Striving For Perfection

Q: What does the Bible say about striving for perfection?

The Bible calls Christians to strive for perfection, as seen in Matthew 5:48 where Jesus instructs, 'Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.' The pursuit of perfection is a core teaching in the New Testament. In Matthew 5:48, Jesus emphasizes the need for believers to aim for perfection, stating, 'Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.' This command is not an unrealistic expectation; rather, it signifies the importance of striving to reflect the character of Christ in our lives. While none of us can achieve absolute perfection due to our sinful nature, the grace of God empowers us to pursue holiness and maturity. Our inability does not excuse us from responsibility; we are called to actively seek to grow in grace and love, aspiring to exemplify Christ's character in our relationships and actions.

Q: How do we comfort ourselves according to the Bible?

The Bible encourages believers to find comfort in God's Word and His promises, as highlighted in Romans 15:4. In times of trouble, Scripture provides the ultimate source of comfort and hope for believers. Romans 15:4 states, 'Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope.' This verse reminds us that the teachings and stories in the Bible are not merely historical but are meant to provide assurance and encouragement. By immersing ourselves in Scripture, we can find solace amidst our struggles, knowing that God is with us in our tribulations. Additionally, comfort comes from God through the body of Christ – fellow believers who can encourage and support one another, sharing in the love and peace that comes from the Holy Spirit.

Q: Why is it important for Christians to be of one mind?

Unity among believers is crucial, as it reflects the mind of Christ and promotes harmony within the church, as seen in Philippians 2:2. Being of one mind is a significant biblical principle that Paul emphasizes throughout his letters. In Philippians 2:2, he urges believers to fulfill his joy by being 'like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.' This unity is not merely a superficial agreement but is rooted in humility and love for one another. In a world filled with divisions and discord, the church is called to reflect the unity of Christ, showcasing love and harmony that transcends differences. When Christians align their thoughts and actions with the mind of Christ, they can effectively serve the body and contribute to the glorious mission of the Gospel. Striving for this unity fosters healthy relationships within the church community and advances God's kingdom.

Q: How can Christians find peace in their lives?

Christians can find peace by trusting in God and seeking to live in harmony with others, as encouraged in 2 Corinthians 13:11. Peace is a profound promise given to believers by God, and it is essential for a fulfilling Christian life. In 2 Corinthians 13:11, Paul calls the church to 'be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace.' The peace of God transcends circumstances and is rooted in our relationship with Him. When believers cultivate their faith through prayer, Scripture, and community, they can experience this peace. Additionally, living in harmony with one another is crucial; practicing forgiveness, understanding, and humility towards others leads to a peaceful existence. Ultimately, true peace stems from our trust in God's sovereignty and goodness, as He assures us that He is in control and works all things for our good.

