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connect with us online at Riverbend Church dot live.
Hey, good morning everyone. Been so great to be able to be
with you and to worship with you this morning.
Man, I absolutely just love that story of how God washed over and
protected Katie, don't you? We have just been experiencing
just some powerful, powerful moves of God.
And it's always amazing, always amazing how God can take a
singular prayer and answer that singular prayer to, to, to in
different ways to different people.
So for for Katie, answering that prayer for, for protection and,
and, and recovery, for Melissa, answering that prayer with a
sense of peace and comfort that can only come from the Holy
Spirit. Just such a powerful God story.
If you've met Katie, you know what a light she really, really
is, and I just love that story, just about a continual passion
of prayer and being able to see the power of prayer up close and
personal. If you're new to Riverbend,
thank you so much for joining us this morning.
I hope that you're safe. I hope that you're warm.
I'm sorry that we weren't able to meet in person this morning,
gather together in the room, but we just wanted to take into
consideration your safety and not wanting you to chance
getting out on some icy roads and and an accident happened.
But we're just looking forward to to being able to continue to
worship with you. One of the things that I would
say, if you haven't done so already, is I would go to, you
can go to the App Store if you have an iPhone or Google Play
store, you have Android and download the Riverbend Church
app. That's going to be really
important so that you can take notes with us.
And it's going to be extra important this morning because
at the very end of our message, we're going to, we're going to
really do an exercise with the passage that we're going to walk
through. And it's going to become really,
really personal and, and hopefully really, really real in
your life. But you'll need that app And so
that you can pull up the notes, you take those notes on your
phone. They're saved on your phone so
they don't go away way that you're just able to kind of
journey along with us. With that said, we're in week
four of a series called live well.
And if you're new to this series, let me kind of just give
you the the overall gist or the OR the main truth or what's
really what we call the big idea.
What's serving as the big idea throughout this series.
And here it is, is to live well is is to live God's way, firm in
faith, steady in trials, anchored in hope.
Firm in faith, steady in trials, anchored in hope.
Let me ask you a a quick question.
When I say the word calling or when, when you think about like
living someone living in their calling, what immediately comes
to mind? What immediately comes to mind?
I think for a lot of people, they immediately start thinking
of a of a pastor or a missionary or or somebody that's overseeing
A nonprofit organization. And I would say that calling is
most definitely essential for those roles.
But I happen to believe that every single follower of Jesus
has a calling on his or her life.
I happen to believe that every single follower of Jesus has a
calling on his or her life. And tragically, I think that a
lot of Christians, a lot of followers of Jesus, they're not
living in their calling because they confuse passion and
purpose. They confuse passion and, and,
and purpose. Let me kind of give you a, a
quick example of how easy that is to, to confuse.
I, I could be very passionate about basketball, about the game
of basketball, college basketball, pro basketball.
I could be very passionate about basketball.
But I don't think any of you, whether you're at home or on the
road or or wherever you may be watching with us this morning, I
don't think any of you would ever think that basketball is
going to be my purpose, right? And as silly as an example as
that may seem, I think that it's really easy for us to take what
we're passionate about, what we know that we love.
And we, I automatically think that if I can't really pursue my
passion then and, and, and kind of make a living off of that
passion, then I'm not really going to be able to live in the
midst of a calling. And what I would tell you is
this is, that's not so much a passion problem.
I would say that that's more of a purpose problem.
In other words, we know what we love, but many of us, we're not
even sure why we're here. We know what we love our
passions, but we're not really sure why we're here.
And that that's really a purpose problem.
And, and I think a lot of times we kind of have things
backwards. We, we want God to, to give
purpose to our passions, but in reality and in actuality, more
times than not, God gives that God gives passion to our
purpose. So as followers of Jesus, it's
really important that you and I, that we're very clear and that
we start to understand what our purpose may be, what our purpose
is. If we're ever going to live in
Our Calling, live with a sense of calling, we have to
understand our purpose. We have to understand our
purpose. Let me give you a quick
definition and you can jot this down in the in the blanks on
your note on your notes app there.
But let me give you a quick working definition of calling
and it's really A2 parter here it is.
It's faithful where God has placed me.
