As You Go, Grow!

everyone. Good morning. Thank you. Thank you for joining us this morning. Um I don't think there's anything else exciting going on in Indie today and so um it's good to be here with you. Uh this is not an Indy500 t-shirt.

Um if you were wondering, it's not that I'm anti the Indie500. I think it's great. I actually went last year for the first time and it was uh it it's everything it cracks up to be. I mean it it's awesome. It's a great great event to go to. Uh, but this shirt is actually uh a part of one of our church planning networks.

Uh, the send network. I always have to be very I have to annunciate that one because it sounds like I'm saying SIN network. It's not that network. Um, but the send network with the North American Mission Board. They gave us these shirts a couple of years ago uh when they were in town for a big convention, big conference. Um, and they kind of unveiled for us what their vision is for the state of Indiana.

And so if you don't know, there's about 6. 9 million people throughout the state of Indiana and 5. 5 million of them um profess to be non-Christian basically. Um they they are not connected to a church or religion in general. And so uh with the send network which comprises of about 420 churches across the state have a goal of reaching 1% of that over the next 10 years. And you're like, well, that that doesn't seem like enough, you know, like if if 80% of the state is lost, shouldn't we shoot for more than that?

Uh but the realization is for those churches of 420 people, um reaching 1% is 55,000 baptisms uh over the course of of the next 10 years, which can then create a multiplying movement to be able to reach the other 79% that we actually want to reach within that. But when you really boil that down, when you look at 55,000 baptisms, you also then might look at that and feel like, okay, now that actually sounds overwhelming. Like, how are these 400 church 420 churches going to do 55,000 baptisms in the course of 10 years? Uh, but it actually breaks down to one baptism per month for all 420 of those churches. So, it it actually really breaks down to not be that unachievable. And so we're just praying.

The way that we do that is by just multiplying everyone every year. You know, you having one person that you're thinking about, that you're praying about, that you're engaging with the gospel. And if we're doing that faithfully and God is faithful in doing what he does, which is ultimately saving and forgiving people, uh, then I think we'll reach far more than the 55,000 over the next 10 years. And so, um, again, that that's almost more just a a a throw out to our send network and just our partnership with them. Uh, and just joyful to be a part of a network that wants to pursue reaching the lost. Um, and and seeing them come to know Christ.

And so I wanted to start off with that kind of the bit of a a story and headline to begin with because as you do that, as you go out and as you seek the lost and as you seek for them to come to know Jesus, it's very important that you don't forsake your own development and growth. It's very important uh because as we'll see in this text today, it is easy for us to for the sake of growth, for the sake of outreach, we actually then forsake our own personal growth. And when we do that, we actually untether ourselves to the source that actually reaches people and actually saves people. And that's where you could start to have churches or Christians or denominations or whatever you will uh start to experience conviction drift or uh mission drift because they get so focused on one thing that they forget the main thing. And so as you go, the big idea here for today as we look at this passage, as you go, don't forget to grow.

All right, that's just a catchphrase that you can remember. as you go and and where I get that language as you go comes from the great commission Matthew 28 uh go and make disciples that that idea of going is as you are going as you are living as you are breathing make disciples but as you are doing that don't forsake your own disciplehip don't forsake your own growth and so I want you to see this as we unpack 1 Peter 3 continuing on in our series here uh 1 Peter three, we're going to be looking at verses 8 through 12 this morning. And so I actually want to pray again before we dive into this text. Father, we know that you are the God of truth. You are the God of clarity. You are the God who reveals to us your word, your design, and ultimately the way you want us to grow in relationship with you.

And so, Father, we know that we need help with that because if we're left to our own thoughts, if we're left to our own opinions, uh if we're left to our own way of doing things, often times it will actually uh lead us astray. It'll lead us away from what you actually want for us and how you want us to think, how you want us to feel, how you want us to love, how you want us to pursue, all of those good things. And so, Father, as we walk through this and as we seek to have unity of mind as a church and as um as Christians trusting and following Jesus, as we seek to have that, we need we need to understand and to know that as we go out and do the work of being missionaries, submitting to every human institution, we need to make sure that we stay tethered to the truth, to your word so that we don't drift away and actually start doing something that you never asked us to do in the first place.

