WEBVTT 00:00:03.827 --> 00:00:06.293 Well, we're in 1 Peter, Chapter 3. 00:00:06.293 --> 00:00:08.307 Are you ready for a challenge from Simon Peter? 00:00:08.307 --> 00:00:13.586 Oh man, you're sure it's a challenge. 00:00:13.586 --> 00:00:19.007 First service didn't know what they were asking for. 00:00:19.007 --> 00:00:20.251 So are you sure? 00:00:20.251 --> 00:00:22.024 Ready for a challenge? 00:00:22.024 --> 00:00:22.705 Okay, all right. 00:00:24.420 --> 00:00:27.771 Chapter 3, starting at verse 8. 00:00:27.771 --> 00:00:42.375 Finally, all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, tender heart and a humble mind. 00:00:42.375 --> 00:00:56.174 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but, on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. 00:00:56.174 --> 00:01:05.694 For whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. 00:01:05.694 --> 00:01:09.030 Let him turn away from evil and do good. 00:01:09.030 --> 00:01:23.251 Let him seek peace and pursue it, for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. 00:01:23.251 --> 00:01:30.593 Father, we thank you so much that the entrance of your word brings light. 00:01:30.593 --> 00:01:34.510 So this morning, lord, we're asking for light. 00:01:34.510 --> 00:01:41.846 We know that there are dark areas in our understanding, dark areas in our character. 00:01:41.846 --> 00:01:45.004 Lord, we need your light. 00:01:45.004 --> 00:01:48.581 We need you to come in and flood us with your light this morning. 00:01:48.581 --> 00:01:49.965 So we ask you for that, lord. 00:01:49.965 --> 00:01:52.090 Open our eyes to see. 00:01:52.090 --> 00:01:54.381 In the name of Jesus, amen. 00:01:55.602 --> 00:02:01.174 Okay, I'm going to tell you a story this morning about the hottest sermon I ever preached. 00:02:01.174 --> 00:02:11.627 So well, actually, it's probably more likely, it's the hottest I ever was when I preached a sermon, that's actually more like what it was. 00:02:11.627 --> 00:02:19.927 So I was with my friend, jay Raj, in summertime in South India, which is just hot. 00:02:19.927 --> 00:02:21.751 It's just hot. 00:02:21.751 --> 00:02:24.975 And he asked me to. 00:02:24.975 --> 00:02:31.104 It's just hot, and he asked me to come and speak at a church. 00:02:31.104 --> 00:02:39.050 Usually, when I'm in other nations, I'm working with leaders and training pastors, and sometimes, though, they asked me to speak at a church, and so I will speak at a church, and so we went to this church. 00:02:39.050 --> 00:02:43.627 It was late in the afternoon, it was so hot and just like. 00:02:43.627 --> 00:02:56.134 It's like 120% humidity, you know one of those things and then we went to this third story room, and so, like every step I climbed, it was hotter. 00:02:56.134 --> 00:02:58.305 It was like one degree hotter every step. 00:02:58.305 --> 00:03:01.211 I got to the top and walked in the room. 00:03:01.211 --> 00:03:06.394 It was like a sauna, literally, like I was dripping sweat walking into the room. 00:03:06.394 --> 00:03:07.276 People were up there. 00:03:07.276 --> 00:03:08.460 I guess they're used to it, I don't know. 00:03:08.460 --> 00:03:14.413 They were up there worshiping, and so I was getting ready to preach. 00:03:14.941 --> 00:03:18.471 Now J Raj asked me would you preach on a specific topic? 00:03:18.471 --> 00:03:26.425 And sometimes I am asked to speak on specific topics and usually I get to do whatever I feel the Lord leading. 00:03:26.425 --> 00:03:29.832 But he said I want you to speak on how to be blessed. 00:03:29.832 --> 00:03:35.372 Speak to us on the blessing of God, how to be blessed, how to walk the blessed life. 00:03:35.372 --> 00:03:54.246 And I kind of knew what he was meaning, because you know, in a lot of places in the world, especially in third world countries, there's this doctrine that has gone before us, right, and this doctrine of prosperity gospel, and it's a real heresy and it's extreme. 00:03:54.246 --> 00:04:00.131 It's really done a lot of damage, but it's also really well received in poverty stricken places. 00:04:00.131 --> 00:04:06.806 So I think I knew what he was asking me to speak on Blessed, how to get blessed right. 00:04:07.620 --> 00:04:17.593 But all I could think of was the Sermon on the Mount, because Jesus said blessed are, and he gives a whole list, right, of blessings. 00:04:17.593 --> 00:04:24.880 And so I started going down the list of blessings according to Jesus right Now. 00:04:24.880 --> 00:04:39.245 That includes poor in spirit, that includes those who mourn, that includes those who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, that includes those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. 00:04:39.245 --> 00:04:45.949 You're blessed when men revile you and speak all manner of evil against you. 00:04:45.949 --> 00:04:50.267 For my name's sake, are you feeling the blessing this morning? 