We ask for those who are recovering
from surgery that you would help them, that those who are in pain,
that you would take care of them. Give them the treatments they
need to be healed. We ask that you would help us
all today to hear and honor and glorify your name. And we ask
you this for the sake of Christ in whose name we pray. Amen. Good morning, everyone. I'm glad
you are all here today. But my question to you is you
might be present, but are you present? You might be here, but
are you here? Where's your heart and your mind
today? Take a moment to consider that. Take a moment to consider that
every day when you approach scripture, when you approach life, when
you approach hardship or just routine that seems like, ugh,
can I do anything else? Are you present? Because if you're not present,
you don't experience any of the benefit of being where you are. If you're not present in your
relationships, not present in your job, not present in your goals, your
vision, your body, you lose. You lose so much. So the Scripture
talks about rest. The Scripture uses rest as an
equivocal metaphor of faith, of salvation, of redemption,
of adoption, of birth, hope, peace, success, prosperity. It's all about rest. It's all
about being at the feet of the Lord. It's all about being at
the bottom of the boat asleep in the midst of a storm. It's
all about knowing who God is and who you are And what you
need is supplied in all of His riches. I didn't finish my message from
last week. It was too much there. So in an attempt to segue this
week and last week, I just want to say that there are a few things
that I was getting to in the context of how we see ourselves
in the world. How we see ourselves before God.
Because beloved, let me tell you something about life. As
believers, every ounce of life, every second of life has everything
to do with who we are. Our identity inside of our minds
and inside of our hearts. 100%. Because if that's out of
place, everything will be skewed. We will have haughtiness, arrogance,
or we will have brokenness and deprecation, neither of which
are fruits of the Spirit of God. We live in a day and age, as
you've heard me say many times from this platform, where it
is almost a badge of honor to be a worm. Because the Bible says that we
should be lowly. Well, that's not lowly, that's disgusting. And the Bible doesn't prescribe
us to see ourselves that way. The Bible calls us the righteousness
of God. Yeah, but I know I'm not righteous,
but you are by the declaration of God alone through Jesus Christ
and his life and his death and his resurrection from the dead.
You are the righteousness of God. So do not make Christ's
death in vain for our badge of honor and deprecation. See yourself
as God sees you. Not as a worm he did not crush,
but as a precious child he saved by crushing the righteousness
of God. And I know it may seem nuanced,
it may just seem this little, oh, little tongue-in-cheek, it
may just seem a little, you know, oh, it's just perception. No,
it's absolute truth and error. It's truth and error. Because
the reason, and I've tried to figure this out, I do not comprehend
maliciousness. I can't understand it. I don't
get it. I don't understand what that's
like on the inside. I just... Have I been angry? Yes. Have
I hated people? Absolutely. I've learned to admit that over
the last few years. But that hate does not breed
an intention of wanting to destroy someone or hurt someone or make
someone feel bad. The very people in my life who
have tried to destroy me, when I've lashed out, I feel so bad.
I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have done that. No
longer do I blame me for their actions, but I will tell you
this, knowing who I am securely in Christ, knowing who you are
securely in Christ will inform how you respond, react, and feel
about the world in which we live. And the irony behind it is that
so often, right now especially in our day, how fitting 1 Peter
is. Because I believe that true believers
who are trying to live a simple life of submission, and honor,
and love, and compassion, and minding their own affairs, and
doing what's right, and loving their enemies, and loving their
neighbors, and loving themselves so that they can love others
as they love themselves. You know if you hate yourself,
you cannot love your neighbor? You're a worthless lover. Because you do it out of obligation,
you do it out of fear. The people that live like that, we are in
a dispersion. We are in a foreign land. And
this is the call of the people of Christ. This is the call of
God. I test things. I test things
in the world, I test things in the air a little more wisely
and a little more cautiously than I used to. But I get what I want. I prove
the point that I feel, or I disprove the point that I think may be
the case. Little experiments, social media
experiments, conversations with people. Do you have conversations
with people? Do you look and engage in such
a way that you're curious? Do you think, how can I invest
in this person's life? Are you naturally, is everything
that you do a natural outflow of who you are in Christ? Or
is it contrived? You try to put it into a compartment.
You try to make sure you put that on. If you're trying to
put that on, it's because you've not been rooted in understanding
who you are. And you're not living out of a core value that is derived
from the center of your absolute true self in Christ. And the New Testament is written
to that end, so that we may know this, we may know Christ, we
may know ourselves in Him, and we may live according to how
He lived with His mind, which is already ours, guaranteed by
the Spirit of God, because of Christ. The question is, are
we filtering the life around us in this dispersion, in this
frustration, in this world that is wrought with fear, wrought
with damage, wrought with false truths, lies, deception, anxiety. Are we secure? Are we at rest? Or are we in turmoil? And I believe that the scripture,
Peter specifically, is showing these Christians, they may be
Jewish by birth, but they're Christians now by rebirth. And
those are completely different things. They are not one and the same.
