— Welcome and Introduction — And so I want you to look at the title and see if you know what it means. It's a feature, not a bug. Anybody ever heard that term before? It's a feature, not a bug.
And what that basically means, I guess you might know, you might not. It means that you're thinking it's broken, but it's not. You're thinking that this doesn't make sense, but it does. You're thinking that it shouldn't be this way, but it's designed that way.
And so that's what we're going to look at.
— Scripture Reading: 1 Peter — And I want us to start by reading the passage itself, 1 Peter 4, verses 12 through 19. Peter says to the church assembled, 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.
— Scripture Reading: But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you're insulted for the name of Christ, you're blessed, because the Spirit of God and of God rest upon you.
— Scripture Reading: The Spirit of glory and of God rest upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer, as a meddler. Interesting he puts those together, isn't it? It starts off with murderer.
— Scripture Reading: Murderer. It ends with meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God.
— Scripture Reading: And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their soul, to the faithful creator while doing good.
— Scripture Reading: — The Feature, Not A Bug — Now let me start with an illustration of it's a feature, not a bug. Julie and David are back with us today. For years, there were years ago, David and Julie would go out of town and their boys were small. And so they needed someone to watch the boys, Luke and Levi.
— Scripture Reading: And I was always on call not to watch the boys. But to fix the TV when her sweet mother watched the boys. You see, her mom didn't have a TV quite like they did. They had a smart TV.
— Scripture Reading: And Julie would say to me, will you be available if my mom can't work the TV? We're going to show her, but she may not be able to work it. I said, sure. And so every time they would go out of town, I'd get a phone call.
— Scripture Reading: And she would say, Gerald, I hate to bother you, but could you come fix the TV? I'd say, sure, I'll be right over. And I learned after that first time. What the problem was every time.
— Scripture Reading: And for some of you that understand TV remotes and some of you who hate the TV remote, there's a button on it that talks about which input do you want. Which input? And she had a habit of somehow grabbing that and touching the input button.
— Scripture Reading: And so it went from input one to input two or three. And so there's just a blank screen. And she'd say, this TV is broken again. Can you come fix it?
— Scripture Reading: So I'd go over. And I would push the input button. And she said, oh, you got it working again. Thank you so much.
— Scripture Reading: It is so sweet. It's so nice of you to come and fix this. I said, yes, ma'am. Happy to do it.
— Scripture Reading: No problem at all. This button right here, this changes the input. You don't want to do that. That's the way you change to watch a DVD or a game system.
— Scripture Reading: Just don't push that button. And she said, oh, I won't do it again. And then she'd call me the next day and say, I've made this TV not work again. I don't like this remote.
— Scripture Reading: Something's wrong with this remote. And I'd go back over. And I'd say, no, this is fine. And finally, I stopped showing her where the input.
— Scripture Reading: It didn't matter. I was happy to do that. Now, before you think I'm anything tech at all, it is David who comes to fix my TV.
— Scripture Reading: It is David who comes and hangs my fan. I'm not that guy. I can't do that. But that was one thing that I seem to have been able to do.
— Scripture Reading: Are there things in your life that seem like a bug, a mistake? It doesn't make sense. It doesn't fit. And yet, actually, it does fit.
— Scripture Reading: You just maybe just don't understand it. I'll give you one for me. Pulling my phone, my iPhone out of my pocket and the flashlight's on. Does that happen to anybody?
— Scripture Reading: I have gone into a darkened place and my pocket is shining. And somebody says, your flashlight's on. This iPhone. Well, it's actually a feature.
— Scripture Reading: I just don't know how to work it. I didn't turn it on. I didn't turn the flashlight on. It just came on.
— Scripture Reading: And I'm sure I'm just like Julie's mom. I just wish the button wasn't there. It's not a bug. It's a feature.
— Scripture Reading: I know that. But I haven't figured it out yet. I'll tell you another one. When we go to visit my daughter, our son-in-law and the babies, they have a type of thermostat.
— Scripture Reading: And thermostats are the bane of my existence. I want to set it on zero. I want to set it on 70 and walk away for 20 years. That's all I want to do.
