The Silent Praise of Honor | Wade Branch

Good morning. It's good to see you all.

It's good to be here to worship with you.

Thank you for being here. Thank you for your commitment to

the Lord, for your commitment to seeking him this morning and in

our worship. And I pray that we can, we have

and we'll continue to do that together as we seek to

understand, to glorify, as we understand his greatness and his

plan and his wisdom. And this morning, I pray as we

study His word, we'll see just that and be able to magnify Him

even more. We're continuing to First Peter

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2, and we started there. We left off there in first Peter

2 verses right around verse 10. And we're going to continue from

the end of verse 10 on through the end of the chapter in

chapter 2. So if you want to turn there,

we're going to be pretty much exclusively in First Peter

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2. And I have given this the title

of the silent Praise of Honor and hopefully we'll see that

theme run throughout this study today.

So just a reminder, we are we're reading a letter that is written

to Christians who are being dispersed, who are being pushed

into the outer regions of a of a Roman Kingdom that was often

during this time persecuting them violently, aggressively.

And he writes to tell them in chapter 2, verse 9, where we

left off, he said, but you are a chosen generation, a royal

priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people.

He writes to a people who are in the middle of suffering to

remind them of what their true purpose and meaning and value is

in the midst of a country, in a place and time where they were

not valued, they were kicked to the curb and insignificant.

He says that they were His own special people, that they would

proclaim the praises of him who called them out of darkness into

His marvellous light. OK.

And everything he talks about is today is going to be kind of

pointing to that hopefully that we will buy the things we do,

proclaim praises to God. Now we all know that saying

praiseful things to God means nothing without your action.

It is emptiness. It is just words.

But when we embody the things that He's going to challenge us

in today, we have a chance to offer praise to God both from

our end through submission and also by other people hopefully

offering their praise to God when they see the good works to

glorify our Father in heaven. As another passage says, our

character has a chance to do that.

Verse 10, who once were not a people, but are now the people

of God who had not obtained mercy, but had now have obtained

mercy. Some of these people who he's

writing to used to be Gentiles. They weren't really part of the

Jewish nation, so some of them weren't even a real strong

nation. But even the Jews had been

disbanded. They had been destroyed, their

city, their holy city crushed, or maybe at that point it hadn't

been crushed yet. But the point is they were not a

unified nation until Christ came and made them a unified people

with mercy that they have obtained.

Verse 11, he says, beloved, I beg you as sojourners and

pilgrims abstain what from fleshly lusts with which war

against the soul. He's saying he begs them.

What that means is this is serious stuff.

And if we look at the things we're going to talk about today

or any other subject of Christian character and

attitude, and if we think it's benign, like the malignant sins

are, you know, cheating on your spouse or committing murder,

those are malignant sins. Those are bad, but these are

benign. These are just going to kind of,

you know, maybe give you a dull headache most of your life, but

never really cause any problems for you.

He says these war against your soul and we cannot let them

linger. We cannot allow these fleshly

lusts to linger. So what are what is he going to

have us do with it? Verse 12 having your conduct

honourable among the Gentiles that when they speak against you

as evil doers, they may by your good works which they observe

glorify God in the day of visitation.

So that's our goal, that we would have honourable conduct

and whether we want to admit it or anyone out there wants to

admit it or not, we all want to be honourable.

We all want someone to see us with honour and anyone who says

different just is looking for the honour.

In non traditional places, for example, if you are a gang

member, you want honour. Absolutely.

They want the honour of their fellow gang members.

They want the honour of people that they look up to and maybe

it's because of things they do that are hard.

They've lived a hard life and they've fought back and they've

wanted to those people that's honourable.

Everyone wants honour from somewhere.

It's just a matter of who we want the honour from and what we

use as a source for determining what will create honour in our

life. And our challenge is even when

we don't see how this is going to make me honourable, that we

surrender to God's will and God's plan for what will create

honour. Because there's times growing up

where I thought, man, that's, that's dumb.

People aren't going to like that.

They're not going to respect that.

They're going to think that that's this or that.

And nobody's going to, nobody's going to, right?

There's that, that demeaning mentality to what God has for us

to do. But real faith says, I will

follow God's plan to create honour and to create a

reputation that will be good for me, but ultimately bring glory

to God on the day that he visits US1 translation says, so may we

surrender to God, and here's where we left off.

