Maximum Impact - Part A

If you're a Christian, know this. Life is built on character. Character is built on choice, decisions. Every choice, every decision you make, large or small, does to your life what a sculptor's chisel does to a block of marble.

Shapes it. Every choice you make shapes who you are. And as it shapes who you are, it shapes how people looking at you will view the God you say you serve. If you don't live with an anchor of faith, you're going to drift in a sea of anxiety. And most people in the world, they don't have anything to anchor.

They have no real grand scheme or purpose in life. Okay, we're in 1 Peter Chapter 2 today as we get into the teaching with Skip Heiseck. I've always loved the story about Samuel Morrison, a missionary who gave his life to the continent of Africa. He was coming home to retire. He was on a ship headed for New York Harbor. On the boat with him was President Teddy Roosevelt, who had been in Africa for three weeks hunting big game. When the boat pulled into New York Harbor, Samuel Morrison, the missionary, noticed the crowds who came to welcome the president home. There were balloons and bands and banners and people shouting at the president.

He, however, Samuel Morrison, walked off the same boat completely unnoticed. It bothered him. In his mind, he was thinking thoughts, really almost a prayer to the Lord.

The president's been in Africa for three weeks killing animals. He comes home and the whole world welcomes him home. I've given my life to see souls saved and eternal life given.

And I come home and nobody notices. Just then he heard the Lord's voice speak to his heart saying, you're not home yet. This world is not your home.

And to give proper incentive as well as proper balance. We need to remember, we're loved by God. But we're just passing through. We're sojourners. We need to realize our identity.

The second is to resist. Knowing who we are will help us know what to do when certain impulses and temptation come. Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Do you see what Peter is doing? He's beginning on the inside with our hearts, with our minds and what we think and how we deal with thoughts before he gets to the outside. Because Peter wants us to know if you're going to live a godly life on the outside, it begins by living a godly life on the inside. So here you are, you're passing through, this world is in your home, so say no or abstain from fleshly lusts which war against your soul. It's pretty obvious that Peter acknowledges that in this world we will be bombarded with desires to do bad things, sinful things, wrong things.

And here's why. Our souls are saved. If you're a Christian, our souls are saved. There's a newness in you. But your soul is incarcerated by your human fallen nature, the flesh. So Paul says, there is no temptation taken to you but as is common to man. Get the point? Everybody goes through them, everybody has temptations, everybody has impulses and drives and desires to do wrong things.

Everyone, even that cute little baby born into your home, that son or daughter or grandson or granddaughter that you think is perfect. Flash, newsflash, they're not. Years ago, a report was put out by the Minnesota Crime Commission, 77 pages, I'll spare you. But I'll give you one paragraph, very, very insightful document. And I quote, every baby starts life as a little savage. Every parent is chuckling right now. He is completely selfish and self-centered. He wants what he wants when he wants it. His bottle, his mother's attention, his playmate's toy, his uncle's watch. Deny these and he seethes with rage and aggressiveness, which would be murderous were he not so helpless.

If permitted to continue in the self-centered world of his infancy, given free rein to his impulsive actions to satisfy his wants, every child would grow up a criminal, a thief, a killer, a rapist. This quote, powerful, powerful statement. What's the source of all this? You have it right here. The flesh, the flesh. Paul writes in Galatians, the flesh wars or lusts.

That's what the word here means. Strong desire, intense craving. The flesh lusts, wars against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. It happens in you. It happens in me. Dwight L. Moody, the great evangelist once said, I have more trouble with D.L.

Moody than any man I know. You find that to be true? The biggest struggle is often inside. It's what Peter means here. Fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. You know what the word war means here? It's not a single battle or a skirmish. The word that he chose for war against the soul means to carry out a long term military campaign. That's how the Romans fought and conquered. They would set up a village, a town, a city around the city they wish to conquer for weeks, months and even years.

It was a long term military campaign. So here's the truth. All of those allurements afforded to us by the fallen world that produced desires within us, they're like an army of terrorists that want to subdue and enslave you. What are these fleshly lusts? Well, there's a little list of them given in Galatians chapter 5.

I'll read it to you. Paul writes Galatians 5 verse 19. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies. And just about now you're going, okay, okay, I get it. But he keeps going. Outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies. And you're going, okay, I got it. But he keeps going. Envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries. And then he says, and the like, which is his way of saying, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, implying this is an endless list. So what's the solution?

What's the fix? Well, in that very same chapter of Galatians 5, a few verses up, Paul puts it this way and gives us a solution. This I say then, walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

Let me tie these thoughts together. If we live a spirit led life, we will have the power to, as Peter said, abstain from fleshly lusts, which means hold those things away from you. Don't let them in. If you've ever read John Bunyan's works, besides Pilgrim's Progress, he wrote a book called The Holy War where he envisions us as being a fortress with walls and gates. You have the eye gate, the ear gate.

