The Devil and the King
Transcript
Well, good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We're going to be in 1 Peter. We'll be on page 658, if your Bible looks like this. If you have one of the blue and white Bibles from the Rose, we're on page 658.
We'll be in 1 Peter chapter 5. We've been walking verse by verse through the book of 1 Peter, and we're coming up on the tail end of it. Halloween is coming up this Saturday, and I find that when it comes to Halloween, you've got people kind of in different groups. We're going to take some—we're going to kind of figure out who's in the room this morning. So when it comes to Halloween, there is the group of people that are like, oh, yeah, Halloween was last week.
Like, you were at a place where, oh, look, there's bats on the wall. I guess Halloween's coming. Like, you just don't care. It doesn't even show up on your radar. You could care less about—couldn't care less about Halloween. That's the one that makes sense, that Americans say could care less.
Anyway, raise your hand. You just couldn't care less about Halloween. It doesn't show up on your radar. You don't care. Okay. Cool.
Yeah, we got a handful of people that are in that zone. Who falls in the—there's the other group of people that, like, care maybe too much about Halloween. Like, they're a little too excited. Like, to them in their brain, it's one of the major holidays. Like, it is the—it's a big deal. And so they're going to decorate their house a little prematurely.
They're going to—you're going to have some—when you throw a party, it's like a legit party. Like, people come over, and there's, like, cups with things bubbling out of the top, and they don't even know how you did that. And, like, you just—who's that? Who's that person? Cares a lot about Halloween, is excited about Halloween. Okay.
So I got two more questions that kind of fall along the same lines. If you're invited to a costume party, there's groups of people here. There are the people who get excited and show up, like, make the party good because they're there, because they know how to dress up. They know how to make it amazing. Who's that? Who shows up to a costume party just ready to roll?
Yes. Okay. Cool. I appreciate y'all. I like the people who go to costume parties dressed up. Who says no to a costume party because you don't want to dress up?
Yeah. Okay. I thought there were people there, too. Yeah. Who says yes, thinks they'll dress up, and decides not to, and just shows up anyway? Yeah.
Okay. That's the one I do. I'm like, yeah, I'm going to dress up this year. And then by the time I get there, I'm like, I'm my evil twin. Like, I'm the bad version of me. It's like, but you look the same.
Right. That's what I want to—I'm tricking you. Like, I'm my doppelganger. Like, that's how I go to Halloween parties. All right.
Last one. Horror movies. To be careful how I pronounce this horror. Raz, a friend of mine from Australia, he came over here. I think it was he was dating his now wife, and she asked him, you like horror movies? He's like, what?
He's from Australia, and he pronounces things. Like, actually pronounces things as opposed to Southern Americans who just kind of slur everything together. She's like, you know, horror movies. And he's like, no. Why would I like a horror movie? Why are you even asking me this question?
So horror movies. Who likes horror movies? Scary movies? Who likes them? Gets really excited. Yeah, I find people fall in different camps on these.
Like, they're like, you should see that movie. It's terrifying. I didn't sleep for three days. Why on earth would I want to watch that? I swear, when you get home, there's going to be a small child in your bed. Why would what?
No. You won't be able to walk alone for a week. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Who is the, I have no desire whatsoever to see a scary movie. Not going to watch it. Yeah, that's me.
Like, I do not want to see a scary movie. Unless it's Troll 2, I don't want to see it. Don't care about scary movies. Just don't. Well, we're coming up on Halloween, and we've come to this section in 1 Peter where Peter is going to talk about the devil. And in some ways, it's fitting because this is the time in our culture where everybody just, it collectively, we kind of think about these things.
Creepy things, demonic things, spooky things, ghosts, all that kind of stuff. And so what we're going to do is Peter's come to this section. He's talking about the devil. He's going to encourage Christians on how to respond to the devil. And so what we're going to do this morning, because I think we've been a church plant for going on three years now, two and a half years something, we've never taken a whole lot of time to talk about Satan. Never taken a whole lot of time to talk about the devil, talk about demonic things.
And so what we're going to do is just, in order to even understand what Peter is teaching us today, we have to understand who he's talking about. We have to understand who Satan is, how all that works, what demons are. And so we're just going to read what Peter says, and then we're going to zoom out and get a big overview on who Satan is, what he does, how he works, what the Bible says, big picture. And then we're going to come back to 1 Peter and say, okay, given that that's what, that's who he's talking about, that's what the Bible says about Satan, this is how we get to respond. And so this is going to be a little bit different than most of the time where we just read a passage and talk through it.
And if this is your first time hanging out with us, this is the first time we've ever spent any significant time talking about Satan and the devil and the demonic. So welcome. It's everybody's first time for this kind of a conversation too. So I'm going to pray and then we're going to, we're going to spend, we're going to read 1 Peter and then we're going to kind of zoom out and just spend some time talking about this. So God, we thank you that your word tells us what we need to know.
God, it doesn't always give us all the answers that we want to know, but it tells us what we need to know and we can be confident in you and in your word that you've provided so that we might study your word and know and be equipped with the information that we need so that we might be able to understand the world that we live in. And so God, we just pray that as we study this this morning, that we would learn what scripture says about the enemy and appropriately learn and that you would still get all the glory and it would still be about you. In Jesus name, Amen. Okay, so we're going to read 1 Peter 5, 6 through, no, 8 through 11 and then we're going to just kind of talk a little bit and see kind of big picture who Satan is and what the storyline is here.
So, be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Okay, so that's the section in 1 Peter, but he just says, your adversary, the devil, and so if we're not familiar with what he's talking about, it's like, well, what? Like, you just, you just going to bring him up at the end of the letter? Like, you just, I'm just supposed to know who you're talking about? So we're just going to take a second, zoom out, look at this big picture. I do want to read this. This is a, C.S.
Lewis was a theologian and an author in the 1900s in Britain. And this is, this is a quote he says about the demonic, and I think it's helpful. There are two equal and opposite errors in which our race can fall about the devils. There he just means demonic spiritual realm. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe and to feel an excessive, unhealthy interest in them.
They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight. So what he says is there's kind of two ditches on the road of understanding the spiritual realm and understanding the demonic. One is just, they don't exist. It's not a real thing. The other is to be way too concerned, way overly interested, way overly afraid of. The demonic.
And so, I find that in our culture, we have some people who are overly spiritual. You see some of this. You've met the person that everything is like some sort of a spiritual thing. Like Christians sometimes will over-spiritualize things or everything's an attack. So you'll be talking to somebody and be like, yeah, my car broke down, just locked up on me.
And I got out and I said, Satan, get out of my car. Or, because I knew Satan was after me. And it's like, when was the last time he changed the oil? Like, maybe you should just take it to, like if a mechanic can fix it, it might not have been Satan. I'm just saying, maybe, maybe he didn't want you to go to the grocery store. What were you doing?
Like, what? Like, I mean, you've met some of those people that are like, the devil's after me. Like, every time something's happening, oh, the devil's trying to get us, we gotta pray. Like, okay, there's spiritual things, but that's a bit too much. I remember my dad telling me there was a lady that lived kind of out in the country and on some farmland and she worked at their house helping watch them during the day because both of his parents worked. She told him one day, she said, last night, the devil was looking in my window.
And he and his brother said, the devil? The devil was looking in your window? She said, Satan himself. And they went, what did he look like? She said, a cow. They were like, you don't think maybe it was just a cow?
She's like, no, it's the devil. So, there's some people like that, that just everything is some sort of, most of us in this room probably are more on this side. Everything has an explanation. We can arrive at everything through scientific method, through reason, everything can be explained. And even for Christians, you take one step in and you say, yes, in theory, I believe, because I believe the Bible, that there is Satan and demons, but you just, on a real practical level, have no room for that whatsoever. So, you believe it, but actually don't feel like that ever really shows up in any kind of way.
Maybe in other countries or something, but not here, not really a thing here. And so, what we're going to do is just kind of walk through immediately, I think, some of our pushback, and the biggest ones I hear are science and reason why we don't need Satan anymore. Or why we don't believe in Satan anymore, or why we don't believe in this kind of stuff anymore, science and reason. Science is just basically, we have science now, so we don't have the God of the gaps theory. People used to believe, like, whatever they couldn't explain, they just needed God, that we just say, well, we don't understand that, so God must do it.
But now we have science, we've figured it out, we know that it's natural, there's processes, we can test things, we can study things, we know stuff. The problem is, the Bible doesn't have this separation between the spiritual and the natural, so when the Bible says that God sent a storm, or God sent a flood, or God, he does it through natural means, the normal storm system, the normal, he just, he works in it. People say that, like, the reason, when the Bible says that God is the one who gives children, God blesses mothers with children, that they said that because they didn't know where babies came from. But now we know, in the Christmas story, where Joseph is going to divorce Mary because she's pregnant, the reason he was going to divorce her is because he knew exactly where babies came from.
And he knew that one wasn't his. And so he's like, this relationship isn't working, like, we can't do this anymore. And so we, honestly, the Bible doesn't have this gap there. The Bible is very much, God works through natural means, but it's spiritual as well. The Bible's even going to attribute some spiritual, some natural things that happen to demonic things. And if we're willing to believe that there is a God, a good supernatural being, a good personal, real being that is good, it's not too much of a stretch to believe that there is a real personal being that is evil.
So if you believe in a good God, it makes sense that there could also be a spiritual being that is evil. The other one is reason. And when I say reason, what I mean is, not the science side, not the nature side. So what we would say is, well, people couldn't explain nature so they needed science. And then people say, well, people couldn't explain behavior, they couldn't explain evil, but now we have reason. We have, we understand dysfunction, we understand pathology, we understand family history, we understand nature versus nurture.
We can, now, we understand that ignorance is what causes all these things. So what they, would they just say, this person's evil, we don't need that term anymore, like we understand that everything has a cause. And there's a quote from a guy named Andrew Delbanco. He was a, he's a professor and a scholar at Columbia University. And he wrote a book called The Death of Satan. And in this book, he says he's a secular liberal.
He's not, not a Christian, not coming from a Christian book. But here's, in his book, The Death of Satan, here's how he starts it off. A gulf has opened in our culture between the visibility of evil and the intellectual resources to cope with it. A gulf has opened in our culture between the visibility of evil and the intellectual resources to cope with it. What he's saying is this, when we got rid of Satan, we lost the ability to explain a lot of the things we now see. So when we just talk about pathology, when we just talk about dysfunction, when we just talk about ignorance, and then we had Holocaust, the final solution, death camps, that came out of one of the most intellectual, civilized, cultural giants in the world.
We have genocide. We have just heinous evil across the board. And if we no longer can use the term evil and we no longer understand that the world has an evil presence active in it, we have a really hard time explaining serial killers. We have a really hard time being able to step in. And that's the point of his book is, when we got rid of Satan, we began to lose our ability to cope with how much evil there is in the world. That we have a hard time explaining death camps without being able to say, no, that's actually evil.
That's actually broken and there's actually something working behind it, active in it, for evil. And so honestly, the Bible's not against science and it's not against nature, not against reason, but it is going to say that the natural and the supernatural are much more blended than we know and that there actually is an evil being at work. And so one of the big storylines in the Bible is war. So there's certain storylines that just kind of go through the whole Bible and one of them is that there's a cosmic war. And so we're going to read a passage from Revelation 12 as we begin to start looking.
We're going to have it up on the screen. We're going to read a passage from Revelation 12 as we begin to start looking at who Satan is, where he comes from. And so this is, Revelation gets misquoted a lot and people take it out of context and they draw big charts, but this is just explaining with some imagery what happened a long time ago. So it says this, Now war arose in heaven. Michael, and that's an angel that is named a few times in Scripture, just apparently a powerful angel created by God. Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon.
And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who was called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to earth and his angels were thrown down with him. And later on it says that there was about one third of the angels rebelled with him. And so we've got this picture of God created spiritual beings. So he created physical beings like us and he created spiritual beings that are angels and some of those angels rebelled against him led by Satan.
This is part of the storyline of the Bible that there was a powerful angel and a few places in the Old Testament are going to be where God's going to be prophesying to specific nations. It's going to seem like he's also talking about some of what happened in this epic battle, but there was a powerful angel that basically believed that he needed more power, more glory, became prideful and fought against God. Now he doesn't actually fight God, he fights more angels and they win. And then he comes to earth. So the idea of Satan hanging out in hell, like that's his base camp, it's not a real thing.
So I know you watch South Park and he's there with Saddam Hussein and that was hilarious or whatever. That's not a real thing. He's actually on earth because he's no longer allowed in the normal realm that he was in and he's kind of trapped in this area where he's been kicked out of and Jude 6 and 2 Peter are also going to say that the angels that went with him that did not stay in their proper place. So Satan led angels to rebel in heaven. That's one of the pieces of the story that we get from scripture. And all demons are just angels, spiritual beings created by God that did not remain where they were supposed to, did not do what they were supposed to, but rebelled against God.
And Satan is just a demon, an angel created by God that rebelled with them and the Bible kind of uses him as a figurehead or it would just say the devil referring to all of the demonic in general or talk about Satan referring to all of them in general, not necessarily just him. Sometimes it is specifically that one angel. But here's the thing. This is just kind of weird for us. Like we don't, we don't talk about this other places. Like the only two places I know that we, we even address this or think about this in our culture is pop culture.
So you have stuff like South Park is going to bring it up. We've got far side cartoons that are going to have jokes about it. You've got the movie Little Nicky where Adam Sandler is Satan's kid but he's the nice one. Like we just got that kind of weird. Then you got all your scary movies that go along with that stuff.
And then nobody else talks about it until you get to the church. And then the church talks about it because the Bible talks about it. You were never in a math class where your teacher was like, or a class in elementary school where your teacher was like, put away your multiplication tables and for the next 30 minutes before we go to lunch we're going to talk about demons. She wouldn't be a teacher very long. She's not allowed to do that. Some of you maybe were homeschooled and you never saw those multiplication tables but you talked about demons a lot.
Welcome. Sorry. That came out meaner than it was supposed to be. But no. Most of us in school we don't cover these things. We cover it in the church but here's the thing.
We got to take what the Bible says about these things and begin to form our picture. Not what pop culture tells us but what scripture tells us and begin to form our picture. And as you study scripture a few things start to come out. A few things start to become clear. First of all God created everything and he created Satan. God and Satan aren't yin and yang.
They're not equals. God is above Satan. Even in what we just read when Satan rebelled he did not fight God. He fought other angels and lost. Now there were more angels on the other team but he lost.
There is a time in the Bible where Satan fights God and that goes like this. It's later in the book of Revelation. So this happened a long time in the past and then there's another time where God fights Satan. It says Satan was released and he leads an army and here's what it says. Fire came down killed his army and Satan was thrown into hell. That's how that fight goes.
When God steps into the ring the fight is over. But at this point he rebels and the angels kick them out and they are sent to earth. Now the story moves. So this war that begins in heaven moves to a new battlefield which is the earth. And that's where we pick up in the book of Genesis. That's where we begin to see the ancient serpent shows up in the garden to lead humanity astray.
And he shows up and he tricks Adam and Eve into rebelling against God like he had. And then God shows up and immediately proclaims the first gospel which is he shows up and tells them there's going to be a male born of a woman. Now that's interesting because throughout the Old Testament genealogies are this man begat this man begat this man or this man was the father of this man was the father of this man was the father of this man. Every once in a while a woman's mentioned but she's always mentioned in relationship to a husband. But what God steps in and says is there's going to be a woman and she's going to have a son.
And he's referring to the only woman who ever had a son outside of a man being present which was Mary who as a virgin had a son named Jesus. And what he says is there's going to be a man who's going to come and you're going to bruise his heel but he's going to crush your head. And he proclaims the gospel over this rebellion that Jesus is going to show up and fix the problem. So Jesus shows up. He's born. As soon as he begins his ministry Satan shows up to tempt him because all he knows from what we can tell from scripture is just Satan knows who Jesus is and that he's got to mess him up.
He's got to keep this from working out. He knows that God is active. He knows that there's been some prophecies. He knows that this is coming and he's just got to mess it up. So he shows up and tries to tempt Jesus into rebelling against God because if he can get Jesus to rebel the plan's messed up.
And Jesus doesn't. Jesus withstands temptation and keeps going. So then Satan works actively through Judas Iscariot to kill Jesus because he's thinking okay Jesus will go to a cross not a throne. Jesus will get only crown he'll ever wear is a crown of thorns. Jesus will be destroyed. Jesus will die and he won't be able to fulfill his plan.
And so he works actively to kill Jesus and in the epic plot twist of all time in the most cosmic twist that God had worked up what Jesus did was he hid victory and defeat. He hid freedom in slavery. He hid life in death and on the cross undid everything Satan was working for. He Colossians 3 tells us that he disarmed Satan by going to the cross because what Satan's power was in sin and death and Jesus took our sin and our death so that it no longer has a hold over us. And so in the cross Satan was defeated because he didn't understand what God was actively after. He didn't understand how great power can be shown through humility.
He didn't understand how God had designed it for Jesus to come and not be exalted on earth but be exalted in eternity and to be exalted fully to show his glory fully through a cross not a throne. And so Satan is defeated but he's not gone. And so then we see how Satan now actively works to disrupt and cause problems until he is fully destroyed. So he's defeated in the cross but not fully gotten rid of until some future date. And as Christians when we became Christians we were invited into this battle. We were invited into this war.
Over and over again scriptures will say that our battle isn't against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and spirits in heavenly places and that we're brought from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his beloved son that this is a cosmic battle that we've been invited into to see more people meet Jesus. So a few things we need to realize and understand when it comes to who Satan is. One is he's finite created being not more powerful than God not equal with God. He can't be in all places at once. He does not know everything. just the sheer fact that he can't be in all places at once.
Look I think you're wonderful. Did you know that? I think you're very special. I agree with your mom. I think you're special and like a snowflake. But Satan is probably not messing with you.
The actual being Satan himself is probably not messing with you. Now the Bible uses Satan as a covering or the devil as a figure head for all demonic evil activity. So we are attacked by biblically demonic activity but Satan is finite. He's only in one place at one time. He's somewhere on earth but he's only in one place at one time. But there are demonic spirits that work with him to lead to lie to destroy.
So let's start looking at what does he do? If he's already lost in the cross what's his goal? How's he work? What's happening at this point? And so a few things I want us to just kind of see as we walk through. So what we read at first in 1 Peter and we're not going to unpack this yet but we're just going to see one of the things that Peter's queuing us in on.
Lost in the cross what's his goal? How's he work? What's happening at this point? And so a few things I want us to just kind of see as we walk through. So what we read at first in 1 Peter and we're not going to unpack this yet but we're just going to see one of the things that Peter's queuing us in on. Be sober minded be watchful your adversary
The devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Okay so he's active and he's trying to seek someone to devour. What does that even mean? And so let's take just a second and just look at a few places in scripture where we begin to see how Satan actively tries to work to destroy to disrupt to deceive.
The first is through sin and disbelief in the gospel. So a few different places in scripture and I included a few references in our community groups this week we'll actually read a good bit just so that all of our information comes from not Little Nicky not South Park but comes from our scripture we begin to inform ourselves through scripture
But we'll spend more time studying these things but I included some reference for people who want to follow up but sin and disbelief in the gospel basically one of the ways that Satan is active is in just leading us to sin because sin is destructive sin leads to death and sin keeps us
From God sin is so he gives us what we want a lot he baits us entices us says no what you need to be happy is this no no your marriage isn't good but this person would make you happy oh if you just made this much money if you just did this like he just leads us
To sin leads us to chase after other things to believe that other things will fill us up bring us joy the other thing that Jesus says specifically is that he tries to get us to not believe the gospel so when the gospel is proclaimed
That Jesus sets us free that Jesus gives us life that Jesus paid for our sin that Jesus makes us whole Satan tries to disrupt that and take that away another one and I don't think we realize this or think about this much
One of the other ways that Satan works actively to lead us astray and to disrupt is through religion and self righteousness okay now when I say religion some people are always like wait I thought Christianity was a religion what we mean
When we talk about religion quite often the Bible does use it sometimes in a good light a lot of times it's using it in a negative connotation we're using it in a negative way to mean the belief that my behavior saves me my behavior is what
Makes me good my morality my actions because all of that is my righteousness my goodness comes from me and the Bible is clear our righteousness comes from Jesus so Satan is active in as long as you trust you that's fine with him so most
Of us think that Satan's only working in harmful things but actually he can work through generosity he can work through really good behavior he can work through morals as long as there's no Jesus that's fine so I'm going to read 2 Corinthians 11 13-15 it's one of the references
But for such men are false prophets deceitful workmen disguising themselves as apostles of Christ Jesus and no wonder for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light so it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness
There are people who will even say the name Jesus and be pointing you away from him pointing you towards your behavior towards your actions towards your goodness as long as you're trusting you Satan doesn't care there are multiple times where Jesus
Is interacting with the religious elite and he calls them broods of vipers which means you're the child of the serpent he's saying you're sons of hell sons of Satan he says you go over land and sea to get one convert and then make him twice as
Unhell as you are what he's saying is your religion your good work your effort your memorization your hard work like they used to like connect the bible to their wrist and their forehead like you thought your grandmother was religious because her
Bible weighed 47 pounds these people had the bible strapped to them until your grandmother gets a backpack bible she ain't nothing he doesn't care we can be as religious as you want to as long as you're not trusting Jesus actively at work in that another one
Is so he's actively at work in leading people away from Jesus which makes sense actively at work in making people confused about the gospel which makes sense but then he if you become a christian genuinely trust Jesus with your life with your sin then the next thing
He works after is disunity in the church and ineffective christians he just wants you okay if you're a christian well I lost that one but I gotta keep you from helping other people become christians some of the ways he does this is through just letting us be really comfortable I
Think keeping us distracted some of the ways specifically that are mentioned are Ephesians 4 26-27 says be angry and do not sin do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil second corinthians 10 talks about forgiveness and he says if you forgive him I forgive
Him we're to forgive one another and we're not to be ignorant to satan's schemes one of the ways that he works is he he gets you mad at you and doesn't want you to talk to each other that as long as we're frustrated as long as we're infighting as long as we're not sharing the gospel
That's fine whatever we can do to keep us aggravated to keep us frustrated to keep our feelings hurt and to keep us from talking to each other and having unity and being on mission is fine okay satan's a created being who rebelled against God who was
Defeated in the cross and now actively works to keep people from Jesus actively works to keep us in sin actively works to keep us ineffective in sharing the gospel now let's go to first peter and see what he says about him how we're to respond verse 8
Be sober minded that means think clearly think correctly one of the ways that we do that is we have incorrect information that's what we're trying to do just a second ago is get at least some correct information so that we know what we're thinking about how to respond so
Be sober minded then he says be watchful so be on alert just have your radar up for anything that looks like it might be enemy activity so if someone comes and is proclaiming Jesus to you but the whole point is here's how you be good here's
How you behave here's how you be religious here's all the things you have to do have your radar up they're not preaching Jesus they're giving you morality they're giving you religion they're giving you behaviorism they're giving you performance ism but it's not Jesus and
So be aware another one is this say you're hanging out on a Sunday and you think huh that's the second week that person didn't say hey to me I think I just saw a look did I see a look I saw a look I bet they're mad at me why would
They be mad at me I guess because they're a jerk I'm special when mom told me that it can't be my fault and then you'll come up with some reason oh I bet it was this I bet this is what they're thinking I bet they're mad about this you know what I'll do I'll be
Mad at them boom accomplished as opposed to being watchful and going hold on a second one of the things that I know that Satan actively tries to do is get me frustrated I'll go talk to him hey are you mad at me no I'm not mad at you why didn't
You say hey I don't know why didn't you say hey oh good point that person didn't say hey to me did you say hey to them no jerk like that's how that works like have a conversation be watchful know what's going on
Know that these things can happen and have your radar up that's what he says be sober minded be watchful your adversary so he's against you the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking
Someone to devour so we talked about how he works to devour I want you to show you two of the things he does first of all he prowls he's intentionally sneaky people have said well if Satan was
Real why he'd just show himself because that's a terrible plan terrible plan do you know how many anti-gun people would be at the Walmart buying rifles if we confirmed that the zombie apocalypse
Had started I'm so glad I'm in America come on you foot dragon slobber monster like if we found out that werewolves were real you know how quickly we'd be producing silver bullets they're real full moon silver bullet time so as soon
As like if Satan just showed up was like I am Satan you know people would be here next week pretty sure Jesus wins that one didn't realize that was true so he prowls he's sneaky he doesn't want you to know where he's at work he doesn't
Want you to know where he's active he's hiding it which all right let's play a game you're on a safari but you're just walking around it's really tall grass you see a lion over here you do not see a lion over here which one do you run from
The one you saw y'all aren't good at this game you run from the one you see y'all were like I don't know I think you're supposed to play dead I don't think that works with lions they're like sweet I don't have to
Run you run from the lion you see that's how that works this one surprises you you run this way and go dang it hey buddy that's how that works so yeah he's sneaky because then you're not aware you're not paying attention
Your radar is not up you don't know he can be at work he'd love for you to not believe in him that's fine with him he'd love for you to believe there's only natural causes for everything everything can be
Explained he doesn't need you to believe in him one of my dad used to teach us how to fight and one of his pieces of advice was if you're fighting while the other guy is still talking you have a distinct advantage
He said if his mouth is still open when you punch it that's a good start and honestly the enemy's like that if he's already started the fight before you know it started he has a distinct advantage so one of the ways that he does this is he's sneaky and he prowls
Around the second thing though is that he's a roaring lion which I want us to see this clearly Colossians 3 tells us that Jesus has disarmed the enemy that those of us who placed our faith in Jesus he has no power over us anymore because his power was in
Sin and death and Jesus has taken our sin and taken our death and Satan has no claim over us no power over us no condemnation over us any longer so once you do believe in his existence one of the ways he works is through roaring
Hearing a lion roar is terrifying but the roar is actually not the scary part of the lion it's the power that the lion has so when I'm at the zoo and a lion stands up and roar I'm like that was scary but I
Don't run because it's that giant ditch thing like if the lion comes at me I should be like bro you didn't think that through there's a lion in the ditch face looks hurt so when with Jesus having already conquered the enemy one of the
Things he's going for at this point for Christians who believe in his existence is for you to be very scared of him so some Christians don't want to talk about Satan or demons they don't want to bring it up they feel like it
Jinxes them they feel like oh we shouldn't be talking and they're unnecessarily afraid we should be watchful we should be aware we should be sober minded we should think about it clearly we are not to be proud or arrogant the power and authority
Is not in us we are not amazing Jesus is but we're also not to be terrified one of the word glory has several different ways that can be described in several different meanings meanings one of them is weight is weightiness which just means that you
Give things glory by giving them weight or sway in your life so I recently shaved my face I usually have a beard I recently shaved my face and people feel the need to tell me they didn't like it or that I looked like I was 12 it's like oh hi you look like a child thanks good talking to you it's nice to see you too but I do that because my wife and I met in high school and she needs to see my face every once in a while she has more weight
In my life than every person who saw me and told me I look like a child I care more about what she thinks I'm sorry I do also like the beard so I keep it and this time I shaved and she went I see why people like the beard I was like yes we're making progress soon she'll just be like just keep the beard I've seen your face enough but she has weight and so one of the ways that we give glory
To something or somebody is by letting them have some weight some sway some leadership in our lives some ability to affect how we act how we behave and when we are terrified of demonic things terrified of Satan it keeps us up at night we can't talk about him it's like he who must not be named when we do that we're giving glory to a being that deserves none now sober minded watchful
Not prideful not arrogant but also not giving them weight not giving him sway over your life how you act how your emotions work so he prowls and he roars and he's seeking someone to devour so we have an enemy who wants to destroy us let's figure out how we respond that's a good question what do you do with a prowling roaring lion who wants to devour you resist him
What helpful advice Peter should do a self-defense class alright ladies if you're in a parking lot and a man attacks you here's your plan try to get him to stop just resist it's like what that's not helpful I need like show me how to hold my keys with my knuckles give me a whistle something like I need a plan now just just just resist that'll be 50 bucks class is over
Like so resist him how firm in your faith okay cool resist him trusting in Jesus what's our faith our faith is that Jesus has disarmed the enemy through the cross our faith is that sin once had a lot of power over us guilt once had a lot of sway in our lives death was looming over us but now we have been
Rescued by a savior who took our sin who took our death and who set us free and when we are faced with enemy attack we just get to step back and say no I trust Jesus I don't have to be amazing I don't have to be good I don't have to be moral I don't have to accomplish this I don't have to be strong I don't have to be smart I don't have to
Be the best I trust Jesus and we just get to stand firm in our faith which is that Jesus is the ruling reigning king of all and that Satan has already been defeated resist him firm in your faith knowing that the same kinds of suffering now let me say this if you are not a Christian place your
Faith in Jesus you have a real enemy out to destroy you out to trick you into trying to be really good to prove something to God and to make him owe you out into tricking you into chasing after a million other things to find
Yourself to prove yourself to have value to be loved to find worth and you have a God who stepped in and rescued and redeemed you trust in Jesus trust the God who gave up his life
For you not the being that's after yours not the one seeking to steal your life but the God the creator of the universe who gave up his life for you he says knowing that the
Same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world what he's saying is realize you're not suffering you're not in this battle by yourself you ever exercise with a partner or go through something
Terrible with another person and you think to yourself I am I'm sorry that you're going through this terrible thing but man I'm glad you're here I remember in football camp watching someone else get cussed out and just being like I'm glad
That guy's here I'm glad I'm not the only one getting cussed at I'm glad I'm not the only one having to run after practice or being stupid there's just something about what he's saying just realize that
You're in a war and all of us are you've got a lot of teammates you're not by yourself the band's going to come back up here and we're going to sing and make much of
Jesus and we've got two more verses to look at here resist him firm in your faith knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout
The world you're not by yourself you're not alone it's not up to you there are others in this battle with you and after you have suffered a little while the God of all grace all freedom all joy all hope all peace
The God of all grace that freely gives freely poured himself out for us the God who went to the cross shedding his blood and giving his life so that you wouldn't have to shed yours or give yours the God of all grace
Who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ he's talking to Christians and he's saying the God of grace that's already redeemed you already rescued you already called you into an eternity where there is joy and peace and happiness
And freedom forever where the enemy is ultimately and finally destroyed who's called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore confirm strengthen and establish you stand firm in your faith and trust that the God of grace is going to
Step in at the right time and make it all right it's going to step in at the right time and fix everything on your behalf to him be the dominion forever and ever amen one of the reasons we haven't talked a whole lot
About Satan one of the reasons we don't spend a whole lot of time on the devil is because the Bible is never about him he is never the focus he is never the point it is squarely on Jesus all the time Jesus is the one who gets the glory forever he's the one
Who has dominion forever he is the creator God that rules and reigns over everything to him be the dominion forever and ever amen to Jesus be the praise to Jesus be the glory to him be the strength to him
Be power to him be the kingdom to him be everything eternally it'll be him that's on the throne it'll be he that reigns and rules over all things forever it'll be him that makes his enemies his footstool it'll be him that is the king and glorious ruler of all
Because he hid life in death because he hid victory in defeat because he hid our sin on himself that he took it on himself so that we might be free so that we might be saved so that we might be rescued so that we might not have to walk around in fear of sin
Or death or Satan ever again it's to Jesus be the glory to Jesus be the kingdom to Jesus be the rule to Jesus be the reign to Jesus be the dominion forever and ever amen
Serve One Another
1 Peter 4:7-11
Transcript
Well, good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We'll be in 1 Peter chapter 4. It's going to be on page 658. If your Bible looks like this, we're walking straight through the book of 1 Peter.
Football is the greatest sport that the world has ever created. And if you disagree with that, I just want to say welcome and that this is an okay place to be wrong. And I forgive you. Football is great. It is the best sport. And one of the great things about it is that I actually was recently talking to Raz Bradley.
He was up here earlier, gave kind of intro stuff, talking about who we are as a church family. He's from Australia. So if you thought he talked funny, maybe he had water in his mouth or something. He came over here and one of the things he said was that when he first got here, everybody loves what he would call American football. He still calls soccer football and I forgive him. But he said that he didn't like it.
Everybody liked American football and he just didn't appreciate it, didn't like it. And he said the more that he's watched it, the more that he's actually really started to appreciate it. And one of the things he said he loves about it is that in football, everybody has a different Job. And they really only need to be good at that job. They need that skill set and that's it. So in a lot of other sports, in basketball, yeah, they've got different positions.
But mostly, you've got to dribble, you've got to shoot. Everybody's got to be kind of good at the same thing. Same thing with baseball. The pitcher's the only one. They don't care about batting. But everybody else needs to be able to throw, catch, bat.
Soccer's the same thing. They have different positions, but you've really got to be able to do all the same kind of stuff. Everybody's got to kick. Everybody's got to run. But in football, you can have a football team.
There are guys on the team that don't even have to be fast. They don't even really have to be crazy athletic. Like, I'm going to talk about South Carolina because we won so we can talk about us for a week. Fry, he's the only thing we've got going right now. He's Fry, he's the kicker. He weighs like 87 pounds.
All he has to do is kick. And kickers just show up late to practice. They kick for like an hour. They goof off. They do nothing. Nobody cares as long as they can kick.
And I just saw a Tennessee fan and I'm sorry. But nobody cares as long as they can kick. Like, that's all they want. And then if they can't kick or they miss kicks, it's next week in practice. We care about you again. We need to talk to you again because all you need to be able to do is kick.
But they're like Tom Brady. He's one of the best quarterbacks the NFL's ever had. Sorry, Buffalo fans. But he's one of the best quarterbacks the NFL's ever had. He is like the slowest person in the NFL. He runs like a 7, a 40.
He runs like a 7 flat. He's not faster than anyone, but he doesn't have to be able to run. And that's the beautiful thing about football is that there are guys on the team that need to be really big. And they can be slow. There are guys that need to be really small and fast and can catch. Some people need to be able to throw.
Other people just need to be able to. Can you run your body into someone else's body? Yes. When you do that, do they fall down? Most of the time. You're on the team.
You did it. Someone else will line you up. You don't even need to really think. Just run into the person that's holding this. That's really. And so what's cool about that is that everybody has a job.
And they don't have to be good at everything. And nobody's worried if I'm better at this than you as long as you're doing your job. And there are a lot of things that work like that. Chick-fil-A works like that. If you go into Chick-fil-A. And there are only people who can take your order.
There's like 7 of them up at the front. And they're all talking over each other. And they're all trying to press the button. And nobody's cooking. That's the worst Chick-fil-A ever. It's like, hey, let me tell you all out.
I'm going to just help you out. Some of you need to get in the back. But if you show up at Chick-fil-A and it's only cooks. That would be even worse. Because you could see and smell the chicken. But there would be no one to facilitate.
Like all they could just sit back there. You'd be like, dude, thanks for cooking. They'd be like, my pleasure. No, no, no, no. Somebody needs to ring me up though. Like I need to be able to hand my money.
Somebody, we've got to have a difference of Job. A difference of role. And what we're going to see is Peter in this part of the Bible. As he's writing. And what he said last week was turn away from sin and turn to. And now we're looking at what he's saying to turn to.
What it looks like to follow Jesus. He's actually going to say that God has designed his church to operate in this way. That we're not all gifted in the same way. We're not supposed to be. We're not all designed to do the same thing. We're not supposed to be.
That it's actually a really beautiful picture of Jesus at work in his church. When we're good at different things. And we get to work together for the good of others. By doing what we were designed to do. And that in that way we don't get to be upset with each other. Because I'm good at this and you're not.
Or you're good at that and I'm not. We actually are all given something to do. And it works out really beautifully. And that way the church gets to be kind of like football. And that's really beautiful. I'm going to pray and we're going to hop in.
God we thank you for this opportunity that we have. To study your word. And to just to grow. And to enjoy being together as your people. And as church family together. And we pray Lord that you would work.
To help us see where you have gifted us. So that we might be able to serve one another. In Jesus name. Amen. So he's going to start off.
He's been saying this is how you turn away from. Sin. And so last week he. Listed out this. These are the things that you should be done with by now. These are the things that the time has sufficed.
You're you're done. And then he's going to say. This is what it looks like to submit yourself to the will of God. And so he starts off with. We're going to be in verse seven. The end of all things is at hand.
Therefore be self-controlled and sober minded for the sake of your prayers. Okay. So the way he started that sentence should make us all perk up. The end of all things is his hand. Okay. I'm listening.
What are we talking about Peter? Here. The biblical writers write as if Jesus will return at any moment. That Jesus has died. He paid the penalty for our sin. And at some point the next step is for Jesus to return.
For Jesus to come back. For judgment to take place. For him to welcome his church back home. And Jesus in the gospel says this over and over again to the disciples. I'm going to come back when you don't expect me. I'm going to come like a thief in the night.
I'm going to come back. Be at work. Be ready. So every once in a while in our culture. So they just had this running in their mind all the time that Jesus could return whenever he wanted to.
But every once in a while in our culture we get stirred up on some sort of a it's going to happen now. Like we have the Herald camping thing. People get out. They put out signs. There's a sign as you're going into Lexington right now. A billboard that's just some verse from Joel.
And it's like yeah that's in the Bible. Well that's a good verse. There are probably better more helpful ones that make more sense as you're reading them on a billboard. But okay. Yep. That's good.
But there's this idea that like Jesus is going to come back. There's going to be this thing. There are these signs. We've got to be ready. And mostly though the way we take it is like so have a lot of toilet paper. Make sure you've got some canned goods.
Get in your bunker. And that's not the biblical writers aren't saying that at all. They're saying hey Jesus is going to come back at some point. Be at work. Be helping other people meet Jesus. Because when he cracks open the sky.
When he returns. That's all that's going to matter. Don't hide. Help other people come to know him. Like be building relationships with your neighbors. Be.
And so that's what he says is be sober minded. Self controlled and sober minded. For the sake of your prayers. And so he even shows there. That how important prayer is. That we actually should change our behavior for our prayers.
So that our prayers would be more effective. So that we might pray better. We're actually going to spend. When we finish with first Peter. We're going to spend a couple weeks just talking about prayer. But one of the things I think that we see here.
Is when he says be self controlled. And he just came out of this passage. Talking about turning away from sin. Here's something that's real about prayer and sin. Sinning hinders our ability to pray. Not that God doesn't want to listen to us or talk to us.
But that when we do talk to God. That's what he wants to talk about. So when we are actively in sin. Pursuing sin. Not repenting. When we participate in genuine real prayer.
Where we actually talk with Jesus. That's one of the first things he's going to address. It's one of the first things he's going to go after in us. Is our lack of repentance. Our lack of trusting in him. Our lack of believing the gospel.
And this is. I know this to be true. So recently. I did some sinning. And I didn't want to talk to my wife about it. And I didn't want to confess it to anybody.
And I didn't want Jesus to lead me to repentance. So I was still praying. Because I'm a pastor and I'm supposed to. I was still praying. But I didn't really.
I was even praying one day. And I was like. Lord help me to have a good prayer life. And then I thought. But not so good.
That you make me repent. Because I know that if I actually get to praying. Really talking with Jesus. And the Holy Spirit shows up. One of the first things he's going to do is say. Hey.
You know that dark spot in your soul right now. You know that area you don't want to talk about. Let's talk about that. And I didn't want to talk about that. But I knew that that was one of the first things.
We'd have to handle as. As I began praying. And I think that's one of the reasons he says. Be self-controlled. So that we can pray about other things.
So that we can actually talk about other things. So that we can pray for mission. And for our neighbors. Same thing with sober minded. It just means think rightly. And so if we're thinking rightly about the world.
You'll be praying for your neighbors. You'll be praying. God I think I may be the only Christian on this block. I may be the only Christian. As far as the members I've met. In this part of the complex.
The apartment complex. And Lord I just pray that you'd help me to have an opportunity. I think you may be putting me here for a reason. I may be the only Christian on this floor. At work. We'll begin to see the world rightly.
Because we know that the end of all things is at hand. That Jesus can come back at any point. And so we'll be able to actually pray about mission. Actually pray about others. Because we'll turn away from sin. We won't have to talk to him as much about that.
And we'll be thinking rightly. Then he says above all. So he's laying down the trump card. Ace of spades here. Above all. Keep loving one another earnestly.
Since love covers a multitude of sins. Above all. Keep loving one another earnestly. Since love covers a multitude of sins. Now we take this out of context.
We'll take this love covers a multitude of sins. And we'll use it like. So the Bible says that's sin. But it doesn't matter. Because we're in love. Or if I'm a really loving person.
Then all of this is just covered by my love. That's not. That's not what it's saying. And you. You have to take it out of context. Because just before this.
Last week. We read. Where he says. This is sin. And this is sin. And this is sin.
Turn away from it. Run from it. Don't have that be a part of your life. So it can't mean. Oh if you're just a loving person. Go for it.
That's not. That's not what it means. What it means is. And this is what I think it means. Practically. Is that if we love each other.
We'll work past sin. That love will cover the fact. That we're going to hurt each other's feelings. That we're going to be selfish. That we're going to sin against each other. We'll give each other more grace.
If we genuinely love each other. It means that we'll talk to each other. So in our church family. One of the things. One of the ways that we apply love. Is that when somebody has offended us.
We go talk to them. That's one of the ways that love plays out. In my relationship with Anna. I just assume that she cares about me. I assume we're on the same team. I assume that what she's doing.
Isn't vindictive. Or intentionally to harm me. So I can go talk to her. And say hey. This hurt my feelings. Or this isn't okay.
Between us right now. And she gets to do the same thing. And we get to do the same thing. As a church family. We get to love one another. Which means that.
We'll overcome sin. We'll go say hey. I think I offended you here. I didn't mean to. Or hey. You offended me here.
We need to talk about that. And love will make it to where we actually. Can overcome sin. And if we do love one another. We'll have those conversations. That aren't fun.
But are good. The other thing that we need to know about the Bible. Is that it uses love. Love usually is a verb. It's just an action. It's how we choose to respond to things.
