Waaring Strangers Part 13-" Making A List And Checking It Twice" Series

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