This post will be long. I'm going to share my notes from Paul's sermon. Much of this is verbatim; the rest is my shorthand version of what he said. I'll share the link to the sermon at the end. You would provide your soul with a great feast by listening to the sermon on your own.
The text is from 1 Peter 2:18-25:
18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. 19 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
1. I have been called to suffer. It isn't a failure of the plan. It is the plan, at the center of God's will for me.
2. (v.19) I have been called to (a) suffer for what is good, and (b) suffer for His sake.
3. God uses hard times to work grace into our hearts. To move us beyond what we know and come to rely on Him. That we'd rely on Him for rest and peace and hope, not on what we've leaned on that is of this world.
4. God uses our suffering and the endurance as a witness to a watching world. Am I responding to this suffering in a way that preaches the gospel? When I endure, God is smiling on me. That is a radical miracle of grace, that God would smile on any of us! The trial means that God doesn't want me to remain in my sin. He's pushing me to abandon my wisdom, strength, and self-righteousness; that I would find my rest, hope and peace in Him alone; that I would abandon the idols of everyday life that will NEVER satisfy my heart.
5. (v.21) Jesus is my example in suffering. I make my suffering worse by my reaction to it. I need to, instead, follow Jesus' example. He didn't sin while suffering. Suffering doesn't give me permission to do things that God hasn't called me to do (complain/speak harshly, etc.). My attitude and behavior shouldn't be dictated by the external circumstances pressing in on me. Jesus remained faithful even to the point of death, and I am not dying!!! Jesus was never willing to compromise the truth. He didn't give Himself to vengeance (retaliation). Why? Because He trusted God. He knew that His Father was good, loving, gracious, and all-wise. Do I believe that? What I really believe comes out in my responses to my trials.
Do I live what I say I believe?
6. (v.24) Christ is my substitute. So that I can die to sin. I have a way of healing, through His death.
My deepest struggle is not the suffering; it is my sin! It is my sin that causes me to make such a mess of the difficulty. It is the sin that destroys and complicates my life. But this sin has been dealt with. I can experience grace for my greatest need at the cross, and I have victory because of the cross. Grace to endure!
I must remember my greatest problem is inside of me, not outside. Verse 24 is a reminder that Christ died so that I might die to sin and live to righteousness. These are present tense! I have been given the power to say "No" to sin and "Yes" to God. Will I say "No" to anger and fear? There is hope for me, because "by His wounds (I) have been healed."
Wow. And I am also reminded that I don't really suffer. I have been brought trials -- trials because of good that I'm trying to do, and trials because of sin I've chosen. But these words apply to trials, as well. I must remember that it is folly to expect this life to be easy. It is sin to be upset that the trials come and interrupt a peaceful, easy life.
Here's the link: http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=717091012275
Can't stress this enough: take an hour and go listen!
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