2006-08-13 - You can grow - 2 Peter 1 1-11
Message: You can Grow Newport United Baptist Church
Scr: 2 Peter 1:1-11 Date: 2006-08-13
Intro: A family from a remote area was making their first visit to a big city. They checked in to a grand hotel and stood in amazement at the impressive sight. Leaving the reception desk they came to the elevator entrance. They'd never seen an elevator before, and just stared at it, unable to figure out what it was for.
An old lady hobbled towards the elevator and went inside. The door closed. About a minute later, the door opened and out came a stunningly good-looking young woman.
Dad couldn't stop staring. Without turning his head he patted his son's arm and said, "Go get your mother, son."
I learned Greek at ABU, took two semesters of it. I even started a month early… at first was easy… but getting harder and harder… was ahead, now just keeping even. They say children have it easier, they learn the language naturally, not vocab, grammar, rules and patterns. No one has to explain to children ‘subject, verb, object’, they learn it naturally. Had to study, work, have discipline
Explanation – For children language is not the only thing that comes easily. Jesus told us that we must come as little children to the Father. Children trust easier, obey better, and love more naturally than we do as adults.
Perhaps that’s why Christians fall so often. I’ve heard stories of Christians embezzling money from churches, Pastors having affairs and leaving their families, faithful people who snap and explode in anger at their families. Someone else withdraws, seething in silent, cold rage. An insecure woman cuts, criticizes, gossips and destroys someone’s reputation. A young girl in church seeks for love and affirmation anywhere she can get it. A young man who comes from a Christian family becomes involved in drugs and cannot seem to resist the desire to belong.
TS - There are many things involved, but I am more and more convinced that much of this is due to a basic misunderstanding of the Christian life.
Many Christians live at a very shallow level in their spiritual lives because they understand the Christian experience to be a one-time event — you come to the altar, ask Christ to forgive your sins, and that’s it. Now you are a Christian, and you are just here waiting for heaven. You get baptized. You try to be a good person and go to church. And we live as though that is all there is to it.
But there is more — so much more.
Let me begin by defining discipleship.
- True discipleship is the intentional development of spiritual disciplines for the purpose of personal growth and the transformation of one’s character into Christ’s likeness.
- Spiritual disciplines are those things we do to grow – prayer, bible study, accountability, fasting, worship, service, tithing
- It is entering into God’s life – Possible because 2 Peter 1:3-4
How do we become disciples of Jesus Christ? How can we grow?
1) True discipleship requires us to be intentional. (vs 5-7)
a) It happens as we use our will and seek the fullness of God in our lives at every level. (progression) – vs 5-8
i) We surrender our will, make time for God, develop our prayer life, Read the Bible, think about him, learn his heart.
b) There does come a time when we have to say to God: “Okay, Lord, I’m yours.
i) I’m through fighting. I want everything you have for me.
ii) Have your way in my life. I’m no longer holding anything back.
iii) Take away anything that is not pleasing to you. I want to be like you, Father, and I don’t want there to be anything in the way.
iv) I willingly give you every area of my life. Take my life and use it for your glory. Begin the process of purifying my heart.”
2) True discipleship requires us to be passionate for God. (vs 8-9)
Dr. Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ tells this story of a famous oil field called Yates Pool: During the depression this field was a sheep ranch owned by a man named Yates. Mr. Yates wasn't able to make enough on his ranching operation to pay the principal and interest on the mortgage, so he was in danger of losing his ranch. With little money for clothes or food, his family (like many others) had to live on government subsidy. Day after day, as he grazed his sheep over those rolling West Texas hills, he was no doubt greatly troubled about how he would pay his bills. Then a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and told him there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a wildcat well, and he signed a lease contract. At 1,115 feet they struck a huge oil reserve. The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day. Many subsequent wells were more than twice as large. In fact, 30 years after the discovery, a government test of one of the wells showed it still had the potential flow of 125,000 barrels of oil a day. And Mr. Yates owned it all. The day he purchased the land he had received the oil and mineral rights. Yet, he'd been living on relief. A multimillionaire living in poverty. The problem? He didn't know the oil was there even though he owned it.
Many Christians live in spiritual poverty. They are entitled to the gifts of the Holy Spirit and his energizing power, but they are not aware of their birthright.
a) We cannot be passive, we must be passionate. You will have exactly as much of God as you want.
i) Jesus told two parables illustrating this. He said, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it” (Matthew 13:44-46).
ii) What we notice here is that both individuals sold everything they had to get what they wanted.
