 Amen. So keep your place there in 1 Peter chapter number five. We're going to be there and in 1 Peter chapter 3 and 1 Peter chapter 4 in just a few minutes. That's going to be kind of our key chapters in the sermon this morning. So this morning, the title of the sermon this morning is titled The Other Side of Suffering. I want to talk about suffering and the purpose of suffering this morning. But first I want to give an introduction on what I'm getting at this morning and talk about a few things that kind of prelude our understanding of suffering. And let me first talk about this subject that is very popular in our society today, very popular in our culture today. This idea of instant gratification, of just having things that we want right now, finding ways to get things as quickly as possible. For the sermon this morning, talking about the other side of suffering, and I'll explain to you what I mean by that in just a few minutes. But I'm going to give two just general examples this morning talking about this sermon. I'm going to give examples using health and the topic of your health. And then I'm going to give examples talking about relationships, relationships with people around you, relationships in your marriage with your friends, with your brothers and sisters in Christ. So those are the two main examples that I'm going to use this morning. However, with this idea of instant gratification and the overall context of the sermon, it applies really to everything in your lives. But I'm going to show you this morning just through these simple examples of how, you know, what is the point of the other side of suffering. The idea that instant gratification is being pushed everywhere in our lives today is something that is just ingrained in us as Americans in our culture today, that everything has to be as convenient as possible. You know, the idea that we could be inconvenienced with anything. I mean, just think about the idea of a drive through. I mean, a drive through. I mean, I can't be expected to actually get myself out of my car. I have to be able to just stay sitting in my car. I need to be able to just have people just feed me as I sit, set it, you know, in my car doing what I'm doing. Think of the idea of a headset or the AirPods everybody has or the Bluetooth things that everybody walks around talking to themselves in their ear. Because I can't, you know, God forbid we're expected to hold a phone up to our ear, right? It's just, it's too inconvenient. It's too much trouble. So anything to instantly just remove any inconvenience from us, I could just go on and on and on. Basically, businesses thrive on this. You'll have one business who is literally successful over another business because he has simply made, you know, something more convenient than everyone else. Look at Amazon. This is why Amazon is so popular because, you know, I remember the early days of Amazon. The reason Amazon was so popular is because you could buy something with, like, literally one or two clicks. And you didn't have to go and fill out this whole thing every time and click here and then go here and then do this. I mean, literally I can't be, I mean, if I have to click my mouse button five times, that is too inconvenient for me. I mean, people made an entire worldwide business model successful just on removing a slight inconvenience from people. But just think about your health and maybe this is a good New Year's or a good January topic for you. But just think of the idea of your health and becoming a healthy person or staying healthy or whatever it is. I mean, just think of this idea of, you know, what does everybody want to do today? They just want to invent some kind of pill that you can take that would just instantly make you feel good and instantly make you, you know, lose weight and be a healthy person. Without having any inconvenience to you, without having you change your schedule, change what you're doing, you know, it's always some new drug. I mean, ever since I've been a conscious person, it's always some new drug that is coming out. I mean, this is healthcare in general today. It favors the drug. It favors the instant fix, the instant quick fix. It favors the, they don't want to go and look at, hey, why are you having these pains? Why are you having these things? Maybe you're doing something to damage yourself. Maybe you're into something you shouldn't be doing. Why are you stressed out? Why are you anxious? Why are you depressed? They don't want to look at anything like that. They just want an instant quick fix. And look, that's what people want too. So really, it is just this industry that is just meeting the demand of this population that just wants an instant quick fix. I mean, just like drugs and alcohol in general is exactly the same thing. It's just this, you know, I want to be happy. I want to be happy. I don't want to change what I'm doing in my life. I don't want to look at why I'm not happy. I just want to be instantly joyful or instantly high, as they will say. So what do I do? I drink alcohol or I take drugs. And it instantly makes me feel good. I mean, this is sin in general, really. Sin in general is just this instant quick fix. It's an instant good feeling. But I want to show you this morning how the instant things are always bad. And then we'll talk about suffering in just a few minutes. But relationships. Relationships are the same way. Good, proper relationships are not instant. People that don't have experience with long friendships, what do they do? They look for shallow friendships. They look for shallow relationships with