Take Heart - Faith in the Workplace

Well, he was a foreigner, and as is often the case, because of that, he was viewed with suspicion by those who had power in the society where he now found himself. And as unfortunately is often the case, because he was different, he was judged, and then persecuted, and he suffered unjustly. In a natural human response, he engaged. Namely, he wanted to attack back, to hit back at those who hit him, or finally, I want to escape. I want to go back where I'm familiar. I don't want to be in this strange place anymore. But when he realized to attack and to retreat were not options for him, he finally had to embrace a third way. I will accept the structures in the society I'm in, and I will excel at the things that we share in value. I will embody higher ideas. I will endure just suffering, and as I excel and I endure, I will transform this culture. And that is exactly what Daniel LaRusso, the karate kid, did. As he moved from the East Coast to the strange West Coast, he was persecuted by those in power, but he decided, I'm going to submit to the structures here. If karate's y'all's thing, I'll be good at karate, but I'm getting a different sensei, one who embodies a higher ideals. And as I endure suffering and excel at what's valued in this culture, I now enter the All-Valley Karate Tournament. And he was victorious. And in doing so, didn't just win the tournament, he won the respect of the Cobra Kai. He transformed the karate community of California and launched a series that has, to date, made over $600 million worldwide. Why do I tell you this? Other than this is a great movie that a surprisingly few of you have seen for this reason. It's a movie about karate, but the ideas it embodies and celebrates are deeply Christian. They're actually the ideas that Peter just presented. If you've been with us in this book, you know that Peter, the apostle, is talking to a group of people who have an allegiance to Jesus Christ, that they believe that he was the son of God, and as they believe in him, he changes us from the inside out. We have a radically new identity, that I'm a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, a chosen child, a beloved one of God. And he says, as you are that, the beloved become exiles, strangers, foreigners in the culture. You will suddenly look different than the people you live around. And Peter is writing this letter to people who lived in Asia Minor that are feeling that difference. My allegiance to Jesus has made me strange, and those who are in power in the culture don't understand me. They feel that I'm a threat, and I'm beginning to be mistreated in this environment. What do we do? In the natural human experience, when different cultures collide, read a history book. Every culture, as different cultures collide, they find each other suspicious. And usually, you either attack, you flee, or you acquiesce and assimilate. And yet, Peter will say, no, the Christian does something different. We stand our ground, we embody our convictions, but we do it with compassion. We excel in the areas of value where we overlap, and where we suffer unjustly, we endure. And through excellence, we transform a culture. That's where we've been. Peter's plan for believers as they enter the culture is we will not overthrow existing structures. We are not here to lead a coup, but we will lead supernatural lives within existing structures. We will be something different. We're not here to overthrow, we're here to transform through the display of a transformed life. And the reason we do it, the purpose is to turn enemies into friends. That's what he said. We've been made a holy nation to proclaim him, who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. That's who we're here to worship. And he says, how do we do it? We display our good deeds so that they may see him and glorify him on the day of his visitation. We're not fighting against people, we're fighting for them. We will live different, not to be different, but to be transformative to a culture. That people would see us lead supernatural lives within this existing structure. And they would say, I want what you have. And enemies became friends that we would save souls primarily, and then secondarily change a society. And the perspective we have while we're doing it is the Lord is coming, a day of visitation where he will judge the living and the dead. And we know that our sovereign Lord will celebrate those who suffer, and he will use even our pain for his purposes. That's where we are. And as we looked at last week, we saw it as it relates to the government. How does someone with an allegiance with Jesus Christ as Lord enter into an environment where there's a different governmental structure that may not align with our values? And he said, we don't try to overthrow them. Even though Nero was a madman, we don't overthrow Nero. We transform the culture through embodying a transformed life. We submit and we honor the emperor, even as we fear the Lord. And now he's going to switch and say, hey, as the Christian continues to work this new identity into their activity, this is how we enter the government. We submit and then transform through a different kind of life, a different morality. Now he's going to say, but how does that play out in the workplace? How do I do this in the place I go to earn a living for me or my family? How do I embody my values if they're different than maybe the person who has power over me? Well, maybe you're like Daniel LaRusso. You excel at your common values and they misunderstand you at first, but after a while, they go, you know what? You're great. And you're transforming the whole corporate culture. Yay. Or maybe you're like my friend who was an accountant and she came to Jesus Christ and realized she was forgiven and she loves him. And so she went to work and didn't start throwing tracks at people and hitting them with Bibles. But as she came back, her superiors told her, hey, we're engaging in a brand new accounting practice that you're going to enforce. And she looked at it and she said, hey, this is unethical. The way we're dealing with this money, this is wrong. And they