Let's pick up in verse 13. He says, therefore, in order to

create this honour, in order to live in a way that the Gentiles

will see and will glorify God. Therefore submit yourselves to

every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king

as supreme or to the governors, as to those who are sent by him

for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of those who

do good. First of all, what in the world?

He's talking to people who are persecuted, likely by Nero.

You want us to submit to this vile, horrible person?

The command is the same no matter where we stand in the

world. The command is submission.

Did he say admire Nero? Did he say love and or did he

say appreciate everything he does?

No, he says submit yourselves to him.

Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man.

The NIV and other translations say in phrases like to every

human authority. So sometimes in my life I've

tried to think about, you know, how can I get around the

authority? Do I really have to obey this

person? Do I really have to surrender to

the authority of, you know, maybe, maybe, maybe a

representative government, maybe not the president.

You know, I'd, I'd submit to the president, but maybe not a

governor or maybe not a local council leader or maybe not a

police officer. Do I have to submit to everyone?

He says every ordinance of man, that is all human authority that

is put in place over us. That's hard to swallow because

you know what, there's laws we don't agree with.

There are people in authority who are not always the kindest,

to say the least. And you insert not always the

whatever. The people are not the focus of

our admiration here. The focus is how we respond to

the people who are putting authority over us.

And why is that important? Because he says it's for the

Lord's sake. In everything we do, we need to

step back and think about the fact that this is not about me.

This is not about who I am and making my voice known and making

me important up there. It's about the Lord's sake.

And if we can acknowledge that, it'll make the rest of this

process and our hearts submission go a lot smoother.

We will fight against the grain and we will kick against the

goats like Jesus said, until we get ourselves to realize this is

for His sake. God is saying what I'm about to

ask you is bigger than you, and I'm going to ask you to exist in

a relationship with authorities above you so that you can exist

in a relationship with me. That is the way it needs to be.

So he says do this for the Lord's sake.

But the command is to submit yourself.

There is a disposition of submission that I don't find

often places around me I don't know about you.

There is often a mentality that people are ready to buck against

whatever grain is put in place over them or they're surrounded

by, or is there authority structures and their attitude

and speech. And maybe this isn't me too.

I'm not saying I'm I'm innocent. And even their posture, their

attitude, it's not common to find people who are just

submissive. Submission is a softness of

spirit in which one clearly acknowledges that they are not

the ultimate authority. And you can see it on people's

faces when they run into something that is not what they

want to do. You can immediately see how it

changes their disposition. People will, and I sometimes

will submit to authority when I agree with it wholeheartedly.

But as soon as we run into something that's disagreeable to

us, what does that look like? Submission is a posture of the

heart. Worldly honour says I will

honour you or submit to you until I disagree with you.

I will honour maybe an authority until I feel frustrated by them

or until I don't think they deserve it anymore.

That is honour that will go about this far in our life

because really what I've understood and learning is the

older you get, you realize there's a lot of corruption out

there and many of the older people in the room.

I see your frustration sometimes and I understand your

frustrations because there is a lot of corruption.

There is a lot of evil and it runs through every area of

government. It runs through every area of

administration and companies. It runs through churches.

There are bad people everywhere and evil actions everywhere.

So when God commands us to honour people, as you get older,

I think it probably even becomes harder and harder because when

you're younger, you look up and you think, man, these people are

just taking care of things, they're doing good.

And you get there and you see sometimes the opposite.

That's worldly honour. And part of the reason that

exists is because there's often a disconnect between different

levels of any authority structure.

There's a disconnect in a company between people on the

bottom from the people at the top.

There's people in the middle from the upper management.

There's disconnects everywhere in companies and in government

where people think the the person above them doesn't

understand what I'm having to deal with.

They understand how hard it is to do this task the way they're

asking me to do it. And it's unreasonable for them

to ask this of me, whether it's a company or a government or

anything, or these people are up here saying they're all

frustrated and not willing to honour and surrender to my

leadership because they don't understand what they're asking

of me. Everybody is operating within

constraints, limitations, goals they have to meet and deadlines

they have to acquire. And people don't understand each

other because of that, because we're all in different

situations and we're all put with different tasks in front of

us. And so we should be prepared to

have disconnect with different levels of authority structure

when we're young, for example, you think a lot of the

authorities are just annoying. They make you do things they

tell you to to to do this or that.

