Chuck Norris

Life doesn’t happen to you - you happen to life

On Thursday, March 19th of this year, Chuck Norris passed away.

There is a lot we could say about Chuck Norris, but the reason I bring him up is, well

Reading today’s scripture reminded me of him.

I do hope everyone here knows at least one good Chuck Norris joke.

When Chuck Norris swims, he doesn’t get wet. The water gets Chuck Norris’d.

Chuck Norris doesn’t do push ups. He pushes the earth down.

Chuck Norris was once bitten by a King Cobra. After five agonizing days, the King Cobra died.

Every night before he goes to bed, the boogey man checks his closet for Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris can count to infinity - twice.

There is no ‘control’ key on Chuck Norris’ computer because Chuck Norris is always in control.

And finally, one Chuck told himself 9 days before he died.

In a video made on his 86th birthday, Chuck Norris wrote, “I don’t age. I level up.”

And indeed he did.

Chuck Norris trusted Jesus at 12 years old.

But he strayed - so much so that he didn’t find out until many years later that he fathered a child during his prodigal years.

But in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, Chuck Norris’ second wife invited him to read the Bible with her every morning.

You remember this verse right?

1 Peter 3:1 “Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives,”

Yeah, it worked.

Chuck later said it was like the Holy Spirit said to him, “Chuck, it’s time to come home.”

26 years later, on March 19, 2026, Chuck ‘leveled up.’

What was mortal took on immortality.

Death did not take Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris took death - because Jesus showed him how.

Why all of that? - well, it’s the point of this message

Life doesn’t happen to a Christian - a Christian happens to life.

You’ll catch on.

Open your Bibles to 1 Peter 4, we’ll be looking at the first 6 verses.

While you are looking, let’s talk to the kids.

Kids,

There is absolutely no telling what is going to happen in your lives.

I promise, I would not have written my life’s story to look like it has

But God did

And better still, God gave me every tool I needed to overcome every obstacle.

When you follow Jesus, He’ll do the same thing for you.

The Bible says we become “super-conquerors.”

You don’t get to wear a super-hero cape, but you might as well.

Because truly, through Jesus, you will rise above every challenge life throws at you.

Like Chuck Norris, life won’t happen to you - you will happen to life.

Listen closely.

If there are things you don’t understand, ask your mom and dad or ask your grandparents.

They can help you know Jesus.

Ok, everyone, with you Bible’s open, hear now the word of the Lord from 1 Peter 4:1-6

1 Peter 4:1–6 ESV

Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

This is the Word of the Lord,

Thanks be to God.

Pray with me.

Dear Lord,

Please, this day, open our eyes to the victory we have in Jesus.

Move it from our intellect, to our awareness, and from our awareness to our actions.

Help us to see ourselves as super-conquerors because of your mercy in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

It is time, brothers and sister to suit up and

Arm ourselves

If you heard someone break into your house at night, what would you do?

I pray I’d have the presence of mind to do two things.

First, I’d say, “Renee’, dial 911.”

And second, I’d reach for my 9mm.

I would arm myself.

Only a ding-bat would confront someone breaking into their house with words.

Look at verse 1

1 Peter 4:1 “Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,”

“Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh,” you know from that sentence you have to remember what Peter has written up to this point

And you have to answer a question, “Why did Christ suffer?”

Now you are in church and your gut response is, “Jesus suffered for my sins,” and while that’s right, that’s not what we are looking for here.

Jesus suffered for our sins because He submitted to His Father.

Remember, for the last two chapters, Peter has talked about how submission works in every arena of life

And in all of it, Jesus has been the example.

How did we define submission?

Do you ever remember reading Philippians 2:3

Philippians 2:3 ESV

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

There is our definition.

We genuinely want someone else to receive what we have so much, that we’ll put ourselves out for them to see it.

Did Jesus want to go to the cross?

Yes and no.

He wasn’t keen on the suffering - remember He prayed, “If there is any other way to do this…”

But He wanted what His Father planned more.

Now, Peter says to us, since this is how Jesus operated

Arm yourself with the same sense of purpose.

Let me give you an example.

I’ve had conversations with several folks who have had cancer.

