Happy Life: Ancient Recipe(transcript)

The point: Be like-minded, sympathetic, brotherly-loving, tender-hearted, and humble-minded in your relationships with one another.

The five adjectives describing God's people are likened to a 'string of five pearls' adorning their life, and the five imperatives are 'stones that pave the path' to additional blessing, emphasizing the beauty and foundational nature of these virtues and actions.

all as adjectives, describing God's people in their relationship to one another, saying, if you want to be an authentic company of the people of God, anyone should be able to describe you with these five adjectives. You are a like-minded, sympathetic, brotherly-loving, tender-hearted, humble-minded company of God's people. And then in verse 9, turning again to participles, he recognizes that though by the grace and power of Christ they may grow in those graces that mark their life together, they are yet living before God, for they are unconverted neighbors and work associates and relatives, an...

6:17 - 7:47 Read in full sermon

The point: Be like-minded, sympathetic, brotherly-loving, tender-hearted, and humble-minded in your relationships with one another.

The natural human response of 'tit for tatism' (hitting back, sticking out one's tongue further, speaking evil in spades) is contrasted with the unnatural duty of blessing, highlighting the difficulty and divine nature of Peter's command.

all as adjectives, describing God's people in their relationship to one another, saying, if you want to be an authentic company of the people of God, anyone should be able to describe you with these five adjectives. You are a like-minded, sympathetic, brotherly-loving, tender-hearted, humble-minded company of God's people. And then in verse 9, turning again to participles, he recognizes that though by the grace and power of Christ they may grow in those graces that mark their life together, they are yet living before God, for they are unconverted neighbors and work associates and relatives, an...

6:17 - 7:47 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Hell is eternal existence. It's not eternal life. There's a difference.

The concept of being 'focused' in sports jargon (cutting out secondary issues to win) is used to explain Peter's meaning of 'continually desiring to be loving life,' emphasizing intentionality and purpose.

You guys involved in sports, you know when they interview someone between important games and what do you plan to do with game five coming up? Well, we've got to stay focused. We've got to stay focused. And what they mean by that is, we've got to cut out all secondary and tertiary issues, got to keep our minds on what we need to do to win the next game.

16:18 - 16:39 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section explores the desire to love life and see 'good days,' clarifying that 'good days' are defined by God, not the world, and can exist even amidst suffering, as…

David, hiding in a cave, chased by Saul, yet proclaiming 'good days' and offering to teach the fear of the Lord, illustrates that 'good days' are not defined by external circumstances but by one's relationship with God.

Think of the context of Psalm 34 when David writes about seeing good days. Here's a man in a cave away from family seemingly cut off from the promise of God that he's going to be king in Israel. He's being chased around the wilderness of Judea like a mad dog by Saul. And he says I've experienced such good days.

19:36 - 20:02 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section explores the desire to love life and see 'good days,' clarifying that 'good days' are defined by God, not the world, and can exist even amidst suffering, as…

A beer commercial depicting buddies on a fishing trip, concluding 'it doesn't get any better than this,' is used to contrast the world's idea of a 'good day' with David's experience of good days in suffering.

I don't watch a lot of television. I try to watch very discriminately not only the programs I watch but the commercials that I allow my eyes to see. But I have seen and maybe you have seen that beer commercial in which there's a bunch of buddies who've gone off for a fishing trip and it's the end of the day and they're sitting on a porch. Some of you have seen that and they've got their feet up on the railing and the sun is going down and there's some coals over which they've placed the fish they caught that day.

20:34 - 21:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Desire God's formula for a life worth loving and for days that are truly good, even in the midst of suffering and opposition.

Paul and Silas, imprisoned with backs laid open, singing praises at midnight, serve as another example of experiencing 'good days' and loving life even in severe suffering, challenging worldly notions of happiness.

But do you long for good days as God defines good days? To have such a view of life and of reality that if you were in David's setting you could say hey I've experienced such a measure of good days I want to tell you how to know good days. Think of Paul and Silas. There in a prison feed in the stocks backs laid open with wounds.

21:41 - 22:13 Read in full sermon

The point: Refrain your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking guile; let your 'yes' be 'yes' and your 'no' be 'no'.

The example of a president staring into a camera and making a technically true but misleading statement about Miss Lewinsky is used to illustrate 'guile' – saying one thing while meaning another to deceive.

And sadly, we've had grievous examples of guile in the highest office of the land. Staring into the camera with conviction and pointed finger. I never had blah blah with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.

30:51 - 31:09 Read in full sermon

The point: Turn away from evil; engage in evasive action in the presence of anything base, degrading, or contrary to God's word.

The image of swerving to avoid a boulder in the highway or crossing the street to avoid bullies illustrates the verb 'turn away' from evil, emphasizing taking evasive action against sin.

Look at the text. Let him turn away from evil and do good. The meaning of the word to turn away is the picture of a boulder in the highway. And you're driving at 60 miles an hour.

32:13 - 32:27 Read in full sermon

The point: Abhor that which is evil, detesting it and treating it as abominable, and cleave to that which is good with desperate commitment.

