Enduring to the End

If you brought your bibles with you today and you want to turn with me to the book of first peter First peter chapter one I'll start with verse three first peter chapter one verse three Blessed be the god and father of our lord. Jesus christ who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope Through the resurrection of jesus christ from the dead to obtain An inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading having been kept in heaven for us Who those of us who are protected? by the power of god through faith For a salvation ready to be revealed In the last time notice that you're protected by god through faith For a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time and we have this living hope of the salvation That's ready to be revealed in the last time And then he adds this In this you greatly rejoice in this salvation is ready to be revealed in the last time Even though for now For a little while It's necessary that you have been grieved by various trials. We hear a lot today about lupus It's this word grieved severe emotional psychological pain We have this salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. It's our living hope but It's necessary now To undergo severe Mental emotional pain Through various trials verse 7 So that the proof of your faith Being more precious than gold which is perishable even though tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor When jesus christ is revealed between the promise we receive when we accept the gospel And know that jesus christ died to forgive us for our sins And he's he's working in our lives to make us a new creation Conforming us to his image the full salvation That we're looking for is is going to be revealed in the last time And that's the living hope that we have but for now Every single one of us Has a severe trial to go through We're not going to escape that and this is what throws so many people off You think you come to the lord and you've given your life to the lord jesus and you begin to serve him And life does not suddenly become a bed of roses You still have difficulties Things still hurt Things are still hard And this has thrown very very many people into a deep discouragement Because they don't understand They don't understand That god's full promise is received in the end in the last of the time And to try to help us understand that I'd like to take three men Three men that most of us know about And look at god's promise to them and what their lives were like And when they received god's promise in their life And we'll learn From these men that god is not very quick to act He takes his time And during the time that he's taking We all of us will go through a lot of difficulty God will be with us as he was with these men But being with us does not mean he spares us the difficulty That's what peter realized for now It's necessary that we go through very grieving trials The first person let's look at is abraham abraham The beginning of his story is abraham is living in the land of caldiz There are the between the tigris and the euphrates river there in the country at that time that would become The kingdom of babylon at this time. It's just known as the ur of the caldiz Abraham was 75 years old. He was married already um They had no children. His wife was sarah And if they married at a fairly early age, even 30 40 He's years and he has no children But that's where god calls to him and says to leave your country leave your father's house leave your relatives And come and go to the place that I will show you and abraham Believed god and and responded to the call Left ur the caldiz left the safety of his family and the clan and tribes and relatives And ventured out as a nomad Uh following the river of headed east and ended up in canaan and He had been there 10 years 10 years passed just like that reading a story just like that. It's just a a couple of lines in the scripture But that's 3 650 days And there's no child And sarah is not pregnant Now things have happened He's had some special encounters with god during that time he One time in the midst of that 10 years. He he thought well lord, you're you say you're going to be faithful to me I don't even have an heir How am I going to be the father of many nations? The only person that even I have a male heir in my home is my servant elie azar And the lord told him no Elie azar is not going to be your heir a son's going to come from your own body Okay, it's encouraging he's encouraged during that time the promise is renewed more time goes by a few more years go by And sarah kind of like she decides we got to do something. Nothing's happening So sarah gets this idea. She had this handmaid named hagar and she got down in egypt She decides okay. I can't have children Let's you take her I'll give her to you as a wife. You have children through her for me So abraham does that and that's when we get the the his first child ishmael But we come to find out that the lord didn't that's not the lord's plan You know, the lord allows us to do things. Sometimes we take matters in their own hands at times, don't we? Because we figure god needs our help to get something going and Well, it didn't work out too well because when when Hagar who was the maid she was Sarah was her master. She was the maid and the servant But of course now the maid who's who's now a wife she gets pregnant. So now we know the problem's not abraham. Is it? the problem's sarah And so suddenly hagar not only is pregnant. She's despising sarah. You're the problem. God's not blessing you I'm the one i'm the chosen one. Well that caused problems in the house. Where's god in this? That just now he's got two women two wives one jealous of the other and the other looking down on the other Trouble in the home And the years are still ticking by Later