1. Living With Suffering
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Introduction
Introduction
Gretchen passed from this life last Sunday… Naturally, many of us ask, “Why?” But that might not be the right question.
Paul David Tripp, New Morning Mercies, Jan 2: “Human beings have a deep desire to know and understand. We spend much of our daily mental time trying to figure things out. We don’t live by instinct. We don’t leave our lives alone. We are all theologians. We are all philosophers… This drive… [is] holy, created by God to draw us to him, so that we can know him and understand ourselves in light of his existence and will. But sin makes this drive… dangerous. [It] tempt[s] us to think that we can find our hearts by figuring it all out. It’s the ‘If only I could understand this or that, then I’d be secure’ way of living. But it never works. In your most brilliant moment, you will still be left with mystery in your life; sometimes even painful mystery. We all face things that appear to make little sense and don’t seem to serve any good purpose. So rest is never found in the quest to understand it all. No, rest is found in trusting the One who understands it all and rules it all for his glory and our good.”
There is no rest in asking why because we can’t understand the why. We only see one piece but God sees the whole puzzle… The question to ask isn’t why but how. That’s exactly what Peter wrote about at the end of his first letter. He wrote to teach them how to suffer well as followers of Christ. Everybody suffers, but as Christians, we are called to suffer differently.
Subject: How are we called to suffer as Christians? How should followers of Jesus endure suffering?
Scripture: 1 Peter 5:6-11 (NIV)
Body
Body
As Christians, we are called to suffer with humility. Followers of Jesus endure suffering with God’s help. (1 Peter 5:6)
Exposition: We are called to suffer with humility—not independence.
Illustration: Some people today say that faith is a crutch for the weak… I’d rather cross home plate on crutches than fall somewhere between second and third and never make it home.
Application: Don’t be too proud to admit that you need God. Humble yourself. Take shelter under his mighty hand. Let him fight for you. He will lift you up in due time.
As Christians, we are called to suffer with trust in God. Followers of Jesus endure suffering with faith. (1 Peter 5:7)
Exposition
People who don’t know God experience or see suffering and respond with anger: “How could God be good?”
But suffering is part of the world in which we live. Suffering exists because we humans sinned and rejected God’s good way of life.
It’s because God is good that he spoke these words through Peter: 1 Peter 5:7.
Illustration: Bring your fear, your anger, your insomnia, your addictions, your frustrations, your unmet expectations, your anxieties to God because he cares for you.
Application: God loves you.
As Christians, we are called to suffer with self-control. Followers of Jesus endure suffering with sober-mindedness. (1 Peter 5:8-9a)
Exposition: Demonic spirits are real, and they will torment someone who’s struggling so as to drive them into the snare of sin.
Illustration: When I am sad, stressed, exhausted, in pain, or struggling with bouts of depression, I am more tempted to turn to sin as an escape. But it’s a lie.
Application: Peter tells us to resist him. See 1 John 2:12-14.
As Christians, we are called to suffer with hope. Followers of Jesus endure suffering with confident expectation of the future. (1 Peter 5:10)
Exposition
16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 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.
Illustration/Application: When we’ve been there ten thousand years…
As Christians, we are called to suffer with one another. Followers of Jesus endure suffering together. (1 Peter 5:9)
Exposition: You don’t have to suffer alone.
Application: Don’t suffer alone.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As Christians, we are called to suffer...
With humility
With trust in God
With self-control
With hope
With one another
Paul David Tripp, New Morning Mercies: “So rest is never found in the quest to understand it all. No, rest is found in trusting the One who understands it all and rules it all for his glory and our good… He loves you and rules what you don’t understand with your good in mind.”
Psalm 62:5-7
1 Peter 5:11