Lord, the things that you've
written in your word are the same now as they were when they
were first written centuries ago. And we know that your word
speaks to us, that it tells us who we are, who you are, and
what you would have us to do. We ask, Lord, that you would
open our hearts and open our minds to hear it, to understand
your word. Lord, we ask for those who are
sick and cannot be with us, those who are in pain, those who are
dealing with cancer, we ask that you would treat them, guide the
doctors, help them to be wise and make the right choices for
them. We ask for those who are recovering, we ask that you would
just help them to continue to recover and to Good morning. Let's turn together to 1 Peter. I'm going to revisit a good bit
of what we've done already as a review quickly. as we continue to move forward. You know, we put a lot of emphasis
in this world on what we know. And I've come to learn in life
that we have a lot of knowledge that means very little if we
don't know what to do with it. Case in point, I have little
friend groups that think they're think tanks in neurology. but
they're really construction workers. But we know a lot of stuff about
a lot of stuff. Mike could even sit at a table
with a neurologist and have a good coffee talk to where the world
at large would go, my goodness, these guys are experts. But you
wouldn't want us cutting on your brain. Same thing would be true
with all sorts of stuff. We can know a whole lot of stuff
about the Bible. We can know a whole lot of stuff about politics.
We can know a whole lot of stuff about economics. I mean, that
doesn't make us experts. And even if we are experts in
the knowledge, doesn't make us wise enough to apply it to the
world around us. When you get a graduate degree
or a terminal degree, or when you achieve a rank in a fighting
system or proficiency in any type of activity, at that very
moment you are least qualified to hold that. You're least qualified
to be a doctor the day you graduate. You've met the minimum requirements. And beloved, I think in our world,
as I've looked at it over the last few years especially, when
it comes to being a Christian, I think we keep changing what
the minimum requirements are. And I think we do so in such
a way that we're causing a burden on the people who need faith
like children. Now Peter is writing to a group
of people who had a lot of knowledge. Peter is writing to a group of
people who knew a lot of stuff about God, about Messiah. I mean, you think about the contrast
between Peter writing in his letters to the Jewish Christians
of his day who were suffering deeply, and Paul writing to the
Galatians and to the Romans. Paul is superficially trying
to explain the legal system. The sacrificial system. Justice from a divine perspective
rather than from a legal standing in the world. And he does not make a whole
lot of deep arguments for these people. He explains it and then
he enforces the gospel of grace and that by God's mercy and love
you have been established to be just as credible of a people
as Israel. And now we look at today. I've
got a friend writing an interesting systematic, and it sparked something
in me. I'm going, ooh, all these projects
that are sitting in the corner gathering dust, I would love
to get them out, but are they beneficial? There's a lot of good things
we could do and know. The question is, as a believer,
personally, as a Christian, personally, as a church member, personally,
as a pastor, elder, personally, are we doing and being what's necessary for the sake
of the joy of our brothers and sisters? Are we exercising our gifts for
the encouragement and the building and the growing of the body at
large whom God has put us together with? in doing that are we living in
such a way that the world around us would not paint us with a
broad brush of cultural Christianity or American Christianity or evangelicalism
or Protestantism or Baptist or reformed or Calvinistic or whatever
other label that we could definitely touch on in certain degrees are
they seeing us as a people who were literally following Christ
and a.k.a. Christian, or as they
called themselves in the first century, the way. Christian was pejorative. It
was a way to stab all those little Christ follower people. And so back to my opening premise,
it's not as much as what you know as it is what you live. I see immediately the whistles
and the bells and the sounds and the floodgates of terror
go off in some people's conscience. Oh no, he's going to be preaching
works. No, I'm not. That's a false accusation. It's okay, but I am going to
talk about works because they are necessary for the Christian.
But what's happened is that we've listened to, we've learned a
whole lot of stuff. I mean, if you think about a
couple of things that you know for sure at the center of your
theological minds, of your biblical hearts, is an absolute essential
thing for a Christian to be doing, I promise you, there's someone
who said, that's not even on my dark board. The question is,
is that person a lost, workless, sorry, pitiful heretic? Or are you both just focused
on different things? And the conditions of someone
being in the faith is the work of Christ. Not the aptitude of their apprehension,
of their cognition, or any other way of placing it. It doesn't
matter how good you know what you think you know. Because if I look and start to
really pay attention to some of the patterns of the New Testament
letters, there was not a single letter written that didn't have
to deal with some knuckle-headed mindset by some knuckle-headed
theological things from some knuckle-headed people whom these
apostles called the beloved bride Precious children of God by the
spirit through the good report of Jesus Christ Finished work
not the logistical syntax of that oratory You must say was
that mean not just cause somebody got the words, right? That brought
about the new life Jesus brought about the new life And I mean
being personally vulnerable and for myself and to myself over
the last year or so has been, oh, empowering, but also overwhelming. And there've been times in certain
spaces of writing cohorts and other things and think tanks
that aren't neurology, but actually legitimates. And then even with
some of you that I'm like, you know, do I really wanna be a
Christian anymore? Have you ever had that question?
