1 Peter 4:12-19 | Fight the Idol of Comfort

Sunday Morning | February 2, 2025 | John C. Majors | Louisville, KY

In Fight the Idol of Comfort, Pastor John unpacks 1 Peter 4:12-19, challenging believers to embrace suffering as part of their faith rather than avoiding it for the sake of comfort. First, he urges us to reclaim the joy of suffering by understanding its nature—historically, Christians have endured intense persecution, as seen under Nero’s rule. Yet, Christ serves as the ultimate model of suffering, and through it, we grow in faith and endurance. Second, he reminds us that suffering comes with judgment, refining and purifying believers as described in Malachi 3:1-4. Finally, he calls us to recommit to the job of suffering—enduring hardship for Christ’s sake, trusting that God is working through it to shape us into His image.

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Transcript

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God, we thank you that we can gather this morning. And praise your name. That we can dwell on the realities of what you endured on the cross, on our behalf. And how you rose again. God help us to delight in who you are today as we look at you in your word, as we seek truth in Your Word, not in all the madness we hear all around us every day. It's not truth, it's noise meant to draw us away from you. God help us to dwell in the truth of who you are, to love and delight in you today. Thank you Jesus. We love you. Amen. Amen. Well, it's great to gather with you this morning. You can have a seat. We're going to continue in our study of First Peter. I'm reminded of a time when my wife, Julie and I, before we were married, and she and my son aren't here today. There. He's come down sick. I've heard it's been going around a little bit, so it hit us as well. But I'm reminded of a time when we were still in college, and one summer we served at a kids camp, and this camp in particular was a missions project where they recruited college students, college Christian students to serve as the counselors at the camp. And you raised your own money to pay for your time at the summer here. It's really meant to be a missions effort to pour into the lives of these kids. And so everyone who came was very invested. They had spent a number of months asking people to give to them to be able to serve in this summer missions project all summer long, to invest in the lives of of kids. And so we show up to this camp, and the first two weeks we’re training, so no kids there yet. And we're just hanging out with the other college students and with the people in charge of the camp. We're learning from them. We're all getting ready for when the kids showed up. But a really interesting thing happened over those two weeks. By the end of this two weeks, we really didn't want the kids to come. We were really enjoying just hanging out with the other counselors and college students and sharpening one another and studying God's Word together and learning how to grow and and where we are in life spiritually and we were enjoying that really well. We didn't want any kids come and mess that up. I mean, kids, they're messy. They're they're hard. They bring problems. And this is good. We want to keep it this way. Even though every single one of us was heavily invested, we asked people to give to us to come and serve kids over this summer. We knew that was our mission and purpose. We signed up for that. And yet we were already at a place where I think, here's the issue that we had grown too comfortable. We had made comfort an idol. We we liked this easy little part of life. We want to keep things this way. We don't want kids to come up and mess up how great things are going for us. And we had forgotten our purpose. We had forgotten what we had signed up for. We had forgotten the very reason we were supposed to be there. I think we're going to see in the book of Peter today. First Peter, we're going to wrap up chapter four. Peter is addressing that reality with his audience because over the last two chapters

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11, Peter has been giving instructions. Here is how you live in a culture that's hostile toward your faith. Here's some practical things to do. But now he comes back to the reality of what they are encountering. We're going to see today. Don't forget you're called to suffer. Don't forget, suffering is part of your faith. They had been lulled into an idol of comfort, of thinking maybe we shouldn't ever suffer. But Peter reminds them, now don't forget. How do we battle the idol of comfort? We're going to see three ways in this passage today. And if you have a church Bible that'll be on page 955 in your Bible, if you don't have a Bible, we'd love to put one in your hands. Those are in the connection corner. Slip out any time. Grab one. Come back in. That's free for you. You can keep it. We want you to read in God's Word, to read from God's Word. That's one of the key aspects of how you grow in your faith is to read his Word, know his word, study his word, find truth in his word. But then here we're going to see three specific ways to fight the idol of comfort, to remember our purpose, to recalibrate back to the reality of what we signed up for. So we're going to talk about the joy of suffering. We need to reclaim the joy of suffering. That's really weird to say. We're going to talk about what that means, the joy of suffering. We need to reclaim that. We also need to remember the judgment of suffering. Talk about the judgment that comes in the midst of suffering. And then this last one, will take some unpacking as well. The job of suffering. So we'll talk about the joy, the judgment and the job of suffering. Let's start first with the joy of suffering. Reclaim the joy of suffering. Look at verses 12 and 14 in chapter four. 