Endel Lee | God Called! | 1 Peter 2:9

good morning it's a pleasure to be with you here today i would say to you you might not be aware but eric hammond is one of our southern baptist endorsed chaplains as well i spoke to eric just a couple of days he was one of my friends and students and we've worked together in chaplaincy now for some years uh he would want you to know that eric also said a lot about jesus in that video but you know what the media would do with that they were a little careful for that but you pray for eric as he continues to serve and nurture and ministry in that setting where he finds himself today if you would take your bible and turn with me this morning to first peter chapter 2. first peter chapter 2 and as you're turning there uh allow me to extend uh a few uh thank yous uh first to dr shattucks for his friendship and uh kind regards there with his introduction i also would like to thank dr aiken for the privilege and opportunity to be here today i would like to publicly thank those who support the quaffer program and how it's impacted my life over many years through providing education training and opportunities to serve platforms not near as pretty as this where god has been able to send me in to some devastating places to do what he's called me to do and then i'd like to thank southern baptist as a whole for the opportunity to be a missionary and to serve in various categories across my life trajectory and then i want to thank you this morning for being here i had a professor in seminary dr jim nielsen who said this to me one day he said to me he said hindel preachers will walk a thousand miles to preach a sermon but they won't walk across the street to hear one and i thought oh my goodness lord help me never to live up to that statement now i've drove 750 miles yesterday to be here so i am fulfilling the first part of that to have the privilege and opportunity to speak to you today and i pray that as you've come across the street or from classrooms or wherever you've been this morning that god will speak to you through his word and touch your life with that said let's go to our text for today and for context i'm going to begin by reading the last verse in 1st peter chapter 2. i'm reading today from the christian standard representation of god's word but you please follow along there in the copy that you have in verse 25 we find words similar to this for you were like sheep going astray but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls this verse is a culmination of two therefores that we find in the early part of first peter the first one is found in first peter chapter 1 verse 13 and the second one is actually in the first verse of chapter 2. i'm going to focus in on chapter 2 and the the ideas that follow along after that second therefore as we think about these culminating ideas about who we are and how we're to act before god but as i read this verse a perplexing question comes to me how did we get here from there use that to jog your thinking this morning as you begin to think with me about what god's word teaches us how did we get here from there what is the process and the steps involved from going from those who were going astray ignoring god to those who now have returned to the shepherd and the guardian of our souls well as we dive in here i actually want to begin reading in verse 1. i'm going to read the whole chapter to you uh as we begin to explore these ideas today about what it means to be god called and to respond when god calls now sometimes when i say that to folks i see this rolling of eyes or our heads drop when they think he's going to read the whole chapter but i want to challenge your listening this morning because i'll say to you what happens in the next two or three minutes as you listen to god's word as the only thing i know of in this world that does not return void you listen maybe imagine yourself as a first century believer and you've gotten word that peter has sent a letter to the churches and we have the opportunity to gather and hear that instruction listen that way and then i'm gonna offer you two propositions based on this passage let's begin reading in verse one of chapter two therefore rid yourselves of all malice all deceit hypocrisy envy and all slander like newborn infants desire the pure milk of the word so that you may grow up into your salvation if you have tasted that the lord is good as you come to him a living stone rejected by people but chosen and honored by god you yourselves as living stones a spiritual house are being built up to a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to god through jesus christ for it stands in scripture see i lay a stone in zion a chosen and honored cornerstone and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame so honor will come to you who believe but for the unbelieving the stone that the builders rejected this one has become the cornerstone and a stone to stumble over and iraq to trip over they stumble because they disobey the word they were destined for this but you are a chosen people a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for god's own possession so that you may proclaim the praises or the excellencies of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light once you were not a people but now you're god's people you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy he goes on to say in verse 11 dear friends i urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul conduct yourselves honorably among the gentiles so that when they slander you as evildoers they will observe your good words and will glorify god on the day that he visits submit to every human authority or institution some