So, we want to start tonight's study by reading a bigger chunk of the scripture by way of following through the flow of thought. So it's going to take about four minutes or so, but I'm going to read all of chapter two. I'm reading out of the NASB, but how many of you guys, just a quick question, how many of you guys have ESV?

Vast majority of you. Okay. I'm just going to, for the sake of, then I'll read out of the ESV too, although the study is kind of done in the NASB. Okay. So, taking a look at 1 Peter chapter two, it says, "So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation.

If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good, as you come to him a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

For it stands in scripture, behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you are not a people, but now you are God's people.

Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evil doers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good, you should put to silence the ignorance of the foolish people.

Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. Servants be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust.

For this is a gracious thing, when mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, giving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit 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.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that he might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed. For you are straying like sheep, but now return to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. Amen. As we looked at this section, I asked the question for homework, how does this flow in terms of thought?

How does this flow in terms of the progression of the commands and exhortations that he's been making? For your ESV Bible, it almost appears as though I cut off right in the middle of the paragraph. If you have the NIV or the NASB, they actually separate it in terms of paragraph between chapter five, verse 20 and verse 21.

Okay. So, by way of answering that question, how does the flow of thought work, I read to you chapter two. The whole thing actually goes together starting from, remember the end of chapter one. I wanted to read all of it, but I don't want to take the whole time just reading straight, right?

All of it flows in thought. So it's a good and regular pattern for us once we started through the Bible, once you get towards the middle, to start reading from the beginning to where you're at, okay? Because it helps you retain the thought. Well, the thought that we've been at is that God had challenged us through the scriptures and the apostle Peter is challenging his readers that for the Lord's sake, you need to learn to surrender and submit, right?

That you're experiencing a vast array of various trials and all this kind of stuff. And he says, you know what though, you're this chosen race. God has a very incredibly long waited and incredibly significant purpose for you. And all the suffering and all the things that you're experiencing fall just in line with God's plan.

And so for the Lord's sake, okay, and let's start filling in your blanks by way of review. Verse 13, he said, be subject for the Lord's sake. In terms of the rationale and reasons for your submission to even authorities and your general attitude of submission, there was the Lord's sake.

Verse 14, number two, this is designed by God. Verse 14 read that for governors, emperor is supreme or to governors as sent by him. To think and believe now by faith that even yes, those who would what, not only persecute the Jews, but even from generations before those who would come to judge, overthrow and oppress the Jews, God sent every nation.

Number three, this is the will of God. That's what it says in verse 15 verbatim for this is the will of God. Right? That's another reason and rationale as to why we should submit. In your ESV it reads that this is gracious, it's a gracious thing. In other words, this is God's been so ingrace on you.

The NIV and the NASB talk about as this is what God favors. Okay. Number four, to silence the foolish. By doing so you silence those who are foolish, who continue to revile and say all kinds of ignorant things. And then number five, he says for the sake of your conscience, right?

For the sake of your conscience. In verse 19 he talks about how when you are mindful of God, this is your conscience before the Lord. Okay. So by way of kind of seeing the progression with this, what we're saying is this goes in line with the thought of asking the question, why should we surrender?

Why should we submit and subject ourselves to these circumstances and situation where we so eagerly want to get out of? For a lot of us, we're a lot like students who want to get out of quizzes and exams. If we can, we can just weasel our way through classes or whatever it may be.

These difficult circumstances are not things we sit and say, ah joy, right? But he wants us to have a greater perspective. They're not always things you have to revolt. They're not always things you have to retaliate and say, I can't stand this anymore. No. There are moments he says like this that are necessary for us to submit and subject ourselves underneath these things.

And then he says in this last portion, some of the greatest reasons why you need to submit. Okay. Now in verse 21, which we begin our section in our study, he connects the previous thoughts and he says, for to this you have been called. And the NASB it says to this purpose.

And I ask you the question, what is this referring to? Take a moment to think about that. Okay. What is this referring to when he says for this you have been called, right? Now it's kind of ante up like, man, not only am I just supposed to be like, oh well, whatever may be, so let it be.

It is what it is. You know, that's like the kind of idiom that we like to say. Is that simply what he's saying? No, I think saying even more so, you were called for this. Now here's my question again. What is this? Oh, sorry. This one you can volunteer and then reply.

