[Steve Myers] So what a fantastic blessing it is to have special music and to be inspired. We really appreciate that. Thanks for the effort that went into preparing that for us and praising God and helping us be edified as well. So thank you very much.

I was reading through some comics the other day. It was from Humor Times. It was a Humor Times cartoon. And it had a picture of a vending machine on it. And on the top of the vending machine, it said, "Life's not fair. Insert $1,000." Of course, on the bottom was a vacant slot that said, "Get nothing in return." And that's sometimes the way life feels. You give it everything you got and what do you get in return? You got an empty slot. And that's the kind of world we live in at times. Doesn't it seem that way? Do you ever feel that way? You put everything into it. And what do you get back? You get hassled. You get discriminated against. You have situations where you're hassled. You're mistreated. Anybody here ever been teased or bullied, put down? Yeah, okay, yeah, we have. Probably everybody has, and that's no fun. And people say, "Well, quit being a cry baby. Why don't you just grow up, get over it?" But doesn't it seem like, "Well, they get away with it. How do they get away with that?" And sometimes that intimidation, sometimes that being made fun of, sometimes the being dissed isn't obvious. It's not obvious to others. We know it. We've been made fun of. It's been intimidating for us.

We've been dismissed or humiliated. We've certainly been treated unfairly. And then how am I supposed to deal with that? How am I supposed to handle that when it happens to me? Of course, we might remember Romans 12. Romans 12:17, it's a very familiar passage. It says, "Okay. I shouldn't repay evil for evil." And we think of that, that's a tough thing not to do because “I didn't deserve that. What did I deserve to be treated like that?” And yet, that section of Scripture kind of rings in our ears. It says, “'Vengeance is Mine,' says the Lord." And we're supposed to leave it in God's hands when that happens. But boy, that is so much easier said than done, isn't it? It's so much easier to treat people the way they treat us, especially if they treat us badly. I want to get them back. That's my natural tendency. And it's hard to overcome that way of thinking. And yet, one of the things that God tells us is it's not just a nice idea to treat somebody nice even if they treat us badly. It's commanded. We're commanded to have a different approach, even if we are the ones that have been mistreated. So how do you do it? How do you deal with that? How is it possible to stay right when you've been wronged? How is it possible to deal with unfair treatment and meet that standard that we're given and act in a godly way? Well, this afternoon, I'd look to look at three facets to help deal with unfair treatment, how to stay right when you've been wronged.

Now, before we get to those three things, let's lay a little bit of a foundation for a moment. We'll look at what Peter tells us in 1 Peter. So if you turn over to 1 Peter, we'll begin in chapter 2. But, in fact, if you've got a little ribbon in your Bible, a little marker or something, you might put it in 1 Peter because we'll come back here several times throughout the message this afternoon as we consider how do we deal with the hassles? How do we deal with being bullied or being teased when we don't deserve it? How do we handle those kinds of situations when they stare us straight in the face? Well, in 1 Peter 2:13, we're given something that seems disconnected to the topic. But in actuality, it fits together. Oh, that makes a nice noise, doesn't it? Everybody looked up when I did that. Okay. Nice. When I need your attention, I'll just touch the microphone. All right. Let's take a look at this passage because it doesn't seem like it fits with the idea of being treated unfairly, but it does. Let's see how it does.

Verse 13 of 1 Peter 2. We know this section of scripture. It says, "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of those who do good." So oftentimes we'll look to this section of scripture to say, "Yes, you better stop at the stop signs. You better obey the traffic signals. You don't want to steal from the shop. You can't be shoplifting. It's good to obey the government because it keeps society in order." That's not a bad thing. When there is laws in place that aren't against God's laws, we must follow them. So this section of Scripture we often turn to for that very concept.

