I can do what it says I can.
I'm a believer and not a doubter.
I'm a doer and not just a hearer.
I am humble for the Lord.
I'm obedient to the Lord.
I am mature in the Lord.
I'm enthusiastic about the Lord.
I know that faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God.
Amen.
All right, our text that we've been using
for the last several weeks is Matthew chapter 5, verse 13
through 16.
The Bible says, you have the salt of the earth.
But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor?
Can you make it salty again?
It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.
Somebody say worthless.
By virtue of the fact that you're here today,
God don't consider you worthless, amen?
And therefore, because you know you're not worthless,
you should let nobody or nothing trample you on their feet.
Amen.
You are the salt of the earth.
Look what he says in 14, 14.
You are the light of the world, like a city on a hilltop
that cannot, can't nobody hide you.
You fold the shine wherever you go.
Amen.
You cannot be hidden.
He says, now no one lights a lamp and then put it under a basket.
Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand where it gives light
to everyone in the house.
Everybody you come in contact should be exposed to the light
that you carry.
Can I get another amen right there?
In the same way, let your good deed shine out for all to see
so that everyone will praise your heavenly father.
Amen.
You may be seated.
Well, this is going to be our third sermon in the series
that we've entitled, Be a Good Encourager.
And I said that I can imagine because the magnitude of social media
and the platforms that are out there, there are the ability
and the capability for people to flood the airways with content.
And sometimes the content that they put out there may not always be good,
but some is necessarily, are necessarily is good.
But what I want you to see is that when these people get in a position
to be able to influence others by the things they say
and the things they do, we need to understand
that God has given us the same capability to be influencers for him.
You know, in this past week I was just looking out there,
and this is not for the older folks in here, but this is for you
to share with your grandchildren or your children.
You know, because some of our kids are being influenced
by some negative things.
And one of the things I ran across is something called chromium.
And I'm saying what is chromium?
And it has something to do with lead-based paint.
And the chromium that's in the paint, these kids are now sniffing the chromium.
Don't realize that someone is influencing them to do something
that could kill them.
Now, that took me back to my days.
It only did about once or twice.
When we used to put glue in a bag and do the same thing.
The difference is when we did it with two or three in my neighborhood,
we couldn't influence the world.
We just influenced our neighborhood.
But these people now with just one screenshot and one minute on, you know,
on the social media network, they can influence children to start chromium.
The other thing I found out this week is they have a challenge out there
where they're challenging kids to suffocate themselves.
I mean, just hold their breath and put their head in the bag until they just pass out.
Not knowing that someone's going to pass out and they're going to wake up.
But those are the type of things that's out there that's influencing our kids
and young people.
And as good influencers, we need to make sure that we counter all the crazy stuff
that is out there.
God expects us to be influencers in the world that he's placed us in,
whether it's in our families, in our social networks, as well as amongst our friends
and even on our job.
God wants you to be an influencer.
Now, the influence is the capacity to have an effect on the character,
the development, or the behavior of someone or something.
Now, in the past two weeks, we've been looking at this influence thing.
And so for those of you who are new online or in person,
I just said go back and catch part one and part two,
because I think you'll see the connecting dots so that this will make sense to you.
But today, we're going to look at influence from another capacity.
Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 1 through 5, when I get there.
Here we find the apostle Paul was using his influence to encourage the Corinthian church
to follow through on their pledge to give benevolently to the struggling churches
that were in Jerusalem.
And the initial enthusiasm that this church had, I mean, the Corinthian,
they heard the word about supporting the poor churches in Jerusalem.
They got excited.
And they said, man, we're going to do this.
We're going to collect the money.
We're going to send it to them.
But a year later, that excitement had started to die down.
And what he was trying to say is that when you got excited at first,
other churches who didn't even have a means that you have,
because Corinthian church was a well-off church.
It was prestigious.
They had power.
They had a little wealth in there.
And so that's why there were poor churches that heard about them.
And they said, hey, we want to help the poor too.
And now he's saying, if you guys start waffling, you're going to look bad
and make me look bad, because I've been telling everybody about what you plan on doing.
And then all of a sudden now, you don't have a change of heart.
Sometime when it comes to, now this ain't tithing off of them right here.
I'm talking about benevolent giving.
So don't connect this to tithing off of them.
I'm talking about sometime when people have a need,
and you have the capability to meet that need,
then you can be an influencer by doing what God has placed in your heart.
