Pastor Skip Heitzig guides us through First and Second Peter in the series Rock Solid.

Well, good morning, and please turn in your Bibles to First Peter, chapter 2, where we're going to finish out that chapter. We're in a series called Rock Solid, and we've been talking about some hard truths to hear. Let's pray. Father, you're our God. You created the heavens, the earth, and everything that is in them. And you made us, you made us for a reason. You made us to have fellowship with you; we know that. And to glorify you; we know that. But Father, we also believe that you have a specific plan for every life, and that there are principles that they transcend every life, but they speak individually, Lord, as well.

And we pray that you would help us in our present situations, the marriages we're in, the dating relationships we may find ourselves in, the work where we are at, the government structure of our city and our state and our country. Help us, Lord, to represent Jesus in all of these that people that know us and people that see us and interact with us would be drawn to the Savior. Lord, if that could just be possible, if people would hunger and thirst after you because of us, it would be monumental. We trust that you'd do that, in Jesus' name, amen.

"Hey, you remind me of somebody." Have you ever had anybody tell you that? "Hey, who is it that you remind me of?" I've had people tell me that at different times, and I've had people say, "You remind me of someone." And then I'd find out who I remind them of, it's not very flattering. [laughter] Hey, you remind me of that famous movie star." "Oh, which one?" "Lassie." "Oh, thank you." "Frankenstein," whatever it might be. I was on an airplane sometime back and I was flying next to Gene Hackman.

Do you know who he is? He's an actor. And he was trying to kind of be incognito so nobody would recognize him. And when we were getting off the airplane, there was another guy on the airplane. He had evidently been drinking something, and he just wasn't quite in his---he wasn't lucid, let's put it that way. And so at the end when people are getting off the flight, he stops and he notices Gene Hackman. And this guy turns to him in his sort of half-inebriated state, he says, "You remind me of Gene Hackman." [laughter]

And I'm going, "Uh-oh, he's recognized him." Gene Hackman didn't miss a beat. He goes, "No. Really?" And the guy kind of looked at him, and they had this little conversation. And by the end of it the guy said, "You're right. You don't look anything like him." [laughter] One of the greatest compliments you could ever receive is somebody telling you, "You remind me of Jesus." Wouldn't that be great? "You just remind me him."

Not because you have a beard and sandals and a robe and a walking stick, but you have a personality that compels them to notice that in you. When the Twin Towers fell September 11, 2001, many of you, many of us worked at the site. I worked there for three weeks, and I was having the privilege of working alongside of brave firefighters and people in law enforcement. And my job was working on the pile, working with the debris, and every---there's a perimeter around that.

Whenever you leave the perimeter, you're pretty contaminated. You've been walking in broken sewage lines, and human debris, pulverized cement. So, when you leave, they would want to decontaminate you. And one volunteer group set up these wash basins, these tubs where they would wash people's boots. They just did it as sort of a ministry, so to speak, a favor. So I was walking out of the perimeter, out of ground zero one day, and there was this group.

And I put my feet in this tub, and he began washing my boots and the dust away, and it just struck me what he was doing. And so I said to him, "Hey, you remind me of Jesus Christ." And he looked at me like I was from Mars. "I remind you of whom?" And then I told him the story in John, chapter 13, where Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. And, oh, he took a big breath, he said, "Oh, okay. Well, thanks." According to the apostle Peter, one of the best ways to resemble Jesus is submission.

Submission is a word we've been talking about, that you submit during difficult circumstances. And you go, "Wait, wait. Submission?" You know, there's certain words that are just hard to understand or hard to grasp or they're harsh when you hear them. They sort of grate at you. "Foreclosure" is one of those words. "You're fired" would be another one of those words. "Inoperable" is a harsh word to hear. "Submission" is hard because it naturally grates against our idea of freedom.

We think if you are free, it means you don't submit to anybody. And what Peter has been tell us is because you are free, verse 16, we've discovered, because you are free, you should never use that freedom in a way that would cover up something evil, something wrong, but use your freedom for the right means. In other words, because we're free men and women, we curtail certain freedoms that we might cultivate other freedoms.

And so he continues in verse 21 of First Peter, chapter 2. "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 deceit 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; who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness---by whose stripes you were healed."

"For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and the Overseer of your souls." Just to bring you back up to speed and get us all on the same page, especially if you're visiting us, what Peter has been dealing with and we've been looking at the last few weeks is this whole thing of submission. And we've been talking about submission to government. We've been talking about submission to management.

