Contentment in Chains

Automatically transcribed — lightly cleaned for readability. Wording is the preacher’s own.

So let's pray for Pastor Luke and prepare our hearts for the word. Heavenly Father, we thank you for our brother Luke here. And we ask, Lord, that you would give him clarity of speech, clarity of thought as he offers your word to us. Lord, I pray that you would soften our hearts and open our ears so that the Holy Spirit, Lord, we welcome the Holy Spirit to come and to use your word to transform us this morning, that we would not be the same people that we were when we came.

Father, may you be glorified in this place. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Morning, everyone. So you, maybe you don't know me well enough but if you spend a lot of time with me you'll find something out about me and that is that I have a tendency to get hangry.

Anyone do y'all know what hangry is right like hungry angry right I am that type of person who is if I'm hungry I need food now, right? It's, it's happened more times than I think I care to remember. But I've been despairing for life. The world is awful. Woe is me. And just absolutely miserable, very not pleasant to be around. And then my wife's just like, you need food. And I typically don't like to hear that, no, no, I'm very justified in my mood right now. And then as soon as she puts some food in front of me, oh. She just, life comes back into me, right? I'm, oh, everything is great with the world. The birds are chirping. Wow. This is just such a beautiful day. I'm that kind of person who gets angry. I have a hard time, with that. But like, I, I know I'm not the only one, at least I'm hope I'm not the only one outing myself right here, but, isn't it really just kind of remarkable how easily our attitudes and our emotions

And our perspectives shift, right? Like it just, like we're, we can be having a good day and then all it takes is like one lousy person to cut us off and we're all of a sudden we're in a bad mood, right? Or we need to have one negative conversation or, you know, maybe you got some like feedback, maybe your boss gave you a report or something like that. And they had 10 awesome things that you're doing great on. And one thing that needs improvement. What's the one thing you are going to remember? The one thing that needs improvement, right? Like you're going to fixate on that. We have a remarkable tendency to be sort of fickle in our attitude and whether or not we are happy or content, whether or not we are seeing things in a positive light. We can have one lousy day can kind of shift our whole perspective for the rest of the week. And I think that's unfortunate. And I think that I'm not alone in that. We can all experience times where we're just like, is this really, I'm not really enjoying this.

And we've been talking about in the book of Acts, we've been, And as the book has gone on, it's began to focus more and more in on Paul, the missionary Paul, Saul, who became Paul. And Paul writes about contentment somewhat famously in the book of Philippians. And I wanted to turn there to kind of start us for today. And so this is a somewhat well-known passage. This is in Philippians chapter 4.

Philippians chapter 4, verse 11 through 13. This is Paul's words, his encouragement. He says this, he says, not that I'm speaking of being in need for, I have learned in whatever situation to be content. That's good for Paul. So he's, he's, he's, he's learned in whatever situation to be content. Verse 12, I know how to be brought low. I know how to abound. And in every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger and abundance and need. And we're like, okay, that's great. Like, how is Paul able to be brought low? How is he able to have much and have little and still be content? He says it in verse 13. He says, I can do all things through him who strengthens me. And I mean, I could kind of just be done now with my sermon. All right. The answer is Jesus. Right. And you could be all like, oh, of course the pastor says that like, all we need to be content is Jesus. Right. That's the simplistic Bible answer. That's what he's supposed to say, but we don't really trust that. Do we?

Like we, there's a little bit of this inside of us that says, sure, like. Jesus helps us be content, kind of, I guess, but like, does that actually play out in our day-to-day lives in our reality? Is that we kind of don't trust that? The question we kind of really have is like, what is the secret to contentment really, right? We kind of mistrust it because it sounds like a Bible answer. Paul's saying, I can be content in all of these circumstances through Christ who strengthens me, but we, how do we actually experience that? And was Paul actually going through something all that hard when he wrote that? Like maybe Paul was having a really good day. So today I want to, as we wrap up the book of Acts, we're going to look at what Paul's circumstances were and how he got there when he wrote that sentence. What was he experienced? What had God brought him through? And how was he able to say Christ is the one that strengthens him, allows him to be content in all circumstances? So if you know where we left off in the book of Acts, you know,

We left off somewhere around chapter 20 and that there's 28 chapters. So we're going to go fast. I'm kidding. We're not going to cover all eight chapters, but we're going to be in chapter 28, the last chapter of the book of Acts. And that's where we're going to pick up. We're going to pick up towards the end. I'm going to start in verse 16, but as you're turning there, I just want to let you know kind of what has happened. Paul has gone on some missionary journeys, three missionary journeys where he's traveled throughout the known world, spreading the gospel, preaching the gospel in every city that he's gone to. And then around chapter 21, he decides to go home to Jerusalem and a series of very unfortunate events unfolds.

