Rise Up and Suffer Well | Rise Up | Pastor Zach Weihrauch

This is a reading from 1 Peter 4:12

1 Peter 4:12–19

through 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 insofar as you share Christ's sufferings.

But 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.

But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evildoer, or 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,

and trust their souls to a faithful creator, while doing good.

Well, good morning and

welcome to the weekly gathering of Christ Community Chapel.

My name is Zach.

I'm one of the pastors here,

and I'm so glad that we get to be part of your weekend.

And now our first 10:30 service.

Listen, I know you have had to disrupt your schedule.

To accommodate a new service.

I just want you to hear me say thank you.

And I also want to encourage you with something.

You know, two years ago, we launched a Thursday night service.

We asked people to, to really radically disrupt,

their schedules, to help us reach people who might not be able to come

on the weekends.

And that service has easily become my favorite.

And I think the reason why is because there's something powerful

about a group of people who want to join God in what he's doing.

And I don't want you to be jealous because we have four new service times

and they're all competing for my affection.

Okay,

so I'm open, but but I want you to know, even the energy in the room just during

our worship set is a reminder that, we are joining God and his desire

to connect with more and more families who can come at more and more time.

So thank you.

Whatever sacrifice looks like for your family, thank you for making it.

Hey, I'm also excited about continuing now week nine of our ten week sermon series.

We've been going through the letter of First Peter.

A pretty simple reason why.

First Peter is a letter written

to a growing church in the middle of a hostile culture.

We think there are a lot of parallels between that church

and this one, between that culture and this one, which means then, that

the message that God has for that church in that time

is very similar to the message he has for this church in this time.

And so we've been leaning into that message every week.

We're going to continue that.

In fact, if you have a Bible, would you take it out? Open it.

To first Peter chapter four.

Perfectly okay to use your phone or your tablet.

And hey, if you're here and you're new to church, been a while.

Maybe church hasn't been part of your story first.

I'm so glad you're here. Probably a huge step for you.

I'm glad you took it.

Everything that happens this weekend is as much for you as it is for anybody else.

If you want, the verses will be on the screen behind me.

You can just look at that.

But if you want to hold a Bible

in the back of East Hall or in the back of the pew in front of you

here in this service, you'll find a Bible, same one I use.

And the reading today is on page 955.

Four points I'm going to use as an outline to guide our time together.

Very simple. Here are the four things I want to show you.

Number one, suffering is inevitable.

Number two, not all suffering is the same.

Number three, all suffering has a purpose.

Number four, suffering asks a question.

All right.

Let's start with the first one.

Suffering is inevitable.

If you've been coming for the first Peter series

and you feel a little suffering fatigue,

like when you heard that's what we were talking about

today, you thought, oh, not another sermon on suffering.

I want you to know right back at you that that feeling is mutual.

It's a lot of talking about suffering.

In fact, I was curious, so I looked it up 37.4%

of the words in First Peter are directly about suffering.

Over one third of the words in this letter are directly about suffering.

This letter talks a lot about suffering.

So if you feel like the sermon series

has been a lot about that, you're right, because the book itself is about that.

Actually, the Bible talks a lot about suffering.

It has a lot to say, well, look at the way this passage starts,

because I think this captures it pretty well.

First Peter chapter four, verse 12 says this, 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.

He says two things here that I think are interesting.

The first is he says, don't be surprised when you suffer.

Don't be surprised.

He says suffering is going to happen.

Suffering is inevitable.

By the way, that's true for all people.

It's not just true for Christians.

It's not just true for religious people.

Suffering is a part of the human experience.

Suffering is inevitable, part of life, he says. Don't be surprised.

And he says this don't feel bad for yourself.

He says, don't be surprised, as though something strange was happening to you.

I think he's saying that when we suffer, we tend to say, oh, why me?

And why does this always happen to me?

And why am I the only one who goes through this?

And he's saying, that's not true.

Suffering is a part of everyone's life.

Suffering is inevitable.

You're you're not alone.

All people will suffer.

The Bible says that a lot.

And you might be thinking, you know, God, I know

I got an extra 30 minutes to sleep and, going from 10 to 1030,

but but I'm still not really in the mood on a Sunday morning for suffering.

Especially when,

going outside in Northeast Ohio today is its own form of suffering.

Not really looking for that.

Have you ever thought about

why God talks so much about suffering in the Bible? Why?

Here's why.

I don't know if you have had the experience of flying on an airplane.

