Sermon

The Will of God | October 19 2025 (Part 5)

Forestview Community Church

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  1. Well, good morning everybody. Once you go ahead and open up

  2. your Bibles with me to first Peter, Peter's first letter that

  3. was written to the church, at least the one that we have

  4. recorded. Maybe you got it on your phone

  5. or on your tablet. And let's get the word of God

  6. open today. We are really closing up our

  7. series on the will of God. Have we covered everything there

  8. is to say on the will of God? We we definitely have not done

  9. that. But just just a little bit of a

  10. heads up before we get into this next week, as you're turning

  11. there next week, we're starting a new series called Words to

  12. Live By. So we're taking some very

  13. popular secular sayings that are often making their way into the

  14. vocabulary of Christians and just taking a look at those in

  15. relation to Scripture. So it should be a really, really

  16. great series. Really looking forward to it.

  17. So hope you can join us for that next week.

  18. But today, last message in the will of God, we have not covered

  19. all the ground, but we have been talking about the will of God in

  20. terms of two kinds of wills of God.

  21. Scripture speaks of 1 is the mysterious will of God.

  22. That is, we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, but

  23. whatever does happen tomorrow, that is the will of God, right?

  24. Nothing escapes his notice. But there is a will of God that

  25. isn't mysterious. And that is what he is clearly

  26. laid out in Scripture. His commands which reflect his

  27. character, but also his desire for each one of our lives

  28. clearly revealed in in Scripture.

  29. So there's the mysterious or the concealed will of God.

  30. We won't know until the moment it happens.

  31. But there's also the commands of God, the the revealed will of

  32. God that he makes clear to all people what we've been doing,

  33. what we're doing for the last three messages in the series.

  34. So this is number three of those 3 messages is looking at where

  35. it explicitly says like, you cannot miss this.

  36. While all of the commands that God gives to us are his will for

  37. our lives, There's a few places in Scripture where it says this

  38. is the will of God for your life.

  39. We thought, hey, you know what, let's close on on, on these, on

  40. these places. So last two, two weeks ago we

  41. looked at First Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 3, where it says

    1 Thessalonians 4:3

  42. it is God's will that you would be sanctified, that you would

  43. avoid sexual immorality. Then last week we looked at the

  44. next chapter in First Testimonies, chapter 5 or 16 to

  45. 18, where it says rejoice always, pray continually give

  46. thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in

  47. Christ Jesus. Now today we're going to look at

  48. a final one. So first Peter chapter 2, verse

    1 Peter 2:15

  49. 15. And it says this for it is God's

  50. will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk

  51. of foolish people. Father, thank you for your will.

  52. Thank you for Your word that reveals your will.

  53. We pray that You would illuminate our minds, that you'd

  54. fill us with Your spirit and change us from the inside out.

  55. Teach us what You are all about and Your plans for our lives in

  56. Jesus name, Amen. Hey man, first Peter chapter 2,

    1 Peter 2:15

  57. verse 15. For it is God's will that by

  58. doing good, you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish

  59. people. That's one verse.

  60. That's that's kind of sitting in a sea of context.

  61. It is so important for us to understand the implication of of

  62. this, this one verse. So we're gonna take a look at,

  63. we're going to jump into a few things here.

  64. So chapter 2, starting at verse 11, we're going to read a little

  65. bit of context here. Dear friends.

  66. I urge you as foreigners and exiles to abstain from sinful

  67. desires which wage against your soul.

  68. Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse

  69. you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God

  70. on the day he visits us. We'll just pause right there.

  71. Notice that Peter is speaking to Christians in a Pagan culture.

  72. Pagan simply means that people that don't believe in the God of

  73. the Bible and he is, he is referring to these Christians as

  74. foreigners. Literally it means aliens like

  75. from another planet. And literally when when we

  76. receive Jesus Christ and, and into our lives, heaven is given

  77. to us. We are now citizens of heaven.

  78. So while we are part of this world, we really don't belong to

  79. this world. We belong to God.

