- Alright, by way of thinking through where we're at now in this passage last time, Apostle Peter really gave a description of who we are as people and gave us a capacity, a category to make sense of the experiences that they were going through, right? Essentially by saying, "This is who you are.

You're chosen. This is who you are. God's building you up. This is who you are, the holy priesthood that God has been preparing for his service." And through those means, he's able to say, "And so, the experiences that we're having is in line with the plan of God. He's doing a mighty work in you even if you don't feel like it." Now on top of that though, the experiences that they felt, nonetheless, it's a tricky circumstance.

It's one thing to feel a sense of, "I'm okay.", but then there's another question, "But what do I do?" Right? And in many ways for us too in this generation, it's not as though, I mean life in a sense is easy, but really the tension between ideologies, the tension between what we believe and what the world believes is going to continue to come a conflict.

And there's going to be rising tension, as scripture would say, over time to the degree that as it gets closer and closer to the time of Christ's return, it's going to be quite intense. Right? That's what we can anticipate. So, in order to navigate through that, the tension and the kind of hostile environment that we have, what are we to do?

Well, the section that we're getting into is, after he said, "This is who you are, this is who you are," he's going to say, "Since this is who you are, here is how you should live. This is the lifestyle you should exhibit." And that's what we're getting into today.

So please turn over to chapter two, and we're going to start reading from verse 11 down to verse 20. Okay? Chapter two, verse 11 down to verse 20. And he says, "Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.

Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles so that in the things in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as one in authority or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers in the praise of those who do right.

For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. Act as free men and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond slaves of God. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.

Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. For this finds favor. If for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience.

But if when you do what is right and suffer for it, you patiently endure it, this finds favor with our God. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the scripture truth. We ask God that you would continue to open up our eyes, illumine the word to our hearts, and allow us also to be exposed to your word.

God, that there wouldn't be anything reserved by which your spirit cannot change. Father, we thank you. It's in Christ's name. Amen. So again, Apostle Peter is going to be giving an exhortation. He says, I urge you. And so now he's giving this exhortation and plea. This is what I desire for you, right?

And this exhortation is actually going to span all the way to chapter 411. So from here forward, you're going to feel a sentiment where maybe before there was a lot of descriptive, like this is what God's doing. This is who you are. This is who you were meant to be, that kind of talk.

But now there's going to be commands, right? Commands and imperatives for us to follow. Well, let's take a look at verses 11 and 12 together. And the scripture again says, "Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation." As we look at passage of verse 11, let's do a two minute grammar session.

So I'll just give you a forewarning. We're going to do two minutes of boring stuff. Here, what I mean by a grammar session is this. Grammar matters a lot because it helps us categorize, outline, and divide thought. We've been talking a lot about that before. When you look at these, it says, "Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers." You actually can put a comma after the word you and after the word strangers.

That little phrase, "as aliens and strangers," in grammar is called a positive clause. That a positive is giving you a redefinition of that preceding pronoun, of that preceding noun. So examples of that is if you say, "Hey, there's Karen, the girl sitting behind me, is wearing a green shirt." It's just a clause that redefines Karen or gives a greater definition of it.

Boom, two minutes are done. Why do I talk about that? Because actually, Apostle Peter uses that kind of language where he uses a positive to redefine, redefine a lot. 21 times in the first four chapters. So as you notice his style of writing, he'll say, "As living stones, as this, as aliens and strangers," you can say he's giving us a redefinition and a paradigm by which we can redefine and interpret what we're experiencing.

He's giving us a perspective. And what's more, even in his own eyes, okay, even in his own eyes, as he sees the people, he'll begin by saying, "Beloved, you are aliens and strangers, right? And you, I'm exhorting to do this." And so I want to begin by having this first point, the perspective.

Okay, the perspective. The perspective that Apostle Peter is encouraging us to have is a perspective as aliens and strangers, right? That you are supposed to have a perspective like, "I'm a foreigner here." Okay? By way of hands, how many of you are first generation, aka FAB? Okay? All ashamed, like, except for Chris, he's like, "That's fine, you know?" The whole idea here is there's a sense by which in reality, yeah, I mean, you know, our culture is all about like, "There's no difference.

We're this and this, and we're all bleeding into one." No, the reality is we're different, you know? For me, I had two instances when I was very clearly different is when I, right in the middle of high school, changed schools, and my school was about 96% Jewish, and I was the one Asian kid.