It's faithful where God has placed me and obedient to
pointing people to Jesus. Two parts to that definition,
right? Here's the the truth about the
first one faithful where God has placed me.
Did you know every single one of us, every single one of us, we
are living in a certain season and setting and and and context.
You you may be a student who still lives at home.
You may be a parent with with young children at home.
You may be a full time you may be full time into the workforce
either as an employee or an employer.
You may be a retiree and, and here's The thing is all of
those, all of those settings and seasons and contexts, they,
they, they come with, they come with different opportunities,
right? And one of the things that we
know is those setting seasons and contexts of life, they'll
always change like different stages of life.
They'll they'll always change, but our purpose always remains
the same. And and the question is, am I
stepping fully and faithfully into what God has for me in the
current setting season in context that that's the first
part of calling. The second part of calling is
the obedient to pointing people to Jesus.
Every single follower of Jesus Christ has this as their
purpose, regardless of your setting, seasoning, context.
It is to point the people around you to Jesus.
Again, if you're a student living at home, are you obedient
to pointing your, your, your, your, your parents or your
classmates to Jesus By the by the way that by the way that you
conduct yourself and, and, and by the way that that, that, that
you're learning. And by the way that, that, that
you're falling in authority up underneath your parents
guidelines in, in in your home. If you're a if you're a parent
of a of a young child, you know that that's a certain setting
and season and context, but being obedient to pointing
people to Jesus is you have the opportunity to pour Jesus
intentionally pour Jesus into those children at their most
formative years. If you're an employee or
employer, you have an opportunity right now to to
point your Co workers to Jesus by by living and working with
integrity and and by exercising grace and mercy towards towards
others and and and and and really living, living and
following Jesus example to where people are above all other
things. If you're a retiree, you have an
opportunity to point your friends and your family to
Jesus. But by choosing to further
invest rather than just strictly rest you're you're you choose to
further invest in growing the Kingdom of God in this setting,
context and season of life. When we do that, we start to
live in Our Calling. We start to live in Our Calling.
But here's the thing, in order to consistently live in Our
Calling, in our God-given calling, we have to have a God
backing authority. So here's the question, on whose
authority do we live out this calling?
And this is really where we get to the heart of the matter this
morning. If you have a Bible with you, I
want to, I want to ask that you that you join me in the book of
first Peter, first Peter chapter 1.
And we're going to be picking it or first Peter chapter 2 and
we're going to be picking it up in verse one this morning.
Check out what Peter says. He tells us so put away all
malice, and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all
slander like newborn infants. Long for the pure spiritual
milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation.
If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Let me ask you a quick question. Have you tasted and seen that
the Lord is good? Have you experienced the
goodness of God in your life? Here's essentially what what
Peter, what Peter's saying right out of the gate in first Peter
Chapter 2. What he's telling us is, is,
hey, listen as you pursue holiness.
And last week we talked about how holiness is not a goal to
achieve. It's really a life to step into
as you pursue holiness and as you step into living a life of
holiness. Don't go back to your to your
pre Jesus, pre born again ways. You, you know that those ways
were were a dead end. You, you know that giving into
those old ways and those old sin struggles and temptations, those
were a dead end in, in, in, in, in contrast, begin to, to, to,
to hunger and to thirst for the ways of God and for the will of
God and for, for, for the word of God.
Because you know, because of Jesus and because you have been
born again, you know that it is by God's words that we are
nourished and that we're fed and that we that, that we that we
grow. So that's kind of a a tie in
from last week, but check out what Peter goes on to say in
verse 4. He says this as you come to him,
as you come to Jesus, a living stone rejected by men, but in
the sight of God, chosen and precious.
You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a
spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
For it stands in Scripture. Behold, I'm laying in Zion, a
stone, a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes
in him will not be put to shame. So the honor is for you who
believe, but for those who do not believe, check this out.
The stone that the builders rejected has become the
cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.
So in this passage, Peter's going to lay out for us the
basis of our authority as a follower of Jesus, as the people
of God, what is our authority? Where does our authority come
from? If you and I, if we're to
consistently live out Our Calling, it's faithful to where
we are, faithful wherever we are, and being obedient to
pointing people to Jesus, we need to make sure that we are
backed by the authority of God. Let's kind of unpack what that
means for us. If you're taking notes with us,
here's the first thing that I would get you to jot down Jesus.
