Authority Issues

But we are in a series called Dawn is Coming, and the idea of the series is that we can live in the light of heaven, because heaven is our home, this isn't our home, and Peter wrote a scripture, a book even, that we can go to, to receive encouragement, because guess what, trials will come your way, trouble will come, we're not here, thank you, we're not here in this church service telling you that everything is going to be hunky-dory if you follow Jesus, right, in fact, Jesus said, we sang about that just a second ago, didn't we, don't let your heart be troubled, lift your head up high, don't fear any evil, you know, in that context, he says, don't let your heart be troubled, because there will be troubles, right, there will be hard times in this life, and Peter is encouraging the church, encouraging us, it's so relevant to today, because we are dealing with a lot of trouble, right, there's a lot of things going on in the world that we can consider troubling, and there is trouble, and there is trouble, and many of you are dealing with those personally, and perhaps you're even asking God, you know, why, why am I going through this, well, Peter's getting ready to explain this to us in this scripture, and so, if you'll follow along with me, if I spill this, and it goes all over the front row, it's okay, because everybody wants to sit in the back, okay, a lot of stuff happens up here at the front, though, guys, there's a lot of seats right up here in these first three rows, so if y'all want to, you know, I do like to preach to people, and see them, like, yeah, that's, that's nice, so, I mean, I'm just telling, just saying, just saying, okay, all right, if you'll start with verse 13 of chapter 2, and follow along with me, submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human authority, that's getting heavy just right there, right, whether it be the emperor, as the supreme authority to governors, okay, that makes sense, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong, and to condemn those who do right, or commend those who do right, sometimes it's condemn those who do right, as we'll see in a minute, for it is God's will that by doing good, you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people, live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil, live as God's slaves, or God's servants, show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, and honor the emperor, and these speak specifically to slaves, and just some context, and just some context here, 50% of the population in ancient Rome were slaves, whether they were bond servants, indentured servants, or they were slave traders, there was, slavery was heavy in that period of time, slaves, in reverent fear of God, submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh, right, for it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering, because they are conscious of God, so they're looking to God, rather than what you're going through, but how is it, to your credit, if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it, but if you suffer for doing good, and you endure it, it is, or this is commendable before God, to this you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, and I like to call that a pattern, that you should follow in his steps, and he goes on, he committed no sin, he committed no sin, and no deceit, was found in his mouth, when he hurled, when they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate, when he suffered, he made no threats, instead, he entrusted himself, what, to who, the judges justly, he himself bore our sins, and his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins, and live in righteousness, and by his wounds, you have been healed, for you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the shepherd, this is for you believers in here, you have returned to the shepherd, and he is the overseer of your souls, can we give a good praise to Jesus this morning, because he is the overseer of our soul, amen, I think it's important for us to look at the construction of this book, as we enter into the second part, because we are sitting dab in the middle of first Peter, and he writes this, and he constructs this in a certain way, so for the first part of the book, what we've been dealing with, is he's setting us up, he's talking about heaven, he's talking about hope, he's talking about trials, he's talking about this thing you have called salvation, and how absolutely incredible it is, and that you should not lose it, try not to lose it, keep your eyes on heaven, this is not your home, heaven is your home, but you have to live here, so think, and produce things, and live out things with heaven on your heart, and there's something you can tap into, so he's giving us all of this, because he's getting ready to enter into the next part of the book, which is all application, and he's going to tell us to do some hard things, so through the next few weeks, as we finish this series, we've got about four more weeks left, this is a really long series, probably one of the longest I've ever done, because I want to teach through this book carefully, for the next four weeks, we're going to deal with some very practical things, this week we're dealing with the subject of authority, okay, he gets into that, and how to deal with that, next week is marriage, we're going to talk about marriage, and how to have a great marriage, so if you're looking to be married, or you're on the other side, and in marriage, it's for everybody, it's for everybody, he gives us some good instruction there, but he starts off by taking an intermission, and we hit on this last week, and I want to re-emphasize this, he says, therefore prepare your minds for action, be self-controlled, okay, I hit the wrong part here, here's where it is, verse 11 in chapter 2, it says, dear friends, I urge you, and anytime someone says urge, what does that mean, listen to me, I'm begging you to hear this, and when I'm talking to people sometimes, and I see them going other directions in their spiritual walk, sometimes I'm like, God, just listen to me, I know it's hard right now, but if you really focus on this, I urge you to listen to this, listen to what God has to say, so this is Peter with a heart of love, and he's looking ... At the people, he's just thinking about his church, and he says, I urge you as aliens and strangers in this world to abstain from those sinful desires that you get distracted by so easily, because your heart is not here, it's in heaven, and we need to focus on that, because if you grow sleepy in those things, you're going to be in a place where you're not going to experience what God has for you. So, live such good life, so he says that, you know, here's the deal. As I mentioned last week, life is not a game to be played, it's a war to be waged. So he's getting ready to say, hey, listen, you're going to have to fight a battle here, because Satan, the enemy, the evil one, does not like you, okay?

