{"id":13625,"date":"2023-06-18T08:46:40","date_gmt":"2023-06-18T13:46:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rivercc.org\/?p=13625"},"modified":"2023-06-18T08:46:40","modified_gmt":"2023-06-18T13:46:40","slug":"1-peter-41-11-sermon-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rivercc.org\/2023\/06\/18\/1-peter-41-11-sermon-notes\/","title":{"rendered":"1 Peter 4:1-11 Sermon Notes"},"content":{"rendered":"
Miles and the Pond…I thought he had decided to jump, it was not until he was faced with a cold pond that I realized he was still deciding if he would jump.<\/strong><\/p>\n I tell, or retell that story because it illustrates the difference between living decided and living deciding.<\/strong> It’s hard to tell which way you or someone else is living until it’s time to actually jump in the pond. <\/strong><\/p>\n Today, we are in 1 Peter chapter 4.<\/strong><\/p>\n One way of describing Peter’s intent in his letter is to say he is a casting vision for being a faithful witness in all of the various circumstances of our lives.<\/strong><\/p>\n Another way of describing it, especially in his attention to being faithful in the face of difficulty and suffering is that he is casting vision for living a finally decided, not a perpetually deciding life.<\/strong><\/p>\n By living “decided” I don’t mean there is no struggle to obey.<\/strong><\/p>\n I don’t mean a trajectory that is a straight, vertical line to heaven.<\/strong><\/p>\n I mean that while we will struggle…we don’t get up day after day and decide “if” Jesus is Lord, boss…we get up and seek HOW to live faithful to him in what the day brings.<\/strong><\/p>\n When we mess up, we fess up and move on…but we do not accept anything other than faithfulness as acceptable…we have already decided what our lives are going to be about.<\/strong><\/p>\n Now, we live the decided life.<\/strong><\/p>\n 4\u00a0Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2\u00a0<\/sup>so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n In chapter 3 the impact of the decided life was that it empowers being a faithful witness.<\/strong><\/p>\n Others can see your response to suffering and challenges and see the power of the gospel.<\/strong><\/p>\n Here the impact of the decided life is that it gives power over the bondage of sin.<\/strong><\/p>\n Sin is not freedom; it is the absence of freedom.<\/strong> Faithfulness to God’s will and ways…that is freedom.<\/strong><\/p>\n Since Christ suffered in his physical life…we are to arm ourselves with his way of thinking.<\/strong><\/p>\n The phrase “arm yourself” means that you have to possess and be ready to use a weapon whereby you can defend yourself.<\/strong><\/p>\n Some people, eager to arm themselves with a sidearm in the case of physical attack…live perpetually unarmed and unable to deal with spiritual attack…which, is much more dangerous.<\/strong><\/p>\n What is the weapon we are to arm ourselves with?\u00a0 The mind of Christ. <\/strong><\/p>\n We are to think about life the way he did in regards to obedience, suffering, life purpose.<\/strong><\/p>\n The phrase “way of thinking” is not such much a general attitude as it is about the Lord Jesus having insight about who God is and his purposes.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n It is having a Big R.<\/strong><\/p>\n Remember last week: The four types of leaders, only one type is effective.<\/strong><\/p>\n This Big R (having the mind of Christ), empowers a Big A(Taking right action)<\/strong><\/p>\n Arm yourselves with the mind of Christ (big R)…seeing obedience to the Father as the greatest good and goal.<\/strong><\/p>\n So as to live the rest of your time in the flesh (your earthly life), no longer for human passions but for the will of God. (big A)<\/strong><\/p>\n Let’s be clear…when Peter talks about “human passion” he is not talking about being passionate as is often used today…he is not talking about being full of life and zest.<\/strong> He is not talking about having energetic interests…”She is passionate about soccer”<\/strong><\/p>\n He is talking about things that destroy and degrade.<\/strong><\/p>\n He is talking about passions as our sinful desires being the boss of us…rather than Jesus.<\/strong> He will elaborate on this fact in detail in the next couple of verses.<\/strong> Look at the motivation for having this big R\/A<\/strong><\/p>\n for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n You hear that and say, “Really, Peter?”<\/strong><\/p>\n “I’ve suffered before and it certainly didn’t make me sin-free”<\/strong><\/p>\n That, of course, is not what he means.<\/strong><\/p>\n He is not saying that physical suffering somehow magically purifies and strengthens people.<\/strong><\/p>\n It does positively change some people, but others become more hardened towards God.