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Finding Grace
20 Plays3 years ago
Vernon talks about finding grace in the place we probably don't want to go...suffering! And not just suffering when bad stuff happens, but suffering when we are doing right! This applies at work, in ministry, and most often in relationships.
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Transcript
Introduction and Hope in Christ
00:00:03
Speaker
This is your host Vernon Terrell with Grace Ministries International and it's time for Walking Free! Welcome back to this episode. I hope everyone has been experiencing Christ in your life this last week or two.
00:00:30
Speaker
I hope you are actually walking free, and that's what it's all about.
Actions vs Words: Making a Difference
00:00:34
Speaker
It's not just about talking. It's not about talking a good talk. It's about walking it out. That's what changed the world, and that's what we're doing right now. We're changing the world, by the way, for good or for bad. You're making a difference in some way. I hope it's
00:00:57
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Pointing and expressing Christ. That's what I hope
Grace in Relationships
00:01:02
Speaker
today. I want to talk about this idea of finding grace finding favor and Peter talks about that
00:01:11
Speaker
And in this whole collection of verses in 1 Peter chapter two and three, which is really his relationship chapter, Paul has a couple as well on relationships. And really Christ is best lived out in relationship. In fact, not just best lived out, Christ is lived out in the context of relationship.
00:01:40
Speaker
Peter addresses that here in First Peter chapter two. And there's a couple, I'm starting here for a reason, because I want to get to one part of this chapter.
Submission and Respect at Work
00:01:56
Speaker
But we have to get a little context here. And Peter says in verse 18 of chapter two, servants,
00:02:07
Speaker
And these are house servants. The root of that word servant is house. And these are the house servants. And it says servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect. Not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. That word unreasonable is escholios.
00:02:34
Speaker
where we get this idea of scoliosis, right? It means crooked, unreasonable, crooked. Have you had bosses like that, perhaps? And I know we don't have servants or slaves, house servants like they did back then.
00:02:57
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But the idea, even in the workplace, I think over one's career, generally speaking, you will encounter a bad boss, a challenging boss. I certainly have. I hope I haven't been one, but I'm sure I have. It just, it happens. How do you deal with that? Well, servants, be submissive.
00:03:25
Speaker
to your masters with all respect. We need to learn something, I think, in our society that being submissive and being respectful to those in authority over us doesn't mean we have to agree or that we do agree. This idea of being submissive is the idea of humility. And having respect, you know, the foundation of really
00:03:54
Speaker
Um, uh, of getting along with people, it's respecting them, respecting their right to have their own opinion, respecting, uh, their space, respecting their words, respecting respect is critical to relationship. And Peter is saying servants be submissive to your masters with all respect.
00:04:23
Speaker
Not only to those who are good and gentle, but to those who are unreasonable, who are literally crooked. We've had crooked, that doesn't mean you have to be crooked. It doesn't mean you have to be unreasonable. But you should be respectful.
Favor in Endurance and Grace
00:04:43
Speaker
In verse 19, I like this verse, for this finds favor. That word favor is Karen's idea of grace. This finds favor, grace.
00:04:54
Speaker
for the sake of conscience toward God, a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. Because of Christ, because of your God-consciousness, you bear up under this sorrowful time when you're suffering unjustly. And this again is just in the context of
00:05:23
Speaker
a relationship of perhaps like an employer, employee relationship. You find grace. In fact, that's what grace, people are watching your response. And God says, yeah, that's what grace looks like. That's grace.
00:05:48
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That's my boy. That's my girl right there. That's Grace. They're bearing up when suffering unjustly. Verse 20, for what credit is there if when you sin and you're harshly treated, you endure it with patience? It's like, well, you know, really?
00:06:07
Speaker
You're being patient because you're getting what you deserve, humanly speaking. Well, that doesn't do anything. But, if when you do what is right and suffer for it, you patiently endure it, this finds favor. There's that phrase again. This finds favor with God. God
00:06:33
Speaker
is giving grace. In fact, he says he's giving you abundant grace, overflowing grace. And when you do what's right, and you're suffering for doing what's right, and you patiently endure it, this is finding grace with God. This is what finding grace is all about. You have a choice. You can buck up, pry it up, seals up, and start firing.
00:07:04
Speaker
You can do that as a choice. There's consequences with every decision, right? That's your choice. Or for the sake of conscience toward God, knowing who you are, I believe is what this is really getting to, having a God consciousness and what God has done in you.
00:07:25
Speaker
as verse 19 says, when you do right and then suffer for it, you patiently endure it. This finds favor with God. And he amplifies this even more in verse 21.
