Pastor Cody Harlow The Stories of Jesus

[Music] thank you [Music] very much [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] ladies [Music] my [ __ ] [Music] thank you everything [Music] is awesome [Music] thank you foreign [Music] well good morning church [Music] looks like we're missing a few folks and that's A-Okay you know why because the Lord is in this place amen and where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty and I pray that today that we would experience that freedom that we have that is ours in Jesus Christ it's good seeing you this morning and if you are new please fill out one of our connection cards or maybe you're a church member and you need a pastoral prayer or something like that please fill out one of those cards drop it in the offering plate as it goes by that'd be huge and us being able to pray for you being able to minister to you in that way because we care about you and we want to partner with you in prayer now we've got potluck right after service today we've got people down there setting up getting

Everything ready and then we got our business meeting after church today as well and then we got shoes for We Care those are due back we need to get those back by the 25th that is I believe on Tuesday and the reason for that is that we've got our We Care back to school celebration that we're doing Friday night and so if you don't have plans that night please come out that's a great way for you to meet people in our community that maybe don't have a church home they may not have a personal relationship with Christ and some folks are intimidated to come into our church especially when they don't have relationships with folks and so this is a great and easy way to support these families get to know them and invite them to come and sit with you on Sundays and so that's going to be at 6 p.m this upcoming Friday now Awana is coming up just kind of be keep that on your radar because that's our a great way for us to reach into these children's and families lives as we want to reach them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and so be on the lookout for announcements about that now last year this is kind of a save the date okay and so I'm gonna ask you to get out your cell phones okay get out your cell phones pull up your calendar okay so get out your cell phones pull up your calendar because last year we did something called Salt and Light Sunday and that was in August it was really really really really really hot salt light Sunday it's where we actually worship a little bit earlier and then we take that Sunday in the afternoon and we take it take on Mission projects in our community we are Salt and Light to our people to the people that are around us and so that date is going to be on October 1st October 1st okay so you know I want you to say well I didn't know about that I'm telling you put it in your phone right now and so

You'll be hearing a little bit more about that in your community groups as the date gets closer and we want to put together some Mission projects around our community if you have input on those projects feel free to let me know about it I'll also probably tell you to knock it out and get a team together because we need leaders for those different projects as well now the Bible tells us to greet one another with a holy kiss and we're not really too much into kissing here but if you'd like to stand up and shake a neighbor's hand and say welcome to First Baptist Church that would be great too so everything there are you [Music] okay [Music] thank you [Music] thank you well good morning First Baptist Church it's good to be in the house of the Lord today amen let's try that again it's good to be in the house of the Lord together amen well now is the time of our service for we like to just take a moment to prepare our hearts and our minds for corporate worship this is you know it's a special time it's not just we're not here as a social club right now we're here to worship together as the body of Christ because he's called us to that so I'd like to invite you to just bow your heads and close your eyes and take a moment to ask God to prepare you and your family for worship together Lord we come before you together now to ask you to prepare us for worship God I pray that you would help us to put aside

Any anger any Strife any anxieties that we might be carrying with us today and instead to focus on you Lord we heard last week that you have told us to cast all of our anxieties on you because you care for us Lord let us not be hindered let us not be distracted but let us focus on who you are and what you've done for us Lord let it overflow in us so that we might pour out praise and worship because you are worthy Lord help us to worship this morning it's in Jesus name we pray amen I'd invite you to stand with us as we join together and sing [Music] magnificent marvelous matchless love to thou stand astounding to tell forever existing in Worlds now thou Fert and given to all o Fountain of beauty the Father the spirit the son can fish and density generous magnificent marvelous beautiful [Music] creation is brimming with thankfulness the mountains exalted space dead the seasons rejoice in your faithfulness all life is sustained by your head [Music] you paint every shade in the sky each day [Music] how great how sure [Music] magnitude magnificent [Music] thank you what Grace that you've entered our Brokenness you came in the fullness of time how far we had a fallen from righteousness but not from the mercies of Christ your cross is our door to Redemption your death is our fullness of life that day how forgiveness

