エピソード

  • A Husband by Design

    A Husband by Design
    2026/10/18
    Steve DeWitt A Husband by Design Download Study Guide for Spiritual Exiles, 1 Peter 3:7 Scripture Reference: 1 Peter 3:7 Visit the series page: Exiles: A study in 1 Peter Donate to Support The Journey Sermon Transcript for Spiritual Exiles, 1 Peter 3:7 Sermon Series: Spiritual Exiles Message: A Husband By Design Airdate: 10/12 –10/13/26Programs: 2376 and 2377Well, again, good morning. Good morning to our Cedar Lake campus. And I stand before you today excited about what I get to talk about. And part of the excitement that I have is that over the years I have spoken many times on the role of a husband. And all of those I did as a single man.This is the very first time I am speaking on this subject as a husband myself. And to move from the more sort of biblical theoretical to being in the battle myself to make this truth practical in my own marriage and in my own life. So, I want to say that on the front end as we get into this that I am, I am in the struggle of all these things just as much as anybody here. And, it is very convicting to me and very helpful to spend this time, getting ready and looking at God's design for a a biblical husband. I have found marriage to be people ask me, how's it going? What do you think about marriage? You were single for so many years. I what I say often is that marriage has for me been the the single greatest mechanism for spiritual growth in my entire life. And what I mean by that is that the things that marriage requires are and primarily dying to myself is big thing. But those qualities that marriage requires align very closely with what Christ's likeness looks like.So as I find myself trying to be a good husband, the changes that single Steve is having to make to be married Steve is making me a better Steve overall and making me, I think, hopefully, more mature Christian man, which I want very much. So as we come to this today and we look at God's blueprint for marriage and specifically for for a husband, I just again want to say, I'm in it with you. What does it mean to lead, love, and serve our wives? What does it mean to be a husband? These are all things that I'm struggling with living out every single day.So I hope God blesses this. I think this message has tremendous potential to make a profound difference in the homes and in the marriages of our of our church. Let me also add this. All of Scripture is profitable, and so it doesn't matter if you're married or single. This is God's truth, and we all need to listen to it.And I know that well, having preached it many years as a single man myself. So with that said, let's take a look. We're just studying one verse today. It's all that Peter has to say about the Christian husband. Let's take a look at this one verse and then just milk it for everything that we can.Here is first Peter chapter three verse seven. Here's what it says. “Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.” K? There it is.K? Let's take this apart. And you'll notice the first word in that verse is the word likewise. We saw the same first word in chapter three verse one. He says, “likewise, wives.”And we find that this is just part of a a sequence, a chain of teaching that goes all the way back to chapter two verse 11 where Peter basically says, hey, what does it look like to be a Christian living in a hostile world, living as an exile? It means that you are working so that your life is earning the respect of unbelievers who may not like what you say about Jesus, but they can't but help but respect the life that you're living. Or to say it another way, that our our our walk needs to sound and look like our talk. And when those two align together, there is a very powerful apologetic for the claims of Christianity. And so we've seen him describe relationships that Christians find themselves in and what what does that look like then.So he began with a Christian citizen in relationship to government, that we are to be subject, submissive to government authorities. And then we looked at the employer employee relationship and that a Christian employee is to be a the best employee in that entire company and to have respect for the leadership that is over him. And then we saw in chapter three last week, what does it look like for a Christian woman to be married to an unbelieving spouse? And we talked about how as the gospel went across Asia Minor, you had these marital relationships where a woman believes in Jesus and the husband then does not. How does that Christian woman relate to the husband?It was last week's message. I won't preach it all over again. So this week, how does a Christian husband conduct himself in a marriage? And the assumption here is that he is married to a Christian wife. And the assumption is based on the culture of the day where if a man, as the kind ...