Christ's Example of Suffering
00:07:42
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For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in his steps
00:07:57
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Here's the example of Christ. It's suffering by his grace. It's suffering rightly. It's not that the suffering is right, but you can suffer rightly. Verse 22, who committed no sin, nor is any deceit found in his mouth, and while being reviled,
00:08:26
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He did not revile in return. While suffering, he uttered no threats. And here's one of the main tenets of Grace Ministries in our counseling ministry. We use this word.
00:08:44
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that while being reviled, he did not revile in return, while suffering, he uttered no threats, but kept entrusting, that's the word, he kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously. This is the example, and whether we're talking about your job or your career or your ministry, or we're talking about your relationship with friends or with your spouse, this applies.
00:09:14
Speaker
In fact, if you keep reading, Peter says, and in the same way, wives and then husbands, this is all the same message. How are you suffering? Are you suffering rightly? Are you uttering threats when you're under attack? Or are you doing what Jesus did? He opened not his mouth.
00:09:38
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He kept entrusting himself to him who judges rightly. Are you protecting your reputation? Are you defending fiercely your reputation? Are you entrusting yourself to God who judges righteously? This is all about life is going to come at us. People at times will come at us. That's just life.
00:10:08
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It's gonna happen. Get ready for it. Brothers and sisters, husbands or wives will come at us at times. Suffer with grace. Doesn't mean you can't speak up and say some things in terms of, well, here's what I need.
00:10:33
Speaker
Here's what I think, but you don't hurl threats. You don't hurl accusations. You don't defend yourself. Paul talks about that, how he made no defense. He didn't protect his reputation. Peter's given us similar ideas here while being reviled. He didn't revile in return.
00:10:58
Speaker
we need to learn the truth of entrusting ourselves to Him. We've said it many times that the only way to the resurrection is through the cross. And there's this idea that I think we can come to a general understanding of that, where we come to this idea of, I just, there's nothing more I can do.
00:11:26
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And God says, that's exactly right. Trust me to be your life. And that can be almost like a one-time revelation, but there is daily times where things happen. We get in situations and we have to, at that moment,
00:11:46
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suffer rightly. For the sake of our conscious toward God, we bear up under that sorrow, suffering unjustly. We don't revile in return. We don't utter threats. We entrust ourself to him who judges righteously. How can we do that? Well, Peter gives us this incredible little bit of information.
Dying to Sin, Living to Righteousness
00:12:16
Speaker
He says, and he himself, Jesus, bore our sins in his body on the cross. What? Think about that. I mean, this is like, sometimes we read right over this. Jesus bore our sins in his body on the cross. He took your sins.
00:12:44
Speaker
everything. And by the way, all of your sins were in the future. So that's past, present, and future from our perspective. All your sins, He bore them in His body. The sins of the entire planet, He bore in His body. And as Paul told us in Romans 3, 23, the wages of sin is what? There's payment for sin.
00:13:12
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And that payment is death. And he took all of that payment in his body on the cross. He took them all. But there's more to the story. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sin
00:13:43
Speaker
and live to righteousness. That's not saying, so learn how to die to sin. No, it's better than that. So that we might die to sin because we were placed in him. Paul tells us in Romans six, we died to sin. We died because when we were placed in Christ, he died, we died. We died in him and we're buried.
00:14:12
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and we were raised up a brand new creation. So Peter says he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. This is the incredible part of the gospel that is often missed. You died to sin already. You died and you are alive to righteousness and your life
00:14:42
Speaker
is now categorized by righteousness. Doesn't mean you're not tempted to sin. Doesn't mean that all those old patterns that you've grown up doing over time, which are stored in that hardware called your brain, yeah, they're there. And you can choose to sin. That was on the cross too, by the way. But you die to it. You see, you don't have to sin. The great deception
00:15:12
Speaker
is that sin is still your master. It's not. The great deception is that you're still a sinner, you're not. I didn't say you don't choose to sin, but you're not a sinner because that part died, that nature of sin died, and you were raised up a brand new creation.
00:15:37
Speaker
You're not a retread. You're not, oops, we got a little old in there. We're going to put some stuff over the icing on that, on that old nasty cake. So you look good. No, you're not two people. You're one person. You're one nature. You're either dead or you're alive. You're either in darkness or you're in the light. That's why he says, well, walk like you're in the light. Cause you are.
00:16:04
Speaker
And Peter here says, he bore our sins. He took them all so that you could die to sin. And you did. And lived a righteousness. And you are right now. And he puts like this final stamp on the end of the sentence. For by his wounds, you were healed. That was the prophetic message in Isaiah. By his stripes, you are healed.
