1 Peter 4:12-19

You guys do me a favor. After today is over, just take note of who's not here and text them. Let them know they missed it today. All right. I'll get them. Missed the opportunity here. uh, Laura's not in here, is she? That girl's got the voice of an angel, doesn't she? What beautiful words to think about. God, break my heart for what breaks yours. God cleanse me. To look at this world the way that Jesus sees it. And to learn to love and to be loved the way that he loves us. I just want to say to us as a church family, I'm just thankful that we have the opportunity to have other churches come out and help us as we minister here in Utah, because we understand what Jesus has called us to do in this world, and the beauty of a relationship with him we experience. And so we're just grateful for the opportunity we have when other people come out and help us with that. You notice this morning when you showed up, there was actually lines to park your car in, something that was nice, wasn't it? And nursery's been done. And these guys have been doing canvassing for us and they're doing a lot more ministry. And so I want to encourage you as well, on Monday and Tuesday to bring your young kids out and just hang out. It's a good opportunity for you as moms. You can stay there at the park and just enjoy each other's company or fathers.

If you come, I'll be there and or you can drop your kids off and go out and enjoy your day and come back and pick them up later. And they're going to do their best to run them ragged. So that way when you get home, they nap and you got to eat another extra hour. Right. So if you brought a Bible with you this morning, go ahead and turn to the Book of First Peter. If you're using the Bible in the church seat is on page 182. I just want to let you know as well. We're just thankful. The group that's with us today is from Fellowship Baptist Church from Barboursville, West Virginia. It's actually a home church where Stacy and I grew up in. It's where I met my wonderful wife. This is Pastor Jason. He's one of the pastors there at fellowship. He's responsible for bringing this group out. So everything good that happens, we just thank him for that and everything bad that happens. We'll thank him for that, right. But we're thankful for that because this church family is also the church family. That's a big part of being behind us. Why Stacy and I were able to come out to Utah and do ministry. And as well, while we're looking at purchasing the building just down the road, they were large financial contributions to be able to provide for us that opportunity in that window.

So we're very thankful for that. And I got to admit to you today as well, thinking about us as a church family and what God has for us. I was really anxious to get into the book of First Peter, because First Peter is a book that talks a lot about sacrifice. And when you follow Jesus in your life, you can't help but expect that a particular point in Jesus is going to ask us to do something that we may not always want to do. At first, it may feel like a sacrifice, and knowing that we have purchasing of a facility in front of us and all the possibilities that come along with that and opportunities, it requires his church family to consider what they might sacrifice to get to that place. And I thought for us as a church, what a great place for us to be in. But I got to admit, that was in the beginning when we started first Peter, to be honest, having studied the book and having gone through this with you throughout the previous weeks, this has become the most difficult book that I have, I think ever studied and preached from. Because not not not because it talks about anything theologically challenged. It's that the practical implications of what this book communicates to us is difficult to swallow. It talks about suffering.

I mean, for weeks we have focused around, in and around the area of suffering. And I started to think about this week how many times I've been to church and I've heard messages on suffering. And then I started to realize, I don't think I've ever been to church other than here and listen to heard a message on suffering. I mean, it's not a popular message. And if you have heard a message on suffering at some point in your life, it's how to hurry up and get past it or avoid it all together. But when you look in Scripture and you see the topic of suffering, especially in the book of First Peter, you notice that Peter never promises the people within this book that the suffering will end. In fact, for the early church, it got much worse before it got better. And when you read throughout the New Testament, you discover that nearly every book in the New Testament talks about the topic of suffering, which left me with the question, why do we not share messages on suffering in church? James chapter one opens the book like this. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Peter opened his book like this greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you've been distressed by various trials. The early church in acts five it said this they rejoiced over suffering for Jesus.

That is so foreign to any concept of Jesus that is taught in church today. I like how Paul records it in Second Corinthians. This is written. This is from the message. So it's a paraphrase of what Paul wrote in this passage. But it says this I've known drudgery and hard labor many a long and lonely nights without sleeping, many a missed meal blasted by the cold, naked to the weather. And that's not the half of half of it. When you throw in the daily pressures and anxieties of all the churches, when someone gets to the end of his rope, I feel the desperation in my bones when someone is duped into sin and angry fire burns in my gut. I have to brag about myself. I'll brag about the humiliations that makes me like Jesus. He said, this is well. I've worked much harder, have been jailed more often, have been beaten up more times than I can count, and at death's door, time after time, I've been flogged five times with the Jews 39 lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once I've been shipwrecked three times. Immersed in the open seas for a night and day, in hard traveling, year in and year out, I've had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I've been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by the desert sun and sea storm.

And betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. Paul suffered. He even says in Second Timothy chapter one and verse eight, as if that wasn't enough, join with me in suffering. Sounds strange, doesn't it? Oftentimes the Bible says rejoice in trials. I got to be honest, sometimes being a glass half empty kind of guy, I don't always find reason to rejoice when I hear songs like I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. That pause is perfect for me to smack. Like what I don't understand. It sounds like a trite expression. You're just seeing it outwardly, but really on the inside is your heart full of joy in the midst of suffering. Jesus even said himself in Matthew 1624, Then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Meaning in following Christ, there's no guarantee that life is easy by Jesus referring to a walk in relationship with him as a cross. He's letting us know to truly follow after Jesus will require at particular points in our relationship with him to suffer. How about this? Matthew 1038 and he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. This is saying to a church, there's got to come a place in our lives that when we think about Jesus, he must become the ultimate joy beyond the joys of just pleasure, beyond the joys of the luxuries of life.

When we have the choice between serving Jesus and those luxuries, we take up our cross and we follow him because he is worthy. You see where I'm at with Peter? When I started this book, it was fun. Another book of the Bible. But four weeks into the topic of suffering and meditating on these verses, your heart weighs heavy and understanding what Peter is talking about here. Vance Havner once wrote this about the Nicene Council. Nicene Council was a group of men that gathered together to write the creeds of the early church. They weren't to write creeds that the church hadn't been following, but creeds that the church have established as their beliefs throughout the first three centuries of Christianity. These men that gathered together had been imprisoned, had been beaten, many of their friends had been killed. And finally, for the first time in history, thanks to the Edict of Milan, by the by Constantine, the Emperor Constantine, the church was allowed to gather together because Christianity had been legalized, and so as they began to gather together in public forums of worship, they determined that they needed to gather together in one central place of church leadership to establish the doctrine that would long been set for the church to follow from here on out. And when these leaders gathered together, Vince Havner wrote this at the Nicene Council, an important church meeting in the fourth century of the existed.

Of the 318 delegates attending, fewer than 12 had not lost an eye or lost a hand, or did not limp on a leg, lamed by torture for their Christian faith. When I look at the idea of suffering in Scripture, the Bible says to us that we need to communicate what suffering is about because for some of us, suffering will not end until we see Jesus face to face. And if there's one thing that the church needs to know is that when we endure hardship, we need to know how to suffer well for the sake of Christ. Peter, in fact, in chapter four and verse 12, begins his story this way. He recognizes for us that suffering in following Jesus will happen. And so he says, beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you which comes upon you for your testing, as though something strange were happening to you. I love the way that Peter starts his address to us, and recognizing as a church that suffering will take place. He reminds you of your position in Jesus. Listen, everyone in this world suffers, but not everyone in this world is called beloved according to Christ. And so he says, you who are loved by God, emphasizing and recognizing to us that even in suffering, Jesus still cares for you.

He says that we're going to go through this fiery ordeal and it shouldn't surprise us as individuals. The Bible never promises to us. Peter saying, the Bible never says to us as people that just because you're following Jesus, life automatically gets easier. In fact, in some cases it can get harder. Just because you follow Jesus doesn't mean your problems will go away. In fact, the Bible never promises that your problems will go away. But the Bible does promise that Jesus will walk with you through it and in it. After all, consider the God of Christianity is a God who suffered for the well-being of others. You serve a suffering God. In Philippians chapter two and verse five, it says, have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus. Suffering for the sake of others. In Hebrews chapter 12 and verse two, it gives us the idea in our minds that why Jesus endured the suffering, it says, for the joy set before him, he endured the suffering. Meaning it's saying to us, and Peter's going to reflect it in the next verse, that Jesus, when he's thought of this world, he realized that it was just a temporal place. But the joy of everything that would last for eternity was found in this heavenly home. And so for the joy set before him endured the cross. First Peter chapter five and verse ten, and first Peter, chapter one and verse six.

