All right. Good evening, everybody. This is a good spot for me to stand. Okay. So today, I had some warm-up questions and whatnot, but I hope you guys got an opportunity to look at the passage. For tonight, we're going to move on ahead with the study and then starting from next week at the beginning when you guys enter in.

As you guys come in and fill the table and stuff, we're going to just begin with having some time of discussion with each other as a way to think about the passage, take a look at the passage, and et cetera. So just letting you guys know what to expect.

So let's all turn our Bibles to 1 Peter 1, verses 6 through 12. All right. And then I'll read the passage for us. And it says this, "In this, you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

And though you have not seen him, you love him. And though you do not see him now, but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.

It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you. And these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look." All right, let's take some time to pray.

Father, we thank you so much for your grace. And God, we want to just saturate our time with both prayerful hearts and expectant hearts. God, that you by your spirit would give light, that you by your spirit would give conviction. Lord, help us to have hearts that are constantly yearning, yearning for the knowledge of truth, yearning for the knowledge of our God.

We thank you, it's in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Okay. So, jumping right into the passage tonight, we begin with verse six that says, "In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials." Okay? By way of introduction, I don't know if you, if someone were to ask you, "When was the last time you were so happy you cried?" You know?

When was the last time where you were just like so happy, like tears are coming out? Maybe if you were just like laughing so hard or whatever it may be, where the emotion was so strong that it almost looked the opposite. Like it was so good, it hurt. And you know, for me, the last time I can remember is the time just seeing Josiah being born.

You know, I don't know if you consider me like an emotional guy or whatever, I can't remember. You know? But like, I remember distinctly seeing him come out and just like this welling up, you know? And the reason why I asked that is because this passage has a lot to do with incredible joy.

Incredible joy. Now what's interesting is in verse six, it says, "Hey, in this you greatly rejoice," and then it goes on. But rather than just passing it over, let's ask the question. Question number one, what does "in this" refer to? What are we talking about? Okay, oops. What are we talking about when we ask, "In this we rejoice"?

Is he talking about these various trials? Is he talking about the things that are necessary? Is he talking about the fact that things, you know, in terms of the suffering, it's temporary? What is it that we are rejoicing over? And I want to do a quick review with you from the last time, okay?

Remember last time, an apostle Peter went at length to describe the work of God in salvation. So he had a bunch of things that he talked about. Apostle Peter talked about how you are chosen, that God had made you born again, and that he protects you, right? He made an incredible kind of, you know, packed sermon almost of these three things that he has accomplished for you, and then he described how he did that according to his knowledge, his sovereign knowledge, according to his mercy and his power.

So in terms of our being chosen, in terms of being born again, and in terms of being protected, it is accordance with his great might and strength. What's more? The way, the means by which he accomplished this is by the work of the spirit, by the resurrection and again the power of God.

Then lastly, and all of that continues to have a trajectory for obedience, for his purity, or for purity, for hope and an inheritance that remember was imperishable, upgrade proof, and unstained. Unstained by anything. And wrapping our minds around this, in terms of the thing that causes us to rejoice, we have to think about all of that, all of what Apostle Peter described as our great salvation accomplished by God, these are the things that's causing great joy even, even when there's trials.

Okay? Now, I want to ask a question. When you take a look at this passage, he describes the trials that they go through and there's almost a comparison. There's a comparison between the trials and the joy that he sees in the people. In verse six through nine, or six through eight, let's ask this question.

How does Peter describe their joy? And then we're going to try continual audience participation here. Take a look at the passage, verse six and then verse eight also. How does he describe the joy when they have this joy in the work of God? So just, you don't have to even raise your hand, just yell it out what you see in the passage.

Inexpressible. Great. What else do you see? Filled with glory. Anything else? Okay. One of the things that we see just in verse six is this kind of idea of greatly rejoice, right? So go ahead and list those things down. All right? Now, in terms of this great rejoicing, let's talk about this a little bit.

The kind of joy that Apostle Peter is describing here, there's a sense in which we, for us, there's like different synonyms that we can use too. We can be happy and then we could be elated, right? In the Greek terminology for this word, for greatly rejoice, there's two different words I want to highlight.

