A Truly Good Life

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

The recent woes of social media are very well documented. We've had congressional hearings, we've had op-ed pieces, and all of them have been decrying this thing that I'm just going to call the algorithms that amplify our anger. There's algorithms out there. It's a system of, it's like really deep math, and it calculates what you're gonna get on your feed, on your social media feed,

and it's gonna deliver that, and it's delivering that to make you angry. And all of this is true. All of that, like I said, very well-documented. But I think that we have to admit that on a part of this, there is a human element to it. Right? That the algorithms that are sending you all these things that are making you so angry, they're not just sending you things that are gonna make you angry, they're sending you things that are easy to believe. They are giving you and me information that we can indulge in.

Because it is really easy, In fact, it's easier to slam the president than to truly listen to someone as they explain why they voted for. It's way easier to slam the president than to do that. It's indulgent. It's indulgent to complain about kids these days. It is. But it actually takes work to discover their perspective and maybe even ways that they've got it spot on. That's work. It's easier to solve the world's problems in really short truisms like there's nothing new under the sun. That's still true. However, it is a lot harder to take stock of our part of how we might be contributing to the problem. It's harder to ask, truly ask the question, how can I help? And so in reality, news outlets, social media accounts, all these things, they aren't force-feeding us things that we just, oh, we just hate it. We don't, please don't make me. No. They're tempting us with things that are easy to believe.

They are dangling information that is indulgent in front of us. And what has this led to? What has all this led to over the past couple of years? This has led to alienation and loneliness. There are many studies out there, and so I'll just cite one. It's a Harvard study. This Harvard study, and this is recent, so this is within the context of the pandemic, 61% of people aged 18 to 25 say they deal with serious loneliness. That's almost two in three, right? Over half of mothers with young children say that they deal with serious loneliness and This is just one study among mounds of them We've been noticing this this tendency toward isolation and alienation for at least 30 years if not longer There was a study that came out in the early 90s called bowling alone And it began to uncover some of this how we are as a society becoming more isolated isolated, alienated from one another.

Every study that you find, it talks about how we're more polarizing, more polarized, more lonely. And in all of this, all of this situation has everything to do with following Jesus. The algorithms that pull us away from following Jesus are, they pull us away because Jesus, following Jesus, we are called to connect to people. That's part of our calling. If we're gonna follow Jesus, then we're gonna connect with people. Or as Jesus said it, the second greatest commandment in the whole law is to love your neighbor as yourself. I think Jesus said it more eloquently than I did, but I'm trying.

If we are suspicious of our neighbor, we cannot love them. If we are trapped in our own isolation, in our own echo chamber, in our own loneliness, if we're trapped in there, we can't connect to other people. And if we only connect to people that are a lot like us, what that will do is that will vilify, in your mind, that will vilify whole groups of people, whole voting blocs, whole ethnicities, whole parts of the country. It will make them all villains. They're all terrible. They all believe the same thing and you disagree with all of them And they're what's wrong with this country, right? I think I hit it on the head What that will do that will feed more suspicion more loneliness That will make the cycle continue and so how does Christianity then work this balance of authentically connecting to people and and dealing with our own loneliness at the same time.

How does Jesus expect us to deal with what's going on inside and connect with other people? It seems like it's a double barrier. It's difficult to get around. Or maybe a different way to ask the question would be, how do Christians keep from isolation and embrace the people around them without just becoming exactly like the culture. How do we do that? How does Jesus call us to do that? How are we called to connect with people in a way that is good and honoring but still salt and light? Excuse me. This morning, we're going to be reading from 1 Peter 2, and we're actually going to start in verse 11. 1 Peter 2, 11, we're going all the way through 24, which is about half of what Sharon read for us this morning. And in it, we're gonna be tackling this problem of connection.

