2 Peter 1:1-15 Tools For Godly Living

God has given us everything required for life and godliness, and the difference between drift and growth is whether we pick up those tools.

Humility anchors it all. If Peter can call our faith equal to his, the ground truly is level at the cross. That frees us from performance and invites us into steady, Spirit-powered effort that bears fruit over time. Life is short, hope is real, and today still counts. If you’re new to faith, returning after a long gap, or hungry for more than spiritual motion, this conversation will help you take the next right step with courage and joy.

If this encouraged you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a short review so more people can find the show. Tell us: which tool are you picking up this week?

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to the City Life Church podcast. We hope it encourages you. If you'd like to learn more about City Life or our mission, connect with us online at CityLifeSandiego.org. And while podcasts and Sunday mornings are helpful, they are no substitute for deeper personal relationships in the church.

Opening Prayer And Honesty About Struggle

The Tools Metaphor From Family Life

Point One: God Equips Us To Be Like Jesus

Justification And Sanctification Explained

Use The Right Tools: Armor Of God

Point Two: Make Every Effort To Grow

Virtue To Love: Seven Qualities

Endurance, Suffering, And Agape Love

Rejecting Drift And Spiritual Laziness

SPEAKER_01 0:47

So today we're going to be in 2 Peter 1. Does anybody have a bound Bible today? I love to see those. That's not bound, that's a phone. I love you. I love you though. I think it's great that many of you can read your Bible on your phone. I cannot because I have notifications and ADD, so I cannot. We're going to be in 2 Peter 1, 1 through 15. And I'm excited to share this with you guys today, what God is teaching me. Here we go. Are you with me? 2 Peter 1, here we go. Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ. To those who have received a faith equal to ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. Please don't do that. I'm reading God's word, so you have to you have to stay seated, please. Tiffany, I love you, but you have to stay seated and you can't cuss at me. I'm praying to God. We love you. We love you, okay? To those who have received a faith equal to ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, may grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. By these He has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The person who lacks these things is blind and short-sighted and has forgotten the cleansing of his past sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble. For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you. Therefore, I will always remind you about these things, even though you know them and are established in the truth you now have. I think it is right, as long as I am in this bodily tent to wake you up with a reminder, since I know that I will soon lay aside my tent as our Lord Jesus Christ has indeed made clear to me, and I will also make every effort so that you are able to recall these things at any time after my departure. Friends, let us pray. Father, we desire to shine your light in a darkness, but we're human, and if we are honest, sometimes we just want to do our own thing. When we look at suffering and the pain in the world, we just sometimes, God, if we're real, like I just want to wail on people sometimes. We want to punish indiscriminately, justify ourselves as if we are you. But we're not you. We are not all wise, we are not all just, we are often not patient with our enemies, but we are grateful that you are. Because it is by your long-suffering and compassion that we stand before your throne as family, knowing it's not by our righteousness that we stand, but by yours. And so we ask you to teach us this morning to help us supplement our faith with your godliness and love. We feel inadequate for this pa this task, but with you all things are possible. Please teach us this morning. May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of our hearts be pleasing to you. We pray this all in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, Amen. Well, my parents uh worked in business, but they were also educators. Um, and my dad had his doctorate in education from uh San Diego State, and my mom had her MBA from UCLA. They were educated people, and they actually made pretty good money. Not as they didn't like make money fast enough for how they spent money, but they made good money. Um, and one of the things that uh you would know if you had been at my family's house is that they could not fix a dang thing, like things were just broken all over the house. Um, but because they had some money and they spent it like they were trying to save our economy, they would just hire people to fix things all the time. Um my dad also had all the tools from Sears Craftsman, um, which were like nice. And he had like drills and he had table saws, circular