    続きを読む 一部表示
    1分未満
  • Living "Questionably" and Answering Hopefully - Part A

    Living "Questionably" and Answering Hopefully - Part A
    2026/10/16
    Steve DeWitt Living "Questionably" and Answering Hopefully - Part A Download Study Guide for Spiritual Exiles, 1 Peter 3:13-17 Scripture Reference: 1 Peter 3:13-17 Visit the series page: Exiles: A study in 1 Peter Donate to Support The Journey Sermon Transcript for Spiritual Exiles, 1 Peter 3:13-17 Sermon Series: Spiritual Exiles Message: Living Questionably and Answering HopefullyAirdate: 10/16 and 10/19/26Programs: 2380 and 2381Well, good morning again, and hello, Cedar Lake campus, Hope Portage campus this morning. I, last weekend, had the joy of speaking, ministering at one of our former associate pastor's churches. He is Jeremy Carr, who is the senior pastor now in North Des Moines at Johnston E. Free Church. And so I was able to go and to see his ministry there.He's been there about a year now, and God's blessing, and they seem to be doing super great. So it was great to to be with them. I also understand while I was gone that we had a special offering last weekend to help meet needs in Nepal with the earthquake victims as well as some of the needs that we have with our facilities here. When I say here, mean at our Gary campus and at HP and at Cedar Lake with some of our facilities we use for primarily youth ministry and student ministry, our gymnasiums that we have. And I just was encouraged.We had an offering last weekend, second offering, kind of like lunch money, people throwing it in, of $13,500 that came in for that, which is really great. And if you're an old sports guy, you love sports, and maybe you have a heart for young people and all that, I'm sure you could still throw money in the offering towards that. And we'd find a way to apply that to some of the things that we need and probably still will need in those facilities. But thank you, everybody, for being a part of that. And that's pretty exciting for me because I'm one of those old sports guys.And I'd love to see our facilities be able to minister through athletics to primarily young people. Well, my title today kind of gives away the whole sermon, frankly. Here's my title: Living Questionably and Answering Hopefully. Now I could just stop and say, amen, amen, let's go home, because that's basically all that I'm going to say today. And some of you are excited right now.Like, wow, we're going to get out of here early today. The problem is most of us would leave having no idea what that means. And that's really what lies before us here is, like, what does that mean? What does it mean to live lives that are questionable and give answers that are filled with hope? And what does that have to do with really God's entire plan for the fulfilling of the great commission?It is a summary of first Peter three verse 15. If you went to Moody Bible Institute and say, I'm gonna take a class on evangelism, this might be the very first verse that you would memorize. If you have ever read a book on Christian apologetics, this verse always talked about. So this is one of these verses that that that stands out in a unique category and is often referred to when it comes to the whole matter of how we represent our faith, how we even share our faith. What does it mean to live Christianly and to speak Christianly in a hostile environment around us?And so we have this verse about bold, fearless witness. And who's the writer of it? Ironically, Peter, the most famous coward in all of the Bible. But I'll get into that in a moment. So let me read the text.And so follow along, please, if you have your Bibles. I think we have it on the screens as well. Here's what Peter writes beginning in verse now 13. “Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed.Have no fear of them nor be troubled. But in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.” Now if that language sounds familiar, it means that you've been dialed in in this entire series in first Peter because he is repeating what he has said here over and over again, of in different contexts.But basically, this same point. Christian, how do we live in a hostile environment? How do you how do you represent Jesus when the world around you looks down on that? You live lives of moral and spiritually observable beauty that causes the people around you to think maybe there's something to this Christianity. That's the whole point really of first Peter.And you do that primarily in your persecution and in your suffering. Now he has already said that as it relates, for example, the beginning of this chapter to Christian wives who are married to unbelieving husbands. ...
    続きを読む 一部表示
    1分未満
  • Gospel Motivated Modesty - Part B

    Gospel Motivated Modesty - Part B
    2026/10/15
    Steve DeWitt Gospel Motivated Modesty - Part B Download Study Guide for Spiritual Exiles, 1 Peter 3:1-4 Scripture Reference: 1 Peter 3:1-4 Visit the series page: Exiles: A study in 1 Peter Donate to Support The Journey Sermon Transcript for Spiritual Exiles, 1 Peter 3:1-4 Sermon Series: Spiritual ExilesMessage: Gospel Motivated Modesty Airdate:10/14 –10/15/26Programs: 2378 and 2379Well, as we wrap up that offering, I want to welcome and greet into our teaching time our wonderful brothers and sisters at our Cedar Lake campus and at at our Hoover Portage campus. Good to be in God's word together here as a church. And one of our core values here at Bethel is the unapologetic preaching of God's word. And what that means for us is that if God says it, we say it. K?God says it, we say it. Unapologetically is what it says, and then we try to apply it to our life. That's easy when there are there are truths that are sort of palatable. They feel right. They feel sort of normal.The challenge is when we are dealing with something where God's word swims against the current of culture, swims against what sort of feels normal to us. And the passage that we have in front of us today is one of those. I'm warning you. It's one of those. Where God