Grace Under Fire - A Time For Judgment

I'm Pastor Scott, one of the pastors here and blessed to be a part of Trinity Community Church.

Now we're at the clock's now 50 years and counting.

We're going forward.

It's an exciting time, okay.

So for those that are joining us or maybe haven't been here for our series, we've been in the middle of a series on the book of 1 Peter, the epistle of 1 Peter, that we've titled Grace Under Fire.

You guys been blessed by this series.

I think it's been really timely it really has been.

And today we're on sermon number 8.

Next week Tyler's going to wrap it up with a final sermon.

But we're on sermon number 8, which I have titled A Time for Judgment, and it's in 1 Peter 4, verses 12 through 19.

1 Peter 4:12–19

So let's read those passages, beginning in verse 12.

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.

Let none of you suffer as a murderer or a 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 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.

Father, we are so grateful for your word.

I love, father, that your word was lifted up.

I love that your word was quoted during the words that were given.

I love the fact that your spirit was moving in this place, that people were speaking prophetic words and words of knowledge.

Father, we're now opening your word and we're trusting that you're going to show us truth from this.

And my prayer, father, is that I don't get in the way of what you're doing, and my other prayer is that everyone that's going to hear your word be impacted and changed for your glory.

And I pray this and we pray this in the name of Jesus.

And the congregation said Amen.

Well, this passage of Scripture really has two primary themes to it the suffering through trials and the judgment on Christians and on unbelievers.

And this theme of suffering really runs through all of 1 Peter, and we've had sermons on this already, we've talked about it because he talks about the issue of suffering.

However, peter now introduces the concept of judgment, and it's specifically on judgment on believers in the context of suffering, and the concept of this judgment that's talked about in verse 17 is often taken out of context.

So really, this morning, my purpose is I want to do two things.

I want to examine these verses to gain a better understanding of two things Number one, the purpose of trials, and secondly, what exactly is the judgment that Peter is telling Christians that you're all going to experience in this life, and then, hopefully, from this we will be inspired and we'll be informed to walk forward in this truth.

So let's first, let's just jump right in.

Let's first talk about the verses on suffering.

Verse 12, 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.

Don't be surprised.

One of my favorite videos to watch are surprise videos.

My wife loves surprise videos and, by the way, they surprise people in my family too.

They're jumping out of bathrooms and everything.

They don't surprise me, though, because I said if you do, you're going to get hurt, so don't surprise me.

But I think it was funny that he says don't be surprised when you go through suffering and trials, didn't?

Jesus himself tells us, in this life you will have what Trouble You'll have trouble.

He told us that we'll have a cross to bear.

You know, being a Christian is not signing up for a 14-day Mediterranean cruise.

It's not.

And if your life has been that way so far, don't tell anybody else.

We know, as believers, we're going to go through trials and tests.

We know that.

We understand that.

I mean it could be health issues, it could be financial challenges, it could be challenges at work.

I mean there's all kinds of things that we go through Struggles, trials.

It's what we're promised, it's what we sign up for.

So he's saying listen, don't be surprised that you're going to get hit with these things.

And, by the way, sometimes these trials can be literally persecution for our belief.

You know, we live in a country, and we live in the buckle of the Bible belt, right here in Knoxville, where you can pretty much still proclaim that you're a believer and you can talk about God in public and not be like strung up, right.

But that's even changing here in Knoxville.

You know it won't be long when the persecution is going to increase and we've talked about that before.

The other thing that's interesting is I don't know if you guys have seen this, but there's many Christians that we're seeing well-known Christians, teachers, people in the music, the Christian music industry that have renounced their faith and they've walked away from it and it's called a deconstruction.

That's the term that's been given for this deconstruction of their faith.

In fact, there's a really good book that Neil put me on that I'm reading.

That's the term that's been given for this deconstruction of their faith.

In fact, there's a really good book that Neil put me on that I'm reading.

It's called the Deconstruction of Christianity and what's so good about this book is it's really important that all of us get aware of what Satan is doing and how he's influencing people that have influence over other Christians.

I mean, some of these are people, especially with our youth people from these musical groups.

You know the lead singer for Hawk Nelson.

He has deconstructed his faith.

I remember listening to Hawk Nelson with my kids when they were teens.

