Invite you to open your bibles to first Peter chapter 1. First Peter chapter 1. Wanna read verses 6 through 9. 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. Though you have not seen him, you love him.
Joel Brooks:Though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. Obtaining the outcome of your faith. The salvation of your souls. Pray with me. Our father, I ask in this moment that through the power of your spirit, you would speak to us, that we would see clearly the glory of your son in this place.
Joel Brooks:Lord, we are so thankful for your gospel, and how you have reached out, and you have called us, and drawn us to yourself. Lord, I pray we would never get over that. Never. That the gospel and the the joy that we have from that would be reflected in the way we we listen to your word, in the way that we sing, in the way that we live out our faith day to day. Spirit, right now, I ask that in this moment, that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore.
Joel Brooks:But Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. A small confession. I'm I'm a little geek when it comes to all things Tolkien.
Joel Brooks:If you were to come into our house pretty much 9 months of the year, you're going to see Tolkien's Lord of the Rings at the bedside table. I always try to read a little bit before I go to bed each night. And I even brought the Hobbit on our honeymoon. And so I I really love all things Tolkien. And as probably a lot of you are aware, because I'm sure probably every one of you have read the books or at least seen the movies.
Joel Brooks:It's a story about 4 Hobbits, Frodo, Samwise, Mary and Pippin. And they are swept away, and they're taking on a great adventure, for about a year or so, where they meet all these unusual characters, wizards, they meet kings, they they go to faraway kingdoms. And and at the end of the books, not at the end of the movie, but at the end of the books, they return back to their homeland, the Shire. And when they return back after going on all these journeys, they realize everything's different. It's it's not the same peaceful, beautiful place it was when they left.
Joel Brooks:There were certain homes that were burned to the ground. Factories had now been set up where there used to be pastors. Everything had changed. Some of their old friends were were dressed up funny too. They were dressed up as soldiers, and and carrying little swords.
Joel Brooks:And while Frodo and his friends were away, they had also changed. So not only had the Shire changed, but but they had changed as well. And they were coming back as different people too. They also dressed a little different. They were dressed up somewhat, you know with military clothes, and they had swords as well.
Joel Brooks:And they had these powerful new gifts, that they brought with them. They had a new confidence about them. They they sung new songs that nobody else had ever heard. Songs about far off lands, and different kingdoms, and and great heroic deeds. They they talked about a great evil being undone.
Joel Brooks:And so both the Hobbits of the Shire, and then Frodo, Samwise, Mary and Pippin, they were looking at each other like they were from different planets. Another big difference is when Frodo and Sam came back, they they were full of laughter. They they would see these other Hobbits dressing up in their little military uniforms, and they would just bust out laughing. They they they laughed at things that other people just didn't understand. And they were also weeping at things that the people there, they thought, well, this is just the way things are now.
Joel Brooks:But but Frodo, and Sam, and Mary and Pippin, they would see how the land had been scorched and burned, and they would weep over those things. They had they had higher joys, and they also had greater sorrows. They were altogether different. And what had happened to Frodo and Sam and Mary and Pippin is that when they went off to another land, it had completely changed them. Their heart now belonged in a sense to another kingdom.
Joel Brooks:They had seen evil at its worst be destroyed. And they came back with this new confidence. Yes, these were their houses, but they were no longer their homes. And they were able to actually help the Shire in a way that nobody there could. The the the obstacles that that all these other hobbits just thought were insurmountable.
Joel Brooks:Frodo just laughed at it. He was able to take care of it. He had this, this new confidence, this new ability, because he knew that evil's days were numbered, and he has been taken through far worse than what was in front of him at this point. And really when you, when you look at the overarching story there, that's what first Peter is actually laying out. Tolkien of course, he had the grand themes of Christianity, and in the Bible in mind, and we see this in particular in 1st Peter.
Joel Brooks:Peter is writing to a people who've been chosen by God to become citizens of another kingdom, a more glorious kingdom. These are people now who have met the new king, people who know that ultimate evil has been destroyed, people who know now are singing new songs, having greater joys. They're not overwhelmed by what others are overwhelmed by. And because of this, us as Christians, we are now in a unique position where we can change what evil has broken around us. Because now this really isn't our home, these are just our houses, and our home is away.