Peter reminds us Jesus is the resurrected and living
foundation for the people of God.
Jesus, the living and the resurrected foundation for the
people of God. Do you notice how Peter used
some, some, some imagery here that would be very, very
familiar to, to a stone worker or to, to a Mason?
He refers to Jesus as the as the cornerstone.
Now to to a stone worker, a cornerstone would would be the
prototype by which all other stones would be would be cut in
the exact dimensions as that prototype.
And by by by having a prototype and by cutting all stones based
off of that prototype, the stone worker would ensure that the
stones would fit together perfectly to to a Mason.
When Peter talked about Jesus being the cornerstone, a Mason,
that would automatically like light up in the mind of a Mason
because a Mason knew that a cornerstone, it is that first
stone. It is that it is that first
stone that is laid at the very beginning of the very foundation
of a building that determines the the overall direction that
determines that that determines the the direction, the overall
trajectory. It determines everything about
where the rest of the building is going to go up around it.
And here's what I would tell you as the people of God, a life
that chooses and intentionally chooses, a life that
intentionally chooses to, to to model itself after the life of
Jesus and to place Jesus first in all things is a life that
will most definitely be lived well.
So the first basis of our authority that Peter reminds us
of is Jesus is the resurrected and the living foundation for
the people of God. Second thing that he reminds us
of is he is that perfect standard for how the people of
God are called to live. You know, one of the reasons
that that we're given the life of Jesus, the recorded life of
Jesus in the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, is for us
to really look at how did Jesus interact with people?
How did Jesus handle complex issues?
What did Jesus have to say about things like politics and, and,
and, and, and the poor? What did Jesus have to say about
religion? What did Jesus have to say about
hypocrisy? What did Jesus have to say
really about the heart? You see, as the people of God,
Jesus is the standard by which we are called to live.
So that's why it's so important that we spend time in the Word
of God so that that we understand and we get a better
picture of how Jesus lives, so that we look at how Jesus lived
and we can model our behavior and our lives after how Jesus
lived. But then there's a third reality
that Peter reminds us of. This authority is Jesus is the
ultimate dividing line between the people of God and an
unbelieving world. Jesus is the ultimate dividing
line. You know, I, I, I know a lot of
people. I would even say that that that
most people, they have no problem at all with the with the
leave the 99 to go after the one Jesus.
They have no problem at all with the changing water into wine,
giving sight to the blind, telling the paralyzed man to
take up his mat and walk the raising Lazarus from the dead
Jesus. As a matter of fact, I think
that most people would even say that Jesus was a great man, if
not the best man. And, and, and most people would
say that Jesus was a great teacher, if not the best teacher
to have ever lived. But here's the issue.
Jesus wasn't just a good man and he wasn't just a a good teacher.
He wasn't just the best man and the and the best teacher.
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Jesus Christ was the Son of God.
The same people that don't have a problem with with that type of
Jesus to leave the 99 to go after the one Jesus, they, they
start to bristle up. They start to bristle up at the
at the unless you hate your father and mother, you cannot
follow me or take up your cross daily and follow me or unless
you eat of the flesh of the Son of man and drink of his blood,
you can have no part in me. The I am the way and the truth
and the life. No man comes to the Father
except through me. They have a problem with with
that Jesus. They have a problem with the
true Jesus, with the full Jesus. And, and here's the thing,
People aren't offended by Jesus because Jesus is rude.
People are offended by Jesus because Jesus is telling the
truth about sin and salvation and ourselves.
And a lot of people, they, they, they don't want to hear that at
all. They don't, they, they don't
want to hear the, the truthful reality about how, how, how, how
they're sinners in need of a savior.
And, and the, the, the saving can't happen from willpower.
It has to happen from, from God power and the, and the saving,
the salvation can't happen from, from trying harder or earning
salvation. It actually happens through
surrendering your life to Jesus. You know, if you've been a part
of Riverbend for any space or any measure of time, you know,
we've talked a lot about how relationship and love always
requires choice. You can never force or coer
someone to love you or, or or or to be in true relationship with
you. And that means that, you know,
when we understand that God desires to have a relationship
with every single person, that means that there is a choice
that every single person has to make.
