When Life Feels Like It’s Burning Down | Conspiracy of the Cross Week 4

How's everybody doing? Let's give Jesus a hand. Let's go! Come on! Hey! Want to welcome every single one of you guys to Faith Promise Church. We are so glad that you're with us this weekend, wherever you are joining us from, all the campuses, God behind bars. If you're joining us online, we're excited that you are here. A lot of you all don't know me. My name is Pastor Josh Cardwell, and I'm the pastor of Revolution Church in Crossville, Tennessee. We don't say at Crossville. We say Crossville. How many of y'all know what I'm talking about? You know what I mean? Small town up on the mountain, in between Knoxville and Nashville. If you don't know and you haven't been there like most people haven't, let me explain it to you like this. It's kind of like Gatlinburg without the fun and attractions, if that makes sense. If you do know where Crossville is and if you've been there, it's because we have the distinction of being the very first city in the state of Tennessee to have a bucky. So let's give it up for buckies, y'all. How many y'all know? Yeah, baby. Whoo. Some beaver nuggets go in there and spend $5,000 every time you go on brisket sandwiches and all that stuff, and we absolutely love it. I'm honored to be here this weekend. Pastor Zach asked me to come, and I couldn't say yes quick enough.

Love your pastor. I'm heavily involved in the wind network that has been such a huge, huge support for us as we're trying to reach our county and reach the state doing some incredible things there. But Pastor Zach, when he asked me to come, I was like, "Man, if you ask me to come mow your grass, I'll do that, Pastor Zach." You know what I'm saying? Like, well, I don't know if I'd do it. I don't want to lie to you and exaggerate like preachers do, but I'd get it done for him. Y'all know what I'm saying? Like, I'd call somebody and say, "Hey, if I pay you, will you go mow as y'all?" I'd make sure it's done. Love your church. If it wasn't for faith promise, I don't know if revolution church would still exist. Pastor Chris has been mentoring me for about 14 years, and everything we do, y'all need to know this, almost everything we do, we learned from you all. So absolutely love you guys. Thank you guys for your support and everything you do for us. Well, we have been in a series out of 1 Peter called "Conspiracy of the Cross." You guys have learned about some incredible things. You have learned about the gap and how to deal with the gaps in our life where what you're experiencing here on this earth doesn't line up with what you know about God. You've learned about holiness. You've learned about obedience. You've learned about submission. But today, I'm going to preach a sermon titled "Burn Notice," "Burn Notice." I don't know how many Gen Xers or Millennials we have in the house, but how many you guys remember every single day, we used to get our news and what was going on in the world from one of these things. Raise your hand if you know what I'm talking about at every campus, participate, and that's

my people right there. You've got a little gray in your beard, don't you? Back's hurting a little bit when you got up this morning, right? You know what I'm saying? If you're younger in here, you know what this is, but maybe you've never seen one in person. Probably definitely have it held one in person, but this is an ancient relic. It may as well be hieroglyphics, right? We used to open this thing up to get our news and read through the entire thing every single day. Well, I don't know about you. Don't make fun of me for this, but the thing I used to look forward to the most in the paper was the comics. How many of y'all know what I'm talking about? All the comics in Sunday's paper, not only would you have 5,000 coupons that you had to clip out, right, but you had comics that you could read, a whole section of comics. Well, in 2013, there was a comic named Question Hound that came out, and it has since become one of the most viral memes. So even if you have never read a paper and you're younger in here, you will recognize this picture because it has become one of the most popular memes. It has Question Hound sitting in the middle of his house, drinking coffee, drinking tea, with everything burning down around him, and him saying, "Everything is fine. Everything is..." Y'all seen that before, right? Everything is fine. It's become representative of someone that is in denial of the problems that are happening in their life. Someone that is pretending everything is okay when their life is falling apart. I would submit to you this weekend that many times in our walk with Christ, that becomes symbolic of us. We're supposed to be the good little Christian that acts like everything's okay, that acts

like everything's great, but sometimes it feels like everything is burning down around us. Do we just sit there and say, "Everything's fine." Well, Peter is going to help us, in first Peter chapter four and five, as we talk about the fire, the place where your faith gets tested by your circumstances. The uncertainty in your life that makes you question what you know about God. The things in your life that put pressure on your faith, it might even make you question the very faith that you possess. So I've got about three tips for you this weekend. I might have a fourth if I have time and we'll get some extra credit, but we're going to start in first Peter chapter four and we are going to start in verse 12. Verse 12, let's start in verse 12. Y'all let me say, "I am." Yeah, that sounded good. Every campus sounded good. He starts out like this, "Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice in as much as you participate in the sufferings of Christ so that you may be, listen to this, this is a crazy talk, overjoyed when his glory is revealed. There's going to be the word glory mentioned

