We want to thank you for listening to this week's sermon from Harvest Bible Chapel, Kansas City. We pray that you will be encouraged and challenged by God's Word today. If you would like more information about Harvest, please visit our website at www.harvestkansascity.org. Well, good morning. So great to be here with you guys this morning. If you could, go ahead and open your Bibles or pull your phones out and go to 1 Peter 2. We'll be in verses 13 through 25 today. For those who may not know, my name is Kurt Fisher, and I have the privilege to serve on the elder team here at the church. And I just want to mention that it is truly a privilege and an honor to serve along these gentlemen. They truly are. Very humble and just desire to honor the Lord through that office. And so if you are new here today or if you haven't been here for some time, I just wanted to let you know we are going through the book of 1 Peter this summer. A group of men, including the elders, we are sharing the teaching responsibility this summer. And so this week is my turn to dig into 1 Peter. If you do not have a Bible, our ushers will be coming down. We have certainly a copy of a Bible for you. If you don't have one, it's yours as a gift. Otherwise, you can have it for the service today so that we can follow along. So over the last few weeks, as we've dug into this book, the apostle Peter, you know, Jeff kicked off this series, and he's laid the foundation Peter has. of our identity in Christ. And then he went on to talk about our great hope that we have and our salvation and the inheritance that awaits us for those that are called by his name. We then went through the passage of being called to holiness. And then, of course, last week, reminded that we are living stones and that we are being built up into Christ. And so now that we have that as a foundation, these next few weeks really gets practical in what living as a believer in this world looks like. Jesus in John 17 made the comment, you know, we are not of this world. And then Peter, earlier on, says, we are sojourners, we are exiles. This is not our home. So we are, in a sense, passing through because our citizenship, as we sung this morning, is in heaven, right? For those that are believers. And so with that as a backdrop, Peter, in the context that he was writing, and for us today, that we will hopefully graciously learn today, begins to describe in this letter what tangibly living as a Christian looks like day to day. We've titled this, or I've titled this today, Submitting for Christ. And the big idea, as we see through the passage today, is that Christ deferred his rights. Will we defer ours? That's essentially what the theme that we're going to work through today is, and there's really three main sections that we're gonna dive in today. The first one is gonna be how we submit to our governing authorities. That's not apropos today, I know. Then we'll talk about how we interact with those that we work for, our employers, and then we look at what Christ has done as his example. So essentially, that's the outline today. And so we're gonna dig into that. And what I'd like to do, if you wouldn't mind, I would like to read through the whole passage first. It's God's Word, right? Think about it. God's Word is written. It's done. It's revealed. That's what we have today. So it is written. We know it is God's inerrant Word. So now our responsibility as believers is to what? Obey it. Right? And if you're like me, wrestling with this passage, certainly there was some conviction in my life as well, because this gets to, as some say, the nitty gritty. So I'm going to go ahead and read through it, and I'm actually going to read the prior two verses. I'm going to read verses 11 and 12. Jeff highlighted those last week. I think it's important to read those as a context, because that's where he really launches into how we live. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Verse 12, keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evil doers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Now we'll get into our text for today. Verse 13, be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good, you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when, you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to you, I'm sorry, for to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed for you were strained like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. Will you pray with me? God, I need you, we need you. This is your word. God, may we honor you in the preaching this morning of delivering your truth today. I pray that you would open our hearts and minds for the truth that you have for us so that we would live worthy of the calling you've given us. God, we love you. I pray for clarity. I pray that I just be your mouthpiece today. We love you, it's in your name, amen. Okay, so, first section. Be subject to the Lord's sake to every human institution. Now, I will tell you that, excuse me, take a drink. I will tell you that he says to every human institution, but then he qualifies it this passage, that's to the emperor or to all those governors that he sends. So the context clearly in this passage is our governing authorities. But we need to keep in mind here that it's for the Lord's sake that we do it. Subject, to be subject to is really just to submit. And submit here means to place in an orderly fashion under. Okay, so as we look, and Paul in Romans 13 