(bright music) Good morning, everyone. Welcome to worship at First Baptist Atlanta. You already know who I am if you attend here regularly, but I am here to introduce two very special people. Just so you know, we have been opening our services by having staff welcome you. And many of you who've come here for years have said that you've never known some, you've never met some of these people who work at the church and it's been neat to see their faces and to hear them speak. And the problem with that is terror has gripped the hallways of the staff. And they've said, please do not make me get up there and talk on a Sunday morning. So we're trying to find people who are comfortable doing that. But I went to Teresa Crafter this past week who is in our Preschool Ministry. And I said, hey, Mrs. Teresa, as she's affectionately known. And she just looked at me and she said, I hope you're not in here for the reason I think you're in here. (all laughing) And I said, why do you think I'm in here? She says, oh, I'm pretty sure I know. And the answer is no. (all laughing) So we worked through it last week and we prayed about it. And she went home and talked to her beloved husband, Ed, and she said, we'll do it but we want you to stand up there with us. So that's the reason why I'm up here to be with you. (congregation applauding) But Ed and Theresa have been members of our church since the church was downtown Atlanta, and a friend of Teresa's invited her to come and worship at First Baptist, and she was reluctant to come and worship, but the Lord was working and her friend kept praying, and she finally agreed to come and visit the church. And she really fell in love with the ministry of First Baptist, Dr. Stanley's preaching. And then she started working on her husband, Ed, and he could not get his schedule to free up on Sundays. He was a postal service employee where his career was. And so they started praying and that schedule opened up, and Ed was able to come and worship. And that was over 30 years ago and they became members. One of the things that Ed did at the post office, he had a coworker who was deaf. And in order to communicate with his coworker, he learned, he taught himself Sign Language. And out of that, as he mastered sign, he thought why don't we use Sign Language to minister to the hearing impaired community at First Baptist. And so he started signing at First Baptist and has continued as a volunteer leading our Deaf Ministry now for 26 years. (congregation applauding) So I told him he could go ahead and sign for us. My name is Ed Crafter. This is my drop dead gorgeous bride, (laughs) Teresa Crafter. We are in love with each other. (all laughing) We love the Lord. We love First Baptist. We love Dr. Charles Stanley. And Anthony George is kind of growing on us. (all laughing) (mumbles) Oh, okay. So he has been signing for 26 years here, but Mrs. Teresa has been on staff at the church. And last October, while we were furloughed as a church and we weren't having services, our staff got together and we recognized staff anniversaries and multiples of five. And she was the longest-serving staff member. Last October, she crossed the threshold of 30 consecutive years on our staff. Thank you.
(congregation applauding) Thank you, thank you, thank you. So we all love Mrs. Teresa. Would you like to say anything? Well, I think (laughs). Pastor George, I really have loved Preschool. Preschool is my heart. And I love serving Preschool. God has really blessed me so much in Preschool. And I've learned a lot of things. Not only teaching Preschool, but also just learning the ministry of Preschool. And every Sunday morning, I look forward to being in Preschool. So if I had to leave one thing, this is what I would say about Preschool for me. For me, I believe and I know that this is where God has called me to be, in Preschool. And for these 30 years, He's really blessed me more than I would ever imagine. So I'm so thankful to serve here at this church for these many years. So it is my joy. It is my honor. And certainly it is a blessing to serve the Lord. Amen. Would you let her know how much you appreciate her 30 years. God bless you. That's right. (congregation applauding)
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Both of them. I'll hold your microphone so you can hold these flowers. Okay. And now Kathryn Morris has brought this presentation of flowers for you, Mrs. Teresa. We gave her a very generous 30-year gift but she told me at the first service she'd be open to another one. Yes.
(all laughing) (mumbles) Let's go to the Lord in prayer. And then you just remain standing as we'll go right into our time of worship. Father, thank You for the opportunity to recognize Ed and Theresa Crafter. We love this couple so much, and we're so grateful for Ed's volunteer service as a deacon and also leading the Sign Ministry and all of the lives that have been impacted through his faithfulness. And we thank You that last October we were able to celebrate 30 years of consecutive service on staff by Miss Teresa. How thankful we are for every little life that she has shaped and molded by her active service and watching over preschoolers, the infants, and toddlers, and creepers, and crawlers and not just a childcare ministry but a Bible verse teaching ministry, a Jesus-loving song ministry, where we don't just babysit but we impart the truth of Your love to these precious babies. So continue to bless both of them in the life of our church and help us to cherish them for the treasure they are in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. God bless you. All right.
