SPEAKER_00: I encourage you to take your Bible or your device, if that is what you use, and open to the New Testament book of 1 Peter.
SPEAKER_00: We've been working our way slowly but surely through this New Testament epistle.
SPEAKER_00: We're nearing the end.
SPEAKER_00: And we are at the end of chapter 4 this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Going to look together at verse 12 through the end of the chapter.
SPEAKER_00: So again, that is 1 Peter chapter 4, beginning in verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: The scriptures tell us, 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.
SPEAKER_00: But rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: Rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
SPEAKER_00: If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
SPEAKER_00: But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler.
SPEAKER_00: Yet if any one suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.
SPEAKER_00: For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God.
SPEAKER_00: And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
SPEAKER_00: And if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Why is it that some of us see a glass as half full and some of it as half empty?
SPEAKER_00: Why do we have those differing perspectives?
SPEAKER_00: Have you any of you noticed what's happening in politics lately?
SPEAKER_00: Some say what's happening is good for Christians, some say it's terrible for Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Think about the political differences that we hear about in President Trump.
SPEAKER_00: I've never seen anything like it in my lifetime.
SPEAKER_00: When we hear or read of differences of opinion regarding what the president has done or what the president has said or a decision that he's made, we don't merely see differences of opinion, we see disgust and hate and severe intolerance.
SPEAKER_00: Even between Christians.
SPEAKER_00: You can read about opposing views, but when you read about opposing views, you wonder if the writers are describing the same event.
SPEAKER_00: Did they see what the other saw?
SPEAKER_00: Did they hear what the other saw?
SPEAKER_00: When we talk about a glass being half empty or half full, are we looking at the same glass?
SPEAKER_00: How is it that we have such different opinions?
SPEAKER_00: And why does that sort of thing even exist between Christians?
SPEAKER_00: Why do we have this kind of situation in our country?
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm not going to answer that question, and I'm done with politics.
SPEAKER_00: But one of the ways of thinking through that process is thinking about worldviews.
SPEAKER_00: An oversimplification of a worldview is that it is simply the way you think about your world.
SPEAKER_00: But there's much more to the concept of a worldview than that.
SPEAKER_00: I have a chart here that I borrowed from others who have used it, and I think it's incredibly helpful to explain what a worldview is.
SPEAKER_00: We start at the center of these concentric circles.
SPEAKER_00: Your worldview, what you think of your world, determines your beliefs.
SPEAKER_00: What you believe determines your values.
SPEAKER_00: Your values determine your behavior.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's one set of words on this diagram.
SPEAKER_00: The other set of words explains it in the same way, but in a more practical manner.
SPEAKER_00: Your worldview is what you perceive or believe to be real.
SPEAKER_00: Michael Del Rosario, the self-proclaimed apologetics guy, says, it's everything you believe about what's real and what really matters in life.
SPEAKER_00: What is real then determines what is true, what truth is in your world.
SPEAKER_00: What you believe to be true then determines what is good in your mind, in your reality.
SPEAKER_00: And what is good then impacts what you do in life.
SPEAKER_00: In her book Total Truth, Nancy Pearcy writes, a worldview is like a mental map that tells us how to navigate the world effectively.
SPEAKER_00: We might say that each of us carries a model of the universe inside of our heads that tells us what the world is like and how we should live in it.
SPEAKER_00: Now, any way you look at it, a worldview begins with a belief.
SPEAKER_00: What do you believe about the realities of your world?
SPEAKER_00: What is it that you believe?
SPEAKER_00: As Christians, we ought to seek out a biblical worldview.
SPEAKER_00: And a biblical worldview begins with God.
SPEAKER_00: Even more, it begins with a God that is our creator.
SPEAKER_00: That is where Peter ends this statement.
SPEAKER_00: That we will face all kinds of trials in this life.
SPEAKER_00: And the only way that you can properly face the trials, the fiery trials, he says at the beginning, is if you entrust yourself to a faithful creator.
SPEAKER_00: But the only way that you can entrust yourself to a faithful creator is if you have started, if you have begun your belief system with a God who is a creator.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone has a perception or a belief about the world that guides their interaction with the world.
SPEAKER_00: It motivates decisions, actions, even interpretations of everything around us.
SPEAKER_00: Your worldview guides your interpretation as to whether this is half full or half empty or just crazy.
