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Do Christians Really Suffer in America? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  A happy Monday. If you live in the prosperous West, you are blessed
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  like very few people have ever been blessed in the history of the world.
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  There's a glut of digital technologies that we have, like the chain of technology
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  we're using right now to communicate with one another. More importantly, things like
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  infant and child mortality rates are lower than ever, and life expectancy rates have
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  peaked and are projected to keep rising. Here in America, few if any
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  people die of starvation. Famines are unheard of here. Motor vehicle fatalities have
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  been in steep decline for the past fifty years, same with plane related deaths.
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  Poverty rates in the States have plummeted in the past fifty years. National
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  GDP continues to go up into the right life is as safe as ever.
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  We are some of the most comfortable people who have ever existed on this planet.
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  And all these blessings together raise questions for Christians who are promised that they
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  will suffer in this life. A listener named Marissa is trying to work all
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  this out for herself. Hello, Pastor John, I'm leading a Bible city
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  through First Peter right now, as you know, Peter makes it very clear
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  that Christians will suffer just as christ did. I'm curious how we Christians suffer
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  in a first world country like America, where we are not physically persecuted for
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  our beliefs. I don't think I've ever really suffered for the sake of christ.
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  Feelings get hurt on social media. There's a cultural pushback, of course,
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  but I've never lost anything of value in this world due to being a
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  Christian. Does this make me a week or a lazy Christian? Or should
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  I simply thank God for the rare peace I have enjoyed in this age?
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  Such an important question for those of us who live in what without exaggeration,
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  we could call the dis the world of the nations. Even the poor in
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  America, by comparison, live in luxury compared to six hundred million extremely poor
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  people with no access to adequate food, shelter, medical care, clean water,
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  education, not to mention the saving message of Jesus that they don't have
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  access to. One of the reasons I live where I live in a poorer
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  part of Minneapolis is because I dread becoming oblivious to the brokenness and the neediness
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  of the world. So here are five things that I see in the Bible
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  to give guidance to those of us who live in relative comfort and security and
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  wealth. One. Both Jesus and the apostles said that if we are faithful
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  Christians, we will experience some measure of persecution and other kinds of suffering in
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  the path of obedience. Paul said in Second Timothy three twelve, all who
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  desire to live a godly life in Christ, Jesus will be persecuted. They
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  will be Jesus said in Matthew ten twenty five, if you have called the
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  master of the house be ilsible, how much more will they malign those of
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  his household? In John fifteen twenty he said, if they persecuted me,
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  they will also persecute you. And Paul taught in x fourteen twenty two that
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  every new believer, through many tribulations, we must enter the Kingdom of God.
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  If we never taste any efflection or persecution or maligning for Christ's sake,
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  we probably are not pressing into the darkness of the world for Christ, as
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  far as we should. Number two, Jesus calls us to a kind of
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  death, to our old selves into a new life of joyful self denial,
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  not morose self denial, not self pitying, but joyful self denial. Matthew
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  sixteen twenty four. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself
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  and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life
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  will lose it, And whoever loses his life for my sake, we'll find
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  it. So we don't just wait for others to persecute us and take away
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  our pleasures and privileges and securities. Instead, we've voluntarily make choices that deny
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  ourselves some of these things freely, willingly, joyfully, in order to serve
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  others. Jesus said in Luke six twenty seven. Love your enemies, do
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  good to those who hate you, Bless those who curse you, Pray for
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  those who abuse you. Doing good, doing good, actually doing things good
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  for those who hate you is costly, you might say. It is a
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  freely chosen embrace of being disliked, whether it's outright persecution or not. It
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  demands self denial. Doing good to other people who don't like us is hard,
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  It's costly. It's like persecutions, like affliction. There is always someone
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  to bless in this world, someone who doesn't like you, who would be
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  easier not to bless. Number three. Paul said that he had learned not
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  only how to be abased, but also how to abound Philippians four eleven.
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  I have learned, in whatever situation I am, to be content, I
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  know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound in any
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  and every circumstance. I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger,
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  abundance and need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
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  Paul did not say it was a sin to abound or a sin to face
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  plenty. He said it takes a certain learning, a certain God given secret,
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  not to sin when you face plenty, not to sin in need.
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  And not only that. He said in First Timothy four verse four, everything
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  created by God is good. Nothing is to be rejected if it is received
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  with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.
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  In other words, self denial is not the only way we honor God
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  with the good things of life. Thankful enjoyment is another way. For Timothy
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  six seventeen, he said, as for the rich in this age, charge
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  them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of
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  riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
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  They are to do good. I'm still quoting Paul. Now, they are
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  to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and
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  ready to share. So there is a Christ exalting self denial, and there
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  is a Christ exalting enjoyment of God's gifts. Number four, don't pursue pain.
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  Pursue love, no matter the pain, freely chosen self denial or unchosen
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  persecution is never an end in itself. The aim is love. Love bears
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  all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
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  Love does no wrong to a neighbor, Love blesses, love praise, love
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  does good, love serves. Therefore, love is a fulfilling of the law.
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  Therefore, pursue love, love for people, not pain. There will
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  be pain enough. And finally, number five, Yes, God has given
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  most of the developed countries East and West a season in these centuries, a
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  season of spectacular wealth and leisure and comfort and health and peace and security.
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  Why has he done that? What's the meaning of this providence? And I
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  think the answer is in Psalm sixty seven. May God be gracious to us
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  and bless us, and make His face to shine upon us. That and
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  here's the answer, that your way may be known on the earth, your
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  saving power among all nations. The earth has yielded its increase. God,
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  our God shall bless us. God shall bless us. And then he closes
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  the psalm by telling why why as he blessed us, why will he bless
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  us? Let all the ends of the earth fear him. God has made
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  America and the West and parts of the East wealthy and healthy and secure,
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  so that we would not lay up treasures here on earth, but use our
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  freedom and our wealth and our peace for the sake of reaching the nations with
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  the message of salvation. Stand up for this, stand up for this,
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  work for this, and you will find enough resistance. You'll find it in
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  yourself, You'll find it in your church, You'll find it in the world.
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  That you won't have to worry too much anymore that being a Christian is
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  too easy. M so good. Psalm sixty seven is such a key text
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  for us at desiring God, especially verse four, Let the nations be glad,
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  which is the title of a book, A book on missions by you.
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  Pastor John fascinating to hear the text more fully expounded and especially within the
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  abundance context. Really interesting. I think of Pastor John and thanks for joining
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  us today. If you want to ask Pastor John, email your question to
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  us, said, ask Pastor John at Desiring God dot org. Well,
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  John Piper has preached up a couple thousand sermons in front of a few hundred
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  thousand people around the world. Only the Lord knows the true count, whatever
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  the exact numbers. Is a lot of sermons in front of a lot of
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  people, and a young preacher wants to know how your preaching has been critiqued
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  over the years. Pastor John, he has been critiqued in ten ways to
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  stand out, and we'll walk through those next time. Ten criticisms of John
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  Piper's preaching. I'm hero Tony Rankie. We'll see you back here on Thursday.