Sermon May 7, 2023 - Steve Marsh

And there it is you and that's us by the way that you is us are a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for God's Own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of Darkness into His Marvelous Light so you've got a statement there you are this and then you've got a reason for it you are this so that you can do something else and that kind of sets the stage for the rest of chapter two and all of chapter three because it's going to be explained to us how this is actually working out in different situations so go down a couple of verses and let's look at verse 12. First Peter 2 12. And he's given us some advice here keep your conduct behave well among the Gentiles so that when they speak against you as evil doers they may see your good deeds

And glorify God on the day of visitation so here again we are to behave well for a purpose not just so that we can be nice people that is a good thing by the way be nice people but what does that look like and why do we do that so go on here to verse 13 in Chapter 2 where we're developing context here and he starts off by saying be subject for the Lord's sake to every Human Institution whether it's the Emperor as Supreme and then it goes on to list other factors of human government so he's saying put yourself under the authority of the government and we look around today and we say that must be a mistake we can't do that but when this verse was written Rome was the government and if anything they are worse than what we experience so God isn't confused by all of this he's saying this is our role to put ourselves under that Authority jump down a couple of verses Verse 18 starts off and says servants this is another context be subject to your masters with all respect not only do the good ones but also to the bums that's the marsh translation so again put yourself under the authority of those in that situation we don't really do servants and Masters so much today although some of the jobs you're in you may think that's how it is but think of an employer an employee boss and his employee put yourself under their Authority for a purpose so jump ahead now to chapter 3 verse 1. Oh well I'll have to read it then in the same way you wives be submissive

To your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word they may be one without a word by the behavior of their wives okay be submissive put yourself under the authority of her husband so he's jumped from government situation employment situation to a marriage situation and the message is pretty consistent put yourself under the authority of the guys don't get off though go down to verse seven says likewise husbands live with your wives in understanding way showing honor to the woman is the weaker vessel since they are heirs with you of the grace of life so that your prayers may not be hindered we looked at that in some detail last week with Cody's message and that's expanded quite a bit if you go over to Ephesians chapter 5 verses 25 to 33 we're not going to do that this morning because that's what we did last week but the idea is there that the husband's role isn't to be the Lord and Master an absolute ruler his role is to cherish his wife to love her as Christ loves the church and so that example then is shown to us by the way when we go to be with the Lord those of us who are believers we're going to go to some dinner dinner what kind of dinner is it anybody know the marriage Feast of the Lamb yeah so it's Christ and his bride the church so that illustration of the husband and the wife loving the husband loving his wife as Christ loved the church is very specific because Christ is the husband of his bride which is us the church the Believers so we have this context being established and now we finally get to verse 8.

Well actually let me back up a bit because right about this point we start looking at this and saying this is hard how can I put myself under the authority of and then fill in the blank whether it's your boss or your County supervisor or your state Governor or whatever and it's not a to-do list where okay we've read all of these things and if we do this now God will like us it is a to-do list in the sense of what the Lord wants to see in our Behavior but that behavior is to be driven by what we believe what we understand of God and who he is and how he responds to us we kind of get the idea that okay this is too hard won't work in this situation or you know once they get their act together then I can submit my authority myself under their Authority but take a look at what's on the screen there Romans 5 8. As to how God treats us did he wait for us to get our act together before we could come to him fortunately no he did not he says while he was we were still sinners Christ died for us and that's illustrative of his love for so we don't want to treat other people more harshly than God treated us had he not loved us in the depths of our sin we'd never make it we just would not qualify but he died for us while we were still Sinners so keep that in mind as you're relating to other people whose faults you see very clearly that's not the issue and then as we look at a particular situation and we say man this is hard

I don't think it's going to work here take a look at Psalm 34 Verse 8. Go in here because we're going to be looking more in depth at Psalm 34 In this passage but it says taste and see that the Lord is good and then apply that to this situation where you said man this won't work well try it out God says give me a chance just you know stick your toe in the water and see if see if it'll work and then he goes on and says blessed is the man that takes refuge in him even in hard situations he says he will come through but for that to happen we have to trust him and kind of move in that direction but now all of that is context for this passage we're going to look at today so if you would stand we'll read through First Peter chapter 3 verses 8 to 12. And the standing part is something Cody introduced that I like we're standing in honor of God and his word to us not because you need the exercise although that may be true so in verse 8 he says finally all of you have Unity of Mind sympathy brotherly love a tender heart and a humble mind do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling but on the contrary bless for to this you were called that you may inherit a blessing for to him who means to love life and see good days I'm skipping into a different version here but here we go let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit let him turn away from Evil and do good and let him seek peace and pursue it for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers so father we thank you for your word sometimes it looks like

