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[0:00] All right. Can you hear me? I doing good back there? Good. All right. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.!

[0:30] You want us to go. Lord, I'm going to come sit down in the back, and I want to let you stand front and center. I want you to be the one speaking this, not me.

[0:42] Because I want it all to come from you, so that you can bless us with your words, and you teach us the beginning of 2 Peter, and show us what it is you want us to learn from it.

[0:56] Because you want us to grow closer to you. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen. So, we're still in Peter, but now we're in 2 Peter.

[1:08] Okay? So, we finished up 1 Peter a week or so ago, and now we're in 2 Peter, chapter 1, verses 1 through 11. Okay? And it's important that it's kind of broke up into kind of like two or three pieces, but it's really important that we understand where Peter's coming from.

[1:33] Go to the next slide, Mark. So, it starts out from Simon Peter, a slave and an apostle of Jesus Christ. To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, have been granted faith just as precious as ours.

[1:50] May grace and peace be lavished on you as you grow in the rich knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. So, in the King James Version, it says, a bondservant of Christ and an apostle of Jesus.

[2:11] So, I thought it was important that we understood what a bondservant was. Go to the next slide, Mark. So, a bondservant, in the Bible, refers to someone who is bound to serve another person often as a slave or a servant, but with a strong sense of devotion and commitment, which means he loved Jesus unconditionally.

[2:37] That's what it means for him to be a bondservant. And, of course, an apostle in the Bible, an apostle is a person who is sent out as a messenger or a representative, typically with a specific mission or commission.

[2:52] And in the New Testament, in the New Testament, there most commonly refers to the twelve disciples chosen by Jesus. And Peter, we know, was one of them.

[3:04] He was called the Rock and who were tasked with spreading the teachings after his death and resurrection. And another piece on, I wanted to read Exodus chapter 21, 5, and 6.

[3:19] This has to do with what a bondservant is. But if the servant should declare, I love my master. Think about that. So, Peter's declaring how much he loves God, how much he loves Jesus.

[3:36] So, my wife and my children, and we know that Peter had a wife, I will not go out free when his masters must bring him to the judges and he will bring him to the door or the doorposts and his master will pierce his ear with an awl and he shall serve him forever.

[3:58] So, we know that Peter's a bondservant. And if we love Christ as much as he does, because he's telling us that, if we love Christ, we become bondservants of Christ.

[4:19] And we become apostles of Christ. Think about the people that went on the mission trip a couple weeks ago. Were they doing it for themselves or were they doing it for the love of God?

[4:35] Were they doing it to spread the word of Christ? You know, all because we do something from someone, that doesn't mean that they go to church. How many times have we helped people that don't go to this church?

[4:51] Or maybe don't go to any church. So, they were being apostles. they were being bondservants to Christ.

[5:05] And then God's going to grant you peace and grace. Because none of us are perfect. And we need that grace and that peace from God.

[5:19] Don't we? all right. Let's go to the next slide, please. So, in 3-4, it says, I can pray this because his divine power has bestowed on us everything necessary for life and godliness through the rich knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and excellence.

[5:47] Through these things he has bestowed on us his precious and most magnificent promise, so that by means of what was promised you may become partakers of the divine nature after escaping the worldly corruption that is produced by evil desires.

[6:06] Think about that now. we have been bestowed with divine power from Jesus.

[6:19] I'm not saying we're godlike in any way, shape, or form. Not at all. Because we're sinners. And we can't help it. We try and try but we need to get closer to that divine power that Christ has bestowed on us through us accepting him as our savior.

[6:44] It's important that we know that. Did you know that there's 8,810 promises? Go to the next slide, Mark. And 7,487 of them are God's promises made to humankind.

[7:01] Did you know that? That's what's in the Bible. That many promises. That's what I got off of Google. So, it doesn't mean it's true but I can see it being pretty close.

[7:14] Okay? Think about that. So, we were in Sunday school today and unfortunately, we learned the same lesson we learned last week.

[7:25] But, there are promises in the verses that we read that God made to us. And because he made those promises he kept them true. Because we read we ended up reading Psalm 110.

