translation, a better phrasing would be children of obedience. Obedience is really the subject here. It's our parent, it's our mother, so to speak. We are children of obedience. It's kind of like when I call to my kids hey, Haywood kids, it's time to go. The phrase Haywood kids is short for children of Garrett and Hannah Haywood. Obedient children is short for children of. Obedience. This is contrasting directly with Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 through 3. In Ephesians 2, 1 through 3, Paul says that before Christ, all of us were children of disobedience. But here in 1 Peter 1:14, Peter says, now in Christ, you are a child of obedience. You haven't just received a new description, a new adjective. You haven't just changed your bio on your social media account. No, no, you've received a new identity. You are now a child of obedience, and you should live out that identity. You should live as an obedient child. As an obedient child, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. Peter here, he prohibits conformity. Now, resisting conformity does not necessarily mean you've got to go be Amish and go completely off the grid, okay? Although that sounds kind of nice sometimes. But resisting conformity, Paul gives us some helpful insight here. In Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, Paul says, do not be conformed, but instead be transformed by the renewing of your what? The renewing of your minds. If you want to resist conformity, like Peter tells us to in verse 14, we have to go through mental renewal. We have to daily renew our minds. Do not be conformed to what? The passions of our former ignorance. Ignorance is a problem of the mind. If we want to live out our identity as obedient children and be not conformed, then we have to renew our minds. We have to have the right mindset. In fact, if you read verse 14 in reverse, if you're living ignorantly, then that causes you to give into the passions of your flesh. Giving in to the passions of your flesh causes you to conform and look like everyone else. But if you read verse 14 in reverse again, if your mind is being renewed, if you have the correct mindset, then you will resist the passions of your flesh. And if you're resisting the passions of your flesh, the passions of your former self, then you will live differently and you'll look differently. You won't be conformed to the ways of this world. But it can all be traced back to your mindset and whether or not you have the right mindset. See, each of us has an old nature that is daily trying to rear its ugly head. And you didn't put that old nature to death once and for all when you became a Christian. You've got to put that old nature to death every single day. You were saved once and for all from the penalty of your sins when you became a Christian, but your old nature tries to rear its ugly head every single day. And you've got to consistently put your old nature to death. I tell you what, a couple months ago, uh we moved into our new house in Wildwood, really close to this campus. We want to be close to the campus where we're doing ministry. And when we moved in, we we did a few little things. We're still doing a few little things here and there. Now, one of the things I did was I bought uh I bought a new trash can, okay? Really exciting adult stuff, buying a new trash can. And I bought a double kitchen trash can, all right? Because we produce a lot of trash. And so if you come over to my house, I've got this big, this one big silver bin, but if you hit the pedal and flip the lid, it's two trash cans. I'm proud of it. Now the thing is, we produce so much trash. There's two adults and three kids, and we do a lot of dirty diapers and paper plates and whatnot. If I take the trash out one night, both trash cans are full by like dinner time the next day. And so we're taking the trash out every single day, even with the double trash cans. Now, how crazy would it be if tonight we're sitting on the couch after the kids have gone down, and Hannah says, Honey, can you take the trash out? And I say, No, I took it out when we moved in. We're good. Guys, how would that go over? Now, don't we do something similar sometimes with our Heavenly Father? The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin in our lives, and we respond by saying, No, no, I'm good. Jesus and I, we took care of that when he moved into my heart years ago. You were saved once and for all when you placed your faith in Jesus, but you've got to take the trash out every day. You've got to consistently put your old nature to death every day. You've got to resist conformity to the passions of your former ignorance every single day if you want to grow in your relationship with Christ. You see, brothers and sisters, you cannot rely on old spiritual experiences for present spiritual growth. You've probably had some awesome old spiritual experiences. I have too. And it's good to cherish those moments and reflect on those moments and look back on those moments, but you cannot rely exclusively on old spiritual experiences for present spiritual growth. You had to wake up today and put your old nature to death, and I'll tell you what, you gotta wake up tomorrow and put your old nature to death again. Do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. Brothers