July 25, 2004
Service Theme - "Our God Is Our Life"
1 Peter 4:1-11
How to Live God's Way
I. Introduction
A. Illustration - John Ashcroft, when he was a member of the Senate, said, (NEW SLIDE) The most important thing my dad ever taught me is that there are more important things than me (as cited on PreachingToday.com).
B. Context - We work hard to teach our kids the truth of what Ashcroft has shared. But we often struggle to apply this truth to our own lives. Peter, as is documented in the Gospels and in Acts, struggled with this overriding self-interest in his own life. He shares what God taught him in these struggles in 1 Peter 4:1-11, so let's read that passage together, and I'm reading from the New Living Translation.
II. Scripture Passage
A. 1 Peter 4:1-11 (from the New Living) - (NEW SLIDE) So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you are willing to suffer for Christ, you have decided to stop sinning. (NEW SLIDE) 2 And you won't spend the rest of your life chasing after evil desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God. 3 You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy-their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols. (NEW SLIDE) 4 Of course, your former friends are very surprised when you no longer join them in the wicked things they do, and they say evil things about you. 5 But just remember that they will have to face God, who will judge everyone, both the living and the dead. (NEW SLIDE) 6 That is why the Good News was preached even to those who have died-so that although their bodies were punished with death, they could still live in the spirit as God does. 7 The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. (NEW SLIDE) 8 Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay. (NEW SLIDE) 10 God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so that God's generosity can flow through you. (NEW SLIDE) 11 Are you called to be a speaker? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Are you called to help others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. (NEW SLIDE) Then God will be given glory in everything through Jesus Christ. All glory and power belong to him forever and ever. Amen.
III. Deciding to Suffer Means Victory over Sin
A. You ever read a passage and have a verse or phrase just jump out at you like flashing neon lights? As I was studying this passage, one phrase did just that, and it gave me the key not only to this passage, but to the whole book of 1 Peter. It's at the end of verse one: (NEW SLIDE) For if you are willing to suffer for Christ, you have decided to stop sinning. My thinking tends to go in the opposite direction. My idea runs like this: "If you have decided to stop sinning, you will suffer for Christ." So you can see why this verse was such a shock to me. Let me read all of verse one and two to put this truth into some context. So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you are willing to suffer for Christ, you have decided to stop sinning. 2 And you won't spend the rest of your life chasing after evil desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God. So I'm thinking to myself, "Lord, I already suffer every day! I already deal with the pain of arthritis nearly every minute of every day. Isn't that enough?" But God led me to realize that that wasn't the kind of suffering He is talking about. (NEW SLIDE) There is a lot of suffering that we go through as a consequence of the cumulative effects of hundreds of years of sin on our bodies and minds. Adam's sin started the decay process in our world, and we're reaping the effects of that sin. It's why our bodies decay and we die. It's why evil is at work in our society. So suffering physically due to disease or accident isn't the kind of suffering Peter is talking about.
B. What Peter is talking about is suffering for Christ. (NEW SLIDE) Arming ourselves with the same attitude toward suffering He had. The Greek translates roughly as "putting on the armor of His thought." The problem is that there are lots of times when I don't want to put on the armor of His thoughts. I want to yell at the other drivers. I want to have things my way. I want to not be criticized. I want to live a life free of suffering. But I can't have it both ways. If I want to be free from suffering of any and every kind, I can't live a life free from sin. Why? Because my attitude in and of itself is sinful, and if there's sin in any one part of our lives there is sin in every part of our lives. James writes in chapter 2 verse 8 of his letter, (NEW SLIDE) For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. Therein lies the rub. God wants us to be willing to suffer for Him because it's in our own best interests. He wants us to be pure and sinless because of the devastation sin wreaks in our lives. We've got to get to the point of being willing to suffer for Christ.
C. Now wait a minute! How do we know when we're willing to suffer to the degree that Peter is writing about? I mean, all of us are willing to suffer to some extent or another, but how do we know we're truly surrendered to suffer for Christ? Peter gives us some clues. In verse two, he says this: And you won't spend the rest of your life chasing after evil desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God. (NEW SLIDE) In other words, if we're not chasing after evil desires in any part of our lives, and if we're more than eager to do God's will in every part of our lives, then we're surrendered to God. We're willing to suffer. Finding out if we're willing to suffer to this extent for Christ means that we all have to do an extreme gut check. We've got to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal any area of our lives where sin reigns or even where we're harboring sin. We've got to face up to those areas where we know we're not willing to surrender to Jesus. We know good and well what those areas are, but we pretend that if we ignore them God will ignore them too. Sad to say for all of us, but that's not true. (NEW SLIDE) Only when we surrender those areas and give up sin will we know that we're willing to suffer. And when we're willing to suffer great pain for Christ, then we'll know that we're not chasing after sin, and that we're anxious to do the will of God.