SPEAKER_00: Your worldview motivated you, hopefully, to shower before coming to church this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Or last night, maybe.
SPEAKER_00: Your worldview motivated you to decide how to dress to come to church.
SPEAKER_00: You have a worldview.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone has a worldview.
SPEAKER_00: You just may not have processed it yet.
SPEAKER_00: Your worldview motivated you to decide to come to church this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Your worldview motivates you, whether you go to church, or whether you go to the lake, or whether you go to the golf course on Sunday morning, or whether you just sit home and watch some show.
SPEAKER_00: Your worldview motivated you to come here this morning, whether that's because you are curious, whether that's because you're searching or you're in need or you have a desire to worship the God of the universe.
SPEAKER_00: You have a worldview and it molds your thinking about faith.
SPEAKER_00: It molds your thinking about politics, about economics, about national and international governments, about education, about medicine, about marriage and parenting, speed limits and road construction.
SPEAKER_00: But as Christians, we ought to have a desire to have a worldview that is molded by truth.
SPEAKER_00: Not just any truth, but ultimate truth.
SPEAKER_00: But even that requires a presupposition.
SPEAKER_00: Presupposition is merely a belief that we hold beforehand.
SPEAKER_00: As Christians, we believe that God is.
SPEAKER_00: And we believe that God is truth.
SPEAKER_00: And that he has revealed his truth to us.
SPEAKER_00: In a way that we can read, we can hear, we can understand, we can process.
SPEAKER_00: We believe that God has spoken, as it says in 2 Timothy 3.16, that his word is the very breath of God, meaning it is his very nature, it is who he is.
SPEAKER_00: He has given us himself in his word.
SPEAKER_00: And so we enter the realm of worldviews with that presupposition, with that belief beforehand.
SPEAKER_00: God's word is objective truth, and any other claims to truth must be seen in light of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's not the way that everybody sees it.
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully that's not a surprise to you.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not the way everybody sees it.
SPEAKER_00: And there are various ways to look at worldviews.
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to go through several of them this morning, but for time I will spare you.
SPEAKER_00: But as an example, Christian philosopher J.P.
SPEAKER_00: Moreland has classified worldviews today generally in three categories.
SPEAKER_00: One, historic Christianity, two, scientific naturalism, and three, postmodern relativism.
SPEAKER_00: Historic Christianity is generally why you are here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: It believes that God is real, that he created everything, that he gave a moral law to be followed.
SPEAKER_00: Some things are therefore good and righteous, and other things are bad or evil.
SPEAKER_00: God has revealed himself in the pages of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Then there is scientific naturalism, which in essence everything boils down to natural processes.
SPEAKER_00: So whether that's being able to bend a piece of metal with your mind or a genetic mutation, we're just talking about what happens in the natural world.
SPEAKER_00: Science is the way we know things.
SPEAKER_00: So we can know that medicine helps us, but we cannot know that God is real.
SPEAKER_00: That's scientific naturalism.
SPEAKER_00: Then there's postmodern relativism.
SPEAKER_00: If you just want to boil it down to one word, I'll give you one word.
SPEAKER_00: Oprah.
SPEAKER_00: Postmodern relativism believes that truth is relative.
SPEAKER_00: It is relative to you and your life and your circumstances and your community.
SPEAKER_00: It's a feel-good, politically correct worldview where no one's perspective is really right or really wrong, it's just what matters to you.
SPEAKER_00: Until you infringe on what I believe, and then it matters.
SPEAKER_00: Words in postmodern relativism don't really have any definite meaning.
SPEAKER_00: They mean what you decide they mean, what your experiences say they mean, and what life means.
SPEAKER_00: And in that survey, they came away with the same three categories, but they added another one, a fourth one, adding spirituality, right, in between historic Christianity and scientific realism.
SPEAKER_00: And spiritual just means, you know, it's it's whatever works for me.
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, if if the Bible, if what I believe about the Bible means that I'm going to be treated poorly, then maybe I can just soften those beliefs a little bit, or I can toss that one out.
SPEAKER_00: It's just whatever I want it to be.
SPEAKER_00: But in this survey, they they asked college students, what do you believe?
SPEAKER_00: What is your worldview?
SPEAKER_00: Where do you fit in these categories?