And it's frustrating to you. But most of the people who grow

up past teenagehood end up realizing, because they become

the authority, they understand how important honour and

submission is. Everyone in this room who is

above that age, I could say probably has some level of that.

I think about some of the men in our audience who are

construction managers. Frank and Terry and Chris, Denny

and Carl have had some sort of management over a project.

They understand how you have to have things line up a certain

way or the job won't get done. Things will not get

accomplished. People will be frustrated and

angry. Even more so if there's not

submission in hierarchy. You look at Fernando has often

worked at a Body Shop and managed that.

Maria and her insurance agency. I know Laurel has has her own

business. Penny was over a management

position in her in her factory. So many people in in our

audience have experienced authority of one level or

another. And I can't go through and name

everybody, but parents have authority.

And once you get to that point where you have some authority

over someone, you realize that's why it's necessary.

And it doesn't mean that there's not frustrations for the person

under the authority, but certain things have to go a certain way

or they won't get done and things will be even worse.

The systems we exist and need submission.

And even if you're not in a position of authority, you can

probably see how the people around you who reject it end up

just being frustrated and miserable and negative.

And nobody needs that. So instead of honouring until

you get frustrated, until somebody doesn't deserve it

anymore, a Christian's call to honour.

Remember this, he said earlier, when you fall into various

trials, A Christian and various trials maintains honour of

authorities, maintains goodness and maintains humility.

I don't think any of us would say that if I go through

something difficult, I have license to stop honouring, to

stop being good or to stop being humble.

And we have the difficult task of maintaining that.

So what is submission? So submission is at its

application is obedience. But if you just obey, you could

not be submissive but still obey.

It goes beyond that to acceptance of an authority that

is put over you. And it goes to an appreciation

on some level of their role, an appreciation of what their task

is and what maybe God has given them.

If it's government or what their role is ahead of us.

It can't be just obedience. Romans 13 says it this way.

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there

is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist

are appointed by God. So we're talking about

government here. Those come from God.

Therefore, whoever resists that authority resists the ordinance

of God, and those who resist will bring judgement on

themselves. God has had to put things into

order in our world to make things work, and they're often

not ideal. It was not ideal for God to give

them a king, but that's what he saw fit to put in order to make

things work in his current situation.

It was not ideal that Jesus would die for us, but God had to

put that into place to make things work for what we needed

to happen. And when God puts an ordinance

in place, far be it from us to reject it, that we would

surrender to it and be subject in our soul to the authority.

But it's a relief if you think about it.

The God is telling us you don't worry about the authorities.

You deal with what you can control.

You handle what you can. And I, the authority, will

handle the other authorities. I, the authority, will take care

of them. As Jude said, we read recently,

Michael did not. The Archangel did not bring a

reviling accusation against the devil.

That's not the peony's job, the peon's job.

That's not the peon's job. That is the responsibility of

the higher authorities to deal with higher authorities.

The sooner we start to see that we are nobodies, the better in

this world for our own disposition, for our own Peace

of Mind. So we will focus on what we can

control. Now here's some phrases I've

heard and let's evaluate and see if they add up to the attitude

that God wants us to have. Give me a fine.

Those laws are dumb. Nobody's telling me what to do.

Maybe I've said that at some point, but the point isn't

always what is that a sin? How about we ask this, What is

that going to convey? An attitude of submission?

Is that going to show to the people around me that I am a

subject of subject to the authorities around me, so that

when something else happens that I disagree with, they're not

going to say, well, he's just going to buck against that too?

Does this embody reverence and honour?

I have free speech in this country.

I can say whatever I want. He's going to say in a few

verses that we are to live as free, but not using liberty as a

cloak for vice or evil. We can't cover up evil just by

saying we're free, whether it's in religion or if it's in

government. Some might say I only obey God.

That is categorically impossible.

You cannot obey God without obeying your parents, without

being the government, without being the authorities that are

put in place. So that is impossible.

That's just an ignorant statement.

We've got a bunch of idiots running our country.

It doesn't matter if this is true or not.

Does this embody A submissive attitude to the people who are

put in place above us? An honouring attitude, because

if it, even if it's true, you saying that isn't going to help

change anything except for your character and your reputation.

You are now in danger of being an irreverent, prideful,

slanderous citizen. And is that what Christ wants

emitting from us is not about what they are, is about what we

are as Christians. Maybe instead of that last

thing, we could say I'm thankful I'm not in charge of this

country and that it's in God's hands.

