Walking with God Through Persecution Dr. Steve Walker

Transcription

1 June 21, 2015 Walking with God Through Persecution Dr. Steve Walker One more time, we just want to wish all the fathers in the room a happy Father's Day. I just pray that you feel the honor of being a dad and that you sense the blessing you are as a dad. We are excited that you're here. I personally believe Father's Day is one of the best holidays in the history of the world. Christmas, Easter, Father's Day, in that order. I think it's providential and a very clear indication of the sovereignty of God that Father's Day, today, happens to also be the longest day of the year, so we can relish it even more together. Take full advantage of that. Let's get our Bibles open to 1 Peter, chapter 3. We're working our way through 1 Peter. We're going to keep doing that today. We're at the halfway point in this little letter in the New Testament, so if you're new or newer, we're going through books of the Bible on Sunday morning. We just go verse by verse, so bring your Bible if you're new. First Peter is a book in the New Testament that is filled with practical insights, church, on how to live our Christian lives in the midst of a culture that is hostile to Jesus. For some of you, you can relate to that maybe a little personally. It could be you feel hostility toward Jesus in your own family. It might be in your immediate family, or maybe your extended family, but there are people you know and love who do not know and love the Jesus you do. It might be in your own neighborhood. It could be your next-door neighbor. They know you're Christians, and they don't think too highly of you because you are. It might be the place you go to work every day. You might leave every day knowing that when you get there, you're going to face some hostility toward your beliefs or even just toward you personally because you are a follower of Jesus. For others of you, it could be the school you go to, the classroom you're in, your professor, your teacher, or your fellow students. First Peter is basically a handbook on how to live in the midst of that kind of environment, a culture that persecutes. Peter is trying to give us some handles on how to suffer with grace, how to endure those types of things with grace. It's a trumpet call to true followers of Jesus Christ to not give up in the face of trials and persecution. That's what he's doing here. Canyon Hills Community Church 1

2 We have seen, and will continue to see, with genuine compassion, Peter calls us to live out our faith in a way that is divinely powerful. He's calling us to live our lives in the face of persecution and hostility toward Jesus in such a way that it will actually silence the critics of Jesus. He's calling and showing us how to live our lives in a way where we can put the goodness and the glory of God on display even brighter in the face of hostility and persecution. Finally, he is giving us ways to live out our faith in this kind of a culture that we might even have joy and peace in spite of circumstances and situations where there is no joy and peace. That's what we want. Isn't it? That's what we want to do. We want to put the goodness of God on display. We want to live with joy and peace, even in the midst of difficult times. So Peter is going to continue in that discussion. He's going to get even more specific today. Your Bibles are open to 1 Peter 3. Let's stand for the reading of his Word. We left off at verse 7 last week, so we'll pick it right up in verse 8. "Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. For 'Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.' Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil." God, I just pray that you will make these words make sense. God, they seem so contrary. God, we confess they do not seem normal or natural to us. To be able to live with joy and purpose in these circumstances God, we ask that you will give us grace today to understand. I pray, God, for those who are standing here right now. God, you know who they are. They are hurting. They are suffering. They are hated. They are being lied about and gossiped about. I pray, God, that you will give them unbelievable hope today. Help them, God, to see the power in these words. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. I titled this message Walking with God Through Persecution. In order to be able to do that, Peter gives us several things we need to know and do so we do not abandon, lose, or give up our faith in the face of difficult times. There are several big principles in this passage, and underneath those big principles, there will be ways to apply them. Canyon Hills Community Church 2