And you can have an influence on the life of that person that you're helping out.
Everything that you have in God has blessed you with is not just for you.
Amen.
And I know sometime we wait till a seasoner to do things charitable,
like making donation to all the funds out there.
That's fine.
But every now and then, you've got to intentionally look for opportunities,
especially if God has blessed you with the means to,
because we're going to see here that giving benevolent is a ministry.
Amen.
And for some of you that is your ministry.
Let me read this.
He says this in verse one.
I really don't need to write to you about the ministry.
Somebody say the ministry.
This ministry of giving for the believers in Jerusalem.
For I know how eager, somebody say eager,
I know how eager you were to help.
And I have been boasting to the churches in Macedonia
that you in Greece were ready to send and offering a year ago.
In fact, it was your enthusiasm, somebody say enthusiasm.
He says it was your enthusiasm that stirred up many of the Macedonian believers
to begin giving.
They didn't even have what you have, but they heard about you doing it.
And because of that, that influence caused them to want to be able to give
and saw it as an honor to be able to give to someone,
to help them out of their situation that may be destroying their lives.
And so when God blessed you, man, and you were able to do something to help somebody,
you ought to see it as an honor.
And if you tell somebody that you're going to help them,
three months later, don't forget about it.
Don't go back on your...
Because when the kingdom of Neville had given, God is not commanding you.
This is something that he placed on your heart to do.
And then as he placed it on your heart, then you got to go forth.
And when you go forth, you got to go forth with the right attitude.
Oh, let me read it out.
So the church in Macedonia believers began to give.
He said, now look, but I am sending these brothers, this verse three,
to be sure you are really, that you really are ready.
As I have began telling them that your money is all collected.
I don't want to be wrong in my boasting about you.
Now that seemed kind of tough.
Oh, look, they put together a little guilt trip.
I don't want to have them told about, you know, you know,
y'all are going to be some big donors.
And then a year later, y'all got amnesia.
And you know, I put y'all on a pedestal, I lift y'all up.
I, you know, I kind of gave y'all good honor
because you were serving God with your abilities to give.
And then all of a sudden now, a year later, you got second thoughts.
Man, I got to talk to you.
I got to encourage you.
Don't forget that your word means something.
Amen.
Now he's talking to the Corinthians.
He, you know, he ain't talking to you, so you ain't got to look so serious.
But, but just in case your word is out there,
you need to make good what you said.
So that's my job today is I'm not trying to embarrass you
because I didn't put your word out there.
I didn't put you out there.
But maybe if I had hurt you and I knew you said it
and the Lord break you to my spirit, then I got to come talk to you.
And say, you got to keep your.
Get real quiet right there.
Let me move on.
He says we would be embarrassed not to mention your own embarrassment.
If some Macedonian believers came with me and found that you weren't ready.
After all I had told them, good God, mighty man.
One, I just bring brother, you know, bring brother JP with me.
And I don't told him how good y'all are.
And you're but never offered.
And he showed up and y'all ain't even got the money ready.
I know talking about money squirm is in church.
But the Bible talk about it.
And you have the resources sometime to be able to bless others.
And when you are in that position, you ought to see it as your.
Minister.
Look at this.
And this is the key part I want you to catch.
So I thought I should send these brothers ahead.
This was five of me to make sure the gift you promised is ready.
The gift you promised.
There are a lot of things we make promises toward.
And therefore we make those promises.
We need to be ready to fulfill the promise.
Amen.
Now the next sentence to start with but.
But let you off the hook.
Because he was kind of coming at him hard.
Tell him embarrassed.
You gonna be embarrassed.
Now he said but.
But gonna let some of y'all off the hook.
He says but I want it to be a willing gift.
You got the resources.
But now you must be.
Not one gradually.
Not one given gradually.
In other words, if you're not willing, don't do it.
Because if you're doing it gradually,
you're going to be resented the fact that you did it.
And all you're going to die gave.
Y'all don't hurt me say this before.
Keep it.
If you're going to complain and groan about it, just keep it.
And the person ain't going to be blessed when they hear you
grumbling and complaining.
Because you had to share your wealth and give them $100.
Now you're going to throw that away on something else anyway.
So your heart got to be right even when it comes to giving.
Give from the right heart.
Even when you're given to your children.
Give from the right heart.
