1 Peter Lesson 5 | Wade Branch

Good morning. We have a great crowd here here

today. We're excited to see everyone

who's here. We have visitors, We have some

familiar faces. Chris called you old familiar

faces. I'm not going to call you old.

I'm going to call you just familiar faces.

And some of you, we used to be young.

Now you're here visiting again. You're, you're getting older.

So it's, it's good to see all of our visitors, whether you're

from the community or from another congregation.

Good to have you today. And I'm looking forward to

leading us again through the study.

And first, Peter, we're going on to Lesson 5.

So he's laid a lot of groundwork.

He's laid a lot of groundwork to this point in the letter that I

hope if you have not read it and you go back and read it, if

you're joining us for the first time in this study or maybe

you'll have a chance to go back and listen to our podcast.

We have some wonderful people who work to put that on and to

put that together. So please go back and listen to

that. If you wonder, hey, what about

this though, we may have already covered and we may be moving

past some details that you may have questions about.

And so if you are here today and you have questions about whether

it's the study or something else, because there's likely

that you will see something today that brings questions to

your mind, please ask. We're happy to answer and give a

defense for the hope that's in US and for the things that we do

and for who we are. So please ask questions.

It's good to see Ritu here today.

She's been working to get those Sundays off.

Her boss was trying to push for work on Sundays, and she's been

fighting against that. So praise God, it's an answer of

prayers that she's here with us today.

We've been talking about the people who are dispersed because

of persecution into all these regions.

They've been spread out. They've been persecuted and

abused by their government. And he's telling them in these

last couple chapters how to thrive and how to live within

that. And we talked about honoring

everyone, even though you're being persecuted, honor others,

even though they not might not be good to you, even though the

brotherhood at times is full of faulted people.

We're going to learn today we must be good and honor all

people to love the brotherhood, God's people, to especially fear

God. And we talked about that last

time, especially with the women. The women are told to to

surrender, to submit, but with the fear of God instead of a

fear of what might happen to them.

And we're told to honor the king.

That is regarding submission to government.

And so here's just a summary of the things we talked about

recently regarding government, your employers and wives to

husbands and these dynamics. He tells them to submit us to

government, us to our employers and wives to husbands.

The instruction is to submit. It doesn't say they need to be

worthy. We're to submit regardless in

their worthiness and to acknowledge and remember that

suffering in this process. If that happens to you is a

major thumbs up. Big bonus points you might say

from God. So don't don't be stressed out

or surprised if you suffer. He said that's good because he

says you're called to this. That's what Jesus did.

That's what happened with him. So if you're doing something

right. If that happens and he says

regarding to employers, to husbands, to wives and how we

treat everybody, our instruction is to honour them regardless of

their worthiness and to acknowledge that suffering is

part of the process. And it's a major thumbs up.

So we have honour and submission, which are huge

themes. They're going to apply to pretty

much everything we do. We learned from the women It

said last time, wives likewise be submissive to your husband,

to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word,

they without a word maybe won by the conduct of their wives when

they observe your chase, conduct accompanied by fear.

We've already covered that and that statement.

When a woman does that, it's a powerful strength she's showing.

And when she does that, it's saying, God, I trust you.

Even when it is difficult to submit to my husband, whatever

he is, whatever he's doing, I trust you.

God, she had said to her, do not let your adornment be merely

outward, arranging the hair, wearing gold, putting on fine

apparel. He says don't let it be all

about that. Don't let it be only about that,

but rather let it be the hidden or the inner person of the heart

with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which

is very precious in the sight of God.

We had to go back through that because that's going to apply

directly to why he's going to tell the husbands what he's

going to tell us. OK, so it part of his reasoning

was from this manner in the former times, the holy women who

trusted in God also adorned themselves being submissive to

their own husbands. He's saying this has worked for

a long time. Don't give up the example that

you've seen before. And he emphasized that they were

trusting. And the ultimate lesson for

women is this. A woman can trust her outward

beauty to make her really truly beautiful and to satisfy her to

make other people may be leveraged by her beauty.

Or she can trust God and and cultivate A gentle and quiet

spirit with with a godliness. It comes back to trust in God.

A woman can trust in her own ability to manipulate or control

her husband or she can trust God and learn submission.

