Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. The place where we find peace, the place where we find power. And as we saw in there, the place where we find joy is right here. It’s in God’s Word. That’s why that’s the focus of our time together. The focus of any teaching up here is not just funny stories or jokes or whatever. Those might get peppered in, but the focus is God’s word. That’s where we want to engage. That’s where we want to dwell. That’s where we want to meditate. That’s where we want to stir up greater hunger. Because just 30 minutes a week in God’s Word, it’s not enough. Hopefully we leave here hungry to be diving into His word, digging in and day after day after day after day. And we’re going to continue in first Peter today we’ve been working through the book book of First Peter to wrestle with this question. How do you find joy in the midst of suffering? That’s the big theme of First Peter, and we’re in chapter three. If you want to go ahead and turn there, if you don’t have a Bible, we have those out in the lobby, slip out and grab one any time. Those are free for you, you can keep it. And the page numbers, any page numbers that appear on the screen are going to tie into that Bible to make it easier for you to find the page of the Bible, but we want you actually turning there and seeing the words on the page and a copy of God’s Word in your hand that you can take home and dwell on and meditate on, on your own. And as I thought about today’s passage, I was reminded of our recent election. I know many were very interested in the recent presidential election. I was as well, not for the normal reasons, though. I was primarily interested in it for the historical reason. I like studying presidential history, and if you were tuned in to the historical reality of the election, we didn’t know beforehand. But now we know Trump was only the second president ever to serve nonconsecutive terms. Does anybody know the first one? Of Grover Cleveland. I heard it loud and proud from the student section over here. Where are the rest of y’all been? They’ve been studying presidential history. Grover Cleveland. That’s right. I asked this at Pacesetters. Anybody vote for him last time around? I had one hand raised during that, but that was before their time even. Late 1800s, Grover Cleveland. The thing that fascinated me about Cleveland or Trump, either way, the fact that you were president, you went through all that to become president. One guy I heard say, it’s not that hard to be president. You just need half the country to hate you. That’s one way to look at it. Maybe slightly less than half. You go through all that having so many people, no matter how many people, likely you’re like you, you’re going to hear all the hate, all the negative comments, no matter who you are. If you’re going to be president, you got to go through that. Both those guys went through that, then lost and then decided, yeah, I want to do that again. Like, who does that? Well, if you’re doing that to be president, it’s because probably the the power, the prestige, there’s something about it that makes you go, I’ll go through all that to get that. And of course, for us, as we look at the book of first Peter, when you face reviling, when you face slander, when you face persecution, not because you want to be in a political office, but simply because you claim the name of Jesus, what do you do with that? How do you react to that? What is our call as Christians? How do we respond to that? We’re going to look at that today in the book of First Peter. In fact, we’re going to see three ways in this passage, in chapter three in particular, that we’re called to respond. And you’ll see the summary on the screen first, growing character. Second, trust your calling. And then number three, remember your roots. Those are going to be the three ways we see as we look at this passage grow in character. Our three responses to those who want to attack us because of our faith grow in character. Trust your calling and remember your roots. Now let’s look. Read through the passage at first and then we’ll start unpacking these three points. First Peter chapter three. We’re going to look at verses eight through 12 today. First Peter chapter three, verse eight. Finally all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart and a humble mind. 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 for whoever desires to love life and see good days. Let him keep his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good. 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. Three responses in this passage three responses to those who are attacking us. The first is to grow in character. Verse eight is focused on growing in character. If you want to stand up to those who are attacking you simply because you follow Christ, the Christian strategy is focused on growing in character. And here in verse eight, the first verse we’re going to look at that supports that point. We’ll see five character qualities right here in these verses. Now, as we’ve looked at these last few sermons, one of the things we’ve been focused on is how do you serve under someone who is an authority over you, yet is opposed to your faith? And we looked at very specific relationships. We looked at the government, we looked at the workplace. If you have an employer who is opposed to your faith, how do you serve under them faithfully? Then we looked at the family, husband and wife. We got in very specific zoned in. Now we’re panning back out to more general, broader principles. That’s what he means by that when he says the word finally. Some of y’all thought, okay, that