And even doing things under the banner of your love, under the banner of of of your Bible, under the banner of your church, but actually are no longer really doing those things. So, Father, we need your we need your grace. We need your truth. We need your mercy. Help us this morning to know and to understand what you're calling for us. We love you, Lord.

It's in your name we pray. Amen. Amen. Looking at verse eight. Finally, all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. So he begins here by just simply saying finally which means he's he's sort of uh capping off this this almost a miniseries in the greater series of first Peter.

Uh but in this miniseries that he's been talking of the different areas of life that we are called to submit to. And so really there's been several categories that we've looked at. You're called to submit to the governing authorities. You're called to submit to the home as far as the relationships that God's designed in uh the family with husband and wife. You're called to uh submit in vocation as far as occupation. We saw that with slaves and masters and all of those for the sake of others coming to know and glorify God.

And so in other words that God has saved you and forgiven you, but he didn't pull you out of earth into heaven. Instead, he saved you uh and redeemed you and glorified you and then sent you back into the world in which he just saved you from so that you can ultimately continue spreading the same good news that you just received in order for others to receive it. And so what he said is as you are going as you are being sent finally make sure that all of you as you're doing that make sure that you have unity of mind. Make sure that you have unity of mind. In other ways, um, for the past few weeks that we've been talking, your external witness in every human institution, uh, which is just a fancy way of saying it, what we've been talking about is where and how you help others follow Jesus. That's what we've been talking about.

And it can really be divided into two categories on how you do that. How you help others follow Jesus is preaching the good news and performing good deeds in order for others to start following Jesus. That's what he's called us to do. That's what he's sending us out to do. Preach the good news and perform good deeds so that others come to follow Jesus. And that's why Jesus again, he didn't pull you out of earth into heaven.

We are citizens of it. That is our new identity. But he has sent us back into the world to in order to bring heaven into it. In order for us to bring heaven down. That's why we pray the Lord's prayer. Your kingdom come as it is in heaven.

Bring it down to earth. And we do that by preaching and proclaiming the gospel and by performing good deeds in order for others to come and see this Jesus who is wonderful. So that's what we've been talking about over the last few weeks. That's the job. And honestly, that's the that's the life that you're living. Like that's why you're still here and not in heaven yet is because there's more people he need who need to know Jesus.

And so if if you're living life simply for the sake of the house that you have or the family that you have or building the career that you have, then you're missing the point. All of those things are rather uh earthly things that we leverage for the sake of people coming to know Jesus. And so your house is simply the boundaries in which God has placed you to reach your neighbors for Christ. The family that you have, God has blessed you with so that you can pass down the tradition of the gospel and be able to teach your children the wonderful beauties and grace and mercy of Jesus. So that then their children can know it and then their children can know it. the workplace that we're in, the career that we're in, the giftings that God has provided for us in order to steward those things is simply so that we can leverage them for others to come to know Jesus.

Yes, it provides practical deeds of helpfulness and whatever it looks like in order to build a society. Yes. But ultimately ultimately you do those things in order for others to come to know Christ. And as we are going and making disciples, we're to make sure that we don't forsake our growth for the sake of others. In other words, as you go, don't forget to grow. And Peter's concern for them as he is telling them to submit to all of these human institutions.

Peter's concern is not merely the external witness, but also the internal wisdom that they possess. So just as much as he wants them to go out and submit to these human institutions, he's telling them as you go, don't forget who you are and who you belong to. Don't forget the word of God that is actually shaping you internally. In other words, the church must become a people capable of enduring the external witness that God's called us to without forsaking the internal holiness that we possess in Christ. What I what I have found to be often the case is that when times get hard and push comes to shove, Christians who are not continuing to grow in the gospel will cave to the pressures of society rather than persevere, especially when their reputations or their relationships and their livelihoods are on the line. That's what I found to be the case.

So, as as you're about to see here, when when Peter goes on to say like, don't repay evil for evil. Don't uh revile when others revile against you, like the the the church that is going out is going to start experiencing quite a bit of suffering and external pressures. And if they're not anchored and tethered to the source, what they will do, and what we'll see as we continue to work this out, is they will either begin compromising to culture to try to stop the evil and the reviling against them, or they'll go the other side where they repay evil for evil, and they'll become so uh in their convictions go beyond the conviction to where they're now cruel towards outsiders or cruel towards the world. And he doesn't call us to that either. He doesn't call us to compromise to the world. He doesn't call us to be cruel towards the world.

