Triumph in the Trials

But today we begin a new series called the Story Takes Root. It's where we will see what happens when the story of Jesus takes root in ordinary believers living in a hostile culture that when problems come, our culture shifts. When faith in Jesus may actually cost us something, only deep roots will survive. Let's pray.

Father in heaven, we thank you. And in these moments, we pray for the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit to speak through me, the Holy Spirit to touch hearts, to encourage hearts, to correct hearts where it may be needed.

We thank you for our time. It's in Jesus name I pray. Amen. Well, there is good and bad news all around us. Turn on the tv.

I seem to be watching a lot of TV lately since my mom moved in with me. And you'll see that there's good news that the economy seems to be doing well, unemployment rates are fairly low. But there's bad news in that gas prices are still high, grocery prices are still high, and AI is coming to take jobs. There's good news that the Carolina hurricanes are going to the Stanley cup finals. Right.

20 years since the last time we were in the finals. Bad news is the state of North Carolina is still in an exceptional drought. So I'd like to start with this question. It's one I think that we've all dealt with before. Have you ever had to deliver or been delivered bad news, good and bad news?

How does that conversation usually go? Typically, it starts like this. Somebody says, hey, I've got good news and I've got bad news. Which do you want to hear first? Now, apparently, psychologists have actually studied this shocker.

They found that something pretty interesting here, that when people were receiving good news and bad news, about 78% wanted to receive the bad news first. But when people were having to deliver good news, bad news, they wanted to deliver the. The good news first. And honestly, what I've realized is I hate the question altogether because once you ask me if I want good news or bad news, I'm anxious either way. And at that point, I don't really care which one comes first.

Just start talking. Say something. Your setup is actually killing me in the moment and in some ways. One Peter in the scripture that we're reading through today reads a little bit like this. Peter writes almost like someone who's delivering both good news and bad news to believers.

And so, with that said, I have good news and I have some bad news. Which one do you want to hear first? The bad news. All right, here you go. You asked for it.

In this world, you will experience suffering and trials of many kinds. And here's the good news. Because of Jesus, you have been given a living hope that can't die.

But Peter doesn't just stop with either one. Because the message of First Peter is not that, hey, you're going to suffer. And it's, hey, you just have hope. It's this. Because Jesus Christ suffered, died and rose again.

Your suffering is never meaningless and your trials never get the final word. And that's the tension that Peter is writing into here. It's why this letter means so much for us today.

When Jesus was talking to his disciples about the troubles that they would face after his death, he affirms this good news, bad news when he says this. In John chapter 16, verse 33, he says, in this world you will have trouble, but take heart, have great confidence. I have overcome the world. It's comforting for us to know that we have a Savior who has gone before us in our troubles and he has emerged victorious. He has defeated sin and death and every earthly trouble that comes before us.

He has overcome this world.

So if you haven't already gotten there, go ahead and turn in your Bibles to First Peter chapter one. It's toward the end of the New Testament. And as you're turning there, let me tell you a little bit about Peter and a little bit about this letter. You'll probably remember that Peter is the same guy that was originally called Simon. He's one of the 12 apostles and he's a leading figure in the early church.

He's known for being bold, loyal, and he's a bit impulsive. This is the same guy who denied Jesus three times. And many historians believe that this letter was probably written sometime between 60 to 64 AD and it's thought that Peter wrote this before Emperor Nero was going to or when he started to actually mass murder Christians. There is a theme in Peter's letters around suffering. In the NIV translation, I counted 18 times that this word suffer, suffered or suffering appears in this short letter.

And it's suffering in their culture with respect to things like social pressures, marginalization, hostility and exclusion. And I just think that this type of suffering that as modern day Christians living in America, that we can understand and relate to each passing day, our culture grows a little bit more hostile toward the Christian. From outrages of public displays of faith, Christians being cast aside as intolerant, uneducated, out of touch, to legal battles about Christian businesses and how they are supposed to operate and who they are to serve and who they're not to serve.

Our Churches are even under attack as well. Christians are being our churches are being vandalized, burned, there are bomb threats and attacks on our congregants. What those first century Christians were going through in Roman culture at this time in is relatable. So let's jump right in with the introductions in verses one and two because there's so much good stuff in this introduction so I'm going to take a little bit of time to unpack it because there's so much good stuff here and it helps set up the rest of the passage today and it also helps set up the rest of the letter. It says this Peter, Apostle of Jesus Christ to God's elect exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontius Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.