So we choose to love one another. We act on love. It's not just a feeling. So what it doesn't mean is. When you're hanging out with your community group. You just need to feel all warm and gushy inside.
Like it doesn't mean love one another. Like sit and look around the room. Be like. I swear I wasn't going to do this. I just love you guys so much. Now maybe that happens in your group.
I don't think I'll ever do that. When I'm hanging out with my group. But. That's not going to happen. But we choose to love one another.
By how we serve. By how we go out of our way for each other. By how we approach one another. And so. That's that's love is expressed through action. So above all love one another.
Earnestly. Since love covers a multitude of sin. And so Peter's just at this point. He's just addressing what it looks like. As we turn away from sin. And we start following the will of God.
What it looks like for us. As a church. As church family. Verse nine. Show hospitality to one another. Without grumbling.
Show hospitality to one another. Without grumbling. Grumbling. This means. One another means inside of the church. It means that inside of the church.
We need to have our. Our homes open to each other. And our lives. Open to each other. Without grumbling. We need to not be worried about.
People making messes. Or eating all our food. We can talk to them about it. If they do that. Every time you come over here. You eat all my food.
Next time. Bring some chips with you. Right when they're walking out the door. Hey. Hey. Time out.
Now. We're not cleaning up your plate. You can get back in there. I believe in you. You can put that in the sink. Like you can do that.
That's okay. But it means that our homes would be open to one another. That we would share life with each other. Share our lives with others. And this pushes against our westernness. Our American-ness.
Anna and I were at the house the other day. And doorbell rang. And I was like. We both just looked at each other. Like should we hide? Like what?
Do you think they've seen us? Like. I wonder if they know. Where our cars are. And what that means. See like.
So it was just like. We looked. And I got up. And I walked around the corner. And I was. And I looked back at her.
And said. Ah. It's just the UPS guy. Like. Sweet. We don't have to actually talk to a human.
He was just putting a box down. That's great. The worst is when he's like. Stands there. And I got to sign for it. Because now I'm going to have to talk to him.
And be like. Thanks for the box. Sir. But he left. And that was great. I just got to bring the box inside.
There's something about us that just feels like our home is our refuge. It's our escape from the world. It is where we go to watch television of other people having friends. And their friends are in their house. But nobody's in our house touching our stuff.
Breathing up our air. And making us have to clean. Like nobody's here doing that. And so. But what he says is.
No. Have your homes open to each other. Now some people are more inclined to do this. But all of us are commanded to. So some people are like.
Sweet. Yeah. I already do that. Other people. It doesn't mean have people to where they can just show up at your house all the time. But it does mean on a regular basis.
Have other Christians. Other people from your group. In your home. Have your doors open. Share some meals together. And here's one of the things that I think we miss out on.
We're called to make disciples as Christians. Which means that we're supposed to help other people meet Jesus. And then help everybody who knows Jesus. And then help everybody who knows Jesus. Follow Jesus. Follow Jesus.
In the normal everyday stuff of life. And if we don't include our home in that. We miss out on a major opportunity for discipleship. Some of us and most of us actually. The best place we have. For helping other people follow Jesus.
Is our home. That is the best tool we have for discipleship. And we completely rule that out as an option. So we'll meet with somebody every other Tuesday at a Starbucks. Talk about stuff. But we never actually.
And that's not bad. But we never actually get to see normal everyday life of following Jesus. We have people in our church family. Who are Christians. The best examples they have. The best thing they know about what they have seen in life.
Is that it was a bad example. That's the best they've got. So they have never actually seen. A family where a father and a mother. Were trying to raise children that love Jesus. And they're trying to raise children that love Jesus.
But they've never seen it. They're married couples who've never seen. What it looks like to be married and love Jesus. I was talking to somebody in my community group the other day. And he said that when he was abused as a child. After his dad would beat him.
He would make himself feel better by saying. This is just what it's like to be a child. This is how parents treat their children. He would just. That was what he used to console himself. Was all other kids are going through this.
This is what it's like. He knows that's not true now. But the best example he has. The best one he's seen up close. Is that. He knows it was wrong.
But he doesn't have a good mental framework. For what it looks like. For people to actually follow Jesus. And so if we don't as Christians. Open up our homes. How are we going to get to see those good pictures.
How are we going to get to grow. In the midst of that. So. Older couples. Invite younger couples over to share a meal with you. It doesn't have to be fancy.
It doesn't have to be a big ordeal. You don't have to clean up your house too much. Or at all. You live there. Just invite them in. We were going to be eating spaghetti.
We just cooked more noodles. We always cook more noodles. Because we don't know how to measure out. How many noodles we need. I saw a thing that said. The way to measure spaghetti.
Is guess how much you think you need. Wrong. That's the way to measure spaghetti. Just invite some people over. Invite some younger couples. So they get to see what it looks like.
For a couple that's 30 years ahead of them. Loving Jesus. Following Jesus. Parents with older children. Invite some parents with younger children. Over to your house.
There's some people in our church. Who have a daughter. That's six months old. Daughters that are four years old. They need to be at your house. When your 14 year old daughter.
Is texting a guy. And tells you. That he's her boyfriend. They need to watch you lose your mind. And repent. Or not lose your mind.
And handle it well. Like they need to be there. Because that's going to happen one day. And the best they've got is. I might lose my mind. They can at least kind of walk through that with you.
They need to be there. I've got a six month old boy. I need to come to your house. And watch you. Teach your five year old. How to play t-ball.
I need to watch you make him cry. I need to see your wife. Tell you you're being too hard on him. I need to see you wrestle with the idea. Of I'm trying to raise a man. But he's five.
But he needs to learn. How to hit a ball off a stick. I need you to handle talking to your wife. Which is like dear. Why don't you just go inside? Like I need to be there.
I need to debrief with you. I need to be like. Why did you say it that way? Why did. I felt like you were going to choke at somebody. But you didn't.
That was great. Like. Otherwise how will I know how to do it? Like how. How will we grow together. If we're never in real life together.
And this is just normal life. Going to the grocery store. Show hospitality. Invite people to be a part of that with you. Have them come over to your house. As you.
Maybe moms. You do the grocery shopping. Maybe you've got four children. You have to take them to the grocery store. Invite some other people in your group. To come be a part of that.
So they can see what that's like. Have them come over to your house. Have them see what it's like to load four children in a car. Have them see what it's like to go to the grocery store. To while you're talking. You're having to pay attention to four children.
While you're trying to look at your list. You're having to get that out of your mouth. You're having to pay attention to four children. And you're. You're having to. What?
No. No. No. We already got cookies. Put those back. And you're.
You're trying to just explain how. I said put them back. We have cookies. I realize there are seven different types of Oreo. Put them. Put them.
Put them back. Put them back. Where's your sister? Like. You need to have these conversations. She comes back up.
What is green on your face? Where's your other shoe? Like. You need somebody there to help you find the shoe. And to help you grow. And what it looks like.
To be in normal everyday life as a Christian. Trying to parent children that love Jesus. Trying to walk with your spouse and love Jesus. Trying to. Families. This means that we invite single people over to our houses for normal Tuesday night dinner.
It means that we invite people over to just watch a show. It means that. That on holidays. Family holidays. We invite some of the single people from our group. Hey.
If you don't have. If you're up here for school. If you're just living by yourself right now. And you want to come share some Thanksgiving dinner with us. Our table's open. That's what he's talking about.
And that's one of the best opportunities we have. To help people grow up. And what it looks like to love Jesus. Single people. This applies to you. Invite people to your house.
Invite married couples. Invite married couples with children to your house. I'll give you a suggestion. Don't invite them to your house like they're your other single friends. If you text them on Thursday. Want to come to my house and eat dinner tonight.
I'll answer that for you. No. Maybe. Maybe I want to. There's no way that's happening. Most people get married.
And they learn that they have to plan things in advance. For what reason? I don't know. My wife and I have to plan things in advance. I'll say. Hey.
We're not doing anything on Saturday. And she'll be like. I know. I'll be like. So we can go do this.
She'll be like. No. I planned that we wouldn't do anything. That's not a plan. No. But I wrote it down.
It says hang out with Chad. I'll be there. People have to. So if you're single. And you're going to invite people over. Every house.
Let me give you a few ways to do this. Go to them and say. What are you doing three Thursdays from now? You have no clue what you're doing two days from now. They know what they're doing three Thursdays from now. Or they may be like.
I don't know. And be like. All right. What about next Thursday? Just bring it in closer. Gauge it on the person you're talking with.
Do this. Hey. I'd like to have you all over for dinner. You tell me when is a good time to do that. Married couples. Families.
Say yes to those invitations. Figure out a way to be there. Realize. Realize. That if you invite one person over to your house. You went from four or five to six or seven.
Nope. That math doesn't work out. Four or five to five or six. That wasn't hard. You already made too much noodles anyway. If a single person invites you over.
And you bring you and your wife and your three children. They went from one. To a lot. Bring something. Show up with some food. Single people.
Let me know. Let me tell you this. I'll be done with this in just a second. If you invite married couples. Or married couples with children to your house. They may think about how difficult it is.
For them to ever leave the house. Ever. And they may just say. Why don't you just come to our house and eat. And then you can say yes to that. And you get a free meal out of the deal.
And all you had to do was bluff. Like you were going to be willing to feed them. Open your homes. Open your lives. It's one of the best opportunities you have. To grow.
In what it looks like to love Jesus. Married couples without children. Invite a couple of single couples over to your house from your group. And offer to watch all the children that are in your group. And just say hey. A couple of us are going to babysit all of your children.
We're going to have as many people over here as possible. So that we can have like three adults per child. Y'all go on a date. And we'll hang out and watch Kung Fu Panda together. But the goal being that we would have normal everyday life.
Where we would get to see clear pictures of what it's like to follow Jesus. And if you're sitting there thinking. Well I'm not the best husband. I'm not the best mom. My roommates and I don't get along. Right.
And the people you're inviting over. Aren't the best husband or won't be the best husband. Aren't the best mom or won't be the best mom. And they need to see somebody trying to follow Jesus. In the midst of that. They already don't get along with their roommates.
They'll look forward to come over to your house for a little while. And seeing how you handle it. And then you all get to grow together. I need people to be around my house. When you invite people into your home. They help you with stuff.
I had somebody in my house recently. And they were just walking around. They have kids. And they were going. Is that attached to the wall? No.
Attach it to the wall or get rid of it. It's like. Oh. I haven't even thought about that. Like he's. I should have.
But I haven't. Because I haven't had a child knock over everything in my house yet. Eventually. Everything will be screwed to the wall. Or be gone. Young couples.
You need to go to someone's house. And realize that your white carpet was a bad decision. Like. We need to be around each other. So that we can grow.
And so that we can address sin in the normal. In the everyday. Because we're all trying to follow Jesus in everyday. And if we don't open our lives to each other. We won't get to. So that's what he's saying.
Be. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. Let me just say this. The Pabones in our church family do this very well. They have people in their house five out of seven days. They invite people into their lives all the time.
When we moved to Sunday mornings and said. We were going to have Sunday afternoons for us to be around church family. For us to build relationships. They just said okay. Every Sunday people are welcome to our house. Now you may be going.
I can't have people in my house five out of seven days. That's right. That's probably true for a lot of us. But you can have people in your house twice a month to start. You can have people over every time you're watching a certain show. Have them be around.
We need to start figuring out ways to open our lives to each other. Okay. So he keeps going. As each has received a gift. Use it to serve one another. As good stewards of God's varied grace.
Whoever speaks is one who speaks oracles of God. Whoever serves is one who serves by the strength that God supplies. In order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Okay.
So as each has received a gift. Use it to serve one another. As good stewards of God's varied grace. What this means is that God in his grace has gifted us. But he didn't gift us all the same.
If you even just looked on the road that you're in. There's not the same gift set present. If you are in your community group. You have a different gift set than anybody else there. God in his varied grace. Which means he graciously gave you something.
But he didn't give you the same thing he gave somebody else. Has gifted all of us. And he says use it to serve one another. As good stewards. So a steward means that you've been given something that's not yours.
It's the same way we talk about money. All money belongs to God. And we need to steward it well. All of our money is on loan. It's the same thing with our abilities and our talent. It all belongs to God.
And we need to handle it well. We need to approach it well. And we need to use what we're good at to serve others. And then he basically says if it's speaking. Speak as if you speak on behalf of God. And it's serving.
Serve with the strength that God gives you. Everything comes from God. Is on behalf of God. And is used for the benefit of others. As God works in us through his grace. So a gift.
The way it uses it there. Is anything that you're good at. Anything that you're capable of doing. And it means anything. Can you bake? Are you good at conversations?
Do you have conversations with people on a regular basis? And they say. I've just never. I've never told anybody that before. Or you just sit down and have a conversation with somebody. And they just start.
I haven't said this to someone in so long. Like does that just happen to you on a normal basis? Are you. Do you make people feel comfortable or welcome? When you invite people. Do they just show up at stuff?
Can you fix cars or a washing machine? Can you build things? Can you play an instrument? Can you sing? Can you run fast? Like whatever you're gifted with.
Can you sew? Can you cook? Do you enjoy having people over at your house? Do you enjoy helping clean up? Do you enjoy anything? Whatever you have been gifted with.
Use it to serve one another. This is why. One of the reasons why. That community groups are primary for us. There is a limited amount of opportunity to serve on a Sunday. There's opportunity to serve on a Sunday.
And if you're interested in serving. There's opportunity to serve on a Sunday. But it's limited. And it's not all the time. So we've got people right now serving in Kid City.
That are gifted. Lord willing. To be around children. But they're going to do this once. And then not for a couple of weeks. So they're going to use their gifting today.
And then not for a couple of weeks. So they can be in here as part of a normal church family. We've got people that are going to show up and set things up. People that are going to help clean up when we leave. We've got people that are going to help host and welcome people. But they're going to do it on a rotating basis.
And there's a limited number of availability for that. It's actually in our community groups. Where we get to use our gifts all the time. In normal everyday life. All the time. So let me show you how this works.
This is your community group. And this is how this begins to play out in your group. There's a person in your community group. That has way, way too many friends. Too many friends. And they know all of their names.
So they might be a magician. You don't know how they do this. They have more friends than you have people in your phone. And you never delete Numbers. You don't know how they keep up with all these people. But they have way too many friends.
You've got someone else in your group. That when they invite someone to something. They just show up. They make the most mundane things seem fun. They'll be like, oh hey. Somebody's coming.
I met them at Walmart. What? You could be a murderer. Why did they agree to come? I don't know. We just talked for a minute.
They said it sounded like it was cool. They're coming. Okay, great. That person may not talk to them once they show up. They don't know how to have real long conversations. They just know how to be like, hey.
I want to do this thing. Sure. And then when they get there. They don't talk to them anymore. But you've got people in your group.
That as soon as they show up. They're going to make them feel comfortable. They make them feel welcome. You've got people in your group. They can have a conversation with the most awkward person in the world. In the world.
You don't know how they do it. They just keep the conversation going. They're talking to someone who kills conversations. And they just resuscitate the conversation. You're in these conversations with people. They kill the conversation.
And you go. All right. Like you don't know how to. And this person is just able to talk to anybody. You sit down. Oh, somebody else has already cooked.
Has already prepared food. Is good at it. You're the person who's like. I'm bringing cheese. Because you don't have to cook cheese. Just bring it.
I'm the Dorito guy. Like that's me in my group. Like I'll bring plates. Like that's all I got. Other people are going to cook things. They're going to cook things that taste good.
I've cooked a few things. I burnt it. My group makes fun of me. I don't cook anymore. I'm the cheese guy. That's me.
They're going to show up. They're going to have food there. So that when somebody's invited. They're going to show up. It's going to feel welcome. There's someone who hosts well.
Their home is open to people. You're going to sit. And as you start talking. Somebody's going to ask a really confusing question. And everybody's going to look to a certain person in your group. Because they're the person who helps with really confusing questions.
You're like that's a good question. And that person's gifted to answer the question. That's what they're good at. That's what God's designed them to do. They read theology books for fun. They're weird.
But God gave them that ability. You're sitting there. And someone starts talking about things that are going on in their life. And how much pain is going on. And they start crying. And someone else in your group.
Across the table. Starts crying too. And you're thinking. Why are you crying? Or did something else happen to you? It's called empathy.
You've never experienced it. But you're seeing it. This person gets up from the table. Walks over. Sits next to this person. Puts their arm around them.
And says. We love you. And we're glad you're here. And you think. I never would have thought to do that. That was great.
We do love that person. We are glad they're here. I would have never said that. You got someone else who starts hearing this story. And says. Hey.
I can help cook meals while that's going on. Someone else in your group. Who's really organized. And loves spreadsheets. Says. I'll make a spreadsheet.
I'll make sure we have meals for the whole two weeks. That this is happening. I'll make sure that we're organized. I'm not cooking anything. I'm spreadsheet person. This is what I got.
And it's great. And you're organized. And then someone else is going to be able to articulate the gospel. Into this situation. In a way that. You know that.
But you wouldn't have been able to put it into words. And someone else in your group is going to say. Let me just tell you how Jesus shows up here. Let me just tell you how Jesus shows up in the midst of our pain. And gives us hope. And grace.
And what's beautiful about this. As this plays out. As people begin to say. I'll come help serve. I'll come help clean. I'll come help fix that issue.
As your group gets to be what we're designed to be. Here's what he says. Start back at 10. As each has received a gift. Use it to serve one another. As good stewards.
Of God's varied grace. Whoever speaks. As one who speaks oracles of God. Whoever serves. As one who serves. By the strength that God supplies.
In order. That in everything. God may be glorified. Through Jesus Christ. To him. Belong glory and dominion forever.
Amen. Amen. If we all use our gifts. And we all serve. Jesus gets the glory. Because Jesus gets to show up.
You see. Jesus came. And he did everything for us. He loved perfectly. He had perfect empathy. He challenged perfectly.
He corrected perfectly. He taught perfectly. And he died perfectly in our place. To cover our sin. And to set us free. And Jesus now works.
In varied ways. Through his church. By his grace. To do exactly what he was doing. When he was here. But he spreads it out.
Amongst all of his people. And so. If just a handful of people serve. They might. We might mistakenly. Give them glory.
We might mistakenly. Give them credit. When it's actually. Jesus at work. And as all of us say. This is what I'm good at.
And this is how I'm going to serve. Jesus shows up. So it's in our community groups. Where we get to see. Everybody serving. Everybody using their gift.
Everybody working. That we begin to say. There's something different here. Jesus is at work here. And Jesus gets the glory. As we all serve.
So. I'm going to walk us through. Just a few practical things. When it comes to gifting. Just to try to be helpful. When it comes to your gifting.
If you're sitting there going. Well I don't really know. What I'm good at. I don't know. What I'm gifted at. The first thing you want to ask is.
What am I good at? If you're an English person. You want to ask. What at. What am I good? But if you're everyone else.
You want to ask. What am I good at? If you want to take the sheets. In front of you. There. There.
And just jot a few things down. Right. Number one. And just start thinking. What. What am I good at?
What do I. What do I do well? What are the things that I do. That other people say. Hey you're really. Like that was good.
You're really good at that. What are the things that you do. That other people. Like it. Destroys their soul. But you're just gifted there.
So you just hop in and do it. And it doesn't even bother you. You don't even think about it. The next thing you want to ask is. What do I enjoy? Sometimes these overlap.
And that's great. Sometimes you're good at this. And you enjoy this. That's fine. Write those down. Some of you enjoy singing.
You're not good at it. You just enjoy it. That's great. Sing in the shower. Some of you are good at it. And you enjoy it.
That's great. Like you want to figure out. What am I good at? What do I enjoy? So some people enjoy fixing cars.
And are good at it. Some of them are just good at it. They don't want to do it as a hobby. But they're good at it. So begin to think about.
What am I good at? What do I enjoy? And then you want to ask this question. How can I use that. To serve other people. Whatever it is.
How can I use that. To serve other people. And some of you may sit and think for a while. And you go. Okay. What am I good at?
I wrote math with a question Mark. And what do I enjoy? I wrote food and ping pong. But food isn't cooking. It's more eating. Okay.
Here's what we need to do. If that's you. If you're just like. I just don't know. Try stuff. And then ask those questions.
Try stuff. And then ask those questions. Number three can be other. Just try stuff. And then ask other people that. Was I good at this?
Church family. When you see somebody doing something that they're good at. Tell them. If there is anybody right now that you thought. Hey they're really good at that. But did not say it to them.
Go tell them. We often assume that people know what they're good at. And we are often wrong. Or we think somebody else has already told them. Or the reason they're doing it is because they know they're good at it. They may just be doing it.
And you need to go say. Hey I've seen Jesus at work here. I've seen God work through you when you do this. Hey when you answer questions. When you show up and serve. When you host.
You host really well. Like we just need to tell people. Encourage them. If someone asks you. Was I good at that? And the answer is no.
Find a gracious way to say no. Because what this says is that God has gifted us. They actually are good at something. It just may not be that. Find a gracious way to. Don't lie to them.
Let's not nice it up as a church family. And just be fake nice. And not be willing to say something. Hey. Man that was a solid effort. Stay away from children.
I love you. I want to set you free. To do other things. Be willing to say that. So that they can be free to do other things.
So that they can do something else. Try not to crush people. Some of you are like. Sweet. You need to work on that. Don't be excited about hurting people's feelings.
But if there's somebody that you've thought. Hey. This person does this well. And you haven't told them. Tell them. Encourage them.
That's how people find stuff out. If somebody comes to you and says. Hey. I want to tell you that you're really good at this. Let me tell you how to respond. Thank you.
That's encouraging. You can ask more questions. Don't try to downplay it. Don't be like. Well. It's just.
It's all about Jesus. I know it's all about Jesus. But he told us to come tell you this. Don't get on my nerves. Like. Yeah.
That's what he said. As people serve. Jesus shows up. That's. Got it. But you're good at this.
That's okay to say. So just. Thank you. That's encouraging. Ask more people. Hey.
This person said I was good at this. Am I? You see. As we all get to serve. As we all get to use our gifts. Which we are gifted.
As we all get to use them. Jesus shows up. And we're designed. To work this way. God in his grace. Has gifted us.
It's like the difference. Between going to a restaurant. And eating at home. So when you go to a restaurant. I get to just sit down. I have expectations.
About what's going to happen. I expect that. I'll have a server. I have mental expectations. Of how often they'll come by. If I make eye contact with them.
And then they act like they didn't see me. Oh. You saw me. Like I've got some. If they bring out mashed potatoes. And they're cold.
I just get to go. Nope. These mashed potatoes are cold. Can y'all. It seems like you microwaved them. But you didn't stir them.
Can you at least stir them. After you microwave them this time. I'm not that rude necessarily. But. I got to work on it. That's why y'all need to be.
Eating at restaurants with me. So when they leave. You can go. Hey you need to repent. But you can send it back.
I can't do that. Like when I was growing up. I couldn't do that at home. I couldn't just plop down at the table. I couldn't look at my mom. And be like.
Hey when's the meal going to be ready. Like. I've been sitting here for a while. When she sat down. I couldn't go. Nope.
My potatoes are cold. You want to hop back in there. Like couldn't do that. That's not how family works. Like you got to help set the table. You got to help clean up afterwards.
You got to go into the kitchen. And do some dishes. You got to take the trash out. There's some people. Who've been hanging out. With our church family.
And you're like. They talk about family all the time. But this doesn't feel like family. When was the last time. You took the trash out. When was the last time you served.
When was the last time. You looked at your gifting. And said. I'm going to use this. To serve other people. Because that.
Is what begins to make us feel like family. That's where we begin to show love. If you don't feel like you love anybody. It's not because you don't have these feelings. It's because you haven't been. Serving and working.
That's how you love. That's why. Marriages. A lot of times. Begin to love their children more. And families will grow old.
And they'll love their children. But that's a weird relationship between. Because they all began serving the children. And forgot how to serve each other. When we serve people. That's how we show love.
And that's how we get to be family. And that's how we get to grow together. And so. I would just encourage you. If you feel like. Ah.
Yeah. I don't feel like family. Are you using your gifts? Are you serving? Are you showing up to your group. With something to offer.
Something to give. Some way to participate. Are you trying to find ways. To help people. And to serve. And to use your gifts.
Band's going to come back up and play. Okay. What I would like to encourage us with. Is take a second. And as if there is anybody. That you have thought.
Man they're good at this. They're helpful when they do this. This is great. They're a part of our group. And they do this. Tell them.
Before you leave today. Tell them. Or make a note if they're not here. To tell them. Let them know. That God works in them.
So they'll do more of it. If you haven't been serving. If you haven't been using your gifts. If you don't know what they are. Sit down. Spend some time thinking about it.
We're going to actually do some of that. In our groups this week. Try something. Try to use your gifts. And realize. All of us are gifted.
And when we all serve together. People get to see Jesus. When we all pull together. We'll feel more like family. We'll realize. That we have love for one another.
And more people will get to see Jesus. More people will get to clearly see him at work in us. And that our hope is fully in Jesus. So we don't have certain gifts. We have to be good at. We don't have certain things.
We've got to accomplish. We don't have to get it together. We get to trust Jesus. And we get to know that. As we in a faulty way. Serve alongside others.
More people get to see him. Let's pray. God we thank you. God I just thank you. For when the Bible is just very practical. When you just take the time.
In your word. To just. Coach us up. And to help us out. And to help us see areas. Where we maybe need to.
To grow. Or to. To serve. God I pray that our church family. Would serve. That you would help us.
Through your Holy Spirit. To know where you have gifted us. That we might all use our gift. To serve one another. That God we might all know. That we are gifted by you.
And it is for the benefit of those. In our group. And for the benefit of those in this room. That we might use it for your glory. I pray Lord that you would help us. Remember.
People that need to be. Told. Where they're good. Where they serve. Where they do well. And be able to encourage them.
I pray Lord that if. If we're encouraged. That we would. Take that well. And realize that it's your grace. And not our ability.
God I pray that. As our church family. We would have our. Our homes open. To one another. And our lives open to one another.
That we might use our homes. As a tool for. Growth. And a tool for discipleship. And not just as an escape. And God I pray that we would see.
Many. Families. And singles. And couples. And. Just begin to invite one another.
And be around one another. And open their homes to one another. That we might all grow. In our love for you. That we might all clearly see. Our need for you.
We thank you Jesus. For being so good to us. In your name we pray. Amen.
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.
Submission to Authority
1 Peter 2:13-17
Transcript
G'day everyone. This is where you say g'day back. Good morning everyone. My name is Raz, it's good to be with you this morning. I hope everyone slept well last night because today's going to be pretty uncomfortable for most people. Today's going to be a little bit tough for us and that's because so far Peter's been talking a whole lot about who we are, why we're classified as elect exiles, what makes us misfits, why Christians are different to everyone else in society.
And it's been okay, we've been understanding a little bit more about our identity, but he's turned a corner. Last week he turned a corner and now he's going to start telling us what that means for our lives, how that changes, how we behave. And today we're going to be reading the section where he talks about submission to authority. It's one of those sections in scripture. Doesn't happen often for me, but it's one of those sections in scripture that I think everyone would be a little bit more comfortable if it just wasn't there or if it could just be ignored for some reason or if we could just delete little sections that annoy us.
It's like if I, if for some reason, and it's probably lucky that I didn't have this option, but if for some reason I was invited to the Bible writing club and I had my choice of what made it in or not and I was on the phone to God or Jesus or whoever and there was sections that was like, don't murder. I'd be totally stoked. I'd include that. Don't murder. Don't steal. Don't steal.
Got it. Don't lie. Yeah. I kind of like it sometimes, but I'll include it for now. Honor your mother and father. Yeah, I'll use a pencil for that one.
Honor your mother and father. Be subject to every human authority. Hang on. Can you repeat that one? Be subject to every... God, I...
The reception's a little... AT&T. I can't really... I think I'm in the... I'll call you back tomorrow. Be subject...
I would just skip it. And no one would ever know. But I wasn't invited. And here it is. In our Bible. Be subject to every human institution.
I think that human nature instills in us a certain distrust, a certain defense mechanism against human institutions, especially human authorities. We don't trust our boss to pay us right, so we invent pay stubs. Everyone can keep track of how much they're paid. We don't trust banks to keep our money safe, so we keep records of it. We don't trust schools to educate our children, so we do it ourselves. We invent homeschooling.
We don't trust the monarchy, so we invent America. But we don't really trust America and democracy all that much because we still feel the need to keep guns in our back pocket just in case that government gets out of line, right? Amen. Amen. Just in case. So seriously, we have this problem with authority, and we're not good with it.
And Peter's done good so far. He's talked well. He explains why we're misfits, why we are different from society. And then he turns this corner and he says, be subject to every human authority. And we're just like... And for that reason, I think today is going to be pretty tough for us.
The passage itself is actually pretty straightforward. We're going to step through it. We're going to talk about it. But it's pretty straightforward. It's not too hard to understand. What's difficult is how do we apply what he's actually saying.
So we're going to spend a bit of time talking about what the Bible actually says. Then we're going to spend most of our time talking about what it actually means, how it impacts our life. Before we open up, let's pray. Father God, we thank you for the opportunity we have to learn from your word. Help us to sit under the authority of scripture today. Fill us with the spirit.
Convict us. Just help us to digest what you have for us from 1 Peter today. Pray that in Jesus' name. Amen. If you've got a Bible, open up to 1 Peter chapter 2. If your one looks like this, it's on page 657.
And we're going to be starting at verse 13. It's got a big heading, an ugly heading it says, Submission to Authority. Like I said, Peter turned a corner last week. He was talking about a whole lot about who we are, what our identity is. And he's turned this corner and he starts giving instructions, ways that we ought to live as a result of who we are and what our identity is. So we're going to start in verse 13.
It says, Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it's to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. Let's go back up to the top.
Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution. Hmm. I don't know about you, but for me, that's tough. Let me tell you what I, what I wish that said. I wish it said, be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, unless that human institution is run by morons. Then you get to do whatever you want to do.
Or, be subject to every human institution, unless that human institution makes really dumb rules. Then you can just ignore the dumb ones and keep the good ones. These seem like much nicer, much prettier Bible verses to me. But, I turn to 1 Peter, I look at it and there's just this line, be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution. And I keep wishing it said more. I keep wishing there was some clause to get you out of doing it.
Some way of like manipulating it and thinking, oh no, it doesn't say that really. Like a, like maybe an emoticon, like a winky face or a, a lol JKS or a, something like, I even looked in the Greek and they didn't have emoticons back then. So that didn't help me out at all. There is no way about it. It's just simple. Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution.
Just sitting there in the Bible, being authoritative for my life, grinding my soul. That means simple things. We're supposed to listen to our boss. We're supposed to listen to our schools, listen to the police, listen to the government. Nobody really wants to do any of that, right? Maybe, maybe in an ideal world, where all of those things actually worked the way they're supposed to.
Or, if they worked exactly the way I wanted them to. Maybe we would be okay with it then. But when your boss makes you stay late, when the schools start telling you what clothes you're allowed to wear, when the police tell you you're not allowed to drive 90 miles in a school zone, who wants to listen to that junk? No one. He goes on. Whether it's to the emperor's supreme, or to governors as sent by him, to punish those who do evil, and to praise those who do good.
Now this bit's a little bit tricksy. Back in Peter's day, the emperor was like supreme leader, ultimate authority on everything, dude. We don't have anything quite like that. This is the guy who could do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, because he's the emperor, and you don't have a say, because you're not the emperor, he's the emperor, so you be quiet. He is not Obama. That is not a valid jump.
He's not Obama. He's Kim Jong-un. He's the guy who tells you, if you don't have the right haircut, I can kill you. So there's the emperor, who's the supreme leader dictator, and then he says there's a governor. Now the governor is a representative of the emperor.
He's also pretty powerful. He can do some pretty crazy stuff. He's got a lot of authority, but to make big changes, he needs the authorization of the emperor. Neither one of these positions of power translates well into American society. But Peter says you're supposed to submit to all of them as well.
They have more power than anything that American society has. To disagree with the emperor was to have your head chopped off, and he said submit to him. It's different for us. Obama can't just say off with his head. He disagrees with me. We have certain freedoms, certain rights as Americans.
Well, you do. I don't. They allow free speech. They allow the right to protest. They, well, they don't allow for it, but there's things like civil Acts of disobedience that exist, and they're more acceptable in our culture. We'll talk a little bit more about that later, but it's not a direct equivalent.
He goes on in verse 15. For this is the will of God, that by doing good, you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Basically, when you act obediently as a law-abiding citizen, like a real law-abiding citizen, not like the movie, people around, they won't be able to give you grief. They don't have accusations. They don't have any ammunition against you saying that you don't actually care about what the Bible says. I'm pretty bad at this.
I think a lot of people are pretty bad at this, but I'll tell you about me. Stop signs. I've been continually convicted lately about stop signs because my wife harasses me when I do not stop completely at stop signs. Stop signs can be dumb, right? They put them in some weird locations. There's a street at the end of, like our apartment is here, and then you go up that street, and it's just a bend in the road.
It's not an intersection. It's just a bend in the road. There's a stop sign there. What? Seriously? I'm the worst at this, and I just think, that's a dumb stop sign.
I can just run that. No one's ever, like, no one's going to stop me. Everyone else thinks it's dumb. There's no, I'm definitely not going to get hit. There's no other roads. Dumb stop sign.
I'm just, no. No. Christina is like, Razz, there's a stop sign. Razz, you should stop me, stop me, and it's a stop sign, and then it comes back at every other stop sign, every other stop sign, and it's that stop sign, you don't stop at this stop sign. I'm the worst at this. I really am, and I'm convicted, because ever since I've been talking about this sermon with Christina, she's been dialing it up a little bit, like, you know this is real.
Yes, I know. I'm sorry. I'm the worst of sinners. I'm the worst of sinners. I'm not good at this. I apologize.
I repent. But seriously, what happens is, when you break laws simply because you disagree with them, when you think, this is dumb, it doesn't apply to me, this rule is stupid, bad policy, bad law, I'm just going to ignore it, you're actually not proving anything. I don't prove anything by ignoring it. I give the world excuses to think I'm a hypocrite. When you disregard meaningless laws, when you disregard anything that you think is meaningless, you're discrediting yourself as a moral authority. And that's what he's saying to avoid.
That's what he's saying. Don't fall to the ignorance of fools. Don't be a fool in the way that you act. You cannot silence the ignorance of fools when you act like one yourself. There's a right way, which is submitting to the rules, the policies, the authorities. And there's a wrong way, which is, my way is better than that.
Now, fools make foolish arguments, like I did. This one doesn't make sense. This stop sign doesn't apply to me. That is a foolish argument. Fools make foolish arguments, and it just gives everyone else ammunition. Let me give you a silly example of foolish arguments from fools.
This is near and dear to the hearts of many Mill City folk. There's a consistent debate out there about which would be the best Mexican grill fast food restaurant. If I were to silence the ignorance of fools, I have options. I can do illegal things. I could destroy every Moe's in existence. That is an option.
There would be no more argument that Moe's is better than Chipotle because Moe's no longer exists. Now, I would be a fool to do that. I would spend the rest of my life in jail. I would have proven my point, but I would have failed to be a law-abiding citizen. There's an alternative method, and that method is called appealing to objective reality. Objectively, and you can use your superior intellect whenever you're against one of these Moe's folk.
Use your superior intellect. Chipotle is objectively better than Moe's. Period. Easy to prove. You can put them side by side and eat them both. Now, a fool, a fool will come back with foolish arguments.
Like my stop signs don't apply to me. A fool will say something like, they don't greet me on the way into Chipotle. Fool! That does not apply to anything to do with food. I do not care if they greet me or not. They don't even greet me when I go to Moe's anyway.
I think they know that I like Chipotle more. I asked if we got free stuff for them not greeting us, and apparently there used to be a rule, and it's not anymore, because they're not good at greeting you. That's not even a good excuse. That's not a rule. That's stupid. That is foolish.
But you don't let them know that you think that's foolish. I'm sorry. I'm getting really distracted. I'm passionate about this, okay? Hopefully one day, the ignorance of fools will be silenced using good methods like superior intellect. Let's move on.
That was distracting. Verse 16. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Christians are free. Free from the law, free from sin, free from evil. We talk about this all the time, but what Peter's saying is that as we have freedom in Christ, as we're free as Christians, we choose to be orderly.
We choose to submit ourselves to human leaders. Peter's saying here that Christians don't use the freedom that they have to go out and ignore human authorities, to break laws, to do whatever they want, and think, I'm free in Christ, so I can just ignore that stop sign. It's the classic case of rebellion, saying, Christ loves me, so I can do whatever I want. I'm free to sin, I'm free to do whatever, because Christ's love covers all of my sins. Christ didn't die to free us so that we could sin. He died to free us from sin, to protect us from the power that sin has to control our lives, to destroy us, to control every action that we do.
It's what Chet talked about last week with the passions of the flesh. We're free of that because of Christ's sacrifice. That's what it means to be free as a Christian. Verse 17 says, Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. This section is a little more important than it might seem. It's four simple instructions, but there's a little bit of a hierarchy at play.
He starts with, Honor everyone, love the brotherhood. That means that we treat, we treat everyone with respect. We treat everyone with dignity. We're all created in God's image. We're all created equal. There's no one that's better, no one that's worse.
And that means there is, there is never a reasonable time to speak bad about people publicly. That means there is never a reasonable time to rant online about other humans. Even if it's cryptic and they don't know it's actually them. There's no names, it's people, it's just someone. There's never an appropriate time if we're honoring everyone to rant about each other. Called to honor everyone.
And he says, love the brotherhood. That's his way of saying, when he says love the brotherhood, it means there's a certain different way that we treat the brotherhood. And by brotherhood, he means the family. He's specifically talking about the church. There's, it's not often that when it comes to everyone or the church, that there would be some kind of opposition. But when there is, which is rarely, there would be a certain extra something that goes towards church.
You would, you would have an extra amount of love for people who are in the church. Basically what he's saying is, because we're elect exiles, because we're misfits, misfits look out for each other. In general. But at the same time, we honor everyone. And the next bit is, fear God, honor the emperor. This is a, this is a surprisingly big one.
We've talked about how the emperor has no direct equivalent in American society. But for the purposes of this verse, and because in verse 13, he says, be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution. You can pretty much sub in any human authority. Fear God and honor your parents. Fear God and honor your boss. Fear God and honor the government.
That's how it works. They are to be honored, treated with respect. They are not to be treated like you would God, as in fear and reverence, but they are to be treated with respect. Now, when push comes to shove, Christians have this extra allegiance to God. The fear, the reverence aspect. If, if a human authority and God's moral law are diametrically opposed, we would go with God's moral law.
That's what he's saying with the hierarchy of fear God, but honor the emperor. Now, we are not always going to agree with things that our leaders say and do. Very rarely will we agree with the things our leaders say and do, but even then, he's telling us to honor them. America is proudly democratic, as it should be. I'm all about it. But every now and then in a democracy, someone that you don't like is elected.
Every now and then. Sometimes, for some people, it feels like someone you don't like is always elected. But, there will be people in power that we don't necessarily like. But just because we don't like them does not mean they're fair game for slander and hate, which is too easy to fall to. And when he says, fear God and honor the emperor, he means it. Fear God and honor the government, he means it.
Be honorable in the way you talk about them. With things like Facebook and internet anonymity, it's so easy to see a picture with a slogan that shows why someone's such an idiot and we can just like it and we can share it and it's just this public persona of us driving garbage online when we're not being honorable to everyone. We're not being honorable to a human authority. We're not being honorable to the government and we're not being honorable to the emperor, if he existed. We're to honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. Treat people with respect, dignity, even if you don't like them, honor them.
So that's the Bible comprehension part. It's pretty simple. Unless a human institution is diametrically opposed to God's law, to what God has said for us, then we're to follow the human institution. Now you might be tracking along pretty easily so far that that's all pretty digestible. It's a little uncomfortable. We don't love that kind of information, but it's not painful.
But when some government, boss, organization imposes something on you that you really, really don't like, you're faced with a choice. You obey or you disobey. And the question becomes, what should a Christian do when they disagree with a human authority? That's what we're going to spend pretty much the rest of our time talking about. What should a Christian do when they disagree with the human authority? Now let's start with something pretty easy.
In our society, there's a whole lot of freedom. In America, all about freedom. You get to choose things like which career path you want. That was a little different than in Peter's day. If you were born into a carpenter's family, you would be a carpenter. If you're born into a farmer's family, you'd be a farmer.
We get to choose, which means we kind of get to choose bosses in a way. We kind of get to choose which organization we work for. So what does it look like to fear God foremost and honor our boss? Fear God and honor the organization. Well, your boss is probably going to make you do things you don't want to do. The organization as a whole is probably going to have some dumb policies.
And I know from experience that that can be pretty dang annoying. I worked as an electrician in Australia for a number of years. This annoyed me more than most people, but on a construction site in Australia, it doesn't matter who you are, what your profession, anything like that, you must wear a hard hat, safety glasses, hearing protection, gloves, high visibility vest, and steel cap boots. I don't know if it's the same here, it's probably something pretty similar. If you're on a construction site, that's what you've got to wear. I did a lot of brand new apartment buildings and stuff like that.
So we would go in, everything would be done, landscaping's done, elevators are running, lights are all on, paint is done, everything's in except humans and furniture. And because it's still technically a construction site, you would have to wear your hard hat, glasses, hearing protection, gloves, high visibility vest, and steel cap boots in case you needed to kick someone or be seen by someone, be seen by the forklifts that weren't there anymore, all of that kind of stuff. Bump your head on something. So the thing that I would hate the most is when they're doing their final inspections and there's a light out and I would, because I'm going to a construction site that day, I'd have to wear my hard hat, my glasses, my gloves, my hearing protection, my high visibility shirt, my steel cap boots so I could change a light bulb in a finished apartment.