00:04:53.821 --> 00:04:59.648 But I think we understood a little bit that morning about what it means to be blessed in this kingdom that we're brought into. 00:04:59.648 --> 00:05:00.630 It's a different kind of kingdom. 00:05:00.630 --> 00:05:04.951 There is a different way, there's a different definition of blessing, and this is what it's not necessarily our idea, is not necessarily God's way. 00:05:04.951 --> 00:05:09.134 There's a different definition of blessing and this is what it's not necessarily our idea, is not necessarily God's idea. 00:05:09.134 --> 00:05:12.605 That's what I'm saying and Peter is really telling his people here. 00:05:12.605 --> 00:05:15.471 He's telling them how to be blessed. 00:05:15.471 --> 00:05:31.290 In fact, he says to this you were called, you were called to inherit a blessing, but the context in which he was writing was this context of persecution and suffering and difficult times, and they were suffering for Jesus' sake. 00:05:31.290 --> 00:05:38.528 So what happens is Peter echoes the words he heard from Jesus on that mountain. 00:05:40.192 --> 00:05:43.824 And Peter was not he was never, he's not a stranger to suffering. 00:05:43.824 --> 00:05:45.531 Right, he had a lot of suffering in his life. 00:05:45.531 --> 00:06:10.108 But surprisingly, if you read what he says here, he says that in his experience it is our relationships within the church that are important in keeping our minds and our souls in the right place so that we are strong in ourselves, so that we're strong together and so that we hold forth a strong witness, even to those who are persecuting us. 00:06:10.108 --> 00:06:13.786 Are you feeling a blessing this morning? 00:06:13.786 --> 00:06:20.172 He even says we can turn the tables on those who are persecuting us. 00:06:20.172 --> 00:06:47.855 But we do it in a way that perhaps we wouldn't expect, because the larger picture of what Peter is talking about even in our suffering, even in our sufferings today and their sufferings then as well is that we have a privilege of showing the character of Jesus to the world, but we have to have the character of Jesus inside of us and even among us in order to do this. 00:06:47.855 --> 00:06:58.471 So we develop the character of Jesus mostly, maybe totally, in the context of relationships. 00:06:58.471 --> 00:07:06.928 So Peter has a great big we, a great big unity, a great big us involved in his sermon today. 00:07:07.370 --> 00:07:12.331 In his sermon, his letter then and my sermon today, and he refers to Psalm 34,. 00:07:12.331 --> 00:07:17.595 Okay, I don't know if you noticed that, but half of what we read here was not original to Peter. 00:07:17.595 --> 00:07:20.523 It was actually original to David. 00:07:20.523 --> 00:07:32.995 In the Psalms and 1, peter contains the largest concentration of citations from the Old Testament of any book in the New Testament except for Revelation. 00:07:32.995 --> 00:07:37.185 There are 21 references from the Old Testament in these five chapters. 00:07:37.185 --> 00:07:43.363 So the fisherman knew his Bible, and you and I should too as well. 00:07:43.363 --> 00:07:55.151 So he cites Psalm 34 in this letter twice, once in chapter one and once here and his readers would have got it. 00:07:55.151 --> 00:07:58.401 They understood it, they knew the Psalm. 00:07:58.401 --> 00:08:02.327 They probably sung this Psalm in their service this is very possible. 00:08:02.327 --> 00:08:05.413 But they also knew the story behind the psalm. 00:08:05.413 --> 00:08:07.742 Do you know the story behind the psalm? 00:08:09.026 --> 00:08:10.408 This was a song of David. 00:08:10.408 --> 00:08:13.081 It was a strange time in David's life. 00:08:13.081 --> 00:08:28.449 David was afraid of Achish, the king of Gath, and it says that he changed his behavior before the king and the king's men, and he pretended to be insane in their hands and he made marks on the door. 00:08:28.449 --> 00:08:32.648 He was scratching the door and he let his spittle run down his beard. 00:08:32.648 --> 00:08:39.424 It's our boy, it's our hero. 00:08:39.424 --> 00:08:42.849 And the king said this man is crazy. 00:08:42.849 --> 00:08:43.780 Why have you brought him here? 00:08:43.780 --> 00:08:51.575 He actually said quote do I lack, madman, that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? 00:08:51.575 --> 00:08:55.148 Do I not have enough idiots? 00:08:55.148 --> 00:08:58.225 What are you bringing to me? 00:08:58.225 --> 00:08:59.408 Send him away. 00:08:59.408 --> 00:09:11.628 So David is sent away and David writes the song, and the song has a lot of great quotes that we love to draw from right, like taste and see that the Lord is good. 00:09:11.628 --> 00:09:20.527 We love that one and, like the angel of the Lord, encamps around those who fear his name to save them and deliver them from harm. 00:09:20.527 --> 00:09:21.690 Love that one. 00:09:21.690 --> 00:09:26.490 And my favorite is the Lord is near to the brokenhearted. 