"8To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; 9 not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. For, "The one who desires life, to love and see good days, Must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. 11 "He must turn away from evil and do good; He must seek peace and pursue it. 12 "For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, And His ears attend to their prayer, But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."
Good Morning my beloved,
Welcome to worship this Lord's day! We're so glad to have all of you here with us today. Please know, that we continue to lift all of you up in our prayers. We respectfully ask that you would do the same for us. We are so grateful for those of you who have been sharing the ministry website with all of your family and friends. Your faithfulness to share God's Word with others has brought about tremendous results. Where will God's Word be heard today? We pray that God's Word will continue to reach those who desperately need to hear.If you will remember, in our last message, we have been discussing the ever elusive good life. Which is a rather disappointing pursuit for our world today. Every one seems to be chasing after anything and everything, in hopes of living and loving the good life. It seems as though the worlds entire value system is centered around the good life and the good life is basically synonymous with sin. Sin is the good life, an overindulgence in everything. Tragically, our culture has caved in to a new and tragically distorted moral view of what makes life meaningful. That life is destructive and empty. In our world, on any given day there are a number of people who are hurting and who need our sympathy and compassion. The ministry of reaching out in love to those hurting people, needs to be a part of our daily worship experience. Whatever differences we may have with others, the lack of love for one who has created in the image of God, should not be one of them. If we are in Christ, becoming one with Him, we will love those whom God loves. John 3:16, reminds us that "For
God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." In our fallen world today, it is often customary to verbally tear people down, to strike back at them if we feel hurt. In God’s kingdom, revenge is unacceptable behavior, as is insulting a person, no matter how discreetly or indirectly it is done. We are encouraged to rise above getting back at those who hurt you. Learn to forgive them. Instead of reacting angrily to these people, pray for them. The good life, the life that is full of good days and fulfillment is the life that remembers God.
Father, we thank You for Your Word for us. Thank You for reminding us the way that You want us to live. Lord, help us and en able to live with a compassionate, sympathetic and forgiving heart toward all. Grant us a gentle spirit, that we might give back good for evil and love for hate.
Lord, we pray that You would help us to live under the authority of Your Word which has called us to pursue peace with others, may we pursue it with all of our hearts. Restore a right attitude in Your church, and let it begin with us.
We know that the good life is not found in the things the world, but comes through Your Spirit's work in and through us. We bless You for that. Fill our hearts with sympathy, compassion and love. Motivate us to have the right responses, that we might be to Your glory. In Christ's precious name we pray.
Amen
Today's Message: The Good Life
If we want to live the good life, it must be built on the right standard and under the right authority. For just quick review of verses 8 and 9. In verse 8, we learned that the good life begins with the right attitude, one of peace, harmony, sympathy and kindness Then in verse 9, we learned that along with the right attitude, we need to have the right response, a non retaliatory response. In other words, we are to give back what is given to us.
Open your Bibles to I Peter chapter 3, today we will be looking at verses ten through twelve. Now, as I stated previously this section runs from verse eight through verse twelve. I invite you to follow along with me, as I read those verses to you, to set the text in our minds Listen for the voice of our Lord. I Peter 3:10-12. "To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; 9 not
returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing
instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit
a blessing. For, "The one who desires life, to love and see good days, Must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. 11 "He must turn away from evil and do good; He must seek peace and pursue it. 12 "For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, And His ears attend to their prayer, But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil." Verse 10, "
For, "The one who desires life, to love and see good days, Must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit."
The "for" at the beginning of verse 10, signals the authority for what he just said in verses 8 and 9. As we have noted several times, Peter often draws back to the Old Testament, having been an Old Testament saint before being a New Testament saint.
This section is no different, he quotes Psalm 34verses 12 through 16. In verse 10, its verses 12-13, which says " Who is the man who desires life and loves length of days that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit."
The idea here is to support his exhortation with Scripture. The one who wants to love life and see good days Psalm 34 says must refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking guile. The word "evil" means not just an evil deed,but the underlying immorality of an evil disposition. We are always to make sure that our tongues are under control. That's what God says in His Word, and here, Peter quotes it just to remind us that we must live under the right authority. We have to obey God.
So, we must have the right attitude, the right response, and the right reaction to God's authority.
Peter also says in verse 10, we are to refrain from "his lips from speaking deceit." The word deceit means lying, we are to refrain from lying. We must be committed to truth. There's no moral point, just that these things must be eliminated if you want to live and love the good life. Peter's only point here is to support what he said with Scripture.
In verse 11, "He must turn away from evil and do good; He must seek peace and pursue it."
We are to turn away from evil and be committed to doing good. By the way, this was taken from Psalm 34 verse 14, which says "Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it."