on Uh that that's 85 years old abraham is 85 years old when his son ishmael from hagar is born 14 years later What happened during those 14 years? That's a lot of time 14 years, where is god? What's god doing? During that time abraham has been through famines. He's been through he's got to live every day take care of his family He sees his son ishmael growing up And suddenly the lord visits him Three in the lord and two angels visit him and they're on their way to check out sodom and gomorrah To see about the sin of the city and they're going to do business. They're serious business But at that time they they tell abraham abraham receives the covenant of circumcision at this time And he so that's where this the idea of circumcision is introduced here in the bible And abraham is specifically promised by this time next year sarah Your wife is going to have a son so so Ishmael was born at 85 14 years later. How old is abraham? 99 When did god promise him? He was going to be the father of many nations when he was 75 How many years has it been? 24 God's not in a hurry God's not in a hurry We we'd like him to hurry up sometimes But he's not in a hurry The bible says this about abraham the man of faith and romans without Wavering through unbelief. He faced the fact that his body Was as good as dead being about 100 years old And that sarah's womb was also dead. I mean sarah's womb was so dead She didn't she didn't even have any period she had stopped menstruating years ago. It's dead dead And yet it says he didn't waver through unbelief regarding the promise of god But was strengthened by faith Giving glory to god being fully persuaded that god had power to do what he had promised 24 years a kind of a choice of his own to have a son ishmael with hagar And many many days of wondering and waiting and not understanding why When he's a hundred years old His wife sarah gives birth to the promised child isaac And god's promise Is fulfilled to abraham after a long wait log that Is that just one is that just one example? Are there others? There's others God's not in a hurry We need to get that in our minds in our hearts. We need to understand that He's not slow like we think he's slow Because think about it just in this situation alone. What if god had promised abraham? I'll make you the father of many nations And he already had children with his wife sarah How would anybody know it's a special child? What would make it what would make a child special if god tells you you're going to have a child the next year you do How would you know for sure it wasn't just nature? But having been married to someone Let's say just from the time. He's 30 Now she's 90 A woman who for 60 years has not ever become pregnant Suddenly becomes pregnant and has a child Is that a testimony Is that a special child? Is that a miracle? God waits for a reason God waits for a reason. Okay, it may not be our reason. It's not easy for us But he waits for a reason to do his thing another person similar similar Trust in the lord a favored young man. His name was joseph He was the uh, he was also the son of a lady who had a difficult time having babies rachel the wife of Jacob who became uh, no. Yeah, but right now the wife of jacob his uh, the wife he loved She had a hard time bearing children Her her her sister was like fertile myrtle. I mean she was just Baby after baby, she was just like four or five kids already And then rachel struggling and finally the lord blesses her and she conceives she has two children Joseph is the first benjamin the second she died at the birth of benjamin and uh but joseph being The the firstborn of rachel whom jacob loved he finds favor Which is a good thing. It's it's it's glad it's it's a good thing when your dad loves you It's not a good thing when all your brothers are older than you And then the fact that dad treated joseph kind of special kept him near the house even Kind of gave him some authority the bible says he gave him a a coat of many colors. It's kind of a symbol of authority like You're you're my main man and Older brothers don't take too kindly to that And so it says that they had an attitude towards joseph and the lord gives joseph these dreams The lord gives him two dreams and in both dreams the other family members are bowing down to him And Well, that didn't go too Well, you know people wonder people wonder if joseph was proud and he shouldn't have ever told those dreams But if he had not said the dreams, how would we know there's going to be a miracle? I think the lord allowed him to tell the dreams just to stir up the hatred in the brother's heart even more And not the first dream would have been enough to do that. But the second dream included mom and dad bowing down to him And so it that even caused dad to step back a little bit And I think that gave the brothers a thought. All right. Now, here's our chance even dad's kind of upset with joseph And then jacob Kind of clueless, you know, i've noticed as we get older we can get clueless about things Missed things it should be obvious. He tell he decides that the older brothers are out tending sheep far off from home And he tells joseph joseph, why don't you go check on your brothers? that's like giving him a death sentence like Here go go check on those guys who hate you He just wasn't thinking and joseph goes to check on his brothers And you know, you know the story they see him coming and immediately everything that's in their heart comes out and they They just they throw them into a pit. They take them and throw them literally into kind of like a dry well And they just hold them there and they're going to kill him the older brother says no, let's don't kill him Instead let's let's make some money So they ended up selling him To a group of travelers who were on the way to egypt. So they sell him as a slave