And now what Peter does is he brings us to the highest point of the text, really, the example and the motivation for submission, and that is, because we want to be like Jesus Christ. He did it; we do it. And the whole theme, that hinge verse that we told you about last time and the week before, the hinge verse is back in verse 12 where, notice, he writes, "Having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles."

You and I live in such a way among unbelievers who are watching us, and if we live like Jesus, and we have this attitude, it could be a catalyst for them to know Christ. Listen to that verse, verse 12, in the New International Version: "Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God." Now with the five verses that we have in front of us, I want to give you five quick statements to apply---how to be like Jesus in this area.

Like Jesus, live with endurance, that's number one. Like Jesus, live with endurance. You know what endurance is. It means putting up with things, putting up with people, endurance. Verse 21, "For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow in his steps." "To this you were called." To what were we called? To put up with harsh circumstances and harsh people.

To this you were called, to endure or to even suffer unfair treatment, simply because you and I follow a suffering Savior. Hey, remember that song "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus"? Do you know that one, "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus"? Do you know what the lyrics say in it? "I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back." Really? You've decided to follow Jesus, no turning back?

Because, again, last time I checked Jesus has walked in some pretty gnarly places, and the footsteps that he has laid out for us were in many places footsteps of suffering. It's a great song, but the reality of "I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back," well, that really is what he's saying. We're following him. Notice the word that he uses: "Leaving for us an example." I gotta tell you what that word means. The Greek word is hupogrammos, which means literally writing under, writing under.

In ancient times when they wanted to teach little kids their ABCs, they would take letters, writing, and place it under a piece of paper so that the little kids could see through the top sheet of paper, down to what's below, and trace perfectly the letters they were learning. In other words, Jesus Christ is the one by whom we trace the behavior of our life, whether good times or bad times. And that's the reason why we put up, endure harsh circumstances and harsh people, is because Jesus did it.

The text says we're following his steps; literally footprints, footsteps. Like a dad putting out steps in the snow and his son or daughter follows behind him and just puts those little feet in those little footprints---those big footprints. But those footsteps lead to Calvary. Those footsteps led to Roman persecution and Jewish persecution that cost him his life. And so, too, the Bible says all those who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer---what?---they'll suffer persecution.

I've always been compelled by a missionary woman named Amy Carmichael. She lived in the 1920s and '30s. She was Irish. She moved to India. Her whole ministry was to rescue children who would have been used as part of a sexual ritual in Hindu temples. She brought them and she raised them. In 1931 Amy Carmichael was praying one day, and she said, "Lord, whatever you want from my life, that's what I want to do. Whatever it costs, whatever it takes, I want you to do whatever you want to do in my life."

The next day she fell down and she broke several bones that rendered her basically immobile for years to come. She couldn't have the same workload that she had with the children. Never one to be bitter, she decided that this was the Lord's gracious way of allowing her a career in writing letters, books, and poems. Here's this young gal in Ireland following Jesus, she believed to India; following Jesus to rescue kids, looking for the Lord's will. This happens, seeing this as following Jesus.

And so she wrote a little poem that I've always loved. It goes like this: "Hast thou no scar? No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand? I hear thee sung as mighty in the land. I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star. Hast thou no scar? Hast thou no wound? Yet I was wounded by the archers, spent. Leaned Me against a tree to die, and rent by ravenous wolves that encompassed me; I swooned. Hast thou no wound? No wound? No scar? Yet, as the Master shall the servant be, and pierced be the feet that follow Me. But thine are whole. Can he have followed far who has no wound or scar?"

And so, like Jesus, live with endurance. Lord toughen me up to endure as I follow you. Let's take it a step further. Like Jesus, forgo vengeance. Verse 22, " 'Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth.' " Now, what Peter is doing is quoting from the Old Testament from Isaiah, chapter 53. He's quoting what Isaiah predicted Jesus would be like. And then in the very next verse, because Peter lived with Jesus in real time, he says that's what he did.

So look at the quote again, "'who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth.' "Now this is Peter's own experience. "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." Isaiah the prophet looking through the fog of time, seeing into the future there would come a Messiah who would suffer, having said nothing wrong and having done nothing wrong, still he would suffer.