[Music] how great how great how sure is forever [Music] United [Music] how great how sure there's more magnificent marvelous [Music] his love is amazing it's incomprehensible and we get to rejoice in that together this morning we get to worship this King [Music] foreign [Music] his Chariots of wrap the Deep thunder clouds form and dark is his path on the wings of the storm thy Bountiful care what tongue can recite it breathes in the air it shines in the light it streams from the hills it descends to the plane and sweetly distills in the Dew and the bridge [Music] Defender Redeemer and faith you may be seated as we prepare to take the offering good to see you I'm Steve I'm one of the deacons here in church let's pray together dear heavenly father I do thank you for today and just thank you for the ability to rise up and come into your house it's great to be here thank you Lord for your unending love it's consistent it lasts forever help each of us Lord to remember that depend on that thank you for this opportunity now to give back to you what you've given to each of us freely all the money that you give us the support that you give us Lord and help us to cheerfully give back to you just a portion of what you've given to us in Christ's name I pray amen [Music] foreign [Music]

The lips May bless and hearts makers and lies like arrows I'll fix my heart on righteousness [Music] foreign [Music] we are Mighty light and my reward Everlasting never failing My Redeemer my God [Music] I'll set my Gaze on God alone and trust in him completely with every day pour out my soul and he will prove his Mercy though life is [Music] King has crushed the curse of death and are in his forever Oh Praise Him Hallelujah failing My Redeemer my God Oh Praise Him all praise him hallelujah oh praise him Oh Praise Him hallelujah [Music] Mighty light and my reward Everlasting never failing My Redeemer my God [Music] let's sing that again o praise him oh [Music] my reward Everlasting never failing My Redeemer my God foreign [Music] the evil hands give rise to all remind us this is not our home we look to you we look to you Sovereign king of all the Earth we look to you we look to you in your strength we will endure [Music] Deliver us from evil

Lord our hearts so quickly gone astray Temptation crouching at the door to turn us from the narrow way we look to you we look to you Christ the concrete Son of God we look to you we Look to You Lord complete what you'll be gone Lord complete what do you begin [Music] thank you [Music] Deliver Us from Evil the devil seeking to devour with trembling Heights we hear his Roar but you're strong I'm will crush his power we look to you we look to you we look to you we Look to You Lord Deliver Us [Music] all the Earth will bow and Grace [Music] foreign [Music] we look to you we look to you sovereign [Applause] [Music] Lord help us to look to you Lord help us to remember that you are our strength Lord help us to resist the Temptations of this life The Temptations of the devil of the evil one Lord help us to rely on you knowing that we can't do it on our own but through the blood and the power of Jesus Christ offered freely To Us by his death on the cross if we'll only believe Lord we pray that you would help us to look to you it's in Jesus name we pray amen praise the Lord amen if you have your Bible and I hope that you do please turn with me to First Peter chapter 5. We are in verses 8 through 11 today this is going to conclude Peter's letter per se and then next week we will have our conclusion on the book of First

Peter it's been fun to go through it with you guys it's been edifying for me and it's also been very timely for our church I mean just Time After Time After Time we just have seen God's hand in all of the timing on it and it's one of the reasons why I love sitting down and seeking the Lord's face about God what do you want me to preach through next and yet we always see him delivering his word in his right time and I know many of y'all have been through seasons of Trials and suffering and Temptation and heartache and all those different types of things and I pray that the Lord is protecting you and that the devil who is very real that his Roars do not cause you to tremble and at the conclusion of today's service we're going to have some missionaries come up and pray for them and at that time we'll have to cut out our stream because they're going to a restricted area and so we will spend some time praying for them at the end of service we've talked about suffering through this whole book of First Peter we've talked about we've learned that we will suffer and we've talked about why we suffer we've learned how to suffer we've learned about what our attitudes should be like in the midst of that suffering we just sang about it that we're strangers to this world we're sojourners in this land that we are in and today we are talking about four realities for believers that suffer four realities for believers that suffer and so I would ask that she's please stand with me in honor of God's word as we read First Peter chapter 5 verses 8 through 11. God's word it says this thanks for following along back there appreciate that Bible says this be sober minded Be

