Different Faith in Trials

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info visit us at thrive-fl.org. Alright, so again, first Peter. I just revealed it that the author for this particular book is Peter, alright? So one of Jesus's followers and he is writing this particular book around 60 to 65 AD approximately, probably 30 years after Jesus's death. And he is writing to a group of Christians that know exactly what he is talking about. So during this time, the Roman Empire was ruled by a man named Nero, okay? You've probably studied him, heard a lot of different stuff on historical studies about Nero. And the one thing that we know about Nero, that he was a very twisted and awful individual, alright? We know that he wanted more power, more fame, and he thought, you know, one of the better ways to be able to establish the Roman Kingdom was to be able to build more, you know? If you build more, they're gonna come, right? That's what he was thinking. So building more shrines, more monuments, probably just to be able to point towards him because Roman emperors viewed themselves as gods. And so he wanted to build, build, build, and then all of a sudden the people that were under him, the Senate, were like, no, there's no use for that. Like, why would we keep building when we already have this and that? And this probably angered him. And the next thing you know, he actually ends up burning down the city of Rome, alright? Under speculation, alright? As you could imagine, that probably did not go well by a lot of people. And so they were trying to figure out who did it. Obviously they started to point it towards the Emperor and he's like, no, it wasn't me. It was the Christians, alright? It was the Christians. So he started blaming the Christians for this catastrophic event that had happened that burned down this city. And he was, again, a very twisted man, alright? He was also known for taking Christians, especially since they were the evil doers, the wrongdoers. And he would actually take the skin of animals and place it on Christians and put them in cages. And they would put many different wolves to be able to devour these particular individuals. Very awful, very twisted. Another thing that we know that he would dip Christians in candle wax, alright? And then he would place them on trees. And then he would burn the trees and they would be part of his larger parties that were going on just as a spectacle. So they would be burning people alive. Again, this is rated X. Good thing Thrive Kids are gone, alright? Very sick, very twisted. Peter is writing this letter. The people know exactly what he is talking about. There's a lot of fear going on. So in this particular book, Peter does talk about election. He talks about foreign knowledge. He talks about sanctification, obedience, all these things that we're going to be talking about as the weeks come. Talks about the blood of Christ. He refers to the Trinity. Talks about grace, revelation, hope. But again, to know the bigger context of what is going on in this particular book is there is a lot of suffering, especially to those people, especially what they were experiencing at the time. So who is this book written for, alright? With all that being said, first of all, it's written for people who are experiencing trials and hardship. Whether that may be a financial situation, things are not looking good, a health situation where maybe there is some sort of illness, a terminal illness or something that just doesn't go away. Maybe it's a tension with some sort of important relationship that's going on. Maybe it's something within your family. There's disagreement with your mother and father and you're going different ways. Or maybe you're a parent and your children, it's just like there's separation, there's division. Maybe it's some sort of addiction. Someone who is going through some particular trial. Maybe it's even some sort of persecution. Maybe it's some sort of hardship that you're just like, man, I just can't get a break. It just keeps coming. When it rains, it falls and things just keep piling up more and more. So it's written for people like you and I. It's also written for people that are about to go into trial and tribulation. Maybe life is good right now. I'm gonna be honest, as of lately, it's just like, man, life's good. I just see God moving and I'm just mostly encouraged by people like you all that I get to interact with on a daily basis. But life's good. The thing is that we know, especially if you are mature to the faith, that at one point there's probably going to be some sort of trial. There's probably going to be some sort of tribulation, some sort of hardship. So it's preparing us as we move forward that this letter is going to encourage us for these times to come. So let's open up to 1 Peter 1. It says this, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are the elect exiles of the dispersia of Pontius, Galat...