Great songs, some really powerful lyrics in there, and he's turned his back on his faith.

And one of the reasons I think this is happening is because the pressures from our culture are getting stronger and stronger and stronger.

And those accusations like you're judging that's all you do is judging.

I should be able to love whoever I want to love.

Your absolute truth is in my face.

Absolute truth is going to become very unpopular.

It already is, but it's going to get more and more unpopular as we walk down this path.

The point Peter is simply making is you're going to experience trials and persecution.

Don't get surprised by it.

It's going to happen.

By the way, as a humorous side note, I get a kick out of this.

The Princess Bride, right.

I love the Princess Bride movie.

If you haven't watched the Princess Bride movie, leave the church now and go watch it Now, wait for the sermon to finish.

In there there's this scene where the dread pirate Robert who's really Wesley right.

He's on this hillside with Princess Buttercup Love that name and she says you mock my pain.

And he looks at her and he says life is pain.

Your highness, anyone who says differently is selling something you know, unfortunately from pulpits in this country.

They're selling a different gospel and it's not about the reality of being a Christian and persecution and trials and suffering.

It's a different gospel and it's a false gospel.

But it goes down as smooth as butter.

Life is pain Verse 13,.

But rejoice, insofar as you share Christ's suffering, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

The reward for our faithful suffering will be well, there's rewards right now, but it will be when Christ comes back.

Don't you ever think about that?

Sometimes about what will it be like when you are no longer the minority?

Won't that be amazing?

I really appreciated Rodney's word this morning.

You know the word that came to me when he said that.

When he said, what do you think of if the Holy Spirit was pulled away from you?

The word that hit me was alone.

I don't want to wake up without him in me and knowing that my life is guided by God himself through the Holy Spirit.

How alone that would be.

It would be like a void.

It would be like space.

Be like space.

When Christ returns, all of that suffering will be worth it.

Neil quotes some.

I can't remember who you're quoting, but he says when we are face to face with Jesus for three seconds.

It'll be worth all the suffering that we've ever gone through Verse 15 and 16, but let no one of you suffer as a murderer or a thief, or as an evildoer or as a meddler.

This is interesting.

Why does he say that?

Well, I think it's interesting.

I think what he's basically saying is listen, we can suffer for a lot of reasons.

You can suffer because you believe in Christ.

You can suffer because of doing right and people you know basically saying, hey, you're doing what's right, but that's not what we want to do.

You know culture, all that stuff.

But he's saying listen, if you suffer for doing evil, things that even the world thinks are evil, that's not really suffering for Christ.

Right, if you drive your car 100 miles an hour down the road and you run into somebody and you kill them, you might be a Christian, but that suffering is not that you're about to go through, which would be jail time, manslaughter, all that stuff.

The suffering you're about to go through you brought on yourself.

I just find it interesting that he goes from.

He goes, let's see.

He talks about murderers and then he talks about meddlers.

Yeah, if you suffer for being a meddler.

That's a problem too.

You're bringing that on yourself.

But verse 60, he says yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.

In the name of God, be glorified and truly, when we suffer for him, we can glorify his name and thank him for it.

Many martyrs have praised God's name as they went to their death.

Now we get to the scriptures on judgment.

Okay, let's talk about that.

Let's go to verse 17.

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?

Now, the word judgment can trigger a lot of things in our minds, especially when we think about the judgment of God.

When we read about judgment, we can automatically have triggers in our mind, and most of us we think about.

When we think God judgment, we think great white throne judgment, we think about people that didn't follow, cast into the lake of fire.

We think of that judgment.

But is that really what he's referring to here?

Is he referring to a judgment unto salvation, or is he referring to something else?

Well, let me tell you what he's not referring to.

You know how you've heard that says scripture informs scripture, right.

We interpret scripture through other scripture, right, and that's the problem.

By the way, a lot of false teachers will take a scripture like this, they'll cut it out, they'll paste it up there and then they'll preach on it and it won't be informed by anything else.

So we're going to look at this as informed by other scriptures.

So I'll tell you what he's not referring to.

He cannot be referring to the fact that our salvation is being judged by God.

When I say salvation, your salvation, my salvation is assured in Christ Jesus, right?

