a sermon titled Faith in the Midst of Fire. We're gonna talk about suffering and trials today. And so those of you who are going through things in your life or not yet going through things you're guaranteed to go through, this is for you. Let's read Peter's words in verses six and seven of 1 Peter 1. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while. If necessary, you have been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness 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. That is God's word to us today. You may be seated. Last time we were in our study of 1 Peter, we looked at verses three through five and we asked ourselves the question, is there any hope? As in you're under the weight of the world, going through a lot, wondering if anybody knows or if God even is listening or is hearing your prayers. And the question we answered was, is there any hope? And the answer was a resounding yes, and it is found alone in Jesus Christ. And today, we're gonna move into the practical. asking ourselves, not is there any hope, but how will we respond in the midst of trial? Will you and I pass the heart test? Will you and I still have faith and firm faith in the midst of fiery trials? Some people turn on God in anger when their life gets challenging. They blame God for everything when things get hard. Other people take into account what the Bible teaches and they choose to see trials as a way of testing and growth, maturing them, And so, we have to as well assess our own hearts and see, are we those who run from God in anger and frustration when things get hard? Or are we those who run to Him trusting that He's doing His great work? I like what F.B. Meyer explains about the refining process in suffering. Let me read this to you. His words are a vivid illustration. He says, a bar of iron worth $2.50 when wrought into horseshoes suddenly is worth $5. That same bar of iron, if put through fire and crafted into needles, is suddenly worth $175. If made into penknife blades, suddenly the value springs up to $1,625. But get this, if that same bar of iron, wrought through fire and put through the refining heat it must go through, is then formulated into springs for watches, that same bar of iron is suddenly worth $125,000. the more it is manipulated. The trial by fire that the bar must undergo creates the value. It is hammered, passed through the heat, beaten, pounded, polished, and the value increases as it does. He goes on to say, Christian, are you wondering about the trials through which you are suffering? Are you saying how long, oh Lord? The heat of the flame and the blows of the hammer are necessary if you are to be more than an unpolished, rough bar of iron. God's all-wise plan, though it calls for fire, produces the valuable result, the watch spring, if you will, of maturity. Maybe you've said to yourself, I want so badly to have faith in the midst of fire. I want to be one of those people that trust God in the midst of trial. I want to be one of those people that people approach and go, how are you so strong? How are you enduring? I want to be strong. Well, here today, I'm gonna give you three truths that will transform the way that you go through trials. And so when you encounter a difficult moment, these will be like anchors to your soul. The first one in your outlines, if you're taking notes, that a suffering Christian always has a reason to rejoice. That's truth number one that must anchor you in trial. And we know that because Peter, in this particular passage, starts with the words, in this you rejoice. That's referring back to the entire context of verses three through five in which he talks about the inheritance of hope, of heaven, your salvation, that God has got you. If you want a summary statement, God's got this and God's got you. He's pointing back and going, yeah, in the midst of what you're going through, know this. You've got something greater. It's a hope in heaven. It's a hope in Christ. It's a person named Jesus. So he says, in this you rejoice. The recipients of Peter's letter would seemingly have little reason to rejoice. They were going through immense persecution and hard times. and this shapes their perspective. You and I can always find a reason to rejoice if we're a believer. And you might think, well, that's really idealistic, almost unrealistic. Is this a concept that's foreign to Christianity? Is this just in this passage for these people, but not really elsewhere in the Bible, that things are supposed to get easier? Well, the reality is no. James writes elsewhere about the trials that you're gonna go through. Romans talks about trials. Paul, dealing with the church, writing Thessalonians, the great letter, and the second letter of Thessalonians as well, says this to Christians going through some tough times. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Imagine that. Rejoice always, pray always, be thankful always, not just at Thanksgiving, not when you just play the thankful game, not when everything's going well, not when you're in perfect health only, not when all the kids are happy and healthy, not when your wife likes you or your husband is happy with you. No, not even when job's going well and you got lots of money in the bank. Always, when things are tough and when things are going really well, rejoice, pray, trust, be thankful. The author of Hebrews paints a picture of the greatest example of someone who was joyful in the midst of suffering and trial, of course, that's Jesus Christ. In telling you how to run the race of life, the author of Hebrews says in verse one that you are basically to put off every sin and encumbrance, push off everything that gets in the way, and what are you to look to? In verse two he says, looking to Jesus. He's the founder, the perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. Despising the shame, and he's seated at the right hand. Jesus despised the shame of the cross. He didn't jump up and down excited and go, yeah, nail them in, boys. A little harder over there. Hey, don't forget my feet. This was no kind of silly dancing, jumping up and down. Hey, I'm gonna save everyone. This was a somber, difficult, shame-filled moment. The cross was shameful. It was the mark of death, and yet he had joy. Why? Look around you. He was thinking of you, he was thinking of me, he was thinking of the results of the pain and the suffering, saying to himself, absolutely, I will stay the course and do what the Father has called me to do. I wonder how many of you need to hear that there is great triumph after the trial, that there's great joy, even in the midst of what you're going through, because what's to come is greater than your current reality, that God's not gonna let you go. that he's got you, your salvation, it's secure, your joy, your hope. These are things the world cannot steal, that cancer and job loss and family trouble, even in the midst of the holidays when many people are excited, putting up the tree and climbing 18 feet up where I'm not gonna go to put lights on their house, good for you. A lot of people are going through hard times. Christmas is a time that is depressing, where mom and dad split, and where you had to go to four Christmases, and where you're not sure if politics or religion or both are gonna ruin the next family meal. In the midst of all that, a Christian says, oh, I can rejoice, because I have Christ. Do this for a moment. Maybe you're not a hand raiser in church. That's okay, I'm not gonna ask you to do anything weird. I'm just gonna ask you a simple question. Raise your hand if you have ever been through a hard time or a trial or you're going through one right now. Just raise your hand, leave them up. Leave them up. Look around. Some of you ain't lived long enough to go through it yet. Most of you have. Is it a matter of if or a matter of when? Every service, every hand, and if your hand wasn't raised, again, you're either young, sitting under mom and dad, and they're feeding you everything on a silver platter, or you're lying. Everybody's gonna go through something, aren't we? The trials are coming. How will you respond? We are so good. at filling out the left side of the T-chart, if you will, all the negative things, aren't we? Well, this should be going right, this should be going right, they should be treating me like this, this should be going this way for me, and we're really good at filling that side in. Might I remind you, and may we do this even together, become better at filling in the right side. I'm thankful for my salvation. I'm thankful for Jesus. I'm thankful for oxygen. I'm thankful for another day to rejoice. I'm thankful that even though this feels like I'm being almost crushed under the weight of a hippopotamus, if you will, it feels like there's pounds that you cannot carry. You're being crushed, that Jesus has got you, that you can carry the weight because of who he is. Fill that side in. Don't get crushed under the weight of hopelessness. Trust God, rejoice. Anyone can find problems, God's people find reason to rejoice. Number two, another anchor of truth for you is that a suffering Christian is being tested in their faith. Understand there are no accidents with God, none. People will tell you, the TV preachers will come and tell you, deceivers and liars and some of those guys on TV and gals on TV, they'll come and say, hey, you wouldn't have the cancer, you wouldn't be going through hard times if you just gave more money to the Christmas offering. You know, you only gave to one of those initiatives, not all four. Hey, you should serve more, you should sing louder, you should do more. If you did and you had more faith, God would get you out of this situation. Don't listen to those guys. That's deception. The Bible does not teach that if you do all the right things, that all the right things are gonna happen to you. In fact, the Bible teaches the exact opposite. Peter says, though now for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials, and then this clause, if you're one of those people that likes to circle things in your Bible, circle so that, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it's tested by fire, may be found to result, and then I wanna stop you there. Mid-sentence, mid-passage, because this is so important. Something is happening in the lives of these people that is going to result in something. Don't miss that. There are things happening in your life that are not by accident. They are happening in order to result in something very important for you from God. He is testing you in your faith. And when you look at the picture around this portion of the text, we see that a Christian must experience trial. He says, for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials. One translation says, literally, even though you must endure many trials for a while, you're gonna go through it. When we look at the word tested, it means to attempt to learn the nature or character of something. In other words, these trials are tests that will show you how genuine your faith is. If gold, being the gold standard, the most precious thing in the world, the thing that almost sets the stage for currency and