Favor and Fervor

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: 1 Peter 2:10-12
November 23, 2025

1 Peter 2:10-12: Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

Main point: Life’s fervor depends on heaven's favor

Sermon Outline

1. Introduction

• Christians aren’t designed to blend into the culture

• A book of hope to people in exile

• Main point

2. An insightful greeting

• A turning point in the text

• A greeting inspired by Hosea

• God doesn't love you for anything in you, but for reasons in Himself

3. An ongoing war

• A war that is within

• Soul-destroying desires

4. A watching world

• You will be mislabeled

• Our conduct is paramount

5. A coming day

• Two main views on “visitation”

• How are you doing behind closed doors in the war against the flesh?

Hosea 1:6-9: She (Hosea’s wife Gomer) conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, “Call her name No Mercy*, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”

When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. And the Lord said, “Call his name Not My People**, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”

Hosea 2:23: And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, “You are my people;” and he shall say, “You are my God.”

*Lo-ruhama (she has not received mercy)
**Lo-ammi (not my people)