This is a SS lesson for 10/21/2012. Dying to self / living for God puts you into His Community (Body) that you share in, and that shares with you. You can more than "survive" -- really, thrive as a serving functioning, loving part of that body. His Church of redeemed believers is His joy, and He will be found in them: to God be all the glory! This lesson shares some other passages by Paul about God's multi-faceted grace that shows up for all the world to see in His Church.

3. Living in Community
Lesson Passage:
1 Peter 4:1-11
Background:
1 Peter 4:1-11

4. 1. Support One Another
(1 Pet. 4:1-6)
2. Love One Another
(1 Pet. 4:7-9)
3. Serve One Another
(1 Pet. 4:10-11)

5. Review of 1 Peter 3(b):
14
…if you might suffer for …righteousness, you’re blessed… do not be …
disturbed, 15 but set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts, always ready to
make a defense to anyone who asks …an accounting [for] the hope that is in
you. 16 …with courtesy & respect, with a clear conscience, unslanderable
[“teflon”], so that the ones who malign .. are put to shame.
17
…it is better to suffer for doing good, if God wills…. 18 For Christ also suffered
once for sins, the just for the unjust, in order that he could bring you to God,
being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which also He
went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 who were formerly
disobedient, when the patience of God waited in the days of Noah, while an
ark was being constructed, in which a few—that is, eight souls—were rescued
through water. 21 And also, corresponding to this, baptism now saves you, not
the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who is at the right hand of God,
having gone into heaven, with angels and authorities and powers having been
subjected to him.

6. 1. Support One Another (1 Pet. 4:1-6) [HCSB]
1
Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, equip yourselves also with
the same resolve —because the one who suffered in the flesh has
finished with sin — 2 in order to live the remaining time in the flesh,
no longer for human desires, but for God’s will.
3
For there has already been enough time spent in doing what the
pagans choose to do: carrying on in unrestrained behavior, evil desires,
drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and lawless idolatry. 4 So they are
surprised that you don’t plunge with them into the same flood of wild
living—and they slander you.
5
They will give an account to the One who stands ready to judge the
living and the dead. 6 For this reason the gospel was also preached to
those who are now dead, so that, although they might be judged by
men in the fleshly realm, they might live by God in the spiritual realm.
:1-3 Jesus died with Sin, SO you can die to it & be free to live for God
Circumcision prefigures Christ's crucifying sin nature, we must follow
Blinded in sin, people follow the false god of their belly (Php. 3:18-20)
:6 Some Christians were already persecuted, died, are now in heaven
:5-6 Hate sin? Then reprove as Jesus did, by your Walk (Acts17:31)

7. 2. Love One Another (1 Pet. 4:7-9) [HCSB]
7
Now the end of all things is near; therefore, be serious and disciplined
for prayer. 8 Above all, maintain an intense love for each other, since
love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Be hospitable to one another without
complaining.
:7 In God’s accounting, no time left for sin: “the end of all things is near”
1 Cor. 7:26-32 “..the appointed time has grown very short” (Paul)
People’s lives are ticking away… Vapors in the wind (Jam. 4:14)
Why does distress cause us to pray? Should it?
Lk. 18:1-8 pray-er  Men ought to ALWAYS pray and NEVER give up.
The parable of the persistent pray-er, a widow who had an unfair
adversary, but kept on ‘taking it to the judge’. He answered speedily!
Why did Jesus say “But when the Son of Man returns, will He find faith?”
:8 Why is Love “above all”? God’s Love JOINS us as a ‘Body’ in Jesus
A testimony of Unselfishness: “By this all men will know.. My disciples”
What does it mean, “Love ‘covers’ many sins”? Can you cover for others
:9 What is hospitality? Why is it important?

8. 3. Serve One Another (1 Pet. 4:10-11) [HCSB]
10
Based on the gift each one has received, use it to serve others, as
good managers of the varied grace of God:
11
If anyone speaks, it should be as one who speaks God’s words; if
anyone serves, it should be from the strength God provides, so that
God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything.
To Him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.
:11 Eph. 3:8-11 PRAISES God for the infinite wonders He has built into
His church!
One day all creation should, must, will praise Him! (Php. 2:10, Rom.
14:11, Col. 1:20)
Your works (Eph. 2:11), the gifts He gives & you use in Him, WILL lead
others to be praise Him (saved!) (Mt. 5:16,1 Pet.2:12, Jn. 15:5)
To be fruitful, we must use our gifts with His Love, in His will, agreeing
as Body in everything (Matt. 18:18-19)
Jesus the Lord is here. His Church is to become His pride & joy!

9. (Backups)

10. Put to death your old nature
• Luke 9: 23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone wants to come with Me, he
must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
• Deuteronomy 10: 16 Therefore, circumcise your hearts and don’t be stiff-
necked any longer.
• Galatians 5: 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the
flesh with its passions and desires.
• Romans 2: 28 For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, and true
circumcision is not something visible in the flesh. 29 On the contrary, a person
is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart—by the Spirit,
not the letter. That man’s praiseis not from men but from God.
• Colossians 2: 11 You were also circumcised in Him with a circumcision not
done with hands, by putting off the body of flesh, in the circumcision of the
Messiah.
• 1 Peter 4: 4 Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, equip yourselves
also with the same resolve—because the one who suffered in the flesh has
finished with sin—
• Hebrews 12: 12 Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of
witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so
easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us,

11. We are “Gifted” – How are we using them?

12. Ephesians 3: 8–10 (AMP)
• 8 To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace
was granted and graciously entrusted: to proclaim to the
Gentiles the unending (boundless) riches of Christ,
• 9 Also to enlighten all men and make plain to them what is the
plan of the mystery kept hidden through the ages and
concealed until now in God Who created all things by Christ
Jesus
• 10 that through the church the complicated, many-sided
wisdom of God in all its infinite variety and innumerable
aspects might now be made known to the angelic rulers and
authorities in the heavenly sphere.

13. Light from Ephesians (AMP)
Paul prayed for light to flood the hearts of the Ephesians (1:18):
•18 By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can
know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how
rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones),
When walking like Jesus, you are ‘shining light’ when you reprove
others by your true behavior, just as Jesus shined on you.
•11 Take no part in and have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds and
enterprises of darkness, but instead expose and reprove and convict
them. 12 For it is a shame even to speak of or mention the things that
[such people] practice in secret. 13 But when anything is exposed and
reproved by the light, it is made visible and clear; and where everything
is visible and clear there is light. 14Therefore He says,
Awake, O sleeper, and
arise from the dead,
and Christ shall shine
(make day dawn) upon
you and give you light. –
Eph. 5:11–14 (AMP)