And we're back.
Thank you for joining us.
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We are in 1 Peter Chapter 3
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and right now
we are in verse 15.
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And we're also
here with Dr. Shepherd.
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Dr. Shepherd, in
verse 15 it starts,
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"But sanctify the
Lord God in your hearts."
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What does this mean? All right.
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Well, we'll look at
this idea of sanctify,
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but I want to
notice an interesting
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variation
between our two versions.
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You're using the New King James.
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I've got the English
Standard Version here.
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And in the
English Standard Version,
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in verse 15 it says,
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"but in your hearts
honor Christ the Lord as holy,
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always being prepared
to make a defense to anyone
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who asks a reason for
the hope that is in you."
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There are many manuscripts
of the New Testament.
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We're greatly
blessed, thousands of them,
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thousands of manuscripts
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of the New Testament
from the ancient world.
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No two of them exactly
agree with one another.
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They are this
little variants, you know.
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There'll be a the here
or there'll be a comma--
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not commas but, you know, a
phrase here is put in another.
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So there's always
variants and scholars look
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very carefully to
try to figure out.
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Okay, so which one probably
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has the original
reading that we're looking for.
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And they have a
whole series of rules
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that they use to do this.
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But we can just
illustrate a little bit in this.
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The apostle is actually
quoting from Isaiah, right?
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And we noticed back in Isaiah 8,
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it says in verse 13.
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Isaiah 8:13. You
want to read that verse?
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"The Lord of hosts,
Him you shall hallow;
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Let Him be your fear,
And let Him be your dread."
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Okay, so you're supposed to
hallow the Lord God, all right?
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The Lord of hosts is the one
that you're supposed to hallow.
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Okay. And over here in 1 Peter,
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it says, "You are to honor
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or you are to hallow
or to sanctify the Lord."
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And some manuscripts
not the oldest and the,
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you know, the strongest
ones, say the Lord God,
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because they're probably
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conforming it to
the text of Isaiah.
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That would be the tendency
that scribes would have this.
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Oh, yes, he's
misquoting the text.
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And then they make
a correction, you see.
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When actually
probably what Peter said
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was that you should sanctify
Christ as Lord in your heart.
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And the term Lord
in the New Testament
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often refers to the Lord Jesus.
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And so he's quoting
Isaiah but he's taking
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those terminologies
that apply to Yahweh,
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to Jehovah of the Old Testament
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and he's applying
this now to Jesus.
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So when he says
sanctify or honor
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this is the word to make holy.
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It is to
consecrate, to set apart,
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to venerate. Okay?
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So Christ has
already been noted in 1 Peter
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to be the lamb
without spot and blemish.
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He's been lifted
up very high in Peter.
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And that is the designation
that God has given him
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in history as the spotless lamb
and as the resurrected Lord.
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Now the Christian is
called on to recognize this
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and to affirm it in
their heart and in their mind.
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It's an action that you
take to recognize the truth
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about Christ,
that God has set forth
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and in relationship to the
world who has rejected Him,
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you are standing and affirming
what God has said. Okay?
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Going back to
that idea of listening
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to what God's
viewpoint is and His values are.
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So we set Him apart
as Lord in our hearts.
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That's where it starts.
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Before you give any witness
to people on the outside,
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you have to have the
witness on the inside.
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You have to have
the personal experience,
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a personal acknowledgment
that Christ is Lord
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that He belongs to you, that
you are His and He is yours.
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Unlike the world
around us we do not recognize
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their valuation of Christ.
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Remember, he was to
them the rejected stone.
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But we don't
feel what they feel.
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We're not gonna go in
with their intimidation.
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Our primary group is God.
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We are listening
to His value system.
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We're conscious of
that. We value what He values.
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I like verse 15 where it
talks about giving a defense.
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Does this have
anything to do with witnessing
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and defense to everyone who
asks of the hope that is in us?
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Yeah, it's a
very interesting word.
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The Greek word is apologia
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from which we
get the word apology.
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And today we say,
did you apologize?
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Did you-- we take it as saying
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you're sorry for
something, you know.
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Almost sounds like being sorry
for the hope that is in me?
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Yeah, yeah, and
that's not what it means.
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That's not what
it means at all, no.
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The word apology
here is to give a defense.
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We have another
phrase or word in English,
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we call it apologetics.
