Writer Stephen Cole wrote this, you may have heard this, but he said during his, his time in the White House, President Carter did something that no other president that I know of, he says, has done. He says on several occasions he stayed in the homes of common Americans. He says, I don't know how he picked them, but he wanted to convey that he was in tune with the needs of average Americans. Where Stephen Cole asked this question.
He says, if you received a call this week from the White House. Announcing that the president would like to stay in your home sometime next month, meaning that your living room and kitchen would be exposed on national television. Yup, I know what you're thinking. I predict that you would do some house cleaning, right?
Your home would sparkle because you knew that the president was coming, right? Well, Stephen Cole said, well, someone, someone far greater than the president is coming. Paul calls him our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. I invite you if you have your Bibles to turn with me to First Peter chapter 4.
1st Peter chapter 4, verses 7 to 11 this morning, and as you're turning there, I just want to give you a little background and epistle called First Peter. Peter wrote this epistle in AD 64 to 65, around the time when Emperor Nero burned down the city of Rome and blamed the Christians as his scapegoat. Well Peter in writing this epistle wanted to encourage the believers to stand firm in their identity in Christ, even though suffering and persecution for their faith was escalating. Peter desired to teach the believers that even in the midst of suffering and duress, they can live victorious for Christ and still evangelize the world....