They are not equivocal. You are American by birth, but
you are Christian by rebirth. And the irony, I was going to
say this a minute ago, the irony behind what so many people in
America think is Christian living, if it's Christian living, but
nobody else in the world can live like that or deal with these
issues, then it's not Christian prescription. If there's such a thing as Christian
politics, And if you're a real believer, then you'll follow
a specific set of politics, then someone who doesn't live in a
free nation cannot live as a Christian. If that's a prescription. But
what is the prescription? No matter who it is, whether
it's the emperor as honorable, the governor, or your master
as a slave. Do it unto Christ. See, that's
the attitude. That's where we left off last week. The humility. And though we may need to, and
next week I'll talk a little bit more about this, we need
to talk about things, we need to call about what injustices
are, but it's not our mission, it's just part of our lives as
people who understand the righteousness of God. So there's a manner in
which we do it, but it's not ultimate, even though it may
be important. That's why Christian nationalism
is Antichrist. That's why social justice in
and of itself is Antichrist. When it becomes our identity,
we've lost our identity. We've just merged into another
philosophy of men. These Jewish people, in the dispersion
that Peter's writing to in his letters, lost their national
identity because they found an eternal one. Or better yet, it
found them. So I believe the Scripture teaches
us a better way. A better way. holistic application
of understanding who we are, based out of the teaching of
the New Testament, based out of what we've learned already,
that we are a holy nation, a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a people
after his own possession, we are the beloved, we are the object
of his desire, we are the redeemed, we are the blessed, we are elect,
I mean, what else do you need? I mean, how many more stars by
your name do you need before you feel good? You notice what
I didn't say, you and because of who you are inside of you,
that's really where your power is. No, where our power rests
is in the sufficiency of knowing that who we are right now is
enough for God to love us. And in Christ, he loved us in
such a way that it's not just how he feels, it's what he did.
He accomplished redemption. So I can look in the mirror of
my soul and say, James, you are the beloved of the Almighty Creator
of the cosmos. You are the child of the King.
You are the Most High. And because of that, no matter
how frail or weak or frivolous or foolish that you may be, nothing
can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord. No matter who hates you, nothing can tear down the
absolute temple that God has put you in and secured you. Who
by faith, they're being guarded for this precious, precious,
precious inheritance that cannot be taken away. Is this not what
Peter's saying? Am I imposing on this text something
that's not there? Absolutely not. It is not there.
If it's not there, then what I just said was a lie. Holistically,
we read the Bible in its context, we understand what the Old Testament
stories show us by what the New Testament letters teach us about
how we ought to live in light of this knowledge of what took
place throughout antiquity. And Peter has called his people,
he's called the people of God, God's people, to a higher identity. Where this fits for you, you
need to put the shoes on and stand. And I don't care where
you are and we're in a political situation right now that it's
become vitriol. I cannot tell you the number
of people just in inference and assumption who have divorced
themselves from my life after decades of friendship just because
of what they think I believe politically. And according to God, that mindset
is an abomination. I read Paul, I read out of 2
Timothy 3 this morning at the beginning of our service. Peoples
will be lover of selves, lover of this, all this list of things.
And then he goes back and he talks to Timothy and he says,
but you, You're not like this. You're somebody else. You don't
have an identity in the culture. You don't have an identity in
the religious culture. You don't have an identity as an American Christian.
You don't have an identity in the Church of America, or evangelicalism,
or Protestantism, or Catholicism. or reformed tradition. That's
not your identity. Those are the things that you've
come along and done as hobbies. Those are little, like, clubs
that you've started. Your identity is in the rootedness, the groundedness,
the depths of the gospel of grace through the Word of God, the
revelation of God Himself, that you know whose you are to such
a place that nothing can cause you to stumble. But you're not like that. Because
you're listening. You're sober-minded. You've put
away malice. You've put away deceit. You've
put away hypocrisy. You've put away all slander and
all envy. You're like a newborn infant
that longs for pure spiritual milk, and you dive into the reality
of intimacy with Christ by the Spirit through the Word, and
that Word is the glue that holds your person together, that holds
your mind at peace. And it's not inductive Bible
study with 25 colors. It's not linguistic endeavors.
It's not reading the dots and in between the margins to find
some hidden mystery. It's literally just being at
rest with the Word that God the Spirit will teach us in time. Peter calls these people to a higher identity.
Thus, the Scriptures are calling us to a higher identity. By urging us to live as strangers,
Not isolated, but strangers. I mean, think about it for a
second. You ever been invited over to somebody's house for
the first time? You usually dress a little different. You make
sure the kids don't have like jelly on their face. You make
sure you don't stink. You take a shower and dress a
little, you know. You don't know these people, you're just going
over to visit for the first time, maybe you've had some social
interaction, we're gonna have a cookout at the house, wow,
you come over, you might bring a gift, you might bring some
sodas, you might bring some whatever. You're like, yeah, here we go,
we're gonna have a good time, what can I have, can I bring
the meat, can I bring the drink, can I bring the desserts? And you
show up and you behave a little different. Now you might get
into your house and tear all your clothes off, put your feet
up on the couch and pick your toenails, but you don't do that
when you visit somebody for the first time. You're a stranger in that house,
even though you're welcome. That's not where you belong,
so you gotta act in a manner that fits the setting. Beloved,
we're strangers in the world. The difference is we're not putting
on an act when we sit and rest and live quietly and stand for
justice and all these different things. You gotta understand,
from stimuli to response is wisdom. From stimuli to reaction is stupidity. So there are things in our lives
that are going to upset us. There are things in our lives that
are going to trigger us because of trauma. There are things in
our lives that are going to upset us because we have convictions.