  80. And so we speaks to them as foreigners.

  81. But the way that the Pagan culture is treating these

  82. foreigners, these Christians, is that they're accusing them of

  83. doing wrong. Now, since Constantine that you

  84. know, 3rd century made Christianity official religion.

  85. Since that time, Christianity has gained steam in terms of its

  86. legitimacy in our culture and it's acceptable to be a

  87. Christian and it's good to be a Christian.

  88. People would look at at Christians and say, you know

  89. what, I may not agree with their way that you know the way that

  90. they conducting their lives, but what they're doing that's

  91. actually pretty good at this point in time, Christians were

  92. looked at as know what they're doing is wrong.

  93. It's offensive. It's it, it's, it's disobedient

  94. toward our culture or or even to our, our, our government or

  95. governmental laws. And we can even call that, hey,

  96. that's even evil. I don't know if you notice

  97. there's a, there's a good overlap.

  98. We, we are kind of going full circle right now.

  99. Christians today in our, in our, in a very secular culture, which

  100. is kind of like moving away. That's becoming more connected

  101. to our Pagan roots. That is not believing in the God

  102. of the Bible. Christians.

  103. Now we're originally or, or, or, you know, since the 3rd century

  104. would be considered good. This is good stuff.

  105. Now we're being looked on in a very negative light.

  106. What you're doing is actually regressive.

  107. It's oppressive, it's evil that's beginning to happen in

  108. our culture today. So there's a, there's certainly

  109. an overlap here that that I think we can identify with.

  110. So let's just keep going. Verse 13, it says this is.

  111. So in this context, this is Peter's exportation to his

  112. people. Submit yourselves for the Lord's

  113. sake to every human authority, whether to the Emperor as the

  114. supreme authority, or to governors who were sent by him

  115. to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.

  116. For it is God's will that you, by doing good, you should

  117. silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.

  118. Peter is urging them to respect the emperor.

  119. Now at that time the emperor's name was Nero, and Nero had it

  120. out for Christians. He hated Christians, and yet the

  121. Christians are being commanded to submit to his authority.

  122. Why and and even the governor at that time, which would have been

  123. Pontious Pilot and and for those of that you know the story, the

  124. story of Jesus crucifixion. You know, Pontius Pilot is just

  125. be submitting to these people. Now we look at our government

  126. and you may or may not like our current government, but there's

  127. some operative expectations here for us as well.

  128. How we speak about our current government.

  129. We not agree with everything that they do, but we are to

  130. respect them. We are to honor them.

  131. We're actually even to pray for them, Paul says in in other

  132. places in Scripture. Why?

  133. Because they've been set in place by God for a purpose, and

  134. that purpose is to punish those who do wrong and to commend

  135. those who do right, really to keep order within society.

  136. Now, many governments go off the rails and the definition of what

  137. right and wrong are can be very fuzzy, can be very blurred or

  138. downright contradictory. However, in that context, we are

  139. to be honourable people and in doing so, being good.

  140. We should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.

  141. Just take a look at the context of of of of the next couple of

  142. chapters here of this verse in the context of the rest of the

  143. chapters. If I if I was to look at the

  144. headings in my Bible, and I know this isn't the word of God, the

  145. headings just kind of summarize sections of scripture, but it

  146. says here living God, living godly lives in a Pagan culture,

  147. suffering for doing good, living for God, suffering for being a

  148. Christian. Is there a common theme going on

  149. here? It's suffering, Christian

  150. suffering within a Pagan culture that that's, that's the that's

  151. the overriding theme going on here.

  152. And and so Peter's just speaking right into this.

  153. Look at chapter 3 verse 17. Peter says for it is better if

  154. it's God's will to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

  155. So we can fall and we, we, we can we kind of fall into the,

  156. the, the flow of the culture or we can continue to do good and

  157. suffer for it. Interesting that he calls that

  158. God's will and then verse 4, chapter 4, verse 15, he says if

  159. you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or a thief or any

  160. kind of criminal or even as a meddler.