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. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. First phrase and this whole section here reminds us of the reality that Peter is trying to point to. The very first thing he says here do not be surprised at the fiery trials when they happen. Why is it that we get to the place where we we are always shocked when a challenge happens or when suffering happens? So of course I'm going to speak of challenges and suffering interchangeably. Peter is specifically addressing suffering that comes as a result of your faith. People are persecuting you because you're a Christian. And yet I think it also applies to just challenges in general. Always shocked when something hard happens. Just a week ago or so, and on one of the coldest days of the year, I go out to start my car here at the church, leaving the church office. I’ve been serving the Lord faithfully all day here at the church and it won't start. First try just kind of gives that womp womp noise. And then I try again and it starts. Thank you Lord. But now I know it may not start again. Right. So I got a choice. I had all this stuff planned. I was getting ready to leave. I was exercising, going to hang out with someone who had all the stuff planned, and now that's all out the window. So I drive right immediately to AutoZone. I pull up. Thankfully they had batteries, but I've got to put it in. So I drag it outside and I'm putting it in, but it's like four degrees. And so I'm taking off my gloves to mess with the screws. And it got to the point where I couldn't feel them anymore and I couldn't even turn them. My fingers stopped working and so I thought, thank you, Lord, I'm gonna die of hypothermia here. I'm going to freeze to death. Frostbite. What's going to happen? So I go back inside. I'm complaining. I'm upset. The whole afternoon's ruined and I'm blowing on my hands to warm them up. I'm in there like 15, 20 minutes just trying to get the feeling back. And I'm part of me is just complaining and. But then it's like the Lord's saying, look, think of all the things I just protected you from. Your car started, you were able to drive here. They had a battery and you had a warm place to come warm back up to be able to finish putting it in. You weren't stuck somewhere on the side of the road where maybe hypothermia might have set in. Can't you focus on all the good I have done today? Okay, Lord. I'll try. Let's see if we can get there. Thank you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I immediately went to the negative. I have assumed that problems will never happen, that I'll never have another car problem again in life. And if you own a car, you're guaranteed to have a car problem in life. It will come. Why are we always shocked by the reality? It seems like Peter has realized his audience is shocked. The trials will come. Surprised? How does that happen, by the way? Because we knew what we signed up for. We knew that at the very core of our faith was someone who hung on a cross. He paved the way for us. There should be no surprise that challenges will come. Sometimes this happens and you hear this today in some teaching, in some churches, there's an overemphasis on all that Christ can do for us and has done for us. There's an overemphasis on what is to come and on perfection, and on all the joys of following him, and all the delights of following him. And what's neglected is the reality of challenges, the reality of suffering, the reality that sin still lives in this world. And the temptation is to get to a place where to think just because he can deliver that means he must deliver. But the Bible never promises that. So there's something about our hearts that gets to a place where if he doesn't deliver, then he doesn't love me. He's not real. But Peter reminds them here, no, no, no, listen, do not be surprised by the trials when they come. Don't be shocked. Don't be surprised. You have forgotten. This is part of the reality of following Christ. In fact, I think what helps us to look in this specific section, these couple of verses. This is almost a sermon within a sermon. What is the nature of suffering? There's a couple of things he says here, specifically about suffering that I think will help us realize the joy of suffering. He talks about the nature of suffering. He talks about the model of suffering with Christ here in these three verses, and then the results of suffering. Want to look at those three real quick? First, the nature of suffering. If you look back at verse 12, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening. Part of the nature of trials. And by the way, I can't address every reality of every trial or challenge you'll face. All the stuff I'm saying doesn't explain every situation you've encountered. I'm not trying to oversimplify, I'm just addressing some elements of the suffering we encounter. But one of the things he says here is that the fiery trial is meant to test you. To refine you. Some, when they see that word fiery, have linked this to some of the actual persecutions the Christians were facing at this time. We know that the Roman Emperor Nero was a lunatic, was insane at so many levels. There's so many stories about his life. We have historians from that time. In fact, I'm gonna quote from one in particular, Pliny. He was a historian. He wrote