9/26/21 Sunday Morning Bible Study "Study of 1 Peter"

so do what i'll take it good morning good to see everyone out we got a good crowd stayed for bible class we're thankful you're here john tried to make a joke about me what he don't know i'll take that purse if it's full of money i'll even carry it out that'll work huh my wife and daughter are at zion this morning my son is preaching there uh so i was gonna give you a heads up just as soon as i'm finished i'm going to head there just as fast as i can go and i think i can get there before he starts their worship starts at 11 so hopefully get to hear him we're in first peter chapter 3. the last time we were together in class we we talked about marriage things that we can help to improve upon within our marriages we did that based upon the first seven verses of chapter three and and hopefully we covered that to be able to help us uh to be better verse eight is where we'll start peter says finally all you be of one mind having compassion for one another love as brothers be tenderhearted be courteous he gets to verse 8 and he says finally likewise and he says that because he has dealt if you'll go back to all the things that we've studied he's talked about several different relationships relationships that that we as christians have to our government that we have with those within the world that we have with with those that maybe are our employer or are we even with relationships within our household between husbands and wives and now he's just going to general christianity finally my brethren i want you to to realize there are some things that you can do as brethren to help your relationships be better one with another he says finally be of one mind i want to ask you something does everyone hear do we all think of like oh no there's no way right you know and and we're never going to think completely alike but let me ask you something can we work together and live in harmony even though we don't think 100 like how do we do that somebody give me some suggestions how do we do that well we can talk about things we can be open to discuss things what about respect what if i respect you and you respect me although we may not agree on everything that there is to agree on if we respect one another will we have harmony yeah we will and i think that's what peter is trying to get us to see as brethren as new testament christians if we come together as a body here at willow avenue and we have respect for one another then we will be unified like i said we will never agree on every everything that there is to agree on there's absolutely no way now there are some things that we cannot disagree upon and be unified if you go to ephesians 4 and you don't have to do this there's there's seven ones in verse three paul says endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace he says that in order to be unified it is a work if you have to endeavor to do something what does that mean you're sitting out on a journey to do it you're going to have to put forth a diligent effort to do that he says achieving unity within a body of believers it's a job it's a chore he says you've got to do that he says and then there's seven ones all of us here we agree that there's one god there's one jesus and there's one spirit we've got to agree upon those things now we may not necessarily understand everything that each one of those entities do we may not understand exactly how everything that god christ and the spirit does we may not understand how all of that works completely but we believe in the oneness of them we believe in the oneness of the purpose the oneness of everything that they set out to accomplish we believe here as a a group of believers in the one hope don't we and that hope is heaven that is our goal that is what we're pushing for we have to believe that we believe here in this church that there's one faith correct there's one bible there's one system of doctrine there's not a several different ways there's only one we've got to believe that if we don't believe that we're not of one mind we believe there's one baptism we understand what the purpose of that baptism is at least i hope we do we've got to agree on certain things we've got to agree that there's only one church that jesus didn't die to and shed his blood so that you can do whatever it is that you want to do no we've got to understand those basic things and we've got to agree on those basic things and when we do that we can be and live in harmony we can be of one mind in one spirit paul would say in philippians 1 verse 28 striving together for the faith of the gospel when we are a people that have one mind and one purpose and peter here is telling us that's what we need to do he says not only that we've got to have compassion one for another paul said we're to rejoice with them that rejoice and weep with them that weep that's that's sometimes hard to do isn't it sometimes it is hard and this word would mean to be sympathetic with others difficulties and sometimes that's hard isn't it if we are a people that are to be compassionate one to another i'm to be sympathetic if you've got a issue if you've got something that you struggle with if you've got something you're really having a hard time with if i really love you and i want to be there for you i'm to be sympathetic with that difficulty you're facing if it's a weakness if it's a physical element whatever it may be if i'm going to be your brother in christ and i'm going to to be there for you i've got to learn to be more compassionate and i've said this many times that's a lot easier for you ladies