For Him and Those We Suffer
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much better it's a big fear of mine actually in doing this um that uh your mic is on when you're singing worship because if you heard me sing worship you would not want my mic on and it would be embarrassing so oftentimes uh that mic stays off as long as possible um just because wouldn't be good um good morning my name is Tony I am a volunteer here I am not the lead Pastor just so you know so if you're like man I'm really not sure about this church come back another week when Pastor Jean is here and then make a real decision this is like one of those things you've been tricked you came to church and you're like oh I can't wait to hear the pastor he's not here so I get to fill in now the only good thing is we get to do some veins we normally wouldn't do while he's not here you know what I'm saying cats away the mice will play um and that's kind of my personality so um it's exciting to be here I am always honored to come up here and speak when Pastor Jean is away or um just needing a break so it's it's a great honor for him to allow me to do this and I am grateful I wish you would be in prayers I am not I don't do this as regularly as I off as I used to so just be in prayer for me as we present God's word and that his will is done with it not mine so today we're going to talk about something not a lot of people want to talk about we're going to talk about something where we really it's a it's Christianity and we're like ah I just I don't know how to handle this part of Christianity I don't really want to talk about it because it's one of those things where like have you ever somebody told you to you should ask God for patience and you know how he gives you patience he puts you through trials or he gives you kids whichever one you know I have three boys I've I've gotten patients I've gotten older because I'm like that's amazing that you can actually that you look at your kids and they're like man can you believe they can actually do this like they can push you this far no human being listen I'm a cop all right so there's not a lot of things I have to deal with from people where I'm not like listen you're going to do what I say and they do it because the gun and the bad Edge and then I get home and I tell an 11 year old I'm like you're going to do this and he looks at me goes I'm not that will grow your patience right so the Lord knew how to get my patience he gave me three kids so what we're going to talk about today is not patience at all we are going to talk about suffering we're going to talk about suffering because this is a major part of Christianity it's a part we don't really want to talk about so how I arrived at this topic today is very interesting so as we went through our Academy our State Certified Academy to become the deputies that we are they they gave us they made us come up with a class motto a motto that represented your class we were class 160 we were the 160th Police Class to go through this particular Academy and they would say Hey you need a class motto um and so a lot of things were thrown around I went to the academy during covert years so there are a lot of things thrown around but our class fell on this phrase for those we sacrifice for those those we sacrifice and what would happen is after you got done pteen and you were tired and sweaty and everything was you know you're questioning the life decisions you've made as to how you got here like a 37 year old man is running around with these 20 year olds and I'm like this is a bad decision and then you would have to stand at attention as uh you the flag was raised and the uh pledge was said you'd stand at attention and then somebody would come up I'm not going to do an about face because I nearly tore my achilles trying to do it before so do a bell face and then they would say class 160 and you would come to attention and they would say for those and then you would repeat we sacrifice and that was our class motto that's what we came up with and I'm telling you what it kept me going through the academy it keeps me going now when nights are long lonely difficult you're tired sweaty you're hungry you're on a scene you're dealing with people that you just never really deal with in life for those we sacrifice it's not definitive it's not who we sacrifice for everybody and it's not what well if Christianity had a motto like that it would be for him and those we suffer and sacrifice and today we're going to talk about suffering So today we're going to go to First Peter chapter four yes I'm going to be in the New Testament it's actually my first time speaking in the New Testament um here not ever that would be weird right like everybody begins the question this guy's never read the New Testament this is not good yes we're going to learn this together you and I it's like a children's episode together we're gonna learn first Peter all right first two shots four First Peter chapter four this P first Peter is a fantastic book and when it comes to suffering Peter goes in because you have to remember when this is this time this book is set this book is being written when Christians are going through suffering that we couldn't imagine Christians are being burned alive at the stake they're being used as torches their heads are being put on Pikes outside of cities Christianity is suffering so sometimes our definition of suffering is different you know there's not a certain food that we want at a restaurant uh Taco Bell closed early there's things that we consider to be suffering your football team loses you suffer this is this is legitimate suffering this is physical and mental anguish that these individuals who are proclaimed Christians are being put through never seen before up until now and so First Peter chapter four he says this so then since Christ suffered physical pain you must arm yourself with the same attitude he had and be ready to suffer too for if you have suffered physically for Christ you have finished with sinned you won't spend the rest of your life chasing