Picture of the Church

Turn with me in your Bibles this morning to 1 Peter chapter 2.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

And about a month ago, or a little bit longer, Sarah gave me a little piece of paper.

And it says, The Lord gives Pastor Danny power.

Look at that.

Isn't that beautiful?

And I told her, I said, that stays in my Bible.

And right before I get up to preach, I look at, hey, she did a pretty good job of drawing my face and hands there, bald headed and like that.

That's pretty good.

That's pretty good.

And uh, but anyway, let me tell you something.

When these kids hug my neck, run up and want to hug Pastor Danny's neck, and they draw little drawings, especially when they hear me preach, it's amazing.

They'll sit there and draw.

I think they're listening better than some of you adults.

But uh that's all that matters.

If I'm reaching to kids, I'm happy.

I'm happy.

Because that's where it is for the next generation.

In 1 Peter chapter 2.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

Do you everyone have a worship guide this morning?

Worship guide?

Everyone have one?

We got some.

Excellent.

Okay.

And by the way, two Sundays is what?

Easter.

So I hope you're ready.

Easter egg extravaganza coming up.

A lot of things happening around the Easter time.

I can't wait.

Our soccer ministry started with Dave.

And man, I can't wait to see him today.

That's gonna be exciting.

I'm telling you, you know what got my heart thrilled with last week when Deedra and a couple of other people kind of sent me some videos, but Deedra put on there, and Rick sent me and said, Pastor Danny, the vision is happening.

See, we saw this about six years ago.

Now, I promise I did.

And uh uh it's happening.

You're literally living the vision, folks.

So don't ever take that for granted.

And I know you keep hearing me say this, but you haven't seen anything yet.

God's just warming up.

Amen.

And what he's doing, he's got to get us ready, okay, so that we can accomplish what he wants us to accomplish with what he's given to us.

Can I get an amen?

And so it's very important that we understand that.

And I believe that with all my heart.

God's allowed me to be in a situation like this now three times in over 40 years.

So I do understand what God wants us to do.

But in order to do what God wants us to do, we got to be ready to handle what God wants us to do.

And that comes with the maturing process.

Amen?

It does.

And that's what we're working on right now.

That's why one of our key core values is the unadulterated truth.

You're gonna get the word of God when you come here verse by verse, chapter by chapter.

That's just who we are.

Because the word of God never returns void.

Isaiah 55, 11.

But it accomplishes where God sends it.

And by the way, good to have Geraldine.

Y'all remember Geraldine and Ricky?

She didn't bring Ricky, she didn't need Ricky, which is a dummy, because she knew she had Pastor Danny.

He's a pretty good dummy.

But it's good to have her to be praying for her.

She lost her husband and and uh times like this, especially holidays, it gets lonely.

And how long's Dave been past now?

One year.

Yep.

June will be two years for David.

So uh just times like this, Easter, Christmas, they're tough.

They're really tough.

So just love on her.

Tell her how much you love.

And she's brought me some gumbo soup.

Oh, yeah.

She's really a Cajun, so that girl knows how to cook.

So make sure I get a little bow, whoever's back there.

I don't have to have much, but don't let me not get a little of that gumbo.

1 Peter chapter 2.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

We started in 2 a couple of weeks ago, and we looked at the progression and the growth of the church, and and basically the end of chapter 1 up to uh chapter uh 2, verse 3.

And we're going to look back at 1.

I didn't touch on chapter verse 1 then because it fits this message.

And then the last message we looked at was the portrayal of the church, and we saw who Jesus was.

He's the chief cornerstone, he's the lively stone, and we looked at all those principles there about him being our foundation.

And without him, we could do nothing.

But with him, we could do all things.

So, what we're gonna look at today, if I can finish the rest of the chapter, we'll see.

I'm not gonna shortchange you, but it's powerful because now, after we see the progression and the growing in the church and the portrayal of the church of who Christ is and who we're to be, we're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people that should show forth the praises of Him who's called us out of darkness into the light.

In other words, we ought to be a radiant testimony.

Can I get an amen?

A radiant testimony.

We ought to be glowing.

We ought to be glowing.

And so that's where we kind of ended.

So I want to pick up at verse 11.

And the title of the message, The Picture of the Church.

The picture of the church.

And we basically are only going to look at one major point, but it's got a lot of input in that one major point, and that is the plea about the conduct of the church.

The progressing in the growth, and then the portrayal of the church, and then the third thing that ends this chapter is the plea that Peter gives to us about the church.

In other words, Peter literally says, Church, listen to me, you're about to go into some tough times, the suffering with Nero and all this hard persecution is coming.

He says, but you've got to be the example of Christ.

You've got to be, hey, you've got to learn to live through the suffering and be a testimony as you grow.

So, with that said, first of all, let's look at number one and put it in your outline right there.

The plea about conduct.

And the first thing I want us to look about, this plea, is a the character of the plea.

Look at verse 11.

And notice what Peter says: the character of the plea.

He says, dearly beloved.

The words dearly beloved are translated from just one word, which means they were loved of God.

In other words, they were special.

They were set aside for God and Him alone.

And that's what verse 9 meant.

Chosen generation, royal priesthood, holy nation, spiritual people, different people, people that exemplify what Christ's likeness really is.

People ought to look at you as a Christian and know there's something different about you than the world.

Amen?

Something's different.

And man, as we see what he's talking about, he's saying right here, Peter's saying, yes, I'm not talking about I love you, I love you, but God loves you a lot more than I love you.

1 John 4 10, hearin his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us.

And sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins, the ultimate sacrifice.

Notice what else he says?

The word besiege.

It literally means it's a plea.

It means I exhort you, I urge you.

And here's the word synonym I like.

He says, I beg you, church.

This is pretty serious business when, hey, when Peter says, I beg you, church, I urge you, church.

In other words, please listen to what I'm about to say.

You've got to do this.

That's exactly what he's saying.

And I beseech you.

And then look at what he says about the attitude in this character.

Notice what he says: strangers and pilgrims.

The believers were not at home in this world.

This world is but a temporary home.

But they were to live like citizens of heaven in the temporary place.

In other words, we ought to give people that are lost a taste of heaven down here.

How much heaven are you?

Hey, how much heaven are you hauling around today?

If people were to look at you this morning, how much of heaven could they see?

Well, that'll change your thinking and talking, won't it?

Hello?

Amen.

But that's what he's saying.

It's unbelievable.

And then, I love what he says, not I but Christ.

But then in verse 11 through 20, we see not only the character of the plea, but the contents.

Now where it's going to get good.

The contents of the plea.

And there's a lot of beautiful truths here that you got to listen very carefully because it's unbelievable.

First of all, he says there's some things you got to stop.

There's some things you got to stop.

How many of us in our lives when we got saved, we knew there were some things that we had to stop?

Okay.

I'm going to say that again.

I didn't get enough hands.

Okay, that's getting better.

Now you're getting under conviction.

Hands going up everywhere.

That's better.

That's better.

Amen.

But he says there's some things you got to stop.

Look at what he says.

Abstain from fleshly lust.

Whoa.

How many of you believe that the flesh is a constant, should I say, constant barrier, constant trip-up, constant problem for Christians?

Every hand in here ought to go up, or you're not saved.

Hello.

You just need to get saved.

That's your problem.

But it's a battle every day.

Why do you think Paul says I die daily?

He had a battle with the flesh every day.

And here's what we see.

See, after salvation, by the way, and after salvation, hey, it's even a worse battle than before salvation.

Because he's got you.

You're living in the flesh before you get saved.

It's a terrible.

Now notice what he says, the word, look at the word abstain.

The believer must not yield to these lusts, these evil lusts which come from the flesh.

All yielding must be stopped to the lust of the flesh, or not to dictate the lust of the flesh, or not to dictate our conduct.

Why do you think John says, love not the things of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, though not of the Father, but of the world?

The world passes away in the lust thereof.

But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.

1 John 2, 15 through 17.

But now watch this.

What are the key lusts of the flesh?

I asked that question when I was working on this message the last two weeks.

And guess where the key keys are?

There's five keys of it.

Go back to verse 1 now.

I want you to see it.

Here it is.

I want you to see where Christians have the most, where we have the most problems.

And I really do believe this.

First of all, lay aside all malice.

Verse 1.

The word translated malice there is larger in meaning than just malice.

You know what it literally means?

It literally means wickedness.

It means evil.

It means a desire to injure someone.

I thought to myself, is that what we're not, I mean, is that not what we're seeing right now in America?

There is so much malice and wickedness going on in America that God help us.

And that's what it means.

This statement is almost a summary then of what's about to follow because notice what he says, notice all malice.

No wickedness is to be tolerated.

Can I get an amen?

No wickedness.

When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice.

Now listen.

But when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.

I'm telling you, folks, we're close.

We gotta pray.

God just touch down and just bring us a revival like we've never seen before.

And then notice the second word.

We see the practice of iniquity.

It's gotta be stopped.

Wickedness.