Imagine these people having to leave their homes. Imagine these
people traveling the world. Imagine as strangers. exiles. This is a higher identity.
You haven't lost anything, you've gained everything. See, the Bible
says when we lose what we feel that we have a grounding in this
life, the problem, like for me, I lost everything. My total image,
everything that I ever was for anybody, I lost it. But I gained
everything. And so did you. So did you. Because what they think, what
you think, what I think is irrelevant when what God knows and declares
is on the table. And so we get upset, we see things
that are not good, we see things that are not right, we see people,
because we're in a strange place. I remember going and visiting
friends, you know, so-and-so put their ketchup on the counter,
not the refrigerator, how gross. It's not gross, it's different,
it's okay. There's so much vinegar and garbage in that, it never
rots. It just separates, you have to shake it. Some people let their cats lick
them in the mouth. That's gross, but that's, to
me, I'm not gonna do that, but to you, that's okay. It's not
wrong, it's just different. Some people have ideologies that
don't fit with our ideologies. It's sometimes mostly different.
And sometimes their ideologies are absolutely heretical or purely
evil in the context of the flesh, in the view of the law and the
righteousness of God. But it's none of our business. You see? It's none of our business. We're not called to fix the lives
of people. Peter says, to walk in a manner
that's worthy to the conduct among unbelievers. And he says
Gentiles here, he doesn't mean non-Jewish people. He means unbelievers,
honorable. This is a reminder that our true
citizenship is in the kingdom of God. And there is nothing
in the Bible that teaches us holistically that the kingdom
of God starts on earth. The kingdom of God lives on earth.
But God's not trying to establish a kingdom on earth. And it certainly isn't tied to
the United States. Nor Israel. Nor any Asian country. Nor any
African country. Nor any South American country. And so on and so forth. So if
we think about being a nation, and we think about being Christians,
sometimes, and we hear a lot of this, what is Christian nationalism?
Well, it merges a national identity that you're born into with your
Christian faith. Claiming that a nation is inherently
Christian. which is not true, historically.
Evidentiary, it's not true. There's no evidence of that whatsoever,
except people assert it, and you can assert all you want.
It doesn't make it true, even though everybody believes it. And further, Christian nationalism
would say that not only is this nation inherently Christian,
it should enforce Christian values through its government, which
is a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment
of our laws. And if you do that, you are a
criminal, a criminal under the laws of the United States to
impose religious ideologies into the laws of behavior, morality,
or ethics, or business, or anything of that nature. And it is actually
treasonous for anyone in government to impose such things. It is
a capital crime, and you should have your head lopped off. So
Christian nationalism doesn't fit the laws. You can argue it
all you want, but go to the legal standings, not the barbershop
standings, which is where most theologians live, in the dustbin
of the swept-up hair in the barbershops. That's their power, you know?
That's their credibility. So I view Christian nationalism
in the context of what scripture teaches that would then teach
Jesus saying and doing and being something that he's not as against
who he is. So I would say, according to
John, that it's antichrist because it's not of Christ. Christian
nationalism is antichrist because it replaces the gospel of Christ
with a gospel-centered, what is it, exclusion that elevates national allegiance
to what? To the call of love, to the call
of service, and to the call of worship. And I'll talk about
idolatry in a minute. The kingdom of God versus Christian
nationalism. Jesus made it clear his kingdom
is not of this world. He called his followers to embody
that which is not of this world. To embody it. You know what that
means to embody it? Make it part of your daily body. If you embody
health, You eat healthy, you work out, you consider how you
feel, you rest, you manage your time, you grow your mind. You
can say, well, I believe in health, and then you do all the opposite
of that, then you've not embodied health, though you may have somewhere
written down somewhere from your childhood that you were healthy.
That's not healthy. Spiritually speaking, it's not
healthy to embrace Christian nationalism. Jesus calls us to
embody love, and humility, and justice, which is in stark contrast
to the self-interest and exclusionism found in nationalistic pride
of any nation, much less when you try to marry the Lord and
the gospel into it. And then the idea of liberty,
liberal, liberalism, when did that become political? You know,
somebody told me the other day that because I don't believe
that Genesis was written to prove scientific data, that I am lost. And I just smiled and I thought,
I'm not the lost guy here. And I'm not saying that guy's
not born again, but he's definitely lost. Moses wasn't prompted by
the Spirit of God to give a science lesson. So all these science ministries
are not forwarding the cause of Christ in the world. They're
creating further exclusion. Now make that national. Make
that a national identity. Liberalism. The very idea of
being free reflects Christ-like virtues, if you understand. Define the
terms. What is liberty? Openness, committing to justice,
prioritizing the common good. You know, the Constitution and
the Bill of Rights that didn't even apply, but to about a fourth
of the population when it was written, but now does. But how
about in the Gospel? It applies to all. unbelievers,
reprobates, elect, young, old, rich, poor, ugly, pretty, and
pretty ugly. Whatever it may be, it applies. So the idea of freedom, the idea
of investing, the idea of caring, when someone says, when I say
liberty, when I say liberal, this is what we mean. But if you know, when you say
liberal, because of the way we have framed our world in the
last 80 years, you automatically think political, which proves
my point. We have to reject this. We are
to reject the false gospel of nationalism and embrace the true
freedom that's found in Christ that empowers us to live out
the values of righteousness, love, justice, and service. So
let's get into this. That was my segue from last week. Probably better for me to do
it in a little short introduction today than where I was at the
end of my sermon last week. So we have a higher calling.