00:09:26.490 --> 00:09:29.802 And it's true, it's all true. 00:09:31.265 --> 00:09:35.932 But I think the big idea of Psalm 34 is in verse 19. 00:09:35.932 --> 00:09:44.073 He says this many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all. 00:09:44.073 --> 00:09:46.700 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all. 00:09:46.700 --> 00:09:49.486 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. 00:09:49.486 --> 00:09:51.668 That's what David is saying in the Psalm. 00:09:51.668 --> 00:09:54.328 That's what Peter is referring back to. 00:09:54.328 --> 00:10:10.970 There's a reason he says it, because it's in the context of suffering and afflictions that Peter is writing his letter to these people and God is delivering his people, his own people, there in first century Palestine. 00:10:10.970 --> 00:10:14.107 And he speaks to us as well. 00:10:14.107 --> 00:10:16.605 And his readers got it. 00:10:16.605 --> 00:10:30.889 They understood, because they were experiencing their own affliction, their own suffering and persecution from a godless form of government, a godless culture because of their faith in Christ. 00:10:30.889 --> 00:10:46.432 And I think what Peter was saying was we can't always control what's going on around us, but we can control what's going on within us personally and what's going on among us in community. 00:10:49.100 --> 00:10:51.065 The big picture Peter's looking at. 00:10:51.065 --> 00:11:01.288 He's stepping back and seeing the us or the we here See when your world collapses into catastrophe and devastation. 00:11:01.288 --> 00:11:08.520 You got a couple of choices and devastation. 00:11:08.520 --> 00:11:25.855 You got a couple of choices, maybe many choices, I don't know, but one of them you could set yourself up and prepare like some defender in a zombie apocalypse movie and build your bunker and be ready and outfitted and stand in your own strength against the enemy. 00:11:25.855 --> 00:11:32.033 And I'm not sure if any scenario like this would really work out in real life. 00:11:32.033 --> 00:11:34.981 Maybe in the movies, but not really In real life. 00:11:34.981 --> 00:11:37.068 Maybe there's a better way to prepare. 00:11:37.068 --> 00:11:46.475 I mean, we could prepare our bunker or we could prepare our hearts, and this is what Peter is saying here Prepare our hearts and prepare our hearts, and this is what Peter is saying here. 00:11:47.600 --> 00:11:49.347 Prepare our hearts and prepare our relationships. 00:11:49.347 --> 00:11:52.628 Focus on your connection to God and your connection to people. 00:11:52.628 --> 00:11:58.500 Right, but, mark, what about survival? 00:11:58.500 --> 00:12:15.508 What about being ready for every scenario, but I just really don't see the New Testament writers or Jesus for that matter, teaching survival techniques, do you? 00:12:15.508 --> 00:12:19.224 If you do, maybe you should come and tell me, because maybe I'm missing it. 00:12:19.224 --> 00:12:30.427 But I don't see that At some point we have to do what Jesus said to do, and that is, we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and these things are added to us. 00:12:30.427 --> 00:12:33.350 We have to eventually come down to trusting God. 00:12:33.350 --> 00:12:34.645 We have to come down to faith, don't we? 00:12:34.645 --> 00:12:36.722 So? 00:12:36.722 --> 00:12:40.923 I think this is how the New Testament is telling us to prepare and face suffering. 00:12:41.445 --> 00:13:09.063 In the middle of this very kind of persecution, pressure, uncertainty and unjust mistreatment, peter has a prescription, and his prescription is that we live in love, that we ground ourselves in the gospel of Jesus Christ, ground ourselves in grace, ground your family in that same kind of grace, mend your relationships with other people. 00:13:09.063 --> 00:13:13.453 What if we focus on this kind of preparation? 00:13:13.453 --> 00:13:18.426 He doesn't ignore evil, he says evil. 00:13:18.426 --> 00:13:21.962 Actually, he uses the word evil six times in this short passage that we read here. 00:13:21.962 --> 00:13:35.846 So he's not sidestepping evil, but what he's saying is I think it seems to me what he's saying is you don't meet this evil with a fist, you meet it with an open hand. 00:13:39.440 --> 00:13:42.126 When you're cursed, you don't curse back. 00:13:42.126 --> 00:13:44.402 When you're reviled, you don't revile back. 00:13:44.402 --> 00:13:48.384 There's a different spirit that we operate in. 00:13:48.384 --> 00:13:50.562 We bless those who curse us. 00:13:50.562 --> 00:13:57.443 So an open hand, so I kind of see it like five fingers on a hand. 00:13:57.443 --> 00:14:01.105 Okay, because he says he actually gives us five things. 00:14:02.558 --> 00:14:06.301 It's an awesome sermon outline so this was really easy for me. 00:14:06.301 --> 00:14:17.710 Five things here he gave us right, like-minded, sympathetic, have brotherly love, be tenderhearted and humble-minded. 