And then the practice of illusion.

Look at the word guile.

This word means deceit.

It's dalos.

And the verb form of this now means to catch with a bait.

Catch with a bait.

In other words, Satan baits you in me.

Hello?

You say, oh no, he does.

Oh, yes, he does.

He's got traps for every one of us.

Isn't it amazing you come to church and before you get home, all of a sudden you've fallen in a trap.

Sister Fluffyhead stops at the red light and sitting there doing her makeup and the light turns green, and you just get all in the spirit, don't you?

No, you get out of the spirit all in the flesh.

Hello.

It's just that easy, isn't it?

Why?

Satan's got a trap for you.

Can I say something?

Satan knows what button to push.

Hello?

He knows what button to push.

This is how Satan does his work.

He deceives by making something look so good that you think it's alright when in, hey, in reality it's total destruction.

He's the angel of light.

He makes it look like it's the truth when it's really a false heresy.

Amen?

That's him.

That's what he does.

That's who he is.

Reminds me of the fishing lure.

Who's bass fisherman in here?

If Wade was here, I'd know.

Okay.

You put the right lure on there, you throw it out, and you start grilling it in a little bit.

I'm not a fisherman, but I'm trying, okay?

And that lure is going like this in the water.

And what does that do?

That attracts that bass.

Okay, here comes that bass, here's the lure, and here comes that big old 10-pound bass.

Okay, he sees that lure, no problem.

He circles that lure.

He circles that lure.

He wants that lure.

No problem.

But about that time, fishy whoop, whoop, uh-oh, fishy, bad problem now.

Fishy caught.

Fishy on the wall.

Huh?

Huh?

Satan works just like that.

You start looking at something, you start wanting something, and then next thing you know, boom, you're in trouble.

And you know that's true.

Then look at the third thing: the practice of insincerity.

Hypocrisies.

Look at the word hypocrisies.

I'm gonna make a statement here.

The church is full of hypocrites.

Hello?

Church is full of hypocrites.

I hear people tell me the reason I don't go to church is because it's full of hypocrites.

You know what I always tell them?

I don't try to defend that.

I said, absolutely.

And let me ask you a question.

He's what?

I said, are you a Christian?

Oh yeah, but I don't have to be a Christian to go to church.

I don't have to go to church to be a Christian.

I said, no, but if you're a Christian and not going to church, you're a hypocrite.

Hello.

Think about that.

What is a hypocrite?

Someone that says he's, hey, he's something that he's not.

That's really the definition.

Or he tells you he's gonna do something and he's not.

I have people all the time when we ask them to do something, or they'll say, Well, let me pray about it.

Let me tell you the Greek word for let me pray about it phrase.

Ain't gonna do it.

That's just a top-out.

That's just insincerity.

They don't want to do it, not gonna do it, but they don't want to hurt your feelings.

Hypocrisy.

Hey, hey, uh, the Pharisees were hypocrites.

And we see right here that a true believer is to be sincere, faithful, truthful, and honest.

And then notice what we have.

The fourth thing, the fourth major foundation of lust, the practice of envies.

And Fawcett, Jameson, great theologian commentary, and Brown's commentary, says this.

What's this?

Malice, which we said was wickedness and wanted to bring hurt, malice delights in hurt, bringing hurt to someone.

But then they said, envy is different.

Envy is jealous of another's good.

Malice wants to hurt, envy is jealous.

People, I see that's in church growth as much as anything.

Well, my church is bigger.

They're just envying.

Instead of being grateful, praise God for churches that are winning and growing.

God bless them.

I'm not gonna criticize them.

If anything, I want to go find out what they're doing and see what we may do to help.

Amen.

That's what it's all about.

And then the fifth lustful foundation that Satan used, malice, hypocrisy, deceitfulness, envy, jealousy, and then he says, put away in verse one all evil speaking.

Look at there.

This evil speaking is slander, and the word means incriminating others unjustly.

Now I know we don't do that in the church.

And by, you know what I found out about evil and gossiping?

They don't need facts, the gospel.

They don't make them up.

We see that on news, isn't that sad?

Ladies and gentlemen, the number one problem in a church or any organization is gossip.

If you can't say anything good about someone, my grandmother used to say, Don't say anything at all.

Amen.

Now notice what he says.

All evil speaking.

All say that with me.

All evil speaking, all malice.

It's gotta go.

Guy was asking me, he said, Pastor, I was talking to a guy works for Eric.

And he says, you know, I have sometimes my mouth will just get me.

And I just want to rip people to.

He says, How do you get over that?