make some money off of him The bible tells us at this time. He's 17 years old He's 17 years old. He gets sold as a slave. He ends up in egypt And a guy that were a captain of the pharaoh's guard named potiphar buys him We don't really know how long that process that process probably just took a month or so because it wasn't that far to travel to egypt To get down there He ends up working for potiphar and this is what we know. This is what it says Doesn't say very little about this time, but it says this the lord was with him Now I want us to think about that The lord was with him, but it didn't stop him from being sold as a slave The lord was with him, but he was still a slave So he begins to work for potiphar and the lord is with him and and he does his job. Well He's not mad at god. He's not kicking Not kicking up a storm and all down in the mouth and all bitter because of his situation He he does what he does unto the lord and the lord is with him and potiphar sees that everything joseph does he does so Well potiphar begins to be blessed And and joseph ended up in charge of everything for potiphar's house potiphar didn't have to worry about anything about except eating Joseph took care of everything and did it better than potiphar was doing The only problem is potiphar had a lonely wife Potiphar was a captain of a guard so he was off and away in military service Some of you guys know this you're away from the military and your wife's back home. She's lonely Well joseph is a young man, he's very successful bible says he was handsome and she cast her eye for him She she started trying to get him to sleep with her And he had joseph had integrity He wouldn't do it But she didn't give up. She was persistent one morning There was no other servant in the house He came in just to do his job do his duty and she was there She seized the moment she grabbed him and said come lie with me come sleep with me And he said no, how can I do this and sin against god and sin against your husband? He's not denied me anything, but you I won't do it And she wouldn't take no for an answer She grabbed him and he tried to run You know when the bible says flee temptation There's a little example of a young man that did except when he ran she had such a hold of his cloak That slipped off of him And he he left the house, but his cloak was inside now suddenly she's in an awkward situation She's got his cloak She knows he's probably going to say something to her husband about it. So she quickly comes up with this scream He attacked me and she conjures it up. She's got his cloak and she cops this story that Joseph came in to attack her and she defended her shell and he left And of course potter comes back home and he And and now ladies i'm not picking on you, but you can put it on when you want to You can tell a story and get sympathy when you want to And she worked up a story about how joseph, you know tried to abuse her And she just barely made and of course Potiphar is furious A jealous husband. How dare you do this to me takes joseph and takes him to prison There's two different prisons in egypt. There was a prison for the common people and there was pharaoh's prison a Prison that you went to if you made pharaoh mad, that's where joseph went And he was cast in prison and this is where it makes a simple statement again First he was a slave and there's a slave in egypt that says the lord was with him Then he goes to prison Unjustly for a lie that a lady made up about him And now he's in prison and it says And the lord was with joseph Didn't keep him from being falsely accused Didn't keep him from being thrown in prison And actually we don't know how many years he was there But can you imagine being in prison God with you you're there. What are you going to do? You know, you haven't deserved You haven't done anything to deserve being there It's not just The lord's with you, but he's not getting you out of prison So what does joseph do? Joseph does what just dosa does be considerate. Can I help? Can I what can I do? How can I serve? You know what you know what ends up he ends up in charge of the whole prison We don't know how long it takes We know it's a while and and here's how i'll be able to kind of clue you in on We know it took a while year after year after year is going by he's working now in the prison as a prisoner kind of one of those trustees We know it takes a while eventually Pharaoh's cup bearer and the baker get in trouble And they both end up in prison And joseph is in charge of the prison. So one day he comes by he's serving them. He noticed their countenances are down Just out of consideration What's wrong? You guys look like you're down today, you know someone that's bitter about their situation Doesn't even notice that other people are going through things do they? That takes someone with some character That when you're hurting yourself and you're in a bad situation yourself, you're still concerned how others are doing but that sensitivity Led those two to reveal their dreams to joseph and the Both dreams indicated that in three days For the cup bearer, he was going to be restored to pharaoh, but the baker in three days You can lose his head and sure enough in three days The baker lost his head in three days. The cup bearer was restored to pharaoh and as he left joseph said to the cup bearer Listen when you're restored to pharaoh Remember make mention of him to me Because I have done nothing to be in this miserable Place So, you know, he didn't like being there And the in the cup bearer is restored to pharaoh and god's not in a hurry now I want you to picture your joseph All right He's gone back to pharaoh I've told him to mention me to pharaoh Here's my chance A day goes by Probably listening every time the door opens nothing The next day goes by Nothing a week goes by Nothing a month goes by nothing A year goes by nothing Every day still serving in prison trustee another year 730 days and then The lord gives pharaoh a dream. That's how come we know the lord decided how long this would be Why would god wait two years To start something that would eventually get joseph out God waited two years after the cup bearer was restored and of course the dream made the cup bearer remember And then joseph that's when he would the cup bearer then made mention To the pharaoh about joseph's ability to interpret dreams joseph ends up before the pharaoh He's the lord allows him to interpret the pharaoh's dream And joseph ends up The second in command of all of egypt there's pharaoh and then joseph And you know how old joseph is At this time 30 How old was he when he was sold as a slave? 