Don't make them think that you're giving to them grudgingly.
The minute you give it to them, they got to hear you complain.
I could have did that with that.
I could have.
And I hope your children turn around and look at you
and say, you should have just kept it.
I hope they listen to me today.
So when you hear your mommas and dad talk like that after they
gave you a loud, you just tell them, just keep it.
I go out here and cut some grass before I let you act like that
when your gift is supposed to be willing.
You gave it to me because you were.
I'm just telling you what the word says.
Now let me move on.
I know that we're going to go over too well.
So let me go over to influence and relationship.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 7.
I knew that part was going to be some tough slaying through that.
But that's OK.
I got through it now.
It's on your heart.
Some of you got the gift.
You just need to start walking in that gift, amen?
I almost said, if you know you got the gift, just say amen.
You can't say it by yourself.
So we can identify all these folks who are sitting on that.
I can almost look around here and look and just say, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, you got it.
Now I just need to encourage you to give it willingly.
I didn't have you in my notes.
So don't get upset.
I just did that on the spur of the moment.
But you know.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 7, we want
to talk about influence and relationship.
Now Wednesday night, we're just going
to be on this chapter in Bible study.
So I have to go deeper there.
But here I just want to hit one part of it.
In this chapter, what we talk about relationships,
it's like if you are married or in a relationship with someone
who is not saved, you have to use your influence
to affect their salvation.
Now Paul had been asked a question about marriage
and in the first part of this chapter,
and he made it known that if it was up to him,
all of y'all would be sell-a-ma.
Amen.
You know, because he saw sell-a-ma as a gift.
And so he was wise enough to know everybody
ain't got that gift.
Somebody say amen.
Y'all got you.
I know you ain't got that gift.
If you had sex before, I know you ain't got that.
Y'all ain't got to get quiet.
That's what's sell-a-ma.
So he was encouraging him, saying, look here,
if you know you can't remain that way,
then it's better for you to get married so you don't burn.
With your lust.
I mean, because you know to eat you up
if it ain't a gift.
That's why in the Catholic Church,
priests take vows of celibacy.
They feel like that's a calling.
That's a gift.
And Paul said, I know who live in Corinth.
I know what y'all do down there.
I know what y'all come out of.
I know how y'all even worship in Corinth.
So for me to think that all you guys gonna live celibate,
I'll be out of my mind.
But if by chance you do get married,
and you marry somebody that is an unbeliever,
you just can't haul off and leave because you don't got say.
Now ideally, in a perfect world, two Christians
would meet each other, same value system,
and say, hey, we're going to get married,
and we know it locked in.
But in the world that we live in,
a spiritual checklist is not often run before we marry.
We run the physical checklist.
And so sometimes the physical checklist
get us hooked up with some folks' spiritual
that we don't connect with.
But when that union has taken place,
God see marriage so serious, he said,
once you have made that vow, that commitment to that,
you need to hang in there, even though the person that you
married is not saved.
And now it's your responsibility
to try to win them over by how you act.
If you're dating someone, this message is for you.
And look, you need to find all this out before you get married.
Find out what your fiance or your boyfriend, girlfriend,
or whoever is before.
Ask the tough questions before.
And if you're dating someone that's not saved,
you already on shaky ground.
Because now you're unequally yoke to somebody.
Now if you know that on the front end,
you really need to be serious before you go
prancing down the aisle.
Because once you take the vows, that's a promise there to know.
To death to us.
So if you're going to make that level of commitment,
you need to check them out on the front end.
But just in case you're married, now you're
going to have to hang in there as long as that unbeliever
want to stay with you.
Whether they come to church, whether they even watch it,
or they're on the line, whether they even
say grace over their food.
Y'all got to come back on Wednesday when we get in.
I can go deeper.
But look here.
I'm going to start at verse 7.
I mean verse 12.
So he says this, now I will speak to the rest of you,
though I did not have a direct command from the Lord.
If a Christian man has a wife who is not a believer,
and she is willing, somebody say willing,
does that word again, willing to continue living with him,
he must not leave.
Even though some better come back, then look better.
There ain't spiritual debate.
Doesn't look better.
Since you ain't saved, I'm finna just go trade in
and get another model.
Paul said you can't do that.
You in it for the long haul, because you made a vow to God.
Amen?
Now look, if a Christian woman has a husband who is not
a believer, and he is willing to continue living with her,
she must not leave.
