All right, we're gonna do that again. Good morning. All right, you're all there. Okay, good. My name is Nathan also, it's just Nathan Arnold. So I do go by Nate, so short version for you that don't know me. And I have the privilege of preaching God's word to us this morning. It's a great privilege to be here before you. Three things that are more miserable than a wet chicken. Three things more miserable than a wet chicken. I've got your attention now, I think. First thing is a lone sailor in a hurricane. A lone sailor in a hurricane is more miserable than a wet chicken. A starving puppy in a desert. is more miserable than a wet chicken. And a Christian who fumbles an opportunity to share the gospel is more miserable than a wet chicken. And we've all been there, every one of us. I mean, I, two weeks ago at one of my business meetings, I kind of fumbled an opportunity. So we've all been there. We get a dent in our shiny new car and we become fearful and we change the way we drive, don't we? Well, that happens to us spiritually. Our spirit drops, doesn't it, when we don't do that. Our confidence falls and we kind of get this ugh. in our spirit. We just get that ug there. And we intuitively feel something is wrong. We know something is wrong. But we're not sure how to fix it. We're not sure how to handle it. And after a while, we become frustrated. And we become miserable in sharing the gospel. And this feeling of misery is a real problem for many of us. I mean, it's a real thing. It happens and it haunts us. And it marginalizes or sidelines many of us. We just don't know what to do with it and we don't know how to handle it. And we become disengaged. We unplug or we get sidelined. And we just start going through the motions of going to church. and going through our life as Christians, but we never truly know what to do about our misery. But if we're honest with ourselves, we instinctively know why this happens. You already know the answer to the question. We know why this happens. We know something else has edged out Christ in our life. It's like Peter walking on the water. Most people know the story in the gospel. Christ has sent the disciples ahead on the lake. They're rowing, storms are blowing, and Jesus comes walking on the water, and Peter wants to get out and walk with them, with Christ. And Christ says, come on out, Peter. And Peter steps out, and Peter actually walks on the water. But what happens? The Bible says he starts looking at the wind and the waves. He takes his eyes off of Christ and starts worrying about other things. He gets unfocused. And this behavior happens to us all to some degree. This fumbling of the gospel I wanna talk about this morning. And I'll say it normally fits within two categories, two big categories. if you will. First of all, it's the fear of what others might think. We fear what other people might think, and some people call it the fear of man. I like to call it misplaced affections. In other words, I got my affections in the wrong spot. And then number two, The other pipe is being unprepared. We all have feelings of inadequacy. I don't know what to say. I don't know how to do this. I don't know what to say next. I don't know when to say it. We all feel that way and we don't know how to tell others about what's going on with Christ in our life. So how do we work on this issue? How do we fix it? I mean, this is a real thing and a real thing that needs to get fixed in our lives. Well, first of all, we do it biblically. It's this way for yes. Okay, we do it biblically. And today's text is gonna give us an answer. So in a moment, I'm gonna ask you to stand, but go ahead and be turning to 1 Peter 3, verses 15 and 16, just two verses, 1 Peter 3, 15 and 16. And I've titled our sermon today, Stop Being Miserable. Stop being miserable. So I'll ask you to go ahead and stand if you're able for the reading of God's word. 1 Peter 3, this is the word of God, 3.15. But in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. Thus ends the reading of God's infallible word. You may be seated. Now, and that brings us to our first point. In your heart, regard Christ the Lord. Other verses, the NIV will say something like, but in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord. The Net Bible will say, but set Christ apart as Lord. So to better understand this verse, we're gonna kind of crack it open and we're gonna take it piece by piece by piece as we go through these two verses. And we need to break it apart. Kind of like a Linder's chocolate. Anybody ever? Yeah, or cherry cordial to get to the good gooey stuff inside, and that's what we're after today. So it's pretty straightforward. I'm just a product of the South Georgia public school system. I'm not very bright, so I like straightforward things. Who's the person, first of all, being honored in this text, in this first part of verse 15? You can say it. Christ, okay, Christ is being honored. Now why is it Christ? It's because Christ is a title for a person. and he's the anointed one, the Messiah. The Hebrew is Mashiach. He's the anointed one. He is the centerpiece of the gospel. So in your heart, you're regarding a person. A lot of times I hear people say, well, I'm a person of faith, or I have faith. And I ask them many times, faith in what? Faith that the bridge is gonna hold up when you drive across it? No, this is faith in a person, faith in Jesus Christ. He is the one to be honored, a single particular person in history. And Christ, the title Jesus Christ, the Messiah, is the centerpiece of the gospel. What is the