Elect Exiles

1 Peter 1:1-2

Transcript

Well, good morning. We're going to do something as we get started today, right where you are, kind of either some people in front of you or people on your row, maybe in the row behind you. I want you to talk about, just for a second, some areas where the culture, like our mainstream American culture and the church, don't line up. So just some, maybe some values, priorities, some issues going on right now, just where the church and the culture are just on two separate pages. Maybe there's some conflict or some frustration. So just talk about that for a second and we'll see what we come up with.

So you got about two minutes to do that. They have homework. This doesn't make a friend time. So just talk about stuff and figure out what you're doing... Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, so just what's portrayed in movies, what's okay, what's not okay, values shown there. Yeah, absolutely. Divorce? Yes. Okay. So, and again, that goes in with purpose of marriage.

So is it primarily about happiness of the couple? Is it primarily about the flourishing of our nation and the family unit? Like what's there? So, yeah, that affects how we view divorce and marriage. And anything else? Anything else?

Right. Okay. Yeah. So just judgmentalism versus maybe the tolerance, intolerant kind of debate that's going on currently. And then we're all over the place. And so even just that short amount of time we're able to come up with, yeah, there's some areas where our culture is here and the church is over here.

We just, we don't mesh. We don't line up. And I mean, you can go from, so abortion, gender, sexuality issues, marriage, family, divorce, how we view power, how we treat foreigners, or as we graciously call them, illegal aliens or just illegals. Yeah. So how we treat the poor, how we treat the environment.

There's a lot of things that the Bible is going to say that affect how we view these things. And our culture is just going to be in a different area there. So, so absolutely. And the truth is that gap has continued to widen the gap between our, our culture and the church, our, our American culture and the church's culture, the church's values, priorities, beliefs has, has continued to widen the truth. The reality is this, your parents, grandparents, great grandparents, just kind of dependent on the, the, uh, generation we're talking to your parents, great grandparents, grandparents, whether they were a part of a church, believed that the Bible was God's word, followed Jesus or weren't.

They most likely lined up very similarly when it came to major values, priorities, when it came to views on sex and marriage, when it came to views on, uh, how we ought to, um, run a country in some ways. Like there's some, there's just some major, they were everybody in the, in the U S for most of the U S's history was playing off of the same Judeo Christian sheet of music. And that has changed that, that, that we all know that we're created by God and that that has implications on our lives has, has changed culture. And the church have continually drifted apart from one another. One, one, um, author I was reading, put it this way.

He said that where we find ourselves now in the U S is this, that we've been playing a cultural game of musical chairs. And in the last round, when the music stopped playing, the church tried to sit down and didn't have a chair. We got pushed off our chair and then we're doing that like awkwardly standing next to the chair, realizing we lost thing. We don't know to put our hands in our pockets. Are we supposed to laugh or look mad? Like we're, we're just kind of in this weird, we no longer have a seat at the table.

So when, when the culturally, the church used to hold a position of power, uh, and prominence and got brought in on social issues, got brought in on how we ought to view things, how we ought to set legislature, how we ought to handle schooling, how we ought to handle big social norms for our culture. The church used to have a seat at the table and doesn't anymore. The church doesn't anymore. That gap has continued to widen and the church, those who genuinely believe and follow Jesus are our minority in the U S less so in Columbia, even less so in South Carolina. But when it comes to the U S it's a minority.

Now you will hear people say the church in the U S is being persecuted. They're attacking us. No, no, they're not. They make fun of us. And sometimes we're an easy target, but what's really happened is the majority of our culture in the U S viewpoints have changed. They're no longer looking to scripture or this basic idea of Judeo Christian values to make decisions on social issues, to make decisions on schooling, to make decisions.

And so the church that used to have a seat at the table and doesn't anymore is frustrated. We're supposed to be in on this meeting. We're supposed to be in on this decision. You're supposed to counsel us when it comes to these. And we're just not invited to the party anymore. We're not being persecuted.

We just don't, we're a minority and we're not used to it. And that's going to continue to happen. The number of people who Mark none on religious preference is, is skyrocketing. And the number of people who Mark Christian is dropping. Now, a lot of that has to do with, they weren't actually Christians. They just knew they weren't Jewish or Islamic and they celebrate Christmas.

So I'm not Christian, but there's no benefit now to saying you're a Christian if you're not. So it used to be like when, when John F. Kennedy ran for president and it was a big deal that he was a Catholic and not a Protestant. And now coming out and say, I'm a Christian and I believe that there is a God who speaks and I, his word has implications on my life affects how you run a, a, a political campaign and it actually automatically gives you enemies. And there's less of cultural clout by just saying I'm a Christian because that gap has continued to widen. So most of us aren't going to face persecution.