means we’re ending the book of first Peter early. You know, you’ve been in Baptist churches long enough to know that means absolutely nothing when someone says that. In summary, in closing, finally doesn’t mean anything. Here he is in the middle of the book. Finally. Well, what he means is let me summarize what I’ve been saying about submitting to authority. Here’s some general principles you can apply to any relationship. And as he zooms in when he focuses on character qualities, here he is zooming in, not on the whole world at large, but the first place he’s zooming in is right here. The starting place is right here in this room. And here’s what I mean by that. I’m going to show you some of this in the structure of the book of First Peter. You should see on the screen here just an outline of that verse eight that we looked at, because we have five character qualities here. And we’re going to try to do a little marking on the screen to point out something about the structure of these five character qualities that stands out right here. So notice you’ll see these on the screen. There’s five here in a row. Unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, tender heart, humble mind. This has a structure to it that starts with the outer layer. And you’ll notice there’s mind on both end. You have a unity of mind and a humble mind that kind of forms the outer layer of this structure right here. This outer barriers, the next layer within that, though, focuses in on. On the heart. See a tender heart here. Or emotion, sympathy. These kind of become the next layer in of this structure. Mind. Oftentimes we focus on just trying to shape the mind shape. If I can get someone to understand something, I’ll change them. But usually it’s the heart and emotions that lead us in what we believe and follow. But here in this passage in particular, look at what’s at the core here of these character qualities. It’s one word love. Right in the center of the character qualities we’re to develop is the word love. In particular, though it says brotherly love. Now, what’s important about that for us here today, brotherly love is our affection for other Christians, our affections for one another. Here Jesus said in John 13:35, people will know (if) you’re my disciples or not. Here’s you want to know how they’ll know if you follow me or not, when they see the way you act with one another. If you love one another well, then they’ll know that you are my disciples. And how many times have you seen someone use the label of Christian and yet hate their fellow Christians? And in that moment, you know, are they a Christian? Really? I mean, only God knows their heart, but something’s not matching up. Something’s not right. So at the core principle here of how you want to start to deal with attacks from the outside, love one another well here, that’s the starting place. Start there. It’s a simple formula, a simple strategy. Start by loving one another well. Now notice how these layers go out from here. I mean, if we start with love, the next layer here comes back outward to the emotion and to the heart. Notice if I love someone, well, I’m a lot more likely to show sympathy toward them. I’m a lot more likely to feel their pain if I love them well. I mean, if someone has an injury to their physical body, you know, if you damage some part, let’s say you lose an arm, all your body suffers. You feel it all across your body and in the body of Christ. If someone in the body is hurting, other members of the body should feel that as well. There should be sympathy, shared feeling in love for one another. If I love someone well, I’m a lot more likely to have sympathy for them. But also it says below here tender heart. If I love someone, I’m a lot more likely to be tender hearted toward them. I’m a lot more likely to be kind, to be gentle. To want to not just lash out and react, but to come alongside them. Interesting thing about that phrase, that word behind that phrase, tender hearted. It means something along the lines of healthy intestines. One of the early church fathers listed that as a requirement for elders in the church. I’ve never asked an elder about the condition of their intestines. I don’t plan to current or future elder, but here’s what that means. Healthy intestines. That’s weird, I don’t know. You use this in a different way all the time. I feel that deep in my gut. Right? You know what I’m saying? You feel something so deep, it’s like a pain that hits you in the gut. I remember the time I heard of a friend whose young child lost their life. Let me tell you, I felt that in my gut when I heard it, I thought, I can’t imagine the pain. It was like a pain that hit me too. I can’t imagine the pain they’re going through. When you love someone. Sympathy, tender heart. It’s a lot more likely to show up. But in this last layer here in the mind, this is what forms the barrier that determines who is my brother in Christ. We’re in this room together because we share of unity of mind. Now anyone is welcome to attend here. Anyone is welcome to come. But if you’re going to join the church, if you’re going to become a faithful, regular member, there is a set of beliefs that you need to adhere to. You need to agree to. We have shared beliefs. As a result, we have shared agreement in our practices and the way we go about church and the way we’re called to live out our faith together. There’s a unity of mind. That doesn’t mean uniformity doesn’t mean we’re all the same, but there’s at least a shared group of beliefs that we adhere to together. But it’s not just intellectual, it’s also mindset. And that’s what happens at the bottom here with