Watchful your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour resist him firm in your faith knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your Brotherhood throughout the world and after you have suffered a little while the God of all Grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore confirm strengthen and establish you to him be the Dominion forever and ever amen let's pray thank you God just for this great day that you've given to us thank you for this time that we get to have just additionally to pray to you to not just prepare our hearts for worship because we've already we've already spent some time worshiping through music but also to prepare our hearts for the worship through the preaching of the word but Lord we also want to lift up to you just people that we know in our church that are hurting Lord we do pray for Rick Jennings and Susie and so they just continually are fighting we pray for your peace and your comfort in that situation Lord we pray for our missionaries that are going to Idaho and to serve that exalt Church Lord just pray that's just a fruitful and beneficial time for them Lord thank you for the new babies Lord thank you for Naomi and Catherine doing well we just pray for your peace on the Gustafson family and also for Rachel and Brendan as they're expecting their new little one Lord we pray for your peace and your protection over them as well and God we just asked that today that you would be glorified that you would just be exalted high above every single name and that we would learn more about who you are and what you have promised to us in the

Person of Christ may we abide closer and closer to Jesus even right now we ask that you would move Among Us in Jesus name amen well this week I got to talk with a newer Pastor in the area he's Pastor over at new home and just got to connect with him invited him into the office and got to talk with him he's been in Ministry for 44 years that's a long time to be doing some Ministry there and I said I said brother Wayne what's the biggest change that you've seen in 44 years of ministry and he just kind of threw his hands up he said man everything's different everything is more challenging it's difficult it's people people really love sin now even in the Church of God I was like what do you mean by that he said well you know I never thought that I'd have to stand in the pulpit and talk about why like things like abortion is evil and drugs or evil and all these different things that are just prevalent in our society he said people don't know that Satan wants to destroy and I thought man I'm going to work that in on Sunday but in all honesty I did think man it's true you know people people oftentimes I mean when we think of the first time that we learned about Satan right we probably think of something like this right you know Looney Tunes Sylvester going to hell you know there's one that one episode of Looney Tunes it's Tweety Bird starring in Satan is waiting right and you might think that might have been your first encounter with Satan right for me my first encounter anybody ever seen Tom Cruise's very first movie that he ever made is called Legend it has Tim Curry as Satan in it okay like one two three all right that was like my first introduction to Satan right or evil his name was Darkness then and so

We sometimes think of Satan as maybe this all-powerful foe that we have no possibility to defeat I had a picture and somehow it just didn't get transported in it was a the picture of Jesus and Satan arm wrestling you guys have seen that one you know that's just don't share that okay please don't share that okay Jesus is not the Dual like the anti-satan right he's not the polar opposite of Satan okay it's not like there's these two equal powerful forces that are vying for control I remember the very first sermon I don't even want to call it a sermon the very first thing that I experienced here as I came to visit back in 2016 was The Power Team you guys remember that power team bending plates and oh well Skillets and stuff like that and picking up telephone poles and lighting them on fire is crazy I remember the very first sermon that I heard was all of Heaven is pulling you one way and all of hell is pointing you the pulling you the other and you get to decide who the winner is now in what universe is Satan just as powerful as the Lord and Savior and what universe is that because that ain't God's Universe I can tell you that we don't believe in dualism that's a heresy okay Jesus is The Sovereign King God is the all-powerful God even Satan is subject to God's sovereignty so the roaring lion that we may be called at times by him to fear is not an object of fear we don't have to be afraid of any of that because we rest and we abide in the person of Jesus Christ some people they view Satan like this just dark blank there it is I was like what's going on down there at the bottom just doesn't exist

You know some people they'll they try to get they try to take so much ownership of their sin that they say I don't even need Satan to tempt me because I do it enough myself and I know that sometimes I even get into that part right but yet we do not have an imaginary foe we have a very real foe that is opposed to the kingdom of God that is opposed to God's love for Humanity who is opposed to the church who's opposed to the Saints who sows division in a spouse's heresies and brings in false teaching the first reality that I want to point to you point out to you from this passage is the reality of our enemy the reality of our enemy look at what Peter says he says that your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour that word adversary it's a legal term it's a legal term in regards to someone that is accusing an opponent or an enemy Satan he is referred to as the accuser of the Brethren and job we see we see Satan being accused or we see Satan accusing job of only trusting in God because God's been so good to job in a lesser-known passage in Zechariah Chapter 3 verses one through four it says then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan's standing at his right hand to accuse him and the Lord said to Satan the Lord rebuke you o Satan the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you is not this a brand plucked from the fire now Joshua was standing before the angel clothed with filthy garments and the angel said to those who were standing before him remove the filthy garments from him and to him he said behold I have taken your iniquity away from you and I will clothe you with pure

