Faith in the Unseen
Biblical Lessons from Ahaz & Isaiah
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good morning welcome if you're new here among us my name is gene and i serve here at c3 church as your lead pastor and last week we saw that in the new testament there were benefactors in the church some were leaders in the early church i showed you an example that you don't usually hear about in philemon church history tells us that he became a bishop so he was somebody who did well in the outside world and then he used those resources to help the church that's a good thing i also showed you that there were two women lydia and phoebe did well they managed their business well they helped the church too proverbs 31 women i called them if you're familiar with that proverb you know she manages the household well and she's also like a merchant so she takes care of both things i told you that my wife is kind of like that she works in the business world manages that well manages her house well hold well and if she wasn't i wouldn't say so and then manages things in the church well and even before we became christians it was always like that we worked really hard we first met she helped me at the business just rolled up her sleeves got right in there and worked then she put herself through college worked a whole bunch of jobs to do that got her master's degree and became a school teacher and so she helped me at the business and then was a school teacher i only had two jobs so it's not a bad i worked from home our internet company during the day in the evenings i would go teach my martial arts classes and that was my routine so this was all good until sophie and so we had our daughter and i'm not going to say what a lot of guys say like we became pregnant no we did not become pregnant she i had fun in the beginning and the rest of it she did the hard part right so not going to make that clear she became pregnant right so we had to make some decisions here all right she got like whatever it was six weeks from maternity leave and she's not the kind of woman who's like nah i'm gonna be a stay-at-home mom she cannot do that right so i'm just gonna say she's a hard worker not that she can't sit still but anyway so i knew she's not she's not gonna stay home she's gonna go back to work so what do we do well we weren't a big fan of daycare couldn't afford it anyway at that time the business hadn't flourished yet she needed her job we needed the dual incomes so i came up with a solution how hard could it be every mom in the room laughed how hard could this be this little baby like whatever i'll do it how hard could it be very very very difficult so i never understood that this one thing could bring so much joy in your life not the baby the fact that the baby can feed itself that the joy in that was unbelievable because before they can do that you can't get anything done you're racing to get things done between naps that's it just during the nap you race you get what you can get done then the mailman comes or something bangs on the door and then baby cries you're going crazy it's nuts so what you do is you put them in the high chair and you guys know this but i'm just talking to the guys out there it's not a good idea don't do this so you put the baby in the high chair i mean watching a kid being mr mom not a good idea put the baby in the high chair that's correct buckle them in if you want you got the tray there and then you put i don't know what they were what were they called little little poofs little things treats i don't know so anyway you put them all out and then you demonstrate that's how you teach right like si do here look ah right so the first move is that that and then they just go everywhere great so it's just seems like months of this it's grueling and you're like no look dude do what i do and then here's what they do they pick it up and then they feed you i'm like i don't need it do it and then they put it everywhere it goes in all the holes except the mouth they can get it in the ear the nose the hair everywhere but then finally the day comes when they do it and you're like yes sweet freedom it's the most wonderful thing in the world i'm calling my wife she's like i'm teaching i work for a living hello you know don't call me it's you celebrate here's the other thing humility humility you learn joy and humility so one day knock at the door doesn't wake the baby up that's good rush to the door package comes i got a sign for it okay but here's the thing the guy's looking at me like i can't really replicate the look it's just like like real weird and i'm like all right you know what i'm i'm good right zippers don't ever you know what's going on guy but anyway it doesn't say anything and even when he goes away he's kind of like whatever so later my wife heather gets home and i probably give her the baby it's yours your shift i'm out right so as soon as you step across the threshold it's you she pooped but she did that when your foot hit that's it it's yours right so i'm done right so whatever we get to talking we're talking about our day this that and the other thing and i said yeah this was really weird i answered the door got the package there and a sign for it but guy looked at me really weird like really really weird and so she does we've discussed this the pastor look when we do that to you we're waiting for you to figure something out and that was the case here hmm so she asked me a question she says well let me ask you a question when you answered the door were you wearing that pink princess headband yes yes so i realized that this is just another thing that we've been talking about that the lord had used in our previous lives to prepare us where heather goes out and works a job and i stay home with all the kids that's what all right the rest of the story this is where we're looking at a lot of the pieces of the bible that nobody ever looks at at all we're putting it together in chronological-ish order for you last week we looked at isaiah chapters one through six why because that is what happens during uzziah's reign it's during there and we saw that six the beginning of six this is what happened in the year uzziah died so we're trying to put these things in parallel for you chronological order so isaiah's all the way over here and he's got to come like back here here here the reign of like four kings so i'm trying to put it together for you as best i can so today we're going to go back to second kings 15 and second chronicles 26 they do run in parallel ish and what you have here if you pass uzziah in second kings 15 you're going to get the accounts of a few other kings here and it's weird because it'll say this king was king when uzziah in this year of his reign it's like 52 year reign it's a long time so in the umpteenth year of his reign this person was a king but if you're reading it and thinking that it should be chronological you're like wait a minute you just said uziah died and now so you got to read it like this meanwhile in israel these things happen so that's the way to think about it so it's like a flashback if you will or something like that so judah and israel there's like a civil war going on here there's a split kingdom since rehoboam solomon's son and so this is what's going on and now the kings of israel they'll get their succession as they had in the past by assassination it's not like a direct lineage and so they'll go through a lot of kings faster it gets really confusing because it sounds really super redundant so i'm just going to kind of overview this section for you so zechariah another point of confusion which zechariah is it there's a lot of them it's not the one book of zechariah it's a different one so he reigns but then this guy shalom decides to assassinate him and there's an interesting little thing here remember jehu he'll have kings generations four generations of kings after him so it fulfills that prophecy not anymore so now shalom's there again more assassination menehem assassinates him he's a really bad guy he attacks a town and it says it's gross he rips open the pregnant women so he's just really really really really evil and they're going to get what they deserve here so you enter a guy tig lath phileaser of assyria he's the king of assyria and this is where it gets really confusing there's all these different nations surrounding them so he pays him off he gives them like 37 32 37 was right the first time tons of silver pays him off to make him go away he dies not assassination pekahaya becomes the next king same thing evil guy assassination and then you have pika or pekka son of remalaya you're following this you got it good all right and here hoshea becomes king and this is going to be the last king of israel when they have their downfall so we'll get back to him in a minute not today actually a couple of weeks so it says he's assassinated but then it says jotham son of uzziah is king in judah so all those kings were in the north this one's in the south that's why it's confusing you're like what is going on so jotham is king 25 years old he reigned for 16 years doesn't say a whole lot about him this is why second chronicles 27 is kind of a short chapter it's just about him and that's it kind of breathes over it pretty quick but then it says ahaz becomes the next king of judah and the south i think i told you last week judah jerusalem jerusalem is a capital city there so it's kind of synonymous if we turn the page second kings 16 1 ahaz son of jotham began to rule over judah in the 17th year of king pekka or pika's reign in israel ahaz was 20 years old when he became king and he reigned in jerusalem 16 years he did not do what was pleasing in the sight of the lord his god as his ancestor david had done instead he followed the example of the kings of israel even sacrificing his own son in the fire if your version says walk through the fire just that's what he's doing he's making him pass through the fire he's killing him so we know that too when we go to second chronicles the parallel chapter it says burning his sons plural in the fire not a good guy in this way he followed the detestable practices of the pagan nations the lord had driven from the land ahead of the israelites he offered sacrifices and burn incense at the pagan shrines and on the hills and under every green tree so to summarize what happens is there are two kings the king of aram reason and you're going to have this king pika from israel son of ramallah they're going to join forces and they're going to begin to attack him they're going to attack ahaz so it's bad news you got two people coming after you and so what he does going back to that tig lath by laser guy from syria it says here that he just pays him to help him out right to conquer these armies and it says he attacks damascus so this is the capital of arum and then he decides to go visit him there and when he's there he takes note of the altar there so this is like false foreign god worship and he likes it and he sends a model back to uriah's priest not the uriah of david and bathsheba this is way later and he says make this for me make these things these worship things he says okay and what happens is he begins removing like all the good things all the the worship that they're supposed to be doing that's prescribed to them that solomon had set up removing that and replacing it with the foreign stuff so this is very evil to facilitate this foreign god worship now if we turn to second chronicles 28 it's in parallel but similar summary but we get some different details which it gives you some insight as to what's going on here he's losing big time in one battle one day it says he loses 120 000 elite troops think about that think about that right they don't have an a-bomb or something like that you know no it's like hand-hand combat stuff create a hundred and twenty thousand troops and they take away two hundred thousand women and children they're going to bring them off to be captives but something very interesting happens so they're going back to their capital city samaria and this prophet of the lord oh dead he kind of rebukes them he says these are like your brothers and sisters remember the 12 tribes of israel this is 10 of them you can't do this you know don't make these people slaves that's the intention so they agree the leadership says yeah that's a good idea we'll close them we'll bandage them up and then send them back they went to jericho so just notes that