He wants to destroy your life, he wants to destroy your marriage, your children, everything. He wants to destroy you, so he gives them an action plan, he gives them a battle plan. So live such lives among the pagans, or the outsiders, or those who are not believers, so that when they accuse you of wrongdoing, which they will, they always do, those Christians, look what they did, look at the history, look at this and that, and they'll throw a lot of things at you, right, about your belief, and about your faith, and all that, those crusades, those, you know, people who followed Jesus, look what they did, they're going to throw those things at you, Salem Witch Trials, I mean, look what they did. When they talk bad about you, they may see your good deeds, and then they'll respond in a different way, they'll glorify God on the day that he visits us. So then he sets us up, because here's how you're going to live a beautiful life.

Now I want to show you how to live a beautiful life. I've already set up everything before, now I'm going to give you some very practical stuff, so here's how we're going to live this thing out. Here's how we're going to be people that glorify God. So we're constantly in this place where we're dealing with things, and here's one of the main things I wanted to hit on today, and that was authority. He goes right directly into authority as his first practical example of what we should do, and if he's hitting that first, it must have been a real big issue, and there was a lot of questions.

So from here on out, we're going to be dealing with these things, and it starts with authority. And how do we deal with issues of authority? How do we deal, especially when we are in disagreement with authority, right? How do we deal with people who go against our values? How do we deal with people who we just are just like, how in the world are they in charge in the first place?

How do we do that? So here's two questions I want to ask just to set us up. First of all, whose authority are you under, and how are you submitting and honoring these people? And then the second one is, who are you in authority over? So who are you in authority under, and who are you in authority over?

Well, here's the deal. No one has a problem with authority when they're the ones in authority. When I'm calling the shots, when I'm making the shots, when I'm doing, I'm calling it. I have no problems with it. It's when someone is over me, that's when it starts getting icky and getting weird.

And I could do better than you, and you know, we throw out those things. And you know, there's lots of books written on leadership. Man, I love leadership. Leadership is great. And there's thousands and thousands of books, and they're like top sellers because everyone is interested in being in authority.

But there's not many books that are written about how to not be in charge, how to not be under authority, how to put yourself or position yourself under authority, and dealing with authority well. How do we deal with authority well? That's the question we have. We all have. Well, people tend to navigate.

Here's the problem. So I'm going to present the problem first. The problem that we're presenting is people tend to navigate towards respect or towards rebellion. They either go into a respect ideology, and sometimes that could be issue. They can have issues with that.

If you have a communist society, authority, authority, authority, we just honor that person. I get that. Some of you are probably already thinking about that. Or we waver to rebellion which I think is very American. And here's why.

I want to give you a few reasons why. First of all, we are children of Adam. We are sinners. So we tend to move in that direction. We like autonomy, pride, autonomy.

And I do, I don't need anybody over me. I don't need any authority over me. I know what's best. I'm on my own on this. I can figure it out on my own.

I don't need it to be under authority or pride. I'm smarter than you, and I know what's right. And that's how we live, and that's how we think. And the second thing is we are a Protestant church. If you know a Protestant, the idea of Protestant is a, the Protestant comes from protest.