What happens is that Paul returns to Jerusalem and against a prophetic warning, he's warned not to go there. He survives a temple riot. A mob demands his death. He defends himself before a crowd, before the Sanhedrin, and before two separate Roman governors. He then dodges an assassination plot. He appeals to Caesar, the ruler of the known world. And then he rides out a 14 day storm on a ship, is then shipwrecked, is then bitten by a viper bite. And then he finally makes it into Rome, chained to a Roman soldier. That's what happens in chapters 21 through 28, right? He goes through this massive series of unfortunate events. I have a map up here on the screen to show you a little bit of what that looked like. So he's over in Jerusalem here on the far right of the map. And then he's up to Sidon and then he's traveling and he's stopping at all these different places. Because this is quite a way to go on a sailboat. And especially during the season that he's traveling through was pretty not good weather. And that squiggly line is the storms where things went really bad.

And then he gets shipwrecked on a tiny island over at Malta on the far left where he's bitten by a snake and he hangs out there for a little bit. And then he eventually makes his way all the way up to the top left of the map, Rome. And that's quite a journey, right? He's shuffled around. He's been accused of causing disruption. The Jews want him to be put to death. They want him in prison. And he's like, I didn't do anything that deserves that. And the Roman governors even agreed they were going to let him go. But Paul had already said, I appealed to Caesar. And so they're like, well, you appealed to Caesar. So now you got to go to Caesar. So he goes through all of that to get to Caesar. And that's where our story picks up. And so verse 16 says, we see this. He says, when he came into Rome, when we came into Rome, you'll notice that in partway through the book of Acts and here in particular, you'll see that the pronouns describing what's happening shift from like objective.

Third person to being plural. So when we came into Rome, it's thought that Luke who wrote Acts was with Paul on this journey. So when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier who guarded him. Okay, so what does this mean? So he was, Paul, when he came into Rome, he wasn't put in kind of like a prison like we kind of maybe imagine in our minds. He was actually given kind of, well, he wasn't given. He had to pay for a small tiny apartment in a crammed building in Rome where he could stay. Picture a relatively small building with a bunch of rooms, would have had a whole bunch of people. Think like, you know, first century apartment building. So crammed apartment building, just make it worse because it didn't have indoor plumbing. And everyone lives in there and he's got a tiny room in there and he's allowed to stay there, which is better than being in like the prison prison. But he's got this tiny apartment that he has to pay for. So we're not entirely

Sure how he did that, if he had money aside that he could use, or if other Christians were helping pay for that, but he's able to stay there. And he's not chained to a wall, but he's chained to a person. So he's there with a Roman guard. There would have been a Roman guard who he had a chain on his wrist or perhaps his ankle, and the Roman guard, you know, a couple feet away also had a chain on him. So Paul couldn't go anywhere without a Roman guard with him. I imagine, you know, the Roman guards came and swapped, you know, shifts every couple of hours or something like that. And he had to sit there and be with Paul. So that's where Paul is at. And Paul's, you know, been through all of these things. And it says in verse 17, that after three days, he called together the local leaders of the Jews. And when they had gathered, he said to them, brothers, though I had nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, excuse me, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans.

So Paul, he's there in prison. I don't know about you, but I would not be particularly eager to like, just get back. I'd be kind of just upset, to be honest with you, right? Like I'd be kind of, woe is me. But Paul, he's just like, well, let's just get to work. I'm going to do the same thing here that I've literally done every other city that I've gone to.