people that are defined on a very shallow level. You know, I've been talking to, for some reason, I've just met a lot of people in the last couple of months who are actually leaving California. I've actually talked to several people that are, they're not just talking about doing it because I've always met those people. But they're actually leaving California. And one thing that I've always, and I've actually asked this question to some of them, I was like, well, don't you have any relationships here? Don't you have any friendships here, any people here that you care about? And, you know, the answer on the people that I've met so far is either those people are coming with them, that they have the relationship with, or they just have not found any real relationships here. So it's easy for them to leave. Or the relationships that they had here were very shallow, so it's easy for them to leave those relationships. But, you know, or, you know, many of them, most of them, their relationship is with money and they realize that they can have more money if they live somewhere else. Which, you know, you can, I guess you can have a relationship with money anywhere if that's your relationship. But the point is this, everybody wants good friends. It's something that everybody wants and more and more people in our society, in our culture, in our country especially, are having a hard time finding good friends. It's something that if you look at trends and look at polls, it is just from 20, 30 years ago, we're at all time lows. People are getting lonelier and lonelier, having a hard time finding good friends. You know, having a hard time finding people that they can really relate to on deep personal levels. The problem that people have here is that very few people know how to get and maintain good friendships. They want instant friendships. Turn to Proverbs 11. Turn to Proverbs 11. So look, the selling point of a lot of these things that are bad that I'm mentioning at the introduction of this sermon is that they are quick. Sin is an instant pleasure. Sin, right away, I mean in Acts 1.18, it talks about the, you know, Judas got the reward of iniquity. Look, there was an instant gratification that he got there when he received the money for betraying Jesus Christ. There was an instant gratification there. In Hebrews 11.25, it talks about how Moses, look, Moses was the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He was the adopted son of the princess of the kingdom. He could have had a lot of instant gratification in his life. But the Bible says that he rather chose to be with God's people than to just enjoy, you know, sin for a season. The pleasures of sin for a season. Look, there is pleasures instantly in those things. There is a reward instantly in those things. But look at Proverbs 11 and verse number 27. Let's look at what the difference is between things that are good, things that God would want us to have versus all these instant gratification and these instant pleasures. Look at verse number 27. The Bible says this. It says, He that diligently seeketh good procureth favor, but he that seeketh mischief, it shall come unto him. There is this word in the Bible that is used again and again in its diligence, this word diligence. And what diligence means is, it means investment, it means discipline, it means work. But here's the key difference. It means all of those things over time. It is not just you work hard, you are disciplined, you invest in the right areas for five minutes. It is over a long period of time. And that's why this word diligence is such a great word that the Bible uses again and again and again. And what I want to point out to you this morning is this variable that is inside the word diligence, which is this time aspect. This time variable and how crucial it is. Because something that is instant, it has no time variable. Something that is instant that I can have right away. Time, it doesn't matter because I can just have it right now. But the problem with diligence and the reason that diligence is so hard to achieve by so many people is because it has this aspect that it is over time. That it takes a long time. The time aspect is crucial in all good things. Instant gratification is not really possible when it comes to your health, when it comes to your relationships. The two examples that I'm using this morning, just think about it for a second. Think about your health and just think about all the things that you hear out there today. You think about your health. I mean, look, to get and to stay healthy, literally to be healthy takes diligence. Why? It takes investment. It takes something that you're going to do. Look, whatever that thing you're going to do is, but it's going to take doing that thing over time. It's going to take diligence. It can't just be some new miracle pill. No, there's a new miracle pill now. And you just wait. Just like every other miracle pill, they're going to find out that this miracle pill that's this instant fix, you just take this pill and eat ice cream and you're going to be healthy. You're going to find out that this miracle pill is going to destroy your liver, destroy your kidneys, destroy your bones, whatever. It's going to destroy something because that's just not how God allows it or wants it to work. Everything that is good requires diligence, which has a time factor involved. I mean, to be healthy means to be long-term healthy. Think about it. Just think about just the statement itself. I mean, really, with your health, the only thing that really matters, I mean, just think about it, is time. It's