1 Peter 3:9-12 | When the World Attacks: Fight? Flight? or Right?

Speaker: Man, that that last song, last song was so good.

I had not heard it before and I was listening to it.

I was like, okay, this is good.

And then at the end, I think people were clapping in the room at the end

there when we went up and the dynamics.

That was awesome.

That was good.

Um.

That's for free.

That has nothing to do with what we're talking about

this morning, but just, yeah.

I love our, our, our team, our worship team.

They, they put in a lot of time and, and effort into doing what they do.

Uh, they, they love to worship the Lord they gather on Thursdays and,

and practice and rehearse together.

And, um, it's just a joy to have them here weekend and week out with us.

We are in a series called Suffering Saints, and uh, this message for,

for week two is called When the World Attacks Fight Flight or Right.

I Am, oh, for one in physical altercations in my life.

Uh, sixth grade.

Uh, Matt, if you're in the room, forgive me.

We can talk afterwards.

Maybe we can reconcile.

But sixth grade, um, basketball court, not, not like competition, not

league playground, basketball court.

Uh, so stakes were high.

I don't even remember what happened.

All I know is I decided I was gonna bow up to this kid.

His name was Matt Frankl.

His name will be in my mind until my deathbed, I'm sure of it.

He's the reason why I'm not a fighter, because I decided to bow up to

Matt, and Matt was smaller than me.

But the next thing I knew, I was on my back looking up at the blue sky,

trying to figure out how to breathe again, and uh, I was over for one.

It was at that moment that I decided to become a black belt with my

words instead of a black belt with.

My body.

Everything in us, right when we are attacked, wants to fight back.

It's just, it's natural.

It's who we are as human beings, we are hardwired to want to retaliate.

We are hardwired to want to repay evil for evil.

When someone hurts us, we want to defend our honor.

We want to get justice.

We want to get the last word in.

We wanna make sure that we have one.

But the question we have to ask is, what does God want us to do?

How does God want us to respond?

Again, suffering.

Saints.

Peter's addressing this whole idea that as Christians, as followers of Jesus, we

should expect that we are going to suffer.

Last week we talked about how as a church, we need to be strong together.

We need to band together.

We need to be united.

We need to be loving one another.

We need to be humble in mind because attacks like what we're gonna talk

about this morning are gonna come and we need one another to help

stay strong and to pursue what we're talking about this morning.

What does God want us to do in situations like that?

It is not natural for us when we are attacked not to attack back.

It's not natural for us when somebody slanders us not to try to clap back.

It feels like weakness.

It, it, it feels like losing and in the world's eyes, it, it probably is.

But again, we have to ask the question, God, what do you want from me?

How do you want me to respond?

And as Christians, if you are a Christian in the room this morning,

the, the cross, the gospel of Jesus.

Becoming a follower of Jesus changes everything about how you

respond to the attacks of the world.

The gospel changes everything for you about how you respond

to the attacks of the world.

Pick up with me in one Peter, chapter three, verse nine, one

Peter chapter three, verse nine.

Peter says this, do not repay evil for evil, or reviling for reviling.

But on the contrary, bless for to this you were called that

you may obtain a blessing.

Peter's actually continuing.

The, the, the Greek is continuing in its sentence structure from

what he's talked about last week, but the shift is, is in the focus.

We're, we're no longer talking about within, inside the ranks of

the church, though if we're honest with ourselves as sinners, we sin

against each other within the church.

There's gonna be times when there's evil committed against one another

in the church, or reviling committed against one another in the church.

So everything I'm gonna say this morning applies within the church as

much as it applies outside the church.

But specifically, I think Peter is referring to those that are

going to attack us as Christians, those that are going to attack

the church from the outside.

As we experience those things, what do we do?

And he begins by saying, do not repay.

It's a, a phrase in the Greek that has a, it's a negative

imperative here, don't do this.

Or even if you are doing it, stop.

Doing it.

Don't give back is what the word means.

Don't give what somebody has has given to you.

This is the, the golden rule in, in reverse.

But, but we're not supposed to do that.

What does the golden rule say?

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Right?

What about when somebody has done something to me, does the reverse follow,

am I allowed to do unto them as they've done to me, the Bible would say no.

It's, it's not on us.

It's not our prerogative.

It's not our right to repay someone evil for evil.

That's Romans 1217 says the same thing.

Do not repay.

Do not give back.

Evil.

For evil.

The word evil there is a, a general term in the Greek,

it's kind of a catchall term.

It's not hard for us to find evil in the world around us.

We can look all over the place and and see examples of evil that pop

up all over, whether it be abortion or murder or despotic regimes

and rulers or abuse, whatever.

It's, and it's one thing for us as the church to sit back and think

about evil generically and think, man, evil is bad and horrible and

we want evil to be done away with.

But it's another thing when that evil happens to us, not just around us, not

just near us, but when the evil happens to us, when the evil shows up in our kitchen.

Maybe it is abuse.

Maybe you've suffered from physical, emotional, verbal abuse, whatever,

whatever it may be, may maybe it's mistreatment by a, a boss

or a superior or an employer.

Perhaps it's the actions of an ex-spouse, an ex-husband, an ex-wife.

Could just be something as simple as an obnoxious neighbor or a rude driver

on the road, whatever it may be.

Peter is saying, don't repay evil to them for the evil that they have given to you.

That's not our right, our prerogative or he goes on to say reviling.

For reviling.

The word reviling there is from, again, the Greek, that, that suggests slander,

insole, or defamation of character.

I, I don't want us to miss the irony of who's writing this.

This is Peter.

This is the Peter that was with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

You recall what happened there?

Yes.

