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[0:00] Treated as a sermon, what I'm going to do mostly is actually just look up other passages of scripture,! That one of suffering from your faith.

[0:35] The purpose of his letter really is to warn his readers. So I'd like to say, when you see your scripture on the thing, can you just put your hand up so the mic comes to you?

[0:49] Yeah, that might be quite useful if we could pass you the mic, yeah. That's a good idea, thank you. Yeah, so Peter picks up this, when he started his letter he was warning his readers to expect some persecution.

[1:07] It seems he might have had something particularly in mind, maybe he realised that the political opinion was turning against Christians, and there might be some actual physical persecution about to take place.

[1:20] But the warning is a more general one, as we shall see. And he's really dealing with the issue of why we suffer as Christians, and how we're supposed to regard it.

[1:36] So back in chapter 1 he says the following, I will read this one out myself. It is 1 Peter 1, 6-7. Notice he says that your faith is greater worth than gold.

[2:13] And it perishes though refined by fire. Unfortunately the old NIV, when it picks this up again in chapter 4, loses this idea of burning.

[2:26] But that idea of burning is in the Greek. It's a word that means to burn, to refine something. And so it's picked up in verse 12 of our passage.

[2:37] Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ideal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. In other words, he's picking up this idea that he'd introduced right at the beginning, of a refining fire.

[2:51] Something to make you, to purify the gold. And that is, the Greek word translated fiery ideal, does seem to have that basic meaning of to purify metal.

[3:08] And how does that work? Well the purpose of this trial is to refine your faith by burning away that which is dross, that which is valueless. How can you ensure gold is pure unless you melt it?

[3:23] How can anyone, believer, unbeliever, friend or enemy, indeed even yourself, how can you know your faith is pure, is genuine, unless it's tested, unless it's proved?

[3:37] Anybody can claim to believe. But unless you put that claim to the test, how can you really be sure, and how can anybody else be sure? Your faith is real.

[3:53] So we have this passage of scripture, and there's that slightly puzzling comment about judgment beginning with the house of God. But apart from that, the meaning of this passage I think is fairly clear.

[4:08] It's a... Sorry? Sorry, sorry. I hope this is not going to confuse matters.

[4:20] Wait till it comes up on the slide. Apart from that slightly puzzling comment about judgment beginning with the house of God, the meaning of the passage I think is fairly clear. It's blunt Peter stuff.

[4:31] It's not complicated Paul stuff. So we need to follow the threads of Peter's argument and apply it to our 21st century Western culture.

[4:44] But of course we need to do that by not diving straight in there. But we do need to think about what it meant to his original readers first. But I think in this particular case, again that's fairly clear, that he was warning them to expect persecution and suffering, and warning them how to deal with it.

[5:02] So we perhaps don't need to focus on that so much as we might have done on other passages of Scripture. Perhaps we can in this case think more directly about how it applies to us.

[5:17] We may not be facing precisely the same challenges as Peter's first readers, but the French have a saying, don't they? Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. The more it changes, the more it's the same thing.

[5:32] And the other thing you need to do when you're turning to a Bible study, I think, and again, we haven't got time to ask you to do it. Ideally, that would be the way to do it, but we haven't got time for that.

[5:43] So, is you need to tease out the main thread of the argument, first of all, sort of put headings as to what I think Peter is actually saying here.

[5:54] So I've gone through that exercise, and I hope you'll agree with me that this is basically what he's saying. He says in verse 12 of our passage, first of all, that suffering is to be expected.

[6:06] Secondly, and this is the important bit in one sense, he says that suffering is actually a cause for rejoicing. That's a bit strange that, isn't it?

[6:18] But he's going to explain why that is. He then points out a couple of sort of caveats or warnings. First of all, he points out that not all suffering is physical.

[6:31] You notice that in verses 12 and 14, he talks about being, it could be a fiery trial, but that fiery trial could be just being insulted. People saying nasty things about you.

[6:43] It doesn't necessarily mean being thrown to the lions. And then I think an important point he makes is that this is not an excuse for provoking opposition.

[6:56] You might say, if suffering is good for us, then let's go out and do something bad, and then we'll suffer for it. But he wants to point out that that's not what he's saying at all.

[7:06] It doesn't work like that. And again, we'll think about that in a minute. And then, of course, you have to have in these things, he has a summary and a conclusion at the end in verse 19.

