How Should Christians Respond R1705

Each and every day we face unique situations, and the questions, how do we respond?

Or perhaps more importantly, how should Christians respond? The Encouraging Word. Yes, that's today's topic on The Encouraging Word with Dr. Don Wilton, well-known author, evangelist, and pastor. Today's topic, how should Christians respond? Now more than ever, both our actions and reactions are a very important part of our witness. And when we study the Word together, know that we are here to encourage you, to pray with you and pray for you, both on the phone at 866-899-WORD, and on our website, www.tewonline.org.

That's www.tewonline.org. We'd love to encourage you, maybe answer some questions, and most certainly pray for you. Now let's open our hearts to 1 Peter chapter 1, beginning in verse 13, with today's message from Dr. Don Wilton.

How should Christians respond? The Encouraging Word. What we're about to study in 1 Peter is Discipleship 101.

This message today will change your life. I'm going to be reading, starting in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 13. Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the 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 be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. And if you call on him as Father, who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear. In the time and during your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things, such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in lost times for the sake of you.

Who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and your hope are in God. There are two issues, two positions God gives to us before he lays it down on how we should respond. Number one, he says, prepare your mind. See that in verse 30. Therefore, the therefore there, you've got to go back verses one all the way through verse 12.

It is based upon what God has laid down, which we've been looking at the last three weeks. Therefore, number one, your position is to prepare your mind. The word preparation or preparing your mind in a spiritual sense carries with it three injunctives.

Okay, this is very important. If you're going to prepare your mind spiritually to receive what God is going to say, three things. Number one, take inventory, take inventory. Let me say it an American way, take inventory. Okay, you all got that? It's hard for me to wrap my words around sometimes. All right, I get it.

Take inventory, otherwise known as inventory. I'm just making sure some of you are listening today. All right, you'd think after 45 years, I would have learned a few things, right?

You're wrong, boy. Okay, take inventory. What does that mean if you're going to prepare your mind? You need to do a proper assessment of you. It's far more than how are you doing. You know, and most of us when we take inventory before God, we realize we're not responding right. So if you so much as remotely say, well, I don't care what anybody says, it's the way I feel.

You got a good place to start, let alone I don't care what God has to say, I'm going to do it my way. Take inventory, take, do a, and there are many ways you can do that. Number two, get ready.

Once, I suggest get out a pen and a paper if you have to. If you're married, I'm going to pick on the man here. If you're married, you want to really take good inventory, ask your wife what she thinks about the way you respond. If she tells you, you're just wonderful, you've just taken the most serious inventory because she's scared to death of you.

Your wife's scared to death of you. You got some work to do right at the beginning. Then get ready based upon where you are. And number three, present your body. Take inventory, get ready, present your body. What did Paul say in Romans 12, one and two? By the mercies of God, present your body, a living sacrifice. What does that mean?

It means, Lord, I'm looking at my life, I'm honest before you. I know I'm struggling with this, with these feelings. I've got this bad temper. I've got this attitude. I shoot my mouth off. Anybody here who shoots their mouth off, you're known as that. You're the person who just shoots your mouth off.

You're the big cheese, aren't you? Just watch out when you walk into the room because you shoot your mouth off. God's got something to say to you. So what's the second position of a believer in order to do what's right? If the first one is prepare your mind, the second one is be sober minded. Now, we don't have to talk about what it means to be sober.

We understand that. To be sober means literally to be in your right mind. If you're not sober, what it means is that foreign substances have been introduced and have skewered your sense of balance, your mind, your ability to think right. Be sober minded. What does it mean?

It carries three meanings in the Greek texture. First of all means let go. To be sober minded means you've got to let go. You've got to just let go. Listen, folks, if biscuits and gravy are your craving, well, I'm picking on biscuits and gravy.

I have no idea. But if biscuits and gravy and those carbs are not good for you or you've got prediabetes and you've got to be cutting back what's messing up your equilibrium, let go of it. Stop it.

What's the matter with you? Your whole life is not going to come crashing down over biscuits and gravy. This is what God is saying.

This is why this comes, boom, boom. It's right, therefore, preparing your minds for action. Be sober minded.

Thank you very much. And he hasn't even started telling us why. Let go. Number two, say no. Number three, take on. If you want to respond God's way, let go of the things that you are doing that you shouldn't do. Stop it. Say no. And now take on. Most young football players want to instantly be on varsity.

You've got to let go, say no, and take on in order to get on to the first team. When it comes to our spiritual position, you will never be triumphant if you're not preparing your mind and if you're not being sober minded. Now watch this. This is powerful what God says here. So how should the Christian respond? What did he say to these believers given the fact that they were living in such a dark time?

They were surrounded by so much sin, violence, hate, all the things that people deal with. Well, he gives them, he says you should respond in three ways. You ready for this? Number one, a Christian should respond with convicted hope. Look at verse 13. He says set your hope. The first way he tells us we should respond is with hope.

