0:00
Speaker 1Yeah. Okay. Very good. We've got some folks kind of milling around in the vestibule out there and several still down the hall that are going be coming in. Why don't we sing them in?
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Would you stand up? We're going to praise God together this morning. Florine is on the piano, giving Judy a break and we're going to sing praise him, praise him. Hymn number 12. Thank you, Ricky.
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Scott. Scott Humphrey will join me.
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Speaker 2Praise. Hear some singing. Wonderful love proclaimed. Him for highest archangels and glory strength and honor give to his holy name Jesus will guard his children in his arms he carries them all day long praise him praise him tell of his excellent greatness for our sins he suffered and bled and died our hope of eternal salvation Jesus the crucified sound his praises Jesus who bore our sorrows heart bounded wonderful deep and strong praise him praise him tell of his excellent greatness praise him praise him ever in joy him, Christ is coming over the world victorious power and glory, unto the Lord belongs, praise him, praise him, Tell of his excellent greatness. Praise him.
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Praise him. Ever in joyful song.
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Speaker 1Amen. Thank you, Florine.
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Speaker 2Yeah. I've heard that one in a while. That's a gooder. Sing
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Speaker 1this chorus. Father, Jesus, and spirit, we love you. We worship and adore you. So, glorify that that
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Speaker 3name is hymn number. Hymn number nine.
5:18
Speaker 1Y'all can have a seat. I have a few announcements this morning. Not as many as we have been. We've been announcing everything, everything, everything, but the bulletin has everything in it. We are gonna still announce.
5:31
Monday nights at First Beat happens every Monday night and we're having Samantha McVeigh. Do you all know who that is? Samantha McVeigh is making the supper and it's gonna be a surprise. She is great though. She's a great cook and it's always good when Samantha does that.
5:46
We also have youth group on Tuesday night. So, Monday nights at First B is 06:00 or so meal music or message. It's a meal music and message. It's a soft start. Carl will be preaching on the resurrection from the end of Luke.
6:01
We've got Awana happening at the same time in this room and Awana is happening in here. They play games and they have counsel time and then they memorize verses and so we're working to get scripture into the minds of kids so that it can get into the hearts of kids and it's the power of God unto salvation for all who believe and kids matter to God. So, Awana is happening. Youth group is happening on Tuesday, 06:30 to eight. Youth group, Tuesday night.
6:29
Mike Demetrius will be leading that along with a handful of great volunteers and you can see your bulletin for information about all the different Bible studies that are going. We have a couple of different options on Wednesday evenings. Wednesday evenings in this room is community Bible study. Community Bible study is studying Hebrews together and then at the other end of the hall in the fellowship hall on Wednesdays, we have a study that is a marriage study particularly for couples and that's both of those have been great. There are several others though in there.
7:00
If you'll look, you'll know what they are and if there are any other things that are probably ought to be announcing or any prayer request, they will be in your bulletin and that paper bulletin that people handed you coming in and I want to mention that this morning in the first service, there were three different people here who whose names have been on that prayer list for the last little while, a year or six months and some of em were not forecast to make it six months and they were back here worshiping with us this morning and as I look around the room, I see some names of people that we've been praying for and I'm thankful that we have a church that does pray but if you want to remember and you want to be a part of the prayer force in this church, then, would you grab a bulletin on your way out and you can stick it on your refrigerator so you can remember people and I think that's it except for this. Would y'all stand and greet one another? There are a lot of folks in the room you may not know.
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So, find somebody. And say howdy. So, we did a very baptist thing there. We skipped the third verse. So, the third verse says, I'll I'll I will.
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I'll love thee in life. I will love thee in death and praise thee as long as thou lendest me breath. Every breath is borrowed from God and say when the death do lies cold on my brow if ever, I love thee, my Jesus, now. Yes. Higher ground.
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Lord, take us on the upward way.
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Speaker 2Saints on higher ground lord lift me up and let me stand my faith on heaven's table land a higher by faith on heaven stable land a higher plane than I have bound lord let my feet on higher
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Speaker 1Y'all can have a seat.
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Speaker 3I
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Speaker 1I it's the not the not the offering time. Baptist preacher that forgot the offering. I was turning around to preach. Will you play something pretty while we do this? Thank you.