17 how many years has it been? 13 years God is not in a hurry. God had given joseph some dreams of being in charge and a position of authority And it took 13 years for that And of course, he still didn't see his family Remember the dreams involved seven years of plenty And then seven years of famine well The seven years of plenty came and joseph was in charge of Helping the people to set aside a portion of the harvest and store it up in cities Said they stored so much grain that they they didn't even have the mathematical numbers to even count it It was beyond their numeric system And then came the famine The years of famine and two years into the in the years of famine So now it's nine years after he's restored to pharaoh. He's 39 now He he didn't see his family when he was 17 is when they sold him. He's 39. It's been 22 years And the famine gets so severe That joseph's brothers have to come to egypt to get food And after 22 years His brothers walk into the room And bow down in front of them just like the dream 22 years god is not in a hurry to fulfill his promise And he will allow day after day after day of ordinary difficult trials With you the whole time but not sparing you not making your life a bed of roses not making it easy We do not understand his ways that's the that's the second person Third person The guy named david, you know him Only a boy named david that's only a little sling When he was a youth, we know the famous story david david gets anointed to be the next king of israel When he was the youngest of the family of jesse all of his brothers were older than him, but the prophet samuel Came to jesse's house because the lord had told him to go there to jesse of bethlehem And anoint one of his sons to be king David wasn't even there. He was out tending the sheep as the youngest All the older brothers are there first and samuel looks at them. He sees david's oldest brother It says well surely this is the lord's anointed and the lord told samuel. No, you're looking at his outward appearance I don't look at those things. I look at the heart. It's none of these And samuel's kind of stunned he was told to go there and anoint one of jesse's sons and so samuel asked this all your sons No The youngest is out tending sheep Samuel says you sin for him. I won't sit down until he comes And david appears he's a young man. Probably youth You pick don't picture him as a little six year eight year old boy picture him as a young man untrained He's not been he's had no formal military training, but he's probably just a young man Handsome, it says ruddy in appearance. He comes in The spirit of the lord tells samuel this anoint him He's a king of israel and he's anointed king of israel and the spirit of the lord came upon him And it was not too long after that that david ends up in the famous fight with goliath and he becomes famous and and after the after the Slaying goliath through the power of the lord He enters saul's army services and his fame spreads He is so successful in all the military Campaigns that he's leading that the that the girls, you know, he's a young man He's unmarried girls watching out for him like whoa And they started this popular song Saul has slain his thousands, but david his tens of thousands. So he's 10 times better than the king himself. Oh that Really went over well with saul Uh, saul became very jealous of david and the lord used that jealousy For david to become go from the public hero number one To the public fugitive number one and saul began to hunt david like a dog to kill him began to chase him all over the land of israel and David would have to hide out in caves in in the remotest places It kind of was convenient for david to have been a shepherd at one time out in the judean hillside He probably knew the hillside pretty well and and was familiar with the different areas where there were caves And and different people who were disgruntled with saul kind of began to kind of band around him together He got this little group almost 600 men But they spent and this is this scholars don't know for sure but somewhere between five to eight years Going from place to place to place barely escaping Saul Saul had scouts and people and the army looking for them all the time For what what did david done? David had done nothing Here he's in he's the anointed next king of israel And you're familiar during that time he had the opportunity to take saul's life didn't wouldn't do it But stalked continued to chase him well After A prolonged period we don't know probably six seven years into this David and his men are probably tired of being chased around the wilderness living in caves like dogs And here's what david says you can it tells you how low a person that god is even working with Can become in his heart. He got he got discouraged And david said in his heart Sooner or later. Saul is going to get me and kill me I'm going to leave the land of israel and i'm just going to go and live with the philistines That the phil or philistines however you say