The devil's temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, promising a better life through disobedience, is presented as the ancient lie that choosing evil leads to a life worth loving and good days.

You see, it is the devil's lie that to have a life worth loving and to see good days, you've got to turn away from good and cleave to that. That is evil. Wasn't that his lie in the garden? God said to Adam and Eve, I know you love life.

35:38 - 35:56 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details the vigorous pursuit of peace, comparing it to a lion seeking prey or a parent searching for a lost child, acknowledging that while Christ brings a sword, believers…

A hungry, prowling lion on a kill is used to illustrate the vigorous nature of the word 'seeking' peace, emphasizing determination and intensity.

Your adversary, the devil, goes about seeking whom he may devour. Now when a prowling lion hasn't had a kill for a few days and is hungry, he doesn't go about just lazily looking, saying, oh, there's something over there, I might get it, something over there. You've seen the National Geographic films. When a lion's on a kill, he's a determined creature.

39:49 - 40:10 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details the vigorous pursuit of peace, comparing it to a lion seeking prey or a parent searching for a lost child, acknowledging that while Christ brings a sword, believers…

Mary and Joseph frantically seeking Jesus in Jerusalem is used to further illustrate the intensity and determination implied by the word 'seeking' peace.

Seeking! That's a word used. It's a beautiful use of it in Luke chapter 2 when Joseph and Mary discovered Jesus wasn't with them. And it says they went back to Jerusalem seeking him.

40:12 - 40:25 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details the vigorous pursuit of peace, comparing it to a lion seeking prey or a parent searching for a lost child, acknowledging that while Christ brings a sword, believers…

Martin's son-in-law frantically searching for his seven-year-old son, Landon, who was lost among 5,000 cars at an air show, vividly illustrates the desperate, intense nature of 'seeking' peace.

In preparation and thinking of that word, I couldn't help but think of an incident very recent in our own family life. After Heidi and Gordon Landon went back to Michigan less than two weeks ago, Gordon took Landon to an air show in a nearby airfield. There were approximately 5,000 cars parked for this air show. And Gordon's dad was with him, quite an elderly man.

40:29 - 40:57 Read in full sermon

The point: Seek peace with the same determination and intensity as a lion seeks prey, or as a parent seeks a lost child.

The word 'pursue' (dioko) is connected to 'persecute,' illustrating that one must track down peace with the same relentless determination as a persecutor, even when it seems to flee.

And pursue it. Pursue it. Dioko. This is the word most frequently translated in the New Testament for persecute.

42:07 - 42:15 Read in full sermon

The point: Pursue peace with zeal, tracking it down and laying hold of it even when it seems to fly away.

His grandmother's saying about putting salt on a bird's tail to catch it, and his childhood attempts, is used as an analogy for the elusive nature of peace among brethren, which must be pursued with zeal even when it 'flies away'.

It's the picture of your seeking peace and you're about to lay hold of it. And it's like my grandmother said to me as a boy. She said, now, Albert, if you can ever put salt on the tail of a bird, you'll be able to catch it. And I believed her.

42:23 - 42:38 Read in full sermon

Driving home: the eyes of the Lord are upon you in love and concern and favor. And furthermore, His ears are unto your supplication. This is indeed, a life worth loving. These are indeed good days.

A husband telling his wife to 'keep your eye on our child' while he's gone illustrates the meaning of 'the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous' – constant, loving, intimate, and paternal concern and care.

Here's a couple with a little one. The man has to go off to something. He says to his wife, sweetheart, while I'm gone, keep your eye on our child. What's he mean?

47:59 - 48:08 Read in full sermon

Driving home: the eyes of the Lord are upon you in love and concern and favor. And furthermore, His ears are unto your supplication. This is indeed, a life worth loving. These are indeed good days.

The image of a tender mother bending over to hear the slightest intimation of distress from her child illustrates 'His ears are unto their supplications,' emphasizing God's attentive and compassionate hearing of prayers born of need.

You will be the object of all that He is, says God, turned toward you in loving, paternal favor and compassion. And furthermore, as you're in circumstances as David was, and as you Christians there in Asia Minor are, and as many of us are, in circumstances that cause you to feel deeply your need, and the word for prayer, one of the three or four major words for prayer, and its particular nuance is it's the prayer born of a sense of need, often translated supplication. We are told that His ears, plural, are unto their supplications. It's the picture of a tender mother who bends over to listen t...

49:14 - 50:19 Read in full sermon

The point: Taste and see that the Lord is good, trusting in Him and knowing that there is no greater good than communion with God.

An extended quotation from an unnamed commentator beautifully describes God's condescending majesty and love in watching over the humble, marking every aspiration, and hearing every cry, reinforcing the blessedness of His care.

One of the commentators expressed it beautifully and I want to just read this paragraph to you. What a picture of condescending majesty and love. Behold, he who inhabits eternity and spreads out to heaven is a tent to dwell in with unswerving in most loving regards watches over the humble. The saint follows him in every step of his pilgrimage, marks every good purpose and aspiration of his heart, as well as all the outward perils and temptations that he faces.

51:02 - 51:35 Read in full sermon