Finding Direction pt 6

Finding Direction pt 6 Final  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  1:03:08
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Final Message of the series.

By Way of reminder Peter is concluding the letter he has written from Rome, and even though he calls it Babylon at the end of the chapter, I hope you picked up on the sly humor in his closing. Sometimes people will call a town something and replace the town’s name with a remark that is situationally funny. In this case I see this remark by Peter as a clue into the humor and perhaps an insight into the view the communities of the believers abroad about Rome. Remember this letter was written by Peter to the churches listed in Chapter 1.
1 Peter 1:1This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.
So Rome has a “NickName” among the churches. Much like D.C. is referred to as the swamp by many people or Cary is often called the “people’s republic”
It’s just an interesting insight into how Peter referred to Rome.
Peter writes about leadership of the Believer here in this chapter. It’s very insightful here because Peter knows suffering. He gets the struggle. He watched Jesus Suffer.
Suffering however isn’t an excuse to shrug your responsibility to care for fellow believers. To model the care that younger people will need to know how to care for each other and their world. Peter doesn’t start with the young but instead with those most capable and skilled at it. The Elders. (this doesn’t just mean older it means leaders.) Watch over it willingly.
That is a powerful and important statement. “Willingly” doesn’t mean because you have too. It doesn’t mean because there is no one else. It doesn’t mean “because the position will go vacant if no one steps up.” It doesn’t mean “Because you fell guilty.”
It is descriptive of a heart motivated by love that gives birth to duty.
Not selfishly motivated or because you want your ego stroked but because it’s a privilege to serve God.
So when you are given the responsibility of any role in the church, as a believer, it is an act of worship to God. It is a chance to intersect your service with God working in any capacity. Serving God is caring for the flock. It always leads there. You don’t rub it in people’s faces. You don’t use it as a power play to bully or push people around.
That’s never the role of a servant in leadership of any kind in the church or body of Christ.
The willingness to serve is an act of humility. Why? Because people are going to follow your example.
You don’t have the luxury to say it’s not your responsibility because being a believer its automatically your responsibility to serve. That responsibility is escalated when you take on the role of an “elder” or leader.
Here at Thrive Community Church that would be on a project by project basis.
We get it that not everyone is ment for ongoing leadership roles so when something comes up, if you have the gifts for it, you can lead that one project and perhaps on the next project you might be a team mate vs. Team leader.
Not everyone leads all the time but everyone serves all the time. Everyone who serves leads.
Don’t panic if today you are a teammate and your job is to clean the toilet. I do it all the time.
When you are a team leader your job it so care for those on your team. Your job is pray for them or with them as needed. Ensure they can give their best because you are showing them how.
If it turns out to be a lot to handle it’s okay to say to them you need help from them.
At no time are the leaders to act above the work they are asking their team to perform.
In the body of Christ and esp here at ThriveCC there are no spectators. Everyone is a doer.
This is why Peter writes that we are to “lead them by your own good example.”
I love the use of Good Example here. Why? Because it’s not the impossible standard of perfection or miraculous, but the human example of a personal best in the moment.
This isn’t some out of reach impossible standard but the ever improving example of a good character. A Growing Good Character.
Today your personal best might be very different than mine but that doesn’t mean that either one isn’t good enough or that you can’t lead because someone else is better than you at something. It means that you are to be your best example you can be today and tomorrow you continue to grow that Good example further.
The same for everyone else. Doesn’t mean that you surrender to failure by saying that you can’t do better or try harder. You can and you will because God doesn’t and won’t let you settle.
That nagging in the back of your neck isn’t a limitation, its an invitation to growth. Don’t settle for the low expectations of others, stretch to the best God calls you too. In leadership and Life.
Young People and those that consider themselves young. :-)
Accept the authority of the elders in the church. This isn’t our first time around the sun. The world will want you to ignore the teachings of Christ and the church by appealing to your pride. While God wants you to dress yourself in humility as you deal with each other.
Humility in the young is not asking you to be ignorant but to be teachable.
There is so much you can learn from the church but you have to be teachable. I am not talking about “sit down and be quiet” class room setting but instead be open to absorbing the truth of the scripture, the example of the leadership of those God has brought to you here in the church.
I want to share with you a secret: God has preselected the people of ThriveCC to be the unique influences you need for your life right now. This is what God does, He sets your life into motion but He has also set other lives into motion to learn their lessons from struggles and other leaders to hand over those lessons, how ever imperfectly, to you. God has created the moments of intersection for you, but it is up to you to learn from it now or it will be something you learn from later that will make you wish you had paid attention to it sooner.
No example is perfect, but humility helps you to see the lesson, sometimes in spite of our failures. Humility also helps you see the best of our good examples.
Being teachable is a Godly trait and it is wisdom.
This is why Peter writes in
1 Peter 5:6 NLT
So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor.
I know it can be scary at times to humble yourselves, but did you catch that part where it says, “At the right time he will lift you up in Honor?”
In our culture outside the church is the temptation to ignore those inside the church, especially when we are contrary to it.
The world will call you a victim only to victimize you. The world will reject your efforts to grow spiritually only to lead you spiritually away from God.
The world will wink at your compromises as if it’s your friend keeping a secret only to keep chipping away at who you are to keep you from becoming who you should be.
This is why you should humble yourselves, not because God or the church is trying to keep you from growing but because God wants you to grow healthy and strong.
The world doesn’t want you strong and healthy with reasoned passion anchored in Christ, it can’t control you that way. It wants you compromised, why, because it’s easier to pick off the weak that way.
Notice what Peter writes
1 Peter 5:8–9 NLT
Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are.
