1st Peter #7 - Suffering Leads to Sinning or Serving

well howdy good to see y'all t today we're in uh first peter chapter four if you've got a bible we we tend to go through because i really like to go through books of the bible so thanks for joining me and today we're in first peter chapter four and before we jump in let me just start by telling you i love you and i want to help and this could be one of those really practical sermons that really if applied could make a massive difference in your life in your family in your relationships for honestly generations to come it's really really significant because one of the things that we don't learn when we're in school is how to suffer how many of you went through elementary school you didn't have a class how to suffer go through high school they don't give you a class on how to suffer you can make it all the way through college you can get a graduate degree and not know how to suffer and one of the most important lessons you and i can ever learn is what to do when we're suffering and what not to do when we're suffering and when jesus christ said pick up your cross and follow me he meant at least two things number one that he was going to suffer and number two that christians who follow him that we were going to suffer the question is not will we suffer but how will we suffer what will we do with our suffering and what will we do to learn about helping others who are suffering and when it comes to suffering i want you to think about whatever you're going through right now how many of you it's financial suffering all right have you looked at the economy wow if you're doing well you're defying gravity amen the rest of us are a little concerned how many of you it's physical you've got some physical problems right now maybe surgery injury health lingering pain how many of you it's relational you've got strained relationships with family or friends how many of you right now it's mental there's some things that you're really struggling with how many of you it's emotional this is a difficult season for you how many of you it's spiritual and you're wondering where god is and what he's saying and doing and how you can respond to him everyone is dealing with varying kinds of suffering constantly and this suffering is often multi-layered but suffering has an opportunity to teach us some things about god and how we can become more like jesus some years ago my family and i we were in for us what was the hardest season collectively as a family of our entire life it was just really the roughest season quite frankly that we've ever been in grace and i and the five kids and i didn't want to waste it because i believe that life is a class and that class is always in session and whatever you're going through in life there's an opportunity to learn and to get better from it and so what i did is i started journaling out what we were learning collectively through what we were experiencing through suffering and i want to share with you today 14 things from that journal and and this is just the introduction if you're new it's like a group on here you always get one sermon and then another one for free so this is the free one and then we'll get into first peter four but what this is this is setting up the whole biblical context for suffering we believe in the whole bible we love the entire word of god and uh and peter is one of the final books of the bible written a lot has been said previously and i'm going to collect that together to sort of open your understanding so that his specific instruction is most beneficial so there's 14 kinds of suffering at least there's endemic suffering that's our father adam he sinned against god as a result everyone and everything is just kind of broken everyone and everything is just kind of broken in addition there's demonic suffering sometimes satan and demons and there is an unseen unholy unhelpful realm just attacks you and you didn't do anything you're really a victim of demonic attack there's a man named job in the bible it says he was a righteous man and satan just declared war on him not because of anything he had done but because of his love for god that's demonic suffering victim suffering sometimes you are not guilty you didn't do anything you just got attacked sexual assault victim thievery business partner steals from you spouse runs off and commits adultery something catastrophic you didn't cause it or create it or perhaps even contribute to it you're just a victim of injustice and evil there's also collective suffering this is where you're part of a group of people and they're all suffering so you're feeling your suffering and they're suffering today we would call that america amen any of you feeling this right right now everybody's kind of in a hard season and we're all feeling it together which raises the suffering level there's also disciplinary suffering the bible says that god is a father and just like a good parent corrects a child it's to prevent greater future harm so if you see your kid doing something that is ultimately going to harm them or endanger them you discipline them to correct them well god is a father and he disciplines us to save us from greater harm it's an act of love there's also persecution suffering we'll get into this more specifically next week as we conclude first peter 4 but this is where you love jesus and they don't and as a result they're going to treat you the way they treated him this is really out of your love for jesus in addition there's empathetic suffering and this is that someone that you love care for very dearly is really having a hard season and they're going through it and so you're sharing in their grief the bible says to weep with those who weep that's what empathetic suffering would be how many of you right now there's somebody you know you love and they're really going through it and you're going through it with them because you care for them and what makes it even harder in our day is we can't even physically be together to comfort those that are suffering and we care for life is so complicated and isolated right now that it multiplies empathetic suffering there's also testimonial suffering where what you're going through is really hard but god has a great testimony for you on the other side but you're going to use this to talk about the goodness and glory of god and people will pay attention because of all that you've endured we saw this not long ago on the news there was someone that had a family member that was murdered tragically and it was a horrible situation and the mother i think it was got on the news and she said what happened was wrong and evil but jesus christ is a god who forgives and he has forgiven me therefore i forgive them that's testimonial what happened was horrible but she used it as a witness to her love for jesus and his love for her providential suffering is where god is working out and orchestrating a lot of details in your life towards some greater cause or good in the end this is the story of a man in the bible named joseph he goes through a cataclysmic series of betrayals and complexities and then in the end it was all to get him in another country during a famine so that he could save many many lives and god had a great story planned for him and he just needed to keep going until he got to the happy ending mysterious suffering category 11 you're like i don't know why how many of you this is what you've experienced somebody comes you're like okay why did this happen you're like i have no idea the bible