Somebody say you're stuck.
Paul said you're stuck.
Keep praying.
Keep believing.
Keep living right before him, and hope
you're going to get some good results.
Because unless you got grounds, you just,
you're not the man you set fire to.
I know you're not going to agree with that debate
because divorce is so easy to come by.
I mean, it don't take less than 30 days for something,
you go in the state of Florida, you
fill out a little package, and 30 days later,
you can be single.
If y'all ain't fighting each other.
But because man's law allow you to wiggle out
or something that quick, God say he still see that as serious.
It is so serious that he will ask a believer
to stay connected to a non-believer,
believing that that believer can influence that non-believer
to accept Jesus.
This making any sense to anybody?
So look at this.
Verse 14, for the Christian wife bring holiness to her marriage,
and the Christian husband bring holiness to his marriage.
Otherwise, your children would not be holy.
But now they are holy.
One person in a marriage has enough influence
to make the whole family holy.
And God say it's worth it for you to stay there
because you can have an impact on the people that's
in your family right now, and you
have the potential to allow them to accept salvation.
One person.
You may be that person in your household right now.
You sit in the picture, your children are here,
your husband here, your wife in here, but you here.
And you're supposed to be that influence
to go back to your circle of people
and try your best to live before them in a way that
will make them want to accept Jesus.
Amen.
Now, let me be clear here.
This ain't got nothing to do with abuse.
And you married to a fool.
Because if you married to a fool,
he beat you up every weekend and all that craziness.
And I don't think God wants you to be no punching bag.
So I'm talking about, bro, just ain't the church type guy.
He just rather sit at home and every night then just
have a corona and wait for you to get home.
But he work hard, meet all your needs.
You're stuck.
Y'all got me laughing right there.
Boy, y'all can see y'all faces right now.
But anyway, let me be normal.
Now, in verse 15, he says, but if the husband or wife who
isn't a believer insists on leaving, somebody say insists,
in other words, they demand.
I want out.
I'm just tired of you.
He said, let them.
So if you married to somebody like that,
and they insist, hey, I'm tired of you, I'd rather go.
I'm tired of this.
Jesus, you, every Sunday you come on,
trying to win me over.
Show me what pastor talked about this.
We got notes for me.
Look here.
I want out of here.
OK, buddy.
I got to let you.
I finally let you go.
Because I want to hold on to my peace.
Look at this.
He said, let them go.
In such case, the Christian husband or wife
is no longer bound to the other.
For God has called you to live in man and marriage.
You ought to have a little bit of peace in your house every day,
all the time.
Nobody want to be in a relationship where there is no
always war and always fight.
No.
But if you married to an unbeliever and you go home
and ask peace, praise God.
I would love it if you would come to fellowship with me
and go here with me.
But look here.
When I'm at home with you, I get.
So you want to live in peace.
Amen.
Now look here.
This is the question that kind of caught my attention.
He says, don't you wives realize that your husband might
be saved because of you?
And don't you husband realize that your wives might be saved
because of you have influence to be able to turn your family,
to turn your husband or your wife into a direction that
will lead them to Jesus?
But the key thing is you got to live right before them.
You can't come off up in here and be holy and go home
and cut in the food.
Praise the Lord.
Glad to see you today.
May the Lord be with you.
Sounds good in here.
But when you get home, you ain't do this.
And man, you should have did that.
I thought I'd talk.
That ain't the way you suppose that.
Man or woman, baby, I've been to church.
Had a good time.
Baby, I love you.
I'm just glad to be back home with you.
What do you want to do today?
Whatever you want to do, I'm here to satisfy you
because I want some peace.
Y'all come on Wednesday night.
He even worse than that on Wednesday night.
This is just on the top, sir.
I'll tell you.
Man, this marriage thing is serious.
And some of you, we got children who
are about to make that decision.
You need to have them to read this before they go down now.
Because once they commit, God see it as a lifelong commitment.
Well, let's go see how Peter addressed this.
And first Peter, this is the last time I know this marriage
thing when we're going to go too good.
Let me get out in front of this one right here.
Please don't put your guard up when I read this.
Don't put your guard up.
Don't fight this part of the scripture right here.
Please don't do it.
I ain't got nothing to do with the fact
that God got an order for his family.
Order.
I can't help it.
That in his eyes, he see the man as the head of the Ingaus eye.