This is modern day Turkey who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood, grace and peace be yours in abundance. Man, I love this introduction. When I read it the first time, it just stood out to me. And normally I don't know if you're like me, but I gloss over introduction. I quickly skip over this one and then what it made me realize is how bad my and pathetic my emails sound when I send them to people.

On a good day you may receive from me. Hey so and so. I hope this email finds you and your family doing well, but often it's just hey, here's what I need from you and here's the contents and whatever I have to say, but not Peter. Here. From these two verses we learn who the author is, who he's writing the letter to, and he's going to affirm their true identity and their standing before the Lord.

It seems that Peter, before he starts talking to them about their trials, he wants to remind them who they are.

Because if you don't know who you are, your trials may define you. Let's look at who he's writing it to. He says this to God's elect. Now notice that Peter doesn't start out by saying to God's sufferer or to God's faithful sufferer, he says, to God's elect. Almost like saying, hey, you are way more than your present circumstances and what you're going through.

The Greek for this word means chosen, selected. And I even love this word. How about favorites? If you need a reminder of your identity as a follower in Christ, let me give it to you here. You are not ordinary, you are not forgotten.

You are not random and you are not rejected. Peter adds to our identity. Later, in chapter two, verse nine, he says this. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possessions. Follower Jesus, you are chosen, elected.

You are his special possession and you're his favorite.

Back to verse one. Peter uses another word here to describe their identity. He calls them exiles. Now to God's elect, exiles scattered through the provinces. So not only are they elected, but they're exiles.

They're foreigners. They're aliens into this culture and to this territory. They're scattered. If you're reading the esv, it would say exiles of the dispersion. Now this is a term that would resonate with the 1st century recent convert Jew who is living outside of Jerusalem.

And Peter uses this word, exiles, to remind those readers that they are not only Christian believers living in Roman territory and culture, but they are also spiritual exiles in this world. Peter's reminding them in this moment that this world and the places that they are living in is their temporary home, not their final destination. And that's applicable for us too. As a chosen believer in Jesus Christ, you too are an exile. You are a temporary resident here in rdu and in this world, this place is not your home.

In Jesus high priestly prayer, he prays this for his disciples, but it's also for us. In John, chapter 2:17, verse 16, he prayed, they are not of the world, even as I am not of it.

As much as my realtor friends that are in the audience here today, they would love to help you find your forever home in this world. But this serves as a reminder for us that this place is not your forever home. Let's keep going. You have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Wait.

Do I have a say in any of this? The fact that God knows everything beforehand doesn't mean that he forces you to make the decision or he leaves you with no choice. You have made the choice to follow Jesus, and it's through the sanctifying work of the Spirit. Now, the CSB says it this way, that they're set apart by. By the Spirit.

You're being sanctified. That means you're being made more into the image of Christ, set apart by the Spirit. Why? So you could be awesome? No, not at all.

So why? Well, one reason is the Spirit's doing a work in us so that when trials come and when troubles come our way, we can remain obedient to Jesus Christ. And then he says, there's sprinkled with blood. It's the sprinkling of blood in the Old Testament reference in Exodus that when Moses is confirming the covenant between the Lord and his people, after they were offered burnt offerings and they sacrificed a young bull, Moses would sprinkle and splash blood on the altar. It's almost like Peter is saying that we belong to Jesus and He belongs to us.

That our sins have been forgiven by the blood of the Lamb and through our covenantal relationship with Jesus, we should want to be obedient because of our love for him and his unconditional, undying love for you and for me. And Peter concludes his introduction with this Grace and peace be yours in abundance. It's a nice statement. Isn't seems that Peter is encouraging them by saying that, hey, you might need a lot of grace, a lot of God's grace and his peace to help steady you, to help buoy you and your faith as you encounter trials and troubles that come your way as exiles living in an increasingly hostile culture. And whatever you may be walking through, don't you want to have the same grace and peace in your heart?

An abundance of his grace and his peace in your heart. This world is not our home. Our suffering is real. And sometimes in the midst of it, it can feel a bit hopeless. But Peter says our hope is not rooted in this world at all.

Our hope is living because Jesus is living. And that's the good news. The good news is this, is that you have a living hope. Look at verses 3 through 5. Here says, Praise be to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope that through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. There's the good news. The gospel is summed up right here in verse three. That God, in His great mercy toward us, satisfied the punishment that is earned by us by sending Jesus to rescue us.

That is good news. And we often like to think about God and His great love for us. And that's true. He loves us so much that he sent a son for us.