SPEAKER_00: 32% of them said that they identified as religious.
SPEAKER_00: 28% of them as secular or the scientific realism aspect.
SPEAKER_00: 32% identified themselves as spiritual in some way, and 8% didn't know.
SPEAKER_00: Now let's compare that.
SPEAKER_00: That was five years ago.
SPEAKER_00: Let's compare that with a study conducted by Barna Group last year of practicing Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we go from college students to practicing Christians in America.
SPEAKER_00: So that includes all of us.
SPEAKER_00: They asked practicing Christians, what do you believe?
SPEAKER_00: Where do you fit into a worldview system?
SPEAKER_00: Well, they found that there were elements of spirituality, secularism, postmodernism, and Marxism in practicing Christians.
SPEAKER_00: 36% agreed with some sense of Marxism, and 29% of Christians believe ideas based in secularism.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: Well, new spirituality is a belief system that holds a positive view of religion.
SPEAKER_00: It generally emphasizes the supernatural, but it feeds at the same time a dissatisfaction with institutions.
SPEAKER_00: So we don't like churchy things.
SPEAKER_00: It's an institution.
SPEAKER_00: So new spirituality would say all people pray to the same God or the same spirit, no matter what name they use for that God.
SPEAKER_00: We're all praying to a superior power.
SPEAKER_00: It's almost karmic.
SPEAKER_00: You get what you sow.
SPEAKER_00: Fifty-two percent of practicing Christians, this Barna survey said, believe strongly that the Bible teaches God helps them who helps themselves.
SPEAKER_00: God helps those who help themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Secularism is the scientific method, uses that to explain life, and so it generally advances a Darwinistic and evolutionistic view of the world.
SPEAKER_00: But what is gaining popularity in that area is materialism.
SPEAKER_00: And that is the area that's making inroads into Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: A majority of Christians still resist Darwinism.
SPEAKER_00: But many lean towards materialism.
SPEAKER_00: For them, and I quote, meaning and purpose comes from working hard to earn as much as possible so that you can make the most of life.
SPEAKER_00: That's in the church.
SPEAKER_00: 52%.
SPEAKER_00: Postmodernism says there's no such thing as objectivity.
SPEAKER_00: We're all limited by our experience, so the best thing that we can do is do what's best for ourselves, what's true for us.
SPEAKER_00: No one can know for sure what meaning and purpose there is in life.
SPEAKER_00: In Barnes's survey, almost 25% of Christians believe that what is morally right or wrong depends on what the individual believes.
SPEAKER_00: Marxism holds a discontentment with economics and capitalism.
SPEAKER_00: It moves towards socialism and communism, but but it's also founded on an irreligious foundation, almost moving towards being hostile to religion.
SPEAKER_00: Barna's survey found that 36% of practicing Christians hold to at least one Marxist idea.
SPEAKER_00: Again.
SPEAKER_00: Half empty or half full?
SPEAKER_00: How can we be on the same page if all of us are holding to such different views of our world?
SPEAKER_00: How can we be united?
SPEAKER_00: Are we following the same God?
SPEAKER_00: Are we following the same scriptures?
SPEAKER_00: That's why Barna's survey concluded with the challenge with competing worldviews is that there are fragments of similarities to some Christian teachings.
SPEAKER_00: And some, I quote, may recognize and latch on to those ideas, not realizing that they are distortions of biblical truths because we lack discernment, friends.
SPEAKER_00: Charles Spurgeon once said that discernment is not being able to discern the difference between right and wrong, but between what is right and what is almost right.
SPEAKER_00: We can't tell most often what is almost right.
SPEAKER_00: And so we latch on to it.
SPEAKER_00: The survey concludes the call for the church is to help Christians dissect popular beliefs before allowing them to settle in their own ideology.
SPEAKER_00: Informed thinking is essential to developing and maintaining a healthy biblical worldview and faith.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So what's a proper worldview for a Christian?
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to talk the rest of our morning about that, but we need to get to 1 Peter.
SPEAKER_00: But before we get to 1 Peter, we believe in a God who created all that is.
SPEAKER_00: That's where we begin.
SPEAKER_00: And as Peter said in verse 19, he is a faithful God who revealed himself to mankind.