You ever had that idea? Why? Well, there have been times
I've been embarrassed to say that I was a Christian. If you don't stand for Christ,
he won't stand for you. You can hear that, right? He'll reject you before men.
I hear that. No, he won't. Christ can't reject
you if he died for you. He purchased you. There's no
refunds. I'm not embarrassed because of
Christ. I'm not embarrassed because of the gospel. I'm embarrassed
because of what the name Christian stands for in the culture. I've
been embarrassed to be counted in that number. There have been
times I've been embarrassed to be Anglo, I've been embarrassed
to be Caucasian, I've been embarrassed to be American. I've been embarrassed to be a
magician. I've been embarrassed to be a musician. Depends on
who's poking fun at you. But when it comes to being Christ's
people, I've battled with that. And I've always like, people
like, oh, we just love James, just love it. What do you do
for a living again? I do nothing for a living. I'm homeless. I'm strung out on Oreo cookies. When I say I'm a pastor, it's
almost as if they had enough suction, they would have sucked
me into their throats. Oh, you're kidding. I get that
a lot. I can't believe you're a pastor.
Why? I just didn't think Christians
would talk to a person like me. I didn't think Christians would
go to lunch with a guy like me. I didn't think Christians were
gonna be in a place like this. You mean Lowe's? A beard club? A skating rink? A bowling alley? A grocery store? A liquor store? You remember the days, I remember
the days, Robin would need wine for a meal, not to drink, just
for the recipe and I had to drive like two counties over so that
I could actually legally buy it. Get away from the Pharisees. Now I go in the liquor store
and I stand at the counter and I just talk with everybody. Hey, how's
it going? People drive up, ding ding, what's happening? I grew
up in that place. Well, that's not a good testimony.
It's a perfect testimony. If it bothers your conscience,
come up there with me one day. Well, how long do you, I've been
up there once this year. I mean, it's not like I'm out there every
Friday night saying, hey, what's up? But why? Why does it bother us so
much? Because we're so afraid of what
other people think that we have to fit the mold that other people
have made that's not even in line with what the Bible teaches.
Now, think about the persecution that comes when we don't fit
that mold. Now place it squarely over these
Jewish people who are in the dispersion because they no longer
fit the mold of their cultural or national religion. And last
week I got on my little 12 second soapbox about Christian nationalism.
I'm going to talk a little bit about it again today because
it really fits with some application, but for the most part, Beloved,
we feel like we're at war with the culture. I hear it all the
time. I get these questions from the website constantly, off of
social media, and I don't even answer them anymore. I don't
answer questions personally anymore. I did this morning, and I made,
it was a mistake. So now I have a treatise on something
I have to read after church, and I'm going, so I'm gonna collectively
either write an essay about it, do a little video, or point into
a sermon. We cannot. personally mentor
every human being. Because there's a trade-off,
there's a cost there. We have to be available to each other. But we're not, everybody's like,
hey, you know, how are we gonna win this war? This cultural war,
this political war, this economic war. I'm like, I don't know about
you, but I'm not really fighting it. The bigger war, It's the fact that so many people
who claim to be in Christ are not living as Christ told us
to live. Because they're so focused on winning something that's not, that's not losable. If God is sovereign, and what
we learned, that every institution that is placed before us is of
His purpose, then there is no way to lose, beloved. But if
we frame Christianity as it's supposed to be some type of cultural
distinction or nationality or political force, then we are
already losers and we will not win because that is not subject
to the sovereign purposes of God. It would be easier for these
Christians in the dispersion to go back to being Jewish, following
Judaism, following Moses, following Abraham, following the precepts,
following the rituals, rather than to be homeless in the world. We are not at war with the culture. We are not at war with our neighbor.
We are not at war with the government. We are not at war with the politicians. We are not at war with the committees
of our local organizations. And we're not at war with Big
Pharma. Well, maybe, yeah, we're probably
at war with Big Pharma. We're not at war. What does the scripture say?
What does Paul say in Ephesians 6? We are at war with the principalities
and the powers of darkness. It's nothing in the world. But
we're at war with that which is not of this world, which Christ
has conquered already. We're not at war with flesh and
blood. So even when our dearest friend becomes our worst enemy,
let's frame it that way. and that the Spirit of God in
the most amazing way can reconcile the deepest hurts that we can't
muster. We can't make ourselves forgive
and to be at peace when we've been hurt. But Christ can do
it. And the instruction from this
pulpit will be to you, beloved, let Christ be Christ. Now what
does that mean? You can't stop him, number one.
