[SPEAKER_00]: Our good morning friends, Christ is risen!
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh come on now.
[SPEAKER_00]: I, with all the joy that's been in the room already, I thought we'd do better than that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go one more time, Christ is risen!
[SPEAKER_00]: Hallelujah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I want to begin this morning by praying a very ancient prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, the church has been praying this prayer for 1,700 years.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was written by a man named St. Hippolydus, one of the desert fathers,
[SPEAKER_00]: And Eastern Orthodox in particular churches pray this every Sunday every Easter Sunday morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to pray at this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's one of my favorite Easter prayers.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you just close your eyes and join with me as we pray to prepare our hearts for the word today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Christ is risen.
[SPEAKER_00]: The world below lies desolate.
[SPEAKER_00]: Christ is risen, the spirits of evil are fallen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Christ is risen, the angels of God are rejoicing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Christ is risen, the tombs of the dead are empty.
[SPEAKER_00]: Christ is risen indeed from the dead, the first of the sleepers, glory and power are here forever and ever.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I'm going to get you to stand with me one more time and we're going to read together the Lord's Prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is our final week studying the Lord's Prayer together.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have been journeying through this all the way through Lent and
[SPEAKER_00]: Beautiful timing, we've been able to end this series with the incredibly powerful last line of the prayer right on Easter Sunday morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's read this out loud together.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's on the screen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our father in heaven, hello'd be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: Give us today our daily bread,
[SPEAKER_00]: Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from the evil one for the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now and forever, men, men.
[SPEAKER_00]: Please be seated.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, yes, this morning we are remembering that because of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: The kingdom, the power and the glory are here forever and ever.
[SPEAKER_00]: For all that Christ teaches us to pray, ultimately points to this.
[SPEAKER_00]: For just as we reflected on our good Friday service, the cross of Christ,
[SPEAKER_00]: is the place where the decisive battle between God and the demonic powers took place, that the moment that looked like Christ's greatest defeat has, in fact, become the moment of his greatest victory.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the moment that the kingdom of God came to sabotage and to dismantle the kingdom of the evil one, which Jesus did as we remembered on Good Friday, not
[SPEAKER_00]: by employing the devil's tactics, by taking up the sword to crush his enemies.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, instead, as Paul says in Colossians 2, Christ overcame them, triumphed over them, by the cross, by laying down his life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Christ disarmed the powers and has made a public spectacle of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Triumphing over them by the cross.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has defeated death by death.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why Paul also says in 1 Corinthians 2 that, although the cross is an offense to the Jews and its foolishness to the Gentiles, nevertheless he says in verse 7 of 1 Corinthians 2, it is God's wisdom, a mystery.
[SPEAKER_00]: That has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.
[SPEAKER_00]: This whole event was destined for our glory along with the glory of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: None of the rulers or powers of this age understood it, Paul says.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if they had, if they had known what they were doing, if they had any idea what was going to happen by crucifying the Lord of Glory, they would not have done it.
[SPEAKER_00]: If they had understood what was going to happen, I need to Sunday morning, on Resurrection Morning, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or as Hebrews 4 says, since we are flesh and blood, Jesus shared in our humanity, so that by His death
[SPEAKER_00]: He might break the power of Him, who holds the power of death, that is the devil, and a free those who all their lives have been held in slavery by the fear of death.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is what the resurrection of Jesus from the dead,
[SPEAKER_00]: testifies to us this morning that friends because he was willing to taste death on our behalf because he was willing to learn obedience by the things he suffered because he did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many because he did not as Paul says in Philippians 2, use his equality with God to his own advantage but made himself
[SPEAKER_00]: from that incredible passage there for God has exalted him to the highest place given him the name that's above every other name, that Jesus Christ is the king of kings and Lord of Lords to the glory of God the Father, amen and amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, as Fremney Fleming Rutledge says, who are quoted a few times on Good Friday, incredibly powerful Christian author, wrote a book on the crucifixion, which also includes some sections on the resurrection.
[SPEAKER_00]: She says, it should be affirmed with no ambivalence or ambiguity, whatsoever.
[SPEAKER_00]: It cannot be said too often.
[SPEAKER_00]: If Christ was not raised from the dead, we would never have heard of Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: If Christ had not been raised, we would never have heard of Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tens of thousands were crucified in the Roman era.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of all of these, only the name of Jesus of Nazareth is the one known to us today.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was consigned to the oblivion designed by Rome for crucified victims.
[SPEAKER_00]: But within weeks,
[SPEAKER_00]: was proclaimed across the ancient world as the name above all names, an incredible reversal.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is important to understand that the resurrection from the dead did not cancel out the crucifixion, but it vindicated the crucifixion.
[SPEAKER_00]: The resurrection is what enabled the first disciples to understand what the death of Jesus had accomplished, which was the victory of the kingdom of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the only reason then that we can pray this Lord's prayer, we just pop it back up on the screen.
[SPEAKER_00]: The only reason that we can pray the Lord's prayer with confidence,
[SPEAKER_00]: is because Jesus really has been raised from the dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: As Antiracis, Jesus' resurrection is the beginning of God's new world, transforming projects not to snatch people away from Earth to Heaven, but to colonize Earth with the life of Heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: That, after all, is what the Lord's prayer is all about.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and Jesus' resurrection is the first sign that that has come true.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus' resurrection is the first fruits of what is to come in the future, but which has already been unleashed and inspirating across the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: As Revelation 1115 says, the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ,
[SPEAKER_00]: And he will reign forever and ever.
[SPEAKER_00]: That means friends, that because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Satan is no longer the God of this world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus called him the God of this world, small G. But now because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Satan is no longer the God of this world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Christ is now the God of this world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Christ is now the King of this world.
[SPEAKER_00]: And although it seems like there's a lot of chaos going on in the world today and many of us feel quite afraid about what the future might hold, for those of us who have hope in Jesus, our hope is secure and anchor for the soul because we know Christ is King.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's coming again.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's gonna restore him when you all things and therefore we do not need to be afraid.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: As Jesus predicted in John 12, the time has come for the God of this world to be driven out.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was talking about the devil.
[SPEAKER_00]: For when I am lifted up, Jesus said, I will draw all people to myself.
[SPEAKER_00]: So myself, that is our hope friends that we have been drawn in, and I love that incredible image in Revelation 5.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're now gathered, not one day we'll be gathered, but we are now gathered around the throne of the risen Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you feel that this morning on Will worshipping that we're gathered around the throne of the risen Christ, who seated on the throne of the universe, that we're there with all the saints and angels, we're there with all of heaven and earth, all the creatures,
[SPEAKER_00]: under heaven, and there is so much more than going on in this moment that we can see with our physical eyes because Christ is Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if we'll only look, just beyond the surface, we'll see that we have such hope, an anchor for the soul.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't need to be afraid.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are singing along with the saints and angels and creatures and the elders and all creation.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are worthy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lamb of God to receive all praise and honor and glory and power because you were slain and with your blood, you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation and you have made them to be a kingdom of priests, does anyone know the next line and they will reign on the earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: We reign now on the earth with Jesus in the same way that Jesus demonstrated what that rule looks like.
[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't rule over people.
[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't use His power, His equality with God to His own advantage.
[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't stand over those who were opposed to Him, but He loved His enemies.
[SPEAKER_00]: He prayed for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: He served them.
[SPEAKER_00]: He laid down His life for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is the only reason that you are here this morning because Christ chose to take up the cross
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet his resurrection testifies that the cross is not the final word, but the final word now is that Christ is risen and that He reigns forever and ever and the kingdom of this world has now become the kingdom of our Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has.
[SPEAKER_00]: the kingdom.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has the power.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has the glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now and forever, therefore we do not need to be afraid.
[SPEAKER_00]: And all of this has been made possible because Christ is indeed risen from the dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: And He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: What does all this mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: It means
[SPEAKER_00]: If Christ has really set us free from the fear of death, if He has really set us free from the kingdom of the evil one, if He has really set us free from a life of hopelessness and despair, that means now if we are reigning with Him on the earth, that we can live our lives in this world with courage.
[SPEAKER_00]: with hope and with purpose and with conviction.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every single one of us, if we are in Christ, then we can live our lives in this world, with courage, with hope, with purpose and with conviction.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't need to be afraid.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it is with this conviction that Paul finishes, he's incredibly great chapter on the resurrection, one Corinthians 15.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he asks this question,
[SPEAKER_00]: He asks, what does this all now mean for us?
[SPEAKER_00]: What is the resurrection tell us about how we're now called to live our lives in the world?
[SPEAKER_00]: How we now live as we await the return of Christ and the resurrection of the dead for all of us?
[SPEAKER_00]: And what he says is in verse 58, the conclusion of this great chapter on the resurrection, he says this, therefore, my dear brothers and sisters.
[SPEAKER_00]: Stand firm.
[SPEAKER_00]: My dear brothers and sisters, stand, firm, let nothing move you, always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you know, now that Christ is raised, you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
[SPEAKER_00]: The resurrection means that our lives and our deaths are not in vain that what we do matters, but no matter how small or large our lives may seem in the eyes of the world, no matter how significant or otherwise,
[SPEAKER_00]: The reality is that before God, before God, our lives count our lives matter, before God, what we do has eternal value, and before God, what we do has eternal significance.
[SPEAKER_00]: There will be not one thing that we do in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that will be forgotten and unrewarded by our heavenly Father.
[SPEAKER_00]: As Jesus said, He went ahead of us to prepare a place for us in our Father's house,
[SPEAKER_00]: And now we can serve our Lord with confidence, we can serve God with confidence knowing that even the things we do in secret will be seen by our father and rewarded.
[SPEAKER_00]: They may not be seen by many others, they may not be lorded by others on the world stage, but every good thing that we do in the name of Jesus, every act of love.
[SPEAKER_00]: each desperate prayer, each time we forgive someone, each time we reach out to someone in need, each time we care about someone that maybe no one else cares about.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our Father sees and he will reward it because of the resurrection, our lives count, our lives matter, our lives have eternal significance.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are raining with Jesus here on this earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are His representatives.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are His hands and feet.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are His body.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when we serve Him in love, we give glory to God and God, we'll
[SPEAKER_00]: and reward that on the day the Christ returns.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our lives are so held by our Father in heaven that we can stand firm, we can let nothing move us, we can take heart, we can always give ourselves to the work of the Lord, it's not in vain.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, as Paul says in that same chapter, if Christ is not risen from the dead, then everything we do is in vain.
[SPEAKER_00]: And our faith is utterly meaningless.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus would be just another failed revolutionary crushed under the wheels of history.
[SPEAKER_00]: If that were the case, Paul is right, he says, that we Christians should be the most pitted of all people on earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we know that's not the case.
[SPEAKER_00]: We know that Christ is risen.
[SPEAKER_00]: which is not only one of the best attested events in ancient history, but is the only real explanation for why the earlier puzzles, those who claim to be eyewitnesses of these things, will prepare to go to such great lengths and to live with such great courage and even suffer and die for their faith,
[SPEAKER_00]: Because no one is willing to suffer and die for a hoax for a lie.
[SPEAKER_00]: But instead, because they knew that Christ was risen, it testifies to the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: That Christ is indeed risen and therefore our faith, like there's, is not in vain, our labor in the Lord, like there's, is not in vain.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I love what Antirights is about this in his book, Surprised by Hope, that the point of the resurrection.
[SPEAKER_00]: is that the present bodily life is not valueless just because it will die.
[SPEAKER_00]: What you do with your body in the present matters because God has a great future in store for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: What you do in the present by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poetry, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll last into God's future.
[SPEAKER_00]: These activities are not simply ways of making the present life a little less beastly, a little more bearable until the day when we leave it behind altogether, but they are part of what we call building the kingdom of God here on earth as in heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our friends, I have known
[SPEAKER_00]: many saints throughout the years who have lived their lives this way, who have lived sacrificially, who have lived with a heart of service for Jesus and others, and I've been so inspired by them over the years.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when I do think about what it means to live a life of faithful and committed devotion to Jesus, there is someone I often think about, whom none of you, perhaps save my wife, I think, will know.
[SPEAKER_00]: And her name was Mrs. Robbie.
[SPEAKER_00]: She was an elderly member of one of the churches that I grew up in.
[SPEAKER_00]: And everyone knew her, in fact, if you were a young person and you went to that church, it didn't matter who you are, what your background was, what you'd done in your life, what you looked like, what you smelled like, whether you wanted it or not, you were going to be adopted as one of her grandchildren.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mrs. Robbie, a long time widow and well into her eighties, was a tireless encourager.
[SPEAKER_00]: And she really cared about people, and she showed it, especially the young adults and the teenagers in our church.
[SPEAKER_00]: She saw them, and she saw me, I was one of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: She saw me, and she saw others, and she deeply cared, and she would go out of her way to befriend us, and she would pray for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: She would come alongside us when we needed it.
[SPEAKER_00]: She would encourage us,
[SPEAKER_00]: when we needed it.
[SPEAKER_00]: She believed it was her ministry, her calling, to ensure that the young people in her church were seen and loved and encouraged to keep on serving the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And she did that with great devotion.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of us teens and young adults in the church at the time had stories of being cared for or encouraged or prayed for by Mrs. Robbie at some point.
[SPEAKER_00]: And since our church had a number
[SPEAKER_00]: Every Saturday she would go with my mom and dad and a bunch of others to the prison and visit our brothers and sisters who were incarcerated there and she would read them scripture and she would pray with them and she did that every week every Saturday morning for years and years and years.
[SPEAKER_00]: She was in fact a member of the church when I was just starting out preaching.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I started to think what those early sermons were like, but even so Mrs. Robbie would almost inevitably be one of the first people to come up to me and to tell me how much she appreciated it and how the Lord had spoken to her through the message.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like she came to church ready to receive and ready to encourage.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if it was a particularly disastrous sermon of which there were many, she would pat my hand kindly and smile and say, I just know that there was someone out there
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, she wasn't perfect by any means.
[SPEAKER_00]: She would often complain about the music being too loud or the new worship songs that we would sing being unsingable.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I can see her now in my mind's eyes, sitting with her fingers in her ears and her face screwed up not really enjoying the worship, but she was not there for herself.
[SPEAKER_00]: She was there for Jesus, and she was there for others.
[SPEAKER_00]: And she often didn't have a great filter, but
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, she didn't mind telling us what she didn't like, but she loved the Lord and she loved others wholeheartedly.
[SPEAKER_00]: And friends at the end of the day, what more is asked of us?
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember her saying when her arthritis was especially painful or when she was just feeling bone weary, that while she selfishly long to be done with the world and her old body and be with Jesus,
[SPEAKER_00]: She was happy to stay around as long as the Lord had things for her to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: She lived her life, longing for the resurrection, waiting for it with great hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the hope of her salvation.
[SPEAKER_00]: But instead of inspiring her to just sit around and wait and do nothing, it did the opposite.
[SPEAKER_00]: Inspired her to make sure that the years that she had while she awaited the coming of her Lord was a time that she would invest to give him glory and to serve others.
[SPEAKER_00]: And her life is a great inspiration to me, and the thing is, you know, most of what she did and how she lived will never make it onto the pages of any history book, but all of it was seen and all of it will be remembered and all of it will be rewarded by her Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the thing, none of you know Mrs. Robbie.
[SPEAKER_00]: She was just an ordinary person, but there are hundreds of people over many, many years whose lives were deeply impacted by her presence, who are still serving the Lord and I would say, even me, I felt like she encouraged my call to ministry and it kept me on that path.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was deeply impacted by her presence.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I believe through her ministry to me, I've been able to give to you what I received and that's how the kingdom of God works.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even though it may seem like what we offer is so small and insignificant.
[SPEAKER_00]: As we studied a few weeks back when we were thinking about the nature of the kingdom, the kingdoms like a mustard seed, which grows to become a great tree, which the birds of the air come a nest and provides shade and food for all those who need it.
[SPEAKER_00]: The kingdom of God, in the kingdom of God, the little that we do, the little that we offer, the small amount of faith that we feel like we might have, God can take and multiply 10, 100, 1,000 times over, more than we could possibly imagine.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I know my own life and the lives of many others of my friends from those years are still serving the Lord because of Mrs. Robby's ministry.
[SPEAKER_00]: And because of her encouragement, she got people through terrible seasons of grief or loss.
[SPEAKER_00]: The thing is if Jesus was not raised, then Mrs. Robby's life is meaningless.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's just another person who lived and died and when all those who knew her have also died and passed away, she'll be forgotten forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: But friends, because Jesus is raised, her life matters.
[SPEAKER_00]: It mattered and it matters.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because that's what Jesus always does.
[SPEAKER_00]: He takes the weak things of this world to shame the wives, the weak things of this world to shame the strong.
[SPEAKER_00]: He takes what isn't and makes it something that is.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what the resurrection means.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he can take your life, even if you might feel like you're insignificant, you're small, you're weak, you're a nobody.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus can take your life and make it count.
[SPEAKER_00]: Make it matter because it matters to him and therefore when he fills you with his resurrection power by the Spirit of God,
[SPEAKER_00]: He can give you what you feel like you might lack in order to do what you have been called to do to give him glory and a liver life that counts, that matters, that will make a difference.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because he has defeated the futility of death, he takes people that may seem meaningless to the rest of the world and he invests in them, eternal significance as Psalm 8 says,
[SPEAKER_00]: and honor.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the things I love about Jesus, friends, is that He is generous.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything that He is one for us through His death and resurrection, He shares with us liberally.
[SPEAKER_00]: His victory is our victory.
[SPEAKER_00]: His life is our life.
[SPEAKER_00]: His joy is our joy.
[SPEAKER_00]: His power is our power.
[SPEAKER_00]: His hope is our hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything Christ has and everything Christ is shared with us in the kingdom of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so as we come to the end of our Lord's prayer series and we pray, yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever are men.
[SPEAKER_00]: The reason that this is true, the reason that we can pray with confidence and build our lives on it and trust it with all that we are is because Jesus' death and resurrection is the answer to that prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because Christ was raised, that's the vindication, that's the sign, that's the confirmation that what Christ accomplished on the cross has, in fact, been done.
[SPEAKER_00]: You all know I'm a Lord of the Rings fan.
[SPEAKER_00]: You couldn't get through a needs to Sunday morning sermon without a Lord of the Rings quote, so I just love what Sam Gamsi says toward the end of the Lord of the Rings he says to Gandalf.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does this mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: But everything sad is going to come untrue.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything sad is going to come untrue.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is the hope of the resurrection.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we have such hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have confidence to stand firm and not be shaken.
[SPEAKER_00]: No matter what's happening in the world, we don't need to give interfere or despair.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't need to tell you.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot going on in the world today that's making us feel afraid.
[SPEAKER_00]: But because Christ is raised, I don't know how to say it more simply than this, because Christ was raised.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything, friends, everything is going to be all right.
[SPEAKER_00]: in the end, everything's going to be fine, everything is going to be okay, everything will be well.
[SPEAKER_00]: All manner of things will be well, everything's sad will come untrue.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is our hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: So don't lose heart church, don't grow weary in the doing of good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Christ is your life, and even if, as is true for most of us, our lives may seem small, and insignificant on the world stage, the truth is every one of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: You hear this morning, are seen and known and loved by your father.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why don't you stand with me, and let me finish
[SPEAKER_00]: by reading, I'm going to invite the bands to come on up, by reading what I think is one of the best descriptions of what life in the resurrection power of Christ means.
[SPEAKER_00]: One Peter one versus three to nine.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you just close your eyes with me and just hear this and let it sink into your hearts?
[SPEAKER_00]: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: For in His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: And into an inheritance that can never perish, will never spoil and will never fade.
[SPEAKER_00]: This inheritance is kept in heaven for you who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed on the last day.
[SPEAKER_00]: In all of this you greatly rejoice.
[SPEAKER_00]: Though now for a little while you may have to suffer grief of in all kinds of trials, these have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith of greater worth than gold which perishes even though refined by fire.
[SPEAKER_00]: May result in the praise, glory and honor due to Jesus Christ when He has revealed, though you have not seen Him, you love Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him, and you are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy for you are receiving the result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen, and our men, friends, Christ is risen, amen.