When Martin Luther posted his 95 thesis on the wall, by the way, that's coming up October 31st. That's another Halloween, that's a Halloween celebration you could celebrate there, is when he posted the 95 thesis to separate from the Catholic church what they were teaching when they were teaching penance and that the way to heaven is through paying heavy fines and stuff like that. He saw a lot of things, and he went back to grace. By grace and grace alone are we saved, amen? And we're thankful for that, and we're a Protestant church.

But here's the deal. We were founded a protest. So sometimes protest is good, but that's a part of our bloodline, right? Religious convictions. And then we're Americans because we protest England, right?

The American Revolution. We protested against, you know, freedom, freedom of religion, freedom of, you know, we had, we Boston tea partied, and we did all that kind of stuff. So we have all of that in our history. And then there's the counterculture of the 60s and 70s, which drugs, sex, and rock and roll came into play. And then the counterculture became the culture.

And then we started instituting this expectation of generational rebellion, that we expected it, that it's just how it is. And we have groups, gaps. In fact, we have an industry, a clothing industry called the gap that represents young expression. Because there is a gap between the older generation and the young generation, there's an expectation of rebellion, that we're not going to be like our parents, we're not going to listen to our parents, we're not going to obey our parents, because we have expression on our own. We want to, we have our own expression.

So there's this generational gap there, and as a result, there is no institution, there is no organization, there is no establishment that is perfect, right? All are flawed because of this problem, and the problem is sin. It's a sin problem. That's my first point, it's the problem, so I present the problem. And it hasn't happened yet, but there's going to be a time where somebody is over you that you're not going to like, or you're not going to want to be in authority over you.

And I think it's interesting that the smaller the job, I'm thinking about like the mall security guard, forgive me if you're a mall security guard in here, and it seems like the littlest power seems to want to like run something like a prison camp, you know, like you can't go there, you can't do it. Hey, hey, I think about, you know, Paul Blard, mall cop, you know, where he's riding around, you know, he's just running all over the place, and we were at the beach one weekend with my family years ago. I think this was probably before Miranda and I were married, and it was like a big family thing at Myrtle Beach, and there was this guy on the beach with this whistle in the evening, and they were dredging, and there was sand everywhere, and he was out there, and he had this whistle around him, and he was blowing that whistle every few say, hey, hey, hey, stay away, I'd say, back, back, come on, you know, he was pulling people over again, no, you can't come in here, this is a dangerous area, you know, and you're just like, man, it's sand. My uncle's like, well, look out for the sand, please. He's British, so sand, please, you know, look out for, you know, get out, and we're just like, okay, sand, please, sand, please.

It seems like it just irks me, like people would just, just, I don't know. Maybe that's my sin problem. How do we deal with the problem, especially when it's not good authority, and how to not be in charge well is where we need to come down, come in, come in and figure out. How do we not be in charge well? So Paul, or Peter, rather, is giving us scripture, and he says, first, church, I want you to hear this.

You need to submit yourself, verse 13, submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority, whether it's large or small, submit yourselves. Now, the Greek word for submit in this scripture, submit yourselves, the sentence is hupotasso, hupotasso, which means to arrange yourself under the authority. It means you need, it's some action step that you take. It's not something that happens organically. It's as if there's a group of guys sitting in the mess hall, and a guy comes in that's outranked, that outranks them, and he has his coat off, and they're just hanging out, and they realize that the badge is over there on his coat, and they all straighten up, and yes, sir, yes, sir, and get straight up under his authority.

That's what that, it's a military term that he's using here to arrange yourself under. So he's telling the Christian church believers, you need to arrange yourself in a way to put yourself under the authority of something, whether it's a teacher that you don't agree with, whether it's a boss, whether it's a speed limit sign, whether it's a police officer, or whatever it might be that you need to pull yourself underneath that authority, even if they're wrong. No matter what level, no matter how high or how low or how much they rank or what their job is, even if they're Paul running around in the mall, Paul of the mall, you know, telling you to stay out of that store, step over that line, or don't enter into that bathroom because COVID is this or that. He's telling us to do that, and if you don't do it, someone will make you do it, and God will eventually humble you to have, you have to honor that authority anyway. So God opposes the proud.

