Faith Tested by Fire (1 Peter 1:6-7)

record and pin. And here we go. All right. So, today we're going to be in Today's Wednesday, right? Yeah. Yes, sir. All day. Today we're going to be in First Peter. And I I like or I prefer the ESV version of this passage uh compared to the NIV. And um and I'll explain why. Um but this is the challenge we have with translations. uh it's not doesn't kill it. It's just a challenge, right? It's also the challenge in not being able to read the Greek or the Hebrew. Uh we don't do that either. Uh so here we are. We're in First Peter chapter 1 and we're in verses 6 and 7.

And so let me read this to you. And this is out of the ESV. Uh the ESV is a word for word translation. So it says, "In this you rejoice." Come back to that. Though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuiness 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. So that's almost sounds like one of these questions that we have at our married groups where the question goes on for like a paragraph and and it's like six parts and you got to kind of try and dissect it, right?

Um I I always uh it doesn't matter. So So let me let me break this out. So it starts off by in this you rejoice. So what Peter is talking about is uh the the verses that came before this. And what he was basically telling everybody is that hey, you got a seat in heaven. That's what he's talking about ultimately. You have a faith. Christ came. You are protected and guarded by God. That's what was said in the previous couple verses. And so he's referring to that. So he's saying in this you rejoice. Not in your circumstance, not in what job you might get, not in the fact that your the boss you didn't you couldn't stand quit or got fired.

None of that. That's not what we rejoice in. In this you rejoice that we have a seat in heaven. All right. And he says though for now for a little while uh if necessary you be you may be grieved. So a little while and what I find interesting is that Peter and James are talking about the same thing. James talks about it in in his book talks about um uh being uh going through various trials of various kinds. Right? So Peter is talking about the same thing. So they're in unison. They're talking about the same stuff. Um, what what what I find interesting for both of these guys, Peter and James, is that real Christianity doesn't hide that it's not hot.

They they don't the the word does not say the word is not a prosperity message as some uh pastors and churches may tell you. It's not. And it's they're they're clear about it. you're going to you're going to go through some you you may go through some stuff. And so they don't real Christianism pretend that it's going to be unicorns and Skittles. And so Peter is doing the same thing here. And he says, "But for a little while." And I want to I want to land on here for just a second. Um couple things about a little while. A a little while doesn't mean small.

You You may go through some stuff. We got a guy on here yesterday we prayed for who who may go through some stuff. It's not small. It's not small. But he doesn't say it's going to be small. He doesn't say that the that the challenge in front of you is not going to be a gigantic mountain. He just says it's going to be for a little while. Well, what is a little while? Well, a little while to an 80-year-old man might be a year or two. That could be a little while. A little while to a two-year-old is 12 seconds. And so it's very relative to who your audience is or to your timeline.

This little while is compared to eternity. So doesn't matter what you go through in this life, whether it's a a month, a week, a day, a year, five years, 10 years. What is that in compared to eternity? That's a That's a That's a dot on a fishing line that stretches from Boston to LA. That's it's that's it's nothing. It's a little while. That's all we're going to experience here is a little while. So, not small. It's just going to be a little while. And then this version says if necessary. The NIV version says uh the NIV version says you may have not if necessary.

And I liked this version saying if if it's necessary and why is that? And I think the next part of this talks about why it may be necessary. But we're going to talk about if necessary. God does not waste a hurt. He's not gonna he's not going to put you through some pain because he's a sadistic father. That's not why he's doing that. He's he's putting you through this for probably a couple reasons, m maybe more that we won't know until we get to heaven, but certainly to make you stronger. Certainly, the next part of this verse talks about the genuiness of your faith.

Oh, it's easy to say, "I'm a Christian. Lord, I love you. I got my hands raised." That's right. And then the moment the fire happens, what happens to our faith? Mhm. stand the test. Are we truly is there a genuiness? And so I feel that that's one of the reasons why God does this. It makes us stronger. And it's through the testing of the genuiness of our faith. Um he's not going to give us something just for fun, not for kicks. He's he's not that kind of God. It's not witness. He's not going to do that. There's going to be a reason behind the trial that you're going through.

And they're going to be varied. It's not going to be just one. It may be a couple. And and some of us might only have one big mountain. We might only go through one big major trial in our entire Christian walk. And some of us might go through two or three or four or five. But that's between God and you. That's not to be us compared with somebody else. It doesn't make our walk better uh because we went through more. He wanted us to go through that. He needed us to go through that. And it was for a particular purpose or reason. And so there is this testing or the genuiness of our faith.

He talks about gold. He references gold in this process. And he does that because and I'm going to land this here because I got get long on this on this these passages. Uh gold is the gold is the standard. It was definitely back then it's losing its flavor as the standard today. But gold back then could be fired. The impurities would come to the top and you could clean it off. And so you had nothing but pure. This was absolute pure. This was gold. This was the highest form of value. And what Peter is saying here is that even in that, it perishes.