says we see in part we know in part there's certain days you're like lord i love you and i don't know what's going on i just don't know there will be things that we don't know until we see jesus and then he lets us know that's the mystery there's also punishment suffering this is where you do something bad and as a result there's a consequence you commit a crime you get arrested you drink too much you blow out your liver you yell at your wife you sleep on the couch this just cause effect this is the way that it works and if you slept on the couch last night now you know why okay uh there's also consequential suffering this is where we're not entirely victims but the decisions that we make contribute to the pain that we experience what's happening right now many of us are dealing with consequential suffering i was overextended on my mortgage and then the bottom fell out i really spent some money i shouldn't have spent racked up my credit card or college your car debt and then i lost my job i really didn't watch my health and now i'm in a high risk category this is consequences for decisions that we make over time and then lastly there's apocalyptic suffering and what this means is history moves toward its conclusion and the second coming of jesus christ things get worse this is the opposite of evolution by the way and if you still hold evolution you're adorable how many people think it's getting better anybody think it's getting better like it's going so well i can hardly wait for the future i the election i i'm so excited you know and so what happens is apocalyptic means the closer we get to the end the more satan and demons declare war the harder and darker it gets until jesus comes to fix the mess we've made all of that to say a few things about suffering number one you will suffer you will suffer and some people think well god said he loved me why am i suffering well even god himself suffered part of life on this earth includes suffering you will suffer number two your suffering is complex and multi-layered these categories are not mutually exclusive there could be multiple things happening at the same time how many of you even going through that list thinking about your life right now you say check one check two check three check four you can check a lot of boxes on that menu of causation number three you're not always a victim now sometimes you are sometimes suffering chooses you but sometimes you choose suffering you're not always a victim sometimes suffering chooses us sometimes we choose sovereign sometimes it's a bit of both now what happens when we're suffering we like to see ourselves as victims why it elicits sympathy and compassion from other people and it allows us to get away with things that we otherwise wouldn't if we weren't considered the victim true this is what happens and sometimes what happens is if you are suffering but part of it is your own doing you tell your tragic terrible tale of all that you're enduring and then the person would want to say yeah but have you considered the fact that maybe you contributed to this but we feel bad doing so because it seems like we are adding a burden to someone who is already broken and as a result if all we ever do is just take our suffering and assume that we're victims we'll lose the opportunity to deal with the reasons that perhaps we contributed to our own suffering in addition though you can't always choose suffering sometimes you do choose suffering you can always choose what you do with your suffering this is what i'm going to tell you this is where first peter is going suffering comes what are you going to do with it how are you going to respond to it and then the last thing i wanted to say by way of preface is that the most helpful and the most harmful people in our world have one thing that they share in common and that is usually great suffering think about it the people in your life that have been most helpful to you have they been through some really complicated difficult painful seasons usually they have they've walked through it with the lord they're healthy they're godly and as a result they're helpful they're like okay i've been where you're at here's what i was feeling and we have this phrase for those people we say you what you get it you get it that means okay you've been through it you're ahead of me now i'm in it now you can help lead me through it those are the most helpful people they've been through the suffering other people that are the most harmful sometimes the most dangerous or even deadly they've also been through tremendous suffering but they've not handled it in a godly way and they've not learned from it to help others i was thinking about it yesterday because i'm weird i was sitting in my chair at the house working on the final kind of draft of the sermon and i wondered to myself i thought okay i wonder what happened to mother teresa when she was a little girl because the truth is right if you think of the most helpful person the most compassionate empathetic sympathetic you're like if you're having a bad day who do you want to visit from mother teresa amen i mean she's as nice as it gets and she's just a itty bitty thing too she's gone home to be with the lord now but she's little but she had great strength and power because true strength and power is not based upon your size but the spirit of god in you and she she loved jesus and so i did some research and i was wondering what made mother teresa mother teresa when she was a little girl she went through tremendous suffering she was very close with her dad she was a daddy's girl her and her dad really close affectionate loved each other great relationship at age eight her daddy died her daddy died and as i researched it her mom knew the lord and did a really good job helping her process her pain brought her to church brought her to the bible brought her to prayer brought her to jesus said you know what jesus conquered death daddy is with jesus someday you'll be with jesus you'll get to see daddy again you know what can we learn through this jesus suffered for you how can you become more like jesus through your suffering and she grows up to be mother teresa contrast that as i sitting in my chair because like i said i'm weird i wondered who's the greatest serial killer in the history of the world so i looked it up he's a british guy so congrats to you brits you're number one his name is harold shipman he is the most notorious serial killer that we are aware of uh they have proven 218 victims and there are many many more that they're not sure about harold shipman and mother teresa had the same experience when they were young he was a mama's boy he and his mama were very very close when he was 17 years of age his mother finally died after a lengthy battle with an illness she was sick and in decline for some years once his mother died he then spent the rest of his life taking the pain that he watched his mother experience and inflicting it on others until it took their life like it took her life rather than alleviating pain he multiplied pain this is the difference between responding in the spirit versus the flesh this is the difference between bringing it to the lord and not bringing it to the lord this is the difference because the truth is we all go through sometimes the same experiences or categories of suffering but how we respond determines the trajectory we move and the legacy we leave after the life that we live how many of you the most harmful people in your life have been through tremendous suffering