3 I confess I think I might have bitten off more than I can chew with this passage, because I have not finished the sermon yet and I've already had two tries at it. This is the third try. We're just going to go at God's pace today and we'll stop when we run out of time or before dinner. Something like that. Okay? How many of you have plans for lunch or dinner today. Anybody? Okay. We'll get you out on time. 1. Stay really close to other believers. This is the first major principle in walking with God through persecution. The Bible is very clear, church. We need each other. The truth is Christians always flourish in authentic community, and typically, we always flounder in isolation. Peter knows that. He knows we're going to need each other even more when we feel the heat of persecution and hatred because of Jesus, so he gives us several reasons why we need to stay close to other believers so we can walk with God in persecution. A. We need to know what and why we believe. The first thing in his instruction list here, in walking with God in persecution, is, "Finally, all of you, have unity of mind " It's a little curious statement, but I can tell you what it doesn't mean. It isn't a call for us Christians to compromise our biblical morality so we can get along with the world. He is not calling us to a blind acceptance of false gods, false religions, or false teaching. That is not the unity to which he is referring. When persecution hits, Peter knows we need our theology. It has to be true. It has to be accurate. In essence, Peter is saying, "Be strong in your knowledge of God." He realizes that this is a team effort. Our growth in the knowledge of God is a team effort. That's why he's calling all of us to have unity of mind. So we come to church to hear the Word of God. We go to life group to talk about the Word of God and how it applies to real life. Sometimes we go to classes or seminars. Sometimes we go and attend our School of Discipleship here at Canyon Hills, where we can go deeper and deeper in our knowledge of God. Peter reveals, a little bit later, why that is so important. I want you to turn to 2 Peter, chapter 1. He is calling us to know what we believe and why we believe it. He says, in verse 3, "His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence " Now look at that sentence again. Peter is saying, "Listen. Because God is supernaturally and divinely powerful, he has given to us everything we need to live this life in a godly way, to live this life in a world that is hostile toward Jesus. We can do it in a godly way, and we receive that power through our understanding and knowledge of God." So Peter starts off his other list here in 1 Peter, chapter 3, and he says, "Listen. In the context of suffering and persecution, you must have unity of mind. You must walk with each other, growing in a true and accurate knowledge of who God is and what he is like. That's a team effort, and so I want to encourage you. Our unity comes as we grow and learn the truth about God, and Canyon Hills Community Church 3

4 there is no greater time we need to know the truth about God than when we are being persecuted and suffering. B. He calls us to be sympathetic toward persecuted believers. Again, as he's calling us to stay really close to other believers, it's for the purpose of being sympathetic. "Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy " That just intrigued me that in this list of reasons why we need to stay close to each other, one of them is so we have sympathy with one another. For many believers around the world, church, life as a Christian is treacherous. Every single day, it is life and death when it comes to following Jesus. Most of us in America, by God's grace, don't experience that on any level, but for some people, and even for some people here right now in this service, there is some version of the difficulty of following Jesus in your life. As I already alluded to, it might be right in your own family. It could be that you're married to someone who hates the Jesus you love. It could be extended family. It might be where you go to work. It might be a neighbor. It could be any of those, but you understand how hard it is to live in the face of that. Peter says, "I want you to have sympathy for one another." Sympathy is different than pity. Pity is just feeling sorry and just happy that it's not us. Sympathy involves sacrifice, and so we pray for each other, and we pray with each other. We give money to global outreach and missions where we're taking the gospel and God's love to people in the world who desperately need encouragement and hope. It means we go. As we prayed for today, we have over 100 people leaving this church this week for a week or two of ministry around the world, including here in our own country. So we show our sympathy by praying for, giving to, and even going to Christians and missionaries in the world with whom we partner in order to come alongside them in a sympathetic, sacrificial way as they live in the face of persecution. We need each other, both here and around the world. C. We need to love our Christian family. He says here, "Finally, I want you to have unity of mind, sympathy, and brotherly love." He reminds us to love each other like family, warts and all. Right? I don't know if you've ever noticed, but have you ever noticed that there are some weird people in the family of God? Have you ever noticed that? There are just weird people who go to church. Am I not right? It's okay to say yes. We're all in this together, right? I don't know if you've noticed this, but have you ever noticed there are people who are really hard to love in the family of God? Have you ever met some annoying people who are in God's family? How about people who just aren't that nice? The truth is we're family. Peter says, "You need to love each other like brothers and sisters in Christ, because you will need them and they will need you, especially when we start to experience the hatred and hostility that comes with being a follower of Jesus." You know, for a lot of people sitting in this room right now around us, this church family is all they have. This is family. They either don't have anyone in their family who is a Christian, or Canyon Hills Community Church 4