Now I see the point of your rules on a construction site but this should no longer be a construction site. It annoyed me like crazy and so I would just ignore some of them like I wouldn't wear a hard hat. Here's another one. This one's funnier. This one's better. This is something you can practice for yourself.
When you go to Chick-fil-A, which isn't going to be today, dang it, but you can do it any other day, you go there and you say thank you to a Chick-fil-A employee. They are obligated to say my pleasure and you can thank them again and they will say my pleasure. It is Chick-fil-A policy that if somebody thanks you, you must say my pleasure. So you thank someone and they give you their pleasure and then you thank them again and you say, no, seriously, thank you for what you do and they say my pleasure. You can try that one on repeat and it's an actual thing. Now, for the most part, that seems like a good policy until someone like me or Chet goes in and says thank you too many times and we start really frustrating some Chick-fil-A employees.
It feels like a dumb policy, but when you're a Chick-fil-A employee and that happens, is it really that hard to just submit to the rules? To submit to the wearing a hard hat? To submit to whatever it is? Maybe your company changes the rules on clocking in and it's now clunkier, it takes more time, it's frustrating, maybe it takes five minutes. Excellent. That's the first five minutes of your work day done.
It's going to frustrate you, but it's not that big of a deal. Workplace stuff is typically not that big of a deal. Now, realistically, even if your boss is unfair, even if he really is a jerk, nine times out of ten, 99 times out of 100, the right call is going to be follow the instructions of your boss. Even if they're frustrating, even if they're dumb, even if their policies are stupid, even if you disagree, the right call is going to be to follow your boss. It's a better witness, it shows them that you take them seriously, it honors them. Now, the fear God, honor your boss thing comes into play.
If your boss starts telling you, do things that are illegal, lie to clients, rip them off, steal things, then you have an obligation to fear God instead of honoring your boss. You may get fired. That might happen, but in that case, your boss is a jerk anyway. You get to move on with your life, and at least you've valued your dignity and relationship with God above your boss. Now, what happens if it's not just your boss, it's like a governmental thing? How do you fear God and honor the government?
That can be pretty difficult. The government makes you do a lot of things you don't really want to do. When you go to an airport, the TSA makes you take your shoes off, they make you take your laptop out of your bag, they make you chug your water, they make you do a full body scan, I don't want to do any of that. The Bush administration introduced the US Patriot Act, which meant that the government was essentially allowed to spy on all of its citizens. They could read text messages, record phone calls. Nobody really liked that.
The Obama administration introduced the Affordable Care Act, friendly one known as Obamacare. It forces a lot of people to pay extra things for healthcare that they wouldn't have previously purchased and they're now forced to. People don't like that. No one likes being told what they can and can't do. No one likes being told to take their shoes off when they think it's stupid. No one likes any of that stuff.
Government gets their hands into things all the time and we don't want our phone calls recorded. We don't want to take our shoes off. We don't want to pay extra charges because no one can tell me to do anything right. I have a right. I have individual rights. I have liberties.
This is unfair. The problem with that mentality of thinking is that at no point in time does the truth, at no point in time does the gospel ever emphasize individual rights. At no point in time. I know this is hard to stomach. This is hard to digest. This is very countercultural.
But at no point in time does Jesus, does Paul, does Peter, does God ever emphasize individual rights. It's just not in there. Let me be super specific, super clear, and abrasive. the only right, the only right that humans have, the only thing we can stand before, a holy God, the only thing that we can stand before him and force him to give us, the only right that we can demand from God, is his wrath and our punishment. punishment. The wages of sin is death. We all sin, we all deserve death, and the only right that we have, the only thing we can demand from God is that he punish us for it. It's the only thing.
Our individual right is that we be destroyed. The gospel does not emphasize individual rights. God has rights, Jesus has rights, he sacrificed those rights, he set them aside so that he could come down to earth, be tortured, be killed on our behalf to free us from sin. We only have any rights that are given to us by the free will of God. Outside of that, we have none. None.
We're never told in scripture to fight for our individual rights, we're never told in the gospel that we deserve anything outside of death. And so far, all the way through 1 Peter, all the way through this letter so far, he's told us that we're misfits. He's told us that even with the rights that America gives us, we have to be equipped to have them violated. Christians are equipped to suffer. Christians are the ones who are equipped most to not have rights anymore, to have their rights denied to them. that's the uncomfortable truth of the gospel. Now, while I'm up here being all abrasive and stuff, hypothetically, and just in case you are armed this morning, this is a hypothetical. hypothetical.
Hypothetically, the government may eventually, might, may eventually start imposing laws that impose on the Second Amendment. They would be an unpopular government. They would not be popular around Mill City Church, they would not be popular in the South, they would not be popular in much of America, but it could happen. They might start with ammunition, box limits, caliber restrictions, they might include crazy taxes on ammo, so you've got to pay through the nose to get what you want. Then they, once they're done with ammunition, they might come after automatic weapons, semi-automatic weapons, ARs, gone, can't have them anymore.
Then maybe they come for pistols, no more concealed carry, no more any, like you can't walk on the street anymore with a gun, done, can't even own a pistol anymore, too dangerous. Then they could come for shotguns, air rifles, BB guns, airsoft guns, pea shooters, pitchforks, sharp sticks, knives, whatever you've got, they're going to come for it. They could overrule the Second Amendment, they could introduce another amendment that says there's no more Second Amendment, they could do it all in one foul swoop, and then your right to bear arms is now gone. It is now illegal to own a gun. That would be a crazy day.
Most of you are probably thinking, over my dead body, right? That's the South mentality on this, but it could happen. What would Peter say to us, what would Peter say to Christians if that was to happen? I don't think you really need me to tell you. It's written there. You can read it.
It's written on the screen. Let's get it up on the screen. It says, be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution. Just got real, right? Not the most popular of thoughts, right? Now you feel why I thought this was going to be a hard sermon, right?
Peter tells us that unless the government is starkly opposed to God's law, unless starkly opposed to God's law, we submit to that human institution. In this case, if the Second Amendment was overruled, Peter would tell Christians, give back your guns. Unless it's opposed to God's law, we follow human laws. That is uncomfortable, right? Well, here's a reality check for us. Peter was writing in a different time.
We like to use this excuse sometimes that it doesn't apply to us because things were different for them back then. Everything was different. It's a different culture. It's a different whatever. Here's a reality check for us. Peter was writing to Christians in the time of Emperor Nero.
When he said, submit to human institutions, whether it be to emperors, supreme, or to governors, as sent by him, he was talking about Emperor Nero. When he said, fear God, honor the emperor, he was talking about Emperor Nero. Now, the history buffs in the room know that Emperor Nero has a pretty bad report. No one really liked him. Here's what Tacitus, Tacitus was a Roman historian. Here's what he wrote about Emperor Nero's treatment of Christians.
This is Nero when he was in power. This is how he treated Christians. Besides being put to death, they, that's Christians, besides being put to death, they were made to serve as objects of amusement. They were clothed in hides of beasts and torn to death by dogs. Others were crucified. Others set on fire to serve to illuminate the night when daylight failed.
Nero used Christians as candlesticks in his house. he continued, Tacitus continues, it was felt that they were being destroyed not for the public good, but to gratify the cruelty of an individual. That is the dude that Peter is saying submit to. That guy, Nero, using Christians as candlesticks in his house, Nero, submit to that guy. We hear all this stuff about submit to the government and we try to get out of it and we do whatever and he's saying submit to that guy. We fear tyrannical leadership. We fear what would happen if the government took too much power, too much control.
We fear tyrannical government. We don't even know what that means. We don't even know what that is. Peter was writing to the people with a tyrannical government, not us. Now, are there times when the government is wrong? Yes.
Should we stand up to them? Yes, I think so. But, it comes under this idea of fear God, honor the emperor. Fear God, honor the government. There must be an aspect of this is opposed to God's law, and that's why I'm standing up to it. You all know Martin Luther King Jr.
You know what he fought for. At the point in time when he was around, when he was a big name, the government was wrong. Racism was wrong. Segregation was wrong. The systematic oppression of black people was wrong. You all know that he pushed for civil disobedience.
He told his followers, to go out and deliberately break the law. He told them to do that. That would not be honoring the government. He told them to do that and to accept peacefully any of the consequences. But listen to what he says about it.
This is from his letter from a Birmingham jail in 1963. He writes, one who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice is in reality expressing the highest respect for law. If you peacefully break a law that is a government law and that law is opposed to God's law, do it openly, do it peacefully, accept the consequences, and hope that the community sees that the law is unjust.
That's what Martin Luther King said. His movement is one of very few examples, very few examples of a time when this concept of fear God, honor the government, was actually done well. It looked for him a whole lot more like a letter from prison than it did revolution. It looked a whole lot more like weakness than power. It looked a whole lot more like Jesus than Mel Gibson in the Patriot. God.
Now we're focusing pretty hard today on what it looks like to submit to every human institution while we're fearing God and we're honoring everyone. And I know that that's not easy. I know it's uncomfortable. I'm not telling you to ignore politics and not be politically active. Be politically active. Be involved.
Vote. Want good things for this country. That is a good and honorable thing. Use your voting power to influence the direction the country takes. We get to exercise these kinds of personal freedoms as the human institution that we submit to allows us to. The American government says you've got the freedom to vote.
Vote. But we have something so much better than control of the government. We have something so much better than control of the government. Being in control of the government, being in control of the government is not what Peter says is the goal. It's the exact opposite of that. He's telling us to be misfits, be outsiders.
The goal is to be who Christ has made us to be, in his image, living our lives to propagate the gospel. We weren't told to overthrow evil governments. We weren't told that. We were told to fear God and honor them. keep in mind that when he said that, he was talking about Nero. You want to talk about an evil leader, Nero's the guy. Fear God and honor Nero.
Fear God and honor the government. Like I said at the beginning, this is, for me, one of the toughest sections of scripture. And I know that as Americans, it rubs like sandpaper against you as well, your flag-waving, hot dog-eating, baseball-loving, NASCAR-attending souls. I know it's hard. This is the truth of what Peter's telling us this morning. As the band comes back up, I want us to know this from what Peter says.
The gospel is better. The gospel is more fulfilling and more powerful than individual rights. The gospel is better than your individual rights. There will be things that you have to submit to that you don't want to, but the gospel is better. Your hope, your hope is not in the USA. Your hope is not in some old, crusty documents signed in ink by old white men.
That is not where we put our hope. Our hope is in the cross signed with blood by the Son of God who sacrificed his rights on our behalf to free us from sin. When you have to take your shoes off at the airport, when you have to pay health care you don't want, when the government spies on your text messages, even if the government starts taking guns away, the gospel is bigger, better, and more powerful. Your identity in Christ supersedes your identity as an American. Your identity in Christ supersedes your individual rights. Your hope isn't in America.
Your hope is in Christ. Christ. That is what it means to be a misfit. That is what it means to be an elect exile. And that is what equips us, even when it's hard, to be subject to every human institution. Let's pray.
Father God, we humbly submit to you and know that it's your will that we submit to human institutions. I pray that as we leave today we can be convicted of the ways, the insignificant ways where we just set aside the law, set aside policies, set aside our bosses, set aside our parents, pray that we can repent of that. God, we want you to be the focus of everything in our lives. When you say submit to human authorities, Lord, I pray that we can take that seriously. God, we know that we have so much more in the gospel than we're offered by the government. We have so much more in the gospel than we're offered as Americans.
I pray that we can submit to you, submit to Christ, and know that all of our hope is found in him. It's in his name we pray. Amen. Amen.
Gospel Proclaiming Life
1 Peter 2:11-12
Transcript
My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here, and it's good to see everybody this morning. We're walking verse by verse through the book of 1 Peter right now. As we just kind of go through the summer, we're just studying this book, studying this letter that was written to a group of churches. One of the things about our culture that's a bit weird is we think that knowing something a lot of times is the same as believing it. So if you have information, if you know something, then you believe it.
But the reality is that if we know something, it doesn't always translate into believing it. If we believe something, we'll actually act on it. We'll actually do. Belief shows up in action. So I was eating sushi.
I like sushi. I don't like a lot of sushi. I like rice and avocado and a little piece of crab is kind of what I like when I say I like sushi. And it's good. And some cream cheese. That's what I like.
So I just described a California roll. That's what I like. But my brother had never, my younger brother Vince had never eaten sushi. And so we were eating. I told him it was good and he should try it. And so we were eating sushi.
And whenever they bring sushi, if you've ever eaten sushi, they bring the sushi out and it's cut up into little chunks. And then on your plate, there's usually some pink stuff that looks kind of like maybe some form of fish or like brain cells or something. And that's called ginger and that stuff is amazing. And then there's green stuff, which is terrible. That's called wasabi. It's made out of the same stuff they make cats out of, which is pure evil.
And I think in Japan, it's known as dragon snot because it's really, really spicy and fiery and terrible. And so we were eating sushi. And about midway through, I had an idea, which was I'm going to see if I can get my younger brother to eat as much of that green stuff as possible. It seemed like a great idea. So I told him, I was like, hey, man, I know you're eating that you like.
It's pretty good. You've got to try the green stuff. It is the best part about sushi. He was like, really? I was like, dude, yes, really. Would I ever lie to you?
I didn't put it on that heavy because he knows that I would. So I was just like, yeah, it's good. And I was being, you know, nonchalant. But I was like, yeah, it's good. And you should put it on there. And so he's like, OK.
You know, he's like, what is it? I was like, Play-Doh, because that's what it looks like. But he kind of, you know, he's holding his little thing. He pokes it in there and just kind of gets a little bit on there. And I was like, no, dude, you've got to. It's like gravy.
You've got to get in there. You've got to, it needs to be covered in it. And he's like, really? I was like, yes. Now, if he was observant, he would have noticed that I was halfway through my plate and had not touched that stuff. And I'm telling him it's like gravy and he should put it on everything.
And so he, I mean, he just smooshes it all down in there. It's covered. And I'm like, roll it around. Yeah, there you go. And so he sticks the sushi in his mouth. And for half a second, it was like, like he was thoughtful.
And then he went, and just, I mean, just all over his plate. It was really gross and hilarious. And then immediately, because I'm his older brother and I both want to trick him and train him. I was like, dude, look at my plate. I never touched it. It's a life lesson for you.
I care about you. I want you to learn. But the truth is, I didn't believe that wasabi is good. I still don't. And if I had, I would have done something. I would have eaten it.
I would have partaken in the goodness that is wasabi. And so when I'm explaining to him, you should like this. You should do this. He could have looked quickly at my plate and known, nah, you don't believe that. That isn't true. My wife knows this because every once in a while I'll be like, this is really good.
And she'll go, you eat it. And so every once in a while, if it's worth it, you just have to eat something really gross and act like you like it just to see their face later. Most of the time it's not worth it. And you're just like, nah, never mind. But it's not that good.
I lied to you. But that's what Peter, Peter's letter is kind of taking a turn. And here's what he's saying. He's been spending the first part, the first chapter that we kind of read through. He's been spending saying, this is who Jesus is. This is what he's accomplished.
This is who you are because of that. And then the rest of the letter and these few verses we've looked at last week and this week, he's turning and saying, okay, now in a very specific way, if you believe this, not just know it, but actually believe it. If it's really true for you, here's what life looks like. And he goes to some really specific situations. So he goes into work, to what it looks like just your day to day.
He goes marriage. He goes suffering, which is a universal thing for everybody. He goes, this is what life looks like in these very specific situations because this is true and because you believe it. And so that's the turn he's making. So what he's saying is, if you really believe that Jesus is the king of everything, that you were utterly sinful and in need of him and he died for you and that the only way you're okay is by faith in him.
And that since that, since he died and rose again, that you are secure forever because of the resurrection, that your hope is certain forever because of what he's already done and that you have a new identity. Then this is what it will look like. So it is not do these things and you'll get to be this. It is because this is true, because you actually believe this, because it's heart level foundational for you, life looks different. And so that's what we're looking at today. And specifically, he's going to talk about saying no to our passions, to our desires and saying yes to God's glory and the good of others through effort, through work, through deeds.
And so we're going to hop in 1 Peter chapter 2, page 657. If your Bible looks like this, it's very close to the back. It'll be close to the back in most Bibles, but really close to the back in this one. Okay. So 1 Peter 2 verses 11 and 12 is all we're looking at today.
And this is where he's really kind of making this turn. And then we'll see through the rest of the book, he gets way more practical because he's already said all the really big, beautiful, weighty stuff. And he's going to turn it into, okay, now if that's true, it's what life looks like. So I'm going to pray and then we'll read this together. God, we just thank you that we get to gather and study your word. We praise you that you are using this letter that was written so long ago that it wasn't just written to them, but it was also written for our benefit and for our good, for your whole church through history to study, to learn from, to grow and to know things about you and to know things about life and universal things like suffering that we need to grow in and be equipped for.
And so God, we just praise you and we pray that your Holy Spirit would work, that you would teach us, that we would grow as we study your word this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. 11 and 12, beloved. So again, he's talking identity. I urge you as sojourners and exiles, again, identity, it's who you are as these people. And we'll talk more about what he means by that in a minute.
To abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles. And really what he means there is the people who don't know Jesus, honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Let's read that one more time. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
Okay, so in our culture, we have a kind of a big narrative, which is that you are the sum of your desires. You are the most fulfilled version of you is the version of you that gets to do what you're passionate about. That gets to be who you were made to be. That you get to look inside of you and find whatever you like, whatever you love, whatever you desire. And if you get that, then that's where life and freedom are found. That's where joy is found in getting to pursue your passions and getting to chase after whatever it is that you feel inclined to go after.
That's freedom. That one of the biggest sins in our culture is to mute somebody, is to make it to where someone can't chase after their dreams. Can't pursue what they desire. So in every movie where there's like a love interest and there's like a super unhealthy relationship or this person cares about this person, the bad guy is the one that stands in the middle because he's limiting the freedom and the ability to choose and to chase after what would ultimately bring joy and freedom and fulfillment, this filling up of our passions and our desires. So we're told constantly that you just need to find out who you are and then fulfill that.
And that's where you'll find rest and peace and joy and life and freedom. That's where heaven is. Peace, really, is for you to figure out what it is you really care about, what it is you really want to be, who it is you, and then go do that, go accomplish that, go become that. And that's where you'll be free. That's where you'll have life. That's where joy will be found.
And we hear it all the time. Don't let them in. Don't let them see. Be the good girl you always have to be. Conceal. Don't feel.
Don't let them know. Well, now they know. It's time to see what I can do to test the limits and break through. No right, no wrong, no rules for me. I'm free. Let it go.
We're told this over and over again. No right, no wrong, no rules for me. I'm free. That I've looked inside of me. This is who I really am. And as long as I get to express that, as long as I get to chase after what I'm really passionate about, that's where freedom is found.
That's where joy is found. That's where life is found. That's what crickets sing to our children. That's what crazy ice witches sing to our children. She loses her mind when she gets up on top of that mountain. I'm sorry.
That song is scary when you watch her do it. But that's what, no right, no wrong, no rules for me. I'm free. I've broken through. I get to test the limits and see what I can do. I get to be all the me I can be.
And that's where freedom is found. And that's where life is found. And that's where fulfillment is found. And we're told that over and over again. And Peter in this section is directly addressing that and just putting the brakes on it and really saying, no, you misunderstand. That's not actually how your passions work.
That's not actually how your desires work. That's not actually where freedom and joy and life are found. So let's look at 11 again. Beloved. Which just is a fancy word for saying those who are loved or those that I love. I urge you.
I urge you. I plead with you. As sojourners and exiles. So, okay. I plead with you out of your identity. I plead with you as the people that you are.
And the people that you are as Christians, he's talking to Christians, he's talking to the church, are people who have trusted Jesus and said, because Jesus rescued me, my hope, my life, my freedom are found in him, not here. And I have an eternity of hope and life and freedom with him. And so all of those things aren't found here for me. Because of the resurrection, it's made certain and secure. And that's who I am. And so that's what he says.
Sojourners, exiles, what he means is your home isn't here. You're traveling through. So as those people rescued by Jesus with a different home, with a new king, with a new kingdom, a new nationality, a new nation. This is what it looks like. This out of your identity, out of what Jesus has already done. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain.
Which means don't partake in. Don't give in to. Abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Your passions, your desires, some of them are for good things. But they're all, they all get off and they all get twisted and they wage war against your soul.
Now when we wage war, there's really two goals. There's power. There's this aim to have control over a territory, a people. So there's ultimately like enslavement. And there's death. That's kind of the goal of war.
Now sometimes you're protecting. You say, well what about wars when you're defending yourself? Right, okay, but who started it? Okay, now we're Americans, so every once in a while we'll start a war in the name of defense. I know we do this. He was looking at us.
Had to take him down. But for the most part, throughout history, war is not a, it's not a defense thing. It is a enslavement, captivity, control, power, and death. That's what war brings. So your desires, isn't that scary?
Your desires are working to enslave you and kill you. You're the scariest thing in your house, so you need to lock your doors from you at night. Like you are dangerous to yourself. Your passions are at war in you. Jeremiah 17, 9, it's a prophet in the Old Testament. He says, The heart is deceitful above all things, desperately sick.
Who can understand it? Your heart, your desires, your passions have lied to you, led you astray, harmed you more than anything else has. Your passions, your desires seek to enslave you and wage war against you. And he says, fight it. Abstain from it. Don't partake in just chasing after your passions, chasing after your desires.
Now, okay, we see this clearly in things like drug addiction. It's a deep passion. It's a deep desire. It promises freedom. It promises joy. And what does it do?
It destroys. It robs you of life. It enslaves you. We see it clearly in things like that. We don't see it so clearly in pursuing success or financial comfort. But it does the exact same thing.
So if your overall goal is just to achieve, just to accept, to succeed, just to reach a certain status, and you think that if I get that, I'll be free. If I can just be free to pursue it, and if I receive it, if I actually achieve it, then I'll have life, then I'll have comfort, then I'll have peace, then I'll have freedom. Okay. So you do what? You spend your life. You spend your energy and your time, your livelihood, your effort, your life slaving away for it, working for it.
And here are your options. You fail. You aren't successful. You don't get the house you want, the promotion you want, the recognition you want. Does it forgive you? No, it crushes you.
You're not who you thought you would be. You're not who you dreamed you would be in high school. You're not, you never became more wealthy than your parents. You never achieved the recognition you thought you would get. And it crushes you. Or you stay really close to it your whole life.
And you spend your entire life slaving away for it. And it enslaves you. Or worse, you get it. And you realize that all the promises of life, all the promises of joy, of freedom, of success, of happiness, of rest, were lies. Because if the truth was that success and happiness and recognition and fame would fill us up, would make us complete, then Hollywood would be the happiest place in the world. Rock stars would be the happiest, most at peace, most at rest people that exist.
But we can just look and see that that's not true. See, our hearts are sick and twisted and bent. There's something deep-seated wrong with us. And we can't just trust our passions. Because humans are messed up. We know this, right?
There's a deep thinker of the 1900s and he says this. His name is Jack Handy. He says, I can picture in my mind a world without war. A world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world because they'd never expect it. He used to write deep thoughts for SNL.
But the truth is, we believe that there's something just off in humans. There's something just wrong with us. And that makes sense. Like I've been reading a book called Perilandra and this guy goes to another planet and he has to try to explain humans to a group of, to a civilization that doesn't understand sinfulness and greed and brokenness. And none of the conversations make sense and they keep asking him questions like, why would someone do that? Why would someone do that?
And he has to keep saying things. She's like, ah, because people only care about themselves. You know, because we're all messed up. And like we understand these things and we completely understand that if there was a world without war and without hate, we absolutely could attack it and take it over because they wouldn't expect it. That's brilliant. It's genius.
We could just have a new world. There's something off in us, twisted in us as all of a human race. And to sit and say, well, I trust myself and my passions won't lead me astray doesn't make any sense. And so what Peter says is your passions are actually at war against you to enslave you and destroy you. Now, some of us are caught up in sin, addicted to pornography. We get ourselves into unhealthy relationship after unhealthy relationship after unhealthy relationship.
We are constantly putting others down to make ourselves feel better, to make ourselves look better. We're constantly lying and posturing ourselves around to try to look better. And we're consistently just being defeated by sin. You're in a war. Your passions are at war with you. My dad would teach us as when we were growing up how to fight.
And one of the, he taught us a bunch of rules and he taught us equalizers. So I'll explain equalizers to you. Equalizers are things that you use to make a fight more equal. And more equal you mean in your advantage. So he would teach you things like, all right, if you're about to get in a fight and the guy's really big and he's going to beat the fool out of you.
So let's say a really big guy comes to you. You're in middle school. You know how middle school is where like some people hit puberty when they're 12 and grow a beard. And some people hit puberty when they're 14. And from 12 to 13, it's just terrible for them. And so just, you know, guys are, some are getting really big, really strong.
Some, you know, like especially with like guys that stay back a couple of grades and they like drive themselves to middle school. And so what he was saying was, one of those guys like pushes you and says, meet me in the bathroom. We're going to fight. He's like, don't fight him in the bathroom. He will beat the fool out of you and no one will stop it. Fight him in the middle of the cafeteria.
Just jump on him and start punching him and hope that teachers break it up really quickly. He said, now, if you're going to win the fight, sure, go fight in the bathroom. Fight out behind the gym. Fight somewhere where you can just beat someone up for a long time. But if you're going to lose, I think he would teach us things like a lunch tray is an equalizer.
People sitting down is an equalizer. People not looking at you is an equalizer. But one of the other things he taught us was that in a fight, the first punch is very important. And that if you can hit someone while, if you can be fighting while they're still talking, your chances of winning have increased exponentially. Now, I realize for all the teenage guys in this room, I've given you a bunch of unhelpful information that your parents will not have to try to undo. But the point is this.
Some of us are being destroyed by sin because we're still talking while it's fighting. Some of us are being owned by our passions and our flesh because we don't know we're in a war. Because you don't realize that your heart wants to enslave you and destroy you. And you're still talking and the war has already begun. The war for your soul has already begun. He's talking to Christians and he says, abstain from the passions of your flesh which wage war against your soul.
Think about it like war. Realize you're in a fight and you begin to be able to think about it more correctly when it comes to how you address sin in your life. You're not as comfortable with it. If a murderer is in your home, you don't think, well, he seems nice. Like if someone breaks in my house at night, I open a drawer and I get a 45, I don't poke my head out the door and go, hey man, what you up to? You broke the window.
Seems fishy. We cool? Anna, he says we cool. He's just going to hang out a little while. Can you stay down there? Can we just quarantine?
Let's make a deal. We'll stay here. You just hang out on that side of the house. But we do that with sin. Hey, can you just be a little controllable? Can you just be in this zone?
No creeping over, no taking over. Just a little bit, just an acceptable amount of slavery. Just an acceptable amount of death. Realize we're in a war. Your passions are out to enslave you and destroy you and own you and claim you and steal your soul and you'll be able to respond to it a little bit better. You begin to think about not making the same mistakes twice.
So what's what Peter says? He says, first thing, as those who have been changed by Jesus, don't just trust your heart. You know that Jesus had to die to change your heart, to rescue you, to redeem you. Don't just believe that the ideas you come up with are all good, are all valid. Take them to scripture. See if the God of the universe who is good and who loves you so much that he died for you tells you it's a good idea.
Begin to learn from him to see whether or not check your passions against scripture. Does this line up with you? I have a new heart because of Jesus. Does this line up? Is this something you're working in me or is it just me chasing after the same old stuff? Is this just passions of my flesh?
That's what it means by flesh is that it comes from you, not from the spirit, not from God working in you. So we begin to question our motives. We begin to question our hearts. And we abstain from all the stuff that's just our flesh trying to chase after something it wants. And we begin to line it up with scripture to see what it says. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul.
Keep your conduct among the Gentiles. Okay, Gentiles means all people who aren't Jewish. But when he's writing to the church, he means all people who aren't Christians, all people who don't believe what you believe. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Okay, now that seems weird. A couple of things.
One, there's a few things we just have to break down in that sentence before we can even really talk about it. One is, if you're doing good deeds, why are they saying mean things about you? Like that's just immediately, it's like, okay, what, if I'm being nice, they speak against me as an evildoer, but I'm doing good deeds. Why would they do that? Like, why would they mock me for doing good deeds? Really, being a Christian means you believe things that the culture doesn't believe.
And so people will say stuff like, well, religion's why we have so much war and so much pain and so much harm. Or if there weren't religions, then we would be okay. And when you're reacting to something in a situation, they'll act like you're dumb, you're simple, you're weak because of how you respond to things because of what you believe. And so what he's saying is be around long enough. Be in relationships with people long enough so that they actually move beyond their preconceptions and actually get to see how you live. How life affects you when things are good and when things are bad.
Be around people who don't know Jesus long enough so that they can begin to see what it looks like to know Jesus. So that eventually they'll glorify God, which means give him glory, honor him. The word glory in Hebrew actually just means weight so that God will have weightiness in their life. So if I showed up here today and one of you told me that my shirt was ugly, that would hurt me, hurt my heart. But if my wife had told me earlier that she liked it, she has more weight.
I don't really care what you think about my shirt. And you should check your face. But my wife has more weight. She has more sway in my life. And so what it means when it says to give God glory, it means that he has the most weight, the most sway, the most say over how our life works. And so he says that live a life around people who don't know Jesus so that at some point they'll know Jesus.
They'll become Christians. They'll place their faith in him. God will get glory and weight and sway in their life because they'll have seen how you lived. They'll have seen that you just didn't know stuff but you actually believed it because you did stuff because of how it showed up in your life. Now, immediately we think, okay, so what he means like be nice, be a kind person, be generous. And he does.
But I don't think many people look at you and go, you know what? You're so kind. I bet you really believe something deep down that I don't believe. I don't think that really happens that much. Because there are kind and friendly people who don't believe what we believe. There are generous people who don't believe what we believe.
He's going to actually, as he begins, because he's making the turn in this letter, he's going to say, no, no, no, here are deep things. Heart level things. Weighty things like how you deal with suffering. How you handle a job where you get no credit. You actually get blamed for things you didn't do. So let me ask you a question.
If you're in a job, how could you be in a job where you get no credit? Where you get blamed for things you didn't do. Where nobody appreciates you. Nobody appreciates your work. There seems like there's no room for advancement. How can you stay in that job and still have a good attitude?
How can you be willing to stay in the job in the first place? Immediately our cultural answers are like, I don't know, you're a moron. Seems like a good guess. You have low self-esteem so that you believe you deserve this. You just don't understand that there's room for advancement in other places. You've just become complacent.
How can, he's going to talk about marriage and he's going to talk about specifically wives with bad husbands. How can a wife stay in a relationship with a husband who's terrible? Maybe not physically abusive, but abusive. How can she stay in a relationship where he doesn't respect her or honor her or love her and still have hope and joy? She's scared. She somehow has a psychological thing going on that she believes she deserves it?
She's an idiot? And so Peter's going to go through this and what he's going to say is that no, it's actually a level deeper. It's beyond those surface level answers we give. I'm really competitive. I keep it in check because I don't want to be a jerk, but I'm very competitive. And so like when my wife and I got married, her mom gave us a Wii.
And so we'll play little like simple Wii games and I'll get way too into them. And my wife isn't very good at video games, so I will destroy her. And we'll be playing simple games and I'm like, oh yeah, son, because it's a Wii. So you got to like move your arms and stuff. And it's a little more dramatic than being like, oh yeah, son. So anyway, I'll be just beating her in like Wii tennis and just getting way too carried away in it.
Every once in a while, like because I'm gracious, I'll let her win. The worst thing though is when she is beating me and I am trying and she looks at me and says, you letting me win? And I'm like, yeah. Yeah. Sure am really nice right now, feeling generous. And I just want to beat her so much more in the game.
But like I take it too seriously. And she can lose at stuff and she doesn't care. She can lose a game and it doesn't bother her. It doesn't steal anything from her soul. Is that because she's simple minded? Weak spirited?
Is it because she's a fool? Is it because she's ignorant to how great winning is? No. It's because her heart and her soul and her worth are somewhere else. You wouldn't look at her and say, if she doesn't understand how great it is to dominate someone in a competitive child's game, she's weak minded and feeble. No, you'd say she just doesn't care.
Because she doesn't care. Her worth and value don't come from this. Like mine do. Apparently. I may need to think about that and repent some. And so actually what Peter is going to say, what he says as we read the rest of this, is that you can stay in a job, not get recognition.
You can live a life that the world would not look at you and say, look at how successful they are. And you can have people around you mocking you. You can spend a life not chasing after your passions. Not doing what everyone else around you is doing. You can actually spend a life where you do good things and say no to some of the stuff you desire because. You can suffer with joy and hope because.
You can be a wife in a bad marriage that is not good and you do not leave it because. Not because you're weak. Not because you're simple minded. Not because you're feeble. But because your hope and your anchor is somewhere so much deeper.
So much real. So far beyond this horizon that circumstances can't touch it. And let me tell you something. That's freedom. All the other things we chase after. We have to work.
We have to slave for. And it's all based off of circumstances. As to whether or not we have joy. As to whether or not we have life. As to whether or not we have freedom. And what Peter says is that because of what Jesus has done.
We can actually have our anchor sunk so deep. Our goal and our hope so far beyond the horizon. That circumstances can't touch it. And that's life. And that's freedom. Jimmy Fallon recently was at his house and fell.
And his ring got caught on the table and almost ripped his finger off. And he had to go to the hospital for a couple of days. And he read a book by Viktor Frankl called Man's Search for Meaning. And in that Viktor Frankl was a survivor of the Holocaust. And was in a concentration camp in Germany. And he writes about how people were able to get past.
Get out of. Actually thrive or survive the concentration camps. And what he said was it was the people who had hope that actually made it out. And then he kind of just through this book defines what that looks like. What hope looks like. And he talked about the people who just gave up.
He said the symptoms were often sudden. But you knew what to look for. They would do the call in the morning and they just wouldn't get out of bed. And no amount of urging or beating would get them out of bed. And they had just lost hope. Their spirit had absolutely broken.
And that was it for them. They weren't going to get up. They weren't going to follow commands anymore. And they were going to die. And he said there were two people. Types of people.
Who actually could have hope and make it out of the concentration camp. One who had their hope beyond the concentration camp. And he said it was often that they would get their life back. That this was some sort of a dark phase in life. But eventually they'd go back to being successful.
They'd go back to being well off. They'd go back to just having their home and their normal life. And he said many of them when they got out were actually worse off out than they were in. Because they realized that none of that was true. They didn't get their homes back. They didn't get their position back.
They didn't get their money back. They were not successful. Many of them became very depressed. And many of them committed suicide. And he said the third category were those who had their hope fixed beyond the horizon of this world. Who actually believed that there was a God who was good.
And who would work things for good. And that those were the ones that actually were okay in the concentration camps. And were okay when they got out. That their hope was set somewhere else. And that's what Peter is turning and beginning to say to us. Because our hope is so anchored in the cross.
Because our hope is forever anchored in an empty tomb. Because we have been made into a new person. Then we can live our lives saying no to our passions. Saying no to chasing after every whim of our lying heart. And we can actually live in such a way to proclaim God's glory and goodness to those around us through our actions. That we can actually believe it.
So that we eat the wasabi. That it's actually real to us. So we don't chase after what the world says brings hope. And we live our lives serving and loving others. Because we know that the chief end of human existence is to glorify God and to be with him forever. And that's the hope that we have.
That we would be attractional communities of people. So changed by God's grace. So wrecked by the gospel. That people around us would see our lives and eventually realize that there is something so deep. And so anchored. And so real.
That we don't respond to the world the same way. That we actually have a hope that's untouchable by circumstance. That we can be enslaved on earth. And still be more free than many people who aren't behind bars. Because our freedom doesn't come from us. It comes from Jesus.
It doesn't come from our what's going on around us. Our success. How people respond to us. It comes from something that's already been secured in the cross. And given to us fully and forever through Jesus. And that is actually where freedom and life and joy are found.
Because they're untouchable. And so that Christians would be people who've already been given everything. So they can lose nothing. I urge you as sojourners and exiles. I urge you to respond out of your identity. To abstain from the passions of the flesh.
Which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct. Which means live your lives. Among those who don't know Jesus. Among the Gentiles. Honorable.
So that when they speak against you as evildoers. They may see your good deeds. And glorify God on the day of visitation. Live in such a way around people. That eventually they'll trust Jesus. Because they'll see that you have something.
That circumstance doesn't touch. That suffering doesn't touch. That whether or not your marriage is a happy one doesn't touch. That whether or not your job is successful doesn't touch. And they'll see that you've been given such freedom. That even when earthly limitations are added.
It can't claim you. It can't own you. And that's real life. That's real joy. And that's real freedom. And that's what Peter's going to turn and say through the rest of this book.
That through Jesus. Through what he's done for us. We ultimately can be free. To not chase after small things. But to live our life for God's glory.
And that just joy and hope and peace and life found in that. The band's going to come back up. We're going to sing and make much of this God. Who has rescued us. Who has redeemed us. Who has turned us into a people.
Untouchable. Because of the cross. That our sin no longer claims us. Because he died for it. That we've been given a hope that is beyond the horizon. That we've been given freedom and life.
That circumstance can't touch. And so as Christians in this room. If you believe wasabi is good. Eat it. Take it from just knowledge. To sink into your heart for belief.
And live as if it's true. Don't chase after the passions of your flesh. That lead you astray and enslave you. Spend your life. Around people who don't know Jesus. For the glory of God.
Living in such a way. That you have freedom and life and joy. Regardless of your circumstances. And that's what we've been called into. And that's what we've been given through the cross. Through the resurrection.
That's the hope that we have. Let's pray. God we thank you. That we do have freedom and life and joy. Not by chasing after. Seeking to prove ourselves.
Or to find ourselves. We don't have to go claim an identity. You've already given us one in the cross. You've already given us one through Christ. We don't have to claim success. We don't have to claim the end.
You've already given it to us. You've already provided everything for us. And so God we praise you today as Christians. That you've given us everything. And that nothing can take it from us. We pray Lord that for our church family.
You would help us war against sin. War against our desires. That we would turn away from all the things. That seek to enslave us. And that we would bask in the freedom. That you've given us.
And we pray Lord that we would live our lives. Around people who don't know you. In genuine friendships. In real relationships. Where we get to love them. And walk through life when it's good.
And when it's bad. So that eventually. You might visit them. That eventually. They might give you glory. And that one day we'd all spend eternity.
With you. We love you and we praise you. In Jesus name. 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
Christ the Cornerstone
1 Peter 2:4-8
Transcript
Well, good morning. We're in First Peter. It'll be page 657. If your Bible looks like this, if your Bible doesn't look like this, it may be on page 657, but probably is not. But we are in, we're just walking verse by verse through the book of First Peter.
If you do not own a Bible, grab one of these, take it home with you. If you don't have a Bible with you, use this one today. But if you own one, leave it for someone else to take later who doesn't own one. But that's our gift to you this morning. We're walking verse by verse through the letter of First Peter. It's a letter written by the Apostle Peter to a group of churches in what is modern day Turkey, just kind of explaining to them what it looks like to live as Christians in a context, in a culture that is not Christian.
It doesn't have Christian values, doesn't have Christian beliefs, is not Christian. And so he's writing into that context to try to explain to them what it looks like to be faithful, to follow Jesus in the midst of a culture that's really not going to be favorable to it. When I was in, I played football in high school and I was decent. I wasn't terrible. I was decent and ended up being recruited to play football in college by several smaller schools, mostly schools I think that wanted to increase their team's GPA overall because that was really what I had going for me was grades more than football, I think.
But I ended up going to Presbyterian College and playing football there. And the original coach that recruited me, or the head coach at that time, his name was Tommy Spangler. And he was a very intense and angry person. And he liked defense and he oversaw the defense and was very good at defense, didn't care much about offense. And he was amazing when it came to figuring out a defense. To the point that when I was a freshman there and he was explaining the defense, we would have different blitz packages and they would change depending on where.
It would be a whole different thing. Same play. It would be called like, you know, our bomb blitz. And then if they just moved a little bit, he would change the whole thing. And I remember sitting in practice thinking, are all these older guys just nodding along like they know what he's talking about? Or do they actually know what he's talking about?
And he was very good at defense. And he, I mean, to the point, borderline genius. But he did not know how to talk to humans. So he had that not going for him. And I remember when I got there, I first learned way more colorful ways to use expletives that I had never even entered into a whole world of colorful ways to use language to harm people's souls that I had never, ever entered into before. And he was a very intense, very angry guy.
And the way he coached what he wanted out of his players was aggression and effort. That's basically it. If you were kind of angry and you tried hard, he would find a spot for you. And I fit perfectly into that realm. With him as head coach and all you needed was anger and aggression and effort, I was on that team. Like I could do that.
I could show up early to things. I could try to harm people. That was about all I had going for me. And then after my freshman year, we got a new head coach. And so when a head coach comes in, everything changes. Everything flows out of, off of the head coach.
And so this head coach is terrible. He wanted you to be good at football. And so I no longer fit well into the system. He wanted you to be like fast and athletic. And I no longer had a spot. I was like, oh, this is going to, this is terrible.
Because he came in and he was just a whole different setup. And the whole team changed. And what we found was after that first year, you either had guys that fit well under this coach or fit well under this coach. They either liked the way it was or they liked the way it was now. They liked what had been or they liked what was going on currently. And there wasn't a lot of wiggle room.
It was either you were in the new system or you were in the old system. You fit in the new system. You fit in the old system. And the head coach made all of the difference. And here's what we're going to see that Peter says as we read this passage today. He says that Jesus is the difference maker for all of history.
That he is the, what he's going to use the word is cornerstone. But he is what comes in and changes everything. And you either fit or you don't. You're either in the system or you're out of the system. And it's all based off of Jesus. And so as we read through today, we're going to see very clearly how divisive Jesus is.
And how everything flows off of and builds out of and out from him. So I'm going to pray and then we're going to hop into 1 Peter chapter 2. God, we thank you for the opportunity we have to study your word. And we pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would change us. Would lead us to believe. To trust fully in you.