Okay. What does that have to do with being treated unfairly? Well, let's see. As he concludes this thought, he says in verse 17, "Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king." And so as we think about this, what is that getting at? Well, there's a connection to obedience. There's a connection to who is in charge. When the government makes good rules, we need to follow them. So what are we talking about? Authority. We're talking about authority. And Peter's helping us to see that we can understand God and His way of thinking at a deeper level when we understand authority when we recognize who's in charge. And maybe, more importantly, when we submit to that authority, when we submit to authority, we recognize God's in charge. And as a Christian, true Christians understand authority because when we came to God as He drew us to Him, we said, "God, you're in charge. I don't want to be in charge of my life anymore. You are the one. I'm trusting in You. I'm honoring You. I want to follow You." And so we claim that baptism that we understand authority and we recognize who's in charge.

And so Peter's kind of posing a question here in a way to say, "Do we really trust that God is the authority in our life?" He gives us a couple of situations as he paints this picture for us. Verse 18, "Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear." So it's not just about obeying the government. It's not just about obeying the traffic laws. Even as a slave, we have to be submissive to your master. It's about who's in charge. And it's not if they're just a good master or if we paint it for us today, if you got a good boss, yeah, it's easy to do what he likes. It's easy to like him but he doesn't stop there. He says, "Not only to the good bosses, the good masters but also to the harsh." Do we have to be submissive to that? Well, it shows we understand authority. He says in verse 19, "This is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully." “Okay. I don't deserve this. What did I do? I was going along my way and doing what I was supposed to do. And now, they're hassling me. They're giving me trouble. They're dismissing me. Why do I deserve?” Well, he says, "You endure that, that shows something about us. It shows we understand authority." Verse 20 he says, "What credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently?" Well, I deserve that. I didn't do the right thing so I deserve it. "But on the other hand when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God for to this you were called because Christ suffered for us leaving us an example that you should follow in His steps."

There are some serious things he's talking about here because we can be persecuted, we can be hassled, we can be dismissed for doing wrong, and that's something that we take it because, yeah, we deserve it. But he also says we could be doing right and still be treated unfairly. We can still be persecuted. We can still be discriminated against or harassed or hassled or dismissed. But if we take it patiently, literally, holding fast to the truth. When we hold fast and we endure it, we bear with it without complaining, without grieving about it, without answering back, without lashing out, without getting even, he says that says something about us. That says something about our relationship with God. In fact, he says when we behave in that way when we take it patiently, do you notice the word that he uses there in verse 20 at the end? He says, "If you take it patiently, this is commendable before God." Now, that doesn't mean, well, God goes is a little badge and look, I have a commendation from God. He's not saying that.

This is a very interesting word. If you were to look this up in the Greek, you know what word this is? Charis, which is the word for grace. Hundreds of times this word is translated grace throughout the New Testament. This is grace before God, which should expand our concept of what grace is all about because he's not talking about unmerited pardon. He's not talking about a free gift, right? He's not talking about any of those things. He's not talking about favor. It's none of those types of things. He says, "This is commendable, this is charis, this is grace," which is more of kind of a third aspect of what Thayer talks about. If you looked this up in Thayer's Greek Lexicon, it says, "What is due to grace." In other words, because I have grace, because God loves me and has given me mercy and favors me, because He pardons my sin, this is my spiritual condition. This is a reflection that I am governed by the power of grace, the power of grace, or to think differently, I've been given the power to overcome sin through God's Holy Spirit. And because God has been graceful to me, favors me, by granting me His Holy Spirit, the result of that, you see, the outcome of that, is I submit to that Spirit and that is commendable before God. I'm showing that I am a graceful person, that I have been given this gift and it's reflected in what I do.