What's this purpose? This was one of the easier ones, so you guys got to volunteer to do it. Yes, Aaron? I thought it was referring to verse 19 where it says that you endure sorrow, and sorrow is suffering. Okay, good. So when you think about that, he's saying, you know, just in the previous section, he was like, why should you suffer for doing silly stuff, right?

You should suffer for doing right and what is good. So I have for you in your lesson plan, underneath it, it says the simple answer really, okay, the simple answer really is suffering, right? That you're called to this experience of suffering. However, you are also called to suffer for what is right.

Okay? You weren't just called to suffer pointlessly, you were called to suffer for what is good, what is precious in the eyes of God, what is favorable in the eyes of God, right? But what's more, if we can elaborate on that a little more, so we get the simple answer of you were called for this from just the previous section, but then once we take a look at the passage, our passage for today, verse 21 through 25, we get this greater thought of what we're called to do, which is not only suffer for the right thing, but to suffer in the right way.

Okay? So the answer to that question of what is this purpose we've been called to, if we want to just make it simple, yes, we were called to suffer. If we want to elaborate on that, we want to say we want to suffer for what is right and we want to suffer for what is, we want to suffer in the right way.

And I want to review with you just the previous section, a couple of the things that he said. If you look at verse 16, which I apologize, I completely skipped last week, he says, "Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover for evil, but living as servants of God." And just like Aaron said at verse 19, he says, "For this is a gracious thing, when mindful of God, one endures sorrow while suffering unjustly." Okay?

I'm going to lump those two things together and kind of explain what does God expect here? You know? What is this thing God finds favorable? What is this purpose that you've been called to? And I want to summarize again, it is suffering for the right thing and it's suffering in the right way.

Now, when you look at verse 16, he says, "Live as people who are free." What is he talking about right there? How can he say, "Live as people who are free," when in reality they're oppressed? And what's more, in the very next half of the sentence, he says, "And be good bond servants." Right?

Well, I want to use an example to explain that a little bit. Yesterday was Valentine's Day. Okay? I want to ask you guys to think of a hypothetical scenario. Specifically for those of you who are married, for you ladies, think of this hypothetical scenario that, let's say, Valentine's coming up, you're expecting your significant other to do something good for you, to have prepared and planned, maybe made reservations in advance, I don't know, take you somewhere nice, all that kind of stuff.

But on Valentine's Day, instead of your husband, some other guy at church, or maybe some other guy at your work, let's just call him Billy Bob, you know? Billy Bob comes up to you and is like, "I planned something amazing for us." And you're just like, "What?" You know?

He's like, "I hope you cleared the whole night, because this is going to be the whole day." And you're just like, "What in the world is going on?" Right? Obviously, that just strikes you as completely wrong. Why? Because you and that individual has no relationship for that man to be planning anything for you.

Right? Well, the fact of the matter is, in the context of a covenant relationship, you are what? Free to do that kind of stuff. When you have a covenant relationship, you are now free to kiss your bride. You're now free to do all that you covenanted to do. You're now free to do all that you vowed to do.

You're free to engage in that kind of relationship, because you're free. You're in that relationship. It's the same with us and God. When He says, "So live as free," rather than an excuse to do all sorts of other stuff, be good bond servants. You're free to operate and function the way God is expecting you in your relationship with Him.

Right? And what's more, when we think about this, it all kind of joins together. To think that for our conscience sake before God, this is a precious thing, this is a favorable thing in God, that we need to be doing this. And on the flip side, for you guys, I want to make another point.

If I asked one of you who are dating or who are married, and I said, "Hey, Valentine's coming up. What'd you plan?" And you're like, "Ahh, nothing." And obviously I'd be like, "Oh, shoot, last minute planning." But then you tell me, "I'm not going to do anything." I'm like, "Really?

Everyone's doing something." And you say to me, "Ah, she probably won't care." You know, like, "That's what you think, man." They always say, "It's okay, we don't have to go out and stuff." But you know, you know that there's going to be some level of disappointment. They might say like, "It's all right.

