The Good Life: Hope and Holiness

1 Peter 1:13-21

Ingredients of the Good Life

• Hope (1:13)• Holiness (1:14-21)• Love (1:22-2:3)• Worship (2:4-10)• Witness (2:9-12)• Submission (2:11-3:12)

Mindset: Hope Fixed on Christ

• Hope: “a confident expectation that God will fulfill His promises”

• How?

–by preparing your mind for action

• “gird the loins of your mind”

• Word, prayer, memory, worship, community, creation, good books

Mindset: Hope Fixed on Christ

• Hope: “a confident expectation that God will fulfill His promises”

• How?

–by preparing your mind for action

–by keeping spiritually alert

• What’s the state of your mind?

Behavior: Holy like your Father

• hagios

– translated: holy, sanctified, set apart, saint

– basic idea: “set apart, distinct; not ordinary or common”

Behavior: Holy like your Father

• God’s Holiness:Exodus 15:11 “Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?”

Behavior: Holy like your Father

• God’s Holiness:Revelation 15:3–4 And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,

“Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; For all the nations will come and worship before You, For Your righteous acts have been revealed.”

Behavior: Holy like your Father

• God’s Holiness:–He is absolutely separate, unique, and

distinct from all of creation• includes complete separation from sin

& evil• but goes further – He is absolute

“other”“He is utterly set apart in a class by himself, unequaled, unrivaled, totally un-derived, absolute in his being and perfection, without beginning or

ending or improvement.” John Piper

Behavior: Holy like your Father

• Our Holiness:– Positional holiness: we are already set apart

unto God by the finished work of Jesus (2:9)

– Experiential holiness: becoming less and less like the world and more and more like God

• Avoids: “conformity to the former lusts”

• Pursues: “obedient… in all your behavior”

Motivation for Holiness

1. Because God will judge us (v17)2 Corinthians 5:9–11 Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord…

Motivation for Holiness

1. Because God will judge us (v17)2. Because all else is futile (v18)3. Because our freedom was costly

(v18-21)

Becoming Holy

• Where are you falling short?

• Have you surrendered to sin in any area of your life?

• Steps to growth:

– confession, dedication, accountability

– Celebrate Recovery; talk to a leader