watchdog or whatever, and they
want to tell you how you ought to live your life, want to tell
you how you ought to articulate the truth, they want to tell
you how this, that, or the other is taking place, and it does
take place. But by and large, in this culture,
that happens from people within the congregations. That happens
with people who live in our neighborhoods. It's not happening, you know,
like the mayors, and the governors, and the lieutenant governors,
and the commissioners, and city council people aren't really
in that business. State legislature, national legislature
aren't really in the business of trying to get it over on,
get one over on Christians. All the persecution that we experience
in this part of the world is typically internal. And it's really not persecution,
though it is, it is bullying. And that's the greatest persecution
that we experience in the church in America today, is bullying.
Bullying. And it looks all manner of things,
but it always ends up coming from people who claim, get this,
who claim, one, to be in Christ, two, to have distinctions or
attitudes where they have a divine understanding or a divine eye
or ear that's greater than yours so they know right and you're
not right. Thirdly, instead of being obedient
to the command of Christ in unity and growth, patience and kindness
and maturity, they decide to divorce and bring everything
down underneath them. Of which is completely, and I
hate using this term, but it is a biblical understanding,
it is completely demonic. And yes, true believers act that
way. Okay, we have the narrative of
scripture to show us that God's people, men, women, and children,
can do godless things. But that God is sovereign over
those godless things. And Paul sort of goes really
quick to Timothy in the second letter, you know, when we are
faithless, he remains faithful because he cannot deny himself.
So suffering for righteousness, people are gonna utter kinds
of evil for you, falsely on my account. But they think they're
doing the work of God, you see? That was the persecution of Jesus
and the disciples. The people who thought they were
doing the work of God were persecuting those people. And they were making
all sorts of trouble for them, thinking that they were cleansing
the spiritual culture or the religious culture of these vile
people. Jesus. Peter says the same thing in
his first epistle. I think I read this last week, but we suffer
for what is right and that it's a blessing. Matter of fact, go
to first Peter. We'll spend some time there this morning. We'll
spend some time there. Look at chapter 3, starting in
verse, well, I don't want to say what verse, let me look first.
I may back up. Verse 13, let's read that. Now,
who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? Back up to verse 8. Finally, all of you have unity
of mind. Now see, persecutors will say,
yes, unity of mind, we've got to think exactly the same way.
No, it's not talking about our thoughts and understanding. We
grow and we ebb and flow in those things. Differences will come, and Paul
says very clearly, differences must come that we may discern
who are and who are not in the faith. And it's not because of
whether or not we have the same ideas and not be different, it's
that we settle those differences according to the gospel. So the
differences come that we may see who are in the faith by the
way they resolve the differences. Until the differences come again
and then we resolve it. So it's the reconciliation. The
good news is about reconciliation, not academics. So unity of mind. All of these
things, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart. Let me pause there for a minute.
I was taught directly in private meetings and conversations when
I was in my 20s, entering into the ministry. What you wanna look for, James,
is these really bold, strong people that have it all together,
type A type people. What you don't wanna do is find
these people who are really needy or hypersensitive or emotional,
what we would call EGRs, extra grace required. I'm not kidding,
that was a literal thing taught to me. And over several years
it's like, I'm the EGR and I'm pretending not to be. A tender heart is the heart of
God. Brotherly love, kindness, humility,
a humble mind is the mind of Christ. Do not repay evil for evil. Do
not revile for revile, but on the contrary, bless for to this
you were called that you may obtain a blessing." My skin is tingling here. My
spider senses are on edge. My hair is standing up on the
back of my neck because that indicts me with
gravity. Because I am not that person. But I lay in that place more
than I really want to give myself credit for, but I can't give
myself credit for because my brotherly love and tenderness
and humility is no such thing. You see the struggle? Some people
are like, what are you talking about? We need to see Christ
there. And we need to see ourselves
in Christ, therefore we have true glasses to see others. We
filter others through what Christ is for us. We will be these things
until we stop looking through the right lens. And there's no
perfection here. And look at this, verse 10, look
at this poem. For whoever desires to love life and see good days,
let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking
lies. I can't say deceit because, you know, in my kid it said lies.
Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and
pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and
his ears are open to the prayer. But the face of the Lord is against
those who do evil." And in the context of this, this evil is
the lack of humility, the lack of brotherly love, the lack of
tender heart, the lack of a humble mind, the lack of sympathy, and
the lack of unity. 1 John, ring a bell? And so, yeah, people get a lot
of headache, a lot of pushback. Oh, you're just trying to be
this lovey-dovey guy. I want to be. But because so many, so many
things in the name of love have come and put in another Christ,
we've thrown the attitude and the mind of Christ out with the
bathwater because we're so scared of being aligned with people
who don't know the truth. Well, beloved, the Bible would
tell us that if we do know the truth and that we don't have
love and tenderness and humility, that we are a liar. About what? That we understand the truth.
John doesn't say, you're lost. You don't see that anywhere in
the New Testament in any kind of application. You're lost and
you're saved. No, those are words that we created. Those are ideas that we created
in trying to placate our own conscience. about how we identify
each other and put labels and names on each other. Are you
in the faith? Do you believe the Christ of
the Bible? Has God opened your heart and mind to rest in the
sufficiency of Christ? Yes! Praise God. Let me teach you what that means
over time. It's not about perfection in
our understanding. It's about God's presence and
power in our person. because of the position that
we stand in Christ before Him today. Now, verse 13, who's there
to harm you if you're zealous for what's good? Who's there to harm you? I mean,
if you're always seeking to do good, who's going to harm you?
I mean, think about that. This is what's been so strange
to me through the years. Even as a child, I remember times
where I was trying to do something good Somebody else didn't like
it because my attempt in doing something good was to boss them
around You know, well, I know what's good for everybody. Let
me boss them around Then my brothers we get into a fight and then
we get in trouble Trying to do good we got into a fight it happens So there's an imperfect thing
their motivation does not make good and Motivation is just the
fuel for what you do. Sometimes what you do is not
good, it's not right, it's not prudent, it's not wise. We have
to learn in that. But then verse 14 says, but even
if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them. nor be
troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as set
apart, holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who
asks you for the reason of the hope that is in you. Yet do it
with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so
that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior
in Christ may be put to shame, for it is better to suffer for
doing good, if that good be God's will, than for doing evil. So
you see the context of suffering, of being persecuted? This is
where we are in the Church of America. It's not this grand
scheme of persecution. I'll talk about that in a minute
when I just sort of boot it off the stage. I won't do a Judy
kick because I did that one time and offended somebody. Shoe fell
off. But in this, then he goes on
to say in verse 18 of 1 Peter 3, for Christ also suffered once
for sins, the righteous Christ for the unrighteous us, that
he might bring us to God. being put to death in the flesh
but made alive in the spirit. In which he went and proclaimed
the spirits in prison because they formally did not obey when
God's patient wait in the days of Noah while the ark was being
prepared in which a few that is eight persons were brought
safely through the water. Baptism which corresponds to
this now saves you not as a removal from dirt from the body but as
an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus
Christ who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God
with angels authorities and powers having been subjected to him.
This metaphor These metaphors explain something, that our righteousness
is because we have been submerged in the vessel, in the ark, who
is Jesus Christ. And so our sin has been put into
Christ, Christ as the ark has been crucified in our state,
and then raised to life, so we were in him in his death, now
we're in him in his life. You see the difference? It's
just a transportation issue. judicially and spiritually. The Ark is Jesus. The Ark of
the Covenant is Jesus. We watched Raiders of the Lost
Ark last night, 1981. Good. It's interesting because we love
to get tangled up in the types and shadows. We love to get tangled
up in the metaphors. We love to get tangled up in
the liturgy and the practices of righteousness, but we are
scared to really rest in the person of righteousness. Now
think about that for a second. Because when we rest in the person
of righteousness who is Jesus Christ, we're doing nothing.
God shut the door. He sealed us in. There's no way
out or in. The work is done. The floods
are coming. The wrath of God is satisfied.
And we are in the ark. We are safe. Nothing shall satisfy
God's wrath except that wrath and justice being poured out
on sin. Jesus Christ drowned in the wrath of God that we might
not. kept us from the wrath of God,
from righteousness, from justice. And because we are in Him still,
we are credited for His righteousness because our debt is paid. So we're going to be persecuted
for righteousness when we rest. Not when our theology is all
messed up, or our lingo is messed up, or our definitions. And I
know I bring that up, but beloved, it's a It's terrible. I don't even know what to say.
