Alright, we got like 10 minutes. How's life? It's good. It's busy. It's been busy actually. Like work? A little bit of work. And church stuff? Yeah, I feel like it's a combination. Like work has been kinda crazy, but it's getting better. And then we got a lot of people out here just planning stuff.

What's up James? (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) Is the crowd mic turned on on yours too?

Can you hear it? Yeah. Is it all like kinda broken up? Like, yeah, a little. Are you asking them to turn it off? Are you asking them to turn it off? No, I just left it on. I was just wondering if it was also broken up on yours. Wait, what do you mean by broken up?

Like it cuts out every-- Oh no, mine doesn't cut out. Oh really? You wanna hear mine? (audience chattering) (audience chattering) Two more minutes. (audience chattering) (audience chattering) Adrian is watching, she said she can hear us. Oh, and we were talking? Adrian. (laughing) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) It's so much scarier singing when there's no piano.

Oh, when there's no piano. (laughing) I guess, less to cover you up. Yeah. (audience chattering) It's okay, now everyone can hear all of this great sound. Adrian says, "Lol, hi, Agnes." Oh, I think 'cause there's a lag. Oh, okay. (audience chattering) She heard everything. (audience chattering) I guess they pick up a lot from, don't say anything bad about it.

It's on the live stream. Good evening, everyone. Let's all take some time to prepare our hearts for worship. (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) Heavenly Father, God, I just thank you for tonight. I thank you for the chance that we get to just gather for Bible study.

Lord, to study through your word, and just to have this time of worship as well to praise you. God, I pray that tonight as we study and as we sing, Lord, we would not just be going through the motions. Lord, we would not just be engaged in a mental exercise, but God, that we would be truly worshiping you, even through study, even through our singing, and just reflecting on the words that we read and we hear.

So God, I just thank you again for this time. I pray all this in Jesus' name, amen. Let's all stand for a time of praise. (gentle music) Come thou fount. ♪ Come thou fount of every blessing ♪ ♪ Tune my heart to sing thy grace ♪ ♪ Streams of mercy never ceasing ♪ ♪ Call for songs of loudest praise ♪ ♪ Teach me some melodious sonnet ♪ ♪ Sung by flaming tongues above ♪ ♪ Praise the mount I'm fixed upon it ♪ ♪ Mount of thy redeeming love ♪ ♪ Here I raise my Ebenezer ♪ ♪ Hither by thy help I've come ♪ ♪ And I hope by thy good pleasure ♪ ♪ Safely to arrive at home ♪ ♪ Jesus saw me when a stranger ♪ ♪ Wandering from the fold of God ♪ ♪ He to rescue me from danger ♪ ♪ Interposed his precious blood ♪ ♪ Oh to grace how great a debtor ♪ ♪ Daily I'm constrained to be ♪ ♪ Let thy goodness like a fetter ♪ ♪ Bind my wandering heart to thee ♪ ♪ Prone to wander Lord I feel it ♪ ♪ Prone to leave the God I love ♪ ♪ Here's my heart oh take and seal it ♪ ♪ Seal it for thy courts above ♪ ♪ Oh that day when freed from sinning ♪ ♪ I shall see thy lovely face ♪ ♪ Clothed then in blood washed linen ♪ ♪ How I'll sing thy sovereign grace ♪ ♪ Come my Lord no longer tarry ♪ ♪ Take my ransomed soul away ♪ ♪ Send thine angels now to carry ♪ ♪ Me to realms of endless day ♪ ♪ Come my Lord no longer tarry ♪ ♪ Take my ransomed soul away ♪ ♪ Send thine angels now to carry ♪ ♪ Me to realms of endless day ♪ (soft music) ♪ Now why this fear and unbelief ♪ ♪ Has not the Father put to grief ♪ ♪ His spotless Son for us ♪ ♪ And will the righteous judge of men ♪ ♪ Condemn me for that debt of sin ♪ ♪ Now canceled at the cross ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ All my trust is in your blood ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ You've rescued us through your great love ♪ ♪ Great love ♪ ♪ Complete atonement you have made ♪ ♪ And by your death have fully paid ♪ ♪ The debt your people owe ♪ ♪ No wrath remains for us to face ♪ ♪ Sheltered by your saving grace ♪ ♪ And sprinkled with your blood ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ All my trust is in your blood ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ You've rescued us through your great love ♪ How sweet the sound.

