The Only One Worth Looking At — 1 Peter 1-3

0:00 If it doesn't happen now, just wait a little bit. It'll happen. It will. The Bible tells us it will. And unpleasant Yep.

0:29 Very much so. But it will happen It'll happen to those who try to live for him. Paul writes it this way. He says, they who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. We in The United States have been blessed in that regard.

1:00 We have been blessed that we have not seen that kind of persecution, that kind of persecution that other Christians and other countries with other regimes have had. I think of communist China. I think of the former Soviet Union. And for a while there, it was open. Russia opened because the Soviet Union dissolved, but it's...

1:36 My understanding is starting to close-up again. You didn't have... You don't have the freedom that you used to have maybe twenty years ago. But it's still going to happen, and it's still going to happen. How do we how do we Christians handle it?

2:00 Now, I'm not a real fan of persecution. I'm not a real, I don't look for it. I'm not one of those guys that I I I know some people who do. I mean, they they preach in the open air and they're just absolutely I I thank god that they're preaching for some of em and I wish that some of em would not just even show up because they're real they're foolish in the way they approach people. I mean, just really foolish.

2:36 I've seen a lot of open air evangelism done rightly and I've seen a lot of open air evangelism done very wrongly and people looking to be persecuted. Listen, you won't have to look for it. It'll it'll happen. They who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. How do we handle it?

2:58 How do we go through it? There's ideologies today and I'm not speaking politically, I'm speaking morally. There's ideologies today that would love to take your freedom away In terms of being a Christian. When we look at the word of god though, when we look at what Paul said, what the lord Jesus had to say in terms of how we navigate through this world as a Christian. It's not a political, you know, ideology that we will resort to.

3:33 What it is, is that we have to realize that our home and our citizenship is not here. It's heaven. That's exactly what Paul said. My citizenship, our citizenship is heaven. And we are aligned with heaven because of Jesus Christ.

3:59 So, as Peter says, that we are looking, that we are pilgrims and sojourners. We're just passing through this world. We're just moving through. And that's what really the reality of it is. And I'd like us to look at a passage of scripture.

4:20 Two passages actually. I was asked if I could take these two passages and kind of blend them. So you can keep continuing with first Peter chapter four next time and thanks, Carlin. I really appreciate it. No, I was it was a strong suggestion and I I like to take the challenge of that.

4:48 I love the epistle that Peter wrote. Peter is the only guy named in the New Testament named Peter. There's only one Peter. He wrote two epistles, first and second Peter. His name is mentioned two ten times.

5:07 More dominant than Paul in terms of naming. Paul's name is mentioned a 162 times. Peter is two ten times. In fact, it's so dominant. Peter, every time you see a list of disciples, Peter's name is always first.

5:26 Every time you see other names of the disciples, a 143 times, I believe it is and so Peter eclipsed all the other disciples naming name wise. Then all the other disciples put together. He's the guy that was talking about the other disciple whom the lord loved and how he was going to die and the lord Jesus really rebuking him. What is that to you? Church tradition tells us that he was crucified upside down.

6:05 I don't know that. It's not a biblical concept. So, it's just a church tradition historical type of thing. I don't know. Maybe that happened.

6:13 I don't know but the story goes that he did not want to be crucified like his savior and he wanted to be they were going to crucify him. Let me do it upside down then. This guy named Peter, people say, well, you have the Peter complex. That is to say, you're vivacious, you're upfront, you're like always going and always the first to speak, this kind of thing and maybe maybe you have that kind of type of personality. I I don't know but that's how Peter was.

6:51 That's how he was. Humble beyond belief, humbled twice, why by the lord himself and then also by Paul in Galatians. When he rebuked him to his face. Peter writes these things and he, you know, people say and and we can find books that will say this and I disagree with those books. I don't think Peter was in Rome at all.

