When Life Gets Hard, Remember This | 1 Peter 1:1-12

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, today is Friday, and we love Fridays just because the world loves Fridays. Oh, we love Fridays because it can only mean one thing. Oh what made Chris mad this week? Wow? We're getting right into it to it right there. Wow, I'm gonna take a drink of my McDonald's coke. Yes? Is it coke zero? Co diet coker di coke? Yeah? Where do you like better? Coke zero diet coke? I like coke zero out of the cam better. I like diet coke for McDonald's better than coke zero for McDonald's. What. Yeah, the formulations are different really? Yeah? Oh yeah, McDonald's has different formulations for all of the coke products. Then you can buy a store. Oh I knew that. Yeah yeah, yeah, but that's crazy. Wow, I did not know that. Okay, their straw is perfectly designed. Yeah. I think the cup is perfectly designed for maximum flavor, and so I just like to put the diet coke version of it. Wow, okay, very good? Well, Hey everything yesterday it was Christian. Interesting today, I want to talk to you about diak Coca McDonald's. Okay, so we're back to it. Other than the fact that I interrupted your sex, yes, okay, Chris mad this week. Okay, So here it is. I've said this out loud recently a lot, and I just thought of it today this morning. So I actually like complained about it to my family. And that is there's a specific thing and then there's a general thing. Here's the general thing. I am so angry that companies don't really care about you. They don't. They don't. It's like they're just in it for the money, right, But if it's not a ministry to them. No, but listen, if you build a product, then you should care about the quality of that product. And by the way, there are companies who do do that, right, They put out quality things and they actually do care about a lot of things. And so yeah, you pay bit more for that. But the companies who should know better, who do not care. I am so angry at that. And so recently my daughter's car something broke, and I was like, I remember my father being at General Motors. He retired from General Motors in Lordstown, Ohio, and I remember literally, they were giving away luggage for the best idea, and my father submitted an idea and said, if you make this part instead of making it steel and you make it plastic, it'll last just long enough to outlast the warranty and then it'll break, which will create new revenue. Thanks mister Tzarbah right, Yeah, planned obsolescence, that's what that's called. And so therefore, therefore the companies like you win the luggage, and they gave my father luggage that gave him and I gave them an idea for them to make money who didn't care about the customer and I hate that. And so the thing that sparked that feeling, Jeff, what was that I cannot keep these shoes clean. You can't keep them clean. And Nike should know better. So this is a Nike shoe for those of you not watching video, which is probably almost half of you. But it doesn't matter how many times. I clean this shoe. You can't keep it. Wait, can't keep it clean. And then I thought to myself. It led me to the thought of why would they create a shoe that they know is going to be dirty within the first week. I mean literally, I'm not kidding. And then I ran into people who have this shoe who said, oh, that's the worst kind of shoe to buy. It's the worst kind of material because it'll get dirty. You can't keep it clean. You can't keep it clean. And everybody says so So if everybody I know says so. So, don't buy the white version of that. Right. But here's my point. Why would Nike make it? Because people buy it. Correct, which means they don't care. They don't care. Why wouldn't they come up with a way to put a clear coat on this or like a. Like a Well not everybody's upset about the fact that it ages what some people it's just patina. That's not true. It's it's like patina on a on a But. I'm not talking about a shoe that you've had for three months. I'm talking about a shoe you had for three minutes. Right, They're creating a shoe that they know will be dirty. And I think that I think that you should boycott Nike. Well, I'm tempted, Jeff. I started, you can get out there with pitchforks and torches and lead the masses to wear is it seattle? This morning? I'm going to work out after this, and I wanted to Nike. Why do we hate them? Because Chris. But but the thing is, I want to work out this morning, and I thought, I don't want to wear these shoes because they're so dirty. But they're the newest of the workout shoes that I have, and they're the best support for my feet. But I don't want to wear them and I can't keep them clean. How hard. I try some other colors because they look good on you, Chris. Well, thank you for that. I know that Nike is not exactly the most pop I'm old, right, I'm old. Old people were nice. You're not old, well older right. But the bottom line is, Jeff, companies don't care. They don't, and I'm angry at it. They don't, you know. So, But when a company does go above and beyond, yes, right, when you delight the so. I used to work for Marriott Right Hotels, and one of my problems, or one of my jobs was we had twelve hundred and eighty rooms and one of my job all day, every day was just to solve problems for people. And they really empowered me to spend the money to go above and beyond. And the whole idea is delight a customer and there'll be a customer for life. So every problem is an opportunity to delight them because they come to you a hot matt. So just understand, the game is not to prove why they're wrong. The game is to delight them. To turn it one hundred and eighty degrees from them coming in hot to them leave and going first company is amazing, right, That was the goal every time, And so I love that idea, and you don't see it very often. I have a I'm a Weber guy went with grills and stuff, and I had an older Weber pellet grill. And they went public for a season. It's a private company again, but they went