Transcription
Hi guys, Pastor Matt Chandler here. Pray that this sermon, this resource, uh, be used by God in conjunction with you belonging to a local church to grow you and sanctify you in your faith. If these resources bless you, would you consider giving back to us here at TBC? You can do that either through the app, or you can go online to TBC resources and give there. Again, pray that this blesses you and grows you in your love for Jesus Christ.
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Good morning. My name is Gay Green, and I currently serve with my husband at the table leader for membership, and I'm also a finance team volunteer. Today's word is from First Peter 4:12-19. 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 in so far as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice in me glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because of the Spirit of glory and of God rest upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, 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? And if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. This is the word of the Lord. Thank you.
Good morning. I was watching that video earlier, and there's this moment where the rain comes and it hits the soil, and I just, I think the Spirit just said, "Hey, that's what my love is like to your heart." And then I heard Gay read the scripture. You know what the first word of the scripture is this morning? What is it? Beloved. This whole morning, if you talk with the production team, this whole morning has been kind of set up that you would be able to slow down enough and maybe hear the Lord call you beloved, beloved. And then maybe having slowed down enough and hearing him call you, that you might believe it's true.
My name is Mason King. If I haven't gotten to meet you yet, I serve as one of the elders here. I also oversee the Institute Home Groups and Care. My wife, Carly, and I live in South Flower Mound. We've got three kids under 10, which means, man, I think I did a really good job not getting fried on the soccer field all day yesterday. Uh, if you're a ginger, you know my pain. So Julie just talked about the training program. Most weeks, you'll find me there on Wednesday night teaching, and I love getting to be in that space because we get to make the Bible and theology accessible to everyone, no matter your age, your background, your education. Our hope is, is that you come in week in and week out and you leave encouraged because you see God, who he is, not how you pictured him to be. And so sometimes people are like, "I don't know if I can do that. It seems kind of intimidating. I'm not sure I, I'm like a buck 70 soaking wet. I don't think I'm super intimidating." And I'd love to have you in there. So if you want to come join us, you can apply. The applications will close at the end of this month. We kind of lock things up, make groups, and get things ready for the fall, but we'd love to have you in there. So consider it and apply now.
We have been in First Peter for the last eight weeks, and we're nearing the end of the letter. When we look at chapters one through four, we see that Peter has both invited and instructed the followers of Jesus to live in light of hope. So for a flyover, as a review, what I want to do is I want to read to you from each chapter. And we figured out this morning that the screen in your pew Bible is an ESV, but I'm reading from the CSB, so don't get confused, okay? Uh, you can just kind of compare as we go along. So here we go. Verse, all right, chapter 1, verse 13. Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Verse 20, Jesus Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for you. Through him, you believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
Chapter 2. Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow up into your salvation. If you have tasted that the Lord is good, as you come to him, a living stone rejected by people but chosen and honored by God, you yourselves, as living stones, a spiritual house, are being built to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Verse 11, dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against your soul. 2:15, for it is God's will that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good. 3:13, who then will harm you if you are devoted to what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed. Do not fear them or be intimidated, but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet do this with gentleness and reverence, keeping a clear conscience, so that when you are accused, those who disparage your good conduct in Christ will be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than doing evil.
In chapter 4. Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same understanding, because the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin, in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for God's will. For there has already been enough time spent in doing what the Gentiles choose to do. You feel that we've already wasted enough time chasing things like carrying on unrestrained behavior, evil desires, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and lawless idolatry. They are surprised that you don't join them in the same flood of wild living, and they slander you. They will give an account to the one who stands ready to judge the living and the dead.
So, I'll tell you, each time I read through this letter, Peter's invitation to joy in Christ and his instruction on bearing Christ's name stand out to me. He says, "With your minds ready for action, be sober-minded and set your hope." Like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow up into your salvation. If you have tasted the Lord is good, as strangers and exiles, abstaining from sinful desires that aren't neutral, aren't passive, but wage war against your soul. If you should suffer for righteousness, for doing good, you are blessed. Do not fear them or be intimidated, but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy.
