The Exile Resolutions

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. Maybe God is trying to tell a story through you, a story not about you, a story much more important than you or me. Your story, no matter how good, it can't save anybody.

But Jesus' story can. Our wounds and how we respond to those wounds or how God displays the gospel best. Welcome to Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vitovich. One thing we're learning through our study in 1 Peter is that we're supposed to be different than the world around us. So what exactly does that mean, though, to live as a citizen of heaven and not of earth?

Today, Pastor J.D. teaches us two crucial perspective changes that we must make in order to thrive in this world. Just two resolutions we need to embrace.

That's it. In fact, today he calls them the exile resolutions. So let's discover together what they are. Grab your Bible and here's Pastor J.D. In 1 Peter, Peter is encouraging this scattered group of believers whose worlds have been turned upside down to grow up in their faith and to be the kind of believers that can endure in a hostile and chaotic world. We're going to pick up in verse 11 of chapter 2 where Peter is going to urge two crucial changes of perspective that we must have if we're going to thrive in this kind of chaotic world. I'm going to give them to you as two resolutions I believe that we need to make. Only two.

Only two this weekend. The first one is this, verse 11. Dear friends, dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles, that's going to be important context. As strangers and exiles, you need to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul.

Here's resolution number one. I will die to my need for instant gratification. Our sinful desires, Peter says, they wage war against our souls. They literally kill our faith. The Apostle John is going to tell us the same thing in his letter to the church. First John 2 15, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, those are not from the Father, but they're from the world. He goes on, if any of us love the world, John says, the love of the Father is not going to be in you. Now understand, neither John nor Peter believes that the world is all bad, that pleasures are bad, that Christians ought to be ascetics or prudes or monks or killjoys who refrain from all pleasures. I know some Christians who are like that, but that's not Peter and John. God loves the world, John taught us, and he created the world for our delight. And when we enjoy his creation, he is glorified. What Peter and John are warning about is a love for the world that replaces a love for God. John in his letter mentions three things.

You saw them in that verse that are in the world that are always competing with God to be our master. The first he said was the lust of the flesh. The lust of the flesh tell us feel good now.

Whatever the cost, gratification of your physical desires is the only way to be happy, whether that comes from food or sex or creature comforts or whatever. The second thing he says is the lust of the eyes. The lust of the eyes tell you for life to be good, you've got to have X, the car, the house, the clothes, the second home. That causes us to look out in envy at what others have that we don't because we feel like if we had that, the lust of the eyes and I'd be happy.

The pride of life says in order to have worth, you got to be superior to others, you got to be the best at Y, or you must accomplish Z because then people will look up to you and admire you and you will be important. Those three desires, those lusts, those drives wage war, Peter says, against your soul. They literally murder your relationship with God. John says if any man loves the world, the love of the father is not in him, the two cannot go exist.

Well see, here's the problem. You and I are raised in a world that tells us that one of those three is the path to the good life. You gravitate toward at least one of them.

Which one probably depends a little bit on your personality. Some of you are all about feeling good right now. That instant gratification monkey is always right there and he's calling out to you to do whatever makes you feel good in the moment.

Relax, have fun, enjoy yourself, engage in the pleasures of food, sex, drink, leisure, creature comforts, whenever and wherever you can. That's what John means by people who are drawn along by the lust of the flesh. Others of you, you're less driven along by the lust of the flesh, by the impulses of the moment. You can say no to those impulses, but you're driven by something you want to obtain in the future. The degree, the job, the income, the victory.

So you'll study hard now or train hard now or save your money now, live meagerly now so that you can get those good things later. Well, that's what John is talking about when he says the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Maybe you can say no to the lust of the flesh, but that thing that your eye wants, you're going after or that status of superiority, you're going after that. To all three groups, Peter tells us to lift our eyes away from the world altogether.

In verse 11, he says, you're strangers and exiles. You don't belong here. The place you ought to be finding your satisfaction, your home, your refuge is not here anyway. Again, what Peter is telling you to do here is to expand your definition of instant gratification. Don't just say no to comforts and pleasures and impulses now to be able to get some other earthly reward later in your life, like a good job or degree or car to win. Learn to say no to being driven by anything on earth, anything, any reward in your life, and find your reward in God.

As a stranger in exile, find your reward in your heavenly country. I don't think many of us realize how dangerous and pervasive those three things are. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Our world is proudly and unashamedly driven by them.

So let me say it plainly. If you're driven by the desires of the flesh, you just want pleasure or just want to feel good. Or if you're driven by the lust of the eyes and you're driven by something you hope to obtain in the future, or you're driven by the pride of life, that desire to make a name for yourself, your relationship with God is being eaten away and your soul is being destroyed.

