With Our Sufferings Comes God’s Blessings

Transcript

GR1948
04/10/2016
With our Suffering Comes God’s Blessings
I Peter 4:12-13
Gil Rugh

We are going to turn on our Bibles, which is the Word of God, to I Peter chapter 4. We never want to take for granted this rich treasure we have. Heaven and earth will pass away but God’s Word will never pass away. Nations come and go, people come and go. God’s Word stands true because the God of truth stands behind His Word.

We have been looking into this epistle written by the Apostle Peter. It is covering some material very similar to what we have found in our study of the Psalms, believers dealing with difficulties, suffering, persecution, malicious slander against them because of their testimony for Christ.

It was not a plan I had that this would coordinate with the Psalms but you’re reminded as you go through Scripture how often the emphasis is on the conflict that exists between the believer and the unbeliever, between God and Satan if you will and the grace of God and His patience in dealing with men and women who persist in their opposition against Him.

Turn over to just a couple pages to 2 Peter chapter 3. Peter reminds his followers that the Lord is being patient for a purpose. In verse 3 of 2 Peter 3 he said: “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking following after their own lusts and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming?’” Nothing has changed. The world moves on, it is evolving. That answers everything. We say it is devolving, moving toward the ultimate climax of judgment.

We get impatient with sinners and the rebellion that goes on in the world against God and we have verse 9: “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance;” the great patience of God that day after day, month after month, year after year, the years go on. God patiently withholds His coming judgment and generation after generation gets to hear the truth of the Word of God and by God’s grace some of them believe.

So back in I Peter chapter 4, Peter is writing to Jewish believers, the elect sojourners of the diaspora. These are Jews who have come to faith in Jesus Christ as their Messiah, as their Savior from sin. They have come to know something of God’s plan of redemption now revealed in its fullness with the coming of Christ and His death on the cross and as they are scattered throughout the world, being testimonies of God’s grace and the power of the Gospel to save and they are experiencing suffering and trials and difficulties. This has come up repeatedly in the letter. Turn back to chapter 1. Verse 5 talked about the protecting power of God that guarantees they will experience the fullness of their salvation when they are brought into the glory of God’s presence and the establishing of His kingdom but then in verse 6: “In this you greatly rejoice even though now for a little while if necessary you have been distressed by various trials so that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold which is perishable even though tested by fire may be found to result in praise, glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

In chapter 2, verse 12: “Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles so that in the thing which they slander you as evil doers,” be consistent, be faithful and perhaps God will use your consistent testimony as one of the ways He will open their blind eyes to believe and they will be grateful for eternity.

Down in verse 18: “Servants be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable, for this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a man bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.” When we suffer for doing what is right and we are patient in that suffering at the end of verse 20, God is pleased with that. That finds favor with God. This repeated emphasis on suffering. The example being Christ down in verse 21 – 25 “Who never sinned in any way,” in any action, in any word, and in any thought but He suffered ultimately, very greatly, very unjustly. And verse 23: “While being reviled He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats.” He left Himself in the hands of His heavenly Father.

Chapter 3, verse 9, you don’t return “evil for evil, insult for insult but giving a blessing instead for you are called to inherit a blessing.” Down in verse 14: “Even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled,” but be ready to give a reason, an explanation of your faith in Jesus Christ and how the Gospel has been used to bring you to God’s saving power.

In chapter 4, verse 4: “In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excess of dissipation, and they malign you.” And this doesn’t mean that every believer is going to always be suffering in very clear ways but the tension will always be there when we are not. In a little excerpt that I read to you on the university environment on the students encouraged to follow their truth but it creates tension. It creates antagonism when we say no. There is absolute objective truth and everything that disagrees with this is error and it brings out the tension.

A couple of us were talking this morning. The person was telling me about sharing the Gospel with a person. It started out in a general religious conversation that the other person initiated but when it was brought to as the believer shared that Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty. Oh, now we are going to have a discussion about religion. Well, what was the discussion about? But don’t bring that up and we can talk about religion. We can talk about everybody having different faiths, about what you think is truth, somebody else thinks is truth but as soon as you bring the truth of God in there is tension. So we have this persistent reminder through the Scripture that suffering is part of God’s plan in accomplishing His purposes in the world through His people. He didn’t send Christ into the world to resolve tensions. Remember, Jesus said, “I didn’t come to bring peace. I came to bring a sword. I came to divide families against family members, family members against family members.” He is the Prince of peace. He brings peace to the heart of the individual who trusts in Him. He ultimately will bring peace to the world but that is yet future.

