His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.seeing that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue,According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:seeing that his divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that called us by his own glory and virtue;
10 sermons cite this verse
… as you know his son, Jesus, our Lord. And then he says, as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that through these, you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And we thank God for his word. I love this because Peter doesn't say you've been given some things you'll need for this Christian life and the rest you're going to have to figure out on your own. He says, as has been given to us all things. And the church said, all things. All things have been given to us. All things necessary pertaining to life and godliness. Exceedingly great and precious promises. God has given to you every single thing you need to thrive in the abundant life that he has called for you to live in this world. …
… And everything else is taken care of. Last verse on the screen, 2 Peter 1, verse 3. Jesus has the power of God, because he is God in human form, came to earth. Jesus has the power of God by which he has given us everything we need. Everything we need to live. Everything we need to live and to serve God. We have these things. Because we deserve him? No. Because we promise to be perfect? No. We have these things because we know him. Do you know the shepherd? Let's bow our heads. So I end by asking this question, no matter where you're listening to this. Who's your shepherd? Who is your shepherd? Can you truly say, the Lord is my shepherd? Or are you a sheep without a shepherd? You know, you're not going to last very long in this life as a solitary sheep on your own. There are just too many predators. You need a shepherd, that's Jesus, and you need a flock to be a part of, that's a church. …
… is found in your relationship with God. 2 Peter 1.3 says, 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. God's given you everything you need to make it. Do you want to grow spiritually? Do you want to finish the race of life well? Then if you yield to the Holy Spirit, you will. Do you not care about this? Is this not important to you? Then very easily you could become a spiritual casualty. That brings us to the parable of the sower. And this had been a long, hard day for Jesus. He had dealt with a lot of challenges. His own mother and brothers thought he had lost his mind and wanted to take him home. The scribes and the Pharisees were saying that he was speaking by the inspiration of the devil. And so he just retreats to the beach. His version of the beach. It was the Sea of Galilee, which is actually a large freshwater lake, but it's so vast and big, it looks like the ocean or the beach. …
I want to speak from this thought today. You better recognize. You better recognize. Father in heaven, we bless you. Hallelujah. We honor you. We feel the weight of your glory, the weight of your presence. You are here with us and you have purpose to do great things in our midst. The opening of the blind eyes, the deliverance of the captives, the healing of the sick, hallelujah, and so much more. And so have your way, hallelujah. God, your servant, thanks you for the spirit of wisdom and revelation and insight and knowledge and prophecy and full access to the secrets of heaven that I might feed your sons and daughters. And may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight. I thank you for not only us coming in, but how we're going to leave out. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Do me a favor. Give God a shout. Greet somebody as you take your seat in God's house. Hallelujah. Let's go to work, baby. I want to, I want to, yes, sir, I want to continue with something that we started. I was going to say Wednesday night, but Wednesday night was a continuum of the things that have been happening in our movement and our midst really since we concluded 30 years of ministry. Yeah. Because it became emphatically clear that we had stepped into another era, another wave of grace and glory for our church. …
… became a believer, God downloaded into our hearts everything we need for living a Godly life. Actually, Peter said that same thing. That was Ephesians 1.3. This is 2 Peter 1.3. It says, by his divine power, God has given us, us believers, he has given us everything we need for living a godly life. He's given us wings. Just let that sink in. Everything we need. Our wings are invisible. Faith is invisible. But friends, you can fly. Dads, you can fly above the craziness of this world with the wings God has given us. And that's the title of the message. You can fly. Dads, you can fly. My whole purpose in the next few minutes is to convince you that you can fly as a dad. You've got this. You know, obviously the title came from Peter Pan and he said, all you need was happy thoughts and pixie dust. And then you can fly out of the bedroom and off into your dreams. But Isaiah tells us, and I like this version better, those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. That's a lot like flying to me. Wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. …
Grace and peace be yours. in abundance, there's the promised land, through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us, there again, we're receiving, everything we need. Can we say that together? Given us what? Everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these, he is given, there is another thing we're receiving, us his very great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the divine nature having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires when you were born again you got a birthright you were given a gift you were given promise you were given the ability to participate in the divine nature of God that doesn't mean you're going to become God doesn't mean you're going to become divine at any point, but you can participate in the divine nature of God. It's a birthright. You have to lean into it. He goes on to say, for this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith. So in other words, don't just profess faith, but possess faith. Add to your faith, goodness, and to goodness, knowledge, and to knowledge, self-control to self-control, perseverance to perseverance, godliness to godliness, mutual affection, and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess, hello, these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, they'll keep you from just living a life that said, I've …
… who called us to His own glory and excellence. 2 Peter 1.3 Insight into God is the channel by which divine power for godliness flows to the soul. That's what 2 Peter says. So not surprisingly, the Bible pleads with us over and over, get insight. Proverbs 4, get wisdom, get insight. Do not forget, do not turn away from the words of my mouth. The beginning of wisdom is this, get wisdom. and whatever you get, get insight. Leave your simple ways and live. Walk in the path of insight. Now what complicates things for pastors and glorifies our job is that our job is to gain insight into God. Ephesians 1.17 Paul prays that God may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him I don't want to get ahead of ourselves here because we're going to talk about this a little bit later. But at this point, in order to feel the force of this challenge to get insight into God, we need to realize that's impossible. …
Well, the Bible says in 2 Peter chapter 1 that he's given us everything. It says, his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue, 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, to brotherly kindness love. And then it goes on to say, for he who lacks these things is short-sighted even to blindness and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. I don't want to be a person that forgets. I don't want to be a person that is unaware of the time, unaware of the fact that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus said that so often, and I didn't look it up, so I don't know the exact number, but Jesus said, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. It's here. …
… 10 talks about how we're putting on the image of Christ, the new man, day in and day out. 2 Peter 1, verse 3 and 4 talks about how we are maturing into the image of God. 1 John 3, verse 2 says that one day we will be like him. We will be transformed into his presence. This is the whole agenda, the whole purpose of the Bible. Don't miss it. To show us the glory of Christ and to bring us, transform us into the image of Christ. Now, at this point, I want us to dive a little deeper into our contemporary context and why the Word must be central in worship. The Word's purpose is to show us Christ and to make us look more like Christ. We've got that on the table, right? Now, if that's the Word's purpose, then I want us to think about what is not the Word's purpose. I want you to follow along with me here because some of you might hear me say this and think that I'm heretical. …
Because when you know who you are and whose you are, you know what you possess. the Bible says his divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness look at your neighbor say you already have it see your problem is you so busy comparing yourself to other people that you are devaluing your own resources you already got the skills and the competence and the gifts and the know how, but you're too busy comparing yourself to somebody else. He said, what's in your hand? He said, I gave you a rod. He said, if you would just stretch it out. He said, I'll blow a highway through the Red Sea. Watch this now. And in preparation for the miracle, the Bible says once he directed Moses to what was in Moses' hand. You've got to keep reading chapter 9, verse 19 and beyond. The text says that the angel that was ahead of them started moving. …