And that as Christians, you would build us into your servants, your people. And that you would genuinely be our cornerstone for all of life. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. So Peter's going to start off in this section we're reading today.
Talking about what happens when you become a Christian. What it looks like for Christians when you come to Jesus. And then he's going to go into Jesus being the cornerstone. And kind of explain how divisive that is. So verse 4.
As you come to him. So Peter's writing to the church. He's talking to Christians. As you come to him. That's Jesus. A living stone.
Rejected by men. But in the sight of God. Chosen and precious. There he's referring to the cross. That Jesus came in. And he's just using living stone as imagery.
Jesus came into history. And was rejected by men. Came in as king. As God. Declared he was king and God. And men rejected him.
Didn't want him. And sent him to the cross. And that in that same moment. Of absolute rejection by men. God accepted his sacrifice on our behalf. That in the punishment that was placed on him for sin.
God chose him. He's precious to God. And he is definitive in history. As the. Savior and king. That he's.
Rejected by men. But chosen and precious. So as you come to him. Verse five. You yourselves. Like living stones.
Are being built up. As a spiritual house. To be a holy priesthood. To offer spiritual sacrifices. Acceptable to God. Through Jesus Christ.
Okay. So he just used three images there. From the Old Testament. Try to implant in our brains. What it looks like when we come to Jesus. So the three images are.
Spiritual house. Which he's talking about. The temple. Because he then links it to priests. And sacrifices. So in the Old Testament.
They had the temple. Which was the. The image and presence of God. In some ways. It's like it was. Not the image and presence of God.
Because God. Put his image on humans. But. When the temple was created. It was this. Sign.
This place. In Jerusalem. That showed. The active work. And presence of God. That that was where God.
Interacted. And chose to place the spirit. And interact with humans. Was in the temple. And so in the temple. You had.
The whole temple was holy. And only priests could go into certain parts of it. And then. There was. The holy of holies. And when you went into the holy of holies.
You had to tie a rope around yourself. Because it was possible. That God would kill you. If you went in. In an unholy way. In an unrepentant way.
And they would need to be able to get you out. That's why you had a rope tied around you. So that they could pull you out. Because no one would be able to go in and get you. Which just seems like a scary Job. All right.
You ready to go in? Yeah. All right. Tie the rope around you. Because we're not coming in after you. If he strikes you dead.
Like maybe you should wear a bell. So that we know. If you're still walking around in there. Like. Give two tugs. If you don't tug back.
We'll go ahead and start pulling you out. It just. So there was. There was the temple. Which was the active presence of God. Where he was.
Choosing to place his spirit into work. And then there were the priests. Who were the people of God. That were specifically to go before. God. On behalf of the people.
To serve. On behalf of the people. And the priest. Did not get an inheritance. And the inheritance was land. They didn't get any land.
Their inheritance was God. So their hope wasn't in land. It was in God. And so the priests. Would go before. God.
On behalf of people. And then the sacrifices. That they offered. Were to atone for people's sin. That they would. Kill.
Lambs. And bulls. And goats. And doves. On a regular basis. To cover the sin.
Of the people. And to. Bridge the gap. Between God. And man. And so.
Ultimately. We see in the New Testament. That Jesus is the absolute fulfillment. Of the temple. He is God's image and presence. Active work on earth.
He's the absolute fulfillment. Of the priests. Who were to go between God. And man. And he's the absolute fulfillment. Of the sacrifice.
Where he was perfect. And spotless. And died on our behalf. But. What Peter says. Is that in.
Some ways. When we come to God. When we come to Jesus. We are built up. Into the temple. Into the priests.
And into the sacrifices. So what that means is. Now the church. Is the active work. Of God on earth. The image.
And presence. His work. On earth. And. We're the priests. So we.
We get to go before God. On behalf of those around us. We get to go before God. On behalf of our co-workers. On behalf of our neighbors. On behalf of our city.
We get to. Go before God. And plead with him. To work on their behalf. That we get to sacrifice. For them.
And then it says. Offering spiritual sacrifices. Through Jesus Christ. Acceptable sacrifices. Through Jesus Christ. And that's honestly.
As Peter's going to. Talk about this. It's really all the other stuff. He's talking about. It's going to be. Suffering.
On behalf of other people. It's going to be. Being obedient. When we don't want to be. Following after Jesus. In so many ways.
It's. It's. It's. Really our entire lives. Poured out. For Jesus.
And for the good of those around us. And so Peter says. That when you come to Jesus. That's what he does. He builds you up. Into the spiritual house.
He makes you into this people. And so. That's why. We don't call this church. First of all. The word church.
Is the translation of the word. Ekklesia. Which means gathering. Or assembly. So. But we don't call this church.
Like when people say. Let's go to church. That actually doesn't make sense. That's why we don't have a temple. There's no one set place. Where God is active on earth anymore.
Because. He's. His spirit has come into his church. Into his people. That we are built up. Into the temple.
Into the priests. To offer sacrifices. So you don't go to church. We are the church. We are the. The people of God.
Built up into his active presence on earth. So you can't miss church. When people say. Yeah. I'm really busy. I'm not going to be able to do church for a while.
That sentence is completely incoherent. If you are a Christian. It doesn't make any sense. It would be like looking at my wife. And being like. Yeah.
I'm super busy. I'm not going to be able to do family for a while. I'm not going to be able to. People for a while. It's like. What are you talking about?
That doesn't make any sense. But we've been built into. His people. Into the church. That's why when people say. How good is it to be in the house of the Lord?
He doesn't have a house anymore. It's just people. We're not in his house. This place isn't holy. That's why we honestly don't mind meeting in a school. We like this school.
Because it actually is a nice auditorium. And it's not super expensive. But we can meet anywhere. As God's people. It doesn't have to be fancy. It doesn't have to be nice.
It doesn't have to be a sanctuary. It's not a holy place. Because his spirit has come into us. And made us into the church. So. Peter says.
This is what happens to believers. When you come to Jesus. And then he keeps going. Verse 6. For it stands in scripture. Now he's going to refer to.
Isaiah. Psalm. A Psalm. And Isaiah again. Behold. I am laying in Zion a stone.
Zion is another word used for Jerusalem. This is God speaking. Behold. I am laying in Zion a stone. A cornerstone. Chosen.
And precious. And whoever believes in him. Will not be put to shame. So the honor is for you who believe. But for those who do not believe.
The stone that the builders rejected. Has become the cornerstone. And a stone of stumbling. And a rock of offense. They stumble because they disobey the word. As they were destined to do.
So Peter very clearly says. Jesus is the cornerstone. And the two options. Are believe. Not believe. Those are the two options.
When it comes to Jesus. You either believe. Or you don't believe. Everybody in this room. Fits into one of those categories. You believe.
Or you don't believe. And then he is going to talk about. What it looks like. Specifically for those who believe. And for those who don't believe. And so he says that he is the cornerstone.
Now we don't use cornerstones anymore. The way they use cornerstones. If you look at certain buildings. There will be like a decorative cornerstone. That will be like. Built by the women of Edgefield South Carolina.
It is good. But that cornerstone wasn't actually useful. They had to like. Stick it in there later. The way they use cornerstones though. Was when they were building a building.
They would pick. The best stone. That was the most square. That was the largest. And best. And they would set it.
And once it was set. Everything else was built off of it. So the cornerstone. Was the most important stone. Because the rest of your building. Was built off of your cornerstone.
That you would set the cornerstone. And then every. All of your lines. Traced off. And went back to the cornerstone. So when he says that Jesus has been set in history as the cornerstone.
For those who believe. So behold I am laying in Zion a stone. A cornerstone chosen and precious. Chosen and precious. And whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. As Christians.
Here is what it means for us to set Jesus as the cornerstone. To believe in Jesus as the cornerstone. So if he is. The way the building is constructed. Here is how this works. What do you fall back on.
When things get out of whack. What do you run back to. To reline everything up. Because if he is the cornerstone. And you are building a building. And you get over here.
And suddenly things don't line up anymore. You trace your way back to the cornerstone. Because that is where everything is lined up with. And then you reset it based off of the cornerstone. So for a Christian.
Where do you run? Where do you run when life gets tough? What do you turn to. When everything seems like it is falling apart? Is it Jesus? Is it something else?
That is one of the ways to think about Jesus as the cornerstone. When everything goes poorly. Do you just try to control the situation? No matter how that works. Do you just try to regain your sense of. I am okay.
I have my hands on the wheel. We are alright. If I can just kind of manipulate. Maybe I have to lie a little bit. Maybe I will have to do some things. I am not really comfortable with.
But I got to regain a sense of control. You just. When there is conflict. When there is difficulty. You just go power. You go flash bang grenade.
Is that you? You throw plates at your house? This is a safe place. You can raise your hand. I am just kidding. It is a safe place.
But don't raise your hand. Talk about it with your group. If you are a plate thrower. But what do you do? What do you lean into? Some of you when life gets tough.
It is just going to be Netflix. Netflix and Cheetos. Napping. Like that is your go to. I am going to watch Daredevil. And drink a half a bottle of Z-Qual.
And hope everything is good in the morning. What do you run back to? Because if Jesus is the cornerstone. He is where we turn back. He is where we run. To reset our life.
The other way that you can think about Jesus as a cornerstone. Is how do you move forward? So if he is the cornerstone. You build off of him. How do you move forward? So for Christians we would say.
Okay Jesus is king. He is God. He is everything. We know that he is revealed to us through his word. So I am going to study scripture.
And I am going to begin to see what my values. My priorities ought to be. How I ought to view the world. How I ought to understand purpose. Then I am going to think about what kind of major I should have.
Then I am going to think about what kind of Job I should get. Then I am going to think about what marriage ought to look like. Then I am going to think about how I ought to raise children. And when things get out of whack. I am just going to work back through the process. Back to Jesus.
Back to how things are set up. That is what it means for Christians who believe in Jesus as a cornerstone. Is that we set our lives off of him. And here is what is beautiful about that. Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. It will not go badly for us.
In the long run. Peter is not going to say it will not go badly for us in the short run. He is actually going to talk a lot about how we will suffer. And things will go badly for us here. But that ultimately.
We won't be put to shame. That Jesus stepped in to save us. To rescue us. To make us his. That he died on our behalf. And that if we trust him.
He is the cornerstone. He is the foundation. And it will work out. That we will be rescued. That things will be okay. Okay.
But then he says this. So the honor is for you who believe. But for those who do not believe. So mostly on Sundays. We are talking to church family. We are talking to Christians.
Because the Bible mostly talks to Christians. And we believe that we all grow. As we study the gospel. As we grow in our understanding of who Jesus is. And what he has done. So we don't as a church family do a whole lot of.
Come be a Christian. Here is what it looks like to be a Christian. Because honestly they are very similar. It is always the gospel that moves us forward. So if you are not a Christian.
You need to hear the gospel. And if you are a Christian. You need to hear the gospel. But as Peter is walking through this. He splits it up. And very clearly says.
This is for those who believe. This is for those who don't believe. So for those who do not believe. The stone that the builders rejected. Has become the cornerstone. So builders being humans.
Didn't like Jesus. Didn't want him to be the cornerstone. Didn't want everything to be built off of him. Didn't think that was a good idea. And so they rejected him. And then God.
Because he is God. And can do what he wants. Made him the cornerstone. And said he sits in history as the cornerstone. That all of life is built off of. It says this.
So he is the cornerstone. And a stone of stumbling. And a rock of offense. They stumble because they disobey the word. As they were destined to do. Jesus is offensive.
We've said this before. Most of our culture. Maybe some of you in here today. You know two things about Jesus. That he was the nicest person ever. That if you met Jesus.
He would hug you. Y'all would laugh together. He was just wonderful. And you know that he was brutally murdered. By people who hate him. And those aren't super coherent thought processes.
Because it's not like. You know that lady lives down the street. She's a grandmother to like 12 kids. She's got a lot of enemies. People hate her. And I think it's because.
She gave him oatmeal raisin cookies. And they thought they were chocolate chip. Good enough reason to kill anybody. No. Those aren't really coherent. There's not a.
There's not a. Super nice. And. People hate you. Want to murder you. They don't really go together.
There weren't people just walking around. Being like. I am so ticked off at Mother Teresa right now. Don't even get me started. Hugging orphans. It's going down.
Oh my goodness. Like it doesn't happen. Jesus was offensive. And he is offensive. To all cultures. In all times.
In all places. Always. There will always be. In any culture. Acceptance of some things. That the Bible says.
Acceptance of some things. That Jesus is about. And rejection. And offense at others. And I'll give you an example. In our culture.
In the U.S. of A. If we talk about. God is loving. Amen. God's gracious. He forgives you.
Hallelujah. He died for you. Yeah he did. That sounds good. He's humble. Yes.
He forgives. Everything. Yes. And he's a judge. That sits over top of sin. That sits over top of all history.
And you are declared guilty. Because you fall short. Whoa. And he sends people to hell. Hmm. I don't like that.
That doesn't sound super good to me. But if you move that. If you move this personal God. Who's gracious and loving and forgiving. And Judges sin. And has wrath for sinners.
And sends people to hell. To the Middle East. They have the opposite problem. God's a judge. Yeah he is. God is wrathful.
Yes he is. God destroys people. Yes. God will crush his enemies. Yes. God will send people to hell.
Yes. God is gracious. Loving. Humble. Personal. And he came and died for you.
No. That's nonsense. That's incoherent. Why would he forgive. Those who don't deserve it. Why would he love.
And redeem those who haven't earned it. This is ridiculous. And he's not personal. And he's not loving like that. And he wouldn't die like that. And it's ridiculous for you to think.
That the great creator of the earth. Would humble himself to the point of death. It's nonsense. See that's offensive. In the Middle East. At all points.
Jesus is going to offend your culture. In some ways. And so today. We're going to take. Just a second. To look at three ways.
That I think he is specifically offensive. To us as Americans. Three ways that Jesus is offensive. Now he's offensive in these ways. To other cultures as well. But we're Americans.
All but one of us. That I'm aware of. And. We're going to look at. Ways that he is offensive. Specifically to us.
In our western culture. Jesus is offensive. Because he claims supremacy. Jesus says that he is the king. Of everything. You see some of us are going to believe this.
And some of us are going to not believe it. And stumble. Some of us are going to believe. And build our lives off of it. And some of us are going to not believe. And stumble over it.
Be offended by it. That's how it works. And Jesus proclaims that he is supreme. That all other gods. All other philosophies. All other thought processes.
Bow before him. And that ultimately. His enemies will be his footstool. You walk into a king's chamber. And there is a former king. Bent over.
On all fours. And the king props his feet. On his back. The king with his feet. On his back. Is the one in charge.
That's how it works. And Jesus eventually. Will have his enemies. Be his footstool. He is supreme. And our culture likes to say.
No, no, no. All views of God are equal. We're all like blind men. Trying to describe an elephant. Y'all heard this before? Religion is like a bunch of blind men.
Trying to describe an elephant. So one guy is holding the trunk. And he says. An elephant is like a snake. And one guy is pushing on the side of the elephant. And he says.
An elephant is like a great big wall. And one guy is holding the elephant's tail. And he says. An elephant is furry and small. Like a mouse. And he doesn't smell so good.
But the truth is. When we say stuff like that. What we have assumed. Whoever argues this. Is true about religion. What they have assumed is.
The only way you can tell that story. Is if you are not blind. And you can see the elephant. And so their complaint. That they're levying against religion. Is that it claims to see spiritual reality.
And the way that they do that. Is by claiming to see spiritual reality. See we don't like the idea. That somebody has. A hold on truth. That is real.
And that is supreme. And Jesus steps into our culture. And says. I don't care. I am the king of everything. I rule and I reign.
Over everything. And all knees will bow to me. And all tongues will proclaim. That I am king. And that is how it is going to work. And that ultimately.
I will return. And everything will submit. To my authority. Fully and forever. And our culture doesn't like that. And we will either.
Believe it. And build our lives off of that truth. Or we will not believe it. Be offended by it. And stumble over it. Jesus is offensive to our culture.
Specifically. And that he Judges sin. So our culture will get on board. With the statement. That we are all human. And we all make mistakes.
But then we start getting into this. But. There is no real objective. Right and wrong. Like you have got to choose for yourself. You have got to figure out for you.
What is right and wrong. You have got to look. And decide for you. What is right and wrong. And that different. Who is to say.
What is right and wrong. But even in that. We would. All of us in this room. If you have genuinely sat. And answered the question.
Do I believe. That there are things. That are actually. That people are doing. In this world. That they should actually stop.
Regardless of whether or not. They think it is right or wrong. That there are things going on. Currently in this world. That people should stop. Or be stopped.
Whether they think it is right or wrong. That Boko Haram should be stopped. That the Nigerian girls. Should be returned. That ISIS should be stopped. That child soldiers.
Should be like. There are certain things. That we will look. And say sex slavery. And trafficking. Should be stopped.
And we will look. And say I don't care. If they think it is okay. I don't care. Like. So we admit.
That there is an objective reality. And here is what Jesus does. He steps in and says. That the objective reality. Belongs to him. That the objective ruling.
Belongs to him. And that he Judges us. Based off of it. And that all of us. Fall short. That Gandhi.
And Mother Teresa. Fall short. And will be judged. And will be held accountable. For their failings. Will be held accountable.
For. All the bad things. That they did. All the times they lied. Stole. Cheated.
Whether they were. Mostly good in life. They will be held accountable. For where they fell short. All the good things. That they did not do.
That they should have done. And all of the times. That they did good things. With messed up motives. All the times. That we were generous.
Just because we wanted people. To think we were generous. All the times. That we were. Really gracious. To somebody.
Because we really just wanted them. To like us. Had nothing to do with generosity. Had nothing to do with graciousness. Had nothing to do with kindness. It was just about us.
And that ultimately. Jesus sits as judge. Over all of that. There's a video now. Out by Stephen Fry. Who's a British actor.
And he was asked. I think. Some along the lines of. What would he do. If he met God. God.
And he goes into a three to five minute. Tirade. Probably the best way to describe it. And in that. He sits in judgment over God. And says.
I would. I would take him to task over. This. And this. And this. And this.
And if he is real. I have no desire to believe in him. Because of. The things I see in the world. That I dislike. And our culture.
Does that quite often. We say. Well if there is a God. Then this is messed up. And if Jesus is a God. Then he shouldn't do this.
And this isn't okay. And what we have done. Is elevated ourself. To the judgment seat. And we've. Lowered God.
And we've lowered Jesus below us. And we get to pass judgment on him. And so people will say stuff like. Who does Jesus think he is to judge me. Who are you to judge him. Honestly.
Any person in this room. If we were going to choose. Who got to be judged. Just based off of name recognition alone. I think Jesus wins. Time magazine.
Man of the millennium. If we got to pick judge. Probably not you. I mean sure. You're super smart. You did eighth grade twice.
And you don't really know how to do your family budget. And you should be judge and king over the world. But. But Jesus. Shouldn't. And our culture doesn't like.
That he's going to roll up one day. And everything's going to be based off of what he says is right. And what he says is true. And what he says is good. And honestly. We are either going to believe.
And build our life off of him. Or we're going to not believe. Stumble. And be offended. Another way that Jesus is. Specifically offensive to our culture.
Is the exclusivity of the cross. So we hear quite often. That. Always lead to God. That everything you believe is just as valid as someone else's belief. And that all gods are basically equal.
That all God. All belief in God. All gods are the same. Which honestly. If we brought an imam up here. A rabbi up here.
And a Buddhist monk up here. We would all heartily disagree. That all gods are equal and the same. Buddhists don't believe in a personal God. An imam wouldn't believe that God would die. A rabbi is not going to believe that God is Jesus.
Or that Jesus is God. We're not going to agree. That all gods are basically the same. And here's what's really funny about that statement as well. What you are saying is. Your view of spiritual reality.
To say that there is one spiritual reality. And to push that onto other people. Isn't true. Isn't okay. And the way I know that. Is by saying that my view of spiritual reality.
Is true and okay. Your definitive view of spiritual reality. That you push onto other people. Isn't okay. But my definitive view of spiritual reality is.
Does that make sense? That you're making a definitive statement about spiritual reality. When you say that all gods are the same. The same way that Jesus makes a definitive statement about spiritual reality. When he says he is the only God and king forever. And so as long as we'll agree that we're all on the same page.
That we have an exclusive belief on the spiritual reality. And I think we're okay. And here's what Jesus is going to do. Here's what he says. Here's what the Bible definitively declares. Only Jesus can rescue you.
Only Jesus can redeem you. Only Jesus can make you okay. Only Jesus can sacrifice for you. Only Jesus can pay for your sin. Not your morals. Not your goodness.
Not your philosophy. Not your niceness. Not your ability to be intelligent. Jesus. Through the cross. And only through the cross.
Jesus can rescue and redeem you. Jesus and only Jesus is the cornerstone of all of history in the world. And we're either going to believe that and build our lives off of him. Or we're going to stumble and be offended by him. The band's going to come back up. And we're going to sing and make much of Jesus who is.
Our cornerstone. And for Christians in this room. Realize that Jesus is building you into his active work on earth. That you have a purpose. That you have a purpose. Because he's making us into his active presence and work on earth for the good of those around us.
That we get to be a new priest. Who get to serve not on our behalf but on the behalf of others. And that we get to pour our lives out in sacrifices. For the good of those around us. That you're in your job. In your neighborhood.
In this city. In your community group. For the good of those around you. And for every person. In this room. Who does not believe.
I'd like to ask you to believe. Not know. Not have all the answers. Not see everything. But believe.
Place your hope in Jesus. Jesus. And here's why. He is supreme. He is the ruling. Reigning.
King of the universe. Creator of all things. That all things bow to him. That all things belong to him. That he is supreme. Above all thought processes.
All philosophies. And all gods. That is true. You are broken. You do fall short. You have not lived up.
To the objective standards. Of the ruling. Reigning king of the universe. And you will be judged. And found guilty. You don't even live up.
To your own. Really small standards. That you set for yourself. And the ruling. Reigning king of the universe. Has higher ones.
And you have lived your life. In rebellion. In defiance. In pride. And selfishness. Elevating yourself above him.
It is true. He is the definitive. Cornerstone. Of the universe. And. The ruling.
Reigning. Supreme king. Of all things. Humbled himself. And became a human. Lived.
And. The way you never could have lived. Not in defiance. Not in pride. Not in rebellion. In kindness.
And grace. And love. And acceptance. And then he took. All of your pride. All of your rebellion.
All of your defiance. All of your lust. All of your greed. All of your selfishness. All of your shame. All of your guilt.
All of your guilt. Onto himself. And he died for it. and through that sacrifice we can be made right before God through that sacrifice we can stand before the ruling reigning king of the universe and be made okay and be declared innocent and holy and blameless we can have our account swapped with Jesus's and every person in this room will believe and not be put to shame or will stumble in disobedience and be destroyed this passage doesn't talk about it but I think it's helpful for us to know this every single one of us when God designed the world we're designed to exist for eternity and through our rebellion we brought death into the world but ultimately our souls will live on and on and on and on and on forever and those who place their trust and their hope in Jesus not their intelligence not their morality not their goodness not their philosophy not their ability not themselves but in Jesus will be welcomed because he's paid for our debt and we'll spend eternity living on and on and on in his family in his kingdom in his grace and his love and his forgiveness will swallow us in joy and hope forever because of the cross because of the death and because of the resurrection that forever sealed this for us through Jesus and those of us who are offended by Jesus and stumble over him will pay the due penalty of our rebellion of our pride of our selfishness of our self-sufficiency in eternity in hell eternity in a what the bible describes as a lake of fire where the fire is not quenched and the internal torment never stops and we will live there on and on and on and on and on and on Jesus is the cornerstone of history and for christians we want everyone to know that and everyone to spend eternity with him if you are a christian in the room you have been built into a new temple a new active presence of God on earth where you are a priest who no longer has an inheritance here but God is your inheritance and you exist for the good of those around you to sacrifice for their good because every single one of your neighbors every single one of your co-workers every single person in our city will either believe in him and not be put to shame or will stumble and fall over him and be offended by him and when the bible talks about cornerstone in other places it says it will be crushed by him that his enemies will be his footstool that all of us will be judged by the supreme king of the universe who has done enough to rescue us who has absolutely redeemed and saved us and that is the point of history is to worship and follow God for his glory and for the good of those around us as christians that we might believe in him and see everyone else around us believe it matters it's real he is supreme he is the judge and he did save us if we believe and if you're in this room you can be saved not by your morality not by your goodness but you can be saved from your sin and from the ruling reigning king of the universe who will have wrath on those in rebellion if you believe if you trust in what Jesus has already done for you on the cross and that is true for every person in this room and every person you will ever see every person you will ever work with every person you will ever live near that is true and ultimately our days are fleeting it will be over we will face the cornerstone and the king of the universe and either be saved by his absolute grace and sacrifice on our behalf or stumble over him in our offense at him where we have been sat in judgment over him in our pride and self-sufficiency and be crushed and I'd like to ask you if you're in this room believe trust Jesus no other God no other thing in this world that you can chase after forgives you loves you and died for you as Jesus has and if you're in this room and you're a christian realize that you're being built up to be God's active presence on earth for the good of those around you to sacrifice your life for his glory for their good because it's all at the end of the day God we pray that you'd help us believe that you through your holy spirit would give us faith and Lord that because this church exists because our community groups exist that less people in our city will be offended less people in our neighborhoods less friends that we know and love and less family members will stumble and be offended will stumble and be crushed and that Lord more and more and more people will believe in the sacrifice and the atonement that's already been given freely for them and we praise you that you did die on a cross instead of crushing us that you Jesus was crushed for us that you've given us a way of hope and that he rose from the grave forever sealing that hope for us that it is sure and secure as sure and secure as he lives now before you interceding on our behalf and so God we pray that you'd help us believe and set our lives around you in Jesus name amen
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.
Elect Exiles
1 Peter 1:1-2
Transcript
Well, good morning. We're going to do something as we get started today, right where you are, kind of either some people in front of you or people on your row, maybe in the row behind you. I want you to talk about, just for a second, some areas where the culture, like our mainstream American culture and the church, don't line up. So just some, maybe some values, priorities, some issues going on right now, just where the church and the culture are just on two separate pages. Maybe there's some conflict or some frustration. So just talk about that for a second and we'll see what we come up with.
So you got about two minutes to do that. They have homework. This doesn't make a friend time. So just talk about stuff and figure out what you're doing... Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Okay, so just what's portrayed in movies, what's okay, what's not okay, values shown there. Yeah, absolutely. Divorce? Yes. Okay. So, and again, that goes in with purpose of marriage.
So is it primarily about happiness of the couple? Is it primarily about the flourishing of our nation and the family unit? Like what's there? So, yeah, that affects how we view divorce and marriage. And anything else? Anything else?
Right. Okay. Yeah. So just judgmentalism versus maybe the tolerance, intolerant kind of debate that's going on currently. And then we're all over the place. And so even just that short amount of time we're able to come up with, yeah, there's some areas where our culture is here and the church is over here.
We just, we don't mesh. We don't line up. And I mean, you can go from, so abortion, gender, sexuality issues, marriage, family, divorce, how we view power, how we treat foreigners, or as we graciously call them, illegal aliens or just illegals. Yeah. So how we treat the poor, how we treat the environment.
There's a lot of things that the Bible is going to say that affect how we view these things. And our culture is just going to be in a different area there. So, so absolutely. And the truth is that gap has continued to widen the gap between our, our culture and the church, our, our American culture and the church's culture, the church's values, priorities, beliefs has, has continued to widen the truth. The reality is this, your parents, grandparents, great grandparents, just kind of dependent on the, the, uh, generation we're talking to your parents, great grandparents, grandparents, whether they were a part of a church, believed that the Bible was God's word, followed Jesus or weren't.
They most likely lined up very similarly when it came to major values, priorities, when it came to views on sex and marriage, when it came to views on, uh, how we ought to, um, run a country in some ways. Like there's some, there's just some major, they were everybody in the, in the U S for most of the U S's history was playing off of the same Judeo Christian sheet of music. And that has changed that, that, that we all know that we're created by God and that that has implications on our lives has, has changed culture. And the church have continually drifted apart from one another. One, one, um, author I was reading, put it this way.
He said that where we find ourselves now in the U S is this, that we've been playing a cultural game of musical chairs. And in the last round, when the music stopped playing, the church tried to sit down and didn't have a chair. We got pushed off our chair and then we're doing that like awkwardly standing next to the chair, realizing we lost thing. We don't know to put our hands in our pockets. Are we supposed to laugh or look mad? Like we're, we're just kind of in this weird, we no longer have a seat at the table.
So when, when the culturally, the church used to hold a position of power, uh, and prominence and got brought in on social issues, got brought in on how we ought to view things, how we ought to set legislature, how we ought to handle schooling, how we ought to handle big social norms for our culture. The church used to have a seat at the table and doesn't anymore. The church doesn't anymore. That gap has continued to widen and the church, those who genuinely believe and follow Jesus are our minority in the U S less so in Columbia, even less so in South Carolina. But when it comes to the U S it's a minority.
Now you will hear people say the church in the U S is being persecuted. They're attacking us. No, no, they're not. They make fun of us. And sometimes we're an easy target, but what's really happened is the majority of our culture in the U S viewpoints have changed. They're no longer looking to scripture or this basic idea of Judeo Christian values to make decisions on social issues, to make decisions on schooling, to make decisions.
And so the church that used to have a seat at the table and doesn't anymore is frustrated. We're supposed to be in on this meeting. We're supposed to be in on this decision. You're supposed to counsel us when it comes to these. And we're just not invited to the party anymore. We're not being persecuted.
We just don't, we're a minority and we're not used to it. And that's going to continue to happen. The number of people who Mark none on religious preference is, is skyrocketing. And the number of people who Mark Christian is dropping. Now, a lot of that has to do with, they weren't actually Christians. They just knew they weren't Jewish or Islamic and they celebrate Christmas.
So I'm not Christian, but there's no benefit now to saying you're a Christian if you're not. So it used to be like when, when John F. Kennedy ran for president and it was a big deal that he was a Catholic and not a Protestant. And now coming out and say, I'm a Christian and I believe that there is a God who speaks and I, his word has implications on my life affects how you run a, a, a political campaign and it actually automatically gives you enemies. And there's less of cultural clout by just saying I'm a Christian because that gap has continued to widen. So most of us aren't going to face persecution.
They're not coming in here today to round us up, to beat us, to imprison us like they do in other areas of the world. I'm very thankful for that, but we are kind of made fun of. We, we do get mocked in mainstream entertainment and media. Um, our views aren't really understood. So you'll get in conversations with people and they find out I'm a Christian and like more than just a, Oh, I'm a Christian.
Cause I'm, I'm a U S citizen more of a, I'm an actual Christian who reads the Bible and believe it affects my life. They automatically, like, I can just feel that the conversation just got weird. So I met my neighbors and told them that we were planning a church and immediately it was like a lobster had crawled out of my ears. Like they, they were just like, Oh, and you could see them just like the gears in their head turning. And we were having a good conversation and they had said that they were excited that some people their age had moved into the neighborhood and they were like, what are y'all here for?
Why are you, you know? And I said, well, we actually moved here. We're going to be starting a church. And they were like, it was, they had no, like immediately felt alienated from us. Hadn't like, it's like, I don't even know how to talk to you anymore. I just feel like you're probably upset with me about things.
Like I, all I know about Christians is what I've seen on TV. And so I'm pretty sure you might be a bigot or, or a jerk. And in the least you're, you're being condescending to me. Cause I said a swear word earlier, like there's just this weird tension that's there. It's not uncommon for if you were on a college campus and you were a part of a random study group or you got put into groups and you're all getting to know each other. And someone said, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm Islamic.
Like it means a lot to me. It's a, I'm devout. And there's a little bit of like, man, I appreciate that you really genuinely care about your faith and you're devout and that affects how you handle things. Now you might have some redneck in your group. That's like very offensive to that person. But for the most part, there's like an appreciation for you really care and believe these things.
And if you're like, well, I'm a, I'm a devout Christian. It's like, oh, good. I'm glad the bigot joined our group. I bet you think we're all going to hell. And it's like, uh, what? Y'all aren't proud of me for being devout.
Like why does, why am I suddenly? And there's just, there's that tension. I remember I was working at Sears before I got laid off and, um, I was talking to a guy who was while we were planting the church. And so I was working on a sermon and I said, I was working on a sermon. I was asking him a question cause I was working on a, on a sermon illustration. I said, yeah, so I'm reading I'm asking this.
I'm working on a sermon. And he said, what the, uh, he used the word I'm not allowed to use up here. He said, what the is a sermon? And I was like, oh, I'm going to open the Bible, read part of it. And then we're going to talk about it in the context of a church. And he was like, you're a Christian.
And I was like, yeah. He goes, you believe all that Jesus stuff. It's like, yes. And we were friends. But from then on, we'd be doing something and somebody would come in and be rude and they'd leave.
And he'd look at me and go, that guy's going to hell, right? Like he wanted me to confirm it. I'm the Christian. What's it say about rude people? Well, Leviticus says this, like he, he, he would say stuff to me, like something would be working. He'd be like, Hey, pray to Jesus about it.
Like, you know, it's like, and he didn't realize that like, but his view on me had changed and there's just this difference. He didn't understand what I, what I believe. I remember meeting a girl in Lynchburg when I was going to seminary there and working at Sears. We were meeting, we were just kind of talking a little bit, you know, we're working together and said, I was a Christian. I was studying at seminary. And she said, oh, and I don't remember her exact words, but it was something along the lines of, oh, so you believe that all homosexuals are going to hell.
And it was just like, ah, this conversation just increased in intensity. And just because I said, I'm a Christian, you've now have assumed things. It's just like we, and that's the way it works in our culture. Now, not rounding us up, not beating us. We are made fun of. We are misunderstood in some ways.
The church has been kind of whiny about it. And I don't think we should be whiny about it, but I do think we ought to learn how to, how to respond. And that's one of the reasons we're reading first Peter, because that's, that's actually who he's talking to now to be fair. And for the Christians in this room, and I know there's some people in here who aren't Christians, you're checking this thing out. That's beautiful, but I'm talking to the Christians. You realize what we believe sounds weird, right?
Like, if we're just going to be honest, y'all know that, right? Like, I've devoted my life to this. But when you're talking to someone who doesn't believe it, and you get in the conversation, it's like, yeah, okay, so the world didn't exist, and there was a God who did exist. Where'd he come from? I don't know. He just was always there.
How's that work? Beats me. He's God. He's really big. He breathed the world into existence, spoke it, named all the stars, named all the planets. This, this ever expanding universe, we know that he holds it in his hand.
He breathed it into existence, and everything was good. And, and then two, two humans ate from a tree. They were naked humans, and they ate from a tree. And then when they ate from the tree, they realized that they were naked. And, and that, that rebellion, because they didn't obey, because they didn't follow him and trust him in that relationship, that fractured the world so that ever since then, we've taken the good things that God has given us, and we've turned them into, into bad things, and we've used them for evil, and that we're all functionally evil, that we're born that way. I have a two-month-old son.
He's born evil. He would, he's small, but he's evil. I heard someone say that, that babies would kill you if they could, and I think that's true. There are times when it's like, I haven't fed him soon enough, and he would assault me. He's just too small. But we're born that way, and that, that this was a huge problem, and the God of the universe had wrath towards our rebellion, but he loved us.
So he became a human, a Jewish human, 2,000 years ago, who didn't ever raise an army, was never a king, never had a lot of money, never traveled outside of 50 miles around his home, and he's the most influential man in history, and that he died vicariously in our place on a cross, and it's his blood and his sacrifice that covers us, and that three days later, he didn't stay dead like all other humans throughout history ever have, but he came back to life, spoke to people, talked to people, and then he flew. That's what ascended, we say ascended because it sounds better. It means flew, returned back to heaven bodily. We believe that.
That's in there. He went back to heaven bodily, and he rules and reigns as king, and if we trust in his sacrifice, our sins, all of them, mine that were 2,000 years later, are covered by his sacrifice. And I get to be made right with God because of that. That God looks at me and sees Jesus, no longer my rebellion. When I die, I won't be judged based off of my behavior, but I'll be judged based off of Jesus' behavior. Oh yeah, Jesus is going to judge everyone.
And then I'll spend eternity in heaven with him as opposed to in hell, which is a giant pit of fire where you never die, and is actually the just deserving, what we deserve from a just God for our rebellion, and that we were saved not by our work, not by our goodness. And so people will say, wait, you mean to tell me that a terrible person could become a Christian right before he dies and that he'll be saved by Jesus? Yes. Is that fair? No. That's grace, and that's what we believe.
That we weren't saved by our work, we weren't saved by, and that we will spend eternity worshiping God in fellowship with him the way we were designed to from eternity past. And at some point, Jesus is going to return and destroy his enemies. He's going to ride a horse back to earth and destroy his enemies and set up his kingdom forever. I believe that. We believe that the Spirit of God indwells humans. I believe that.
But you realize if the Holy Spirit hasn't shown up and changed you and helped you believe that, y'all know that sounds weird, right? The reason I know this sounds weird is I have conversations with people who aren't Christians, and I see the faces they make at the things I say. They're like, wait, tell me this again. It's like, no, you heard that correctly. That's what the Bible says, and it's true, but it sounds weird. Now, some people will be like, well, I'm being persecuted at work.
Maybe you're just weird, though. And not just the normal Christian weird like the stuff we believe. Maybe you're just weird. Like, even Christians think you're weird. Like, when Peter later is going to say that we're strangers and exiles, he doesn't mean that we're strange necessarily like that we all wear white button-down shirts and tuck them into our jorts. Like, he doesn't mean that.
He doesn't mean that we have our own little Christian language, like Christianese. Y'all know we do this, right? Like, we say things like, I had a check in my spirit about not getting plugged in so that we could do life together and love on our city in fellowship. Hedge of protection, sword drill, traveling mercies. I see that hand. Hallelujah.
That's not what he means. That's not what makes us different. Here's the truth. We don't quite line up with our culture. We're a little bit strange. Let's go to 1 Peter.
And we're going to start reading. Peter's writing into this context. He's writing to a group of Christians who live in a culture that does not line up with Christianity. And he's writing into this culture to talk to them about how to live in that culture, in that atmosphere. So we're going to be in 1 Peter.
Let me give you a quick background on Peter. I'm a big fan of Peter. Peter was a fisherman. He was one of Jesus' disciples. So Jesus called him out of fishing.
Like he had just caught a whole bunch of fish. And Jesus was like, come follow me. You're going to be a fisher of men, which I'm sure Peter didn't quite understand. He's like, sure, sounds good. We're going to need bigger nets. But so Peter follows Jesus.
He surrenders everything to follow him. Peter is kind of the leader of the disciples. He's in the top three. Like there are times where Jesus had 12 disciples. There are times where he would just take three with him. And Peter seems to be kind of the leader of the disciples.
He's very vocal. His mouth gets him into trouble. Like he talks before he thinks, which I can appreciate. And he's a bit impetuous, which just means when he has to decide between like, what should I do? His usual response is go for it. And so there are a couple of times that he does really cool things in the New Testament.
We won't have time to read all these. And hopefully we'll see him at some point. But Peter, so Jesus comes walking on water at one point. And everybody thinks he's a ghost, which makes sense because it's night and he's walking on water, which humans don't do, but he's God. So he can.
And he's walking on water. And Peter says, they see him. And Jesus says, don't, don't forget. It's not a ghost. It's Jesus. He didn't actually say that.
That's not, wasn't a quote. That was a paraphrase. It's not a ghost. It's just me. And Peter says this, if it's really you. Okay.
Pause. Now, usually that's going to be followed by something like, what did I give you for your birthday last year? Like something that only Jesus and Peter would know. If it's really you, what was the advice you gave me last week? Like you got to prove it's not a ghost. You got to make sure it's actually Jesus.
What Peter says is, if it's really you, tell me to come to you on the water. And you know, Jesus had to be like, that's a beautiful logic, Peter, because a ghost can't say, come here. So Jesus just says, okay, come. And then Peter gets out and actually walks on water because Jesus allows him to. There are two people in the history of the world who have ever walked on water. Jesus, the son of God, and Peter, because he's impetuous.
Peter, Peter saw an opportunity to walk on water and was like, if that's really Jesus, he's walking on water, I want to get in on this. If it's you, I'm going to crush you with logic. If it's you, say, come here. Peter gets to walk on water. The other, my other favorite story of Peter, and then we're going to move on. We'll read what he wrote.
He's in jail in the book of Acts. They've just killed James, but Peter knows where he's going. He's trusted Jesus. He knows he's seen Jesus back alive from dying. So he's not afraid of death.
And he's in jail and he's sleeping like a baby. And then an angel comes to let him, to release him. So an angel shows up, busts open the doors, busts open his chains, tells him to get his gear on. Let's go. They walk out of the jail. The gates just open while the angel's walking.
And it says in the text in Acts, Peter thought it was a vision. Do you know how funny that had to be? Peter thought it was a vision. He didn't think this was really happening. Like, so he's following the angel, being like, taking it all in. This is crazy.
I wonder what this means. The gates open. They get outside. The angel disappears. How long do you think he stood there before he realized it wasn't a vision? You know they had to give him a hard time about this forever.
Wait a second. This was real? I waved to the guard back there. So that's Peter. He's a fisherman. He's kind of simple.
So straightforward in some ways. And he says some things that are confusing. But he actually, in 2 Peter, says that Paul writes things that are confusing. So Paul, we read some of his letters some. He's very smart. He had multiple doctorates.
Like, he'll say this, then this. And then this because of that. And this from the Old Testament. And that equals this. And Peter's like, this. This too.
So we're going to be studying through Peter for the summer. And he's writing to a group of people who are in a culture that they don't fit. The atmosphere is that they're Christians. They have foundational core values and beliefs that don't line up with the rest of their culture. And he's writing in saying, here's what it looks like for you to live in that context. So we're going to read 1 Peter.