And then my senior year, another Asian kid come in and came in, and everyone's like, "Hey, is that your brother?" You know, like, "That's not my brother, okay? I don't know him." And it was just this kind of like, the difference was very clear, you know? Now from that analogy, I mean, we know the scripture teaches us many times.

Every time the scripture calls us holy, you know, a royal priesthood that's chosen, God is constantly saying, "I am consecrating you and setting you apart." As a foreigner, there should be something distinct about you, clearly distinct about you, right? So the paradigm and the kind of redefinition is like this idea of clearly you're different than all these people, you know what I'm saying?

And your attitude and mindset should be that of not just like, "Oh, but I want to belong so bad." No, you are an ambassador, right? You're not a tourist. You're not a tourist going through this life saying, "I want to experience that. I want to taste that. You know, I want to put that in my little scrapbook." And that is not your perspective in life.

That's not your paradigm. Your paradigm is, "I'm an ambassador with a message of God from a foreign nation." Okay? You should be thinking on the level of like, "I'm a representative from a foreign nation coming in with a message from a foreign king." Right? That's the kind of paradigm shift we have.

Other paradigms, it's similar, you know, there's that book Pilgrim's Progress, all that kind of stuff. As much as scripture is telling us, you take the example of Abraham. He was called as a chosen nation, but what's weird is he was called as a chosen nation, but most of his life he lived as a foreigner walking through towns, God constantly telling him, "You're not there yet.

You're not there yet." That he had a destination far beyond what he was seeing, far beyond where he was stepping. That's the idea. And Hebrews chapter 11 tells us we have to have that mentality, constantly understanding that this is not where we belong. Our citizenship is far beyond here.

As a matter of fact, we are still thus waiting for that country of our own. So that's the perspective we should have. So, he says, "You beloved, as aliens and strangers, as foreigners." I want to ask you this question then, and you guys can jot it down on your blank next to application.

From the analogy that he gives and the metaphor that he gives, what application can you draw? Aside from the one that I just said, what application can you draw? The second part to that is, specifically for you. When we make applications as we do our own Bible studies, if you just make applications of like, "Yeah, generally we should all believe." That's absolutely true.

"Yeah, generally we should all change." That's absolutely true. But you have to make sure that application is personal. Please take two minutes and jot down some application in that so you can share it later on. Okay? Okay, great. Okay, then moving forward, we take a look at the passage again.

He says, "I'm urging you to abstain from fleshy lusts which wage against your soul, and keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the things in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation." Okay?

Real quickly, this is a toss-up, easy, home run. Okay? What are the two main commands in verse 11 and 12? Go ahead and please just say it. "Abstain." Good. And the second one? Sorry? Okay. So, let's see. You can just do the two, "Abstain," and then verse 12, "Keep." Right?

One is "Abstain" and "Keep." And if I was doing a sermon, right, if I was doing a sermon, I kind of share with you guys how I prepare sermons, because I never want you guys to feel like, "Oh, you know, we're never going to really," like, you personally, as you do your own Bible study, aren't going to get to, like, that, I don't know, like, um, arrive at some of these points unless I read commentary.

Have you guys ever felt like that? Like, you read a passage, and you're like, "I don't know, I don't, I'm not really getting anything, and I feel like I can't get these points out unless I read commentaries that make points for you." But I want to share, like, no, the, if you sit, and then you dissect, and then you organize the thought, the points kind of jump out at you.

So essentially, you have two main commands when he says, "I'm urging you in this hostile generation, this is what you need to do." That's how I prepare my sermon. "In this hostile generation, I've got two commands for you," you know? And that's it. One is "Abstain," and in order to make it cute, you make it rhyme a little bit, right?

So I'd be like, you know, "Abstain and maintain," you know, or something like that, I don't know. So what you do here is, you've got your negative command, and then you've got your positive command. And so those are my two outlines underneath this passage in terms of the second part, which are the main commands.

One is to abstain from fleshly lusts, and then second, maintain, or keep a good way of life. Okay? Now, let's talk about those two things a little bit. First, I want us to see what he's saying here in terms of the description that he gives about the fleshly lusts.

He says, "You have to abstain from the lusts in your life because these things wage war against your soul." Dang, right? "The desires that exist in our hearts wage war against us." That's really descriptive. You might see it as like, "I'm just kind of struggling." No, this is not a kind of struggling.

