How to Attract Flies

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 tenderhearted with each other.

Something we should be great at. Someone once said, the church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares how you can live in such a way that others only see the love of Jesus in your heart.

Right now, we want to tell you about a resource that inspires you to live with unyielding confidence in God. Who comes to mind when you think of great godly women? Probably Jesus' mother Mary. Maybe Ruth, the unlikely ancestor of Christ.

But what about you? Here's New York Times best-selling author Eric Metaxas. Clearly, if God created us male and female in His image, it's leaning into who we are as women, if we're women, that is going to show God's greatness. Discover how the lives of some of the greatest women in history can show you the path to true greatness in your own life as a woman made in God's image. That's what you'll find in this month's inspiring resource by Eric Metaxas.

In every one of the seven women, I think you see a different side of femininity. Seven Women is our thank you for your gift of $35 or more today to help connect more people to God's word. And right now, we'll also send you a special bonus resource, Pastor Skip's six-message CD collection on prominent women from Scripture.

Visit connectwithskip.com slash offer to give online securely or call 800-922-1888. Now, we're in 1 Peter chapter 3 as we get into the message with Skip Heitzig. 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. You're hurt, your pain, you're 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. It says love as brothers.

I'm like, 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 three, 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 eight, be tender hearted. Now, I just got to tell you, that's a very difficult word to translate because the original word, be tender hearted, the original Greek word is a word called splanchnos, and it actually means your intestines, your kidneys, your guts, your heart, your liver. That's what it refers to, splanchnos.

That's what it refers to, splanchnos. 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 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, 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 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 were 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. 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 tender hearted 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 a 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 turned them into humble minded people.

They are slaves. The Greeks loved such qualities as self confidence, self esteem, self assertedness. 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.

I'm 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. Okay, that's fine. We're okay. Chapter three, verse eight, got that down. We're good at that. Okay, I'll work on that, pastor. Thank you. Okay, now it gets hard. Because in verse nine, he's turning from people who are nice to you and brothers and sisters, hi brother, hi sister, love you, tender hearted, sympathy to people who are not, who are mean to you.

What do you do if somebody is really grouchy and gripey or insults you or tries to hurt you? Well, I'm glad you asked. Verse nine, this is our gentle response.

Not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. Okay, so I don't know here. I don't know if he's referring to unbelievers who are in the world persecuting the believers who are in the church, or he could be speaking about fellow believers in your church who are just simply hassling you. You have a disagreement with.

Either way, it's all the same. How do you treat them? You don't hit back. You don't fight back.

You don't yell back. You bless back. That you might obtain or inherit, he says, a blessing. I got to tell you, I think this was very close to Peter's heart. I think Peter, when he wrote this, had a very specific thing in his mind from his past experience. Because there was a time in Peter's life where he did try to fight evil with evil. He did try to fight back. Remember the time when Jesus and his disciples were in the Garden of Gethsemane and they came to arrest Jesus and the Roman soldiers came and remember what Peter did? Remember he got down on his knee and was really humble and he said, Oh Lord, just whatever your will is, I just want you where your will is because whatever you want, he did that, right? He did not do that.

What did he do? He took out a sword. He took out a sword and he saw the servant of the high priest and thank God he was a fisherman and not a swordsman because he was trying for his head and he missed and got his ear and cut it off. And Jesus said, Peter, Peter, put away your sword. Don't you know that those who live by the sword will what? They'll die by the sword.

Put it away. It's not how you fight this, Peter. So in Peter's writing this, I believe that's still fresh in his memory. You don't return evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. Now this is such a hallmark of the Christian faith and if you were looking for something that is the dividing line that separates Christianity from every other belief system, this is it. We love our enemies. That's what separates us from every other belief system in God.

We love our enemies. It was unheard of. It's unheard of. Even the Jews had in the Old Testament what was known as the lex talionis. That is the law that says the punishment fits the crime.

You've heard it before. It's in Exodus 21. Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. That's the lex talionis.

