1 Peter - 2022

And if you'd like to grab a bible, and turn with me to 1 Peter in chapter 3. I'm gonna be reading from verse 8. 1 Peter, Chapter 3, and verse 8. Finally, That was weird, wasn't it?

Finally, doo doo doo. Anyway, sorry. That's chapter 3 birthday. Finally, All of you, be like minded, be sympathetic, love 1 another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insults.

On the contrary, repay evil with blessing. Because to this, you are called so that you may inherit a blessing. For whoever would love life and see good days, must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. They must turn from evil and do good, They must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their prayer but the face of the lord is against those who do evil.

Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear their threats. Do not be frightened. But in your heart, revere Christ as lords.

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have, but do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. For it is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous, for the unrighteous to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body, but made alive in the spirit. After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirit to those who were disobedient long ago when god waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.

In it, only a few people, ate and all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also. Not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a clear conscience towards God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven, and is at god's right hand with angels, authorities, and powers in submission to him? Well, those last few verses have been called the hardest verses in the Bible, and we're not going to deal with them today. We'll get we'll come back to that in 2 weeks time after our east services next week and the week after.

It gives me another 2 weeks to panic about those verses. They're not as difficult as as they they may sound. But I I I I won't I won't introduce them now. Just to say also that there's a big crowd away a big team from here up at Word alive doing the youth at Word alive is worth knowing that and serving. The the the youth there, which is good.

And then Ben is off as well doing a a youth. Is it a weekend or a week? It's a whole week. So let's be remembering them. And let's pray for ourselves now.

Father, as we come to these verses, we know that they have blessed people for 2000 years, all the way around the world. People have read these verses, been challenged and changed by them. So help us now, buy your spirit, to hear this word and be challenged and changed by them in Jesus' name. Now, Peter's writing to Christians that are spread around the first century Roman world. And he's helping them to to live as Christians in in a hostile world.

A world that is more than suspicious that the Christians are the bad guys. And that their message that the Christians call the good news is actually bad guy message. That's that's what's going on. And we're finding this actually really helpful because it feels like we're living in these sort of times as well in in 2022 in the UK. There there was a time of course in this country where the Christian world view was seen as As the proper world view, it was taught as truth and encouraged people to to to listen to it.

But that's not the that's not the case today, obviously. And very often, the Christian message is is seen as oppressive for freedom. Narrow minded, offensive, judgmental, all those words are used against Christians nowadays very often. So we're living in a very similar world that Peter the Christians that Peter was writing to a living to a living in. So it it seems that we can be the bad guys when once we were the good guys.

And our message is the bad guy message. Now, before we get into the next installment, I'm gonna cheer you up. The next bit of advice that Peter gives us in how to live in a hostile world. Gonna show you an animation, little little animation. From a fairly recent version of pilgrims progress.

John Bunyan's pilgrimage progress. I've no time to introduce the whole of it, but this is what's happening. You have Christian and faithful, they're Christians. They're dressed in a different way. They'll they're dressed in the armor of God, so they look odd.

And they're going through to they're they're on their way to the celestial city, to heaven. As Christians are. And they have to go through vanity fair, the world, this world, to get there. Now just watch what happens to them. The people of the fair are offended by them and yet they've done nothing.

They're offended by them because they don't join in with the fair and that makes them the bad guys. It's quite long, but it's a nice clip. So bear with me. I hope you enjoy it. Let's have a watch of this.

Brilliant. Well, I hope that wasn't too long, but you've got you've got a picture of of what it's like. Here's Christian, here's faithful. They're treated unfairly and they're treated cruel cruelly, and they're gonna be put through hardship to see whether what they have internally is actually real. That's what's going on.

But you see that they're the bad guys. They're the bad they they haven't done anything wrong, but they're they're the bad guys. And so this is what Peter is writing about. How how we meant to live in a world where you suffer like that? Where you're gonna be put through hardships when you haven't done anything wrong.

So here's a number of things. Let's get into the text. First of all, if you open up that passage 1 peter chapter 3, first of all, in a hostile world, be zealous for good. In a hostile world be zealous for good. Verse 13.

It's a wonderful little verse. Who is gonna harm you if you were eager to do good? Now, I thought about that verse all week. And I I've come to love that that verse. And although this sounds sort of wrong, I'm not sure if this is wrong, but it feels like a happy little verse.