I'm not going to even try to pronounce the first one. The second one is kairo, okay? Two different terms used for joy. Many passages in the scriptures use kairo on the side. Agaleao. I think it's agaleao. This is talking about the kind of like jump for joy, okay? This is talking about something that's where it's causing you an immense amount of intense joy and elation.

And the reason why I bring this up is because the way that he's talking about this passage, what's kind of interesting is he describes it as something that people that he's talking to is already possessing. Did you notice that? He's not saying like, "Ah, you know, I know it's super impossible for all of us and I know it goes contrary to what's normal, but can you guys please be happy?" No.

What he's saying is, "Although you're going through all this stuff, you are happy, right? You have this joy." And I wanted to highlight that because I think a lot of times when we go through difficulty and we go through hardship and someone says something to the extent of like, "Ah, but we need to have, we need to rejoice always," or, "We need to have a sense of still contentment and thankfulness in it." I don't know.

Do we sometimes respond to that with like, "Yeah, but that's probably, you're saying that because you probably haven't suffered much." You know? Or do we actually believe that's possible? Is it possible to come out of suffering with an immense gratitude and joy? Rejoicing. Now what's really interesting about this is as he adds that kind of stuff, that in verse six and eight, putting it together, there's this inexpressible joy, too much for words almost, and there's glorious joy, full of glory, right?

And when I look at that, I don't know, when I read it, I wondered, "Is Apostle Peter being sarcastic?" And it's kind of like, right now, because I haven't exercised in a long time, if I go on the basketball court, I'm just like hurting and I'm super slow. And if someone was like, "Ha ha, you're so fast," you know, I'd be like, "You be quiet, it's been a while, alright?" Is it that kind of sarcasm?

And it's like, "Oh, you're so happy." No, I don't think so. Apostle Peter is continuing to encourage a group of Christians who are expressing joy in the circumstance, and then he's adding to it further encouragement as he goes. Now for us, if perhaps this concept of great joy, not just a little bit of joy, not just like, "Yeah, I'm content," but this kind of like, "Wow, yes!" If that seems a little far-fetched, I think Apostle Peter adds to it.

So let me go on a little bit, okay? So there was the verse eight inexpressible joy. Let's take a look at verse nine through 12. In verse nine through 12, he says, "Obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls, as to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful inquiries, or searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.

It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preach the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look." Now I want to ask you a question, and cause you guys to just think about it, okay?

Why is Apostle Peter, who desires the people, the Christians, who are experiencing suffering yet happy, and he desires them to be even more happy, and remember he said last time, "I want you to have grace and peace to the fullest." How does talking about the prophets looking into this, and the angels looking into this, contribute to them being more overjoyed?

You guys get my question? How does the fact that prophets were making careful inquiries, and how does the fact that angels are looking contribute to adding to their joy? Take a moment to think about that, okay? And then, let me have a brave soul. What do you guys think?

Say that one more time. Okay. So the people know they have this salvation? Okay okay. Okay. So for the people, obviously, from the experience of the Christian, yeah, like the salvation that Apostle Peter is highlighting is something they already have. And then so I want to kind of further the question here a little bit, but how does the angels looking into this, and the prophets from long ago looking into the salvation, contribute to the joy of the Christian?

Yes. So if God's word is described as the revelation of God, then there was even in heaven a mystery of salvation ready to be revealed at the right time. The angels were anticipating the native breath, and curious to see how will God glorify himself in this unjust situation. So these Christians got to live at the apex.

They got to experience the creme de la creme, the culminating point of the revelation of Christ, the mystery of the salvation, of the salvation of the native breath. And they got to experience the salvation of the native breath. And they got to experience the salvation of the native breath.

And they got to experience the salvation of the native breath. And they got to experience the salvation of the native breath. And they got to experience the salvation of the native breath. And they got to experience the salvation of the native breath. And they got to experience the salvation of the native breath.

And they got to experience the salvation of the native breath. And they got to experience the salvation of the native breath. And they got to experience the salvation of the native breath. And they got to experience the salvation of the native breath. And they got to experience the salvation of the native breath.

And I just want you guys to think about that a little bit, okay. Are any of you guys actually Chicago Coast fans in here? Okay. Well you guys know the story, right? I mean absolutely. Anything that is so long-awaited, you know, highly anticipated. Something that there has been great expectation for, longing for.