00:14:17.710 --> 00:14:18.960 Okay, five things. 00:14:18.960 --> 00:14:25.216 And remember, he's teaching them and us how to handle mistreatment, persecution, suffering. 00:14:25.216 --> 00:14:31.817 And he says the key is it's the way you think, the way you feel and the way you love. 00:14:33.159 --> 00:14:36.285 So let's look at this kind of word by word. 00:14:36.285 --> 00:14:40.099 Here he starts the whole passage off by this one word finally, right. 00:14:40.099 --> 00:14:41.721 Finally. 00:14:41.721 --> 00:14:46.589 Finally doesn't mean I'm done with my letter. 00:14:46.589 --> 00:14:57.528 Okay, because we're in chapter three and there's five chapters, although there are some preachers who say finally, halfway through their sermon that does happen. 00:14:57.528 --> 00:14:59.760 I'm not going to do that today. 00:14:59.760 --> 00:15:01.620 Actually I just did, didn't I? 00:15:01.620 --> 00:15:03.360 I said finally, but right, so I'm not ending the letter, but I'm ending this to do that today. 00:15:03.360 --> 00:15:03.788 Actually, I just did, didn't I? 00:15:03.788 --> 00:15:08.567 I said finally, but right, so I'm not ending the letter, but I'm ending this passage of scripture, this passage of teaching. 00:15:08.855 --> 00:15:12.801 It's a series of teachings that we've had the last few weeks, right about submission. 00:15:12.801 --> 00:15:19.740 You submit to the government, you submit in the workplace, you submit in the home. 00:15:19.740 --> 00:15:22.197 It's an idea, it's a posturing. 00:15:22.197 --> 00:15:22.639 It's a posturing. 00:15:22.639 --> 00:15:24.264 It's a posturing of humility. 00:15:24.264 --> 00:15:28.639 Don't just live for yourself. 00:15:28.639 --> 00:15:29.059 How about? 00:15:29.059 --> 00:15:36.977 Let's dare to believe that if we lose our life, we can find it. 00:15:36.977 --> 00:15:41.682 So finally, at the end of this teaching, I want to tell you how to do all these teachings. 00:15:41.682 --> 00:15:46.107 I want to tell you the state of heart you have to be in to be able to submit in those ways. 00:15:46.107 --> 00:15:48.610 Finally, all of you. 00:15:48.610 --> 00:16:01.234 All of you means each one of us and all of us together, and I think that's really important, that this is not just a command to individuals, but it's a command to the community. 00:16:01.234 --> 00:16:08.923 They're going through this suffering together, and so we have to step back and we have to think outside of ourselves. 00:16:08.923 --> 00:16:13.778 This is how we prepare, this is how we make it through suffering. 00:16:13.778 --> 00:16:17.416 We think outside of ourselves and we think in community. 00:16:17.895 --> 00:16:21.339 So, first word, like-minded. 00:16:21.339 --> 00:16:29.264 Like-minded, that means we think in the same direction, we think together in the same direction. 00:16:29.264 --> 00:16:35.229 It doesn't mean that I agree with everyone on everything all the time. 00:16:35.229 --> 00:16:37.529 Number one, that's impossible. 00:16:37.529 --> 00:16:39.851 Number two that's not what he's saying. 00:16:39.851 --> 00:16:52.437 Okay, if two people agree on everything all the time, one of them is not thinking, one of them is just following, right. 00:16:52.437 --> 00:16:54.518 But he says. 00:16:54.518 --> 00:16:59.221 What he's really saying here is there's a difference between unity and uniformity. 00:16:59.221 --> 00:17:03.482 Like-minded means we're going in the same, we're thinking in the same direction. 00:17:03.482 --> 00:17:07.585 Okay, like-minded unity, not uniformity. 00:17:07.585 --> 00:17:09.645 Like-minded means we're going in the same, we're thinking in the same direction. 00:17:09.645 --> 00:17:10.405 Okay, like-minded unity, not uniformity. 00:17:10.445 --> 00:17:13.647 Uniformity is that uniformity is like comes from pressure from the outside. 00:17:13.647 --> 00:17:16.548 There's pressure to form into something. 00:17:16.548 --> 00:17:18.690 Form into one, okay. 00:17:18.690 --> 00:17:23.471 So usually it's legalistic, oftentimes it's superficial. 00:17:23.471 --> 00:17:34.259 It has to do with outward things the way you look, the way we talk, the way our group believes we should be. 00:17:34.259 --> 00:17:35.321 That's uniformity we're forming together. 00:17:35.321 --> 00:17:50.188 So you end up being a smaller and smaller group, right, like the old Englishman who said to his friend everyone in the world is quite mad except for me and thee, and sometimes I have my doubts about thee. 00:17:50.188 --> 00:18:00.657 So you get more and more narrow-minded, you get more and more exclusive and your group gets smaller and smaller. 00:18:00.657 --> 00:18:02.419 This is uniformity. 00:18:02.419 --> 00:18:05.181 He's talking about unity, which is different. 00:18:05.181 --> 00:18:07.363 Unity is not from the outside in. 00:18:07.363 --> 00:18:08.703 Unity is from the inside. 00:18:08.703 --> 00:18:15.209 Unity comes from being moved by loyalty and love from within. 