SPEAKER_00: That leads us to then say, objective truth can be known, and that truth is revealed in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And that truth, objective truth revealed in Scripture is to inform our view of truth, our view of what is good, and our view of what we do.
SPEAKER_00: How do we know that?
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you asked, I'll tell you.
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 8, Jesus said, If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth.
SPEAKER_00: And the truth will set you free.
SPEAKER_00: We can know the truth.
SPEAKER_00: And it's free.
SPEAKER_00: He said a little bit later in John chapter 17, praying to the Father, sanctify them in the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Your word is truth.
SPEAKER_00: Now, our objective, our goal, our responsibility, our desire ought to be to become like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We want to become mature disciples who are devoted to following Him, and through that devoted following, God makes us like Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we are made like Christ through His Word.
SPEAKER_00: His word then becomes our worldview.
SPEAKER_00: It determines how we interpret our world, how we live in our world, and even how we feel about our world.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why did this matter to Peter?
SPEAKER_00: And why should it matter to you?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Christians in the first century faced an uncertain world.
SPEAKER_00: The church was growing rapidly, spreading throughout the Roman world.
SPEAKER_00: The world was generally familiar with Old Testament Judaism.
SPEAKER_00: They knew about that, they understood that.
SPEAKER_00: But a religion founded in a crucified man who supposedly rose from the dead claiming to be God was brand new to the world.
SPEAKER_00: And most people, but especially governments, did not know how to respond to that new faith.
SPEAKER_00: Often the response was negative.
SPEAKER_00: It could even include severe persecution.
SPEAKER_00: And so new Christians, especially those who were not Jewish but came from a pagan religion, as they grew in their understanding of Scripture and of God, they also grew in their understanding of His sovereignty over all of the world.
SPEAKER_00: As all of that grew and they became mature, more and more mature in their faith and following Jesus, they needed to know how to handle everything thrown at them by a hostile world.
SPEAKER_00: They needed to understand.
SPEAKER_00: Understand how to process it, how to think about it, how to feel about it, how to act on it, how Jesus himself would have them do that.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not much different for us today.
SPEAKER_00: Our worldviews are going to be informed by what we take in.
SPEAKER_00: That's just what happens.
SPEAKER_00: Our presuppositions and our assumptions are going to develop from how we see the world, what we see in the world, from what we hear, from what we learn.
SPEAKER_00: Take, for example, I said I was done with politics, and with this I promise I will be.
SPEAKER_00: Take, for example, politics and news.
SPEAKER_00: Worldviews will develop quite differently if you watch CNN entirely, or MSNBC entirely, and those will be completely different from the perspective developed from watching Fox News.
SPEAKER_00: We are formed by what we take in.
SPEAKER_00: We are formed by teachers and friends.
SPEAKER_00: We are formed by parents and grandparents, economics and governments.
SPEAKER_00: But as a Christian, what should form you most is the word of the living God because it is truth.
SPEAKER_00: Do not be surprised.
SPEAKER_00: Whether that's because they were surprised, and so Peter was responding to that and wanting to comfort them, or because he's seeking to prepare them for something that's coming, we don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Either way, Peter is addressing their worldview.
SPEAKER_00: He's addressing how they perceive what's happening in their world and how they're to respond to it and how they're to feel about it.
SPEAKER_00: As God's people face an increasingly hostile world, what are they going to believe?
SPEAKER_00: What are you going to believe?
SPEAKER_00: Peter wants us to have a particular mindset about Christ, about suffering for Christ, about trials in this sin-cursed world, and about persecution.
SPEAKER_00: And it all boils down to trusting a faithful creator.
SPEAKER_00: But you can't do that if your worldview doesn't include a sovereign God who is a faithful creator.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are going to be entering new classrooms with new teachers and new instructors in a few weeks.
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready for what you're going to hear?
SPEAKER_00: How are you going to process it?
SPEAKER_00: How are you going to feel about it?
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are going to go back to work tomorrow after being off for the weekend and you're going to encounter strange ideas.
SPEAKER_00: What are you going to think about it?
SPEAKER_00: Peter shows us the benefit here of a proper worldview.
SPEAKER_00: He shows us, first of all, that a proper worldview keeps us stable.
SPEAKER_00: It really does.
SPEAKER_00: It keeps us stable.
SPEAKER_00: And that's communicated to us here through the double use of the word surprise.