And so then, just the first two, our first two verses from our passage today. Dear friends, don't be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among you to test you, as if something unusual were happening to you. Instead, rejoice as you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you also may rejoice with joy when his glory is revealed. Peter's talking about a very specific kind of suffering, isn't he? Where you and I encounter ridicule, insult, and rejection because our lives show that we follow Christ. And so the text today is about being thought less of, being treated less than, and being pursued as an obstacle or an enemy because our faith causes us to live differently than the world. Peter invites these followers of Christ to endure hardship with hope because Christ suffered hardship to become our hope. Our passage assumes that the life of a Christian makes others uncomfortable because of its beauty, simplicity, and its depth of peace. Your lack of concern, friend, your lack of concern about being accepted by the world is both an indictment and a threat to those whose life is built on comparison and comfort. For those outside of Christ, our convictional decision to live peaceably within God's design is an offense to their will, their very way of life.
So I'll tell you, when we are insulted and rejected because our way of life is the aroma of death to the world, we share in the sufferings, sufferings of Christ. This isn't some mystical way we literally share in the sufferings of Christ because Christ, in his doing good, was insulted, rejected, and suffered at the hands of men. The invitation and instruction of First Peter is to become a certain kind of person, a person who delights in hope, is kept by hope, and is pulled forward in hope. This hope is not wishful thinking. It's not cautious optimism that it might turn out like God says it does. Peter describes both the person and their hope in chapter one. So just flip over to chapter one. Let's start in verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. You are being guarded by God's power through faith for salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. And you rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials, so that the proven character of your faith, more valuable than gold, which though perishable is refined by fire, may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Now, stick with me here. When I heard my professor in seminary, when the first years read this, the way he read it has never left me. When he read it, I heard the love of God. He said he read this, but Peter wrote, "Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though not seeing him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your soul." So though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you have not seen him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious faith because you're receiving the goal of your faith.
So I'll tell you, you read chapter 4 and it says, "Hey, don't be surprised when life gets hard." I think only if we delight in His name, like here in chapter 1, do you and I have a fighting chance of scoring the shame in chapter 4. Only if we delight in Jesus will the pain of ridicule, insult, and injury be lost to us because we get Christ. If Christ is not our treasure, if we, having not seen Him, don't love Him, if we, having not seen Him, don't believe in Him, we won't make it. We won't. If Christ is not holy to us, if the image of the invisible God is not our delight, then our guilt-driven, white-knuckling to do good so we can please God will not withstand insult, rejection, and the pain of loneliness. Peter tells his brothers and sisters to expect suffering, to expect rejection, to expect insult and hardship because they live as Christians. He tells them to score in shame when their work friends and their neighbors and their extended family start to think they're a little too much. Anybody just a little too much? Like, "Hey, it's cool. It's, we all love Jesus. You tone it down. All right? You just, you're a little extra here." No, no. He says, expect it. If you are making Jesus your treasure, the world will insult you. He's encouraged him to be a people of hope instead of a people of circumstance. So while this passage is about suffering, I want to talk about hope. You ready? Two of you are ready. That's great. It's great. Good. Thanks, guys.
So because the Christian hope is both a perspective and a person, I want to talk about hope. The Christian hope is both a perspective and a person. You see, when you and I encounter stress or suffering, this is what happens to me. So you tell me, this is your experience. I can have you having a great day. I see everything. Life is good. I hit stress or suffering, and I go like this. Anybody else? I mean, like, right in front of me. What was right in front of me? Limited perspective. I just want the pain to stop. Right here. Suffering shrinks our memory and stifles our hope. When we feel rejected, you and I feel vulnerable to the threat of pain or loneliness. And in these moments, you and I hit a fight, flight, or freeze response. And gosh, how many times do you have to remind yourself that God loves you and is for you? But in that moment, you forget that He's even near, and you think it is all on you to make things right. When suffering, it narrows our perspective. You and I have to be reoriented to God's reality. And one way that we can be daily reoriented is to remember what story we're in, who's in charge, and how it's all going to end. That's a great thing about living in God's world, huh? Like, I'm just not confused about the ending. I'm not staying up late to see the end of the game because I know how it's going to go. I know that He wins. But suffering, stress, or trial makes me forget that He's already won, and it makes me think I'm not provided for, and I have to provide for myself.
