Painful Paths, Sustaining Joy

Tough Circumstances Don't Define You

Good morning, friends. My name is Josiah, and I serve as the campus pastor here at Woodmen Downtown. Before we dive into God's Word, I want to celebrate our incredible ministry partners—those who serve in children's ministry, ushering, greeting, worship, and countless other roles. The work you do in extending hospitality and making people feel loved is vital. It's a powerful vehicle for the gospel, and it also points to something greater: our true home in Christ.

You know, this world is not our home. We're only passing through. Have you ever felt that longing—that homesickness for a place you've never been? As believers, we experience this regularly. We long for the day when we'll be face-to-face with Jesus, in our true home. But for now, we walk sometimes painful paths, sustained by the joy of Christ and the hope of what's to come.

The Apostle Peter understood this reality well. He walked with Jesus, was commissioned by Him, and later received grace instead of the rebuke he deserved. When Jesus ascended to heaven, Peter and the other apostles were given a mission: take the gospel to the ends of the earth. Years later, believers were scattered throughout the known world, and Peter wrote them a letter of encouragement. He called them something quite specific: elect exiles of the dispersion.

Understanding "Elect Exiles"

Let's unpack this title. The dispersion simply refers to the scattered nature of the church—both from persecution and from the apostles' missionary efforts. An exile is a stranger, a transient resident, a traveler headed for their native land. They don't quite belong where they are; they're longing for home.

Here's the beautiful truth: every single one of us who are believers in Christ can relate to this. We are exiles. Being an exile is inherently difficult—it's not something anyone would choose. But we're longing for that place when we'll be face-to-face with Jesus, when our hearts will truly be at home.

Now, the first word: elect. It simply means chosen. God picked you. And here's the incredible part—He picked you before you were worth picking.

Peter tells us three things about being chosen:

1. You are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. He picked you before you were worth picking. You were a mess, but God saw His image in you and chose to redeem you.

2. You were chosen in the sanctification of the Spirit. God set you on a path where the Holy Spirit cleans you up and conforms you to the image of God.

3. You are chosen for obedience to Jesus Christ and for the sprinkling with his blood. You're called to obey Christ and to live into the reality of His covering.

Yes, we are exiles. Yes, we exist in this difficult space on Earth. But here's the crucial distinction: Our exile is our circumstance. It is not our identity. Our identity is founded in the truth that we are chosen.

So often we get this mixed up—a fatal error. When we found our identity in our circumstances, we miss out on everything God desires to do in our lives.

Rise Above Your Circumstances

I think of Harriet Tubman. Born into slavery—one of the most targeted attacks on human identity and dignity in history—she could have allowed her circumstances to define her. Slaves were used, abused, bought, sold as commodities, and discarded.

But Harriet saw beyond her circumstances. She recognized her true identity: a daughter of the King. She escaped, took a new name, and lived into that new identity. And from that place of identity, she felt called to help others. Over her lifetime, she directly guided over 70 enslaved people to freedom and indirectly assisted hundreds more.

If Harriet had remained defined by the slave girl she was born as, she never would have experienced freedom. But because she embraced her true identity, she found rightful standing and stepped into her calling.

Friends, are there ways you've allowed yourself to be defined not by the fact that you're chosen by God, but by your circumstances? Might God be calling you this morning to rise above those circumstances and embrace who you're truly meant to be? Don't let your hard circumstances become the focal point of your identity. Tough circumstances don't define you—God does.

Your Hope Is Alive and Secure

Peter continues with his next big idea: your hope is alive and secure.

Listen to verses 3-5: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead... to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. This inheritance has been kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last times."

Notice who's doing the work here. God caused us to be born again into a living hope. How much of this did we accomplish? Nothing. It's a free gift. God extended mercy while we were still sinners. He caused us to be born again through the resurrection of Jesus, which we had absolutely nothing to do with.

We have a living hope—but it's all a gift. We cannot participate in our own rescue in any way.