The soldiers came up to arrest Jesus, and with them was the

servant of the high priest.

The guy's name was Malus.

And Peter was there, and we know that this was Peter because

John was like, it was Peter.

Peter did this, but they come up to arrest Jesus.

And what does Peter do?

Peter draws his sword and he swings and he's a lousy swing.

And so he misses the, what he was going for, cuts off the ear of the high servant

and Jesus has to rebuke Peter and say, Peter, put your, put your shoulder away.

Also, don't miss that.

This is the one that went to Jesus in Matthew 18 and said, Jesus, how

many times do I have to forgive my brother if he sins against me?

And, and so we see that this is, is somebody who was well

acquainted with what it means to feel like, man, I wanna lash out.

I want my pound of flesh.

I wanna retaliate.

Peter was far from a pacifist.

What changed in Peter's heart was an encounter with Jesus in the cross.

And so now Peter's writing these things saying, do not repay evil

for evil, or reviling for reviling.

But he goes further than this because he is not just saying, don't do this.

He's gonna say, do this instead.

Don't repay these things.

But on the contrary, he says, bless.

It's a word that means, on the other hand, bless the word blessed there.

ETO is where we get our Greek word or our English word.

Eulogy.

Eulogy.

So if you go to a funeral or you go to a memorial, someone eulogizes the dead.

What that means is they speak well of them.

That's what it means to speak well of.

So Peter's saying, rather than.

Tear them down back rather than repay them evil for evil or reviling for reviling.

Instead, what I want you to do is I want you to bless them.

I want you to speak well of them.

Does that mean I'm, I'm supposed to build somebody else up

who's tearing me down perhaps.

But I think the most concrete way that we can bless someone else, and I think

this is probably what Peter had in mind, is through praying for that person.

This is what Jesus said in Matthew 5 44, that we should

pray for those who persecute us.

And so it's not just what you're not supposed to do, it's also what you're

supposed to do, which is to bless them.

And then Peter says this, for to this, you were called, what

does he mean there to this?

I was called, I was called to be attacked and, and to not retaliate.

To not respond.

To not fight.

Back.

In short, yes.

Because you were called to follow Jesus because you were called to be like Jesus.

In fact, some of you may be hearing this passage and reading this passage,

and in your mind you've already gone there and you've thought to yourself,

man, this sounds really familiar.

It sounds like we've covered something similar to this.

And we have in one Peter chapter two verses 21 through 23, if you'll let

your eyes glance over there on your Bibles, maybe it's back at page, but one

Peter chapter two verses 21 through 23.

Peter there wrote this for to this.

You have been called, that sounds really familiar, doesn't it?

Same words that we just read in one Peter chapter three, verse nine.

For to this, you have been called because Christ also suffered for

you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps.

He committed no sin.

Neither was deceived, found in his mouth.

When he was reviled.

He did not revile in return when he suffered.

He did not threaten but continued entrusting himself to him.

Who judges justly.

If you are a Christian.

That means you have been called to follow Jesus.

And if you are going to follow Jesus in this world, in this life, you are

following him in a world that hates him.

Remember last week we talked about what it means to follow Christ in a christless

world that is going to bring opposition, that is going to bring hostility, that

is going to bring the attacks of the world and responding to that looks like

us saying, as Christians, we want to follow the example that we have in Jesus.

So to this, you have been called.

You've been called away from the natural response.

In other words, you've been called away from the worldly reaction

to reviling, to slander, to evil.

When evil is perpetuated against us, you've been called

instead to follow Jesus.

And if we're gonna follow Jesus, we have to overcome those first

instincts when somebody attacks us.

Point number one this morning is this, fight your natural

response to personal attacks.

Fight your natural response to personal attacks.

Let me quote the, the great well-known theologian Daniel Tiger.

For a minute if I can.

Daniel Tiger's neighborhood.

Anybody tracking with me on this one?

He's not.

What he said though applies here, so if you're going, he thinks he's a theologian.

What kind of pastor is this?

I don't consult Daniel Tiger.

When I preach sermons, this just applies.

Daniel Tiger taught my kids from the time that they were little.

When you feel so mad that you wanna roar.

Come on.

You guys know it.

Don't hide behind the like, I don't know what he's talking about there.

Take a deep breath and count two, four, right?

'cause it rhymes with more.

If you need 5, 6, 7, whatever you need, take it.

But what isn't that fascinating?

You take a show like Daniel Tiger's neighborhood, and I don't know the, the

producers or writers behind it, but you take a, a show that's that's aimed just

at, at the world and they're trying to teach young kids, Hey, you know what?

You're going to find yourself in a situation where you're

gonna wanna be angry.

You're gonna wanna lash out, you're gonna wanna attack somebody who hurts you.

Here's what you need to do.

When you feel so mad that you wanna roar, you need to take a

deep breath and count to four.

I remember my twins when they were in their, they're sitting in a

bumbo stage where they can't sit up.

Right.

You know, by themselves.

They'll, they'll tip over, but you can put 'em in a bumbo and they'll,

they'll manage life for a little while.

We had two of those and I remember just watching them and, and they would

sit in the bumbo and they would look at each other and one would have a

toy and just be content with this toy.

And it's not like we deprived the other one.

We weren't like, you have to watch him play with his toy.

You just have to sit there.

He would have his toys too.

But he would look at his brother and his brother's just loving life with this

toy that he has, and he would look at it and be like, yep, I'm gonna have that.

And so he would reach across and just rip it outta the hands of the other twin.

And it's not as though the other twin was like, you know what brother?

I'm good with it.

I'm good.

I'm not gonna repay evil for evil.

Reviling for reviling.

I'm good with it.

