Refiner's Fire | Week 7 | Bill Bush

You see, there there there's there that that that's knuckleheaded dream. Basically, there's three types of suffering that that we deal with in life. There's three types,

and I wanna clarify these to and clarify the one that this series, what we're talking about, is really about. The first one is called common suffering. That's called we're gonna suffer sometimes just because we're human beings. We live in a broken world. We get sick. You get illness. There are things that suffering comes our way that nobody caused it. It wasn't your fault. It wasn't their fault. It's just a part of being a human.

The second one is the one I just said in my dumb story. That's carnal. Carnal suffering. That's carnality. It means you're you're you're you're you're you're being stupid. You're doing stuff that God says don't do this. You're it's it's your own dumbness, basically,

and and and you're suffering. Now the thing about that kind of suffering is, God in his incredible grace bails us out of that a lot. He still loves us enough to help us, but there are consequences to our own stupidity. And there is a simple answer to that kind of suffering. Be less stupid. Basically,

just just just it's it's it's it's your own fault. And it's weird how many times we suffer for our own decisions

and then blame everybody else and wonder why god was making us do this. That's not what this series is about. There's actually a pretty easy answer to that one. The the the the the the third type is called Christian suffering,

and that's when you have you suffer and you struggle and there's oppression and there's things that come your way because you're doing good, because you're doing what God asks you to do, because you're following Christ.

And that and that could be a problem with things, because if we have the wrong view of what it means to be a Christian, if you think following God means if I just follow him and I do what he asked me to do, that means I will never have I won't struggle. I won't and then when you do have this type of suffering, you do have this stuff in your life, you get really confused because you don't understand really how this works. What does it really mean to be Christian in this world? What am I supposed to be doing with my life?

And and I know when Pat preaches all the time, he always say, hey. I always say this, but this this is the most important thing that you gotta remember. You just gotta remember this. It's the most important thing. That's my Pat impersonation. I'm not gonna say that, but I'll say it this way.

What we're gonna talk about today and this idea of what Christian suffering is supposed to be, if you don't get it, you won't get it. Get it? If

you don't get it, you won't get it. And this whole book that Peter's been we've been going through talks about how to give us hope during times when we suffer. If you don't get it, you won't get it. And you'll be like, how is this supposed to bring me hope? Because you don't understand how it works. I

so today, what we are gonna see in in the Big Eye today about this type of suffering

is is suffering for good is an opportunity, not oppression. It gives us an opportunity. I wanna quote a a a great theologian and pastor, Mark Collins. He's a great theologian, pastor, and as of late, expert bike crasher.

If you know him, he just wiped out on his bike. But he once said this, there's a reason the symbol of Christianity is a cross, not a lazy boy.

Jesus said, count the cost, pick up your cross. Cross means suffering. If you're gonna go the right way and follow God, you are gonna pay the price for that at some point. You you're there's gonna be suffering.

And if we take the tack that says, I think being a Christian means I avoid suffering at all. It's human. It's naturally. None of us wants to suffer.

So don't get me wrong there. But if I think that to follow Christ is how do I avoid, I'm gonna miss what God has for me. And a lot of us act, and a lot of church act, and and by nature, we wanna go find the church of the lazy boy. Can you imagine if our crosses out there instead of crosses were just big statues of lazy boys?

That's all it did. And it has a thing, come to me all who are weary and heavy burdened, and you shall Uber Eats the bread of life.

That sounds ridiculous, but if you really think, just ask yourself, is that really how I approach my walk in life even as a Christian?

Is my goal to avoid all suffering, or is it to make the choice that if I'm gonna suffer, I'm gonna suffer for the right thing?

Because what Peter's talking about, If you don't get it, you won't get it, get it. You have to understand the opportunity you have when you suffer for following Christ, when you suffer for making that hard choice, when you suffer for just, I'm going to trust him, even if in the short term this doesn't feel pleasant.

And that's really what he's talking about here in chapter three of first Peter. Last few weeks, guys have preached this like it's almost like Peter took a break in the middle because he's been talking about this whole idea. All of sudden he stops and talks about relationships.

And he talks about marriage and all that. And you're like, what does marriage have to do with suffering? He said single people. And then I'm just kidding. Kind of. My wife has suffered immensely being married.

But then he gets back and he says, so but what he was talking about relationships is because he knows that when you suffer, especially for doing the right thing, it can cause stress if you don't understand. And what is that gonna affect? Your relationships around you.

So now he gets back and he's trying to provide hope and he's trying to explain it for what does it mean to suffer for doing good. And in here, we're gonna see two opportunities. And near the end, he gives a great, illustration

that I'm gonna have to take some time teaching because if you don't understand the illustration, you're like, how is that supposed to give me hope? It's actually I don't even understand what it means.