I don't have these huge expectations. We can just do whatever." But you know, I mean, you'd be lying if you said, "It's going to be fine. I'm not going to do anything. I'm not going to get her anything. I'm not going to take her out anywhere. I'm just not going to do anything because she's going to be okay with it." Your conscience is not clear.

The reason why I bring this up is because he makes this challenge. What's the... Did some of you guys do that? Why are you guys laughing? Your conscience needs to be informed. Because the way he's talking here is, it's not just a suffer. Suck it up, right? He's challenging us to be free, to have a conscience and awareness of God, and to suffer not just for anything, but for the right thing, and the right way, for the favor of God.

Your conscience tells you when your wife or your significant other is not going to be pleased. If you don't have a sense of that, yeah, you're like dense, right? You have no... What do they call that? I forget what they call that. But anyway, yes, I'm thinking in Korean.

I'm trying not to use the Korean. But you're just dull and dense, okay? If you don't have a sense of that, like, "My wife is not going to be pleased by this." But instead, we should have that sense with God, and when we suffer, those things should actually be active and working, even when we go through hard stuff, right?

"This is to my God's good pleasure. I'm doing this as a free offering, almost, as a sacrifice to go through this kind of suffering." So, to just simply say, "Hey, you've been called to this purpose." Don't take that as like, "The Bible says suck it up, man. I just need to take it." Well, to some degree, yes.

We need to be courageous and manly about, or like, you know, strong and bold about suffering. But that's not it. Again, right for the right reason, with the right attitude. And this is what we're going to talk about mainly today, is the attitude behind the suffering. Is the heart behind suffering that makes it such a challenge to us?

Now, as an, like, that was like a kind of introductory way of getting into our study. Turn your Bibles to, sorry, Isaiah 53, verse 4 through 12. You're going to notice that as we read our passage, you're going to see so many corollary between Isaiah 53 and the passage that we're looking at tonight.

So, and you guys are probably familiar with the chapter. It's the chapter on the suffering servant of God. Okay? I'm going to read from verse 3, actually, and go down to verse 12. It's a little bit longer, but let's read that. He says here, "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not.

Surely, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was a chastisement that bought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way.

The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shears is silenced, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away, and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?

And they made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich man is in his death. Although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth, yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief when his soul makes an offering for guilt.

He shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoiled with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors. That passage is one that's quite amazing, and if we would then quickly jump back to our passage in 1 Peter, we're gonna read that section and see the corollary between them.

So I'll read our verse again. Chapter 2, starting from verse 21 and down. 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 deceit found in his mouth, yet 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. He himself bore our sins in his body on that tree, that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. By his wound you have been healed, for you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your soul.

Pretty amazing, right? You see the corollary between the two. 1 Peter is well versed in scripture, and in terms of the reason and rationale why you should subject yourself, why you should suffer for the right thing, and in the right way, he points to the Messiah, the suffering servant, and says, "Look how he suffered for you." This is his ultimate reason why we should learn to submit, why we should learn to surrender.

Now, we talked about this a bit already, this purpose that we have, but I want to talk about this reason and rationale for our surrender and submission, when he says, "Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps." And I ask you to think about that a little bit.

It's interesting. Theologically, can Christ's substitutionary atonement sacrifice be mimicked? Can his salvation suffering, as you could say, his sacrifice and his work of substitution for us, can that be mimicked by us? What are we actually supposed to be copying here? Think about that for a moment. When he says, "Christ suffered for you," and he says, "leaving you an example to follow," what example is that?

And then as we think about it a little bit more, I wonder if some people are thinking, "Man, this is strange. Really? I didn't expect this, because the idea of substitution is Christ takes care of it for me. I mean, I'm grateful." You know, if you guys have ever been in a dire situation, at a lost moment, where you're like, "Man, I can't do this," and you just need somebody to step in for you, and if someone does, it's like, "Oh, thank you." So you're thankful for that, but you knew you couldn't do it.

So we think about the penalty for sin. Christ died for sin. I don't pay for sin. None of my works of righteousness, none of my suffering pays for sin. Christ does that. And yet, we still suffer and go through the consequences of sin. Christ died for sin in the sense that he's put an end to the bondage of sin, and yet as a Christian, I still sin.

