Yesterday I had the pleasure (and, um… duty?) of filling in for Bob as he wrapped up a conference in the Atlanta area. I’m looking forward to having him back… and in just a couple of days I’m off to a conference of my own for a week. OK, the truth is that the conference is just 5 days… but I’m tacking on a couple of days to both the front and back end of it for R&R.
Yes, I’ve even included a link to the video intro I used for the message yesterday. I posted my notes in the link below. (The audio will be on the church site sometime Tuesday.)
Run: Trekking
2 Peter 1
[ Team
Hoyt]
I used to be a 5k
runner.
– Not a great one, but
I ran a few races.
– I did it long enough
to know that there is more to it than “just finishing the race.”
– I had to learn how
to pace myself so that I finished the race in the best possible time.
– I learned the hard
way that if I wasn’t careful I would run out of energy and not complete the
race in a way that pleased me.
– I think it’s the
same with a lot of runners… you aren’t just satisfied with finishing; you want
to finish the race strongly.
This series:
This month we are studying together Peter’s 2nd
epistle. We’re calling this series “Run.” And it’s based on the same principal
as a runner. As we study 2 Peter together we’re going to see that we are all
running a race. If you know Christ, you already know what the finish line will be;
there is no doubt about how the race will end: One day you will stand before
Jesus, if you know him and call on him as Savior, you will spend eternity with
him.
But God isn’t satisfied with our merely finishing the race
call life knowing him, calling on His Son as Savior… He cares passionately not
just that you finish the race… God cares greatly HOW you run your race.
He wants you to run that race pleasing to Him and to you.
What we’re going to see in 2 Peter is that He is going to give us specific
tools, skills, and knowledge for running your race from the beginning of your
walk with God all the way to the day you die.
Big idea:
This morning I’m going to show you an important tool we can
use in this race we call life.
If you want to run an
efficient race, a race that is focused not just on finishing but pleasing to
both you and God, you have to use the tools God gives you.
Book:
A little context:
– The author of this book is the Apostle Peter.
o This
is the same Peter who traveled with Jesus for more than 3 years in the Gospels.
o A
guy who made some mistakes in his walk with God.
o But
also a guy that ended up getting it right later in life.
o Peter
was instrumental in leading the early church from a small sect of Judaism, to a
worldwide phenomenon we call Christianity today.
– Peter is writing late in his life. About 25-30 years
after the Day of Pentecost.
– To a group of people who have begun to put their
knowledge about God higher than their practice of following God.
– Peter wanted to remind them, one more time before he
died, that HOW they followed God mattered MORE than what they knew about God.
Part 1:
Know your calling
Read v. 3 a “His divine power”
a. What is this power that Peter speaks of?
b. Answer: We get a glimpse of what Peter is talking about if we
flashback to a time when Jesus was speaking to some Jews who doubted Jesus’
divine power; they asked him “Who are
you?” This is what he told them:
Take note of the language of power.
John 10:27-30 “My sheep listen to my voice; (power) I know them
(power) and they follow me. (power) I give them eternal life, (power) and they
shall never perish; (power) no one can snatch them out of my hand. (power) My
Father, who has given them to me, (source of power) is greater than all,
(source of power) no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. (power) I and
the Father are one. (power)”
So…
Read v. 3 “His divine power has given us everything we need
for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own
glory and goodness.”
a. What is Peter describing?
b. Answer: Peter is getting near the end of his life, Nero will soon
have him executed… and he is encouraging the believers, whom he “knew” as well
as all of us, that God has given us all the tools we need to run a race pleasing to
God. And yet, we chose to do things our way…
–
We don’t like to base things off of our knowledge of HIM (Jesus)
–
We like to do things based on our own experience.
–
Our education
–
The counsel of our friends
–
Human knowledge.
c. He’s going to make sure we know
that he makes us absolutely certain what God’s plan is for us continually growing in our relationship with
Jesus.
d. He’s going to lay out a tool for our continued spiritual
growth so that we can finish the race according to God’s plan.
Set-up for v. 4
– So, what then does
Peter’s tool look like?
– Before we get to Peter’s tool though… we have to make sure
what else we get if we use the tool.