So Peter is talking again in more detail beginning in verse 12 about suffering, difficulties, trials. He has experienced it. It is going to get worse and ultimately he will give his life in testimony of his faith in Christ and his willingness to die for that faith.

Just before we look into these verses let me read to you from Jeremiah chapter 1. God called Jeremiah as a prophet. He is going to send him as a prophet to the nation Israel that God had chosen to be His nation and here is what He tells Jeremiah: “And they will fight against you.” I am going to send you to My chosen nation to tell them My Word and He tells Jeremiah, “And they will fight against you but they will not overcome you for I am with you to deliver you.” The context of where much of ministry goes on. And I don’t know how far away the coming of the Lord is for the church but we do see a growing, open opposition to God’s Word and the proclamation of that Word and the commitment to be faithful in our life and lifestyle to that Word which makes more of an open, clear opposition to those who will present God’s Word and laws are passed which require conformity and if you don’t conform then you will be punished.

So if the Lord doesn’t come we have every reason to expect things will get more difficult for believers and they could get more difficult rather quickly and the pressure is on. You either yield to the world’s ways or suffer the consequences. This is what Peter is telling these fellow believers.

So verse 12 picks up and this is a series of commands through the rest of this chapter. Let me just note them for you. We may not get to them all. The first is: “Do not be surprised.” The second command is “Keep on rejoicing.” The third command is “Make sure that none of you suffers in the following ways.” The next command is “Do not be ashamed” in verse 16. The next command is at the end of verse 16, “Glorify God” and then “Entrust their souls.” These are all commands given. So one, two, three, four, five, six in these closing verses of this chapter dealing with how we handle suffering.

The first command is “Don’t be surprised.” “Beloved.” These are those that Peter loves. He has a relationship with them as fellow believers. He is not insensitive to their suffering. He has been in jail. He has been imprisoned. He has suffered for the Gospel. “Beloved, don’t be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you.”

You know we shouldn’t be caught off guard. So even though we study this and in our life experience in my lifetime, suffering is relatively minor and limited primarily to verbal kinds of accusations, slander, lies told about you. This has been true for most of you. Some of you may have suffered in a little different ways. You may have had a job you know when you had somebody over you who was antagonistic toward Christians or Christianity that may have had consequences for you. You may have sensed you were passed over for a promotion for what we were given, you know the real reasons. Those kinds of things have gone on but by in large in our country we have been privileged to have a freedom. We are here. We are not afraid of you know, being arrested or put on trial for our faith at least to this point but a reminder, don’t be surprised when it comes. That is what he is telling them, “Don’t be surprised. You must not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you.” It is not only an ordeal it is a fiery ordeal that has come upon some of these believers. It is intense. It is severe but you know if we are prepared they could say, “Well you know, it’s not pleasant but I am not surprised by it.” Peter says “You shouldn’t be surprised when this comes upon you and it comes upon you for your testing.” A reminder, nothing comes into our lives as God’s people that God does not sift out. Even the opposition of the unbeliever, the things they do with the intention to harm us or destroy us cannot frustrate God’s plan for us. So even the persecution and the antagonism of the unbeliever is part of God’s plan for refining us, testing us, enabling us to demonstrate the genuineness of our faith in Him. We are not just part of “a popular movement” which many would make Christianity today. That is not the people we are. So don’t be surprised at the fiery ordeal that comes upon you for your testing. These are from those persecuting and their purpose is destruction. For God, His purpose for us is refining His work of maturity, preparing, building us a strength in our faith.

We are in Peter, backup just before I Peter to James and James is writing to the same people, the 12 tribes in the diaspora so Jewish believers scattered in the world and in James chapter 1, verse 2: “Consider it all joy, my brethren when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” It is good being put under pressure helps to build your endurance, your ability to stand. It is like athletics, doing training. You are going to run a marathon. There is some preparation to get ready for that.

Well the pressures that God sifts out to come into our life that will accomplish His purposes are to build us. So we don’t count it a blessing because we enjoy pain or suffering. We count it joy because we see God’s hand in it to accomplish His purposes.

You can see how this ties with what we have looked at in the Psalms that God is at work. We have even a clearer revelation with the fullness of the New Testament. “Let endurance have its perfect result.” It is perfecting. It is bringing you to the completion God intends for you to maturity.

