Peter says you lack these character qualities because you've forgotten who you are and you've forgotten what you've been given. Peter says the issue of a man who has an unfruitful, unproductive life, a man who is a child of God, whose life is not producing the expected harvest of the fruit of faith, the issue is identity. Listen, identity amnesia never will produce a harvest of good fruit in your life. He says the problem with these guys is they've forgotten who they are. They've forgotten what they've been given so they're not pursuing what belongs to them. Let me give you the principle here, men. If you forget who you are in Christ, you will quit pursuing what belongs to you in Christ. If your heart is not blown away in thankfulness for what you've been given in Christ, you will quit in your everyday life and relationships doing everything you can to pursue what belongs to you in Christ. Now, that begs a fourth question, “What is this identity? What is it that I have been given in Christ?” Now we're ready for the top of the passage. I love this verse. It gets me up in the morning. "His divine power has granted to us," fasten your seat belts, "all things that pertain to life and godliness, through a knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence". His divine power has granted us all things that we need for life in godliness. Oh, every word in the sentence is important. His divine power: God has unleashed His power - His almighty incalculable power - for this purpose, so we would be granted everything we need for life in godliness. It says, “…has granted”. I don't usually do a grammar lesson in the middle of preaching, but I'm going to do one here. That verb is a perfect tense. It is a definitive action in the past with a continuing result in the future. