SPEAKER_01 0:00

Amen. Amen. Thank you, Lord. How many are ready to receive the word of truth today? Amen. We're so glad to have uh Rose Sklepik come and give the word of God to us today. So God bless you, Rose.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

How many of you have seen pictures from Artemis II? Oh my gosh. The views from the heavens were just amazing. It blew my mind to think that the one who created all of that wants to be in relationship with us. And from there you saw a different perspective. Normally we see what's going on right in front of us. And everything looks so big and right in front of our faces, right? But when you pull away that far away, you get a different perspective of things. You get a more godly perspective of things. And you see things just a little bit differently. Well, today we are going to be reading in 1 Peter, and we are going to be reading from 13 to 2, 3, to give us a different perspective of holiness. Therefore, prepare your minds for action. Be self-controlled. Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children. Do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as He has called you as 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 man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. For you know that it is not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, a lamb without blemish or defeat or defect. He wasn't defeated either, was he? He was chosen before the creation of the world, but 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 that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth, so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply from the heart. For you have been born again not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For all men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass will wither and the flowers fall. But the word of God stands forever. And this is the word that was preached to you. Therefore, rid yourself of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies crave spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation now that you have tasted the Lord is good. Lord Father, we just thank you for the words that you give us. The same God who created the universe that and all that is seen and unseen, you breathe these words so that they could come alive to us, so that we may know you, that we may have a more personal relationship with you, so that we could be more like you, that we could be sanctified and holy and set apart for your good works. Father, we thank you for this day. We ask that you bless it, bless every word that's spoken here, everything that's done. Let it be to glorify you and not ourselves. We thank you for this time to worship you and to hear your word. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. So, a lot of this was covered the last time that Daryl preached, because he was preaching on our salvation. And so some of it he touched on. And Pastor Dan touched on some of it a few weeks before that. A few weeks before that, because he was giving us an overview of 1 Peter. Then we took a little break, and then we went to Easter and we got to celebrate the resurrected Lord. Amen? Alright. And now we're back to 1 Peter. But you know what? I would encourage you to go back and listen to the first two messages because there are so many great nuggets in there of truth that you might need to be reminded about the overall of 1 Peter and also about our salvation in Christ Jesus. Today we're going to mostly talk about holy and me being a visual person. Now, please do not take this the wrong way. This is not to lighten that God is holy and that we are made holy. That's not what this is for. But it's to help you see in a different way from a different perspective holiness or being holy. So, who likes donuts? All right. Dan, you can't have any. But we're all here. We're gathered. And I have some donuts for everybody. And they're all together there. Daryl, I'm going to use you. Daryl has to leave. He has to go and do something else. So he can't partake in our donuts. So I'm going to write his name on this paper. I don't have a pen, but oh, here it is. Alright, Daryl. And I'm going to take his donut and I'm going to put it in a bag. And I'm going to separate it from all the other donuts. That makes this donut different. It's different because it's separated from those, and it belongs to Daryl. It is different. We could actually call this donut holy. Because holy means separate and different. You like that one, huh? See, I'm a visual person. Obviously, she is too. So God is separate from everything else that we can ever know. He is different. We are imperfect, he's perfect. He is has unlimited power. We have very limited power. He loves in such a way that we can't even fathom its perfection and its blamelessness. He just loves us with an unending love. Our love as humans, we fail. We fail in love. But God is so holy and so blameless and so perfect that He is separate and very different from anything else. He's not like any of the creatures that he made. He created all those things. He is separate from them. He is different from. In Revelation 4, 8, it says, each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covering his eyes all around. Under its wings, day and night, they never stopped saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was, who is, and is to come. He is so different. He always was, he is today, and he will come again. So he is in the past, the present, and our future. He is in it all. He created all things. So he is separate and he is different. And in this passage, we hear the four creatures, who to me aren't very beautiful, but God created them, so for a purpose. They are saying holy, holy, holy. And they keep