inserts that another thing is kind of interesting and that's why i like these parallel accounts because the most probable reason that ahaz pays the king of assyria those 37 tons of silver is because it tells us in this chapter that the king of assyria decides to attack him first so he calls for help he gets attacked and then pays him off to go send him to damascus so it's no good he's stripping things from the temple to make these payments it's all bad second chronicles 28 22 even during this time of trouble king ahaz continued to reject the lord he offered sacrifices to the gods of damascus who had defeated him for he said since these gods help the kings of aram they'll help me too if i sacrifice to them but instead they they led to his ruin and the ruin of all judah the king took the various articles from the temple of god and broke them into pieces he shut the doors of the lord's temple so that no one could worship there and he set up the altars to the pagan gods in every corner of jerusalem he made pagan shrines in all the towns of judah are offering sacrifices to other gods in this way he aroused the anger of the lord the god of his ancestors the rest of the events of ahaz's reign and everything he did from beginning to end are recorded in the book of the kings of judah and israel when ahaz died he was buried in jerusalem but not in the royal cemetery of the kings of judah then his son hezekiah became the next king we will get to him later there's going to be an awful lot on him so lesson do not name your kid ahaz that should be a takeaway from today so i talked about isaiah right so we did that last week but we concentrated on six chapters here we're going to mix them in so we're going to do three three books of the bible that kind of go in parallel you ready got it you're all right there you go okay hang in there buckle up all right so isaiah we're going to turn the page from six seven one look at this when ahaz son of jotham and grandson of uzziah ah it's all coming together was king of judah king reason of syria and king pika son of ramallah the king of israel set out to attack jerusalem now you know that right however they were unable to carry out their plan the news had come to the royal court of judah syria is allied with israel against us so the hearts of the king and his people trembled with fear like trees shaking in a storm then the lord said to isaiah take your son sheer jashub your guess is as good as mine on the pronunciation and go out to meet king ahaz you will find him at the end of the aqueduct that feeds water into the upper pool near the road leading to the field where cloth is washed very specific tell him to stop worrying tell him he doesn't need to fear the fierce anger of those two burnt out embers king reason of syria and pika are pekka son of remelaia so he continues on tells them not to worry about it in some kind of poetic language and then says unless your faith is firm i cannot make you stand firm and it continues isaiah 7 10 later the lord sent this message to king ahaz ask the lord your god for a sign of confirmation ahaz make it as difficult as you want as high as the heaven or as deep as the place of the dead but they can't refuse no he said i will not test the lord like that then isaiah said listen well you royal family of david isn't it enough to exhaust human patients must you exhaust the patience of my god as well all right then the lord himself will give you the sign look or behold the virgin will conceive a child she will give birth to a son and will call him emmanuel which means god with us sound familiar ladies know those verses they should be familiar but if you did it before now you know the context behind it interesting now here's the thing and this is going to get really cool if we go to the gospels we see a quote of that in the very first chapter so you have a very long lengthy genealogy for jesus and then matthew 1 18. this is how jesus the messiah was born his mother mary was engaged to be married to joseph but before the marriage took place while she was still a virgin she became pregnant through the power of the holy spirit joseph to whom she was engaged was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly so he decided to break the engagement quietly as he considered this an angel of the lord appeared to him in a dream joseph son of david the angel said do not be afraid to take mary as your wife for the child within her was conceived by the holy spirit and you have a son and you are to name him jesus for he will save his people from their sins all of this occurred to fulfill the lord's message through his prophet look the virgin will conceive a child she will give birth to his son and then we'll call him emmanuel which means god is with us when joseph woke up he did as the angel of the lord commanded and took mary as his wife but he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born and joseph named him jesus just interesting side note again that is the greek old testament being quoted important we'll do more of that bible study if you want but here's the thing joseph so just guys like let's just preach to you for a minute you're engaged you're abstaining you're waiting right you should do that wait until you're married but your fiance comes up to you and she says hey i'm pregnant what no no but it's all good because it was the holy spirit all right i don't blame him right we're that's nice we're gonna break this off like but then the angel comes right and even though i know i just don't know about you i gotta be honest here i'll be like okay gabriel right is that the mailman's name like holy spirit you know really you know what i mean i don't know so joseph he's a pretty faithful guy that's a big ask isn't it right i don't you know he came in a dream could have been a dream he could have gone through like another stage we've seen these kinds of things right whether it's like the wool and the floor whatever you know you got to show me lord this is he doesn't even ask for a sign it's kind of crazy like okay i don't know better guy than me but here's the thing it's about faithfulness so mary was faithful joseph was faithful and now this is an extreme example but let's bring it to us for a minute let's just