everything else, if you've got lots of it, you're supposedly good as gold, you're set. If that itself has to be refined through fire, the dross cleaned off the top, pure refined gold coming through, how much more important is your faith? How much more do you matter to God in your growth and who you are? Is he not then going to refine you also through fire? Should it not be that way if you are as important as the Bible says you are, if your faith is as important as the Bible says it is? The answer is absolutely. And we also see that these trials are tests of faith because they're not chipped fingernails after your French manicure or a paper cut. They're not traffic or like soccer mom drama. These are real issues. Real issues. When you look at the context surrounding what is so grievous about these trials, Looking at early history, Tacitus, the Roman historian, was not a Christian. He was documenting what Roman emperors were doing at their time of rule. He documents that Christians were being, by the emperor Nero, set ablaze, killed. They were throwing animal skins on top of Christians so that wild dogs would smell it and go attack them and slaughter them. Nero would ride around his gardens in royal robe on his chariot, and he would have parties, and like a circus, he would light the entire area with the bodies of Christians as human torches. Verified in history. Imagine our sons and daughters, our families, being torched for their faith, being eaten by wild dogs, being thrown into prison, all for being a Christian. That is what these people are going through. They didn't do anything to deserve it. These are real trials that are befalling, if you will, innocent, broken people who are holding on for dear life. It is so important. that we understand trials are gonna come. And then like James says, let endurance or let steadfastness have its perfect result in James 1, 2 through 4 when he says, you are going to encounter various trials. Let them grow you, let them test your faith. You know, you and I can either let trials do their work, or we can stop trials from do their work. There's a right way and a wrong way, amen, to respond to what's happening to you. In our house, we say, I am response able. In other words, I am able to control my response. I am not responsible for how you operate, but I am responsible for how I operate. 10% of life, I've heard it said this way, is what happens to you. 90% of life is how you respond to it. Are you gonna pass the heart test? Are you gonna hold on? Are you gonna trust the Lord? Are you gonna see it as a test? There is no mistaking this in the Bible. There's no case for accidental tests and trials. What you are going through is allowed and ordained and under the mighty hand of God. He's got you and he's got that situation and he's growing you into who he's called you to be. Romans three or Romans five rather, three through five says it this way, almost provocative, we rejoice in our sufferings. What a backwards way of thinking. Knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope doesn't put us to shame. This is the moment when you look at your life and you see you go from, you probably all said this, you know, I'm gonna lose it. Right, you fail the heart test. You go through a trial and your wife or your husband are saying, hey, take it easy, slow down, just keep your mouth closed a little longer. This is gonna pass, don't lose it. And you lose it, and then two, three, four days, one year maybe, you look back, it's all fine, and they go, see, you should have just been a little more patient, a little more calm. Well, the next time something happens, what do you do? You catch yourself. You begin to grow and mature in character, and then you step back, you go, wow, I didn't lose it. This stuff really works. And what does that do? It gives you hope, doesn't it? That if God can help you close your mouth and control your emotions, he could help anybody. That this really is what God said he's gonna do and he's actually gonna do it. That he's gonna grow you and shape you. It creates hope. And it is vital that when we're talking about trials, we define what trials really are. They are different than self-inflicted consequences. Maybe you're like me, you've said before, oh, I'm really in the pressure cooker now. You know, God's got me in this trial. I'm really in a tough season, when in reality, it was my own sin and my own actions that caused the issue. That's not a trial. See, trials were told, rejoice. Sin were told, repent. There's a big difference. Real trials are sickness and pain you didn't cause, betrayal by others, persecution for your faith, depression, anxiety, losing someone you love, being abused or cheated on, being ignored or abandoned by an unloving spouse, a farmer not getting rain, or a woman, a mom crying out to God she wants a baby and she's dealing with infertility or her husband is. These are real trials, real issues that cause pain and tears for people as they fall on their knees and there's nothing they can do. And by the way, there's nothing they did to deserve that. That's real. That's a trial. That's a test of faith. Consequences, on the other hand, sickness and pain caused by foolishness or sin. Speeding tickets, no. If you break the law, you are not enduring trial. You might be in a court, actually, but not one of the God-given trials. committing adultery and being left for it, STDs caused by fornication, premarital cohabitation that causes drama, rebellion, disrespecting your boss and getting fired, stealing, antagonizing in ungodly ways, drinking heavily or doing drugs and