09/19/2021 – Midtown Church – Sac
Essentials – Getting to the Core of the Christian Life:
Claiming Your Identity: Understanding Your Purpose
Week 2 – Pastor Bob Balian
Living Godly Lives in a Pagan Culture
Difficult Texts:
Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority…
1 Peter 2:13 (NIV)Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters…
1 Peter 2:18 (NIV)
All of these texts have to be read through a filter. The filter is DESCRIPTIVE, not Prescriptive.
“Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away. Look, all things have become new.”
2 Corinthians 5:17 (MEV)
Claiming your True Identity with these 4 Essentials:
1.) You Have Christ
Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—
1 Peter 2:1–4 (NIV)
2.) You Have Community
…you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:5 (NIV)
3.) You Have A Calling
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
1 Peter 2:9-10 (NIV)
4.) You Have A Cause
Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
1 Peter 2:11-12 (NIV)
Thank you for joining us for church!
Check out some upcoming events here at Midtown and email yourself notes below:
Next Elk Grove Service: With Pastor Bob Balian
Next Weekend: Online / Sac Campus