Done With Sin

1 Peter 4:1-6

Transcript

Good morning. We're going to be in 1 Peter chapter 4. If your Bible looks like this, we'll be on page 658. There should be one of these near you where you're seated. If someone else tries to grab it first, smack their hand, take it from them. If you don't own a Bible, you do now, you can take this one with you.

It's our gift to you. So we're going to be on 658. We'll be in 1 Peter chapter 4. I was outside yesterday working on a fence and my neighbor came out and started talking to me. His name is Mr. Kirchdoffer and he is 80-something, mid-80s.

He's about this tall, real stocky. And I was watching him cut his grass the other day and I just couldn't help but think that I need to start exercising more because he might be in better shape than I am in. And I was just like really disappointed in myself because he's like 85 and you wouldn't know it. He like goes out dancing and stuff. But he's really cool.

He was in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. So he was in all three of those conflicts. He was what was Bomb Disposal in World War II. It's an EOD now. They changed their name. So what he did was bombs would land places or be put places and he would go take them apart.

And he did this for three wars. He was very good at his job. You don't stay in EOD long if you're not good at it. And so he said he was working on it one time and there was a soldier standing next to him kind of like guarding him while he had to work on the bomb. And he said the soldier was standing there and kind of watching him, standing there kind of watching him. And the soldier looked at him and said, what do we do if that goes off?

Mr. Kirstoffer said, I just busted out laughing. There's only one thing you do if this goes off and you won't know it. There's one option. I do this well or it's been nice knowing you. And so he – so I was talking to him yesterday and what I asked him was I said, hey, November 11th is coming up and I think that's Veterans Day.

And I said I think it used to be VE Day or Victory in Europe Day. And he said, I don't know. They move all that stuff around, he said. And I said, but I think it was Victory in Europe Day. He goes, yeah, I never really remembered that. He said because he was in Europe.

And he goes, but when Victory in Europe Day came, I was on a boat headed to Okinawa. So he was in Europe for a while until it started looking good. Then they sent him to the Pacific. And so he did both sides of stuff in World War II. And I said, but I said, not many people know somebody. And I don't think our neighbors know that you were in three foreign conflicts, what you have done to serve our country.

And I was just wondering if it would be okay with you. And that's why I wanted to ask you if maybe I let our neighbors know and we tried to do something just to kind of celebrate, appreciate you, honor you. And he was like, no, don't want to do that. And I was like, okay, that's why I asked. He said, I'm the type of person that really embarrasses more than anything. And I didn't really do anything.

He said, we buried so many guys over there. What I offered and what I sacrificed really wasn't that much. And on most of those kind of days, I go down to the VFW and we actually are going to be packaging up some meals and taking them to other people. And so there's just something about, and I think specifically veterans of World War II because of how massively destructive that war was. There's just something about those guys that if you talk to them, they'll tell you, I didn't really do much. I don't really deserve much praise.

I don't really deserve much honor. And there's just something that happens with the guys that have gone to war that it changed their thinking forever about their freedom. It changed their thinking forever about how beautiful America is and how much we were offered opportunity. If you talk to some of those World War II veterans, they just have this. It was imprinted on them forever and affected forever their thinking and the way they live because they have seen how costly it was and how evil tyranny can be. And what Peter's going to, what we're going to see that he says today that he wrote, we're going to see that he's going to say that it's a very similar situation for Christians.

That there's something that should have drastically changed our thinking, should have impacted us so deeply that we can't view the world the same way. We can't approach life the same way, that we have so clearly seen the cost of our sins, so clearly seen the weight of it, that we're different forever. And so we're going to be starting chapter four. We're going to look at the first six verses today. Again, it's on page 658. I'm going to pray and then we'll hop in.

God, we thank you that we have hope and salvation and freedom and joy given to us through the cross. We thank you that you suffered so that we wouldn't have to, that you took on pain so that we wouldn't have to. And God, we ask that you would speak through your word today to us as we study it together. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Okay, chapter four, verse one.

Peter's writing, he says, Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. For whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. Okay, so if you're familiar kind of with the New Testament, Paul writes a lot of letters, and when he uses the word flesh, he kind of means our sinfulness, our sinful nature. Peter, when he's using the word flesh, he means your physical body. It is not deep. He means flesh.

He's really shooting at our ankles here when he uses the word. So what he is saying when he says, since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, he means physically, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. For whoever has suffered in the flesh physically has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of time in the flesh, just your human life, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. And so what he says is that as Christians we have two options, or that everybody has two options on how they're going to live. They can live for human passions or the will of God. Those are your two options.

You're either going to live for your own will, for your own desires, for your own passions, for your own, this is what I think, this is what I think is smart, this is what I want to do, this is how I think life ought to be, this is what I get joy out of, this is what I'm chasing after, or you're going to submit that to the will of God. You're going to live for your will or his, your passions or his. Those are the two options. When he uses the word passion, he doesn't just mean the way we use the word passion, like I'm really passionate about saving orphaned puppies. That's not what he means. He means our inordinate sinful desires, like our passions that are either for sinful things or just that are too big, that we took something that was good and began to care about it too much.

And so, for example, we can do this with really anything, work. We take something that's good, work, God gave us work, and we begin to say, you're where my identity is, you're where my hope is, you're where my freedom will be found, you're where my joy will be found. If I can just make this work out, if I can just make enough money here, if I can just be well-known enough here, if I can just go to work over and over again, I'll prove myself, I'll have joy. If I can just reach this promotion, then I'll be full, then I'll be free. And we've taken something that was good and started expecting too much from it.

Isaiah says, or Jeremiah says that this is like coming to a well that is dry and lowering a bucket and bringing the bucket back up, and there's nothing in the bucket. And so, we lower the bucket again. And we bring the bucket back up. And there's nothing in the bucket. So we lower the bucket again.

But that's what this is like. It's us coming to a dry well and over and over and over again thinking, this time, it's going to have water in it. This time, it's going to give me life. This time, it's going to fill me up. And we do this with everything. So we do it with work, we do it with alcohol, we do it with sex, we do it with food, we do it with relationships.

This will be the boyfriend. Ho-ho, buddy. I'm going to give him a second chance. We do it with everything. We come back to the well over and over and over and over again, and we keep pulling it up empty, and we keep believing, we keep lying to ourselves that eventually this will fill me up, eventually this will give me life, eventually this will give me joy. And what Peter is saying is that because Jesus suffered, you now have an option.

Before Jesus, you didn't have an option. You're on your own, do your thing. But because Jesus suffered, we now have an option. We can live continually chasing after something that won't fill us up, or we can spend the rest of our lives living for the will of God. And so basically what he's going to say as we study it this week and next week is that the way we live for the will of God is to actually turn away from this, turn away from chasing everything that we can possibly chase to try to fill ourselves up, and turning to following him. So we turn away from that, and we turn to Jesus, we turn to our church family, we turn to what it looks like to walk in the Spirit.

And so that's how he's going to kind of unpack this. We're going to spend most of our time today looking at the turning away from, and actually how we can do that, and why we would do that. So let's go back up to the top, and let's look at how he's going to say we actually accomplished this. Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh. So when he says therefore, you have to look at and know that he's, why is it, what is it therefore?

That's kind of what you ask when you read the word therefore in Scripture. You've got to see what came before it. What he's saying is because Jesus, what he's been talking about was Jesus who was righteous died for the unrighteous. Jesus who was good and holy and pure died to save all of us who weren't, who didn't deserve it, couldn't accomplish it. So he's saying because Jesus suffered, was nailed to a tree, bled, died, since that is true, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking.

Arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. And so what he's saying is look to Jesus, look at how he approached the world, and think the same way. Arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. So when we look to Jesus, what we see very clearly is he was going to live for the will of God, regardless of what it cost him. And he had his face set on the cross. He knew that was what was coming.

He knew that was the penalty for sin. And he was eyes set on the cross. And so what he's saying is that we as Christians get to arm ourselves with the cross, with the gospel. We get to put that in our brains. And so arming yourself, it's kind of like when you wake up in the morning and you have a routine you go through before you're going to hit the day. Some people, you bathe the night before.

Some people bathe in the morning. You're going to put some stuff in your hair. I do this. But other people put stuff in their hair. You're going to put on some deodorant. You're going to...

What he's saying is in that process, one of the things that we do is we arm ourselves with this. We should care about the cross and have it so set in our minds that we should care about it as much as we care about our cell phone. You ever walk out of your house without your cell phone? You ever get in your car without your cell phone? And you're riding and all of a sudden you're like, I don't have my cell phone. And immediately you think, what if something happens?

And then you think, what if I get somewhere boring? That would be even worse. Like at first you think, what if there's like a situation? And second you're like, what will I do without Candy Crush? This is a real thing that I do and have done on a regular basis. I'm walking out of the house and I always do like a pocket check to like make sure I've got all my stuff.

So like usually like a pack of gum, my keys and my cell phone. I'll be on the phone talking to someone. I'll be closing my door and I'll be like... And I'll tell the person, hold on a second. Because I'm thinking, my cell phone's not in my pocket. And I'm going, where's my cell phone?

On multiple occasions. I'm not very smart. And then I'll say, and they'll go, what? And I'll go, oh, never mind. I'm good. I was holding it to my face.

It wasn't in my pockets. But you know how you feel? And so that's what he's saying. Arm yourselves with this. Like you should feel lost if we as Christians aren't armed with it. But he actually uses...

It's a violent term. So most of us don't carry weapons all the time. Some of us do. Welcome. Most of us don't carry weapons all of the time. Some of us carry them some of the time.

I think most of us can relate more to the cell phone thing. But he's actually using a violent term. He says, arm yourself with this. That actually when the chips hit the fan... Chips hit the fan. That's a weird game of poker.

When the feces and fan interface... How about that? When it all goes down, what do you reach for? What are you going back to? What are you defending yourself with? What are you armed with?

How are you protecting yourself? And he's saying, arm yourself with it. And what he's hinting us to... What he's cuing us in on is something that he already said earlier. He said it in... It's going to be on the screen.

He said it in chapter 2, verse 11. And... Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. So what we talked about when we studied that was that some of us are being absolutely destroyed by our own passions and our own sinfulness because we don't know that they're at war with us. And the only reason you wage war is to destroy us, to murder, or to enslave. And that's what our sinful passions are doing.

And as he goes through this list in a minute, he's going to talk about some of these sinful passions. He's going to mention things like sensuality, which is our desire to just fill up our senses. Our desire to specifically with sexual sin. To just feel good. He's going to talk about drunkenness. And really, you can see in those two sins specifically how they enslave.

They wage war against our soul and they enslave. It becomes the reason you wake up in the morning, the reason you go to work, the reason you want to earn a paycheck, the reason you want to hit the gym, the reason you want to, is just to pursue sexual sensuality. The reason you want a boyfriend or a girlfriend, the reason you use those apps that you use, the reason that you log on to the internet, is just to pursue that. And eventually, that becomes the main thing that drives your decision making. Same thing with alcohol. Now there's an appropriate way to approach sex inside the confines of marriage, and there's an appropriate way to approach alcohol.

But drunkenness is what he's going to mention. And I have seen it. And know that it starts off nice and then can absolutely enslave somebody. I've known a person that it began as, this is why they went to work, and then it became why they didn't go to work, and then it became why they did everything they did, and they've gotten down to drinking rubbing alcohol because it was the cheapest, best way to get drunk fast. It was all they could afford. And it enslaves us, and it wages war against us, and for the most part, we aren't even paying attention to it.

We aren't arming ourselves. And so what he says is, arm yourselves with the cross. And so here's what we do as Christians. We have our mind so protected and defended and set with the truth that Jesus suffered. And this is the main point of what we're talking about today. Jesus suffered and died so that you can be done with sin.

Jesus suffered and died so that we can be forever done with sin. See, he died so that we wouldn't have to be condemned because of our sin. We wouldn't have to pay the penalty of our sin. He died so that he could take the penalty, so that he could take the pain, so that he could take the destruction, the shame, the guilt. He died to forever remove that from us. He also died so that sin would no longer have to control us, have to enslave us, have to rule over us, have to murder us slowly.

He was murdered so that sin couldn't have that power over us anymore. And he also died so that one day we can all be welcomed to him. We can enter into his throne room where we will be judged, and we will be welcomed because the righteous died for the unrighteous, and we will spend eternity where there is no sin. Jesus died so that we could forever be done with sin. He suffered so that we could be done with sin. And as Christians, we are to arm ourselves with that truth.

That's what he says in chapter 2, verse 24. It's going to be on the screen as well. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed. Jesus suffered and died so that we could be done with sin, so that we could look at sin. We could look at our passions.

We could look at these things, and we could say, I no longer believe the lie that this will fill me up. I no longer have to be enslaved to the idea that work or a relationship or future married version of me will be perfect and happy and fulfilled. I no longer have to believe that nonsense. Jesus died so that I would no longer put something in his place, and he died so that I would no longer chase after cheap thrills that lie to me over and over again. He died so I could quit coming to empty well after empty well after empty well. He died so that I could be done with sin.

By his wounds, I have been set free. I have been healed, and I can follow after him in joy and peace. That's how we arm ourselves, so that we look at sin and say, Jesus suffered for this. He was crushed for this. How could I continue to pursue it? How could I continue to love this?

How could I walk in my sin and arrogantly say, well, it's okay for me to do this, or I know the Bible says that, but I'm just going to keep rocking up in this. I'm going to keep walking in this and act as if I don't understand that Jesus suffered to set me free. That we are to arm ourselves with the gospel and that our motivation is to be the gospel, and that's actually how we'll turn away from sin. We'll actually be able to turn away from sin because we're armed with the gospel, and so here's what he says. Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.

So as to live for the rest of time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. So the section where he says, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. I think he's paralleling Jesus' suffering that sets us free from sin and how as a Christian, when we suffer for doing good, when we suffer for righteousness, suffer physically, mentally, emotionally to follow after Jesus, it actually only further breaks sin's hold in our life. That actually, as Christians, when we suffer for doing what's right, it actually makes Jesus more beautiful, makes salvation more sweet, and sin more bitter.

It's just the way it works. So he's saying that as you suffer to follow, it actually begins to break sin hold on you. It actually helps you cease from sinning, so as to live for the rest of time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. For the time that is past suffices, which just means it's enough, suffices for doing what the Gentiles, and when Peter uses that word, he just means people who don't know Jesus. He's assuming there's a difference in the thought process between Christians and people who aren't Christians. He's correct.

For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. For the time that has passed suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. Now, I love that that's in this letter. Because Peter's writing to the church, and you know what his assumption is? The church is made up of the righteous, of the unrighteous, that have trusted in Jesus the righteous to pay for their sins. So he's writing to the people.

Read that list again. Sensuality, which would be pursuing all things that gratify our senses, specifically sexual in nature. Passions, which is just our inordinate desires for anything that is above God. Drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. So drunkenness, which is getting drunk.

And then he includes drinking parties, which is getting drunk with friends. And lawless idolatry. And how many of us as Christians that describes college, that describes high school, that describes the past 15 years of your life. He's writing to the church and saying, I know who's here. I know it's the unrighteous who've been saved by the one who is righteous. And here's what he's saying.

That's enough. All the time that's in the past has sufficed. You don't ever have to go back to that again. Those empty wells, you don't have to return to them anymore. You can be free from that. If you're here today and that's what you're walking in, that's your life.

That's a good description. of your weekends. Welcome. We've got a lot of church family that that was a good description of their weekends and who have been rescued by Jesus and set free from those empty wells. I love that Peter includes that. And here's what he's saying. You're free.

That's enough of that. That doesn't have to be how your life looks anymore. The time that has passed sufficed. That's enough. Meaning you never have to return to that again. You can put it down because Jesus suffered for sin and you can arm yourself with the gospel because you've been set free.

Jesus suffered so that you can be done with sin. You can absolutely put it down and walk away. The time that has passed suffices. That's enough. And some of you today, that's exactly what you need to hear. That's enough.

As you walk with Jesus, that's enough. Yesterday, sufficed. You've had enough of it. You've gone to that empty well. Enough. It has promised you things that it would never fulfill.

It has promised you. It has lied to you. It has told you that the next time would be better. And that's enough. You can be set free. You can walk in freedom because Jesus suffered to set you free.

As I was thinking about this last week, I had this picture in my brain. And here's what I think this is for us as Christians when we follow after this. There was a couple and they were married, had been married a while, had tried to have children but couldn't. But they had a lot of joy with each other, had a lot of fun. Just one of those couples that when you hung out with them, they made you feel happy. They made you feel good just kind of being around.

They were also the type of couple that when they ate near you in a restaurant, they made you feel sad because they were obviously having more fun than you were. So it's that kind of couple. If you knew them, they made you happy. If you just saw them, you were like, all right. They were that. They had a lot of joy together.

They were real gracious to each other and they prayed about it and decided that they wanted to adopt a child. They felt like there was a good response as Christians to how God had adopted us and so they went through kind of the foster system and were able to adopt a child. And they got a nine-year-old boy, but he was nine, but he had matured quickly. He was keen. He was sharp because he had gone through some group homes and some orphanages and some foster care and he was kind of cold, kind of rough a little bit, kind of withdrawn a little bit and he had had to, throughout his life, eke out his own existence.

If he was going to have anything, he had to get it himself. If he was going to have anything that he owned, he was going to have to steal it. He was going to have to hide it. He was going to have to fight for it because of how his life had been and on multiple, multiple occasions, he had just had the rug pulled out from under him. Every time he had gotten in a situation that he thought was going to work, he thought was going to fulfill him, this was finally going to be the family, this was finally going to be it, he was going to have the happy ending, it had just been jerked out from under him.

And so they get a nine-year-old boy who is mentally much older than nine, emotionally much colder than any nine-year-old should be. They go through all the process and he's fully adopted. He's theirs. Changed his last name, he is forever theirs. And over time though, they begin to realize that things just, more food is missing than he actually probably eats. And things around the house just turn up missing every once in a while and when they have to correct him or discipline him, he just shuts down.

They can tell that he's living in fear that at some point this rug is going to get pulled out from under him and that he's consistently living in the belief that he's got to still eke out his own existence. They go to his room and sure enough, he's been hiding food, things that he thought wouldn't spoil, some things that he didn't know would spoil. His room doesn't smell so great. They find dinner rolls that have turned really hard, pieces of cheese. Pop-Tarts. He got a lot of Pop-Tarts in there.

And they sit him down and they explain to him, you don't have to live like this anymore. You don't have to steal things for you to have something. You don't have to swipe food off the table. You don't have to live in fear that the rug is going to be pulled out from under you. You don't have to consistently believe that you're going to have to fix your own situation, your hours, and your forever hours, and everything in this house belongs to you and we are not going to withhold any good thing from you. We're going to look out for your joy.

We're going to lead. We're going to discipline. But we're not going to withhold anything that actually will bring joy and life and hope to you. You don't have to steal food. You don't have to save money up on the off chance that we're going to kick you out. And the truth is, as Christians, as we consistently run back to those sins, we've been adopted, but we're still living like we're orphans.

We're still trying to steal from the table because we believe that God isn't going to give us what we need. We're going to continue to believe the lie that if we had a spouse, we'd be happier. Or if we didn't have this spouse, we'd be happier because we have a God who obviously isn't going to take care of our needs, who obviously is at some point going to jerk the rug out from us. We believe that when we sin, that's it, He might just get rid of us. And what Peter's saying is, you can actually put all of that down because you have a good Father and you've been forever adopted because Jesus already suffered for and paid for your sin.

Everything that needed to happen has already happened and you've been welcomed in. And that you no longer have to live like your life and your joy and your hope is up to you. And you no longer have to live like you're going to be the one who has to accomplish everything. You're free. You see, when we as Christians run back to the same old sins, what Peter's doing is the same thing that that family did where they sat him down and said, you don't have to do that anymore. We're not going to withhold anything from you.

And you don't have to try to steal it. We're going to provide everything and everything's already been accomplished to make you ours forever. So what he's not saying is get it together, prove yourself, do these things. It's not a list of house rules so that we can stay in the house. It's not what it is. It's not a do these things and then God will love you.

What it is, is absolutely Jesus Christ already suffered to set you free. How much more will he bless us and give us all things? How much more will he provide for us? How much more can he take care of us? And how on earth can we run back to and live as if we haven't been rescued, as if we haven't been redeemed, as if this honestly still holds promise for us because it does not. Our inheritance is forever held in Jesus.

Our hope is forever in Jesus. Our life and our joy is forever in Jesus. How on earth could we continue to walk in these things? All of the past up to yesterday suffices. You're free. That's what Peter's saying.

And then he says this, With respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you. But they will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. Basically what he says is, After you've been welcomed into the family, your behavior changes. After Jesus has paid for your sin, your behavior changes because your heart changes. And your friends who haven't been welcomed in, who haven't been rescued, think you're weird. And they make fun of you.

That's what he says. You don't join in anymore chasing after the same things and they go, Really? You're a Christian now? So you can be good now? Really, you're a Christian now so you don't know how to party anymore? Oh, really, you're a Christian now so you've forgotten how to have fun?

And they're absolutely confused but you have the hardest time explaining to them, It's not that. I know how to have fun. I'm not trying to be good to prove anything. I don't have anything to earn. I've been set free and I don't have to chase after this stuff anymore. It doesn't hold the same promises for me anymore.

And that's all he's saying is that your friends, after you become a Christian, sometimes, will tell you you're not fun anymore or that you've become a prude or that you're lame because they really don't understand what it's like to be adopted and welcomed into the family. And then he says, But they will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead for this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead and this is confusing but it's actually not. It's just the way he says it. That though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

So what he's saying is, again, in the flesh, he just means physically and when he says, this is why the gospel was preached even to those who were dead, what he doesn't mean is like they went to a graveyard and what he doesn't mean is that some spirit realm stuff. What he's saying is, this is why the gospel was preached to people who became Christians and then died. The word dead there, they have a couple different words for dead which we don't so that would be helpful but this one just means corpse. People who were preached to and are now physically dead. What he's saying is this, the gospel says you're going to be given life and you're going to be given eternal life but it doesn't mean Highlander which is one of the greatest movies the world has ever known.

What it doesn't mean is that you will become immortal and live forever. Peter's not still walking around waiting for someone to like cut off his head like whichever one how it would work anyway because it wouldn't even be Highlander. You wouldn't be able to die. What he's saying is, it's not that. We are all going to be judged in the flesh physically the way people are. We are all going to die because of our sin but because of Jesus we can actually have life eternally in the spirit the way God does.

We can live eternally after death. So what he's saying is this is why the gospel was preached to people who became Christians and then still got cancer. Who became Christians and then still had an accident who became Christians and then still got really, really old and took their last breath. This is why the gospel was preached to everyone because our hope isn't that we'll live life eternally here but that our hope is that we'll live life eternally with God the way that God lives. That's what he's saying. That we'll be made alive forever because Jesus paid the penalty for our sin.

That we'll all be judged. Every single one of us will give an account. Think about that for a second. How many of you would like to go to your mother and give an account for your life? How many of you would like to go to your spouse and give an account for your life? How many of you would like to stand up here and give an account?

My guess is one of you and you need to repent of your self-righteousness. You need Jesus. All of us will stand before the King and our life will be laid bare. Every intention of our heart, every reason we did a good thing just so someone could see how good we are. You ever been in the middle of doing something good and thought, man, I'm awesome. Do you know how messed up that is?

Look at how good a husband I'm being right now. I bet people can see it. Let me smile real good. Look at my wife like this. I do that mess all the time. I'm way nicer when people are watching me.

And we're going to lay our intentions bare. We're going to lay our hearts out before God and here's what's going to happen. He's going to judge all of those right now who are alive and He's going to judge all of those who in the past have died and everything's going to be laid bare and we're going to give an account. And the one thing that is going to matter is who's going to pay for your sin? Who's going to suffer for your rebellion? Either you or Jesus.

Either He's going to die so that you can be made alive or you are going to be forever destroyed for consistent rebellion against the Holy God. Those are the two options and here's what's true for Christians and for everyone who will place faith in Jesus. He's already paid the penalty. He's already suffered. He's already died so that we can be done with sin. So that we can stand before God and our sin as it is laid bare only proclaims how beautiful the gospel is.

Only proclaims how good Jesus is. Our sin as it is tallied up as it is read before the King only works to provide proof that Jesus is glorious and He is good and He is a Savior and He is righteous and He died for the unrighteous. When they roll out my account all I will be able to do is praise Jesus that I don't have to stand condemned for my sins because He stood condemned for my sins. I can arm myself now with the cross because later it is the only defense I will have is that my sin has already been paid for. My debt has already been paid and I can be set free from the penalty and the condemnation and I can right now walk in life no longer going to an empty well after empty well but I can be free to know that my hope and my foundation and my identity is secured because everything has already been done on my behalf to welcome me into the family and I no longer have to steal from the table and I no longer have to eke out my own existence but that I can put on the cross and I know that one day when I stand before the righteous judge it is the only thing I'll put forward.

That's what Peter is saying. That we can be made alive because Jesus was murdered. That we can be set free from sin because he suffered for it and that one day we can stand before the judge and know that's the only thing we put forward. Absolutely I deserve to be destroyed but Jesus the righteous died for the unrighteous and he swapped places with me. The band's going to come back up and we're going to praise God. We're going to make much of Jesus that we get to be set free from sin and some of you in here today are not Christians and that passage rightly describes the goal of your life.

Some of you aren't Christians but the goal of your life has been to prove to everyone how good you are. To prove to everyone how much you can behave. That you will one day believe that you will stand before the righteous king and you'll say look at how good I've been look at how much I've served look at how nice I've been and you will be declared guilty. I'm begging you to place your faith in Jesus. To arm yourself with the fact that Jesus suffered for you and have that be your defense and that be your shield and that be your hope and to no longer run back to the things that lie to you. There's some people here who are Christians but you keep going back to the empty wells.

Yesterday sufficed. Because Jesus has died on your behalf sin no longer has to enslave you. You have a new king who already went to war on your behalf so that your passions no longer have to wage war against your soul. And today is a beautiful day to repent and to trust once again fully and forever in Jesus and to say I no longer want to believe that this will fill me up and I no longer want to believe that my hope will be found here and I no longer want to place my joy and my identity in popularity and I no longer want to place my joy and my identity in the future married version of me or the future unmarried version of me.

And I no longer want to place my joy and my identity in a relationship and I no longer want to place my joy and my identity in work. I want to live the rest of my life for your will and I need your help and I need the cross. I'd invite you to begin praying that right now. Jesus, I need your help and I need the cross. Let's pray.

God, we need your help and we need the cross and we thank you that because you suffered we can be made alive. And we thank you that because you suffered we can live our lives for your glory and for your name and for your will that we've been welcomed into your house where all good things are provided and we no longer have to run back to the empty things that lie to us. And God, we praise you for your goodness and for the joy that you've set before us through the cross and through the gospel. And God, I ask that your Holy Spirit would help Christians to repent and to quit believing lies. God, I pray that you would help them to see right now so clearly how empty the well is and how full you are.

And God, I pray that for those who haven't actually placed their faith in you that you would grab them and you would adopt them and you would change their name and you would make them yours. In Jesus' name, Amen. I want to invite you guys to stand and sing with us. In light of what we've just read and what we've just talked about, if you need to spend some time just praying and repenting, I would invite you to do that. And if you, once you repent of your sin, you get to praise Jesus and sing because you've been made alive in Him that all Christians get to celebrate that and that's what we're going to sing.

The Righteous for the Unrighteous

1 Peter 3:18-22

Transcript

Good morning. My name is Chet Phillips. I'm one of the pastors here. We are in our series. We've been walking through our Misfits series where we're just going through the book of 1 Peter. And we've been studying each passage as we come to it and just walking straight through the book.

And what we've been trying to see is Peter was writing to a group of believers in the Roman Empire where they were just kind of a minority. They were mostly non-Jewish believers, so they didn't have a huge background when it came to the Bible. But they had placed faith in Jesus, and he's just writing to them saying, Hey, you're going to look different. You're not going to quite fit in now with your culture. And just trying to help them see what that means. To not be angry at culture, to not be mad at the city around them, but to love, to serve, to submit to authority, to suffer for the name of Jesus, and to suffer when people mocked them and reviled them, and to not return that, but to just be gracious and loving.

So that's kind of the letter he's been writing, and we've been walking through it. Now, when we come to this passage today, one of the things we like about just studying straight through books of the Bible is that you get the context, so you kind of see what came after. You kind of know where you are as you walk through it. The other thing that we like is that it doesn't allow us to skip things that would otherwise we just probably wouldn't just pull out to teach. The passage we're looking at today is possibly the most confusing passage in the entire Bible. There are commentaries that are just kind of like, nah.

Like, I don't really know what this is saying. Like, there's just, if you look, like, I've spent some time reading some different thinkers, theologians, people who write commentaries, and they're all over the place with how you could understand this. They don't agree with each other. There are parts where they kind of, some of them will just say, here are your options, and that's kind of what we're going to do today. And so as we walk through this passage, I don't want us to miss the main things that Peter is saying, because all that, the part is confusing is an illustration he's giving. And so he, they say that if you make an illustration and you have to explain your illustration, you have to explain your analogy, you didn't do a good job with it.

And that's kind of the case we have here. And I think some of it has to do with our cultural distance. Maybe they understood what he was talking about. We do not know what he's talking about. There are some options. And so I get myself in trouble this way.

I make up analogies all the time on the spot, and sometimes it's helpful. But every once in a while, I'll just throw one out in the middle of a discussion, trying to prove a point. And then, like, you get way too focused on the analogy. So it's like, people are like, yeah, but who, wait, okay, so I'm a tree? It's like, well, you're not, like, but what about, like, in the fall when all the leaves fall off? It's like, okay, quit thinking about the tree.

I was just trying to make a point, and the tree illustration was terrible. Let's move on from there. And so that's kind of what's happened here. Paul, Peter gives an illustration that we can get really focused on and miss the point of what he's saying. And so we're going to kind of try to pay attention to the main things. We will address that section.

And when we get there, we're going to do something a little bit differently than we usually do. We're going to talk a little bit about how to even just handle confusing passages. So instead of just walking through, usually we just read it and talk about what it means. Since we really don't know what it means, we're going to talk a little bit about what do we do with passages that we don't know what they're talking about? Just kind of coach us up so that in our own personal reading, we're a little more prepared, and then we'll kind of talk about our options. So let's pray, and then we'll be in 1 Peter 3.

It's on page 657, if your Bible looks like this. And we'll start in verse 18. But we're going to pray, and then we'll hop in. God, we just thank you for the opportunity that we had to get up early on the first day of the week and to gather as your people to learn more about you and to sing, God, hopefully not just singing, but reminding ourselves of what is true, reminding ourselves of what you've done for us, and genuinely worshiping you. And so, God, we praise you for the opportunity, and we pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would lead us today as we study your word. In Jesus' name, amen.

Okay, so, again, the section that's confusing is a little bit later. He says some absolutely breathtaking things about the gospel, and so that's where we're going to start first, and this is really his main point. So he just uses the confusing thing to illustrate his point, which makes it not very helpful. But here's his main point, 18. That is why we planted a church. That is why Peter wrote this letter.

That's why the church exists. If you are here and it's your first time hanging out, maybe your friend talked you into coming, or you're just kind of checking out this whole Jesus thing, that's it. That is the point. That's the point of the Bible. That's the point of why we gather together. That's why you will see grown people singing to Jesus.

That as far as our culture is understanding, it was a Jewish guy who died 2,000 years ago. That is why you will see people change their lives to follow him. It's that sentence right there. That's the point. So if you're just kind of zoning in on this Jesus thing, just hanging out for the first time, just trying to check out what this is about, that's what it's about.