gospel? The gospel is that God created man perfect, Adam and Eve were created perfect, and then they committed treason against God. They rebelled, they sinned, they fell into a state of sin and misery, and then God pronounced a curse on that particular state, and that's Adam. But in the fullness of time, God so loved the world that he gave his son, right? He gave his son, he gave Jesus Christ a person, a particular person. and he lived, he came, he was born of a Virgin Mary, of the Virgin Mary, and he was born of the Virgin Mary, he lived a perfect life, perfect sinless life, and he died on the cross taking the wrath of God for our sins. And then as proof of purchase, three box top Cheerios from Cheerios Cereal, so for you older folks, but I'll explain it to the younger folks after. But yeah, this is proof of purchase. God said, this is the person and God raised him from the dead. and then he spent some time with his disciples, and then he ascended into heaven, and he right now sits at the right hand of God, interceding for us, and God is gonna put all things under his feet, and one day, Jesus Christ is coming back to judge the living and the dead. That's the gospel in a nutshell. So you've got Adam, or you've got the centerpiece, center person, which is Christ. So you can be an Adam and pay for your own sins, or you can be in Christ and get the righteousness of Christ, and Christ can pay for your sins, and you can live and rule and reign with him forever. That's the gospel. That's about as simple as it gets. That's about as straightforward as the gospel gets. So, We've got this person, Christ, Jesus, and we're supposed to do something with him. We're supposed to set him apart as holy. Some other scriptures will say set apart, sanctify, revere, honor, or regard, but we're supposed to take this person and literally regard them as Lord. Now we're, I think everybody in the room's American. If you're not, you're familiar with American ideas. We don't like the word Lord. We don't even like landlords. We don't like the word Lord. And so what does it mean when you take a person, Christ, and make him Lord, regard him as Lord in your heart? Well, that's the mental action of setting our affections, our heart, on someone. It's the one we seek to please, right? If he's Lord. We seek to please him. And I won't go into all the Greek, but it means Lord. It means master or owner, supremacy or authority. Someone who possesses authority over me, over us. Literally, he is the boss of me. I tell my wife all the time, you're not the boss of me. But God is the boss of me. She was my wife sometimes. But yeah. So who's the implied person doing the setting aside or regarding? Who is it in the text? Somebody said it. Okay, it's us, it's you. The text says you're to do this. You're to set Christ apart in your heart. And this is an ongoing and active decision in everything we do daily. It's not something we did a long time ago and we don't do anymore. It's like I married my wife. and I have to live in faithfulness every day of my life to my wife. It's an ongoing, active decision to do that, to make Christ Lord in our life. It's a trained way of thinking. We call it discipleship in the church world, but it's a trained way of thinking. It's a series of daily decisions that become a habit through daily use. Right? Christ is Lord. It's a constant question in my mind where does Christ have both first and last place, last say on every element of my life? Now that's a struggle. It is. It's a struggle. And that has to become the fundamental building block of our lives, the foundation of our lives. Christ has to become that. So what does this mean? How would you put this in action? It means we intentionally provide an open door to Christ into the house of our life. In other words, the front door's open and Christ comes in. And Christ, as Lord, is allowed to do three things. Now you can't stop him from doing them if he wants to do them, but you're inviting him to do it. You're mentally setting him as Lord and you're okay with this and you're progressively growing in this. So Christ has the right to come in your house and to remove stuff. In other words, he can go over there and go, I don't like that picture. Out of here. I don't like that table. It's out of here. So Christ can come into our lives as Lord and say, these things need to get moved out of our lives. These things need to go. Now, sometimes we don't like that. But Christ is Lord. Second, Christ is allowed to rearrange the furniture. He can go, yep, table over there, couch over there, this, that, bed over here, dresser here, and you go, whoa, you're messing up my whole life, Jesus. He's allowed to do that as Lord. He can come into our life and set our priorities. He can say, I'm first, your family tells you how to do that, tells you how to attend church, tells you how to read your Bible and communicate the gospel. He tells you all of that and he has that right as Lord. And then the last thing, this is the hardest. Christ can add things. Yeah? He can bring a big, black, ugly, overstuffed couch and put it right in the middle of your white room. Hopefully that paints a picture, okay? But he can do that, and you go, whoa, whoa, that clashes with everything I got lined up, Jesus. That don't work here, that couch needs to, nah, Christ says I want it right there, I can add it right there. Which means he can add ministry and other things to our lives. He can say, hey, I want you to start ministering to this person, or I want you to start doing this thing. And you go, I got no room to do