your own desires but you will be anxious to do the will of God you have had not you've had enough in the past of the evil things that Godless people enjoy they're in their morality and lust they're feasting and drunkenness and wild parties and their terrible worship of Idols of course your former friends are surprised when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things they do so they slander you but remember that you will have to face God who stands ready to judge everyone both living and the dead that is why the good news was preached to those who are now dead so although they were destined to die like all all people they now live forever with God in the spirit and then we're going to drop down to verse number 12. and he says dear friends again he introduces this he says don't be surprised at the fiery trials you're going through as if something strange were happening to you instead be very glad for these trials make you partners with Christ and his suffering so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world if you are insulted because you bear the name of Christ you are blessed for the Glorious spirit of God rest upon you if you suffer however it must not be for murder stealing making trouble or prying into other people's Affairs but it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian praise God for the privilege of being called by his name for the time has come for judgment and it must begin with God's household and if judgment begins with us what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God's good news and also if the righteous are barely saved what will happen to Godless Sinners so if you are suffering in a man Center that pleases God keep on doing what is right and trust your lives to the God who created you for he will never fail you and it's a lot of scripture that we just read and I want to dive into it right away so what do we need to know about this huge chunk of scripture in First Peter and don't worry we're going to get back to the verses we cut out in the middle right there but what do we need to know about it well the first thing we must know is that we must be willing and ready to face suffering as a Christian when you accept Christ you must be willing and ready to face suffering it's a mentality you look again in verse one it says so then since Christ suffered physical pain you must arm yourself with the attitude he had and be ready to suffer too so it's telling you to arm yourself with the attitude that if I'm a Christian I am going to suffer not a great sales pitch for Christianity right not a great sales pitch you never want to start with something like I'm going to buy this car and the air is not going to work you wouldn't buy the car but Christianity comes around and says hey Peter says listen if you're a true Christian you must be ready to suffer listen and this willingness and readiness you're not always going to understand why but we must place our confidence in God Jesus himself questioned why Matthew 26 39 says he went a little further and bowed with his face to the ground praying my father if it is possible let this cup of suffering be taken away from me yet I want your will to be done not mine Jesus right before the cross in the Garden of Gethsemane when they're praying says listen if there's any other way for this to be done other than my suffering but your will be done so Jesus is ready to face suffering it's not that he was understanding of what was going on he just wanted God's will to be done so there are times in life that you're going to face suffering you're going to be ready for suffering and I'm here to let you know right off the first start of this message before we jump into it it's okay to say I wonder why it's okay in your prayers to say God I don't know why you want me to go through this but I want your will to be done so before we jump into it understand it's a Readiness it's a willingness to accept it it doesn't always mean you're going to understand why it's happening we move on suffering draws us closer to Christ and farther away from our former sinful selves so we Face suffering with joy we look at James 1 2-5 it says dear brothers and sisters when Troubles of any kind come your way consider it an opportunity for great joy for you know that when your faith is tested your endurance has a chance to grow so let it grow for when your endurance is fully developed you will be perfect and complete needing nothing if you need Wisdom ask our generous God and he will give it to you he will not rebuke you for asking so if we look at what James is telling us here he's telling us to face these troubles it's not only telling us to be ready it's not only tell us to you know fully have the attitude and mentality that we are going to struggle we're going to have suffering but it's now telling us to do it with great joy why because it's developing us it's making us more christ-like it's pulling us farther away from the sinful lives that once dominated us see we were once slaves to sin once Christ once we accept Christ in our lives we're no longer slaves to sin we now have the opportunity to not sin we now have the ability to walk away from sin you didn't have that before and so what is what are these sufferings doing it's giving me more and more ability to turn my back on the sin that once was my master and more turning my face towards the God who loves me and provided me with eternal salvation suffering has a reason and because of that reason we should be excited about it now that seems weird right now I'm not telling you that you have to walk out of here today and be like God you know what I'm really excited if you just take everything away from me all right we go back to the story of job job didn't ask for things to be taken away job never made a prayer that said you know what God I really want you to take my wife my kids my wealth my cattle job never asked for that to happen it's not like he went out there and prayed for that to happen but when it happened he faced it in a Godly manner so I'm not telling you we have to put on