5 they don't have any living family members, or if they have family members they may be so estranged or so far apart or they live so far away that this is family. You are family to people who are sitting all around you. Peter says if we're going to get through this life and we're going to face difficulty, suffering, and persecution, we have to love each other like family. For many of us in church today, our church brothers and sisters are closer to us than our biological brothers and sisters. We have more relationship and more love with our brothers and sisters in Christ than we do with our very own family. That's what we are to each other. Peter says if we're going to walk with God through difficult times, we have to stay close to other believers, because we're all we have. D. We need to remain humble. Peter calls us, in this list, to have " a tender heart, and a humble mind." That's interesting to me. He's calling us to have that tender heart and humble mind toward those who persecute us, toward those who hate us because of Jesus. That's really hard to think about, isn't it? He's saying, "Don't turn your persecution into an excuse to be hateful, ugly, or nasty, but be humble. Be tender." Jesus was our ultimate example of this. While hanging on the cross, he looks up to heaven and he says, "God, please forgive them. They do not know what they're doing." What I find interesting is that the instruction we're getting today to be tender and humble toward those who hate us is coming from the very man who was the first one to draw the sword and cut off the ear of one of those who came to arrest Jesus. Now a few years after that, he's writing to you and me to be tender and humble, evidence of the miraculous change that Jesus made in his life. I'm sure that as he watched Jesus suffer and be falsely arrested, beaten, and hung on a cross, and as he watched and listened to Jesus go through that, he was forever changed. He calls us to stay humble and to be tender. So that's the first principle. Stay as close to other believers as you can, church, because we're going to need each other. 2. Don't forget revenge is not sweet. It never is. In verse 9, he says, "Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling " He's careful to make sure you and I don't get caught up or caught in the undercurrents of anger and revenge on those who hate us, because he knows anger and revenge will take us down a lot quicker than any persecution in life will. Paul reminds us of this in Romans 12, when he says, "Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.'" Both Paul and Peter call us away from revenge and away from just letting hate grow up in our hearts, because the truth is God has no tolerance for those who harm his children. There will be no sparing of his justice, and there will be no sparing of his wrath for those who persecute and hate his children. Look at the end of verse 12 really quickly. It's at the end of that little verse. It says, "But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil." Solomon wrote, in Proverbs 15, "The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good." So God sees the Canyon Hills Community Church 5

6 mistreatment. God sees the hatred. God sees the lies about you and the deception about you and the hatred toward you. He sees all of that, and he will not let one ounce of it go unaccounted for. That's why Paul and Peter say, "Do not take revenge. That's God's job. Let him do his job. He will do it in perfect justice." That has to be what empowered Jesus not to call down from heaven 12 legions of angels when he's standing on trial from these sinful people who hate his guts as he's coming to die for their forgiveness. Why didn't Jesus just call down from heaven all the angels he had at his disposal to just wipe it all out? Could it be that he knows God will not let one ounce of it go unaccounted for? I want you to turn back to chapter 2 and look at verse 23. Peter has already told us this. "When [Jesus] was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly." There are some of you in this room today who are in a place where you must trust in the one who judges justly. Don't let hatred grow in your heart. Don't go down this road of revenge. It will take you nowhere. It is not sweet, as our world likes to tell us. 3. We need to bless those who hate the Jesus in us. This is crazy-sounding, I know, but look at the second half of verse 9. "Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing." Okay. All right. So we get the whole no-revenge thing. You're probably thinking, "All right. I could kind of hold back. I won't seek revenge." Yet he goes way too far now when he says, "I don't want you to get revenge, but I do want you to bless. I want you to bless those who hate you. I want you to bless those who hate you because you love Jesus. I want you to bless those who persecute you, harass you, reject you, make fun of you, and mock you because of Jesus. Bless them." "Okay " Do you feel what I feel? There is nothing normal and natural about that request. There just isn't. Everything inside of the natural, normal us says, "That's crazy talk. How in the world do you expect us to bless those who treat us with such disdain because we love Jesus?" Well, there's only one answer. We are not normal and natural anymore. We have been born again into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The old us is gone, and the new us has the Spirit of the living God in us. Through his example and through his power, we can do something that seems so unnatural and so abnormal in this human experience: bless those who hate you. All right. Well, Peter just doesn't leave it there. He yanks a passage out of the Old Testament, Psalm 34:12-16, and he inserts it into his letter to these persecuted Christians. Inside these verses, he gives us a picture of how we born-again believers are to bless people who persecute us. It sounds crazy, church, but it's what makes Christians and Christianity different from every other religion in the world. So what is it? How do we bless people? Canyon Hills Community Church 6

