I think that's my favorite thing that you're seeing. Thank you very much. Well, it's an ancient storyline. You find it in about as old as stories go. Think of the Odyssey, where Odysseus, on his way home to his wife and child, has to do battle with Cyclops and then the sirens and Carribus and the Silla. And the island of Syracin finally washes himself up onto the shore of the Phoenician, stripped of everything but his humanity before he can go home in triumph. Think of Pilgrims' progress where Christian leaves the city of man heading for the city, the celestial city. But on the way he's got to do battle. He's got to go through the slew of despond. He's got to battle the giant despair. He has to face the dark night, a polyon. And he has to go through Vanity Fair before he can cross the Great River and then into the celestial city. Slightly more current, maybe Star Wars, where Luke Skywalker has to leave his home. I believe it's Tattooine. If I get these details wrong, please you Star Wars geeks don't come correct me, okay? Leaves his home and Tattooine and he's got to go do battle with this star. And he's got to go to Dagobah and face his own dark side. And then he has to face Darth Vader in the Emperor before he can set the Federation free. It's the same pattern over and over again. We have a challenge or a quest. And then there's great suffering. Then there's a moment or a time of judgment and then finally glory. Judgment, suffering and then judgment and then glory. Read with me if you will from 1 Peter 4 verses 12 to 19. Dear friends, do not be surprised that the painful trial you're suffering as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you're insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed for the spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or a thief or any other kind of criminal or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed but praise God that you bear that name for his time for judgment to begin with the family of God. And if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly in the sinner? So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful creator and continue to do good. Will you pray with me? Father, sometimes life does seem hard, but as the song just reminded us, God is good. We thank you for your goodness to us, for your grace that allows us to be here today. To be here together as the family of God in this beautiful worship center. And to sing your praises and to pray, and now look into your word. I pray, Father, that you will anoint this one who stands behind this pulpit. I pray for myself and all the others who stand in pulpits today all over the city for those of us who truly believe this book to be your word. And the only infallible rule matters of faith and practice. I pray that we will preach Christ and we will preach grace and we will preach with light and with courage. And that I would do the same Lord and keep me faithful to His. My prayer and Jesus name. Amen. Now, somebody here is saying, oh boy, Reverend sunshine is added again. We're talking about judgment and suffering. We'll be sure glad I'm here today. There are churches in fact, whole church movements that tell preachers and pastors and people like myself. Don't talk about that stuff. Talk about grace and mercy and forgiveness and eternal life and heaven. Talk about those things. After you get them in the church, then you can tell them the other stuff. I don't think they're really doing a bait and switch on purpose. They just don't think you can trust people who are not yet part of the body of Christ. People who are in the so-called camp of the seeker. They don't think we can trust those people with this bad news. Well, I realize it's not a lot of fun to talk about these things. And especially if you're here today and you're young, your healthy life is good. You're on top of the world. I would say to you, good for you, congratulations, and pass that around. We share your good news with everybody else. I would personally rather talk about all the good stuff. I'd rather be talking about eternal life and happiness and hope and heaven and puppies and opening day of baseball. I'd rather talk about all these fun things. But this is not about what I like, what I want to talk about, what I would prefer to talk about. This is about preaching the whole council of God to the people of God. And this is one of the reasons why we preach through whole books to the Bible. It forces you to face issues to confront things that you probably wouldn't do on your own. So Peter in his letter deals with the themes of salvation, sanctification, servanthood, submission and suffering. In these last few weeks we talked a lot about suffering because Peter was writing to suffering Christians. If you're not going through a rough time right now, great, good for you. Hold on to these words. There's an old saying that the world rolls over on top of the person who was on top of the world the day before. It's not morbid folks, it's just the nature of life. If you're doing great right now, wonderful. Hang on to these words for another time. And if you are hurting