I know you make more money than he does.
Got a better education.
That's OK.
You got peace with him?
Yeah.
But let him have the authority that God give him.
Because in God's eye, he is the authority figure
of the household.
And I told you a couple of weeks ago,
you just need to be a good influencer of the person
who got the authority.
And if you have influence over him,
his authority become your.
You ain't got to fight him for it.
Just influence him.
And he going to listen to you.
He is wired to listen to you.
Your forefather, Adam, listen to Eve.
Your great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great,
great granddad Abraham.
Listen to Sarah.
Both of them knew exactly what God said.
But when the women and their wives got in the ear,
they forgot what God said.
So ladies, I'm here to inspire you.
You have influence over your husband.
Just let him run around thinking the power range
for a little bit, give him the power.
Cause we gon' trip on it.
I told you this three weeks ago,
we gon' trip on that power thing, give him the power.
As long as he ain't abusing this power,
you gon' be all right.
You gotta trust God now there.
As long as he's not abusing it,
they'll make you a step stool,
don't make you a slave,
don't make you inferior to him.
So if you married to a man and he's not abusing his power,
let him exercise his authority in the relationship.
I know it's hard, I know it's hard.
What?
God said that, not Pastor Boulder.
Can I read this now?
Now even though this principle is aimed right at women,
it is also applicable to relationships in general.
If you're married to a non-believer,
you gotta be that influencer.
But here the issue with women,
because it looked like a lot of the women got saved
before their husband did.
I think they play out a lot today.
Lady Jeanette was serious about God before I was.
Amen.
I mean, I was gambling on Sunday
when she was going to church.
So eventually, she won the day.
And I ended up in church.
And from that, I'm here standing and teaching y'all.
From gambling to preacher.
Yes.
All because of the influence
of a woman who put up with me
until I decided to start following her to church.
So look at this, so she had to live this.
Verse three in first Peter chapter three,
he says, in the same way,
you wives must, someone say must,
accept the authority of your husband.
Not might, not shall, must.
He is the authority figure.
Ladies, can I get amen?
I didn't hear that that loud.
Anyone over here, one of them.
Can the married ladies just say amen?
Amen, y'all just saying God, I agree with you.
I know sometimes it's hard to accept the authority
if you're married to a dictator.
But here he ain't talking about Edie I mean.
He talking about a guy who still provides peace for you.
Amen, and so he says, you must accept the authority
of your husband, not every man that come in your life,
but your husband.
Then even if some husband refused to obey the good news,
your godly life will speak to them without any words.
See the question is after you leave church
and you go home to your unsafe husband,
how do you speak?
Or you go home to your unsafe wife, how do you speak?
Do you speak to them in a godly way
that will influence them to they want to be
and have what you have?
How do you speak?
Because if we live before them in a godly way,
righteous, trying our best to be holy,
trying to be, you know, not living a morally impure life
before them.
He says, you can win them over without any words.
You know, that means that you can go home and just be silent
and do what you're supposed to do
in accordance with your position in the family.
You ain't got to say a whole lot.
And ladies, I know I don't want to be critical right here
because I know y'all are gonna come at me hard
because we live in a different generation
that women just don't accept this today.
I got it, I got you, I feel you, I get you.
But look at here, many words don't move a man.
You can't.
Get me here, get me here, get me here.
You move a man by going home and rubbing his head.
Baby, look here, you're the best thing
that ever happened to me.
I mean, I don't know where I would be without you.
We've been in this thing for 20 years.
I'm just so, I'm just so glad
that the Lord brought you my life.
Then now when you ask the brother to do something,
you may get some result.
You just can't come out of hard.
Because when you do, we see that as challenging authority.
And when you come out of authority hard,
authority gotta exert its power.
I knew this wasn't gonna go over,
but this is talked about influence.
I knew it was gonna be tough when I was writing this down.
I said, they ain't gonna like this,
but this is what you say, God.
Couple of times.
So he says, without a word,
they will be won over by observed.
Up.
That mean you can win a mother without even running your mouth.
They can just up.
But we think that I gotta tell them, no,
you just gotta do it.
And let them see you, do what you say you are.
And when they see that, they will come to you.
But you can't go home and become another character
after you leave here.
Amen.
Can I read that again?
He said, then it will be some refuse.
Then if some refuse to obey the good news,
your godly lives will speak to them.