you look back on experiences in their past and you realize there are reasons that they are the way they are but there are not excuses because those reasons could be overcome by the grace of god okay so this is where peter goes and what he says is basically this if i could summarize suffering comes to you you've really only got two choices you're going to respond in the flesh and you're going to sin or you're going to respond in the spirit and serve suffering comes it's not if it comes it's when it comes and then the decisions you have to make are in the flesh i will sin in the spirit i will serve that's where he's going we'll jump into first peter four option number one you can suffer in sin first peter 4 1-6 since therefore christ so he's going to focus us back to jesus and his suffering in the flesh that's his physical body arm yourselves with the same way of thinking you've got to get your mind straight okay when suffering happens i got to go up to jesus and then i need to respond with his example for me forever is suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions all right that's the flesh that's the sinful rebellious response but for the will of god that's the holy spirit supernatural means of serving for the time that his past suffices for doing what the gentiles do the first christians were jewish it's funny the other day i asked for directions from this elderly couple and it was to find a church i was looking for a church out of town just want to drive by it and just pray i just felt inclined to pray for this church and this jewish couple pulled up i didn't know they were jewish in their car i said you know where his church is at they're like well we think it's over there but we don't go we're jewish i said that's okay i worship a jewish guy we're fine so the first jews the first jewish people were the first christians rather were jewish people and then gentiles joined and you know who we are we're the dirty gentiles that's who we are we're the dirty gentiles okay so he's talking about us uh what the dirty gentiles want to do living in sensuality passions drunkenness orgies drinking parties lala's idolatry how many of you you're like that's not saturday no that's wrong what about if it's an old town it's still wrong okay with respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery what he's talking about is the whole cultural current if you jump in it just leads to those sorts of self-destructive behaviors and they malign you but they will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead that is jesus for this is why the gospel the good news of the suffering of god for the forgiveness of sin was preached even to those who are dead there's not an opportunity for them to be saved but there is a proclamation that jesus is savior though they are judged in the flesh the way people are they may live in the spirit that's the supernatural response living in the spirit which we'll examine in a moment the way god does and what he's saying is this that when we are suffering we either respond out of the flesh or the spirit that's what he just said same thing paul says every time you have a decision to make there's only two places that you will go to then ultimately determine what your course of action will be the flesh is your sinful fallen rebellious foolish self-destructive self-righteous excuse-making fallen nature in the spirit is as he said finding out the will of god it's god the holy spirit who empowered the life and suffering of jesus coming to empower you to live in the footsteps of jesus and to use your suffering to greater appreciate and become like jesus now in saying this let me just say i love you i'm your pastor and i know that there are people here that in their past there is tremendous suffering i know that there are people here present and listening online that right now today there is for you tremendous suffering for some of you you could see it on the horizon in the future it's coming and it has some anxiety for you because there is suffering that seems to be in the next season for you in those moments we need to make this decision and if we make the decision to live out of the flesh the flesh is concerned about self if you're filled with the holy spirit the holy spirit wants you to be concerned about god others and yourself god others and yourself the flesh has no regard for god or others it's only self now hear me in this what happens then if you are suffering and you choose to live out of the flesh you will be selfish in two ways number one you'll be selfish and what that means is in addition to your suffering you're going to multiply that suffering by causing everyone else around you to suffer suffering people can be very selfish people they are so consumed by their own pain that they overlook the pain that they are causing others how many of you there is somebody that you really love you care about but you can't be close to them because they've been through a lot but they're not healthy as a result their pain is very real but rather than healing up and having jesus fix that pain they instead multiply it they name call they yell at you they accuse you they attack you you're not loving you're totally selfish you only think about yourself and the truth is that they are overlooking the pain that they are causing because they are selfish and oftentimes what these people will do if you confront them on this and say now wait a minute you're being really rude here you're being mean you're being very selfish it's very hard to get along with you okay so it's all about you it's always about you you're very selfish you're very unloving i thought i thought you were a christian and they will manipulate their pain so that then they can multiply their pain so the flesh is very selfish and the flesh is very self-destructive sometimes people who are suffering add to their own suffering by self-destructing and he gives a list sort of a a checklist this is like a diagnostic for you and i am i am i self-destructing am i self-destructing the first one is sensuality and this is the question of where do you lack restraint this can be food money anger your tongue once you get emotional once you get passionate once you get fired up you make some really bad decisions and sometimes when people are suffering and then they're very passionate about their poor decision making if you address them they'll say well i'm just really hurting right now yes you are hurting but self-destructing is not helping it's not helping you're taking your pain and multiplying your pain that's what satan wants that's not what god wants that's going to destroy you and everyone who cares about you that's not going to deliver you and everyone who cares about you number two he talks about passion these are evil desires we all have things in our flesh that are like gravity if we don't fight against them they literally just drag us down until ultimately they bury us these are evil desires for sinful rebellious and or self-destructive decisions that when we're weakened through suffering those temptations are more alluring number three drunkenness this is any sort of addiction and self-medication he's going to distinguish between drunkenness and drinking parties there is a difference drunkenness is where you're self-medicating this is where you're alone just drinking or doing drugs or some other form of self-soothing if you're drinking by yourself in isolation and every time you are suffering you open a bottle or you take a hit you're in real trouble you're in real