Withstanding the Pressure of Being a Christian
1 Peter

INTRO:
It is good to see all of you back again this evening. This evening I would like to look a little bit about one aspect of being a Christian in the world. The sermon is titled, withstanding the pressure of being a Christian.

Jesus was the master teacher and as the master teacher He had an ability to express the truth in very succinct ways with just a very few words. He could lay out the truth of the entire world in just a few sentences.

One of the examples of this is found over in Matthew 7:13-14 – “13. "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14. "Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” In these verses we find Jesus basically divides the world into two categories. There is a broad way, or path and there is a narrow way and you're on one of these two ways. Make no mistake about it. Everybody on the face of the earth falls into one of these two categories.

There are two ways; there is the broad way and the broad way that leads to destruction.
He states in the reality of the world there will be many that go this way. The truth of the matter is the vast majority of mankind has always traveled the broad way that leads to destruction.

Then He tells us about another way. Jesus says it's a narrow way. It's a difficult way but this narrow, difficult way leads to eternal life. In describing this narrow, difficult way, He says there are few that find it.

We will find throughout the history of mankind everybody falls into these two categories.
What we're going to be talking about in our sermon this evening is how those who travel the broad way that leads to destruction put pressure on those who have chosen to travel the narrow way, the difficult way that leads to eternal life.

They put pressure on them to try to get them to conform, to be like the rest of the people that are traveling the broad way. After all, the majority must be right! Anyone not in the majority is a deviant and deserves all the scorn and ridicule of the majority. The question we're going to be asking in the sermon tonight is; “Can we stand the pressure?”