And the first two verses, First Peter two, verses 11 and 12, what they do is they help give us a mindset, an overall mindset, and then the rest of the verses give us some examples. And then at the end, we talk about our example as Jesus. But so this is the mindset. First Peter 2, 11 through 12, it says, beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles or aliens

to abstain from the passions of the flesh which we'd war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. I want to take this apart a little bit, break it down and help you kind of see a few things. The first, the mindset, right? As sojourners and exiles, okay, as aliens. And I don't mean like E.T. I mean like from another country, alien. Okay. As aliens, that your mindset, you need to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. This should remind us of, you know, there's other parts of Scripture like Romans 12, 1, and 2, right? So it says don't be conformed to the passion of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So maybe we can just say don't be conformed to this temporary home that you're in. Don't be molded into the shape of what is right now, of what you can see.

Rather, be conformed for your true home. You're not there yet. You're here. You're in temporary house. You're going to true house Don't be conformed to temporary house and what people do when they read this verse these verses 11 and 12 a Lot of times the mentality that is that that kind of comes out is that we need to stay away from those dirty sinners Okay, we need to abstain from

Drug dealers, okay, we need to abstain from You know people who who are just the dregs of society or people that disagree with us, right? So we use some will use these verses as a mindset for alienation and that's really not what you see That's really not here. It can it can remind you of it But instead what it says is it says 12 keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable Okay So if you are keeping your conduct among the Gentiles honorable and a Gentile just you know for For understanding here a Gentile is somebody who's not a Jew right who's not Somebody who is who is ceremonially unclean different than you right? They don't they don't believe what you believe They're suspicious of that. They are they are the person that you are alienated from okay? Whenever it says to keep your conduct of the Gentiles honorable, what you have then is you have an assumption of front yard living.

You have an assumption of front yard living. And this, we talked about this last week, we talked about this last week about moving your grill to the front yard, right? of just being in front of people, right? Having your neighbors over, getting to know them, just being in the front yard. I recommended the book last week and I recommend it again this week. It's on our bookshelf which is out those doors and to your right, to your left, my right. And there's a bookshelf and on the top left of the bookshelf is a book called The Simplest Way to Change the World. And some of you picked it up last week and cut a thumb through it, that's good. You can take it home and look through it. You wanna keep it for a couple weeks and read the whole thing, that's good. It's a pretty quick read, but it's really helpful to understand wrap your mind around this idea of front yard living

It gives you a lot of practical examples a lot of practical ways that you can do that but what the idea that we're talking about with front yard living is that the your overall conduct of your life is observable to outsiders when it says when it says keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, the assumption is that you are living in front of other people, that you aren't in a bunker, spiritually speaking, that you make time for interaction with your neighbors. And so in verse 12 it says keep your conduct honorable, again it's saying be mindful of your reputation. Now we need to be careful here. Sometimes whenever people think, oh I'm gonna be mindful of my reputation, it doesn't, it's not necessarily saying be well thought of. It's not saying do everything you can to control what other people think about your reputation. It's not, that's not what it's saying. It's saying be mindful of the fact

that other people are looking at you. Understand the position that you are in. If you follow Jesus and you are in this world, then you will be under a microscope. Your actions will be scrutinized. Your motivations will be questioned. And it's not like everybody's foaming at the mouth with a pitchfork ready to set you on fire. It's that they're suspicious. It's that they're wanting to see if you are real or not. They want to see what kind of person that you are. And when it says, keep your conduct of the Gentiles honorable, what it's saying is, look, don't forget the fact that you are being seen. You're always showing people who Jesus is, especially in your front yard. They want to see your life. They want to see how you handle stress. They want to see how you deal with conflict, how you react whenever you are in the wrong, how you talk to your children, How you pick topics of conversation,

how you serve people or how selfish you are. They wanna see, and if we can give a name to this, they wanna see, they wanna see you living a truly good life. A truly good life, not a put on, not a charade, they don't wanna postcard, right? Where you seem real thin, they don't want Pharisees. Living a truly good life, it means that you must truly want the blessing of other people, even your enemies. Living a truly good life, it means that you earnestly desire compassionate justice for other people. It means that you care for other people by meeting and anticipating their needs. It means that you show grace when you are insulted. It means that you are the first to serve and the first to apologize. And it means that you're the last to sit and the last to eat. Living a truly good life is what it's talking about here. And with verses 11 and 12, it's almost like it's saying,