You let things into your mind by what you see and what you hear and even by what you touch or smell. And the solution is, is when the enemy comes, close the gate. Don't let the enemy in. I have a little dog. You've seen him up on the screen before named Mac, this little crazy Welsh terrier. If the gate is open, he will run away. And the other day my wife was walking him and he got out of the gate and he chased a coyote in our neighborhood.

Well, let me rephrase that. The coyote made Mac think he was chasing the coyote. That's how coyotes work.

They make dogs think that they're playing and they lure them back to their den where there are his buddies ready to kill him. Now, long and short of his, Mac's fine. He has a little emotional trauma.

He's been to counseling this week, but he's going to make it. The solution is keep that gate closed. You're in a war. I've always been amazed when I see photographs of our troops overseas when it's 110 degrees in Afghanistan and they're completely suited up with hundreds of pounds of helmet and vest and outfits. You know why they're dressed that way is because they know we're in a battle zone.

A mortar could come unannounced at any time. And so with believers, we're in a war zone. As Paul said, we need to put on the whole armor of God. Abstain from fleshly lusts.

So we realize who we are, our identity. We resist the impulses with the spirit led life. Now that's all inward so far. Now look in verse 12.

He takes it from the inward to the outward. He says what is private and inward must eventually become public and outward. Verse 12, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, his word for unbelievers, that when they speak evil of you as evil doers, they may by your good works, which they observe glorify God in the day of visitation.

Listen to it. Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. I think you realize that unbelievers study us. One of the reasons is they want the dirt on us. They're watching to see if you'll fail and they would love it if you did. So that's why when at work you get angry at an employee, they register that and they might even say, Oh, you say you're a Christian.

You just frowned. Yeah, I guess because I'm a human. Yeah, but you're a Christian. And they hold you to this standard and they would love to turn it into an accusation. They did it with Jesus, did they not? They called him a drunk, a glutton, someone trying to overthrow the government, one who forbid people to pay taxes. All those were false accusations, an illegitimate child, false accusations. They did it with Paul the Apostle.

They said he was a troublemaker, that he was trying to stir up riots all over the world. They did it with the early Christian church. Did you know that one of the accusations of the unbelieving world toward early Christians in the Roman Empire is they were cannibals. There were stories of them eating children at their feasts. And that's because they heard of the Lord's Supper where we use the words of Jesus where he said, eat this. This is my body. Drink this.

This is my blood. And they turned that around into an accusation of cannibalism. The early Christians were accused of incest because they called one another brother, sister. The early Christians were accused of atheism.

Can you imagine? Because they wouldn't worship the pantheon of Roman gods or Caesar who was deified by the Romans. All false accusations. So here we are, citizens of heaven, living alongside of people who are citizens only of this earth. We're called to live differently than they live, but whenever we do, they won't like it and they will accuse you of everything imaginable.

What Peter is simply saying is live so noble a life that any of those accusations won't stick by inward purity and an outward quality. Now he's going to tell us how to do that. Unfortunately, we don't have the time today, but just notice, beginning in verse 13, he says, you do it by submitting to your government.

That'll be an interesting study. You do it also in verse 18 by submitting to your employers. And if you're a wife, you do it a third way by submitting to your husband.

That's chapter three, verse one. That's the ways you demonstrate it. But suffice it to say today, we as Christians are on stage. The lights are on. The lights, the bright light of the unbeliever is on us and they're watching us.

My question is, what are they seeing as they watch us? I love what Ruth Graham used to say when she was alive here on earth. She used to say, a saint is a person who makes it easy to believe in Jesus.

So simple but profound. A saint is a person who makes it easy to believe in Jesus. Christians should be the most honorable, honest, trustworthy, reliable people in the community. Unfortunately, many times it's the opposite. I've heard people say, I would never hire another Christian.

They're lazy, they're late for work, and they try to take advantage of me. Live such good lives that those accusations won't stick. Folks, it's Peter's plea for integrity. Some of you remember Irma Bombeck, an author. She had what she called Bombeck's rule of medicine. It was simple. Never trust a doctor whose house plants have died.

Isn't that great? Going to his office, all his plants are dead, you're thinking, ah, no, if you can't take care of lower life, you're not touching me. Never trust a doctor whose house plants have died. How about trusting a Christian whose life doesn't reflect any things of the things that that person claims. So with an inward and an outward quality, how effective can this be? Well, I take you to the end of verse 12, and that's our fourth characteristic here. Remember your intention. Now, here's what he's going to do when we're closing this off. In the last part of this verse, he's saying all of this is so that the ultimate goal being what it will do to unbelievers.

Look, look at it yourself. Having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles so that when they speak evil against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they observe, here it is, glorify God in the day of visitation. Glorify God in the day of visitation.