7:50 When he writes this this first epistle, he is writing and talking to us about this issue that we I brought up just moments ago about the issue of suffering because we will do it and it's a different... Every... It's a different form. I mean, you can have you can have psychological suffering, you can have physical suffering, you can have these kinds of things and if you read the Fox's Books of Martyr, Fox's Book of Martyrs, it's it's hard to hard to read because of what they did to Christians. Just for being a Christian.

8:30 The lord Jesus himself said, if they hated me, they will hate you. How do we navigate as a as a believer in Christ? How do we navigate through this world and looking at this world and we, you know, we want to assert our rights. We want to say, oh hey, listen. You can't do this to us.

8:54 Whereas the word of god said, they will do this to you. How do you suffer? Well, Peter addresses this and he... What he does is, over and over again through this whole epistle as you're finding out, he goes and talks and always brings up as he is writing this epistle, always brings up the lord Jesus Christ and what he has done. Always bringing it up.

9:25 Always bringing Jesus up. As you go through it, you start to see it. He encourages. He does whatever he's telling us to do then he brings Jesus back into the play. Why does he do this?

9:39 Why does Peter do that? Because the only solace that you will find in this life is not a new car, is not a nice house, it's not, it's going to be Jesus. And it's not even in our physical health. It's gotta be Jesus. Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee.

10:09 Because in the lord god Jehovah is everlasting strength. Isaiah twenty six three and four. So, what happens is we we have to constantly in our life and this is a good idea. This is a good idea whether you're suffering or not is to constantly be focused on Jesus Christ. Why?

10:28 Because he is the only one. He is the only one not only can do something for you but he's the only one worth looking at. He's the only one worth looking at. There was a there was a guy a Tommy... Do you ever hear of...

10:46 You know what a Tommy is. Right? A Tommy is a British soldier during World War two and this Tommy, that's what they called them, I guess, and the Tommy's would say the Brits would call their soldiers Tommies and they wore that hat or that, you know, their helmet and that certain type of helmet. Well, this guy was on the fields and fighting and... Of France.

11:10 He was in and he had I I gotta leave back over the channel and he was still still in his battle garb. Still, you know, mud, blood, the whole thing. Was still with it. Had his pack with him and he gets on this bus in London. He gets on this bus and he takes his pack and puts it up on the thing and he takes his weapon and puts it up there and there was nobody could hear.

11:37 I mean, there was not a... You could hear a pin drop. Everybody was looking at this Tommy. And he sits down, the bus was completely quiet, full. And as it went and finally came to this Tommy's spot, he pulls his bag, he gets up, pulls his bag off, takes his weapon, and he goes towards the front and he couldn't take it anymore.

12:02 He goes, he rebukes the bus, he goes, what are you looking at? And he was upset, what are you looking at? And this shaky elderly gentleman put his shaky hand on his shoulder or on his forearm and said, we're looking at you Tommy because you're the only one worth looking at. The blood of the cross, the scars of Jesus Christ, the pain that He took on that cross for us. He's the only one worth looking at and that is why Peter consistently brings us to him.

13:35 And then he submit to every ordinance. Verse 13 of man for the Lord's sake. Whether it be king as supreme or as governors as unto them, they sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, for the praise and then that do well, and then going on, he talks to them and he says, honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear god, honor the king. Because our home is not here and then in verse 18, he says, servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle but also to the perverse. For this is worthy of a man for conscience sake.

14:17 Toward god, endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it if when you are buffeted for your faults, you shall take it patiently but if when you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently. This is acceptable with god. For even here unto where you called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps. Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.

14:51 Who when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not. But committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. Who his own self bore our sins and his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose stripes we were healed. For he, we were sheep, we were as sheep going astray, but now return unto the shepherd and bishop of of your souls.