They're not coming in here today to round us up, to beat us, to imprison us like they do in other areas of the world. I'm very thankful for that, but we are kind of made fun of. We, we do get mocked in mainstream entertainment and media. Um, our views aren't really understood. So you'll get in conversations with people and they find out I'm a Christian and like more than just a, Oh, I'm a Christian.

Cause I'm, I'm a U S citizen more of a, I'm an actual Christian who reads the Bible and believe it affects my life. They automatically, like, I can just feel that the conversation just got weird. So I met my neighbors and told them that we were planning a church and immediately it was like a lobster had crawled out of my ears. Like they, they were just like, Oh, and you could see them just like the gears in their head turning. And we were having a good conversation and they had said that they were excited that some people their age had moved into the neighborhood and they were like, what are y'all here for?

Why are you, you know? And I said, well, we actually moved here. We're going to be starting a church. And they were like, it was, they had no, like immediately felt alienated from us. Hadn't like, it's like, I don't even know how to talk to you anymore. I just feel like you're probably upset with me about things.

Like I, all I know about Christians is what I've seen on TV. And so I'm pretty sure you might be a bigot or, or a jerk. And in the least you're, you're being condescending to me. Cause I said a swear word earlier, like there's just this weird tension that's there. It's not uncommon for if you were on a college campus and you were a part of a random study group or you got put into groups and you're all getting to know each other. And someone said, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm Islamic.

Like it means a lot to me. It's a, I'm devout. And there's a little bit of like, man, I appreciate that you really genuinely care about your faith and you're devout and that affects how you handle things. Now you might have some redneck in your group. That's like very offensive to that person. But for the most part, there's like an appreciation for you really care and believe these things.

And if you're like, well, I'm a, I'm a devout Christian. It's like, oh, good. I'm glad the bigot joined our group. I bet you think we're all going to hell. And it's like, uh, what? Y'all aren't proud of me for being devout.

Like why does, why am I suddenly? And there's just, there's that tension. I remember I was working at Sears before I got laid off and, um, I was talking to a guy who was while we were planting the church. And so I was working on a sermon and I said, I was working on a sermon. I was asking him a question cause I was working on a, on a sermon illustration. I said, yeah, so I'm reading I'm asking this.

I'm working on a sermon. And he said, what the, uh, he used the word I'm not allowed to use up here. He said, what the is a sermon? And I was like, oh, I'm going to open the Bible, read part of it. And then we're going to talk about it in the context of a church. And he was like, you're a Christian.

And I was like, yeah. He goes, you believe all that Jesus stuff. It's like, yes. And we were friends. But from then on, we'd be doing something and somebody would come in and be rude and they'd leave.

And he'd look at me and go, that guy's going to hell, right? Like he wanted me to confirm it. I'm the Christian. What's it say about rude people? Well, Leviticus says this, like he, he, he would say stuff to me, like something would be working. He'd be like, Hey, pray to Jesus about it.

Like, you know, it's like, and he didn't realize that like, but his view on me had changed and there's just this difference. He didn't understand what I, what I believe. I remember meeting a girl in Lynchburg when I was going to seminary there and working at Sears. We were meeting, we were just kind of talking a little bit, you know, we're working together and said, I was a Christian. I was studying at seminary. And she said, oh, and I don't remember her exact words, but it was something along the lines of, oh, so you believe that all homosexuals are going to hell.

And it was just like, ah, this conversation just increased in intensity. And just because I said, I'm a Christian, you've now have assumed things. It's just like we, and that's the way it works in our culture. Now, not rounding us up, not beating us. We are made fun of. We are misunderstood in some ways.

The church has been kind of whiny about it. And I don't think we should be whiny about it, but I do think we ought to learn how to, how to respond. And that's one of the reasons we're reading first Peter, because that's, that's actually who he's talking to now to be fair. And for the Christians in this room, and I know there's some people in here who aren't Christians, you're checking this thing out. That's beautiful, but I'm talking to the Christians. You realize what we believe sounds weird, right?

Like, if we're just going to be honest, y'all know that, right? Like, I've devoted my life to this. But when you're talking to someone who doesn't believe it, and you get in the conversation, it's like, yeah, okay, so the world didn't exist, and there was a God who did exist. Where'd he come from? I don't know. He just was always there.