15:06
Lord, help us. Me in particular. Lord Jesus, I am so thankful to be here this morning. I'm thankful that you do lift us up and you bring us up to higher ground. Lord, there have been some very very hard times and we many of us have felt like we are walking in the valley of the shadow of death and lord, I I'm thankful that we have no need of fear and that we fear no evil.
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Lord, I thank you that you make us to lie down beside the still waters. I thank you that you actually provide all that is needed. You set a table before us and God with all the resources that you've given, we want to acknowledge you right now and give back a portion of that which we've been blessed with so that your kingdom may go onward so that the gospel may advance. We pray lord that you'd use every cent of every dollar that goes into these plates to bless the community right here in Jackson but lord extended to the ends of the earth. We see how news travels and we want the good news to be what we send forth.
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So, in Jesus name, lord, would you bless as we humbly bow and offer that which we have back to you so that your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus name, lord, we ask for your help, guidance, blessing, and multiplication. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Flooring.
19:23
So, we have come up to a place in our chronological study, the New Testament. We're getting up to this place. First Peter two thirteen through three twelve. So, I'm going to say right now, we're bracketing the forest here so that we don't get caught up in the trees, alright? Will you understand me?
19:41
We're bracketing around a section so we don't get caught up in individual trees. You'll remember last week, I actually started at two thirteen and I went up to two twenty five. And so we covered the first part of this bracket last week, but we're gonna go like this this week. I'm starting right here. So I'm gonna start at first Peter three eight.
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First Peter three eight is where we're starting this week. To sum up, all of you, that's what it says. To sum up all of you. Have you have you all seen the Princess Bride? You know that movie, The Princess Bride?
20:14
You know, it's a very quotable movie and as many of you know. And so at the end of this movie, one of the good guys kinda wakes up from being nearly dead all day, and when he says, so what are our assets? He says, what's going on? And one of the guys goes, there is too much. Let me sum up.
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Okay. There is too much. Let me sum up. And he gives a list of his assets right there. So I'm gonna start with the summing up because it nails it in a sentence or two.
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It nails exactly what this passage is about. This is the closing bracket of this. To sum up all of you, and if I say all of you, most of you would take that as being plural already, but if you all are Southerners, this makes it emphatically evident. All of y'all, to sum up all of y'all, all of y'all, and that includes me too because it's a message from God through Peter to all of us. All of y'all, all of you, be harmonious.
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Be harmonious. I like the word harmonious. If you look up the definition for harmonious, this is it. It is an adjective. It's the only time actually that this word is used as an adjective in the New Testament.
21:25
Harmony is used several times, a noun, but harmonious is tuneful, that which is pleasant, not discordant. We hear discord a lot, right? You can hear when something's wrong. My dad always used to say, I ain't a cook and I ain't a piano player, but I can tell when both of them's done wrong. Okay?
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So not discordant. Harmonious music. Synonyms include tune full, melodious, melodic, sweet sounding, mellifluous. If somebody comes to you and says, You speak with mellifluous prose, that's a compliment. Okay?
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Dulcet. Dulcet means sweet. So dulcet means sweet sounding or lyrical. Antonyms are discordant. Discordant we see all the time.
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You can just turn on the news. Alright? Discordant all the time. Voices chiming in that do not go along with a clear central melodic message, right? So that's harmonious.
22:30
Now I'm gonna do a musical experiment. I am also not a cook nor a piano player, okay? But I'm gonna go over to the piano and I'm gonna try to play something. And it's a very simple melody first, and then I'm gonna try to play harmony to try to explain harmonious. So this worked better than I thought in the first service.
23:04
Okay. So that's the melody. Nineteen seventy two May, was six months old. Y'all were, most of you, older than that. You remember Bill Withers sang this, but he didn't sing it, he sang the melody, but they had a bass behind them.
23:19
They had a piano playing. They had guitars playing. They had rhythmic stuff going on too, but to be harmonious, just adding the harmonies, it sounds like this. Okay. Now here Harmony sounds better than melody, right?
23:59
Harmony sounds better than just the melody. So for those of you, this this is a church service where people still remembered how to read notes in most cases and so, I want for, Imma start with the melody but I want you to join in. Blake's going to put the words up on the screen. Yes, Presbyterians that are here visiting. We are going to sing Lean On Me in church.
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Alright.
24:23
Speaker 3We all have pain, we all have sorrow, but if we are wise, we know that there's always tomorrow, lean on me. When you're not strong, I'll be your friend. I'll help you carry on on for it won't be long till I'm gonna need somebody to lean on. Please swallow your pride if I have faint. You need to borrow for no one can fill those of your needs that you won't let show.
