Living for the Lord’s Will

I hope that the Lord’s amazing work encourages you and fills you with hope. We had almost 2,500 people for Easter Sunday services. That is one of the largest Sunday attendances in the history of Faith.

• There have been gospel opportunities all over our church family. At the same time, we are seeing the Lord work in individuals and families in our church.

• The Lord promised that he will build his church and there is nothing, not even the gates of hell, can stop it.

Our annual theme is Hope for Everyday Life. Sometimes it is easy to live with hope when you see the Lord work mightily around you.

• Our series in 1 Peter has also reminded us that we can have hope when we face suffering. Life is not always easy. Our culture is not always friendly toward us.

When it is hard, It is important to go back to basics. Run to what you know. Find stability before you tackle the difficult challenges and questions.

• Before you decide what to do, get your bearings. Understand your situation before you make choices.

With that in mind please turn in your Bibles to 1 Peter 4:1. That is on page ______ of the back section of the Bible in the chair in front of you.

• If you do not own a Bible, please write your name in that one and take it with you. We want everyone who wants a Bible to have one.

Peter’s audience had it rough. They were living in a culture that did not value Christians. Living faithful for Christ had a price. Peter wants them grounded. We are talking today about one of those grounding principles.

• It is like “home” or “base” during a game of tag. It is a place to refocus and think as you determine next steps.

The Title of this message is Living For The Lord’s Will. Please follow along as I read. This is the Word of the Lord. [Read 1 Peter 4:1-6]

The overall point of this text is to live for God’s will amid suffering. Verses 1-2 culminate with the phrase “for the will of God” and verses 3-6 look back to it.

• It is grounding in suffering, especially suffering as a Christian.

Would you agree that there has been at least one time in your life when you tried to do something for Jesus (I mean you prayed in advance, you rehearsed a few passages of Scripture, and then you prayed again) and then you got blasted for it?

• Maybe it was a child … a parent … a teacher … a student … a friend … a boss … an employee … a co-worker.

You try to do something for Jesus to the best of your ability and you suffer for it.

• Friends, when that happens or when you live under that pressure daily, you need a place to quiet your soul. You need a place of rest and reflection.

That place is live for the Lord’s will. Live for the Lord’s will. Live for the Lord’s will.

• Do not live in constant fear of what may happen next.

• Do not focus on everything you wish was different. Focus on the Lord’s will.

That begs the question, “what is the Lord’s will?” Sometimes, we make it more complicated than what it is. For example,

• If the Bible gives us a clear command, then it is the will of God. Here are some examples in 1 Peter.

1 Peter 1:13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 1:22 Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart,

1 Peter 2:2 like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation

1 Peter 2:11-12 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. 12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.

1 Peter 3:15 but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence

• We could add other clear commands in the Bible regarding what we love, how we love, what we think about, what we do, etc.

• God’s will does not just relate to behavior, but to our character, to our affections, and to our motivation.

• God’s will impact our heads, our hands, and our hearts.

This means that part of God’s will is given. This stabilizes our thinking. Get back to the basics in suffering.

But admittedly, there are circumstances in life that do not match up exactly to one command. God gives us wisdom when we ask, in each other (in a multitude of counselors there is wisdom), in the conscience (our sense of right and wrong), and God’s Spirit drawing us to his Word to guide us in these moments.

• Sometimes we come with open hands before the Lord. We want to do God’s will and are in tears over what to do.

• Then there are other times we want God to approve the plans we already decided.

Friends, please hear this morning that we must live for the will of God – not demand that he approve ours.

• He gave us much of his will – a lifetime’s worth – in his Word.

• He has given us instructions in how to apply wisdom to a case that does not match a chapter and verse.

• This is one take away from the message: Live for the Lord’s will. This passage assumed you knew that. Given your understanding of the Lord’s will, this text provides…

Three ways to strengthen your determination to obey God’s will when you suffer.

I. Arm yourself with the same purpose of your Savior (v.1)

1 Peter 4:1 Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin

“Therefore” returns us to the previous section, especially 3:18, where Peter explain the suffering of Christ. As Peter reflected on Christ’s sufferings, he wanted to explain the practical implications for us.

In this text God graciously gives us a purpose – Live for the Lord’s will.