But in here, he gives two opportunities. The first opportunity that we get that suffering for good is not an opportunity, just depression, is is simply this. It's an opportunity to experience the very power and peace of God.

A peace that transcends all understanding. You get to see God work in you in a way that I never would have expected going through that would have produced this. But here's what he says, the first two verses, verse thirteen and fourteen. He says, now who will wanna harm you if you're eager to do good?

In in the Greek there, what he's saying is he's that kind of rhetorical question. He's basically saying, typically, no one. Typically, if you are good and you're doing the right thing, people don't wanna harm you, typically. But he's inferring, and you will see at the end of this, he's implying

that there is a power at four at work here that's beyond just like, hey. I do the right thing. I stand for Jesus. I stand for good stuff. People are gonna get mad at you. You're gonna have attacks. You're gonna have oppression. You're gonna have moments that it's it's hard to be a Christian, and it's not just about that person.

It's it's Jesus put it this way in the gospels. He said, understand when you go out as my disciples, there are people who gonna reject you and treat you poorly. But understand this, it's not really just you they're rejecting. They're rejecting me.

There's a spiritual power at play, and that's why you can have such force against us. And and to try to live for Christ can be so like, you're like, why does the world think this way? It just makes common sense to be this way, and you don't get it because he goes, there's a spiritual force at play here that's that's beyond behind this, and you gotta understand that that's at work. So, yeah, it makes no sense

that you would suffer for doing good, but it does happen. It will happen, and if you're gonna be a Christian, you probably should expect that at times it's going to. And and and so he says that, and then in verse, 14, he says, but even if you suffer for doing what is right,

God will reward you for it. So don't worry or be afraid of their threats. So don't sit there worrying and being afraid about what might happen to you in this world if you follow Christ. Because he says, God will reward you. Now the way that's written, what he's saying there is it's not just, okay, it's gonna suck now, but it'll be good back there. He is saying that. It it is is if you suffer for Christ, in the short term, you're gonna suffer. But in the long term, there's there's there's joy, there's glory, there's honor.

In the short term, if you avoid suffering for Christ and take the easy way out, it might feel easy in the beginning, and that starts with no suffering, but it ends with more suffering. It ends worse. That's part of the truth. You understand the inverse. If we try to just go around what God has for us to avoid struggling a little bit in this moment,

we're gonna create more problems for ourselves down the road. Just read the old testament. It's the story of Israel.

Over and over and over. As matter of fact, he ends up quoting he's quoting a passage out of Isaiah, but and and he's talking about how they would constantly look for the easy way, the political fix. He says, I we don't wanna suffer. We don't wanna struggle. So we're gonna do this, which god says don't do that. Well, if we go your way, God, it's it's scary. It's hard. It's gonna yeah. And you might suffer in the immediate, but in the long run, it'll be better off. You take that route, it might feel good for a moment, but in the long run, you're gonna suffer worse.

That's part of what he's saying. But the way the sentence structure is done here, because it's written in Greek, he's also implying and saying that suffering for Christ in and of itself is a blessing. The actual act of suffering for following Christ is a blessing itself. Why? Well, because we're called to be like Christ. Right?

Christ suffered. We'll see that. He answers that in a few minutes down in a couple of verses. When I choose to trust Christ and I do the right thing and I suffer anyways, that's when you and I are the most Christlike.

That's when you and I have a chance to be a part of the kingdom in a way that we are the and that in and of itself is a blessing. Now you don't see it as a blessing because we get stuck because we don't get it. And if we don't get it, we won't get it. Get it?

We redefine Christian terms. When you hear that God will bless you, God will reward you. If your

mind goes to, oh, so in the end, if I suffer financially, he's gonna give me lots of money. In the end, if I suffer because I'm then I'm gonna because you define blessing as that immediate material or relational or something blessing in this earth, in this now. You think of it as something that just makes you feel good.

That's not what a blessing is. A true blessing is you lived out the call God had for you, and he's making you more like himself. And in the end, you're gonna realize that's more important. And then you're gonna realize that anything of eternal value is found on the other side of heart, and it's a blessing to realize that.

And he's saying because in those moments, you understand the true peace of God. This peace that God wants to give implies you are in the middle of a storm.

That's why it defies all understanding. I've said this a million times. The peace of Christ is supposed to be a peace that happens when your world is falling apart. When your world seems like it's in pieces, your life's in pieces, but yet you somehow still have a calm. Doesn't mean you're not concerned. Doesn't mean it's not hard. It just means somehow you have a sense of,

I'm okay. It says here in this passage later that you have a clear conscience because it means, hey, I know that this isn't suffering because of my sin. I know that this is the right type of suffering, and so I can trust God.

