Unshakable Faith Rooted in the Resurrection

Paul is talking about watching his friends get murdered. Paul is talking about himself and his friends and the people who he worshipped with getting beaten almost to death or getting beaten to death, being stoned, see, flogged from earlier. So, he says, look, there are gonna be light and momentary troubles. You're gonna go through troubles. You're gonna go through hardship. But, look, these troubles, here's what they're doing, they are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them. Guys, it's it's more than worth it. In fact, with this unshakable faith, there's a freeing truth that we get to live with, that there is something greater past the suffering, there is something greater past the hardship, that it doesn't end there, that suffering does not have to be the thing that defines your life. [00:37:24] (49 seconds)  #MoreThanSuffering

And, this is where faith begins to not make sense Because Paul and Silas are out there like, hey, God, we're doing your work. We're spreading the mission. Right? We're spreading the we're trying to expand the kingdom. We're telling people about you. We're having genuine conversations. We're building a community. We're being bold for you. We're giving to people. We're doing all of your work and now look where we're at. Right? God, I did the right thing and once I did the right thing, everything went wrong. It's frustrating. It's deflating. It could be faith shaking because you're doing the right thing, but you look around at the people who are not doing the right thing, they're doing the wrong thing and they're the ones getting all the benefits. [00:25:20] (41 seconds)  #WhyGoodPeopleSuffer

So we need to be a church that is marked by a faith that is rooted in the death and resurrection and the character of Jesus Christ. Just pray with me. God, you did it. You won. You've got victory over death. You've overcome suffering. You've overcome the grave. And, we get to live in the freedom of that truth. And we can never be thankful enough for that, thankful enough for your grace, for your sacrifice. God, help us to embrace it, to embrace that truth, to embrace that freedom, and to allow us to grow and cultivate a faith and a community that understands that your death and resurrection is there no matter where we find ourselves. [00:48:58] (61 seconds)  #RootedInResurrection

But, your attitude towards suffering absolutely can. The way that you approach suffering, the way that you move through suffering absolutely can be the thing that defines your life, that defines your character. Because acknowledging the reality of suffering, that suffering is going to exist, informs our attitude towards suffering. If we know that it's happening, then we can have a healthier attitude towards it and be prepared for it when it happens. You know, our attitude towards suffering, if it's healthy, creates capacity us to be transformed through suffering. And whenever we are transformed, whenever we grow through suffering, that defines the experience we have through suffering, and that produces in us an unshakable faith. [00:38:13] (47 seconds)  #AttitudeOverAdversity

But, what Paul and Silas do is they decide to pray with each other and sing to God, the God that they were serving when they got into this mess in the first place. Here's the truth of it, alright? Suffering, suffering always drives us somewhere. What suffering doesn't do is leave you where you're at. It'll always drive you to something. For some people, it drives them to a bottle. For others, it drives them to the pantry, to pills. For many of us, drives us to our Amazon carts, to our screens and our distractions because you just don't wanna think about it. Whatever you do, some of it drives us to porn and lust. [00:27:16] (37 seconds)  #ChooseHealthyCoping

And, for others, it's just overwhelming emotion. We become far angrier during this situation. We isolate ourselves and that isolation leads to depression, that depression leads to a burdensome anxiety that God does not want us to carry. For some people, it drives them away from God, places a wedge between they and God. For others, it drives them towards God. Suffering will always drive us somewhere. The only thing that is not an option is for it to drive us nowhere. And for Paul and Silas, it drives them to seek out worship and to seek out connection. [00:27:53] (36 seconds)  #FromSufferingToWorship

Paul isn't talking about, I had to park far away in Target and my legs are tired and I don't feel like walking the whole length of the parking lot. Inconvenient? Yes. Light and momentary trouble? No. Ugh. The power is out, which we've done a lot lately. Right? The power is out. And so, all of the things I use to entertain myself, to get through my day, they're all powered down, I can't do anything and now I'm bored. Hard? Light in momentary trouble? No. Or even this, I have to look down or else I'm gonna forget something. In a nine day stretch, Pittsburgh had microbursts, record highs, tornado warnings, 60 to 75 mile per hour winds, heavy snow and daily record rainfall. Look it up, it's true. Nine days, all of that Pittsburgh weather. [00:36:37] (44 seconds)  #NotAllTroublesAreEqual

When you are a pastor, you do not lead into a conversation with, hi, I am pastor. Why? Not because we're ashamed of being a pastor or anything, but because the second someone knows that you're a pastor or maybe even the second someone knows that you are a Christian, their personalities change. The topics become way more reserved, they don't want to talk to you about all of the things they may have talked to you about other than that. In fact, if they had been talking to you long enough, they may be regretting life choices from five minutes ago because they talked to a pastor about something you're not supposed to talk to pastors allegedly. [00:22:11] (37 seconds)  #WhenTheyKnowYoureAPastor