We want to thank you for listening to this week's sermon from Harvest Bible Chapel, Kansas City. We pray that you will be encouraged and challenged by God's Word today. If you would like more information about Harvest, please visit our website at www.harvestkansascity.org. It's my privilege to dive into God's Word today with you all. We're gonna be in 1 Peter 4, verses 1 through 11. This is an amazing book that we've been able to go through here over the last couple months. Our ushers are gonna come down the aisle. They're gonna pass out Bibles. If you need one, just throw your hand up in the air. If you don't have a Bible, you can take that home with you. And we're gonna be on page 1016 in that Bible. I don't know about your Bible, but in that Bible, it's 1016. Preparation is an important thing, and it's especially an important thing if you happen to work in a career field that demands expertise, precision, in-the-moment knowledge. The career field that I thought of when I was looking into this was the idea of being a doctor. Being a doctor requires a ton of preparation. First, you have to get your undergraduate degree, which is no picnic, usually in a certain field. Then you have to go on and take this test called the MCAT, which is kind of like the ACT for doctor, but much more difficult, for doctors, but much more difficult. That's just to gain admittance into a medical school, which you have to interview for. And that is not an easy thing either. You have to do well on that test, and they want to take the right candidates, so it is a difficult thing to get into medical school. I have one former student who's interviewed for a few schools, and he's having a hard time getting in, and he's very, very intelligent. So once you finally do gain admittance into a medical school, that's a three to four year process, which is not an easy thing. It's a difficult area of study. You're taking licensure exams and things along the way within that. Once you finally finish medical school, then there's more, right? I know the three to four years of residency, and residency is no picnic either. You're talking 80 to 100 hour weeks. I read one stat that said that some doctors can work as many as 136 hours in a week, which I didn't even know that's possible. I don't know how many hours in a week, but that's a lot, right? 28 hours in a row, potentially. It's pretty incredible. So after that, then you have state licensure. And after all of that and the many, many hundreds of thousands of dollars, you could apply for jobs. So after all of that. So the doctors that are here in our congregation, you should give them a pat on the back because that's some serious stuff right there to prepare for that. So why? What is the purpose of all of that? Why do they go through all that? Preparation, right? They have to be prepared because when you come into a situation in an emergency room where you have an illness that's happening, you have an injury, some kind of sickness, something is happening and it is in the moment, you've gotta be able to act and think and know what you're doing. Because life is hanging in the balance, right? So preparation is so key for that. That's why they go through it. And in the same way, We are to prepare. We need to prepare for the suffering and for the trials of this life. There's a process that the Lord will take us through to get us to a place where we are prepared to endure suffering. And that's what we're gonna be looking at here today. Peter's gonna give us four different ways to prepare for suffering. Our big idea today of the text is this, that proper prep for suffering will make you ready to persevere in the midst of it. Proper prep for suffering will make you ready to persevere in the midst of it. So we're gonna go ahead and pray, and then we will jump in. God, we thank you that your word is sufficient and that you prepare us, Lord, for whatever it is that you have for us. God, you give us the grace sufficient to meet our needs, and Lord, you are here, you're in this place. I pray that you would just be moving and speaking through me as I deliver your word. God, your word is wonderful, and I pray that we would just dive into it at this time. We pray this in your name, amen. All right, so taking a look at verse one, 1 Peter chapter four, verse one and two. All right, so taking a look at verse one, 1 Peter chapter four, verse one and two. Your first step in preparing for suffering is to arm your mind. Arm your mind. Whenever you see a therefore in scripture, you have to look back at what the author is referencing back to. So in this case, Peter is referencing back to 1 Peter 3.18. It's a transitional phrase from that section. 