I. Pressure from Being A Christian: We remember these beautiful words from the Sermon on the Mount in; Matthew 5:10-11 – “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.”
A. It is not just being persecuted; it is being persecuted for righteousness sake. It is because we have made a conscious decision to live the Christian life that we are treated this way, to where people make fun of us, people separate us from their company, and don't want to be friends with us. We start to feel lonely and isolated.
1. We find we are being made fun of and laughed at simply because we want to be a Christian. That's the pressure. This is seen most openly by young people from their peers. There are no “young people” here tonight, but many of us have grandchildren and we need to warn them.
2. What we see in this text is that those on the broad way are going to put pressure on those who travel the narrow way, to try to get them to stop traveling it, to stop living the Christian life, to come back into the world, and to live like everyone else, conform.
B. One example we see is in John 12:42-43 – “42. Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; 43. for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” Look at this.
1. In the text you actually have people who really believe Jesus is the Christ but they will not confess it. They will not state openly, out in public, what they believe.
2. Why? Because they love the praise of men it says. They are concerned about what people will think about them if they confess Christ, what people are going to say about them. They worry; How will I be treated? Why they may kick me out of the synagogue! They cave into the pressure or fear and desire the praise of people to the point where they would not openly confess what they believed in their heart. There are people today, perhaps even some who have sat in this assembly, who believe in Jesus—yet confession, public confession? You know what you call this, peer pressure. They caved in to the pressure of the people that they knew, loving their praise more than the praise of God.
C. Another example of pressure can be found in 1 Peter 4:3-4 – “3. For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles when we walked in licentiousness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. 4. In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you.”
1. The text is describing the lifestyle that these people lived before they were Christians. Before they were Christians they went with their buddies and their friends to the parties, and to the temples.
2. They were involved in sexual immorality with their friends. That was the way they were living.
3. When they became Christians and they repented and they put to death the old man, they put on Christ, and then they started walking in newness of life. Notice what happened. Their buddies, their friends, the people that knew them, that had been with them in these activities started speaking evil of them.
4. There comes the pressure, these individuals have made a conscious choice to leave the broad way and travel the narrow difficult way. Their old friends started speaking evil of them putting the pressure on them to try to get them to come back to the broad way. Again the question is this, Can we stand the pressure?
D. Every one of us who have made a choice to travel this narrow way, this difficult way, because we are seeking eternal life in heaven with our loving God, will have this pressure put upon us. That is the way of the world we’re living in, but we must not cave in to the pressure. We need to talk to young Christians about this because they will most certainly feel this pressure. I am reminded of the quip; “When you’re 20 you care what everyone thinks, when you’re 40 you stop caring what everyone thinks, when you’re 60 you realize no one was ever thinking about you in the first place.”
E. I'm going to be using this text from 1 Peter as the primary text, the springboard for the rest of the lesson this evening. I want to look at the breakdown of it and the application to the times in which we live. While this certainly is information we can personally use, there is information that we should be passing on to our children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren.
II. Pressure From Those Walking In Lewdness And Lust:
A. We see in the text where he talks about a time when they walked in lewdness and lust. You don't have to be a Solomon to figure out that the American culture has gone sex crazy. All you have to do is just open your eyes and listen and look at the world around you. Listen to what you're hearing. Look at what you see and you will see that our culture is spiraling down into immorality.
1. Pornography whether you realize it or not is big business in America today. An analysis done in 2006 shows that in the US the pornography generated $13 billion in revenues. That's right. That means there must be people out there that are buying this stuff, continually feeding it into their minds, bringing it into their homes. We are being bombarded with it right and left.
2. If you watch television you know the days of the Andy Griffith Show are gone. The movies today often contain filthy things. Some magazines are absolutely filthy. I’m embarrassed sometimes to walk by the magazines when I check out at Wal-Mart.
3. We need to open up our eyes and realize the assault that's taking place and that the worst thing that we can do as Christians is to compromise and try to find some soft middle ground where we can blend in with the world. We can not be friends with the world, and still consider ourselves Christians. That is not the way of Christianity. Christianity is so radically different from the world; it is as different as night is to day, darkness to light.
B. Look at Ephesians 5:11 – “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.” Paul talks about being ashamed to speak of the things done by them in private and in secret. Let me ask you if it's a shame to accept the sexual immorality that people do in the privacy of their homes.
1. Is it a shame to watch it on television? I think you know the answer. Is it a shame to read about it in magazines and books? Is it a shame to watch it in movies? You better believe it is, folks, when he says have no fellowship with it - that means none.
2. We can not think there's some happy middle ground where we can watch this stuff, where we can read this stuff and it's not going to affect us.
C. It does and it will, look at 2 Corinthians 6:17 – “Therefore "Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.”
1. What degree of sanctification do you get from this particular verse? We understand the word Sanctification is separating our self from the world. When he says come out from among them, separate yourself, touch not the unclean thing, we understand what it means.
2. When we are told don't touch it, we understand what that means. Yet, sometimes we do something and we think, there was no lightning. My life didn't fall apart. Everything seems to be okay - so we come back and do it again and Oh, no lightning, I didn't die.
3. Everything seems to be going okay and we dive right in. We have seen what happens because we have seen someone go back again and again. Even after they’ve repented, some return again and again even when becomes a detriment to their job and their family.
4. When the Lord says touch not the unclean thing, folks, He means don't. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. Turn it off. Get rid of it. Do not let it come into your home and into your mind.
D. Do not conform to the world and compromise the Christian values so you can be like the world in the way they dress, and the way they talk, and in the way they behave. Again it is understood this is the way the majority lives. We need to tell young Christians not to compromise, but stand up for what they know is right.
