“Do-Gooders” for Jesus
1 Peter 3:10-12
1. Love Life and Have Good Days:
a. Watch Your Words and Your Ways. (Vs. 10, Prov 13:15)
i. Proverbs 13:15, “Good understanding wins favor, but the way of the unfaithful is hard.” (NIV)
b. Expend Serious Effort to Pursue Peace. (Vs. 11)
2. God PERSONALLY:
a. Watches Over His People. (Vs. 12, Ex 2:23b-25)
i. Exodus 2:23b-25, “The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor, and they cried out, and their cry for help because of the difficult labor ascended to God. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. and God saw the Israelites, and God knew.”
b. Hears the Prayers of the Righteous. (Vs. 12, James 5:16, Ex 3:7-8)
i. James 5:16, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.”
ii. Exodus 3:7-8a, “Then the LORD said, “I have observed the misery of my people in Egypt, and have heard them crying out because of their oppressors. I know about their sufferings, and I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good and spacious land…”
c. Turns His Favor Towards The “Do-Gooder.” (Vs. 12, 2 Chronicles 7:12-16)
i. 2 Chronicles 7:12-16, “Then the LORD appeared to Solomon at night and said to him: I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple of sacrifice. If I shut the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the grasshopper to consume the land, or if I send pestilence on my people, and my people, who bear my name, humble themselves, pray and seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. My eyes will now be open and my ears attentive to prayer from this place. And I have now chosen and consecrated this temple so that my name may be there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there at all times.”