You Must Be Crushed And Broken

You must be crushed and broken

2 Peter 1:3-11

Good morning everyone, if you would turn to 2 Peter chapter one. This will be our text this morning.

I am glad that you have joined us.

Let’s Pray-

The last time we were together, we spoke of being born again, the experience of Nicodemus and Jesus and Jesus explaining to him what it is to be born again.

Jesus did not shy away from the subject and neither should we!

“Born again” the quick version is asking Jesus into your life to be Lord of your life. It is not a phrase to allow us to just avoid hell. It is having an active relationship with Jesus that will change your life forever.

Nicodemus didn’t understand it, this is why he asked how could a person be born again in the flesh and again come from the womb.

Being born again is a spiritual act of Jesus taking us from being a sinner lost in our sins, to being in a relationship with our Lord who paid the price for our sins and we are now sinners saved by the grace of God.

This morning I want us to look at what do we do after we have asked Jesus into our lives- What does that life look like, at least what should it look like?

I have titled the message- You must be crushed and broken-

I find today that there are many factors that can keep us from serving the Lord.

Pride is a killer!

Today young people feel like they have nothing to offer because they are young and the older seasoned saints feel like they have nothing more to offer because they feel old, so we have a church full of believers that feel like they have nothing to offer.

If we are true believers, it does not take us too long to realize that we cannot live the life we are suppose to without the Lord helping us.

We see very quickly that what we want to do is not always what the Lord wants us to do and there is a fight between what we want and want God wants

The bible calls that “fighting the flesh”- fighting the desires of what we want and what God wants-

Apostle Paul tells us from his own life that what he wants to do, he does not do and what he does not want to do that is what he does- that is the best description of the fighting the flesh and the spiritual battle that happens in our lives.

Apostle Paul had a dramatic Damascus road experience where the desire of man meets a holy God and we realize what a mess we are without God and the need to be in a right relationship with Him.

The blinders have to come off and we have to be in God’s presence for that to happen.

We are deceived until our spiritual eyes are opened.

John 10:10-“The deceiver comes to steal, kill and destroy and Jesus comes to give us life and to give it to us abundantly.”

Peter from our text will show us how we can live lives that line up and please the Lord.

Peter you remember, the one who boldly dare tell Jesus I would never denounce you and Jesus said, Peter the roaster will cock and you will deny me three times. This same Peter learned what each of us must learn.

We must learn just like Peter and Paul learned that the flesh cannot be destroyed or be surrendered to God without the Holy Spirit doing it- notice I didn’t say help- He is not helping, he is doing! We must be surrendered.

2 Peter 1:3-11

He is talking to the church- believers he says who have received a faith as precious as ours.

The world today wants the promises of God without God.

They want the blessings of God without God

They want the protection of God without God

AND THEY WANT TO BLAME GOD WHEN IT DOESN’T HAPPEN.

Peter in his letter to the church is reminding them that it was Jesus divine power that was given to us because we are His children, the power and guidance we need to live the lives with godliness and power by His Holy Spirit living in us.

Verse 4- because we are believers- “we can participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”

We are going to see in a minute what those evil desires are and how we can get victory in our lives over them.

For this reason (what reason?) to get out the evil desires in our lives-

We must Add to our faith- goodness and to goodness knowledge, and to knowledge self-control, to self control, perseverance, and to perseverance, godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness, love.