You need that more than I need it.

I'm content with this.

This toy over here?

No, it was the lookout for mom and dad, like our mom and dad anywhere near me.

Then it was followed by the blood curdling scream, and then the plot went

into action of how can I get it back?

And so there were lunges and there were reaches and there were grabs and any

body part that was was grasped became.

I'm taking you with me to get that toy back from you.

We don't have to teach, in other words, what we have to overcome

in this point, it's natural to who we are as falling human beings.

Part of the worldliness in us is to say, I care about me.

I want what's good for me, and if somebody hurts me, then I

need to lash back out at them.

I need to hurt them.

That's the natural response that we have to overcome, and sure we get older.

And so we get older and, and our instincts, you know, are, are,

are overcome a little bit, but man, it's still there isn't it?

You're out on the road, you're driving somebody somewhere, somebody

cuts you off and you're just like, it, it kicks in right there.

I want to get around them and cut them off.

Why?

I don't know.

I just need to, they cut me off.

How dare they.

Or the person that, that goes down the left lane into the very last second

when all y'all have been waiting patiently, like good citizens to just

get, you know, the lane's closed and then they cut everybody else off.

And in your heart you're going, oh man, I hope they get a flat tire.

It's there in us this natural response when we're attacked, when we feel

wronged is to lash out, to say, man, I, I, I, I want, I want revenge.

So what changes for us as Christians?

Remember, the cross changes everything in how we respond

to the attacks of the world.

What changes is that we are enabled by the indwelling of the spirit, not to respond

naturally, but to respond supernaturally.

We're enabled by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to

produce fruit of the Spirit.

And if we consider the fruit of the spirit from Galatians five, notice

some of the descriptors of the fruit of the spirit here, and how many

of them have to do with relational interactions between us and other people.

Paul says this, but the fruit of the spirit is love.

Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,

and self-control against such things.

There is no law.

Notice how much of the evidence of the spirit within you has to do

with how you treat other people.

And so now when as Christians, we are attacked, we are

given evil by an evil world.

We have the spirit dwelling within us.

That enables us now to overcome that natural response, to overcome that

response that says, man, I want to fight.

I want to lash back out.

I want to get my pound of flesh.

We have the spirit now dwelling within us, that's producing within us.

Things like patience and, and peace and gentleness and self-control to

enable us to say, you know what?

I'm not gonna do what naturally I want to do.

Instead, I'm gonna respond the way the Lord would have me respond.

And so maybe when you're attacked, you, you, maybe you do need to take a deep

breath and count to four or 40, or maybe you do need to, to delete the social

media apps that are just getting under your skin and, and provide opportunities

for you to lash out at people.

Maybe there's some relationships that you need to change up as well,

because when you're around that people, you just, those people, you just

find that, that there's a continual temptation for you to lash out at them.

We need to overcome that natural response.

But remember, it's not just what we don't do.

We talked about this, right?

Peter didn't just say, don't do these things.

He also said that we need to be praying for them.

We need to bless them.

So part of our fighting, our natural response to personal attacks

is not just making sure that we don't retaliate, but to also make

sure that we do pray for them.

We do pursue them.

Luke chapter six, verses 27 through 28.

Jesus said this, I say to you, who here?

Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you.

Bless those who curse you.

Pray for those who abuse you.

Romans 1214, Paul says this, bless those who persecute you.

Bless and do not curse them.

Or one Corinthians four 12.

And we labor working with our own hands.

When reviled, we bless and when persecuted, we endure.

And so your response to personal attack is not just keeping your mouth quiet, right?

What?

What did mama used to say?

If you don't have anything good to say, don't say what?

Anything at all.

You know what?

That's not good enough.

In situations like this, I think Peter would say, if you don't have

anything good to say, think again.

Because what Peter's gonna call us to do is not to remain just silent

and to grit our teeth and just get through it and not lash back out.

Peter's gonna say, no, the redeemed heart, the transformed heart is

gonna pray for that person instead

is gonna seek their good before the Lord.

So maybe that looks like praying for their salvation if they're not saved, or it

looks like praying for their repentance, it looks like praying for reconciliation.

It looks like if, if this is somebody who professes faith in Christ, praying

for God's discipline in their life, until they do come to repentance,

and so we pray for them, ano, another way to bless them and to speak well of

them is, is to not pile on with others.

Here's what I mean by that.

When somebody hurts you.

Y your family, if they become aware of that, what are they gonna naturally do?

They're gonna naturally do what, what we're talking about here.

They're gonna come alongside you, man, that person.

What a jerk.

I can't believe they said that about you.

I always thought that they were bad for you.

Oh man, I, I hope this happens to them.

And what, what's the temptation?

The temptation is for us to jump in on board with that

and be like, yeah, thank you.

But I think the biblical response would be for us to, to short circuit

that, to stop it before it gets going.

To not pile on, to not participate in that, not to perpetuate the

text thread with the, the people that are going, I what a loser.

What a jerk.

I can't believe they did that.

Not to listen to the slander.

Instead, what you could do with that, those people that

want to 'cause they love you.

They love you, right?

That's why they're, they're offended for you.

You could say, Hey, you know what would really encourage me is if you

would join me in praying for them?

You wanna shock your family.

You wanna shock those who love you that way.

Ask them that, especially if they're believers, I guess primarily, if they're

believers, say, Hey, would you join me in praying for this person's repentance?

That's what I would really love.

Encourage others to pray for you in that too.

Hey, you know what, when, when you got, IGI understand what you're doing.

I appreciate it.

You want to defend me in this and, and I hear you on that, but what I would

really love you to do, what would really help me more is if you would

pray for me to, to respond biblically to what's going on right now in my life.