what God says and what culture and what feels normal to us are diametrically opposed to one another.This will be a test, I think, for our hearts regarding where our authority really lies. So with that said, we're in First Peter three. Our series continues. We're preaching through First Peter. And the context for this these verses, verses three and four, is especially critical to realize that Peter is writing to Christians who are in a context where there is hostile Christianity or hostility towards Christianity all around them.And they're struggling with how do I live out my faith? How do I live as a Christian around people that don't religiously believe at all what I believe? I mean, Christianity says there's one God, one Lord, one savior, one way, and his name is Jesus. And the pluralism of the first century Greco Roman world said the opposite. There are many gods and there are many ways.And so Christianity just religiously was in conflict with the culture around them. Not only was it religiously in conflict, it was also morally in conflict. If you read through first century Roman history, you will find that that culture was highly sexualized, highly sensualized. In fact, as an example, read the accounts of the cities of Corinth and Pompeii, and you will find a level of sexual promiscuity that would even make our culture blush. If you look at, for example, the statues of Rome, and maybe you've seen these if you go to the art center in Chicago or maybe you've seen them in your history books, the the the highly idealized human form, very smooth, very perfect.The the men and the women in various levels of dress or undress. The women in particular presented in very sexualized, very alluring ways. It gives you a sense of what it was like to live in that culture. So in the midst of a very sexualized culture, you have these Christian women who heard the gospel, now married to an unbelieving husband who didn't believe, and they're asking themselves, how do we, like, present ourselves when the culture sees us as sexualized objects when it's just all around us that we are to flaunt our sensualities. How do we do this?And how do I do this in a way that my husband, who doesn't believe, might actually come to believe? Is this about me gussying myself up and him becoming a Christian from it? Or what do we do? Peter writes then to this very issue. And what we're gonna find here is that Christianity is freedom from obsession about external appearance.Christianity is freedom from the obsession about my identity being in my looks. Or for women, and dear sisters here, the sexualizing of your appearance for acceptance by men or others. It is freedom from that. So that's where we're going here today. It is freedom to allow the beauty of Christ, that Christ likeness to be formed within you and for that to be your source of beauty.And this is where Peter is going now. So let me read First Peter three verses one through four, and then we'll get into it. Here's what God's word says. “Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives. When they see your respectful and pure conduct, do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry or the clothing you wear.”“But let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.” Alright. Our focus today is on verses three and four. And you'll notice in both of these verses, the word that is repeated is that word adorning. Okay?Adorning in verse three is not to be external. Adorning in verse four is to be ...
    続きを読む 一部表示
    1分未満
  • Gospel Motivated Modesty - Part A

    Gospel Motivated Modesty - Part A
    2026/10/14
    Steve DeWitt Gospel Motivated Modesty - Part A Download Study Guide for Spiritual Exiles, 1 Peter 3:1-4 Scripture Reference: 1 Peter 3:1-4 Visit the series page: Exiles: A study in 1 Peter Donate to Support The Journey Sermon Transcript for Spiritual Exiles, 1 Peter 3:1-4 Sermon Series: Spiritual ExilesMessage: Gospel Motivated Modesty Airdate:10/14 –10/15/26Programs: 2378 and 2379Well, as we wrap up that offering, I want to welcome and greet into our teaching time our wonderful brothers and sisters at our Cedar Lake campus and at at our Hoover Portage campus. Good to be in God's word together here as a church. And one of our core values here at Bethel is the unapologetic preaching of God's word. And what that means for us is that if God says it, we say it. K?God says it, we say it. Unapologetically is what it says, and then we try to apply it to our life. That's easy when there are there are truths that are sort of palatable. They feel right. They feel sort of normal.The challenge is when we are dealing with something where God's word swims against the current of culture, swims against what sort of feels normal to us. And the passage that we have in front of us today is one of those. I'm warning you. It's one of those. Where God what God says and what culture and what feels normal to us are diametrically opposed to one another.This will be a test, I think, for our hearts regarding where our authority really lies. So with that said, we're in First Peter three. Our series continues. We're preaching through First Peter. And the context for this these verses, verses three and four, is especially critical to realize that Peter is writing to Christians who are in a context where there is hostile Christianity or hostility towards Christianity all around them.And they're struggling with how do I live out my faith? How do I live as a Christian around people that don't religiously believe at all what I believe? I mean, Christianity says there's one God, one Lord, one savior, one way, and his name is Jesus. And the pluralism of the first century Greco Roman world said the opposite. There are many gods and there are many ways.And so Christianity just religiously was in conflict with the culture around them. Not only was it religiously in conflict, it was also morally in conflict. If you read through first century Roman history, you will find that that culture was highly sexualized, highly sensualized. In fact, as an example, read