3.18 says this, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. Peter is hearkening back to a line of thinking that is regarding Christ's sufferings in the flesh, and now he's relating us to those sufferings. He's not just saying, well, Christ suffered, and you go and live a happy life, right? No, he's saying Christ suffered, so in turn, you will suffer as well. There's an inseparable link between us and Christ's suffering. We're united in that. Write down Romans 8.17, or 2 Corinthians 11.23-29, or Revelation 2.10. All of these verses highlight suffering in the life of these first century believers. But it's suffering that we are too, that we partake in as well, right? We join with them in that. Let me highlight another one that's close to my heart. It's Philippians 3.10. It says, Isn't that interesting? The fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him and his death. Knowing Christ, knowing the power of his resurrection, truly unites us with him. We're together in that. We are one in that. It leads to greater intimacy with Christ. You know, because these sufferings are expected, the pastor says that you must be prepared by arming yourself with the same way of thinking. What is that way of thinking? Well, we must arm our minds. You must be prepared with the proper equipment for some task. And this is a military term used for soldiers putting on weapons to fight an enemy. I said weapons and everyone's like, the men are like, all right, weapons. Awesome. That's what I'm talking about. What kinds of weapons is he talking about? Is he talking about like a Glock 19 with a laser sight? No. He's not talking about an AK-47 or, you know, a sock filled with a bar of soap or a katana sword or anything cool like that. No. He's talking about what we arm our minds with. We must have the same way of thinking as who? As Christ. The word thought here means not so much an attitude of the mind, but it's insight into who God is and how he deals with us as humanity. So it's right thinking about God and how he deals with us as sinful people. We must arm ourselves with right thinking about God. That's theology. That's theology. You must arm yourself with the same humility, the lack of reviling, the gracious defense that is highlighted in 1 Peter 3. Several characteristics highlighted by Christ are seen and shown in 1 Peter 3. We are to imitate those as well. See, the natural tendency during trial or suffering is to start believing wrong things about God and wrong things about who you are in light of it. Am I right? You start to doubt the goodness of God. You start to doubt verses like Romans 8.28 that speak about how all things work for good. Not that all things are good, right, because they're not, but that how all things work for good. You must arm yourself with thinking that is truthful about God so that when trials or difficulty come, you have the ability to funnel your suffering through. So you know what I'm saying? Like a funnel, right? Like the funnel is the truth of who God is. So when suffering comes, you pour that in there. The truth of God kind of, it transforms that, right? So that you're able to come out the other side. So immediately after Peter exhorts to arm your mind with the same way of thinking, he kind of drops one of those bombshells at a first glance. You're like, come on, Peter. You're just trying to make it difficult here. No, it seems that way. He says, Why do you say that? Well, we must ask ourselves, what does this actually mean? We must ask questions of the text. That's one thing we're learning in our Simeon class is to ask questions of the text. So who is he writing about here? Who is this that he is writing about? Well, is it Christ? Does that make sense? Well, when you put Christ in there, when you think about him in terms of this, I mean, Christ suffered in the flesh, right? But this makes it sound like he actually sinned. He did not sin, therefore it's not about Christ. It's truly about us. It's about us. The proper view is that he is speaking about humanity. Now, does this mean that physical suffering kind of brings or takes away sin so that it's no more? No, that's not proper thinking to arm ourselves with. There's actually groups that believe that if you actually cut yourself or hurt yourself, that you will stop sinning because you're causing yourself to suffer physically. That's self-flagellation. That is not a truthful thing to think. No, Christ took those wounds. He took them. He took them so we can be made like him. We don't need to wound ourselves. No, we are sinners who sin. We can't stop ourselves from sinning by causing physical harm to ourselves. Now, the primary view on what this passage or this section actually means is that it's referring to the death of the old self. the death of the old self. Think Romans 6, 6 and 7. Also, Galatians 2, 19 and 20 saying, I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Let me summarize it this way. Whoever has been crucified with Christ, whoever believes in Christ, has been crucified with Him, is dead to sin. Sin is lessening in your life. Isn't that a glorious thing? There's a sanctification that's going on even in the midst of suffering. That's the right thinking that we are to arm ourselves with. So what is the result of arming your mind in this sort of way? Well, look at verse two. It says, Well, what is the will of God? Well, you can write down 1 Thessalonians 4, 3. It says simply this, the will of God is your sanctification. Now it says some other things as well, but ultimately it's our sanctification, that we would become more like Christ. The Baker Commentary says it this way. Is that awesome? Like, the handcuffs have been taken off. We are not enslaved to sin any longer. That is a beautiful thing. Even in our suffering in times of trials, a life armed with the mind of Christ is preparing, is prepared. That's step one in preparation. Step two is this. Avoid your past. Avoid your past. Sorry, verse 3. And they malign you. But they will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is