<\/strong><\/p>\n Suffering is not the key, responding to God in suffering is.<\/strong><\/p>\n Peter’s context here is verse 3:17, “Better to suffer for doing right, if that should be God’s will, then for doing wrong.”<\/strong><\/p>\n So, here’s the fuller picture, “If you suffer for doing right…and you keep on trusting God…this signifies you have made a break with sin’s chains…this is the decided life.”<\/strong><\/p>\n “Ceased from sin” doesn’t mean “no longer sin at all”, scripture is clear on that…and any honest person would concur, no one is sin free in this life.<\/strong><\/p>\n What Peter means is that for the person who lives this decided life…sin has lost its ruling dominance in their life.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n They will still sin, but sin is not their boss…Jesus decidedly is.<\/strong><\/p>\n Suffering for righteousness…and trusting God through it…makes a person more immune to the deceitful allure of sin.<\/strong><\/p>\n Sin is losing or has lost its appeal.<\/strong><\/p>\n In June, I have the privilege of spending time with some of our college students for Summer Challenge.<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n We are looking in depth at increasing capacity for the life that is in front of them.<\/strong><\/p>\n There is no better time to grow their capacity than right now…this stage of their lives.<\/strong><\/p>\n One aspect of growing capacity we have discussed is learning to be the “boss of their passions”<\/strong><\/p>\n If they (we) remain under control of our physical passions (bossed around by them)…we will not be free…the opposite will be true.<\/strong><\/p>\n When we are faced with suffering, when things get hard.<\/strong><\/p>\n Sometimes we just want a break…maybe just a way to anesthetize the pain…you know, indulge, just to feel better.<\/strong><\/p>\n When things get hard, we find it easy to retreat back to old, habits and patterns to get this “break”<\/strong><\/p>\n Ask Israel…they were in slavery in Egypt…it was bad…the path forward to freedom was good but hard…and they found themselves reframing the bad old days into the good old days.<\/strong><\/p>\n Longing for the slavery of Egpyt.<\/strong><\/p>\n For Peter, living decided prepares us for what life will bring…it is key to increasing capacity.<\/strong><\/p>\n Suffering by itself does not automatically grow us…responding in faith through suffering does. <\/strong><\/p>\n It’s important that we think of “suffering” in broad terms here.<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n In principle what Peter is saying here holds true for Christians living under hostile governments where the suffering can be terrible.<\/strong><\/p>\n But it also holds true for any follower of Christ who is choosing to embrace any manner of physical weariness, discomfort, or pain…for obedience.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n This is about taking the path of faithfulness as opposed to the path of least resistance.<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n The shortcut may look and be easier than the long uphill climb…but the shortcut, if it is not the will of God for you…is going to be a short fall with lasting negative life impact.<\/strong><\/p>\n If I live a deciding life…I will determine, case by case, day by day, mood by mood….will I obey or not?<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n You put your toe in the water to decide whether you feel like jumping or not…obeying or not.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Decided life is…God, the answer is “yes”…if you ask it, I will do it.<\/strong><\/p>\n A Decided life is not perfection in every action…it is a settled life direction.<\/strong><\/p>\n Peter is saying…that the way to get to this kind of life is by making the choice to embrace difficulty and suffering and challenges for the sake faithfulness…to remain faithful through challenges.<\/strong><\/p>\n Everything we do is training us…all of our consistent choices are forming our reflexes.<\/strong><\/p>\n This is true for golf swings, responses to spouses and faithful obedience to Christ.<\/strong><\/p>\n This isn’t magic…this is good theology and good anthropology…who is God and how has he designed humans.<\/strong><\/p>\n Arm yourself with the mind of Christ.<\/strong><\/p>\n If you say “yes” to God at a personal cost you are training yourself to live in the freedom of obedience, rather than chaining yourself to the bondage of sin.<\/strong><\/p>\n **In case you are unclear…Peter is not talking about justification (becoming a Christian), he is talking about sanctification (Becoming more like Christ)<\/strong><\/p>\n What this looks like, most often…isn’t some catastrophic decision that takes people off a cliff or some epic single decision that shoots us towards heaven.