You are listening to the preaching ministry of Faith Baptist Church. Good morning. It is really, really good to be with you all this morning. We have been to a lot of churches, but there's nothing quite special that's coming back to you. you all to listen to us and the more growing up here, and just always refreshing being with you. So it's a joy to see so many of you that we know, and to be able to catch up. Our kids were real disappointed they couldn't come. Logan, our son, did say, that's where I broke my leg, right? I'm like, yeah, that's where you broke your leg. So he's a record lap. He's fully healed. He did snap his wrist last year and had surgery on that. So the boy never gets sick. But he breaks all his bones. But they're disappointed they couldn't be here. Hopefully, at some point. But now that we live a whole lot closer, we'll be able to bring them back and see New York. But it's just great to have our teams here with you. Right now, our church does not have a youth pastor. And so they have asked different pastors to take them. So we took our teams to Utah last year. And so that was good for them to see our ministry out there. And so we've got, as we were talking about this year, where we take them. Utah is very white, and there's one religion. of that in New York City. And so we have connections with you guys, and so this works out perfectly for our teams to be exposed to what God is doing in different parts of our country. And so we're very, very thankful that you have allowed us to be here with you to really help our teams to just see what God is doing in New York City. We've been many years through the faithful ministry of this church. So we're glad that you've allowed us to interact with you guys and just see how God is working and part of chapter 4 as well. In 1 Peter, Peter is writing to a people who are in the midst of severe religious persecution. He's writing to them saying, I understand what you're going through, but this is who you are in light of the gospel. as well as we find in chapter 1. But Peter reminds them from the very, very beginning of chapter 1 that though you are a persecuted people, you still have hope. That hope is found in the gospel. Then he reminds them that they have a natural obligation because of the gospel, and that is holy living This morning in Sunday School we looked at Israel and their unique status. And now we look at 1 Peter and us as God's people in the New Testament age as our unique status as God's people. So Peter's reminded that we're persecuted and yet you have hope. Yet because of that hope there is now an obligation to live your life based on this. And so he goes through the first couple of chapters and ends chapter 3 saying these unique obligations you have Reality doesn't affect eternity, it affects your daily life. But before he gets there, if you look at chapter 2, verse 11, it says this, Beloved, I beg you, as sojourners and pilgrims, whatever we can use as exiles, abstain from flesh and blood, which are war against the soul. So he reminds them of their status. You don't fit into this world perfectly anymore. Because the gospel has transformed you. You don't quite fit into culture. You are sojourners, or you are pilgrims, or exiles. There probably is no better church that I know of that represents that here. Many of you are not naturally from the United States. This isn't your original home, and maybe you long for that home. Many of you have actually grown up here in the United States, and this has become your home. It doesn't quite feel like that. And as Christians, we love... I love America, but this isn't the final home. If this is as good as it gets, well, that's a rude awakening, right? There's something much, much better. You know, as Reagan and Logan, our two oldest, were in public school in Utah, we would talk to them and say, look, you weren't going to quite fit in. You weren't Christians among many, many unbelieving kids. Their K-6 grade school had 1,300 kids in it. And we said, you probably are the two Christians in it. have compassion on the kids from families who are not believers. They did. But we'd say, you are exiled, essentially, in this school. So love them, but realize you don't quite fit in. So the reality is this. Every believer, every single one of us who are believers in Christ, we are soldiers, and we are exiles. We don't fit into this culture, but we long for a home in heaven someday. First, Peter, here's the main point. As sojourners in exile, our lives are marked by radical responses to difficult life circumstances. As sojourners in exile, our lives are marked by radical responses to difficult life circumstances. It gives us two difficult life circumstances that we'll look at this morning. And the first is found in 1 Peter 3, verse 8. I'll read that for us this morning. It says, Finally, all of you, be of one mind, having compassion for one another, love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous. And that is God's Word. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for your word that it is very applicable to our life. This was written years and years ago to a people that were persecuted, to a people who were scattered from their original land. And we're thanking that that word still applies to us today. And so may you use the spirit to open our hearts to your words this morning. And may we live differently this week because of it. In Christ's name I pray, amen. The first response is this. Live together in harmony. But what is the difficult life circumstance that Peter's talking about? It is this. We are a mixture of different people made into one body. Now this church has a lot of different nationalities in it. The Church of Syracuse has a lot of different nationalities different ideas of what the world should look like. And as believers, we're all now called together into one body. You know, if you look around, there are a lot of unique people around us. Another way of saying that is, there are a lot of weird people around us, right? You're self-included, I'm self-included. You know, as we raised support to head to Utah, we spoke in exactly 100 churches. Each church has very, very unique people. And I remember one church in Washington State, as people were talking at the service, there was a guy kind of hanging around, and everyone was watching him. And as soon as he started talking, they just vanished. And it was me and him. And I thought, oh no, this must be the very unique person of this church. And he began talking to me about this off-the-wall doctrinal issue he had only discovered and no one else knew about. And he wanted to come to our church in Utah and preach about it and teach about it. And I thought, what have I gotten myself into? All I can say is, you know what? I happen to be in Seattle. I have to fly out. So it's nice to talk to you. And maybe someday I'll call you. Probably not. And I thought, man, this guy is very, very easy. But all of us are that way, right? We all have different life goals. We all have life baggage that we bring in. We all bring in our sin into the church, mistrust, suffering, and the listening role. Each one of us is unique. And yet God calls on us to live in harmony. Mix in the fact that over the last three years, we kind of got off of this thing called COVID, right? And you add all that into the mix, saying, well, we're all human people, and now we've got this huge global pandemic that has changed everything. It causes more friction. It causes a lot of irritability. And thankfully, all of us Christians were spared from having opinions about COVID, right? No, of course not. We all have opinions about COVID. What should be done? What shouldn't be done? What should the government do? What should the government not do, right? And in the midst of all of that, Peter still says, live in harmony. Live in unity together. Again, this is where Peter's audience, they find themselves. They are in the midst of social unrest, political unrest, likely financial unrest, and in the midst of all of that, likely spiritual unrest as well. And he says to them, you, as God's chosen people, you live in harmony together. Your society today says that you are to find people who are just like you, and you go with them, and if anyone is different than them, then you have nothing to do with them. And yet the gospel reminds us it's very different. Your church is made up of so many different backgrounds, and yet we are called to live in harmony. But how does that happen? How can we as different people live in harmony? The answer to that is the Gospel. Only the Gospel can cause people who are very different to live in unison together. The Gospel is simply this. God is holy and He is our Creator. He made us. We have all sinned and through that sin we have broken our relationship with God with absolutely no way of getting back to God. So God sent Jesus, fully God and yet fully man, to come and to live a perfect life that we could never live. He lived that life, and he whipped the cross undeservedly. On that cross, he took the punishment curse. He celebrated that this morning through communion. But he didn't stay there. He had victory over death in the grave, and he rose again towards the end. As humans now, we have the responsibility to choose. Are we not going to choose to follow my own way of violence and sin? He said, God, I know you sent Jesus to take the pebble from my sand, and I trust the way you have set it. That is the gospel. That is the good news of what we need. So the gospel is not only the pathway to harmony between sinful man and God, the gospel. It changes our hearts to be able to do that. Right before verse 8, Peter has given three very difficult life circumstances. First of all is between the Christian and a difficult government. Second of all is between the Christian and cruel bosses. or employers, and then lastly, is between the Christian wives and very likely unbelieving husbands, who are not believers. And now he simply assumes for them, despite all of that, that when they come together, they are to live in harmony. 1 Peter 2 says that they are a mixture of people made into one body. Very similar to what we find in Ephesians chapter 2, where Paul says, you were Jews and Gentiles, now you're being made into one body. Paul tells them that they should live out a radical response to that very difficult life circumstances. And here's the radical response. It's simply live united, live in unity. Unity is absolutely paramount. You see that over and over and over again, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament as well. Proverbs reminds us that the one who causes disunity in the church is actually an abomination to God. He loves his church, and he wants it to be unified. And yet, disunity is so easy to come by. Do you find it much easier to talk badly about somebody than to talk well about somebody? I know I do. That's natural. Unfortunately, right? It's easy to talk about someone and the bad things that they've done rather than the praise that they have done. But unity of mind is a common, repeated theme in your testimony. Why is that? People will not see Him for who He is. So if we are united, people see a God that is changeless. So when challenges come, our natural response is to kind of run to our own corners, right? Some life circumstance happens to you and to me, and rather than come to the church body, we just separate. We try to fight it on our own. that we need each other when these difficult life circumstances come together. It doesn't mean that we can't have different opinions, right? All of you have opinions, correct? I have opinions. And I really think you should like my opinions. Right? That's the