If you're paying attention to the news soon no one will fly on airplanes.

But on an airplane, there are always.

There's always someone, maybe multiple someones.

Maybe you're the someone who's scared of flying

like it's in the air on the plane, which I always find interesting

because at some point before you take off, the pilot will come on the intercom and

and she'll say,

hey, thanks for flying with this airline and we're glad

we're going to get you to Phoenix or wherever you're going.

It's going to take this long.

And then sometimes the pilot will say, hey,

I want you to know, about 20 minutes in, we're going to hit some pretty rough air.

We're going to go through some turbulence.

And so I'm going to keep the seatbelt sign on.

I'm going to keep the flight attendants in their chairs

until we get to a certain altitude.

Then it'll be safe to walk around.

And that's funny because what the pilot is really saying is, hey, some of you

are really freaking out about flying and you should be

right.

Like, why would you say that?

And increase people's anxiety.

But but the reason is pretty simple, you know, the reason is because

if she doesn't say that when turbulence comes, you'll think

she's lost control.

You'll think she wasn't ready for it.

She didn't know it was coming.

So she tells you the turbulence is coming so that when it hits,

you'll still feel a way about it.

But you won't worry that the pilot has lost control.

Listen, God talks a lot about suffering

because he wants you to know when it comes.

He hasn't lost control, he's not surprised, and he's still doing something.

Suffering is inevitable.

But the second thing I want you to see is that not all suffering is the same.

This is important.

And actually this is something that Christians get wrong a lot.

You see, when you have a trite way of thinking about suffering,

you say trite things about it and you actually can really hurt people.

In fact, if you're here and it's been a long time

since you've been to church, this might be why.

And let me just say this.

You know, there are two ways of quitting church.

You can stop coming, and then you can do what I, what I think of as quiet quitting.

You can come every week but be totally disconnected.

And if that's where you find yourself, this might be why?

Because Christians can say some pretty stupid stuff that hurt people.

Not all suffering is the same.

Look with me at verses 14 through 16.

Here's what the writer says. We'll look at the screen.

If you are

insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed

because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

But 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 is a really funny way of saying,

because he goes, listen, listen.

If you're suffering for your faith, you're blessed.

And he goes, but if you're suffering as a murderer, you're not.

And like, I didn't know we needed to say that.

Like, hey, if any of you are thinking about murder, don't do it, okay?

You probably know that. What's he saying?

He's saying not all suffering is the same.

Some suffering you and I. Cause

that's what he's saying.

It's like, hey, if you're suffering as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer,

or some of you need to hear this as a meddler

like you brought it on yourself,

Galatians six says this, be not deceived.

God is not mocked. Whatever you.

So you're also going to reap, in other words, a way of saying that is,

if you don't take care of your body, at some point, it's going to break down.

If you are dishonest in your business practices,

at some point that's going to cost you.

If you don't get control of your drinking, that's going to harm you.

And when that happens, that suffering, that's the product of your choice.

Some suffering we cause, some suffering is the second kind.

Someone else causes.

I mean, after all, if it's possible to suffer as a murderer

or an evil doer or a meddler, then it's also possible to suffer

because someone else is a murderer or an evildoer or a meddler.

Sometimes we suffer because even though we were faithful, our spouse wasn't.

Even though we did our

work with integrity, our business partners didn't.

Some of our moms and dads couldn't get control of their drinking.

Sometimes you suffer because of someone else,

and then sometimes he says, you suffer because of your faith,

because you're obeying God and it it cost you.

Here's the point he's making.

This is not an exhaustive list, by the way.

These are three ways you can suffer.

There are actually probably 27 ways.

Suffering comes from a lot of places.

It might surprise you that the Bible never actually encouraged

us, or invites us to pick

apart our suffering and try to figure out where it's coming from.

There are a lot of reasons people suffer, and the problem is

when we forget that, we come up with overly simplistic answers

to a complex and nuanced question why am I suffering?

Like, for example, maybe you've heard this.

Some churches will teach you that if you're suffering, it's

because you did something bad.

And these

churches are really good at giving you a list of all the bad things.

Like if you're suffering, it's probably because you watched a movie

you shouldn't have, or you said a word you shouldn't have.

And until you're sorry for that, you're going to keep suffering.

So you go to the doctor, you get a terrible diagnosis,

and your first instinct is to say, what did I do?

What did I do?

The Bible does say some suffering is because of your choices,

but not all suffering,

not all suffering.