And it's 1 of these verses I think we ought to wedge into our thinking. Who is going to harm you if you're eager to do good? Lovely verse. In other words, It's like waking up in the morning and if you put this verse on your lips and in your hearts and in your minds and in your actions and in your prayers, it's gonna actually change that day in front of you. See, what it what it's not is waking up in the morning and she won't be spotted in this.

It's not I want to do very day and forget the nasty world. It's eager. It's up and atom. It set me alarm clock early so that I can do more good in the day. Eager to do good.

The word eager comes from the word zealous, which comes from the people, the zealots, The zealots at the time were patriotic people that would lay their life down their comforts down. Their whole life in order to get rid of the enemy from their land. If you watch the Ukrainians on TV and you see them on the news, it's like that. They're zealots for their land and any invading force. They'll lay their life down to stop that.

That's what the zealots are. And Peter Peter says, who is gonna harm you if you're a zealot for doing good? If you're zealous for doing good. Here's a day before you. This is why I love this little verse.

A new opportunity, you wake up, eyes open, to do good, I'm gonna zealously, eagerly, go into the world, a hostile world even. A world where there's enemies, I'm gonna go into the world and do good. That's a wonderful little verse. Just go back to verse 12, the verse before it. And Peter says, for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and the ears are attentive and his ears are attentive to their prayer.

But the face of the lord is against those who do evil. So so here you are again. You're opening your eyes to a new morning and guess whose eyes are already opened. God's eyes are opened. God's eyes are opened and they're look he's looking on the righteous.

I mean, isn't that's why I love this little verse 30. Isn't that exciting? You wake up in a hostile world. Yeah. Okay.

It's a hostile world. Bullits are going off all over the place. But your father is watching you. Your father is going to be on the sidelines as you go into battle. The father God is egging you on, supporting you, clapping you.

He's on your side. Go on son. And his ears are attentive. And you can ask him, father. Help me do good in this hostile world.

Help me because his ears are attentive. You're a good God. Help me be a child of a good God. And do good in this hostile world. And Peter's shown us all over the place, so far what it is to do good.

Show proper respect to everyone, love your brothers and sisters, fear God, honor the king. He's told husbands to treat their wives and wives how to treat their husbands. We've seen all this stuff. He says, live in harmony with 1 another, be sympathetic, be compassionate, Be humble. Don't repay evil with evil.

Don't retaliate. Be like the Lord Jesus Christ. Bring blessings to those who curse you. Live your life in a way that might bring salvation to as many people as many people as possible. Chapter 2 verse 17 is the verse I think of 1 Peter.

Live such good lives. There it is again. Among the pagans, those that don't believe what you believe. Such good lives among the pagans, that though they accuse you of doing wrong, They may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. It's an amazing little verse.

Verse 13. So pray. Ask for zeal. Ask to be like the Lord Jesus Christ. Ask to be compassionate to those that you meet and caring and loving How do you view people?

It's a very good question to ask. And how do you view hostile people? There's there's a there's a lovely verse in in the Paul Rights in the in the book of Corinthians. And he talks about saying that if anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation. The oldest is gone, the newest come.

If anyone is in Christ, they're a new creation. The oldest is gone, the newest come. So it's a lovely verse, isn't it? That someone is made brand new. If we go into this hostile world, with a verse like that in our mind.

We'll be able to say, yeah, look, that bloke is such an enemy of Christ. His words His way with words is horrific, but if he was a new creation in Christ. That same talent for words could be used to bring glory to Jesus. If that stubborn woman at work, who is very unpleasant. If only she would come to Christ, She would use her stubbornness for righteousness.

She would say no one's pushing me to do anything sinful. If that annoying person that's always talking rubbish, if if they were a new person in Christ, They would always be talking about Jesus. If we go into the world, seeing what Christ could do on people, seeing what good we could do even to our enemies. It changes everything, doesn't it? It's a happy little verse, isn't it?

Who is going to harm you if you're eager to do good? If God's ears are upon you and his eyes are upon you, Who could harm you when you're zealous to do good? Who is it? They might be able to do all kinds of things to you, but they can't stop you doing God's work of good. Who could do that if God is with you?

If God is for us, who is it that would be against us? They're nothings. They might be against us, but who are they? Compared to be God being with us, and us going into the world to fulfill his purpose of doing good. But I think in this verse, I nearly did a whole sermon on this verse, so you know, there we go.