[7:19] So what I'd like to do is look at these points, one after the other, mostly, just by reading the other relevant passages of Scripture, as I said, and that's why I've handed them all out.

[7:34] So first of all, he says that we shouldn't be surprised by suffering, we should in fact be expecting it.

[7:45] So, somebody got Matthew 24, 9 to 13. Then you'll be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you'll be hated by all nations because of me.

[8:03] At that time, many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people because of the intense wickedness, because of the increasing of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands down to the end will be saved.

[8:22] Yes. Otherwise, Peter is just really repeating the teaching of Jesus here. And Luke, Luke 14, 27 to 29, another well-known passage but worth reading.

[8:40] Sorry. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Suppose one of you wants to build a tower, won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?

[8:58] For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, this person began to build and wasn't able to finish. So, discipleship comes with a trigger warning and a popular thing today.

[9:19] Jesus gives it, that's a trigger warning, isn't it? He said, you've got to be prepared to carry your cross. A person carrying a cross in that culture was a dead man walking who was on the way to be crucified.

[9:34] Now, he's not, I think, Jesus is not here, I think, talking about literally being crucified because he's saying to follow him and be his disciple. But he's saying perhaps you've got to think of yourself as dead, as you're, you know, you're no longer alive as you were but you're alive instead in Christ.

[9:55] And are you up for the cost? Sometimes people present the gospel as if, you know, it's all happy singing and clapping and fun fellowship and so on.

[10:10] But Jesus never said that. And Peter never said that. He warns that it's a fight, it's a struggle. Another, I haven't put this particular reference in but it reminds me now of another reference that Jesus said if you're going to fight a battle, you've got to make sure before you sit down before you fight the battle that you've got this army to do it.

[10:34] you're up, you know, you're prepared to do it. And that always comes as a warning if we present the gospel of Jesus Christ as saying it and say it's just all happy clappy then people are going to get a nasty shock.

[10:50] Either that, either get a nasty shock when they find it isn't or they get a nasty shock at the end when they find they haven't been following the true gospel and being a true disciple at all.

[11:01] So Peter goes on to develop his argument and he suggests and this is in a sense his main point that suffering is actually a cause for rejoicing.

[11:18] He's saying that if discipleship comes with a warning it also comes with an encouragement. And again this was a key part of Jesus' teaching. So Matthew 5 10-12 is obviously from the Beatitudes of course.

[11:34] Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

[11:48] Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. So Peter is just channeling Jesus' teaching here but he also speaks from his own experience so we find that in Acts 5 41 if somebody can read that.

[12:25] Acts 5 somebody not got it nobody got Acts 5 41 it's just one verse the apostles left the Sanhedrin rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name.

[13:14] They had a run-in with the Jewish officials and not been well the officials had treated them badly and Peter himself said that was an opportunity for rejoicing and the other apostles took exactly the same or the other New Testament writers shall I say James is not an apostle of course emphasised this same point so can somebody read James 1 2 to 3 consider it pure joy my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance thank you and Romans 5 3 to 4 not only so but we also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance character and character hope so suffering produces perseverance what is perseverance well in a sense it's faith under pressure isn't it it's faith when it's costly to have faith it's faith when there is opposition do you remember how

[14:50] Peter had started his letter did I give that reference to somebody to read again 1 Peter 1 6 to 7 in this you greatly rejoice though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials these have come so that your faith of greater worth than gold which perishes even though refined by fire may be proved genuine and may result in praise glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed thank you so Peter is saying that your faith like gold needs to be refined and when it's been refined it will be something glorious that will give praise glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed so it's a difficult saying but that's why suffering is a matter for rejoicing in that sense because it refines our faith and points to the glory of the

[16:00] Lord Jesus go on well I see yeah okay well he says greater worth than gold which perishes even though refined by fire I think what he's saying is that the faith you know that if you melt gold it will eventually melt and run away though you heat it to purify it to burn off the dross because I suppose he's saying nevertheless it will melt eventually but he says your faith on the other hand won't melt under all the pressure I think that's probably what he's saying yeah no it's the gold that gold is lost a long time but it might sorry yeah it might perish under eventually but the faith won't if it's genuine so yes that's a good point isn't it so we could sum this up and saying the way you react to suffering will prove to yourself and to the church and to the world around whether or not your faith is real is your faith made of diamond or is it just glass is it just paste or crack at the first pressure and so if we hold up our faith holds under suffering that proves to us and to the others that that is a real thing our faith is real and therefore in a sense