if I could just rewrite it here, if I could just summarize it a different way, it says, beloved, look, even though you are outsiders and aliens, you need to live a truly good life. You need to honor Jesus so much that the people around you want to know more about Him. And that's a tall order. We'll talk about that in a minute. First, I want to get to what Scripture talks about. It gives us two examples, which I think are going to bring some clarity. Two examples. The first is in verses 13 through 17. It says, it says, be subject for the Lord, for the Lord's sake, to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors, as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. So in this first situation, we are talking about government. We're talking about governing authorities, really, any kind of governing

authority. So this has to do with what kind of like civil duty, right? And it's saying that God has set authorities in our life, civil authorities in our life, to establish justice. And I want you to remember this. Remember, we are dealing with a place in time that is different than ours, both in civil government and and in how people interacted with government, right? So Peter is writing to people who are being told to worship a Caesar as God, okay? We live in a democratic republic, okay? Those are two vastly different things going on. The thing that we can understand though is that the Lord has a plan for you in being a citizen, okay? being a citizen. Okay, so we're not going to read this and somehow legitimize emperors. Okay, we're not going to say, hey, if there's an emperor, then God put him there and everybody needs to bow down to him. Okay, no, we don't need the Middle

Ages again. We're not legitimizing that kind of government. What we are talking about though here is living a truly good life. Okay, so let's keep reading 15 through 17. It says, for this is the will of God that by doing good, living this truly good life. You should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the Emperor. If you're gonna live a truly good life, then you are gonna need to use your freedom, the freedom that you have, which is actually a lot more freedom than they had if we're just going for contemporary, you know, the freedoms that you and I have in this day and age are way more than what they had. But regardless, the message is still the same. Use that freedom for good. So what does that mean?

Well, it means we vote for good initiatives. It means that we volunteer for good causes. It means that we promote the good within our local community. It means that we use our freedom for the benefit of the people that are around us, that we don't stash it in a corner just to make sure that us, that we and our family are safe, but we actually use that safety. We risk that safety. We use that freedom for the sacrificial benefit of other people. And it can be something as simple as mowing your neighbor's grass or sitting and talking with an older neighbor that you have. When we use our freedom to serve, then our character points to Jesus Christ. I want to give you two scenarios, and they're pretty simple, but when this happens, right? When you do good, when you live a truly good life, there is a chance where a neighbor or somebody is going to ask you, why are you doing this?

And I want you to consider that moment, that they are giving you this gift, right? And so at that moment, I just want to encourage you, if they're saying, hey, why do you do this? Man testify, right? Like just tell them like, hey, I've been made right with Jesus. He loves me. I love him. And part of the way I do that is just by serving. But then there's another way that's going to happen. And this is the way that's used in these verses is that when others damage your reputation, when other people damage your reputation. So if two of your neighbors are talking, one of the neighbors is bad mouthing you, and chances are that's going to happen. You're going to be bad mouthing by at least 50% of your neighbors. When that happens, the other neighbor is going to remember that good deed or remember the good that you're doing. It's going to spring to mind. And in that moment, the other neighbor, not the one that's bad mouthing you, the

neighbor is going to now see clearly the difference between following Jesus and being fault finding. That neighbor that's listening to the gossip is going to see the difference between your life and the neighborhood's complaining's life. And I'm not trying to cast aspersions or throw dirt on this other neighbor, on this gossipy neighbor, but when that happens, when that happens, The person listening to that is going to remember your life, going to see your life and compare it and go, okay, that's what it is to follow Jesus, right? This person's doing good and not worrying about whatever reputation is going on, not freaking out, not making sure that everything's perfect. They're just serving and loving people. Okay, that's what following Jesus is about. It's not about being a complaining gossip. In that first situation, living a truly good life is being a good

