He has never let us down, has he? God's been good to us. Why don't you turn to 1 Peter chapter 1, 1 Peter chapter 1. again thank you for the good day Sunday we appreciate it and also brother Paul has got the mission display up now let me encourage you you go out there and it's got all the missionaries on it it's got a big world map and you go touch on a dot and their picture will appear and their prayer letter and all that stuff and we did that because I believe this that sometimes we got some prayer cards back there and of course you can always pull their prayer letter up online but we got to face the fact we're in a digital world and therefore it's all in one place so please use it and it's important that we continue to keep up with our missionaries pray for them it's more of a relationship than just giving money to them and you want to be a blessing see a blessing you'll go there and read their prayer letter and see some of their needs and it will help you pray. People say, I don't know, I can't pray for an hour. Well, you go and read some of those prayer letters, you'll learn how to pray for an hour. Amen? So, let's turn to 1 Peter chapter number 1. We're going to begin in verse number 1 and go down through verse number 8. How many have never heard of Peter? So we'll make sure we're all on the same page. Can we agree that when you study your Bible and you look at Peter, We have to probably identify with him. I mean, Peter messed up probably more than he succeeded in his walk with the Lord. And he writes this epistle. And really, when you look at it, it's really a letter of a lot of things he learned. And we're way too critical of those that start out in the faith and don't know what they're doing. They're babes in Christ. But see, as we grow in Christ, We ought to get to the point that we're able to, uh, look back and see some of the mistakes and some of the pitfalls and some of the trials and tribulations and help other people. And that's really what this is is a, a letter to Christians, uh, from Peter. to really recount what he's learned over the years and that's one of the things we talk about mentorship and discipleship and those are very important things and we're losing generations of Christians because nobody will disciple them and I understand there's two sides to that one we're busy number two there's a generation that comes up and Brother Shane we're probably the same way young Christians, young men, young women and you got it all figured out you don't need anybody to tell you anything Then you'll figure out that you didn't know as much as you thought you did, right? And so the quicker you learn that, the better off in life you're going to be. And so I've been pastoring 22 years and I realized this, I don't know anything, right? People ask me, they'll say, what do you think about this? And I'll say, I don't know, I don't have a clue, right? But I'm glad I have some experiences and I did try to learn from some men and Again, I miss Brother Fry almost every day because I could call him up and say, Brother Fry, I'm going through this, and he'd have a word for me. It may not always be the word I want to hear, but he'd have a word for me. And so Peter writes here in verse number one, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus and Galatia and Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia. He said, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the father through sanctification of the spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Now notice verse three, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Which according to his abundant mercy, amen. I'll say it again, his abundant mercy. And when, when we realize that again, we don't deserve anything except the wrath of God. And, and we realize that everything mercy is getting what you don't deserve. Uh, grace is God's unmerited favor. Mercy is getting what you don't deserve. And he has been abundantly merciful to us when we think about how we've sinned. against a holy righteous God and realize that we're here. Brother Shane, the fact that we're in church on Wednesday night is the mercy of God. And so he calls it abundant mercy. He says, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. I want to stop there and say this, your Christianity ought to be a life that's alive. Right? It's not about, it's about dying to self and living to God. But I see a lot of Christians that are dead. I mean, let's be honest. Church is dead. Worship's dead. Their life is dead and nobody wants what they got. And they'll say, well, God's not saving anybody anymore. Maybe the reason he's not saving anybody more is because our hope's dead. And if you believe, and I know you do in your heart, but if our actions, uh, are what they should be and what we believe, then the Bible says that we're to, uh, he's begotten us unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead to an inheritance. Incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. Well, that's personal, isn't it? He says, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. In those verse six, he said, wherein ye greatly