♪ How sweet the sound of saving grace ♪ ♪ How sweet the sound of saving grace ♪ ♪ Christ died for me ♪ ♪ How sweet the sound of saving grace ♪ ♪ How sweet the sound of saving grace ♪ ♪ Christ died for me ♪ ♪ Be still my soul and know this peace ♪ ♪ The merits of your great high peace ♪ ♪ Have bought your liberty ♪ ♪ Relying on his precious blood ♪ ♪ To fear your banishment from God ♪ ♪ Since Jesus sets you free ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ All my trust is in your blood ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ You've rescued us through your great love ♪ ♪ How sweet the sound of saving grace ♪ ♪ How sweet the sound of saving grace ♪ ♪ Christ died for me ♪ ♪ How sweet the sound of saving grace ♪ ♪ How sweet the sound of saving grace ♪ ♪ Christ died for me ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ All my trust is in your blood ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ You've rescued us through your great love ♪ You may be seated.

(audience murmuring) - All right. Let me go ahead and read our passage today for us. It's 1 Peter 3, verses 8 to 16. "To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, "brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit, "not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, "but giving a blessing instead.

"For you were called for the very purpose "that you might inherit a blessing. "For the one who desires life to love and see good days "must keep his tongue from evil "and his lips from speaking deceit. "He must turn away from evil and do good. "He must seek peace and pursue it.

"For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous "and his ears attend to their prayer. "But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. "Who is there to harm you "if you prove zealous for what is good? "But even if you should suffer "for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed.

"And do not fear their intimidation and do not be troubled. "But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, "always being ready to make a defense "to everyone who asks you to give an account "for the hope that is in you. "Yet with gentleness and respect, or reverence, "and keep a good conscience "so that in the thing in which you are slandered, "those who revile your good behavior in Christ "will be put to shame." So that's gonna be our lengthiest passage for 1 Peter.

Okay, so normally you guys know we do about five or six verses, but today is nine. So the first two questions you guys know, they're just your observations and your questions from the nine verses. But question number three, it reads, "What is the context of these Old Testament quotes?" Okay, I'm not sure how much you guys were able to go into those, but they are somewhat significant, okay?

So if you guys have time, please do discuss that. And then at 8.20, we'll see you again, okay, for our brief time of wrap-up. But let me pray for us, and then we'll go into our time as small group. Lord, we thank you for just giving us just a week and a half just to reflect, to not only reflect on our union with Christ in his death, but also as we've celebrated this weekend, just our union with Christ in his resurrection.

And that means everything. And so as we reflect on the ramifications of our union with you in your resurrection, I pray for much grace on our conversation, on our discussion. Help us, Lord God, really to be a people of conviction, of grace, of gentleness, and humility. And would you guide and facilitate our time so that all of our conversation is edifying.

And I pray, Lord, that you would just bless our time and help us to glean much from it. In Jesus' name we pray. All right, we'll see you guys at 8.20. (people chattering) >> All right. Let's gather our thoughts together. And let me pray for us before we jump into the wrap up.

Father, this was a very lengthy and a meaty passage. But Lord, there is so much for us to glean from it. Help us not to just look at these adjectives and look at these exhortations and just skim through them. But help us, Lord God, to just dive deeply, to remember Christ's own example.

And Lord, to appropriately apply these verses in our hearts and in our lives. Not for our enjoyment or any acclaim for ourselves. But really, Lord God, that your name would be honored through not only our life, but our doctrine as well. So we pray for your help. And we ask all of these things in Jesus' name.

All right. So you guys are well aware we're living in a very fallen world, right? Peter's audience was living in a very fallen world. And I just did a sweep through starting from chapter one, what it means to be a Christian in a fallen world just according to Peter.