• The purpose is the purpose that Christ had; namely, to obey the will of his father.

John 8:28 So Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me.

Luke 22:42 saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”

Over and over in the gospels we find that Jesus did only that which the father had given him. He did only that which brought glory to the father. Jesus’ clear mission was to do the will of the one who sent him.

Our task is to arm ourselves with that same purpose.

• Be committed to doing the will of God just as Jesus was.

• The text emphasizes “yourself.” No one is going to do that for you. We take the action of arming.

To arm yourself or to prepare yourself is the command. It is intentional. It is an inner man issue. The metaphor is outer man. This term “to arm” could refer to a military context where a person prepared for battle.

Living for God’s will is not always the first thought that comes to us in suffering. It is vengeance, defensiveness, or self-pity. We must develop the habit of waking up each day, especially in suffering, with the resolve, the intention, to live for God’s will.

Resolving to follow Christ’s suffering (v. 1a)

1 Peter 2:21-25 reminded us that Christ left us an example to follow. Over the past week, we have especially remembered the Jesus’ final week. He knew the suffering was part of God’s will and he moved toward it.

Jesus told his followers that anyone wishing to follow him must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow him. A commitment to suffering.

• Even those who expressed other priorities (like let me stay with my parents until they die) were rebuked that Jesus had to be first.

It is so tempting to be about ourselves. Jesus said, deny yourself and take up your cross. This is a resolution. I am not suggesting anything formal, but maybe right now you need to say in your heart, “I resolve to follow the Lord’s will just like my Jesus did.”

Choosing God’s will over the temptation to sin (v. 1c)

The hardest phrase in this section occurs right here. It says, “because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin”. At first glance it is, huh? Did Peter just say that Jesus sinned in the flesh and then stopped when he died?

• No.

The grammar is clearer than that. “He who has suffered” is not referring to Jesus, but to the believer that must arm himself with the purpose of following Christ through suffering.

• Uhh. Okay. Did Peter just say that when believers suffer, they become sinless?

• No. So what is he saying?

Peter is doing something wonderful here. I just love this. He is saying that when we prepare ourselves (or arm ourselves) to follow Christ’s example then we are purposely choosing the path of suffering as a Christian rather than the path of the sin.

When we say that we are willing to suffer as Christian, if that is what God requires, because we want to faithfully follow his will, then we are also making the decision not to live for what pleases the unbelieving world.

I read this week that a judge upheld that the Brownsburg school system did the right thing when they forced a teacher to resign his position because he believed that using transgender pronouns for his students did not honor Jesus and was a violation of his faith.

• I don’t know what you think about that case and whether it was the right decision, but there were 2 clear conclusions I drew from the article.

• It reminded me of all our public school teachers and the pressures they face. I prayed for our teachers this week knowing that any teacher who calls our church their home could face the same pressures.

• The teacher resolved in his heart to follow Jesus even if it meant suffering. He was following what he believed was the will of God in his situation. He followed that will despite the pressure and ridicule.

Amid suffering our base or home is doing God’s will. We come back to that space for grounding and perspective. The first way that strengthens our determination to do God’s will is to Arm ourselves with the same purpose he had. The second way is …

II. No longer live for the desires of men but for the will of God (vv. 2-4)

1 Peter 1:2-4 so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. 3 For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries. 4 In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you

Verse 2 serves as the title of this message. Living for the Lord’s will. That is our primary point this morning. We must live for something. We see the contrast. Peter explains that living for the desires/lusts of men is the other option. When I taught through 1 Peter to my ABF a few years ago I used a series of phrases that people found helpful. It goes like this:

• - Those who have no purpose struggle through or take their life

• - Those who have the wrong purpose waste their life

• - Those who have the right purpose are energized for life

Suffering has a way of reprioritizing our lives and determining what is most important. When suffering presses us, what comes out? Peter says please live by the will of God. The alternative is living for the desires/lust of men.

Do so as long as God gives you breath. Pastor Doug Gray, who served here for about 5 years, used to end every email he wrote with “finish strong.” That is Peter’s exhortation. Why should we no longer live according to the lusts of men?

Because we followed those desires long enough (v. 3)

1 Peter 4:3 For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries.

Peter says, “the TIME FOR SINNING IS OVER” because the time for living according to the flesh is …. SUFFICIENT.

