The Grace Zone Part 7

Wonderful. So, back home this morning, we are still working through our grace zone text. If you have been here for a couple of weeks, you would have realized that we are working through the book of 1Pete, and we are systematically taking each section as it comes about, and try to find the grace that is in that. Peter ends off his book of 1Peter in chapter 5 you will see in verse twelve, he says: “This is the true grace of God.” In that specific context he was dealing with through those verses, and he says: “This is the true grace of God, stand firm in it.” We were trying to find what is he zeroing on, what is he trying to say this is the grace, and then finding out how to find firm in that. This morning, we are going to go to 1Peter chapter three, and we are going to read the verses from eight to verse twenty two. It says: “8Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love brothers, be compassionate and humble. 9Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. 10For, "Whoever would love life and see good days.” If we may stop now, if I may ask you, would you like to put yourself in that context, would you ove to love life? Would you like to see good days, and I don’t think anyone here that says no, that’s not for me. I choose to hate life. We should now take note of what Peter said. He is saying this is what you want. This is what is available to you. And he carries on: “Must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. 11He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. Righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil." 13Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. "Do not fear what they fear ; do not be frightened." 15But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 17It is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. 18For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, 19through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison 20who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also--not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22who has gone into heaven and is at God's right hand--with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.”

 What we are going to attempt this morning is amongst all these thoughts and all these things that Peter is saying is we want to try and find what is that true grace, and how do we stand in firm it. I wat to focus us on right at the beginning, verse eight where Peter says: “Finally.” He was starting to wind this whole book down now, He says finally to all of us, there’s no one excluded have unity of mind. The NIV says live in harmony. What I want to draw down on focus on is this instruction from Peter to live in harmony. With the Lord and with those around us. Because just like when God took the nation of Israel out of captivity, He took them out of the place of bondage, He took them out of Egypt. And He was leading them to Canaan. He said this is your promised land. As we start choose to apply the things that Peter was saying and aligning with certain things, we also have the potential of moving towards the promised land of God. And it can be found in the areas that Peter has already addressed, in other words, remember he was talking to the master and the servant, the employer and employee. He was talking about the marriage context, about wives, last week we heard he was addressing husbands. So, each and every one of these areas of life, and not only exclusively to this but to all others, there is this promised land that God has for us. And he says this is what I want to take you towards.

 Can I ask a question; have any of you gone on those how – to websites? If you needed to do something that you don’t know how to do it, if you say to Google, how do I?I had to do that a few months back, I had an unfortunate situation one night, we packed the dishwasher on, packed the dishes in, turned the light off and went to bed. Then, we woke up the next morning, and there was a dam in the dishwasher. The dishwasher had not drained. It went through the complete cycle, but the water had not drained away. So, as you open the door of the dishwasher, the water did not just gush out, but there was dirty water still in the machine. I had two options. Send it somewhere to be repaired, or I can do it myself. Then, I tried one of these how – to websites. I literally typed in, how to you get a dishwasher. I was very specific with it, I said I bought it this year, this is the name of the dishwasher, this is what is happening, how do I fix it? And I thought, there is not a chance, but then out comes this list of instructions. And I sat down next to the dishwasher with my computer, and followed to instructions. Went right down into the depths of this machine, had to unplug the  little filter that filled the hole, and it worked. Yesterday I had to do something very similar.

 I like this context of what Peter was talking about when he says live in harmony with one another. So, I don’t know much about singing, nor about music, So I can’t get up there and quote something without actually tried to educate myself a little bit first. So, I went onto Google again and on a website called howtosing.com. And I read through this, and watched a few video clips, and two things became very apparent to me. As I was thought about these two things, actually, that is life. I want to share those two things with you, and we will build a little around it. The first thing that his video clip says is that if you want to, whether you want to be a part of this team, if you want to create a vocal or instrumental harmony, you can’t just start anywhere. You have to find out what is the melody line first in that song. The melody line is the part of the song that is most consistent, and it leads the musicians through the song, and guiding them in terms of what notes to play, that is very important, that there has to be a melody line. If there is no melody line, if there is nothing on which to base the song, then you will start harmonising anywhere, and you will have each instrument playing in a different key. You will have your vocalist singing in a different note. And it will sound like a big noise. We all have been exposed to something like that at some stage. So, we need to find the melody line, I sat and though about this, if we had to ask ourselves as Christians, as the bride of Christ, as the church, what is our melody line? What in your life, as a Christian, what is your melody line?