It takes a lot of hard work on the woman's part and we need to

honor them as we're going to see in a minute.

Verse 6, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, which

means master, which means I'm you're my authority whose

daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any

terror. If you have questions, please go

back to our previous study, but we learned that women need to be

learned using this mindset that we all need to learn at some

point in different ways to not be fear driven, but to be faith

driven. A wise woman once told me, be

aware of your fears. They're often areas God will

challenge you in the future because they're areas you

haven't yet surrendered or learned to trust in God.

That applies to all of us. And now here's the instruction

to the men. Everything he says to us is

built on what he said with the women.

So we have to carry that here. He says husbands likewise

husbands likewise dwell with them with understanding, giving

honour to the wife as to the weaker vessel.

OK, first of all, likewise, how does the husband's role have

anything likewise to do with what the woman had happened?

I think it's as simple as this. The husband's command is to not

look at ourselves like we are the one that this is all about.

It's not all about us. The world does not exist to

serve us, and the women have learned that through submission.

That isn't all about them. And so we likewise need to not

look at ourselves like it's all about us.

And we need to learn to honor them in the sight of God.

We do not use dominance to make us feel like we're the most

important person in the room. We are given authority from God

to be the leaders of our homes, but it's not a dominance that is

unaware of the realities that are going on.

We must learn to dwell with them.

How with understanding just the phrase dwell with them is a

shortcoming of many of us men in our in our marriages.

If you were just told to dwell with them, what is that the

opposite of? There's a lot of marriages where

the husband is just there, where the husband and wife are

roommates, where they are just kind of passing through the they

share bills. That is not a biblical marriage.

A biblical marriage is partnership in every sense of

the word, and not dwelling with them is what that is intended to

imply. Not disconnected, not try, not

not trying. It's presence many people, many

women or many of us as humans have quality time as our love

language, but all of us need to feel dwelt with, to be feel like

someone is there with us. You cannot make someone feel

appreciated by acts of service alone, by gifts alone.

They all all of our lives are going to take dwelling with them

in this process, he says. Dwell with them with

understanding. It's not enough to just be there

and to listen. It is a quality that we need to

have an intentionality that they are understandable.

Now let me rephrase that. I guess I should say women think

differently than men do and that's OK.

God designed us to be that way because our strengths leverage

one another and we doesn't mean we have to fully understand

everything but that word. Knowledge is science.

It's like you can study it, you can give attention to it because

the opposite is like, you don't make any sense.

Yes, they do in their own mind, in their own ways, just

different than what we think about.

It's a different way of thinking and it is reasonable.

And so we need to have understanding with them.

We need to show understanding because sometimes I can talk to

Taylor like I'm listening to you, but you just don't make any

sense. There's a vibe you can give off

to someone in conversation like or you can give them the sense

that I'm I'm hearing you, I'm listening to you.

I don't fully understand everything, but I'm trying.

I'm here that you're you do make sense.

If I make my wife feel like she doesn't make sense versus I'm

just not understanding. Those are two totally different

things. But instead, I can seek to

understand so that she feels understood, even when we might

not always see things exactly the same way.

What does this take? It just takes time and effort.

We don't know everything that goes through someone else's

head. It takes time and effort to

understand their disposition, to understand their reactions to

things. And if we will just take this

line, dwell with them with understanding, this will solve

90% of marriage string. 90% of problems is just let's stick

through it. Let let me just try to

understand. Let me, let me be here with you

and not leave, not storm out of the house or storm into the

other room all the time. That was solved 90% of our

problems right there. But he goes on to say even more

details that'll help us understand.

This is just the second-half of the verse.

He says dwelling with them, with understanding, giving honour to

the wife as to the weaker vessel.

So our instruction, kind of like every other relationship, he

said, is there's a side of submission and there's a side of

honour. We must honour the wife.

Does that mean, like we already said with, with our bosses, that

small portion of people who are worthy or the times when people

are worthy? No, it's weird to give on

regardless of the circumstances because often times one, the

husband and wife will say, well, I'm not doing this because

they're not doing this. And then this one says, I'm not

doing that because you're not doing that.

There's no circle. You can't escape the circle of

them. Somebody has to start.