Because then saul will no longer look for me And so he and the 600 men with him went to the philistines And actually said can we live here and it worked saul stopped looking for him and the philistines at the time David went to a king named agag and he just said Look, saul's trying to kill me. I'm no I don't want to my me and my man just need some place to have a normal life And so the king gave david and these these 600 men with him the little city of ziklag A little philistine city named ziklag and david and his men after six or seven years of Traveling around the wilderness just trying to stay out of saul's grasp living in caves They finally can settle down and have a little bit of normalcy and it says from there they would they would they were ready they would raid make raids into the negev and they would But they could never let anybody really know what they were doing so but Of course the lord is working, but we don't understand this we're looking back at this saul still the king and david's in the land of philistines and What was that whole thing about being anointed king? What was all that? Because now can you imagine what he's wondering? What was all that? And uh The philistines and israel are going to go to war And get this david and his men Literally volunteer to go with the philistines And fight on their side But the philistine commanders haven't forgotten who david is And when they see him and his men show up the other general said hey Isn't this the one that they say they used to sing the song about saul has slain his thousands, but david is tens of thousands And they and they said uh, we don't trust this guy He may be trying to do this to get in good with this master again Send him home And so agag has to tell david they don't want you with us Go home So david and his 600 men it takes him three days During that three days when they get home to ziklag, they find it burned to the ground It's burned to the ground there's no there's no women and children. Fortunately, there are no bodies there Because the amalekites had raided the city taken all the women and children and servants and livestock and everything And took them off as captives and burned the city down And that this is what david and his men come to after they finally tasted some normal life Now they show up at this little city. They were given And their entire family and all their livestock is all gone And it says that this the bible says they wept Until they had no more strength to weep anymore And you know what that is? That's years of frustration finally breaking down that is so many emotions piled up That it just it broke them so Deeply in their heart that they literally wept themselves to exhaustion And but that wasn't enough david had to suffer a little bit more because When something that bad happens and suddenly you've been following this leader for six and seven years Running all the time and now you get back to this little city that they've decided to settle in and your whole family's gone They look for someone to blame And suddenly It's david's fault So his own men who have followed him for the six or seven years now they want they're actually talking about killing him For what they've been through And here's this crucial moment the next Thing recorded in the scripture says this and david encouraged himself In the lord now, how do you do that? That's the key. How do you do that? What in the world did he do that with How did abraham encourage himself when he was about 100 years old And sarah hadn't had a child for 60 years and her womb was already dead How did joseph encourage himself? When the cup no word from the cupbearer comes back a month Two months six months a year a year and a half two years. No word. How do you do that? He had there's only one thing you have God has promised something And god doesn't lie And I don't understand a thing about where i'm in right now, and I don't I don't I don't This situation is worse than I ever thought it could be So you can't process that you can't that doesn't make sense But god doesn't lie and if god promised here's what abraham did Facing the fact that his body was as good as dead and sarah's room was also dead He didn't waver through unbelief in regard to the promise of god He was strengthened by faith gave glory to god being fully persuaded. God had power to do what he promised Okay, that's that's what abraham did joseph in prison continues to do what he does unto the lord Not understanding how this is all a part of god's plan But god's plan comes about Through joseph actually being in prison It takes time And david remembered that god had anointed him king and if god had anointed him king of israel How out of this situation would he be? But he strengthened himself in the lord and you know what he did. Here's what it says he Instead of saying i'm going after those people to get my family back He called for the priest and said bring me an ephod He turned to the lord and he asked the lord not tell the lord He didn't turn around and say okay god you better you you're with me now. Here's what i'm gonna do He literally turned to the lord and asked the lord should I pursue? And the lord says yes pursue And david asked him will I recover all? And the lord tells him you will recover all And three days later david had He came across the amalekites He 200 of his men were so exhausted. They didn't even they couldn't even make the trip But david and 400 men found the amalekites captured there in Everything that they had been taking all their wives all their children and all their livestock not a single thing had been lost Not only that while this happens the philistines And israel have had the battle and in Saul that had been chasing david for the seven to eight years. He's killed in the battle So in in this three-day time David recovers all from the