around 77 A.D. so this would have been around the same time that Peter was writing. He had this to say, I'm going to put the quote on the screen about how Nero approached the Christians at this time and persecuted the Christians. He said it this way. He blamed the Christians. Let me explain that there was a fire set to Rome. Much of Rome burned around this time. Nero blamed the Christians for it. Most believe that he's actually the one who set it on fire because he's insane, who knows why. Nero blamed the Christians because of their supposed hatred of mankind. He had them thrown to dogs, nailed to crosses in his garden, and burned alive the traditional punishment for arson to serve as living torches in the night. Oh, you want to follow Christ? Great. I'll put you on a cross, and then I'll use your body to light my garden. Talk about a fiery trial. Some have said this is likely what Peter is addressing. Don't be surprised by that. I think probably in the context of this passage, a more likely reality is started in chapter one, where he also mentioned fiery trials, testing. In fact, in chapter one, verse seven, he talked about the reality that this was meant to refine you like silver, like gold. Fire has dual purposes. It can be used for good and then it can be used to destroy. But the fire here is a refining fire. The fire of the silver and gold versus burnt furnace burns away the impurities. That's a fire that improves. Now, It doesn't feel good while it's burning away the impurities, but it's the fire that improves. It's the fire. And in fact, one of the words we've used in Christian life is it prunes. And you prune a bush to bring more growth, not to kill it, to bring more growth. You cut away the dead part. You cut away the useless parts. You cut away the things that are sapping energy from the good parts. Don't be surprised that fiery trials come because they're meant for your good. That's at the nature of these trials. Not to harm, not to tear down. Even though it might feel like that in the moment. They're meant for your good. So that's the nature of the trials. But then secondly, look at the or the nature of such suffering. Look at the reality of the model of suffering. Look at verse 13. Don't be surprised, strange things happening to you, but rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. The nature of suffering is that it tests, it refines, it grows, and the model of our suffering is Christ. He is at the core of our faith. In fact, what is behind me is the most prominent thing in our church. What is the most prominent symbol you see when you're driving up to the church? If you're coming from that direction, what is the main symbol of your faith? If you see someone wearing around their neck, you know they have some semblance of faith. It's a cross, and the cross represents horrific suffering. That's the model that has been given to us. Jesus, who died, suffered. We should not be surprised that we are called to suffer for our faith at times. That's the model. The nature is refining. The model is Christ. But then third is the result here in this passage, we see the result of suffering. Look at verse 14. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. One of the results of suffering is the recognition that the Spirit of God rests upon you. I don't think the suffering causes the spirit to rest upon you, but for those who know Christ and suffer well, it's an indication that the spirit rests upon them. This comes from Isaiah chapter 11. Flip over there real quick. Isaiah is kind of near the middle of the Bible. If you get to Psalms, go right just a little bit. And the church Bible number page numbers on the screen. Isaiah is one of the larger prophet books of the Old Testament. And in Isaiah there is a lot of prophecy about the Messiah to come. The Old Testament is about promise. The New Testament is about fulfillment. So much of the Old Testament is pointing forward to Christ. Isaiah chapter 11 is probably one of the more prominent chapters that is specifically pointing forward to the signs of the Messiah. What will the Messiah be like? What will the one be like who is coming to deliver us? Isaiah chapter 11, verses one through three say this if you're looking for the Messiah, here's what to look for. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the spirit here comes. Here's what Peter was referring to. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord and his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. If you want to know what the Messiah will look like, if you want to know what it looks like when the spirit of the Lord rests upon him, here's some of what will be true wisdom, knowledge, fear of the Lord, and the beautiful part of what Peter is saying. If you go back to Peter, his point here is that same spirit rests upon us who know Christ, the same spirit that everyone in the Old Testament was looking for now also rest upon us, which gives us the strength and ability to endure, to see that there's a greater purpose in whatever suffering comes and... You know, the reality is, and it's hard to say, one of the results of suffering is that those are the things that really grow you in life. And if you're in the midst of suffering, that probably is not going to fall well on you. So I'm not trying to be trite with what you're you're facing. But I can look back at my life and it wasn't the easy times that grew me. I mean, someone brought up the pandemic with me this morning talking about that season of life, that it was such a weird time. I didn't it was too easy for us. So much of just sitting