He refers to it as just a little while. Suffering will happen, but it's just a little while and the scope of eternity. To us it becomes as if it were nothing for the sake of Christ. And so Peter says this in verse 13, but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of his glory you may rejoice with exaltation. Peter's promise to us is that Jesus may not take away our suffering while in this world, but he will walk through us with it. And in verse 13, one day he will ultimately heal us from it. He's recognizing to us as people that this world may disappoint us, that this world is not intended for us to have hope, that when we go through suffering, it's a reminder to us as people that this place is not your home and that eternity is where your hope should be. And in verse 13, he shares with us that we may place our hope heavenly, that we may understand that this world will only disappoint us if our hope is found in it, and that the suffering in comparison to eternity with Christ is just a little while. And then Peter says an interesting word in the midst of the trials in which the people are experiencing. In verse 13 he says, rejoice. How do you do that in the midst of a tragedy that experienced in your life? Do you say, God, thank you for devastating my world? God, thank you that this is so hard.

And what is Peter talking about when he says the word rejoice in the midst of obstacles that were facing? You think of people this past week in Saratoga Springs watching flames come to their house and applying this verse to that situation? Rejoice. How do we rejoice? We rejoice in the fact that troubles remind both you and I that we have a greater hope. In the midst of opposition, it reminds us to take our focus off of the problems that we're facing and put it on the one who lasts for eternity. Rejoice that you have found what will sustain you over and above the things of this world that will fade away. Rejoice that you found the greatest of life's joys and worth in Christ. While the world continues to remind you that you do not belong. And this is not your home. If anything, adversity and suffering reminds us in this world. It is the beauty of Jesus and everything that awaits us in him. And Peter is reminding the church that. Listen, following Jesus are not following Jesus in your life. You will suffer for something. But what greater joy you have in knowing and anticipating that you have a far greater home to live for. Someone burns you for 20 bucks in this world, who cares? You've got a father that's got millions.

That's right. And when you lose hope because of suffering in the world, it's reminding us to people that maybe our hope is in the wrong thing. Rejoice in Jesus. Rejoice that in the midst of trials, it has reminded you of a greater joy set before you in Christ, in a world that will not fade away as you see him face to face. We've learned that the tendency of suffering is just to focus on us, and to focus on the moment, and to focus on the pain. But Jesus often takes those eyes that look down, and he places them upward to a home in which we belong. Verse 12 and 13, he reminds us of that significance. 14 he begins to remind us of how we can endure. Reminded of a story of a sickly older lady who lived in a fifth floor of an apartment building in the attic. I love it when our kids have fun. And this lady wanted to go visit her friend who was stuck in the fifth floor of this attic. She was bedridden due to illness because she. Her experience with this lady was always bright. It was always cheerful. This lady was always optimistic, even though she lived in the poorest conditions. In this attic of this rundown apartment building in the fifth floor. She always enjoyed her time with this woman, and on going to visit her, She invited one of her well-to-do friends to go along, a lady of great wealth.

And so they began the journey to this apartment. And they entered the building, and they began to go up this old rickety building up to the top floor. And as they got to the second floor, the well to do lady looked around and said, this place is just dark and filthy. And the woman responded, well, it gets better higher up. And they got up to the third floor. And the lady well-to-do lady looks around and she says, this floor is worse than the second floor. And her friend looked at her and said, it's okay. It gets better higher up. Eventually they come into this room with this old saintly lady laying in her bed, facing this ailment in front of her, in the rooms just dark and damp. And there's a flower on the windowsill. And the well-to-do lady walks in the room and she sees this lady gleaming with a smile on her face, and she says, it must just be awful and difficult for you to live in this environment. Without skipping a beat, the lady looked at her and said, it gets better higher up. Knowing the glory that awaits God's children helps the fading glory of this world to seem small. As we face suffering and Peter looked at a church, knowing that their faith in Christ was going to require them to make sacrifice.

And he says in the beginning of his book, chapter one, and he says, at the end of the book in chapter five, guys, it's just for a little while, look to Jesus. In verse 14, Peter goes on, if you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. It's not saying to you, go, suffer. So the Spirit of God rests upon you. But this verse is saying to you, if you're suffering for the sake of Christ, it's evidence in your life that the Spirit of God is resting upon you. If you're willing to lay it all down for the sake of Jesus, even if it's inconvenient for your life, it's evidence that the Spirit of God has control of your world. Rejoice in that. Ask the question, how did Jesus endure such hardships in this world? The answer is, while being God, Jesus became man and living as a man, surrendered to the will of the father and the Spirit of God rested upon him. When we look at this moment, and when it says, the Spirit of God rests upon you, it literally means in the Greek text it's weighty, saying to us, when the pressures of the world mount upon us and it outweighs us upon our shoulders, and it's crushing beneath us the Spirit of God and His power as given by God, rest even weightier upon us, lifting the burden of the world.