lowest point in his life And you see so he's able to he doesn't need to live in ziklag anymore He decides to move back to judah back to where his family is And within a few weeks the men of judah Come to david and anoint him to be King, but there's a whole lot of pain Before that And a whole lot of questions before that and that's what peter's trying to tell us listen We've been given birth into this living hope through the resurrection of jesus christ from the dead And into an inheritance which can never perish spoil or fade kept in heaven for us Who through faith are shielded by the power of god into the coming of the salvation ready to be revealed in the? last time and in this You greatly rejoice though for now. It's your season of lupus pain deep hard pain trials And these have come For the refining of our faith, which is a greater worth that perishes than gold that perishes even though refined by fire May be proven true and genuine And may result in praise and glory and honor When the lord jesus christ is revealed from heaven Okay Okay So there we have need of some endurance And we need to steal ourselves And like these men Have some faith That god's promise will be he's not promised That we're not that life is going to get easy. He's promised that I will never leave you nor forsake you But he promised And then as I was just studying the end of this message he said so what is it that here's a key This is something that I I want you to Really stay with me here as I wrap this up What is it specifically other than heaven That god has promised us That's what i'm looking for because something I need I know the heaven's there But i'm looking for something as there's something i'm searching in my spirit and I believe it came to me I'm asking the lord. What is it? You know what? You know what? He's promised through all the tribulations. He stated what his will is His will for every single one of us is to be conformed to His image. He didn't promise me a son in my old age. I'm not a it's not the same promise to me as abraham made It wasn't the same promise that joseph had or our promise is not the same promise The king david had but every single one of us god has said I will make my image new in you I'm going to make you into my image and likeness That's a promise Now is god able to do that? Even in your rotten weak human body Even in your current situation and whatever your future situation is he able to do that? All right, then follow me very closely If you have your bible and you're going to read with me samuel, if you'll pull that up at this time There's a scripture. I want in first john chapter 4 16 to 17 here First john 4 start with verse 16 And it says here we have come to know And have come to believe this word the way when it's expressed like this we have come to know It's it's because it's in the greek perfect tense and that means Something that we first learned of a while back We it's continued to develop And it's producing Something that's now stable It's been a process We have come to know and we still know And we have come to believe and we are believing Is what it says we have come to know and we have believed the love which god has in us Now I want you to hear that Most of us hear that we have come to know the love god has for me No, stop. Follow me The love god has among us. You know why? You will never fully know the love of god just between you and him You begin to fully know the love of god when you can live in the midst of a people who rub you wrong And you love every single one of them in the same way among us That's when you begin to really fully know the love of god We have come to know and have come to believe the love of god in Us then it says this God is love And the person abiding in love Abides in god and god in him because god is love Okay See it the person That can be described when they use a participle in the greek the one abiding in love That's a participle that means by looking at this person's actions, that's how you can describe them This is a loving person When you can describe someone as a loving person in a group setting Not just his special friends. Look tax collectors love tax collectors Bums love bums cheats love cheats jerks love jerks. I'm not talking about that I'm talking about someone who loves all When you can describe them like that That person dwells in god and god dwells in that person because god is love And that's the only way that's possible Then he says the next verse By this love has been perfected in us so that we may have confidence in the j of judgment because in this world We are as he Is now what did it just say that god is? Are you are you hearing me? What did it just say god is? love So what are we? How how can we be the same as he is then we have to be? love We have to be to be the same as him we have to love as he loves Us and the person who is loving as god loves lives in god and god in him And this is how love is perfected among us and you know what it gives us confidence in the day of judgment Because i'll tell you what the those who are prejudiced and those who have their preferences and those who are divisive They're not going to have confidence in the day of judgment. God is going to cast them from his presence into hell But the person who's loving like god loves is going to hear well done thou good and faithful servant Whatsoever you did To the least of these my brothers You've done to me You loved Like I loved There's no fear of that perfect love cast out fear When you live in that kind of love There's no fear going to stand before the father. He's just going to welcome you home Glad you finally made it But there's a goal for us And the goal is to become loving in that way to love Everyone that way that's what will give you confidence in the day of judgment Because as he is you are in this world