I pray God will give them the wisdom for their challenges.

You know what this does? It shows wisdom because it

acknowledges people have stuff to deal with.

It's not simple. There are structures that exist

that not one person can over override.

There are systems that have to exist to deal with problems that

are bigger than one person's ability to fix it.

And having some understanding and not being childish

acknowledges that. Does this say that these people

are wonderful? Does it say that our government

is the most amazing people? That is, that ascribes undue

compliment to them? No, you don't have to say any of

these other things to say something good and to say

something worthwhile. Here's another negative

statement that can be made. There are so many people.

Or our company administration is corrupt scum.

I've heard that phrase in my job.

Our company administration is corrupt scum.

Now this might not be the same governing authorities put in

place by God, but it's an attitude with authority.

It is not always that simple. Maybe instead we could say there

are some difficult issues that need to be addressed in our

company and I hope I can contribute to their solution

soon. Maybe that's somebody who's

actually willing to do something about it.

But usually people don't, because usually what people say

is, you know, you can say that. You can say, man, so are you

going to, are you going to try to get your degree and, and

become an administrator and are you going to try to fix it?

No, no, I don't want that responsibility.

I, I don't have to deal with this, this and that.

OK. So so you acknowledge that there

are some things up there that you can't solve.

So maybe if you're the person who's not going to come take

over authority to fix things, maybe we could say something

like this. I have never managed this

business or this circumstance. I can't speak to the information

they're working with and the responsibilities they carry to

make that decision. That is wise to step back and

say I'm not in their shoes, I'm not working with what they know.

Maybe I can just back off. This shows grace and

understanding and wisdom. And isn't that what we want for

ourselves? Isn't that what we want from

God? So may we submit for the Lord's

sake, He says, whether to the king as supreme or to the

governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment

of evil doers and for the praise of those who do good.

Now, what's interesting is you might look at their situation

and say, wait, Nero probably never praised them for that.

So are we assuming that these people are going to get praise?

Here's the thing. I've realized that most people

don't hear the praise that is ringing around them because

maybe it's just staying in the heart of the person who sees it.

Or maybe they're sharing it with one another, but then never

comes back to the person they're actually praising or the person

they are thankful for their example or their attitude.

The praise of those who do good may never get back to them.

You ever thought about that? The good things you do may be

affecting people and causing people to honor what you've

done, even if they never tell you.

Or maybe they're praising God on your behalf because they seen

someone who's doing godly things and it's encouraging to them.

I've had brief encounters with people that have refreshed my

spirit who probably weren't even Christians.

I don't know. I had a brief encounter with

them, but they caused me to praise God and say God thank you

for showing me a good example that reminded me to get out of

this rut that I'm in and to have a good attitude to do good

things. And I praise God because of

those good examples. And it never went to their ear.

May we not underestimate the claim that government could even

see us that way, That a government could be aware of the

Christians that are in their jurisdiction or anyone who's

over authority that that would lead to praise.

So silent praise can be all without words.

It can be directed at God instead of us.

It can leave impressions that may never you may never know and

I know I have been able to praise God because of the

example of others. He goes on to say verse 15 for

this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to

silence the ignorance of foolish men.

If you want to respond to people, retorting does nothing.

Retorting does absolutely nothing.

The real way. If you want to stop somebody's

slander, this is just new good. And now we'll put to silence the

ignorance of foolish men. There are many things that we

try to do as a church that we want to follow the doctrines of

God, absolutely. But the will of God goes beyond

these four walls where we try to follow the doctrines and the

commandments of worship and even character.

This is the will of God. That our character and our

actions and our goodness would be so evident that it would

silence any detractors. That is the will of God, That we

would carry these things into our various circumstances and

speak a louder message than anything they could say against

God or against us. Would the quality and

consistency of my character make any detractors look foolish now?

It's not a show, it's a silent reverence.

It is a silent honour to God and to other people, and their

silence acknowledges and maybe even praises the God that the

goodness embodies. That when we show goodness,

their silence may be the praise to God.

The first time they ever praise God.

And maybe when they're silenced, maybe then they'll stop and

consider so that when when He visits us on the day of

visitation, that He will be glorified by them.

Verse 16 as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but

as bond, servants of God. There is that phrase again that

we would not use our freedoms and wield them, but that we

would still surrender with our freedoms.

He says honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor

the king. If you need like a a placard, if

you need a bumper sticker to take away from this lesson, just

put on your mirror that you will always remember.

