What Does It Mean To Be Christian?

What does it mean to be a Christian?

2 Peter 1:3-11

Introduction-

Good morning – Welcome to service, I pray that the Lord will bless our time together and that you receive His precious anointing and wisdom for your life.

Can you believe that we are in the last Sunday of the year and moving into 2022?

That seems funny to say and it seems like time flies bye and we have to jump off the roller coaster to slow it down.

I have drilled you this advent season with several scriptures repeatedly.

Isaiah 9:6- the prophecy of the coming of the Lord.

John 3:16, Jesus coming to save mankind and His love for us.

Luke 2:15 that we ourselves must go and see this thing that the Lord has done and experience it for ourselves.

The four weeks of Advent have been about Hope, Joy, Peace, and love. These are the presents under the tree for us to open and experience. They are all free gifts by the love and grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus.

In our text we will see that as we mature, there are other gifts available to us to help us walk close with the Lord and be a productive part of the kingdom of God right here until we go home and spend eternity with Him.

2 Peter 1:3-11

Prayer-

Peter is a good old boy. He thinks and acts like a lot of us- he puts his mouth in gear before his brain and it gets him in a lot of trouble.

Trouble that can be avoided if we would think before we speak. If we would rather be favored by the Lord than right by man.

I am reading a book by Louie Giglio titled “Don’t let the enemy sit at your table” - most of us would say I would never do that!

Have you ever done something that you knew was wrong?

Have you ever heard good advice and thought that you knew better?

Have you ever wanted something badly enough that you would hurt someone else to get it?

Have you ever watched someone make terrible mistakes and thought that would never happen to me?

You have not only sat at the table with Him but you have invited him to stay and started taking notes.

Peter in this text talks about our calling as a believer and reminds us who we are in Christ. That as we mature, we should be changing our mindset to match and line up with Jesus.

I said the other night at Christmas banquet that most know me only after Jesus.

Most cannot imagine some of the things that I have confessed that Jesus has moved me away from and changed my life. But Jesus knows us at every area of our lives.

He is the one that wants to take us from where we are to where we need to be and wants to walk with us as we mature and move closer in a relationship with Him.

It is important that He walk with us because we cannot do the changes that are needed without Him.

We are not able to fix ourselves and repair what the enemy has stolen and desires to keep from us.

We do not have the power to change our lives.

We are debtors to Christ and His power is what breaks the chains of bondage and will set us free to live the life that Christ desires for each of us as we walk with Him.

Peter tells us the source, the power and the foundation for living that “abundant life” we hear so much about that seems like an impossibility to achieve.

(3) His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him.” UNDERLINE THE WORD EVERYTHING

Everything we need in every situation and circumstance in a believers life.

Divine power focus here is on life and goodness. Goodness on the fact that we want God’s will lived out in us.

Peter is challenging the false teachers who were putting approval on immoral behavior and he is telling true believers that we should want to live holy lives reflecting a godly life.

Peter is challenging early believers and us to not live by what the world says is okay but on what Jesus puts His approval on.

The foundation is the conversion that we confessed and professed to the world as we accepted Christ as Lord.

Peters understanding of salvation is neither dualistic or Gnostic. He does not imagine that believers partake of the essence of God to escape and become gods, Instead through Christ believers share in the holiness of God and thus are conformed to the image of God.

(4) Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”