rejoice. Though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. Can we stop there a moment? Is there anybody? I mean, listen, the day we're living, that is so relevant to us. Notice what it says that we're going through, according to verse six, manifold temptations. He said, you're in heaviness. The weight of it, the burden. So a lot of times we'll read the Bible and we'll say, well, they're not going through what we're going through in 2024. Well, according to what Peter's writing here, they're going, he's writing to the Christians of that day, but it's for us today as well. And so I'll say this, we are going through some heaviness, but nobody's out there trying to kill you for your faith right now. Amen. They may be trying to stop you from talking about it, but they're not hanging you upside down, sawing you in half for your faith. And so he's writing this to Christians that understood really what it is to suffer for Christ. And so then he says in verse 7, that the trial of your faith. being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found under praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. So what I want us to focus on tonight is the fact that everything that we're going through now today, you may not see this side of eternity, the manifestation of the glory of God in your life or the reward for those manifold temptations, but according to the word of God, which has to be true. It says that one day, it said tried with fire might be found unto praise and honor and glory when? At the appearing of Jesus Christ. Whom having not seen ye love, in whom though now ye see him not, yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Well here's the contrast. So Peter's writing this And he is one who has saw Jesus Christ. He's seen him, right? How do you know that? Well, look at the verse, Peter, what an apostle for the qualifications of an apostle was that they had to see Christ. And so he walked with Christ. He was one of the 12 disciples. And so he's laying this letter out to people that had never necessarily laid eyes on Christ. And today we're looking at this thinking, man, if I would have walked with Christ, I would have a better understanding of the temptation. Well, think about Peter. Peter didn't understand. He literally walked with Christ on the earth, and he still was not understanding the precepts that Jesus was laying out about the death, burial, and the resurrection. And so he's dealing with the question of salvation here. So Peter's a name that really stirs us again. We look at him. He was a, he was a fisherman. He, he told Jesus, he followed him. We know that oftentimes he questioned him. Oftentimes, he would stick his foot in his mouth. Even in John 21, one of my favorite chapters of the book of John, Peter is telling the Lord, he's like, well, first of all, he goes fishing. Then he sees Jesus, and he falls out of the boat and goes over there and eats with him. And Jesus laid out the foundation for Peter. He said, listen, feed my sheep, feed my lambs, feed my lambs. And Peter, you would have thought, said, Lord, thank you for this great responsibility. But what he does, he says, what about him? And then we see that God uses Peter at the day of Pentecost to preach that great sermon. And you think then Peter's like, I'm on the right track now. And then you read through the book of Acts and it's back and forth. One day it seems like, man, he's on fire for God and the Holy Spirit's leading him. And the next minute Peter does something human, right? And so Peter understood when he writes this what we're going through today. I don't know about you, there's often times one day I feel like I'm on a spiritual mountaintop, walk with God, amen. Everything the Bible makes sense and the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and God's close to me and then there's other days that it seems like I'm the most wicked sinner that's ever walked the face of the earth. You ever been there? And so now he writes these epistles to bring clarity and to share what he has learned. He begins these letters by dealing with the question of salvation. He's not dealing with the question of salvation and how you get saved. He's dealing with the question of salvation. See, salvation is three parts. One, it's one thing, but it's three parts. First of all, when you ask the Lord to save you, he saves you for eternity. Secondly, you're being saved or you're being sanctified, and one day we're going to be taken out of here and we're going to be eternally saved. Amen? So when he says this, understand that context of it, and Peter's laying out for us really From now, the day you get saved, until the time Jesus comes back, that we're going to have some trials. Now what's amazing to me, Brother Jerry, is we read that over and over in Scripture, and then when we have trials, we're going, oh, now wait a minute. Right? Not to mention we don't like trials, but then we're told that we're to rejoice in them. And so he begins these letters by dealing with this question of salvation. In other words, when you get saved, what keeps you going? Because I don't know about