That's why it says God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. So God wants to humble us. He wants us to practice humility and arrange ourselves under the authority, the authority of those he has placed in charge. So he says submit yourself because God wants to humble us. I just think about driving down 264 and looking at those speed limit signs, and you're like, there's five lanes here, and you have me going 55, 60 miles an hour, right?

And all you want to do is just go over it. Like, there's nobody in this lane. I've got to get somewhere. But what Peter's saying here is you've got to honor that authority. I remember my dad telling me years ago when I got my first speeding ticket, he says, you just sinned.

I said, no, I didn't. I just got a speeding ticket. He said, yes, you did. You dishonored the law. For me, it was like, no, it was, yes, you did.

You dishonored authority. You dishonored the law. That's a sin. I was like, I think he was more worried about the speeding ticket that was going to have to come out of his pocket because I was just a 16-year-old with no job. Well, I had a job, but I couldn't pay, you know, $200 or whatever the speeding ticket was at the time.

But still, he said, you know, honor that, you know. When you're in your plane, you know, you're flying, those of you that fly a lot, I think it's the silliest thing for them to come by your seat and says, could you lift up? We're getting ready to land. Yeah, okay. You want me to lift up?

Okay. Is that better? You know, like, like, like, that, that's it? Yeah. Is that really going to make that much of a difference?

And, and if they ask you nicely, it's okay. But a lot of times they're like, sir, you need to, would you get your seat up, please? Sir, sir, sir, sir, sir. You know, am I going to have to come over there and put the button? Okay.

You know, there you go. All right. I was at Java Surf the other day, a diner right around the road here, and they, they require you to have, like, reservations right now. They've got the whole place closed off, and even if nobody's in there, you know, they have the reservation. So I walk up with a friend last week, and, and, and we're waiting there at the little outside area, and we're waiting for somebody to come, and I wait there for like five minutes.

And I'm not very patient with stuff like that. Like, if you're up there, if I'm there, and you're not there to help me. And then I was, so I was irritating this young kid. He's about 12 years old. He really isn't 12 years old, but he looked like he was 12 years old.

He had, you know, he. So what I was doing? Hooratively, what a fancy school kid's mind. Look really young. He's over on the side.

I didn't even know he worked there. So I'm just getting irritated. Five minutes, I'm like, okay, I'm going to walk up here. I know the owner anyway. You know, we've done a lot of events here.

My office is here, man. I've spent a lot of time here. I've given a lot of money to this place, right? So I just want to walk up to the door, and I'm going to peek in to talk to the cook or whoever's in there, because they all know me, and they're going to let me in, you know. And he's like, sir, sir, sir, sir, sir, what are you doing?

I said, I'm just checking. He says, no, you need to go back over there. I mean, okay. All right. I want to, and I get back over there, and he's like, and I'm like, I want a table inside.

I want to go, I want to go, no, you have to put in a reservation. I said, I come here all the time. Is Ricky in there? You can talk to him. He knows me.

He'll let us know, no, sir, we need a reservation. And he didn't even tell me how to do a reservation until, and I started getting, okay, fine, we'll go somewhere else. I mean, I'll just go somewhere else. I don't want to, you know, and I'm like all irritated. Okay, first of all, I waited five minutes, and then you come up, and then you start throwing me behind the camera.

Now you're not telling me to come in. You know, this is my place. This is, I know what's been, I was so mad. But I had this guy with me, and he looks over at me. He says, I love seeing you do this, because you're a pastor, and I feel better when I get irritated about this stuff.

I'm walking around the corner, and I'm peeking in the door. I'm looking, I'm like, I'm like, hey, is, hey, is anybody in there? I want to, because I wanted to turn that kid in so bad, and then I thought about it. I was like, let's just go to the other coffee place. Authority issues.

No matter how big or how small, we all got them. Exactly. Peter says it's not an issue of being right. I might have been right, but he says it's especially important when you're wrong to honor authority. It's especially important when you're wrong to really submit to authority.

Well, pastor, you don't understand my boss. Well, let's look at Peter's boss for a minute. This was Nero, the emperor. He says, honored the emperor. This was a man who was not good.

This was a man who was crazy. He was nuts. I mean, people were probably in the church saying, hey, we need to Boston Tea Party, this guy. What are we doing? I mean, we got to get out of this.