Let the Spirit of God do what the Spirit of God's gonna do.
Let them be. And when you look in the mirror,
and you're confronted with what you know you are on the inside,
you rest in the sovereignty of the salvation that's been given
you by Jesus Christ, and you hold fast to His love, and that
nothing else can shake you. And eventually, as He wills,
He will transform your heart as He deems necessary. I've never seen a lump of dough
roll itself out, or knead itself, or cut itself out into biscuits.
It's got to have somebody to work it, and if it's not worked
correctly, it will not produce edible bread. We are the dough. We are the clay. We are the workmanship
of His hands, and He is working in you right now. No matter how
far you feel from Him, no matter how broken you think you are,
no matter how distant, no matter how spiritual-ness you feel. I don't even know if that's a
real word. You are not escaping His perfection. But unfortunately, when we see
The world around us, we go, oh no, and then we hear, and then
we observe, and then we hear some more, and then we start
fearing, and then we start engaging, and we start thinking, oh, this
is what it means to live in purpose for Jesus. I got to change this
stuff. And there are times when Christians
should engage socially, politically, environmentally. but not at the
cost, never at the cost of the clear call to love with compassion
and mind in our own business. And never at the cost of overthrowing
a government. The government does a fine job
of overthrowing itself. A lot of folks through the years
are like, well, you know, we just didn't come back to Grace
Truth Church because, you know, it just didn't have X, Y, Z and
an A, B, C. I just don't like singing without
being able to hear the voices. I don't like the rattle of the
air conditioning. I don't like X or Y. That's fine. No problem. The question then for me with
that in our own minds is, well, who are we? And who are we in
the sense that are we investing in the lives of other people
to make them who they are? And are we settled and secure
in such a way and commitment to one another and to the Lord
that we will be what we want to be? Beloved, we will be the
church that we want to be. The question is, what do we want
to be as a people? We will be what we make ourselves
to be. Who do we want to be known as?
What do we want to be known for? These Christians at Peter, what
does he say? Put away malice. Do all this
stuff. Get away. Don't do this. Understand who
you are. Know that your trials are for
a purpose. You will have joy inexpressible
because God and everything He's created has culminated in this
salvation for you for His namesake. Be subject to all the different
institutions you're gonna deal with. Be a servant, so that when
people see your good deeds and your love, that they will praise
your Father in heaven. God will use who you are and
how you live in this world as an impetus. How does He do that? Somebody tore that out of my
Bible. I don't have the answer, how does He do that? Why does
He do that? Because He does what He wants to do. But it's very
clear that the testimony of salvation, coupled with the testimony of
transformation, speaks for itself. And that God opens the door. Why weren't true reform and true
redemption and true transformation and conversion ever seen during
the Crusades? Why was a vitriol pendulum swing
on the opposite direction always the case with like westward expansion?
Because of colonialism and puritanism and just the infusion of, we're
gonna control you. Because if it's scary enough,
you fall in line long enough that you think you believe it.
And then when you finally get free of it, you go, woohoo, I'm
free, and you go wild, right? And you buck against the very
thing that you think is restrictive rather than the very nature of
the people who were putting you in bondage. We know who we are in Christ. We know who we are. Are we living
it? Christianity's been an influential
movement throughout all of history. I mean, you think about just
Puritanism to nationalism. I could stand up here off the
cuff and give you name and date and year. It fascinates me. The
anthropological inquiry in my mind, the sociological interest
and the geeking out on how people think and change just fascinates me. When you think about moving into,
think about Captain John Smith. the 17th century, and coming
to Jamestown with a mission. You ever read his journals? He's
going to set right the path of righteousness for the sake of
Christ, for the name of God in this new land, by divine authority. Sounds pretty good, right? Great,
John. You do you. And from there, William Bradford,
come over on the Mayflower and the Plymouth Colony. You think
about these things, you think about, who was he, the governor
of Massachusetts. And every little decade or so,
And then by the 1630s and 40s, all the Puritans across the big
pond are like, hey, they're setting up shop over there. They got
real freedom to make real change to create a community of faithful
Christians. Is there anything wrong with
wanting that? No, but we call it the church. The church, the
community of faithful Christians gather in the midst of unfaithful
people. Gather in the world of unregenerate
people. Not in opposition to them and
not at war with them, but as a light among them. This is the
teaching of Christ. Be a city on a hill, a light,
a beacon of hope. Be salt and light in the world. What was in 1649? The Maryland
Toleration Act. This act. Of course, Maryland
was the first real place that Catholics could live without
persecution in this new land. And then we see the 1700s and
the colonization of this early Christian influence. We see the
First Great Awakening with Jonathan Edwards. We see George Whitefield
coming over here across the pond and preaching up and down the
coast. Then through all of that, then began to formulate the mindset
of independence. The Declaration of Independence.