The fulfillment is fantastic, right? Now for perhaps, sometimes when we fail to appreciate something, perhaps we don't get that. That this has been a mystery, hidden for generations, coming to fulfillment, the fruition of time, and many steps having to accomplish prior to this time, and at the pinnacle moment, they get to have this.

Now I want you to think about another concept. So the first thing you should jot down right underneath this is this idea of this long-awaited anticipation. But the second word I want you guys to write down is exclusivity. Exclusivity. Bless you. Okay. Why am I talking about that? Because the prophets were looking into this, the angels were looking into this, and the thing about it is, are, I want to ask an interesting question here, are angels privy to this salvation?

Please turn your Bibles over to Hebrews chapter 2. I've preached this passage before like three or four times, but every time I look at it, I'm just still floored. I'm in awe and absolutely in wonder. Okay? Hebrews chapter 2, and we're going to start in verse 14 and go down to verse 17.

Okay? Now, in this passage, he talks about why Jesus had to be fully man, and it speaks to the glory of Christ. But this is what he says, verse 14, "Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives." Look at this, okay?

Look at this. "For surely he does not give help to angels, but he gives help to the descendants of Abraham. Therefore, he had to be made like his brethren in all things so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the things pertaining to God." Did you catch that?

The angels are looking into this like, "Wow, what is God doing? When is this happening? What is he doing for them?" And they realize God is not serving the angels. God is serving who? Our kind. And you ask the question, what we have is not just cheap and privy to all.

It is actually incredibly exclusive to those God has desired and chosen to help, namely the children of Abraham. And I wonder if some of the angels are looking on with jealousy even. This is an incredible unique privilege for the Christian who by faith can see an incredible huge long plan salvation plan of God that is incredibly exclusive for those who have been chosen.

Does that contribute to the joy of what we have? Of course. My goodness. My God did not have to help everybody. He actually was not obligated to give anything. But when he decided to help, then he obligated himself by which his son, Jesus Christ would have to come and by obligation then be like us in every way, in flesh, and to make every requirement to take on that obligation when he absolutely did not have to because he chose to help us.

What an amazing truth of the gospel. So I say, Apostle Peter is adding to their joy by adding to the value of salvation. What it is you have in the work of God. Right? And in that he says, you rejoice. You rejoice. So by way of application, sometimes at looking at certain other passages of the scripture, when people suffer, there is almost this misconception.

Am I supposed to be glad in my suffering? You don't have to be like a sadomasochist. No, you're not just be like, yeah, hey, I got hit today. No, it's even though, right? Even though these things are happening to you, you have such a great salvation. You have a joy that is inexpressible, full of glory, is great, and it doesn't depend on any circumstance in your life.

Remember how I said last week, you have such a great salvation. You have a solution. You have a joy that supersedes even the solution of removing all pain. You have an incredible salvation in Christ. So that's our first part. And when we perceive that this salvation is so grand, then our perspective of salvation falls into place.

Right? When we perceive the value, the depth of the salvation that we have, then our perception of the difficulties, the hardships, now all of a sudden come into place. I want to ask you this question. How does Apostle Peter describe, so let's jump back to our passage. How does Apostle Peter describe the suffering and the hardships that people are experiencing?

Let's just look at them and kind of throw them out again. Okay, various. Okay, you have various trials. What else? You guys can jot these in, okay? Various trials. These are the toss-up one, guys, where you just have to list them from the passage. So let's just throw them out.

So there's various, and then there's distressing, okay, which in the NIV, it kind of says it's grief, right? So there's painful. It's painful. Anything else? For a little while, and then if necessary, right? So let's jot those four things down. It was various trials. It was distressing for a little while, and then if necessary, right?

So I said just a moment ago, he began by describing the greatness of salvation, and then he described after that the description of the kind of experiences that they're having. Now, if you read that for a little bit, I don't know if that kind of sounds like, "Hmm, is he kind of diminishing their experience?" You know, someone's like, "Oh, I have such a hard time, and I'm having such a difficult day," and then the pastor goes like, "You know what the Bible says?