a humble mind, humility. It’s not just about what you know. It’s about how you express it. It’s about how you live it out. It’s about how you engage with others, with your mindset. And Jesus said when he described himself, it’s fascinating to go and read Jesus talking about himself. Here’s who I am, Matthew 11:29, I am gentle and lowly of heart. The word lowly means the same as the word humble that come from the same root word. In fact, at that time in Greek culture, you said someone was humble and you meant it as a slam. You meant it as they’re no good. They’re at the lowest level of societies, they’re not really worth anything. And Jesus described himself that way. I’m lowly, I’m humble. And so when we approach one another, we come with that mindset. I don’t come full of pride. I don’t come demanding first place. You better listen to me. No. I come with humility. Had a guy call me recently concerned about something that was said in a sermon. And of course, and I think you can relate. My initial reaction is to go on the defensive. Whatever it was, I was right. You’re wrong. Right? That’s in my head. What’s going on? I’ll confess it here publicly. None of you would act that way. I know, but that’s human nature is to react to any times you’re confronted. But let me tell you the way this guy came to me, he said, John, let me just start by saying, I’m so grateful for you. I’m grateful for the way you lead these other things you’ve taught, the things you said, the way you and he walked through some things. I won’t list them all out, although I’m tempted to, but I love that he started with, here’s what I appreciate about you. And then he said, there’s this just this one small thing I wanted to bring up. And let me tell you why. It’s not because I think you’re wrong or that you have a bad heart, or that you wanted to hurt someone. I’m just concerned about how someone who’s new to the faith might take this. Well, yeah, let me hear. I’m totally open to hearing from you. At that point, when he’s approached me that way, he’s come with humility. He’s come with kindness, he’s come in love. And let me tell you, that’s one thing I love about Valley of You. Person after person who’s ever come to me, comes like that. I love that about Valley View. It’s not attacking. It’s not who’s going to be right or wrong. Humble love. These are the core characteristics we’re called to follow and develop in our effort to want to grow in character. And this the end of the day, this is what allows us to stand up to attacks from the world. It starts right here to have a strong foundation of faith and relationships and trust and love. That’s the first strategy. Now let’s look at the second one first growing character. But the second is to trust your calling, know your calling and trust. Look at verse nine back in first Peter three, do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless. For to this you were called. This is what you were called to, that you may obtain a blessing. Our calling as Christians is different than the world. Here’s what the world does. You wrong me? I’ll wrong you back. You did wrong to me. You were evil towards me. You’re going to see even greater evil. I will get you back. That’s what the world does. That’s how the world responds. That’s how the world reacts. But what he says here, that’s not for you to repay evil. Why can he say that? Look just a few verses earlier. Here’s our example. Here’s our model. Look back at 2:23. Just one page back, probably, in your Bible. Jesus, when he was reviled. He spat back at them. No, that’s not what it says. What does it say? He did not revile in return. If you claim the name of Christ, that’s at the core of your calling is not to just react or overreact the way the world does. Instead, do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless. Jesus stands out in the history of the world as someone radically different than everyone else, and you’ll hear people say crazy things at times like, you know, basically all world religions are basically the same. They all teach the same things. Have you studied any other religion but your own? How can you say that? They are all radically different. I’ve heard people say something along the lines of every religion has its version of the Golden Rule. It’s out there in all of them. And so I went looking and I studied them. And yeah, they do have a version, but it’s the opposite of Jesus’s version. All the others say passively, don’t do to others what you don’t want them to do to you. If you don’t want someone to step on your foot, don’t step on their foot. It’s passive. Just don’t act. Don’t do anything. But Jesus says, do. Be active. Do unto others what you want them to do to you. If you’re sitting around thinking, I really wish someone would massage my feet, then get up and go massage someone else’s feet now, right now, keep your shoes on, but be the active person. We don’t just wait around hoping and wishing someone would love me, though that’s what we do. No, love. Serve. Go. It would be one thing, wouldn’t it, if Peter just said, look, don’t, don’t repay. But he goes far beyond that because he says, on the contrary, bless. And here is the really hard part of that. Here is the radical part of that. Here’s the countercultural part of that. Here is the counter human flesh part of that. The very person who is seeking the worst for you, the very person that because you love Jesus, would love for nothing greater than for you to be removed from the face of the earth. That person is the person you’re called to go and actively bless. And as I say that, I got to tell you, I’m thinking back to some people, oh, who made life so