saws, jigsaws, and uh he had like price tags still on them, like unused, covered in you know, like uh uh dust in our our uh in our garage. And um I eventually discovered my dad's jigsaw, and I learned that I could make skateboards out of it, and it was really fun actually. Like I really enjoyed it, it was a lot of fun, and it's crazy that my parents would hear sawing and like not think like, oh our son like is like really impulsive, and like I somehow have all my fingers and thumbs. Um and uh I just learned how to use things, but there was a lot of things I still didn't have any gifts in, and it's because nobody taught me. So it's like just until a couple years ago, if I needed a hole in a wall that a drill would do, I would just hammer a big nail because that's all I knew how to do, and then I would screw in the screw. Um, it's just nobody had taught me, nobody taught me how to use tools. And um some of the people in the room have actually helped me. Um, and actually, my wife Ashley and I have replaced toilets and faucets now, and she actually has a snake that she's snaked our drains before. These are all things though that we've had to learn how to do ourselves, and we've been trained by some other people than my parents. Um, but the thing is, is that like I wish I knew how to do more with these tools, and I wish that I had known a long time ago because it would have saved me a lot of time. Actually, three years ago, I was trying to put a like a ra a coat um hanger, not a coat hanger, I was trying to put a um a hook in my office, and I was trying to screw into my solid wood door without any kind of like use of anything but like a screw. And I ended up like trying to push it so hard that I like got into my thumb. You know, it was bad. And it's like, how did nobody teach me how to do this? And the thing is, is that I bet some of you are the same way, but I think some of us are the same way spiritually. Like I didn't have parents who taught me how to love Jesus. I didn't have that or taught me how to follow Jesus. I know some of you didn't have that, or even worse, some of you had parents that taught you how to do it but didn't show you how. Right? Like they did the opposite of what they taught you. Um, it's like having all these tools available in dad's garage, but we don't use them. Nobody taught us how. Um I'm grateful for the pastors, the leaders, the mentors who have taught and continue to teach me how to take advantage of every gift that God has given us. Every gift. And today in our text, I'm gonna want to show us how Peter wants to equip the saints for every godly thing. But he's using the gifts of God and empowering us to do these things. So I'm gonna give you three points on the tools of godly living. And my first point is this one God gives us tools to make us like his son. God gives us tools to make us like his son. See, um, it said in verse 3, his divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Now I just want to stop for a moment. See, God has given us enough to thrive. It's already in front of us, it's not changing. When you ever hear a leader who says they have a special secret of the gospel or some new part of the Bible that no one else has, they're bringing you into a cult. Run away. Don't stop to investigate, run. Our faith is old, it shouldn't look too different from believers 2,000 years ago. Yes, we contextualize the gospel for our situation, for our circumstance, but we don't change the gospel. We don't. Some churches have different emphasis. You you would know that uh our church has an emphasis on the poor, has an emphasis on being a multi-ethnic church, has an emphasis on uh serving those in this community. Um, but that doesn't mean that like we don't share all the other things with the church universal, the big things, the big stuff. Um God's power and goodness has given us everything we need to live holy lives. His promises help us escape brokenness and evil. Now look at verse 4. By these, he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire. So we have to be aware, God is giving us tools, these promises, that we didn't earn. And we can't take credit for them, right? Like he's not gonna force us to be faithful, is he? He's going to give us the tools to be faithful. So so many of us operate in this idea that either you are obedient to every single detail, or God hates you. And that's shame and that's not grace. That's not what we're talking about. What if we consider that God has given us these things only because he loved us? Like his Bible to help us know what his voice sounds like, not to bore us, not to hold a rule over our head, his spirit to counsel or guide us, to give us power for good, his church to sharpen and bless us, so that when you screw up, and you will screw up if you're anything like me, you can have hope that God still wants to bless you. It's his promise. He's not mad at you, he's cheering for you. He hates your sin, he hates that it's destroying you, but when you belong to him, he's trying to help you out of it. He doesn't want your sin uh to