Turn to first Peter chapter one as we continue first Peter chapter one. Amen. In a little bit, we're going to be over at Philippians chapter two. So, if you want to find Philippians chapter two as well. Amen.

Good morning, little John. Hi, there. Alright. So, first Peter chapter one, as I said, in just a few minutes, we'll be over Philippians two. If you want to go ahead and find that.

Once you find those, I'd like, if you would, if you could look back up at the screen here, It's a little less blinding than the light shining off my forehead. The I had to replace one of these spotlights. It was out. It may have been more pleasant while it was out to look this direction. I don't know but Psalm one zero four thirty one.

Psalm one hundred four thirty one is a verse up there on the screen. At least it should be. The glory of the Lord shall endure forever. The Lord shall rejoice in his works. The Lord shall rejoice in his works.

Let's go to Lord in prayer and we'll come back to that. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for all your wonderful works including your church and your people and Lord, we thank you that we are part of that work and we pray Lord that as we worship you today that you would rejoice in us, that we would bring glory to your name. We pray not only that we would do so here but we would do so as we leave this place in just a bit. Lord, help us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and the joy that is set before us to bring glory to the name of our creator and our savior. In Jesus name, amen.

The Lord made you That means you are his work. The Lord made you so that he would have reason to rejoice in his work in you. There's a song I sing play guitar with. Maybe I'll do it sometime before we're done here. It's entitled He's Still Working on Me and praise the Lord.

He hasn't given up on me. He's still working on me until the day before I day I stand before him complete in heaven. He is a patient God. He is a merciful God. He is a loving God.

Is it not wonderful to know him? But you are his work and are we giving him reason to rejoice in his works in us? Are you giving him reason? According to Ephesians two ten, you are his workmanship for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus under good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. You are Christ's handiwork.

You are his masterpiece and he desires to be glorified and to rejoice in you. And he deserves to be glorified and to rejoice in everyone of his children whom he has made and whom he is saved. As he molds us and makes us into the image of his son, Jesus Christ. As that sculptor is making that sculpture and he sees it starting to come together. Do you think it brings rejoicing to his heart?

I think it does and as he finishes that thing, it it it brings glory to its maker. Oh, God is sculpting us. He is molding us and making us and as he does so, it rejoices his heart. And as we yield to his hand, to his molding touch in our life. It will bring even greater rejoicing to our Lord in heaven.

In first Corinthians ten thirty one in Matthew five sixteen, it says there, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God to bring glory to God. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven. One of the ways that we can bring honor, bring glory to our father in heaven that we can give him pleasure, that we can be reason for rejoicing is by being holy. Look if you would first Peter chapter one and we'll begin in verse 14 again. First Peter one fourteen, as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust and your ignorance or as Paul said in Romans 12 verse two, be not conformed to what?

This world. Don't be molded back into the image of the world. Christ saved us. We might be molded instead into the image of who? In the image of Jesus Christ.

So, don't go back to those old ways. There's a new way. There's a better way. There's a wonderful way in Christ Jesus. Verse 15, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be you holy in all manner of conversation.

That word man, all manner of conversation means every aspect of life, every aspect of life. The word conversation in 1611 was a little broader in meaning than our word conversation today which just means what we say. It means your behavior, your lifestyle, your conduct. So, God wants us to be holy which means more like him. In every aspect of our life because it is written, be you holy for I am holy.

A holy God desires holiness for his children. Does that seem odd to you? That a holy God desires holiness for his children? Doesn't seem odd to me. Do you desire for your children to be more like you particularly in the good ways?

I'm sure you do. God desires for his children to be like him. More holy. He desires that we reflect his holy character in every aspect of our lives so that others will see him in us. He wants other people to see him in us.

You see, Jesus when he was done with his ministry, when he died on the cross, risen from the dead, where did he go? He went back to heaven and he told his disciples before he went back there. He says, the father has sent me so send I you. We are his hands and his feet and his mouthpiece in this world today. He deserves to be glorified in us.