citizen and it is using that freedom for the benefit of others, even risking that freedom for the benefit of others. So what's the second situation? Verses 18 through 20. Verse 18, servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust. Let me break this down for just a second. What this is saying is servants with masters be subject to them with all respect not only to the good and gentle masters not only to the masters that are nice to you that let you sleep where you want or that they give you a certain amount of freedom but also to the unjust masters to the ones that whip you for no cause to the ones that take things away from you because another servant did something different what I want to do is I want to help you understand very very very very quickly This could be a whole sermon in and of itself. I want you to remember just like on the previous situation

That we are dealing with them in their time Not us in our time Then in their time whenever we see servants we immediately go back to 1800s America chattel slavery Treating people like animals, etc Okay Slavery or servanthood in the first century was not, it did not exactly work that way. A lot of people were servants and a lot of the way that people worked off a debt was to sell themselves into servanthood and then to work that off and then they wouldn't be servants anymore. But it was a good five seven year prospect. When it talks about being servants, being subject to master with all respect. Let me help you understand two things. First, the churches that Peter is writing to are full of those kinds of servants, are full of people that are gathering as a church and they have to deal with a master, sometimes an unjust master, during the week. Every day but the Lord's Day and

maybe even on the Lord's Day, they got to work for their master. And And though I realize it is different for us, right? We're not servants, we don't have masters. Our situation is different. We do though have bosses and we do work for people. And sometimes, in fact a lot of times, the bosses that we have or the governing board of directors, whoever, they have a large amount of sway over our time, over how much time we are at work or how much we're not, how much freedom we have at work, how much we don't, what we get paid or what we don't get paid, right? Those bosses that we have, when they are good and gentle, that makes work great. When you have a boss that is unjust, that makes work terrible, okay? And so, remember, we are dealing with them their own time and it is this is not legitimizing slavery. This is talking to slaves as real people. Okay so in other words it's not saying slavery's fine.

It's saying you're a slave right now here's your situation here's how to honor God in that situation. So just the same as we're not we're not legitimizing emperor governments we're not legitimizing dictators over here with the previous situation, we are also not legitimizing slavery in this situation. This is Peter writing to churches that had a lot of slaves in it. In fact, if Peter didn't write this, if Peter's not addressing slavery or how to be a slave or how to be a servant, if he's not addressing that, the majority of his churches are going, okay, so what do I do with my unjust master? They literally, they are dealing with this all the time. And so to talk about it, to address it is actually a grace. It's a way for Peter to show that life is significant. What they're dealing with is real. How they conduct their life as a servant matters in a society that's telling them they don't.

Let's keep reading verses 19 and 20. For this is a gracious thing when mindful of God, one endures sorrow while suffering unjustly. Okay, so it's a gracious thing when you endure sorrow while suffering unjustly. This is an unjust master making you suffer for something that you didn't do. Verse 20. For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? Okay, in other words, he's saying look there's times whatever you mess up and your master beats you for it Okay, but all that is is crime and punishment all that is is just justice being served and you did something wrong and you're getting Beat for it. So he's saying that's not what I'm talking about I'm talking about the thing at the end. But if when you do good and suffer When you have when you have gone above and beyond but your master didn't recognize it when when you have when you have done

so much But but another another person took credit for it when you do good and suffer for it you endure This is a gracious thing in the sight of God living a truly good life means that we endure unjust Suffering and it's not just enduring suffering. It's enduring unjust suffering when we do that that is a good Life if we're gonna live a truly good life. We need to suffer in the areas that matter If you don't get your your latte as hot as you would if you were not following Jesus We are not calling that suffering. Okay? If if another state and acts a law that is different than how you think states should run themselves Sorry, that's not suffering not Let's talk about suffering. Let's talk about two situations and suffering that really matters first unjust suffering in your career and reputation And even if yeah, even if it's just reputation still matters

