I'm going to do my best to power through this because I have a word I really want to bring you today. Open your Bibles to the book of 1 Peter. I'll begin with a story about a time a few years ago when my wife was out of town. I don't remember why, but I thought, well, I'm bored. I think I will go see a movie. Now, if I am picking the movie, one or two things, either someone's going to win a big game or something is about to explode. So I picked a movie where things were supposed to explode. I get my coke and my popcorn, I'm sitting in my seat, the movie begins. And an actress named Jennifer Aniston walks onto the screen and I'm thinking, she's not in movies where things explode. And I realized I had walked into a theater where they were showing what is called a chick flick. I should have known 80% of the audience was female. And the other 20% looked totally whipped. So I just began to cough and fake an illness so I could get out of there because it just feels really awkward when you're in a place where you don't feel like you fit in. And it's especially awkward when you feel out of place in your own place. Welcome to the book of 1 Peter. Look at the first verse. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ who gods elect, exiles, scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, capidocia, Asia and Bethinia. That's a part of the world that we've been called turkey today. Did you notice two words he put together that don't seem like they should go together? Elect exiles. Who elects to be an exile? And other versions may use that word foreigner or stranger or a temporary resident. And this theme of being exile or alien goes all through the book of 1 Peter, like chapter 1 verse 17. Live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear or in chapter 2 verse 11. Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your soul. Now some of you have had the experience I had recently of being in a place that wasn't your place. Israel is particularly strange because you go through a security checkpoint and you're in Palestinian authority and then you're back in Israel and then you're back in Palestinian authority and it's a bit disorienting. We've all had that experience, but you're in a place that's not your place. But that's not who Peter's writing to. He's writing to people that have lived all their lives where they are when they get this letter and he's calling them exiles. They're out of place in their own place. Not because of their race or their ancestry or their status, but because they have decided to put faith in the Lord Jesus and that has made them strange. It still does. When people place their faith in Christ, they go from being alienated from God to becoming aliens for God. In other words, graced people become displaced people. And have you ever noticed how much of the Bible is written to help people deal with the tension of feeling like an exile? Because we don't like to be out of place. One of our strongest drives is to fit in. You don't believe me? Look back at the pictures of the clothes you wore in high school. When I was a freshman in college, there was a popular singer named John Denver who said we should all have a Rocky Mountain High and it became cool to be a mountain man. So we all went out and we bought big, old, heavy mountain boots and big, old, heavy flannel shirts and those that could grow beers. Now here's the truth. Most of us were so city-fied you put us out in a mountain wilderness. We wouldn't last in two days, but we walked around looking like we were mountain men. And I went to school in Abilene. It was 119 degrees in September and we were wearing flannel shirts because of this strong drive to fit in. Nobody wants to feel out of place and especially when it comes with criticism and pushback. And that's what Peter's readers were experiencing. Look at chapter 4 verse 4. Non-believers think it is strange that you do not do the many wild and wasteful things they do so they insult you. You see as followers of Jesus, we sing a song that cannot be harmonized with the prevailing melodies of our culture. So stop trying. Stop trying to craft a Christianity that doesn't offend anybody. Stop trying to craft a Christianity that doesn't stand out. If you hold new core Christian convictions and behaviors, you are going to look strange to a world that doesn't accept Jesus as Lord. And I know it's exhausting and trying, and tiring. Peter did too. Peter knew you need a living hope to be odd for God.