“God is more interested in our holiness than in our comfort” –D.A. Carson.

With all that’s transpiring in America, sin being brought to light, innocent lives being snuffed out, evil growing by leaps and bounds our heads are spinning, yet we scream for what makes us comfortable. Let me explain! Many of these evils have been downplayed and even overlooked for decades! The problem: people would rather ignore unholiness rather than be made to feel uncomfortable, hearing the truth!

The Bible calls the Christian “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession” (1 Peter 2:9). And as such, we are to be promoting holiness and exposing the lie, the sin, and elevating righteousness. To be sure, representing Christ will be uncomfortable, and inconvenient, it will certainly set us against the culture, and probably be very costly. No matter how uncomfortable it is, Christ-followers are to be sharing Christ and bringing the message of salvation to the nations. And maybe we have but the problem is our words of advertisement aren’t matching a walk of agreement!

The following is taken from a sermon our pastor preached on January 29, 2017:

The early Christians to whom Peter is writing in 1 Peter would have already violated/been at odds with a number of cultured norms in their own generation: marriage, parenting, virtues, humility – Rome thought it was weakness to show humility, but Christians choose to mirror humility since God the Son possessed this chief attribute.

Early believers reading this letter disobeyed various aspects of the Twelve Tables of Roman Law (legislation that stood at the           foundation of Roman law) and especially one that decreed: “Deformed infants shall be killed.” The Romans believed in order to keep their blood-line superior, deformed infants weren’t given a chance to live. Abortion and infanticide were rampant. Pastor Davey, on January 29, 2017, states: “We haven’t gotten there yet, [and] I hope we never do!”

The value of human life is raised by the presence of the gospel and in its absence, human life becomes worthless. People are used by those who have greater power or authority. The Church is to be different than the world.

Our words of advertisement should match a walk of agreement!

Alvin J. Schmidt in his historical book, “How Christianity Changed the World,” catalogued this: “In AD 379, Church leaders publicly condemned the practice of selling aborted babies to the manufactures of beauty cream.

Listen, the gospel doesn’t just elevate the value of human life: it means for those of you who wear [Christian] on your sleeve, you’re going to be at odds with your culture. No matter what country you’re in, at some point it’s going to be obvious; your interests are different, your laws, your customs are different. And Peter writes, it ought to be because    YOU are a holy nation! Notice that he doesn’t say,

• You [the Church] are a wealthy nation

• You [the Church] are an appreciated nation

• You [the Church] are a protected nation

No, he says, you are a HOLY NATION! Which means you are going to be different.

Our words of advertisement should match a walk of agreement!

We are people of God’s private collection. We are His treasure, purchased by the costly blood of Jesus, “So that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him Who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). The word proclaim means “to advertise!” We are to be part of an advertising campaign, not for exalting ourselves, but for exalting HIM, and for talking about HIM! Our advertising campaign should declare that HE IS ABLE to do heroic deeds!

            —–Pastor Stephen Davey, Sermon Series: In Pursuit of Holiness – 1 Peter 2:9-10

Being a treasured people and one day reigning with our Savior demands living a holy life now. Advertising the heroic deeds of our Lord and Savior Who bought us out of darkness into the light may be uncomfortable, but Jesus Christ didn’t seek comfort when he came to this earth and died in our place. Our walk needs to match our words of Advertisement!  

What does your advertising campaign look like?