translations say because of the lord whether to the emperor as a supreme authority or to governors as those sent by him to punish those who do what is evil or to praise those who do what is good for it is god's will that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good submit as free people not using your freedom as a cover for evil but as god's slaves or as god's bond servants honor everyone love your christian brothers and sisters fear god honor the king household slaves submit to your masters with all reverence not only to the good and gentle ones but also to the cruel for it brings favor if because of the consciousness of god someone endures grief for suffering unjustly for what credit is there if when you do wrong and are beaten you endure it but you when you do what is good and suffer if you endure it that brings favor with god for you are called to this because christ also suffered for you leaving you an example then you should follow in his steps he did not commit sin and no deceit was found in his mouth when he was insulted he did not insult and return when he suffered he did not threaten but entrusted himself to the one who judges justly he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree on the cross so that having died to sins we might live for righteousness by his wounds you have been healed for you were like sheep going astray but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls may god add his blessing to the reading of the word two propositions the first you are god's called once the second with that reality in place you then are expected to act like god called you are god's called ones you need to act like god called now i ask that you listen carefully as i unpack these two prepositions to make sure that i get it right you are god's called once that first preposition accents for us the ontological dimension of who we are in our human existence ontology is the study of being and reflects the relational aspects of how we relate to god and to others and even understand ourselves i hope those are words that you're learning here in seminary words like ontology and deontology and uh the theological dimensions that are part of that now you're saying well will i ever use those again you will use those principles every day and i hope you'll see that as i unpack this text for you now you may refer to them and those are 10 seminary words that you might boil down to think words like relationship rules and responsibilities results or outcomes this first proposition based on the reality we see accented in verse nine and other places is you are the called ones and if you're in this room today i suspect you've been called out even from among the called ones to serve to equip and to lead those who are called into christ's service those who do it day to day in their everyday life and then you are assigned a special mission a set apart aspect a particular and peculiar identity belongs to this ontological dimension a particular and peculiar expression of purpose belongs to this aspect of being a particular and peculiar aspect of values that you embrace should be evident in your life as those who identify with being called of god in this passage peter actually rehearses for us seven identity metaphors in the verses that i've read to you today in verses two and five we hear things like newborn infants growing into your salvation we hear words like living stones can you imagine that living stones stones that have a heart the breath of god that walk and talk that's what you are today i've been all over the world i've been in lots of bad places with lots of rocks piled on rocks israel now what's called the promised land lots of rocks afghanistan lots of rocks all right lots of rocks i've never seen any of them breathe but we serve a god that takes a hard heart a heart of stone and transforms it into a living being and that's what he expects us to do and to act like in our lives he says you are a spiritual house offering up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to god through jesus christ that little prepositional phrase is very key there there are lots of people over the history of humanity that have offered up sacrifices to divine entities but this passage says here that it is through jesus christ and through him alone that such sacrifices are acceptable to our holy god in verse 11 he goes on to identify us as strangers and exiles drawing forth that identity out of the old testament for the people of israel when they found themselves in places like babylon or in egypt or other places where suffering surrounded them and they were forced to bring their identity forward and represent who they were as a people before god verse 16 we are free people but free people who act like bond servants to god if you want to do a great study in scripture you explore that phrase bond servant of god i think peter borrows this from paul it's all over paul's writings and many of his introductory letters have that phrase in it and he calls that to be a part of the way that we identify with god so that we can fulfill our purposes let me give you a hint there though in that aspect of identifying as a bond servant of god there's no entitlement there is no sense of selfishness that applies in that relationship with god he speaks you listen you do that's the way it works within this framework of identity peter also outlines for us the expressions of our purpose look down again at verse 9 it says so that you may proclaim god's excellencies or his praises the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light down in verse 21 he says you are to be the ones who follow in christ's footsteps and become example like he has been example to the world