How's that work? Beats me. He's God. He's really big. He breathed the world into existence, spoke it, named all the stars, named all the planets. This, this ever expanding universe, we know that he holds it in his hand.

He breathed it into existence, and everything was good. And, and then two, two humans ate from a tree. They were naked humans, and they ate from a tree. And then when they ate from the tree, they realized that they were naked. And, and that, that rebellion, because they didn't obey, because they didn't follow him and trust him in that relationship, that fractured the world so that ever since then, we've taken the good things that God has given us, and we've turned them into, into bad things, and we've used them for evil, and that we're all functionally evil, that we're born that way. I have a two-month-old son.

He's born evil. He would, he's small, but he's evil. I heard someone say that, that babies would kill you if they could, and I think that's true. There are times when it's like, I haven't fed him soon enough, and he would assault me. He's just too small. But we're born that way, and that, that this was a huge problem, and the God of the universe had wrath towards our rebellion, but he loved us.

So he became a human, a Jewish human, 2,000 years ago, who didn't ever raise an army, was never a king, never had a lot of money, never traveled outside of 50 miles around his home, and he's the most influential man in history, and that he died vicariously in our place on a cross, and it's his blood and his sacrifice that covers us, and that three days later, he didn't stay dead like all other humans throughout history ever have, but he came back to life, spoke to people, talked to people, and then he flew. That's what ascended, we say ascended because it sounds better. It means flew, returned back to heaven bodily. We believe that.

That's in there. He went back to heaven bodily, and he rules and reigns as king, and if we trust in his sacrifice, our sins, all of them, mine that were 2,000 years later, are covered by his sacrifice. And I get to be made right with God because of that. That God looks at me and sees Jesus, no longer my rebellion. When I die, I won't be judged based off of my behavior, but I'll be judged based off of Jesus' behavior. Oh yeah, Jesus is going to judge everyone.

And then I'll spend eternity in heaven with him as opposed to in hell, which is a giant pit of fire where you never die, and is actually the just deserving, what we deserve from a just God for our rebellion, and that we were saved not by our work, not by our goodness. And so people will say, wait, you mean to tell me that a terrible person could become a Christian right before he dies and that he'll be saved by Jesus? Yes. Is that fair? No. That's grace, and that's what we believe.

That we weren't saved by our work, we weren't saved by, and that we will spend eternity worshiping God in fellowship with him the way we were designed to from eternity past. And at some point, Jesus is going to return and destroy his enemies. He's going to ride a horse back to earth and destroy his enemies and set up his kingdom forever. I believe that. We believe that the Spirit of God indwells humans. I believe that.

But you realize if the Holy Spirit hasn't shown up and changed you and helped you believe that, y'all know that sounds weird, right? The reason I know this sounds weird is I have conversations with people who aren't Christians, and I see the faces they make at the things I say. They're like, wait, tell me this again. It's like, no, you heard that correctly. That's what the Bible says, and it's true, but it sounds weird. Now, some people will be like, well, I'm being persecuted at work.

Maybe you're just weird, though. And not just the normal Christian weird like the stuff we believe. Maybe you're just weird. Like, even Christians think you're weird. Like, when Peter later is going to say that we're strangers and exiles, he doesn't mean that we're strange necessarily like that we all wear white button-down shirts and tuck them into our jorts. Like, he doesn't mean that.

He doesn't mean that we have our own little Christian language, like Christianese. Y'all know we do this, right? Like, we say things like, I had a check in my spirit about not getting plugged in so that we could do life together and love on our city in fellowship. Hedge of protection, sword drill, traveling mercies. I see that hand. Hallelujah.

That's not what he means. That's not what makes us different. Here's the truth. We don't quite line up with our culture. We're a little bit strange. Let's go to 1 Peter.

And we're going to start reading. Peter's writing into this context. He's writing to a group of Christians who live in a culture that does not line up with Christianity. And he's writing into this culture to talk to them about how to live in that culture, in that atmosphere. So we're going to be in 1 Peter.

Let me give you a quick background on Peter. I'm a big fan of Peter. Peter was a fisherman. He was one of Jesus' disciples. So Jesus called him out of fishing.

Like he had just caught a whole bunch of fish. And Jesus was like, come follow me. You're going to be a fisher of men, which I'm sure Peter didn't quite understand. He's like, sure, sounds good. We're going to need bigger nets. But so Peter follows Jesus.

