WORDS FOR LIFE - Participating with God
July 15, 2018
2 Peter 1:3-4 (p. 853)
Introduction:
Clara Fields introduced this sermon for me with a video…I’ve known Clara and her husband Tom my whole life…She taught me God’s Word when I was in elementary school.
Even now I look back at Tom and Clara Fields and I’m so so grateful to have had heroes like them in my life…participating with God to teach me His Word…by word and by example.
I love that scripture in Proverbs which says, “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)
Someone wise once said, “You can’t return to where you’ve never been.”
I’m eternally grateful for those who lovingly taught me about God while I was growing up…People like Clara who participated with God to build a foundation of truth I could return to upon my salvation.
I understand completely why this is one of the scriptures that are Words for her life.
Clara told me “One reason I love this scripture is because verse 4 reads “participate” (not imitate).” I am a true believer in the exchanged life…“I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” This truth has changed my life and my relationship with God.
Mine too Clara!
Let me ask you a question this morning…Do you believe in the divine power of God, and that it gives you everything you need to live a godly life?
I. DO WE BELIEVE GOD WORKS IN POWERFUL WAYS TODAY?
In a small Texas town, Drummond’s Bar began construction on a new building to increase their business. The local Baptist church started a campaign to block the bar from opening with petitions and prayers. Work progressed right up till the week before opening when lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground.
The church folks were rather smug in their outlook after that, until the bar owner sued the church on the grounds that the church was ultimately responsible for the demise of his building, either through direct or indirect actions or means. The church vehemently denied all responsibility or any connection to the building’s demise in it's reply to the court.
As the case made its way into court, the judge looked over the paperwork. At the hearing he commented, “I don’t know how I’m going to decide this, but as it appears from the paperwork, we have a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer, and an entire church congregation that does not.”
I get the legal difficulty here… “Man, we don’t want to have to pay for this man’s bar because we believe prayer worked!”
Irony huh? We pray for God’s power to work…but we don’t want to be linked as participants when He does.
Here’s the biggest problem I see in the Church today. We have many believers who tip their hat at God in belief, but live their lives just like everyone else in the world…I’ll pray at the dinner table, but not in a powerful daily interceding way…I’ll live getting things done in my own power…because I really don’t believe in God’s supernatural intervention…now they won’t say this out loud, but deep down it’s what they feel…“God doesn’t act upon what I pray…so why waste the time.”
Asking humans to participate in the divine is like asking a dog to be a cat or a woman to be a man, or peanut butter to be jelly…It’s impossible for us to be something we are not.
God is holy…God is perfect…God is all knowing…I am the complete opposite…so are you…in fact, so is everyone…We are the peanut butter…He is the jelly.
It would take a supernatural intervention by God Himself for us to get a glimpse of His divine power…and tap into it…So that’s exactly what God did.
He calls us by His own glory and goodness.
In order for us to participate in the divine, God had to come down to our level. So that’s what He did, “Jesus Christ became one of us.” Immanuel…God with us…born of a virgin…through the Holy Spirit of God…God’s Word became flesh and dwelt among us…He lived in our world…He faced every worldly temptation and overcame it perfectly…He took our sins on His shoulders and literally carried them on His scourged back to a cross…where He died as a payment for them. He then conquered death by rising from the dead…God became an active participant in saving us…“He demonstrated His own love for us in this…while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
I love this precious promise…I love that God’s glory and goodness calls me…His participation gives us hope…listen to this promise in the book of Romans:
ROMANS 5:5-6 (p. 785)
The Holy Spirit “pours out God’s love into our hearts…a love so powerful that God invaded this world at just the right time…and died for you and me…and all mankind because we were powerless to overcome sin.
[Have you seen that news story about the Thai soccer team of 11 boys and their coach trapped in a cave by the ocean…The 25 year old coach took these 11 and 12 year old boys on a hike through the caves and then they flooded…they feared they were dead…it took 10 days to find them, but they’re alive…But they’re trapped…the water is knee deep…It’s supposed to rise in the next few days…They are a mile and a half from the surface…They are powerless to get out on their own…someone has to go get them…I’m praying even as I write these words that someone saves them.]