And Peter's like, we're a relatively small group of people. We have no political authority. We have no decision making. Like right now, we can just go and vote, right? We can vote somebody out of office.

We can wait a couple of years and vote somebody out. We got our presidential election coming up. We can vote them out. But they couldn't vote him out. They were up against a whole lot here.

And the crazy thing about Nero is he loved to dip Christians in tar and hang them in his gardens during his city events. Light up. He used Christians as lamps for his chariot races at night. He tied Christians up, bound them by hand and feet, and tied them to different chariots, and would run the horses away, and the bodies of these people would be dismembered right before everyone's eyes. He would throw them in arenas to be devoured by beasts and animals for show and for play and for fun.

This is who we're talking about here. And he's telling the people, you're to honor authority. That puts things in perspective for us, right? Wow. And he says, fear God.

And he says this specifically, honor the king, honor the emperor, honor the king, because not only, it's God's will. It's not just you're honoring somebody. It is God's will. He says, serve God. Pray for the king.

Like, do stuff that really matters. Pray for the king. Pray for his salvation. Or these people that are over us, or in authority over us. And then he says, for God's sake.

He starts out, for God's sake do that. Remember the old skit from Saturday Night Live with Chris Farley, who was probably one of my favorite chubby comedians back in the 90s? And he was like, for the love of God. You know, and he's like, you know, he would do the motivational speak out of man down by the river thing. I mean, for the love of God, for God's sakes, just do it.

Just get your act together. And what God's sake means really is putting ourselves or putting an authority over everything. Like for God's sake, honor the authority, because there's a greater authority we're pointing towards. For the sake of God, for the sake of Jesus Christ, for God's sakes, for the Lord's sake, for Pete's sake. Don't do it for Pete's sake.

Do it for the Lord. Romans 13, 1 and 2 says, let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established, what? By God. Not by us, not by man, by God.

God ultimately has the say so in that. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authorities is what? Rebelling against God and his institution. And those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.

That's pretty heavy there. We're bringing judgment on ourselves when we disrespect, when we disobey, when we don't honor authority. Some of you are asking, what about civil disobedience? That's a big thing right now, right? It seems that Peter is saying that under abusive authority, you should just do nothing about it.

Just submit, right? Well, here's two rules. Here's two things that you can consider whenever you're asked to do something by authority and you're questioning, as a believer, as you're navigating this, this is what we should ask. Does it forbid, does it, ask this question, is it forbids us from doing what God commands? Does it forbid us to do what God commands?

Or does it command us to do what God forbids? Does it forbid us to do what God commands? Or does it command us to do what God forbids? Such as, you know, when we're smuggling Bibles into communist China, God commands us to read the word, right? So some people ask, should we do that?

Is it ethical? Is it the right thing? Well, we're trying to get the word, the message out to the people there that need to know who Jesus is and God commands us. So if the authorities are putting stipulations in place that keep us from doing what God commands us to do, what God commands us to do? Then we use that as our line.

We draw a line there. Or it commands us to do what God forbids, using China as a similar example, when they kill kids for population control, abort children or throw children in dumpsters for population control, and it goes against what God commands. So those are ways we can do that. But what do we do in the name of civil disobedience is take one situation that requires or demands something and we place it on every situation, right? We do that.

We take one thing, okay, so God commands this or God doesn't command this and we want to place it on every little situation to the point we're replacing evil for evil, right? Well, in the name of civil disobedience, because I don't agree with that or I don't have that value, we say, well, God wouldn't agree with that either. So we start placing certain demands on things. So we have to be careful how we balance those things out. Well, let's just talk about the election and politics just for a minute, okay?

It's going to get real in here, okay, for a second. And neither side of you are really going to like this, okay? How are we respecting authority now? How have you respected authority in the past? And how will you respect authority in the future?

We're getting ready to make a decision and it's great to vote. Let me just tell you, first of all, we have a privilege that Peter didn't have. Peter didn't have the opportunity to vote who he wanted in office. And if you forfeit that opportunity to vote, you are throwing away a liberty that God has actually given us. He's given us a choice in the matter, okay?