I said, I'm gonna tell you, but you're not gonna like it.

He said, Well, please help me.

I said, Ephesians 4.29.

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto its hearers.

I said, This is curve, does it work every time?

I wish I could say I don't slip up, but I do sometimes.

But most of the time, Holy Spirit brings that, and that means if it's not good, if it's not building up, if it's not necessary, and if it's not spoken graciously, don't say it.

And then I said, let me give you a couple of more verses.

Jesus said, for every idle word that men may speak.

They will give an account of it in the day of judgment.

Now, folks, let me tell you something.

You may think It's not a big deal.

But with the Lord, it's a big deal.

I mean, it'd be bad.

You know, I could understand him right and well, if you curse or use my name in vain, buddy, I'm gonna get it.

You're gonna stand before me and have to give an account of that.

But he just he didn't say the curse words, the big words, he said idle words.

Have you ever looked up the word idol?

It means the definition means idol means something of no good, or you it's not useful.

So that means those little curt jokes and all that stuff.

Just a thought.

Yep, I knew I wouldn't get any many amends on that.

That's okay.

That's all right.

Yeah, but that's it.

Look at what he says.

In fact, you gotta see this.

I don't think I want you to, uh, Jason, can you put Romans 3 up there real quick?

I want you to see what Paul said.

Romans 3, man, when I read this, I said, ooh, that hurts.

In Romans 3, verse 14, he says, Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness?

Romans 3:14

Uh-oh.

In fact, verse 13, he says, their throat is an open sepulchre.

With their tongues they have used deceit.

There's the word.

The poison of snakes is under their lips.

Oh my goodness.

Then he says, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

Folks, if all you hear is cursing and bitterness out of somebody's mouth, I've got news for you.

I don't believe they can be saved.

I really don't.

And all this, well, that's the way people talk.

My parents and grandparents didn't talk that way when I was growing up.

And notice what else he says in the verse 15.

The feet are swift to shed blood.

Verse 16, destruction and misery are in their ways.

And the way of peace have they not known.

Okay.

That means they don't know the Lord.

They don't know Christ.

They don't have a relationship with the Lord.

If all they're going to do is be cursing and backbiting and just if I have one lady says, I can't help it.

That's just the way I am.

I said, Well, your problem is you need to change the way you are.

Hello?

Therefore 517, therefore, if any man be in Christ, and I quoted that to her, therefore, if any man be in Christ Jesus, he's a new creation.

You don't have to be that way all the time.

You can be a new creation.

Old things, that old mouse gotta go.

Behold, all things have become new.

Amen.

Let me tell you something about four-letter words.

If that's all the vocabulary you got, you're not real smart.

Hello.

You need to go read some books.

You need to change your vocabulary.

Amen.

And I tell you what's sad when all of a sudden your little boy or your little daughter blurts it out.

And isn't it amazing?

Oh, honey, you shouldn't say that.

You don't, ooh, ooh, ooh.

We'll get in trouble for saying that.

But dad says that every other word.

That's enough.

You can't handle it anymore.

Okay.

So let's look at the second thing as we begin.

Notice the second part of verse 12.

Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles.

This speaks of our behavior before the world.

Notice he's defining the precept here.

Honest speaks of more than just a person's integrity.

What it's talking about here, the Greek word is translated kalos, and it means good and beautiful.

In other words, our life, our testimony ought to be good and beautiful.

You know, I've I hear it more now than I growing up, but that's just a beautiful person.

That's biblical.

That's biblical, folks.

You're a beautiful person.

You know what that means, Kalos?

Good and beautiful?

It means you're good and you're beautiful and you're pleasing to God.

We ought to all desire to be a beautiful person.

Man, that really spoke to me.

It really did.

And then notice what he says.

Look at the second thing.

Look at the design.

He says, right here, and boy, what a powerful word.

He says, they may be your good works.

Glorifying God in the day of visitation.

You know what he says?

Here's what he's saying: that the believer is to behave in such a way that it will cause others to glorify God.

Wow.

Oh, God help me.

And then he says, not only should you live in such a way that you're going to what?

Be a witness to other people so that they will want what you got, but he then says, in the visitation of the Lord, one day you're going to stand before the Lord and give an account of everything you say and have done.

So don't forget that visitation part.

The Lord's coming back.

And every knee's going to bow and every tongue's going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Is that not good?

Then look at verse 13.

Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man.

Oh boy, this is a good one.

This is one we don't like.

This precept deals with the laws of the land in which we live.

Look at the first, he defines the word submission.

Submit does not include now submission, which is contrary or goes against God's word.