It's a pandemic in every corner of the world that I know of.
Everybody's arguing over everything. And if I've seen one, I've seen
50 billion people try to tell you that they share everything
that's wrong about every wrong thing they can find related to
the faith. Have you seen that Pastor PBJ? Look at this 60-minute video
of this nonsense. Look at it! That's less than
that's nonsense. It's just wicked. Block him. Well, you just sent him to me.
I'll block him. I'll send him to 5,000 more people. What's
the gospel? You know what the gospel is! Don't look at this!
Listen to that man say he's not the gospel. I don't care. The not gospel is not the way
that Jesus teaches the gospel. I think it's a fallacy. Defining
things by what they're not is immature and ignorant because
you don't want to do the work to rest in the truth. You'd rather
do the work of saying what isn't. And it doesn't take a PhD to
learn that. Though you will learn it. All who desire to live a godly
life will be persecuted. Paul tells Timothy that, 2 Timothy
3.12. So suffering for righteousness will happen. We will share in Christ's suffering.
Romans 8, we're going to share in the suffering of Christ. James
chapter 1 says that we will face trials of various kinds. Paul
tells the church of Philippi in chapter 3, sharing in Christ's
sufferings that we may become like him. He tells the church
of Corinth in 2 Corinthians 1.5 that Christ's sufferings will
overflow to believers. We will suffer, but we will what?
We will rejoice. Why? Because of God's grace,
2 Peter 4, right here. Verse 12, look at it. Beloved,
do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you
to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
You know, I forgot that many times through the years. Why
is this happening to me? Have you ever thought that? Why
is this happening to me? Why am I having such a bad day?
Why are these people so mean? What have I done? Nothing. Sometimes. Like I said, I've
got something to kick off the stage here in an hour and a half
or so. But rejoice insofar as you share
in Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad
when his glory is revealed, when he's shown for who he is, because
you will be seen for who you are. You want vindication? Patiently suffer. If you're insulted for the name
of Christ, you're blessed. I mean, I've had that. I've had
people of other religions get in my face and literally push
every physical, tactical button in my body. I had one man poke
me in the chest like four times. Yeah, look, see, you know me.
I mean, I just don't do that. And if it weren't for the big
boys standing beside me, like bodyguards, that sort of grabbed
my shoulders and said, Pastor, we gotta go preach. You gotta
go preach. Service is about to start. I
probably would have gone to jail. And I'm not saying that, that's
horrible. But when I was 26, when you poked
me in my chest, put your finger in my face, and you flicked me,
and you, you know, Kung Fu just took over. And it's horrible. Thank God
I didn't touch that guy. That's not what Christ did. Christ
didn't even talk smartly to his persecutors. He just, as you
say. He did say Pilate, you know.
You say my life is in your hands, but honestly, I gave it to you. And I'm gonna raise it up again,
too. And Pilate didn't argue with him, but Pilate had to do
what was right according to the politics, because that's what
God had ordained so that Christ would die. If you are insulted for the name
of Christ, you're blessed. I've had people literally take
my Bible and throw it, sitting by myself at a coffee shop, and
they come up and take my Bible and throw it. We don't allow fiction in here.
Wanting to get a rise out of me. You know, 12 people over
there in the corner filming. Oh man, thank you, I needed to
dust my Bible off. And inside I'm going, murder.
But that was the end of that. Let none of you suffer as a murderer. So had I gotten up and gotten
in the face of these people, had we retaliated, had we gotten
on Facebook and social media like, well, I'm gonna tell you
the truth about this, booga booga booga booga, and just done our
due diligence to justify ourselves, we would no longer be suffering
for righteousness' sake, we would be suffering for self-vindication.