  161. He's he's saying God's will for us is to suffer for doing good.

  162. That's part of God's will actually be doing good and in

  163. the process of doing good, actually to suffer for it now,

  164. not for doing what's wrong, suffering for doing wrong is a

  165. whole other story, but suffering for doing good is something that

  166. is very commendable. To suffer for being a Christian

  167. is to suffer according to the will of God.

  168. It's an important conversation for us to have when we talk

  169. about God's will for God's will for our lives.

  170. We are to enter into suffering with a different kind of a

  171. mindset because we are now entering into, um, we're

  172. entering into the realm of what Jesus Christ has done for our

  173. perception of what suffering is. The way that Christ suffered is

  174. helps us to explain for us what suffering is going to mean.

  175. What do I mean by that? Matthew 26 says that Jesus this

  176. was the night he was betrayed just before his crucifixion.

  177. He went away a second time. This is in the garden Kissimmee

  178. and he says my father if it is not possible for this cup to be

  179. taken away unless I drink it may your will be done.

  180. What he's saying is that the crosses before me, this is the

  181. cup that I need to drink. If there is any way father for

  182. me not to have to go to the cross, I would really like that.

  183. But if there's no other way for this to happen, I am.

  184. If this is your will for me, I'm all for it.

  185. And of course, we know what God's will for for for Jesus

  186. was. He was crucified on that cross.

  187. It was God's will for him to suffer.

  188. And so when we look at our own lives, if you call yourself, you

  189. consider yourself a follower of Jesus Christ.

  190. We were following Jesus into suffering.

  191. Now, Jesus suffered and died on a cross to atone for our sins.

  192. We're not doing that with our suffering, but we're following

  193. in his footsteps as one who has, who has suffered like he is.

  194. He is the man and I wanna be like him and I'm willing to

  195. suffer for his namesake. This is this is the the flow of

  196. Peters of Peters argument. We're to enter into suffering

  197. and approach suffering with the mindset of Jesus Christ.

  198. Jesus kind of puts this whole thing we need to understand our

  199. own suffering in light of Christ's suffering.

  200. So chapter 2 verse 21 to 23 says this.

  201. Peter says to the Christians to this You were called because

  202. Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should

  203. follow. In his steps He committed no sin

  204. and no deceit was found in his mouth.

  205. When they hurled their insults at him, He did not retaliate.

  206. When he suffered, he made no threats.

  207. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who just judges justly.

  208. We're following an insteps, and in doing so, when we're

  209. suffering for doing good, something is happening.

  210. We're actually revealing Christ to the world.

  211. Jesus Christ suffered for the ultimate good.

  212. Now, as we follow in his footsteps and we are suffering

  213. for good, we are revealing Christ to the rest of the world.

  214. Why? So that by doing good, we should

  215. silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.

  216. OK, so we're gonna pause there. Pretty heavy topic, right?

  217. If you're wondering, you know, first time to church is like,

  218. man, I picked up a hard one to come through.

  219. Like we're talking about suffering, but suffering is such

  220. a it's such an integral part of all of our lives.

  221. There are things important for us to pause for a minute and to

  222. think about it. So, you know, like we've got a

  223. pretty good, like some people will argue, you know what, we're

  224. being persecuted as Christians in Ontario, guys, we are not

  225. being persecuted. OK, There are, you know, you

  226. look to the church in China, you look at the church in Nigeria,

  227. like there are people, you know, that there are 380 million

  228. Christians today who are being literally persecuted.

  229. That means thrown from their homes, arrested, killed,

  230. martyred for their faith Right now.

  231. That's not us right now. Like there's a little bit of

  232. pressure on Christians to be sure, but this is not, this is

  233. not persecution. Are we moving in that direction?

  234. I believe we are and I think for that reason we need to be ready

  235. Now. If you're not a follower of

  236. Jesus Christ and I'm scaring the living daylights out of you as

  237. to be a Christian, I'm not going to candy coat anything for you.