He surrenders everything to follow him. Peter is kind of the leader of the disciples. He's in the top three. Like there are times where Jesus had 12 disciples. There are times where he would just take three with him. And Peter seems to be kind of the leader of the disciples.

He's very vocal. His mouth gets him into trouble. Like he talks before he thinks, which I can appreciate. And he's a bit impetuous, which just means when he has to decide between like, what should I do? His usual response is go for it. And so there are a couple of times that he does really cool things in the New Testament.

We won't have time to read all these. And hopefully we'll see him at some point. But Peter, so Jesus comes walking on water at one point. And everybody thinks he's a ghost, which makes sense because it's night and he's walking on water, which humans don't do, but he's God. So he can.

And he's walking on water. And Peter says, they see him. And Jesus says, don't, don't forget. It's not a ghost. It's Jesus. He didn't actually say that.

That's not, wasn't a quote. That was a paraphrase. It's not a ghost. It's just me. And Peter says this, if it's really you. Okay.

Pause. Now, usually that's going to be followed by something like, what did I give you for your birthday last year? Like something that only Jesus and Peter would know. If it's really you, what was the advice you gave me last week? Like you got to prove it's not a ghost. You got to make sure it's actually Jesus.

What Peter says is, if it's really you, tell me to come to you on the water. And you know, Jesus had to be like, that's a beautiful logic, Peter, because a ghost can't say, come here. So Jesus just says, okay, come. And then Peter gets out and actually walks on water because Jesus allows him to. There are two people in the history of the world who have ever walked on water. Jesus, the son of God, and Peter, because he's impetuous.

Peter, Peter saw an opportunity to walk on water and was like, if that's really Jesus, he's walking on water, I want to get in on this. If it's you, I'm going to crush you with logic. If it's you, say, come here. Peter gets to walk on water. The other, my other favorite story of Peter, and then we're going to move on. We'll read what he wrote.

He's in jail in the book of Acts. They've just killed James, but Peter knows where he's going. He's trusted Jesus. He knows he's seen Jesus back alive from dying. So he's not afraid of death.

And he's in jail and he's sleeping like a baby. And then an angel comes to let him, to release him. So an angel shows up, busts open the doors, busts open his chains, tells him to get his gear on. Let's go. They walk out of the jail. The gates just open while the angel's walking.

And it says in the text in Acts, Peter thought it was a vision. Do you know how funny that had to be? Peter thought it was a vision. He didn't think this was really happening. Like, so he's following the angel, being like, taking it all in. This is crazy.

I wonder what this means. The gates open. They get outside. The angel disappears. How long do you think he stood there before he realized it wasn't a vision? You know they had to give him a hard time about this forever.

Wait a second. This was real? I waved to the guard back there. So that's Peter. He's a fisherman. He's kind of simple.

So straightforward in some ways. And he says some things that are confusing. But he actually, in 2 Peter, says that Paul writes things that are confusing. So Paul, we read some of his letters some. He's very smart. He had multiple doctorates.

Like, he'll say this, then this. And then this because of that. And this from the Old Testament. And that equals this. And Peter's like, this. This too.

So we're going to be studying through Peter for the summer. And he's writing to a group of people who are in a culture that they don't fit. The atmosphere is that they're Christians. They have foundational core values and beliefs that don't line up with the rest of their culture. And he's writing in saying, here's what it looks like for you to live in that context. So we're going to read 1 Peter.

I'm going to pray real quick. And then we'll start reading. God, we thank you that we have this letter. That your apostle Peter wrote as influenced and led by the Holy Spirit to your church. And that we get to grow as your church from it today. We pray, Lord, that you would bless our studying of this together.

That you would help us to grow in our love for you. And in wisdom and how to live in a context where we are becoming increasingly marginalized. In a culture that doesn't have the values and the views or the understanding that we have. That we might grow through your Holy Spirit and through your word to understand how we ought to live. We love you. We praise you.

In Jesus' name. Amen. 1 Peter, verse 1 and 2 is what we're going to look at today. So Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. So they write who it's from at the beginning of their letters.

We sign at the bottom. They do it at the beginning. To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. According to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit. For obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood. May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

In those two verses, those two sentences, Peter sets the framework for what he's going to talk about through the rest of this letter. And when he calls them elect exiles, that's the understanding that he's going to have that he carries throughout. So let's take those two words and look at them for just a second. Elect means that they are chosen. And he goes through and says how? By the foreknowledge of God.

That God had a plan. That God chose them. As Ephesians is going to say, before the foundations of the world. That we've been chosen. That we've been saved and redeemed. That word elect is beautiful.