(congregation applauding) Well, Good morning. Welcome again to worship today. We're so glad to see you. We're gonna worship the Lord, our everlasting God. Let's sing together today. ("Everlasting God") ♪ Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord ♪ ♪ Wait upon the Lord ♪ ♪ We will wait upon the Lord ♪ ♪ Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord ♪ ♪ Wait upon the Lord ♪ ♪ We will wait upon the Lord ♪ ♪ Our God ♪ ♪ You reign forever ♪ ♪ Our hope ♪ ♪ Our Strong Deliverer ♪ ♪ You are the everlasting God ♪ ♪ The everlasting God ♪ ♪ You do not faint ♪ ♪ You won't grow weary ♪ ♪ You're the defender of the weak ♪ ♪ You comfort those in need ♪ ♪ You lift us up on wings ♪ ♪ Like eagles ♪ ♪ Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord ♪ ♪ Wait upon the Lord ♪ ♪ We will wait upon the Lord ♪ ♪ Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord ♪ ♪ Wait upon the Lord ♪ ♪ We will wait upon the Lord ♪ ♪ Our God ♪ ♪ You reign forever ♪ ♪ Our hope ♪ ♪ Our Strong Deliverer ♪ ♪ You are the everlasting God ♪ ♪ The everlasting God ♪ ♪ You do not faint ♪ ♪ You won't grow weary ♪ ♪ You're the defender of the weak ♪ ♪ You comfort those in need ♪ ♪ You lift us up on wings ♪ ♪ Like eagles ♪ ♪ You are the everlasting God ♪ ♪ The everlasting God ♪ ♪ You do not faint ♪ ♪ You won't grow weary ♪ ♪ You're the defender of the weak ♪ ♪ You comfort those in need ♪ ♪ You lift us up on wings ♪ ♪ Like eagles ♪ ♪ You are the everlasting God ♪ ♪ The everlasting God ♪ ♪ The everlasting God ♪ ♪ The everlasting God ♪ Amen, give Him praise this morning. The Scripture reminds us from everlasting to everlasting, He is God. And we bring this song of praise to Him this morning. ♪ Praise to the Lord, the Almighty ♪ ♪ The King of creation ♪ ♪ O my soul, praise him ♪ ♪ For He is thy health and salvation ♪ ♪ All ye who hear; now to His temple draw near ♪ ♪ Join me in glad adoration ♪ ♪ Praise to the Lord ♪ ♪ Who o'er all things so wondrously reigneth ♪ ♪ Shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth ♪ ♪ Hast thou not seen how all thy longings have been ♪ ♪ Granted in what He ordaineth ♪ ♪ Praise to the Lord ♪ ♪ Who doth prosper thy work and defend thee ♪ ♪ Surely His goodness and mercy here daily attend thee ♪ ♪ Ponder anew what the Almighty can do ♪ ♪ If with His love He befriend thee ♪ ♪ Praise to the Lord, oh, let all that is in me adore Him ♪ ♪ All that hath life and breath ♪ ♪ Come now with praises before Him ♪ ♪ Let the Amen sound from His people again ♪ ♪ Gladly forever adore Him ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ O, we bring our praise to Him, the Lord, the Almighty. This morning, we have a good, good Father. Let's sing to Him today. ♪ I've heard a thousand stories ♪ ♪ of what they think You're like ♪ ♪ But I've heard the tender whisper ♪ ♪ Of love in the dead of night ♪ ♪ And You tell me that You're pleased ♪ ♪ And that I'm never alone ♪ ♪ You're a good, good Father ♪ ♪ It's who You are ♪ ♪ It's who You are ♪ ♪ It's who You are ♪ ♪ And I'm loved by You ♪ ♪ It's who I am ♪ ♪ It's who I am ♪ ♪ It's who I am ♪ ♪ Oh, and I've seen many searching ♪ ♪ For answers far and wide ♪ ♪ But I know we're all searching ♪ ♪ For answers only You provide ♪ ♪ 'Cause You know just what we need ♪ ♪ Before we say a word ♪ ♪ You're a good, good Father ♪ ♪ It's who You are ♪ ♪ It's who You are ♪ ♪ It's who You are ♪ ♪ And I'm loved by You ♪ ♪ It's who I am ♪ ♪ It's who I am ♪ ♪ It's who I am ♪ ♪ Because You are perfect in all of Your ways ♪ ♪ You are perfect in all of Your ways ♪ ♪ You are perfect in all of Your ways to us ♪ ♪ Oh, it's love so undeniable ♪ ♪ I, I can hardly speak ♪ ♪ Peace so unexplainable ♪ ♪ I, I can hardly think ♪ ♪ As You call me deeper still ♪ ♪ As You call me deeper still ♪ ♪ As You call me deeper still ♪ ♪ Into love, love, love ♪ ♪ You're a good, good Father ♪ ♪ It's who You are ♪ ♪ It's who You are ♪ ♪ It's who You are ♪ ♪ And I'm loved by You ♪ ♪ It's who I am ♪ ♪ It's who I am ♪ ♪ It's who I am ♪ ♪ You're a good, good Father ♪ ♪ It's who You are ♪ ♪ It's who You are ♪ ♪ It's who You are ♪ ♪ And I'm loved by You ♪ ♪ It's who I am ♪ ♪ It's who I am ♪ ♪ It's who I am ♪ Oh, give Him praise today. He is a good, good Father. Hallelujah. You may be seated. He is such a good Father. Such a good, good Father. (congregation applauds) What a good Father He is. You know, when you're young in your faith, you don't think about how good He is, but the older you get, every day you wake up and put your feet on the ground, you say You're a good, good Father. I'm alive. I've got a pulse. And, you know, every time I sit down and eat a meal, I think He's a good, good Father. He put food in front of me. And, you know, when it's real cold, I can't stand the cold. (congregation laughs) And I have to take those dogs out and I'll be freezing and I'll come back inside and feel the embrace of a warm house. And I find myself saying, oh God, You're a good, good Father. For all those people who are sleeping out under bridges tonight, thank you for a wonderful place to sleep. And we just continue to tell Him all the reasons why He's such a good, good Father. And I think He's a good, good Father because I get to be with you today and I get to preach God's Word and we get to worship God together. He's a good, good Father. So glad we could be together today. (congregation applauds) And our good, good Father has given us a livestream viewing audience. Can we let them know what they mean to us? Would you let them know? Right. (congregation applauds) Amen and amen. What a good Father He is. Well, we're going to continue to worship together. And this would be the time when we normally would pass the offering plate, but we've suspended that and now our gifts are online or at the collection boxes on the way out. But thank you to all of you who are giving both in person and those from among our livestream audience. And I want to get you ready. This next song is a little new style of a song. It's a new praise and worship song but you need to think about the words and let them minister to you because there are many times that we've heard the stories of God in the Bible and what He could do and what He did back then. And there are times in our lives we need Him to do that for us, whatever it might be. And we need Him to do what He is famous for. That's what the song says. So we're gonna pray and we'll continue to worship. Father, thank You for being who You are in our