And God's pattern is you do your side and you take care of your

business. I God will take care of the

rest. It is not our responsibility to

handle anyone else's side of any relationship, especially not the

marriage woman. We are to show honour.

That's as this concept is going to blow up here as these verses

proceed. So stay with it.

Showing honour doesn't mean being nice to them or just just

don't abuse them or don't harass them.

It means to honour and respect them.

Fathers in this audience who have daughters, do you want your

daughter to be treated the way you treat your wife?

Because we don't want our daughters just to be not abused.

We want our daughters to be honoured.

How about this? These are the daughters of the

heavenly King of this world. God is looking down on them and

wants them to be honoured. We have a responsibility not to

just be nice to Him, but to honor them in a special way.

Why, it's going to get even more in our face here as we go, he

says, as to the weaker vessel. Now, there's no scripture that

says women are weaker than men or that says women are inferior

to men. This is not inferiority.

This is not inferiority. But let's talk about the context

of what he's already talking about.

He's already talked about how women have the responsibility to

surrender themselves to physical, emotional, social,

especially during that time they were vulnerable in their society

they lived in. So physical, emotional, social

and authoritative vulnerability to the men, to their husbands.

Not not all women, to all men. It's not that it's wife to

husband. Women have this instruction to

surrender invulnerability and we had better honour them in that

vulnerability. That's the point he's making.

When they were designed, like we said last time, to be their most

God-given purpose when they are serving and taking care of

others and putting others above themselves and taking care of

the needs of others. Genesis tells, tells us that God

created woman as a helper for man to support and to

strengthen. And you know what happens with

that? God gave women these chemicals

in their brain. Estrogen is a chemical of

compassion and empathy and care, especially for children.

Taylor's been having a hard time because Daisy won't stop crying.

But there's points where she, like, can't control.

It's just her hormones make her cry.

I don't have that. I can sit there and put earplugs

in and just bounce her through it.

And now it's, it's hard. It's, it's loud, but I don't

have the same chemicals in my brain that she does.

And so if the women are called to surrender, submit and and

serve, and God gave them this disposition that that makes them

vulnerable because they love so much they want to do that.

We had better honour them in that because if we in turn abuse

that submission, that submissive dynamic, May God have mercy on

our souls because it is not a position we need to be in.

God is telling us to honour them, as do we have no more

context for a weaker vessel. Now to the one who is tender.

That word weaker, we're going to see in a minute might actually

have more behind it than we typically think of.

But women have to submit themselves to a sensitivity that

we as men are often hardened to, and that is putting yourself in

a position of weakness to serve. May we honour them in that.

And God, presiding over all of this thing, wants us to

delicately handle them with the care that He has placed

something that is gentle in our hands, that we would not crush

it, that we would not abuse it because oh man, it can go so

wrong. Half the songs ever written are

from women passionately berating men who have been unfaithful,

who have been unkind and rude and domineering.

Rightfully so. There's a huge way this can go

bad quickly if we are not careful to honour our wives.

OK, so we settled that context. We had to put a lot of words in

the context to make sure we know he's not just saying hey honour,

Hershey's weaker than you. So is there a, is there a way

that maybe this could have been translated better to make us see

more of the context? The phrase weaker vessel, some

commentators say, actually goes back to their dishes they used

to use in their dishware. They had common dishes just like

we do, and they had some dishes that were more delicate.

We call that fine China. And when we pull out the fine

China, you don't throw them in the sink like you do the plastic

Ware. You don't toss them in the sink.

You don't throw them around the kitchen with that, with that

fine China you treated as special.

And you have to be gentle with it because it's precious.

And there are commentators that say this is a better translation

of the phrase weaker vessel. Now whether that was literally

what the author was intending or not, it carries the meaning that

the whole passage was was building up for us.

Then the dynamic of women the husband and wife needs to carry

anyway. Whether this was his

translation, a better translation or not, it carries

the idea better that we can fully understand the concept of

fine China. God is saying I have created

this dynamic in which these beautiful realities exist and

you can't toss them around. Why cheaper dishes are used and

abused as tools. They're just something to get

stuff on the kids plate and get it in their down their throats.