But what doesn't perish is your eternity, your seed in heaven. And so what he's doing is he's taking gold, which was the complete standard. This was the best of the best of the best. It doesn't get any better than this. And even when you fire it and you make it completely pure, this is it. And he's saying faith is not even close. it's still way above it. And so he's he's making the distinction that that's where our hope and our faith lie. That's where our hope and our loyalty, our faith, our our love lies. And I don't want to use faith to describe faith, but that's where that should be.

And so as I reread this verse in in this you rejoice in the fact that our election is secure though now for a little while not small but for a little while if necessary that they don't they don't always come on everybody and all at one time and lots of them but if necessary you have been grieved. So you can rejoice and grieve at the same time. Why? Because we know that our election is secure. doesn't mean that what you're going through is not going to be tough and hard and you're not going to want to go through it. It's going to be difficult and challenging, but you but you can rejoice in the fact that this is temporary.

Uh so that the tested genuiness of your faith and then again he goes through this section more precious than gold that perishes though it's tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And so after you've gone through all that and you've been and been tested and you're done at the end, who gets the honor and glory? Dwayne for going over the mountain? No. No. God does. God gets all the praise and all the glory for walking Dwayne through that process so that when he gets to the other side, he's stronger.

He's more mature. His faith is hardened. He's ready to move forward. He's ready to tackle the next one. So, all right. God bless you. So thoughts, comments, questions, suggestions? I I find it I find it fascinating that when we read things in the Bible, what what we tend not to realize is the amount of time that has gone by between other things that we've read. And it it like even when you read Job in the trials that he went through, there's no definitive thing on how long that trial lasted for him. They it is some that say it lasted a couple months, some that say it could have been a couple years, but there's no the trial could have last, you know what I mean?

There's no timeline on that stuff. So, yeah. Interesting. Anybody else? It was a lot. What's that? And it was a lot. It was a lot. That was a lot. Yeah, that was not small. No, it was a lot. That was a lot. Yeah. Anybody else? All right. So, the key takeaways for me are we got to rejoice in in in in what we know we have, not in our circumstance or our situation. And that's not new. We've talked about that in the past. Scripture talks about it. We've covered James. Um, but it's I I find it awesome to see that the Bible is so cohesive that they talk about the same things.

They might use different analogies and different circumstances, but we're all talking about the same thing. I love the fact that real Christianity doesn't hide the fact that it could be tough and triing. Um, I love that. I I I I don't I don't want to hear it's all going to be great when I know I'm going to have to go through some stuff. And I've been through some stuff myself. Um, and I mean, I have more stuff to go through. U, but but it's real. And and and God doesn't promise to remove us from the storm. He he promises to walk through it when we're going through it.

Right. So, that that's where we're at. All right. Anybody else? 30 seconds. All right. I know. I noticed something cool. Um, I don't know where a lot of like where everyone's at in their faith obviously, but for anyone who's like very new and wants like almost like a 30 second spark note summary of the Bible, if you go to literally the next like I don't know like 10 verses, uh, 1 Peter 13 to 25, it's pretty much um, from verses 17 to 25 is really like a full um, gospel message. Um, and then verses 13 to 17 are kind of like our commands as Christians to walk holy.

Um, which you could really sum up as well is loving God and loving people. So, if you just want like a really quick I don't understand the Bible. Um, that will help you out extremely well. That's awesome. Thanks, Connor. Appreciate that. Yep. Very good. All right. Well, then let's bow our heads. Let's pray it out. Father, thank you so much for today. Thank you for Connor. Thank you for that that last nugget at the end. um uh uh because it is good and it is good even if even if we have a whole group of mature Christians on here that information is great because you're going to talk to people who aren't you who don't have that maturity level and you can just simply reference hey read first Peter chapter 1 if nothing else let's just start there and so father thank you for that thank you for these thank you for this morning thank you thank you for these uh people that show up um because this is what makes this and and it it's just a great way I I'm so thankful for this opportunity to start our day this way.

So Lord, we just ask that you're with each and every one of us. Father, we pray for each and every person on this call that they would go through their day today that no matter what what circumstance lies in front of them, that they would continue to rejoice and and and uh and have complete joy in the fact that their election is secure, that their seat in heaven is there, and that their and then for an eternity, Lord, forever that they have an opportunity to be with with you. So, Father, we thank you, we love you, we praise you, and as always, in your son, Jesus name we pray.

Amen. Amen. Amen. All right, guys. See you tomorrow. Everybody have a great day. Thanks. Have a good day. Thank you. Thank you. Have a tonight.

Transcript generated from the recording and lightly edited for readability.