said, no, it's not wrong. It's avant-garde. It's new. It's exciting. She was like, no, it's illegal. And they said, do it anyway. And you keep your precious morality back at home. And she said, I can't do that. And suddenly someone who excelled in the culture found herself at odds in the culture. What happens then? Well, for her, it turned into shouting. It turned into throwing things. It turned into the loss of her job. How's it going to go with you? What do you do? And here's the reality for many of us. We're not persecuted like they were in ancient Rome, but many of you feel the fear of being someone who has an allegiance to Christ out into a culture that maybe doesn't have that same allegiance. M.I.A., the rapper, or I don't know what you call her music. She's genre-bending. I don't know. She's somebody new. M.I.A. Recently came out and said she's become a Christian. And she was in an interview with Apple Music. And the guy says, what does that mean? Are you a born-again Christian? And she said, yes. And she said, I understand when I say that I may lose my whole audience, which was an interesting thing for her to say. She said, because many of my audience are progressives who hate people who love Jesus Christ. Those were her words. Now you can disagree with M.I.A.'s definition of progressives. You can question whether or not she really became a Christian. I don't know. Go research it yourself. But it's interesting her assumption that my association with Jesus might cost me my popularity and my money. Isn't that fascinating? She assumes that that risk is there. Whether it's realized or not, time will tell. But many of you have felt that fear. I remember one of my mentors used to tell the story of when he would preach at high school summer camps. And he said it'd be the last night of camp. Everyone's had such a good week learning about the grace of Jesus that can forgive them for all the crazy messed up things they did all year long at school. And that last night you would give a big altar call. Anyone want to come to Jesus? And they'd be out at a camp. There'd be a big bonfire like, hey, if you want to commit your whole life to Jesus, grab a stick that symbolized your life, throw it into that fire, the symbol of full commitment. And there are twigs flying all over the place. Yay, Jesus. Then he said at the end, he returned to him and say, so tomorrow, when you go back to school and you sit at that same lunchroom and your buddies start to make the lewd and inappropriate remarks about women that you're accustomed to hearing from them, you stand up and say, boys, that ain't right. And I'm tired of what's not right. And you walk away. And he said, when I said that, he said, it's like you could hear the spit dry up in hundreds of little mouths all around the fire because they realized that's lunchroom. Hey, I'll celebrate King Jesus in here. But this little light of mine I best put away, you know, because it's scary out there. I might lose. How do we embody the culture in a place that Christ in a culture that may not receive it? Norm Macdonald, the comedian, was a judge of a talent show. And one of the comedians he was judging started making jokes about the Bible, making fun of it, and compared it to Harry Potter. And he said the Bible and Harry Potter, one of them is about someone who would suffer to save humanity. The other one's the Bible. And it was jokes like that. And Norm Macdonald said, hey, I didn't like your performance. He said it was ignorant because Harry Potter, she said, was built on the person of Jesus Christ. You should probably do some more research. And one of the other judges called you brave. He said, I don't think there's anything brave about this at all. And so an interviewer asked him later, why did you say it wasn't brave? And he said, well, because I don't think it's brave to be an atheist in LA. He said, now if a comedian got on stage in LA and just went, before I begin, I'd like you all to know I love Jesus Christ. He's my Lord and Savior. Okay, on to the jokes. He said, if a guy said that, I'd be like, that guy's brave. And the assumption there is that allegiance to Jesus may cost you. What do you do as a Christian in the culture? How do the people of Jesus behave in the public square? That's where we are. You got it? And here we're going to get into this. And Peter's argument will be live a radically supernatural life within the existing structures. And the comfort is you will suffer, but you will be vindicated. So take heart. And so we're going to look at kind of three points. The first one's about submission and fear. Second one's about suffering and doing good. And then the third one, we'll see the supreme example. But submission and fear, you see it in verse 18. He says, servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust. That we're meant to honor every boss as we fear God. What does that mean? Well, he says, servants there, be subject. Be subject is the verb over all these authority structures. When you're a believer entering into a preexisting authority structure, your default is to order yourself under. That's what the word submit is. Everybody's favorite word, submit. He says, hey, we come up under the leadership that's in place. God's ordained social structures. And people may embody those good. They may embody them bad. But we have an inclination to come underneath existing structures that help society flourish. And he says, servants. Now that word can also be translated slaves. So we need to make a note about slavery here. Here he says, literally that word is the house slaves. And the reason it's that in this section is because this is what's called a household code. They were very common in Greco-Roman literature. Aristotle wrote them, Seneca, Plutarch, on and on. You can read household codes. Because the Romans believed that the household was the building block of society. So what you did in your house was not a private matter. It was to determine whether or not society was stable or not. And so all these Greco-Roman writers would write about, here's how a house should conduct itself. Servants who serve in that house, and wives, and husbands, and children, this