They can choose to accept his love and accept his grace and
accept his mercy if they surrender their lives to him.
Or they can choose to reject the teachings and the, and the way
of Jesus and the only way of salvation and, and, and try to
live life on their own and, and continue to be further blinded
and deceived by a lost and dying world and world and culture.
You see, Jesus is the ultimate dividing line for people.
That's why that's why Peter references in Scripture that,
that this cornerstone, that Jesus is the rock that that many
people stumble over. They, they, they trip over
Jesus. Because here's the thing, Jesus
very, very clear when he says I am the way, the truth and the
life. No man comes to the Father
except through me. Salvation is not possible.
Forgiveness of sin is not possible.
Eternal, eternal security in heaven, knowing that when you
die that you will spend eternity with Him in heaven.
That is not possible without coming through Jesus.
And that is the ultimate dividing line for so many
people. So Peter gives us the basis of
our authority by reminding us that Jesus is our foundation and
he's our standard and, and, and he's the ultimate dividing line
among people. But then on the basis of that
authority, then there's this almost like hinge right here in
chapter 2 to where he's going to start talking about purpose.
He's going to start talking about purpose.
Do you know that purpose is really, it's really about
identity. It's really about identity.
I wrote this in your notes. Check this out.
I want to get you to write this down really quick.
True calling flows out of identity and not the other way
around. Kind of coming back to the
conversation about what it means to live in Our Calling to live
called. We need to understand that true
calling flows out of identity, not the other way around to kind
of give you give you some handles to wrap your mind around
that. How many times when we meet
somebody for the first time and, and, and you know, we may
exchange names. What what's usually the follow
up question? Hey, what do you do?
What line of work are you in? What we do many times begins to
take on it begins to morph into our identity.
That's so easy for us to do, but in in God's way, according to
God's word, true calling is going to flow out of identity.
This is so important to know who we are, who we truly are,
because if you don't know who you are according to God, then
you'll never be able to fully step into all that God has for
you. This is why This is why
insecurity, insecurity is so sinister in our lives because
insecurity diminishes, diminishes us and it also
devalues us. It diminishes what God says
about us and it devalues what God says about us.
And, and someone who is living with a diminished or devalued
identity will never be able to fully step into their calling.
Listen, I want to, I want to just kind of, I'll give you a
quick side note for a moment. I don't know who you are or
where you've been, but did you know that God has something
special to say about you? Identity.
This whole issue of identity, it's not really based off of
what you've done or, or what you do or what you can do.
It's not based off of how you feel.
True identity is not even based off of how other people may may
view you and what other people may have said about you.
True identity is really what God says about you.
It's really what God says about you.
And I want you to remember something.
This isn't your nose, but I want you to hang on to this.
Maybe, maybe it's for you today or maybe it's for you later on
down the tracks, but what God says about you here, it is.
What God says about you is what is most true about you, not what
you say about you, not, not what, not what your feelings say
about you, not what other people say about you.
What God says about you is what is most true about you.
So it's really important for us to understand what exactly does
God say about us? Go back to first Peter with me.
I want you to check something out first Peter again, first
Peter chapter 2 in verse 9, it's the beginning of verse 9.
He says, but you based off of the authority of Jesus, you are
now a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
people for his own possession. So if you're taking notes with
us, I want to I want to make this as personal as possible in
your in your notes here. Here's the first thing I want
you to jot down. I am a chosen race.
I am a chosen race.
God almighty, the author and the creator and the sustainer of the
universe looks at you and says, I choose you.
He he, he doesn't do it because, but because he, he, he pities
you. He, he, he doesn't, he doesn't
choose you because he has no other choice.
And he certainly doesn't choose you or he certainly doesn't
choose me because we've impressed him in some type of
way. He chooses us because he chooses
to choose us. You see the God that that
created you, He loves you and he has good plans for you.
Here's what I want you to remember.
Just because you may not have chosen you, and just because
maybe some people around you may not choose you or have chosen
you in the past, that doesn't mean that God hasn't chosen you.
You are chosen. Second thing that God tells us
about our identity and who he says that we are.
Not only am I chosen race, I am a royal priesthood.