then losing your job. That ain't God's fault, that's on you. That's not a trial, that's a consequence. Don't rejoice, repent, and then rejoice in the grace of God. Because that's there for you. But real trials, are things that befall you. And it might be that some of you need to look in the mirror and get really honest and start repenting. Don't worry about the rejoicing part yet. And start saying, my decisions caused this. Now God, I'm turning to you, I need you, I need your grace too. Just like the people going through trial. But right now, I just need to repent. If that's you, do it, turn to Christ. Go to him, his grace is for you too. For those of you in trial, real trial, understand God is not punishing you. You're not bad. You're giving, you're serving, you're loving. He's not punishing you because you didn't give enough. It's not about having enough faith. He has got you in the refiner's fire. He's doing his great work in proving that you're a real Christian. Hold on to hope, trust him. I'll never forget one night talking about, you know, smiling through the tears. I think we can all show up on Sunday, right, in our Sunday vest, and we can fake it really good, can't we? You know, everything's going great. How you doing? What do we say? Good. No, it's not. 90% of the time it's not going good, especially this weekend, because I know how some of your Thanksgiving dinners went. It's not always good. I remember living life and just enjoying things and marriage and children and one night my wife walks in, we had put the kids down, I'll never forget it as long as I live, and I was standing there in the kitchen and she walks in and there's tears in her eyes and the words come out of her mouth and almost onomatopoetic kind of, you know the word cancer, it hits you like a kuh, cancer, and she said, Timothy has cancer. cancer, our youngest son, three months old, and she says, I don't know what to do. And so I sit on the chair, she sits on my lap, I hold her, she's weeping, I'm crying with her, and I didn't even know what to say in that moment, because you never do. And two things came to mind, and so I said them. The first was, we weren't gonna get out of this life unscathed, were we? And through her tears, she said, no. And then the only other thing I could think of was to say to her, now we're gonna live what we've been preaching. And she said, yeah. It doesn't matter. what I believed before. People in my old belief system who I used to run with would say, oh, Timothy is cancer because you don't have enough faith. Timothy is cancer because you believe different now. Timothy is cancer because, you know, you touch the Lord's anointed or you're not doing enough, you're not submitting enough or surrendering enough. You need to do more, Kosti. You need to do more, Christine. And then God will give you that healing you've been waiting for. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that. In fact, I think of Job. Job, the righteous man, the good man, the obedient man, the wealthy man, the godly man. More godly and righteous and faithful than you and I will ever be. And his righteousness got him what? It got him tested. You remember Satan roaming around the earth and God goes, hey, you looking for someone to test? Have you considered Job, my servant? Faithful, obedient, righteous, wealthy. It's going good for him. Try him out. See if he's the real deal. I know he is. Go ahead, do your worst, devil. Take it all from him and watch. That's what's happening to you and I. We're being tested in the fire. And you know what? God is just waiting excitedly as you are true believers to say, watch, look, I'm so proud of my kids. They're gonna hold on to hope and keep trusting in me even when things are falling apart. That's the picture for you and I. We need to know we're being tested in our faith and like Job, cry out God have mercy, cry out God heal, cry out oh God please deliver, oh God how long, but also like Job in chapter 23, say oh he knows the way that I take and when he has tried me I will come forth, I will come out as gold. He's refining you, brothers and sisters. And when he's finished, you'll be a masterpiece. But the chisel hurts, doesn't it? There are times where you're not sure, God, why, not there, and he does it, and he allows it, and he's shaping you out of love for you. defining reality, understand. Trials are the great equalizer. It doesn't matter if you're rich, famous, doesn't matter if you've been married 50 years, 70 years, 20 years, doesn't matter how pretty you are, how great your body is, doesn't matter how much hair you have or how much hair you don't have. In the end, trials are coming, doesn't matter who you are. Will you trust him? Will you pass the heart test? So that When you've been tested, you may be found, there in verse seven, to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. This is about your faith, and it's the third and final anchor of truth, which is a suffering Christian gets rewarded for faithfulness. You will be rewarded for your faithfulness if you hold on to hope. This is referring to praise, honor, and glory, not for God, for you, that's gonna shock some of you. You probably think, well, everything's about God's glory. I'm always told we live for the glory of God and I exist for the glory of God and it's all about his glory and I don't want any attention and I don't want any glory. Well, guess what? The Bible is clear as I can ever be, clear as day, clear as 2020 vision, that you are gonna get to heaven one day and guess what? If you've been faithful, he's gonna look at you and he's gonna