Without any word.
See the problem is we wanna speak from the fact
that I went to church.
I'm godly, I went to church today, you didn't even go.
It's evident that church didn't make you godly.
Because you come home talking like you are.
You been sitting right here watching this all day?
You know, yeah, you see him sitting there,
so you ain't gotta state that.
Leave out the obvious.
Encourage him.
Or encourage him, because you hear me,
I'm gonna marry somebody that later
don't like to go to church.
But I found in our culture, 90% of the time,
it's the bruzz, the bruzz.
Just take a long time for the bruzz
to feel Jesus like you feel him.
But you gotta live before him in a righteous and godly way
and trust God will change his heart.
Amen.
It ain't time for you to talk about incompatibility.
Incompatibility is not grounds for divorce.
I know some of y'all may disagree, but I'm just saying,
I ain't talking about abuse, I ain't talking about all this other stuff.
I'm just talking about, you know, he likes fishing,
I like gardening.
Okay.
We just ain't compatible in that area.
But y'all got fire too.
You got a good one.
There is some compatibility somewhere.
Oh, let me move on, because I know I'm messing around,
I know, but see, sometimes you have to tell her like it is.
So without a word, they will be won over
by observing your pure and reverent lives.
The way you live can influence your spouse.
Amen.
And that's so important for us as Christians, the way we live
can influence the world.
We're going to look at that a little bit more next week,
but today I want to end with this in 1 Peter chapter 2.
And so husband, I invite y'all to go back and read all of 1 Peter chapter 3.
Read the whole thing, because he said something to the man in there also.
And go back and read that whole Corinthian passage.
So you can really get a clear understanding of how God sees marriage
and how he wants you to make sure that you do everything that you can
to stay in a relationship that you in, unless there's some craziness going on.
Amen.
Patsy Bowling is not one of those guys who, I'm not an old schooler.
Honey, just stay with him.
One day, he going to change.
You know, I don't get hit five weeks in a row.
I'm going to put some distance between me and him until he stop, hit four.
So I'm not talking about if you're in an abusive relationship.
I'm talking about if you're in a relationship where, you know,
you and your husband just don't agree all the time on something.
No abuse, no mental abuse, no physical abuse,
not all that stuff that's messing with your head.
I'm just talking about the stuff to just get on your nerve
that don't mess your head up because you still act the way you act.
I know this quiet thing about marriage, man, but marriage is serious.
You know, brother Latham got something going on.
We've been talking about it in the church and I guarantee you,
if you listen to some of the class he got, he going to read these same scripture to you.
And for hundreds of years, this scripture has been debated
about that word authority and roles in the family.
It's even more so contested down because women are more educated than men now.
There are more women on college campuses than men.
Women are getting better jobs than men.
Ain't nothing wrong with that.
It's a good thing to change.
But because our culture change and allow that,
it don't change the roles in the family.
You make 100K plus a year, he makes 50.
When you come on, he's still the authority figure.
Don't flaunt your stacks.
And think because you got the stacks and the racks
that you can call all the shots.
No, no, no.
If he's capable, you got to let him be the authority figure, ladies.
I would say, if I was on social media, I'd say, if you disagree with me and got some heartburn
with it, just hit me up on my social.
But I ain't got no social.
You can't.
So don't be sending me no text.
You got my phone, don't be sending me no text.
Just read the passage.
Amen.
First Peter chapter two, we almost done.
First Peter chapter two.
Here as Christian, we should influence non-believers by honorable behavior.
So just like in the family, then also when we're out in the community in our area of
influence, we got to be able to influence people by our honorable behavior.
When we act in a way that is pleasing to God, when we act with integrity, when we live
like we're at righteous life, when we strive to be holy, our honorable behavior.
Your honorable behavior will be able to help you when folks start lying on you.
All right.
Y'all in the first Peter chapter two?
Look at this verse now.
He says, but you are not like that, talking to these new believers, for you are a chosen
people.
Man, you got to know who you are.
You got to know who represents you.
Then you tell them, you are royal priests, a holy nation, God's own possession.
In other words, when I know who I am, even though this goes back to Israel, but because
we are children of God, this also apply to us.
He wasn't talking to Jews when he wrote this.
They were talking to a young church that was believers that were not necessarily in Jerusalem,
were not necessarily Jews.
And so therefore he's telling them, look, you got to know who you are.