Like our children, they go through trials, difficulties. We don’t want to protect them from all the bumps and bruises that might come but we do sift out those things that would be destructive and harmful. That is what we have with our heavenly Father. He has sifted out those things with the potential to be ruinous to us but He doesn’t take out everything and so we accept what comes even though it may look to us as coming as something negative. We don’t like pain. We don’t like hardship. We don’t like difficulty but I realize God is in charge. He is sovereign.

So yes, don’t fight against it in that sense. Allow endurance to have its work of perfecting you “so that you may be perfect complete, lacking in nothing.” And if you lack wisdom in how to handle this, come and ask God but you must ask in faith. We can tie this to the Psalms we have looked at. What did the Psalmist do? He comes to the Lord in prayer. We talked earlier today, pray and watch, watch and pray, seek the Lord’s wisdom and if you won’t trust God in asking Him you can’t expect Him to respond. So that encouragement.

Down in verse 12 of James 1: “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trials.” There is blessing, spiritual prosperity for that individual. Once he has been approved, passed the test,” he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” That is what we are doing. The ultimate end, it’s not well, I can be sure that this trial will only last for a brief time in my life. God’s plan is toward the ultimate end and the rewards and blessings He has prepared for us in His presence. So we don’t want to enter the trial saying, “Oh yes, I am ready for it and I expect it will be over quickly.” I am prepared to trust God to see me through this trial however long, wherever it takes me is the picture here because I know the outcome. I know the ultimate end.

Come back to Romans chapter 5, Romans chapter 5, verse 3 and he is writing as verse 1 says, “To those who have been justified by faith. We now have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and we stand in the grace of God.” That saving grace does not end but it is ongoing and then verse 3: “May be exalt in the hope of the glory of God but we also exalt in our tribulations knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance, perseverance proven character, proven character, hope and hope does not disappoint.” You see the process that God is working with in our lives to bring about His purpose. He is in the process of maturing us as His children so we can appreciate. We can have joy in our tribulation.

How many times have you talked to a believer going through trials and they share, “You know, I have God’s peace in my heart. He has given me a joy in my heart.” Sometimes we think, I don’t know if I could handle it like that. Lord, I don’t know that I could go through that. But you know, God gives His grace to us when we need it. He doesn’t give me the grace to go through someone else’s trial. He gives me the grace to go through trials He brings into my life. We sometimes talk about dying grace and we see believers and the peace and joy they have as they face physical death. I just don’t think I could do that. Well, God hasn’t prepared me for doing that yet. That may come and I am encouraged to see what He provides for that person in that situation. That reminds me. He will provide the grace I need in every trial that I go through; so the process.

Come back to Peter. This fiery ordeal that must not surprise the believer, it comes upon you for your testing. Don’t be surprised. Now note the last part of this: “As though some strange thing were happening to you.” You know the Scripture constantly reminds us but it’s, can I say, so easy or natural for us when a trial comes, “Oh, Lord, what is wrong?” “Oh Lord, why would this come into my life?” “Oh, Lord …” Believers might say, “Lord, we as Jews have placed our faith in You. We have been living our lives as a testimony for You even as we are scattered in a hostile Gentile world. Why would this happen to us?” Well don’t think it is something out of the ordinary. This is not some strange thing happening to you so we are not caught off guard.

That’s why God reminds us as we have seen in our study in the Psalms as we see in Peter. We can expect hostility from the world. We can expect trials and difficulties. Sometimes more direct persecution for our faith. The book of Job is there in the Old Testament to show us the physical trials that came into Job’s life wasn’t as recognizable as someone physically doing something to Job but it was a spiritual battle going on. It is all because we belong to Christ.

In verse 13 of I Peter 4: “But to a degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing;” another command. “To the degree you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing.” Now sometimes it is clearer this suffering comes because of the testimony I have for Christ. This testimony comes because I cannot yield to the world’s way. I cannot allow myself to be conformed to the world and so persecution comes for that. Sometimes it may be more subtle. I realize, Lord, I belong to You. You are at work. Your goal is not to make me suffer pain. You know, there is hopelessness to that. Would God inflict pain on me as His child because He delighted to see me suffer pain? No. No loving parent does that to their child and God is a loving heavenly Father. “So to a degree that you share the sufferings of Christ,” because we are identified with Him, he is going to make clear that sufferings for doing the wrong thing. Oh, I stole something now I am suffering, I guess the devil is after me. No, I am suffering for doing the wrong thing. We will cover that in a moment but I say, “Lord, I have been faithful, I don’t know anything in my life that is contrary to Your Word and Your will. I accept that this comes from You.”

