AM I MY SISTER'S KEEPER?

I attended the Northwest Women's Conference this weekend with Elyse Fitzpatrick. She spoke on being our sister's keeper. She had so many great things to say. Here are the highlights of my notes...

SESSION 1

Churches today tend to be tourist friendly, an event people attend.
It should be family, relationships, deep, committed, transparent, Christ-centered.
We want to “keep space”. This was not the NT church. The NT church was family, brothers and sisters with deep and abiding relationships.

We hate conflict and change.

Church is a relationship in which people speak into my life, tell me when I’m sinning. Though there might be conflict I need to be involved in the lives of my sisters.

God has committed Himself to keeping me. This allows others to keep you. God really does the keeping – by using means/people.

Keeper – “shamar”
To hedge about (as with thorns) i.e. guard, generally, to protect, attend to.

John 10 – Good Shepherd passage
The Good Shepherd takes ownership! He lays down at the door of the sheepfold, determining what comes through the door.

The Keeper
owns you
cares for you
loves you
set His love upon you
keeps and protects you

Sheep wander – He keeps us!

God does “keep” us
1 Sam. 2:9 “He keeps the feet of His godly ones, but the wicked ones are silenced in darkness…”

When it’s up to God, we’re His friend; if it were up to us, we’d want to be His enemy.

Job 10:12 “care”
“Thou hast granted me life and lovingkindness; and Thy care has preserved my spirit.”

Psalm 25:20 “guard”
“Guard” my soul and deliver me; do not let me be ashamed, for I take refuge in Thee.”

Psalm 145:20 “preserves”
“The Lord keeps/preserves all who love Him; but all the wicked, He will destroy.”

He has no wrath left for us!! His wrath has been spent on His Son, on my past, present, and future sins.

An eternity’s worth of wrath was spent on the Lord in 3 hours for all the sins of the elect.

We are completely justified. Just as if I’d never sinned AND just as if I always obeyed!!!

God preserves us because that is His disposition towards us.

He sets His love on us.

The Heavenly Father watches over you because He loves you!

Psalm 121:3-8

“He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever.”

The Lord takes the heat; He is the shade!!

The Lord loves us so much. The Lord keeps us. Out of gratitude we respond with obedience and then we want to get busy in the lives of others.



SESSION 2

It is wrong after you’ve had a day of failure after failure of loving to think tomorrow I will do better.

This should be your thought - Christ’s record is my record. Because of that I will love my neighbor as myself.

When people are in love it changes their speech. You talk about what you love – work on loving Jesus! Think about Him.

When you work to make God love you, you only end up in pride or despair. He has already loved you to the maximum of His love and there it remains constant.

Fall in love w/ Jesus! Think about what He’s done on your behalf and then take care of your friends.

Romans 15:1-3

“Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “THE REPROACHES OF THOSE WHO REPROACHED THEE FELL UPON ME.”

In Scripture, where there’s law, there’s gospel.

Why should I not live a life to please myself? Because Christ did not please Himself! Christ left the glory of ineffable Light, became encased in human flesh, and entered into a dark womb.

Christ always lived to please the Father, for our good!!!

Job 4:3-4
“…you have strengthened weak hands. Your words have helped the tottering to stand, and you have strengthened feeble knees.”

Hebrews 12:12, 13

“Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.”

God brings discipline to our lives because He loves us – to point us to the Best, Himself!! (Not because He is angry, His wrath has already been spent, but because He loves…)

God has no other end in your life besides your endless happiness – IN HIM!

It is a function of love to bring you through discipline.

If you are holy – you are happy!

Ask your friend, what sin do you see in my life that concerns you? This takes courage!

James 5:19-20
“My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth, and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins.”

Sin is not covered when you don’t go and talk to your friend. You don’t love your sister enough if you will not risk facing your sister’s wrath.

Approach your sister saying to yourself, “There but for the grace of God go I.”
Approach your sister saying to her, “I might be wrong, but this is what I’m seeing.”

The easiest path is to ignore your sister’s sin.

Acts 20:35
“In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

“I want to tell you but I don’t want to have a relationship with you…” Example - We’ll send off an email in our technological age and then reply to the answer when it is our convenience.

Luke 15:4-7 You are the one, not the 99!

Luke 22:32 We are greatest when we serve.

You are not perfect. Don’t think you can’t help others because of your failures.

Jude 1:22-23 show mercy
“And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some even have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.”

If you are not among the doubting, it is only because of God’s mercy and grace!

2 Tim. 2:24-26
“And the Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.”

You can’t bring anyone to repentance, that is God’s work, but you might be used by God, but use gentleness!


SESSION 3

Galatians 6:1-3
“Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.”

Don’t be a slave to another’s opinion. You can live transparently with your sister when you are not worried if your sister will not like you anymore.

The cross has already criticized me and I deserve to die.
The cross tells me I am more sinful and flawed, more than I ever dared believe.
The cross tells me I am more loved and welcomed than I ever hoped.

Therefore…don’t worry about another’s opinion.

Be enraptured w/ Jesus first.
Be immersed in God’s love for you and your love for Him.
Love for one another flows out of God’s loving us.

Transparent, accountable relationships are always done in the context of the cross!

Don’t be astonished at your sister’s sin.

We are all sinful and flawed but we are also more loved and welcomed by Christ…”therefore I will love you.”

The purpose of Women’s Ministry is to get other’s unstuck!

“caught in a trespass”
caught - surprised, overtaken, entrapped, being entangled by sin

A spiritual woman displays the fruit of the Spirit and is not presently entrapped by some sin that would prevent her from ministering to another.

“restore”
mend a broken bone
mend a torn fishing net
thoroughly equip an army
supply a ship w/ provisions

Restoration is done in a spirit of gentleness
meekness
the fruit of power
the Good Samaritan sacrificially poured oil into the wound

Luke 10:34

Go to the Lord and ask Him to show you your sin before you go to someone else to point out their sin.

Remember the “There but for the grace of God go I” mentality.

“I can go to you because I’m just like you.”

“I have enough sin to send the Son of God to the cross.”

No one’s life will be changed unless the Holy Spirit does it.

Because Christ loved you so, you don’t have to worry about the opinion of man.

Don’t deceive yourself.

It is easy to think you are spiritual if you aren’t confronting yourself.

It is easy to think you are spiritual if you aren’t being disciplined by others.

It is easy to think you are spiritual if you aren’t disciplining others.

The deceitfulness of our sin should SCARE US!

Keep others in your life because of it.