Roger Williams and Thomas Jefferson and all these guys. Oh my goodness. And by 1787, the United States
Constitution was ratified. The father of the Constitution,
James Madison. The establishment clause says
that we have the freedom to worship as we choose. The freedom to
be agnostic, atheist, Christian, what have you. The freedom to
be free from religion. In any sense. But then you've got westward
expansion. Manifest destiny. the Mexican-American War, and
the list goes on. Even Abraham Lincoln, who refuted
Christian nationalism, is seen as a pillar of Christian nationalism.
This country's, I won't repeat what I said last week, this country's
based on Jesus, it's not. It's based on the freedom to
be able to worship Jesus. or anything else you want to
worship. Jewish people in Peter's day
wanted that freedom. Oh, here is the Jewish Messiah.
This is going to work out great. We've worshiped all these generations
this way. Now Jesus has come. We can worship
this way. We'll worship together. We'll
worship in freedom. But when you take liberty, When you take liberty to grow
in Christ, when you take liberty to be a church who loves people,
when you take liberty to actually live out your faith according
to your conscience, when you take liberty to come together
and work through nuanced theologies, or even help to understand how
to apply and peacefully resolve differences, even with dogmas,
the establishment of the masses are going to have a problem. Why? Because there's two thoughts. Either Christianity, following
Christ, is about the freedom to live by grace, by faith, or
it's about the restrictions and the bondage of living under the
law that other people get to write for us every generation.
You can't have both. You can't have both. The foundation
of Christian identity, a review, 1 Peter 1, the first 12 verses. Helps us to understand who we
are. He addresses these believers as elect exiles, that they are
chosen by God, that they are God's precious people, that they
are the people for God's own possession. It is not for earthly
power. It is not for earthly dominance.
It is not for anything except to be sanctified by the Spirit
through the work of Jesus Christ, to be justified in that context
so that they could be a light to a world even in the midst
of great suffering. They have a living hope, not
an earthly hope, not a hope that brings them to a place of identity. They had no nation again. They
had no place, they had no home. And in all of that, they rejoiced
in their trials. See, as Christians, we're called
to endure suffering with joy, knowing that our faith is being
refined unto praise, unto glory, unto celebration. Verses six
through nine. And we see all of this. People
like to argue this. You're like, oh, you preached
all this 20 weeks ago. You're absolutely right. But
it never hurts to back up and listen again. People say, well, you know, things
change. Well, things change, but God's
word does not change. The way we apply it changes,
because that's just how we are. The way we interpret it changes,
because we're just really good at that. The implications of
what we think this might mean, the obvious and the not so obvious.
Either way, we have two options. Are we going to live in the freedom
of the gospel? Are we going to live freely amongst
ourselves and be patient? Or are we going to place burdens
on one another so hard that no one feels free to even be honest
about the burdens they have? were called to do this because
the scripture chapter 1 verses 10 through 12 shows us that the
prophets have been preaching about this for a thousand years
or longer. So God's fulfillment of his redemption
is not on ideologies of a nation or politics or anything. Because
I believe that this type of attitude, this type of mindset distracts
our focus from the gospel in proclamation and from the gospel
in implementation. Living it. And so if we can't
live it in our own minds, how are we going to live it in our
own homes? If we can't live it in our own homes, how are we
going to parent? How are we going to have a marriage that exudes
the gospel? Oh, I know, let's buy about a
thousand books, about everybody else's opinions since 1940 to
1999, about what a biblical marriage looks like, and then let's overlay
it onto the biblical narrative and the instruction of the New
Testament. And now we know what the Bible means. Well, I'll write you a bad check
for a million dollars if you can find a cultural biblical
mandate of what marriage looks like today that fits the New
Testament. Parenting. I mean, and I'm not
here to say this, but this is something you need to be challenged
on. Think about it for a second. Your conscience bears witness.
But I can remember a time when I was told by a senior adult,
a senior, not senior as in older, old, but a senior, I don't want
to say mentor, because I don't think this man mentored me, but
he had authority over me. That's what I was trying to say.
A spiritual authority in my life who said, boy, if you don't whip
your children with a belt, you're ungodly. I think that's nonsense. It's not necessary. It's not
unbiblical to use a different type of training. The word discipline
means training What part of slapping them with a piece of leather
till they can't breathe is training? Oh, oh, we're not talking about
a horse. You see? But I mean, y'all heard
it, right? Especially in homeschool communities.