is how they should act. And so it's interesting. They're not common, or they don't exist at all in Jewish writing, Peter's heritage. And yet Peter, as he's entering this Greco-Roman culture, says, hey, I'm going to take the scaffolding of a household code, but I'm going to shoot it through with Christian ideas. So where the Greco-Roman culture had a very, in a sense, chauvinistic category, he'll take that scaffolding, and he'll radically subvert it, if you're reading what he does. And yet he talks here about slavery, and this is, you know, we've done other talks where we've talked a lot about Greco-Roman slavery. We did it in the Colossians series. We did it with Philemon. So I don't want to make this all about slavery. Back then, it was different than the slavery that existed in the 1700s and 1800s here in the state. The Bible has a name for that in the pastoral epistles. It's called man-stealing, and it was condemned back then. And you see, in the Greco-Roman culture, slavery was a little bit different. There were a lot more on-ramps in, and there were a lot more on-ramps out. It wasn't based on race. It was based on a variety of things, and it was usually a stop-through in your career, not a final destination. Now, as soon as you say that, people think you're defending slavery, and I'm not, because it was brutal and terrible. And yet, as you look through Christian history, slavery is ubiquitous in the human history. It's, all historians agree, the roots of the abolitionist movement came from this book, that people saw within Christian theology a radically different orientation that had been common all throughout human history. So way back here, you'll see it, but then you'll see it through history. As early as the Cappadocian fathers, Gregory saying all human beings are in the image of God, and there's no amount of money that would make it okay to buy one. Bartholomew de las Casas came over here, and he said, hey, these people have, and he tried to say, in the image of God, they have derechos humanos, human rights. He coined the term. As a human being, you have rights. And then the Quakers, and then on into Hannah Moore and William Wilberforce, and on through history, it was a deep Christian conviction that led to the abolition of slavery on a global scale. But I don't want to get into all that. Does that make sense? All right, but what's going on here is you're going to see not a full frontal assault on slavery, but you'll see a severing of the root. Here's what I mean by that. I had poison ivy growing up a tree in my yard. It's this big rope, like furry rope, that just circles the whole tree on up into it. And someone told me, you know that's poison ivy? And I was like, that's why my friends were all itchy the other day. He's like, yeah, you got to get rid of that. I said, what do you do? You got to rip it all off? He's like, no, if you try to rip it all off, you're going to get it all over you. You can damage the tree. He said, no, you take a machete, and you just sever the root, and this thing will die. And that's what we're going to see here. He uses this structure. We're going to submit to this Roman structure, and yet we're going to subvert it. And he does it in a couple different ways. He tells them, slaves, be subject to your masters. Now, even that is revolutionary, though it may not sound like it. Aristotle and others, when they wrote, they would never address someone who was in the position of bond servant directly, because they weren't worthy to be. So you would address whoever was leading the household and told them, here's how you conduct this, that, and the other. And here, Peter does something interesting. He addresses them as a moral agent. And not only as a moral agent, he tells them, be subject, the assumption being they have the ability to make that choice. So already, he is shaking the foundations of this, like, wait, wait, wait a minute. No, you're not supposed to speak to them as if they are people with choices. He says, oh, no, they are. I'm going to speak to you that way. You choose to be subject to your master. And then he says, do it with all respect. Now, that word is with all fear. And that fear there is not for the master. It's not. That fear there is actually for the Lord, because the referent of fear is in the verse right above it. I'll give us a head start, because he starts this whole idea that we're unpacking in verse 13, just a few verses ahead. He says, be subject, submit, for the Lord's sake, to every human institution, whether it be the emperor, the supreme, or the governors, as sent by him to punish those who do evil and praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good, 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 or slaves of God. Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, but honor the emperor. Peter has been doing something revolutionary in the minds of people, who were terrified of their emperor and terrified of their masters. He said, you don't need to fear a human being anymore. Live as free. You've been set free. You have a new Lord. But for that Lord's sake, submit to these existing structures. And you may be treated unjustly, but you will transform them as you live a transformed life. It's interesting, Paul does the same thing in 1 Corinthians 7. Paul in 1 Corinthians 7 says in verse 20, each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. When you came to Christ, people were like, what do I do now? Do I get a divorce if this person doesn't believe in Jesus? Do I rebel against this master if I'm in his home? What do I do? And he says, no, no, no, just stay where you are. Don't try to completely overthrow societal structures in a violent act. We will rather submit to them. We will not have an all-out assault, and we will not just acquiesce. We will transform through a transformed life. He says, were you a bond servant when you're called? Don't be concerned about it, which sounds kind of crazy to say, but again, there's off-ramps to this thing. But then he says, but if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity. He's saying, don't rebel Spartacus style, but if you can get out, get out. And then he says, for