bring it to us and again women i was preaching to the guys you can't use the holy spirit thing that's not what i'm talking about okay so that's not a good excuse we need to be faithful in both directions we need to be faithful i'll add we need to realize in practical ways that there may be some unseen things going on in the realms of our spouses things we don't understand we need to think about that perhaps before oh we volunteer to be mr mom guys consider what they're doing you see truly being faithful means we can be trusted with things when we're not seen and when we are not seen it also means that there are things that aren't seen that we should really appreciate and it should be like this in all of our relationships so some practical examples i got confirmation on this one this morning i had to ask someone who was in the military you got military ministry and marriage they're all kind of like each other anyway but military let's say you're an aviator you're on a plane right you have to trust that the people in their positions their respective positions are doing what they're supposed to be doing that they're being faithful and their job but you also have to be faithful in your position that's a good relationship it's good teamwork ministry this happens all the time we call it staying in your lane right so everybody's always pointing at everybody else no no you just do what you do and have faith that the other people are doing what they should be doing don't doubt it just move forward if you do maybe you need another church right so that's what you have to do so you have to have faith that the pastor is doing what he's supposed to do i have faith that the people are making the coffee cooking the food i go annoy them before the service i always annoy them take them away from their work but i'm not saying hey you know did you put the right amount of scoops in the coffee machine or i don't need to know i just trust they're going to do that don't get micro managing right but you have to have face in a good team you have to have trust but you also need to be trusted and this is how it is in a good marriage so if you're out there working don't come home from work and then tell the person who's not how to do their job or what they did wrong you don't understand the headband even wait on that until it's funny that's okay but also don't tell the person working what they should do faith and trust in all your roles in responsibility all right relationships require faith faith that the other person is doing what they're supposed to be doing when no one is watching now marriage i've found is a picture of how a person behaves in relationships you can look at the marriage to see how they're doing other things probably when they're used to them when they get used to them we get a picture of their faithfulness we also get a picture of what their relationship with god is probably like when we look at the marriage you see we often neglect the ones we should be faithful to who are doing these things in the unseen realms for us sometimes while chasing after things that we can see not being faithful maybe they look good to us according to the world was unfaithful second chronicles 28 19. the lord was humbling judah because of king ahaz of judah for he had encouraged his people to sin and he had been utterly unfaithful to the lord ahaz needed to trust that even though he couldn't see it the lord was moving the lord was working and likewise we need to trust even if we can't see it that god is working god is moving we need to have that type of faith especially in our times of distress or distrust we can't put our faith as a has did in foreign gods in other things it has to be in god alone he committed adultery with the immediate we can't have any other go-to's other than god but here's the thing what do we go to instead of god what are our go-to's talked about this problem having the right heart to hear from the lord people are often in the world more than they are the word remember the seeds last week that's why it can't get in there that's the key to hearing from him we go to so many other things i find it very ironic like in god we trust is the motto on money we must be loyal in both our relationships with each other and with god we looked at james last week let's continue there james 4 4. you adulterers i talked about like english translations kind of making it easier for us in greek it says you adulteresses feminine so even for the men in the church it's incredibly hard language don't you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of god i say it again if you want to be a friend of the world you make yourself an enemy of god do you think the scriptures have no meaning they say that god is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him and he gives grace generously as the scriptures say god opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble proverbs 3 34 again the greek old testament being quoted so humble yourselves before god resists the devil and he will flee from you come close to god and god will come close to you wash your hands you sinners purify your hearts for your loyalty is divided between god and the world there it is again just like we saw last week we can't have a loyalty that is divided we cannot have any other go-to's except god now i know that's hard because sometimes you can't see him sometimes you can't hear him but connecting this week and last week you need to be in this not the world right so if you're listening to whatever the news whatever it is all this crazy stuff or looking at stuff you shouldn't be looking at on the internet how how do you expect to hear from god with all that noise in the way you got to get rid of that that's the key that's the key be in this faith is believing what is not seen hebrews 11 1 and if that says 1-1 that was my typo not roberts it's 11-1 faith shows the reality of what we hope for it is the evidence of things we cannot see second corinthians 4 18 so we don't look at the troubles we can see now rather we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen for the things we can see now will soon be gone but the things we cannot see will last forever was that right about that 11-1 yeah my fault so here's the