clearly, if you wanna reference that later, he lays out the foundation and the purpose of government. It's to provide order, it's to punish the evildoers, It's also, as Peter said here, to recognize those who do good. But as we come under our government, we need to recognize that these governing institutions are ordained by God, right? So for us to disobey our government or our ruling authorities is ultimately to disobey and dishonor the Lord. You know, Peter, put yourself in Peter's shoes, okay? What has he witnessed at this point? He's witnessed the crucifixion of Christ. He has been imprisoned. He has been persecuted. And we know, as we learned earlier, that he is under the Emperor Nero in Rome. Now, this letter was sent to the provinces of modern-day Turkey, right? We recognize that. But those were all under the authority of Rome and Nero. And there was spotted persecution throughout the empire. Rome, later on in Nero's reign, clearly had significant persecution with Christians. So Peter is writing in the context that, hey, Rome is no poster child of ethical governing, right? I mean, infanticide, clear corruption, highly paganistic, right? And here, Peter, as a follower of Christ, is telling his readers, and us today, we are to submit to that, because ultimately, God's behind it. And then, ultimately, Peter is crucified, or is martyred. Tradition says he was crucified upside down, but he was martyred under the reign of Nero. So we gotta understand, Peter's been through a lot, and so he is writing us to this instruction. We need to keep in mind, though, even though the institutions that God has created for us as governors over us, even though that's instituted by God, we all know that many of the people that hold those offices are godless. But that does not change what our command is to submit. We are to do so for the Lord's sake. This is essentially on account of the Lord. Jeff talked last week, our motivation, right? We long for the pure spiritual milk. So what's our motivation in doing this, right? It's for the Lord's sake. It's on account of him. People ask you, man, why are you doing this? It's because of the Lord, right? It's because the Lord has changed my life. So we desire to honor him through our righteous living. And we'll get into that a little bit more. Now today, Candidly, we're blessed to live in the country we do, right? I've only been internationally a couple times, okay? But I will tell you, I know we may have our issues as a country, but wow, we are blessed to live in this country, certainly in the freedoms that we have. The Constitution, the document that governs our country, still does so today. And we have our system in place to uphold that. Okay? We also have the privilege and the right to vote as citizens of this country. Not everyone has that. So here's the key, though. Once we cast our vote, we are to submit to whoever is in office. We recognize that, and where the rubber can meet the road here, and certainly in Peter's time, Try to think of it this way. So the church was new, right? The church was birthed. People were being saved. The gospel was spreading, and so you had these pagans being saved, you had households where some were saved, some weren't. We'll get into it a little bit. You had slaves being saved, owners being saved that had slaves. And so Peter's instructing here, and so what could happen is people in that society and us today would say, well, I'm a servant of Christ now. I've been set free by Christ, so do I really need to follow the laws of our land? Yes, as Peter says. So as we look at the purpose of government, it's to maintain order. Even the most challenging and pagan governments are better than pure anarchy. Anyone hear what happened in Haiti last week? Right? So gas prices went up. There was riots. Some people lost their life. There was buildings that were burned down. There was for a period of time, anarchy, things got out of control. Church groups, groups couldn't get out because there was craziness because people weren't submitting to the authority there. It's about order. God is a God of order. So We know... So think about this. When we obey the laws, do we have anything to worry about, generally speaking? Right? No. If we're driving down the road, and its speed limit's 35, and we're going 30, do we have anything to worry about being pulled over speeding? What if we're going 38, 42, 45? If you're like me, I'll be driving, and I'll see a police officer sitting up top. I'm like, ooh! And I get that... Feeling in my gut, am I the only one who gets that? It's like, oh. There'll be times I'll be driving, I'm like, oh no, no, no, no. My kid's like, what, what, what, what? Oh, there was a policeman there, I didn't know if I was gonna get caught. Because I know the punishment that exists. I don't wanna pay that fine. Insurance goes up, it's crazy, right? So the purpose of government is to maintain order, and we know when we break that, or by conscience sake, because we love the Lord, and we're submitted to Him, we know that we deserve that punishment, because we broke the law. Now kids, you're not exempt. Okay, so household rules, right? So, can any parents relate to this? Generally kids, especially in the younger years, they generally make noise, especially when they're having fun, right? And I remember years ago, I've got three kids, two of my three. I was watching them one day when my wife was working, and I remember I was on the phone, and I'm like, wait a