Paul had a messenger from Satan that was allowed to buffet him. We saw that as we concluded 2 Corinthians, brought him discomfort, brought him some physical misery evidently but he said, “I have come to accept that this is God’s will for me and I can appreciate it. This enables God to use me in a greater way than He would if I was perfectly healthy.”

So, I can accept the suffering and rejoice in the suffering. “To the degree you share the sufferings of Christ.” And a reminder, this is not unusual. We take the common passages but come back to John 15 and Jesus reminded His disciples, verse 18, John 15:18: “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world the world would love its own but because you are not of the world I choose you out of the world. Because of this the world hates you.” This is what we have talked about. At the root there is the animosity of the unbeliever toward the believer. We don’t belong to this world. The song, this world is not my home, I’m just passing through. In that sense we are strangers and pilgrims here. Our citizenship is in heaven but the world doesn’t like those who don’t conform, that don’t fit what they want and think. “The slave is not greater than the master. If they have persecuted Me they will persecute you.” That is the pattern.

While you are here you can turn over to John 17, verse 13. Jesus is praying for His disciples in anticipation of His being arrested in the next chapter. “Now I come to You, (His heavenly Father) and these things I speak in the world that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your Word. The world has hated them because they are not of the world even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. Your Word is truth. As You sent me into the world I also have sent them into the world.” Then He says, “This is not just my prayer for these that are presently with Me.” Verse 20: “I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word.”

It comes down to us today and by God’s grace we have been saved out of this world, so to speak and the world hates us. We are not getting a martyr’s complex but understand reality. You say how quickly the world is changing toward believers and some begin to think we ought to be doing something with the world and the laws and the political situation to make it different but this is the reality and when the opportunity comes and something of God’s common grace restrained the sinfulness of mankind is removed sin breaks out. When we get to the seven year tribulation it will make the world all but unlivable as sin becomes so prevalent and the persecution of believers becomes so great. This is not something that we ought to be unexpecting. It is not something that can be resolved by voting for the right person. I am not against voting for the person you believe would be more consistent with the convictions that you have as a believer but we are not looking to the political process because that is not God’s plan. We are here as lights in the darkness.

So come back to Peter. We share the sufferings of Christ. In other words we share suffering because of our identification with Christ. This is the root problem. It gets covered over with other things but at the root the devil knows who you are and he moves his people to treat you in certain ways consistent with his plan. Just as God takes you as His child and protects you and sifts what comes into your life for the accomplishing of His plan and the warfare goes on. “We battle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers, the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies.” It is real. That is what he is dealing with here. “To the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, you must keep on rejoicing;” another command. Don’t be surprised but you keep on rejoicing. It is a privilege to be identified with Christ. It is a privilege to suffer because of your testimony for Him. We don’t want to develop the mentality, “I just want to get through with as little problems as possible. I want my kids to grow up and have a good, comfortable life and I want my grandkids and I just don’t want them to have to go through…” What are we saying? I don’t want them to get saved. I don’t want them to live for Christ. I want to prepare them. Whatever else you do in your life the first and most important thing will be that you come to place your faith in Christ and you have genuinely trusted Him. Now there is no other road for you but a road of faithfulness and it will be bumpy, it will be hard. There may be suffering and pain but your number one purpose is to be loyal to the Savior that has died for you.

You know, that is the reality. That’s why we are encouraged to read books of the testimony of martyrs. We have parents there with their children being tortured and they are encouraging them, be faithful, be faithful. Is it worth it all? Oh, you know, let’s hide. No. “Keep on rejoicing if you suffer for Christ so that at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exaltation.”

Again, keep our focus on the goal. The world’s goal is a comfortable, easy life here. To get through with as much as you can have with as little difficulty as possible, but that is not why we are here. We are here for the express purpose now that we have been saved by God’s grace to serve Him, to shine His lights in the darkness, to pay whatever price to bring the message of Christ and to testify to the power of His saving grace.