So my oldest daughter, Piper, she got a chess set for Christmas. It was Christmas in March because I couldn't taste or smell around Christmas, so we didn't see extended family. Um, we saw them later, and she got a chess set in March. Lucky for me, it's a combo chess set. You know what I mean by that? It's chess and checkers. Yes. I'm more of a checkers man. I don't know about y'all. Um, she's going to teach me chess this summer, so we'll see how that goes. I'll report back to you. But lucky for me, I know how to play checkers. See, I grew up with my grandfather, and, uh, last week we talked about people, and Papa. I have a third option, Papa, which just seems more natural to me. Papa was my granddad, and I learned checkers at his knee, mostly because he destroyed me all the time, and I would get so upset, and he would just say, "Hey, you gotta see the whole board." He taught me to play checkers by looking three steps. Now, I gotta tell you, my daughter didn't get a chess set because she watched The Queen's Gambit, so like, we're all clear. All right? She's eight. It's okay. Um, but I'm teaching her to play checkers, and I'm trying to teach her this lesson: you got to look ahead, you got to see the whole board. I want to show you something we use in NextGen. This is the timeline of God's big story that my eight-year-old, my six-year-old, my four-year-old, and me need to see all the time because when suffering, stress, or trial shrinks my perspective to right here, and I forget about God's provision, I need to be reminded that I'm in that red circle on the right, and everything to the left has already happened. I am secure in Christ. I am indwelt by the Holy Spirit. I am kept by a God who loves me and is for me, and He has already won, and He will not abandon me, and He will not abandon you. And so we have to reorient ourselves to God's reality as we wait not only for our full and final redemption, but to be with Jesus, to be with Him. And friend, if you, like, if you think it's just about getting saved, go read the end of the book. His glory is so beautiful. We don't need the sun. He's that bright and lovely. That should get your heart moving. He's that good and true and beautiful.
So being reoriented to God's reality means becoming more comfortable with our sacred text, the Bible, than whatever our secular age holds sacred for the moment. Do you hear me? You and I have to become more comfortable with the Bible and the worldview of the Bible than whatever our secular age calls true, because that means how we view God, creation, ourselves, truth, each other, and our ends have to be considered from our creator's design. He made life and knows how we find fullness, and you and I need His wisdom because our culture, not just our culture, but the way we have been taught to think has been shaped by the ideas of others, and by the time you're old enough to realize this, there's a lot already baked in. Having our minds transformed is not just about sinning less, friends. It's not. It's about becoming wise. It's about growing in wisdom to see and trust what is true, beautiful, and good, and to leave the lives of the world. So you and I need an informed perspective on the culture of our age so that our hope is distinctly Christian hope. Not Christian hope with your Instagram influencer thrown in. Not Christian hope with what works for you. Not Christian hope with you. Do you distinctly biblical, orthodox Christian hope? That's what you need. This is what I need.