Cheaper dishes are used and abused as tools #2 China is

precious though, and special and it's beautiful.

And we handle China with special care.

Why? We realize it's a value.

How does that parallel the wives?

Wives don't want to be another task used and abused as tools.

They don't want us to come home from work and see them as just

another box to check or a task to complete.

They want to be treated as precious and special and

beautiful and God put that in them and God wants that too.

Wives want to receive special care and to be valued just like

China does. Fine China.

We are to give honour to the wife and whenever special

authority is given, special accountability is always given,

he says. Giving honor to the wife as to

the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of

life. If the previous build up didn't

help clarify it enough, he says. We are to look at this as we are

heirs together. Part of this is of the grace.

Women don't have to earn our honor because God didn't.

We didn't earn God's grace. Grace is a gift freely given

despite or regardless of whether someone's worthy or not, and we

together are heirs with them, One man said This reminds

husbands that even though they have been given great authority

within marriage, their wives are still equal to them in spiritual

privilege and eternal importance.

They are joint heirs, and if men ever start to look at themselves

like this isn't the case, they have missed the whole picture.

And the Heavenly Father looks at these daughters of his with

special importance because they are heirs just as much as we are

of the grace that is coming to us, of the grace of life that

God has given us. And some people take this to

mean even more specific. There's graces and blessings in

the marriage relationship that we get to be heirs together of.

Sure, absolutely. But even more so God's

inheritance and his grace he's given us to given to us Because

of that, we should keep our minds in check.

We happened. By you might say a flip of the

coin, we could have been male or female.

We we were male. So maybe you do not think that

we're better because of that in any way.

The feminist movement in our country and maybe even around

the world has caused a lot of damage.

It is undermined, as we talked about before, women's best

qualities, but it's in response to a lot of chauvinism that

existed where men were at the head of everything in the sense

that they were better. They were they were domineering,

they were often times abusive. And so it's often a response to

something else that creates another problem.

And we can never, the extremes don't work.

Women are not better and and everything, the men and men are

not better than women. And these two ideas are so

divisive and so wrong on many levels.

We are heirs together, so it says as being heirs together of

the grace of life that your prayers may not be hindered.

So we need to be careful as husbands, how do we treat our

wives because our prayers, our prayers can be hindered.

You mean God's not going to listen to me if I don't treat my

wife right? And I used to think and when I

first got married, I was like, man, I got that's shocking.

I got to be careful. He didn't say that a lot of

times about different things, does he?

That seems like a like a big rule.

I need to watch out now that I'm a husband.

This shouldn't be a surprise to me though.

Why? Because God often turns us

toward each other and says, you want to talk to me?

Work stuff out with these people first before you put your gifts

at the altar. Make it right with your

brethren, he says. He says in the parable of the of

the unforgiving servant, this man was, was forgiven a debt by

his by his master. There's a greatest debt that

anyone could ever imagine. And he was forgiven that debt.

And then he turned right around and he went to some other guy

that owed him very little comparatively.

And he showed judgement on him. And he was, he was rude to that

man. And he said, you're going to pay

what you owe. And that Master said seriously,

I forgave you all this. No, you're going to go, you're

going to pay now. I forgave that debt, but I'm

going to put all that debt back on your shoulders.

What's the principle? If we are not treating people

each other a certain way, God's going to say no, no, don't talk

to me yet. You work it out with each other

first and you handle that dynamic that is right in front

of you first. So why should I not be surprised

if I as a husband and distant and unloving and not dwelling my

with my wife with understanding God's not going to listen to me?

If I'm not going to be that way to someone who I have authority

over? Why in the world would he listen

to someone he has authority over me?

Why is he going to listen to me, a man who wants to be distant

and uninvolved and not loving his wife and understanding her?

This prayer is not going to go any higher than the ceiling, you

might say, but a man that will dwell patiently and dwell with

understanding and love. When that man hits his knees in

prayer, God will hear because he's handling his dynamics with

grace. And that's where God says, OK,

now you understand, now you understand grace.

It should be no surprise that our prayers will be hindered

because that's how dynamics work in the Kingdom, he says.

Finally, all of you. Who?

All of you. So now he's been talking about

all of us, all these categories, but now he's making a broad set

of instructions, says all of you.