Facebook today all the things that we're suffering through and be like Yay praise hands I'm doing this we don't have to do that today that's not what I'm saying when I say we face it with joy in our hearts we face it knowing there's a reason and when we know the reason behind it which is becoming more christ-like moving away from sin and we know that internally it reflects externally can you imagine the look on somebody's face who doesn't understand when you're suffering and you're sitting there and you're excited about life you have joy you have a smile on your face and these people are like why are you insane look what you're going through I don't understand have you ever heard that phrase I don't understand how you're as strong as you are right now oh it's because we have a God who loves us and we understand that suffering is a part of this deal when we accept Christ as our savior we've got to understand our savior suffered the worst possible death in human history what he went through for us is nothing compared to what we go through especially now like right now suffering for Christianity looks a little different right there's there's not the suffering we're not being persecuted physically although some of our beliefs are being challenged we're not being persecuted mentally although what we base our lives on people will look at and say I don't agree with you on but we must face that suffering with joy because it allows us to become more christ-like as a matter of fact Peter goes in a great deal here he says you won't spend the rest of your life chasing your own desires and he actually says this before that he says for if you have suffered physically for Christ you have finished with sin what Pastor Gene talked about there's there is there is an ability to not sin as a Christian I know it seems difficult but look what Peter says here you have finished with sin when you suffer physically what he's trying to say is when you have suffered by faith that Christ is true he was the Savior you have suffered then you have taken the next step in your Christian walk and you have finished with sin because let's be honest when we're suffering it's easier to do the thing that would in the suffering right it's easier and it's our lives are made that way now I I am a guy who does I'm in Florida and I'm not a guy who loves heat I'm not if you walked into my house today it's my wife would tell you it's like walking into an igloo I feel bad for my wife she walks around with a huge like snuggy thing on and like five layers I sleep with the air down on like 68 degrees and a fan blown in my face like I have to be cold so in our lives suffering we can fix suffering right especially in America we're hot we go turn on the AC there are countries I've been in where there is no AC and I'm like dear Lord these people are better than I am but we can go do that right if our food's cold we can put it in a microwave if something's broken we can go get it fixed if we want to talk to somebody we're going through hard times we just pick up a cell phone it's easy to end suffering right now and so oftentimes that's what we'll take but look what it says if you've suffered physically for Christ you have finished with sin so we must suffer well this is coming from Peter by the way does it remember Peter and what he was about do you remember Peter and about the fact before I get to the verse I was going to you can go to back to that Garden of Gethsemane scene where they come up to get Christ and he cuts off the guy's ear because my God is not going to suffer and before that we can go back to Mark 8 31-33 he says this then Jesus began to tell us that the son of man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders the leading priests and the teachers of religious law he would be killed but three days later he would rise from the dead and as he talked about this openly with his disciples Peter took him aside and began to reprimand Christ to begin to reprimand Christ for saying such things and then Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples then reprimanded Peter and said get away from me Satan he said you are seeing things merely from a human point of view and not from God's so think about Peter who's writing if you've suffered physically then you're finished with sin this is from the same Peter who reprimanded Christ for talking about suffering can you imagine like reprimanding Christ the amount of confidence that it would take to do that I often think about these things in my life because you know going back to what I do for a living there's you you have people that will actually reprimand you as a police officer and you're like sitting there thinking like I didn't I I don't think I would do that if a guy with a gun and a badge tells me to do something like you know what he knows what he's doing I'm gonna go that direction I'm gonna do that but you have some people that have like this this intense attitude Peter had this intense attitude towards Christ listen and this isn't like Christ just now got here he hadn't done Miracles Peter hadn't seen things no no Christ had already done some things in front of Peter that Peter would have been like I've never seen anybody do that before and yet he reprimanded him he knew he was the son of God because suffering no no no you're coming here to set up a kingdom and that kingdom is going to be perfect and we're never going to have to suffer again and Christ said nope that's not what is about to happen so this is coming from Peter how ironic the change in Peter's mentality to go from somebody who didn't want to suffer who didn't want to see his Christ suffering to somebody who said listen suffering is part of what it's all about we move on not only is suffering not only suffering for the right reason is purifying but you also suffer because of sin and Punishment we must be able to differentiate those things so we not only suffer because of being they used to call Progressive sanctification actually they still do it's a huge word that you learn in Bible College and you have to fill it out