 That has to be consistent, no matter the context, no matter where you find yourself. It has to be consistent throughout your life so that there rest of your life can arrange itself just like these guys do, arrange your harmony, the rest of your life can arrange itself around this melody line of life. There are many scriptures that came to mind this morning, but I want to share one. Matthew chapter twenty two verse thirty five to forty.  ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^{[c] 38} This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’^{[d] 40} All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. “If we need to think about something that has to stay consistent in our lives, something that has to be the melody line in your life. This group called Casting Crowns sings a song called Life song. There is a sentence in that song which says; ‘Let my life song to you. To Jesus. Now, if you have to use that analogy in your life that your life is a song that is being sung, what is the melody line in your life that has to stay consistent around which the rest of your life arranges and positions itself. It has to be this thing. We know it, and we have to be ruthless with our application of it. We love the Lord our god with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind, we are completely besotted in love with Jesus Christ.

That is the greatest and first commandment. How do you live your life in harmony? Then it goes on to say that you need to love those around you like you love yourself. And that is when I want to bring it back to what Peter says finally, all of you, live in harmony. That is Jesus’ plan for us. It is so important that Jesus says in verse forty that on these two commandments. Not only the one that says love God, or that one that says love your neighbour, but on these two commandments, the whole of God’s way is based. That’s what he says in verse forty. That has to be the melody line of our lives. They obvious question that we ask in that context is that are we sure that we are loving God above all else. Nothing else that is trying to impose itself on you, nothing else that is trying to push God aside. With integrity, we need to search our hearts and say Lord, no. I choose you every time. Then, we live in harmony with each other also. Not only do you need a melody line if you want to create a good harmony, the second thing I learnt, is that harmony comes in many parts. You can have a one part harmony, or two part, and so on. The people I was listening to and reading about there is even up to a seven part harmony. What I want to stress is that the harmony does not replace the melody. The harmony submits itself to the melody. It comes in and supports builds. It adds to, it brings fullness, wholeness to what is happening. In 1Peter three verse nine. When he talks about you have been called to be a blessing. That means now you start adding the harmony. How do you be a blessing to a single mom? You draw her alongside, you emotionally support her, emotionally encourage her. You materially support and encourage her. How do you be a blessing to someone who has no job? How do you be a blessing to someone who has just lost a loved one.? Whatever the context is, Peter is saying to this you have been called, to be a blessing. And that is when you start adding up to the seven part harmony. The melody lines is that we love God, we love one another, then we start adding to it. The acts of service, the good works. But remember what we said, that that does not replace or supersede the melody line. When you do this correctly in the context of what we saw this morning, you will have these situations where you feel that this is heaven on earth.