you, I don't remember when I got saved that anybody told me it was going to be easy. Brother Matt, I don't know if anybody ever told me how difficult it was going to be sometimes either. Right? And so let me give you these things. First of all, to give us confidence in this thing of salvation, he deals first of all in verse 3 and 4 with an expected hope. Now, the reason we do what we do and the reason we don't quit and the reason we don't give up, brother, the reason you're running for school board is not the rewards you get on this earth. It's the fact that we believe Jesus is coming back. Amen. I mean, listen, I don't pass this church because it's a great gig. Amen. It's not a vocation. It's a calling. And the fact is you don't live for God at your job site or at school or in your neighborhood because it's the popular thing to do. See, you've got to hope. and expectant hope that Jesus is coming back and that if we remain faithful, he'll reward you. And that's what Peter's dealing with here. He says in verse 3 and 4, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us. You know what that is? That's salvation, friend. You're saved because of the mercy of God. He said, unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Two, so he said you're being saved from death unto life but then he lays out what your future holds. Notice what he said in verse four, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you. Can I say it again? For you. Amen. For you. You put your name right there. He's saying, yeah, for you. For you, Matt Black. Hey, for you, Brother Shane. For you, Austin. For you, Patrick. I'm saying you put your name in there and God is writing this letter to you to say, listen, you keep going because I've got a reward for you in heaven one day. Just keep going. So here is the expected hope that he lays out is, first of all, a triumphant exit from the grave. See, I'm thankful. I mentioned this over the last few weeks. We've attended or done, what, four funerals. Man, there's nothing exciting about a funeral except when the person knows the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen, that you know where they're at and one day you're going to see them again. And that's what he's laying out. We have a triumphant exit from the grave. Well, understand first of all the source of the expectation, the believer's great hope. It's not, let me say this, ready? It's not him being a Baptist. It's not him being a preacher. It's not him being a, listen, I grew up in church. Our expected hope is this, the source of it, the believer's great hope is the triumphant rapture to glory. I don't know what's going to happen in November. But I'm going to say this, I've determined that whoever wins whatever, I'm going to keep serving the Lord. Amen. My hope is not up in Washington, D.C. and my hope is not in Hollywood and my hope is not down at the courthouse, praise God. It's not in Raleigh. The hope that you and I have, it sits in heaven on a throne and may I say, he's the same yesterday, today and forever. All of this is in his plan. And so the worst thing that can happen to you is that somebody kills the body. I mean, let's be honest. For mankind, the ultimate thing, the worst thing that can happen is you die. Well, let me give you some hope. Our Savior conquered that. Amen. Amen. Listen, the worst they could throw at him, they said, you know what we're going to do? We're going to kill him. All right, fine. He went to the cross. He died willingly. They put him in a borrowed tomb. They sealed him up. They put guards out there and he still escaped it. Hallelujah. Amen. So understand that Jesus had conquered the grave and he's our source of hope. Your baptism, your knowledge of the scripture, listen, your little prayer that you've said, the fact that you've been a Baptist, none of that's your source of hope. Your source of hope is that you serve a Savior and you've accepted a Savior that has conquered death. Amen. So the source of the expectation and then the security of it. Notice the abundant mercy in verse number three. It guarantees we shall overcome at the last. I want to say this. Mark my word. Because we're not preaching no prosperity stuff. Because that ain't what the Bible teaches. There's no guarantee that until you draw your last breath, your life's going to be easy. Anybody who tells you that is a liar. You say preachers can't prove that. Well, the greatest Christian in the Bible is Paul. They chopped his head off. The greatest prophet according to Jesus was John the Baptist. Anybody remember what happened to him? They lopped his head off. Both men were thrown in prison. Paul was beaten to death, right? Came back to life. Can you imagine that? Boy, they'd be saying, he's dead. And they go back into town, here comes Paul walking back. What time's church, guys? I'd be like, I'm going with that guy, right? But here, the whole scripture is telling us Jesus, the Son of God, was beaten, was marred beyond the recognition of a man. So let me ask you this. Look through church history. Read Fox's book of martyrs. They've all martyred for the cause of Christ. Yet we