Please turn your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 2.

As we wrap up our practice and teaching series on preaching the gospel, we kicked it off

with a few teachings on a biblical theology of the gospel of Jesus over against what we

called the four American gospels, which we put the language to of the evangelical gospel,

the reformed gospel, the liberation gospel, and the prosperity gospel.

Next we laid out five kind of best practices for how to preach the gospel or in that word

we all hate, evangelize in our kind of a cultural moment, all of which work together to generate

a kind of flywheel.

They are practice hospitality, find where God is already working and join him, bridge

the cultural divides with Alpha, do the stuff, as Darren said last week, meaning partner

with the spirit of God and the manifestations of the spirit like prophecy and healing

and so on.

And finally, up on the docket for it this morning is live in a way that begs the question,

more and more blatant new testament language, bear witness, to start, let's stand for the

reading of Scripture.

And we do this week after week because what we are about to read is not just an interesting

letter from an ancient Greco-Roman, it is we believe breathed out by God, 1 Peter chapter

2 verse 11.

Dear friends, God we just open our heart to receive all that you have for us this morning.

Come Father, come Lord Jesus Christ, come Holy Spirit.

Verse 11 and 12.

Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to abstain from sinful desires which wage

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