00:18:15.209 --> 00:18:18.412 It's an inner condition or disposition of your heart. 00:18:18.412 --> 00:18:24.151 Okay, I'm with you because we're together, we're related together. 00:18:24.171 --> 00:18:27.520 Last week, tyler mentioned this word, hupotasso. 00:18:27.520 --> 00:18:40.718 This word that's translated submit in the New Testament, hupotasso, which means to come up underneath, and there's two words that in the Greek that mean come up underneath. 00:18:40.718 --> 00:18:43.164 One of them is hupokuo, one is hupotasso. 00:18:43.164 --> 00:18:51.051 Hupo means come up underneath, kuo means out of duty or out of law or because I have to. 00:18:51.051 --> 00:18:52.757 Okay, so it is. 00:18:52.757 --> 00:19:00.766 You're the sergeant, I'm the private and therefore I have to salute and I have to obey. 00:19:00.766 --> 00:19:02.836 It's my duty, I have to do it. 00:19:02.836 --> 00:19:04.864 Okay, it's not. 00:19:04.864 --> 00:19:10.829 I may hate your guts, I may have no loyalty to you at all. 00:19:10.829 --> 00:19:14.679 My loyalty may be to your stripes, right, but it's not to you. 00:19:14.679 --> 00:19:16.663 You turn around. 00:19:16.663 --> 00:19:19.949 I might either spit or curse in your direction. 00:19:19.949 --> 00:19:28.157 Spit or curse in your direction, but I have to. 00:19:28.157 --> 00:19:28.558 That's hupakuo. 00:19:28.558 --> 00:19:31.365 That's not the word that Peter and Paul use in the New Testament about submitting. 00:19:31.365 --> 00:19:31.948 It's hupotasso. 00:19:31.948 --> 00:19:36.558 And hupotasso is coming up under out of duty, not duty. 00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:47.402 Devotion Out of, not duty, but devotion out of love, out of loyalty, out of we have relationship out of. 00:19:47.402 --> 00:19:49.227 We're connected, we're together. 00:19:49.227 --> 00:19:53.385 And so what I'm doing, I'm doing from a different motive. 00:19:53.385 --> 00:20:07.335 It's not because I have to, it's because I love to, it's because I'm connected to you and together we're walking through this thing together. 00:20:07.335 --> 00:20:12.867 So if we're going from law to love, we're getting there. 00:20:12.867 --> 00:20:19.248 If we're moving from duty in our minds to devotion, we're getting to the right kind of submission. 00:20:19.248 --> 00:20:20.839 It's out of love. 00:20:20.934 --> 00:20:24.699 So this is what he's talking about here unity, unity. 00:20:24.699 --> 00:20:43.503 Okay, so we're all going to see things differently because we have different perspectives, we have different gifts and personalities and we all bring something different to the group, but we can do it together and in our differences, in our diversity, we can still be like-minded, going in the right direction. 00:20:43.503 --> 00:20:51.656 We're thinking in the right direction together, because unity is based on respecting the diversity and finding commonality. 00:20:51.656 --> 00:20:59.199 Right, that's what he's saying, but here's the problem In our culture, that's not very common. 00:20:59.199 --> 00:21:07.443 What we see in our media, our social media or on the media in general is pretty much the opposite. 00:21:07.443 --> 00:21:09.883 It's like lack of dialogue. 00:21:09.883 --> 00:21:14.645 It's attacking the other, only, always, ever attacking the other person. 00:21:14.645 --> 00:21:15.839 That's basically what it is. 00:21:15.839 --> 00:21:23.403 It's just calling names and it's really immature and it's a real fleshly way to live your life. 00:21:23.403 --> 00:21:24.576 It's the enemy of unity. 00:21:24.576 --> 00:21:33.417 And so how do we keep one mind when we're going in one direction and there's one truth but there's a lot of perspectives? 00:21:33.417 --> 00:21:34.420 How do we do that? 00:21:34.420 --> 00:21:49.315 We grow up up, we mature. 00:21:49.315 --> 00:21:50.217 It takes maturity to listen to other people. 00:21:50.217 --> 00:21:51.759 It takes maturity to defer to one another. 00:21:51.759 --> 00:22:02.163 It takes maturity to consider their perspective and value it, even prefer others above yourself and value a unique expression of God and other people. 00:22:03.105 --> 00:22:19.443 I've been listening to this podcast that's really interested me recently and it's by two former governors of the state of Tennessee, one a Democrat and one a Republican, and they're talking about issues. 00:22:19.443 --> 00:22:29.474 You know what the name of the podcast is you Might Be Right. 00:22:29.474 --> 00:22:31.218 Isn't that surprising to you? 00:22:31.218 --> 00:22:32.361 You Might Be Right. 00:22:32.361 --> 00:22:34.886 Isn't that attitude refreshing? 00:22:34.886 --> 00:22:36.696 You Might Be Right. 00:22:36.696 --> 00:22:46.162 It's thoughtful, civil discussions, conversations about tough topics, to hear both sides so we can go forward and progress. 00:22:46.162 --> 00:22:47.065 That's what it's about. 