7 A. Speak kindly. He says, "Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit " Peter says, "Here's how we're going to bless those who hate Jesus in us. Speak kindly to them. Speak kindly about them. Don't gossip. Don't slander them. Don't use nasty sarcasm or criticism when you're talking to them or about them. Because the truth is, our words that come out of our mouths always indicate what's in our hearts, and if we are full of venom and we spew that venom out every time we have an encounter with or talk about the people who mistreat us, that venom only splashes all over our testimony of Jesus. So he says, "Speak kindly." There's nothing normal about that, but it is powerful as we cling to our faith in God and walk with him in persecution. B. Pursue relational peace. At the end of verse 11, he says, " let him seek peace and pursue it." Remember, we're in the context of persecution or being in places that are hostile toward Jesus. Now sometimes peace is impossible with those who hate us, but we don't want it to be because of us. To pursue peace means we don't keep the conflict going. To pursue peace with those who hate the Jesus in us means we don't try to force Jesus into every single conversation, because we know nobody was ever won to Christ through a fight or through an argument. So he says, "Seek peace." Paul says, " as far as it depends on you, live at peace " Don't you be the one who lets and causes the conflict to rage. Don't do that. Bless them by seeking peace. C. Do nice things. In verse 11a, the beginning, he says " let him turn away from evil and do good " Peter says, "Do good. We need to bless those who hate Jesus, so keep doing good. Keep doing the right thing. Instead of trying to make them miserable or make them pay, do the exact opposite. Again, we turn to Romans, chapter 12, and it says, "To the contrary, 'if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.' Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Scripture is consistent. Peter is not on an island when he's telling us and encouraging us to do good to those who persecute us. What in the world? What does that look like? I don't know. There may be a million different ways. I was trying to think this week. If you have a neighbor who just hates Jesus and knows you go to church, and they just think you're an idiot and they let you know it, how do you do good in that situation? I don't know. Maybe it's bring their trashcans in on trash day, when the trash is gone. It's just doing something good, something totally opposite. Maybe the coworker at work who gives you a hassle all the time for being a Christian... Maybe it means buying them lunch. Maybe it means covering for them on a break. I don't know, but do something good. Maybe the family member who hates Jesus and just mocks you for being a Christian, who's coming over today for Father's Day lunch Maybe doing good means to bless them with kind words. Canyon Hills Community Church 7

8 I want you to look at chapter 4, verse 19, one lone verse at the end of chapter 4. Peter writes, "Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good." Entrust our souls to our Creator while we're doing good! Look at chapter 2, verse 15. "For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people." Doing good will silence and shut the mouths of the critics of Jesus more than trying to fight and go after them. Look at verse 12. "Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation." Do good. Do nice things. D. Pray even more. Verse 12 is peculiar. He says, "For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer." Now think about this in the context of what Peter is writing. He's trying to give us hope and help in clinging to God and remaining faithful, not giving up in the face of suffering and persecution, so he tells us that God's ears are open to our prayers. If we choose to suffer with grace, our prayers seem to get to heaven a little quicker. Now I wouldn't build my whole theology of prayer on that one half a verse, but it's clear that Peter is telling us, in the midst of our suffering for righteousness' sake, our prayers are considered by God in a very special way. I was reading in Revelation this week and saw, in Revelation, chapter 5, as God is unfolding the picture of the final judgment in the end In this picture in Revelation, chapter 5, the Lamb of God comes to the throne to open the scroll, and as he's doing that, all these golden bowls, filled with the prayers of the saints, are brought to the altar. What an amazing thought, that God not only hears the prayers, especially those of his children who are being persecuted, but he stores them in golden bowls and they will be brought to the altar of God as he unleashes his judgment and wrath upon the evil in the world. As I read that, it's as if God is reminded of those prayers over the centuries of his saints who were persecuted and hated because of him, and he uses those prayers to ignite his passion, wrath, and perfect justice on those who hate him. What an amazing sight Scripture gives. 4. Don't forget that righteous people will suffer. Now this is key, folks, because Peter is so honest. He's not pulling any punches here. In fact, if you look at chapter 4, verse 12, it says, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed." Peter is going to go on to say (we'll get there in a few weeks), "Don't be surprised when you suffer. Don't let that shock you. Don't think it's strange." In verse 13 in our passage today, if you look "Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?" He asks a Canyon Hills Community Church 8