And so we're going to walk back through that one verse a couple of times to really help us understand what Peter just said. Because it is the point. It is what the Bible is about. It is why we gather together this morning. For Christ, that's Jesus, also suffered. Once for sins.

Okay. We know about suffering for sin, right? You lie and you get caught. You steal, you get caught. You cheat, you get caught. You run your mouth and you get punched in your mouth.

Like we know about suffering for sin. Like we understand that sin leads to difficulty, trouble, suffering, pain, that it does. That the things that we complain about is sin. The reason that racism is such an issue and causes such pain is that it's sin. We know that sin causes suffering. And so what it says is that Jesus suffered for sin.

But then his suffering, it's about to tell us, is wholly different from ours. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous. The righteous for the unrighteous. And we don't use those words very much. It could be the just for the unjust. The good for the bad.

The righteous just means that has right standing. Has good standing. It's actually, it could be a legal term. So we use the terms guilty and not guilty. So if you go to court, you committed a crime.

The evidence is overwhelming. And you would be guilty. The judge, if he's a good judge, will declare you guilty. Or the jury, if it's a good jury, will declare you guilty. And if you get off, like if you, the evidence isn't overwhelming or you didn't commit the crime, all they declare you is not guilty. Which is just to say, you don't believe you're innocent.

You just couldn't prove that you're guilty. So not guilty. But the word here, righteous and unrighteous, actually means innocent. Blameless. Pure. Holy.

Which holy means set apart, completely other good. And so what this says is that the righteous, the good, the holy, the blameless, the pure, the upright. It's talking about Jesus. Jesus is the one human who walked on the face of the earth, who deserves honor, who deserves praise, who deserves for people to bow to him, to follow him, who deserves to be king of everything, who can walk into the throne room of the eternal, magnificent, living God, and be welcomed. That's what righteous means. That he would stand in God's court before God's bench of judgment and be declared innocent, welcomed, blameless, faultless.

The righteous, Jesus, for the unrighteous. Unrighteous means guilty. The evidence is overwhelming. It means bad and wicked and weak and dirty. It means those who have lied, who have stolen, who have cheated, who are addicted to pornography, who have spent their entire life, every second of every day, trying to get people to just notice them and appreciate them and to love them. It means the selfish.

It means the petty. It means the angry. It means the small. The ones that would walk into God's courtroom before the throne room of the king and would be declared guilty and deserving of punishment and pain and death. That Jesus, the righteous, died for the unrighteous. And this is why we're here today.

That's what the church is. This is a beautiful gathering of the unrighteous. That what we brought to the table was nothing but our own sin. That what we bring before God is not our morality, our religion, our good behavior. We're not here to check off boxes so that at the end of our days we can stand before God and say, look! Look at all that we did for you.

Look at all the things I did in your name. Look at all the times that I served you. Look at all the times that I stood in that group of people early in the morning and sang songs and waved my hands. Look at it. Look at the stuff I did. You owe me.

Look at all the times I wanted to sin and didn't. Look at all the times I just sat at my house on a Saturday and behaved myself. You owe me. No. This is a gathering of the people who have sin, who have pain, who have brokenness. You see, the Bible says that the God of the universe created the world to be good.

To exist. That humans were to exist in a relationship with Him and in good relationships with other humans. That humans were to exist in a good relationship with Him and in good relationships with other humans. And that humanity rebelled. And we wanted to be the center of everything. And from this comes selfishness, racism, bigotry, hatred, theft, anger, murder, bitterness, pettiness, the desire to be esteemed as more important than other people.

That humanity is messed up, unrighteous, and when we enter into the courtroom of God, we would be declared guilty. And so what Peter just said should blow our minds. Christ also suffered, took pain, took punishment, took death, took wounds, took blows, nailed to a cross, once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous. People will tell you that if they've been to the Grand Canyon, you'll have people tell you that they just stood on the edge of this giant hole in the earth and they could not speak. That they stood over this canyon and just had no words because it blew the synapses in their brain because they did not know they could see something this big or this beautiful.

People who grew up in the middle of the United States and the first time as an adult they get to stand and see the ocean. They've seen pictures of it, they've seen it in movies, and they stand and see the ocean and there's just this, it's different than I thought. It's more captivating than I thought. There's a, when astronauts go into space and they see the earth for the first time and it's just this tiny ball hanging in the midst of nothing. And they talk about how small and how frail and how weak they realize how, how infinitely unimportant humanity is. Because everything we worry about and fight for is often the distance on this tiny little speck of rock floating through this vast nothingness that we can't even measure and every time we try to it gets bigger.

That's how we ought to feel when we look at this scripture. When we see this text, we ought to see and be so overwhelmed by what that says. That the righteous suffered for the unrighteous. It should, the weight of that should bear down on us with such beauty and such magnificence that we can't even think straight. If we stood in a courtroom for the Boston bomber and the families were arrayed around the room waiting for the sentence to come through and the judge gets the sentence from the jury and he says, I declare you guilty. Take him away.

And if one of the fathers of one of the children that had been crippled or killed in that bombing stood up and said, I'll take his sentence. Let him go free. And the judge said, I accept your deal and looked at the bomber and said, you're free to go. Immediately, we feel this sense of that's not right. That's not fair. That's messed up.

That shouldn't happen. And we read this text about the God of the universe suffering on our behalf and we have the potential to just walk right over it. When we are so small that if one worm can pile up more dirt or more dung, he feels better and superior to all the other worms and if he humbles himself just a little bit, he feels like all the other worms should notice it. He feels like everyone should praise him for his humility and we have the eternal, magnificent, glorious, holy, blameless, upright, loving, generous, gracious, righteous, beautiful God of the universe who humbles himself, lives perfectly as we ought to have, loves perfectly and dies perfectly in our place for our sin.

The righteous for the unrighteous. And we gather here today because we are unrighteous, unrighteous, not because we deserve something, not because we're moral, not because we're religious, not because we're good. We are here today to declare definitively that we need Jesus. That we need someone righteous to step into our place and here's what happens when the righteous died for the unrighteous. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. Jesus Christ who could walk into the throne room of God, who could stand before the judgment bench of the great high king, the eternal, glorious God who spoke the world into existence.

Jesus Christ who could walk in and be welcomed and favored and loved as a son, swapped places with us, who could only walk in in front of God and be declared guilty and have blame and weight weighed down on us because we have actively partaken in the rebellion of his good creation. We have actively been a part of making the world worse through our own selfishness, through our own pettiness, through our own abuse, through our own anger, through our own small-minded weakness, through our own dirtiness, we have actively participated in making his creation worse. And we who could only walk in and be declared guilty, Jesus Christ swapped places with us so that the great high king of the universe declared Jesus guilty and he suffered so that we can walk, and we read it earlier, with boldness into the throne room of grace. You see, the throne room of the king of the universe to Christians is a throne room of grace where it used to be a throne room of judgment, where we used to have had to walk in and been declared unrighteous.

We get to be declared righteous because Jesus Christ swapped places with us and that is why we are here this morning. And that is why we exist as a church. And that is why we go out of our way to love and to serve others and to go out of our way to gather in groups and to have more people invited in because we're not inviting them to come behave. We're not inviting them to come be good. We're not inviting them to come act like us and be like us so that God can love them. We're inviting them to be numbered with the unrighteous and to have someone who is righteous take their place so that the God of the universe suffered so that we don't have to.

He was abused so that abusers could be welcomed. He was hated so that we could be loved. He was cast out so that we could be brought in. Jesus Christ suffered as the righteous for the unrighteous that he might bring us to God. Don't miss that. God it's difficult for us to even imagine the disparity between us and God.

It is unfathomable how humble he was in being made unrighteous for our sake. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says that God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God so that those who are unrighteous can stand before God and be blameless and holy and welcomed and loved. And that's good news. If it was something else we wouldn't be here. I sure wouldn't be. If the invitation was come be good come behave come be religious come memorize some stuff come prove your worth the invitation is come you who are unrighteous you who are small you who are weak you who are broken who don't have it all together come gather together as my people because I paid your debt.

Come gather together in joy and in love be welcomed as a child of the king because your debt has been paid. And that's what we get to celebrate today. Okay. So Peter just said something completely and utterly glorious and captivating and breathtaking and then he illustrates it with something completely obscure and confusing. Transitioned right into some point that maybe made sense to his original hearers and we in the United States in the 21st century have no clue what he's talking about. So here's what we're going to do.

We're going to read it. I'm going to point out to you why it is confusing. Then we're going to talk a little bit about how to handle confusing passages. Then we're going to talk about some of the options that we have what Peter could be saying. And then we're going to finish out with what his illustration was intending to to make and the main point again so that we don't forget. For Christ also suffered once for sins the righteous for the unrighteous that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit in which or as such or by whom it can be translated a couple different ways in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison because they formally did not obey when God's patience waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared in which a few that is eight persons were brought safely through water baptism which now corresponds to this now saves you not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In which a few that is eight persons were brought safely through water baptism which now corresponds to this now saves you not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Okay so the most confusing parts here that could kind of go either way and there's a lot of little options of how this could play out are being put to death in the flesh but made alive

In the spirit in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison because they formally did not obey when God's patience waited in the days of Noah. So it could be because it could also be when when they formally did not obey. Okay spirits in prison Jesus died in the flesh and then in the spirit went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison and so there's a lot of questions about

Who the spirits in prison are. I feel like Peter probably when people die and they go to heaven and they meet Peter like Peter oh my goodness you're Peter this is so great I got one question for you and he's like spirits in prison yes I just assume he's got eternity he can take the time to explain what he was intending when he said that but we don't know so that's kind of

The confusing part of this and there's some different options that we have but first when it comes to confusing passages because if you read your Bible there are confusing passages there are things that we don't understand there are things that we didn't really know what he meant when they said it like you read stuff and it's just confusing so here are basic steps for I just read something that's confusing in the Bible step one pray

God through the Holy Spirit authored scripture and if you're a Christian and you're reading the Bible the Holy Spirit is in you leading you so just take a second time out and pray I do this a good bit where I'm just like Lord that was confusing I have no clue what you meant I'm going to read it again if you want me to know help me understand if not good talk I'm moving on and so that's an okay thing to do don't be completely

Sold out on what you if you pray and read it again don't be completely that's exactly what it was because but just pray ask ask for wisdom and clarity second thing ask what is the cultural context all that means is who's writing to whom are they writing what are they writing about because it matters

Peter is writing to a group of Christians in Rome after the death burial and resurrection of Jesus which is different from the prophet Isaiah which is different from Ezekiel which is different from some of the writers of the Psalms it's a different context it's a different group of people it's a different time in history so just know a little bit about who who are we writing to is this to Christians

Is this to not Christians is this to people who need to know about Jesus people who don't know about Jesus is this to just write down some history so know a little bit about the context we're going to talk a little bit about our context here in a minute know the immediate context which just means don't just look at that one verse read what comes before it and what comes after it so we do this all the time

In political debates they'll be like this guy said this really inflammatory thing but then if you actually hear what he said before it or afterwards you're like oh less inflammatory although it sounded really offensive to women the first time made more sense in context and then you got some people in the political realm like George Bush that even in context

You don't know what he was talking about and he did say practice their love with women and it's just like this was weird why did you say that regardless of the context but you want to read what comes before it what comes after it you want to understand what he's talking about how it fits in the context of that passage that chapter that whole book and then you just want to know what you want to ask what does the rest

Of scripture say so this has helped by reading the bible more but okay a couple of things he says in this passage that Jesus went and proclaimed to spirits in prison that can't be that he gave a second chance of salvation to people who are already dead because there are multiple places in the bible where that is obviously not the case it says that baptism now saves you

It can't be that being dunked in water now saves you if that were the case we would always have the baptismal set up and we would trick people and we would bring them here and then five of us would grab them and slam their head in the water and we'd be like you'll thank us later now hang around we got ice cream afterwards like we would it can't be that

Because the bible is really clear in other places that that's not the case and he even clarifies it some in the passage so what's the rest of the bible say and then lastly you want to ask what do other people say now pay careful attention that does not say what does the internet say I realize it's other people typing things into the internet

That isn't just helpful so don't just google it don't go to yahoo answers when you have a bible question like it's helpful to have a handful of people that you trust now yeah you can absolutely use the internet because there's some really good resources if you have some questions about some good ones where they're

Pretty faithful people there's some different ones like the gospel coalition you can go to desiring God which is John piper macarthur's got some stuff where you just got some free commentaries of people who are pretty faithful read the bible a lot and then read a couple of them just to kind of see

What are other people saying so if you come to a really hard conclusion on something it's helpful to then look a little bit and see what other people say okay so we're going to kind of walk through this process today so first thing is to

Pray and so we'll pray again just to practice God we thank you that we get to study your word together and we pray Lord that you just give us wisdom and clarity as we study through this and help this be

Helpful as we study your word that we might all grow together in Jesus name amen cultural context one of the only things I think is helpful is peter's writing to christians in asia minor

He's going to he talks about noah they knew that story so much so such a popular story that even within about a hundred years of peter's writing there is a coin that has caesar on one side

And noah and his wife and an ark on the other side it's a very popular story and so peter it wasn't necessarily popular in that they knew the actual Genesis account but the story

Was popular because it had come kind of down through history to them because it was an actual event and they told this story and they had different point he's taking

Their already known knowledge to make a point kind of like I'll be talking to people sometimes we're talking about people have questions about satan periodically we'll actually get to

Study more about him in a couple weeks because Peter brings him up one of the things I'll say to people is that Satan and

Jesus is not like the dark side versus the light side it's not Luke versus Vader it's way people already know 100 200 years

From now people are going to be like Vader Bambi Godzilla what on earth is he talking about and some of you are like Star Wars

Will never die take it easy but there's this level of what point is he making and so he's tapping into something they already

Knew that we actually just because we're not in the cultural context don't know what he's talking about Noah so he's just kind of

Saying hey you're being faithful in the midst of a culture that's not you're a minority and people think you're crazy let me make

This point so that's kind of the context he's talking about suffering for doing well for being right and so that's kind of the

Immediate context and then as we go through we'll talk about some other places in the the I'm going to give us two options

That I think are okay the more I've studied it the more I've begun to like one over the other but we'll kind of

Look at two of them and then in our groups we're going to look at more of a bunch of smart people who say really

Good stuff except for Calvin who's very smart says some of the most confusing things about it and so Martin Luther even who helped

Start the reformation when he comes to this passage what he says I'll read this quote because Martin Luther is really smart and he translated the Bible

Into German from Latin and so he's a highly intelligent person this is what he says a wonderful text is this and a more

Obscure passage perhaps than any other in the New Testament so that I do not could be this if someone else thought it was

This that would be okay too and then moves right along like he does exactly what we're going to do today which is could

Be this could be that let's go to the main point so okay here's one of the options it could be okay so we're

Going to go through and just kind of teach it as this option and we'll go back and teach it again for Christ also

Suffered once for sins the righteous for the unrighteous that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but

Made alive in the spirit it could be that Jesus Christ died on Friday on good Friday and then was made alive in the

Spirit prior to his resurrection on Sunday made alive in the spirit in which so in the spirit prior to his bodily resurrection went

And proclaimed to the spirits in prison that could be shield which would be the old testament kind of holding place for people who

Died and it was kind of split into two parts the pit and paradise but it was a place for those who hell has

Not been created yet that shows up in Revelation the eternal fire the lake of fire that's later there's actually Hades or Sheol which

Is a holding place a prison a pit and paradise Jesus mentions it in Luke where he talks about the parable of Lazarus and

The rich man so there's some sort of connection but they can't cross over but they can talk to each other it's also called

Abraham's side so it's this place where faithful people who had trusted that God would provide a way for their sin in the Old

Testament were held not in the presence of God because their sin had not yet been paid for and Jesus goes and proclaims the

Gospel and his victory over those who are held in prison which spirits could be demons or people could be just demons could be

Just fallen angels could be just people could be both proclaims his victory and then takes the people to God's side which would make

Sense of Colossians where it says he led a host of captives so he took the people who had been being held to the

Presence of God when he rose so their sin has been paid for now he proclaims the gospel takes him with there some issues

With that but that could be a faithful understanding of what he says the other option which I have started liking more is this

In which so by the spirit so he was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit in which he

Went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison because which could also be when when they formerly did not obey when God's patience waited

In the days of Noah and then he immediately goes into talking about the days of Noah so here's what it could be and

This makes sense with some of the other things Peter says it could be that he is saying that Jesus Christ through the Holy

Spirit proclaimed through Noah to Noah's contemporaries and so he's just illustrating Noah and saying that it was Jesus who spoke through Noah in

Noah's day which makes sense lines up with what he says in chapter one where he says Noah was a herald of righteousness which

Means that he proclaimed the good news and so what he's saying is that it would be like if I said that's what I

Told Mike who's in prison back when he wouldn't listen to nobody when we was on the streets together that's kind of what he's

Saying it's like they're in prison now but he told them then when they wouldn't listen back when they were disobedient so they're there

Now he's telling you who he's talking about but he's saying that Jesus Christ spoke through Noah then and then what he's saying is

The same spirit that spoke through Jesus the same spirit that was in Noah is also in you church and you get to be

A minority like Noah was and proclaim the gospel like Noah did in the midst moving on from the confusing part if you're still

Confused so is everybody else in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison because they formally did not obey when God's

Patience waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared in which a few that is eight persons were brought safely

Through water baptism which corresponds to this so baptism which kind of lines up with Noah now saves you not as a removal of

Dirt from the body so he says not just by getting wet but that's why we don't trick people into dunking but which would

Be easier if we were Methodist because you probably could just squirt them in the face but we have to get them all the

Way wet sorry but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ so what he's saying is

That your baptism where you were baptized and you said that I've placed my faith in Jesus in the resurrection is similar to Noah

Who got in the ark placing his faith in God so here's the illustration he's making Noah seemed like a weirdo had to have and that was

A main part of the story the way they told it was that he was telling people a flood is coming and they were

Saying good talking to you weirdo similar to your friends who say the only people who know about this the government don't want you

To know about it FEMA don't want you know about it NASA don't want you to know about it the only the internet really

Just the internets good talking to you weirdo similar to that here's what here's what Noah was saying to people God told me to

Build an ark what's an ark it's like a big boat bigger it's like a boat bigger there's no water around here there's going

To be lots of it see them mountains yep won't be able to see them they're going to be gone okay what are you going to

Do with the ark put lots of animals on it my wife and boys can I get on the ark nope maybe I don't know

We can ask God he's going to build the ark what are going to do with animals keep them why because they drowned otherwise these

Are the conversations he had to be having and he was a herald of righteousness so what he was saying was there's a flood coming get

Ready and people were like quit weirdo what are you going to do in the ark float around does it have oars no does it have

A sail no you going anywhere nowhere to go there won't be any land what are you going to do if you're hungry I

Reckon I ought to bring some extra animals that's a good thought I'll ask how long are going to be up there not a

Clue flood going to go away probably these are the and he's he's being faithful by looking like a complete weirdo to his culture

And what Peter's saying is hey God saved eight people out of the entire population of the earth and those eight people look like

Weirdos and you're Christians in the midst of this culture that ask you all these questions why on earth are you doing that you sound

Like my grandma you're doing what with your money you got bills to pay hold a second because you love Jesus you're not allowed

To touch your girlfriend Jesus sounds terrible wait wait wait wait you're going to stay in this Job that's terrible that you hate because you've built relationships

With people and you want to tell them about Jesus you got a Job for a promotion but you're not moving why you're doing

What with your life you're doing what with your major you and Peter is writing to them and saying you look like weirdos and

Sometimes that's what God's doing he's grabbing a small bunch of weirdos because that's his plan and your baptism where you were covered in

Water and you appealed to God through the resurrection is now your hope and so what you say to people as a Christian people

Looked at Noah and said you're doing what because of what I'm building a giant wooden thing that's going to float because all the water

Is coming I've said this to you three times you're doing what you're confessing sin because of what because 2000 years ago God became

A human and he died on a cross but he didn't stay the fact that there is a tomb that does not have a

Body in it Peter saying you look weird you sound weird your decisions are weird and God is faithful and good and your hope

In Jesus is the same as Noah's hope in the ark you know what was beautiful about the ark they climbed on the ark

God closed the door they had no rows no sails they were to float until God changed the circumstances everybody on earth has something

That they're placing their hope in Christians have all climbed into the resurrection baptism which corresponds to this now saves you not as a removal

Of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ who has gone

Into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels authorities and powers having been subjected to him Christians have all said

My only hope is in the resurrection that the God of the universe who was righteous died for me who was unrighteous and that

He rose from the grave and now I have hope and life and that's what I'm banking everything on my only appeal is to

The resurrection my only hope is in the fact that Jesus Christ died and didn't stay dead I'm not hoping in my morality I'm

Not hoping in my religion I'm not hoping in my ability to keep it together I'm not hoping in my ability to be good

Or to love well or to serve well I am unrighteous Jesus is righteous and when I was baptized I placed all of my

Hope in the resurrection that he rose again and stands before the king on my behalf so that I have hope and I don't

Have oars I don't have a sail I'm floating around hoping only in Jesus that's it I saw recently because of this Kim Davis

Stuff in Kentucky there was a meme it was a picture of her face and off to the side it had all this stuff

That she's done so it because Jesus and what they were saying was the people who made it was look at how terrible this

Person is and everything is okay because of Jesus and I thought what a beautiful proclamation of the gospel you could put my face on

That meme and you could list out all this nonsense and at the bottom you could say that's okay because Jesus that is why

We're here that is the hope that we have that there was one person who was good and he was murdered for it and

Every other person deserves to be destroyed and we have hope and life and joy if we place our faith in him and in the

Midst of looking crazy we don't have to care because our hope is in Jesus and only Jesus forever Isaac Matt and Raz are going to come

Back up and we're going to praise Jesus because our hope is forever in the resurrection and if you're here today and you have

Not placed your faith in Jesus we would invite you to have a meme that's your face written in eternity that has a giant

List of all of the things that make you unrighteous and at the bottom say but that's okay because Jesus we would invite you to be numbered

With the unrighteous who have been made righteous solely by the blood of Jesus and have hope eternally because he lives eternally that's the hope that we have that's why we're here today

That the magnificent glorious eternal king swapped places with worms that brag about how much dirt they own that he took our punishment so that we could have a place at the table with the God

Of the universe that Jesus Christ suffered once for sins the righteous for the unrighteous that he might bring us to God and if you're a Christian today

Remember your only hope is not in your Job your only hope is not in how well your marriage works out your only hope is not in your kids it's not in success it's not

In money it's not in being comfortable it's not being able to retire when you're 50 your hope is forever grounded in the resurrection of Jesus

That you have climbed into the resurrection God has shut the door and we get to float with no ability to control anything other than have our hope set firmly in Jesus and people are going to think you're weird

And that's normal and we invite you to come be messed up with us to be broken with us to be weak with us and to place all of our faith in Jesus Father

We thank you God I thank you that we can't even wrap our minds around that one small verse but God I thank you that

That's what the Bible is about I thank you that that's the news that is proclaimed by you not come behave not come be

This type of person not come earn it but come rest and come hope and come rest fully and forever in the resurrection that

Your sin has been paid for and God I thank you that that changes our hearts God I thank you that you died for

The unrighteous otherwise none of us would be welcomed in I thank you that that means we can't out send you and we can't out run

You and that we don't have to keep it together because you died for the unrighteous so we're forever welcome because when we sin and when

We fall short and when we're weak and when we go back to that thing we've run back to for the millionth time we're still just unrighteous

And the unrighteous that you God the holy and good God died for we thank you we praise you in Jesus name amen

A Husband's Honor

1 Peter 3:7

Transcript

So obviously we introed with a clip from the movie Frozen, so we're talking about manhood, masculinity, and being a husband today. But so what we're doing is we're walking verse by verse through the book of 1 Peter. And Peter, what we're doing these two weeks, we just called it Misfit Marriage. So this whole series we've entitled Misfits because we're just looking at Peter's describing, writing a letter to the church in the first century and calling them to look like the gospel actually affects their lives. Which means that we will automatically not fit in as well in our culture because we're using a different thing to guide us.

We have different goals, different thoughts on what is best for us as we walk through life. What life is actually supposed to look like. And so we just entitled this Misfits. And so for the past two weeks, last week and this week, we're looking at what the instruction he gives to wives and husbands. And actually how that makes our marriages look different. You're not going to read this in People Magazine.

What we're going to talk about today, what we talked about last week specifically with wives being submissive to and subject to their husbands. You're not like, oh yeah, I saw an article about that recently. People were so on board with that. It's just not what our culture says, but it's actually what's good and helpful and beneficial as told to us by God who designed everything. And so I want to start off. We're going to pray and then I'm going to kind of, let me do this first.

I want to start off by talking to the females in the room and try to help you understand what you, why you would want to listen this morning. What would actually be helpful to you as you listen. So single females. Some of you are not supposed to get married, don't feel called to get married, don't want to get married. That is fine. That is good.

You get to image the gospel in that way, in a way particular to singles. You get to show the gospel in a way that married couples can't. And so that's beautiful and good and okay for the females in the room who feel called to get married, who want to get married, who have a desire to be a wife, to be a mother. What we're going to talk about today is what husbands ought to look like, what men ought to look like. And so I just want you to know what that should look like so that you can recognize it and so you can expect it. Let me just tell you something about guys that you may or may not know.

If you lower the bar, they will pretty much meet your expectations. Guys are pretty much going to jump the hurdles that are given to them. And if they won't, good, fine. Like if you raise the bar on what it looks like to be a man and what it looks like to pursue you and they're not willing to reach that, find someone who will. Like if your biblical standard for what a man should look like is here and they won't come to that, then good. You don't want to marry that moron anyway.

But if you lower it, you will have hordes of morons knocking at your door. So if you do not expect biblical masculinity, you will not get it outside of God's just real good grace to you. Because you're basically going to get what you call out of. So I want you to understand what it looks like, what biblical masculinity looks like, what headship looks like, what God calls husbands to so that you can expect it. Wives, three things. Don't try to be the Holy Spirit.

So if your husband is just kind of off in some of these areas, isn't following well in some of these areas, isn't repenting well in some of these areas, don't elbow him. Don't go, eyes up there. Like don't do that. When you get in the car to go home, don't go, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Like just don't do it. So I don't care if your husband handled last week well or not.

You get the chance to handle this week well. So don't do it. Do pray that the Holy Spirit will put your husband on his rear end today in the areas that he needs to be. So do pray. If there's a section, just if it's just a helpful section where your husband's off, just be, dear Lord, get him. That's an appropriate prayer today.

And do, where you see your husband fulfilling some of these roles, doing well in some of these areas, trying in some of these areas, do encourage that. Do go and say, hey, thank you. Thank you for doing this well. Thank you for trying this. Thank you for leading here. Thank you for fighting for this for our family.

Do encourage it. So those are kind of your options and things you get to do today. Also, you want to know what's called for for your husband so that you can see it, so you can recognize it, so you can encourage it, and so you can expect it. So you can be willing to step back and say, no, that's actually something you're supposed to be doing. I expect that. Okay.

The Bible places on men what is known as headship. The reason headship, we don't really use this word, but the reason it's helpful is it is not just leadership. Leadership is not just given to men. Women are allowed to lead, called to lead, good at leading. That's okay. Okay.

Now, inside the marriage and in the church, headship is placed on men, and it's actually placed on all men outside of marriage, outside of the church. We are called to foster growth and health in all things around us. We're called to build and to cultivate, and that wherever we are, wherever men are, things are designed to flourish. And you can look at our culture and see that where men are lacking, things fall apart. And you can talk to a sociologist. You can look at studies.

Nobody's arguing this. Where there are fatherless homes, where men are lacking, things fall apart. It does not work well because men were designed and headship was placed on men to create order and allow those around them to flourish. That's what men are called to do. Which means that every man in this room, you were designed to carry weight. I've heard someone say that men are like trucks.

They drive straighter with a load, and that is true. You are not meant to be bored. Bored men become complacent and can cause great pain. You are designed to have weight and responsibility. You are designed to carry a load. Single men, pay attention to what you are called to so that you might step up and begin to lead and be a man in all the areas that you're in.

Now, you may not be supposed to get married, but headship is still placed on you in life. And for single men and married men, but specifically for single men, there are two things currently that can completely derail your ability to walk in masculinity in our culture. And that's pornography and video games. And let me, I just want to tag this very early on because those two things tap into two of the things that you were designed to be and do. That doesn't mean I'm not going to keep up with time. I'm just going to beat the snot out of myself with my watch if I keep doing this.

Two things that you were designed to be and do that it short circuits. Short circuits. So pornography, short circuits in a man's brain, in females' brains as well, but in a man's brain, when you were designed to pursue a real woman that you have to sacrifice for, that you have to work for, that you have to put yourself out for, that you have to take pain for, that you have to carry weight for and have responsibility for it, short circuits that and gives you a cheap imitation that will derail your ability to pursue actual masculinity. And video games easily tap into what you were designed to be, which is someone who builds, who wars, who creates, who strategizes, who leads, who suffers.

And video games allow you to tap into that in a moment so that you can actually sit on the couch and pretend to do all those things and never actually accomplish anything. Now, pornography, never okay. Video games as hobby, limited amount of time during the week, acceptable. Video games as part-time or full-time Job, unacceptable. Video games as the thing you do with your time when you have nothing else to do, unacceptable. Because it taps into and robs you of what masculinity is supposed to look like.

Let me read you some stats just about American men real quick. Tonight, 40% of children will go to bed without a father. For the first time in American history, the majority of children born to women under 30 are born out of wedlock. Today, a single woman is more likely than her male counterpart to go to college, have a job, attend church, and have a driver's license. The state of masculinity and manhood in the U.S. is in a very deplorable state. And where masculinity and manhood fails, things fall apart.

And we are a joke when it comes to masculinity in the U.S. right now. And the only place where that is going to change is through Scripture and from the church leading in what it looks like to be a biblical man. Jesus, when we look at Jesus, he sacrificed for those around him. He suffered for something bigger than himself. He didn't act like he was the center of the world, even though he is. He actually suffered for the good of those around him so that they might be lifted up, so that they might flourish.

He was gentle and kind and abrasive when he needed to be. He was focused. He shows us how testosterone ought to be handled, how male headship ought to look. And as you look at Jesus, you see every man sees what you were called to be, what you were designed for. And I would like to invite all the males in this room to join up with the other males in this room in following after Jesus, which means that we fail and we fall short, but we go shoulder to shoulder in trying to see what it looks like to be biblical men, which is not easy, but it's very, very good for our souls and for those around us.

Now, I will say this about our church family that I'm very appreciative of. We have a lot of men, and we have a lot of men trying to follow scripture, trying to study what it means, repenting of sin, leading their families. We have guys who were living with their girlfriends, became a Christian, moved out, and planned to get married so that they could honor their girlfriend and future wife. We have guys that lead in repentance of sin in their families. One of the complaints we have about our church family, which every time someone complains about it, I just get so happy in my soul. As girls will say, man, there's too many guys around here.

Thank you, Jesus. The least likely person to be a part of a church family is a male between the ages of 18 and 34. We're going to be baptizing four, maybe five guys next week in that age range. Thank you, Jesus. But we all want to go shoulder to shoulder in what it looks like to follow him and to be biblical men.

And so single men, married men. Good morning. We're going to study scripture this morning. Father, we thank you for this opportunity. And we pray that your Holy Spirit would lead us. And God, we need you.