We have a higher calling, a higher allegiance to the kingdom of
Christ that's characterized by love, humility, service. We've learned that now over the
first two chapters of 1 Peter, right? And it's not just there,
it's everywhere. It's everywhere. It's in Romans,
it's in Galatians, it's in 1st, 2nd, 3rd John. It's in the narratives
of the gospel, and so on and so forth. Now there are a lot
of proof texts that try to refute these types of holistic teachings.
But there again, if I take the baking powder out of the recipe,
what can you make of it? Anti-burp seltzer water? I don't
know. That's about it. So we're citizens, first, the
kingdom of God, our true citizenship, we are citizens of heaven. We've
been guarded by power through salvation to be revealed the
last time. This is kept in heaven. Heaven
is the abode of God, okay? It's not something we need to
parse out and figure out, well, where is it? How big is it? Where
does it stand? Is there another dimension? Yes,
it's another dimension. It's outside of creation, and
even in and of itself, as we know it in the context of physics,
it is also something created, but it's outside of this creation
that is infinite. Uh-huh! Don't go there, because
it will not suit you, unless you just want to deal with the
math of it, which is not my thing. So what are we to do here? Philippians
3.20, but our citizenship is in heaven. Now see, there's a
problem sometimes with this. From heaven we await a Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. So the Savior is coming from
heaven, the true kingdom, and what does the Scripture teach
us? That He will make the world right, that it will be a dwelling
place, like the tabernacle of Eden, the imagery and the metaphor
of Eden. A temporal place on purpose. Think about that. So we have to be careful not
to think, well, I can't wait to get out of here. That's not a bad thing
as a believer. We are leaving this world, we are leaving these
problems, but we're coming back to a world that is suitable,
that is perfect. Without walls, without boundaries,
without nations, without laws. Except the law of grace and the
law of love. So we're citizens primarily of
the kingdom of heaven. But just like with Paul, we see
this played out, right? Paul was a citizen of the Sanhedrin.
He was a citizen of Israel. He was a citizen of Rome. He
was a citizen of Judaism. in a way of identity, not, well,
there's no citizenship in Judaism, but you know what I mean. He
found an identity there, but he was a citizen of Israel. He
was a citizen of Rome. But his Roman citizenship was
only vital to him when it gave him the ability to exercise the
liberty that he found in Christ and he erased, he threw all of
his other identity in the trash. Hey, you've beaten a Roman citizen. Oh, hey, come here, Paul. Come
out the back door. Kick him out the back door so
nobody would see it. Why? Because they could have gotten
in trouble and been beaten, too. You don't beat Roman citizens the way they
beat him. And then he's like, well, you
know what? I've been accused of this crime. I feel in my spirit the Lord
telling me I need to go tell Caesar. He's not the Lord of
all things. and tell him who the real Lord is. So he was free
to go, but he appealed to Caesar. So for two years, Paul stayed
incarcerated while he waited for his appeal. But he was a
free man before. Why? Because he used his Roman
citizenship to establish God's purpose for Caesar to see the
gospel and to tell Paul, Paul, you're not the guy that's going
to make all this work, I am. You're the tool in my hands, and I will
put you, I will bring you out of the tool bag when I'm ready.
That's how we live. So we're primary citizens of
God's kingdom. And this heavenly citizenship
shapes our values, shapes our priorities, and most of all,
and most importantly, in the context of 1 Peter, with our
conduct and everything else, being subject, being servants,
is to what? Shape our actions. Which includes
what we say with our mouth, or our fingers, lifestyle. So our focus should be living
out the principles of righteousness before the world, not trying
to transform the world into the principles of righteousness. Evangelicalism by and large would
see missions as going out to a people and telling them how
to live, how to dress, how to talk, and how to act like Christians
whether they know the gospel or not. One of the most condemning statements
that's ever been said in my presence is that when we go to native
people and primitive people, that the best thing we could
do for them is to teach them how to wear Western clothes so
they're not an abomination to God. No, that's not right. We don't need power and influence
within earthly nations. We have all power and all authority
and all influence. Paul tells Timothy, remind them
of these things and teach these things with all authority, with
complete patience and with absolute love by teaching. You rebuke by teaching, you correct
by teaching, you admonish by teaching, you train in righteousness
by teaching. I mean, have you ever gone to
an algebra class and people aren't getting it? Well, maybe. But
people aren't getting it. Is the teacher really effective?