hard for me. That person I’m supposed to go bless. And look, I know that’s not simple. Depending on your relationship with that person who comes to mind, that can be very complex. There could be layers, there could be abuse. There could be different. You may need great wisdom to know what that means. But the heart of that follows Christ, and it is as countercultural as you can get. Bless those who persecute you. Actively bless, do unto others, and that is our calling. Know your calling and trust your calling. Know that when Christ says, follow me, this is what we’re called to. Not easy countercultural. But that’s the second way we’re called to respond to those who want to harm you because of your faith. Now let’s look at the third way here. Look here. We’re going to look at verses ten through 12. And this comes back to the issue of remember your roots. Remember your roots. That’s the third way. Third way we prepare to respond to those who wish the worst for us because we follow Christ. Remember your roots. Look at verse ten through 12. I want to reread these. For whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good. 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. Now if you have a Bible where these verses are kind of set off to the side, you’ll notice that this is actually a quotation from the Old Testament. And Peter, we already know whenever he makes a point and he wants to back it up, what does he do? He cites the Old Testament. We’ve seen that over and over again, which, by the way, is a great lesson for us that the author of one of the books of the Bible saw the Old Testament as relevant and authoritative to his life. As Christians, we don’t just cast aside the Old Testament, we see it as central. Jesus quoted the Old Testament over and over again. In fact, the most commonly quoted book of the Old Testament in the New Testament to the Book of Psalms. And so here we have him quoting from the Book of Psalms. He’s quoting in particular Psalm 34. Now why Psalm 34? What’s relevant about Psalm 34? Part of it is the message of Psalm 34. Now I want you to see something here. In fact, he already quoted directly from Psalm 34. If you look at two, chapter two, verse three, he says, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. That’s a quote from Psalm 34. But it’s not just that. Look on the screen real quick. I want to show you here you’ll see that Peter is peppered all throughout with Psalm 34. So we have all these phrases that show up all across Psalm 34 blessing, sojourning, never be put to shame, the fear of God, the righteous cry out, afflictions, his redeemed servants over and over again. And that’s a lot to take in. If you’re a note taker, I apologize. That’s not going to be up there very long. You can email us up here at the church. I’ll give you that list that was put together by one of the commentators I read. The point being, Peter peppers the whole passage with Psalm 34. Now why Psalm 34? Psalm 34 has a message that was relevant to them then, and it’s relevant to us today as well. In fact, turn to Psalm 34 and I’m going to show you something. Psalm 34. Look at verse one. In fact, it’s not quite verse one. If you notice Psalm 34, and that’s on page 433, in a church Bible, it starts with a little phrase at the top that says, taste and see that the Lord is good in my Bible that’s in italics. But that’s been added by the current translators. But the next statement that’s not actually a verse here, it says ‘of David when he changed his behavior before Abimelech so that he drove him out and he went away. That’s kind of an explanatory introduction to the book that helps you understand what Psalm 34 is about. Now, let me give you a little bit of background on David to help that make sense, because some of us remember the story of David and others maybe not as much. We all skip over details at points in life. David, you may remember, was appointed king when he was a boy. And what was his? That would be a tremendous honor, wouldn’t you think? That would be incredible. What was his reward for that? Saul wants to kill him. Welcome to the club, David. Time for you to die. And so David goes on the run, as you naturally would do. David doesn’t want to die, and he flees to the Philistines. Now, the Philistines were the enemies of Saul. So you would think the enemy of my enemy would be my friend. But when he shows up to the Philistines, the king who’s mentioned here doesn’t like David. And so what it says here that David does his strategy to get out of danger, his strategy to escape the guy who thought who was going to be his refuge. He changed his behavior before him. In fact, he just acted like he was crazy, acted like he was out of his mind so that he could get away. All right. What does that have to do with Peter’s audience? Follow the thread here. Here’s his point, David. God’s anointed one in exile, actively persecuted and attacked, is seeking God’s deliverance. Peter, in this message in Psalm 34, because David, after he was delivered, wrote Psalm 34 as a celebration of God’s deliverance. Peter says, you are exiles. You are those who are actively persecuted. You are those who need rescue. So everything in Psalm 34 relates directly to you today. In fact, first Peter starts with that word elect exiles of the dispersion. We are all exiles. We are all living as foreigners in this land. We are all citizens of another world. Now here’s the point of all that. Here’s what Peter is going to do. He’s going to pick up on a few phrases, and I’m just going to look at a couple of these that David draws out. Look back at first Peter chapter three, verse ten. He says, let him keep his tongue