in verse 24 it says that we are to die to our sins and live for righteousness in verse 21 accents for us you were called to this not just the suffering and the enduring that's mentioned in the verse prior but to that culmination of things that echo down through each of those verses in addition to this identity and this purpose then we must embrace a set of values again we find them clearly marked through the verses that we read in verses 2 and 8 god's word is lifted up as a value among us who are the god called ones honor is mentioned in verses 12 7 17 twice in verse 17 he says honor all people and then he says honor the king the one in the place of authority he accents good works four times in this chapter the glory of god is accented in verse 12. submission is accented in verse 13 and 18. freedom in verse 16 love reverence or fear of god in verses 17 and then the favor of god through suffering in verses 19 and 20. these are the attributes these are the things these are the values that god has called us to hold dear as his called once dr danny forsey a dear friend of mine a former member of the faculty here at southeastern many years ago as pointed out in one of his recent daily devotionals that this ontological dimension this summation of our identity our purpose and its expressions and this set of values emerges and is described by paul in ephesians chapter 2 with the phrase god's workmanship danny pulled out of that understanding of workmanship uh from the understanding of the greek language the original language of the new testament he says that we are god's poetic creation man i like that as these called ones you are god's poetic creation in christ jesus for good works which god prepared ahead of time for us to do for us to do he prepared them ahead of time for us to do and it should be evident that says god called once but that's who we are and that's what we're about now before i transition from this first proposition accent or focus on the being aspect the to the second proposition which focuses more on the doing aspect allow me to highlight something a realization that maybe has not become apparent to you thus far along your ministry path there will be seasonal callings along your path that will emerge that correlate to your primary call as a bond servant of christ let me say that again there will be seasonal callings that will emerge along your ministry path that will correlate to your primary calling as a bond servant let me a little straight first out of paul's life paul was a traveler you remember three missionary journeys he went from place to place to place planting churches pastoring leading people to understand who jesus was that got him in trouble he wound up in prison chained to roman soldiers members of the praetorian guard at one point were responsible for guarding paul and taking care of him not traveling anymore can't plant churches so what does he do he starts telling those roman soldiers about jesus and amazingly enough he says to us in philippians that through that endeavor and through that effort the gospel abounded more it was multiplied more as those roman soldiers would come to christ and then they would go out and spread the word through the ranks and it went from addition to multiplication in a way that paul never perceived that it would and that most of us would not sign up for hey god let me go suffer by being in jail chain me up to somebody 24 hours he had to ask to do anything but god used it for his purposes and for his glory and lo and behold he had the idea why he was there he said can somebody give me some pen and paper i'm locked down in here i can't do much i need to pass the time let me write some letters and amazingly enough if you think about it i've traveled the world a good bit and i've made some ventures out and i don't know of any of those churches that paul planted in their original state actually still exists today now their replications and their remnants of that that have come to us across the ages and stages of history but it's actually his writings that have lasted the test of time as god inspired him and breathed into him while he was in prison you need to embrace that reality today that god will take you through seasonal callings transitions in order to fulfill his purposes across the trajectory of your ministry you kind of heard dr shattucks already rattle off some of my calling experiences i won't rehearse them all but i remember distinctly like you when god called me in a general way to ministry i remember when he called me to pursue educational endeavors i remember when he called me to join the united states marine corps reserves and i have people questioning me about that sometimes he said what yeah january the 8th 1982 i woke up in my quiet time god said to me distinctly and clearly i am calling you to go join the marine corps today i met the recruiter at the office door before he had even unlocked it i'll tell you that story over there this afternoon if you want to hear the rest of it it's been amazing to see what god has done through that little bit of obedience you heard the other rattles there pastor seminary professor called to iraq called to katrina called to become a denominational leader in disaster relief call back to afghanistan call to africa to a place called jabuti i couldn't even spell djibouti when they told me i was going there i had to go look it up but god intended me for to be there and i spent over a year of my life there and had been back multiple times when god calls you answer and do what he tells you to do listen to god and that may require some sacrifices last year after i retired i got curious and i went back and added it up but jim i've had 50 addresses