he who is called in the Lord as a bond servant is a freedman in the Lord. He says, keep this in mind. You're not owned by anyone but God. Likewise, who he was freed when he's called is a bond servant of Christ. So you're free. No person owns you, but you're a slave to God. He does, because he bought you. You were bought with a price. Do not become bond servants of men. So it's interesting. There you see the severing of the root there. Like, hey, if you're in, get out. And if you're out, don't get in. And so here the supply chain is ending. But even people who are in it, he says, hey, don't be afraid of that person. You don't have to cower under your boss. And let me say for you, some of you in your work, you are terrified of the people who have power over you. Because you think, man, I got to do everything they say, because they'll decide whether my career takes off or not. I have a dream to be there. So I'll have to do whatever they say, eat whatever they say to eat, talk however they talk, go wherever they say, go say whatever they say to say, if I'm going to ever live my dream. And you are terrified of human authority. And the Bible says in Christ, there's only one person you fear, God. Honor those in authority. Choose to obey. But choose out of a place of being a free person. Because you belong to one God alone. So you submit to all authority. And yet you fear only God. That's the Christian mentality. Do you see it? With all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust. He says, so I will do this with all respect or all fear, which incidentally, it's funny, because Aristotle will talk about that. There's different kinds of fear. He says, there's a fear of a father. And what that means is I love him, I respect him. And then there's the fear of a cowering slave. And Peter earlier said, if you call God his father, who will judge impartially every human according to their deeds, you conduct yourselves with fear in your time of exile. He says, hey, you conduct yourself with reverence. Why? Because you know God. You know he's your father. And you know he'll judge the whole world. And you're okay with uncertain as whether or not they are. It's fascinating. I want you to just think for a moment about your boss. Some of you, that's a wonderful thing to think about. You're like, I love that lady. I love that guy. What a wonderful person. They're just helping me succeed. Others of you are like, no, I want you to imagine that person stripped of all semblance of authority. Whatever gives them authority, the big desk, some sort of badge, some lanyard, some key card, take it all away. Imagine them as just a stripped person before the eyes of a holy God who will judge them according to what they did. Are they okay? Or are they condemned? And if you look at them and say, God help you, then you found a way to have mercy, even on the evil. Do you see it? And so we look at them under God. I don't fear you. I fear the Lord. And out of my respect for him, I'll respect you. Whether you're good or gentle, or if you're unjust, that's the word, scolios. Even if you're crooked, I'm going to find a way to support you. Not because I fear you, I don't. But because I'm going to fear God. Now, does this mean the believer subjects themselves to every indignity? No, it doesn't at all. Look at Joseph. Joseph was sold into slavery in the book of Genesis. Not ideal. But when he arrives in Potiphar's house, the man has no social clout to make any changes in Egypt. They'll just kill him if he tries to run away. So he says, you know what? This is not an ideal situation, but I'm going to submit to Potiphar in his house. And he becomes the leader of the whole house. And then Potiphar's wife, who would be an authority over him, came up to him and said, hey, you're a slave here, sleep with me. And he says, no, I can't do that. And she's like, no, no, no, no. That's how this works, which was common in the time. You're going to do that. No, I won't. And he says, I will excel at where we have cultural value, but where we don't, I'm sorry. I can't go with you there. It's interesting. Do you notice he said later, he said, if you sin and endure a beating, what good is that? If you do something illegal and get in trouble for it, no one's like, oh man, you're such a martyr. No, you're not. You're a huge mistake. But if you do good and suffer and endure, that's a gracious thing in the eyes of God. Why, if you were doing good, would you suffer? Well, maybe you were misunderstood. Maybe your motives weren't. Maybe they gave credit to the wrong person. Or maybe the do-good there is not do whatever makes your boss happy. Maybe it's what he says later, that those who suffer for righteousness' sake will be blessed. That you go, I'm going to do what's right under God. And where that aligns with my boss, they're going to love it. Christians should be the best employees because we work for God and not for men. And yet, where we cross purposes, it will be confusing for them. And I may suffer for doing good. But if I do, it's okay, because it's a gracious thing in the eyes of God. That's what the believer does. That's what Peter did. He was underneath the leadership of the Jewish nation. And they came to him and said, stop talking about Jesus. And he said, respectfully, no, I can't do that. Daniel was the same way. Daniel refused to stop worshiping Yahweh. Daniel's nation was defeated, carried off into Babylon, a believer in God in the midst of Babylon. What do you do? He showed up there and they started changing all kinds of things. We're going to call you a different name, Belteshazzar. Okay, that's great. We're going to enroll you in Babylon University. All right, let's go. We're going to put you in a government job under our pagan king. All right, that's fine. You're going to eat this food dedicated to a foreign pagan God. I can't do that. I worship God alone. I can't be a part of this. Well, hey, man, they'll kill you for that. Well, then you do what you have to do. But I'm going to do good. And if I have to suffer, I'll endure it, entrusting myself to one who judges justly. That's what the Christian does. We're not looking to pick a fight, but we