So let's talk about it. I'm a historian. I'm going to give you a history lesson. It's going to be like, we'll just go fast, all right? Okay. So for the majority of the last 2,000 years, the God of the Bible was viewed by Western civilization as the source of life-orienting truth. Life-orienting truth. God. God is external to us, objectively true, in control of His creation. Now, people who thought about God, about life with God, viewed ultimate human happiness in knowing and loving God, which meant our best-case scenario flourishing as a human is in relationship with God, as He is, seeing ourselves as God sees us, and ordering our lives under His wisdom. I'll tell you, in the last 400 years, there have been major, major shifts in how we view reality. In the 18th century, the Enlightenment championed human reason over all other authority. Some European churches, Christian churches, were even made into pagan temples because reason was enthroned, as God was mocked. By the end of the 19th century, trust in the scientific method began to replace trust in divine revelation because what you could observe, replicate, control, and understand became the basis of authoritative truth and the foundation of external, objective truth. The "I didn't make myself and I trust the wisdom of my creator" aggressively shifted to an internal, subjective truth, which is, "I trust my own reason to know what's best." From the 19th to the 20th century, humanity's trust in itself rose, right? Until both World Wars, and then after, we have a conflict between Judeo-Christian morality and Enlightenment-inherited trust of self. And throughout the 20th century, our culture championed what we saw, felt, and experienced as ultimate reality. So truth now for you and I in 2022 is ours to define, perspective ours to create. The foundation of our culture is no longer God's wisdom and His good design, but the freedom to choose our own design. We choose our beliefs, our identities, our loves, and our truth because choice is freedom. We see choice as flourishing, and this means we value skepticism, pessimism, and cynicism as virtue. Truth, what orients and directs our lives, is prized as fluid, subjective to our experience, and individually defined. And so I took you on the history lesson because we need to know that the guiding and governing authority for our lives has been moved from creator to choice. And the promise of choice has shaped us into consumers instead of creatures. We define ourselves by our choices, and our choices are driven by our desires and our comfort. Our culture desires comfort, ease, and a frictionless existence. But what does Peter say to Christians? He says, "You need to expect to suffer for doing good, for keeping godly perspective of the story we live in. You will suffer for doing good." And we keep perspective because it is how we see God at work over time and in daily life, because God is real, God is present, and God is our hope. Our hope is a perspective and a person, and His name is Jesus Christ.
So to summarize chapter 4: If you value Christ over this world, if your actions are based on the horizon, not in your circumstance, if you trust your creator over your choice, don't be surprised when those outside of Christ don't know what to do with you other than to reject you, insult you, ostracize you, because you are a buzzkill to the pursuit of pleasure and progress. And don't put the fear of missing out in the wrong place. You hear me? Don't put the fear of being excluded in the wrong place. Keep perspective and keep Christ as your treasure. Our affection for Jesus must be strong enough, foundational enough, bright enough for us not only to score in the shame of ridicule, but to consider it an honor and an encouragement that God is at work in our lives so much so that even those dead in their sins can see it. So listen, unless we love Christ, unless He is our reorienting perspective, and the person that you and I hold most holy, you and I won't endure the trials that are coming. Just won't. Only when your life-orienting treasure is the one you haven't seen, but you love, you haven't seen, but you believe in, and you rejoice in Him with true joy because you get God's reality, only then can you endure suffering and trial, having your faith refined and strengthened. So whether things get darker or the Lord grants another great awakening, may it be our hope is not rooted in enjoying our circumstance. Our hope is in loving our King. But to love Him, you have to trust Him.
I've had enough conversations with many of you that I know at some level we all struggle to trust God. We don't trust what we can't see. We've never known someone that good. We've been hurt by those we hoped in. And to us, half-hearted hope is safer than wholehearted risk in God. Half-hearted hope seems safer than wholehearted risk because what if God is not as good as He says He is? And what if what He says about you and me is not true? Like, if it's not true, why would I put up with insults, rejection, and being treated as less than when I'm not even sure if God is a faithful creator that I can entrust myself to? Why would you do that? Lots of us think we need to please God by trying harder. Anyone? Yeah. You and I know what we should do. We're just lazy. We're just lazy. God knows what He's given us, and we're struggling to get it together, so we think He must be disappointed with us. Again, we have this underlying suspicion that God is just like we are, good up until the point. No, just me. Good up until the point, but always hesitant to really trust another because you're waiting for the shoe to drop.