And so Paul calls together the Jewish leaders and he says, I'm Paul. This is who I am. I've set up or I've upset all of the Jewish leaders in Israel and they accused me. And I have, you know, he tells them their whole story. He's like, I've done nothing wrong. There's nothing, there's no reason for us to be at odds, but I just figured I'd let you know. And I've been going about and I've been teaching about Jesus. And the Jewish leaders in Rome are like, we've never heard of you. They're like, we don't know who you are. We didn't hear anything from the Jewish leaders in Israel. They didn't send us anything about you. And there's maybe a handful of reasons why it's suspected that perhaps that the Jews had been for a while exiled out of Rome because of some political things. One of the Roman emperors didn't like them particularly much. And so the Jews had been moved out of Rome. And so it's thought that they may have been just recently returning. But it's also very possible that the Jews who sent Paul away and that wanted

To assassinate him and all of that thought he died because of the shipwreck and all of those things. So these Jews in Rome don't know who Paul is. We don't got any issue with you, but we'd love to hear about this Jesus. We've heard things about this Christianity, the way these Christians, but like, we don't know much about it. And we don't know much about Jesus. Would you show up and teach us about them? And so Paul's like, I would love to. So that, cause that's what he does everywhere. And so he sets up and he begins to bring them in and a large crowd of people come and they kind of, I imagine maybe, I don't know if they crammed into his apartment, or if maybe he sat out the window and talked to them, or maybe they gathered somewhere, but they... Get together and Paul preaches the gospel. He's like, this is who the Messiah is. He shows them from the Old Testament. He says, God always promised the Messiah and Jesus is that promised Messiah. And he was always going to be a suffering servant. He was always going to be

Someone who died for our sins and then rose again. And he did all of these things. And the crowd is split. Half of them are like, okay, yeah, we get that. We're on board. They're excited. They're happy. They're energized. They're like, we think this might've been the Messiah. This is Jesus. They're accepting it. And then the other half or the other portion is upset. They're not happy. They're not having it. They're like, no, we see why now you're here. Like we're, we're, we're, we're, no, we're, and so there's this dissension and Paul begins to kind of, he says this in response to them. He says this in verse 25.

And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul made one statement. He said something that really upset everybody and they all left. And this is what he said, the Holy Spirit was right in saying to you or saying to your fathers through Isaiah, the prophet, go to this people and say, you will indeed hear, but never understand. You will indeed see, but never perceive for this people's heart has grown dull with their ears. They can barely hear with their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, I would heal them. Therefore, let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles. They will listen. So Paul, he says, Isaiah was right. Isaiah said that you would be a people whose hearts are hardened. Who even though your eyes are open, you're not seeing. Even though you're hearing what I'm saying, you're not understanding. And until you soften your heart, until you are becoming receptive to what I'm telling you about who Jesus really is, you're disconnected from God.

God's not going to turn to you. And that's a pretty upsetting thing because they're just like, there's no way. And Paul, Paul's probably the best person. He's the person who would get this the most, right? Because Paul was a Jew. Paul was a Pharisee. Paul was a teacher of the law, and he was a persecutor of Christians. He absolutely, at the beginning, he was just like, there is no way, absolutely no way that Christ is the Messiah because he was persecuting Christians. But then he, what? What happened to Paul? He was captured by a vision of Christ. Christ showed up before him on the road of Damascus, caught his vision, and his sight was transformed. Paul had a vision of Jesus that changed how he saw everything. He saw everything different from the time that he was on that road and Jesus showed up in front of him. It changed how he saw the Old Testament. It changed how he saw his circumstances. And he was like, I see it. I'm trying to help you see, but until you soften your heart and actually become responsive to what I'm saying,

You're just not going to see it. I was thinking about this. It's kind of like a sort of an optical illusion of sorts. You know, if you kind of like when you're looking at an optical illusion and you can kind of see it one way, but if you start to look at it real hard and see it differently, you can see it a different way. And I'm going to date myself as a millennial here, but does anybody remember this, this like internet meme when this circled around, we're going to put this picture up here. This is a dress.

Now, I see a white and gold dress. Who here sees a black and blue dress? Okay. I cannot see that. I, though it does not matter how long I look at this, I see white and gold. Who sees white and gold? Okay. Right. I'm not that crazy.

It's, if you've never seen it before, it's really just, it's kind of amazing. It kind of twists our mind. You guys can argue about it on the drive home. It's really white and blue. No, it's not, Cameron.