00:16:33
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You have been healed 100% because that old you died and you were raised up a brand new 100% healed in your spirit.
Surviving Challenges with Christ's Strength
00:16:45
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You're brand new and you are sealed. You're healed and sealed. You're sealed with the Holy spirit of promise. Paul tells us, isn't that amazing? Do you know why you can suffer righteously or rightly?
00:17:03
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by grace, it's because you have been given a brand new nature, you're a brand new creation, and you have Christ living in you who's already been through it. That's how you can do it. Peter says in verse 25, for you were, past tense, continually straying like sheep, but now, and I'll put in there in Christ,
00:17:35
Speaker
You have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls. That's the message of victory. And victory is not a promise of health, wealth, and everything going your way. That's a storybook. That's a fantasy.
00:18:01
Speaker
The message is life hurts. Life will hurt, and not just life in general, but you will be under attack by an enemy who doesn't like you. A spiritual enemy that does not like you wants to see you fail. You'll be attacked by a spiritual enemy. You'll be attacked by the world system itself. You're gonna come under attack
00:18:31
Speaker
from both of these forces, yet greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. And on top of all of that, the world is just broken, with broken people living in this world, and
00:18:57
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The world itself is just going to hurt you by nature of being broken. How can you survive? I just wonder how anyone survives without Christ. How anyone can survive without Christ in them, the hope of glory, working in them through them and giving them the power
00:19:25
Speaker
to bear up under the challenges that come at us financially, health-wise, relationally, in this context, in our job, in our career. So what can you do when you're suffering rightly, when you're patiently enduring it,
00:19:55
Speaker
You know, if you're under physical threat or harm, then you can get out. You can leave. Absolutely. I don't think Peter's saying in Peter's day, they couldn't not in this particular scenario, but you do have a choice. Peter wasn't addressing the corporate world. He was addressing this house servant world.
00:20:25
Speaker
But the application here is, yeah, there's times when you can bear up under it and you suffer and you give respect. You can say your peace, say what you believe is right, and then you suffer. You don't ever choose to do wrong. In fact, quite the opposite. When you choose to do right, Peter says, and you suffer for it, ah, now you're experiencing God's grace in that moment.
00:20:53
Speaker
If you're being harmed in a relationship, you need to get to safety. It's not spiritual to be beaten and physically threatened or emotionally abused. And then I'm just trusting God. No, get to safety people. Do it with grace, without recourse, without threats, but get to safety.
00:21:22
Speaker
But there are in all these relationships, not the extremes, but in the relationships where there is injustice and there is hurt and you patiently endure it. I still encourage you, especially in the context of marriage. And we may talk about that on a subsequent podcast, straight from these verses.
Honoring Others Amidst Suffering
00:21:54
Speaker
You can let your need be known and do what's right. You know what? Do what's right with humility. That's what it comes down to, is you do what is right. And, you know, if you look at the verses above, starting in verse 13,
00:22:14
Speaker
Peter says, submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God, that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.
00:22:38
Speaker
And this works in every relationship. You want to know what the will of God? Here it is. Do right. Do right. Submit yourselves to the authority. And do right. In humility, respectfully, do right.
00:22:56
Speaker
In verse 16, 16 act as free men. Some of them aren't free by the way, but, uh, but to those who are free, he is, uh, Peter says act in verse 16, 16 as free men and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as a bond slave of God as a servant, as a house servant of God act free as one who is still walking.
00:23:26
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under authority, walking in submission, walking and doing what's right. And he sums it up in verse 17, honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the King. Can we honor all people when we're issuing threats? Can we honor all people when we're screaming and yelling and no.
00:23:55
Speaker
Trying to one-up them, no. Honor all people, give them honor. Boy, that would go a long way in relationships, wouldn't it? Find ways to show respect, to give honor. Love, fear God, honor the king, the one in authority. That's the message. And when you do that, especially when you're doing what's right and suffering for it,
00:24:25
Speaker
That's finding grace right there. So don't be surprised when they're suffering. Don't be surprised when the world just doesn't work out the way you think it should. Honor all people. Love your brothers and sisters in Christ. Fear God. Honor the King.
Empowerment to Live Righteously
00:24:52
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And suffer right.
00:24:55
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because you have been made brand new in Him. You are no longer that sinner. You are a brand new saint, and you have the power in Christ to not only be righteous, but to act righteous, to not only talk about it, but to start walking it.
00:25:22
Speaker
You've been listening to Walking Free, a production of Grace Ministries International in Marietta, Georgia. For more information, go to our website at gmint.org. That's gminc.org.