Maybe that's why I brought up our dear friend Matt Schrieffer. He's been a part of this church for, and her late husband George, two of the most precious servants of the Lord. I came away from talking to her as I do with hundreds of you with such, there was such convicted hope. I walk around the congregation and I hear it from you and I see it in you. But he gives two reasons why every believer should respond with convicted hope. First of all, because of God's grace. We are 100% hopeful.

That is a positive word. God is telling us no believer has God's permission to walk around Bah Humbug negatively. Now why do we have, why do we respond with convicted hope? Because of God's grace. You're not God's graces, folks. It means you don't deserve a single thing God's done for you. They don't deserve a single thing God's done for them. We don't deserve a single thing God's done for us.

You need to pucker up. The only difference between the best of us in here and the worst of them out there is the grace of God. Somebody say amen, folks. You go around hammering on and all this junk you put on everybody else and God's been so graceful to you.

What's your problem? And you call yourself a Christian? Let your light so shine? Because of God's grace. And secondly, with convicted hope, because of God's revelation, God's revelation. That's what he tells us here in the passage that will be brought to you at the revelation. Well, what is the revelation?

Well, Revelation chapter one, verse seven, the Bible says, behold, he's coming in the clouds. That's ultimate hope. It's this living hope. I know that Christ lives in me.

He's changed me. Therefore, my response is predicated on convicted hope. Everything about me ought to be showing the world that I live in that I really believe. I'm convinced and convicted that my hope is all Jesus.

Please forgive the interruption. We'll be back with the rest of today's message with Dr. Don Wilton in just a moment, all about that hope that is all Jesus. As we study this particular topic, how should Christians respond, one of the questions we ask ourselves is, are we filling our minds and our hearts with the things that will move us to the correct response? Because our actions are sometimes easier to control than our reactions, and spending time in God's Word on a daily basis can help us react as Jesus would have us. We have a wonderful resource, absolutely free, called the Daily Devotional from Dr. Don Wilton. You can have it delivered to your email box every single morning, absolutely free, just by signing up on our website at www.tewonline.org. That's www.tewonline.org, where you can pick up the phone and call us at 866-899-WORD, and we'll send you a hard copy. Know that we believe spending time in God's encouraging Word on a daily basis is absolutely life-changing. You'll find this resource and many more on our website, www.tewonline.org.

That's www.tewonline.org, again, with great resources like this. There are crossroads in life. For some of us, those crossroads come very early.

Some of us, those crossroads come later on in life. But the greatest crossroad that we encounter in life is to choose between God and man. Being a Christian and spreading the gospel comes with a price.

Are you willing to pay that price when you come to your crossroad? This month, with your gift of support to the encouraging Word, you will receive Dr. Wilton's powerful message, The Ultimate Sacrifice, and the bonus gift book, Fox's Book of Martyrs. You will be greatly blessed and challenged in your faith. The encouraging Word is a viewer and listener supported ministry. Thank you for listening today.

Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. Number two, how should a Christian respond? With calculated holiness. Now next week, I'm just letting you know, I'm preaching on the subject of holiness next week.

It's huge. Holiness. But he tells us in this passage, he says, He who has called you is holy, so also you must be holy in what?

All your? Somebody say the word. Conduct. He applies holiness.

He says, Christian, you're a Christian, right? You need to respond with convicted hope and with calculated holiness. I'm going to explain holiness next week. So there are three reasons why we need to respond with calculated holiness.

Number one, because you are obedient. He tells us right there, I'm just picking it up. He says, as obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions.

Guys, get this, are you unpacking this? Do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. You want to unpack the word passions? That's the human disposition.

Passions. He said, do not, you do not have God's permission. I do not have God's permission to conform to the former passions of my former, and he really hurts me there, ignorance because I did not know Jesus, but now I do. And because I do, and I'm a disciple, the clarion call of my discipleship is absolute obedience. Absolute obedience, it's to do what God tells me to do. Every time I take an action in my life, and I haven't prayed about it, haven't asked God what to do about it, I'm following my former ignorance.

Why calculated holiness? Because I'm obedient. Secondly, because I'm changed.

This is what he talks about in the second part of verse 14. I'm changed, it's former. I'm now a new creature, you're a new creature. I look out across our audiences, Genesis here, and celebration, and the people I run into all over our city and our community that know Jesus, and it's instant. Boom, you can see the difference.

You can feel the difference. I love being around Christian people. People ask me sometimes, why do you not go to this place or that place? I've got no desire to go there. I don't need to go to that event, that thing, that gathering, that I don't need to go there. I'm like a, I'm out of place. I want to be with you, among you.

The hardest thing for me in Karen right now is the thought of you. Do you understand that? It's this Christian group. I'm a changed man, and you're a changed lady, a changed man, and God has given us a fellowship, and therefore, my conduct is a calculated holiness because we are striving to be holy in our conduct.