And there's a peace and a power that comes with that. It's an opportunity that you will never experience that if you don't go through this.

You know, in a in a more worldly understanding of it, it's kinda like this this eternal spiritual thing of like what my dad always taught me growing up. My dad was awesome at this time. And he would always say, you know, if if you've been here very long, I've said the Bush family motto I taught to my kids is do hard things.

Because my dad used to say, you know what? When you choose to do hard things, normal things become easy things, and impossible things start to become possible. We do that in every area of our lives when it comes to this world, but the most eternal thing, the most important thing, our faith and trust in God,

somehow we think I have to avoid any of the pain. I gotta find the easy route. But when I choose to go right towards what God has me to do, even if it's gonna cost me, I get a peace that makes no sense, and I get a power that I never thought was there. And he's saying, you can do this. It's this great opportunity.

So then what's the second opportunity? And he's really applied specifically to the type of suffering when people are reacting to your faith,

and it's gonna cost you relationally, and and then they can get mad. And he's writing this, you gotta understand. When he's talking about people coming against him and making threats, this is written in a time when the Roman empire, a guy named Nero, is now taken over as as emperor,

and persecution has started to happen. So when he says these people persecuting, it's not just, oh, you're an idiot because you're a Christian.

And and and you you're if you're a Christian, you'd vote this way. Or if you're a Christian, you're like, why are you Christians? So it's like it's it's worse than that. They're literally being persecuted. They to move. They have to leave, and they're they're starting to get, like like, arrested, beaten up, all these things, but now they're actually starting to be killed.

And and he knows it's gonna get worse. Peter ends up dying in this persecution. So when he says to handle these things this way, he's talking about it gets to the point that you might die if you trust Jesus. So just know that going in when you think of whatever you're facing. But he says instead,

instead of worrying, instead of trying to get it your way, instead of whatever, he goes, you must, must if you have your Bibles, underline must. He says, this is not an option. This is what we're supposed to be as Christians.

You must worship Christ as lord of your life. So what he's saying is, don't just believe that Jesus died for your sins and got you to heaven. You need to live your life that he is lord. He's the one you feared. Number one, him. I'm more worried about what he wants me to do than anything else.

And he goes, and if someone asks you about your hope as a believer, which if you live your faith the way God asked, it's gonna show.

And if someone's coming at you and ask you, and he's implying it's then, why would you be a believer? You know, it's kinda like in that that kinda mode that someone asks you of why would you believe this. He says, always be ready to explain it.

Always be. But it's like this next line is like, it's almost like God knows us because he made us. Because he's talking about you're under stress. You're suffering. Someone's like, why are you a Christian? He goes, you better be prepared and willing and ready to share your hope in Christ. And he goes, but

do this in a gentle and respectful way. It's like he already knows. We naturally are like, why am I?

My grandson is about to turn two. He's funny. He's great. But he's at this phase where it's like he'll go into the children's machine. He loves monster trucks, and there could be two. Give him one. Another kid has one. He just did it last night. Ran over, grabbed the other one, and pushed this kid down.

And and and they're trying to work with him, and and my daughter is awesome. She'll tell you, and she's she rewards him like, good job whenever he's does something sweet and nice, and they tell him, be gentle.

Be gentle. When And he's gentle, they tell him nice. He'll even stop and he'll sit there instead of pushing his mom's face. You know, when they get to that age, sit there and give kisses, and then he'll rub her face and he'll go, be gentle.

Yeah. We're like two year olds. In the eyes of God, he's like, hey. When it's not going your way, be ready to explain the hope. And explaining a hope is different than fighting with somebody. And he goes, be gentle. Be gentle. And do it in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear.

You mean I could talk about my faith and sin in the process? Yeah. We can.

Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ. So he's saying it's it's an opportunity to experience the power and peace of God, but also God uses persecution. He uses those times when the world is going desperately one way and Christians are like, alright. I can't

you know, culture doesn't agree with me anymore at all. I'm gonna have to live a different way,

and it's gonna get a bigger divide, and people are gonna get more and more confused. They're gonna get to hostile, actually. And what do you do in those moments? He goes, that's a great opportunity to share your faith. That's a chance to reach people of Christ.