We're to submit to our authorities as long as they don't tell us to go against God's word.

Can I get an amen?

And let me give you the scripture for that.

Acts 5, 29.

We ought to obey God rather than men.

Okay?

But then look at the difficulty, the second thing here of this submission, to every ordinance of man.

Now watch.

Whether it be to the king or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them that do well.

Oh my goodness.

That's verse 13 and 14.

In other words, not all laws of the land will be likable, but submission is to be to all of them, regardless of the ruler.

The reason, you know what breaks my heart?

In the last probably three, going all the way back to Bush, the president office.

We have so taken that office and criticize it.

And guess what?

You don't have to agree with the person in the office, but you ought to respect the office.

Amen?

It's a joke.

It's a joke.

God's not honored with that.

God says you are to submit to your authorities.

Romans 13 tells us to pray for them.

Yeah, but no, there are no buts.

Pray for those that are in authority.

Oh my soul.

If we would pray as much as we talk about them, we might see some change.

Amen?

We might see some change.

But we'd rather spend an hour criticizing than an hour praying.

Amen?

But that's what he's saying.

And I got to thinking about that.

And I saw what he's talking about.

He says, I see the deity in this submission for the Lord's sake.

Everything we do is for the Lord's sake.

He is the highest motive, the main reason we live.

And he says that with the well-doing he may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.

You know what he's saying?

If you live a godly life, and if you're good and pleasing to God, you will shut up the critics.

Your life will shut up the critics.

Because let me tell you something.

If you're real and you're good and you're beautiful, when people criticize, I got to thinking about it, if people criticize me, hey, and they will, anytime you do right, people are going to criticize you.

But the people that really know you, that are your family and that are your church family and Christians, they're going to say, you can say all you want to.

They used to criticize Dr.

Falwell all the time when I worked for him.

And I'd look them in the face and I'd say, one thing's wrong with what you're saying.

What is that?

I said, you don't know the man.

I said, I live with the man.

I'm at university with him every day.

I'm on the airplanes with him all over the world.

I know who he is.

So what I'm saying is, the critics, don't let the critics get you down because the people that love you know who you are.

Hey, and I'll tell you something else.

The non-believers really don't care.

And yeah, Jesus said if they persecuted and said all manner of things of me, they're going to say them about you.

But then he went on saying, this is in Matthew 5, but let it not be true.

That's the key.

You just live it.

You live it.

Avenge not yourself, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.

Romans 12, 19.

Is that not good?

So we see that right there.

Now look at verse 16.

Not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the service of God.

Oh, by the way, let me say something about submitting to authority.

Don't forget the speed limit.

I'm not going to ask the question, or have you ever sped?

Speed?

Sped, whatever.

Have you ever gone more than what the speed limit's supposed to be?

Let me tell you, the first ticket I got out of.

I was doing about 70.

No, or 66.

67.

I do own that.

And anyway, uh Virginia trooper pulled me over.

Now they're bad.

They'll get you.

Five miles over.

They'll get you.

And he started saying, Mr.

Lovett, did you know you were going 66, 67?

I said, yeah.

I did.

He said, well, did you know the speed limit's 55?

I said, no.

I said, man created that speed limit, 55.

I said, God ordained and started 65.

And man changed it.

Because it'd been 65 for all those years.

He looked at me.

He started laughing.

He said, I've been a trooper for 30 years and I've heard everything.

I never heard that.

He said, I'm going to give you a warning.

But we're to submit to our authority.

So next time you don't speed.

Or maybe go one mile or two over.

That's it.

Don't do it.

You'll get caught.

You'll get caught.

He says, now watch.

Liberty.

And then he goes on, not using your liberty as a cloak of maliciousness.

In other words, don't use your liberty to sin.

Can I get an amen?

You've been set free from sin.

Can I get an amen?

But don't use that liberty to sin.

Let me explain that even better.

Here's the way Jesus put it.

Jesus said in the Gospels and in Acts, Paul said, if you know it's going to offend your brother, don't do it.

Now notice he didn't say, if it's sin, don't do it.

If you know it's going to offend your brother, don't do it.

Now that's what a real mature Christian will do.

If I know something's going to offend you or you don't believe in that thing, I'm not going to do it in front of you.

I'm not going to try to float it in your face.

I'm going to respect you because I love you and I'm courteous to you and I'm sensitive to you.

Amen?

So don't do it.

Don't do it.

They leave, then you do it.

But don't do it in front of them.

Don't try to prove a point to them.

But whatever you do, it shouldn't be bad.

Amen.