that, Jesus. Do I need to come in and rearrange some other stuff? No, I'm good. And that's kind of the dialogue that goes on. So this is the absolute first step, the prime mover for everything else in our lives. It's the cure for what others might think. It's the cure for those misplaced affections. We learn progressively, constantly, how to care more about what Christ thinks and to allow him to rearrange things the way he wants. Until this practice becomes a habit for us. Christ must be first, Otherwise, you're gonna be miserable, and you don't want to be miserable. And this flows into our second struggle, our second pipe that we talked about with fumbling the gospel. And really, that's our lack of preparation that causes us to feel inadequate. And again, we're slicing and dicing the text here, and we're gonna go to the next little piece of text there. But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord is holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. So let's break this apart. Always. Now here I got a line with Vati Bakam and say, I don't write the mail, I just deliver it. He says, always. Let's soak a minute. Always. Always. Upon each occasion. Homeschoolers, fifth graders and above, that's an adverb. And it tells us how often we do something. So if you've got an adverb, it modifies the verb. What are we modifying? Always being prepared. Being prepared is a state of readiness. Being ready, being practiced, ready to tell our story, to share the gospel. It's like your local fire station or your ambulance. How much practice and preparation goes into setting up a fire truck? Think about that. I mean tons. How much practice and preparation goes into setting up the high bay that the truck lives in? And then how much practice and preparation goes into the people that drive the fire truck, that operate the fire truck? What about the ambulance? Same thing. Tons of practice and preparation go into that. So Christ says here in his word, always being prepared, that state of readiness to make a defense. to make a defense. Now a lot of people read this and they think, oh, I'm ready to sword fight. That's not what the text says. We'll get to that in a little later. But yeah, always being prepared to make a defense. And he gives us two qualifiers. He says, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you. That's the first qualifier. The second qualifier is for a reason for the hope that's in you. Now the first qualifier, anyone who asks you. anyone who asks you. And there's a restriction in that passage, because a lot of times to share the gospel, we think we gotta be bullhorn men on the corner. That's not what we're called to be in this passage. The everyday Christian is called to share the gospel, but they're not Bullhorn Man, they're not the Street Evangelist, they're not the College Campus Crusader, they're not Ray Comfort, Todd Friel, Votibachum, whoever you wanna put there. That's not what you're called to be. You're called to answer the questions of people that ask you. Now why in the world would somebody ask you? Because there's something different about you. that doesn't line up with everything else. And you might say, Nate, I would really love it if somebody asked me. I would love it that somebody asked me about the hope that's in me. How do I get people to ask? I'm glad you asked that. You do it by proximity. not isolation. Many people in the church wanna be isolationists, and they wanna run to their little enclaves and protect what they have, instead of being out in the world in proximity of other people, instead of bringing people into their households and things, and rubbing shoulders with lost people. And then they see how you live when you live in proximity with them, and they ask you crazy questions, like, why do you do that? Why do you pray before you eat? What good is it? And on and on. And some ways you can do this is open up and share your life and your home. Be real friends with people. The longer people are Christians, I'll just tell you this straight up, and for those of you that have the same color of hair I do, you know this as a fact, if you've been a Christian very long, you have less and less and less lost friends. And it's because we don't actively rub shoulders. A way you can do that, you might say, hey, I know biker sailor Nate, and I wanna invite him to my house. But, you know, you gotta use a little wisdom, cause biker sailor Nate's got tats on his face, and he smells like beer, and he rides a Harley, and I don't know if I want him in my house around my kids and my wife. Well, how about if we just flip that on its head for a minute? and give you some practical ways of handling that. What if you sat your family down and said, hey, I really would like to become friends, real friends, with biker, sailor, Nate. Now family, we're gonna have him over for dinner. And stand by, there may be some words that come out of his mouth that you and I are gonna have to talk about afterward. And we're gonna have to discuss what can and can't be done. And he's gonna ask some crazy questions, and he's gonna have weird tats, skull, and crossbones on his neck. And you're gonna have some questions about that. But we're gonna pray for him, and we're gonna invite him and have him here. You can take people to lunch. I love taking people to lunch. It's fun. I get to eat. Okay. And people love to talk over lunch. You can use the holidays. People are lonely and displaced over the holidays. You can use your gifts. I'm particularly a woodworker and I like making little toys and giving them