around the house, I mean, I literally sat around it because I gained about 25 pounds during the pandemic. I'm just sitting around lacking purpose, and maybe it wasn't that way for you. Maybe it was really hard. Maybe you had more pressure put on you. But for a lot of people it was the sea of wondering and ease and what do I do now? What is life about? I think I didn't grow, I did wrong way during that time. It was too easy. But I can look back at seasons of chronic illness, and I can see and remember specific ways God worked in my life and grew me and showed up in ways I don't want to go back there. I wouldn't ask for that. We're not called to seek out suffering. You don't even have to. You're not even required to enjoy it in the midst of it. By the way. Acknowledge that it's hard and yet also acknowledge he can use this in my life. It does have purpose. Suffering is not meaningless. And if you don't know Christ, what? What else are you going to do with suffering? What purpose does it have? One of the great joys of knowing him is the joy of knowing whatever I'm going through, he he can use it and he will use it. So we're called first to recall. If we want to get back out of the idol of comfort, we want to get back to our purpose. We claim the joy of suffering, even as weird as it is to say it that way. Reclaim it. I know he's at work. I'm going to trust that he's at work. That's the first way. Now let's look at the second way. Remember the judgment of suffering. Remember the judgment of suffering. Let me tell you what I mean by that. Look back at verse 15, or look at verse 15. Let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evil doer, or as a meddler. Yet if any one suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed. Let him glorify God in that name, for it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God. And if it begins with us, if meaning, since it begins with us, it will begin with us. When it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? Here he quotes from Proverbs, if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? Remember the judgment of suffering? He begins this section before we talk about his judgment to come. He begins this section though, by reminding us that not all suffering you experience is because of your faith. You know what I'm talking about. Sometimes we bring that on ourselves. I mean, he lists... this list is interesting that he puts here in verse 15, because the first three things he lists here murderer, thief, evil doer, those are pretty bad things. If you are a murderer or thief or evil doer, there will be some judgment in your life, and rightly so. We we don't come before a judge if you've murdered someone and say, listen, I know murder is really bad, but I'm a Christian, therefore I don't go to jail. No, you still are going to have some consequences for doing these awful things. But then what's interesting about this list is the very next thing he mentions, the first three are clearly things you don't want to do. First, things are universally acknowledged that you don't want to do. When we're witnessing on the college campus, I've had this conversation a thousand times why should God let you into heaven? Well, I've been a pretty good person. Hopefully my good stuff outweighs my bad stuff. And here's the one they always say I've never killed anybody. Everyone knows whether you're a Christian or not, that's bad. I don't kill anyone. Okay, so he's got that covered. But look at what he says after that. Verse 15 again, let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, evil doer, or as a meddler. What? That doesn't really seem to fit in this list as a a meddler. Why would he add that on? I think what he's doing by doing that is appealing to his audience, to the Christian audience, because it's easy to think, oh, you're talking about those murderers, those evil doers, those people out there. Or what about the meddlers? Let me also let me also mention them. I remember in in middle school, riding the bus, there was nothing more fascinating than listening to the high school girls talk to one another about all that was going on in their lives. I mean, I did everything I could to lean in to listen to that, but I didn't want them to notice because they were scary, like or twice my size. And that hair like Fiery Furnace and Medusa. I mean, it was intimidating, but I would lean in. But one day in particular, a girl noticed me listening and she was hot and she said these words to me. She said, what are you doing dipping in to what we're talking about? I was like, dipping. I don't use tobacco products. What do you mean, dipping? I mean, listening in where you weren't invited. I said, well, you are speaking quite loudly and it is very fascinating. And then she threatened me within an inch of my life with hairspray and all kinds of intimidation. Okay, I'm backing out of this. There was something deeply offensive to her about me wanting to know what was going on in their life. And of course, that's a silly setting of high school and middle school. Peter's not talking about that, but he is talking about our temptation to want to fix other people rather than ourselves. Jesus is always trying to get to the heart of sin, not just the outward activity of sin. We often focused on the outward action of sin. You see someone doing a behavior and you you think you know their heart. Let me see that behavior. And now I can determine whether or not they're a good person or not. And there's some things like that that are helpful markers. I'm not saying that's all bad, but Jesus wanted to get to