way we all work. So we can have opinions, but the reality is, what do we do with these opinions? And if we hold to them too tightly to cause a division in the church, maybe we should back off, right? I read this commentary that says, the key is not the differences of opinions. The issue is how those differences are handled. Believers should live and minister together so that the differences do not divide the church, but serve to enrich its life and its ministry. So despite the differences in opinions that we have, it actually should cause the church to flourish, not to divide the church. Again, you go back to COVID. COVID hurt many churches. Many of my friends that went to college with their pastors, as I talked with them, I asked, how did it go? And for the most part, it didn't go very well for the church. It's a few weeks ago, I met a friend at a pastor's conference. He's a pastor in Pennsylvania. And I asked him, hey, how do you go to... It caused them to recognize that, you know what, I love my brother and sister in Christ, and I put them aside to serve them better. And I thought, wow, I don't hear that very well. I don't know how they hear it. But I hope that would encourage you to continue to press on and bring unity together as a body of believers. So how do we create unity? This really has to do with doing life together. Rejoicing with those who rejoice and weeping with those who weep. It's interesting that Jesus' first miracle was rejoicing with people at a wedding and his last miracle was at Lazarus' tomb. He understands the gamut of what life is like together. We experience both the highs and lows together. There are some maybe in this church who have recently graduated high school or college and are moving on to some type of promotion. So rejoice with them, right? Rejoice in what God is doing in your life. But there may be others who are going through something very difficult. So mourn with them. Walk together with them through these very difficult challenges. And our culture tells us, why would you do that? Why would you give up yourself? That means to be able to be taken advantage of. Why would you do that? The Gospel again transforms our thinking that being taken advantage of is okay. Jesus was, right? And so as we have compassionate people, It is harder to foster disunity with them. Second of all is love. Somehow we always come back to love. This is repeated often in the Testament. To love one another. But this isn't the typical agape type of self-sacrifice and love. This is a brotherly love. One that has affection for one another. It's why we often say about each other, this is our church family. We have a brotherly love for each other. This is first introduced in chapter one of 1 Peter. And he reminds them there that unity in the church does not happen without a concerted effort to love one another as family. It's so easy to love self, right? We don't struggle with that. that it is very difficult to love when we see differences in each other. But with the Spirit's help, we are able to actually say, believe in my brothers and sisters in Christ, and I can love them if the gospel is changed. Thirdly is to have a tender heart. This needs to be full of tenderness. There was a lack of pity for those who had needs. There were no nursing homes or hospitals for the hurting. No education for the illiterate. No retirement homes for the aging. No rescue missions for the addicted. No organizations for widows or battered wives or abused children. No civil rights for slaves. All of those are a byproduct of Christianity. We see that people have needs, and we see how we as Christians help meet those needs. It is to have pity on people, and to have a tender heart toward them. It is to do good, as Jesus did good to those who were hurt. Paul reminds us three times in Titus that as believers we are to be busy So as you see needs in your church family here, are you doing good for them? Do you have a tender heart for the afflicted? I'm sure there are many needs in a church family like this. We have many needs in our church family in Ohio. So do we have a tender heart for them? Because the gospel has changed our hearts. to have the mind of Christ, to have a humble mindset. That Jesus would humble himself first of all, and be willing to leave perfect heaven to come down to imperfect world. The world that he had created was perfect, and yet we messed it all up. And Jesus left perfect heaven to come down to our imperfect world. The further that he humbled himself, think of others. Think of your sisters, think of your brothers, think of Grandma Mae and Granny, and servants. Don't always be thinking about yourself. But can we not say that about ourselves? That we should think more often that way? Think of the interest think humbly. We are naturally proud. That comes all the way from Adam to where we are today. And naturally, we are proud people. But Peter says, because of the gospel, think in humility. So this is a radical response, right? We are all kinds of very different people, all put together into a local church family. And Peter says, well, let me give you And they think, how can we do that? And the only answer is the gospel. The gospel can change our hearts to have the affections that God wants us to have towards his people. The second one is found in chapter 4. And it's this, living in light of eternity. It's removing from verse 7 down to verse 11 of chapter 4. It says this, but the end of all things And above all things, have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins. without groaning. As each one has received a gift, minister unto one another as good stewards of the powerful grace of God. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the adobe with which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the domain forever and ever. Amen. So he says, live in the light of eternity. But here's the difficult life circumstance. You need to naturally live for what brings instant satisfaction. We all have cell phones where we can get information right away. Logan, our son, is always saying, can I ask Siri a question? And Siri has all the answers. He wants it right now. He needs it right now. And our cell phones give us that. We have fast food. We have quick results for body shape. We swipe a credit card. Although market extracts from a credit card are not the same in the world. Right? But naturally, our credit cards are just like that. We get whatever we want. Our phones have almost everything we need on it. It is instant, right now. And so when Peter says, live in light of eternity, we're going, really? I gotta think for the future, not this moment, what I can get right now. The gospel has changed you, you are different people. So live in light of eternity. The radical response is this. First of all, live a self-controlled, sober-minded life in your prayer. As Christians, we are only to be hopeful for the coming of heaven. We're also to show proof I would pray. It shows our dependence on God. Because God knows all things. And they were saying, God, I don't know what's coming up. So I am begging you, I am asking you to work through these very difficult circumstances. Again, Peter is writing to people who have very hard circumstances. And they are very uncertain of their own future. And as they prayed, they were to show self-control and to be sober-minded in their prayers. This means simply to be watchful in prayer. Peter had heard these words from Jesus, right? As Jesus was praying, he says to them, be watchful. And what happens to the disciples? They sleep. And Peter had learned his lesson. Jesus told them to be watchful and pray that you don't enter into temptation. And when we are faced with really hard life circumstances, it's very easy to enter into temptation. But Peter reminds them, no, you need to be watchful in your prayers despite the uncertainty of all your circumstances around you. He reminds them that Satan is like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Satan doesn't play fair. He knows his end, right? Be watchful of him. And even though you don't know the future, God does. So talk to him in prayer. And be watchful in prayer. I'm doing a Bible study with a guy who is a very good believer. And we were talking about temptation a few weeks ago. And I said to him, when you are being tempted, stop and pray. And be aware that Satan is trying to get you to fall back into your previous life. Stop, pray, be aware, and ask God to help you. Now this world tells us to give in to your temptation, to just do it. It's good. It's great for you. But we know it will kill us in the end. It doesn't satisfy. And so Peter says, be watchful with us. And pray to God as you fight these unsteady circumstances. Second of all is love. This is the agape type of love. This is a self-sacrificing love for one another. Naturally, we are inclined to want to get everything. I want, and I want, and I want, and I expect you to give to me to meet my wants. But Peter says this is the opposite. This is a self-sacrificing love. This is a giving type of love. So rather than wanting to get, around you. And Peter tells them to love one another earnestly. It's the same word that was used of the church as they prayed earnestly for his release from Egypt. They prayed with such a fervent heart that Peter would be released. And that story is funny because as they pray and he comes, they don't expect him to be there. But he shows up and God answers the prayer. He says to them now, you are to love in an earnest manner. This world as it lives for self-satisfaction loves self without thinking of others. And Peter says the radical response is to love others in a sacrificial manner. So just despite all that, love each other. Because love covers being born into your sins. Does that mean when we see our brothers and sisters in Christ sitting, we go, well, it's alright. Love wins. It's not that. We call out sin when there is sin. But this is a type of love that is forgiving. Over and over again. And they said to Jesus, how often should we forgive? He said, over and over and over and over again. So he said, as you love earnestly, you will be sinning against, but continue forgiving and loving them, despite them. Thirdly, it says this, it says to show hospitality. Hospitality really is an expression of love. This is being willing to give of oneself and the resources for the benefit of someone else. This may mean opening your home to the needs of others. This may mean giving of your possessions or of your money for the needs of others, similar to what the Good Samaritan did in the parable. You know, I hear from Peru, and I will never forget when we had missionaries into our church. Our church was very, very poor Peruvians. And the families would provide a meal for the missionaries. But one family was so poor that they did not want the missionaries in their home. It was a tiny home, probably about half the size of this platform. And they said, we cannot have them in our home, but we will not eat today, and they will have our food if we want to love them. It's an amazing demonstration of hospitality, an expression of love Peter adds on, and do this without growth. I don't know if we can show hospitality and give up ourselves, but we can let everyone know we are not happy about it. Yeah, I'll give you stuff, but you better know that this better not happen again. Right? And Peter says, yeah, I love them. Show hospitality without growth. How do we do this? The gospel. The gospel changes the world. differently in these very difficult life circumstances. So he says to them, respond differently. Again, it's being willing to be taken advantage of. You know, when we were in Utah, we had