And these things can apply not just for Peter's context, but for ours as well, right? So I just wanted to review what does it mean for a Christian to be living in a hostile Gentile world. First thing that is mentioned is we are resident aliens. This is not home.

Okay? So this is not where we find comfort. The second thing is there is the evidence of a lot of fiery trials and sufferings that lead to distress. And that's a very common theme in 1 Peter as you can just see by the number of verses that are there.

And there are a lot of accusations and slander. Okay? Accusations are things that are closer to the truth, but that are being hurled as insults anyway or offenses. Slander is a straight up made up lie, right? So that's there. The Gentile world around us, there's ignorance, folly, disobedience, and darkness.

There are unreasonable superiors, whether it's like an abusive husband, a bad boss, a tyrant. Okay? So that's a reality. And there's even satanic attack that we'll see. Okay? So this is the reality of our fallen world. So far it's easy to follow, right? But then at the same time, we're living in sin-tainted bodies.

So we are saved, but we are still being saved. We're dead, but we're still dying. Right? And there is still within all of us a desire when we're wronged not to pay back and injure tooth for tooth, eye for eye, foot for foot. Right? What we want is you take my tooth, I'll take your mouth and your nose.

That's human nature. And that still resides, there's residual effect in every believer too. Right? And so living as heaven's heirs while still in sin-tainted flesh is also reality. So there's realness of former lusts, and there's exhortations don't conform anymore. Stop being what you formerly were. There's exhortations there. And there are sinful patterns that need to be actively put aside.

So we actually need to really try hard to cast off stuff and long for the word, as we've learned in the previous lessons. And we have a natural tendency to drift and stray. Okay? And there's a desire for retaliation. Raise your hand if you like to retaliate. Or there is a desire in there in your heart.

All of you, all of you guys should. Right? Every single one. Even my wife, who is a superhuman awesome person. Oh, there's retaliation in her. Right? So we all have that. So we're living in a very hostile, fallen, sin-tainted, sin-corrupted world. And we ourselves haven't fully escaped yet. So this is the reality.

Okay? And that's the context. But God understanding this in His sovereignty still ordains order. Still ordains structure. Still allows for hierarchy, even though there can be harm and abuse in the system. Okay? So these are the things that we covered over the last few weeks. We looked at submitting to rulers and to authorities.

Remember, we are tainted. The system is tainted. We are servants or submit to their masters. Chapter 3, 1 through 6, wives submit to their husbands. And then verse 7, it doesn't say the word submit, but the idea is the same. You submit yourself to the needs in consideration of the wife, husband.

So these are all the different hierarchies and structures that God has placed because God is not a God of chaos or confusion. He's a God of order. 1 Corinthians 14, 33. And in the middle of this is Christ's example. And if we were ever to say, "Well, that's not fair." Well, praise God it wasn't fair.

Praise God that Christ did not treat us fairly. Right? So that's the example. Now, it's a little bit tricky to try to understand like how to function in all of this when we're living in a sin-tainted, corrupted world, when we ourselves are sinners, but we're called to follow Christ's examples.

And we're enabled to do that because the Spirit of God is within us. And this is where things might get a little bit messy and hard to kind of put a finger on. So there is an explanation that takes place. Okay? But if you guys recall, 1 Peter 2, 23, it's similar to today's passage where Jesus, while being reviled, He did not revile in return.

While suffering, He uttered no threats, but He kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously. God, my Father, is good. His will is perfect. He is absolutely in control. And His justice is perfect. So I will willingly submit my fate to my Father in heaven. And He did that all the way to the cross.

Praise God. Right? And that was a characteristic and quality of Jesus' entire life. So that's kind of by way of review and a little bit of an overview so we can kind of hedge in our passage today. I did not like doing nine verses all at once. Did you guys?

That's a lot, right? But fortunately, it breaks down in some ways that you can easily track. The first section of this part, just my-- this is my personal way I titled it. It's the character of those blessed of God. Okay, the character of those blessed of God. And then the bottom part, the response of those blessed of God to the reviler.