SPEAKER_00: So we see that in verse 12, but we also saw it last time in verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: There are two stated surprises.
SPEAKER_00: The first one in verse 4 is that non-Christians may be surprised.
SPEAKER_00: He says they may be surprised when you don't join them in the same flood of sinful activity.
SPEAKER_00: Then in verse 12, he says Christians might be surprised by fiery trials that come.
SPEAKER_00: There's also an implied surprise.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5 talks about judgment of the living and the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Then in verses 17 and 18, he talks about giving an account of life and being judged for it.
SPEAKER_00: There might be a surprise at judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Peter says to us, don't be surprised when the heat comes.
SPEAKER_00: That's not talking about the sun and humidity.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Don't be surprised at the fiery trial.
SPEAKER_00: He could be referring to a trial his readers were already experiencing, but I think it seems more likely that he's preparing them for what's going to come, what's likely to come.
SPEAKER_00: There will be trials in your faith.
SPEAKER_00: They are coming.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they already are.
SPEAKER_00: And they will be fiery.
SPEAKER_00: He chooses a word here that refers to the process of burning, specifically an intense degree of heat that results in pain.
SPEAKER_00: An example of this is in Proverbs 27, 21.
SPEAKER_00: The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and a man is tested by his praise.
SPEAKER_00: Implying there's heat behind that testing of silver and gold, and that same kind of heat tests who we are.
SPEAKER_00: In this sense, the focus is on the degree of intensity of the trial, so much so that we might be able to translate it as severe suffering.
SPEAKER_00: I like the idea of fiery because I get a picture of the fire in my head.
SPEAKER_00: A fiery trial.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what God does.
SPEAKER_00: God brings those trials to show that our faith and strength rest in Christ, not in ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: That our hope is found in our faithful Creator, not in our own strength.
SPEAKER_00: See, God's children don't see trials as strange occurrences, but as part of God's sin-cursed world.
SPEAKER_00: Because when our worldview is formed by truth, we understand that our faith is going to be tested to prove its genuineness.
SPEAKER_00: That's been God's pattern throughout Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: In Psalm 11, verse 5, the psalmist said, The Lord tests the righteous.
SPEAKER_00: He tests us.
SPEAKER_00: In Isaiah, God told his people, I have refined you, I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.
SPEAKER_00: And in Malachi chapter 3, God tells his people that he will sit personally as the refiner, as the purifier, as though he's purifying silver, and he's going to purify.
SPEAKER_00: Specifically in that context, the sons of Levi, he's going to refine them.
SPEAKER_00: God's children understand that's a part of who we are, that's a part of belonging to God's family.
SPEAKER_00: But we also recognize that that's part of the curse of sin.
SPEAKER_00: When God cursed the world in Genesis chapter 3, everything was impacted.
SPEAKER_00: But we also know that the purpose of the heat is to cause us to rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: That's where we often falter, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: We struggle to get to that point, but look at what Peter says in verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of being surprised, rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: Rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings.
SPEAKER_00: Now he wants to contrast that with suffering for sin.
SPEAKER_00: He says, don't rejoice when you suffer for sin.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the point.
SPEAKER_00: If it's your faith that is involved, if it's because of who you are in Christ, rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: Why would he say that?
SPEAKER_00: And he says, we're going to rejoice even more then when Jesus comes.
SPEAKER_00: But why would he say that to us?
SPEAKER_00: Well, practically speaking, suffering and trials break our grip on the things of the world.
SPEAKER_00: It helps us let loose a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: And when our grip on this world is weakened, we begin to desire Christ more.
SPEAKER_00: We desire to be with him more.
SPEAKER_00: And that moves us to rejoice because I'm connected to him.
SPEAKER_00: I love him, I desire him, I want to be with him.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he gives us a command in verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: Rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: It's not an option thing, it's a command.
SPEAKER_00: Do this.
SPEAKER_00: Our worldview is to be so informed by Scripture that suffering for Christ and going through trials is seen as a reason to rejoice because it identifies us more and more with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: If we have the correct starting place, fulfilled with the knowledge of what's true, then the fires of this life will gradually increase the joy we have of being with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He says, rejoice now, insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, so that you may also rejoice and be glad in the future.
SPEAKER_00: I like the word choice that Peter uses here.
SPEAKER_00: In the ESV, he uses the word glad.