[7:38] All of Psalm 110. All seven verses. And in it he says I'm going to get rid of your enemies. I'm going to be the one in charge.

[7:49] I'm going to be the one that takes care of them and eliminates your enemies for you. It was a promise God was making to us. It was a promise God made that he kept.

[8:03] Think about it. Because it was a Psalm of David. How many times was David attacked by other people? Or even Saul? But God kept him safe, right?

[8:16] The same thing goes for us. So, as I was studying this, I found this promise I wanted. It's a one word promise I wanted to show you.

[8:28] And it's in Matthew chapter 14 verses 22 through 32. And it says Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side while he dispersed the crowds.

[8:46] And after he sent the crowds away, he went up to the mountain by himself to pray. When everything came, he was there alone. Meanwhile, the boat already far from land was taking a beating from the waves because the wind was against it.

[9:01] As the night was ending, Jesus came to them walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified and they said, It's a ghost!

[9:12] and they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, Have courage, it is I. Do not be afraid.

[9:23] Peter said to him, Lord, if it is you, order me to come to you on the water. So he said, Come. See, there's the promise. Come. He's telling Peter, Come.

[9:35] Do something. The promise is, Come. Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came towards Jesus. But when he saw the strong wind, he became afraid and started to sink.

[9:48] He cried out, Lord, save me. Immediately, Jesus reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, You of little faith, why did you doubt? When they went up into the boat, the wind ceased.

[10:02] Then those who were in the boat worshipped him, saying, Truly, you are the son of God. So, Peter did what God, Jesus said.

[10:13] He came. The same way when Jesus tells us, or God tells us, Hey, I need you to go do this. You have to step out in faith and go do it.

[10:27] And like Peter, our faith, is it strong enough, or do we fall flat on our faces and have to wait for Jesus to pick us up? How many times have you fell flat on your face because you didn't have enough faith that God would bring you through it?

[10:48] There's one thing I've learned in my life, is that no matter what, God's got this. And no matter how tough it is, no matter what's going on, no matter how hard it is on me, whether it's my family who's sick or hurt or no matter what's going on, God brings them through it.

[11:12] How many of you have had that happen to you? How many of you have heard Mary's story? I know I'm picking on her back there in the back because I love her.

[11:25] but her story is about God having it. Her story is about how God saw her through a really tough time.

[11:37] And her family too because think about it, if your mom was lost and you couldn't find her for six, eight hours, wouldn't you be freaking out? Especially if you're an adult and you know your mom's older?

[11:53] And you know that's what happened. But God brought them through it. Every single one of them. He loved them so much through the power, the divine power of Jesus, he brought them through it.

[12:12] That's why Eve and Mary are back there. Especially Mary. She's sitting there. She's what, 102 now? I'm picking on you.

[12:22] on you. But the point is, God brought them through it. Because, I'm sure they prayed and I'm sure she prayed.

[12:38] God heard that prayer and brought them through it. The same way he does for each one of us. Think about that. 8,000 promises.

[12:48] 7,000 of them are just about you and me. That God has made promises to you. He said, I'm going to send you someone that's going to be the Lamb of God.

[13:03] Did he do that? He did. That was one of the promises. Abraham had his son and he took him up to the mountain.

[13:20] and it was Abraham's way of showing that he loved God more than he did his own son. And what did God do? He sent a lamb, a ram, which was supposed to be the Lamb of God.

[13:35] It symbolized the Lamb of God that would sacrifice his self for us. It's important that we understand that.

[13:48] More than anything, else, God keeps his promises he makes to us. Eight thousand promises in the Bible. Think about that.

[14:00] Have your kids ever made that many promises to you? And how many of them do they keep? Dad, I'm not going to do that anymore. I'm not going to go out with those friends.

[14:13] And then they sneak out when you're not around with those friends. Or when you were growing up, how many times did you sneak around what your parents told you not to do? I've heard these stories about Glenn and climbing up on this tower that he knows he wasn't supposed to go on.

[14:30] Am I all right, Glenn? him? But the point I'm making is God's got this no matter what, and he keeps his promises to us.

[14:43] But we have a tendency not to keep our promises to other people. But if we delve into this next set of verses, it's important because it's going to help us get closer to that divine power.