And we need your grace. And we thank you that you don't leave us alone, but you show us what it looks like to be men, to lead, to follow. And we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, so that's not going to be the tone for the rest of the day, but I wanted to start us off there. We're going to look at verse 7 of 1 Peter chapter 3.

So it's on page 657. We're going to look at one verse. And we're really just going to try to unpack for husbands. Now, it applies to men in general, but for husbands specifically, how you ought to relate to your wife. And this is, 1 Peter is going to hit a different area than some of the other areas in scripture hit. So that's why I brought up headship, because it falls under that, although 1 Peter is not going to address it.

Ephesians 5 has some really helpful things. But we're just going to specifically look at what Peter has to say about it as he comes out of. Last week he said, wives, be subject to your husbands. Follow their leadership. Realize that their decisions are going to affect you and be willing to submit, trusting Jesus over your husband. That's what we just studied last week.

And so if you come out of that, you can immediately be like, okay, so husbands just get to do whatever they want and get their way. If he didn't put this verse in, you might could assume that, but he put this in, so you can't assume that. We're going to read this verse, and then we're going to walk through it chunk by chunk. Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. I'm going to read that again. Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

To be helpful, we're going to walk through chunk by chunk, but we're going to skip ahead real quick just so that we're not all confused. What does he mean by weaker vessel? So immediately females can be like, hold on a second, what is this? What did he just say? Especially in our culture where that's kind of frowned upon to say things like that. So let me just give you a few areas that he may, what he may be referring to when he says live with your wife in an understanding way, honoring them as the weaker vessel.

In general, he may be pointing to the fact that in general females are more in touch with their emotions, which is good. You want that. But it makes certain circumstances more difficult for females. The ability to swap back and forth between everything being tied to their emotions. So there's not much that happens with my wife, Anna, that isn't also connected to emotions, to how she feels about things.

85% Of my life is not connected to how I feel about things. And that makes me easier to, it makes it easier for me to handle certain circumstances. That may be what he's talking about. The emotional wiring of males and females, which just listen to a comedian. We agree with this, or at least we see it. Could be in general that males are bigger, more physically designed to take a beating than females.

That could be in general what he's talking about, and that is in general. I mean, I wouldn't want to play tennis with Serena Williams or arm wrestle her. But in general, males are bigger than females, stronger than females, able to take. That's why WNBA and NBA are different. That's why we separate sports the way we do. That's why there aren't many females that compete at the level that males.

It's just in general, that's the way it works. Now, there are exceptions. I mean, but even the U.S. Army has different regulations for males and females, although we did just have a few females pass ranger school where there aren't any differences. So there are exceptions, but in general.

The other thing he may, what he's basically saying is this. Not, he's saying they're different. Males and females are different. Not one is better than the other. So C.S.

Lewis says, To say one thing is not another thing does not levy a complaint against either. To say that the sun is not the moon is not to attack either. And so he's just saying that there's differences. It's like females are fine china and males are cast iron. Both good, used for different things. Treated differently.

If you took a Brillo pad to your grandmother's fine china, she would assault you. They can only be cleaned with the backs of white kittens. Like, I mean, there's just, you have to, you have to treat them differently. And it's not to say one's better. It's just used differently. Not one's better, not the other.

It's like saying, would you rather have a pillowcase or a plunger? What am I using them for? Like, they just, they're both good, but they need to be used differently. And honestly, we're all very glad that your pillowcase and your plunger are different and used in different. Like, you want, that's okay. It's okay for there to be differences.

I think that's what he's pointing to here. And we're going to talk about a little bit about what that means. But we know this. Deep in our hearts, we know this. That this is the way it's designed to be. That there is a certain level of cast iron in China for males and females.

That we're supposed to be treated differently, spoken to differently. That's okay. So, there's a couple. They're laying in bed. 3.30 a.m. There's a loud crashing noise.

And it is now obvious that someone is entering their home. So, the guy rolls over to the female and he looks at her and says, in a very hushed and quick voice, Hey, you know how one of the things you like most about me is that I don't get into this whole male-female stuff that's been passed on to us from older people. Like, I'm not into that. And, you know, we always, that's one of the things you like best about me. So, I was thinking either we would just play Paper Rock Scissors to see who faces the intruder. Or we can make a really progressive choice and you could just.

Now, immediately, we know loud crashing sound, male and female in the house. Alright, boy. It's go time. Your name's just been called. Like, that happens at my house. I'm not going to look at Anna and be like, whose turn is it?

It's not happening. Male or female breaking into my house. They're about to have their hands full. Like, it's go time. That's just how it works. Like, we, okay.

In 2012, July 20th, 2012, at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, at a, like a midnight showing of The Dark Knight, about 20 minutes in, a guy comes in, throws in tear gas, pulls out an assault rifle. And three young guys in their 20s with their girlfriends, not their wives, not their mothers, with their girlfriends, push their girlfriends to the ground. And laid on top of them. All three of the girlfriends were wounded. All three of the guys died. The girls were wounded as bullets went past through the guys and into their bodies.

And immediately, across the world, those three guys were heralded as heroes because we know that that's how that's supposed to work. In the same year, there was a boat called the Costa Concordia that sank and 32-something people died. But there was widespread – it was just told as the story came out that men were pushing down women and children to make it to the lifeboats first. And immediately, that was condemned as heinous, sick, twisted, broken, because we know that this is true. That men are designed to take the beating. And so, as it comes to being a husband, being a man, one of the questions that you get to ask in your relationship is who takes the beating?

When it comes to working more, when it comes to picking up the slack, when it comes to making decisions, when it comes to who's going to take the beating? Because men are designed for it. So, I think that's what he's tapping into there. And now we're going to talk specifically through understanding way and then what it means to honor your wives. So, what he says is, Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way. I love that he says, live with them in an understanding way, which means that your posture is that of an understanding way.

He does not say, husbands, understand your wives. Because that would be terrible. But he does say, live with your wife in an understanding way. And here's how I think a couple of ways that this applies. Get to know your wife. Learn her.

Realize that she's going to change. So, my wife and I just had a son. My wife is different now. She is not the same person I began dating in high school. She's not the same person she changed when we got married. She's not the same person that she was when we first got married.

She's been different every time we've moved to different states. And she's had different jobs. She has changed. Her tastes have changed. Her attitude toward things has changed. And part of my role as a husband is to try to understand her.

To learn her. To get to know her. To pursue her consistently. So, I'll tell you one of the smallest ways that this has happened. And my wife always tolerated Taco Bell. She didn't really like it.

She was just okay with it. Because I really like Taco Bell. So, we would eat there some. And a lot of times, I'd be like, you want to go to Taco Bell? She'd say, sure. And this is why we were living here.

And we would go. But on the way to Taco Bell, there's a KFC. And it never failed. As we were getting close and she saw KFC, she went, or we could just get some chicken. And so, we went to KFC a lot. I could see Taco Bell.

I wanted Taco Bell. And I'd just be like, mmm. Then she got pregnant. And I don't remember. It was two, three months in. And she looked at me.

It was late in the evening. And she says, do you want to go to Taco Bell? Yes. Heck, yes, I do. And so, while she was pregnant, and I did not matter. It could be 2 o'clock in the afternoon.

It could be 10 o'clock at night. While she was pregnant, I could go, do you want some Taco Bell? And she'd be like, that sounds good. And so, I took advantage of this because I knew the only reason she wanted Taco Bell was because my son existed inside of her. And he wanted Taco Bell. That's right.

I passed on trashy jeans or something. Like, I don't know what went into him that made him crave Taco Bell. But I knew that was the only reason. So, I ate so much Taco Bell. And then, grace upon grace, she still likes Taco Bell. That's beautiful.

And I'm assuming that will last until maybe our next child. Like, I don't know. But her tastes are going to change. I say that to say, realize your wife is going to change. Her tastes are going to change. Her desires for things are going to change.

And realize that your wife is not someone else's wife. So, learn your wife's version of humor. Does your wife think sarcasm is funny? My wife thinks sarcasm is hilarious, which makes it very difficult for me to converse with other females. Because I say things to them that my wife would think is funny. And they look at me like I'm the worst human they've ever met.

I'll be like, you didn't think that? Okay. Sorry. My bad. What kind of humor is she like? What kind of...

How does she communicate? Is she a morning person? Is she an evening... Like, understand your wife. Begin to learn. This is not the time to have this conversation.

This is not the time... This is not the way to approach my wife. Realize that when your married friend says, this is what I do, that may or may not be helpful. Sometimes you just need to say, cool, bro, and not do that. You're married to a different person. Understand your wife.

Pursue her. Learn her. And realize you're going to do that forever. How do they receive affection? How do they show affection? Begin to learn your wife.

Okay. So, we're going to look at three ways to show honor. So, what he says is, understand... Live with your wives in an understanding way. Showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel means treat her differently. She is not one of your...

She is your friend, but she's not one of your male friends. She gets treated differently. She gets shown honor in a different way. So, we're going to talk about three ways, three places that this shows up. It shows up in how you talk about your wife, how you talk to your wife, and how you make decisions. So, we're just taking the idea of what does it look like to show honor to your wife, to love her, to prefer her.

And so, it's how you talk about her, how you talk to her, and how you make decisions. Talk about her. Here's the rule. This one's short. You don't get to say derogatory things about your wife to other people, period. I will state that again.

You don't get to say derogatory things about your wife to other people. This is something that men do. The two things men will get... Three things men will get together and talk about. They'll talk about sports. They'll randomly just talk about what's going on.

They'll bash their boss, and they'll bash their wife. You don't get to partake in the third... Second or third. You can talk about sports. I don't have time to talk about why you can't bash your boss. But just this one.

You don't get to say derogatory things about your wife to other people. You can say nice things about your wife to other people. You can say nice things about your wife in front of your wife. You don't get to say mean things about your wife in front of your wife. It does not make you look good. It does not make her look good.

It does not foster health or growth or joy or peace in your household. Don't do it. You get to encourage her in front of people. You get to point out her wins in front of other people. You don't get to... My wife loves sarcasm.

Father, one of the areas I have to repent to her. most often is I will make sarcastic jokes to her or about her around other people, and that is never appropriate. It is not the same as when we are alone. So some of the things that I can say to her that are funny when we are by ourselves are not funny if other people are in the room, and I have to repent to her often. I'm getting better at that. I have to repent to her less often than I used to. You can.

The only caveat to this rule is if you are working through something and need to talk to some guys in your community group to ask for clarification for prayer, and as long as it's not in a gossipy way, you can say, hey, this is going on in our marriage right now. This is a thing that's happening. I need some clarification. I need some help. I need some wisdom here. That's perfectly biblically okay.

Otherwise, you don't get to just say, well, my wife always does this, and this is something. You just don't. It's not cute. It's not cool. It does not honor your wife. Okay, second one, how you talk to your wife.

Colossians is going to say don't be harsh. You don't get to bully your wife. You don't get to push her around. You don't get to go flash bang when you get in arguments. My wife is scary. I am way scarier.

And I know immediately if anybody knows my wife, they're like, she's not that scary. You've never seen her angry. She's scary. I'm scarier though. And so when we get in arguments, I don't get to throw things. I don't get to shout at her.

I don't get to call her names. I don't get to belittle her. You don't get to do that as a husband. You get to love. You get to honor your wife regardless of the circumstance. Prefer her.

Show her respect. Treat her as if she's more important than you are. That's what it looks like. So tone, word use. What this means is that you need to go out of your way to say very helpful, encouraging, gracious things to your wife. You need to look for the things that she does well, where the Holy Spirit's active in her, where you can see her growing and you need to point them out.

You don't just get to follow around and tell her the things that annoy you. When was the last time you walked in your house and specifically looked around for things to say encouragingly to your wife about what she does, about how she carries herself, about... One of the things that... It makes life more fun. You can easily notice the things that bother you. Walk in your house and go, I'm going to find five.

I'm going to find five things tonight that I can say encouragingly to my wife. Make it a game. Make it challenging. Some of you, two is a challenge. Go for it. Find something to say encouraging.

Thank you so much for doing this. Thank you so much for being like this. Can I just tell you that I noticed this and appreciate it about you? Can I tell you why all other females pale in comparison to you? They are garbage. And you're a roast.

Like, say some of this stuff. That's okay. Do that. Speak to your wife in an encouraging, loving, gracious way. And when there is conflict, don't go flashbang grenade on her to win. Don't pull up old arguments.

Don't... Resolve the conflict in a helpful, gracious way. You don't get to be harsh to your wife. The third one, and I think this one is the most confusing and difficult in a way to honor your wife as the weaker vessel and in an understanding way, is how you make decisions. So let me tell you the rule first, and then we're going to talk through a couple of scenarios, how it plays out, because it's difficult.

The rule is, first of all, there's headship placed on you as a husband. So let me tell you a little story. There was two naked people, and they lived in a garden. And they ate fruit, and the male naked person was named Adam, and he was given a job to name all the animals and to cultivate the rest of the world to look like this garden. So this is Adam and Eve.

There was one thing they couldn't do, which was eat of a certain tree, which was God, I believe, teaching them to trust him. And what happens is Eve, the wife, she would be the naked lady in the story. Try to stay focused. Ate of the tree, and then it says she gave some to her husband who was with her. And then, so she sinned, so she was deceived, the Bible tells us that, and she gave to her husband who was with her. So he was just hanging out, doing nothing, apparently, while she talked to a snake.

Husbands, if your wife starts talking to a snake, that's your moment. Step in. Don't talk to snakes. Anyway, sorry, I'm distracted. God shows up, and he calls for Adam. He does not call for Eve.

And when Adam responds to God, his response is this. The woman you gave me, he responds with, but my wife. And God says, no. The response there is, that doesn't matter. When God punishes Adam, he says, because you listen to the voice of your wife, which does not mean don't converse with your wife, don't ask for her opinion, don't let her speak into things. What it means is, the ultimate weight of the headship of your family rests on you.

The ultimate health and weight of and judgment for your family, your household rests on the male. That's the way it's designed. So if you look at a relationship and you say, she's in charge of that family. No, she is not. He is the head of the house. He's just a bad one.

That's how that works biblically. So the rule is, all decisions, ultimately, the man will be held accountable for. And there is no, but my wife. There is no, she's really hard to talk to. She's really difficult to lead. I'm sorry.

That doesn't get to be an excuse. You're held accountable for it. So the rule for husbands, you need to realize all decisions coming out of your household, ultimately, fall under your headship. Which means that when you make decisions, you make decisions to honor, to love, to serve your family, not yourself. So that's the rule.

All decisions ultimately will fall on your shoulders. And secondly, all decisions are made to honor, serve, love your family. Honor, serve, love your wife. Honor, serve, love your children. Guys in dating relationships, guys who are single. This begins by not having sex before you are married.

Because that is how you honor, serve, and love your spouse and your family. By leading immediately, early on, in repentance. By leading immediately and early on through following scripture. Which is hard. At no point does the Bible act like what is called of men is easy. And let me tell you something, men.

You were designed for difficult. You're supposed to carry weight. Now, I will say this. Since all decisions are going to fall under your headship, you need to become very well acquainted with this book. Men should be devouring this. Because we are not smart enough to make wise decisions outside of this.

If you think that you're going to navigate life well without this, that's a mistake. And you need to be asking your wife stuff because she's smart. Sarah and Abraham, we looked at them last week. There's a story where Sarah goes to Abraham and says, This is what I want to do in this situation. Abraham goes to God and God says, Do everything your wife just said. Ladies, you missed your chance.

That was the time to say amen. It's too late now. That's not the rule for how marriage should always work. It is not always do everything your wife says. But there are times when you're going to sit down with your wife and you're going to say, How do we navigate this?

And she's going to say, I think this, this, and this. And you're going to go, That was amazing. You're going to pray about it. You're going to say, I think God said do everything you said. Plans, steps one through five were brilliant. But at the end of the day, the weight of the decision still lands on you.

So let me show you some practical ways that this applies. It means that you honor your wife by preferring her and by deferring to her. The reason that so often Anna and I turned into KFC instead of going to Taco Bell is that I prefer my wife. Which means she gets her way in a lot of things. We discuss stuff and she, yeah, I don't care. That's not going to harm our family.

I don't know the difference between periwinkle and blue and fuchsia. Like, whatever. Yeah. Just paint it whatever. Like, we're good. Like, I'm, this means practically that my wife and I eat at Olive Garden.

I hate Olive Garden. It really tastes like, first of all, the decor is like you're in a retirement home and it tastes like they cook the pasta at a gas station. And Darden, the parent company to Olive Garden, recently had like a 300 slide presentation. And basically what they said was, this looks like an old folks home and it tastes like you cook this in a gas station. Like, the parent company said that to Olive Garden. So I'm not wrong.

But my wife and I eat there because she likes Olive Garden. What it means is that a lot of times you're just going to prefer your wife. You're going to defer to her. You're going to honor her. You're going to show her respect. You're going to act like her opinion means more than yours.

What do you want to do? Where do you want to go? Now, lead. Make decisions. Don't put all the weight every time on your wife. Don't always look at her and go, where do you want to eat?

Sometimes just say, hey, we're going to go eat here. That's gracious to your wife. She appreciates that. Realize that. Don't make her make every single decision all day long because you're trying to be nice to her. But at times it does mean you're just going to defer to her.

You're going to prefer her. Now, what happens? And this is the big thing that shows up in this passage, especially with what we read last week. What happens when you disagree? And it's a big thing. It's not Taco Bell or KFC.

Because that's a real choice around here because we don't have a KFC Taco Bell, which Target Market, West Columbia. I mean, absolutely, KFC Taco Bell, you would do great. If you're listening online, anybody who works there. Sorry. What do you do when you can't decide? What do you do when it's a big decision?

When it's who goes back to school? Do I quit my job so that we can do a startup? When it's do our kids go to homeschool? Do our kids go to school? Do we do some of both? When it's how are we going to pay for this?

When it's what do we do with this money? How do we set our budget? What do you do when you cannot decide? When you have said all of your words, she has said all of her words. You have thought about it. You've prayed about it.

You've talked to your community group to seek wisdom. You've studied scripture. What do you do when there is, regardless of the size of the decision, one of you says this is what's best for our family and this is what's best for our family? What do you do? I will tell you what often happens, but you need to remember two things. All decisions coming out of your household will ultimately rest on you.

That does not mean wives and that does not mean for your wife that she is not held accountable for her decisions, her actions, her attitudes, her sins. That is not the case. It does mean that headship rests on you and that decisions coming out of your household ultimately you'll be held accountable for. But how do you honor your wife living with her in an understanding way, honoring her as a weaker vessel when it comes to conflict and decision making? Well, we already know that he told wives be subject to your husbands. So how do you, when there's conflict, when you can't make a decision, how does this work?

I'll tell you what often happens. Men often will do this. Will do whatever you want to do. For a couple of reasons. One is usually we're tired of talking. I'm just, I'm out of words.

There are days Anna asks me questions and I just answer in my head. And five minutes later she's like, are you going to answer me? And I'm like, I didn't. I just, I didn't know. I was out of words. I had run out earlier in the day.

I had no more. And there are times in conversations when it is two o'clock in the morning and I have no more words. And she still has a lot. Like I just saw a whole garrison of reinforcement words just show up. And guys will say, we'll do whatever you want to do. And here's, sometimes it is, it is, it is a pretend niceness and it is weakness.

And men, we need to stop. Here's what we're doing. If we disagree and I let her decide, she carries the weight of the decision. So if she's right, good. She was right. That's a win for us.

She's happy. We didn't have to talk anymore about it. She feels like I was nice to her. She's right. Good. I don't have to, I don't have to take the beating of being wrong.

I don't have to go repent. I don't have to, I don't, I don't, she just, if she's wrong, good. She'll see that I was right. And she'll take the beating. Not abusively like you're going to beat your wife. But she'll take the fallout of the wrong decision.

She'll have to own it. She'll have to carry the weight. She'll have to feel the pressure. Good. We argued about it. We discussed it.

We couldn't come to a conclusion. I finally said, we'll do whatever you want to do. And she was wrong. Good. Good. Good.

And it's weakness. It's not leadership. And it's not honoring your wife. It's not gracious. What you're doing is you're pushing your wife out in front of you and saying, hey, just be fodder. I don't think this is good for our family, but I'm tired of discussing it.

You take the beating. I don't think this is good for the direction of our relationship, but I'm tired of talking about it. I'm tired of saying it, so you take the beating. I'm tired. And I don't want to do what's difficult. And I don't want to do what's called of me.

And I don't want to take the beating anymore. So you do. Here's what happens. The way you honor your wife is by taking the beating on behalf of her. All decisions are ultimately going to, you're going to be held accountable for them. So that means sometimes you do what your wife suggested, what she says, what she thinks is right.

But you own the decision so that when it goes poorly, you still repent. You don't look at your wife and say, you had a bad plan. You look at her and say, I led poorly here because you did. Sometimes when you cannot agree, husbands, you take the beating on both sides. Your wife will be upset with you. That is fine.

You look at her and say, I'm sorry. I don't know if this is the right next step. I know it's the one we're taking. If everything was always clear, you wouldn't need leadership. If the next step was always obvious, you wouldn't need leadership. You would just agree and you'd move on it.

And that happens. But when the next step isn't clear, you have to lead. You have to carry the weight. You have to say, I don't know if this is the right next step, but I know it's the one we're taking. And then you take the punishment. If it's right or if it's wrong, you repent.

Repent quickly. If it's a wrong decision, repent quickly. Change course. Go for it. Wives, realize the grace that is offered to you in that scenario. You get to know that you are right and that you are following well, following Jesus well by following your husband.

That you're trusting Jesus as you follow your husband. And at the end of the day, if your husband says, this is the direction we're going, you get to know that you're right. Your husband does not get that grace. He doesn't get that. He doesn't get the chance to know that he's right other than he's trying to lead. He has to carry the weight of the decision.

So, it means you prefer your wife. You defer to your wife. You ask her a lot of questions. You learn. You let her step in, weigh in. But at the end of the day, all the decisions coming out of your household are ultimately going to be laid on you.

And at times, that means that you're going to have to look at your wife and say, I have heard you. And really here, listen. This is the direction we are taking. And I'm going to ask you to follow me. And you're going to carry the weight. And take the beating if you're wrong.

And take the beating in the decision at the beginning, even if you're right because of the disagreement. And that's how you honor your wife. And that's how you love your wife. And that's how you serve your wife. You don't let her carry the weight of decisions and put that pressure on her because she wasn't designed to do it. And it's not gracious to her.

And it's not loving. It's weakness. And it's not fun. But that doesn't have anything to do with it. Sorry. But here's where it gets a little better.

He tells us why. Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. The reason we do this is because in front of Jesus, we're all equal. We need grace. We need him to work on us. We need him to change us.

We need him to step in and fix the problem. We need grace. Your wife and you need Jesus. One of the things we're told about manhood is that you can never admit you're wrong. You can never show any weakness. You can never ask for help.

No. Christian men need grace. Our weak need help. Need Jesus. All of us need Jesus. We all need grace.

We all need Jesus to show up and help us, to fix us, to change us, to lead us. And then he says, so that your prayers won't be hindered. I think this means two things. One is, if you don't understand your wife and you're not honoring her and you're not living her in a healthy way, your household isn't that healthy. And your prayers are just not going to be great. Your prayer life will be kind of messed up because your relationship with your wife will be messed up.

The other thing I think it means is this. God, who is in the ultimate position of authority and leadership, used it to sacrifice and suffer and serve those who are under his leadership, under his care. And if you are using your position of authority, headship and power to take advantage of females, to take advantage of your wife, to abuse her, to do everything the way you want to do it, to be lazy, to be weak. God only wants to talk to you about that. He doesn't want to hear about your job. When you're praying about work and a promotion, he's going, oh, we need to talk about your family.

You need to repent. And so what Peter's saying, I think, is love your wife, serve her, honor her, follow Jesus, and then you actually can pray well for her. You can have a healthy prayer life and you can talk about other things because you're not going to be in constant need of repentance. Okay. Next week is baptism. Thank you, Jesus.

We're going to celebrate. We're going to have a party. The past weeks have been, Peter hasn't pulled any punches. The past weeks have been obey all authorities, even the government, which Americans love that. So obey the government, honor everyone.

Then suffer well. You were called to suffer. You were designed to suffer. Suffer well. And then wives, be subject to your husbands. And husbands, honor and love your wives.

So it's not been the funnest past weeks. Here's what we're going to do. Because we're all heirs of the grace of life and we all needed Jesus to show up in our brokenness and our weakness and sin. We're going to celebrate now by taking communion. And what communion is is an active, present reminder of the fact that Jesus declared once and for all definitively on the cross that every single one of us is messed up and every single one of us needs him. That Jesus definitively declared that you are broken and that you need grace.

And then his body was broken as he sacrificed and suffered on our behalf so that we could have life and joy and hope and peace and grace. And so what we'll do is you're going to take bread and you're going to remind yourself of his broken body on your behalf. And you're going to take the bread and dip it in the juice to remind yourself of his blood that was spilled on your behalf. And you're going to take communion. But before we do that, as we've talked about some difficult things over the past several weeks, we're going to pray.

Some of you need to repent. Some of you need to confess. You need to talk to your husband. You need to talk to your wife. You need to say, I've led poorly here. I've followed poorly here.

I've undermined you here. I've not been encouraging. When I need to tell you 15 things that I love about you right now. Because all I've done is follow you around and tell you all the things that bother me. Single guys, some of you need to repent to your girlfriends. For leading poorly.

For taking advantage of them. Single females, some of you need to talk to Jesus about how much weight you've placed in a relationship that isn't to him. Where you've allowed a male to lead you poorly. When you should have been following Jesus and trusting him. Where you've thought that you had to do a certain amount of things or be a certain type of person so that someone could actually care about you. And that Jesus has already definitively declared that he loves you eternally and will sacrifice forever for you.

That he would give everything for you. And that you are loved and that you are valuable and that you do have worth. Some of you just need to talk to somebody in your church family and in your community group that you just have something against. You need to talk to them about it. You need to repent. You need to ask for their forgiveness.

You need to offer grace. You need to talk to somebody who you think has something against you. Just talk to them. Some of you just need somebody to pray with you. So here's what we're going to do.

This music is going to keep playing. We're going to move around. We're going to talk to each other. And then we're going to celebrate that Jesus saves sinners and gives grace to people who are broken and messed up. We're going to celebrate that we've been made into a family and that we have hope because Jesus died for us. And we're going to take communion.

And then we're going to sing to Jesus. Because he was a leader who sacrificed for those under his care to bring about life and joy to help us flourish. So I'm going to pray. We're going to dim the lights a little bit. And we're going to move around. It should get loud.

It should be people talking to each other, praying with each other. And then as you're ready and as you feel led, take communion to celebrate what has been offered to us in the gospel. Father, we thank you for grace. We thank you for your love that rescued us. We thank you, God, that you saved sinners, that we were not called to have it all together, to be moral, to be perfect, to lead well, to serve well, to follow well, to be able to submit to authority well, to be able to suffer well, God, that none of that plays into the grace that is poured out on us, that it is all you. God, we thank you that we can forgive and we can repent and we can confess and that we have joy offered to us and restoration offered to us and peace offered to us and freedom offered to us in the cross.

And we praise you, God, that we are heirs of your grace. In Jesus' name, amen.

A Wife's Hope

1 Peter 3:1-6

Transcript

We're going to be talking about marriage for the next two weeks. So we're talking, we're walking verse by verse through the book of 1 Peter, and he's just now gotten to where he's talking specifically into situations. So what he's done in the first chapter, chapter and a half, he said, this is the gospel. This is what Jesus has done, and this is how it, in a cosmic way, impacts your life. And then he's kind of made a turn and started to say, in individual situations, in this relationship, and how you work here, how you function here, this is how this message of the gospel, the truth of the resurrection, the certainty of your inheritance, the certainty of your hope applies in these specific situations.

And so we've just called the whole series Misfits. Basically, he's writing to who he calls strangers and exiles and saying, because this is true, you won't fit into your culture. And so we just have entitled this Misfit Marriage for two weeks. We're going to look at what Peter says about marriage, and it doesn't really fit well in our culture, but it is derived from what he's already said about the gospel and who Jesus is and where our hope is and where our inheritance is. And so we're going to get to talk about marriage. The thing about marriage is that it is really difficult.

It's just hard. Marriage is hard in general, and our culture doesn't have a good handle on marriage. It's not one of our strong suits in America. Marriage isn't. And we're even just kind of confused on it. So I'll give you an example of that.

If you're watching a movie and the people start off not married, a lot of the time the resolution to the movie, the big end goal is that they get married. That's the magic moment. They ride off into the sunset. Everything's perfect. They meet at the top of that tower because he couldn't sleep when he was in Seattle. They get married.

There's just this, all of these things, and then it just comes together, and they get married, and everything works out, and that's the big dream moment. If the movie starts off with them married, the marriage is the problem. They don't get along. There's another person that comes in that would fix this. They're not really in love anymore. So start off not married, marriage fixes it.

Start off married, marriage is the problem. We're kind of confused on this. And so one of the things I get to do that I really enjoy about being a pastor is I get to do premarital counseling with some of the couples. If I'm going to be performing their wedding, I get to do premarital counseling and try our best to help them. The problem with people who have not been married is that they don't listen very well. Like you're saying really helpful true things, and it just like doesn't make it past the cloud of smoky love that floats around their head.

Like it just, they are not listening. And I know this for a fact because I will say some of the same stuff to the same people six months after they've been married, and they'll say, man, that's really helpful. And it's like we already talked about this. You just didn't hear it. And whenever I do perform a wedding, I always write it out word for word because people remember forever what you said at their wedding. And so I write it out word for word, and I read it, and I always read it to Anna beforehand, and she will say, no, you cannot say that at a wedding.

One of the things I often want to include is this. I want to start weddings off. Most all weddings, I want to start off like this. This wedding, this marriage, this marriage is perfectly set up for there to be a life of joy and happiness. The only problem is this sinner here and this sinner here. Otherwise, this marriage would be great.

And every time Anna's like, you can't start a wedding like that, people don't want to hear that. And it's true, though. And the reason she says that is because she's a sinner. That is true, though. That's the problem with marriages is that we're sinners. We're busted.

We're messed up, and we need help. And we need God to speak into this. We need him to step in and say, this is what you need. This is what you need to hear. This is how to walk through this tough situation. This is how this ought to work, as I have laid it out, as I have designed it.

And so graciously and thankfully he does. Now, he doesn't always say what we want him to say. But honestly, that kind of points to the fact that he is real and that he's not an American. He actually is above all culture and all time and is speaking into it. And so just the fact that what he says immediately hits our ears and makes us a little uncomfortable or a little defensive actually kind of proves some of the validity of his existence and that he doesn't just fit into what we want him to say. Okay, so what we're going to look at today specifically is what Peter addresses to wives, and he's going to talk about being submissive to your husband.

So immediately, I know we all got super excited. Well, half of the people that are married did. And I just have a few things that we've got to kind of get in our brains before we get into this. Now, luckily for us, we've been going verse by verse through 1 Peter, which makes us cover topics we probably wouldn't otherwise. So two weeks ago, we got to talk about submitting to the government, which all Americans love.

It's one of our favorite sermons. It's preached often on the 4th of July. Here's how we should still have a king. So submitting to governments. Then we got to talk about suffering, another perennial favorite of Americans.

We love suffering. It's one of our favorites. Now we're talking about wives submitting to their husbands. And next week, what we're going to do, just to save some time, is we're just going to form a line and poke everybody in the eye and send you home. It's just been several weeks of tough stuff that's in Scripture. But what we're going to do is we're going to study this today.