Would you pray for my heart towards this person?

Would you pray for how I'm thinking about this person?

That's another way for you to, to speak well of them, to bless them.

A third way that is more internal is not to replay the conversation

that you wish you had had in the moment when you were attacked.

Have you ever walked away from a conversation you thought to yourself,

man, if only I had said this, that would've just shut them up.

If only I had said this, that would've been the dagger.

We have to be careful not to get our revenge through daydreaming and fantasy.

You have to discipline your mind not to think evil of these people either, right?

Again, why?

Why, why?

Why fight the natural response and the natural response?

Is it in the moment so much more satisfying, isn't it?

The reason is because we've been transformed by Jesus

and we've been set on a path.

Through the cross and through the gospel to follow him, to be like

him and being like, Jesus looks like following the example that he left us.

And you remember the, the, the greatest example of this, I think

is when Jesus is on the cross, some of his final words before dying.

To those that had nailed him to the cross, to those that were openly mocking

him, slandering him, blaspheming him.

What did Jesus say?

Jesus went to the Father and said, father, forgive them for

they know not what they do.

We wanna follow our savior's example, and so we need to fight the natural response.

But there's, there's another side of this too.

There's, there's more motivation to this and it's, it's related to our redemption.

It's related to the fact that we wanna be like Jesus and the fact

that we want to be with Jesus.

And I think we see that here in the text.

If you look back at the text here, it says this, do not repay evil

for evil or reviling for reviling.

But on the contrary, bless.

And then he says this, for to this you were called.

And we talked about that being called to follow Jesus in order

that you may obtain a blessing.

So another motivation here that we're looking at from Peter is this blessing

that you and I have been called to obtain.

We have to understand what this blessing really is though.

And again, I think this blessing is related to and connected

back to our redemption.

Peter's gonna explain this blessing in just a second here

by quoting from Psalm chapter 34.

Psalms 34 · chapter mention

Psalm chapter 34, and in fact, what he's gonna be doing is he's gonna be going

Psalms 34 · chapter mention

back to the Sept translation of Psalm 34, which in the Sept is actually Psalm 33.

Unless you panic and think, well, why is the Sept different than than the ESV?

We just, we need a new Bible.

Somebody messed up here.

The, the chapter numbers, the, the verse numbers, those are all.

Added by editors later on.

Okay.

Chapters and verse divisions are not inspired.

And so in the tut oftentimes there will be a difference in chapter, but the

content is, is the same content there.

So Peter's quoting from Psalm 33 and the Sept, Psalm 34 in our

Bibles, and he's doing this to help extrapolate, I think, on this blessing

that we've been called to obtain.

Because the hard thing is, is we might look at this blessing and say, okay, what

are we talking about with the blessing?

Are we talking about a blessing that is, is temporally experienced?

I, I it's it's experienced here and now today, or is this

blessing more a, a blessing that's going to be ours in the future?

And I think I, I think, I think, I think Psalm 34, I think Psalm 34.

Provides an answer for us.

Psalm 34 is an interesting Psalm.

There's a lot of parallels actually, between Psalm 34 and

the entirety of one Peter in Psalm 34, which was written by David.

David is reminding himself and his readers about God's faithfulness to

deliver even as they walk through trials and suffering and attacks.

I want you to consider the life of David for a second, especially

in the context here of Psalm 34.

He's on the run for his life from King Saul.

Now, David has already been anointed.

As the next king of Israel.

And rather than thinking about, okay, what's the transfer

of power gonna look like?

How is this gonna go?

Is this gonna be tacky?

Is this, is everybody gonna be okay with this transfer?

David's running for his life.

The current guy on the throne doesn't love the fact that David's the next guy up.

And so the current guy on the throne, Saul, is gonna take the armies of

Israel, the nation that David has been anointed to lead and he's gonna

chase David and try to to kill him.

And he is gonna get pretty close on a few occasions.

David's gonna be betrayed.

David's gonna be accused.

David's gonna be chased.

David's gonna be certainly attacked.

And in Psalm 34, David finds himself in Philistine territory.

Cape Philistine's.

Israelites not non, not compatible.

They did not get along and David finds himself before the Philistine King.

And there before the king, it, it says in the inscription when he changed

his behavior before Aek, so that he threw him out and he went away.

David found himself in a bad situation and, and he realized,

man, Saul wants to kill me.

The Philistines wanna kill me.

And so he kind of started drooling down his beard.

You remember the scene, it's kind of a weird one in the Bible, and,

and the, the king says, don't I have enough crazy people in my kingdom?

Why'd you bring me this guy?

And then he, he throws 'em out.

That's the context in which David's writing.

Psalm 34.

He's like, man, I've got enemies all over the place.

People trying to kill me everywhere I look.

And yet, God is faithful.

And part of Psalm 34, the part that he quotes from at least, is right here.

What man is there who desires life and loves many days that he may see good?

Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking dece.

Turn away from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it.

The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his

ears open towards their cry.

The face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

To cut off the memory of them from the earth.

Peter's gonna take this, this hope that King David had, and he's gonna apply

it to the context that he was writing to with the elect exiles in one Peter.

And by extension, the spirit of God is taking it this morning for us through

the authority of the word of God and applying these things into our lives in

whatever situation you happen to face.

But I think in this verse and in our text, we get a picture as to what this

blessing really is, and it's right here at the beginning of verse 10.

Whoever love desires to love life and see good deeds, good days, whoever

desires to love life and see good days.

When are we gonna love life and see good days.

Is it here and now?

Maybe, maybe I'm not ruling that out as a possibility, but when

do we know for sure that we are gonna love life and see good days

when we're in heaven with the Lord?