And so when I'm hassled and I'm bullied and I am harassed and I'm intimidated or they make fun of me or I'm humiliated or biased against, I can take it patiently and that is grace before God. That is evidence of my spiritual condition. It's evidence that I'm governed and submissive to God's Spirit and it's reflected in the grace that God's given me. And it shows in my character. It shows in my attitude. And, in fact, he says that's why we're called. That's one of the aspects of why God is working with us. We've been called to have that evidence that we can take it. We can take being treated unfairly. And, in fact, we're called to be able to patiently take that. And, in fact, He says, "Yep, you've been called to stay right even when you've been wronged.” And so when we begin to consider that, if we keep reading here in 1 Peter 2, we've got this perfect example in Christ. But instead of reading it here, hold your place here, and let's read it straight out from the book of Mark. Mark refers to this same aspect that Jesus Christ set the ultimate example in that commendable grace, that example of how to take it when you don't deserve it. Mark 15:3, this is, of course, occurring as we near the end of Christ's life. Just before the crucifixion, we know that he was mistreated. Mark 15:3. Here's where it's so evident. It says, "And the chief priest accused Him of many things." So there's the accusations. There's the dishonoring. There's the bullying. There's the hassles. There's the mistreatment. There's Christ being dismissed as the Son of God. Well, how does He take it? "But He answered nothing." He answered nothing.

So verse 4, “Pilate asked Him again, saying, ‘Do you answer nothing? See how many things they testify against You!’ But Jesus still answered nothing." He says, "So Pilate marveled." He was amazed. He was shocked. He was surprised by that. Of course, why would he be surprised? Because that's not normal. I know it's not normal for me. You know, if somebody accuses you, if somebody disrespects you if someone puts you down, someone mistreats you, I'm going to defend myself. “Listen, you’re wrong! Who are you to question me?” That's not what it was about. I don't deserve this. But here Christ didn't. Pilate was amazed because all of us have this tendency to try to defend ourself. And it's amazing that even if I'm guilty, "Okay, I did some of that," I'm still going to act like I didn't. "I didn't do that. No, it wasn't that bad." And so here's Christ who is totally innocent. What did He do? He didn't say a word. He kept quiet but that didn't mean He was doing nothing. You see, what was He doing? He was putting it in God's hands. He left His life in God's hands. And he set this amazing example. He set the example that patiently enduring it, taking it patiently, even when it's undeserved, undeserved suffering, beatings, and scouring, that was not only acceptable to God with the way He handled it and it was pleasing to God, but it was also expected by God. It was commendable before God. It was evidence of the fact that Christ most certainly was the Messiah governed by everything that's godly. And so He didn't defend Himself.

Now, when you think about that, that kind of of draws us to this concept of the facets of helping to deal with unfair treatment, helping to deal with it. Certainly, there are at least three things that happen when we stop defending ourselves, when we step back and quit retaliating, quit letting anger rule, quit trying to take that back and give it right back to people. I think the first thing that we find as evidence here is that we've got to trust God. Who's going to defend us? Who's going to take care of us? We trust God with our defense. When we're being mistreated, we submit to God's authority. I don't have to take that authority to myself. I can turn it over to God. And God, look at what is happening. I can talk to Him about this. I can refuse to begin to justify myself or make excuses or try to take it in my own hands and retaliate. I can take the grace that God has given me and I can show that it's evident that I rely on God and I trust in Him. Now, Peter talks about this very fact.

Go back to 1 Peter. This time, let's turn over to chapter 3. Let's notice how trusting in God with our defense, boy, does that take the pressure off us. I don't have to think of the right words to get him back, to give it fight back to them. I don't have to worry about the mistreatment or questioning my motives. God's going to handle this. God's going to take care of that. And so Peter discusses that very thing in chapter 3. Notice verse 8. Chapter 3, verse 8 of 1 Peter. He says, "Finally." Of course, he's not finally yet here. There's a couple more chapters. I think there's three more chapters to go here. So not quite finally, but when we think of this concept, he says, "All of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous." Of course, as brothers, hey, that shouldn't be that hard. We're family. We can do that, right? Yeah, that's not the hard part. That's the easy part because we're on the same page. You know, we're in this fight together. We're all right. But then he says, you know, sometimes we do get out of line. Sometimes the accusations do fly. Sometimes there is the hassles and the mistreatment and the things that are unfair do happen.

