# A Ready Hope (1 Peter 3:13-17)



## Semper Fidelis (Nov 25, 2007)

Listen: http://www.baptistchurch.jp/teaching/2007-Preaching/2007-11-25-AReadyHope(1Pe3).m3u
Download: http://www.baptistchurch.jp/teaching/2007-Preaching/2007-11-25-AReadyHope(1Pe3).mp3
Notes: A Ready Hope (1 Peter 3:13-17) | SoliDeoGloria.com

Excerpt


> ...So the question for you, Christian, is this: what hope is it that you are supposed to be ready to give a defense of? After all, the apostle Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit has given us each a command and it is this: ”…always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence….” Well, I’m asking you Christian: what is your hope?
> 
> This is a really serious question because, when sorrow comes, when persecution comes and when suffering more painful than child labor comes along, what hope are you clinging to that will sustain you? It is very sad to me, indeed, but it does not surprise me to hear more and more of people whose faith is shipwrecked because of the death of a child or a loved one or some other horror that awaits in this wicked world. I’m saddened but the reason I’m not surprised is how weak and pitiful the message of hope that I hear out of the mouths of Christians these days. Beloved, our hope is powerful but you have to have that hope in your bloodstream or the house of your belief is built on sand. The waves of sorrow in this life will crash against that house and wash it all away. I truly believe that when great persecution begins against the Christian Church in the United States that many people’s houses will crumble because they do not hear enough of the glorious hope that has to be the bedrock of their souls to withstand the suffering that the world will bring. In fact, the very way many of us have been trained to express our hope to others shows how poor our hope really is. I believe our hope can be much stronger and that is the goal of this passage.
> 
> ...


----------



## BJClark (Nov 25, 2007)

The eternal hope is still there...even when our world seems to be falling apart around us.

Someone was asking me recently how I am doing with everything going on with my (step) daughter, I thought about it for a few and was like, well, I'm fine. God has been so gracious to us even through all this, my family is growing spiritually, they have pulled together in ways I never dreamed possible, my husband has had a strained relationship with one of his older daughters and God is working this to help reconcile them. My son (12) has carried some hurts and bitterness feeding anger in his heart about his father leaving, and has on his own sought out a support group at school and church to deal with that, and has been talking more openly with his dad about those things. 

So yes, even though it has been a struggle in so many ways, and they aren't over by a long shot, but I get the privilege of watching first hand, God work through it all, knowing that in the end..it will be worth it.

They weren't sure how to respond...

So to me, it's not just about the being able to say God saved me from this or that..but it's the I get to watch God work through these things, witnessing His power first hand in our daily lives, while also knowing that one day, I'll be able to spend eternity with Him, loving Him even more than I do today.


----------