SPEAKER_00: Probably toned down in our English language a bit.
SPEAKER_00: It means to jump for joy.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine the old Toyota commercial?
SPEAKER_00: You know, jumping for joy.
SPEAKER_00: I know some of you are too old for that commercial, but not all of you.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Jumping with excessive delight and happiness and joy because we're with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: If we rejoice in trials now, Peter says that's going to increase our rejoicing when Jesus comes.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when our worldview is informed by Scripture, we see a sovereign God who loves his children, who has a purpose for them.
SPEAKER_00: He's making them like his son, and he's going to finish that work.
SPEAKER_00: But that work is done in the context of a real world that hates God.
SPEAKER_00: So suffering and trials are going to come.
SPEAKER_00: The heat level is going to vary.
SPEAKER_00: But knowing what God says helps keep us stable by taking away the anxiety of being surprised.
SPEAKER_00: It also helps keep us situated.
SPEAKER_00: A proper worldview keeps us properly situated.
SPEAKER_00: Let's say that your coworkers hear that you are a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: And instead of being encouraging, as you would hope, instead of being supportive of your faith, they make fun of you.
SPEAKER_00: They tease you, they talk about you to other employees.
SPEAKER_00: They may even tell lies about you that spread like a wildfire on the North Dakota Prairie.
SPEAKER_00: If you have a secular worldview or even a spiritual worldview, you might conclude that this Christianity thing is nuts.
SPEAKER_00: It's not worth that.
SPEAKER_00: If it includes fiery trials, then it can't be good.
SPEAKER_00: If you take a spiritual view rather than a biblical worldview, you might decide that, you know, I, yeah, I like Jesus and I want to be with him, but yeah, I don't like this suffering stuff, so I need to tone down, soften some of my views so that I don't get criticized as much.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not the way of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Because in verse 14, we are told that insults remind us of our position in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: When we are teased or insulted or talked about because of who we are in Christ, that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: It should not move you to think, eh, this Christianity stuff is for the birds.
SPEAKER_00: It should encourage you because it confirms that you are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That is your situation.
SPEAKER_00: That is your place, that is your foundation.
SPEAKER_00: You belong to Him.
SPEAKER_00: Not only should it remind you of your position in Christ, it should remind you of your blessing in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed.
SPEAKER_00: It's a recurrent theme throughout Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: There is a blessing that comes through suffering for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus talked about it in the Beatitudes, Matthew chapter 5, verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: There's the blessing.
SPEAKER_00: I particularly like Acts 5, 41.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples left the presence of the council where they were being questioned about their faith, rejoicing that they were counted worthy, counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name that's code for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen it already here in 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, so that you might receive a blessing.
SPEAKER_00: The only way that happens, the only way that's possible is if you have been processing your world from a biblical point of view from the very beginning.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't start there, you're going to get off track at some point.
SPEAKER_00: Insults even remind us of our enablement in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He says the spirit of glory and the God and the end of God rests upon you.
SPEAKER_00: How does that work?
SPEAKER_00: His resting on us, his spirit resting on us, enables us to say, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: These fiery things that I'm going through in life, the fires of this world, it's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Because God is with me.
SPEAKER_00: He's never left me.
SPEAKER_00: He's not going to forsake me.
SPEAKER_00: He's just proving that I belong to Him.
SPEAKER_00: And when that thought process starts going around in your head, it revives you to follow in spite of the fiery circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, we're not called to endure the fires alone.
SPEAKER_00: Think of the three men in the fiery furnace and Daniel.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't alone.
SPEAKER_00: There was a fourth one there.
SPEAKER_00: You have not been given the grace for a trial that's coming tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: So don't worry about tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Don't worry about the fires of next week.
SPEAKER_00: You've not been given the grace to endure that yet.
SPEAKER_00: But as you rest in him today, his spirit rests on you, and you will be given the grace and the strength for what you need when you need it.
SPEAKER_00: See, we can be stabilized and properly situated in life when our view of the world is founded in God as our faithful creator.
SPEAKER_00: And when God is our faithful creator, we have that perspective, we have that mindset, we have that worldview, it also keeps us safe.
SPEAKER_00: How does it keep us safe?
SPEAKER_00: Because I thought we were just told we're going through fiery trials or going to.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we are.
