“Suffering Victoriously As Christians!”  Are you prepared to suffer and die for your faith?  The apostle Peter, using the power of the pen and inspiration by the Holy Spirit, worked to prepare God’s people for the pain and suffering of persecutions by Nero.  Today will be the last lesson on preparing our mindset and building our determination to endure to the end!, “Growing and Thriving as God’s People!”  is the title for this morning’s sermon.  Our study this morning will be taken form the passage of Scripture found in 1 Peter 2:1-12.  In our first point, we will hear of the critical importance of pruning or purging from our lives, as Jesus said, the bad fruit and then building the desire and longing to grow and be built up in His holy word!  In the second, Christ will be exulted as Cornerstone for the house of God and we will be called out as living stones in the great temple of the living God!  In this point we will be called to faithful obedience unto life or disbelief and rebellion leading to eternal condemnation.  Finally, we will learn once again, that as a person perceives themselves, so they will respond to the challenges or trials in this life.  As the chosen race, God’s precious people we are to proclaim the excellencies of the LORD in all we do and say!  Again, as Christians, we must recognize ourselves as strangers and aliens in a fallen and corrupt world.  In this, we must abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul and embrace the moral character and conduct of our Christ!  In finishing the lessons communicated thus far we will be prepared to learn how to respond in many facets of trials, persecutions, and sufferings for Christ. 

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