second, it's gotten awfully quiet. So I'm like, hey, called their names, they're young, and my wife, has this chocolate fountain business. So back in the day, we would actually store quite a bit of chocolate, chocolate chips. Now we're in the just-in-time inventory, so we don't store that anymore. And we would store it upstairs in a closet and tucked away from everyone. And so I'm calling their names, calling their names, and walking by, I don't hear anything. You know, and they were younger than five and younger than four, I think. And so, calling their names, I don't hear anything. I open up the door to the room. I see that the closet door is closed. I'm like, hmm, where the chocolate is. Open up the door. They're just sitting there, chocolate all over. They knew they were busted. They got quiet, right? So we know the purpose of government is to maintain order, just like in our household, we need to maintain order, right? Okay. We'll get to this in a bit, but I've been a commercial banker for years, and so I have the opportunity to meet a lot of great people. And a lot of conversations come up around the subject of taxes. I'm not sure why. It's kind of a, I don't know, sensitive topic to a lot of people. You don't have to be a business owner for it to be sensitive, right? But guess what? Even Paul says this in 13, we are responsible to pay taxes. Jesus even said, render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and under God to what is God's. That's part of submitting to our government. Question is, should we always submit, though, to our government? What if our government were to specifically tell us to do something that is in 100% contradiction to God's word? What do we do? We honor the Lord first. And in those times, we respectfully disobey what we're being told to do, because it's against God's word. We see this a couple times in Daniel. Daniel three, right? Daniel's three friends. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They were called to worship this golden image, which is idolatry. They wouldn't do it. They wouldn't do it. They honored the Lord and the Lord delivered them, right? But they said, even if he does not, we will never bow to another. We only serve our king. So there are exemptions. If it violates God's will, we need to obey what Christ has called us to do. Verse 16, it does have a qualifier here. He says, live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil. So what does that mean? Well, we're free, right? Christ has set us free. For those who have set free, we are free indeed. But what happens is sometimes people can come to the false conclusion that that means we can do anything. Hey, we're free, go into heaven, can live however I want. Uh-uh, we still have to obey the rules of the land. You know, when we see this, especially here in America, what's one of our first rights? Freedom of speech, right? Freedom of speech, I can say whatever I want. And we see that on Facebook, don't we? See whatever we want. But should we? We don't use our freedom in Christ as a license to sin, especially with our tongue. And we can dishonor our authorities and those above us so quickly by lashing our tongue. James talks about that in chapter three, right? But we are not to use our freedom as an excuse to sin. So, As we do this, and think about this, when you're on Facebook, and we'll talk about this in a little bit more, we do not use our freedom just because we have it. Just say whatever we wanna say. Okay. He then goes on, as he goes on to this verse, don't use your freedom, then he gets to verse 17. Has four commands, and we're gonna kinda go through these quickly. The first one is honor everyone. Now, I think everyone means everyone, right? But sometimes it's easy if people aren't like me or if they don't think like me or if they just kind of rub me the wrong way. Do I have the tendency to treat them differently or maybe give them a cold shoulder? By the way, I was confronted to this a while back. If you don't think you probably rub people the wrong way, you probably do. So it's caused me to really look inside, I'm like, what do I do that really rubs people the wrong way? But honor everyone. What does this mean? To show honor? To give respect? To be courteous? Brothers and sisters, this is a hard thing naturally, right? Especially in our society where we have everything so easily given to us, conveniently speaking, right? So how do we show honor? Well, let me just, by putting others above ourself, right? Humility is not thinking less. Jeff talked about this a while back. Humility is not thinking less of ourselves, it's thinking more of others. So I'm going to share this story. It's embarrassing, but I'm going to share it. I struggle. My wife and I and my family went on vacation to the beach about a month ago. We couldn't get on the beach for a couple of days weather-wise, and so we finally get on the beach. We had a nice little wide area. No one was on either side of us. It was awesome. And then as we're digging sandcastles and having fun, there's some people that come and literally stand right in front of us, like eight feet away, completely blocking our view of the ocean. I'm on the beach, people. And I start getting irritated. I'm like, can you just go like 10 feet down? And I am literally wrestling in my mind. Do I say something? Do I not say something? No, I need to honor him. And I'm going back and forth. I'm like, I shouldn't, I should just move. I said something to