1. It is understood the way those that travel the broad way live, they are going to give themselves over to lewdness and lust. That has been the way of the world all along. It's nothing new, it's just that now they're using technology and that works much faster to pump it into people's minds and hearts and lives.
2. The question is, are we going to be able to stand the pressure of the temptation that is around us and the pressures of the world to talk like they talk to dress like they dress.
E. I want to talk about clothes for a moment. The scriptures talk about how you should wear modest apparel. Why? We need to understand the concept of modest apparel, morality, is being aware that you can dress in such a fashion as to excite sexual immorality in the hearts and minds of the opposite sex and that could be male or female.
1. The world teaches our young people that this is normal, this is natural. You should be proud and show yourself off. Young ladies need to dress this way to be part of the group, to be attractive to young men. The young men are taught this is what girls are for, to be attractive in a sensual way.
2. I remember a trip to J.C. Penney when we were shopping for clothes for our granddaughter. We looked through the teenage dresses and I'm not joking, every single one of them was the same. They had spaghetti straps and were made out of material that clings to the body. There were short skirts with slits up the sides. Prostitute clothes I thought to myself, OK, well it's not for us so we'll go to Dillard's and spend a little more money.
3. We went to Dillard's and guess what? They had the same thing. I'm not talking about one rack. Every rack of clothes in the Junior Department was the exact same thing and the sad thing is, some parents were so foolish they were buying these for their children. I used to work at 55th and Carnegie and I know prostitute clothes when I see them. I know why those clothes are worn. The really sad, sad thing is that people think this is the way to be.
F. It's time that we wake up and realize that people do lust after you when you dress immodestly. The world can deny it all it wants and say, oh I can go down to the beach and see the girls in their bikinis. I won’t lust after them.
1. Then you're either a liar or you're homosexual. If a bikini is not immodest apparel then nothing is, because the only thing after that is total nudity.
2. Folks, I am being blunt, because that's the world we’re in. This is the world our children and grand children are growing up in. That's the way the majority lives. That's the way they dress. That's the way they become involved in sexual immorality. They laugh about it and joke about it.
3. They think it's cool... and if you do not dress like they dress and talk like they talk and give in to the sexual immorality you know what's coming. Ah, you are a prude, a Christian virgin and they'll laugh at you, make fun of you and it hurts to be laughed at especially if you’re a teenager. It hurts to be made fun of. It hurts to feel isolated to where you feel like, I am over here alone by myself.
4. Maybe there's a few that are like me but the majority of them are going the other way. You see them laughing and having a good time, they enjoy life you think.
G. That's pressure and the mind says why should I hurt, why should I feel lonely and left out, get in and go with them. I'll tell you why.
1. 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4 – “3. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; 4. that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,”
2. That's why we don't get involved because it is the will of God for those that are going to be His children, those that wear the name of Christ.
3. For us to sanctify ourselves, to set ourselves apart from the World, to come out from among them, and not touch it. Don't talk like they talk, don't dress like they dress, don't live like they live, you're a Christian. You do not belong to yourself. Your have been bought and paid for with the blood of Christ.
4. Therefore you are expected to glorify God in your body and in your spirit, you belong to God. He says each one of you should know how to possess his own vessel, that’s your body, in sanctification and honor. We know the way the broad way lives; we know the way they talk. We know what they do. We know how they dress.
5. The question we need to ask our grandchildren is; are you going to dress that way, talk that way, and live that way? Are we going to give into the pressure and go along with the crowd?
III. Pressure From Those Walking In Drinking and Drugs:
A. Going back to the text in 1 Peter we see another thing that these people were walking in was drunkenness. I remember in college I knew a few people that didn't drink, most of them were teachers. I wonder if it’s that way still today. The truth of the matter is, the majority of the people in the world drink or use drugs. That's really the truth. They believe they must do that to relax and have fun. The question is, do we?
1. Are we going to go that way, are we going to live like they live, are we going to go to their drinking parties? Today young people sometimes get their beer and their liquor from their parents and they go into the drug cabinets and get their medicine and they get their pot and get their cocaine.
2. Folks we have a drug epidemic here in Ohio. Ask the people that are in college and they'll tell you that is how the broad way travels. That’s reality, I'm just trying to paint the world the way it really is. It is a scary place.
B. Again I wonder: are we going to go that way? We are all familiar with Proverbs 20 verse 1 – “Wine is a mocker, intoxicating drink arouses brawling, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.”
1. You're going to find that there’s going to be pressure put upon you to go out and drink with your buddies and there’s going to be pressure on you to go out and use drugs.
2. In high school a short time ago kids would say: is he cool? What that meant was, does he smoke marijuana? Then the people who snorted cocaine, they would say, Is he cool? What that meant was does he do cocaine and the people that rigged up heroin they would say are you cool? That meant do you rig, if you don’t know what rig is, it means you shoot up with needles, you shoot up heroin.
3. Birds of a feather flock together. People that get high on pot want to be around others who get high on pot, people that snort cocaine want to be around other who snort cocaine. People that do crack want to be around others that smoke crack. People that do heroin want to be around others that do heroin. This not only applies to young people but adults as well.
4. If you think you can hang around these people and be good friends and good buddies with them—it’s not going to happen unless you become like them. There will be pressure on you, and pressure on you, and pressure on you, to get high with them. What do you think the scripture means when it says; be not deceived, evil companions corrupt good morals.
C. The beginning of the verse is be not deceived, that tells me that one can be deceived and that there are some folks out here who think; it won’t happen to me. I can stand the pressure. I can hang with these guys. I can be with the crowd and not live like they do. Don't deceive yourself.
1. You hang in that crowd and you'll give into the pressure, perhaps a little at a time, but you will become one of their flock.
2. Thinking about all the commercials that are out there that are trying to get you to drink alcohol. The beer commercials really know how to get their message across. Some are quite clever. Bud Light has on their ad; “with friends, you always know what you’re getting. It should be the same with your beer.” Then they advertise Post Malone’s performance on the “Bud Light Dive Bar Tour”.
3. There was one with frogs and now there is this one with a king and knights. The catch phrase at the end is “Bud Light, for the many not the few.” How right they are.
