Welcome to Connect with Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition. We're glad you've joined us for today's program. At Connect with Skip, our passion is to help you grow in your relationship with Jesus through solid, verse-by-verse Bible teaching that's both clear and practical. Every message you hear is designed to strengthen your faith and help you live out God's truth wherever He's placed you. But did you know that you can stay connected beyond the broadcast?
When you sign up for Pastor Skip's free weekly devotional, you'll receive biblical encouragement, exclusive content, and free resources to help you go deeper in God's Word, all delivered straight to your inbox. It's quick, easy, and completely free. And it's a great way to stay rooted in truth every week. Sign up today at connectwithskip.com. That's connectwithskip.com.
Now here's today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. Would you turn in your Bible today to the book of 1 Peter chapter 1? Our series is called Rock Solid. Based on the epistles, the letters is another word of Peter. 1 Peter chapter 1.
I found something that just tickled me when I read it, and I thought I'd begin by sharing it with you. It's a story of a young couple. They were new to the faith. They are new to Christianity in general. They didn't have the rich history.
in their own experience or knowledge of Previous songwriting, etc. And uh The young man was traveling on business. He was apart from his wife. It was the weekend. He couldn't attend his local church.
A more Modern church, and so he went to a visiting church out in the country where he was at, and he came home, and his wife. Said, well, how was it visiting that other church? He said, It was good. It was good. He goes, they don't sing regular songs, they sing hymns.
And uh she looked at him with a puzzled look and said, Hymns? What are hymns? And He said, Well, they're like regular songs, only a bit different. She said, Again, could you give me an example? And he said, Well, if I were to say to you, Martha, the cows are in the corn.
That would be a regular song. But if I were to say to you, O Martha, dear Martha, hear thou my cry, inclinest thine ear to the words of my mouth. Turned I whole wondrous ear by and by To the righteous, immittable, glorious truth, For the way of the animals, who can explain? There is in their heads no shadow of sense. Hearkenest they in God's son or his rain?
Unless from the mild tempting corn they are fenced. Yea, those cows in glad bovine rebellious delight have broke free from their shackles, their warm pens eschewed. Then goaded by minions of darkness and night, They all my mild chilliwax sweet corn they have chewed.
So look to that bright shining day by and by where all foul corruption of earth. are reborn. Where no vicious animal makes my soul cry, and I no longer see those foul cows in the corn.
Well that he said would be a hymn Now, I laughed when I read that. I was tickled by it. And um As much as I love hymns as anyone else for what they are. I just laugh because of the tendency we have to complicate things. and even over time to make things irrelevant.
Rather than simple. I was paid a great compliment this week. I was in North Carolina at the Billy Graham Training Center, where I teach a seminar every year. And a young man came up to me after one of the sessions that I taught, and he just said, He's from the East. He goes, I listen to you every day on the radio, and I want to thank you for taking complex truths and making them.
Simple. That's always been my aim in preaching is to make things simple.
So I want to take a simple look at a few verses in 1 Peter. And I entitled this message, How to Walk in the Dark. Or you could call it how to live Christianly in an unchristian world. You know, if you know your Bibles at all, that. Darkness and light are spiritual metaphors.
Darkness, a metaphor for evil. Light of righteousness for good. Evil, a metaphor for spiritual values that are of the devil of this world. Light speaks of God. God is light.
Jesus said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness. Paul said, you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Most kids are afraid of the dark. Shadows grow in the dark.
They turn into creatures in the dark. I hated the dark as a kid. I loved the nightlights. I wanted my mom to always have that nightlight on. And one of the reasons I love Christmas so much is the Christmas tree lights would filter through the house into my bedroom.
It's that warm glow. set me at ease. Yeah.
Now, where we are in Peter is this. Peter speaks about some truths in his introductory remarks. In verses 1 through 12, he tells them certain things that are true. When we get to verse 13, where we are this morning. There's a shift.