why the gospel was preached, even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does. This is truly human passion defined there in verse two, from verse two. The idea here of what the Gentiles do, what unbelievers do, is an intentional course of action that provides fulfillment. It's the idea of wild and reckless living. The word reckless, right? Ooh, Christian taboo. Luke 15, 13 talks about the prodigal son, right? And how he lived wild, he lived recklessly, without abandon. It's the idea of licentiousness, of general indulgence unrestrained by morality. Pretty wild times. People to whom this letter was written were, in fact, former pagans. Peter knows that these people struggled before. This is who they were, right? This word for passions means longing after a thing. It's a yearning for something. And the whole drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, they have a similar connotation. These are all basically occasions for eating and drinking and pleasure. Now the word for orgies is not the typical word that you would, you wouldn't hear that in church, right? I don't think. But it does not have a sexual connotation here. It actually means this. I read this in a commentary. It says, Imagine people frolicking around, half drunk. There we go. Who after supper, parade through the streets with torches and music in honor of their false gods, singing and playing before the houses of their male and female friends. How many of you were involved with a sorority or fraternity in college? Don't raise your hand. It's okay. There's a lot of frolicking that goes on when you're in a sorority or fraternity. I spent some time, I was a caddy. I got a scholarship. Long story, you can ask me about it later. And I lived in a scholarship house on a university campus in Illinois. And we basically, we lived on Greek Row. And so, Lots of frolicking, okay? Half-drunken individuals making up songs and literally going to sing them. I'm not even joking. They literally made up songs and went to sing them. And I, in my sober self, was like, what is the, what are we doing? Why are we changing the words to this terrible song and going and singing it? Another story. It's lawless idolatry, is what it is. That's what the passage calls it, lawless idolatry. Worshiping the created rather than the creator. Romans 1 talks about it very clearly. That is our past in one form or another. We have a tendency to worship our passions. To worship our former passions. Even when we know Christ, we still struggle to do that, don't we? Another definition for passions is this, it says, Isn't that good? A craving that displaces proper affections for God. How easily your interests, your hobbies, your happiness become the primary passion of your life. If we're not careful, we just get off course, just an iota, and we're pursuing our passions again from the past. Suffering can cause a person to run back to their former passions. Those comforts can be drugs, cutting yourself, binge eating, anorexia, TV watching, pornography, drunken partying, anything. 1 Peter 1.14 says, You must avoid your past when suffering comes. because you will naturally have a tendency to slip right back in there. Also, at times you must avoid past relationships. People that you used to spend time with doing the things that I just talked about. You were right there with them. You joined them in that. You were right there alongside with them, locking arms. It says in verse four, There's a surprise. There's an astonishment that, wow, this person, you, are no longer joining them. It doesn't make sense to them, right? You were together in this. You ran. You were swept away in that flood of debauchery. What an interesting word that he uses there, flood. I was looking up some of the largest floods in history. Because that's what you do when you prepare messages. You see a word and then you find cool stories about it, right? So, the largest flood in history was in China. The most devastating flood. And how this happened was that 24 inches of rain fell for a three to four month period on average for the month. That sounds bad enough, right? But there was nine typhoons that happened as well during that time period. The water level rose to a place, the Yangtze River, it rose 54 feet above the normal level. So think about the Missouri River or the Mississippi rising 54 feet above its normal level. It was devastating. 400,000 people were swept away in the flood. Another million lost their lives in its wake to disease and famine. Your former relationships can have a similar devastating effect. You could literally be swept away. That's what Peter is letting us know about. That we could be swept away like a flood, right? But God is faithful, amen? The astonishment of your not joining often can become hatred very, very quickly. It says that they will malign you, which means to charge falsely, to attack the good name or the reputation of When I was 16 years old, I came to know Christ. I could not be the same anymore. Like, life was different. There was a transformation that had taken place. Going back to the caddy thing, seems to be coming up, reoccurring theme here today. There would be 25 to 40 of us young men, ages basically 13 to 20, sitting in this little room, a caddy shack, as you know, and we would sit there waiting two to eight hours to get a bag to go carry it and make money, you