  238. If you are going to receive Christ as your Lord and Savior

  239. because it's the right thing to do and is the right thing to do,

  240. you need to realize that I'm following Him into a life of

  241. doing good, and I will likely suffer for that.

  242. In other words, the will of God is not always the easy path.

  243. In fact, sometimes it's a very difficult path, but the rewards

  244. are unmatched. It means fellowship with the

  245. living God and it means eternal life, not just now, but for all

  246. eternity, the quality of life, for all eternity.

  247. But we do need to realize that it is it's it's Jesus says come

  248. follow me. But on doing so, deny yourself.

  249. Take up your cross, your instrument of suffering, and

  250. follow me. I bid you to come and die with

  251. me. That's the call.

  252. But we know that that call to death is really a call to life,

  253. because there's no life worth living more than that, Jesus

  254. calls in to what true life really is.

  255. But if you are a follower of Jesus, if you identify as a

  256. child of God and one who is saved by the blood of Jesus

  257. Christ, you must prepare yourself for suffering, for

  258. suffering, for his name. That's something we need to

  259. prepare ourselves. So I just want to talk today,

  260. just the remainder of time that we have, about how to prepare.

  261. How do we prepare ourselves for persecution when it may come?

  262. How do we prepare ourselves for the resistance that we will

  263. receive for doing good? Here we go #1 prepare yourself.

  264. You have to prepare yourself emotionally, emotionally looked

  265. up on on ChatGPT. You know emotion.

  266. What does it mean to be emotionally prepared?

  267. This is what it says. Getting your thoughts and

  268. feelings in order before an event to minimize panic and

  269. anxiety and to be more resilient when you face it.

  270. I'm getting an emotionally prepared for an interview.

  271. I'm getting my thoughts in order before the event happens in

  272. order to minimize the panic and anxiety that might go through

  273. and to be more resilient to be able to face it.

  274. Same preparation that we need to have when we're going into this

  275. life as followers of Jesus Christ.

  276. We need to adjust our expectations.

  277. What are we expecting from this world?

  278. We need to expect persecution. We need to expect resistance.

  279. And OK, by saying that I'm not being negative, I think we

  280. should all hope for the best, but we should also prepare for

  281. the worst, right? So that's the way we should

  282. approach the Jays tonight. Hope for the best, alright, but

  283. prepare for the worst. It's very possible.

  284. Who is a good feeling about the game tonight, anyway?

  285. Yeah. We'll raise their hands for that

  286. anyway. Yeah, you know, those who are

  287. poor in our culture expect hardship.

  288. That's how they living, but those in our culture who are

  289. very are much more well to do well off when the hardships

  290. come. It's like this is abnormal.

  291. This this should not be. Right.

  292. And I'm going to do everything in order to change that, in

  293. order to get back to kind of the easygoing life, right?

  294. That is the exact opposite of what Peter is talking about,

  295. what we need. He's not saying everybody should

  296. be poor, but he's saying that we should all have an expectation

  297. that there's going to be suffering in this world,

  298. suffering their lives. There is suffering regardless of

  299. whether we're doing good or not. All people, we've got a light, a

  300. world that is broken by sin. And so there is disease, there

  301. is sickness, things don't go as well.

  302. Our bodies are breaking down. There's all manner of things,

  303. but are we prepared for the inevitable clash that takes

  304. place when we do good in Jesus name?

  305. Because it's a spiritual battle that's going on.

  306. Whenever light, the light of God's Kingdom, is being a

  307. shining bright, it is clashing with the forces of darkness.

  308. That's what's happening. And so we need to expect a fight

  309. in AD. Where are.

  310. We here 8064, there was a there was a fire in Rome and it was

  311. set by Nero himself. So whenever a new emperor comes

  312. into power, it's like, OK, I wanna level all of the work of

  313. the previous emperor. I'm gonna make my mark here and

  314. establish do have my own building project.

  315. He set fire to much of Rome and in order to kind of do his

  316. building expansion, but it was found out.

  317. He was found out that he's the one that set the fire and

  318. everybody turned on him. Well, what did he do?