His actions and his words were pure, were undefiled, were truthful, and were nonretaliatory. He didn't fight back, notice, "when he was reviled." That means verbally abused, people using insulting language against him, untrue accusations. Have you ever thought of all the things just said about Jesus that were untrue? Take comfort, because when people say things about you, remember back to this study. They called Jesus an evildoer. Can you imagine?

They called Jesus a deceiver, an illegitimate child, a blasphemer, and one who would come and destroy the temple. But here's the point: when all that happened, he didn't retaliate. He didn't say "Wait till after the resurrection. I know where you live." He didn't say anything. He didn't fight back. Now, it's not like he didn't have backup, right? I mean, he had bouncers; am I right? He had how many legions of angels? Twelve legions of angels, 72,000 angels.

He told Peter in the garden, "Don't you know that I can call 72,000 angels right now? Put your sword away." He didn't retaliate. At any moment Jesus could have zapped people. "Oh, there's a Pharisee." Buzz! Poof! "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Ooh, a Sadducee. H'm, I'll have a little more fun with him." Never did that. In fact, not only did he not do that, Pontius Pilate, his judge, marveled at Jesus saying nothing.

And at one point in the trial he said, "Do you answer nothing?" Wouldn't even open his mouth. And then from the cross, what were the first words out of his mouth? "Father, forgive them, they don't know what they are doing." Hey, if it would have been me, I don't know I could say, "Father, forgive them." I might say, "Father, fry them, flatten them. I don't deserve this." Jesus said, "Father, forgive them."

But herein lies the problem, the little quandary we have---because I said that I wouldn't say what Jesus said, and probably you wouldn't either. Here's the problem we have, you tell me if this is true: it's a whole lot more fun to get even than it is to forgive. It's a whole lot more satisfying to just get even than to forgive. Now, some of you are looking at me like, "I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm so holy." [laughter] Okay, whatever.

It is human nature. It's that human nature that has to be restrained, and brought in, and say no to because it is so natural to want to fight back. Like the maid who was fired from a large estate. She worked for a family and the family fired her. And on her way out the door they were all standing around, and she took a five dollar bill out of her purse and threw it to Fido the family dog. And the family said, "What's that for?"

She said, "I never forget a friend. That's for all the times she helped me clean your dishes." [laughter] Ooh that felt so good for her to say that. And we laugh at that because we know that would feel good. True story: a man created a product called Revenge selling for $3.99. He was just sick and tired of smokers blowing secondhand smoke into his face. He decided, "I'm going to create a little aerosol pocket-sized can called Revenge that gives smokers a dose of their own medicine---bad air.

This foul-smelling disinfectant irritates their nose and their eyes, and he carried it with him. Carries it with him, sells it, called Revenge. Sad thing is some of you are writing that down: "Goggle Revenge. Like to get some." [laughter] Ah, to forgo revenge. That was a lesson Peter the author of this letter had to learn. You remember the time he walked up to Jesus and he said, "Lord, how many times shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?"

He was feeling generous, seven times. Hey, just if right now I came down there and I punched you, and I said, "I'm sorry. I'm just crazy." You'd say, "Yeah, okay, you are sort of crazy. I forgive you." And then I turn right around and slugged you again. "Okay, uh, get away from me." And then I said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Would you just please forgive me?" I'd probably get away with it. But if I did that number three and number four and number five and number six and number seven, you'd have a hard time.

So Peter, when he said, "Seven times?" he's feeling pretty good. And then Jesus said, "No. Not seven times, but seventy times seven." That's not to be an exact count, by the way. "Okay, at 150 I'm going for it." [laughter] Or 400, what is it, 490? "Four ninety-one, man, come on!" Peter's question was the issue: "How many times do I let things happen and forgive before I start fighting back?" Forgiveness is easy to preach on and easy to listen to in a sermon, but try living it out on the street. That's the difficulty.

One author Frederick Buechner said, "Of the seven deadly sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to savor the last toothsome morsel is in many ways a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you." So, like Jesus, he's writing, live with endurance. And like Jesus, forgo vengeance.

Here's the third: Like Jesus, rest in confidence. Notice how verse 23 closes out: "But he committed himself to him who judges righteously." You know what commit means? Let it go. You turn it over. You commit it, you turn it over, you drop it off, and you let it go. You confidently rest in God's ability to handle the hurt that's been done to you. Let it go. Look over at chapter 4 for just a moment. First Peter 4 verse 19, he augments this thought.

"Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God," here it is, "commit their souls to him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator." Have you learned to do that? Have you learned to do that? Not once, but many times. By the way, do you know that in our text where it says "He committed himself," it's in the imperfect tense. Now in the Greek language the imperfect tense means, not once, but over and over and over continually.

So it could be translated: "He kept on committing himself to him." Here's the picture Peter is painting: with every new insult leveled on Jesus, Jesus said, "Father, I'm committing that to you"; with every abusive word, "Lord, I'm giving that to you"; with every slap of the hand, "Lord, I'm committing that one to you"; with every snap of the whip, "Father, I commit that to you." And over and over, repeatedly, until finally on the cross he said, "Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit," and he bowed his head and he died.

My brothers and sisters, you gotta do this. If you don't do this, you will be, if you're not already, you'll be a very bitter person. If every time a transaction that somebody has done to you enters your mind, if at that point you don't say, "Lord, I'm committing that to you. I've done it a hundred times, maybe more, but once again I'm giving it to you," you'll become bitter. It'll eat you up. Gotta get rid of it like a hot potato when you were a kid. You got it, get rid of it right now. Commit it.

I read an article about a man in Tokyo, Japan, who was arrested. And he was arrested because he had been so upset that he was denied entrance into a college for a graduate degree program fourteen years ago, fourteen years ago, that every single night since then between the hours of 8 p.m. and 2 a.m. he made phone calls to the school, harassing phone calls left on the answering machine to the professor that he thought was the one responsible for not letting him get into the program.

Fourteen years of that. Fourteen years of annoying phone calls total to more than 50,000 phone calls. Dude, let it go! Right? Here's my point: retaliation costs. Righteousness pays rich dividends, like being able to sleep at night and not stay up till two in the morning making stupid phone calls. Think of how many relationships get torn apart by anger and holding on to that grudge. "Oh, I got my cool, little grudge. I'm taking my grudge home and I'm gonna nurse it and feed it and pet it." No. Let it go. Commit it.

Number four: Like Jesus---you think it's been hard so far, get a load of this one. Like Jesus, love with extravagance. Verse 24, "Who himself bore our sin in his own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness---by whose stripes you were healed." Hey, do you know what? Jesus loved extravagantly. Do you know that? He was all-in, he was all-in. He so loved the world. It's not that he just endured, it's not that he just put up with people saying bad things to him, or making fun of him, or slapping him.

It's not that he just endured that, he gave his life's blood for those people who had said and done those things. Romans chapter 5 verse 8, "God demonstrates his own love toward us, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." It is the heart of the gospel, because that's the heart of God. And that ought to be the heart of God's people toward people out there for the sake of showing a witness to them, to love extravagantly. You can be a good doctor and not love your patients; I've worked with a bunch of them.

You can be a great lawyer and not love any of your clients; I've seen a few of them. You can be a good scientist and not love science. But you can't be a good Christian without love. It's part of it. And if you don't got it, you commit to him, you commit to him. You turn it over to him and you ask God to replace it with his love.

You know it's true, people can be stupid. Let's just say it right there. People can be stupid, amen? They can say stupid, nasty, hurtful things. Right? That's precisely why they need to be forgiven. That's why they need to be forgiven. Their imperfection as sinners demands forgiveness and love. Jesus said, "Love your enemies." Ouch! I was good till then, Lord. "Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who spitefully use you, pray for them."

I did this somewhat recently. There was someone in my life who had slighted me over the years on many occasions. And so I decided I'm going to send that person a gift basket and write a nice letter of encouragement and prayer and love. Because I remember once somebody saying, "Love your enemies, it'll drive them nuts." So I thought, I'm going to drive him nuts. I'm going to love on him. I'm going to shower God's love on him. Love with extravagance.

I've discovered that when you pray for someone long enough that you regard as your enemy, they can't stay your enemy too long. You keep praying for them asking God to bless them, pretty soon your feelings change toward them. A woman came to me after service and she was telling me about her ex-husband. She said, "I didn't love him as a husband. I do not love him as a man. He is my enemy." "I said, "Well, Jesus said, 'Love your enemies.' Love your enemies. Just love him as an enemy and see what happens when you start there."