[17:38] Peter's saying it's a privilege to suffer because Jesus is saying your faith is strong enough through my strength or through Christ in in you your faith is strong enough to stand up to this and that's in the sense why there is a benefit in suffering because it actually shows that it's a real thing I think that's the point he's making moving on suffering is not always physical when I I don't know whether we say this nowadays when I was at school back in the dark ages we used to have a saying that said sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me I don't think that's so popular nowadays and rightly so because it's complete nonsense words can kill again we only got to read the news the things that happen on the internet people have been driven to suicide by words and certainly the

[18:57] Bible never says that words can never hurt us so again if somebody can read James 3 6-8 the tongue also is a fire a world of evil among the parts of the body it corrupts the whole person sets the whole course of his life on fire and is itself set on fire by hell all kinds of animals birds reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man but no man can tame the tongue it is a restless evil full of deadly poison James is quite clear on the point isn't he he says that the tongue is deadlier than any wild animal and we read one of the Beatitudes earlier there are in Jesus' teaching there is a sort of counterpoint to the Beatitudes the woes he declares various woes at times he declares blessings in the Beatitudes in the

[20:05] Sermon on the Mount but he also declares woes somehow they kind of reflect and are a counterpoint to the blessings so if we could read one of these is Luke 6 26 woe to all men who speak well of you for this is how their fathers treated the false prophets so I've got it there don't worry if people do you want to read it read it again go on then woe to all men who speak well of you for that is how their fathers treated the false prophet beware if everybody says what a good guy you are says what a terrific message you've got we all want to hear it then that's Jesus means you're probably a false prophet in the west today we're unlikely to die for our faith yet

[21:17] I say yet because it's been observed on various people it's a short step from burning books to burning people but at the moment we're unlikely to die for our faith almost any other kind of persecution and injustice is possible just being from just being shouted at to being trolled on the internet to getting yourself arrested people have been arrested just praying near a birth control clinic not even praying out loud just standing praying quietly and people have been arrested for it we could lose our jobs as I say we could be in prison debanked debanking that's another popular thing nowadays isn't it get your bank account cancelled you can't live in a western society without a bank account it's impossible so if you have your bank account cancelled then you're in real trouble and of course you might get your property vandalised is another thing that we've seen from time to time so having said that suffering shows the strength of your faith he then issues this warning it's not an excuse for provoking opposition and we do find this don't we the the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church as

[23:07] Tertullian is I think misquoted as saying he don't think he said quite that but he did say something rather similar but if that's the case then surely we should all do the best we can to become martyrs in that sense he meant of course those who actually die for the faith so we should all become suicide bombers perhaps that seems to be what some Muslim teaching is but of course he doesn't mean this at all and so he's very clear that we shouldn't be setting out to break the law because the law itself is good so somebody got one Peter two there's two bits there one Peter two twelve to fifteen and then chapter three thirteen to sixteen yeah I I looked at the wrong verses so this is I found it now okay one Peter two twelve to fifteen sorry!

[24:11] I'm just finding it so let's live such good lives live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men whether to the king as a supreme authority or to governors who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right for it is for it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good but even if you should suffer for what is right you are blessed do not fear what they fear and do not be frightened but in your heart set apart

[25:13] Christ as Lord always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give reason for the hope that you have but do this with gentleness and respect keeping a clear conscience so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander thank you so this is an important point we're not going out of our way to be obnoxious we're not going out of our way to break the law we're not going out of our way certainly we're not going to become a suicide bomber or start a riot it is when we suffer for doing good that it is beneficial we have to keep a clear conscience and it's interesting he says be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have that's not a popular principle nowadays is it that you know if somebody says why are you saying this this seems to be wrong you give an answer you explain you argue the case not just stand up and shout at them in fact he says keep a clear conscience do this with gentleness and respect keeping a clear conscience so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander they may claim you're a

