Psalm 34:19 reads like this. "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all." That's all of it. That's everything. I love that about God. As we get ready to close this book, there is one thing I can promise you, and it's this. You and I may suffer for a little while here, but one day, at the second coming of Christ, we will never suffer again. That is your promise. That is your identity. That is what it's all about. Amen?
I want you to know that going in. When these verses speak to you today, and they will, God has designed it so that… First Peter has already been talking about how this world is full of suffering from time to time. At some times, it's very high. At some times, it's lower. We march through a world that is broken, but it is being repaired because of the resurrection of Jesus. Can I get a witness right there?
Many years ago, I went for the very first time on a mission trip to Honduras when I pastored in San Francisco. I remember going out of the country. It was my first time there, and I had a blast. Of course, God pricked my heart with that trip, and I've been to Honduras many, many, many times over. It has captured my heart for over 14 years, and I love it.
I remember the first time I went, I went with an associate pastor of mine, and I went with a dear friend of mine. We got there. We landed in Honduras. When we finally landed, we took a bus. We got on this bus, and we drove for about six hours. I was sharing a seat with five other people in a bus, if you can believe that. It was amazing, because it was extremely hot, and it was the Mosquito Coast. Of course, there were a lot of mosquitoes there. Can I get an, "Oh me"?
We took the bus, and we finally made it to a little air strip. We got on this plane, and we flew again for about another hour. I wasn't even sure where we were going to land, but as we were circling the landing strip, they were clearing cows out of the pasture. I thought, "My goodness, man. Where are you taking me?"
We landed. They moved the cows out of the way. They had this little building that looked like an outhouse where they checked your papers. Then we walked for about five miles, and then we finally came to the edge of this town where the next morning, we were going to get in a boat for a "little trip" up the river.
The next morning comes. We wake up. We get in the boat, and we go for about another four or five hours up the river. It keeps getting more and more narrow. We finally get about a mile or so from the border of Nicaragua, and there is this little village, and we pull into the village. We're thirsty. We're tired. We're hungry. We get in this little village. There were probably about 180, 200 people max at this little village called La Cruta.
When we get there, we are greeted by some of the children, some of the people. Immediately, they captured our hearts. We went in. They spoke Spanish, and they spoke Mesquite. Mesquite was their first language; Spanish was their second. No one there spoke English. We went in, and we had a blast. It was amazing what God did in our lives.
I remember we walked into this one little… You call it a home, but all it was was just kind of almost like a cardboard box. It had wood and cardboard. That's what made the house. It was up on some stilts. The river would run under it, and it would pull away at night. That's kind of the situation. It was very humid. It was very hot.
We walk in, and we're hungry, and the lady there (her name was Sister Lesbi gave us her very last meal. She didn't realize "the men of God" were coming. My associate pastor, who had a little bit of a relationship with them and had been there before, forgot to send word, so they didn't know. She was kind of embarrassed, because they're such inviting people.
They fish out of the river and those kinds of things, so she had fish for the week to supply her family, but with a grateful heart, she gave us literally her last meal. She cooked it up, and I knew immediately. I said, "I'm probably going to be sick," because she was making it with the water that came out of the river, and the river water was also their sewer water. Can I get an, "Uh oh"?
I knew. I was like, "I know I'm going to get sick." I did. I got sick that night. The sun finally goes down, and I remember one of my buddies and my associate pastor had a little room off to the side. She gave me another little room. It was a board I would lie down on. That's all it was. It was a board. I laid down, and I was thinking, "Man, this is hard."
I had this little flashlight, and the batteries were about to go out, and I start looking around the room and everything. The doors are open. I see thousands of mosquitoes coming through the window. I had my mosquito repellant on. I had taken my medicine for malaria. I'm like, "Okay. I'm probably going to be okay."
I'm sitting there, and then I start seeing these little what looked like big cockroaches. They were black and about the size of two quarters put together. They're everywhere. They're coming in, and they're scampering. As the lights go out and everything goes down, it is pitch dark. It is so dark in this place that I can't even really see my hand too well in front of me, but I can hear these little bugs crawling all over the place.
