The Royal Family - Tested Faith (notes)

The Royal Family - Tested Faith

I Peter 1:1-7

I, Peter, am an apostle on assignment by Jesus, the Messiah, writing to exiles scattered to the four winds. Not one is missing, not one forgotten. God the Father has His eye on each of you, and has determined by the work of the Spirit to keep you obedient through the sacrifice of Jesus. May everything good from God be yours! What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have Him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in Heaven and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you'll have it all life healed and whole. I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it's your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.

Everyone Who Knows God Will have their faith tested.

Why?

So that we can have a pure faith in God. Not contaminated by anything on earth.

Our Faith Is Like Gold

• It is worth much. The world puts a high value on gold. Without faith we can not please God.
• Since ancient times, gold has been used as a means of exchange. Today it is still used as a means of exchange because it holds its value and sometimes it increases in value.

Just Like Gold

• Goes through fire so it can be purified so will our faith be tested so it can be pure.
• But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

Hebrews 11:6

Hebrews 11:5-6

By an act of faith, Enoch skipped death completely. "They looked all over and couldn't find him because God had taken him." We know on the basis of reliable testimony that before he was taken "he pleased God." It's impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that He exists and that He cares enough to respond to those who seek Him.

(The Message)

Why Do We Need Pure Faith?

1. To please God.
2. To be able to approach God.
3. To know that God is.
4. To know that God exists.
5. To know that God cares enough to respond to those who seek Him.

The Pure Purpose

• For faith is for our relationship with God. Faith is for our trip to Heaven.
• Pure faith will bring Heaven down to earth for those who have it.
• Our most important role in life is to be a lover of God and to love each other. That is the purest type of faith. To get to that place in life our faith will be tested as gold is tested in the fire.

My Faith Has Been Tested in The Fire

Through all this I have learned that faith is for the following reasons:

1. Faith is to please God.
2. Faith for the purpose of approaching God.
3. Faith is to know that God is.
4. Faith is to know that God cares enough to respond to those who seek Him.

Hebrews 11:1-2

• The enemy has perverted faith. Yes by faith we know that God created the world. What we see was created by what we don’t see, faith. But look at the way the Message Bible puts it:
• “Faith is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see.”
• Yes by faith we are saved, by faith we are healed, by faith miracles happen but pure faith is for my relationship with God.

The Reason For Faith

• Satan has perverted faith in the church and we have allowed him to steal the real purpose for faith but in the revival that is sweeping the earth we are seeing a purification of faith in the church.
• I am encouraged that in other parts of the world and in some places in our nation God is raising up an army of believers who’s faith is pure as gold. Pure faith goes through a process of purification in a person’s life and also in the church.

Philippians 3:8

8 Yes, furthermore, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege (the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and supreme advantage) of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him [of perceiving and recognizing and understanding Him more fully and clearly]. For His sake I have lost everything and consider it all to be mere rubbish (refuse, dregs), in order that I may win (gain) Christ (the Anointed One). 9 And that I may [actually] be found and known as in Him, not having any [self-achieved] righteousness that can be called my own, based on my obedience to the Law's demands (ritualistic uprightness and supposed right standing with God thus acquired), but possessing that [genuine righteousness] which comes through faith in Christ (the Anointed One), the [truly] right standing with God, which comes from God by [saving] faith.

(Amplified)