He's saying Now that you know all this stuff. This is how you ought to live this stuff in the dark world in which you find yourself. You'll notice the first word of verse 13. What is it? Therefore That's an adverb that denotes a result or a consequence.
Since all this is true, all that I have written so far Here's what to do with it. Here is the consequential result of it. Therefore, So let me sum it up for you where we've been so far. Since you have been elected by God, hand chosen by Him, verses one and two. And he has given you a living hope.
Verse three And it's a hope that will go on and on. into an inheritance that is incorruptible. Forever and ever in heaven, verse 4 and 5. Even though you suffer for a while temporarily on this earth, Verse 6 through 9, you have what the prophets predicted. What preachers proclaim and what angels ponder.
Verse 10, 11, and 12. Therefore Therefore, Here's what you do about it. Let's look at it. Verse 13. Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober.
And rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. as obedient children. not conforming yourselves to the former lusts as in your ignorance. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Because it is written.
Be holy. For I am holy. And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here. In fear. We'll stop there.
I've always loved the story about Robert Louis Stevenson growing up as a boy in Scotland. Being a writer, he describes it so well, he never would forget when the lamplighters would light the street lamps.
Now, in those days, street lamps didn't just come on like they do now. They had to have people with ladders lighting them by hand. And so one evening, when he saw them on their ladders, lifting up the lid of glass, lighting the torch, closing it down. One and then another and then another. Young Robert Louis Stevenson said to his mom and dad, look.
They're punching holes in the darkness. What a great visual. How do you punch holes in darkness? How do you live? For Christ.
in a dark world.
Well, it begins in your mind. It always begins in the thinking, the thought processes. And then it moves from the mind into the actions, the conduct, and then it should end with a firm resolve. That's what we want to look at in these verses. That's how I've outlined it.
If you are going to walk in the dark, you must first prepare your mind. You must second, shape your conduct, and you must third. Focus your will. Let's look at the first. Prepare your mind.
Verse 13, therefore Gird up. The loins of your mind.
Now, stop right there. What on earth did I just read? What does that mean? You ought to ask yourself that question when you come to verses like this in the Bible. We just sort of read through it.
Gird up the loins of your mind. What? That sounds so foreign, even creepy to our ears. I don't want to gird up any loins of my mind. What is he talking about?
Yeah.
Well, it's an old phrase that Could be translated cinch up or belt up. And it comes from 2,000 years ago. The way men dressed is they wore long flowing robes, sort of looked like a dress, but it was a robe. It was the fashion of the day. And it looked good and it was very practical, but it was a problem.
If you wanted to run or you wanted to work. If you wanted to run or you wanted to work. And you didn't do anything about the robes you have, you would try to run or try to work, and you'd step on the edge of the robe and you'd do a face plant. That was a problem. It's always, it's humorous to me.
Every time I do a wedding or there's a graduation ceremony that I'm at, no matter how much they practice in advance. For the wedding, there's one thing they typically don't take in consideration. The gown. Because when they do the rehearsal, they're not wearing the gown, but on the day of the wedding, they are wearing the gown. And the wedding coordinator says, no, just walk up the steps.
You ever tried to walk up a step in a gown? A graduation gown or a wedding gown, you will step on it, and I have seen brides take a tumble. The solution is you gird them up. I wouldn't suggest a bride do that, but. A man 2,000 years ago who wanted to work would lift the robe and tuck it into his belt around his waist.
The modern equivalent of this verse would be: roll up the sleeves of your mind. Simply put, get ready. Get mentally prepared. Pull in all the loose ends of your thinking and get rid of anything that would hinder your forward movement. That's clear.
Gird up the loins of your mind. Think clearly. You're listening to Connect with Skiff Heitzig Weekend Edition. When you give to this ministry, you help reach thousands of people every day with God's life-changing truth, encouraging them to know Him and grow in His Word. And to thank you for your support this month, we'll send you Reload Love: Transforming Bullets to Beauty and Battlegrounds to Playgrounds, a powerful book by Skip's wife, Lenja Heitzig.