15:23 Verse 18, chapter three, for Christ also hath suffered, once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust that he might bring us to god, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the spirit, whom also, by whom also he went on to and preached unto the spirits in prison who at one time were disobedient when once long some when once the long suffering of god waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being was preparing in which few as it ate souls were saved by water. The like figure also which even baptism doth now save us, not the putting off of the filth of the flesh, but the answering of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is gone into heaven and is on the right hand of God. Angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him. We look at these two passages and they seem they sometimes they seem disjointed and boy, they're really not. They're not at all.

16:39 We look at this and the lord Jesus Christ, it speaks of the lord Jesus Christ who exemplifies two characteristics that we Christians need to have in the midst of suffering. He exemplifies two characteristics that we need to have in the midst of our suffering. What are these characteristics? Well, Jesus exemplifies the characteristic of submission. Look at chapter two verses 18 through 25 and then also in chapter three eighteen through 22, Jesus exemplifies the characteristic of sacrifice.

17:20 But he characterized, he exemplifies the characteristic of submission and we look at this and we see in chapter in verses 18 through 20, an exhortation for godly submission. And he tells us this, even in the midst, you servants. Now, this is not slaves as do laws. This is a different word and this is really a domestic house servant. Be subject to your masters.

17:46 Be subject to your masters with all fear not only to the good and gentle but also to the perverse. Ain't that a kicker? How many times have you heard people in your shop, in your place of business, or where you work, wine, wine, wine. About the boss, about the I mean, doesn't matter, right? You've heard it.

18:16 I hope you weren't the originator of it but you've heard it. Maybe you maybe you're the complainer. Maybe you're doing that But Paul writes to the the Colossians and tells us that we don't serve man. Even in a secular setting. We serve Jesus Christ.

18:40 We are servants of Jesus Christ and this is what he is telling him to do. He is saying you and so if and it's and what is what is a thankworthy if you for conscience toward god endure grief and wrong suffering is suffering wrongfully. For if you do this thing and you do it because you were stupid and you sinned and you did something that caused dispersion on this on the name of god and you caused it, you can't claim that oh man, I'm being persecuted. I, you robbed the seven eleven and then they're surprised that the police come, drop you to the floor, put the knee in the back of your in the in your back, cuff you, take you away, and say, I'm a I'm a I'm suffering for Christ. No, you're not.

19:31 You're suffering because of your stupidity. And sinfulness. So, what what glory is that? What glory is that? But if you like Joseph get accused of something you never did.

19:48 If you suffer in that regard, he is exhorting us to take it like Jesus took it. Because not only we see an exhortation to submit in that suffering and we think suffering like, you know, I, okay, okay, okay, I I used to work for a Waldo's nursery. You know, that's over on... Is it still there? Yeah.

20:20 Missus Waldo and her husband. Nice nice couple. Maybe their prices were a little high but I don't know, I didn't care. I worked as a landscaper. They were really nice to me.

20:32 They were really nice to me. I got $3 an hour. I worked like an animal. And I got $3 an hour working at Waldo's nursery. And they sent me out on a job with this guy one day and he was getting $4.50.

20:53 And I knew it. And he was he's worked actually he was the son-in-law of Mrs. Waldo. So I'm going He's there? Yeah.

21:09 I'm... He's getting $4.50. No. He's still there, right? I don't think so.

21:14 Okay. So we did this job once and I I just have to tell you, we did this job and it was... We had to strip a lawn. We had the big sod cutter, we had to strip the lawn, and it goes and it creates a lot of dirt and then we had to rototill because her thing was like mounds and then it was like a valley to walk up her walk. She wanted it even.

21:43 Are you kidding me? So we had to cut and there was a big tree there and so we had to cut the sod, bring all the dirt down to the level of the sidewalks. Guess it was just he and I. He's running the sod cutter and guess who's picking up the sod? He's running the rototiller and bringing it all, who's shoveling the dump truck?

22:10 Into the dump truck. Forgot my gloves that day. Three times right in my ring, blood blister. I mention that because I'm about to whine. And I'm doing five dump truck loads of dirt by myself, five of them, big dump truck, fifteen years, right?