repeating this. It would be like saying separate, separate, separate is the Lord. Different, different, different is the Lord. Now it doesn't say great, it doesn't say magnificent, it doesn't say beautiful, it doesn't say powerful, it says holy, which is separate and different. Because all other things come out of that holiness. All of the creation, all of the beauty, all of all of everything comes out of God being separate and holy. For us, we are separate and made holy when we accept his son, Jesus Christ, who died for us. So here it says, for you know it was not with perishable things such as silver and gold that you were redeemed from the empty life, way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. So I'm just gonna expound on that just a little bit. So it says that we were bought by a price that's not silver or gold, and redeemed from the empty ways of life handed down to us from our forefathers. Our forefather is Adam. You know, a lot of times we say that we are all children of God. We are not all children of God unless we believe in his son Jesus Christ. We were made in God's image. But once sin entered the world, and Adam and Eve had babies, that all changed. We were from that made different, in the sense that we were given original sin. So everybody who is born after Adam has original sin. Original sin means that it came from the beginning, it's from the origins of Adam. And Jesus Christ, who is separate and different and made holy, sacrificed everything so that we can be separate and different and made. But it's only in our belief in him that we are set apart and made different. If you do not know Jesus Christ today, like Pastor Dan said, we can know him. We can have an intimate relationship with him and become separate and different from the things of this world by believing in Jesus Christ. It's his precious blood, the blood of the Lamb, that covers us so that we can be forgiven of original sin and all of the sins of our past, our present, and our future. And if you think you don't sin, you're a liar, right? That's what the Bible says. We're a liar if we think we don't sin. We are all sinners saved by grace in our faith in Jesus Christ. That's the only way that our sins are wiped away. It's the only way that we are made separate and different. And he was chosen and created. He was chosen before the creations of the world, but was revealed in the last times for your sake. I find this very hard to wrap my head around because God always was and is and is to come. So when exactly was Jesus slain? I mean, we know in the physical world he was slain 33 years after he was born. But because God is outside of time, he's already predestined, but not in the sense that we think predestined, not in the way that, okay, I know they're going to sin, so therefore I'm going to have Jesus come and save you. It's because he was outside of time. His timeline is not the same as ours. He is in it before, during, and after. I know. Doesn't that just blow your mind? And that's why we are forgiven of our sins of the past, the present, and the future is because he is outside of time. He does not follow the same timeline as it. Actually, God created time. When he made day and when he made night, he said this is in the sun and the moon. He said in Genesis that this is so that we would know the passing of time. Through him you believed in God who raised him from the dead and glorified and glorified him. And so your faith and hope in God comes through Jesus Christ. So now that you are separate, sanctified, made different because of your belief in Jesus Christ, what do we do with that? First Peter gives us a few thoughts about that. Actually, I wouldn't say they're thoughts, they're more like, this is what we should do. It says, But just as he was called, you is whole. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all that you do. Do you hear that? Not just some things, not just this, not just that, not just at church, but in all things that we do, we should do for the glory of God. Here are some scriptures that will help us to see this more. Colossians 3:23 through 24 says, Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord, not for men. Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. So what does that look like practically? If we're not working for God at our job or for men at our jobs, then who are we working for? We're working for the Lord. Do you join in on that? They're coming in late all the time. Do you come in late just because everybody else is doing it? No. The only way that people are gonna know that we are different and separate and that we belong to the Lord is if we look differently from what the world looks like. So that we are working harder, not for our salvation and not for the good work, but we are working harder so that people see the goodness of the Lord. How are they gonna know that you're any different from your co-worker if you're standing there gossiping? How are they gonna know that you are any different than your co-worker if you're slacking on your work? You're going in and not doing it to your full ability, not doing to the very best that you can. In the Bible it said when Jesus, Jesus had told the apostles that if you are told by the Romans to go a mile, go two. Because us as Christians, we should be going far and above and doing more than the people of this world. That makes us different. That shows that we are different. Another one says, so whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it for the glory of God. That's 1 Corinthians 10, 31. Just in our daily life, everything that we do, whether we're eating, whether we're drinking, whether we're washing the dishes, whether we're out playing baseball or basketball. Anybody like to play basketball?