D. Then in verse three, Peter adds this: You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy-their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols. Another mark of those who are willing to suffer for Christ. I know that most of us would never do any of these things in public. We've given up open partying and idolatry. (NEW SLIDE) But what goes on in the privacy of our own hearts and homes? What are we like in those places? Do we secretly drink? Do we secretly indulge in any kind of drugs? Do we secretly indulge in pornography? And I'm not just talking about explicit magazines, books, and cable channels. I'm talking about those scenes that are on regular TV and cable that show just enough to get us going. Do we secretly indulge in pornography? Do we even secretly indulge in adultery or other sexual immorality? Do we secretly want everything the world has to offer in the way of material possessions? Do we secretly covet other people's stuff? (NEW SLIDE) If we are willing to suffer for Christ, we may be tempted by some of all of these, but we will not give in to temptation. Sinning in these areas will simply not be an option, because we will do whatever it takes to make sinning not be an option.
E. Then in verses four to six, Peter says: Of course, your former friends are very surprised when you no longer join them in the wicked things they do, and they say evil things about you. 5 But just remember that they will have to face God, who will judge everyone, both the living and the dead. 6 That is why the Good News was preached even to those who have died-so that although their bodies were punished with death, they could still live in the spirit as God does. This is generally the area of suffering that we balk at. We don't mind being a Christian. We don't mind even a bit of suffering. But when our non-Christian friends who begin to feel convicted by the changes in our hearts and lives begin to pick us apart, that's where we say "Enough!" We don't go so far as to give up our relationship with Jesus, but we work hard to keep it at a level that won't cause our friends to criticize and make fun of us. (NEW SLIDE) The Greek indicates that, when we don't join them in "wasteful, riotous living", then they are "pouring forth blaspheming, defaming, hurting another's reputation." So it's not a quiet criticism, but one that's aimed at humiliating you in front of anyone and everyone. It's extremely difficult to just sit back and take it and let Christ shine through us, but that's what we'll do if we're truly willing to suffer for Him. And He'll take care to make sure justice is delivered - that's why He makes sure they hear the gospel and see it lived out. So that those who repent and receive Him will turn their lives around and suffer for Him too, receiving eternal life for their reward. Those who don't repent and receive Him will face eternal punishment. We have to be willing to give up our right for revenge, instead suffering for Him and only speaking what He leads us to. That's a sign that we're willing to suffer for Christ. As Oswald Chambers wrote, (NEW SLIDE) To the saint personal insult becomes the occasion of revealing the incredible sweetness of the Lord Jesus… The disciple realizes that it is his Lord's honour that is at stake in his life, not his own honour (My Utmost for His Highest, July 14).
F. Peter continues by telling us how we'll live if we're truly willing to suffer for Christ. Verse seven: The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. 8 Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay. It's hard to be sincere and disciplined in our prayers. There are lots of times when we pray for people or circumstances because we "ought to." And there are lots more times when we don't pray because we "don't feel like it." Peter says, "So what?!" Pray consistently. Pray daily. Ask God to give you His heart for people and situations and you will pray earnestly and be disciplined in your prayers. Then we will be able to show deep love for each other. (NEW SLIDE) When we love each other deeply with a true, Christ-centered love, the little annoying things seem to matter an awful lot less. When we love each other like that, we're not looking for excuses to nit-pick or criticize - we're looking for excuses to encourage and share love. And then we'll be able to show true Christ-like hospitality. It's all kind of a progression. One thing comes before another, and we can't afford to tell ourselves that skipping one thing or another is okay. If we're guilty of breaking one of Jesus' commands, we're guilty of breaking them all.
G. Peter wraps up this section of his letter by telling us how all this love and willingness to suffer and death to sin will play out in the church. Verse ten: God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so that God's generosity can flow through you. 11 Are you called to be a speaker? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Are you called to help others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then God will be given glory in everything through Jesus Christ. All glory and power belong to him forever and ever. Amen. We all tend to have the attitude that we should leave the work of the church to those who are supremely talented, those who just seem natural for the job. I've got news for you - they didn't always seem natural for the job, they had to learn how to do it and to use their gifts. As D. L. Moody put it, (NEW SLIDE) If this world is going to be reached, I am convinced that it must be done by men and women of average talent. After all, there are comparatively few people in the world who have great talents (as cited on PreachingToday.com). What Moody is telling us is that we can't wait until we're a Superman in any area of talent or giftedness before we move forward and serve. God is calling us to jump right in. And what Peter is telling us is that if we're willing to suffer for Christ, if we're willing to do whatever it takes to make sinning not an option, if we're willing to be criticized and defamed by unbelievers, if we're willing to be earnest and disciplined in our prayer, if we love one another deeply and show that love in all we do, if we open our homes to those in need, then we will show our willingness to suffer for Christ by using all of our gifts for the glory of God. I know that's a mouthful, but it is truth. (NEW SLIDE) When we are willing to suffer for Christ and to allow Him to change us so that all these things are true in our lives, then we will reach our world for Jesus. Then we will be living life God's way.
IV. Conclusion
A. Please bow your heads and close your eyes out of respect for God and for each other's privacy. Let's all spend a few moments listening to what the Holy Spirit's been saying to our hearts this morning. PLAY CD TRACK
B. What's God been saying to you this morning? Are you willing to suffer anything and everything for Christ? Does the fruit of your life prove this decision? If God is calling you to make the decision to suffer for Him, and then to allow Him to work out the fruit of that decision in your heart and life, please make that commitment right now.