So the character of those blessed of God, it's still in flux. We're still growing, right? But in the situation where there is an offense, how do the blessed respond? And that's the bottom part. And the what is the bottom, the response, and the how that response is supposed to look is the top.

You guys tracking? So that first line of columns is the subsections, the two. And if I had to add three more verses in there, I would kind of fit that there too. But in these nine verses, this is how I did it. The second little column, these are all the Christian character and the Christian response.

I'm hoping you see that. The Christian character, harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, humble, not returning evil, giving a blessing, keeping the tongue from evil, turning away from evil, doing good, seeking peace, pursuing it, and then going down, proving zealous for what is good, not fearing, not troubled, and keeping a good conscience.

Not sure if you see that, right? These are all almost adjectival. These are all things that a Christian is and strives to be. You guys got that? We're growing, but we're not fully there yet. So we're continuing to grow in this. The red bold is more future hope. It's difficult for me to read this passage and think this applies to our life here.

It's difficult to see that. Would you guys agree with that? A lot of it, he's like, "Suffering, suffering, suffering, but blessing on this life." I don't think that--the feel of that is not there, okay? The blessing is for an eternal relationship with God for whom we were created. That is in and of itself the blessing, okay?

So that's what I see the red bold is. The underlined words are, because this is an Old Testament quote, "The active righteous response of those who have tasted and seen that the Lord is good." Have you guys heard that verse before? "Taste and see that the Lord is good." That's Psalm 34, okay?

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and knows those-- I forget the rest of the verse. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and is near-- what's the verse? Sorry, everybody at home. Anyway, you guys know that verse, right? Pay attention to what I mean, all right? So that's all Psalm 34.

Psalm 34 is a well-read, beloved Old Testament passage. And so all of those sayings of the righteous person who's tasted and seen that the Lord is good, I just underlined it. And then the light blue highlights are all the fear and terror words again. Remember, we've mentioned how the fear word comes out a lot, okay?

"Do not fear their fear," is literally how it's actually written. And then, "Do this with gentleness and fear." The LSB actually says, "Do this with gentleness and fear," when you're giving people a defense. And then the yellow highlight is the one main imperative. All right, there aren't many verbs in this passage.

Did you guys pick up on that? There's one main imperative, and what is that? "Set Christ as holy in your heart." Set him apart, sanctify him, okay? And then the third column are all the subordinate ideas. So that's how I just kind of piece this visually to kind of track the flow of thought.

And I wanna spend a little bit of time on the two Old Testament passages that have been mentioned here, okay? This is Psalm 34, verse seven to 19. And I wanna look to the right first to the context. So the title of Psalm 34, it's a psalm written by David when he pretended to be crazy before Abimelech, Akish, the king of Gath.

There's a lot of Abimelechs, as there are a lot of pharaohs and a lot of hereds. Abimelech can both be a name and a title, okay? But his name is Akish. So this is a poem, the proverb is written in a poem that's easy to memorize, because it's like A, in the Hebrew letter, alef, beth, gimel, dalet, it's in order, okay?

So people who grow up in the Judaic culture, a Jewish culture, they would be able to kind of recall all of these things, okay? So David is being reviled and pursued by sinful kings. He has to run away from Saul, and then he encounters the king of Gath, Akish, and then he has to pretend to be crazy, right?

And then he runs, so he is constantly surrounded by a pagan governing system that's out for his harm. But he is delivered miraculously, and he's given victory, because God gives that to his anointed person. And that's the feel of Psalm 34. And I wanna read this for you, okay?

And notice the word fear also mentioned in here. The black bold is what you saw in 1 Peter. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him. The angel of the Lord is only mentioned three times in all of the Proverbs, okay? So it's a very special person here, okay?

The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and rescues them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. How blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him, there is no want. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing.

Come, you children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Who is the man who desires life and loves length of days and he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it.

The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears are open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against evildoers to cut off the memory of them from the earth. The righteous cry and the Lord hears and he delivers them out of all their troubles.

