Different Values in an Unholy Culture

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. So we're in a second of this series in different. As we look at 1 Peter, a great book, not real long, but we're going to have to just highlight different sections of it because it's a little too much to go through even in a series of four or five weeks. And if you missed last week, which I myself and my wife were actually in at a conference in New Orleans, and that is a different place. I used to live in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for five and a half years when I was a campus pastor at LSU. So we'd get down to New Orleans once in a while and see how different it is. But what was great is to see some of the impact that God had through that ministry at LSU. We were able to be with three couples and meet some of their kids and all, and how God is still working in their lives and how they have been in a sense different than the rest of New Orleans. Though they live there, they grew up there, they're members of different Christian churches in the area, and they are making a difference in that New Orleans area. So it was great to see that. So I missed last week, but I kind of know what Phil was talking about, because 1 Peter was written to a people, the Jesus movement, the early Christians who, well, they were facing a really tough time, probably about 60, 65 AD or so. Many of them had been in Rome during the reign of a man named Nero. Not a great guy in some ways. He in fact, from most historical sources, there's evidence that he actually burned his own city down. I don't know if you know that. Or there was a fire that happened and then it was put out and he restarted it because he wanted to have a whole urbanization project going on. And then on top of it, guess who he gets to blame for the fire? He blamed the Christians, the followers of the Christ. So they faced even worse times then, and many of them scattered outside of Rome and went and dispersed from there. And Peter then wrote this book to this people who had faced some real tough times and who lost home and property and everything and were scattered down to the world. And he wanted to give them hope. Hope that, hey, this world, the way it's set up, you were never meant to fit into this. This is not what your home is all about. You've got a God who is going to renew all of creation and bring you home to him. And because of that, you have different priorities. You have a different way of looking at things. You can make a difference now and you're going to have different passions and a different way of living. You're going to be different in your marriages. You're going to be different in your families. You're going to be different at work in your community. You're going to make a difference. And he sums up that difference really with one word, which we will read. And that is the word, you are called to be holy. So let's read in first Peter chapter one, verses 13 to 21, where Peter continues to write. And if you call on him as father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourself with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers, not with the perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundations of the world, but was made manifest in the last 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. So the Bible, when it says people become Christians, the Bible doesn't say we just kind of turn over a new leaf or start. The Bible talks about a difference that happens to us, such a difference that the resurrection power of Jesus Christ and himself comes into our life and makes us different. And a word that is used, like I said before in this passage, is the word holy. Now it's a hard word for us to grasp onto these days because how often have you used that word holy, right? Holy cow, you know, holy, free holies. And we use the word holy in a kind of a negative way, like that person thinks they're really holier than thou, right? And it means that they're haughty and they're arrogant and full of themselves. That has nothing to do with this word, actually, of holy. It's a hard word to get a handle on, and so we're going to look in this passage what it really means in its depth. We're going to learn three things. First of all, what is it? Pretty simple, right? And how is it different? And then thirdly, why be different, okay? So let's just look at what is it. So Peter comes up and he says in this passage, in verse 15 and 16, 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. Now what do most people think holiness or holy is all about? They think ...