Spare the rod, spoil the child. No, that's not New Testament. And
that's actually not prescriptive, it's poetry. It's actually fortune
cookies, wisdom literature. But it's okay if in your conscience
you feel that's necessary. If it works, that's great. Because I'm not gonna bind your
conscience against it either. Just don't bind anybody else's
for it. All foods, whole foods, natural
foods, homeschool, public school, private school, Red, white, and
blue. I mean, the list goes on and
on. We're called to display the redemption
of Christ, not to distract people from it. So we promote a vision of salvation that displays Christ's redemptive
work and His mind and His heart and the love of God, not cultural
dominance. God, Peter did not tell these
people to be dominant in the culture. He said be submissive
to the Lord's sake to every human institution. To every human institution. For this is the will of God,
that by doing good you should be put to silence, the ignorance
of foolish people. When I was a boy, I had a real
superpower. It was this mouth. And when I
was real tiny and scrawny, there were some adults in my life that
bullied me. There were some adults in my life that abused me physically.
There were some adults in my life that abused me emotionally. And I had one power. It was my mouth. And I can make
them feel so tiny and so small from a very young age, because
I can make them feel stupid. Because I can string out syntax
that they couldn't understand. And all they could do is shake
me, throw me, or punch me. And I did it on purpose, because
it's the only power that I had. And then in my 20s, I felt guilty
because if I'd have been a better boy, if I'd have kept my mouth
shut, I wouldn't have deserved that punishment. You gotta understand,
the mouth came open after the beating started. But here's the reality, beloved.
I'm not a victim. And that is not okay. We're not called to fight. Sometimes we have to, but it's
not the mainstay. Then after all that was said
and done, you know, it was always, so James was a great kid if he
just kept his mouth shut. James was a great kid if he just
never opened his mouth. He was perfect until he opened
his mouth. You know what's crazy about that? Is that I learned to try to not
to speak up too much even when I should have. What's that got to do with this? They used my speaking up as a
way of saying, see, he was at fault. In a not so similar reality, I'm not saying we take abuse,
I think we should call it out. Abuse in the church, people need
to go to the penitentiary for it. Abusive people and controlling
men who take the Bible in pulpits to try to just put people in
shackles, they need to be taken away from society. It's dangerous. But when it comes to the culture
and what we see, and it's not running us over, let's just see
if God's Word's true. Let's just live as people who
are free, as if this stuff doesn't affect us until it does, And
you might say, well, what's the prescription? Tell me the rules.
The rules are not there. And in our nation, we have the
liberty under Christ to speak up. We have the liberty to say what
is right. But I'll be honest with you,
I know a lot of people who are so-called influencers in the
Bible, influencers in the Christian communities, but you don't know
anything. You don't learn anything from
them. All you know from them is everything that's wrong in
the world. Now what is the testimony of these Jewish people? What
is the testimony of Peter? That we, that these people as
Christians are stewards of the grace of God, chapter 4. And
so that the fiery trial from this chapter is going to come,
and so in it we rejoice in such a way that we are able to say,
hey, you know what? God's got this. Humble yourselves
under the mighty hand of God. But that's not a prescription
for what? It's not a prescription for enduring things that you
could effect change with. It's a mindset of what we're
called to in contrast to what Christian culture says we're
called to. We're called to be a holy people, a people that
are set apart. What does that look like? Love
one another and love God. It really is the epitome of it
all because our identity and mission as God's people, as I
said three weeks ago, is that we're living stones in a spiritual
house. That's not kings and princes and queens
and princesses in a spiritual nation. We are chosen people,
a holy nation. So the people of Christ, the
church, doesn't have an earthly affiliation. We are sojourners
and witnesses, chapter 2, verse 11 and 12. So we are to abstain
from the passions of the flesh, which includes all sorts of things. We're to be submissive to authority.
We're to be the example of Christ. So let's go there. The example
of Christ. That was all review. Now we're
there. Chapter 2, verse 18. Servants, be subject to your
masters with all respect, not only to the good and the gentle,
but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing
when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.
For what credit is it if when you sin, you're beaten for it
if you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it, you
endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this
you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you,
leaving an example so that you might follow in his steps. He
committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When
he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered,
he did not threaten, but he continued entrusting himself to the one
who judges justly. 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, for you were straying like sheep,
but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your
soul. There's so much here, I won't get through it today. In fact,
as I read it again, I read it this morning like two or three
times, as I read it again just now, I'm thinking, wow, there's some
things in there I probably want to spend an entire hour on. And there's some things that
I'm going to impart on some of this because of how we apply
some of this stuff in the world we live in. Why? Because chapter
three and four are coming with some extremely practical things
that are being abused in our culture by Christians. First,
let's look at it that way. Servants, be subject to your
masters with all respect, not only to the good and the gentle,
but also to the unjust. Okay, let me ask you a question.