to the kids and little piggy banks and stuff like that. And you can connect with people. Go camping. How many people go camping? When you're camping, sitting around the fire and the phone's in the truck, you got a captive audience. And people talk. They're just enjoying. You're being friends with one another. You can have a party. Yes, you can play cards, poker, whatever, bourbon, cigars, football. board games, whatever the Bible will allow you to do in your conscience. I need to qualify that. And if you have questions about that, see the pastor. All right, but what I want you to know is Jesus went to parties. Jesus went to dinners. Matter of fact, he obviously drank because when people slandered him, they called him a drunkard. So they saw him drinking and they called him a glutton. So he was obviously at the buffet. So why don't we do that as the church today? And that brings us to qualifier number two. So always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. You are not required nor called to defend every aspect of God's cosmos. And many people, when they hear the word evangelism, are sharing Christ, well, I have to be able to answer all these questions. No, you don't. The scripture tells us different. It says you answer for the hope that's in you. You're not Stephen Meyer. I don't know if you know who Stephen Meyer is. He wrote The Return of the God Hypothesis, about that thick. He wrote Signature in the Cell, it's about that thick. And he wrote Darwin's Doubt. This guy is just ripping scientists up with their own scientists. That's not your call to answer all that. You're called to give a reason for what? What does the text say? Let's look at it and read it, okay? For the, Hope that is in, say it, in you. Why do you follow Christ? Why do you act the way you do? Why did you come to Christ? What happened to you? Not what happened to me. And trust me, you can do that with just a very little thought. So just as Jesus positioned himself, now let me say one other thing, I think it's a problem in, and I don't have a better word, so I'll say the formal church. It's a problem when people, now when you're brand new to Christ and you don't know anything, well, you probably should grow a little bit before you're out there sharing so you can do things. But people often in the formal church will go on two, three, four, 10 years, and they think the way that you evangelize is that you invite people to church so that the professional guy can tell them about the hope that's in him, right? No, that's not what the text tells us to do. But you do have a job. You actually have a job of telling them the hope that's in you. So just as Jesus positioned himself to be among sinners, so should we. Remember, it's proximity, not isolation. And this takes planning. You've got to sit down with your calendar and go, I'm gonna have a sailor, biker, Nate over on February 16th. You have to plan it. Intentionality. Now just like Jesus, some people are gonna talk bad about us. A lot of times it's gonna be church people. Man, they had biker Nate over there. And this can anger us also because once again we start worrying about what man thinks and we become, starts with an M, rhymes with miserable. Yeah, we become miserable and we need to prepare for this. And this same scripture gives us a way to prepare for this. So let's look at how to handle people who talk bad about us. The Bible says, in the last part of verse 15 and all of 16, it tells us to handle ourselves in a Christ-like or a Christian manner. It says, yet do it with gentleness. When you're making that defense, you're not sword fighting. You're doing it with gentleness and respect. Having a good conscience so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. So we don't adopt the world's way of handling issues. Like you see on Facebook or X or Instagram or YouTube where you get the keyboard trolls and they're saying stuff on the keyboard that they would never say to another person face to face because they would get punched in the mouth. That's what would happen. I like Mike Tyson saying everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. And yeah, that's not the way to handle it. And that's not the way the scripture calls us to give a reason or to defend our faith. We're to do it with gentleness and respect. And this is not a turn or burn where we look down our long noses and point our finger at people or thump people on the head with the Bible. That's not what that is. You're telling them about the hope that is in That's right, you, exactly, and me. How Christ saved, say it. Yeah, you. How Christ saved you. And you do this having a good conscience. Having a good conscience. So what does it mean to have a good conscience? First of all, if you have a good conscience, guess what? You're not miserable. If you have a good conscience, you almost can't be miserable. It's impossible. Christians who have a good conscience are not miserable, and you know you have set Christ as Lord in your heart. You've done that, and you continually do that, and you continually practice doing that. Now, you're not gonna be perfect at it, but it is an ongoing thing that you do in your life. And you know that you have truly from the heart obeyed him. Again, not perfectly, but you're learning every day. You're growing, growing, growing. That's a fancy word we have for that is sanctification. You grow in Christ. So that when you are slandered, now the Bible presupposes that you're gonna be slandered. It's gonna happen. Stand by. As we used to say in the Navy, stand by for heavy rolls as