generally how you live. It's not how you live that five minutes, that one time back in 2017. That has nothing to do with how healthy you are. When you get to be an older person, this is why people say that somebody is in really bad shape when they're 65 or 55 or 85 or whatever it is. Well, they say, oh, well, he smoked for years. They don't say, oh, back when he was 22, he had a pack of cigarettes one day. No, he smoked for years. He drank for years. He was, you know, addicted to, you know, he was on drugs for years. It's because being healthy, it's about diligence. Being unhealthy or healthy is about time. It's about how you generally live. Look, turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 7. Relationships are exactly the same way. Relationships are exactly the same way. It's dependent on time. It's dependent on how you operate over long periods of time. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 7 and look at verse number 1. Look, the longer you have known, this is just a truth. The longer you have known someone and the more you have known about them, the deeper that friendship has been and the longer you have known them, the more trust you will receive from that person and the more trust you will be able to give to that person. That's just how it works. Look at verse number 1 of Ecclesiastes chapter 7. Look at what the Bible says here. It says, a good name is better than precious ointment. But look at the second part of this verse that's in the same sentence, by the way. It says a good name, okay, a good name is, oh, you need to have a good reputation. I get that. You know, the Bible talks about that in Proverbs as well. Good reputation, what people think about you. But look at the last part of this verse and ask yourself, why is it in the same sentence? It says, and the day of death, then the day of one's birth. Look at what the Bible is saying here, talking about your reputation or your relationships between people. Basically it's saying what people think about you depends on how you end the thing. All the way to the end, talking about, it's not talking about that instant investment. You're not going to have a great friend who thinks that you are a great friend because you were nice to him one time five years ago. And then you just, you just were a leech off of him for the rest of his life. Or her life or whatever. No, it's talking about the investment over time, talking about all the way to the end. And that is implying that somebody that has a good reputation, somebody that has a good relationship, somebody that has good friendships. Good friendships meaning people think highly of them, they think highly of other people. They have done that over a long period of time. And over in this verse, the whole time. This is a great verse in many different aspects talking about this is why it's more important to end well than to start well. But this friend right here has a good name because he did good things all the way to the end. Not just, and it doesn't even make any sense that you would have a good friend and oh, I'm really good friends with Joe because Joe, you know, there was this time ten years ago where Joe really helped me out and then just, it just has never been good since then. It's ridiculous to even think about it. It's all about that time factor. But here's the thing folks, many people will just never have this because they don't understand that it's over time and it is how you end that is better. Relationships have to be prosecuted properly over long periods of time. And if you can end well, you're eventually going to lose every single one of your relationships. Think about that. I mean just think about sins in the Bible. Just think about things that are considered sins. Just think about men today. Think about men today in this idea that, you know, I mean, it's not hard to understand. I mean, you see the stats and they're kind of shocking about young men and how young men are less interested and less interested and less interested in God's version of a relationship with a woman, which is marriage. In our society today, in our culture today, in the free world today, you know, marriage is less and less and less attractive. This is easily tracked through stats. People are getting married at a later age. People are just taking marriage and just putting it off forever in their lives, especially young men. It seems that young women still want to be married, but they're being sucked into, you know, different things too. But you say, why is that? I mean, why is, how could it be possible for like men who have this natural desire to be, you know, drawn to women? It's a natural thing. How could they put off that? Well, it's because there's all these instant gratification things that are being available, being made available to them. I mean, the oldest one in history is prostitution. It's in the Bible all over. Just Hordom and just Hormongers and, you know, Hordom, the Bible talks about. What is it? It's just, it's a way for a man to have a physical relationship without any kind of time involved. He doesn't have to have a proper relationship as God would put forward. I mean, modern examples are pornography. I mean, there's that instant relationship right there. You don't have to do anything that God wants you to do. Just, it's just an example of sin, you know, enticing people to replace good things with terrible things that God does not want. Fornication. Fornication, just in general. Fornication is an instant version of what God would actually want. It's a sinful replacement for God's, you know, that's why in 