I I think it shows us something else. It it shows us that there is some suffering that is just clearly avoidable for for Christians. If you behave in a good way and a positive way towards even your enemy and you see what they could be in Christ, It will actually minimize your suffering in this world. It is quite hard if you're zealous for good, for people to be zealous for evil against someone who zealous for good. It's it's at least harder.

And if they are against you, and harm you, then their evil is shown up, and your goodness is shown up. So that's why Peter is writing. If you're a person of integrity, and you're doing good. The vast majority of people will be sort of accept you. They might think you're weird.

But they sort of let you go. Some Christians suffer, not because they're Christians, but because they're obnoxious people. They haven't allowed Christ in their life enough. They go on about being persecuted but they're not persecuted because they're following Christ, it's because they're obsessed with themselves. Some suffering for Christians is avoidable if we do good.

We'll come back to that in a minute. So here's my first point. In a hostile world, be zealous for good, and there may be less suffering coming to you. But if you do suffer for doing good, it's not the end of the world, and that's my second point. In a hostile world, if being zealous for good causes you to suffer, you will be blessed.

You'll be blessed Look at verse 14. But even if you do suffer for what is right, You are blessed. It's it's weird, isn't it? Look, anyone anybody can accept a reward and accept a reward graciously for doing something good. If you've done something good, and someone wants to reward you for it, it's very easy to accept that reward.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Many of us but not all can accept a punishment patiently if we've done something wrong. Yep.

Fair enough. I did something wrong. Yep. I'll accept that. But to accept mistreatment when you've done good is really hard.

That seems to me to be supernatural. But even notice the word even, but even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. Naturally, if you suffer for doing good, you're outraged, aren't you? It's not fair. Yeah?

Little kids know how to say that. Very early on in their language development. Why God? All the good I do has left no impression on these people, so what is the point of doing good? Do you have a feeling like that?

It's natural to retaliate. Okay. I did you good? You do me harm? Or do you harm?

Yeah? It's like a tennis match. The ball comes flying over, and to harm you, you whack it back as hard as you can, to smash it into his court. I'm not gonna take it any longer, or you run and hide. You run and hide.

The only way you can still be eager, zealous for doing good when you're mistreated is that you look at suffering supernaturally. Verse 14. But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. You're blessed. If you're suffering for doing right, you're blessed.

That's what it says. And the word blessed is a very special word. The Greeks used it for Cyprus. It was called the blessed Island. They believed that Cyprus was so lovely and so rich I've never been Who's been anybody been to Cyprus?

I've never you been to Cyprus. It's so lovely You have. So lovely, so rich, So fertile that a person doesn't need to go, you know, beyond the shoreline, beyond the coastline, to have perfect bliss in their life. It's got everything you want. Yeah?

That's the word Peter uses here. That's the word. Bless. It describes blessed in so you don't need to go anywhere else. It's it's all there on the island.

It's blessed. You're you're untouchable. The blessing is untouchable. The the the joy is untouchable there. It doesn't matter what circumstances come, it doesn't matter what changes in your life.

It's not the word happiness. The English word happiness has the root word hap, which means chance happenings. Things happen to you. And so you're dependent on happenings to be joyful. He uses this word, your in Christ your it's the word Jesus uses in the beatitudes.

Bless to those. Bless to those who mourn. Blessed to those who You know, in other words, you do mourn, but you're blessed. That's the Christian life. Jesus says, after he'd written the game to his disciples, he says no 1 will take your joy from you.

No 1 will take your joy from you. If God, if Christ is where we live, if that's our Cyprus, If Christ is our great treasure, if God is our great treasure, no 1 can take that away. Whatever happens to you, you can't lose that. So Paul says in that remarkable passage, in Romans 8. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall trouble, or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword, in all these things you're more than a conqueror.

That's to live on Cyprus. That's to live with Christ. If your heart is set on earthly things, on comforts, on possessions, on feelings, on pleasures, you are extremely vulnerable to happenings. You're extremely vulnerable person. You'll be as weak as water.

Water flows down, hits a rock, goes around the rock. It'll always divert to the easy route and your life will be as weak as water. But if your life is based on price, then even Christ can take you through the valley of the shadow of death, and your fear no evil for his rod and staff are with you. You're blessed when suffering happens. You're demonstrating even to yourself When pressure is put upon you, that's what the test was for vanity fair.

That's why I wanted to go on so long. That that when the when the pressure is put on those Christians, will they see love joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness? Self control. Where are those treasures that they talk about in the heart? Well, let's put them through hardship.