For thee and I in heaven Revived
by you, O Lord Gifted to cross the chalice A glory child we
all have known God bless thee, Lord, indeed All right, go back to 2 Corinthians
13 again. 2 Corinthians 13. We went through all of, we've
been through all of Paul's epistles together. It's been a long time,
though, since we've been through these. We're about to finish
up the Gospel of Mark. I'm not sure where we're going
next, but these epistles are so instructive, so helpful. These meet us. These meet our
needs. These meet us where we are. I
always love to look at the epistles with you. They're letters to
the churches, and they're letters to us, letters from God to us. So this is written to the church
at Corinth with a very large group of people, a Gentile church,
non-Jew, a Gentile church, living, people living in a modern world,
then modern world, not much different than the one we live in, really
not. And this church went through all trials and troubles and temptations
and problems that we go through. You read it for yourself, you'll
see that they encountered every problem there was to encounter,
and Paul dealt with these things. Anything and everything that
God's church goes through, this church went through it, and all
of God's church has been going through all of these things,
whatever it may be. And the Apostle Paul, along with
preaching the gospel, he addressed every single problem that arose
up. He addressed them in these epistles,
1 and 2 Corinthians. These were typical people, just
typical people like you and me. And they had typical problems
like we have. Now, we're just going to look
at the last Because in these last four verses
in Paul's farewell to this church, he pretty much sums up in a few
words everything he's been saying. He kind of, he's giving this
farewell and he gives five things that he wants to leave with them.
So we are, in effect, preaching the whole Second Corinthians.
All right? Five things. All right? And that's,
these are five exhortations that they needed and five that we
need. Five that we need. All right?
Look at, look at verse eleven. He's concluding and he says,
finally, brethren, finally, the last thing I want to say to you,
brethren, he said, is farewell. Farewell. This is not just a... You know,
we say our goodbyes without much thought. But Paul is not going
to see them again. He's not going to see them again.
I thought about this. I wish we told everyone we love
farewell in the same way that Paul did here, as if we would
never see them again. We don't know. We might not. He says, farewell. Or what he's saying is, may you
fare well. May it end up well with you is
my hope, is my prayer. Oh, John, John says this in his
farewell, and 2 John, he said, 3 John, he said, I wish above
all things that you might prosper and be in health as your soul
prospers. Now, we don't preach a health
and wealth gospel, but we do wish health and wealth and prosperity
upon one another. Yes, we do. And that's what John
said, I wish above all things that you may prosper. Paul says
farewell. May our goodbyes, the word goodbye,
you know what that means? It's a slang term for God bless
you. G-O-O-D-V-Y-E. It's a hyphenated slang term
taken from, men used to say, God bless you, God be with you.
May that truly be our goodbye to one another. God be with you. And now he concludes with five,
as I said, five gentle, yet firm, convicting, yet loving exhortations. Gentle, very firm, not suggestions. The command. God doesn't give
suggestions. The command. Convicting, yet
loving. Exhortation. The first thing
he said, this, this, in conclusion, verse 11. Be perfect. Be perfect. What are you thinking? I know what you think. Nobody's
perfect. Be perfect anyway. He doesn't qualify that, does
he? He doesn't say, I know no one's perfect and I know you're
not able to be. He just says, be perfect. Doesn't he? Be perfect. It's true. No one's perfect. But that's
not a good argument for not trying to be. Is it? That's not a good argument. We use that argument. Don't. That's always our justification,
self-justification. Well, I can't. That's an old
excuse for not trying. Look with me at Matthew 5. Now,
Paul got this from our Lord. Our Lord said this first. Matthew
chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5. Our Lord said this is perfect.
Look at Matthew 5, look at verse 48. You have it? Our Lord is preaching his sermon
on the mount, and he says in verse 48, Be ye therefore perfect,
even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Now, what's
the word perfect mean? When the King James Bible was
translated from the original Hebrew and Greek into the English,
or what they would call the vulgar language, there were many, many, many men
involved in that translation effort. Men who were appointed
by the king carefully. carefully picked for their scholar. I forget how many there were. There were quite a few, and they
all diligently, if you read the front of your Bible, diligently
compared and revised. They would all check each other.
They would all have certain portions that they themselves would translate,
and then they all report to one another and they'd check each
other's out. Just check, recheck, double check, recheck. What's
the word perfect mean? Perfect. That's the word they
came up with in English. That's the word they came up
