Sermon Tone Analysis

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*Intro*
Hope you all had a great week!
We are going back into 1 Peter today.
We are going to look at 1 Pet.
1:6-9 today.
Peter has been encouraging persecuted and suffering Christians to have a hope that is living; how to keep growing, even when the going gets tough.
After reminding them of their identity (1 Pet.
1:1-2) and how great their salvation is, namely, that they have a Father who birthed them, who infused them with living hope, who is keeping an inheritance for them and is also keeping them for that inheritance (1 Pet.
1:3-5), he now moves on to what that means for them in the present in 1 Pet.
1:6-9.
How does our great salvation help us live in the present day when our circumstances have caused us and is still causing us so much pain?
What about my trials now Peter?
He says our response for the now is joy.
Notice three times joy is mentioned in our text today.
It is a joy sandwich.
What?
Is that a misprint?
Shouldn’t trouble diminish joy?
He will say, no, in fact, trouble and trials can add to joy.
It is not some kind of masochistic mustered up joy he is talking about.
But joy found in salvation and found in God.
But how can we experience it, especially when I am cast down, discouraged and disappointed by the trials of life?
These believers were struggling.
It was a difficult time.
It was a time where trials could easily rob them of their joy.
What do believers in the midst of trials need to focus on to regain their joy?
The title of the message today is “How to find joyful hope in trials.”
Three things here given for us in this text this morning.
First of all:
*I.
**We need to have perspective in our trials** (v.6)*
Before we get into the text, let’s define trials, so that we can be clear.
/A trial is a painful circumstance that has been allowed by God in the life of a believer to make us closer followers and better lovers of the Lord Jesus.
/ When I say “closer followers and better lovers” I am thinking of two things: our conduct (what we do) and our character (who we are).
God is all about making us more and more look like little Christs./
/Notice it is just for believers.
Unbelievers’ trials are there to get their attention to turn from their sin to the Savior.
Now trials are different from consequences.
Sometimes the lines are not perfectly clear, but a lot of times they are.
James Macdonald uses this illustration: If you lost your job and you decided to rob a bank and you end up in prison that is not a trial that God has allowed.
Don’t say, “God is refining me.”
No, you broke the law.
The way out of a consequence is repentance.
A consequence you repent and turn from, but a trial you embrace and learn from.[1]
A trial is not something you brought into your life.
You didn’t cause it and you didn’t choose it, but it happened to you and it was allowed by God.
We can probably do several messages on this, but for now, let’s look at what Peter says to us today in these verses.
He says we need to have a proper perspective in trials.
What kind of perspective?
I have five things here.
Jot the first down:
/a)    //Trials are opportunities not obstacles/
Remember in Luke 15, we have three things that are lost: a lost sheep, a lost coin and a lost son.
In each story, there is a common response: tremendous joy (Luke 15:7, 10, 22-24).
Salvation and joy always goes together.
Being made right with God causes joy: joy on the part of God, joy on the part of Christ, joy in the presence of angels, joy on the part of the people of God and joy on the part of the one who is saved.
This salvation joy is Peter’s theme here in verses 6-9.
This is why he says “in this you rejoice.”
In what?
Well, in our great salvation, because salvation is what gives you joy! Rejoice in everything he has said from 1 Pet.
1:3-5, especially as you are experiencing trials.
Trials are opportunities to experience true joy.
See the word “rejoice.”
That is not a strong enough translation.
It is an “intense, expressive term that means to be supremely and abundantly happy—a happiness that is not tentative nor based on circumstances or superficial feelings.”[2]
It could be translated, “Be jubilant” or as Jesus says, “Be exceeding glad” (Matt.
5:12).
It is MEGAJOY!
It is more than happiness that comes from positive events or as someone said, “from happenings” and it is more than even mere emotionalism, but joy is a deep down confidence that you have based on having a positive relationship with God, that burning exhilarating thrill that is abiding and bubbling over because of what God has done for you in Jesus Christ.
It is a supernatural delight in God and the things of God.
Though it is does not deny the reality of pain or suffering, it is nevertheless very real.
It is a paradox and a mystery like Paul says that he is sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Cor.
6:10).
It is in the present tense, meaning, a continual joy! Remember Jesus says, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11).
God wants that His joy for us!
If you are a believer, you would agree with me that there have been times you see God’s hand in a situation and you are like, “Wow, God did that!”
That’s joy!
Or looking up at the stars or at creation and you suddenly feel so small as your soul is eclipsed by who God is.
That’s joy!
Or if are singing a worship song and you sense His nearness and His tender love and compassion for you and your heart begins to be full of praise.
Man, nothing beats that joy!
But Satan does not want us to tap into that.
He wants to keep you looking at a past you cannot change and a future you cannot control to keep you from experiencing Jesus in the present and the joy He has for us.
The enemy wants us to see trials as a stumbling block.
Just fall down and die!
But Peter is saying, “No, it is not a stumbling block!
It is a stepping stone.”
It is not an obstacle, but an opportunity.
An opportunity for what?
Well, several things which we will look at.
But also to experience true joy.
This is because we are so easily pleased.
We obsess over celebrities or technology or entertainment or materialism or money or a certain person.
We hold on to those things with our dear lives.
But when trials hit us, God pries open our hands and helps us let go of those things.
He exposes our idols and shows us what we really need: Him!
And we experience true joy because of it!
So trials are an opportunity not an obstacle.
Secondly,
/b)   //Trials are temporary not forever/
Notice Peter says, “though now for a little while.”
It means literally, “for a season.”
He sounds like Paul here.
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