three times today as we read through this. But I want everyone to do with me. Every time we hit the word glory, I want you to repeat the phrase with me that it says, and I'm going to explain it at the end. So let's repeat that phrase, glory is revealed on the count of three, one, two, three. Glory is revealed. Hey, feel free to say it like an old Baptist preacher. Y'all know what I'm saying? Glory, y'all know what I mean? Like let's say that together, one, two, three. Glory, y'all sound so good, man. That is awesome. Point number one is simply this, don't be surprised by the fires in your life. Don't be surprised. Peter addresses these first several verses to his friends, his friends, the family of faith, his Christian brothers and sisters, those that know Christ and have been saved by the blood of Jesus. And he says, don't be surprised by the fiery ordeals that you go through. Hopefully, you've read the Bible. If you're a newer Christian, you might not be familiar with this story, but in the Old Testament, when we talk about burn notice and the fires that we go through,

the imagery that pops in my head, of course, is that very famous Old Testament story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. If you grew up on Veggie Tales, it's Rach, Shach, and Benny. I mean, y'all know what I'm talking about, right? Like Rach, Shach, and Benny. And so, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they are obedient to the one true God, standing for truth. They get thrown into a furnace to be burned alive. Someone is in the furnace with them. Guess who that is? That's Jesus. He's in it with them. When they get out of the furnace, 'cause it's not burning up, they don't even smell like smoke. In the New Testament, I couldn't even, couldn't help but think of who Jesus said was the greatest person ever born of a woman, the greatest person that ever lived, according to Jesus, John the Baptist. You know when Jesus said that about John the Baptist when he was in prison. He was in prison. Soon to be killed for standing for truth, for standing up for what is right. Hey, don't be surprised, y'all. Don't be surprised when you face fiery ordeals in your life.

In Hebrews chapter 12 verse three, it says, consider him, him being Jesus, who endured such opposition from sinners so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Jesus himself, the God that you worship, that you mimic your life after went through fires in his life and his ministry. Physical pain, check, emotional pain. Remember, when he swept blood, check. Relational issues, remember when he called one of his best friends, Peter, Satan, check. He went through the fire. So why in the world would we think that we are going to be exempt from it? I've got two kids. I've got a daughter that is soon to be 19 years old. And when we got our daughter, y'all, we thought we were like the greatest parents that ever lived because she was just so sweet and she couldn't wait for dad to get home and she played with Barbie dolls and she did most of the things that most girls do. and all those different things. Well, three years after we got our daughter, guess what happened? We had a son. I don't know why y'all are laughing. It's all the people that have sons. And we got humbled real quick. 'Cause all of a sudden he comes out losing his mind,

digging holes in the yard, ruining my grass. Y'all know what I'm talking about? Playing with knobs and if he can find a sledgehammer or a saw or any tool, he was like using it, right? You know what I mean? How about this one? I don't know if God's ever get over this, like grown men still struggle with this one, but when he gets his hand on a lighter, he wants to burn everything. Y'all know what I'm talking about? And my wife, she just like, she grew up with a sister, didn't have any brothers and she's like, why is he so destructive? Why is he so crazy? Why is he so out of his mind? Like why does he take a lighter and just for fun want to burn the hair off his arm? I don't understand this. And I have to constantly remind her, he's a boy. Don't be shocked that he's acting like a boy. That's what boys do. Why are you surprised? Hey y'all, why are you surprised? Why are you surprised? We worship a guy who was murdered. A guy who was murdered. Jesus said things like, "Woe to you when all men speak well of you." But here is really the story of first Peter.

In the middle of your fire, in the middle of your tribulation, in the middle of your suffering and your pain, God will never abandon you. He will never abandon you. He will never forsake you. Let's look at chapter five. Let's bump down to chapter five and take a look at that. Are y'all still with me, say, "I am." I can't wait till we get to the end of this. It's gonna be incredible. Look who he addresses it to in chapter five verse one. To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ's sufferings who also will share in the, there's that word again. Y'all gotta say this phrase with me. One, two, three, glory to be revealed. Be shepherds of God flock that is under your care, watching over them, not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be, not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve, not loarding it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of, what's that word y'all? Glory that will never fade away. Verse five, yeah, that's right. Thank you. Whoo, every campus, somebody screamed just now, right? I'll pay you after this service.