on a test to make sure before they let you go out but so basically what it means is you're getting better Progressive sanctification we're progressively getting more and more righteous in our walk with Christ we're progressively getting better we're not going backwards we're getting better and so you suffer and that progressively makes you better that's what we're talking about right well we also suffer from sin the punishment of sin and we must differentiate those things because we suffer to purify ourselves or we suffer because of decisions that we make and that's the punishment for sin as a matter of fact Peter wants you to understand that he actually goes into it and he says listen here he wants to go into why we suffer and in First Peter 3 17 he says remember it is better to suffer for doing good if that is what God wants then to suffer for doing wrong he says remember listen you need to suffer what for what's doing good not for what's not for doing wrong you should be able to understand what that is we no longer suffer for a list of things that he goes over we no longer suffer from murder forgetting in other people's business right that's a punishment when you suffer from those things that's a punishment for sin so we've got to differentiate those things we've got to understand we've got to be able to take assessment of our life and say listen am I living in sin and that's this is the consequence for that or am I suffering because this is what God wants me to become can I make that difference can I bring that to God and ask that question which means this an inventory of what's going on in your life an honest inventory remember last week Pastor Gene tested us when he threw the sins up on the screen and he's like if you thought about somebody else you've missed the point well I later on brought up the fact that I was like if you thought about you and then you're like good job I identified my sin you're probably not getting it either right so here's the thing we should be able to take self-inventory of what's going on in our lives and if we're living in sin and there's punishment because of it we need to eliminate that Sin from our life the punishment is God saying hey shouldn't be doing that and so yes you can suffer from sin and yes that's totally different than suffering for the name of Christ they're two separate things so you've got to be able to identify that because it's important that we sit there and we have an honest inventory of what we're doing is this Christ working through me is this Christ making me better is this Christ for going through Progressive sanctification or is this me is this a me thing am I suffering because of my own desires am I suffering because of what I want or am I suffering because of what Christ wants and we should be able to tell the difference between those things so not only must we identify the difference between the the suffering that we go through but we must always remember our suffering is only temporary compared to the permanent suffering of the Lost listen we're not better than anybody else I'm not sitting here saying that we're better than the Lost what I'm saying is it should be a sobering reality the fact that our suffering is a temporary thing and there are loved ones family and friends that will suffer a permanent suffering by being cast into the Lake of Fire by being cast into hell dying without Christ their suffering's permanent so yes we may suffer for a little while but we have the hope and the promise of an eternal life with Christ in heaven so our suffering here is minute compared to what we have in front of us that should bring us great joy I don't know if you work out I try but you know the best part of the workout is when it's over and I look forward to that as I'm working out I'm like 15 more minutes and I am done with this like I get to the gym thinking I'm going to be done in about an hour so all I can deal with this for an hour some of us that's how we approach work too right like we walk into work we're like all right so I get eight hours minus half an hour for lunch 15 minutes of playing on my phone so I only have to make it this many hours we get excited it keeps us motivated how about the times before vacation right you got one day before vacation some of you guys have vacation planned I do in July it's like 17 days away not that I'm counting we had this conversation today in the car me and my wife as we as we're going to church and you're like counting down those days and you're just excited because here's the deal yeah I have to deal with you for 17 days but then for a full week I don't even have to talk to you I don't have to come to work I don't have to deal with the boss I don't have to hopefully you don't have to deal with your kids being too crazy I go to my parents and I let them take care of my kids I'm like all right grandparents yay it's just not parenting class people sure it's true but here's the thing we're motivated by the future as Christians you should be motivated by the fact that we are going to spend time in heaven yes we may suffer now but we're going to be in heaven but it should also motivate you by the fact that your individuals who are suffering now who are lost are going to suffer eternally and it should motivate us on how we respond to suffering because what we're going to find out is how we respond to suffering shows others hope something the world lacks a lot of right now so when we go through suffering we should be thinking this is temporary this is God he's he's built me closer to him he's making me more christ-like but even now this is temporary forever permanent home in heaven those who are suffering now that are lost have a permanent home in hell let's explore this more second Corinthians 4 17-18 says this for our present troubles are small and they won't they won't last very long yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever so we don't look at the troubles we can see now rather we fix our Gaze on things we cannot see for the things we see now will soon be gone but the things we can't see