think in 2024 that the American Christian is not going to suffer. So Peter's laying it out that your hope is not on this earth, your hope is not in things getting better here, but the triumphant hope, the source of our expectation and the security of the expectation is this, His Holy Spirit indwells the believer. Listen, when Satan's beating up on you and you feel like quitting, there's something inside of you that says keep going and that's not your conscience, that's not the That's not some meditation. That's not some metaphysical. That's the Holy Ghost of God, if you're born again, saying, keep going, keep going. Your salvation's secure. There's a heaven for you. Amen. So Peter is writing to us and telling us the source of the expectation and the security. But notice this, the substance of it. What's it based on? His resurrection. Now if you say, I believe in the death and the burial but I just can't wrap this thing around the resurrection. Let me help you with something. Then you have no hope. I mean every Savior of every religion has lived and they've died. There's one place if there's an empty tomb with no Savior in it. Friend, that's your hope. And we said it Sunday. Listen, if I'm born again and I'm in Christ, if He's alive, I've got to be alive. So His resurrection guarantees our resurrection. So number one, we have an expected hope. It's not today, it may not be tomorrow, right? It may be 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, but one day, praise God, we're going up. So number two, it's a triumphant exit from the grave but then it's a triumphant entrance into glory. It's not just enough that we're going somewhere. Listen at the picture he paints for us in verse four. He said to an inheritance. Now I'm not real smart but here's what I do know. In order to get an inheritance, There has to be someone who leaves it to you. And most of the time, a family member leaves an inheritance to another family member. You get where I'm going? See, God is leaving an inheritance to His children. I ain't leaving nothing to mine, but praise God, I'm glad He's leaving it to His. Aren't you? No, I am going to. They just don't know what it is yet. So in verse 4 he says to an inheritance, notice the terminology incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away. So there's no termites, there's no water damage. There's no corruption. Listen, your mansion is just like it should be. But notice what he says. He says, reserved in heaven for you. Reserved in heaven for you. So that the entrance is this. He gives us the revelation that is made to us. He's laying out for us that there's no corruption. It's incapable of decay. Incapable of defilement. But then the reservation has been made for us. You know what's kind of neat? You can do it online, right? And if you go to a hotel enough, right? And you get enough points. And they know you're coming. And you'll say, I got a reservation. It's OK, what's your name? Or now, it's what's your number, right? What's your number? You give them the number. Oh, Mr. McDaniel, it's so good to have you in your room. We have this, this, this, and this. Right? They knew you were coming. Now, if you just go rolling up in there, you may or may not have a room, right? But if you make a reservation, the idea is I have reserved that room for when I get there because I don't want to lay my head down on a pillow. Right? May I say your reservation has been made if you're saved. See, it was bought with the blood of Christ. And so a triumphant entrance into glory, he said, here's the beauty of it. He doesn't lay out all the specifics, but he does tell us that it's no corruption, no defilement, there's no sin, there's no sickness, none of that's there. But he says, listen, he loved you so much. This one he said, was it John 14? He said, I go and prepare a place for you. If it were not so, I would tell you. He said, and if I go, so he said, I go. He said, and if I go, I will come again. Hallelujah. He said that where I am there you may be also. That's the promise God gave us. So what I'm saying is he's already obligated himself by his word to come get us and now Peter is laying out for us a little bit of what heaven's going to be like. Paul wrote it this way. Paul got to see it and he said the have hadn't been told. He couldn't even explain it, Brother Eddie. He couldn't. I mean the great orator, the great writer of the New Testament could not lay out in description what heaven's really going to look like. I don't know about you, that excites me a little bit. So it's a triumphant entry into glory. Well then, number two, he tells us this, that we have an expectant hope and an experiential faith. What do you mean by that? That we experience things. See, some of you thought when you got saved, God's going to put you in a closet somewhere and he's going to wrap you in bubble wrap, right? And that you were never going to face anything but good things. Right? Well, that's not what the Bible said. So in verse 5 through 7, he says, we're kept by the power of God. We're kept by the power of God. How? Through faith. Unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. He