Right? There are other things. Christ conquers death, but we still die. Christ overcomes pain and sickness, yet we're still weak as men and women. What's more, the passage says, "He suffered on my behalf," but then he says, "But you still suffer." Why? Think about that for a moment. You know?

And what I'd like you guys to do is take some time to discuss that. So I asked this two-part question. One is, what's the example that Christ set for us to follow? The second follow-up question is, why are we expected to follow that example when Christ, in substitution, was supposed to take care of it all?

Okay? Go. I'll give you guys a couple minutes. Okay, so we'll bring it back together. Okay, so we asked the question, two-part question. What example are we supposed to follow? And why are we still expected to follow that example? You know? Do you guys, from your tables, anybody want to share some of the things you discussed?

Yes. Our table said, "Suffering is justly." Okay. And you said, "The reasons are evangelism, obedience to God, Christ-prompted sanctification." Okay, excellent. Well, this covers it all. That's good. Thank you, James, for doing that. Let's think about that for a little bit. Okay. More. You want to share more? Yeah, God wants us to suffer as Christ because, in verse 20, he says, "God finds favor with God." So if we suffer as Christ under the same kind of situation, suffering is justly, we're favored by God.

So, if we suffer as Christ under the same kind of situation, suffering is justly, we're favored by God. So, if we suffer as Christ under the same kind of situation, suffering is justly, we're favored by God. So, if we suffer as Christ under the same kind of situation, suffering is justly, we're favored by God.

So, if we suffer as Christ under the same kind of situation, suffering is justly, we're favored by God. So, if we suffer as Christ under the same kind of situation, suffering is justly, we're favored by God. So, if we suffer as Christ under the same kind of situation, suffering is justly, we're favored by God.

So, if we suffer as Christ under the same kind of situation, suffering is justly, we're favored by God. So, if we suffer as Christ under the same kind of situation, suffering is justly, we're favored by God. So, if we suffer as Christ under the same kind of situation, suffering is justly, we're favored by God.

So, if we suffer as Christ under the same kind of situation, suffering is justly, we're favored by God. So, if we suffer as Christ under the same kind of situation, suffering is justly, we're favored by God. So, if we suffer as Christ under the same kind of situation, suffering is justly, we're favored by God.

So, if we suffer as Christ under the same kind of situation, suffering is justly, we're favored by God. So, if we suffer as Christ under the same kind of situation, suffering is justly, we're favored by God. So, if we suffer as Christ under the same kind of situation, suffering is justly, we're favored by God.

So, if we suffer as Christ under the same kind of situation, suffering is justly, we're favored by God. So, if we suffer as Christ under the same kind of situation, suffering is justly, we're favored by God. So, if we suffer as Christ under the same kind of situation, suffering is justly, we're favored by God.

So, if we suffer as Christ under the same kind of situation, suffering is justly, we're favored by God. So, if we suffer as Christ under the same kind of situation, suffering is justly, we're favored by God. as one outside the law, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ, that I might win those outside the law.

To the weak I became weak that I might win the weak. I've become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel that I may share with them in its blessing, right. As you think about this passage, this question of oh, why are we supposed to follow his example, because maybe we have this preconceived notion that by the salvation now I'm afforded peace from all suffering.

Let's completely scrap that notion and say what we've been afforded is a calling into his kingdom as his servants. He says you are a royal nation, you're a royal priesthood, you're kingdom priests, and he says I expect you to proclaim the excellencies of him who called you, right. There's an incredible purpose of servanthood that God has called us to, and a main reason why he's left us here is to follow the footsteps of our savior.

This is an example that he's laid. The scripture says in the passage that we've been reading that he laid this example for us to follow in his steps. What's really vivid about that is the Greek says, when it says to follow that example, it's like placing a thin piece of paper on a drawing and tracing it.

God expects us to trace our savior's footsteps, trace our savior's heart. If we're gonna suffer for anything, suffer for the sake of sharing the gospel that some might be saved. And if in terms of attitude that we're suffering, we're all of a sudden all bittered, if we're all resentful, how are we going to make that an opportunity to show the character of God, right?

And so he says this is the kind of thing that you want to sign up for, this is the kind of purpose that you're to have, this is the kind of vision and conviction that you want to make sure you're redeeming that moment of suffering and difficulty in your life.