— Scripture Reading: But this thermostat decides that in the middle of August, we could sleep five degrees warmer. No we can't. No we can't. I wake up sweating and I go and just almost just give evil eyes to that thermostat.
— Scripture Reading: As I set it back and I'm like, leave us alone. It's not a bug. It's a feature of the thermostat. And someone will tell you, look how much.
— Scripture Reading: Money you're saving if you'll use this thermostat. And I'll say, look how sweaty I am if I use that thermostat. That's just because I don't really understand it. It's not bad programming.
— Scripture Reading: It's me not understanding. Is that anyone here?
— Scripture Reading: — Suffering is a Feature — Not necessarily the thermostat or the remote, but life. So Peter's writing to people who are in that spot. They do not understand what is going on. And it seems like a bug.
— Scripture Reading: It's a bug in the nature of life. It just shouldn't be that way. A lot of things don't make sense to them. For one thing, they're under pressure for things they have never been under pressure before. And they feel like something's wrong. I just remember so much that when I came to Christ, some people talked to me and a couple well-meaning people told me that when I came to Christ, it was going to be so great and life is going to be so wonderful and my problems were solved. Well, I think what they meant. Well, I think what they meant. It was the problem of salvation was solved, but all my problems were not solved.
— Scripture Reading: I think Peter's, when he met with this group of people, they had that same thing. And what he's trying to tell them, and this is a key point for the whole thing. It's not a point, but a key thesis here. Suffering, like that last song we just sang.
— Scripture Reading: Suffering is not a bug in the Christian life. It is a feature. Now, will you just let that settle? Settle into your minds for a moment.
— Scripture Reading: I know you don't want to, and I don't want to either. I don't want to think about suffering, but it is not a bug. It's actually a feature. So there's four ways you can take it.
— Scripture Reading: These aren't my points really, but I kind of threw them back into the points later. With suffering, we can expect it, we can embrace it, we can examine it, and we can entrust it. All those things are part of it.
— Scripture Reading: But by the time we're done with this message, which by the way, Mike, you said after this, we would get on a lake time. I suggest we're on a lake time right now. I'm not in a rush at all.
— Scripture Reading: I'm in no hurry at all. Do you all in a hurry? No, we're doing fine. So let me begin by saying to remind you that all these things about suffering can be taken step at a time. We can examine ourselves. We can ask ourselves some questions. And I think we'll be happier if we begin to understand about the bugs, the problems in our life. I'd like to remind myself to stop fighting. I'm rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl upon you to test you as though something strange were happening i would put rhetorically outside it because it's not you should expect it in other words you reported an error peter says just read the manual it's not an error the manual is god's word how do i know suffering is not above well jesus talked about it peter talked about it paul said it do you remember the words in this world you will have anybody got the word i heard it from a few of you tribulation trouble problems suffering bugs this is what the bible tells us it's going to happen you're going to have tribulation and the information was never missing in this manual is told us from the very beginning but i will admit to you even at this stage of my life when trouble comes for some reason it perplexes me and I keep thinking well what I do why did this happen well it's not a bug the information was never missing this trial is not a surprise to God and it shouldn't have been a surprise to us it shouldn't have been a surprise even to the folks that Peter is writing to because they just weren't reading the manual the word that Peter uses for fiery trial is a Greek word that is actually a word for a smelting furnace now I have a little bit of experience with this because it's a precise word when I went off to college I got a job with a company and the the job was not important the job didn't last long thank the Lord but I went on this job and every day when I went to the job I had to walk through a factory you and as I'd walk into the factory I would come from bright sunlight to an absolutely dark factory where I could see in the distance they were pouring something molten and so they would put the bells would go off when the way that these horns would go off don't get near this and I remember standing there a few times and watching as the liquid metal was being poured from a crane into this one place and what would come out of that was a sizzling sound smoke would come up you'd smell it you You would hear it. That's a pretty strong image that Peter talks about when he says trial.
— Scripture Reading: This is not that, you know, when I was a kid we had a heating blanket on the bed. My mother called it an electric blanket. And I would wake up and it would be too hot. He's not talking.