00:22:47.065 --> 00:22:50.924 It's a humble posture to working together. 00:22:50.924 --> 00:22:53.342 You know and we can learn from that. 00:22:53.342 --> 00:22:55.183 But you know, the problem is you've never heard. 00:22:55.183 --> 00:23:01.160 You've probably never heard of that podcast, because stuff like that doesn't get great ratings. 00:23:01.160 --> 00:23:06.478 What gets great ratings are basically catfights on the air. 00:23:06.478 --> 00:23:08.362 That's basically it. 00:23:08.362 --> 00:23:13.038 And so, as far as our media is concerned, they're just stuck in attack mode. 00:23:13.419 --> 00:23:18.368 But it doesn't have to be that way with us, and that's what Peter is saying. 00:23:18.368 --> 00:23:19.538 Don't let it be that way. 00:23:19.538 --> 00:23:21.301 How do we not be that way? 00:23:21.301 --> 00:23:23.887 How can it not be that way among us? 00:23:23.887 --> 00:23:34.887 Well, it's the second word be sympathetic, sympathetic, and this word means sympathetic, and it also is tied into empathetic. 00:23:34.887 --> 00:23:41.115 I know those two things are a little bit different, but it really it means something deep in your feelings. 00:23:41.115 --> 00:23:43.463 It literally means feeling what you feel. 00:23:43.463 --> 00:23:48.606 So what it really means is your pain in my heart. 00:23:48.606 --> 00:23:54.346 That's what this word means your pain in my heart. 00:23:59.875 --> 00:24:01.160 We are to be like-minded. 00:24:01.160 --> 00:24:08.067 We have to believe true things, but being correct is not enough. 00:24:08.067 --> 00:24:10.862 It's not enough to believe the right things. 00:24:10.862 --> 00:24:23.682 A lot of us have been around long enough to understand that there are people who are right in what they believe, but they don't have a sympathetic heart and they cause a lot of damage. 00:24:23.682 --> 00:24:26.121 They damage people. 00:24:26.121 --> 00:24:29.201 They even damage in some ways. 00:24:29.201 --> 00:24:33.144 They can damage the kingdom of God or the thing that God wants to do in a place. 00:24:33.144 --> 00:24:41.929 They damage people with their rightness because their heart isn't there. 00:24:41.929 --> 00:24:46.813 Because their heart isn't there. 00:24:50.217 --> 00:24:50.616 I was thinking. 00:24:50.616 --> 00:24:51.959 I'm trying to remember this movie. 00:24:51.959 --> 00:24:53.181 You know it was based on a novel. 00:24:53.181 --> 00:24:56.806 It was a famous novel in the 20th century that was made into a movie. 00:24:56.806 --> 00:25:00.871 It was about a whole group of people going on this epic journey together. 00:25:04.201 --> 00:25:05.247 There was a lot of spiritual parallels. 00:25:05.247 --> 00:25:07.433 And what was it? 00:25:07.433 --> 00:25:09.630 You know what it was? 00:25:09.630 --> 00:25:16.940 No, no ideas. 00:25:16.940 --> 00:25:19.003 Conical Narnia, that's right, but that's not it. 00:25:19.003 --> 00:25:19.846 That's not what I'm thinking of. 00:25:19.846 --> 00:25:23.760 Lord of the Rings no, that's not. 00:25:23.760 --> 00:25:24.707 It either's not what I'm thinking of. 00:25:24.707 --> 00:25:25.914 Lord of the Rings no, that's not either. 00:25:25.914 --> 00:25:27.657 It's Wizard of Oz. 00:25:27.657 --> 00:25:30.002 Actually, okay, wizard of Oz, the Wizard of Oz. 00:25:30.002 --> 00:25:37.694 It's basically the same thing, very different Same thing. 00:25:37.694 --> 00:25:46.404 There are some real spiritual parallels with that, because you have a scarecrow with no brain and you have a tin man with no heart. 00:25:46.404 --> 00:25:49.377 Okay, now you kind of need both. 00:25:49.377 --> 00:26:00.178 I don't know if you've noticed this, but if you're lacking either one of those, you don't live very long physically, and if you're lacking those things spiritually, it's a big problem too. 00:26:00.178 --> 00:26:11.567 So my big revelation, spiritual revelation from this movie was that without a brain, you get scattered all around and carried away by flying monkeys. 00:26:11.567 --> 00:26:15.422 You got to watch the movie. 00:26:15.422 --> 00:26:22.442 If you haven't seen it, you're going to watch it, and it's actually more accurate than you think in the spiritual realm. 00:26:22.442 --> 00:26:29.136 But without a heart, you're just a hollow tin man and you have nothing inside. 00:26:29.136 --> 00:26:34.362 You just are rigid and unyielding and you're metallic and you can become rusty. 00:26:34.362 --> 00:26:39.702 Christianity is not merely about what we believe. 00:26:39.702 --> 00:26:46.006 It's about being formed into the character of Jesus and having that character formed inside of you. 00:26:46.006 --> 00:26:52.806 And this is what Peter is saying here Not only like-minded, but sympathetic. 00:26:52.806 --> 00:26:55.923 It's what you think and it's what you feel as well. 00:26:55.923 --> 00:26:57.981 And how is this even possible? 00:26:57.981 --> 00:27:02.586 Well, by the third thing he says, which is brotherly love. 00:27:02.586 --> 00:27:04.243 You got to think right. 