public for a while, and while they were public, the management just really ran in the ground and took it to a mediocre company. I think they've really returned back to a good company. But for a while they did well. Then when the new management took over, they knew that there were problems with this grill, and so I had a problem and I was still within warranty. I contact him said, hey, hey, I had a problem with this thing. I don't know, is it still under warranty, and I thought it was. They pull it up and go, oh, your warranty expired like two months ago. And I was like, oh, well that's how my life works. Think. I goes no, no, no, I'll send it to you anyways. And he give me your address. So I gave Hi his address, or gave him the address, and he went through all this stuff to prove that this was mine because I'd already registered it for the warranty. This dude sent me that part, two other parts. He sent me a thing saying sometimes this goes bad. He sent me that, and he sent me four bags of pellets and just said, we value you as a customer. Is that amazing? Yes? And it was because they recognized the previous group of leaders had put out a really bad product, and they're like, we're going to give you everything that's a problem. Everything's going to be a problem next and if this happens, you already have it. I still have all those parts. I only needed the one part in the basement. The other parts never went bad, but I've got them. Wow. Right. And he sent me four bags. They sent me one hundred fifty dollars with the stuff, and I needed like a fifteen dollars part. I promise you I went ten x to prove we are all in for you as a customer, and dude, I will never get anything other than a Weber again. Wow right. I love it when they do it right, but you're right, when they do it wrong makes me mad. Yeah. Well, I mean most companies don't care at all about much of anything other than a dollar. You know, this weekend I had a lady she might be listening, go ahead. I was just gonna say I delight in that story so much. I had a lady come up to me this weekend and she said, hey, I just wanted you to know. She said, been attending for a couple months and I gave an offering and she said, I was amazed. I gotta thank you, and she said, I know it was probably automated, and I said, well, we know we have a kind of a system. Just make sure say thank you. She said, but I've never been thanked for giving just because she said, I don't give a lot, but I give a little bit. And she said, I've just and it's never been thanked. And I said, listen to me, and I said, I want you to know that this is true. We believe that every person God sends to Herida's Church is a gift from God, which means you're a gift from God to us. And then I said, and then when you decide to partner with us and you give whatever you believe God's asking you to give, that's a gift from you from God. And why wouldn't we say thank you? And I said, so I'm thrilled. So I mean it, Yes, somebody sent that to you, But I said, I want that to be in place so that we never miss an opportunity to say thank you because you're gift from God. Does She gets altered up, starts crying. So it's telling me her life story, told me all these things it was, and then finding her her place of impact in God's kingdom is a big, big deal. And I think that's important for us to say thank you. So I'm not saying it, yay, look at Jeff. What I'm saying is people are moved when you see them as a person and not as a consumer of your product. Yeah right, It changes you. Yeah, it makes you feel better. And so whether it's weber or or saying thank you at church versus we don't care. We're putting out a crappy product. Chris is going to buy it anyways. Yeah right right, yeah, so listen that the bottomne is companies do better. Do better, care more. Yeah. Yeah, it's an investment. It's not an expense. When you invest in your in your customer, you're going to sell that sell to them over and over and over and over again. That's right. Right, So it's an investment, it's not an expense. Okay, Well, talking about investments and expenses, I. Was gonna you know, she's just stuck with investment. Yeah. Yeah. Did you know that you have an inheritance coming? Oh that's pretty good. Yeah, I do. I do know that. Okay, yeah, does this passage talk about that? Yes, First Peter Chapter one talks about this, how. Convenience isn't that amazing? It is? Okay, So here's what it says. We don't read a lot from First Peter. I don't know why I love First Peter. But when was the last time we've read from First Peter. It's been a while, like eight months ago. Well, if you if you like First Peter, yeah dude, you're gonna love Second Peter. Yea, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you said double the double third Peter, Yeah, there is no third. Oh okay, yeah, okay. So anyways, here we go. In First Peter chapter one, it says, this letter is from Peter Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. I'm writing the God's chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontius and Galatia, Cappadoccia, Asia and Bithynia. God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. May God give you more and more grace and peace. I love that they give you more and more grace and peace. Then he says, all praise to God, the Father of our lord, Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance, an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold. Though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it'll bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Christ Jesus is revealed to the whole world. You love him even though you've never seen him. Though you do not see him, now, you trust him, and you rejoice in a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting Him will be the salvation of your souls. And this salvation is something even the prophets wanted to know more about. When they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you, they wondered what time or situation the spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ's suffering and his great glory. Afterward, they were told that their messages were not for themselves, but for you. And now this good news has been announced to you by those who preached in the power the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. It is all so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen. Isn't that amazing? Yeah, it's very amazing. We can keep going if you want. But man, that's good right there. Yeah, I think so. So hope for eternal life. And so what are our highlighted verses for today? Two and three, Two and three, yeah, yeah, three and four I'm sorry, three and four. Praise to God, the father of our Lord, Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance, an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, peer and under file, beyond the reach of change indicay. Now, when it says an inheritance, people hear that word and they think of earthly wealth, right, and so this is gold, These are crowns, These are rewards for our good deeds? Or is inheritance a reference to heaven? Is inheritance a reward for a word for legacy, for impact, or maybe it's all the above. Yeah. So I think it's interesting that you brought that up, because I immediately looked at the Life Application Study notes about that specifically trying to figure out what I'm setting up again, what is it talking about that? Yeah, Yeah, it's great that you're asking that question. So the Life Application Study Bible says the Jews had looked forward to an inheritance in the Promised Land of Canaan. Right. Interesting, that's numbers thirty two Deuteronomy two, Deuteronomy nineteen where Moses said, God has this inheritance for us in the Promised Land. It's this is where the idea in the old Southern Gospel songs talking about the promised land being heaven. Right, that's our inheritance, just like the Jews looked forward to their inheritance. Says, although the nation had received that right of inheritance, eventually they defiled their faith under the influence of foreign nations. The people's sins had caused the promise to become a fully fading only a fading memory. Christians now look forward to another inheritance, a priceless inheritance, eternal life in the eternal city of God. God has reserved the inheritance. It'll never fade or decay, It'll be sustained, unstained by sin. The great news is that you have this inheritance now if you've trusted Christ as your savior. So an inheritance is something you're looking forward to, really, as they were looking forward to to the Promised land they believe God had gifted it to them. This is one of those things. And We've talked about this before how a lot of God's promises reflect the past, are promised for the future and they're now too, right, but we're experiencing them in different ways. So salvation is now, but we haven't yet experienced it, right, And that's what that's what this passage is talking about. That that inheritance is eternal life. Will will he mentions here until you receive this salvation. You've already received salvation, yet there's going to be a day when you receive the full inheritance of your salvation. Yeah, okay, okay, So I see what you're saying. When you say we haven't experienced salvation, you're referring to the actual experience of getting. Into heaven, total freedom from sin, total experience of what God has planned for us because of salvation. Because we believe when you are saved, eternal life begins now. Yes, right at the time of And that's why I was highlighting that God is tacking you by his power until you receive this salvation. Yes. And then the other one he mentions it over here, there's another one at the end of the passage we just read. Anyways, there's another one. Two times he kind of references the fact that you're going to receive this this inheritance. And so that's the thing. Yeah, I can take you to other passages. First, gracious salvation prepared for you. Ephesians says, God always planned to adopt into his very own family. So God's salvation was always planned for you in the past, right, But there was a time you didn't have it, even though in the past he'd already planned it. Then there's a moment when you accept CHRISTI as your savior. He forgives your sins, you making the lord of your life. Now you are saved, but you don't receive the inheritance until that day, right. And so there's the past plan, there's the current experience, and there's the fulfillment of the salvation. And again God's thinking all three at the same time, and you and I are experiencing them in segments right before I received. Now I've received in some dialhol experience right right those things, and I will be fully, fully safe. And so I think it's interesting it say, and it's also wonderful that even the angels are eagularly watching these things happen. The angels are like, what this is amazing. The prophets were like, can you imagine what it's going to be like when people are actually going to be able to experience the Holy Spirit in them and the power of God saving them? Right, So he references the prophets knew it wasn't for them, it was for us the messages that they were giving. And then even the angels are excited about this story. All of heaven is Jesus says, when one laws sinner comes back home, the angels rejoice in heaven. Right, They're very, very excited about that. This is what moves heaven is when people come to faith in Christ. One of my notes is, no he knows all that awaits us in heaven, but we do know this life today is a school in which God trains us for our future ministry and eternity. This explains the presence of trials in our lives, and they are some of God's tools and textbooks in the school of Christian experience. Just the idea that like this life prepares us for heaven. But when I think of the inheritance I just mentioned a while ago, you know, earthly treasures, right, I'm not sure it was necessarily referring to that. Actually, the inheritance of salvation is what it sort of sounds