Joel Brooks:We're actually in a better position to come in, and just to bring the presence of the king here. This is what first Peter is about. This is what the message of the Bible is about. In this particular section here, Peter begins to talk about grieving. He begins to talk about trials that we as Christians go through.
Joel Brooks:He calls this being tested by fire. Look at verse 7. So that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire. He's gonna say the same thing later in chapter 4 in verse 11, when He says, Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you. As though some strange thing were happening to you, But rejoice as so far as you share in the sufferings of Christ, that you might also rejoice, and be glad when His glory is revealed.
Joel Brooks:And so what Peter is saying is as we walk through life, we will walk through a furnace. We're gonna walk through fiery trials. And Peter is most certainly thinking about not the Hobbit. He sees most certainly thinking about another story though that he would have grown up hearing, and that's the story of Daniel. When we looked at months ago.
Joel Brooks:In particular, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and Daniel 3. We remember that story how Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they were asked to bow down before a golden image that was set up by King Nebuchadnezzar. And said, If you don't bow down to this, if you don't worship this, you're going to be thrown into a furnace, you're going to be thrown into fire. And yet they refused to bow down. And so Nebuchadnezzar has the 3 of them arrested, and he has them thrown into a furnace that was heated so hot, it actually killed the guards that were throwing them in.
Joel Brooks:And then Nebuchadnezzar runs to the edge of the furnace, and he's looking down in it. He just can't wait to see these 3 burned to a crisp, but they're not. They're actually walking around, as if nothing is wrong, and and and he counts. It's like, well, we just threw in 3, didn't we? Yet there's there's 4 in there.
Joel Brooks:And he says this 4th person has the appearance of the Son of God's. Or perhaps as we look at this, we would see that very well could have been the Son of God. And so Peter, he's he's thinking of this story there, and he's using it as the backdrop to this letter. And he's saying, at some point, all of us are gonna be thrown in a furnace. At some point, we're all gonna walk through a fiery trial.
Joel Brooks:It will happen. That is part of living in this fallen world. There's going to be pain. There's going to be suffering. It doesn't matter how rich you are.
Joel Brooks:It doesn't matter how healthy you are, how educated you are. You are going to have trials. The question is, who's gonna walk through those fires with you? Who's gonna be there with you? Who will you take in there with you?
Joel Brooks:Are you gonna go in alone and be burned? Or is the Son of God going to be with you during those times? A fire can be both destructive, or it could be purifying. It can burn things up, or it can make things stronger. It can make things more valuable as impurities are burned away.
Joel Brooks:And the trials that we face either now, or are going to face in the future will do the same thing. They're either going to destroy us, or purify us. They're either going to make us weaker or make us stronger. All depending on who we take with us in the midst of them. Now there's 4 things in particular here that Peter teaches us about these trials, Especially these trials that we we suffer as believers, as Christians, and I want us to look at all 4 of these things.
Joel Brooks:I want to first see how the trials are necessary. 2nd, how they are for testing. 3rd, how they result in praise. And finally, how they deepen our joy. 1st, trials are necessary.
Joel Brooks:Look at verse 6 again, and this you rejoice. There now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials. This is one pat amazing verse. It starts with the words, In this, In this, you rejoice. The the this is the previous 5 verses.
Joel Brooks:It's everything Peter has been talking about up to this point. That this is their election, their new birth, their living hope. It's their promised inheritance. That is the in this. And he's saying, because of this, in light of this, you rejoice.
Joel Brooks:And that's pretty obvious. If you just found out that some uncle that, you know, distant uncle you never knew died and left you a $10,000,000 inheritance. You're gonna rejoice when you hear the good news about your great inheritance. It's obvious that you would rejoice over that. But Peter says that in the midst of rejoicing, we're also grieving, because we're going through various trials.
