 Here we are in 1 Peter chapter two. Let's look at verses 18 through 25 together. And what I'll do is I'll read verses 18 through 20 and give you a bit of an introduction and then move on through the rest of the chapter. So 1 Peter chapter two verses 18 through 20, the apostle Peter writes, "'Servants be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. For this is commendable if because of conscience toward God, one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if when you are beaten for your faults you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer for it, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God." So the apostle Peter is entering into a section of his letter that is dealing with submission and even as mentioned before, he mentioned submission in one facet, submission to the government. He's gonna speak of it here in this passage related to servants being submitted to their masters. And then in chapter three, he continues that theme of submission when it comes to marriage. Now we know that as he has spoken concerning submission to the government, that he has made it very clear that government has been established by God for actually for reward and punishment. Remember in verse 14, speaking of governors, he says as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. So government is actually established in order to punish those who do wrong and to reward those who are doing well. And he was pointing out that in order to be a good citizen, we basically are to follow the rules that are established. We know that government has been established by God for the order of society as well as for our protection. Government will punish an evildoer but it ought to value and praise those who are doing good. Now our society here in the 21st century, we obviously have a society that is governed by elected officials. And so in our form of government, if we're not appreciating the direction that our officials take us, then obviously we can vote those officials out. When we vote, which we ought to do and I'm assuming that everybody here who is of age to be able to vote that we all exercise that privilege, that freedom, that right that was won by individuals who are willing to lay their lives down to give us that privilege. I'm assuming that when we all vote, we vote our consciences. We need to vote those things that align most closely with Scripture. Now, if we have a government that is not aligned with what we believe is proper, we have the option of casting our vote because we know that government is really a reflection of our own morals. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 29-2, when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice. But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. And we've seen that in our history of people are doing well and the way the tenor of our society goes is there's a blessing to us. But we also know when there are those who do not respect the values that we have taken from Scripture, that it brings misery to us. It says in Proverbs 14-34, righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. And so we have options and the options that we ought to exercise come in the form of our ability to vote for those who most closely align to our conscience is as we understand Scripture and how Scripture informs us. So he's been speaking concerning submission, submission to government. Here in verse 18, he begins to share concerning submission to a master. What he's referring to was the state of slavery as was experienced in the early history of the church. He's writing to those who are what we today would refer to as household slaves. One of the things that we know is that during that day, slavery was a very, very large part of Roman society and there were millions of slaves that were in existence during the time of the writing of 1 Peter. The way that they would become slaves are varied. Actually, some would become slaves just because they were prisoners of war. When an army would enter in and fight a battle and win, then the soldiers who were taken captive would actually very often be sold into slavery. There were those who would voluntarily sell themselves into what we today call indentured servitude. In other words, they were bankrupt and in order to pay off their debts, they actually would sell themselves into slavery. There were children who were sold by parents into slavery and then there were slaves who had a child together and that child would be born into slavery. So there was slavery in the Roman Empire and it was rampant. Now there were some ancient slaves, ancient times who could live in relative normal lifestyles. But for many, slavery was obviously a very terrible life. What's interesting is that the apostle Peter is even mentioning them because the church didn't really address the institution of slavery in and of itself. When the church does mention something concerning slavery, it's not done in a revolutionary way. You don't see the apostle Peter, neither do you see the apostle Paul who wrote concerning slavery ever say anything about marching or protesting or doing anything like that. Slavery wasn't something that they dealt with in that fashion. As a matter of fact, the church would deal with it only insofar as slavery was an issue within the body of Christ. It didn't even make issue with the way that it was run in the world. You can see that kind of attitude in 1 Corinthians chapter seven when the apostle Paul was writing in verse 21 and he said there, were you called while a slave? Do not be concerned about it but if you can be made free, rather