It's entirely possible you're suffering, and it has nothing to do

with anything that you've done.

Here's the second way I've seen this happen.

Some I've grown up in the church.

I have seen some pretty awful things happen to women,

and oftentimes what they're

told is, God let this happen to you so that you could help other women,

which is a horrific thing to say, as though God looked out over the world

and said, hey, there's this group of women out there

that I care very deeply about and I need to help them through a bad experience.

So give me a name of somebody

we don't care about so we can have her go through trauma.

What's her name? Oh, yeah. Her.

Let's let's have her experience horrific things

so that we can help them.

Does the Bible teach that?

Sometimes God uses suffering to turn you into someone who can help people?

Sure.

Is that why everybody suffers? Absolutely.

And you see, when we reduce suffering down as though it's all the same, we give

trite, simplistic answers that actually do a lot of damage to people.

And if that's your story,

can I just ask you to do something?

Just think about it.

You have to let God speak for God.

You cannot let Christians speak for God

because man, we will say some stupid things and you'll end up

turning away from God not because of anything he said or anything he did,

but because of things we said and things we did not.

All suffering is the same.

But here's my third point all suffering has a purpose,

and this one's going to sting a little bit.

But hang in there with me.

All suffering has a purpose, and the Bible says there's no use

pulling apart suffering to figure out what where it comes from.

But but instead of trying to figure out whose fault is this suffering?

Instead, what it tells us is to ask, what does God want to do

with this suffering?

Look at first Peter chapter four, verse 19.

We'll look at the screen. Here's what it says.

Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will listen.

Entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good.

You see what he says?

Here's what he's saying. Suffering is bad,

but God is good.

Suffering is bad, but God is good.

Listen, he's.

The Bible tells us that human history, your life is not arbitrary.

It's not random that God is writing a story and that story is going somewhere.

And listen, you know this about stories,

the great stories that you read or watch or or listen to or tell.

All of them have chapters that are awful.

All of them.

But what the Bible is telling us is that no matter how long

or how many difficult chapters you are in the story

that God is writing is headed somewhere and it's headed headed somewhere good.

Suffering is bad, but God is good.

Suffering is awful, but in God's hands it can be used for good.

In other words, think about it this way all people suffer.

Christians, can I get me to say this to you?

We don't suffer any more or any worse than anybody else.

All people suffer.

Atheists, agnostics, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jewish people, everybody

suffers.

You might say, well, we suffer for what we believe and everybody suffers

for what they believe in.

Have you ever been on social media?

Everybody suffers.

But but here's what separates Christians from those that are not Christians.

It is not the experience of suffering.

It is the idea that there is a good God who is working in suffering,

taking us somewhere good.

Like, let me just throw some examples at you from the Bible.

Sometimes in the Bible, suffering,

sometimes in the Bible, suffering is a stop sign.

Like for instance, Israel goes to war.

In the book of Joshua with this little village called I.

It's like Ohio State playing Bowling Green.

No offense. If you went to Bowling Green. Go. Falcons can

and and Israel goes to war with AI and they lose.

And Joshua goes back to the camp and he throws himself on the ground.

And he says to God, oh God, how could you do this to us?

How could we lose? And God says, get up.

You have corruption in your camp,

and until you deal with it, you won't win another battle.

That suffering is a stop sign.

Stop doing what you're doing.

Sometimes suffering is sandpaper.

It's working out the edges.

The Book of Jonah Jonah spends three days in a fish

because he's an ethno centrist and a racist.

God doesn't want the fish for Jonah.

He wants neighbor love for Jonah.

But for Jonah to get there, he's got to go through the fish.

Jonah's suffering. Is God working out?

Jonah would never be who God wanted him to be, who he should be without the fish.

Sometimes suffering is a spotlight.

Saul is on the road to Damascus.

He sees Jesus in a vision. He's blinded.

And Jesus says, if you ever want your eyesight back, here's what you got to do.

He's getting Saul's attention.

He's turning Saul.

In Nepal, sometimes suffering is a steering wheel.

In acts one eight, Jesus tells the disciples,

take the gospel to all the nations, and they decide they don't want to do it.

They want to stay in Jerusalem.

So God uses the murder of Stephen and the persecution of the church

to scatter Christians.

And that's why you're hearing the gospel today.

There are 57 ways God uses suffering.

Here's the point suffering is awful.

God is good.

Suffering is terrible.

God is writing a story that is good.