If you are if you're Dealing with unjust suffering and career and reputation. I'll just give you some examples. Maybe you are short changed on your medical coverage Maybe you are pass over for a promotion because somebody else is somebody's nephew and they got strings pulled, but that was supposed to be your promotion. You may have been promised that promotion. Maybe at work you are punished for not adjusting the numbers to make the bottom line look good enough. In all of those things, you are losing money, you are losing favor, you are losing reputation, you are losing status, you're losing credibility, you're losing prospects of promotion later, you're losing all of those things. And it's because you are following Jesus. It's because you have a reputation as a Holy Roller. You have a reputation as a deacon. I remember there was this one guy at my church growing up, his name was Mike,

And Mike became a Christian late in life, and late in life, like in his 30s. But he was already at work. He had a career established. And he worked with a bunch of just rough and tumble guys. And so he was really excited because, and this isn't really suffering. It's more just funny. He was really excited because on the softball team, They would always have like this huge ice chest full of beer. And he was like, I'm just, I'm convicted about drinking, so I don't want to drink anymore. And he told the guys that. And then they teased him, and they called him Deacon Mike.

They teased, that was like a derogatory term for him, okay, Deacon Mike. And he wasn't a deacon in the church yet. The day he became a deacon, he told all of his friends about it. Because he was finally, he was like, look, the name stuck, I'm finally a deacon at the church that I belong to. So Deacon Mike, listen, if you get, if you get called the name, right, that man, that's a badge. That's a badge. Wear it. Yeah, like, yeah, you're weird. I'm weird too. We believe a man was raised from the dead because he was God. Okay? That doesn't square, that doesn't square with headline mood. It doesn't square, it doesn't make for great dinner conversation all the time. Depends on who's there. But it's not, it's not comfortable, right? I believe, we believe that anybody who doesn't follow Jesus with their life is going to spend eternity in hell. That's not fun. It's not fun to talk about.

So listen, if you're going to get a name for that, just get a name for it. And if it helps advance the gospel, all the better. Be deacon Mike deacon s Mike. I don't know be Where the name be weird? You will you will suffer unjustly Not just with names, but with real loss financial leadership credibility You you might get pass over for a lot of things your you might get a reputation reputation for being holier than now when that's really the farthest from your Personality or anything that you've established but just because you say I follow Jesus people are gonna think that you're self-righteous Okay, man Okay There's nothing you can do about it You can love people you can serve people you can live a truly good life and when two Co-workers are talking about you and one says oh, yeah that guy so self-righteous But the other guy listening to the office gossip is saying no no no I remember when this guy served me I remember whenever he he

Listened to me talk about my I don't know my wayward teenager and didn't judge me at all I remember that And they're good it's gonna happen It's going to happen But we have to engage in that truly good life. Here's the other thing that really matters the other area It's unjust suffering for your family all that I talked about before losing money Favorite reputation status credibility leadership potential all of that stuff Your your children will miss out on opportunities because you don't have the money to pay for it

Your your family you were gonna miss time with your family because your boss is too demanding It's going to happen You were gonna get punished for something and you're gonna have to work a weekend when nobody else has to work a weekend And it's for the Lord. It's going to happen. You are going to lose time with your spouse or you're gonna lose time. You're gonna be able to sleep because you are busy working. You're busy meeting demands that are unfair.

And when it comes to unjust suffering, there is no fair, right? There's no like, oh, it's unjust suffering within reason. No, that's actually the definition of unjust suffering, is that it's not fair. It doesn't pan out that way. It's not, it's not going to work out. And this is what, this is what Peter does on this discussion of unjust suffering. Peter talks about it and pulls the lens out a little further versus 21 through 25.

It says, for to this, you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, Leaving you as an example so that you might follow in the steps. Man, Jesus is our example that we are enduring. Unjust suffering is a calling. It is part of following Jesus. It is. It is what it means to be a disciple is to actually go through this. If you were going to pursue a truly good life and you should and it's worth it, You will suffer for it. You will lose on it. It is not something that's safe. It is not something that will help your IRA. It won't. It'll be bad for you in the short term. It'll be bad for you in your temporary home. But it'll be so worth it in your forever home. It'll be so worth it with the Lord. As you do good deeds, your motives will be questioned. When you resist sin at work publicly, when everybody else is going for it, even other Christians, you will be punished for it.