— Scripture Reading: He's talking about molten. He's talking about a furnace. That's the kind of things that we go through. You see, up to this point, Christians had been tolerated when the book was written here.
— Scripture Reading: They'd been tolerated. It was okay. Some people considered it a part of being a Jew or Judaism. And Jews were allowed to worship freely.
— Scripture Reading: But that was about to change because all of a sudden a new guy by the name of Nero would light a new fire. And the emperors that followed him would keep it burning. And that burning fire was... It was against Christians.
— Scripture Reading: You may know this through history that during the Roman Colosseums, when it got too dark at night, one emperor in particular was known for lighting the Colosseum by attaching Christians to poles and burning them. This is how bad it got. This is the fiery trial that Peter is talking about.
— Scripture Reading: And he's saying it's not unexpected. We told you things like this were going to happen. You knew it was going to happen. And here's why it keeps happening.
— Scripture Reading: Because the whole world is built on lies. The world is built upon pride and the desire for more. Always more. But a dedicated Christian builds on truth and humility.
— Scripture Reading: The desire to glorify God. Just look at our Savior. This is where we build our lives. These two things.
— Scripture Reading: Truth and lies. And pride and humility. A desire to get more. Or a desire to follow God and glorify God.
— Scripture Reading: They don't fit without friction. And that's where all these trials come from. The Pharisees were religious people. Deeply religious people.
— Scripture Reading: And they crucified Jesus. Because these two things don't match. Jesus warned his disciples to beware of men who will hand you over to the councils and scourge you in the synagogues. Imagine.
— Scripture Reading: Coming into a house of God and being beaten. That's what happened to the early church. What's going on here? Why is this happening?
— Scripture Reading: Well, God declared war on Satan after the fall. All the way back to the Garden of Eden. And Satan has been attacking God's children all the way through that. Now, I want to pause just for a moment to make something very clear.
— Scripture Reading: You are very important to God. You don't matter one whit to Satan. Not a bit. Doesn't care about you at all.
— Scripture Reading: Well, he's attacking me. Not because of who you are. He's attacking you because of who you're connected to. To me, the most despicable thing is if I hated someone, the most despicable thing would be to attack his children.
— Scripture Reading: But that's the only one Satan can attack. He can't make a difference. He can't make headway against God. So he hurts his kids.
— Scripture Reading: This is the scheme that has been going on the whole time. But Peter says, don't fear this because it is a smelting procedure. It is a refining process. It's the kind that removes what doesn't belong there.
— Scripture Reading: You see, God has the ability to step into things that would be so bad and to purify and make something better out of us because we went through it. That's what he does. He doesn't waste pain. He doesn't waste tears.
— Scripture Reading: The furnace never destroys what God made. It just changes the way we walk out of it. Peter's first word to them then is that what no one really wants to hear. We need to expect tough times.
— Scripture Reading: And second, I would like to remind you according to this passage. Boy, this is a toughie. You're not a victim. No, you're better than that.
— Scripture Reading: You're a witness. Not a victim, a witness. So embrace it. Verse 13 says, rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad when the glory is revealed.
— Scripture Reading: If you're insulted for the name of Christ, you're blessed because the spirit of God, the spirit of glory, I said it again, and of God rest upon you. Peter's going to say this. Suffering with Christ is a privilege. But that privilege comes with a presence.
— Scripture Reading: A presence. To suffer for Jesus brings the presence of Jesus in a very substantial way. Now, by the way, four times in these two verses, Peter comes back to the same word, rejoice. So in other words, he means it.
— Scripture Reading: He doesn't say somehow bear with it. He says rejoice. Rejoice. But Peter gives two reasons to embrace what is coming.
— Scripture Reading: And both of these change. Everything about how we see the tough times in our lives. The furnace. I'm going to just say them to you, then I'll explain them a little bit better.
— Scripture Reading: Two reasons to embrace what is coming. And these are directly out of the scripture.