use it. And so he didn't even give a word of revolution at all. He said were you saved while you were a slave? Don't make an issue over it. If you're given freedom to become free, of course you ought to take the opportunity to become free. But that's basically how they dealt with it. Slavery is normally addressed in the context of life in the church. You see the world looked at slavery as a normal thing and they looked at the slaves as being verbal tools. They were subhuman but in the church slaves were full and equal members and they were to be treated as such. Well, obviously that would be true because Jesus himself came in the form of a slave. That's what it says in the book of Philippians chapter two verse seven. And so Jesus came in the form of a slave. He was a man who was, he was God incarnated in human flesh and he came to serve. And so it's very obvious that he submitted himself to the will of his father. And so Jesus is going to be used and we'll see this in just a moment as an example. So for Christians, slaves were completing Jesus Christ and they were equal to any other person. You see that in scripture. You see the book of Philemon that is written concerning a runaway slave named Onesimus and how the apostle Paul deals with that issue. And so what you end up with is a knowledge in scripture that slaves were full and equal members and should be treated with respect. And that's why in Colossians chapter four verse one, slave owners are actually given a command that was really unheard of in normal days, in their normal days because they were commanded, the slave owners were commanded to pay their slaves. That was extremely rare. In Colossians four one, it says masters give your bond servants what is just and fair knowing that you also have a master in heaven. In other words, you're no better than that one working for you and therefore treating with dignity and actually pay them a livable wage. So what we're seeing here is how slavery was dealt with. And I want you to see a couple of things there. In verse 18 he said, servants be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh for this is commendable if because of conscience toward God one endures grief suffering wrongfully. And so he begins to speak here and he's saying your attitude needs to be one of submission and it's not based on how you're treated. You can have a slave owner who treats you gently and with goodness and on the other hand, there are those who have a slave owner who treats them with harshness. And so your attitude is not to be based on how you're treated. It's got to be based on something deeper than how a human being treats you. And I want you to see what he says. He says, be submissive to your masters with all fear. It's not fear of the master for what the master can do but it's a deeper reverence than that. You are submitted because you have a reverence for God is what he's saying. What is motivating you to become a slave that is commendable isn't that you're afraid, you're doing something as scripture would say in the King James, you're doing it with eye service. In other words, you're doing it because somebody's eye is upon you and I'm watching you. You do it is right because you have something deeper than that, you have a fear of God. And so you're gonna be the best that you can be at what you're doing, not because you're trying to please that man by himself or that woman by herself but you're doing the best you can because you're trying to please God with your life. And so he's actually pointing their eyes to something higher than man. Their attitude of submission isn't based on how they're treated. It's not based on whether they're treated well or whether they're treated with harshness. It's rooted in something deeper, their reverence for God. He says in verse 19, this is commendable if because of conscience toward God when endure his grief suffering wrongfully. So he's saying if you are treated wrongfully that's pretty much kind of something that happens in a lot of places. You see the bottom line is though your master might commend you because you have faith towards God. And many people actually realize that a God fearing individual is gonna be a good, in our days it would be a good employee normally. And so if I have a God fearing individual working for me that's better than somebody that I can't trust. And so he's making it very clear here that the slave owner might think that faith is something that's positive. But again, there are slave owners who treat slaves harshly and they'll inflict great misery on them. And so you have to have an attitude that is a conscience towards God. And therefore what you're to do he's saying is serve properly. Don't do it with a stoke resignation. Do it with an attitude that honors God and a desire to please him first. It's like what it says in Colossians 3.23. Whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men. Now why would I do that? Why would I have an attitude like that? Well because it gives you opportunity to possibly be used by the Lord to give them a message that will save their souls. Here's the thing that's different about early Christians and what we find today in the 21st century. And that is that in the first century church heaven was a place that they really wanted to go to and they thought they had to be born again to enter in. In the 21st century it's been said the only requirement to go to heaven is just die. And so there were a lot of people who think that they automatically go to heaven simply because they lived, they did their best as whatever their best might have