Your family will pay for it. It will happen. It will happen. The full force of what Peter is saying here is that you, Christian, Do not deserve better because Jesus didn't get better. Why do you expect to live a life that is more comfortable than the master that you follow? This is the full force of what Peter is saying and he presses it in even further. Verses 21 through 25, excuse me, 22 and 23, pardon.

Says, he committed no sin, neither was the seed found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued in trusting himself to him who judges justly." Look at Jesus's life. I can remember one time I was on a mission trip to London, and I was leading the team. And for a night out one time, we went with the local missionaries that were there. We went to a comedy club. And I don't know if you've ever been to a comedy club, but there's a rule. don't sit in the front. Well, there were no other seats. We had to sit in the front. Kimmy knows. She remembers the story. She was there. Oh my gosh. So embarrassing. So we sit in the front. And within minutes, the comic begins to ask us questions. Us, our team, questions. Specifically me and the woman sitting next to me, who will remain nameless. He begins to make very crass, very vulgar jokes

about me having an affair with the woman sitting next to me. Who was a co-worker of mine at the time? The comic found out we were co-workers and made a joke about her trying to get a promotion. You can imagine. Really crass. I was embarrassed, to say the very least. The woman next to me, absolutely mortified. It was terrible. She was holding back tears. And I can remember on the train ride home, Obviously, I was not happy. On the train ride home, the missionary, she began saying to me, well, you know, you can't be upset. This comic, he's lost. He didn't follow Jesus at all. But I was upset. I was upset for me, for my co-worker, for my family, for my reputation. I was upset for all those things. I was upset. I was responding correctly. incorrectly

Enduring unjust suffering is Not pretending like it's no big deal Enduring unjust suffering is not pretending like it's no big deal It means though when we do endure unjust suffering, it means that we mourn it It means that we feel all the hurt it means that we talk it out with people that we love it means that we go through It's painful It's painful if you have a demanding boss sometimes you have difficult conversations with your spouse

Because you're not there Present you're not physically there and that means something that's hard What I'm saying is this if you miss a promotion at work Because you won't take part in sin. It's still good to call out bad bad behavior It's still good to report that person to HR. It's still good to ask for it to be made right, to fight for that. That's all good. Here's what it's not good. It's not good for you to be surprised it's happening. It's not good for you to blame God in the midst of that, or to question his faithfulness through it, or to be wondering how you could have avoided this if you would have lived better or something, some weird perversion of that. No, no, that's unjust suffering. That That's the baseline. That's what it is to follow Jesus. Yes, you can still fight against injustice. Yes, you can still call out bad behavior. Yes, you should do all those things,

but you should not be surprised. You should not be just shocked. Oh, I can't believe that my boss made a pass at me. Really? Because he's lost. Oh, I can't believe I missed a promotion because I wouldn't cook the, I can't believe I'm being punished. Really? You can't. Okay. You should. That's the world we live in. This is what it is to keep our conduct honorable among the Gentiles, because the Gentiles do not care about people following Jesus. Verse 23, 24, and 25, the end of 23, has a good outlook. It says that Jesus continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. And here's how Jesus entrusted himself to one who judges justly. He bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds we have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd oversee of your souls. Jesus endured suffering by trusting God's plan.

