Wayfaring Strangers
A Study Of 1 Peter
Part 13
“Making a list and checking it checking it twice”
1 Peter 3:8-12
I am sure that I am not alone when I say that I often forget things
Knowing that about myself
It is imperative that I make check lists
When I go to the feed store
Hardware store
Walmart or any other place
If I don’t take a check list
I often forget what I went for
And I also come out with stuff
I had no intention of buying
And very often don’t need
When I go on a trip
I like some of you do
Make a list of things
I need to pack
Things I need to remember
And
I make a list for who ever happens to be taking care of my critters
Making lists
Remind us of thing we need to do
Or get
Or remember
But there are also lists that check our progress
How many of yi9u have ever had to complete a performance evaluation at your job?
That’s a list
How about a test
An interview
Most follow some sort of list
Or set of criteria
To evaluate performance
Or progress
That’s where we get to in our study of 1 Peter today
Peter has laid out a plan
For submission
And now
With the plan
Her prepares us
For the next part of his book which covers suffering
But remember
I Peter is a letter of encouragement
So, before he gets into the suffering part
He gives us a spiritual checklist to help us gauge our progress
As maturing Christians
Peter does not use the words form the song
Santa Clause is coming to town
Making a list and checking it twice
But in this case, it would apply very well
We need to take this list from the words of Peter
And check them regularly
We need to make sure we are being nice
Not naughty
More than that
We need to make sure that we are living as Bona Fide Believers
And that because we have been forgiven
That we are acting like saved people
Please open your bibles to 1 Peter chapter 3
Let me read verses 8-12 in it’s entirety
And the we will break it down and apply it to our lives
1 Peter 3:8-12
8 Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters.[a] Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude. 9 Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will grant you his blessing. 10 For the Scriptures say,
“If you want to enjoy life
and see many happy days,
keep your tongue from speaking evil
and your lips from telling lies.
11 Turn away from evil and do good.
Search for peace, and work to maintain it.
12 The eyes of the LORD watch over those who do right,
and his ears are open to their prayers.
But the LORD turns his face
against those who do evil.”
Before I start breaking this passage down
Let me tell you why this is important
Peter tells us that we as wayfaring strangers will face trials and troubles
In this life
And if we don’t have a strong growing
Maturing
Faith in Jesus Christ
It can and will be very easy to succumb to the pressure
And either go back to the gate of our old lives
Or worse
It is Peter’s desire to give you the tools to not only grow spiritually
But also, to be able to gauge that growth
That is my desire as well
As your pastor. I have two primary jobs
Help lead the lost to salvation- that’s called evangelism
And grow the saved into spiritual maturity- that’s called discipleship
And
Peter’s check list gives us a pretty good idea of where we are individually and as a church
Back to 1 Peter
Verse 8a
8 Finally”
Peter begins this section with the word finally
This is not as we know to close out the book
He has two more chapter with much more to say
He is saying
To cowboyise this a bit
Ok I’m done with the topic of submission
So here is what you need to do to get ready for the suffering part
Check list item number 1
Verse 8b
“all of you should be of one mind”
All of you should be of one mind
I am not talking about sharing a brain
Even though I think sometimes some of you may do that
What I and Peter mean is
Coming together for the cause Of Christ
Focusing on him as the model for our lives
I could write a whole series on how he is our model
But the word love sums it up pretty well
Focusing on the power of his message
All who will, God’s word says
Come to me – all
Everyone who call on the name of the Lord – will be saved
And focusing on his mission
Jesus came to earth to save
Not to condemn but that the world might be saved through him
His desire is to seek and to save the lost
His desire is that no one perish
And he wants us
Individually and as a church to help accomplish that mission
Go and tell he says in simple terms
Unity does not mean
Uniformity
We are all individuals
All created differently
all unique
custom made creations
he wants all the bananas in the bunch working for the same goal while still being unique
Unity also does not mean unanimity
What this means is that we will not always agree
And we don’t have to
But it means we act like believers in our disagreements
Mature believers can disagree
And still complete the mission
Immature believers
Often get mad, yell
Sull up
Or take their toys and go home
None of which is unity or promotes unity
The next item on Peters check list is
Found in verse 8c
“Sympathize with each other”
Sympathy means we share in the feeling of others
That we are responsive to their feelings
That we have compassion
When we sympathize we show love
When they hurt we hurt
When they cry we cry