I'm going to pray real quick. And then we'll start reading. God, we thank you that we have this letter. That your apostle Peter wrote as influenced and led by the Holy Spirit to your church. And that we get to grow as your church from it today. We pray, Lord, that you would bless our studying of this together.
That you would help us to grow in our love for you. And in wisdom and how to live in a context where we are becoming increasingly marginalized. In a culture that doesn't have the values and the views or the understanding that we have. That we might grow through your Holy Spirit and through your word to understand how we ought to live. We love you. We praise you.
In Jesus' name. Amen. 1 Peter, verse 1 and 2 is what we're going to look at today. So Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. So they write who it's from at the beginning of their letters.
We sign at the bottom. They do it at the beginning. To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. According to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit. For obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood. May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
In those two verses, those two sentences, Peter sets the framework for what he's going to talk about through the rest of this letter. And when he calls them elect exiles, that's the understanding that he's going to have that he carries throughout. So let's take those two words and look at them for just a second. Elect means that they are chosen. And he goes through and says how? By the foreknowledge of God.
That God had a plan. That God chose them. As Ephesians is going to say, before the foundations of the world. That we've been chosen. That we've been saved and redeemed. That word elect is beautiful.
Because it means that you did not save yourselves. Which means that you cannot keep or lose your salvation. It's held for you by God. That he chose us. Not because we're special, but because he's good. That's what elect means.
That you are secure. That there is peace and security and hope in that word. In your position because of Jesus that is yours forever. That can't be taken from you. Can't be beaten out of you. Can't be stolen from you.
That you can't lose. It's yours. And then he pairs with it exiles. Other translations are going to say strangers, foreigners, aliens. And not aliens like E.T. Phone Home.
But aliens like foreign foreigners. And so what he's saying is you don't fit in your culture anymore. You aren't at home in this culture anymore. That you've been exiled from your homeland. Because you're elect. Because you're chosen.
Because your homeland is now heaven. Is now with God. Your place is now with God. You've been exiled where you are. And then he says specifically Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Which would be the same to us saying you elect exiles in West Columbia and Irmo and Columbia and Red Bank and Lexington.
It would be the same as him saying by the foreknowledge of God you've been chosen and exiled where you are for a purpose. And he calls them strangers. That we really just don't fit with our culture anymore. I was – that we're foreigners. I was watching a documentary recently. I think it was called Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
And it's about these monkeys that get really smart and learn how to use machine guns and ride horses. And so imagine that that happens or that like Skynet becomes self-aware. The two of you got that. Imagine that that happens and that we all have to flee the United States. That the – I mean like it comes on the news and the guy's like his hair's disheveled and he's like the monkey's got machine guns and we all got to pack up and go. And so let's say we head to Europe.
So some of us end up in Germany. Some of us end up in Spain. Some of us end up in Great Britain. Some of us are in France. We're now all exiles. You're now a foreigner.
Now there's going to be some things about culture that you understand. You may even line up with. There can be other areas where you just are like I just don't fit. Like I don't – my viewpoint here doesn't line up with them. So like if you end up in London, you're like yeah, I speak English.
But they're really snobby about how – what kind of English they speak. They say I speak American. But we can get along. We can understand each other. I can order food. But all the food here tastes like nothing.
They haven't invented flavor and never made it to this island. And there's some things that I can understand and get along with. And there's other things I just don't get. Some people made it to France. And you're like yeah, I moved here so I had to start smoking cigarettes. And they all work 30 hours a week and whine about it.
And I'm from the U.S. where if you don't work 50 hours a week, you don't care. Like you just don't even care about what you're doing. And so I just – I understand some parts and I don't line up with others. And that's the way it would be. And so what Peter is saying when he calls us exiles is you're in a culture now. But because of Jesus, your values, your core beliefs about things have changed.
And so you just don't quite fit anymore. I'm not saying you necessarily dress weird or you automatically stand out. But on core issues, on life-changing big issues, there are some where we just aren't going to line up with our culture. Where as a Christian, you just can't. I heard somebody put it this way that it would be like if you were watching a marching band. It's a big marching band competition, one of the biggest ones.
This is a huge marching band and there's one conductor wearing white gloves because he takes it seriously. He's doing this stuff. And everybody's marching in lockstep and they've got the little flag girls running around. I think that's what they're called. And they're running around doing stuff. But there's one.
There's one young lady with a flag and she's got headphones in. And she's listening to Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus. She's going to stand out. She's just doing her own thing. She's got her flag and she's just doing her own thing. Everybody else is in lockstep.
Everybody else is. And she's going to stand out. Now, it's not weird if you know what she's listening to. She's actually staying along with the beat pretty well. But she stands out because everybody else is looking to the same conductor.
And that's the church. That we're playing from a different sheet of music. And we're automatically going to stand out because there are just certain things that we believe, certain core values that have changed in us that don't line up with our culture anymore. And that gap is getting wider. So, as exiles, chosen by God, specifically placed here on purpose, how do we respond? How do we respond as exiles in a culture where we just don't fit anymore?
We're a minority. There have been three kind of, I think, maybe traditional responses. Three ways that maybe you've heard of or thought about or seen. Maybe if you hadn't even put these words to them. The first one is run. We're going to put it under that category.
The first way to respond as a minority, as a Christian in culture, is to run. And so this is where you basically, as a Christian, you remove yourself from culture. You avoid culture. So this is, you pay attention to what kind of movies you're going to watch or not watch. Like, you're just not going to take in everything that culture gives you. This is where homeschooling comes from, in some ways.
Comes from, for Christian homeschooling or Christian schools, is this idea of we need to have our own version of this. Like, we can't just go along with what culture is teaching, so we're going to have our own version. This is where, like, Liberty University, some of these schools came from where it was like, no, we're going to teach our own thing. We're going to do our own thing. This is where we see Christians a lot of times when it comes to Halloween. It's like Christians are like, no, no, no, we're not doing Halloween.
No, no. We're going to have a fall festival. And you can dress up and we'll give you candy. Oh, so Halloween. No, no. Fall festival.
Fall. Trunk or treat. Like, we remove ourselves. Like, end of the spectrum is like Bob Jones. Y'all familiar with Bob Jones? It's like a militant Christian school.
They have up, their campus is up in Greenville. My brother went there for a while, and if you've met Logan, you think, that makes sense. He seems like he should have gone to Bob Jones. But there are a couple of, two examples of this. One is, I think my grandparents went there, and I think my dad's older sister went there, and he told me this one time, that they had a rule that all of the female students had to wear skirts that came to their ankles. So that was the rule, that was the dress code, and you had to wear them on campus or off campus, came to your ankles.
And what happened was, those skirts became popular. And so Bob Jones changed the rule and said, now your skirt has to come below your knee, and you can't have the ankle long ones. So it wasn't about modesty. It was about avoiding culture. That if culture likes it, it has to be bad. While Logan was in school there, he was in a convocation, which is where they all get together or whatever, or chapel, and they announced that you were now, for male students, they were now allowed to wear blue jeans off campus.
And he said this surprised him, because he didn't know that was a rule. He's like, I've been wearing blue jeans everywhere. And he said, when it was over, he said there were people just sitting in the chairs like, dumbfounded, like, have we lost what we care about? Like, have we given up on the fight here? But that's the idea.
That's the idea that goes behind some of that is this, we've got to avoid culture. That if culture likes it, if culture says it's okay, we've got to automatically, by being Christians, move ourselves over here. And that's kind of the first option. And you see, that's Christian radio stations. We're going to have our Christian version of everything. We're going to make Christian movies.
And you're going to have to watch them because you're a Christian. I don't care that you don't like them. And I don't care that they're not good. You have to watch them. It is a Christian movie. We're going to have those.
And there's this idea that we've got to kind of run from culture. The second one I think that we see and we're hearing more of now is fight. And this doesn't necessarily mean physical, like, we're going to go start Texas, like, Jesus Nation in Texas. Everybody get your guns, which is also a form of run. So, like, that would be run. Like, we're all going to go to Texas.
We're going to have Jesus Nation. America. Well, not America anymore. Tex-merica. And we're going to be our own thing. And we're going to avoid all this nonsense.
And then fight would be when Texas Nation, the People's Republic of Texas, annexes Oklahoma. And it's like, we're taking you. You're a part of us now. But fight really is this idea that we've got to regain our seat at the table. That the church has to fight back. This is Jerry Falwell in the Moral Majority.
We've got to regain our voice. We've got to regain our position. We've got to regain the power that we had and the influence that we had. And the way to do this is through legislature. The way to do this is through lawsuits. The way to do this is through boycotts and showing how strong we are and how big of a market segment we are.
And there's this idea that we need to fight back. This is the stuff over Christmas. That there's a war on Christmas. War on Jesus. War on Jesus. And we've got to fight.
It's this idea that we've got to fight back to get our position back, to get our power back, to get our voice back. The third one that I think we're constantly kind of see as an option is conform. This is what we had in the thing. Run, fight, or conform. And conform is kind of the idea that if culture is there, why aren't we? Like if the rest of America thinks this is good, why does the church have to be obstinate?
And there are places where this shows up. Okay, so if we boil down how we do music on Sundays to the smallest element, it's going to be an acoustic guitar. Because for most of us, we can sing with an acoustic guitar. But Aunt Frederick, who's over here and they're planting a church in downtown Columbia, if they boil it down to the smallest element, it's going to be a keyboard. Because they can sing with a keyboard. Easily.
Like that's kind of, and that's just a cultural thing, and that's conforming some to where you are and who's there and how you do music style. There's a little bit of like, if culture is here musically, let's move there. There are other things like Rob Bell has come out and said, like when culture is here, our culture has already moved on, shouldn't the church catch up? Like if culture has already moved here on this big social issue, shouldn't we just go with them? Why does the church have to argue about everything? It's kind of an idea that we would smooth off the rough edges of the church so that we can fit well with culture.
And if y'all have seen that, y'all have heard that, run, fight, conform, you've at least seen it, maybe not under those words, they're not given as options, but you kind of see that in our culture. These are the options that you have as a Christian to be faithful, to navigate. Have you ever thought about and noticed that all of those are lacking? That as a primary model for how to live as a Christian in our culture, they all just kind of fall short. So Peter writes this, and he's giving us another option.
That's what we're going to study through the rest of 1 Peter. Okay, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles, so intentionally placed where you are by God, of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God, which means that God put you here on purpose, has you where he wants you on purpose, in the sanctification of the Spirit, which means you've been set apart by the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood. All of that points back to the Old Testament when the nation of Israel became a nation. They became a people set apart.
They actually killed a bull, like a bull and a lamb, I believe, and they sprinkled them with blood to show that that sacrifice had paid for their sin and they were set apart to show the world what it looked like to be God's people on earth. Set apart by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus and for sprinkling with his blood. And the option that Peter's going to give us, what he's doing when he calls us exiles, and when he ends the book he signs off from Babylon, he's pointing back to the exile of the Jewish people when they were sent to Babylon. So what happens is, in the Jewish nation, Babylon shows up, conquers them, takes them to Babylon.
And here's what the Babylonians wanted. They brought, when they would conquer a nation, they would take all of the leaders, all of the powerful people, all of the artisans, all of the blacksmiths, anybody who did anything and was capable, they would bring them and they would put them in the city. And their goal was that the city would swallow them, that the Babylonian culture would swallow them. And what would happen is, they knew first generation, you're going to be your people group, so in this specific case, you're going to be Jewish. Second generation, you're going to be Jewish Babylonian, like you're going to have some Jewish viewpoints because of your parents, but you're going to be picking up on what Babylon's about.
Third generation, you're going to remember that you were, your parents and grandparents were Jewish, but you're going to be Babylonian. They wanted for them to conform, and that would actually make them into Babylonians over time, that they would cease to be a people. That's what the Babylonians wanted. So the Jewish nation, when they were taken off into exile, and we read about this in Jeremiah, and we're going to look at a passage in just a second, they wanted one of two things. We're going to start a Jewish ghetto. We're going to be as close to the city as we have to be, but we're going to be Jewish.
It's going to be a little Israel. Or we want to return to power. We want to return to our nation as we had it. We want to return to the position that we had. And so as far as they understood, their options were conform, run, start your own little ghetto, or fight. Somehow regain the power that you had.
And so Jeremiah writes into this, and this is what Peter's pointing us to. When he calls us exiles and when he refers to Babylon at the end of his book, at the end of his letter, he's pointing us back to this thing that happens in Jewish culture that was different, had never happened before. Jeremiah chapter 29, we're going to show it on the screen. I'm going to flip there and read this. This was the letter that Jeremiah wrote to the captives, to the exiles in Babylon. Verse 4, What God says is you're there on purpose.
Just like Peter says, by the foreknowledge of God, you've been placed in these places as exiles. Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there and do not decrease, but seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf.
For in its welfare, you will find your welfare. This had never happened. What just happened when Jeremiah wrote that letter is he said that God says that you don't have to be in Israel for this to work. That you get to be living there for the good of those around you. You get to be living there. You get to stay.
Don't conform. Don't run away. Don't try to regain the power, but stay for the good of those around you. Stay there and live and pray and work and be a part of culture. But as a Jewish person for the good of the city.
And so when Peter starts this off and he calls us exiles, what he's saying is you've been placed there on purpose to be there as a Christian. And here's the option he's going to give as he walks through the rest of the book. He starts off by saying for obedience to Jesus and for sprinkling with his blood. Sprinkling means that we've been set aside and that we've been covered by Jesus's sacrifice and obedience. Can I help you all out? I want to hope this.
I want this to be really freeing to some people. And I hope it really messes up a lot of you. That's my goal with what I'm about to say. When it talks about obedience, I hope it frees up some of you. And I hope it messes with your head on a lot of you. I hope it really messes you up.
Obedience does not mean agreement. When it says obedience to Jesus, it does not mean agreement. So some of us look at Scripture and say, well, I don't agree with that. When I was growing up and my dad, who was a big and scary man, my option was obey. He didn't have to explain himself to me. We didn't have to agree.
So if my dad had rules like don't eat rocks, that rule is really easy to follow because I agree with that rule. And if he has a rule and he has to explain to me like, no, I've got to understand fully why I'm doing this and I've got to believe it before I do it, before I follow here, then I'm not obeying. I'm agreeing. Like if he convinces me and I say, okay, I do agree to that rule. I'll follow you. That's not following.
That's not obedience. It's agreement. Does that make sense? So when it says obedience to Jesus, let me free you up. That doesn't mean you have to agree with it. And let me mess up a lot of you.
It means you have to obey. So that the response that Peter is going to give us as we go through the rest of the summer is this. Don't run. Don't fight. Don't conform. Don't form.
Follow Jesus in obedience, suffering on behalf of those around you. Follow Jesus in obedience, suffering on behalf of those around you. That's what Peter is going to say. That's what he already said. That's what we're going to read as we go through the rest of the summer. That we're to follow Jesus.
Now, here's why all of those fall short. Here's why we can't run. Here's why we can't go start Texas America. We've been intentionally placed where we are because we have a message of hope and truth that we all are sinners deserving of wrath and we can be saved by Jesus. And if we leave when culture gets not lined up with us anymore, we fail to carry the message to those who need to hear it. We've been called to be missionaries where we are.
And if we leave, if we run from it, if we start our own Christian ghettos and have our own, everything is Christianized so that we're only around people who we're comfortable with, then we fail to be missionaries to our city. We fail to suffer discomfort and frustration and mocking on behalf of others. If we fight to regain power, we confuse the message of the gospel and we are claiming rights that are never given to us in scripture. And we fail to be good missionaries to our city, to suffer mocking, lies, difficulty for the good of those around us. And if we conform, if we smooth out all the rough edges, if we no longer call people to repentance, no longer say that you're a sinner in need of grace, no longer say that you need to repent, then we remove the message of the gospel.
And Jesus did not run. If he had, he would have stayed in heaven or he'd have shown up and started a little monastery. He didn't fight. Just so you all know, if Jesus fights, you lose. So if he had fought, that would have gone really terribly for everyone.
There is a fight in Revelation 19 that Jesus leads and everyone loses. He shows up wearing white. If you're going to fight someone and they show up wearing white, they're pretty confident about how that fight's going to go down, just so you know. So if you're the type of person that fights people and they show up in white, just probably just quit. If he had fought, he would have just, but he didn't. He wasn't here to gain power.
He wasn't here to become a king. He wasn't here to take over. And he didn't conform because if he had, they wouldn't have killed him. All of those, running, fighting, conforming is an effort on our part to remove the discomfort, to remove the difficulty, to remove suffering. And all of us as Christians have been called into discomfort and suffering for the good of those around us as we follow Jesus. Because we have a God who suffered for the good of those around him.
We follow Jesus who suffered for the benefit of those around him. Not for power, not for prominence, not for approval, not for comfort, not for control. He suffered for us. And so Peter is going to give us another option. Follow Jesus in obedience. Suffering, difficulty, hardship, pain for the good of those around you.
Just as Jesus did for us when he went to the cross so that we might have life. The goal of Christianity is not to remove ourselves from discomfort. The goal is to trust Jesus as we follow him into it. And so for the rest of the summer, we're going to be studying the book of Peter. And we're going to be looking at practically how do we do that? What does that actually look like when I go to work?
What does that actually look like in my neighborhood? In a culture where I don't really fit in, they're not beating me, they're not persecuting me, but I just don't fit like I used to. How do I love and serve and suffer for their good just as Jesus did? And not just try to run from the discomfort. Not just try to regain power. Not just try to regain control.
Not just try to seek approval so that no one's at odds with me. How do I follow Jesus in obedience? And as we go through the week, that's what we're praying for. That the Holy Spirit would begin to teach us what it looks like for us to love and serve and suffer on behalf of those around us. To grow us in our understanding of the gospel so that we'd actually be able to do that. Raz and Isaac are going to come back up and we're going to sing and make much of Jesus who is willing to suffer on our behalf.
That didn't seek his own comfort. That wasn't here for approval. Wasn't here to gain power. Became to suffer so that we might have life and hope and freedom. God, we thank you for your grace. We praise you, Lord, that through the cross we have been equipped to suffer.
That we are elect, that we have been redeemed and saved and made new by you. And that, God, in your wisdom and your plan, as you set us apart, you called us specifically. To West Columbia and to Columbia and to Columbia and to this area everywhere around, Lord, where you've placed us in jobs and homes and neighborhoods and schools. Where we might graciously follow you in obedience. And where we don't line up with culture where we might graciously suffer on behalf of those around us for their good and for your glory and for our ultimate joy. We love you.
We praise you. We ask that you continue to change us. In Jesus name. Amen.
Work, Enjoyment, and Savings (w/ QandA)
Transcript
Good morning. We're in our fourth week of our money series, just talking about money. We're actually wrapping everything up today. I am the type of person, and you probably know someone like me, that talks to the television. So I talk to my television.
I respond to characters. And I don't do this in movie theaters and stuff, but mostly if I'm by myself, I'm going to interact with what's going on. And so I'll – like if I'm watching a movie and something happens that is just unbelievable. So like the movie Shooter, where he's like a really great sniper, and they explain that to us. He's a really great sniper. And then later, bullets don't hit him.
They didn't explain that to us. So like he can shoot really well, but then like 30 military guys are shooting AR-15s at him, and he's just like sitting on a hill. And so I'm like, really? Come on. Are we serious right now? And then he blows up a helicopter and runs into the woods, and that's the end of the scene.
Like we don't even know what happens. Like so I respond to my television, and there are two things that I respond the most to that I'll talk to my TV the most. Like that's sports, football, the sport. I talk to football, and I will talk to TV preachers. So when I'm watching football or a television preacher, I'm going to be talking to my television a good bit.
So I will yell. Like if it's football, I'll be like, yeah, come on. Let's go, son, especially if there's like a really good defensive hit. Like I will jump up and shout, which annoys Anna, but like I've got to. I will complain about what people are doing. And then when I'm watching TV preachers, I do the same thing.
So if they're saying good stuff, I'm like, come on. Yeah, that's right. Preach, preacher. Like I don't really do that, but I do talk to the television. And mostly though I get really angry at TV preachers. And so we recently had a son, and I have been catching up on all of my middle-of-the-night television shows.
So I don't know. So maybe me and one other insomniac who like you have insomnia, you have a problem with sleeping, you watch the shows that I've been watching recently. So if you get up in like the first shift with our son, because he eats every three hours, you get to catch up on like late-night shows. So like the late show, the late, late show, the later than the late, late show. Like the – you get to catch up on those. If you get the second shift though, it's like 3.30, 4 o'clock in the morning, and nothing is on except for paid programming and television preachers.
I should watch paid programming, but I end up watching TV preachers. And if you watch TV preachers, you would assume 85% of the Bible is about money. Like that is what they talk about. So I'm watching a guy last night, and he has really cool hair. Because if you're going to be on TV and preach, you have to have really cool hair. It usually needs to start here.
It needs to be slick all the way back here. There needs to be some sort of throne that you and or your wife sit on or you and a panel of other people. And wife needs bouffant hair, and she needs to look – her face needs to look like she lost a paintball match. Like she's back here. There's usually a spinning globe. I don't know why there's a spinning globe, but on any of these shows, there's a globe that just slowly rotates in the back.
That's going on. And then what they do is they just talk about money. And they'll talk a lot about like sowing seeds and I didn't have any money and then I gave money and now I've got money. And look at my suit and then someone will come up and be like, I didn't have any money and then I gave money. And now God doubled that and then I paid back and he doubled that again. And now I'm super rich and that's what God wants.
And so if you watch them, you would assume that being rich meant that God loved you, God blessed you. Like if you are financially secure and stable, that is the sign of God's blessing. And that is incorrect. So having wealth can be a blessing and in the Bible it is a blessing. It is not the sign of God's blessing. And the Bible gives a lot of warnings against wanting to be rich, making that your hope, your aim, your goal in life.
So people react to that. They don't have TV shows because TV shows cost money. But the way they react is they say, no, you're holy and you're good and you love Jesus if you're poor. And that's actually a sign of God's blessing is to be poor and to give everything away and to eat dirt and crickets. And God loves you the most if you do that. And the more you smell because you haven't bathed, more holy.
Like that's like you have people that start pushing on this end. And the Bible also does not say that. It doesn't say that being poor makes you more holy. Actually, the Bible is going to kind of stand in the middle and give a lot of warnings towards wanting to be rich. And then give some teaching about that you're blessed if you're poor and that's okay. But there's not a rule of if you start having money, you have to give it all away.
There are times the Bible is going to tell somebody, yeah, you're rich and you need to give it all away. You're supposed to. But that's not the rule for all rich people. It's way more in the middle. And so what we're going to do today is we're actually going to spend some time. We're going to be in 1 Timothy chapter 6.
And we're going to look at just as practically as we can as we finish up this series. We're going to try to just run through some stuff really practically looking at money today. And then we're going to spend a little bit more time doing Q&A. So we've been having people send in questions about money. We're going to spend a little more time doing Q&A when we get finished this morning. But we're just going to take a minute to try to look at some real practical stuff when it comes to money.
So what we've been doing mostly for this series is we've been looking at more big picture. How should we view finances? So if I'm a Christian, if I say I believe this, if I say that I believe that Jesus was God who became a man, who lived perfectly on my behalf, who generously, blavishly poured out love and grace and gave up his entire life for me, and then is a king who rules over my life, that he rose from the dead, and he is the king of everything, if I say that is true, how does that affect how I handle my money? If I believe that there's an eternity, if I believe that my God is a generous God, if I believe that this is the truth, how does that affect my money?
And that's what we've been looking at. And today we're just going to try to kind of wrap up the series with some real practical teaching on how to handle money. And really what we've said in the first three weeks is give money away. And as Americans, we need to hear that. But you're not going to give all of your money away.
And so today we're going to spend some time saying, okay, what else do you do with your money? Like where does the rest of it need to go? And so that's where we'll be as we're in 1 Timothy, page 644, if your Bible looks like this. If you don't own a Bible, take this one with you. That's our gift to you. I'm going to pray real quick, and then we're going to hop in and read some in 1 Timothy.
God, we thank you for your grace. We thank you for your love for us. And we pray, Lord, that you would speak to us, that you would give us freedom and wisdom when it comes to handling money. And we just thank you for the time we have together this morning. We love you, praise you. In Jesus' name, amen.
So we're going to be in 1 Timothy 6, 17 through 30. Raz, two weeks ago, spent some time here. We read through this text, and so we're going to read through it again. I'm going to quickly kind of recap some of the stuff he said because we're going to be looking at it from a different angle today. But as for the rich in this present age, okay, I'm going to stop there for just one second.
What Raz did was he explained to us that on the sliding scale of richness, and I'm going to swap. So I was poor here earlier and rich here, but we're going to swap that. Now this side is rich. Now this side is poor. So on the sliding scale of richness, down here you've got the poorest person in the world, probably in a third world country, probably lives in a garbage heap and picks around for food in that.
That's a real thing of children in our world live in garbage piles and look for food. So that's far end down there. Far end up here is like you've got your LeBron James, and then you've got the guy who pays LeBron James, and then you've got the guy who – Microsoft guy, Bill Gates, and then you've got like Warren Buffett. They're down on that end. And all of us are somewhere on this sliding scale. And as Americans, we're more towards this side of the scale.
But mostly what we do is we stand in line this way, and we say, I'm not rich because this person has more than me, and that's our logic. I can't be handling my money poorly. Look at how this guy handles his money. And I can't be rich because look at what that guy has and look at what my neighbor has, and so I'm not rich. And so what Raz said was, first of all, that logic doesn't make any sense. It's the same as saying I'm not full because you ate more than me, or I'm not wearing any clothes because you have on more clothes than I do.
Like the logic does – it's not sound, that I'm not rich because someone has more. And what he said was we needed to turn around, look this way, and realize how well off we are, how rich we are. And so as he walked through this passage, he was just trying to help us all see that really we all need to pay attention. So when it says to the rich, not many of us are like, shh, he's talking to me. I'm super wealthy, guys. Be quiet.
Like not many of us do that, but the truth is we're actually all very well off, and as Americans, for the most part, are more wealthy than many other people, and so we at least need to all pay attention and learn what he's going to tell them as he talks about finances. So as for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, which just means prideful, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you.
Okay, we're going to stop there. For some of you, that really bothers you if we stop in the middle of a verse. So you see the 20 at the front of that, and you want us to read to the 21. The verses were added later to be helpful. We can stop wherever we want, and we stopped at the end of the sentence, and we're okay to do that, just so you know. Those are just for reference.
That's not how Paul wrote it. He didn't write and go, you know what, I'm going to add a little 20 here. He didn't do that. He just wrote a letter. So we're stopping at the end of his sentence, which is, O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you.
If you have struggled with, you know, you need to complete it, go ahead and read the rest of the sentence to yourself. I'm not mad at you. We're just not going to talk about it. The rest of the verse. So, okay, so Paul finishes this up, and he says, O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. And so what he's saying is, Timothy, God has given you a deposit.
He's made a deposit in your life. And that includes everything. So when he's talking to Timothy, he's specifically talking about some of the gifts he's been talking to Timothy about, the responsibilities he has as being a pastor of this church. That's why he's writing the letter. But he's also including everything that's been given to him.
And so he says, guard the deposit entrusted to you. And so here's the deal. Timothy will one day stand before God and have to give an account for how he handled what he had been given. And so Paul says there's been a deposit entrusted to you. Handle it well. Guard it.
Defend it. Take care of it. Be wise with it. And that includes gifting. That includes ability, talent. That includes his finances.
That includes everything. He's to guard the deposit entrusted to him. And here's what's really cool that we need to all be aware of. Timothy will be held accountable for what has been entrusted to Timothy. And you will be held accountable for what has been entrusted to you. And I will be held accountable for what has been entrusted to me.
And so that's life, health, skills, ability, talent, finances, everything. There is a day when we will stand before our maker and we will give an account for how we handled what he gave us. Because everything we have is grace. It's on loan. Like you didn't pick the parents you have. You didn't pick the genetics you have.
You didn't pick the skills you have. Like I could work my entire life and will never play an instrument well. It will not happen. I cannot clap and sing at the same time. I was in a gospel choir. I proved that publicly.
I showed the world I can do one or the other. I can clap or I can sing. I'm not doing both at the same time. It's not happening. I didn't know we had to clap until the very end. They were just like, all right, now we're going to clap and sway during these.
And I was like, I've only practiced the singing. I needed an entire semester to work on this. Y'all are terrible, terrible people. But we've only been given so much. I had a college football coach. We had meetings with our head coach every once in a while.
And so I sat down in his office and he said, Chet, you have done everything that you can do with the potential that God gave you. He just, God sometimes gives more people more potential. Thanks. I think. What my coach said was, Chet, the best you could ever be is a four. And you're a four, man.
You nailed it. And you will never play. You will be a four and you will be on the bench. And that's okay because there are some people on our team that God gave them the ability to be an eight. And they're a six. And that's better than a four.
That's what he said. That's how the conversation went. I read between the lines. I knew what was happening there. It was also in his conversation where he was telling me that I would not be receiving any scholarship money ever from them forever for any reason whatsoever. So, yeah.
So, just so you all know, I reached my potential. Just so you know. But for some, but like we'll be held accountable for what we have. So, some people are like, what we cannot do. Timothy will be held accountable for what he has, what he's been given. What he cannot do is say, I'm not held accountable for what I've been given because Paul has more.
What I can't do is say, well, I can't waste this because he's, look at what he has. Look at how he's wasteful. Like, then mine doesn't count. We can't do that. So, we can't look at someone who has more money, more talent, more ability and say that, well, what I do with mine doesn't matter because they have more. It doesn't make sense.
We are all going to be held accountable for what has been entrusted to us. And so, specifically for us today, we're going to talk about money. That verse means everything. It is definitely more than money. It's not less than money. And since this is a series on money, we're going to talk about money, not your ability to play guitar or sing or serve or dance or run or whatever other talents you have.
And I don't know why all those are physical, looking at a spreadsheet. Whatever talents you have. We're not talking about those. We're talking about money. So, all of us will be held accountable for how we handle money. So, what we're going to do is take, as helpful as we can be, we're going to take a second to look at how we can handle money.
And so, we don't usually do this, but we've got props today to be helpful. I was really tempted to just stay behind the wall and talk for a little while, but that would have just been weird and only entertaining to me. So, these are five buckets on where your money can go. Taxes is one place your money will go. And we're going to talk through all of these. Debt is another place your money will go.
And some of you are already nodding. I can't see you, but you know. You know about that. You're nodding. Your heart is nodding. You know what's up.
Are these centered? Because I don't want to, like, make someone not be able to pay attention the whole time because they're off center. And I'll keep referring to them if you can't read the labels. So, this is a bag of golf balls, but it represents money. These are golf balls of money for everyone in here. This represents you will only ever make a limited amount of money.
You will only ever this month make a limited amount of money. You have a limited amount of money that will pass through your hands. And one of the things we've talked about is that everything has been entrusted to you by God, and you will be held accountable for how you handle it. However big your bag of golf ball money is, you will be held accountable for it. So, some of us need to be really excited. I'm kind of glad that my intelligence is where it is, and my amount of money I'll make is where it is, and my ability to play football is where it is, so I just have less to mess up.
I'll be like, yeah. I reached my potential. It was a three. Wasn't that great? Like, I had less to do, less to go for. So, some of us need to be real excited.
You're really mad you don't make a lot of money. Be happy. You have less to mess up. Okay, so, taxes. We will only talk about this for a second. These are five places your money will go.
They will fit into these buckets. Taxes, debt, saving, giving, and lifestyle. So, and every, that's it. That covers everything your money will ever go to. So, taxes. Some of us don't make much.
We're not going to pay much in taxes, but we have to pay taxes. Some of us make more. You will pay more in taxes. But you're going to pay taxes. The government is going to get your taxes from you. You do have one option if you really want to stick it to the tax man.
Again, don't pay your taxes. Then you'll get arrested. And then other people's taxes will have to pay for you. You'll get three meals and a bed. And you will doubly stick it to the tax man. Otherwise, you're going to pay taxes.
That's how that works. So, we're not going to talk about that anymore. The next one is debt. First of all, let me say this before we get into debt. Here's the first rule when it comes to handling money well. And we're just trying to be as practical as we possibly can be.
Rule number one, make a budget. Some of you need to be writing that down. You don't make a budget because you don't write things down. Now would be a good time to start writing things down. Write down, make a budget. Here's why you need to make a budget.
You will be held accountable for everything that has been entrusted to you. You will be held responsible for it. Now, the best way to begin to plan on how to handle it is by having a budget, which is just where you write down where your money is going to go. If you are in this room and consistently you get to the end of a month and you think, where did all of my money go? You need to make a budget. Because you either tell your money where to go or you will wonder where it went.
Those are your two options. You're either going to tell your money where to go or you just will be like, what? Where did I spend my money? And then eventually you start planning a budget and you're like, how much money did I spend at Taco Bell this year? Yes, a lot. That's really personal.
I'm just confessing. I spend a lot of money at Taco Bell. I like that place. Okay. So make a budget.
Have a plan. Write something down. It's very simple. At the top you will write down how much you make and then you will write down how much you have to spend and that's really it. You'll start walking through that. Some of you are like, I don't make enough money to have to make a budget.
All you really just said was, making a budget will be very, very easy for me. That's what you just said. So if you think, I don't make enough money to have to make a budget. No. You just said, making a budget is easy. Okay.
This much money. Rent. Food. I'm done. I did it. My budget is made.
The truth is this. Some of us think, I don't make much money and I don't handle it well now, but I will handle it better later when I get more. That's not how that works. Not really how that works with anything. So we as Americans believe that.
I'm a terrible boyfriend. I'll make a great husband. There's no logic in that. You will just have more to mess up. You will just be a terrible husband. That's how that works.
I've said this before, but girls, if you're dating a guy and he is a terrible boyfriend, do not think that marrying him will fix that. You will just be married to someone who is terrible and that will be your fault. Okay. That was for free. So make a budget.
Make a plan. Handle your money. Pay attention to where it's going. Tell it where to go. So that's step one when it comes to money.
Okay. Debt. The goal with debt is that we would not have any. The goal with debt is to get out of debt. That's the plan. So there are a couple of different types of debt.
Most of us can't pay outright for a house, so we'll get a mortgage. That'll put us into debt. Now, a house is different in some ways because it is a, and the word has just left my brain. It's an asset, but it's an appreciable asset. Thank you very much. That's the word I was looking for.
It's an appreciable asset, which means that if you buy a house now for $100,000 and 10 years later you sell it, it should still be worth $100,000 or more, which means that at any point you don't get upside down in it most of the time. And being upside down just means that you owe more on something than it is worth. So if you had to sell it because the mafia was after you and you had to move and you had to sell and run away, you couldn't because you owe more than it's worth. Does that make sense? But a house is an appreciable asset.
So housing debt is one thing. The biggest problem for us as Americans is consumer debt, which is where we go into debt to buy things that we can't afford for our lifestyle. Our lifestyle bucket consistently just pours itself into our debt bucket, just so you know. So you have a limited amount of money and you're trying to decide what kind of pants am I going to wear. So you have an option for Wranglers from Walmart.
You could go with pants from Old Navy and that's going to cost you a little bit more. Or you could go with something from Buckle. And then if you went with pants from Buckle, you don't have that amount of money. So what you're going to do is get a credit card that just says, I don't own money, but I will in the future probably. And so then you just pour a bunch of money in here. Some ladies get, what are they called?
Credit cards at retail credit cards. And then you think, oh, I need to get this now because it's on sale. And so you pay interest, which is money for nothing other than just having something now on something that's on sale. And so you take something that would be cheap if you had the money and you make it more expensive over time because you put it in your debt pile. Does that make sense? So the goal is get out of debt.
Now, student loans. Should I just put the whole? Okay. Student loans. We're done. That was it.
Y'all have a good day. Some of us have student loans. And here's the thing. We're Americans. The average American has about $15,000 worth of consumer debt. And then you start adding on student loans and medical bills and different things.
This is not feel guilty, feel shame. It is make a plan, make a budget, and let's work to get out of debt. If you are choosing student loans, like if you haven't made that decision yet, consider going in-state, consider going public, not private because you are going to add on extra debt that really isn't going to help you too much in the future when you can get the same kind of degree somewhere else cheaper. That would be my advice there. And don't use student loans to pay for expenses if you can help it and get a job. Otherwise, though, we have debt.
So the goal is make a plan to work to get out of it. Don't assume I'm going to be in debt forever. Psalm 22, 7, Proverbs 22, 7 says, The rich rules over the poor and the borrower is slave to the lender. Some of you are working 40-hour-a-week jobs just to pay the lender, which means your job isn't so much for you as it is for the person you owe money to. You are a slave to the lender. That's how it works when we borrow money.
In some small fashion, we become a slave to the lender. And as Christians, we're supposed to be slaves to Jesus, which means that we shouldn't be in so much debt that we're not freed up to move and to do what God asks us to do. Not freed up to, if he tells us to go be a missionary in another country, that we can't because we have so much debt. So the goal would be get out of debt. Now, be honest with your community group about this. Be real with where you are.
We have people in our church family who are good with money. They know math. They think through things well. They can do spreadsheets and magical things with computers. And so we actually can help do financial counseling or have somebody from our finance team sit down with you and just help you make a budget. Like we want to be as helpful as possible.
But the goal with that would be to get out of it if you can. Savings. Okay. Savings is one of these where it's, we kind of want to stay in the middle. You can't go too far one side or the other. So here's the thing that you need to know.
Saving money is okay and smart. Proverbs 21. Yep, save some money. That's number three. And we can go back to that in a second. Proverbs 21.20 says, Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours it.
Which just means that it is smart, wise, to save up. Because you're going to have emergencies, you're going to have problems, and it is foolish to just use all, to have your budget match your income. It is helpful to save some money. So, really practically, if you are in debt, pay minimum payments until you can get something into savings. Get an amount into savings so that if you get a flat tire, if your washing machine breaks, you don't have to go into more debt to pay for it. So get something into savings so you can handle emergencies so that you can then begin to work on your debt, and if something comes up, it doesn't derail you.
Have something in savings. And here's the thing. Timothy says this, and I think this is really beautiful and helpful when it comes to thinking about savings. Talking on verse 18, talking about the rich. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share. Which means they have finances ready to share.
And then he says this, thus, so by being ready to share, storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future. Okay, what is storing up treasure for yourself for the future? I'll give you a hint. It's saving. That's what storing up treasure for yourself for the future is. That's savings.
That's all that is. So what he says is, people who have money, the part of the purpose of saving is to be ready to share. So that when someone in your group needs help, someone in your community group, someone you're in life with needs help, you hold your savings with an open hand. For people who have an emergency and you don't have savings, credit card is not your first option. Church family is. Our church is.
That's part of the reason we pull our money together is to help each other. It's part of the reason your community group exists. So don't just put it on a credit card, go talk to somebody. We should have people who save with an open hand ready to share. He also says this, verse 17, as for the risks in this present age, charge them not to be haughty nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches. Perfectly good to save.
Don't put your hope there. Don't have your life there. Don't have all of joy and purpose of life is in savings. And also for couples, saving is not automatically more holy, just so you know. So some of us feel really self-righteous because we like to save money and our spouse likes to spend money.
Both of them can be very selfish, self-motivated, chasing after what makes us feel good. So someone likes to be able to look in the bank and see money and that makes them feel comfortable. And someone else likes to wear shiny shoes and that makes them feel comfortable. And we're both chasing after the same thing. We just have a different motivation. But we should save some and we should save with an open hand and that's okay.
Okay. Giving. This is what we've talked about for a lot of weeks. We're going to skip over, but that's just, we're going to come back to it, but that's just meaning that you give money away. Doesn't help you. Doesn't go to you.
That's giving to the local church, giving to friends, giving to people who need help. Like some of your money is just not going to terminate on you. That's giving. Everything else goes into this bucket. The lifestyle bucket. And so some of us say, well, I really just pay my bills.
Yes. But you, through your lifestyle, have chosen what type of bills you're going to have. Does that make sense? So when you buy a house or rent a house, you're choosing what kind of life am I going to have? What kind of house am I going to have? What's my mortgage going to look like?
How big is this apartment going to be? What kind of internet am I going to have? Am I going to have Netflix? Am I going to have cable? Am I going to have direct TV? Am I going to get the Hoppa?
Like what's the plan? What am I choosing with how I'm going to live? Where am I going to get my purse? Walmart. Dugan and Burks. I don't know if that's the name, but Dooney.
Maybe her name's Dooney. Dooney and Burks. What's the one with all the really weird patterns on it that looks kind of awkward and like super colorful? What? Louis Vuitton and Prada. So like, yeah.
Where's that coming from? Like I asked Anna this stuff yesterday and I don't remember any of the words she said. Sorry. I should have been paying more attention. So, but like we make lifestyle choices. What kind of car am I going to drive?
Does it get me to and from work? Or does it tell everyone I'm awesome as I get to and from work? We're making lifestyle choices. Does that make sense? So everything else is going here.
So here's what you need to know. Question your choices. Jesus says that life is not found in the abundance of possessions. And when he says that, he is talking to Americans because we believe that. Millions of dollars are spent every year to get us to be here and to be here and to know that that's what makes us okay. That's what makes us good.
That's what tells the world we're fine. That's what communicates to the world who we are and what we care about and what we value. And that's how people know you. And he says that life isn't found in the abundance of possessions. Life isn't there. That's not where joy and freedom and fulfillment come from.
So, when it comes to the lifestyle bucket, the fourth thing we need to know is we think about money. So we need to make a budget. We need to get out of debt. We need to save some. We need to plan ahead, know that there's going to be a rainy day. There's going to be some problems.
We need to provide for ourselves and we need to enjoy. I'm going to read you all one of my favorite passages in Scripture that I just think is great. This is in Deuteronomy. So it's in the Old Testament law, Deuteronomy 14, and it just kind of shows us some of God's heart towards why he gives us things. You shall tithe, which means 10%, and it means set aside for God, for his purposes. You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from year by year, from the field year by year.