  319. He was looking for a scapegoat and he blamed the Christians.

  320. He blamed the Christians and then the society turned on the

  321. Christians for that. And in fact, he just, he just

  322. went to town. He, he, he.

  323. As a result, he was. Plunging innocent Christians

  324. into vats of oil, throwing them into cages, hoisting them up and

  325. setting them on fire to light his dinner, garden, dinner

  326. party, evening dinner parties. Talk about persecution.

  327. This is this is the context that Peter is speaking into right

  328. now. There is a clash.

  329. Between light and. Darkness and we need to expect

  330. that we need to anticipate that we need to.

  331. You know. Hope for the best, but we do

  332. need to prepare. For the worst, look at how Peter

  333. puts. It chapter 4, verse 12, he says,

  334. dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal

  335. that has come on you to test you literally as though something

  336. strange were happening to you. It's interesting.

  337. He's speaking right into this kind of context and saying like,

  338. why are you surprised? Like, don't be surprised, like

  339. something strange is happening. This is exactly how it's

  340. supposed to go. Light is clashing.

  341. With darkness. So Peter is totally reframing

  342. the way that his people, his his his brothers and sisters in

  343. Christ are thinking about suffering.

  344. It's a normal part of life if they targeted Jesus.

  345. They're gonna target. His followers as well.

  346. And we want to. Please everybody, that's my

  347. nature. I don't want to offend anybody.

  348. We wanna live good lives, upright lives, kind of stay out

  349. of trouble. But even doing that, we'll,

  350. we'll, there will be resistance to that.

  351. I mean, even Jesus said he says woe to you when everyone speaks

  352. well of you. This is Luke chapter 6.

    Luke 6 chapter mention

  353. That's not a good sign. When everybody speaking well of

  354. you, probably something's not quite right if you're a follower

  355. of Jesus. There there's.

  356. Going to be resistance and we need to prepare ourselves for

  357. that so. Preparation is.

  358. Just is. It's certainly a mindset, but

  359. it's more than that. You and I need support.

  360. As followers of Jesus Christ, we need a network of support and

  361. that's what life groups are all about.

  362. And that's just like promo of life groups, like I need a life

  363. group where people know my stuff, know my struggles, know

  364. where there is resistance in my life.

  365. And I'm gonna give me encouragement.

  366. And we're around the word together, praying for one

  367. another. We need that for our own

  368. emotional preparation. So that's number one.

  369. We need to be emotionally prepared #2 we need to be

  370. theologically prepared. Be with me.

  371. You're good, you're good. All right, No one nodding off on

  372. me. My, my, my theology.

  373. Theology. Professor Ji Packer used to see

  374. it used to begin every lecture by saying, OK, everybody, let's

  375. gird our loins as we get into this topic.

  376. Gerda loins, how, how often do we use that kind of language?

  377. Originally it meant, OK, I'm going to, you know, stuff my

  378. robe into my belt in order that I have room in order to, you

  379. know, to be able to do the strenuous work that's ahead of

  380. me. Right.

  381. Gerda loins. Theologically, we need to gird

  382. our loins as well. Why?

  383. Because when things that we, we've got a theology for when

  384. things go well, but we also have a theology when things don't go

  385. so well. When when things are going well,

  386. it's like God is great. He loves me and everything.

  387. But when things tank, when things go South, it's like, does

  388. he love me? Where is he?

  389. I thought he, you know, then we begin to doubt His goodness, his

  390. presence, everything that the Bible speaks about who he is.

  391. When we are sinned. Against.

  392. I know some. Some of us in our congregation

  393. have been horribly send against physical abuse, sexual abuse.

  394. And we look at that. And we try to make sense of

  395. that. We need to understand who God

  396. is. It is so easy to lose, kind of

  397. to begin to doubt his sovereign goodness in the middle of that,

  398. because how do I make sense of that?

  399. Where was God when this happened to me?

  400. Those are heavy duty questions. Those questions we.

  401. Need to wrestle with, but I think it's so helpful for us to

  402. know the two wills of God and to be able to affirm them both.