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This is why we self-protect against love because we don't want to be hurt. You've been around church long enough, you've probably heard time and again that all our righteous acts are like filthy rags, Isaiah 64, and none of them can earn God's favor. And friends, it's true. Outside of Christ, there is nothing you and I can do that will earn us favor with God. The problem is when we begin to think that we are filthy rags. Do you hear me? We think we are filthy rags. Instead of recognizing the impact of sin in our thoughts, emotions, and desires, we identify as our thoughts, emotions, and desires. Shame turns conviction over our actions into condemnation over our person. I think this all the time. It's not just that I think I did bad, but I think I am bad. If you trust in Christ and believe God sees you as fundamentally flawed and unlovable, you are trusting yourself over God's word. If you are trusting in Jesus and you think He sees you as unlovable and unworthy, you are not listening to His truth. And that affects all of life because when we listen to the accusation that we are filthy rags and we identify with our thoughts instead of what He says is true of us, we ignore the perspective of the entire Bible. We ignore the word of our Triune God who made us in His image, wants to include us in His joy, and loves us. That's who He is. And so if you are in Christ, the Bible says your shame is taken away forever. You're united to Jesus and can't be taken from Him. The Holy Spirit is in you. Satan will accuse you, cast doubt on God's character, on God's work in your life, and promise you can do better on your own. "Why don't you just provide for yourself?" I've heard that one before. At the beginning of the book, right? In the garden, "You surely can provide for yourself." So if you don't pay attention, this all can attack and steal your hope. God does not love like us or give like us. He's all together better. Just all together better.
So when we talk about suffering being normal, you might be tempted to think of it as a corrective or punitive action in your life. "You messed up. God is disappointed with you. Here's some suffering to set things right." Is that you? We can just innately think that because we distrust His hand. You could even read the passage in Hebrews 12 about God disciplining those He loves. A few weeks ago, a friend and I were talking about this, and he encouraged me to see that this testing of my faith, this refining of my confidence, this discipline as a child of God is a holy education from the Lord. It is a holy and loving education from the Lord. Friend, I want to tell you this morning that God's testing of your faith is not to catch you in weakness, but to strengthen you in hope. It's not to catch you in weakness, but to strengthen you in hope. It is to deepen your delight in Jesus. It is an invitation to faith. One of my favorite authors defines faith this way. He says, "Faith is a set of choices, commitments, and relations in line with God's intent that enables being and by their very nature transform identity." Faith is not just a sure feeling. It is an active trust in a living hope that reorients our lives and transforms our identity. The life of Christian faith is living in God's design, which is simple, beautiful, and true. And that's quite a contrast to the experience-driven, thrill-seeking, self-championing way of the world. Christian faith may not feel extraordinary, but it proves true in its integrity and in its beauty. Life in God's design is true and right and good, and it is at odds. It is at odds with the culture of the world. And Peter's saying the same thing here. When you suffer for good, it is a confirmation of God's work over time in your life. You treasure Christ. The Holy Spirit is in you, refining you, producing in you a proven faith more valuable than gold. God is a good Father, and He wants what's best for you, Himself. He's given us Jesus, the image of the invisible God, in whom all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, the name above all names, our King, who is our older brother, and He who is not ashamed to call us friend. He is for you. Our hope is a perspective and a person. One author reminds us, God is not just good for us, but good to us. I was talking with a friend a couple weeks ago about this, and he smiled. He looked at me and he said, "Yeah, and He's kind." Kind. Good could be obligatory, it could be perfunctory. He's kind.