Thank you for getting excited. Verse five, listen to what he says here. In the same way, you who are younger submit yourselves to your elders. Hey, just a side note before we finish this passage, these little verses, how many y'all in here, like when he says younger in here, he could mean age, he could mean based off how long you've been saved. So let's just go both. How many y'all in here are under the age of 30? Just raise your hand at every campus, every under, look at all that, keep them up, keep them up. How many y'all, let's go, 'cause he could mean newer to the faith, young in the faith. How many y'all, let's just ask this question, no matter your age, how many of you have been saved less than three years? Raise your hand, raise your hand if you're, keep those hands up. Y'all, look at all these young people in here. Is that not incredible? Wow, you should be clapping everywhere. You have a church that reaches young people in every way. New people getting saved, young people coming to church. In a day and time where that is not very common. You guys have done a great job of what the great theologian Michael Scott says. You guys have euthanized this place. Y'all know what I'm saying? So, y'all watch the office.

Okay, I'm with you, okay, good deal. In the same way, you who are younger submit yourselves to your elders. All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another because God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under God's mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time and then verse seven, iconic verse, even if you're not a Christian in here, you don't even read the Bible. You'll recognize this verse, this is a bumper sticker verse. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Point number two, don't walk through the fire alone. Don't walk through the fire alone. At the beginning of these verses, he addresses it to the elders among you. In other words, to the shepherds among you. In other words, to the pastors and the leaders of the church. And I love, and maybe I like this part because I is one, right? but Peter is encouraging the pastors, why? Because pastoring and leading God's people is difficult work, y'all. This is a cue for you to be praying always for your pastors because it is not easy work. Pray that they will want to stay in ministry and preach. Pray that they will never get conceited and prideful. Pray that they stay in the fight. Y'all I've been married 26 years. 26 years I've been married to my better half, Brooke.

And I know I don't look like I'm old enough to be married 26 years. I know I got you. That's why there were so many. (gasps) 26 years, what? Did he get married when he was like five? I don't know, but what's interesting about me, y'all. I know I'm from Crossville right now, but I was actually born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee. I grew up in Cumberland Estates off Western Avenue. Shout out North Campus, love you guys. That's my old stomping grounds. I went to Northwest Middle School, graduated from West High. Hey, we got some Northwesterns in here. Yeah, yeah, you're not in jail, good. Okay, so that's great. Yes, I'm not either. We're doing a good success story, yeah. And so, stop laughing, y'all. You know what's up. I graduated from West High School in 1998, though. And I tell you that to tell you that I met my wife when we were working at Papa John's on Western Avenue. And I'm gonna tell y'all something. Like, if you don't get anything from this sermon today, I wanna tell you, pizza can change your life, y'all. Can I get an amen, y'all?

Praise Jesus. Amen, some little kids said amen in this service. Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean? We've been married 26 years and I've been in full-time ministry for about 19 of those. You know, sometimes I think that people think the first six or seven years of our marriage, I was Clark Kent. And then when I became a pastor, all of a sudden, I became Superman, invulnerable, perfect. Y'all, I'm here to tell ya, I'm not. Pastors aren't perfect. We struggle. I blow it all the time. I'm a dope, so much y'all. My wife and I are marriage. I've got a great marriage, but I'm gonna tell y'all this. Y'all ready for like, it's gonna blow your minds, okay? We fight sometimes. We're not perfect. I tell my church all the time. I'm like, we don't fight. We just have fellowship that the neighbors can hear. Y'all know what I'm saying? 'Cause, you know, pastors are perfect. Like, why are they yelling?

We're just fellowshiping, you know what I mean? It's all good, you know? So, the law's over here, but it's all, no, we never had the law called on us, you know? (congregation laughing) Pray for your pastors. It's tough. Pray for pastors' act as he does the best he can to reach this state and reach the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The overarching theme of these verses we've read is telling us though that number one, God gave us shepherds and pastors, so we wouldn't have to suffer through the fiery ordeals on our lives alone. And to go one step further into something we've learned about in this series, God gave us each other, so we wouldn't have to suffer alone through the fires of life. You need people in your life that are going to hold your arms up for you when you're exhausted, that are gonna bear your burdens for you when you're walking through something extremely difficult. Additionally, it tells us that we need the most important thing in our life, we need God. Why? Because when you're suffering through fiery ordeals, you can cast all your cares.