These things wage war against the soul. At every point in your life, you're either driven by God or you're driven by one of those three things. You know, many people I find think that coming to Christ means mixing in a little religion, a little morality into your life, but coming to Christ means dying to those old ways of living. Dying to looking at physical gratification or material attainment or worldly acclaim as your source of happiness and instead finding all of those things in God your home and in heaven, your eternal country. You see, by the way, this is why we fast. It's why we give. Through occasionally depriving ourselves of food, for example, we're trying to break the hold of instant gratification on our hearts. Through generosity, we're trying to break the hold of material acquisition, the lust of the eyes as the captivating drive in our lives. Through doing those things like fasting or generosity and the power of the Spirit, we're training our hearts to give God more weight than our impulses or our earthly ambitions. There's nobody who is more miserable than the half-committed Christian. Freedom and joy in the Christian life is found only by surrendering all of yourself completely with abandon to Jesus. Okay.

Resolution number two. I will replace the question of what impact does this situation have on me with how can I glorify God and amplify the gospel? Look at verse 12. Peter says, conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day that he visits. Now, Peter, in the next few verses, is about to walk us through three difficult relationships that believers in his day found themselves in. The first was being subject to the leadership of non-Christian and sometimes unjust rulers. The second is being in the employment and under the control of an unjust master. And third, being married to an imperfect person. Peter says in verse 12 that we need to change our perspective on what the point and purpose of our lives is and what the goal in these relationships is. We are here, Peter says, to glorify God and amplify the gospel. For somebody who is a resident of this world, of course, what matters is that they get the recognition, the justice, the reward that they deserve here.

But for somebody who is a citizen of heaven, what matters is how their situation prepares us and others for that home that is our real home. If your life were a movie, who would the main character in that movie be? I mean, in every movie, of course, there are major characters and there are minor characters.

What happens to minor characters is not as important because the story is really about the major character. I've seen advertisements recently for the new Top Gun and I am more than a little excited because Top Gun was one of my absolute favorite movies from the 1980s. The main character of Top Gun was who? Well, Maverick, of course. Tom Cruise is the main character in every movie he's ever played in. Goose, in my opinion, was actually a better character.

He's a better guy. But Goose's whole role in the movie is to die so that Maverick can develop convictions of his own and become the man his dad always thought he could be. Goose's story is tragic, but his story contributes to a larger story and that story is one that turns out quite well. So ask yourself this, if your life were a movie, who would the main character in that movie be?

You say, well, duh, me. And for most of us, that's true. But see, if you're the main character in your movie, then that means you're going to evaluate everything that happens in your life by its effect on you. How did this situation help me? Did it make me stronger? Did it make my life easier?

Did I get what I deserve? But see, if Jesus is the main character of your story, then and everything that happens to you, good or bad, you ask, how can this contribute to his story? The point is not how things better benefit me or you. It's how do they help us tell his story better in riches or in poverty and prosperity or in pain? The question is, how can I use this to glorify God and amplify the gospel?

When something bad happens, you might say, well, this is not very good for me personally, but how can this point people to the gospel and how can I direct people's admiration to the Heavenly Father? You say, well, why would anybody want to switch out themselves as the main character of their movie? Well, here's why. Because one day the curtain on your life is going to close and the credits will roll. And if the story was all about you, well, then it's over. But see, if your story was bound up in his story and surrendered to his story, then that means that even after you leave this earth, you're going to get to participate and rejoice in a story that goes on forever and that always ends in victory. As strangers and exiles, Peter says, view your life through the lens of God's story. In all things, you should ask, how do I use this to glorify God and point people to the gospel? You're listening to Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. We'll get back to our teaching in a moment. But right now, let me shout out a very special group of people, our gospel partners who give so generously to this ministry every month. It's not an exaggeration to say that they are the financial fuel behind everything we do, including broadcasting this Summit Life radio program every weekday. And this month we have a very special offer. Anyone who becomes a new gospel partner or doubles their monthly gift will receive a copy of Pastor J.D. 's upcoming book called Twelve Truths and a Lie, signed by J.D.

himself. Just a special way to show our appreciation for your commitment to this ministry. To join with us as a monthly gospel partner and to receive this special gift, call us right away.

The number is 866-335-5220, or you can visit us online at jdgreer.com. Now, let's get back to today's teaching. Once again, here's Pastor J.D.

on Summit Life. Look at verse 12 again. When they slander you, Peter expects us to be slandered and mistreated as an evildoer. And this was literally true for Christians in Peter's day. The early Roman world that Peter was a part of did not understand Christians, and they felt threatened by them.

And so they did what people do a lot. They just made up lies about them. They believed that Christians were superstitious because they believed in miracles. They called them atheists because they denied the existence of dozens or hundreds of Roman gods. They called them incestuous. They accused them of incest because they said they married their brothers and sisters because of how Christians referred to each other.