And so Christians are called to submission with human institutions, but never moral assimilation to them. Never. And I think that's why he's wanting to draw this in this one specific phrase, have unity of mind. As you are going out into the world, have unity of mind because there's going to be so many things, especially when we experience the pressures on the church. There's going to be so many things that are going to try to divide us, that try to divide us, have unity of mind. We may be called to submit to the world but the word is our ultimate authority in all things of conviction, conduct and creed.

It must be the word must be our ultimate authority. Our biggest problem I believe in church culture is we have people saying we submit to the word but they live as though the world is their ultimate authority in all things of conviction, conduct, and creed. We have too many people saying we're Christians but actually don't tether themselves to the word of God. And therefore under the name of compassion they begin compromising themselves to believe what the world is or to apply what the world says. And we still call it Christianity. We still call it church.

We still call it what Christ is ultimately teaching. And it's not the case. For example, I was walking through the halls of another church here in Indie within 5 to 10 minutes of us. I was reading about their history, their values, their statement of faith on the walls. I mean, this is a big church and I was as I was walking through it, I'm like, "Oh, that's that's a good statement. That's a good doctrine right there.

That's a good thing." I mean, these are things that are etched into their walls. It's been there for decades. But then I also saw the TVs on the walls and the TVs are running their announcements. it's running their hey here's here's upcoming events and their uh their premier event that is coming up that they're airing out for everybody to see and say go and be a part of this was dragging I'm say dragging uh was taking their children's ministry and participating in the indie pride festival and parade in June and as I'm walking through this church I'm seeing a juosition here of the statement of faith on the wall does not agree with what is on the TVs. And this is a sign of when pressure comes to a church and the culture, the world starts saying you need to do things this way, instead of having a backbone and saying we believe the word of God, not what the world says, they caved in and said we'll believe what the world says and not what the word says.

Again, that is not a church that submits to the word of God as their ultimate authority, but rather submits to the world as their ultimate authority. And Paul has a name for that. In Romans 1, he Romans 1, he calls it unholy, ungodly, unrighteous, and he even says the wrath of God is against it. The wrath of God is against it. So because we don't want to experience mission drift and compromise our conviction, our conduct, our creed, especially given the fact that our calling is to be sent into the world, but not to be of the world. Peter is calling for the church to stay anchored in unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

Peter has spent again several chapters teaching Christians how to live faithfully in the world. And now what he's doing is he's teaching the church how not to become worldly while doing it. How not to become worldly while doing it. And so as you go, don't forget to grow. Have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, and a tender heart and a humble mind. You see, the danger for the exiles is not merely persecution from outside the church, but it's actually corruption from inside the church.

The churches and Christians that compromise conviction are usually the ones who do not pursue unity of mind. And I'll be honest, I mean, guys, our church has experienced this. In our 10 years, I've seen so many churches in our networks of churches that when you stop having unity of mind that is anchored to the word of God and you're trying to seek some sort of unity of mind that is listening to the world or just simply listening to your own inner thoughts, it can creep up and create divisions within the church and it ultimately seeks to destroy it rather than advance it. It's what it does. It's not actual unity of mind. But I need to be able to help us understand something here.

Unity of mind doesn't mean that we agree on everything. It doesn't mean that we agree on everything. For example, you might not like the color red, but that's the primary color of our church when it comes to branding. And here at the end of the day, who cares? Who cares what the color of the sign is? You might not you might not like all of the songs we sing.

That's okay, too. You might prefer that we start at 10 instead of nine. Well, I would too. Exactly. Unity of mind is not necessarily about preferences, but it is about keeping the main thing the main thing. It's about keeping the main thing the main thing.

We may not meet at the time you prefer, but the fact that we meet, we can agree on. You may not like all the songs we sing, but that we sing songs in worship and praise of God, we can agree on. You might not think I'm the best communicator we have, but the fact that we have someone who preaches the word of God, we can agree on. We can agree on. Having unity of mind means we together are in pursuit of making sure that the word of God is our authority. It is our authority and the word of God defines what we preach and what we do as the body of Christ.

So when we are sent out to preach the good news and to perform good deeds, the word of God is our source that we must stay tethered to in regards to then what we preach and what we do. When anyone brings up anything that say let's start doing this as a church or let's let's create this group as a church or let's start doing this thing. I'm always going to come back to and show me where it comes from. Show me the source. Why should we do that? Does it keep us anchored and tethered to the mission that God has called us to?

