Sermon Tone Analysis

I don't know how much you've thought about this or not, but your life hasn't worked according to your plan.

Last week didn't work according to your plan.

From the look of some of you, today didn't work according to your plan.

Your story is being written but by someone else.

I know that your life hasn’t worked according to your plan.

I know another thing...that you're always trying to figure your life out.

It is an intensely human thing to do.

I don't know how much you've thought about this or not, but your life hasn't worked according to your plan.

Last week didn't work according to your plan.

From the look of some of you, today didn't work according to your plan.

Your story is being written but by someone else.

I know that your life hasn’t worked according to your plan.

I know another thing...that you're always trying to figure your life out.

It is an intensely human thing to do.

This is the sixth message in our series on 1 Peter: "Living Bold in Tough Times."

Peter wrote this letter to encourage believers to live a life of courage in spite of the hardships they faced: poverty, oppression, persecution, slander, abandonment, loneliness, and so on.

This is a very, very, very stark and powerful statement.

It has mostly to do with the relationship of truth to life.

One of the things that’s so interesting is, on the one hand, Peter assumes the Christians who are listening to him have spent plenty of time in orgies, plenty of time in debauchery, plenty of time in idolatry.

He assumes it.

Everyone in this room, whether you realize it or not, is a theologian; everyone in this room is a philosopher.

Everyone in this room is an archaeologist who digs through the mound of his existence in order to make sense out of his world.

Maybe the most significant question for a believer is this: What in the world is God doing, right here, right now?

Then he turns around and says, “Now there’s going to be a war not just of the wills, but now there’s a war actually of sanity.

To the world, the way in which you behave will not just look different; it will look crazy.”

It says, “They think it strange …” It’s a word that’s really quite a strong word.

They will consider you absolutely bizarre.

You will be looked upon as extremely strange, going against nature even, in many ways.

As a result, you’re going to have lots of abuse heaped on you.

From the beginning, Peter makes it clear that we will experience many different kinds of trials.

Just as Jesus said, "The rain falls on the just and the unjust," everyone goes through hard times.

It's inevitable.

It's inescapable.

The question is: How will you respond?

In today's text, Peter prepares us to answer that question.

He begins this chapter saying, "Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose" (v. 1).

He's saying, "Get ready.

Jesus suffered.

So will you."

Things get rough from time and time—there's no getting around that—but you can prepare yourself for the difficult days ahead.

Peter shows us what we need to do to; it's what we'll look at today.

Prepare your mind.

However, Peter calls them and says, “Just the fact that the whole world thinks you’re strange, everybody thinks you’re bizarre, everyone is heaping abuse on you … Don’t let that bother you.”

He says, “You live according to the will of God.”

The question immediately arises … How do you do that?

How can you live a life like that in the face of not just a kind of abuse, but really, a war of plausibility structures?

If you had a pencil and a piece of paper and you were going to write an answer to that, what would you write?

My aim this morning is not to help us answer that question but to ask and answer this question; how am I to respond to what God is doing?

How to get ready for a rough ride?

There are three things you need to do.

First of all, prepare your mind.

Listen again to Peter's words: "Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin" (v. 1).

I like the fact that Peter used the word purpose.

It reminds us that there is a reason for our suffering.

As we saw in chapter one, our problems have a point.

Your hard times are not just random events that occur in your life.

They can serve a purpose—if you allow them to.

That means that inside the Christian faith, inside the truth, you can see how obvious it is we should live this way and we should live this way.

But outside of the Christian truth, the world has a whole different plausibility structure, a whole set of assumptions.

Therefore, the way Christians act looks absolutely berserk, absolutely bizarre, strange, and crazy.

Story of my mother and father: “What in the world is going on?”

Have you ever experienced a moment when you could not make sense out of what God was doing....one of those moments where it seems like God is distant, His plan seems unclear, where you're in a moment you never thought you would be in.

And you say, “God where are you?

God what are you doing?

God, what is this about?

I thought you were love; I thought you were mercy; I thought you were grace.

God, I don't understand.”

I want you to hear what I'm about to say, “You cannot make sense of that moment without eternity, you can't.”

Of course, since Christians will always be the minority every place, how is it that you’re able to live like this?

The answer, I think, is really in verse 1. “Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin.

As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.”

Peter said, "He who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin." He's not talking about sinless perfection here—not exactly.

He is talking about the fact that when you have the strength to endure suffering, temptation loses its power in your life.

When you have endured suffering, you become aware of just how much power you have in Christ, and you become aware of just how little power Satan has over you.

It's only from the perspective of eternity that those dark moments, those painful moments, those moments of despondency, aloneness, surprise, and discouragement become moments of grace and glory and moments of rest.

It’s only when I look at them from the vantage of eternity that those moments get transformed into something different.

In the past, my tendency to give in to temptation was most often based on the misconception that the sin is stronger than I am.

I would think, I can't control my temper.

Why try?

I can't love the unlovable.

Why try?

I can't consistently say no to pizza.

Why try?

Let me tell you what I've learned.

The more you suffer, the more you make it through hard times, the easier it is to say no to temptation.

Enduring suffering gives you a sense of fearlessness, a sense of confidence—not in yourself, but in God's power at work in your life.

Verse 2 tells us, as a result of what you do in verse 1, you’ll be able to live right.

So verse 1 must be the key.

If you really read it properly, it’s saying, “Since Christ suffered in the body; therefore, arm yourselves also with the same attitude.”

That’s the proper translation.

“… because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin.”

What do we learn?

What are the secrets here for living a life in spite of abuse?

What is the secret for enduring in spite of the war of plausibility structures that goes on between what happens inside the church and the way it looks outside?

The answer is right here.

Let me show you.

First of all, we learn the very relationship of truth to life.

Life is always based on truth.

For a minute, let’s not talk about what it means to arm yourselves.

Let’s look at the word therefore.