A couple of things before we get into the text. Husbands. Next week, we will be talking to husbands. So lead your family well and be here. But we'll be talking directly to husbands.

Don't say amen today. Just graciously listen. Listen. Don't elbow your wife. You can act like you're asleep in certain sections if that is helpful to you. No.

Pay attention. Be a part. But don't try to be the Holy Spirit. If there are issues in this or areas where the Holy Spirit needs to speak, you just listen graciously. Wives, do the same thing next week. Single ladies.

I think there are two really helpful ways that you can listen to this sermon and two reasons why you would want to. One, what is asked of you in Scripture in marriage is very difficult. So, our hope for you at Mill City Church, there are single ladies in our church who are going to get married. There are single ladies in our church who are not going to get married. And that's a perfectly fine way to live your life. It is a perfectly good and godly biblical response to following Jesus.

You don't level up if you get married. You don't become a complete person if you get married. Married couples. Quit insinuating that. You didn't level up. You didn't become complete.

Quit acting like every single lady has to get married. She does not. Some of you aren't going to get married and that's okay. But some of you are. And in our culture, the higher percentage of you are. And here's our goal.

That you would understand what is asked of you in marriage so that you will not, you will stop dating morons. The Bible is going to ask you to be submissive to your husband. If he is not a moron, that is easier. The correct biblical response for some of you ladies who are single is to listen to these sermons for the next two weeks and then break up with your boyfriend. That is the correct response. If he is mad, send him to us.

We will talk to him. We will get him in a group. We will help him follow Jesus like we are. And we will help him grow into what a biblical man is supposed to look like. That would be, that is a correct biblical response. The second reason, single ladies, you ought to listen to this sermon is the way we do our community groups.

You are a part of groups with families, with married couples. We don't do it by age. We don't do it by life stage. And you need to be able to graciously be helpful to the married ladies in your group. To point them to the gospel. To point them to scripture.

To not give them dumb advice that you read in a magazine or watched in a movie. Or feel in your heart. To actually know what is helpful, what God says. And to be able to graciously be a part of loving and serving your church family well. So, wives, good morning. Most of what we will talk about is going to directly apply to you.

So let's pray. And then we are going to read this whole text together. And then walk through it a chunk at a time. God, we need your help. We are not well equipped by our culture to hear what your word says in this area. Immediately we are going to have questions, frustrations, and doubt.

We are going to be tempted to misapply this in a number of ways. And so, God, we just ask that your Holy Spirit would work. Bring clarity. Give grace. And apply your word to all of the different people in this room. As we need to hear it and as we need to change.

Husbands, wives, single men, and single ladies. That we might all grow to love you more. And to love our church family more. Through your word. In Jesus' name. Amen.

We are in 1 Peter chapter 3, page 657. If your Bible looks like this. These Bibles are on the row. If you don't own a Bible, take this one with you. It's our gift to you. We want you to have a Bible.

We want you to read it often. So, page 657, 1 Peter chapter 3. And we are going to read the first six verses. Peter is going to address wives. And then in verse 7 he is going to address husbands. And that is what we are going to look at next week.

Likewise, wives. So, likewise being what he just talked about with the servants. And with having Jesus as their example. Likewise, wives. Be subject. Which means submit yourself.

Subject yourself to your husband. To his will. To his leadership. It does not say men or husbands. Subject your wives. It says wives.

Be subject. To your own husbands. So that even if. Some do not obey the word. Aren't Christians. Aren't listening to scripture.

Aren't following well. So that even if some do not obey the word. They may be one. Without a word. By the conduct of their wives. When they see your respectful and pure conduct.

Do not let your adorning be external. The braiding of hair. And the putting on of gold jewelry. Or the clothing you wear. But let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart.

With the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit. Which in God's sight is very precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God. Used to adorn themselves. By submitting to their own husbands. As Sarah obeyed Abraham.

Calling him Lord. And you are her children if you do good. And do not fear anything that is frightening. Okay. That text is tough. And I think made more difficult.

More tough. By our context. By our culture. There is a little bit of that. That you read. And you feel like.

It is something that you would graciously listen to your grandfather say. And then come away being like. I kind of feel sorry for my grandmother. I think he is a bit like sexist. And overbearing. Like that didn't.

Like there is some stuff in this text. That is like. Peter I wish you had clarified a little more. Or you listen to it. And immediately. Because of what we have been trained.

Our trained knee jerk reaction is. Oh I heard a guy say this one time on Cops. He had a really sweet wife beater. And a nice mullet. And he agreed with that passage. Like there is immediate.

This. You read it and you think. Okay. So did the Bible just say. Christian wives should be doormats. Is that what it says?

That is the Christian wife. Your husband just rolls over you. Or is it just saying. That this is a personality type. Like you read that. And immediately think.

Gentle. Quiet. Spirit. Like is it just saying. You have to be this type of person. To follow well.

And is it saying. That women are less than. Or not as good. Not as strong. Not as smart. Does it.

Like is it saying. That obviously. Men are better than women. And therefore. This is how this should work. So just to clarify some of that.

So that we can actually walk through this text. And try to really listen to it. One of the things the Bible says. In first Corinthians. Is. That the husband is the head of the wife.

And it keeps going through. And it says like. Or in the same way. That God is the head of Christ. So. Immediately.

It cannot mean. By headship being placed on the husband. Which means leadership. Responsibility. Weight. It cannot mean.

That he is. Better than. His wife. Because. If that's what it meant. If that's what that relationship was.

Then it would mean. That God the father. Is better than Jesus. But the Bible is clear. That that is not true. That they are.

In the Trinity. We believe in the Trinity. Which means that. God has existed. From eternity. As God the father.

God the son. God the holy spirit. Three persons. One God. Forever. Say that again.

God the father. God the son. God the holy spirit. Are three persons. One God. And have existed.

In eternity. As that. Now if that's confusing to you. That is because. That is confusing. Amazing.

So. I think it was Augustine said. Try to figure the Trinity out. And you'll lose your mind. Get rid of the Trinity. And you'll lose your soul.

So. It's important. It's weighty. But it is. It's not how things work in our brain. So.

But. What it means is. That God the father. God the son. And God the holy spirit. Are equal.

In worth. In value. In might. In God. In godness. They're all equally God.

They're all equally to be revered. And to be loved. But. They show deference. They do different things. So Jesus on earth says.

He's submitting to the will of the father. He prays in the garden. Not my will. But yours be done. And then it says that. In Philippians.

That God gave him the name. That is above every name. So that at the name of Jesus. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess. The holy spirit speaks.

Only what he's. What he hears. And points always back to Jesus. But Jesus. While he was on earth. Said.

Blasphemies against the father. And against the son. Will be forgiven. But none will be forgiven. Against the holy spirit. So there's this consistent.

Deference. And difference. In role. But not. In equality. So.

In the marriage. Wives. Are designed. To function. In a certain way. And husbands.

Are designed. To function. In a certain way. By the way. God created us. And doesn't have anything to do with worth.

It doesn't have anything to do with intelligence. It doesn't have anything to do with ability. So I. I can. And have. And look into relationships.

And can. We can all look into them. And say. This. This lady. Is smarter.

Than her husband. And more equipped. To lead. The bible. Is okay with that. But the bible.

Is still going to place. The weight of headship. And leadership. On the man. Because that's what he was designed to do. Now.

His wife. Is supposed to be a part of that. Helping. Serving. Working. To make things good in their home.

But it doesn't. It doesn't mean that the roles change. Based off of ability. Because it's not about ability. And it doesn't mean that. Wives should be.

Doormats. Or not involved. Or not speak their mind. Or not have opinions. And we'll see later why. As he kind of clarifies.

As we go through. So. Just realize. He's speaking about creation. Why we were designed this way. And he's going to actually speak.

And because you were designed this way. This is how this ought to look. And so he starts off. And I think he clarifies. In some ways. In the very first sentence.

That this applies to everybody. What he says is. Likewise wives. Be subject. To your own husbands. So that even if some.

Do not obey the word. Okay. So what he just said was. Wives. Submit to. Follow.

Be subject to. Your own husbands. Which there's something beautiful there. He says your own husbands. It does not say. Women.

Be subject to men. It doesn't say that. So this doesn't apply. Across the board. Between men and women. It applies between.

Husbands and wives. Wives. Be subject to your own husbands. Even if some. Don't obey the word. So.

It's kind of like when Jesus says. Love your enemies. That includes. People who are annoying. Enemies. Annoying.

See how that works. So when he says. So that even if some. Don't obey. So this.

Includes. All the way up to. Wives. Who husbands. Are not Christians. So it also.

Includes. Non-Christians. I mean. Husbands. Who are Christians. Who are in sin.

Who aren't in sin. It includes. All of. All husbands. Now. Let me specifically.

Say this. Peter. Is speaking. Into very difficult. Situations. For wives.

Especially. In his context. If you are a part of our church family. Or if you're just here today. And you are in an abusive relationship. We want to help you.

In any way we possibly can. We want to help you. So any way that you can get in contact with us. We want to help. Um. We'd like to have.

A nice. Sit down chat. With your husband. Um. If that would be helpful. Um.

But in any way we possibly can help. We want to help. So contact us. In any way you can get a hold of us. But. For all wives.

What he is saying. Is. You're. You're in this relationship. And your role in this relationship. Is to be subject.

Submissive to. And following your husband. And what he says is. Even if you're. If some do not obey the word. They may be won.

Without a word. By the conduct. Of their wives. Now here's what's beautiful. Some of you are married to non-Christians. Or.

Christians who aren't obeying. Who aren't following well. Who aren't leading well. And. Peter just spoke in. And said.

Here's how to handle that situation. You have not been left alone. You have not been left without guidance. God has spoken into this situation. And what he says is. You actually get to speak more.

Through your conduct. Through your attitude. Than through your words. That the primary way. That you get to relate to your husband. Is not verbally.

And I know that hurts some of your hearts. But the primary way. That you get to relate to your husband. Is not through words. Now. I don't think it means.

You don't share the gospel with them. I don't think it means. If you've got a believing husband. That you don't point out his sin. That's one of the things Anna does for me. It's in a very gracious way.

She helps me see my sin. Um. And that's actually one of the ways. That she serves and ministers to me. But what it means.

Is that your primary relationship. To your husband. Is not words. But your attitude. Your response to him. And how you walk through difficult situations.

So. Let me give you an example of this. And here's why I think this means more. And has more of an impact. If you and your husband disagree on something. Which is going to happen.

And you. Tell him. What ought to happen. This is how this ought to play out. This is what would be a good decision here. This is what we ought to do.

Here's how most relationships will work. And what we're taught that most relationships will work. One of you will win. One of you will get your way. If you disagree. At some point.

You're either going to agree. But if there's no coming to an agreement. One of you will win. This is the relationship your husband is used to. Expects in most all of his relationships. This is how it works.

One of you will get your way. A lot of times your husband just gives up. Because he's tired of the argument. Maybe your husband's really aggressive. And he just gets his way. But here's what happens.

When the situation plays out. If he is right. He feels justified. And justified against you. Feels like. See.

Told you. Because there was an argument. There was conflict. And there was. It didn't come to a gracious conclusion. If he is wrong.

He feels justified. Because you were mean about it. I'm just telling you how men work. It's not how this ought to work necessarily. But this is what they do.

We're sinful. But I'm just helping you out. Yeah. You were right. But you were a jerk.

So whatever. Like you. We disagreed. And you got your way. And you fought for it. Whatever.

Good. It never leads to. Health. Joy. Peace. It doesn't.

And some of that's because of the way men react sinfully. And some of it's because. That's not how it's designed to work. So. Here's what can happen. As you walk into these situations.

As you step into this situation. What you do is you get to say. Here's what I think. Here's what I believe. Here's how this should work. Here's what I see to be true and right.

But I'm on your team. So I want to clearly say where I stand on this. But I'm on your team. And whatever happens. Whatever. Whatever we end up doing.

I'm with you. If he's right. He feels justified with you. Feels like you're on his team. Wants to hear more of what you have to say. Is willing to hear more of what you have to say.

If he's wrong. He doesn't want to be wrong anymore. Doesn't feel justified. Doesn't feel okay in it. Feels like I've got someone with me. Who's for me.

With me. Told me this was a bad idea. I led into it anyway. It changes the nature of the relationship. When wives step in and say. I'm on your team.

I will follow. And so what happens. Is that your primary relationship with your husband. Is not through your words. The conduct of your attitude. In that relationship.

Changes his heart. More than anything will. More than you being right or wrong. Will. In your words. It's way more your approach.

And that's what Peter's saying. He's also graciously. Giving us a yield sign. In our relationships. So what a yield sign is.

Is when two people are coming to a crossroads. One of you needs to slow down. So there's not a wreck. And the yield sign. By God's design. Has been placed in the lane.

That the wife is in. This is a way. To graciously keep you. From train wrecking. Or constantly having. Accidents.

And explosive relationship. Where at some point. Someone's got to yield. The yield sign's been placed. In the wife's lane. Out of God's grace.

For the relationship. Now. A few more things. I just want to be helpful. Here on the without a word part. The easiest thing to do.

In your marriage. Is to notice what is wrong. And say it out loud. Some of you are very good at it. It's the easiest thing to do. How come you never.

Why don't you. I was over at their house. And they. If you only. I wish you would. Why on earth.

Just to notice. This wasn't done. This hasn't happened. Why is this box still on the floor. I know you had to step over this. To leave the house.

How on earth have you not seen this. What is wrong with you. If I wasn't here. You would die. Maybe all true. It's part of what makes it so annoying.

They're all valid points. Here's the problem. It's the easiest thing to do. And it never is an addition. To your relationship. It never adds to health.

It never adds to joy. And it actually doesn't change your husband. It does. In a short run. Short run. And a can.

Get me to. Cut the grass. This weekend. She can. She can belittle me. And harass me.

And tell me how terrible I am. And I will cut the grass. This weekend. I will cut the grass. I will not like her. I will cut the grass.

I will not be excited about my marriage. But I'll cut the grass. It always works in the short run. Eventually it breaks down. You can only beat your husband so long. You can only whip him into shape so long.

And let me tell you something. That will help you. And this is just. It's really in the text. It's trying to be helpful. You.

Wives. Are the person. Who gets to speak into your husband. The most. Out of anybody else in the world. Used to be his parents.

Now does you. If you follow him around for years. Telling him he's a failure. Telling him he's dumb. Telling him he makes bad decisions. Pointing out everything he does wrong.

The best you can get out of that. Is that he believes you. Option one. And fits right into the role you've marked out for him. Or. He spitefully tries to prove you wrong.

But he is not on your team. And he does not like you. And whenever he does. What you wanted him to do. He feels justified. And is mad at you.

Never leads to anything good. Here's the thing you get to do with your words. To be helpful to your husband. You get to be. Champion of his strengths. And some of you are like.

Ah. I got my work cut out for me. Yeah. Find some. Find some strengths. Point them out.

Let me just give you a really. When you see fire. Blow on it. As helpfully as I can say that to you. When you see. What I have seen wives do all the time.

And I don't understand this. People do this in general. But wives do this. I've seen in relationships. You want your husband to lead. You want him to take charge.

I just wish he would lead. I wish he would take charge. I just wish. I just wish. And then he does. And you know what you respond with?

About time. Finally. I wish you'd have been real nice. If you'd have done that sooner. And what happened was. There was a tiny spark.

And you went. He does not want to keep doing that. You punished him for doing what he was supposed to. When there's a tiny spark. Do this. Oh.

Oh. Oh. Lord help me. Oh. That's what you need to do. And I'm just.

I'm serious. The one time he does a dish. Don't say. Thank you for finally doing dishes. Come over to him and say. I have never seen a man look sexier with a scrub brush.

I appreciate that you know how much that bothers me. And that you don't just leave stuff laying around. That you do dishes. Anna does this to me. The next day. You know what I'm doing?

Dishes. Dishes. Dishes. Dishes. Dishes. She says.

I just. I tell you. I can't tell you how much I appreciate. That the grass is cut. That you care about what our house looks like. That you know it means something to me.

It makes me want to. She's taking the little things that I kind of do right. She. My wife says stuff like this to me. She'll go. Did you try to clean in here?

Yes. You did good. And then she'll say. I think you're done here. Which means. You will not get this any better than this.

And that's okay. And she'll say. I appreciate you. And I'll say. Thanks. Every once in a while.

And this is the. This. Indicates how terrible I am at cleaning. She will show up. The house will look terrible. I have done nothing.

And she'll go. Did you clean? And I always respond with. Yeah. Sure did. And then.

They usually have to admit that I'm lying. But. When you see fire. Blow on it. Here's the other thing. That I want to help you out with.

If your husband doesn't lead. And every time he drops a ball. You pick it up. He'll keep dropping balls. If every time he lets something slide. You step in.

If every time something's out of control. You'll step in and control the situation. He will continue. Forever. To not. And he will feel justified.

Because you lead. So you'll say. You need to lead. And he will think. Can't. You're doing everything.

Can't lead. Every time something happens. Leave a gap. When something's going on. And he's like. Just say.

I trust you. I believe in you. Do you know how empowering that is. And how terrifying. To have your wife say that to you. Oh.

You'll take care of it. I believe in you. Immediately. You're like. Yeah. Holy goodness.

Yes. I wonder if she really believes that. If she's tricking me. But it makes you want to. Like. Leave a gap.

Step back. Let some things run into the wall. And look at your husband. And say. You'll take care of this. And he'll actually begin to lead.

If every time something gets messed up. You step in. You take control. You hop in and fix it. He won't. He won't lead.

He won't be able to. The other thing is. Wives. If you tell your husband. What to do all the time. He can't lead.

And here's why. As soon as you say to your husband. This is what you need to do. Do this. Stop doing this. Here's what happens.

Leading in that situation. Has been removed from the table from him. Here are his options. Do what you told him to. He will never feel like he's leading. If he's doing what you told him to.

Don't do what you told him to. Spitefully. What if you told him. To do something good. And his best way. To actually do.

Be his own man. Is to do the opposite. As soon as you tell him. Do this. Leading has been removed from the table. He can't.

So. How does Peter say. Wives ought to relate to their husbands. Without a word. By the conduct. Of their wives.

When they see your respectful. And pure. Conduct. Which means that you look like a Christian. That's pure conduct. And respectful is.

That you treat them with some deference. Some I believe in you. Some grace. You give them room to fail. You don't beat them up. Do not let your adorning.

Be external. The braiding of hair. And the putting on. Of gold jewelry. Or the clothing you wear. But let your adorning.

Be the hidden person. Of the heart. With the imperishable beauty. Of a gentle. And quiet spirit. Which in God's sight.

Is very precious. Ladies. How much does our culture reinforce. That beauty is internal. That is correct. That is how much.

Our culture does not reinforce that very much. Every once in a while. You have a movie. Or some sort of an ad. That tries to say that. But mostly.

Our culture. Says. Beauty is external. Value. Is external. How beautiful are you?

How good do you look? How much skin do you show? How much can you. Attract men through your physicality. That's where we place value. There are two.

Christian colleges. In our state. Christian colleges. In our state. That have beauty pageants. Pageants.

Pageants. That's the plural for pageant. That have beauty pageants. And the winner. Gets a scholarship. Found that out this week.

That's cute. What Peter is saying is. Beauty is not external. Do you want to know what makes you beautiful. Year. After year.

After year. After year. And actually allows you to become more beautiful as you age. Your attitude. Your heart. Who you are as a person.

And that actually to your husband. Can become the most beautiful thing. To where you actually can grow old together. And he can find you more beautiful every year. But here's what's even more beautiful about that.

Is what it says. Is that it's beautiful to God. The imperishable beauty. Which means it doesn't get old. It doesn't. Start to fade.

It doesn't need a facelift. The imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit. Which in God's sight is very precious. God looks on it and says. That's beautiful. When a wife submits to her husband.

Follows his leadership. Is gracious towards him. Now. It's not a personality type. It says spirit. Gentle and quiet spirit.

It does not mean. Can't be volume wise loud. There's some ladies who read that. And go. I have never been described as gentle or quiet. All the notes that they sent home with me to my parents.

Said the opposite. This does not mean change your personality. It does mean tone. Attitude. So I'm a quiet person.

Let me take that back. When I'm angry. I'm a quiet person. So I had two brothers. My response to anger was punch. Not keep.

Not say words. I didn't have verbal arguments. I had. Please stop. Stop. Pow.

That was my. Carried that into high school. Got me into trouble. But. In my marriage. I just don't get loud.

I don't go volume. I don't go flashbang. But Anna. Knows. My angry voice. Because it is me.

Intentionally. Overriding. The part of me. That doesn't want to talk when I'm angry. And making myself say words. And saying them very intentionally.

So I will talk like this. So. I will talk like this. Anna. What I was trying to say. In that situation was.

And she'll say. Don't yell at me. I'm not yelling. Because I don't. I don't get loud. Volume doesn't go up.

This is. When actually. When I first started preaching. When I'm really in an intense moment. And trying to think of the words really clearly. I'll go.

Into. That voice. And Anna would leave. And go. I feel like you just yelled at me. For an hour.

That was terrible. And it's like. And it took me a while. To figure out what she was talking about. I was like. I didn't yell.

Tone. Attitude. So some of you can be very quiet people. And can absolutely not have a gentle and quiet spirit. Towards your husband. You can follow him around and go.

I told you that was what was going to happen. I wish. Sometimes. I pray about this. That I hadn't married. An idiot.

Okay. Volume. Low. Gentle and quiet spirit. Not so much. Some of you.

Can't. Talk. Quietly. Ever. It's a good thing we don't have a confessional. Forgive me father.

For I have sin. Like. It'd be terrible. It'd be like. Alright. This person's up.

Everybody out in the room. Like. You just can't. You're not quiet. That's okay. That's not what it means.

It doesn't. It's gentle and quiet spirit. It is your approach. It is your tone. It is how you graciously approach your husband. Speak to.

Build up. Love. Have grace for. It does not mean. Volume. You.

Okay. Okay. Here's what Peter just said. Submit to your husband. Be subject to your husband. Which means that.

Being subject means. As he makes decisions. You're kind of in tow. Like you're. His. His decisions.

His. Like. If. Okay. Be subject to your husband. Uh.

Your primary relationship is. Is to be. Win him over without words. But through your conduct. Which means that. You.

You don't get to just tell him what to do all the time. You don't get to tell him how he's terrible all the time. You don't. Which is super fun. And probably true a lot of times. You don't.

You don't get to step in and lead. And take over. Like. And that you're. It's the inner person. That is absolutely beautiful.

That gets to grow. And be fostered. So the question. Is. How. How.

How can you be married to someone. And watch them make terrible decisions. And not hop in and take over. How. How can you be married to someone. And watch them.

Not doing anything. Being lazy. And. And not point it out. Not try to get them to do what they're supposed to do. How can you read the text.

Like we're going to look at next week. That says. Here's what a husband ought to do. And not. Not help that happen. Wives.

You see so clearly. So often. What ought to happen. How. How on earth. And so Peter answers that question.

Verse five. For this is how the holy women. Who hoped. In God. Used to adorn themselves. By submitting to their own husbands.

As Sarah obeyed Abraham. Calling him Lord. And you are her children. If you do good. And do not fear anything. That is frightening.

Okay. For this is how the holy women. Who hoped in God. What he's going to say. Is that your primary relationship. In your marriage.

Is to God. Your hope. And your trust. Is not in your husband. It's in God. Your faith.

Is not in your husband. It's in God. And that submission to. Your husband. Is first and foremost. Submission to.

And trust in. God. God. But he gives us an example. Sarah and Abraham. If you're familiar with Sarah and Abraham.

This is a very. Very helpful example. So he. What he says is. And he says. As he.

She called him Lord. Now. Lord there is not. God. Lord. Like it's used in the Old Testament.

It really means sir. It just means she was respectful. He was just indicating. Here's a time. Where we see her showing respect. And he's basically pointing to their relationship.

And says. Her general attitude towards Abraham. Was one of grace. One of respect. That she was. Gave deference to him.

And so here's the story of Abraham. And Sarah. Just to help you out. Some of the highlights from their relationship. God tells them. They're going to have a baby.

And they're super old. Oh. First he tells them. Leave your family. And move to a place. That I'll tell you later.

And Abraham says. Come on honey. She says. Where are we going? He's like. Heck if I know.

God told me. And she goes. So we know that at that point. She went. We don't know how. Up for this she was.

We just know she went. Then God says. I'm going to make a nation out of y'all. Through your own children. And then they. They do some.

Make some kind of poor decisions. But God keeps making this promise to them. And so they keep trusting. At different points. Sarah just follows Abraham. Twice.

Two times. One time. And then again another time. Abraham. Abraham. Who.

His wife Sarah. Was apparently very attractive. Externally. He's saying that she had internal beauty as well. But apparently.

Externally she was attractive. I think the Hebrew word they use is tenderoni. Probably shouldn't have said that. But it's out there now. That's not a Hebrew word. But.

So. She. She. At different times. He says. We're going into a situation.

And what he says to her is. When we get there. People are going to think you're attractive. They're going into different towns and villages. He says. Tell them.

You're my sister. This is her husband. Tell them you're my sister. So that. They won't hurt me. To get to you.

We'll just tell them you're my sister. And then they can just kind of like have you or whatever. As long as we're in this town. Because you're good looking. And I don't want to like. Carry the weight of.

I don't know. Protecting and defending you. Or like in this situation. I don't know. Leading well. So let's tell them you're my sister.

And twice. People took her to be their wife. Twice. Let's play a game. It's called. Good husband.

Bad husband. I'm going to give a scenario. And you're going to guess. Does this make a good husband. Or a bad husband. You go on a date.

To a restaurant. It's got a bar. But it's a restaurant. It's not just a bar. And a large man comes over to your table. He's had some drinks.

He has some tattoos. He seems overly friendly to you. And a little overly aggressive to your husband. He begins to hit on you. And you look at your husband like. Hey kid.

Do something. And your husband does the. I've got this. I've got this hands. And he looks at the guy. And says.

My sister Clarice and I were just talking. Your name's Clarice in this story. My sister Clarice and I were just talking. About how she has a hard time meeting good men. Aggressive men with tattoos. And I think this is just.

We all seem made for each other. I'm just going to let myself out. And. And y'all just have a nice evening. And he looks at you and says. Call me later.

Whatever. Uh. Good husband. Bad husband. Bad husband. Yes.

That was a fail. That was terrible. Like if he said that on match game. What's your perfect date? Our perfect date is. You pretend to be my sister.

Like. You would not have picked this guy. We could keep playing this game. But they all end with him saying. You're his sister. And it's always bad husband.

Uh. That's terrible. And what Peter says is. In the midst. Of weakness. Stupidity.

Immaturity. Your hope gets to be in God. Not your husband. Your trust gets to be in God. Not your husband. And.

Only then. Can you do all this other stuff. And here's what's so beautiful. And freeing about this. Let's read the last verse.

Um. Which is really. Kind of confusing. Verse six. As Sarah obeyed Abraham. Calling him Lord.

And you are her children. If you do good. Meaning. Follow this. And do not fear. Anything.

That is frightening. And do not fear. Anything. That is frightening. You know what Sarah was afraid of? Nothing.

She didn't care. She wasn't afraid of bears. She wasn't afraid of fire. Like. What? Do not fear anything that is frightening.

That's what. Frightening things. Elicit fear. That's what. That's why. That's what the word means.

Like. Recently. I got a call from my wife. Answer the phone. Chet. You've got to come home.

What's going on? There is a lizard. In our house. No. I'm not coming home for that. You've got to come home.

What. What am I. Like. It's a lizard. Like. This is not going to.

I said. You're okay. This lizard. It's not going to attack you. She's like. I don't.

I can't. I've got a baby. It's like. Lizards don't eat babies. While on the phone with her. I did say.

It's not a skink. Is it? She was like. Why? What? I was like.

No. That's probably not a skink. Why? What? What about skinks? Well.

Does he. What color is his tail? What about skinks? They will attack you. No. They won't.

Right. Lizards don't attack people. You are perfectly safe. I told her later. I was like. Just so you know.

I draw the line at lizard. I would come home for a snake. I will come home for a snake. Not for a lizard. So I get a call.

Like two weeks later. And she says. Chet. I moved. The little thing. Archer was laying on.

And. Underneath. There was a big spider. And I'm okay. Like. She'll kill spiders.

If I'm not there. Although. I am the cleanup crew. Sometimes I'll come home. And she'll be like. There's a spider under that book.

You got to take care of that. And usually. I'll be like. There's no spider here. He was there. She calls.

And says. There was a big. There was a spider. And. And then I was going to take care of him. But then I saw like.

Ants. But they weren't ants. This spider was a mother. And she has just given birth. To a bunch of baby spiders. In the middle of our living room.

And I was like. I am on the way home. Partially because. I don't want a bunch of spiders. In my house. Like.

I don't like spiders. So I was like. I'm coming home. We will take care of this. It doesn't mean that. It doesn't mean.

Don't be afraid of frightening things. It's not. What he's saying is. And this is so beautiful. And so freeing. What he's saying to wives.

Is this. You. Don't have to. Fix it. And you. Don't have to.

Pick up the slack. And you. Don't have to. Carry the weight. And you. Don't have to.

Make it work out. Somebody once said that. The biblical headship. Is God telling the wife to duck. So he can punch the husband.

And what he's saying is. There are frightening situations. Maybe you will go bankrupt. Maybe it will be foreclosed. Maybe he never gets sober. Maybe what you told him was going to happen.

Is exactly what was going to happen. Maybe you watch your husband. Derail everything. And you. Aren't the one. Who has.

To fix it. You get to trust. That God is big enough. And good enough. So much so that his son.

Came to earth. To die for you. To rescue you. To redeem you. And that on the cross. Forever proved.

That he is trustworthy. And that he is good. And when he rose from the grave. Forever made certain. Your inheritance. And you.

Do not have to walk around on earth. Placing your faith. And trust. And hope. In a man. Or.

In your ability. To fix everything. You actually get to. Hope in God. That's what he says. This is how the holy women.

Who hoped. In God. Used to adorn themselves. The only way. You can do all of this other stuff. Is if your trust.

And your hope. Are set firmly. In God. Who is sovereign. Who is in control. Who is capable.

And at that moment. When that. Becomes a reality for you. You actually can step back. You can follow. Flawed authority.

Because you know. That ultimately. You're in God's hand. You're a dearly loved child. That that attitude. And posture towards your husband.

Is called beautiful. And precious to him. And that he will guard you. And defend you. And work. In ways that you never can.

You get to step back. And pray. That God will wreck your husband. Lead him to repentance. Lead him to the cross. Change him.

Give wisdom. And you get to know. At all points. That that is what you're supposed to do. That you're following well. Because you actually.

Ultimately. Are submitting to Jesus. As you submit. And follow your husband. You're resting in faith. As you follow and trust.

And your ultimate trust. And your ultimate faith. And your ultimate belief. Gets to sit. Firmly. On Jesus.

Not on your husband. And in that way. You're freed up. To actually. Do what he just said. Which seems.

Very difficult. And very impossible. The band's going to come back up. We're going to sing. And some of you. Wives.

Are in. Tough situations. Friends. And you. You can see clearly. How it ought to work out.

You feel like. You know exactly. What needs to happen. Your husband doesn't deserve. To be followed. Or submitted to.

And the text never covers that. What it actually says is. That doesn't play. That doesn't come into play. Whether he deserves it or not. You get to know.

That your hope. And your trust. Is in a sovereign. Good. Generous. Capable.

Loving. Active. God. And the value of your husband. Doesn't come into play. Because your hope.

And your trust. Isn't in him in any way. And you're free. The weight. Of how your children turn out. The weight.

