Getting Stuffed

Significant Lessons from Second Letters

Peter’s last letter.

Important to remember.

Stuffing!

W/ a new baby, baby-proofing the house becomes an issue again.

It’s been so long for us we don’t think about it much.

Dog hair. A leaf off our Shoes. Bark from firewood.

To a baby, self-discovery is finding out what things taste like.

Everything goes in their mouth.

As adults, we’ve learned. We should know better about what to put in our mouths.

W/ that in mind:

Thanksgiving is coming up and the bird won’t be the only thing that gets stuffed.

My wife is a wonderful cook. And, holidays are wonderful around our house.

Mom had a lot to do w/ what we eat.

A few years ago I decided I wanted to fry a turkey.

Growing up, every meal, something was fried and there was gravy.

We since have learned, frying things and gravies aren’t the healthiest ways to eat.

Sara was fine w/ it. But, she said she had to bake one b/c she had to have her stuffing in the bird.

So, ever since we’ve had 2 birds. Plenty of food.

Cholesterol and weight issues.

Since we moved out here we to Tucson for Thanksgiving to Sara’s brother’s house. And, we’ve continued the 2 bird tradition.

I use peanut oil, not as bad.

He smokes a turkey. I fry one.

We’ve noticed, frying an organic bird, which is much more expensive, leaves the oil much cleaner when I’m done.

They both taste fantastic!

Not sure exactly what that means, but what they feed the cheaper birds nasties up my oil.

We have a lot of ppl though so we need the meat.

What these birds are eating, makes them grow faster, they taste good, but you have to wonder what impact they are having on our health.

Everyone else brings sides and pies. The amount of food is a bit much. A lot of it is really good for us. Some of it, not so much.

Self-control!

And, there’s an obligation to at least taste everything. No one wants anyone’s feelings to get hurt by having their dish left over.

And, there’s an obligation to at least taste everything. No one wants anyone’s feelings to get hurt by having their dish left over.

Of course, then we turn on a football game and fall asleep.

Another Thanksgiving tradition for our family to have doughnuts for breakfast on Friday or Saturday.

Everyone is tired of cooking, and the sweet, melt-in-your-mouth goodness of a warm, fresh delicious and delectable doughnut is hard to pass up.

Not only are we stuffed from the turkey and all the fixins’, donuts!

But, then, in an hour or so, what happens as the sugar and caffeine to their dirty work on our systems?

We all leave talking about going on a diet.

You know the problem w/ that. Xmas is and all the parties and sweets are just a week away.

At our age, you’d think we’d do a better job of evaluating what we take in. Volume. Content. Need. Whatever.

At the holidays around the food table we’re too much like a baby crawling around the floor putting everything in our mouths!

We have to get better about everything we eat b/c it’s beginning to add up to more trouble than we want.

Long-term consequences!

It can be a very uncomfortable day when we stuff ourselves. And, it can lead to a very uncomfortable conversation at our next doctor’s appt.

But, it all tastes so good!

Food is one thing.

There are so many messages we are being bombarded w/. Many are fairly inconsequential. No so w/ some.

We need t/b good evaluators of the messages that are being communicated throughout our culture.

Peace. Joy. Love. These are spiritual fruits that everyone is after. But, the messages about the paths to these fruits are varied.

No one is forcing you to buy what I’m selling here; to eat what I’m serving.

No one is making you take in the lessons I’m teaching.

We’re all evaluating what’s being served here.

Some of you might just be window shopping. You know, looking, but not buying, not tasting. Okay.

Like walking thru Old Town in Flagstaff at Christmas looking in the windows of all the shops w/out buying anything.

My first job as a teenager was at McDonald’s. There was window where customers could watch us work in the kitchen. There was someone always watching.

Bunch of teenagers making burgers.

I don’t think anyone ever left the store w/out buying something we had made.

You can do the same at a Krispy Kreme. You can watch the process.

BTW, anyone know what it means when the light is on?

You ever left the store w/out a donut?

Don’t ever leave this place w/out taking something in.

But, you have to evaluate the content, volume, and what you need every time before you do.

We’re in . In ch.1 he urged us to continue to pursue maturity. We’ve got every muscle we’re ever going to need to do whatever situation we’re in, we just have to develop them.

“Make every effort to have these things in increasing measure.” Growth.

1 Peter, he wrote to the same ppl just a few years earlier, he encouraged them in their faith.

It would be tested but would hold up.

Live holy lives, be different. Don’t try to look like everybody else.

Just b/c life is hard doesn’t mean you’re on the wrong path.

And, he wrote, crave pure spiritual milk.

Develop an appetite for good, spiritual nourishment.

Take in good stuff. A healthy diet.

We have to work at these things b/c our culture is such that we will be encouraged to gorge ourselves on a dozen donuts, spiritually speaking, under the impression that something that tastes so good con’t possibly be bad.

It’s spiritual things that give us peace, joy, patience, self-control. These are spiritual fruits.

Things that feel good at first, seem promising to provide peace and joy. Yet, shortly after the experience they leave us feeling lousy and in need of relief w/out any peace or joy.

It’s spiritual things that give us peace, joy, patience, self-control. These are spiritual fruits.

This is the message today. Evaluate what you hear. Self-control. Limit what you take in.

If we pursue faithful obedience to God, we will still feel good even in lousy situations.

But, if we only pursue things that taste and feel good right now, we will end up feeling lousy even in good situations.

In , Peter is warning us to evaluate what we hear from ppl and what we take in b/c there will be those who encourage us to pursue what feels good now but will leave us feeling lousy later.

He starts off w/ a summary of what will be so misleading.