And, and I think that fits with what Peter's been talking about so far in

the letter already blessed to be the God and Father of heaven who has caused

you to be born again to a living hope.

To an inheritance that's being kept for you, right?

Peter's been already driving the eyes of his readers up into the future that

they're gonna have with Jesus Christ.

And so in point number one, we have to fight the natural response because we

have the spirit of God dwelling within us.

We've been made new creatures in Christ.

We've been born again to follow Jesus and now as new creations in Christ.

What he's really arguing here from here on out is we need to live like it.

And so here he's saying, if you wanna love life and see good

days, this is what it looks like for you as the world attacks you.

Here's another reason why I think that this is, is good for us to, to

look at this as, as a view towards eternity more than, than the temporal.

It's, it's not that the Lord might not reward your faithfulness for

responding well, for not repaying evil for evil or reviling for reviling.

It's not that the Lord might not bless you here and now he is

fully, it's, it's within his realm of, of capability to do that.

And he has done those things.

But the danger if we make it all about that is this, we become those

that practice Christian karma.

Okay.

Then God, if I do all of these things that you're telling me to

do, then the hurt's gonna go away.

The pain's gonna go away.

That person that's attacking me, you're gonna take them outta my

life because I want to see good days and I want to love life.

And maybe that happens, but maybe it doesn't.

But there's a day coming when it will.

There's a day coming.

When it will, when when.

There's not gonna be any more opportunity or moment or time when you're gonna

sin against me or I'm gonna sin against you, or anyone else is gonna attack you.

In that day when we will love life and see good days is the day that we will

realize when we are in eternity with the Lord, when we step into his presence.

Psalm 16, the presence of the fullness of joy, where there's pleasures forevermore

with the right hand of the Father.

And so Peter is saying, Hey, live as believers basically.

This isn't a contingency when he says, whoever loves desires to love life

and see good days, let him do this.

Peter's not saying heaven rides on how you respond.

Rather Peter's reminding us of of the, the, the good life and the,

the, the good days that exist in front of us to be with Jesus.

And he's saying in light of that, if, if that's where your heart is, if

that's where you desire, if you want to be there, hey, live like it here.

Live like it here.

And that impacts how we conduct ourselves.

And so what Peter's doing here is he, he's, he's giving a perspective shift

for us, which helps us as we seek to navigate the situations when we feel

like we've been attacked, slandered, reviled, somebody's committed an evil

against us, wor or hurt, or wounded.

Peter's giving us a perspective shift that can help us navigate what we do

Next point number two, this week is this.

Stay fixated on your future with Jesus.

Stay fixated on your future with Jesus.

There's a highway interchange in downtown Dallas called the Mix Master, which

is the single worst feat of traffic engineering the world has ever known.

If you've ever driven it, then you are one of the few in the proud that has survived.

Every time, every year, my family goes down to the state fair.

It's like I, and I'm at the age where I turn down the music in my car to be

able to make sure that I don't get lost.

Anybody else there?

No.

Thank you.

A few of, you're there, you teenagers, you're like, what?

In the world that has nothing to do?

Those two things aren't related.

They are just wait until you get old enough that they're connected

and, and I'll, I'll get my wife and I'll be like, Hey, I need your help.

I need your, your set of eyes on this.

Because the mix master, it's just a rat's nest of highways that all come together

and there's signs that don't make sense.

And you, you try to stay on course and yet so easy is it to find

yourself on a different highway.

And next thing you know, you're in Waco.

When you're not trying to get to Waco at all, you're going,

how did I get here, y'all?

The world that we live in as Christians is the mix master.

There is one path that we are called to follow, and it's the path

that's fixated on Jesus Christ.

And, and, and yet when we are attacked, those attacks are like the enemy

trying to say, Hey, come take this off ramp towards, towards anger.

Take it towards retaliation.

It's gonna be so good over here.

Look what's over here at this exit.

Or the enemy's gonna say, you know what?

You need to go over here and to, to loathing and self-pity, and you

need to be over here 'cause this is such a good exit for you to be in.

Instead of, what we're called to do is we're called to keep

our eyes fixated on Jesus.

And there's three descriptors that we find here in these verses here, verses

10 and 11, of what that looks like for us and how we should stay fixated

on Jesus when the world attacks us.

Notice first he says this, let him keep his tongue from evil and

his lips from speaking deceit.

Man.

So often when we are attacked, the weapon we employ is our words.

James talks so much about the power of the tongue.

In James chapter three, and he talks about the incongruence between us

wanting to use our tongue to worship God and to praise God, and then use

our same tongue to go out and curse other people made in the image of God.

As long as you have the ability to speak, you are never attacked, unarmed,

because one of the greatest weapons that we possess as Christians is

our words, and Peter's saying to us.

Let you, your tongue be kept from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.

It's interesting that he talks about our lips from speaking deceit.

I think when we're attacked, one of the defenses that we have is sometimes

to embellish a situation, isn't it?

To make ourselves look better and to make the other person look worse,

and certainly speaking evil, we need to guard against that.

Social media has made it far easier for us to give full vent to the

evil of our hearts, hasn't it?

To run to a Facebook post, to run to an Instagram post, to run to a

comment, to run to a, a Twitter post

or text messages and, and emails.

Lemme just give you some uninvited advice.

I, I think text message and emails are, are two of the worst ways to

seek reconciliation that exist.

If you can avoid it at all, I would avoid it.

Because when you send a text or when you write an email, you

are letting the, the one that is reading, that interpret your tone.

They can't hear your voice, they can't see your face.

And if you really have what's good in mind, if you're really after

reconciliation, then you are gambling by sending that text or sending

that email rather than sitting down.