will last forever second Thessalonians 1 7-9 says this and God will provide rest for you who are being persecuted and also for us when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven he will come with his mighty angels in a flaming fire bringing judgment on those who don't know God and on those who refuse to obey the good news of our Lord Jesus they will be punished with eternal destruction forever separated from the Lord and from his glorious power you can't get more differentiated than that you look at us and it says you look at what second Corinthians says and it says fix your Gaze on things can't be seen and the things that can be seen the suffering that can be seen right now that's going to be gone but the hope that you can't see will last forever and then when you switch over to the lost it says they will be punished with eternal destruction forever separated from the Lord and from his generous power right there we should be willing to suffer if it means somebody coming to Christ and living eternally in heaven we should not do we should not come short on anything our prayer should be God if my suffering brings people to you let me suffer that's how important that is see Christianity has kind of lost that sight right the most important thing is people coming to Christ it's not whether or not I believe this the doctrine or whether or not I believe this Doctrine that's why we're in a non-denominational church like as long as we believe on the fact that Jesus Christ was the son of God he came down to Heaven died on the cross for our sin three days later he rose again and he prepares a place for us as long as we can agree on that everything else we can work through everything else I'm okay with because the main thing is the main thing salvation is the main thing understanding that because when we don't focus on salvation and we focus on the little things on the temporary things people die and go to hell and we don't hear that often but it's true and I'm sure right now in your mind if you can think of two people who are lost and think about the fact that they're going to suffer Eternal punishment are you willing to suffer for them are you going to suffer correctly for them let's move on why is all this important because if we don't prepare ourselves spiritually we will not be able to handle suffering if we don't prepare ourselves spiritually we will not be able to handle suffering listen Christ after fasting 40 days now listen that is suffering 40 days without food so I once fasted for 13 days without food just water I thought I was gonna die I'm praying oh my God please answer this prayer I was I was I was we were making decisions about whether or not we were going to leave Tampa and where we're going to go and if another church was going to pick us up and I begin to fast and and I went 13 days and it was terrible because I was still in the ministry and I don't know if you understand the ministry but one of the main things is you take people to lunch and like you get to eat at like Chick-fil-A all the time and it's a spiritual thing right like we're going to eat spiritually together we're going to break food we're gonna do it later we're gonna eat together and so it's a great thing to take people to lunch when you can eat I went to Chick-fil-A with one of my volunteers to invest in his life and went to Chick-fil-A and I sat there and watched him eat a spicy chicken sandwiches I drink water I'm like this water tastes great this is really good water and I'm sitting there drowning like dying inside as I smell this chicken sandwich it's the Lord's chicken and I couldn't have any so let me explain Christ has now fasted 40 days without food and Satan tempts him and he responds with this Matthew 4 2-4 he says for 40 days and 40 nights this is Satan that was this is describing he fasted and became very hungry so it's not only did Jesus fast notice he became very hungry he is 100 man the Bible is very clear it's not that Jesus was like not hungry he didn't have a stomach or anything like that he became hungry very hungry I become very hungry after six hours during the time the devil came to him and said if you are the Son of God tell these stones to become loaves of bread but Jesus told him nope the scriptures say people do not live by bread alone but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God you know what Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy 8 3. Jesus quotes scripture back to Satan Jesus was ready for the suffering that he was going through because he realized something scripture is going to get us through the word of God is going to get me through and so he answers the devil's Temptation with scripture do we know enough scripture that when we go through suffering we can quote it to ourselves do we know enough scripture and I'm not talking about what you know you pull back the calendar the verse of the day that's out of context it's not even complete like you know all things work out for good stop that is not where that verse stops by the way but we're not going to get into that today right do we know the scripture well enough that when we go through times of suffering we can look to the scripture and gain confidence and hope that the God who loves us is still in control because his word tells us he is his word tells us he is so we must be prepared how do we prepare study God's word pray pray we're going to get into a little more here lately in just a little bit so what else do we why else do we need to know these things well without suffering we cannot become more christ-like as a matter of fact it would be a hard fact to refute that if we are not suffering are we living a true Christian Life if there's not some sort of suffering going on are we living a true Christian Life Matthew 7 13-14 says this you can enter God's kingdom only through the narrow gate the highway to hell is Broad and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way but the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult and only a few ever find it we get what that says it's easy to go to hell hard to be a Christian a true Christian so if we're not suffering to some degree we need to reassess our Christian Life are we truly living the life that God wants us to live are we truly living that because here's the deal if you're not suffering the devil's just like hey that guy's not doing what he needs to do there's no real reason for me to get involved it's a broad easy path to hell it's a very narrow difficult path to be a true Christian and so if there's no suffering going on are we living a true Christian Life Again a assess assess your life accept assess your Christian Life moving on why else do we need to know like everything else in our Christian Life The Way We handle suffering can point others to Christ when the world sees a difference they want to know why when they see a difference in you they question why they question why why is this person different listen let me tell you the world answers the question of suffering way different than we do they answer it through therapy through drugs through alcohol and ultimately sometimes it's answered through the finality of suicide Christians answering to suffering through hope joy and confidence in a loving God is contradictory to everything I just said it contradicts The Way of the World the way we suffer contradicts how the world does it I can tell you this in two years I'm a pretty active I'm a pretty active Deputy taking people to jail is on my favorite pastimes I know it's terrible but I like to fight crime I'm Batman at night all right I'll give it to you if you see a cruiser with a Batman symbol on the front it's mine literally I have one so that's not a joke all right so here's the thing I've taken the same amount of people to jail that I've taken to a David Lawrence Center or a mental health ward because they have decided they can't handle suffering and so they choose to make statements that luckily for them somebody picked up on and they call us and I've seen it range from I've told you the story of the eight-year-old all the way up to late 70s because when you suffer without hope what's the point When You Suffer Without hope what's the point they don't have it but if they see that in you if they identify that hope in you man you're suffering but you're going through it differently see if we walk around and we're like whoa is me I'm going through this I can't believe this is happening to me I don't understand why and we walk around just like the world does they never see a difference and they don't they're why care about what you believe in when you act the same way I do why care about what you think is important when you have the same priorities we do if we suffer the same way we're the same individual you don't have anything different there's nothing different in your life no that difference is recognized when we live differently when we suffer differently there's a difference in our life that's recognized that they want to know about there's a hope there's a joy that they can pick up on why we suffer well so that others cannot suffer eternally I can't get that point across more and listen here's the deal I wish I could stand here and say I did this right all the time I wish I could be the guy that says I did this right all the time but I have not and in my mind I go towards more sometimes of what I haven't done and the friends that may die and go to hell because I didn't do the right thing I didn't set the right example I didn't live the right life I didn't suffer differently I didn't provide that hope that I needed to provide so when we walk out of here that's how important this is because this is life and death not physical life and death this is spiritual life and death this is eternal life versus Eternal death that's the way we need to look at this subject today we move on so what do we do well Peter answers that question right in the middle of the passages that I kind of skipped so if we go back to First Peter chapter four verses 7 through 11 he gives us these he says the end of the world is coming therefore be Earnest and disciplined in your prayers most important of all continue to show deep love for each other for love covers a multitude of sin cheerfully share your home with those in need cheerfully share those with those who need a meal or a place to stay God has given you each a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts use them well to serve one another do you have the gift of speaking then speak as though God himself for speaking through you do you have the gift of helping others do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ all glory and power to him forever amen this is what Peter answers the suffering question with so what do you do during suffering well let's look at it the first thing is he says is be disciplined and Earnest in your prayers be disciplined and Earnest in your prayers are you bringing what you're suffering through to Christ are you bringing to Christ and ask for strength to face it with joy to face it with hope to face it even though you may not understanding are you praying that right now are you praying with others who are suffering listen here's a good question are you willing to share your suffering so that others can pray with you now that's a tough one for me I am a guy and you ask my wife she gets annoyed with me like she'll ask me how I'm doing I'm fine I will I'm getting older so if I stand up too quickly the hamstring will be like ah and she'll be like you okay I'm like I'm fine I don't need to go to a doctor at all I don't like to share my suffering I could just I can handle it on my own I don't want to share it but you know in Christian in Christianity we're encouraged to share our sufferings with others so they can pray with us and love us through it we're considered a family that's what we're considered we come to church and I know we're looked at as like a congregation this is a church well we're a family we're supposed to become together and we're supposed to something's going wrong somebody in this place should be one to greet you with a big old hug no I'm