probably than it is for us men that's me and her sometimes and i'm speaking for me sometimes we're rough and gruff and you know we sometimes compassion is not our strong suit and i'm not i'm not proud of that in fact i'm ashamed of that sometimes i'm not very compassionate i was raised to suck it up and go on and that's just sometimes that's how i am and i have to struggle with that but what peter's telling us here if we're going to be in harmony if we're going to be of that one mind if we're going to be the people god would have us to be we've got to be more compassionate he says we've got to love as brothers brother wayne jackson says what that means is we're common kinsmen in the lord common kinsmen i want to ask you something i want you to think about your family for a moment do you defend your family you ever heard someone say well they can talk about their family all they want to but if somebody else does what happens the fight is on i knew a group of brothers growing up they're older than me i can remember hearing stories about him i remember one time two of those brothers were fighting i mean fist fighting and the police got in and broke it up and they hit one of those brothers well immediately both those brothers turned on the policemen and they both beat him up why would they do that because they could do whatever they wanted to but they were going to defend their family they loved their family and even though you know they were in a bad situation these guys when they were doing this they loved their family and they were there for them peter says as christians we've got to have that type of love brethren we've got to defend one another we've got to stand up for one another we've got to be there for one another just like you love your physical family god says you've got to love your spiritual family it's got to be deeper than just walk in here on sunday morning hey how you doing good see i'll talk to you next week it's got to be more than that do we talk to our physical family more than that well i hope we do sometimes i know physical families are strained and i understand that completely because a lot of times mine and my extended fat all that is strained but paul or peter here's telling us we've got to love like we're family because we are family we're joint heirs with christ he has made us our family ephesians chapter one we've been adopted back in his body he's redeemed us he's brought us back we are part of him we've got to be together he goes on to say we've got to be tenderhearted tenderhearted a lot of times this word is translated having bowels of mercy bowels of mercy you are you're distributing to someone else's need you look down upon someone and and you're sympathetic it kind of goes along with being compassionate if you are compassionate and you're truly compassionate you're going to be tenderhearted you're going to allow things to touch you and again us men sometimes that's hard isn't it sometimes we're not very tender-hearted you know sometimes we don't allow things to to pull at us like you ladies do and again that's bad on our part but rather than as christians we've got to develop that we've got to cultivate that we've got to allow things to touch us because when things actually touch us it causes us to do and to do and to act you know i said one time in a sermon i was given the topic to speak on kindness and goodness you know they're fruits of the spirit goodness is great to have goodness is something that we need to do we have to to be good we have to think good thoughts but kindness is goodness in action you ever have a good thought and a good motivation to want to do something and never did it i've done that several times i thought about something i need to do man it was a good thing to do and i i wanted to do it and that was pretty much it but you see kindness is putting that into action this word for tenderhearted here is something that has to be put into action it's not i just feel sorry for him it's no i want to do something for him i feel for them and therefore i want to help them and that's what we are to do for each other finally he says be courteous american standard is going to say humble minded and the word literally means to be friendly to be kind it's the opposite of arrogance and pride no one likes someone that is arrogant and full of pride and full of themselves and selfish and peter says you can't be a unified body of christ if there's selfishness if there's pride if there's not humility you see as christians these are things that we could study on and just continually study on he goes on to say not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling but on the contrary blessing knowing that you were called to this that you may inherit a blessing you know peter's already dealt with this in chapter two right don't retaliate don't return evil for evil but again this is some of the hardest things that that i've ever been told to do don't return evil for evil let me ask you something does god give you what you deserve i want all of us to really just dig down and think about that for a minute does god give us what we deserve have you ever done evil things against god things come just completely contrary to his will and you knew it what if god gave us all what we deserved we'd be in real real bad shape instead of god giving us what he did what we deserve what does he do for us he blesses us he blesses us i want you just go over just for a moment to matthew chapter five in the sermon on the mount and i want us to see what jesus had to say matthew 5 we'll start in verse 38. and this goes hand in hand with