Joel Brooks:That word various, it means multicolored or many layered. What he's saying is these trials are gonna come at you in all different shapes and sizes. It's not just gonna be one type of trial that it's gonna come in the form of a health problem. It's gonna come as cancer. It's gonna come as wayward children, or as lost jobs, or as loneliness, or as infertility, or or persecution.
Joel Brooks:It's going to be many layers to the furnaces that we go through. All different shapes and sizes. And he says these trials are necessary. Let that word this one is words. You just have to pause when you get to necessary.
Joel Brooks:Let that word sink in. This is necessary. He's saying that the the things that grieve you, those painful moments in your life that come in, they're they're not accidents. They're not random. They're not detours in your life.
Joel Brooks:They're not distractions. They're not inconveniences. They're not even harmful. What they are is absolutely necessary. I mean, Peter, I mean, he could have written anything here.
Joel Brooks:He could have just said, these trials we're going through there, they're beneficial. You know, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Alright. It's they're beneficial. He could have just said that, and that would have been true, but it wouldn't have connoted what he wanted to say here, and that's that it's not just for your good.
Joel Brooks:You have to have them. You have to have these trials. You have to walk through fire. It is absolutely necessary. I think of it this way is this is a I'll go ahead and put this out there.
Joel Brooks:It's a stupid analogy, but it's what popped in my head. But, you know, when you when you're making a cake and you, you get all these ingredients together, and you you you put them together, what's necessary is fire. What's necessary is heat. Otherwise, you don't get a cake. You can't just put these all together and just, okay, this is done.
Joel Brooks:You're like, no. You have to have this this missing ingredients of fire. And God's gonna bring all these things into your life, He says, now it's time to take you through the fire, but I'm making something beautiful. The great hymn writer, John Newton, we know him from his hymn, Amazing Grace. He wrote this line when he was thinking through these things.
Joel Brooks:He wrote, everything is necessary that God sends. Everything is necessary that he sends, and nothing is necessary that he withholds. Nothing is necessary that he withholds. Let me just ask it that that do you believe that? Do you believe that every health problem, every hurt, every persecution, that those things are necessary.
Joel Brooks:And that everything else that's withheld from you, all those things you desperately want, the things you really think you need and you're not getting, that all of those things are not necessary. That's what Peter is spelling out for us. Everything is necessary that God sends, and nothing is necessary that he withholds. But we have to ask the question, necessary for what? What what what is this necessary for?
Joel Brooks:And this is the second thing that Peter teaches us about trials. We read this in verse 7. So that the so that that's the reason this is necessary is 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. It's necessary for testing. Peter says here that our faith, which which is being tested here, it's more valuable than gold.
Joel Brooks:And you think about that, I mean, it's not just a throwaway line. It's more valuable than gold. Throughout history, gold has always been what what everybody wants. It's what people want. It's what nations, what they want.
Joel Brooks:It's what makes economies rise and fall. We call it the gold standard. You want gold. And man throughout all of history has wanted that, and and Peter is saying, no. It's more precious than gold.
Joel Brooks:Gold has no value to God, but your faith does. Your faith is what he values, and so he is going to test it. He sees it as the most precious commodity that we possess. And and the testing here is is not like taking a multiple choice exam or anything like this. This is this is refining.
Joel Brooks:He's refining us. Just as metal is refined by fire and comes out stronger when the impurities are burned out, that is what our faith what happens to our faith. And this is so important to understand, because if you don't understand that when bad things happen to you, that God is actually refining the most precious commodity you have. If you don't understand that, you're gonna think, bad things are happening to me because God is punishing me. He's he's trying to hurt me because I've done something horribly wrong.
Joel Brooks:It's the common thing that we think of. It's the default of the human heart that when we do bad, bad things happen to us. When we do good, good things happen to us. But that's not Christianity. I was talking to a lady, this past week.
Joel Brooks:She's not a believer. We've met a number of times, and a matter of fact, she would just say our first meeting we sat down. She goes, just so you know, I'm not a Christian. It's like, well, that's okay. And she goes, I'm I'm actually I'm an atheist.