There's a lot of good things that offend people.

Did you know that?

A lot of people get offended because of athletics.

I had a guy tell me the other day, well, I was telling him about all our fields.

We're so excited about athletics to reach people.

Now I grew up an athlete, so I have a biased opinion.

Okay?

But I'm going to tell you right now, my athletic careers and my athleticism, that of all the years I've played all kinds of sports, I've had the opportunity to witness to more people than any other thing.

Because of that.

But anyway, he said, oh, he says, I don't think church ought to be involved in athletics.

I said, well, that's your opinion.

And I respect your opinion.

Church is the Lord's Day.

We don't do anything but go to church.

That's all we do on Sunday.

I grew up in an area of that.

I did.

So if it offends you, don't come out and watch us play soccer.

Hello?

But I'm gonna be out there watching soccer.

Because I know what we're doing with those kids.

And let me tell you what saved your pastor from never getting on drugs and alcohol and all.

Being a disciplined athlete because I wanted to be the very best I could be.

Amen.

See, a lot of things can be used for good or bad.

My granddaddy used to say shoot and pool, pool, pool table was of the devil.

Playing cards are of the devil.

Now I I got news for you.

What he should have said was being in the pool room shooting pool and playing cards.

Gambling's wrong.

But a pool table in your basement playing for fun or playing rook, facts.

Well, I better not go there.

Fights say we'll whoop anybody in rook.

But well, what hey, but what I'm saying is, folks, if I know that and you come over to my house, I'm not gonna pull out the rook card and say, You want to play cards?

Does that make sense?

Did I get that over okay, honey?

Because that's very important.

It really is.

Thank you.

So, verse 17, he says, honor all men.

And by the way, that's part of honoring all men.

Being sensitive to not offending people and treating people like you like to be treated.

And then look at the next verse phrase there, love the brotherhood.

This gives a good testimony to the world.

You shall know them by my love.

Remember that?

John 13, 35?

And then listen to what he says in 1 John 3.14.

We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren.

When you love people, you know you're saved.

I have people a lot of times.

I have a lot of preachers that have literally told me this.

Pastor Danny, I love the ministry.

I love preaching.

I just don't like people.

What is the church?

I'm not, am I?

I heard it.

They don't want to go to the hospital.

First thing I did when I got back late Wednesday night, first thing Thursday, I was at the hospital checking on Abraham, calling on other people, all the stuff that's going on in our church.

I was following up, and Rick and Dave and all of them did an awesome job while I'm gone.

I knew they would.

But I still wanted to check on them.

They're my people.

They're my shepherd.

I'm a shepherd.

I love my people.

I want to take care of them.

I want to make sure they're being taken care of.

Amen.

So if you don't want to be taken care of, you don't want to be a part of this church.

If you don't want us to come see you when you, hey, when you miss three or four Sundays, you don't want to be a part of this church.

There's a lot of churches you can go to, they won't even say, hey, when you walk in the door, they sure not gonna call you later.

And I shouldn't have said that.

I'm sorry, but it's true.

But anyway, then notice what he says.

Fear God.

Fearing God includes respect for God, believing God, obeying God.

Honor the king.

That means to give due to honor to the authority.

The military were always told to salute what the uniform represents, maybe not the person in the uniform.

But what does that's why when all this thing happened about the flag, I took a pretty strong stand.

I said it's not the issue of whether it's black lives matter, white lives, Hispanic lives, they all matter.

But I said is that flag means something for me as a Christian and as an American.

People died so that I could have freedom of speech and freedom to worship God anywhere I want to.

I think every life matters.

Let me say, listen to me.

What you won't, you'll never see it with your pastor here or any of our pastor.

We don't see color and we don't see racism.

And I know I've been told, you just you don't understand.

I do understand because I love God and I love people.

I don't I don't look at your color when I love on you, or your social status.

I love you because of you, and I love you because God died for you.

He saved me.

And by the way, I'm a little boy that was born and raised on the wrong side of the tracks, not the right side.

So don't think I came up with had it easy.

I worked for everything God allowed me to have.

And I was in the projects.

So I do know.

And I get so upset because people want to divide us.

And it's not right.

Red, yellow, black, and white, they're all precious in his sight.

We want a black church, we want a white church, we want a, I'm fixing to get on a soapbox.

We want this, we want that, we want all.

Why can't we just have one church?

I know, I I know I'm not right.

That's unusual to hear that, isn't it?

That's not politically correct.

Well, I got a Greek word for politically correct.

Baloney.

My, my, my.

God help us.