been. And then they die. And then they think that they're gonna stand before God whom they think is more like a grandfather of some sort, you know, a big old fluffy beard and he's gonna smile at them and say, oh, I love you so much, you can enter into heaven. And that's kinda how people think today. You know, and it doesn't really matter whether you were a saintly individual, loved the Lord, did good works and served God all of your life. Or whether or not you were somebody who lived in an exact opposite kind of lifestyle. Everybody goes to heaven in some people's minds. In the early church they knew better than that. In the latter church, the church of this age ought to know better than that too. Because in the early church they knew that there was a place that you could go called heaven and there was another place that you would go if you didn't have a relationship with God and it's called hell. And so that slave owner actually had a soul. And so the slave, though that slave didn't want to necessarily be a slave and perhaps found themselves in slavery in a variety of ways, but they didn't want to be there in the first place, rather than being harsh towards the one who treats them harshly and they needed to see things beyond the now. They had to see things in the eternal framework and that's what Peter's talking about. And what Peter's simply saying to them is this, your slave owner, the one who is treating you harshly still has a soul. And if you live in such a way before them in an honorable fashion, even if they don't treat you properly but you have a kind of faith that is evident in the way you respond, you may win a respectful hearing from that slave owner and you might have an opportunity to share with them a message that will actually give them the opportunity to go to heaven. You see, if they endure grief properly, it can be used to win the slave owner to Jesus Christ. In Titus chapter two, verses nine and 10, the apostle Paul said it like this. He said, slaves must always obey their masters and do their best to please them. They must not talk back or steal, but must show themselves to be entirely trustworthy and good. Then they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive in every way. In 1st Timothy 6, 1 and 2, it says all slaves should show full respect for their masters so they will not bring shame on the name of God in his teaching. If the masters are believers, that's no excuse for being disrespectful. Those slaves should work all the harder because their efforts are helping other believers who are well loved. You see, instead of protesting and marching and rebelling, what happened through Christianity is it changed relationships. The way it undermined the power of slavery in the Roman Empire was it took the slave owner and it took the slave and made them brothers. And when they became brothers in the Lord Jesus Christ from the inside, slavery was changed. And so what we find in scripture is a call for us to live for Christ no matter what our circumstances may be. Now if I'm a slave and I do something wrong, well notice what he says in verse 20, he says what credit is it if when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently, but when you do good and suffer for it, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God, he's simply saying that because of conscience towards God, I'll do things for the Lord, but sometimes I may be treated harshly. Now if I'm treated harshly because I've done something wrong, there's no value in that because I'm getting punished for what I've done, I'm reaping what I've sown. But if I'm treated harshly, even though I've done nothing wrong, that is commendable before God because God is gonna reward me for the right way that I'm living. In Matthew chapter five, verse 10, it says, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now as you read this, you might be a person who's saying, I don't get this at all, why would I want to do that? How unfair is that after all? I mean the word unfair or not fair is something we learn at the earliest age, don't we? I mean any parent in here or grandparent has heard that, you've heard that where you said kids, you gotta go to bed now, that's not fair. What's not fair? It's just not fair, he got more ice cream than me. I can still remember, you know, we were really big on fair. I can still remember my mom got us ice cream. Now in our day ice cream, I think they had just invented it to be honest with you, but ice cream was a treat. It wasn't something that you got all the time, it was something, it was a treat. I mean, wow, look at, we got ice cream. It was really, oh, right. And I can still remember one day, seated at the dinner table after dinner, my mom brought dessert and we had ice cream. And my mom brought it and put it before me, she put a bowl of ice cream in front of me and a bowl of ice cream in front of my ugly brother Frankie. And I can remember looking at his and looking at my ice cream and looking at his and saying, he got more, that's not fair. And my mom says, oh, it's not fair. And she took the ice cream from my brother and me and threw it in the sink and washed out. And she said, if you're gonna complain about what somebody else got, you're not gonna get any of it at all. Now that wasn't fair, I'm still mad about that. It's been 55 years. I'll never give my mom a bowl of ice cream ever. She don't even ask, mom. I know you're listening right now, don't ask. Fair, we got this idea of justice. It's just not right. How they treated me is not right. And we all have a real thin skin when it comes to that. We all do, human