Text: 1 Peter 3:13-17
OPEN:
We continue our sermon series from 1 Peter: "Life Lessons from a Lifelong Fisherman."
A new division in this letter begins in 3:8 ("Finally"), and has to do with suffering and trials. It rests on all that Peter has written thus far, namely the sovereignty of God and the necessity of surrender to Christ in all human relationships. Peter is attempting to enlighten, comfort, and strengthen his readers. They have tasted the sting of suffering previously and the prospect of even greater suffering loomed large. Remember that the setting for this letter is Nero's hostility toward Christianity in the Roman Empire.
What comes to mind when you read the word "suffering?" Most think of poverty, famine, hunger, disease, political oppression, perhaps religious persecution.
There is another type of suffering that is just as real and is referred to here in verse 16. "Keep your conscience clear." This is an emotional response to emotional suffering. This may be the most common and devastating form of suffering that you and I endure: emotional suffering. Believers must anticipate the experience and seek the cure for emotional suffering.
Three basic categories of personal emotional suffering:
I. The Performance Trap (How I See Myself).
Description: This is the feeling that I must meet certain arbitrary standards in order to attain self-worth. Failure to do so threatens our security and sense of significance. Such a threat-- real or perceived-- results in a paralyzing fear of failure.
False Belief: I must meet certain standards in order to feel good about myself.
Consequences: Because of our unique personalities, we each react differently to this deception.
1) Some respond by becoming slaves to perfectionism, driving themselves toward achieving impossible goals. Perfectionists can be quite vulnerable and susceptible to mood disorders. They tend to react defensively to criticism, and demand to be in control of most situations they encounter.
2) Some are driven beyond healthy limitations. Rarely able to relax and enjoy life.
3) Some fall into a tailspin of despair. They rarely expect to achieve or feel good about themselves. Past failure is seen as proof of personal worthlessness. So, eventually they stop trying.
God's Answer: Justification.
Romans 5:1, "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
God has ascribed to us secure self-worth completely separated from our ability to perform. We have been justified, placed in right standing before God through Christ's death on the cross.
God didn't stop with our forgiveness, he also grants us the very righteousness of Christ.
2 Co 5:21, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
God ascribes Christ's worth to us. I have the same value that Christ has to the Father!
II. The Approval Addict (How we think others see us).
Description: Our self-concept is determined not only by how we see ourselves, but by how we think others perceive as well. Basing self-worth on what we believe others think about us causes us to become addicted to their approval.
False Belief: I must be approved/accepted by others in order to feel good about myself. Satan's lie: Self Worth=Performance + Approval
Consequences:
1) Fear of rejection -- We spend most of our time building relationships, striving to please people and win their respect. And yet, it only takes one unappreciative word or negative comment to cause our self-worth to crumble.
2) Failure to accept responsibility -- Many go from relationship to relationship, attempting to find someone who will meet their need for approval/acceptance. We are responsible for getting this need met.
3) Self-worth becomes a constantly moving target. Our fear of rejection will control us to the degree that we base our self-worth on the opinions of others rather than our relationship with Christ.
Galatians 1:10, "Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ."
God's Answer: Reconciliation
We have unconditional acceptance in Christ.
The moment we receive Christ by faith we enter into a personal relationship with him.
Colossians 1:21, "And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him."
III. The Shame and Blame Game (How we abuse ourselves and others).
Description: Overwhelming feeling of inadequacy in myself and in others. The inability or unwillingness to accept failure in myself and in others.
Self-condemnation (I'm so stupid, I'm so ugly, I can't do anything right).
Condemnation of others (You're so stupid, you're so ugly, you can't do anything right).
False Belief: Those who fail are unworthy of love and deserve to be punished. I am what I am & you are what you are; I cannot change & you won't change. I'm hopeless and so are you.
Consequences:
1) Self-induced punishment (asceticism) -- We think that if we're hard enough on ourselves, then God won't have to punish us. We fail to understand that God disciplines in love, never punishes in anger.
2) Judge & punish others -- Our condemnation of those who fail may take the form of verbal abuse, physical abuse, nagging criticism, withholding appreciation and affection.
God's Answer: Atonement.
Hebrews 2:17, "For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people."
Providing his only Son as the atonement for our sins was the greatest possible demonstration of God's love for man.
We no longer have to induce punishment for our failure or anyone else's because Christ atoned/ paid for them all -- past, present, and future.
"A Christian community either lives by the intercessory prayers of its members for one another, or the community will be destroyed. I can no longer condemn or hate other Christians for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble they cause me. In intercessory prayer the face that may have been strange and intolerable to me is transformed into the face of one for whom Christ died, the face of a pardoned sinner." (Bonhoeffer, Life Together)
CLOSE:
How are you suffering today? Notice that I did not ask "Are you suffering", but "How are you suffering?"
Each of us are dealing with something today and probably many things:
1) May be physical suffering. Jesus cares and heals.
James 5:13, "Are any among you suffering? They should pray.
2) May be emotional suffering. Jesus cares and heals.
Discover your self-worth in God's complete and unconditional acceptance (Justification).
Relieve yourself of the awful burden of trying to measure up (Reconciliation).
Release others from your disapproval and condemnation (Atonement).
(Dr. Dane Fowlkes)
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