Some of us, in suffering would beg the question, how can I experience the spirit in that way? How can that spirit rest upon me that way? The Bible really defines it in a couple ways. In Thessalonians and Corinthians he says, do not quench and do not grieve the spirit. But in Romans Peter says in chapter 12, lay your life down. The way the Spirit of God gets control of our lives is simply found in one word it's surrender. It's meaning we. We look into a world that will not sometimes make sense to us. Like job, we'll look at suffering and not completely understand why it's happening to us. But knowing that God loves us being called beloved. In verse 12, we simply kneel ourselves before God and we say, God, I don't understand, but what I do understand is that you have control and God that you're going to work all things out for the good of those who love you. And so, wanting the power of your spirit to rest upon me in this moment when temptation and suffering seem so great, I just give myself to you. I listen to a leader who loves Jesus talk about this passage of scripture. He was a man that was in the spotlight. He loved the Lord, and so many people had begun to criticize him because of his faith and because of the stance he took for Christ.

And he said that in his life he literally was robbed of joy because of the comments that other people made. And he read verses that were contained in Peter that said, rejoice. And he couldn't figure out how he was to rejoice when so many people were making fun of him on the other side of this, and his joy was gone. And one day he got to a place in his life where he recognized that the response of people in the comments of people had become an idol in his life. And rather than just simply find the joy in serving Jesus as his king, others had become his king and their opinions of him had begun to influence his life. And so one day he said he was just broken. And he read this passage of Scripture, and he went out into a field behind his house, and he just knelt down and said, Jesus, this is all yours. Even the criticism that I'm facing, it's for you. And so it belongs to you. I no longer want to live for what other people are saying about me or what's happening to me. I just want you. The Bible says, in those moments in which we experience suffering and choosing Jesus, his spirit rests heavily upon us. C.s. Lewis was once asked, why do the righteous suffer? His response was, why not? They are the only ones who know how to take it.

Mclaren once said this those who know the path of God can find it in the dark. Suffering has an interesting thing that it does in our lives. And my hope for us. This is not going to make sense, but go with my craziness for a minute is that we live like potatoes. What in the world does that mean? When you go through the boiling pressure of life, you drop an egg in boiling water. It goes in tender on the outside it comes in or excuse me, tender on the inside. It comes in hard on the inside comes out hard on the inside. There you go. It toughens it up. You take a potato and you drop it in boiling water. And it makes it sensitive. And when you pull it out, it's soft. Suffering does one of the two. To us as people, the burden becomes so great that we stop listening to God. Our hearts become hardened as it boils. And rather than become sensitive to the need that we have for Jesus, in those moments, we are hardened. My hope for us is we endure suffering as a church, however, it be as a congregation as a whole, as individuals in our lives, is that we treat it like a potato. God, I don't understand. And God, there is a temptation just to walk away from you and just say, forget it, because it looks easier right now, knowing in the long run it's not going to help anything at all.

But God, more than anything, what I need right now is the weightiness of your spirit to rest upon me. I'm tired of talking about suffering. To think about these verses for weeks straight weighs heavy on you emotionally. Because, within our own church, there are people who experience what we're talking about today. I mean, I am at that point where my shoulders just feel heavy. But thank God that this is not your home. Thank God that your hope doesn't end here. When you see these things fade away, you know that there is better to come. And in that you can greatly rejoice. And in that you know that you can surrender to His Spirit, and it can work upon your heart, and you can feel the weight of God's glory resting upon you. Sometimes we don't always understand the suffering that happens to us and why it happens. We live with the expectation of knowing that Jesus does promise that it will make it better for us. He will make it better to all things. He works good to those who love him. But in our suffering, it's important that we learn to handle it well. Because, as I said, it's for some of us. It's not until we see Jesus face to face that it will end. And so in verse 15, Peter carries on and there's some important questions that we learn to ask as we endure suffering.