25:24
That's far enough. Alright.
25:25
Speaker 1Before we get to the bridge, that would get pretty ridiculous. It sounds better to have people singing together. It sounds better to have people singing harmony. So Scott, when he's here all summer and when he goes away in the wintertime to be on the road to do what he does, singing shows, he's not here and I'm singing the melody up here, I miss him and I miss him because there's not a high harmony part going on. It helps me when he's leaning and when I'm leaning on him or he's leaning on me, I'm not sure but we are together singing harmony and harmony is better than just melody alone.
26:00
Now, sometimes you gotta be the voice crying in the wilderness and you just gotta be the melody saying it but if you can get somebody to harmonize with you, you're leaning on one another and that's a good good thing. Musical experiment work better in this service than I thought to. I told Blake, I had a flowchart. If it didn't go so well, I was going to go a whole different direction with this sermon. Harmonious, forming a pleasing or consistent whole.
26:25
The decor is a harmonious blend, traditional and modern. Synonyms are congruous, coordinated, balanced, in proportion, compatible, well matched, well balanced, and antonyms are incongruous. So discordant and incongruous is not what we want to be known for as the church, the body of Christ. One more definition. This is third definition of harmonious and I think the one that probably hits it hardest for us relationally.
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Free from disagreement or dissent, harmonious relationships. Synonyms are friendly, amicable, cordial, amiable, congenial, easy, peaceful. Now, we're going sing peaceful, easy feeling. No, we're not. We're not really.
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No, sorry. Or easy like Sunday morning? No. Peaceable, cooperative. When I say always start with grace and peace, that comes up a lot.
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If you will start with grace and peace, you can have an amicable relationship from the outset rather than starting with discord, rather than starting with incongruous behavior, rather than the antonym here is hostile. I'm afraid that we have been known for being hostile and I don't want for us ever to be known as hostile. There are times when you have to be the voice that's singing the melody that God is calling the tune and you are going with it but we are not to be among ourselves discordant or incongruous or hostile. So to whom does this command apply? You know, like to get it straight from scripture where who does this apply to?
28:04
All of y'all, including me, all of us. That's the that's the scope. This is the closing bracket at the end of this. It started with verse 13 up above in chapter two. To sum up, all of y'all, be harmonious, sympathetic, sympathetic, the word in Greek is sympathize, sympathize, compassionate, those who are suffering or feeling the like with one another.
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It is feeling what other people are feeling. It's rejoicing with those who rejoice and mourning with those who mourn and we have as a church this week, many of y'all knew Mark Upton who passed Friday in a very gruesome attack by Bear and so Sunday, we came together to grieve with all of us together and there was an incredible amount of sympathy in the room. We were feeling together the feeling. We were putting ourself in the position of being Sarah or one of Martin Sarah's five kids. Brother, sister, mom, dad, all of those people and there are people here today who are still hurting and still mourning the loss of a very very beloved one and so we should be suffering or feeling along with them the like with one another and who does this apply to?
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All of us. Not just the merciful among us, okay? Not just the ones who are particularly gifted. Of y'all are to be harmonious and sympathetic. And thank you church for stepping up.
29:33
Actually, the other day, when we did the funeral here. So, we have capacity to fit about 243 people in this room, probably two seventy five, 300 in the standing room only sections out there But a little ladies prayer group that was meeting met the day before and said, there's no way all the people that show up for this are gonna fit. And so they called the tent company and said, go put up a tent at First Baptist. Tent company said, absolutely, and they didn't charge anything for it. They brought chairs, and they brought tables, and they set up outside so we could double our capacity out there.
30:05
We had somebody else come in and set up for it down the hall so that we had this. And about 800 ish people showed up for that funeral. It's biggest gathering I've ever seen at First Be ever for any combined anything and it was because of sympathetic. Cornerstone Church called five minutes after Diana and I were discussing, who are we going to get to do the babysitting? Everybody in this church knew the Uptons and nobody wants to be downstairs during that in Cornerstone Church, Eric and Matt and the folks from Cornerstone called and said, we want to do childcare for y'all and so they came and they brought in a lot of volunteers and we had tons of kids down there and they did that.