But we need to do it. We've we there's two things you need to do. First, gotta be prepared. You gotta know how to share your hope. And the second, you gotta have the right attitude. You gotta have a gentle attitude. And and and I think a lot of us don't do that. I think a lot of us, we we we don't grab that opportunity,

and what we do is we we we we're more worried about defending our rights and our kingdom and our comfort than we are about showing the love of Christ. And and so we fight. We we we get in an argument. I think a lot of reason why people have a problem with the church today is is we don't point people to Jesus.

We point Jesus at people. We've weaponized Jesus

and to attack and defend our political stance or our this, and and we're shooting Jesus at everybody as if it was all like, oh, yeah. You're all going to hell. You know? And and and we're fighting for our position because we're not gentle because we're still afraid. We're worried that we're losing culture. We're losing our freedoms. We're losing that. And that happens in a culture. You realize in The United States, we've been very blessed. It has not been hard to live as a Christian in this culture.

It's changing. And and and we have one or two ways to go. We can either act like they did when Rome changed and it started to cost them their lives, but yet Christianity exploded, or we can fight to protect our territory. We can point people to Jesus, or we can start pointing people at Jesus. We gotta make a decision.

Because when you feel attacked, using that as a chance to express your faith in a gentle way is not natural, at least not for me. I get it. This is a hard one for me. Me being called in a ministry to be a pastor proves that God has a sense of humor.

I can preach because he gave me a big mouth, but he also gave me a big mouth. Because I'm not kidding. I'm I'm it's not natural for me to do this, to be gentle and to try to think, how am I gonna show people Jesus rather than just defend?

And the first thing I had to remember that I pass on to you guys, so I'm in there with you on this, news flash. Jesus doesn't need you to defend him. We need Jesus to defend us. Alright? Second news flash. It doesn't matter politically where anything goes if you're a Christian.

It could go completely the way we don't want. Now don't get me wrong. Don't hear what I'm not saying. We're called to be good citizens. We live in a country where we get to be a part of that process be a part of that process. But I think the fear and the anger that comes out of us is because we think if we lose the political battle, we've lost the war.

It doesn't matter who's president when you know who's king. And we have got to embrace that. Because every time in history when the gospel went forward and flourished,

it's when Christians were on the outside and they were attacked. It's not when they had control of the culture. And I know there's a lot I got past friends that get mad at me. They think the battle is, hey. We gotta go get win culture again. We gotta win we never had culture. We're never supposed to have culture. We're supposed to be a culture. We're supposed to be a thing, and we win people to Jesus, not to a culture. They get to be a part of our culture as they come to Jesus.

And so we need to point people to Jesus, not point Jesus at people, especially when we feel attacked. And you know what? I learned this lesson a weird way.

You know, because as you read the passage, you think you would understand. Historically, think about what this means.

In Rome, I said Nero becomes a thing. He started using Christians as a scapegoat because they were weird to them. They didn't all worship multiple gods, and they refused to worship the emperor as the Caesar as a god. And so that became a legal issue that that that now they're breaking the laws. And so they became this counteract, and Nero started using them as an excuse for stuff he wanted to do. And so what they started to do is they started to actually

murder Christians by the thousands. And what they would do is they had already you know, they had the gladiatorial games. The Romans got to a point in their culture that was so counter

thank god, that they they actually they're they're like, we go watch sports, and we're like, yeah. Kill him. Well, in their day, it was, yeah. Kill him, and it really meant kill him.

And so then what they started to do to to to use these Christians to rally people, yeah, they're our enemy. They started bringing them into and and literally murdering them in grotesque creative ways. Like, they would they would take young lions and only feed them human flesh

and teach them to only live off human flesh. Then they would starve them for a period of time before they brought the the Christians in and turn these starving lions loose.

And and they trained them to kill because a lion typically if you don't you have to train the lion to do that. A lion, even if it's hungry, doesn't naturally kill a human. When they threw him in there, they would kinda cower and wonder about the whole crowd and and all that. They trained him to attack.

And as these Christians came, they listened because Peter wrote this. They read this. They knew this. As it came, they spread the love of Christ. And, yeah, sometimes people kept attacking, but it says you might win someone over because of the you'll have a clear conscience, and they're gonna learn. They're gonna see it. And that's exactly what happened.

At first, they were cheering for these deaths. But when they saw these Christians calmly going there, going, you know what? I'm not gonna stop. I'm gonna worship God, not the emperor. I'm not gonna do this. But you know what? You rest me in this. They would just calmly sit there and pray, and they would sometimes sing worship as they were being killed.

And after a while, you heard boos starting coming up, and they started to boo the Roman officials for killing the Christians. And eventually, a Roman emperor became a Christian. And how he became a Christian was through his Praetorian Guard, his secret service. How did they become Christians?