This is not an annoying habit that I have. The desires in our hearts that are, and it's not just reserved for sexual lust, you know? Because other passages in scripture tells us that the desires and lusts of our heart go much deeper than just sex. Okay? So sometimes we might see these things as more docile, problematic hurdles in our lives, but the way that Apostle Peter is describing them is, "Guys, the desires in our hearts and the lusts of our flesh is actually waging war.

It's hostile, malicious, and it's trying to dominate us." Did you know that ever since the beginning in the book of Genesis, when the scriptures describe sin, it talks about how sin's desires for you as by way of wanting to overtake you. And I'm sure you guys have felt that maybe at some point or another in your spiritual battles, right?

Where the kind of monster of sin, so to speak, is really powerful. Whenever there's a desire in your heart, whenever there's a lust in your heart, it continues to grow, it continues to feed, and then it will decay your soul. It will decay your insides. There's a passage in 1 John 2, 15 through 17.

He says, "Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is of the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes, the pride of life, is not from the Father, but is of the world.

The world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever." So here's this passage that's describing for us the sin that exists, and he says, "Abstain." On the flip side, so there's the negative. On the flip side, he says, "Keep a good way of life." If you guys can, I'm gonna have some of you turn to your Bibles and read correlating cross surfaces that teach us the same kind of idea of how we should live as priests, as a chosen nation, as people who are living in a hostile world.

So I'm gonna call on some of you guys, okay? From the table on my left. Stephen, can you look up Matthew chapter, or yeah, can you look up Matthew chapter 5, verse, let's see, 14 through 16? And then from this table right in front, Rachel, can you look up the James chapter 3, verse 13 through 15?

And then from right in front, Aaron, can you look up Luke chapter 6, verse 32 through 36? Okay? So in that order, Stephen first, go ahead and please read that. "You are the light of the world. The city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light up the world sitting under a basket, but understand, it gives light to the world, and it gives light to the world.

The light of the world is what you show, words and a meekness, no wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly and spiritual wisdom." And then, "If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you?

For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to learn, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.

And if you lend to those from whom you expect to learn, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount.

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great. You will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to them, grateful, and merciful. Be merciful, even as your father did." Excellent. Okay. So, we just read several cross references saying exactly the same thing that Apostle Peter is saying.

Words from Christ teaching us, we have to be a light. We have to be noticeable. We have to be a light. But, when we are in the midst of struggle, our temptation is to go hide under a rock. Right? When we're in the midst of persecution, our temptation is to run away.

When we're in the midst of difficulty that we can't seem to overcome, then we stiff arm them and say, "You're a pagan, I need to be holy." And you isolate yourself. And he says, "No. The greater challenge is for you to actually not only simply resist the temptation, but in this time, live a lifestyle that is holy.

Live a lifestyle that's good and godly, so that people may see it." And we're reminded of this fact, not only do people naturally, they get their idea of God from you. People naturally get their notions of God from reading other people who claim to be God's children. Not only is that simply the case, that's how God designed it.

Right? That you would be, in many ways, to the unbelieving world, the book that they read to get a notion of who God is. And so quickly we move to this idea of purpose, and it's very clear, he says, the purpose is that they would recognize your work and glorify God.

Right? That this is an immense opportunity in the moments when it's most unlikely, highly improbable, and most difficult. Here is this great opportunity to glorify our Heavenly Father. And truthfully, in this past week, when we're talking about the Indian pastors, while the team was out in India, and the thing that they experienced, right?

And then, you know, the whole team, when they came back, they would keep mentioning, like, God used that thing, which seemed really unsettling, ultimately for his glory. But just imagine, just imagine if the officials came with the culprits and said, "What do you guys want to do? Do you guys want them to go to jail?" And in their minds, they thought, "Yeah, what were you guys thinking?" You know?

In their revenge, in their sense of, like, "Oh, this needs to be justice. You know what's right? That they should be punished." Well, what happened is, yeah, maybe justice might prevail, so to speak. Maybe they get their just desert. They get what's coming to them. But the opportunity there is, but is God glorified?

And how awesome was it that there was an opportunity to describe? This is what's going to empower us to be merciful and forgiving to you, right? This is the name of the Savior who empowers us to do something that you might not expect. So if anything, when there's persecution, when there's suffering and difficulty, we shouldn't be surprised, because we expect it.