And then he says, Serbants, be subjected to your masters.

Mmm, this is tough.

Look at the attitude with all fear.

That means respect.

And here's the other part that's pretty tough here.

You ready for it?

He goes on and he says, When you do well and suffer for it and take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.

And he also goes on and he says, right here, God wants our submission to be in the right spirit with all fear, but he also means do respect and honor, but then not only to the good in general, but also to the forward.

In other words, you may have a boss that's not a Christian, you may have a boss giving you a hard time.

But as long as he's not telling you to go against God's word, you're still to love him, submit to him, and you say, Yeah, but I can't stand working for him.

I got news for you.

Are you a Christian?

You ain't working for him.

You're working for him.

He knows.

You just get, you know what?

You just be nice to your mean boss, love on him, minister to him, try to bless him every opportunity you got, and I'm gonna tell you what, kindness will do more than anything else.

I guarantee it.

Then the last thing.

Affliction and the submission.

There's gonna be suffering.

But notice what he said in verse 20.

When you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently.

This is acceptable with God.

Take the suffering patiently really shows our submissive attitude to the Lord.

And it's so precious, so sweet.

And by the way, the word acceptable here is the Greek word translated thankworthy.

In other words, thankworthy means grace.

God considers such an action to be the action of grace, which is highly commendable with him.

And then the last section.

C.

Christ in the plea.

Well, this is good.

Verses 21 through 25.

We see the contents.

That was a lot of contents.

Boy, wasn't that good stuff?

Wasn't that good to see how we're to be the picture of Christ?

And then the Christ and the plea.

The plea to live a life of noble behavior.

Is helped by focusing on the life and ministry of Christ Himself, our Redeemer.

Three things, and we're through.

Number one, his pattern for suffering.

Look at what Peter said.

Peter had just been speaking to them about, you know, of the suffering of the believer and what they were experiencing and what they're about to experience to encourage faithfulness in their suffering.

And he points out Christ as the great example in verse 21.

Look at it.

He says, Christ is the example of suffering for doing well.

Notice he says, first of all, the suffering was vicarious.

Look at what he says.

Christ also suffered for us.

Christ suffered in order to save sinners.

Christ took your sins on that cross that we're about to celebrate.

He paid your debt, my debt.

Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.

1 Corinthians 15, 3 and 4.

But not only that, look at the second thing.

It was not only vicarious, it's virtuous.

Virtuous suffering.

Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.

Christ did not suffer for his own sins, for he had no sins to suffer of.

He suffered for my sins, your sins.

But God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5.8.

Wow.

And then look at thirdly, the valiant suffering.

It was valiant.

Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again.

When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously.

Wow.

Christ suffered patiently and in noble behavior.

During his suffering, he did not strike back in the flesh as the rest of us probably would have done.

He did not retaliate at the crucifixion.

In fact, what he did was turn and say, Father, forgive them.

For they know not what they do.

Oh boy, I wished I could do that.

Every time.

Sometimes I can't.

But that old flesh.

Remember?

Those five little points that we started out with a while ago?

Jealousy.

You know, isn't it?

When somebody's better than you at something, is it not hard sometimes for you to encourage them and compliment them?

Am I the only one that has that problem?

Why is that?

Because it's you're selfish.

You're jealous.

You want to be better.

Hello.

You okay out there?

Lord, I'm preaching to me this morning.

I need it.

And all y'all welcome to join in and listen.

His pattern for suffering.

Notice the second thing.

By the way, don't you love Isaiah?

He was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.

He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before her shears is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.

That gets back if you can't say something good.

What?

Don't say it.

That's a pretty good application there.

Number two, his performance and saving.

Look at what happens.

Look at the first thing.

Look at his sufficiency in the performance.

Who his own self.

Hey, there's only one way you can be saved.

Jesus came and he came to save you.

You can't get saved by joining the church.

You can't get saved by good works.

You can't get saved by going to the priest.

You can't get saved any other way but through Jesus.

He's the only way.

Neither is there salvation in any other, for there's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.

Acts 4 12.

He's the only way.

Look at the second thing, substitution.

He says, He bare our sins.

He did it.

Look at the third thing.

Look at the sacrifice.

He sacrificed his body on the tree.

Christ died on the cross.

He sacrified his life for our salvation.

And then look, fourthly, the saving in the performance, that we should live and be healed.

Woo! I'm saved and I'm healed.

Amen.

I'm healed from that broken, wicked heart.

Christ saves our soul from damnation.

The word heal here refers here to not to physical healing, but spiritual healing.

Now, can an application be applied to physical healing?