I am a royal priesthood. You you notice that royal
priesthood kind of two two thoughts in those two words,
right Royal. You see, if you've surrendered
your life to Jesus and and the Holy Spirit of God now lives in
you and you've been born again. Did you know that you are now a
son or a daughter of the king. You're you're a son or a
daughter of God. You are now royalty.
You're now royalty with all access, with all rights and with
all privileges. You are now divine royalty.
You're a son or a daughter of God priesthood.
If you, if you grew up in church or you just started reading
maybe the, the Old Testament, when we get around to the book
of book of Exodus, we're, we're introduced to this whole, this
whole notion of, of priesthood where there were, there were
chosen group of, of men that, that you had to be born of a
certain lineage in a certain, in a certain family.
But you could then become a priest.
And the priest was the one that that that could, that could kind
of interact with God and offer sacrifices to God.
Only the priest could do that. The other people couldn't, only
the priest could. So check out what Peter reminds
us when he tells us that you and I, those of us who surrendered
our lives to Jesus, we're a royal priesthood.
That means that we have completely unfettered,
unhindered, completely accessible access to God at all
points in time. You don't need a middleman.
You don't need to. You don't need somebody to go to
God on your behalf. You have a Direct Line to God.
And check this out, that Direct Line to God, he loves it.
He absolutely cherishes it when his sons and his daughters want
to spend time with him and talk with him through prayer.
But you are a royal priesthood. Third thing that Peter reminds
us of. I am a holy nation.
I'm a holy nation. You may say, well, Ben, you just
lost me right there because that first word, holy, I'm, I'm not
holy. I'm not holy.
I'm, I'm trying. You talked last week about
stepping into a life of holiness and pursuing holiness.
And, and, and I'm really trying. I'm, I'm starting to step into
that and I'm starting to say to, to, to recognize that my old, my
old ways, my pre Jesus, pre born again ways are no longer
compatible with the new me that God has created me to be.
I'm, I'm starting to realize that, but I wouldn't say that
I'm holy right now. Can I, can I tell you something?
When you surrendered your life to Jesus, do you know, do you
know how God now views you? God now views you when he looks
at you. When he looks at me, he sees the
blood of Jesus and, and, and when we surrender our lives to
Jesus, something called the the the many theologians and
scholars have referred to as the great exchange takes place that
I exchange my unholiness for Jesus holiness and my
unrighteousness for Jesus righteousness.
So if you've surrendered your life to Jesus, God now looks at
you as holy. But one of the most mind blowing
things is notice that Peter didn't say you are now a holy
individual. He says you are now a holy
nation. What does what does that denote?
What does that tell us? It tells us that with Jesus we
now have belonging. We now have belonging.
I think that we from from one point in time or another, maybe
you're in a season like this right now to where we know the
excruciating pain of loneliness. We we know the excruciating pain
of a feeling left out. Can I tell you this, that Peter
reminds us that as a son or a daughter of God, you now have
belonging because you're a holy nation.
The fourth thing that God tells us through Peter is I am a
people for God's own possession. I'm a people for God's own
possession. Now check this out.
This people for God's own possession.
That is not control language. That is covenant language.
It's not control language, it's covenant language.
And what I mean by that is, is when I remind myself that God
tells me that I am a people. I'm a part of a people for his
own possession. It means that there's a lot of
things in this world that will change, but God never will.
There there. There's a lot of things in this
world that will let me down, but God never will there there.
There's a lot of mistakes that I've made and, and and will
make, but God will never leave me that that His covenant to
love me is not based off of what I do or what I don't do is based
off of His love for me. And come what may, there's
nothing that will ever be able to separate me from the love of
God. Come what may, there's nothing
that can ever touch my eternal security.
Being able to live with a sense of hope, knowing that what come,
let, come what may, I will always know that when I die, I
will spend eternity with God in heaven.
When Peter reminds us that we are a people for God's own
possession, again, that's not control language, that's
covenant language. He looks at you and he looks at
me and it's kind of like the the, the notion of of God
looking at us and choosing us. But when he looks at us, he's
just says, he smiles and says he's mine.
She's mine. Here's why this is so important
is I think that every single one of us, we've experienced this.