1 Corinthians 7 the Bible says, you know, to avoid fornication, let every man have a wife. To avoid what the devil offers. But this is why you are seeing less and less people, less and less young men want to be married because they're taking the instant gratification option, which is sin in every single case. I mean, just for relationships in general, 39% of people, think about this for a second, 39% of people say that the only friends that they have are online. What? I mean, that's shocking. But people think that just, but guess what? You can have, you know, here's another AI prediction from me. People are going to have friends that aren't even real soon. If 39% of people, the only friends are people that respond to them, people are going to have friends soon that are just fake. They're going to go out and they're just going to purchase a friend. They're going to subscribe to a friend. And they'll type and they'll be like, oh, I'm so upset today and the thing will go right back and oh, sorry about that, you're great, whatever. Guaranteed this is coming. Guaranteed. Because guess what? As I showed you last Sunday night, all these friendships and all these, even these conversations with these artificial intelligence engines, they're very shallow levels, but even, you know, somebody that is online that you've never even met that's your friend, that's a very shallow relationship. That is a very shallow relationship that could easily be replaced by a machine for sure. So there's a market for it. People are going to be buying friends pretty soon. Look, that's what fraternities and sororities are anyway. People are already buy friends, all right? So look, it's been something that has just been put in front of people this idea of instant gratification. You don't have to spend any time doing anything right. You don't have to do anything. So the question is this. This is all introduction. The question is this, why can't people maintain their health? Why can't people maintain relationships over time? You say if it's better to have relationships that last a long time and it's better to be healthy over a long period of time, why can't people do it? Turn to 1 Peter chapter 5 where you should already be there. And the answer is this, suffering. The answer is suffering. I heard from, I don't remember who said this, but I heard this from like some motivational person or a health person or something, but they said it was, I think it was in a book that I read, but it was a really good statement where it said, suffering is the killer of dreams. And what that person was talking about when they said that is people have great dreams and they have great goals, but as soon as suffering enters in, they let go of everything. As soon as it hurts, they stop. This is what a trainer, a fitness trainer means when he says no pain, no gain. But people hit the pain or they hit minor inconvenience and they stop everything. Our society today has a goal to remove all suffering, to remove all inconveniences. Just think of any kitchen appliance that you have. Think about it for a second. Why do you have all these specialty kitchen appliances? Is there maybe like 10,000 kitchen appliances that you can buy? There's a billion of them. There is tons of them. Why? Because I don't want to sit there and I don't want to chop onions for 20 minutes. That's inconvenient. So I've got this special device that chops onions and I've got this special device that slices tomatoes and I've got this special device that, you know, I don't want to have to put, you know, chicken in the oven for like an hour. I want to put it in this thing that will magically pressurize it to like 2,000 PSI and add steam and it's done in two and a half seconds or whatever it is. We have one. I'm not blaming you if you have one of these things. But the point is then the cover comes off it and there's like a steam column like shooting into the ceiling of the house. And I'm just like, is this safe? How could this be safe? My wife is like, it's fine. But what are all these things? These are silly examples. What are all these things designed to do? They're designed to remove all struggle from our lives. They're designed to remove any semblance of any kind of inconvenience that we could possibly encounter. So what does that do? That creates a society where if there's any struggle or there's any inconvenience or there's any pain, we haven't even really gotten to suffering yet. People stop. People quit. They're like, whoa, something's wrong here. You get inconvenienced in any way today. You're like, something's wrong here. We need to invent something. I like to invent things. I get it. But this is a problem when it comes to the Bible. Look, suffering should be the test on whether or not something is legit or not. If something is legit or good, suffering is a good test. I don't know how many different ideas and exercise programs and diets there are out there, but there's a lot. Suffering is a good test. Is there suffering involved? If there's not, if it's just, hey, eat whatever you want. Never exercise. Eat bread and ice cream every single day and follow my program. Just stop listening because it's fake. It's a scam or it's not good for you. One of those three. So the title of the sermon this morning, look down at 1 Peter chapter 5, is the other side of suffering. The goal for us as Christians, and we're going to apply all of this to the Christian life, but the goal for us is to come out the other side of suffering, is to get through suffering, to enter suffering, get through it and come out the other side. And that's what I