[26:57] Nazi or something but if you keep a clear conscience they will find it difficult not to be ashamed of that but of course if you just make yourself on what they accuse you of being then you're doing neither of you any good I think this is perhaps important to emphasize a little bit more that suffering for doing evil can raise no benefit at all in fact it just brings the name of Christ into disrepute it doesn't bring glory to Christ if you suffer for doing evil and unfortunately there are many examples of history where the church has failed to learn this lesson the murder of Hypatia of Alexandra one of the earliest things where she was murdered by a mob claimed to be in the name of

[27:57] Christ but a mob rule is not Christian never forget the Spanish Inquisition as though you never expect the Spanish Inquisition as they used to say on one of those satire programs didn't they yeah I mean that's not doing good if you persecute people for disagreeing with you which is what the Spanish Inquisition did then that's not doing good that's doing evil and we have we've seen cases to this day haven't we mistreatment and exploitation of the vulnerable by Christians whether in homes care homes or even in the context of that actual service you know the actual Christian work it's too easy to become a cult if you're a popular leader it's too easy for that to go to your head and move away from what you should be doing treating people with respect and gentleness it's too easy and you still find those around you today who claim to be Christians who even claim to be evangelical who buy into the latest conspiracy theories and seem to advocate armed resistance how to say with friends like that who needs enemies because of this sort of behavior sometimes pro-lifers have been tarred as right wing religious nuts as I read on one on Quora one social media stream just accused the American right of being a religious nut now

[29:56] I don't think that's entirely fair but you do find some do think sometimes that you know are they really treating their opponents with gentleness and respect it's a fair criticism I think so how do we avoid this pitfall well Peter tells us don't give way to fear that's the way to avoid it in a sense we react with violence and retribution if we fear don't we and he's saying don't give way to fear if you're going to suffer as a Christian make absolutely sure that that suffering is not justified it's not for doing something that's really evil and the final point he makes is that suffering is inevitable in a fallen world somebody got the mic there pass it over suffering is inevitable in the fallen world but it will be worse for the unbeliever now of course

[31:07] Peter is touching on a difficult question here why does the good God create a world in which evil and suffering is possible you ain't going to get an answer from Peter in two sentences but he does say that all of us sinners and all of us in a sense suffer because of that but it will be worse for the unbeliever and he creates quotes of verse and proverbs so I thought it would be worth reading that as our last text it's the only Old Testament quotation I've got in it's the one that Peter is actually quoting but just giving it a bit more context so 1 Peter proverbs 11 he that troubleeth his own house shall inherit the winds and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that winneth souls is wise behold the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth much more the wicked than the sinner who so loveth instruction loveth knowledge but he that hate that reproof is brutish so again it can be quite difficult to get your head around some of this but

[32:38] I think what he's saying is that suffering for the believer brings glory to Christ suffering of the unbeliever brings glory to Christ in a sense but because it's justified it will be worse in the long run for the unbeliever I think that's what he's saying so whoever loves discipline loves knowledge he who hates correction is stupid suffering is a form of discipline for us and it teaches us not to give way to fear but hopefully it purifies our faith and doesn't destroy it but of course if our faith is not real then it won't stand up to the test so in verse 19 Peter brings his argument to an end in a sense it is the end in one sense of the main thrust of the book there is another chapter but that deals with more practical issues in one sense verse 19 is the conclusion for the book he's set out warning them to expect suffering and not to fear and he sums it up in this verse 19 so there are a few more words of advice and encouragement in the next chapter but they're really more like greetings for the end of the letter this simple sentence answers his main question and his main question how can we live as

[34:15] Christians in a hostile and dangerous world and the final analysis it comes down to these three simple points expect suffering and opposition as God's will commit yourself to the faithful creator continue to do good and continue to do good but it's worth noting that Jesus expressed it slightly differently so again we'll finish with two more readings Luke 6 35 to 36 no it's alright we'll just got that one yeah Luke 6 35 to 36 but love your enemies do good to them and lend to them without expecting to get anything back then your reward will be great and you will be sons of the most high because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked be merciful just as your father is merciful and then

[35:22] Romans 12 8 to 21 18 to 21 if it is possible as far as it depends on you live at peace with everyone do not take revenge my dear friends but leave room for God's wrath for it is written it is mine to avenge I will repay says the Lord on the contrary if your enemy is hungry feed him if he is thirsty give him something to drink in doing this you will heap burning coals on his head do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good so thank you everybody for contributing so that brings us back to this question it's half past seven already I wonder how much time we're going to have let's suppose as I say somebody comes by at the book table and starts shouting and threatening you would you think it was an appropriate thing to do to report it as a hate crime yeah