They taught that they were cannibals because they would talk about in their worship services eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Jesus, talking about communion. Christians became the preferred scapegoats for societal problems. When Nero, for example, burnt Rome to the ground, he blamed it on the Christians.

Later, when the Visigoths attacked Rome, they blamed the Christians and said it was their fault. Peter says, listen, you ought to expect this. This is what they did to Jesus. And he showed you how to respond. Look at what Peter says down in verse 21 for a minute. He says, you were called to this.

You were called to this because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. Verse 23, when he was insulted, he did not insult him in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten but entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree so that by his wounds you have been healed, a quote from Isaiah. Peter is asking you, what did Christ do when he experienced opposition?

First, he was patient under it. Listen, you need to get rid of this idea that if you live right, that nothing bad will ever happen to you, that no lies will ever be told about you, that vindication will always quickly come. Good guys ultimately win in every situation. Well, it didn't happen that way with Jesus and he was the ultimate good guy. If you think living rightly ensures that you will avoid injustice and suffering, well, honestly, I'm not sure what savior you're following. Jesus suffered unjustly and he left that example that we should follow in his steps. Second thing Peter shows us is that Jesus committed himself to him who judges justly. In other words, he waited for vindication from his heavenly father and for a reward in his heavenly country.

If he never got vindication or reward here, that was okay. He was a stranger and an exile and his real home was his heavenly country, so he was willing to wait for that. Third, Peter shows you, he kept doing good even when he was being slandered. He kept doing miracles. He kept forgiving people even when they were nailing him to the cross. He took the long view of vindication, letting his good works speak for themselves.

Peter says, that's what you and I must do also. Keep doing good works and let those good works vindicate you. Look, verse 12, by your what? By what will you silence ignorant people?

Not by your social media posts. Listen, stop complaining that evangelicals are treated unfairly by the media and start taking care of the orphans in our city. Stop trying to prove that Christians aren't racist and invite into your life people who don't look like you.

Try to get to know them, feel their pain, and carry their burdens like you would your own. You see, the more we display the gospel, the more that you and I will have opportunity to declare it, and that's what Peter is saying here. The fourth thing that Peter points to in the example of Jesus was that, was that Jesus' patient suffering under injustice, get this, was the means by which he saved us. Peter quotes Isaiah here, prophesying, by his wounds he will heal us. Jesus' wounds were not some unfortunate byproduct of our salvation. Jesus' wounds were the very means by which he purchased our salvation. And in some mysterious way, Peter says, just like Jesus purchased salvation for us through his wounds, so we will extend that salvation through our wounds. Paul said the same thing in the book of Colossians. He said, I'm filling up in my body what is lacking in the wounds of Christ.

What an amazing phrase. Filling up in my body what is lacking in the wounds of Christ. How could anything possibly be lacking in Christ's wounds? I mean, didn't Jesus say it is finished?

And if it's finished, then how could it be lacking anything? Well, yes, of course, the work of salvation is finished, but what is not finished is people hearing about the offer of salvation. People have to hear the message and believe it in order to be saved by it. And it's by our wounds, Peter and Paul say, and how we respond to those wounds that people will best hear and believe. As we endure with hope, as we forgive those who treat us wrongly, and as we love those who don't love us or treat us rightly, the world sees the truth about the gospel and they understand the message about Jesus.

By our patient endurance under unjust wounds, we follow in Jesus' steps, and we complete what is lacking in Christ's suffering. By the way, interesting word here that's used in Greek, for example. The word Peter uses, for example, verse 21 is the word hupogrammas. Grammas means to write. It's where we get our word grammar from. Hupa means under. Hupagrammas means to trace or to copy.

Something written under that you copy on the sheet above. That's what we are to do with our suffering. Lay down Christ's example in our hearts and then trace his response with ours.

So let me ask you to consider. Where might God be calling you to respond this way, like Christ, to some wound that you are enduring right now? To somebody who's treated you unjustly that you need to reach out to and love and forgiveness like Christ reach out to you?

Where do you have a broken relationship? Is there somebody you're supposed to respond to with with goodness like Christ did to put on display the gospel? Is there somebody that you need to put away your desire for vindication or vengeance with them and just love the person like Christ loved you? When Christ died on the cross, it was a hundred percent our fault, not his fault, but he kept loving and he kept coming toward us.

Where do you need to do that with somebody else? Where do you need to bear patiently somebody's wounds towards you and just pray like Jesus did? Father, forgive them because they don't really understand what they're doing. You see, maybe God right now is trying to tell a story through you, a story not about you, a story much more important than you or me. Your story, no matter how good, it can't save anybody, but Jesus' story can. And what greater honor than to have our little lives contribute to his eternal story, to have your story point somebody to his story to find eternal salvation.