want to point out this morning. Look at 1 Peter chapter 5 and look at verse number 10. The Bible says, But the God of all grace who have called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after, you see that? After that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. Notice it says after you have suffered a while. What do you see there? You see time there. You see that this is talking about somebody who has gone through suffering for a period of time. And what do they come out? They come out better. I mean so, I mean, apply to your health. It's like, you know, endure. Endure the hunger. Endure the hunger. If you can't endure any hunger, how are you going to fast? How are you going to do a spiritual fast? You know, if you can't endure the pain of any kind of physical exercise, you will never be healthy. But whatever other healthy goal that you have, I mean, and again, there's millions of different things out there today. And they're getting, and it's so, it's so funny. It's so funny that, you know, I mean, all the things that you're starting to hear people do, now like ice baths and hot, you know, they're just like exposing your body to extreme temperatures on the cold. And then you get an ice bath in the morning and you just sit in like 32 degree water with ice cubes all around you. And then that's how you start your day. And at the end of the day, you get into a sauna that's like 210 degrees, and that's how you end your day. And look, I'm sure it probably works. I'm sure it probably does. But here we've removed so many conveniences from our life that we literally have to now inject artificial struggle. I mean, it's irony. But, again, all the diets and the exercise routines, if there's no discomfort, it's fake. So we're injecting artificial discomfort. We're injecting what? Suffering. And look, it's probably an indication that those types of things that are, look, that's extreme suffering. I don't know if you've ever been in freezing water. We were out duck hunting one time and we didn't have a boat or we didn't have a dog because we were kind of like, we were just kind of poor duck hunters and I was in college with some friends and we had chest waders and we shot a bunch of ducks that were beyond the depth of our chest waders. We couldn't get to them. So we had, we picked up all the ducks that we had and here we had like four or five ducks like out in the middle of this slew and look, there's snow on the ground, there's ice everywhere, it's cold. It's about ready to be free. This slew is going to be frozen in the next couple of days and I just told my buddies, I was like, all right, I'll go get them. I'll go get them. So like, go warm up the truck. So they got in the truck and they warmed it up and I just like stripped down to my skibbies and I just went and I just swam after these ducks and I'm telling you what, I almost died. I felt like I was going to die. Like I was locking up, like I was locking up as I was swimming back and I got in the truck and we, it was like 45 minutes back to town and I was freezing for the entire day. Like it was, it was, it's so, look, the ice bath thing probably works because it's horrible. That's a terrible feeling that you, you know, I don't know why anyone would honestly do that to themselves but the point is this, they're suffering there. They're suffering there so it's probably has some kind of legitimate, this is my thought, it's got, you know, otherwise take this pills of fraud. It's always going to be that way. True friendships are the same way. True friendships are the same way. Turn to Philippians chapter two. Every single true friendship where, and I'm talking about a true friendship, not where just one friend just constantly helps out the other friend, all right, because in that case you have one friend and one person that's not a friend. That's what the Bible would teach. But a true friendship, a true friendship involves sacrifice and involves discomfort and involves taking time, taking, doing things that normally wouldn't be the best for you to have a true friendship. That's true friendship. And if you have friendships in your lives and you're like, I have pretty good friends and all this and you've never had to sacrifice your time or your effort or your money or whatever for your friendships, there's a problem there because they're probably doing it for you. Look at Philippians chapter two and look at verse number four. The Bible says this, it says, look not every man on his own things. Look, if I want to have the best things and the best things that are for me, I would just constantly look at my own things. But every man also on the things of others, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being made in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found as a fashion of a man and he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Jesus Christ is an extreme example of this. He's an extreme example of this where he came to earth to literally do nothing for himself. None of us can say that. None of us can say that we're not doing anything for ourselves on this earth with this life. But Jesus came to do nothing for himself. That's why the Da Vinci Code and all that stuff that came up 20 years ago or whatever it was was so wicked. A bunch of idiot Christians are like, oh, maybe Jesus was married. No, because Jesus literally came here to do nothing for himself. He came here to do nothing but 100% sacrifice for mankind. So friendships will require sacrifice. Friendships will require some sort of suffering or giving on your side. Otherwise, they're not good friendships or you're just not a friend. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 9. Actually, here's another example. Just turn to Hebrews chapter 12 and then we'll go to 1 Corinthians chapter 9. But sin is another example of this. God literally designed sin to cause suffering. I'm glad that sin causes suffering and you should be glad too. Look at Hebrews chapter number 12 and look what the Bible says here. Look at verse number 6. The chastening of God, you're going to suffer through that. You're going to suffer through that. But on the other side of that suffering, you will come out better. This is why I'm thankful that God has sin. You know, the consequences of sin are God's chastisement and sin just causes suffering in itself. I'm thankful for that because the idea is that you will come out of that better. Look at the Bible in verse number 6. It says, For whom the Lord loveth, he chaseneth and scourgeeth every son whom he receiveth. If he endure chasening, God dealeth with you as sons. For what son is he whom the Father chaseneth not? But if he be without chastisement, we're of all our partakers, then you are bastards and not sons. So it's saying appreciate your chastisement because it just means you're adopted by God. You're saved. Furthermore, we've had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? But look at verse number 10. For they verily for a few days chasened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. So he's saying that God is really the perfect Father because the reason that he punishes you is not for it. God doesn't take pleasure in punishing you, but he does it. So what? So you profit from it. So you come out of it better. And he's kind of comparing that to a worldly Father who may chasen his children, you know, in the flesh and spank his child and be like, you know, you just deserve this and all this when really we should have the heart of God when we discipline our children and be like, I am disciplining you child, I am spanking you, I am punishing you according to the Bible so you can profit from this. Because that's the heart of God towards us. But the point is this, that suffering of chastisement is for our profit. We will come out the other side of that better. And that's the reason that it's there. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 9. All of this, you say, why use the example of health and why use the example of relationships in your life? Because both of those aspects apply directly to your Christian life. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter number 9. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter number 9. Look, the Christian life, folks, is compared to a race. There's nothing, there's nothing instant about a race. You got to be healthy to run a race. You got to have relationships, you know, amongst, you know, yourselves that are healthy, but you need to have a relationship with Jesus Christ in order to be successful in this race. Look at verse number 24 of 1 Corinthians chapter number 9. The Bible says, no ye not, that when they, when they which run in a race run all, but one receiveeth the prize. So run that ye may obtain. And every man's striveth for the mastery is temper, every man that striveth in the mastery is temperate in all things. It's talking to hear about, you know, a man that's striving for the mastery, meaning this person is training for the race. This person is not only just running this race, but they are striving to master the way of this race. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible, just applying this idea of a race upon our spiritual lives. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so fight I, sounds like a struggle there to me, not as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest by any means, when I have preached unto others, I myself should be a cast away. What he's saying is, it takes control of your body. To what? To run the Christian life. To run the spiritual life, it takes control of your body. Why? Because you're going to have to strive for mastery, you're going to have to train, you're going to have to get through struggle and uncomfortableness in your Christian life. And if you're kind of a person that needs to be instantly gratified in everything, you're never going to have any friends, you're going to be super unhealthy, and you're going to fail in the Christian life. This is what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians chapter 9. There's nothing easy about a race. Just think of a physical race. There's nothing easy about training for a race, and there's nothing easy about running an actual race. That's why it's such a great analogy. I mean, not if you want to do well anyway. But I guess if you just enter a race and you just walk, you're not really racing. You're not really training. Turn to Psalm chapter 27. Turn to Psalm chapter 27. This is why patience in the Bible means a little bit different than what patience to us in our society means. Patience, true biblical patience means the ability to suffer over time. Patience, we think of patience and we think of somebody sitting with a fishing pole waiting for a fish to bite. But patience in the Bible is the ability to go through suffering. That's why in Romans 5 it says tribulation, worketh, patience. It means people that are persecuting you, putting you through suffering. If you can endure that, that is what patience is. Patience is the ability to endure tribulation. Look at Psalm 27, verse number 14. On this idea of biblical patience, look what the Bible says here. It says, wait on the Lord. Okay, wait on the Lord. Like I'm holding that fishing pole, right? I'm out in the lake. I'm holding that fishing pole. Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage. Why do I need courage to just hold a fishing pole? And he shall strengthen nine hearts. Why do I need strength to just stand there holding a fishing pole on a lake? And it says, wait, I say, on the Lord. So the Bible is saying that biblical patience is going to take courage and strength. You say, why? Because there's suffering there. That's why. And it's saying, wait on the Lord. Get through that suffering. You must endure. And look, this is why Jesus was such a great example here of this, because he endured the ultimate suffering on the cross. His soul went to hell for three days and three nights. What was that like? I'm sure that wasn't fun. I'm sure that was, you know, miserable. But he endured all this suffering of the cross, of hell. And now go back to 1 Peter 3. Go back to chapter 3 in 1 Peter. But he came out the other side. He came out the other side. And what does that look like for Jesus on the other side of that? Look at 1 Peter chapter 3 and look at verse number 17. We're looking at the other side of suffering here. We're not to avoid suffering in our lives. We're to embrace it because on the other side of it is something better than what is here on this side of it. Look at 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 17. For it is better if the will of God be so that you what? That you suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing. For Christ also. So look, yes, chastisement is going to cause you to suffer and doing good also could cause you to suffer. It's better to suffer for doing good. I mean that's just pointing out that you're going to suffer either way. But you know, even though if you do evil and you suffer you're still going to come out of that more profitable as a Christian. But it's better to suffer for evil-doing. It's better to suffer for doing well for going through tribulation. Somebody coming after you as we talked about because you're doing good. Just like they were upset at Jesus for being good they're going to come after you for doing good. Look at verse 18. It says, for Christ also hath suffered once for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but quickened by the Spirit. But now look at verse 22. What was the other side of suffering for Jesus? Look at verse 22. It says, who has gone into heaven and is on the right hand of God angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him. Look, the other side of suffering for Jesus was he's on the right hand of God now. He's such a great example of the other side of suffering. It's always better than the other side of suffering is always better that is found on anything at the beginning of it. The problem is many people will just never see what's on the other side of it because when they start to suffer they just immediately self-gratify. They just immediately look for that quick fix. They immediately look for that self-medication. They immediately look for look, the other side of suffering, suffering is necessary to accomplish anything great in your life and especially your Christian life. Suffering is necessary. But if you're just this person that's just like, I just have to avoid suffering and inconvenience at all costs. You will never do anything great. This is why you go out soul-winning and you get people saved and you never see them at church. This is why. I mean it's not suffering to come to church but people today they can't even handle a minor inconvenience on what they do every day. Well, I play video games all day on Sunday. That's what I do. I watch football and I drink beer with my buddies. That's what I do on Sunday and I can't inconvenience myself by not doing that. It's incomprehensible to people but they'll never do anything great in their life even if they're saved. They'll never do anything great in their Christian life if they are not able or willing to suffer inconvenience and especially go into suffering and find out what's on the other side of that suffering. These people I mean these people will miss out. It's so sad because you ask people as I just asked somebody yesterday like do you want to do great things in your life or do you want to have a life that is meaningless and nobody has ever chosen meaningless yet that's what they're all choosing. When they choose to not be willing to even inconvenience themselves for the Lord that saved them by the way for even a moment. They are choosing to have a meaningless life. They are letting go of all these blessings that lie on the other side of this wall of suffering. I mean it's a sad fact. Most Americans have trained themselves to not be able to handle even a minor inconvenience. It's pitiful. Much less actual suffering. So I mean just as we end this morning just think about as yourself as you sit here in church on Sunday morning just kind of do a check on yourself here do a check on yourself Jesus is like where's the suffering in your life? Where's the inconvenience in your life today? Where is the sacrifice in your life today? Turn to 1 Peter chapter 4. If you don't have any if you're listening to what I'm saying and you're like I can't think of anything. I can't think of anything that I've sacrificed in my life recently in my friendships in my whatever I can't think of anything that I've had to help out a friend with that I've had to go and sacrifice this or I've suffered through this or even you know look you probably aren't accomplishing much. Even in your career look the more you suffer and the more toil and pain you go through the more accomplished you will be even in a worldly job. If you can't think of any inconvenience that you're going through in your life right now you're probably not accomplishing much. You probably aren't much of a friend. Look at 1 Peter chapter 4 you say well I have some I have some suffering I have some inconveniences in my life right now Pastor that's not me I have some look at 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 13. 