22:31 And I'm getting... And I'm going, he's making $4.50 an hour.

22:46 It was

22:47 horrid. I whined through the whole thing. I'm getting ticked. I don't even know what Greek word that comes from but I was really getting upset and I'm shoveling this stuff and I'm going, oh man, and I'm sweating and I'm, you know, eyes open, white, dark, white, dark because I'm covered with dirt and everything and it just, oh, I'm going, this is bad. This is really bad.

23:14 That night I went home and I was reading the word and this is... You don't want to do this if you want to get convicted. Know, and I read the account of when those guys went into the field with the master and the first guy goes in and he gets, know, early in the day and he gets promised this particular amount of money and he goes in and works all day. At the end of the day, I mean there's levels of this, but at the end of the day, guy gets hired and he gets the same pay as the guy that started at the beginning. The guy at the beginning whines and complains to the Lord and says, wait a second, how come he got, well I've been working all day and he gets the same pay.

24:00 He says, what is that to you? Didn't you contract with me to have this amount of pay? So what are you whining about? Schroeder loose paraphrase. I'm sitting there going, uh-oh.

24:19 So this is really weird. The next day, now we're going to lay sod, we rake the whole thing out, it is even. You know, got blood blisters to show it for it. I'm standing there, we're doing the sod, I coveted before God, I am not going to do anything. I am not going to work for Mrs.

24:40 Waldo. I'm working for you. And I'm going to give the best I could possibly ever get, whether it's $15 an hour or $3 an hour, it doesn't matter. I'm working to you. And I'd put my hands in the sod, they were rolled, put them like this, pull them up and I ran them to Tim, his name was, and I would put them down I would place him and he would just, all he had to do was move him a little bit and punch the seams and we did it like you would a roof, know, you step it up.

25:11 And I'm running doing this. It is really cool. We're having lunch. We're sitting in the cab having lunch and I'm... I said, Tim, he's got a big mouthful of food.

25:25 It was what? And I said, I just wanna ask you to forgive me. He looks at me like, I said, why? I said, because I'm a whiner and complainer and I'm so sorry about that. You just please forgive me?

25:51 My attitude was awful. I'm never gonna... I'm gonna work so hard. It's gonna be unbelievable from now on. Okay.

26:02 Our relationship changed like crazy. He wanted to work with me and only me from then on. We worked so hard it was unbelievable and he picked up his game. It didn't matter whether he was getting 4.50 an hour. It didn't matter if I was getting $3 an hour.

26:21 We were turning around jobs for the Waldo nursery. They couldn't believe it. They just sent us out. Just us two to do those jobs. And then in fact, finally they said to me, towards the end of the...

26:33 Towards fall, this was on the summer, towards fall, they came to me, Mrs. Waldo and Mr. Waldo came to me and said, we'd like you to send you to Cleveland State University and pay for your whole tuition. And I said, really? Yeah, we want you to be a horticulturist.

26:49 We'll get a BS in horticulturing and we want you to work for us five years if you would do that. You know, and I said, no, I'm going to preach on the streets of Cleveland. And I did turn him down and I went and started, that's when he started preaching, it was 1974. And I said, you know, I thought to myself as I as I look at this, we serve Christ. We don't serve anybody else but Jesus Christ.

27:53 No way. No way. Let it not be named among you, Paul writes. Let it not be once named among you. That kind of behavior and why?

28:05 Because not only is he exhort us to godly submission even in the midst of even in the midst of incredible suffering and pain but we look at the example of godly submission in the next few verses where even here unto where you called, you were called to this. You were called to what? Because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example. That you should follow in his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth. It's an interesting word guile.

28:44 In chapter two, where we are, it's Dolan, it means deceit. No guile, no deceit found in his mouth. No, I mean, his heart was right and then when he was reviled, he reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not but committed himself to him that judges righteously. It's a tough thing when you are pushed and somebody goes against you and puts it on you and said, you did this and you are this way.