Vestments Satan was there to accuse him this is an impure man and God he says no I will clothe him in my righteousness I will make him pure I will make him holy the devil he was accusing the high priest and it was the angel of the Lord who defended him do you know what devil means does anybody know what devil means means slanderer it means that there is a foe that wants to point out every single thing that you've ever done wrong and make that your identity Satan calls you an adulterer and that may have been true in your past but thanks be to God through repentance and trusting in the Lord Jesus you are called Pure and holy Satan may call you a liar and you may have been but through repentance and trusting in Jesus Christ's atonement for your sin you can be called blameless and righteous every accusation that our enemy May cast at you Finds Its defeat in Christ and yet if you are not hidden in Christ you must be aware that Satan seeks to devour there's an author he wrote his name is Don Stewart he wrote about two ways that Satan does this firstly from attacks within the church in first Timothy chapter 4 verse one it says now the spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the Faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons now what happens if a pastor points out those false teachings a lot of people say well that's not very kind pastor it's not very kind that's not very loving it's not very Christ-like it's malicious and I know that because I've been called those things Jesus he said in the parable of the

Weeds Matthew chapter 13 verses 38-39 the field is the world and the good seed is the sons of the Kingdom the weeds are the sons of the evil one that means that there are sons of the evil one in churches and the enemy who sowed them is the devil the Harvest is the end of the age and the reapers are angels Isn't it nice when God gives us exactly what he means in The Parables we once had a member that believed that in order to be saved you had to also keep the entire law of Moses the argument was that the law it is not abolished Christ came to fulfill the wall so the law never really passed away and so the argument was is that you had to keep the feasts you had to keep the Sabbath day he had to eat kosher and if you didn't do those things then you were deceived and you were still lost in your sin and that's what Paul would call a judaizer it's adding to the work of Christ and it's a biblically illiterate way of understanding what God's word says and it's dangerous and there will be more who seek to win people to the kingdom of Satan and Satan he loves to send his ambassadors under the guise of Glory into churches to enslave them in Jude chapter 4 it says this for certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ if it happened in the early church surely it can happen today Satan he also attacks secondly as Don Stewart points out by persecution by persecution now this is what Peter specifically has in mind for these

Believers that he's writing to here in First Peter chapter five the devil he prowls do you know what that means to prowl like a lion will lay down in the tall grass and will slowly and silently creep forward minute by minute second by second inching closer and closer to their intended prey and so it moves forward and forward and that is what stalks you it's what stalks mean it seeks someone to devour until it just rushes forward when it latches onto its prey it goes to the back of the neck and it tries to crush the vertebrae there to paralyze it and it's windpipe to suffocate it to death that is which what Satan is attempting to do as he prowls and seeks the Lord's sheep Satan hates you his demons hate you our adversary is a roaring lion that seeks to instill fear into the hearts of believers and when you think of a roaring lion I mean for there was one time Amber and I we went to the Dallas Zoo that's where we were I love zoos I love going to zoos I love seeing all the animals and stuff and we were at the Dallas Zoo I had this great exhibit it was restaurant that was in there and it had this giant pain glass where you could look into the lion exhibit right and so you're eating and you're seeing these Lions they're not doing much but then there was one that just started roaring it was really cool it was so incredibly loud and you're just like oh my gosh that is a powerful Roar and you're watching it with Fascination right and that might be how you view a lion or maybe the MGM lion you know like it comes up on the screen and it's just roaring and all that kind of stuff