people in our home all the time, every week. And we had one family in who was just really, really difficult to talk to. It was just a very odd family. and their kid would pick up the spaghetti and just fling it behind him and it would land on our carpet and it would stain our carpet and he'd take his fork and just rack our TV with the fork and I was like, what have we gotten ourselves into? I don't want to show hospitality to them. And I thought, you know what? I can be willing to be taken advantage of. It's just a TV. It's just a carpet. And I can continue that myself still. People are more important than things. Way more important. So I should show hospitality despite being taken advantage of. And lastly is the use of spiritual gifts. Hospitality can be viewed as serving with the physical gifts that God has given to us, to the spiritual gifts that God has gifted us with. Each of you, if you are a believer, has at least one spiritual gift that God has gifted to you. He has graced you with this. And it is intended to be used, not for your own self, but for the service of those in the body of Christ. not blessed with this gift, with using that gift. The world says to hoard what's yours. To use it for your benefit, not for others' benefit. But Peter says, use the gift that God has given to you for the benefit of the church. So they ask you this, how are you using your gift in this local body? If you have a gift, if you're a believer, how are you using it? You know, it's very easy in many churches to say, well, someone else will do it. We come from a fairly large church, and these people are saying, well, you know, someone else has to have that gift. So I'll give them the lesson of using that gift. And we don't have a chance to use it. But when you don't use your gift, when I don't use my gift, the body hurts. You know, Paul uses the analogy that when one part is missing of the body, Everything suffers. 30 months ago, I got COVID for the very first time. And I had a sore throat, which was fine. Not that big a deal. But then a month later, I got blood clots. Now I have what's called long COVID, maybe you've never heard of that. There's a little nerve that starts right up here by my brain stem that controls a lot of stuff. I had never heard of it. In fact, it controls every breath I take. It controls every heartbeat I have. It controls how I digest food. I have no idea that's how it works. I just simply breathe, my heart beats, and I eat food, and it digests itself. But when I got COVID, for some reason, that nerve doesn't work. And it disfires all the time. And so my heart races at times. My blood pressure A very unknown body part seemed very inconsequential to me until it didn't work, until it didn't do its part. And trust me, the rest of my body feels it when that nerve doesn't work. And that much more known heart, which I'm much more aware of, doesn't work properly. So this autonomic nervous system that I had no idea I even had, it stops functioning, the rest of the body feels it over and over again. Now God gives grace, and I feel much better than I used to. But it's something to realize this about gifts. You may think, well I have a non-public gift. My gift doesn't just seem as consequential as whole body of gifts. When people in our church don't use their gifts, our whole body of gifts. So Peter reminds them, live in light of eternity. God has given you a gift. Are you using it for God's glory? It says, speak the words of God and do it in God's strength. So when God has given you a gift, do it for that. The watching world will see believers have a hope for heaven. We're not just sitting here waiting for that day. We're actually doing what God has told us to do. Living a life that day when Christ does return. So these two in 1 Peter are very radical responses. If you were to ask most people on the street outside, you know, live in unity and live in harmony, they'd go, why? But because the gospel has penetrated your heart, and it's penetrated my heart, again, it changes us from the inside out. It changes our hearts to want to act in a very different way. So as we are faced with really hard life circumstances, we're past COVID, but that doesn't mean life is perfect, right? So each of you has some struggle in your life and in your heart right now. Some of those may be known, some of those may not be known. And it's easy to just back away and say, life is better on my own. Okay, there's a no. We're a body. We've been changed by the gospel. We live together in harmony. We reject satisfaction that will go away and then live in light of eternity. So this week, as God gives us opportunities, may we live that out practically. And may we love each other, and may we live in unity, and may we live in a light of eternity knowing that's what's going to happen. And as we do that, God gets the work done. That was great. Thank you for tuning in to the preaching ministry of Faith Baptist Church. We are conveniently located in Corona, New York City, and are devoted to loving God and making disciples. For more resources and helpful information about our church, visit StudyGodsWord.com. We'd also like to extend a personal invitation for you and your family to join us on Sundays at 9.30 in the morning. for a time of interactive Bible study for young people and adults, followed by an 11 o'clock worship and preaching service. If you have young children, they will really enjoy our exciting Bible-based children's ministries in both the morning Bible study hour and worship service. If you have any questions about the church or would like to learn how to have a personal relationship with God, please give us a call or leave some feedback at StudyGodsWord.com. We would be thrilled to meet you in person and show you firsthand what God is doing at Faith Baptist Church. Until next time, may God richly bless you. you