You are chosen people.
You are not just anybody.
God chose you.
You're a royal priest.
The reason he would say that now to them because they, in the oil system, only the priest could
do certain things.
Now you're part of a priesthood because of what Jesus did.
You can go to the altar for yourself.
You got to really hate my status and my station in life where God has changed all because
of what Jesus did.
And now I realize who I am.
Man, I'm royalty.
I'm part of a royal priesthood.
I belong to God.
He paid for me with a price that I couldn't pay.
Then he says, as a result, you can show others the goodness of God.
I'm going to tie this back to what I've been talking about.
Husband, wife, when you go home, you got to know you're part of a royal priesthood.
You belong to God.
And as a result, you can show your husband or your wife the goodness.
So when you go home today, when you get with your husband and your wife, they hear with
you, and you get to say, baby, I'm just here to show you something.
And then all you got to do is say, baby, what does goodness look like to you?
Let them define it for you.
Jesse, you ain't married.
These are just pointers for you, man.
I see you back there smiling.
I hope you're getting it.
He said, we got to show them the goodness of God, for he called you out of darkness into
his wonderful life.
You got to be the light when you go home.
He says, now look, once you had no identity as the people, now you are God's people.
Once you received no mercy, now you have received God's mercy.
Man, God was compassionate toward me, so he expects us to be compassionate toward others.
We know who we are now.
Once we had no identity, but now we have been brought into his family.
We know who we are as children of God.
He says, now look, dear friends, verse 11, I warn you as temporary residents and foreigners,
you on earth, to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your soul.
Now it's important, all worldly desires are not necessarily bad.
Ain't that wrong with you desiring a nice job, or a nice car, a nice house?
Ain't that wrong.
That's a good one.
A worldly desire for that, a nice house, a nice job.
You went to college, you ought to be desiring that.
But the key is, do worldly desires war against your soul?
So he says, you got to keep away from worldly desires that war against your very soul.
Things that come into your life that don't bring you the peace that you're looking for,
that don't bring you the joy.
Things that come in your life that want to turn you away from who you believe, that is
trying to rob you of your very soul.
And now I'm telling you that, he said they wage a war against you.
And so those worldly desires that you know that a wage a war against you, you got to
turn away from them then.
Amen.
Because if those worldly desires are negative influences, then you're never going to be
able to win the person over that you're living with.
Because they're going to use those worldly desires against you.
How can you come and talk to me about that?
And you've been in church all day and now you come and act like.
You say these desires, the things that we maybe want sometimes that we don't need, the
desires, you got to determine in your mind when you feel your soul is being vexed by
something that's worldly.
You got to know that when you get uncomfortable with certain things you want to do and your
soul start to cry out to you.
You got to say, hey, whatever this is, this is warring against something on the inside
of me and I got to do everything in my power not to do it.
Verse 12, last one.
He says, be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors.
Then, even if they accuse you of doing wrong.
They will see, not hear.
We can all talk it.
They will see your honorable behavior and they will give honor to God when he judges
the world.
There are some people that's in your circle of influence that is not saved but it's up
to you to live honorable before them.
To live like a person of integrity with high moral character.
When you live like that before them, then when someone accuse you of something that
don't line up with your character, God going to come to battle for you.
So we have an obligation as believers to try to have that influence over family and friends
who are not believers.
Because we know who we are now and we know that if they would accept Jesus Christ as
Lord and Savior, they may not realize it right now but over time they will see that that's
a relationship that's worth being in.
And it start with you.
Start with your households.
Start with your own family members.
If your witness don't stand up before your children, it ain't going to stand up before
somebody you don't know out in the world when you're trying to witness to them.
And our hope that we live before our children in a way that they don't think we're frauds.
Well, we act honorable from 10 to 12 on Sunday, but in 1215 we transform.
So our attitude, now conduct all have an impact and have the ability to influence people.
So every now and then you got a lot of Holy Spirit to just check you when you get outside
of who God has called you to be.
The Bible says you have been called out of darkness.
You're not to go back in the darkness and act like you are still.
You're there to shine the light on the darkness so that they can see the change that God has
put in your life.
How your life has been totally transformed by the word of God.
All of your influences in one way or another.
And I just pray today that you are a good influencer and not a bad influencer.
Amen.
Give the Lord a hand to praise.
Hallelujah.
Alrightify.