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. There you go, okay. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken. So this is a very well-known context which Peter the Jew just naturally would just launch into as he's writing.

God is the one we need to fear and entrust ourselves to. Everything else is actually inconsequential because he is faithful to preserve and protect those whom he loves. Okay, so that's Psalm 34. The next passage that's written on the bottom part, the what part, is out of Isaiah chapter eight.

Okay, Isaiah seven, you have a Christmas passage. Isaiah nine, you have a Christmas passage. You guys know for the virgin will conceive? That's Isaiah 7, 14. Unto us a child is born, unto us a king is given. His name will be wonderful counselor, eternal father, mighty God. You guys know that one, right?

But right smack in that context is fear, okay? So there's a civil war between Israel and Judah. Israel is rebellious. Judah's not that much better, but God is faithful to Judah. And there's a common enemy, Assyria, that's growing in power. And if you guys have done any OT survey stuff, Assyrians are wicked people, right?

And they're strong and they're scary. So the king of Israel and the king of Syria, the northern kingdom, the wicked nation, and Syria, what they wanna try to do is, hey, we need you Ahaz. We need to all unite our forces so we can defeat Assyria. You better join us or else, okay?

But Ahaz refuses that alliance. But now he's scared. He's like, oh shoot, I refused to ally with my enemies to fight another enemy in Assyria. Maybe what I will do is I will go to Assyria, unite myself with them, and we will be protected. So he's thinking practical. He's thinking what human way can I get out of this situation and not be harmed?

Isaiah the prophet speaks into this. Okay, so Ahaz is considering joining with Assyria, but Isaiah warns the king against this ungodly alliance. And that's the passage that is being read. Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted. State a proposal, but it will not stand. For God is with us.

For thus the Lord spoke to me with mighty power and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying, you are not to say it is conspiracy in regard to all that this people call a conspiracy. You are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it.

It is the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy. And he shall be your fear. He shall be your dread. So when you're looking at the first Peter passage, do you guys see the connection? What can man do to us, at the very least, kill our bodies?

Right? But if God is for us, who can be against us? We who are protected by the power of God for salvation. Right? So the fear really needs to be directed toward the God who is creator of the universe, who is holy, holy, holy, and whatever physical suffering that he may ordain, we entrust ourselves to him the way the Son entrusted himself to the Father.

And that's the context. Okay? So then, what does that mean for you and me? What does it mean to sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts? Do you guys think that one, like, think about that one? That's the main command, right? What does it mean to sanctify the Lord in my heart?

What is the goal of, if I were to tell you the goal of my marriage is to not cheat on my wife, you guys would think that's a weird goal. Right? The goal of my marriage is oneness with my wife. The goal of my marriage is to love my wife and to be loved and grow in that oneness.

It's not to see how much I can get away with, what benefits I can glean, and still stay married. To sanctify the Lord in your hearts is really, what this means is I am pursuing to love the Lord my God with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind, and all my strength.

That's where my attention is going to. My efforts are not going to be a better, like, it's not to become a better Christian. Or to see how much I can get away with and still have access to heaven. Are you guys following this line of thought? To sanctify the Lord Jesus Christ in my heart as Lord, it means I am wholeheartedly devoting myself to pursuing him.

This is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. My desire in my relationship with God, the blessing that we see in 1 Peter, is to know him. My focus is not going to be on how much can I get away with, well if I do this, is that a sin?

If I go there and I eat that food, is that a sin? Is it okay to buy a Tesla, that truck that's coming out? And if I buy that, is that a sin? Right? Or how many drinks can I have before it becomes a sin? You just missed the point.

It's like me telling you, I am so excited to be married to Becky so that I don't cheat. That's a very strange way to say that. But for me, to sanctify Christ as Lord in my heart is he's all I want. He's the blessing. And whether I get there in a year or 50 years, I'm gonna have him.

I'm gonna know him. That's the hope that is in me. So if people are asking me, hey what's the reason for the hope that you have in the midst of cancer? What's the reason for the hope that you have in the trials that you are suffering? What's the reason for the hope that you have in the middle of this painful life crisis?