Like, you idiot! It's X, X, X. No. Throwing erasers. I had a history
teacher that used to throw erasers. Had a band director that used
to throw stools. They didn't last long. They didn't last long. Nobody
learned. But the true teacher says, hey,
you know what? I see what you're saying. I see where you're coming
from. Let's look and see what the scripture says. Let's look
and see what Jesus says. Let's look and see why we, what's the
wise thing? What's the prudent? Number one, why is this so important
to you? What's got you all upset? Why do you think this is so important
to God? Is God upset? God's at rest, y'all. I mean, I understand that the
Puritans wrote a lot of poetic sermons. It would scare Jesus
himself into thinking he needed to walk an aisle and accept himself. But it doesn't make it right. We're to seek first the kingdom
of heaven, Matthew 6, 33. Seek first the kingdom of God
and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto
you. There's a context there of what these people are lacking nothing.
So we don't pursue money, we don't pursue wealth, we don't
pursue fame, we don't have a drive every day to go out and influence
people. We can't become famous, we don't create a brand as Christians. It doesn't mean we don't have
a logo. Doesn't mean we don't say the right things. Doesn't
mean we don't consider when we're in the workplace and when we're
in the community how we present ourselves. We have knowledge
and logic and reason for a reason that we may present ourselves
in such a way that makes sense to the people. Dogma and banging
on a pulpit and stomping our feet and screaming has never
changed anyone. All it does is gather the echo
chamber and make it even bigger. And all these people thinking
that they've got a divine right to change the government. I'd
hate to see the drones. Our true citizenship is in heaven. There's also a way here, a universal
ethic. I mean, listen to this. I don't
have to read all this again. I hope y'all read this stuff
every day. You think about it. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles
honorable. Be subject to every institution
for the Lord's sake. Live as people who are free,
verse 16 of 2. Don't use your freedom as a cover-up
for evil, but live as slaves of God. Honor everyone. Love
the brothers. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
Slaves, be subject to your masters. Be mindful of God in your suffering,
even when it's unjust, because you get credit. Don't know what
that looks? You don't get credit for suffering
because you've done bad, but there's honor in suffering when
you've done right. But then as Christians with a
government like we have, we have the liberty to say, hey, that's
not just. And for those who say, well,
I'm a Christian, and then we can say, okay, if you follow Christ, then
you see the injustice in this. Oh, governor, you ever sat down with a congressman?
and confronted him with his faith, it's not a pleasant situation when they take offense at it. So the way of life, there's a
universal ethic. And what is it? What is it? Love. It's love. Let's boil it down. And He said to them, you shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your mind. And this is the greatest and
first commandment. And the second is like you shall love your neighbor
as yourself. All these two commandments depend on all the law and the
prophets. Now consider that for a second. And you've heard me,
how do I say it from this pulpit? I say it this way, until we get
this down and it becomes authentically evident in our lives, we ought
not be concerning ourselves with so many of the other things.
With so many of the other things that we think need to be dealt
with. Let's get this. My little joke,
the reason so many people we see have so many specks in their
eyes is because it's the kindling flying off the logs in hours. And they get around us and then
they start doing like this, oh my gosh. Cause it's the wind
blowing in our tree. Blowing it out of our eyes into
theirs. I really believe that that's the way of Christianity
in American culture. And it's why people have a right
to be upset. It's why people have a right
to be frustrated. People have a right to mock it.
Cause they're not mocking the true Christ, they're mocking
the representation of what Christ is being portrayed as in the
culture. And when someone mocks the true Christ, it's not an
affront to us. Because He said, it's coming,
and then they're going to mock you too. And that's okay. This
is part of my plan. Let them. There's really not an attack
in America on true Christianity. There's a call by unbelievers
in America to say, where is this Jesus? I think that's what God's doing.
When you say God is working, God's working. like that. But
what do we do as a culture? Oh, that mass murderer that chopped
up all them puppy dogs and fed them to them grasshoppers? He
said the name of Jesus yesterday on his interview in court. The
Lord is at work. Jesus is a common name in every
language. Just because someone quotes the
Bible or says, I thank God, doesn't mean that they belong to him.
Just because somebody parses out all the doctrines of grace
with great exquisite accuracy doesn't mean that they're born
of God. If you're born of God, it's because
you have the Spirit of God. If you have the Spirit of God,
the fruit of that Spirit will be evident in your life when
you're called to the carpet and admonished to say that this isn't
Christ-like and you go, well, I'm going to be the Jesus I know.
Okay, you just be that Jesus then with all the right stickers
and all the right banners. If you don't think the Pharisees
didn't have the right bumper stickers on their car and eat
at the right chicken place and shop at the right Walmart, You're
not understanding it. They did it all right, but they
hated everybody who wasn't exactly like them. And they made it very
clear. And they whipped the chains of
oppression and morality and ethics over the backs of every beloved
person who was bound by law to be in front of them and give
them money and alms. You're never good enough. It's
the most massive incarceration of a free people in the history
of the world that didn't know they were in chains. So Paul says, I'm in chains now,
but the word of God is free, but before he was free, but he
was really in chains. Love. Love is the central ethic
of Christian life. Oh, here's the rebuttal though.