And sufferings can often show you, I do love Christ. I am loyal to him. I don't need that stuff to make me happy for I have joy in Christ. In all this, said Peter in 1 Peter, we looked at it, verse 6. In all this, you greatly rejoice though for a little while, you may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

The happenings around you hurt, but inside. This Christ. And the love of God turns the problems of suffering upside down. Polycarp. He's often quoted.

It's 1 of my favorite martyrs. If you can it's a weird thing to have, isn't it? Favoritecarp, second century, He was a a follower disciple of John who wrote many of the things in the bible. There's Polycom, 86 years old, he's arrested for following Christ, and they say, all you gotta say is deny Christ and he says, what? 18 6 years, Christ has been good to me.

Why would I deny him? They take him to the place where he's gonna be executed. The pro council tests him and pushes him and asks him to deny Christ for the crowd. And he said, Christ doesn't deny me. Why would I deny him?

They push him and push him even further and says, I'll burn you to death, says the proconsul. And he says, that fire will only last for 1 hour. But the fire that the unrighteous have to put up with is eternal. So brave these blokes. There's another 1 which I forget and the pro I forget his name.

The pro Council says, I will exile you. And he said to the procast, you can't because God is always with me. Yeah? He says I I will I will put you on a lonely island. I'll never be lonely because God is with me.

He says, I will grind you up like flour and he said to the proconsul, God will make me into a holy loaf. I mean, this is madness really. But there but and we might think, how on earth do you do that? But that's because They're understanding that Christ is their basis for life. And even though those things hurt and polycarp and the other man were burnt to death, And it would have hurt there's something more.

Jesus said, blessed are those who who are persecuted. Bless to those who are persecuted. Because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me, rejoice. And be glad, because great is your reward in heaven for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

You're in a great long line of the faithful people serving me, speaking of me. They can't stop the mouth of my servants. You're blessed to be among them. When life is all over and you're in eternity, It won't be the house size that you had that you'll be talking about. You'll have a mansion anyway.

1 wants to listen to the silly little house that you had in Cerberus or wherever it was you live? You're in a mansion. Imagine that? Oh, yeah. Well, I we had 4 bedrooms and the the box room was a little spot.

Shut up. We're living in a mansion. Yeah? What are you talking about? But you're in the line of the prophets, the preachers, the blessed ones, the ones that God said, you can suffer for me and you'll show the world my rightness.

Don't view suffering as a tragedy or a disaster, but a blessing. And then he says, look, verse 14, need to move on quickly, but do not fear their threats. Don't don't fear. Don't fear them. They can only kill the body.

Fear the 1 that can cast the soul into hell. It's true. Like vanity fair, sometimes the unrighteous world will not tolerate the righteous, even when they've done nothing. They're just walking through righteously. And they will try to crush you But in that crushing, you'll see what you're made of.

You're loved by God and God loves you. And the blood of the martyrs is the seed bed of the church. And if you're about the glory of God and the building of the church, then even your shed blood You'll say I'm blessed. It's the seed of the church. That leads me to my third point.

That Peter says here. In a hostile world withvere Christ, revere Christ. Now we've sort of seen it, but look at verse 15. He can't help putting Christ in left right and center because that's his vision really. So verse 15.

But in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord. So instead of fearing people, revere Christ. If you learn to revere Christ, you'll be able to go into a hostile world with this joy. Revere It means to make holy. It means to set apart.

It means to dedicate yourself to. The heart, obviously, seat of motivation seat of the emotions. So revere Christ in the seat of your emotions. It's much more than just intellectual knowledge here that you know stuff about Christ. It does include that, but it's much more than that.

It's that your life is going to fit with what you know about Christ. So you're gonna follow him. You're gonna listen to him. You're gonna trust him. You're gonna come to him and say, sorry.

Just go back to 1 peter chapter 2, 24 and 25. Here is Christ. It's made marvellous. And Peter drops these things in all over the place. They're just wonderful.

Look at them. He himself bore our sins, This is the 1 you're to revere. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sin. And live for righteousness, doing good. By his wounds, you've been healed.

For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. He bore your sins on the cross. He's dealt with that broken relationship with you and the Father God. So that we would die to sin, not carry on living same way, Christians are meant to be different. And that we would live for rightness, for goodness.

That's our mission. He died for sins. What an opportunity now to live for righteousness. We're healed. We've been fixed.