with. I mean, we know it means complete, we know it means whole,
we know it means mature, but they said be perfect. What's the best you can be? Perfect. We said strive for that. That is, be perfect. Our inability,
listen to me, our inability doesn't excuse our responsibility. Our inability does not excuse
our responsibility. Let me give you an illustration. Let's say I act out of sort at
times with my, with whoever. I get all out of sort, and who
doesn't? And I say, well, that's just the, that's just the mayhem,
the mayhem way. Well, you, you kill the mayhem. Ain't no
good in a mayhem. Ain't no good in an Anderson.
Ain't no good in a sword. Ain't nothing good in any of
us by nature. Be done with that dude. If there's any good in any of
us, it's not the mayhems or whoever. It's the grace of God. And the
sooner we be done with this excuse, well, that's just the way I am,
the better off we'll be. I don't want to be like a mayhem. I want to be like Christ. That's what we're all striving
for. That's just the way I am. Well, kill him then. Get rid of that fellow. He's trouble to you and everybody
else. Kill him off. That's what you
mean. That's what the scripture says.
It says, mortify your men. It's Christ we need to strive
to be like. Who is perfect? So, that's our
goal, is it not? Be like Christ. Be perfect. Be like Christ. Look at everything
our Lord tells us. Well, we can't look at all of
it. But in Matthew 5, in this sermon, look at some of the things
that he tells us and concludes with that, be perfect. He said, Blessed are the peacemakers,
they shall be called the children of God. Verse 16, Let your light
so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and
glorify your Father which is in heaven. We're not preaching
works for salvation, but our Lord once said it is. Verse 23 and 24, If you bring your gift to the
altar and you remember it, your brother has all against you.
In other words, if you come to the house of worship and you
remember you've been acting like a horse's tail. That's you, not them. You. If your brother has something
against you, your wife, your husband, whoever it may be, and
you've been acting this way, look at verse 24. Leave your
gift there and get back home or get to whoever it was and
be reconciled. Tell them you're sorry. God's
not going to hear you pray. God's not going to bless you,
as long as you've been acting like that. Be reconciled. Be reconciled. And then come
and worship. And you'll find forgiveness.
You'll find forgiveness. Ask forgiveness, and you'll find
it. I know every husband and wife
in here, that hits home. Don't come here unless you both
reconcile. Verse 25, he says, Agree with your adversary. Who's
that? It doesn't matter who it is. But they've been treating
me wrong. He doesn't qualify that. He doesn't say, well, if they
treat you wrong, then you have a right to own them. He says,
do whatever it takes, he says. Do whatever it takes to be with
your adversary. Agree while you're in the way
with them. Agree with them. Verse 37, let
your communication be yea, yea, nay, nay. Whatever is more than
this is evil. That's hard, isn't it? And we,
everyone, we, man has to use an oath with everything, doesn't
he? We're all guilty. Yeah, yeah. You've heard it said,
verse thirty-eight, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
I say unto you, verse thirty-nine, resist not evil, whosoever smite
thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. Verse
forty-two, give to him that asks of thee. Yeah, but last time
he didn't return what I said. Give. Verse 43, you've heard it said
that you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. I say unto
you, love your enemy. Bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you.
Let me ask you something. Why? Why should we? Verse 45, that you may be children
of your father. He makes his son to rise on the
evil and on the good, reigns on the just and unjust. You love
them that dislove you, what reward have you? Don't the publicans
do the same? You salute your brethren only,
what do you do more than unbelievers? Do not even the publican be perfect. God treats us like this, doesn't
he? Love does, the scripture says,
in that while we were yet in it. Turn the other cheek. All of these things that he tells
us to do, he did. He was perfect. He did these things perfectly. And what does he say? Be perfect. Be perfect. But, but... I want to be, don't you? We'll
strive for it. Are you with me? By the grace
of God, we should strive to be the best worshipper in here. Don't you want to worship perfectly?
Wouldn't you like to come in here and really worship with
a perfect heart, a sincere heart, huh? With your mind riveted on
God's Word. Singing praises from your heart,
not just an observation. Wouldn't you love to enter into
prayer calling on God with all your heart? Do it! Do it. Ask Him for the grace. Whatever your hand finds to do.
With all your might. Be a perfect worshipper. Be a
perfect brother. Why should we be less to one
another? Be a friend that sticks closer
to the person. Shouldn't we strive for that?
Be perfect. Be perfect. Be the best friend that somebody
could have. Be perfect. Be the perfect husband. Be the perfect man. perfect husband in Franklin County. Yes. Why not? Christ loves what is. Be a perfect wife, Jill. Why