said, now notice, you ready for this? Let me give you a time out. This is where the rubber meets the road. You can talk about faith, you can talk about how much you love Jesus and how good God is. Listen, I'm going to stay with Jesus until he comes. All those are words until your faith is put to the test. A faith that isn't tested can't be trusted. I mean, somebody told you this, listen, we just came up with this new car and we've come up with it on the computer and we built it. And they say, well, okay, has anybody test driven it? Well, no, but theoretically it should work fine, right? I'm thankful that those airplanes you've got to get on, somebody got on there and did a test flight before you got on it. Now if you got up there and said, this is the first flight, the maiden voyage of this particular type of airplane, this guy ain't getting on it. You say, where's your faith? I don't have faith in man, right? So he's telling us in verse six, he said, if your faith were kept by the power of God, well, that's a great statement by faith. But he goes on to explain some things because he knows, right, that in this life, Brother Johnny, we're going to face some things. And notice what he said in verse 6, wherein ye greatly rejoice. Still sounding pretty good so far. Though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold tensions. Whoa, whoa, whoa, time out, right? We just hit a roadblock. We were doing good when we were talking about heaven. We were doing good when we were talking about salvation, right? We were doing good when we were talking about the resurrection. And we were doing good when we heard we were kept by the power of God. But, verse 6 changes gears. He said, ye greatly rejoice. I'm still good with that. Praise God, I want to rejoice, don't you? Though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. Well, then he says, he tells you why in verse 7, that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold. Well, I think, how many of you see all these precious metal commercials? The economy's going to tank and the dollar's going to be worth zero. You know what they tell you to buy? Gold and silver, right? There's probably some value to that, I'm sure. So, here's what he's saying, and I don't understand. If you understand this, you come and talk to me after service. Because here's what he said. The trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found under praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Can I help you with something? In my flesh, that makes absolutely no sense. Right? Doesn't make any sense to me. I mean, I don't understand, Brother Matt, how the trying of my faith through divers temptations and divers trials and manifold temptations, I don't understand how in the world I'm supposed to rejoice. Do you? Well, that's what he tells me to do. That's what the book says. So according to that, I can't make up excuses. Brother Sean said, well, I can't do it. Well, I can do all things through Christ. He's telling me I've got to do it. Right? So here's what I want you to see, that we have this faith that is experienced. Right? It's all great when we talk about how much faith we've got and, oh, I trust God. I get so tired of people saying, oh, I just trust God for everything. No, you don't. If you did, you wouldn't be on Facebook asking people to give you money to meet your need. If you trust God, you wouldn't have to do that, would you? Right? It's good preaching. So here's what it is. This experienced faith, it sees beyond the temporal. Now the temporal is what we see here. I would dare say... Years ago, I thought probably about 90% of everything people said was conspiracy. Now I think they're probably all right. Because here's the thing. What I can't see is more real than what I can see. That's the truth. You can't see God. He's more real than any of us are. You've never seen heaven. But listen, all this is going to be burned away one day. What you can't see is more real than what you can see. But you've got to see it with the eye of faith. See, if all you ever do is walk by sight, not by faith, you'll never get anywhere with God. You cannot please God without faith. That's what the book says. So, it sees beyond the temporal, the things you can see, this present. Notice what he said. He said, we're kept by the power of God. Well, that tells me he's looking ahead and he's saying, you're going to face some things in your life that you're gonna need the power of God in and I'm gonna keep you even though you don't know what it is well that tells me brother Jimmy he already knows he's already looked down through the temporal things of eternity and saw you here and knows your need and he said I'm gonna keep you now that when you experience the trials you don't think God's keeping you just be honest In your natural man, in your flesh, we question God. God, why do you let this happen to me? Amen? So you see the present and the prospect. Here's what he said. You're kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. So the prospect points us to the day when Christ will be revealed in all his