Because as soon as we break from that, whatever the thing is that we do is no longer going to have the power and authority to actually reach and save the lost. It's not going to work. Having unity of mind means we together are in pursuit of making sure that the word of God is our authority. Now the question is if it's that simple then why are there so many churches and denominations that disagree on what the Bible teaches? Here's the thing. I I don't actually believe they disagree on what the Bible teaches.

The difference is is that many of them don't read the Bible. They don't know what it teaches. So, it's actually not a disagreement on what the Bible teaches. Instead, I think they disagree on how it's applied to their lives. The distinction is not what the word is teaching, but what the world is teaching them. That's what creates the divide.

If we actually did our job in reading and studying the word of God and saying, "I'm not bringing my own opinions and thoughts and interpretations into it, but I'm actually wanting to know what God is revealing to us." That creates the opportunity for us to have unity of mind. when we're when we're bringing it in. This is why if you ever sit down in a group, if one of our groups does this and you sit down and we open up the word of God and we read a verse like wives or likewise wives, be subject to your own husbands. All right. What do y'all What does that mean to you?

Just get up and walk out. Send me an email. yell at me first and then say, "How can we fix this?" But if when we sit down, we say, "Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands." What is God teaching us in this? What is the Bible revealing to us?

Where are we wrong and it's right? That's the place where we're able to have unity of mind. And honestly, I think sometimes this is where the the water gets muddied because these churches and Christians and denominations, they will take the world what the world is teaching them and they'll start saying that it's what the word of God teaches. That's where it really muddies the water and that's where it creates so much confusion for who we're actually trying to reach because you've got one church saying one thing, you got another church saying another thing and the church that that follows Jesus Christ is not having a unity of mind. It's why it's so important for us to stay anchored and tethered to what is true. So again, I actually don't think it's a Bible issue.

I think it's a source issue. It's impossible for a church to have unity of mind if the source for unity is not the same thing. If it's not the same thing, that's why if anyone sends me an email, if anyone ever comes to me and says, I have a concern, I have, you know, whatever it is, say, what's the source? If it's simply because you don't like it, that might be you and not the word. It might be you and not the mission of the church. It might be you and not what doctrine actually teaches us.

But if you come and you you come with this opened and you say, "Hey, I think we should do this because of this." Well, I'm going to listen to that. I'm going to listen to that 100%. Here's where this gets difficult for Christians because Peter says we are to have and and honestly, I think the three things in here, you'll see he says, "Have unity of mind." And then he also says have a humble mind. But I think the thing in the middle is where many Christians swim and gets a little dangerous.

Sympathy, brotherly love, and tender hearts. So I think a lot of times we experience mission drift or conviction drift under the banner of sympathy, brotherly love, and tender hearts. We so love the lost. We so love the world around us. We so sympathize and empathize with them and what they're experiencing and what they're but we then lose our mind based on our emotions and feelings. Which means when someone we love begins embracing something contrary to God's design, our first response should not be hatred, mockery, arrogance, or self-righteousness.

If sympathy, brotherly love and tender hearts is a command of us to have these things, then our first response should not be to hate someone, but it actually should be to grieve for someone, to grieve for someone. Why? Because again, they're not projects to us. Like seeing 55,000 people come to know Jesus in the next 10 years here in across Indiana is not a project. It's real people. Real people who are lost and dying and going to hell without knowing the good news of what Jesus has accomplished for them.

And so it should grieve us their people that we love, their friends, their family, even people in our church. It might be our son, our daughter, our brother, our sister, our lifelong friend, co-orker, someone you've known for years. It should grieve us because that's the Holy Spirit's response to these people. He grieavves. He grieavves. And what often happens is in those moments is Christians feel pressure to choose between compassion and conviction.

It's as if we separate this verse having unity of mind and a humble mind, conviction around truth with compassion, sympathy, brotherly love, tender heart. It's as if we try to divorce those two things and say we have to do one or the other. And that's not what he's telling us. It plays out like this. The world tells us if you really love me, then you should affirm me. You should affirm me.

And so because we want to be sympathetic, we're like, "You're right. You're right. I should love you above all." That's not what he's saying. The word says, "If you really love someone, you'll tell them the truth that leads to life for them." If you really love someone, if you really have sympathy and brotherly love and a tender heart, you'll tell them the truth.