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Tribe called and said there's no way there's gonna be enough parking in East Jackson for that many people, but they set up at the parking garage over here and at Field Box Park and they shuttled people back and forth so that they could park their cars for them, brought em in and they did that voluntarily because they were hurting with us and that's the way the body of Christ ought to be all the time. So, sympathetic, brotherly, brotherly, the word is Philadelphoy right here. It's the only time it's used as an adjective in the New Testament. It's right here in one Peter three:eight. It refers to the love between fellow family members.
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In our case, because we're Christians, it's redeemed people in God's family. This is where it is. But you know, in family relationships or close relationships, this takes it one step further by being, there's a friend who sticks closer than a brother but we are to be like brothers and sisters of the same family. We are to draw together and be harmonious and sympathetic and brotherly and kind hearted. So, kind hearted, the word there, Carl, a while back, I did a sermon where Splocknoy.
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Splocknoy was the word. Splocknoy. It sounds like it is. It means guts, visceral organs, the deepest part of your being. Now, in this case, it's eusplachnoi.
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So you means good, like eulogy. At a funeral, people are asked to deliver a eulogy and logi or logos means a word and you logos means a good word, a good word. So this is eusplachnoi, a good gut. It's that which comes from your innermost being and this is assuming or presuming this letter is to Christians. So, this is the place where God touches the deepest in our lives.
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Technically, in Hebrew, this word would be bowels. It's the uttermost part of your depth of your being and that's where God starts his work and it grows out of there properly. It's the visceral organs as they exercise a positive or good gut level, sympathy, empathy, or compassion and it is living from the gut. I've told y'all before that when I met Tanya, I had a head knowledge of God that I had obtained from twenty years and nine months. You know, I've been in church since nine months before I was born.
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Twenty years and nine months of sitting in church, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, Bible studies at other times and I had a head knowledge of God but Tanya met God in an almost completely unchurched fashion by reading the Bible alone and God affected her gut. Deep down level. She did not remember chapter and verse. She didn't know the way but as we have twenty six years now of marriage, my head knowledge has moved towards my gut and her gut knowledge has moved towards her head because God put us together. So this eusplachnoi is the idea that your visceral organs in the deepest part would be sympathetic, empathetic, and compassionate.
33:49
So all of you should be kind hearted and humble in spirit. So this long word, is humility. Humility, humble in spirit. Humility or loneliness of mind. Does that call to mind Philippians two for anybody else where he being in very nature God, speaking of Jesus, did not consider equality with God as something to be grasped but he took on the nature of a servant and he did this.
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He humbled himself in loneliness of mind and he took on the nature of a servant and he died a death, sacrificial death, even the death of a cross and that God exalted him because he humbled himself. Actually, we're going to get to the place in first Peter five where he says, I exhort you then as a fellow elder among you. Peter, says, he's a fellow elder. He doesn't elevate himself to the great apostle status or anything else as the head of the church. He says, I exhort you as a fellow elder among you that you would humble yourselves up under the mighty hand of God therefore and he will exalt you in due time.
34:58
He got this. Humility, loneliness of mind, modesty. It is an inside out virtue that's produced by comparing ourselves to the Lord rather than to other people. Now, if you compare yourself to other people, you'll look around and find the one that you think you're better than and go, well, I'm alright. I'm okay but if you compare yourself to Christ, you will come up short and so we should be constantly comparing ourselves to the Lord and praying that he would bend our will to his will, that he would sanctify us and use us in our humility, in our humble state that he would use us and he does.
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He says, that he will build his church but the way he does it is through us. This brings behavior into alignment with this inner revelation to keep one from being self exalting, self glorifying. For the believer, in Jesus, it means living in complete dependence on the Lord with no reliance on the flesh, no reliance on the self. So, humble in spirit. Not returning evil for evil or insult for insult.
36:08
Now, this is Peter who wrote this but who does it sound like? It sounds like Jesus. It sounds like Paul. It sounds like Peter. It sounds like the Bible because this is the uniform, uniformly.
36:22
This is what the New Testament teaches, not returning evil for evil or insult for insult. Imma read a little section. Imma try not to preach it. I'm just going to read it from Matthew five, Sermon on the Mount. You've heard that it was said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth but I, Jesus, say to you, do not resist an evil person but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.
36:46
If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go within one mile and Roman soldiers could do that by the way. Roman soldiers could ask of any conquered people which everybody around them was a conquered person. He could ask for you to go one mile and it was legal that you had to go with him one. If anybody ask you to go with him one mile, you go with him too.