Of how your finances turn out. The weight. Of how. Decisions are made. You get to place your hope in God. You don't have to fix it.

You don't have to control it. You don't have to make it work out. You aren't in charge. Of how it ends. God has freely invited you. To have the cross.

Be the center of your marriage. And to trust. And to hope. In God. You've been invited into a very free. And very beautiful.

Way to have a relationship work. As God has designed it. Get to trust that he's trustworthy. And good. Some of you may need to repent. Of your.

Ability to find fault. And as you follow. And trust after God. You may need to work on. Becoming better at pointing out. Your husband's strengths.

And taking all the small fires. And feigning them into flame. But ultimately. In your relationship. You get to rest. Your husband's going to fail.

You're going to be bad at this. And Jesus is good. And his grace is sufficient. And he's in control. Of your relationship. And you get to trust him.

Hope in him. And in that way. Have a lot of joy. In your marriage. Father. We thank you.

We thank you. We thank you. That you have spoken. Into relationships. That you have. Offered us.

Wisdom. And grace. And we thank you. Lord. That. In all the difficult.

Situations. That wives get to sit. Firmly. In your hands. That marriages get to sit. Firmly.

On your shoulders. That you've given us. A way to. To function. With grace. And love.

Towards one another. And we ask. Lord. That you would bless. The marriages. In our church family.

That you would help. The single people. In our church family. To love. The married couples. To serve them well.

To point them. To the gospel. That you would lead us. All to repent. And fall. More in love.

With the cross. We thank you. Lord. For your grace. In Jesus name. Amen.

Amen.

Community on Mission

1 Peter 2:9-10

Transcript

Well, good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. I'm excited. We're getting to continue our series in 1 Peter, so we're just walking verse by verse to the book of 1 Peter. We like to take books of the Bible and just study them and try to learn as much as we possibly can from them.

So we're going to start off with a little bit of interaction, so you've got to be paying attention. I'm going to say two things that are kind of pitted against each other, and I need you to just loudly and possibly angrily vote. So Pepsi or Coke? Pepsi! Neither wasn't an option, but okay, so that sounded about even. I think if you're talking about the drinks, Pepsi or Coke, most people go with Coke, but if you're talking about like Pepsi products versus Coke products, it gets different.

Okay, Mac or PC? Mac or PC? All right. Dunkin' Donuts, Krispy Kreme? Krispy Kreme! Amen.

Thank you all so much. That means so much to me. Moe's or Chipotle? Chipotle! Android or iPhone? Android!

All right. Jordan or LeBron? Anybody care? Jordan! Jordan. Okay, thank you.

All right. Xbox or girls? Sorry. Sorry, it was too easy. When I was making that list, I couldn't help myself. Okay.

All of us have been in discussions that were surrounded around these kind of things. Like we get into these arguments. We argue about donuts. We argue about food. The few, you argue about the way phones work. I mean, you've sat in on these conversations.

A few of my favorites are, if you're ever in the Chipotle-Moes argument. Chipotle people really care about Chipotle. Moe's people are like, I like queso. And Chipotle people are like, no. You must. I've had someone look at me and go, Chet, Chipotle is objectively better than Moe's.

So if you get into these conversations, I think the argument is it's like it's organic or something, which I think means they rubbed dirt on the food. That's what it tastes like. Or like the chickens were happy before you killed them. I don't... This cow tastes like he was pleased right before they killed him and I ate him. If you're ever in that argument, though, this is always the argument I make, which just really makes Chipotle people angry.

So they're arguing about ingredients. They're arguing about organic. They're arguing about stuff. And I always go, yeah, but when I go to Chipotle, nobody greets me. Nobody says, welcome to Chipotle. And I just like people to greet me.

And it makes them so mad because that should not apply to how the food tastes. They want to argue ingredients. And I'm just like, they said hello. And I felt warm when I walked inside. But we all form communities around things that we love.

We all gather around something that we enjoy, that we appreciate, that we find beauty in, that we find satisfaction in. And then we desire to tell other people about them. We want to include more people in that. We watch a movie that we like. We tell a bunch of people. We eat at a restaurant that we like.

We tell a bunch of people. We find other people who enjoy what we like. And that's how we form friend groups. So you've got people that they all enjoy video games or they all enjoy this sport or they all enjoy watching this show and they form communities around it and then they try to convert other people to it. And what we're going to see in 1 Peter is that that's actually in a lot of ways what the church is. It's a group of people formed around Jesus that want more people to know Jesus.

Find beauty and excellence and joy and hope and life in Jesus and want to share that, want to spread that. And so because that's a natural human thing to form communities around something and to proclaim its excellencies, it's honestly one of the things that the church is designed to do. So I'm going to read first. We're all going to read 1 Peter 2, 9 and 10 together. That's where we're going to be this morning. And then we'll pray and we'll kind of break it all down, study it together.

So 1 Peter 2, 9 and 10. It's on page 657 if your Bible looks like this, if you've got one of these in the row. If you don't own a Bible, take this one with you. We want you to have a Bible. So 1 Peter 2, 9 and 10.

And Peter's writing to a group of churches in what's modern-day Turkey, talking to them about how to live inside of a culture where the church doesn't really fit, where the thought process the culture has doesn't really line up with what the church has. And as we've been studying through, he's been really hammering on, this is who Jesus is, this is who this makes you. Because of what Jesus has done, this is who you are. And now in the next couple weeks, he's going to start turning and being like, because that's true, here's what life looks like for you. So 9 and 10.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 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. Let's pray. God, those two verses are beautiful. And they tell us a lot about what you've done for us, what you've accomplished for us through Jesus, through your cross.

And we pray, Lord, that you would help us to see that clearly today. That those who don't know you might clearly understand what you have offered them. And those who do know you might clearly understand what you have given them. And Lord, we praise you and we thank you. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so Peter, when he starts off in verse 9, he's going to give us a bunch of Old Testament imagery that kind of tells us what the church is now.

So he's going to give Old Testament pictures. It's going to be found in stories in Genesis, in Exodus, in Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel. He's going to give pictures from those books that help us understand who we are as the church now. So what he's going to say is these Old Testament pictures apply to us now because of Jesus. And so he starts off with, you are a chosen race. And what picture he's pointing to is Abraham.

Abraham was just a guy. And God just picks him and says, I'm going to make you into a people. I'm going to make you into a family. I'm going to make you into a race. So he was not Jewish.

God just picked him and said, you are going to be my people. You're going to, all of your lineage will be my people. And through you, the whole world will be blessed. And so he picks Abraham and he turns him into a people, into a race, into a family. And then he says a royal priesthood. And so after the people of Israel live over in kind of Canaan area, and then they go to Egypt and are enslaved for 400 years.

And then Moses shows up and he sings that song about letting his people go. And they do sing songs, but that's not one of them. And they don't sing until later when they get out. But anyway, he shows up and they get out. They go wandering into the desert. And God basically says, now I'm going to teach you what it looks like to be my people.

And you're going to be a priesthood. You're going to be the people on earth who relate to me. And I'm going to show you what that looks like. And so Peter says, that image applies to us. And then God, once he taught them what it looked like, actually gives them a nation. He actually gives them land.

He draws their borders for them and says, go. This is the land I've given you. Go take it over. And so Peter says that those images of a chosen race, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation are now what has been given to us through Jesus. What is the church? And the church is all of those on earth who've placed their faith in Jesus, in the cross, and that he died for our sin, that he rose again, and that in him we have life.

And hope and joy and that he's the king of everything. And so what that means is we're a chosen race. The church is a family. We now have a family line that trumps all other family lines. We now have, we are made into a people. The church is.

That we will exist in eternity as brothers and sisters. That's why Christian people say, good to see you, brother. That's what they mean. That's what they're talking about is that we've been made into a family. And then he says you're a royal priesthood. And what that means is that all of us are on the same level.

We get to relate to God. And all of us are priests. Are people who get to relate directly to God through Jesus. So there isn't like a special class of Christians that get to be priests and get to relate to God. No, we all are. We're all made into a royal priesthood.

I was talking to a guy who's looking at getting baptized here in August when we have our baptism gathering. He's a recent Christian. And I was talking to him about stuff. And he said, yeah, I'm a Christian, but I'm not like Christian 2.0. I was like, dude, that doesn't exist. There is no Christian 2.0.

You're either in because of Jesus or you're not in. But all of us will stand before God and have Jesus cover us. We're all under Jesus. Some of us are under Jesus, but also we've added stuff to it. That's not how it works. And so we're all a priesthood.

We're all people who get to relate to God and show the world what it looks like to relate to God. And then he says you're a holy nation. And that image there, I've been recently reading through the book of Revelation. And people get super geeked out over the book of Revelation or they just completely avoid it. Those are the two type of people. Someone who wants to draw a chart and show you a picture of a dragon.

And someone who's like, I've never read it because it scares me. Really, the book of Revelation is just about Jesus. But there's these beautiful pictures of heaven. And there's one that I've been recently just has been imprinted in my mind. And it's that before God's throne in heaven, in eternity, it says that there were thousands upon thousands of people praising him in every tongue, from every tribe, in every language, in every nation, in every people. Do you know what's beautiful about that?

It's telling us something that's going to happen in the future. There are 6,000 people groups right now on earth that do not know about Jesus. There's nobody proclaiming the gospel in their language. Nobody. There's no Bible translated into the language. There are no current missionaries reaching these people.

6,000 People groups. And what the book of Revelation says is they're going to be there. That Christianity doesn't have a culture. It doesn't have one overriding culture. Everyone is welcome. Everyone is invited in.

And God has already set the borders and said, I'm claiming these people. These people are going to be mine. And my church is going to march forward to the borders and invite these people in. So the same way that he said, these are your borders and this is where your nation is going to be, the church gets to be a part of seeing more and more people meet Jesus that he's already said these are going to be mine. These are the borders I've already drawn. This is who's going to be invited in.

And so that's the church. And so what Peter's saying is this is who you are. This is your identity. So in our culture, what you do is your identity. So I do this, therefore I am this.

I do this, so I'm this. And what Christianity says is Jesus did this and he gives you your identity. Your identity comes from Jesus and then you do things out of your identity. But your identity has already been set in Jesus. And so Peter's been saying because Jesus died, because he's made us into a people, because he rose again, because we have a certain hope, now this is who we are and therefore we. And he goes into what we do.

And so what he says is you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that Jesus has claimed us, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. Jesus has rescued us, has saved us, has made us into a people that we may proclaim his excellencies, that we may tell more people about how amazing he is. And we do this naturally. Some of you saw Guardians of the Galaxy. Then you saw it again.

And then you told everyone you'd ever met that it was the greatest movie you'd ever seen. Some people watched Terminator Salvation and wrongfully went and told people it was a good movie. But there are things that you appreciate and you enjoy and then you go tell people about. You go invite people in on. And what it says is that we've been turned into these people and that we might proclaim his excellencies, that we might make much of Jesus. Now, in our context, the question comes up, is that okay to do?

Is it okay to tell people about Jesus? Aren't we supposed to just kind of keep our beliefs to ourself? Isn't it annoying or even kind of rude for me to come push my views on you? That we have this belief in our culture that is, all ideas are equally good and valuable. All ideas, all beliefs are equally good and valid. And so it's wrong for you to push your ideas on someone else.

It's wrong for you to try to convert someone to what you believe. We've heard that. But all ideas are equally good, equally valid, and it's wrong for you to try to push your beliefs on somebody. So if you're a Christian, if someone asks you about what you believe, or if you build a long enough friendship with somebody you can share, but other than that, you don't really need to be trying to convert people to your belief. You don't need to, if your neighbor is a Muslim, you don't need to try to talk them into being Christians. Because all ideas, all beliefs are equally good and valid, and you don't need to push your ideas on anybody else.

Now, there's a couple of things wrong with that. One is, that sentence, that idea isn't even logically coherent. Because whoever makes that statement is saying, all ideas are equally valid except for the one that says they aren't. And you don't need to try to convert people to your ideas. You need to believe and be converted to mine. Does that make sense?

That's what that sentence is. All ideas are equally valid except for the one that says that they aren't. And you don't need to convert people to your beliefs, you need to be converted to mine, which is a very Western, pluralistic belief system, that all ideas are equally valid. Go to the Middle East, they don't believe that, so what you're saying is Western American culture and the way we hold ideas is actually better than the way other cultures hold their ideas. So immediately, it doesn't stand up in other cultures, and it doesn't even make sense logically, because the only way for that sentence to be correct is for it to be incorrect.

That's the problem. So it doesn't hold up logically, and it's not true. So let me free you up as a Christian. We don't believe that. Yesterday, and I was so happy they didn't come from South Carolina, but yesterday, Klansmen from North Carolina came to our state house to hold a rally. That's a belief system, and it is not equally good or equally valid.

They need to change. They need to believe something different. I was listening to NPR this week to interviews of women who had been captured and held by ISIS, and so they were translating for them, and one of them, this lady was talking, she was 21 years old, she was talking about her ISIS captors who were trying to force a nine-year-old girl into a bathroom with them, or this one guy was trying to force a nine-year-old girl into a bathroom with him, and so she said she fought him, and he fought back and said, I will kill you, and her response was, I'm willing to die for her. She's worth dying for.

Now, ISIS is a belief system, but it is not equally good or equally valid, and they need to change and be converted, and so as a Christian, we have freedom to not believe that idea because it's not true, and for most people, when asked, they will agree that all ideas aren't equally valid. Even though they'll say that statement, you can't get them to believe and agree that the KKK, their ideas are just as good as Mother Teresa's because they're not. Some bring life, some bring joy, and some enslave and harm, and so let me free you up. It is okay to tell people. It is okay to proclaim the excellencies of Jesus, and let me tell you one of the main reasons why.

He is excellent. This is actually good news, and so Peter, in this context, in this text, is going to show us three beautiful truths about Jesus that are real for us because of the gospel. Three beautiful things that Jesus has accomplished for us that are actually excellent, actually beautiful, actually good, actually true, and that we want to share with other people. So we'll start at verse 9 again. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.

So this is who you are, this is who you've been made by Jesus, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Now, the first beautiful truth about Jesus for Christians is that he's called us out of darkness. That, ultimately, we know, the Bible teaches this, that God created the world and it was good and it existed in a beautiful relationship with himself, and then humans rebelled. They ran from him in pride, and that Satan, who is a real being, helped lead people astray, and ultimately, everyone is a part of one kingdom.

You're either submitted to and following Jesus in the kingdom of light where there's joy and peace and hope and fulfillment and satisfaction, or you ultimately are following Satan who's doomed to be destroyed by Jesus, that hell is designed for Satan and those who follow him. And most people don't believe they're following Satan. That's not how that works. But either we're in the kingdom of light that follows after Jesus that have been rescued by Jesus or we're in the dark. And for many of us, we were called out of darkness. We were called out of darkness.

We didn't have hope. Didn't have joy. We were chasing after things that would never fulfill us, never make us whole, never bring us satisfaction, that constantly forced us to be enslaved to them in order for us to have any sense of life. They didn't do what Jesus did, which is Jesus does this, so this is who you are. They said, you do this, you work, you slave, you prove yourself, and then you get to. Then you get to achieve.

Then you get to be good enough. Then you get to have done it. He's called us out of darkness. And that's beautiful. And for Christians, you kind of understand what that means. You know what it means to be called out of darkness.

And for non-Christians, for people who don't believe, I'm sorry, I think that point probably was super confusing and sounds weird. The other two are going to be a little more, make a little more sense. But for Christians, you understand what it was like to be in the dark, to be without hope, to be without joy, and then to actually be freed up and to walk in light, to be invited into all that Jesus has offered. The second beautiful truth, the second beautiful, captivating thing about Jesus that he's done for us is in verse 10. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. And by a people, it means you weren't a family, you weren't a race, you weren't connected.

So some of us, before we became Christians, you had a family. And they were good. They were nice. They believed in you. They loved you. They accepted you.

Some of you, before you became Christians, you had friends, real friends that were beyond surface level conversations at work, that you actually could be around and enjoy being around and you could be open with who you were. You could be real about who you were and you were still loved and accepted. But for many of us, that's not true. It wasn't true for us before we became Christians. Our family, at best, was neutral. They didn't actively harm us.

For some of us, they did. The people who were supposed to love you, guard you, protect you, accept you, defend you, build you up, actually tore you down, assaulted you, harmed you. Your family had a very negative effect on you. For some of us, we had zero friends or just some friends we had in high school that we talked to a couple of times, maybe on Facebook, said happy birthday to each other. Some people we talked to at work, but we didn't have real friends. Honestly, and some of you may be in this position now, you believe your options are be real about who I am, be open and honest about what's going on in my heart and how messed up I am in a lot of ways and have zero friends, or be fake and have some friends.

But they aren't really my friends. They don't really know me. They just know the personified version, the fake shell I've made up. And what it says is that because of Jesus, we're a people. We're a family. And here's how this works.

All of us have our identity wrapped up in Jesus, which means that it can never be taken from us by any of our actions. All of us have our identity set in Jesus and therefore it can never be taken from us. It can never be removed from us because it's set in Him. So all other communities accept some sins, some failures, some brokenness, and not others. So you can be in a biker gang.

And there's some brokenness that bikers will accept. Like stabbing people. And maybe stealing or burning things down. There's like brokenness that biker gangs are cool with. But cowardice, disloyalty, you're not welcome anymore.

You can be a part of a group of people that gets their identity from being tolerant. And as long as you're tolerant, you're tolerated. But anybody who's close-minded or narrow-minded or bigoted, they're not at welcome because it's tolerance that makes us good. If you're a group of people that are friends because you're smart, I was never a part of this group, but if you were a part of a group of people that got your identity from your intellect, then you have to look down on people who are dumber than you. You have to because your identity comes from being smart. And the truth is, as Christians, our identity comes from Jesus, which means that all we need is brokenness.

All we need is need. All we need to do is admit that we need Jesus and then we're in. All of us. All forms of brokenness are welcome and we get to be honest about it because our identity comes from Jesus, not from ourselves. Do you see how beautiful that is? If you're in a community group, they're stuck with you.

Do you know how beautiful that is? The church is stuck with me. I was in my group the other day a couple weeks back and we were just talking about stuff and I had to confess to them that I'd realized that in my relationship with Jesus, I wasn't really pursuing holiness. I wasn't really pursuing Jesus as much as I was just trying. Like I felt like I was okay if I could just kind of surface level feel like I was doing better than them. So I told my group that I really wasn't pursuing Jesus as much as I was just trying to kind of measure myself against them and as long as I felt like I was doing better than them, I felt okay.

Do you know how petty and weird that is? You know how awkward that is to say? That's messed up. I didn't want to tell anybody. I was kind of annoyed when I figured that out. When the Holy Spirit was like, you realize that you're not pursuing me, you're just measuring yourself up against other people.

I had actually removed my identity from in Jesus. I had forgotten what was true and was trying to operate in something else and so I got to confess that because my identity identity is in Jesus, not in any of that. And that's beautiful that because of Jesus we've been made into a family. We get to get past conflict. Some of you have friendships, relationships, even family relationships where the first bit of conflict, you just don't talk to each other for weeks, months. Because of Jesus, we've been made into a people and we get to forgive and we get to be in relationships and we get to work past.

It's beautiful. We've been made into a family. The third beautiful truth that is real for us who are Christians, real for us because of Jesus, once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. mercy, everyone on earth will either pay for their sin or have Jesus pay for their sin. Mercy just means that we have something coming to us. We've earned something.

Something's coming our way and then God relented. He was merciful. We didn't get what we deserved. And for Christians, that is true and that is beautiful because all of us are in trouble outside of Jesus. All of us have been prideful. All of us have run from God.

All of us have trusted ourselves more. All of us have chased after things other than Him. All of us have promised ourselves that we would be fulfilled, that we would have joy, that we would have hope in all kinds of things other than God. We've messed around with such small, trivial things like just being comfortable and having a good life, just having a nice retirement. We've chased after sex and addictions and personal freedom and all of this stuff that ultimately is a rebellion against the Holy God and we all stand condemned. And for Christians, once you had not received mercy, but now you have.

Now you have received mercy because of Jesus. because of what He's done. Do you know how much hope and life and freedom that gives? You ever almost gotten a speeding ticket? Like you deserved it, but you didn't get it? Do you know how much joy that brought to your heart? I'm for real.

Go home today. If you just drive home and don't get pulled over by a cop, that was nice. If you drive home, get pulled over by a cop, deserve to get a ticket, and don't, that was somehow better. Like your day was made better by not getting a ticket that you deserved. You call people on the phone. I can't tell you when Ann and I were dating how many times I got a phone call after she had left my house in the evening and she'd call me up and say, guess who got another warning?

Which was a bunch of mess because I would on that same road get tickets because no one thinks I'm cute or nice or innocent. She called me one time and said the cop got sad when he saw me. She said I could tell he wanted to write a ticket and got to the window and thought I was like 12 and probably shouldn't even be driving but was like... There's something about almost getting a ticket that frees us up that gives us joy and the truth is for Christians we once had not received mercy and now we have because of Jesus. And there is freedom and joy and hope and life and it's excellent. Jesus is excellent and we proclaim his excellencies.

We share this with anybody we possibly can because the truth is everyone we know is either going to have Jesus pay for their sin or they are going to pay for their sin. Everyone in this room will either stand condemned under the weight of your own sin or you will stand free because Jesus stood condemned under the weight of your own sin. Here's what this means when it says we were called out of darkness we were made into a people and we've received mercy it means that because Jesus took what we deserve we can have what Jesus deserves. So we were in darkness and he was in light but he took on darkness so that we could have light.

He had eternal family acceptance between him and God between him and the Holy Spirit and on the cross God sends darkness over the earth and turns his back on Jesus and that relationship between Jesus and the Father is broken. Jesus was separated from his Father so that we could have eternal family. And Jesus stood condemned in our place so that we can receive what he received. He took no mercy so that we could have mercy. He took punishment and guilt and pain and shame and destruction and was crushed so that we could be free. So that we could have life so that we could have joy.

Jesus stood in our place guilty and condemned so that we could have mercy. Either Jesus pays for your sin or you pay for your sin. And all of those in Christ know that we were in the darkness and now we've been called into light. We used to not be a people. We used to not have real relationships. We used to have ones that were consistently there was this tension of we had to hold it together and now we've been given a family because of Jesus.

We've been given an identity a new name a new hope because of Jesus and ultimately we were guilty but now we've received mercy because Jesus took no mercy. And that we are Jesus took what we deserve so that when we stand before the king we get what Jesus deserved which was honor acceptance love freedom hope mercy family and light. and that is good news because it's not about us. We didn't earn it we didn't achieve it it wasn't our morals that got us there it wasn't our ability to be intelligent it wasn't our ability to work it out it wasn't our culture it wasn't our rule following it was Jesus and that is good news that is beautiful news. Last week my cousin Bumi was in town and he was he was down helping us run a firework store because my family runs firework stores and so every 4th of July and New Year's I have to go run a firework store which is kind of annoying but also kind of a redneck so I really like fireworks changing the world one explosion at a time and he was down and he loves to eat at like local places and stuff and so last week he was about to leave and I told him I said okay when we got done you know doing load loading everything back up and putting everything back I told him alright we can go either to Egg Roll Station or La Rivera and it's La Rivera is a Mexican restaurant but it's like very Mexican they don't speak English it's La Rivera La Tienda something something Mexican something like I don't speak Spanish I don't know what it says but it's La Rivera it's right down here on 378 and we said you need to have Egg Roll or La Rivera sketchiness isn't an option but both of the food is delicious they might get shut down any day more Egg Roll than La Rivera La Rivera is a little bit cleaner and nicer but anyway he chose La Rivera and so we went there and he it's a small place and so we were all at different tables and I'm eating with the guys in my community group and Logan and Boomer are at the same table and they're eating Logan's my brother so they're cousins they're eating together and they're just I mean they're pumped they're looking at the menu and getting excited and they're pointing and being like oh they got Mexican cheeseburgers I didn't know those existed they put eggs and sausage and bacon and beef like what is this place like they were so excited and they kept like showing me stuff and then I actually ordered while we were eating I ordered a thing called horchata which is like rice milk which I don't know who looked at rice and was like I wonder how to milk these things but they made rice milk and it's like creamy and good and they put cinnamon in it it's really cold it's kind of like drinking what's left in the bowl after cinnamon toast crunch it is amazing and so I'm drinking that and it's kind of like a dessert drink and while I was drinking that I was just talking enjoying eating my meal which was great and this guy comes walking up with a pitcher and he looks at me and goes do you want more horchata and I like was just stunned I can still see him in my mind and he glows a little bit I didn't in my wildest dreams think I could get a free refill on this drink like I just assumed it would be like if you were at when you get done eating at Chick-fil-A not today because it's Sunday but when you get done eating at Chick-fil-A walk up there with your milkshake and say I'd like a refill and see how they look at you they will not say my pleasure they will say give me money but at La Rivera they have a pitcher and a guy who floats and he comes by and says do you want some more so I was like I look probably like a 13 year old when a girl talks to him like I just was like yes like he laughed at me because of how excited I seemed and I drank way more of rice milk than I should have it's kind of heavy I did not feel good the rest of the day but it was worth it but while we're eating there I look over and Logan and Boomy are reading the menu and they slowly just start looking more concerned and then kind of frustrated and I don't know what they're talking about but they're pointing back at each other and they're cutting their eyes at me and I'm like I don't know so eventually I looked over and I was like what?

I don't know so eventually I looked over and I was like what? My cousin Boomy lays his menu down and he looks over at me and he says how long have you known about this place? Immediately I knew I was in trouble and I was like four months but somebody was there who keeps up with time better than me and had eaten with me before and they said no we ain't here like I said four weeks

And they said no we ain't here like six or eight weeks ago and I was like shut up and I was like six, eight weeks and he looked at me and Logan looked at me and they said four weeks was too long because I had known about something excellent I had known about something beautiful and I hadn't told them hadn't invited them in on it and the truth is if we as Christians have been called out of darkness have been given a family that is eternal

And we have been given hope and freedom and received mercy and we tell no one we don't form communities with the sole purpose of proclaiming the excellencies of Jesus what are we doing? it's real and it's beautiful and it's life giving and it matters we want to tell everyone that's honestly as a church that's what we're about that's why we're groups on mission that's why we stand up every Sunday and say we want you to join a group and here's why

Because we've been made into a family we've been given the identity of a family and we are designed to tell more people about him to go out of our way to proclaim the excellencies of Jesus because of the hope and the life and the freedom and the joy and the eternity that he's given us that's why we talk about groups so much that's why my group is about to multiply and it's really sad we're going to go

From one group to be in two groups and it's always sad because you have these really good relationships but our group is a family but we exist to proclaim the excellencies of Jesus and so if we have the opportunity to see more people welcomed in if we have the opportunity to see more people invited in if we have the opportunity to be in more places so that we can share the gospel with more people as we can see

More people come to know that this is true it's worth it I want us to see something when we started planting the church we drew a map we didn't draw the map we drew a circle on a map and it doesn't include the circle just is kind of around this area so West Columbia is kind of the forgotten middle of our city you got Columbia and nice things go there nobody's putting a dueling piano bar in West Columbia and then you got

Lexington and nice things go there and we felt called to West Columbia and I know we've got a lot of people in our church family that are in different areas but when we got started we drew a little circle that was cut off at the river and cut off at I-20 and we just said we wanted to start praying about what it would look like to plant a church here and how many people were there and there's about 60,000 people in a four square mile

Or four mile radius from just a dot that kind of covers up so it's where we meet and it's just kind of that area 60,000 people that live there and if you've ever been on Augusta Road or Sunset around five you probably believe that 60,000 people and the best estimates we've seen is that about 20% are involved in churches evangelical Protestant churches where they're proclaiming Jesus 20% so that means about 48,000 people most likely

In our city in that little circle that doesn't even include where some of our groups meet don't know Jesus 48,000 people in darkness without family who have not received mercy that will stand before the king of the universe and get what's coming to them that will accept their punishment for their sin and we know that there's hope and freedom offered through Jesus I know that when I stand

Before God I will not receive what I deserve but I'll receive what Jesus deserved because he took what I deserve it's 48,000 people so there's a person lives near you older lady and she's just in the dark she's a nice lady but she just doesn't know about this and ultimately she's living her life for just some comfort for some enjoyment she feels like if she can just

Retire early and be comfortable then that'll be good she'll have been successful she can just have a nice family she doesn't know Jesus and she's in the dark somebody works with you goes to school with you and they are desperately lonely they don't have family they don't have the freedom to be real about their brokenness they don't know Jesus and every person that you work with go to school with live in the same neighborhood with 48,000 of them

Don't know Jesus haven't received mercy don't have life don't have freedom don't have hope don't have all of the three things offered to us by Jesus 48,000 of them 48,000 people in our city don't know what Jesus has accomplished for us the hope and the life that we have because of him 48,000 people and we exist as a church to proclaim the excellencies

Of Jesus because of them because we have the hope and the freedom that he's given us one of the reasons we don't do a lot of ministries is because these 48,000 people are in your neighborhood shop at the same place you shop or a part of the same rec league sports as you are we don't want to take up all your time in the week we want you to be around them we want your group to spend some significant time in relationships

With each other getting to know these people because there's 48,000 in a little circle if we had done a five mile circle around the state house we would have to have poured out double that and we have excellent beautiful glorious news that brings life and joy and freedom and hope and so we as a church are communities on mission

Communities with the purpose of seeing more people and more people and more people have what we have which we didn't earn we didn't achieve which we haven't accomplished which we don't keep but was freely given to us by Jesus who took what we deserve so that we can have what he deserved that's the church a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people

For his own possession that we might proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness and into his glorious light into his marvelous light father we thank you for your goodness and your grace we thank you for your freedom we thank you Lord that for those of us in christ

We have been called out of darkness for those of us in christ we have received mercy we have been given a family we have hope and joy and life and we pray Lord that you would rescue and redeem and capture and save and pay the punishment for 48,000 people in our city that are right

Around us Lord we pray that our groups would get to to be intentional about building relationships with real people who have no hope no family no life and ultimately will not receive mercy which is offered freely through your cross and through your son we pray Lord that we would get to be a part of seeing more and more and more people

Rescued by the beautiful and excellent news of the death the brutal painful death of your son where no mercy was shown so that we might have mercy where the relationship between y'all was broken so that we might have family and where darkness was cast so that we might be welcomed into light God help us

To proclaim this message Jesus you are excellent amen for the remembering so we were even more and so we were going to Euh

Truth and Love

1 Peter 1:22-2:3

Transcript

Hello again. We never do this, but I just want to take a second to do this. Just take a second and introduce yourself to the people that you're sitting near. Just take a second and do that. Turn around, say hey. Now don't get crazy.

I know how you guys are. Hey guys. Hey guys. Thank you. All right.

All right. Yeah, I actually thought that would be kind of like opening up a can of worms if we did that for too long. But I just want to just remember that we're in a room full of other people and we're getting to experience this together. And there's great joy and life to be found in that. But my name is Matt.

Again, I'm one of the pastors with Mill City Church. And I'm really excited to be looking at the scripture that we're looking at today. We're in the fourth week of our series. Where we're studying the letter of 1 Peter. And the title of our series is Misfits. And we've gotten a lot of really good feedback over the last three weeks.

Because what we're looking at is very appropriate with kind of what's going on in our culture. Apparently it's made for some really good discussion in some of our groups. And I'm excited about that. And hopefully today will be a continued forward motion in us growing and understanding what 1 Peter is talking about. And specifically, the section of scripture that we're looking at today has meant a lot to me based off of what's been going on in my life personally in the last month. And just so that we're all kind of on the same page.