the heart. What's going on in your heart? And for the meddler, that's the person who says they have problems that I need to fix, but I don't. The meddler sits in the church service and goes, I really hope Sally heard that. Or I really hope Billy, he or he needed to hear what the pastor just said. I'm going to send them an email to remind him how important that is, that he work on that, but not me. The Christian is called to first go, I desperately needed to hear that, I desperately need Christ to work in my life and is not meddling in the lives of others. Of course, we're called to be an encouragement to one another. Of course we're called to step into each other's lives, to help each other grow. You know the difference between the person who comes to you to help you grow and the person who is meddling. The reality is, this is important for us as Christians because there will be a day of judgment. He says here, judgment is coming. Look at verse 16. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, because ashamed there means we don't have to worry about a judgment that is meant to harm us. We are secure in him. Romans eight. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The judgment to come is different for us than it is for those who don't know him. But take note of that. Let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God. And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? The reality is that judgment will come. And what he's doing here is he's picking up on a theme that was throughout the entirety of the Old Testament. It shows up over and over again. We could go to some specific passages. I think a good one is Malachi, which isn't very far back from us. Malachi, the book of Malachi ends the the Old Testament, the last book, and Malachi chapter three is almost the last chapter of the last book of the Old Testament. It's right up next to it. But I want you to see here the themes that we see in first Peter, were talked about in the Old Testament in terms of the refining judgment of God and why he would start in his own house when he brings judgment. That's why this is important for us. He is starting in his own house. In the Old Testament, he predicted that that would happen. Look at Malachi chapter three. Page number should be on the screen for the Church Bible. If you see any of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, just go back a couple of pages to the end of the book of Malachi. Malachi chapter three on page 753. And look at verses one through three. Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. And the messenger of the covenant, to whom you delight. Behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears, here’s this phrase, for he is like a refiner's fire. And like Fuller's soap, he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. He will purify the sons of Levi, who would have been the priests of the nation. He will purify the sons of Levi, refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings and righteousness to the Lord. The point here being is that when he comes to bring judgment, he’s starting with the leaders. Because Jesus is clear, not everyone who says, Lord, Lord knows him. There will be a day when they say, Lord, Lord, I did this for you, I did this, I did this for you. And he says, depart from me. I never knew you. Matthew chapter seven. He walks through that. He separates the sheep and the goats. And that's a hard reality to talk about. That should make us a little bit uncomfortable and make us go, am I in right standing with him? We should feel the weight of that a little bit. He comes here first because this is where those who say they are Christian gather. If the Navy, who loves to build a dedicated force of exemplary warriors and the Navy Seals, if they Navy wants to find new Navy Seals, they don't show up at the seminary at the Greek class to find candidates. I can attest to that reality. Not a very tough group of guys. If they want to find the toughest of the toughest, they find those who are already within their ranks and who have already raised their hands and have said, I can do that. They already have shown. If you want to even show up for Navy Seal training, you've got to be able to do 80 pushups in two minutes, 80 sit ups in two minutes, 11 pull ups. You've got to be able to run a mile and a half in ten minutes and swim 500m in ten minutes, and you get it's not like you have a week to do all that. You get very little rest in between all that as well. Those guys who have already raised their hands and said I can be a Navy Seal are already tough guys. And yet all of them, when they show up to the first day of training and say, I'll never back out, probably 99% of them say, there's no way that I'm going to step away from this. There's no way I'm quitting. And yet 75% of them do. Those who say they are Seals aren't all Seals. Those who say they're Christians aren't all Christians. There is a judgment coming. And here's what that means for us. This isn't meant to put. I know many struggle with knowing am I really saved? Do I really know Christ? And I think some of that may be legitimate. I think I think some of that is unhealthy fear. There's I've got this fantastic little booklet on how do I know that I'm truly saved? If you want one, let me know. I'd love to put it in your hands that there in my office I have to track them down. But let me know because it is so good. Because the focus is on God's strength, not mine. I've put my faith in his strength to save me, not in my ability to save me. That will always fail. But it is true that there