Well, let's look at that.

There's three scriptures I decided to pull up, but you can find lots of them on this one.

I decided to pull up, but you can find lots of them on this one 2 Corinthians 5.21,.

For our sake, he, god, made him Jesus to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the hold on the righteousness of God.

Can sin stand before God?

Can unrighteous stand before God?

No, we become.

We become the righteousness of God, the righteousness that was Jesus.

Living a perfect life, going to the cross is a perfect, sinless sacrifice.

That righteousness is actually placed on us.

That's powerful.

That's powerful.

Romans 5, verse 1 says therefore, since we have been justified by faith has already happened.

Romans 5:1

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

In that same chapter he talks about Christ died for us even when we were still his enemies.

I don't care when you came to Christ, there was a time in your life where you were the enemy of Christ, you were his enemies, and yet he loved you so much that he died for you.

And when you look at that, it says we have been justified, brethren.

The word justified is no small word, it's a powerful word and that justification we live under every day.

Every day I wake up, I thank God for what he's done for me.

It's hope, man.

It was great.

I was just listening to these words and I was just like, oh, this is so good Hope.

Hope Brooke was talking about, I think, was hope.

We have this great power, wonderful hope because of what Christ did for us.

It's amazing, it's powerful.

Romans 8, verse 1, the last verse I'll use for this part, but again, there's many more.

Romans 8:1

And this is a really important one, because when you think of judgment of those unbelievers, you think of the condemnation, right, but what does it say in Romans 8 1?

.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Everybody say.

Everybody say no condemnation, no condemnation, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free, in Christ Jesus, from the law of sin and death.

You and I no longer are under that dark cloud of condemnation.

We were at some time, some of you more recently than others, it doesn't matter.

We were all under that cloud of condemnation.

We are no longer.

That's powerful.

So if we've established that the type of judgment that Peter remember who's Peter talking to?

He's talking to the church, right?

If we've established that the condemnation that Peter's talking about cannot be the condemnation of our salvation, then what is this judgment that he's talking about?

What is it?

Context, context, context.

We all know we have to look at the context.

So let's get some context about what Peter's talking about, because it really sounds like he switched gears in the middle of this passage, but he really didn't.

He's expounding on what he's already talked about.

Now.

There are some themes in the book of 1 Peter.

We need to look at it.

Just give us some insight into what Peter's talking about.

And the first theme I want to point out is the believer's struggle against sin.

Has anybody struggled against sin in the last hour?

Put your hands up.

Come on, just help me out.

Put your hands up.

Everybody.

Look.

Whoever didn't have their hands up.

Make sure they buy you a donut.

By the way, we had squash donuts today.

Did you see that I like them?

I've never had squash donuts, but they were good.

We all struggle against sin.

We all struggle against sin and we are new creations.

We know that.

We know that we're new creations.

We know that we've been reborn.

We understand that.

But we still struggle against sin.

And if we go back in 1 Peter and go to chapter 2, this is what we read in verse 1.

He's telling them so put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.

Oh, you're talking to Christians.

Why are you talking about this stuff?

Because they struggled with it.

Anybody here felt any malice, maybe some deceit in your heart this week.

Verse 11 of chapter two says Beloved, I urge you, as sojourners and exiles, to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul.

They wage war against your soul.

He's constantly encouraging them to put away sin from their lives, all through the epistle of first Peter.

Okay, so that's a theme, that's one theme.

Keep that in mind.

The second thing we've already begun to talk about is this theme of understanding the judgment and the reality that Christians are going to suffer trials, and we've already talked about some of that already, but it continues to go forward.

Because if you read in verse 12, there's something that's really really important that we understand and I read through it kind of quick before because I didn't want to show it to you too quick but there's a key phrase in verse 12 that we sometimes forget.

Verse 12 says Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you.

So let me get this right Trials and persecutions have a purpose.

Yeah, they do, and he says that purpose is to test us.

To test us, and that means for believers, the trials and persecutions that we go through have a purpose.

Praise God.

You realize your neighbor down the street from you that doesn't know Jesus, that gets cancer.

He's going through the same trial that somebody in the church that you know is a sold out believer that gets cancer.

Same trial.

One has no purpose.

One has every bit of purpose.