like, right, But they also the idea of us getting crowns in heaven. The Bible does say that we'll get rewards for our good deeds here on earth, right, which what's sort of was the was the note. I think a reward and an inheritance are two different things. I do too, Yeah, yeah, the rewards for crowns. The Bible actually says that when we get you know, riches for our good deeds in heaven, that will actually lay them back and present them back at christ feet. That's right, son, Which is sort of like an Indian gift, right, Is it that God's Indian giving because he's going to take it back. No, he doesn't take it back. That's a joke. Okay, Yeah, I was gonna say I was taking you literally, Chris. Oh there it is. He threw it back on it. I'm a little guy. Yeah yeah, yeah. So this, I would just say in passing, I agree with you on that that it's exciting to be able to give give our crowns back to Jesus. Those are things that we earned. There are rewards for the good deeds we've done. The inheritance is something that God promises as a gift to his children, right, And so there's another place where Paul writes and he talks about how Jesus is the firstborn among many brothers, talking about us, right, that we become the sons and the daughters of God. And so because he has an inheritance, we have an inheritance. And so Paul talks about that, and Peter's writing about that same idea. It's because of Jesus that we can have this inheritance in the first place. Did you know that the Bible actually refers to over fifty times it actually uses family language. It talks about inheritance. It talks about us being heirs in Christ family language meaning we are adopted, meaning we are sons and daughters of the Most High, every term that calls us brothers and sisters, every time it says the family of God, and every time it refers to God as a heavenly father, and then having the attributes of a mother, you know, wanting to protect her children. So if you think of all those family terms, it's over fifty times that actually God uses these terms. And when people hear the word inheritance, they you know, they they're hearing it and receiving it. That was a really big deal for us. You're like, oh, uncle Bill died, there's an inheritance. But then back then inheritance was a double portion went to the oldest, right, and then half of his portion went to the youngest. So inheritance was actually a. Very big thing. So when they heard the word inheritance, they received it in context of father to children. That's right, that's right, and it's set up their whole future. So I think it's interesting right now in our culture, there's kind of this resentment towards you know, what everybody wants called nepo babies, people who had an opportunity their parents or their great grand or their grandparents or their great grandparents were wise, they managed their resources, they took advantage of it, they set it up, and they passed on resources to somebody else. It's mostly jealous people, right that feel that way. But the Bible talks a lot. The Bible just says, on a practical level, a godly man leads leaves in inheritance to his children's children. Right, So even that is important that we would be planning for leaving an inheritance to our children, to leading inheritance to our children's children, we'd make good godly plans. It's part of gus plans. But then God also leaves in inheritance, right, It's a biblical thing. So rather than being jealous of others, let's start building a life. So I'm not going to receive a big inheritance. My wife didn't receive a big inheritance from her father or grandparents. You know, we didn't come from what. But my wife and I want to build a life that we can begin setting up our family someday. And that's not something to be resentful of. That's something to say, Hey, I'm going to change the direction of my family. I'm not going to be resentful of the family that came behind me. I think they were doing the best they could do. But here's what I know is a godly man leads an inheritance to his childre's children. So I'm going to build up and set off a chain hopefully that will have an impact on generation after generation. And so when God talks about heaven, when God talks about eternity, when God talks about he's saying, man, this is a chain reaction that can go from person to person, to person to person to person. You can lead somebody to Jesus too, and everybody can get on this in on this inheritance, right, It's not something to be resentful of, even though some people are resentful of Christians. Peter even talks about the fact that there was persecution in that day. People hated the idea of that gospel. Yeah, I don't know why, because it's a free inheritance to everybody. Get in on this family. Man. It was always his plan to adopt you and to his very own family. Well, that's a sounds like a great place to end. If you were to say, hey, we're going to take something from this scripture, just know that this inheritance, I would say, just know that this inheritance of eternal life is promised to everyone who believes. And there is wonderful joy ahead even though you must endure many trials for a little while. That's right. The struggles in this life are difficult. I just a friend of mine in Nashville sent a video to my family about my brother going to heaven. Oh well, and he said, you know, I really do believe in heaven. And one of the things that I'm so grateful for is the time we'll have with him afterwards is far longer than the time we're going to miss him. That's right, right, right, that's right. And that's what he's talking about, is, Hey, there's little trials, there's things that are going to be happening. Now. Life isn't easy, but man, the joy that we can have knowing that the inheritance on the other sides going to be incredible, it gives you so much confidence. That's great, that's awesome. Well, hey, that's uh, that's it for today, and so thanks for tuning in and hopefully we'll see you on Monday on the Bible guys. M h m hm m m hm hm hm