lives. Thank You for loving us like You do, providing for us like You do, most of all, saving us like You have. And we wanna be a church that extends that invitation to everybody, everyone in Atlanta and as far as we can get that message out to the ends of the earth, that we can be those heralds of good news that Jesus died, rose from the dead in order to give us eternal life. And we pray that even among those in this room or those watching today, they're just one person. And I'm sure there are more, but I pray that your Holy Spirit will draw them into an awareness of their need for Jesus and that before this service ends, they will have said, yes, Jesus, I want You. Yes, Jesus, I need You. I need You to take control of my life and save me. So we pray to that end. And I pray for every Christian who's watching. Lot of people are hurting right now. A lot of people are discouraged right now. A lot of people are facing challenges bigger than their ability to solve. And I pray that something we've already sung or we're about to enjoy something that'll be said in the message. Some part of this service, Lord, will be used by You to bring hope and life and encouragement and strength to a weary heart. That's my prayer. And we commit the rest of this service to You. Be glorified among us and through us, in Jesus' name, amen. ("Famous For") ♪ There is no fear 'cause I believe ♪ ♪ There is no doubt, 'cause I have seen ♪ ♪ Your faithfulness ♪ ♪ My fortress ♪ ♪ Over and over ♪ ♪ I have a hope found in Your name ♪ ♪ I have a strength found in Your grace ♪ ♪ Your faithfulness ♪ ♪ My fortress ♪ ♪ Over and over ♪ ♪ Make way through the waters ♪ ♪ Walk me through the fire ♪ ♪ Do what You are famous for ♪ ♪ What You are famous for ♪ ♪ Shut the mouths of lions ♪ ♪ Bring dry bones to life and ♪ ♪ Do what You are famous for ♪ ♪ What You are famous for ♪ ♪ I believe in You ♪ ♪ God, I believe in You ♪ ♪ Release Your love inside of me ♪ ♪ Unleash Your power ♪ ♪ Unleash Your power, for all to see ♪ ♪ Spirit, come ♪ ♪ Spirit come ♪ ♪ And fall on us ♪ ♪ Over and over ♪ ♪ Over and over ♪ ♪ Oh Lord ♪ ♪ Make way through the waters ♪ ♪ Walk me through the fire ♪ ♪ Do what You are famous for ♪ ♪ What You are famous for ♪ ♪ What You are famous for ♪ ♪ Shut the mouths of lions ♪ ♪ Bring dry bones to life and ♪ ♪ Do what You are famous for ♪ ♪ What You are famous for ♪ ♪ What You are famous for ♪ ♪ Make way through the waters ♪ ♪ Walk me through the fire ♪ ♪ Do what You are famous for ♪ ♪ What You are famous for ♪ ♪ What You are famous for ♪ ♪ Shut the mouths of lions ♪ ♪ Bring dry bones to life and ♪ ♪ Do what You are famous for ♪ ♪ What You are famous for ♪ ♪ God of exceedingly ♪ ♪ God of abundantly ♪ ♪ More than we ask or think ♪ ♪ Lord, You will never fail ♪ ♪ Your name is powerful ♪ ♪ Your word's unstoppable ♪ ♪ All things are possible ♪ ♪ In You ♪ ♪ God of exceedingly ♪ ♪ God of abundantly ♪ ♪ More than we ask or think ♪ ♪ Lord, You will never fail ♪ ♪ Your name is powerful ♪ ♪ Your word's unstoppable ♪ ♪ All things are possible ♪ ♪ In You ♪ ♪ Make way through the waters ♪ ♪ Walk me through the fire ♪ ♪ Do what You are famous for ♪ ♪ What You are famous for ♪ ♪ What You are famous for ♪ ♪ Shut the mouths of lions ♪ ♪ Bring dry bones to life and ♪ ♪ Do what You are famous for ♪ ♪ What You are famous for ♪ ♪ What You are famous for ♪ ♪ Make way through the waters ♪ ♪ Walk me through the fire ♪ ♪ Do what You are famous for ♪ ♪ What You are famous for ♪ ♪ What You are famous for ♪ ♪ Shut the mouths of lions ♪ ♪ Bring dry bones to life and ♪ ♪ Do what You are famous for ♪ ♪ What You are famous for ♪ ♪ What You are famous for ♪ ♪ I believe in You ♪ ♪ I believe in You ♪ ♪ I believe in You ♪ ♪ Lord, I believe ♪ ♪ I believe in You ♪ ♪ There is no fear 'cause I believe ♪ ♪ There is no doubt 'cause I have seen ♪ ♪ Your faithfulness ♪ ♪ My fortress ♪ ♪ Over and over ♪ (congregation applauds) (calm melodic music) We're noticing today, the rhetoric is more and more toxic. The hostilities are increasing every day. The debate is at a fever pitch and the anger seems to be compounding and there's no sign of it letting up, but their solutions are not working. All of the things that they are doing to fix the problem only makes the problem all the more worse. My question in all of that is I'm a Christian, so what am I supposed to do while all of this is going on around me? Well, I can tell you this: we aren't supposed to be doing what everyone else is doing and reacting the way everyone else is reacting to the situation. We're called to walk on a different pathway as followers of Jesus. Would you agree with that? And ours as Christ followers is a path of peace. It's a pathway of joy. It's a pathway of kindness, of patience, of love of respect for all people no matter who they are. It is our obligation to give to people and to recognize the dignity with which they were created as being made in the image of God. We're to be different than the rest. It's a life of what I'm calling in the message today, Christian Distinction, Christian Distinction. I want you to open it 1 Peter chapter three, if you will, and turning there, we'll read verses eight through 12, and when you think about being a Christian, it should be more than the name or more than a title. It should be more than some identification of your family's worship tradition. I grew up in a Christian home. I grew up in a Christian family. Oh no, being a Christian becomes something very personal when you place your trust in Jesus. Your mom and dad cannot trust Christ for you. Your grandparents can't trust Christ for you. Your family traditions do not serve as proxy believers on your behalf. Each person has to believe in Christ, and once you are saved, you're called to be distinct. It's a designation that sets us apart from the rest. And we are reading in this passage some very practical instructions about how to live that Christian distinction, how to live a life that's worthy of the name Christian. And in verse eight, the Apostle Peter who wrote this letter, says "Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; 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. "For," and I've inserted there, he's quoting now from Psalm 34 verses 12 through 16, Peter quotes, "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. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. So what I wanna do is to draw my points directly from this passage, and what you'll see is we're gonna walk through it verse by verse, really phrase by phrase, and see just how apropos this word is for where we're living today, and what we're going through. Because if we're Christians and I trust you are, and if you're not, we've already prayed that you would become a Christian today. But for those of us who are living the Christian life, the distinction will be manifested in several ways. And one of the ways, and I hope that you'll write these down is that we are to distinguish ourselves with kindness, distinguish yourself with kindness, because kindness will be a trademark that will make you unlike many people around you. Kindness sets you apart. Now the fact that he's writing these instructions to believers, and we will look at it in the context of our Christian relationships of how we get along with each other's believers inside the church, but you'll see, as we walk through some of these things that some of these attributes of kindness transcend our Christian relationships because we shouldn't just be kind to Christians. We should be kind to everybody around us. Whether they're saved, whether they're Muslim, whether they're gay, whether they're straight, we're to be kind to everybody, because kindness is a Christian distinction, and in this eighth verse, there are five specific instructions that he gives. And what I wanna do is break them down just from this first verse because each of these is a characteristic of the quality of kindness. The first one in a Christian context, he says is that verse eight, you should be of one mind. The New American Standard translates it, be harmonious. That's a word we would do well to focus more on is harmonious. Meaning that we all combine together to find our place and to work together for common goals. And this really has to do in a Christian setting of believers working together to promote unity in Christian relationships, and unity in the Body of Christ has always been a fragile commodity. It is not uncommon for you to hear about Christians upset with each other. It's not uncommon for you to hear about churches in conflict, about churches that have fractured or split, and we've all either been a part of that or heard about it, and it's very painful when it happens, but in this passage and in other passages of the New Testament, we are called to encourage unity among Christians. The opposite of this, when you aren't contributing to unity is to encourage discord and division among Christians. And a person who encourages unity in the Christian fellowship finds a place of discord and seeks to quell the discord, lest it spread like a contagious disease, and cause further mishaps in the Body of Christ. We've had enough of that in the Kingdom of God. We need to work towards unity among believers. We know it's not always possible to achieve unity, sometimes there are irreconcilable differences, sometimes they're over our beliefs about Scripture, sometimes they're over someone refusing to curb bad behavior that's not acceptable in the community of faith. But despite that, our goal should always be to encourage unity. It means when you are on the interstate of contention, you look for an exit ramp. You don't want to be part of discord and division among fellow believers, so be of one mind, be harmonious, be an agent of unity among Christians. The next thing he says there is to be compassionate, or you could write down, be sympathetic. This has to do with showing compassion for fellow believers who are suffering going through a hardship of any kind. The opposite of being compassionate or sympathetic is to be indifferent towards the suffering and hardship of someone else. Now, here's one of the challenges about being sympathetic and compassionate. All of us know that there's no way any one of us can solve every person's problem, and one of the dilemmas that we face sometimes is when we're made aware of another believer's hardship or suffering discerning, is it my job to help fix this problem? Is it my job to help relieve the burden that they're carrying? Obviously, you can't do that for everyone that you know who's going through a hard time. But here's what he's saying is at least we need to have a heart of concern for people who are suffering, for people who are grieving, for people who are going through unemployment, or the breakup of their family, or the loss of a loved one or a terminal illness, all of us need to have compassion and sympathy for our fellow believers who are hurting. The other practical instruction from verse eight when we're talking about distinguishing ourselves with kindness is that we are to love one another like family. The literal translation is to love as brothers. Now some of you may not want to love your fellow Christian like your family loves each other 'cause your family doesn't have a lot of love, and so this isn't a time to give a testimony about that but how blessed you are when you have a family that loves each other through their imperfections that overcomes their challenges together, that at the end of the day, they love each other not always because of, but in spite of. God's plan is for families to be strong. But what he says here is when it comes to your Christian family, we are to love our Christian brothers and sisters with that same devotion that we would have to our biological family. That's pretty strong, isn't it? To love as brothers, it's to love with family love for our fellow Christians because the Bible says we are brothers and sisters in Christ. If you're a Christian, we are related now. Now, we better learn how to get along with each other because if we're going to heaven, and I'm trusting that we are, we're gonna live together forever, and you're probably sitting there thinking there's some people that you've gone to church with, that you really wouldn't care to live next to when we get up there. But remember this, this ought to provide a little bit of relief for you. Not everybody you've gone to church with is a Christian. (congregation cheers) There are a lot of people who are in churches who are mistakenly Christian, they think they're a Christian but they've never been transformed through the new birth experience of being saved, and that's why we never take for granted that just because we're having church services, and everybody here is a church member, usually, that everybody's saved. We always give people an opportunity to be saved. Mm-hmm.
