Last Word From A Knucklehead S20e1 2peter1:5

Peter is the best KNUCKLEHEAD in the Bible. I say that to honor his ending, especially from where he started.  I think he's a great encouragement to us. This book, 2 Peter is his figurative and literal LAST WORD. Join me as we give ear for 7 minutes at a time.

He wants us to PARTICIPATE IN THE DIVINE NATURE.  He wants us to be holy like He is holy. How does that happen?  Poof? No, it happens by an EAGERNESS for the RELATIONAL PRACTICES that demonstrate our commitment to it. It is a life-long commitment, which is to say moment-by-moment response, towards this goal.

These are Peter's final words from a life that really demonstrates this.  He participated in the divine nature and stopped being such a knucklehead.  We should too. Come back tomorrow. Here's how to do it: subscribe at bewithme.us or apple, google or Spotify podcasts.

Transcript

Michael Smith: 0:01

Good morning, my brothers and sisters, welcome to episode number one in season 20. This is from Second Peter chapter one verse one. I'm going to tell you today, the last word from a knucklehead, which is Peter. And I don't say that to throw him under the bus. He's the he's the best knucklehead in Scripture. I say that, to give us hope that we are kind of knuckleheads do and don't do things right. And I think hearing this last will and testament from from Peter is going to be an encouragement. Here's the setting. He's reading probably from Rome, not exactly sure. He's writing to the same people he wrote to in First Peter, which is the people in Asia, Asia is a Roman province. Basically, it's what we call Turkey today, bunch of churches there. And in the the most coolest thing about this is he's urgent, this is his last time he ever writes to them. And he says in 114, he says, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon he is on the way out. So he's this last word to his family of Christians see, there's an urgency and there's a passion that he has, let's listen in to this. This is from First Second Peter chapter one verse one, Simon Peter, a servant, and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith, of equal standing with ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, made Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God, and Jesus, our Lord. Verse three, his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him, who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which he is granted to us His precious and very great promises. So that through them, you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire, for this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, then he's gonna go on, and he's gonna list seven, seven virtues of the divine nature that we are supposed to be participating. So what he's doing here, he's he's asking us to make a lifelong response to a commitment to develop the characters and character and characteristics of Jesus. This reminds me of what he did back in first Peters, same message, same people, which is to be holy, be holy in all your conduct, Don't be conformed to the passions, be holy, as he who called you is holy. So it's a similar theme that we see back in First Peter, and he wants all of Asia, all of this Roman area, all of this area under control of Nero, who eventually put Him to death, by the way. He wants these people to rural Washington persecution, who were Washington suffering, who have false teachers who have disorder, he says this, I want you to partake in the divine nature, how big of a piece of the divine nature you want, how big of a slice of the pie of the divine nature? Which would you like? He's going to say, you know, we're going to head towards virtue and knowledge and self control one a bunch of other other things. Well, how do we get there, verse five, for this very reason, make every effort. So there's an eagerness and zeal and a speed towards this a devotion towards this. When is this? Well, it's hastily it's full speed ahead. How fast is is, is there's a context of speed, they're doing it with all all dispatch. And here's what he says, do this quickly. Make every effort be an urgent about this to supplement your faith? Now, there's five solos in Protestantism saved by grace alone, as revealed by Scripture alone, by faith alone, in Christ alone, and for only God's glory. So I understand that this concept, but if your faith is frozen in time, if your faith is frozen, in the moment of salvation, and if you are the same exact person, as you were on the day, quote, unquote, on the day of your salvation, then I would say, then you didn't have a day of salvation. Why is that? Because because Christianity is about a moment, but it's also about a process. And here we're supposed to be demonstrating a lifelong commitment to your faith by providing for your faith supporting it, supplying the needs of it, so obvious, obviously, Christ throws us a lifeline. Our faith is maybe pictured by us reaching out to that in in belief, and then we demonstrate our belief by devotion to Christ's interest in us. So if If I looked at your life, could I see it? Could I hear it could a hearing your words and your attitudes? So this is like when your boyfriend or your lover calls you on the telephone? Well, do you answer it? Do you put the put your lover on voicemail? Or maybe even block your your lover? Or even worse? Maybe you ghost them in every single way. So when the lover of your soul car calls, are you eager? Do you answer the phone are you I can't wait to talk to to Jesus. So this is that demonstration of a lifelong commitment to him. It's the habits and practices that demonstrate the relationship. The relational practices, demonstrate the commitment that you have to him. So we're supposed to be eager to this, we're supposed to be eager to participate in the divine nature. The target is holiness, these, these are the seven characteristics that we're going to explain maybe tomorrow. And the principle here is that people that are going to participate Well, in the divine nature, are going to make every effort they're going to be eager. They're going to be zealous in speed and time, they're going to do it today towards supporting the relational practices. So walk walking faithfully, as Peter has done for 35 years. He's an overcomer. He made it to the end, we have to listen to him because he's, he's looking back on his life here and giving us the most important things. And so we're going to be having a life long response, which equals which means every moment, it's so so Peter, you know, you look at his whole life, but it's divides up into many moments. So today, let's look at our moments are moments that we respond to the call to the goal to the wonder, how much of the Lord, can I say yes to? And of course, Lord, please help us we need to check our eagerness. That is the object of our faith is Jesus. So how are the habits of that? How was your relational practices, church attendance, service giving self control, podcasts listening? So real faith is not at real risk, but it is demonstrated by real practices. So do you have an eagerness for the relational practices that demonstrates a commitment and a participation in the divine nature? Thanks for listening. We'll get to that divine nature tomorrow.