It's like light and momentary suffering. It's light, man," and you're like, "All right, I'm never talking to you again," you know? Because you kind of, you know, it's kind of almost patronizing, and it's almost like diminishing their experience. Is that what Apostle Peter is doing? No, it is not.

He's putting it into perspective. When he says this is various trials, yeah, I mean, he gets it. He gets that people are going through lots of different kinds of trials. The word for various trials is multi-colored in the Greek. So he knows, just like we experience, for you guys, too, sometimes when things go bad, you know how the ADM goes, when it rains, it pours?

Yeah, sometimes it's like multifaceted, coming at different angles, and it's like, "Man, just when I thought one thing was over." And he describes how, yes, we do experience grief. We do experience pain, and yes, it is distressing, but then he also describes how it is for a little while.

This is temporary, right? It's not going to last forever. As a matter of fact, we're hoping in Christ, who is going to bring that day when there is no tear. And lastly, if it's necessary, saying, "Even the suffering, though, it's purposeful." Okay? Oh, shoot. I totally forgot to use this thing.

Okay, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, and then bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. Okay. You know what? I don't know if I'm going to use a PowerPoint next time, because I forget about it. Okay. So the reason why I'm describing this to us is because there's an important question we have to ask, right?

When you experience suffering, when you experience difficulty, and maybe even persecution because of your faith, how is that supposed to look then in terms of your response? Right? The reason why I ask that question is because I think sometimes when I ask people, when we talk about suffering, it's like they always kind of say, "Oh, I feel like this, but I know I should, and I know I should," and they almost have to like justify why they feel bad, and they're like, "Oh, but I'm okay." And I'm like, "We don't have to, you know, do that, because truthfully speaking in terms of our experience, I mean, like, we don't have to feel like, 'Oh, yeah, I'm supposed to be happy when I suffer.'" Jesus wept when the people around him were suffering.

Jesus looked at the entire city, and he was just like stirred in his heart, and he said, "Oh my gosh, I wish, I wish you were different. I wish that you would be receptive so I can bring you in like a mother, you know, hen." Remember that? And remember before the cross he would say, "My soul is troubled within me." He's saying like, "My guts and insides are being all turned around." Are we not supposed to feel anything?

I remember actually listening to a pastor's sermon one time, and he gave this, you know, he was teaching on suffering, and then he gave this analogy when his child was sick, when he was super young. His child had seizures, and he was talking about how they were at the hospital, and his wife was losing it.

She was just weeping and bawling in the waiting room, and she just couldn't hold it together. And then he kind of had, he said he had to admonish his wife to keep it together because we believe in stronger, better things. And I was like, "Dang." You know? I don't know if at that moment I would have been like, "Hey, keep it together because we're stronger than that," you know?

Because the fact of the matter is, in our experience, we have a full gamut of various trials that we go through. And we have a full gamut of various experiences. And sometimes they are distressing. Sometimes they are troubling, and they're incredibly painful. Right? But should we have no tears?

Should we have no, you know, like, like working through the questions? No, that is not the case. There is a process. There is a spiritual fight where we see what we see with our physical eyes, and then we start to consider, we start to remember, and we start to rehearse what we know.

Just yesterday, actually, Pastor Peter and I were digging dirt with Eugene and stuff over at the church, and we just started talking about this. Is it weird if we're like more happy when things are good and sad when things are bad? And then Pastor Peter brought up a great passage.

In the book of James, chapter 1, he says, "Consider it all joy when you face various trials." Right? Now, on a knee-jerk reaction, it's like, "So you should be happy." No. He says, "Consider." Which means you have to do a work. If some of you guys are frustrated, like, "I don't know, man.

I don't feel that joy when I'm hurt." And it's like, "Yeah, because in order to feel the joy, there's actually work required." And what is that work? It's a spiritual work. It's a spiritual work of prayer. It's a spiritual work with grappling with spiritual truth. It's a spiritual work of considering and remembering.

Please turn your Bibles over to Hebrews, chapter 10. Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 32 through 36. And the author of this book essentially says the same. So, Hebrews 10, verse 32 through 36. He says, "But remember the former days when after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of suffering, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming shares with those who were so treated.

For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward, for you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised." So, there is a work here of remembering, of knowing, and looking forward to the reward.

