Sunday, June 5: Living Stones

1 Peter 4:12–19

Ezekiel 8 is a crazy story. The prophet Ezekiel is minding his own business, hanging out in his Babylonian home, when all of a sudden, this angel grabs him by the hair and whisks him off to Jerusalem to see what has happened in his homeland during the deportation.

As you can probably guess, things aren’t good back home.

The people have strayed from God, and Ezekiel overhears them living by a tragic motto: “The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land” (Ezekiel 8:12 ESV). The story is all downhill from there.

This week, we will be in 1 Peter 4:12–19. In it, Peter alludes to the story of Ezekiel 8–11 to warn us about how not to act when we suffer in dispersion. When we suffer for our faith, this is not evidence that “The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land,” but rather that we are sharing in the sufferings of Christ. In fact, Peter even says that suffering is cause for rejoicing!

We are nearing the end of our series on 1 Peter. This week, we will begin to wrap the book up and summarize the major takeaways. My favorite verse from 1 Peter is in chapter 4. If I walk away from this series with one verse to remember, it will be one from chapter 4 (you’ll have to be here on Sunday to hear which one!).

Join us this week as we talk about suffering in exile and how we interpret our hardships! See you on Sunday!