So I'm a proponent of voting. We need to be voting. We need to be getting out there. We need to make decisions based on our values and the truth that we believe in and pick our candidates and pick them carefully. But man, right now, it's a really tough season and a tough time because people are hateful, people are rude, people are disrespectful.

I don't see any disrespect. I don't see any respect on either side of the house. It's all over the place. Stories are flying. People are cursing.

People are acting up. People are doing, I mean, I've never seen so many children in our world as I've seen right now. So how do we deal with this thing? And I assume that many of you in here, because we're an evangelical church, we're an evangelical church, so let's just be real right now, that statistically most of us are Trump supporters, right? And y'all are like, ooh, I love this authority thing because look what the media has been doing to Trump.

And look, you know, y'all are like, yeah, woo! But let me ask you this, what if Biden wins the next election? What will you be doing when that happens? Will you be like, I'm going to go to Canada. I'm going to move because this, you know, what are you, are you going to be willing to align authority over you that you don't necessarily agree with?

Or let me go back. What was your attitude when Obama was in office? Vice versa. What's your attitude towards Trump right now? How are you talking about him?

Are you disrespecting him? I don't care how crazy he is. I mean, that's what you're saying. Well, he's crazy. Well, so was Nero.

Comparatively speaking, I mean, I think Paul, Peter is in a better position to talk. Remember Peter's authority. Nero. Authority. No position.

A small group of people, relatively small group of Christian people that had no authority and were being persecuted. Massive persecution would take place and begin to take place under Nero and move on for centuries and centuries and centuries. And we sit here and we complain and we get aggravated and we act up. And we have all these privileges and these rights and we have these protections and we can say things and do things, but we use them. We use our liberties for the wrong reasons.

And that's what Peter's getting at here. You're abusing the very freedoms that you have. And I'm asking you to submit yourself and trust God because there is no authority that is in place that is outside of God. Trump is in office because God allowed him to be in office, not because you didn't, your people didn't show up to vote on time or there was a manipulation in the elections. And if Biden gets office, guess what?

The God will put him in charge over this country. And that's a hard thing for us to accept as evangelical Christians because most of us are conservatives, right? Maybe the exception of this church because we are in Virginia Beach. There's such a mix here. I mean, it's crazy.

It's wild. I like it actually. But there is no authority that has been set in place outside of God. But we always tend to lean towards rebellion, right? And our posture tends to go in that direction.

That's what I want to talk about, our posture. So we went from problem and then we went to posture. And any rebellion leads to the opposite of freedom, okay? Any rebellion leads to the opposite of freedom. It never ends up good.

Talked to Adam and Eve for a minute. They decided to rebel against God. Talked to the prodigal son who'd said, I'm just going to rebel. And he went out and he went into the world and he did his own thing. He got out from under the authority that was placed on him, right?

A good, loving father that had rules, but he didn't want those rules. Give me my inheritance, God, and let me go and do what I want to. And they go out in the world and then they end up coming back under. He was longing as he was eating from the pigsty. I want my father's rules because I know my father's rules are better.

I know the authority that has been placed over me is honorable and better. Submission leads to freedom under God's authority. Submission leads to freedom under God's authority. And the way you find life is lose it. And then there's a promise.

So we talked about the problem and then we talked about the posture positioning ourselves under God's authority. And then there's promises. Number one, it honors God. It's God's will, right? One version of the Bible says it puts a smile on God's face when we honor authority and honor him, right?

We honor him through, through honoring authority. everybody. It also impacts other people positively. 1 Peter 2.15 says, For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of people, right?

What do ignorant people or foolish people usually do? They're very loud, right? And ignorant, foolish people tend to be louder the more you argue with them. They get louder, right? And if you argue with them, they just end up making you and pulling you into the argument.

And then you're being loud and then you're foolish and ignorant, right? But he's talking about being silent and being quiet and being patient. And for some reason, when we're respectful of those people who are loud and who are foolish, it quiets them. It does something opposite. It silences ignorant talk and foolish people.

And we need to wear the spirit of Joseph in the Old Testament. I think that the prime minister of Egypt, Joseph, would have not been where he was if he was a loud, ignorant, foolish talker. He was patient. He respected. He respected Potiphar.