A few times in this letter, we've made the connection between Peter and his past. So I want you to consider this. It's Peter telling Christians to endure insult, injury, and rejection when they are recognized for following Jesus. I imagine he knows what it feels like to want better for others than for himself. The testing of your faith produces something in you, and Peter knows both the sorrow and the strength of suffering. Most of us are probably familiar with his denial of Christ. Like, while Christ is being tried, Peter's own following of Jesus is now not a benefit, but a threat to his safety. A servant girl asks him, "Hey, weren't you, weren't you with Him?" He's like, "No, I don't know the guy." He moves on and goes somewhere else. This girl pops up again. She's everywhere. "Hey, he's one of them." And he's like, "I'm telling you, I don't know him." And he gets asked another time. You know what he does? He curses himself and swears and says, "I don't know him." A few days later, Peter jumps out of a boat and swims up to a rocky shore, and there is the risen Christ cooking breakfast. After they eat, which probably was an interesting breakfast, they're sitting together, the disciples with Jesus. After that, Jesus looks around at the disciples, and He looks at Peter, and He asks Peter, "Do you love me more than these?" What does Peter say? "Yes, Lord, I love you." He asked him again, "Peter, do you love me?" "Yes, Lord, I love you. You know I love you." Now, you know where I'm about to go, so hang on for a second. I want you, in your mind, to picture the eye contact between Jesus and Peter in this moment. What would it feel like? The third time, "Peter, do you love me?" "Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you." At that point, Christ says something to the effect of, "Okay, your life ahead is going to be a lot harder than the other night. Follow me." After all, after all this has happened, it's Peter who invites and instructs you and me, "Entrust yourself to a faithful creator while doing good."
The last few weeks, we've said suffering is normal. Jesus is good. I'll add this week: live in hope. A few things as I wrap up. Christian brother, sister in Jesus, does your life show that Jesus is your treasure? Can you read chapter 1 and say that though you have not seen Him, you love Him? Does your heart testify that's true? With chapter 4, do you delight in Him, your creator, more than the acceptance of other created beings? Are you willing to suffer for doing good? So here's this. Have you, have you slowed down enough to realize that this particular kind of suffering he's talking about is part of the faithful Christian life? It has come. It will come. What will you do when it comes? You need to decide beforehand. If you're hearing, you would say, "Jesus is not my treasure. My life is about my choice." There is instruction and invitation also for you here in chapter 4, and it's this: God is going to judge everyone. There is a day coming where He will judge everyone, and it is only His right to do so. He'll start first with those who love Him. Let's start first with the household of God. And it's only through faith in Jesus that you and I are saved. As Christians, the Christian is not sinless throughout life. We just know we're busted up and we need a savior. We need a savior from sin, Satan, and death, and we can't do it for ourselves. And life in Christ means that even as I struggle to treasure Christ, even as I struggle to live in God's reality, Christ does not struggle to hold me fast, and He will not struggle to hold you. If it's only by the work of another that we are saved, those who are in Jesus, you who do not treasure Jesus, how do you think your choices are going to hold out for you? How's it going? I'll tell you, you are, you are going to search for beauty your entire life. You're going to search for beauty your entire life in every place and person and thing because you were designed to. You were designed to delight in beauty. And I'll tell you, the only place you'll be satisfied is at the source of beauty in Jesus Himself. And so God is not just good for you, but good to you, and He is kind. So you can trust Him. You can trust Him. If you want to know what it means to walk as a follower of Jesus, to trust Him with all that you are, to lay down your choice, it means you just need to be humble about where you've been and ask for help for where you want to go. He wants you to enter into joy. So there'll be men and women around, there'll be women, men and women in the back up here with yellow lanterns on. If you want to pray with somebody, if you want to get baptized, you can head to the back and they'll talk with you. Gosh, family, come what may, you and I delight in, or kept by, and are, and we are pulled forward in hope. His name is Jesus Christ, and may He be our treasure. Let's pray. Father, we thank You. We thank You so much that You are good for us, to us, and Your kind. We thank You that You do not leave us alone. That You have made us in Your image, You've invited us into Your joy, and You love us. Who are we? Oh, we thank You for Jesus, that our hope is in Him, not just what He's done, or what He's doing, but what He will do. Would You help us to have faith and believe, and then to order our life for right? And as we suffer and sharing the sufferings of Jesus because we are an offense to the world, may it count as an encouragement because You are true and real, and it proves that we really believe in You. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.