wreck your relationships with him and with others. He wants to see you thrive and he's giving you tools to help you thrive. It's a part of his promise. See, because God equips Christians for godly living. And when we embrace his promises, we grow and sin loses its grip on us. Now, before we go too far, we have to talk about two things. And if you're a believer and you've been in our church for a while, you've probably heard these things before. But I want to repeat them again and again because I've been taught that until you can uh quote me and make fun of me, then you don't have it yet. So I'm gonna keep saying it. There's justification and then there's sanctification. When we think about justification, what do we think of? So it's you in a courtroom, it's the judge about to call you guilty, and it's Jesus saying, No, no, no, no, no, I will take the guilty charge on behalf of them. And so when God bangs the gavel, you are declared not guilty. Justified. So you think justice, you think court, justified. It's a one-time thing that happens, and then after that, you can move forward to something called sanctification. Okay? So when you become justified, God's Holy Spirit moves into your heart. Um uh and we're using a heart like into you, right? Like he's moving into a house, like that show Total Renovation. I don't know if you've seen that. Um, I've seen commercials, or actually, it's more like the show Hoarders. Has anybody seen the show hoarders? It's like it's always on when I'm like at the doctor's office. Um, and God is moving into your house like the show hoarders, right? And he's like, hey man, what's with the four toasters? You know? Like, wait, and only one of them works? Like, what's going on here? It's it's it's it's happening. God wants to move into your heart and do a work. But the thing is, he starts tearing down moldy walls around your heart. He starts throwing away junk and poison that you've been putting in yourself. Some rooms are gonna take more time than others to clean out. It's why people come to church and they see a part of your life that is very kind of looks untouched by God, and people go, like, those people are hypocrites. And it's because we are in a process and there's still sin going on all over the place that God is working on. But a lot of times um we can only take so much, right? So he's working on these things. And then some rooms are gonna take more time than others to clean out. Those foundation issues, they often take more time. And when the house starts to look swept and clean, that's when God starts to say, Hey, what about that basement? And you're like, Man, nobody knows about what's in that basement. And he's like, I know. Let's go, let's do some work, let's do some foundational work on the basement because he wants to make it holy too, set up set apart for his glory. A lot of believers who have been believers for a long time are still hiding the things that are in their basement of their heart. But here we see, though, that the renovation goes much faster if we take a hold of the tools God has given us to grow. Now remember, this is not about justification. God justifies you based on the work of Jesus. But as we're being sanctified, we're being sanctified by the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, changing us, doing that total renovation of our hearts. See, if we grab a hold of his promises with these tools, then we can take an active role in our growth with him, and the sky becomes the limit, friends. And church, what really matters is where you are headed, okay? So when a pastor's heart is headed away from his wife and his family, when his heart is headed away from God, it doesn't matter if he has his doctorate in the Bible. I do not, by the way. Um, it doesn't matter if God has used him for decades to do amazing things. He's moving in the wrong direction. And if a new believing drug dealer who is still learning about sexual purity is growing in his faith and he stops beating his girlfriend because of Jesus, he's moving in the right direction. He's accessing the advantages God gives him. But we have to use the right tools for godly growth, right? Am I right? Like, like weed is never going to get you there. Working a hundred hours at your job will not get you there. Just trying to be a good person will not get you there. Medication and therapy, those are good things, but they're not going to get you to godly growth. We need the right tools. Like, have you ever heard the phrase, never bring a gun to uh whoop, never bring a knife to a gunfight? Have you heard that term? Like, I've never seen it better illustrated than the movie Indiana Jones, but also in history in uh Poland at the start of World War II. And I know most of you are like, man, I know the story of Poland and World War II in 1939, but I'm just gonna tell everybody else, okay? See, Germany had already invaded this place called the Rhineland in 1936, and and in order to placate Hitler, uh all the world leaders had said, Hey man, okay, you could have Rhineland, just stay out of all the other