29:17 The response wants to be physical maybe and the response wants to be, I'm coming right back at you and then boom, right back at you. And for some of us, we're so fast at this. Somebody revile you, somebody come against you and say, this is you, Bob, whatever. We're fast to come right at against him. We're quick to do this.

29:41 He says, don't do it. Why? Because the lord Jesus didn't do it. If anybody had a right to do it, it was him. And he said, no.

29:53 In fact, he opened not his mouth. He didn't threaten again. Can you imagine? The lord of the universe the lord of the universe, who created the universe in six days Colossians one fifteen, right? Created all things in heaven and under earth.

30:20 Created everything is on the cross after they nail him to the cross and he says, father, forgive them. They do not know what they do. Wow. And I am going to retaliate? Justified?

30:49 We we justify a lot of stuff. We do. We we we rationalize junk like you can't believe but there is no rationale for this. There is no rationale for this for sure. I look at this passage and I I I look at and I think of Philippians chapter two and he says to us, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of god thought it not robbery to be equal with god but made himself of no reputation.

31:25 And took upon him the form of a servant was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient unto death even death of the cross. You guys know this this guy I'm about to mention. He used to sit like right here at Willow Willow Bible Chapel. He used to sit right here when I first went to Willow Bible Chapel. I never could understand why this, I mean, he he he started the hymns.

31:59 He started the hymns and they were like on key and everything and it was just, you know, the meter, the every... And it was just great. I was just amazing. Finding out that he was the concert master for the Cleveland Orchestra, Dan Majeski. Couldn't believe it.

32:18 He's sitting right there and we broke bread week after week together. If he was introduced to you and nobody said he's the Cleveland Orchestra, you know, hired but last guy hired by George Zell, the great conductor, you know, one of the great violinists of all time, Dan Majeski in the assembly. If I didn't say that about him, you would never know that. You would just, oh hi Dan. You play ping pong too?

32:51 I mean that's way it is. He didn't, you know, because Dan didn't think much of himself, though he practiced eight hours a day and though he was with the greatest violinist and did duets and all that kind of stuff, unbelievable. The only guy that did Pagani's opuses, 24 opuses by memory and recorded them. The only guy in the history of music that ever did that. This guy is incredible, Juilliard.

33:19 Went to Juilliard, started at the age of three, was a prodigy, unbelievable. Made his seventeen fifteen violin Stradivarius sound like two to three violins. But if you never knew that about him, you would never know it from him. Humbled himself and became obedient unto death and that... And Dan would say, I'm proud.

33:45 Dan would have said, I'm a proud man. No. And and that... He would say that as a sin, not not as a aren't I cool? And so I look at this and he tells us to be like the lord Jesus Christ.

34:28 When you're going through the suffering for whatever it is and you didn't cause it, come back to him. Come to Jesus. He will solace your heart. He will salve your heart. He will heal the wounded heart.

34:44 Somebody gave me advice one time. Long time ago in terms of preaching. He said, Chris, remember this, there is a breaking heart in every pew. What's breaking your heart? Come back to Jesus.

35:07 What is the thing? Even as a Christian, keep your focus on him. What is the thing that is just ripping you apart? That you will never share with anybody, that you will never put on your face and wear it wear it on the sleeve as it were. What is that thing?

35:26 Bring it to Him. Bring it to Him. He's the only one that can minister to your need. He's the only one that can do that. And so not only not only does Jesus exemplify the characteristic of submission but also the characteristic of sacrifice and we see this in the next section in chapter three verses 18 through 22.

35:52 We see this in the sacrifice, his sacrifice with suffering. For Christ also hath once suffered. For sins. The just for the unjust Wow. Think about that just for a moment.