And that goes for inside the church and outside the church. It applies to both categories in this regard. If you don't have unity of mind, this is where many churches and Christians begin drifting because again, sympathy without truth eventually becomes compromise. Brotherly love that is detached from holiness becomes worldly tolerance. and tenderheartedness without submission to scripture eventually becomes surrender to culture. And at that point, weak Christians stop speaking the word of God with clarity because they've submitted to the world's emotional empathy.

Ali Beth Stucky calls this toxic empathy where basically you're not allowed to tell them truth. You have to love them on their way to hell. Like the world literally says, you cannot tell me that I need to change. You cannot speak your truth to me and tell me that I'm wrong and you're right. Instead, you have to love me for the way I am. And you have to affirm me for the way I am.

You have to be that empathetic. And it's toxic. It's toxic. It's not good. Again, sympathy and empathy, they're not actually enemies of biblical truth. They're not.

Without unity of mind, they are. They have to be anchored to truth. Without unity of mind, without a design, without truth, sympathy, and empathy, they have no guard rails. They don't know where to end. And when they don't know where to end, that's when compromise comes in. And no longer do you have unity of mind, you'll start to have divisions within the church.

Well, we should love this way. We should practice this way. We should believe this way because we're trying to reach. We're trying to love. We're trying to pursue. As they go, as they build relationships with the lost, with the hurting, with the searching, if they stop growing in what scripture says, they may deeply care about the person, but they slowly begin softening what God has sent them to tell them in the first place.

And that's just a dangerous place to be. I think every single church right now that the scriptures would call a synagogue of Satan, I don't think they set out to become that. I think they were so sympathetic and loving towards the lost that as they engaged that and submitted to the world and what they're were called to do, go and love the lost. As they built that relationship with them, at some point somewhere they untethered themselves to what the Bible teaches and then they just stayed over here and believing that they're still doing the right thing are now completely forgetful of what they were called to do and called to preach. And unfortunately, they're now only giving someone comfort on their way to condemnation. Again, it's not because the Bible changed, but because the pressure increased around them.

And Peter's warning the church about that very thing in our text. Again, Christians are absolutely called to move toward broken people with compassion, with patience, with mercy, and with gospel invitation, but we are never called to redefine holiness in order to make disciplehip easier or culturally acceptable. We're never called to redefine it. Yes, it is true that all are welcome to come into this place. I mean, I see this when we have events. We we there's an event that we do every year right over here at this school um that is a trunk or treat.

And so it's not cuz we're like worshiping Satan on that night or anything. We're passing out candy to kids, but we participate in this trunk or treat. And we have had people because we're the only Christian organization that is participating in this event. Uh we will have people come to us and they will ask us, "Are you an affirming church?" And I always say the same thing. Yes, we affirm what the Bible teaches, which puts the ball back in their court.

Like it's it either it either confirms they don't know what the Bible teaches uh or confirms that they hate us. So u because they know what I am actually saying. And we've had people spit on us. Literally, we had someone spit on one of our guys at one of those events because they know what we preach. They know what we preach. That pressure is going to come on us.

And unfortunately, there are certain churches that will cave to that, that will cave to that pressure because they're not willing to stay anchored to the truth. Peter's warning us of this again. Christians are absolutely called to move toward the broken. And that's why we do those things. But we are not called to cave when they don't like what we have to say. And again, it's not even what we have to say.

We're messengers. We're just coming to them to tell them who what the creator who created them has to say to them. The world and sin has perverted perverted and distorted your mind to where you don't know what to believe. You don't know how to live. You don't know what God's design is for you that actually leads to flourishing. And we want to help you see what that is.

We want to teach it to you. We want you to observe all that Jesus has commanded us so that you have life and have it abundantly. Like that's what we're communicating. We're actually trying to just go out in sympathy. We're trying to help them see that we are sinners just as much as they are sinners. We have just happened to have the opportunity to meet the Savior.

And we want you to have the same opportunity to be able to meet the Savior. And so what Peter is doing in this text is he's making sure that we tether ourselves. He that you tether your sympathy with scripture, that you tether your brotherly love with biblical love, and that you tether your tender heart with truth, that you make sure those things stay anchored. So Peter says we must be both tenderhearted and united in mind, united in truth. As you go with compassion, don't forget to grow with conviction. We may be called to submit within the world, but the word is our ultimate authority in all things of conviction, conduct, and creed.