Here, we find four imperative commands. The first, He must turn away from evil." The Greek verb for turn away, is the word " ekklínō," which means to fully avoid by deliberate, decisive rejection. It's a compound verb which has an intensity.
We are to turn away from committing evil, even to our persecutors. It is a positive rejection of what is sinful in the treatment of others. Then Peter says "And do good." That's the second imperative. To do good. Peter is making it abundantly clear, that the good life is not doing evil. The good life is turning away from evil and doing good. Contrary, to what modern society believes, the good life is no doing whatever you want, whatever makes you feel good, no matter what God thinks about it.
Now, we come to the third and fourth imperatives at the end of verse 11. " He must seek peace and pursue it." Seek peace and pursue it. The word used for seeking is the verb " zētéō."It's another intense verb that means to hunt. In other words, let him seek peace, tranquility, unity with all of his might. Because you're living in a hostile word, you're under persecution, persecution that threatens your very life,trying to discredit you in every way possible. The Word of God says that you must do everything you can to be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kind-hearted, humble in spirit, never give back evil for evil,or insult for insult. Hunt peace aggressively, make a persistent, intense effort to be a peacemaker. Seek peace, even with your persecutors. As Christians, this is the way we are to live. We are to be known as those who are the peacemakers. In fact, we should be a the greatest blessing in any culture. In the Beatitudes, Jesus told us in Matthew 5:9, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." The idea here is a constant condition of tranquility which produces permanent joy and happiness. I find it to be so disturbing that so many Christians are doing the exact the opposite today on so many fronts. We are to make peace as much is as possible without compromising truth. The kingdom of God should be known by its peace. And that includes the people of God. In Romans 12, Paul says essentially the same thing. " If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. "But
if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a
drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." The key to this verse is as far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Sometimes, there are some people, no matter what we do, we are unable to obtain peace with the. However, we are still to do all that we can. This is repeated throughout Scripture. Romans 14:19, "So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another." We are to do everything possible to make peace, even within the congregation of God's redeemed and with the people who are around us. Verse 12, "For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, And His ears attend to their prayer, But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil." That's the incentive. This too is taken from Psalm 34, verses 15 and 16. By the way, this is almost a direct quote right out of the Greek version of the Old Testament, which is the Septuagint. Our motivation to have the right attitude, the right response and submit to the right authority, is because the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous. The incentive is that God is watching us. God is watching. That has an inherent accountability in it doesn't it, to know that God is watching us. I must admit that has always stuck with me, to know that God is watching. That should give us a healthy fear to do what is right, because He is watching us. He sees what we're doing. He watches with caring oversight. Peter tells us "And His ears attend to their prayer." He is watching His people, not primarily for punishment, the key to understanding that is that statement, is "For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous." As a footnote, "the eyes of the Lord," is a very common phrase in the Old Testament, and it always relates to God carefully watching over His people, because they are a special concern to Him. God is fully aware of every detail of our lives. Proverbs 15:3 says "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching the evil and the good." Again, the main idea here is not judgement, but omniscience. By the way, the word used here for prayer is the word "déēsis," is related to needs. It means entreaty, petition, supplication. God watches over us in order that He might immediately respond to our prayers. What a comforting truth. It had ought to be an incentive to live according to God's Word, to have the right attitude, have the right response and to submit to the right authority. And to live in complete confidence, that God is watching over us, waiting to meet our every need. Peter is simply saying, you can live like that, and you can do it without fear, because whatever difficulty you get into, you don't need to be the one who gets you out. Then, Peter ends verse 12 with "But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil." When God becomes angry, the Bibles often refers to the face of the Lord. That's a very different term then the eyes of the Lord. The face of the Lord is most often used to speak of judgement. In Genesis 19:13, referring to Lot and Sodom "for we are about to destroy this place, because their outcry has become so great before the Lord that the Lord has sent us to destroy it."
And, in Leviticus 20:3, "I will also set My face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given some of his offspring to Molech, so as to defile My sanctuary and to profane My holy name."
Then in Revelation 6:16, "And they *said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb." The face of God and the face of the Lamb, are both associated with wrath, with anger against sinners. To live the good life the way that the world advocates, is to turn the face of God to anger.
In Closing..
Although we live in a hostile world, we don't have to fear their intimidation. Because when we are zealous for what is good, what is right, who is going to harm us, knowing that God is watching and hears our every prayer, waiting to answer it.
We are to live humbly, with a forgiving heart toward those who do evil toward us. We are not to retaliate. We are to instead, obey God's Word, motivated by the reality that God sees and watches over us, hearing our every prayer. That's Peter's message. That's living and loving the good life.
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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