Who Are We? // Suffering & Blessing [1 Peter 3:8-17] (Mikey Cooper)

This week for our "Who Are We" series, Mikey Cooper looks at "Suffering & Blessing" from 1 Peter 3. After opening our time with prayer, Mikey dives straight into verse 8 before pausing to reflect on and break down the verse. To give some context, Mikey gives a bit of church history on how the early church looked, giving meaning to the term "brotherly love". Moving in to verse 9, Mikey looks at what Christ modelled and taught in relation to repaying evil with blessing. Continuing on with verses 10-12, Mikey looks at the passage Peter is quoting from the Psalms and the call he is re-iterating to turn from evil, and to not speak deceit. He then reflects on these first 4 verses and the qualities they describe that we as a Christian community should have. Looking on the "blessing" mentioned in these verses, Mikey moves on to verses 13-14 and discusses what this looks like alongside suffering. Mikey then wraps up our passage, looking at verses 15-17, he looks at how we are to "work hard as though we're working for the Lord, not for man." He ends with a framework we can apply from this passage, to show and live the hope of a Christian life to those around us. Recorded at the Hukanui Bible Church morning service on Sunday the 14th of May 2023 during the 10:00 am service.