You see the difference? Oh my goodness, it's so simple,
but why is it so hard for a guy like me or people like us sometimes
to get that? Or worse, know what the actions
ought to be but can't get over the desire and the passion to
really make things right. And it happens in almost any
relationship we have, doesn't it? And if a thousand people love
us and one person wants to tear us up, all we can do sometimes
is think about that one. But let none of you suffer as
a murderer or a thief or an evildoer, as a meddler. What the world,
Paul? I mean, Peter. What is? I mean,
the murderer, you know, warlord, meddler. I mean, that's a 1960s
Batman villain there, the meddler. What is that? That's somebody
putting their mind and time into somebody else's business. That's
somebody going over here and talking truth or lies about somebody
else that's not in the room. That's somebody that's taking
it upon themselves to be concerned to let you live rent-free in
their minds to the point where they want to control the narrative
about you, around you, without you. So put that little puzzle
in there. A meddler. I love it. Peter's
like, evildoer, murderer, thief, meddler. I mean, you've got in the Marvel
world, you've got Thanos trying to snap away half the universe
and the meddler. Who do you think they're going
to bother their time with? The meddler, he just littered. He's
talking trash about my mama. I know the world's about to end,
but I'm not going to put up with that. I mean, these are serious things.
Peter says that a meddler is on line with a murderer. The scripture Paul would even
teach that a person who is a meddler is a murderer. When they speak,
when they send letters, when they make phone calls, when they
talk. And we've been talking since
the garden. If anyone suffers as a follower
of Christ, verse 16, let him not be ashamed. It's so hard
to teach the truth here and stay focused because I just want to
get on the what isn't Christian. You see what I'm saying? So bad. Anyone suffers as a Christian,
gentle, humble, quiet, to themselves, worshipers, serving each other,
loving each other. not standing publicly, not speaking
out against them, not blah, blah, blah, blah, all this kind of
stuff that so many Christians think that they're doing in the
name of Christ, but they're actually disobeying in every breath everything
Christ tells us to do. But if we do suffer as a follower,
that's what the word Christian means, follower of Christ. So
if you do suffer, if anyone does suffer as emulating, that's gonna
be the last six points of the sermon, emulating the life of
Christ, Let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that
name. For it is time for judgment to begin in the household of
God. You see, that empowers people. That empowers people who have
yet not, we talked about this morning, who are not elders,
nor qualified, nor have been proven to be qualified to be
elders, but they are surely going to oversee your life and the lives of their neighbors.
and tell everybody, and even the elders aren't qualified to
make judgment in that context, are they? We're supposed to patiently,
quietly, we can't lord over people. We're not lords, we're sheep.
We have a task to present the scripture, but yet I have gotten
in my oratorial persona, I'm sure I've pushed so many people
towards so many things just because of zeal. And it's not purposeful,
it just comes out of my head, rather than just teaching and
letting the Lord do the work. Because who am I when I'm not
doing half this stuff right anyway? Half? I'm so funny. But it's true, I'm not even doing
half of it. And some people say, well I am.
No, you're not. By the very mere fact that you could say that,
you're not. See, we're not. Our righteousness is not in us
being, because I could be sweet and humble for the next 20 years,
and then one minute fly off the handle. Guess what? I'm flying
off the handle. I'm angry, and I'm no longer sweet and gentle.
Most of the time, well, most of the time, it's not all of
the time. If I've got a criminal record
from 30 years ago, I'm still a criminal. Even if it's a sponge,
well, there's no record. I'm still a criminal. So nobody can stand here and
boast. And we shouldn't be sitting here and be broken either. We
should stand bold. There's three B's for you. We
should stand boldly on the throne of grace with great confidence.
Papa, my father, my dad is the God of glory. Jesus says, my
brother, I am in him. And if judgment begins with us,
what will be the outcome for those who don't obey the gospel
of God? Isn't that funny? It's all about the gospel. It's
all about believing and resting in the sufficiency of Christ
and His humility. And then the outcome, the living of that,
is a continual work. So if the righteous is scared,
we say, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? This
is, therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust
their souls to a faithful creator while doing so. And then Peter
begins to speak to the pastors of the church. He says, verse 5, chapter 5,
so I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness
of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the
glory that is going to be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God that
is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly. We don't have
to do this. Willingly, we want to do this,
as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not
domineering, but being examples. And when the chief shepherd appears,
you'll receive an unfading crown of glory, just like everybody
under you, under your care. All of you will. Likewise, you
guys who are younger, you people who are younger, you girls who
are younger, be subject to those who oversee you. Clothe yourselves,
all of you, with all humility toward one another for God opposes
the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves
therefore unto the mighty hand of God so that at the proper
time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Himself
because He cares for you. Be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the enemy, prowls
around like a roaring lion seeking someone to chew up, to devour,
to maul. Resist him. Firm in your faith,
knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced
by your brothers and sisters throughout the entire world.