It just isn't what's going to actually work in a situation but there's where we trust you and so we trust you this morning as we look at this portion of your word to make it clear to us help us to understand who you are to us and how that should play itself out in our lives so we thank you for our father in Christ's name amen and the meaning of Amen in church is sit down you may have noticed that and every time somebody says amen down you go okay so this passage starts off and it says finally now Peter is a preacher he's the one writing this he preached the first sermon on Pentecost and you preach for a long time and when a preacher says finally it basically means that he's about half done and that's the case here we're reading finally in the middle of chapter three of a five chapter letter so take that for what it's worth we're about half done okay it says you all should be in unity other translations say be harmonious some say Unity of mind there are verses that kind of expand on these thoughts we're going to look at them briefly in Philippians chapter 2 verses three to five kind of draw this out a little bit do you have that one you don't have that we'll have it I'm not brave enough to try to quote it in front of all of you it says do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit but with humility of Mind regard one another as more important

Than yourselves do not merely look out for your own personal interests but also for the interests of others have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus and that is living in harmony with unity of mind it goes on and says that we should be sympathetic to one another yeah there it is actually and it was kind of funny when Nicholas was talking to the kids and asking them what sympathy means they nailed it we should look at one another with sympathy you know somebody will do something that we don't like and immediately that means they're wrong or bad or worse but a sympathetic Outlook would tell us oh okay they're they're growing in Christ and man they need some more growth maybe I could pray for them but we don't immediately jump to the thought that's that's not good I don't want any part of that sympathy means that we take their side turn over to Colossians 3 12 well actually we'll look at it up here I think thank you no I don't like your Bible 312. It says so as those who have been chosen of God holy and beloved put on a heart of compassion kindness humility gentleness and patience some of your translations instead of saying a heart of compassion will say a sympathetic heart the idea is that we look at one another the same way the Lord looks at us we are not finished ain't done yet and God knows that and he loves us anyway and he is working to help us grow in him

And so our one another in should kind of take that flavor that we are looking to help one another grow and as we do that gee the Lord will come through because he wants the same thing he wants each one of us to grow in our faith in our ability to trust him and follow him so when we start cooperating with God in that it's gee wow that's different and it actually works so let's go on through that passage we are to have brotherly love for one another and that can be hard because we look around and some of us Brothers ain't so love me but God has a different idea in John chapter 13. Jesus talks to his disciples some of whom weren't so lovely some of them are pretty rough-edged but he says this a new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you also are to love one another by this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another now the loved one another part was not a new commandment that's in the Old Testament way back the new commandment part of it was to love one another as Christ has loved us which is unconditional and even if we are all messed up love one another and the reason for it is also In this passage as we love one another that's our testimony to a world that needs love for one another we show them how it's supposed to look

So consider that in our relationships with each other you know are they reflecting what Christ wants to reflect to a lost world if they're not it's his fault I'm picking on Harvey this morning but no it's not his fault it's my fault God loves me even in my imperfections even in the times I mess up badly he loves me and that's the way that Jesus calls us to love one another and that is our testimony to a world that really needs to see that because a lot of people who don't know the Lord say nobody could love me and humanly they're probably right but that's not the point the point is that God loves them and we need to share his love and show his love to those who don't have it that passage goes on it doesn't let up it says we're to be kind-hearted one to another or tenderhearted and if you turn over to Ephesians chapter 4 the last couple verses there 31 and 32. Speak to that it says light all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice be kind to one another tender-hearted forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you as we apply that to one another boy that solves a lot of stuff you know stuff that we think this is a big deal this I can't stand that yeah we can we can deal with that because Christ loves us and we're showing his love to one another there's another to start this verse starts off with bitterness and we don't want that to be part of us that also goes back to the Old Testament in Psalm 119

Nice favorite short Psalm easy to memorize longest chapter in the Bible but in verse 165 in that chapter it says great peace have those who love your law nothing can make them stumble or nothing can cause them offense in some other translations we can be awfully easy awfully quick to take offense at what other people do and as we do that we possibly are demonstrating our own lack of love for God's word because his word says we are to love one another not be offended by one another although that can be pretty easy at times so we're not to cause offense we're not to take offense we do have the responsibility to help one another to pray for one another to love one another and there are other Scriptures that we're not going to look at this morning because they're really not part of this passage but as you see something that is hindering another brother's growth help them pray for them ask the Lord how to be useful in helping them grow in that area and maybe it won't even be you it might be somebody else but give God a chance to work in other people's lives it's amazing he might even do it he did it for each of us directly okay let's go on the last phrase in that verse 8 is it were to be humble in spirit and there is more Scripture about that take a look at Hebrews chapter 12 verses 14 and 15. This all also tags back to that bitterness area but it says strive for peace with everyone you get that everyone

