Beloved, do not be Surprised!

Tell story of my 40th Birthday - surprise!

Surprised by the width of the trail down the Grand Canyon - tell the story - my fear wasn’t realized!

Tell story of getting to the top of the grainery - surprise!

I wasn’t afraid at my house and the wonderful surprise party my wife had set up for me. I was however, quite afraid - paralyzed almost by what I saw at the top of the grainery

Like the Gentiles

We are new creations in Christ and live new in him. 1 Thessalonians 1:5 - power of the gospel… to bring about changed lives through changed thinking - Romans 12:1ff in view of God’s mercies!

1 Peter 4:3–5 ESV

For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

Recognize the testing.

1 Peter 1:6 ESV

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,

Isaiah 48:10 ESV

Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.

Deuteronomy 8:2 ESV

And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.

to make us more like Jesus who learned obedience through his suffering.

To reveal the genuineness of their/ now our… faith! God’s goal with the test is for their ultimate benefit. While painful, it isn’t strange and is something they should welcome - think here of Luther’s oratio, meditatio, Tentatio! (testing/trial)

Rejoice in the connection.

Acts 5:40–41 ESV

and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.

John 15:20 ESV

Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

BELOVED!

Psalm 46:1 ESV

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Philippians 4:13 ESV

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

1 Peter 4:11 ESV

whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Conversion is all God’s work, but we have a responsibility to respond with faith and repentance. But it turns out that faith and repentance are also God’s work in us, his gift to us.

God opens blind eyes. God grants repentance (Mark 8:18–30; 2 Corinthians 4:4–6; 2 Timothy 2:25). That’s why conversion is entirely an act of God’s grace. But, at God’s initiative and with God’s help, we’re involved.

And it’s the same with sanctification. Sanctification is God’s work. But we’re not passive. We have to respond with faith and repentance.

And again it turns out that faith and repentance are God’s work in us. So salvation from start to finish is God’s work, in which we are active participants through faith and repentance by the grace of God.

We work hard, but then say with Paul, “It was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12–13).

The Power of Suffering Trusting God In Suffering

John Newton, author of the hymn “Amazing Grace,” watched cancer slowly and painfully kill his wife over a period of many months. In recounting those days, John Newton said:

I believe it was about two or three months before her death, when I was walking up and down the room, offering disjointed prayers from a heart torn with distress, that a thought suddenly struck me, with unusual force, to this effect—“The promises of God must be true; surely the Lord will help me, if I am willing to be helped!” It occurred to me, that we are often led . . . [from an undue regard of our feelings], to indulge that unprofitable grief which both our duty and our peace require us to resist to the utmost of our power. I instantly said aloud, “Lord, I am helpless indeed, in myself, but I hope I am willing, without reserve, that thou shouldest help me.”

Am I willing to be helped? - helped to not be surprised at this fiery trial? First, I want you to consider the words of God the Father about his son at his baptism - this is my BELOVED with whom I am well - pleased - listen to him! In Christ, you and I are the BELOVED ones, in whom God is well-pleased! That is what the great exchange at the cross means! The only sin God doesn’t forgive is the one we don’t bring to Him! - Am I willing to be helped? Am I willing to be helped with my sin? Am I willing to be helped with my trial? (seeing the refining and connecting work it does) Am I willing to receive his love - you are His beloved too! Therefore, we can look forward to the wonderful outcome of being connected to Jesus Christ!

Romans 8:17–18 ESV

and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.