Giving A Helping Hand Series

INTRODUCTION SLIDE #1

„X In the church we talk a lot about the concept of the ¡§church family¡¨. In a healthy family, we are there for one another; we are there for each other in the good times and the bad.

„X It is fun to be a part of a family when all is well; it is challenging to be in a family when things are not going so well.

„X During the writing of 1 Peter, times were tough for the family of God. Persecution was happening; those who were Jews who converted were subject to a loss of family, jobs, position within their society.

„X This was not an easy to be a Christian at this time.

„X Today, we are not facing same level of persecution that was happening during the days of Peter, but nevertheless, we still go through difficult things in life.

„X Maybe our struggle is with our faith; maybe we are having marital problems, or problems with our children. Maybe our struggle is with substance abuse.

„X It could be that as we face the aging process we are upset with God over how things seem to be going.

„X Where do we turn when we are struggling? Where do we go when we are persecuted in some way? We should be able to turn to our church family.

„X What do we do when we see a brother or sister in need? Do we pat them on the back and tell them it will be alright or are we willing to jump into the trenches and help them?

„X What can we do to be a real help to those who are hurting?

„X Today we are going to look at how we can give our brothers and sisters in Christ a helping hand when they are in need.

„X Let us read 1 Peter 4:7-11 together this morning. READ 1 Peter 4:7-11.

SERMON

When a brother is in need, we must offer the helping hand of: SLIDE #2

One of the helping hands we can offer to people who are hurting or in the midst of suffering is the hand of prayer. How many times has someone poured out their hearts to us only for us to say, ¡¥I will pray for you,¡¨ then we forget about the request and never pray for it.

I. PRAYER (7)

1. CLICK #2 Prayer is important because the stakes are high.

„X Peter begins this section by telling us the end of all things is near.

„X This puts a sense of urgency in our prayers. Peter is telling the end of the age is coming. Jesus could return at any moment or we could depart from this world at any moment also.

„X SLIDE # 3 Matt 24:36. 1Th 5:2

„X Since we do not when Jesus is when we see a brother in Christ who is in the midst of a deep struggle, we need to be there for them.

„X WE should pray fervently for them

„X Peter also gives us two commands that we need to follow so that we will be able to give the helping hand of prayer to those in need. SLIDE #4

2. We must think before we act.

„X We are told that we are to exercise sound judgment. This means that we think before we act, we think before we take a particular course of action. We are called to be aware of the eternal consequences of our actions or lack of action.

„X When we are facing tough times or trying to help those who are facing tough times, we must make sure we do not lose our head and do something rash or encourage another person to do something they will regret.

„X If we are not exercising sound judgment, we will get so caught up in the crisis we will forget to pray as we should or we will be asking God for something that will not help the one in trouble. CLICK # 4

3. We must keep ourselves focused.

„X Secondly we are told to keep a sober spirit. This means we are to keep ourselves from allowing anything to dull our mind or our spirit.

„X When a person consumes even a small amount of alcohol, it impairs their judgment and reflexes.

„X We are not to allow anything that will cause of to be spiritually impaired.

„X When we allow the world to take over our lives, we are not very focused on God.

„X We cannot allow things to take our focus off of God.

„X Verse 7 tells us to be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer.

„X The word for ¡§prayer¡¨ is plural in the original telling us we are to offer up multiple prayers. We never stop with our prayers.