not? Why not strive? I can't. Our Lord told that man with a
withered hand. Now, he had a withered hand. Or stretch out your hands. Where did he get that?
Without him, we could do nothing. That's true. But I can do all
things through Christ. Be perfect. Be perfect. I like that. I want that. We should strive for that. I'm
confident of this. Scripture says, I'm confident
that God shall perfect that which concerns you. I'm confident of
that. That's what it says. God shall
perfect that which concerns you. In the meantime, be perfect. Be perfect. Be the perfect son,
perfect daughter. Look at the next thing. He says,
be perfect in our text. He says, be of good comfort. Be of good comfort. Now, there's so, so very many
things, different things that trouble us all. We all are constantly
troubled Look at chapter 4 here in 2 Corinthians. I like this. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. You do too. You love these verses.
Our lives are full of trouble because we live in a sinful world,
a world full of sin, a troubling world, a world which is only
getting worse, getting worse. And so our lives are full of
trouble, within and without. Chapter 4, 2 Corinthians, he
says, verse 8 and 9, we are trouble on every side. Yes, we are. Paul knew more about trouble
than perhaps all of us put together. Yet, we shouldn't be totally
distressed. Why? Well, we'll see in a minute.
We are perplexed. We cannot figure out why things
happen the way they do. It's perplexing. But we're not
in despair, or that is, altogether without hope or help. We're persecuted,
but we're not forsaken, not alone. Cast down. Oh, we all get down
cast, but nothing's going to destroy us. Nothing's going to
destroy us. No, it isn't. Look at verse 16
through 18. He says, for which cause we faint not. Now, he's talking about the apostles
here, himself and the others who were always delivered unto
death, verse 11, he says, we're always delivered unto death.
Everywhere we turn, our lives are in danger. That's what Paul
said. We can't go anywhere that we might just be hung. Now, none
of us face that. Paul said we do. But, verse 16,
we're not going to faint, we're not going to quit. Though our
outward man perish, though he does perish, yet the inward man,
the new man, is renewed day by day. Now, if Paul can say this
about his troubles, and if you want to read about
his troubles sometimes, you can go back and read what all he
went through. He says, Our life afflicts us. Our life afflicts
us. which is but for a moment. And
I've reminded us all about these, why he says they are light affliction. They're light compared with what
some go through. They're light compared with our
blessings. Compared with our blessings,
our afflictions, our blessings far outweigh our afflictions. They're light compared with,
look at the next thing, this eternal glory that's waiting. And they're just for a moment
anyway. So he says, verse 18, we look not at things which are
seen, but things which are not seen. Things which are seen are
temporal. Look at things with the eye of
faith. Things which are not seen are eternal. So he says, be of
good comfort, this too shall pass. Be of good comfort. This
is but for a moment. Be of good comfort. You're troubled,
yes, but don't be in distress. Be of good comfort. You're cast
down, but be of good comfort. You're not going to be destroyed.
It's not going to destroy you. Not going to destroy you. Be
of good comfort. I need this. And all or any in here who are
prone like me to being negative, anyone in here like that, I know
you are. I know you are. You know me, I know you. Pretty
well. Negativism, you know. I'm a cynic. That's not good. That's not good. I'm cynical about the world,
but everything's positive and concerning
our God. Everything working out together
for what? Bad? No, good. He's a good helper. God puts stones in our path so
that God puts them there. Everything crosses our path,
anyone who crosses our path. It's for our patience. Try in
our faith, give good comfort. Anyone who's prone to melancholy.
I've seen some of God's people really grow in grace over the
years, some in here and We're all in here who, I believe, have
a true profession of growing grace. It takes time. It takes
time. I'm just going to... He probably
won't hear this. Brother Don Bailey. I've known
him for years. I've known him for 20 years.
When I first met him, he was prone to melancholy. As a man
went through two or three tours of Vietnam, it was just... That's
hell. Hell on earth. You've been in a foxhole in Korea. You know what? He went there. He went through two or three
tours. Didn't have anybody at home. So he kept opting back
and went back over there. It was a death wish. He had a
death wish. He said he remembers standing
out in an open field. Defying death. And as a result of that, everyone
who went through that came back just greatly affected. That and
other wars also. Donnie was so prone to melancholy,
wasn't he? He's not now. Twenty years later,
are his problems over? He's going through a problem
right now. Just kill him. He's in there. Just kill him.
But he's a happy man. He's a good comforter. Grown
in grace and knowledge of pride. And he realized this too shall
pass. The Lord sent this and it'll not destroy me. Live the
comfort. Remember who wrote this. Turn