And others are only going to see him in who? In us. In the life that we live and the words that we say and the message that we bring. I, another song I used to listen to when I was a teenager was entitled, you're the only Jesus some will ever see. You're the only Jesus some will ever see.

You're the only words of life some will ever read. So, let them see in you the one in whom is all they'll ever need because you're the only Jesus that some will ever see. So, let them see him in you. That is what God desires for his children. That we be more holy, that we reflect the holiness of our our God out into a dark world that needs him.

We must therefore learn how to be more holy, more to be set apart from the sinful ways of the world around us, to be salt and light. For our maker, our redeemer, to bring glory and praise to his name. We do so through our faith. The just shall live by what? Faith and God is magnified as others recognize that our faith is real.

Christians, our lives should reap with faith. And it may seem odd to others around us that we live by a different principle than them. For we walk by faith and not by sight. But it will bring glory to our God. Our affections and lusts, our desires should be different than the world around us.

In Galatians five twenty four, it says, and they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust rather than being driven by the lust of the flesh by temptation and sin in our life, by selfishness greed. Our life should demonstrate a different desire, a desire to please our maker which is in heaven. To walk in the spirit that we should not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Number three, our dealings with others. Our our we should be more holy in our dealings with others than the world around us.

We we should be honest. You know, I mean, now, that that's an obvious one, isn't it? But it's one that we fudge on and we shouldn't. Because it distracts from his glory. When we say, well, everybody else is doing it.

So, I'll do it too. We need to be more honest, more loving, and kind. We need to be peacemakers and not troublemakers. We need to have a different attitude when it comes to authorities. When we deal with authorities in our life, are we submissive and respectful?

Should we be? Yes, we should be. Is the world generally? No, not so much. That's when our light shines.

It says here in Hebrews thirteen seven, obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you. What is God desire that we submit to our authorities? When we submit to our authorities, whose authority are we really submitting to? We're really submitting to God's authority in our life. In James four seven, it says, submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

How does that formula start? It starts with submitting ourselves to who? To God. If we submit ourselves to God, we put ourselves under the umbrella of his authority and blessing and protection, the devil's going to have an awful hard time with us because he's going to have a hard time getting to us through who? Through God.

So, submit yourselves therefore to God. Obey the rulers of our land. Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Wives, submit to your husbands. I didn't get to this last week.

But it says here in Ephesians five twenty two, wives submit yourselves under your own husbands as under the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject under Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands and everything. And so, you scratch your head and go, what does that mean? And you say, well, Paul's culture was different than our culture.

Is that true? Was his culture a little different than our culture? Yeah. It was true. His culture was different than our so, therefore, because his culture was different from ours, then, we'll just do like we we showed last week and we'll just take the the Bible and we'll just, you know, cut that little part out because it doesn't apply, right?

Now, it doesn't apply anymore because our culture has changed. Does it still apply? Yeah. It does still apply. We need to figure out how it applies.

The answer isn't cutting the parts of scripture out we don't understand. The challenge is to figure out how it applies to us today. The principles of God's word are what? They're eternal. We can't just cut them out.

God desires in every age for husbands to be loving leaders. It makes it difficult for husbands to be loving leaders if their wives are not cooperative partners in that. That never meant they were not equal. But it means that they are different. It means that God has different roles for us in different areas and aspects of life.

We don't just take the parts of scripture out we don't like. We figure out how they apply to us today. And then finally, Christians should submit or be subject. The Bible says to one another. That is a choice to place yourself and your desires and rank or priority under the needs of others.

Even a good leader is a good what? Servant. Good servant. And places the needs and to an certain extent the wants of those he leads above his own. A good leader is one who cares for those whom he leads and he places their needs above his own.