glory. One day, don't know when it's going to be, he'll be revealed. And so then we'll see that all that we've gone through has been worth it. You look at those early disciples, right? So when Jesus is crucified, they run up to the upper room, they're hiding because they think they're going to be next. When he comes in that upper room after the resurrection, you see two different upper room experiences. The one before the resurrection, they were afraid. Jesus comes in, they see that he's alive, right? Then you go into the book of Acts, and you see another uproom experience, yet that one is men filled with the Spirit of God, endued with power, and they're ready to go conquer the world. Matter of fact, their testimony were these that have turned the world upside down. So even though we're living in the last days, and you're thinking everything's bad, the same Spirit of God that endued them with power is the same Spirit of God that endues you with power. Man, I ain't discouraged what's going on. Every time persecutions happen in the history of the church age, right, the church has grown. Right? Because there's questions. And that's why the Bible tells us the church, listen to me, is not to be the hub of cultural things, right? We're not to change everything to meet the society, the world, and the cultural change of this world. The Bible said we're to be the grounding pillar of truth. Why? If people can't come to church and find truth in the word of God, then where are they going to find it? So, he deals with this faith it sees beyond the temple. Listen, what you see is not real. And I'm not trying to get, don't look at me crazy. I'm not getting into some crazy sci-fi matrix. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about eternity. What is real for us is not here, it's up there. Listen, I saw it in your face. I ain't talking about no spooky stuff. I don't like all that spooky stuff. Me and Miss Ellen, we were riding somewhere today and people had all these skeletons and giant things in their yard and I got spooked out. Man, I don't like all that stuff. People not normal that like to be scared, right? Scary movies, haunted house, God help you. Amen. You say, well, I like that stuff. Well, I'm going to pray for you. You need some prayer. Amen. But then it sees beyond temptation. Because verse 6 says, wherein ye greatly rejoice. I can't do that in my flesh. Though now for a season. See, all this is a season. You going through some stuff now? Yep. Season. Seasons change. We were talking to a lady today, and she said, what's your favorite season? Miss Ellen said, summer. I said, I like spring and fall. I like it to be cooler. I don't like the cold. The older I get, man, I know why old people moved to Florida. That cold, Miss Rita, get down in your bones, won't it? I like the spring, because you're coming out of winter, starting to warm up. And the fall, because we're starting to cool down. But you know what? Miss Ellen hates fall. You know why? Because she knows that fall precedes winter. It's going to happen. Right? And so we have to realize when you're going through trials in your life, it's seasonal. We couldn't bear it if it was constant. Right? Now let me say this, the seasonal may not be that short and the reprieve may not be that long. But when you have the season, that season of calm, you better learn to enjoy it. Right? Because it won't last. So what we're looking at is that our faith soars beyond temptation. Well, the way we do that is the fact that we got to keep our eyes, according to verse six, be revealed in the last time. See, if all you see is today and tomorrow and November 5th and January 22nd or whatever that date is and if that's all we see, retirement date and when the kids, you know, graduate high school and if you got all these temporal dates or these temporal milestones in your life, what happens when they're over is you have disappointment again. But if I keep my eyes on the prize and realize that right now, listen, you better realize this. Brother Fry taught me this. He said, listen, I was asking about, can Jerry tell you this? Jerry told me, he said, you know, when he was growing up, his daddy was off preaching all the time. But here's what Brother Fry told me. He said, my kids are saved. He said, I'll spend eternity with them. God called me to preach on this earth. God called me to do this on this earth. So we're going to spend eternity with love. See, and don't get me wrong, I'm not against family time. But I think sometimes we get so caught up in family time, we realize that the time on this earth, if your family is saved, you're going to spend eternity with them. And we've got work to do here, right? We've got a job to do. And so Peter is telling us right here that we've got to see beyond what's going on in our life right now. You've got to see beyond the season of temptation and realize that there's a heaven waiting for you. And then it sings beyond testing. Verse 7 says this, that the trial of your faith being much more precious than gold that perisheth though it be tried with fire might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. So