I'm lying there. It's like 98 degrees. It feels like it's 110. These bugs are running everywhere, and I can feel them running up my body. I'm just kind of slapping them off. I'm thinking, "Oh my goodness. Where am I at?" So I begin to get sick. I'm going, "Oh no," because of the food that I just ate. Now I'm getting up. I get on the floor. My feet hit the floor. It's so dark. I'm disoriented.
They had this bathroom. Their outhouse is in the middle of the village, and it's up on a 12-foot ladder. All the little homes surround it, and everybody looks out the window and watches you do your business. If you have public restroom phobia, this will break it. Needless to say, without going into great detail, I visited that outhouse many, many times. I'll just leave it at that. We'll keep it clean. It was horrific. I thought, "Oh my goodness. I'm about to die."
Well, the way I would get out of the home is they had this little hallway. I was so afraid that I would damage what little bit of valuable things she did have. I was on the ground, and I would crawl, because I didn't have a light. I would feel my way to the front door. Once I got outside, the moonlight kind of lit up where I was going.
I was there, and as I was crawling, my stomach is killing me. Have you ever been in a dark place where you feel like somebody is right beside you looking? I was right there, and I hear somebody go, "I'm dying." I called out one of the names. I said, "Eric?" "No. No, it's Wes." Now Wes is the whitest white guy you will ever see in your life, so fluent in Spanish though that people think he's from a Spanish-speaking country. Great guy.
He forgot to bring his mosquito spray. He goes, "I'm dying, man. I'm being eaten by all these mosquitoes." I still can't see him, but I can hear him. I go, "Wes, you have to get out of the way, man. You have to get out of the way." I'm on the ground, and I'm dying. I'm like crawling, and I bump into him. He goes, "Man, you've got to help me."
So I start feeling around, and I have this lighter. I reach in my pocket, and I pull out a lighter. I kind of light it, and his face lights up, and it looks like he had been shot with about a thousand BBs. I start laughing, man. Snot comes out of my nose. I roll over in the hallway, and I'm laughing, because I can't… I'm just torn up.
Finally, I scamper back to my room, get his stuff, and we got the spray, because he had run out. He was okay for the rest of the night. We got to thinking the next morning about all the mosquitoes and everything. We were thanking God that we had malaria medicine and that we had the spray and everything.
It got me thinking about this message today, because I was remembering this story, because here's the deal. When you go to Honduras or you go abroad, especially where there are going to be mosquitoes, nowadays, they know, "Okay, well you may get malaria, so you need to take malaria medicine. You need to take precautions."
Years and years and years ago, when malaria was really breaking out for the first time, and it was spreading, when they would take care of one person, by the time they got it figured out, it had already spread to three or four people, and they were thinking, "How is it spreading so quickly?" Finally, someone realized it was being spread by the mosquitoes, and they were going person to person.
What they discovered is that there was a source to something that was spreading it. They come up with a solution or at least something that would make it a lot better. That was to drain a lot of the low-lying swamp areas. They come up with mosquito netting. Of course they come up with all the spray. They were able to minimize and in some cases completely eradicate it, because they understood the source.
How many of you know that when you truly understand the source of something, you can navigate it? You can function. You can battle it. You can come against it. You can really understand it. That is exactly what is happening in the book of 1 Peter as he begins to close out. We have gone on a long journey. We are in chapter 5 now, and we are ending that.
We're going to look at verse 8 in a moment down to the close of it, but here's the thing I want you to understand. Peter has said you and I have been called into this world, and we have been called to walk the very road of suffering Jesus himself walked. Right? When we're doing that, we know that road of suffering eventually leads to the second coming of Christ when he sets all things right.
One day, there will be no more pain. There will be no more heartache. There will be no more injustices. Right? There will be no more tears. Until then, we have to endure some suffering, but Jesus has already told us, "Don't fear it, because I have overcome the world." Can I get an, "Amen"? Peter has been telling us all along that we deal with human suffering.