and sisters, number four on your notes, last one this morning, number four, make God's character your standard. If you want a mindset for growing in Christ, then make God's character your standard. Look with me in verses 15 and 16 of 1 Peter chapter 1 today. In these two verses, Peter tells us, Be holy as God is holy. Be holy as the one who called you is holy. He's calling you to shape up your conduct. And Peter goes on in verse 16. It's a quote from the Old Testament, where God told his people, Be holy, because I am holy. Now in verse 15, that word be, that verb be, and that phrase be holy, it functions in a very similar way to the phrase set your hope in verse 13. You'll recall that set your hope was the main verb, supported by some other verbs. In a similar way, in verse 15, be holy is the main thrust of verses 14 through 16, and it's supported by a bunch of other things. If you want to be holy, 1 Peter 1:15, think back to verse 14. If you want to be holy, there's a negative side of that holiness coin. Do not be conformed to your former ways. But then in verses 15 and 16, Peter flips the coin over. The other side of the holiness coin is act like God. Don't act like your former self, do act like God. Be holy because God is holy. I think it's significant that Peter says, be holy because God is holy. Don't be holy because of your church. Don't be holy because of your spouse or your family. Don't be holy because of your personal goals. Be holy because God is holy. That's why we should be holy. Now, what does it mean that God is holy? That's a big question. Perhaps the biggest question in all of the scriptures, but with the little time we have, what does it mean that God is holy? The holiness of God, it's not, uh I'll tell you what it's not. It's not one of his attributes. So you wouldn't say, well, God is loving and God is kind and God is omniscient and God is omnipotent and God is holy. No, God's holiness is the sum total of all that he is. He's loving and he's kind and he's omniscient, and he's omnipotent, and because of all those things, he's holy. His holiness is his godness, if you will. His holiness is his otherness. To put it plainly, his holiness is his transcendent majesty. We should be holy because God is holy. And when we pursue holiness, that helps us to shape up our conduct. But our conduct is all connected to our mindset. Peter goes on in verse 16 to quote from the Old Testament. He quotes Leviticus chapter 11, verse 44. In Leviticus 11, 44, God tells his people, Be holy because I'm holy. Now you'll remember from the past couple weeks that Peter's original audience was Jewish converts living in Gentile territories. But the background of Peter's original audience being Jewish, they knew these Old Testament references. They didn't have to wonder. I wonder I wonder where God says that in the Old Testament. Or I wonder if he actually says that. No, they knew exactly when Peter says it in verse 16. They know that's that's Leviticus 11, 44. That's one of the most famous verses in the Old Testament. Be holy because I am holy. And God has always been holy. He was holy back then, and so he called his people to be holy. He is holy today, and so he's calling you and me to be holy. Brothers and sisters, I love that phrase in verse 16. It is written. As the saying goes, if the Bible says it, that settles it. There is power in the word of God. And I love how in Leviticus 11, 44 and in 1 Peter 1.16, God does not say, be holy because the Bible says so. No, the Bible, even though it's the inerrant, inspired word of God, the Bible is a means to an end. The Bible is a means to a personal being, the God of the universe. And you should consume the Bible. You should know the word of God well, but ultimately the purpose in knowing well the Word of God is that you would know better the God of the Word and become more like Him. So when it says it is written, the goal of knowing God's Word is really to know Him and to become more and more like Him. We should be holy because God is holy. We should make God's character our standard. You know, a couple a couple weeks ago, uh my oldest daughter, May Lynn, she's four. She'll be five this summer. Uh May is in preschool at uh First Academy Preschool. It's our church's preschool housed at the downtown campus. And a couple weeks ago, uh, May was given a project. She was given the egg drop project. You guys know what I'm talking about? Where you've got to uh you've got to take an egg and build something that helps the egg stay intact when you drop it from a certain height. Uh so I I did this project in like middle school, uh, but they gave this project to a four-year-old, which basically means they gave this project to her dad. And so May and I, we were we were working really hard on the egg drop project, and we we were working all week. We had cardboard boxes and rubber bands and styrofoam, and Thursday came, egg drop day came, and we walk into the classroom, and first of all, our our project was the only one that did not have helium balloons attached to it, and so basically everyone else cheated. But then we go outside, and we thought, we thought we were gonna drop the box from like 10 to 12 feet in the air, okay? So at home we were practicing, throwing it in the driveway from 10 to 