believe in a God who leads over us, right? And we do that. We embody this transformed life to transform the culture. Incidentally, there's a whole genre of movie about this. Do you know this? Many of you have paid money for this story. Somebody is a part of a system, and yet there's corruption in the system. But rather than try to overthrow the system, they try to work within it, and they embody its highest ideals. And as they do that, people begin to misunderstand their intentions, even persecute them. But they endure the persecution, ultimately to do what's right and transform the culture as Batman or as Tom Cruise in basically every movie. Mission impossible. I'm here to save the culture. Oh, someone's corrupt in it. So do you overthrow America? No, I'm going to embody its highest ideas. And even as I'm misunderstood, I'm going to keep enduring and doing what's right to save the culture and vindicate myself at the same time. Hooray, you pay for this movie. It's just harder to live. Because when you live it, you go, well, if I'm at my office, and they say, say that. Celebrate that. Do that. And I say, I can't. No one's going to cheer. No one's paying money and eating popcorn to watch that. I'm just out of a job. But notice he says, you keep entrusting yourself to him who judges justly. This system doesn't work unless there's a God, right? And that's the issue with this. Submit, but hold on to my moral virtue and be a victim. What a dumb strategy. It is a dumb strategy if it's just you. But if there is an almighty God over you, he says, watch me vindicate this. Watch me do that. It's fascinating. Look at the language in verse 19. This is a gracious thing. When mindful of God, one endures sorrow and suffers unjustly. He says, what's gracious? It's when you're mindful of God. He combines the words to see alongside, that when you look at your situation and you see God in it, when you walk into work, do you leave God here? Do you walk away from him? I'll worship God here, but hey, it's time to go to office, so you stay here in my hope chest, little buddy. You be praised, Yahweh. And I just leave? Or do I believe the same God who rules over me now, rules over me tomorrow, and rules over everything on Tuesday, and rules over the nations on Wednesday? Is that the God I believe in? Then I'll do what's right, because I fear him alone, and I trust that he'll work it out. So that may put you in a situation where you suffer unjustly. I will not do these accounting practices. And my friend got yelled at, she got mocked, she got judged, and ultimately she got driven out of the company. And that company continued to be enormously successful, and she sold out her stock, and everyone told her, you're crazy. This stock is just up and to the right for eternity. You are a moron. And they said, no one can stop Enron. And as they laughed at her, it continued to rise. One day what happens? Justice comes home to roost, and this company's gone. My friend retired at 40. Her friends who kept the stock lost everything, and some of them took their lives, because what they thought could never shake, was shaken to its foundations. She had to endure. I will do good, and suffer unjustly. I love that, because he holds a standard above these masters. Aristotle said, there is no injustice to a slave. Peter says, oh yes there is. There's a just God who rules over all of us, and no one gets out of here without being judged. God is my judge, and he's yours. I will do right. You do whatever you have to do. I'm following him, and I'm doing that because I believe he oversees the culture. Now what's fascinating about this, is as you look at it, it's not a revolution to overtake the culture. It's an evolution to change it from the bottom up. So you see Chris Kennedy here doesn't have this frontal assault on slavery in a sense, but it radically changes and transforms the culture from within. Which many people look and go, well Ben, does that work? And it's fascinating. Robert Woodbury is a sociologist. He published an article in the American Political Science Review in 2012, entitled, The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy. The article was a fruit of a decade of research into the impact missionaries had on the health of nations. People who came in the name of Jesus into a different culture, what impact did they have? That was the study. And he said, the results hit him like an atomic bomb. How did these foreign missionaries change the cultures they entered into? He says, quote, the work of missionaries turns out to be the single largest factor in ensuring the health of nations. He says, what we discovered was areas where Protestant missionaries had a significant presence in the past. They are on average nations that are more economically developed, have comparably better health, have lower infant mortality, lower corruption, greater literacy, higher educational attainment, particularly for women, more robust involvement in non-governmental associations. And he concedes there were some racist missionaries. There were some self-centered ones. But if that was the average effect, you would expect the places where missionaries had influence to be worse. He said, but we found the exact opposite. And then he makes a note, this only counts with what he calls conversionary Protestants, which is a made-up term. But he made it up because he's like, I'm trying to talk to people who come and saying, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, converted me, changed me into something new by his grace, that I'm born again. I have a new identity, and it changes my activity. He said, people who preach that message, that a savior came for your soul, changed entire societies. And then he said, what's crazy is these missionaries often opposed unjust practices like opium addiction, slavery, land confiscation. But, quote, most missionaries were not political activists. But the reform came. But then he said, but it came through the back door. He said, all these positive outcomes were somewhat unintended, which completely misses the point. Because Jesus said, you make the tree good, and the fruit will be good. You let Jesus Christ change my life in