Be of one mind, having compassion for one another.

Love as brothers, be tender hearted, be courteous.

Doesn't this sound like a summary of everything he's told

the husbands and wives in the marriage relationship?

I think it does. Why?

Because marriage is really an arena.

I'm kind of taking a step back now.

I said we're stepping into all of us, but it for those who are

married and and we're going to connect it now to the people who

are unmarried. Still, all these concepts and

skills are is it's arena to practice in a close environment.

The concepts that we should be practicing everywhere.

We take these instructions from God, and we have to learn to

work those out in a very close dynamic, and we work closely

together all the time. It can get tense, and so

bitterness can develop easily. And it's hard to have patience.

It's hard to have love. It's hard to be understanding in

that arena where you're going to practice all the time.

And so marriage is an arena where the consequences of our

actions, our heart are quickly exposed.

It's a place where the blessings of how a good relationship can

function. Marriage is a is a arena where

we can see the blessings quickly grow from because we can see all

the blessings of a good marriage as things work together.

And it shows us that we can just figure it out.

We can work through it. Marriage is an arena where your

habits in your heart reach a swift conclusion because of the

closeness and frequency of interaction.

You know, there's a lot of interactions where if I am

unkind a little bit here, a little bit over there, I never

see the real impact of those in my face.

Sometimes I never see the impact of my heart.

When it's hard and unkind, sometimes it it reaches somebody

out there and I never see it again.

But in a marriage, it bounces right back at you and you see it

immediately. Marriage is an arena where we

see these Christian principles. It's like speed up.

It's like the process is is expedited and you can see where

they bear more fruit rapidly, where they bear fruit more

rapidly and you can taste their effects.

So I can see if my marriage is not going well, it's probably

because my heart has a lot of wrong in it.

My actions have a lot of wrong in it.

And I can see it grow up in front of me and say, OK, that's

the fruit of my marriage. That's the fruit of my heart and

my actions concert on the on the opposite effect.

If you're handing your your relationship in that close

interaction with love and kindness and gentleness and

mercy and leadership, you're going to see the fruits of that

grub right in front of you and say, OK, something is going

right. I can see the blessings.

I can see the consequences. I can see it all work out right

here in front of me. My point is these concepts go to

all of us Married people have the benefit and sometimes the

consequence of seeing it come right back at you quicker.

But we all have to learn how to submit and some how to show love

and honor and grace. As he instructs, keep skipping

the slide. I want to be on for us to have

compassion for us to love and be tender hearted.

But you know, what if if you feel like you're a little bit

left out on that, we have an arena just like marriage might

be a little bit more closely knit.

We have an arena to work on that as well in a way that you're

going to see and come right back at you where the fruits of your

heart and your actions come right back to you.

The church is an arena for your heart and your actions to come

right back at you and see, what are my dynamics like here?

What are your relationships like with the people in this

building? Because your heart is probably

going to result in the action in the in the dynamic at church.

Are you distant, cold. You probably don't have very

tight relationships here. Are you uninvolved?

You probably don't feel variable.

Are you loving and building and cultivating relationships?

You're probably going to get that back.

It's an arena for us to try out and to practice the Christian

virtues and to see you come to fruition, to see beautiful

fruits of love and kindness and mercy grow together right in

front of us. In this room, we have a chance

to grow something special. But it's hard because at church

is where people's greatest hopes and dreams rest.

Many people in this room, their greatest hopes and dreams are

here, but your greatest concerns are here.

There's people who are worried about the health of this

congregation. What's going to happen in 20 and

30 and 40 years? So people's greatest worries are

here, too. That creates tension sometimes.

This is the core of all truth of our lives here.

It's going to cause some tension, right?

It's where we hopefully spend a lot of time.

It's where we build our identity here.

This is where we are hopefully vulnerable.

If you're not vulnerable, you're probably not building a strong

relationship in this place, and it's where you put your money.

This is a recipe for a lot of attention, a lot of challenges,

but that means it's a place for us to grow a lot.

It's an arena for practice, for a lot of really good practice.

And so do you have people here that you are bitter towards?

He says here, finally, all of you be of one mind.

So he's telling all of us to be of one mind.