Because back when Paul, when he was being persecuted before he died, he spent some time finally getting to Rome where he always wanted to preach, and he end up arrested. He suffered for Christ. He was jailed. He couldn't go out and preach. He was and you know what? And he sat there. The weird thing is what god knew was that's when he wrote two thirds of his of his New Testament letters. He wrote a whole bunch of the bible. It's almost God says, I need you to sit still because this is more important than you just walking around.

Well, as he did it, guess what? They kept him chained to a guard day and night, and it was a Praetorian guard. And we know from history, he led a bunch of those guys to Christ.

And a movement of Christianity got started in the Praetorian guard, and the Praetorian guard Christian booing them being killed, and then this Praetorian guard eventually, the emperor Constantine comes to Christ through his Praetorian guard, and the whole Roman empire is transformed before it gets wiped out.

And it started with Christians being gentle in the face of persecution. Now we're not dragged into arenas and killed yet. Say the half joking, half saying, mean, it could happen. Things could happen. But we do face those little arenas. I remember early on in our our church, we had a a certain

team, and it had grown. We had a staff person over it, and they had about you know, they had a level of volunteers that had started this this this ministry.

And the the problem is that there are some of the volunteers, they got stuck, they just they came from other church. They just wanted to keep doing the thing they like the way they wanted to do it, and it was

a waste it was wasting money, which people give to the ministry. And as I and the and the the pastoral director and the team was kinda going in a new vision, and so we got a vision night, and they'd recruited. The team was now, like, 25 people and a lot of them were new. And and this director came to me and says, hey. Can you come to our meeting and just kinda share the vision of the church and let them know? I go, like, you can just do that. He goes, well, you know what? I think I have some I'm I'm hearing a few like, there's some people I think aren't happy about it. Would you just come because you can lend more weight to it? I'm like, alright. I'll I'll I'll come. And I get up and I start sharing, and I and I stop, and I go, hey. Any questions on that? And and all of sudden, one person starts popping up, and it's somebody I knew. They've been in the church, like, from the beginning.

And with they purposely waited till this meeting. They never said anything to anyone, and it was like an ambush. And they just started, like, first, you think they start off ripping on why they don't like the idea, but then it quickly turned personal.

They And just started ripping on me and the other leader and and and stuffing just me. It's like it's just untrue. They're just insinuating stuff, and I'm like, okay.

Now, typically, you would think I'm about to call fire down from heaven upon you, it's gonna be the throw punches of all throw punches, which I shocked her, but I didn't do it.

I I I go, okay. Is it anymore? And all of sudden, another hand pops up and someone else. And I and I kept encouraging. Alright. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Let's hear I kept going, and it turned out that of this group of, like, 25, six of them eventually got into the fray and was just shredding me. And I and I and I redirected.

I gave them answers in a kind, gentle way. I defended in that way, but I was nice, and I encouraged them to keep talking. I said, hey. You know, I think you're incorrect here. I just think we need and they just kept staying mean and super inappropriate, and I encouraged it. And then we kinda ended the meeting,

and and and my friend Randy, executive pastor at the time, comes up, and he's like, dude, what what was that? And I go, what do mean? He goes, I could not wait for you to just

that's what you're good at. I mean, why didn't you do it? I'm like, I'm totally shocked. And I'm like, I don't if that's a compliment or not. He was just waiting for me to just annihilate them. And he goes, why did you do that? I'm like, well, because I I I had a plan.

And I go, what do you mean? He goes, it's I let I wanted anyone who had that kind of attitude to just bring it up in this meeting. He goes, why? I go, so then I know who to invite to the next meeting.

I go, Randy, it's like I learned from Ned. It's a classic move to contact. When an army is moving and you're not sure where the enemy positions are, you send one little small force. It's dangerous to be able and you say, just go forward until you get attacked, then we'll know where the enemy is.

So that was my number one. It's a good leadership reason. We moved to contact. I knew who to invite to the next meeting. It went well. Well, you know, two repented, four left. But but what happened next is where I learned this lesson without even knowing that I was doing it. By staying gentle,

we had most of this other group had come. Yeah. We heard bad things, and we were starting to believe what these other people were saying. And then we watched the way they talked to you and the way you responded, and we realized they've got an attitude. So we're sorry for even entertaining that. One of the six

actually apologized to me after the meeting. They already realized where it had gone. And one couple in that meeting that had started coming to serve hadn't even come to Christ yet, and they came and talked to me, and I got to lead them to Jesus. You see, that's it sounds completely counterintuitive,

and I didn't I didn't I wasn't honorable then. I only had one plan in that. I didn't plan that. That was the way better result. The team got way better. And it's because you've chosen to say, am I gonna defend my Christian territory and culture and my rights and my freedoms, or do I wanna expand the kingdom of God?