That is where we have two different mind sets and we have to be careful that the world’s mindset doesn’t settle in on us and it bombards us everywhere because everything is geared toward this life and how this life can be easier and I am not looking for ways to make life more difficult but we will say I am looking for ways to be more faithful to the Lord, to be used of Him in greater ways. Whatever trouble that brings into my life it is just part of being used in the greatest way.

You read these individuals writing about the suffering or those we admire that are being used so greatly of God. “Oh, Lord use me but not enough to bring any difficulty or suffering into my life.” You know we have all of eternity to enjoy every blessing that God has provided.

I am not saying we can’t enjoy the things that God has given. We are blessed to live in a prosperous country. We enjoy that prosperity but remember what God told Israel, “When you become prosperous in the land I take you into, don’t forget who brought the prosperity.” How sad it is that being prosperous is a negative thing for believers. We don’t want that to be true of us in our testimony.

So we keep on rejoicing. That’s a command; “So that at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exaltation.” When Christ comes and we enjoy the fullness of the glory of His presence that is when the fullness of all the blessings come. The world lives for a comfortable, physical retirement. We live for the fullness of the blessings God has promised to those who love Him and serve Him. Those blessings – you get a 20 year retirement; that is a long time. I have two hundred trillion year retirement and that is just the beginning. I am living for a different goal. That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the things that God has provided. You know I don’t walk to work, I drive to work. I don’t say, “Well, I want to suffer a little bit. I am going to walk to work. Marilyn can walk to the grocery store. I drive to work.” No, if we can have two cars and both drive, thank You Lord for Your blessing. But if I begin to say, “I don’t want to be too clear with my testimony because it may create difficulty.” Then I have crossed the line. I have to back up. That is what Peter is saying. Keep in mind the glory that will be yours.

Back up to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. Here he is talking about the Thessalonians were going through suffering and trial, persecution again and Paul encourages them. 2Thessalonians, chapter 1, verse 4: “We ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure.” Not every church in every situation was going through the same intense persecutions as others like we are. There are Christians in the world today suffering greatly for their faith. We are not suffering in that same way but we want to be encouraged by the faithfulness of those who are and how sad they would see us indifferent with our testimony for Christ because we don’t want to have to suffer so they are encouraged.

Verse 5: “This is a plain indication of God’s righteousness judgment so you will be considered worthy of the kingdom for which you are suffering.” The fact that you suffer for your testimony for Christ is a testimony that you really belong to Him. You are worthy in that sense because of His grace that has transformed you. You are suffering for that kingdom that lies before you. When Christ rules and reigns we will rule and reign with Him and “after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not now God and to those who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus, and these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes to be glorified in His saints .”

So we are looking for that time of glory similar to what we see when we talked about the imprecatory Psalms and calling judgment. Yes, there is a time of judgment coming. Paul said we are looking forward to that because that is when we as believers will enter into the fullness of all that God has prepared for us and the enemies of our God will suffer the destruction they deserved and the suffering we may experience at their hands just reveals that we belong to God and they do not. There will come a day of reckoning, that perspective and picture.

In the Beatitudes Jesus said, “Blessed are you when…” you know, you are persecuted by all. “Woe to you when all men speak well of you.” If we look for the accolades of the world we are off track. The world does not honor God and His people. The world honors its own. And the whole world lies under the power of Satan as we saw earlier.

So come back to I Peter 4. “If you are reviled for the name of Christ you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” That is what we are talking about. Ultimately it is our walk with the Lord and that will bring its own difficulty. We are not out courting difficulty but we ought to be sure, just to put this in its context, we don’t go this far, make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, a thief, evil doers, or a troublesome meddler. I mean be careful you don’t do the wrong thing and use the excuse, well I am a Christian, I am sure I am suffering.

If you do a poor job for your employer and you get fired don’t go away and say, “I guess they fired me because I am a Christian, suffering for the Lord.” If they fired you because you are a poor worker you got fired for being a poor worker and that was a poor testimony. So don’t connect suffering for doing the wrong thing and then try to say well, it’s because I am a Christian. Some Christians over the years have had employers come and say, they are just poor workers. Some they have had work for them, they just were poor workers. That is a poor testimony. You are supposed to be doing your work as unto the Lord. Why would you be a poor worker?