— Scripture Reading: — Fellowship with Christ's Suffering — Suffering contains fellowship with Jesus. If we share in his suffering now, we share in his glory later. You can't have the second chapter without the first. Suffering contains fellowship with Jesus.
— Scripture Reading: And suffering confirms the presence of God. The spirit of God's glory rests on you in it. The fire of persecution doesn't drive God away. It's where his presence shows up the most.
— Scripture Reading: Have you noticed that? Have you noticed that during the absolute toughest times, the ones that you would not wish upon anyone, it is during those times that you really felt and understood and knew the presence of God? That's what God does.
— Scripture Reading: So let's look at the first one. Your suffering means fellowship with Christ. The world hated him first. So when the world turns on us because we bear his name, we're in good company.
— Scripture Reading: The fellowship of his sufferings is a gift. And not every believer grows to the point where God can trust them with it. If there's something you're going through that's pretty difficult, God is trusting you with that. That's actually a pretty big thing.
— Scripture Reading: So the apostles, when they left the council because they had been beaten and told to never talk about Jesus again, they did this. They counted themselves worthy to suffer shame for his name. They walked out rejoicing.
— Scripture Reading: That's a completely different operating system that we see everywhere else except in the Christian life. The world sees suffering as always something to escape. And I understand it. We don't like it.
— Scripture Reading: We recoil against it. But Peter sees it as something to embrace because of who shows up in it. Christ is with us in the furnace. We know the story of the three Hebrew children thrown into the fire and they discovered they were not alone. There was a fourth man. there it was the Lord the Lord with Paul in his trials he promises to be with us in the end to the end of the age when sinners persecute us they are actually not persecuting us they're persecuting Jesus the furnace puts you right where God already has you scheduled here's the second thing your suffering means the Spirit of God rest upon you you want a little proof of that do you remember the first martyr in the New Testament was a man by the name of Stephen Stephen is having rocks hurled at him to put him to death it says he looked up and he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God he's experiencing the glory of God when a mob is throwing rocks at his head now by the way I know this is not comfortable I know this is not what anybody wants to hear I know I would rather be preaching on prayer I really would I'd rather be preaching on the authority and integrity of God's Word but once again this is the text for today and it's what we just read today. need to hear because we're going to go through this here's the cool thing even though it's a furnace you have seen others go through a terrible furnace and you've watched them what we do we're really good watchers we watch what people do when something happens we watch how they respond to something some people who are kind of mischievous like to get into a situation where we we say it akin to they walk into a room and throw a bomb and walk out and kind of watch from outside to see what happens okay we're really good at watching stuff but we've also watched people go through extremely difficult things and we've marveled at the strength they had some people have the kind of strength where they grab on and white knuckle it and some people have the kind of strength that they go through it with peace that's the second one is what I'm talking about when you can begin to understand the power of God and to hang on because you have faith in God and to carry the name of Christ is to admit you're a Christian and say I follow him let's go to the third point not every fire is a trial again think about that for a moment this is a tough one but can you examine what's going on in— Trial vs. Consequence — your life and find out if it is a trial or is it a consequence I'm going to read this one again let me read you the text verse 15 let none of you suffer as a murderer thief evildoer meddler yet other side if you suffer as a Christian don't be ashamed so I'm gonna tell you if I suffer for being a murderer I'm probably gonna have shame if I suffer for being a thief you know the other words I had caught I am held up to a light they hold me responsible I'm gonna be a murderer I'm gonna be a rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl! ! rempl ! rempl rempl ! rempl in suffering for Christ. The Bible says, for it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God, and it begins with us. What will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if those righteous scarcely be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? So let's put it in the perspective of, again, of a smelter's fire, of a furnace. And what we throw in, some things begin to burn away. There's that smoke, there's that smell, there's those sparks, that's that hissing of the steam. The stuff that doesn't belong is going away. God is doing that with Christians all the time, creating us to be more like Jesus. That's what he does. Can you imagine what you would be like if nothing ever happened bad to you at all, and you didn't have to struggle over anything, and everything was handed to you? You know what you just thought? You thought you'd think you know somebody that that's already happening. Right? And we do. We see people on the television, we see people on the news, we see people we think, man, alive, they have it easy. Years ago, I watched a program, and it was the children of super wealthy, super popular, influential people. And this was, in one of these shows, there was a designer, a designer who, you know, he was a designer, and he was a designer, and he was a designer, and he was a designer, and he was a designer, and he was a designer, and he was a He always bought his expensive stuff. And here's the kids. It shows his daughter and a couple of other friends, and they are lying out by the pool where they live in California, and the pool's beautiful, and it's unbelievable, and all they have to do is basically ring a bell, somebody brings them this and brings them that, goes to do this, fix me that, do that, and they're lying there, and the little girl says, I am so bored. She said, you know what? Why don't we go to the island? And they're like, yeah, let's go to the island. And so she picks up her phone.