So we know from what he said that there's a purpose for these trials.

I think everybody would agree to that, and Peter's talked about this concept of testing already in 1 Peter.

In fact, if you go back to chapter 1, verses 6 through 7, he says this In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials.

Okay, there's the theme of trials again, right.

Then he says verse 7, key interpretation here so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Praise God.

The reality is, god allows trials and persecution to come to us in our lives to test us for the purpose of refining and building our faith and character.

God allows these things to happen for the purpose of refining us.

I love how he says.

If you read that he says more precious than gold that perishes though it's tested by fire, our faith is more precious than gold.

We're being refined every day.

And this process?

Anybody venture to think what this process is called?

We call it all the time Sanctification, sanctification.

Wayne Grudem says this about sanctification.

He says sanctification is a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives.

Good definition, because there's a partnership that's going on here between God and man and it's that progressive work of God.

So we've established that we struggle against sin.

We established that there's a purpose for testing or, excuse me, there's a purpose for trials and suffering.

It's to test us and it's to test us so that we might be more like Christ.

So with that context, I want to read verse 17 of chapter 4 again, for it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God.

And if it appears, if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the commandments of God?

So we know, first, that God's the one that does the judging.

Secondly, we know this judgment cannot be a judgment about salvation.

Therefore, it stands to reason that this judgment has to do with temporal judgment by God on his people, here and now, for the purposes of sanctification.

You see the relationship between what he just talked about, judgment, and the trials that we're going through.

That's the testing, this judgment of God.

He's working with us every day and you know you might say are you saying God judges me every day, yeah, yeah, not in the way again that you might say, well, are you saying God judges me every day?

Yeah, not in the way again that you might think about judgment.

But he's working with us, he's shaping us, he's guiding us.

Have you ever been on a sports team and maybe you're in volleyball and you're serving and you have a coach.

What's the coach doing?

As they're watching you serve?

Are you serving the right way?

Do you have the right form?

Are you following through All that stuff?

They're judging you as you walk through.

We have a God that walks through life with us.

He's with us, he's informing us, he's helping us and there are times, in his sovereign will, that he will discipline us.

Even I said the word, I said discipline, but that's what he does In his perfect and sovereign will.

God allows trials to come on us.

He judges our actions and lives and sometimes he disciplines us for the purposes of refining us into the image of Jesus Christ.

You know trials and persecutions.

We experience their tests for us, and sometimes they're just the discipline of the Lord as part of the sanctification process.

Note that I said sometimes I have been of a different camp, and that camp was anything bad that happened to me was God spanking my butt.

Anything bad was like oh, this is oh, god's correcting me, he's correcting me and you know, what happens after a while is my view of God is just a big, mean corrective God.

There are other people, by the way, that are more on the other side, where they think everything they go through is an attack of the enemy.

Is that true?

No, it's not.

It's not.

Everything we go through is an attack of the enemy Because of God's discipline in me.

There's a purpose for that.

The Apostle Paul talks about this process in the context of being judged by the Lord in 1 Corinthians 11.

And this is really a powerful, powerful verse.

In the context of 1 Corinthians 11, he's talking about the abuse of the Passover.

We talk about this a lot.

We use this scripture to talk about how to correctly take, you know, the Passover service together.

But right in the middle of this correction where he says you come and you know you eat and all this stuff, he says this in verse 32,.

But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

We are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

He used the phrase judged by the Lord, and he equates it and joins it with discipline Okay, discipline.

He draws a firm line, though, between that judgment and the judgment that will come on.

Unbelievers that of course is the condemnation of eternal punishment.

Unbelievers that of course is the condemnation of eternal punishment.

So God disciplines us.

Well, the Bible talks about what that process looks like.

Let's look at Hebrews, chapter 12.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

This is a long section, but I want to read the whole thing.

Trying to cut this down didn't make sense.

We're going to just read about eight, nine verses.

In verse three of Hebrews 12, it says this considered him, excuse me, consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against him, so that you may not grow weary and faint hearted.

Listen, if Christ went through it, he's going to give us the strength to go through it.

Right, this is perspective.

That's a very perspective gaining verse.

In verse four in your struggle against sin, have you not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood?