We've been made whole. Spirit and body are back together. God is with us. And he's our shepherd and overseer of our souls. And if he's a shepherd, follow him Live like him, revere him.

If he takes you through the valley of the shadow of death, through suffering, through persecution, through mocking, He's with you. He's taken you there. Always for your good and for the glory of God. So show your faith in him to the world, when you suffer. Revere Christ.

4 thing. In a hostile world, speak. Now we're gonna come back to speaking in that very difficult section about Noah and all that stuff. Yeah? Because that's what I believe it's all about.

We come back to that in 2 weeks time. But he's that still says speak here. So verse first 15, In your heart, revere Christ as Lord, always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect keeping a clear conscience. Suffering, being mistreated when you've only done good, is a terrific platform for speaking.

I'm on a platform now. It's a bit high for me, I have to say, but it's a platform to speak to you. Suffering, being mistreated is a great platform for blessing for you because you can speak. Because your neighbors, your friends, your work colleagues, your enemies. They wanna know why you're calm in trials.

They wanna know what hope you've got inside. They wanna understand what what is this? That makes you so strong. And you may be just a a very weak little thing. But you're strong.

How can you have this joy in the midst of such trials? How can you do it? How can you handle this? How can you live like this? How can you not retaliate?

And when they ask that question, always be prepared to give an answer for everyone that asks you to give a reason for the hope is in you. In a hostile, suspicious world, it's inevitable that we Christians are gonna be asked to give a reason for the defense. Why are you like you are? Always be ready to give a reason. For the hope and faith.

Hope and faith really, they sort of go together for why you're trusting in these promises of God. Always give a always know Why suffering is here, always know about your faith, and always know what about about what they believe as well. A non Christian and you can answer. But when you answer, when you preach to them, you do that with gentleness and respect and with a clear conscience, see verse 16. Keeping a clear conscience.

Now, look, and there's lots of words here. I realized Greek words, but the Greek word here for conscience is is a very important word, and this bit is very important, I think, in the age that we're in today. It means self awareness Concience there. Especially self awareness obviously in right and wrong. So keep a good conscience.

In other words, keep doing good. Don't do bad. Do good. Paul says, in 1 Timothy, a book in the bible, he talks about holding on to faith and a good conscience which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to their faith. There were people that had looked like they were Christians and they've shipwrecked their faith because they've given up on faith and good conscience.

They go together. What good conscience is is integrity. It's a beautiful word integrity. It's authenticness. Now, we're in an age where they love the word authentic, so we can use this.

Are you authentic? Are you a man of in or a woman of integrity? In other words, life, and lip go together. That's good conscience. What you believe in your head and your life go together.

What you So if you believe Jesus is your Savior, but you act as if Jesus isn't your Savior, That's not good conscience. That's a denial of your inner being. If you say Jesus is my shepherd, And you said, well, I'm not going through the valley of shadow of death with you, mate. I'd rather go around the edge. I'd rather compromise.

I don't like this. I want a duvet day. Then you're showing the world you don't believe. That's spad conscience. You see it?

If Jesus is your soul friend, your shepherd, integrity, it's so impressive. Part of being good conscience is togetherness, life and lip whole, undivided, not waking up in the morning saying, Oh, my goodness. It's so dark, I'll do nothing. Now now, that may be true but you don't stay there. You say, How can I be eager to do good in this world?

God help me. You're awake. You hear me. You see me. So I am not going to allow this to dominate me.

I will listen to you, follow you. How do I work through this world? How do I work through this hostility? I've got to go into the workplace with that woman She is so vile. She really is vile.

How do I work next to her God? How can I do good next to her? How do I do good to the to the office or the place of work when she's there? That's good conscience. That doesn't mean to say you don't challenge her, doesn't mean to say you don't report her if she's doing evil things.

But how do I live a life of integrity? I remember when I was first a Christian, I worked in an office. I generally gen I was the janitor. I was the least the lowest of the low in the whole office. Space.

Everyone could tell me what to do. That was my job. I worked for guide dogs for for the blind and genuinely, I was Just everybody's dog body, dog's body. They just told me what to do. Literally.

The boss of the girls that I had a desk in, I I had a desk and they're all girls. And they hated this boss, She wasn't nice. She was not a pleasant person and particularly to these girls. She demanded stuff, she was unkind, she was ruthless in her words, and they gossiped and gossiped about her. And then at 1 time, the the she wasn't nice, the gossip was so much.

All the girls sort of it was like a sort of electronic thing. Turn the heads to me and said, you. Why don't you say anything bad about her? I look for it's not my what? I'm just a bloke here amongst all these gossipy women.

What am I meant to do? And and and I said, why don't I? And they said, why I say something bad? And I said, I need to go to the toilet. But the boss found out that that sort of thing happened.

The boss, she's a very high powered woman, asked me in and said, what is it about your Christian message? What is it? What is it you've got? What is it? About Jesus.

And I told her about Jesus and then she asked me, do you think I'm not a good boss? I'm the janitor. I said I think you speak really badly. I don't think you speak well. I think you were to work on that.

And she said thank you for telling me that truth. There's that's the power of a Christian, isn't it? Sorry. You know, I could give you lots of bad stories about myself. I'm just trying to failures in even in that office.

But the point is, if you if you do good, you might turn the office to Christ. And there are other things here I must move on. My fifth thing in a hostile world is to look at Christ, the example. Of course, he's the example. Look at verse 18.

For Christ also suffered, so there he is suffering once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the spirit. So there's the great example that we follow and it's a joy to be following in his footsteps. He suffered once and for all for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring people to God and that's their overriding desire. If you will suffer, in order to bring someone to God, it's worth suffering, isn't it?

By the way, if you're not a Christian here, why don't you come to Christ? Look at him. He loves you so much He suffered on the cross the righteous for the unrighteous. That's what Easter is about. Come the Easter services and hear those those amazing truths.

That the righteous 1 dies on the cross to take your sin to make you right with God. That is a phenomenal message. And that's a life changing message. So Peter says, in a hostile world, look at Christ, your example. Okay.

Let me finish. How are you doing Christian in this? Yeah? How are you doing with all of this? Is that little verse gonna be a lovely little verse that you're gonna put up in your head, verse 13?

Or are you just gonna ignore it? Here's a load of questions. I wrote these down, and I really like them. I wrote them down on the 71 bus. Actually trying to avoid someone.

I had to put a hood up to avoid them. I was on the bus. And there was someone that was gonna make my life quite difficult. So I don't know whether I should read these out. But This is what I wrote down.

It's a long list that we let I'm gonna read them anyway. Are you grumpy? I love that. Are you grumpy, joyless, cantankerous, self righteous person? Are you someone who is easily insulted and quick to retaliate?

Are you always arguing for your right and wanting your own way. Are you full of pride and self importance? Repaying evil with evil? Are you do you gossip Are you a troublesome meddler? Do you break the law when it's good for you, but demand that you've done nothing wrong?

Are you ready to cite the law quickly at others who break it. Do you easily pick a fight when someone crosses you? Is life all about you and how you feel? Are you always complaining that no 1 understands you and how miserable your life is? Are you always complaining about how unfair life is to you?

Do you bear a grudge? Do you walk through this world As if the only hope you have is surviving the day or winning the lottery. If you are any of the above, you wouldn't describe your life as blessed. And you're certainly not living the Christian life even if you are a Christian. You're rather obnoxious.

You're a depressing person to be around. You're not showing any of the joy of the Lord. Is that you? Or are you eager, zealous, bubbling up, excited, to do good. That would change your day, wouldn't it?

Wouldn't it? Use someone who rejoices greatly even though for a little while you may have to suffer griefs of many kinds, but you rejoice. Are you someone who obstrains your tongue and holds back your threats Are you someone who's sympathetic with those you meet, compassionate, humble, don't repay evil? With evil but with blessing. Do you love peace and seek it?

Are you eager in any way to say something about Christ. And if suffering means that, then bring it on. Are you eager to do good in this world? It's a lovely verse, isn't it? Let's bow our heads and pray.

And I'll hand over to Rory. Father, do thank you for what we've just heard now. We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that he was willing to suffer so that he could bring us to God. And we thank you that he was eager to do good, and we pray father that you will give us hearts that want to do good.

We pray father that we will be zealous in doing this. We pray father that we will remember that you are the heart of everything. And that when we have Christ, we have eternal joy that cannot be taken away from us. And so we pray father that you will help us to fix our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, to treasure Him Him above all things, so that we may go into this world and live a life worthy of you. We pray father that you will help us in the face of suffering and difficult circumstances pressures to do good still.

And we pray father that when people see the way that we act, the way that we talk, that we have good conscience, that people will ask why we are different. And so father we pray that we will be able to take opportunities to tell people about the great hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray father that you will help us with this in Jesus' name, amen.