4. Who do you think these commercials are geared to? I would have said teenagers and that's what most people say. However that is not true. These commercials are not geared to teenagers. The audience that they are shooting for are the 4 and 5 and 6 year olds. They're trying to get you to laugh and associate joy and happiness and pleasure with beer at an early age. They're not going out for the teenagers because they've already got that audience sewn up.
5. What do you think “go for all the gusto” means? What about the man with a beer and he’s got a beautiful woman at his side or the great athletes they all drink beer - it doesn’t get any better than that does it?
6. That is what's going to be pushed into you're mind, when you drink alcohol it makes your life great! You're part of the in crowd, you're cool, you're with everybody else, and everyone loves you, your life is better and you can handle it you can deal with it, right?
D. Yeah. Let's see what the scriptures say about this; “Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long at the wine, those who go in search of mixed wine.” [Proverbs 23:29-30]
1. God’s word is not shy, that's the real world of alcohol. We see the real world of alcohol. The broken marriages, the children who have been abused by parents while they were drunk. That's the real world where people drive drunk and kill themselves or other people. Those who stay out to drink and come home and beat their wife and children. That's the real world where people to go out, get drunk and then go and puke their guts out.
2. The real world, folks. Let me ask you, do you think that would make a good commercial? Do you think it would sell beer? Make it seem cool?
3. If we saw the real world, the real world of alcohol, or of drugs would it sell? No.
E. I remember a commercial on the radio for an establishment in Akron and the commercial was; Hey, ladies, Thursday night is ladies night! Beer is half price.
1. Who is that commercial directed to? If you think that commercial was for women you are greatly mistaken that commercial was for men. I'll translate it for you; if you want a drunk, easy woman, be here Thursday night. That's what it was all about.
2. Habakkuk 2:15 – “Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, pressing him to your bottle, even to make him drunk, that you may look on his nakedness!” .
3. The reason men will go there Thursday night is because they are hoping to find a woman that’s drunk and as the scripture says they can look upon her nakedness.
4. Women need to understand if you ever find a man trying to get you to use drugs or to get you drunk, there's a reason for it. It is not for your good. Go home as quick as you can, get away from the situation as fast as you can. He is not your friend. He does not love you. He's getting ready to use you. That is the real world of the broad way that leads to destruction.
5. Are we going to go that way, or are we going to sanctify ourselves and come out from among them and separate our self from the world and not touch the unclean thing.
F. Getting back to the text, Peter talked about the pressure that was going to come upon them, where people were going to be speaking against them because they were no longer involved in the abominable idolatry of the age.
1. I want to tell you something about the ancient world. In the ancient world the general mindset and the culture of the people was hey your god’s okay, my god’s okay, everybody’s god’s okay. Along comes Christianity and Christianity says no, your god’s not okay; it’s just a lump of metal, a chunk of wood, a piece of stone. There's only one God. There's only one Lord Jesus Christ.
2. How do you think that was received by the ancient world? I can tell you how it was received. They killed them because of it. They spoke evil of them because they wouldn't drink any more. They spoke evil of them because they were not involved in sexual immorality anymore. They killed them because they said there was one God. That was dynamite in the ancient world.
IV. Pressure From Those Following False Teaching: Peter says in 2 Peter 2:1-2 – “1. But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. 2. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.”
A. Here is another dose of reality. In the text the Apostle Peter is telling about the reality of what's coming in the future for the body of Christ.
1. There are going be false teachers coming in, teaching lies, things that aren't true and unfortunately there are going to be many that are going to follow their evil pernicious ways.
2. What's going to happen to those that refuse to follow the false teachings? What's going to happen to those that refuse to go along with the crowd, the many that are going after the false teachers? What's going to happen to those who have the audacity to stick to the truth, who have the audacity to speak and live the truth? They will be called heretics.
3. Let’s look at the text again. And many will follow the destructive ways because the way of truth will be blasphemy. There's the pressure.
B. I have a question I want to ask you and be honest in answering it. Why do you think there are so many people out there that really just don't like the church of Christ?
1. I mean do you consider yourself to be a “holier than thou”? I don't. Are you looking down your nose with snobbery and self-righteousness? I don’t think so. I know you pretty well I don’t see you that way.
2. Why is it then? I'll tell you what it is, you have the audacity to try to speak and live the truth. It's really no more complex than that.
3. Again in Ephesians 4:1-6 – “1. I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to have a walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2. with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3. endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5. one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6. one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”
4. I told you in the first century the teaching that there is one God and one Lord caused Christians to be hated and killed. If you have the audacity to say there's only one body and one baptism you better look out.
i. You're going to be called narrow minded.
ii. You're going to be accused of thinking you're the only ones going to heaven. How dare you say that!
C. Christian morals are not difficult to understand. It doesn't take a lot of studying to figure out that homosexuality is condemned in the scriptures. The Christian morals are really quite simple the question is; have you got the audacity to teach and live them?
1. Are you willing to even point out to someone—“You know, I can’t find that in the Bible.”
2. I'm not trying to be arrogant or anything I'm just telling you the way it is. I believe this is the way we are. We just want to know what the truth is. And when we find out what the truth is we try to teach it and live it. I think that describes us pretty well.
3. I really don't care what your parents feel. I really don't care what society says. I don't care what the teacher at school says. I really don't care what your books say. I want to know what the Bible says. I want to make sure that the verses you are showing me are actually teaching what you're telling me.
4. You've heard people say Show me where I'm wrong and I'll change. That's not an arrogant statement. You've heard preachers say it from the pulpit. They are actually trying to describe how we really are. We just want to know what it says.
5. When it’s in there, we'll follow. I'll tell you something folks. I've changed. I've had people take me aside and say you're wrong there, Tom. I'll study and if I’m wrong I’ll be happy to admit it. Why? I’m a human being I can be wrong. We just want to know what it says.
D. If you're serious about finding the truth and living the truth and letting others know about it, you need to realize there's going to be pressure put on you for having the guts to do that.

