Monday, September 7, 2020

Everything You Need to Succeed – Part 2


Pastor Kyle continues in his Sunday sermon message by stating that every biblical promise comes with a required practice for Christians to fully experience it. 

2 Peter 1:5-11 “But also, for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

If you do these things you will never stumble is a bold statement. Are there parameters for this or does it just universally apply regardless of what we do? We partake in he benefits of God’s promises when we practice God’s process. We clearly are a shareholder and have a stake and a responsibility in the process. The best partakers roll up their sleeves and get involved in the process of making something in life better. We cannot sit back and say that God has promised me, so I do not have to do anything. No, roll up your sleeves and get to work. 

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The Cross of Calvary where Jesus died for our sin, that Believers would be saved was an outrageous work of Salvation. God didn’t just look at humanity’s sin problem and excuse the offense or spoke a miracle to solve. God could just make our sins go away because He is holy and just. The sinless Creator of Heaven and Earth, Almighty God cannot be in the presence of sin nor allow sin to go unpunished. The only way for God to solve humanity’s sin problem once and for all was for Him to send His only begotten Son Jesus Christ to be our perfect atonement on the Cross for the forgiveness of our sins. Jesus suffered and died on that Cross, taking our punishment upon Himself. Sinless Jesus partook in our nature, even though He never deserved death, enduring our pain to make it possible for us to partake in His divine nature. 

Because you escaped the evil and corruption of this God-rejecting world, we get to be involved in God’s process. God’s process is obedience. God has called us to His own glory and excellence. Before Jesus’ redemption and the coming of the Holy Spirit, we could not please God. God filled the gap between our inadequacies and His infinite power so that we can please Him. If you do these things you will never stumble, but if you do not practice process of obedience then you will not got to participate in the fullness of God’s promises.    

Sandwiched between  God’s divine nature and His promise that we shall never fall is this beautiful list of what a godly obedient life looks like. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Fruit is a key characteristic of an obedient Believers life. Jesus says in Matthew 7:16 “You will know them by their fruits.” A Christian lives a life of obedience to God and to evidence of our obedience is good fruit. The Apostle Paul says in Galatians 5:22-23 “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” The Apostle Peter builds upon that list. We are to confirm our calling and divine election as God’s chosen people. Being God’s chosen people does not mean that we can now do whatever we want, wherever we want, however we want, with whoever we want. No, being God’s chosen people means that we have to partake in Christ’s divine nature by participating in God’s plan and process for our lives. Participating in God’s plan and process means obedience. Our obedience is what ultimately confirms our calling and furthers God’s promise in our lives as it ensures our earthly success as well as our spiritual fruit. 

How are you doing with the Apostle Peter’s list? The first item on that list is virtue. The biblical definition of the word virtue is “moral excellence”. Another word to describe virtue is “integrity”. Integrity has been described as “who we are when no one is looking”. Peter also lists “knowledge”. Are you growing in knowledge through the Word of God? Are you leaning in and digging into the Holy Scripture of the living Bible, or are you just glancing from time to time or worse? How about “self-control”? How is your temper these days and how long is your fuse? 

Let's conclude Pastor Kyle's message on "Having everything we need" in the next post.
In Christ, Brian

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