Do I wanna point people to Jesus, or am I pointing Jesus at people as a weapon? How about you? Because if you do the other, you just don't get it. And if you don't get it, you won't get it. Get it? And you will never understand, and you will avoid the suffering that God's called us to. Suffering for good is an opportunity,

not an impression. So how do how do you get prepared like that? You gotta be willing, first of all. But a lot of us, I think the reason we do avoid sharing our hope is is is first, we think we need to be experts at everything. Like, I can't really share my hope because I I gotta be an expert theologian.

I gotta be great at rhetoric. I I gotta know how to argue. I know all the latest things. I gotta be able to argue on a scientific level. I gotta be able to defend this. I gotta know all the political ramifications.

I have to understand. I gotta, you know, be able to talk well, to be able argue. I gotta pray you know, being good looking is good because, know, you got that charisma and all that. In other words, you all think you gotta be me.

No. Just kidding. It's the exact opposite. If I can do it, you can do it. I am wired the opposite of what it says to do here. But what it says is to share your hope. All you gotta really be prepared to share your the best reasons for you to share are your reasons.

And see, you're not embracing the hope of Christ, if you're not embracing you don't even know what to share because you only wanna think arguments. Lean into hope. So what does that mean?

It means simply I wanna put this up on the screen. It says it says this. It's like is choose to have an optimistic outlook based on powerful promises. That's the best way to be prepared when you stay gentle. Optimistic outlook on powerful promises. Now, those of you in your conversations about where the world's going,

some of you keyboard warriors out there, when you think about the way you're responding and defending your faith, can you say there's anything in there that was optimistic outlook based on powerful promises? If not it's a bear. I need to you're doing it wrong. You're doing it wrong.

Keyboard arguments are not defending the kingdom. You're defending yourself.

We need to take the opportunity when the world's going way far one direction, when the world's being the world. We need to run more towards Christ and show them that, and I'm gonna be honest. Even if it costs you your life,

That's what it means to follow Christ. And he says there's a blessing in that. There's a blessing in that. So how? I gotta hurry up here. How do I do that? There's a he says remember in verse 17. Look what he says next. He says, remember.

So now he's saying, this is something you gotta embrace. If you're gonna be able to consistently do this, you gotta embrace this perspective.

He goes, remember, it is better to suffer for doing good if that is what God wants than to suffer for doing wrong. Verse 18, Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the spirit. So he goes, hey. Gotta remember, it's better to suffer for good than to suffer for wrong because then when you suffer for wrong, it's just suffering to suffer.

You know, you you buy, you know, stair steppers you can't afford and can't use. You're just gonna suffer, and you're an idiot.

But if you suffer for the right, that's good. And then he uses Christ because because when you're the most like Christ because that's what Christ did. What did Christ do? He came to this earth and decided to suffer for you and me when we're the ones sinning against him. He had a gentle he saved us.

And and and what he's saying is, I've already won the war for you. You don't have to go to war with people.

If you're gonna share your faith with someone, I've heard it said this way, you you attack the issue, but you address the person. We reverse it. We try to address an issue by attacking the person. We're not at war with them.

And the war we're in, we already won. And what he's trying to tell these Christians, it doesn't look like you're winning. It like you're losing. It looks like you're being isolated.

It does look like you're losing, but you understand you already won because I already died for your sins. You're already victory. So in other words, if I'm gonna consistently do this, I have got to embrace. This is the thing you have to you have to get this if you're gonna do this. You have to get this where you won't get it, and that is this. I need to learn to fight the fight of faith in my life

from victory, not for victory. You have to learn to walk through life with the attitude that says, I'm walking

from victory in Christ, not for victory in Christ. So for victory actually says, gotta defend Jesus. Before victory, I said, I gotta do these things or Jesus won't love me. For victory says, when I do all the right things, I'll get all the things I want, and I won't suffer. Well, if you have that for victory and then all a sudden, God puts you in a situation where you're suffering for doing the very right thing, your whole world is blown up, and you're mad at God, and you're confused

because you think it's a plan to go get the victory. We don't get the victory. We walk in the victory. We fight from it, not for it. Because Jesus loved you so much, he already won it for you. How would that change your world right now?

How would that change when you're all worried, when you see the landscape, when you see Christians being attacked, when you see, like, I don't know where this country's going. I I I'm not comfortable. It's my family. My kids are gonna grow up in a pagan world. You know, I what when you start to feel that stress,

do you go forward? What do I need to do to win this victory? Or do you say, how do I walk and live out the victory I already have? See how that can change things for you? That's what he's saying, and it's easy to say.