<\/strong><\/p>\n It most often looks like a thousand little internal choices that ever so slowly shape us…into the image of Christ, or misshape us into people who are ruled by our own passions.<\/strong><\/p>\n That little choice to say or do what is right…or not…that is where this shows up in our lives.<\/strong><\/p>\n Remember Jeremiah…complaining about how difficult his calling was…God said,<\/u><\/strong> In other words, embrace training now…things are going to become harder not easier.<\/strong><\/p>\n Peter is reframing suffering, difficulty, challenges.<\/strong><\/p>\n A Christlike response to difficulties brings increasing freedom.<\/strong><\/p>\n To bring this point home…he reminds them of what they have left behind…how they have already experienced freedom…now they must move further and further into that freedom.<\/strong><\/p>\n They must not go backward. <\/strong><\/p>\n 3\u00a0<\/sup><\/u><\/strong>For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Gentiles simply means “non-Christian”<\/strong><\/p>\n Peter says, you are past all that…why would you want to go back?<\/strong><\/p>\n Back to being bossed around by your physical impulses. (living in sensuality and passions)<\/strong><\/p>\n Back to giving control of yourself over to substances (drunkenness)<\/strong><\/p>\n Back to more and more, never being enough…always thirsty, never satisfied.<\/strong><\/p>\n Back to idols that promise you everything and take everything valuable from you. <\/strong><\/p>\n Jeremiah spoke for God about this, “My people have committed two sins, they have forsaken the well of living water, and they have dug for themselves broken wells, that cannot hold water.”<\/strong><\/p>\n In this passage Peter portrays a frenetic…out of control pace.<\/strong><\/p>\n Someone devouring without pleasure or enjoyment…turning from God’s offer of living water, and digging holes…to quench their thirst…getting no water, just gagging on dirt.<\/strong><\/p>\n It’s a terrible picture.<\/strong><\/p>\n So, pay attention to what you have in Christ…and remember what it is you actually left behind.<\/strong><\/p>\n Harbor no nostalgia for the bad old days.<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Then, a warning…<\/strong><\/p>\n 4\u00a0<\/sup><\/u><\/strong>With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n The people around you, who are still living in slavery to sin are of course going to want you to join them.<\/strong><\/p>\n Misery loves company.<\/strong><\/p>\n This is true for several reasons.<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n -Your freedom highlights their bondage…they refuse to be free so they don’t want anyone to be free.<\/strong><\/p>\n -Your freedom demonstrates that their bondage is their ongoing choice.\u00a0 You were, like they are.\u00a0 They could be, like you are.<\/strong><\/p>\n -Their bondage is also their blindness…they don’t know that letting their passions boss them around is what is making them so miserable…and they have the choice to turn to Christ from it.<\/strong><\/p>\n They simply can’t imagine how anyone could live without their controlling passions, because they can’t image themselves being free…they think your freedom is illusion, and their bondage is the only reality.<\/strong><\/p>\n NPR had a story last week called: “Anti-dopamine parenting’ can curb a kid’s craving for screens or sweets.”<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Turns out, smartphones and sugary foods do have something in common with drugs: They trigger surges of a neurotransmitter deep inside your brain called dopamine. <\/strong><\/p>\n Although drugs cause much bigger spikes of dopamine than, say, social media or an ice cream cone, these smaller spikes still influence our behavior, especially in the long run. <\/strong><\/p>\n They shape our habits, our diets, our mental health and how we spend our free time. They can also cause much conflict between parents and children.<\/strong><\/p>\n Older studies said dopamine causes us to feel pleasure, it is the feel-good molecule.<\/strong><\/p>\n Newer studies show that dopamine primarily generates\u00a0the feeling of desire. <\/strong><\/p>\n “Dopamine makes you\u00a0want\u00a0<\/em>things,” A surge of dopamine in your brain makes you seek out something, Or continue doing what you’re doing. It’s all about motivation.<\/strong><\/p>\n I’ve seen this…an iPad can be like crack to my grandkids…to get them away from those things is like taking the ring from Gollum<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n “My precious!”<\/strong><\/p>\n Here’s the rub…<\/strong><\/p>\n Studies show that over time, people can end up not liking the things that trigger big surges in dopamine. <\/strong><\/p>\n
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\n“If you can’t run with men, how will you run with horses?”<\/strong><\/p>\n