this morning, and I know many of you are, if you are hurting this morning, I hope this message will encourage you. One thing I would say to you, and that is simply, hang on. Whatever else you do, hang on. Don't lose hope. Keep hope. Things can get better. And if you're a Christian, things will get better. Maybe in this life. Maybe not till the next. If the men's Wednesday morning Bible study that I lead a few months ago, several of the guys who go to this study are seasonal. And so one of the guys who've been in North Carolina were apparently most of Florida resides during the hot months. One of the guys came back and he asked about Doc Chastain. Some of you know Phil Chastain. He was a doctor in Coral Gales. I think he delivered half the babies born in the southern part of this town in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 90s, 90s to the 80s. Doc had suffered for a long time. And Doc died last August. Well, our friend who came back didn't know. So it was about November, December. He said, hey, guys, how's Doc doing? Well, you could tell there was kind of an awkward pause. How do we say and for all these people? Before we could say anything, Perry Poole, I know Perry is here today. For anyone who could say anything, men said, how's Doc doing? Perry said, Doc's doing great. Doc's doing great. Doc's doing better and he's ever done. Well, that's the truth, folks. Things will get better. Maybe in this life? Maybe not till the next, but don't lose hope. Hang us down in there as the 11th commandment would say. And Peter says, don't be surprised by suffering. We're going to spend most of our time this morning on this one. So hang in. I've got a couple more points to make. This will be the one we spend most of the time. The reason I do that is because there's something in the American character if you're an 80-born American or just an adopted American. There's something in our character that we are incurable optimists, which is a good thing. But we sometimes let that optimism blind us to reality. I remember reading an article in USA Today, that when the health fitness boom first really kicked up in the late 70s, early 80s, and a British observer of the American culture said, Americans are the only ones who seem to think the death is optional. Don't be surprised. Peter says in verse 12, Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering. As though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed. Surprised by suffering, you ever notice? Nobody ever says when He wins the lottery. Why me, God? Nobody ever asks that question when they win the jackpot. We ask the question, why me when you get hit by the flu or car accident or when there's a bad day at work or a bad day at home or when a loved one dies, we say, why me? And I was simply asked, why not us? Christians are not immune. We don't get a pass for the vicissitudes of life. Christians are not immune to what Shakespeare had hamlet call the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. You cannot get the impression from the scriptures that we Christians get a pass. God's people in the Bible, God's people spend more time in prison and in exile and on the run from those in authority after them in the caves, in the dungeons. There's been more time there than they do in the palaces of kings or in some summer vacation home. You cannot get the impression from the scripture that we as Christians get a pass. It's not why me. A lot worse things have happened to a lot better people than I am. If anybody had right to ask why me, go read Hebrews 11. Read the hall of fame or the hall of faith, some people call it, of our forebears who suffer horribly without crying out why me. If anybody had right to say why me, why me? What about Joseph? Joseph could have said why me while he was rotting in Pharaoh's prison or accused of rape by Mrs. Potterford? Daniel could have said why me? He was feeling the hot breath of the lions in that den, those hungry lions, or Shadrach Meshach and a bednego. His brothers as contemporaries, they could have said why me or why us when they were feeling the flames of nebuchadnezzar's furnace. John the Baptist could have said why me when he put his head on the chopping block all because Herod had a lust problem that he wasn't man enough to address. And this was the price of it. Stephen could have said why me when he felt the rocks, those jagged rocks cutting into his flesh as he testified before Sanhedrin. Instead he said Lord Jesus received my spirit, don't hold this sin against them, sounding a lot like the Lord Jesus when he died. Job could have said why me. In fact, Job did say why me? For about 30 chapters, Job says why me, why me, why me? So you know that even these great men and women of faith in the Scriptures they're real, flesh and blood, men and women. They're real sinners and they wind and they cry just like we do at times. But then they also came back just as Job did. They came back to that point in the center of the whirlwind, that solid rock and that rising, overwhelming tide of affliction, where they would say with Job, though he slay me yet will I trust