INTRODUCTION
SLIDE #
„X Behave while living in a lost world.
„X Submit yourself to the governing authorities.
„X Slaves, be submissive to your masters.
„X Wives, be submissive to your husbands, lost or saved.
„X Husbands, treat your wives as something special, whether they are lost of saved.
„X Up to this point the focus of our behavior has been focused on how to live with those outside of the church. Today, the focus is going to change to how we are to deal wit hour brothers and sisters in the church.
„X Peter was writing to Christians as they were in the midst of persecution. One of the things we need to understand in life is that we need each other.
„X When things are going bad around us, it is easy to start turning on the ones we say we love; it is easy to turn on family.
„X During times of difficulty, we need one another even more. The tough times of life is not the time (there is never a time) to turn on our family or our Christian family.
„X In any family, there are times when we say things and do things to one another that are wrong, insensitive and dumb.
„X In your blood family, what do you do when another family member treats you in an evil way? I hope we try to work through it and not just hate the person forever.
„X One of the things that marks a person as a Christian is by the love we have for other Christians. SLIDE # John 13:35 says: ¡§By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.¡¨
„X Doesn¡¦t that sound nice, we are to love one another? The question then becomes, ¡§How do we know if we truly love one another?
„X It is one thing to say we love one another; it is a different thing to actually love one another!
„X It is imperative that as Christians we love one another, and I am not only talking about those who are within these walls, we also need to love our brothers and sisters who belong to other churches also.
„X The world needs to see that we really love one another. Our love for one another must be real. It cannot be just a show.
„X Today we are going to ask the question, ¡§Do We Love Our Brothers?¡¨ We will look at how love will show itself in our lives and in our interactions with other.
„X Let¡¦s read 1 Peter 3:8-12 together.
„X This section begins with ¡§To sum it up.¡¨ This indicates Peter he is addressing the last group of people concerning our conduct. This section will deal with how we are to act toward our brothers and sisters in Christ.
„X SLIDE #
SERMON
Love will show itself by:
I. THE ATTITUDES WE DISPLAY.
Attitude is a good indicator of the true heart within us. If we really love one another, it will be evident in the following attitudes. SLIDE #
1. A spirit of harmony.
„X A spirit of harmony speaks of Christian unity. Do we display an attitude of unity, a spirit of harmony?
„X The word ¡§harmony¡¨ literally means ¡§to be of one mind.¡¨ We are like-minded; we realize we are part of a team. That team includes brothers in Christ from other churches who have been obedient to the call of Christ.
„X Being harmonious means that we are working together for a common goal of spread the gospel.
„X Jesus prayed for unity in John 17:21-23. SLIDE #
„X The early church experienced unity. They were working for a common goal and God was blessing them for it. Acts 2:42-47
„X SLIDE # Phil 1:27 reminds us of the importance of being united.
„X Warren Wiersbe in his commentary on 1 Peter states the following concerning Christian unity. ¡§Unity does not mean uniformity; it means cooperation in the midst of diversity. The members of the body work together in unity, even though they are all different. Christians may differ on how things are to be done, but they must agree on what is to be done and why. A man criticized D.L. Moody¡¦s methods of evangelism, and Moody said, ¡§Well, I¡¦m always ready for improvement. What are your methods?¡¨ The man confessed that he had none! ¡§Then I¡¦ll stick to my own,¡¨ said Moody. Whatever methods we may use, we must seek to honor Christ, win the lost, and build the church. Some methods are definitely not scriptural, but there is plenty of room for variety in the church.¡¨
„X The second attitude we will display if we love our brother is: SLIDE #
2. A sympathetic heart.
„X This attitude should be shown to saved and lost, but in this context it tells us we are to be sympathetic to our brother.