say, well done, good and faithful servant. You were humble in the fire, now I'm gonna exalt you here in heaven before all men. That's what's gonna happen. His commendation is coming, like a father that says, I'm so proud of you. That is what God the Father is going to do. Because you didn't walk away, because you didn't simply sit in negativity and doubt and despair, but you found a reason to be thankful and you chose to count it all joy. And this will all happen at the revelation of Jesus Christ. When Christ comes and is revealed, you and I, if we're faithful, will be rewarded. That's a good thing. It's something to look forward to. On rewards, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4, 5, therefore don't pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes. He'll bring to light all that's hidden now. He'll disclose the purposes of the heart. And then each one will receive commendation from God. There'll be a commending. Another passage encourages Christians to pass the test of trials. for the glory of God through their life, but also the glory of God in or of your life. Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 1, 11 and 12, to this end we always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of his calling and he'll fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power so that, there's another, so that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, it's on the screen, so you gotta believe me, this is in the Bible. glorified in you and you in him. It's a both end. You being faithful in the midst of suffering gives glory to God and in the end he gives glory and honor and praise to you and says well done. You reflected me while on earth and you were faithful. This shouldn't be a problem for us. I think there's two extremes, you know, again, the crazy TV preachers making big promises that God's gonna give you Bentleys for your burdens and double for your trouble and you're gonna have a mansion because you went through mayhem, whatever clever phrases they come up with nowadays. There's that extreme and that's a bunch of baloney, okay? But there's the other extreme as well, this idea that you and I as Christians are just gonna kind of stumble through the pearly gates. You know, we're gonna barely get in. How many of you have heard, I'm gonna get into heaven, I'm gonna get there by the skin of my teeth. and then you're gonna roll, stumble through, and then you're just happy to be homeless on the side of the streets of gold. Like that's enough for you, you don't deserve anything. Bottom line is, you look at the Bible, there ain't gonna be no rolling over homeless on the side of streets of gold. If you were found faithful in the end, he is going to exalt you before all men, because you exalted him before all men while you're on earth. Ain't stumbling in. You're gonna be glorified. honored, exalted as faithful representatives of the mighty King. And no, it may not work out on earth for you. And yes, your little while of trial may be a whole lot of years, but compared to heaven, how many of you know, it's still a little while. Eternity is much longer. Know this, that God can be glorified through your trials on earth. You will be glorified for your faithfulness in heaven. I don't know if there's a better example, at least in my mind, one of my living heroes, Johnny Erickson Tada. 50 years ago, over 50 years ago now, a diving accident. She has been a quadriplegic. She has a ministry not far from here in the valley called Johnny and Friends. That woman is a powerful example of how God can turn suffering out for good and use it for his glory. And I'll tell you what, she's gonna get to heaven one day and I guarantee she's not really gonna even remember that she spent her life in a wheelchair. But at some point in time, God is gonna look and he's gonna glorify Johnny Erickson Tata and say, Well done, daughter. Way to be faithful. You couldn't move. Your husband had to take care of you. You had to depend on everyone. You could only ever paint with your mouth. And now, look. Way to go. Way to use the time and the days and the years that I gave you, knowing that it's such a small portion of time compared to the glory that is waiting for you here. She's a hero of mine for that reason, and answered the question one time, why does God allow suffering? She says, God permits what he hates to accomplish that which he loves. Even at the cross, God permitted what he hated, the agonizing death of his precious son, in order to accomplish something that he loved, that he prized above that death, and that is salvation for a world of sinners. He had you in mind. all that you're going through, He had you in mind. According to Peter and continuing on in our series, I'll say it again, I've said it before, this world is not your home. You are aliens, sojourners, you're backpackers. You're just cruising on through and you're gonna go through some things and God's gonna keep proving to you again and again and again that you are not from here. You're heading home. The question is on the way there, will you let trials do their great work? Will you pass the heart test? Will you know without a shadow of a doubt that you are his? Not because life is perfect, but because it's not. Because you go through trials and because your character keeps developing and because you look and say, wow, I can see him doing his great work. I can't wait for the day to bring him glory in heaven and him to glorify me and say, well done, good and faithful servant. Understand this, God is creating a masterpiece in you. Reflect him in that process.