And So Peter says in verse 9, "Not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing." Oh, he says it again. Do you think Peter wants to emphasize this what he just got done saying in chapter 2, right? Verse 21, he says, "This is why we're..." Here we are in the next chapter. He says the same thing, blessing instead of reviling, blessing instead of trying to get even, blessing instead of trying to make it right in your own hands. You can't do that. Peter's saying don't do that. God's saying, on the other hand, you want to bless them that you may inherit a blessing. And, of course, if we skip down a little bit, in verse 13 it says, "And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good?” Is anybody out for us? If we're not doing what's good we open ourselves up for evil, to the evil one? I think so. I think he's making that point. And maybe, in a way, he's saying when we try to defend ourselves and take that vengeance when we're the ones that try to defeat the enemy in that way, are we forfeiting spiritual protection? Well, it seems the story of ancient Israel was just that. When they relied on their own strengths, what happened to them? They were in trouble. When they relied on God, it was a whole different story, a whole different story.

So when we endure unfair treatment, are we getting set up? Yeah, I think we probably could say that. When we endure unfair treatment, God is setting us up for a blessing. God is setting us up for a blessing. Don't let anyone steal that from you. Don't allow wrong influence to take us in the wrong direction. Don't deny that spiritual protection. In fact, Christ emphasized this over and over again in some of His teachings. There's a familiar story, one of the parables. Let's go over to Luke 18. Now, hold your place here in Peter. We'll come back here once again. But in Luke 18, Christ gives a parable. It's a familiar one but we want to look at a different lesson than maybe the one that instantly comes to mind. Let's see how it may fit into this concept of not retaliating, how it fits in with unfair treatment and being dismissed or humiliated or intimidated. How does this story fit in with that? This is in Luke 18 right at the very beginning of the chapter. Here Christ is speaking a parable. You know this parable. Verse 2, he says, "There was in a certain city a judge who didn't fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; she came to him saying, 'Get justice for me from my adversary.' And he would not for a while. But afterward, he said within himself,'" this is the judge, "Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me." So we know the story. All right, we should be going to God and pouring our hearts out to Him, you know, constantly. No doubt.

But it's also interesting what the judge says. "The Lord said, 'Hear what the unjust judge said.' And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?” You see, the judge is supposed to be representing God, in a way. Does God hear? Does God know what's going on? Absolutely, He does. Do we trust the Judge? Do we allow the Judge, ultimately, God Himself, to avenge us, to justify us because he uses that word here? Will not God avenge His own? Won't He avenge us? Now, that's an interesting word as well. Since we're in court, right, we're talking about judges and court hearings, that's the scenario he paints here. This word avenge is not to get even. It's not to retaliate. Oftentimes, we think of that. It has to do with bringing justice, that justice will be done, that, ultimately, in the end, there will be a right decision. There will be justice. And it has the connotation of something that is always right. God's going to always give what's right. And so when we rely on really the just Judge, the ultimate Judge, will He take care of things for us? You see, I think that's another aspect of the story, not just the continuing going before God, but the fact is God's character is just that. He will bring about justice. He will avenge us. He will make things right. He's going to take care of this in the end. Do I have to take it upon myself to get even, to retaliate, to get justice? Christ didn't have to. Did Christ, ultimately, get justice? Yeah, He was resurrected. What more justice could you have than that? Absolutely.

And so when we stop defending and retaliating on our own behalf when we trust God with our defense, great things begin to happen. It can take the stress off. I don't have to stress over this because God has promised to take care of us. In fact, I think it brings us to another facet, to a second aspect of what begins to happen. When we stop defending and retaliating, it allows Christ's character to develop in us. Now, we know we've been called to grow in the stature of Christ. Have you ever thought, "Well, if I don't take things into my own hand, I'm actually exhibiting Christ-like character"? Because we are. We are. When we stop retaliating or wishing evil on others, it does develop Christ-like character in our life. In fact, here in 1 Peter, if you flip back to 1 Peter, I guess I'm still here in Luke if I go back to 1 Peter go to chapter 4. Chapter 4 in 1 Peter brings this point out. He says it a little bit different way but let's see how this fits with this whole concept of unfair treatment and how we respond to it. 1 Peter 4 right at the very beginning of that chapter, verse 1, he says, "Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves." All right. I'm ready. I got my baseball bat and I'm going to get even with those guys. I'm armed and dangerous now, right? Sometimes we feel that. That's what I want to do. That's the first carnal thing that comes into my mind. I can't do that though.