places, okay? And he was like, Oh, of course. Um, I would never invade another sovereign nation in Europe. So three years later, when he wanted to invade another sovereign nation in Europe in 1939, Hitler invaded Poland. Now, while no one wants to fight a war, Poland, well, the Polish were confident because they had this world-renowned cavalry, okay? And they were considered the best horsemen on the planet at the time, okay? This battle was known as the Battle of Tugula Forest. Now, this story is surrounded by myth, by mystery, propaganda. We don't always know what's true, but we have to assume there's some truth here. And here's what we know the Polish cavalry was undefeated. It was world renowned, it was intimidating. But one day they brought a horse fight to German armored cars and over 300 tanks. The Polish army had the wrong tools. Sadly, over 1,600 men were slaughtered by the tanks and heavy artillery of the Nazi forces. They had the wrong tools for the battle. Friends, you are also in a battle against unseen forces. Let me tell you this binge watching Stranger Things or Game of Thrones is not going to help you fight that battle. Scrolling on your phone is not going to help you fight that battle. So, so often when we struggle with sin, with anxiety and depression, we will send out an inferior force. We think, man, drink drink will help me with this, but it never does, does it? When we fight spiritual battles, we have to use spiritual weapons. But what do we do? Sometimes we gossip, we ghost people, we hide and we think things will get better. We justify not being in community because we're tired or because we see flaws in Christians. And we will see flaws in Christians, right? We use substances to dull the pain, we chase after sex or power. If we can get a raise at this job, then hopefully we'll find our victory. Guys, that's a horse against a tank. You can't win that way. God has the tools for you to succeed. They're right there for the tanking. Taking. Did I say tanking? That's kind of funny. They're for the taking. I'm not saying it's easy, friends. And I'm not saying it's the exact same prescription for every person. But in Ephesians 6 11, it says, put on the full armor of God so you can stand against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, the authorities, the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil spiritual forces in the heavens. For this reason, take up the full armor of God, so you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand. Now, the the book of Ephesians 6, uh it continues and tells you how. But we tend to go to things that the world tells us to embrace, right? Like, and God is like, man, I am right here. My church is right here, my word is right here. Why are you chasing after these things that will never fix anything for you? But the hope the hope is here too. There is hope. Like, even though we reject his assistance, as long as we are living, he's ready for us, he's willing to help. In 1 Corinthians 10 13, it says, No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful, he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able. But with a temptation, he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it. So these temptations in our life, God provides us a way out. At the same time, it's his tools, it's his spirit. Now, God provides for you a spiritual army and he provides you with tanks to fight off the evil one, but at some point you have to respond. You have to embrace his gifts, and this is where we get our second point today. If if we I have a typo here, so I need to read it. If we want growth, we have to grab the tools of God. If we want growth, we have to grab the tools of God. Mine says, if we growth. So, verse 5, for this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. See, since God wants to free us from the bondage of sin, we should seek to use every spiritual advantage we have to grow in goodness, in knowledge, and self-control, endurance, godliness, brotherly affection and love. This is work, okay? This is work, but this is not to save you. Remember this, it's not justification. It's for more. If we continue to grow in things, then we can become more useful to God. Now, Dr. Tony Evans, he says, Christians in a manner of speaking have God's nature woven into our DNA. This nature includes spiritual appetite and godly behavior. It's why sometimes, if you're not even saved, you will feel guilt. And you won't know why. Because God has made you that way, to be to be drawn to him. Sometimes you will feel guilt or you'll feel a desire to do good. This is God in you, showing you these tools that are available to everyone. Peter lists seven of these gifts, though, that come from the Spirit. And the goal is not to just grow in one of them. Can I just say that again? The goal is not to grow in one gift in one place, so as to be lopsided. No, no, no, no, no. The goal is to grow in all of them, and it's not because you can do it in your own strength. You have to rely on the Holy Spirit, the word of God, and his church to help us grow