9 rhetorical question. He says, "Listen. If you do good, people will treat you better. They'll treat you okay." He says, "But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake " He realizes even when we do good, we can still suffer. We're still going to be persecuted and hated sometimes. "If you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed, so have no fear and do not be troubled." Wow. In verse 9, we saw already that Peter says, "If we bless (this is what we're called to do), we will obtain a blessing." Now look at verse 17. He says, "For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil." So here we have it in three different verses. In verse 14, verse 9, and verse 17, he says, "Listen. Don't be surprised. It's going to happen, but you will be blessed. So what Peter is doing here is forming a strong theology of suffering, a foundational truth that sometimes the persecution we experience in this life is a part of God's plan and his purpose for his children. Let me say that again. Peter is showing us here that sometimes, the persecution and hatred we experience in this life, because we're Christians Sometimes that is the very part and plan of God for our lives. He's saying being persecuted should be something we should expect to experience, and more than that, we should expect it to be a blessing in our lives. Right about now, some of you are going, "This is nuts. What happened? You're telling me to bless those who hate my guts, and now you're telling me God plans and purposes for my suffering so I can be blessed?" I know. Folks, this very principle This just dawned on me. I didn't say this to the other two services, so you're welcome for what I'm about to say. It's divine principles of life like this that prove to me that Christianity is not a man-made religion. No man would make up a religion with this, would he? No! You don't make up a religion that says, "Hey, we're going to rejoice when life gets hard, because it's going to be a blessing. Become a Christian. It's fun!" No. This is supernatural wisdom and power from God. Paul agrees when he writes, in 2 Timothy 3, "Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted " So the million-dollar question is, "Why? Why does God allow or purpose for us to struggle, suffer, and be hated and persecuted in this life? Why does he want that to be a part of our lives? Why could that possibly be his will?" The good news, church, is Scripture doesn't abandon us in the answer to that question. It gives us several reasons, several life preservers to cling to in trying to answer that question. Now here's a warning. I'm going to give you these answers, but I'm going to warn you that it has been my experience that when we're in the midst of suffering, trial, and tribulation, we usually can't see the reason and purpose of God right away. Sometimes it's a long time afterward, and I suppose even in some of our suffering, we're not going to know the full purpose of God until we get to heaven, but we are promised that we will Canyon Hills Community Church 9

10 be blessed, and Scripture does not leave us without the answer. Let me give you some of those blessings before we go to lunch today. A. To test and increase the strength of our faith. Persecution and trials have a divine way of exposing what our faith is made out of. They force us to self-examine and realize whether or not our faith is more like spiritual quicksand or more like the rock upon which we stand. The truth is for a lot of us, church, when we go through struggle, trial, and tribulation, the minute things go wrong, south, bad, or hard, we sink. We quickly sink. Trials and tribulations have a way, in God's providential plan, to show us our faith needs strengthening. Look at 1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 6, again. He says, "In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary " There's the providence of God in suffering. " you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." He's saying here, if necessary, our faith needs to be tried and tested as true. It will go through the fire of persecution, hatred, and tribulation in order to purify our faith and make it stronger. That's what he's saying. James says, "Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, because you know the testing of your faith will produce perseverance," or endurance, or steadfastness, depending on the translation you're looking at. I could tell you, church, in my life, having gone through some very heart-wrenching trials, at times, I have been saddened and sobered to feel how quickly my heart has lost hope. It has been very humbling to see how fast I lost courage. There were times, in suffering, where I found out, it became clear that my faith wasn't nearly as strong as I had hoped it was, and it forced me to reestablish in my heart the immovable, unchangeable faithfulness of God, and for that, I am so grateful. B. To humble us. Now I know that doesn't sound so fun. It certainly doesn't fall under the category of blessing, but it can be. God's plan for his children may include being persecuted or suffering of different kinds of trials to remind us to not think too highly of ourselves. Romans, again, says, "For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned." The measure of true greatness is the measure of faith, how much faith we have in God. Paul applied this truth to himself in 2 Corinthians, when he said " there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me to keep me from exalting myself!" We think it's a person. We don't know what the thorn is, this messenger of Satan, but we think there was someone in Paul's life who was just making his life miserable with hatred. Paul says, "I'm pretty sure one of the purposes of that going on in my life was to keep me from exalting myself." There are times, I believe, that God knows our hearts. He knows when we've gotten to that place where we are taking way too much credit for God's blessings and his grace in our lives, and Canyon Hills Community Church 10

