2 Peter #2 2 Peter 1: 3-4 You Have All You Need
2 Peter #2 2 Peter 1: 3-4
In our teaching today we are going to affirm that God has
given us every grace we need to excel in living an exemplary life and that our
part is to actualize this grace in our lives.
2 Peter 1:3-4 (MSG)
Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been
miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One
who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received! 4 We were also
given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to you—your tickets to
participation in the life of God after you turned your back on a world
corrupted by lust.
The key to growing deep, growing up, and growing fruit,
living your life to the full is personally and intimately knowing Jesus. You know that introduction is made through
God’s gift of grace that comes before, prevenient grace, that awakens you to
your need of a savior. As you seek the
Holy Spirit allows you to encounter the good news of the gospel that Jesus is
the savior you need. Acknowledging your
need, believing that Jesus can meet that need, with faith you commit yourself
to be His slave and ask God to accept you.
You heard the knock at your soul’s door and opened it to find Jesus
standing there with a hand extended to you.
This is your introduction. You
invite Him into your life. Now you have the privilege of getting to know Him.
The way you develop a personal and intimate relationship
with Jesus is not all that different than how you do the same with anyone: you
spend time with them.
You can spend time with someone by writing letters. Reading the scripture and journaling are ways
of writing letters to Jesus and reading letters from Jesus. You want to get to
know Jesus so read the Bible. I suggest you start reading 1 John. When you complete the reading feel free to ask
me which book in the Bible you should consider reading next.
You spend time with someone by speaking with them. Prayer is the way you speak with Jesus. Divine conversation talks place in your
mind. I know some people brag of visions
and verbal voices, but more likely it will be by new ideas in your thinking,
seeing things you did not consider before, and a change in your attitudes and feelings.
You spend time with someone by being with them. Because Jesus is One with His disciples,
followers of Jesus are little Christs with skin on. It is through fellowship that you allow Jesus
to love you through others. It is in the company of those living a devout and
holy life, an exemplary life, that you learn that you are loved by Jesus, that
you belong, and that you are important.
You spend time with someone by lending them a hand and doing
things with them. Working with someone or working for someone you get to know
who they are. When you get involved in
service, Jesus joins you in the work. I
have experienced going out to help someone and coming away feeling I was helped
more.
You spend time with someone by celebrating life with them. As
you get to know someone personally you know the birthday, the graduation, the
anniversary, the promotion, the milestone, victory, and you pay due diligence
in celebrating with them. Worship is giving God His due, celebrating all that
He has accomplished, the creation, and the blessings He has bestowed. Look for
opportunities to celebrate Jesus and you will find them everywhere.
You’re spending time in bible study, in prayer, in
fellowship, in service, in celebrating; you’re developing a personal and
intimate relationship with Jesus. You
will want to guard that relationship.
You guard that relationship, and keep it healthy, by doing the things
that enhance and deepen the intimacy you share and you refrain from any thought
or behavior that would weaken the foundation laid. A disciple of Jesus accomplishes this by
their intent to be obedient to Jesus’ will and way. Knowledge grows as you lovingly obey.
With any relationship sometimes it requires discussing a
hard truth. Something is not right and it’s
hindering the relationship. Working it
out requires a serious heart-to-heart talk.
This is what the spiritual discipline of contemplation is all
about. The Holy Spirit will point out an
area in your life that is hurting your relationship with Jesus and then
together you work it out.
Everyone’s experience is unique but those who have a genuine
desire for a personal and intimate relationship with Jesus advise that it is
through the practice of the 7 spiritual habits of a disciple that this
knowledge comes. Bible Study, Prayer,
Fellowship, Service, Worship, Obedience, and contemplation. Engaging in all these activities is how they
grew in their knowledge of Christ.
The bible contains the primary source information about who
Jesus is, and what Jesus is all about.
Prayer is openly and honestly sharing your thoughts, concerns, and desires
and allowing time to listen to God’s guidance. Surrounding yourself with folks
who have that desire to live exemplary lives is important to know Jesus for
where two or three gather in His name, Jesus manifests himself among them. This
is a mystery while being a true experience. In this fellowship, we receive
Jesus’ encouragement and accountability. Looking for reasons to celebrate Jesus
allows you to sense His presence as you move through life. Have you heard someone say: “God is with me.”
“God is here in this place.” That’s the result of worship. Loving the lover, and reciprocating love is
what you do when you obey all that God has commanded. Living His way increases
your knowledge of Jesus which results in even more grace and peace. The
scripture reveals that if we deviate from the path of righteousness if we step
off to the left or the right, the Holy Spirit whispers in our ear the right
direction, this is the result of contemplation.
There are other ways to acquire true knowledge of Jesus. Reading the work of those with proven track
records of ministry is another way. A.W.