That means that I cannot approach my spiritual life with

this mentality that some people approach it with where I'm going

to figure out my spiritual life. And I'm going to go on this

journey by myself and I'm going to come back and be with

everybody. Once I come back, once I'm done.

That's not that's not how God ever instructs us.

We are supposed to be working together and have it a other

centered mindset as we grow in Christ.

The great myth of going and figuring things out and coming

back when I'm done. It's often a powerful people get

lost, confused. It's a place where people get

influenced by other things instead of being influenced by

good people around them. And you know what?

If we can't find peace in the searching and the growing and

the grind, that's an issue in our heart.

And as much as we want to blame it on other people who might be

unkind to us, it's our fault. They're sure there are people

who might not be the kindest to us.

But we are responsible for our spiritual heart, for our

spiritual life. And we probably need to work on

finding peace so that we can share this journey with our

brethren, so that we can work together and be of one mind.

Are we on the same page? Do we all share the same

aspirations and hopes and coming goals?

Do we share life's challenges together?

That's what it means. That one mind doesn't mean we

have to think exactly the same on every little thing, because

that's impossible. But we can be unified, he says,

having compassion for one another.

Love his brothers and be tender, tender hearted.

Are there people here that you don't give a lick about?

Are there people here that you have had it with and you're done

with and you'd rather just totally forget about?

There are times when when the Bible does say to just to just

ignore people because they're going to cause problems.

But just like Jesus did, he's going to tell us a minute, but

Jesus turned around and blessed those people.

Jesus didn't completely block him out and say forget you, I'm

done with you. He had mercy on me and he

returned a blessing and we need to be tender hearted.

If I'm hard hearted toward other people here, I'm not following

this command to be tender toward people.

I'm commanded to choose tender heartedness to where if I think

about someone in this room that I'm hardened towards, I'm done

with them. I'm just tired of them.

I have to choose to not have that mindset toward them, to be

tender instead. What does tender mean?

It means I am easily affected by them.

Like if something happens to them, I have concern for them.

Maybe I'm praying for them. If they're bitter, then I say,

God, please give them strength there.

They struggle with bitterness. If they're unkind, God, please

help them because maybe it's a struggle for them.

Do you just show up and get out? Being here is great, but you

can't be tender hearted toward people and be totally uninvolved

in their life. This is a command from God.

This isn't like a yeah, if you want to, here's some stuff

that's good for Christians. We have to be easily affected by

people, our brothers. He says, not returning evil for

evil or reviling for reviling, but On the contrary, blessing,

knowing that you were called to this.

He keeps coming back to that phrase.

He's like, this is what it's all about.

If it's hard, he's like, yeah, that's that's why we're here to

grow. So you don't actually stay the

same. You always work.

If you always do what you always did, you're always going to get

what you always got. But On the contrary, we want to

turn and bless that is Jesus quality work.

That's now we're getting into the good stuff.

And if you have trouble reviling or returning these things here,

maybe here's some steps. If people revile you or unkind

towards you, maybe start with a breath.

Someone says something rude to you?

Taking a breath sets the tone for the conversation.

I'm not going to fly off the handle at you.

I'm going to handle myself with calmness.

It sets the tone without ever having anything good to say.

Oxygen clears the mind and relaxes the nerves.

That's number one. Take a breath #2 use silence.

If somebody says something rude to you, you can just use

silence. That's where people feel dumb

when you say something that's off the wall.

When you use silence, guess what it does?

It allows the person's words to hang in the air, and then they

start to smell. But if you respond and you throw

some other words in the air, now they're thinking about what you

said. But if you just let the words

they said hang in the air, that's all there is to think

about and they start to realize what they just said.

And maybe you can follow that up with asking a question that

shows them a mirror. Were you hoping to embarrass me

by saying that? It's not.

It's not reactive. It's just what's your goal by

saying that? That's going to completely

disarm them if they try to then throw another punch.

Remember, not not physically, but maybe verbally.

You silence, don't swing. When I was a pitcher, if I could

get somebody on in the batter's box swinging everything I threw,

man, I was, I was living because I could put a ball on the inside

corner that I can throw, hide outside.