the accounts of the cities of Corinth and Pompeii, and you will find a level of sexual promiscuity that would even make our culture blush. If you look at, for example, the statues of Rome, and maybe you've seen these if you go to the art center in Chicago or maybe you've seen them in your history books, the the the highly idealized human form, very smooth, very perfect.The the men and the women in various levels of dress or undress. The women in particular presented in very sexualized, very alluring ways. It gives you a sense of what it was like to live in that culture. So in the midst of a very sexualized culture, you have these Christian women who heard the gospel, now married to an unbelieving husband who didn't believe, and they're asking themselves, how do we, like, present ourselves when the culture sees us as sexualized objects when it's just all around us that we are to flaunt our sensualities. How do we do this?And how do I do this in a way that my husband, who doesn't believe, might actually come to believe? Is this about me gussying myself up and him becoming a Christian from it? Or what do we do? Peter writes then to this very issue. And what we're gonna find here is that Christianity is freedom from obsession about external appearance.Christianity is freedom from the obsession about my identity being in my looks. Or for women, and dear sisters here, the sexualizing of your appearance for acceptance by men or others. It is freedom from that. So that's where we're going here today. It is freedom to allow the beauty of Christ, that Christ likeness to be formed within you and for that to be your source of beauty.And this is where Peter is going now. So let me read First Peter three verses one through four, and then we'll get into it. Here's what God's word says. “Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives. When they see your respectful and pure conduct, do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry or the clothing you wear.”“But let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.” Alright. Our focus today is on verses three and four. And you'll notice in both of these verses, the word that is repeated is that word adorning. Okay?Adorning in verse three is not to be external. Adorning in verse four is to be ...
    続きを読む 一部表示
    1分未満
  • A Husband by Design - Part B

    A Husband by Design - Part B
    2026/10/13
    Steve DeWitt A Husband by Design - Part B Download Study Guide for Spiritual Exiles, 1 Peter 3:7 Scripture Reference: 1 Peter 3:7 Visit the series page: Exiles: A study in 1 Peter Donate to Support The Journey Sermon Transcript for Spiritual Exiles, 1 Peter 3:7 Sermon Series: Spiritual Exiles Message: A Husband By Design Airdate: 10/12 –10/13/26Programs: 2376 and 2377Well, again, good morning. Good morning to our Cedar Lake campus. And I stand before you today excited about what I get to talk about. And part of the excitement that I have is that over the years I have spoken many times on the role of a husband. And all of those I did as a single man.This is the very first time I am speaking on this subject as a husband myself. And to move from the more sort of biblical theoretical to being in the battle myself to make this truth practical in my own marriage and in my own life. So, I want to say that on the front end as we get into this that I am, I am in the struggle of all these things just as much as anybody here. And, it is very convicting to me and very helpful to spend this time, getting ready and looking at God's design for a a biblical husband. I have found marriage to be people ask me, how's it going? What do you think about marriage? You were single for so many years. I what I say often is that marriage has for me been the the single greatest mechanism for spiritual growth in my entire life. And what I mean by that is that the things that marriage requires are and primarily dying to myself is big thing. But those qualities that marriage requires align very closely with what Christ's likeness looks like.So as I find myself trying to be a good husband, the changes that single Steve is having to make to be married Steve is making me a better Steve overall and making me, I think, hopefully, more mature Christian man, which I want very much. So as we come to this today and we look at God's blueprint for marriage and specifically for for a husband, I just again want to say, I'm in it with you. What does it mean to lead, love, and serve our wives? What does it mean to be a husband? These are all things that I'm struggling with living out every single day.So I hope God blesses this. I think this message has tremendous potential to make a profound difference in the homes and in the marriages of our of our church. Let me also add this. All of Scripture is profitable, and so it doesn't matter if you're married or single. This is God's truth, and we all need to listen to it.And I know that well, having preached it many years as a single man myself. So with that said, let's take a look. We're just studying one verse today. It's all that Peter has to say about the Christian husband. Let's take a look at this one verse and then just milk it for everything that we can.Here is first Peter chapter three verse seven. Here's what it says. “Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.” K? There it is.K? Let's take this apart. And you'll notice the first word in that verse is the word likewise. We saw the same first word in chapter three verse one. He says, “likewise, wives.”And we find that this is just part of a a sequence, a chain of teaching that goes all the way back to chapter two verse 11 where Peter basically says, hey, what does it look like to be a Christian living in a hostile world, living as an exile? It means that you are working so that your life is earning the respect of unbelievers who may not like what you say about Jesus, but they can't but help but respect the life that you're living. Or to say it another way, that our our our walk needs to sound and look like our talk. And when those two align