what peter was saying and i i know that peter was there to hear this sermon in matthew chapter five and i know he remembers this sermon and i know he didn't always live this sermon in the garden when they arrested jesus peter wanted to return evil for evil didn't he pulled out his sword hey you can't do that i i'm going to get you back i'm going to get you back i'm going to fight that's not what jesus told him to do in the first place matthew chapter 5 verse 38 jesus speaking you have heard that it was said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth or in other words evil for evil and they're viling for reviling whatever somebody does to you you do it right back to them jesus said that's what you've heard he says but i tell you not to resist an evil person but whosoever slaps you on your cheek turn the other also to him if anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic let him have your cloak also and whoever compels you to go one mile go with him too give to him who asks you and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away you guys have heard this over and over and over again but man there are some hard things to do that is difficult he goes on to say verse 43 you have heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy but i say to you love your enemies again that's a hard thing to do if somebody is mean and cruel and wicked you and mistreats you and talks about you jesus says i want you to love him don't let you love him he says bless those that curse you isn't that what peter said don't don't return evil for evil or reviling for reviling but on the contrary return a blessing jesus is going to tell us why this is so important he says love your enemies bless those who curse you do good to those that hate you and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you that you may be sons of your father which is in heaven in other words don't do like the world does do like god does he says i want you to be a child of the father which is in heaven for he makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good and he sends rain on the just and on the unjust he does doesn't he if god gave this world what this world deserves it would be on fire already a long time ago a long time ago but man he has blessed this nation and this nation has been so wicked and it continues to be so wicked god is still good and as christians we are to be imitators of him he's the light that we talked about just wednesday night within the tabernacle and the only way the world sees the light is that we take the light out and we show it to the world so if we act like the world people are going to think we're the world but if we act like god people are going to know that we're different and we've got to be different he says if you love those who love you what what reward have you do not even the tax collectors do the same i mean if you're going to act like the world you're just going to be them he says and if you greet your brethren only what do you do more than others do not even the tax collectors do so and he used that phrase tax collector because that was the people that that everybody looked down upon the most he says you're going to be the lowest form of people if you act like the world he says therefore you shall be perfect just as your father in heaven is perfect jesus wants more out of us than sometimes what we want from ourselves and although these are very very difficult things to do they're not hard to understand it's not hard to understand that he wants me to love everyone that he wants me to want what is best for everyone that he wants me to pray for my enemies when's the last time we did that when's the last time we did that that's hard isn't it i can remember in september 11 2001 those planes hit the world trade centers and i can remember that next sunday well we had a prayer service and we took turns the men we got up and man we prayed and we prayed and i can remember prayers being said then for those people that flew those planes into the towers that lord those people that believe like that would see the light would see and want to turn and want to do better when the world around and everybody in our country is just wanting to destroy all of them i can remember the church praying for those people hey they want to hurt us they want to harm us and they hate us but lord help them help them to see the light and i couldn't help i was thinking about that just the other day on that anniversary and and just all the horrible times that we went through but just to see people come together no matter you know what they thought or believed or anything that's a beautiful thing god wants his people to come together and he wants us to be there for each other and love each other and god wants us as a group to be that light into the world to show people the love of christ because i can promise you you what is that they say you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar we're not going to bring people into the church if we are a a very dim light if we're hateful and cruel and oh we're going to bring people into church because we show them what we love them because we try to teach them that we want them to be better and we want a difference and people are looking to us and do they want to be a part of us because of how we are because see they're going to be a part of us because how we are not just what we say we can get up and teach the truth all day but if we do it and we don't show love nobody wants that that's not appealing to people we've got to show the truth in love it's all got to be a package deal and peter is trying to get us to see that go back to first peter 3. he says he who would love life and see good days let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit let him turn away from evil and do good let him seek peace and pursue it there's not a person in this assembly who doesn't want to have a good life you want to enjoy your life you want things around you to be good you want to your family to be good you want to have good days you may even pray to have good days lord have me have a good day help me to have a good life help things to to be good in my life peter here and he's quoting from the psalmist psalm 34 12-16 he said there's a way to do that he says you got to watch what you say you got to try to refrain your tongue let me ask you something what gets you in more trouble than anything else your mouth our tongues get us in more trouble than anything else and let me ask you something how many of you got a good it's a real good handle on that i'll wait for the hands to go up nobody right why what's james say no man can what can't tame the tongue and i've told you guys this before i've prayed about this just multitudes of time lord help me watch what i say help me watch what i say help me to you know let my speech be seasonal and saw you say all those things and then what do you catch yourself doing you turn around you say the things you didn't want to say and it's so hard and and james in his writing he would talk about a ship and how a huge large ship is turned about by what a small rudder small rudder i'm six foot four away 260 pounds i shouldn't told you all that i'm overweight and this little tongue in my mouth sometimes takes control of my body you would think a big a man as me could control that little tongue right it doesn't work james would say how great a forest a little fire kindles some of those horrible forest fires you've seen on the news that wiped out thousands and thousands and thousands of acres is because somebody just maybe threw a cigarette out the window right just i mean just a tiny little cigarette and it burned thousands and thousands of acres a small fire and our tongue does that very thing when we talk about each other when we gossip when we backbite when we just do all of those things and we just use our tongue in a way that god will not have us to use then our life is not going to be as simple as it if we have gow he says we got to get rid of the seed or gal if we are deceitful people and we tell lies is our is our days going to be as good as we want them to be let me ask you something if you tell a lie what happens when you have to continually back up that story you just keep lying but the problem is you forget what you've said right and your story just continues to change a little bit and you dig yourself in a deeper and a deeper and a deeper hole and your life is filled with anxiety and and all of these things simply because you didn't use your tongue for good we can't live life a good wonderful life we can't see good days if we don't attempt to bridle our tongue james would also say i believe it's james chapter 1 verse 26 that if we don't attempt to bridle our tongue he says our religion is vain why don't you think about that if we don't try to put that bride on control our tongue it's doing me no good to be here now that's scary words to me if i'm not striving to do that i don't need religion it's not gonna help if anything's vain it's useless it's worthless james says it's worthless if i don't put a bridle on it but not only that he says if you want to enjoy life and see good days you've got to turn away from evil and do good turn away is a word that means to shun or avoid or first thessalonians 5 22 abstain from every appearance of evil he says if you want to have a good life you got to get rid of sin let me ask you something when you guys you probably feel the same way i do when you do things that you know you shouldn't do does it bother you you have a hollow feeling in a pity stomach maybe if you said something you shouldn't have said or you acted in a way that you shouldn't have acted maybe you let go of your temper and and people seen it what does that make you feel like just you know you got you got that hollow feeling and you're not enjoying your life and again we know this it's not hard to understand but man it's hard to do it's hard to do he says if you want to enjoy life you got to turn away from evil and do good why don't we replace that hollow feeling that sin leaves and turn that into a good feeling when you do something good for someone when you help someone what do you feel like complete opposite right man you're overjoyed and just you know you just go help someone out and you just you got that warm fuzzy feeling right that's what everybody wants that warm fuzzy feeling it's great if we want to enjoy our life we got to take these little basic things and we've got to put them into practice he says as christians we've got to seek peace and pursue it i want to ask you something is peace always easy to find is peace always just apparent and you're like if i do this i can get peace no problem right no it's not that easy is it and that's why peter would say you've got to seek peace you've got to try to find peace but he goes a step further he says you've got to pursue peace if you're going to pursue something what are you doing you're diligently trying to get it you're reaching out and you're doing everything you can do i want that peace there is a piece of god that surpasses understanding philippians 4 6 and 7. and i want that peace don't you and in order for me to get that piece i've got to go get