It's a gripping, hope-filled story of how God transformed weapons of war into tools of joy and how playgrounds rose from battlegrounds because one person chose compassion over despair. Your gift today helps bring the life-changing message of hope in Jesus to people around the world through Connect with Skip. Request your copy when you give $50 or more at connecttheskip.com slash offer or by calling 800-922-1888.
Now, here's more from Pastor Skip. Notice the next little phrase. Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober. You're thinking, well, I am sober this morning.
Well, that's wonderful. But the idea isn't just don't be drunk. But rather Think clearly and be morally decisive. Think clearly and be morally decisive. Behavioral scientists tell us that our subconscious minds govern our actions.
There have been many, many studies on this. And I'm glad there's been a lot of studies, but Can I just say they could have just read the Bible? Proverbs 23 tells us, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. In other words, What you believe determines how you behave. What you think determines what you do.
There's a saying, garbage in, garbage out. I think it began in the computer sciences. If you walk in the darkness in your mind, You walk in the darkness in real life. Begins in the mind. I never forget as a child, as a Little boy.
Watching on television In nineteen sixty-nine.
Some of you think. Was television even invented in 1969? Yes, way before then, but. The point is I was watching The first Walk on the moon.
Some of you recall when we first walked on the moon, when that Uh Space capsule landed. And the first step was taken. And do you remember what was said? One small step for man, one giant step for mankind. And the headlines the next morning is we have conquered.
Outer space. We were so proud of ourselves. We've conquered outer space. Peter would say, The problem is we haven't conquered inner space. We've gone out to conquer outer space.
The problem remains inside of us. We need to think clearly. Also, we need to think hopefully. Notice the next sentence of verse 13. And rest your hope.
fully on the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation. of Jesus Christ. There's something coming. Down the line. You need to think about that, in fact, put all of your hopes in that basket.
Everybody sets their hope on something. A student sets his hope on graduation. A bride sets her hope on the wedding. A politician sets his or her hope on election day. A Christian should set his or her hope on the coming of Jesus Christ.
Look back at verse 8. Peter says, You don't see him now. You don't see Christ now. You're living in the dark, so to speak. Peters would say, I saw him.
You haven't seen him yet. But Set your hope on the day that you will see him. Here's why it's important. The Christian life is not a Sprint. It's not a 100-yard dash.
It's a marathon. It's a long distance. And you and I get up every day and we put our running shoes on, so to speak. And what keeps us going, keeps us motivated. According to Peter, ought to be that we are waiting Until we see Jesus Christ at the finish line.
That's what we set our hopes upon. There is Jesus standing at the finish line, saying to you and I, hopefully, well done. Good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord. You know that a distraction can be disastrous?
That was shown in 2004 at the Olympic Games in Athens. When an American by the name of Matt Emmons Was so close to the gold medal he could taste it. He was in first place. His competition was the Men's three-position 50-meter rifle competition. All he needed for his final shot was something near the bullseye.
Didn't even have to be spot on, just somewhere near.
So, in that final round, Matt Emmons in first place takes his rifle, aims it. Pulls the trigger. But the shot did not register on his target. Matt Emmons was standing in line number three, lane number three. The target that he just shot?
was in lane number two. He aimed at the wrong targets.
Something distracted him. And it was the kind of mistake that was unheard of at that level of competition. The judges gave him a zero, and suddenly Matt Emmons went from first place to eighth place. All because of a distraction. You're going to live in a dark world.
You're going to punch holes in the darkness. Prepare your mind. Live in the light of the coming of Christ. Let that be a real hope. Second, shape your conduct.
Now we go from the mind to the actions. And Peter writes, verse 14, as obedient children, Not conforming yourselves to the former lust is in your ignorance, when you didn't know any better. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. There are a couple things that Peter writes about. He moves from what we think to what we do.