So I want to highlight that more by the next question. On your packet I ask this question, he says, what has he suffered? Well when we take a look at our passage, verse 22, he describes, he committed no sin, neither was deceit 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, right? Well I want to highlight two things from that. In terms of what he suffered, it's clear he suffered unjustly. So for letter A, please just write complete injustice, okay? Now if you guys have ever been accused of something you have not done, you guys know how it feels, that like burning sensation in you where you want to justify, defend, right?

Make clear, like, there's this kind of feeling of like, man you better recognize, you know? When people have the misconception of you, when people, you know, falsely accuse you, we want to immediately retaliate. But the fact of the matter is, Christ was accused, he was tried, he was blasphemed and slandered as a criminal.

And what makes it worse is that he was the purest, most sinless, most innocent person ever, right? For us, even if we defend ourselves, it's like there's a part of us that's like, oh, but sometimes I do that, you know what I mean? There isn't a pure sense of, yeah, am I really gonna go out and defend myself?

But for Christ, he could have. The fact of the matter is, he experienced the greatest injustice of all time. But, this is what I want to highlight. The second part of that, when he starts talking in that verse about when he was reviled and he did not revile in return, when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly, and in verse 24 it says, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sins and live to righteousness.

By his wounds, you have been healed. I want to talk about not just simply suffering for injustice, but the next part, complete servanthood. There is an injustice you experience as people who are malicious around you. There is a suffering under that. But then there is a suffering where it's all volitional.

There is a suffering where you go into it knowing this is gonna happen. Where because you care for somebody, you are willing to take responsibility, you're willing to take liability, you're willing to take burden. When we read that passage in Isaiah 53, you saw how many times it used the word bore.

He bore our sins, he bore our wounds. In this passage the same, he is repeating this idea that Christ took upon, there is that theme of substitution. He himself bore the sins on his body on that cross. He bore the penalty, he bore the consequences, and there's a sense where one might think to the people who are suffering in that time, they have to recognize if they didn't have Christ, they would have suffered even greater pain by the wrath of God for the punishment of sin.

If they're wanting to avoid pain, there was an incredible amount of pain to come that they've already dodged by the safety that's afforded to them in Christ. This is the kind of love, this is the kind of servanthood that Christ desires us to follow in his steps, to trace in terms of what he suffered.

It's not just a matter of being able to face injustice with a straight face and say, that's okay, no. He wants us to have a hard attitude where we have an attitude of servanthood, where just like the Apostle Paul, we're willing to take the burden of others upon our shoulders.

That is an attitude far beyond this world. You know, just to appreciate this, I was kind of thinking, what's recently one of the greater scenes of self-sacrifice that I've seen? I watched that movie, Guardians of the Galaxy, kind of late, so I watched it not too long ago. I'm not sure if you guys have seen that movie.

It's one of these kind of light-hearted, just action movies. Some of it's kind of cute, too. Well, there's this scene near the end. There's a crazy villain that seems so powerful that he's gonna destroy everything. He's gonna destroy worlds. And he comes down in this weird, twisty hunk of metal on a ship that looks like a ginormous cinnamon twist.

And he has these, you guys know what I'm talking about. He's got these drones that are coming down, you know? And out of desperation, they're all fighting him, but they're all getting beat up. And that little raccoon, or whatever he is, jackal, I don't know, he takes the ship and he runs it into the helm, and then he knocks him over.

And at some point, everybody's hurt and wounded. You guys remember that scene? The little raccoon's all hurt, and then the buff guy's all hurt and down, and they're all huddled together. And then Groot, all of a sudden, Groot's the wooden figure. He's the one who all he says is, "Groot," right?

All of a sudden, Groot starts to grow. He's like, "Blah, grrr." And he grows into this ginormous ball, and he encapsulates his friends. And little raccoon starts crying. He's like, "Why, Groot? "Why?" And then Groot goes, "We are Groot." (audience laughing) And he has this solidarity with the group, and he feels them, you know?