I don't need to say, oh well let me get back to you 'cause I haven't read enough about apologetics. Oh you know what, I don't quite know all there is to know about the stance on, I don't know, vaccines. I'm just throwing that out there. I don't know. But a lot of times we think that we need to learn how to logically argue someone into belief.

But you know when you are in love with Christ, it glows out your body. And your reasoning for the defense of the hope that is in you, not self-righteous, not condemning of other people, but you're just so thankful and humbled that God loves you that you just start preaching, but it doesn't sound preachy because you're just sharing your life testimony because you have sanctified Christ as Lord in your heart.

I don't even need to talk about not cheating on my wife if I'm absolutely in love with Becky. Because that would not even cross your mind. Because you're like, man, that's a man who loves his wife. And that's what this passage is. For better or for worse, for richer or for poorer.

I will pursue my Lord and set him apart and fear him only. I am gonna love the Lord my God with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind, and all my strength. And the natural byproduct of that is I'm gonna have his heart and I'm gonna be loving my neighbor as myself with compassion, with tender heartedness, with sympathy, with humility of spirit, with gentleness and fear, not of them, but of who?

Christ. And it's not a terror fear. It's more of a I am so fearful of disappointing the one I love. And he is worthy of trust. So that's this passage. All of these qualities that you should have as a Christian are natural byproducts. You know how people say? It's kind of hard for people to say of us 'cause my wife and I, sheer size is so different.

But people do say, you guys look similar, especially when they look at a family photo. You guys are looking more and more similar as we're getting older. I mean, you might disagree, but that's what I've heard. I can start predicting what my wife is gonna do. I can start predicting what she's gonna choose and how she's gonna think because we've been together for 15 plus years in marriage.

As you grow in intimate knowledge, oh, the Lord, these are things that naturally develop as byproducts of your life because you were purposed to inherit this blessing of knowing God and to be intimately known with him. Are you guys following this? So you don't need to try to explain why you love the Lord if you're pursuing love for the Lord.

You have to work hard to try to explain and almost justify why you believe in God when he is just your religious figurehead. And that's the thrust of this passage. Life is gonna start throwing a lot of painful curve balls your way. But no matter what the circumstance, you sanctify Christ as Lord.

So next week's passage is only six verses. It's chapter three, verse 17 to 22. And the question that, number five is the one that's different. Next week's passage is gonna throw you all kind of like for a little bit of like a huh, what does this mean? It's how does Christ's being made alive in the spirit affect us according to this passage?

Okay, so kind of have that in the back of your minds. If you guys haven't looked at it yet, once you look at it, you'll be like, oh, that's what PPC's talking about, right? The passage, there's gonna be a lot of questions that come up. For today, question number one, which of the exhortations in these verses do you struggle most to exhibit in your day-to-day life?

Is it, are you zealous to do what is good? Are people harming you because your personality is kind of stinky? Are you zealous for doing what is good? Are you humble, are you gentle, are you sympathetic? What are all these qualities that are there? When someone cuts you off on the street, do you revile and return?

What do you struggle with? And the second question that I want you guys to share in your group is how ready are you to articulate the hope that is in you? Do you have hope in you? And then the second one is more of just prayer support for your growth in your faith.

Are there specific ways your group members can pray for you as you grow to sanctify Christ as Lord in the areas of your life and witness? So those are the questions that I'm gonna leave you with. Let me pray for us, and then we'll break up into our small group sharing time.

Lord, we ask that you would just grant your grace in our lives and cause us, Lord God, in the areas where we need repentance, just to repent and to embrace you and really to reflect your kindness and goodness as we live day to day. Lord, help us to sanctify you as Lord in our hearts.

And Lord, would you fill us more and more just with a greater passion when we will fully know you, when we see you face to face, when we will receive fully the actualization of this blessed hope. So we thank you, Lord, for our time together. We pray for a good, fruitful time of sharing and praying.

And we pray all these things in Jesus' name.