through this. There's a West African proverb that says, no bird can fly with just one wing. See, we have to allow God to cultivate all of them in us. So, first, there's goodness, living for God's glory, right? It can be translated as virtue, as courage, as excellence. There are many things that are not bad in our life, but there are not as many things that are good. We want to seek after the goodness in life and in us. There's knowledge responding to what God teaches us. This is godly knowledge, okay? This is not me reading all those history books, right? Not just knowing how to trade out a tire, which I don't know how to do. It's a very specific faith-related knowledge. Making sure that when you grow in knowledge of anything, it's it's not getting more of your time with God. This is God's knowledge. Then we have self control. I think you probably know what that means, like rejecting sin by submitting yourself to the Holy Spirit. We have endurance, it's described as perseverance, it's a big one, guys. The ability to move forward when things get hard. And I would just tell you there are some of you in the room that have suffered. You have suffered at the hands of others, you have suffered in big ways, and I've I've had a front row seat to your suffering. And I've just seen you, and you're just trying to like lift weights. And you get to to rep number 10 and you're ready to give up. But but remember that it's at like rep 11 and 12 when you're too tired that you build muscle. And I want to say, I've seen a lot of you people today like that. I've looked at you and I've seen the way you have fought through your struggles. And I just want to say I'm really proud of you. I'm really proud of you. When when things are hard and you seek God, that is when God is growing you. That is when God is growing you. So I'm really proud of a lot of you in the room because I know what's going on in your life. Not everybody else knows, but I know what's going on. And I probably don't know all of it. But I do know that many of you have been suffering mightily lately, and yet you're turning to God and you're serving others. I'm so proud of you. You are seeking the gifts of God. You are seeking the tools of God. Now, Nigerian pastor Takunobo Adeyemo, he says this of biblical endurance. He says it's patience with courage behind and hope in its front yard. It is the tenacity that refuses to give up when trouble comes, but always looks forward to a better tomorrow. Can I read it again? It is patience with courage behind it and hope in its front yard. It is the tenacity that refuses to give up when trouble comes, but always looks forward to a better tomorrow. Then you have brotherly love. Oh, then you have godliness and ability to make the right decision by his power. Then you have brotherly love or brotherly affection. Phileo, like uh Philadelphia, is the city of brotherly love, right? Ability to care for God's family. Brotherly love happens in the church. It doesn't happen outside the church. This is the people that God has called you to love like a brother. These are this is your adopted family in Christ. Then finally, he says love, and that's a different type of love, agape love. It's unconditional compassion for all people, believers and non-believers, good people and bad people, people that you think are awesome, people that you think are racist. Agape love is love for ice agents and for immigrants, even for those who have done great evil. It is love regardless. Agape love is love for your enemy or your political antagonist, in that you don't want them to die, you want them to repent and fully share in the love of Christ. It's not easy though, is it? This is the hardest thing. And it only comes through endurance, this kind of love, and it only comes by accessing the tools of God. You can't do this on your own. See, agape love is the love Jesus shared with us in the gospel. See, the gospel is that we were enemies with God. We didn't deserve anything from God. We deserved all that hell had to offer us. We had sinned against God, we have chosen our own way, and yet God chose goodness for his enemies, love for his enemies. Jesus willingly died on the cross for people who didn't deserve it. People like me, people like you. He justifies us in in and when he died on the cross and rose again on the third day, he showed that he was bigger than sin and death. Once again, I want you to be able to quote me on this because I want you to be able to share this gospel with everyone you know, because it's the most important news in the world. When he rose from death, he showed the receipts that he could conquer sin and death. This is the joy that we have before us today that compels us to move forward on behalf of others, people that treat us poorly, especially. So God has given us access to his gifts. The problem is many still want to do things our own way, don't we? Like, have you ever like lost a hammer though, and you tried to use a wrench as a hammer? It's not good. It doesn't work out. God has given us every good and perfect gift, the right