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
Not because you earned it
He did this for one reason
And one reason only
To show his mercy and his grace
Because he loves you
And because of his love
He guarantees an end of the road
That will far surpass our wildest dreams
When we humble ourselves
Admit our sins
Admit our need for a savior
Cry out to Jesus as that savior
And then
As we strive to become more and more like the spotless lamb of God
Who is the messiah, Christ Jesus our Lord and savior
Though the kindness and love of God
By means of his son’s sacrifice
We are invited to share in his eternal glory
So, you may be saying
Yea
I get that preacher
I know that when I accept Jesus
When I die
I will get to go the heaven
I Understand that there will be no troubles and no persecutions there
But what about now
What about today
What about what I’m going through right now
When are we going to be there?
How much farther?
Look again at 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.
Because you know Jesus personally
Your trials will one day end
Your troubles will be over
Do I know when
No
Some of that depends on you
Depends on your reaction and response to the trials
Some to that depends on your faith
Some of that depends on where you choose to focus
On God
Or the troubles
Depends on if you let the problems define you
Become you
Or if you use the faith given to you by god himself
To endure
Persevere
And grow in the tough times
But I do know this
God says the suffering will end
He promises us eternal Glory for our belief in Jesus
Verse 10a
In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus.
In verse 10 b
He says the suffering will last a little while
Once again, I don’t know how long that will be
God’s word says our lives are like a vapor
And in the grand scheme of things our lives here are short and temporary
Our lives here are also just a step towards our new lives in eternity
But, I do know that one way or another our suffering
If we are believers will end
Verse 10c begins laying out what happens when we hold on
When we cling tightly to our faith
When we allow the hard times to grow us
Instead of defining us
As we endure
Though his power and strength
God’s blessings begin flowing
First from 10c
“he will restore,”
He will restore you
Revive you
Renew you
When you endure all that the world throws at you
All that Satan can pour out on you
And you remain faithful
Focused on God
When you consider the trials as Joy
Seeing them as a process of refinement
He will restore you
Think of the word restoration
You may think of an old house
Or an old piece of furniture
What I think of is a classic car
A project
In the restoration process
The motor- the heart – gets rebuilt
The bumps and dents get hammered out
The old gets sanded off
And it is put back in original shape
After we have suffered awhile and remained faithful
We get restored as well
Verse 10d says
“support,”
After you have suffered a little while he will restore you
And then he will support you
Many of you have had injuries that left you needing crutches
For support
You are unable to carry your own weight
This is what God does for us
He
After we have suffered
Supports us
He carries the weight we can’t bear
Be supports us and keeps us from falling
He takes the burden on himself
But
Just like those crutches
We must allow him to do so
Crutches leaning against the wall unused will support no one
We must lean on God
Trusting him to support us ion all times but especially the hard times
We must allow him to support us
The way he supports us
In though his word
The life changing, soul saving word
He supports us by hearing and answering our prayers
He supports us by the means of his people., his church
Other believers who gather to support and lift up their brothers and sisters
Those who have been through the wrecks and come out restores and supported themselves
10 e
“and strengthen you”
He will restore you
Support you
And then he will strengthen you
God and God alone can give you the strength to endure the hard times
It is his strength
His power
His majesty
His glory
That strengthens us
Philippians 4:13
A favorite verse of many of you
The camp verse last year
Says
13 For I can do everything through Christ,[a] who gives me strength.
I can do anything
Through Christ
Who gives me strength
Whose strength
His strength
In my own strength
I can do nothing
In his strength
I can do all things
Including enduring the trials
Overcoming the trials
And growing in the trials
He will strengthen you
He has strengthened me
Verse 10f
“and he will place you on a firm foundation”
Jesus is the rock
And when we endure trials, wrecks temptations
Persecutions
And all sorts of troubles
And we use those times as a way to grow in Christ
Our foundation is firmer
Listen
I know when we accept Christ we are building on a firm foundation
But
I also know
That this live can cause us to try and walk on sinking sand
The troubles of life can suck you down
Get you stuck
And get you so focused on what is happening to you
That you forget
That your foundation
Is solid rock
And there is no time in our lives
Where we fully grasp the strength of that foundation than when
Though God’s power
Strength
Support and restoration
We endure
Persevere
And thrive though and during the tough times
It is then we understand grace
We understand love
We understand mercy
We understand what we are building on
Verse 11
“All power to him forever! Amen.”
Whose power
His Power apart from God we have no power
Apart from the life saving blood of Christ
We are powerless to overcome
To even endure
Without the Power of salvation
Our feet are in sinking sand not on a firm foundation
We cannot
Cannot
Cannot overcome
Anything
Apart from His
Power
I know many of you are suffering
I know many if you are trusting in God to take you through
But I also know there are some here
Who are trying to fix their problems in their own power
By them selves
And it is a losing battle
And just when you think you’ve won one
Or at least held it at bay
Another one comes crashing in
I know some of you are tied
Some are felling defeated
Feeling like you can’t go on
The answer is so simple
and so many miss it
Please don’t miss it yourself
Come to Jesus
Give him your troubles
He promises an eternity in heaven
Hope for tomorrow we call that
But he also promises help for today
He can and wants to restore you
He wants to support you
He wants to strengthen you
And he wants to place your feet on the solid rock foundation of himself and his word
Will you stop fighting the battles yourself
Humble yourself
And cry out for help
He is waiting
He is waiting
Patiently
Close from the heart
Pray