trouble and it almost seems like in our day we're allowing people to self-destruct out of a sense of love there are whole cities that have decriminalized drug use as if as if encouraging drug use is going to help anybody who's suffering right now as our country and our world is actually dealing with a lot of complexity alcohol abuse is exploded people are drinking more than ever there are surveys in particular nations some nations are suggesting that the number of people that are alcoholics has doubled so far this year it's self-destructing in the middle of suffering and that's drunkenness drinking parties or social sins where you're worried about what everyone thinks and how you look and in the age of social media and selfies and big events in scottsdale and donor dinners and fundraising events i'm not wearing enough clothes i have a drink in my hand and i'm with someone i'm not married to i'll put this on social media and what that is those are drinking parties the whole point is to impress people with behaviors that are not healthy he furthermore goes on and he talks about um orgies so what does that mean okay you know so i'm not going to talk about it it's a word right here and if you don't know don't google it just don't just move on okay so um debauchery pastor mark said to look this up no he didn't no he didn't no he didn't debauchery these are grotesque things that we have some appetite for when we're home alone when we think no one is looking when the lights are out when we're particularly weak there are habits that you and i can fall prey to that are debased they are disgusting how do you know let me ask you is there anything that you do even occasionally or rarely particularly when you're weakened through suffering or hardship that if jesus was there there's no way in the world you would do that let me just tell you this he's he's there he says i'll never leave you nor forsake you you're like oh he was there yeah and he was grossed out so knock it off okay and then what he says is if you've been living out of the flesh and you start living out of the spirit people will start maligning you because they feel like your behavior is a judgment on their behavior how many of you you became a christian and your family was not very excited about that you were dating an unbeliever you met jesus and they really didn't like your new lifestyle and as a result we can respond to the maligning of others by maligning them we're going to talk about that next week i know you guys are really wanting a series that includes suffering and enduring evil so i've got both of them for you because i love you so much i just kind of sensed that you wanted me to talk about painful dark things so i'm doing it for you the next two weeks come back bring your friends bring your friends who are maligning you we'll fix them okay and what he does here he says okay when you're suffering don't feed the flesh be selfish or self-destructive go to the spirit and consider your savior that's what he's talking about so he starts since therefore christ suffered in the flesh he's like okay when you're suffering you can think about yourself after you think about jesus okay and when you think about jesus the first thing you learn is this our god suffered jesus christ is our god he suffered what this means is before you and i can be victims we have to confess the fact that we're villains it's because here's what happens and this is so popular in our people like let me tell you about all of my suffering and what a victim i am great we'll get there let's start with the suffering that you caused not just the suffering that you endure but the suffering that you caused see because what we like to do we like to repent of everyone else's sins let me tell you what they did i've never seen a march or a protest where people have signs talking about the things they did i've never seen that i'm kind of a jerk to my wife and i drink too much and i stole from my employer i'm protesting my behavior i've never seen that but this is what sinners like to do they like to use their the sin that they have experienced to excuse the sin that they are committing so if we're going to talk about suffering and sin that causes suffering great let's talk about all of it or none of it that's my thesis if we're going to talk about all of it let's talk about the suffering that you and i have caused jesus our god shed many tears was arrested tried falsely accused beaten reputation destroyed and murdered for our sins for my sins that means that i am a villain and that of my sin jesus is the victim of my sin in fact he's perfect he did nothing nothing nothing ever wrong in word or deed and yet he suffers for me if we're going to talk about suffering particularly through sin secondly let's talk about the suffering that you and i have caused others through our sin i'm happy to talk about your suffering and their sin if you will talk about your sin and their suffering paul told excuse me peter told us earlier to have sympathy for one another and that is considering what we have done not just what has been done to us he says to consider jesus christ our god who has suffered for our sin and jesus was one who endured our sin and suffered for us did he respond in the flesh or the spirit did he respond in the flesh and sin no he never did he always responded in the spirit and served jesus christ suffered and used the suffering to serve therefore to follow in the footsteps of jesus christ as we suffer we need to invite the spirit and find ways to use our suffering to serve to serve and so that's where he pivots in the second option you can suffer and serve here's what i want to tell you the suffering that you go through it is incredibly expensive it costs you time energy money emotion it is so expensive to endure suffering my admonition would be don't waste it on sin invest it in serving find a way for it to serve you and find a way for it to serve others who are going through what you're going through and so he says it this way the end of all things is at hand we tend to think in terms of days weeks months years decades eons millennia god thinks in terms of jesus that's how he sees history there's the first coming where jesus comes to live die and rise for our sins as our savior he's coming again to judge the living and the dead and to sentence people to heaven or hell and what he says is since jesus has died rose and returned we're now into the last phase of human history the end so we know the end that jesus is coming back we're all going to give an account and that ultimately jesus christ is god knowing all of that we reverse engineer our life and we live for the last day because the most important day of your life is the last day it's the last day the end of all things is at hand therefore be self-controlled is our world lacking that right now say yes yes i agree with you and sober-minded deal with each of these we'll deal with each of these in just a moment for the sake of your prayers above all keep loving one another's like i loved them once it didn't work keep going keep loving them earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins show hospitality one another without what grumbling complaining so what he says is if you're going to choose the way of the spirit which is the way of the savior so that you can follow in the way of serving a couple of things to pay attention to number one in your will your will your decision making self-controlled paul tells us in galatians that part of the fruit of the spirit is