He respected the prison guards. He respected Pharaoh. And ultimately, he respected the very people who sold him into slavery themselves, his brothers, and forgave them and honored them and brought them into Egypt and took care of them and his people. We need to wear the spirit of Joseph because you are either a public David or a private Absalom. If you know anything about Absalom, the son of David, who rebelled against David underneath, he was, I love you, Dad.

I'm going to take out his kingdom and murder him and take over his whole kingdom. So many people are like that. So are we a public David or a private Absalom? It will silence the people who talk bad about you, which ultimately leads to character. And it does, in fact, develop our character, which I think is the most honorable thing we can do for the Lord, is carry the character of Jesus.

And one of the best ways to be worthy of authority is to be given unworthy authority. It really is. To learn how to work under unworthy authority. And those situations help us develop. And Peter knew it.

I mean, Peter was the common example of it. He often questioned Jesus' authority. Jesus, you know, you can't go to a cross. You're a king. You're going to take over, right?

I mean, you're going to, and I'm going to be on your right-hand side, right? And John on your left, or vice versa. I mean, that's what they were thinking. And what did Jesus, how was Jesus' response to him? You have no place in my kingdom with that kind of attitude.

In fact, flee from me, Satan. Get away from me, Satan. Get behind me, Satan, is what he told Peter. I mean, Peter, as Jesus was being taken out of the garden to be sentenced to his death, Peter, what does he do? He pulls out a sword, and he whacks off a guy's ear.

I mean, my goodness, like he was going to take, and I think it's funny that he didn't go after the soldiers. He didn't go after the big guys, you know? He went after the servant of the high priest. I mean, like, I'm going to get you, you know, your ear, you know? And obviously, he probably was aiming for somewhere else, and he cut off the ear.

And what did Jesus do? He went down and grabbed the ear. He looked at Peter and says, this is not the will of God. And he walks over, and he places that ear back on the head of this man. And he's just, oh, my goodness.

This is not the will of the Lord. He placed himself under the authority of where the Father had, because it was for the Father's sake, not even for Jesus' sake, that he honored God. And I know I'm kind of closing this down and kind of rolling this down, but I just want to hit on suffering just for a second, because we can't skip over the fact that it talks about suffering, and although you're abused, and although you're under slavery, and all these things, you have to suffer. But he says it's commendable to God that we suffer. And it goes along with that character building.

Here's what unjust suffering does. When we're under unjust suffering, it makes us, number one, grateful for Jesus. We're very grateful for Jesus, because we are ready to get out of this world and escape the suffering, right, in heaven. But what did Jesus do? Jesus already in heaven voluntarily came down to suffer for us.

So when we're suffering, we can think of what Jesus did for us and our suffering so that we can one day be with him, and it makes us eternally grateful. For Jesus, secondly, unjust suffering allows us to be comforted by Jesus because we have a high priest who can relate to us, amen? He went through it. And the more we suffer, the more grace God gives us in the process, amen? He gives us grace, and meaning the more you suffer, the more God gives you the ability to endure the suffering.

So we are comforted. We are comforted by Jesus. And suffering makes us like Jesus. How can I respond like Jesus? When I respond to suffering, learn more about Jesus so that you can become more like Jesus, so that you can respond more like Jesus, because you are God's servant.

He has commissioned you to serve on mission in this world, amen? And we are called to suffer at times. There's times where we're going to suffer. In fact, we are most definitely at times going to suffer, but it builds our character. Character, we're taking care of the character of the Son.

We're holding this special place, the character of the Son. I love how Adrian Rogers put it, we will never be over those things that God has set under us until we learn to be under those things that God has placed over us. There is strength through surrender. That's crazy. That's awesome.

We can receive strength through our surrenders, through our submission, through placing ourselves under authority. And then there's a pattern. So we talked about the problem, the problem, the... I'm losing my place here. What was the second one?

Problem, the posture, the promise, now we're dealing with the pattern. God, Jesus gives us a pattern. He says this, to this you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps, right? In his steps. It is his perfect life, his sinless death that Peter, I keep saying Paul, Peter is talking about here.