00:27:04.243 --> 00:27:06.721 've got to think right, you've got to feel right. 00:27:06.721 --> 00:27:10.886 You have to have a source of brotherly love. 00:27:10.886 --> 00:27:15.527 And this language of family is all through the New Testament, right? 00:27:15.527 --> 00:27:19.323 Brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers. 00:27:19.323 --> 00:27:28.362 Timothy, my dear son, we have this family language all through there and we should love as a family, should love. 00:27:28.362 --> 00:27:34.300 And I realize that not all brothers get along, and we can have an altar call later for brothers who don't get along. 00:27:34.300 --> 00:27:36.141 That's fine, we can pray for you. 00:27:36.141 --> 00:27:47.500 I know this for a fact because I have a brother and he's 8 years older than me and so growing up, he could do whatever he wanted to do. 00:27:47.500 --> 00:27:49.585 Actually, he could take me. 00:27:49.585 --> 00:27:50.926 It was very easy. 00:27:50.926 --> 00:27:55.343 He was bigger, stronger and we fought with each other a lot. 00:27:55.343 --> 00:27:56.044 But you know what? 00:27:56.044 --> 00:27:57.468 He also fought for me. 00:27:57.468 --> 00:28:05.777 He fought with me, but if you're fighting with me, he would fight for me, and that's that's the thing. 00:28:05.777 --> 00:28:09.309 That's that closeness that makes you loyal to one another. 00:28:09.309 --> 00:28:12.438 That's the kind of family, brotherly love he's talking about here. 00:28:12.438 --> 00:28:22.419 They had these ties, these spiritual ties, and I have this habit of not a habit, it's kind of an interest. 00:28:22.419 --> 00:28:26.185 It's an interest of looking up words. 00:28:26.185 --> 00:28:27.989 Etymology is really important to me. 00:28:27.989 --> 00:28:34.073 For some reason I like to look at the meaning of words and the meaning of old sayings and the way things have been said through the years. 00:28:34.073 --> 00:28:37.525 I just think that's fascinating because I'm weird like that. 00:28:37.525 --> 00:28:42.507 But there's some of those old sayings we use and we use them wrong. 00:28:42.507 --> 00:28:46.325 We actually get the wrong understanding from them. 00:28:46.325 --> 00:28:48.222 They actually mean something very different. 00:28:48.222 --> 00:28:52.625 For example, there's a saying blood is thicker than water. 00:28:52.625 --> 00:28:57.461 You heard that one Blood is thicker than water, which I always thought meant blood. 00:28:57.461 --> 00:29:04.002 Like family kin, blood is thicker than water, whatever water is. 00:29:04.002 --> 00:29:05.847 I don't know what that means. 00:29:05.847 --> 00:29:07.520 I just thought I thought it meant family. 00:29:07.520 --> 00:29:12.378 It means more than just whatever, but that's actually not what it means. 00:29:12.378 --> 00:29:19.720 The original saying from long, long ago is the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. 00:29:19.720 --> 00:29:21.003 The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. 00:29:21.003 --> 00:29:23.736 The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. 00:29:23.736 --> 00:29:38.028 In other words, the relationships you choose to make, the commitments you choose to make with people, are more significant than the bonds that you have with family, the water of the womb. 00:29:38.028 --> 00:29:42.265 That's what it meant, kind of the opposite of what I ever thought it would say. 00:29:42.265 --> 00:29:45.661 But there's a proverb that says something very similar. 00:29:45.661 --> 00:29:48.155 Right, there's a friend that sticks closer than a brother. 00:29:48.155 --> 00:29:52.064 Right, there's a friend that's even closer than a brother. 00:29:52.064 --> 00:30:00.556 So if you put it simply, it just means that relationships you choose can be more important than the ones that you don't choose. 00:30:00.556 --> 00:30:04.286 But I think it goes even deeper than that. 00:30:04.286 --> 00:30:19.446 I think we have even a stronger bond because we're chosen by God together and we have blood ties, the blood of Jesus ties. 00:30:19.446 --> 00:30:22.483 We have the deepest kind of blood ties. 00:30:22.483 --> 00:30:25.284 We are devoted to each other for eternity. 00:30:25.284 --> 00:30:26.540 We're connected for eternity. 00:30:26.540 --> 00:30:28.760 We should learn to be devoted to each other. 00:30:28.760 --> 00:30:30.185 That's what he's saying. 00:30:30.185 --> 00:30:35.046 We're connected forever, so we have to cultivate devotion to one another. 00:30:35.046 --> 00:30:39.163 And how in the world do you do that? 00:30:39.163 --> 00:30:44.583 Well, you do that with the fourth thing he mentions, and that is be tenderhearted. 00:30:44.583 --> 00:30:51.006 We're getting deep into the thoughts and intents of the heart here, right? 00:30:51.006 --> 00:30:56.184 Tenderhearted Very interesting word because it's tenderhearted. 