When You Don't Feel Blessed

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Transcript

Welcome And The Blessing Question

0:05

Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in the Word. I'm Ronnie Cooksie. How would you like to be blessed? Well, everybody wants to be blessed, but sometimes what God says is a blessing in his word goes contrary to our experience and our personal desires.

Blessed When Righteousness Brings Suffering

0:25

God says in first Peter chapter three, verses fourteen in the beginning of verse fifteen, but even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed, and do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. That's not what we think of in the Western world for sure as being blessed. The truth is that around the world many of our brothers and sisters in Christ are truly being persecuted, and some are losing their lives even today. Most of us in the Western world have not experienced this kind of persecution and suffering. Nevertheless, there are things in your life and in my life that are not fair sometimes when we follow Christ. So there's a great word for us even here today. He says that we are to not fear but to consider ourselves blessed if we suffer for the sake of righteousness.

Is It Persecution Or Consequences

1:29

Now that means first that we have to identify why we're suffering. It's true that there are times that you and I hear a Christian say that they are being persecuted, and the real reason is because they are either in sin or quite frankly, they're just being a jerk. Now that's not what the Apostle Peter is talking about here. So he's talking about when we try to follow Christ and we get treated unfairly because of it. Maybe we're sneered at or made fun of, maybe we're laughed at, maybe we're passed over for something or left out of something in some way that others treat us in an ill manner. And so he says, When you're trying to follow Christ and this happens, you're blessed. The Bible speaks about this numerous times, about the blessing of following Christ and identifying with him and being treated

Don’t Fear Intimidation Or Trouble

2:26

poorly. He says, Don't fear their intimidation and do not be troubled. Now Peter is writing to the first century believers, and there is a growing persecution against them. He says, Don't fear, don't be troubled. The scripture speaks over three hundred times about not fearing. If you have struggles with fears, and we all do at times, you might look up all that the Bible has to say about not fearing and make notes of those things to encourage you in the Lord.

Sanctify Christ As Lord Inwardly

2:56

He gives us the number one strategy for not being troubled and not fearing, and that is to sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts. Now the word sanctify means to set apart. So he means that if you have come to know Christ as your Savior, you need to regularly remind yourself that He is the Lord of your heart. That is, he is the ultimate judge. Those people who may treat you unfairly in your life today, they're not your ultimate judge. So we remember that one day this will all end, and the Lord will judge forever, and we want to please him rather than pleasing those who may be against us at this point in our life. And so we want to actively keep reminding ourselves. Now he is Lord, he doesn't need our help being Lord, but we want to just remember and remind ourselves through the scripture and through prayer, and maybe again through some notes somewhere where you'll see them that you're serving Jesus and this will all be worth it in the

Prayer, Endurance, And Tomorrow’s Preview

4:02

end. And as we go on tomorrow, in the rest of these two verses that follow, we're going to see that when you do so, God's going to use it, and I'm going to encourage you to be back with me tomorrow so that you can hear the rest of what Peter is telling us today in this text. Sanctify Christ in your heart. Do not fear. Hang in there, if you will, by taking it all to the Lord in prayer. Tell him all about it. He cares especially when you're willing to suffer for the sake of following him. God bless you, and I look forward to seeing you back here tomorrow. Thanks for being with us today.