He says in verse 15, make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or a thief, or an evildoer, or a troublesome meddler. Now I like that last guy. I want to be a meddler if I'm anything right. But he brings us to a place in verse 15, and he just says simply, let's ask ourselves, why are we suffering? Do we even have to? Because some of us suffer for the wrong reasons, and we just throw it on God's lap as if it was God who made us suffer. I like in God's world how one plus one always equals two. God makes sense, right? Meaning, if you drink heavily, your liver is going to go bad. That's not God's fault. That's my fault. If I smoke like a freight train, I get lung cancer. That's not God's fault. That's my fault. He's saying in this verse to us. Answer the question in your suffering. Why are you suffering if you are to suffer, let's make sure that it's not because you don't need to, but it's because that it's in God's will for your life. Because in those moments, God is in control. In God's world, one plus one equals two. And so he says in verse, excuse me, let me just say before I move on, that if this becomes us, if we find ourselves as individuals who are suffering because of poor choices that we've made in our lives, rather than pass the responsibility onto God, take ownership of it and repent from it, turn to Christ in it.

Confess to those that you have wronged and look back to Jesus as His spirit may rest mightily upon you. In verse 16 he says, but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name. This answers the question for us is my suffering worth it? Is my suffering really worth it? When we talk about suffering for Jesus, is that suffering really worth it? You talk about making sacrifices for sin and being found out in that sin. Asking asking the same question is that suffering really worth it? And when Peter talks about our identity in Christ, he says, for us as people, there is no reason to be ashamed. I like that word choice. We feel shame placed upon us by outside sources for the decision that we make and following Jesus. No doubt at some point, if you're bold in your faith, you will receive shame for placing your faith in Christ and choosing to follow him. People will shame you, but there is no reason to feel ashamed. See, we feel ashamed when the things we place our faith in disappoint. We get humiliated because something failed and we had placed our hope upon that thing which failed.

And. And now I feel ashamed and devastated. Peter is saying to us, you may be shamed for Jesus, but there's never any reason to ever be ashamed because his promises will always ring true. You think about a hope in this world. Choosing to live the way that people define life should be in this world apart from Christ. We won't be shamed if we just fit in right now. But I have a feeling that in the end we will live eternity ashamed because our hope was in something that failed. Peter's dividing the line for us as people as to what we can put our hope in. In the middle of suffering what you walk away from Jesus only to place your faith in something that will shame you in the end. Or do you continue to look to Christ, knowing that it's just a little while and where you belong is so much greater than where you live? Do you realize for some of us, hopefully for all of us, this is as bad as it gets. This is close to hell as you'll ever live. Having trusted in Jesus that anything forward from here is nothing but optimism, hope, and joy in Christ. Paul continues on. In verse 19 and skip down for just a minute. Therefore those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful creator in doing what is right.

I like what Peter says here. I should like it right? It's a verse in the Bible. Peter is saying, if you have chosen Jesus and your suffering in Jesus, that's okay, because you're living in the will of God. Suffering or not, do you know the safest place in the world to be? The will of God. You could live in the middle of Timbuktu and 130 degree weather, but if it's in the will of God, it is the safest place to be. Jonah thought he was cool on a boat. Turns out he's better off in a whale. The safest place to be is in the center of God's will. It's better to suffer in this situation. And he says to us in these verses I had that were, what's what's happening to us in suffering is that our suffering is revealing where our loyalty truly lies. It says in verse 17, for it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God. And if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And he quotes the Old Testament. He says, and if it is with difficulty that the righteous is saved, what will become of the godless man and the sinner? Let me explain the difficulty. We're all getting into heaven by the skin of our teeth, which means this apart from God's grace, you have no hope. God's standard for heaven is perfection, and there isn't a person on earth apart from Jesus that will ever attain it.

That's right. Apart from God's grace, you have no hope in being there. And then by verse 18, he is saying to us, guys, you who have trusted in Jesus, it is by the skin of your teeth. And so in verse 17, he's telling us, and knowing this, it's time that we examine ourselves. We're the first to trust in Jesus. We're the first who have placed our hope in him. It's important that we often examine ourselves and ask ourselves the question, where is our hope? Maybe if we took a step back from this verse and asked the question, what would cause you to stop following Christ? What horrendous suffering would you endure? What difficult experience would you have to go through to stop following Christ? I got to say, according to what Scripture says, there should be nothing there as an answer. But if there is something there, it can become our idol. Verse 17. What Paul wants us to identify for us are the idols of our lives, the things that we choose to sacrifice for over and above Jesus and what he desires for our lives. And I got to say, for us in America, our idols are hidden. Typically when we say the word idol, we get this idea of, in our mind of those Easter Island statues that have been sculpted of some sort of stone or wood, and people bow down and worship it.