self-control you know what we live in a world right now where there's a lot of argument over authority well we we need less authority well you know what if you had self-control we could get away with less authority if there was self-control there wouldn't be as much need for police officers but there is a need because there is not self-control if there was self-control we wouldn't need as many soldiers if there was self-control we wouldn't need as many prisons if if there was self-control we wouldn't need as many rehab centers if there was self-control we wouldn't need as many guns but because there is a lack of self-control we need those things we won't use them in the kingdom of god because everyone will be controlled by the holy spirit and they'll be under control rather than out of control practicing self-control the best government the best governance is self-control the best police on duty in your life should be god the holy spirit to keep you from doing self-destructive things toward yourself and self-destructive things that also implicate and harm them our world lacks self-control right now and let me just say this everybody has a reason for it well here's what i went through here's what i experienced here's what i'm feeling let me tell you the tragic terrible tale of why i'm out of control but that's self-destructing which is not helping it's self-destructing which is not helping only self-control not self-destruction is beneficial for those who are already suffering number two he talks not just about the will but the mind and what does he say about the mind he uses a word minded what's the word sober-minded what's the opposite of sober-minded drunk-minded he hit this earlier in the book he keeps hitting it because the drunk-minded people keep missing it so he keeps bringing it up okay have you ever had an argument with a drunk person how did that go it was amazing syllogisms reason emotional temperance fantastic we reached a resolution have you ever seen two drunk people argue the holy spirit is never there he's just he's like i'll be back later it's they're on their own when drunk people are arguing they're loud and they're crying and they make no sense and usually you can't even understand the words then you did it you're like okay my turn all right you know it's that's drunk minded right our culture right now drunk minded somebody like no no no no that's not true and i'm gonna post it on social media you're proving my point clearly right just go to social media and ask yourself self-control sober minded there it is it's not there we now live in a world where communication could be instant constant global permanent you're suffering feeling you just get to be venting and ranting and it's not self-controlled or sober minded and then what happens is you are hurt so then you hurt them and then they feel hurt and then they hurt them now all we have is an epidemic of brokenness an emotional people and a lack of self-control and the omission of sober-mindedness and we're wondering why everyone is depressed and has no hope for the future see some people think well this is an old book no this is an eternal book that means it's always timely he says in your soul to be uttering prayers when you're suffering when you're hurting when you're frustrated when you're emotional praying does a couple of things number one it helps you verbally process how many of you are verbal processors i've turned that into a career by the way i think as i go i don't know if you've noticed that i think as i go how many of us who are verbal processors it's not always helpful okay some people i had a guy come up recently he's like i don't agree with everything you've ever said it's like we're on the same team brother i don't agree with everything i've ever said so but in prayer you can verbal process with the lord rather than with others which is the only safe place to ultimately process if you know what want to know what this looks like read books like the psalms there are places in there that are prayers where someone is in it feeling it struggling fighting through it and they're talking to god about it and it helps them to process what they because oftentimes when we're suffering we feel it but we can't yet explain it so we need to talk about it so we can get categories for it but if you do this with the wrong people you're not helping you're not helping and i just feel inclined in the spirit to say this so don't do this in front of your children if you are verbal processing your suffering in front of your children you're putting them in a place that god can handle but they can't you're burdening them with things that they cannot carry which is the next point of prayer not only do you verbal process you burden transfer see when we're suffering we've got a burden amen you're feeling it prayer is where we transfer the burden jesus says my yoke is easy my burden is light come to me you are weary just sort of worn out heavy laden broken beat down and he wants us to transfer that burden we do so in prayer when we were in the middle of the hardest season of our whole life i was having a conversation with one of our overseers pastor jimmy evans who i love very much and he's like how's your prayer life doing i said well you know i think it's going good he's like well after you after you pray how do you feel i said i feel burdened he said then you're not praying you're just complaining to the lord i said okay explain that i got a pen apparently this is a life lesson i need to learn he said it's not really praying until the burden has been transferred until then it's just complaining or as peter's gonna call it grumbling grumbling he says in in your heart to love one another does it we already dealt with this last week but does it say to like one another nope because you can't like everybody and even if you like somebody you don't like them all the time amen we call this marriage you're like i like you but not right now maybe later so liking someone is intermittent but loving someone can be consistent because liking someone is predicated upon their conduct loving someone is predicated upon his character okay so it says love one another and what love means is i do what's in your best interest i don't use you i serve you and he includes in this hospitality which is inviting people into your life because here's what happens with some people some people when they're suffering they just let the whole universe know kind of where they're at okay and other people they withdraw they retreat they become very isolated they're home a lot they don't return your calls texts or emails you don't really know what's going on they're very isolated they've come to the conclusion someone hurt me therefore people are dangerous i will isolate myself so they cannot hurt me the problem is if you're isolated they also can't help you so you not only will you avoid pain you will avoid healing and this is this is why he says to practice hospitality as you suffer you get more discerning and judicious with people in relationships you don't open up to everyone but you carefully select who you can trust and then with your tongue he says don't grumble what's grumbling what's grumbling complaining can you can you do or say the right thing with a sour attitude yes okay yes and sometimes we will put this under the guise of truth we will say something that is truthful but it's just our way of grumbling like okay you're a jerk you never make me breakfast i made you breakfast you don't really need breakfast you need a treadmill