But God is also a just God too. That means that our sin has to be dealt with. Our sin that causes physical and spiritual death, that creates eternal separation from the Father, speaks to the weightiness and the seriousness of our sin. And it's because of our sin that we are left dead in our sins without hope. And.

And the sin debt, a bill that we have to pay, that we've accumulated for ourselves, that we owe and that we could never pay on our own. In Colossians, chapter 2, verse 13, it says it this way. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness. This is our sin debt, our bill which stood against us and condemned us.

And he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross while we were still sinning against God. God in his great mercy sent Jesus. And it's through this suffering servant's shed blood on that cross that the payment of our sin has been paid in full, nailed to the cross so that you have a new life that offers you true hope. It's a living hope. And this hope is way more than a wish.

It is a confident expectation that's rooted solely in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And sometimes in this world, we can exchange living hope for things that don't bring life.

They aren't living hopes, rather they're dead hopes. Dead hopes are anything that are temporary that we can be placing our faith and trust in. Things like our health, the economy, politics, and even our culture. Ultimately, those things perish, fade, and they fail us, leaving a person feeling hopeless. But your hope is rooted in a resurrected Savior.

Your hope is alive because Jesus is alive. Whatever problems that you are walking with, there's always hope because your Savior is still on the throne and he's ruling and he's reigning man. That is good news.

And there's more good news here. Not only have you been given new birth into a living hope, you have an inheritance that is waiting in heaven for you. I don't often think about my heavenly inheritance and what it would be like. But I know that unlike our earthly inheritance, it often causes relational fractures. They're affected by crashed markets, they get lost, they're put in places where people can steal them.

Our inheritance is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, and it is being kept in heaven by God himself.

Go back to verse five here, says you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. Now, I think the NLT states a little more clearly for me. I'm a little slower. It says this. God is protecting you by his power until you Receive this salvation.

Now, this salvation that he's talking about is different from your past salvation. That's called justification. That's when you place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and your sins were removed. Or your current salvation, which we just talked about, which is your sanctification, that is the Holy Spirit doing a work in you to make you more like Jesus Christ. What we're talking about here is your future salvation.

This is your glorification. God's final removal of sin from our lives so we can stand faultless before him in glory, in eternity, Until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. Now, this word shielded here, your version may say guarded or protected. It's a military term that talks about how a soldier is to guard a charge or how a soldier would guard their post. The verb tense of this is present, it's ongoing, it's continuous.

It indicates that God is perpetually watching over you. It's around the clock protection.

It's not like troubles don't come. We know they always do. But it's that God is protecting you. He's guarding you, shielding you and your future salvation.

Peter's audience can know for certain that they can endure these present troubles and enjoy the salvation that is to come because they're being guarded through the power, God's power through faith.

Where are your hopes being placed? Are they in the things of this world that can collapse when troubles come? Or do you have a living hope that endures all circumstances because it is anchored to a risen Savior?

This is indeed good news. It's almost like Peter knows something about us, that we cannot endure these hard truths unless we are first anchored in a deep, deep hope.

So after reminding believers what is secure, Peter now tells them what is unavoidable. And here comes the bad news. And I'm going to be a little blunt about it. But. But the bad news is this is that you will suffer.

Verse 6 says it this way. In all of this, you greatly rejoice. Why do you greatly rejoice? It's all the things that we just talked about. It's the good news, the inheritance.

Though now for a little while, you may have had to suffer grief, you've had to endure pain, hardship, sorrow, and all kinds of trials. Again, I go back to the NLT translation says this. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while.

I hope it doesn't come as a surprise to you, but suffering is a part of a Christian's journey. While we're here living as exiles, we can expect to endure pain, hardships and sorrow. It's not that suffering is exceptional. It should be expected as a part of a Christian's walk.

And as I've been kind of working through this message and this passage, the Lord made me very acutely aware of how much suffering is around me at this moment. Whether it's my own physical and emotional suffering that I'm going through. It's my dear friends who are walking through trials at this moment. It's my family members that are dealing with illness and disease that are doing it and walking through trials. Even when I watch the news, I see people in our community, in our nation and in this world that are suffering mental health struggles, physical illnesses, food insecurity, war, creating all kinds of struggling.

And for many of you in this room, and you walked in here today, many of you may be enduring pain and hardship walking through different types of trials right now. And if you aren't currently walking through a trial right now, praise God for that. But I bet you know of somebody who is close to you who is walking through a trial. There are no two ways about it. Suffering is all around us.