That's not how Peter would have viewed the Lions you think about how he would have seen them if there was a lion in the area which there was in Asia Minor and there in the Middle East during that time it meant danger imminent danger get your kids get your wives protect them hunker down hunt that thing down and try to kill it even more daringly was the Roman circus where they would you know Round Up criminals they would round up some Christians people that defected from Rome and they would say they would feed them to the Lions they would they might give them a spear or something but you know there's 12 lions in there they're going to be devoured and so it was it was an object of fear not of wonder and Satan and his demons they hate the work of God and so they will do everything they can to thwart a church from that work they will Roar to bring about about fear because a fearful believer is an ineffective believer Satan he will bring in doctrines that will destroy distractions that will divide and practices that will prevent the work of the Holy Spirit it happened in the early church and it can happen even nowadays Satan he also uses willing humans to do his work in Revelation chapter 12 verse 4 it says this at the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth The woman there is Mary okay she's about to give birth to the Christ child so that when she bore her child he talking about Satan might devour it now that's what's called a post-diction that means a foretelling of the events after they had happened it gives us an actual God's perspective on what was happening in Matthew Chapter 2 verses 13 through 18 when Herod the

Great was seeking to put Christ to death even though he said I want to worship the child that was not Herod the greats actual perspective God knows the heart and we learn in Revelation that Herod the Great is used by Satan to attempt to destroy or Devour the Christ child likewise Judas Judas Iscariot was a willing tool of Satan and we know that Satan he even sends his own missionaries into Gospel Center churches to try and steal sheep from the fold and so how do we do that the next step is the reality of our responsibility the reality of our responsibility I went back and I changed that don't think I'm an idiot for misspelling of responsibility but I want you to look at verse 8 it tells us to be sober minded Be watchful go down to verse 9 resist him firm in your faith you know some of you give yourselves over to alcohol to get drunk and you need to repent to that if you're not so reminded that guess what you're easily duped you don't know what reality is you can't judge what is right or wrong you can't decide between truth and error and as such it makes you more vulnerable and more helpless when there is a roaring lion seeking to devour you and I want you to notice what Peter and his agedness is commanding he is commanding what he himself failed to do on the night that Christ was betrayed he wasn't watchful in the night he wasn't alert he was asleep he wasn't clear-headed he was drowsy and so what must we do we must resist the devil now the French huguenots they're they're a big part of Richmond's that's where I'm from Richmond Virginia a big part of Richmond's like

History a lot of them migrated across the Atlantic to escape religious persecution from France and you know I should say more specifically the Roman Catholic Church women they were rounded up and they were put in this Tower that's called the Tower of constance it overlooks the Mediterranean not in a very pretty area it is there so that way they experience the full brunt of the winds that kick up off of the Mediterranean so that way it blew in as much air as possible to keep it cold in the winter and brutally hot in the summer time there was a lady her name was Marie Durand who was put into a cell there at the tower of constance when she was 15 years old she was told recant of her beliefs in salvation by faith alone by grace alone and Christ Alone to turn away from that and to return to the Catholic church and immediately she inscribed on her walls and you can still see it today the word resist there resist three years later her brother was hung at The Gallows for preaching the Gospel now I want you to fast forward until she was 31 years old she'd been there for 16 years she's offered her freedom if she would just recant of her beliefs and Trust in the Catholic church for salvation she lived there for 38 years until she died during that time Satan roared during that time Satan tempted her to suicide tempted her to despair tempted her to recant her beliefs and betray her Lord and gain freedom on this side of Earth you see you cannot resist Satan with a flimsy faith

It doesn't work that way you must stand firm in your faith that word resist it's the word that we actually get our word stereo from stereos and it means balanced and so we stand balanced our feet firmly planted not generally in your faith but in the faith that's what the Bible says is true it's everything the faith that was once for all delivered to the Saints from Genesis to Revelation and it's only by standing in the faith that we can resist the devil and there are some churches that have apostasized themselves by not being planted firmly in the faith it's one of the reasons and we get asked this often Why Don't We Do songs like Bethel Hillsong elevation and things like that it's because they're apostates they are and you know when we include songs from people they get royalties from that and so instead of supporting Ministries and confusing our flock we have indeed instead chosen to pick theologically Rich songs songs that preach the Gospel songs that point us to the glory of the Lord and I'm very thankful that we have Austin that's willing to do that for us amen but it's tough to transition people out of an environment where they sing songs like that the lights are turned down they get the tingles when the volume changes or the key changes remember that's actually not the Holy Spirit that's serotonin developing in your body and it's actual manipulation it's why we don't do that because we don't believe in manipulating you we think that the Holy Spirit is enough amen all right

