- turn off cell phones
- FILL OUT INFO CARD ON INSIDE OF BULLETIN
RAD Night is now Drama Night Wednesday’s at 7:00 PM!
National Day of Prayer - May 2nd at 7:00 PM in the Main
Sanctuary!
Giving and Registration Kiosk - Website and Mobile App now
active! Give tithes and offerings with debit or credit card, make a
recurring payment, volunteer, register for events. There is a web
portal if you register and an online app to make your giving easy!
You can also manage your account and print receipts!
Summer VBS at CCMB! Jungle Jaunt June 10 - 14
9:00 AM 12:00 PM You can register your children now to be a part of VBS!
Only one $10.00 registration fee per family. Or you can volunteer
to help the team make the week a success. Many different ways to
support are still open!
Use the Kiosk to register or volunteer!
God Squad Training Saturday, May 4th at 10:00 - 11:00 AM God Squad 2013 on Memorial Day Weekend in South Beach Helping Law Enforcement maintain crowd control - to be a God
Squad participant need to attend meeting for training and
orientation.
“Fear of the Father, love of the brother”
“Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work
impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.
For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver
or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed
down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of
Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the
creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your
sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the
dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.”
“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so
that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply,
from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable
seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of
God.” For,
“All people are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord
endures forever.”
And this is the word that was preached to you.
The words, thoughts and scripture of this letter are by and large
from the Old Testament and reveal Peter as someone who knows
the Torah very well. For you Bible scholars, you will note that
Peter uses at least nine words and thoughts that quote, parallel, or
contrast Deuteronomy 32 between verse 17 and chapter 2, verse 9
in 1st Peter.
Writing to pilgrims scattered across Asia Minor, which is modern
day Turkey, warning of persecutions to come and how to live as
the trials come.
Pastor Robert taught two weeks ago from 2 Timothy 3 that all who
desire to live godly lives and follow Christ will suffer persecution.
Peter challenged us in verse 14 to live our lives as obedient
children, no longer conforming to the lusts in the world, and to be
holy as God is holy, as it is written, “Be holy as I am holy.”
Now in light of that he calls us to fear the Father...
The first purpose of passage:
1. Learning awe and reverence for the Father:
“Abba” Galatians 4:3-6
God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying
out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son,
and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. Abba is literally
the first word in Hebrew: Aleph-Bet ...Ab is Father
Calling on God as a Father takes a great change of identity, for you
may have had a great example of what a father is in your earthly
life, or you may not have. It took me a long time to call almighty
God “Abba” - Dad, Papa. Jesus seemed so much more
approachable, available. The Holy Sprit was exciting, fun. But my
Heavenly Father didn't have the respect, awe, and tenderness that
He deserved from me. I had not accepted that as my part towards
my earthly father. But my Heavenly Father won me over; patient,
merciful, persistent.
I’ve learned something: My heavenly “Dad” cannot be my buddy,
He must be my Lord. I must accept and submit to Him in reverent
fear ...then I can call him Abba. I can enjoy the love of my
heavenly Father and count on His friendship, but he must never be
reduced to my ”buddy”. As we lose the art of respect and honor
among humans we are in danger if we've gotten too casual with the
Almighty. In Hebrew it is considered forbidden to speak God’s
name, He is Ha’Shem (the Name). There is reverence and fear.
However, there are appropriate times when I want my children to
address me as sir, and others when I want them to run in my arms
and jump up crying “Papa!”
Verse 14: “As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves
according to the former lusts in your ignorance...”
Let's use a picture to explain reverent fear. Water is pleasurable. A
cold glass when you're thirsty. A shower or bath. A dip in the pool.
All examples of water constrained. But water can be a small stream
- or a torrent! Last year my family stopped at Priest Rapids Dam
on the Columbia River. The snow had been tremendous that winter
and the run off was so large that they had to open the sluice
channel. The roar, and force, and speed of the water were
incredibly powerful and fearful! Water can be wonderful and it can
be destructive.
Jesus said, “Don't fear the one who can kill the body (’cause that as
far as they can go) but fear the one who can throw your whole
body and soul to hell,”
Verse 17: So, you being only tourists (strangers, pilgrims) in this
world for a short life, live it out in awe and respect of the Father.
Aim to please Him! Because, He knows how to judge each of us
uniquely and doesn’t play favorites. (My paraphrase)
2. Verse 18 - Remember that you were redeemed by the perfect
Lamb of God!
I wonder if Peter here was thinking back to the night of the
Passover when he and John went to prepare the room and get
everything ready. They had to go to the Temple and present a lamb
they bought to the priests along with crowds of others, and they
received it back for the meal for their group after the blood had
been ceremoniously used at the altar.
Eh-lootroh-thete: you were redeemed. Literally, “you were a slave
bought back and ransomed in the marketplace”.