Because it means that you did not save yourselves. Which means that you cannot keep or lose your salvation. It's held for you by God. That he chose us. Not because we're special, but because he's good. That's what elect means.

That you are secure. That there is peace and security and hope in that word. In your position because of Jesus that is yours forever. That can't be taken from you. Can't be beaten out of you. Can't be stolen from you.

That you can't lose. It's yours. And then he pairs with it exiles. Other translations are going to say strangers, foreigners, aliens. And not aliens like E.T. Phone Home.

But aliens like foreign foreigners. And so what he's saying is you don't fit in your culture anymore. You aren't at home in this culture anymore. That you've been exiled from your homeland. Because you're elect. Because you're chosen.

Because your homeland is now heaven. Is now with God. Your place is now with God. You've been exiled where you are. And then he says specifically Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Which would be the same to us saying you elect exiles in West Columbia and Irmo and Columbia and Red Bank and Lexington.

It would be the same as him saying by the foreknowledge of God you've been chosen and exiled where you are for a purpose. And he calls them strangers. That we really just don't fit with our culture anymore. I was – that we're foreigners. I was watching a documentary recently. I think it was called Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

And it's about these monkeys that get really smart and learn how to use machine guns and ride horses. And so imagine that that happens or that like Skynet becomes self-aware. The two of you got that. Imagine that that happens and that we all have to flee the United States. That the – I mean like it comes on the news and the guy's like his hair's disheveled and he's like the monkey's got machine guns and we all got to pack up and go. And so let's say we head to Europe.

So some of us end up in Germany. Some of us end up in Spain. Some of us end up in Great Britain. Some of us are in France. We're now all exiles. You're now a foreigner.

Now there's going to be some things about culture that you understand. You may even line up with. There can be other areas where you just are like I just don't fit. Like I don't – my viewpoint here doesn't line up with them. So like if you end up in London, you're like yeah, I speak English.

But they're really snobby about how – what kind of English they speak. They say I speak American. But we can get along. We can understand each other. I can order food. But all the food here tastes like nothing.

They haven't invented flavor and never made it to this island. And there's some things that I can understand and get along with. And there's other things I just don't get. Some people made it to France. And you're like yeah, I moved here so I had to start smoking cigarettes. And they all work 30 hours a week and whine about it.

And I'm from the U.S. where if you don't work 50 hours a week, you don't care. Like you just don't even care about what you're doing. And so I just – I understand some parts and I don't line up with others. And that's the way it would be. And so what Peter is saying when he calls us exiles is you're in a culture now. But because of Jesus, your values, your core beliefs about things have changed.

And so you just don't quite fit anymore. I'm not saying you necessarily dress weird or you automatically stand out. But on core issues, on life-changing big issues, there are some where we just aren't going to line up with our culture. Where as a Christian, you just can't. I heard somebody put it this way that it would be like if you were watching a marching band. It's a big marching band competition, one of the biggest ones.

This is a huge marching band and there's one conductor wearing white gloves because he takes it seriously. He's doing this stuff. And everybody's marching in lockstep and they've got the little flag girls running around. I think that's what they're called. And they're running around doing stuff. But there's one.

There's one young lady with a flag and she's got headphones in. And she's listening to Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus. She's going to stand out. She's just doing her own thing. She's got her flag and she's just doing her own thing. Everybody else is in lockstep.

Everybody else is. And she's going to stand out. Now, it's not weird if you know what she's listening to. She's actually staying along with the beat pretty well. But she stands out because everybody else is looking to the same conductor.

And that's the church. That we're playing from a different sheet of music. And we're automatically going to stand out because there are just certain things that we believe, certain core values that have changed in us that don't line up with our culture anymore. And that gap is getting wider. So, as exiles, chosen by God, specifically placed here on purpose, how do we respond? How do we respond as exiles in a culture where we just don't fit anymore?

We're a minority. There have been three kind of, I think, maybe traditional responses. Three ways that maybe you've heard of or thought about or seen. Maybe if you hadn't even put these words to them. The first one is run. We're going to put it under that category.

The first way to respond as a minority, as a Christian in culture, is to run. And so this is where you basically, as a Christian, you remove yourself from culture. You avoid culture. So this is, you pay attention to what kind of movies you're going to watch or not watch. Like, you're just not going to take in everything that culture gives you. This is where homeschooling comes from, in some ways.