And after you've suffered for a little while, the God of all
grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ,
will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you
to him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. See, does this
sound like cultural Christianity to you? No. It's part of the Christian life.
And God's grace carries us all the way through. So what does
it mean to suffer for the faith? What are the benefits of suffering,
and how do we overcome the pain and understand the purpose? Three
quick things, and then I'm going to spend a little more time on
the last one. Being persecuted for righteousness,
as I've just described, includes embracing the trials as part
of our spiritual growth. And I'll give a little lesson
here. We try to stay away from the
terminology sometimes that has been muddled. So a lot of times
people say, well, this is sanctification. We're growing. Well, let's just
say growing and maturing and trying to not use sanctification
as a process. Some people use the term in two
ways, but it's gotten so clouded that some people have even thought,
you know, you're going to grow and one day you're going to stand
personally holy in the context of your maturing. No, you're
not. Our righteousness is imputed. It's an alien righteousness.
It's not ours. It's credited to us. And though
we may be doing very well, we're not Jesus. You see? So we're maturing. So our hope
is never in how well we're doing. Our hope is in what Christ finished. And we're thankful for that.
And it does motivate us to do well. And we should mature and
grow. And we should be patient with those who aren't growing
at the same rate we are. And we will suffer in different ways,
personal persecution. We will suffer in society, cultural
opposition. We will suffer inwardly, emotional
and spiritually. And I've talked a lot about that
this summer. But why? We looked at these last week.
Why is suffering good? Because it refines our faith.
It grows us. It develops perseverance. It's
just a review from last week. It allows us to see Christ in
a more intimate way as we grow and participate in the suffering
of Christ. It allows us to witness to and to serve other people,
demonstrating our faith in the Lord and our love toward each
other in the midst of chaos, in the midst of suffering, in
the midst of pain. And if you weren't here last week to hear
that sermon, please listen to it. And then overcoming the pain
through the understanding of the purpose We need to recognize three specific
things, and then I want to talk about the suffering of Christ
and the purposes of Christ's suffering. But three specific
things we need to keep in mind when we think about the purpose,
understand the purpose of our persecution. It's temporary. 2 Corinthians
chapter 4, it's greater, an eternal weight of glory. It outweighs
the current suffering. Romans chapter 8, same thing.
Where I count these present sufferings not as hardly anything, but the
future glory as sons and daughters and children adopted in Christ.
We will see it. The whole creation moans. These
are, as Paul would say to the Corinthians, light, momentary
afflictions. And the purpose of learning to
lean on God, to trust in Him, to rest in Him for our strength. God's power is made perfect in
weakness, Paul says to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Why? Because, I mean, if we think
we're picking this stuff up and carrying it, then we're going
to be sufficient, self-sufficient, rather than completely dependent
upon the Lord. Together, we are to encourage
one another. So understanding the purpose
of suffering, we are able to walk with others. There are areas
of my life that I've realized that I have brought self-inflicted
suffering upon myself, obviously by the name, and others. And I'm looking forward to the
time in the near future where I can begin to teach about that
as someone who has experienced it. I think I talked about a
little last week that when we go through things, we're a lot
better equipped to help others go through those things rather
than just having a few short bullet points or talking points. Well, I'm ready. But Christ suffered. And in all
of these things, we really do not need to lose sight over the
suffering of Christ. Suffering of Christ and its purpose,
we see it, seven things quickly. is that the Scripture prophesied
the suffering of Christ. How, then, should the Scriptures
be fulfilled that it must be so? That's the question. It must be this way. Christ suffered because it was
prophesied that He would. It was fulfilled in the promise
of God from the garden, from creation. The point of Genesis
is to show the Gospel, not science. for the sins of humanity, was
delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
And it's so troublesome sometimes. People hear me say that, oh,
humanity, that's all inclusive. No, it's not. Why does that bother so many
people, to know the application of God's sovereignty in electing
His people and saving them through the sufficiency of the death
and the life of Christ? Why can't we just say what the
Bible says and quit trying to articulate all the distinctions
every time something's written? Is the Word of God not enough?
Yes, it is. He Himself bore our sins in His
body on that tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed."
That's 1 Peter 2. The suffering of Christ and His
purpose reveals God's righteousness and love. God, Romans 3, we haven't
used Romans 3 in a couple of weeks, man. What's wrong with
us? We've got to get to John 3 after this. I'll get to both of them
right now. In Romans 3, what is it saying? God whom God put
forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness,
Paul says, because in His divine forbearance He passed over former
sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time so that He
might be the just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. For God loved the world in this
way that He gave the only Son that He had, that all the believing
ones in Him would not perish but have eternal life." Why? Christ had to suffer for that
to establish a new covenant. Likewise, the cup after they
had eaten, saying, this cup is poured out for you is the new
covenant in my blood. This picture that we do every
week of the body and the blood of Jesus Christ, to be reminded
of the gospel. that no matter what we're having
to deal with, whether we're having to get up here and talk about
something completely extra-biblical as the Bible applies to it. I
don't know what that would be, but you never know. We will always
finish our time of worship with the gospel of grace through the
observance of the Lord's table that God has established a covenant
with His people. A promise and a contract that
has been paid and signed and sealed, and it's irrevocable.
Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Christ suffered
for that purpose. Christ suffered for the purpose
of being rejected and misunderstood by His own people. He came to
His own, but His own did not receive Him. But all who did
receive Him, that is, who were born and brought to life, were
what? Done by the will of God. John
1. And we see that played out in all the chapters of John.
Every dialogue, every conversation, we see that being played out. And he began to teach them. Jesus,
Mark wrote this in his Gospel account, chapter 8. He began
to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and
be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes
and be killed and after three days rise again. So you see that? The first church was persecuted
by the church, by the culture, by the politics
of religion. And that's the purpose for which
Christ came, that He would be rejected by His own. The purpose of Christ's suffering
was the sovereign plan of God. This Jesus delivered up, Dr. Luke says, according to the definite
plan and the foreknowledge of God, you crucified by the hands
of lawless men, Acts chapter 2. In Acts chapter 4, for truly in
the city there were gathered together against your holy servant
Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along
with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your
hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And Jesus, as
I said last week, in part, came to suffer and to be persecuted
so that He may be an example to emulate in suffering for righteousness. For to this you have been called,
1 Peter 2, verse 21. For to this you have been called,
because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example
that you might follow in his steps." I read that to us last
week. So the persecution of Jesus,
how should we see it and how should we consider our own in
kind? Well, it fulfills God's will
and purpose. Jesus consistently sought to fulfill the will of
the Father. So when we consistently, according to the Scripture, not
the culture, not the history, not our grandparents, our parents,
and our spouses, but according to the Scripture, when we fulfill
and seek to fulfill the will of the Father and of the Word
of God, we're going to be persecuted. So we must align ourselves with
God's purposes. Why can't I speak today? Possibly
leading to misunderstanding and opposition, but we show a contentment
to a higher calling, right? Doesn't mean we're not going
to suffer, not going to be pained, or not going to be mentally anguished,
depressed, or even ill or fearful, but we're going to know that
there's a higher calling. Suffering for the sins of others.
Jesus suffered for the sins of others. Will we? We can't atone
for the sins of others. We can extend forgiveness, grace,
compassion. And what happens when we do that?
What happens when we show sympathy? What happens when we show forgiveness?
Some people go, no, you're wrong. Can't believe you
would forgive them for doing that. And that's okay. Every person has the right to
or to not forgive. But it's weird to me when we
suffer when we do, but we do. Have you ever had a friend get
upset with you because you forgave someone else who treated you
badly? I understand it. I've been on
both sides of that. Why would you be back in a relationship
with that person? Why would you do that? Forgiveness
doesn't always mean complete reconciliation in every part
of life, but forgiveness is releasing someone from their harm. We emulate Christ. Christ revealed
God's righteousness. We can do the same. We can strive
to live lives of integrity, love, compassion. We can reflect the
mind of Christ and the character of God even when we're ridiculed
for it. Christ suffered and was persecuted
because in that he was establishing a new covenant, a new relationship.