And I don't know about you, but when I'm in the midst of suffering, it often becomes this heart check moment. It seems that when I start walking through trials, it exposes what's really going on in my heart. Usually at the beginning of a trial, I'll say this, be very candid. I'm super grumbly at the very beginning because I don't want it, I don't like it. And even in the middle of it, I'm a little bit grumbly.

I don't want it, I don't like it. But what my trials are starting to expose in my heart in those moments is where does my hope truly lie? Are they being placed into things that are temporary?

Are they dead hopes?

Or am I walking through this trial with a living hope? Suffering often reveals what our hearts are truly resting in. And I, like Paul David Tripp, wrote this book called Suffering. I haven't made my way all the way through it, but as of so far, it's a book I would recommend to you to read. If you want to read about suffering someday.

It's an uplifter, but he wrote this book in the midst of his own physical suffering that he was enduring. His kidneys shutting down, requiring six surgeries in two years. And he said this, and it just stuck out to me. And it's talking about how what's in our heart determines how we suffer. He says your suffering is more powerfully shaped by what is in your heart than what is in your body or in the world around you.

In other words, your response, whether it's physical, emotional, relational, is more determined by what's in your heart than what you're actually facing. Suffering will magnify what is already in your heart. It is like holding a magnifying glass up to your heart. It exposes. He goes on to say this.

He says it's how two people can walk through the same types of suffering with radically different hope because of what rules in their heart.

Your suffering and your trials, they are real. Peter himself acknowledges that. He says that we will suffer grief as believers.

And Trip's observation is that suffering often exposes where we are looking for security, hope, and comfort. When you walk through your trials, what is stirred in your heart?

What questions are brought out? How do you respond in those moments of suffering? Is it with expectant hope, or are you being crushed by dead hopes? Do you. Do you see purpose in your suffering?

Or do you begin to question God in the midst of your suffering? Do you question God in his character? Now, I do want to pause, and I want to be very clear in this moment. I think it is more than human that as we walk through suffering, we have questions. But there is a difference we even see throughout the Bible.

There is a whole book with a lot of questions. It's a book of psalms about what is going on in the midst of suffering. But suffering can tempt us to interpret God's character through our pain instead of interpreting our pain through God's character.

Where are you looking for security, comfort, and hope? Remember that God is good all the time. And all the time, God is good even in the midst of your trials, your sorrow, your hardship, and the pain that you're enduring. But Peter doesn't leave suffer, suffering believers sitting in this bad news. He gives them glorious news.

Their suffering is not meaningless. God is refining their faith. And because Jesus overcame the grave, suffering never gets the final word. And that's the glorious news. Your suffering is never wasted.

There's a lot of reason. God allows and uses suffering.

He does it to draw us closer to him. That when you're at the bottom and there's nowhere else to go and all your dead hopes have failed you, God is using that suffering to draw you closer to him, revealing our greatest and deepest need. It reveals our need for rescue, our need for true comfort, encouragement, and to be restored to a living hope. That can only be found in Jesus Christ.

God uses our suffering to deepen our compassion for others who are suffering. Second Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 3 and 4 says it this way. Praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of comfort, who comforts us in all of our troubles so that we may comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. And this verse really makes me think about the time when I stepped out of corporate world after 15 years and began to work in the world of ministry. And I think Holly and I, in those moments, thought you, yes, we'll experience some troubles and some trials that will come our way.

We may have to endure hardships, things like selling a house, not making as much money.

Our kids may have to go to new schools. They may lose their current friends. We may lose our friends.

We thought that ministry obedience might make for an easier life, but man, were we thrown for a loop. Trials of many kinds occurred immediately, and they occurred often. And after being a bit shell shocked by this and going through a bunch of our troubles, Holly and I were sitting in a counselor's office one day and we're sharing with him about the trials and the troubles that we were experiencing.

Stuff that I could never imagine in that moment. He said something that stuck with me ever since, and he was able to reframe our suffering. And he said, I'm not surprised that you're going through these troubles. Pardon?

What do you mean?

And he said, how do you think you can step into a role as a kid's pastor or a family pastor if you cannot identify with, relate to, or understand what these families that you're getting ready to serve and what they're going through.

Profound. But I remember thinking in that moment, hey, I can think of a lot of better ways that God can teach me this lesson.

He could have just had somebody tell me that. Pastor Scott could have said, hey, man, there's going to be some hard things. So just, it's going to be hard, but it's fine. Just tell these people this and that. But God didn't do that.

Why did we walk through this? God was using our trials to prepare us, to prepare our hearts. Compassion in us, build compassion and dependence on him. And so now I see my suffering a little differently. And when I'm walking through suffering, I'm looking at God and saying, okay, what are you teaching me in this moment?