I have been told it is black and blue. See the amount of discussion and dissension in this room right now? That's what Paul was dealing with, right? They're like, no, the Christ is not the Messiah. And he's like, oh, he's a hundred percent the Messiah, right? Now you guys can go argue about that on the drive home and let me know what you guys come to the conclusion of.

But that's kind of what's going on here. Until you can see it a different way, you're going to just see it one way. And Paul had a vision. He saw Christ, the resurrected Jesus, and it changed the way he saw everything. And he couldn't unsee it. He couldn't see it a different way. And so this is Paul. He's here. He's been shipwrecked. He's gone through all of these things. And what's he doing here in this little apartment in Rome, preaching the gospel, right? Let's see how Luke summarizes and ends the book of Acts. We're here at the last three or two verses, verse 30 through 31. This is how it summarizes this. It says, Paul, he lived here two whole years at his own expense. He was paying for his own prison. And he welcomed everyone who came to him. And what was he doing? He was proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. I want you to notice those last two words there, that he was preaching the gospel. He's proclaiming the kingdom of God with boldness and without hindrance.

He was unrestrained, at least spiritually, at least emotionally, because he certainly remained restrained physically all of those two years. He was bound constantly to a Roman soldier. So Paul absolutely was hindered. He couldn't go anywhere. He was a prisoner, but still in the middle of his circumstances, he was unhindered. There was something in him. There was something about him that had changed the way that he experienced his current circumstances so that he was not truly hindered. Okay.

Now, it's kind of a, kind of a cliffhanger that the book of Acts leaves us off on. It says, okay, Paul was here. He was come to see Caesar, come to give a testimony before Caesar. He had been in prison and we don't really, we're not told by the book of Acts what happens to Paul. It just says he stayed there for two years and he preached the gospel without hindrance. Now there's two schools of thought, two debates as to what exactly happened. Some people think that he saw Caesar or was eventually released and Paul went and did more missionary work. And there's some historical evidence for us to think that is possible. And that after he was released, he did then again, get arrested somehow again in Rome and then was later executed. Or it's possible that after the two years of being in prison, he did go before Caesar and the political climate around who Christians were had changed and his, well, his interview with Caesar didn't go very well. And then he was later incarcerated more severely and eventually put to the death.

So one of those two, he is eventually executed by Rome. That's about as confident as we can be as to just exactly the sequence. It's kind of up to the debate of historians.

But we know, we know what Paul said in front of Caesar. You know how we know what Paul said? Because it would be the same thing he said in front of every single other person. Paul has said the same thing in every ruler, every leader, every guard, every Jew and Gentile. He said the same thing. Jesus is Lord and he died for your sins. He's gone and preached the gospel. Remember when Paul was called to be a missionary, when Jesus told Ananias to come and tell him and teach him about Jesus and to, help restore his sight, he said that I will show Paul how much he is to suffer for my namesake. He is going to be my spokesperson to the Jews and to the Gentiles. He's going to speak before rulers and governors of this world. And from the beginning of, from the starting place of Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. And Paul has covered essentially what the world considered the known world at that time, all the way to Jerusalem to the ruler of the Roman Empire. Rome was massive and he's talking before the ruler of it all and he's going

To give a testimony about the gospel. And through all of that, because that's what was going on. Paul was in prison. If you remember where we started, Philippians, I've learned to be content in all things. Paul was writing about being content in all things when he was a prisoner, when he had been shipwrecked, when he had been bitten, when he had been falsely accused, when he was facing trial, when he was chained to a Roman guard and he couldn't go anywhere. He was saying, I had learned to be content in all circumstances. He had learned to be so content that he was considered to be unhindered, even though he was chained to a Roman guard. Here's the main point is if your vision is captured by Jesus, your circumstances cannot control your spirit. If your vision, if what you see is so fixated, is so transformed by the vision of Jesus, if that's what you're fixing your eyes on, your circumstances cannot control your spirit. Your heart, your spirit, your vision can't be changed because you're not looking at your circumstances. You're not looking at what's around you.

You're looking at Christ. And that changes everything. Yes, that's the answer I started with, right? Is that when we look at Christ, when we behold him, we absolutely find the secret to contentment. Because when we see Christ, it allows us, it allows all the other circumstances in our life to fade away.