Comes from, for Christian homeschooling or Christian schools, is this idea of we need to have our own version of this. Like, we can't just go along with what culture is teaching, so we're going to have our own version. This is where, like, Liberty University, some of these schools came from where it was like, no, we're going to teach our own thing. We're going to do our own thing. This is where we see Christians a lot of times when it comes to Halloween. It's like Christians are like, no, no, no, we're not doing Halloween.

No, no. We're going to have a fall festival. And you can dress up and we'll give you candy. Oh, so Halloween. No, no. Fall festival.

Fall. Trunk or treat. Like, we remove ourselves. Like, end of the spectrum is like Bob Jones. Y'all familiar with Bob Jones? It's like a militant Christian school.

They have up, their campus is up in Greenville. My brother went there for a while, and if you've met Logan, you think, that makes sense. He seems like he should have gone to Bob Jones. But there are a couple of, two examples of this. One is, I think my grandparents went there, and I think my dad's older sister went there, and he told me this one time, that they had a rule that all of the female students had to wear skirts that came to their ankles. So that was the rule, that was the dress code, and you had to wear them on campus or off campus, came to your ankles.

And what happened was, those skirts became popular. And so Bob Jones changed the rule and said, now your skirt has to come below your knee, and you can't have the ankle long ones. So it wasn't about modesty. It was about avoiding culture. That if culture likes it, it has to be bad. While Logan was in school there, he was in a convocation, which is where they all get together or whatever, or chapel, and they announced that you were now, for male students, they were now allowed to wear blue jeans off campus.

And he said this surprised him, because he didn't know that was a rule. He's like, I've been wearing blue jeans everywhere. And he said, when it was over, he said there were people just sitting in the chairs like, dumbfounded, like, have we lost what we care about? Like, have we given up on the fight here? But that's the idea.

That's the idea that goes behind some of that is this, we've got to avoid culture. That if culture likes it, if culture says it's okay, we've got to automatically, by being Christians, move ourselves over here. And that's kind of the first option. And you see, that's Christian radio stations. We're going to have our Christian version of everything. We're going to make Christian movies.

And you're going to have to watch them because you're a Christian. I don't care that you don't like them. And I don't care that they're not good. You have to watch them. It is a Christian movie. We're going to have those.

And there's this idea that we've got to kind of run from culture. The second one I think that we see and we're hearing more of now is fight. And this doesn't necessarily mean physical, like, we're going to go start Texas, like, Jesus Nation in Texas. Everybody get your guns, which is also a form of run. So, like, that would be run. Like, we're all going to go to Texas.

We're going to have Jesus Nation. America. Well, not America anymore. Tex-merica. And we're going to be our own thing. And we're going to avoid all this nonsense.

And then fight would be when Texas Nation, the People's Republic of Texas, annexes Oklahoma. And it's like, we're taking you. You're a part of us now. But fight really is this idea that we've got to regain our seat at the table. That the church has to fight back. This is Jerry Falwell in the Moral Majority.

We've got to regain our voice. We've got to regain our position. We've got to regain the power that we had and the influence that we had. And the way to do this is through legislature. The way to do this is through lawsuits. The way to do this is through boycotts and showing how strong we are and how big of a market segment we are.

And there's this idea that we need to fight back. This is the stuff over Christmas. That there's a war on Christmas. War on Jesus. War on Jesus. And we've got to fight.

It's this idea that we've got to fight back to get our position back, to get our power back, to get our voice back. The third one that I think we're constantly kind of see as an option is conform. This is what we had in the thing. Run, fight, or conform. And conform is kind of the idea that if culture is there, why aren't we? Like if the rest of America thinks this is good, why does the church have to be obstinate?

And there are places where this shows up. Okay, so if we boil down how we do music on Sundays to the smallest element, it's going to be an acoustic guitar. Because for most of us, we can sing with an acoustic guitar. But Aunt Frederick, who's over here and they're planting a church in downtown Columbia, if they boil it down to the smallest element, it's going to be a keyboard. Because they can sing with a keyboard. Easily.

Like that's kind of, and that's just a cultural thing, and that's conforming some to where you are and who's there and how you do music style. There's a little bit of like, if culture is here musically, let's move there. There are other things like Rob Bell has come out and said, like when culture is here, our culture has already moved on, shouldn't the church catch up? Like if culture has already moved here on this big social issue, shouldn't we just go with them? Why does the church have to argue about everything? It's kind of an idea that we would smooth off the rough edges of the church so that we can fit well with culture.