And we finish that off by looking at the fifth: Like Jesus, display patience, like Jesus, display patience. Verse 25, "For you were like sheep going astray, but now have returned to the Shepherd and the Overseer of your souls." Here's the point: God let you go and sow your wild oats, and do your own thing, and live in rebellion. And he waited for you to come to your senses and come to him and rest under his authority as the Shepherd and Overseer of your soul. He let you do that.

He lived patient---he was patient with you in the past like the father of the prodigal son who saw his son leave, and sow his wild oats, and live with the pigs, but finally come home. I heard a story about a father and son in Madrid, Spain. They had a big blowout, words were exchanged, anger, went back and forth. Finally, finally, the young teenage son ran away from home. His dad so brokenhearted started looking for him all over town. Couldn't find him.

Called his friends, went to his digs, found nothing. Finally, last desperate hope he took an ad out in the Madrid newspaper that read: "Dear Paco, meet me tomorrow in front of the newspaper office at twelve noon. All is forgiven. I love you. Come home. Signed, Dad." The next day at twelve noon in front of the newspaper office in Madrid, Spain, there were 800 young men named Paco all waiting to receive forgiveness from their fathers from whom they were estranged.

Seems to be a common problem. Solution: patience, display patience. Give people a chance. They're running away from you, the relationship has been broken, give them time enough to reconcile with God and then come back to you. Paul said, "Love is patience. Love is kind. Love bears all things"---all things. Bear it, endure it---all things. So here we are called this morning in 2014 to put our life over the image of Jesus Christ and to trace in our letters, in our communication a life for ourselves that models his life.

In closing, let me just say, God has been patient with some of you for such a long time. Long time, right? Long time. He's waited for you to come to him for such a long time. He'll never force himself on you. Did you know that Jesus never met a disease he couldn't cure? Jesus never met a demon he couldn't cast out. He never met a dead person he couldn't resurrect. But he met plenty of people he could not convert. Many people left Jesus' presence not believing in him.

Because to believe in him, to receive forgiveness means you receive it. You have to take it. There's part that you have to play in it. It requires an act of your will. And if you haven't done that, he's waiting for you to come home. Bow with me for a moment as we close. Father, the last several weeks we have read things that are just counterintuitive to our own Western sensibilities, and the whole idea of submission is certainly in the forefront.

Submitting to government, submitting to management, and doing all that because we have a Savior that we are tracing our life after who did that. He never sinned with his words or his actions. Not that we could ever pull that off, but we're brought back once again to be a Christ follower, and to follow in his steps, and to look at his example. So help us, Lord, to put up with what we feel is excruciatingly painful at work or at home or with our neighbors or in government.

But to let go of vengeance, Lord, and to just submit it to you. And beyond that, to even show love that would blow their minds if we did, and to be patient with people who have wronged us that they might return to us. Father, I also want to pray for those who have never been converted, have never said yes to Jesus, good people, religious people, well-meaning, well-intentioned, highly motivated, professionals. There's so much going on in their lives, except for peace and rest and assurance that when they die they'll be in your presence.

I pray that they would come to you, rest in you. This morning as we close our service, just right where you're at, if you want to say yes to Jesus, come to him, maybe for the very first time in your life, maybe to come back to him after wandering, I'd love to pray for you. I need to know who I'm praying for. Just slip your hand up in the air if you want to say yes to him and you want to receive him as your Savior and Lord. Just raise your hand up for a moment just so I can pray for you as we close this service.

God bless you right up in the front. Keep it up a little bit so I can see it. I see your hand up here. Anyone else? Just raise it up. You're saying, "God, I need you." God bless you toward the back, on my left; right up the middle, a little bit to my right, I see your hand. Anyone else? Raise that hand up. Over in the family room, and off to my left; right in the middle. Father, we pray and in our prayer are thankful for these who have come and have been honest to raise that hand.

That hand displays need, in some cases a very deep need. Lord, I pray that as they receive Christ into their lives that their life would change, they would see and experience those changes. It doesn't mean that life is going to be perfect, but you are a perfect Master, the perfect Savior, and the perfect companion to all that life will afford. Convince them of that. Give them that level of rest.

If you raised your hand, would you just in your heart right now say: Lord, I know I am a sinner. Forgive me. Cleanse me. I believe Jesus died on a cross and shed his blood for me, and that he rose from the dead. I turn from my past and I turn to you as my Savior. I want to live for you as my Lord. Help me to do that, in Jesus' name, amen.

For more resources from Calvary Albuquerque and Skip Heitzig visit calvaryabq.org.