together, there is a very powerful apologetic for the claims of Christianity. And so we've seen him describe relationships that Christians find themselves in and what what does that look like then.So he began with a Christian citizen in relationship to government, that we are to be subject, submissive to government authorities. And then we looked at the employer employee relationship and that a Christian employee is to be a the best employee in that entire company and to have respect for the leadership that is over him. And then we saw in chapter three last week, what does it look like for a Christian woman to be married to an unbelieving spouse? And we talked about how as the gospel went across Asia Minor, you had these marital relationships where a woman believes in Jesus and the husband then does not. How does that Christian woman relate to the husband?It was last week's message. I won't preach it all over again. So this week, how does a Christian husband conduct himself in a marriage? And the assumption here is that he is married to a Christian wife. And the assumption is based on the culture of the day where if a man, as ...
    続きを読む 一部表示
    1分未満
  • A Husband by Design - Part A

    A Husband by Design - Part A
    2026/10/12
    Steve DeWitt A Husband by Design - Part A Download Study Guide for Spiritual Exiles, 1 Peter 3:7 Scripture Reference: 1 Peter 3:7 Visit the series page: Exiles: A study in 1 Peter Donate to Support The Journey Sermon Transcript for Spiritual Exiles, 1 Peter 3:7 Sermon Series: Spiritual Exiles Message: A Husband By Design Airdate: 10/12 –10/13/26Programs: 2376 and 2377Well, again, good morning. Good morning to our Cedar Lake campus. And I stand before you today excited about what I get to talk about. And part of the excitement that I have is that over the years I have spoken many times on the role of a husband. And all of those I did as a single man.This is the very first time I am speaking on this subject as a husband myself. And to move from the more sort of biblical theoretical to being in the battle myself to make this truth practical in my own marriage and in my own life. So, I want to say that on the front end as we get into this that I am, I am in the struggle of all these things just as much as anybody here. And, it is very convicting to me and very helpful to spend this time, getting ready and looking at God's design for a a biblical husband. I have found marriage to be people ask me, how's it going? What do you think about marriage? You were single for so many years. I what I say often is that marriage has for me been the the single greatest mechanism for spiritual growth in my entire life. And what I mean by that is that the things that marriage requires are and primarily dying to myself is big thing. But those qualities that marriage requires align very closely with what Christ's likeness looks like.So as I find myself trying to be a good husband, the changes that single Steve is having to make to be married Steve is making me a better Steve overall and making me, I think, hopefully, more mature Christian man, which I want very much. So as we come to this today and we look at God's blueprint for marriage and specifically for for a husband, I just again want to say, I'm in it with you. What does it mean to lead, love, and serve our wives? What does it mean to be a husband? These are all things that I'm struggling with living out every single day.So I hope God blesses this. I think this message has tremendous potential to make a profound difference in the homes and in the marriages of our of our church. Let me also add this. All of Scripture is profitable, and so it doesn't matter if you're married or single. This is God's truth, and we all need to listen to it.And I know that well, having preached it many years as a single man myself. So with that said, let's take a look. We're just studying one verse today. It's all that Peter has to say about the Christian husband. Let's take a look at this one verse and then just milk it for everything that we can.Here is first Peter chapter three verse seven. Here's what it says. “Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.” K? There it is.K? Let's take this apart. And you'll notice the first word in that verse is the word likewise. We saw the same first word in chapter three verse one. He says, “likewise, wives.”And we find that this is just part of a a sequence, a chain of teaching that goes all the way back to chapter two verse 11 where Peter basically says, hey, what does it look like to be a Christian living in a hostile world, living as an exile? It means that you are working so that your life is earning the respect of unbelievers who may not like what you say about Jesus, but they can't but help but respect the life that you're living. Or to say it another way, that our our our walk needs to sound and look like our talk. And when those two align together, there is a very powerful apologetic for the claims of Christianity. And so we've seen him describe relationships that Christians find themselves in and what what does that look like then.So he began with a Christian citizen in relationship to government, that we are to be subject, submissive to government authorities. And then we looked at the employer employee relationship and that a Christian employee is to be a the best employee in that entire company and to have respect for the leadership that is over him. And then we saw in chapter three last week, what does it look like for a Christian woman to be married to an unbelieving spouse? And we talked about how as the gospel went across Asia Minor, you had these marital relationships where a woman believes in Jesus and the husband then does not. How does that Christian woman relate to the husband?It was last week's message. I won't preach it all over again. So this week, how does a Christian husband conduct himself in a marriage? And the assumption here is that he is married to a Christian wife. And the assumption is based on the culture of the day where if a man, as ...