beings do. And so they're not treating me right. They're not treating me fairly. What are you saying? I'm supposed to submit to somebody who's harsh. It's easy for me to do that when somebody treats me kindly and with respect. But don't you understand? I am a verbal tool. I am a living instrument to be used at his will. If he doesn't like me, he can beat me just because he feels like it. Peter, you don't understand how unfair this is. This is not right. I was not, I did not ask to be born into this. I did not ask to be placed into this. This is not a lifestyle I want. You're telling me that I'm supposed to submit. Why would I do that? What authority do you have to commend such a thing for me? And where's your understanding in all of this? And this is where he begins to share with us something that is very powerful. Notice verse 21, he says, for to this you were called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps who committed no sin, nor was God found in his mouth, who when he was reviled did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously. Why should you submit? Why should you take it patiently? The whole point is, is because Jesus did. Now, when you read your Bible, the Bible speaks concerning about examples. There are human examples, obviously, that we have. The Apostle Paul speaking of himself in 1 Corinthians 11, one speaks of us, imitating him, he says, insofar as I imitate Christ. In Philippians chapter four, verse nine, he tells us if we do the things that he's doing, the God of peace will be with us. And so obviously we have human examples, people that we look to are basically living for Christ in front of us, and they can be great examples to us because we see a person who has patience, or we see a person who's loving, we see somebody who has compassion, we see somebody who has faith, we see somebody who lives in hope, we see somebody who's disciplined in the word of God, we see somebody who likes to share, he's an evangelistic, she's an evangelistic individual, and they're great mentors to us. They may be great parents, and they may be great grandparents. They can be just a great example, and thank God for those who are examples to us. Many ministers can be tremendous examples to the flock. But the bottom line is, is everybody knows somebody who at one time professed to be a faithful person who followed Jesus Christ, who has blown it back slid and gone back to the world. And that's usually the person that people keep in their back pocket as an example when somebody is sharing with them about Jesus, and they'll say, oh, wait a minute, I went to church when I was a kid, and the pastor ran off with the money, took off with the church secretary, and I'll never follow Jesus Christ because of that lousy example that guy had. If he really believed in Christ, why'd he do that? Everybody has somebody that they can point to in such a fashion and say that person was a hypocrite, and we use people as excuses to deny the Lord. We use people. But the bottom line is the apostle Peter is insane. Use a man as your example, is he? Peter says, follow Christ. Why? Because Jesus Christ is your best example, and he never fails. Man will fail. I have let down so many people in my life because men fail, because I'm not perfect. That's no excuse. That's just reality that happens. Men fail. We all fail. Not a single person in this room has ever lived a day being perfect, and if you lived a day being perfect, that's because you were asleep, and you probably had a bad dream, too. But there is one who has lived perfectly, and he's the one that we use as our example, and that's why the apostle Peter's using Jesus Christ as his example. Now, when you read your Bible, you're gonna discover something. I'm sure you've already discovered, but let me bring it to your memory. The word example. When the word example is used concerning Jesus, it's only used in two basic ways. Two basic ways. One way that the word example, and it's found as Jesus himself saying, I've been your example, is an example of service. In John chapter 13, we have the night that Jesus was betrayed. He's there with the men they're having in the Passover supper. In the Passover supper, the supper has already been ended. The devil already put in the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray Christ. Jesus rises from the table, guards himself with the towel, gets a basin of water, and proceeds to wash the feet of his disciples. You all know the story. He goes from one disciple to another. The apostle Peter says, you can't wash my feet. You shall never wash my feet. Jesus has a conversation with them, and then after that conversation is concluded, Jesus says, you call me master and you call me Lord, and that's good because that's what I am. If I then be in your Lord and master, have washed your feet, ye ought to wash the feet of one another. And then Jesus says in John 13 verse 15, for I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. The word example is used as service. I've given you an example, something to model yourself after. The way I washed your feet is how you ought to minister to one another. So when you look into the life of Christ, and you look for the word example, as it is used in application through him, it is an application of service. That's why Jesus would say the greatest in the kingdom is the servant of all. Who is the greatest in the kingdom and who is the greatest servant if it's not Jesus Christ? The kings of this world, he said, they like to boast in their accomplishments and they like to present themselves as being great. He