gift for the right situation. But sometimes we get in this place where nobody but nobody is gonna tell me what to do. I'm gonna do me. And so we take breaks, we focus on our mental health, or we do self-care, or we seek our truth alone when God knows we need to keep moving forward to get out of our struggles. I'm not saying taking care of yourself is bad, but the problem is when we make that the thing, it's often a lazy, easy way. But spiritual growth doesn't work like that. If you are trying to get up a river, you can't stop paddling. Why? Because sitting still actually has you go backwards. You don't get where you want to be by sitting still, it's difficult. You end up drifting backwards. And friends, let me just say once again, I recognize your situation is not easy, you're going through it, and you you can't you don't even have control over a lot of these things, but guys, God provides gifts, but it takes action action to access them. Now, Dominican Pastor Miguel Nunez, he says this of the person not using his gift. And and I just want to say um, if you want to like write an email to someone about how you're like convicted by this, don't write it to me. Pastor Miguel Nunez from the Dominican, he's from Santo Domingo. He he's the one that's saying this to you. I'm I'm just listening. He says this if moral excellence is not present in us, we are one of the following things. A, not a Christian. B, a Christian who has failed to grow in knowledge of God, C, a Christian who has forgotten God's precious promises. I forgot what letter we're on. Then a Christian who is in rebellion and not submitting to the spirit, or a Christian who suffers from spiritual laziness. Where do you see yourself in there? My hope is not any of those, but I think there's a little bit of those in us. So I urge you not to do this alone, friends. You're gonna want to say to yourself, but I got Jesus, I got the Bible, I got the spirit. Yes, those are good things that you need, but you have to do this in community. Let me warn you, um, you're gonna have terrible things happen to you. Terrible. And the thing is, is this world is not perfect. Weeds grow in gardens. No matter how much you try to get them out, oh my gosh, weeds grow in gardens, cars break down, houses flood, diseases and cancer have already touched everyone in this room. I know it. Brokenness and addiction are still around us, friends. We cannot stop these things from affecting us, but we can prepare. See, God equips Christians for godly living. When we embrace his priorities, we grow and sin loses its grip on us. Now, I gotta say, I hate fatalism, okay? This idea that whatever happens will happen because God's in control, because it's the will of God or the force or like uh the fates. It feels so lazy to me. Like we once had a family member who smoked like a chimney and he had a stroke. And I remember we got called into the hospital, and we said uh we said to him, like, are you okay? And he's like, Yeah, I just gotta you know take care of myself. And then we asked the doctor, is he okay? And he's like, No, not at all. And we asked the doctor what was going on, and he was like, He's not taking any meds to help him with his stroke, and he's about to go smoke a cigarette. And we have told him, Do not do these things or you'll die. And he's like, if I die, I die. Like God's in control. And I was like, Man, that's not God. That's you. You, if you die, it's because you made a poor decision. Don't put that on God. You are choosing to not take the medication, and you are choosing to smoke a cigarette. Like, don't be fatalistic. Like, make a decision. Like, it's okay to say, well, I've chosen this, but the fact is, a lot of us do this with our lives. Well, if God wants to do something with me, he'll have to make it. No, he's given us tools. The tools are sitting in the garage, shiny new tools, covered in price tags and like cellophane. You've got to unwrap them and use them. If God wants me to die, no, no, no, no. Don't be fatalistic about your faith, friends. Many of us seasoned Christians are getting exactly what we are putting into our faith. And a lot of it is nothing. Meanwhile, there are people in here who have been a Christian for like seven dang minutes, and they are calling me with questions. Pastor, I'm reading this in my Bible. What does that mean? Pastor, I don't understand this. Pastor, why is it like this? And I love those calls. And I'm sure some of you are getting calls from them too. Also, they're serving others in the church. They've been a Christian for like less than a year. They're starting new city groups, they're sharing the gospel with their friends and family. And it's all happening because they are reading the promises of God, they're holding on to them, and they recognize God is doing the heavy lifting, but they continue to move forward with hope. It's an irresistible joy that they have. Friends, when you spend time on the things that encourage your faith rather than social media, when you make time for church community, you reject the music and movies