SPEAKER_00: This is where verse 15 comes in.
SPEAKER_00: It keeps us safe by giving us a proper view of sin and blessing.
SPEAKER_00: Let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler.
SPEAKER_00: We've already seen back in chapter 2, verse 20, that we don't get any credit for suffering when we sin.
SPEAKER_00: No extra credit for that.
SPEAKER_00: That's just to be expected, right?
SPEAKER_00: There's no blessing that comes for sin.
SPEAKER_00: That's just sorry, that's just pain and suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Only suffering for righteousness' sake brings blessing.
SPEAKER_00: And that perspective moves us to avoid sin and so be kept safe from sinning and pursue Christ, in which is blessing.
SPEAKER_00: See, when our worldview is right, we recognize that our time is short.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Peter said in verse 2 and verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: The end of all things is at hand.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have much time, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have much time to be suffering for sin.
SPEAKER_00: We remember that Christ endured great things for our sin.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 3, verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: Christ also suffered once for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: Why would we want to suffer for our sins?
SPEAKER_00: Don't suffer for your sins.
SPEAKER_00: And so that moves us to honor the holiness of Christ our Lord, to pursue Him, to pursue righteousness and holiness, keeping us safe from sin.
SPEAKER_00: But we're weak people, aren't we?
SPEAKER_00: We're weak.
SPEAKER_00: We're weak in the sense of giving in to sin.
SPEAKER_00: We're tempted and we struggle to resist.
SPEAKER_00: We have sinful habits that, you know, I'm just not sure I want to be rid of that habit right now.
SPEAKER_00: And when we don't avoid sin, but we give in to temptation, we give in to sin, we no longer feel safe.
SPEAKER_00: Giving in to sin removes the blessings of strength found in faith.
SPEAKER_00: Which is why Peter moves on to tell us that a proper worldview keeps us strong.
SPEAKER_00: It keeps us strong.
SPEAKER_00: If you are informed by Scripture, if your mind has been transformed by the Word of God, you come to know and believe more and more strongly in the person of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The term Christian actually then begins to mean something to you.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's a name in which strength is found.
SPEAKER_00: Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.
SPEAKER_00: That name should be seen by you as a great honor.
SPEAKER_00: Christian was initially used in a derogatory way.
SPEAKER_00: Ironically, it's returning to that in our modern culture.
SPEAKER_00: When we have a biblical worldview, we don't cringe when we're called Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, we feel honored.
SPEAKER_00: When we have a biblical worldview, we don't slink away when Christians are being talked about in a poor way.
SPEAKER_00: But we we are honored to stand for the name of Christ because it points to the one in whom we trust.
SPEAKER_00: But we live in a world and a culture that intends to weaken us.
SPEAKER_00: To undermine us.
SPEAKER_00: But what God does is he takes what's intended to weaken, to undermine, and he builds us up.
SPEAKER_00: He strengthens us.
SPEAKER_00: In recent months, Chick-fil-A, may God be blessed.
SPEAKER_00: In recent months, Chick-fil-A has been derided for being a company owned by Christians and not operating on Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: They've taken heat for it.
SPEAKER_00: Surprisingly, several weeks ago, an executive for Twitter posted a photo of himself eating Chick-fil-A.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know that he was chastised by his own company and forced to take down the photo?
SPEAKER_00: And he wasn't even Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Our culture seeks to squash us by a variety of means.
SPEAKER_00: They desire to weaken any impact that Christianity might have in this world.
SPEAKER_00: They want us driven into the dark corners and never come out.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you think that that is a stretch or if you think that's an exaggeration, your world is too small.
SPEAKER_00: And you're missing what's out there.
SPEAKER_00: If you have not yet experienced it, just give it some time.
SPEAKER_00: The fire will come.
SPEAKER_00: But having a proper biblical worldview strengthens us in those moments and it says, yes, I am a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Because I stand for and with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We're not surprised when the fire comes, but we're caused to stand firm because of his spirit within us.
SPEAKER_00: And as we are strengthened, God is glorified.
SPEAKER_00: Being a Christian in an increasingly anti Christian world will cause you to stand out from the world.
SPEAKER_00: Only by having a worldview beginning.
SPEAKER_00: Beginning and remaining in a faithful creator will sustain you.
SPEAKER_00: But it also enables you to be sensible.