Think of it like a children’s story:
Once upon a time you were part of a royal family, but you were
taken as a slave to a horrible country against your will. You were
left practically naked, hungry, and mocked; beaten daily by a
brutal taskmaster, and you were put on block for sale while
everyone laughed. Nobody wanted you! Then a king came by and
loved you. He had mercy on you and bought you for himself, and
even gave you your liberty! But not with money, but with the life
of his own son! Then He made you part of His own family.
Peter says “look how empty and weak your forefather’s way of life
was in rescuing you and the futility of life was repeated over and
over.”
Traditions had no power over your eternal destiny, but in one act,
ordained before creation of the world the Father destroyed the
status quo!
The story doesn’t end there. The King brought His Son back to life
and now gives you that same power!
So now your faith and hope are unstoppable!
Are you kidding me?, do we really have the option of living an
average, “normal” life after that?
Knowing this, what kind of fear does this produce? Fear of
stepping out in faith with punishment for failure, or fear that not
using this precious faith and authority to its fullest will result in a
stinging rebuke!?
Matthew 25:14-34
"For it is like a man going on a journey, who summoned his slaves
and entrusted his property to them.
15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one,
each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.
24 Then the one who had received the one talent came and said,
'Sir, I knew that you were a hard man, harvesting where you did
not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed,
25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground.
See, you have what is yours.'
26 But his master answered, 'Evil and lazy slave! So you knew that
I harvest where I didn't sow and gather where I didn't scatter?
27 Then you should have deposited my money with the bankers,
and on my return I would have received my money back with
interest!
28 Therefore take the talent from him and give it to the one who
has ten.
29 For the one who has will be given more, and he will have more
than enough. But the one who does not have, even what he has will
be taken from him.
30 And throw that worthless slave into the outer darkness, where
there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
The first two slaves acted more like sons than slaves. They at least
acted like awesome slaves! But the third acted out of ignorance of
who his master really was and behaved out of fear. He had ability -
because he was entrusted like the others with a talent, but he did
nothing with his gift!
Peter says: “Through him you believe in God, who raised him from
the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.”
In other words, through the redemption of the Son of God you can
be reconciled to the Father - and now your dread turns to faith and
hope. Using them for God lest he be angry with you.
3. Love your Brothers
Chuck Smith says (in a commentary on 1 Peter) the greatest
demonstration the church can give the world is the love within the
Body for one another.
So much of the doctrine of the new testament is there so that we
learn how to love and care for one another. To not put a stumbling
block in front of each other. Philippians 2:4 “each of you should
care not only for his own needs, but for the needs of others.”
Erwin has a bumper sticker, it just says OTHERS.
Galatians 5:13 - 18 For you, brethren, have been called to liberty;
only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through
love serve one another. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word,
even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if
you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by
one another! 16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not
fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit,
and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one
another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if
you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
The unity of Christ and the Father is displayed in the love of the
brothers who are sons of god; which is fulfilling the command that
He has given us: “Love one another as I have loved you.”
“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together
in unity" Psalm 133:1
Brotherly love is one of the main themes in the doctrine of the
letters to the church and the plea of the writers Paul, Peter, and
John.
John goes so far as to make a radical statement: that without love
for your brother you cannot love God! For how can you love God
whom you have not seen while you hate your brother whom you
have seen!
I don't know about any of you, but I did not grow up loving my
brother... We were mortal enemies in the back seat of the car. I
would tease him and call him “football head” because his head was
shaped like one, and he would pound me and feed me a “Hurtz
Donut” because it did.
I was born again through faith in Jesus in April 1993. It was not of
a seed that would die but of a seed that was imperishable. I have
found the brothers that my blood brother could never be for me and
the way to forgive him for not being the brother I needed.
The reason that we are placing such an emphasis on this is that
division is destructive. It is like Kryptonite to Superman. This is
specific to men because it doesn’t come natural to us. Cain killed
his brother Abel in the field over a hurt feeling! Women, you are
wired for connection and intimacy. Men, we must work at it,
therefore we are commanded by the Lord to fear Him and love
each other fervently!
A church that is divided and lacks brotherly love is a crippled and
dead church. If you see a brother, encourage him today, build him
up. We are just like grass. Here today, withered and dead
tomorrow. But the truth of God stands.
No matter what shifting winds of culture bring us - a life that is
built on the Word of God is able to stand. The slave in us becomes
the prince.
Questions
I. Having a proper fear of God.
How would you decribe your reverent fear of God?
By what names do you call on God?
Who do you honor and respect in life? How do you show that?
Whom - according to Jesus - should you fear?
II. Remember you are redeemed.
What does redemption mean?
What emotion or mindset makes you live an average life?
Mt 25:14 What has God given you according to your ability?
What risk are you willing to take to multiply what God has given
you?
III. Love your brothers.
How can others see the love you have for one another?
How does brotherly love look like in your life?
How do you keep from dividing with your brothers in the body of
believers?