Attitudes Of The Chosen Generation
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Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
In 1 Peter 2:9 we read a powerful passage about Christians.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
In this we learn…
Christians are special to God.
Christians are chosen, royal, and holy.
Christians are for God’s possession for a purpose which is to exemplify the excellencies of God.
Knowing this, I would like for us to consider three “Attitudes Of This Chosen Generation.”
Christians must be…
Proactive
Proactive
The Word Defined.
The Word Defined.
The word proactive means, “creating or controlling a situation by causing something to happen rather than responding to it after it has happened.”
Albert Schweitzer once said…
“The great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.”
So how should a Christian be “proactive” in their lives?
Proactive Christianity.
Proactive Christianity.
Unfortunately many Christians today simply let life happen to them instead of being proactive.
By this I mean even though they know the right thing to do, they don’t do it. They let sin happen instead of proactively stopping it.
17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
As they chosen, royal, and holy generation we must live proactive or pro-righteousness lives.
They Bible, is of course, replete with this reality.
16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?
10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! 12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Summary
Summary
The reality is, as God’s chosen generation, royal priesthood, and holy nation we must be proactive in our walk with God toward righteousness.
We cannot be reactive to sin and lawlessness but rather proactive.
So “we must have a proactive” attitude but our attitude must also be...
Confident
Confident
This Is Waning In Many.
This Is Waning In Many.
Many of God’s children are simply not confident in their righteousness must less their ability to get to heaven.
If I were to take a pole on any given Sunday morning and ask the question “How many here ‘know’ they have eternal life and that their name is in the book of life” I have a feeling many more than expected would not raise their hand. Why?
They are not confident in their Christianity.
We need confidence in our walk with God if we are going to get to heaven.
You see…
God Is For Us.
God Is For Us.
We have zero reason to fear man or anything else in this life.
There is nothing this man or this life can do to us to keep us from heaven!!!
28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Not only can nothing in this life keep us from heaven but God also is helping us get into heaven.
1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
You see there is no reason for us not to have full and complete confidence in our righteousness and ability to get to heaven because God is on our side.
As the Hebrew writer said,
6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
As the believers in Acts prayed,
29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness,
Summary
Summary
As God’s children we have not been given an attitude of timidness but confidence, because as Paul said to the church in Rome…
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
With a proactive and confident attitude one might think this would lead Christians to being braggadocios but the opposite is true.
As Christians we must be…
Humble
Humble
The Antidote To Pride.
The Antidote To Pride.
What is humility?
Humility is properly defined as “to cause or make low” and as that pertains to Christians it means we understand we “are nothing without God.”
We cannot exalt ourselves before God, we can only be exalted by God.
12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,
You see humility prevents us from being “overconfident” or “prideful.”
10 So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ ”
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
Summary
Summary
Our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ even demonstrated this attitude while washing the feet of His disciples (John 13:4ff).
The attitude of pride falls to the antidote of humility.
Conclusion
Conclusion
To have an attitude of God’s chosen generation, royal priesthood, and holy nation we must be “proactive, confident, and humble.”
We must actively strive for righteousness, boldly proclaim our God, and yet humbly know our place.
Invitation
Endnotes:
Endnotes:
Proactive definition from “Lexico Powered By Oxford” https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/proactive
Albert Schweitzer quote: https://leadmego.com/the-great-secret-of-success-is-to-go-through-life-as-a-man-who-never-gets-used-up
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.