Third reality here is the reality of our faith family says knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your Brotherhood throughout the world all the suffering that you experience here is also experienced by other brothers and sisters in our world there is nothing unique for you and that's one of the things that Satan tries to do is like you know if you're struggling with the sin and temptation is crouching out the door and you're just like man I can't believe I'm wrestling with this I've been walking with the Lord for 20 30 40 years I should be past this I should be moved on past this you know what you need to talk to a brother or sister about that the amazing thing is that there are other believers that are walking through that same thing and they're fearful too that man if I confess my sin and I ask for accountability and I share you know the dark parts of my heart that I need sanctification in that somehow I'm going to be vilified that I'm going to be rejected that I'm going to be shamed all those different kinds of things you know what happens is that further isolates us and makes us easier targets for that enemy that wants to devour us and oftentimes I look at this and this is a great encouragement to me because sometimes I feel isolated alone too and I think man there's no way that someone in our church would feel the way that I feel and then I go to community group which I love Community groups I talk about it every Sunday it's at my absolute favorite hour unless I'm dating my wife it's just it's absolutely you need to get in community group guys amen and you need to be in there building those relationships and because they're feeling what I'm feeling they're going through what I'm going through but Satan he loves to make

Us feel isolated and when we feel isolated we're tempted to withdraw and that's part of the reason why some of you don't go to community groups because Satan he wants you to feel isolated and when you don't engage in community groups and you don't engage in those relationships what happens is that you allow Satan to have more power and influence over you because you're unwilling to take that step in obedience in building relationships and friendships because Satan wants you to remain alone and this is why it's important for us to have members as well because members they hold each other accountable they identify you as a brother or sister in the Lord in this church it empowers you for ministry here in the local church it's a blessing to have a faith family that is devoted to you like that's part of the that's part of the blessing of membership is that you have a faith family that is for you in rallies around you when things go wrong you know our faith family is our brothers and sisters in arms and many times the fiercest Warriors are often the frailsts that are around us physically I don't know what I would do without our senior men and our senior women that intercede on our Church's behalf for so many of the different things that we are praying for and I'm thankful for them Paul he says this in second Corinthians he says though we walk in the flesh we are not Waging War according to the flesh for the weapons of our Warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds we destroy arguments in every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ and the word arguments there is also translated as speculations it's Satan's schemes thoughts theories ideologies philosophies systems those

Things that he sets up we take every thought captive by the power and the grace of God and we cannot take our take these thoughts captive with our own minds but it's only through the knowledge of God it's only according to his word that we can have the ability the power the strength to resist Satan and it takes Biblical truth to crush the enemy the fourth reality is the reality of Our Hope says this and after you've suffered a little while the God of all Grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore confirm strengthen and establish you to him be the Dominion forever and ever amen Peter he ends this letter the same way that he begins he points us toward the living hope that we have through the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ look back turn with me go back over to Peter chapter one First Peter chapter one and I want you to look at how he starts out his letter and then compare it to how he's ending his letter look at verses three through five it says blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ 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 an inheritance that is imperishable undefiled and unfading kept in heaven for you who by God's power are being guarded through faith for salvation ready to be revealed at the last time now in that sermon way back in January we talked about how Jesus is the author of our Salvation that we have a certain hope for our Salvation that we have a reward for our Salvation what a beautiful and precious gift salvation is but then Peter he reminds us look keep looking at that passage in verse 6 about the fiery trials that we must endure on this side of Eternity and we've learned that these trials they do

Not destroy his people but rather they purify us and they are intended by God to bring us closer to the Lord in our knowledge of him and so Peter he's wrapping up this letter in the same way but in reverse order and that the suffering that we experience is simply for a little while it's simply for a little while now I want you to think about a grain of sand okay grain of sand now mathematicians they estimate that there are that is 75 hold on quintillion quintillion 75 quintillion grains of sand here on Earth that's a lot of zeros by the way you know that if it's bigger than our national debt it's a lot now if I were to just count for 16 hours a day okay no stops no breaks 1.9 syllables per second it would take me seven hundred and three thousand four hundred and twelve point four years just to get to a trillion and I would take me doing it a million times in order to count every single grain of sand just once now are suffering on this side of Eternity feels like it drags out but in comparison to all of eternity okay if we were to just catch a glimpse of the glories of heaven and all the promises of Eternity of knowing God of beholding God face to face of seeing him in his glory being served by the angels with the elders surrounding it and the apostles praising the Lord and myriads of myriads and hosts upon hosts seeing the glory of God we would understand just how brief our suffering is here on the side of Eternity I could sit down and I could do that a million times