So Peter doesn't leave us hanging there, right? He says, "Arm yourselves also with the same mind. Christ suffered for us… Arm yourselves with that same mind, for he who suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men." “I can't pick up the baseball bat,” but he says “I'm supposed to do the will of God.” And so he's talking about a whole different kind of armaments, isn't he? When we arm ourselves, that Greek word literally means to strengthen ourselves, strengthen our thinking. It can mean to equip yourself. So you can kind of of see where we might take it like in a military sense, but what do we equip ourselves with? The ability to get even, you know, the words that can put others down? No. He says we should be strengthened with the mind of Christ. We should prepare our minds to think like this, to be ready, to be ready with the same mind. So that the first thing is not to pick up the baseball bat or the bad words that just spew out of our mouth. Instead, we should be prepared to answer with Christ's way of thinking, what He would have done, that same way of thinking, that same attitude, that same perspective, that kind of resolve, intention that Christ had. That should be the way that we arm ourselves.

In fact, if you look at that again, verse 1, if you read this in the New Living, it puts it a little bit differently. It says, "Since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves," right, we equip ourselves with the same attitude that he had “and be ready to suffer too.” Oh, you mean I haven't been called to have perfect health and everything's going to be great and everybody's going to love me and life will be just a dream of all unicorns and rainbows and it will be just great? No, it's not going to be like that. Be ready to suffer.

The New Living goes on. "If you have suffered physically for Christ, you've finished the sin." Okay. That doesn't mean sin isn't going to be there. Verse 2 says, "You won't spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you'll be anxious to do the will of God." Look at verse 3, "For you have had enough." You see, that's what he's getting at. When we equip ourselves with the mind of Christ, we've had it with sin. I've had it with that way of life. I'm not going to be drawn that way. I don't want to think that way. I'm not going that way. My first reaction is, go to the foundation. Trust God and allow Him to develop that character within me. I'm going to be armed with Christ's way of thinking. And I'm armed for unfair treatment. I'm armed for the difficulties that I'm going to face. And I am armed when I'm going to be facing that mistreatment or the bullying or the harassment or the discrimination that I don't have to have an ungodly response to it. And so we have to arm our minds and be ready for unfair treatment. So then we're going to act in a godly way instead of react in a poor way. And that's what God's Spirit helps us to do.

And so we know that we're called to grow in the grace of knowledge of Jesus Christ. We know we're to develop the character of Christ. We're to rise to the stature, to the maturity of Christ. That's our goal but that kind of of growth doesn't happen automatically, does it? It doesn't happen just because we want to or just because I can recite a few scriptures. It doesn't mean I'm a more spiritual person. That growth can occur when we suffer and we take it patiently. That growth can occur when we're treated unfairly and yet, we exercise our calling and respond with grace, the evidence that God has called us and we have God's Spirit. And if we patiently endure the persecution, we patiently endure the suffering, then we show it is possible. It is possible. And we rise above the situation. And what does that do to us? I think that builds a resistance. It helps make us stronger. And then it's possible to grow even more. And then it's reflected to others. That can inspire them because we're not going to get away from it because difficulty and unfairness is a part of life. It is a part of life. And so the challenge is then to quit asking why. “Why does this have to happen to me? What did I ever do to deserve that?” I got to quit thinking like that. I didn't do anything. Because we ask those questions, where are you going to get an answer to that? The answer is you might as well just accept it because you're not going to get an answer to that. Move on. Focus our energy on becoming more Christ-like. That's where the focus is. Wouldn't it be a better question, instead of saying, "Well, what did I do to deserve this," if we turned it around and we said, "What can I learn from this? How can I be a better person?" I think that was certainly Christ's perspective. And He set such an amazing example for us.