  403. The mysterious will of God, meaning whatever happens, is the

  404. will of God. But also the.

  405. Fact that God commands people not to sin against one another.

  406. People do sin. Against one another.

  407. But he commands us. Not to.

  408. And and and. And we really, we, we need to

  409. hold those two things in tension.

  410. There's a world where people are given free, free will.

  411. And so this kind of stuff happens.

  412. But. Somehow, in the midst of the

  413. breaking of God's law, the breaking of God's commanded will

  414. and for our lives, He is still in charge.

  415. He is sovereign over all of the what's taking place and He's

  416. going to use all things. He's going to take use all

  417. things sorry. He's going to use whatever we

  418. have gone through. In order to bring.

  419. About something good in our life, CR has a famous saying.

  420. Now you know God never wastes a hurt.

  421. He doesn't. Why?

  422. How do we know that based on Romans 828 in all things God

  423. works for the good of those in all things like no matter what

  424. has happened to you or to me is using that for our good.

  425. And we need to, we need to embrace that when we push God

  426. out of those past experiences that we have had where we've

  427. been hurt by people. Where was God?

  428. Well, he. Wasn't there because he's a good

  429. God. So when we remove him from that,

  430. we actually shoot ourselves in the foot like we, we, we are

  431. removing the one thing, the one person that can actually help us

  432. move through that, that that horrible situation.

  433. The only one that we. Can lean on to get us through

  434. two wills of God. He's not responsible for the

  435. sins that are that are been done to us, but he will use

  436. everything for our healing, for a good for our sanctification.

  437. We need to remember that theologically, we need to kind

  438. of reframe how we think about this stuff.

  439. Will we ever be separated from his love?

  440. I mean Apostle Paul in Romans 8 he says, Who shall separate us

  441. from the love of Christ? You know in that.

  442. Moment when I was hurt. Was I still loved?

  443. By God. Pulses shall trouble or.

  444. Hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or

  445. sword just listing off all of the things that could make us

  446. dealt with a God still loves me and he says no, nothing, none of

  447. that can separate you from the love of God.

  448. Peter is actually gonna. Turn it on, it's on, said it's

  449. because of the cross. Crash shows us punishment.

  450. That we deserved for our sin for all those who put their trust in

  451. Jesus has been absorbed by by Jesus.

  452. He has borne the weight of it. In other words, there is no

  453. punishment left for those who put their trust in Him.

  454. God's not going to punish twice. Jesus took it all for us.

  455. I like how Larry Osborne put it, he said, he said.

  456. Of Valley a value doesn't. Necessarily mean a wrong turn if

  457. we're in a dark valley. It doesn't mean.

  458. That God has abandoned us? It doesn't.

  459. It doesn't even mean that I have done something wrong in order to

  460. deserve this number. Sum 23.

  461. No, I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

  462. I will fear no evil, for you are with me, right?

  463. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my

  464. life, like I can be. I can be confident even when

  465. things are very dark. So, Peter.

  466. 'S saying you need to reframe the way that you're thinking

  467. about this. How does he say that?

  468. Chapter 4, verse 13 to 16 he says, I want you to rejoice, but

  469. rejoice in as much as you participate in the sufferings of

  470. Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is

  471. revealed. If you are.

  472. Insulted because of the name of Christ.

  473. You are blessed. For the Spirit.

  474. Of glory and of God rests on you.

  475. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer, a thief, or any

  476. kind of criminal, or even a meddler.

  477. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed,

  478. but praise God that you bear that name.

  479. Suffering is not a. Sign that God has abandoned me.

  480. Suffering is not a sign that somehow I have done something

  481. wrong. Suffering for doing good.

  482. Is actually a. Sign that God is with me it it

  483. means that his spirit says the spirit of glory and of and of

  484. God is resting on me. The Holy Spirit of Glory, the

  485. spirit that comes from heaven is actually resting on me, saying

  486. heaven is yours, that moment is coming.