This is Deuteronomy 14, 22 through 26. I'm just going to read through it really quickly. You don't need to flip there if you want to. Write down the reference. And before the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose to make his name dwell, so this is before Jerusalem, but that's where the temple is, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock. So meat, wine, oil, grain, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always.
So part of tithing was to enjoy it for the purposes of fearing God, knowing that he's the one who provides. But then he keeps going and it gets really cool. Fear the Lord your God always, and if the way is too long, so you live too far away from Jerusalem for you, so that you may not be able to carry the tithe, which, like, I have a ridiculous amount of wine and grain and goats that I'm going to have to take up there. When the Lord your God blesses you, because the place is too far from you, which the Lord your God chooses to set his name there, then you shall turn it into money, and bind up the money in your hand and go to the place the Lord your God chooses and spend the money for whatever you desire, oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves, and you shall eat there before the Lord your God and rejoice you and your household.
That's cool. God says part of your money, part of the reason he's given you your money is to enjoy. He says bind it up, take it, go before him and in worship, eat, celebrate with whatever you desire. Oxen, sheep, wine, strong drink. Some of you are like, he told them to buy wine. What verse is this?
Like, I'm quoting that to my grandmother. Like, how's college going? I've been worshiping a lot. Sorry. What he says is that part of how you worship, part of how you celebrate, part of how you, you trust God and rejoice is by taking what he's given you and using it to celebrate, using it for enjoyment. So let me tell you this, part of your budget, even if it's very small, needs to be set aside for the purposes of enjoying it with worship.
So not just enjoying the thing itself, but letting it roll up and worship for a good God who provides for you and who invented that thing. God, creator of the universe, invented flavor. He made steak delicious on purpose. He made bacon more delicious and then he gave someone the idea to wrap bacon around steak. Can I get an amen? Somebody say praise the Lord.
This is real. Now, that's a real thing and we should sometimes order a steak and enjoy it and celebrate that we have a good God who blesses us, who we can trust, who even when money fills really tight, we should set some aside to enjoy, to celebrate that we have a good God who provides and cares for us. Some of us feel like we can't enjoy our finances because we're so worried and that's why he says, no, set some aside and celebrate and rejoice before me and enjoy it because I'm a good God who provides and takes care of you. That actually is in this passage that we read earlier in 1 Timothy. It says, verse 17, as for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, not to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
Which means that some of us, because we're unwilling to enjoy things, are putting our hope on riches and not on God who's provided you with the ability to enjoy something. Some of you are now going to pull that out on your spouse. See? I'm just worshiping. I'm just loving God. Like, I'm just, that's why I want to, like, and maybe you should.
Maybe y'all should have a discussion about the ability to enjoy your finances. Now, that probably was really helpful for two people who don't feel like they can enjoy their money. For everyone else, because we're Americans, that's not the goal of life. It's not just to enjoy, not just to celebrate, but we do have a good God who invented amazing things and invented flavor and enjoyment and roller coasters and all of that for us to enjoy and to celebrate and we should set aside money sometimes to do that. Should be okay with that. He invented gluten because he's a good and loving guy and you should partake.
So those of you who aren't actually gluten intolerant, stop promoting this gluten-free nonsense. I was at Raz's house the other day. He's gluten intolerant. He said, you want a cookie? And I said, sure, because I know what cookies taste like. And then he handed me a gluten-free cookie and I was like, this is not a cookie.
I don't know what this is and I'm very, very sorry for the way you have to live your entire life. So we have a good God who gave us things to enjoy and that's okay and we should. Now, this bucket, this one is the fun bucket. This is the one where a lot of joy is found in giving things away. And so, what we need to know, the last thing we need to remember and to hold, and this is what we've been talking about this whole time, is we want to give as much away as possible. We want to give as much away as possible and what I don't mean by that is wait till you're done with your whole budget, wait till you get to the bottom line and ask, how much of this can I give away?
No, when we set a budget, some of it needs to be towards saving and a lot of it needs to be, I want to make certain lifestyle choices so that I can give a lot away. Here's the difference between you and your neighbor if you are a Christian, just so you know. Your neighbor, for the most part, is going to be operating with these four buckets. Lifestyle, debt, taxes, saving. And there will be some giving. But for a Christian who knows that everything has been given to us generously from a lavish God, we automatically have places we want our money to go that our neighbors don't.
So if you live next to your neighbor and he makes the same amount of money that you do, it's quite possible that you should look like you make less because you automatically have places you want your money to go. You automatically because you know in response to God's generosity you have places where you want your money to go. And this is where you get to plot on people. This is where you get to have a lot of fun. This is where you get to find out about a need and sneak over in the middle of the night and stick money in somebody's mailbox. Do you know how fun that is?
This is where you get to send a certified check in the mail so it just shows up. There's no way like they just Wells Fargo sent me a check. Like what? Why would Wells Fargo do that? Like this is where you get to just go pay for things for people. This is where you get to just this is where you get to send some of your money for God's mission.
Some of you will never step foot in Africa. Some of you will never learn another language. Some of you have tried. It's not going to happen. You're American. You speak American.
You don't even speak English very good. You speak American. That's the way it is. But, so you're never going to translate the Bible into another language for a people group that's never heard it but you can actually send some of your money and get to be a part of that. You can actually send some of your money with a missionary and get to be a part of everything that happens in that country and when you get to eternity part of your money went ahead to that. You actually got to as Paul says here verse 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
So what he says there is he's kind of a play on savings because he's telling them to save for the purposes of giving it away and what he says is that by giving stuff away that's actually a better savings account. You save it for a better future. You have a better savings with a better treasure for yourself for a better future and he's talking about eternity and some of us need to start sending some money on ahead to that better savings account. I'm going to tell you a story about a guy named John Wesley. John Wesley started like that's where the Wesleyan church comes from and the Methodists and I just wanted to tell you a little bit about what he did and this is the idea of giving as much away as you possibly can.
In 1731 John Wesley started doing ministry stuff and they paid him 30 pounds which is like English money and back in the day that was enough to live on but for our sake because we're Americans and we don't use pounds and the exchange rate has changed a lot so that 30 pounds I don't know buys you like a cheeseburger now. We're just going to say $30,000 because let's assume that's enough for him to live off of and we're just going to keep the ratio that way so where it's 30 pounds I'm just going to have three zeros and call it $1,000 so that we can actually pay attention to what's being said here. So they paid him $30,000 he decided looked at his budget looked at his lifestyle and decided he could live off of 28 so he gave two away $2,000 away that first year. The next year his salary doubled to $60,000.
So he gave two away $2,000 away that first year. The next year his salary doubled to $60,000. How sweet is that raise? Like your boss calls you in and they're like we're going to give you a raise this year we're going to keep up with inflation no your boss calls you in and says we're doubling down on you like what? That sounds great.
Most of us though would have our budget our lifestyle begin to expand to our new income. What he did was he was like well I can live off of 28 so the next year he gave away $32,000 over half of what he made he gave away do you know how much fun that would have been? Think of what the stuff he could do with it like he doesn't make a whole lot
Of money but now he's being able to go hey you're going on that trip yeah let me let me just pay for that oh you're going to go there and try to plan a church yeah let me just pay for your salary for a year like that's cool the next year they moved it up to 90 he still was like well I can live off of 28 so he gave away
62 In his lifetime he got to where he was making 1400 pounds so adding three zeros that's 1,400,000 he never got much over his lifestyle being 30 pounds he towards the end of his life was giving away 1,370,000 of a 1,400,000 salary now how much fun would that be because we believe no no no the fun would be with the boat that you got and the fun would be
With your beach house and he said no I don't want a whole bunch of stuff I want my money here I want to send as much ahead as I possibly can I want to leverage as much as I can possibly can he actually got contacted by the tax service because they just assumed he was under reporting his property tax because they saw his income and were like there's no way you only own the stuff that you're talking about so they actually
Contacted him and had to question him a little bit here's the thing this is where the fun is this is where the joy is so ultimately as Christians we want to try to get this one gone so that we're just working with these four we want to enjoy celebrate Christians aren't supposed to be unhappy grumpy people just so y'all know
We're supposed to throw the best parties like Jesus showed up to a party at Cana and he made the party better that's how that works Christians should throw great parties Christians should throw great parties I'm just saying that we should enjoy we should celebrate like we have
A son every time he laughs I don't smack him and say stop it God hates happiness we don't do that that's not how that works we're supposed to enjoy but we're supposed to make intentional lifestyle decisions so that we can put as much here as we possibly can we should save with an open hand we should pay
Taxes and not go to prison that's how we ought to handle our money as Christians we ought to have a budget we ought to have a plan because we will be held accountable for it now just because we always do this flip over to Ephesians chapter one I want us to help us see one more thing as we finish up our series
On money we're going to read from verse 3 to verse 14 and then I'm going to help us see how the gospel the truth about who Jesus is and what he's done for us impacts our money on both sides and I'll explain what I mean by that so we're going to read through this really quickly it's just a
Really awesome passage blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ if you have one of these Bibles on page 633 verse 3 through 14 blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly
Places even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace which means he just poured it out on us we didn't earn it
With which he has blessed us in the beloved that's Jesus in him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses that's our sin according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight making known to us
The mystery of his will according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him things in heaven and things on earth in him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose
Of his will who works all things according to the counsel of his will so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory in him it affects our money on both sides which means
That as Christians we have an inheritance we have a salvation we have a better home that we're going to and that absolutely affects our money we have a generous God who lavished everything on us and that affects how we
See our money how we handle our money and what we believe it's for and how we handle our money will not save us will not justify us will
Not let us stand before God and say look at how well I handled my money I'm okay so we have a lot of freedom there aren't hard and fast rules on a
Lot of these things we have freedom to trust God and to know that if we mess up we get to repent and that
We've been saved by Jesus not by our ability to be smart with money we should try we will be held accountable for it but
We get to repent and we're saved by Jesus so there's a lot of freedom when it comes to money there's not a whole lot of
Tension and am I doing this right am I doing that wrong am I going to mess this up is he going to be
Mad at me we've been saved by how we see it but it also isn't used with this really clenched fist and this really
Terrible fear that we have a good God who wants us to enjoy things who's provided for us and we get to rest in
His ultimate sacrifice for us on the cross I'm going to pray and Matt is going to do Q&A to finish up this series
God I thank you for your grace thank you for how wonderful you are to us I praise you Lord that you made things
Good and enjoyable on purpose and I pray Lord that you would help us all to grow in wisdom and how to handle our
Money for your glory and for the good of those around us and for our joy we love you we praise you in Jesus
Name amen one more thing I will say questions on saving or giving or anything talk to us we do counseling on money and
Different stuff like that it can be really helpful as you try to think through some stuff part of the reason we do a
Song after the message part of the reason we are not doing that is the majority of our questions that you guys sent in
Were actually in this category and so we wanted to if you ask the question and you feel like we didn't answer it well
Or didn't go into the specific thing that you were asking just come and talk to us afterwards we'll try to clarify and go
More specifically into your situation but we do want to answer as best we can for everyone also if we say something that you're
Like I don't know that I agree with that don't but at least we know that we've clarified okay so I'm going to kind
Of take us through our questions and we've got a good bit so I'm going to walk through it pretty quickly all right we've talked a lot
About giving does serving count towards that or does it have to be money okay so serving and giving aren't like opposed to one
Another we are all supposed to do both when we should relinquish the things that we own that we get really attached to for
Some reason most of us seem less attached to our time and more attached to our money and so sometimes we say stuff like
I serve so I don't have to give and we're actually just defending our money and so the same way we tell someone who
Says I give so I don't have to serve we should all be doing both now some of us make more money and are
Gifted in giving and we'll give more and some of us make less money and we'll serve more but all of us are called
To both serve and to both give at what point does debt credit cards student loans mortgage etc. become sin or are they necessary
Evils yeah I think with credit cards that you probably should cut them up or freeze them in a block of ice specifically if you
Have a really hard time with handling them well and constantly putting things on them consumer debt mostly we should just pay for the
Things that we use there are some things like student loans like medical bills and mortgages that are a little bit different but everything
Else we really need to with our money with our time and just like the scripture you read the person who owes is a slave
To the lender and so if that is you if you are in debt be working be having a plan to get out of
It let your group in on that let other church family be a part of you helping you do that I get that we
Shouldn't go in debt but what about saving isn't saving a huge amount of money specifically to ensure a sum for retirement just as
Disobedient doesn't it show a lack of trust in the Lord's provision I think that it can show a lack of trust in the
Lord's provision I don't think it automatically does some of us like retirement is forced on us in America especially in certain vocations and
So having some money saved for retirement isn't bad the question is your hope there is that where your trust is is that the
Goal of life is to just enjoy to rest to retire then maybe maybe that is very disobedient and have you sat with the
Lord on it it doesn't I don't think it necessarily has to be and the Bible calls us to be generous and so for
The person who's in debt and for the person who just may be continuing to save the call is to be generous and so
The person who is in debt would be actively seeking to be out of debt so that they can be generous and the person
Who is saving is saving with an open hand realizing that at any point all of this belongs to the Lord and they can
Use it but it it's a heart level issue so absolutely every person on either side of that equation needs to sit and ask
The Lord where their hearts are and all of us have to save some so I get paid once a month so I don't
Just try to spend all of that or give it all away that day and then just hope that over the next three weeks
The Lord takes care of me part of us they are wrong I do think there is more of a chance that they would
Place their hope there so if you don't have much money it's harder to place your hope there because you don't have it does
That make sense so like when I don't have much money I'm not trusting in it because it ain't there so it's harder sometimes
If you have a lot of to to put more trust there although we do sometimes put trust and hope in the future money
We will make when we become awesome at something is it wrong to save invest for the future if you are faithful in giving to
Ministry and others I would say no just the way that question is worded if you are faithfully giving to ministry to our church to
Church family to others you have an open hand I would just encourage you that if you are saving and investing make sure that
What you are saving and investing you are also approaching it with an open hand too but I think someone who's faithfully giving and
Serving who's approaching things with the attitude of generosity that we've been talking about I think that's good yeah and I would add to
That that I agree with what Matt just said all right saving for future needs is hard I would rather just spend money got
Any tips on making myself save do it okay next question no put it in your budget early so go ahead and work to
Shrink your lifestyle your expenses and put saving at the top so have income giving and saving right off the top and then live
Off of 80% live off of 75% live off 70% if at all possible and that's the best way to do it and if
You have to start really really small $5 I'm going to save $5 from every paycheck so that you start building in the habit for
Yourself and then you can slowly grow that as that works more so some people have a really tight budget give away $5 save
$5 Change it to I'm going that's $10 does that make sense so on both giving and saving put it early in the budget
Don't wait to the end and then you'll actually do it should we strive to be debt free or should we carry some debt to
Minimize our taxes the person who asked this question is in a different tax bracket than I am yeah so we actually tried to
Look this up online because I have no clue about this question we sent Matt's dad a message and he's a CPA did he
Respond to that he did and said he would be willing to actually talk with that person specifically about the way you're looking at
That the Bible is going to say don't be a slave to the lender pretty clear on that but more specifically if you'd like
Some more information on that question we can get you in touch with him yeah so for all the other people that is not
A helpful answer but that's a very intense question that we did not know anything about and the Bible doesn't say much about that
Other than to pay your taxes and to try to stay out of debt next question can I spend anything on myself or should
I feel bad when I do that you should feel bad everybody else can spend money on themselves you are okay to spend money
On yourself obviously not all of it there but no shame no guilt it's not the goal of your money but it's okay how much
Is enough retirement savings cushion yeah that's a good question different people will tell you different things the guy who's on the radio all the Dave
Ramsey says you want to have three to six months of living expenses saved not income but living expenses in case you get hurt in case
There's something like that if you have an emergency he would tell you if you're trying to get out of debt to save a
Thousand dollars really quickly or save five hundred dollars really quickly and then begin to work off debt really that is the question to
Continually ask yourself given your lifestyle given what you need to continually ask is this enough am I putting too much here am I hoarding here that's the question
To keep asking versus that's what I would say and in the same way that we look at giving sit down with the cross not
A calculator be asking the Holy Spirit to reveal these things to you be talking with your group about them next question that we
Have we did math and we know when Jesus is coming back no I'm kidding yeah so here what I like about that question and
I think it's a little bit tongue in cheek whoever sent it in but I like the fact that whoever sent that in understands
That whatever they have saved when Jesus comes back or when they meet him no longer means anything or is worth anything so like
We said in the first week our money is kind of like playing the game uno when the game is over whatever you're penalized
For whatever cards are still in your hand like they were useless to you there's a story Jesus tells where a guy makes a
Lot and he says oh I'll just tear down my build bigger barns and God says you're a fool because you're going to die
Tonight and so yes saving for retirement is fine but always hold into your head I don't know if I'm actually going to make
It to retirement and the day I meet Jesus everything I have in a bank account no longer was useful to me was no
Longer helpful everything I gave away actually I sent on ahead I used to serve for his glory and for his name so just
Having that eternal perspective is important
Gospel Giving (w/ QandA)
Transcript
My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here, excited to be in our third week of our money series. And so you knew it was coming. We're talking about money, so today we're going to be talking about tithing. I mean, you had to have been getting yourself prepared for this. And the funny thing is, I know our church family, so I know that some of you are like, yeah.
And some of you are like, I didn't know that was coming. I don't even know what the word tithe means. So we're just going to spend some time this morning, really. We're in our third week of this money series, and we're going to take some time to kind of ask some questions when it comes to tithing. And what we realized with money in general is that as a church, we're very much, we're going to talk about Jesus. We're going to talk about the gospel.
We're going to make much of Jesus every time we get together. We're a band that plays one song, kind of like Rush. But we're a band with one song. That's all we're going to talk about is Jesus. And as we're getting started, there were a lot of things we wanted to talk about, wanted to coach ourselves up on and understand. And then we just realized that we hadn't ever spent any time talking about money specifically, and that the Bible treats it very much as a gospel issue, as a heart-level gospel issue.
And so that we needed to spend some time talking about it as we talk about Jesus, as we grow together as Christians. And so today we're just going to be asking, what is tithing? Really, the word tithe just means a tenth. So it's an Old Testament concept, but tithing just means a tenth. So tithing is giving a tenth.
And most of the time when someone in a church setting talks about tithing, what they mean is giving a tenth of your income right when it comes in to the local church. And so really we're going to ask a bunch of questions like, is that a Christian concept? Is that for the New Testament? Is that just an Old Testament thing? Is it a flat 10% for everybody? Does it matter how much money you make?
Like, are you supposed to... Like, we just... There's a bunch of questions when it comes to this topic. And so we're just going to try to spend some time looking at those questions this morning and really trying to kind of dive into that. And here's the thing. We have a...
In our culture, we have a saying, put your money where your mouth is. And what we mean by that is, if you believe so strongly in something, if you're going to talk big game, we'll back it up. If you really think that you're telling the truth, back it up. And a lot of times that we mean money specifically, a lot of times we just mean like, you know, live that way. Or like if you're talking smack, you're about to fight somebody and they're telling you they'll beat you up. And you say, well, put your money where your mouth is.
You don't actually mean give me money. You mean let's fight. Let's do this. But I actually, I like betting. Confession time. If that's bad.
I don't do it a whole lot, but I do like betting because I feel like it makes trivial things more interesting. And so recently I lost a bet to Matt Freeman about... I lost a lunch. We bet lunch on it. We bet whether or not Cracker Barrel has omelets. And that was the bet.
And I know and love Cracker Barrel and basically have their menu memorized except for the low-carb stuff because why would you go to Cracker Barrel to eat anything low-carb? But we got into a discussion about whether or not they had omelets and Matt said they did and I said they didn't. And so we bet Egg Roll Station on it, which would be $6.26 because you have to pay cash and that's what you're going to spend when you go to Egg Roll. But anyway, we'll talk about that later. So we bet Egg Roll Station on it.
We went to Cracker Barrel and Matt said, can I get an omelet? And our waitress said, yes. And she was wrong. There are no omelets on the menu, which was really what I was trying to bet. But Matt got by on a technicality because our waitress said yes because she understands that if you have all of the ingredients, you can just fold it over and it's an omelet.
But I have had waitresses say no before because it's not on the menu. But anyway, I'm still bitter about it. I just need to get that off my chest. But we have this idea. We have this idea of put your money where your mouth is. And here's what the Bible is going to say.
It's actually going to say that you put your money where your heart is. That your money, that your treasure follows your heart and vice versa. So that if you move your treasure, your heart will follow. And if your heart moves, your treasure will follow. And so the Bible is going to say that to the extent that something gets your money in your budget is to the extent that you value it and really that you love it. And so some of you are thinking, okay, so I love carowinds 1%.
And it's like, well, not really that specifically. More, how much when you add up, how much you're willing to spend on vacations, how much you're willing to spend on cable or satellite, how much you're willing to spend on comfortable things in your house, like a really nice couch. Eventually, you begin to see that if you look at your budget, okay, I value comfort this much. Or you can look and, okay, I value control this much. Or my family, the way I think about my family, takes up this much of my heart. That's what the Bible is really saying when it comes to our money.
It shows us our heart. So any amount of discussions on the topic of money immediately get intense. You ever notice that? Like when you get into an actual discussion on money, you feel tense, the conversation feels tense, and it's because we're talking about heart-level things. So when you question your roommate's spending habits, and suddenly the conversation gets really like, whoa, I didn't mean for this to be this dramatic.
Or husbands, wives, when you say something really smart like, why on earth would you spend that much money on this? Are you crazy? And suddenly you've entered into a minefield, and you didn't realize how intense this was about to get. It's because it's all heart-level stuff. And so that's why, if you're hanging out with a church on Sunday, and it's like, we're going to talk about money immediately, you go, ugh. Because it's a heart-level issue.
So, with all of the questions that we have about tithing, what is it? How do we do it? What are the rules? How should we approach it? Where does this come from? Honestly, to really answer it, and to really have it take hold, we have to have a heart-level answer.
There has to be a heart, it's a heart-level issue, so it has to have a heart-level solution. Otherwise, we'll just have some information, but it won't actually change us. It won't actually move us, because when our heart moves, our wallet follows. And if we move our wallet, our heart will follow. And so really, for us to answer this question, we have to have a heart-level solution. We have to have a heart-level answer.
So I'm going to pray, and then we're going to hop into 2 Corinthians. Well, we'll be in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 today. That's on page 628. It's going to take us a minute to get there, because we've got to do a little bit of background work, but that's where we're going to land. So let me pray real quick for us.
God, we ask that you would lead us, that you would give us your wisdom, that as we study your word, you would help us to grow in what it looks like to follow and to submit to you. And God, we praise you, and we thank you. In Jesus' name, amen. So 2 Corinthians chapter 8, page 628, if your Bible looks like this, towards the back, if your Bible doesn't. And what we're going to be doing today is we're going to be talking through how are we to, as Christians, view tithing. And tithing, when we say that, what we really mean is how are we to view giving to the local church and giving towards mission kind of on a regular basis.
And the truth is, what we're going to see is that our giving should be based off of the cross, not a calculator. Then when it comes to the answer that is given in the text is that our giving is based off of the cross, not a calculator. And that's really, that it should be based off of the gospel. So where does tithing come from? Let's answer that question first.
Where does this idea come from? It begins in Genesis when Abraham meets a guy named Melchizedek. And Melchizedek is the priest of Salem, which ends up being Jerusalem. And he gives him 10% of everything he has. And so that's where the idea just kind of originates is that there would be 10% given to a priest, kind of a religious, someone in between you and God kind of thing. And then in Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Numbers, it's taught as a part of the law.
So Numbers 18 and Leviticus 20 are basically going to say that you give 10% of your increase. So 10% of whatever comes in, and this would for them would have been goats, sheep, grapes, like whatever came in, you would give 10% to the Levites, to the priestly class because those are the ones that were running the sacrificial system. Those are the ones. And so they didn't get land. They were one of the tribes, but they didn't have any inheritance. And so you were to give it to them.
Actually, you were giving it back to God. And then God said, I'm giving it to them. And that's what Numbers 18 and Leviticus 27 says. Deuteronomy 12, 14, and 26 says that the tithe serves three purposes, still 10% off of increase. And what it said was, it's to go to the Levites, the priestly class, for them to do what they do in the temple. A portion of it is for you to celebrate.
So they were supposed to take the tithe and eat it in celebration in front of God to celebrate His provision. And if the temple was too far away, you were supposed to sell the stuff, take the gold, go to the temple, go to Jerusalem, buy whatever you wanted. It says buy meat, buy wine, wine, strong drink, and drink it and eat it in the presence of the Lord as a celebration. That it was a reminder of God's good things. And so for those who even didn't have a whole lot and were just getting by, they were still supposed to take a portion of their money just to celebrate with. And the other reason it exists was for taking care of the widow and the poor.
So that was the three reasons for the tithe in Deuteronomy 12, 26, and 14. 12, 14, 26, if you want to do that in the way Numbers go. Then we see a few examples. Second Chronicles, Nehemiah and Malachi are all going to talk about the tithe and how it works. Malachi, God's actually going to show up and tell him, you haven't been tithing and you've been stealing from me. You haven't been giving and you've been stealing from me.
And then he's going to do something that he doesn't usually do. He's going to say, test me. Test me and see. Apparently they weren't giving because they didn't think they could afford it. And what he says is, test me and I will provide for you and I will open the floodgates of heaven and I will take care of you if you'll trust me. Now, Old Testament's pretty clear on it.
It's 10% of increase. Most of the time when tithing is taught in the church, every time I've heard it, someone goes to the Old Testament and says, here's the rule. And so even as we were praying about it and talking about it, we knew we were going to need to address this issue and as we started working on it, we just opened the Bible and started reading everywhere they talked about the tithe. And the New Testament doesn't really talk about it. Doesn't come up. There's no verse in the New Testament that's like, it's not like in second opinions where it's like, hey guys, keep tithing like we used to.
Just pretend like the church is the temple now. You're welcome. Like the New Testament doesn't say that. Paul never writes it. Jesus doesn't really address it. Jesus talks about it twice while he's fussing at Pharisees.
So he's in the middle of yelling at people, which I don't know if y'all know, Jesus does that. He yells at people. So he's in the middle of yelling at people and what he says is, you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, which are spices. So he's saying, you tithe, you're so legalistic, you tithe out of your spice rack. So when they went and got spices, they would have said, okay, let me measure out 10%.
So if y'all have a spice rack, go home, measure out 10% and then you gotta bring it in little bags. But if a cop finds you with a bunch of little bags of spices, good luck. But just be careful on the trip. Don't drive too fast. But no, he says you tithe out of your spice rack and what he says is, this you should have done without forgetting the way to your things of the law.
And that's the only time Jesus addresses it. Paul never talks about in any of his letters. And so the New Testament doesn't really talk about it. And so for us, we have to look at the Old Testament and say, how are we to understand this as Christians? Because the law was given in the Old Testament and then Jesus tells us, Romans 7 tells us that he fulfilled the law on our behalf so that we're no longer bound by the law but we've been set free. We died to the law when Christ died for us and that we're now bound by the law of Christ.
And Jesus says he didn't come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. And so there are certain aspects of the law that have been fulfilled and there are certain things that the New Testament clarifies when it comes to the law. And so the Old Testament law kind of breaks down into three things if you're trying to just do this really quickly and kind of look at it. They had civil law which was because they were a nation. Because the nation of Israel existed they had civil law which was like if my bull breaks out and kills your bull I've got to give you my bull. That's the rule.
And we have civil laws like you can't drive too fast. Look at the sign. Do what it says. And so the civil laws for Jerusalem don't really apply even though when we've crafted laws we look to see kind of what God thought was fair and we took some of those out but they don't really apply to us anymore because we don't live in Jerusalem. We live in the United States. So the civil laws aren't really for us as much and the tithing does kind of fall into that category some.
They had ceremonial laws which was how they related to God through the temple system. Through sacrifices through clean and unclean laws through some dietary laws and basically what that was teaching them was this. God is holy and you are not. He is clean and you are unclean and there are things that make you unclean and it was a consistent reminder of that and even when you were clean when you had done everything you had to do to be clean when you showed up at the temple you still needed a sacrifice. So God's teaching us in the Old Testament that the best of us still need Jesus.
Still need a sacrifice on our behalf. But the ceremonial laws don't really apply to us anymore because Jesus fulfilled that in his sacrifice on our behalf when he died on the cross when he rose again. So we're not bound to that anymore. And then there's moral law which is like the Ten Commandments. So moral law is just here's how humans ought to interact with each other.
Don't lie. Don't commit adultery. Don't covet your neighbor's stuff. Don't steal. And those still apply. Those are still things that we would look and say this is how God thinks we ought to interact with each other so we should still follow these.
And really when it comes to looking at the Old Testament you have to look at the context and you have to look at what the New Testament says about it. That's why people will say stuff like oh yeah? Well the Old Testament says not to cut the corners of your hair. Nice flat top, hypocrite. Or oh yeah? Well you're not supposed to eat shellfish.
Let's go burn red lobster to the ground. Like people accuse you of these things but they don't really apply anymore because Jesus has paid for and taken care of those aspects of the law. And there are certain New Testament passages that just say things like you can eat whatever you want. God declares it all clean. And that's why if you ever eat bacon praise Jesus. So there are certain things that when we're looking at how do we apply this and then the Old Testament speaks on it and teaches on it and then the New Testament is silent.
It begins to you begin to ask the question why? Like why doesn't the New Testament address this? Hebrews talks about it a little bit but all it's talking about is the story of Abraham meeting the priest of Salem. So why doesn't the New Testament address it? Why doesn't the New Testament talk about it? Why doesn't the New Testament say how we ought to handle it?
Because we've got a lot of questions, right? And nowhere in the New Testament which the New Testament is pretty straightforward on most things does it address it. And here's what I think as we began to read it and began to look at it here's why I believe that the New Testament when you see how the New Testament starts treating money the way the New Testament is going to talk about money post-cross it actually begins to make sense why tithing isn't mentioned. Why there isn't a rule given why 10% isn't there and here's a way to think about it. My wife and I just had a son his name's Archer he is two and a half months old I don't know if you know many two and a half month olds he's the best.
So just take the greatest two and a half month old you know just go a level up and that's kind of what Archer's like you'll get to kind of be able to imagine him now. Just kidding. Anyway no I'm serious but we have a two and a half month old and right around the time that Anna got pregnant Matt and Katie realized they were going to be having a baby as well and so everybody we were kind of wanting to see if it was going to be two boys or if we knew we were having a son if they were going to have a boy or a girl and once they found out they were having a girl Emerson Lane Freeman who when I wrote all of this that we're about to talk about I just assumed Matt and Katie wouldn't be here so some of this is going to get a little awkward for them because I felt like I had the freedom to say whatever I wanted to but they apparently don't have their baby when they're supposed to.
[QA NOTE — 2026-05-10] The remainder of this sermon is missing from the cleaned transcript because Whisper produced a single unpunctuated mega-sentence at the tail of the audio. The raw text in transcription_work/ contains the rest. Recommend re-running the cleanup with timestamp-based punctuation restoration, or capturing the missing portion manually from the audio.
Genuine Generosity
Transcript
G'day everyone. That means good morning. You can say g'day back or you can say good morning, whatever. My name is Raz. It's good to be here this morning. I'm willing to bet everyone here at some point in their life, at least a million times, has heard the phrase, is money is the root of all evil.
Yes? We've heard this phrase, money is the root of all evil. Nope. Money is not the root of all evil. Money, in fact, I believe, is very, very good. In fact, if you think back to a time when money did not even exist, think back to a time when no one traded money, they just traded stuff.
We commonly know it as the Stone Age. Other people know it as settlers of Catan. The idea is that I need to produce something for myself that I can trade with other people to get stuff that they produce. So I might produce a whole bunch of sheep, which are pretty useless, and you might produce a whole bunch of timber or wheat or something like that. And if I want some wheat, I need to convince you to trade your wheat with me for my sheep because I don't have any money. Problem is, you might not want sheep because sheep are pretty useless.
And so I have to convince you somehow to give me some timber so I can build my road. But you don't want me to build my road because then I'll beat you. But that's not how it works in real life. Everyone needed to produce something so that they could trade with other people. And that's how it worked. I would produce something.
You would produce something. We would swap. No one had any currency or anything. And so every individual person needed to produce something for themselves. Most people would try to live off what they had on their own land. But every now and then you would need to trade.
And the problem is, my stuff that I have is only worth as much as you're willing to trade me for. If you don't want to trade with me for the stuff that I've got, then I'm in trouble and I just don't get what I need. Enter into this situation money. Money comes in and suddenly everyone has this unique, special thing that you can trade for anything. Money holds value in and of itself and everything's value is measured against money. Sheep have a dollar value.
Wood has a dollar value. Bricks have a dollar value. And suddenly people who produce different things can use this unique resource to trade with each other. Money sounds pretty good. Money sounds brilliant. And you fast forward a couple thousand years, lots of thousands of years of money being used.
And now we have professions like athlete. That couldn't have existed before. No one said, hey, I'll give you a barrel of hay if you jump over that stick. I'll give you a sheep if you sing me a song. It just didn't exist. Everyone was producing things.
And so now because of money, CEOs, managers, farmers, musicians, athletes all have this thing that they can trade. They can use money to buy what they need to survive. Money is a good thing. It is not the root of all evil. Money is the root of all evil is actually a misquote. There's a similar quote.
Money is the root of all evil is a misquote. A misquote is a good. Misquote is a fine under particular circumstances. They're good if you're trying to win an argument that you're not going to win otherwise. You can always quote Shakespeare or Einstein. You don't need to know the quote.
It just has to be close enough that no one really knows. They're also good for annoying nerds like this one. This one. It says, use the force, Harry, by Gandalf. And there's a guy from Star Trek. His name is Jean-Luc Picard.
And all of the fonts are wrong. If you're a nerd, it kills your soul. Misquotes can be good. But the quote we're actually looking for is from 1 Timothy chapter 6. And it reads like this. It says, the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.
Hear the difference? The love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. Money in and of itself is not evil. It's the desire for money. The longing. The desire to have more and store it up and keep more and more for myself.
The idea that money will fulfill me. These are all different kinds of evil. Money in and of itself is actually a good thing. It allows everyone to trade. This love of money is the source of all kinds of evils. That's why the author of Hebrews, he says, keep your life free from the love of money.
Be content with what you have. It's the desire for more and more. It's actually what causes all the problems. Now, my goal today is not to convince you that you saving money is sinful. It's not necessarily. It could be.
My goal is not to convince you that your spending habits are in and of themselves evil or that your money is evil because that's not necessarily true, though it could be. My goal for today is to convince you that giving money away freely to other people, those who need it, those who don't need it, just giving it away with no benefit to yourself is actually a source of great joy. That's the goal for today. Being generous is a source of great joy. Let's pray.
We talked about the lens through which we culturally see money and how that lens can kind of corrupt our understanding. We talked about some big principles about how we should actually view money, but we didn't really get into the kind of nitty-gritty of how that applies to our lives. So the next couple of weeks, we're going to talk specifically about how that generosity, how that lens impacts the way we use our money. There's two big principles from last week that I want to highlight. The first one is that, let me just check it so I get the words right. The first one is, we cannot take it with us, but we can send it on ahead.
We cannot take it with us, but we can send it on ahead. The idea is that we are going to die. You are going to die. Everybody dies. Easy. You cannot take the money that you've stored up with you once you've died, but you can send it on ahead.
And what that means, what this idea of storing up treasures in heaven means is that the way that we interact with money now, the way that we manage money now, can impact what we will have for eternity. When you are generous with your money now, when you give it away with no kind of selfish greed ambition for yourself with that money, when you just give it away, you're actually storing up treasures for yourself later. You can't take it with you, but you can send it on ahead. The second one that we looked at, the second principle that we talked about was that God owns everything. I am his money manager.
God owns everything. I'm his money manager. The idea here is that God created the world, created us, created everything in it. Psalms talks about how he is the owner of everything in the world. We read other places where he says, all of the silver, all of the gold belongs to me. Everything in this world is God's.
I'm just the guy who temporarily uses it while I'm on earth. That's how our approach to money should be. And so when we ask any question that starts with this idea of, what should I do with my money? How should I spend my money? Who should I give my money to? What percentage of my money should I give?
We've already misunderstood. We've already believed a lie that the money we're talking about belongs to me in the first place. And so this principle is that the money belongs to God. You're just the person who gets to control it temporarily. The opposite of this, the opposite concept of this entire lens that we're looking at money through, is kind of how the world talks to us about it, how culture talks to us about money. The American culture in general is big on making it yourself, the American dream, making lots of money, getting a job, moving on in the world.
If you've ever seen a show called Shark Tank, you've probably seen this guy before. His name is Kevin O'Leary. Shark Tank is a show where billionaires like this guy invest in other people's products, other people's time and effort, and try to help them become billionaires as well. They're all obsessed with money. This guy is the epitome of it. They call him Mr.
Wonderful, which is totally wrong. He's a massive jerk. He treats everyone like scum. And when he was interviewed about money, this is something that he said. He said, you may lose your wife, you may lose your dog. Your mother may hate you.
None of those things matter. What matters is that you achieve success and become free. Then you can do whatever you like. That's pretty bold, right? That's pretty bold. Now, I know none of us would quite say it like this.
No one in this room is rich enough or brave enough to say that. But we can understand where this comes from, given our culture. We can understand this concept that money is worth dying for. Get rich or die trying. We can understand this concept that anything that gets in your way of getting rich is just an obstacle. It's kind of how our culture views money.
Whether we like it or not, a small part of us that does understand that also sympathizes with it. We might not go to the extremes of saying we're going to trample our mother and our dog and our wife and stuff. But we understand what it means to desire so much to have more money that we would do things for it. That we would push things out of the way to get more money. When culture is so overexposed on an issue like money, a little bit of that seeps into us, even if we deny the overall premise. And it's kind of horrifying that we could sympathize with something like that.
Open up a Bible, if you've got one, to 1 Timothy chapter 6. If you've got a Bible that looks like this, it's going to be on page 644. Page 644. 1 Timothy is a letter. It was written by the Apostle Paul to Timothy. Paul was getting really old.
He's a bit of a geezer at this point. He planted a whole bunch of churches. He was the main primary leader of those churches. And he knew he was going to die soon, so he was setting up other people to kind of take over those roles. Timothy was one of them. He was leader at this time of the church of Ephesus.
And Paul is just giving him some instructions on here's how the church should be run. We're going to be in 1 Timothy 6 from verses 17 to 19. As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty. That means arrogant. Charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share.
Thus, storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. Okay, back up to the top. Verse 17. As for the rich in this present age, well, I don't know about you, but I know I am completely off the hook at this point in time. And as I look up at everyone, I didn't see anyone like, shh, quiet the people next to them. He's talking to us.
We need to listen. None of that happened when I said the word rich, because we all kind of think we're off the hook at this point in time. I understand that, because none of us are rich, right? We live in Columbia, South Carolina. That's not a rich city. Most of us, we don't own our own houses, not at least outright.
We probably don't drive a flashy car. We've probably got some loans to pay off. We're not like all those rich people out there that exist. Those rich people who own a nice house and own a flashy car and don't have any loans. They live on their cash. They're the rich people.
But then those people look at the other people with five houses and ten vacation homes in six countries, each of them with a Lamborghini. And they say, I'm not rich. That guy's rich. And the process continues. I'm not rich because someone is richer. It's all a bizarre trick, really.
It's all this trick that we tell ourselves to disassociate with this label. Rich. What does it mean to be rich? It's actually a very weird logic. I'm not rich because someone else is richer. Let me prove it to you.
I poke holes in this all day. If I substitute the word rich, it's no longer I'm not rich because someone else is richer, and add in something mundane. Clothes. I'm not clothed because someone else has more clothes than I do. What? I'm not full because Matt ate more food than I did.
What? What? It's true most of the time. It's true most of the time, but that's not how logic works. It's not this case of I'm not rich because someone else is richer. The logic is flawed.
I went to Belize a few years ago. Belize is a country in Central America. It's on the Caribbean side. They don't associate themselves with Central America. They're a Caribbean country. Let me tell you what it looks like to be rich in Belize.
If you're rich in Belize, you probably have a door on your bathroom. Your bathroom will be just in the corner of your square house, and you'll probably have a door instead of just like a curtain on your bathroom. You will probably, if you're rich in Belize, have a lock on your front door instead of a dog. The only building in all of Belize that I went to that had air conditioning was the airport. So we arrived, thought, this isn't so bad, and then spent two weeks sweating out in the sun all day long.
Fun fact about Belize. There's not that many flushable toilets. There's a few. They're around. If you plan your day, if you're a good planner for that kind of thing, you can plan when you need to use the bathroom, and you can find a flushable toilet. They're not everywhere.
Even the ones that you do find, you are not allowed to flush anything down it, including toilet paper. They have a little trash can that sits in the cubicle. So you can go, and then you can clean up, and the toilet paper goes in the trash can. Keep in mind, these houses are not air conditioned. If you've got a window, you're lucky, and it's probably 120 degrees with 100% humidity. Kind of gross.
But that's actually the rich, the wealthy lifestyle in Belize. It's kind of crazy. You want to learn a thing or two about luxury, you go to a country like that, and then come home. Then you experience luxury when you come home. And that's what happened for me. I spent two weeks in Belize, came back, and then found myself on day one eating three full meals, sitting on a fully functional flushable toilet, flushing my toilet paper.
It was amazing. And then I would just pick up whatever I was doing from before I left, like watching TV shows on Netflix. The kind of stuff that normal people do. Not rich people. Kind of different when you come home. I will probably continue to play the I'm not rich card.
This Trump card. I'm not rich. I'll probably continue to play that card for the rest of my life. I probably will. But I'm going to be doing that from my air-conditioned department, sitting on a fully functional flushable toilet that I can put my toilet paper in.