They had to take chemo and ya’ll understand chemo right.

The goal is to give you enough poison to kill the cancer but not kill you.

Not every, but many chemo’s make you sick as a dog - you’ve heard, you know.

But these folks have told me, sincerely and not just Jesus speaking the preacher

But sincerely, they go to their treatments with this prayer on their lips, “Dear Lord, show me who I’m supposed to talk about you to today.”

And they don’t go in like a Jesus machine gun rapid firing Jesus at everyone in the room until someone takes one for the team

And talks to them so the rest can get some peace.

No, they go in with a sensitivity of spirit, waiting for the Holy Spirit to show them who.

Listen - chemo doesn’t happen to them - they happen to chemo.

Now, someone might want to argue that this is just a Joel Osteen, Norman Vincent Peale, Robert Schuller “Power of Positive Thinking” thing, but it’s not.

Positive thinking says you tell yourself how to think and act and you can make it happen - your success depends on how well you can control yourself.

But this isn’t that.

This is you arming yourself with the understanding that, this is how Jesus operated

And since I follow Jesus, and His Holy Spirit fills my being, I can do things like Jesus did.

I can submit my will to my Father’s will - I can have as my primary goal in life to make God as proud of me as He can

So I do everything I do with that in mind knowing, knowing that is how Jesus operated

And I want to be like Jesus.

How do we know that was Jesus’ attitude?

Well, there are bunches of scripture that tells us, but I like three words Jesus said Himself, “It is finished.”

“I did what you wanted me to do Father, just like you wanted.”

Jesus’ weapon was His goal - He wanted the Father to be happy so much that He made that His goal.”

Listen to Jesus’ own words -

John 6:38 ESV

For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.

There is thinking that has to be done here - but it’s thinking that leads to a choice.

What am I going to stand for?

Is my ultimate goal Jesus, or is it something else?

My ultimate goal, my raison d’etre, my reason to be

Is it to please the Father, or is it something else?

Verse 1 again - 1 Peter 4:1 “Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,”

The end of that verse - “whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,” is a little confusing but not really

In the context of this paragraph, Peter is saying, if people are talking bad about you because you started to follow Jesus, you’ve obviously stopped doing the sinful things you used to do.

If you are catching flack from your old friends because you don’t go out to play like you used to

Or you catch flack from your boyfriend or girlfriend, because you don’t do certain things

Peter is saying that is your confirmation that you are armed and dangerous.

You have ceased from those sins.

Be happy - somebody noticed!

Look at verse 2 1 Peter 4:2 “so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.”

To paraphrase Peter here, “so for the rest of the time you’ve got left on this earth, be driven by what God wants rather than driven by your lusts and your cravings.

And I’ve got to throw this out for the nerds like myself.

See the words “to live”

The greek word is bios.

Computer guys, you know what a bios is, right?

It’s the heart of the machine - if the bios gets messed up, the machine can’t work.

So Peter - let your life be set on what God wants - and you’ll happen to life instead of life happening to you.

Now what’s funny here, is what Peter says next - 1 Peter 4:3–4 “For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you;”

Do you hear what Peter is saying?

You’ve had plenty of time to play

You’ve had sufficient time to do dumb stuff - now is the time to stop it.

You have had enough of that to realize that you don’t want that anymore.

You should’t want that anymore - and if you think you do, maybe you need to take a good, long, hard look at those days.

If they were so fulfilling, why did you give them up?

You gave them up because Jesus is the better way.

You’ve wasted enough time on that nonsense.

It’s time to move on.

Now, your old friends won’t think so.

Do you hear verse 4?

Your friends are saying things to you like, “I don’t know who you are anymore.”

They are “surprised when you do not join them.”

And some of them might just get verbal about it, and that makes sense.

Because your change makes them think about what they are doing.

“Misery loves company” is a cliche’ with a bit of truth.

If I’m always looking for a party, and you are the party, well, I’m not going to like it when you quit being the party, am I?

It’s a bit sad, but it’s also a bit gratifying.

If someone should say to you, “I don’t know who you are anymore,” isn’t that a compliment?