  487. I've got you. Even, you know, Peter's just

  488. totally flipping it. It's almost like it's a badge of

  489. honor that we're suffering for being good.

  490. It's a badge of honor that we can celebrate.

  491. Polycarp. That was a 2nd century Bishop of

  492. Smyrna and he's arrested for his faith and the pro council was

  493. urging him to, to, to offer incense to Caesar and, and the

  494. pro council said, basically said take this oath and you're going

  495. to be released, cursed, cursed Jesus Christ.

  496. And this is what his response was. 86 years I have served him.

  497. That is, I've served Jesus, and he never did me wrong.

  498. How can I blasphemy my King who saved me and with joy?

  499. He was martyred. There is a confidence that we

  500. can have. When?

  501. Persecution and resistance comes our way.

  502. It's a recognition. Actually.

  503. The Spirit is on me now. And this is a badge.

  504. Of honor. This is a sign.

  505. That I'm his. I belong.

  506. To the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

  507. Theological. We need to.

  508. Wrap our mind around that and embrace that.

  509. Alright, let's move on. Third thing, practically, we

  510. need to prepare yourself emotionally, we need to prepare

  511. ourself theologically, and we need to prepare ourselves

  512. practically. What does it look like

  513. practically to suffer? And trust God.

  514. How do we what does it look like to be trusting God in the midst

  515. of our suffering? Peter says it in chapter 4,

  516. verse 19. Last verse we'll look at So then

  517. those who suffer according to God's will should commit

  518. themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

  519. What does it look like? When we're commending ourselves

  520. or trusting in in gas or faithful Creator in the midst of

  521. our suffering, we're going to continue to do good.

  522. That's what it looks like, practically speaking.

  523. We need a lifestyle of do Gooding so to speak.

  524. Is that part of your lifestyle to be to be doing good for

  525. others? Why do we do that?

  526. Because it's it's right, but also it's revealing Christ in

  527. the midst of our suffering. It's going to open up

  528. opportunities for us and and connect us in relationship with

  529. people. Who wouldn't?

  530. Necessarily be followers of Jesus.

  531. It's gonna open up. It's gonna open up conversations

  532. in this way. It's gonna it's gonna even for

  533. those who are resisting the message of the gospel.

  534. It's going to make us think radical goodness.

  535. Calls for a. Response.

  536. It may be full rejection, but it may be I want to.

  537. I want more of that. I want more of that.

  538. Doing good. While we're suffering, that is

  539. how we practically prepare ourselves, continuing to do

  540. good. What do we mean by that?

  541. Doing good Just it's essentially, it's just thinking

  542. of others first. It's serving others.

  543. Practical. Simple acts of kindness.

  544. Toward people. Never underestimate what a small

  545. act of kindness can do in opening somebody's eyes.

  546. It was a someone that was part of our church years ago and he

  547. just went rogue with his life. Complete rebellion.

  548. Living the lifestyle of an unbeliever.

  549. Cut off contact with with the with the with the church.

  550. I had heard through a family member that he was sick.

  551. And I went. To visit him in the hospital.

  552. Very cold reception after that visit.

  553. I hadn't didn't see him for 10 years.

  554. I got a phone call 10 years later.

  555. This wasn't too long ago and. You wanted to meet.

  556. And so we met. This is the first time in a

  557. decade. And he said.

  558. I just couldn't shake that visit in the hospital, he said.

  559. That made me think that there may still be hope for me.

  560. Well, he returned to Christ, started putting his life back

  561. together. It's like Hallelujah, you know,

  562. he, he wanted to be reconciled with me.

  563. I'm thinking. That was just like a simple

  564. visit that didn't seem like it was very well received.

  565. Never underestimate. What some?

  566. Simple act of kindness can do to open somebody's eyes.

  567. I want you to think. Now just just think about your

  568. world, your life where you could be doing good at work.

  569. Not just like do we like Christians sure should have

  570. integrity in our work and do a good job of our work, but with

  571. the people that I'm working with, how can I be practically

  572. doing good for them, bringing that revealing Christ to them

  573. and their life just by the things, simple things that I do.