that dishonor God in your life, you will see some growth. But you get what you put in. You get what you put in. And if if I make a cake and I throw in salt instead of sugar, like my brother did one time just to fool with people, it's gonna be a bad cake, right? Sometimes, though, we pour all this poison into our cake, we have consequences of our actions, we don't make God a priority in our life except for a few occasions, and then maybe we'll throw in a little sugar, like Easter. And then our life tastes like poison, and we blame God, or we blame the church. You can't put all that poison in there and blame somebody else. You put the poison in. If you need Christian friends, you're gonna have to do a lot before you find your people. But it takes work and it's painful sometimes. It's not easy. But when that cake comes out of the oven with true friendship, man, it's worth it. You get what you put into your faith. God does the heavy lifting, but he's not gonna grow you through osmosis. He's going to grow you with you. He's not going to grow you without you. You all know I love reading about history and how it energizes me. But I feel like I'm a better preacher when I read lots of history and lots of fiction, but there are times when I get what I put in. There are times when even my wife recognizes I'm only putting sadness into my heart, okay? Like there are times when I'll actually say to my wife, man, why why do I feel so depressed lately? And and now, friends, I just gotta tell you this advice. Don't ask your spouse stupid questions if you don't want the answer. So, of course, the first lady has to rudely and correctly say, Okay, let's see. You've read three books straight, you've read three books straight on North Korea, two on genocide and communist Russia, you've read the news every day, and you are on social media every day. Do you really want to know why you are depressed? Jesus might just say to me this you reap what you sow. And he would say the same thing to you. Are you only reaping weeds? Stop planting seeds of weeds. And I'm not even talking about weed right now, I'm just talking about, you know, things that get in the way in the garden. But it's time to cultivate things that encourage our love for God and others. Start sowing beauty, start sowing joy, start showing sowing love and peace. Instead, try intentional time in person around people who draw you to the Lord, making it a priority. I've talked to some of you who cannot make city groups. It I'm not mad at you for that. It's okay. But it means you have to be even more intentional about other things. Okay? If the church has something and you can make it, make it. And also you need to have grace for people who are in city groups, by the way, because they are filling their cups throughout the week in city groups. So on Sunday, you may not feel that they're as like open or like welcoming to you. Um, and it's just because they they miss each other. Now, I want you guys to all greet people you don't know. I want you to greet people that are sitting alone. I don't want us doing that, but I understand why people love their city group and want to be around them. And they're just excited to see them on Sundays. But friends, no matter what you decide, wherever you go, our God is going to pursue you because he loves you. He wants you to thrive, he wants relationship with you, and he wants you to care for the people around you. And let me just say, I have found those of you who are suffering the most, you make some of the best comforters. You make some of the best comforters. God uses you in the best ways when you're suffering. I don't like that when it's me. But friends, you do well when you suffer and you care for others. So the best way to pursue others, though, it's humility. And that's our third point. Accessing, accessing the tools of faith should humble us. Accessing the tools of faith should humble us. Now, if you go back to verse one, to those who have received a faith equal to ours through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. So, first of all, you gotta hear this. Like, Peter is an apostle. Peter would eat his meals with Jesus and sing songs with Jesus and hang out with Jesus, and he's saying, You have everything to be our equal. That's some humility, right? Like he's Jesus' buddy. He was like in the inner circle, but he understood that every gift he had was from God. And while he was still teaching and leading, he let people know his faith was no better than theirs. Now, he may have learned more along the way, but Peter had made so many mistakes that he learned from them. Now, you have leaders that have something to teach you because we've learned it, okay? But we need to be humble about it, okay? I've not arrived, Pastor Mark has not arrived. Now, I hope your pastors lead in our humility and honesty. It's why I'm honest with you guys when I'm nervous. It's why I'm honest with you guys when I'm depressed or when I'm hurt or when I'm sad. Because if I can't do that, how will you guys think it's be it's gonna ever be safe for you