Again, the reason why I'm harping on this so much is because the church needs to stay the course. It needs to stay the course. We don't want to drift into compromise by losing our conviction, but we also don't want to drift the other direction and become callous without compassion. We don't want to drift that way either. And I think that's why he goes on to what he says next in verses 9-2. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless for to this you were called.

So again, he's anchoring it back into chapters 1 and two where he's saying, "Do you not remember? Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they see your good deeds, they'll be able to glorify God on the day of visitation." You remember that verse? That's what we walk through. That's what he's just saying right here. As you are called and as you are going out and living that out and doing that, you need to understand that there are going to be people who don't like it.

They don't like the way you're living and they don't like what you're saying. And so they're going to respond. They're going to react to you with evil and reviling. And what he's saying here is don't lose your head. Don't repay them the way that they're treating you. Don't treat them the same way.

Don't fall into it. That's why again what we're going to experience and we are experiencing. I mean you're seeing this every time you open up social media and you see anybody who is sharing the gospel or sharing a message or or even just teaching the world what the Bible has to say about um life in the womb for example. I mean what a hot topic. And you see those debates, whether it's on, you know, college campuses or whatnot, where you get people who come out and they rage against what the Bible teaches to be true. They rage against it.

They hate it. They can't stand it. And he's saying, "Don't react the same way. Don't respond the same way that they are responding to you. On the contrary, be a blessing, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. Look at verse 10.

For whoever desires to love life and see good days, I mean, we all want that, right? We all love life. We all want to see good days. Let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. So practice self-control in what we say and how we live. Practice self-control.

Let them turn away from evil and do good. Again, preaching good news and doing good doing good deeds for others. Like that's what he's that's what he sent us into. And so he's saying keep a level head. And the way that you keep a level head is having unity of mind and a humble mind. sandwiching the the the emotions on the inside because you're going to have a brokenhearted compassion for the lost.

If you if you have Christ living inside of you, you should have a brokenhearted compassion for the lost. But so that you don't go off the rails. Make sure that you are anchored in unity of mind. You're going to need the church to be to be uh to to to preach the word of God and also have a humble mind in that. Don't go into it thinking that you're better than them just because you have grace. First of all, what is grace?

You didn't earn it. In other words, Paul would say like you there's no one who gets to heaven and says like, "Where's my first place reward? Like, where's my trophy? Like, I I I got up here on my own." No, we all get up there and we come with humility because it was Christ who accomplished it for every single one of us. Let him turn away from evil and do good.

Let him speak or let him seek peace and pursue it. That reminds me of that other scripture that talks about like as much as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Live at peace with everyone. That doesn't mean that there is going to be peace with everyone. That's why he says as much as it depends on you. As much as it depends on you, because you can't control how others react to what message you preach and the good deeds that you provide.

The hope is that the Holy Spirit is doing a work in their mind and in their hearts. and that as you preach the good news and as you do good deeds for them that they will see Christ and he will reveal himself to them and they will humble themselves and they will accept the grace of God in their life. That's the hope. But that's not how everyone's going to respond. And so he's saying when they respond, if they respond in a way that is not peaceful, again, you can't control that. But what you can control is what you do.

You can control how you respond. And then he gives them a bit of a comfort here in verse 12. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous. Man, God is gazing at you. The eyes of the Lord is on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer. I can tell you who his ears are not open to prayers.

Churches and Christians who have untethered themselves to the word just like what he mentioned about the husband. Husbands, love your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to her as the weaker vessel since she is the heir of you of the grace of life so that your prayers may not be hindered. So if we're not living out the design that God has called us to, it hinders our prayers. And here he's putting it into a a a a larger group, the church, that if the church is not maintaining unity of mind and having sympathy and brotherly love and tenderhearted and being humble in mind, if they're not anchored to Christ, then guess what? It hinders their prayers. It hinders their prayers.

But his ears are open to those who are in unity of mind and have sympathy and brotherly love and tender heart and are humble in mind. And he says the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Again, everyone's going to get well here's let me say it this way. Everyone will get what they deserve. Everyone will get what they deserve. And if that meant that God killed everyone and sent them to hell, they got what they deserved.