Another translation says all your anxiety on him because he cares for you, cares for you. I don't know what it is that has walked through the doors of faith promise this weekend. I don't know what you're dealing with if you're joining us online this weekend. But I've preached to a lot of crowds, I've ministered to a lot of people, and I know that in every venue wherever you're at, there are people that are going through some fiery ordeals. People that are suffering brew some things in their life. Maybe you're joining us this weekend and you're experiencing relational fires. Maybe your marriage is hanging on by a thread. Like the divorce papers are sitting on the counter at home. You guys just hadn't signed them yet. Maybe you've been through the pain of a divorce. still dealing with the baggage from that. Maybe you've got kids that you did the best you could to raise them in the Lord. And now they're grown, and they've gone no contact with you, and they've walked away from God, and you're confused, and you're hurting, and you have no clue what to do. You stood in an altar across from somebody, and you said, "I do." And you said, "For better or for worse, in sickness and in health," but then they betrayed you, and walked away from you, and rejected you. And you're trying to walk through that and navigate that. What I'm saying is, maybe the people that you love the most are the reason for your greatest pain right now. Maybe you're here this weekend, and you're just flat-out overwhelmed with life. It could be addiction, it could be sin, it could be secret sin, it could be your mental

health, depression, whatever it is, and you're just completely overwhelmed. What I mean by overwhelmed, let me explain this to you. Maybe number one, you woke up, and I've got experience with this, many of us do, you woke up today. And when you opened your eyes, you thought to yourself, "I don't know how I'm going to make it through the rest of this day." You're overwhelmed if you, sometime in the last seven days, you went to bed and you laid in bed, and one of your prayers to God was, "Lord, I just pray I don't wake up in the morning." It'd be so much easier. It'd be better off if I was just gone, don't listen to the lie from the enemy. God has a purpose for you, He loves you, and we would not be better off without you. You hold on to your faith and hold on to your Savior, "Can I get a good amen, faith promise?" You don't listen to the enemy. Do not listen to the enemy. No matter what your reason is, life has a way of bringing us all to this place where it feels like the house is burning down around us, and we don't know what to do. Listen, y'all, don't go through it alone. Find some people that'll be there for you, that'll love you. Save your life to Christ, who will never forsake you in the middle of your fire. Let's go to verse 10, and let's look as we close this series, let's look as Peter is talking to a bunch of Christians that are getting fed to lions, that are being killed for their faith and martyred. He's telling them how to deal with it and dealing with the reality of it, but now let's see how he closes this, to encourage, it's hard for us to fathom that, right? That's who he's writing it to. Look at verse 10, y'all still with me say, "I am." He says, "And the God of all grace," hey, you're going through some fiery ordeals, some trials, "but the God of all grace who called you to his," there's that word again,

y'all, say that phrase, "eternal glory with me," louder than you said it the first couple of times, okay, one, two, three, "eternal glory in Christ," y'all, I'm about to lose my mind. Like I'm just telling you, it's like DMX up in here, y'all going to make me lose my mind up in here, up in here, y'all know that song? You better repent at the end, okay, y'all, y'all shouldn't know that song. God, Lee, I'll tell you, you can't even go to church. And the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ after you have suffered a little while will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast. To him be the power forever and ever, amen. Last point is this, this should encourage you. Don't forget what's after the fire. Don't forget what's after the fire. You've repeated that word, glory. We've said glory is revealed, crown of glory here, eternal glory. What does glory mean? A good definition if you don't know what that means is, glory is the greatness of Jesus revealed and the privilege of sharing in his victory. So Peter here is speaking to the fact that we get to share in Jesus' victory, yes, here on earth, but ultimately one day we get to share in his victory one day when we go to glory. Peter is primarily speaking about God restoring and strengthening believers after suffering. But the believer's eternal future is definitely in view here. I heard a preacher say one time that for Christians, for believers that have put their trust in Jesus, even when we lose, we win. I tell my church that all the time, and I remember about three years ago, there was a guy named John that got diagnosed with cancer.

They said you've got about two or three months to live, John. He's still with us today, by the way, doing better than ever. And yeah, that's a testimony right there. That's incredible stuff. But I asked John, he has to elders to pray for him and came to the church and we prayed for him. And I said, John, how you doing, man? 'Cause he just seems so cheery. He said, pastor, you tell us all the time that even when we lose, we win. I mean, what's the worst thing that's gonna happen to me? I go to heaven to be with Jesus for eternity. That's a pretty good deal, man. Pretty good deal. Hey, y'all. Listen, you gotta remember, like sometimes we walk around in this world and we're like, what in the world is going on? I feel like I'm in the twilight zone. People have lost their minds. You should feel like that. You know why? Because you were created for something not of this world. Your citizenship is not ultimately in the United States of America. It is in a place called glory, a place called heaven. You need to keep your focus, not on things below, but on things above. Jesus has won for us. He defeated death, hell, and the grave.