And he says, when you're in the realm of action, conduct, There's a negative part and there's a positive part. There's a part that you don't do and there's a part that you do. The negative is, simply put, Not conforming yourselves to the former lusts. Do you ever stop to remember who you used to be? Before you came to Christ and you were all holy like you are now.
You ever just stop to think about your past life, your BC days before Christ's days? I was a moron. I think of the things I said, the people I hung with, the things I did, how cool I thought I was. And sometimes, sometimes I'll hear Christians Almost reminiscing about their past life, like it were the, remember the good old days? Oh.
What are you talking about? Yeah, remember the good old days when you went to all those parties? and you felt so alone when you went there. Remember all the fake friends that used to surround you because they wanted something from you? Remember feeling more alienated and more isolated?
Good old days. Let me tell you about the good old days. According to Paul the Apostle, here's an honest look back: this is Ephesians chapter 2. Once you were dead. You are doomed forever because of your many sins.
You used to live just like the rest of the world, full of sin, obeying Satan, the mighty prince of the power of the air. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passions and desires of our evil nature. We were born with an evil nature, and we were under God's anger just like everyone else.
Now that. is an honest look back. Dead? Doomed. a prisoner to our own lusts and in the bullseye of God's anger.
That's where you came from.
So Peter is saying, picking up on this: if you're going to walk in the dark, if you're going to punch holes in the darkness, you've got to cut off the past. You have to say no to the old life. Those were the days you lived in ignorance, Peter would say. You didn't know what you were doing, you didn't know any better.
Now you do. Simply put. There are things you used to do. You are not to-do. There are people you used to hang out with that are just not good for you to hang with anymore.
There are internet sites you used to visit that you have no business looking at. There are books you used to read. that you ought to leave alone. Did you know the word no, NO? is a spiritual word.
Try it sometime. Just say no. Feels so good. No. I don't mean live a negative life, but When that temptation, well, I don't know.
Should I compromise? Should I negotiate? No, just say no and walk away. Cut it off.
So say no to your past. But that's not enough. Peter would say if you're going to shape your conduct, you have to say yes to your father. Verse 14, look at it, look at it. As obedient children.
You see what he's doing? He's connecting you with your heavenly father. You are to be children that are obedient. And verse 15, but as he who called you is holy, You also be holy in all your Conduct. Holy, be holy.
Holiness. We hear that word a lot. Can I just say frankly? That's a very Churchy word. And it's a word we use and we sing and we pray for and we toss around.
And frankly, I just wonder if we really. understand what it means. quite frankly. Holiness. Ask ten people.
Say, ask 10 people. I don't know if you ever actually want to try this when you're in Starbucks. Say Hey, you 10 people, I'm gonna try a word association. What first comes to your mind when I say this word? Ready?
Holy. You might stump a few.
Somebody might say, I don't know, uh candlelit cathedral. Um Oh Maybe they'll sing for you. Or a thin. Monks With long beards, like the guys on Duck Dynasty who live out in the deserts in some monastery somewhere. Our mind has funny things with the word holy.
The Bible tells us God is holy. It's the essential part of his character. When the angels were worshiping God and Isaiah saw a vision of it, they said, Holy, holy, holy, three times. For emphasis. Interesting, they didn't say loving, loving, loving, merciful, merciful, merciful, just, just, just, even though God is all those things, the primary attribute noted.
What's his holiness? What does it mean? Um means unique. It means different. It means other.
Other God's otherness. is God's holiness. We're so glad you joined us today on Connect with Skiff Heitzig. Before you go, remember that as our thanks for your gift today, we'll send you Lenya Heitzig's book, Reload Love, a gripping, hope-filled story of God transforming battlegrounds into playgrounds. When you give, you help keep this Bible teaching ministry on the air, connecting more people with the truth of God's Word and the hope found in Jesus.
Give today at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy of Reload Love, Transforming Bullets to Beauty and Battlegrounds to Playgrounds when you do. We'll see you next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect the Skip Heitzit Weekend Edition. Make a connection! Make a connection. Sun Yeah, the food.
Of the crossing. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of connection communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
