Pastors, assistant pastors, elders, and even aspiring to be pastors are invited to our first Healthy Pastors Conference. There’s a story that we will share at the conference that gets at what we are trying to do with this gathering. I will share that story later but I hope our story will be that story too.
If we want healthy churches then one of the pieces needed to accomplish that or maintain that is having healthy pastors.We want to fan the flame within them through preaching and singing and fellowship with other pastors.
Consider buying a ticket for your pastor and providing for his travel and stay here in Nashville. Here’s the link to sign up.
Be careful how you suffer. The reality is suffering will come to all people in some form or fashion throughout our lives. In part because we live in a fallen world and we are fallen people. God created this world and it functions a particular way and when we do not follow his way or someone else doesn’t follow his way then suffering occurs.
In 1 Peter 4, some of that suffering that happens to Christians is a test for us. Fiery trials are meant to reveal where we are and if we are in fact trusting the Lord. Indeed, each test either matures our faith or reveals a lack of faith.
How we understand suffering in our lives matters. Peter describes it as sharing in the sufferings of Christ in 4:13. He goes on to encourage us to rejoice in them because if you are rejoicing in your sufferings now you will rejoice with exultation when Christ returns. Peter even calls those who suffer for the name of Christ blessed. Why? Because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on us.
However, we can suffer wrongly. There are consequences for evil even in this world…even for troublesome meddlers. But if we suffer as a Christian, we are not to be ashamed. If we suffer due to consequences of sin then we ought to be ashamed. May our suffering be for the name and may it glorify the Lord.
How do you do this? Is there a “How to” YouTube video to learn this? Well here’s how it ends:
1 Peter 4:19 Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.
Trust the Lord and do what it right according to him. Let us pray for each other to know God’s ways and trust and gladly obey him.
The sheep are scattered when Jesus, their Shepherd, was struck. I’m glad they ran for the hills or I might suspect this story to be a fraud. Yet they respond as we all expect but it’s Jesus that does the unexpected.
He being the Good Shepherd goes after the scattered sheep.
Luke 24:36
[36] As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!”
This is one of the more encouraging responses to me. When people abandon me the betrayal is hard for me to overcome. It’s hard to want people who do not want you. But Jesus isn’t like us.
He goes after his disciples. He meets them in their unbelief and gives them evidence beyond measure. He continues to keep them and protect their faith not only for these disciples but for us too.
Your desire to question and touch the real thing—Jesus himself—was done by others so that you might believe in the resurrection. And if the resurrection is true then that changes everything on this side of the grave.
Live with the assurance that if you are united to Christ by faith then eternal joy awaits us when we behold his face!
The faith of the thief on the cross was sufficient to save him. It seems clear there was evidence of faith by his words and actions until he died. It was necessary for him to endure to the end of life as it is for all who believe. That length was short for him yet his reward will be far less.
With that said, those who believe and continue to live are in need of endurance too. Hebrews 12 makes that point very clear as it flows from multiple examples of those who did. The promises of God are conditional and only for those who have faith.
Part of the way we endure is through the discipline of the Lord. If the Lord does not discipline us then we are not a legitimate child of God. This is one of the ways he keeps us believing. There will be a mixture of those who “believe” that are illegitimate children. We can only know that by the fruit of our lives.
Additionally, we ought to lay aside every sin and weight that so easily entangles us. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. There are sins and things that are not necessarily sin that will hinder the race. Let us gladly put them aside knowing what awaits on that glorious day!
This passage might not seem encouraging but their choices as pilgrims of this strange land point us to something much, much better to come.
Hebrews 11:35-38
Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.
To refuse release is not to say what they were going through wasn’t severely painful. Their release may have demanded some sort of denial of the faith by which they were approved before the Lord. Whatever the case, they saw beyond the suffering of this world to the promise of a better resurrection—a better life. To give up the faith would have been to forfeit the greater for the lesser.
What these people endured in this brief life, show us their faith and the extreme value they had in Christ. The witness they are to us should stir our hearts to press on in faith as Hebrews 12 concludes.
Your life may show others your faith and your value of Christ as you refuse to deny the One who suffered in your place and long for the better resurrection. Jesus is worth it. And that which is coming to us will not only be void of suffering, it will never come to an end.
Everyone is prone to hard heartedness. The following proverb gives us the solution to fighting against it.
Proverbs 28:14[14] Blessed is the one who fears the LORD always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.
This is very similar to Hebrews 4:1 where it instructs us to fear unbelief.
Here’s a quote to think about…
Paul Tripp
Proud people are ◦ Defensive ◦ Entitled (they deserve things that other people don’t deserve) ◦ Use people instead of serve people ◦ Pride allows me to convince myself that I can step over God’s boundaries without any consequences ◦ Long before a fall, the proud person has lost his functional fear of God and so he’s not afraid anymore to write his own rules
Pride must be a symptom of a hard heart that no longer fears the Lord or fears where unbelief ends. Let’s watch out for each other in love.
Faith is necessary to understand God and his creation. It makes sense of the sufferings and trials of life. Without faith, it’s impossible to understand the world and it’s impossible to please the Lord.
Faith changes how you live now because you trust in what is coming later. Abel can offer the better sacrifice because he believes God rewards those who trust him. He can offer up his best now when he trusts in better things to come.
Enoch walked with the Lord by faith. Not in Eden as it was meant to be but by faith in this cursed world. He had fellowship with God outside of Eden but that same faith delivers him to Eden when he is taken up.
In other words, you can have fellowship with the Lord too by faith in his name. You can understand the world in large part because you understand what’s coming later. Abraham can live as a foreigner in the land because his eyes are fixed on the heavenly city that is to come.
Why would we, let’s say, cheat on our taxes or on a test to live in a city that will pass away when we have the promise of living in the heavenly city? We must look to the prize that comes at the finish line.
Let’s live in the desert now as though Eden is our forever home with him. Let’s live in fellowship with the Lord by faith through the Holy Spirit now in this strange land knowing that better country awaits us. Now we see dimly. Now we fellowship in the Spirit which is a down payment of our inheritance to come. One day we will see his face!
Hebrews 11:1
[1] Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
The Word Is Not Imprisoned 