over the course of my life seeking to do what i'm talking to you about today 50 addresses that's not the w.a crystal or the rick warren experience i'll just tell you now god has used those men and i thank god we need more consistency in our churches with longevity and pastoring but i'll tell you you need to listen to the lord when he calls and respond to that this phone it rings frequently thanks to technology today i can usually tell who's calling here's what i'm talking about the best way i can illustrate it when this phone starts buzzing and my wife her name pops up on this i'm getting to that call as quick as i can i'm going to answer it and i often will pause the conversation and say this is my wife especially if she calls twice that's an indicator she needs to talk to me okay and and if i have i can't answer right then then in the next few minutes i'm going back to it and i'm returning that call asap i'll tell you the other time when it rings when i answer is when i don't see the number and i don't recognize the name and i'll unpack that maybe a little bit more in a minute because i don't know what's on the other end of it and i don't know what the need is and god may be sending an opportunity into my life now i know you ignore those calls but i'm telling you sometimes god may want to talk to you want you to talk to that person and use your identity fulfill your purpose and your values by speaking into that person's life because there's a need there and they're reaching out to you with that knee let's move to the second proposition time is for eating this morning and my inadequacies uh will fill me soon if i don't move on you are god's called once and you need to act like god called just as i hinted to you there when my wife calls i respond you need to realize that god is moving in into your life through this deal deontological dimension here this is the doing aspect the rules and responsibilities that's why it's saying deontological is so hard for me with this old southern accent that i have shifted it to the understanding what are the rules and responsibilities we have as god's called ones there are certain behaviors and actions that correspond with this calling you are called for this what does that mean in regard to how you act and make decisions peter gives us some strong verbs there's a collection of 13 of them here let me just rehearse them before you remind you you've already heard them and i pray that god's spirit is beginning to saturate your soul with these realizations as you need and act as you do what god expects you to do as his called ones it says in verse one you are to rid yourself of all malice all deceit hypocrisy and all slander lord have mercy we need some help there if you don't believe me just go check your social media verse 11 says we are to abstain from sinful desires verse 12 conduct yourselves honorably verse 13 submit to every human authority and the bible doesn't say unless you don't like it it doesn't say unless you don't agree it says submit because this is god's will and it is for the sake of the kingdom submit as free people and don't misuse your divine privilege verse 17 honor everyone love fear honor the king i'd love to go back to daniel chapter 3 right here and remind people daniel shadrach and mich and the bendigo while they were in that situation daniel shadrach and bendigo called to do something ungodly and that would offend god to recognize an idol or to worship a king instead of god they said we're not going to do that i can't we respect you and they represented the utmost respect to this earthly authority and god walked him out of that situation you know that story and then it says we must submit ourselves suffer and endure and follow in his footsteps not much question about the kind of activities and the doings that are being apart of who we are and then he also offers us the corresponding end state if we'll do it that tell us as we understand it from the greek language in verse three says will taste the lord is good we'll honor and be honored versus stumbling in verse seven verse 11 says you'll be able to avoid the desires that wage war against the soul verse 12 says others will observe your good works and glorify god verse 15 you will silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good lord we need a lot of that going around right now i hope you'll join in that endeavor with me is to exemplify those kinds of activities rather than getting caught up in the culture and the world around you verse 19 and 20 says that it will bring favor with god much like noah experienced his favor in the days before the flood and verse 24 kind of the the culminating outcome you will be healed by christ's wounds both spiritually and eternally healed by christ at this point i could be tempted to go and elaborate on thousands of occasions where god spoke into my life and i listened carefully enough and responded as one of his called once i recognized who was speaking to me and what he wanted me to do and i did it to his honor and glory and i'm thankful for that if god can use an old country boy like me from town louisiana alabama god like john scalinson up here on the front row with me a dear friend guy like brian o'day john sitting up here guys are involved in these ministry endeavors that we're doing jim saddix another alabama boy if he can use us he can certainly use you to do what he wants to do in this generation but instead of rehearsing all those i'm going to tell you that there are three key misses that i experienced in my life one was on the night of 9 11 when one of my former students stephen niehaus called me on the phone i had been busy all day wearing the uniform doing what i could do to respond