Doesn’t that confirm to you that the Lord has made you new?

It’s good news really.

Life isn’t happening to you anymore

You are happening to life.

Yes it’s disappointing to have folks slander you

It’s disappointing to be accused of things that aren’t true

It hurts your feelings a bit - it’s hard not to get your feelings hurt.

But you have to remember, you are working the right plan and

Judgment is coming to them

Look at verse 5 1 Peter 4:5 “but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.”

See the word give.

It literally comes from a word that means to repay, so think with me here.

Question four of the New City Catechism that we are teaching the 4th and 5th grade Wednesday kids asks:

“How and why did God create us?”

The answer is, “God created us male and female in his own image to know him, love him, live with him and glorify him. And it is right that we who were created by God should live to his glory.”

Ok, why did we read that?

God created us - God gave us life, correct?

So if God gave me life, then I am required to give Him, that gave me my life, an account of my life.

And He is ready to judge.

When a judge is presiding over a case, I wonder how many hours or minutes they have to mull over the case?

When I go see a doctor, they have minutes to get ready to judge what is wrong with me.

Jesus doesn’t have that limitation.

When we stand before Him, He already knows it all.

Every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year of my life

He knows.

And being perfectly just and all knowing

No one will be able to bluff.

You know those folks who seem like they can talk their way out of everything

Yeah, no, not this time.

No one escapes.

Now, here’s the deal - you probably feel like you are going to live forever.

Most nights, I don’t go to bed wondering if I am going to wake up tomorrow

And I suspect most of us think like that.

But we all also know, that one day, we won’t.

We won’t wake up.

And you won’t just disappear.

Your soul, your bios, will stand before Jesus who will judge what you did with the life God gave you.

You will repay Him for His gift with an answer of how you lived your life and if you followed Jesus.

As this verse says, “they will repay the life given to them by giving an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.”

This isn’t to scare you into buying fire insurance by saying you believe in Jesus.

This is a wake up call

What has been the point of our life?

You were created by God to be a reflection of His glory - that’s your job.

The Boss is going to call you to His office.

What are you going to say?

What has been the point of you being here?

Verse 6 - 1 Peter 4:6 “For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.”

“For this is why” is literally the words “for into this”

For into this situation, a situation where people are saved but are harassed by those who aren’t.

A situation where in some places it’s just a few uncomfortable words and moments

And some situations where the unbelievers go into full bore hate and harassment mode

Into this situation, the gospel was preached

The good news - the gospel that God created the world and all humanity, but humanity rebelled against Him.

The rebels deserved death - to be uncreated as it were - because they slapped the face of their creator.

Yet, the creator still loved His creation - He saw His beauty in our ugliness.

So in His great mercy, He sent Jesus to show us God.

Made flesh so we could see Him.

And though God was furious with us because of our sin

And our sin demanded justice

God’s plan was for Jesus to take our punishment - to pay the debt our sin racked up

So if we would follow Jesus - truly hear the truth and follow the truth

Have an honest to goodness life change because we met Jesus

Jesus would carry our sin to the cross and take our punishment.

And Jesus would give us - infuse us - make us - right with God.

On Easter, God sealed the deal by raising Jesus from the dead to prove once and for all

Nothing in heaven, hell or all of the universe can hold God back from doing what He is going to do.

And His purpose is to remove our sin and make us brand new

And he does that to everyone who believes - who hears and does.

Yes, some people will not understand.

They will ridicule you, and scorn you.

But that’s good news

It proves you’ve been changed.

So now, back to verse 1 - because Jesus did what He did, arm yourself with His attitude.

Arm yourself with that same sense of purpose.

Brothers and sisters, you have a high calling.

What once attracted you, you know now is poison.

Lift up your head.

Leave here today with your head held high because you know

Life doesn’t happen to you.

You happen to life.

Because Jesus said so.

We can’t leave here today without giving every one a chance to respond.

If you want to come to the altar and pray a prayer of thanksgiving, come on down.

If you’ve never committed your life to following Jesus

Come down and talk to me.

I’ll be here while we sing and after the service.

You need Jesus - I can help.

We’ll pray and then sing.

You need to come.