Can I tell you something lovingly, folks, looking to the future? You want me to tell you what I think one of the greatest threats against the church today in America. It's called the infiltration of the world into the church.

There is a massive movement going on. Let the church behave like the world, respond like the world, act like the world. We've just got to do it. You've got to do it to get more people. You've got to put on a better thing. You've got to have more of this.

You've got to do all of that. It's the infiltration of the world's conduct in the ranks of God's people. And Jesus said, be holy because I am holy.

That's what he says. Boy, he calls us out. Calculated holiness because you're obedient, because you're changed. This verse of scripture, I can only read it to you because I'll, come on, you write it down. Acts 26 18. This is God speaking of Paul. Who was Paul?

Paul was a blasphemer. You hanging around with any blasphemers right now? Are they in our world? Do you work with them?

Do they work for you? Are they in our school system? Are they in our government? Any blasphemers anywhere? And here is God. He intervened. He met Paul, Saul on the road to Damascus.

His life was totally changed. And this is what God said to him in Acts 26 verse 18. I am sending you to open eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

That's you and you and me and me. How should a Christian respond? Evicted hope with calculated holiness thirdly because we have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. I have a personal relationship with him.

You do too. That's so evident in this congregation. And see it on your face.

You can hear it in your language, in your response, the way you behave, what you do, how you give. It's manifestly evident. You want to know why this church has been triumphant for generations. This is it. This is it.

This is what it's all about. I bless you today. How should a Christian respond? With convicted hope and calculated holiness, but there's one more with crowning honor. Look at verse 17, and if you call him as father, conduct yourselves with fear, crowning honor, honor God in everything, speech, attitude.

You're out in the traffic at the ball game. He says Christians should respond with crowning honor. Why? Two reasons he gives us. Number one, because you call him father.

It's right there. It's as if you call him father. Well, I do. He's my heavenly father. Therefore, I have to conduct myself accordingly. And secondly, because you know how he conducts himself. That's the two reasons you crown him with honor. Because you call him father, and to boot, you know how your heavenly father conducts himself, and he gives us multiple reasons. Number one, he ransomed you.

That's how he conducts himself, from your futile, ignorant ways. You've been delivered from your futility, your stupidity, your humanity. God has delivered us.

Number two, because he gave himself for you. Bible says the precious blood of the lamb. You crown him with honor, because he has been made known to you. Can you imagine? That little verse there in verse 20, just, you know, he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but now he's made known to you.

Can you get that? This is God, and God chose to make himself known as our father to us. Wow. What powerful teaching today from Dr. Don Wilton in that final statement, knowing that God chose to make himself known as our father to us. Literally, before the world was created, before God began to create the universe, he had you in mind.

He was creating a family for himself, and he wants you to be a part of his family, but he gives us a choice. We can choose to follow him, or we can choose not to follow him, to ignore him. I pray that not only you've heard Dr. Wilton's wonderful South African brogue and the great teaching from 1 Peter today, but you've heard the Lord, through the Spirit of God, let you know that he loves you, he has a plan for you, and God is ready to move in your life right now. Thank you so much for listening and paying such good attention as Dr. Wilton has been teaching the Word of God. Now, as he steps into the studio, open your heart to what he wants to share next.

Well, hello again, my friends. Are you ready to give your life to Christ? You know, you've been listening like this, and God has been speaking like this, hasn't he?

And he's speaking to your heart. I'd love to help you give your life to Christ right now. Why don't you pray this prayer, make this your prayer, because you know that God not only hears our prayer, but he answers our prayer too. Pray this prayer with me. Dear God, I know that you love me very much.

I believe Jesus came and died on a cross just for me and that he gave his life for me. Right now, I confess my sin to you, and by faith I receive you into my heart and into my life. In Jesus' name I pray. Well, if you've prayed that prayer right now, in just a moment we're gonna send you some information.

I want you to listen real carefully because you can take note of that. We've got the means by which we can connect together. And I want to connect with you because you're part of my family. You're part of the family of God. You are my brother, my sister in Christ.

God bless you today. Yes, sir, pastor, we're here with all the ways to connect. We'll start with our website, tewonline.org.

It's where most people listen to and maybe catch up on messages that you've missed. You can both listen to them with the audio version or watch them online at tewonline.org. While you're there, you'll see a number of great resources, books like Saturdays with Billy by Dr. Don Wilson and more.

Again, all that is at tewonline.org. And especially if you want to have us pray for you, that's the place to connect keyboard to keyboard. But sometimes in my own life, it's such a blessing to have someone pray for me and hear them pray for me. Know that our phone is available for just that at 866-899-WORD. We're available to pray with you and pray for you. Maybe you've heard what Dr. Don has said, and it's time for you to make some choices and changes. Know that we love to pray for you at 866-899-9673. Again, that's 24 hours a day, 866-899-9673. The Encouraging Word.