That is the example that Christ set for us. As he submitted to the authority of his father in heaven which if we have time, we'll come back to or that part maybe next week. But number four, today, not only our dealings with others but also we need to be holy in our attitudes, in our attitudes and I think this is one thing that we struggle with is our attitude. I don't know about you but there have been many times that I have struggled with my attitude. You know, somebody doesn't treat me the way I think I ought to be treated and I and what do you get?

What's your attitude get like? Well, how are Grumble and you complain and and this didn't work out the way it was supposed to and and and when I was a youth pastor, I was a youth pastor for twelve years. We'd have youth activities and some of the teens would come excited and boy, it could be the dumbest activity that ever was and they would have a wonderful time and then there's others that would come you know, and it didn't matter what we were doing. They just were not going to have what? A good time.

What was the difference? Their attitude. Does your attitude matter? Of course, it does. Does it matter to God?

Of course, it does. Do others see it? Oh, yes, they do. You may think they don't but they do. They recognize our attitude and attitude goes a long way.

Much of what happens in our life is dependent more upon our attitude than it is the circumstances of life. And over the next couple of weeks, we're going to look at, we may take a week off for Easter but we're going to look at four different attitudes. That is Christians, we should have. Four different attitudes. Remember, we start out this morning with I read from Philippians two five.

Let this mind or this attitude be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. What kind of attitudes did Christ have? Well, the first attitude or or spirit that I want to look at that belongs in the life of a Christian this morning. Is a faithful spirit. A faithful spirit.

One of the ways you can display the holiness of God is in keeping a faithful heart. First Corinthians four two. Moreover, it was required in stewards that a man be found what? Faithful. That a man be found, that a person, that a servant, that a child, be found faithful.

It doesn't use the word servant there. It's not servant in the Greek either. It's a very specific word, the word steward. A steward is not just a servant. It is a servant to whom something valuable has been entrusted.

A steward is a servant to whom something of great value has been entrusted. Let's say that you have a bunch of money and that you hire a broker and that you turn over the investing of your money to the broker. That broker has become in a manner of speaking a steward of your money. You are entrusting them to invest it correctly so that you gain money and you don't lose it all. That's kind of what a steward is.

What is the most important attitude and track record to look for in someone to whom you are going to entrust your most precious possessions? What attitude? What spirit? What track record would you be looking for first in someone to whom you're going to entrust all your money or your home, or your protection, or your family, or your child, like a babysitter? What would be the most important attitude?

The most important track record? I would say faithfulness, loyalty, trustworthiness. It doesn't matter your talent, your knowledge, your ability, your level of intelligence if you cannot be what? If you cannot be trusted, if you cannot be trusted, it doesn't matter how heroic you are, how intelligent you are, if you cannot be trusted a faithful spirit a faithful heart is of great value to him and he is glorified and he is magnified in the lives of those who have it. Give me a, let me give you an example.

A man in the Old Testament, his name was Joseph. Joseph was one of 12 brothers. His brothers did not like him. His father favored him. His brothers decided to kill him and then they decided they'd make a little money off of him instead and they sold him to some traders who sold him in Egypt as a slave to a man named Potiphar but it wasn't long before Joseph rose in the ranks of the servants in Potiphar's house and became the highest ranking steward in the house of Potiphar.

Joseph was that rose to that rank of in the house of his master because of his God and because a faithful spirit was evident in him. Potiphar recognized this spirit in Joseph and so he could entrust to him the things of his house and he would leave his house and he would leave everything under the authority of whom? Of Joseph. Joseph was that faithful man in the house of Potiphar and then despite the advances of Potiphar's wife, Joseph proved to be that man. Sadly, Potiphar believed his wife.

God knew otherwise. As Joseph said to her, I cannot sin against my God and do this. Joseph's greatest asset and what made him most valuable to Pharaoh, to his father, and to others was not his ability to interpret dreams but his faithful spirit which did not disappear when things got hard or uncertain or when ill treated. His faithful spirit was evident and only grew stronger and brighter when things got harder because Potiphar didn't believe Joseph when he told him that he didn't take advantage of his wife and so therefore, he had Joseph thrown in what? In prison, in jail, and so, Joseph went to jail and he sat down there and he grumbled and he complained and he bitter and angry.