I'll probably be on my iPhone, maybe watching subscription television while I'm at it. None of that makes me rich here. Excellent. We measure richness in the Western world in kind of a bizarre way. We have like this sliding scale where we are able to, in our own minds, measure what rich actually is. And so if we have the poor, the poorest of the poor don't have a single dollar, probably in thousands of dollars of debt, whatever.
These people all the way over here that have absolutely nothing. And then all the way at the other end of the scale, the sliding scale of richness, you have Bill Gates and his buddies over here who have billions and billions of dollars. We're all going to land somewhere in the middle, probably on this side of the middle, probably. And we're going to look this way and say, that's where rich begins. Because we want to disassociate ourselves with this label of what it means to be rich. We're not rich.
All these people in front of me are rich. How could I be rich when they've got so much more than I do? And we push away this label because we're scared of it. Being rich comes with more responsibility. I have to look after more people. I've got to finance well.
And so we disassociate ourselves with richness saying that's something for all those people. And we don't really pay attention to all these people. We never turn around and say, wow. I am incredibly blessed. Look at all these people that I could help out. Look at all these people who have nothing compared to me.
This is how we evaluate richness. This is how we generally associate whether or not I'm rich. This is our criteria. Am I at this mysterious line on this side that I have to cross eventually? Then I become rich.
That's how it works. But the closer we get to that line, the further up that line moves because no one wants to be rich. At least we avoid it. Instead, I want us to evaluate it slightly differently. I want us to evaluate it like this. Answer the question, could I survive on less?
Could I survive on less? Would my family and I die? Would we cease to exist if we had less money, less stuff? Now, if a decent percentage of our income disappeared overnight, gone, it could be 5% for you. That might be a big deal. It could be 45% for you.
That could be a big deal. If a massive drop happened in our income overnight, we would probably have to make some lifestyle changes. That's natural. If we're forced to live on less, we make lifestyle changes. We might have a smaller house without two spare bedrooms that we keep just because the in-laws might come eventually but never do. We just have to vacuum an extra room every week.
We might have to cancel subscription television, HBO, that kind of thing. Maybe we would have to use a dumb phone. My suggestion is and always will be that you just get rid of the dog. That's a money pit. But there's no reason to do that to yourself.
It just costs money. But in the process of all of this, being forced to live on less, we would probably have to rely on God a little bit. Probably. But I'm willing to bet we wouldn't die. Willing to bet we could all live on less. Now, I don't know if I've proved my point or not, but I'm willing to bet also that when you got here today, you arrived by vehicle in a car.
Car. You probably are wearing clothes. At least I think you all are. You probably ate some food this morning. And you probably used a fully functional flushable toilet. If all of that is true, I'm just going to read the rest of this and assume it applies to us.
Verse 17. As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty or arrogant, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. Rich people. That's us. Don't set your hopes on money. Don't set your hopes on money.
Set them on God. Now, you might think, I don't have any money. That's fine. Don't set your hopes on it anyway. For people who've got lots of money, don't set your hopes on it. It could go in a flash.
Some bank could go bankrupt and you lose everything. Your trust fund could disappear overnight. Don't put your hopes in the money that you have. For people who don't have any money, don't put your hopes on the money that you hope to have in the future. When the mortgage is paid off. When the car is paid off.
When the student loans are paid off. When the job gives you the promotion they've been promising. To say, I'll just be good. I can give more then. I can be okay then. I'll be comfortable then.
It's still putting your hopes on money. It's just future money that doesn't exist yet. It could be 10 years away. It could be 25 years away. Don't put your hopes in money. Put your hopes on God.
He's the provider of everything that we need. You can't take it with you. What's the point in hoping in it? When you start to get worried. When you start to get worried financially. Are you more likely to turn to your bank account.
And make sure that there's still that buffer zone in the bottom of it. And say, sweet. I'm okay. I'm good. I'll survive. I got the buffer zone.
Or are you likely to think. God has made promises to me. He's going to keep them. I'll be okay. When you're stressed. When you're anxious.
Are you more likely to find comfort in bankofamerica.com. Telling you you've still got that much money left. Or are you willing to find comfort in the fact that. God predestined you. He set you up since before the world began. He knows the number of hairs on your head.
And he has a plan for your life. Which one of them is more comfort to you. Sadly I think. A lot of people find comfort in this. Arbitrary amount of money. That's kept in their bank account.
We know that money is temporary. We know we can't take it with us. We can't take it with us when we die. Why put our hopes in it. Instead put your hopes in God. In verse 18.
They. That's the rich. Are to do good. To be rich in good works. To be generous and ready to share. Thus.
Storing up treasure for themselves. As a good foundation. For the future. So that they may take hold of that. Which is truly life. Paul is saying that for those.
With money. Those who are rich. Do good things with it. Be generous with it. Be hospitable with your house. And your stuff.
When you do. You store up treasures for yourself. In the future. And attain that. Which is truly life. That's a crazy thought.
But you. Can't take it with you. Send it on ahead. Store up treasures for yourself. In heaven. Where.
Moth and rust. Don't destroy stuff. Every time you. Be generous. Now. Every time you give away.
Not. Not expecting anything in return. You're storing up treasures for yourself. In heaven. It gets to be joyful in the moment. You have a lot of fun doing it.
But you're also storing up treasures in heaven. That's exactly what he says to do. Now. The early church is described as incredibly joyful. These are the guys who are around. Right after Jesus kind of ascended.
And I'm going to read a passage that we. We talk about a lot. As Mill City Church. We. We kind of believe that this is a model for. For how we do our community groups.
That's from Acts chapter 2. 42 through 47. As I highlight some things. Words are going to come up on the screen. It's not the whole passage. It's just chunks of it.
But. But that's the kind of the bits that I wanted to highlight for you. This is from Acts. Acts 2. 42. 42.
42. 42. 42. 42. And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. That's the Bible.
And the fellowship. To the breaking of bread and prayers. And all came upon every soul. And soul. And wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together.
And had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings. And distributing the proceeds to all. As any had need. And day by day. Attending the temple together.
And breaking bread in their homes. They received their food. With glad and generous hearts. Praising God. And having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number.
Day by day. Those who were being saved. Sell my stuff. And give it to people who need it. There's. Something about that concept.
When I do it for myself. When I see other people doing it. That just makes you happy. It brings joy. To see those who need it. Receive it.
And to be responsible. For allowing those who need it. To receive it. Is a source of great joy. It really is. It physically shows.
As I give money away. As I give things away. It physically shows that. I'm not the point. I don't need this. God is the point.
Other people need this. It's a tangible. Physical representation. Of me giving away. That which I don't need. And making God the point.
The guy that we've been talking about. The author of this book. Treasure Principle. His name is Randy Alcorn. We referenced him last week. Great book.
I think you should all read it. He says it like this. Generosity. Is the only antidote. To materialism. Generosity.
Is the only antidote. To materialism. When I. Give stuff away. I break. The stranglehold.
That that stuff. Has on me. We know that we cannot serve. God and money. And so when we give. Money away.
We break the stranglehold. That money has on us. We allow God. To be the focus. Of everything that we do. Generosity.
Is the antidote. To materialism. Materialism. Being the attachment. That we have to money. And stuff.
Now it's not easy. We know that. There's this guy. That Jesus met. It's recorded in Matthew 19. They call him the rich young ruler.
He comes to Jesus. And he says. I've kept all the commandments. I've done everything I should have done. What do I need to do. To inherit eternal life?
And Jesus kind of sees through him. He sees through the facade. He sees what's actually going on. In this guy's life. And he says. To himself.
Money is this guy's problem. So he says to him. Sell everything you have. Give it to the poor. And come follow me. And the guy leaves.
Upset. He leaves upset. Because he cannot see that which is truly life. He cannot see what it means to follow Jesus. And not be attached to his money. He's put all of his hope.
All of his comfort. All of his power. All of his everything. In money. He believes money is where his source of joy will be. Because he's unwilling to get rid of it.
To attain true joy. To receive true joy. To follow Jesus. He refuses. Because he has his hopes in the wrong place. You can loosen the grip that money has on your life.
You can loosen the grip that stuff has on your life. By simply giving it away. Selling it and giving it to the poor. It can be to the homeless. It can be to a thrift store. It can be to people in your community group.
It can be to an organization. It can be cash. It can be gift cards. It can be clothes. It could be a car. It could be the money that you've been saving for a big vacation.
That you've always wanted to take. In all of these situations. You're saying. It's not about me. God has blessed me with this stuff. I choose to bless other people with it.
And I guess to be a source of great joy. There's no reason to not be happy about meeting the needs of other people. Now it can't become legalistic. Legalistic meaning. I'm just following the rules. It can't become legalistic.
Like. I have to do this. In order to be saved. Wrong. It can't become prideful. It can't become.
Hey everyone. Check me out. I give all my stuff away. Also not that good. In both situations. You're still using generosity.
You're using generosity as a tool. To earn favor with God. You don't earn favor with God. God has freed you. Of his own goodwill. There's nothing for you to do.
To earn favor with God. Because you're free already in the gospel. This is all. How you react. According to the gospel. It's not something you do to earn it.
Your generosity should be because. You want God's money. To be a blessing to God's people. So you bless God's people with God's money. That's your motivation. You want people to be blessed.
So you bless them. It will probably mean budgeting slightly differently. For some people. It will probably mean budgeting. Budgeting. You should budget.
For other people. It will just mean budgeting differently. Some people set up what they call a benevolence fund. Benevolence means. Giving to those. Giving away from what you are not using to help others.
Now that doesn't mean. Just use the fringe stuff that you never use. It means budgeting so that you've got fringe stuff. It means budgeting so that you've got a section of your income. That you're deliberately setting aside. To give away to other people.
That's something that someone with a lot of money might be able to do. You could set aside 40% of your income. And say I'm just going to give all that away. I'm going to set it aside. As a church. As a church.
Most of our financial support has happened. Within the context of our community groups. And so far it's been pretty amazing to see. Just within the little cells that we've got. We've seen a lot of people. In crazy ways.
In beautiful ways. Support each other financially. We have seen groups pay bills. Replace stolen property. Pay for counseling for people who need it. Completely outfit pregnant couples with baby stuff.
Because they couldn't afford it themselves. We've seen them fix cars. Buy car parts for each other. Pay travel expenses. Pay for hotels. When people were in a dangerous situation.
And needed to be temporarily removed out of them. We've seen mortgage payments paid. Gas for people to get to and from gatherings. In their community group times. We've seen prescriptions filled. We've covered each other's meals.
Our Christmas and birthday gifts. For families that have kids. And they weren't going to be able to get anything for them. We've seen our groups. When they want to go out to get a meal together. But there's a big family in that group.
That can't afford to take all of them with them. We've seen our groups sponsor the kids. So that everyone could go out in a big group. And eat together. And it's crazy. It's beautiful.
So far our groups have been nothing short of heroic. Incredible. At meeting each other's needs. If that isn't exactly how it should be. I'm not sure that we're doing it right. I think that when you see that happen.
You get overwhelmed with joy. Thinking that's exactly what family should be like. That's exactly what church should be like. People meeting each other's needs. And if it doesn't get you a little bit overjoyed inside. If it doesn't make you.
Even if you've got a stern face. Smile a little bit. Then you might just. I don't know. Be Voldemort or something. Our groups are amazing.
They meet each other's needs when they come up. And what's amazing and beautiful is that. Joy doesn't just come from the people who are getting stuff. You might think. Score. Someone bought me a free meal.
Victory. Yay. You might think. Score. Someone paid my bills for me. Victory.
Yay. And that only those people who are receiving things. Are the ones who are receiving. Or joyful about it. It's not the case. Those who have been meeting those needs.
Are equally. If not more joyful. That they were able. Out of their abundance. To be able to sacrifice. And give to people who needed it.
More than they did. There's something joyful about that as well. And that's why we've seen families. In our church. Who've needed to receive things. At one point in time.
Turn around and be generous. At another point in time. And bless others. Those who've needed things. In the past. Have turned around.
And provided food hampers. For people whose budget. Didn't have anything left in it. For the rest of the month. Who've catered events. From their own pocket.
Christina and my wedding rehearsal dinner. Was completely catered for. By other people. Largely by Mill City Church. People wouldn't even. Accept money from us.
Because it was a joy to them. To be generous to us. It's not obligation. It's joy. There's nothing that says. You need to do this for us.
Because we did something for you. No. It's joy. People do it. Because it's fun. Because it makes it feel good.
And within our church family. It's been pure joy. Over and over again. To see bills paid. To see people make it. When they didn't think they were going to.
And it's all because of this principle. It's God's money. Not mine. How am I going to bless people with God's money? It gets to be joy for me. Now I like challenges.
Actually I take that back. I don't like challenges. I just take them really seriously. It's not always good for me to accept a challenge. But I do anyway.
You're probably thinking to yourself right about now. Look at that amazing beard. It's red if I hold it up to the light. It's not if I don't. Sometimes. It's growing longer and longer.
And the only reason for its existence in all of its glory. Is a challenge. A challenge made by my wife. In front of 25 people. To get it down to here. It's currently in the regret stage.
It will probably continue to be in the regret stage. Until it stops falling out everywhere. Which it is doing now. Another challenge. If you're friends with either of us on Facebook. You've probably seen.
We've become rather artistic lately. Particularly in the realm of beanies. That's why people walk around now. Looking like minions. Ninja turtles. Vikings.
Whatever we can come up with. Started out as a challenge. I think we won. Challenge me to do something. I'm going to learn how to do it. And I'm going to trample everything in my path.
Until I can conquer that challenge. Puppies. Children. Doesn't matter. I'm going to get out of my way. Today I'm going to issue you a challenge.
I want you to take it as seriously as I do. I want you to take it seriously. I think it comes straight out of the verse that we've read. I think it comes straight out of the verse 18 and 19. They say, You're to do good. Be rich in good works.
Be generous and ready to share. Store up treasures as a good foundation for the future. And take hold of that which is truly life. Now I don't think there's anything particularly hard about my challenge. But I don't think it's particularly normal for us.
It's quite abnormal for us. Here's the challenge. Give generously to someone this week. Give generously to someone this week. It could be someone you know. It could be a family member.
It could be from your community group. It can be cash. It can be gift cards. It can be a meal. I think you can. You've got some freedom here.
You can be pretty creative. You can do above and beyond that thing. And remember, generosity is not conditional. It doesn't have to be because someone needs it. You can just do it as a surprise. That will still bring joy for them and for you.
If you're like me and you're prone to a little bit of pride, you might want to do this for a complete stranger instead. The benefit of doing it for a complete stranger is that they typically don't come and thank you. Especially if you make it anonymous and you hide and that kind of thing. They won't be able to come and thank you. But you still get to see the effects of your generosity.
You still get to see what happens as a waiter goes over to a table and tells a family that their meal has been paid for and they look at each other like, What? This happens? What? And you get to smile to yourself and strut out of that restaurant thinking, I just made their day. Oh, yeah. And if it's a Monday, you get to think, I just made their week.
Oh, yeah. It doesn't have to be for any reason. It doesn't have to be for any particular person. You can go to a drive-thru and pay for the person behind you. You might want to make sure it's not a bus. You can go to a drive-thru and just pay for the person behind you and then drive off and they'll never know it was you.
But you'll know that you just made that person's day. You made that person's week. You made that person's month. Who knows? You might not have much money. That's okay.
Spare $5 from your budget this week. Go to Starbucks on Tuesday because that's the start of this week and everyone's going to feel like it's Monday. Buy someone coffee at Starbucks. Watch how that transforms that person's morning. They don't want to go to work. They want to sleep in.
And you just bought them coffee for no reason. That's going to crazy bless them. They're going to have such a good day because some random stranger bought coffee for them in the morning. So countercultural. If you've got quite a bit of money, you're in luck. You get to go crazy and you get to be super creative.
Go to start small. Go to a mechanic and pay someone's bill while they're gone. $500, $800, $1,200. Who knows? That is going to transform someone's day. That might transform someone's year. They might not have been able to pay for those tires.
They might have been pulling out their credit card for the first time. They might have been maxing out their credit card and you just paid that bill off for them. That's going to make someone's day. Get 12 dozen Krispy Kremes. Get 12 dozen Krispy Kremes. Go to the DMV and make waiting at the DMV a little less torture.
That would be a fun way to spend some money and bless people. And you know what? All of it comes as a reaction to the gospel. All of it comes as our response to what God has done for us out of his generosity. While we were still sinners, Christ came and died for us. God gave generously to us.
He sacrificed his only son to come and pay the sins of the world. To pay your sins, to pay for my sins on the cross so that we could be reconciled to him. That's what it took for him to be generous. And for us, it gets to be as easy as money, which we can't take with us. There is great joy from being generous. It feels good to bless people financially.
And you know what? Instead of laying treasures for yourself here on earth, you get to set them up for yourself for eternity. Lay treasures up for the future. Where they won't grow old, they won't rust, and moths won't eat them. You get to keep them forever. Let's pray.
Father God, we praise and thank you that you have blessed us with so much. We thank you for the opportunities that we have as those who can live on less to bless others abundantly this week. I pray that as we go out this week and think about the ways that we can be spending our money, the ways that we can be budgeting, the ways that we can be looking out for other people, that you be giving us discernment on how much, you be giving us discernment on when, you be giving us discernment on in what manner, but that overall we can be generous and that our generosity will come from a heart that is just loving you, responding to what you've done for us the way that you would like us to. Pray that this week and weekend, give to others with a glad and generous heart.
It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
God's Money and My Faith
Transcript
We are starting our first week in our money series, and we're really excited to be able to spend some time talking together about money. We know that when we talk about money, we can get a little uncomfortable. It's kind of one of those issues you're not really supposed to talk about in our culture. You don't ask somebody how much they make. You don't ask about people's finances. And so we just know that in general, spending some time, we're going to take four weeks out to talk about money and finances and address some of these things that it can make us a little uncomfortable.
So we decided to start, thought it would be helpful today, to start by talking about a concept that the Bible says has a lot to do with how we view finances and how we think about money, but that isn't money directly to kind of ease in this morning. So we're going to kind of start off in one area, and then we'll move into money. You are all going to die. Isn't it nice to talk about something a little bit easier than money kind of transition in? We're all going to die. Like every single one of us, it's very clear.
This is the way the world works. At some point, we will take our last breath. We will buy the farm, kick the bucket, take a dirt nap. Like we're going to die. And the Bible says that our mortality, the fact that we won't be here forever, should have a lot to do with how we view finances. Our mortality should have a lot to do with how we think about possessions and how we think about money.
And so I just wanted to kind of ease in talking about money. We thought we'd address death first. Let's pray. We'll be in Matthew chapter 6 this morning. We'll pray together, and then we'll flip over there. God, we thank you for this time we get to get together and address really important issues.
Nobody in this room is going to live a life not affected by money. No one in this room is going to live a life where money doesn't play a major role in how their life plays out. And so, God, we just want to humbly come to you, come to your scripture, and learn how we ought to see money, view money, understand money. And we pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would teach us today as we do that. We love you, and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.
So we'll be in Matthew chapter 6. The page number is on the screen behind me. I believe it's 526, I think. Yep, 526 is where we'll be today. And so here's what we're doing. Today we're mostly going to talk about big picture principles, foundational things for how we approach money.
The next three weeks we'll talk very practically about money. So today we're going to talk about principles. Next week we're going to specifically talk about generosity when it comes to giving money away to other people, to causes and that sort of thing. The following week we're going to talk about tithing and giving to the local church. Like is tithing still something we're supposed to do? Is that an Old Testament concept?
What does giving to the local church mean? How does all that play out? So that's what we'll spend our time on two weeks from now. And then the final week we'll talk about kind of working, spending, and saving. So the Bible's pretty clear that some of your money is meant to terminate on you and should be used for your enjoyment and your pleasure and for looking out for the future.
And so we're going to spend a little time talking about that. So we're really trying to address where is money? How are we supposed to handle money? Where is it supposed to go? And so we're going to talk about giving it away to people in the local church towards mission and then spending it, saving it, buying a steak, seeing a concert, that kind of thing. So, but today we're going to talk specifically about some big picture principles.
And then because we want this to be as helpful as possible, one of the reasons we wanted to do this is we, as a church family, have a lot of new Christians and a lot of people just hanging out and checking out Christianity. And that's a beautiful thing for us. And we just have a lot of questions when it comes to money, when it comes to how do we handle this? What do we do with that? What does this look like? What's the rule is kind of the question a lot we get.
And so we just wanted to address that. We also, over the next three weeks, are going to do some Q&A. So send in your questions to Twitter, Facebook, whatever. We're going to spend some time after each sermon just kind of answering some of those questions as best we can. Also, the Bible has a lot to say about money. Jesus talks about money a lot.
And so we have to talk about it some. To really address it. It's a big deal in your life. And the Bible Acts like it's a big deal. So we want to talk about that.
The one thing I do feel like we need to address, every time a church talks about money or takes time to do a series on money, it feels a little bit like, oh, so y'all need some money? Like it just feels like, oh, y'all hurting? Like, you know, what's going on? And so I just wanted to clearly say, we don't need money. Like we don't need your money right now. We're not in hurting or anything like that.
We're church plants, so we're not rich by any means. We try to do things very cheaply. We try to handle money really well. But we're not hurting for money. The Lord has graciously provided for us. And so this isn't a, hey, light's about to be cut off.
We've got to get kicked out of here. We've got to talk about some money or things are going to turn bad on us real quick. That's not what this is. It really is that we just have a lot of questions. It's an important issue. It's a big issue.
Now, that having been said, I want to be clear. Every time I've hung out and been in a church and they started talking about money and then the pastor said, we don't need your money. We don't want your money. I've always been like, come on. Tell the truth. Like, be real with me.
So I want to be real. I want to be honest. We don't need your money. We're not hurting for it. We want your money. Like, we agree with what we're doing here.
We pay for stuff. We rent things. We pay pastors. Matt and I are able to be full time because people generously give here. We are able to support church plants. We're able to do a lot of things.
And so we like money. It's not evil. We want more of it so we can use more of it for more stuff. For Kid City, for all the stuff we do now, we're starting to get student groups started. So don't hear me say, like, fakely, we don't want money.
No, we want it. It's good. We're going to use it. The more money we get, the more we're going to give away, the more we're going to spend. But that's not what this is about.
And we're not even going to talk about us, like, the church money stuff today. We're going to talk about some big picture principles. So Matthew 6, we're going to start in verse 19. And this is Jesus teaching, and he's going to take in this really short section. He's going to lay out some big picture principles, some foundations for how we ought to view money. 19.
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy. Where thieves break in and steal. So treasure specifically means possessions, because he's talking about rust and moth and thieves. Like, you know, you can't be like, well, I treasure my children. No, he's talking about possessions. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where the thieves do not break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness. No one can serve two masters.
For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Okay, so that's where we're going to spend our time today. And so Jesus says some really clear, really concrete things there. And it's also, though, if you look at the section, it's kind of confusing. Because here's what he does.
He says, don't lay up treasures in heaven. Or don't, don't lay up, do lay up treasures in heaven. Don't lay up treasures on earth. Lay up treasures in heaven. So he's talking about money and possessions.
Then he says something about your eyes and lamps. And if your eye is a lamp and your lamp doesn't work, then you're in the dark. And how dark your darkness is if the lamp is broken. Like, if the light in you is darkness, how dark would that be? Is kind of how he ends it. Then he goes right back into, you can't serve God and money.
So he goes, money, lamp, eye thing, money. And he says this really like, you can't serve God and money. Feels a little bit like this intense, like really drove the point home. And it's like, what were you doing in the middle here with the light stuff? Like, it confuses me. It's a little bit like if you, if you did this on a paper in elementary school, you would make a C.
Like, my mom and I went to the store. I love puppies. Puppies are soft and great. At the store, we bought milk and cereal. Your teacher would circle the middle sentence and be like, what was all that about puppies? What were you doing?
Like, were there puppies at the store? This is not how you write stuff. And so he says money, eyes, money. And so what we have to understand is that the eye section has something to do with money. He hasn't changed the subject. He didn't randomly like, oh, he doesn't have ADD.
It wasn't like, oh, I forgot to tell you this earlier. Now let's talk about money again. Like, it has to do with money. And so here's really simply what I believe he is saying there in that section on eyes. When he says that, the eye is the lamp of the body, and if you don't see well, basically what he's telling us is when it comes to money, it's a vision problem more than anything else. It has to do with how we view money, with how we understand money, with how we see it.
And that the truth is a lot of us are just blind to how big of an effect money has, how actually weighty it is, how much control it has. And we're blind to how we ought to view it. And so that's why he's going to unpack some big principle things here. And really, that's what we're doing today. We're looking at principles, foundational things, so that we can actually know how to do practical things. And that's how life works.
That's how your life works. You have principles that guide how you practice, how you live, what you do. You have a foundational belief set that affects how you live. It affects how you handle money. It affects how you think about relationships, love, and marriage. It affects really everything you do, how you work, what the goal of life is.
You have some big picture principles that affect the practical things. A real easy way to think about this or to explain it is before I ever started dating, I had an understanding of what the principles behind dating, like what the goal was. And so I went in. I had some good principles and some bad principles. One of the good ones I had, one of the things I understood about dating was the point of dating was to get married. Like it was supposed to be fun, but it wasn't just about fun.
Just for the record, if you're dating someone and that's not fun, since dating is about marriage, stop dating that person because marrying someone you don't have fun with would be terrible. Just doing basic math there. But I knew that when I started dating that the goal of dating was marriage, was to find someone to marry. So I went into dating, always asking the question, is this person marriable? And for all the couples in here dating, this just got way more intense, you were like, dude, go back to talking about money. Like, stop this.
But I went into dating relationships knowing that I was looking for someone marriable. And then once I had like a framework for dating, once I had some principles, then I had practical questions. Like, how do I actually get a girl to go on a date with me? Once on that date, how might I get her to kiss my mouth? Like, I had practical questions. Does the wiping away the hair thing work or is that just in movies?
Like, what do we got going here? Like, you have practical questions. And so the next three weeks, we're going to have practical questions we're going to address. But today we're going to handle some big picture principles, foundations for how do we look at money? How do we think about it? And that's what Jesus is talking about.
And the first thing is we don't see money clearly. Money for us, I'm going to just try to quickly say a few ways that we just don't see how big of an effect money has. Money has a lot to do with how you view yourself, what your identity is. So you'll meet people who grew up with not a lot of money and have a lot of weight in, we were poor and we fought through. Like, we didn't have all this stuff. We didn't have, you know, and we fought and we made it work and we, you know, we had family and that's what mattered.
We had our neighborhood and that's what mattered. You'll meet people that had money and that completely changes their worldview. When we use labels like rich and poor, it's an identity label, not an adjective as much as it is like the type of person. And depending on how you land finance wise, it really has a lot to do with who you believe you are. Boils down to money, level of money. And we don't realize that.
For some of us, money just makes decisions for us and we don't even have to, like, we don't think about it. We don't think about the fact that the overarching decision-making process in our life is money. So if a job offers you more money, accept it. Why would you not accept it? It offered you more money. So people will just pick up and move somewhere.
They don't question anything about their family or church family or relate, like, just, oh, it's going to pay more money. And then we'll, like, and this will happen in, like, community groups. Hey, I'm moving here. This place is going to pay me more money. And the whole group just says, sweet, congratulations. And we don't ask the question of, do you realize your only way you decided was money?
College majors. I love history. But you can't make money studying history. So I'm going to do this major. I'm going to go be an orthodontist. Why?
Because of money. Do you like teeth and mouths? Nope. But I like dollar bills. Like, and that's how people make decisions. Job decisions.
Big, life-changing decisions. Not joy. Not giftedness. It's not just money. Where are you going to go? Where are you going to land?
Where are you going to be? How are you going to live? Just money. You're just following the money. We make big life decisions off of it. It affects who we think we are.
It affects how, like, and we just don't even realize it. We don't think about how much money is behind the scenes having control over things. In some ways, money is the Illuminati of our souls. Like, Jesus here says money has a lot more secret control than you think. And we're like, yeah, okay. Like, every time anybody talks to me about the Illuminati, I'm like, sure, okay.
But that's what Jesus is saying. There's a little bit of, like, we don't see it. We don't see how much power it wields. And then at the end, he's going to try to help us see it. So as he goes through this, he's helping us see money clearly.
How we ought to view it. And so that's what we're looking at. We're going to start back up at the top. And we're going to look really at three big principles that Jesus is going to kind of lay out for us. We did get some of our illustrations and some of our thought processes from a book called Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn. It's a very good book.
It's really short. We suggest it. So once we realize we don't see money correctly, we need to then approach and say, okay, Jesus, how ought we to see money? How ought we view this? And so 19, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. All right, that's simple enough.
Jesus says the goal on earth is not lay up treasures for yourself. Another way that we're blinded, some of us, our goal on earth is arrive, be comfortable. Just get to the place where I can just have the things I want and rest and not worry. And your whole life goal is a financial goal. It's a money goal. And what he's saying is, no, that's not the goal.
Don't lay up treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But what he's saying is, everything you have will rust, will rot, will eventually end up in a dump. Every Apple watch is going to be garbage at some point. Some of you are like, they already are garbage. Sure. But so is your Samsung Galaxy.
It's going to end up being garbage. Everything, everything you have is going to be garbage. Some of you right now drive a really beater car. At some point, it was really nice. I mean, as nice as a geostorm can be. But it was nice.
It was new, came off the line, you know. And now you drive a beater car and that's where all cars are headed. All of them. Will be junk. Will be a clunker. That's how that works.
And so what Jesus is saying is, don't pile up garbage. That's not a smart thing. And then he says something that's weird. So we understand that. We understand you can't take it with us. The Bible says that clearly in a couple of places.
That's really what he's saying is, all the stuff you have when you die is no longer yours. Like you cannot take it with you. Ecclesiastes 5.15 says, As he came from his mother's womb, he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand. 1 Timothy 6.7 says, For we brought nothing into this world and we cannot take anything out of it. I heard somebody ask John D. Rockefeller's money manager at one point, said, How much money did he leave when he died?
And the money manager said, All of it. And that's how that works. Everything you have, you can't take with you. But then Jesus says something interesting that I think is something we don't really realize. He says the back end. So don't lay up treasures on earth.
We're like, Okay, yeah, I kind of understand that concept. Can't take it with me, although it's probably enjoyable to have it here. You know, I just know that eventually it ends. But he says, But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys, where thieves do not break in and steal. So what he just said was not material things are bad.
Treasure is bad. That's not a Christian belief at all, that material world is bad. Christian belief is that God made the material world and it's very good. There's a reason that bacon is delicious, that riding a roller coaster is fun. Or terrifying for some people. It's still fun.
There's a reason. Like material world, that's why we like soft things and like holding something very well crafted. And when you see a really nice car, you just want to stare at it. Like material world is good. But what he says is, don't put all the weight here.
Seek real treasure. Because the Bible tells us that we were all designed for eternity. And that when we die, we will continue on into eternity. And it's not a ghosty, floaty, feetless, specter eternity. It's real. We have real bodies.
We'll have real things to do. We'll live in real places. We're going to spend eternity on a new earth for Christians. We'll be on a new earth with, he just renews creation. So what he's saying is send it to a place where sin doesn't exist.
Where it's not broken. Where it doesn't rust. Send it to a place where you can actually have it forever. That's why in another place, when he's talking about the same concept, Jesus says, Why would you be, if you can't be trusted with that which is not yours, why would someone give you that which will be yours? Give you real possessions. Give you something to actually own.
What he's saying is, everything you have now is on loan and eventually will no longer be yours. But everything then, you'll keep forever. Because you won't die and it won't rust and moths won't eat it. So what he's saying is, seek the treasure. Just send it on to eternity. You know how, you know how every time you get something new, or you get a box that has something new in it, but it's got wrapping paper around it so you don't know what the new thing is, and your little heart is like, yee.
Like, you know how you get excited about stuff? Like, every time your birthday was rolling around as a kid, or Christmas was coming up, or someone's like, I have a surprise for you. Like, you're just like, ooh, things, treasure, candy. Like, we just get excited. Every time you buy something new, hold a new gadget, like, there's just something in you. There's like an emotional, spiritual reaction to stuff.
Am I the only one who feels this? I feel like everybody has someone inside of them going, yee. Like, that's not true. We have this, and what Jesus is saying is, that is not in and of itself wrong. You're just too easily pleased. You're pointing it at the wrong stuff.
Seek real, eternal treasure. So the first thing we need to know, and if you're taking notes, write this down. I cannot take it with me, but I can send it on ahead. That's the first big principle. I cannot take it with me, but I can send it on ahead. What he is saying is that, and he ultimately says it's through generosity, through giving things away, that we actually get eternal stuff.
Jim Elliott was a missionary, and he's the guy from the movie End of the Spear. If you've seen that, he showed up in a place to help people meet Jesus and immediately was murdered. And he said at one point, wrote in his diary or his journal or whatever. I guess he's a man, so it was a journal. If you were like, nice diary, he'd be like, it's a journal, bro. I don't know him.
Maybe he thought it was a diary. Jim Elliott says this, He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. That's what Jesus is saying. It's not foolish of you to give things away, because you're actually gaining something that will never be taken from you. It's not foolish.
In a lot of ways, money, how we handle money, how we view money is like playing the game Uno. The goal of Uno is to be, you win when you run out of cards. And if the game ends and you're stuck with cards, there's a penalty for that. And the truth is, when we die, all of the stuff we've amassed around us immediately becomes useless. And all of the stuff we got rid of has eternal value. It's forever.
And that's what Jesus is saying. He's just trying to help us understand that we get to have true riches through generosity. So next thing he's going to point out to us. Well. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Verse 21.
Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. We spent some time talking in the Give series about one of the implications of this is that you can actually know what you care about by looking at your checkbook. You can know what you care about by checking out your bank statement. But here's the other thing that I think we miss on this. Our heart goes with our treasure, and so there's a lot of joy offered to us in this statement. There's a lot of joy offered to us in the statement, where your treasure is, there your heart is also.
Because what he's saying is you can take your heart and you can put it in eternity. You can take your heart and you can, by moving your treasure, by giving things away, knowing that you receive rewards in eternity, you can take your heart and move it to eternity where it's safe and secure. So we think that getting nice things is nice. But the truth is, whenever we get nice things, we get more worried about our stuff. Like our heart goes with it. So if you ever had a house and like, really, if someone broke in and stole everything, you were out 50 bucks, you might not even lock your door.
Like you wouldn't even care. I had a friend of mine said, his brother used to say, man, I wish somebody would steal my identity. And then the bill collectors could call them. Like he just didn't have anything, so he wasn't worried about it. And that's the way it works. But when you get a nice house, suddenly it's like, well, I kind of need an alarm system and I need some good insurance and maybe a moat with some crocodiles.
Like I'm really worried about this stuff now. Like if you, if you're, some of you, your car, somebody runs into you today. You're going to lunch with your community group or whatever. Somebody runs into you at a stoplight. You get out and just go. You good?
Ain't worried about it. Like you walk around, look at your bumper. It'll ride. You get back in your car. You don't care. If they totaled your car, you out 600 bucks.
You figure it out. Some of you though, like when you get, you get a nice car. My brother saved up and was able to get in high school. We were able to, he was able to get, my actual parents were able to give it to him. He got a used Camaro and then he spent a lot of time working on it and getting it real nice. And we were riding one day to the beach and he came around a corner because he ran into people all the time.
He came around a corner. His name's Logan. He's part of our church. You can ask him about it later. He came around a corner and ran into a Mustang of another guy who was probably in high school, college or whatever. It was the prettiest car accident I've ever seen.
A Camaro just, I mean, front of the Camaro crush, back of the Mustang crush. Both of them were just like, like little hearts were hurting. They almost got in a fight because the guy in the Mustang, like Logan didn't just run into his Mustang. He ran into his heart. Like something he treasured and valued and cared about. He just ran into it.
Some of you, if your car, like you've got names for your car. If your car got ran into, you'd jump out and be like, Tina. They'd be like, is there a child or something in the car? No, it's my car. Because wherever we move our treasure, our heart goes with it. And there's so much joy offered in sending your heart to eternity.
So much joy offered to you when he says, give it away. You won't worry about it. You won't care about it. And your treasure is secure. Nobody looks at eternity and says, I lost 3% this quarter. You don't have to worry about it.
So he's offering us joy. And that's the second kind of major point that I think is helpful. It's heaven, not earth. And this is for Christians. Heaven, not earth, is my home. And that's where my treasure and heart, I'm saying this wrong.
My treasure and my heart should be there. Heaven, not earth, is my home. And my treasure and my heart should be there. That we actually get to push our hearts towards eternity where we get to rest. You don't have to worry about it through giving things away. We're going to skip the eyes, the lamp part because we kind of talked about that.
Him just explaining that we just don't see this clearly. 24. Kind of the last major principle he's going to cover is, No one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, Or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. You cannot serve God and money.
And even there he's hinting at how much control money has that we just don't think about. Really what he's saying here is that either you will serve God, And by extension, money that is in your possession will serve God. Or you can serve money. But you can't do both. So if money is the main goal, you're serving it, And you're not serving God.
Don't kid yourself. Or you can serve God, And the money that has been entrusted to you can serve him as well. So, kind of the principle here is this. God owns everything. I am his money manager. Because everything we have is on loan.
So, God owns everything. Let me quickly just show you some verses where the Bible says that. Psalm 24.1 says this, So he actually claimed you too, just so you know. He's like, I own you. You'd be like, no, I'm free. No, you ain't.
Haggai 2.8, The silver is mine and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. Deuteronomy 8.18, You shall remember the Lord your God, For it is he who gives you the power to get wealth. In Exodus 19.5, it's a longer verse, But in it, God says this, All the earth is mine. So, here's the deal. Everything that passes through our hands, Every bit of money that is in your bank account, In your wallet, Under your mattress, Is God's. It's not yours.
It has been entrusted to you. And as a money manager, You will eventually sit down and settle the account with God. So, a money manager looks like this. So, you're a money manager. You work for a really, really rich lady. Super rich.
And you manage her money, Because you're good with money. So, you watch all of her accounts. She does her thing, Making money or whatever, And then you help handle it. So, you help invest it. You're paying attention to what's growing, What's not growing. You're watching it.
You're investing some. You know, you're diversifying her funds. And you're investing in different areas. And you're, Now, because you're her money manager, You pay yourself a salary. You make sure that you're taken care of. You're going to discuss that with her.
But you're going to pay yourself a salary. You have the ability to handle money. But it's not your money. And every once in a while, You're going to sit down with her and say, Let me show you what I'm doing with it. Let me show you where it is. Let me talk to you about your money.
When excess money comes in, It doesn't go to your account. When you die, You don't leave all her money to your children. That would be frowned upon by her, I think. And what we've got to realize is that everything we have is on loan. And the Bible is clear. Jesus tells a lot of parables to this effect, That at some point, We're going to sit down and give an account.
What's beautiful is that through the cross, It's not going to make or break us. Jesus has already paid for our sin. We get into heaven scot-free because Jesus paid our debt. We are perfectly loved, perfectly taken care of. But we are going to give an account for how we handled the time and the money that we had, The talents that we were given.
Yeah, the Bible is clear on that. So at some point, We're going to sit down with him and give an account. So Jesus very clearly says, And we tried to make it into some principles, And took some of how Randy Alcone words it to help us remember it. But I cannot take it with me, But I can send it on ahead. Heaven, not earth, is my home. My treasure and my heart should be there.
Everything belongs to God or everything is God's. I'm his money manager. That is how we ought to begin to view money. And then we can start answering the other questions. Where can it go? How can I use it?
What's it supposed to look like? The real practical questions, But those are some of the principles. Now, one of the things that Jesus says, And he says it really clearly, Is, Go for the treasure. Go for the reward. Serve and give and be generous, Because you will receive back in eternity. So immediately we say, Alright, time out.
Isn't that selfish? Like if I'm only being nice, And only giving because God's going to pay me back, Aren't I just being selfish? And the answer to that question is no. And the first reason is, It's Jesus' idea. We didn't make it up. So if you made it up, Maybe.
Like if you make something up, It's probably pretty busted. Just for the record, Like question it a little bit. You might have just come up with a pyramid scheme, You know, And involved Jesus. Like I don't know. But Jesus came up with this idea.
And here's, He says it a lot. I'm going to run through quickly. Just places where Jesus mentions this. Earlier in this chapter, In chapter 6, He teaches on giving. He says to do it secretly, So you'll receive a reward from God. He says the same thing about prayer and fasting.
Do it secretly. You'll receive a reward. Luke 12, He says, Sell your possessions, Give to the poor, Buy money bags in eternity, Where treasure does not fail. Luke 6, He says that persecution gains us reward, And that we should celebrate when we're persecuted. That we should actually be excited When someone attacks us because of Christianity. That it gains us, He says you'll have great reward in heaven.
Your reward is great in heaven. It'd be like if I told you I'd give you a million dollars If you let me punch you in the face. When I punch you in the face, You're going to start laughing. That's going to be the most fun. You've ever had being punched in the face. Because you just got a million dollars.
Like you excited. That's what he says. Somebody starts punishing you because you're a Christian. You should be like, This is great. I'm just racking up treasures in heaven. This is amazing.
That's what he says. He says you'll be excited. Luke 6, Love and lend, And your reward will be great in heaven. Matthew 19, Luke 18, He tells a rich man to sell everything And to give it to the poor And that he'll have treasure in heaven. Several of Jesus' parables Have to do with settling accounts And being rewarded With how you handled what he had, How the people handled what the king gave them. Matthew 9 and 10 Says this in both of them.
He says, Even a cup of cold water Given to someone because they're my follower Will not lose its reward. He's keeping track Of cups of cold water. So we all need to set up a free lemonade stand. And just be like, Ka-ching! Like that's what he's saying. Like you will receive reward for this.