And I had them swinging every which way I had them the rest of

the game because I knew they were swinging and everything I

threw. But you know what, the people

who are hard to get where the people who would be patient,

they wouldn't swing in our discussions, in our

interactions, don't be afraid, just not swing.

I'll throw the caveat there on #4 here.

If you're the batter, the people that are the hardest to to avoid

swinging at are the people who throw a lot of strikes.

If you have a pitcher who is pounding the strike zone over

and over and they're not missing, the umpire catches on

it. The umpire starts calling

strikes that don't even look like strikes.

They get the benefit of the doubt.

And so sometimes in our interactions we can receive

words that are off the wall rude from people who are usually on

it, and they're usually right and they're usually wise.

But even from those people, we need to be aware that they can

throw wild pitches and they can be off sometimes.

And so may we be willing to even from people who are usually

good, reliable people, just take a breath.

And sometimes those are the hardest people to not respond to

because usually they're right. And then I want to respond to

defensiveness, but may I not return reviling for reviling,

but On the contrary, blessing, knowing that you were called to

this, that you may inherit a blessing.

So we are called to bless others.

Why? So that we can inherit a

blessing. If you can't, out of the

goodness of your heart towards that person, show love.

At least show love because hey, you're going to get a blessing

out of it. You get something out of it

that's pretty good. But the language of calling and

blessing, remember that goes back to Abraham.

God called out. We talked about this in I think

the second lesson. God called people out and gave

them a purpose and said I will bless you.

God called Abraham and he called the children of Israel to that I

will bless you, make you a great nation.

That same blessing is being pronounced on us as Christians,

the same Abrahamic blessing of a covenant promise.

It's being carried into simple actions like this, like

suffering, but in return blessing.

We will be the blessed, the calm of God.

That's pretty cool. It's always been God's plan.

He wants to call people and give them a blessing.

Then he goes on to say verse 10 for this is a quote from Psalm

34 that uses for he who would love life and see good days, Let

him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking to

see. See this goes back to the Old

Testament. It's nothing new.

Let him still steal the quote from Psalm 34.

Let him turn away from evil and do good.

You know, sometimes we make it so much harder on ourselves and

so much more complicated than it needs to be.

It's simple, turn away from evil and do good.

But we can overcomplicate it to the point that because of our

own bitterness, because of our own judgmental nature, instead

of being gracious because of our own judgmental nature, we can

make it like it's trudging through mud to get ourselves to

be kind to someone. Because we've got this so much

mental baggage of our anger or frustration towards them that we

can't hardly squeak out a kind remark, but instead turn away

from that. God wants us to live free and

peaceful and light hearted. And the more we carry those

bitternesses, it's going to be exhausting.

And it becomes impossible to live the Christian life with joy

when you're carrying things, trying to muscle up a kind

hello. We're a positive attitude and

maybe turn away and run with the light, spirit and the freedom.

Still continuing in the Psalm, it says let him seek peace and

pursue it. Let him seek him and pursue it.

Seek peace and pursue it. When I think of seek, I think I

have to look for something. I got to try to find it.

When I think of pursuing, once I may have found it, I got to go

after it and hide and seek. You had to look for something

and then they took off running and I got to chase the process

of achieving peace with others. We're going to see in a minute

even internally involves some looking, involves some

searching, and then involves some running a lot of work

sometimes. And he's given us the map to

peace. He's already told us have peace

with the government, have peace with the employers, have peace

in the home. We covered in the beginning of

this lesson in previous have peace in the church, have peace.

He already said even with all men, as much as you're able with

all men, pursue peace, but even pursue peace on the inside,

pursue peace in all areas of life.

God wants this. Like Frank said, Jesus is the

bringer of peace. He wants us in every area of our

being in our in our interaction. If you lack peace in your mind,

it takes some seeking into pursuing, just like with

relationships. And if you don't have it, seek

counsel. But we don't seek counsel.

Why? Sure, it can be sometimes

embarrassing, but yeah, I don't think that's completely why.

I think we don't seek counsel because that's we know when we

know the work begins because we know truly it's not going to be

a comment they make. This could be on give us peace.

That's when the work begins, when we know what's right and

what we needed to do to find peace.

And ultimately, all glory goes back to God.

