This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Hi, this is Pastor Tom Onow and welcome you back to day four of our look through
1st Peter chapter 1. We're looking at verses 13 to 17 today. And these verses
talk to us about a different kind of character.

Since you have a different hope and a different faith, now he encourages us to
live with a different character. In the world below, our character is conformed.
In the cut above kind of living, our character is transformed.

Conformed character means you become like what's around you. And in fact, you
become like within you. In many ways, we become our desires.

And that means, without Christ, people become the desire for popularity, or they
become the desire for power, or they become the desire for money, become
materialism, or they become their addiction. We can see this in people's lives
all of the time. But being transformed, that means you become like Christ.

By the power of God's Spirit, you become more and more like Jesus Christ. Now,
as we look into these verses, we're going to see a word used to describe your
character that you might not feel comfortable with. You might feel like this
just doesn't fit me.

And this word is the word "holy. " Be holy in all you do. God has set you apart
to be different.

God has set you apart even to be holy. Now, what does that mean? Because some of
you might think, "Well, that word means I've got to be perfect.

That means I've got to be some kind of a perfect saint, like I've got to have my
picture on a wall or statue somewhere. " No. Holiness is the life that God has
called every believer, every follower of Christ to live.

So as we look at these verses, we're going to see what it means to live this
kind of life. It means that you're holy in how you think, you're holy in what
you desire, you're holy in how you live. Let's walk through what Peter teaches
us about this.

First, you're holy in how you think. Verse 13, "Therefore, prepare your minds
for action. Be self-controlled.

Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
" He walks through a different kind of thinking. In order to be holy, you think
holy thoughts.

First, he says you prepare your minds for action. In order to act, you have to
first prepare your mind to act. I think we all have this wish that we just
spring into action and always do the right thing when the need arises.

And that does happen in a few emergency situations, but most of the time we
think and then we act. So think about how you could act like Jesus today.
Prepare your mind for action.

If you think about how you could act like Jesus today, you will more often find
yourself acting like Jesus throughout the day. That's what it means to live a
holy life. And then he says be self-controlled.

How do I be holy in the way that I think? I've got to be self-controlled. One of
the great paradoxes of faith is that the only way to be self-controlled is to be
spirit-controlled.

Self-control is a fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5. So throughout the day to
day, you're either going to live a selfish life, a you-controlled life, or a
self-controlled life, a spirit-powered life. Now I know the word self is there
all throughout it, but the truth of the matter is, yourself can either be
selfish or selfless.

And the spirit is the one, he is the one, who makes the difference in your life.
Be self-controlled. That's what it means to live a holy life.

And the only way to do that is through the fruit of the spirit, the power of the
spirit in your life. And then he says you want to think holy? You set your hope
fully on the grace that's to be revealed.

Now notice that word fully. Put all your hope on the grace that's to be revealed
in Jesus Christ. All your eggs in that basket.

Everything is on that. It's okay to wish or to want for certain things to happen
in this world. We all want our kids to do well.

We all want the business deal to come through. But those things cannot be your
place of security. They cannot be your place of ultimate hope.

Because those things could be lost. Your place of eternal security, permanent
security, is the promise of God's love. And by the way, that makes you better
with the other things in life as well.

When you become secure, and the only thing that can make you truly secure,
you're not trying to make your kids a place of security, your job a place of
security, which is a lot of pressure to put on your kids or your wife or your
job. Your hope is in Christ. So now I can love them out of that security.

Maybe you need to be holy in how you think by doing a securities exchange right
now. You've been starting to put more and more security in your job. More and
more security in what people think about you or how much you have in a certain
bank account or how well your kids are doing or whatever it might be.

Right now, do a securities exchange. Remind yourself, that's not where my
security is. It's all in you, Jesus.

It's all in you. You become holy in the way that you think. And as we walk
through these things that Peter teaches us about how to live a different kind of
character, the second thing he teaches us is you also have to be holy in what
you want in the desires of your life, how your thoughts become your desires.

In verse 14 he says, "As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires
that you had when you lived in ignorance. " So you don't live out those evil
desires. Don't conform to the evil desires you used to have before you were a
follower of Christ.