In the United States of America, who are slaves? Legal slaves,
nobody, prisoners. People who are incarcerated,
that's it. So the application here for us today in 2024 is
not necessarily really clear. But there's one thing that is
clear, it's a mindset. But at the same time, we are
not property of anybody but Christ. So you see, we're the preaching
of the pulpit in order for you to be able to be equipped to
do the work. You know that's why we're here,
right? To be equipped to do with our lives and our hands and feet
the work of the ministry. That we may do so in adoration
of God because of His grace and love in the gospel. that we may
understand our salvation, that we may grow in grace and learn
more about the truth of who Christ is, that it may work itself out
in our lives as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling,
though trusting completely in the sovereignty and the power
of God and His promises, you see. It is not intellectual whatsoever. It is always applicable. the
Christian life and the church are to be living out this. So
if I say, well, we don't have any slaves, let's move on. I'm
not doing my responsibility as a teacher or elder of this congregation. So I need to ask myself, where
does this apply? Well, here are a few ideas. Well,
some people say it applies at the job. Really? The employer is the servant who
pays you. It don't matter what the role,
there's always a role of who's overseeing what thing, but oversight
doesn't mean head. Oversight is just a job, too. The law says if I work, I get
paid. And if your boss doesn't pay
you, say, hey, you owe me. I got a guy that I pay to help
me every now and then to do something, and he thanks me profusely. when
he sends me the bill. Thank you so much for paying
this. I'm like, what do you mean thank you? Thank you. I have
to pay this. Well, not everybody likes to
pay. You know what? Sometimes you can't pay. But
you're obligated to. It's not the case. But in the
day that Peter wrote this letter, there were people who were property
of other people. There were people who were slaves. In the Jewish sense, it was judicial,
it was usually debt, or it was usually something else. And it
was never ongoing, it was always once the debt is paid, it's over.
Once seven years, even if the debt's not paid, you're free,
you can't hold a man for more than seven years, no matter what
he did. He cannot be, and it was something that, in Jewish
culture, it was mutually agreed upon. No one was snatched out
of their homes and made a slave. Anywhere. In Jewish culture. Except women Sometimes So, how do we apply
this it's a mindset Even though we're not slaves we do everything
as unto Christ, right? What does the scripture say?
Whatever you do do it for the glory of God whatever you eat
do it for the glory of God do it all as unto Christ when you
work a job when you serve a master when you serve a boss and A supervisor. Yeah. So in that sense, we can
make this application do so as if you're serving Christ. So
this supervisor's a rear end. They treat you like trash. Maybe
they're a misogynist. Maybe they're a sexist. Maybe
they're just a terrible person. Maybe they're a bigot. Maybe
they're just mean. But we don't have to get revenge.
We don't have to revile. We don't have to get into the
break room and talk trash about them. We can just do our job
as if we're doing it for Jesus. And you know what? The people
that see us do that in the workplace, I can't believe you would do
that. I'm not doing that for Johnny. I'm doing it for Jesus. And we
get to do that for joy. But it doesn't mean that we don't
turn this man into the authorities. It doesn't mean that we don't
say, you know what, here's my letter of resignation. It doesn't mean we don't say,
I'm not doing that because I don't think it's right. Why? Because in our institution of
government, we have the right to do so. It's a different world
than 2,000 years ago. It's a different world than three
years ago. but be subject. You know that's
a willful thing, right? Peter is saying subject yourselves,
submit yourselves. There's something extremely powerful
when we have the autonomy and the agency to serve on our own
without influence. Why is it hard for us to see
that in our culture? I have some ideas, some philosophies
that theologians through the years have, I would say that I intersect
with. But this is America. And I think
it's hard for us in this landscape because we, in effect, according
to our laws, are little kings and queens. We have authority to rule our
lives with autonomy until it runs into other people's lives.
And we have rights. We have rights. We have liberties. We have civil liberties. And these are good. But it doesn't
mean that we should lord over people with them. It doesn't
mean that we should not have the mind
of Christ. This is where we seek counsel
from one another. This is where we need to be more
open and vulnerable with our lives. Hey, I got this situation
at work. Hey, I got this situation with a neighbor. Hey, I got this
situation at home. Hey, I got this situation in
my own brain. I got a problem with a kid. I got a problem with
a spouse. I got a problem with a friend. We need to talk about
it. And don't just come to me, because
I don't know all the answers. You can ask me. But I'm going
to say, hey, let's call a friend. What's that show? What's that
game? Let's do a lifeline. Let's do 50-50. I don't know.