Your joy is not simply in the fact that, like, "Okay, I get to suffer." Because otherwise, later on in the book, he says, "Why are y'all suffering for doing silly things? If you're gonna suffer, you better suffer for good. If you suffer for bad, then God's gonna judge you too." Right?

So, he says here, "Your joy is not found in just the circumstances. Your joy is found when you are remembering, considering, and engaging in the spiritual battle, spiritual eyes and spiritual faith, versus physical sight as we live." Okay? So, that's verse 6. Took us about 30 minutes. We've got a bunch more to go.

Now, I'm gonna kinda push everything together too, so we're not gonna be here too long. Okay? But, let's take a moment to think about this, right? There are times when we experience suffering, and then we try. We try really hard. We contemplate, we try to remember, and we try to pray.

Now, here's an interesting thing. A mind prayer is that every single one of us would learn, because if we didn't go through a bunch of suffering already, we're probably gonna go through it in the future, right? At some point or another, we're gonna go through it. That we would be prepared and know to continue to pursue rejoicing and being grateful to Christ, even in the midst of dire circumstances.

Because, if after going through that process, if after trying to remember, if after being counseled and after being instructed and reminded, you find no joy, then that's an incredibly kind of alarming and concerning place to be. Because in that moment, there is no proof of faith. And that's what we're getting at in the next verse.

Let's take a look at verse 7. Okay? Let's take a look at verse 7. Okay. In verse 7 it says, "So that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." Now, if you take a look, just for the sake of visual effect, typically what I do is, again, I try to diagram and break down the phrases.

But the way that this kind of, there's a, you know, parenthetical clause right there. Parenthetical meaning it's just kind of squished into the main sentence. But if we just take a look at the main sentence, it should read, "So that the proof of your faith may be found to result in praise and glory and honor." That's the main phrase.

Right? And so what you find there is a purpose clause. "So that." Anytime I see a purpose clause I always circle that. "So that," and then I highlight that because I want to remember that. He says, "You have this rejoicing and you have this inexpressible joy even in the midst of suffering." And then he says this, "So that the proof of your faith may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor." Now, I want to ask you guys this question, okay?

And this one, you guys can just take one minute to discuss it in your group. What do you consider to be proof of faith? Both existent in this passage, so kind of looking at verses 6 through 12, what do you think is considered the proof of faith? But in terms of other things you can list that come to mind, what is a proof of faith?

Okay? Go. Okay, great. So can you guys just shout out some of the answers that you guys discussed, you know, throughout there? Any volunteers? One more time? Repentance. Great. Repentance as a proof of faith. Good. What else? They loved Jesus. And let's talk about that a little bit, okay?

Let's take a look at, oh, did I miss something? Okay. Let's take a look at verse 8, okay? Let's take a look at verse 8 and it says, "Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. And though you do not see Him now, but you believe in Him.

You greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory." Okay? When you look at that, there is an interesting thing happening there, okay? To me, if I was preparing a sermon, rather than taking all of these passages, I would just take verse 7 and 8, sandwiches together, and I would say, "This is the proof of your faith." The proof of your faith is that even in the midst of suffering, you, and even in the midst of a moment when God's love seems most unreal, right?

That even in those moments, you still love Him. It's not just the fact that, like, "I don't see you, but okay, I'll try." No, it's what they're experiencing to them on a humanistic level goes contrary. "God, if you love me, why are you letting me go through this?" That's the kind of question we ask in our day.

Oh, God, and a lot of people these days, it's not even that. They don't even have to go through suffering. It's just if they're not tall enough, they don't have enough skill, if they don't have enough money, their automatic question is, "God, why'd you make me like this? Don't you love me?" But in their time, they're actually being persecuted.

So it's not just simply, "I don't see you." It's, "I see contrary, but I love you. I believe you." Right? That's the essence of our Christian faith. What else is there in terms of proof of our faith? Yes, Denise? One more time? Bearing spiritual fruits, right? That there is actual transformation.

That one person who goes from angry to more gentle, right? What else? Obedience. A submission of the will. Before we were Christians, our greatest will is our own. After you're a Christian, we continue to submit to the will of God. What else is there? Anything? Praise. Excellent. When you are a genuine Christian and your eyes are open to the greatness of God, you will be in wonder.