will be a day of judgment, and it is true that you never know when your time is up. You never know. One of our own here, Steven Price, you might have seen him riding his scooter into the parking lot a year ago. One night, 46 years old, has an aneurysm. He didn't know that was coming. You never know. None of us know, none of us are guaranteed another minute. And yet, like we talked about last week, we tend to think life's just going to keep going on like it always has. But if you're not in right standing with him. Don't forget there is a judgment coming. Don't continue to pretend and and play games. Don't let another day go by. You get right with him. And I'm not talking about perfection, by the way. None of us are going to experience perfection. I'm not talking about that. Do you know him? Do you claim him as Lord? Are you trying to do it all by yourself? Remember that there is a judgment coming. And then last. We want to walk in the joy of suffering, reclaim the joy of suffering. Remember that there is a judgment that’s coming but then last, recommit to the job of suffering. It feels like a really weird way to say it. Recommit to the job of suffering. Let's look at these verses here. Start with verse 18. Then we'll go back to verse 19. If the righteous is scarcely saved and the word scarcely, there doesn't mean barely. That means our walk is with difficulty. We choose the narrow path. Those who follow Christ say, deny. I will deny myself. Take up my cross daily, and follow him. What will become of the ungodly in the center? The reality is that it is not a good direction for those who don't know him. But the job of suffering in verse 19, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. Let those who suffer while doing God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing God's will. That phrase entrust their souls. There's an element of that that has this ongoing mindset that I think points to a job like mentality when it comes to suffering. When you think about your job, most everyone, the large majority of people, you don't question whether or not you're going tomorrow or not. You just if tomorrow's your work day you know you are. It's not a debate. There is a mentality that says, this is what I'm committed to. This is what I do. Even if it's hard, even if I know I have a hard meeting tomorrow, even if I dealt with a jerk on Friday and I don't want to see him again, I'm still going. I have a it's a bit of a job like mentality. Even if I don't like the job, I'm going to show up. I committed to this. I might find another one, but I'm committed with a job like mentality. And here that word entrust, it has this idea behind it-- You know, they didn't necessarily always have banks back then. And so if you had a pile of money and you needed to go on a trip, you either needed to carry it with you, which was very risky. If you've read any of the Bible, you've seen that that people were murdered and robbed all the time on the road. A lot of times what you would do is entrust it to a neighbor, give it to them for safekeeping while you're gone. Will you hold this for me? But what if I came to you and said, hey, listen, I'm going on a road trip and I need you to care for these very important books while I'm gone. Probably be bigger than that. Probably be a larger container than just these, but very important, most precious possessions. Will you care for these and watch these? And I handed them to you. Thank you. You're trustworthy. And even before the end of the day, I'm calling. I got to come back and get those. I can't leave them with you. And we have that exchange 4 or 5 times. I come and get them, I leave them, I come and get them. I leave them over and over again. I'm not entrust. I'm not really entrusting them. Part of the job- like nature of suffering is daily. When you're tempted, you want to not entrust yourself to him is to continue to come back, continue to say, I am entrusting this suffering to you. I'm not going to just take it on myself. I'm not going to give up that you're at work in the midst of this. In fact, his last phrase there is I'm going to continue to do good. Back at verse 19, let us, those who suffer according to God's will, entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. Part of the job- like nature, is to continue to focus. I'm going to do the things that I know he's called me to do, and the things that I know he uses in my life to grow me. This is why last week I asked if people would commit to taking a week break from social media, news and here's what I do. I'm going to ask if you committed to do that last week. And by the way, I'm not going to quiz you on how perfect you were at it. I've had many say to me, oh my gosh, I didn't realize I was even on social media before I was. How did that happen? I get it. Okay. But if you last week said yes, that's something I wanted to do. Just raise your hand again, okay? A lot of people committed to that. And the purpose of that was, if you remember in verse seven, it said, we need to be self-controlled and sober minded. Why? What was it for the sake of? What was the reason for the sake of your what? It's in verse seven. I'll let you look. It's not a I'm not trying to trick you. Be self-controlled, sober minded for the sake of your prayers. Right? Your prayer life is at stake. What we put into our brains affects our prayer life. And prayer life is one of the most powerful aspects of what we can do in our Christian life. In terms of seeing God move. And now how many of you would say, and again, I'm not looking to see if you did it perfectly, perfectly, whatever