The Myth of Pulling Yourself Up

Now, I'll be honest—sometimes we kind of hate that idea. We want to contribute. We want to be able to pat ourselves on the back. As every good American knows, right, we should pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. We should participate.

But pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is actually a ludicrous concept. Think about the physics. Imagine you're wearing boots with straps at the top, designed to pull the boots onto your feet. Now imagine you're going to use those straps to pull yourself up off the ground. You bend down, grab the straps, and pull. Hard. Harder. It doesn't matter how strong you are, how fit you are, or how long you strain—you're not leaving the ground.

It requires an external force to beat the power of gravity. And the same is true of our salvation. We can strain all we want against our spiritual bootstraps, and we're not leaving the ground. But there is an external force: Jesus Christ Himself.

Scripture tells us in John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life." That's the free gift. That's the external force required for our salvation.

I wonder if maybe today is the day some of you stop straining at your spiritual bootstraps. Maybe today you stand up, acknowledge your inability to save yourself, and receive the free gift that Jesus offers through His death, burial, and resurrection. You can have hope today. You can experience the living hope that is Jesus. That, my friends, is good news.

An Inheritance That Cannot Be Lost

But the good news keeps going. In verse 4, we read that our inheritance is secure. We have an inheritance that's being kept in heaven for us. Imperishable. Undefiled. Unfading.

401(k)s can fluctuate. The stock market can crash. Houses can burn down. Your most valuable possessions can be stolen. But you know what is completely and 100% secure? The storehouses of heaven. And we have an inheritance being held for us there.

Jesus said it this way in Matthew 6:20: "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal." There's nobody busting in there. Nobody's getting your inheritance. Your inheritance is secure.

Salvation Guarded by God's Power

In verse 5, it says: "This inheritance has been kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last times." Our salvation is being guarded by God's power.

Think about this: Your salvation was initiated by God. It was enacted by God. And now it's being guarded by God, by God's power. Last time I checked, there's nothing that can beat that. It's safe.

If your salvation were initiated, enacted, and guarded by you and me, we'd be a mess. We struggle. We have ups and downs. But your salvation is secure because it's founded and guarded by God and His power.

Friends, we have a living hope. We have a secure inheritance. We have a secure salvation. Do we live like that?

The Path Is Often Painful

But now Peter brings us back down to earth with verse 6: "In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials."

This verse is absolutely packed. Peter lays out a profound theology of suffering in just a few short phrases. Let me break down what he says about pain:

Your Pain Is Temporary

"Though now for a little while." Your pain is temporary. It may feel endless and unrelenting, but remember: we have a living hope. We have a secure inheritance. We have a secure salvation. One day we will stand before our Savior, and He will wipe away every tear from our eyes and usher us into our great reward.

Your pain is temporary.

Your Pain Is Purposeful

"If necessary." Your pain is purposeful. There is purpose in your pain.

Sometimes you can see it. You walk through something difficult and think, "I can see what God's doing. He's deepening my character, strengthening my faith, repairing a relationship." And you can hang on because you see the good thing God's doing.

But what about those seasons when the pain is so deep and excruciating that you cannot fathom any possible purpose? Those are the times when our faith is truly tested. Those are the moments when we have to say with Job, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him."

The good news is that tested faith ushers in glory.

Your Pain Is Valid

"You have been grieved." Your pain is valid. You may be tempted to think, "My pain isn't as bad as someone else's, so I should just be okay." We play this comparison game.

Friends, your pain is valid. Just because your pain may not be the worst thing that has ever happened to a human being does not make it not painful. Let me tell you a story that taught me this.

About 11 years ago, my family and I were in a very difficult season. Between ministry jobs. One thing went wrong, then another, then another—that downward trajectory that just keeps going. We were in it.

I took a job on a construction crew building a log cabin in Black Forest. A couple months into the job, I had an accident on the job site that resulted in what they called a near-complete amputation of my left thumb. It was cut off except for some skin holding it on and one blood vessel.