CONCLUSION:
I'll conclude with Luke 6:26 - “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, For so did their fathers to the false prophets.” Do you know what it requires for every man to speak well of you? You’ve got to be a great actor. You’ve got to be a really big hypocrite and we know what that means because we just had a lesson on it this morning.

The word means actor, someone who would put on a front. You change like a chameleon. You listen to the way people talk, you understand what it is they want you to say, and how it is they want you to live. Then you say and live the way they want. Essentially you become a puppet of whoever you are around and whatever environment you are in. Those people are the ones who pull your strings and control your actions.
That's what it's going to take for all men to speak well of you.

When you join the broad way you are one of the crowd, you lose yourself, you become a puppet. You talk like them you act like them. You do whatever they want you to do; you say whatever they want you to say. Be just like me, be my friend. Let me be part of the cool crowd.

If that describes you, the scripture says woe to you. That is not the way a Christian is going to be. If you're going wear the name of Christ and really be serious about living the Christian life, I'm going to tell you, there are going to be people that are not going to like you. It's not because what you're doing is wrong, it's because you are actually letting your light shine.

It is because you actually dare to be different than those that are traveling the broad way and they understand it and they understand the differences. You know if someone comes to you and they say; why don't you drink? And you say I'm concerned about my health - well they'll let that slide won't they. If you say I'm an athlete, I'm trying to do well in athletics - they'll let that slide. But if you look at them and you say I do it because I'm a Christian?

You know its coming don’t you? Here comes the pressure. When you wear the name of Christ you need to realize that those that travel the broad way, those that are going the way that leads to destruction, those that give themselves over to lewdness and lust, those that give themselves over to drink and drugs, those don't care about the truth, they're going to put pressure on you. You know it.

The question is this, can you stand the pressure? I would like to implore you to hold your head high. Do not be ashamed that you are a member of the body of Christ, never be ashamed of your King and your Lord, never be ashamed of the fact that you wear the name of Christ. Never be ashamed of any of the teachings of our savior. Hold your head high. Take the slings and arrows and continue to live the Christian life in spite of the pressure.

Finally, you remember from Matthew 5 Blessed are those were persecuted for righteousness sake. Perhaps you remember the times, in the privacy of your room, you shed a tear out of loneliness because of your faith. The time you have hurt because someone has laughed you, the time you have hurt because you are trying to live the Christian life. Those are the high moments of your life, because that is when I believe the Lord is the proudest of you. You are suffering for His sake. You're not giving in to the pressure.

There may be somebody here this evening who is not a member of the body of Christ.
You could believe in your heart Jesus Christ the Son of God and you are willing to openly confess your faith and repent of your sins - we will be glad to assist you and baptize you into the body of Christ. If you're a child of God and you've given into the pressure and as a consequence of giving into the pressure you’ve gotten into sin. Our God is gracious, God is merciful. He will forgive you and take the sin from you.
We will assist you. We will pray for you, will pray with you, will do the very best we can to try to encourage you. If you are subject to the Gospel call in any way let it be made known while we stand and sing.

Invitation song: ???

Reference sermon: Wayne Fancher