Joel Brooks:It's like, okay. And so we've been we've been meeting, and, she called me up on the phone. We were talking through some things, and and finally, she's just at a really hard point in her life. Just terrible things have happened to her, and and she keeps saying, I'm not gonna be like my friends. You know, all my friends, bad things have to them, and they've been weaker than I, and they've gone to God.
Joel Brooks:They use Christianity as a crutch, and they become Christians, but I am stronger than they are. She said that in our first meeting. But then bad things happened to her, and so when she she calls me up, finally, she says, I I why? She goes, why why is this happening? I said, what a interesting word you just said, why.
Joel Brooks:Why implies that things aren't just accidents. Things aren't just random. You ask, why to a person. And she went so far as to say, why is God doing this to me? Is he trying to punish me for something?
Joel Brooks:And I started laughing when she said that, which probably wasn't the best initial response. God punish me. Oh, gosh. No. I but but I did.
Joel Brooks:And I said, you realize what you just said. You just said, why is God?' You've gone from not believing in God at all, and now you're saying, why is God?' That's why these things are happening to you. Because before you didn't think there was a God at all, and now these bad things are happening, and God is using them. Now you're crying out to him, and you're asking why. Let me tell you the why is not for being punished because if you come to believe in Christ, we believe that all of our punishment was taken upon Jesus on the cross.
Joel Brooks:This isn't for punishing, this is for drawing you near. It is necessary. And I asked her, I said, if nothing had gone wrong in your life, it had gone exactly as you planned, would you have ever said, why is God doing this? And she goes, well, no. It's like, you see, it was necessary.
Joel Brooks:Necessary. And God is drawing you to himself. When we look at Jesus, we should never ask a question, is this bad thing happening because because you're punishing me? Am I being thrown in a furnace as punishment? Not at all.
Joel Brooks:Jesus was thrown into the furnace we deserved, the ultimate furnace of the cross. He was thrown there for our punishment. But this, the trials we go through are necessary for the testing, the building up of our faith. He's using these things to purify us. Brings us to the 3rd thing that Peter teaches us about trials.
Joel Brooks:And that's the result of them is praise and glory to God. And we we see that in verse 7, that they may be found to result in praise and glory and honor the revelation of Jesus Christ. The world is not impressed. It is not impressed with with Christians who are sitting around drinking their double latte, you know, from a yacht or whatever, living an extravagant lifestyle, saying, Jesus is awesome. They're they're they're not impressed with it.
Joel Brooks:They might be impressed with your lifestyle, but they're not impressed with Jesus. But when suffering comes, and in the midst of a deep hurt, they look at you and they hear you say, Jesus is enough. Jesus satisfies. When they hear you say that, they are impressed with Jesus. Jesus receives praise and glory.
Joel Brooks:I'll tell you this is an obstacle if ever you you go on a mission field, or you take mission trips. You're gonna go places, and you're gonna realize real quick that Americans essentially live in Disneyland. I mean, we pretty much do. We live in Disneyland where we are so entertainment obsessed all the time, and almost everything we do is centered around our entertainment. And they think that's why we're happy.
Joel Brooks:And you tell them, hey, Jesus gives me joy. And like, Jesus doesn't give you joy. How many movie theaters do you have nearest Near you? You could go bowling. You could go to movie theaters.
Joel Brooks:How many concerts can you go to? What kind of car do you drive? What kind of house do you live in? That's why you have joy, and you realize, okay, all of the the things I value about my lifestyle here in America are the biggest hindrance when I go in the mission field. If those things are stripped away, and you say, Jesus is enough.
Joel Brooks:Well then Jesus is honored and glorified. That's that's what they want to see. That he's enough. So when we praise God through tears, he is glorified in a unique way. This brings us to our last point, Point 4, and that's trials result in joy inexpressible.
Joel Brooks:Joy inexpressible. It is our joy through the trial. This inexpressible joy through the trial that's gonna result in the praise and the glory and the honor. Look at verse 8. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him.