I got Flight for Life to Denver, and amazingly, they were able to reattach it. After surgery, I woke up in the burn unit. Eventually, I was able to walk around in the hallway. I remember walking past one room and looking in. In that room was a person—I think a man—completely bandaged from head to toe. Every square inch of their body covered in bandages. Arms extended. Just completely covered.

I walked down the hall, looked at my bandaged hand, and thought: I guess this isn't so bad. It could be a whole lot worse.

But I had a choice to make. Was I going to dismiss my pain because it wasn't as bad as what I was observing someone else going through? Or was I going to take it seriously?

If I'd just thought, "Well, it's not as bad as that guy, so I guess I better get back to work tomorrow and just get on with life," I probably wouldn't have a thumb today.

The only way through pain is to acknowledge the reality of it, to find the root of it, and to allow the Lord to minister to you in the middle of it. Don't push it down. Don't rush past it or dismiss it. If it hurts, slow down, acknowledge it, and bring it to the Lord. Let Him bring healing. Let Him provide the way forward. And He almost always uses His people in that process. Let the body of Christ come around you in your pain and minister to you there.

Friends, your pain is valid.

Your Journey Is Unique, But You're Not Alone

"By various trials." Everyone's journey is unique, but what's not unique is that we all face trials. You are not alone in your suffering.

Suffering can feel so isolating. But you're not alone. You're among countless brothers and sisters throughout the world and throughout the history of the church who have walked their own individual paths of suffering. And within you, you have the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, who comforts us in all of our afflictions. And you have Jesus Christ Himself, who walked this earth, walked the journey of pain for us, and is acquainted with our grief more intimately than we can even understand.

Friends, you are not alone in your pain.

Tested Faith Brings Glory

Verse 7 tells us: "So that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ."

Gold perishes. Even if you refine it in fire, someday it will perish like everything else in this tired physical world. But what won't perish is the result of tested faith.

You've probably heard people say—and there's truth in this—that your suffering will glorify Jesus. That's true. But sometimes in the moment it doesn't feel particularly comforting.

But notice something about this verse. It doesn't say the resulting glory and praise and honor is restricted to Jesus. No—the praise and glory and honor are experienced in the revelation of Jesus. They're experienced in Christ. And who is in Christ? We all are. And so we have the opportunity, this amazing gift, to one day experience this incredible praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ that will supersede everything else.

Ultimately, the glory belongs to King Jesus. But as joint heirs with Christ, we get to participate. We get to partake in the celebration as well.

Sometimes your pain is so deep that you cannot understand it now. You can't see how it could possibly be worth what you're going through. But there is a day coming when the joy of partaking in the praise and glory and honor of Jesus before the Father will be so all-consuming and so wonderful that everything else—even that pain you cannot understand—will pale in comparison. And we'll get to experience the depth of the riches of His joy.

Joy for Today, Hope for Tomorrow

Peter wraps this section up in verses 8 and 9: "Though you have not seen him, you love him. And though you do not now see him, you now believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls."

There is joy coming—joy so far beyond anything we can even understand. But there is also joy here today. Joy even in the journey, even in those dark moments of the soul.

Why? Because our faith in Jesus gives us inexpressible joy now. He gives us the living hope. He gives us the promise of an inheritance. He gives us the promise of salvation secured by His power. But He walks with us on the path of life now. And in that, we can experience His overwhelming joy.

We can experience it now. But for those of us in Christ, that joy will become the whole story one day. It will become the whole story when we get to see Him face-to-face. That's the hope we have in Christ.

Living the Reality

Friends, remember:

• Tough circumstances don't define you.
• Your hope is alive and secure.
• Though the path may be painful, we have joy for today and hope for tomorrow.

The question is: Are we living that way? Are we living like that is true?

I pray that becomes more and more the reality we live into every single day.