And if y'all have seen that, y'all have heard that, run, fight, conform, you've at least seen it, maybe not under those words, they're not given as options, but you kind of see that in our culture. These are the options that you have as a Christian to be faithful, to navigate. Have you ever thought about and noticed that all of those are lacking? That as a primary model for how to live as a Christian in our culture, they all just kind of fall short. So Peter writes this, and he's giving us another option.

That's what we're going to study through the rest of 1 Peter. Okay, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles, so intentionally placed where you are by God, of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God, which means that God put you here on purpose, has you where he wants you on purpose, in the sanctification of the Spirit, which means you've been set apart by the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood. All of that points back to the Old Testament when the nation of Israel became a nation. They became a people set apart.

They actually killed a bull, like a bull and a lamb, I believe, and they sprinkled them with blood to show that that sacrifice had paid for their sin and they were set apart to show the world what it looked like to be God's people on earth. Set apart by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus and for sprinkling with his blood. And the option that Peter's going to give us, what he's doing when he calls us exiles, and when he ends the book he signs off from Babylon, he's pointing back to the exile of the Jewish people when they were sent to Babylon. So what happens is, in the Jewish nation, Babylon shows up, conquers them, takes them to Babylon.

And here's what the Babylonians wanted. They brought, when they would conquer a nation, they would take all of the leaders, all of the powerful people, all of the artisans, all of the blacksmiths, anybody who did anything and was capable, they would bring them and they would put them in the city. And their goal was that the city would swallow them, that the Babylonian culture would swallow them. And what would happen is, they knew first generation, you're going to be your people group, so in this specific case, you're going to be Jewish. Second generation, you're going to be Jewish Babylonian, like you're going to have some Jewish viewpoints because of your parents, but you're going to be picking up on what Babylon's about.

Third generation, you're going to remember that you were, your parents and grandparents were Jewish, but you're going to be Babylonian. They wanted for them to conform, and that would actually make them into Babylonians over time, that they would cease to be a people. That's what the Babylonians wanted. So the Jewish nation, when they were taken off into exile, and we read about this in Jeremiah, and we're going to look at a passage in just a second, they wanted one of two things. We're going to start a Jewish ghetto. We're going to be as close to the city as we have to be, but we're going to be Jewish.

It's going to be a little Israel. Or we want to return to power. We want to return to our nation as we had it. We want to return to the position that we had. And so as far as they understood, their options were conform, run, start your own little ghetto, or fight. Somehow regain the power that you had.

And so Jeremiah writes into this, and this is what Peter's pointing us to. When he calls us exiles and when he refers to Babylon at the end of his book, at the end of his letter, he's pointing us back to this thing that happens in Jewish culture that was different, had never happened before. Jeremiah chapter 29, we're going to show it on the screen. I'm going to flip there and read this. This was the letter that Jeremiah wrote to the captives, to the exiles in Babylon. Verse 4, What God says is you're there on purpose.

Just like Peter says, by the foreknowledge of God, you've been placed in these places as exiles. Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there and do not decrease, but seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf.

For in its welfare, you will find your welfare. This had never happened. What just happened when Jeremiah wrote that letter is he said that God says that you don't have to be in Israel for this to work. That you get to be living there for the good of those around you. You get to be living there. You get to stay.

Don't conform. Don't run away. Don't try to regain the power, but stay for the good of those around you. Stay there and live and pray and work and be a part of culture. But as a Jewish person for the good of the city.

And so when Peter starts this off and he calls us exiles, what he's saying is you've been placed there on purpose to be there as a Christian. And here's the option he's going to give as he walks through the rest of the book. He starts off by saying for obedience to Jesus and for sprinkling with his blood. Sprinkling means that we've been set aside and that we've been covered by Jesus's sacrifice and obedience. Can I help you all out? I want to hope this.

I want this to be really freeing to some people. And I hope it really messes up a lot of you. That's my goal with what I'm about to say. When it talks about obedience, I hope it frees up some of you. And I hope it messes with your head on a lot of you. I hope it really messes you up.

Obedience does not mean agreement. When it says obedience to Jesus, it does not mean agreement. So some of us look at Scripture and say, well, I don't agree with that. When I was growing up and my dad, who was a big and scary man, my option was obey. He didn't have to explain himself to me. We didn't have to agree.

So if my dad had rules like don't eat rocks, that rule is really easy to follow because I agree with that rule. And if he has a rule and he has to explain to me like, no, I've got to understand fully why I'm doing this and I've got to believe it before I do it, before I follow here, then I'm not obeying. I'm agreeing. Like if he convinces me and I say, okay, I do agree to that rule. I'll follow you. That's not following.