By the way, it's usually misinterpreted. You know why that was given? To limit vengeance. Because human nature would want more than just an eye or a tooth or a foot. You took out one of my eyes, you're going to be blind in both of your eyes for life. Oh yeah, you took out one of my teeth in that fight?

You are dentures forever. That's human nature. So to limit that, the lex talionis was given, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, limb for limb. But this? To bless someone? Now I got to tell you, here I am up here with this microphone speaking to you and I just got to tell you, this is so easy for me to preach about. This is so hard for me to do. Anybody can preach on this.

It's good preaching. Love people. But I'll tell you the honest truth, put me behind the wheel of a car.

It's a different situation. There was one time when I'm on the freeway here in town and I'll tell you, I just, I've always thought Albuquerque's the place where all the bad drivers come and we all live together in one city. I'm on the freeway and somebody drives and pulls right in front of me and then slows down. I wanted to follow him through town all day long. That was in my heart.

Just yesterday. I'm in uptown, I see a parking space and it's right up by the Apple store. It's like, this is from God. I'm seeing it.

It opens up. I'm about to turn in blinkers on. I'm waiting for him to get out and thinking, thank you Jesus. Just then, right before I turn in, somebody sees it and scoots right in and takes my spot. I so wanted to mess his mirrors up and put his windshield wipers up. It's not easy to do.

Easy to say, easy to talk about, easy to preach about, easy even to listen to perhaps, but to do this is tough. I was reading in the Psalms. Have you ever read these Psalms in your Bible called imprecatory Psalms?

Ever heard of those? That's a theological way to mean not nice guy Psalms. Vengeance Psalms.

It's where David calls down God's wrath from heaven on his enemies. Ever read Psalms like that? They're in the Bible.

I remember when I first read these, I was sort of shocked and I was drawn to that kind of literature. It's like, wow, that's in the Bible. I read that Psalm where David said, and I quote, you can tell I memorized it, Lord, break their teeth in their mouths.

I read that and I said, I'm going to underline that. That baby's a life verse right there. That's right in the scripture. Hey, Pastor Skip, what's your favorite life verse?

Oh, here it is. Break their teeth in their mouths. And I'll be honest, there have been times where I've actually prayed imprecatory prayers. I'm so glad that God is a good God and He doesn't listen to everything I say.

I'm not going to say yes to that one. But I found something as I prayed for people, my heart began to change. As I genuinely pray for my enemies, it might start out very vengeful, but I started thinking about them.

My heart begins to soften and begins to change. And what Peter says is that you return blessing knowing look what it says you need to see it knowing that you were called to this that you may inherit a blessing. You may inherit a blessing. You will get blessed when you bless instead of do what feels right and react. You will be blessed. Persecutions on earth today will add blessings to you in heaven tomorrow. Jesus said that in the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and say all kind of evil against you for my sake.

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven. I read a book that impacted my life years ago by an author, a pastor named Juan Carlos Ortiz. He was Argentinian. Juan Carlos Ortiz was in a leadership conference he was writing about and he said, I saw a man who was in my former denomination. So I went over to him, he said to hug him. But the leader saw him coming in stood back and he said, Don't hug me. We're enemies. And Juan Carlos said to this fellow brother in Christ, who said, Don't hug me.

I'm your enemy. He said, Oh, well, I didn't know we were enemies. And then he said, Praise God. Now I have an opportunity to love my enemy. And he walked up to him and hugged him close and publicly prayed in his hearing, Lord, thank you for my precious enemy. Bless his life in Jesus name. Now, the guy was shocked.

But he said within one year, he was preaching at that man's church. You will receive a blessing. So how do you attract flies by your general attitude of love, by your gentle response of blessing?

And third, and we'll close by our genuine motivation. Let's finish this up verse 10. Peter says, 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. That's the motivation.

Why do you do it? Here's the here's why. He says for and then what does he do? He quotes what? Quotes the Old Testament. He's quoting a psalm in the Old Testament. So follow his thinking, do this, don't do that, because or for any quote scripture. In other words, he's showing his audience the reason we do anything is because God says so in his word. Quoting Psalm 34, one of his favorite Psalms, obviously, because he quotes it at least three times in this letter, so far he has. By the way, one of the great reasons why I'm such a stickler about our Wednesday night through the Bible, Bible studies from Genesis to Revelation is for this reason.