precious faith develops in trials. Anybody have any? Here's the thing, right? You can say, well, I trust we lay a board across there, right? I said, all right, Brother Matt, get up here and walk on this board. Well, what proves if you have faith that board holds whether you get on it? I mean, who cares if you say, I believe it'll hold me? Jump up on there and let's see, right? Well, if it breaks, then you don't have as much faith as you think you do, right? Same thing with walking with God. If the only time you have faith is in the good times and you doubt God every time something bad happens, every season that things bad happen, your faith is weak. He's the same God in the bad times as He is in the good times. Right? Somehow, and don't ask me how, it all fits in his plans for his glory. And so here it tells me that we may not always in this life be able to sing and praise God in the testing. We should, right? But here it says, under praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. So it's all for his glory. See, I'm thinking this. I think sometimes we get so, we're so comfortable here. We don't, we're not really looking for him to come back. Right. I mean, I mean, if the more comfortable you are here, the less attractive there is. So I'm thinking things are going to have to get much worse here so that you and I are looking for that. And then let me give this quick in verse eight, we're to have an expressive love. Notice what Peter said in verse eight, whom having not seen ye love in whom though now you see him not yet believing you rejoice with joy unspeakable full of glory. So here's what he's saying, what our love dares to do is this Peter said had seen him and loved him, right? But he says this, the highest kind of love is loving whom you've not seen. And then he tells us what our love does. Faith and love go into the future hand in hand. If you love God, you've got to have faith in Him. Right? Your faith is directly tied to your love for God. You say, I don't agree with that preacher. Well, if you love Him like you say you do, why can't you trust Him? His plan for your life is perfect. Your plan for your life is flawed. Right? You say, I don't agree with that. I think my plan's perfect. Well, there's your problem. See, he has all knowledge. Says here he has foreknowledge. You have a limit. See, you don't have foreknowledge. You've got past knowledge. If you're smart, you learn from your experience. but you can't see into the future and the only thing of the future you know is what God tells you in His Word. Right? You say, how do you know He's coming back? Because He said He was. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't know that. Right? And see people out here that don't think He's coming back because they've never read His Word. You can't blame them for that. They don't know any better. Right? So He has perfect foreknowledge knowing what will happen. We have limited post knowledge or past knowledge and if we're smart we learn from that experience but so what we're doing brother James we're saying my way in the future is perfect that I don't know anything about but his isn't and he has perfect knowledge of it so if you love him you have to have faith in him Right? Because if you only love what you see, then what will happen, your mind will be captured by all the things that are going on in this world. Circumstances, prime example. In our finite mind, Brother Kenneth, we'll look at circumstances and say, how could God, if he loves me, let this happen to me? Well, the trying of your faith. God's letting it to make you more like Christ. You say, well, I don't understand that's right because you don't have perfect knowledge. So I'm going to give you this, I'm done. Now you listen, this will help you. Some of you are looking at me, but I'm telling you this, if you'll quit trying to figure it out and just trust Him and walk by faith, your life will be easier. I'm telling you. Man, there is a joy, Brother Matt, in not beating yourself to death, using all this brain power, trying to figure out what God's doing, and just wake up in the morning and say, God, tell me what to do and I'll do it. Right? Amen. It'll help you. Some of you pulling your hair out and drinking Maalox like it's chocolate milk because you've got ulcers and everything else, and you own about 47 different kinds of medicine because you... Well, you just don't know. I worry all the time. What are you worried about? What can you fix by worrying? Not one thing. Because your foreknowledge is zero. His is perfect. It'll help you. Right? So, we have to realize that God has a plan and when we look at salvation He has saved us He is saving us and one day He'll ultimately save us out of this life He's worth trusting and if you'll get that tonight I promise you this, your life will be a whole lot easier I'd say you wouldn't go through trials but when you know it's the plan of God it makes it a whole lot more bearable than questioning why God let you go through it Amen. All right, we're going to pray around the altar and finish out the service tonight. And appreciate it.