Who should be surprised? They all should. What in the world? Why do you guys do that? What principles do you operate by? Why? Right? That's the way that Apostle Peter is describing the situation. The strategy here is, rather than withdraw, rather than isolate, we are to maintain and keep a lifestyle, speaking truth into individuals' lives.

I remember there was a time when I was stressed out, a long time ago, when I was driving up and down from seminary. On my way down, I would just visit, like, little lakes to kind of, you know how, well, I kind of have an old soul, so I like going out and just kind of sitting there with my hands behind my back and thinking if I'm stressed.

So I'd go visit the Cerritos, like there's this man-made lake in Cerritos, I'd stop by there and just walk around, you know? And then there's this really nice lake in Fullerton, I think it's called Laguna Lake. If you guys have never been there, it's worth just kind of walking around, it's super nice.

Very secluded, people are fishing there, you know? And I was all stressed out, so I just went there and did one of my, you know, usual old man thing, but my, you know, just had me on my back and was just kind of strolling along, and then there was this guy who was fishing and stuff.

And so I just kind of chit-chatted with him a little bit, I was like, "Hey, you come here often?" And then, you know, you know how fishermen have a stereotype? They're kind of crude, you know, like, they joke, kind of, even their joke and all that kind of jokes and stuff is kind of bad.

Like this was the stereotype guy who was, you know, he was all stressed out, we were just kind of being sympathetic towards each other and there are like stresses of life and stuff. And then he started making these crude jokes about how, you know, "Yeah, my wife thinks I'm at the auto shop, you know, getting my brakes fixed, ha ha ha," you know?

And he was making all these jokes about how marriage is this, and that whole concept of marriage being a bondage and stuff. Like that's all he was saying. Now there was this temptation in me, you know? And I'm sure you guys have experienced that temptation, where to be funny with him, I wanted to be like, "Oh yeah, I know what you mean, man," you know?

But I just sat there and then I started having this weird battle in my head, you know? I was like, "What should I say? What should I say?" You know, I can't laugh with him because that's wrong. But should I be like, "Hey man, you should go home to your wife," you know?

Should I rebuke him? I didn't know what to say. What was really funny is I just kind of had this idea of saying like, "Dude, man, it'd be cool if our wives could join us," you know? And he just kind of stopped and he was like, "Yeah," you know?

And we just, as soon as I said that, like his crude joking just stopped, you know? And I think for us, there's a sense in which we could always just jump on the bandwagon and do everything that they say. We could always at our workplace just jump on the bandwagon and gossip.

We could at our workplace just jump on the bandwagon and do everything, run exactly the same way, right? But I'm sure you have experience in your workplace, once you become that source of light, not all of a sudden people who are like in their own struggles, they come to you.

You're the guy at your office, like we can trust that guy, you know? You're the guy at the office where like everyone's cursing and stuff, you walk in, they're like, "Oops," you know, you have to stop. That's a good thing. It's not a bad thing when people all of a sudden feel an aura of holiness around you.

That's actually a good thing. Don't try to avoid it. Remember, alien and stranger, you're going to be different. And by your lifestyle, you need to make that kind of environmental impact around you. Does that make sense? And Apostle Peter is saying, "Especially now, especially when now when the world is looking at you to persecute you, make this opportunity to glorify God by abstaining from your own selfishness and keeping a lifestyle that's good and holy, even in the eyes of pagans." Okay?

All right. Next, we take a look at the next section and he moves for another command, verse 13 through 15, right? Verse 13 through 15. And then in this passage, I'll read it for us, it says, "Submit yourself for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.

For such is the will of God that by doing right, you may silence the ignorance of foolish men." Okay. Main command. So when I read my Bible and I just mark it all up, whenever there's a main command, I just put a fat C right there and I just kind of meditate on that.

The idea of submit. Okay? Submit. And I'm just sitting here thinking, "Oh man, he's telling them to submit." And I just, I want you guys to just put yourself in their shoes, you know? So if you can imagine, you know, maybe like, I don't know, a scenario where someone comes to you and they're just like, "Oh my gosh, my parents are just beating me down.

My parents are like verbally abusing me. My parents are coming off and they're just controlling my life. They're just, you know, pressuring me so much and I'm bottled up and I just can't take it anymore." And your next words are like, "Uh, submit?" How do you say that to people who are suffering in that fashion?

