Find Righteousness

We have spent the last few weeks allowing 1 Peter to help us understand why we should choose to seek Jesus to help us find ways for us to connect with God. We started with Seeking Hope. Last week we looked at Seeking Faith. You can find both of these sermons on our You Tube channel.

We wrap up this series this week by “Seeking Righteousness” Our scripture comes from 1 Peter 2:19-25.

19 For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. 20 But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. 21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. 22 “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” r 23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. 24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” 25 For “you were like sheep going astray,” a but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Please pray with me…

What I usually do when I have a sermon series focused on a particular book of the Bible is that I will offer some context on the writing during the first week. Instead for our focus on 1 Peter I think the context becomes most important when we focus on our topic for today, righteousness.

It is believed that Peter is writing to Christians throughout what would be considered the Christian world at that time. He is writing to them to offer them encouragement due to the struggles that they are facing.

For the most part, if not everywhere they are the minority. They are meeting people who don’t believe what they believe and many times are lashing out at them because of their belief. Peter is focusing on the importance of them keeping their hope, their faith, and their righteousness despite the negativity occurring around them.

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Some would state that we face much the same situation. If you are here today in person or watching online as a part of our You Tube worship experience you are a minority. Less people attend or watch church services on a Sunday morning than choose to find other ways to use their time.

What that means is if we are not careful, we can find ourselves choosing things to do that God would not believe is best for us. I am not talking about skipping church. I am talking about living lives focused more on the world than on God.

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Righteousness is us attempting to live our lives “right” with God. It is us desiring to make choices that we believe would be pleasing to God. It is important that we strive to live our lives for God and not for the world.

When we don’t, we can find ourselves slipping farther and farther away from God. We may find ourselves continuing down a path away from God instead of striving to become more like God each and every day.

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Before we go any further, I say all of this with the understanding that we will fail. We are human and at times our humanness will win, and we will find ourselves making decisions that we know that we shouldn’t make.

It is at these times, how we respond will show how close we are or are becoming to God. Are we remorseful and ask for forgiveness? Do we accept the forgiveness and strive to do better the next time? Do we focus on guilt and shame instead of living out our understanding that we are saved by grace?

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We may at times face pain and hardship due to our willingness to be “right” with God. Our scripture states that this will probably be the case. After all, Jesus has most likely faced much worse than we have ever faced and yet he in the end he asked his father to forgive those that did harm to him.

We find three examples from our text of how Jesus reacted under these times of duress. They can show us that we show righteousness to God by following Jesus’ example. They are that we are to not retaliate, we are to not threaten, and we are to entrust ourselves in God.

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Jesus did not retaliate. He did not allow his mistreatment to lead him to mistreat those who have wronged him. Our human condition seems to say to us an eye for an eye. You harm me, I should harm you.

Jesus offers a different answer. He says for us to love our enemies. He says for us to not respond to evil with evil. He desires for us to be peacemakers. If you have been with us for a while you have heard me talk about what this means.

A peacemaker is someone who seeks to find a peaceful resolution under all circumstances. A peacemaker will offer ways to alleviate pain or will walk away instead of causing conflict in a particular situation.

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We see all throughout society people choosing to lash out instead of choosing peace. Jesus, and Peter in today’s text states that we are not to retaliate. We are not to trade evil for evil. We are to choose to be people of peace.

Choosing to be people of peace does not mean that all situations will end peacefully. We are to do our part but that does not mean that someone else will desire conflict instead of peace. Jesus died a horrible death because some people were focused on conflict instead of peace., on hate instead of love.

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We are to not threaten those who have wronged us. We may find ourselves able to control our body, but we are also able to control our mouth. Jesus is asking for us to have self-control. I feel the pain every time I say those words.

I hate being supposed to have self-control. I want to be able to do what I want to do or say what I want to say when I want to do it and when I want to say it. It is when we are able to not allow our inner thoughts and desires to become outward that we are proving to ourselves and  God that we are becoming closer to him.

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We are able to not retaliate or threaten when we are entrusting ourselves in God. We are to turn our pain and troubles of life over to him. We are to choose to let God handle that person and situation that we find ourselves in.

This has todo with forgiveness. Forgiveness will not always be for the benefit of the one we are forgiving but it will always be for our benefit. It is through turning our situation over to God that allows the weight of what we are facing to be removed from us and placed upon God.

We are saying to God if I don’t release this, I will act in a way that will be unloving to those around me. I am turning this over to you. I am forgiving that person or group so that I can move on in my life and have peace knowing that you will handle this situation as you desire.

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Jesus suffered and died for us so that we might “die to sins and live for righteousness.” Jesus did what he did in order to allow for us to become closer to God. Jesus did what he did so that we can become closer to becoming right with God.