„X This means to get involved in the other person¡¦s life instead of being aloof or indifferent about them and their situation. SLIDE #
„X Rom 12:15, Hebrews 4:15
„X A sympathetic person is able to enter into another person¡¦s feelings and show regard and concern for them and their welfare. You can walk in their shoes and feel their pain. A third attitude we are to display is:
„X SLIDE #
3. Brotherly love.
„X This is a special love we are to have for one another that is like the love we have for a family member. We give family a lot of latitude as we deal with them, we should do the same for the family of God! The fourth attitude to display is:
„X SLIDE #
4. Humble in spirit.
„X This is an inner attitude of voluntary submission to authority. It leads to an honest view of oneself when we are submitting to God.
„X SLIDE # Jesus exhibited this mind-set while living among us. Phil 2:3-8 (verse 3)
„X The fifth attitude we need to possess is: SLIDE #
5. Being kindhearted.
„X This is the ability to be compassionate. It involves the ability to show pity to another person. We are sensitive to the burdens that others are bearing.
„X Not only are we easily touched, but a kindhearted person will be moved to action. They will be driven to help fix the suffering that comes from the depth of the soul.
Love will show itself by: SLIDE #
II. THE ACTIONS WE PURSUE.
SLIDE #
1. Control our speech.
„X Verse 10 tells us we must keep our tongue from evil and our lips from speaking deceit. Verse 9 says we are not to exchange insult for insult.
„X Deceit means to say something to try to mislead someone; it is saying one thing and meaning another.
„X The tongue can do a lot of damage to people. James 3:5-8 SLIDE # James 1:26
„X The second action we are to pursue is: SLIDE #
2. Pursue the divine path.
„X We are told in verse 9 not to return evil for evil, insult for insult.
„X There are at three levels of living we can practice. Slide #
o CLICK # We can give evil for good. This is a satanic path.
o Click # We can give good for good or evil for evil. This is the worldly path
o Click # We can give good for evil. This is the divine path.
„X We are not only called not to retaliate, but we are to give the person a blessing? We are to be a blessing to the person who is committing evil against us. We are called to actively do appropriate deeds to minister to them.
„X Peter tells us we were called to do this from the day of our conversion.
„X The third action we are to pursue is: SLIDE #
3. Seek and pursue peace.
„X Verse 11 tells us as we turn away from evil, we are to seek and pursue peace.
„X Seeking and pursuing pictures a person diligently looking for buried treasure.
„X Pursuing denotes a great effort exerted. It is to be an intense pursuit.
„X The spoken of here is most likely with our brother, but it can include peace with God or an inner spirit of peace.
„X Effective peace-makers seek and pursue peace. It does not happen by accident.
The third way love will show itself by: SLIDE #
III. THE BLESSINGS WE ENJOY.
Verse 9 tells us we have been called to do what we are asked to do so that we might inherit a blessing! Verses 10-12 which starts with ¡§FOR¡¨ explain what blessings we can receive as we love one another. Here are four of them listed in the text.
SLIDE #
1. You will have a life you can love.
„X You life will have meaning and purpose. You will have a life that is delightful. God can and will make sure your life is sweet and enjoyable! CLICK #
2. You will enjoy good days.
„X This involves an inner quality of spiritual triumph. It not so much deals with material prosperity. This reminds us that God is in control of the day, even the days of persecution. These days can be good when we know that we can win the spiritual battles. It will be a good day when we know we have put a smile on the face of our God for standing string with Him! CLICK #
3. You will enjoy God¡¦s approval.
„X Verse 12 tells us that God¡¦s eyes are on the righteous.
„X Since we are saved and we are living for Him, God¡¦s approval will shine down upon us! On the negative side, God¡¦s face is turned away from those who do evil.
„X We are called to live an upright Spirit lead life! CLICK #
4. Your prayers will be heard.
„X The picture to see is one of God bending down so as to better hear the prayers of His children.
„X This is a true blessing to possess and it is one of the reasons the Christian can have a life that they love!
CONCLUSION
SLIDE #
„X God calls us to love one another. Sometimes that can be difficult, but we must remember that we need each other as we strive to live our lives for Jesus!
„X When we fail to love one another, it is a poor witness to the lost world, it hurts those whom we will not love and it will hurt us in the way of withheld blessings from God.
„X We must remember that ALL Christians are family and we need to make sure we act that way.
„X It must not only talk the talk, but we must walk the walk!
