Again the world can't do you no harm
9 not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.
10. For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile.
Again, the World can’t do you no Harm!
1 Peter 3:9
I must say that there are far too many of us who read, or listen to God’s words to us but yet we refuse to trust Him. We’ve heard many and many preacher say that “God is not a man that He should lie”, but still we refuse to believe His words.
I just don’t think that any of us would be disobedient to His words if we truly believed that blessings would come behind the obedience. It’s like going to a doctor that you don’t think can do you any good. It’s like eating food that you don’t think is good for you.
Why continue to come here Sunday after Sunday to praise God if you don’t believe in His word. Why continue to pray, if you don’t believe in the power of prayer. We’ve got to learn how to trust God. There is no way any person can love Him, if you don’t trust Him.
See, Love and Trust goes together. They are like a ball and chain. You can’t have one without the other. You can have feeling for someone, but you can’t love someone else unless you trust them. You can’t love me as your pastor unless you trust me. That’s why some of you refuse to do those things that I ask you to do because you don’t love me in the first place.
And because you don’t love me, you automatically resent everything that I say to you. You rebuke every command that comes out of my mouth. I ask you to pay $25 dollars in the revival, and you say, “I bet you I don’t pay no $25 dollars”. I ask you to love one another, and still you are keeping up fuss over little bitty stuff. I ask you to care about one another and still you carry on feuds about some thing that happened way back when.
Because you don’t love me in the first place, you have adopted a concept that you don’t have to do what I say. You have forgotten what the scripture says, “to obey is better than sacrifice”. It’s not about you have to do what I say, it is all about obedience.
See, we rejoice in praying to God and asking for forgiveness, but to never do wrong is far better than to ask God to forgive you of wrong. Simply saying, we need to learn how to follow the yellow brick road. Trust what His word says to you in the first place and then you can’t go wrong.
It’s amazing to me how that we can follow the rules everywhere except at the church. It amazes me how we can be good to everybody except church folks. It amazes me how that we can show hospitality to everybody except church folks.
The scripture says that we are to do good to all men, especially to those of the household of faith. At church is especially where you ought to do good! But we fail to understand that when we sow those bad seed and especially among our brothers and sisters, we forget that those bad seed are going to come up one day.
I know the hardest thing in the world is to love someone and they don’t love you back. But that person who refuses to love back, you need to know that one day you are going to be in the same situation. As I said before, this scripture is letting us know how we should act and react in our relationship with one another. But at the same time we need to know that we are going to encounter some problems during our relationship.
I’m just confident that we need to have a marriage enrichment conference. We need to learn how to treat one another, even in our marriages when times get hard, we need to know how to treat one another. Many of the times, the reason our relationship suffers is that we don’t know how to treat one another. We get mad at one another and won’t even talk to one another for weeks at a time.
You keep yourself away from your husband, trying to punish him, talking about go get on the couch. You don’t realize is that all you are doing it pushing him out of the door. Even the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 7:5 “Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control”.
This means that a woman ought not to withhold herself from her husband. Call yourself going to teach him a lesson. We need to learn how to sit down and talk thing out. If something is a problem, talk about it and then be willing to make the necessary changes.
Now, I said all of that to say this, our relationship with God works the same way. WE ought not to get mad at God when we are going to trouble and not talk with Him. The more that we talk with Him, and allow Him to talk to us, the more that we will understand Him. A better relationship we will have with Him and when you’ve got a good working relationship with God, the world can’t do you no harm.
All of those evil things that come up against you, God have sworn to protect you. He said, “IN times of trouble, I’ll hide you in my pavilion”. God promised us that “no weapon form against us shall prosper, it won’t last”. Isaiah 54:17.
Not railing for railing
“Not returning evil for evil, and railing for railing”. Now, on last week, I told you the difference in “evil for evil” and “railing for railing”. Evil for evil is when you actually do somebody wrong because they have done you wrong. WE need to learn how to stay away from that mentality. We need to learn how to turn the other cheek, isn’t that right.
Railing for railing is when someone has said something bad about you and you choose to say something bad about them. If you search hard enough, you will find out that all of us got tongue problem. That is an epidemic. It is highly contagious. There have yet to be a cure found for it.
James says, in the 3rd chapter and 3rd through 6th verse, he talks about the tongue. How that we can but bits in a horse mouth and control him, how ships are great in size, yet they are controlled by a small helm. The tongue is a small member, but it boasts great things. That little tongue in your mouth can actually tear up a congregation of people. It is a fire, a world of iniquity.