Excuse me, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

And then he quotes from Proverbs 13, which back then wasn't Proverbs 13, but it was one of the scroll it.

My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him, for the Lord disciplines the one who, he what, yeah, and then he expounds, and it's beautiful.

It is for discipline that you have to endure.

God is treating you as sons, for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

If you are left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not his sons.

Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them.

Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live For?

They disciplined us for a short time, as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us now.

Listen to this for our good, that we may share in his powerful word.

Folks, holiness, the only way I know to become more holy is to become more like Jesus Christ.

For the moment, all discipline me seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

The judgment of God on the household of faith is his loving discipline, that that, combined with the trials we endure and our struggle against flesh yields this peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Now, I'm not going to put a show of hands up here.

How many of you, though, have been disciplined by your parents in probably the wrong way?

Yeah, we've all been through that, right, because we have imperfect parents.

Right, I remember when I was like five, I was disciplined by my dad, and it was bad, and it wasn't even something I knew I did.

I was five and I still remember it today.

Right, but I have, and you have, a perfect God, and if he didn't love me, he wouldn't discipline me.

I want the discipline of God.

I'm not saying I enjoy it when I'm getting it, but if I have my eternal purpose in mind and what God's eternal purposes is in my life, then I will rejoice in it, because that's what we were told to do.

We're to rejoice in it.

The late Jerry Bridges from the Navigators said this about God's discipline of his children.

He said discipline may be either corrective or remedial.

It may be sent for the purpose of correcting some sinful attitude or action or to remedy some lack in our character.

In either case, it is administered by our Heavenly Father in love, not in wrath.

Jesus has already borne the wrath of God in our place, so we're not under the wrath of God.

So if your mind, if you hear the word discipline and you think anger and wrath, you got to break that off.

When you're looking at Jesus and looking at God, you need to break that off because that doesn't apply to you.

When he disciplines you, he disciplines you with love that you can't even comprehend, that I can't even comprehend.

He goes on.

Jesus has already borne the wrath of God in our place.

So all adversities that come to us come to us because he loves us and designs to conform us to the likeness of his son.

Brethren, have you ever been under the discipline of God?

Maybe you didn't know you were, but you were.

I remember this a long time ago.

So I'm a man of words, I'm a talker and I had an uncanny ability to spin truth.

I could spin truth and I would spin truth in the way that was going to make sure, because, even if it was bad news, I was going to spin it in such a way it was going to ease the person I was telling it was going to make them think better of me and they wouldn't be as mad at me.

Does that make sense.

I could spin it.

You know, I used to work at a performing arts auditorium when I was in college and the guy who was head of our ushers, he said tact and diplomacy.

He said you need to be able to tell somebody to go to hell and make them look forward to getting there.

I remember that.

But I learned to spin truth.

And when you're spinning truth and I had a situation where I had spun that truth to somebody and the Holy Spirit got on top of me and brethren, I was miserable, I mean sick to my stomach, and I had to call this person two or three times because I would give them more truth than say no more truth.

And I was literally sick to my stomach until I finally confessed everything to this person about what I had done.

That involved them.

It was the discipline of the Lord.

And you know what?

I don't spin truth anymore.

I'm tempted, but I go back to that moment and I remember how miserable I was and I was convicted You're lying, Scott.

You gave a little bit of the truth but you need to give it all.

He was disciplining me and I'm so grateful he did.

Was I happy during this time?

I've never been so miserable in my life, but the freedom I felt afterwards was absolutely amazing to me.

I just I will never forget the change.

I want to be clear about something Not all trials are God's discipline on us, okay.

At the same time, though, not all trials are the attacks of the enemy For every Christian.

For a Christian, every trial we go through has a purpose, and we should get in the habit of asking God what is he trying to teach us that?

Why, word, just throw it away.

You're not going to understand why.

Maybe you will, maybe you won't, but what is he teaching you?

And it could be that you're going through just a persecution or a trial.

It might not be God's discipline, but you need to talk to God about that.

You need the Holy Spirit to reveal that to you, because, really, in the end, the purpose is the same, and the purpose is to become more like Christ.

Right, whether it's God's discipline, whether it's just a persecution you're going through, whether it's just a trial that God's not disciplining you, regardless of all that, he's still teaching you something through it.

