PERSEVERANCE UNDER PRESSURE

I Peter 1

7 things to give us perseverance under pressure:

1. Realize we are aliens or strangers.
Verse 1 – To God’s elect, strangers in the world scattered.
John 17:15-16 – My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.

Don’t drive the stakes in too deep, you’re moving up in the morning.

2. Realize we are chosen.
Verse 2 – Who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ.

3 things about being chosen:
Our salvation is not haphazard.
God is willing to take a risk.
We are important, we have value.

3. Realize the power of the resurrection.
Verse 3 – Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ. In His great mercy He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
I Corinthians 15:19 – If only in this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
Psalm 33: 13-22

4. Realize the riches of our inheritance.
Verse 4 – An inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for you.

4 facts about our inheritance:
It’s imperishable.
It’s undefiled.
It will not fade away.
It’s reserved.

5. Realize the protection of your salvation.
Verse 5 – Who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of Salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

3 meanings of protection:
There is a guard out front to encounter trouble first.
He will identify the trouble.
He communicates the potential danger.

6. Realize the positive results of pressure.
Verses 6-7 – In this you greatly rejoice through now for a little while you may have had to suffer all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Suffering brings out the gold in life.

4 things about suffering:
It’s seasonal.
It’s necessary.
It’s revealing.
It’s sanctifying.

7. Realize you can have present power.
Verse 8 – Though you have not seen Him, you love Him.