I word it that way because it is impossible for us to become “right” with God before our deaths. It is at death that we become “good enough” in order for us to be able to reside with God forever in Heaven.

But that does not mean that we shouldn’t try. We should allow God to help us become more holy and closer to him. We call this within the church sanctifying grace. Which is God helping us become closer to him each and every day.

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Peter also tells us how we are able to do this. We become closer to God when we allow the “Shepherd and Overseer of our souls” to be our guide. To lead us down what is sometimes called “a path of righteousness.

This becomes possible because of the Holy Spirit. God within us attempting to help guide us in a direction that will allow us to serve him and those around us. Allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us allows us to become the best person that we can be.

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We are to be the sheep and allow God to be our shepherd. Our first reading has Jesus state that he is the “good shepherd.” But he doesn’t only say it he also offers an explanation of what being the “good shepherd” means to him. It means that he is willing to lay down his life for us and he gets to know us.

Jesus showed us he was the “good shepherd” due to his willingness to lay down his life for us. Jesus came down to earth and became our example but then he took things to the next level by being willing to die for us.

He could have looked at humanity and decided that we were a lost cause and go back up to Heaven and tell us to figure it out. But instead, he gave us a way out. He was willing to “bore our sins in his body on the cross.” He was willing to die so that we could live.

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He also knows us. God knows what is best for us. God desires to help us become the best people that we can be. We have God as close as he can possibly be to us due to the Holy Spirit living within us.

Jesus may know us but are we willing to allow him to work within us. We have a part that we also play in the relationship between a shepherd and sheep. We have to be willing to follow the path where the shepherd is trying to lead us.

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We find numerous places within scripture using this analogy of the shepherd and the sheep. These scriptures can help us receive an understanding of what we need to choose to do in order to allow Jesus to be our “good shepherd.”

This goes back to last week and faith. We have to have enough faith in Jesus for us to be willing to follow Jesus. Scripture states that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. We need to believe that he will lead us down the correct path.

We need to believe that what we hear from him is the truth. We have to believe that it is only through him that we are truly able to live our best life. We need to believe that God wants only what is best for us, and we need to then be brave enough to take a step out in faith.

Many of us at times have lived our lives going through the motions. A willingness to allow God to be the one who leads you means that your life is not about you. Your life is about the one who created you, is an example for you, and died for you.

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 We may at times need to believe that Jesus is protecting us. Scripture has Jesus sending his disciples out “like sheep among wolves.” This is not an encouraging image. Sheep among wolves are vulnerable. They are not dominant. They are not in control.

Yet this is how Jesus describes his followers. Righteousness does not eliminate vulnerability; it embraces it in trust. It means believing that Jesus is with us and has our back no matter where he asks for us to go.

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Now, does this mean that trouble is going to stay away from us. All we have to do is look at this text and know that is not the case. Peter is writing to people that are facing hardship because of their faith.

But what we can count on is that Jesus is not going to leave us to face the troubles of life on our own. He is with us through what I often call the good, the bad, and the ugly of life. He will never leave you. He will face what life throws at you, with you

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This should point out what I hope you have already recognized, righteousness occurs within relationships. At the heart of all these images is a relationship between sheep and shepherd. Followers and a leader.

Scripture tells us that the sheep know the Shepherd. The Shepherd knows the sheep. This mutual knowing should shape our relationship with Jesus. We should be willing to trust and follow God more as we become closer to him.

To pursue righteousness is to desire to continually deepen our relationship with God. It is to be able to more clearly recognize the Shepherd’s voice, to trust his leading more fully, and to reflect his character more clearly.

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So how do we become more righteous? How do we become more holy? How do we become closer to God. This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where we make decisions that can literally change our lives.

It begins with listening to God. We need to create spaces that will allow us to hear from God. We need to create times in our day where we can quiet our mind and allow God to speak into our heart and soul.

It means spending time in the word of God. This can happen through reading the Bible itself. You may decide to listen to the devotionals you can find on the church’s Facebook page every weekday. You may want to attend Bible study on Sundays after church. Find a way to connect with God and allow time for you to discover what God may be saying to you through his word.

We need to be willing to live in the world but not of the world. This means that we need to be willing to live our lives not with a focus on self but with a focus on God. We should desire to allow God to dictate how we live and how we love those around us.

This last one may be the most important, we need to have the faith to believe that God will always be with us on the journey. It does not matter what is happening to us or around us, God is with us on the journey willing to walk beside us and help us.

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Let us make the decision today that we are going to be people of righteousness. We are going to as a church and individually those that will focus on the will and ways of God in all that we say and do.

Let us pray…