And that's why I think 19 through 22, this last little section, is an illustration, and I call it the yeah, but.

He's like, that's great to say, but yeah, but but what does this really mean? And he ends with an illustration

that is supposed to be this crescendo to give hope, but it sounds kinda confusing. So you're gonna go, I don't even know what it says. How is that supposed to be hopeful? Well, let me read it, and then I'll tell you what he does. He gives an illustration. So says if you gotta embrace this, fight from victory, not for victory. Remember what Christ did.

He goes, so he, meaning Jesus, went and preached to the spirits in prison. Those who disobeyed God long ago when God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat. Only eight people were saved from drowning in that terrible flood. What?

It's like that's supposed to give me hope? Because remember, he went down and preached in hell to some spirits in prison during the time when Noah was building the boat. Remember, built that boat because and he was persecuted for over a hundred years, and it didn't win anything. He totally only eight people got in the boat, that was his own family. Aren't

you filled with hope now? He spent a hundred years suffering for his faith, and it says Noah preached

the gospel of rights. He didn't just build the boat and ignore the world. He actually shared what God was saying. That boat was way bigger. You go back and do the math. People say, how'd they all fit? They had tons of room on the boat. You could fit two or two of the animals with enough food, and they could have fit tons of human beings on that boat as well. But only eight people, and it was only his family, so he didn't reach anyone but his family.

And that's supposed to give you hope. He lived a hundred years suffering for the cause of God,

and then got on a boat, and and only eight people joined him. And guess what? That was suffering. He was saved, but you're still suffering. Yeah. He didn't drown, but can you imagine being on a boat for over a year with just your family and all those animals?

I almost imagine him looking at the boat. Oh, but he goes, isn't anyone? I was hoping Fed would at least come. I want somebody else with me. Imagine, like, he floated around the field with all those animals. That'd be like going on the road trip from hell.

Could you imagine? You get called from God to get in an RV with just your family and your pets, but not just your pets. You gotta take all of your neighbor's pets too.

So you got the whole neighborhood's animals. They're chickens. They're dogs. They're you know, if you live out in San Tan Valley, the other weird animals, you know, like like peacocks and stuff like that. And and and and and you gotta go in there, and here's the card. It's a road trip, but you're not allowed to get out of the RV.

All you get to do is very occasionally let one the birds go and see if they're gonna come back saying the road trip's almost over. I mean, wouldn't you wanna just say, I'd rather drown in the flood? So he's given them hope, but why? What is this talking about? What does this even say? What's these spirits?

Well, we know because he connects it to to to to this this story of Noah. You gotta go back and read it yourself. I challenge you. It's like some fallen angels literally went down and messed with humanity.

Hence, remember I said in the first verse, he's talking about there's a power beyond you that's pushing this. They tried to twist. They helped turn the human beings so the world became so evil. And what he's saying is, yeah. At that time, the world became so evil. Only eight people got saved.

And you thought it looked like a lost, didn't it? But guess what? Jesus came, and he went down to where they were imprisoned, and it says he preached. It wasn't the gospel. That word for preach is simply he made a declaration to them. He's saying, you gotta remember, even though it looks like they won, they didn't win. Jesus came, and Jesus went down. It's outside of space time. It's happening then, but it already happened later. God's already outside of our space time. And he went and declared to them, by the way, you lose.

I've already won. And now look at Noah. And he goes, and Noah only had eight people get on this boat. Sounds bad. But he goes, but look at Noah. He goes, and the water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you. And he's saying, does that mean baptism saves you? No. No. He he explains.

He goes by remove not by removing dirt from your body, implying the spirituality. It's not that it saves you from your sin, but as a response to God from a clean conscience. I mean, you've you've seen Christ's call, so you you go you bet get baptized. In their culture, baptism when you become a Christian like in our culture, we've got this weird thing. Like, I can tell you guys, just go get baptized.

It's one of the first acts of obedience.

They didn't disconnect these. We hear we say, put your faith in Christ, you pray with me, and then then you wait to get baptized. Back then is if you saw that you put your faith in Christ, baptism was almost like the answer to that prayer. It's like, I am going to declare I'm a Christian,

you got baptized. That was your prayer in your declaration. Because he says it's really about Christ. It's the effect it's effective because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Just like if I pray and put my faith in Jesus to die for my sins, my prayer is not what saved me. It's Jesus. I just had to accept it.