here, it's going to change my life out there. And as a Christian, I enter the culture and I embody those values. And as I embody those values, I will be seen as strange. It will be confusing. But if I suffer and continue to trust myself to him who judges justly, it will be alluring, and it can change a culture. And it's happened in history, it can happen now. Can you struggle and suffer well? And if you can, there will be credit for you. It's interesting, we don't have time to go into all that, but he says, what credit is to you if you suffer for sin and get a beating? But there's credit or benefit if you suffer for doing what's good. All through Jesus' statements, Jesus talks about that. Love your enemies, because what benefit is to you if you love your friends? Even pagans do that. Give to the poor who can't repay you, because what benefit is if you just give to someone who can't repay you? And he's like, what's this benefit he's talking about? He's talking about, I believe a God will reward me for doing good. None of this works unless there's a God. But if there is a God, I can trust him. And then he says twice, it's a gracious thing, which is a little confusing language. What does that mean, it's a gracious thing? Does it mean God just likes it? Hey, you got yelled at at work and didn't yell back. That's so great. Well, that would be nice. Does it mean God will bless you and reward you? He says that later. Or does it mean that God will give you grace in the moment to endure? What's fascinating is however you think it goes here, all three of those are true. When you suffer and don't retaliate, God sees that as a blessed thing. And he says, I will bless that. It's interesting, you see later in chapter four, verse 13, he says, rejoice insofar as you share in Christ's suffering, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you're insulted for the name of Christ, you're blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests on you. And you see both there. If you suffer for doing good, rejoice, because there's a day he's being revealed and you'll be glad. And if you suffer for righteousness sake, you're blessed because his spirit rests on you. Perpetua, one of our earliest martyrs, she was pregnant when she was put in prison for her faith in ancient Rome. And she cried out as she gave birth in prison. And the soldiers made fun of her. If you're crying out now, what will you do when we feed you to the beasts? And she said, oh, that will be grace. The spirit of God will be with me. The God who loves me and the God I belong to will give me grace to endure unjust suffering. And she did it and became an inspiration to a world. And that's what we're meant to do. I do good and I suffer well. Believing my life will transform the culture. I remember for me, I worked as a pool chef when I was in college one summer. What that meant was I grilled hamburgers and hot dogs at a country club in town. I'd never been a part of a country club, but here I was making hot dogs for the kids and hamburgers. And I remember as I did that, they had never had a pool chef, never had a pool kitchen. And so they had made one. There was this huge grill that had charcoal covered wood, which is a weird thing because the wood would heat up and the charcoal would pop off sending burning embers into the feet of children getting out of the pool. It was endlessly hilarious. I know it's sadistic, but it's very funny. They go running off and I'm like, put on sandals, children. But there was no refrigerator. And so they'd send me out there with all this meat and I would watch the blood just drain out of this meat and it turned like a sickly gray color. And I was out there and I wanted to work hard. And so I remember there was one other pool chef and when I was done, I would always try to cut extra tomatoes for him and onions and get the pickles. I would try to array for him like a display so that he could have everything he needed to serve. And then he was supposed to clean all that up at the end so I'd be ready in the next morning when I opened it, but he never did it. There's tomatoes on the ground, lettuce everywhere and flies and he would just shove the cart into the freezer with all this food all over it. And so I would do my job and his job. And so I wanted to excel at the shared values of my boss. I'm going to do everything right in this job. I'm going to make this the best pool kitchen you've ever seen in your life. But then I came to him and I said, hey man, but this meat is a sickly gray color. I don't think we can serve this to the people. And he's like, yeah, just do it anyway. I'm like, but I think the fact that it's not refrigerated might make them sick. He's like, who cares? I'm like, well, I think they might because they're giving me money for goods and services. Their assumption being the goods I give them will nourish them and not make them vomit for a day and a half. And I remember he didn't like that. He was like, you're a great employee, but what is this? And thought it was a hassle. What a hassle. And finally, I kept pressuring him. I can't do that. I can't keep doing this. And he got mad and we kind of had some friction. But ultimately, we got a little mini fridge out there. And it was about a day before his boss showed up. And when his boss showed up, he led me out there and there was this beautiful array of pickles and tomatoes sliced as far as the eye could see and refrigerated meat in a responsible way. And I remember as he led around his boss, he showed him all these things I had done that previously he hated or didn't care about. And then he offered me a job for the rest of the year. And I said, absolutely not. I am out of here as soon as I pay off my student debt. But that's how we do it. I'm going to excel. Christians should be the best employees at work because you live to a higher standard. And then you excel at all they value. But where there's cross purposes, you do what's right. And if you have to suffer unjustly to do good, you do it. That's the Christian. You do it knowing there's a God over this who just might use what you do to make a difference. Watchman Nee told the story of a man coming to Christ in China and that he farmed in a rice paddy. And there was a guy whose land was just beneath his that, you know, when you're farming in a rice paddy, you got to fill the whole thing with water. He said, the guy underneath me, as I would pump water to fill my land, he didn't want the hassle of pumping water. So he would break the barricade between our land. So all my water would flow into his land. So his would be irrigated, mine wouldn't. And that was very frustrating because you're stealing from me. Not just my water, but my effort. But then this man on the higher ground had come to know Jesus as the Savior. And so Watchman Nee asked him, then what did you do? He said, what I did was I pumped enough water for both of our land. That's what I did. And I just decided, okay, I'm going to serve him even though he's unjust. And he said, the man came to me in tears later saying, I did you wrong. And rather than do wrong back, you serve me. Who does that? And I'll tell you who does that. Peter will point us to the ultimate example. And what's fascinating is he doesn't go to Daniel, though he could have. Didn't go to Joseph, though he could have. Doesn't go to himself. He goes to Jesus. He says in verse 21, for to this you've been called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example so you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sin in his body on that tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. Does this really work? I'm going to serve and suffer, knowing God will use it to save. Does that really work? Or am I just positioning myself to be a victim? Well, he says, look at Jesus and look at you. And he does something fascinating here. He quotes Isaiah 53, but he breaks Isaiah 53 up centuries before the prophet wrote of a servant who would one day come and by whose wounds we would be healed. And it's centuries before this prophecy came and then was fulfilled by Jesus. And Peter quotes it here to say, hey, this was God's plan from the beginning, that I will send Jesus Christ who didn't need to bow to anybody, that he knew he was the son of God. And yet with his head high, he willingly chose to serve. And he willingly chose to serve those who misunderstood him and mistreated him. And he did it to save us. And he suffered, but God took his suffering and raised him from the dead so that his suffering is for your salvation and mine. So Peter's answer is, does this system really work? How's it working for you? God suffered to save you. And now he's telling you, I want you to embrace inconvenience for the sake of your coworkers, that you do the same thing, that they might see Jesus in you. That's why we do it, to display before them a picture of the God who came to save us. This is what we do. It's fascinating. He uses a word there, example, and it's the word hypogrammon. Hypo meaning under and grammon is where we get the word grammar, to write. And what he says is, he's actually, it's a word picture from grammar school back then. What do you do in grammar school? What are we doing with the kids? You're trying to teach them to write the alphabet. They would do this in ancient Rome. But if you're trying to teach a kid to write, their hands are weak. They don't understand the letters. So what do you do? They would give them a tablet with the letters pre-written. And then they'd give them paper that they could lay on top of it. They would take a sturdy piece of paper, and they would lay over it, essentially a tracing paper. And what the kids would do, then very carefully at school, is they would hypogrammon. I'm going to just trace the letters beneath. And I'm going to stay in the lines. That's what a kid's supposed to do, right? It's very important in elementary school. Don't color outside the lines. I'm going to stay in the lines so I can learn how to write. And so I see this standard beneath me and supporting me, and I just trace along it, that I could embody this symbol. And what's fascinating is, this is the language Peter uses. He says, I want you to serve and to suffer. Why? So that they might see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of his visitation. Are they going to see Jesus Christ? Many of them know. They didn't live in that time. And many of your co-workers, let's be honest, are not going to read the Bible. And they may never come here. They're not going to see what he did on that cross. But what they are going to see every week is you. And what will you show them? And what Peter says is, you are meant to be a tracing of Jesus Christ. That your word is hypogrammon. It follows all along the same path he did. What does that path look like? It looks like when I suffer, I don't sin. When I'm reviled, I don't revile back. Try that this week. When someone makes fun of you at work, don't make fun of them back. Try it. You won't even know what to say. When someone grumbles and complains at work, don't grumble. Watch how weird that is. It's another Monday, rise and grind. Yeah, but isn't air wonderful? Darn it. I got to work. I'd like you... You don't even know how to work those muscles. You try blessing instead of cursing. You try, I will not sin. I will not deceive. Don't lie. When your boss asks for something, don't color the language to make you look better. No deceit was found in his mouth. When reviled, he did not revile back, but he kept trusting himself to him who judges justly. You display to them Jesus. And when you do that and you walk according to the pattern he set, they see him in you. Let me tell you something profound. When you follow a leader, you follow the leader. And if you don't follow the leader, you're not following the leader. And if you say, my leader is Jesus Christ, well, he served and he suffered for your salvation. And if you say, I'm not going to serve people. I got my own goals. I'm not going to inconvenience myself for them. They didn't do it for me. You're cool to me. I'm cool to you. You're not cool to me. We'll doom on you. Well, you're going somewhere, but you're not following him. He has a pattern he gave us that we would follow in his footsteps that when they see you, they see him. I had a friend who worked at a company that he wanted