And he starts like wrapping them, and then as they fall, it's just like this blaze of light, and it's like, "Blah!" And then he's destroyed. Wow, what self-sacrifice. (audience laughing) But I almost wondered whether I should share this example or not, because although that was really moving and touching, the tear that the raccoon was shedding and everything, it pales in comparison to what our Savior has done.

Why? They end up having to fight the bad guy after anyway. (audience laughing) Why? Because in terms of what Christ has done for us, there is absolutely no comparison. Does Groot change who they are? No, when Christ suffers for us, he completely not only allows us to escape the wrath, he changes us by nature.

He transforms us. I don't know what earthly comparison there is for the kind of sacrifice Christ has done. Christ says in Scripture, "There is no kind of love "like a friend who has laid down his life for a brother." Well, the fact of the matter is, Christ is the epitome of that sacrifice, right?

He is the epitome of that heart that lends himself to being so generous, he would lay down his everything, or he would empty to a degree which we will never fathom. We will never get it. We will never understand the depth of his sacrifice. We will never understand how far he had to come down.

We will never understand the depth from which he has brought us up through the sacrifice. We will never understand the magnitude of the pain he had to experience for our salvation, right? This is what Christ has done for us. And so, I say again, for the people who are around us, when we think about what we're doing right now and the experiences that we have, we have to make sure we're trying to get into this mode and zone like Christ.

We might be suffering, we might be going through difficult times and be like, "Ah, why?" But we have to redeem those moments. Let these moments be suffering for the glory of God. Let these moments be suffering for the redemption and salvation of the lost, you know? If you are experiencing hardship at work, school, whatever it is, home, let these moments to be to the glory of our Savior, amen?

Now, we wanna get to the next part because this is the part that's going to really continue to challenge our hearts. Because we see the heart of our Savior, we understand that he suffered in such a different way. Apostle Peter saw all of it. He saw how Christ suffered, and what's more, he experienced firsthand how perhaps the fellow believers, when they suffered, the temptation they would have to whether it be retaliate, to avoid the suffering, to run away and hide.

Apostle Peter went through the full gamut experience. And what he does is he points to the Savior that he saw. And he talks about the different ways by which the Savior suffered that so challenges the way we suffer. Let's run down this list. Letter A, Christ, when he suffered, he did not sin.

He did not sin. Sorry. When paralleling Isaiah 53 verse nine, the scripture says he committed no sin, nor was there any deceit found in his mouth. Let me ask you a question. When you feel wronged, when you feel a sense of like somebody just dissed you, typically the first way we sin is through our mouth.

Whether it's we curse them, whether it's we go off, whether it's we revent, typically the way that we sin is through our words, right? What restraint, what strength our Savior exhibited, he did not slander in return, nor was there any deceit. There was no hint of trying to dodge the situation by lying.

There was no hint of, you know, like making the truth all muddy and saying, oh, that's not kind of what I said. I didn't really say I was like the son, son of God. We're all sons of God. He did not have any kind of dodging the truth and reality.

There was no deceit in his mouth. Let her be. He did not retaliate. While being reviled, he did not revile in return. While suffering, he uttered no threats. You think about that kind of, that's the kind of scene, again, the kind of strength that Christ had to exhibit to hold and maintain his composure and character underneath all that pressure.

You know, it's one thing to kind of go through those injustices, it's another thing to be the object and the focal point of everyone's testing. The lawyers came by and was like, hey, what do you say when this happens? And what do you say according to this law? And you know they were trying to set him a trap.

They were trying to push his buttons. They were trying to test his disciples. They were trying to push him to the point of breaking. Where maybe Christ would have been like, forget it! Just bring the cross over here, I'm gonna kill you all, I'm just gonna go to the crossing, night over with, you know?

And that idea of, you know, like, maybe, just maybe, when Christ was angry or something, that he would have just lashed out and said, you know who I am? Let me show you who I am. And then, poof, you know? Made everybody's knees break and all their legs be broken and everybody just bowed down on their faces or something.

But Christ did not. I wanna, you know, challenge you guys with this idea of strength. There are times when you sometimes get into, like, a fight or conflict with people, and there's this deception in your mind where you think strength means to overpower them. You know what I mean?