No. That's not what he did. He was the same person in jail that he was when he was with Potiphar. Was the same person he was when he was with his father. It was Joseph whom Jacob Jacob, his father, trusted to check on his brothers and report on their doings.

It was Joseph who rose quickly to the highest steward in Potiphar's house. It was Joseph who even in jail showed himself to be trustworthy to his keepers and was placed in charge of all the other prisoners. And finally, it was Joseph whom Pharaoh made ruler over the land of Egypt Only under Pharaoh himself. Why? Because of his ability to interpret dreams?

No. Because of his faithful spirit. That is what stood out most about Joseph. That is what brought glory to his God. And it's easy to appear faithful when things are going well for you.

But of what spirit are you or what attitude do you display when things are stacked against you? When others are enticing or pressuring you to be unfaithful or when things in life turn against you, how do you respond then? Are you the person that throws up your arms at God and says, why me? You know, and I thank the Lord. He is a god of mercy and he knows our frame and he just he doesn't just say away with you when you do that.

But he challenges you not to stay there Don't stay there in that frame of mind, in that attitude, trust in who? Trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lean not unto thine own understanding. Understanding.

All thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy path. You can trust him. Don't let the circumstances of life destroy your heart, your spirit, and your attitude. That's why I chose it as well with my soul and rejoice in the Lord as the last two songs we sang this morning. We see that evident in the life of Horatio Spafford who lost his children tragically in that shipwreck and then wrote that wonderful song, It Is Well With My Soul.

And Ron Hamilton who lost an eye and turned around and wrote, rejoice in the Lord he makes no mistakes. There are many other examples in scripture, in our hymn book, and in our lives of people that we know. If Steve Morris was here today, I'd point to him. Brother Steve is moving over to Tampa in with his daughter. Brother Steve's in a wheelchair.

Been there for a while. What a wonderful attitude Steve always had when he came. An attitude of faithfulness to the Lord and nothing was going to keep him down. Nothing was going to discourage his faith, his loyalty, to his God. For God makes no mistakes.

Times are going to get tough. Bad things are going to happen. It is then that our faithful spirit shines and brings glory to our God. Proverbs seventeen seventeen says, a friend loveth at all times and a brother is born for adversity. A friend loveth when?

At all times. Not just when things are going great. But you know when you have a faithful friend. When they stick with you through thick and thin. When things are hard, that's when you find out.

And the same thing is true in our life with our God and his servants of our savior. Our true faithfulness shines. When things are difficult. That's when others will see. That there's a difference in you and in me.

That we are like our savior Jesus Christ. Who was faithful to the end for us. God is not looking for fair weather stewards. He deserves and is glorified in the lives of faithful and loyal ones. Which are you?

Which are you? Fair weather? Stewards? Or are we ones with a faithful heart? That isn't trampled or embittered or broken.

By the adversity of life. Are we faithful to our God, to the ministry that he has called us to, to our family, to our friends. Can he count on you? There's another song written by Fannie Crosby by the way. It's not in our hymn book.

And it's entitled Count Me. When you count the ones who trust the Lord, who serve the Lord, will stick by the Lord. Count who? Count me. Can you say that today?

Does your life, does your attitude, does your spirit reflect that? In second Timothy two two, Paul encouraged Timothy who was a young pastor and was growing his church and dealing with the all of the aspects of ministry. He told him this, he said, in the things thou hast learned of me, among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. What kind of people, servants of the Lord was Timothy to look for, to entrust the ministry of the gospel, and the ministry of his church too. He wasn't supposed to look for handsome people.