You will be in awe, right? And these are the things that need to rise. But today, what we're talking about is these are the things that need to rise even in the midst of unfavorable circumstances. Even in the midst when there's a huge hurdle and praising is hard, when change is hard, when there's temptation to continue to revert back, right?

Because that's what we're talking about today. That even though you're experiencing these things, what you have is unexplicable joy. That the joy itself is a proof in and of itself that although what should be there is grief, disenchantment, a sense of bitterness, a sense of I give up, but rather there's joy there.

And you know what's really interesting is even the word proof, right? Even the word proof. What's really interesting is the NIV kind of just kind of spells it out for you. It says, "All these trials, these have come to you so that your faith may be proved genuine." What's really interesting about that is there's like two interesting words that are at play.

The term for genuine or proof is a term that's used often in metal work where people would apply intense heat and you know that process of purifying the metal and boiling it and letting all the jaws come to the top. The residue, meaning the remaining pure stuff, that's the term used for genuine or proof.

It's the evidence. It's the remaining, lasting, residual, genuine part. Right? He says, "Let that come out." And so God is using the suffering. God is using the circumstance and those are the moments where we're going to see our faith tested. When we're going to see our faith tested. And by application for us, I want us to think about that.

And let's really put our own hearts on the table here. Okay? He's saying that in this moment, what's really, really good is that your faith be purified. But sometimes in our lives when we experience suffering, we're challenged. We're challenged because in suffering we are challenged about what we want, what we seek as a solution, what we're desiring in the moments of suffering.

A lot of times what we want is fixed, like a quick fix. What we want is a solution. What we want is a pragmatic way out. And that challenges your faith. Right? That automatically challenges your faith. Because when we do that, when we're asking God for a solution, we might be asking for something that is completely contrary to what he's doing for our faith.

Because for our faith, he is challenging us to still believe when we don't see it. And so yes, sometimes we're asking God, "Show me. Can you change me? Can you challenge me?" But he's saying, "I want you to believe even when I'm not showing you." Right? "I want you to believe even if it's not there.

Even if it's not tangible. Even if it's not close." Remember, it's Christ who said in John chapter 20 verse 29, he says to him, "Because you have seen me, have you believed?" He's talking to Thomas. And then he says, "Blessed are they who did not see yet believe." When Jesus said, "Blessed are they who believe when they don't see," he completely radically challenges our value system.

Right? What's good for us is actually being able to have a firm footing when we see it. When I land on something. He says, "No, blessed are you when your faith is so strong you don't need to see it with your eyes." It's also Christ in Matthew chapter 5 in the Beatitudes who said, "Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." So, in Christ's eyes, looking at our circumstances, what does he desire as a result?

So that what? That your faith would be bolstered. That your belief would be strengthened. That you would come out with an assurance and a confirmation and a conviction. I believe my God. Yes, all this stuff might go haywire, but I absolutely believe my God and I love him. That's what he wants us to come out with.

Let's not ask for other stuff then. Yes, we could still ask for things to pass. Yes, we could ask for God to change circumstances, pray for when there's physical amen for healing and provision and all of that because he's our Father. But if his answer is by necessity, right?

If this is necessary, then God desires our faith to be purified. That's what I'm saying. And so, in kind of wrapping up, let's move to the next section. If you notice in verse 7, he says, "So that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold, which is perishable even though tested by fire." And he says this, "May be found to result in praise, glory, and honor." Praise, glory, and honor.

And I wanted you to ask the question, I wanted to ask the question, it's just a simple question. Whose praise, glory, and honor is Apostle Peter talking about? He says later on, you know, after experiencing all this, there's going to be a result. It's going to be praise, it's going to be glory, and honor.

Whose praise, glory, and honor is he talking about? Correct. Yes. Yes. That's a good question. You know, I mean, I'm not going to draw a strict line, because in the end, well if I answer that, then I'm just giving you the answer. Tricky, tricky. A lot of things in the Bible, it's not so clear cut.

I mean, I'm talking about my sermon would have been proof of your faith, but I could have done it sources of joy, sources of, you know, and then the other way, backwards, right? But, so anyway, alright, thanks for ruining my question. I'm just kidding. Well, let's think about this a little bit.