37:12
Give to him who ask of you and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. You've heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven for he causes his son to rise on the evil and on the good and sins reign on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, then what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greed only your brothers, what more are you doing than others?
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Do not even the Gentiles do the same. Therefore, you are to be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. That's a high standard but he gives us a mechanism. He gives us the Holy Spirit. He gives us the same power that raised Jesus from the dead.
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It's at work within us. It takes us those submitting our will and it starts off with all of y'all. Be harmonious and sympathetic and compassionate and humble in spirit and humble yourself. It started off in the other bracket. We'll get to in just a minute by saying, submit yourselves, all of y'all.
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Not returning evil for evil or insult for insert but giving a blessing instead. Actually, technically, it's but blessing instead. Giving a blessing sometimes is what they ask the preacher to do at a barbecue. So, would you give us the blessing? Oh, lord.
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God is great. God is good. Let's thank him for our food. No, it's not giving the blessing. It is blessing.
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So, that blessing can be either material resources. It can be holding someone's hand as they go through a hard time. It can be visiting someone in the hospital or the nursing home or it can be blessing them by praying for them. Take that list. Sincerely commit yourself and your works to God.
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Listen to what he says and then do as he directs but blessing instead, not returning evil for evil or insult for insult but blessing those who have insulted you, blessing those who have who have done evil to you. You know, anything else is just one upmanship, right? So, if somebody brings a knife, you bring a gun, somebody brings a gun, you bring a bigger gun. It just gets bigger and bigger and bigger and it's all at war before long but if someone will put the knife down or put the gun down and say, you know what? I forgive you.
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That's what Jesus did, right? For everyone of us that we are the ones who put him on that cross and he said, you know what? I'm going to make the first step towards reconciliation here and I'm going to offer forgiveness to whoever would accept it. Wholeness, blessing instead. Remember the promise to Abraham, those who you bless, you will bless, and those who you curse, I will curse.
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Consider this, if there's someone who does not know Jesus, does not have anything to do with him whatsoever and they know you and you do. And you have the choice of blessing them with the good news or cursing them by keeping it from them. Does that make sense? So, those who've done evil and insulted you, you have the chance and they'll they may reject it. That's not on you.
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If they reject it, it is that you have the responsibility as a believer not to return evil for evil or insult from our insult but blessing instead. For you were called for this very purpose. What purpose? The purpose is giving a blessing or blessing. Blessing, technically.
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You were called for this very purpose so that you might inherit a blessing. Now, I don't want to inject any doubt with that might there. The might is a contingent upon whether you're a believer in Jesus but you are to be a blessing to others. If you have received the grace of God, if you received of the love of God, you received the forgiveness of God, then you have the capacity for sharing that with others. This is the summing up.
40:56
Last bracket here, three, eight, and nine. He says all of that. You are to be blessing instead that you might inherit a blessing and there's there is some contingency upon that that you would be blessing and not carmonia and not discordant or incongruous or hostile towards those who have done evil or insulted you. That you would be blessing and you might inherit that blessing. He also then goes into a couple of Old Testament texts.
41:26
This one is from Psalms for the one who desires life and and to love and to see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. He must turn away from evil and do good. He must seek peace and pursue it. So, that was written Psalm 34. I think it's a Psalm of David.
41:42
Maybe it's a Psalm of Asaph. I'm not positive. It's a song that we're supposed to sing, right? Psalm 3,412 through 16. Who is this man that desires life and loves length of days that he may see good?
41:55
Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it and the eyes of the Lord are toward. They're looking out for the righteous and his ears are open to their cry. There is nothing that has happened to you that God didn't know about.
42:13
I'm not going to go on a prosperity gospel rant here but God does know your suffering. He understands it intimately. He knows exactly what you're going through and he hears you. His eyes are turned toward the righteous and his ears hear. They're open to their cry.
42:32
The face of the Lord is against though evildoers to cut off the memory of them from the earth. I have had had talks with people who've been severely wounded, severely wounded by someone else that was insulting and evil and selfish and when we get down to the brass packs in the counseling room I say to the person, would you rather be the one who was hurt or the one who was doing the hurting? I've never had anybody yet sincerely say, I'd rather be hurting people. I'd rather be the one who was hurt because I could not take the face of the Lord being against me for doing evil. Are you with me?