Strength means to have the last word. Strength means to win. Now, there are moments when we need to hold our ground, when we need to say what we need to say and do what we need to do. But in these moments when Christ knew that his purpose was to come and suffer, and that through his suffering we would be healed, Christ exhibited such a strength where although he had the power to quiet storms, he did not exert that power to quiet these foes.

Why did our Savior, who had so much power, right, have to go through this kind of abuse? He was exhibiting a kind of strength where he had the power to forgive them. Remember that rather than just annihilating them, he asked of his Father, Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do.

That is a strength beyond what we understand on the flesh side. On the flesh side, we understand power and might and the power of our hands and fists and our intellect. But there's a power in Christ where he completely overcomes that situation with grace, control, and absolute certainty in God.

And so letter D, he goes through his suffering by trusting the Father. He's trusted the Father. The scripture says in verse 23 that he continued in trusting himself to him who judges justly. He drew his strength from the Father and ultimately drew his strength from knowing that the Father would judge according to his character.

And what's really crazy about this idea of entrusting is that the Greek term is quite vivid where the term is to hand over something. When you commit something to somebody and say, hey, I'm gonna put it in the bank, I'm gonna put it under your care, that's the whole idea of entrusting.

That when Jesus entrusted himself over everything about the situation, the outcome, whatever it may be, he entrusted over to the Father to the degree, remember in Luke chapter 23, sorry, yeah, Luke chapter 23, on his death at the cross, he said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

It's the same word used there. Guys, this is different from let go and let God. This is different from like, hey, you know, just trust and it'll happen. Just wait and see. How is that different? Because when you are truly trusting, you are completely relinquishing your will and your expectation to that of the Father knowing it's in good hands.

You see, this whole modern concept of let go and let God to me just sounds like he'll still give you what you want. A lot of it is just wishful anticipation. I'm trying so hard to get what I want, but if I just get out of the way, God will do it for me.

No. When you really are entrusting yourself, you're relinquishing your will, your tight-fistedness, and your conviction and commitment to still get what you want, and allowing all the outcome, allowing all the process, and every result that you expect to be in the hands of God. 'Cause you know what? He's going to do justly.

He's going to be your great shepherd. He's going to be your great guardian. He is the one who's going to cover over you. And so no matter what sad situation you find yourself in, you know that you can trust him. So what an encouragement to those who are suffering.

You know, we kind of draw back to the idea that Apostle Peter is talking to those who are suffering in situations and circumstances that really, again, are dire moments that maybe we can't relate to as much, but still, nonetheless, we have this challenge for us to adopt the expectation of our Savior, to adopt the kind of experiences that our Savior had, and what's more, to go through these experiences with the same attitude, with the same perspective that our Savior exhibited.

And I give you this conclusion, again, by way of challenge. The chief reason, right, why God has allowed us to have these opportunities and time here, is that in God's timetable, God has given by grace and patience, opportunity for people to be saved. And for those of us who are thinking, maybe if you're suffering now and just wondering, why doesn't God just end it now?

Why doesn't he just take me now? Think about this. The way you have come to this point in your salvation is that there were beautiful feet before you who had gone to many lengths, many measures, and perhaps many sacrifices for you to hear the truth. Likewise, this is the truth we're supposed to carry.

Right? This is the truth we're supposed to be willing to sacrifice for, and to care so deeply, and to ache for those who do not have it, that from this point until we die, we're more than willing to sign up for whatever experiences may come, that those might be saved.

Amen? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the challenge tonight. And first, we wanna thank you, Lord. God, we thank you that although our lives are so riddled with sin, you look upon us with such mercy and grace. And God, that not only do you look upon us, but you have taken such initiative and care to provide for all that we need for our salvation.

We thank you, Father, and we also thank you for the privilege to be called to labor in your kingdom. And I ask that for all of us, we would buy into this conviction that in this generation is the time for your kingdom to advance, that you have called us to be soldiers in your kingdom, for the priest and servants in your kingdom, to serve the needs of those who you have called.

And I pray, Father God, that this conviction would lead all of us, every single one of us, no matter where we stand. Father, we wanna thank you again for your truth and your spirit that protects and guides us. I pray, Father God, that you continue to grant us faith as we experience the full gamut of things that we run into from day to day.

We thank you, Lord, it's in Christ's name, amen.