Honor everyone. Now that's interesting because

we just started talking about submitting ourselves to the

government, but now he just made it even broader and now he said

to honour all people. That's quite the claim.

That's quite the ask. Honour's not exactly an easy

thing to identify and how to describe it.

I saw a video recently and this isn't the video clip, but this

is something very similar. I think it was in Japan where

this, this person stepped out to hold traffic for other people,

for the car who was trying to get out of the parking garage.

This person stepped out to hold traffic.

They let the car go and, you know, and they and they

acknowledge the person and they turned and they bowed to the

cars who so graciously. And the cars were not, you know,

slamming on their brakes and, like, trying to fly through the

cars just stopped. And that person turned and bowed

to the traffic and stepped aside.

And sometimes our culture is so irreverent and so lacking honor

that it's hard to understand. Like, what does it look like?

What is honor? How do I show honor?

And I'm not saying you go bow and on Hughes Lane over here,

you might get hit by a car. Don't do that.

But try to think about the the attitude behind someone who is

willing to, to show thankfulness and respect, regardless of who

they're giving it to. That was a, a powerful example

to me that that just stuck out in the culture that I, that I've

observed from different ones in the Japanese culture.

Sometimes we get so busy reacting to people that we don't

take time to consider how we are responsible for our actions.

Showing honour says a lot more about the giver than the

recipient. I have a neighbor who is one of

the kindest people I've ever met.

And since I moved into this new house, on the first day that we

moved in, he came and he showed kindness and respect and, and

love. And in a way that I've, I've

been, I've felt those things in many different places in life,

especially because I'm a part of the church.

But so many times, well, it's, it's special as part of the

church. I'll just put it that way.

You know, you come to expect that.

But it was shocking to me to see someone who had no reason to

treat me this kindly, to step out of their way and to show a

level of respect that I had not earned.

And it it shocked me and it was powerful to me.

And that example will stick with me because I didn't earn it.

I did nothing to deserve it. But he showed goodness to me.

He showed kindness. He assumed good things about me.

And I don't know how to quantify.

I don't know how to tell you what he said that did it.

It's a disposition, it's an attitude of honour before he

ever even knew me. So as we try to nail down

honour, we know how to honour people instinctively.

I will say, even when it's not easy to identify, we know how to

do it instinctively. But what we're doing is we're

treating someone as if they are worthy of good deeds and

goodwill and we're treating them with respect.

But it's not admiration because often times admiration is

sourced in you are either on my level or above my level.

So I admire you for that. And that's not what honour is.

That's not a godly honour because here is how.

Here is how I guess a common way of looking at the world is.

But we're told to not be common. We're told to be uncommon.

That's the synonym for holy. Unholy is common, Holy is

uncommon. We're told to be uncommon.

So what is a common way of treating people?

I would say there's about 20% of the people that often are around

us. Let me just give you a a sample.

Any Joe Schmo on the street commonly has disdain for about

20% of the people they run into. That could be social media, I

think. Man, these people are so dumb.

They're so, they're so stupid. People do all these dumb things.

I've got dumb people in front of me and on the road.

I've got dumb people managing me.

I've got dumb people underneath me.

People think that way a lot of times about There's disdain.

There's a negative feeling people have a lot of times for

about 20%, I might say, I don't know.

Then there's about 60% of people they might interact with that

they're pretty neutral about. They're just disinterested or

you mean nothing to me. I don't have a problem with you,

but you mean nothing to me. Then there's maybe about another

1920% of people that the common person is cordial with if you go

out that they're going to have a cordial relationship.

And then there's about 1% that the common person will show

honour toward. I think this is a snapshot of

the common attitude toward others and it's understandable

because it's all based on a system of what have you proven

to me. You have proven negative.

You're off, you're off my list. Get out of here.

You have proven nothing to me. You have proven small things.

You have proven. Maybe it's elders, maybe it's

parents, maybe it's mentors have proven that you deserve my

honour. But what did the verse say?

Honour all men. I meant to change that to

uncommon. This is supposed to be the holy

or uncommon way of thinking. This is what we are called to,

that we would honour all men. Does it say anything about them

deserving? If I live on this model, I will

only give my best attitude to about 1% of the people I ever

meet. You know why that's a tragedy?

Because we're called to be a light.

And if I'm going to be a light in this world, it involves

giving my goodness and showing goodness to everyone around me.