But he's saying it's this picture that he suffered and it looked like it was failure. But in the end, the waters that drowned everybody, he got to float on the ark and it ended up saving humanity even though it looked like failure. In other words, what he's really saying here is, guys, don't

another quote I have is is do you want to, do you wanna drown in oppression or float in opportunity? And floating in opportunity is still suffering. Just ask Noah how hard that was when we see him in heaven.

Because then he goes and says, now Christ has gone to heaven. He is seated in the place of honor next to God,

and all the angels and authorities and powers accept his authority. He's back to the angels and the powers and authorities trying to say, there is an enemy out there in this fight. Matter of fact, we're doing a series after this one called The Devil's Playbook, and we're gonna look at his strategy. So

it's not just people attacking. It's not just culture being stupid. It's there is an active force that is anti God that'll come against you. And if you wanna reverse engineer that, if you're never experiencing that, that means you're probably not following Christ. Because if you go where Christ calls you to go, you

will move to contact. Like I said in the military, you will move to contact. If you start going to the territory he told you to go, eventually, you're getting shot at.

And if you avoid that, you'll never win. And the reason this is truly a blessing, like I said, just suffering like Christ suffered for doing good is a true blessing, is because that's when we're the most like Christ. And if you look into Luke one last verse I wanna read. Shut this down. Luke nine.

In the gospels, you see how Jesus started teaching. He started feeding people. He started healing them, and he drew huge crowds. But then he started to talk about what it really means to follow him. He started losing crowds.

And then his whole point was he was picking a fight. The religious authorities were getting mad. The people didn't like to hear what he said. The people that were actually going to church got mad at what he said, which happens a lot. I tell you this is what it means to be a Christian. There's people in this room. You say you believe in Jesus, but you don't wanna do what I'm saying.

They're fighting God even though you come to church. And and so he knew. He made them mad. He knew that was gonna lead to his death, and he knew when he goes to Jerusalem,

that's when he's gonna die. He knew it. And in Luke nine is when that transition happens. The rest of Luke, he's heading towards Jerusalem. He's heading towards the cross, and he had a point. And it says right in Luke nine fifty one, I wanna read this to you. Says in Luke nine fifty, as the time drew near from him to ascend to heaven. That sounds great. He's going to heaven. How did he get there?

By way of the cross. What did he tell us to do? If you're gonna follow me, count the cost and pick up your lazy boy? Pick up your cross.

We will ascend to heaven. We'll have the glory, and then we'll have everything like he did if we follow his path, but our path is gonna take us the same way. And what did he do? Even though he knew what that meant. He was God. He knew what the cross would feel like. He knew the pain. He knew the suffering. He knew what he said, and he knew it was for people that sinned against him. He didn't do anything wrong,

but he went anyways. And it says, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. Resolutely set out for Jerusalem. That word for resolutely means he turned toward Jerusalem, planted those feet, and said, I'm not going any other direction. He had a resolution to go towards his death, to go towards the suffering because he knew

that on the other side of that card was something of eternal value, you and me, the love for us. And so we did it. That's why it's a blessing to suffer like this because we get to experience and be the most like Christ and experience what he did in a smaller way. We get to be able to resolutely head towards Jerusalem.

We get to resolutely go, What's your Jerusalem? What is the way of God saying, Hey, you're not listening to me. You're trying to not suffer. You're trying to avoid this. Just trust me. Me with your life, me with your time, me with your finances, trust me with your relationships,

trust me with what I say to do. And even if it's scary, just resolutely head that way because the same thing is true in our life, guys. Anything worth eternal value is on the other side of hard. Anything.

And if you avoid hard, you might find easy right now, but on the other side of easy is more suffering and more it's more oppression. It's worse on the other side. But anything worth eternal value is on the other side of setting your feet resolutely towards the Jerusalem that Jesus has called you to.

That's the way to get hope. That's the way to live it out. That's the only answer to suffering in this world. Father God, I thank you, Lord. I thank you that you do love us so much. I thank you that your word goes deeper than the simple answers we look for, Lord, that you bring us to this deeper understanding.

So, Lord, my prayer is simple. It's for myself. It's for everyone in this room. It's for anyone watching online, is that we can understand that if we choose to trust you, if we resolutely set our feet towards our Jerusalem, that the suffering we experience is an opportunity, not an oppression.

Lord, I pray that I would embrace that. I pray everyone here would embrace that. Everyone online would embrace that, and that we can experience the power and peace we would never understand, and that we have a chance to express our faith and point others to you through this.

Thank you, Lord, and I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Hey, that was fun for me. I don't know about you, but

Thank you again for joining us online today. If you need prayer, connect with us at rockpoint.io under the need to talk tab. Be sure to follow us on social media to stay up to date with what's happening here at Rock Point. Again, thank you for joining us.