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Now let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. We're doing a series in the book of 1 and 2 Peter called Rock Solid. Peter was one of the early disciples of Jesus. Imagine getting to hang out with him and listening to him, watching him. And so we've had the privilege of studying what he has to say in 1 Peter chapter 3.
How many of you have toddlers? Raise your hands. I want to see.
Okay, just notice all the people so you can pray for them. Um How many of you had toddlers?
Okay, you've had them. How many of you are toddlers, Riget? Just kidding. You know, toddlers have their own rules. You know that, right?
There's like a whole Set of laws Just for toddlers. And uh The following are the property laws for toddlers. Number one, if I like it, it's mine. If it's in my hand, it's mine. If I can take it from you.
It's mine. If I had it a little while ago, it's mine. If it's mine. It must never appear to be yours in any way. Number six, if I'm doing or building something, all the pieces are mine.
If it looks just like mine, It's mine. If I saw it first, it's mine. If you're playing with something and you put it down, automatically mine. And finally, if it's broken. It's yours.
Although it says here in parentheses, no, the pieces are probably still mine. Hey, that that's fine for toddlers, but it's certainly not fine for mature believers in Christ. As followers of Jesus, The watchword isn't mine, but yours. Not me, but you, not self, but others. The title of my message this morning is How to Attract Flies.
Yeah, that's exactly it. How to attract flies. Let me tell you where I'm coming from. Back in seventeen forty four, A saying was written in Poor Richard's Almanac attributed to Benjamin Franklin. It's the old saying that says, You'll catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.
Anybody from a developing country visiting America would scratch their heads at that little thing like. Why would you ever want to attract flies to begin with? But the point of that is simply this: when you have a sweeter approach, a nicer approach, You are going to be more successful in achieving your goals than if you are mean and cantankerous. You'll catch more flies with honey than you will. with vinegar.
So why am I calling the message how to attract flies? For this reason. The entire section that we have been studying the last several weeks. Beginning in chapter 2, verse 11, all the way to where we are now. Is all dealing with how we as believers live our lives on the stage of this world.
The unbelieving world is watching us very carefully. And it could be, it could be. That by the way we live our lives in all of those areas, we actually attract the antagonist and attract the adversary. And so he's already told us some ways to do that. We continue.
In chapter 3, verse 8, where he says, finally, or to sum up what I've been saying. Finally, all of you be of one mind. having compassion for one another. Love as brothers. Be tenderhearted, be courteous.
Not returning evil for evil. Reviling for reviling. but on the contrary blessing. Knowing that you were called to this. that you may inherit a blessing.
For he who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
Now let me just bring you back up to speed to where we've been studying the last few weeks. You know that Peter has been talking about the three major areas of social interaction. in society or our relationship to government, At the workplace or our relationship to our employer. And in the home, husbands and wives' relationship to each other. That's what we've been talking about the last few weeks.
We have also noted that Peter says the general role For all of us in all of those roles, can be summed up by one word. Remember what it is? Submission Submit to authority? Wives submit to their husbands, servants to their masters, etc.
Now, Peter takes us to a fourth. Area of social interaction. And this is restricted now only to the Christian believer, and that is the church. As believers, we live in society, we have jobs, we have marriages, but we also have a family of believers. That's why he says, finally, all of you.
Verse 8. He's writing to Christian believers who interact with each other.
Now, the world is going to watch us in our relationship to government, and they're going to be able to see us in our relationship to our employer, and they're going to be able to look into our marriages and see how we do that. But most of them are not going to come into the church. And check us out. No, some will, some will come to our meetings. But certainly, they're going to see how we deal with each other when we're out in the world.
And it could be, it could be that we are.
So compelling in our testimony that we actually attract those unbelievers. By the way we treat each other. Listen to this. In the second century AD, a guy by the name of Tertullian, a church historian, Said that the Roman government was so suspicious of churches because they were growing so rapidly that they would send spies into the church to check them out. One of the spies reported back to the Roman government.
And I'll quote it to you. These Christians are very strange people. They meet in an empty room. to worship. They have no image.
They speak of one by the name of Jesus. Who is absent? but whom they seemed to be expecting at any moment. And they concluded by saying, And my, how they love him, and how they love one another. What a compelling Attractive testimony.
To be able to see in the lives of Believers.
So, looking in these verses, I want to look at three sweet things. that can attract Flies. Number one is our attitude, number two is our response, and number three is our motive, our motivation.