For those of you who don't know, my wife and I welcomed our first child into the world on June 8th. Come on. Come on. Guys. Guys. She's in here.

I want her to remember this. Come on. Come on. Come on. Give it up. Give it up.

Emerson baby. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that there wasn't more enthusiasm. But it's been great. It's been crazy. It's been difficult.

But it's been absolutely wonderful. And I'm glad they're here this morning. This is Emerson's first time hanging out with our church family. But Katie went into labor on a Sunday night. It was about midnight. And so we went to the hospital.

We got to the hospital. They wanted to make sure that she was actually in labor. And so it was about three and a half hours until Katie got an epidural. For those of you who have had children, epidurals seem like they're a really good thing. But when that lady finally showed up and said she had the epidural, I actually breathed a sigh of relief.

I think I was a little more anxious even than Katie was. Because watching her go through that pain, I thought I was going to have to throat chop a nurse. And I just didn't think that that was an appropriate thing for a pastor to do. So the son came up on Monday morning. And the nurse came into the room. And she informed us that the midwife that was supposed to deliver our baby had had a family emergency and was not going to be there.

And a doctor that we did not know was going to deliver this baby. And so it was like, okay, that makes this a little bit more uncomfortable. But it honestly was one of those small blessings that we can now look back on. Because as it came time for Emerson to be born, there were some complications that the doctor actually would have had to be in there anyways. The midwife wouldn't have been able to handle that. The doctor would have had to be in there.

So they rushed a team full of people in. As soon as Emerson was born, they rushed her to a table. They started cleaning her off. They started hooking her up to all kinds of machines. They put her in an incubator and started rolling her out of the room and said, Dad, you're coming with us. I'm freaking out at this point.

We're like racing through hallways. We end up in the special care nursery where there are more people with more machines to hook her up to. And they're just going as fast as they can. And they're talking hurriedly to each other. And I guess finally one of the nurses realizes that I'm standing there just like white as a ghost freaking out. And she turns around and says, we've got our stable.

It's going to be okay. You can come back in an hour. Second time I almost throat chopped to nerves. I was freaking out. And so, listen, I was just overcome with emotion. I walked out of the room.

And the first empty room I found, I just walked in and I lost it. I just started crying because I was so overwhelmed with emotion, not knowing what was going on. And so I went back to Katie. And they came and told us later that during labor, Emmy had breathed in amniotic fluid. Into her lungs, causing her lungs to be really weak, making it hard for her to breathe. And basically the whole process had kind of put her body in a state of shock.

So that for the duration of her stay, she was going to have to be in a special care nursery. So we knew we kind of had a long road ahead of us. She was hooked up to a CPAP machine to help her breathe. She was hooked up to IVs. And she had a feeding tube. And that's not the way you picture it going, right?

That's not what you're walking into this thinking. It's not the storybook ending. But we had the best nurses, had the best doctors. They took great care of her. She continued to get stronger. They took her off the CPAP.

They started feeding her. And when they started feeding her, rather than using the IV and the feeding tube, they said, for her to go home, she's got to feed eight times a day. Eight times in 24 hours. You do the math. That's every three hours this baby has to eat. Which means that, which meant that we had to be at the hospital every three hours.

If you've ever spent the night in a hospital, oh my goodness, you're a trooper. Like you should get a badge. There should be a sash and you should have badges. But we were never so relieved that when the nurses came in and said, your baby's healthy, you can go home. And we got to take our little girl home. And the last couple weeks have been incredible.

Because I just sit and think about the fact that two months ago, Emerson was inside Katie. A year ago, Emerson didn't even exist. I think about the miracle that that is. That God shaped her and molded her and has a plan for her life. I sit there and I stare at Emerson and I look at her little hands. And I look at her little feet.

And I watch her sleep and I watch the rise and fall of her chest. And I listen to the crazy noises she makes while she sleeps. You know, she sleeps with her mouth open. But she doesn't snore like me yet. It's coming. It's in her future, I'm sure.

But I just sit there and I look at her. And at the same time that Katie and I were going through all of this, I was studying this section of scripture and I realized that God's plan and his timing were perfect. Because what Peter's going to do to help us understand the gospel, he's going to talk about the gospel in terms of birth and infancy. So that in the same way that a mother gives birth to a baby and it's born into a family and then sustains its life by feeding it, Peter's going to say that the gospel gives birth to us into a new family. And then it's that same gospel that continues to sustain us during life.

The gospel, the good news of who Jesus is, is what brings us into the family and what sustains us for all of life. So as we look at this together, my prayer is for Christians that you're reawakened to these two beautiful truths that we're going to see today. That as we talk about them, as we dive into them, you're going, no, no, I want that. That actually gets to be true for me. And if you're in this room today and you're not a Christian, my prayer for you is that you'll actually see the beauty of the gospel for the first time. And not just what the gospel can save you from, but what the gospel actually saves us for.

So I'm going to pray and then we're going to dive into the scripture together. Let's pray. Father, I thank you that your word speaks into every aspect of our lives. God, there's nothing that we go through, no situation that we'll come across that your word doesn't instruct us in. And I thank you for this letter and I pray that through your Holy Spirit, you would allow us to see the gospel for the beautiful truth that it is and how it impacts our lives on a daily basis. In Jesus name, amen.

So if you've got a Bible, go ahead and grab it. We're going to be in first Peter. If you don't have a Bible, grab one of the blue and white ones that we have on the chairs. It's going to be on page 656. We're going to be looking at chapter 1, verse 22 through chapter 2, verse 3. And I know what some of you guys are thinking.

You're going, whoa, whoa, whoa. He's not stopping at the end of chapter 1? He's not stopping at verse 25? How scandalous. Just remember that it's a letter. The chapters and the verses were actually added later just for reference.

And so it's one big continual thought. Each little thing is going to build on the next thing. So we're going to look at this little chunk. And what we've been looking at in this series is that Peter is writing to a group of Christians about how to follow Jesus in a culture that doesn't line up with their faith. That first century Christians and first century Roman citizens were not besties. They didn't get along super well because they didn't have the same value system.

And what Peter is writing to them is how do you exist in life in a culture that doesn't agree with what you believe. And it's very timely for us to be reading this in light of what's going on in our culture. I want you to think back to your parents' generation or maybe your grandparents' generation. Christianity and our culture back then used to line up pretty well. The same type morals, same type values. But over the last couple generations that gap has continued to widen more and more and more.

So what our culture says about certain things and what we believe and what our culture says are beginning to move further and further apart. So what our culture says about sex, what our culture says about gender, what our culture says about marriage, about love, about power, about success is very different from what we believe. And what we're trying to do in this series is ask the question, okay, if that's true, what does it look like to follow Jesus in light of the culture that I live in? Okay? So that's what we're shooting to do today.

Let's pick it up in verse 22. We're going to go ahead and read the whole chunk just right up front to get the big picture. And then we'll walk back through it bit by bit. Okay? So verse 22.

Let's read it together. Here we go. So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander like newborn infants. Long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Okay? So that's the whole chunk.

Now let's jump back up to the top. We're going to walk through it bit by bit. Okay? Verse 22. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth.

Since this is a letter, this is basically a continuation of the same ideas that Peter has already written and that Chet's already talked about in the last three weeks. And in fact, this phrase pretty well bridges the gap between everything that he's already said and everything that we're going to look at today and in the rest of the letter. And if you change the order of those words around to make it a statement, it says this. Our souls have been purified by our obedience to the truth. Our souls have been purified by our obedience to the truth. And when Peter says truth, he's talking about the truth of the gospel.

So that our souls have been purified. Our souls have been made right by our obedience to the gospel. And here's the gospel. That the God of the universe, the creator of all things, created humanity to exist in a perfect relationship with him. But our first parents, Adam and Eve, rebelled against God's good and gracious commands.

They sinned against God and they forever fractured the relationship that we were supposed to have with him. And what we see in the Old Testament is God's active pursuit to restore that relationship. He calls out a people to be his people and he says, I'll be your God. And he gives them laws and he gives them commands and he gives them the sacrifice system to teach them about who he is and how to live in a relationship with him. But the people continue to fall.

They continue to sin. And they cannot obey. No amount of work, no amount of effort could ever bridge the gap that had been broken. But God spoke. He spoke through prophets and said, one day I'm going to send a savior that will fix that relationship. That will restore it forever.

And then Jesus, the son of God, shows up on the scene. And he lives the perfect life in worship to the father that we could never live. He dies the death for our sins that we could not die as the sacrifice for our sins. And then he raises to life. He comes back from the dead showing that he had conquered sin, death, hell, and Satan. That's the gospel.

That's the good news. And when Peter says your souls have been purified by your obedience to the truth, what he's saying is it's the gospel. Your souls have been purified by repenting of your sins and placing faith in Jesus. Jesus, the gospel is the story of all stories for Christians. And so as he's coming out of what he's already written and going into practical applications of what that looks like, he reminds them that the gospel is what matters to them. The gospel is what changes everything.

Their souls have been purified by their obedience to the truth. And when Peter says truth, he's talking about the gospel. That's what Peter declares through the whole letter. That's what we've already seen. And Peter's writing to a group of people that they've already raised their hands and said, I know I'm busted. I know I'm jacked up in desperate need of a savior.

We've placed faith in Jesus. Now, what does it look like to follow him in our culture? And Peter says, don't run from culture. Don't retreat into Christian getters. Don't run from it. Don't primarily fight culture.

Don't necessarily wage war against it. Don't conform to culture. Don't be like them. Be holy. Be set apart. Peter says, follow Jesus in obedience.

Obedience to the truth. Obedience to the gospel. Following Jesus. Being willing to sacrificially suffer for the good of those around us. Why? Because Christians have a hope of the resurrection.

We know that this is not ultimately our home. That one day we'll go to be with our savior. And so if it means that for now to put the gospel on display, that we would be willing to suffer. We're willing to do that. Okay. What about this?

What do I do when our faith, when Christianity says this and our culture says something else? And I like what culture says better. Peter says, obey. Follow Jesus. And the reason you can follow Jesus even when you don't agree, even when you don't understand, is because he's proved that he's good, he's for our good, and he's trustworthy. And he's done all of that through the cross.

The gospel is the story of all stories for Christians. And that's what Peter's reminding them of here. He said, having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth, by your obedience to the gospel. And from here, what we're going to see are two beautiful truths that Peter's going to pull out and bring to light for this group of Christians that are living in exile. Okay. So jump back to 22.

We'll go ahead and we'll keep reading this time. Verse 22. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God. And what Peter just said there is he reminds them that the gospel, it's not just about what the gospel saves them from. That's what we just talked about. The gospel saves us from sin, saves us from death, saves us from hell, saves us from the enemy.

Peter wants to point them towards what the gospel saves us for. And Peter says that it's for brotherly love. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart. But since you have been born again, there's that picture of birth. Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God. What Peter is saying here is that those that have placed faith in Jesus have been born again.

They have been made into a new creation. They've been given a new identity. And not only that, since they've been born again, they've actually been born into a new family. See that picture of birth that he's painting there? In the same way that when a baby is born, it is born into a family. Peter is saying that the gospel actually gives birth to us into a family.

It's the gospel that makes us into a family. Like it says, since you've been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable. I just want to take a second real quick and help us understand what he's saying there by perishable versus imperishable. Because that can get, we can get a little tripped up there. Okay, perishable. My daughter Emmy was born through perishable seed.

She was born through perishable seed, which means that one day I'm going to pass away. My wife's going to pass away. Emmy's going to pass away. And the Freeman family line is going to end. And what Peter says is that you've been born again into this family through imperishable seed. That the gospel brings us into an eternal family.

Since Jesus is an eternal God, the family that he invites us into is an eternal family. Through the gospel, we're born again and brought into a family. When it came time for Emmy to be born, I was kind of on the fence about where I was going to be located in the delivery room. Several of you had given me some advice about where I should stand. I was very thankful for that. And I was just kind of, I was waffling back and forth about where I was going to be in the delivery room.

But there was this one kind of crazy intense nurse when it, when it really came time. And let's just say that my choice was stolen from me. The option to stand in the corner of the room and go, that was taken away. And let me say in clear and certain terms, my wife gave birth to Emmy. Emmy exists in this world because of my wife. And in the same way that Emmy exists in the world because of Katie, she was actually born into a family.

Emmy was born into a family where I'm her dad and Katie is her mom. And my parents were in the waiting room. Katie's parents were in the waiting room. My grandparents were in there, her brothers and sister. Emmy was born into a family. And what Peter's saying here is that the gospel in the same way makes us into a new creation by placing faith in Jesus.

And since that's true, we're born into a family. That's, that's the first beautiful truth. The gospel makes us into a family. So if you're a note taker, that's the first thing you want to write down. The gospel, the gospel makes us into a family. That point was actually going to be the gospel births us into a new family.

But I decided that probably wasn't the best thing to do. I think we get the point, right? The gospel makes us into a family? Yeah, okay, good. So he goes on from there.

It's not just, it's not just that the gospel makes us into a family. It's that part of the reason that we are saved is for the family. Read it again. Verse 22. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart. So not only are we saved into a family, but we're saved for the family.

We are saved for a sincere brotherly love that we should love one another earnestly from a pure heart. Brotherly love. Family love. And I love that because it's actually a beautiful picture of what the gospel accomplishes for us. That God is our father and Jesus as his son bridges the gap between us and him. And through Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, he actually brings us back into a right relationship with the father.

He reconciles that relationship. And since that's true, Jesus then also restores our relationship with each other. That we're actually able to have brotherly love for each other because of what Jesus has done. And let me say this. I know that as soon as we start talking about family, not everybody in the room is really excited about it. Some of you might have had a family where you had a dad who was abusive, had a mom that peaced out when you were five.

Maybe you had aunts and uncles that treated you poorly. And when you think about family, it actually brings up a lot of negative, hurtful emotions. Maybe even the family that you exist in now is very, very difficult. And so there's a little bit of pushback when we start talking about that the gospel makes us into a family. But here's the truth.

All of us know what a good family is supposed to look like. All of us deep down inside know that a father is supposed to love and to protect and to serve. That there's supposed to be genuine love and genuine care and closeness and unity in a family. That's one of the reasons I love that God chooses to relate to us as father. Think about it. We just celebrated Father's Day a couple of weeks ago.

Think about how beautiful that is. That God chooses to relate to us as father and he invites us into a family that is held together by the perfect love of Jesus. And that by existing in those family relationships with other believers, that's actually how you grow. That's actually how you begin to grow in your understanding of the gospel is by being in those relationships. You haven't just been saved into a family. You've been saved for the family.

And part of what Peter's saying here as he's writing to the elect exiles, what he's saying to us, that this is part of the way we set ourselves apart in our culture. That when our culture begins to look at the way that we live in relationship with each other, the way we serve, the way we sacrifice, the way we give our time and efforts to each other, they're getting a picture of the gospel. This quote comes from a book called Total Church. It's written by some church planners in the UK. It says this, Brotherly love is not a byproduct of being born again. It is its purpose.

Christian community is not a happy byproduct of our salvation or a convenient help to individual Christians. We have been saved to be God's people, to be Christ's bride, to be a new family. We are saved for the family. Part of the reason, part of the way that we grow in relationship with Jesus is by being in relationship with other believers. Sometimes I get in conversations with people when I'm talking about who we are as Mill City Church and the way we organize and the way we do things. And they'll say things like this, I'm a Christian, I'm just not a part of a church.

Or I'm a Christian, I just don't want to be a part of a church. I don't really see the point. I can follow Jesus on my own just fine without a group of other people. And the problem with that is that the Bible is not going to back him up in that position. That the majority of the New Testament is actually talking about how you grow in relationship with other believers. And in those conversations, I really don't want to make someone feel guilty.

I don't. What I want to help them see is that they're actually missing. That there are aspects of the gospel that you cannot grow in outside of being in relationship with other believers. It puts the gospel on display in a way that you cannot by yourself. And that's hugely important in our culture. I want you to think about our culture for a second because it's really self-centered.

Our culture says that the goal of your life is for you as an individual to be happy, to be successful, to be free. That your goal as an individual is to be happy, to be successful, and to be free. The problem with that is that the underlying current in that message is that other people exist for you. Other people exist only so far as you can be happy, as far as you can be successful, as far as you can be free. And what the gospel does is it flips that on its head and says that since Jesus has saved you and brought you into a family, you now get to exist for other people. You get to exist as a family serving other people.

Because it's in those relationships that you can only put aspects of the gospel on display. I want you to think about this. Let me give you a couple examples. Reconciliation. Because Jesus has reconciled us back to God, you can't reconcile outside of being in a relationship with somebody else. There's got to be some kind of conflict, some kind of drama.

That's how you grow in your understanding of the gospel and how you put it on display is by being reconciled. Repentance. Repentance is confessing our sin to God and confessing our sins to each other to seek about restoration. There's got to be some type of close relationship for that to be realized. Love. Love isn't just a feeling.

Love is an action that is expressed with other people. Generosity. You can't be generous outside of being in relationship with other people. Hospitality. You can't be hospitable outside of opening up your home to people on a regular basis. And all those things are pictures of the gospel.

And what our culture says is, you do what's right for you. Take care of yourself. And whatever time you have left, whatever money you have left, whatever resources you have left, give that to other people. And the gospel flips it and says, since Jesus has lavished his love on you, pour yourselves out for other people. And there will be great joy in it. But you will grow in your understanding of the gospel.

You'll fight for those relationships. You'll sacrifice for those relationships. You'll begin to treat someone that you met one year ago like flesh and blood family because the gospel is actually beginning to influence that relationship. From the very beginning of our church family, from the very beginning of our church, we've had people who aren't Christians hanging out with our community groups. And that's beautiful. People who don't yet believe what we believe.

And that's beautiful. Because what they're seeing is a group of people who genuinely love each other and care about each other and hold fast to their faith. And they extend that same love and welcoming to them, that it's a safe environment for them to actually learn and grow closer to Jesus. And I love that. That's absolutely what it looks like to have brotherly love, that by being in relationships with other believers, you're actually putting the gospel on display. And in all honesty, I could sit up here and tell you story after story after story.

And I'd love to share some more with you afterwards. But let me give you just a few examples of what this brotherly love looks like. And I'm not going to use names. I'm just going to kind of pull some stories from some of the groups that I know about. But some of you know that we had our air conditioning went out last summer.

Hashtag HVacalypse if you followed, if you were keeping up with the times. There was somebody that was in my group that for a solid week took all of his spare time, came and fixed our AC unit, and didn't ask for a dime in return in the blazing heat of August. Just sacrificially gave time because he was extending brotherly love for me. I know a guy who works 50 to 60 hours a week. One of the hardest working guys I know that on one of his only days off drove a hundred miles round trip to go help somebody move. I've heard stories of families that weren't able to pay for cars, to pay for a vehicle, and an entire group pitched in to help them do that.

I've heard about mortgages being paid for. I've heard about people going into the hospital and people bringing food and going to visit. And let me tell you this. The gospel making us into a family never became more real to us than when we were in the hospital with Emmy. The way that our group and the way that this church family rallied around us during that time was unbelievable. Calls, texts, emails, people bringing us food, people coming to see us in the hospital, people coming to our house.

The outpouring of love was crazy. There were times when I sat and tried to think of all the people that had reached out to us and it just blew my mind. And I can't imagine what that looked like to the nurses and the doctors as they came in because they were seeing brotherly love. They were seeing the gospel on display. And it was beautiful. And that's what the gospel does.

As we actually take the time and actively pursue those relationships with other believers, we start to understand the gospel in a brand new way. And what can happen sometimes, this can happen sometimes in our groups, is our mode of thinking begins to shift towards the fact that my group exists for me. That can happen, that can show up in the, are people meeting my needs? Are people reaching out to me? Are they inviting me? Are they listening to the things that I'm saying?

And what's cool about the gospel is it just frees us back up to realize that our group doesn't primarily exist for us, but that we exist for our group. Which means that we get to be the person that goes and works on somebody's air conditioning. If you're one of the three people who knows how to do that. It means that I'm going to answer my phone at 10 o'clock. It means that I'm going to go help that family move. It means that when I know there's a need, I'm going to open up my wallet.

Because it's part of how I grow in my understanding of the gospel and how the gospel gets put on display in our world. And honestly guys, that's just the tip of the iceberg. It is. It's just the tip of the iceberg to what this existing in the family that the gospel makes us into. It's just the tip of the iceberg. But I want us to keep moving.

Let's pick it back up in verse 24. Because Peter's going to point towards the eternality of this family. For all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you. See the progression?

The word endures forever. The word is the gospel. I'm sorry. The word is the good news. The good news is the gospel. See how it goes?

The word endures forever. The word is the good news. The good news is the gospel. And since the gospel will endure forever, the family that it makes us into will endure forever. So when you think about the sacrifice and the time and the effort that you're putting in to build relationships, when you think about how tired you are on a Thursday and you're trying to go hang out with your group, realize that every bit of time and effort you're putting into, you're putting into that here on this earth is only practice for the eternity that you've been invited into.

You're just getting warmed up. It's just a warm up for what's coming. Verse 1, chapter 2. Let's keep going. Peter says this, So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.

So since the gospel makes us be for brotherly love, out of the family we've been invited into, it says we're for brotherly love, that means there's going to be certain actions that we're called to do and other actions and behaviors that we're called away from. That if we're called to brotherly love, there's going to be actions and behaviors that we're called away from. That's what all of these have in common is that they can be against other people. And the reason that Peter's bringing it up is because these people were living in relationship with each other. These were real things. These were real conflicts that were actually happening.

These are real things that can show up within your community group, but it's the gospel that leads you away from them. It's the gospel that then reshapes your understanding that these aren't good actions. Malice? Hate? Deceit? How could you hate someone when you realized that Jesus took the wrath that you deserved from God on your behalf?

How could you hate someone? Deceit? Why would you need to lie? Jesus paid for your sins on the cross and you've been invited into a community of openness and honesty. Hypocrisy? You don't need to fake it.

You don't need to fake it because your actions aren't wrapped up in the things that you do or don't do. You've got new value. You've got a new identity in Jesus. Envy? Why would you want something that someone else has? You've already been given everything you'll ever need in Jesus.

In fact, the gospel flips it for you and you get to be open-handed with the things that you do have. Slander? No, we get to encourage people with hope. We get to be people who bring the good news. See how the gospel impacts that? The gospel shapes the family and it shapes the way we relate.

And the gospel helps us when these show up. That actually we get to grow in our understanding of the gospel even when this stuff shows up in our community group. Let me show you how. Let's say you're talking about somebody and a Christian brother or sister calls it out and says, listen, you're talking about them, that's not an appropriate thing for you to be doing. You realize that you get to go to Jesus and ask him for forgiveness. And that part of that repentance is that you go and talk to that other person.

You get to ask for their forgiveness. You get to be open and honest because of the gospel. And then that person in turn gets to offer you forgiveness, gets to offer you grace. And in that relationship there gets to be reconciliation, restoration, and a great expression of love. You see that? The gospel even shapes when we screw up.

It even shapes when we screw up. So we've been called into this family for brotherly love, which means there are going to be things that we do for each other and actions that we're called away from. And in this next section of scripture we're going to see the second beautiful truth that Peter's pointing us to. So let's continue on. Verse number two. Like newborn infants.

Again, so birth and infancy. We're seeing it right here. Like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Here's the second beautiful truth. The gospel sustains us for life. So the gospel makes us into a family, but the gospel also sustains us for life.

In the same way that newborn infants cannot survive without the life-sustaining milk from their mothers, we as believers should long for the pure spiritual milk so that we can grow, so that we can be sustained for life. And the question is, what's the milk? It's the same thing that Peter's been saying over and over and over again. It's the obedience to the truth. It's being born again. It's the gospel.

Not only does the gospel give birth to us into this new family, but it's actually the gospel that sustains us for growth in all of life. And let me try to help us understand what that looks like. See, I grew up with this false understanding of Christianity that was this. I understood the gospel that Jesus saves me from my sin, and I'm given new life in him. And then you kind of move that to the side, and the rest of life is me reading the Bible and trying to figure out what does it take to make God happy so that he'll bless me. So basically, the gospel was step one and then set it to the side.

And now it's like, what do I need to do? What are steps two through whatever? And what Peter's saying here, and what I've come to understand, is that my actions are not separate from the gospel. That it's actually the gospel that motivates all of my actions. It's what we've already said in the context of those family relationships. When there's strife, when there's drama, when there's conflict, when we're called to love, we get pictures of all of that in the gospel.

And now what I've realized is if the gospel is this big circle, all of my life is inside that circle. That there's not one thing, one thing that I go through in my life, not one word that I could utter, not one action behavior that I could do that the gospel doesn't motivate. And as I grow in my understanding of the gospel, who Jesus is and what he's done for me, it begins to answer the questions. It begins to help me understand how I should make decisions. What I should do with my life, what the purpose of life is, what my thoughts and feelings should be about gender, about sexuality, about marriage.

It's by growing in our understanding of the gospel. And Peter says, long for it. Long for the pure spiritual milk so that you can grow up into salvation if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. And when it says tasted that the Lord is good, he's talking to Christians there. He's saying those that have tasted the truth of the gospel for the first time, they've tasted it. I can stand up here and I can tell you how good banana pudding is.

I can. I can tell you about it. I can tell you that it's one of God's greatest creations right up there with bacon and golf. Don't argue. You know it's true. All right, I can tell you that, but until you actually take a bite of banana pudding, you have no idea why I'm so crazy about it.

But after you take that first bite, oh, buddy, it's game on. And anytime you hear someone say the word banana pudding, they can get the B out. But you're like dropping whatever you got and you're taking off to figure out how you can be the first person in line to get banana pudding. You've tasted it. You've tasted it. And what Peter is saying is if you've tasted that the Lord is good, continue to go back to the gospel time and time again.

It's what sustains your life. Long for it. We should be in hot pursuit of the gospel because we've tasted that the Lord is good. We've tasted that the message is true and that it's beautiful. And I'm going to show my cards here because it's going to help us explain things going forward. The gospel is understanding who Jesus is and what he's done for us.

And primarily one of the ways that we do that is through reading the Bible. One of the primary ways that we grow in our understanding of the gospel to be sustained for all of life is by reading the Bible. Now, are there other ways to do that? Sure. You can listen to sermons like you're doing right now. You can discuss things with your group.

You can read books. You can read blogs. You can listen to music. But all of those things find their roots in the Bible. All of those things are based off of the Bible. So go to the source.

The Bible is primarily how we grow in our understanding of the gospel. And there's a couple of things I want to pull out here. Peter says that in the same way newborn infants long for pure spiritual milk, we should long for the gospel. So, Emmy. Emmy, my daughter, is the best baby in the world. You know, I'm not partial.

It's just true. And when it comes to babies, she's got a pretty even temperament. She's pretty chill. She doesn't get upset about a whole lot. But to be honest, there's not a whole lot she can do.

Sleep, eat, poop, pee. That's about it. Eating is her favorite. She's just like her daddy. Okay? So, Emerson can be doing anything.

She can be sleeping. She can be playing. But babies eat all the time, so they get hungry all the time. This is what happens when Emerson is hungry and she's waking up from her nap. You ready? Ready?

That's pretty good, right? That's pretty good. She loses her mind. She goes crazy because babies are wired in such a way that they will cry insatiably until they get some food. And what Peter is saying is that in the same way babies long for milk, we as Christians should long for the gospel. Should put in time, effort, work to grow in our understanding of the gospel.

The second thing is this. I want you to think back to Peter's time. There was no formula. There was no Gerber baby food. That if a baby was not able to nurse from a mother, it did not make it. That's why it was so important.

And when he's writing to the people, they understand that. That it was important for a baby to be able to nurse, to survive, to be sustained for life. When Emmy was in the special care nursery, at first they had her hooked up to IVs and she had a feeding tube. So she wasn't eating on herself. And it was not until she could feed on her own, without IVs, without a feeding tube, she didn't get to go home. And the same thing is true for us as Christians.

The gospel is what sustains us for life. And if we're not having a regular intake of the gospel, it's going to be difficult for us to understand how to follow Jesus. It's going to be hard for us to survive. And I hope you can see the connection between these two things. These two beautiful truths that Peter's pointing out in the gospel. That as you exist in these family relationships with each other, as you begin to pour out brotherly love for each other, you're growing in your understanding of the gospel, and you're pointing each other back towards Jesus.

Back towards the truth of the gospel. And as you read and study and grow in your understanding of the gospel, it's then going to point you back towards these family relationships that you exist in. It all works together and it's God's good and gracious gift to us to lay it before us like that. Think about how wonderful that is. Think about the 45 seconds of joy you had right at the beginning of the message as you got to say hey to someone that you haven't said hey to yet. Maybe you got to introduce yourself to someone new.

That those family relationships actually bring the gospel to light. The gospel makes us into a family and we're saved for that family. And that we get to grow in all of life sustained by the gospel. And as we come to a close this morning, I've got two ways that we can practically apply this as a church family. And a lot of times we don't land this practically. We usually don't land this practically, but this sermon lends itself to it.

Since the gospel has born us into a family and we're to be for that family, part of the way you can practically apply what we've talked about this morning is this. Number one, join a group. Get in a group. A huge portion of the New Testament talks about how we grow in our relationship with Jesus with other believers. Now, if it was up to us as a whole church family, if it was our whole church family was trying to get together on a regular basis and try to sync up our schedules, it would be nearly impossible. That's why it's so important for our community groups because it's smaller groups of people that set aside time to study the Bible, to pray together, to share meals together, to encourage one another, to help out when life gets tough.

It is beautiful. I want you to join a group. I want to invite you to do that. And some of you are going, ah, man, the practical application, I'm already a part of a group. I'm going to join another one? I'm supposed to be a part of two groups?

Here's how I want you to apply what we've talked about this morning. Fight for nothing less than what we've talked about. Don't let your community group be just a once-a-week meeting time where you get together, pray, and study the Bible. It gets to be so much more. Fight for time. Sacrifice for time because you understand that it's how you grow in your understanding of the gospel and it's what puts it on display in our culture.

Another thing is this. The gospel sustains us for life. So the second practical application is this. Read the Bible. Read the Bible. Get into God's Word.

To be gospel-centered means being word-centered. We believe that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God. There is no error. And it was given from God to human authors written down to reveal who God is and how we're to live in a relationship with him. That by reading the Bible, we're going to grow in our understanding of the gospel. And here's the deal.

The more you read, the more you study, the more you'll begin to understand, the more you'll actually want to. And that both of those things will start to work together. The family relationships and reading the Bible will then push you towards the gospel. And I grew up. Listen, I grew up as a part of a church. And I heard sermons and lessons all the time about read your Bible.

The Bible's good. The Bible's God's Word. And they just went right over my head. I don't know how I missed them. And when I got in college, one of those sermons finally stuck. And the guy challenged us to read the gospel of John.

So I read the gospel of John. And then I read Acts. And then I read Romans. And then I read the New Testament. And then I read the Bible. And then I read the Bible again.

And then I read the Bible again. And the time that I'm spending in the Word is helping me grow in my understanding of the gospel. It's helping me grow in my love for Jesus and my need and desire to follow him. And so here's how we're going to conclude this morning. Usually the band comes back up and plays a song. We're not going to do that today.

Because I want to actually give you the opportunity. I want to give you the opportunity to do what we've actually talked about this morning. So here's what we're going to do. I want all of our group leaders, male and female group leaders and their apprentices, to just kind of spread out throughout the room. So y'all can go ahead and move.