[14:59] For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith excellence, and to your excellence knowledge, and to your knowledge self-control, and to your self-control perseverance, and to your perseverance godliness, and to your godliness brotherly affection, and to your brotherly affection, unselfish love.

[15:26] For if these things are really yours and are continually increasing, they will keep you from becoming ineffective and unproductive in your pursuit of knowing our Lord Jesus Christ more intimately.

[15:41] Because it's important that we know Jesus intimately. So what's Paul saying here is that if we have faith, we need to increase it up to excellence.

[15:55] So excellence is like perfect, right? Now we know we can't be perfect, but we can increase our faith by knowing that God's got it all handled through His Son Jesus Christ.

[16:10] Our knowledge, how can we increase our knowledge? By studying the Bible, and being with other people that study the Bible, and being friends with those people that study the Bible, self-control, I know for a fact that we all, all of us, when we're tempted, we have to use that self-control to walk away from that temptation.

[16:42] You know, like when we see these stupid drivers out there that cut you off, try to slam their car into you, and things like that. it's hard not to be angry at them.

[16:56] But we have to use the self-control that we learn from knowledge of God, that we got from the excellence and our faith, to not do anything silly or stupid.

[17:13] Perseverance, we have to persevere, and use our faith to persevere. And everything that we've just talked about this, so that we can be godly in the things we do.

[17:30] We're not gods. We'll never be gods. We're human beings who are sinners. But we can do things that are godly in the way that we treat each other.

[17:46] The way we love each other as a brother and a sister. Like, you know, in Sunday school, we all covered her having the same Sunday school lesson two weeks in a row.

[18:02] We took care of Miss Sherry. We made her feel loved. We made sure she understood that we cared for her.

[18:14] And when we prayed, for Mary because she's having surgery this week, we made sure that we mentioned her because we love her. And the other people that we mentioned that have things going on, when we prayed for them, it was prayed for in brotherly or sisterly affection.

[18:36] Because, you know, Sherry and Mary, they're not my brothers, they're my sisters. sisters. Just like Teresa's my sister in Christ. And just like my children are her children.

[18:48] Are they not? That's why when Courtney came here, she wouldn't stay with Teresa and John.

[18:59] granted, our house isn't big enough, but still, that's the reason why. And we take that brotherly affection that we have for one another and we have to raise it up.

[19:14] We have to raise it up to unselfish love, to agape love. You know, when I read this, it reminded me of 1 Corinthians, or as I like to call it, 1 Californians, chapter 13.

[19:34] It actually starts in chapter 12, verse 31b, where it says, I'm going to teach you something excellent. And that's what it says in the King James Version as well.

[19:48] I'm going to teach you something excellent. And then the next set of verses is about loving your brothers and sisters about unconditional love, about treating each other with love and compassion.

[20:01] That's what it reminded me of when I read these verses about having unselfish love for one another. And I think in many ways we do in this church.

[20:16] We have an unselfish love. Somebody told me recently, I enjoyed it when your son came and had dinner with me. Your son and his wife sat down.

[20:27] They didn't just drop the food off. They came in and they sat down and they ate with me and they let me talk and they let me, you know, just tell them things. That's unselfish love.

[20:44] That's not being selfish or being the way our world has become. The same way we all in this church treat each other with that unselfish love.

[20:59] We're there for each other. It's important that we do that. Go to the next verse, Mark, or the next slide.

[21:11] Next slide. So, but concerning the one who lacks such things, he is blind, that is to say he is nearsighted, since he has forgotten about the cleansing of his past sins.

[21:28] Think about that. If you don't do those things to make yourself more closer to God by growing your faith and becoming unselfish in your love and becoming brotherly love and all those things, knowledge, then you've forgotten who you were when you first became a Christian.

[21:54] You forgot what it was that got you to where you're at now. Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to be sure of your calling and election, for by doing this, you will never stumble into sin.

[22:10] He's telling us that if we increase our faith, if we increase and go closer to God and become intimate with Jesus, then what was going to happen is we won't stumble because we'll be so close to Jesus in that intimacy that we have.