So first of all, we do so by our general attitude. Second, by our gentle response. And third, by our genuine motivation. Let's look at our attitude. Verse 8.
Finally. Or to sum it up, My final words on this subject. All of you, all of you Christian believers that I am writing this letter to, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another, love as brothers, be tender-hearted. Be courteous.
Now, we have a five-fold description, and I'm going to unravel quickly each one of those for you. But the five-fold description of the general attitude of the believer could all be summed up in one word: one word: love. Just like Jesus summed up the whole law in one word, love.
So our relationships should be summed up by this one word, love, but we have a five-fold description. Notice the first. Finally, all of you. Be of one mind. Or the word like-minded, some translations say, be like-minded.
Now just think about this for a moment. Is that possible? Be like-minded. You know what most of us define like-mindedness as? You agreeing with me.
That's like-minded. This is what I think, and you should agree with that. No, no, that's not unity, that's just uniformity. The Bible never calls us to that. There are differences of opinions that we have.
If we right now were to open up a discussion on politics. on styles of clothing. Or on what shows are appropriate to watch on television, or what styles of Christian music are appropriate to listen to or have. At church. We would open a can of worms and we would have one huge disagreement.
It's the way we are. We don't agree on everything. I had a friend of mine say: if two people agree on everything, one of them isn't thinking. I have certain views on eschatology, on the end times. I have views on the rapture, on the tribulation, on the millennium.
I have views about the Holy Spirit, and some of you may not share those views. That's okay. I always want to be gracious enough to allow you to be wrong.
So that's all right. The early church didn't always agree, did they? There were disagreements and arguments and divisions over things like meat sacrificed to idols. Over keeping the Sabbath, over which days are appropriate to worship, over which widows. should be taken care of by the church finances.
Paul and Barnabas. argued over John Mark. The 12 apostles argued over who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. I mean, there are. There's a litany of disagreements, even in the New Testament, as someone once said.
The church is a lot like Noah's Ark. Were it not for the flood on the outside, you sometimes couldn't stand the stench on the inside. That's because we are fallen humans, all gathered together. To be like-minded. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition.
Every day, friends like you help bring clear verse-by-verse Bible teaching to people searching for truth in a world that often feels confused, divided, and uncertain. And this month, we want to thank you with a powerful resource designed for times like these. When you give, you'll receive City in Shambles, Pastor Skiff's complete 18-message study through Nehemiah on CD plus digital download. In these messages, you'll discover how God works in seasons of spiritual and cultural collapse, how prayer and obedience become the starting point for renewal, and how ordinary believers can respond with faith instead of fear. We'll send this resource as our thanks when you give $50 or more to support Connect with Skiff Heitzig.
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Now let's return to today's teaching.
Now listen, we don't have to think alike. We do have to have one mind. We do have to have one mind. Having one mind or like-mindedness, I would describe as this: cooperation in the midst of diversity. Cooperation in the midst of diversity.
Best example I can think of. Your human body. The very example Paul used of the church, the body of Christ, there's different. parts with different operations. There is diversity, but there is cooperation in that diversity, and that's the very thing Jesus prayed for.
He said, Lord, Father, that they may be one, even as you and I are one, that the world may believe that you have sent me.
So, here's the deal. There are some core issues. Let's call them essentials. There are non-essentials, but there are essentials. that we must all agree on.
The nature of God. The person and work of Jesus Christ, that he is God in human flesh, that he came to this earth, that he took our place dying on a cross, that he rose physically from the dead, and that he's coming again. There are core issues that you must believe in to even be a Christian. We are of one mind. With those issues.
Secondary issues, well, there's secondary issues. We are of one mind. Second on this list, having compassion. compassion. Here's the word in Greek.
Simpa face. Sumpa face. We get the word. Sympathy from it. Comes from two words.
Pathos, pathos, which means to feel Or it means to have an emotion or to hurt pathos. Sum or sun together to feel. Together. It literally means Feel the same. thing So it's interesting, he says.
Think the same things, be of one mind.
Now he says, feel the same things. Here's the best definition I've ever found of sympathy. You're hurt. In my heart. Your hurt, your pain, your hurt in my heart.
In other words, I can't be callous. I Have to share your joy and share your sorrows. Romans chapter 12, verse 15: rejoice with those that rejoice. Weep with those that weep. Or 1 Corinthians 12:26.
If one member of the body suffers, we all suffer. If one member is honored, we are all honored together. That's having compassion, feeling together. Look at the third on the list. Love as brothers.