back to chapter 1 with me. Chapter 1 of 2 Corinthians. Chapter 1. Remember who it is. Paul is the one writing this. Chapter 1, look at this, look
at what he says here. Now, Paul tells us to be of good
company. How can he say that, Paul? Because
Paul needed it. He needed the same company that
you and I need. We're going to see where he got
it. Chapter 1, verse 3, he says, Even the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of mercies, the God of all comfort, all blessings,
holy name of God, who comforted us, me, Silas, Timothy. In all our tribulations, he does,
he comforts us, that we may be able to comfort them which are
in any trouble, any trouble, whatever it may be. Paul had
a bodily affliction for all his life. All his life he had a bodily,
he was a feeble man. Timothy, evidently, had constant intestinal problems. He sat down often in the pharmacy.
Timothy was evidently a sick man. Paul said, in all our tribulation,
that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble,
any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of
God. That's where we get our comfort.
That's where we get it. Now here you're going to find
out where it is. Look at Romans chapter 15. Look at this. I quote this all the time to
you. Romans 15. Where do you get your comfort,
Paul? Where do you get your consolation, Paul? Where do we get ours? Romans
15, look at verse 4. You have it? I want everyone
to look at it. Romans 15, 4, Paul says, Whatsoever things
were written aforetime, whatever happened to all of God's people,
whatever God writes, all the word of God, were written for
our learning that we, through patience, that is, waiting, and
comfort of the scriptures. That's where we get our comfort.
There's no other comfort to be had. You people are going to
leave here with a little comfort, a little more comfort than you
can. How? Right here. Those who are not
here for whatever reason, I'm not, but whatever reason, I'm
not going to have the comfort that you have. This is where
we get it. That's why this is so vital.
It's so vital. If we don't avail of it ourselves
at home, if we don't understand it ourselves, then you need to
come where some man can show you, and where you can get some. This is all we got. It's the
only place we're going to get it. Only place we're going to
get answers. Only place we're going to get
help. Only place we're going to get comfort, consolations. Only place. Only place. He said, Be of good comfort.
Let me read to you what David said. David wrote this in Psalm
119. He said this. Listen to this.
Oh, he said, Lord, Remember the word unto your servant. To me, David said, remember your
word. That is, bring it to remembrance.
To me, that's what you've caused me to hope in. All my hope is
built in what you've said in this book. Bring it to remembrance. Look at the next thing. This
is my comfort in my affliction, he said. Your word. I can't find
any anywhere else. This is the most important thing
on earth. Right now, what we're doing.
That's the reason we always say this is the one thing we need. We need them. We need them. Go back to the text. 2 Corinthians
13. So he says, be of good comfort. How? Well, go to the Word. Comfort yourselves in these things. He said, Order all things, and
they are sure to serve you. This is all my hope. Jesus Christ
came down here to redeem me, and He hath redeemed me. The
Holy Spirit is leading me, and guiding me, and teaching me,
and rebuking me, and correcting me, and chastening me, but He
is operating on me. My brethren love me. Be of good
comfort. Somebody loves you. And I'm not
saying that like these idiots out there. But they do. Be of good comfort. Does. Who was it? Isaiah that said,
Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up.
How did he do that? To the brethren. Yeah, he does. But brethren love me. This family
loves me. I have all things. Be of good
comfort. I have everything needful. Be
of good comfort. All right, back to the text.
He says in verse, look at the next thing. Verse 11, he says,
Be of one mind. Be of one mind. Now, Paul says
this quite often, quite often. Turn with me. Please turn to
Philippians 2, Philippians chapter 2. The Apostle Paul says this
in nearly every epistle. He says, Be of one mind, be of
one accord, Driving together, we have one
mind, one mind. What is this one mind we're to
be of? We're all, in our language, we
need to think alike. Think alike. So everyone think
this way. Let everyone get this into your
head. You have one life. What is it? Let's read it. Philippians 2, verse 2. Fulfill
ye my joy, Paul says, that you be like-minded, that you all
think this way, having the same love. Being of one accord and
one mind. Now here it is. Here's the mind.
Don't do anything. Let nothing be done through strife
or vainglory. Don't do anything. Don't strive
with anybody about anything. Blessed are the peacemakers.
Don't get mad at anybody for anything. You don't have that
right. Don't strive. Or vainglory. That's the reason we strive with
people. It's vainglory. We think we're something. They've
offended me. You remember that. How could
they do this to me? Who? How could they do this to
who? Well, me. Well, who are we? Oh! King Roy? That's not... We're all peasants here, aren't
we? What do you mean, how could they
do this to me? Who are you? If we get that through our heads... That's vainglory, what it is.