[22:35] stop. The Holy Spirit will keep us from stumbling because that Holy Spirit lives inside of us. Because the Holy Spirit lives inside of us, He'll keep us from making a mistake that can ruin our lives or keep us from making a mistake that will hurt other people or keep us from making a mistake that will hurt not only ourselves but our family and our friends and our church.

[23:09] And I include our church because y'all are my brothers and sisters in Christ. And as long as I'm doing the right thing, then people are going to look at our church and say, man, I need to start going to church there.

[23:24] for thus an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided to you.

[23:38] He says it right there, an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Because we took the time to get better.

[23:52] we took the time to become more intimate with Jesus. We took the time to love Him the way He loves us.

[24:07] You know, my son Mark, every time he sees me, he says, Daddy, give me a hug. I can't go anywhere without seeing him. I've got to hug him. You know, as a father, I don't mind that.

[24:22] Yeah, exactly. There's too many people out there, and it's like all the kids, when I'm saying goodbye to them, for whatever reason, I always say, love you, and they say, love you back, Dad.

[24:35] You know, there's people out there that don't have that relationship with their children. But I'm lucky enough to have that relationship. I didn't have that relationship with my dad.

[24:49] And you know, I remember one time, I was talking to him on the phone. I said, Dad, I love you. He just said, thank you. That was it. That's all he said.

[25:00] Now, granted, our relationship was so fractured because I was raised by only my mother. And I didn't see my dad after I turned four years old.

[25:11] Never again. That was the last time I saw him. And then I didn't talk to him on the phone until I was like 16. and I was at a sibling's house. His mom wouldn't allow me to have any communication with him at all.

[25:26] But the point I'm making is at least my children and I have that relationship where we can tell each other we love them.

[25:37] So there's a young lady that goes to our church. And when I say young, she is not even 12 years old.

[25:52] And every time we have Bible study and she comes with her grandmother to Matt's house, she gets involved in the Bible study. She sits there.

[26:03] She helps read Scripture. She answers questions. that's Savannah I'm talking about if you don't know who. And it does my heart good to see that.

[26:15] I know it does Sharon's as well. So I asked Savannah to recite John 3.16 for us. Would you recite that for me real quick?

[26:27] Mm-hmm. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

[26:42] So when we were reading that scripture, thank you very much Savannah. I greatly appreciate that. See how brave she is? God called and she answered.

[26:58] It says, but concerning the one who lacks such things, he is blind. That is to say, he is nearsighted since he's forgotten about the cleansing of his past sins.

[27:10] And that was done through John 3.16. That was his cleansing. That was all of our cleansings. But if we look just a little further, in Philippians 4.13 it says, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.

[27:33] All things. All we've got to do is grow closer with Christ. Become more intimate with Christ. And when we do, all things are possible through Jesus Christ.

[27:52] All things. There are things he wants us to do. There are things that he has called us. Think about that. He called each and every one of you to where you're at right now.

[28:06] And you know that bill that didn't get paid? God brought you through that. He may have let that happen for a reason. Or maybe that car that broke down. Maybe he brought you to that for a reason.

[28:19] And that reason was so somebody else could help you. Or so you could help somebody else. So you would have that experience to fix it for somebody else.

[28:32] Because God called you to do that. God's love love for us is never ending.

[28:46] And Christ wants to bring us to a certain point. And Christ wants to take us and make us so that we have his divine power.

[28:59] not be God's. Just his divine power because we love him the way we do. So I challenge each one of you this week to seek those things we need to increase in ourselves.

[29:19] The faith, the excellence, the knowledge, the self-control, the perseverance, the godliness, brotherly affection, and unselfish love. I challenge you to move yourself in that direction.

[29:34] And by doing that your intimacy with Jesus will increase. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, Lord, I just thank you for this lesson.

[29:45] I thank you for all you're teaching us. I thank you for what you had to say today, Lord. Because the Lord knows that didn't come from me, a lowly sinner. Lord, I know it came from you.

[29:59] Because you're the one that carries me all the time. You're the one that's got his arms right wrapped around me, holding me tight, and bringing me through the hard times, bringing me through the good times, because I wouldn't have the good times if it wasn't for you.

[30:18] Lord, just continue to bless us as you have. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[30:28]