Now, I want to be super clear. This is not what's called spiritual bypassing. If you've maybe been, maybe you're in the counseling world or something like that, spiritual bypassing is a unhealthy technique. It's an unhealthy thing that sometimes we do. Sometimes Christians are known for doing it where we say, oh, it's kind of making up examples on the fly. It's like you step onto a nail and you're like, ow. And you're like, oh, look, there's a nail in your foot. And you're like, yeah, but it's okay. There's not really a nail in my foot. No, there's objectively a nail in your foot. No, Jesus has died for my sins. He had nails in his feet. I'm good. Right? Like, no, there's a nail in your foot. What should you do? Should you just continue to ignore it because Christ is risen? No, you should probably take the nail out of your foot. What happens is that sometimes we take the truth of the gospel and we use it to erase reality. We say, well, Jesus loves me, therefore I can't feel sad. Therefore, this bad thing isn't really happening. We take the truth of the gospel

And we kind of just like turn ourselves into kind of robots. We remove emotions from ourselves and we're not honest about our circumstances. We're not honest about our difficulties. I think the Bible has a much more complex way of dealing with that than us. I want to go back to where we started and just pay a little bit more attention to what Paul says in Philippians chapter four, because this is kind of a. This is one of what I call a bumper sticker verse. This is a verse that sometimes we as Christians take a verse and we slap it on the back of something, and we say, there you go, you're good, right? You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. Stop crying, right?

I mean, that's what we say. That's what we say. Unfortunately, that's what happens. And that's not what I think the Bible here is telling us to do. So let's read this again. Let's back up a little bit to verse 10. So he's writing to the Philippians and he says this, I rejoiced in the Lord greatly now at length that you have revived your concern for me. So what we think happened is that in the book of Philippians, that the Philippian church sent some money to Paul. They think that maybe they even provided some money so that he could continue to pay rent on that tiny apartment that he was imprisoned in. So they've revived their concern for him. They've sent some resources and you were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. So he's like, you guys concerned for me, but you hadn't had the chance to do something. Maybe you didn't know where I was at. Now you know where I'm at and you sent some money. So thank you for doing that. Verse 11, not that I'm speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever

Situation to be content. Notice what he says. He's like, in whatever situation, whether the situation is bad or good, he goes on to say, verse 12, I know how to be brought low. I know how to abound. And in every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger and abundance. Notice what he says. He says, of facing, of enduring. So he's not saying like, oh, it's good. Like, yeah, low. I've never been that low. Like he's being very honest. He's like, oh yeah, I know what it is like to be low. I know what it is like to have plenty. I know what it is like to have nothing. So he's not being dishonest about his circumstances. He's not saying that this hard thing I'm going through isn't hard. He's just saying, I've known how to get through it. Right? Verse 13, I can do all things through him who strengthens me. He can do all things. He can go through the hard things. He didn't say that like all things are easy things. He says, I can do all things. I can do and go through the hard things.

I can go through the difficult times, not because it's not hard, but because Christ is with me. If we were to go back, we don't have the time. But if we had the time, we could go into the book of Psalms and we could probably open to just about any book or any Psalm in the book of Psalms. And we think of the book of Psalms in the Bible as kind of like the worship book of the Old Testament of the Jews. And, you know, we kind of have like a cartoon picture of Psalms. We think, oh, all the Psalms are like, praise the Lord for he is good. And that's what certainly many of the Psalms say. But do you know what the most common type of psalm is? Lament. The most common and repeated type of psalm in the Old Testament is one where people say, why God is this happening to me? And there is a certain particular pattern that happens in that where the psalmist turns to God and says, God, I trust you, listen to me, but this is really hard.