Another example of that is in Matthew 5. So hold your place in Peter. We'll go over to Matthew 5:10 just for a moment. This is the section of scripture we're familiar with often called the Beatitudes. You know, those are blessed who do these different things. And there's quite a list of you're blessed if you do these things. Well, that ties in with this whole concept of staying right even when you're wronged, even when you're unfairly treated. Christ spoke to that in the Beatitudes. And in verse 10, notice what he says in chapter 5 of Matthew. He says, "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake." Okay, I'm doing what's right and I still get hassled. I still am mistreated. I'm unfairly accused. Well, blessed are those who are persecuted for doing what's right. He says, "For theirs is the kingdom on heaven." In verse 11, He goes on. "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil things against you falsely for My sake." We're doing what's right. We're doing what's good. We're trying to follow God. And we still get hassled. We still have issues with people. We still have difficulties. But He says, verse 12, "Rejoice. Be exceedingly glad," He says, "For great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

And so in a way, He's saying something pretty fantastic here. Part of our calling is to suffer for righteousness' sake. Should we expect to suffer? I think He's saying that, which also should cause us to ask a pretty tough question. If I've never suffered for righteousness' sake, am I living a righteous life? If I've never suffered for righteousness' sake, am I a real Christian? Am I truly striving to be righteous? Because He's saying right here if you'll be hassled if you'll be treated unfairly, if? No, he doesn't say that. Verse 11, what does He say? When. When you're reviled, when you're persecuted. So there is this, I think, this undeniable connection that if we are striving to be righteous and live God's way you better expect to be treated that way because those times will come. They will come and if they haven't, then I've got to ask myself that tough question. Am I really striving to be Christ-like? And if I can't handle the persecution correctly can I really claim to be godly? Those are the questions that hurt. But I got to ask those questions because it definitely points to the fact that knowing the truth, that's a good thing. It's a good thing to know the truth. It's a good thing to understand the Bible. But knowing it is a whole separate issue from living it, doing it. I have to do the truth. I have to live the truth, which means that guy that wants to retaliate, that guy that wants to yell back, the guy who wants to put her in her place, the guy that wants to, you know, take things into his own hands, I got to get that guy behind me. I've got to kill that guy. I've got to put that man to death. And I promised to God that I was going to do that. And He promised to give me His Spirit to be able to accomplish that very thing.

And so when we read those sections of Scripture that talk about, I'm supposed to be crucified with Christ, I put that guy away. And so now I've got to strive to be upright and honorable and do those spiritual things really to be Christ-like in the most difficult situations when life isn't going my way, the things that I want are gone against. When there are these ongoing difficult situations and somebody stabs you in the back or they question your motives, those are the tough times. Others lying about you? Others saying things that just aren't true? People disregarding your input? They don't consider your opinion. They make fun of you. They diss you behind your back. Well, am I going to over-react? Am I going to take it in my own hands or when they say those mean things about you, when they accuse you of things that are untrue when I feel betrayed when I want to be indignant about this, when I want to have what I say is righteous anger when it's just plain old anger and it's not really that way. And if I'm feeling betrayed, am I going to lash out? Am I going to take it in my hands? Boy, if I do, then I'm going to sound angry and bitter and mean because that's what happens naturally. That's what comes out. And when we feel threatened, we do stupid things. We do have a tendency to do those things. And then you know what that does? And this is the worst of all. It makes it seem like the unfair treatment that you got really wasn't that unfair. So we can't act that way. We've got to refuse to allow that anger to rise. We've got to refuse to think that way. We've got to refuse to go into that defense mechanism that we have, just all humanly, naturally, it seems because when we take it patiently, it turns things all around.