We deal with government sometimes that doesn't treat its people right. We deal with people who don't treat us right. We deal with that type of suffering. What Peter is trying to get us to see now is though human agencies and government agencies and world agencies are being used sometimes to levy the suffering into our lives, into your life, there is something that is behind that. There is a source behind that wanting to spread that kind of suffering and chaos. His name is Satan.
The good news is he has been defeated on a cross called Calvary. He has been cast down by the power of the resurrection of Jesus, yet it is the kingdom now, but not fully yet. There is just a little while. We live our lives trapped between the echoes of Eden and the fall of man and the approaching footsteps of the second coming of Christ.
In the middle of those two bookends, we are empowered by the power of the Holy Spirit to be able to navigate this life, to be able to live this life, to be able to move through suffering, to understand the road of suffering is actually an honor. Right? That's why I've said things in the past like this. Suffering becomes beautiful when you look up, when you look around, and you look down, and you realize you're following Jesus. You're on the right road. Suffering, though we don't like it, is just for a little while. Amen?
If you have your Bibles, I want you to go with me to 1 Peter 5. I want you to turn with me to verse 8, I believe it is, that we're going to start in. It reads like this. "Be sober-minded; be watchful." The first thing it does is it breaks into a command. "Be sober-minded; be watchful." In other words, be alert. Be alive. Be aware of what is going on around you. It is very important that we stay alert, that we stay aware as believers of the things that are happening.
Thursday morning, I got up, and I got a cup of coffee. My wife had left to take the kids to school. It was funny because I came back in. I sat down for just a moment. Normally I go right to my computer, and I start going right to work, but I just sat down on the couch. Kelly Ripa… Isn't it called The Kelly Ripa Show now? It used to be called Regis and Kelly, but it's Kelly and a guy named Michael now.
I was watching Kelly and Michael on TV. Kelly starts telling this story, and she goes, "Yeah, you know what. I was in L.A. last week and had a lot of stuff going on out there, had a lot of different things I had to do. While I was in L.A., I finally finished everything I had to do, but we know there's a time change between California and New York, where I live. I knew that if I slept on the plane, when I got home, I wouldn't sleep at all. My main, primary motivation was to stay awake.
So I get on the plane. I take my place. I'm sitting there. I'm sitting beside this nice guy. They bring him a nice glass of wine. He's drinking his wine. I only laid my head back for a second. I closed my eyes just for a second. I just wanted to rest my eyes. All of a sudden… Have you ever realized you don't need to be asleep, and it startles you, and you wake up, and you're like, 'Oh, gosh. What have I done?'
I swung my arms, and the wine went all over the guy. It goes all over his pants. I look at him. 'I'm sorry! I'm sorry!' I'm in a panic. 'I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do that. Can you forgive me?' He said, 'It's okay. It's okay. It's okay.'" He tried to calm her down. She said, "The first thing out of my mouth was, 'How long was I asleep?' He said, 'About 14 seconds. We're still on the tarmac.'"
Stay awake. Be sober-minded. It doesn't take a second for the Enemy to get a place in your life. It doesn't take but a second for the Enemy to take some of the suffering that God in his sovereignty has allowed into your life and un-beautify it, mess it up, cause you to close your eye to what God is really trying to do, try to get you to close your eye when suffering and bad things are happening to your life, trying to get you to see that God can't be in or around or near this.
But he is. God is always in the middle of that suffering, doing stuff with it. He's always present. Why? Because the Bible says he will never leave you nor forsake you. He will always be with you, so be sober. Be open. Be clear-minded, is what it's saying right here. Why? Because we have to live this way in order to be open to what God is trying to do in and through our lives.
Look what it says next. "Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." Your adversary. He is against you. What is he trying to do? He's trying to steal your walk of righteousness. He's trying to steal your walk of goodness before this world. He's always trying to go after you. He is against you.