So the context here, “Being reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed” and suffering and difficulty will come into our lives. As long as I am not involved in sin I accept this is just something God has chosen to bring into my life. It may be a physical trial and difficulty. It may be the devil assaulting me with physical problems. Like we said, Job, Paul, I don’t know. I can’t always sort that out. My confidence, I don’t have to know everything about everything.

You know we never find in the book of Job God telling Job, “You know, it was the devil who was doing this, Job. If he told him it’s outside the book of Job because it was not relevant for us to understand, it was a test for Job to trust the Lord. It was a physical trial. Even his best friends didn’t sort it out but we learn and we say what? I trust the Lord. He has chosen to bring this physical trial into my life. Maybe it is the devil trying to assault me and weaken me but Lord I am trusting You. You could remove this if You chose. I would ask that You would remove it but if You chose not to, I accept it and draw upon Your grace to endure it. It is not wrong to ask God to remove a trial. It is wrong to get angry with God if He doesn’t do what you ask. We wait. We watch. My deliverance may not come until I am in the presence of His glory but then it is removed finally.

So the key is I want to be identified with Christ. I am pleased for people to know that I am a Christian, that I serve Him. I want to be careful. I may work for unbelievers. That doesn’t mean I can take their time when they are paying me to do a certain job to give my testimony. Part of my testimony is doing the best job and demonstrating the best character that can be expected of a believer. Then when I have opportunity to talk to them I can. When I was working in the secular world I had opportunity after working hours when we were doing things there my boss and I and I could talk to him. “Did you ever consider where you are going to spend eternity?” I didn’t do it on his time, his dollar. We have opportunity to do that. We don’t have to hide our faith. Oh well, I am going to be testifying for the Lord. I have been witnessing to the person who works next to me and they have complained. We have to be careful. Is this the appropriate time but I want to be careful that I don’t use that as an excuse to never have an appropriate time, the balance.

Suffering will come. Be prepared. We want to be faithful. I assume if we as a church are faithful in this community people will say negative things about us. They will say things that are not true. They will try to ruin our reputation. That shouldn’t surprise us. They ask me what church I went to. Ahhhh, I go to Indian Hills. Oh yeah, I know about that church. That is the church that hates women. That is the church that kicks out people that don’t agree with them. Yeah, that’s that unloving church. Yeah, that’s where I go. What do we expect the world to say about us? Are we looking for the world to admire us? We aren’t doing things to antagonize the world. I think Christians who cross the line and are out there picketing and doing that in the name of Christ are crossing the line. I don’t want people in here disrupting us. I am not out disrupting them. By the same token we are here to present the truth and in the proper setting we present it wherever we are, whatever we are doing, whatever we are about and if that brings slanderous accusations I am not going to go out there and what can I say? If I have opportunity – well it’s not true that we are not loving. In fact you know, we really believe in the love of God in a way that many people don’t. We tell them what the true love of God is as we have talked about. We don’t hate women. We believe there is a Biblical distinction between a man and a woman designed by the God who created us. It is beautiful and it brings honor to a woman as well as to a man to understand the purpose of the Creator in making them as male and female. How sad that we don’t appreciate the diversity. It’s just like we would like every flower to be the same. No, we appreciate the beauty of the diversity. Now we want to deny.

These kinds of things we can use as opportunities. We are not offended that the world is offended. The world is offended. We are not. We expect them to not understand but we still present the truth and we are willing to suffer and if we suffer because we are identified with Christ and His truth, it is a badge of honor. We are lights in the midst of darkness. I am not saying we are the only church in this city but only those churches that are committed to Jesus Christ proclaiming the truth of the Gospel and being faithful to Him are lights. The rest are just darkness in the midst of darkness. So that brings its consequences but we are not surprised by it and he will go on to say we shouldn’t be ashamed by it either. But we will save that for next time.

Let’s have a word of prayer together. Thank You Lord for the privilege and honor of belonging to You, of being identified as followers of Your Son Who loved us and died for us. Lord it is so easy for us to become withdrawn, to be embarrassed, to be reluctant, to be identified. How honored we are that You call us Your children. You call us the objects of Your love. You are not ashamed of us. Lord we would not be embarrassed or ashamed that we belong to You, the living God, that You are our heavenly Father and Lord we would be bold with the truth that has brought us salvation as we share it with others. Lord we don’t want to be offended by their negative reactions, by their antagonism, by even the untruths or lies they may tell about us. We understand we would be like them but for Your grace. May we be faithful, may You be honored we pray in Christ’s name, amen.