He wasn't supposed to look for powerful people. He wasn't supposed to look for popular people. He wasn't supposed to look for people with a high IQ. None of those things is what Paul said. Paul said, under inspiration, the Holy Spirit, commit those things to who?

Faithful men. People of a faithful heart and spirit. That you have seen in them. Who will carry on, who will carry through, who won't let the hard times keep them down because they are of a faithful spirit. We reflect the holiness of God in our lives and bring glory to him by always doing our best to be faithful, loyal, and trustworthy in all we do.

God does not require greatness. He does not require heroic feats. He does not require you to use a talent that you do not have. What he simply expects of us is to be of a faithful heart, loyal to him, trustworthy in what he asks of us, taking responsibility for our actions. And he says, that he will reward us.

His Lord said unto him, well done. Thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.

This was a parable that Jesus told the master of the house went away. He had three servants. He gave one 5 talents, another two, another one. The one who received the five went out and used and invested and and earned five more. So, when his master returned, he could give him back 10.

The one had given two did the same. When master came back, he gave him back four. The one with one, well, he just went and hit it in the ground and didn't do anything. Lazy, no good servant. Didn't care.

Made excuses when the master showed back up. But the Lord rewarded those who were faithful. Who simply took what they were given and did their best with it and had more to show upon his return. He said, you are faithful in few things. I will make you ruler over many things.

God rewards faithfulness. God desires faithfulness. God is magnified in the faithful spirit. Of his children. I'd like to I'd like to close this morning by singing a song.

I I didn't know where I would be in my sermon. So, I I don't I didn't mention anything to Judy and my wife is gone. So, guess what? You get to hear it acapella. Aren't you excited?

Maybe that's better than with the guitar. Don't I know. It's entitled May the Lord Find Us Faithful. God has not given us the spirit of fear but has given us the strength to obey with power and sound mind with love the unfailing kind oh be not ashamed of his way may the Lord find us faithful may his word be our banner held high may the Lord find us faithful everyday though we live though we die no man that seeketh after things of this life is a soldier who passes the test be faithful be working be running, be serving, be searching his word for his best, may the Lord find us faithful may his word be our banner held high may the Lord find us faithful everyday though we live though we die living or dying may honor be thine from this wretched life you loved and forgave a life that is on fire be only our heart's desire be faithful from now to the grave may the Lord find us faithful may his word be our banner held high may the Lord find us faithful everyday though we live though we die We serve a faithful God.

Great is thy faithfulness. Oh God, my savior. I'm not getting to heaven because of my faithfulness. I'm getting to heaven because of his. Praise the Lord.

But I need to be more faithful in my spirit and I'm sure all of us can be a little more faithful in our heart. Not allow the circumstances of life to discourage, to bring us down. Let show others around us. That we are loyal to our savior above all things and show our savior that we will not by his grace let him down. If you're here today, I ask you, how are you doing?

And I also ask you one more one more question Do you know him? He died for you on the cross. That's how faithful he is. He promised to save you from sin and hell and he will because he's faithful. If you will come to him in faith and receive him as Lord and savior.

We're going to close with the hymn from our hymn book. I don't have it up on the screen. It's 300 and let's see. No, it's 03/1988. It's have thine own way, Lord, have thine own way.

If you're here today and you've never trusted Christ as savior, I plead with you, I beg of you. Will you come as we sing that hymn of invitation? And the Lord has spoken to your heart. I plead with you and I beg you. Don't walk here out of here.

Without having a conversation with him. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for all that you've done for us. Thank you for being our faithful God. Lord, I pray that our lives would demonstrate the holiness of God in every aspect including our attitude toward the issues of life and toward our God and toward the things you've entrusted us with.

That we would demonstrate a faithful spirit, a loyal spirit, a trustworthy spirit in all things that you might be magnified and that one day, we might be rewarded. Before you. Lord, we pray if there is one here that's never trusted Christ, that they would come as we sing this hymn of invitation. Have thine own way, Lord. Amen.