36:14 We're talking or he Peter is talking in the inherent word of god is talking about how this this man, Christ Jesus, who is god in the flesh, who never sinned, he who knew no sin. Not in deed, not in word, not in intent, not in anything. He who knew no sin willingly bore your sins in himself and paid the penalty that we richly deserved to pay and he paid it in full.

37:08 Wow.

37:11 My sin, all the bliss of his glorious thought, my sin not in part but the whole, was nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. It is well. It is well with my soul. We come back to him We come back to him and we look at that sacrifice. We look at that sacrifice with suffering.

37:43 He sacrificed himself. I mean, he did not have to do this and before the foundation of the world, Peter in chapter one tells us this, for as much as you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold from your vain manner of life received by tradition from your fathers but with the precious blood of Christ. As of a lamb without blemish and without spot who is verily foreordained before the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times for you. He knew he was going to do this. He knew he was going to suffer the way he suffered and he willingly came and did it for you.

38:31 He's the only one worth looking at. He's the only one The just for the unjust. People say about alcoholics that they have to hit bottom before they really can get help. They have to see their need before they get help. That's not true only of alcoholics, that's true of every human being.

39:05 We need to understand that we're sinful and that we cannot save ourselves from our own sin. See, we we don't believe that. A lot of us don't really don't believe that. We think sometimes how god, god died for me. You know, and we take kind of pride in that.

39:27 Wow. Wait a second. He died for a sinner. He designed, he died for an individual who not only deserves it but was on their way to the paying for their own sin in a place called hell. I deserve it.

39:40 You deserve it. You deserve it. And he stood in the gap and rescued us. He died on the cross to rescue us. To pay that penalty.

39:57 That's how awful sin is. It took an awful crucifixion on a cross. Of the sinless son of god who became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of god in him. He did that on our behalf. We deserve.

40:18 We deserve and our hearts should be like that. Our hearts should be like that. We should be inside. We should be weeping if we've never trusted Christ as our personal savior. You do not have a good estimation of yourself.

40:43 And definitely don't have a good estimation of the one who died to save you from that sin. And what Peter is trying to tell the believer and he's writing two believers in this epistle. He's writing, come back and understand that when you are suffering, remember who saved you. Do you remember the time in this in the gospels? They he sent them out.

41:34 It's all him. It's not what we do. It's not religious duty. We have nothing. We're just I I actually think this that the closer you get to Jesus Christ, the less you think of you.

41:54 I think there's good biblical precedence of that. So, if you're full of yourself, you're not controlled by the spirit, number one. Number two, if you're full of yourself, you want to be full of Jesus. Christ is all and in all. I want him to dominate my life completely.

42:16 And when I go through the suffering, and we will, I want to keep coming back to him. There is no other answer. Benefits of not going to him, bitterness, Anger, wrath, malice, He's telling us forget those come to Jesus. View him. Look at him.

42:57 Constantly let him be in the forefront of our hearts and minds. And then the sacrifice is a substitution. Look at verse 18 again. The just for the unjust that he might bring us to god being put to death in the flesh being made alive by the spirit. The substitutionary death of Christ.

43:24 And then the sacrifice not only of with suffering and as substitution but the sacrifice of the sovereign. Do you realize, realize and this is the only way I can realize is believing this book but do we realize that Jesus Christ and this is something we've sung and handles Messiah says it but do you realize that he is the king of kings and lord of lord, praise him. That's what hallelujah means. Praise the lord. In Hebrew, hallelujah.

44:06 Jehovah. Praise the lord. And that's exactly what we need and must do. We praise him because he is the king of kings. Hey, I want to tell you something.

44:19 I know him, the one who spoke the world into existence. I know him personally. I'm a name dropper. I know him personally. He is it.

44:35 He is all. There's no one like him. No one. No one. And then we the sacrifice of the sovereign and people dance around these verses 19 and following by whom we went and preached unto the spirits in prison who at one one time were disobedient, long suffering of god waiting, waited in the days of Noah.