but because you know the bible says to patiently endure i made you breakfast that's crumbling that's true so so is the fact that you're grumbling right and what happens is when we're suffering and we start grumbling does god tend to deliver us no ask the israelites the most legendary story in the old testament about grumbling they're in egypt as slaves they're delivered from egypt and then they got a little walk to get home as long and so god leads them with a pillar in a cloud day and night god's like just follow me so here's what they do for 40 years they walk in a circle for 40 years the whole time what are they doing this sucks god sucks i miss i miss egypt i'm so sick of mana homeschooling while camping gotta be kidding me this is terrible right my husband he's got a bum knee we're in the back can't even be up front where all the healthy people are this sucks you know now my kids got diarrhea what the heck am i supposed to do about that i got diarrhea we're in the woods good lord i need a spa day okay so what happens is that was the verbal processing part so and i'm a little dizzy by the way too wow you know you're a certain age really i can't handle walking in a circle we're there okay i'm suffering okay so uh what god says is this is all a test to see if you're what stop grumbling you're like well stop grumbling as soon as you get us out he's like no you stop grumbling first okay you stop grumbling first and what god is not saying is that life isn't hard he's saying that grumbling doesn't help i got one amen that's a story gotta start somewhere okay and then what he says is love covers a multitude of sins what he's not saying is that love covers up evil but it covers the evil doer not that love covers the sin but it covers the sinner he told us earlier in first peter 2 16 don't cover up evil if somebody's stealing or abusing or committing a crime it's not like well the bible says to hide it no no the bible says to heal it and to do that we bring it out but then covering the person means we only involve the people who are part of the solution how many of you you've gone through either suffering or sinning it was a hard season and then you confided in someone or some person's and then they invited in a bunch of people who are not helpful they weren't part of the solution they became part of the problem this is where very dysfunctional family systems if something happens the whole family needs to be involved well sometimes the whole family should not be involved because they're not part of the solution they become part of the problem and the difference here is between secrecy and privacy secrecy is something evil wrong bad has happened and we're trying to hide it the other is privacy we're going to get this person the help that they need but we're going to do so only with the people who are helpful that's difference between secrecy and privacy i'll give you an example you go into the hospital where do you start in the waiting room aren't you glad that they don't come out and say what's going on you're like i think i got a hernia they're like okay well let's check it right now here well in the waiting room yeah well does everybody need to be involved and everybody's like no we don't okay so so what do we do with the person who's got a physical problem we take you into another room a little privacy where we put a paper gown on you that does nothing but makes you feel emotionally better all right and at least it's open in the back so you can't see what's happening right and then should've said that and then um and then a doctor and or a nurse come in or maybe your spouse or if you're a parent maybe the parent comes in for the child the people that are part of the solution to help that's that's what he's talking about that love covers the sinner we're here to help but we're not bringing in people who are not going to be part of the solution so when you are suffering again flesh sin self spirit serve others okay and where he concludes with this is a church family is we're better together we need each other every one of you have been through certain things that have given you tremendous insights so what you've been through would really help them and what you've been through would really help them and some of you would say i didn't handle that season well well even your testimony of your failure would encourage them to do it differently than you did so you don't need to go through something perfectly to be helpful you just need to be perfectly honest about how you went through it and he's talking about here as each has received a gift he's talking here about spiritual gifts supernatural endowments capacities and abilities that god has given you we're going to do first peter then we're going to do second peter then i'm going to do some months and romans and for christmas i'm going to do a whole spiritual gift series so we'll get into this use it to what serve right you can sin or you can serve when you're suffering to serve one another as good stewards we're going to talk about that of god's varied grace everything in your life can be a means of god's grace a bucket that carries god's grace if you'll receive it and use it as god intends whoever speaks is one who speaks the oracles of god whoever serves so the two ways that we serve are through speaking and serving through our words and our works whoever serves as one who serves by the strength of god supplies in order that in everything god may be glorified through jesus christ to him be glory dominion forever and ever amen i just want to hit two big concepts here he distinguishes between the owner and the steward of your life and everything in it including all the experiences relationships okay your life who's the owner god hardly anyone believes this hardly anyone believes this your life is god's life your money is god's money your relationships are god's relationships he is the owner you are the steward therefore you need to do what the owner asks you to do without which he's entrusted to you i'll give you some examples uh you've how many of you you've got money in a bank money bank is the bank the owner or the steward the steward and you want them to keep this straight right you don't want to put your money in the bank and then come back and say you know what i decided i'm going to pay cash for a car so i'm going to need a check or i'm gonna need some cash to buy a car they're like actually susie's really had a rough time uh she's been at the casino a lot she sort upside down couldn't make rent she prayed about it looked in your account said hey i'm looking after it it's kind of mine too so she borrowed some forever you would say call 9-1-1 i no no no no no don't be so judgy no be judgy right now that's what i'm going to do because it's mine and they took it okay and if the government does this it's still a problem by the way okay now nonetheless just threw it in there okay just just find the socialists in the room okay so all right redistribution is stealing by the way just so you know um so um okay i just i didn't mean to do that but you know it happens so i told you i have verbal process okay now the socialists are like i'm suffering no you're not you're getting delivered okay so uh so let's say you've got a mechanic how many of you got a mechanic amen you dropped the car off is the mechanic the owner or the steward the stuart what if they fix the car you show up a week later you're like where's my car they're like we got it all running it's awesome tony took it tony took it out for a test drive