What am I needing to learn here? And what's so awesome is that when I have a conversation with a family or with, with parents who were walking through their own trials that are very similar to the ones that I walked through, that I couldn't understand why I was going through those. In those moments I pause and I go, thank you God. I now know why I went through that.

Peter gives us another reasons why we suffer. It's to refine and prove genuine faith. Let's look here at verse seven, says this, these he's talking about our trials have come. That the proven genuineness of your faith of greater worth than gold. Hold on.

Your faith is worth more than one of the more precious metals on this earth which perishes even though it's refined by fire so that it may result in praise, glory and honor. When Jesus Christ is revealed, your faith is being refined. Refined. It's being tested, it's being proven, it's genuine, that it's real, it's authentic. And it is exactly how it appears to be through your trials that you face all the questions that you have held on to, the anger that you felt, the fear that has gripped you begins to be replaced by confidence in God and his plan.

Perseverance is being built up, courage developed because of the hope you have in Jesus. And just like gold, your faith, more valuable than that gold, is being refined in the fire, impurities are being stripped away.

So that at the time when Jesus Christ is revealed, speaking to his second coming, our faith will end in praise, glory and honor. And every true believer that is found to be in Christ will be revealed and honored for being steadfast in their faith. That the fruits of your faith will be commended by him and you'll be honored with a crown of righteousness and be glorified both in soul and body.

When your faith becomes sight and when your gaze upon that suffering servant and he affirms you your faith with praise, glory and honor. And he exclaims, well done, good and faithful servant. Those temporary trials, what you've walked through, this suffering and pain that you've had to endure of many different types, become a distant memory for you. Because you are in the presence of your Savior.

Because of Jesus, your suffering isn't wasted. It became a pathway to glory.

And so, as we begin to conclude our time, I think that Peter's words in verses 8 and 9 are as much for us today as it was for those first century believers. It seems that Peter is recalling this time when he was with a doubting Thomas who needed to see Jesus to believe. And in an instant Thomas faith became sight when he saw and he touched A resurrected Jesus. And then John Jesus says this, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed.

Peter knows what it's like to see a risen resurrected Jesus with his own eyes.

But he also knew that most believers after him would not have that experience. And so he says something that's truly remarkable here in these last couple verses. Though you have not seen him, you love him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. For you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your soul.

When our faith, when your faith becomes sight, and when we are no longer exiles, but in our eternal home, where every tear is wiped away, there's no more suffering, there's no more crying, there's no more mourning, there's no more pain. What an inexpressible joy we will feel.

But until then, though we as exiles live in a broken world and experience real sense suffering and real pain, we can triumph because our living hope is anchored in a risen Christ.

And so I want to invite the band members up, and as they're coming up, I wanted to close by revisiting Peter's introduction. I've updated it with a slight twist to chosen exiles scattered across Raleigh, Durham, Wake Forest, Cary and surrounding areas. You will experience trials. You will suffer grief in many ways while you are here. But your suffering isn't meaningless.

God has saved you by the blood of the Lamb, and he is refining your faith. He is deepening your obedience, and he is reminding you that this world is not your home. You have an eternal inheritance. And because Jesus overcame the grave, your trials never have the final word. So take hearts.

You can triumph your trials because Christ already did. May your hearts be overfilled with his grace and his peace. Will you join me in prayer?

Father, in this moment, we praise you that you have made a way for us, That you sent your son to die for us on a cross, shed his blood for us so that our sin debt could be repaid, something that we could not do on our own.

And there's many folks, maybe in this room who don't know the good news, who have not accepted your good news of reconciliation and restoration. Lord, I pray that you would press upon their hearts in these moments to take a step to know and to follow you, to give their life to you, because hard times are going to come and they need to be anchored to a living hope. Would you please change a heart that is destined for eternal separation from you? Would you change a heart that would restore it? To restore that relation, to be with you.

God, we thank you that while we're still here, you give us a living hope. While we're still here, while we're temporary residents, foreigners, aliens in this world. God, you still care about us. You are protecting our salvation. So that when our faith becomes sight, when you see us, when you tell us, well done, good and faithful servant, God, you will, our faith will bring praise, glory and honor.

Jesus, thank you for the cross. Thank you that you left heaven obedient to the Father.

That you were placed on a tree. Nailed to the tree died the suffering servants. Death.

For us to have a new life and a new hope.

It's in your great, majestic, merciful loving name that I pray. Amen.