We're no stranger to the voices and inside our head or, or, or
the voices of our past or, or the voices of other people
trying to trying to convince us that we are lesser than or, or
or lesser loved. And, and here's one of the
things that I want you to take away from this passage in First
Peter that I want you to take away from our time together this
morning is when those voices, when you start to hear those
voices, whether they're in your mind, in your head, or from your
past or or outside of you other, other people, you have a choice
to make. Do you internalize what they say
about you or you do you internalize?
Do you choose to internalize what God says about you?
Because what God says about you is you are a chosen race.
You are a holy priesthood, a royal priesthood.
You are a holy nation. You are a people for God's own
possession. Man, that is so, so incredibly
powerful. As as we start to kind of head
down the home stretch this morning, I want to bring your
attention back to the back end of the passage that we're going
to walk through in in first Peter chapter 2.
I want to read it in its entirety, starting back in in
verse 9. And I, I want to, I want to do
an exercise with you that I hope is going to be really powerful
and really useful in your life this week.
Check out what Peter says. Let's read through the passage
again. First Peter chapter 2 verse 9.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation
of people for his own possession that you may proclaim that were
that right there. That's kind of like the hinge
point, right? That's kind of like the we're
we're about to we're going to go from identity and show how
identity is going to flow into into purpose that you may
proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light. Remember the definition, the
two-part definition that we gave about calling, pointing people
to Jesus. This is what Peter's talking
about here, that proclaiming the excellencies of him who called
you out of darkness into His marvellous light.
Once you are not a people, but now you are God's people.
Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
He goes on in verse 11, Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and
exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage
war against your soul. Verse 11, we don't have time to
dive into this, but basically verse 11 tells us as sojourners
and exiles, this world, this culture, this is not our home.
Our eternal home is with Jesus in heaven.
So we are because we have been made different.
We are to be different. We approach life differently.
In verse 12, keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so
that when they speak against you as evil doers, they may see your
good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
Listen, there's so much that we could unpack in that passage,
but I want to invite you to do a quick exercise with me in your
notes. There is that passage, but then
there's also blanks. There's also blanks in that
passage. And I want to, I want you to, I
want you to fill in those blanks as we come to them.
I want you to fill in those blanks with with some different
words. If you're ready.
Here we go. That the first blank I that I
may proclaim the excellencies of him who called me out of
darkness into His marvelous light.
That second blank once, verse 10, once called me out of
darkness into His wonderful marvelous light.
Third blank, verse 10. Once I was not a people, but now
I am God's people. Once I had not received mercy,
but now I have received mercy. Verse 11.
Verse 11 is going to be a little bit different.
I want you to approach verse 11 as if Peter is writing this, as
if the Holy Spirit of God is saying this directly to you.
This is this is God's love letter, an encouragement letter
to you. Check this out.
Verse 11. I want you to just to write your
name so. So for me it would be that I may
proclaim the excellencies of him who called me out of darkness
into his marvelous light. Once I was not a people, but now
I am God's people. Once I had not received mercy,
but now I have received mercy. Then I urge you as sojourners
and exiles, as a sojourner, and as an exile, exile to abstain
from. Here's that next blank.
Here's that next blank I want you to write down just between
you and God, what is your greatest temptation or your
greatest sin struggle? Like maybe maybe in this current
season or setting or context, there is a, there is a
temptation and there is a sin struggle that that has almost
like beset you. It's almost like just
overwhelmed you and it comes seems to overpower you in terms
of like the overall quality or quantity in which it comes in to
where you just feel everywhere you look.
Then there's that temptation, there's that sin struggle.
It could be pride, it could be lust, it could be materialism,
it could be gossip, it could be any number of things.
But what is your greatest sin struggle?
This is so important because I want to put it kind of in
context as sojourners and exiles, to abstain from what
your greatest temptation or sin struggle is.
Why? Because it wages war against
your soul. A lot of times when we face
temptations and and sin struggles, we we kind of
downplay them, don't we? We minimize them.
But Peter comes back and he reminds us, no, no, no, these
are really big deals. Why?
Because they wage war against our souls.
He's going to go on in verse 12. Keep your conduct among and
here's what I wanted to get you to do.