(1) “cost of discipleship” is not about personal loss to ourselves.
(2) these individuals who sold everything - did not think they were giving up anything, thought were gaining something with far more value than everything else they owned.
b) Imagine yourself standing before God with a nickel in your hand.
i) God asks you to give him your nickel, but you are reluctant because it is the only money you have. – God wants to place a billion in your hand.
ii) Or see yourself holding a mud pie and God asks you to hand it to him. But you like the mud pie, and you made it yourself. You are angry, but what you do not understand is that God wants you to empty your hands so that he can place in your hands a fresh lemon meringue pie.
iii) C.S. Lewis said, “if we think about the promises of reward and the amazing size of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, We are far too easily pleased.”
c) God wants us to want more — more of life, more of him.
i) we think God has come to take things away from us
ii) We think God asks us to give up our cursing, our addictions, our racism, our anger and abuse, our pride, our careers, our plans, and we cannot imagine living without those things.
iii) We worry that God will make us weird, or ask us to do something strange like going to Africa or becoming a preacher.
iv) The truth is that the more we are committed to God, the more normal and healthy we become.
d) God does not come to clean us up on the outside; he comes to transform us on the inside.
i) God wants us:
(1) us to take on his character.
(2) to forgive like he forgives, and love like he loves.
(3) to exhibit grace in our relationships.
(4) He wants us to learn to suffer the difficulties of life patiently and faithfully.
(5) to do the right thing, even when it is difficult and unpopular.
(6) to love our enemies
(7) to have humility.
(8) to spend our lives doing as much good as we can, even if it means sacrifice on our part.
(9) to model his patience with people.
(10) to prefer giving to getting.
e) Hear this carefully: It is not what you do for God that is important, it is who you become that matters to God. HUMAN BEING NOT DOING!
i) If you were totally paralyzed and never able to do any work for God, it would not concern God, as far as your value to him.
ii) What is far more important to God is the person you become.
iii) That is being a disciple. discipleship is not measured by what you don’t do, but by what you give yourself to.
iv) God does not want your activity, he wants you.
f) there must be a total surrender on our part so that God is able to work.
i) You must die to yourself and your will, and take up his life and desire to do his will.
(1) Jesus said, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39).
(2) You can have your mud pie, or God’s Lemon pie, which will it be?
(3) Let’s be honest. Our idea of life is pretty pitiful.
ii) This surrender cannot be partial, it requires everything. Jesus said, “In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33).
(1) And the only way that you can give up everything you have is when you realize that everything you have does not begin to compare to the everything God wants to give.
3) True discipleship requires us to desire to be used by God. (vs 10-11)
a) We cannot stand the thought of a self-centered life where we just want to make as much money as we can and have the most fun we can.
i) We want our lives to have an eternal dimension. to invest ourselves in the kingdom of God. to discover our gifts and use them for God’s glory
ii) The apostle James asked what good it does if someone is in need, and you have the means to help, and you merely tell them that you are praying for them. He said, “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:17).
b) When we serve God in this way, not everyone’s way of serving God will be the same.
i) Some will visit their neighbors and those in hospital, in the jails and nursing homes and those who are shut-ins
ii) Still others will help people financially, Some will serve in the pregnancy center. Some will pray.
iii) Some will do small repair jobs, Some will sing on Sunday morning, or teach a class.
c) John Wesley said,
i) Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can
d) When your life is being changed from the inside out, you don’t have to worry about witnessing.
i) People will come to you and ask what is up.
ii) A positive spirit, love and kindness are rare in this broken world, and God has called us to be his people and make a difference.
Conclusion –
Discipleship is not an option for the Christian.
It is not that some have the choice of being sold out Christians and others don’t have to go that far. Discipleship is not for the “really religious” types. It is a requirement for all who call themselves by the name of Christ. The call of God is for us to grow up and receive our spiritual heritage.
We are our best selves when we are being transformed by God’s Spirit. And life is its most exciting when we find our fulfillment in him. When we risk trusting God, we find out who God really is — and who we really are.
We are to live up to who we are in God. We are to be a kingdom of priests and kings. The Bible says, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9).
And so my friends, today I call on you to become the disciples that God intends us all to be. Intentionally, passionately, desiring to be used by and For God’s purposes.
Read vs 5-7 again.
Prayer –