it i've got to strive for that peace it doesn't come easy christianity is not an easy religion nothing about it is easy sometimes that's what we want and we're looking for that easy solution let me ask you this you guys have you ever you've ever been to a lecture ship somewhere or you bought a book and and you really wanted to hear that sermon or you really wanted to read that book because there was something you struggling with and you're looking for just that easy thing to do right if that i can just hear this they're going to tell me the key to this whole thing and man i i've got it whipped and what happens we're disappointed right because nothing's easy life's not easy i'm sorry to bust your bubble and everybody here knows that huh life's hard peter says you got to seek it you got to pursue it and then in verse 12 he's going to tell us why this is verse 12 as the motivation for everything that we've talked about this morning here's why the eyes of the lord are over the righteous and his ears are open unto their prayers but the face of the lord is against those who do evil let me ask you something how many of us in this room want god to hear our prayer and answer it if i asked for a show of hands everybody's would go up right i mean we want that and we need that and man when you face any kind of hard time in your life i promise you if you're a christian what you're going to do is you're going to bow your head and you're going to beg god to help you aren't you you're going to ask him you're going to plead you're going to bargain you're going to make promise you're going to do whatever you want god to help you well peter says the eyes of the lord are over the righteous now how do we become righteous doing enough good deeds right if we just do enough good if we do more good than bad we become righteous that's not how it works is it how do we become righteous romans chapter 4 god imputes righteousness to us when we obey him we can't be righteous in and of ourselves but if we are striving to be christian people god takes that blood of christ covers our sin and puts righteousness on our chart if you will i've always described it as a chart in heaven and you're a little kid and you get the star if you do this god's the only one can put star up there you can't put it up there but if you do what he tells you to do to the best of your ability he puts that star up there and that star says righteous and the eyes of the lord are over the righteous there's not a person in here that wants the second part of that verse the face the lord is against those that do evil i'll tell you what proverbs 28 verse 9 says he that turneth away his ear from hearing the law even his prayer is an abomination think about that for a minute he that turneth away his ear from hearing the law even his prayer is an abomination that is a very scary verse if we're not going to do what god would ask us to do our prayers and abomination what's an abomination to god how would you describe that something the lord hates right yeah something the lord hates and you mean if i can live my life in a way and make the decisions that i make that the lord could hate the fact that i petition him in prayer well dan's right that is a terrifying verse i want to take the first part of that verse the eyes of the lord are over the righteous you see sin separates me from god isaiah 59 1-2 sin separates me and isaiah says where he cannot hear my prayer and it makes his hand shorten that he can't reach down and bless me it makes his ear heavy that he will not hear me and it's on my shoulders because my sin is what separates me from god so the only way i can make sure he hears me is i've got to strive to refrain my tongue i've got to try my best to turn away from evil i've got to try my best to do what is good and i've got to try to seek peace if i truly want to be at peace in my life i truly want to be at peace i'm going to have to do something about it i'm going to have to go out and find it i'm going to have to grab it and say this is what i want more than anything else in my life what is it dave ramsey says when you're sick and tired of being sick and tired then you know what you'll do something about it right and he's talking about debt but it's not the same with everything else if your life is a life of chaos and you've struggled with everything under the sun until you get sick and tired of being sick and tired you're not going to make a change i'm not going to make a change and that's what peter's telling us here if you want to have a good life you've got to take responsibility you've got to do something about it and i hope today some of these things we've talked about will help us and i hope that we will want to do something about our lives i know we all want peace how bad do you want it how bad do you want it how bad do you want the lord's ear to be open under your prayer it depends upon us i appreciate your attention this morning would you bow with me as we dismiss lord we're thankful we could be here today we're thankful we can study together lord help us to be a people that desires to have a good life and a peaceful eye father help us to seek you out in all things to put you first for you to have the preeminence in our life to be the most important part father help us through every struggle everything that we face to always put our trust in you be with us as we leave in christ's name amen you

Channel: Willow Avenue Church of Christ

Views: 86

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: 3K0K0uEPg80

Length: 43min 5sec (2585 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 26 2021