not a hugger but I will if you need me to be but here's the thing we should suffer together and we should pray about it together we should be willing to prevent present our sufferings to others so they can pray with us we should be willing to pray earnestly and disciplined which is more than just praying over your food and the prayer closet idea was a big idea back in the day go into your prayer closet 15 minutes an hour into a prayer closet nothing wrong with that but I would encourage you this you should pray without ceasing you should pray without ceasing we should always be in an attitude of Prayer listen I I find it a little easier now I find a little easier last night at 3 30 in the morning a call comes out that there is somebody banging on a door at somebody's house okay that's not weird we're gonna go check it out it's happened before and then as we're driving there we get updated the house next door has called now and there's somebody banging on the door and banging on the windows okay now it's probably more real now and as we pull up to the scene I see a gentleman walking towards me and I instantly begin to pray because I don't know what else to do other than pray because I'm like this situation could go from zero to a hundred from good to bad in a matter of seconds so you learn to pray without ceasing now I didn't stop and wait in the car and be like dear Lord I didn't do that I jumped out of the car and in my mind I'm like Dear God please let this go the way you want this to go don't let me get in the way of what you need to make happen whatever needs to happen let it be you and I'm praying this as I'm getting out of the vehicle you learn to pray without ceasing we should be doing that in our Christian Life it shouldn't just be under stressful times to your god thank you so much for today listen I woke up excited about the fact that God allowed me to come up here and speak today what are you excited about that God's doing in your life what are you excited about we should be praying without ceasing earnestly all the time not just when we're suffering but when things are going well too what else does he say here he says love one another even through suffering you know what it's easy to do to take your suffering out on others to take your suffering out on others it's easy to do it because you get in a bad mood you're not doing it the right way and now everybody must suffer because you are suffering we all know somebody like that in our life maybe it's it's sometimes me I totally agree my wife will tell you I'm still working on that but we're supposed to love one another we're supposed to love one another look what he says he says most important of all continue to show deep love for one another in the time of this in the time of this suffering continue to show the most important of all continue to show love for one another we must love each other through the suffering listen what else do we got to do he says it he says right there what we're going to do right after the service he says fellowship and use the gifts God has given you not to Lord them over somebody not to be like well I have the gifts of this I used to love when people would tell me that they're like I God has given me the gift of this and I plan to use it well no no Peter says to use it to serve one another to serve one another not to Lord it over one another we use our gifts to serve one another I wish I had the gift of singing like our singers did up here I think I think listening to somebody sing praise that can sing and do it well is the most beautiful thing and especially when they do it in a foreign tongue like today so I've been on many mission trips and it's amazing when you're standing in a church where nobody speaks a language you do yeah you can tell they're worshiping God it's really cool gets me all jacked up I'm like this is exciting we should be willing to use our gifts to serve one another not lorded over each other not clam up when we're suffering and be like you know what if I have to suffer I'm not using this gift right now it's really easy when we're suffering I'm not getting out of bed I'm not going to church on Sunday I've got I just everything's going wrong I don't want to be around anybody and we clam up and the gifts God's given us we we talk to ourselves but Peter says hey you know what part of suffering well is fellowshipping with one another and it's using your gifts to serve one another so we pray earnestly we love one another and we fellowship and serve one another think about that think about what those things are they're way different than what we see other places they're way different than what we see in other places by this they shall know you're my disciples that you love one another when we're not divided when we're not fighting Christianity is an amazing thing when people see the way we love each other if we reflect God's love in the way that we treat each other who doesn't want to be a part of that because it's not offered that way anywhere else I can promise you that so Peter answers the question what we do during suffering this is what we do why we why do we do it why do we suffer I'm going to close very quickly here we suffer not only to become more like the master our teacher God to become more christ-like but we also suffer to bring glory to God and to show the hope and love of God to the Lost you'll see that this is a common theme through all my messages because even being a student Pastor for when I was when you see the Lost how broken they are how discouraged they are how much weight they bear and how they try to deal with that it should break our hearts a little bit it should break our hearts a little bit I told you before the hardest scenes I ever have to go on are the ones where somebody is completely broken and you don't understand why you look at them and you're like man if only there are times that I question do you need Deputy Johnson or do you need Tony the church volunteer and oftentimes more times than any it's often this person needs Tony the church volunteer this person needs