Tozer, “The Knowledge of the Holy” is a good place to start. “The Pursuit of God”
is another. Oswald Chambers's “My Utmost for His Highest” is a profitable way
to start your day. Check out books by E Stanely Jones. Oh, yeah, The Cost of
Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer is another worthwhile read when it comes to
discovering who Christ is. Listening to
biblical preaching and teaching is another.
You will find the preaching of Billy Graham and John Stott a means of
gaining true knowledge of Jesus. The teachings of N.T. Wright, if you stick
with the ones written for folks like you and me and not the scholars, unless
you get into that kind of stuff, will help you grow in the true knowledge of
Jesus. You can gain true knowledge of Jesus through music. You’ve got to be picky though, for me Keith
Green, Rich Mullins, and Twila Paris help me see and recognize Jesus. Those
forgotten hymns of the Church are often rich with insights into Jesus.
Now all this feeds the mind.
What is lacking is experiencing Jesus in the ordinariness of your day. To find Jesus during your day go on a God
Hunt. Pay attention to your
surroundings, the people you interact with, and the tasks you engage in, the
conversations you enter into, the acts of kindness and love you see (Chat GPT
June 21, 2023). Ask yourself if God is at work in all these routines of life. When
you serve someone in love, showing kindness, compassion, and generosity to
those around you, Jesus said to give a cup of cold water to one in need, and to
do so is giving it to Him. So you
encounter Jesus as you love others and this is another powerful way to gain
true knowledge of God (Chat GPT June 21, 2023). Another way to develop a personal and intimate
relationship with Jesus is going to be introduced by Peter. That way is
cultivating the virtues of Christ in your life.
It is experiential knowledge that makes all the head
knowledge come out in your life in behaviors that glorify God. Soon you will be able to say with the Apostle
Paul, “I know in whom I have believed.”
Everything you need to live a life worthy of the gifts God
gives is found in deepening your relationship with Jesus. This miracle that meets your greatest need is
given to you at the moment of conversion when after acknowledging, believing,
committing, and asking God that moment that God makes you one of His own, that grace
and peace yours. Our task is to mature. As
that relationship deepens you know Him more. Jesus said that knowing God is the
path of salvation. True knowledge
results in right action, it is living like Jesus that God is pleased with.
Peter writes that we have been given promises that allow us
to participate in the life that God gives.
He doesn’t list those promises but we can discover them in other places
in scripture.
We have been given the promise of forgiveness of sins,
reconciliation with God, and the gift of eternal life through faith in Jesus (John
3:16; Romans 10:9; 1 John 2:25)
We have been given the promise God’s guidance and wisdom are
ours when we ask (Proverbs 3:5-6; James 1:5)
We have been given the promise of God’s help in times of
trouble and distress (Isaiah 41:10; Matthew 11:28-30; John 14:27).
We have been given the promise of God's provision and care (Matthew
6:25-34; Philippians 4:19)
We have been given the promise of God’s strength and help
when we are faced with overwhelming adversity (Isaiah 41:13; 2 Corinthians
12:9-10; Hebrews 13:5-6).
We have been given the promise of becoming Christ-like,
that’s what sanctification is all about. God's work in us promises to conform
us to the image of Christ and to empower us to live a holy life (Romans
8:28-29; Philippians 1:6; 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).
We have been given the promise of victory over Sin and Death
with the assurance of eternal life (Romans 8:1-2; 1 Corinthians 15:54-57; 1
John 5:4-5).
These
promises are yours when you bend the knee to Jesus. When you bend your knee to Jesus who are
saying no to the things that those who do not know Jesus clamor after. Lust is
all ego driven, I want what I want when I want it regardless of the
consequences. The Apostle Paul gives us
a sad commentary on what happens when you live by egoism in his letter to the
congregations in Rome :
Romans
1:21-32 (MSG)
…
refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and
confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives.
They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. …24 So God
said, in effect, "If that's what you want, that's what you get." It
wasn't long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy
inside and out. …26 Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn't know
how to be human either—women didn't know how to be women, men didn't know how
to be men. 27 Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women
with women, men with men—all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how
they paid for it—emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches.
28 Since
they didn't bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run
loose. And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping
vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton
killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous,
fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep
inventing new ways of wrecking lives. They ditch their parents when they get in
the way. Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. And it's not as if they don't know
better. They know perfectly well they're spitting in God's face. And they don't
care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best!
What Paul
has written is a brief description of the corruption that results from living
by the dictates of egoism. When you follow Jesus, you turn your back on all of
this. If you are caught up in some of these behaviors you seek deliverance to
quit, God honors the intent of your heart.
By turning your back on worldly corruption caused by egoism you
participate in all those promises of God, and you live that exemplary life that
is pleasing to God.
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