Now I just gave a parental, I'm just trying to put it in our day. I mean, think about job situation, think about marriage situation, family situation, whatever situation you can imagine where the worst case scenario, somebody is above you and you feel oppressed. And then your encouragement is, "Uh, we gotta submit." What does he mean by that?

Well, in here, if you look at this, I think there might be people who, because of their Christian faith, they're like, "You know what? We're Christians. We abide by a higher law. We have a God who's higher, so forget them." You know? Their solution is, "Because I have God as my God, forget that.

I'm not even doing anything they say." Right? You can imagine that could happen because he talks about it. You think that because of your allegiance to God, now there's an excuse to deny any submission to earthly authority. And he says the complete opposite. You actually have to submit even more.

The term for submit is the Greek word, "Hupotasso." You guys have probably heard it before. It is a military term. Just as a commanding officer, when he gives an order, the soldier is expected to fall in line. The word literally has the idea of falling under somebody. Getting behind the line, so to speak.

Okay? So the term there is not a euphemism for something other than that. No, it is what it says. You have to go underneath somebody and submit to their command. That's what Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 13. A lot of other passages talk about authority and the fact that Christians should understand that concept.

What it means to submit. I want to quickly turn to an application. Turn for us. Do you, do you have family situations? Work situations? Church situations? Church other situations where it is difficult for you to yield? Do you have circumstances where it is difficult for you to yield to somebody else?

Do you have a micromanaging, you know, department manager and he is always telling you, "Do this, do this, do this, do this. That's your next step. No, no, no, no, no, no." And you are like, "Stop telling me what to do!" Do you have a big brother boss who is always asking, "I want to report, I want to report, I want to report." And he is like, "I don't want to have to answer to you!" You know?

Do you have one of these self-promoting co-workers who is always taking credit for your work? Do you have people who are trying to control you? Maybe a nagging mom, a control freak parent who is always like, "This is how you eat, this is how you dress yourself, this is how you do your hair.

Why are you wearing that?" You know? I am sure we have people who are pressuring us in that fashion. These things really anger us. These things tend to really hit the button for a lot of us. I remember as I was preparing this, thinking about, yeah, like, imagine the anger of people who are oppressed and pushed up against the wall.

Have you guys ever felt like that? You are back up against the wall, someone is pressuring you real hard, hair bots just blow. Now, I consider myself a pretty patient guy, you know? Like, I don't get angry too easy. But I do remember distinctly one time in high school where I just blew up.

And because I am Korean, I typically don't ever show my anger in front of an adult, but it was out on the field and I just blew up and cursed at an adult. It's like, I don't know what came over me, okay? But what happened was, me and this buddy were messing around and one of the teachers saw us messing around and she didn't like how we were play fighting and stuff like that.

And then, it wasn't a girl, it was a guy. And then he came over and grabbed us by the neck right here, like this, you know? And I don't know, that just like instantly caused my blood to boil. And I just like slapped his arm and just went off cursing at him.

Like, don't touch me like that ever, you know? And of course, I got in so much trouble. But the feeling of someone's hand on the back of my neck made me feel very dehumanized. Like made me feel like an animal. Very much like my cage got rattled. Very much like a dog on chain.

You know what I'm saying? Now the thing about it is, you think about moments when it's so hard to submit to that authority, it's these times when we're going to react with anger. But I want to ask, how hard would it have been for these people to hear this?

You know? Submit to all kinds of authority. You mean Nero? Are you serious? I can just imagine the revolt almost. Are you serious? Then coming back and thinking, no way. You do not understand how wicked my boss is. How incompetent my boss is, my manager is. You know what I mean?

The degree to which Apostle Peter is challenging these individuals to submit is quite incredible. As a matter of fact, later on, he's going to say the exact same thing, or kind of on this line of thought in verse 17, right? Oh sorry, not verse 17. Where is the other passage?

Verse 18. "Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but to those who are unreasonable." Right? It's like, what? Nero demands worship. Nero demands our death. Are you serious? Okay, I asked you guys this question, and I wanted you guys purposely to discuss this idea of limit.

When we hear certain things in the scripture, we like to kind of keep, we want to be able to accept it in a certain category in our hands, so sometimes we like to set boundaries. Okay, that's where that fits. I can do that up until this point. But the reason why I had you guys talk about it is because look at the terminology, and look at the context, and then ask, what is the limit?

