Going through difficulties

In all that you're going through, can you greatly rejoice? 

Let's read about what Peter says about this. 

1 Peter 1:6 (NIRV)  "Because you know all this, you have great joy.

 You have joy even though you may have had to suffer for a little while.

You may have had to suffer sadness in all kinds of trouble."

I'm not sure that I've lived out this verse yet. 

For a little while we're going to have to go through griefs and trials. 

1 Peter 1:7-8(NIRV)  

"Your troubles have come in order to prove that your faith is real.

 

Your faith is worth more than gold. 

That’s because gold can pass away even when fire has made it pure. 

Your faith is meant to bring praise, honor and glory to God. 

This will happen when Jesus Christ returns.  

Even though you have not seen him, you love him. 

Though you do not see him now, you believe in him. 

You are filled with a glorious joy that can’t be put into words."

Your trials reveal your character and forge it. 

Trials can forge a great faith.

Your trials do not surprise God.

God is taking us through this to make us better.  

There are some things that we need to get better act.  

We can rejoice in that.  

That is the promise if we fully engage with God in that.  

Peter encourages us and cheers us on. 

Then, he lays out what he instructs us to do.  

1 Peter 3:9 (NIRV)

  

"Don’t pay back evil with evil.

Don’t pay back unkind words with unkind words. 

Instead, pay back evil with kind words. 

This is what you have been chosen to do. 

You will receive a blessing by doing this."

In difficulties and trials, sometimes our worst behavior comes out doesn't it? 

Peter calls us to a higher standard. 

Difficult situations are not an excuse for poor behavior.  

It is a chance to let your light shine.  

Your faith isn't in a perfect church.  

It is in a perfect God. 

Jesus said in Matthew 

5:41 (NIRV)  Suppose someone forces you to go one mile. 

Go two miles with them. 

In the ancient world the Jews hated being ruled by foreigners. 

It was the law to carry a Roman soldier's pack for 1 mile.  

Jesus was saying to do more than the law requires by going two miles.  

The second mile makes Jesus famous to a world who is desperate for Him.  

When you're in pain, the world does not expect you to be hope filled.  

If you're hope is shaken, you've been hoping in the wrong things.

Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. 

God can still use us in our pain.  

The church has a couple of problems, but so does your family.  

God is going to have His way.

Tribulations aren't going to stop Him.  

What He does best is calling people to forgiveness. 

1 Peter 1:13 (NIRV)  

So be watchful, and control yourselves completely. 

In this way, put your hope in the grace that lies ahead. 

This grace will be brought to you when Jesus Christ returns.

Don't get confused by what's going on.  

Don't get confused by what's true.  

Don't get confused by priorities.  

Peter is saying don't get confused about your hope, or who you are.  

1 Peter 2:9 (NIRV)  

But God chose you to be his people. 

You are royal priests. 

You are a holy nation. 

You are God’s special treasure. 

You are all these things so that you can give him praise. 

God brought you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

That is who your are. 

Don't you ever forget that.  

God loves to calls things that were done in the darkness into the light. 

One of the themes in Scriptures is that God is calling humans from darkness into light.  

That the truth can be seen. 

There are four things that you're called which I hope that you'll take to heart. 

1. You are a chosen people.  

Your faith was not an accident.  

I hope that you know that.  

God reached out of heaven to chose you.  

He respects you enough to have you chose Him back. 

He chose us, and He knew that we'd go through this, and this is not a surprise to Him. 

God has not forgotten us.  

2. You are a royal priest hood.  

Peter is taking titles which belonged to the Jewish people and transferring them to us who follow Christ.  

All of them knew that God had chosen the people of Israel. 

A portion of Israel God had given the title of priest. 

The idea is that we too are  priests having been dedicated to serving our great God.  

God chose us to be His servants.  

We are marked by serving in  especially difficult seasons. 

When life gets difficult, many people get self focused.  

The Bible says that this is one of the worst things that you can do.

When life gets difficult, one of the best things that you can do is to serve others. 

We are not victims, but servants.        

3. You are a holy nation.  

The concept of this is that God is always looking for a people on this planet who will do things His way.  

I am not looking for others to tell me how I'm supposed to act in this world.  

I am looking for God to tell me how.  

In the middle of difficulty, we don't look to others for guidance, but we look to scripture for God to tell us how.  

4. Finally, we are God's cherished possession. 

When you're in difficulty, it hard to believed that your cherished, but you are...by God. 

Peter wants to remind us of that. 

When God looks at you, He emotionally feels love.  

When God looks at you, He adores you and cherishes you. 

Some of you struggle with dark thoughts.  

Voices in your head that condemn you.  

As best as you can, tell those voices they not true.  

You're a cherish child of the most high God, and you hold on to that promise. 

The last word is kind of weird is that you are a possession.  

(Speaking to God)With all that I have and all that I am, Father God.  I commit myself to you. 

(Speaking to you) I don't know where you're at.   I hope that you too will take this next step.  

What you do. 

Do with courage.

Follow Christ.  

Get on your knees asking God to have His way in you and be His servant.   

Steve Gillen, Willowcreek Church