00:30:56.184 --> 00:30:58.234 That's a good translation. 00:30:58.234 --> 00:31:04.769 But another good translation literally is strong bowels. 00:31:04.769 --> 00:31:09.984 Tender heart, strong bowels same thing. 00:31:09.984 --> 00:31:13.000 How can that be? 00:31:13.000 --> 00:31:19.503 The word is you splanchno. 00:31:19.503 --> 00:31:21.541 Splanchno means the guts. 00:31:21.541 --> 00:31:29.304 It means the core of who you are and the way you feel, where everything comes from in your inner core of who you are. 00:31:29.304 --> 00:31:32.515 Splanchnah, your guts, okay. 00:31:32.515 --> 00:31:36.503 And then the little prefix you E-U means good. 00:31:36.503 --> 00:31:41.057 So it means to have good guts, have good guts, okay. 00:31:41.057 --> 00:31:46.628 Why is this word understood as both tender-hearted and strong-bowled? 00:31:46.628 --> 00:32:00.020 Because it takes a person with a strong inner disposition to be tender-hearted, because your feelings can take you anywhere. 00:32:00.020 --> 00:32:05.329 In fact they can take you in all directions at once sometimes. 00:32:05.329 --> 00:32:22.886 And it takes strong bowels to be tenderhearted, to stay resolved to tenderness, to stay resolved to love and commitment and loyalty and deferring to one another and valuing one another. 00:32:22.886 --> 00:32:30.965 It takes strong bowels, and none of these pathways that Peter is laying out here before us are easy. 00:32:30.965 --> 00:32:33.261 These are difficult paths. 00:32:33.261 --> 00:32:36.284 They're not normal to us. 00:32:36.284 --> 00:32:39.242 It takes a strong person to be tender. 00:32:39.242 --> 00:32:43.955 It takes guts to have heart. 00:32:43.955 --> 00:32:49.567 And that word's also translated compassion. 00:32:49.567 --> 00:32:51.636 Compassion. 00:32:51.636 --> 00:32:56.118 Passion means suffering, come means with Suffering with. 00:32:56.118 --> 00:32:58.915 It's exactly what Peter's saying through this whole book. 00:32:58.915 --> 00:33:03.326 We're suffering together With Jesus, with each other. 00:33:03.326 --> 00:33:04.798 We're suffering together. 00:33:04.798 --> 00:33:12.779 We endure suffering and persecution together, and this kind of compassion is what Jesus was moved by. 00:33:12.779 --> 00:33:13.181 Right. 00:33:13.181 --> 00:33:20.962 He says that Jesus was moved with compassion, and so he stretched his hand out to heal and to feed the hungry. 00:33:20.962 --> 00:33:29.665 And so this kind of compassion is not just your pain in my heart, but it's that pain makes me do something. 00:33:29.665 --> 00:33:33.218 It looks like something in my life. 00:33:33.218 --> 00:33:38.230 I move to action. 00:33:38.230 --> 00:33:41.788 And how can all of those things happen? 00:33:41.788 --> 00:33:47.328 It happens with the fifth word that Paul uses humble-minded. 00:33:47.328 --> 00:33:49.653 Humble-minded. 00:33:49.653 --> 00:33:57.248 We have to be like-minded, so we're thinking in the same direction, but lowly-minded too. 00:33:57.248 --> 00:34:05.301 So like I'm thinking lower than you are under you, supporting you, serving you, lifting you up. 00:34:05.301 --> 00:34:07.145 Lowly-minded. 00:34:07.145 --> 00:34:13.244 It's also translated, and maybe in your Bible it says courteous, be courteous. 00:34:13.244 --> 00:34:19.862 But I think today our modern idea of courteousness is just kind of weak, a little weaker than what this word is. 00:34:19.862 --> 00:34:28.693 Courteous is just like opening the door for somebody, or, you know, letting you go first, or I don't know, saying God bless you when you sneeze. 00:34:28.693 --> 00:34:29.855 That's courteous, I don't know. 00:34:29.855 --> 00:34:39.306 It's something much more than this. 00:34:39.306 --> 00:34:39.586 It's deeper. 00:34:39.586 --> 00:34:41.576 It's a state of mind that is under you, lifting you up. 00:34:41.576 --> 00:34:44.632 That's what it literally means. 00:34:44.632 --> 00:34:47.672 It's Philippians, chapter 2. 00:34:47.672 --> 00:34:52.353 Let this mind be in you. 00:34:52.353 --> 00:34:53.639 That was also in Christ Jesus. 00:34:53.639 --> 00:34:59.639 Though he was in very nature, god did not consider that a thing to be grasped. 00:34:59.639 --> 00:35:05.342 But he let it go and he humbled himself and he became obedient, even to death on the cross. 00:35:05.342 --> 00:35:08.967 That's humble-minded and that's good guts. 00:35:08.967 --> 00:35:11.971 That's good guts. 00:35:11.971 --> 00:35:22.492 So, big picture, peter's talking about unity, he's talking about us, and unity is really important. 00:35:22.492 --> 00:35:27.726 I just want to tell you this from the elders' standpoint your leadership at TCC. 00:35:27.726 --> 00:35:39.632 We work really hard at being united together and also at keeping unity within the body, and I think that God's blessed us with a really good, united spirit in this body. 00:35:39.632 --> 00:35:42.469 We're grateful for that and we guard this, we guard it. 00:35:42.469 --> 00:35:47.552