You know what he's trying to do? He's trying to steal the work of the future God has accomplished and is leaking into the now out of your life. He is trying to get you to walk in a way that is unjust and think only of yourself. When God's kingdom is upside down, he says, "Think of others before you think of yourself." He's trying to do all of those things. "Your adversary is like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." He compares him to a lion.
Of course, we all know what a lion is. We know what a lion can do when it finds something weak, when it finds its prey, and it goes after it. I watched a YouTube video the other day. You may have seen it. The people giving it thumbs-up and thumbs-down were about split, because they were kind of like, "I can't believe they would do that to their baby!" It did prove an illustration.
They were at like a zoo that had a huge wall of Plexiglas where the lion was behind it. You could see it, but it couldn't get to you. They had set the baby next to the glass. It shows the lion, and the lion starts walking up to the baby. As soon as it gets behind it… Now, the baby is looking at the camera, so the baby doesn't see it. The lion walks up and goes bam! And it slaps the glass. You can only imagine, "Oh my goodness. That's what that lion would have done. It's in its nature. It's what it would do."
It kept popping at the kid, and they kept filming it. People kept coming up and watching it. It would literally bite at the glass like it was going to bite the little baby's head. I was sitting there going, "Can you imagine if that glass wasn't there?" That baby would have been gone. How many bites do you think it would have taken for that lion to take that baby out? Not a lot. One. That's the Greek word for "seeking whom he may devour."
He looks to get you in one fell swoop. One bite, he's going after. He wants to quench his lustful thirst with the beautiful walk God has called you to. Yes, you're that important to the kingdom. You're that important to the kingdom that God would use jacked-up you, and yet an enemy would want to destroy.
How many times do you sit around in your suffering and go, "I'm not valuable. I can't do anything for the kingdom. My life is a wreck. I have things going on in my life. I have suffering going on. I'm so over-worried about me, I'm no good to others"? Even in that mindset, God can use you. "If you'll just life up your eyes to me and not take your focus off me. Be sober-minded. Stay awake. Know you have an Enemy after you."
If an Enemy wasn't after you, you wouldn't be valuable. You're valuable; therefore, the Enemy is after you. That's how you know. That's what God said about you. I'm always amazed at how God uses human beings and human flesh. Do you know that's your purpose? You were born to bring glory to God. Our work, our everyday lives, and our moving around are things we have to do.
When you and I draw our last breaths, we are desiring to hear God say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." "…a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." Look what it says in verse 9. "Resist him, firm in your faith…" Rock-like. Assured that you're standing on the right rock of your life. I ask you a question today. How do you know?
Has there ever been a time in your life, a place in your life where you have made Jesus Lord of your life? Has there ever been that moment where you have had a moment at your house where you've asked God in your life, or a moment at a church altar where you've come and you've repented? You said, "God, I need you in my life."
In the moment you repent, in the moment you turn to him, the Bible declares that he picks you up out of the miry clay, and he sets you upon a rock that is higher than you are. The trophy of his glory, the trophy of his joy, right? What kind of trophy of his joy am I talking about? The Bible says about the cross of Calvary, "For the joy set before him, he endured the cross…"
He endured the suffering for you. You are his joy. You are his beloved. You are the apple of his eye, the special one called out, equipped to do the works of the kingdom, which is to live a life that sees injustice and tries to eradicate it, that sees the hungry and tries to feed it, and sees those who are thirsty. You are the Samaritan who doesn't pass by on the other side.
You're not like the priest who looks and says, "I can't get my hands dirty." You're not like the Levite who comes over and just kind of looks and does nothing about it. You are the Samaritan who says, "No matter what they think about me, I need to do right. That's who you are. That's your calling. Stand firm.
"Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world." You're not alone in your suffering. There is suffering going on around you. There is suffering in the third world going on. We suffer together as one unit of one body of Christ. That's why the Bible says, "Bear ye one another's burdens so that you may be healed." It says these kinds of things.