him. That's not honoring him, right? I have no idea what they were talking about. We need to honor everyone because everyone is an image bearer of God. Then he says, love the brotherhood. Let me just take a step back, going back to honor everyone. What does this look like daily in our interactions? How do we treat the waiter or waitress when our food comes out wrong, right? How do we treat the bank dollar when he or she asks for your ID because he doesn't know you? Or they messed up a transaction? How do we treat people on the roadways? Honor everyone. Number two, love the brotherhood. This is the household of faith. This is the church. So the love here is agape, we are to unconditionally love our family. Paul in Galatians 6.10 says, do good to everyone, especially those in the household of faith. Jesus said in John 13, that by this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another, right? How do we love one another? Peter says, love the brotherhood, agape love. So how does this play out practically? Because Paul also in Romans 12.10 says, and I love it, outdo one another in showing honor. Isn't that awesome? So in our church, I gotta tell you, I'm so blessed by our church. We have generally just a heart of service and coming alongside, we have families that are just going through it. I mean, that they are, let's face it, being pulverized. but yet our church is coming alongside. Sometimes it's a very practical things of helping move. Meal trains, obviously praying, just coming alongside and sitting with people. Deferring, not always having to be right. We're keeping to ourselves, our opinions. Love well, our brothers. Then he says to fear God. It's interesting, the other was honor and love. God, we're to fear. And essentially, We are to trust him in all circumstances, no matter how difficult they are, because he's sovereign. And here's a sobering thought that Jesus tells us. He says, do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. That's who we are to fear, because he is our sovereign and our king. Then he says, honor the emperor. or the king in our day, it's our president and our governing authorities. As we honor him, we've talked about this, as we submit to our authorities, think about this. I'll get on Facebook from time to time, and I've certainly been guilty of this in the past, but why is it Facebook and social media We haven't had that in generations before. We now have the ability to see everyone's thoughts immediately if they're posted. And there's so much raw emotion that goes into that. And so when we post, are we honoring? Here's some practical ways to demonstrate our submission to our government. We've talked about this before. Vote. That's a form of submission. We're voting. That's our right under our government. Pay taxes. We've talked about this. Pray for our leaders. That was convicting for me. A lot of times, I like to complain versus pray. So pray for them. Pray for them. When you want to complain, pray. And then, of course, do not publicly disrespect. That's not what we're called to do. The unbelieving world's going to do that. How are we different if we join in on that? Okay, so briefly, I want to give you just four tips or considerations before you post on social media. Ask yourself, what is my motivation in posting? Do I just want to be right? Am I offended? Here's a question for you, and I heard this in a sermon years ago that I was listening to. This goes back to honoring everyone. How offended would I be, genuinely offended, if I thought of the other person higher than myself? So think about that. What is my motivation? Number two, if you post, choose your words carefully. But before you post, wait a period of time. If you're like me, I get amped up quickly. Wait a period of time. Be quick to listen and slow to speak. And in this form, speaking is posting. And then remember to always show respect. We'll finish this point up by saying in Matthew, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, he says, let your light shine in such as such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven. As believers, we are peculiar people. If we act like everyone else, how are they going to know how we've been transformed by Christ? All right, so that brings us to our second point. Let's submit to our employers, verses 18 through 20. Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust. Wow, right? Now, thank the Lord we do not have slavery today, right? The atrocities that we saw in the 1800s was terrible. Fortunately, through gospel transformation over the years, slavery was abolished. However, the slavery although still bad in the first century, was just different than what comes to our mind when we think of what happened in the 1800s. not affirming it, and Peter and Paul in Apostles didn't affirm slavery, but they were writing in the context in which they lived. In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul says, when you're saved, remain in your context. And then he says to the slaves, if you can be free, be free, but be saved and stay in your context so that we can be used by God to transform those around us by how we live. So slavery was very common. By this time, just real briefly, those who were in slaves originally in the Roman Empire became slaves through prisoners of war and being kidnapped. But by the time the first century rolled around, the majority of slaves had been born into slavery. And there were two types of slaves, ones that were in