But the scripture in 1 Peter tells us that we are to get a handle on that tongue. Don’t say something bad about some body just because they said something bad about you. As I said when I first started this series, we need to grow up and learn how to be mature in these situations. You need to stop being childish. That kind of stuff is childish.
Before I move on, let me show you a passage of scripture that should scare all of you from ever talking bad about someone else ever again. Prov. 17:13 says, “Whoever rewards evil for good, evil will not depart from his house”. Now what this scripture is saying is that anyone who returns evil, or render evil for good, evil will not depart from their house.
That should keep us from talking about other folks. Just to know that evil, and it didn’t say or specify what the evil shall be, but that evil will not depart from your house. This may be the answer to why many of us are going through some of the things that we are going through.
We must operate on the basis of mercy, for that is the way God deals with us. Learn how to forgive folks and move on in life. Let it go. Life is too short to be running around worrying about what somebody said about you any way.
The next exhaustion says, “but contrariwise blessings”. Meaning that instead of talking about those who talk about you; you need to wish blessings upon them. The word “blessings” means to speak well of them. Be more mature than what they are, even though they say bad things about you, you speak well of them.
See, I found out that I don’t have to be a fool, just because you are acting foolish. I don’t have to do talk about you just because you choose to sit at the table and talk bad about me. I don’t have to lie on you just because you choose to lie on me. I’m bigger than that.
Knowing that you are called
Peter says we need to be aware, we need to have the knowledge, we need to know that God have called us to speak good things about others. We need to know that we are member of the body of Christ.
Ephesians 4:29, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers”. Since you have been born again and you are a member of the body of Christ, you have been commanded to let no corrupt talk come out of your mouth.
A lot of times we get confused about the word “called”. We, as ministers, say that we have been called into the ministry. That word means that we have been singled out. We’ve been called forth. I use to hear an older preacher say that “we’ve been picked out to be picked on”. God called us for this purpose.
Makes me think about the sermon that Pastor Moore preached at the anniversary, it is for this cause that God brought you into the family. It is for this cause that you are called a Christian. It is for this cause that you are at Johnson Creek, your mission is to speak well of others, no matter what they do to you.
It’s like when we were in school and the teacher calls you out to come to the blackboard and work a problem before the class. The spotlight is on you. Well, all of us born again Christians have been called forth to speak good things about other folks. Those who are not saved might not do it, but if you’ve been truly saved, God expects you to do it.
They may speak badly about us, but God have called us to speak good about them. For in doing this you will inherit a blessing and the world can’t do you no harm.
Watch verse 10, don’t speak no trickery
Peter had to have read Psalm 34:12-16. it reads, “who is the man who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth”. Peter echoes what the psalmist said in the 34th chapter.
If you want to live a long life, and see some good days while you are living your long life, the bible says, keep you tongue from speaking evil. Keep your lips from guile. That is trickery.
You ought not to be talking bad about folks just so you can get things that way that you want them. A lot of times we say we don’t like other folks, and we will look for some bad things about them, simply to keep other folks from liking them. That person have never really done anything bad to you, you just don’t want anybody else to like them. That is trickery.
I’m here to tell you, there are some sneaky folks in this world. They will say things just to keep you from being happy. They will try to make you think they are helping you, but all the time they are bringing you down. They are tricking you.
But if you want a long life, and be happy, you ought not to be speaking trickery. Stay away from that kind of stuff.
You will find out that the world can’t do you no harm.
Psalm 37 says, “Fret not thyself because of evil doer, for they shall be soon cut off”.
If you don’t want the Lord to bring you down, you need to learn how to speak good of everyone else.
And I’ve learned not to worry when men press me down,
The more you press me down, God will pick me up.
I’ve learn to put all my trust in God.
I found myself, just like Job.
He may slay me, but yet will I trust in Him,
I’m going to stay right here, until my change come.
Your breakthrough is on the way.
Your deliverance is on the way.
When you trust in the Lord,
He will make a way.
When you trust in the Lord,
The world can’t do you no harm.
I found out that the Lord will keep me in perfect peace.
Because my mind is stayed on Him.
I heard Him say, “Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let it be afraid”.
I’m a witness that God will do just what He said.
But He was wounded for our transgression, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
Saints, hold on to God’s unchanging hands.
And the world can’t do you no harm.