Ideally, the best place would be face to face.

If you can't be face to face, I think there's a blessing that

we have in in FaceTime or using video chat with each other.

You can see facial expressions and if not, those two things I would say at least

pick up the phone and talk to somebody.

You can hear the tone of voice that way, but Peter saying, don't use

your words for evil or for deceit.

Don't lash out.

Don't retaliate that way.

Why?

Because you've been born again.

And we want to be like Jesus.

And Jesus when he was reviled, did not revile in return.

So keep your tongues from evil.

It's a command there.

It it suggests if you're doing it, stop doing it.

If you're not doing it, don't start doing it

again.

This is part of that fixation on our future with Jesus.

We know where we're going and we wanna live in light of what we're

doing, where we're going right now, and that's gonna be so much better.

Then the, the momentary satisfaction I might get by lashing out with my words.

Second way that, that we can keep our eyes fixated on Jesus is this, let

'em turn away from evil and do good.

Let 'em turn away from evil and do good.

In other words, move on in obedience to the Lord.

Move on in obedience to the Lord.

You, you know when, when Paul tells Timothy, flee these

things, sexual morality, love of money, other things like that.

Paul doesn't just put a period there.

Does he?

He says, flee these things and pursue these things.

Pursue godliness and righteousness and holiness and, and love.

So anytime as, as Christians that we're being called to turn away

from something, we are being called to turn towards something else.

And so here, what Peter's saying is, is don't let the enemy.

Don't let the enemy get you off track.

Don't let the enemy attack you during times like this to derail

you from your walk with Christ.

Stay focused on Jesus.

Keep your obedience intact when it comes to Jesus.

Keep walking after him.

Third way we keep ourselves fixated on our future with Jesus

is we seek peace and pursue it.

We seek peace and pursue it.

We talked about this a little bit last week.

In our sermon when it comes to unity,

but how do we do with this with somebody outside of, of the

flock, outside of the church?

What does that look like there for us to seek peace there?

Romans 1218 says this if possible, so far as it depends on you.

Live peaceably with all, live peaceably, with all

forgiveness is such a massive part of what we're talking about

in this message this morning.

And, and forgiveness is so crucial if we are to do what we're talking

about here, to, to stay fixated on Jesus and to seek peace.

I if, if you harbor unforgiveness against somebody, then the enemy has hijacked

your heart and your pursuit of Jesus,

and he would love nothing more than to do that.

Lemme talk about forgiveness for just a second.

Forgiveness, I believe is required of the Christian in every situation.

Here's what I mean.

There, there are two components to forgiveness.

There is a horizontal component that is the relational component, right?

The the relational component of forgiveness may not happen.

The person may refuse to repent.

The person may refuse to seek forgiveness.

You may have no contact with that person any longer.

And so there's not gonna be the reconciliation per se, between you and

them from a human relationship standpoint.

That said, forgiveness can still take place between you and the Lord,

which is where it has to take place.

And what that looks like is you taking the offense against you and your hunger

for, for justice, and you're thirst for retaliation, and you yielding that

and letting it go and see, seeding it and rolling it over to the Lord

to see that he will deal with it.

According to his perfect wisdom, that's the forgiveness that has to

take place for every single Christian.

When somebody has wronged you, whatever it may be, is to roll that over to

the Lord, to say, Lord, I'm hurt.

I'm wounded.

This has made me angry and I'm struggling with this, but help me to trust you to

be the ultimate arbiter of justice here.

Help me to release this to you.

And not to hold onto it and to remain bitter and to remain angry, and to have my

walk with you interrupted because I can't let go of what this person did to me.

Again, that earthly relationship, maybe it's over forever, but you can let go of

the offense to the Lord and trust that he's gonna see too the, the recompense,

the revenge if that's necessary.

And so we need to keep our eyes fixated on Jesus by making sure that we are

walking as one who is a follower of Christ, knowing where we're going, going,

you know what this fault, this wrong turnover here that you're trying to

get me to take, uh, you know, to, to go and, and slander that person back, or to

accuse them, or to use my words for evil.

No, no, no.

It's not worth it.

Being with Jesus is where I'm, I'm looking.

Or over here, this, this exit over here that, that wants me to, to, to

be derailed in my walk with Christ and just hung up here and, and start

sinning myself instead of pursuing what's good and obeying the Lord.

You know what?

Nope, that's not worth it either.

I'm gonna stay here because I'm, I'm going after Jesus and I wanna be with him.

Or, you know what?

This thing over here that, that you want me to just harbor bitterness and

you don't want me to ever get over this offense that's been leveled against

me, and you want me to have this, this feeling of, of distance, this roadblock,

this obstacle between me and the Lord because of this lack of forgiveness.

Nope.

Not gonna do it.

I'm gonna let that go because I want to go and be with Jesus.

That's far better.

And so we want to keep our minds, our focus fixed on our future with Jesus.

It's, it's like learning to drive, right?

If you're anything like me, and I remember teaching Josh how to drive recently,

uh, you, you start out by looking over the hood of your car, don't you?

'cause that makes sense.

'cause you think to yourself, well, that's where I'm going, is right here.

I wanna make sure that I'm going the right place.

But what happens when you're looking right over the hood of the, your

car, you, you start not realizing it, but you're, you're drifting now.

And so you think that's the safest place for me to be, to stay in the lines.

But what you realize is no, that's actually harder to

stay in the lines that way.

Instead, what you teach somebody who's driving to do is to look up, to look down

the lane, to look at where they're going.

And when you do that, what you find is that you're far more stable.