never came back last we heard he was in vegas said thanks for the car you would say no no no no no no i'm going to kill tony and i'm going to get my car back because it's my car see what we do all the time is we own things and then we entrust others to steward those resources but if they don't steward them in the way that we assign them they are then going to be judged and there is a consequence for their failure to obey what the owner has asked let me ask it again your life who's the owner god is this is i believe this is ultimately why a lot of people do not become christians it's not that they don't like the idea of having their sin forgiven it's that they don't like the idea that their life belongs to god i don't mind when god picks up my tab but i do mind when god takes over my life that's why jesus is savior he does forgive and lord he is in control of your life what that means is practically your money belongs to god so you got to ask god okay how much you want me to keep of your money not how much of my money do i have to give you this is difference between ownership and stewardship in your finances if it's my money how much do i got to give god god's like that's my money how much do you want to keep that's a different discussion so your marriage is god's marriage your family is god's family your company is god's company your days are god's days your suffering is god's suffering your ministry is god's ministry and this this mindset of a steward means when you are suffering it'll keep you from sin and self and it'll put you in the spirit to serve and i'll give you four kind of examples this is the question of who's the owner and who is the steward of my life number one the godless view is i'm the owner and the steward self-made independent my life my money my career it's just mine i do what i want that's godless there's actually no consideration of god whatsoever number two the selfish christian i am the owner and god is the steward out of this we get prosperity and health and wealth which is silly and wrong and it is god it's my life you should make me healthy you should make me wealthy you should make me successful you i prayed in faith i sowed a seed in time you are now obligated to do what i tell you to do and to make my life into what i wanted to be and you know that you've got this attitude when you're frustrated and disappointed and angry with god god i prayed why didn't you do your job who do you think you are god exactly the issue we need to deal with it is not that we are on a throne and god exists to give us the vision for our life it is that god is in the throne and he gives us the vision for his life lived through us so much of modern western psychologized christianity is literally god exists to give you glory no no you exist to give god glory okay the lazy christian god is the owner and steward yeah god's in charge and i don't need to do anything he'll figure it out i hear this from pastors all the time well if god wants to grow the church he can grow it that's why you're there that's like a farmer saying well if god wants craps he can plant him and harvest them get up all right go to work that's why you're there you are part of the means to his ends this would be as silly as a parent saying well if god wants these kids to be godly i'm sure he'll take care of it you're the parent that's why you're there god works for you in you through you you're part of the means of him accomplishing his will and ultimately the lazy christian just says well god will figure it out not my responsibility the godly view is that god is the owner and i am the steward the god is the owner and i am the steward so when we get money it's like lord what do you want to do with your money we get a marriage god what do you want me to do with your son or daughter who am i married to we get kids okay god what do you want me to do with each of these kids that's ultimately yours we get a job okay lord how can i honor you in this job okay lord i now own a company lord this is your company what do you want to do with your company you got time okay lord what do you want me to do with your time you're suffering lord what do you want to do with this pain that belongs to you i don't want to waste it i want to invest it how can i become more like jesus and who can i help to learn more about jesus amen the difference is that the christian and the non-christian will go through the exact same experience with a completely different perspective and as a result the christian has hope and joy and i love you and if you can reduce the suffering in your life please do but invariably it's going to come and when it does i need you to know what to do with it and to know what not to do with it because i love you now what we've been doing is taking questions i'll throw one up we'll we'll end with a little q a um this is a good one i do these little videos called ask faster mark and you guys send in questions on social media into hello realfaith.com and a lot of the questions that we get are very much centered around suffering and pain and hardship and sometimes people have personal questions and sometimes they have the big bible questions this is one of those big bible questions why do christians suffer the same way as someone who isn't saved i told you all the different categories of suffering we're all children of adam we all are broken in a broken world we're in this together in addition when it comes to things like demonic suffering do you think satan attacks christians or non-christians more fiercely christians because if you don't know jesus you're automatically on his team if you do know jesus you're on the other team why would i shoot someone who's on my side of the war i would save my bullets for someone who is in their side of the war dear child of god hear me in this when you receive jesus and you hear that god loves you and then satan attacks you one of the most confusing things is that sometimes you think that god is attacking you because oftentimes we don't even factor in the demonic into our life okay there's me and there's god so this this is happening is it me and sometimes it's yeah i i did or said something that contributed to my pain and suffering i made some dumb decisions that have caused some real dark days but sometimes it's it's like i i don't see the cause and effect i didn't i didn't say or do anything i i know i'm not perfect but i didn't cause this hardship sometimes it's just being in a fallen cursed broken world sometimes it's romans where it says uh who has known the mind of the lord the answer is not me god knows but i can't connect this suffering with this sin i can't see it sometimes when that happens it's demonic and really what you are is you're being attacked let me ask you did this ever happen to jesus jesus never sinned but he did suffer uh the old testament book of isaiah from chapter 40 to chapter 66 it talks 700 years and 700 years in advance that jesus would come as the suffering servant it just dawned on me that's what peter's saying right i mean just dawned on me he said that jesus in his suffering was our servant so when we're suffering we need to learn to be servants he got that from isaiah he was a good hebrew jesus suffered and it was all spiritual warfare and demonic attack satan attacked him and caused him to suffer satan caused him to suffer when he was hungry isolated and tired in the wilderness after 40 years 40 days of fasting and praying and it says that he was tempted satan came through religious leaders to attack him and malign