3 Life-Changing Principles Every Christian Entrepreneur Needs

Hey Friend!

Today we are digging into 1 Peter. After going through a deep dive into a bible study on 1 Peter I was hit with some amazing revelation as a Christian Entrepreneur.

I was feeling heavy with the state of the world, endless pandemics, brokenness, evil, and a new year that was supposed to be a fresh start was full of sickness and hospital stays…

But, instead of letting me sit in my thoughts, God brought me perspective. He is so faithful.

One of the three amazing life-changing principles that I took away from this study was that suffering is actually GOOD. That we as Christians should not just persevere, but walk through suffering with excitement. As it refines us and changes us little by little, helping us become more LIKE Jesus. What an honor.

As Jesus went through unimaginable suffering – Peter reminds us… we too can endure.

Life isn’t meant to be easy all the time – it’s meant to help us be Holy. We are given trials and tests of many kinds so that we can grow in our FAITH.

I pray today’s principles bless you as they blessed me.

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:

(00:00):
Hey, friends! Today, in this episode, we’re gonna be going through three life-changing principles from first Peter, that every Christian entrepreneur and really every human needs to hear, learn, and actually implement into their lives. I hope that you love this one, guys.

(00:16):
I was so blessed by a very deep study into the book of first Peter through the Grace Co, they have awesome devotionals and Bible studies and theology books. So if you, guys, are looking for a good Bible study company, go check out the Daily Grace Co.

(00:33):
Before we get into today’s episode, I wanna let y’all know that we have a fun contest going on over in my Facebook community, you can get there by going to stefgasscommunity.com. And you can win free coaching.

(00:52):
You can win a percentage off of a course if you’d like, there are lots of fun prizes going on over there. So be sure to pop over into my Facebook group, check out the pinned post, and get entered into the contest.

Super easy, super fun, again that is at stefgasscommunity.com. All right, let’s do the things.

(02:10):
So, let’s do just a really quick high level on the book of first Peter. And then I wanna share with you three major life-changing principles that were so groundbreaking for me, and I just felt led to share them with you.

(02:30):
So I pray that this just blesses you today, that your heart is encouraged, that you’re strengthened, and that you also know that you’re not alone.

Being part of this fallen broken world is hard, but it is so worth it. And that we can do anything with Christ who sustains us, who gives us strength.

(02:52):
So, the book of first Peter is written by the apostle Peter to a group of Christians who were exiled throughout the ancient world.

So, Peter’s main story here is about how to endure suffering, how to stay hopeful, and say strong in your faith.

(03:10):
He’s riding to them to remind them of their identity in Christ and their inheritance of their faith in heaven. Our stores are not here on earth. Our treasure is in heaven.

(03:22):
So, Peter was riding to encourage Christians that had been persecuted that had been forced to leave their homes that were really suffering at really deep, extreme levels to keep on keeping on.

(03:39):
So, let’s go through the three principles. The first principle that I really wanted to share with you, guys, is that suffering brings perseverance and that suffering creates discipline.

The craziest thing that I learned in this whole book is that suffering is to be expected. Is that not crazy?

(04:05):
So, first Peter 1:7 says These trials have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith of greater worth than gold which perishes, even though refined by fire may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

(04:24):
So these trials, this suffering has come so that we can prove genuine in your faith, which is more important than gold which is refined by the fire.

And what does it result in? Praise, glory, and honor. So what’s so interesting to me is that I felt for so long, oh, why do I have to suffer?

(04:47):
And why does this have to happen? Why is this hard? And why is this entire year, all of 2022, someone’s been sick in my family. Landon had his appendix out, we were in the hospital for 11 days, complication after complication.

(05:02):
We were home for four days before my older son, Miles, got the flu and then gave it to Landon who got sick again. And it’s like thing after thing is happening.

And that’s a very small scale but a small scale of what it’s like to live here on earth and have trials come at us.

(05:22):
And sometimes maybe we feel we’re being persecuted or maybe the Lord is not on our side, not hearing our pain, not understanding that we have been shamed or slandered.

Or that we are sick or that we are all of these things, that things are coming against us, that we are dealing with spiritual warfare and Lord, where are you?

(05:40):
And what we hear instead of, oh, don’t worry, you will not experience trials of any kind, is you will experience suffering and trials of many kinds and it’s to be expected. Go read chapters three and four in first, Peter.

(05:57):
And it’s really talking about why we not only should endure suffering as believers because of how much Christ suffered for us.

But how we should be excited and expectant of suffering because that is what cultivates our faith. That’s what grows our perseverance.

(06:15):
It’s what’s helps us lean into God as our strength. We should not be surprised when we experience hard things.

We should rejoice that we get to share in the suffering of Christ, which is such a mindset flip and a perspective shift than anything that we believe. So, suffering brings perseverance.

(06:40):
The second concept that really blew me away is to be holy because God is holy. This is so interesting.