We're sinners. We sinned against the creator. We actually got what we deserve if we go to hell. That's why people say, especially when you preach that and the world doesn't like it. And they say, "Well, that's an unfair God." I would say the only thing that we ever see in scripture that is fair is when sinners die and go to hell.

That's the only thing in scripture that's fair. Rather, what would not be fair is that we get to go to heaven. That's not fair if you're just looking at it as a good deeds and bad deeds. But the reason why we get to go to heaven is because the one who experienced what is unfair is the one good person in all of human history who dies on a cross for our sins. We should look at that and say that's not fair. But again, God's never going to do anything that's outside of his guard rails.

It was his plan. It was his plan. to send Jesus to take on our sins and to die the death that we deserve. And because he paid for our sins and for our penalty, he can then forgive us of our sins and grant us eternal life in heaven. Therefore, we receive what we don't deserve. We receive what we don't deserve.

And so when we look at this and say the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, that's true. It is true. I mean, and and we should know what that means because most of us have had a parent that's given us the face when we do something wrong. Like there you can tell the difference between like when a parent looks at a child with googly eyes because they're doing something cute. like the eyes are on them, but then there's the face that they get when they do something wrong. And in the grander scale, the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

And in other ways, this isn't like a a gotcha moment. It isn't like when we're when we're preaching the good news and we're performing good deeds for those who are not a part of the church, for those who are not following Jesus, there are going to be people who respond with evil or want to repay us with evil, who want to revile us, who want to call us narrow-minded bigots, who want to say we're practicing hate speech or whatever you want to fill in the blank. We need to understand that we don't have to respond with evil because actually the face of the Lord is already against them. It's already against them. So it it's completely pointless for us to respond with evil because the truth of the matter actually is and we don't want this but the truth of the matter actually is is that if they never change their minds and if they never been their need of the Lord Jesus they're going to get what they deserve in the end.

It's sad. It's awful. We don't want that. But because that is a reality, there's no reason for us to respond with evil. There's no reason for us to to respond with fighting. There's no reason for us to respond with trying to like argue or win a debate or anything along those lines.

But instead, if that's going to be their posture, move into prayer. Move into prayer because again, his ears are open to us. And we know at the end of the day, we can't ever convince anybody of anything. That's the role of God. That's the role of the Holy Spirit. We speak the truth.

God helps them understand. We speak the truth. And so, we're able, as we have unity of mind, we're able to also come with a humble mind understanding at the end of the day that what we're preaching and what we're showing them, God is going to help them come to know what they need to know and believe what they need to believe. And we need to rest in that. We need to rest in that. Here's what can happen when push comes to shove shove.

When the world starts talking back, reviving us, calling us bigots again, some Christians become so compassionate that they'll just stop telling the truth. They'll just stop telling the truth. And other Christians become so committed to conviction that they'll start sounding cruel. And here's where I want to land the plane. How do we hold both truth and tenderness together without drifting into compromise or cruelty? The answer is Jesus.

The answer is Jesus. I mean, Jesus knew when to overturn tables because he hates sin, but he also knew when to die on a cross because he loves sinners. So he knew when to show conviction because of his hatred of sin and his love for holiness. And he also knew when to show compassion. Like that's the synthesis here. Jesus had enough conviction to overturn tables in the temple when the holiness of God was being profigned.

But he also had enough compassion to stretch out his hands on a cross for the very sinners who were conducting it. Jesus never compromised truth. But he also never stopped having compassion. And that's where we find the middle road here. That's where we find the middle road here. We never compromise truth and we never stop having compassion.

Jesus literally, he exercises this perfectly with the woman who's caught in adultery. And they're all wanting to stone her. And he says with compassion, "I'm not here to condemn you. I'm not here to condemn you. And then in the very next breath, he also with conviction tells her, uh, go and sin no more. Go and sin no more.

That's our message. We're not here to condemn anybody. But we are here to preach and proclaim a truth that you're to stop sinning. You are to stop sinning. That's the tension the modern church or I'm sorry, that's the tension the modern culture cannot comprehend. The world says, "If you disagree with me, you must hate me."

Jesus shows us a better way. He tells the truth without hatred. He tells the truth without hatred. He confronts sin without losing compassion. He remains holy without withdrawing from broken people. That's why again we preach the good news and we perform good deeds because we stay anchored to the truth of what God wants us to proclaim to a world that does not know or has rejected and suppressed the truth about God and they have exchanged it for a lie.