Well, I am loving to tell my neighbor they're going to hell
because they wear red mascara, purple lipstick. What is this? Clownery? Well, they are a clown
for a living. Blasphemy. The joy of the Lord
is my strength, not laughing jugglers. I mean, you know, and
I'm being silly for a reason because this is Triggering for
a lot of people. Why? Because there's nothing
more triggering than someone attacking the very core of who
you think you are. When you find your identity.
One of my core values is to be authentically kind and concerned. And when people have accused
me of being malicious, it literally makes me angry and vengeful. Proves that I'm not kind. And then the guilt that comes
from that puts me in a place of despair. And then I hide from
God. You see? And then I hide from
God. Will I hide from God? I must
not be His. And then everybody else proves that. Because you
know, like Job's friends, they had a lot of nice things to say
about him. And it's just a cycle. Versus standing up and going,
oh yeah, I own that. Man, I'm weak in that area. My
gosh, I'm an infant in that area. I'm a teensy-weensy baby boy
in that area. I'm glad that's not my identity. We've got to love as the Bible
calls us to love. Humbly. There's no such thing
as calling out sin and saying that's going to be the case. Hit some microphone. Okay, yeah,
right, we get it. It's a hand! And I don't think
all people that I'm talking about are just rednecks. I'm naturally
a redneck, so that's the voice I use when I'm being funny. Okay,
we know that it's a hand, all right, we get it. That's wrong,
okay, great. Show us the right way. Show us
the right way. Work through it. How about we
see where you're going and the joy you have, God might just
use that to help me follow. That's nonsense. No, it's not
nonsense. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles
honorable, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they
will see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
That means they'll be there. There's nothing more evangelistic
than being grumpy, angry, fearful, anxious, hateful, and telling
everybody else you hate them. That's, I'm telling you, if you
ever want to start a business, make that your model. I promise
you, you'll go bankrupt. And that's why the church, by
and large, as it's called, is spiritually bankrupt in America. The way of love. The parable
of the Good Samaritan. See, love is the ethic, the centrality
of the gospel. Accomplishing love for God and
love for our neighbor. This love extends beyond national
or cultural boundaries. This love is a call for us to
care for our people regardless of where they are, where they
come from, where they're going, or what they're doing. Don't even get me started on
immigration. Show me the evidence that the reason you're so scared
is real. The Parable of the Good Samaritan,
Luke 10, 25, and 32-37. I don't want to read it all here,
you know it. The Good Samaritan, a cultural outsider, a social
pariah, the very person that would not even be allowed to
be on the same side of the street, stops and cares for the Jewish
man who'd been mugged true love, cross-centered, Christ-centered,
God-centered love crosses every barrier of race, of nation, of
religion, of economics, of odor. And I use that because that's
a big deal. People who aren't clean, for
a lot of people, aren't human. Of intellect, of worthiness. This is directly, I mean it's
in direct contrast to the tendencies of nationalism which is isolationism
and exclusionism. We have a call. We are the kingdom. Our true citizenship is in heaven. We have a way. It's a universal
ethic of love. We have a call to humility and
servitude. Philippians 2, have this mind
among you. I've already mentioned it twice
today. Have this mind among you, which is yours in Christ Jesus.
See, we're called to emulate Christ's humility. Just emulate
it. He committed no sin, verse 22
of chapter 2 of 1 Peter. 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 continued to entrust himself
to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his
body on that tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
Living to righteousness is not being exclusive. But the very word inclusive now
is political. The very word toleration is political. The very word liberty is political. And most of Christian culture
is straying like sheep and needs to return to their one true shepherd. We need to have a servant's heart.
We reject the pursuit of power, we reject the pursuit of influence,
we reject these things and seek to serve others selflessly But
in a nationalistic framework, power and dominance are emphasized. Control. The way of Christ calls
us to radically stand in a different way, a different posture, one
of humility, one of love, one of service, one of feeling the
truth of how other people are hurting by those who claim the
name of Christ. But yet we're not weak in that,
we stand firm and strong. Jesus Christ stood on the hill
and he looked out over Jerusalem and he wept. Jesus Christ on
the cross said to the Father, forgive them, they don't know
what they're doing. It would be the most boring Marvel
movie of the world if Jesus were the center hero. Come on, Hulk,
just calm down, your anger produces nothing. Just sit down here at
my feet and let's talk about it. Come on, Doc. Sit down, Doc. Iron Man, turn
off your laser beams. Turn off your jets. Spider-Man,
chill out for a minute. You ain't even old enough to
vote. Why are you all upset? You ain't even ever paid taxes
trying to take over the government. Nah, Jesus would be a boring
hero, but he's the strongest man that ever walked the ground.
of this globe, of this round globe. And He calls us to have that
same strength. Greatness in the Kingdom of God is defined by
our humility, our service, not by dominance and control. So
people who are calling for Christians to control the world, it's anti-Christ. It's against the teaching of
Christ. We are to be about the pursuit of peace and justice.
