Phil continued his preach from last week, looking at practicing the presence of God in our daily lives.
Adding to your Faith A call to holiness - 2 Peter 1: 1-11
Introduction
• We all have a measure of Good intent, exercise more, try to eat more healthily,
• develop new habits and make improvements in our lives, read the bible pray more etc. Its not long before we have lost momentum
• Last week we looked at the Power that raised Jesus from the dead now being at work in us
• Peter helps us to us go see how that power works in us as he writes to those who share the same precious faith
• Faith given us because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ our God and Saviour
• He starts by asking God to give us more and more grace and peace, as we grow in our knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord
• God has given us the powerful means of knowing him and understanding his will for our life and this world, he has given us a book, full of truth, love, wisdom and grace, a boom full of him!
His provision is Sufficient
By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvellous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.
2 Peter 1:3, 4 NLT
• So here we come back to God providing us with his power by the Holy Spirit, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead to live for him a Godly life
• We are called to live Godly lives
• Not by our own strength as we know we will not make it
• He has provided all we need
• He is sufficient
• He has abundant grace or as Terry virgo puts it lavish grace
Gods Lavish Grace – Terry Virgo Page 113 Chapter 10
• God makes us winners
• Our start position is we are totally was clean, totally acceptable to God
• We have a total clean sheet
• Not something we can do for ourselves
• Out of our hands
• By Gods divine power we are able to live godly lives
• Not just to at the point of becoming a christ follower but everyday
• Empowered to make right choices
• Empowered to resist evil
• Empowered to reject the lies of the enemy
• Empowered to become like Jesus
Great and precious promises
1. The source is his divine power
2. The goal is godly living
The clue in connecting these 2 things is through the knowledge of the God who calls summons and draws us to himself.
This power is released to us through our knowledge of him.
We can become partakers of Gods Divine nature
Because Gods own Glory and Gods own Excellence, there are great promises that will prove that through these promises we may become partakers of his divine nature.
Power of God leads to - call to Glory in excellence (to know our calling) - precious great promises - escape from sinful desire in the world , sharing in Devine Godliness
Our living Godly is knowing our calling in God combating the empty promise of this world with the Devine promise that us in Christ Jesus.
The prize is knowing God and his promise
These promises of God are amazing, undeserved, and unfailing, they are one way God equips us to overcome the sinful desires we face daily.
In view of this:-
With these truths in our sight, looking at his provision, his glory and excellence, and his promises
Peter goes on to write
Make every effort to supplement (or add to) your faith with virtue (moral excellance), and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love" (2 Peter 1:5–7).
Questions
Here are a few questions on adding to your faith virtue and knowledge, feel free to use any of them as many or few as you feel appropriate
Virtue
• Is your life characterised by moral ex
