Bible Text: 1 Peter 1 | Preacher: Rev. Dr. Lou Saldiveri | Series: Sunday Morning Worship

— Pastor Lou’s Notes —
Intro: How many of you are tired of all the robo solicitation and scam calls you receive on your telephones? What do you generally do when you receive them: ignore them, hang up on them, or block them? In this passage, I want to suggest to you that God’s calls are the most important calls we receive. What do we do when God calls through His Word, the Holy Spirit, and prayer? Do we ignore His calls? Do we hang up on God? Do we block His calls?

Peter makes it very clear to us, in view of God’s grace and mercy, all Christ followers are called to be holy. What does that mean? Holiness means being separate, equipped, and obedient to glorify God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives. Being holy means living a lifestyle of loving obedience to God. In fact, it is a life long journey for Christ followers who obey the call from God to be holy e.g. becoming a little more like Christ each day. God tells us through the Apostle Peter how you and I can stay clean in this evil, polluted world.

1. We Need to Have Minds that Are Alert and Fully Sober: v. 13-16
1.Our minds need to be alert
1. Focused on the Word
2. Our minds need to be
1. Controlled or yielding to the Holy Spirit
3. Our focus is on the hope and grace we have in Christ
1. Fully aware that He is coming again
4. We Need to Be Proactive in Our Journey of Holiness
1. Proactively be loving obedient to Christ
5. Don’t let the world press us into its mold
1. We did this when we didn’t know any better
6. We Are Called by God to Be Holy
1. He is holy
2. We are called to be holy in everything we do
2. We are Accountable to God: v. 17-25
1. We ask God for help and he responds in His holiness, grace and mercy
2. God will keep us accountable if we chose to be passive in the journey toward holiness
1. Explain “reverent fear”
3. We must never forget the price God paid for our redemption
1. We are redeemed by the blood of Christ from this present evil world and our own slavery to sin
2. Our faith and hope must be anchored in God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit
4. We are purified by obedience to the gospel
1. We are to love one another deeply without hypocrisy
1 Because we have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring Word of God
2. Let God’s eternal Word renew our minds each and every day so the Holy Spirit can do His transformational work in us from the inside out
3. Action Items: We Need to Get Rid of the Garbage in Our Life: v. 2:1-3
1. Get rid of all malice
2. Get rid of all deceit
3. Get rid of insincerity
4. Get rid of envy
5. Get rid of all kinds of slander
4. Ask God to increase our appetite to be even more proactive in your journey

Closing: The question for today is, will you and I take God’s call to be holy? Will you and I choose with God’s help, to proactively embark on a journey towards holiness?