Our wounds and how we respond to those wounds or how God displays the gospel best. By the way, I always want to say this when I talk about these things. I never mean by this, and neither would Peter. I don't mean keeping yourself in an abusive situation.

If that's where you are, then you should reach out for help. What Peter means is constantly loving and never ceasing to forgive those who have wronged and mistreated us. So to conclude, as strangers and exiles, Peter says, we set our sights on different goals than the world.

What is your ultimate goal in life? I was reminded this week of one of my favorite missionary stories that I think perfectly illustrates the change of perspective that Peter is calling for here. It's a story you might never have heard. His name was Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf. Old Nick was born into a noble family of privilege in Dresden, Germany in the early 1700s. As a count, he was expected to take over his family's wealthiest state one day, which basically meant that he would do very little and get lots of money for it.

His life was destined to be one of leisure, pleasure, and prestige. But shortly after his 20th birthday, Zinzendorf was visiting a really famous art museum in Dusseldorf where he was gripped by a painting called Ecce Homo, which is Latin for behold the man. The painting depicts Jesus just moments before the crucifixion, beaten, bloodied, wearing a crown of thorns. In the painting below Jesus, the painter, Domenico Fetti had put these words into the mouth of Jesus. All this I've done for you.

What have you done for me? Zinzendorf wrote about being profoundly struck by that statement and that painting. He was gripped by the brevity of life, by what Jesus had actually done for him, and the urgency of the gospel. In that moment, Zinzendorf knew that he could no longer pursue a life of leisure and call himself a faithful follower of Jesus. So he began to use his massive estate to train and send out what became hundreds, even thousands of young 20-somethings from around Germany to carry the gospel around the world.

Eventually, he would give away the vast majority of his fortune. One night in 1727, a small group of them prayed all through the night for God to start a movement through them that no one could ever stop. And then they literally never stopped.

I mean, literally. Morning came and they began to pray in shifts around the clock. That night in 1727 birth, what became known as the 100-year prayer meeting around the clock prayer chain that continued for more than a century. From that prayer movement, God raised up thousands of young missionaries to plant churches and establish gospel communities all around the world. They called themselves Moravians because that was the region of Germany where most of them were from. A few Moravians even moved to the place where I would one day grow up, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to establish a gospel community there in 1753.

Their gospel impact would not only shape the community I grew up in, it would lay a foundation for evangelism and church planting all over the Southeast for the next 200-plus years. And that's why I say his life and his faith and his sacrifice impacts you today. Zinzendorf as a young man wrote words that define the movement, words that I feel like could have come right out of this letter of 1 Peter. Zinzendorf said, I have but one passion. It is he.

It is he alone. The world is the field and the field is the world. And henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ. I desire only to preach the gospel, to die, and to be forgotten. As a stranger and a pilgrim, I desire just to preach the gospel, to die, and to be forgotten. Are you ready for that to be your life motto?

See, here's why you can say that with confidence. Peter ends this chapter, verse 25, by saying, you were like sheep going astray, but you've now returned to the shepherd and the overseer of your souls. In other words, you're going to be okay because you're safe with Jesus. I mean, after all, he came after you when you were lost and he'll never leave you or forsake you now that you're his child. The one bedrock thing Peter was sure of was that in all things, good and bad, high and low, Jesus was there.

His love never failed and his presence would never leave. With him, Peter says, you can not only endure all things, you can overcome them all. Let's start a little early on our new year's resolutions.

Ask Jesus to help you live as an exile, dying to your need for instant gratification, and be willing to wait until eternity for vindication and reward. One of the things I love the most about the teaching this month on Summit Life, Pastor JD, is how shareable it is. Every day is a message of hope or encouragement that I feel like passing on to someone else.

Well, thank you, Molly. I do hope the sermons we share in the program inspire each of us to pass the gospel on to others. I mean, that's kind of the whole point is that we're not just a reservoir that this river of life flows into. We want to continue to be a river and it flows from us to others. And so what we try to do here at Summit Life, and I'm sure if you've listened to us for a while, you've picked up on this, is we want to set you up for success in a way that enables you to multiply, to share the love and the hope of Christ with others. And so give yourself a chance to be used by God. That is why I am thrilled, Molly, to introduce a fantastic resource that we've put together just for you.

Picture this, okay? A set of Christmas greeting cards that are going to be adorned with inspirational verses on the front, but left blank on the inside for your personal touch. You know, the power of a simple card should never be underestimated.

It's one of my family's most important Christmas traditions. So don't wait. I would invite you to head on over to jdgrier.com, get a sneak peek at what these honestly truly beautiful cards look like, and reserve your set today. To get your set, call us now at 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220. Or you can always visit jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Vitovich. Thank you for being with us today.

The Bible clearly calls believers to submit to authority, but what about when those in places of power are morally corrupt? Find out Thursday on Summit Life with J.D. Greer.