When they have joy
We have joy
This means we care
This shows love
We are to show sympathy because Christ did
And we are to show sympathy because of our common bond with him
Check list item number 3
Verse 8d
“Love each other as brothers and sisters”
I don’t think I need to spend a lot of time here
But will touch on it
Love is one of the strongest characteristic of a believer
Without love
Jesus says – you may call yourself a believer
But you are mistaken
You are just a noisy gong
We are called to love because we are loved
Unconditionally
Sacrificially
Completely
Eternally
Next item
Verse 8e
“Be tenderhearted”
Being tenderhearted also means compassionate
Unlike sympathy which is simply feeling someone else’s emotions
Tender heartedness or compassion
Means we are compelled to act
Meet needs
Whether it is a hug
A prayer
Sitting quietly at someone’s bed side
Or helping in a time of need
We are if we are truly maturing believers
Called to be like our Lord who showed us compassion
None of us deserve salvation
None of us deserve grace
In his compassion
He gave it to us freely
Next
Verse 8 f
“and keep a humble attitude. “
Of all the items on our check list
This one may be the hardest one
And may well be the key to the rest
Humility
It seems we discuss humility a lot in cowboy church
We are brought up to be self-reliant
Strong willed
Hard working
Proud people
And I like that about us
But we must learn to tone it down
Chuck Swindoll writes in his book Hope again
One of the best definitions of humility I have read
He says
“A truly humble person looks for opportunities to give himself freely to others rather than holding back, to release rather than hoarding, to build up rather than tearing down, to serve rather than being served.
He goes on to say
“How blessed are those who learn this early in life”
Jesus was truly humble
We
If we want all he has for us
And want to become all he wants us to be
Must strive for humility in our lives
The first 5 check list items have to do with how we think
And how we feel
Unity
Sympathy
Brotherly love
Tenderhearted compassion
And
Humility
Then Peter goes on to answer the question
What now
Or what does this mean to mean?
In verses 9-12
He addresses what we so and do
In short how we act
When we can check off the list in full we are inclined to act differently than when some are not checked
So, for the next part of the checklist
What we do
Number 1 is Forgiveness
Verse 9
Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will grant you his blessing.
This verse encompasses all that makes up forgiveness
Let it go
Don’t get even
Ask God to bless them instead
If we break this down further
Into 4 steps or 4 check list items
We see
That
When we have true forgiveness in our hearts we will refuse to want to get even
When we have true forgiveness in our hearts we will hold our tongues
When we have true forgiveness in our hearts we will desire blessings on those who wrong us instead of harm
When we have true forgiveness in our hearts we reap the blessings for our obedience
When we strive for unity
Show sympathy
Love our brothers as ourselves
Have compassion and humble our selves
It is easy to forgive as we have been forgiven
If you have a problem in this area
Go back to 1-5 and do a soul search
And fix those areas
Next on our to do list
Is
Controlling the tongue
This one ranks up there with pride and forgiveness in the hard to do part of the list
We all have the right to remain silent
Few have the ability
But Peter says if we are maturing believers
We must learn to control our words
Words can build or tear down
There is no place in the life of a maturing disciple of Christ
For gossip
Negativity
Angry or harsh words- profanity
Psalm 141:3
Says this
“Take control of what I say, O LORD,
and guard my lips.”
This is a good prayer for those who struggle in this area
A headstone builder in England wrote these words on a stone
“Beneath this sod
This lump of clay
Lies Arabella Young
Who, on the 24th of May
Began to hold her tongue”
Don’t wait till your dead to have the ability to remain silent
Last on the list is found in verse 11
Turn away from evil and do good.
Search for peace, and work to maintain it.
b]
Purity and peace
Purity in simple terms
Turn away from evil and do good
Stop doing what you know is not right
Start doing what you know is
If you have question s about weather what you are doing is right or wrong
Open the book
It’s all in here
And Peace
Peter says seek peace and pursue it
Chase it like Old come along from Darren’s sermon
Chases a coon
Ride hard after it in cowboy terms
Then Peter closes this section with these words
Verse 12
12 The eyes of the LORD watch over those who do right,
and his ears are open to their prayers.
But the LORD turns his face
against those who do evil”
We all need to take stock of our maturity
This check list is a good place to start
In order to endure all that this old world will throw at us as wayfaring strangers
It is important for us to be all we can be for Christ
This means we strive for unity
Show sympathy
Love each other
Have compassion on our fellow man
Humble ourselves
Forgive others
Keep quiet if we can’t say something nice
And chase purity and peace with everything we have
Close from the heart
Pray