Thank Him or something when we're nothing. So they defended me. Well, who to who? You're mad,
are you? God's mad at you because you're
mad. That's vain and glory, but he
don't. He says, but in lowliness of
mind, what's that mean? It means thinking low thoughts
of yourself. You can't offend the chief of
sinners if we just say that with lip service, then we'll get offended,
right? If we just say that and don't
mean it, then somebody will, if we really mean it, nobody
will. Lowliness of mind, let each,
here it is. Let each esteem others better
than themselves. We just read, just went through
1 Corinthians 13 not long ago, remember? Love, thinketh, knoweth,
and loveth. Beareth the whole thing, hopeth
the whole thing, believeth the truth. Love, never thinks evil
about somebody else. She didn't mean that. She didn't
mean to offend. She had a bad day. He had a such
love. But vain glory, for they've done
to me. Let each esteem... This is the
mind. Let's get this through our head here, that we're nothing.
Anything this side of hell is mercy and grace. And if anybody
loves us, we sure don't deserve it. I mean, if anybody loves
us, we don't deserve it. Let's be
thankful for it. Let each esteem other better
than himself. Read on. Look, not every man
on his own things, me and mine, but every man on the things of
others. Let this mind be, which was also in Christ Jesus, who
made himself of no reputation, made himself of no reputation. We are nobody. We don't have
to make ourselves of no reputation. We are nobody. But I will lay
hands. Big deal! The name mayhem is going to perish
from this earth. This world doesn't revolve around
me and my family. This world revolves around the
glory of God and the good of the body, the good of the church,
the good of one another. Let this mind be amused, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who became a servant. He who alone
deserved to be served Wash their stinking feet. Live thirty-three years to serve
those ungrateful foul people. We're not here to be served.
We're not here to serve our own. We're not here to serve ourselves.
We're here to serve the cause of Christ and the body of Christ.
That's why we're here. That's why God put you in this
body. That's why God put you in this
family. Serve the family. Not your family,
but this family. God's glory, exaltation of the
head, edification of the body. Not self, not me, not mine. Christ is perfect. Christ is
my husband. Let this mind be in you. Christ
said, who is my family? Who is my family? He was the
best son a woman could have. But when it came between the
people of Christ and his own blood family, he said, Who is
my family? Let this mind be in heaven. Can it be done by a human being? Sure it can. Apostle Paul never got married. He never got married, he was
a eunuch for the cause of Christ. He forsook his own rightful pursuit. Some man's
got a right to pursue a wife, and he said that. Did we not
have the power of the right to have a wife? Yes, we did. Peter
had a wife. Paul didn't. And he's the most
blessed man that you can read about. He forsook everything
and everybody to cause the cross. Can it be done? Sure it can. Sure it can, by the grace of
God. My own pastor and father, they don't own anything on this
planet. Nothing. Nothing. I'd kind of like to
be like him. Have the grace and all that he
had. Can it be done? Yeah. Can you forsake everyone
and everything for the cause of Christ? Yes, you can. Yes,
you can. My wife and I left all of
our friends. We were members of a large church
with many, many, many friends. I had a job. My earning potential
was about $75,000 15 years ago. Sold the house of our dreams
to come here for you. And we did. We sure did. Left our family. No thoughts
to the mayhem. My brother and sister, my father
and my mother, did the same thing. I've become a fool and glory,
and like Paul said, but I'm your example. I'm not telling you
to do what I have done. You're my family. You. Christ is my hope. Now, look at what he says here.
What he says, he says in verse 15, back in the text, 2 Corinthians
13, he says this in verse 11, and the God of love and peace
will be with you. Let this mind be in you. The
God of love and peace will be with you. A sense of God's love. God's
love for us is not conditioned on us or anything we do. It's
not. God loves us free. God loves
His people in spite of us. But a sense of God's love, and
we need that, and we know when we don't have that sense at times. We know when we don't have a
sense of His smile. He's our Father, and He smiles
and He frowns, just like a father does. Did you ever sense your
father's displeasure, your earthly father, when he was mad? Oh,
did you? When you, when things were out
of store, oh, you were not, you did not feel good until you were
reconciled. It's the same way with our God,
is it not? Yes, it is. A sense of God's love, His acclamation,
His smile, His pleasure is only for those that are of this one
life. Those that are out for themselves There's no peace. There's not going to be any peace. Those who think only of themselves
will find themselves without this comfort and this peace and
a sense of God's approbation and love. They say, well, that's
not going to have any peace. It's not going to. But does it