We can do the same thing. We can strive to live lives marked
in this way, as I've already said, and in doing so, we participate
in this covenant by living faithful to the commandments of Christ.
We foster authenticity in our relationships, facing things,
good and bad, being honest with each other, saying, that is not
good. We posture too much in the South, being polite. Politeness
is not righteous. when it's not real. You know
what it's called? Deceit. It's called hypocrisy.
The word hypocrite is actor. It's okay to say, that was mean
and you hurt my feelings. Isn't that better than, oh, bless
your soul, and then worrying about it for six years? The purpose of Christ's suffering,
we also shall see and emulate, is facing rejection and misunderstanding.
We will face rejection when standing up for the truth and for justice,
but we can persist in faithfulness and humility. And I know everybody's
got their ideas of what that looks like and what context,
but we are only talking about the context for which Jesus was
persecuted. And then finally, the last two
things, embracing the sovereignty of God. That means we can trust
Him in all circumstances and follow His guidance even when
it is absolutely terrorizing. And in doing so we live as an
example of righteousness. Christ suffered righteously without
retaliation, without cynicism, without bitterness. That's been
one of the biggest concerns that I've had. One of the biggest
worries is that I would become cynical. And by the mercy of God, I'm
not cynical today. Life is the architect of cynicism. Experience in this world is like
the blueprint for bitterness. But the righteousness of Christ,
you even try and you can't. We can suffer with dignity and
with grace. We can reflect the mind and the character of Christ
and use suffering as an opportunity to just display the power of
God. And this is all biblical. As
Christians, we need to understand that the scripture teaches us
these things. and that we need to theologically
be committed to justice and righteousness and goodness and holiness, even
when it leads to personal loss and pain. Persecution is related to the
concept of maturity, sometimes wrongly written or wrongly understood
as progressive sanctification. We don't use that term. Maturing is a better way of saying
it. There's nothing wrong with saying that, but it's gotten
so confusing for so many people. We're trying to clarify it. Because
it does require a process of being shaped and refined in Christ's
likeness, maturing. And that has everything to do
with how we relate to the world around us and the people in the
world. So what is that application?
What are we going to do as we finish this up today? What are
we supposed to take and put in the list of our minds and be
contemplating? Personal integrity, ethical,
living, morality. We need to uphold moral standards
personally. Not point fingers at everybody
else who's not doing everything right. That's not our business.
Stop. We can't do that. That's not being Christ-like
in the world to say, ooh, look at all the, ooh, look at all
the, ooh. No, we want to show Christ, so let's show Christ. We need to uphold these principles
in our professional life, in our personal life. When it leads
to criticism or loss of income, we need to stand on them. That's
why it's personal. When people see it in us, and
they don't like what they see, and it cost us. Not when we get
in people's face and try to make them see our way. This is not
called of us. What does it look like? Well,
we don't engage in dishonest practices. We don't skirt gray
areas. Social justice, the second thing,
application and advocacy. Oh, that's a terrible word, social
justice. That's what justice is, it's a social issue. But
more importantly, it's not always about law breaking, it's about
treatment. and morally and ethically as
Christians who have been given the grace of God, we have a responsibility
to be on the lookout for marginalized people, for people who are not
treated fairly. And I'm just going to go ahead
and say this and go on record and go ahead and burn it all down
if we want to, but beloved, women are marginalized in the United
States of America and in the world. Misogyny and sexism is so deeply
rooted that you can't see it because it's so natural a part
of the world. Systemic racism. And I'm not
talking about biases. Biases are birthed from this.
This is being perpetrated and continued by people in the church,
by the church, by the institution of denominations. Just look at
the news for once. It's there. We need to stand up for the rights
of the poor. We need to stand up for the rights
of the marginalized. We need to stand up and use whatever
opportunity we have to speak into the society that we live
in to say, this isn't right. We don't have to put our fingers
in the air and our fists in the air and say, because of the,
in Jesus' name, the world can't see that. It's just not right,
period. What does that mean? We have
influence in our lives. We need to exercise that influence. If I have a helicopter and an
island is burning to the ground and I don't rescue people, there's
a problem. I just get out of there, fly
above and watch it all burn. Man, I'm glad I'm not down there. I'm glad I got this helicopter.