SPEAKER_00: It enables you to be sensible in the sense that you can tell what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: You can see through the smoke in the midst of the fire.
SPEAKER_00: Because we recognize that God's intention regarding trials and his people is to make us like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus suffered, and so we will suffer.
SPEAKER_00: We are to be made like Christ, and God blesses his children for suffering in the name of his son.
SPEAKER_00: And yet he says that these fiery trials are a form of judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_00: And hopefully get a little bit of fear.
SPEAKER_00: It is time for judgment to begin here.
SPEAKER_00: Here.
SPEAKER_00: In this temporal world, trials are a means of purifying the Lord's church.
SPEAKER_00: He's not talking here about judgment in terms of eternal judgment, because that's been taken care of by the blood of Christ for those who trust in him.
SPEAKER_00: What he's talking about is a purifying judgment, that purifying process of taking gold and silver through the process of bringing it out without any impurities.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is judging his church to cleanse her, to purify her.
SPEAKER_00: That's the part of the fiery trials.
SPEAKER_00: But if we experience that kind of judgment now, then we begin to process and understand what that means for the unsaved world.
SPEAKER_00: If we still experience fiery trials for following Christ when our sins have been paid for, then how much worse will the judgment be for those who still owe the debt?
SPEAKER_00: If we experience a purifying judgment now, and our debt is paid, what will it be like for those who still owe the debt when the debt collector comes?
SPEAKER_00: This is nothing new.
SPEAKER_00: Stated in Proverbs chapter eleven.
SPEAKER_00: If the righteous is repaid on earth, how much more?
SPEAKER_00: The wicked and the sinner.
SPEAKER_00: How much more?
SPEAKER_00: I know you've been waiting for me to finish.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust themselves to a faithful creator while doing good.
SPEAKER_00: Don't give up doing good.
SPEAKER_00: Don't give up standing for your faith.
SPEAKER_00: Don't give up proclaiming the name of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Don't give up being strong and not being ashamed.
SPEAKER_00: Keep on doing what God has called you to do.
SPEAKER_00: But during that process, entrust yourself to a faithful creator.
SPEAKER_00: Your worldview as a Christian must start at the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: You are created.
SPEAKER_00: Your world is created.
SPEAKER_00: And as such, it belongs to and is ruled by a sovereign creator.
SPEAKER_00: Now that could give us some fear.
SPEAKER_00: Except for the word in front of it.
SPEAKER_00: Faithful.
SPEAKER_00: He is faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know this is the only time in Scripture that we find faithful and creator together?
SPEAKER_00: He has not created you by mistake.
SPEAKER_00: He has not brought you through life by chance.
SPEAKER_00: You are not where you are because he's enjoying toying with you.
SPEAKER_00: He does not take you through fiery trials because he likes to see you sweat.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: He takes you through fiery trials because he is faithful as your creator.
SPEAKER_00: He is faithful to his own character.
SPEAKER_00: He is faithful to his own love, to his own kindness, to his own mercy, to his own grace, to his own justice, to his holiness.
SPEAKER_00: And we could go on and on and on.
SPEAKER_00: He's not lying to you.
SPEAKER_00: There is an end coming.
SPEAKER_00: And he's not lying about that either.
SPEAKER_00: And it will be an end that brings great rejoicing or great and terrible judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Your worldview must begin at the beginning with a faithful creator, but it also ends at the end with the same faithful creator.
SPEAKER_00: He is the constant.
SPEAKER_00: He does not change.
SPEAKER_00: Even in your fiery trial, he is still faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, entrust your soul to him and walk in his ways.
SPEAKER_00: If things in life don't make sense, don't look to friends or to culture or to cable news for explanation.
SPEAKER_00: Go to the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Go to the faithful creator who has revealed himself for you to take you from beginning to end.
SPEAKER_00: You can trust him.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, we we bow before you acknowledging that, yeah, we we do struggle sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: We do fail to trust you, to rely on you, and we we look to things in our world to get us through.
SPEAKER_00: We confess that and we receive your forgiveness by your grace because of your promise.
SPEAKER_00: And we ask that by your spirit you would fulfill your promise to cause us to stand firm.
SPEAKER_00: To stand firm, trusting ourselves to the one who is faithful, who made us for himself.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.