The writer says, don't celebrate suffering, but trust that in the hands

of a good God writing a good story that loves you,

it will be used for good.

And I know that. Listen, I know that hard.

You say, well, wait a minute.

You're asking me to believe that God loves me and he loves me,

so he uses suffering to get my attention.

Can he do it some other way?

What do you mean?

Like write a book?

Send his son.

Give you his Holy Spirit.

Now, the truth is, sometimes

suffering is the only way God can get my attention.

So you're saying.

So wait a minute.

So God loves me, but he uses suffering.

How can I ever believe that? In friends?

There's only one answer to that in the entire universe.

You've got to look at any religion, any church, any podcast, any YouTuber.

There's only one answer that even tries to answer this.

How can I trust that God loves me when he uses suffering in my life?

And the answer to that is Jesus Christ.

Jesus was a sufferer.

Don't you know that?

Jesus didn't suffer because of him.

He suffered because of evil people and because of obedience to God.

But God didn't always say, listen, I'm not even going to teach you that.

I'm going to read you that look with me at the screens in Isaiah 53

and notice two things the suffering of Jesus and how God uses it.

Let's just read it. Here's what it says.

Who has believed what he has heard from us?

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For he grew up before him like a young plant,

and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, no beauty

that we should desire him. Listen.

He was despised and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men

hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.

Yet we esteemed him stricken.

Listen, smitten by God and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities.

Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.

And with his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned every one to his own way.

And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb

that is led to the slaughter, like a sheep before its shearers is silent.

So he opened not his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away.

And as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off

out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgressions of my people.

And they made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death.

Although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth,

yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him.

He has put him to grief.

When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring.

He shall prolong his days.

The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

Out of the anguish of his soul.

He shall see and be satisfied.

By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted

righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,

and he will divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out

his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors.

Yet he bore the sin of many, and he makes intercession for the transgressors.

Friends, Jesus was a sufferer,

but it wasn't wasted.

What happened to Jesus was awful.

It was evil.

Nowhere does the Bible call it good.

But in the hands of God,

who's good, who's writing a story, it's what saved us.

It's what forgave us.

Friends, Christians ask God, where are you?

God, what are you doing? You have to.

That's human. You. You have to ask that.

And if that makes you uncomfortable, read the Psalms.

But then we ask,

what are you doing?

Okay.

What do you want?

Where are you taking me?

Who do I need to become?

I hate this, but I trust you.

And of course, that leads me to my fourth point, which is to say that

suffering asks a question.

And the question is the question for Jonah.

The question for Joshua,

the question for Saul, the question for the disciples, the question for you.

The question for me is,

do you want

to go where God wants to take you?

Do you want to be who God wants you to be?

Do you want for your family what God wants for your family?

Because suffering is a necessary, scary way of getting there.

Listen, if you want what God wants, then you might need the fish.

If all you want out of life is momentary happiness,

a lake house, some nice vacations, beautiful kids.

Who, Mary.

Beautiful people have beautiful grandkids and then you die.

If that's all you want, then suffering will happen.

It will be meaningless and it will rock you.

But God says, I'm writing a story so much bigger than you.

Do you want to be part of that?

Because if you do, then suffering

might just be a tool God uses.

Friends, hear me, hear me.

Maybe you need to stop drinking.

Maybe you need to

step up into the leadership God is calling you.

Maybe you need to live out the vision he has for your family.

Friends, hear me on this.

What if suffering is not a sign that God has forgotten you?

What if it is a sign you are in the center

of his attention?

Wasn't it that way for Jonah?

Wasn't it that way for Saul?

What if we've thought about it all wrong?

Because if we have, then

that means we experience the suffering.

But our eyes are on the horizon.

That's what Paul says.

And second Corinthians four, look with me at the screen.

Here's what it says.

So we do not lose heart.

Though our outer self is wasting away,

our inner self is being renewed day by day.

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us

in eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look

not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.

For the things that are seen are transient,

but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Suffering is awful.

But God,

God is good.

Let me pray for us.

Father God, thank you so much for your honesty about suffering.

Thank you that it does not mean you've lost control.

Thank you that it does not mean you've forgotten us.

Thank you for the ways you use it.

But Holy Spirit, my prayer is I couldn't possibly know what

every single person is is dealing with in this room.

Could you put your finger on what you want to do

in their suffering?

Could you give them some clarity, some hope,

some purpose?

Could you help us trust you?

In Jesus name we pray.

Amen.