NOT EXEMPT FROM SUFFERING (17 OF 20)
Scripture: 1 Peter 4:12-19
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Not Exempt from Suffering (17 of 20)
Series: 1 Peter
Robert Dawson
1 Peter 4:12-19
Have you ever felt like you have been ripped off? Most of us have at some point.
- You go to a new restaurant that has become the talk of the town, with the prices to match, and find the food to be lacking in both portion and palatability.
- You hear the buzz about a new movie and go to the theatre and plunk down your $100 bucks for the family only to find new depth and meaning to the word boredom.
- You see a purchase, a tool or piece of exercise equipment, and know it is going to revolutionize your life only to find the only thing that changed was the amount of money in your bank account.
We all know what it is like to have our expectations go unmet.
I have to believe, at least on some level, the Christians to whom Peter was writing must have felt the same way. The expectation of their Christian life and the actual current results were not what they had hoped for.
Maybe they thought, ''We signed up for salvation and not suffering.'' In their minds, like so many today, those two thoughts do not belong together.
- When we come to faith in Christ life should get better and it does. The problem we have is that we define better by easier and we are never promised easier when it comes to new life in Christ.
- We'd like to think living for Jesus somehow magically insulates us from the harsh realities of this world, realities like suffering and persecution.
- We hope that salvation and living for Jesus is garlic around the neck and salt over the shoulder that wards off all the bad and evil things in this life.
It would be nice if that were true. It would be nice if the false shepherds of the prosperity gospel were right but wanting something to be true and it actually being true are two different things.
These believers were probably a bit stunned and confused at what was taking place. They were not use to this kind of suffering and persecution. Their new f ...
Series: 1 Peter
Robert Dawson
1 Peter 4:12-19
Have you ever felt like you have been ripped off? Most of us have at some point.
- You go to a new restaurant that has become the talk of the town, with the prices to match, and find the food to be lacking in both portion and palatability.
- You hear the buzz about a new movie and go to the theatre and plunk down your $100 bucks for the family only to find new depth and meaning to the word boredom.
- You see a purchase, a tool or piece of exercise equipment, and know it is going to revolutionize your life only to find the only thing that changed was the amount of money in your bank account.
We all know what it is like to have our expectations go unmet.
I have to believe, at least on some level, the Christians to whom Peter was writing must have felt the same way. The expectation of their Christian life and the actual current results were not what they had hoped for.
Maybe they thought, ''We signed up for salvation and not suffering.'' In their minds, like so many today, those two thoughts do not belong together.
- When we come to faith in Christ life should get better and it does. The problem we have is that we define better by easier and we are never promised easier when it comes to new life in Christ.
- We'd like to think living for Jesus somehow magically insulates us from the harsh realities of this world, realities like suffering and persecution.
- We hope that salvation and living for Jesus is garlic around the neck and salt over the shoulder that wards off all the bad and evil things in this life.
It would be nice if that were true. It would be nice if the false shepherds of the prosperity gospel were right but wanting something to be true and it actually being true are two different things.
These believers were probably a bit stunned and confused at what was taking place. They were not use to this kind of suffering and persecution. Their new f ...
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