mines and in agriculture out in the country. They would actually work for managers that worked for their owners who lived in the cities. Those slaves had a much more miserable life. In the urban areas, in the cities, their life was easier because they were in the cities. And a lot of the slaves, and the word used here is actually that of a household servant, household slave. And so the slaves that were treated, and they weren't, it wasn't necessarily race-driven or ethnically driven. Slaves were... It didn't matter where you came from if you were born into slavery. That was the audience that Peter was talking to here. So because of that, slaves accounted for a significant part of the workforce. As a matter of fact, almost 20% of the population at that time were slaves. And so how we can apply that today is in our workforce. Although we don't have slavery today, the concept here is that of how do we work within our employment and our businesses that we work for. We are to be subject to them, right? When we are employed by a company and by people that own a company, we are to be subject to them because we're working for them. And if you've been in the workforce long enough, you've probably had bosses that were gentle, were kind. You probably had bosses that were unjust, were mean. Now, just as a quick off-ramp here, if there is significant abuse going on, most companies have built-in systems to address those things. As believers, the context here is, how are we to respond to those that we work for? It's with respect. It is very easy in the workplace, because we're there all day, if those that work full time, to really get apathetic or complacent because you don't like how things are being handled. And if you work with unbelievers, it's really easy to fall into complaining and grumbling, right? And then you start eroding the character of those you work for by complaining about the decisions being made. As believers, we're called to a higher level. Sure, we have a right to speech, but don't use it to attack character. Don't use it to undermine the authority of our employers. We are to be peculiar in the sight of the world because Christ, as we will see shortly, was our example in that. Because Peter basically makes a clarification. He says, hey, by the way, what credit is it if you sin and do wrong that you're punished for it? You deserve it. It's those that are treated unjustly that respond in grace as Jesus did. It says that it's a gracious thing in God's sight. It is pleasing in God's sight, because his son did that. And it's easy for us, if you're like me, to fall into, if we were to mess up at work, well, but if I wasn't so busy, if things weren't so crazy, if they'd hire more people. Do your job and do it well, as hard as that is, right? Be subject to those you work for. Also in the workplace, you may suffer because of your beliefs as Christians, right? If you're saving yourself for marriage and you let people know in the workplace, that doesn't make any sense. No one else is doing that. Um, if you, if you don't call sin acceptable, right? If you call out what sin is by not going along, you could be mistreated for that. Um, So as we look at this, let's remind ourselves, when you go to work this week, honor your employers. And I will tell you, employees, of which I'm one, just as an aside, having the opportunity to work with business owners for a long time, I don't think everyone sees this because some people work at very large companies and nonprofits and things. But I've been able to see firsthand the risk that business owners take, financially, personally. And if nothing else, respect them because of that, that we have a job because people have taken that risk. Just a few things here briefly to think about. What are ways that we can submit and what does that tangible look like? When you're at work, work, work hard. Don't look for excuses to take breaks or to walk around the office and to chit-chat at the water cooler. Work. Obviously, do not degrade your superiors. And then take responsibility for your actions. If you mess up, own it. And then if you're a business owner or a manager, understand, as we've been called to in scripture, treat your employees with respect, because everyone is needed to accomplish the task at hand. So this leads us to our final point, And that is to submit to Christ. And there's three things that we're gonna briefly go through here. We're gonna submit to Christ, first of all, as our standard. It says here in verse 21, for this you've been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. And then now Peter basically refers to Isaiah 53. You guys remember that? The suffering servant passage, which does an incredible job of depicting the suffering that Christ went through. So Peter just said, hey, we're called to suffer. And it's a gracious thing when we endure suffering graciously. And he says, you can do this because Christ is your example. And the word example here, the picture here is, remember when you were kids and you wanted to learn how to draw something, you would put some paper over the image and you would trace it? That's the image here. Christ is our example. He's our standard. You know, when we look at here, and Peter here references Isaiah 53, it says, he committed no sin. None of us can say that. He committed no sin, but neither was deceit found in his mouth. And then when he was reviled, and reviled is verbal abuse, right? He did not revile in return. And then