I'm gonna talk more about this as the weeks unfold, as we get
over into, before we get into chapter three, there's two or
three more things I really wanna unpack. Jesus says, blessed are
the peacemakers, for they shall be called the
sons of God, the children of God. Christians are called to
be peacemakers. We're actively supposed to be
working for reconciliation and interpersonal relationships that
promote justice, This involves standing against
systems of oppression and violence. How? You told us not, no, I didn't
tell y'all not to stand up against things like this. We have the
authority under the law to do such, but the answer to that
is not let's control everybody to make them Christian. The answer
to that, that's wrong. We have a legal system that can
establish this justice. The crazy thing is that I've
learned at 50, growing up in a family of law enforcement,
is that everybody wants justice until it knocks on their door. Then they want leniency. Then
they want loopholes. Then they want a defense so they
can get away with what they know they've done. We have to be able to say, this
is the way of Christ, so this is not the way of Christ. Now
let me walk in the way of Christ. Let me show the way of Christ.
Let me teach the way of Christ. You notice that Paul, when I
read 2 Timothy today, he uses these guys as examples. Talks about all the stuff that
people will do in the last days and all these other things. I
mean, listen to this list. He says, understand this, that
in the last days, there'll be times of difficulty. People will
be lovers of self, lovers of money. They'll be proud, arrogant,
abusive, disobedient, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable,
slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous,
reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure. having the
appearance of godliness but denying its power. Avoid such people.
Friends, I just quoted the moniker for almost every evangelical
I know in the world that's on television. And if we're not careful, we'll
put that name tag on too. He's not talking about unbelievers
here. He's saying people who are walking in the way of saying,
I'm a part of the gospel. I'm a part of the church. I'm
a part of this. I'm part of the beloved. But they have an appearance
of godliness, but they deny its power. Why? Because they're not
humble. They're not serviced. They're not quiet. They're not
praying. They're not trusting in the Lord. They're not taking
care of the sick, the marginalized, the afflicted, the orphans, the
widows. They ought to get another job. I got some friends that I've
talked to on an ongoing basis that work three and four jobs.
Most of the people who fuss about these types of people could not
do one shift of the 17 hours a day that these people work
on their feet with their bodies and brains. I'm willing to bet most people
couldn't even hardly run around a block three times, much less
work these jobs. It's not the heart of Christ.
And what they're doing is they're creeping into households, they're
creeping into churches, they're taking advantage of people. And
the imagery there of like capturing women who can't defend themselves
because they're not strong enough, person puts the sack over their
head and drags them out. It's not about agency or ability
or intelligence, it's just the image. Nobody comes in and kidnaps
a 400 pound man that picks up trucks for a living. They'd have
to shoot him from afar, because if they come to that house, they're
going to have some problems. But they can grab a 90-pound
woman, kicking and screaming, and there's not a lot you can
do about it. It's not misogynistic. It's an image. It's a picture.
And then Paul talks about two of these guys who oppose Moses
as an example. He said, these people are disqualified. They won't get very far. Eventually,
who they are will be plain to see. Why? Because when we're
all walking this way in the way of Christ, and all these knuckleheads
start walking the other direction, people are gonna say, wait a
minute, where's the division here? There's got to be a delineation.
And the delineation is how we relate to the world, and we find
our identity, and how we walk in the world, so that people
go, wow, if I gotta follow somebody, I'm following these guys. I'm
going where they're going. I'm not going where these people
are yelling for me to be. Justice and mercy. We have to be peacemakers. Seek
reconciliation. Speak out against oppression
and violence. Always speak out against violence. There's never
a time. What is violence? Violence is screaming. Violence
is name-calling. Violence is online attacks. Violence
is pejorative ideas and words. Violence is going to the Capitol.
Violence is going into the streets. Violence is blowing up cars and
busting out windows and hitting people and threatening people
and accusing people. You know what violence is. Violence. Ask a three-year-old, is this
violence or is this violence? Show them a face. Is this violence
or is this violence? They know. Well, Hulk is violent.
Because look at his face. We seek justice and mercy. We're
committed to what is right, committed to mercy. Do you know humility
and mercy is part of justice? This requires that we challenge
things that perpetuate injustice, like the contemporary evangelical
culture of America. How do we do it? We're doing
it right now. And we continue to teach the truth. We don't
have to have any more sermons about this once we get out of
1 Peter until four years. And then we just bring it back
up again, briefly. Our mission is to be witnesses
to the kingdom. We're ambassadors for Christ.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, 2 Corinthians 5.20.
God making his appeal through us, we implore you on behalf
of Christ, be reconciled to God. We are the salt and light of
the earth. We are the light of the world, a city set on a hill
that cannot be hidden. So we embody the values of a
kingdom that's not of this world. The next question that most people
have, and we'll talk about this more next week, living as people
who are free. People say, man, we're going
to lose our freedoms. No, we won't. We will not lose our freedoms. Beloved, we will never lose our
freedoms. Ever. Ever. Because those freedoms are secure
in Christ. They're secure in Christ. We
have liberty in Christ, true freedom defined. Galatians 5.1,
for freedom Christ has set us free. So stand therefore. We have freedom through the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty. There is freedom. It can't be taken away. We have
freedom against a false identity and a bondage to nationalism.
