Are you Connected
“SLaC on”
“Are you Connected?”
Intro
Have one row volunteer to stand and rub each other's back. First have them spread out so they cannot reach each other. Then have them move closer together and rub.
Explain that without a connection there is no care. How many of you out there need a spiritual or emotional back rub?
We are the conduits of God's grace and without a connection there is no care.
Have Care Group speakers share.
1) Care—Serve (We are the conduits of God's Grace)
1 Peter 4:10 “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”...
a) Good Stewards of God’s Manifold Grace
A steward is a person who manages another person’s property.
Sometimes it is translated as "treasurer."
The steward doesn't own the property, but he has the authority to distribute funds for the ongoing care and upkeep of a person’s business, property and household. (Luke 12:42 And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and sensible steward, whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper time?)...
We are God’s stewards
God’s funds include His abundant grace, so that His servants (you and me) can experience care.
We all need God’s grace. (Song: Get in touch with our spiritual poverty, As we sang this morning, we come to buy gold, but we come naked and poor, wretched and blind.
It is grace that then allows us to be clothed in white!)
When we talk about believers being conduits of God’s grace...What are we talking about? What kinds of things ought to flow through us into others?
It is things that show care and love to one another
through our words and actions.
1 Pet 4:11 “Whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God; whoever serves, let him do so as by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified”
Whoever speaks, whoever serves
Let Our Words, Our Actions be His Words, His Actions!...
Do it for God’s glory...We don’t do something so that we receive glory, rather we love and care for each another as representatives of God so that the recipient says, “Isn’t God good!
Matt 5:16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
b) Everyone Is Gifted
As each one has received a special gift—
every single believer, without exception
No one is exempt—Everyone has received a gift, so everyone is a steward of God’s grace.
c) Employ It to Serve One Another
diakoneo—“deacon” means to wait on a table, to care for, to serve
“Service” is the action of “care.” It is easy to say that we love everyone, but until we act on that love through service in a specific way for a particular person, it means nothing.
Greek mentality: “We are born to rule, not serve”
believed they deserved preferential treatment.
But Jesus turns that around.
Jesus’ mentality: “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all.”
He sets an example for us to follow: Luke 22:27 “For who is greater, the one who reclines at the table, or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at the table? But I am among you as the one who serves.
It is in our service that we really show care for one another.
But we can’t serve unless we are connected
2) Connected—Love YOU CAN’T LOVE FROM A DISTANCE!
1 Peter 1:22 “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart,”
a) Love
Love agapeo is an action word/ not passive
It is a command, an act of the will/ not based on feelings/emotions.
phileo--more nearly represents “tender affection.” More of an emotional word. agapeo is more of a volitional word. Commitment.
It is an unselfish kind of love.
It is a love that gives ones self willfully and selflessly to another without regard to the personal consequences.
God so wanted a relationship with us that he gave His only Son to die an agonizing death on a cross with the weight of our sins on His shoulders.
To have a relationship with us, it cost God His Son.
John 17:23 “...I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You loved Me.” It is the same kind of love.
John 15:12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you....We are to love with the same kind of love
1 John 4:7,11 “7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; 11 if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” Our responsibility, as good stewards of God’s grace, is to love one another through our words and actions.
Rom 13:8 “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.”
Gal 6:10 “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”
Love seeks the welfare of others, love seeks opportunity to do good to others...It is not passive, It isn’t based on emotions, but it searches out opportunities to care for others.
b) Pure
“Purified your souls for a sincere love.”
Pure--purity indicates a state of heart where there is complete devotion to God.
As unpolluted water is said to be pure, and gold without alloy is pure gold, so the pure heart is the undivided heart where there is no conflict of loyalties, no mixture of motives, no hypocrisy and no insecurity. It is whole-heartedness God-wards.
A purified life comes from obedience to the Truth, Word of God . “Sanctify them in the Truth, Thy word is truth.”
Ps. 119:9 “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to Your Word”.
As trials refine faith, so obedience to God’s Word refines character.
Polluted water may satisfy my thirst and re-hydrates my body but it will also make me sick.
Pure water filtered and boiled. Contains nothing that would make me sick. It does what it is supposed to do—it satisfies my thirst and re-hydrates my body.
A purified life allows me to have a sincere love for others.
c) Sincere
“Purified your souls for a sincere love.”
lit.—“unhypocritical” It also means undisguised or genuine, something that is true or real.
Hypocritical love would be doing something for personal gain.
Matt 6:2 “When therefore you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.”
Rom 12:9 “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.”
Be Sincere, be unhypocritical in your love for one another
Sincere love can only come from a purified life. You can’t have one without the other.
d) Fervent
Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart,
Can be translated—eagerly, constantly, earnestly, intensely
Those of you who have children have seen this word exemplified in a variety of ways: Mommy, mommy... or Blue’s Clues...Nuk, Nacks
From a verb meaning, “to stretch out the hand” or “at full stretch” or “in an all out manner, with an intense stain.
The idea of stretching across the finish line of a race.
I run a marathon once...lucky to finish 4.02:00.
Mark races and wins,
but it is the world class sprinters explode out of the starting blocks, stay low for the first 10-20m then stretch for the finish line. That is the idea behind this word.
Ex. Acts 12:5 “So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.”
Luke 22: 44 “And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.”
If we are going to truly love one another, we need to love fervently, putting everything we have into it.
That’s the meaning of a love connection.
YOU CAN’T LOVE FROM A DISTANCE!
3) Challenged—Crave YOU DEVELOP A CRAVING FOR GOD’S WORD!
1 Peter 2:1-3 “Therefore, putting aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, 2 like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,”
a) Put Aside
Love Connects! Evil Separate! Eph 4:26 “Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not give the devil an opportunity.”
Anger gives the Devil and opportunity!... To do what? To separate and destroy!
i) Put Aside Malice
It is the outworking of evil. Badness or faultiness. Destructive of Christian fellowship
Tit 3:3 “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.”
ii) Put Aside Guile
translated Deceit, cunning, treachery
Lit. a bait, snare, deceit—probably from a word meaning decoy
“Come on, it will be fun!”...
iii) Put Aside Hypocrisy
Talked about this already
iv) Put Aside Envy
It is the feeling of displeasure produced by witnessing or hearing of the advantage or prosperity of others
v) Put Aside Slander
evil speech, slander, defamation, detraction In the NT the main stress is on the malicious nature of the speech;
Gal 5:15 “But if you bite and devour one another, take care lest you be consumed by one another.”
b) Put Inside
i) Crave or Long for the pure milk of the word.
Things Haley craves: raisins, pp&j, TA, Blues Clues
Things others crave: Chocolate, coffee, Diet Coke
Ps 119:103 “How sweet are Thy words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”
Ps 19:10 “They (God’s words) are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.”
ii) The Word That You May Grow
Eph 4:14-16 “As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”
This is what CARE Groups are all about
Serving one another—Giving Care for one another as good stewards of God’s grace
Loving one another—Getting Connected to one another with a genuine, selfless love
and
Craving the Word—You will be Challenged to grow as we study God’s word together!
Sign up on the connect.
SlaC On?!