Possible. And you know who did that?

Jesus. Jesus, while we were yet

sinners, died for the ungodly. Jesus extended an arm, as Isaiah

53 says, send his arm, his Son. God send his Son down the form

of Jesus, an arm to reach us when we were unworthy, when we

not only had not yet earned it, we had actually earned the

opposite. So if we want to carry this

mentality to the world, may we be ready for the what's coming

in return because Jesus treated us with honour.

So as I said, it's difficult to figure out like, how do you just

do it? Well, let's think about what

might impede honour, what might keep us from showing honour to

make sure that's out of there and so we could properly show

honour. First of all, showing honour is

lifting others up and it cannot be done when you are trying to

lift yourself up at the same time.

John 3 verse 3, John the Baptist is, is seeking to elevate Jesus

John 3:3

and he says he must, he will, he must increase, I must decrease.

It has to happen. If I'm concerned about elevating

myself, it can't happen. What else?

Showing honour, it cannot be done if I lived through the lens

of broad negative generalities about people.

Showing honour cannot be done to all men if I live through the

lens of broad negative generalities of people.

I'm not saying there aren't a lot of negative people out there

who deserve a reputation, but if I live looking at them that way,

that is my fault and it will not produce honour for my heart to

show them. If I think everybody's a bunch

of idiots, nobody does quality work, nobody's honest, nobody

cares about I've said those phrases, have you?

I can't show honour to people when I'm thinking that way.

Studies have shown that we will take one or two negative

experiences and apply them to everything in the future that is

scientifically proven. You will do that and I will do

that. We have to really work hard

against this. But remember as Frank taught us

recently, Jesus said every sin our lives have an opportunity of

choosing the choosing the Broadway or the narrow way, the,

the easy way to find the, the easy way or the hard way.

That's can be difficult. And so I believe in every

scenario there's an easy way and a hard way.

If you boil it down to piece by piece, there's a broad freeway

and then there's a path less travelled and so maybe the bit

the Broadway would be to live bitter, assuming the worst in

people and expecting them to fail you like the last time.

But the narrow way might be to gird up the loins of your mind.

As he told us last time, take control of your head and accept

your negative experiences and leave them behind and approach

new people with a fresh start they deserve.

Well deserving is take it or leave it, approach new people

with a fresh start that you would hope to have, that I would

hope to have because First Corinthians tells us love

believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things.

That's honour and finding fresh perspective.

How do you do that? Last time people really said

they like the situational example.

So I'm going to try to give you something.

I'm not the expert, I'm immature in many ways, and I have a lot

of room to grow, but maybe this will help you.

And I put even put it into ours. I went through the hard work of

putting it all into ours, so maybe that'll help us.

So maybe first we recognize when we are entering a place in our

mind that is not going to honour people.

OK, what might that look like? Maybe it's negativity, maybe

it's dread. Then maybe we have to go back

and review. Why am I in this headspace?

Why am I about to treat this person poorly once I recognize

it? We got to review what's happened

in the past, and then we have to reframe and reshape how we're

going to see things. And then we can release the past

and refresh our perspective. OK, what the I'm going to give

you another silly example. I started trying to give you a

more like work situation that may be more specific, but we all

can relate to simple things like driving in the grocery store.

So I'm going to give you a store scenario.

I'm at the store and something like this actually happened.

I whispered under my breath. Nobody here is competent.

I think in my mind that our workforce is unproductive,

unskilled, and entitled. OK, so I've now recognized a

negative place in my mind. But why is that?

Why is that true? What?

Why? Why did I create that negative

thought pattern? Well, I haven't had a good

experience here the last two times I was here.

Last time I asked someone for help or this time I asked

someone for help. I waited 45 minutes for help and

then the person came and didn't have an answer to my question.

Then they were very rude and left me with no new no good

solution. OK, so I'm I at least know why

I'm frustrated or about to be bitter toward them.

Maybe I can deal with that now that I know what's going on.

And this is where we reframe. And reframing can be macro, it

could be big picture, or maybe it can be like specific to this

situation. So let's say specific to this

situation, maybe that last person I talked to didn't have

good training. Maybe they've had customers yell

at them all day long and they're at the end of a long work day

and they're being yelled at for things they don't have the

knowledge or the authority to fix.

I'd probably be frustrated and I'll be very nice.