know? And so you can imagine the shenanigans, you know, the fights and the verbal, like just the stuff that would be talked about within that place. I mean, it was nasty. It was bad stuff, right? So when I came to know Christ, I was, I just couldn't join in in the same way that I did previously. I couldn't do it. And so, I tried. I tried to kind of just stay separate. And I would. And I would talk to people and this and that. But at some points, I just, I was like, enough is enough. I have to kind of escape from this in some form. So I would go and I would sit in the corner of the room and I would put on my Walkman headphones and I would listen to Sandy Patty. Because that's what you do, right? Finding on the Wings of Love. It's a great song. Kind of. So that's what I would do to escape. I would read scripture. And so what I started doing, though, is as I'm listening to Sandy Patty, which you laugh, you know you do it, don't lie. I would start hearing the murmurs of people in the room. Like, why? Why is he doing that? Like, oh, he's so holy now, right? Start hearing those things kind of under their breath. Then I take my headphones off and it's no longer under their breath, it's right to my face. And I did okay being an example. I did poorly being an example. It was kind of the whole gambit. You are a new creation. You are different. You are the stench of death to people in the world. Coming to Christ often means losing friends and family, but not without struggle. What I'm not saying in this is that as soon as you come to Christ, or when you're in the midst of suffering, that you abandon all relationships with non-believers. That's the opposite of what I'm telling you. Not at all that. It's the flood of debauchery that we must avoid, that we don't want to be swept away in. It's the sin itself that we want to avoid. Now there's a tension here between wisdom and compassion. We must be compassionate and loving towards those that yet do not know Christ. There's going to be maligning that happens and that's evident. But wisdom again must be used because judgment, it's coming quickly. Judgment is coming quickly. That thought should keep you up at night. The passage says that they will give a count. They will give a count to the judge who is ready. And I'm talking that God is ready. Christ is ready to judge. He could do it right now. He's ready. Verse six says, So before you should ever cast off those relationships, you should do everything in your power to share, to proclaim the goodness of God. We sometimes forget too quickly how dead we were. Ephesians 2 says, Dead means dead, right? You were dead. You were no different than them. It's easy to forget that. The so that there that he's talking about, he's saying that when the gospels preach to you who are dead, so that when the world maligns you, when you're judged in the flesh, the passage says, you may live by the Spirit after that, right? We have the ability to live by the Spirit of God no matter what people are saying about us, no matter how we are suffering. Step two, you must avoid your past. Step three, you must, here we go, agape your one another's. That's my clever point that I got. Agape your one another's. This is verses seven to nine. It says, the end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. The end is at hand. We are moving towards it. It is in the future. We don't know when, but it is coming. The New Testament writers, they saw the end coming in some form. They saw the increase of wickedness that was around them. They saw the suffering that they were going through at the hands of the Roman rulers, and they believed the end was near. James 5, 8 and 9 talks about how the coming of the Lord is at hand. The judge is standing at the door. 1 John 2, 18 talks about how it's the last hour. Because of this, it is so important to remain, what? Self-controlled and sober-minded. Self-control is this, to think and live wisely in control over one's passions and desires. I mean, how difficult is it to pray, to be connected to the one and others of the body when you have no self-control? It's difficult to pray when you're in that place. To be sober-minded is to curb the controlling influences of your emotions and desires. To prepare your mind for action. I love this from Baker, it says, Seems like that was made for us, doesn't it? Before you can have kind of right relationships with others, you have to be right with Him. That's what it's saying. Especially in the midst of suffering. There are two one another's that we see in these three verses. What that means is the believers within your church family. These relationships are key to being prepared for suffering. You see that in the way that Paul writes from prison, right? He is writing to his friends that he loves and adores and misses, longs for. He's asking for different things. So we see in the end of 1 and 2 Timothy, he's longing for them. These relationships are key to thriving in suffering. We then get to the crux of the section of verse 8 when Peter says, Above all, meaning of the greatest importance. The word for agape, this is where we see it, it means keep loving. That's probably the one Greek word that you know besides hynna, right? Like you know agape, that's why we could use it as a point. It means to keep loving, to persevere in love, to sacrificially love. Here's a key word, constantly. Constantly. We are to keep loving one another constantly. Even more so in suffering. Peter undoubtedly remembers Jesus speaking about the end times in Matthew 24. He says, That's what happens. Our love grows cold at times. Jesus' greatest commandment in Matthew 22, to love God, to love your neighbor as yourself. Peter is reinforcing the importance of loving your one and others during suffering, during difficulty. You need the body of Christ to wrap its arms around you during those times. 