unknown 17:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Or whatever, or working out. Whether you're working out or playing or socializing, all of that should be for the glory of God. Colossians 3.17 says, and whatever you do, in word or in deed, so our words and our deeds should show that we belong to God. Everything in the name of Jesus, giving thanks to God, the Father, through him. Matthew 5.16 says, In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. I'll just give you one more. You are not your own. Before we knew Christ, we were not our, we belonged to the things of this world. We belonged to, I'm gonna say it right off, we belonged to Satan. We were in his campground doing whatever we wanted to do, however we wanted to do it. Didn't know what sin really was, because the whole world's doing it, so it must not be wrong. Just because it's legal does not make it right. Abortion is legal, that does not make it right. So the things of this world, we're caught up in them before we know Christ. I know I was. I was caught up in that because I belong to the things of the world. I belong to the darkness of the world. And when you give your life to Christ, you become separate and different. And that should show, right? It should show in everything that we do, everything that we say. The words that come out of our mouth are the ones that are in our heart. So the more that we have Jesus in our heart, the more he's gonna come out of our mouth. The more that we have Jesus in us, the more that we are going to act like him. And why do we do this? Not because our good works are going to get us into heaven, but because we were bought by a price. And that price was the blood of the Lamb. And it's out of our love and desire to please Him that we do want to do what He has called us to do. Our lives should look different. So what we do should look different, the way we talk should be different. But the biggest thing is the way we love should be different. The Bible says they will know that we are Christians by the love that we have for our brothers and sisters. We are all brothers and sisters here. Our love for each other should be seen by others. And when they see that, they know that we are separate, that we are different, and that we belong to Him, Him who saved us. Can we do any of this perfectly? No, because we are imperfect. But we are being sanctified and changed daily by what we put in our minds and in our hearts and who we hang with. They all influence who we are. For you have been born again, not by perishable seed, but imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God. So let's talk about being born again. We hear that phrase all the time. Nicodemus talked about it, who was a Pharisee, and he was talking to Jesus at night, and he said, What do I need to do to be in the kingdom of God? And Jesus told Nicodemus, you needed to be born again of water and of spirit. Okay, so water, there's two ways of looking at water baptism, but also when you're pregnant, women, when you're pregnant, what's in there? Water. Right. Water. So we are born of the flesh of water, but in order to be born again, we have to be born of the spirit. Totally different. Because in our in our in our physical nature, we have sin nature, original sin. And when we're born again spiritually, all of that is wiped clean. So if I had a blackboard here and I wrote everything on it that we've ever done, Jesus comes and wipes it all up. An example of this in the Bible was when the woman was caught in adultery and she was brought before Jesus and said, Hey, Jesus, so should we stone her? Well now Jesus talked about love so much and being different that if he stoned him, it'd go against what he had already been preaching. But if he didn't stone her, then he would be not following the law of God. So what does he do? Totally different. He ignores the Pharisees, ignores the religious leaders, and he draws a line in the sand. And he bends down and he starts writing. We have no idea what he wrote. Some people believe he was writing the sins of all of the people that were standing there. And then he says, Hey, whoever, you know, has never sinned, cast the first stone. Was there anybody left there? Only Jesus. He's the only one who could have condemned her. And what did he do? He changed his focus onto her and said, Go and sin no. You are forgiven. That's what he does to every one of us. He wipes all of those sins out. He erases them. When we confess them. And then it says, the word of the Lord stands forever. And this is the word that was preached to you. Now, word when it's capitalized, of course, is Jesus. And he is eternal. He'll last forever. But the written word and the spoken word that is here, that we still have, will last forever also. So when all other things perish, the only thing left is the word of God. And that's what we live our lives by today, is the word of God. Because these words were God breathed. And they were preached to all of us. All of us have heard the word of God, all of us have heard about Jesus. That's what we're here doing. We're celebrating him, right? And when we did communion, we were celebrating his body being broken and the blood that was shed so that we may be made clean. And James says, What is it? What good is it if we hear the word and do not do it? We need to not only hear and read the word, but then we got to go and do it. And here it