to share when you're nervous or sad or anxious? That's why we try to model this for you. See, Peter acknowledged the gifts he had were from God. And they're the same gifts that the readers had availability to. We have to be humble and we need to consider the ways we can help others with the way we live out our lives. We also don't need to talk down to people. Okay, so here in verse 9, he says, the person who lacks these things is blind and short-sighted, has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins. Ooh, see now, Indian pastor Chris Ganakin says this. He says, cultivating such qualities will help us from forgetting what Christ has done for us and being blind to our own ineffectiveness. The way we live as Christians is rooted in our knowledge of our Savior and what he has done and will do for us. That's humility, friends. See, God equips Christians for godly living. When we humbly embrace his priorities, we grow and arrogance will lose its grip on us. Now listen to the story Jesus told in Luke 18. He said, Two men went to the temple to pray. One was a religious dude, and the other was a despised tax collector. We would call him a snitch today. Like going against his own people. The religious man stood by himself and prayed this prayer. Oh, I thank you, God, I'm not like other people. Cheaters, sinners, adulterers. Certainly not like that dude. I fast twice a week, I give you a tenth of my income. But the tax collector stood at a distance. He dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, Oh God, be merciful to me. For I'm a sinner. I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. See, God values humility. What is the difference between Christians and non-Christians? The answer is not sin. The answer is not awesomeness, the answer is Jesus. He's the difference. We have been forgiven much. He has gifted us his spirit. By no work of ours, we should walk humbly in the gifts that we've inherited. Billy Graham used to say it, the ground is level at the foot of the cross. Meaning we are all debtors to God. We all owe him our lives, and we have nothing to stand on on our own. You know the song, This is all my hope and peace, nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness, nothing but the blood of Jesus. And while that sounds like bad news sometimes, man, that is the best news. It means we don't have to get too worried about our performance. We can accept our imperfections and continue to strive to grow closer to Jesus. We know what we've earned with God. Nothing. And the Father accepts us on the basis of the work of his son. That is the beautiful news that we tell everyone we know. Because God equips Christians for godly living by the sacrifice of his son. And when we embrace his priorities, we grow and sin loses its grip on us. So I'll close with this, friends. Your time is limited. You're not going to ever say at the end of your life that you wish you partied more, you wish you drank more or sinned more. You will wish you cherished the time and the people you had. You will wish you grabbed a hold of the gifts God had given you and you use them for others and for the glory of God. But here is the good news. It's not too late. The good news is you have today. You have today. If you've not given your life to God, maybe today is the day. Come get prayer from someone. Let's let's set something up for you to be baptized. Or maybe you are a believer and you're just not using God's gifts. You're going through the motions, you're floating backwards on the river of life, and you'd like to recommit your life to Jesus, come get prayer from us or just do it. Just pray to God. Just pray to God and ask Him. Grab a hold of all God wants for you. Finishing up the text, he said, I think it is right in verse 13. I think it is right, as long as I'm in this bodily tent, to wake you up with a reminder. Since I know that I will soon lay aside my tent as our Lord Jesus Christ has indeed made clear to me, and I will also make every effort so that you are able to recall these things at any other time after my departure. Now, what's his departure mean? His death. He's talking about his death. Thing is, Peter was murdered for his faith, likely within three years of this letter. But he wasn't scared for himself. He just wanted to use the time God had given us, God had given him well. He didn't want to waste his chance. The term he uses for departure is the same word we would use for a sailor to like pull up an anchor and go on a voyage. It's the same term of like a soldier like packing up his tent and going on an adventure. He was looking forward to death, but he wanted to do everything he could to equip others before he left. He wanted to do everything he could to bless others and prepare them. And this is what we want to do. We don't want to waste our chance. So, City Life Church and guess. God has given you today for his glory. And he has equipped his children for godly living. If we use the tools of faith given to us and embrace God's priorities, we grow and sin loses its grip on us. Let's pray.