1 Peter 1.22, This is a constant theme throughout the epistle. Two different ways that we agape one another, that we love one another. Number one is this, love through fellowship. Love through fellowship. Suffering as a Christian should drive you into deeper community with the believers around you. It should. We've seen that happen here at Harvest over the years. There's been tragedy that has struck this body, right? People have passed away, things have happened. But what we've seen though, is this body rise up and love and care for those people. Suffering causes your church family to really become family. They're no longer just a group of people that you go and sing some songs with. They are your family. I think that's why Jesus says, you know, when talking about his mother and brothers, he's like, no, no, here is my mother and brothers. He's talking about the people that are his. They're his family. there's a sweetness to being really part of the church body, not just being a spectator. And I find it ironic that Ben was talking about this whole idea of being connected and being part of the body because that's exactly what I'm gonna talk about now. So let me rant for just a moment. Being part of the church of Jesus Christ is not a spectator sport. What I mean by that is just one that you kind of come and you glance at, and then you walk away, right? Some of you are amazing at being just close enough so as not to arouse suspicion. Right? Just kind of there. You're there, but you're not really there. You're kind of connected, but you're not really connected. And you know that. If you are still not connected after years here, if you're not invested here in this place, then you are missing the agape that's available. You're missing the one another aspect that is available. and you're missing preparation for suffering that is available. Love through fellowship, that's agape number one. Number two, love through forgiveness. Love through forgiveness. Look at verse eight. Why? Since love covers a multitude of sins. Love bears all things. When you love someone continuously and sacrificially, you have the ability to kind of overlook offenses. Isn't that true? Like I've noticed in my own life that when I kind of have a strained relationship with somebody or there's some difficulty there or whatever the case, it's like little things become really, really big things, right? We've seen that happen. I'm sure you've seen that happen. But within the body though, big things become smaller. Little things become nothing because we bear with one another. We forgive one another. That's what love truly does. Love lessens sin's impact. That's an awesome thing. Love for one another also should be demonstrated in hospitality. Look at verse nine. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. In the ancient world, there was kind of an expectation that when people were traveling, you would let them stay with you, right? Acquaintances, friends, whatever the case. Kind of staying in the inn was expensive, and it was also kind of dangerous as well. Paul tells us in Romans 12, 13, to practice hospitality. Galatians 6, 10, it says, Love shown through hospitality is an incredibly sweet thing. It is. We've seen this here within our body. There are families that are just amazing in the hospitality department. You know, meal trains, moving help, free rooms for former students, right? Financial help. Thank you for your service. But we should do it more, right? The kind of a love expressed among the body is an incredible preparation for whatever suffering may come in your life. Next and last, step four is to activate your service. Activate your service. Verse 10 says, as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's very grace. Whoever speaks as one who speaks the oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. So what are those spiritual gifts he's talking about here? Well, his pillar says, Let me say that again. It's any talent or ability which is empowered by the Holy Spirit and able to be used in the ministry of the local church. You have all received at least one spiritual gift as a believer. Do you know that? You have received at least one gift, maybe multiple. How are you using it? Are you stewarding it as the passage talks about? 