  574. Maybe in your neighborhood. What am I doing to do good, not

  575. just kind of staying out of the way of my neighbors, but

  576. practically leaning in and being good to my neighbors?

  577. What would that look like? Or maybe even our own home.

  578. Peter gives some examples here in chapter 3.

  579. You know, he talks about speaking to wives who have

  580. husbands that are unbelievers. And he said you can win them

  581. over without words by your behavior, right?

  582. Then he starts in verse 7, chapter 3.

  583. It's just been speaking to husbands like husbands.

  584. Do you know that the way that you love your wife and love and

  585. care for your wife is a testimony to the rest of the

  586. world of the goodness of God just by the way that we care for

  587. one flesh partner? And then verse. 17 he goes.

  588. Because it's more than just our behavior.

  589. Our words are important, it says in verse 15.

  590. He says always. Be prepared to give an answer to

  591. everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you

  592. have. Always be prepared.

  593. That's part of the practical preparation, being in a

  594. lifestyle of doing good, but also being ready to give a

  595. reason for the hope that you have.

  596. If someone was to ask you why you're a Christian, or why do

  597. you have joy, or why are you doing this good thing, would you

  598. have an answer for them? Would you have an answer like a

  599. reason for the hope that you have next month?

  600. We have professional faith classes started and really all

  601. that is is helping us prepare to give an answer to all who would

  602. ask that we could share our story in a very brief way.

  603. That class is just all about how to do that, how to do that and

  604. help you to write your story. I just encourage anybody that

  605. would want to profess their faith that way.

  606. Even if you profess your faith and you want help and your

  607. testimony, join the class. It would be great to have you

  608. free lunch and what we'll teach you how to how to testify to the

  609. goodness of God in your life. OK, that's all the time we got.

  610. OK, we gotta, we gotta, we gotta wrap things up for this series.

  611. This is the. Will of God for your life.

  612. This is it that we would. In the midst of suffering,

  613. continue to do good, to continue to do good, and in doing good,

  614. silence the ignorant talk of foolish people testifying,

  615. revealing, testifying to and revealing the goodness of Christ

  616. to our world and how they respond will let God look after

  617. that with them. The will of God has mysterious

  618. element, to be sure, but the will of God, the majority, the

  619. will of God for your life is abundantly clear right here in

  620. Scripture. Is it always easy to follow

  621. through on it? No, it's not.

  622. Sometimes it's very, very difficult.

  623. But is it right? It is.

  624. Is it good? It is.

  625. It's in fact it's beautiful. And when we step into doing His

  626. will, being serious about doing His will, there's so much grace

  627. that God gives to us, to boy us up, to strengthen us and

  628. encourage us in the battle as light clashes with darkness.

  629. Let's pray, Father. We we, we stop at the end of a

  630. series first to thank you that you have a will.

  631. And it's so much better. Than ours, Lord, Your will is

  632. good, pleasing and perfect. And we declare this morning, May

  633. your will be done, not my will be done, but may your good,

  634. pleasing and perfect will be done in my life and the life of

  635. my family and the life of my of my neighbors.

  636. Province. Country in our world.

  637. More we ask that you. Would have your way with us,

  638. equip us, and give us every grace to follow through on it.

  639. And Lord, when we fail, when we know we have messed up, we thank

  640. You that Your grace is sufficient for us.

  641. May we receive it with grateful hearts and respond and grateful

  642. obedience as a result. Thank you for your help and Lord

  643. 2 as we gather our ties and offerings this morning, we thank

  644. you for the. Incredible.

  645. Generosity that you have shown to us, not just in giving us a

  646. world, but giving us so much in our culture.

  647. Where we pray that you would grant to us hearts that are

  648. willing to be generous. That your.

  649. Keenan would come, your will would be done on earth as it is

  650. in heaven. Thank you for hearing our

  651. prayer, but we prayed all in Jesus name, Amen.