And here's why This isn't bad. Here's why it's not selfish. In order to live And to do this radically To the point that the New Testament Is going to call us to, We have to trust Jesus. He comes from eternity And tells us This is how you ought to see it. But in order for us to do it, We actually have to have our faith in him.
We have to trust him. Y'all know Wayne Brady And y'all love him. So, Everybody thinks Wayne Brady's the best, I'm sure. He has a new show, Or had a show. It probably got canceled. I hope it did.
It was kind of terrible. But, Let's Make a Deal. Anybody seen this show? It's weird. But in the show, What they do is, They will give you something So you can have this now, Or, And they constantly are trading.
So they'll be like, You can have a thousand dollars, Or we'll give you What's in this mystery box. And then you're like, Oh, Oh no, What's in the box? Like, But I also want a thousand dollars. And so the whole point is like, Trading, And then they have things called zonks, Which is where you open the box, And the word zonk comes out, And you don't get nothing, Go sit down. That's how the game works. So, What Jesus is saying is, You're playing, Like, Life is us playing, Let's make a deal.
And there's a moped in front of us. And they're like, You can have the moped, Or, You can have what's behind curtain number one. And we're like, That moped looks pretty sweet. How many cc's is that thing? Like, That's what we're doing. And what Jesus is saying is that he's walking out from behind the curtain, And saying, Don't take the moped.
I know what's behind the curtain. Don't take the moped. And in order for us to actually begin to leverage things, Leverage our money, Leverage our finances, View this the way, We have to trust Jesus. We have to have faith to do it. And so it's not wrong, And it's not selfish. It's actually us, Continually pushing more faith, More of our trust into him.
Hebrews 11, Talks about this, Talks about, Some people call it the faith chapter, But it kind of runs through a bunch of Old Testament saints, And it basically says this, This is the point of Hebrews 11. Abraham was told to move, Leave his family, And he's going to go to a land that's not his own, But God's going to give it to him. But God didn't give it to him, He gave it to his descendants. So Abraham, When he dies, Owned none of the land, Except for a cave that he buried his wife in, And he got to be buried in next to her. Isaac, Same thing. He goes through, He says that Moses, Left the palace of Egypt, Where he was treated like a king, Because he believed that the persecution of Christ, Was of more value, Than the pleasures of Egypt, Because he was looking ahead to his reward.
It says that all of these saints, All of these Old Testament followers of God, Trusted that they were invited into a better country. Trusted that they had been given a greater reward. Trusted that, Although their life was terrible now, Although they had given up everything to follow, Although they were consistently not gaining a whole bunch of stuff for themselves. That they had a better reward coming, And that they had faith. Now here's the thing.
We're not going to do this. We're not going to apply any of these principles. Like if we stop here, We're just going to be like, Yep, That's true about money, And I should think about it that way. But we don't really have the ability to do anything with it. Until, Until, Eternity, Is as real to us, As it was to Jesus. Until we see, It as clearly as he saw it.
Then we'll actually begin to be able to leverage some of what we have. Flip over to Hebrews chapter 12. We're going to look at this really quickly. We're going to begin to try to help ourselves see, And know what Jesus is talking about when he says this. You see, Hebrews chapter 11 keeps going. It says that there were prophets who wore sheepskins and goatskins, Who lived in caves and holes in the grounds, Who were persecuted and mistreated.
That the world wasn't worthy of them. That they were stoned. That they were sawn in two. They were put to death by the sword. And that they did this so that they might gain a better resurrection. That they believed through sacrifice, That life would be better in eternity.
Because they trusted God. They trusted him, Took him at his word. And then it goes into chapter 12 and it says this. Therefore, Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. Talking about all of the people that followed God, Trusting him through sacrifice and pain, Even when it didn't pay off in this life. Let us also lay aside every weight and sin, Which clings so closely.
And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, Looking to Jesus, The founder and perfecter of our faith, Who, For the joy that was set before him, Endured the cross, Despising the shame, And is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him, Who endured from sinners, Such hostility against himself, So that you may not grow weary, Or faint hearted. That we are to fix our eyes on Jesus, And that for the joy that was set before him, He endured the cross. That Jesus could look and see so clearly what was to come. See so clearly the eternity that was to come. See so clearly the new heaven and the new earth, That were going to be created by God.
See so clearly that with joy he went to the cross. That he knew the joy that was set before him, And so he was able to sacrifice, Until we see eternity that clearly. We may be generous, But we won't be generous to the extent that the Bible says. We may view our money sometimes correctly, But we won't be able to approach it the way that the Bible says, The way that Jesus talks about, Until we know and feel and believe, That we have a greater hope. That we have a greater home. That eternity is real and really offered to us through Christ.
Until we look at the cross and see so drastically, Starkly and clearly, That Jesus knew, That an eternal hope and an eternal joy, Was offered through sacrifice. Sacrifice. When we see Jesus that clearly, When we consider him, When we fix our eyes on him, Then we are able to begin, To trust and to believe, And to taste and see, The joy that is set before us. To see what is to come. I love that it says, That they knew they had a better country. That we actually are going somewhere, That is not non-material.
It's better. It's this world, But nothing is broken. Nothing rust. Nothing stolen. Nothing is destroyed. That's why you actually have real possession, Because it lasts forever.
In the Chronicles of Narnia, Written by C.S. Lewis, It's a children's fictional story, But they're great. At the end of the last book, They all go to Aslan's country, Which is God's country, Which is heaven. The new earth. And there's a talking horse, Who says this. He says, I have come home at last.
This is my real country. I belong here. This is the land, I have been looking for all my life, Though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia, Is that it sometimes, Looked a little like this. And for every believer, Every person who's placed their faith in Jesus, To pay for their sin and their debt, When we enter into the new heaven, When we enter into God's presence, This is what's going to explode in our hearts. I'm home.
This is my real country. This is what I was looking for, Although I never knew it. This is what I was consistently searching for, Every time I chased after something, Although it never clicked. And the reason we liked the old stuff, Was that sometimes, It's a little bit like this. See, God made everything perfect, It was destroyed by sin, And through the cross, And through our resurrection with Jesus, As he rose from the dead, We get to rise from the dead, And we get to enter into, His perfect peace, His perfect creation once again. But there's glimpses of it.
Every time you've been captivated by a night sky, Every time you've seen a sunset, And you just couldn't stare away, You almost wrecked your car, Because it was over to the left. Every, Every time you've had a really good popsicle, On a really hot day, That you had to eat super fast, Because it was about to melt everywhere. Your first taste of coffee, In the morning on a cold day, When it's crisp. When you were wearing your Uggs, And drinking your pumpkin spice latte. That moment, In the morning, When you don't want to get out of bed, Because it's so warm, And you're just like, I could just be here forever.
Like you're laying really thinking, I might just quit my job, And stay here. Every time you've been captivated, By like an infant laughing, I watched a video the other day, Of an infant, Every time the parent took a bite of a potato chip, Just died laughing. And you just watch that over and over again, Just a little kid laughing. Like every time you've been caught off guard, By how beautiful scenery is, Or seen a deer standing in a field, And you just couldn't not stare at it. All of these moments, When you've bit into a really well cooked steak, All of these moments are just hints, Of what's to come.
That God in his good grace, Still lets us enjoy what is here, But it doesn't compare. There's a better country, And a better home, On the other side of a resurrection, For those who follow Jesus. With real, The way the Bible talks about heaven, Is it's a city, It's a banquet, It's a wedding party, It's a celebration, It's real. And until it becomes more real to us than this, We'll forever take the moped. Until we can trust Jesus, And see him so clearly on the cross, We'll take the moped every time. And for most of us, We're chasing after mopeds.
And Jesus is saying, Trust me. I have bought for you a better resurrection. I have given you and granted you a greater home. You will live for eternity. And realize that your money, How you use it here, Will matter then. And when you die, Everything you have, Will no longer be useful.
But what you've pushed towards eternity, Will be yours. Because in my presence, There is no sin, There is no brokenness, There is no rust, And no moths. Markets don't crash. And we get to stare at Jesus, And begin to see, That our eternity is made secure through him, And that that really is our home, Where we'll finally find our real country, Our real home. And the reason why we enjoyed all the stuff here, And what we were forever chasing after here. The band's going to come back up, We're going to sing, And make much of Jesus, And here's what I want us to do, We didn't talk about, What to do with money this week, We talked about how we ought to see money, And really we won't see money that way, Won't be able to view it that way, Won't be able to hold it that way, Until eternity becomes so real to us, Until we realize, That that is actually, Where we will go as Christians, If those who have been bought by Jesus, Rescued and redeemed by Jesus, Through the cross, Where he paid our debt, It says consider him, So that you don't grow weary, Or lose heart, And I would just encourage all of us, As believers this week, If you've trusted Jesus, If you've followed Jesus, If you're a Christian, To sit down at some point, And consider Jesus, To sit down at some point, And know that for joy, That was set before him, He endured the cross, And that he's invited us, Into that joy, And that an eternity is to come, And sit for a while, Carve out some time, And sit, And only try to hold in your head, The sacrifice of Jesus, And the eternity that follows, I find that when I've thought about, Sat and meditated on the cross, And on eternity, It helps change, And put everything into perspective, And that's what we're told to do, Is to consider him, To fix our eyes on him, And so as we go into the next three weeks, We're going to talk about really practical things, Take some time this week, To consider Jesus, To sit and weigh it out, And to think about eternity, Y'all stand, Let's sing, And so as we go into the beginning, мои juices, And so as we go inside, And so as we go into the bow, And so as we go into the down, And so as we go into the spectrum, And so we move into the distance, And gentle thought of actually, And so as we move into the middle of it, And so as we go into the next three days, And so as we go into the direction of theת loc Intelli, And then we show the topic of beautiful, And so as we go into the image, And so as we watch it, And so as we go into the next three days to a sûrinté clip on it,
Jesus and Broken Sinners
Transcript
What's up, fam? As Chet said, my name is Ant. He also mentioned just how generous your church has been in just supporting Midtown 2 Notch, and specifically myself. I believe it was about November of last year, I transitioned from being bivocational as church planner at Midtown 2 Notch to be able to do that full-time and not have to be able to have another Job to support my family. And just truth be told, I'm excited to be here to share with you guys today because I would not have been able to do that without generosity from Mill City. Actually, when I was working as a personal trainer part-time and vocationally as a pastor part-time, and I was telling one of my clients, you know, I was going to be transitioning out, and she was like, well, what happened?
What changed? And I was like, well, our church, where we are at, is not ready to support me financially. And so there's actually another church in our city that loves Jesus, loves our city, and wanted to support me. So they're actually paying a pretty good part of my salary so I'm able to do it. And she was like, well, you know, sometimes you got to go where the money is. And I was like, wait, what?
You didn't understand. She literally, she thought that I was saying, another church offered me a salary, so now I'm going to pastor at the other church? Because she had no concept for a church being generous enough to say, hey, we want to be generous to you. We believe in what God is doing in and through your church, and we want you to stay right there where you're at and continue to serve. And we want to be generous in that way. So I just wanted to say thank you on behalf of Midtown Two Notch, on behalf of myself and my family.
You guys have been instrumental. I don't even know how many of you knew you were doing that, but our church would not be able to serve and love on just inner city communities around Two Notch Road without you guys and without your help. So I just wanted to just express my appreciation for Mill City. Also, I kind of keep in touch on Facebook and talking to Chad and Matt a little bit. Super encouraged by what God is doing through the gospel here. Super encouraged to be able to get into the word today with you also.
So when Chet first hit me up about this series, he said, we're doing a series called Jesus and People. We're just looking at how Jesus responds to different types of people in the Bible. Very, very interesting for me. I loved it the first time I heard about it. That's actually one of my favorite things to look into in the Bible. It's just how does Jesus respond?
Because he never responds the way people in his time expect him to. So he lived in a time where people commonly believe, like, hey, if I can just muster up enough willpower to obey the commandments of God, then God will really love me. Like, if I can just get on my game enough, if I can try hard enough, if I can just kind of muster up the strength to do it, to live the way God has called me to do it, if I can just get over this one thing, this one habit that I have, then maybe God will love me. And Jesus comes in, and the way he interacts with Pharisees and the way he interacts with sinners, the way he interacts with everybody, it just completely knocks everybody out of the box.
And they can't understand what he's doing. And we get to look into that a little bit today as we'll look into a Jesus interaction with a woman who the Bible calls a sinner and with a Pharisee also. So if you want to turn with me to Luke chapter 7, we'll get us started at verse 36. If you're using one of the Bibles on the share, it should be on page 560. But we get to look into this very, very interesting story.
And so at the time when Jesus was there in Israel, I think Chad already told you, maybe it was last week or maybe a couple weeks ago, that the Pharisees, which there's one in this story, the Pharisees were the guys who kind of felt like, I obey God, thus God owes me something. Or God has to love me because I obey. I obey, therefore God favors me. They were kind of the religious elite of that town, of that time, I should say. And Jesus is about to educate this Pharisee on some things. Let's start at verse 36.
Verse 36 reads, One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and took his place at the table. So the way they ate at this time, and the next verse is going to say that they were reclining at the table. Basically what that means is that they didn't set up at the table the way we do now. They kind of had a table that was like kind of on the floor, maybe a little bit raised up from the floor. And for them reclining at the table was they're kind of laying kind of on their stomachs, maybe on their elbows, and they're eating kind of around probably a rectangular table.
So you kind of think the table's in the middle. Everybody's kind of laying down with their feet pointing out. So that's what it would have looked like at that time. So Jesus is at Simon's house. They're having a meal. A lot of times during that time, they would kind of have the doors to their house open during the meal time.
And so, you know, if people are walking by, they want to step, they want to come by and drop in, they can do that. And that's exactly what happens in verse 37. It reads, And behold, a woman of the city who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at the table at the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment. Right? So this verse is telling us a little bit about this woman.
Let's look into it. It said a woman of the city. That basically means she is someone who her business is she exchanges sexual favors for money. She's a prostitute. And so this prostitute, this lady who was kind of living in open rebellion against God's command. So Israel is considered God's people.
She most likely would have grown up knowing God's commands. Maybe she grew up in a, quote, unquote, religious family where she was taught this is the way you're supposed to live. You're supposed to follow God. Or maybe not. Maybe she kind of moved in there and just kind of learned about the culture. Whatever the situation is, she probably knows what it's like to feel judged in some way.
Right? She probably knows what it's like to be looked down upon by the religious elite of that time. She was a, raise your hand, just so I can know kind of who we have here. Raise your hand if you've ever used the word ratchet in a sentence. Not the tool, but just like, oh, great, great. Well, that's pretty much everybody.
That's great. So if you did not raise your hand, at Two Notches, we use it all the time. We always talk about God comes for the ratchet. Right? So what that means, the way we use it, what it means is you're like, you're sinful and in rebellion and you're just wiling out in some way.
And you're just doing it out in the open where you don't even care who sees you. It's like, not only are you doing wrong, but you're just out there with it. And everybody knows that you're doing wrong. And that's just kind of your stigma, your ratchet like that. So that's how this woman was.
She was known for being a prostitute and being openly rebellious. And that's what I want us to focus on today. We're going to see how Jesus responds specifically to people who kind of have a tendency to live in open rebellion. You know, kind of people who just natural rule breakers. Right? The line's right here.
Like, you just got to just step over. Like, you just got to be on the other side of the line. You don't like rules. If somebody gives you a rule, you feel like it's restricting you. You don't feel like it's helping you. So I want some of us to identify with a little bit of that aspect of the way this woman, this prostitute would have seen things.
And we're going to see specifically how Jesus responds to you when you come to him. Now, for some of you, that's not kind of the way you very naturally are bent. For some of you, you like rules. You like to follow rules. You like to kind of, you know, come in here on a Sunday with your, how are you doing? I'm good.
You kind of got your nice Sunday face going on. You kind of carry that out throughout the week. And so if that's you, and so if you're not naturally rebellious and naturally outwardly rebellious like this woman, I want you to be able to be really kind of zoned in also. I believe this is going to provide some training for those of us who kind of fit more of the role of kind of the type of the Pharisee. Right? Because if you're going to be on mission, whether you're openly rebellious or not, you're going to come across people like this woman.
Right? Like, if we're going out and intentionally trying to make disciples and point people to Christ, you're going to come across people like this woman. We need to be able to look into how does Jesus respond to her to help equip us and train us on how we to respond when we come across or come in contact with someone who's in the same kind of maybe lifestyle or just similar to this lady. All right. Let's move forward.
Verse, actually, before we move forward, let me explain. The end of verse 37 says she brought an alabaster flask of ointment. Right? So for a prostitute, this would have been very, very important. This is like a, it's kind of like a perfume. And she most likely would have used it for one of two or maybe both of the, both of these reasons.
The first one is, so at that time, they didn't have like showers like we do. And people didn't bathe as often as we do. So people would just kind of naturally smell bad. And so for her, having this ointment, this perfume, if you would, was kind of, may have been a way of masking for her the smell of all these men that she's often with. Right? It's kind of a, it could have served a purpose of just helping her, helping make her job more bearable, if you would.
But also, it's believed that prostitutes often at this time will wear this perfume. And it kind of, when you, when you smell that, you kind of knew what she was about. Right? It kind of let her potential clients know what she was interested in, what she wanted to do, what her hustle was, and that kind of thing. So just keep that in mind.
Jump to verse 38. Verse 38 reads, and standing behind him at his feet. So this is the woman of the city, the prostitute, standing at Jesus' feet. So standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wipe them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. So this lady walks in the room.
She sees Jesus. Apparently, she'd been looking for Jesus. She sees him. She finds him. She's like, okay, this is my chance to meet Jesus. And she comes in, she doesn't come and take a seat at the table or she doesn't come and recline at the table.
She goes right to Jesus' feet and she just starts crying. Right? And this is not that, this is not that pretty cry where you're kind of mad, but you're kind of upset and you're kind of sad and you've got like one tear coming down. Like this is not, this is not pretty cute crying. Right? This is bawling.
She is weeping at Jesus' feet to the point where it says her tears are wetting Jesus' feet. This woman is, is, is heartbroken. What we find out a little bit later in the passage is that she, she, this woman is, is aware of her sin. She's, she's so aware of her life of rebellion and her life has not gone the way she, she anticipated it going. I would assume to the point where she didn't fit. She didn't know that her, her life of a rebellion would bring her to this point.
But right now she is standing over Jesus' feet and she is so heartbroken over her sin that tears are flowing to the point where it can wet, wet Jesus' feet. This woman throughout this story, she's going to give us a beautiful picture of what true repentance actually looks like. So what I want to do is I want to point out three things. They don't go in any chronological order or anything like that. I want us to learn three things from, from this woman about what true repentance is actually like. Uh, the first component of repentance that I want to point us to is that in true repentance, you grieve over your sin.
You truly grieve over your sin. You don't have to turn there. I just want to read the scripture to you. Psalms 51, 16 and 17. David writes this after he, um, he sleeps with the woman who is married. And then, um, so that the husband, so they won't find out that, that she gets pregnant.
So they won't find out that it's his child. Um, and they, and he had sex with her before they were married. He has her husband killed so that he can go and marry her. So it's like, yo, the baby is, the baby was mine. We got pregnant after we were married. And so a prophet comes to David, um, just kind of points out, Hey God, I know what you did.
God knows what you did. David repents. And this is how he, this is what he writes kind of in that time of, of repentance. He says, for you will not delight in sacrifice. He's talking to God for you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it. You will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
And he says, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken contrite heart. Contrite means feeling or expressing remorse, uh, over wrongdoing. He says, geez, what, what God really wants is not a, a, a sacrifice, not for us to, for at, at their time to kill an animal and offer it up to God. What God wants is for us to be broken over our sin, that our hearts would hurt. And mourn and grieve over the fact that we've done wrong. And I believe, man, I believe sin is at its most dangerous point in our lives when it convinces us that it's not a big deal.
When it convinces us that it's not, it's not really that, that big of a problem. Like when we get into believing the lie that, oh, well, God has mercy for me. So that means, you know, I can, I don't have to fight viciously against the sin, uh, in my life. I don't, I don't need to truly be broken over it. Like, you know, when God sees me, he sees, you know, Christ's righteousness over me. So I don't really need to be doing battle, uh, against my sin and waging war against my sin.
Um, one of the things I love about, uh, Mill City Church is I know, uh, I know Matt to some degree. I know, I know Chet better as Chet was saying, I know that the pastors of your church are, are appropriately, properly emphasizing God's grace. Like appropriately pointing you to the fact that, Hey, your relationship with God, you're standing with God. The fact that you have favor with God has nothing to do with how good you perform, has nothing to do with how good you are at, at kind of making yourself up, make yourself look like you're, you're a good person, whatever. But it has everything to do with how Jesus performed and he gives us credit for, for his righteousness and every righteous thing that he's done, uh, on the earth.
I know that, that, that is emphasized here. And I praise God for that. Cause that's the way that it should be. What I also know is that there's often a tendency in, in churches like this for us to sinfully use grace as a license to continue on in our sin. There's also an, a tendency for us to sinfully just feel like, well, you know, I, I shouldn't really feel bad about my sin, right? Cause I'm forgiven.
Like I shouldn't really be heartbroken over it. Right. Since I'm, since I'm forgiven. Um, so, uh, in my marriage, when I, when I sin against my wife, um, my wife is great about offering forgiveness. She forgives faster than I do. I don't know how she does it.
It's just like God's spirit at work in her. And even though I am forgiven, if I do something that offends her, I still feel that like she's not condemning me. So I'm not trying to say we should feel condemned over our sin, but I am saying there should be a level of remorse. So she'll be a level of, of, uh, a contrite heart, even though we know that God forgives us a level of, of remorse that causes us to fight our sin. Uh, another scripture I wanted to, uh, to read for second Corinthians chapter seven, actually Paul writes, uh, godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret.
Paul says that, that a godly grief, when we grieve properly over our sin, it actually leads us to repentance. It actually leads us to salvation. That's what this, this, this prostitute is, is modeling for us beautifully. Just, uh, uh, uh, being broken to the point of tears over, over her sin. Let's read on a little bit farther.
Still in verse 38. It says that she wiped them with, wiped his feet with the hair of her head and kissed his feet. So it's likely at this time, she's no longer standing. If she is wiping Jesus' feet with her hair, she's likely kneeling down now. So she's still bawling.
She's still crying and she has let down her hair. She's using her hair to wipe and wash Jesus' feet at this time. There's a couple of things going on here. Um, first one is, uh, women at this time always wore their hair up. It was a cultural thing. Um, and, and it was, uh, kind of the tradition was a woman only let her hair down for her husband.
Right? It was such a, a, a communication of, of, of intimacy, uh, that many people believe that it was grounds for divorce. If a woman let her hair down in front of another man, this is what she would have done for her clients. Right? So as she's, as she is attracting a potential client, she's let her hair down.
She's wearing a perfume. They know what she is into. She's displaying most likely to the, to the greatest degree that she can, a level of, of, of intimacy and maybe even desire for Jesus in this moment in the most scandalous way possible, I would say. And it says, she begins kissing his feet. Now, um, some of you in here, I know, I see we've got a few, a few married couples in here. Some of y'all married couples are like, I wish my spouse would ask me for a foot rug.
Right? I wish, I wish you, I am waiting on you to do that just so I can let you know about yourself. Uh, but this, so some of y'all just like feet are just nasty and dirty. Like I don't mess with you. I don't mess with people's feet. Right?
Uh, Jesus's feet would have been more messed up than your spouse's feet, uh, would have been. I feel weird saying God has smelly feet, but it's, it's, it's a thing. So they, they generally walked either barefoot or in sandals. Uh, and so they, and they also walked on dirt roads and they shared roads with animals. Right? So these roads are, are nasty.
Again, they don't shower a whole lot, kind of musty around there. Uh, they, their feet would have been extremely dirty. Her lips are on Jesus's feet right now. She is kissing his feet. That's important because they're having a meal, right? They're having dinner.
They're reclining at a table. She doesn't come in and just roll up on the table and be like, oh, Jesus, I need to talk to you about something. No, no. She goes straight to his feet, recognizing and acknowledging. We'll talk about more a little in a little bit, acknowledging that Jesus is greater than she is. Acknowledging that she does not deserve a seat at Jesus's table.
She's not deserved to eat with him. So she goes straight to his feet. Component of repentance is number two that I'm going to point us to that this, uh, this lady, this woman models for us is you realize you aren't worthy of Jesus. You realize you aren't worthy of Jesus. You realize that we, that we, none of us truly deserve because of our sinfulness and because of how perfect and holy and sinless God is that none of us deserve to be at his table. None of us deserve to truly be able to fellowship with him.
None of us deserve to, to, to, to truly know him and be known by him because of our sin. This, this, this woman who has grieved over her sin, who to some degree is grasping the weight and the gravity of her sin. She's come to realize, I don't, I don't deserve to be at Jesus's table. I don't deserve to know him, uh, in that way. And here's the, I think probably for a lot of us in here, if you've been here for a while, uh, you've probably heard that before that we all need grace. And the only way we get to God and have a relationship with him is because of what Jesus did on the cross in our place.
But I think sometimes we can believe that we, uh, that we understand that and we can believe that kind of intellectually understand that we are not worthy of him, but sometimes it functionally hasn't hit our hearts. Uh, so, so for example, I, a lot of times I've met people who, who would say, yes, I'm only saved by grace. I'm, I'm, I'm based on my works. I'm not worthy of, of truly knowing God, but there's still zero level of gratitude and zero level of rejoicing because we are able to fellowship with, with God because of what Christ has done. Does that make sense? It's like, I want us to be, uh, paying very careful attention to our hearts a little bit.
It's like, Hey, if you, if you are not in some way grateful, if that doesn't do something for, for your soul and grant you some level of joy that you can fellowship with God because of what Christ has done, you think you're worthy of Jesus. You think you're worthy to sit at his table and eat with him. And it probably goes back to the first point of, you don't, you don't understand the gravity of your sin. You don't understand the, the depths of how, of how sinful each of us are. Let's move on and read the last part of the verse.
It says, and anointed them with the ointment. So she takes this alabaster flask that she has, this ointment that she has and says she anoints Jesus' feet. Well, the, uh, the way that they kind of made those flasks back then is you, they made it so you can only get a little bit out at a time. It's probably really expensive. You don't want to waste any so you can only get a little bit out. So for, for her to anoint Jesus' feet, the way that she is, she would have had to break her flask.
Like you can't just, cause all you, all you got out was a little dab. Like you, you're not going to get a full drop out at one time. And so she would have had to break her flask. Now remember the importance of the flash to her, for her occupation, for her hustle, right? She, she needs this for her job, for her occupation, for this, this flash is a sense of security for her, right? This is how she makes money.
This is how she survives. This is how she lives. She comes in, she sees Jesus. She recognizes the depths of her sin and she breaks it and she pours it out on Jesus' feet. This is her saying very loud and clear. I'm completely turning away from my lifestyle of sin.
I'm completely turning away this lifestyle of, of prostitution that I've been in. I've grieved my sin. I know that I'm not worthy of him. The third point of the third component of repentance. I want us to, I want to point us to, excuse me today is you realize that Jesus is better than your sin. You realize that Jesus is better than whatever fill in the blank is for you that for those of us in the room who are kind of naturally rebellious, kind of naturally like to turn away from God.
Whatever, whatever that is that you run to, that, that, that you turn to third point of repentance is you realize Jesus is just better. He's just better. What he has for us is just, it's better. Ultimately, it brings more lasting joy. I can only imagine. She, she thought living this life previously, she thought it was the best way for her to live.
She thought this is what she, what she should do. This is how I'm going to make it in this life. She means Jesus and she's like, no, I was, I was completely wrong. So in Genesis chapter three, if I can, if I can paraphrase it, uh, kind of put into my own words, what, what saint Satan does is he's talking to Eve, uh, to, to get her to, to sin against God by eating the fruit that God called her not to eat. He basically comes to her and says, uh, Hey, God's actually withholding something good from you. God's actually preventing you from having something of good, something of value.
God's withholding the good stuff and he's keeping it all to himself and he's restricting you from having what is actually good. If you actually eat from this, this tree, you'll be a little bit happier. You'll have, you'll have more joy. There'll be more benefits in your life. If you try to live independently of the way God has called you to live, it's literally the oldest trick in the Bible. It's the oldest lie in the Bible.
It's the oldest trick in the book. And for those of us in here who are naturally rebellious, like this woman, Satan feeds that to you all the time. I think it's his most effective life. You will find more joy, more peace, more happiness, more life, more vitality outside of the way God calls for you to live. Again, if you, if you have a natural bend towards rebellion in here, Satan is, he's giving you that over and over and over. This woman ultimately gets to the end of a rope and finds out that that's a lie.
Realizing that Jesus is better than your sin. All right. So in verse 39, Simon takes note of everything that's going on. And Jesus is about to teach him a little something, something. Verse 39. Now, when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who was touching him, for she is a sinner.
So Simon looks, Simon looks at this woman and is like, hey, she's not, this woman should not be fellowshipping with us. Like she should not be touching Jesus. If Jesus is actually a holy man. No. Did she, he, uh, one thing that, that this chapter also does. And, um, I said a little bit earlier, I want to spend some time talking to specifically to people who maybe are not as naturally rebellious, but as you're, as we're going our own mission, making disciples, we want to come across people who are, and we need to know how to interact with them, how to, how to show them the love of Christ.
Well, Simon is, it just gave us the perfect example of what not to do. Simon basically says, Hey, if you want to, if, um, you're not able to roll with us cause you're, you're, you're too, too sinful for us. You're not welcome to sit at my table cause you're, you're, you're too sinful. You need, you need to be separated. You need, you need to be somewhere. This is exactly the opposite of what we are to do.
Basically he's communicating, Hey, people who are as simple as you are not, are not welcome around here, right? People who, who to some degree smell of the sins that they commit, not welcome here. Don't sit beside me. Don't get anywhere near my kids. Do not. You're an I'm, I'm rejecting fellowship with you because of your sin.
Exactly the opposite of what Jesus does and exactly how we should not live. Um, as believers, verse 40. And Jesus answering said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he answered, say a teacher. So Jesus is about to give him a, give him a parable to teach him a little something.
Verse 41. A certain money lender had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii and the other 50. So, uh, basically what he's saying is there's a guy who gives out loans to people. Uh, one of them, oh, one of them, uh, he, he lended out 50 denarii. A denarii, uh, for an average worker was about a day's wages.
So we're talking a little bit over a month, a little bit under two months, a month and a half ish, uh, wages. And he said the other owed 500 denarii. So we're talking about over a year, maybe a year and a third, something like that. So this is a lot, a lot of money, a year, over a year's worth of wages. One of them owed verse 42. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both.
Now, which of them will love him more? Verse 43. Simon answered the one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt. Simon says the one, I suppose, whom he can, he's like, well, technically, I guess, depends on how you look at it, maybe sort of the one who owed the larger debt will end up loving more. And Jesus says, you have judged rightly. Jesus says, bingo, Simon, you got it.
Uh, so Jesus is basically making the point that those who, who, who understand, um, that Jesus has, has forgiven them of a lot, will love him more, will, will, will desire him more, will have more affection for him than those who feel like they've only been forgiven for a little bit. Right? So those of us who, who are naturally rebellious, kind of open with our sin, not really trying to hide it. I believe to some degree you, you have, uh, I guess, I guess I would say even an advantage in, um, in understanding God's grace. Cause your sin is, your sin is out there. I think a lot of times for, for people who are naturally rebellious, there can be a tendency, um, to, to, to see it, but not, but not feel the gravity of it.
Um, but Jesus says those who, who understand they're forgiven more will, will definitely love more. Verse 44. Jesus talking to Simon. Do you see this woman? I entered your house and you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. Jesus is giving them a comparison.
Uh, he's comparing how Simon has treated him since he came to the house and how the prostitute has treated him since she came into the house. He says, I'll read that again. Uh, enter your house. You gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.
All right. There are some cultural norms that are going on in this passage, uh, that I want to clue us in on. So, uh, the first one, the first thing Jesus says, the first comparison that he makes, I should say is, um, he says, you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. So the custom at that time was when you come to someone's house for a meal, if they're, if they are wealthy, if they have a servant, they'll have their servant come out with a basin of water and the servant will wash your feet. Again, people's feet were dirty at this time.
You've been walking, probably walking a long distance, dirt roads around animals, all that kind of stuff. So that's the custom. Jesus saying, Simon, you didn't even bring, not only did you not have your servant come out, you didn't even bring me water so I can wash my own feet. And she is washing my feet with her tears and her hair. Next point Jesus makes, you gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. So at that time, when someone comes to your house, if you are, if you consider yourself an equal with them, you'll probably kiss them on the cheek when they come in, just a kind of a greeting.
Uh, if you feel like they are greater than you, you probably kissed them on the hand, right? You take their hand, you kiss their hand, acknowledging they're a little bit greater than you are. This woman comes in and she is kissing Jesus' feet. Acknowledging Jesus is, is, is far greater going above and beyond what is, what is the normal, I guess, uh, expected thing of her. Last thing Jesus says, you did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. One of the things they did to mask the smell around dinner times, they would put oil a little bit on their, maybe on their head, maybe on their shoulders and neck to kind of mask the smell a little bit.
Uh, Jesus says, you didn't even give me any oil. And she has completely poured out all this ointment and her perfume, um, on me. This true heart of repentance. I will say once we, when we really come to understand that Jesus is better than our sin, we don't try to find the minimum of what it takes to do to still be counted a Christian. This woman is going far beyond the custom, far beyond what is expected to be. True, true repentance does not lead us to a point of saying, okay, I still, I, what, Jesus, what's the minimum, like what's, what's the minimum that I have to do in order for, for, for, for me to be, be, be, be okay.
Right. So when I was, uh, uh, in like elementary school, uh, took swimming lessons at a, at a pool back where I grew up in Chester, uh, South Carolina. And, um, we, we did our lessons at first, like in the three feet. And they, they kind of told you at the beginning on the last day, we're going to the 12 foot. Right. And so I was always just like super, super excited about that last day when I'd be able to jump in, jump, jump in the, in the deep water, if you would.
So that's, that's a little bit about what, what, what Christianity is to be like. It's like this, this one, this woman is saying, I'm not trying to stay in the kiddie pool. I want to, as much as I can give to worship God, as much as I can grow in worshiping God with my whole life. That's what I want to do. Once she realizes that, that her, her life of sin does not compare to the life Christ offers, she is full in going all out, not trying to find the minimum that she can do. This is what true repentance looks like.
Let's jump to verse 47. Jesus gets to his main point. Therefore, I tell you her sins, which are many are forgiven for she loved much, but he who is forgiven little loves little. So there's two sinful people in the room. One of them acknowledges her sin and one of them does not. And he's saying this woman loves much because she really understands how much she's been, how much she's been forgiven for.
And this kind of takes us back to, to verse one. But when we, when we actually, when we minimize our sin, act like it's not a big deal. Act like, you know, we, we, we, we deserve fellowship, fellowship with God. We're actually robbing ourselves of true joy and true love for the Lord. So here's what I mean.
So we got the, the level that we understand God's grace and God's grace is basically, it's what fills the gap between how, how sinful we are and how, how righteous God is. Right. And how much he has, he has forgiven us for. So if we, if we feel like we only have this much sin, then that means God's grace is only about that big. But if we, if we are, if we are broken, heartbroken, if we are amazed at, at how much we have sinned against God and the fact that he's still forgiven us, then God's grace all of a sudden becomes amazing.
Like if we see our sin as something that's just outstanding, something that is, that is incredibly wrong and offensive against God, then we'll look at God's grace and be completely amazed and actually be able to enjoy his grace as it truly is, instead of living under and believing the lie that our sin really isn't a big deal. Jesus says, being able to see the depths of our sin is actually a part of the path to really understanding his grace, really loving him and really being able to appreciate his mercy. If we see our sin as enormous, then we will see his grace and his forgiveness as enormous also. So how do, how do we get there?
Right? How do we get to the point where maybe some of us have walked in here today where it's like, yeah, I, I, I relate. I minimize my, I minimize my sin and I don't really know what to do about that. How, what, what, what is our step? What kind of helps grow our understanding for the depths of our sin, for the fact that we are worthy of God and, and what, what grows our understanding of the fact that Christ is really better? It's the cross.
It's the cross of Jesus where God, the father looks down at his, his beloved son, whom he has loved for all eternity. When he looks down at him and condemns him for every sin that I've ever committed. When, when he, and all of his, and all of his righteous judgment on the cross punishes his son whom he loves, who was never sinned, who has never done anything wrong. We see, Hey, God thinks sin is a big deal. God thinks sin is a big deal. If the way for us to be reconciled with God and have, and have a relationship with him and be able to fellowship with him and be able to sit at his table.
If, if, if the way that that happens is that God has to kill his own son on the cross, God doesn't minimize sin. God takes sin way more seriously than I do because it costs the blood of his, of his son. Also for, for, for on, on that cross where God, where Jesus takes upon himself, our sins, all of our wrongdoing, God condemns him. We receive credit for all of his, all of his righteousness, all of his goodness, all of, all of his purity that, that, that shows me, Hey, I, I'm not worthy of, of him. I'm not worthy of God. If my sin is so bad that it leads to that.
And he is spotless and clean and righteous. I'm not worthy to sit at his table. I'm not worthy to fellowship with him. I'm not worthy to truly be in relationship with him. My favorite thing is that the cross also shows us, man, Jesus is better than my sin. This kind of love, righteousness, this kind of mercy, this, this, this, this kind of grace, this, this kind of sovereignty, this kind of, of power that he has, that he would do this to, to, to, to redeem this world after what sin has done in my life, in your life, in our hearts, this, this incredible grace that he's showing.
Man, man, that's better than anything I've ever chased after before. That is better than anything. The cross is the solution to our, our lack of desire to repent. These, these, these points of repentance, they're, they're specifically in this context is kind of showing what, what it looks like for someone who is rebellious. But let's, let's, let's be honest.
It's for everybody. Whether you're naturally rebellious or whether you're not, these, these points of repentance, these, these things about repentance that we see in God's word applies, applies to us all. And some of my times in my, in my walk with the Lord, where I, where I felt just most dry in, in, in, in my relationship with God, in my walk with the Lord, when I felt the least amount of joy, when I look back over them, I, I believe those are times where I minimized my sin the most. I believe those are times where I just wasn't broken over my sin. That's, I wasn't amazed by his grace. I wasn't amazed by his righteousness.
And, and so I, I just want to encourage some of us today. If you, if you ever feel like in your walk with the Lord, you're just kind of going through the motions. You're just kind of, there's no real life and, and vitality and there's no real rejoicing in there, but I'm just kind of, you know, I'm doing my, my, my, my Christian thing. I come on a Sunday. I, I try to pray. I try to read the Bible sometimes.
You know, I come to a community groups at times. If you ever feel like you're just kind of going through the motions, I want to ask you, man. Have you, when's the last time you grieved over your sin? When's the last time your sin broke your heart? And from there you went and looked into the cross of Jesus. You ran to Jesus's feet like this woman and, and found a level of acceptance and mercy and grace that just blows you away.
When's the last time you've, you've been there? Let's jump to verse 48. We want to read 48 through 50. And that'll, that'll conclude our time for us. So Jesus sees everything this woman has done in her repentance and her turning to him.
Verse 48. And he said to her, your sins are forgiven. Then those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, who is this who, who even forgives sins? And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. He's saying to this woman, you, you, you've grieved over your sin.
You've been heartbroken over your sin. You, you, you've shown that you don't, that you don't feel worthy. You've realized that, that, that I am better than your sin. You can go in the peace of knowing that the, the burden, the weight, the guilt, the shame of your sin has now been lifted off of your shoulders. You've been forgiven. There's a level of peace that just, that just comes after a biblical mourning of our sin.
There's a level of, of peace that we can rest in knowing that the, the biggest burden that mankind has ever borne, which is the weight of our sins. Christ on the cross, lift it off of your shoulders. There's a, there's a, there's an ability to breathe a little bit easier. Now there's a level of, of peace in our souls of knowing we are the forgiven people of God. Jesus tells this woman to go in peace. Going, go in peace, knowing that Jesus responds to you with unlimited mercy and grace and forgiveness.
Knowing that Jesus responds to you is welcome. Welcome. Yes, you, you, you can't eat with me. Knowing that Jesus, that Jesus, Jesus is, excuse me, eternal response to you is if, if any of you are familiar with the book of Revelation, there's a, there's a table. There's a feast in the book of Revelation where God's people are finally, ultimately fully united with him on the last day in heaven. And we are sitting around the table at the marriage feast of the lamb.
Where everybody who is unworthy to sit at Jesus's table is at his table as we celebrate our union with him. Jesus responds to you. If you are rebellious and broken over your sin is complete acceptance. And because you came to my feet, you can sit at my table. You can eat with me. You can fellowship with me.
There's a level of peace in that, that is beyond anything that this world can offer. So what I want to do, I'm going to actually invite the band to come on up. And we're going to have a little bit of time of communion. And even as I've talked about Christ's crucifixion and what he's done for us on the cross is, is how we, is what leads us to true repentance. It's what leads us to understanding the seriousness of our sin, understanding that Christ is better than anything that we've ever run to or any sin that we've ever had. Understanding that we're not worthy of Jesus.
Christ says when we take communion, do it in remembrance of him. So when he breaks the bread and gives it to his disciples, he says, this is my body, which was broken for you. And when he passes around the cup, he says, this is my blood that was shed. Do this in remembrance of me. So what I want to ask us to do today is take a little bit of time, remember what Christ has done for us on the cross as we partake.
I want to pray for us, and the band's going to kind of sing over us as we take communion today. Lord, thank you for your goodness, Lord. Thank you for your mercy. Thank you, Lord, that you forgive sinners and you give grace to those who have felt the weight of our sin. Lord, I pray today will be a time of just peace and just joy in knowing that you have lifted the weight of our sins off of our shoulders when you bore them on the cross. I pray you will grant us all true repentance and faith.
It's in Christ's name that I pray. Amen.