Joel Brooks:Though you do not see him, you believe in him and rejoice with a joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. Obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. I want you to notice something or something that's as different than verse 6. In verse 6, Peter had already talked about joy when he said, in this, we rejoice. And that's the the this of our election, the this of our new birth, the this of our hope, this of our inheritance, and all those things we have joy.
Joel Brooks:We're obviously gonna rejoice during that, but notice that when he says, he talks about us going through trials. When we have all these multi layered deep hurts that come into our lives, it's only after that do we receive a joy inexpressible. Before when everything's going our way, we we have we we rejoice, of course. But when we go through the trials, and we go through the persecution, we give we're given a joy inexpressible, a far greater joy than what we had before. Joy is increased through trials.
Joel Brooks:It becomes more glorious. And I think God has wired us to intrinsically kind of understand this. I think we are physically, emotionally wired to get this. I mean, when I watch a funny movie, or usually I laugh when I see my kids do something silly. When I, you know, my middle child has wiggle power, you know, that's that's her superpower, is she could just wiggle better than anybody.
Joel Brooks:And so I'm trying to capture and I pick her up and she goes, wiggle power, wiggle power. I know like, and she's like a wet fish, You can't hold on to her. And, and I cannot help but just die laughing when when when that happens. And so I rejoice when I am surrounded by fun things like that. But my deepest joys usually come with tears.
Joel Brooks:Like I don't I don't cry tears of joy as, Natalie is doing wiggle power. It's just I mean, I'm happy, it's joyful, but I'm not there's no tears of joy here. But things like when Georgia, our youngest, when she was born, and, we almost lost her, and there was several tense minutes of of her not being able to breathe. But when I when we first heard her cry, or I did, when I first heard her cry several minutes later, I started weeping. I wasn't sad.
Joel Brooks:I was actually really really happy. It was it was an incredible joy. But isn't that strange that your deepest joy That's a deep joy. It came with tears. You're crying during that.
Joel Brooks:I think there's just this little insight that God's giving us right off the bat that your your deepest joys and your sorrows are not so far apart. They're not. Your deepest joys are gonna come with tears. Pain and joy are not always at odds. Matter of fact, many times are hand in hand.
Joel Brooks:And so when we walk through the furnace, when we experience the deepest of pains, If Jesus is with us during that time, it turns into tears of joy and inexpressible joy. And there's still pain, but inexpressible joy. It's kinda like the hobbits when they returned. They had a greater capacity for sorrow, and they had a greater capacity for joy. They were far more sad over things that didn't bother other people, but then they were far more joyful than any of the other hobbits.
Joel Brooks:It's what happens to us when we are given a new heart. When we're given a new heart, which Peter's talking about, this new birth, this new life, we feel things more deeply. It's almost like we're alive in many ways for the first time. And so we do hurt for friends who are hurting, others who are hurting far deeper than we ever did before, and we also are more joyful than we ever were before. And I wanna see you and think about that when we come to this cross, because the joy and the sorrow that Peter is talking about, we see that here.
Joel Brooks:Because before we thought about our sins, and they didn't bother us very much. Now we think of our sins, and it gives us incredible sorrow. Actually, the more and more you grow as a Christian, the more and more sorrowful you become over your sin, the more they grieve you. But then those tears become tears of joy, because you realize how great your salvation is. Now, although you're far worse than you ever thought you could be, at the same time, you're far more loved than you ever dreamed or hoped.
Joel Brooks:And so you see your sin, and you see the greatness of your salvation hand in hand, and so you praise God through tears of joy. That's what the gospel is. That's what Peter is trying to open up to us, put it in our hearts. Pray with me. Lord, we thank you for your word.
Joel Brooks:Lord, we thank you for the sorrows you bring in our life, because every sorrow we experience is necessary. It's not random, not an accident. Lord, it's necessary. Even your son, Jesus, learned obedience through the things he suffered. Your word tells us that.
Joel Brooks:So, lord, as these things come our way, we are becoming more and more like you. We're being tested through the fire, purified to look more and more like your son, Jesus. Lord, I pray those gospel truths would hit our hearts. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.