You shall have no other gods before me. If you love the Lord God with
all your heart, mind, soul, strength, then you have no other gods before
Him. So how's nationalism look for
that? How's cultural political ideologies look at that? Our
hope is in the Lord God Almighty. And everything that He wants,
He gets. And everything that He gets is
for His glory. And everything that glorifies
Him is for the good of His people. Are you His people? Rest. There is no identity outside
of Christ that should ever come before Him. Paul says it, but
whatever I gained, whatever I had, I counted it as trash. I count
it as garbage for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything
as loss because of the surpassing worth of Christ and knowing Him,
Jesus, who is my Lord. For His sake, I have suffered
the loss of everything, and I count it as rubbish in order that I
may gain Christ." You gain everything when you lose everything. I hate that in my flesh, but
I rest in my flesh. by the Spirit in that truth.
And I need you, church, to remind me of that. Because just before I stood up
here today, I'm in this brainwash of 40 to 50 things that I need
to pursue tomorrow morning, things that I need to lay out. And you
have to take time to put that stuff down and then teach it
to somebody else so they can stop being silly. Right? Because there's a little bit
of trepidation. Oh, what about this? The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing in everything
through prayer and supplication. Make your requests known to God.
He will grant you these things and the peace of mind that surpasses
all understanding shall be yours, beloved. What? Okay. Think about it. Christian freedom is superior
to every type of liberty. All bondage. There is therefore
now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for
the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ from
the law of sin and death. Cannot be taken away from us.
We are free in the superiority of Christian liberty to live
under the law of love without fear of condemnation. You recall
the freedom But don't use your freedom as an opportunity to
what? Hide evil or for the flesh. But as Paul says to the Galatians,
I think, to love one another and to serve one another because
the whole law is fulfilled in one word. He says, quote, love
your neighbor as yourself. So we're living out this freedom
in such a way that it's a call to reject the bondage of the
world. If you abide in my word, Jesus says, you are truly my
disciples. And you'll know the truth and the truth will set
you free. Friends, that is so far reaching in the implication,
so far beyond your new birth, that we miss it when we try to
steer it back through the eye of a needle, making it just about
redemption. Redemption is absolutely eternal,
heavenly, but it has everything to do with everything that we're
doing now as people. So embrace this freedom. Paul
tells the church of Colossae this, in closing. See to it that
no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to
human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the
world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness
of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who
is the head and rule of authority, and authority of all. So we must be vigilant against
philosophy and ideology. And this is where we get the
rub, right? Wait a minute. I've been doing that, but you're like
attacking the very thing. I'm not attacking, I'm guiding. Because the root of where a lot
of this stuff that triggers us comes from is not of Christ. Our identity and freedom are
fully realized in Christ, who is the head and rule of all authority.
Everything, everything that's happening in the world is His
purpose and plan. So we reject the false form of
bondage, thinking that we have to control this. Control is not
freedom. Nothing lives and grows if it's
in captivity. We are free. And we have to accept
the reality that God has permitted and purposed all sorts of things,
all manner of things that we don't understand, we don't know
how to approach, we don't know where to go, we don't know how
to embrace, we don't know how to love, but we can stand on
the sufficiency of Christ and what He has accomplished so that
we can be a people that the world will be puzzled by. And more importantly, that you
will be free. We give too much space in our
lives, our times, our conversation, thus our intimacy. Our intimacy
shouldn't be spent on these conversations. It should be spent on things
that build and grow and bring joy. Letting God guide us and
direct us as to His path according to His gospel. Let's pray. Father,
as we come to the end of this, I thank you that your word is
sufficient. My commentary is not needed, but sometimes we
put too much stock, even in our teaching, our thoughts, our ideas. So, Lord, help us to just be
at rest. Help us to learn from these texts
all the implications of how we ought to live. Lord, there's
so many things. So many things. And it's a scary thing for me
because there are things in this world that do need to be dealt
with. There are things in our lives that need to be confronted.
But there's a manner in which these things must be handled.
And Lord, we need wisdom. You tell us through James that
if we just ask, you'll give it. So we ask for wisdom. How do
we handle these things? How do we navigate the world
and all the things? How do we navigate abuse? How
do we navigate this? How do we seek justice? while still being true to our
calling. Because Lord, we know that we can't ignore stuff. We
know that we're not supposed to pretend as though it doesn't
affect other people. That's not the case. But Lord,
we need to know our call and the effectiveness of your sovereignty
in it. So give us this wisdom. Help
us to grow, to reach a community for your sake. to embrace people,
Lord, who are desperate to find the truth of Christ, so that
You can grow us each together, individually, that we may become
a people that truly shine as a light for Your glory in a world
that is covered in darkness. And we pray these things in the
name of Christ our King. Amen.