I'm going to go back to 1 Peter 4, in the last part of verse 17.

But 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?

And it's a terrible thing to fall under the wrath of God.

And it's a terrible thing to fall under the wrath of God.

You know this phrase that he quotes here and it's in quotes.

It's from Proverbs 11, 31.

If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?

I just want to make it clear something.

You know.

If your kid comes home from school and says I took that test and I barely passed, okay, so you're thinking, okay, you got a whatever passing grade was a 70.

You got a 70.

We think of this in gradients.

But that's not what he's talking about here, because you're saved and you're saved.

But he's talking about, when it comes to being scarcely saved, I believe, is this reality of the fact that you were dead in your sins.

You were dead in your sins, I was dead in my sins.

Being scarcely saved means that God, in his love, reached down and he woke me up.

He didn't wake me up, he resurrected me from the dead.

So don't think this is some kind of grade that you have to get.

No, god's the one that brings us back.

He's the one that resurrects us so we can have truth and we can have that salvation that is so freely offered to us, to all those that are, you know, born again believers.

We just have to realize that our salvation was not on us, it was on Him, and praise God it was.

I have, no, we have nothing to boast about.

Paul talks about that in Ephesians 2.

So I want to summarize real quick.

God is refining us through the process of sanctification, which includes persecution, testing through again, trials and, at times, his judgment and discipline, and this process can be painful.

I've identified a part of my life that was painful.

I'm sure many of you could stand up and give you testimonies where you went through a trial and you later identified it was the discipline of God, but on the other side of it you're like I wouldn't have changed a thing, because you became more like Christ through it.

If God didn't discipline you, as we read earlier, then we really are illegitimate sons and daughters of God.

We don't do this very often at the church, but I'm going to show a video.

A lot of you are familiar with a group two guys called the Skit Guys.

Skit Guys are great.

How many have heard of the Skit Guys before?

Okay, that's good, the Skit Guys.

They're Christians and they do skits related to Christian themes, right, and they did one called God's Chisel.

And as I was preparing this, thinking about God's work within us and how he sometimes disciplines us in the painful process, this video came to my mind.

So it's a short, five-minute video.

I want us to watch it, and then I'm going to come back and I'll finish up with some thoughts.

Ephesians 2.10 says we are God's masterpiece.

I don't know about you, but when I look in the mirror I don't see a masterpiece.

But I want to.

So I go to God and I pray.

Dear heavenly father, would you do whatever it takes to mold me into the image of your son?

Make me your masterpiece.

In Jesus' name, I pray, Amen.

Hi oh who are you?

I'm God.

You said the prayer, so here I am.

That's how it works.

You're not God, no.

I am.

Okay, if you're God, what does Lamentations 15.9 say?

Lamentations is a very short book.

It only has five chapters.

Why?

is it so short?

I was tired of lamenting.

You are God.

What's that about?

These are the tools I'm going to use to make you into my original masterpiece.

This is the process.

I thought you were a carpenter.

That's my son.

Let's get busy.

I'm going to bring up things in your life that don't belong in your life, and start right here.

Your anger Ow.

I created the emotion, but you use it in the wrongest of ways.

You compare yourself to others instead of me and you lie.

You tell little white lies.

You're so afraid of confrontation.

You're becoming a people pleaser.

Okay, time out.

I think you've done some really good work and I'm looking pretty good right now, when you look in the mirror.

Who do you see?

I see me.

Okay, then I need to keep chiseling away because ultimately, you and other people need to see my son.

Okay but when I look like Jesus, people get uncomfortable and I don't think I'm supposed to do that.

So what you're saying is you'd rather play God in certain areas of your life than for me to be God over your whole life.

No, what I'm saying is you've grown me to here.

Maybe we take a break from me.

You're either moving toward me or away from me, but you never just plateau.

What you're doing is called control.

Do you want to control things in your life, or can I chisel, control, chisel, control, chisel.

No, no, no, chisel.

All right, here we go.

Can we chisel where I want?

That's called control.

Okay, sorry, this right here.

That secret sin, that thing that you run to whenever you're hurting, you're angry, you're lonely, you're tired.

Do you want to keep rearranging this in your life or do you want me to chisel it out?