when he suffered, he did not threaten. That's our call here. We live in a world where everything is about our rights right now. Everywhere we turn, well, it's my right to do this, my right to do this. Christ deferred his rights. When we are criticized, will we defer ours for the glory of the gospel and for the glory of the Lord? If anyone ever, can you imagine this? Jesus is sitting there, standing there after being scourged and whipped. And they're threatening him, their creator, if anyone had a right. Can you imagine what would be going through my mind? Oh, just you wait. Oh, he'd do this. Oh, this is going to happen to you. By the word, he could have sent everyone into hell right there. I mean, the control that he had. How did he make it through this? Because it says he entrusted himself to his father. To entrust means to hand over or commit. So every lash that he got, every verbal abuse that he received, he handed it over to the Father to the point where, ultimately on the cross, he says, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. In trust, we have the ability because Christ went before us, he knows everything that we've been through, and he is our example in suffering and how we are to respond. The second point is he's our Savior, verse 24. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and to live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed." To bear our sins, that word bear up means to carry a weight. I think probably everyone here has either helped someone move or moved. That's not my favorite pastime, right? But how awesome is it, right, when you're... And I think, by the way, the pianos are the worst. When you're lifting that piano, I can't do it, and then two or three other guys come along, and they help you, that burden lifts, right? There's only one person that could alleviate the burden of our sin, and that is Christ. He bore our sins. Only one could do that. He was our substitute. He was our Savior. He did so so that we could die to sin. Die is to be removed, right? We are no longer, that's what I love about the songs we sang today. We are no longer under the power of sin. To be set free really means that we are set free from sin to do what is right. We are called to live righteously. That's what this passage is about. As a believer, if we call ourselves that, how are we to look to the world? In chapter three, we're gonna talk about being prepared to give an answer. When people look at you and say, why are you living that way? because of what Christ has done. He has set me free, so now I can be free to do righteously. He paid it in full, brothers and sisters. Lastly, he's our shepherd. It says, for you were strained like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. If you read the NAS, the word there for overseer is guardian. It's the same word in chapter five that we'll go to that talks about the elders of the church. When it says, return to the shepherd, that's also in Isaiah 53. If you think about the prodigal son in Luke 15, how he went out and then he returned, he repented. That word is basically repent. He's turned from, we've turned that are believers now that have given our life to Christ, have turned away from our sin and have come to him to the shepherd and overseer of our souls. Psalm 23, right? Very popular. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want the imagery of shepherd is all throughout the Bible, right? Cause we're sheep. Sorry guys, we're kind of dumb, right? That's why we need the body of believers and crisis, our shepherd. So we can live this life together. But as our shepherd, he's our provider, our leader, our protector, our feeder. He's the shepherd of our souls. He protects us. Romans 12 says this, Paul talks about this, and Timothy says this, we will be persecuted as genuine believers who live out our faith. We will, to differing degrees. We're graciously living in a country where that's been largely muted, but it's trending upward, right? But we largely will. But Christ tells us, vengeance is mine, says the Lord. There is a time. There is a time, but it's not ours. It's not our right to retaliate. The Lord will judge. That's not up to us. He is our shepherd. As the worship team comes up, to sing this last song. This last song is Man of Sorrows, which I love the song, and this worship set today, thank you Tim and the worship team, it's just been awesome as usual. In verse 10 of Isaiah 53, it says this, yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. Family, Christ but for the joy set before him endured the cross. And it was his father's will to crush him. He was the only one that could be our substitute. He bore the wrath of our sins on that cross for us. He is our substitute, he is our savior, and for those that have entrusted their life to him, he is now your shepherd. If you've never given your life to Christ, I would ask that you come up and talk to me afterwards or someone that has a lanyard on. You know, Christ endured all of this suffering, but the thing that hurt him the most was when he said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He was separated for a time from his father because he had to bear the full wrath of God on him. But now, he is risen. He is our God and our shepherd. Lord, we thank you for this time. We thank you for your word. Pray, Lord, that you would just use it. Lord, your truth to just penetrate our hearts so that we may live righteously for you. It's in your name, amen.