That's not obedience. It's agreement. Does that make sense? So when it says obedience to Jesus, let me free you up. That doesn't mean you have to agree with it. And let me mess up a lot of you.

It means you have to obey. So that the response that Peter is going to give us as we go through the rest of the summer is this. Don't run. Don't fight. Don't conform. Don't form.

Follow Jesus in obedience, suffering on behalf of those around you. Follow Jesus in obedience, suffering on behalf of those around you. That's what Peter is going to say. That's what he already said. That's what we're going to read as we go through the rest of the summer. That we're to follow Jesus.

Now, here's why all of those fall short. Here's why we can't run. Here's why we can't go start Texas America. We've been intentionally placed where we are because we have a message of hope and truth that we all are sinners deserving of wrath and we can be saved by Jesus. And if we leave when culture gets not lined up with us anymore, we fail to carry the message to those who need to hear it. We've been called to be missionaries where we are.

And if we leave, if we run from it, if we start our own Christian ghettos and have our own, everything is Christianized so that we're only around people who we're comfortable with, then we fail to be missionaries to our city. We fail to suffer discomfort and frustration and mocking on behalf of others. If we fight to regain power, we confuse the message of the gospel and we are claiming rights that are never given to us in scripture. And we fail to be good missionaries to our city, to suffer mocking, lies, difficulty for the good of those around us. And if we conform, if we smooth out all the rough edges, if we no longer call people to repentance, no longer say that you're a sinner in need of grace, no longer say that you need to repent, then we remove the message of the gospel.

And Jesus did not run. If he had, he would have stayed in heaven or he'd have shown up and started a little monastery. He didn't fight. Just so you all know, if Jesus fights, you lose. So if he had fought, that would have gone really terribly for everyone.

There is a fight in Revelation 19 that Jesus leads and everyone loses. He shows up wearing white. If you're going to fight someone and they show up wearing white, they're pretty confident about how that fight's going to go down, just so you know. So if you're the type of person that fights people and they show up in white, just probably just quit. If he had fought, he would have just, but he didn't. He wasn't here to gain power.

He wasn't here to become a king. He wasn't here to take over. And he didn't conform because if he had, they wouldn't have killed him. All of those, running, fighting, conforming is an effort on our part to remove the discomfort, to remove the difficulty, to remove suffering. And all of us as Christians have been called into discomfort and suffering for the good of those around us as we follow Jesus. Because we have a God who suffered for the good of those around him.

We follow Jesus who suffered for the benefit of those around him. Not for power, not for prominence, not for approval, not for comfort, not for control. He suffered for us. And so Peter is going to give us another option. Follow Jesus in obedience. Suffering, difficulty, hardship, pain for the good of those around you.

Just as Jesus did for us when he went to the cross so that we might have life. The goal of Christianity is not to remove ourselves from discomfort. The goal is to trust Jesus as we follow him into it. And so for the rest of the summer, we're going to be studying the book of Peter. And we're going to be looking at practically how do we do that? What does that actually look like when I go to work?

What does that actually look like in my neighborhood? In a culture where I don't really fit in, they're not beating me, they're not persecuting me, but I just don't fit like I used to. How do I love and serve and suffer for their good just as Jesus did? And not just try to run from the discomfort. Not just try to regain power. Not just try to regain control.

Not just try to seek approval so that no one's at odds with me. How do I follow Jesus in obedience? And as we go through the week, that's what we're praying for. That the Holy Spirit would begin to teach us what it looks like for us to love and serve and suffer on behalf of those around us. To grow us in our understanding of the gospel so that we'd actually be able to do that. Raz and Isaac are going to come back up and we're going to sing and make much of Jesus who is willing to suffer on our behalf.

That didn't seek his own comfort. That wasn't here for approval. Wasn't here to gain power. Became to suffer so that we might have life and hope and freedom. God, we thank you for your grace. We praise you, Lord, that through the cross we have been equipped to suffer.

That we are elect, that we have been redeemed and saved and made new by you. And that, God, in your wisdom and your plan, as you set us apart, you called us specifically. To West Columbia and to Columbia and to Columbia and to this area everywhere around, Lord, where you've placed us in jobs and homes and neighborhoods and schools. Where we might graciously follow you in obedience. And where we don't line up with culture where we might graciously suffer on behalf of those around us for their good and for your glory and for our ultimate joy. We love you.

We praise you. We ask that you continue to change us. In Jesus name. Amen.