– We’re going to see that God has a plan for our race that
is so much greater than…
a. JUST Participating in the promise of
eternal life
b. much greater than…SOMEHOW finishing the race without a
lot of bumps and bruises
– His love is greater
than that…
Read v. 4 “Through these [his divine power and his tool for
our life which I’m about to show you] he has given us his very great and
precious promises, [see 2 Corinthians
6:18
…
he promises to be a Father to us, and He will call us His sons and daughters!]
so that through them you may participate in the divine nature [did you catch that? You and I can participate with God in His plan,
His race for us and others] and escape the corruption in the world caused by
evil desires. [That too is significant…
God clearly wants us to be pleased with HOW we run complete our race so much so
that we will be free from sin, the stuff that we do that hurts us. If only we
use His tool so that we can escape all of that.]
Personal Illustration:
I want to show you something that happened in my life that I
think we help you understand this better.
Have you ever gone trekking? I’m going to tell a story on my
wife here… she’ll be a little embarrassed.
Describe the hike
About 6-7 years ago Kristen and I decided to go backpacking
in the
Porcupine
Mountains
in the
Upper Peninsula
. We had set up a 6 day hike in
the deep backcountry of the park. For the most part, all we had to do was
follow the trail blazes and after 6 days of walking, we’d be back to where we
started.
On day 3 we set off early in the morning. The first part of
the day I led the way. We made our way up and down a bunch of hills and by
lunch time, we’d made it 6 miles. As we sat there near this beautiful
footbridge and rolling fresh water… we were pretty pleased with ourselves. We
were tired, I had a couple of bruises from falling here and there… but all in
all, we were doing just fine.
The Rub
During lunch Kristen told me that she was having a great
time… but she wanted the view of the trail and not my backside for a change. She
wanted to take the lead for the afternoon. So, after a LONG lunch break, she
took the map and we headed up the trail. The next section was supposed to be
fairly simple as we made our way up from the mouth of the river (entering
Lake
Superior
) and worked our way up another 8 miles to our campsite.
The trail was described as beautiful, mostly flat, and well groomed.
The Problem
Well, we knew what our destination was supposed to be. And we knew that those campsites were the only
campsites on the map anywhere near us… but getting their proved to be a
problem.
As Kristen and I headed up the trail, I let her lead the way
and I pretty much shut down mentally. Every once and a while I’d look up to
check out the river or something like that, but for the most part I was just
following Kristen’s footsteps.
Maybe two hours later, Kristen told me “Um, I think I made a
mistake somewhere. I haven’t seen a blaze in a long time.” “How long?” “I don’t
know, an hour… maybe more.” See Kristen had somehow missed the sign that said
“cross the river.” And for the last hour we had hiked up and down massive hills
on what were essentially game trails. Apparently deer don’t mind going up and
down steep hills quite as much as we do.
So, we sat down near the river bank and looked at the map.
Sure enough, some way back we were supposed to cross the river. So we had 3
choices…
– Go backwards a few miles and do it the right way.
– Cross the river (Which was very fast, cold, and deep where
we were)
– Hike on the wrong side of the river until we found a
place where the trail crossed the river again.
Being that we were getting tired, we chose what we hoped
would be the easiest way… option 3. So for the next 3-4 hours Kristen and I
hiked up and down the wrong side of the river looking for a safe place to
cross. The worst part of it was… now that we knew we were on the wrong side of
the river… we could actually get to the top of a big hill, look on the other
side of the river, and see a very flat and groomed trail! The next couple hours
were very hard work. We fell a lot, we had to take a lot of breaks, we both had
some cuts and bruises.
The point
Here’s the point.
Both the right side of the river and the wrong side of the river got us to our
final destination. But if we had followed the map, we would have gotten to our
destination with a lot less exhaustion, fewer cuts and bruises, and enjoyed the
hike a lot more.
Restate the big idea:
It’s the same thing with our lives… If you want to run an efficient race, a race that is focused not just
on finishing but pleasing to both you and God, you have to use the tools God
gives you
You may know Christ,
you may know what the finish line is… but if you stick to using God’s toold…
you will finish the race with a lot fewer cuts, bruises, and exhaustion.
(Emphasize fewer and not NO…)
Set-up to v. 5
Are you ready for
that tool? Here it is… need to see the reward first? OK, a little more suspense
won’t hurt you.
Read v. 8 “For if you possess these qualities [Peter’s tool]
in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and
unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Peter is telling us,
if you keep using this tool the rest of your days… you will be productive and
effective for Christ.”
Restate the big idea:
You want to know how to please God with your race? You want
to know how to run an efficient race? Use this tool!
Read v. 5-7
Check this out…
This tool is a lot different than it appears at first. In
the English language translation we get robbed of the tools application. It’s
not as simple as adding one of those qualities on top of each other until
you’ve arrived. Because that would make it seem like each of those qualities
was a one time deal… and it’s not.