Obviously that is being unholy in what you want. So how do you be holy in your
desires? Because all of us, once we became Christians, it didn't mean that we
stopped having unholy desires.

If you think that somehow you're supposed to stop having unholy desires, you're
living with a lot of guilt right now because the truth is all of us are still
tempted. All of us still have unholy desires. So how do I become more holy in my
desires?

I love what Peter says here. He says, "As obedient children. " One of the ways
to have more holy desires is to live your life as an obedient child before your
heavenly father.

You just recognize I am loved by him. I am depending on him. I am trusting in
him.

And that's how you find yourself desiring more and more of what he wants in your
life. The more I depend on myself, the more I desire unholy things. The more I
depend on him, the more I desire the kinds of things he wants in my life.

The more I try to find love outside of him, the more I try to find unholy things
in my life. The more I recognize that my love is found in him, then I desire
more and more holy things in my life. Just right now, recognize I am an obedient
child before my heavenly father.

That's how you begin to live with holy desires. And then he says, "Be holy in
how you live. " Your thoughts become your desires become your life.

Verses 15 to 17, "But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all that
you do. For it is written, 'Be holy because I am holy. ' Since you call on a
father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here
in reverent fear.

" So we go back to these verses, "Be holy, be holy because I am holy," that
we've been talking all the way through this about. And he says here, "You got to
be holy in how you live. " First, he says, "You live your lives as strangers.

" We're coming back to that again. The word "holy" has behind it the ideas of
being distinct, being different, being set apart by God. You don't become holy
because of the things that you do.

You are made holy by God's grace. And then you do the holy things that he's made
you to do because he has made you holy. You live your lives here as strangers
because of what God has done.

Be holy because I am holy. He's the only one that can do that in your life. And
then he says this phrase, which might cause you some more questions, "Live in
reverent fear.

" Some people think, "I thought we weren't supposed to be afraid of God. " This
is not talking about being afraid of God. This is talking about worshiping God,
living in reverent fear of God.

It's a different kind of attitude, emotion. He says here that God is our judge,
and yet you call him Father. The judge of all eternity, the judge of the
universe, is your heavenly Father.

So you have this closeness to this incredible power, and that creates this
reverent fear. It's sort of like how you might handle electricity, I sometimes
say. If you're handling an electric wire, you know it doesn't have any power
going through it, you don't care about how you handle it.

But the minute you know it has power going through it, you have a kind of
reverent fear of that wire that you're holding. You're very careful with it.
Now, you know it's useful.

You might even know it's going to light up your whole house. But you're very
careful with it, even though you might appreciate it. Now, that illustration
breaks down because God is not a thing.

He's a person. And so we are very reverent before God, recognizing his power.
But we also know that he's our Father, the one who loves us the most.

This awe and reverence combines together for this reverent fear. Now, as I talk
about this, I want to remind you that there are all kinds of fear of God. How do
you know if you're living with reverent fear?

If your fear makes you want to get away from God, that's not reverent fear.
That's guilty fear. When you feel guilty, you want to get as far from God as
possible because you think, "Well, then maybe he won't notice.

" How ridiculous. God knows everything. But that's how it makes you feel.

God doesn't want us to live with guilty fear. He doesn't want you to live with
guilty fear. If your fear makes you want to get away from God, that's guilty
fear.

If your fear makes you want to attack God, that's angry or hurting fear. And God
doesn't want you to have angry or hurting fear. He understands your hurt.

He came to heal you of that hurt. But if your fear instead makes you want to get
closer to God, even though you know you have no right to be there, you want to
get closer to God, that is reverent fear, respectful fear. And so, Father, right
now, as we pray, we want to come to you in this reverent fear.

You've told us, "Come close to me, boldly come close to me," but you've also
reminded us of the greatness of your power. And so right now, we sit, we stand
in your presence, recognizing the greatness of who you are and in that greatness
you love us. And God, we pray that you would help us to live holy lives before
you.

We need your strength. We need your power. Help us to think holy thoughts,
desire holy things, live holy actions.

We want that. We need your power to do that. So we pray that day by day, you
would be growing us to become more and more like you, and you are holy.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Tomorrow, we're going to continue to look
together at our different character.