Uh huh. Because I've been around a few people that I thought were sheep, and I reached out to pet 'em, and it was a wolf and they bit my hand. (congregation laughs) There's no conflict like church conflict and you can get hurt in church. I'm just telling you, you can. But what he's saying here is we've got to distinguish ourselves with kindness by exercising family kind of love, one towards another in the Body of Christ, which means we're willing to overlook each other's shortcomings. We're willing to forgive each other when we disagree or when someone disappoints us or lets us down. He says, love like family, because you are. Here's another practical instruction, this is all in verse eight, be tenderhearted. This is one of the trademarks of kindness and tenderheartedness. Another translation says be kindhearted. It means that you are sensitive not just to someone's hurts but to their needs and to what concerns them, what's going on in their life. Tenderhearted means that you're willing to lend a helping hand or being willing to listen to someone when they need someone to talk to. Tenderheartedness is a very important quality of a life of kindness. It's not just responding to a 9-11 emergency in someone's life; it's being sensitive to someone whatever it is they're going through, and sometimes someone is not going through a difficult time. They're having a wonderful time and they wanna share something God has done in their life. Tenderheartedness or kindheartedness means taking the time to celebrate with them and rejoice in what God has done. And then the last is in verse eight, be courteous. Would you agree with me? This is a fading commodity in our society today, just basic simple, fundamental courtesy. One translate, the New American Translation says be humble in spirit, and courtesy and humility really are synonymous terms because to be courteous means to show preferential treatment for someone, to put someone else before yourself. And the way you could illustrate it is if someone is behind you going into a place of business, then you look behind you and see, oh, there's someone behind me, and you pull the door open, and hold the door, and allow them to ahead of you. That's just common courtesy. But we could flesh out all kinds of examples of that, where we're just told, put others ahead of ourselves, prefer others ahead of our interests. That's courtesy, that's being humble. So all of these could be mapped out with much greater detail but they give us the idea that Peter is writing to accomplish here, and that is we are to be different than those around us, and the way we can do it is by showing basic kindness. Can you just say, be kind? Be kind.
Be kind. And if we ended the service there, that would be enough of a sermon right there. Because in our culture today, kindness is going to be one of the greatest ways that we can show Christ to people, is when we are so kind that people wonder what is up with that person, and we're able to say, Jesus is what is up with us. Jesus has made us kind. But here's the second thing. Not only to distinguish yourself with kindness but are you ready for this? You came up in this church perhaps for point number two of the preacher's message. (congregation laughs) Don't miss number two. Are you ready for it? Yes.
Amen. Are you sure you're ready for it? Yes! Resist the impulse to retaliate. Yes, sir. Oh, that got a big response. Livestream viewers, you may not have heard it, but all the oxygen just disappeared from the room. It just got sucked out of the room because we all know this is a tough one, It is. To resist the impulse to retaliate. Let me ask those of you who are parents, are school teachers, do children have to be taught to retaliate or is it not a part of who they are as fallen depraved creatures from their mother's womb, right? First of all, children do not have to be taught how to be an aggressor. Children just have that in them. Children know how to just walk up, even if they've never seen anybody, slap anybody, your kids know how to walk up and hit somebody, and you don't ever have to teach a kid to fight back. Many children retaliate by impulse, and here's why. Because when we are hit, our impulse is to hit back. When we are attacked, our impulse is to counter attack. When we are hurt, our impulse is to hurt back. When we are criticized, our impulse is to criticize back, and this, I've probably just described a lot of marital conversations, right there. Where you sit down with your spouse and you say, honey, I need to talk about some things that I feel like you could do differently. And this could be he or she, we wanna be gender inclusive here of who would sit down and initiate that kind of conversation. I would tend to say, it'd be mostly a wife initiating but let me not show too much partiality here. And let's just say a wife is saying to her husband, honey, you know, there's some things that you say to me that kind of make me feel less than when we're with people, and the first tendency of a husband or of anybody is to, well oh yeah, well, let me tell you some things that you say that make me mad. Instead of listening to the criticism, oh, I just saw an elbow (mumbles). (laughs) Instead of listening to the criticism, what do we do? What do we wanna do? We wanna point out something critical about the other person. I'm glad we can laugh about these things because what I'm describing is how we're all wired, including me. But in 1 Peter, chapter 3 in verse 9, he says this, "Not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling." That's how it was translated in the version from which we read. You know, when someone gives evil to you, you don't return evil. When someone reviles you, you don't revile back. Now reviling, that's a word you don't hear used a lot but just for a moment, I wanna display some valid definitions for the word revile, and you can see them on the screen. You don't need to write these down but you can relate to them, for sure, to revile can mean to use abusive language towards someone. Anybody ever been reviled? Yeah, what about to be excessively harsh and critical to the point at which the criticism is actually cruel and unfair. And what about this? This is another definition I found, to be insulting to someone's personal dignity, where you speak to them as though they're not even human, where they're a piece of trash. And all of us have been in situations where we have experienced things like this. And when he's writing, he's saying don't return reviling. When you are reviled, the Christian distinction is not to revile in response. The New Living Translation puts verse nine this way, "Don't repay evil for evil," and look at this, "Don't retaliate with insults just because they insulted you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do." And if you do that, what will He do? He will grant you His what? He will grant you His blessing. So if we were to distill this all down into one of the commandments, it would simply be this, thou shalt not retaliate. Now, this is hard preaching right here. This is a hard truth because no one needs to hear it more than I do. But let's just, to make sure we don't just gloss over this and miss the point, let's define retaliate. I found this definition that retaliate can mean to hurt someone because they hurt you, to hurt someone because they hurt you. And this is the thing about conflict that many of us miss too often. It's part of the deception about being insulted or mistreated. I don't want you to miss this. Please, don't miss this. This is foundational understanding, the root of so much conflict, and that is this. You ready for it? Hurting people hurt other people. Hurting people hurt other people. And what happens is because they have suffered hurt and are hurting, many of them are living in unpleasant circumstances. Many of them are unhappy with their lives. Many of them have been victimized, legitimately victimized by mistreatment, and they're carrying around unhappiness within them. They have been hurt, and one of the ways that they cope with that is to go around hurting other people because they never given their hurt over to God, and they've never been healed of their own hurt. That's why I say hurting people, people who are hurting go around hurting other people, and it is a disease that gets spread because the next person who's in their line of fire who gets hurt, unless they surrender that hurt to God, sometimes it takes counseling. Sometimes, you know, there are a lot of different things God can use to perform healing in someone's heart. But if that hurt isn't healed, one of the risks is that because you've been hurt now, you will go out and hurt other people. It is part of what happens. And when we are being attacked, especially verbal, the translation was insulted or being reviled, what happens often is rather than assessing why that person is saying what they're saying, or why they're saying it the way they're saying it instead of us being armchair psychologist and realizing this person is speaking out of deep seated unresolved hurt and conflict in their life, what happens is we take that hurt onto ourselves by what they say, and then we become victimized by what they said, and then our response is you hurt me, I'm hurting back. And when God's Word teaches here that we should not retaliate, which is our impulse. It's natural to retaliate. What happens is when we, who've been hurt, decide we're going to hurt back in retaliation, instead of breaking the cycle, we joined the cycle. Instead of breaking the cycle, we perpetuate the cycle,. And this is all what God, everything I'm telling you is what God is telling us as Christians, this can make us different than everybody because we rise above insult. We rise above personal attack. We rise above harsh criticism and we don't feel compelled to always defend ourselves, to always punch back below the belt just because we had the wind knocked out of us. In fact, the man that we all claimed to follow whose name we've taken as ourselves when we call ourselves Christian, did not Jesus say when someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other cheek. Turning the other cheek is a lost part of the Christian life. We believe that what's happened is we have merged our American constitution with the Bible, and what we believe is that our first response should be to defend our rights. And in our Christian relationships, we have to be careful that we are adhering to the laws of the kingdom and not just the laws of our country. You know, when I hear all these people that are talking about these crooked pastors, and this pastor had a sex problem, and this pastor was a hypocrite, and this pastor was sleeping with a (mumbles). I mean, you've heard all these stories that are coming out and there'll be more stories like that until Jesus comes back to get us because people are fallen and people are human, and people said, are you gonna comment on the controversy about so and so? No, I am not. Amen. Because the truth is we're all fallen and there but of the grace of God go I. So I'm not gonna stand up and condemn people. Their organizations in those churches can deal with those issues. That's none of my doing, I'm to shepherd this flock, and I have enough trouble keeping my own self in line, and keeping us all on track with the Word of God, So I'm not gonna get off on all of that. But you know all of these people wanna talk about they've been victimized by a pastor who was terrible, and a pastor who abused his authority and a pastor this and a pastor that. Well, I'm gonna tell you, there are a lot of pastors out there who've been victimized by some devilish church people too. There've been a lot of pastors that have been chewed up and spit out by people in their churches. So it's not some big idea where, you know, just the people in the churches are victims of horrible pastors. They're planning a stories to go around. (congregation laughs) Am I right or not? Amen. And one of the tendencies that I've had to work through, pray through, God's had to straighten me out on is when coming under attack, what is my impulse? Counter attack, retaliate, And let me tell you what makes it all the more enticing to retaliate is electronic communication, where someone sends an email and you're like, no, she did not say that, and you click reply. Come on, I need a witness out here. And you start, I mean, you type in so fast, that keyboard, you need a fire extinguisher on that computer. There's smoke coming off of your computer. And the rule of thumb, you know, the rule of thumb is, you know the rule of thumb: put it in drafts. You know what drafts are? Drafts is where save it and not send it. Put it in drafts, pray over it a few days before you click send because when you click send, that's like a nuclear code. That's like a nuclear button. You're gonna see a mushroom cloud go up. And what you can do is you can decide and go, can I diffuse the tension or escalate the tension? We all have the choice. And it's so easy to hide behind email, isn't it? Now I don't wanna give too many, you know, illustrations because so many people that I would talk about (chuckles) are either in the room, or watching. (congregation laughs) But I remember years ago, before I came here, there were two staff members that were in this brawl through email. They were both forwarding mainly what the other one was saying, not knowing the other was forwarding me. It's just, they're having a nuclear meltdown. Two staff members serving God, oh