him and he said your father is the devil he said it was spiritual warfare at the end satan filled judas iscariot who was supposed to be jesus bookkeeper and friend and judas had been stealing from jesus for years betrayed him participated in his murder when jesus is being tried and falsely accused peter who writes this was the leader of the disciples and he denied even knowing jesus christ three years the person i picked to be the leader of my ministry i fed you i taught you i loved you i prayed for you peter i put up with you for three years and on the one day that i'm hurting you deny that you even know me because you don't want to join in my suffering and then jesus goes to the cross and he suffers and he dies in our place for our sins man some people ask how do i know that god loves me just look at the cross of jesus no greater love does anyone have than this than to lay down their life for their friend jesus calls you friend and he laid down his life to suffer so that he can have relationship with you the point is that when we go through suffering the non-christian and the christian oftentimes will go through the same suffering but the christian has the perspective of jesus and the hope of jesus so when the christian is suffering they can ask what suffering have i caused jesus what suffering have i caused others how could my suffering make me more like jesus so that i could have a deeper relationship with him and a healthier relationship with others for the non-christian they don't know any of those things and so all they can become is sometimes angry or emotional or self-righteous or self-destructive which is exactly what's going on right now in our world in addition for the christian there is this demonic component because if you belong to jesus and you are publicly testifying that you belong to jesus what satan wants you to do when you're suffering is he wants you to be selfish and he wants you to be selfish so that you are hurting others and he wants you to be selfish so that you are self-destructing because that's his way of stealing your testimony that's his way of causing you to not be a trophy of grace but to be a trophy of disgrace and some of you feel that and if you and i start grumbling against god and get angry against god and get bitter against god his name is jesus he suffered for us and he used his suffering to serve us and he invites us in the spirit to use our suffering to serve others and that is the countercultural way of christ and i just feel inclined to tell you then i'll close in prayer and bring the band up some of what you're going through is spiritual warfare it just is there's a guy named job in the old testament he's a righteous man his whole life is painful and you know what his friends his friends do they show up and they ask this question so what'd you do what'd you do what'd you do he's like i i don't know i'm not perfect but i'm not sure i did anything to cause this they say well i'm sure if if they're suffering it must be because of sinning let me just say this when we're dealing with people who are suffering we need to be very careful that we don't take a true verse and apply it to the wrong person we can do this when people are suffering we can rush to some remedy well you know um ananias and sapphira they stole money from the lord and so uh god killed them so when you sin god hurts you and you're hurting therefore you must have sinned what did you do wrong good verse wrong application good verse wrong application religious people do this all the time we rush to a judgment we throw a verse on it and then we feel like we're done with the person now empathy sympathy compassion love hospitality means i'm if you're going to go through the valley if you're going to walk through the valley of the shadow of death i'm going to go with you and i'm not going to pretend like i got this all figured out and i'm not going to say oh there's a happy ending there's a pot of gold on the other side of the rainbow because i don't know i'm not going to just quote verses out of context because i don't know what to say so i just say the first thing that comes to mind i'm going to try and walk with you and this is the art of christian friendship and it starts with marriage and parenting what are you going through how are you feeling how are you processing how can i come alongside how can i help if the holy spirit is the helper and the holy spirit fills me he sends me to be helpful let me not rush to a conclusion as to why this has happened as i get understanding let me see if i can't bring the appropriate scriptures to bear to give you understanding and context and then let me walk with you so that you're not alone and ultimately i didn't think of it until this moment peter is writing this letter not to a bunch of individuals who are sitting at home having prior private quiet times he's writing it to a church where people are gathered together and it's his way of saying you guys need to help each other because the only thing worse than going through it is going through it alone amen that's why we're here it's why we're church that's why we're family it's not enough just to have principles to live by you need to have some people to live with and ultimately a person to live for i love you i'm sorry for what you're going through but it's a wonderful opportunity so don't waste it invested amen and this is part of our witness to the world because people aren't acting like this they are selfish and hurting others and self-destructing and hurting themselves father god as we go to a time of worship god i want this to be a word of hope and encouragement not a word of hopelessness and discouragement lord god i pray for the church family that i love very very deeply and lord i pray for those who give us the honor of listening online through technology lord some of the most important decisions that we make we make under the greatest duress and pain some of the most significant words that we speak are under the greatest pressure and lord we confess that right now there's a lot of suffering going on in the world there's a lot of suffering going on in our lives there's a lot of suffering going on in our families there's a lot of suffering going on in our businesses god there's just a tremendous amount of suffering and lord we just see so clearly from the words of peter that ultimately if we respond in the flesh we're going to be selfish and hurt people starting with the people who love us the most and god if we respond in the flesh we're going to self-destruct and harm ourselves lord right now people are screaming and yelling at each other they are name-calling and accusing one another they are drinking alcohol and beating their wives and smacking their kids and ranting on the internet and lord that is just not the way of jesus so i pray against the enemy his servants their works and effects i pray against the powers principalities and spirits and i ask that the holy spirit would rule and reign in the hearts and the lives of these dear people so that even if this world is in distress that they can have peace in the spirit and that they can follow in the example of jesus in whose name we pray amen love you guys thank you

Channel: Real Faith by Mark Driscoll

Views: 3,808

Rating: 4.9523811 out of 5

Keywords: Mark, Driscoll, ministry, thetrinitychurch, scottsdale, arizona, bible, teaching, gospel, theology, jesus, biblestudy, faith, bibleverse

Id: 5glnaUH05ew

Length: 65min 31sec (3931 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 20 2020