When you've got your eyes fixated down the road to where you're going, then when all

you're doing is looking at what's right in in front of you, when the world attacks

y'all, we gotta make sure that our eyes are down the road and not right here.

Because if they're right here, we're gonna drift towards wrath.

We're gonna drift towards unforgiveness.

We're gonna drift towards, uh, depression, and we're gonna

drift towards discouragement.

We're gonna drift towards stagnance in my faith, it's instead, I gotta keep my

eyes fixed right there and know that's where I'm going, and I know where's

coming because I'm able to see in front of me and I know where I'm headed.

That's what we're after, guys keeping our eyes fixated on Jesus.

Hebrews 12, one.

Therefore, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,

let us lay aside every weight and sin, which clings so closely.

And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus,

the founder and perfecter of our faith.

Who by the way, for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, how

did Jesus get through the hostility?

How did Jesus get through the accusations?

How did Jesus get through the pain of the cross?

How did Jesus get through the suffering and the mocking?

What does the writer of Hebrews say who, for the joy set

before him endured the cross?

And so Christian.

Yeah, there's a joy set before you if you desire to see good days, and

if you desire to love life, that day's coming when you're gonna hear.

Well done, good and faithful servant.

Enter into the joy of your master that day's coming.

If you want that day, look forward to the joy of that day and keep moving forward.

In the meantime,

there's one more part of this, though.

That's great, right?

That that's great.

That that future is so good, but what about right now?

'cause right now, and it still hurts right now, I still replay

the words in my head right now.

That offense, it's still something that I'm dealing with the

ramifications and the repercussions of it, and it hurts right now.

I know one day it's not going to, but it does right now.

What about right now?

Verse 12, I think is a comfort for us towards that.

Peter says this, for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are

open to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

Peter's zooming in right now and he's coming back to, to where we're at today,

and he's saying, Hey, but, but know this.

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous.

Such a, a comforting thought for the here and now.

That confidence that, that God knows, that God sees that we're not suffering

alone and that he does indeed care.

There's an old saying that, right?

That, that God is good all the time and all the time.

What God is good

when you're attacked from the world, that truth, God is good.

It's so important for you to hold onto final point this morning

is this trust that God is good.

Trust that God is good for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous.

The eyes of the Lord are actually on everyone, aren't they?

Proverbs, chapter 15, verse three.

Proverbs 15 · chapter mention

The eyes of the Lord are in every place keeping watch on the evil and the good.

So then why does Peter say the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous?

Why is he emphasizing that?

Well, it's because of what that means.

It means the eyes of the Lord for your good and for your favor are on the

righteous that God sees that God knows.

And one of our twins, and I'm not gonna tell you which one, you've

got a 50 50 shot, I'm guessing.

We will come into our room in the middle of the night and, and wake us

up from the dead sleep, you know, and he, he's getting weirder about it.

Um, we have windows that are about, like 10 feet away from, from the

bed, and rather than coming up to the bed and scaring me right here, now

what he's prone to do is he, he like walks the perimeter of the room and

he like, he's like this up against the window and the bed's over there.

And he's like, dad.

Dad, and you just wake up and you see this outline against the window,

and then you realize it's whatever it is, it's small enough, you could

probably take it even though I'm oh, for one in physical encounters.

And then you realize it's a child that belongs to you and you go,

okay, and all this is happening within a few synapses firing.

But he's like, dad, I, I had a bad dream.

It's like, okay, bud.

So you take him back upstairs, you put him back in bed, you tuck him in, and then.

You go back to bed and you wake up in the morning and he comes downstairs

and you look at him, you go, what?

Why?

Why did you do that last night?

What?

Did you fall back asleep?

Yeah, I fell back asleep.

Okay.

Why did you come downstairs and, and wake me up and he'd say something like this?

Because I wanted you to know, I wanted you to know that I was scared.

I wanted you to know that I was awake and I couldn't sleep.

Me knowing is part of what was the comfort for him to go back to sleep.

Christian, the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous.

Whatever you're going through, whatever slander has been lobbed at you,

whatever attack, whatever accusation, whatever the world has done to you,

whatever a person has hurt you with, the Lord knows he sees he's aware, and

his eyes for your good are upon you.

It's such a comforting thought, such a comforting thought to us.

God may bring justice here and now he may bring reconciliation between

you and that person here and now he may even allow you to forgive and,

and move past something you weren't sure that you would be able to.

He may allow you to do that here and now, but we know for sure that one day

we will experience that in the future.

And in the meantime, he's got us, is what this verse is telling us.

You are not by yourself.

You are not on your own.

He is with you.

He's given you his spirit.

He's there to comfort you.

He's there to remind you that he sees that.

He knows that he's aware.

And on top of that, as he goes on, he say his, his ears are

open to your prayers rares.

Not only does he see and know and is aware, but he also hears.

So that when you're hurting right now, you can bring those hurts to the Lord.

You can be honest with him.

You can pray like David prayed, how long?

Oh Lord.

And know that David hears that prayer, that God hears that prayer.

Scratch that.

You can know that God hears that prayer.

God heard David's prayer.

That's what I was going for.

Every time you've prayed that, God has heard that.

You say, okay, but what about pastor?

It doesn't feel like it.

I've been praying about this situation.

I've been praying about the pain that I'm going through.

I've been praying for an end of this.

I've been praying for reconciliation and, and it's not happening.

Does he hear my prayer?

Yeah.

He hears your prayer.

What do I do?

I think a, a few things.

When you find yourself in a situation like that, I think it's a good opportunity

to examine the motives of our heart to make sure that we're, we're really

seeking the lord's will, we're praying the right things in those times.

I think the second thing is keep praying.

Keep praying until it's absolutely clear that he is not gonna answer that

prayer the way that you want him to be.