His perfect death, his perfect sin. He could have called a legion of angels to come down to take care of him at that moment. Do you realize how the master of the universe was there and humbled himself at that moment? And he led an example for us for, because it wasn't Jesus' sake, it was the Father's sake. Because Jesus had taken off that mantle, that cap that he wore in heaven.

As the righteous Holy Son, the King of authority, the King of everything. And he placed it to his side there for a minute. There for a moment. He placed and submitted himself. And there's a pattern.

And you are a pattern to others. Did you know that? The opportunities that are presented to us. And then lastly, we have power. With the pattern comes power.

And it comes from the cross. It comes from the cross of Jesus Christ. You can have access. You have access to this power that is only found in Jesus. You have access to this.

It's healing. In fact, here's what 1 Peter says. It says, He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. And then he goes on to say, by his wounds, he's reciting Isaiah, by his wounds. And I hinted on this last week, and I'm going to push it even further.

We are healed. We are completely, fully, spiritually healed. We might not be physically healed. In heaven, one day we will be physically healed. Everything will be gone, all the suffering, all the pain.

But at this moment, at this access point, through the cross, through the power of Christ, we can ultimately receive healing in every moment, every part. And holistically, we can receive healing in every way. It's the only answer to life and hope. I'm healed from that old self that wants to rise up and wants to take authority in the wrong way. And many scholars say this in verse 21 through 25.

And I'll leave you with this. It says, To this you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps. And then he goes on and says, He committed no sin, had no deceit, and no deceit was found in his mouth. When they hurled insults at him, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats.

Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore the sins in his body on the tree so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness by his wounds. We are healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the shepherd, the overseer of your souls. Many scholars believe that's a first century worship hymn.

And I imagine as Peter was talking about Nero and he was talking about the emperor and he was getting all worked up and he was getting a little nervous and he was getting a little scared. He started singing spontaneously there in his letter as he was writing it. Hallelujah. Praise to God. He went through it.

He retaliated. He suffered, but he received threats. He was entrusted. He entrusted it to, but he judged the judge that is just. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might be free, that we might be healed, healed in Jesus' name.

So that's Peter's petition to you. That's my petition to you. Most importantly, that's Jesus' petition to you. Are you healed? Are you healed?

That's my question for each of you today. If you would bow your heads and close your eyes for a minute, and I want to take this moment very seriously with everybody. This is a personal choice. This is a personal decision that you have to make on your own. I can't make it for you.

Your parents couldn't make it for you. Nobody in this room can make it for you. The question is, do you know Jesus? Because regardless of whatever comes here in the near future, you can have hope. You can have joy.

We are all going to be presented with problems. We're all going to be presented with suffering. And I think it's a lot better when you know Jesus and you get to go through these things with Jesus rather than go alone, away from him, away from God. For he sent his son so that you could be healed. He bore the wounds, he bore the stripes, he nailed to the cross by the blood of the Lamb so that you can be healed.

Today, you can be healed. Is that you that needs healing? Do you need spiritual renewal? Do you need revival in your heart today? You can have that today.

Do you, can you say honestly when I leave here and I'm gone in a few days or I'm gone in a few hours, I can say confidently that my home is in heaven and I will be with the Lord. Can you say that today? Today is that day where you can make that decision. Don't wait. The time is now.

Jesus had a sense of urgency in his voice. Peter and Paul had senses of urgency in their voice. When they wrote these letters, you've got to know Jesus. He's the only way. He is the truth.

He is the life. No one comes to the Father but through him. There's no other way under heaven but through him. You cannot earn your way into heaven. It's not works, righteousness.

It is only by the grace of God. It's only by the salvation of Jesus Christ through the cross and his resurrection that we can have new life. So if that's you today, I just want you to pray this with me and I want you just to pray it from your heart and your spirit and to the lover of your soul who's reaching out to you right now and convicting your heart and pulling himself towards you. And you towards himself. Father, in the name of Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God.

And that you died on the cross for my sin and my shame. And today, I make a decision for you. I put you authority over my life, no longer myself. I couldn't do it on my own. But today, God, I am yours and you are mine.

Come into my heart. Come into my life. Change me from the inside out. Amen. Amen.