Yes, but let me tell you, he has something far greater than physical healing.

Listen to me now.

Don't miss this.

He had something far greater than physical healing.

He had eternal healing in mind.

You'd live forever.

See, you can be healed, but you're still gonna die.

Lazarus raised from the dead after three days, but guess what?

He still died again.

That'd be a bummer.

You ever thought about that?

I had to come back.

I didn't want to come back.

And I can tell you right now, as much as you miss your relatives, and I miss my best friends and my relatives and my little boy.

I hey, they don't want to come back.

They're singing the old Kingsman song, Wish You Were Here.

We're coming, won't be long.

Behold, come quickly, Lord Jesus.

And then fourthly, the saving and the performance that we should live healed.

But then look at the sanctifying, look at the sanctifying and the performance.

Should live unto righteousness.

Not only did he save us, in fact, Susan was dealing with uh eternal, not eternal security, but uh thank you, predestination.

And she uh told the guy to go back online and watch uh the title of the message.

When I first started this series, remember I dealt with eternal security and and uh predestination all in the first verse in 1 Peter, and he dealt with it.

And so he goes back and he watches, he said, for the first time I understood it.

Ladies and gentlemen, God has predestined us to be sanctified, which means to be like him.

We're chosen generations set apart to be sanctified, to be more like him today, and tomorrow be more like him tomorrow than it was today.

Do we do it all the time?

No.

Should we do it?

Yes, yes, and that's good.

And then he says, I see the stripes in the performance.

Who stripes?

The word stripes is the Greek, in the Greek presents a picture of our Lord's lacerated back after the scourging, and I'm not gonna go into details.

It's horrible.

It's horrible.

If I preach on that Sunday mor Easter morning, I'm not sure exactly.

It all depends on where I am in Peter, but we have a picture here called the uh yes, the Passion of Christ.

When you see that part of that movie with my Savior chained to that post and them lacerating his body to the point that every muscle, tendons, even bowels can be seen.

Just laid open.

God help us.

And then by whose stripes you were healed.

And then the last thing I'm through.

We see his performance in saving, we see his pattern for suffering, and then number three, his person for shepherding.

Christ is the great shepherd that mankind needs to follow.

Notice, notice the roaming for the shepherd.

Ye were as sheep gone astray.

Uh-oh.

Uh-oh.

How many of you go astray?

I'm gonna say that again.

Every hand better go up.

Okay, that's better.

Why do you need a shepherd?

That's why I love being a shepherd.

That's why I love shepherdology.

When a sheep goes astray, it's the shepherd's job to go find the sheep and bring it back into the fold.

Oh, thank God for a church that shepherds us.

Thank God for that.

They care.

Isaiah put it this way, excuse me, this way.

All we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way.

Well, that's true when we turn away from the Lord, isn't it?

What men often consider change and progress is simply man going astray more and more from God's righteous path.

That's what's happening in America.

Whether they call it the progressive movement.

Oh, we're progressing all right.

But it's father and father and farther away from God.

Verse 25, but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your soul.

You know what the word return there means?

To turn about, to turn to something.

It speaks of conversion.

When a person is saved, converted, he turns to the Lord, he turns to the good shepherd of Christ, the overseer, the bishop of his soul.

Whew!

That's good.

I'm so glad I'm saved.

Because being saved means when I mess up, the Holy Spirit loves me enough to convict me, and the Holy Spirit loves me enough to have me to repent.

Amen.

And let me tell you, repentance is what I just said.

It's turning away from the wrong things, turning back to the right things.

That's what repentance is, folks.

It's not hard.

But you gotta want to.

Amen.

You gotta want to.

So, this morning, do you want to change your mind?

Do you really want to?

Do you want to be good and beautiful and pleasing to the Lord?

God has really spoken in my heart about that, good and beautiful.

I want you to be called, I know I never thought I'd say that, beautiful, but in the right context.

I want to be called good and beautiful and pleasing in the eyes of the Lord.

I want people to be able to say about our church, they have a beautiful testimony.

They're good people over there.

They care about people over there.

They preach the truth over there.

They love you enough that they're gonna be there when you need them.

And when you're not, when you don't need them, they'll be there if you're not doing right.

Hello.

Okay, come on now.

I don't want you in my business.

Well, I got news for you.

If you're saved, I'd say you sorry.

Jesus is all in your business.

Amen.

And Glacier says, those are the spiritual, come alongside them and bring them back.

Bring 'em back.

I've had people say, I'm not coming back.

I said, Well, I'm still gonna love you.

You can't keep me from loving you.