And they'd be very honest with God about how difficult it is. They express real emotions. David wrote, my tears have been my only food from day and night. That's pretty harsh for Jesus, for David to say that to God. So I'm so sad and I am so in desperation. The only food I've had to eat is my own tears. And then by the time they get into the later in the Psalm, after they've complained and they've been very honest with God about the difficulty they're experiencing, they say, but God, I'm going to trust you. God, I know that you're good, even though I don't feel it right now. God, I know that you're working, even though I don't feel it. And I'm going to trust you in that. Lord, help me in that, right? That's the pattern of the Bible. That's the pattern of healthy spirituality. It's not a place where we go and say, oh, bad things don't happen to me. I can't be sad. I'm just going to slap a smile on this. That's not what the Bible calls us to do. Jesus wept, even though he was going

To resurrect Jesus or resurrect Lazarus in just a few minutes. Jesus still cried. And I think we too, as Christians should learn to walk that balance to say, let me be honest about my circumstances, but not despair. Because if I despair, I'm acting as if there is no good news. I'm acting as if Christ has not changed something, but he certainly has. And that's what I want to talk about. That's why I want to show us here is how do we, how do we go through? How do we endure great pain and suffering? How do we go through difficult things and still be content? How do we go through difficult things and still be okay? Be honest about it, but then not be distraught. And the first thing I would say is like, how do athletes do it? How do people go and run marathons? Because I don't know how I would do it, but people do. They get up and they go. Why? Because of the finish line. Because they have their eyes fixed on where they're going. They have meaning. They have a purpose. They have a larger thing that they're focused on.

They're not focused on how their feet hurt. They're focused on where they're going and on their purpose. Why do parents parent? You know, what's one of the most interesting statistics is that parents, when they have kids, couples, when they have kids is that marital satisfaction on like all the surveys goes immediately down the drain. And like you do the objective survey and parents and like having kids is one of the most difficult things you can do. It makes everything harder. I've been told. And, but, but then if you ask, well, would you ever not do it? No, it's the most meaningful, most important thing that I've ever been able to do is to pour my life into someone, right? To be a parent to someone. Why? Why? Because they're attached to the greater purpose, to the greater meaning. This is how we get through things. Why do we do difficult projects, right? You ask me, Luke, what's really difficult for you? Decluttering. I struggle. I don't know what it is, but it's like the hardest thing for me to do is to like organize and declutter.

It takes all of my mental energy. Why do I do it? Why do I like to declutter and do all of that? Because I want the organized final picture. And so we have to, what are we keeping our eyes fixed on? How do we do this? I want to give us four ways that we as Christians can live differently because of what we have our eyes fixed on. Because we have our vision fixed on Christ. There's four things and there's many ways, but here are just four that we live differently. I don't necessarily need you to turn to these Bible verses, but I would love to encourage you to write them down as promises that you can go to when you experience these moments, when you need an encouragement, when you need something to fix your eyes on so that you can endure the difficulty you're going through. So the first one we have here is that we as Christians, we grieve differently. We grieve differently. We endure sadness and loss differently than the world does. And when we look at Christ, it changes it. And here is a Bible verse that I want to share a few.

1 Thessalonians 4, verse 13 through 14 says this. He says, but we do not want you to be uninformed brothers about those who are asleep. Notice that Paul here says asleep. He doesn't say dead. He says asleep that you may not grieve as others who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. Paul's saying, we don't grieve the same because we know that Jesus has conquered death. We don't grieve the same because we know that Jesus rose from the grave. We grieve differently. We still grieve. Notice he doesn't say, You don't grieve. He says, no, we grieve differently. The way I like to put it is that as Christians, I think we should be able to express our emotions to the fullest without hindrance. And the reason I think we should be able to grieve to the fullest is because we know that there's a bottom. I think sometimes we get afraid to say how sad we are and how much grief there is, is because we're afraid that if we let it loose, we'll never get to the

Bottom of it. And we're going to get to the bottom of a hole of grief and never be able to come back out. But I think we should be not afraid of that because we have Christ, because we have the hope of the resurrection. We should be able to be and express that sadness and know that we are held in the goodness of Jesus. So we grieve differently. That's 1 Thessalonians 4, 13-14. The second thing that we do differently is we suffer differently. We endure pain and difficulty in an entirely different way. When we encounter difficult situations, when we are persecuted, we suffer differently. The passage for this is 1 Peter 1, verses 6-7. Peter here makes an excellent description. He's like, Your suffering is different. It's not just pain. He says, in this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials. Why can we rejoice? So that the tested genuineness of your faith, which is more precious than gold, which perishes though tested through fire, may be found to result in the praise and the glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