him. I know my Redeemer lives and in the end he will stand upon the earth. It's not why me. No, the question is why me? Why me, Lord? What is your purpose in my pain, Father? What is it about this affliction that you find to be a good thing that suits your purposes, that brings you glory in some way, because I don't get it. I don't get it, I don't see it, and I really don't like it. So Lord, if you would, would you mind telling me what is the point? Again, let me say this because I have to remember, as I speak to you, these sermons do get recorded. And God bless, thank you Paul for putting all these sermons, all of last year sermons on a CD out there in the narthex if you want it. You can get all last year sermons, maybe you have a little trouble sleeping at night, you can put it on, it'll keep, it'll help you. But I have to remember the way, as I say these things to you, all these sermons are recorded on the internet. And somebody in some other part of the country, in some part of the world, here's me talking to Christians in Miami in April of 2006, talking about suffering. I want to remind us, our sufferings are so mild compared to what our, a lot of our brothers and sisters are going through around the world. I don't want to lose sight of that. But yet we're still subject to those slings and arrows. About rate just fortune. Christians get sick, we get hurt, we get in car accidents, and we lose loved ones just like non-Christians. We get old and we die. Or else we don't get old and we die. It isn't if we'll face suffering. It isn't when we'll face suffering. The only question is, how will we face our suffering? I'm going to take just a couple of moments here to do something. When we talk about worldviews here, quite a bit. I'm going to take just a couple of moments. I know this will get a little heavy. It might be a little esoteric for some of you. But for some of us who do have to do battle in the realm of ideas and worldviews, I hope this will be of help to you. You got to remember that Christianity, the Christian faith, is not a one-time event where you said yes to Jesus. You prayed a prayer, maybe you walked an aisle, and that was it. It's not just a Sunday morning event. We come in here and we sing strange songs and we recite strange creeds. And we listen to a strange man talk about strange things. Then we go back to our normal life the rest of the week. Christianity is a lifestyle. And Christian worldview is the sum total of our beliefs about the world. It's the big picture that directs our daily decisions and actions. That's Chuck Colson's definition of worldview. Let me just talk about a point of comparison between three worldviews. And again, this is a little heavy. Stay with me. I'll be very brief about it. This is a clash of worldviews. When it comes to the view of suffering, the Eastern man, there are differences. Hinduism is the oldest and the biggest. I want to talk about Buddhism this morning because it is representative. In many ways, the Eastern man's mindset. Buddhism's redefinition of the meaning of life. The man we call the Buddha was born Prince Siddhartha. In Prince Siddhartha, the story goes left the royal palace one time and took a tour through the city. And as he went through the city, he closed to the pains and the poverty of the people outside the royal palace. And he saw illness and poverty and suffering and even death. And it disturbed him greatly. And so the story goes that Prince Siddhartha went and sat under tree and contemplated until enlightenment came. And this is the enlightenment that came to Prince Siddhartha known today as the Buddha. He gave us four what he called the four noble truths. Number one, life is suffering. Number two, the cause of suffering is craving or desire. Number three, suffering can be ended only by Nirvana or the extinguishing of desire. Number four, Nirvana can be accomplished by the eightfold path. The eightfold path according to Prince Siddhartha the Buddha are right views, right intentions, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right meditation. For the eastern man, specifically the Buddhist, life is suffering. The only way to end that suffering is to desire nothing. You must enter Nirvana by desiring nothing. This is the end to your suffering. Don't seek to find meaning in your suffering. There is no meaning to be found, attempt to empty your suffering of all meaning. There is no God. Buddhism is an a-theistic or non-theistic religion. There is no God to give it meaning. For the eastern man and for the Buddhist life is suffering. Probably not too many Buddhists in here this morning. But we do have some postmodernists. For the eastern man, for the Buddhist life is suffering. For the postmodernists, life is meaningless. Life is meaningless. It involves suffering and suffering is bad, but it's better than feeling nothing. It's one of the reasons why we're seeing an increase in self-destructive behaviors on the part of our young people. It's one of the reasons why there's such an explosion and an exponential increase of self-destructive behaviors like anorexia, bulimia. Drug abuse has