• Don’t you love that?

We have sinned long enough. We must be done with that. We have perfected the art of sin well enough and long enough.

• Don’t you love the straightforward language?

We lived in sensuality, and we think to ourselves … why yes we have. Peter says that the amount of time you did that was sufficient. You have it covered.

• Some of you live for lusts … Yea, that was sufficient.

• Carousing, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries … yea, all that was sufficient.

We all know the battle. At times we are drawn to the old life. The old influences are like come on … dude. We had so much fun. Wasn’t it awesome?

There was a side of that sin that was fun. But it also brought death and suffering of a different kind.

• Now we must work at it, fight the battle, and see things for what they are. We must deal with the desires of their hearts.

In Romans 6 Paul wrote that you are dead to sin and alive to God. We know positionally that it is true. Anytime that temptation comes knocking we can say, “I am dead to that.” Peter adds another phrase for us, “I am done with that.” But Peter is also realistic about our lives.

He knows that not only do we need to conclude that we have followed the lusts of men long enough, but that others will encourage us to do wrong. In fact, we must live for the Lord’s will …

Although some are surprised that we do not join them (v. 4)

1 Peter 4:4 In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you

I believe this plays out in a couple different ways depending on our individual circumstances.

• For example, when we first repent of our sin and trust in the finished work of Christ, we still have our same family, friends, and circle of connection.

One day we are at the bars getting hammered looking for girls and then we stop. Our circle doesn’t know what to do with us. They continue to talk about their weekend events, invite us to them, and wonder why we don’t join them.

This same idea happens when people first learn that we are Christian. Maybe we are new to each other. They assume that their values are the same as ours.

In this first stage, the temptation is to join them. There might still be a draw on your heart. Their offer is appealing.

After they figure out that you are the boring Christian who doesn’t do these things anymore, then a different kind of pressure comes.

• Now comes the maligning.

• You are now an ignorant, bigoted, misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic, judgmental, and holier than thou.

Which now justifies others saying or doing whatever they want to you or about you.

The question becomes, will we fold? Will we collapse? Will we give in to their pressure and either join them in their sin or be quiet and keep our views to ourselves?

Friends, we live out the will of God. Your pastors served during the easter egg hunt on Saturday morning. We wanted to love our community by providing a fun family event.

• [Picture of the Pastors in the rabbit ears and a picture showing the masses of people]

We had a simple job. Interact with as many people as possible and invite them to Easter services. It was interesting to listen to them. No one protested. No one was screaming at us.

• Instead, I spoke with one man who came to the skate park in 7^th grade. He is now a grown man with a child of his own. He brought that little one to the event and spoke very positively about having the skate park here for him.

• Another man shocked me when he started talking to me about the 5 ministry campuses we have. He knew about Hartford Hub and Restoration in addition to FE, FW, and FN. He brought his family. He said that they would come to church here if they weren’t Catholic.

Two positive interactions with families who have never darkened the door of our church. People are watching and it is not just the haters. Who knows what the Lord will do in the future. But it shows that when you have a resolve to do the will of God it is energizing. Remember that little phrase.

• - Those who have no purpose struggle through or take their life

• - Those who have the wrong purpose waste their life

• - Those who have the right purpose (which we know is Living for the Lord’s will) are energized for life

We must arm ourselves with the same purpose as our savior.

• We must no longer live for the desires of men because we have already been there and done that long enough and even if we take grief for it.

That brings us to the final way to strengthen our determination to live for God’s will amid suffering.

III. Know that living for God’s will results in vindication (vv. 5-6)

1 Peter 4:5 but they will give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God.

This section is confusing at first, but let’s see how the believers vindication is the point. The Christian who lives for the Lord’s will and suffers for it will be vindicated. These verses describe victory!

Those who live for evil desires must receive God’s judgment

1 Peter 4:5 but they will give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

Deferred justice is part of our world. It exists at every level of life.

• One child is teased at school for no other reason than the color of their hair or their body size. It is not right, but justice is rarely part of the equation.

• It can happen in the home. Why does one child seem to get away with more than a different child. Why do some couples have an easy time having children and others cannot have them at all?