— Scripture Reading: She calls the pilot. We want to go to the island. Yeah, get the plane ready. We want to leave in the next few minutes.
— Scripture Reading: And so they go. It's the happy music. They're playing on the show. And they go grab all their stuff.
— Scripture Reading: And this shows them getting on the plane. And the plane takes off. And all these vibrant images of palm trees. And the next scene, they're lying by a pool that looked like the last one.
— Scripture Reading: The same drinks are being delivered to them. They've got towels out behind them. Same lounger. Same everything.
— Scripture Reading: And they say, isn't this better? No, this is the same. It's just, can you imagine? We look at that and we think about those kids and we say, man, what's going to happen when it's not easy anymore?
— Scripture Reading: Right? They're not being under the crucible to make them stronger. Every time I watch one of our lives. Our little grandchildren fall because they're doing something they shouldn't do.
— Scripture Reading: And the parents say, slow down. Don't crawl on that. Don't jump on that. And I watch them fall.
— Scripture Reading: There's a part of me that says, oh, my gosh, I hate. They did learn, though, didn't they? They're learning. Same way you did.
— Scripture Reading: Same thing. We don't want to see them go through it. But that is what's going on. Always, that's what's going on.
— Scripture Reading: But not everything that happens in our life is because we're suffering for Jesus. Sometimes. Sometimes it just means you shouldn't have been walking on that high wall as a kid. That wasn't very smart.
— Scripture Reading: And that's why you're hurting. These aren't comfortable questions to ask why. But let me give you three. Number one.
— Scripture Reading: The first one is the hardest. Why am I actually suffering? Why are things going bad for me? As a pastor for years, as a staff member, 11 years before I was a pastor, people would come up and say, God's really, really giving me a tough time right now.
— Scripture Reading: And I said, oh, I'm so sorry. What are you going through? I'll pray for you. And they'd start to define it to me and tell me.
— Scripture Reading: And there was many times I just kept my mouth shut because I thought that is not God doing that. You really shouldn't have done that. But you didn't ask me. And I'm trying not to not to meddle.
— Scripture Reading: But I want you to know that some of the greatest people that we read about in the Bible suffered and it wasn't for God. Let me give you an example. David. I'll give you three.
— Scripture Reading: David suffered because of disobedience. Remember that? I don't have to tell the whole story, right? We know he suffered because of disobedience.
— Scripture Reading: And then Peter himself stood in a courtyard and he denied Christ three times. That wasn't for Christ. That was suffering because he did the wrong thing. Abraham suffered because of disobedience.
— Scripture Reading: Great people suffer because they weren't, not because they were faithful always, but because they just weren't doing the right thing. And it's easier to endure a furnace than it is to examine a furnace. You know why you're there in the first place? Righteous receive their due on earth.
— Scripture Reading: How much more the Bible says will the ungodly and the sinner. Peter is simply saying this. All of us are going to go through tough times because of what we do. Some of us are going to go through tough times because we do in the name of Jesus.
— Scripture Reading: Now let me go to the second question. Am I ashamed or am I glorifying Christ? And this one hit Peter differently than it does us. Because he knew what shame felt like.
— Scripture Reading: When he denied the Lord. He said that he would be ashamed of suffering three times. And what he puts things together is to simply say this. Don't be ashamed but instead glorify God.
— Scripture Reading: Don't be ashamed for suffering as a Christian but glorify God. Now I'm sure there are people in every congregation who have quietly decided that keeping their faith private is just good manners. I had two grandmothers growing up. One of my grandmothers was a really strong woman of faith always at church.
— Scripture Reading: She knew the Bible. She talked about the Bible. She told us stories. All that.
— Scripture Reading: My other grandmother, I never heard her talk about going to church. And I never heard her saying anything about the Bible. So when I came to Christ and I was 14 years old, the preacher said we were supposed to share Christ with everybody. And I took it real literally because I'm a teenager.
— Scripture Reading: And so I shared Christ with this person, that person. I shared Christ with my teachers at school. They didn't like it a whole lot usually. But I thought I'm going to share Christ with my grandmother.
— Scripture Reading: And so I went to the grandmother that never went to church. And I said, hey, something neat has happened to me. I trust in Christ as my Savior. And I want to ask you whether or not you are a Christian.
— Scripture Reading: I'll never forget she looked at me and said, I can't even believe you'd ask that question. That's none of your business. She said, how dare you say such a thing. You should not be asking people whether or not they're a Christian.
— Scripture Reading: I said, I shouldn't? No. That's a personal matter. You don't talk about personal matters.
— Scripture Reading: And in my little brain, I remember sitting at her home when one of her friends came over. They talked about all kinds of personal matters that were not theirs. But this is a personal matter we couldn't talk about. And I said, okay.
— Scripture Reading: I guess I won't talk to you about it anymore. She said, I just, I am so embarrassed that you asked me that question. I said, okay. I will hold onto it for you for rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl rempl his business and you should not be talking about your wife. I'd say, are you kidding me? We're kind of married here. Things that are going on in my life are together. It's the same thing being a Christian. Your life is not your own. You're not living a single life and every once in a while you date Jesus. This is who you are. The third question is, am I trying to reach these lost? Do you know what brought, you remember the Philippian jailer? We call him that. I don't know what his name is. I'm going to be interested in heaven when I ask him what his name is. He's just Philippian jailer, right? Do you know what brought him to Christ? Yes, it was an earthquake. No, it was not. The earthquake brought him to almost suicide. He was going to kill himself because of the earthquake. The earthquake made him think, oh my gosh, I can't see anything. Dust is everywhere. All the cells are broken open. All of the prisoners have escaped. I'm supposing I would do that. I'd run out the door and when they catch me, they're going to kill me and it's not going to be pretty. I'll just kill myself right now. That's not what brought him to Christ. What brought him to Christ was Paul saying, hey, hey, don't hurt yourself. We're right here. The guy says, I don't get it. Paul shares Christ with him. Paul could have said, it's not really my business. I just say, hey man, don't hurt yourself. We're right here. Okay, good. You okay? I'll stop talking now. No, it's sharing Christ. This is what we're brought into and persecution for us and trials for other people and the way they watch us during those trials. Those open the door for us prayerfully led of the spirit to talk about our savior. Number four, I said I was on late time. I think I really am. Okay, here we go. Number four, and we finish it up.
— Scripture Reading: I hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold hold We don't really want to figure it out. We don't really want to say why. We just want to gripe that it's happening.
— Scripture Reading: That remote control, I wish I could just tape over the input device so that I can't touch it anymore. It was designed for that. But here's the cool thing. We were made to figure that stuff out.
— Scripture Reading: We're not below the spectrum of being able to figure out things that are happening in our lives.
— Scripture Reading: — Entrusting the Soul to God — This is where I say entrust it. Look at verse 19. Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will, not because they're murderers or meddlers or thieves, but according to God's will, because they're suffering for the name of Christ, let them entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. Commit to the faithful creator. Why does he say faithful creator? Why does he say let them entrust their souls to a loving God?
— Scripture Reading: Let them entrust their souls to the Savior himself. Let them entrust their souls. To the God who made all things. Yes, that one, the creator.
— Scripture Reading: Why? Why does he use that term? Commit yourself to the faithful creator. Because the creator creates.