When we take it quietly and discreetly, Christ-like, then we really are dying to ourselves. We're a different person. And when we bear it and we put up with the annoyance or the difficulty, the disgrace that someone pours out on us, when we look that in the face and we take the insensitivity and the unfairness, aren't we dying to self? Aren't we putting it in God's hands? And I'm not seeking the praise and the condemnation because sometimes that can get us irritated that I didn't get the credit I deserve. Why did they get the credit? I was the one that really deserved the credit. You see, that's part of the equation as well because I've got all of my good works recorded, right? Here they are and nobody's noticing. Nobody's paying any attention to all. Why are they telling him he did a good job when I did even more? In fact, they've got the bigger house and the better car and bigger credit. They got the raise. And doesn't God know that I've got bigger needs than they do? Doesn't God know?

You know, when we see a friend or a coworker or a brother or sister, can we honestly rejoice with them? And sometimes that is the challenge because I want to feel jealous or envious of that because God knows my needs are greater. God knows that I've got issues that aren't met yet. And yet, wow. See, that's dying to self, dying to self when I can, wow, sometimes be reprimanded, maybe corrected, and that's hard, corrected by somebody you feel is not on the same level as you are, by your superior to them. They come to you and you got to, wow, admit that they're right, and then take it a step farther and not dislike them or have a resentment toward them because they are right. See, those are the challenges that we're called to. That's dying to self. That's getting yourself out of the way. And so how much have we really died to self and are on that path to developing a deeper Christ-like character? That begins to happen more effectively when we stop defending ourselves when we really put our full trust in God to defend us.

And a third thing come as a result. An amazing aspect of this is when we do that, it glorifies God. The third thing that happens is it brings God glory. And one of the things that comes to my mind when I think of that, you know, not getting what you deserve, I can't help but think of the apostle Paul. And you know the things that he went through. God called him, knocked him down on the road to Damascus, and he had a life of peaches and cream from then on out, right? There was no problems. Everything was great. He never had a hassle in his life, never was put down. Nobody ever questioned his authority. Nobody had questioned his apostleship. Wait a second. Yeah, all of those things plus he was beaten. He was scourged, plus he was shipwrecked. He was stoned. And here's the amazing part. Remember what he said in Philippians? He said, "I've learned to be content." Wow. "I've learned to be content in whatever circumstances I'm in." Did he deserve that? He was striving to live a godly life.

Paul was confident in His promises but all that stuff still happened. Somehow, when he was in total poverty, he could be content. Did that bring glory to God? Somehow, when he was in abundance, especially when the Philippians would send aid and, hey, life was good, yeah, he honored God with that. When he was in comfort, when he was in a jail cell, when he was in pain, he recognized God in it all because there were times it said he was respected. There were times that he was abused. And God could use every one of those circumstances for His good. And it showed something more. It honored God. It gave God credit. Somebody could be stoned and still love God, still, get up and go to the next town and continue to preach and teach. Wow. What a powerful example.

And so when you consider that, it is such an amazing aspect in the apostle Paul. He didn't say, "I'll give God the glory in spite of my pain." He didn't do that. "Well, in spite of the beatings that I've taken, I'm still going to glorify God. In spite of the stoning or the shipwrecking, I'll still give God..." What did he do? You see, the other hand is what he did. He said, "I'll give God glory because of it, because of the challenges, because of the difficulties, because of the humiliation, because of the disrespect, because of the questioning of his authority, I'll give God glory." And that's a whole different mindset, isn't it? A whole different mindset. And so it's amazing when you consider Paul exemplifying that very fact that we don't take credit but how can you do that? Well, you can't do it without God's Spirit. Without submitting to Him, you can't do it. You can't do it. So God gets the glory and the honor and the credit for all of that. In fact, Peter addressed this as well. Go to 1 Peter 2 once again. 1 Peter 2, notice verse 12. 1 Peter 2:12, we’ll see it not only was evident in Paul's life, it's evident in Peter's life and his writings as well. And we see the impact of that kind of a reaction rather than our own kind of reaction. 1 Peter 2:12. He says, "We should have our conversation honest among the Gentiles," which isn't just talking about being an honest person. This is King James. It says, "Our conversation, our behavior, our conduct, the way we live our life, it should be evident what we're God's people." And so he says, "When they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they behold, glorify God in the day of visitation."

So because we act as Christians, because we don't take it upon ourselves for retaliation and vengeance, yeah, even though they don't like us, we're going to stand out. And this is the hard part is sometimes it's not going to be noticed. It's not going to make a big difference right now to these people. But it does say, "God will be glorified in the day of visitation," the day of visitation when Christ returns. When Christ returns, if these people are alive, they're going to recognize, "Wow, how did he put up with us? How did she do this? How could they handle the mistreatment and the abuse?" Well, that's only by God's power. They will glorify God. And if it's in the second resurrection, that day of visitation, they'll recognize that it was all about God. And it will bring Him glory. And so when we take it in our own hands not to retaliate, but to give it to God, when we pray about these difficult situations, when we give it over to the hands of our great God, it helps us to develop that character of Christ and fruit then begins to grow. And that's where Christ said, "My Father is glorified by this that you bear much fruit." You see, he told us that in John 15. God is glorified in that we are growing and that the world is going to see those results. They're going to see the results of God's grace and His favor. They're going to see the results of being led by the Spirit of God. It may be a different way to think about it. In a sense, it puts God on display to the world through us and how we handle things and what we say and what we do. And by that display in our life, it brings God honor and glory because He gets the credit.

And, in fact, just over a page, at least in my Bible, 1 Peter 3, look at verse 8. In verse 8, we talked about this just a little bit, you know, be of one mind. “Don't return evil for evil." We know we were called to this in verse 9. But in verse 10, 1 Peter 3, he says, "He who would love life and see good days," boy, and that's us. I want not just a good life but, ultimately, eternal life in the Kingdom of God. You want to see good days? You want life to go better even right now? "Let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it."

So in a way, we're taking it up a notch, aren't we? That when we recognize this very fact, that I got to quit defending myself. I've got to trust God with that. I've got to allow Him to deal with these things. What begins to happen then is I grow in character. And it's not just enough not to do evil. It's not just about not doing the bad things. Do you see that here at the end of verse 11? Turn away from evil." But then I got to do good. It's not good enough just not to do evil. I've got to do what's right. I've got to do what's Christ-like. I've got to, it says, "Seek peace," which isn't just like, "Well, I hope peace will be here." He says, "No, I got to pursue it. I can't just be static. I can't be passive. I got to go after it. I've got to go after it and do good. That's what God wants me to do." He says, "The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers." God hears us. He knows what's going on. When we lay it before Him, is He going to be sure that justice is served? Absolutely. That's His promise. That's His promise. In verse 13 he says, "Who is he that will harm you if you become followers of what is good? Well, even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed.
Don't be afraid of their threats. Don't be troubled.’" It says, "Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Trust Him. Give it over to Him." How do you handle it? How do you handle those situations?

You see, life is too short to whine and complain and fuss about these situations that are unfair. They are mistreatments. But when we recognize what God tells us, He says, "I've given you the ability to be able to handle these things, to accept the unfairness of life and cut off the negativity." You don't have to think that way. God says, "I'm giving you through My Spirit the ability to rise up and overcome these things. And, in fact, not just overcome yourself but inspire others along the way as well so that we can grow and we can mature." And, in fact, there can be an immunization against the pain of being treated unfairly, especially when we put it in God's hands, when we trust Him, when we recognize His authority, when we submit to that authority when we allow Him to develop that character in us, and we glorify Him in the things that we do. What a powerful statement we make. We are called for that very purpose. So let's trust God. Let's trust His authority. And we can't forget that God promises to help. He promises to help each and every one of us to stay right even when we're wronged.