said, that's not how it's gonna be with you though. He said, if you're gonna be great in the kingdom, you serve one another even as a son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. And so Jesus Christ is your greatest example. And his example was one of service. He washed the feet of his disciples. And in washing the feet of his disciples, this one who took upon himself human flesh and dwelt amongst us. The one who became in form a servant, as it says in Philippians 2.7, is the example that we have when it comes to service. So the word example is used to describe Jesus Christ when it comes to service. And that's why in Matthew 11.29, he would say, take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly and hard and you will find a rest for your souls. And so one is an example of service. But secondly, the word example is used in reference to sacrifice and suffering. And that's how the apostle Peter is using that word here in this scripture. He's speaking concerning Jesus Christ when it says again in verse 21, for to this you are called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps. Leaving us an example. So Jesus's example is one of service and Jesus's example is one of sacrifice. And so he's saying you need to patiently endure what you're going through, all your difficulties and afflictions because Christ suffered for us. You see in verse 22, Jesus is our example. He suffered and he never deserved it. He committed no sin. When you think of the life of Christ and you think of his trial, you think of the treatment that he endured. When you think of the torture of the cross, when you think of those things, that painful death, it's supposed to bring perspective to us as believers. He suffered as no other man suffered. The Bible in Isaiah 50 verse six says it like this. I gave my back to those who struck me, my cheeks to those who plucked out the beard. I did not hide my face from shame and spitting. Isaiah 53 verse three says he is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. So he's using Jesus as an example. Before I complain and say look how poorly I'm being treated, he points to the one who was treated and didn't deserve it. See I do things that I reap what I sow. I should be treated this way because of what I've done. It's just for me to be treated like this. But not Jesus. Jesus knew no sin, he did nothing wrong. And so obviously the apostle Peter would point to Jesus Christ and he would say use him as your example. That's how you're supposed to view things. Instead of retaliating, you endure it. You recognize why it's happening in the first place. They're rejecting Jesus. And they're gonna reject you. In John 15, 18 it says if the world hates you you know that it hated me before it hated you. And so the bottom line is that's what happens sometimes. He suffered for us. So if he suffered for me what makes me think that I'll never suffer for his namesake. That's what Peter is saying here. Notice as he said in verse 23 he was reviled and he didn't revile in return. When he suffered he didn't threaten. How did he react? It's not just that he suffered but how did he react to that suffering? We see him on the cross. We see people mocking him, saying things to him. He saved others but himself he cannot save. If you're really the Christ come down from the cross. Where was the human compassion? Where is the sense of shame that man ought to have felt crucifying their God in the flesh? Where was it? When you looked at Jesus he says I'm not a man, I'm a worm. He was crushed for us. You see he was bruised. I mean to have a picture of him what happened to him we sanitize it, we doctor it up to make it more acceptable to ourselves because we couldn't understand the horror of what he really went through. It would be something that you could never really see in a movie that was actually visually exact to what he actually went through because his body was beaten like no other man's. When they took that can of nine tails and they began to whip and open up the flesh on his back we've seen some pictures of that perhaps paintings of Christ but his back was open and open wound it looked like hamburger and blood was pouring down from his back through his legs and down his feet, puddling up there. The lictor they called him the lictor he had a can of nine tails type whip and it had embedded pieces of porcelain and sharpened metal in it. And there were at least nine straps or thongs that were placed on this handle and the individual who beat him was an expert at that and so they knew how to swing that whip in such a way that they could actually cover a man from the chest to the back and with one swing they got nine wounds and they gave him no less than 39 strikes, no less than that. In other words they hit him 39 times. Jesus's back was an open wound. They had taken him and they had punched him they had blindfolded him and they hit him and they said, tell us, prophesy, who hit you Christ? And out of nowhere they would just hammer him in the face and then they grabbed his beard and they twisted great clumps of hair from it and they pulled it right out of his face. They took a reed and they smashed him in the head. They took a crown of thorns and they placed it on his head with the reed so that his head was swollen and unrecognizable as human. And then they forced him to carry a cross and his blood loss and weakness was of such the immensity that they forced a man named Simeon to pick it up and carry it along because he couldn't, he had to carry it for him. Simon the sirene and they threw him on that cross and they took those