    続きを読む 一部表示
    1分未満
  • So What Do I Do When I Am Unjustly Treated?

    So What Do I Do When I Am Unjustly Treated?
    2026/10/11
    Steve DeWitt So What Do I Do When I Am Unjustly Treated? Download Study Guide for Spiritual Exiles, 1 Peter 2:21-25 Scripture Reference: 1 Peter 2:21-25 Visit the series page: Exiles: A study in 1 Peter Donate to Support The Journey Sermon Transcript for Spiritual Exiles, 1 Peter 2:21-25 Sermon Series: Spiritual ExilesSo, What Do I Do When I Am Unjustly Treated?Airdate: 10/06 –10/07/26Programs: 2372 and 2373As we come into God’s word now, I wanted to let you know that we’re coming into first Peter chapter three, and we’re basically gonna spend all of May and a little bit of June dealing with the subject of marriage and gender roles and the role of the husband and the role of the wife, modesty. These are all things that Peter addresses in chapter three. And so if you want to think of May as marriage month, come and let’s let’s you know, marriage is in the news lately. Have you noticed? Is there a little confusion in our culture about what marriage is?You bet there is. And so where is that truth gonna be declared and taught if not in the church? And so we are going to be addressing that and letting Peter guide us in biblical view of marriage. Alright. Quick and easy question for you.Have you ever been wronged? Yes. Okay. Wow. That’s a good response there.It’s quick. It’s easy. Why? Because to be human and to live around other human beings is to often and regularly be wronged. We pick up these little offenses, don’t we, in relationships?Some of them are maybe sort of lower level slights, you know, little little things, a little kindness that maybe is unacknowledged or a little word that kinda hits us wrong, and we feel this offense in our heart. Some of them are are more you know, a little bit are bigger, like when we are lied to or when somebody cheats us or where we find out somebody has been gossiping against us. We feel unjustly wronged by somebody else. And then there’s big ones, like really big ones, like adultery and an unbiblical divorce or maybe violence done against us or against a loved one. And these are especially painful when they are done by people that are a part of our family or maybe a fellow Christian, a fellow member in the church, people that we have loved and trusted.Life is filled with these kinds of disappointments, ones that we deem unjust, actions by others that create suffering for us that doesn’t seem fair. And, of course, there is a very natural human response to these things. We don’t have to teach or train, even children in our in our children’s ministry to respond, with retaliation or anger, bitterness, harsh words of some kind. We wanna hurt people back. You’re like, okay.You’re gonna hurt me? Well, then here you go. Right? We look like the the fight last night that was going on. Counter punch and counter punch and punch and counter punch.Too many of our relationships are like that. And so here you have the apostle Peter. He’s writing to a group of people who he knows their faith will create for them many moments where they are gonna have things done against them because they’re doing the right thing, because they’re obeying God. Still, they are going to suffer as a result of doing that at the hands of people that don’t like them, don’t like their faith, don’t agree with their worldview. And so Peter wants them to survive this.How are they going to survive there and to thrive actually as Christians if they can’t get over this unjust suffering thing. If they can’t get over when people do things that hurt them because this was going to happen all the time. And Peter wanted them to thrive in their Christianity, to land on the other side of that unjust suffering, and to indeed love the person who has done that thing against them. And so Peter now transitions in his letter to this whole matter of what I do when I am unjustly treated. And our text today is verses 21 through 25 of first Peter two.I’m gonna begin in verse 20, though, to give the whole sense of it. So please follow along as I read God’s word today. “For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you may follow in his steps.”“He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed.”“For you were straying like sheep, but now have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.” And God’s people said, amen. Amen to that. Alright. We spent time in verse 20 last week.It’s it’s again, it’s a part of this section about Christians in...