45:09 Now, that's important. While the ark was preparing in which few that is eight souls were saved by water. The like figure unto which even baptism doth also. Now save us. Not putting away a filth of the flesh but the answering of a good conscience toward god by the resurrection of the dead.

45:28 I gotta tell you something. This does not mean that he went down to hell. There's some guys who hold to this. He went down to hell between the crucifixion and the resurrection and when Schroeder lose paraphrase. He didn't do that.

45:47 I think he preached in the spirit of Noah. The spirit of god in Noah preached Christ preached and we see this in the in actually in the text, the spirit. I think he did this through Noah and when he preached and those guys who rejected then are now in bondage waiting for the greater judgment that is coming. So, those people and he went down, I don't think he went in between and went down there and did that. Then, notice by the resurrection of the dead of of the lord Jesus Christ who is gone into heaven and is on the right hand of god, the angels in authority and power being made subject unto him.

47:03 One of the cool things, and I hate to use the word cool, it sounds so hip. One of the wonderful things about knowing Jesus Christ is the very fact that I do know him and he wants to know me. I mean, he knows me intimately. Psalm thirty one thirty nine. Right?

47:37 He knows me. My comings, my goings, my down sittings, my uprising. He knows me. But he desires a relationship with me. He desires a relationship with you.

47:49 The God of the universe who spoke the worlds into existence wants to speak to your heart. Somebody mocked Vice President Mike Pence the other day because he's a Christian. And he said, I listened to God and it was on the view and she just went on and just mocked him out. Oh, yeah. You know, they call that.

48:10 They call that insanity. Words to that effect and I'm thinking to myself, this woman needs to know who Jesus is. She needs to know who Jesus is because god loves her and desire or desires a relationship with her. And with you. But it's all based off his son.

48:36 It's all because of what his son has done for us. So, we look at this and we say, you know, we see the submission sacrifice. We need to have these characteristics in our lives in the midst of the suffering that we have that the lord Jesus exemplifies. We need to have this. We desire this.

49:00 In fact, we will desire it more. We will desire it more and more and more when we suffer. More. I ask god sometimes why? Why the suffering?

49:17 Because He wants to prove in my life and He wants to prove in your life how great, how loving, how caring He is. And in a new way, we figure that out because He reveals it to us. And we start to sing in our hearts and we thank Him even going through those things. We start to thank Him. I had a...

49:47 Last time I was with you, this didn't happen, we had a... I took a funeral for a 21 old baby. I have never done a funeral for a child before. And I went to the hospital and word via texting was that they were trying to revive this child and they couldn't. All the doctors, the surgeons were right there in his room in the pediatric care and they couldn't save the kid.

50:16 They couldn't save this precious child, Samuel Martin, first and middle name. And as the parents were just they were expecting to take him home that morning. And he codes and goes to be with the Lord. Rachel Strickland. I'm standing there watching this family

50:49 sob, sob. And she looks at me and she breaks out. We thank you, Lord. We thank you for this situation. We ask you to help us

51:06 through it, but we thank you for it. Be near and dear to us, ministered to us. Thank you for this, and we thank you that Sam is safe in your arms. We thank you God for this right in the midst of

51:21 this horrendous news and event. And I'm thinking to

51:27 myself, what a godly woman.

51:33 What a godly woman. And then

51:37 she starts to, how are you doing, Chris? What? How am I doing? In my mind, I'm... You kidding me?

51:51 How am I doing? I'm a broken man and I'm not even mom or dad. Wow. In the midst of suffering, in the midst of the pain, you can always come. And it's really recommended, come to him.

52:41 And we ask you, Lord God, that we would come back to you and come back to your son and let him heal the wounded heart. Heal our wounded heart. We ask you that you would work so powerfully and that our focus of our not only our attention but our whole life from this point forward would be Jesus. Following him, serving him, being consoled by him. Help us, we pray.

53:23 Then we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for letting me come.