In the fall of 1929 a lot of people in this country made the immediate transition from one of the elite and wealthy people of America to one of the poorest. For nearly a hundred years people had been putting great trust in the stock market only to discover, on October 29, that it wasn’t worthy of their faith. On that terrible day stocks made a record drop in price and many people lost millions of dollars. Some were completely devastated and lived the remainder of their lives in absolute poverty. Some couldn’t accept that possibility and took the drastic and ir-reversible step of committing suicide.

            October 29, 1929 is considered the end of the roaring 20's and the beginning of the great depression. The stock market continued to drop for several more years and actually didn’t recover until 1951, 22 years later.

            Other people have put just as much trust and faith in other avenues of finance; land deals, gold, jewels, paintings, antiques; and it has proven over the years that none of them are totally safe from disaster. Prices drop, money is lost and lives are ruined. But God has given us something much better to put our trust in... HIM!!! Let’s see what we can learn from Peter in ...

 

Scripture 1 Peter 1:3‑8

 

 

            Don’t you just love Peter! He is the one guy in the Bible that most of us can relate to. He has his moments of passion and great insight; remember that it was Peter who firsts claimed that Jesus is the Christ. It was Peter who cut off the ear of the soldier coming to arrest Jesus. Act first, think later. Many of us have that character trait. He was fully committed to Jesus; it was Peter who didn’t want his feet washed, then when Jesus explained it, he wanted his hands and head washed as well. It was Peter who got out of the boat to walk on the water. Yet, it was also Peter who denied even knowing Jesus.

            Many of us are just like Peter. We have our moments of great insight and passion and we have those moments when we reject Jesus without even knowing we are doing it. We have those moments when we want more of Jesus; we can ‘t get enough... “wash our hands and heads, Lord.” And then we have those moments when we are simply too busy with our own view of how things should go to pay much attention to what Jesus wants. We are a lot like Peter.

            We don’t really know who Peter was writing to, the opening verse says its to the ‘strangers’ of the region. Some suggest it is the Jews living as strangers in the area after having to leave Israel. Others say it’s the gentiles of the region, as strangers to faith in Jesus. Either idea works for us, today, as we are only interested in the message... that we will have difficulties in this life, but that we should give all glory to God, the Father of Jesus. For it is in Jesus that we have our hope for eternity.

            Let’s turn to Acts 2:22‑33, this is part of the sermon Peter spoke on the day of Pentecost. “22 "Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

25 David said about him: "'I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. 26 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope, 27 because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. 28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.'    29 "Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. 30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.”

            What Peter is telling us is that we will face difficulty, but to not lose heart because our eternal hope is in the One who defeated death. He gave us this new life when we chose to become followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. It is a gift from God and for no other reason than that, we should be forever singing the praises of God in thanksgiving of our salvation.

            With Jesus we will never have to worry about the prices of heaven stock going down leaving us in a bind suddenly with no entry pass to eternity. We can put our trust in this; unlike the stock market or jewels or gold. God’s stock will NEVER go down.... literally!

            However, we must realize, as Peter is teaching us, that we are likely to face all kinds of trials while we are here on this earth. This comes as no shock to any of us... we have all experienced difficulties. Sometimes we are responsible for our own situations. The natural outcome of many of the decisions we make leads us into turbulent water. Sometimes we find ourselves in this situation and aren’t exactly sure what we did to get us to this point, but none the less, here we are; swimming as fast as we can only to be towed farther out to sea.

            Sometimes, we realize the outcome of our action, knowing full well that it is going to lead to difficulty, but we can’t seem to discipline ourselves from those actions. We know it isn’t going to turn out good, but we do it anyway. We ignore the distasteful, long term results in favor of the short term desire.

            Many times we find ourselves in very difficult places in life, through no action of our own. Perhaps a law changes and we are suddenly left with no ability to carry out the plan we had in place. Maybe someone takes something of great value from us and we can’t afford to replace it, but have no other choice... which leads to further bad decisions and greater difficulties.

            Perhaps we are faced with those horrifying words coming from our doctor that we are in a life threatening situation. Maybe as a result of an accident that we didn’t do anything wrong to bring about, maybe because we did do something wrong... maybe we turned in front of another car and are seriously injured. Maybe a drunk driver comes across the lane and hits us.

            We might find ourselves in this place as a result of a disease that has the very real potential of taking our life. Is it the result of our own action? Did we purposely fill our bodies with bad things; too much alcohol or other drugs or tobacco or industrial chemicals? Or is our disease the result of some pollution in our environment that we have no control over?

            Many people, today, are finding themselves in grave difficulty because their career of choice has become outdated and there are no jobs to be had. Maybe our company lets us go in favor of cheaper overseas labor. Perhaps someone in the company wanted our job, so they began spreading lies about us that results in us getting fired.

            For many people the struggle happens when they get home. Their home life is filled with anger and discord and the family relationships are disintegrating right in front of their eyes. They might be the cause of such struggle, or they might only be the recipient of someone else in the families poor choices.

            In these situations great amounts of money isn’t always very helpful. You cannot buy your way out of leukemia. You cannot use an antique rocking chair to heal a broken trust relationship in a family. Having a million dollar automobile will not keep the drunk from coming across your lane.

            What we have discovered in this life, is that nothing is safe and no one is immune from disaster. The basic fact is: stuff happens. In an episode of MASH a doctor is hurt and angry after losing a patient to his war wounds. The colonel gives these indisputable facts; 1) in war, young men die, and 2) doctors can’t change that. Stuff happens. Sometimes because of our own doing, sometimes for no apparent reason. These are the difficult places we find ourselves in. Putting our faith and trust in earthly things only serves to give us a false sense of security.

            But even though these things can’t be totally avoided there is a good outcome for Christians. Peter teaches us that these trials have a purpose. Look back at verse 7, we suffer so that... “your faith may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” Trials serve to test our resolve to continue to believe in and follow Jesus even when it is difficult to do so. Our character is tested when we would normally find ourselves in a situation where we would react with violence or anger or foul language and instead we control ourselves and choose to be obedient. These trials help us prove the strength of our own faith.

            One other thing about trials... which of you has ever faced having to sacrifice your own child to pay the price of sin for a people who don’t even care? How many of you have ever found yourself totally and completely separated from God, as Jesus was on the cross? How many of us have ever had to sweat blood in anticipation of the torture that was immanent?

            God, Jesus, knows what suffering is.  Whether by our own accord or through no fault of our own, Jesus knows our pain. He has been through it all and even so, defeated death that you and I could have everlasting life.

           

            Our future hope is secure in Jesus Christ. There will be no Black Tuesday for our faith. Not because of some earthly value of our gold or stocks or land, but because God is filled with love and grace and gives to us the surety of eternity. Peter tells us, in verse 8, the final word on why we should be filled with joy and praise, even in the difficult times.

            8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

            Isn’t the salvation of your soul worth more than all the trials this world can throw at us? I think it is.

            Let us always, and in every circumstance, give thanks to God and sing praises to His holiness. Amen