No matter what work it takes on our part, God can use tools to

bring us peace. But remember, when Jesus went to

the man at the pool of Bethesda, the first thing he asked him

was, do you want to be healed? Do you want to peace enough to

go after him, to seek it and pursue it?

Or do you want peace to be popped into your heart by a word

someone says? May we pursue peace in all of

these areas. For the eyes of the Lord still

in the Psalm. For the eyes of the Lord are on

the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers, but the

face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

This is kind of a summation of all the concepts we've been

talking about. God wants us to be righteous.

It'll be better for us. It'll be better for our

relationships. It'll bring us peace, it'll

bring us joy. And he who is he who will harm

you if you become followers of what is good, But even if you

should suffer for righteousness sake, you are blessed.

Now he's saying this ironically to people who had really strong

risk, like people are being burned at the stake.

So who is he going to? Who is he who's going to harm

you? They probably got Nero, that guy

who's burning people, he's who's going to harm us, but he's like,

who's that? Who's that guy and who is he

will harm you if you become followers of what is good.

He didn't got nothing on you. But even if you should suffer

for righteousness sake, you are blessed.

You are the ones who received the Abrahamic blessing, the

covenant blessing and do not be afraid of their threats nor be

troubled contextually. They have literal threats for

their life. Maybe someone would say I'm

going to turn you in. I don't know what they would

say, but they probably have literal threats.

But maybe we have imagined threats.

Maybe we are afraid of some dynamic or something happening

in our relationships that might not be good if we are Christ

like. Maybe those are imagined

threats. All of those, He said they're

nothing. Why not instead, like he said,

live free, live with peace, and not put stock in what all these

people might say or threaten or abuse, but instead but sanctify

the Lord God in your hearts. You know what's going to make it

all work. Sanctify means to set God apart.

It means to make him holy. It means to put him on the

throne about everything else. Only then can you do everything

else. He can ask or instruct him that

is going to be this, going to be the recipe that brings it all

together. We cannot be holy.

We cannot have God on the throne of our whole hearts while we are

afraid of real or imagined threats to our discomfort or our

pain. God's above that.

We sing songs about God being on that place, putting no other

gods before him. No other God of pain or comfort

should sit on the throne to where we won't instead choose

God over that. But maybe we put God in the 1st

place and that's he's going to say some really good stuff after

that, but we got to stop here this morning.

He's going to say some really good things.

If you know the rest of this verse, please come back next

time. It's going to be a little over a

month because I was a little earlier this time, but I'm

looking forward to studying that and I hope you if you're not

going to be here, we'll study that or tune into the podcast,

whatever you need to do to hear how God can help sync.

We can help to sanctify the Lord in our hearts and to put it in

the first place. If you have not begun this walk.

This is a lot of time and energy and and life figuring out how to

do all this stuff and practicing.

But if you haven't been saved, you need to do that first.

The Bible lays out a simple plan and we talk about it like it's

steps. But I don't want you to feel

like it's a checklist. If I do this now, do this now,

I'm done. We can get really rigid when

we're really just trying to make it simple.

We're trying to make sure people know clearly, like, Hey, you're,

you're saying if you've done this, it's not a, not a

checklist, but it's a process that happens naturally.

It's natural for someone to hear the word and because of that, it

produces belief in their heart. And that belief is the

foundation for everything else that happens in our salvation.

We have to believe enough to repent, to change our life.

God is not really God if he is not who I'm surrendering to,

he's not really gone in my heart.

So I have to repent. I have to turn from my way and

go to God's way. I have to learn submission to

God in his ways, and I have to confess that it's not just being

good. It's not just believing God.

So yeah, I believe it's not just being good.

It's not my effort. It's that Jesus is the one who

saves. I'm going to confess that Jesus

Christ died from my sins and he's the savior of the world.

And I can be contacting the blood of Jesus through baptism.

I can have my sins washed away in baptism according to Mark

1616 and verses that are coming up and first Peter actually says

we have this anti type that now saves A baptism where you can

know from that day afford your sins are washed away and then

you you live faithfully. You go on about the Christian

walk with the faith that that takes time takes submission.

It takes a lot of work, and if you want to begin this process

today or if you need prayers to the church, please come while we

stand in, while we say.