And not even begin to scratch the surface of Eternity and it's not just sitting around playing Harps or counting grains of sand it's knowing God face to face it's seeing him it's loving him it's no longer this faith that faith that is Misty where we can see God's hand in certain areas of our lives but we're just walking with him by faith our faith becomes sight and we get to know God for all of eternity and knowing that the life that we lead now is only brief but when we're going through the persecution when we're going through the sufferings and the heartaches and the trials and all those different things it can feel much longer but when we know Christ and our confidence is based upon the God of all Grace look at what it says there in First Peter chapter five that he is the God of all Grace who has called us to his eternal glory in Christ what does that mean that he's a God of all Grace that means that he is the God of his Saving Grace of his calling Grace of his electing Grace of his Sovereign Grace of his glorious Grace of his matchless grace the God of all Grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself the God of Glory will himself the God of Eternity the God of angels himself will do these things for you he will restore you that's what the Scriptures say he will restore you I love that word to restore when I think of restore I love watching these old toy restoration videos anybody else watch them they see them on their Facebook reels and things like that I love seeing those things I know it's a nerd thing but you know I it just amazes me how they can go from

Something like that to this I mean to me that's just that's very impressive I think about the time the experience and things like that I want you to think about who is writing this letter it's Peter and was there a time when he had to be restored you better believe it after the resurrection what happened Jesus sat him down had some breakfast with him Peter do you love me yes I do Peter do you love me you know I do Peter do you love me and grieved him but thanks be to God that he is in the restoration business not just taking something old and making it new but taking something dead and making it alive taking something broken making it whole and he's always working on us continually sanctifying Us in Philippians chapter 1 verse six it says and I am sure of this that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ secondly he will confirm us that's what the Scriptures say this can be understood as established on a firm foundation that we are in Christ in Christ set in a strong position The High Ground in a sense not the moral High Ground okay The High Ground of Christ but this confirming is about what happens after suffering and so in a sense God he raises us up to a safer place which is rooted in a deeper and deeper knowledge and love of our Lord Jesus Christ who also strengthen us it's the only time in the entire New Testament that this version of the word strength and appears it does appear in the Greek version of the Old Testament in the Book of Job which

Interestingly enough is when job is talking about the strength of a lion in the late Edmund Clowney he writes this in much the same way that Aslan represents Christ as the line of the tribe of Judah we know that through the Risen Christ he removes our fear of Satan the roaring lion finally he also establishes us now this word is different than confirm this is in reference to the supernatural work of securing us and in the same way that God founded and established the Earth Peter he refers to us as being established or founded in the same way that he created the world now all of these words all that they do is they point us to the power the hope the security the peace the immovability the strength that is accessible to Believers in Jesus Christ and I want you to think a moment about for a moment about what is already yours in Jesus Christ think about the suffering think about the afflictions think about the trials and we know that they are momentary and we know that Christ will get us through it all that he will give us his strength that he will enable us to stand on that firm foundation and that he will give us his Supernatural power to keep us secure until that day as Paul wrote in Ephesians chapter 3 verses 17 through 19 so that Christ May dwell in your hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth what is the length and the height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God to him be the Dominion forever and ever amen head heart hand head I want you to know that we have a real enemy it's the devil we have a real enemy he really has followers that he is deceived into heresies and he wants to cause Believers

To Fall Away that's his goal and I don't want you to think that he is not working hard to get his way he is but thankfully in Christ we have the power to resist so resist him affirm in your faith and I want you to know that we are called that we have a way to overcome our enemy by resisting him in the faith you were called to it you were called to resist he God has already given you everything that you need to resist but we must abide in Christ in hand I want you to abide in the God of all Grace that you may overcome the devil when he comes around at this time we are going to