Does he say, submit so long as they're nice to you, so long as it makes sense, so long as it's in your capacity? He says, submit to all human institutions, right? And then think about the context and realize, man, whatever boundary I just drew when I read that, that context to which he's speaking to blows my context out of the water.

I'm having a hard time applying that with my boss. I'm not talking about Pastor Peter. I'm saying if I were you, if I was you, you know, okay, okay, I'm just going to move on in there, right? I'm having a, you know, we might have a hard time applying it in this context.

When we think about their context, it just completely blows it out of the water, right? I want to bring up the example of Stephen. Stephen was a man filled with the Spirit, so full of the Spirit. Everyone can look at his face and they're like, man, that guy is so full of the Spirit.

He's like an angel, you know? Everybody recognized him as an incredibly godly man. This man was capable, you know? As capable as capable can be, trustworthy. He had a level of authority, a level of capacity to speak truth. And then when the priests, the rulers, they came to judge him, he was submissive.

Did he retaliate? Did he say, "You're not going to touch me? How dare you? You know who I am? I'm a leader in the church!" You know? Did he start running off and, you know, starting to attack, like Peter take a sword? Like what did he do? He said, "Father, forgive them." And he yielded.

He yielded his spirit. To the point of what? The point of death. Now, I'm not saying that this application is for every single circumstance, no matter what. You have to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. But the level to which we should have a capacity to yield is quite surprising.

He's challenging us here, right? I might be at your limit, but I'm exhorting you, I urge you, learn to submit as Christians, as those who understand what it means to surrender and yield your spirit to God and entrust yourself fully to the mighty hand of the Father. And as you proclaim your allegiance to Him, learn to submit to human authorities as well.

Right? So here is quite a challenge for us on that. Now we turn to an important thing. With such a difficult command, right? With such a difficult to apply command, what are the reasons he gives? So with this one, can you guys, you know, contribute by just calling it out?

When you guys discussed in your group, what reasons does he give to submit? Did I ask that question? I should have, right? Oh yeah, here. Oh no. Ah, I didn't ask for that, huh? Okay. Please take a look at the verse from verse 13 through 20. And when he says, "Submit yourselves," and then he's going down, just scan your eyes through the thing and start circling real fast.

What do you see as reasons and motives to submit? What do you guys see? To bear a good witness. Excellent. Okay. The one that should pop out to you is to bear a good witness. Sorry, give me one sec. I kind of lost my place in my... Okay. Okay.

To bear a good witness to who God is. Okay? What else do you guys see? And just read it as you see it in that passage and then just highlight it out. Starting from verse... Let's see. Yeah, verse 13 down to verse 20. There's like a long list of reasons.

Anything else? Let's work down through it together. Okay? As we take a look at verse 13, immediately he gives reasons. When he says, "Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake." Right? Those little prepositions "for" should immediately, you know, kind of give a hint to you. This is going to be a reason here.

"For the Lord's sake." And he says, "Whether kings as one in his authority, or governors." And then look at this. He says, "As sent by him." So here, you can just highlight "as sent by him" as another reason. That the reason why we're supposed to submit is because this is God's doing.

Whoa! That will blow your mind out of the water. These governments, these institutions are sent by God? Yes, absolutely. Don't even hesitate to believe it. That's what the nation of Israel needed to get for so long. Remember, when the prophets came to preach, when Jeremiah came to preach to the nation and says, "You guys need to surrender because God is using these nations." It's not as though God is not in control.

That's actually the absolute opposite is true. God is absolutely in control and that's why you need to surrender, give up. Every institution, there is nothing out of that control of God. He says, "This is by God's design." He says, "For the punishment of evil doers and the praise of those who do right." And then look at this.

"For such is the will of God." Again, you see the word "for" gives you another reason. "For such is the will of God." And that should really, again, continue to shake you up. You're like, "So what?" This is the will of God? You want to know something that's even crazier than that?

This is what finds favor in God. So if you take a look at verse 19 and 20, "For this finds favor." What finds favor? "That if for the sake of conscience towards God, a person bears up under sorrow when suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience?

But if you do what is right and suffer for it, you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God." Why should you suffer for your own stupidity? If you're going to suffer, He wants you to suffer for the name of God, for the sake of righteousness, for the sake of your faith.