yeah. It's great to be in kingdom service. And here's the thing, their offices were right next door. (congregation laughs) Now, let me ask you a question. How does that make sense to be having an email combat instead of just walking around the corner and saying, can we sit down and work through this? But this is why I'm telling you that we Christians get drawn into dealing with things the same way the world deals with them, and God doesn't want us acting like this and living like this. There are times when email may be the only option but there are other times when you can diffuse the tension and not retaliate. I wanna display verse nine without changing the wording. The New Living Translation lends itself to this three-point outline and that is, well, if I don't retaliate, what do I do? He tells us here, instead, pay them back. Who is them? Them is that hater who's hating on you. Them is that hater who's criticizing, attacking, insulting your dignity, your intelligence and everything else. Instead, pay them back with what? A blessing. That sounds cheesy, doesn't it? That sounds kind of hokey, doesn't it? That sounds Pollyannish, but it's the Word of God. Doesn't matter what it sounds like, it's what God says. Pay them back with a blessing. Why should you pay them back with a blessing? What does number two say? You wanna read it with me? That is what God has called you to do, period. Why pay back a hater with a blessing? Because that's what God called me to do. And then number three is when I pay someone back with a blessing, even though they're a hater, the third point in verse nine, you wanna read that out loud? He will grant you His--
Blessing. Is that something anybody's interested in today? Being granted a blessing? Well, there it is. When you resist the urge to retaliate, you may be positioning yourself to be blessed by God. And I wonder how many times we have opted to retaliate and forfeited that promise blessing. Because when we retaliate in a carnal fleshly way instead of honoring what God says and repaying evil with a blessing and kindness, God just turns the spigot off and said, oh, you just missed out on something I had reserved for you if you would have shown restraint and honored Me in your reaction. I don't even wanna know the blessings that I have forfeited because I followed my impulse and I retaliated out of pride or defense, self-defense or whatever it might be. All of us are probably gonna get to heaven and see a little warehouse over there and say every time you blew it, you missed one of these blessings. So, here are our choices. First of all, I can give in to my desire to curse when someone curses me or I can follow God's command to bless. Would you agree that's a choice? I can either curse a curser (laughs) or bless a curser, which will it be? Here's another choice, I can follow my natural impulse or God's divine calling for me. Remember how we focused on the fact, respond with a blessing because God has called you to do this. So I can say, well, you know, everybody's human. That's just how I respond. I don't take it lying down. (women laughs) My mama taught me to stand up and fight. (women laughs) My daddy taught me don't be a sissy. Hey, there's a time when you need to fight. There's a time to stand up. I'm not saying there aren't times when you have to say enough is enough. But what I am saying is God hasn't called us to follow impulse, He's called us to be obedient. Amen. Then here's another choice, my sense of satisfaction or my receiving God's blessing? You know, when you tell somebody off because they pushed your button, they violated, offended you, ticked you off. When you tell them off, there's a sense in which you go to bed at night and you think, well, I really let them have it. (congregation laughs) Oh come on, you know what I mean. Yes. And I know it because it becomes a war story that we go around to, let me tell you what happened to me, and what she said, and what I said back, and we, there's a sense in which we really gloat in our combat warfare mentality of how we retaliated when they fired the shot. Now, I hope that you understand something today, and that is this: that in choosing not to retaliate, that does not mean that there should not come a time in a relationship that you don't have to put a boundary down, and you don't to say, you know what, I've taken this and taken this and taken this, and I've worked for redemptive outcome, but the boundary here is not one more day will I spend being subjected to this kind of treatment. That is not retaliatory behavior. That is healthy behavior. That is godly behavior. When you put a boundary down, you're not fighting back with an insult. You're actually helping that person preventing that person from being able to hurt you anymore, which is a sin, and from being able perhaps to continue hurting other people. And it could be there is some bully that goes around from relationship to relationship, intimidating people who simply has never been stopped by someone who said, I'm not gonna get out onto your level like a dog, but I'm gonna tell you what I'll do. I'm gonna forbid you to treat me this way anymore. I don't believe that's an ungodly way to respond. It may need to happen in a marriage. It may need to happen in a child-parent relationship or parent-child relationship, and they may need to happen in a friendship. It has to happen sometimes in the workplace, boundaries are not retaliation. Boundaries are godly responses. Amen. So here's the last thing I wanna give you, walk on the pathway that God blesses, which is not a mystery. He tells us what that pathway is. Walk on the pathway that God blesses. In verse 10, he says for the Scripture say, and this is in the New Living Translation. It says, if you want to enjoy life and see many happy days, dot, dot, dot. So I wanna just take a poll right here, looking at that Scripture. If you want to enjoy life, how many here are interested in enjoying what life you've got left? I sure am, and then if you want to see happy days, how many of you are interested in seeing happy days for the rest of your life? You had enough sad ones. I want some happy ones, right? So if you want to enjoy life, if you want to see many happy days, this is what you need to do. And then he reaches into the Old Testament, and the Apostle Peter quotes from Psalm 34 written by King David thousand years before Christ, he says in verse 11 of Psalm 34, "Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Who is the man who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good?" So I read to you from our passage in the New Living, that was paraphrasing this Psalm of David that he may see good. So the life that God blesses is the good life. It's the good life. And if you wanna live the good life, which is the life He blesses, I'm gonna just spell out three simple steps, and they're all from our passage today, and that is to say good things versus bad things. That's pretty easy, isn't it? Say good things, and verse 10 says this, "Keep your tongue from speaking evil, and your lips from telling lies." It means to speak what is good and tell what is true. Amen. So that's what I'm telling you, you wanna live the good life God will bless then be committed to using your mouth to say good things. Here's another very simple step, not only to say good things but to do good deeds: do good deeds. Now this isn't doing good deeds in order to be saved; this is doing good deeds as a saved person in order to be blessed. There's a difference. And we're to live a godly life, not an ungodly life. We are to follow what is right, not what is wrong. Do good deeds. Verse 11 says, "Turn away from evil and do good." Do good, and all of us can find ways to do good. And then here's the last practical step under this idea of walking on the path God blesses and that is seek good outcomes, good outcomes. By this, I mean that in every relationship into which you enter or in which you're involved, you are working toward an ideal outcome in that relationship. And it really has to do with peace. Verse 11 puts it this way, let the person who wants to have a happy life and see long days, everything he said there, let him seek peace and pursue it. And peace is something that we are to seek. It does not mean we just go around looking for it but it means we take the occasion to make peace where none is. I think our Lord had something to say about this, didn't He? In the sermon on the mountain and the Beatitudes? Matthew chapter five and verse nine, He said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." Now, I wanna tell you something. There are just some people who thrive in conflict everywhere they go. Their spiritual gift is detonating grenades. That's their spiritual gift. Yes.
Yes. When everybody's happy, everybody's getting along, everybody's in love, everybody's singing around the bonfire roasting marshmallows, they gotta ruin it every time, Yes. And their gift is pulling the pen, and lobbing it into your lap, pulling the pin, and you see the bodies flying everywhere they go. Now, how many of you, no testimony, this is just a virtual hand raise. How many of you know somebody with that gift? Of course we all do. And what I would share with you is that I became a pastor when I was 22. That was almost 30 years ago, and in my almost 30 years of pastoral ministry, the most difficult job that I've had is navigating interpersonal conflict among members and among staff members. My pastor is a teenager, Dr. Homer G Lindsay Jr., called it the staff infection. (congregation laughs) And it is people who allow personality differences to overshadow common goals. People who refuse to release past grievances, people who use threats and intimidation to control other people, people who are envious of the influence or authority of someone else, people who believe they're entitled to more than they'd been given, people who resent others because of their strengths, people who pit other people against each other. Have you ever seen people that turn people against one another through gaslighting, and other manipulative means, and they intentionally pit people against each other? We don't have any of that here, (laughs sarcastically) And then people who create fear around them because they are crippled by personal insecurity and fear. And ultimately a lot of this boils down to people filled with unbelief. Because when you don't trust God to go before you, to fight your battles, to defend your position, to promote you in His good time, you start taking all of that into your own hands, and that is an act of unbelief. So, at the root of so much conflict among our relationships is unbelief. If we trusted God, He would do so much more that we would not have to do, and there would be so much less unrest and division. So here's what the New Living puts verse 11 as search for peace, and let's read the underlined part, work to maintain it. That means once you establish peace, where conflict existed, you don't just assume that it's a superglue situation. When you make peace, you have to work to keep peace, and that's a big challenge for us Christians. In the last verse of our passage, and we'll pray, says this, "For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, His ears are open to their prayers; but His face is against those who do evil." Now I don't know about you but I want His eyes of blessing fixed on my life. Do you, amen? You do. I don't know about you, but I want my prayers to be heard by a Holy God who is all powerful. Well, what he's saying in verse 12 is if you live that life of distinction, following those practical instructions, you have walked into the favor of God, His eyes are fixed upon you, His ears are attuned to your prayers, but if you resist and live your own way, fight your own battles, don't acknowledge your reliance on Him. He says, you're living a life of evil and His face is turned away. So we're talking today about Christian Distinction because it's the only way as a child of God to walk in the full blessing of God, and it will make us different than everybody else. Father, thank You that You want us to be different, and so many times I am not different. I want You by Your power in me to make me different as a follower of Jesus, to resist the natural impulse, and to follow the love of the Holy Spirit towards all people flowing through my heart to them. I pray that prayer for all of us in this room and all who are watching and listening in Jesus' name, amen. And if you've never trusted in Jesus Christ, this is the day. There'll never be a better day than today. Whether you're in the room or watching, there's a number that is on the screen that you can text the name Jesus to and someone will respond to you, get in touch with you, start the conversation going. You may not be ready to do that today. We won't pressure you. No one will ever push you. It has to be a decision that you are wanting to make for yourself but we will help you, we'll answer any questions and we'll encourage you, so give us a chance, would you? Just give us an opportunity to help you contemplate and consider that most important decision any human being ever makes in this life. And to the rest of you. I hope you've been blessed by today's service. I don't know about you, but for the rest of the day, (congregation applauds) I know what I'm gonna be singing, ♪ Do what you are famous for ♪ I'm telling you. We need Him to do what He is famous for. God bless you. I hope you have a great day. (congregation applauds) (calm organ music)
