A JESUS GUY

Discovering yourself

Protect your identity

   My prayer and hope is for each of you to become true sojourners: each of us as Christians are called to be sojourners but most of us are doing a bad job of it because we do not understand who we are and what our mission is.

I.                    You will be a sojourner : 1Peter 2:11-12

1.      When you live a life defined by God: meaning you fear God more than you fear man.

·         Recap last week’s lesson(see yellow notes)

·         When you live a life defined by God many of the people around you will not be happy with you, you will become an exile, a sojourner(vs.11)

·         This is what the Christian walk is all about, being defined by something different, not accepting the cultural norms that define the people around us but pointing them to the reason for the difference in you. The cross

·         Jesus did not die so that we could fit in comfortably with the culture, He died so that we could bring the influence and truth of the gospel into that culture and win some people into the kingdom of God.

·         A sojourner lives in the culture that God places him/her in as a missionary both to speak the truth of the gospel and to live it out in their everyday lives. You are a living testament to the saving power of the cross.

·         People should look into your life and see something different and wonder what it is and find that the difference is the joy and peace of Jesus.

·         Will you say: I will be a sojourner, I will be defined by God not by the pressures and influence of this world. I am a citizen of heaven not of earth

2.      When “they speak evil against you”, not “if” and you stand.(I Peter 2:12)

·         Not for your own glory but for the glory of God.

·         As a sojourner people will try to speak evil against you and try to knock you down

·         Why? Because they want to see you fall, knock you down and steal your identity. They do not want you to live a countercultural life and be different, they want you to fall back in line and be ok with losing your soul.

·         Jesus asks us to stand in culture yet stand against its flow so that some who are caught up in its current may see your good deeds and glorify the Father. What an awesome calling and tremendous privilege.(have you ever stood in the ocean and tried to walk against a rip tide current or severe undertow?)