43:13
To cut off the memory of them from the Earth. Everyone in this room right now will either be, we're all sinners, everyone of us. So, everyone in this room right now will either be mercifully forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ or they will be justly condemned by their own thoughts and deeds and action. I mean, thoughts and action. Everyone of us will be either mercifully forgiven or justly condemned.
43:40
Cut off the memory of them from the earth. Eternal separation from God or a home in heaven for sure. For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous. This is first Peter three twelve. Closing out this bracket on this end.
43:53
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 all of those who do evil. This one is a mixture of a couple of different things from Exodus. Exodus two, now, it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died and the sons of Israel sighed because of their bondage. This is when they were in slavery and they cried out and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God. So, God heard their groaning and God hears your groaning.
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And God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and God saw the sons of Israel and God took notice of them. Pray. Pray changes your heart and God listens to prayer. I love how Psalm 86 says, we call out to you lord because you answer us. Exodus three seven through nine also says this, the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and I have God given heed to their cry because of their task masters for I am aware of their sufferings.
44:52
So, I've come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey to the place of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Parasite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to me. Furthermore, I've seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them. God hears our prayers. God heard their prayers and he moved them out of that place and into a place that he'd show up.
45:21
So, I'm going go back now and go for the front end of this bracket. I preached it last week. So, I'm going to try to just read through it this week and not re preach the whole message again. First Peter two thirteen says, submit yourselves. So, this other closing bracket at verse eight says, to sum up, all of y'all are to be harmonious.
45:41
All of you sympathetic. All of you humble in spirit. We're starting here. Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution whether to a king as one in authority or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. So, every human institution, it's set up.
45:58
Now, the Roman Empire had the law of paterfamilias. I've mentioned this a couple of times. Some of the grandparents in the room are very happy about the paterfamilias because the oldest living male gets to decide what property goes to whom, who gets to marry who, all of whom, and all of these different things. It's in it's the guy that's in charge is the oldest male relative of the family. That was an by law, that was governmentally the way that Rome ruled its empire.
46:30
That the father had the right to say and I'm not joking, which children lived or died? They had the power of life and death just by being the man of the house. And Peter says, submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution whether to a king as the one in authority or governors and that governors is not technical like the governor of this state. It's those who govern down to the paterfamilias, father's family. By him, for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.
47:02
So, we are to honor authority. The authority that has been established over us. We are to honor. Why should I? We're Americans.
47:10
We don't like authority. We like to throw off the yoke that is on us and throw off the tyrants and anything over us. We strike a discordant note that this ain't the way it ought to be. Well, this is the answer to the question, why should I honor authority? For such is the will of God.
47:29
It's just that simple. God's will is that we would honor the authority that has been placed over us. That by doing right, you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. It is by doing right, that is what is in line with God, you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. Act then as free men and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil but use it as bond slaves of God.
47:57
So, we're servants of God. Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, and honor the king. I think this would make a great T shirt. All people, honor all people, not just believers, not just your family, not me, my four, and no more. It is honor all people.
48:16
Believers, unbelievers, different races, different cultures, different backgrounds, different countries, honor all people. Love the brotherhood. He says in a different place, we covered a couple weeks ago, fervently love the brethren, fervently love them. So, love the brotherhood. Fear God.
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A reverential fear of a mighty and awesome God is an amazing thing. I I I say that phrase every time I do a wedding. I said, it's never to be entered into lightly but discreetly, lightly or unadvisedly but discreetly and reverently and irreverential fear of a mighty and awesome God. Fear God. I I think of, you know, the thief on the cross.
48:56
We always go to remember me when you come into your kingdom and Jesus said, yeah, today, you're you'll be with me in paradise but what he yelled out to the other guy who is still reviling Jesus is, don't you fear God? We deserve what we're getting. He knew he deserved that punishment but he still reached out to Jesus and said, remember me. Don't you fear God? Honor all people.
49:18
Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. Honor the king. It's important that we still pay attention and we honor the governors that are over us and that in this country is the constitution.
49:32
Yeah. It's also our president. It's also the governors. It's also the local officials, but we are to honor them. It's great to live in a country where there is a mechanism to be able to dispute and dissent.
49:47
That's one of the greatest things about being in America. You do have a voice but you also have to do it honorably before God and the king. Servants then, be submissive to your masters with all respect. Not only to those who are good and gentle, because that's actually easy, right? If your employer or your master is good and gentle, it's fairly easy to respect them.