What naturally, the reason why I ask it is because what naturally we presume to be exclusively for God. Who else deserves praise, glory, and honor? God alone, right? You're taught, like, God alone deserves praise, glory, and honor. And that's what, that's your knee jerk reaction when you read that passage.

So sometimes, again, if you just read it in cursory, it's like, all this stuff is happening, he causes you to rejoice, and what I'm, God is praised, amen. And you move on. But in this passage, you read that again, and you just kind of realize, like, hmm, that's really interesting.

He says that this may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ, right? What's really interesting about that passage is there's a kind of succession, and I don't want to show it here, okay? Oh no, I forgot again. Okay, here, praise, glory, and honor.

Let's take a look at this. There's a little paragraph there where I have arrows, and there is a sequence of connection, relationships between phrases that I put together, and if you guys observe it, you know, see if you guys just see it, some of it's really obvious, and some of it, you know, we kind of gleaning from the passage here.

Well, first he begins with, "You greatly rejoice," right? And then we noticed that he introduced the next part by saying, "So that." So he says, "You greatly rejoice, so that the proof of your faith." The proof of your faith results in, results in what? Glory, praise, glory, honor. Obtaining, as a salvation, as the outcome, salvation of your souls.

This whole entire section is a progressive thought of what faith is doing for you. Is it not? I could phrase this in another way. Why is your faith so great? Because it was in accordance to God's plan, that by faith you would receive everything He promised you. So when He commends you, He commends you for your faith, because when you have faith, then God accomplishes His masterful intent, which is to thoroughly bless you in Christ, simply through faith.

And by faith, you have all of this. Praise, glory, honor, salvation of your soul. Right? Now to me, that's quite profound. Because God does, interestingly enough, commend us. We know Jesus Christ, who said, who taught, that for those who serve well, God is going to say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." We know that God is going to reward, richly reward, those who continue to give and serve the Lord, especially those who would even sacrifice their lives for the Lord.

Now let me ask you a question. What does this teach us about God, who commends genuine faith? And I want you to think about that for a moment. What does this teach us about God, who so desired to give us the inheritance, who so desired to give us the resurrection and being born again, who desired to give us His protection, who desires to give us honor and share His glory with us, simply upon faith.

What does that teach us about our God? Let's jot some of these down. I would say, "My, what a glorious and unique God." Because He's God. What God gives recognition to His creatures. What master over a slave has, "Hey, let's have slaves appreciation day. Everybody blow balloons and let's like start, you know, bring up the, you know, slave of the month or something like that." No.

Why? Because they're only doing what they're expected to do. What Lord continues to share His space, His wealth with His servants. Wow, God is unique. And wow, God is generous. Scripture says, you know, when Apostle Paul was preaching to the people of Athens, he was like, "You guys are so silly.

You guys put down these altars and you guys give your altars food and you guys put all this stuff and you guys make temples and stuff. God, who is in the heavens, is not served by you." Why? Because He don't need you. God's not using you. God's not benefiting by your services and your sacrifice.

But what does that tell us? By Him wanting to give His promises simply upon faith, what a generous God we have. Right? And what's more, God is truly loving. Because to me, when God wants faith, it's like saying earlier, God earlier, sorry, in verse 8, one of the, you know, profound and emphatic proofs of faith was that we love Him.

So when He commends good faith, what is He actually commending? Love. What does God desire to have between Him and His people? Love. What is He orchestrating? What has He accomplished through all this salvation? He has accomplished a love relationship by which He is pouring out His blessing simply upon those who are having confidence and not throwing that away.

What an amazing, loving God we have. And I think in that, we rejoice. It's not in the circumstance. It is not in like, "Hey, there's going to be better days." No! Days aren't getting better. I don't know anybody who's like, you know, much older who's saying like, "Oh yeah, yeah, just wait and it's all going to get better." You know?

Life just gets harder and harder. We don't have confidence in that. We have confidence in an amazing God in whom we can rejoice to the fullest. Amen? Let's take some time to pray. Father, Lord, we thank you so much for your salvation. God, we realize maybe, you know, Lord, we sometimes just don't appreciate