You can go ahead and do that. Do that. They're so shy. Part of the way we exist as church families is in our community groups. And so I just want to take a second just so that you understand, like, who the leaders of our groups are, where they are. Like, clump together.

If y'all are in the same group, be together. There we go. I want to tell you a little bit about who they are, who the leaders are, where they meet. So this is Dave and Sherry Howeweiler. They have a group that meets on Thursdays in the Harbison area. This is Charlie and Stacey Earp.

They have a group that meets on Tuesdays at 630. They meet in – wow, I got a whoop. Well done. But they meet off of Fish Hatchery Road in the West Columbia area. Chet and Anna Phillips, Dan and Sean Stoyku. They have a group that meets at 630.

Is that right? Seven? Seven o'clock on Thursdays in kind of the Lexington area. You got Josh and Nadine Pabone and Raz and Christina Bradley are not here with us. They're on vacation. But they have a group that meets in downtown at the Canal Side Lofts.

It's a very trendy group to be a part of. But they meet on Wednesdays at 630. And then I'm going to stand right down here front. My wife and I have a group that meets on Tuesday nights at 630 in the West Columbia area. And here's what we're going to do as we finish up. When we're done, I'm going to pray.

The music's going to come back up. I want you to just go stand with your group. If you're a part of a group, I just want you to go stand with your group. Hang out. Just catch up. Talk.

We usually hang out for a while after we're done. And just enjoy those relationships. Just be reminded of what the gospel has made us into. Maybe you can talk about your favorite firework. What color it was and the sound that it made. It'd be really great to hear that going on all over the room.

It'd be like a firework show again. If you're not a part of a group, I want to invite you to join one. I want to invite you to be a part of one. And here's how you can do that. If you're not a part of a group and you came with a friend, just go to the group that that friend goes to. So when we get up, just go with them.

Go meet some of the people in that group. They're not all crazy. So just go meet some of them. If you're not here with a friend and you're just here on your own and you don't know which group to be a part of, just think about which group, which day, and which time is most convenient for you. Or maybe it's the location. Maybe it's the one that's closer to your house or closer to your job.

If none of those categories work for you, just choose one. And Charlie says choose him. But here's the deal. I know we have guests with us here today too. This is beautiful. Whatever church family you are a part of, you don't want to miss out on this.

And if you call this your church family, we want you to plug in and be bought in here. And part of the way you can do that is by being a group, being in a group. And for all of us, I want us to grow in our understanding of reading the Bible. So each week we've been sending out group discussion guides to our group leaders and personal studies. The personal study for this week is a reading plan for the letter of 1 Peter. It's a five-day reading plan with questions.

We want us all to get in a regular rhythm of reading the Bible and growing together. So I'm going to pray. The music is going to come on. And we're all going to move. Okay? Okay.

All right. So I'm going to pray. God, thank you for this morning. Thank you for the truth of the gospel that it makes us into a family. God, and I pray that through our groups you would help us grow, help us realize that it's the gospel that should motivate our actions. And by being in these family relationships and through growing in our understanding of the gospel, we're actually putting it on display for our culture.

We're putting it on display for the world. And so, God, we thank you that through Jesus you've brought us into your family. And it's in his name we pray. Amen.

Grace and Obedience

1 Peter 1:13-21

Transcript

Well, good morning. We're in our third week of walking through the letter of 1 Peter, so we'll be in 1 Peter chapter 1. That's on page 656 if your Bible looks like this one. So there's some of these floating around in the rows if your Bible doesn't look like this. 1 Peter is right in front of 2 Peter, so if that helps. But we're just walking through line by line through this letter that the Apostle Peter, one of Jesus' disciples, wrote to the early church, to churches in what is now modern-day Turkey.

And we're just walking through and trying to see what he said to them and how that applies to us and what we can learn about Jesus and what we can learn about what God was doing then and doing now. And so I'm going to pray, and then we're going to kind of hop in on some of what Peter's saying here. And God, we thank you for this opportunity that we have to open your Word and to study it, and we pray, Lord, that you would teach us through it. And that as we study it today, that you would help us to grow in what it means to follow you. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. We're going to be in chapter 1, verse 13. We're going to start there, and then we'll kind of set the stage for what we're doing today. But therefore, okay, so whenever you see therefore in the Bible, it just means he's referring to what was just said. Like when someone says something like, you are hateful to your children, therefore you're a bad parent or whatever, like those kind of things. It's based off of what I just said, this conclusion.

And so when he says therefore, what he's referring back to is the fact that we have hope through the resurrection of Jesus. That Jesus Christ died and he did not stay dead. That three days later he came back, and in that we have hope and life and joy forever in Jesus. So therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the Revelation of Jesus Christ. He starts off by saying he's writing to a group of people who are not the majority in culture. So this is new for Christians in the U.S.

That Christians in the U.S. used to have kind of the, they had a central position, they had a position of influence. And up until recently that's kind of been the case and that's slowly changing or actually kind of rapidly changing. Where some of the ways we've described it is in the last round of musical chairs, cultural musical chairs, the church lost its seat. And we're still awkwardly kind of standing and feel a little uncomfortable about how that transition went down. That we no longer have a seat at the table. We used to get invited into making political decisions, inviting into policy decisions.

When there was a moral issue, the church got to go throw its weight around. We are no longer the biggest kid on the playground. The church is no longer the biggest kid on the playground. That's what has happened. And so you'll hear people, Fox News, say that the church is under attack. Or that we're being persecuted.

Or there's an assault on Christmas. Christmas? No. No. First of all, our entire like retail economic system is based off of Christmas. We're not getting rid of that anytime soon.

Just so you know, Christmas starts before Halloween if you work retail. Halloween does not exist unless you sell Halloween costumes. But we, there's, that we're under attack, that we're being persecuted. The truth is, no, we just don't have the position of influence we used to. The church is no longer as important as it used to be. And so in our culture where we were used to that, it suddenly feels like we're under attack.

But we're not. If you grew up as a Christian and you went through high school as a Christian, you probably weren't beaten up for that. You probably weren't mocked for that. Now, if you went through high school as an openly gay person, you might have been mocked for that. If you went through high school overweight. I mean, like, you are more likely to be persecuted for being overweight in high school than for being a Christian.

But in our culture, Christianity no longer has the clout that it used to. We're no longer, we're being pushed some to the margins. And so what Peter's writing to this group of people who are on the margins, they're in a culture that does not line up with their thought process, that doesn't have the morals that they have. They don't get legislature that is in their benefit. And what he says is, prepare your minds for action. And I want us to think about that for a second.

As Christians, we have to prepare our minds more now than you had to 50 years ago. Because our culture lined up so well with Christianity on so many fronts, that there were a lot of things you didn't have to think through. As of day before yesterday, I believe, Supreme Court ruled that gay marriage is now legal. It's the law of the land in all 50 U.S. states. Christians now have to think more than they used to. We have to prepare our minds more than we used to.

Because now it's like, okay, how do we love? How do we show grace? How do we welcome? How do we invite? And how do we hold on to what we believe the Bible says about marriage? And how do we hold on to what we know to be true?

And still, there's more thought that has to go into this than used to. And there's so many more situations that we now have to process through. How am I a Christian at work? How does my Christianity apply here? How does my Christianity apply here? What's it look like for me to be a Christian neighbor?

There's more thought that has to go into preparing for what it looks like to be a Christian in our culture than it used to. So he says, prepare your minds for action. Be sober-minded, which just means think clearly or don't be drunk. Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the Revelation of Jesus Christ. How beautiful is that? That our hope rests fully on the grace that will be brought to us.

That Jesus is going to show up and bring grace, which just means unearned favor. It's beautiful. And what we've been saying as we've been reading through this is Peter's writing to this group of people who don't really fit in their culture, who don't line up with the culture's values and beliefs. What we've been saying is that Peter's going to call us to not run from culture, to not fight culture, to not just conform to culture, but to actually follow Jesus in obedience, suffering for the good of those around us. That we're going to follow Jesus in obedience, suffering for the good of those around us.

And for Christians, a question comes up pretty immediately when we start to do that. What if, what do we do when, and this is what Peter's going to be answering for us, what do we do when, all right, church and culture used to line up pretty well, and that shift has begun, like there's been growth there in that gap. What do I do if I'm a Christian? And I see what the Bible says about sex, but I like what our culture says better. Seems like a more compelling argument. Sounds nicer.

I see what the Bible says about gender. I like what our culture says better. I like the idea of this better. I see what the Bible says about take any issue you want, money, success, power, goal of life. And I like what our culture says better. I think this narrative makes more sense.

I like how it, like it feels better to me. I've thought about it and I like this one better. I'm a Christian. What do I do when, I see what the Bible says, but I like this better. What happens when our culture begins to shift and I kind of line up with our culture more? That's the question I think Peter's going to help us answer today.

And I think that's something that all of us as Christians have to wrestle with. What happens in those moments? What happens to bridge that gap? If you're here today and you're not a Christian, Peter is not writing to you. He was writing to the church, to those who had followed Jesus in Turkey. So I'm glad you're here if you're not a Christian.

I hope you stay, enjoy hanging out, hearing what we're talking about Jesus. And here's what I hope that you get out of today. One, I hope you see that our culture's narrative, our culture's story about where freedom comes from is actually pretty lacking. And I hope you see that your Christian friends who do follow the Bible are a little more logical, that their thought process makes a little more sense than maybe you thought it did. Because there's a little bit in our culture the understanding that if you're a Christian, that's great, you can be a Christian, but you kind of need to be stupid. Or at least if you're intelligent, you need to not apply your intelligence to the Bible.

Is that fair? Is our culture kind of like that? We agree with that? Like there's a little bit of, okay, you're a Christian, you checked your brains at the door? That's nice. That was cute of you.

Oh, you're a Christian, you actually believe the Bible says what it says? And you're like, yeah, really though? Yeah, really. Okay, I've got some questions for you because I don't see how you can be an intelligent adult and believe this stuff. And so I just want us to see that there's a little bit less of blind obedience, a little bit less of just follow because God says to, a little bit less of just believe it because it's there. And it actually makes a little more sense than that.

So what happens when I'm a Christian and I disagree with the Bible? What do I do? How do I respond? All right, so Peter's writing into and he's going to kind of start answering this for us. 14. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.

Okay. As obedient children. How many people love that statement? Like our culture, we love obedience, don't we? Oh, it's our favorite. That's not true.

We don't like the idea of obedience. When we think obedience, I think dogs. They should be obedient. Children. But our culture is even pushing back on that one.

There's a large group of people that say that your job as a parent is to not enforce your will on your child, your views. No, your job as a parent is to help them find themselves and express themselves. Archer, who's my son, is three months old. And I can tell you right now, I don't need to help him express himself as he gets older. He's already kind of mean. You don't want me to take that parenting style and then come hang out at your house.

Your son set my dog on fire. No. He expressed your dog on fire. Like, he's just finding himself and he found that he's an arson. He found that he likes to bite children. No, okay.

Like, we think, okay, some of us will say, no, there needs to be some obedience with children. There needs to be some level of, no, I'm your parent. You're going to do what I'm telling you to. I'm bigger than you. Like, let's, this is how this is going to work. But the idea that we as adults, as rational thinking humans, should just be obedient children, doesn't sit super well with me.

There's a little bit of like, okay, maybe. Maybe. And I think some of us are like, okay, yes, I will be obedient if you convince me. I'll be obedient, but we got to talk first. You got to, you got to win me over. You got to explain to me why I'm obedient.

Let's go back to me having a son. When he's 12, and I say, this is how this is going to work. And he says, okay, yes, I'll do that. Explain to me first why that has to work. If every time he obeys, it's because I convinced him first. He doesn't obey.

He agrees. If I have to win him over to obey, that's just agreement. That's not obedience. Some of us are Christians, and we're like, I obey super well. Maybe, maybe you just agree really well. Maybe you and the Bible are just very agreeable.

Maybe you just kind of line up with it pretty well. And you're not actually really obedient. You're just kind of in agreement. The question is, what happens in the disagreement? What happens when you don't agree? What happens, what, what bridges that gap?

That's where obedience shows up. So what he says is, he's talking to Christians, as obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. Okay. And we talk sometimes about like, don't be conformed to culture. But what he says is, don't be conformed to the old version of you.

If you become a Christian, you should change. Some of your views, some of your desires, some of your hopes, some of your beliefs about what the world is about, some of your values about how things ought to work should begin to change, because you're no longer ignorant. My dad used to call us ignorant all the time. Ignorant just means you have, you lack information. So unlike he called us dumb, we had the ability to learn things.

We were just ignorant. So we would say stuff that was just ignorant. It's like, man, you just, you just don't know any better. And he kind of said, you ignorant. That's how he would say it. You'd be like, you'd be mad about something.

He'd be like, boy, you ignorant. And you'd be like, what? And he'd be like, that's not how that works. And he explained it to you. So what he's saying is, you used to not know any better.

But now that you know Jesus, you've actually gained new information. And your belief about life and hope and joy and where existence is found should begin to change. And you shouldn't be conformed back to your old passions. You shouldn't just follow every little desire that you have. And that in those gaps, in that disagreement, that there should be obedience. That's where obedience shows up.

So let me, there's a good way to tell whether or not you or Jesus is in charge. in the areas where you disagree, what happens? In the areas where, where the Bible says this, but you feel this, what happens? Do you do what you think? Then Jesus isn't a king. He's your spiritual advisor. You sit on the throne, you make the decisions, and he comes to you and says, I've got some suggestions.

You say, I'll hear them out. Jesus, what you got? That sounds smart. I'll do that. That sounds smart. I'll do that.

Nope. Got anything else? When there's disagreement for a Christian, the question of kingship comes in. The question of obedience comes in. Who's in charge? And he says, don't be conformed to your former passions.

Our culture believes that you are the sum of your desires, that your identity is found in fulfilling your desires. So whatever you like, whatever you want, that's who you are. That's the type of person you are. This is seen really clearly in the Snickers commercials, which I think are great. You've seen the Brady Bunch one where Machete is in it? And he's like yelling, and he like slams his, and they're like, they're like, I don't know, Marsha, they tell her she has to take, eat a Snickers, and then she's like, oh, I'm better now.

Or my favorite one is the one with Betty White, though. They're playing football. They hand it to Betty White, and she just gets creamed, and they're like, eat a Snickers. He's like, why? And they're like, I don't know what they say. He plays like a sissy when he's, you know, they call him Betty White.

He eats it, and then he's able to play football again. And there's this idea that if you don't fulfill your desires, you're not you when you're hungry, is the way those commercials end. That you are the fulfilled version of your desires. That's why we use heterosexual and homosexual as identity labels. You are this person. You are this person, because we believe that your desires, your fulfilled desires is the true version of yourself.

And so what he says is, no, you actually, your passions should change. You shouldn't be fulfilling your old desires. They should actually change, because that actually isn't who you are. That changes. Also, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. Can I address ignorance for just a second?

Christians, Christians, please, please, Christians, Christians in the room, Christians, Christians, Christians, please listen. Read your Bibles, and say things that this says. Can we do that? Can we do that, please? First of all, everything you've heard that is in the Bible is not in there. Just because someone wore a suit and shouted it, and they were sweating, does not mean it is in there.

It's one of the reasons that when we get together, it's like, their Bibles, open them, read them. It's one of the reasons we want to read a whole letter together. So we can't just take one verse and say, this is what it means. It's like, no, bro, we just read what came before it. That isn't what it means. It says, therefore, let's go back and see what he's talking about.

That's what it means. We can't just pull one verse out somewhere, and just, one of my favorite things about reading the Bible for myself, was that I learned that half of the stuff I had been told, was not in there. It's like, man, I actually like this a little better. There were some things that I was like, man, I wish I hadn't read that. Where Jesus' kingship shows up. He's like, hey, let's talk.

And I'm like, no, let's not. But, but it's good. But there were some things, one of my favorite things, and this is, maybe I shouldn't say it was my favorite, but I did appreciate learning this. Some of the stuff I had heard about alcohol, it was not in here. That like, if you drink it, it's a sin, and you'll go to hell. It wasn't in there.

Jesus actually, one of his first miracles, is that he turns a bunch of water into wine, like a bunch of water into wine. And he actually does it in ceremonial washing jars. So he says, oh, y'all like religious stuff? Watch this. Wash your hands in that. Party can continue, your religion can't.

Choo, choo. And you read the Bible, and you're like, wow, I didn't realize that was in here. There's Christians. Let's not be ignorant. There are times that people will come on, and say things like, well, you know, if you're a Christian, then you believe this. And they'll quote something from Leviticus.

And it's like, no, I don't, because Jesus is our ultimate fulfillment of the law. So I don't believe that. But the New Testament does say, like, just read. That's all. That's all. I'm going to get off my soapbox.

Read your Bibles. Don't be ignorant. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. It's the action. Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. So that we as Christians, our passions should change, and therefore our actions should change.

And as we follow God, we should look more, and more, and more, and more like him. We should look more, and more, and more, and more like Jesus. That we should not only not do the stuff we shouldn't do, but that we should do the stuff we should do, so that we should be gracious, and loving, and welcoming. That we should be the most sacrificial, you should be the most sacrificial person at your job. You should be the person who's most likely to pick up a shift for someone else. You should be the person who's most likely to go out of your way for someone else.

That we should be generous. that we should be welcoming, that we should be joy-filled, that we should be loving to everybody, that we should be more and more distinct, more and more set apart, which is what holiness means, that God is ultimately distinct and set apart from us, and that we should look more and more like him. That as Christians, because of Jesus, our behavior, our passions, and our desires should change. So what do we do when culture says this, and I like it better, and the Bible says this? What do we do when I disagree with what this says? Obey. Doesn't that just make you feel warm and fuzzy inside?

The answer to that question is obey. Do what the Bible says. Follow the Bible. Now, that leaves us feeling a little bit empty, and so we're going to keep reading, because he gives us a really compelling reason for that. A really beautiful reason for our obedience. He keeps going.

And if you call on him as father, so that's Christians, calling him as father. God, do you see how beautiful that is? We just celebrated Father's Day, and Father's Day for people in our culture is a couple of different things. It can be a celebration of your father, because you had a really good one. It can be mourning, because you had a really good father, and he's no longer with you. It can be mourning, because you had a terrible father.

You don't celebrate Father's Day. It just brings up all these horrible memories. And what is so beautiful about the God of the Bible is that he says, I'm your father. And the reason that we mourn when we have a terrible father is because we all have an idea of what a father is supposed to be like. He's supposed to love. He's supposed to defend.

He's supposed to welcome. He's supposed to make us feel comfortable. He's supposed to make us feel okay in our own skin. He's supposed to go out of his way to shelter and defend and to lead and to protect and to guide and to instruct. That's what fathers are supposed to be like. And so the God of the Bible says, I'm a father.

See how intimate and beautiful that is? And he says of the ways he wants us to see him and to view him and to relate to him, he says, I defend and I protect and I instruct and I guard and I welcome. Some of you had fathers who you had to prove yourself to them before they would love you. And that's not how a father is supposed to act. Some of you had fathers that instead of defending you, harmed you. And that's not how a father is supposed to act.

And we have a father who is eternal and says, I protect and I defend and I lead and I instruct and I guard and you don't have to prove yourself to me. That's beautiful. If you call on him as father who Judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile. Exile for Christians means that you're a Christian. Your home is now in heaven, but you are still here. That we are sent here on a purpose.

We talked about that in week one. We have a mission and a goal. Okay. I don't really. This verse is good. It starts off good.

And if you call on him as father, yep, like that relationship, who Judges impartially. Okay, hold on a second though. If he's my father, I want him to be very, very partial. Like if my dad is a judge and I'm in a competition, I want him to give me a better score than I deserved. I want my talent to be terrible and him still be like 10. That was great.

But what it says is he Judges impartially. I don't like that he Judges or that he's impartial. According to each one's deeds. Also not good. Conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile. I don't think many of us read, oh, according to our deeds.

Sweet. Slam dunk. God, if God saw me, he would just know I'm the best. I mean, some of you, maybe you sat down and looked around the room and were like, pretty awesome compared to these people. Especially that guy. Like, you know, like maybe you did that.

Most of us, when we see that he Judges impartially according to our deeds, go, oh, this is not going to work out as well as I had hoped. Is he great on a curve? Like if he Judges. Let me explain to you how a good judge works. I use this all the time, but I think it's very clear. A good judge does not equip the guilty.

Right? That's what a good judge does. So let's say you're a doctor. You're a doctor and you're a good doctor. You save on average and it's documented. Three, four lives a week.

You're like house, but it doesn't take you as long to figure out what's wrong. You just walk in and you're like, oh, they contracted a disease that nobody knows about. Boop, give them that, they're good. There's no, like, you think it's that and then they get sick again, like in every episode. You're crushing it. But you have one little vice.

About every three months, you sneak into someone's house and murder them. At night, usually. So, okay, four to five lives a week. Some murders a couple times a year. Now, you stand before a judge and you say, judge, I can verify how many people I've murdered and how many people I've saved. And the people I've saved far outweigh the people I've murdered.

And the judge says, oh, go free. Because you're more good than bad. No. The judge says, guilty. Open and shut case. This was not difficult.

And if we call on him as father who Judges impartially and we're mostly good, mostly doesn't cut it. What it just said was, be holy as he is holy. How many of you want to stand before God and say, I'm just like Jesus? You know how loving he was? Same. You know how humble he was?

Same. You know how gracious he was? Same. You know how many times he sinned? You know how many times I've sinned? Same amount.

None of us. That is terrible news. That we have a God who is a judge and he Judges impartially based off of our actions and our conduct. And it says, fear him. We have a fearsome God who is big and who is capable of crushing us and sending us forever into an eternity without him. Jesus at one point says, don't fear men.

All they can do is kill you. And it's like immediately, Jesus, I think your perspective is different from mine because that sounds pretty bad. And he says, fear him who can kill you and after he has done that, can send your soul into hell. Fear him. And it's like, well, that does sound scarier. Now, the beautiful thing about this passage is that when it says fear, it actually doesn't mean be absolutely terrified of, be absolutely afraid of.

What it actually means is have an appropriate fear because God is fearsome. And one of the best ways I can think about this is we were growing up at different times. You know, little kids think that there's like monsters in their bedroom, like in the closet or under the bed or whatever. And so there were different times where we would call my dad and be like, there's monsters in here. And he'd be like, all right. So he'd come in.

He'd be like, where are they? Under the bed. Okay. And then he'd like check. And he'd be like, nope, not under there. Some in the closet?

Yes. And he would check and be like, nope, none here. And he would like make us get out and look. He would check the closet and say, see any monsters? Nope. All right, you sure they were here?

Yep. Are they here now? Nope. Okay, get back in bed. And then he would walk over and he'd cut the light off and go, see, we're okay. There are no monsters in it.

Shh. And you'd be like, what? He'd be like, shh, shh, shh. Under their back. He's like, there's one coming out of the closet right now. Oh, my goodness, he's humongous.

He's got fangs. He's got venom. He's got venom. He's got, he's going to eat you right now. And then he would cut the light on and be like, oh, no. It was our imagination.

There was no monster the whole time. And you're like, well, thanks. I'm not going to be able to sleep. That was way scarier than monster than I had invented. Thanks for inserting some of your imagination into mine. And so then he would leave.

And you'd get him again. They're back. And he would come back. And about the third time, this is what my dad would do. He would look at us and he would say, look at me. There are no monsters in here.

They are not in your closet. They are not under the bed. They do not show up when the lights are cut back off. Look at me. I am the scariest thing in this house. And you need to be more afraid of waking me up again.

There's an appropriate amount of fear for a Christian towards a fearsome God. He's still the one we run to when there's trouble. Does that make sense? Like he is fearsome. He is dangerous. He is holy.

He is completely set apart. And he is the one that we get to run to and call on as father. If you are not a Christian, you should fear him. And if you are a Christian, you should fear him. But you know that he's the one you run to as your father.

That's how that works for a Christian. And here's what he says. And if you call on him as father who Judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile. Okay, if you were paying attention to what we read earlier, this suddenly doesn't match up. Hopefully your brain tripped over itself a little bit. Here's what it just said.

You will be judged based off of your deeds. That God is a judge and he will sit before you and he will roll out the account of your actions and you will be judged based off of them. But what did verse 13 say? It says, It says, Eye cracks open and we walk before God to be judged that Jesus shows up and just says, Here's grace. Here's something you didn't earn. Here's something you don't deserve.

Here's something you didn't merit on your own. Here's something you weren't good enough for. You weren't religious enough for. You weren't moral enough for. Here's what you don't deserve here. Here's something you don't deserve.

Gives us grace. How does that happen? It's actually found in verse 18. And it's the reason why when there's a difference between culture and what we believe. What I actually like and what the Bible says. This is the reason why we'll obey.

Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers. Not with perishable things such as silver or gold. But with the precious blood of Christ. Like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world was made manifest in the last times. For the sake of you who through him are believers in God.

Who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. The reason that our God Judges impartially and that Christians are given grace. Is that Jesus died in our place. And the word it actually uses is ransom. Which means to buy back a slave. Or to buy back a prisoner of war.

That we were enslaved to our passions. That we were enslaved to what we thought would bring us life. That we were enslaved serving sex and money and power and success. And that Jesus bought us back. That Jesus shed his blood on our behalf to pay for our debt. That we have a God who Judges impartially.

And that he impartially judged Jesus on our behalf. That he declared him guilty on our behalf. And that Jesus because of his sacrifice we get to be declared innocent. And when he shows up he brings us grace. That he swapped places with us. Do you know how beautiful that is?

Do you know why when I disagree with the Bible I can obey it? Because of that. Because there's freedom found in being set free by Jesus. That's what it says he did. He ransomed us. He set us free.

Some of you in here are chasing after your passions. Because you think that that is what brings freedom. You think that being autonomous. And being able to make your own decisions about what's good. And what brings life and joy. And what's right and wrong gives you freedom.

It does not. And here's why. There are always constraints on us when we make decisions. The goal would be to find the constraints that are the most freeing. You have to have some constraints to be free. That's how it works.

So a fish has to be constrained by water in order to be free. If I go to Logan's house who's my brother. And he's got a big fish tank. And I grab his fish and I say go free little fish. And I throw them in the backyard. That was not very nice of me.

To the fish and to Logan who paid for them. Because they are not free. They need to be in that tank or in the ocean to be free. And they're more free in some ways in the tank. Because nothing is going to eat them. And in the ocean they're free to be eaten.

And in some ways more free because they have more space. But the truth is there are constraints that offer freedom. And then there are other things that we pour ourselves out for. That do not offer us freedom but only offer us slavery. If you know how to play piano or you're gifted musically. And you spend day after day, hour after hour working on your craft.

Working on the piano. There are a lot of things you're going to say no to. And in some ways working to play the piano that way is going to limit your freedom. But eventually you'll be able to play the piano beautifully. And freely in a way you never would have been able to had you not constrained yourself. So there are constraints that actually bring freedom.

And the truth is as we run around chasing after our passions. Here's the difference between Jesus as king and anything else as king. Anything else as king. You serve it. For your life. For your joy.

For your hope. You sweat. You labor. You pour yourself out for it. So if money is your passion.

Success is your passion. It demands work. It demands your time. Your slavery. Your action. And here's the thing.

When you fail. It does not forgive you. When you fail. It does not pay your debt. And if you get it. It actually never satisfies.

Jesus. Jesus. Paid our debt. So that because we failed. He could forgive us. When we fall short.

He forgives. He took our place. And he does not demand that we work. To earn his favor. So that we have a God.

Who Judges justly. And that our conduct. Should be holy. As we pursue him. And at the end of our days. That does not matter.

For a Christian. Do you know how beautiful that is? Do you know how freeing that is? That I get to work. To strive. To be holy.

To be obedient. And I get to fail terribly. And I get to rest fully. Confidently. Assured. On the grace that will be mine.

When I show up before God. I will have no fear. When I walk in front of the king. I'll have some respect. And some reverence. But my hope.

Is fully set on Jesus. Not on my actions. Not on my ability to be good. Or moral. Or holy. And here's why.

As a Christian. I can obey. When I disagree. Because when Jesus died. For my freedom. He proved.

Once and for all. That he is not out to enslave me. That he is not out to steal my joy. But that he is good. He is for my good. And is ultimately.

Trustworthy. Y'all seen the movie Taken. Or Taken 2. Or Takthrina. They stuck the 3 in the middle of the word. So it doesn't say Taken anymore.

Have y'all seen any of these movies? With Liam Neeson's. Y'all know what I'm talking about? Now Liam Neeson's. Like. He.

Okay. So in the first movie. His daughter gets taken. Nobody saw that coming. And. He's talking to the guy on the phone.

And he's like. The guy's like. We got your daughter. I don't know. He says like. Give us money or something.

Like he's working out a ransom. Or he just says. We're going to kill him. And Liam Neeson says like. I will find you. I will kill you.

I have a very particular set of skills. Which does not include. Not having his daughter taken. Because this happens repeatedly. It does include getting her back. And he's like.

You can take her. All of you will die. And the guy on the other phone. Is like. Whatever. Okay.

Taken 2. Taken 3. If his daughter gets a phone call. Phone rings. She picks it up. I hadn't seen the other ones.

I got all I needed out of the first one. Let's just assume she gets a phone call. And he says. I don't have time. To explain everything. But here's what I need you to do.

I need you to. As soon as I hang up. I need you to set the house. You're in on fire. I need you to go get in the car. I need you to go to this gas station.

At exit 22. And then I need you to drive as fast as you can. After you've filled up all the way to Tulsa. And then he hangs up. If you are his daughter. What do you do?

You burn the sucker down. You get in the car. You get gas at exit 22. Whichever one he said. If you can remember what it was. And you drive to Tulsa.

Is that ignorance? Is that silliness? Are you a fool? Are you not free? No. You know something that trumps all of that.

And it's that your father is good. He's for your good. And he's trustworthy. And even if you don't have all the answers. It still makes sense. And the truth for Christians.

Is that we can forever. Look to God on the cross. The God of the universe. Who is willing to suffer. And die. And bleed.

His precious blood on our behalf. To rescue and ransom us. From sin. And guilt. And shame. And judgment.

And punishment. And we can forever say. That I don't know why this is a rule. I don't know why this is how he says marriage ought to work. I don't know why he says. This is how the family should be structured.

But what I do know. Is that he's good. And he's trustworthy. And he's for my good. And that has been definitively. And forever.

Answered on the cross. And I have no doubt. Am I intelligent? Yes. Do I think through things? Yes.

But at the end of the day. Do I know something that trumps. All of the other reasons I can come up with? Yes. And that it's the God of the universe. Died.

To ransom me. From slavery. And he is not out to steal my freedom. Because he's the only one who gave it to me. And he's not out to subjugate me. Because he's a good father.

Who I can trust. And who I can know forever is good. And for my good. That's Peter's reasoning. He says that we would be holy. And that we would follow God in obedience as children.

Knowing that he's ransomed us. Knowing that he cares more about your freedom than you do. Because he's already bled and died for it. And knowing that forever he is good. And for your good. And absolutely trustworthy.

And so when he steps in on an issue and says. I know you don't understand all of this now. But this is how this needs to work. You can say. I don't understand your reasoning. But I know that you're good.

And I know you're not out to get me. And I know you're not out to crush me. And I know that even if I mess this up. My hope is fully set on the grace that will be given. Not my ability to obey well. And that is what drives Christians to obedience.

Not fear. Trust. Not shame. Not guilt. Not punishment. The punishment has already been poured out.

And our God is good and for our good. And we can trust him. The band's going to come back up. And we're going to praise Jesus. That at the end of our days for Christians. That we can stand before a holy God.