We're going to work it out. Because there's going to be times
where we say, well, I had a pastor tell me one time that I should
X, Y, Z. And I'm going to say, that's
not right. Because one thing that verse
18 does not mean is that you should be subject to abuse as
an American citizen. One thing it surely doesn't mean
is that you should be subject to abuse in your marriage of any kind. Well, that's just
being a good Christian. No, it's not. It's being dumb.
It's being shackled. And I'm calling myself that.
I mean, we do this because we so bad want to not offend God. And what that typically means
is we so bad to not want to offend the culture that say that they're
gods. Culture. Well, I can't do this, I can't
think that. Yes, you can. You think and do
what you think is good for you. And then be subject to people
who care for you and are going to watch out for you and give
you good counsel. so that even if you make the
wrong choice today, we can walk back to the right side of the
road tomorrow. When did it come, when did it become, when did
successful Christian living become never make a mistake, never have
a problem, never sin? Who's ever done that? But you
hear it told by how bad this guy is or those people are, that
man, 90% of Christians have got it together. Why? Because they've
got pom-poms running around cheering for things that have nothing
to do with living as Christians. What did God do to make sure
that these new Jewish Christians couldn't get into that entanglement? He took them out of their own
homes. Wow! Verse 19, for this is a gracious
thing, he says, when mindful of God. Mindful of God. What does that mean? That God
is on our mind. It's very simple. One endures sorrow while suffering
unjustly. What are you going to do? Sometimes we do have to suffer
unjustly. Sometimes we have to suffer unjustly in our culture
because we can't fix it right now. Sometimes we suffer unjustly
in our homes. I mean, come on parents, have
you ever gotten onto a child that really didn't do anything
wrong but you felt like they were being disrespectful and you just lashed
out? You ever been just in a mood,
and you just have this stoic mindset, and everybody thinks
you're mad, and they're like, why are you mad? What did I do wrong?
Why are you mad? Why are you mad? And then you're like, I ain't mad,
but I'm gonna show you what mad looks like. See, that's one of my faults.
When I feel like I'm being accused of something, and then I'm indicted,
then I'm convicted by the court of public opinion, if I'm guilty,
I'm gonna give them some guilt. I'm gonna give them some real
guilt. And I just burn the whole thing down. I just bring it all
down. And that's how I was as a child. Well, I didn't do anything
wrong, but now that I'm getting tortured, I'm gonna earn it. I'm gonna earn it. You see, that's
the mindset, right? And I'm just being honest, and
y'all, it is not gone from me. It is mindfulness of God that
keeps me from that place. Because that's a, I don't even
want to use the word trigger, that's an absolute, just pure-out
weakness. I hate being accused of something
I haven't done. I hate it. And I think some of us are the
same way. So we suffer unjustly. What I want to do is rectify,
but you know by the Lord's mercy now we're learning and we learn
through these experiences. We don't have to be justified
in the eyes of humanity. We can be reconciled with each
other, but I don't have to justify myself to you. I don't have to
give you an excuse. I can give you a reason. I can walk you through
logically, but I can never give you an excuse because there's
never an excuse for bad behavior. This can't be excused. It can
be understood, but it can't be excused. As Christians, when
we suffer unjustly, let us guard ourselves from running out and
acting unjust because of the accusation. Because what does
he say? For what credit is it, verse 20? I just preached verse
20, by the way. If when you sin you're beaten, when you throw
sand in your brother's eye and you punch him and throw him down
the stairs and you get spanked, well, you endeared that, you
didn't die, and you deserved it, right? You deserved some
consequence. But when you do good, and you
suffer for it, you endure. This is a gracious thing in the
sight of God. Why? I don't like this. I'm going
to be honest with you, church. This kind of stuff with a guy
like me makes me want to pull my ears off. Because I'm a justice
maker. Because deep down in the crevices
of my DNA, there's always going to be a little part of me that
thinks I'm right. There's always gonna be a little part of me
that thinks that my way is probably the best solution to the problem. And then when we execute it,
it usually becomes the problem to the solution. But why is it good? Because of
who I am. Because of whose you are, whose
we are. Our identity is in Christ, see,
not in culture, not in nationalism, not in American Christianity,
not in evangelicalism. Our identity is we are the sheep
of God. We are the children of God. We
are the beloved of Christ. We are the elect. We are the chosen. We are the
beautiful. We are the bride. If Jesus deals with it, we're
going to deal with it. If Jesus suffers, we're going
to suffer. Paul was very clear. Hey, listen,
slave, if you can get free by any means, take your freedom.