somebody to embrace them and tells them and tell them Christ loves you he died for you and if you trust if you put your trust in him your life will have new meaning New Hope and this suffering that you're experiencing right now you'll realize is only temporary and when that happens and they turn their life around they become a testimony too see here's what's crazy about what's going to happen when we get to heaven I firmly believe this I think we are going to suffer people are going to see that they're going to see a difference you're never going to know it you're not going to know the impact that your Christian Life had on somebody until it's all over and then I think there will be an opportunity where they'll be like hey I remember you I saw you do this differently than anybody else and you know what that made me think that made me want to look into Who You Are and you talked about this God person this God thing this Christian thing and I never told you but I looked into it myself or how about the briefest of encounters remember what we talked about with the the Tipping right we tend to go back to that because it's an amazing illustration you go to a restaurant tonight today after you eat with us you can go eat a second meal it's totally acceptable you go to the restaurant and you have a waitress or a waiter that is terrible they don't refill your drink which is my wife's pet peeve they bring you cold french fries your steak is medium well instead of medium there's all kinds of mistakes but you still live it you still leave a generous tip you know why because you don't know what that person's suffering through and guess what they're gonna go man I know I didn't do that job very well why would I don't deserve this and here's the deal you may never see that waiter waiter or waitress again but you just made a christ-like impact on their life simple and they may change their life and you may never know so right now if you're going through suffering and You Suffer Well you have no idea the impact you are making on somebody's life you your handling of how you're suffering could be what leads them to Christ we need to Suffer Well and I'll give you a great example this is what I'm going to end with because here's the deal there's no way that I can teach any better than the Bible there's no way the Bible is God's word and it is perfect and so I'm going to end with this in Acts we go to Acts and we're going to see where Paul and Silas are imprisoned so they've been preaching the gospel they've been preaching the gospel and these people don't like the fact that they're preaching the gospel so they're about to suffer so a mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods that's suffering they were severely beaten and then thrown into prison the Jailer was ordered to make sure they didn't Escape so the Jailer put them into an inner dungeon and clamped their feet in stocks let me explain this is not the prison of today this is not the prison of today he throws them in a dirt hole basically is what it would be equivalent to and he puts their feet in Chains so where they can't move so they're probably chained to the wall into the ground they're unable to move they're in the worst place imaginable they don't have a bathroom notice they don't get to get up to use the bathroom like we need to begin to visualize these things it's gross it's disgusting but we need to begin to understand the suffering that these two are going through because what's about to happen how they're about to suffer what they're about to demonstrate is more important so the more we know the better the details the better we can see how they suffered so with their feed in stocks around midnight Paul and Silas were praying earnestly praying and singing hymns to God wait a minute go back because they were severely beaten and yet they're singing hymns sometimes we come to church in air conditioning and we don't sing because something's going on right these individuals are singing hymns to God after being beaten thrown in a hole and chained to the floor and the other person prisoners were listening details how Paul and Silas are suffering is being observed by everybody around them suddenly there was a massive earthquake and the prison was shaken to its foundation all the doors immediately flew open and the chains of every prisoner every prisoner fail off the Jailer woke up to see the prison doors wide open and he assumed the prisoners had escaped so he drew his sword to kill himself understand this his job was to make sure nobody escapes listen we oftentimes talk about Paul and Silas but there is a there is an implication here that no prisoner left I can assure you right now if you went down to Naples jail Center and popped the button that opens all the doors which is why don't let me buy the buttons that everybody would leave there would not be anybody it's like you know what I'm gonna stay no if you were in prison and the doors came open you'd be like Hallelujah Jesus has answered my prayer I'm out but Paul and Silas don't do that listen he assumed the prisoner escaped so he drew him sword to kill himself notice his suffering the answer to his suffering is I I don't want to suffer this way why he has no hope that's his job back in that time he's probably beheaded if all those prisoners escaped he's done his family may pay the price so rather than suffer through that he's going to end it remember we just talked about how the world deals with suffering the Bible answers the question he's going to kill himself but Paul shouted them stop don't kill yourself we are all here the Jailer called for the lights and ran to the Dungeons and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas then he brought them out and asked sirs what must I do to be saved what an amazing story that exemplifies what Peter talks about suffering the question I want us to ask as we leave this place tonight are we suffering well are we suffering the way God would have us to suffer and if not how do we begin to suffer the way that God wants us to suffer thank you guys very much