nails and pierced his wrists and pierced his ankles and it had a sharpened stool on it so when he tried to breathe that sharpened stool would pierce his back lacerating him with every breath that he took. If there was ever anybody who had the right to revile those who reviled him and to threaten those who threatened him it was Jesus. He didn't deserve it. And what did he do? He prayed, father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Isaiah 53.7 says he was oppressed, he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before it shearers his silent. So he opened not his mouth. So he's saying, servant, you have it bad on the job. You have a harsh master who's treating you in ways that just are not just. Instead of rebelling against him, revolting against him, have you considered living for Christ in front of him? Perhaps it'll give you opportunity to share the hope that lies within you. And it can transform your relationship from master-slave to brothers. And when you become a brother, then who knows perhaps it'll give you opportunity to be sent free. But if you're thinking you've got a bad deal, then remember the one who actually died for you and when you begin to measure the extremity of your pain, the injustice of your treatment, perhaps you ought to measure it against the Son of God who died in the fashion that he did. He says in verse 24, who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree that we having died to sins might live for righteousness by whose tribes you were healed. You see, Christ committed himself to the one who judges righteously and I should be doing the same. He bore my sins in his body. He made atonement for me. He died for me. So that I might be made free in him. Second Corinthians 5.15 says he died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again. Romans 6.11 says likewise you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. He did to sin, but alive in him, recognize that. He made atonement. He satisfied his father's demands. He poured out his blood to wash you and to cleanse you because the life of the flesh is in the blood. Salvation is costly. And God demonstrated that in that he gave his son to die on the cross for us. I don't automatically deserve it. I receive it by faith. I ask Christ to forgive me a sinner because he died not for his own sins. He did no sin. He died for me, the sinner. Every person in this room has had somebody wrong them and every person in this room has wronged somebody else. That's just human life. That's what we do. We do it well too. We've harmed others and been harmed by others. That's what we do. That's human nature. Sometimes the wound has gone deeply within us. Sometimes it's gone so deep that we don't even realize it's there. And that wound only appears sometimes when somebody has done something that provokes that, causes it to come to the surface. You get married and everything's going well and then your mate says something to you that triggers something, a response that you didn't even know was still there and it comes out. Before you know it, you're saying things like, don't you ever say that to me or don't treat me that way. And you don't even really know why you're getting so angry and then you go into another room for a moment and you begin to think, why'd I get so upset over that? And you start to think, well, that reminded me of when I was a little boy and before you know it, you're remembering things that were done that were unjust. You have a wound that you're not even aware of and it's so deep that it only comes out when it's provoked. And we get upset. We get upset because we've been treated unjustly. We've been treated unkindly and we're gonna show that we have respect for ourselves and you're gonna respect me too. Some of us carry that. We've been treated wrongly. We have suffered injustice. It has to come out. It has to be dealt with. As a kid, I was walking in my backyard and I stepped on a stick and it pierced my heel, my right heel. I said, remember, it pierced my heel. And you know, when you step on something, how you immediately respond to it and I remember just jumping and hitting the ground and there it was just sticking out of my heel and so I took this stick and I pulled that out of my foot and I looked at my heel and rubbed it and it looked like everything was out. So I just kept, you know, and I never wore shoes so I just kept running around and the next day my foot was still hurting and then the day after my foot was still hurting and by the third day I could walk on it but it was so sensitive, I finally said, you know, I must not have gotten everything out of my foot. I wonder what's wrong with it. I remember sitting down and drawing my heel up so that I could actually see my heel, my right heel and there was a black spot, a darkened spot on my heel but it was covered up, it was covered up and I remember pressing on it like, what is that? And when I pressed on it, it actually rose to the surface and it was the tip of the stick that I had stepped on, a splinter that had gone deep. And so for the two or three days that I walked with it, it had actually begun to rise to the surface so when I pressed it, it actually came out and I remember removing it, throwing it away and then it healed and over the years I came to realize that there are wounds in my life that are similar to that splinter and I received a wound, you know, I doubt with it the way that I deal with whatever, maybe ignoring it or maybe just saying, oh, I just, you know, I'll deal with this later, whatever but then something provokes me and that wound comes