That’s us…led by sin into a place of death with no hope of rescue unless someone comes for us…So God came for us!
I believe in the miraculous power of God to save people…because I am one of those people He saved.
The divine invaded my life…God began to pursue me through His Holy Spirit. It took a mail truck, seven starters on my car, loving people who shared the hope of the good news and forgiveness and parents that never stopped praying.
Jesus said something amazing in John chapter 6 verse 44… “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them.”
There must be a spiritual interaction between lost people and God…one God initiates…before anyone can come to Jesus.
Think about that! We all are spiritually dead…trapped…It’s why Paul wrote to the Ephesians and said:
EPHESIANS 2:1-5 (p. 814)
Our participation in this process is Faith… “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8)
God will reveal Himself…show you His nail scarred hands…He will cut your heart in conviction of your sin through His Holy Spirit…and ask you to come to the cross and die to that life…but you and I have to respond in faith…that equals repentance and baptism.
God’s response to our faith is the gift of His Holy Spirit.
It’s His great and precious promise and it’s through His Spirit that we may participate in His divine nature…It’s how we escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires (2 Peter 2:4).
Once again I would remind you of Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost. As the Church is born on this day…he has preached the death, burial and resurrection of Christ…He has reminded them that it was their sin which brought this about. He ends with this powerful truth…Let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified both Lord and Christ….
Listen to the result:
ACTS 2:37-41 (p. 759)
Every part of the divine process of conviction and salvation takes place at Pentecost.
The Holy Spirit enables the Apostle…the Holy Spirit guides the message…the Holy Spirit convicts those who hear it…and those who believe it and are convicted respond in turning from their sin to God in repentance…and are baptized into Christ.
The promise…God’s glorious promise is given to all those who respond. It’s still how we participate in God’s divine nature today.
You don’t enter the Kingdom of God…The Kingdom of God enters you.
It’s why a
II. GROWING FAITH MAKES US EFFECTIVE AND PRODUCTIVE
If you want to be different than the world…If you want to escape its evil influence and corrosive ideals…Peter writes:
2 PETER 2:5-11 (p. 853)
The Holy Spirit is not some hibernating bear that goes to sleep only to awaken when Jesus returns or we die and go to heaven!
He is a raging fire sent from above…He is a gushing river of life…he is the comforter, teacher, advocate and convictor…Holy isn’t His first name…it’s the description of what He does…His work.
He plans on growing us…adding to our faith…goodness, knowledge, self control, perseverance, Godliness, mutual affection and love.
It’s as these qualities grow, that our lives bear fruit…It’s as these qualities flow into the world through us that the Kingdom of God is seen. It’s with clear vision we see people through the eyes of Jesus…If we don’t we become near sighted, blind and stumble in our faith.
When we don’t grow in Christ through His Holy Spirit we forget about our cleansing and forgiveness…we stop seeking to be Holy.
So this week I’ll challenge each of us to be:
Good…Be good to someone…listen when the Holy Spirit says, “Pay for their groceries…mow their grass, help them…grow by being good to someone in real life.
Increase your knowledge…Not by playing jeopardy, but by spending time in God’s Word…Start with time alone with God in His Word…get up 15 minutes early…start your day increasing your knowledge in Christ.
Be self controlled…Deny yourself in the short term to benefit eternity…Don’t eat out once and give the money you would have spent to Natalie’s Sisters, Habitat, Mission Journeys, you choose.
Perseverance is similar to faithfulness…It’s keeping on when you feel like giving up…keep praying for your child when you feel like quitting…keep trusting God and worship Him with His people…keep going.
Seek to be Godly…that’s what Godliness is…Ask what would Jesus do in your life circumstances and DO IT!
I love when Peter mentions mutual affection…It’s brotherly or sisterly kindness…Is there someone here that you can love on…I’ve got some suggestions if you can’t figure it out on your own…but I think you can…Help someone tangibly in the family of God.
And Love…He ends with love because that’s the ultimate…the pinnacle of faith…Agape…caring for someone who doesn’t deserve it…or cannot return anything like it to you.
If we live doing these this week, and every week afterward until Jesus returns, we’ll receive a rich welcome into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Thanks Clara…I want these to be words for my life too…