— Scripture Reading: And the creator designs. And you were designed for what you're going through. Full stop. Think about it.
— Scripture Reading: What are you going through? Well, God just doesn't know. Oh, yes, he does. He created you.
— Scripture Reading: God doesn't know. I can't handle this. Yes, he knows you can handle this. God doesn't understand what I'm feeling right now.
— Scripture Reading: Oh, are you kidding me? He created you. You were made for this. But I don't want it.
— Scripture Reading: Now, that's the problem. Not that you weren't created for it. And I don't blame you. I don't blame you in the least.
— Scripture Reading: That smelter's furnace is also, on a smaller scale, how they refine gold. What carat is it? Depends on how much gold. Depends on how much heat and how long.
— Scripture Reading: God is creating something in you that's worth a whole lot more than gold. It's you. It's the spirit of Christ in you. And you know this point where he says, let them entrust their souls to a faithful God? That's a banking term. It's a banking term. It's when you entrust your money at the bank.
— Scripture Reading: It's when you commit your money. It's when you put your money in the bank. And in the Greek, it's a continuous action. It's not one deposit.
— Scripture Reading: It's another and another and another. And you know what happens when you start making a lot of deposits? You might say, I actually know what happens when I start making a lot of withdrawals. No, a lot of deposits.
— Scripture Reading: The value increases. That's why I used a banking term here. And when you put anything with God, when you deposit anything, entrust God with anything, that value grows.
— Scripture Reading: So entrust your very lives. Trust God. And your lives will grow. The people in this room who have the deepest faith are not the ones who avoided the furnace.
— Scripture Reading: They're also not the ones who went through a furnace because they meddled. They're the ones who are in a furnace because they went through something that God brought them into. And they went through that entrusting their souls to God. So there's nothing to fear if you're suffering in the will of God.
— Scripture Reading: Not to fear. Something you may not like, but not to fear.
— Scripture Reading: — Embracing God's Design — Let me close with this. No one signs up for the furnace. No one. But here's what Peter wants you to walk out of here knowing.
— Scripture Reading: The button still works and the TV's not broken. The thermostat still is working even though you couldn't program it. God didn't make a mistake when he designed your life that includes these trials. The fire will refine you.
— Scripture Reading: It will reveal who you are. And it will bring into your life a presence that you didn't have before. When you walk through some situations, you didn't have great faith. How do I know that?
— Scripture Reading: I'm guessing. We're pretty much, you know, all the same here that way. There's times we go through some stuff and we just don't understand it. And all we do is really cry about it.
— Scripture Reading: And we'll complain about it. There's other times when you go through these things and you have faith. Which one do you think is better? Which one do you think is easier?
— Scripture Reading: Complaining or being refined? Those things are going to keep happening because the fire brings a presence you cannot manufacture. It's the only time we can fall upon Jesus. Not the only time, but it's the time when we fall upon Jesus and say, I can't do it without you. And when we do that, we're going to be able to do it. And that is remarkable. But he answers prayer.
— Scripture Reading: He does. He absolutely does. I don't know what you're going through, but somebody here is going through something. And someone else said, well, if you're not going through something, you just got out of something.
— Scripture Reading: And you didn't just get out of something and you're not going through something. You're about to go through something. This is the way it works. It's high time for us to not be surprised about it.
— Scripture Reading: It's time for us to embrace the presence of Jesus. During those toughest times. Let's pray together. Thank you, Father.
— Scripture Reading: You're always good to us, even when we are in really tough times. You're always there. And especially we can feel your presence and see your presence when the toughest times hit us. The very fact that today I was able to be here at the chapel and to speak on this is something also for me to consider.
— Scripture Reading: What is going on in my life? What, Lord, are you trying to teach me? What is either about to happen or what is in the middle of that I don't quite even understand yet? But whatever it is that we go through, I pray that we will lift up our arms like a child in tears lifts up their arms to their mom or dad and says, I need help.
— Scripture Reading: And wants to be hugged and wants to be loved and wants to be embraced. Because you're there for that. Amen. We love you.
— Scripture Reading: And it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.