to the surface. You don't even realize it's there but it is and it comes to the surface and it'll come in a different way, one way or another but it comes. I remember going to speak to a professor friend of mine, Dr. George Moore at Biola College when I was there as a young man, as a freshman and I was upset because somebody had gotten me angry and hurt me and I remember walking in and I remember sitting down with him and I said, you know, Dr. Moore, I'd like some counsel and he said, what can I help you with? I said, somebody has sinned against me and I'm so angry. I said, I just want harm for them. I mean, I was in this mentality that if I read the obituaries and saw their name, I'd be happy, they're dead, good. That was where I was at and he says Dave, he says, you know, you need to, you need to let it go and I said, I can't. He says, you've got to forgive and I said, I can't, I can't. He said, you need to, you're commanded to. He said, Jesus forgave you and I said, that's his job. You ever think like that? That's God's job. It's God's job to forgive because he's God. He can forgive because he's God. And that's how I thought and I told him that. I said, of course he forgives, that's his job. And he says, no, wait a minute, son. He said, he doesn't need to forgive. He could judge you, he chose to forgive and he commanded you that you are to forgive even as Christ Jesus has forgiven you and until you release this anger, until you release this hatred, you will never be healed and you will never be used by God. He said, and I'll give you one little thing he said that I'll never forget. He said, you think that your life is the average Christian's life. He said, let me tell you something. He goes, he said, young men don't always succeed in winning their parents to Christ like you brought your mom and your dad to Jesus. He said, David, God has something he wants you to do. And unless you let this go, you will never be used by the Lord the way God wants to use you. You've got to forgive. You've got to let it go because if you don't, you are gonna put yourself on the shelf and you will not be used by the Lord. I made a decision as a young man back then so long ago now that I wanted to be used by the Lord and that pain that was like that splendor in my soul came to the surface. It had to come out completely. That came through confession. That came by asking God to forgive me as sinner. It came from me realizing that my life is no different than anybody else's and the pain that I suffer, others have suffered too. And that if I don't release these things into the hands of the Lord, then I'm gonna suffer with them alone. And that's what I've been doing now for many years is releasing these things. Why? Because Christ suffered for me, because Jesus died for me, because Jesus forgave me, because Jesus, when he was reviled, didn't revile. When he suffered, he didn't call God's vengeance on them, but he prayed for them. Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. And in doing so, he warned those who were at one time his enemies. He warned them over to become his friends. And that comes because God does that work in our life. He died on the cross for me that I might live for him. He says in verse 25, you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. You were like sheep just wandering off on your own. Before you were saved, you weren't living for God, you were living for yourself, but Jesus has gathered you through his sacrificial death. Because he said in John 12, 32, and I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to myself, because you got a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ dying on a cross for you. It wasn't for just the sin of the whole world, it was for you personally, individually. God so loved the world, but that world includes you. And he gave his only begotten son so that you might believe and you might be saved. And that's what transforms your life. That's what causes you to be different. That's what causes me to not blame God for the things that I go through. But to realize that, that he can use even the things that I consider to be the most painful. He can use those things to conform me into the image of Jesus Christ and transform me into an individual who can be used by him for his glory. So rather than holding these things inside, we release them to him. It's an attitude of submission. So the slave says, why should I obey a harsh master? And the Apostle Peter's answer is because Jesus submitted to the will of his father and he gave you an example that you would follow in his steps. And he suffered too and he didn't deserve it. And sometimes you suffer because you do. But Jesus didn't. And so if you wanna have somebody to look at as an example, you look to Jesus Christ who loved you and gave himself for you so that he could rescue you when you turn to him in faith. And your life can be changed and forgiven because that splinter of sin can rise to the surface through confession and that broken heart can be healed by the one who is the master at healing broken hearts. And he can transform you to become like him. Remind you that you're a sojourner, you're a pilgrim. This world is not your home. You're just passing through. And one day when you see the face of God and you see him face to face, you'll have no complaint and you'll have no question. You'll only have joy as he wipes away the tears from my eyes and brings us into that which he has prepared for us from the foundation of the world. A mansion that has been prepared specifically for us because we have trusted his son as our savior.