The persistent widow.

Keep knocking on that door.

Keep going before the judge.

Third, acknowledge that God's wisdom is perfect.

You are praying and, and, and I'm praying in those times from our

own wisdom, and we do the best we can to pray the best we know how.

And yet our wisdom is fallen.

We are not sovereign when God is,

and so God sometimes uses these pain points in your life to accomplish his

sovereign and perfect will in your life.

God will sometimes use the attacks of other people to make you more

like Jesus, to cause you to depend on him more, to cultivate more of a

forgiving heart in your life, because that makes you more like Jesus.

And so we acknowledge his wisdom is perfect, and then finally we,

we acknowledge that he does answer.

Sometimes we just don't want the answer that he answers us with.

Sometimes that answer is no.

Sometimes that answer is not yet,

but he does hear, which should be immensely comforting because he's good.

And so because he is good and because he does hear, we know that however

he chooses to respond, if we do trust that he is good, is going

to be good, is going to be good.

And then the third part of our comfort is this, but the face of the

Lord is against those who do evil.

The face in the Old Testament represented the entire person

because on the face you saw how the person really felt the expressions.

And so the face of the Lord being against those who do evil, what

it means is the Lord is against.

Those who do evil.

And so this should be a comfort to, to you to know that right now

it hurts, but the Lord sees it and your hurt counts in his eyes.

The offense against you matters.

Maybe it doesn't matter in the sense of justice from this world.

You may not see justice from a temporal perspective, but you can know from

a verse like this that the pain that you're experiencing counts in God's

economy and he will meet out justice in his perfect and divine wisdom.

And so you can trust that he's good in that as well.

Which brings to question, what about earthly justice in all of this?

Okay.

We've been talking a lot about how we should respond and nowhere

does it say press charges.

Nowhere has it said, seek a settlement in court.

Nowhere has it said, file the report with your employer.

So what do we do?

How is that okay?

Should we just roll over and play dead?

And I would say, no, you don't need to roll over and play dead.

The Bible says the government does not bear the sword in vain.

I think as Christians we should champion justice.

We should pursue things being righted when they have been wronged.

But I think personally we need to have a couple of of cautions here

as we may seek earthly justice.

Somebody wrongs you, somebody does something to you.

Is it wrong to press charges or to seek justice?

I would say no.

It's okay.

So long as a few things.

Number one, how's your heart in it?

Are you vengeful?

Are you seeking justice because this is your way to repay evil for evil?

If that's the case, then there's a problem in your own heart with it.

Second is, as you seek earthly justice, are you still able

to pray for that person?

I, I think I saw this most clearly and, and so many of us did when Erica Kirk

stood up on that stage and she looked into the camera at her su husband's assassin,

so to speak, and said, I forgive you.

I don't, I don't know her heart.

I don't know her at all, so I don't know her heart,

but man, what a testimony it would be if, if she's been praying for that man.

As she's going through all the pain and sorrow that she's going through.

A man who certainly personally attacked her so you can seek justice.

'cause notice she's not saying I wanna drop all charges against him.

You can just let him go.

You can seek justice and still have your heart right before the Lord in this third.

Are you able to keep your tongue from evil and your lips from

speaking deceit in the process?

Are you able to obey what Peter's been calling us to in this passage

as you seek that earthly justice?

Those are just some, some thoughts as you think about, does earthly justice fit?

Can I still pursue earthly justice?

YY, yes, but most of the times we're gonna be dealing not with situations where

you're gonna involve the authorities.

Most of the time we're dealing with, okay, this is person on person,

slander, accusations, attacks.

How do we respond?

What does this look like for us?

How do we do this?

Why do we do this?

Well, we do it in a way that's different than anything else you're

gonna find outside of Christianity.

And the reason is, is because we wanna be like Jesus.

Because why?

Because we have met the Lord through the good news of the gospel, which

is that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins that we be can

be forgiven and that he rose against that we can live forever with him.

If you repent from your sins and put your trust in Jesus, it changes everything

about your life, not the least of which is how you respond when you're attacked,

slandered accused, maligned, or hurt from those that still aren't following Christ.

The Gospel changes everything about us.

It changes how we respond because the gospel sets us on

a course to be more like Jesus.

Let's pray together.

Father God, we lament the reality that we live in a world where there is

this brokenness, this fallenness, this heartache, this sorrow or the offense,

those that are created in the image of God, tearing down others

created in the image of God.

And if we're honest with ourselves, we have both been those that have

perpetuated that and received it.

And Lord, if we're honest with ourselves, I'm, I'm sure we're going

to be hurt again in the future.

I'm sure we're going to feel wounded again in the future.

I'm sure we're gonna feel the temptation again in the future to

lash out, to retaliate, to want to respond and repay evil for evil.

But Lord, I pray that by your spirit working within us to make us more like

Jesus, that you would help us to live like Jesus and to follow his example.

Lord, this is not easy and we do long for the day that we're with you.

But until we reach that day, Lord, help us to be obedient to what

you've called us to be as Christians.

And comfort us with the knowledge that you know, you see, you're with us.

And ultimately you will see the justice is done, whether it's on

the cross or under your wrath.

And God, we do wish that more and more would come to know that justice

has been satisfied on the cross for them, and that less and less would

have to face your wrath in the future.

Use us towards that end, even Lord, as we're praying for those that have wounded

us, praying for those that have hurt us, praying for those that have accused us.

We want people to to come to faith in Jesus.

Help us to be such a church.

Use us to reach people and to bring more and more to the knowledge of

Jesus Christ, of the Lord and Savior.

We pray this all in Jesus name.

Amen.