from evil. We’re called to be people of truth. Even if people are attacking. You were called to be people of truth. Now, I’ve said this before, but it’s important to know that being a person of truth doesn’t mean you share everything you’re thinking, right? I remember hearing Wayne Grudem share this example when his wife comes and asks him, how does this dress look on me? He says, I tell the truth, but I don’t tell everything I’m thinking. I don’t say it kind of is tight in the middle area. No, no, no, what I say is, you know what? That dress is not my favorite. I speak the truth in love. I’m a person of truth. We’re called to be people of truth, not just in the way we talk to one another about our clothes. But even when we’re persecuted. Keep your tongue from evil. Keep your lips from deceit. But then next he says, turn away from evil and do good. Meaning we’re called to be people who eradicate evil from our lives. We don’t tolerate evil in our lives. And we’re not a church that has any kind of list of things you can watch or can’t watch, or books you can read or can’t read. That’s legalism. We don’t do that. But also don’t be naive to the reality that everything you consume shapes you in some way or another. It does. Everything. And much of what is created in Hollywood and this world has a very different agenda than a Christian agenda. It is seeking to turn your heart away from Christ towards other things. Just don’t be naive to that. Turn away from evil, turn towards good. And then notice this other phrase. He says, seek peace and pursue it. We’re called to be peacemakers. It’s one thing just to not stir up conflict, but it’s another to be those who go and actively pursue peace. Actively pursue peace. Hunt down someone who has done you wrong and try to make things right. Now that’s balanced out with Romans 12:18, which says, if possible, so far as you are able, be at peace with all men. Meaning the key word there. If we’re not always able. But look, this is radically countercultural. I heard a story about reading one of the books I was studying. One of the professors had a student share as they were teaching on this passage. As student shared, I’ve got a story that relates to that you want to talk about. Bless on those who persecute you. He was a soldier, and he was in the barracks with other soldiers, and they knew he was a Christian, and they had started to persecute him, particularly because of his faith. And they would do all kinds of things to bother him. And one night he’s laying down in bed and across the room here comes this pair of muddy boots just sailing through the sky, lands right on his head, mud everywhere. Nicks up his forehead. Lights go out. Everybody’s laughing. The next morning that soldier who threw his boots is looking for his boots. And here they are at the foot of his bed, washed, cleaned, spit shined, polished. Waiting there for him. And that guy said, that broke me. That broke me. I wanted to know who would do that. And that opened the door for him to talk about Christ. And that opened the door for another soldier to hear about Christ, one after another, after another. Bless those who persecute you. Now, there’s one thing I didn’t point out here about Psalm 34, and in fact, we’re going to celebrate this today in the way we approach communion, because the way we can do this, the reason you can do this is because of one thing. And if you’re here to help distribute communion, you can go ahead and slip out, prepare those elements. Look back at Psalm 34, because Psalm 34 is interesting. It’s actually done in an acrostic poem. You know what that is where they use a start each first letter with another letter. And this it’s done with the Hebrew alphabet. There’s 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. If you don’t have a Hebrew Bible, look over at your neighbor, who probably does, and you can see how this lays out. But there’s 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Each of the verses start with the letter of the Hebrew Bible. So A-b-c on down, except there’s one missing. Probably around letter five or so. They left. They left that letter out so that they could come back around at the end with an extra verse, A to Z. Here we go. I’m going to wrap the verse up with the Lord redeems the life of his servants. Psalm 34 wraps up with redemption, and the way you’re able to bless those who curse you, bless those who persecute you. The only source of power for that is if you are redeemed by Christ. And that’s simply just turning to him, trusting him. If you don’t know him, if you’ve not confessed your sins to him, man today is the day to do that. And guys, you can go ahead and start distributing communion. And let me tell you about communion. If you don’t know Christ, that communion is not necessarily for you. Communion is for anyone who knows Christ, follows him, claims him. You don’t have to be a member of this church. There’s two cups in there stacked together. Take them both. You have the juice and the bread. You just set that there and then hang on to those and we’ll take those together in a minute. I’ll lead us through taking those together after everyone has those. Here’s what I want you to do. While those are being handed out. Pray. Pray in particular for God to bring to mind someone that you need to pursue with peace. Someone who has attacked you. Someone who has brought conflict into your life. Someone who has sought your worst because you know Christ. Pray for God to bring that person to mind and pray for particular ways that you can seek peace and pursue it. Go ahead and pray now, and I’ll bring us back together. When everyone has the communion.