Eight Habits of Highly Effective Christians II Peter 1:1-10 Habit Number Seven: Demonstrate Brotherly Love Notice in verse 7 of our text that Peter instructs us to add to our faith.... "brotherly kindness" .... brotherly love. We've been studying this passage for the last three weeks and we have been learning the Habits of Highly Effective Christians. Highly effective Christians... 1) Practice Spiritua Diligence (v.5) 2) Cultivate A Passion For Virtue (v.5) 3) Consentrate On Increasing Biblical Knowledge (v.6) 4) Develope Temperance... Spiritual Disciple (v.6) 5) Maintain Spiritual Endurance (v.6) 6) Strive To Be Godly (v.6) And then this morning we are going to see that the Highly Effective Christian.... Demonstrates Brotherly Love. Several years ago, youth evangelist Ken Owens was scheduled to speak to a large group of young people. He was running late when he pulled into a full- service gas station for fuel. A little guy came out from the glass-faced office. He had a toboggan pulled down low, his face was covered with acne, his hair was greasy, and his pants were so large he had to keep pulling them up. The guy spoke poorly and slowly. It seemed to take forever for him to pump the gas. When Ken gave him his credit card, it took several minutes before he came back to say they didn't accept that card. Ken gave him another card only to learn after several more minutes that that card wasn't accepted either. Finally in desperation, Ken asked, "Do you still take cash?" The attendant then took several more minutes to make change and return it. Ken was so furious when he left that he backed up and spun his back tires on the "ding ding" rope! A few blocks away, the Holy Spirit began to convict him about his impatience and rudeness to the attendant. He drove back to the station, and when he arrived the little guy was to scared to come out of the office! Finally, Ken said to him, "I'm really sorry for the way I treated you." The man pushed back his toboggan and said, "That's okay mister. Everybody treats me that way." (Source, Sermon by Coy Wiley, "Becoming A Caring Church") There are a lot of people in our world who might say, "Everybody treats me that way." We live in a cold, lonely, impersonal society where those who take time to care for others are the exception not the rule. Within the Body of Christ, caring for one another should be the rule not the exception. When an individual receives Jesus as their Savior, we not only enter into a relationship with Him, but with every believer. If we are going to be serious about our spiritual growth them we must make it the habit of our spiritual lives to demonstrate "Brotherly Kindness". How do we do accomplish that? I believe we accomplish that by making sure that our care for one another is marked by three things. First of all, our brotherly love should be marked by... 1. HONESTY Look with at 1 Peter 1:22. Here Peter reminds his readers that their redemption, their salvation resulted in them having an "unfeigned love of the brethren". Underline the word "unfeigned". To feign something is to pretend. Peter uses a term that literally means... without hypocrisy. In Romans 12:9-10 Paul said... 9: Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. 10: Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; 1 John 3:17-18 says... 17: But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 18: My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. To love in deed and in truth means that our love and caring for one another must be both active and authentic. Did you know that most people who are searching for a church home say... "We want a church where people really care about each other." I beleive that every church should strive to be a caring church. However, caring churches are made up of caring individuals. Individuals who honestly seek to meet one anothers needs. Our love for each other should be marked first by HONESTY. Secondly, it should be marked by... 2. HEALING When I say "healing", I am saying that in the sense of us "bearing one anothers burdens". True "brotherly love" reaches out to those who are hurting. Look with me to Galatians 6:1-2. 1: Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. 2: Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. Note.. the law of Christ... John 13:34 34: A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. Just like the story Jesus told in Luke 10 about the good samaritan.... we need to respond to each other with the kind of caring that says when my brother is hurting, I'm going to do what I can do to take care of him. We won't have a "HEALING" love though if we are.. 1) Self Centered Remember in the parable of the Good Samaritan, the man who was robbed, wounded, and left for dead was passed by a "priest" and a "levite". Both were busy, important men. Perhaps their minds were absorbed with their jobs in the Temple. Far too often we fail to care for those who are hurting because we don't want any interruption in our own plans. 2) If We Stay Isolated From Others People in church are often masters at this. We make small talk and speak superficially because we are afraid of getting involved with others. 3) If we don't listen when someone expresses a need. One woman was fed up with the superficial level of communication in her church, so she conducted an experiment. To everyone who asked her, while passing in the hallways, "How are you?" she replied, "Lousy!" Some didn't even hear what she said. Some said, "I'm sorry to hear that" but no one asked her why. 4) If We Think Someone Else Should Help. When some people hear about a problem in another persons life, the first thing they do is call the pastor. Listen, each of us has a responsibilty to demonstrate love. God may make you aware of a need because He wants to use you in the process of meeting the need. 5) If we think Problems will Solve Themselves. "Don't get involved! They'll work it out." Let's have a love that is Honest. A Love that is Healing, and then finally.. our love for one another should be marked by... 3. HUMILITY Humility? What does humility have to do with demonstrating "brotherly" love? Humility must be a part of this equation because PRIDE WILL KEEP US FROM DOING WHAT BROTHERLY LOVE REQUIRES. Brotherly love requires that we... 1) Right our Wrongs 2) Forgive When Offended 12: Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; 13: Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Conclusion: Two men were heading by dog sled to their outpost in Alaska. They were both in danger of freezing to death. As they were going along, they came upon someone who was apparently nearly frozen. One said to the other, "Let's stop and help him." The other said, "No, if we stop and help him, we will surely freeze to death and never make it." The one who wanted to help said, "Let me off here and you go ahead." He got off the dog sled as his companion continued. He tried to revive the dying man by massaging his arms and legs in order to get the blood circulating in his body. The effort he expended in massaging the man's limbs gave him the physical heat that he needed to keep from freezing to death. The snowstorm was soon over and the two were safe, but down the path was a dead man with a dog sled... all alone. We are never more like Jesus than when we exhibit compassion. We can love each other.. because we have been loved so greatly. (plan of salvation).