Message by Chad Kelly
Introduction
Shakespeare, Macbeth
Each new morn / New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows / Strike heaven upon the face.
Life IS hard!
And life is especially hard for someone who is following Jesus in a world that hates Him and opposes Him (and His followers) at every turn.
Expect Suffering
We must be armed and ready for hard times!
1 Peter 4 (NLT)
1 So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin.
No one can arm you but yourself!
“the same attitude”””that is, the same intention or purpose.
We must be armed and ready for hard times because Jesus suffered!
Philippians 1:29
For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.
We must be armed and ready for hard times because Jesus suffered!
1 Peter 2:21
To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
We must be armed and ready for hard times because Jesus suffered!
1 Peter 4:1
1 So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin.
We must be armed and ready for hard times because it is the will of God that we suffer for doing good!
Parallel Study Bible (concerning verse 1)
Such suffering enables one to straighten out his priorities. Sinful desires and practices that once seemed important now seem insignificant when one”™s life is in jeopardy. Serious suffering for Christ advances the progress of sanctification.
We must be armed and ready for hard times because it is the will of God that we suffer for doing good!
1 Peter 4:2
2 You won”™t spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God.
Only someone who has truly “changed bosses” would suffer for doing right!
We must be armed and ready for hard times because it is the will of God that we suffer for doing good!
2 Corinthians 5:15
He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.
Romans 8:16-17
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs””heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
We must be armed and ready for hard times because it is the will of God that we suffer for doing good!
1 Peter 4:3-5
3 You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy””their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols.
4 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. 5 But remember that they will have to face God, who will judge everyone, both the living and the dead.
We must be armed and ready to suffer for doing good because we”™ve sinned enough!
We”™ve ALL””to whatever degree””wasted more enough time living contrary to God”™s design for our lives.
Romans 13:12-14
The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
We must be armed and ready to suffer for doing good because we”™ve sinned enough!
And, while it may feel good in the moment, giving in to the sins that we think will help the hurt sometimes almost always ends in greater and deeper pain.
C.S. Lewis
If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.
We must be armed and ready to suffer for doing good because we”™ve sinned enough and sin doesn”™t heal the pain””it only brings more!
1 Peter 4:7a
7 The end of the world is coming soon.
We must be armed and ready to suffer for doing good because Jesus is coming soon!
1 John 2:28-29
And now, children, stay with Christ. Live deeply in Christ. Then we”™ll be ready for Him when he appears, ready to receive Him with open arms, with no cause for red-faced guilt or lame excuses when he arrives.
We must be armed and ready to suffer for doing good because Jesus is coming soon!
Conclusion
1 Peter 4:7b
Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers.
Jesus is coming back real soon. But He is here with us now to help and strengthen us, moment by moment””even, and especially, in our suffering.
And so we must get serious about talking to Him and keeping in constant communication with Him!
We CAN be armed and ready to suffer for doing good because God is with us and will strengthen us!
Tchividjian
We may not ever fully understand why God allows the suffering that devastates our lives. We may not ever find the right answers to how we”™ll dig ourselves out. There may not be any silver lining, especially not in the ways we would like. But we don”™t need answers as much as we need God”™s presence in and through the suffering itself. For the life of the believer, one thing is beautifully and abundantly true: God”™s chief concern in your suffering is to be with you and be Himself for you. In other words, our ruin may not ultimately spell our undoing. It may in fact spell the beginning of our faith. And in the end, that is enough.