 These people are incredibly gifted, either instrumentally of vocally. You may have seen some You tube clips on the xfactor shows, or you’ve got talent, is when someone gets u there looking completely inadequate, lokking like as if this is the last place where they would choose to be on earth right now. But then something happens and transforms them, and your jaw drops. In the kingdom of God, it’s not dissimilar. We are inadequate, we are without resources, but when we choose to submit ourselves to the melody line that God has placed in us, when we choose to submit ourselves to the Lord, and His ways, you get transformed. And the world will look at you, your friends will look at you, your work colleagues will look at you, and their jaw will drop, because they will see. This is what Peter is talking about in verse twelve where he says, they will see that there is something different about you. That you carry inside you a hope, you carry inside you something that the world yearns for. This is not so a how – to of living a harmonious life, but rather when you do this. Shoiuld you do that. This is what the Promised Land looks like. Because we know that God has always got us on a journey towards the Promised Land. We are journeying to a better place. Yes, we stumble and fall, yes we have issues in our lives that we have to grapple with. This thing called submission does not come naturally to us. But when in God we grapple with these things, and we come to the place of this is the grace of God. I want to tell that this is a good place to be. That is when you can say; “Father, I understand when you speak about a good inheritance. And we see something of that when Peter goes on now, and he pulls some verses out of Psalm thirty four, I just want to share with you just five things that we can anticipate, that we can look forward to. Maybe you already live in that place, then do what Peter says, stand firm in it. Someone will come and try knock you out of that place. Then do what Peter says, this is the true grace of God.

I understand marital submission, at the work place, I am standing firm in this thing, it is a great place to be. If are aspiring to this, I want to give you some encouragement out of this text. 1Peter chapter three verse ten: “For whoever desires to love life.” Do you love life? If you take these things and apply them  in your life, you will come to a place where you can say, life is fully gratifying. If you had to ask the world now, their answer would be no. Because when the world is saying no, because the world is never content. What satisfies today, by tomorrow would not. So, they grope and they are always searching for the next. Peter says you can come to a place where life is fully gratifying, you will love life. And it’s in this thing of living in harmony. Jesus said it slightly different in John chapter ten; “Satan is going about like a roaring lion. He wants to rob, kill and destroy. But Jesus says that I have come that you may have life, and have it abundantly.” Now, I have to quote the two things that would take a life that is in abundance, that you would love life. Not the way the world says you need to fill your life, but the way Jesus says I will come and abundantly fill your life. You will come to a place of loving life. Maybe you are sitting here this morning, and if you are honest with yourself, you would say I don’t love my life at this moment. Can I encourage you to say that your life flows from loving Jesus? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with your entire mind with all your soul. Allow that to outwork itself in your heart. Love the people around you and Peter say that you will come to a place, those who desire to love life, will find a life to love. He then goes on to say that not only will they love life, but they will see good days.

And as I thought about this, I thought about myself where my hat, if I had to try defining what is a good day in my context. A good day for me would be that I am fully assured that God is directing my path. Proverbs chapter three says in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path. That means is that the pressure makes life. Life is taken away, and we have to acknowledge Jesus, and He will direct our paths. He will make our days good. Whoever desires to love life, whoever desires to see good days, do these things? The other thing we can aspire to in verse twelve: “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous.” The eyes of God are on you daily. The scripture reference is Acts chapter two, that God will direct our paths. Not only are God’s eyes on you, but God’s ears hear you also. When we live harmonious life with the Lord and with one another. I was reminded when I read this prayer by Angus Buchan, 2Chronicles chapter seven verse fourteen; “If my people who are called by name  will humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin and heal their land.” Verse fifteen says: “Now, my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.” We choose the melody line in our lives, it’s all about Jesus. We choose to come and align ourselves to that. God says in that place, I will see you, I will hear you. The other thing that you will see evident is that God will place each one the hope that is Christ Jesus. Peter goes on and says be prepared because people will see that there is something different. Be prepared to give the reason of why you are different. Be prepared to give the reason for the hope that is in each in one. Revelation chapter twelve says: “We overcame by the blood of the lamb, and by the word of their testimony.” God places a testimony in each one. It’s a testimony to share with the world. The testimony is that there is a hope., and that hope resides in each one of us. They sing. Let my life song sing to you. My prayer that what is the song that Jesus has placed in you. Your unique song, if you already have found it, then sings it. If you don’t know what the song is, understand there is a long for you. God has written the melody line, now He calls us to harmonize with Him.

Senior Pastor: Brent Brading

Web Address: www.outlookchurch.co.za