If not, live as Christ under that. It is a gracious thing in the
sight of God, for to this you've been called, because Christ also
suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might
follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither
was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not
return, revile and return. When he suffered, he did not
threaten, but continued to entrust himself to the one who judges
justly. Now think about that in closing. What part of our identity gives
us the authority to be our own king? That's why I think it's important,
churches, sometimes, I've been thinking about this, sometimes
we need to take some relationship stuff out of the Bible and then
take a little sidebar and teach also on proper conversation. Why? Because the Bible talks
about how to have conversation. Let it be seasoned with salt
and grace. So I can say that, yada, yada, yada, yay, Jesus
speaks, now let's go. No, that's not sufficient, is
it? It's not sufficient to apply that to your life. Or even like
renewing your mind. How do you do that? Well, if we're not taught how
to do it, then we're not going to know how to teach others how
to do it. We're certainly not going to do it ourselves. And so we're going
to think, well, renewing my mind is renewing my passion, my zeal. I'll just jump into this pool
of whatever's going on here because it seems right. That's why we
have so many iterations of certain things and certain applications
and certain modalities of spiritual stuff. We are called to distinct living
as Christ followers. Identity in Christ over national
identity. Peter says there that we must
prioritize our identity in Christ over any other identity. Recognizing
that our allegiance is to Christ and to one another in Christ,
nowhere else. We must live as witnesses to
God's kingdom. Because when we don't put these
things together, we actually live as idolaters. And then that scares us. Oh no,
I'm an idolater. Okay. Yep, and tomorrow you'll
be an idolater, and the next day you'll be an idolater in
some way, but in the mercy of God, he doesn't pound us on all
of that. He doesn't open our head and pour it all in and go,
look at all this. But every now and then, as the Bible comes
to life, we then begin to see it and we're able to walk a little
bit more tenderly and a little bit more freely together in hope. I know some of you may be thinking,
this is the weirdest sermon I've heard you preach in years. Good. And Trey's like, no, I've heard
worse. No. It may seem that way, but I promise you what
Peter is building for us here has great application for us.
Especially running into an election. Especially running into a culture
that is on fire, in a dumpster, on fire, in a flood, in a hurricane,
with tornadoes. On fire. I think there's a movie
about that, right? Sharknado. So let us remain faithful
to the One who is faithful, who gave Himself for us that we might
be a people of His own possession. He redeemed us out of the world.
We are not of the world, we are in it. So let's live in it as a light.
Let's live in it at peace. Let's learn to renew our minds
in such a way that we have God on our mind in the right way,
as our Father, as our protector, as our guardian, who is guarding
us by His power through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed
in the last days. We are being guarded. God is
our rock and our fortress. And we live under the shadow
of his wing like a mother duck, or an eagle, or a buzzard. Depends on what part of the world
you live in. So let's remain faithful. Let's
live in such a way that we're not shaken even when we're trembling.
so that the world around us, especially the unchurched and
the disenfranchised and those who are abused and hurt by the
church, which is many, can see that there are people to be a
refuge with them and for them. We need to be a refuge. And these people that need us
are often not going to look like us. They're often not going to
think like us. Why? Because we're a pretty diverse
little group of people. And to that, I'm thankful. And
for that, I'm thankful. Because Christ gave Himself that
we might be free. Let's pray. We thank You, Father,
for the freedom that is ours in the Lord, that Jesus has set
us in a place to know who we are. Father, this world has done a
number on everyone in it. But the reality is that we're
only enticed by that which our flesh is excited about. I mean,
even the things that scare the living daylights out of us, Father,
it still creates zeal, focus, attention, energy. So Lord, teach
us some of the things that we should be in this world. Give
us some of the tools, Father, that we could become more resolved.
Help us to decide who we want to be and to walk in that way
and live by those values. Father, help us to show who You
are to the world around us. Not because of what we've been
taught historically, but because of what we're being taught now
biblically. even when it seems to conflict, to be a contrast,
to be a dichotomy, to be a counter to what the Christian world would
say. Lord, let us just be at peace. Say, hey, this is what
I am. This is who I am. This is who
we are, and we're not gonna apologize for it. We're happy to talk about
it, Lord. Help us to have that mindset that we're happy to talk,
but we're not gonna be persuaded otherwise. To stand on our convictions,
while also creating room for other people to share theirs. Teach us that intimacy comes
through conversation, through listening, through hearing, and
through living together, just like you brought us into you
through those same means. By the Spirit, help us to be
that way in this world. We pray this in the name of Jesus.
Amen. Let's take the table, beloved.