been around for a while, but it's exploded in the last 40 years in this culture. That's why today you find kids experimenting with ecstasy and crystal meth going to raves or rave parties and losing themselves in this technosynth music. Because they want to feel connected to something or someone, somehow to feel connected, it's better to feel that than to feel nothing. Suicide is up over 400% in the last 40 years as well. We're seeing an increased incidence of a very odd, unusual self-destructive behavior called cutting. It's just what it sounds like. It's self-mutilation using a knife or other sharp objects where you cut your skin. They ask cutters why they do that. Here are the answers they give more often than not. One is it makes me feel better. Two is better than feeling nothing. One young lady said, it allows me to be in control of my pain. Estimates are, excuse me, as high as 1% of our teenagers are involved in cutting. Pray for Rick and Delia. Pray for Andy and Molly and Carolina and Sarah Grace, Valerie and Scott. All the others involved in our youth ministry are here at the church around the campus. Pray for the folks at the university. Steve Lance and team respect. That's the ideal of our young people. Pray for us to raise up people working kids power club and the workers and children's church who miss church. Sunday after Sunday to minister to our youngest so that they don't end up in that 1% at some point. For the postmodern viewed life is meaningless. It involves suffering but it's meaningless. For the Eastern man life is suffering for the postmodernist life is meaningless but it involves suffering. Then there's a biblical worldview. The Christian biblical worldview and that is life is sacred. Yes, it involves suffering because suffering has entered the world as a result of sin. Through our sin, suffering and illness and disease and pain and death have entered the world as a result of sin. In Christ God has entered into our suffering. He's redeemed and he uses it as a tool to accomplish his purposes both in the world and in us as individuals. Suffering is a tool in God's hand. See us loose but this way perhaps you know the quote. God whispers to us in our pleasures. Speaks to us in our conscience and shouts to us in our pain. Pain is God's mega fold, a mega phone through which he seeks to rouse a death world. If you're struggling with pain right now, your owner somewhere else says, may I encourage you to read C.S. Lewis's The Problem of Pain. It's a brilliant theological and philosophical treatment of pain and suffering. And then when you're done with it, then pick up his grief observed which he wrote upon the death of his wife. C.S. Lewis's wife Joy died. They married late in life. She did not live long after that. The Problem of Pain is a great theological treatise of pain and suffering. A grief observed is the cry of a man in the throes of grief and suffering. Read them together. Another great popular treatment of this Philiancine Dr. Paul Brands, where is God when it hurts? Suffering with those things I would encourage you to get them. They're probably in our library if not, go pick up a copy. For the Christian life is sacred. It involves suffering and pain but even these have meaning. God's great playing. God wounds only to heal. He breaks but only to men. He puts to death only to resurrect. He brings something out of nothing. Order out of chaos. Good out of bad and life out of death. Here's the choice folks. I'll put it to you before, but I'll put it to you again. Actually worded this way by an atheist. But he's right on. The choice we have, either we live in an ordained universe where there is a problem with evil, or we live in a non-ordained universe. Where everything is simply the product of time plus matter plus chance. And our problem then is one of meaning. An ordained universe with a problem with evil, a non-ordained universe with a problem with meaning. Those are our choices folks. I choose to believe in spite of the evil and suffering and pain of the world. I choose to believe that it is an ordained universe. And we have to struggle with sin and evil. Peter also says if you're insulted because of the name of Christ, verse 14, you're blessed for the spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If we have more time, I'd tell you some of the ways that there's a war on Christianity and this culture and this country. You know it. You know it. Christians are told we can't speak out in public. We can't celebrate Christmas. We're told we can't say one nation under God. We're told that every time the word Christianity or the name of Jesus pops up, we're basically told to shut up and go sit in the back of the bus. You know there's a war on culture. Recent poll by the Jewish anti-deformation league found that 64% of Americans believe there's a war on Christianity. 