He says, even though you're going through difficulty, even though you're going through various trials, it's doing something inside of you. It's forming you. It's purifying you. And at someday when you stand before Christ, there's going to be some glory revealed because of the suffering you went through. We suffer differently. We also endure differently. We stick to it. We go through hard things. We pursue holiness. We chase after, we do the right thing, even though it's hard. Look at what it says in Hebrews chapter 12 about how we endure differently. Verse one says, therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, because of all the Christians who have gone before us, let us also lay aside every weight. Let's throw off anything that slows us down and the sin, which clings so closely and let us run with endurance, the race set before us. How do we do that? By looking to Jesus, by fixing our eyes on him, the founder and protector of our faith for who through the joy that was set before him endured the cross. And despising the shame, He is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

How did Jesus endure the cross and suffering? Because he had his eye fixed on the goal. He had his eye on the glory at the end. And how do we endure it? By fixing our eyes on Jesus. We endure by fixing our eyes on Jesus. The last thing that we do differently is that we find contentment differently, right? The way that we perceive and see the world, the way that we evaluate our circumstances, the way that we comfort ourselves as differently. Look at what it says here in Romans 8, verse 31. It says this, what then shall we say to these things? What should we say about our circumstances? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all? How will he not also graciously give us all things? We've already been given the best thing. Jesus, God gave his only son for us. God gave himself to us. And we have that in full access and in relationship. And how does that change the way I see all of my circumstances?

God's already given me so much. What will he withhold from me that I need? My circumstances will be okay because I have Christ.

This is to kind of restate this main idea here is to say this, is that we need to refresh our vision with Jesus and the gospel continually. We have to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. When we, when our vision is captured by Jesus, our circumstances cannot control our spirit. How do we do that? Is by constantly refreshing, constantly looking back to Jesus. I don't know about you, but I need a daily reminder. I need an hourly reminder. I need to be reminded of who God is, of his goodness and the gospel and his love for me on a continual basis. You know, if you, someone who's an artist, right? We kind of have this like imaginary sense or this idea that like great artists just kind of close their eyes and are just able to paint or they're just able to draw. But the thing is, is that most artists, particularly artists that get very good, they spend a lot of time doing what? Looking at a reference. They spend a lot of time looking at the thing that they're painting. They spend a lot of time meditating and looking at the details.

They spend almost as much time looking at the thing as they do painting the thing. Why? Because they need to refresh their vision. They need to make sure that they know what it's like. They need to have an agreement about what it is. And they are constantly meditating and thinking and mauling it over and keeping it fresh in their mind. And we need to be doing the same thing with Christ. The more we behold Christ, the more that we look to him, the more we're going to be able to see him in all of our circumstances. The more we're going to be able to paint him into all of the places that we are, the more content we're going to be. I want to leave you with this final quote. This is from you.

St. John of the Cross, he wrote a lot about suffering and about enduring hardship. And he wrote, perhaps he wrote this while he was in prison for a time. He said this, he said, whenever anything disagreeable or displeasing happens to you, remember Christ crucified and be silent.

Right? When anything displeasing or difficult happens to you, remember Christ crucified. Remember that we are not the only people with scars. We have a God with scars who knows our suffering, who knows what it's like to grieve, who's been where we have been. We are not left alone in our difficult circumstances we can endure many hard things we can find contentment in all things through him who strengthens us through christ jesus, we just need to keep our eyes fixed on him, let's take some time and let's pray.

Heavenly Father, this morning, I know that there are many in this room who find themselves in one of those difficult circumstances. Whether it's we are struggling with contentment, whether it is we are struggling through a trial, whether we are trying to endure, or whether we find ourselves grieving this morning, Lord. I pray that you would meet each of us where we need you. That you would lift our eyes up from our circumstances, Lord. That you would open our mouths so that we could be honest about where we're at and what we're going through. Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit would fill us with the faith so that we could trust your goodness in the messy middle. Lord, that we would know that you walk with us both in green pastures and in the valley of the shadow of death. Lord, help us to fear no evil. Help us to know that you are with us.

Lord, we can't do that on our own. I pray that your Holy Spirit would give that sense of peace that surpasses all understanding. Lord, help us to live like Paul, unhindered because of our circumstances, unrestrained. Give us a voice, give us a mouth, a heart that proclaims your goodness in and out of season. Help us to constantly fix our eyes on you and point others to you as well. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.