50:08
But it says, servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. You may find yourself in positions where the person over you is unreasonable, but he's still over you. You're to honor God and honor him or her. For this finds favor, if this, if for the sake of conscience toward God, a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. For this finds favor with God, It's God's will that we would honor authority and it's God's will.
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I mean, it's it finds favor with God. If we bear up under sorrows when we are suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if when you sin, you're harshly treated. You endure it with patience. You did the crown, do the time.
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But if when you do what is right and you suffer for it and you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. It finds favor with God when we suffer unjustly. There is something redemptive about suffering and Jesus is is redemption for all because he died once. The final sacrifice once for all but there's something redemptive for us about our suffering too. Really is.
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It makes a difference. It finds favor with God. For you've been called for this purpose since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you as an example for you to leaving you an example for you to follow in its steps. He who committed no sin nor was any deceit in his mouth and while being reviled, he did not revile in return. That's not returning evil for evil or insult for insult right there but instead, and while being reviled, he did not revile in return while suffering, he uttered no threats but he kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously.
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If you are in a suffering situation where you are submitting to the the authority and you're honoring the authority over you and you are suffering unjustly. Keep on entrusting yourself to him who judges rightly to God. God, I'm doing this out of respect for you. It doesn't feel good. It doesn't feel right but I believe that you have told me to honor those in authority over me and I'm walking through that right now and it hurts and he hears your prayer.
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And he will bring you through it. Keep on entrusting himself or get Jesus kept on entrusting himself to him who judges righteously. To the point of death on a cross where he said into your hands, father, I commit my spirit. He kept on entrusting it. And he himself bore our sins in his body on that cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness for it is by his wounds that you are healed.
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His redemption that's available to us. It was on him. That's the suffering that is truly redemptive. It's by his wounds that we were healed. For you were continually straying like sheep but now you have returned to the shepherd and the guardian of your souls and this brackets, the front end of that.
53:14
So, those two like this. It really looks like this. Starts off with submit yourselves for the Lord's sake and that's all of y'all and it says it to sum up at the end. To sum up all of y'all, be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kind hearted, humble in spirit, not returning evil for evil or insult for insult but giving a blessing instead for you recall for this very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. If we look at those two brackets, and we measure ourselves against Christ, how are we doing?
53:44
This is where we hit first Peter chapter three one. This is right in the center of this passage. In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands. This is the governmental setup. It's honoring the authority.
53:58
That has been given to him by God through the Roman government at that time. In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands. So, that even if any of them are disobedient to the word and I want to clarify that. So, obedient to the word or disobedient to the word in Peter, I've hit it five times already. When those of you who have already obeyed the word, it means those who've accepted the gospel.
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You've heard the word of God that there is a way and this is the way. It's the only way. You've heard it and you've been obedient to it. It means that you have accepted the gospel and that you're saved. In this case, being disobedient to the word means those who are not saved.
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Those who are still wandering and lost. So, in the same way you abs, believers, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word or any of even if any of them are not believers, lost. They may be one. They may be found. They may be one without a word by the behavior of their wives.
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That sounds like a really heavy load, doesn't it? Because if you're in the same house and you love one another but you have completely different foundations and you're a Christian lady with a non believing husband. If you have that going on, then, this text says, it's not what you say that's going to make the most different. It's how you live your life in a Christ like way that's going to make the difference. But it says that it will make a difference.
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So that it may, they may be one without a word by the behavior of their wives as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior. Your adornment must not be merely external. The braiding of the hair, the wearing of gold jewelry, or the putting on dresses, but let it be the hidden person of the heart. With the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, He's urged us to be gentle, harmonious, and all that over and over throughout this letter so far but gentle and quiet spirit which is precious in the sight of God for it is in this way in the former times that the holy women also who hoped in God used to adorn themselves Being submissive to their own husbands just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. Small L there.
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He's not the Messiah but he certainly was someone she respected and called sir and you have become her children. If you do what is right without being frightened by any fear, knowing and I would say this is extremely important. That passage we just looked at where it said and he kept on entrusting himself to the one who judges rightly. If we're looking to play our role and play our role well and we keep entrusting the one who judges rightly, men do not always judge rightly. Earthly judges do not always judge rightly.
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Earthly governments do not always judge rightly but if we keep on entrusting ourselves to the one who does judge rightly, that's the one we're held to book, right? That's the one we're held to account by. So, here we get to the husbands And I've had several people point out there's six verses about women and then just one about husbands. Consider the depth of this though. You husbands in the same way.