the ship is coming about. It's gonna happen. So it presupposes that. And this is not the happy, clappy, feel-good, Western Christianity that teaches us that when we serve God, everything's gonna be sunshine and roses. It's not. You're gonna get slander. You're gonna get slander. And to handle slander, you have to have a good conscience. You have to know. What you know. So that those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. It becomes openly apparent by the way you speak, by what you say to people, by how you act towards people, how your life is lived out. It becomes openly apparent to them and those people are put to shame who revile your good behavior in Christ. And this brings joy. and removes misery because I have learned to care more about what Christ says and I have pleased my Lord. And you have done what you were supposed to do. You said what you were supposed to say. You did it with the right attitude. And this is not arrogance. This is not snubbing or anything like that. It's not arrogance, but this is confidence in Christ. These are Christ's words to do this. So putting Christ first as Lord, preparing ourselves to defend the gospel, and sharing with gentleness and respect, even when we're slandered, brings us joy, And joy is the opposite of misery. So in our joy, and we're gonna end here in a moment, but our joy is really made up of two components. Joy is made up of rest and work. Rest in that my salvation is taken care of through Jesus Christ. I'm not working for it every day. I can rest in Christ and know that there is nothing between me and my Lord. He is taking care of all of it. Every last sin I have committed, will commit today, or commit in the future, is gone. That's a freaky thought, but it's true. It's what the scripture says. And I don't have to continually, let's put it in Old Testament context, I don't have to continually sacrifice bulls only to find out next week, I gotta do it again. It's taken care of. Jesus took care of it. And I have rest because of that. I have rest. So if your sins have truly been removed by Christ, then you have that kind of rest. If they haven't, you're not gonna have that kind of rest. So I call you to do that, to come to Christ today. But there's also work for me to do. Rest and work, joy. I am counted as useful in the kingdom of Christ. There's work that we're commanded to do. We're commanded to pray about sending laborers into the field. Now, a lot of people, when you pray this, you think, well, they're sending somebody else. Got news for you, okay? It's you that are getting sent very often that God is sending. Remember, Christ is Lord. He can come in and rearrange the furniture any way he chooses. And often, it's us. But we're commanded to pray about sending laborers into the field. And then we are to work, the Bible says, to make disciples of Christ. So I need to end this with a series of questions. And I want you to, I'm gonna pause at the end of each one so you can have a moment to think about it. Is your life a joyful expression of what Christ has done for you? I mean, do you think about your salvation? Is it something, is it a joyful expression of what Christ has done for you? Are your affections focused on Christ? Not talking perfectly, remember? Are you constantly preparing to share? Do you study? Do you talk to people? Do you practice telling people what's happened in your life? And are you doing it in a Christ-like manner? Not as the world fights, and many Christians, I'm sad to say, fight. Are you both resting in Christ and working for Christ, or are you miserable? Are you resting in Christ? Yes, I'm saved, I came to the Lord 25 years ago, but I really haven't done anything since. Are you resting in Christ, but not working? If that's true for you, then that equals misery. Misery. Are you working? Man, I'm working like a dog. I'm working for Jesus, I'm out at the soup kitchen, I'm doing this, that, and the other thing, but you have never come to Christ and said, Lord, I repent of my sins, and I trust you for my salvation. So you're working like a dog, but you've never come to the rest that is in Christ. That is pure misery also. So are you resting in Christ and working for him because that equals joy? Rest in Christ, get engaged, and stop being miserable. Let's pray. Father, it's easy to take a sermon like this and feel beat down by it. but that's not the purpose of your word, and that's not the purpose of this sermon. Father, let us find encouragement, great encouragement, in knowing that we can run to you and have peace. And you have told us that we don't have to handle everything in the world, we just have to handle the things that you have placed in our life, and live the life that you have arranged for us, that you have ordained for us, and speak the words about how You called us to yourself and live out the joy that is in that. and to work for you, Lord, to have everlasting work, to have fruit that we can set before you, to have minas and talents that each of us can say, I did what I was supposed to do. There is great joy in that. Give us that through your spirit and your word. Glorify your name. And Lord, I do pray for those who may not have the rest that I spoke about today that, Their hearts would be touched by your Holy Spirit, and they would be real with themselves, and that you would draw them to yourself. And they would speak to someone, or even to me, and they would say, I turn away from the way I used to be, and I turn towards Christ. Lord, I grant this, or I ask that you grant this in Christ's name, I pray, amen.