(upbeat music) Happy Monday. If you live in the prosperous West, you are blessed like very few people have ever been blessed in the history of the world. There's a glut of digital technologies that we have, like the chain of technology we're using right now to communicate with one another.

More importantly, things like infant and child mortality rates are lower than ever. And life expectancy rates have peaked and are projected to keep rising. Here in America, few, if any people die of starvation. Famines are unheard of here. Motor vehicle fatalities have been in steep decline for the past 50 years, same with plane related deaths.

Poverty rates in the States have plummeted in the past 50 years. National GDP continues to go up and to the right. Life is as safe as ever. We are some of the most comfortable people who have ever existed on this planet. And all these blessings together raise questions for Christians who are promised that they will suffer in this life.

A listener named Marissa is trying to work all this out for herself. Hello, Pastor John. I'm leading a Bible study through First Peter right now. As you know, Peter makes it very clear that Christians will suffer, just as Christ did. I'm curious how we Christians suffer in a first world country like America, where we are not physically persecuted for our beliefs.

I don't think I've ever really suffered for the sake of Christ. Feelings get hurt on social media. There's a cultural pushback, of course, but I've never lost anything of value in this world due to being a Christian. Does this make me a weak or a lazy Christian? Or should I simply thank God for the rare peace I have enjoyed in this age?

Such an important question for those of us who live in what, without exaggeration, we could call the Disney world of the nations. Even the poor in America, by comparison, live in luxury compared to 600 million extremely poor people with no access to adequate food, shelter, medical care, clean water, education, not to mention the saving message of Jesus that they don't have access to.

One of the reasons I live where I live in a poorer part of Minneapolis is because I dread becoming oblivious to the brokenness and the neediness of the world. So here are five things that I see in the Bible to give guidance to those of us who live in relative comfort and security and wealth.

One, both Jesus and the apostles said that if we are faithful Christians, we will experience some measure of persecution and other kinds of suffering in the path of obedience. Paul said in 2 Timothy 3:12, "All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus "will be persecuted." They will be.

Jesus said in Matthew 10, 25, "If you have called the master of the house Beelzebul, "how much more will they malign those of his household?" In John 15, 20, he said, "If they persecuted me, "they will also persecute you." And Paul taught in Acts 14, 22, that every new believer, through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God.

If we never taste any affliction or persecution or maligning for Christ's sake, we probably are not pressing into the darkness of the world for Christ as far as we should. Number two, Jesus calls us to a kind of death to our old selves into a new life of joyful self-denial.

Not morose self-denial, not self-pitying, but joyful self-denial. Matthew 16, 24, "If anyone would come after me, "let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. "For whoever would save his life will lose it, "and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." So we don't just wait for others to persecute us and take away our pleasures and privileges and securities.

Instead, we voluntarily make choices that deny ourselves some of these things, freely, willingly, joyfully, in order to serve others. Jesus said in Luke 6, 27, "Love your enemies. "Do good to those who hate you. "Bless those who curse you. "Pray for those who abuse you." Doing good, doing good, actually doing things good for those who hate you is costly.

You might say it is a freely chosen embrace of being disliked. Whether it's outright persecution or not, it demands self-denial. Doing good to other people who don't like us is hard. It's costly. It's like persecution. It's like affliction. There is always someone to bless in this world, someone who doesn't like you, who would be easier not to bless.

Number three. Paul said that he had learned not only how to be abased, but also how to abound. Philippians 4, 11, "I have learned in whatever situation "I am to be content. "I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. "In any and every circumstance, "I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, "abundance and need.

"I can do all things through him who strengthens me." Paul did not say it was a sin to abound or a sin to face plenty. He said it takes a certain learning, a certain God-given secret not to sin when you face plenty, not to sin in need. And not only that, he said in 1 Timothy 4, verse four, "Everything created by God is good.

"Nothing is to be rejected "if it is received with thanksgiving, "for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer." In other words, self-denial is not the only way we honor God with the good things of life. Thankful enjoyment is another way. 1 Timothy 6, 17, he said, "As for the rich in this age, "charge them not to be haughty, "nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, "but on God, who richly provides us "with everything to enjoy.

"They are to do good." I'm still quoting Paul now. "They are to do good, to be rich in good works, "to be generous and ready to share." So there is a Christ-exalting self-denial, and there is a Christ-exalting enjoyment of God's gifts. Number four, don't pursue pain. Pursue love, no matter the pain.

Freely chosen self-denial or unchosen persecution is never an end in itself. The aim is love. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love blesses, love prays, love does good, love serves. Therefore, love is a fulfilling of the law.

Therefore, pursue love, love for people, not pain. There will be pain enough. And finally, number five, yes, God has given most of the developed countries, East and West, a season in these centuries, a season of spectacular wealth and leisure and comfort and health and peace and security. Why has he done that?

What's the meaning of this providence? And I think the answer is in Psalm 67. May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, that, and here's the answer, that your way may be known on the earth, your saving power among all nations.

The earth has yielded its increase. God, our God shall bless us. God shall bless us. And then he closes the Psalm by telling why. Why has he blessed us? Why will he bless us? Let all the ends of the earth fear him. God has made America and the West and parts of the East wealthy and healthy and secure so that we would not lay up treasures here on earth, but use our freedom and our wealth and our peace for the sake of reaching the nations with the message of salvation.

Stand up for this. Stand up for this. Work for this and you will find enough resistance. You'll find it in yourself. You'll find it in your church. You'll find it in the world that you won't have to worry too much anymore that being a Christian is too easy. - So good.

Psalm 67 is such a key text for us at Desiring God, especially verse four, "Let the nations be glad," which is the title of a book, a book on missions by you, Pastor John. Fascinating to hear the text more fully expounded and especially within the abundance context. Really interesting.

Thank you, Pastor John. And thanks for joining us today. If you want to ask Pastor John, email your question to us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. Well, John Piper has preached a couple thousand sermons in front of a few hundred thousand people around the world. Only the Lord knows the true count.

Whatever the exact numbers is a lot of sermons in front of a lot of people. And a young preacher wants to know how your preaching has been critiqued over the years, Pastor John. He has been critiqued in 10 ways to stand out. And we'll walk through those next time.

10 criticisms of John Piper's preaching. I'm your host Tony Reike. I'll see you back here on Thursday. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)