thing i kind of had an interesting conversation following a devo staff meeting last week and the idea caroly brought it forward was that like would you ever take a bullet for somebody i mean we hear that all the time people like pretty loose with it they say i'd take a bullet for you you know think about that but the point was jesus took a bullet for all of you for all of us wow this is amazing so just a little side note here because i want you guys to understand our church culture who we are what we believe in our bible believing church this is primary christ-centered church that's what c3 stands for now christ is the head of this whole thing not me not pastor center church right so this is the program guide that's it we don't need anything more than that no god's word says we shouldn't have anything more than that or anything less that's it that's it that's good enough here's the thing denominations paul's worst nightmare paul's worst nightmare reason for writing romans ephesians first and second corinthians ish fracture in the church that this idea romans 14 first corinthians 8 this idea that christians would start arguing about things outside the gospel and then dividing so the primary things first corinthians 15 read it those are the primary things in the gospel that's it he defines the gospel in short there there are some other things that are very important but some of the other stuff yeah so for example first counsel in christianity acts 15 it's created because all the original beliefs are jewish and so they're like ah the gentiles non-jewish people they need to get circumcised and do all the things that we do and so they have a council about it james is presiding interestingly enough at this council and by the power of the holy spirit and with some intelligence they say no not so much no pharisees go away they don't have to do that that's it and so they send them with these letters to the churches they're happy hey good i don't have to get circumcised to be a christian yeah our numbers are going to grow right so they go and they're happy about this is what galatians is really all about if your regulations even recounts the thing in there it's what it's all about that's what it's all about you know you're not under the law anymore you don't have to do that fools right don't let anyone convince you of that if they do they're cursed strong language angulation so that's what that's all about think about it right so this is really important though really really important because within that list don't eat meat sacrifice to idols so think about it you don't have to get circumcised you don't have to follow moses but things that are strangled from the blood you're not supposed to be eating the blood and meat sacrifice the idols so these sacrificial systems you know they sacrifice an animal don't eat that meat here's a problem you don't know what it is in the meat market right so you know hey was this meat sacrifice i don't know i bought it from that guy and that guy and that guy supply chain whatever so they don't know so what paul goes out of his way to say even though it came down in a letter from james jesus's brother the head of the mother church at the time in jerusalem it's one of the four things that gentiles do have to do what does paul say don't worry about it think about that it's not the gospel so read first corinthians 8 romans 14 don't divide over that just eat it in private if you want to eat it or whatever or just eat vegetables if it causes the other person to stumble i want you to think about that for a second this comes from the mother church he could have been legalistic about it he could have gone yeah you see that james said you need to follow it he didn't he didn't for the sake of unity and the gospel he said forget it like just focus on jesus people but think about if you've been a christian for a long time all the nitpicky things christians divide about why we have to have another church and then another there are 40 000 some odd denominations it's not just two three isn't that crazy that's crazy that's how divided we are can't agree on anything christians are like our own worst enemies in this sense it's horrible horrible so here i want you guys to know this if it's your first time this is really important on the website it said non-denominational right that was really important said big letters on google non-denominational so we are here and so on any given sunday i can have an orthodox believer here i love you catholic believer here i love you do you believe my dad was catholic before he died week before he died knew he was going to die what do you think gene you know the bible really well what do you think i said do you love jesus is he your lord yes you believe he's god yes i'll see you in heaven nothing can separate us from that nothing oh they have a pope yeah protestants have a lot of stupid things too you worship martin luther get over it it's true and by the way james he said that james was garbage he wouldn't teach it at his university imagine a pastor that's heresy imagine a pastor saying that it's nothing to be proud of look it up i'm not lying right so some denominations oh nobody's getting into heaven but us so you want to know and this is the important thing we are a non-denominational church and something very passionate about very passionate about because what a lot of churches do is they just remove the denomination from the sign right that's it but they don't change anything else and i have friends they're looking for churches and they're like oh that's non-denomination i'm like nope it's not what no it is it's non-i said okay pick another denomination like catholic and ask that person because it's a baptist church if the catholic's saved if they say no they're not non-denominational and by the way that's cruel that's really evil it's mean you're not saved what who gets to judge that unbelievable how far we've gotten away from what paul wrote unreal so you guys just have to know that and here's the thing so i've been thinking a bit on this devotional i know i went that way but it's okay it's important for you guys to know so if your church shopping or you're out there looking for churches ask the pastor where he went to seminary