12 feet, and the egg was surviving, it was doing fine. But we go out to the field, and First Academy Preschool had hired uh the utilities company to bring a bucket truck out to the field. And so Dale, I don't know who Dale is, but Dale went up in the bucket truck with all these kids' eggs, and he was about 50 feet in the air, and he's dropping eggs. And all the helium eggs, they all survived because they cheated, but they dropped May's box and May's egg broke. And I was so discouraged, I think I was more discouraged than she was, but I was so discouraged because the egg broke. The problem was we were working with bad information. We thought we were dropping it from 10 feet, not 50 feet in the air. And the point of that story is there was no lack of effort between me and May. We were up late with scissors and piano wire and all kinds of stuff putting this thing together. There was no lack of effort. We were just trying to meet the wrong standard. And I wonder about you this morning, church. I wonder if someone in the room, there's no lack of effort when it comes to your spiritual growth. But you feel like you're still not growing. Perhaps it's because you're trying to meet the wrong standard. Maybe you've replaced the standard of God's character with something else. Maybe you're comparing yourself to someone else and you're working really hard to be like them instead of trying to be like Jesus. Maybe you've replaced the standard of God's character with yourself and you're just trying to create a new personal best every single day. If you're struggling in your spiritual growth, if you feel like you're not growing in Christ's, would you reconsider God's holiness? Would you ponder God's holiness this week and consider making the holiness of God and his holy character your standard for spiritual growth? That's a much better mindset. Well, church, this morning we looked at 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 13 through 16. Just four verses today, but I told you they were some dense verses that we studied this morning. And it's all about our minds and developing and maintaining a mindset for growing in Christ. And if we want a mindset for growing in Christ, then sometimes we need to pause and think about our thinking. Sometimes we need to pause and think about are we, are we really expecting complete freedom in Christ one day? And is that future expectation influencing our present experiences? Are we consistently putting the old nature to death? And is God's character really our standard for spiritual growth? But hey, maybe you're here today and you're not a Christian. Maybe you're here today for the first time and you're not a Christian, or you've been here many, many times and you're not a Christian. Can I tell you something? We are so glad that you're here today. God has you here for a reason. But I tell you what, if you're here today and you're not a Christian, you don't need a new mindset. You need a new identity. In verse 14 of the passage that we just studied, Peter calls us children of God. As Christians in Christ, we are children of God. And if you're not a Christian today, you may have walked through those doors not a child of God, but you could walk out those doors a child of God today if you believe in Jesus. And we want to give you a chance to become a Christian right now. In just a moment, I'm going to pray. And when I say amen, everyone in the room will stand to sing one more song of worship. Many of our members will stand to sing and reflect from their pews. A lot of our members will come forward to the altar to pray and reflect. This morning, as we sing, the altar is open for anyone to come pray about anything. But if you're here today and you're not a Christian, as we sing, myself and some other members of our team, we'll be standing across the front. We'd love for you to come forward and grab one of us. We'd love nothing more than to talk and pray with you about becoming a Christian today. There is no better decision that you'll ever make in your life. Let me pray for you. Jesus, we love you and we praise you. We're grateful that you lived the life we could never live, a perfect life. We're grateful that you died the death we deserved, a death on a cross. But we're grateful that you rose again on the third day and that you're alive today. It's because you're alive today that we gather in this room right now. We pray that we brought honor and glory to your name. God, I pray for myself. If there's any incorrect thinking in my mind, would you clarify it for me? I pray for my brothers and sisters in the room. If there's any incorrect thinking in their minds, Holy Spirit, would you correct it for them? But God, I pray for that one person here today who's not a Christian, and they know they're not a Christian. God, they don't need a new mindset. They need to be born again, and that's something only you can do. God, as we sing and pray and reflect, would you help our members to pray to you? Would you hear their cries? But God, for that person in the room who's not a Christian, would you give them the clarity and the courage they need to walk forward as we sing and become a Christian today? God, we give this time over to you. It's in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Amen. Would you stand with me?