We are the brotherhood. We are a community. We are a family. We are the community of the future living in the now. If we can't live with a smile in the middle of suffering, if we can't live with determination during suffering, if we can't live by pushing forward through the pain and the suffering, then how do we expect the world to believe our God is alive and that he is well? Amen? God has called us to live that way as a witness that he is able through you.
I've told you, and I've taught you for many years now, and I want you to understand I still believe you are a sacred space. I still believe God lives on the inside of you if you know him. If he lives on the inside of you, you carry him everywhere you go. Everywhere you go, you change the environment by your very presence, unless you're not letting him live through you, but you're letting the jerk side of you live through you.
Sometimes, don't we let the jerk of our lives step to the front? Usually isn't it when we're under some pressure or perceived suffering or perceived pressure or even real suffering and real pressure? Right there in the testing is where we break down. When we do, God doesn't throw us away; he picks us up. The moment we succeed in that, God is most glorified.
"…experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world." Now watch this language as he begins to close. "And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you." How long did he just say you're going to suffer? For just a little while.
How do you suffer well for just a little while? You keep your eyes on home. You keep your eyes on the approaching footsteps of the second coming of Christ when heaven and earth will be brought together, and you'll be a receiver of your resurrection body. All the planet and all the world and all the universe will be set right. You keep your focus, because you only suffer for just a little while.
I have a pastor friend of mine. I heard him tell a story years ago. I always remembered. He said, "I went walking with my little daughter. She wanted to go for a walk with Daddy. I took her out, and we got a long way from home. I took her a little farther than I probably should have. She started getting little blisters on her feet. I didn't think through it real well. She was hurting.
On the way back, I was carrying her, but then I got tired, because I'm getting older. I finally went, 'You know what. I'm going to end up hurting both of us.' That was before cell phones, so I couldn't even call anybody. I remember I finally put her down, and she just sat down and started to give up.
You know how I coached her into getting up and pushing through the pain? I said, 'Honey, this is only going to last a little while. Hey, do you remember at home that little thing your mom bought you the other day, that cupcake she bought you? I have it in the refrigerator. What do you think about that? Is that your favorite? Get up. Let's walk and talk about it.'"
He started talking about that cupcake at home. Then he moved from that to something else she liked and started talking about that. Then he moved on to a third subject, something that drew her. He started talking about that. Before long, she looked up, and she said, "Daddy, we home." In talking about the future home, she forgot about the suffering of the little while.
How do you stay focused? You know you're on the right road. You know it's only a road for a little while. You saw what he just said. "…who has called you…" You're called to this. You're called to this. "I'm called to suffer?" Yeah, for just a little while. "I'm called to suffer for just a little while? But, Pastor, I've been suffering for a long time." No, you haven't. It's just a little while.
"I've been suffering all my life, and I'm 23. I've been suffering all my life, and I'm 31. I've been suffering all my life, and I'm 42. I've been suffering all my life, and I'm 51." No you haven't. You've been suffering for a little while. We don't deny the suffering. We just have to get our time frame right. When you compare 70, 71, 75 years of an average lifespan to all eternity, you're suffering for a little while.
One day, it's going to be over, because we suffer for a little while now, but one day, it will all be done away with. I love what 1 Peter says, because this is kind of the way he begins to land this thing. Listen to what he finally says in verse 11. "To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen."
Then he goes into verse 12, and he says, "By Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that…" Now watch this. "…this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it." I love that. "…this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it." What has this whole book, 1 Peter, been about? It has been about suffering.
Peter writes to the church that had been scattered, these little churches all over the place that were suffering persecution. He writes to them a book of suffering, and he writes to them about people and government and submitting and doing the right thing and keeping their focus on the second coming of Christ and all those things.
He finally ends the book by going, "Now, let me show you the Satan, the mosquito that is trying to spread it behind the scenes. Listen. This road of suffering that is increasing…" The suffering kept increasing. The suffering kept increasing. He says of the road of suffering that has increased, "You are on the road of grace. You're on the right road." Suffering only lasts for a little while, and one day, it will be done away forever.