Let me tell you, living a truly good life is much less about willpower and much more about the fact that you are trusting that that good life, that enduring that unjust suffering is going to be worth it. That it's going to matter. That it's going to be treasure in heaven. That it's going to be advancing the kingdom of God. That it's going to be making disciples. When people, when people, excuse me, when you serve the people that are around you, Jesus is going to use that in their life and yours. When front yard living is gonna require you to make difficult decisions, you can know for a fact that Jesus is not going to waste that. For a fact. You can depend on it. You can entrust yourself to him who judges justly. When your reputation, your salary, your family life takes a hit, you can trust Jesus to make it count. And here's my encouragement. I want to kind of

leave you with this. If somebody calls you nice, I would like for you to take that as an insult. Somebody calls you nice for doing that. Oh, you're so nice. Oh, Tim, you're so nice for taking the weekend shift. Oh, Candace, you're so nice because you picked up the, you know, the slack in the game. Oh, you know, so nice. I would encourage you to take that as an insult. Don't really be insulted. But I would encourage you to disagree with that. Calling somebody nice is kind of a way to attribute it to willpower. Oh, like you're much nicer than me. I could never do something like that. Specifically, Jesus did not call us to be nice. Jesus called us to live a truly good life and trust Him to use it for His kingdom, to make disciples, to advance where the Spirit is making new life. Our part of that, what we do, is to live a truly good life. And if we look at

verse 24 it says, it says He bore our sins in His body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness by his wounds you have been healed. This is the basic teaching of the gospel. This is what it is to follow Jesus is that we believe this with our whole heart that we deserved punishment, death, slavery, all of that. We deserved all of that and Jesus took all of that on our behalf and what we received instead of getting that was adoption and life and freedom and healing. Jesus took all that we deserved and gave us a bunch of things that we don't deserve. Jesus uses unjust suffering to heal people specifically in these verses and he does it all the time through us in an indirect way. Our lives, us, suffering unjustly actually brings healing to many people in the same way it does here and yeah it's not us on a tree I get it and we're not a substitutionary to men I get it what I'm saying though

is that with these scriptures are pointing us to the fact that look Jesus in the same way his unjust suffering brought life to many the Lord God in heaven is going to use whatever small small unjust suffering whatever small unfairness you are dealing with, it's going to use that to bring people to life. Going to make disciples. Going to advance the kingdom. Going to heal marriages. Going to heal friendships. Going to heal people. This is our calling. To live this truly good life. And to do it because, not because we're nice, not because it's all about willpower, but because we know it's not going to be wasted. It's actually one of the few things that we can do that we know will last forever, unjustly suffering on behalf of other people. I'm going to call David back up for our time of imitation. And as we sing, I just want to encourage you, if you have not made that decision,

to follow Jesus, to really give him all of your death and slavery and all the addiction that you're dealing with, all this anxiety that you're dealing with, if you haven't given that to Jesus and received from him life and freedom and healing, and it's not all hunky-dory, obviously. It's not all hunky-dory and following Jesus, but it is worth it. It is a life worth choosing. It's a life worth living. I'm gonna be up near the front. If whenever we're singing, we're just gonna sing one song, you wanna come up, you wanna be prayed for, You want to talk through a decision that you're making, please do that. If you're here with somebody and you trust them and you want to ask them about it, please lead over to the person next to you. Ask her prayer. Ask her a question about what it is to be saved.

Let me pray for us. Jesus, we thank you for this life that you've called us to, this difficult life. We thank you that you want to use us in a way that is honoring to you. And it's not different than the life that you lived. It's exactly what you did. Help us to do that. That's your name that we pray. Let's sing. How deep the Father's love for us How vast beyond all measure That he should give his only Son To make a wretch's treasure, How great the pain of searing loss! The Father turns His face away, Has wounds which mar the chosen one, Bring many sons to glory, the man upon a cross, My sin upon his shoulders, ashamed I hear my mocking voice, Call out among the scoffers, It was my sin that held him there, Until it was accomplished His dying breath has brought me light I know that it is finished

Boasting anything No gifts, no power, no wisdom But I will boast in Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection. Why should I gain from His reward? I cannot give an answer, But this I know with all my heart. His wounds have paid my ransom Why should I gain from His reward? I cannot give an answer But this I know with all my heart His wounds have paid my ransom Yes, this I know with all my heart His wounds have paid my ransom