do? No matter what comes, they want
to have peace. They want to have peace. Look at the next thing here in
our text. He says, live in peace. Live in peace. Live in peace. We're to strive for peace. Strive
for peace. Try to strive for peace. James said this, and it's what
he said, the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by them that
make peace. In other words, they experience
the blessing of what they're sowing. You reap what you sow.
If you sow peace, you'll get peace. That's what he said. But if you sow discord, we're
going to have nothing but trouble. Blessed are the peacemakers.
Blessed are the peacemakers. They will be blessed when you
strive to live peaceably. He said, as much as possible,
with all men, with all honor and neighborliness. If it's life
or there's a question, give it a foot. It's not worth it. Whatever it
may be. I could give you so many illustrations
of the wisdom of this. And you could
too. You could give me some where
the Lord has enabled you to strive for peace. And it's a good thing. It's a good
thing. Go a little bit closer to home. Husbands and wives. This is where
we dwell. Husbands and wives. Friends. Brethren. Be a peacemaker, whatever. If you're right, they're wrong,
then be a peacemaker. Be a peacemaker. Tell them they're
right. Tell them. Just be a peacemaker. No one wins in an argument. No
one. Do that. Huh? What does it do? It just
escalates stuff. Is that a soft answer turns away
with that? Oh, my. My wife kind of precipitated
all this because she was upbraiding me the other day, scolding me
the other day for some ornery ways that I was being. Of course,
I received it very well when she was I was thankful that, I know she
was thankful that I was kind of biting my tongue the whole
time. You know, the more I thought about it, the more she talked,
the more she said that I was doing, she's right. I thought,
she's right. I hate to admit it. It's killing me. Good. Me, it needs to be killed. And
I thought, she's right. And I went away, thinking about
all she said, and I thought, I need to do, I need to, I need
to sit back and take it. Stop the mistake. And cut it
out. Be perfect. I got, you know,
I started reading and searching and ran across these verses,
and they spoke to me. And I'm glad. Peace, be at peace. I'm so glad
I didn't lash out at her as it just escalates into an argument
that nothing's accomplished. Just bit my tongue. Boy, we need
to battle that a lot. And go on and think about it. Think about it. And when your
head cools, you find, you know, there's a lot of sense to that,
of truth. Look at the next thing. I've
got to close. He says in verse 12, and he says the result of
all this, the God of love and peace shall be with you. Verse
12, greet one another with a holy kiss. Who? One another. I thought about this. It's not
just talking about brethren, it's also talking about husbands
and wives, brothers and sisters, siblings. I've always applied this to just
brethren, but it means husbands and wives. I was walking out
of the Winn-Dixie today, and it was an older couple, I mean
older, Old gray-haired couple, both
of them, they were walking home at night. And they were both
smiling, looking at each other, smiling like newlyweds. Maybe
they were. But anyway, I thought, that's
a good thing. That's such a good thing. I said,
hello, and they said, hey. It just cheered me up to see
them like that, you know, old hands, old lovebirds. Why not? It would be perfect. It would be perfect. Greet one another. That means
everybody. Everybody needs to be greeted, don't they? Don't
you like to be spoken to? My brother Marvin called me up
this morning and said, happy birthday. I know it's late, but
happy birthday. I said, appreciate you thinking
about me. You don't deserve it. Really, I wasn't expecting him
or anybody to call me on my birthday, big deal. But he did, and I thank
you for thinking of me. Everybody needs that. Everybody
needs that. Greet one another. Tell them
you're glad to see them. If you don't do it to them, they
probably won't do it to you. A man who has friends has got
to show himself friendly. Once you dole out, come back
to you. Greet one another. The next couple of lines, he
says, all the saints salute you. They do. Brother Rinaldo, I spoke
with him, he said, that's exactly what I said. Saludos la Church. All the saints salute you. People
love you. They do. They salute you. Verse 14, the grace of our Lord.
This is Paul's parting prayer. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. We need it. and the love of God
and the communion. Fellowship of the Holy Ghost
be with all of you, every one of you. Amen. All right, that's
my prayer. You're dismissed.

Striving For Perfection

What does the Bible say about striving for perfection?

How do we comfort ourselves according to the Bible?

Why is it important for Christians to be of one mind?

How can Christians find peace in their lives?

Sermon Transcript

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Striving For Perfection

What does the Bible say about striving for perfection?

How do we comfort ourselves according to the Bible?

Why is it important for Christians to be of one mind?

How can Christians find peace in their lives?

Sermon Transcript

About Paul Mahan

Comments

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