Wayfaring Strangers A Study Of 1 Peter Part 22- " Are We There Yet?" Series

Wayfaring Strangers

A study of 1 Peter

Part 22

“Are we there yet?”

As we near the end of our study of 1 Peter

We come to a few more words of hope

Let me remind you

Peter wrote to believers who

Because of their belief

No longer felt as if they belonged

They had suffered hardships

And persecutions

And without encouragement

Could have easily get quit and quietly gone back to their old lives

How many of you

While driving on a trip

Even a short trip

With kids

Have heard the words are we there yet?

I know I have, many many times

I also know

I asked the very same question when I was a kid

I remember one summer

My family along with my Granny and 2 cousins loaded up in an old station wagon

With no ac and took a trip to see my Uncle

In Joplin Missouri

I can tell you

My dad was not an overly patient man

But on this trip

With 4 youngsters in the car

Asking every 10 minuets are we there yet

how much farther

He showed an exorbitant amount of patience

And would reply every time

100 miles

Or 1 hour

To Each question asked

What he was saying

Although he never outright did

Was be patient

You will get through this

The ride won’t last forever

I can tell you riding in a car

Filled to the brim with people in July with no Air conditioning

Is a hardship and many today believe this would be suffering beyond our ability to endure?

It pales in comparison to what we have gone through

Will go though

Or are presently going though

And as miserable as the ride might have been

It did not last forever

This is where we come to in 1 Peter

For 5 chapters we have talked about suffering

Persecution

And the way we get though it

We have been encouraged

We have been challenged to rethink our circumstances

And now

Peter says

Hang on just a little longer

We will be there soon

100 miles

1 hour

Please open your bibles to 1 Peter chapter 5

1 Peter 5:10-11

Let me read it for you

Then we can break it down and apply it

1 Peter 5:10-11

In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. 11 All power to him forever! Amen.

I actually want to skip down to verse 10 b

And then come back to verse 10 a

Peter says in verse 10b

“So, after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. “

So, after you have suffered a little while

We know that our suffering will not last forever

At times it may seem that it will never end

But

As Psalm 30:5b says

“Weeping may last through the night,

but joy comes with the morning.”

We will suffer in this life as believers

We will have hardships

times of trouble

Illness will come

Death will darken our doors

In addition to hardships

Wrecks and storms

We

If we are truly riding for Christ

Will suffer persecution

In many forms

But Peter shows us

That the ride will end

And the destination will be a place where none of that exists

No pain

No suffering

No tears

Only joy

Abounding

Unimaginable joy

How can this be?

Sometimes we feel the road will never end

Like the Robert Earl Keen song

The road goes on forever

Some of you can’t see the end of the road

The end of the troubles

The end of the hardships

But I can assure you it is there

Let’s go back to verse 10a

And see why Peter knew there was an end

And why I know there is an end

1 Peter 10a

“In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus.”

In his kindness

In his love

In his unconditional

Eternal desire to fellow ship with you

God

Allowed us to share in the enter glory

By means of Jesus Christ

What this means is simply this

God loved you so much that in spite of your disobedience

In spite of your sin

Your mistakes

Your past life

In spite of how bad you were or thought you were

God in his mercy gave you a way out of that mess

He sent his one and only Son Jesus to give his life to buy you back from sin

He did this not because you were good

Not because you deserved it