80% of evangelical Christians believe there is one. Even Chris Matthews on hardball lately said there's a war on Christians in this town or in this country. I like what the president of the Family Research Council Tony Perkins says. I'm quoting here. He says despite this, USA Today published a column last week saying there's no war on Christians. Went on to say Christians in America are hardly being thrown to the lions. There's a reason Tony Perkins says. There's a reason we want to address this growing hostility now. We're not in favor of waiting to do something until the lions are full grown. If you're insulted because of the name of Christ you're blessed. The spirit of glory and of God rests on you. Jesus said blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and say all kinds of people against you falsely for my name's sake. We don't suffer much persecution in this country folks, but when you do get insulted or slander because of the name of Christ, you're in good company. Lift up your hands. Jesus says you're blessed. Verse 15, if you suffer, it should not be as a murder or a thief or any other kind of criminal or even as a meddler. Wait a minute now. A murder or a thief or any other kind of criminal right? Yeah, those are bad things. A meddler? A meddler? What is this doing in this list right here? Well, apparently churches back then had to deal with this kind of stuff. What's a meddler? It's the person who always loves to hear the dirt on somebody else. I always love to hear something that makes them say, I'm better than that of the person. Calvin said each one of us has a kingdom in our own breasts where we have to be the king who want to look down on somebody else. The meddler is the person who loves to hear the dirt on somebody else so he can say, well, I certainly would not ever do fill in the blank. A meddler likes to hear the dirt on somebody else so he can say, well, yes, I'm a sinner. At least I've never, whatever that sin happens to be. Alice Roosevelt, long worth, the daughter of Teddy Roosevelt was one of the first gossip columnists in the United States. She'd like to say, if you don't have anything good to say about somebody, come and sit by me. She wanted to hear it. She wanted to spread around. If you've got any real appreciation for who and what you are before God, a sinner saved by his grace. That ought to knock the self-righteousness right out of each and every one of us. I've said this before, folks. It's probably something I ought to say about twice a year. You want to say, I'm not much, I'm a lousy excuse for a Christian muster as a pastor. You don't know the half of it. You got nothing compared to what I know about me. Nobody in this place is as surprised as I am that I'm a pastor and a preacher. I sometimes think that might not be theologically precise, but sometimes think God, when did you run? I said, I didn't see that one coming. What's he doing there? If you really understand who you are, who we are, what we are before a holy God. It'll make it really hard to look down on anybody else for his own sin. Luther had a great rule called the judgment of charity. He says if someone says something to you or does something to you and it could be taken more than one way, two, three, four different ways. He said, assume that they did not mean it to hurt you. Give them the benefit of the doubt. Cut them some slack, of course they said this in German. Give them the judgment of charity until unless you know that it's worse than that. Don't be surprised by suffering very quickly. Don't be unprepared for judgment. Look at 17 again. For its time for judgment to begin with the family of God and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly in the sinner? So then those who suffer a coordinated God's will should commit themselves to their faithful creator and continue to do good. Folks, judgment comes now and ultimately judgment comes. Don't be unprepared for it. And Peter is not saying if you look at verse 18 again, it might be offsetting your Bibles, italicize your inset showing it's a quotation. Peter is not saying here that it's hard for the righteous to be saved as if salvation comes to our own effort and hard work. No. Peter is clear along the rest of the Bible that salvation is a gift. It's the grace of God through faith in Christ alone. Our hard work doesn't contribute anything to it. It's a response to it. But what Peter is saying here is that it is about work, hard work, but it's Christ's work. It's the hard work that Christ did for us on the cross. That's the part Peter has in mind here. And this is a reference to, it's a reference to, back to Malachi chapter 3, let me read to the couple of verses because it points us to where we're ending up here. Remember, suffering, judgment, and sin? Malachi wrote chapter 3 verse 2, but who can endure the day of his coming, the Lord? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings and righteousness. The offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord as in days gone by, as in former years. Judgment comes, folks, for both Christians and non-Christians, but for two different reasons. Edmund Clowney puts this very clearly in verse succinctly, the fire we endure is fire that purges and purifies. The fire the non-Christian will endure is the fire of God's wrath that will consume the wicked. Think of all the times in the scripture that God has represented by fire. You got Genesis 15, the covenant-signing ceremony with Abraham, where God represents himself with a smoking pot and a flaming torch. Let the Israelites through the wilderness with a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. Deuteronomy 4.24 says, our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews chapter 12 repeats that. Think of Pentecost when Holy Spirit manifests himself with tongues of fire over the heads of the believers. He uses fire as a representation of himself. He also uses fire to judge and to refine. Good news, folks. God warns of judgment. Say, it doesn't have to judge. He warns you it's coming. See, he don't have to face it. Don't be surprised by suffering. Don't be unprepared for judgment and don't be unaware of the final outcome. Judgment, suffering, glory. Look at verse 13 again. Rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed. Here's the pattern again. Jesus suffered so that our suffering has meaning. Jesus submitted to the judgment of men so that we would not have to stand before the judgment of God. Jesus endured death so that we might have life. He conquered hell so that we might enter heaven. The judgment, the suffering, the suffering, the judgment, and then the glory. The word that's used here for glory is a great word, doxah. Doxah. When we sing the doxology, praise God from Him all blessing flow which we're going to sing just a few minutes. It's appropriate. We are praising God. We're giving Him back the glory that He richly deserves. That's the end of it. After the suffering, after the judgment. Results in the glory of God and also in glory for us as well. Some years ago, a few ladies met in a city to read the scriptures together and then they would sit and talk about them. And they would read in the third chapter of Malachi that I just read part two. They came upon this expression in the third verse and he shall sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver. One of the ladies' opinions was that that was there intended to convey the view of the sanctifying influence of the grace of Christ. Then she proposed to visit a silversmith and report to them what he said on the subject. She went accordingly, without telling the silversmith the object of her errand, she asked to know the process of refining silver which he then fully described to her. But sir, she said, do you sit while the worker refining is going on? Yes, ma'am replied to silversmith. I must sit with my eye steadily fixed on the furnace. With the time necessary for refining be exceeded in the slightest degree the silver will be injured. At once she saw the beauty and the comfort too of the expression he shall sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver. Christ sees it needful to put his children into a furnace. His eye is steadily intent on the work of purifying and his wisdom and love are both engaged in the best manner for them. The trials do not come at random. The very hairs of your head are all numbered, not a sparrow falls to the ground apart from his eye. As the ladies leaving the shop the silversmith called her back say, forgotten to mention that he only knows when the process of purifying is complete when he sees his own image reflected perfect and unbroken in the silver. Let's pray together. Now father we thank you very much for the truths of your words. Sometimes there are hard truths and a heart for us to get our minds around. But truth is truth and you speak it to us clearly and directly but also loving and graciously. Father that you would take this truth and apply to our hearts today and use it as a refiner and a purifier of silver to mold us and shape us. Use this word Lord to call that man or woman here today who has never ever received a saving grace of Christ. Call that man or woman to yourself today this very day. And father for the rest of us who have known you sometimes for years sometimes for decades. I would ask that you would remind us again that we are in the midst of the furnace of the purifying process but that we are being purified and refined by our loving Heavenly Father. We will give you honor and glory today in Jesus' name. Amen. Just before I pronounce the benediction let me ask all our new members I will give you a head start if you guys will go ahead and come on back here toward the narthex. I would ask the Servantes family and Bob if you guys will come on back as well so we can greet you. And on your way out go ahead folks if you don't do this you get trampled you know that. So all of our new members and the Servantes family if you all will go ahead and come on out. And as you leave folks if you possibly can I know we are late if you possibly can't come by and shake these folks hands and tell them welcome. Welcome to the church family or welcome to the ongoing ministry of Kendall Press in our habitat ministry. All right we are glad you all are here today. Now would you receive the benediction of the Lord? Going down the love of God the Father, the grace and mercy of God the Son, the fellowship and companionship of God the Holy Spirit. And live the life. Amen.