is telling us that we need to be different, that we need to be separate, that we need to be holy, not by our own works, but by the works of Jesus Christ on that cross. But that should change our lives. And by the power of the Holy Spirit that's in us, that should change our lives. Has it changed? Are you any different than you were yesterday? Or before you were saved? Or are we still doing the same things? Daryl talks a little bit about this last time. We were talking about this, but being sanctified, that we are changing day by day. That sanctification is not a one-and-done deal. That we are still being sanctified daily. We should be changing daily. We should be more and more looking like the image of Christ. We cannot do that on our own. Only by the power of the Holy Spirit that is dwells and lives in us, and by our faith in Jesus Christ. Amen? So because of this, and two, it says, therefore, rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander of every kind. Be like newborn babies craving pure spiritual milk. This is the meat. What we hear on Sundays or what we hear in our life groups, what you hear up here is milk, pretty much. I mean, it gets deep, but it's pretty much milk. You can't comprehend everything that's set up here and remember everything. So you need to crave more, more of Jesus, more of his words, more of the living hope that we have and we see in the Bible. So as we go to life groups, we get a little bit deeper. But you know where you're going to be transformed the most is in your personal time with Jesus Christ. When I'm studying his word or looking at his word, you know what? I don't say everything that I learn, but man, it changes so much in here. Because that's what the word does. It's living and it's active and it changes us. We are made holy by a holy God who sanctifies us, forgives us of all of our sins as we confess them. And we are to be obedient children, not conforming to the evil desires you have had when you lived in ignorance. Because now you know the truth. You know the truth of Jesus Christ. And that should change your life. Best way to grow up is to not just take the milk. When we're babies, you know, I have a granddaughter who's just a baby, and she needs that milk. That's what she needs to grow and to be nourished and to get bigger and more mature. We as Christians need a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. And it comes from his word. I'm going to close with this. A.W. Tozer said, we must hide our unholiness in the wounds of Christ, as Moses hid himself in the cleft of the rock while the glory of God passed by. We must take refuge from God in God. Because remember, God's wrath is upon us. And the only way that we get rid of that wrath is by being in God. Above all, we must believe that God sees us perfect in His Son while He disciplines and chastises and purges us, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Amen. Father God, I thank you for this time of just getting to the milk of your word. I pray, Father God, that as everyone leaves here today, that they would dive deeper into your word, that they would hear your voice and respond to it. Whether they are being called for the very first time to accept your Son as Lord and Savior in their life, whether they are new Christians and are just feeding on that milk so that they could get nourishment and they can grow more, or if they are seasons Christians who are continuing to dive deeper into a relationship with you so that they may know you more deeply and know the love that you have for all of us, no matter what stage we're at, that they may know that they are loved, that they are cared for, and that they are separate and made by your Son. We thank you for that great gift, Lord. In Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 30:08

Thank you, Lord.

SPEAKER_00 30:08

Hey, Daryl.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

Praise you, Lord. Thank you, Rose. Thank you for the word of God. Amen. It's great to know that we are called to be holy. Amen. The Bible says that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. And we often forget that the Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit. And when he moves upon us, when we seek him, when we yield to him, that Holy Spirit does his holy work in us and he cleanses us, and as Rose said, conforms us to the image of Jesus Christ. So remember back when you were once an idiot in your sin and and you were doing everything that you shouldn't have done, and you didn't know why you were doing it. The Lord came with his Holy Spirit and made us new. The Bible says that uh we were dead in our trespasses and sins, totally dead. We didn't need a makeover, we didn't need to get our nails done, okay? We didn't need um a new gem or anything. We needed resurrection power and resurrection life, and that's what the Holy Spirit does for us. He's changing us. And Steel City Church is on a pathway for change, in the sense that each individual member of Steel City Church is has a higher calling now to be sanctified by the Holy Spirit and live a godly, godly life. He's coming soon, amen. And we need to live our lives wholly, separated, and different, as Rose said in a in a lost and dying world. When you go to work, as she said, you are different. You are a child of God, amen. And we live not by uh not by the kingdom of darkness, but we live under the kingdom of life.