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This is when you give
a defense of the faith,
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where you show that
God's message is logical
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that it's in line
with reason in reality
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and that you should trust it.
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So an apologia in
the ancient world,
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you would defend yourself when
you were accused of something.
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But it's kind
of clear here that,
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that there's
more than just people
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who are attacking
you that are in mind.
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These are people who are
enquiring 'cause he says,
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it's like they're
curious about you.
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You know, they, they notice
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who you are being prepared
to make a defense to anyone
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who asks you for a reason
for the hope that is in you.
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I believe in
witnessing to people.
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And people are
taught how to witness.
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Many are not
taught how to witness.
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And there's an old
story about the dentist
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who decided that he
really should share his faith
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and he wasn't
quite sure how to do it
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but he knew it was
all about, you know,
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getting ready for heaven
and being ready for dying and.
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So, you know, he
got the guy in the chair
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and he was about
to give him the--
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he was about to give
him the shot of Novocain
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and he leaned over
him and he said to him,
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"Are you ready to die?"
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That's the wrong way to witness.
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You know, verse 15 does
say with meekness and fear.
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Yeah. How to win this--
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Yeah, with gentleness
and fear in a reverent way
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that you're supposed
to do it. So that's not--
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the dentist, sorry to
any dentist out there.
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I'm sure that this was just
may be a made up story. The--
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So there must be apparently
a tactical way to win this--
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Not just meekness
and fear but also a way
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that we can actually
reach to certain people.
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And the same way
does not always apply
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to all the
people, is that right?
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A very useful way
to witness to people
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is what has been
called by some, tagging.
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You know, when we
were kids we played tag.
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I touch you and tag,
you're it and then you chase me,
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you know, and then
you tag somebody else
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that kind of thing. Yeah.
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Tagging and
witnessing is a very low key--
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I found it's actually
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a very delightful
way to witness to people.
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And here's how it works.
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When you meet somebody
you just start talking to them
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because you, you know,
you're in the same place
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and you start to get
acquainted with them.
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You ask them
questions about who they are
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and they start to talk
and most people love to talk
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about themselves and tell
you, you know, what they are.
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You can affirm
them along the way,
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"That's really
interesting. That must be--
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you're going to see your grand
children, that's really nice."
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And they'll show you pictures,
you know, and everything.
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And somewhere
in the conversation
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you mention
something about yourself
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that deals with your
spiritual life. Okay.
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You mention something in
the conversation that deals
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with your spiritual
life, it should be natural.
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It shouldn't be, you know, out
of the ordinary or something.
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"Let me change the subject,"
you know, it's not like that.
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It's something that
fits right into it, you know.
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Like you might say,
"Our pastor was just talking
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about that in church last week."
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So that just
gives me the assumption
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that you go to church? Yeah.
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Or for me it's very
natural because they say,
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"Well, what do you do?"
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"I'm a teacher."
"Oh, what do you teach?"
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"I teach the New
Testament. I teach the Bible."
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I've just said that
I'm a spiritual person.
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Now I've tagged them.
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Now the question is what
they will do with that tag?
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If they lean over and they say,
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"Really? That's
really interesting."
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Now they have said
that they want to talk
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about spiritual things, you see?
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But if they say, "Oh,
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what was the temperature
at the North Pole today?
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Do you know what it is?"
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Then they obviously
don't want to do that.
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Now they don't want to go there.
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So I'm not gonna, you
know, push it on them, no.
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I'm at the place of mine.
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I guess I'm kind of this
outgoing guy or something.
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I'm not at the place
in my life where I will.
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I will tag them more than once.
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I'm not gonna let them just
go often to the dark easily.
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But I'm not
gonna force it on them.
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And I've had amazing
conversations with people.
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I had a
conversation with a fellow.
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I was flying to
professional meetings
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and he was a
fellow who makes videos.
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He was going to
the same city to--
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he makes this kind
of videos of pictures
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that you're flying over mars,
you know, and things like that.
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And we just started
talking about our life
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and he was been away from
his children and everything
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and you miss them
and things like that.
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And, oh, it's such a
busy life and everything.
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And I said, "Well, I have
something in my experience that,
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you know, really
helps me to stop."
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I told him about the
Sabbath of all things, you know.
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It came out naturally.
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It wasn't like, I
need to tell, you know.
