Rev. David Holwick Mother's Day
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
May 11, 1997
1 Peter 1:13-21
CHILDREN OF OBEDIENCE
I. Mothers' Day.
A. High Holy Day for Baptists.
1) Illness threw off my sermon schedule.
a) Original passage mentioned "loving deeply."
2) But any pastor worth his salt can work in moms.
B. Moms mold munchkins.
1) Definition of motherhood is to have and nurture kids.
2) Moms want their kids to turn out happy, and decent.
3) God wants the same for us.
II. What the "therefore" is there for. 1:13
A. A certain attitude should follow salvation.
B. Prepare minds for action.
1) "Gird up" motif.
2) Focus on God's will with disciplined thinking.
C. Be self-controlled.
1) Literally, "be sober."
2) Disciplined living, not excess.
D. Be forward-looking.
1) Live as if Jesus coming tonight.
a) (Mom coming home any minute)
2) Christians should be hopeful people.
a) Turmoil in world is a concern, but not an ultimate one.
III. Realize what you've been saved from.
A. Conformity to ignorance and desires. 1:14
In the spring of 1993, Lakewood, California, a middle-class
suburb of Los Angeles, made national news.
It wasn't the kind you want.
News sources revealed that a number of Lakewood's most popular
high-school boys had formed a group called the "Spur Posse."
Members of the Posse earned a point every time they had a
conquest of a girl.
What disgusted observers was not merely that these young men
competed with each other in this way,
or that their scores ranged into the 50s and 60s,
or that some of their victims were as young as ten...
The worst thing was that they were proud of their exploits.
And a number of their fathers defended them -
("Nothing my boy did was anything any red-blooded American
boy wouldn't do at his age").
And several of their mothers blamed the victims -
("Those girls are trash").
Some Lakewood girls felt pressured into being intimate with 20
or 25 members of the posse.
If you wanted to be accepted in Lakewood High School, you had
to give in to it.
After several of the boys had been arrested on various felony
charges and then released, they returned to their high-school
classes, where class members cheered them.
Obeying and conforming are two different issues.
People obey superiors, but conform to peers.
Standards are falling all around us.
The English Christian writer C. S. Lewis said we are in a time
in history when "minimum decency passes for heroic virtue
and utter corruption for forgivable imperfection."
Christians need to buck that trend.
Instead of being conformed to the world, we need to be
transformed by God.
#3519
B. Emptiness. 1:18
The testimony of the Bible is that a life without Jesus is a
life that is empty.
That doesn't mean people don't try to fill their lives with
tons of activities.
One famous American who filled life with gusto was Ernest
Hemingway.
Hemingway grew up in a staunch Christian home - his father had
even thought of being a missionary.
However, Ernest had other goals for his life and left his
childhood faith far behind him.
He became a writer and a thrill seeker.
He hunted big game, fought in several wars, married four women
and became an alcoholic.
Toward the end of his life Hemingway said, "I live in a vacuum
that is as lonely as a radio tube when the batteries are dead
and there is no current to plug into."
A few years later he committed suicide.
#2481
C. Biblical morality begins with our depravity, not innate goodness.
1) Something is wrong with us.
2) But God can do something about it.
IV. Children of obedience. 1:14
A. Emphasize relationship.
1) Semitic expression.
2) We are not children because we obey, but we obey because
we are his children. (same with moms)
3) Conversion is foundation.
B. Resemble God. 1:15-16
1) Basis of morality is not majority vote or legalism, but
God's character.
2) He is holy, we should be holy, too.
a) Be different / separated. (from world)
b) Be set apart for God.
C. Be ready for Judgment Day. 1:17
1) Someday we'll have to give an accounting to God.
a) "This Was Your Life" gospel tract saved a rambunctious
kid. (Rebecca Kish, read it on a park bench)
b) Having your life on a video projector before all
humanity would be a motivator.
2) Indicted or forgotten?
a) Question over whether Christians face judgment.
1> Most don't want to.
b) Issues:
1> Our sins are forgiven and forgotten.
A> Is broadcasting them consistent with this?
2> Bible teaches everyone will be assessed.
A> Jesus - for every word. Matt 12:35-36
B> Paul - we all go before seat. Rom 14:10-12,
1 Cor 3:13-17, 2 Cor 5:10
c) Clear teaching: no condemnation, but an accounting.
3) Live lightly, with reverence. 1:17
a) [Fake cop cars in Dover. Speeders slow down]
1> God is looking over your shoulder.
2> How should you be living?
b) Fear of God.
1> Special emph in 1 Peter.
2> He is our Parent. (Mothers' Day)
V. The cost of our redemption.
A. Moms pay a price.
1) It begins with childbirth, which is almost as bad as a
kidney stone.
2) Kids break their hearts after that.
3) God can relate.
B. Redemption of slaves. 1:18
1) In past times people could be owned by others.
2) The only possibility of freedom - redemption.
a) Someone had to pay the price.
b) Jesus does just that for us.
C. The precious blood. 1:19
In a missionary hospital in Vellore, India, Reeve Betts and Paul
Brand encountered difficulty in trying to set up a blood bank.
The Indian people themselves offered the biggest challenge.
To them, blood is life, and who can tolerate the thought of
giving up lifeblood, even to save someone else?
In one case, a 12 year old girl had a very bad lung.
Dr. Betts told the family it had to be removed if her life was
going to be saved.
The family members nodded with appropriate gravity.
The surgery required at least three pints of blood, and they had
only one, so the family must donate two more.
At that news, the family elders huddled together, then announced
a willingness to pay for the additional pints.
Reeve flushed red at their response.
The veins in his neck began to build.
Working to control his voice, he explained that they had no
other source of blood - it could not be purchased.
They might as well take the girl home and let her die.
The family went back into conference.
After more lively discussion the elders emerged with a great
concession.
They pushed forward a frail old woman weighing perhaps 95 pounds,
the smallest and weakest of their extended family.
The family had decided to offer her as a transfusion donor,
they reported.
The doctors could bleed her.
Dr. Betts fixed a stare on the sleek, well-fed men who had made
the decision and then his anger took over.
In halting but more-than-expressive Tamil he blasted the dozen
or so cowering family members, jabbing his finger back and
forth from the husky men to the frail woman.
Finally, with a melodramatic flourish, Reeve rolled up his own
sleeves and called over to Dr. Brand,
"Come on, Paul - I can't stand this!
I won't let that poor girl die just because of these cowardly
fellows.
Bring the needle and bottle and take my blood."
The family fell silent and watch in awe as Brand dutifully
fastened a cuff around Reeve's upper arm, swabbed the skin
and plunged the needle into this vein.
A rich red fountain spurted into the bottle and a great "Ahhh!"
rustled through the family and spectators.
At once there was a great babel of voices.
"Look, the sahib doctor is giving his own life!"
Onlookers called out shame on the family for allowing the great
doctor to give himself in the presence of so many kin.
The family got the message.
Before the bottle was half-full, two or three came forward and
put out trembling, outstretched arms.
The reputation spread: if the family refused blood, the great
doctor himself would give his own.
#1698
1) Jesus came for our sake.
2) Through him we can believe in God.