The greatest weapon the enemy had to cause fear in your life. Hey, even when you lose, you win. What's the worst thing he can do to you? Send you home, send you home. This ain't home, y'all. Home is heaven. Heaven is a person named Jesus. Take me home, Lord. Come, Lord Jesus, come. Take me home. That reminds me of that old song. I'm sorry, y'all can tell I'm ADD. John Denver, take me home. Y'all know that song? You might know that song in here. Think it with me if you know it. ♪ Take me home, country road to the place ♪ ♪ Abilong West Virginia ♪ Whoo-hoo, take me home. Man, some of y'all were singing louder just then than when you were in worship. You're like, "John Denver, yeah, Jesus, rrr." (congregation laughing) That's the idea. Take me home. You can make it through the fire because of what comes after. Suffering is temporary, but what God has called you to is eternal. For the Christian suffering never gets the final word.

The enemy never gets the final word. You know who does, Jesus does. But if you walked in here today and the fire be encouraged because the fire is temporary, but the glory you're called to is eternal. I wanna close today by asking two questions and speaking to two types of people that are here. Again, everybody I preach to, every crowd that I go to talk to, there seems to always be these two types of people in attendance. The first type of person that's in here is the person that is going through life, going through the struggles, going through the fires completely by yourself. Like you don't have people walking through you, but you also, you don't have the God that created you, walking with you as well. As Christians, we would tell you, hey, when we put our trust in Jesus, it didn't mean that our lives became perfect, that all of a sudden there was no pain and no tribulation and no fires. What it meant for us was we never have to walk through the fire alone ever again, because Jesus is right there with us. Can I get a good amen, faith, promise? And some of you are joining us today and you've never experienced that. You've never put your trust in Christ. You've never, as we say in the church in America, you've never been saved.

Maybe you're here and you've been kicking the tires of Christianity for a while. Wanting all your questions answered? We can't answer all your questions probably. But today, the day feels different for some reason, because it's like there's something pulling you, pulling you, telling you you need Jesus in your life to walk with you. This is what we call a sinner's prayer, a prayer of salvation. And as I say this prayer, you can say it in your mind. You can say it out loud. And it's not important that you say the exact words that I say. You can put it in your own words. God knows your heart. He knows exactly where you are. But this is a prayer that will cause you when it's over to be saved. Instantaneously, to never walk alone again. Every head about every eye closed, nobody looking around at any venue. If that's you, and you need to put your trust in Christ, just repeat after me, Lord Jesus, I know I need you. I'm a broken mess. I don't want to do things my way anymore. I want to do them your way. I believe, God, that you sent your son to die for my sins. Right now in this moment, I put my trust. I give my life, I surrender all to Jesus. From this moment on, I'm going to do the best I can to follow Jesus. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me. Nobody looking around. If you responded to that just now and prayed that prayer,

we slip your hand up real quick. I'm not going to make you come up front or call you out or anything like that. But if you did that, just slip your hand up really fast. You guys can look up. Faith Promise, let's give God a hand for what he did this weekend, the people. You guys that said that prayer, in just a moment, you'll have an opportunity to come up front. We'd be honored to have someone from the prayer team pray for you. If you're not comfortable with that, you can text the word "saved" to the number that we have on the screen. We would love to connect with you and help you figure out your next steps. What do I do? Did I just rededicate my life, or did I really get saved? We'll help you clear all that up. Second type of people in the room, though, are the people that are going through the fire right now. You're a Christian. You've put your trust in Jesus. You know he's your Lord and Savior, but you know you need some help. You can't go through this alone anymore. You can't go through alone, tired of struggling on your own. Prayer of a righteous person has power in your life. Confess your sins one to another so that you may experience freedom. We're going to sing a song here. Again, we'll have prayer team members up front. We'd be honored to pray for you, bear your burdens with you, to support you, where whatever fire it is you're dealing with. Let me pray one more time, faith promise. Lord, we love you. You are awesome.

You are mighty. You are why we do everything we do here. It's to give glory to Jesus, to make Jesus famous wherever we are. Lord, I pray that you give the people at Faith Promise the strength to be obedient, to do what it is. You have called them to do. We love you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Everybody said amen. (gentle music)