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It wasn't like he was this deep
spiritual person or something.
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But it was just
a natural linkage.
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All these natural linkages
are everywhere around us.
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And he says, you're
supposed to do it gently
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and with fear, with reverence,
remember focused on God.
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Interestingly
enough, the phrase gentle
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and with fear are
the two same concepts
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that he talked about
the wives in Chapter 3,
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that she has the
reverence, spirit,
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and she has a gentle
spirit. First Peter 3: 2, 4.
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So it's not as though
these only apply to women.
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Or another way we could
say it is that the wives
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are an example
to the whole church.
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In verse 16 here we see
that Peter seems to return
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to the negative possibilities.
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Yes, he returns to
negative possibilities
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but not without
discussing these three ideas,
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these three
ideas, the gentle spirit.
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There's no need to be harsh
when you're sharing your faith,
00:11:07.75\00:11:10.73
the reverent fear
that is reverence for God,
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God mindedness,
dependant on God,
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respect for His view of things.
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And then he talks
about this good conscience
00:11:17.59\00:11:19.68
that we talked about
before that is a conscience
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that is the more
consciousness of God
00:11:23.46\00:11:26.26
as the primary value system.
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Peter speaks of the
opponents who speak badly
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about the
Christians, being put to shame.
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Well, when will
they be put to shame?
00:11:34.65\00:11:36.93
Well, it could be in
the marketplace of ideas
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because he just
kind of described
00:11:38.87\00:11:40.24
that kind of
thing at other times.
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But this is probably talking
about the judgment to come.
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Verse 17 it says that,
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"It is better if
it is the will of God
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to suffer for doing
good than doing evil."
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Is it God's will
for me to suffer?
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I think many people
might be asking that question.
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Yes. The answer is no.
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It is not God's
will for suffering.
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God is not
sadistic God just, you know,
00:11:59.80\00:12:03.92
trying to put on the screws
here and see what will happen.
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He puts-- if we
take out the phrase,
00:12:07.98\00:12:10.64
if it is the will of God,
is not the central sentence
00:12:10.67\00:12:13.86
that's been used here, okay.
00:12:13.89\00:12:15.27
The central sentence
says, it is better to do good
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and suffer than to do bad.
00:12:18.99\00:12:22.96
Okay, it is better to do
good and suffer than to do bad.
00:12:22.99\00:12:25.52
We've already talked
about the will of God earlier
00:12:25.55\00:12:27.59
in these passages in 1 Peter.
00:12:27.62\00:12:30.20
And what is the will of God?
00:12:30.23\00:12:32.03
The will of God is
that we should do good
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and we should eschew evil.
00:12:34.74\00:12:36.11
That is we should stay
away from that which is evil.
00:12:36.14\00:12:38.83
So He says, if it should
be the will of God, okay,
00:12:38.86\00:12:42.81
this is unjust suffering that's
gonna come on the Christian.
00:12:42.84\00:12:45.76
They're doing good and
they're still suffering.
00:12:45.79\00:12:48.39
So God's will in
such innocent suffering
00:12:48.42\00:12:51.93
is that you should
still go through it.
00:12:51.96\00:12:54.90
God is not
imposing the suffering.
00:12:54.93\00:12:56.86
God is calling you to the good
and when you do what is good
00:12:56.89\00:12:59.75
and you suffer, God
will come to your aid
00:12:59.78\00:13:01.99
in the end and
He will protect you
00:13:02.02\00:13:04.06
and overcome those who
are trying to crush you.
00:13:04.09\00:13:09.55
Well, thank you, Dr. Shepherd.
00:13:09.58\00:13:11.18
We are studying the
Books of 1 and 2 Peter.
00:13:11.21\00:13:14.33
And Dr. Shepherd, I just want
to give you the final thought.
00:13:14.36\00:13:17.19
May be someone is suffering
00:13:17.22\00:13:18.59
you want to give them
words of encouragement to them?
00:13:18.62\00:13:20.64
I know that suffering is
like a fog that encompasses you.
00:13:23.05\00:13:27.32
Don't give up. God is
smiling at you even now.
00:13:27.35\00:13:30.40
He's caring for you.
00:13:30.43\00:13:32.11
Read the scripture
and find His grace.
00:13:32.14\00:13:34.11
He'll carry you through.
00:13:34.14\00:13:36.49