I talked to someone who had recently lost a loved one, and I talked to someone who had a loved one in ICU this week. And I was thinking about Sunday mornings, and thinking about this small amount of time we have together, and thinking about how I want to say something to help encourage you, to try to show some biblical truths that will help you in what you are dealing with and where you are, but we are all in so many different places right now in life. And I was thinking how can I say something to touch everyone, God what is it that you want said today? The reason I don’t preach behind the pulpit is to engage with you, I think this small amount of time we have should be me, you, and God together, it’s a relationship. As a church we often emphasize more relationships are better, more relationships in our workplaces, in our neighborhoods. Maybe it’s not more we need, but deepening the ones that we have got. But if Sunday morning is all you are getting of your relationship with God that’s just not enough.
I think one of the most important lessons I’ve learned in life is the need to spend time alone with God. Because no one is going to ‘get’ you like God ‘gets’ you, b/c he made you. And you get this deepening in relationship w/God by spending time with Him, and you can’t get this from just another person, or from just a sermon, or from just a Sunday School class. You get this in prayer and in reading God’s Word for yourself. You talk to him and he talks to you.
Before we get into 2 Peter I decided to read 1 Peter for some background and I read these verses: 1 Peter 1:24-25. Our earthly bodies are like grass, it’s like you walk outside and you see grass or a flower, it looks good for a little while, it has it’s hayday, but it wont last forever. So maybe we should look at ourselves as plants, maybe we won’t take ourselves so seriously all the time. Because that grass or flower isn’t going to look good forever, and you and me won’t look this good forever either. And at some point it’s going to cost a lot to keep looking good, and at some point you paid a lot to look good but you still won’t look that great, you know? Peter says only thing will last and that’s the Word of the Lord. The Word is unique. When God says something it will always be true, it is timeless.
We have to be a people who learn to love this word. Do you spend time alone reading it? Do you read it for yourself? There are Christian books, devotionals, podcasts, etc, and that’s all good, but none of these replace what is in here. i think there is something special that happens to you when you read God’s Word, I think it starts to change you.
1 Peter 2:1-3
Peter describes young Christians as babies needing spiritual milk
Imagine a baby crying for a bottle, and you’re trying to warm the bottle up and test it on our personal thermometer (wrist) and bouncing the baby and singing to the baby and nothings working because that baby only wants one thing, and you could try a pacifier but that wont work and you try the finger in the mouth but that wont work, it’s like nothing is gonna shut this kid up because there is something that baby needs, something physical that needs to get inside that baby, and Peter says we need to be like that baby with needing God’s Words inside of us and nothing is gonna replace that.
But we get stuck with sound bytes, with quick devotions, and timed sermons, but remember V3, “now that you have tasted the Lord is good”. And I know God is good, all the time. When I read the Bible and pray it’s about my relationship with God, and I can’t get that from other people, it’s unique and special with me and God. --Some of you are like, “I totally know what you are talking about”, have you ever read a passage over and over again and then one day you read it and it’s like “wow, God, that’s exactly what I needed today, how did you know that?” Isn’t that such a cool feeling?
-Some of you have gotten too busy, and somewhere gotten away from that, we’d rather text God “Hey help me on this test today”, and hurry up and read the devotion.
-Some of you hear me today and it might as well be Chinese, you’re like is he crazy or what? How can you get so excited about reading the Bible?
Read 1 Peter each day this week. The whole thing. I went back and read it a few times this past week, and I was gonna read it again this morning so that I could tell you exactly how long it took and I started on V1
V1-Peter- one of the disciples, cut soldiers ear off, walked on water, denied Jesus 3 times, restored “You are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God”, and later the Rock for the church
V1- an apostle- eyewitness of Jesus, Paul was an apostle also b/c of his encounter w/Jesus on the Damascus Road, anyone can’t just call themselves an apostle, I can’t say I am apostle Michael
V2-areas in Turkey and Asia Minor, can point them out on a map,
V2-“strangers” or “aliens” not b/c they were just weird, but b/c as God’s people we aren’t really at home in this country, or in this planet, when you draw near to God and strive to be holy, and to be a set-apart person you realize that this is not all there is for your life
V3- “great mercy”- do you get it that we are here today worshipping God b/c of His great mercy? Mercy=deserve punishment and God says instead of punishing you I’m going to bless you instead
V4- never spoil or fade, kept in heaven
V8- inexpressible and glorious joy—and I’m stressed out? I’m freaking out? I’m complaining about what so and so did, or how my life should be this or that way? Really?
Do you know this joy today even though you’ve never seen him you love Him?
I can’t describe to you exactly what it’s like to taste the Lord and know his goodness, you have to do that for yourself.
Illus: anyone ever had calamari? I have had it, but I can’t explain exactly what it tastes like, but I kinda like it so for me to explain it and for Heather would be completely different even though we have both tasted it.
And in growing deeper in our relationship with God, with getting beyond just the texting and into the conversation the HS acts on our behalf for what we don’t even know how or what to say, and cries out “Abba, father”, but I think this is different to each person.
(Illustration): All my kids are so different I wonder how they’re all mine, but they each call me daddy, even though they are all different, and even though how I show them love might be different:
Dylan:
Hannah:
Emily:
Anthony:
(Examples of how love is shown uniquely to each child)
I show love to each of my children differently because they are special and unique, and each of you are special and unique to your father, and He wants to show his love to you in a special way.
2 Peter 1:2 –knowledge is learning, it’s trusting, it’s about going deeper than the texts, and getting personal with God, b/c that’s what He wants, and that’s what we were created for.