That doesn't always have to be what an idol is. It's anything that takes the place of Jesus in our lives and answers the question for us who is our God really? What do we sacrifice most to enjoy in this world? What do we spend time on? Where do we spend our money? Focusing toward what friends will we sacrifice to be with this idol? What is our God? For some, it's convenience. For some, it's pleasure. For some, it's possessions. For others, it can be popularity. None of those things are statues. But all of those things can take the place of Christ. Suffering has the tendency to make an idol of ourselves focusing on self rather than on God. And when we suffer being in idolatry, when we suffer, we are devastated because our hope was found in something else apart from Jesus and all that he has for us in glory. But suffering gives us an opportunity to look for those things that will last. Some of us can't rejoice in the heavenly home because we live to please men rather than God. And when others become disappointed by us, we are devastating having served them. Meaning, we care way too much about what other people think and too little about what Christ thinks about us. Some of us cannot rejoice because our God is comfort and pleasure and not loving Christ, and we become devastated when health trouble, financial trouble, reputation trouble comes our way.

Some of us cannot rejoice in our trials because we live for this world rather than for our King. And when our world feels as if it's falling apart, we become devastated. I'm not saying for us this morning that trials are easy. If they were, the Bible would never talk about it. What I'm saying is that we need to learn to still suffer well. And the way that we do that is to put our eyes on the bigger picture that is in Christ. Encouragement for us this morning going through trials as to remember, as Peter said, it's just a little while. And to remind us in those moments of suffering, God can still teach us and remind us of the hope that we truly have in him. I read a quote by an older gentleman. He said this talking about the importance of suffering. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my 75 years in this world, everything that is truly enhanced and enlightened, my experience has been through affliction and not through happiness. I do not enjoy suffering. I do not enjoy sharing messages on suffering. We cannot grow if every week we walk out with heavy hearts in suffering. But we need to learn to suffer well. We need to be reminded that Apple and all their eyes whatever aren't the ends, it's Jesus.

In suffering, we learn this suffering encourages us, encourages us to look for greater opportunities which ultimately wait in God. Suffering can promote our spiritual maturity as we learn to trust in God above our circumstances. Suffering proves our integrity as to where we have placed our hope, rather in circumstance rather than in circumstances. Suffering produces a sense of dependence in God. Suffering prepares our hearts for ministry and serving for Christ as we learn to empathize with those who are suffering with us. Suffering produces character. Suffering shows the power of Christ as He came and suffered for us, resurrected from the dead and sitting up on high. Suffering has revealed to us the glory of God as Jesus sits on his throne. Suffering shows what faith can do. Suffering helps us understand God's willingness to demonstrate his love to me. Suffering enables us to comfort those in trouble. Suffering shows the proof of our faith. Suffering validates the message of Christ through his followers. God gives us the opportunity to show our utmost loyalty to our King as we suffer for the cause of Christ. Suffering keeps down our pride and keeps us humble before our God. Suffering reminds us that our greatest hope is always in Jesus. Suffering reminds us that when we have nothing left to give, God is all that we need. This morning. Peter doesn't want us to be surprised by suffering. And said he wants us to look at the opportunity of suffering as a reminder to us to rejoice.

Rejoice that this is not your home. Rejoice that your greater hope lies in Jesus. Rejoice in the fact that rather than become an old stinky egg, you are a potato for Christ. Paul says it like this Romans eight. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us in Christ. It says to us as people every day, wake up in the mirror and look at yourself and just remind you, this is not my home. This is not my home. This is not my home. It belongs with Jesus. And when everything else in this world fades, and when everything else in this world passes away, my worship with Christ will continue forever and ever. In this world, in these moments, we may look at our opportunities in Christ and our opportunities outside of Christ, and we may toy with the idea and facing temptation to leave Jesus and turn to other idols in worship. But to think with the idea of eternity in mind. How foolish one day we will feel if we were to turn ourselves away from Christ and all the glory that is to exist in him. My hope for us as a church is not that we would suffer, but in that suffering we would learn to endure and suffer well. Let me close this in a word of prayer. Have you guys come back up?