We teach the truth so that they may know. But then we also perform good deeds because it's an act of showing that we love them, that we love them and that God loves them. Ultimately that's what we must become. as a church. That's why that's what we're continuing to always grow into as we take the mission forward. Make sure that we stay growing in what the word of God says so that we know what to teach correctly, especially when the world tries to redefine it.

And here's the thing right now. What is just driving me nuts, and I say that obviously, pardon the pun here, but it drives me nuts, is that the world is trying to use the Bible to correct us. And that's where you just got to remember sympathy, brotherly love, tender heart, compassion. and ultimately a humble mind. Have a humble mind. our kids um they do karate on Tuesday nights and what I've noticed when they get together I mean one ma one floor one master who's leading them teaching them guiding them but it's an evil it it's an even playing field even m it doesn't matter if you're a white belt black belt they all get in they all start the same exercise at the beginning they all run through the same drills.

They're all tethered to the same uh um type of karate that is being teached, the same convictions, and they're all growing at different levels. And I think that's why he says it's very important for us to have humble mind as we proceed through this because it would be really easy. One of the things that can disrupt the unity of mind is say a new Christian who comes in and still working out areas of the flesh. Like I remember I might have shared this at one point, but at the church in Tennessee, we had a a homeless ministry where we would bus um about 40 to 50 homeless people from Nashville up to our church in White House, Tennessee. Um, and so they would kind of be gathered out behind the back of the church before they would come in for our for our services. And uh, I remember one of our sweet older ladies, again, she'd been a Christian for 30, 40 years, and she came in and she was like, she's like, "Pastor Dwayne, I just need to share something with you that's a big concern of mine."

I like, "Yeah, absolutely. What is it?" She's like, "There there's there's a man out behind the church who's smoking right now." And I just remember asking, I said,"What is he smoking?" And it just had this look on her face of like, "What do you mean, what is he smoking? He's smoking a cigarette."

I said, "He's smoking a cigarette?" And she said, "Yeah." And I said, "That's amazing." And she was like, "What do you mean?" I said, "Well, just weeks ago, he was smoking a blunt and he felt convicted by it." And he was like, "Is there something I could smoke that's better than that?"

And I said, 'Look, look, we're this is a process of sanctification. This is a process of growth. All right? So, we're going to help you get off of this. You can smoke a cigarette and then we're going to eventually help you get off of that. Like, it's just helping understanding that this is progress, not perfection in the moment.

Like, just because someone becomes a Christian immediately doesn't mean that all of a sudden everything is just easygoing. It's disciplehip. It's growth. And so we're all there's going to be some that are white belts, some that are black belts, and we're on the same level. We're on the same playing field. We're growing in the gospel.

And the most important thing is that we are growing. It's the most important thing is that we are growing. We're all sinners saved by the broken body and shed blood of Jesus. And that's why I want to come to communion at this point because again in a moment where Jesus could have easily come to first century world came with a message came with good deeds. I mean you got the sermon on the mount you got the feeding of the 5000 and they scream crucify him for it. And he could have easily just been like, "No, let me just repay evil for evil then.

Just wipe just send them to hell, Lord." And instead, he humbled himself to the point of death on a cross. while he's on the cross looking out at those who are mocking him, who are torturing him, who are gambling over his clothes, who are spitting on him. When he says, "I thirst," they give him vinegar on a sponge. He says, "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing." Man, that captures so much in that one phrase.

Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing. That's the posture we should take as we are engaging the lost. And they might spit on us. They might say bad names about us. They might It might be a family member who says, "I don't want to ever talk to you again." Father, forgive them for they don't not know what they were doing.

Father, forgive them. Let's remember that as we come to this table of communion, let's remember the truth of Jesus and the compassion of Jesus. And may we never lose both. Father, we love you so much and we're so thankful for your son, Jesus. We're so thankful that he embodies spirit and truth. We're so thankful that he tells us what we need to know and what we need to observe.

But he also has the compassion to pay our penalty for all of the sin that we've committed because we did not do what God has called us to do. And so as we come to the table today, Lord, may we come humble, may we come grateful, may we come submitted to the word. May we come asking God to make us into the kind of people Peter is describing here. Unified in mind, tender in heart, humble in spirit, unwavering in truth, and full of the love of Christ. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.