Maybe they want to move up to a better job and they're tired

being stuck in this job and they don't know how to move forward

in their life. They may be having a boss that

is frazzled and taking it out on them.

They may have things going on their personal life.

Maybe they had a family member that's sick.

Maybe they had a breakup. Maybe they weren't blessed with

good parents who raised them well.

Maybe they've mistreated them. Who knows what this person has

dealt with. I would have much rather make

this person's day better by showing them honor if they're

having a poor day, then to sit in selfish frustration and have

us both be upset. There's an example of reframing.

Or maybe the situation doesn't have an easy way to reframe

looking at that person. Maybe we got to go macro.

Maybe we got to go big picture. Maybe I could say I have all my

needs taken care of standing in the store right now.

I have food, clothing, shelter, and if I don't get what I'm

trying to buy today, I'm going to be just fine.

It's a non necessity item. My time is important, but Peace

of Mind is more important than this little piece of time that I

might have lost. I'm standing in a safe, air

conditioned store in the wealthiest country the world has

ever seen. I need to chill.

Sometimes reframing helps in the specific situation a person

we're dealing with. Sometimes we got to reframe from

a big picture. And maybe at that point we can

release and refresh. And a lot of time, often times

for me, this involves prayer that I would prayerfully

acknowledge that in this life, things aren't perfect.

And yeah, sometimes hard stuff happens.

I need to grow up sometimes. And it's time to not hold

bitterness in my heart, to ask God for a new heart, to see new

situations and new people with a positive mindset.

To see the workers as people and not tools who are doing their

best, learning on the job, figuring out things throughout

their day just like I do mine. And pray for the attitude to

honour these workers, whatever expertise or service they

provide. I've now had a chance to change

my mind. And if I approach a new

situation, I guarantee it will be better.

I might not be perfect, but it will sure be a lot better than

the way I walked into that scenario ready to dishonour

somebody who maybe needed to not have that dishonor.

He says, honour all people, love the brotherhood, fear God and

honour the King because where we're at the time, I'm just

going to leave it right there and we're going to move on to to

our closing. He eventually gets to the point

of pointing this back to Jesus. And so I don't want to lose

that. And I'll I'll re establish this

flow of thought next time I continue.

It's hard to hard to stop in the middle of the writers flow

thought. He goes on to talk about

servants and how they're to be submissive and all these things

that we do. He's saying suffering for good

is what we were called to. That's the whole point of what

we're doing here. He says for this to this, you

were called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving an

example that you should follow in his steps.

So if you suffer, he's like, yeah, that's what you're here

for. Why are we surprised?

Don't be surprised. You could be suffering for no

purpose. At least you're suffering with

purpose because we are connecting to Christ in his

sufferings. Jesus committed no sin, nor was

deceit found in his mouth. Who was reviled did not revile

in return. When He suffered, He did not

threaten, but committed himself to Him who judges righteously,

who Himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we,

having died to sins, might live for righteousness.

By whose stripes you are healed. So it all comes back to Jesus.

May we not be surprised when we are asked to suffer a little bit

and have a good attitude and to choose the narrow way, because

that is what Jesus did. And that's the whole point of

why we're here. If you haven't begun this walk,

you can you've heard a piece of God's word this morning.

As we're told in Romans 10 verse 17, faith comes by hearing.

Romans 10:17

If we're going to develop a faith that will save us.

It starts with hearing the word of God.

It starts with and it continues with believing it.

I can't just read it. I can't just hear it.

I've got to be a believer and belief benefits self manifests

itself in action with repentance.

That I would turn from my way to God's way that I would turn and

to follow him with every with every area of my life, including

the things we talked about today.

That I would identify not myself as the source of salvation, but

that I would identify that Jesus is the Savior of the world and

by him we have to be saved through him.

We know by no other name that we would confess Jesus as the

Savior of the world, the Son of God, and we will be baptized.

To begin that walk, to begin a fresh start and to know from

this day forward, I'm a member, I'm saved, and I'm a member of

the God's family. Mark 16, verse 16.

Mark 16:16

And then we live faithfully. That's what we're called to.

And to continue to repent and to continue to believe and to hear

the Word. And this process continues.

But to begin this walk, you can follow these steps and you don't

have to be baptized again. If you've messed up, you don't

repeat that. We come and we pray for

forgiveness and sometimes we pray together.

So if you'd like to take care of either of those things this

morning, please come while we stand while we see.