1 Peter chapter 4 look at verse number 13 the Bible says but rejoice in as much as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings that when his glory shall be revealed you may be glad also with exceeding joy. Look since suffering and on the other side of suffering is the only place that true blessing and true joy resides embrace it rejoice in it. If you're suffering through it look if it's the chastisement of God or things you got yourself into get yourself out of those things realizes the chastisement of God and then rejoice that you realize that it was the chastisement of God get down on your knees apologize to God and thank him for the chastisement but rejoice in the chastisement and get right going forward but look if you're just suffering through tribulation rejoice in it because on the other side of it is where the other side of it that's the only place look on the other side of suffering is the only place true success can be found in life and especially in the Christian life I mean all these people that are like I gotta be I wanna be instantly rich I wanna be instantly rich I wanna be instantly healthy all these people that I just had this conversation a couple weeks ago with somebody like I just wanna win the lottery and I don't have to when they win the lottery that I see they ruin their life they destroy their family they destroy their marriages they destroy everything it's like no thanks what a curse all the instant rich people the instant health people the instant relationships people it all ends in calamity it all ends in disaster we should want to you know go the hard path and go through the sufferings and especially if we're going through those sufferings that not because we did something stupid but especially if we're just if we're doing good and we're going through the sufferings look folks thank God for that opportunity to be in that suffering because on the other side of that suffering it's gonna be great many Christians the only time that suffering was on the other side was when they were physically dead and imagine how great it is for them to have that incorruptible crown now I mean the other side of suffering is guaranteed especially if it is for doing good it is guaranteed to be better than anything we could find in this life of total convenience this life of convenience is a curse it's a curse upon the Christian it's a curse upon the married man and the married woman it's a curse upon all your relationships because good relationships and good marriages and good raising up children that are according to the Bible and that are gonna grow up to be adults that serve the Lord with their lives that's not in five seconds no one is ever gonna say this way Ecclesiastes 7.1 is so powerful no one has ever said ma'am my dad was a great dad because he was good to me when I was 12 for five seconds that one time he took me to that place no, it's how you were the whole time no matter what whether it was hard or whether you suffered through it that's what matters and on the other side of that suffering comes the successful marriage on the other side of that sacrifice comes the successful children that grow up to serve the Lord with their lives comes all the promises in the Bible come from going through whatever is necessary to get through the things that we need to go through and look there's gonna be a lot of inconvenience there and if we're doing it right there's gonna be suffering there turn to John chapter 3 turn to John chapter 3 I always like to read a few verses every now and then read a few verses before the soul winning verses and a few verses after just kinda keep yourself in context of these verses that we say so many times but look at John chapter 3 in verse number 14 look at John chapter 3 in verse number 14 look at this word that we see here and it says and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the son of man be lifted up this is why our salvation is so great you know you say oh Jesus on the other side of his suffering he got to sit on the right hand of God but you know what on the other side of Jesus' suffering lies our salvation it must happen is what the Bible was saying the suffering must be part of it even it's even baked into the cake suffering was baked into the cake of even how God saved mankind so don't try to avoid all suffering in your life that's not the way it's supposed to be we're supposed to be able to endure suffering this idea that we need to remove every suffering and every inconvenience and instantly gratify ourselves that is from Satan himself our life is going to have suffering in it we're going to have peaks in our life we're going to have valleys in our life but we're in those valleys and we're like man I'm really suffering here make sure it's not because of your sin if it is get that right but if it's just because you're living the Christian life rejoice in it because on the other side of it that's why Jesus had to go through suffering because so many great things are designed as God bakes them into the cake to come out of the other side of suffering let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer