20, October 2002
Dakota Community Church
Like A Rock
Introduction:
2 Peter 1:5-11
5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
10Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
“For if you do these things you will never fall”
What things?
1. Make every effort.
2 Peter 1:5
5For this very reason, make every effort
In 1986, a group of researchers published a study of Japanese mothers and mothers in Minneapolis. The mothers were asked to rank the most important things that a child needs to succeed academically. The answers tell a lot about the difference in our two cultures today. The mothers in Minneapolis chose "ability." The mothers in Japan said "effort."
2. Add to your faith.
2 Peter 1: 5–7
“…Add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.”
In other words – GROW! Don’t give up if you blow it, even if you blow it a thousand times.
A.) Goodness – Moral Excellence
Your ideal is what you wish you were
Your reputation is what others say you are
Your character is what you really are.
Truth, reliability, honesty, and confidentiality will be the pillars of my life.
B.) Knowledge
Hosea 4:6
6 my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. "Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests;
Notice that goodness came before knowledge. Knowledge without character does not impress God.
C.) Self-control
Proverbs 16:32
32 Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city.
D.) Perseverance
James 1:3-4
3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
What is the trial of faith?
It is the gap between “ believe that you have received It.” and “ it will be yours”.
Mark 11:22-24
22"Have faith in God," Jesus answered. 23"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ’Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
How long do I have to persevere?
Abraham called himself father of nations for 25 years before Isaac was born.
E.) Godliness
Godliness is really God – Like – ness
Indicators of godliness:
- Conduct
- Compassion
- Conversation
- Confidence
- Communion
F.) Brotherly Kindness
Kindness makes a person attractive. If you would win the world, melt it. Do not hammer it. Alexander Maclaren
G.) Love
1 John 4:19-21
19We love because he first loved us. 20If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Why grow?
- Grow because it will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive as a believer.
3. Remember who you are.
2 Peter 1: 9
9But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
It is gratitude that prompted an old man to visit an old broken pier on the eastern seacoast of Florida. Every Friday night, until his death in 1973, he would return, walking slowly and slightly stooped with a large bucket of shrimp. The sea gulls would flock to this old man, and he would feed them from his bucket. Many years before, in October 1942, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was on a mission in a B-17 to deliver an important message to General Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea. But there was an unexpected detour, which would hurl Captain Eddie into the most harrowing adventure of his life.
Somewhere over the South Pacific the Flying Fortress became lost beyond the reach of radio. Fuel ran dangerously low, so the men ditched their plane in the ocean... For nearly a month Captain Eddie and his companions would fight the water, and the weather, and the scorching sun. They spent many sleepless nights recoiling as giant sharks rammed their rafts. The largest raft was nine by five. The biggest shark...ten feet long.
But of all their enemies at sea, one proved most formidable: starvation. Eight days out, their rations were long gone or destroyed by the salt water. It would take a miracle to sustain them. And a miracle occurred. In Captain Eddie’s own words, "Cherry," that was the B- 17 pilot, Captain William Cherry, "read the service that afternoon, and we finished with a prayer for deliverance and a hymn of praise. There was some talk, but it tapered off in the oppressive heat. With my hat pulled down over my eyes to keep out some of the glare, I dozed off."
Now this is still Captain Rickenbacker talking..."Something landed on my head. I knew that it was a sea gull. I don’t know how I knew, I just knew. Everyone else knew too. No one said a word, but peering out from under my hat brim without moving my head, I could see the expression on their faces. They were staring at that gull. The gull meant food...if I could catch it." And the rest, as they say, is history. Captain Eddie caught the gull. Its flesh was eaten. Its intestines were used for bait to catch fish. The survivors were sustained and their hopes renewed because a lone sea gull, uncharacteristically hundreds of miles from land, offered itself as a sacrifice. You know that Captain Eddie made it. And now you also know...that he never forgot. Because every Friday evening, about sunset...on a lonely stretch along the eastern Florida seacoast...you could see an old man walking...white-haired, bushy-eye browed, slightly bent. His bucket filled with shrimp was to feed the gulls...to remember that one that, on a day long past, gave itself without a struggle...like manna in the wilderness.
"The Old Man and the Gulls" from Paul Harvey’s The Rest of the Story
Conclusion:
2 Peter 1:12
12So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have.