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You had been given power. I mean, by being bigger by birth, stature, and everything else, but also given power by the government at this time that you had more power. And I know it's unpopular in that time, but if we were to split up the room into guys and gals and we were starting to do arm wrestling, who would probably win? The guys. They they're stronger.
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I did get beat by Tina Hendrix in the eighth grade, and I'm still living that down. And she, the last time I saw her, still remembered it. I think I could take her now though. Yeah. You husbands in the same way, Live with your wives in an understanding way as with someone weaker.
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I love my daughter. She's 12. She dances almost every day and she is very athletic and very agile and she is very strong. She has muscles at 12. She really does.
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She's strong. But the truth is that when she's in high school, there are going to be boys that will just be bigger than her. When she's in college, there'll be men who can overpower her. So, I'm already praying that she never finds herself in a situation where anyone would take advantage or coerce her with their superior strength. Right?
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Guys, don't ever use superior power ever. Whether it's physical power or business acumen or power to take advantage of a lady. Please, never, ever. It's never gonna be okay. As with someone weaker, since she is a woman, there is a difference.
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We used to get it all the time when we're little. You never hit a girl. Don't hit a girl. Like, it's Tina Hendrix, you know? Like, she can whoop me in arm wrestling.
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No. She is a woman and you don't hit girls. Where have we lost that? No. She's a woman and show her honor and I love this.
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Show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life. Now, before I get to so your prayers will not be hindered. Think about women in position at this time. They are the lowest of the low social socially. They were in the Hebrew scriptures and they were in this time period too and it was by law in this place but they were joint heirs.
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They were a fellow heirs of the grace of life and when women became children of God, they had a new found freedom and that new found freedom gave them the ability to say and do things they had never been welcomed to do before and so when they started doing that, this is the reason that Peter wrote this in sixty four ish AD. This is the reason first Timothy, you know, there are cultural and societal trends And with women and slaves for that matter, starting to act out of their freedom in Christ, it was upsetting things. And so he was saying, calm down. Honor the authority over you. Even when you're right, even when you're right, if you honor the authority and entrust yourself to God above, you will be seen as being.
1:00:26
Right. He says, honor her as a fellow heir of the grace of life. Jesus blood was not just for guys, it was for women too. Honor her as a fellow heir of the grace of life so that your prayers will not be hindered. Guys, the way that you treat your wives, the way that you treat women, daughters, has an effect on how God hears your prayers.
1:00:55
His eyes are toward the righteous and they are against those who would do evil. So, this is the middle section of this that I bracketed because I think that these are the trees. I didn't hit that. The very first slide said that we're bracketing the forest so that we don't get hung up on the individual trees and the wives submit to your husbands is always one of those we concentrate a lot of effort on. I think that was the last is that the last slide, Blake?
1:01:21
So I have a benediction slide. I'm gonna read it and then we're gonna sing Just a Closer Walk With Thee. Would you come on up? Lorraine and Scott, you can come up and sing some harmony. Be harmonious.
1:01:32
I'm going to read this and I want you all to think about it. So, summing all of this up, may all of us be harmonious and sympathetic and brotherly and kind hearted and humble in spirit. Never return evil for evil or insult for insult but blessing others instead. For for this purpose, we were rescued and called for the very purpose of blessing so that we might inherit a blessing. Would you stand?
1:01:56
We're going to sing just a closer walk with thee And if you need to do business with God, as we say down south, and you need to do that at this altar, it is open. It's always open. If you'd like to talk to me about something, I will turn the microphone off and let Scott sing melody for a change.
1:02:37
Speaker 2I'll be satisfied as long as I walk let me walk close to thee just a closer walk with thee my being daily walking close to thee dear Lord Amen.
1:04:37
Speaker 1And summing up again, May all of us, every single one of us here be harmonious. May we be sympathetic, brotherly, kind hearted, Splunknoy, use Splunknoy, good guts towards others, and humble in spirit. Never turn an evil for evil or insult for insult but God, would you bless us with the knowledge of what to do to be blessing others instead? For we were rescued lord and called for this very purpose, a blessing so that we might receive a blessing. I pray lord pray lord that you'd work through us this week, that you'd plant this seed very very deep in our heart and it would grow into fruit and fruit that will last.
1:05:15
In Jesus name, amen.