in that circumstance and it was just before i want to say about seven or eight o'clock when the president was going to come on tv and phone rang i didn't recognize the number and steve said dr lee this is stephen can i talk to you and i said stephen i said the president's about to speak and i really want to hear what he has to say i said do you mind calling me back about 30 minutes and we'll talk as long as you want to he said sure dr lee i'll call you back hung up the phone listened to the president heard all that was said and 30 minutes on the mark phone rang again i picked it up he said dr lee this is stephen again i said hey steven what's going on he said dr lee i'm in new york city i was on the platform speaking when the first plane hit the towers he's dr lee i've been overwhelmed by what happened today and i know you taught me some things in those classes but my mind is spinning so hard right now i can't think of all of them and i don't know what to do can you help me can you talk me through what god needs me to do i know i'm here for a purpose and there are people all around me that are hurting and i need to speak the love of christ unto them but can you help me the first thing i did was apologize to steve and i said stephen i'm so sorry i didn't know where you were i didn't know what was going on and that you were surrounded by that and to this day i have never let a phone call go by maybe like that without first asking what's going on and what do you need that's the way that god called one's hat they listen when god calls and then they act in accordance a second miss i know i'm pressing in on your time now i call it the may runner i was driving into sims alabama made a right turn into red light and drove down the road about 50 yards there was a man there running down the side of the road i was organizing moral day flag we lay mobile i do every year i've been doing it for a number of years and as i drove by the man i looked at him watching him running he looked kind of like me when he was running huffing and puffing and getting there he was he was working hard and god's spirit quickened in me and said why don't you stop and talk to that guy why don't you ask him if he'd like to run in the relay and as i pressed on i looked in the rearview mirror at his face and i said god he don't want to be bothered with me he's running right now he's getting his exercise i said that's not important to him he'll think i'm a crazy man if i pull over to the side of the road he'll think i i'm going to try to hurt him or something it just won't make sense and i'm i'm headed somewhere else i think i was going to see my mom or something like that i went on a hard time schedule but you know i said i'll let this one pass lord went on about the rest of my day got home and watched the news last night or that night as i come in my wife said i'm glad to see you i'm glad i know you're okay i was like what are you talking about said well there was a runner killed in sims today i said what she said yeah a man was running down the road and a car hit him accident i went in and started watching the news and sure enough it was the same man within 200 yards of where i had passed him the next car or the car after that apparently didn't see him and they hit him on the side of the road knocked him over in the ditch and he dies right there every time i still drive past that piece of road that memory comes back to me and some of you would say hey that was providential it was his time we can explain it a thousand ways but god taught me a lesson there today that day that there are some opportunities that will never come to you again and they can have eternal ramifications i don't know what that man's eternity was but had i stopped and talked to him started a conversation i might have had a chance to talk to him about jesus and today he might be alive or i certainly at least might know where he is in eternity don't miss like that the third one i'll say for this afternoon if you want to come over and visit with us i'll share that other story it's a key miss that actually had a good turnout but i won't press it here i think i've made my point if you will follow god and respond to his calling as his called ones and do what he tells you to do when he tells you to do it the world can be changed he will do his bidding as i close today let me say to you that this kind of behavior that i'm calling for will result in much larger outcomes in verses 9 and verse 25 it's summed up this way those who are not a people will become the people of god those who had not received mercy will receive god's mercy and those who were like sheep going astray will now become sheep who have returned or who are returning to the shepherd and the guardian of their souls so today as god called once as those who need to act like god called will you go out and proclaim the excellencies of our lord so that those who are out there suffering who are lost might be called out of darkness into his marvelous light god bless you and may his grace always rise to meet you as you pursue those endeavors let me ask you to bow with me for a brief word of prayer now as we prepare to conclude our service lord thank you for your word thank you for your spirit who guides us and comforts us as we seek to live it out help us today to show the world that we are your called ones and we know how to behave as such empower our being and our doing for your honor and glory we ask these things now in the name of our precious lord and savior jesus christ amen

Channel: Southeastern Seminary

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Id: 7Ge0Y2ofSKs

Length: 38min 39sec (2319 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 02 2021