One of the things I have been reminded of by watching Lions on Youtube and various documentaries is that lions rarely attack the strong. When looking for a meal, lions will, like most people, choose convenient food. We go for fast food because of easy access. Lions hunt weak food because it’s slower. It looks for the young and wounded. It looks for a way to separate the target from heard so in Isolation there is no support to fend off the attacks.
Everyone, let me say it clearly, the Devil is real. Peter was there when Jesus said He said in
Luke 10:18 NLT
“Yes,” he told them, “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning!
Peter’s warning wasn’t some kind polite metaphor to teach a simple point. It was a warning. If you don’t ground yourself in the community of faith, the church, if you think you’re going to keep getting away with separating yourself from the body of Christ, know that the devil uses the same tactic as a lion. It separates you, using your wounds against you and when you think you’re safe it attacks. If you’re weak in your faith you will be easily Separated, Surrounded and you will Succumb to the attack.
Separated
Surrounded
Succumb
Peter wants the believer to know that they are not being hunted or attack in isolation but that the body of Christ was experiencing the same thing all around the world. I want you to know that you are not alone in the world. You are going to be attacked but you have the time now to prepare by practicing your faith today. Read your Bible. Even the parts that don’t make sense to you. Don’t worry about butchering the names of people and places. I do it all the time up here publicly. You can download an app and listen to the Bible while your driving.
So immerse yourself in scripture. Not because it’s easy, but because it prepares you to know what it says. I have been listening to people who participate in the Bible Studies I do, I love it when they realize that they were taught that the bible said one thing but realized that the person who taught it got it wrong.
Would it surprise you to know that its not Money that’s evil, its the love of it. google it. True Story
Much like when I sing songs with the wrong lyrics it comes out weird. So does people who have been mis quoting the Bible for years. (Like when I got the lyrics to blinded by the the light wrong.) If you want to know the lyrics to something ask Diana. lol
The best way to not be misled is to know the subject. So many people say they are Christian but never read or listen to the Bible or check the assumptions of those who make statements about scripture.
If the internet has taught us anything its that people get a lot of things wrong in quoting things or people. (Abraham L.)
haha…
What Peter is wanting for every believer reading this letter is to not dismiss their need to understand scripture. He knows the day is going to come when the roaring Lion is going to attack, in the attack is the wrong time to prepare.
There’s been a lot of medals awarded this week in the Olympics, Do you have a favorite? Anything stand out to you about any of the winners?
Now Let me ask you when did they win?
You see there isn’t a single Olympian that competed that hasn’t given up years of their lives for the 3 - 5 mins of competition. Some take a few hours. In that compressed amount of time everything in on full display. They make it look easy because they are prepared for the competition/fight of their lives.
The same is true believer.
Thrive Community Church facilitates your relationship with God, it can’t replace it. That’s something you have to do every day. We teach you scripture in message form on Sunday but you have to learn scripture on your own every day of the week. I can teach you about prayer but it’s up to you to practice it daily. To ask God for wisdom to face your day or to guide your children, husband or wife, to teach you to love more deeply everyday. There will come moments when it’s all compressed in a single event of your life and you will know if you have been preparing for it, and if you are ready or not. That moment will teach you what you need to do to prepare for the next moment.
It is estimated that it takes 10K hours to become an expert at something, but swinging a hammer won’t make you a painter. You have to use the right tools to become an expert at something. You have to surround yourself with those are also in the process of elevating themselves in a particular field.
If you don’t want the lion to consume you, you have to prepare to fight the lion/devil with the right tools. The 3-S’ Scripture, Service and Submission.
Scripture is learning what God teaches in the Bible. (memorize scripture-Read it too.)
Service is the Practice of that teaching. (Make yourself available and serve others.)
Submission to God is the humility to be teachable. (Pray, Meditate, Listen, Look, be in awe)
This is all about finding direction and becoming all that God wants of your life. It will also prepare you to be ready when the Lion/Devil attacks. He will attack but the strong and prepared will be able to withstand the attack.
Let me ad this too, We all get scars from the devil and we all may show up with those scars.
We at ThriveCC will never reject you because of those scars. We will love you, scars or no scars. We will surround you and protect you but we won’t follow you off or away from the body of Christ because you want to play with the lion. We will lean into Christ because we each individually are being stalked by the devil and we too are preparing for the moment he attacks us. We are fully aware that the attack might just be a few mins or hours but it takes every moment we can devote to prepare so that we can resist the devil.
I am so glad that Peter writes in vs. 10
“So after you have suffered a little while, He will restore, support and strengthen you, and He will place you on a firm foundation.”
Peter makes it simple & clear that the suffering will happen. God doesn’t always rescue us from suffering or struggle. Sometimes the Lion attacks and leaves scars, sometimes they are the ones we volunteered for and others times they are the ones that we couldn’t escape from. God’s promise is that we will be restored, supported and strengthened by Him.
YES, sometimes the worst things are part of God grace for you. It was true in the early church while people were suffering from the attacks of the world of its day. Being murdered, boiled alive and beheaded. Some were raped, beaten and others were fired or pushed out of the society .
Peter wants them to take comfort and we can take comfort in knowing God’s grace will work it all out in our lives. We are to stand firm in His grace regardless of the treatment of the world. We will be attacked and we will be blamed, we will be accused of junk we never did, but our job is the prepare now for when the time comes we will stand firm in faith. Doing so will keep us from being destroyed by something we can prepare for.
Your direction can be found in your relationship with Jesus Christ. It anchors you to the place and spot God wants you to grow in.
You are never alone unless you just want to be but because of the body of Christ around the world you never have to be alone and defenseless. It all starts with YES
Communion.
Offering.
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