Suffer and Rejoice!

Sermon Passage: 1 Peter 4:12-16
Sermon Title: Taste and See
Sermon By: Pastor Kevin
Sermon Outline:

1. Suffering for Christ is normal for Christians
   1. John 15:18-20 - “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours
   2. Too comfortable trying not to offend, but the gospel is offensive and uncomfortable
      1. Our lives should not look like everyone else’s
         1. If your life is too comfortable, you should worry
         2. Luke 6:26 “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers treated false prophets in the same way”
      2. Don’t actively seek suffering and persecution, but it should come if you are following Christ
         1. “let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler.”
      3. Evangelism through our lives, but also explici
2. Rejoice in suffering that you may rejoice when His glory is revealed
   1. Suffering produces hope
      1. Romans 5:3-5 - Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
         1. Paul on being justified by faith
         2. Past with God leads to hope in the future
            1. He can not remove your suffering and still be there and good
   2. Hope doesn't look like rejoicing in the moment, but submitting to the will of God
      1. Jesus - Garden of Gethsemane
         1. Sweating blood
      2. Job - Losing Children, wealth and health
         1. Job 1:20 - Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped
      3. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego - simply to bow down to a statue
         1. Apostle Peter - denying Jesus 3 times
3. Endure until the end (It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish)
   1. Do not try to hide, distract or run
      1. Easy to die for Him, difficult to live for Him
      2. We give up too easily; as soon as we see opposition or difficulty
      3. Culture of things “coming easy” or “chosen by destiny” thinking “we are different (an exception)”
         1. Real-life prodigies - star king
   2. Makes it easier - we are created to enjoy Him
      1. Christian Hedonism - Seeking pleasure to its fullest should lead to Him as everything else fails us
         1. Hedonist - doctrine that pleasure or happiness is the sole or chief good in life - Webster Dictionary
         2. God is most satisfied in us, when we are most satisfied in Him - John Piper
         3. (EM) Self denial is denying pleasures of the Earth, but looking to be satisfied in something greater
            1. Jesus extends salvation and you reject is sin
      2. Matthew 6:25-26 - “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”
      3. Peace will come
         1. Philippians 4:4-7 ESV - Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
   3. John 16:33 - “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”