I mean, that's not good. We're gonna face resistance from
people who benefit from the status quo. And I'm not saying that
the church's job is to be involved in social justice, but we as
individuals, as Christians, ought to be involved as it touches
us, as we see it, have conversations about it, and begin to make church
discipline a matter that includes that. Correction. Faithfulness and spiritual practices
and beliefs. We need to maintain faith and spiritual practices.
We need to hold fast to the confession of our hope. We need to continue to gather
for worship. We need to hold fast to the theology that we
believe, even when the environment is hostile. And it's tough, and the hostility
comes from within sometimes, doesn't it? Most of the time,
from my experience, it's always come from within. Somebody throwing
my Bible or getting in my face or trying to provoke me doesn't
do anything, because it's over if I don't fight back. But that
persistent persecution, that persistent suffering can come
very easily and long-standing in the church. Emotional and spiritual resilience,
there's an application for you. And I've been talking a lot about
that over the summer as well. You may not have caught on, but
we are to renew our minds, we are to check our hearts, we are
to always be about looking at our affections, what pulls us
and pushes us to where we are in everyday life. What is it
that pulled and pushed Christ? It was the will of the Father.
It was His desire to always see the will of the Father. And when
we do understand that this is part of our application as Christians,
we find strength, hope, and resilience in the example of Christ because
of the promises of God. And so our anxiety begins to
wane. Our fear begins to be less prominent. Our depression is
short-lived. It's not that we're going to
never have these things, but we're going to be short-lived. So you go from where, March the
5th, I was having panic attack after panic attack every 30 minutes
this year, to now I can feel anxiety in about four seconds.
I can find it in my body before it ever hits my thoughts. In God's word, Psalm 40 brought
me there and a whole lot of therapy. A whole lot. Two hours a week. Remember I said that last week? What does it do? It's tools.
I learned to do carpentry because Master Carpenters took me under
their wing and taught me. I learned to play saxophone because
Master Saxophonist, she's actually a clarinetist, took me under
her wing and taught me. We need the help where it's there. We need the help from the experts.
The Word of God gives us that freedom and that liberty. Resilience. We draw on spiritual resources.
We learn to meditate on God's Word. We learn to pray effectively,
not desperately, hoping and wondering. We pray confidently. That's a
better word. We can pray desperately, but we do so confidently. In
the world, and even the therapeutic world, people don't understand
that. If we're not in the faith, people can't grasp that. They
can't understand how a passage of scripture can give us hope.
But it does. But we'd be fools to ignore the
physical and the emotional aspect of our lives as human beings,
as organic beings, as thinking beings, when the Bible is replete
with constant reminders of transforming our thoughts. No where does it
say become a theologian or get all of these things right. No
where does it say go to seminary. No where does it say to do these
things. Do them, that's fine, not a big deal. But it's not
going to give you the tools you need to live as a Christian.
What we're doing today is to springboard into Christian living.
So every Sunday when we gather together, it's just another jump
on the springboard. You get to decide where you're
going to jump. You get to decide how you're going to spring forward.
You get to decide where you're going to land and where you're
going to walk. You get to decide the disciplines that will take you
through this week. Our witness and our testimony.
We can use persecution and suffering as an opportunity to bear witness
to the love of Christ, to the truth of Christ, as Peter just
told us. Have no fear of them, chapter
three, verse 14, nor be troubled, but in your hearts, here it is,
honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make
a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope
that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect, having
a good conscience, so that when you're slandered, those who revile
your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. Isn't that
the way it works? When everything's done, when
the wind's done, whatever remains standing is standing. When the fire's burned, whatever
remains is there. 1 Corinthians pops into my mind
when I say stuff like that. And Paul, he has a lot to say
about the foundations. But how many times have you all
heard that always be prepared to give a reason for the hope
that is in you as an evangelistic shot in the arm? And I go out
there and scream at the corners of the street.