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12 outline kind of some specific giftings, but Peter doesn't go to the specific here. He doesn't do that. He keeps it general. He gives two general areas of gifting. He says speaking and serving. Speaking covers all forms of basically speaking service unto the Lord. So preaching, teaching, evangelism, things like that, encouragement. It's the idea of thus saith the Lord. It's an idea that when you speak from God's Word, like the Lord is speaking through you, right? You're not speaking new words or something. There's no new revelation anymore, but you are speaking forth the truth of God's Word. You're speaking that truth. That's what you're doing. The power of the Holy Spirit, this is from the commentary, it says, Suffering believers need the encouragement and the hope found in the words of Scripture. Amen? You do. We do. Not only that, there's a dual component here. They need, you need the words of Scripture to be encouraged when you're in the midst of suffering. But also, you need to speak forth the words of Scripture when you are in the midst of suffering. So it's not only receiving it, it's giving it. There's a dual component. See, we have a tendency at times to kind of deactivate our service when suffering comes. Kind of go like turtle mode and kind of go inward and protect ourselves with the shell and all that stuff. And there is, I'm telling you, hear it from here, there's nothing wrong with that for a season, right? We all need times like that. We do. But, after you've had a chance to regroup Reset, rest, be restored, which is an interesting thing, right? The word restored is rest and restored, right? So rest is involved in being restored. I just make these things up. But have you had a chance to do that, your natural default tendency should be to get back involved serving in some capacity. Why? The reality is that the Lord wants to use your suffering, he wants to use what you're going through to encourage the other body, to encourage the body to be, to deal with the problems that they're having as well. We're there for each other in that way. I'll never forget a few months ago, when I was preparing to speak and I was going to do one passage and then things kind of happened. I decided to speak on Philippians chapter four, right? So I'm preparing this message and I'm going through it and I got these points and everything is going well, right? And I get to point four and it's kind of longing for heaven. Your citizenship is in heaven type thing. That's what the fourth point was. That week, I found out that my dad had a large mass on his pancreas, right? And it turns out that it was cancerous. But I can tell you that it was hard to prepare that message after I learned that news. But God used it. I received comments and different things like that afterwards. God wants to use us in the midst of our suffering. And just as a side note to that, I thank you for your prayers. He does have cancer, but things are going well. He's having chemo and it's looking actually positive at this point, so thank you. The second gift to be used here is that of, is generally just serving. He says, serving in general. Whoever serves is one who serves by the strength that God supplies in order that everything, God may be glorified. Now, it's again a very broad category. If you don't really have kind of the speaking gifts, which I know not everybody does, like then you have one of these other gifts, right? Like it's the catch-all for everything else. It has to be done within the strength that God provides. Now, it's an interesting thing because when you are in the midst of difficulty, suffering, trials, whatever you want to call it, the thing that you need in order to perform, to activate your service, you have to have the strength that God provides. You simply cannot do it in your own strength. That's why I think he's talking about that here. We need his strength. We need what he can only provide, provided by God. He abundantly supplies all that the worker needs to accomplish the task that God has given him. Paul's suffering and his service are done simultaneously through his ministry, as is Peter's. They don't seem to be detached at all. Isn't that interesting? If you read 2 Corinthians 12, you see this kind of laundry list of sufferings that Paul has gone through. He continued to serve in the midst of all of that. It deepened his connection to the body. It encouraged the people that he was around. We must steward our gifts well with perseverance. When the body serves in that way, God gets glory. That's truly what this is all about, that God would get glory. Greater glory unto Christ, the one who, this is key, he suffered and died for us. We relate to him. It's his strength, being able to continue in a course of action, to go to the cross and to die for us. He served us in that way. He brought glory to God in that way. And we join with him in that. Go ahead and bow your heads. Preparation for suffering is needed in the life of every believer. So where do you need greater preparation? Is your, is your mind armed? How about your connection to past sins, to the flood? Are you engaging with one another's here at harvest? Are you using your gifts to serve the body no matter what? Peter ends this section with a beautiful doxology. I think he does that for a reason. No matter what you've gone through, no matter what you're going through, no matter what the future holds, Christ reigns supreme. He says, to him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. God, we thank you that you are sufficient, that you meet us. God, we don't know what's coming tomorrow. We don't even, in some ways, know what's happening today. But would you give us the wisdom to prepare well the desire to be a part of what's going on here in this church, to arm our minds, to avoid our past, and to serve you well by encouraging people in this body. God, we thank you for this time in your name. Amen.