    続きを読む 一部表示
    1分未満
  • A Wife in Exile - Part B

    A Wife in Exile - Part B
    2026/10/09
    Steve DeWitt A Wife in Exile - Part B Download Study Guide for Spiritual Exiles, 1 Peter 2:21-25 Scripture Reference: 1 Peter 3:1-2 Visit the series page: Exiles: A study in 1 Peter Donate to Support The Journey Sermon Transcript for Spiritual Exiles, 1 Peter 3:1-2 Sermon Series: Spiritual Exiles Message: A Wife in Exile Airdate: 10/08 –10/09/26Programs: 2374 and 2375I'd like to begin by telling you about two influential women in my life. Both of these women influential indirectly, but influential all the same. They influenced me by being the moms to my two best friends growing up. My two best friends growing up were Matt Hunley and Brian Woodbury. And I grew up in Iowa.I grew up in Cedar Falls, Iowa, not a big city by any means. Grew up just outside of town. These guys live kind of near me. And we went to the same church. And so I got to know both of them.Actually, Brian and I didn't go to the same church to take that back. But Brian lived nearby, but I'll get into that in a second. So let me tell you about Matt's mom. Her name was Billy. Billy Hunley.There aren't a lot of women named Billy, but that was her name. And Billy was and is to this day one of the most kind of quiet, unassuming women that you would ever meet. Billy was married to Richard. And Richard was not a Christian. He had like a sixties style haircut the whole time I knew him.He kinda worked on cars. He was intimidating. Great big guy. I was afraid of him. I'd be I'd be around their house.I'd just kinda like steer clear of Richard. Billy was quietly a very faithful Christian woman. She was the only spiritual influence that Matt and her brother or his brother Jason had. She hauled them to church, hauled them to vacation bible school, prayer warrior. In fact, recently, Billy said to me, I pray for you every day.I'm 47 years old, and that's been true probably for, you know, thirty years plus. Prayer warrior, quiet, faithful Christian woman, married to a man who had no spiritual interest whatsoever. Brian Woodbury goes down probably as my best friend growing up. Brian lived kind of around the corner in our little neighborhood that we that we lived in. We were the same age, had a lot of same interests.And from the age of about four or five, we were best friends and still are dear friends to this day. His mom, Linda, married to Larry. Larry, not a Christian, no spiritual interest, didn't mind the kids going to church, etcetera. I think maybe enjoyed being away, you know, having his own time on Sunday morning. And so he didn't give them a lot of guff, but there was no spiritual, like, input from him in the home whatsoever.Everything that Brian and his two siblings got, he got from from Linda. And Linda, similarly, faithful in involved in church and faithful in the home, you know, praying with the kids and home devotions and things like that. Linda did all of it. Larry was a kind of an intimidating guy. He was more of an introvert.I also was afraid of him, honestly, in the home. We just sort of steered clear of him. He was a bowler, smoker, just kind of a a dude, no interest at all in spiritual things. Definitely a family man, but none of the spiritual stuff at all. Everything that Brian knew about Jesus, he got from his mom.Between these two families, now five adult children, all five of them believers, all five of them serving in local churches, all five of them raising grandchildren in the faith. I say that to point out to you the incredible influence of a Christian woman in the home. My two best friends, dad, nothing. Both of them come to faith. Both of the their sibling all their siblings following Jesus.And and you see now a generational impact that that these two women's lives had. And you realize the powerful influence of these two women. Now what about Richard and Larry? Today, both of them are dead. Both of them are in heaven.You say, wait a second. I thought you said they have no spiritual interests whatsoever. Absolutely true. All the years that I growing up was true. Both of them, later in life after retirement, professed faith in Jesus Christ, became involved in a local church, and when they died, they went to heaven.Now to what do you attribute these two guys in the end believing in Jesus with with their heart and with their life? In both cases, you could point a few things, but it's primarily those two women in the home living out the Christianity in the way that they did led to both of these men, both of these husbands being in heaven today. So what can we say about the incredible power of a Christian woman in a marriage and a Christian mom in a home? It is literally a little bit of heaven on earth and is such a powerful witness in that marriage that often God uses that faithful woman to bring the husband to Christian faith. Certainly not always the case, but often is the case.And we're studying a letter called first Peter. We've been in it for months now. And this is where Peter gets to now in his letter. And we've ...
    続きを読む 一部表示
    1分未満