people to know Christ, but didn't know how to do it. And didn't want to do weird stuff, you know, like, hey, would you like some water? Do you know the living water? Boy, this sandwich has good bread. Do you like the bread of life? No. Like, he was just like, I don't know how to do this. And he realized, you know what you do? You walk in the steps you walk. When people are making fun of a coworker, I don't join them. When people revile, I don't. When they lie to cover their rears, I don't. And so they'll watch me live a different life. And then he noticed just living a different life just makes people think you're immoral or weird. There has to be a serving element. And he saw one night another team was working on a project late at night. He's done. It's time to go home. My late project will come later. They leave when I have to work late. I'm leaving when they work late. I don't care. I got a life. But he looked at them and he said, I want to follow in the path of my Savior. So he walked over to them and said, what are you guys in the mood for? Chinese or pizza? Like, what are you talking about? He's like, I'm ordering you dinner. What kind do you want? Like, this isn't your project. I know that. You don't have to be there. I'm aware of that. What do you want? What's your coffee order? I got it. I'm gonna go get it. I'll be back in 20 minutes. And they're like, what are you doing? And it was confusing and alluring. You're weird. Are you hitting on me? Misunderstood. But over time, when the foundations of their life shook, they said, we see something different in your life. And what he got to tell them is it's like Jesus. That when he hung on that cross, he was mocked. He prayed that God would forgive them. He took care of his mom. He blessed those who cursed him. And when Jesus died on the cross, the Roman centurion said, that has to be a son of God because no one acts like that. And then God vindicated him by raising him from the dead. And it's the same with you and me. Do you believe there's a God? Then I believe I will trust him. And he calls me to serve my co-workers, my boss, if they're just, or if they're unjust, not because I'm afraid of them. I'm not because I fear him. And he told me to respect them because I'm trying to save them and turn enemies into friends. And God will judge. And as I serve him, I get to be a tracing of my hero for them. But it starts by receiving grace. Peter does something really cool as we close. He took this prophecy from Isaiah, but he changed the pronouns to you. Jesus did all these things. He suffered on the cross. By his wounds, many are healed. But he was buried and he rose. But he takes that and he says, he bore your sin in his body on that tree to reconcile you. And he makes it very personal. This only works if I believe a sovereign God is in heaven whose suffering saved me. It starts with receiving before I give. And it's very personal. John Wesley wanted to be a missionary, but he wasn't a believer. And he was on a boat ride to America to come be a pastor. And the boat ride got in a storm. He thought he was going to die. He was terrified. And then he got ashamed because he was the chaplain of the boat, huddled in a corner, afraid for his life. But he watched these other people, the Moravians, sing and trust God, even in the storm. And he came up to them and said, how on earth did you do that? And they said, do you believe Jesus Christ suffered and died and rose for you? And he said, I believe he died and rose. They said, that wasn't the question. Do you believe he suffered and died for you? And he said, I hope so. That's not the right answer. It's either propositional or it's personal. That's like saying, I think someone would be a good husband. That's very different from, and that person is my husband. One is propositional, the other is deeply personal. And here he says, he died for you, your sin on that tree, your soul set free. Have you counted the suffering of this servant for you? It makes all the difference. There's so many luminaries around this room, their pictures, and BB King is right there. He's covered up right now. I don't know why. I think because we locked up all the liquor. I don't know. We don't trust some of y'all, but he's normally right there. But BB King sang it, as he pictured the cross, right? I was there when they crucified my Lord. I held the scabbard while the soldier drew his sword. I held the knife while they pierced his side. But true love conquered the great divine. He said, I am not someone who's distantly studying the crucifixion. I was there and I was on the wrong side of it. I was persecuting, mocking, belittling Jesus. And his love crossed the divide of my indifference. His love crossed the divide of my hate. His love crossed the divide of my sin. And Jesus Christ, the son of God, became a suffering servant for my soul. That changed me on the inside out. So where he's going, I'm going. I'm going to serve my coworkers. I'm going to serve my boss. I'm going to suffer for doing right if I have to. I'm not seeking it out, but I won't be scared of it when it comes, because I'm going to trust my soul to him who judges justly. And I know as I do that, he might just use me to be the pattern people need to perceive Jesus Christ. That I might see souls change in your office. We had someone the other day in our door holder rally talk about his weekly meetings with his boss. And his boss asked him, what do you do this weekend? He told him about, I rode this bike. I did that. I did this. Then he told him, I served at church. It's the part a lot of people skip, right? What'd you do this weekend? Ah, things with people and such. He said the word and I went to church. His boss said, where? Asked him about it. He started watching and said, I want to know more about the Jesus you know. And I think it's possibly because the sermons were so compelling. It's hard to say. I think more likely it's because he watched this employee have a life that was compelling. Okay. I've seen something in you. And if you're saying this message makes you act like that, I'm willing to hear the message. And who knows what God might do with the people who say yes to him.