This sermon is about living a Christ-centred life amidst adversity. It is drawn from 1 Peter 2:11-12. The speaker highlights the early Christian community's resilience and compassion in the face of ridicule and persecution, emphasising how these virtues led to the exponential growth of the faith despite societal opposition. Through the lens of historical persecution, both in the early church and in modern examples like South Sudan and Pakistan, the sermon challenges believers to embody their faith through honourable conduct, compassion, and engagement in good deeds, as prescribed by Peter and illustrated by the grace of Jesus Christ. The key message centres on the transformative power of living out one's faith through actions that align with God's call for justice, kindness, and humility, even in the most challenging circumstances.
"What we've been doing in these mornings is bringing out the facts that the righteousness that those statements, those Beatitudes are about, are really of a standard that none of us can make it in our own. And it is God's intention. It is God's intention for us to understand that the righteousness needed to be in his kingdom is something that we have failed to achieve as a human race."
"It only really works for the musketeers to give themselves a role. It only really works if the king is a good king. If the king is not a good king, the whole expenditure of their loyalty isn't really worth it. Now, in the case of the Beatitudes, we have the one person who is a good king. It is the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Beatitudes are about how we can come."