Peter has used a literary device called a “sorites paradox.”
That is, it’s a circle of reasoning where everything works together or else the
entire thing falls apart.
Plato used this type of argument a lot. The simplest way to
look at a sorites would be like this….
8 is 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1. So the paradox of it would be that if
any one of those “1s” wasn’t there… you wouldn’t have “8”
I’ve taken this map and put it in visual for you. [See map
“Pleasing God tool”]
Peter is saying… “You want to please God on your race? You
need faith +goodness +knowledge +self-control +perseverance +godliness +kindess
+love.
– If you have all of these… verse 8 says, you will be
effective and productive for Christ.
– All of those things in an increasing measure… you will
please God with your race from now on.
– Miss any one of those things… and your race will be
ineffective and unproductive. Verse 9 says, “If you don’t have them you are
near-sighted and blind… you’ve forgotten that all your past sins have been
forgiven.
So, Adam… what am I
missing?
– You may look at all of those things and say… I’ve had
that in the past. Or I think I have all of those now… and yet… I still feel like my life is out of whack.
– But here’s the thing… it takes continuous effort to
hold onto those 8 qualities, doesn’t it?
– Think of it like a merry-go-round.
1. It
takes a lot of effort just to hold on… increasing effort to get towards the
middle.
2. That’s
how it is in our spiritual life… it takes effort just to hold on.
3. And
even holding your position takes a lot of effort and strength
4. Let
go… and the whole thing starts to falls apart.
§ You fly off the merry-go-round or you fail to be productive spiritually.
§ And you are left laying in the dirt. You aren’t
happy with your walk and you know God isn’t either.
Look:
Let’s look at a
visual way of thinking about this.
Think of your life for a minute. If we were to use my
backpacking map… and my campsites were steps in your spiritual walk with God…
how would your race look?
– Here’s the thing. God has told us… if we use His tool,
and we allowed Him to map out our race for us… He would make our path straight.
– Proverbs 3:5-6
says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding; in
all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.”
– The question for us isn’t… will God find a way for us
to be productive, efficient, and effective… He’s already promised us that.
– The question is, will you use the tools He has given us
to navigate your race? Or will you try to do it your way?
Look at 2 Peter
1:10-11, Peter is going to tell you “what you will get” if you use the tool.
– The promise is two fold here.
1. Make
your calling and election sure, we use the tools God has provided, you won’t fall.
§ You need to know that God doesn’t want for you
to get hurt.
§ God wants you to run your race pleasing to you
and please to Him.
§ God never wants you to sin.
§ And it’s never in our best interest to do
something sinful.
2. And
He wants you to complete this race called life in the best shape possible.
§ That’s
why Peter says, “you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”
§ Why? Why do you receive a rich welcome?
· Because you have used the tools that God
provided wisely.
· You have participated in His divine nature…
making Him known around the world.
· You will be productive and effective in His name
during your spiritual walk.
· You have taken your faith past “knowledge” and
moved it into “action.”
· You can look forward to standing before the
Master as Jesus described in Matthew 25 and hearing “’Well done, good and
faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in
charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
Took:
Now, you may be
looking at all of this and scratching your head…
You may be saying to yourself, “I want to run an efficient race, a race that is focused not just on
finishing but pleasing to both me and God along the way, but I look at that
tool and I don’t know where to start. How can I learn more? How can I develop
those 8 qualities more in my life? Where do I start?
Part 2 of this chapter: You could entitle it “Know the Scriptures”
I don’t want to get real fancy here… but I want to answer
that question that you may be asking very practically.
You can best learn how to develop those qualities in Peter’s
tool by getting to know the Bible.
– As Peter says here in verses 16-19, the Bible isn’t
something that was made up to manipulate people, its instruction that came from
God.
– So, if you want to get to know God, you need to read
His instructions.
– Verse 19 says “and you would do well to pay attention
to it.”
Let me make two suggestions.
Suggestion #1
Be in the Bible every single day. The best way to learn how
to have faith, goodness, self-control, perseverance, godliness, kindness, and
love is to daily spend time getting to know the Source of all of that.. .God…
through His written Word. May I suggest our Bible reading plan in the bulletin?
Suggestion #2
Simply put, the best way for you to grow in your knowledge
and understanding of God’s Word is in a small group. In my own life, I
find it to be the best place to grow and learn.
PRAY for offering
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