• Sometimes a person is passed for a job opportunity or an advancement that they fully qualify for.

At times, we are so accustomed to deferred justice or injustice that we forget that one day the Lord will judge and the disobedient must give an account. In v. 4 we saw that they are surprised, and they speak poorly about you. It seems like they get away with it.

• It can be discouraging.

• If we are not careful, we can turn our eyes inward. We look at ourselves and how those around us treat us and we give in to the victim mentality--the lusts of men.

• We must continue to look to Jesus who was reviled but did not revile in return.

• We live for the Lord’s will and allow the Lord to judge.

This is a good time to speak to those who may not have a saving relationship with Jesus. You are in the “surprised” and “maligning” group. Friends, the Bible is clear that the Lord is patient wanting all to come to repentance. God’s patience is sometimes misinterpreted as “God does not care,” or “God is not real,” or “God does not fulfill his promises.”

Please do not be tricked into that line of thinking.

2 Thessalonians 1:6-9 For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, 8 dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power

Please notice the language

• It is only just for God to judge

• His judgment always had two sides.

• Vindication of the righteous

• Punishment for the wicked

I realize that hearing this is a large auditorium is different than a one-on-one conversation. Any of our pastors would be happy to meet with you and share the message of the gospel with an open Bible.

For those who know Christ, please notice the last verse in our text this morning.

Those who live for God’s will enjoy eternal life

1 Peter 4:6 For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God.

This verse, while confusing at first, speaks about the gospel message impacting those who had already died. Yes, they suffered the pain of death (nicely or not so nicely), but they live in the spirit. He refers to the resurrection from the dead.

You see, those who cannot believe Christians don’t behave like everyone else (pursuing the lusts of men) also believe that Christians get no advantage. They die too. Christians are susceptible to disease, sharp objects, and fast-moving bullets just like everyone else.

• In Nashville neither the adults nor the children were protected by a force-field. Six of them died.

• The unbeliever sees no advantage which justifies their position and make the social pressure even more intense.

Sometimes believers are swayed by that argument. Yes, you are right. I guess there is no advantage. Christians still die from guns and germs like everyone else.

Peter says, hold on. Wait. Yes, we long for the day when we can mock death because it has no more place. But death is not the end. Jesus conquered death.

• Judgment awaits those who refuse to obey the gospel and continue their lives for their own lusts.

But vindication – victory – awaits those who hear the gospel and respond to it. Our focus is not that Christians and non-Christians can be harmed in the same way.

• Our focus is that they have different ending points.

Once I am committed to that ending point, then that provides motivation to continue living for the Lord’s will.

Titus 2:11-13 – For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and savior, Jesus Christ.

• One eye on the now and one eye on the future.

I want to close by asking ourselves TO WHAT EXTENT DO WE ENDURE? No one wants to suffer. If we are going to experience social ridicule, then to what extent must we endure?

If Jesus is our example, then the answer must be to our death. D. A. Carson is one of my favorite theologians. He is an elderly man now, but he wrote powerful words in the book “How Long O Lord” in 1990. The book discusses suffering from a Christian viewpoint. He wrote,

• “I would rather die than end up unfaithful to my wife; I would rather die than deny by a profligate (wasteful or given to lusts) life what I have taught in my books; I would rather die than deny or disown the gospel. There are worse things than dying.”

I read those words many years ago, but they strike a chord with me especially when we hear about a prominent Christian leader who gives up the faith.

• Parents, we cannot control how our children live, what they decide, and what they will value. They grow up and make those choices for themselves. But let’s resolve to live before them the will of God so that if they go astray – at least they must walk over our dead body to do it.

• Young people, if life is hard, live for the Lord’s will. Resolve to Live the Lord’s will even if your parents do not.

• All of us … we all have circles of connection. Let’s resolve to live the Lord’s will faithfully and give them a reason to think that all this is real.

This is a little section of 1 Peter that is packed with important and significant truth.

• Let’s arm ourselves with the purpose of living according to the will of God.

• Let’s all admit that our time for sinning is sufficient. We want to live this way because Jesus suffered for us, because unbelievers face judgment, and because believers live in the spirit according to the will of God.

Even if God called us to give up our lives, there are some things worse than dying. In the meantime, let’s Live for the Lord’s Will.