That has called us to holiness and obedience. And we can have failed and failed and failed and failed. And we can stand before a holy God and be given grace. That our obedience does not save us. And that we have a God who cares infinitely more about your freedom than you do. And has proven that he is ultimately good for our good.

And infinitely trustworthy when he went to the cross. And bled and died to rescue us. And that calls us to obedience. And frees us up to be obedient without fear of punishment. And knowing forever that we have something that answers the question for us that we need answered. Does he love us?

Is he good? Can he be trusted? And the cross answers that. He does love us. He is good. And he can be trusted with everything.

And we may not get all the answers. And we may never agree with him in this lifetime. And we may die struggling and fighting to be obedient. And then we'll walk before him with our hope fully set on Jesus. Who is obedient in our place. And died to set us free.

Father we thank you. That you're good. And that you're for our good. And God we thank you that you're ultimately trustworthy. And we pray Lord that for all of the Christians in this room who are struggling. Fighting with you mentally.

Fighting with you physically. Struggling with themselves. Struggling with their passions. God we pray that two things would happen. One. One.

One. That they would be able to set their hope fully on the grace that is offered to them through the cross. And two. That that grace would propel them to obedience as they know. They know. They know that you're trustworthy.

And God for those in this room that are not Christians. We pray Lord that your sacrifice would be applied to their account. And that they would place their hope and their trust in you. And that they would quit chasing after passions that did not die for them. That will not forgive them and will never satisfy them. And that they will learn that there's hope and joy and absolute freedom found in you.

Because nothing in you is based off of our actions. But only off of yours. Thank you Lord. We love you. In Jesus name. Amen.

Transcript

Well, good morning. We're in our third week of walking through the letter of 1 Peter, so we'll be in 1 Peter chapter 1. That's on page 656 if your Bible looks like this one. So there's some of these floating around in the rows if your Bible doesn't look like this. 1 Peter is right in front of 2 Peter, so if that helps. But we're just walking through line by line through this letter that the Apostle Peter, one of Jesus' disciples, wrote to the early church, to churches in what is now modern-day Turkey.

And we're just walking through and trying to see what he said to them and how that applies to us and what we can learn about Jesus and what we can learn about what God was doing then and doing now. And so I'm going to pray, and then we're going to kind of hop in on some of what Peter's saying here. And God, we thank you for this opportunity that we have to open your Word and to study it, and we pray, Lord, that you would teach us through it. And that as we study it today, that you would help us to grow in what it means to follow you. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. We're going to be in chapter 1, verse 13. We're going to start there, and then we'll kind of set the stage for what we're doing today. But therefore, okay, so whenever you see therefore in the Bible, it just means he's referring to what was just said. Like when someone says something like, you are hateful to your children, therefore you're a bad parent or whatever, like those kind of things. It's based off of what I just said, this conclusion.

And so when he says therefore, what he's referring back to is the fact that we have hope through the resurrection of Jesus. That Jesus Christ died and he did not stay dead. That three days later he came back, and in that we have hope and life and joy forever in Jesus. So therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the Revelation of Jesus Christ. He starts off by saying he's writing to a group of people who are not the majority in culture. So this is new for Christians in the U.S.

That Christians in the U.S. used to have kind of the, they had a central position, they had a position of influence. And up until recently that's kind of been the case and that's slowly changing or actually kind of rapidly changing. Where some of the ways we've described it is in the last round of musical chairs, cultural musical chairs, the church lost its seat. And we're still awkwardly kind of standing and feel a little uncomfortable about how that transition went down. That we no longer have a seat at the table. We used to get invited into making political decisions, inviting into policy decisions.

When there was a moral issue, the church got to go throw its weight around. We are no longer the biggest kid on the playground. The church is no longer the biggest kid on the playground. That's what has happened. And so you'll hear people, Fox News, say that the church is under attack. Or that we're being persecuted.

Or there's an assault on Christmas. Christmas? No. No. First of all, our entire like retail economic system is based off of Christmas. We're not getting rid of that anytime soon.

Just so you know, Christmas starts before Halloween if you work retail. Halloween does not exist unless you sell Halloween costumes. But we, there's, that we're under attack, that we're being persecuted. The truth is, no, we just don't have the position of influence we used to. The church is no longer as important as it used to be. And so in our culture where we were used to that, it suddenly feels like we're under attack.

But we're not. If you grew up as a Christian and you went through high school as a Christian, you probably weren't beaten up for that. You probably weren't mocked for that. Now, if you went through high school as an openly gay person, you might have been mocked for that. If you went through high school overweight. I mean, like, you are more likely to be persecuted for being overweight in high school than for being a Christian.

But in our culture, Christianity no longer has the clout that it used to. We're no longer, we're being pushed some to the margins. And so what Peter's writing to this group of people who are on the margins, they're in a culture that does not line up with their thought process, that doesn't have the morals that they have. They don't get legislature that is in their benefit. And what he says is, prepare your minds for action. And I want us to think about that for a second.

As Christians, we have to prepare our minds more now than you had to 50 years ago. Because our culture lined up so well with Christianity on so many fronts, that there were a lot of things you didn't have to think through. As of day before yesterday, I believe, Supreme Court ruled that gay marriage is now legal. It's the law of the land in all 50 U.S. states. Christians now have to think more than they used to. We have to prepare our minds more than we used to.

Because now it's like, okay, how do we love? How do we show grace? How do we welcome? How do we invite? And how do we hold on to what we believe the Bible says about marriage? And how do we hold on to what we know to be true?

And still, there's more thought that has to go into this than used to. And there's so many more situations that we now have to process through. How am I a Christian at work? How does my Christianity apply here? How does my Christianity apply here? What's it look like for me to be a Christian neighbor?

There's more thought that has to go into preparing for what it looks like to be a Christian in our culture than it used to. So he says, prepare your minds for action. Be sober-minded, which just means think clearly or don't be drunk. Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the Revelation of Jesus Christ. How beautiful is that? That our hope rests fully on the grace that will be brought to us.

That Jesus is going to show up and bring grace, which just means unearned favor. It's beautiful. And what we've been saying as we've been reading through this is Peter's writing to this group of people who don't really fit in their culture, who don't line up with the culture's values and beliefs. What we've been saying is that Peter's going to call us to not run from culture, to not fight culture, to not just conform to culture, but to actually follow Jesus in obedience, suffering for the good of those around us. That we're going to follow Jesus in obedience, suffering for the good of those around us.

And for Christians, a question comes up pretty immediately when we start to do that. What if, what do we do when, and this is what Peter's going to be answering for us, what do we do when, all right, church and culture used to line up pretty well, and that shift has begun, like there's been growth there in that gap. What do I do if I'm a Christian? And I see what the Bible says about sex, but I like what our culture says better. Seems like a more compelling argument. Sounds nicer.

I see what the Bible says about gender. I like what our culture says better. I like the idea of this better. I see what the Bible says about take any issue you want, money, success, power, goal of life. And I like what our culture says better. I think this narrative makes more sense.

I like how it, like it feels better to me. I've thought about it and I like this one better. I'm a Christian. What do I do when, I see what the Bible says, but I like this better. What happens when our culture begins to shift and I kind of line up with our culture more? That's the question I think Peter's going to help us answer today.

And I think that's something that all of us as Christians have to wrestle with. What happens in those moments? What happens to bridge that gap? If you're here today and you're not a Christian, Peter is not writing to you. He was writing to the church, to those who had followed Jesus in Turkey. So I'm glad you're here if you're not a Christian.

I hope you stay, enjoy hanging out, hearing what we're talking about Jesus. And here's what I hope that you get out of today. One, I hope you see that our culture's narrative, our culture's story about where freedom comes from is actually pretty lacking. And I hope you see that your Christian friends who do follow the Bible are a little more logical, that their thought process makes a little more sense than maybe you thought it did. Because there's a little bit in our culture the understanding that if you're a Christian, that's great, you can be a Christian, but you kind of need to be stupid. Or at least if you're intelligent, you need to not apply your intelligence to the Bible.

Is that fair? Is our culture kind of like that? We agree with that? Like there's a little bit of, okay, you're a Christian, you checked your brains at the door? That's nice. That was cute of you.

Oh, you're a Christian, you actually believe the Bible says what it says? And you're like, yeah, really though? Yeah, really. Okay, I've got some questions for you because I don't see how you can be an intelligent adult and believe this stuff. And so I just want us to see that there's a little bit less of blind obedience, a little bit less of just follow because God says to, a little bit less of just believe it because it's there. And it actually makes a little more sense than that.

So what happens when I'm a Christian and I disagree with the Bible? What do I do? How do I respond? All right, so Peter's writing into and he's going to kind of start answering this for us. 14. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.

Okay. As obedient children. How many people love that statement? Like our culture, we love obedience, don't we? Oh, it's our favorite. That's not true.

We don't like the idea of obedience. When we think obedience, I think dogs. They should be obedient. Children. But our culture is even pushing back on that one.

There's a large group of people that say that your job as a parent is to not enforce your will on your child, your views. No, your job as a parent is to help them find themselves and express themselves. Archer, who's my son, is three months old. And I can tell you right now, I don't need to help him express himself as he gets older. He's already kind of mean. You don't want me to take that parenting style and then come hang out at your house.

Your son set my dog on fire. No. He expressed your dog on fire. Like, he's just finding himself and he found that he's an arson. He found that he likes to bite children. No, okay.

Like, we think, okay, some of us will say, no, there needs to be some obedience with children. There needs to be some level of, no, I'm your parent. You're going to do what I'm telling you to. I'm bigger than you. Like, let's, this is how this is going to work. But the idea that we as adults, as rational thinking humans, should just be obedient children, doesn't sit super well with me.

There's a little bit of like, okay, maybe. Maybe. And I think some of us are like, okay, yes, I will be obedient if you convince me. I'll be obedient, but we got to talk first. You got to, you got to win me over. You got to explain to me why I'm obedient.

Let's go back to me having a son. When he's 12, and I say, this is how this is going to work. And he says, okay, yes, I'll do that. Explain to me first why that has to work. If every time he obeys, it's because I convinced him first. He doesn't obey.

He agrees. If I have to win him over to obey, that's just agreement. That's not obedience. Some of us are Christians, and we're like, I obey super well. Maybe, maybe you just agree really well. Maybe you and the Bible are just very agreeable.

Maybe you just kind of line up with it pretty well. And you're not actually really obedient. You're just kind of in agreement. The question is, what happens in the disagreement? What happens when you don't agree? What happens, what, what bridges that gap?

That's where obedience shows up. So what he says is, he's talking to Christians, as obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. Okay. And we talk sometimes about like, don't be conformed to culture. But what he says is, don't be conformed to the old version of you.

If you become a Christian, you should change. Some of your views, some of your desires, some of your hopes, some of your beliefs about what the world is about, some of your values about how things ought to work should begin to change, because you're no longer ignorant. My dad used to call us ignorant all the time. Ignorant just means you have, you lack information. So unlike he called us dumb, we had the ability to learn things.

We were just ignorant. So we would say stuff that was just ignorant. It's like, man, you just, you just don't know any better. And he kind of said, you ignorant. That's how he would say it. You'd be like, you'd be mad about something.

He'd be like, boy, you ignorant. And you'd be like, what? And he'd be like, that's not how that works. And he explained it to you. So what he's saying is, you used to not know any better.

But now that you know Jesus, you've actually gained new information. And your belief about life and hope and joy and where existence is found should begin to change. And you shouldn't be conformed back to your old passions. You shouldn't just follow every little desire that you have. And that in those gaps, in that disagreement, that there should be obedience. That's where obedience shows up.

So let me, there's a good way to tell whether or not you or Jesus is in charge. in the areas where you disagree, what happens? In the areas where, where the Bible says this, but you feel this, what happens? Do you do what you think? Then Jesus isn't a king. He's your spiritual advisor. You sit on the throne, you make the decisions, and he comes to you and says, I've got some suggestions.

You say, I'll hear them out. Jesus, what you got? That sounds smart. I'll do that. That sounds smart. I'll do that.

Nope. Got anything else? When there's disagreement for a Christian, the question of kingship comes in. The question of obedience comes in. Who's in charge? And he says, don't be conformed to your former passions.

Our culture believes that you are the sum of your desires, that your identity is found in fulfilling your desires. So whatever you like, whatever you want, that's who you are. That's the type of person you are. This is seen really clearly in the Snickers commercials, which I think are great. You've seen the Brady Bunch one where Machete is in it? And he's like yelling, and he like slams his, and they're like, they're like, I don't know, Marsha, they tell her she has to take, eat a Snickers, and then she's like, oh, I'm better now.

Or my favorite one is the one with Betty White, though. They're playing football. They hand it to Betty White, and she just gets creamed, and they're like, eat a Snickers. He's like, why? And they're like, I don't know what they say. He plays like a sissy when he's, you know, they call him Betty White.

He eats it, and then he's able to play football again. And there's this idea that if you don't fulfill your desires, you're not you when you're hungry, is the way those commercials end. That you are the fulfilled version of your desires. That's why we use heterosexual and homosexual as identity labels. You are this person. You are this person, because we believe that your desires, your fulfilled desires is the true version of yourself.

And so what he says is, no, you actually, your passions should change. You shouldn't be fulfilling your old desires. They should actually change, because that actually isn't who you are. That changes. Also, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. Can I address ignorance for just a second?

Christians, Christians, please, please, Christians, Christians in the room, Christians, Christians, Christians, please listen. Read your Bibles, and say things that this says. Can we do that? Can we do that, please? First of all, everything you've heard that is in the Bible is not in there. Just because someone wore a suit and shouted it, and they were sweating, does not mean it is in there.

It's one of the reasons that when we get together, it's like, their Bibles, open them, read them. It's one of the reasons we want to read a whole letter together. So we can't just take one verse and say, this is what it means. It's like, no, bro, we just read what came before it. That isn't what it means. It says, therefore, let's go back and see what he's talking about.

That's what it means. We can't just pull one verse out somewhere, and just, one of my favorite things about reading the Bible for myself, was that I learned that half of the stuff I had been told, was not in there. It's like, man, I actually like this a little better. There were some things that I was like, man, I wish I hadn't read that. Where Jesus' kingship shows up. He's like, hey, let's talk.

And I'm like, no, let's not. But, but it's good. But there were some things, one of my favorite things, and this is, maybe I shouldn't say it was my favorite, but I did appreciate learning this. Some of the stuff I had heard about alcohol, it was not in here. That like, if you drink it, it's a sin, and you'll go to hell. It wasn't in there.

Jesus actually, one of his first miracles, is that he turns a bunch of water into wine, like a bunch of water into wine. And he actually does it in ceremonial washing jars. So he says, oh, y'all like religious stuff? Watch this. Wash your hands in that. Party can continue, your religion can't.

Choo, choo. And you read the Bible, and you're like, wow, I didn't realize that was in here. There's Christians. Let's not be ignorant. There are times that people will come on, and say things like, well, you know, if you're a Christian, then you believe this. And they'll quote something from Leviticus.

And it's like, no, I don't, because Jesus is our ultimate fulfillment of the law. So I don't believe that. But the New Testament does say, like, just read. That's all. That's all. I'm going to get off my soapbox.

Read your Bibles. Don't be ignorant. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. It's the action. Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. So that we as Christians, our passions should change, and therefore our actions should change.

And as we follow God, we should look more, and more, and more, and more like him. We should look more, and more, and more, and more like Jesus. That we should not only not do the stuff we shouldn't do, but that we should do the stuff we should do, so that we should be gracious, and loving, and welcoming. That we should be the most sacrificial, you should be the most sacrificial person at your job. You should be the person who's most likely to pick up a shift for someone else. You should be the person who's most likely to go out of your way for someone else.

That we should be generous. that we should be welcoming, that we should be joy-filled, that we should be loving to everybody, that we should be more and more distinct, more and more set apart, which is what holiness means, that God is ultimately distinct and set apart from us, and that we should look more and more like him. That as Christians, because of Jesus, our behavior, our passions, and our desires should change. So what do we do when culture says this, and I like it better, and the Bible says this? What do we do when I disagree with what this says? Obey. Doesn't that just make you feel warm and fuzzy inside?

The answer to that question is obey. Do what the Bible says. Follow the Bible. Now, that leaves us feeling a little bit empty, and so we're going to keep reading, because he gives us a really compelling reason for that. A really beautiful reason for our obedience. He keeps going.

And if you call on him as father, so that's Christians, calling him as father. God, do you see how beautiful that is? We just celebrated Father's Day, and Father's Day for people in our culture is a couple of different things. It can be a celebration of your father, because you had a really good one. It can be mourning, because you had a really good father, and he's no longer with you. It can be mourning, because you had a terrible father.

You don't celebrate Father's Day. It just brings up all these horrible memories. And what is so beautiful about the God of the Bible is that he says, I'm your father. And the reason that we mourn when we have a terrible father is because we all have an idea of what a father is supposed to be like. He's supposed to love. He's supposed to defend.

He's supposed to welcome. He's supposed to make us feel comfortable. He's supposed to make us feel okay in our own skin. He's supposed to go out of his way to shelter and defend and to lead and to protect and to guide and to instruct. That's what fathers are supposed to be like. And so the God of the Bible says, I'm a father.

See how intimate and beautiful that is? And he says of the ways he wants us to see him and to view him and to relate to him, he says, I defend and I protect and I instruct and I guard and I welcome. Some of you had fathers who you had to prove yourself to them before they would love you. And that's not how a father is supposed to act. Some of you had fathers that instead of defending you, harmed you. And that's not how a father is supposed to act.

And we have a father who is eternal and says, I protect and I defend and I lead and I instruct and I guard and you don't have to prove yourself to me. That's beautiful. If you call on him as father who Judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile. Exile for Christians means that you're a Christian. Your home is now in heaven, but you are still here. That we are sent here on a purpose.

We talked about that in week one. We have a mission and a goal. Okay. I don't really. This verse is good. It starts off good.

And if you call on him as father, yep, like that relationship, who Judges impartially. Okay, hold on a second though. If he's my father, I want him to be very, very partial. Like if my dad is a judge and I'm in a competition, I want him to give me a better score than I deserved. I want my talent to be terrible and him still be like 10. That was great.

But what it says is he Judges impartially. I don't like that he Judges or that he's impartial. According to each one's deeds. Also not good. Conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile. I don't think many of us read, oh, according to our deeds.

Sweet. Slam dunk. God, if God saw me, he would just know I'm the best. I mean, some of you, maybe you sat down and looked around the room and were like, pretty awesome compared to these people. Especially that guy. Like, you know, like maybe you did that.

Most of us, when we see that he Judges impartially according to our deeds, go, oh, this is not going to work out as well as I had hoped. Is he great on a curve? Like if he Judges. Let me explain to you how a good judge works. I use this all the time, but I think it's very clear. A good judge does not equip the guilty.

Right? That's what a good judge does. So let's say you're a doctor. You're a doctor and you're a good doctor. You save on average and it's documented. Three, four lives a week.

You're like house, but it doesn't take you as long to figure out what's wrong. You just walk in and you're like, oh, they contracted a disease that nobody knows about. Boop, give them that, they're good. There's no, like, you think it's that and then they get sick again, like in every episode. You're crushing it. But you have one little vice.

About every three months, you sneak into someone's house and murder them. At night, usually. So, okay, four to five lives a week. Some murders a couple times a year. Now, you stand before a judge and you say, judge, I can verify how many people I've murdered and how many people I've saved. And the people I've saved far outweigh the people I've murdered.

And the judge says, oh, go free. Because you're more good than bad. No. The judge says, guilty. Open and shut case. This was not difficult.

And if we call on him as father who Judges impartially and we're mostly good, mostly doesn't cut it. What it just said was, be holy as he is holy. How many of you want to stand before God and say, I'm just like Jesus? You know how loving he was? Same. You know how humble he was?

Same. You know how gracious he was? Same. You know how many times he sinned? You know how many times I've sinned? Same amount.

None of us. That is terrible news. That we have a God who is a judge and he Judges impartially based off of our actions and our conduct. And it says, fear him. We have a fearsome God who is big and who is capable of crushing us and sending us forever into an eternity without him. Jesus at one point says, don't fear men.

All they can do is kill you. And it's like immediately, Jesus, I think your perspective is different from mine because that sounds pretty bad. And he says, fear him who can kill you and after he has done that, can send your soul into hell. Fear him. And it's like, well, that does sound scarier. Now, the beautiful thing about this passage is that when it says fear, it actually doesn't mean be absolutely terrified of, be absolutely afraid of.

What it actually means is have an appropriate fear because God is fearsome. And one of the best ways I can think about this is we were growing up at different times. You know, little kids think that there's like monsters in their bedroom, like in the closet or under the bed or whatever. And so there were different times where we would call my dad and be like, there's monsters in here. And he'd be like, all right. So he'd come in.

He'd be like, where are they? Under the bed. Okay. And then he'd like check. And he'd be like, nope, not under there. Some in the closet?

Yes. And he would check and be like, nope, none here. And he would like make us get out and look. He would check the closet and say, see any monsters? Nope. All right, you sure they were here?

Yep. Are they here now? Nope. Okay, get back in bed. And then he would walk over and he'd cut the light off and go, see, we're okay. There are no monsters in it.

Shh. And you'd be like, what? He'd be like, shh, shh, shh. Under their back. He's like, there's one coming out of the closet right now. Oh, my goodness, he's humongous.

He's got fangs. He's got venom. He's got venom. He's got, he's going to eat you right now. And then he would cut the light on and be like, oh, no. It was our imagination.

There was no monster the whole time. And you're like, well, thanks. I'm not going to be able to sleep. That was way scarier than monster than I had invented. Thanks for inserting some of your imagination into mine. And so then he would leave.

And you'd get him again. They're back. And he would come back. And about the third time, this is what my dad would do. He would look at us and he would say, look at me. There are no monsters in here.

They are not in your closet. They are not under the bed. They do not show up when the lights are cut back off. Look at me. I am the scariest thing in this house. And you need to be more afraid of waking me up again.

There's an appropriate amount of fear for a Christian towards a fearsome God. He's still the one we run to when there's trouble. Does that make sense? Like he is fearsome. He is dangerous. He is holy.

He is completely set apart. And he is the one that we get to run to and call on as father. If you are not a Christian, you should fear him. And if you are a Christian, you should fear him. But you know that he's the one you run to as your father.

That's how that works for a Christian. And here's what he says. And if you call on him as father who Judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile. Okay, if you were paying attention to what we read earlier, this suddenly doesn't match up. Hopefully your brain tripped over itself a little bit. Here's what it just said.

You will be judged based off of your deeds. That God is a judge and he will sit before you and he will roll out the account of your actions and you will be judged based off of them. But what did verse 13 say? It says, It says, Eye cracks open and we walk before God to be judged that Jesus shows up and just says, Here's grace. Here's something you didn't earn. Here's something you don't deserve.

Here's something you didn't merit on your own. Here's something you weren't good enough for. You weren't religious enough for. You weren't moral enough for. Here's what you don't deserve here. Here's something you don't deserve.

Gives us grace. How does that happen? It's actually found in verse 18. And it's the reason why when there's a difference between culture and what we believe. What I actually like and what the Bible says. This is the reason why we'll obey.

Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers. Not with perishable things such as silver or gold. But with the precious blood of Christ. Like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world was made manifest in the last times. For the sake of you who through him are believers in God.

Who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. The reason that our God Judges impartially and that Christians are given grace. Is that Jesus died in our place. And the word it actually uses is ransom. Which means to buy back a slave. Or to buy back a prisoner of war.

That we were enslaved to our passions. That we were enslaved to what we thought would bring us life. That we were enslaved serving sex and money and power and success. And that Jesus bought us back. That Jesus shed his blood on our behalf to pay for our debt. That we have a God who Judges impartially.

And that he impartially judged Jesus on our behalf. That he declared him guilty on our behalf. And that Jesus because of his sacrifice we get to be declared innocent. And when he shows up he brings us grace. That he swapped places with us. Do you know how beautiful that is?

Do you know why when I disagree with the Bible I can obey it? Because of that. Because there's freedom found in being set free by Jesus. That's what it says he did. He ransomed us. He set us free.

Some of you in here are chasing after your passions. Because you think that that is what brings freedom. You think that being autonomous. And being able to make your own decisions about what's good. And what brings life and joy. And what's right and wrong gives you freedom.

It does not. And here's why. There are always constraints on us when we make decisions. The goal would be to find the constraints that are the most freeing. You have to have some constraints to be free. That's how it works.

So a fish has to be constrained by water in order to be free. If I go to Logan's house who's my brother. And he's got a big fish tank. And I grab his fish and I say go free little fish. And I throw them in the backyard. That was not very nice of me.

To the fish and to Logan who paid for them. Because they are not free. They need to be in that tank or in the ocean to be free. And they're more free in some ways in the tank. Because nothing is going to eat them. And in the ocean they're free to be eaten.

And in some ways more free because they have more space. But the truth is there are constraints that offer freedom. And then there are other things that we pour ourselves out for. That do not offer us freedom but only offer us slavery. If you know how to play piano or you're gifted musically. And you spend day after day, hour after hour working on your craft.

Working on the piano. There are a lot of things you're going to say no to. And in some ways working to play the piano that way is going to limit your freedom. But eventually you'll be able to play the piano beautifully. And freely in a way you never would have been able to had you not constrained yourself. So there are constraints that actually bring freedom.

And the truth is as we run around chasing after our passions. Here's the difference between Jesus as king and anything else as king. Anything else as king. You serve it. For your life. For your joy.

For your hope. You sweat. You labor. You pour yourself out for it. So if money is your passion.

Success is your passion. It demands work. It demands your time. Your slavery. Your action. And here's the thing.

When you fail. It does not forgive you. When you fail. It does not pay your debt. And if you get it. It actually never satisfies.

Jesus. Jesus. Paid our debt. So that because we failed. He could forgive us. When we fall short.

He forgives. He took our place. And he does not demand that we work. To earn his favor. So that we have a God.

Who Judges justly. And that our conduct. Should be holy. As we pursue him. And at the end of our days. That does not matter.

For a Christian. Do you know how beautiful that is? Do you know how freeing that is? That I get to work. To strive. To be holy.

To be obedient. And I get to fail terribly. And I get to rest fully. Confidently. Assured. On the grace that will be mine.

When I show up before God. I will have no fear. When I walk in front of the king. I'll have some respect. And some reverence. But my hope.

Is fully set on Jesus. Not on my actions. Not on my ability to be good. Or moral. Or holy. And here's why.

As a Christian. I can obey. When I disagree. Because when Jesus died. For my freedom. He proved.

Once and for all. That he is not out to enslave me. That he is not out to steal my joy. But that he is good. He is for my good. And is ultimately.

Trustworthy. Y'all seen the movie Taken. Or Taken 2. Or Takthrina. They stuck the 3 in the middle of the word. So it doesn't say Taken anymore.

Have y'all seen any of these movies? With Liam Neeson's. Y'all know what I'm talking about? Now Liam Neeson's. Like. He.

Okay. So in the first movie. His daughter gets taken. Nobody saw that coming. And. He's talking to the guy on the phone.

And he's like. The guy's like. We got your daughter. I don't know. He says like. Give us money or something.

Like he's working out a ransom. Or he just says. We're going to kill him. And Liam Neeson says like. I will find you. I will kill you.

I have a very particular set of skills. Which does not include. Not having his daughter taken. Because this happens repeatedly. It does include getting her back. And he's like.

You can take her. All of you will die. And the guy on the other phone. Is like. Whatever. Okay.

Taken 2. Taken 3. If his daughter gets a phone call. Phone rings. She picks it up. I hadn't seen the other ones.

I got all I needed out of the first one. Let's just assume she gets a phone call. And he says. I don't have time. To explain everything. But here's what I need you to do.

I need you to. As soon as I hang up. I need you to set the house. You're in on fire. I need you to go get in the car. I need you to go to this gas station.

At exit 22. And then I need you to drive as fast as you can. After you've filled up all the way to Tulsa. And then he hangs up. If you are his daughter. What do you do?

You burn the sucker down. You get in the car. You get gas at exit 22. Whichever one he said. If you can remember what it was. And you drive to Tulsa.

Is that ignorance? Is that silliness? Are you a fool? Are you not free? No. You know something that trumps all of that.

And it's that your father is good. He's for your good. And he's trustworthy. And even if you don't have all the answers. It still makes sense. And the truth for Christians.

Is that we can forever. Look to God on the cross. The God of the universe. Who is willing to suffer. And die. And bleed.

His precious blood on our behalf. To rescue and ransom us. From sin. And guilt. And shame. And judgment.

And punishment. And we can forever say. That I don't know why this is a rule. I don't know why this is how he says marriage ought to work. I don't know why he says. This is how the family should be structured.

But what I do know. Is that he's good. And he's trustworthy. And he's for my good. And that has been definitively. And forever.

Answered on the cross. And I have no doubt. Am I intelligent? Yes. Do I think through things? Yes.

But at the end of the day. Do I know something that trumps. All of the other reasons I can come up with? Yes. And that it's the God of the universe. Died.

To ransom me. From slavery. And he is not out to steal my freedom. Because he's the only one who gave it to me. And he's not out to subjugate me. Because he's a good father.

Who I can trust. And who I can know forever is good. And for my good. That's Peter's reasoning. He says that we would be holy. And that we would follow God in obedience as children.

Knowing that he's ransomed us. Knowing that he cares more about your freedom than you do. Because he's already bled and died for it. And knowing that forever he is good. And for your good. And absolutely trustworthy.

And so when he steps in on an issue and says. I know you don't understand all of this now. But this is how this needs to work. You can say. I don't understand your reasoning. But I know that you're good.

And I know you're not out to get me. And I know you're not out to crush me. And I know that even if I mess this up. My hope is fully set on the grace that will be given. Not my ability to obey well. And that is what drives Christians to obedience.

Not fear. Trust. Not shame. Not guilt. Not punishment. The punishment has already been poured out.

And our God is good and for our good. And we can trust him. The band's going to come back up. And we're going to praise Jesus. That at the end of our days for Christians. That we can stand before a holy God.

That has called us to holiness and obedience. And we can have failed and failed and failed and failed. And we can stand before a holy God and be given grace. That our obedience does not save us. And that we have a God who cares infinitely more about your freedom than you do. And has proven that he is ultimately good for our good.

And infinitely trustworthy when he went to the cross. And bled and died to rescue us. And that calls us to obedience. And frees us up to be obedient without fear of punishment. And knowing forever that we have something that answers the question for us that we need answered. Does he love us?

Is he good? Can he be trusted? And the cross answers that. He does love us. He is good. And he can be trusted with everything.

And we may not get all the answers. And we may never agree with him in this lifetime. And we may die struggling and fighting to be obedient. And then we'll walk before him with our hope fully set on Jesus. Who is obedient in our place. And died to set us free.

Father we thank you. That you're good. And that you're for our good. And God we thank you that you're ultimately trustworthy. And we pray Lord that for all of the Christians in this room who are struggling. Fighting with you mentally.

Fighting with you physically. Struggling with themselves. Struggling with their passions. God we pray that two things would happen. One. One.

One. That they would be able to set their hope fully on the grace that is offered to them through the cross. And two. That that grace would propel them to obedience as they know. They know. They know that you're trustworthy.

And God for those in this room that are not Christians. We pray Lord that your sacrifice would be applied to their account. And that they would place their hope and their trust in you. And that they would quit chasing after passions that did not die for them. That will not forgive them and will never satisfy them. And that they will learn that there's hope and joy and absolute freedom found in you.

Because nothing in you is based off of our actions. But only off of yours. Thank you Lord. We love you. In Jesus name. Amen.