What does that mean, day of visitation? You wouldn't be familiar with that unless you're an Old Testament student. It's an Old Testament phrase, and Peter was a student of the Old Testament. He was Jewish. The day of visitation is an Old Testament phrase used several times to describe when God comes and visits the earth with blessing or with judgment.

I'll give you an example of each. When Naomi and Elimelech left Bethlehem and went over to Moab because things dried up in Bethlehem. Then her husband died and her sons died.

Naomi said, I'm going back home to Bethlehem. And the Bible says because she heard the Lord visited his people with bread. God showed up with blessing.

But sometimes it means negative. Zechariah chapter 10, the prophet says that God was angry at the leaders of his people and the Lord was visiting them with wrath and fury. Visiting his flock in anger. So whenever God shows up either in blessing or in judgment, it's spoken about as a visitation.

So Peter uses it here. They will glorify God in the day of visitation. In Peter's mind, using the phrase, I believe he's speaking of the second coming of Christ. When Jesus comes again to the earth and visits the earth a second time, that'll be a day of good news. Well, for some.

It'll be a day of bad news for others, right? So how can a person who is observing a Christian glorify God in the day of visitation? Well, two ways, but primarily one way. Number one, and the best way, is they're looking at your life, checking you out, watching the way you live. They've heard the gospel message.

God is visiting them with an inkling of conviction and the need for salvation. And they're going to remember your lifestyle and that's going to push them right over. It's going to be like the final closing of the deal. They'll remember your life and go, OK, I'm in. I'm going to do it. I've just seen a changed life displayed in front of me. I'm in.

I'm all in. They'll glorify God in the day of visitation by receiving Christ themselves. You say, well, what about the person who observes our life but says, I want nothing of it and dies in that? Will they glorify God?

Actually, yes, they will. Because the Bible says in Philippians, every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. Even the most defiant person will have to confess Jesus is Lord and give glory to God.

But I would suggest the first is better. Do it now with your will voluntarily rather than later under force and compulsion when it's not voluntarily. Either way, by observing your gracious, godly life produced from the inside convictions because you realize who you are. You've said no to those things that war against your very soul.

People observe it and that, that will make maximum impact. I want to close with the word to believers and then a word to unbelievers. If you're a Christian, know this. Life is built on character. Character is built on choice, decisions. Every choice, every decision you make, large or small, does to your life what a sculptor's chisel does to a block of marble.

Shapes it. Every choice you make shapes who you are. And as it shapes who you are, it shapes how people looking at you will view the God you say you serve.

You're on display. That's why this exhortation is so important. Now a word to unbelievers. I realize that Christians over the last 2000 years haven't all been perfect. In fact, none of them have been perfect.

I can't think of a single one that is perfect. And yet, some of you, perhaps, as an unbeliever, you've said, I don't want to be a Christian because there's so many hypocrites in the church. Let me just say, I apologize for all the hypocrites that have ever existed.

But I also want to say to you, that is no excuse. Because in the last day, you're not going to have to sit before all those hypocrites to be judged. You'll only stand before God. And all those hypocrites won't have to stand before you to be judged. But before the God who forgave them for what Jesus did for them. So when you say, there's so many hypocrites in the church, I say, well then there's room for one more. Come on in. Because last time I checked, Jesus died for sinners and Paul said, I'm the chief of them all.

Chief of them all. In this text, Peter speaks about the war of the soul. Jesus said, what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul?

If you don't know Jesus personally today, during this Advent season, this Christmas season, this very day, this would be a perfect time for you to say yes to the one who gave it all. So that you could be his. You come to him and you let him work in you and change you. Come the way you are. You don't have to clean up your act. You don't have to be perfect or angelic.

Just come as you are soiled and stained with all the stuff, all the baggage. Let him take you as you are. Let him do his work and watch what he can do through you. That's Skip Heising with a message for you from the series Rock Solid. Right now, here's Skip to tell you how your support helps keep these messages coming your way and connects more people to God's truths.

Well, we all know that life is filled with ups and downs, but God remains our steady constant. Our heart is to bring people closer to him so they can have a relationship and enjoy the riches of his word. Your gift today means we can keep sharing these teachings that you love for many more years to come. Would you consider sharing a gift today and giving the gift of scripture to so many others? Here's how you can do that. Visit connectwithskip.com slash donate to give your gift today. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate or call 800-922-1888.

Again, that's 800-922-1888. Coming up tomorrow, Skip Heising shares how you can experience complete freedom by living in submission to Christ. Therefore, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for what?

What does it say? For the Lord's sake. In other words, you do it to honor God. God is honored when his earthly representatives are seen as stabilizers in their society. And isn't this the highest reason to do it? Isn't this the greatest motivation to do it? Because God said to do it.

Right? Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. Which means if you constantly break his commandments, it must mean you don't love him. Connect with Skip Heising is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.