that word is. I'm not. I'm speaking of. I'm not looking to see if you did it right. Was it rewarding? Let me just. If that was rewarding, you let me see your hand. Look, our world is ate up with anxiety and the number one factor contributing to anxiety, especially in the young today, is the use of social media. There's been study after study after study that has shown that. I'm not saying all social media is evil, but it has overwhelmed and overtaken us. So many people said to me, John, before I even knew what I was doing, I was clicking on something I knew I didn't want to see. This week. I committed not to. I'd already brought it up. It was such a habit. It was so ingrained for me to immediately go there. All I was hoping to do was just to break that pattern. We want to get away from being led by the world to immediately falling into the world's influence on us. For that to be the default attitude of our lives, we want to get away from that. We want to be in control of what we put in our brains, not out of control. We want to be self controlled. And there's plenty of good reasons. And many of you said to me, hey, you had to get on there for my work, or hey, I had a loved one who needed prayer and I needed to share and I yes, that is good. Let's get on there for that purpose. But when I just immediately go to consuming and I didn't say and it's absorbing and I'm filling up my brain with meaningless and it's just you all have felt that it's just deadening my soul and my spirit. That's not where we want to be. We want to be in control. Self-control. So here's what I want to ask as a follow up, because I had a few people ask me, hey, when's this thing going to end, by the way? Okay, great idea. I'm ready for it to be over. Here's what I want to ask, because I think everyone who has set some boundaries on social media use this week in news this week is it's fearful of what will happen. Will I just end up back there now? That was a great week, never to be repeated in my life. Let's not let that happen. Let's don't go back there. Here's what I want you to do and take out a pencil. Paper if you have that. If you don't know what those are, use, notes on your phone or something. I want you to write down a number. Here's how many minutes a day. Notice I said minutes, not hours. How many minutes a day I'm going to limit myself to social media and news combined. And look, this is elective, by the way. I even told my elders this morning that I don't want a church to ever be a legalistic place. I don't want you to feel like if I walk past you and you're looking at Facebook, I'm judging you. I'm not. I don't know your whole story. I don't know all that's going on in your life. I don't that's not what this is about. This isn't we're not going to have, the lowest screen time for the week put up on the screen and and applauded. And the highest number shamed and judged. No, no, no, we're not, it's not it's not about that. But I think we would all say we want freedom. Put down a number. I think this is a healthy amount. This is an amount that would say I'm still in control, or I can still go there and come back out. Write that down right now. You know what it is. You know, you don't have to give it tons of thought. I’ll tell you what it is for me. Maybe I won’t, maybe I won't, because I don't want that to become some kind of oh, that's the right standard. If you want to know, ask me personally. But look, I know some who are spending eight, ten, 12 hours a day consuming, okay? You're probably not going to go to 15 minutes, 20 minutes a day, put down a realistic number of can go and say, this is it. And look, there are tons. I'll show you how to set up your phone to where it keeps you from, spending more time on them. And you can find and find that same person who was your accountability partner this week and go to them at the end of the service and say, here's my target for this week. Be praying for me. I'm going to send you screenshots throughout the week because I want self control around this. All right. Here's the point of all that. Wrapping that up. Our prayers are too important. Walking with Christ and joy is too important. Seeing others come to know him, it's too important and time is limited. You never know. Time is limited. Make the most of every moment. Make the most of every moment you got. Don't give it away to meaninglessness. Use tools that are there intentionally, but come back to focus on making the most of every moment. Don't let another day go by. If you're not in right standing with him, come talk to me after the service. There's no greater joy than walking with him. Let's pray. God, we thank you that in you we have hope. Whatever suffering we've endured, there's meaning in that. There's purpose. We know that you went before us. And our temptation is to just want comfort. Just want it easy to never have challenges. And that you said from the beginning, whoever comes after me must deny himself. Take up his cross daily and follow me. Lord, help us not to forget the truth of that, to reclaim the joy of following you. I pray specifically for those here who don't know Christ. Maybe this whole idea of following some guy who live long ago is really bizarre and foreign to you. My prayer for you today is just that you would continue to grow, continue to know who he is. Continue to seek out truth in Christ. We're here to talk with you about that. Thank you, Jesus for today. Thank you that we can gather and watch others worship and be encouraged by others who stand up and say, praise the name of the Lord our God. We love you, Jesus. Amen.