11 when we get to that point, God has a way of bringing us back and bringing us closer to him so we can rely on him more, so we can be of more use to him for his kingdom work on this earth. If anybody is more susceptible to the need of being humbled, it's us pastors, elders, and ministry leaders. The apostle Paul certainly was susceptible to it. He asked God to take away the thorn, and he gave us God's answer when he wrote, in 2 Corinthians 12, "But [God] said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." Paul saw the providence of God and God's will in our suffering and persecution and being hated. He is saying, "What God showed me was I realized I can't get through this on my own. I need him, so I run to him, and I gladly say, 'You know what? I'm weak. God is my crutch. I'll lean on him all day long. I would rather do that and know his power in my life than try to come up with my own reasons.'" He wants to keep us humbly dependent on his strength for our lives. C. To pull us away from materialistic love. It appears that God sends trials, persecution, and suffering to rescue us from the inadequacy of material things to meet our deepest needs. Jesus said, "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money." Suffering, church Persecution and trials in our lives have a way of showing us who or what we really love more than God. Hear me now. One of the purposes and blessings of difficult times in our lives is it starts to show who and what we are loving more than we are loving God. It can have a way of making us realize none of our stuff is really that important. See, our stuff can't solve our problems. It can't give us peace when we're anxious. Our stuff can't give us courage when we're scared. It can't give us hope when we're hopeless. Only God can do that. So suffering has a way of helping us to reprioritize our lives, to push aside anyone or anything that we have allowed to come between us and God. D. To help us long for heaven. Persecution, evil, tribulations, and tragedies all remind us that Jesus has come to save us and to give us eternal life. How will we be blessed? If we walk through God with persecution, he will give us a vision and a longing for heaven we desperately need. Second Corinthians 4 says "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." Canyon Hills Community Church 11

12 The blessing of trial and tribulation in our lives sometimes is a tremendous blessing because it reminds us that this is not our permanent address. Jesus has come to save us from ourselves and from the evil in this world, and he has gone to prepare a place for us to be with him forever in heaven. All of the pain, tears, sin, hatred, ugliness, disease, nastiness, betrayal, persecution, and You just add to that list all of the ugly, nasty hatred in our world, of which we've seen more on the news in the last 36 hours than we could care to stomach. He is reminding us, every time we see it and feel it personally, that we're on our way home. We are going home. Sometimes it takes some suffering to remember what he has saved us from. I would say to you, if you are suffering today, one of the blessings may be the sheer reminder that there's going to come a day when this is all done, and it's all gone, and we're going to be in the very presence of our Creator. There are more blessings that we've run out of time for. I want to get you to lunch. I hope that if anything, this morning, you have begun to form in your heart a theology of how to walk with God in suffering and persecution. It can be done, and it can be done when we stay close to other believers, when we don't fall prey to go down the road of revenge and hate, when we're committed to bless those who hate us and we're not surprised and taken off guard, and we actually not only expect that we will suffer, but we will expect that it will bring blessing. That's how we can do it. Let's pray. Father in heaven, I just pray for us as a church, that these would be more than mere words on a Sunday morning, but that we would be able to live it out. God, we want to walk with you in the face of life's trials and suffering. God, we want to live in a way that is so powerful that we silence the critics of Jesus, that we display the goodness and glory that belong to you, and that God, we actually live with peace and joy in a world that has no idea what either one of those truly is. So God, we surrender to you now, even in the face of suffering, and ask, God, for your strength to carry on in your power. Amen. I want to say, if there's anyone in this room right now who has never surrendered your heart to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I pray that you will do that today. We have some people who are going to be right here, as soon as we're dismissed, who would love to talk to you about what it means to become a Christian and surrender your heart to him. Folks, if there are any of you going through some real suffering in your lives right now, we would love to pray with you before you go home. That would be our honor. We would love to join with you and ask for God's strength in your life. God bless you. Have a great rest of your Father's Day. We'll see you next Sunday. Canyon Hills Community Church 12