Sermon Tone Analysis

“*FAMILY OBLIGATIONS*”

(A Chosen People – Series in I Peter)

 

Westgate Chapel 10~/29~/00                                  I Peter 1:17-2:3

 

PROPOSITION:  That we are redeemed into new birth for the purpose that we fulfill the obligations of being God’s family; living as strangers in this world, loving as brothers, and growing up in our salvation.

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i. introduction

!! -     I WAS 17 years old, standing on the deck of a freighter, the SS Louise Lykes…getting ready to come to the United States to go to Bible School.

!! -     AND the last words out of my Dad’s mouth were, “Remember, you are a Rowlands.”

!! -     I DON’T know how that strikes you, but as a teenager in the 1960’s my parents drilled into me that we had a rich family heritage.

!!! ~*     My grandparents on both sides of our family were Pentecostal  pastors and missionaries.

!!! ~*     I had uncles who gave their lives for great works amongst the Indian and Zulu peoples….with

hundreds of churches flourishing today from their ministries.

!!! ~*     On both sides of our family we were surrounded by men and women of God who had character, tenacity, and integrity.

!!! ~*     I meet people in India who were saved under my uncle Jack Rowlands’ ministry.

!!! ~*     Jacob flew to India in his last trip next to a Hindu insurance executive from South Africa who knew about my family.

!! -     SO when I was growing up we were around these people, and my Dad and Mom would speak highly of their lives, their values, their passion for the things of the Lord.

!! -     I GREW up with a great respect for these people, now all deceased.

!! -     IT was a privilege to be a Rowlands.

!! -     IT opened doors for me as a young person, starting out in ministry in South Africa.

!! -     IT got me admitted to Bible School on a missions scholarship.

!! -     TO this day I am honored when people I don’t know talk to me about what my grandfather, or uncle, or father meant to them.

!! -     SO when I left for the United States in 1966 to go to college, the first Rowlands to come to this land, it meant something for my Dad to say, “Remember, you are a Rowlands.”

!! -     BEING part of the Rowlands family was a privilege that came with an obligation.

!! -     MY father charged me with the obligation of living in such a way that reflected well on the Rowlands name.

!! -     OBLIGATION!

There is a word that has fallen into disfavor in our culture.

It is too confining, too restrictive, too limiting.

!! -     OBLIGATION: “something by which a person is bound to do certain things which arise out of a sense of duty.”

!! -     IF I was simply trying to fill this church with people, I would tell you that when you come to Jesus you get salvation, forgiveness, grace, healing, blessing, and eternal life as a free gift of God (which it is)…and that there is no obligation.

!! -     THIS may seem like a contradiction to you, but the gift of salvation is free.

You cannot earn it.

But the obligations of being a child of God are huge.

!! -     I WOULD be a liar if I told you anything different.

!! -     PAUL tells the believers in Ephesus,

!!!       “*As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received*.”

(Ephesians 4:1)

!! -     PAUL tells the church in Philippi,

!!!       “*Whatever happens *(to me)*, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ*.”

(Philippians 1:27)

!! -     HE tells the same thing to the Christians in Rome, in Colosse, and Thessalonica.

!! -     THIS is what Peter is telling the believers in Asia Minor to whom his epistle is being read.

!! -     THERE are obligations to being born again.

!! -     TURN with me to I Peter 1:17 (still page 1200 in your pew Bible…although we will be crossing over to page 1201 before the morning is done)

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! ii.

livE as strangers

!! -     PETER begins verse 17 with one of the most incredible benefits of being a follower of Christ.

!! -     WE are not orphans.

!! -     WE are not unwanted, abandoned, children.

!! -     WE are not rejected, cast off, turned away.

!! -     WE are not worthless, nameless, numbers in a computer to God.

!! -     THROUGH faith in Jesus Christ we are sons and daughters of God.

!! -     PAUL writes in Ephesians 1:5,

!!!       “*For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.

In love* (5) *he predestined us to be adopted as his sons* (and daughters)* through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will*…”

!! -     IN Romans 8:15-16 Paul writes,

!!!       “*For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.

And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’*

(16) *The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children*.”

!! -     PETER puts it this way in I PETER 1:17a,

!!!       “*Since you call on Father*…”

!! -     THAT is your privilege now.

!! -     YOU were an orphan.

Now you have received the Spirit of sonship.

!! -     LOOK at verses 18-19!

Peter goes on to tell us how we got the family name.

!!!       “*For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers,* (19) *but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect*.”

!! -     YOU were redeemed from the world’s empty way of living.

!! -     IT is empty because it puts its highest value on those things that are passing away.

!! -     IT is empty because it is producing no lasting eternal results.

!! -     AND you have been redeemed from all of that.

!! -     THAT word comes from the culture of slavery where there was a price on the slave’s head in the open market….and

all the money did was change the geography of your bondage.

!! -     REDEMPTION was the price paid to set a slave free.

IT didn’t change the geography of the bondage.

It broke the bondage forever.

!! -     AND you are so valuable to God that all the silver and gold in the world would not be enough to redeem you from slavery to the empty way of life handed down to you by all those who have gone before.

!! -     IT took a lamb!

!! -     THE only price that would be enough to buy you out of that empty way of life….was the precious blood of Christ….the

sinless life poured out to set you free.

!! -     THAT is how you can call Him, Father!

!! -     LOOK at verse 20,

!!!       “*He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake*.”

!! -     VERSE 21,

!!!       “*Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God*.”

!! -     WHAT an unbelievable honor and privilege that you and I are adopted into His family!

!! -     WHAT is our obligation for calling Him Father?

!! -     GO back to verse 17,

!!!       “*Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear*.”

!! -     SAINTS, that has been God’s message to us from the first sermon in Daniel over a year ago.

!! -     LIVE your lives as strangers here!

!! -     THAT word “strangers” means to “live alongside the world (not antagonistic) but not as one who belongs because you don’t expect to stay for long.”

!! -     YOUR heart is set on things above, you are not in love with this world.

!! -     YOUR mind is occupied with the things of God, your preoccupation is not this world.

!! -     YOU speak a different language.

!! -     YOU carry a completely different set of values.

!! -     WHAT they think is funny actually grieves you.

!! -     WHAT they have their trust in causes you to pity them, not emulate them.

!! -     YOUR security is in God, not in the things of this empty world.

!! -     YOU are salt to the decaying world around you.

!! -     YOU are light in the darkness.

!! -     YOU are a help to the hurting.