[36:47] I mean that was my first reaction too yeah yes I mean that's that's I think that's a good point I mean there's sort of perhaps do you want to pass the mic around perhaps it's it's not a hate crime if he disagrees with you I mean it's right if he's allowed to disagree with you but if he threatens you well even if he threatens you I mean you know you have to kind of let that go don't you but obviously if he's a dangerous person you need to report him yeah

[37:53] I was just going to say that the shouting and the abuse and all that would be very upsetting but I don't think it's worthy of reporting as a hate crime I don't know I feel a hate crime is something more I don't know it probably should be but whether it actually is is another question yeah I mean I don't know do you know it must be a lot yes yeah yeah go on we don't we I mean we don't necessarily agree with the idea of hate crime do we no it's just that you know okay if somebody swears at you or is nasty to you you've just got to take it on the chin haven't you you can't it's not pleasant but then you know you can't put people in prison just for swearing at you

[38:56] I can't sorry can I shall I say I can't quite remember what it said but I remember seeing a notice on one of the Bracken and Hove buses that was almost suggesting that if you were offended by what somebody said to you then you should report it if you were offended that and perhaps other things might suggest that perhaps in the eyes of the law or I don't know whether it's in the eyes of the law but it was almost like it was encouraging people to think of offending me and being rude to me and having a go at me as a hate crime

[40:10] I mean I agree generally with what's been said about not reporting it as a hate crime unless you felt that you were about to be attacked or something but we live in a different culture how does that affect what we do or don't do how should it don't know I think there's a bigger picture here you're down London road and you're giving out literature and you're evangelizing and a passby comes up to you and shouts at you you don't know that person you don't know their background you don't know whether they've got mental health problems or anything like that and I think in the first instance you would try maybe to try and calm them and explain what you're trying to do

[41:14] I don't think that reporting it would get you anywhere anyway to be honest I think also what Angie said I think also listening to Peter be prepared to give an answer to anyone you know so maybe if all that happened you know it would be I think better for us to say well actually I don't believe that I'm spreading those things can I you know and then give an answer to your dispute in a gentle and respectful way give an answer to why you are there and hopefully be able to sow seeds of the gospel at the same time if they were prepared to listen of course if they're prepared to listen there anybody else

[42:18] I mean once when I was doing the book table we often most weeks would get somebody not quite as bad as that but pretty similar and we had one regular woman that she was a pagan and she'd tell us she was a pagan and tell us that we're all bigots because we believe everyone's going to hell and she'd really steam into us you know and so that isn't an unusual thing to happen at the book table Jerome do you want to say something yeah I don't know if I'm going to add much value really I think we should as Christians be expecting a certain amount of insult and abuse and I don't I don't think we I think there needs to be a degree of being thick skinned here the sense I'm getting from the scriptures is it's going to be tough you will get abused you will get maligned you will be insulted you won't be you won't be held in huge highly respected for your faith but then I guess I mean is there a line where we do go to the authorities and I mean Paul did in

[43:42] Acts at times didn't he but he was being hindered from you know there is a time for justice and going to the authorities but I don't think yeah I think if we were being told that we couldn't proclaim the word of God if we couldn't witness if we couldn't speak the gospel then maybe there's recourses to seek our rights to be able to do so if someone was saying your church you can't preach that message you can't preach the full counsel of God then I think you know but if someone insults you because you're at the book table I don't think you need to personally go running to the authorities I think we should expect I'd be really surprised if you did the book table and you weren't insulted at some point yeah I don't have much to add just I wanted to throw up the idea that when we see people and they are in a fury or in a sort of moment of hating it's