Right? This finds favor with God. But let's keep going. There's even more. So if you, we stopped over at verse 15, "For such is the will of God." And then He defines that will. "That by doing right, you may silence the ignorance of foolish men." So essentially when He says that, you can circle that, it continues to link the causation or the motive and reason by which you must submit.

Why should you submit? Because by doing so, you're going to make everybody silent. How do you do that? How does your righteousness, how does your submission, your surrender, and your good behavior, and you bearing up under all these sorrows, silence the people around you? That's a good question to ask.

How does that all work? The best way I can describe it is, you know, what's happening in the context is people are slandering Christians unfairly, right? Verse 12 says it. They're going to call you evildoers. Even though when you're doing right, people are going to try and attack you and call you and slander you stuff, right?

Now, this, I don't know why, but this reminded me of a lady. Her name was Susan Boyle. Do you guys remember her? Yeah? Okay. If you don't, I'll tell you the story. In 2009 on Britain's Got Talent, you know, with the judges there, this lady who was frizzly haired, short hair, you know, she looked to be pretty old.

She was, you know, like pretty unkempt, very plain dress. She like came up walking off funny and she took the mic and she had a little bit of a spunk to her, kind of an attitude, you know? So Simon initially already is just kind of rolling his eyes. And, you know, he asked in his little British accent, he goes, "How old are you, my dear?" And then she's like, "I'm 47." And everyone's like, "Ha ha ha ha ha." And Simon's just kind of like, "Man, let's get this over with," you know?

And the other judges is like, you can hear them laughing. And then Simon asks her like, "Oh, what's your dream?" And she's like, "To be famous singer," you know? And you know how the story goes. Everyone's just sitting there like, "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha," you know?

And then she's like, "I'm going to sing 'I Have a Dream' from Les Miserables," you know? And then she starts singing and everyone's just jaw drops like, "What? What happened?" Everybody got silent. Have you guys ever been in any kind of performance or music where like everyone's just talking to each other?

Everyone's just chit-chatting. They're eating their food, making all this noise. And then they start singing and you're just like, and everyone's quiet. All you can hear is the singing, right? Your submission and ability to yield and die to yourself is so different from this world. It's like a beautiful song.

But that should be the thing that's grabbing people's attention. It's like, "Wow!" Okay? Your good, pleasing, godly style of life should be like a beautiful song that quiets people. When people are slandering you, for example, if I say like, "Why are you so lazy? You never do anything. You never help around the house and you never do this." And then if you've ever been on the flip side of that and you're like, "Yes, I do," you know what's going to happen?

All you're going to do is get in a verbal fight. "No, you don't. You didn't do this and you didn't do that and you're just going to go at it." How do you silence the other person? By the beauty of your life. By your deeds. You're proving your faith.

You're proving the transformation in your life. Right? Likewise, Apostle Peter is saying, "You don't need to sit there defending yourself with words. What you need to do is make sure you maintain and keep the holiness and purity of your life. And if anything, you should be a people who know submission to the degree, honor the king." Right?

And he has a list of little commandments there in verse 17. Respect all people. You of all people should know how to do this because you're Christians. You know how to honor the king. You know how to give respect where respect is due. It's not righteous for you to sit there and be like, "I don't give respect to nobody." You know?

That's nasty. You know how to heal when yielding is necessary. And you know how to absorb when absorbing is necessary because God has given you the ability to do so. So I pray for all of you guys. We're going to experience that kind of oppression. Not oppression, but maybe pressure.

Pressure from the workplace. Pressure from family. Pressure from people around us. But we will be a people marked by an ability to keep our composure and holiness before God and men. Amen? Let's pray. Father, we want to thank you, God, that you empower us and that you continue to challenge us and exhort us.

We ask, God, that as you have set such a high standard in Christ, that you would give us such a desire to pursue after Him. God, to look squarely at Christ and see Him as our goal, as our answer, as our ambition. Lord, that by keeping our eyes fixed on Him, we would all the more resemble Him in our lives.

Father, we thank you that Christ set the example for us. That, Lord, He did not defend Himself where He could have, but rather He yielded Himself, rather emptied Himself as well. Lord, I pray that if there is any arrogance in our heart, if there is any ambition, if there is any stubbornness that desires to preserve everything about us, I ask that by your Spirit you give us the strength to let that go.

And that, God, we would know what it means as Christ commands us to lose our life, that we'd find it in you. We thank you, Lord, it's in Christ's name. Amen.