Summary

2 Peter 2:10–12 NIV

This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings; yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not heap abuse on such beings when bringing judgment on them from the Lord. But these people blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they too will perish.

2 Peter 2:10-

If you’re paying attention to the political scene right now, the message of many of the candidates is if we vote for them we’ll get free stuff.

That message sounds really good. Who doesn’t like free stuff? And, the most popular will get elected.

That’s not limited to the political arena. Messages like these are more and more prevalent in our society.

Religious leaders do it. Be healthy, wealthy, and wise.

But, it’s taken root. The other side is, if it offends anyone, don’t do it.

The message of deny yourself, pick up your cross daily, die to what you want. That’s a tough sell these days.

And, it seems, everything offends someone, now.

This is what Peter is warning against. A message that sounds really, really good up front but will have devastating consequences in time.

Evaluate what you hear and don’t let messages like this into your life.

But, we have to begin by evaluating who’s representing the message.

Peter says, these are ppl who are motivated to fulfill their own desires and they despise the authority of Jesus.

These are ppl who are more concerned about getting what they want than getting others what they want.

Bold and arrogant. Presumptuous. Sell-serving.

Despise Jesus’ authority. They place themselves above God in authority.

They slander the angels

Even slandering angels. Not afraid to lie about beings that are more powerful than themselves. Arrogance. w/out fear.

And, they don’t understand fully who they are slandering.

If they did, they wouldn’t do it.

This is the extreme personification of

James 4:1–3 NIV

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

Why do ppl fight? B/C they feel lousy. Hurt ppl, hurt ppl.

Emptiness. Something is missing. Stress. Fear. Anger. Bitterness.

Obviously, not peace and joy.

Things that we think we want.

They don’t have b/c they don’t ask. Don’t think they need to. That’s arrogant. They don’t believe in the power and authority of Christ.

Or, ask w/ wrong motives. Their own pleasure is mind, not God’s desire.

They pursue what feels good, tastes good to them.

Next, Peter addresses the specifics of these ppl.

Specifics

2 Peter 2:13–16 NIV

They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness. But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—an animal without speech—who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

2 Peter 2:13-

God’s got this. We have to evaluate for ourselves. But, God will handle whatever needs t/b done those who promote this message.

The boldness, to not even try to hide their pursuit of pleasure.

Blots and blemishes. The opposite of being spotless, blameless.

Eyes full of adultery. They look at every woman as an object and an opportunity. Able to seduce those who are susceptible. Nothing pure about this.

How does that play in the “Me-too” movement.

Sounds like the entertainment industry.

It goes on in boardrooms and in businesses.

No shame. Full of blame.

The opposite of standing blameless before God.

They are devoted, disciplined even in their efforts. They work at this. It’s intentional.

Peter compares them to Balaam in the story from .

Israel is preparing to enter the PL. They are invading Canaan. It’s a God ordained invasion and the inhabitants are scared.

Balak, the king of Moab, calls on Balaam who is Jewish, a prophet, and hears from God. He asks Balaam to curse Israel in order to stop the invasion.

Balaam consulted God. God said don’t do it. The invasion is going to happen. But, Balaam was motivated by greed and Balak was going to pay him handsomely to do it.

So, on his way, an angel blocked the road. Balaam’s donkey saw the angel, Balaam did not. Balaam beat the donkey b/c it won’t go.

The donkey spoke to Balaam and said, “Have I ever caused you a problem like this before?”

Meaning, theres a good reason why I’m not going.

Balaam should have known better. He knew God and he knew his donkey. But, he was driven by his greed.

Now, back to Peter. Peter says he was rebuked by his donkey. Even his donkey understood the significance of what he was doing better than Balaam.

Sometimes wisdom comes from an ass. Just sayin’.

These ppl should know better. They had been part of the church for long enough to know better than what they were doing. Not believers. But they participated in what the church was doing for a time.

They saw their opportunity and the opening for a message that tells ppl what they want to hear. It’s sweet at first.

Peter uses 2 illustrations to describe what value their message is.

Substance

2 Peter 2:17–19 NIV

These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”

A spring was a huge asset. But a dry spring was a huge let down.

In a wilderness, water is life. Whether it comes up from the ground or down from the sky.

We get the value of rain here in the desert.

Clouds are promising. But a huge disappointment when they don’t deliver rain. A mist is nothing in a drought.

We see clouds. We might get lightening. That starts a fire. W/out rain, it’s not just disappointing. It’s dangerous.

That’s Peter’s point about the message of the culture that’s being communicated.

It doesn’t deliver as promised. It’s disillusioning. Empty. Like a dry spring.

Like eating a dozen donuts. Or cotton candy.

Tastes great going down. You’ll feel lousy shortly.

People genuinely looking for relief from difficult situations, trying to escape entanglements.

Maybe new to the faith, carrying baggage from their past, hear something that sounds good but does not deliver.

There is real power for us to access to help us w/ the situations we face. The peace and joy are real.

So are the threats. So we need real help to deal w/ the real stressors in our lives.

Quick fixes don’t last.

Messages like the one being spread that Peter is warning about don’t deliver what we need.

They are rep’d by ppl who are in trouble themselves. They promise freedom while entangled in bondage.

They should know better.

When we hear messages like this, sirens should go off!

Sirens

2 Peter 2:20–22 NIV

If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”

Peter would remember when Jesus said what Matthew recorded.

Matthew 12:43–45 NIV

“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”

Mathew 12;43-45

They had heard the truth, embraced it temporarily then rejected it and returned to their old lifestyle.

We face the same temptation. You hear the message, know the truth. Then, someone comes along and entices you w/ something that sounds too good to be true.