[44:48] I mean what's been helpful for me is to remember that it's all product of the full and you know it at times they're not even completely aware of that they're full of hate or of their position at times I mean Jesus reaction to when he was on the cross was forgiven they don't know what they're doing and I think if you see it through the lens of this poor person is wrapped up in this problem that has happened because of the fall because we turned away from God then suddenly I don't know about everybody else but certainly I don't feel the need to run off and complain about them yeah very much I think we've rehearsed the arguments I would have thought of let me just point out a few other arguments where perhaps you might come to a different decision one of them that Jerome has already raised that if the law is being used to suppress the gospel when it shouldn't be then why should you not appeal to the protection of the law and Paul did it on several occasions rules he even exploited his special status as a Roman citizen because he was entitled to that protection of the law and I think you need to keep in mind that the law is there to punish evil that's what Peter has actually said and that's not quite the same thing as reacting in personal revenge

[46:44] I mean I'm sure we'd all agree that the one thing you shouldn't do is clonk somebody over the head with a copy of Calvin's Institute that would certainly be wrong but that's not necessarily the same thing as saying you shouldn't appeal making a legitimate appeal to the law another reason in this particular case is you might think as I do that the law itself is not very well framed and that by actually making an appeal to the law in that case you might be actually pointing out that the law needs revising plus there is the fact that if you appeal to the law it might convince that person that they're actually doing something wrong and they're not being reasonable so there are arguments on both sides I think the first reaction is especially when you read that Romans passage is they know certainly not just keep quiet and I think if you can do good if you can buy that person a cup of coffee or something then do that but it's not necessarily saying you should never go to law I think there may be arguments sometimes on the other side anything else anybody is dying to say well can I just add before I was saved I remember there was someone that I was quite rude to and insulting off because of their faith and I remember one of the things that really struck me that was so powerful is that they would just continue to be very kind and patient and loving and in a sense there was a convicting there was something that convicted me about that later which was very powerful that was something quite

[48:32] Christ like whereas I think if they if they had kind of played the kind of hate crime card or or took terrible offense it might have took does that make sense it yes there is I mean there have been cases of Christian women being raped and they've gone to the law to say that on the one hand to say that you know this is a crime it should be reported and should be you know punished under the law because that's what the law is for and you know to make sure it doesn't happen to somebody else but at the same time saying they actually forgive their attacker yeah yeah yeah so maybe maybe if it becomes a physical attack of some sort it makes a difference also yeah we I mean hate hate crime is and a sort of attack on your thinking isn't it

[49:37] I mean it's about you know people you you want to say what am I trying to say he's it's a hate crime if the other person disagrees with you but we we don't want to accuse that person just of disagreeing with us and that's not necessarily a hate crime hate crime is a crime against the the the the sexuality religion age disability race gender gender but religious intolerance is one of them though yeah right yeah so that's with all sex so hate crime no oh I see yeah okay it's a specific thing oh okay so that person could have been offending again so your faith yeah but not not attacking you they're attacking something that is hard yeah but in lots of ways if we there's some people a is a

[51:20] Christian our story in we would it would be fun not as well Yeah, yeah. Okay.

[51:31] Because they're allowed to... Yeah, you can respectfully discuss with them.

[51:45] Pardon me. Yeah. Well, okay. I hope this has been useful. The next verse in 1 Peter says, To the elders among you I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ's sufferings, who will share in the glory to be revealed.

[52:01] I think Daniel wanted to say something. Did you want to say something? Give you the last word. I did earlier, but I haven't particularly been thinking about it in the last few moments.

[52:13] But I think, like Jerome said, I kind of would expect something like this if I was doing book table. But I guess it sort of depends on the threatening.

[52:32] Yeah. Like, it could be very mild. And I think I could... Yeah. They're up into that.

[52:44] But if it was... I mean, we were just literally having a chat. If it was, I know where you live and I'm going to come to your house tonight and do awful things, then I think I probably would report that actually sensibly.

[52:58] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But we are told to expect suffering, aren't we? Yeah. One Peter's very clear on that. And we rejoice, probably not in the suffering itself, but we rejoice in sharing with Christ in suffering for his name.

[53:20] Yeah. Yeah. Indeed. Thank you. Well, that's... Time's gone. I will say a prayer, a closing prayer, but actually our last song that we're going to sing is itself a prayer.

[53:34] So let's, in a sense, make it the main part of our closing prayer. And I think you will know it. It's purify my heart. Of course, it's based on 1 Peter, of course, and similar passages.

[53:46] Purify my heart, cleanse me from within and make me holy. Purify my heart, cleanse me from my sin deep within. So let's sing this together and say make it a...it is a prayer.

[53:59]  So let's sing it as a prayer. Thank you.