Stop right there. I grew up with three older brothers.
So I read something that says love as brothers, and it doesn't like lift me up to some lofty place. Because I love my brothers. But I also like chased a couple of them with a baseball bat from time to time. We were brothers.
So it says love as brothers. I went, really? A better translation would be and it's helpful for guys like me. Love one another as brothers should.
Now that's helpful. Peter wrote this, and I can't help but feel that Peter had his own brother, Andrew, in mind when he wrote this. Andrew was a good brother, a loving brother. He was the one who led Peter to Jesus Christ.
So, love one another as brothers should love. By the way, it's one of the proofs that you and I are saved. You want to attract flies, love your brother and your sister in Christ. How on earth can you love an unbeliever if you can't even love a brother or sister? It's a proof that we are saved.
1 John chapter 3. We know that we have passed from death into life because we love our Brothers. Look at the fourth thing in this description in verse 8. Be tenderhearted. I just got to tell you, that's a very difficult word to translate.
Because the original word Be tenderhearted. The original Greek word is a word called splanknos, and it actually means your intestines. Your kidneys. Your guts, your heart, your liver. That's what it refers to: spank nas.
And a literal translation of this reads this way: have good. Bowels. Did I just hear that in church? Did my pastor just tell me to have good bowels? That's what it says.
And here's why it says that because. A couple thousand years ago in the ancient world, it was believed that the deepest emotions that a person feels is in the intestinal region. We still We still talk it that way, don't we? We say, So what is your gut saying? Or we speak about intestinal fortitude.
I feel it in my gut. If I were to get some of you to stand up here and face a crowd because you're just like you're some people are just so petrified of standing in front of people. You would have what are called what? Butterflies. You feel all queasy in your intestinal stomach.
What is that? I feel weird.
Some of you would actually feel nauseated.
So, the deepest emotions were felt in the intestinal region.
So, even though it's hard to translate this, it would better be rendered. You must be deeply concerned for Others. Let me put it to you this way. The church ought to be the place where the walking wounded feel at home. People who are wounded and beat up by this world should be able to come because we revel in being tender-hearted with each other.
It's something we should be great at. If you're on the staff of this church, or you're an usher or a greeter. or you're in the security team. And you see people come in, and let me just tell you that. I thank God for your service, but we have to guard against the tendency to see another person with another issue, another problem.
We're around this stuff as pastors all day long, and easy for us to just say, there's another death. Another divorce, another catastrophe has happened. We have to really guard ourselves. From leaving this beautiful, sweet spot of being tenderhearted toward one another. The fifth description is be courteous.
I'll just be honest with you, this doesn't really help me a whole lot. In fact, I don't think it's a great translation. Other modern translations do better justice to this word. Be courteous.
I hear my mom right now. Saying, say please and say thank you. That's being courteous, right? A better word is be humble-minded. Be humble-minded.
Now, I'll tell you why this is such a shocking. Statement. Because when Peter wrote this in the Greco-Roman era, Humble-mindedness was not considered a virtue, it was considered a weakness. Only weak people are humble people. When the Greeks conquered people, They turn them into humble-minded people.
There are slaves. The Greeks loved such qualities as self-confidence, self-esteem, self-assertiveness. They would have loved. the swagger of the modern hip hop artist. Or Clint Eastwood, go ahead, make my day.
The Greek would have said, yeah. Peter goes, no. Rather than that, a humble-mindedness. Humility is the grease that keeps the gears of relationships running smoothly. I read something by F.B.
Meyer where he said, I used to think that God's gifts were on shelves, one above the other, and the taller you grew in Christian grace, the more easily you could take them. I have now come to realize that God's gifts are on shelves one below the other. And it's not a matter of growing taller, but of stooping lower. Humble mindedness.
So, all five of these form a beautiful description of the general attitude of the believer, which is love. Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we go, remember, your generosity helps share God's word with people around the world, offering biblical truth and hope in a time when many feel discouraged or overwhelmed. And this month we'd love to thank you for your gift of fifty dollars or more by sending you City in Shambles, Pastor Skiff's complete eighteen message study through Nehemiah on C D plus digital download. These messages will encourage you to respond to brokenness with prayer, repentance, and courageous faith, and remind you that God still rebuilds what's been torn down.
Give today at connectwithgift.com slash offer or call 800-922. 1888. We'll see you next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect the Skiff-Heitzig Weekend Edition. Make a connection at the foot of the crossing. A castle.
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