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“*LOVING LIFE*”
(A Chosen People – Series in I Peter)
Westgate Chapel 12~/31~/00 I Peter 3:8-12
PROPOSITION: The follower of Jesus who would love life and enjoy good days must live in his~/her calling of being in harmony with the family of God.
! I. introduction
!! - (READ excerpt from “We Really Do Need Each Other” on group hike).
!! - WHAT the author, Reuben Welch, has captured in this story is not just sentimentality…..warm fuzzies for the “touchy feely” ones amongst us.
!! - THIS story captures life in God!
!! - NOTICE I didn’t say, “life in the church.”
!! - LIFE in the church is simply the overflow of your life in God, and mine.
!! - AND life in God is life in community…..a community of faith in Jesus.
!! - PAUL establishes this truth in I Corinthians 12:27, where he writes,
!!! “*Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it*.”
!! - WE are joined together organically by the life of Christ within each one of us….and your life of discipleship is inseparably connected to each one in this building who is in Christ.
!! - AND the real test of your discipleship and mine….
!!! ~* Is not how much Bible we can quote.
!!! ~* Or if people are healed when we pray for them.
!!! ~* Or what spiritual gifts you have.
!!! ~* Or how loud you praise or pray.
!!! ~* Or how long you have been a Christian.
!! - THE real test of your discipleship and mine is how much we love one another.
!! - IN I John 2:10, the apostle writes,
!!! “*Whoever loves his brother lives in the light*…”
!! - THIS is the message of our passage in I Peter 3:8-12 this morning.
!! - IT is the Word of the Lord for Westgate Chapel for 2001.
!! - YOU ask, “Where is Westgate Chapel going in the new year?”
!! - THE apostle Peter is about to tell us.
!! - AND in the first four words of verse 8 he explains how wide the scope of the passage is.
He says,
!!! “*Finally, all of you*…”
!! - WHY does he say “all of you?”
!! - WELL, back in chapter 2 he addresses the relationship of Christians’ relationship to their government (one of submission), and to their employers, and in chapter 3, to their spouses.
!! - BUT now, in I Peter 3:8, the apostle turns his attention to everyone in every church of Jesus…..to all of you….and
our relationships within each local fellowship of believers.
!
ii.
THE CALLING OF THE RIGHTEOUS
!! - AND from verses 8-12 Peter lists the qualities of our community life in God…qualities that apply to “all of us!”
!! - IT is a daunting list indeed.
!! - IN verse 9, Peter says that this is the life to which “*you were called*.”
!! - IN other words, this kind of community life is the reason you were originally drawn by God out of darkness and were saved.
!! - YOU were called out of sin, not just to be saved from hell and gain heaven in the future.
You were called to be in a quality of relationship with God AND a quality of relationship with God’s people….which is our testimony to the world.
!! - SO what Peter is about to describe is not an option, it is your calling and mine.
!! - LET’S look at these qualities of the God-life briefly, starting in verse 8.
!!
!! 1. LIVE in harmony with one another.
!! - THE literal meaning of the Greek is “minding the same things.”
!! - OR “think the same thoughts with one another.”
!! - THIS is not a calling to be mindless clones….or the puppets of some local church or leadership.
!! - IT is actually in recognition and celebration of the great diversity in the Body of Christ that the Holy Spirit issues a call for harmony…..or same thinking!
!! - WITH such a great variety of gifts, abilities, personalities, and ethnicities in the Body of Christ, we need to make sure we hold fast to our common ground….or the tendency will be for competition and division.
!! - WHAT is this “same thinking with one another” that produces harmony in the church of Jesus?
!! - IT is a determination, when thinking of each other, to focus on the fundamental truths we hold in common.
!!! ~* That God’s love each one of us, without any hint of partiality.
!!! ~* That God’s grace alone has provided salvation to each one of us, not any intrinsic goodness…salvation is a free undeserved gift.
!!! ~* That we all are a chosen people.
And that we didn’t choose Him.
He chose us.
!!! ~* That the great debt for your sin is canceled and you have been adopted, with me, into God’s family.
!!! ~* That the gifts and abilities that we have are from God.
They are not our own.
We didn’t earn them nor do we deserve them.
Therefore we cannot take credit for them.
!!! ~* That even the measure of faith we have received is determined from above, so none of us can take any credit for that either.....and that even then a mustard seed worth can move mountains.
!!! ~* That without Christ none of us can do anything of eternal significance…..so why elevate anyone as if they are responsible for what God has done through them?
!!! ~* That HE who began a good work will be faithful to complete it.
HE will be faithful in you and me.
That is the only way you and I will make it to the finish line.
!!! ~* That HE must increase and we must decrease.
!!! ~* That we who serve God have the privilege of being called servants.
!! - THESE are the kinds of things that unify us!
This is the kind of “same thinking” that will bind us together.
!! - WHEN this is our “thinking” about ourselves and each other....it puts us in a frame of mind that God can use to produce harmony in His church in spite of all of our differences.
!! - THAT is the essence of harmony.
It is not any one note sticking out.
!! - WHEREVER God finds believers who are willing to take the lower position in their attitudes instead of all being the lead, that is where He can produce harmony.
!! - CAN you imagine what it would be like around here if we thought the same about each other?
!! - IT would revolutionize the church of Jesus.
!! - LIVE in harmony with one another…..possible only by the indwelling Holy Spirit’s revelation about what Word says we are.
!! - IT is what we have been called to.
!!
!! 2. BE sympathetic.
!! - THIS means simply to be sensitive to each other’s feelings.
!! - THE meaning comes from the Greek word which literally means to “suffer together.”
!! - IN Romans 12:15 Paul describes this same attribute of community life,
!!! “*Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn*.”
!! - THIS is not just feeling sorry for someone.
!! - IT is based on recognition that you now share a common life with your brother or sister in Christ.
!! - WHAT hurts them, hurts you.
What blesses them, blesses you because we are connected.
We are one Body.
!! - SO be sympathetic…..it requires first that you get outside of your preoccupation with what you are experiencing and feeling in life.
!! - AND second it requires that you find out what the person next to you is feeling.
!! - AND lastly, it requires that you enter into their experience by sharing in what they are feeling.
!! - BE sympathetic….possible
only because of the new heart that God has given you.
!! - IT is what we have been called to.
!!
!! 3. LOVE as brothers.
!! - LOVE is a verb, not a feeling about the members of Christ’s Body.
!! - AND the reason behind this calling to love is that we are now family.
!! - WE have the same Father, and Jesus Christ, our brother.
!! - PAUL says, in Romans 8:15 that it is by the Holy Spirit that we have been adopted into God’s family and all can cry “Abba Father!”
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