It's not a sprint, it's a marathon, it's your whole life.

This hurts?

Okay, I don't think you understand this pain.

Don't talk to me about pain.

I know all about pain.

I sent my son to die on the cross for pain, for sin, but I also did it for another reason to give you freedom.

Do you know what insanity is?

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again, expecting different results, and there are things that you are doing in your life that are insane.

Allow me to chisel them out of your life.

I know, but I've let you down so many times.

God.

No, you were never holding me up.

Okay, then chisel away, but just be prepared for what you're going to find in there, because I know who's inside there.

God, I get up every morning and I hate what I see in the mirror because inside is this scared stupid.

Get up every morning and I hate what I see in the mirror because inside is a scared stupid kid.

And I try, I try, but I can't.

I can't be who everybody else expects me to be, god.

I can't even be who I want to be, much less who you created me to be.

So chisel away and just know what you're going to find in there.

You have listened to so many voices, so many critics for far too long that are not for me, and you've bought into the lie.

You think you're junk, don't you?

When you lay your head down at night, at the end of the day, you think you're junk.

I don't take time to make junk.

I want to show you something about my love reaching your back pocket.

This is a.

It's a page from a notebook when I was in college.

How'd you get this, Hello?

Oh yeah, Go ahead read it.

Dear God, did I hear you right?

You said you would use me, but I feel really useless.

But if you can take this life, this mess of a life, I have and do with it what you want.

I love you God.

I love you too, and I love you too much just to leave you where you're at.

It's going to be tough, yes, but you bought into the lie, thinking everything was going to be easy, when you said yes to me.

There will be trouble in this world, but be of good cheer, I've overcome the world.

I want you to do something, I want you to look out there and I want you to say Tommy is God's original masterpiece.

Tommy is God's no not the way you see yourself or you try so desperately for others to see you.

But maybe for the first time in your life, the way I made you, the way I created you, tommy is God's original masterpiece.

Yes, you are.

And so are you.

You are an original masterpiece.

Powerful, isn't it?

That's the kind of loving God we have.

There's nobody else that I'd rather have the hammer and the chisel in their hands than God.

You know, I will tell you that there's a lot of people in this room that have gone through some really difficult times.

Some of you are in the middle of it right now.

Some of you are going through trials and you're wondering where's my hope.

Some of you might be feeling the chisel and the hammer of God.

I just want to encourage you today that, in God's sovereignty, he's doing a great work in you.

He's doing a great work in me.

I want to finish with Romans, chapter 5, the first few verses of Romans 5, because it so beautifully talks about what we just saw up here and what we've been talking about this whole time.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

Paul says in verse 1, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We read that earlier, right, but look what he says now.

Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into his grace, in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

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.

If you're currently walking through a trial, have hope, because God is changing you and putting you and making you into the image of Christ himself.

That's why we go through it, so we need to be thankful for the chisel God's chisel that's making it into his image.

I want to tell you at the very end that we have people that will be up front.

Please don't walk out of here until you get prayer.

If you need encouragement, if you need someone just to pray over you and just encourage you, please don't do that.

Don't walk out without getting that, because that's what we're here.

We're a body, we're one.

That's what this church is all about.

Please stand with me and let's pray Amen.

Heavenly Father, you are a good, good Father, you are the perfect Father and Father.

We know that as we go through the discipline that sometimes comes upon us, where we realize that you're disciplining us and you're doing it, father, to make us into the image of your Son and Father, my prayer for all of us is that we listen to your Spirit.

We hear from Him, we identify when you're doing this and then we receive it.

Lord, that you give us a humble spirit doing this and then we receive it.

Lord, that you give us a humble spirit that we would receive those chisel blows, knowing that you're doing this great work.

Father, I pray for all those in here that have yet to give their hearts and minds and their whole being to Jesus Christ, those that have yet to put themselves in the hands that really salvation is, the only hands that salvation comes in.

Father, I pray that they would do that, realizing they can wake up every morning with your Holy Spirit, with you inside and with a loving Father that works with us in such perfect ways.

We thank you for your truth.

We thank you for your truth.

We thank you for your loving discipline.

We thank you, lord, that you did not leave us as orphans, and we pray this in the powerful name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Thank you, brother.