And for the Holiness without which no one will see the Lord see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God other translations will say other see that no one falls short of the grace of God that no root of bitterness brings up and causes trouble and by it many become defiled and the bitterness thing that was alluded to earlier is what happens when we are unforgiving somebody will offend me and I will get upset and I'll go and look at that person and I'll say I won't do anything I'll just sit around I'll get bitter and that is not expressing the love of God as you know that we are given a new commandment to love one another as Christ has loved us that doesn't include God getting bitter at us he loves us even when we're a wretch which some of us are at times even then he still loves us and he calls us to love one another the same way so let's go on now in this passage we've looked at a lot of positive instructions in verse 8 it says Be this be harmonious be sympathetic have Brotherly Love be kind-hearted be humble in spirit all those good things there are some negatives in here as well as we go on in the passage says don't repay evil for evil or insult for insult other versions might say reviling for reviling instead we're to pray for one another take a look at Romans chapter 12. Verses 17 to 18. Says repay no one evil for evil even him but give thought to do what is Honorable in

The sight of all if possible so far as it depends on you live peacefully with all and then if you go on to verse 21 he kind of puts a period on that do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good now being overcome by evil could also be rephrased as ignoring verse 17 basically where it says don't repay evil for evil if we start doing that we are overcome by evil not a good thing so remember we're not called to be judges of each other it does say in the passage what we are called to be if we jump down to verse 12 it says we're called for the purpose of being a blessing to one another that's different from sitting in judgment on one another and so think on how we could do that how can we be a blessing to one another even when they don't deserve it of course none of us would ever not deserve it right nobody said a word just sit there and squirm yeah all of us mess up and all of us whether we know it or not have offended other people sometimes it's real blatant and obvious sometimes we never even are aware of it but we need to then extend God's grace to one another when we're on the receiving end of it that happens but it happens within a family the family of God the body of Christ and we need to continue to grow anyway we need to continue to love one another and pray for one another and encourage one another and help each other in our growth in the Lord that's how the body all grows together

To become a really effective body and again though that goes back to John 13 where he said a new commandment have I given you that you love one another as I have loved you by this shall all men know that you're in my not my disciples because you love one another so it all comes back to that and that's what Peter is expressing here in these verses so putting all of that together I'm I'm fitting under Cody's what would you say here parameters with head hand and heart only it's head heart man sorry from this passage and from the context of it understand in your head this is actually something you can use in the bulletin he's got head and a space heart and a space hand into space in his sermon notes you may have noticed I ignored the rest of it but understand in your head that God loves us and we are called by God to be at peace with one another when that peace is Disturbed okay something needs to be repaired here okay so and understand that we're called to be at peace with one another so heart believe which means trust God that he will work in each other not just me we know he works in us obviously but he works in the other one too and trust him to do that and give him room to do that God is faithful and he'll do what he said he's going to even in that scoundrel trust him and then hand look for ways to be a blessing to one

Another just think of that for a minute look around the people you know in this body how can you be a blessing to them because according to verse 12 that's what we're called to be is a blessing one to another so look to be a blessing even to the ones that don't deserve it just like God treats us we do not deserve it and yet he loves us yet He blesses us yes he yet he gives us Grace and that's what we're extend to one another let's go to the Lord and father we do come to you in need we know what you've said in your word it can be awfully difficult for us to pick that up and walk with it help us to do that father help us to trust you to do what you said you're going to do that you're going to work and me only in somebody I'm really happy with but also with those if you were part of this body who aren't behaving the way I think they ought to so help us to look for ways to be a blessing father to help trust you to do your work in each of us we thank you for your father in Christ's name amen stand up I didn't say I did say it again that's right [Music] thank you [Music] remember [Music] oh yeah and let myself relax [Music] [Applause] [Music] Ed husband is my love thank you

Closed captioning not available to God this week and see how he uses you all right let's call this prayer heavenly father I thank you for this family the people that love you the people that want to live as you tell us to Lord and also show the world Your Love Lord now as we go forth this week and let us just be thankful and encourage of everything that we've got to experience in your love this week Lord and how faithful you are we think this we just ask you to be with each and every one of us and lead us not into temptation Lord but Deliver Us from Evil thank you Lord and we ask this in your precious son's name amen bad news doesn't get better with time all right holding off going to the hospital just go when it hurts thank you