I want you to think, and maybe you don't have to think very
long or hard on this. What is, who is a specific
person in your life or maybe a group of people in your life
that they just, they just have that way of just constantly
getting under your skin. They, they, they, they just push
your buttons. They, they get to this is the
person or this is the, the, the group that you struggle to love
the most. This person or this group,
you're pretty sure, you're pretty sure they need Jesus.
They need Jesus in their life. Here's what I want to get you to
do in that blank. I just want you to write that
person's name or maybe, maybe just something to denote that
group. Here's how that would look.
Keep your conduct among that person or that group.
Keep your conduct among them honorable so that when they
speak, speak against you as the evil doers, they may see your
good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
You see, what we just did here is we just took this passage and
we made it very personal. We personalized it.
Here's one of the things that I would encourage you to do.
You, you, you have this in your, in your notes app.
I would encourage you later on today or or or or tonight or
certainly by tomorrow morning, I would encourage you.
To, to take this passage as you filled in those blanks, I would
encourage you to take it and I would encourage you to maybe
write it down, copy it down on a note card or a piece of paper or
somewhere that you know that you're going to come across it.
Put it in your wallet, put it, you know, kind of in your dash,
maybe put it on your mirror just as a reminder of what God has
for you. You know, one of the things that
I've been praying for over really over the past easily nine
months, close to a year is that 2026 would be, would be seen
and, and God would do a work here at Riverbend and in your
life, in my life and in the lives of our family members and
create an enhanced culture. Connectivity, connection to one
another and connection to, to, to God, but also that that we
would have that God would bring an enhanced sense of you knowing
that you are living right now in your calling, that you're being
faithful and obedient where God has placed you to live out that
calling. Here's what I want to do.
I want to turn it like really, really personal, just kind of
prom the pomp a little bit to to get you to think later on today
about everything that we've just walked through and discussed
together. I want to kind of walk through
some some questions for you to think about.
These aren't in your notes, but if you'll just kind of listen in
and kind of take it in right now.
What setting season or context are you in?
What setting, season or context are you in right now?
And here's the question, once you have that identified, are
you faithfully stewarding the opportunities that God has
placed directly in front of you? I, I, I know a lot of people
that they want a lot of men and women and students that, that
love Jesus and they want to know that they're living in their
calling. But a lot of times they're
tempted just kind of sit back and wait for that calling to, I
guess just magically appear. And here's what I would ask you
as you pursue your calling. If you're not sure if you're
living in your calling right now as you're pursuing that, here's
the question. Are you being faithful to the
opportunities that God has placed directly in front of you
right now? How are you stewarding your
current setting season in context?
Second question, who who are you intentionally pointing to Jesus?
Who are you intentionally actively, not just passively,
not just like, hey, I hope to be a good guy or a good girl.
And, and they take note. And, and the my Co workers or my
classmates, they take note and they just kind of chalk it up to
to, to Jesus. I'm talking about like who are
you intentionally who are you intentionally pointing to?
Jesus #3 don't immediately answer this as, as, as a yes,
no. I want you to kind of wrestle
with this. I want you to be really honest
with yourself. Like search, get the Holy Spirit
of God, ask God, pray to God and ask him, invite the Holy Spirit
to search the deep places of you so that you can honestly answer
this next question. Here's the third question.
Is Jesus your true authority? Is Jesus your true authority?
Is he truly your foundation? Is he truly your standard?
And then here's the here's the 4th.
How does what God said, how does what God says about you differ
from what you say about you? How does what God says about you
differ from what God from what you say about you?
You know, one of the things that I hope that you know by now is
just because we're talking on a Sunday morning, kind of snowed
in or iced in, we're talking here and now about calling.
This is not all that we will ever talk about this sense of
calling. Maybe this is the beginning of
that conversation with you. Maybe this is the beginning of
of of our journey together as as Riverbend churches, you, you and
your family get more plugged into Riverbend Church.
But just know that my heart as your pastor for you is that you
know Jesus, that you love Jesus and you're growing in Jesus, and
that you have a sense to where you know that you're living in
your calling. Thank you for listening to
Riverbend Church's podcast. To find out more about this
message or Riverbend Church, connect with us online at
Riverbend Church dot live.