and what the nomination was and then ask him what he's changed to become non-denominational or what can i do and still be saved ask him that question you'll find out quick very few non-denominational churches so i look at other churches i have friends from all different denominations priests and different things and we engage in discussion we're not we talk to one another about the differences ultimately do you love jesus yes i love jesus good we're both good see in heaven that's it right but i like to learn like why do you do that why do you do that why is that in your service and sometimes i'm like i don't think so not so much right but some things are kind of cool and one of the things that i did i grew up catholic where the stations of the cross i don't know about other denominations where they have them i'm not sure i know like uh the orthodox church has that iconography and all that stuff and i think they go all too far with it but depictions but in a catholic church at least the ones that i grew up in you're going to see a cross there and it's going to have jesus dead on it or dying on it and that's interesting right but in the modern prosperity church i had a friend whose dad did this when he was a boy he brought home a cross he got a cross and jesus was lying the guy took jesus off the cross and he goes he's not on there anymore i know but it's like good to think about that you know what i mean like what he did what is that hyper prosperity gospel we can't nothing bad can happen we deny what jesus said which was if you want to follow me deny yourself pick up your cross and follow me this is going to happen to you too so and i think about that i was asked about crosses like i'm like i don't know i try to do everything with the projectors there's no real reason why we don't have a cross it's obviously not that we don't believe in the crucifixion we do they start thinking about that practice right walking in there and you're like wow you can't escape that reality what jesus did for us and then you do the stations and this is where basically like all the torture jesus went through and you look it's on the side of the walls you can't escape it and you're looking at it and you're like whoa and then sometimes they have the apostles and how they're martyred and all these things like really when you think about it you go into certain churches there's like death everywhere like all over the place and i'm like you know for some modern christians that's not really a bad thing right you get people coming i don't like the music i didn't like this and so maybe i'll put up the stations of the cross right you know what i mean people come in i'm shopping for the church with the right coffee and the right music and it's got to be like this and the pastor went five minutes long or this week it was the youth pastor oh i can sing better than that worship leader let's find another church where there's like a better show have we totally forgotten what this whole thing is all about what's the gospel right most of us kind of know like the basics of the gospel jesus what suffered died and was buried third day rose again to fulfill the scriptures all right you send it into heaven seated at the right hand of the father basics it's how it begins you can't have the resurrection without the crucifixion it doesn't work and jesus gave us no promises that anything would be easy nor did any of the apostles they were almost all martyred hello you know and sometimes people will sit there and look at me like man this guy's crazy i can't wait for him to stop what jesus did that for you but you can't listen to me talk about it for too long wow but that's where the modern church is now if you're new here that's not where the core of c3 is that is not where our leadership is is not where the bible study group is it's not we are not there we are not there that's what real church real people is it's not like oh we can just do whatever we want no so i'm going to give you a little context and then we'll close with these scriptures i want these to be on your mind as we leave this morning better god's words than mine so first peter again read the whole thing sometimes read all all sometimes all five chapters straight through did that for a bible study once i think it took me 25 30 minutes all right so if it takes you 40 because you don't talk best like a new yorker like me you'll get you know it'd be like worth it you know you'll make it the 40 minutes devoting your time to god so anyway the context here first peter they're suffering so depending on where you put the letter christians are being burned alive by nero that's what's going on fiery trials that's what he's alluding to it's really really bad they're dying peter says this all praise to god the father of our lord jesus christ it is by his great mercy that we have been born again because god raised jesus christ from the dead now we live with great expectation and we have a priceless inheritance and inheritance that is kept in heaven for you pure and undefiled beyond the reach of change and decay and through your faith god is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see so be truly glad there is wonderful joy ahead even though you must endure many trials for a little while these trials will show that your faith is genuine it is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold though your faith is more precious than mere gold so when your faith remains strong through many trials it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when jesus christ is revealed to the whole world you love him even though you have never seen him though you do not see him now you trust him and you rejoice with the glorious inexpressible joy the reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls let me pray for you lord i thank you for everyone in the sound of my voice i hope that you soften their hearts so that your word can penetrate down deep within them and cause them to just bring out a harvest of fruit 30 60 100 times they can bear fruit make disciples bring people into the light be a vehicle for your love your grace your mercy i thank you for the church the body of christ be with us as we go out this week i ask these things in jesus name amen you