I think it takes the whole Bible to make a whole believer and understand what God says through all of his book adds that much more to your life. Notice what it says, for he who would love life and see good days. Let me ask you something. Do you want a good life? How many of you want a good life? And you want to have a good day?

I get that all the time. Hey, have a good day. Want to have a good day? Want to have a good life?

Here's how to do it. If you love life, then love people. The good people and the bad people. Do you love life? I love life. The French have a little phrase, they call it joie de vivre. Joie de vivre describes somebody who loves life, wakes up every day, ah, another day.

That ebullience, that positive attitude, a lover of life. But there are some people who hate life. Solomon, who had every reason to love life because he had so much, wrote in his little journal in Ecclesiastes, therefore I hated life because everything was vanity and vexation of spirit. Some people hate life. Other people, and I would say a lot of people, just endure life.

I know a lot of Christians, they just endure life. How are you doing? Okay, I'm making it through one more day. That's okay if you do that for like a week. But the following month and the following year, how are you doing?

Okay. It's like what, did the spirit of Eeyore take over or what? It's just endure life.

They're always enduring. Other people try to escape life, shirking their responsibilities and opportunities. They don't love life. They don't endure life. They escape life.

But you can enjoy life. And that's where you realize, sovereign God is in control of me and even allows the good and the gnarly people that come into my life to be there for His own purpose. And I'm going to treat them with blessing and not cursing. That's one motivation.

Here's the second. Verse 12, for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous. You get the idea as God's just sort of peeking down from heaven looking at you. Not like watching you to see how you're doing.

Did you mess up? But the idea of this is He's super intending. He's watching over you with care. He's taking care of you. He's protecting you and He's paying attention to you and listening when you pray.

That's the picture. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are open to their prayers but, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. So here's the deal. I don't have to worry about the people who do evil to me. God is taking notice of that.

He's watching over me and He's going to sort all that out in the end. So I don't have to be the guy to exact revenge. That's a high motivation. I do it because the Bible says to do it and I do it because God is watching over me, super intending my life, taking really good care of me and He'll worry about all those evil people. I want to close with this thought. As I went through this description of sweetness, I couldn't help but think this is exactly what God is like. Romans chapter five, God demonstrated His own love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. While we were sinners, Christ died for us. When we were unlovely, Christ died for us. When we rejected Him, Christ loved us and died for us.

It's just like Jesus. So here we are. We are not the company of the faultless. We are the company of the forgiven, which goes to show and should be proof by the fact that we open our doors to the unlovely, to the hurting, to the raunchy and we show Christ's love. Oh yes, the standard of holiness. Oh yes, truth, but His love and that's how to attract flies and they want to be attracted.

They're just looking for someone and something sweet. That wraps up Skip Heitzig's powerful message for you from the series Rock Solid. Right now we want to share about an exciting opportunity you have to take your knowledge of God's Word even deeper. Calvary College is now open for registration. Calvary College is offering select online classes as an opportunity for individuals to take their life's calling to a whole new level with an educational emphasis in Biblical studies. With our unique partnerships with Veritas International University and Calvary Chapel University, you will have the opportunity to obtain your bachelor's or master's degree with complete online programs. Whether you're looking to obtain an accredited online degree or take individual courses to become better equipped in your knowledge of God's unchangeable truth, Calvary College has you covered with a range of opportunities. For updates on classes and registration information for Calvary College, please visit calvaryabq.college. That's calvaryabq.college.

For Calvary College, calvaryabq.college. Your generosity not only helps keep these solid and relevant Bible teachings by Pastor Skip on the air, but it also helps provide monthly resources to equip more listeners like you. Consider partnering with the ministry today to keep you and many others connected to God's Word. Visit connectwithskip.com slash donate to give a gift now. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Or call 800-922-1888.

800-922-1888. Thank you. Come back again tomorrow as Skip Heitzig shares some hopeful promises you can cling to when you experience persecution. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.