Peter sets up this theme here when he’s talking about holiness describing the essence of God, the character of God. So different than humanity, we are fallen.

(07:03):
We are sinners, but God is, is holy and pure. But the amazing part is, is that we have this new identity, this new calling that is to be holy, it’s by choice, making the decision ins daily to choose, to be like Jesus, right, to be like Christ.

(07:23):
And because we have been chosen and adopted into his family as believers, that we have this option now.

We can radically change the way that we live on a minute-by-minute, choice by choice, day-by-day, week-by-week basis to choose to live holy, will we be perfect? No, of course not.

(07:45):
Of course, we will never be perfect. And God knows that because he is a loving and good father and he’s here to lead us and guide us and direct us, but that we can choose to live holy because we want to be like him.

(08:00):
So, if suffering brings perseverance and we should be excited and expectant about suffering, cuz it makes us more like Jesus, we get to choose to live more holy lives because we get to be part of God’s family.

This is all such a mindset, I don’t even know if that’s the right word.

(08:15):
It’s like a heart shift for me around instead of I have to do blank it’s I get to, I get to suffer. I get to walk through this hard thing and know that at the end of the day I’m gonna be okay.

I get to go through something that’s throwing me off. That’s the least I can do.

(08:36):
That’s the least that I can expect to push through and persevere through knowing what Jesus went through for me to, even be here for me, to even have this opportunity to suffer.

That is so amazing to be able to choose, to live like him, and to do my best every day. And so I hope that that blesses you as much as it blessed me.

(09:02):
The final and last component that I really pulled from first Peter is to continue to be strong in our faith. And I think the most important part here is that your faith will be tested.

Your faith is tested probably on a daily basis and the stronger that you lock in and lean into an unshakable faith.

(09:26):
The more belief that you have, the more security that you have and the more you withstand the trials, cuz you have faith. You’re able to walk through the trial with a different set of eyes, with your spiritual eyes.

(09:41):
So first Peter 5:8-9 says Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary, the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for anyone he can devour.

Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same kind of sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world.

(10:01):
Resist him, firm in your faith. Peter was probably one of our favorite disciples.

We’ve heard the story of Peter and we love the story and we love his personality and if any of you have seen the chosen, oh my goodness, please watch that TV show. It puts a personality and a face to Peter and I love him even more.

(10:25):
And then Peter denies Jesus three times. And we have to wonder, wow, if someone like Peter, his faith is shaken so much and he goes back and he doesn’t stand beside Jesus when he knew him, how am I supposed to stand strong in my faith?

(10:49):
And I think what that whole story depicts for us is that Peter messed up and he suffered because of it. Through that suffering, he found discipline and he found perseverance. And guess what he found?

(11:03):
Even more faith because Peter came back to write all of these incredible pieces of scripture. And Peter came back to fight for the kingdom of God and spread God’s word for the rest of his days.

(11:17):
And Peter’s story lives on forever. If he hadn’t failed, he wouldn’t have had the crazy amount of faith that he had all the way through the end.

So what that brought me and showed me in my heart is that even though I messed up, I’m gonna cling to my faith.

(11:40):
Even though times are hard, I’m gonna cling to my faith. Even when I’m unsure, I’m going to lean into my faith. I’m gonna pray for stronger faith. I will speak about my faith.

I am going to ask God to partner with me in my faith because without faith, we have nothing.

(11:58):
We have to believe in the things unseen, this security and eternal life that’s been promised to us with Christ. So we have to endure just as Christ endured.

We have to keep showing up, keep speaking the word, keep fighting the good fight.

(12:15):
Stand strong in our faith, push through the suffering and choose to live holy because he is good. He is always good. And all we can do is strive to be like him.

(12:26):
So, I pray that that blessed you. If you guys have not read first Peter, go do it. It was so good. It was so fun. Highly recommend The Daily Grace Co, they’ve been awesome.

Love their divos. They’re amazing. And, if you guys want to hear more like this on the podcast, I would love to hear from you.

(12:45):
I don’t know what you, guys, are loving, what’s transforming you, what’s changing you. Do you like the business episodes, the faith episodes? What are you loving, guys?

(12:54):
Come on over to the Facebook community and let me know, just post a comment in there or send the group a chat and let us know, that’s at stefgasscommunity.com.

We’d love to hear from you. I’d love to see a testimony from you on the podcast.

(13:07):
Share how this podcast has challenged you or helped you, or if you’ve had any kind of transformation at all, I would love to know.

(13:15):
And the number one way you can do that and where I’d love for you to do that for me is over on the podcast, Apple podcasts, scroll down.

Click leave a review, or write a review and let me know. It’s just the number one way you can bless me. And so I’m so grateful for you.

(13:31):
Thank you for being a part of this community and listening to the show. Thank you for sharing the show. I’m sending you such a huge hug. I can’t wait to meet you back here real soon for another episode. God bless.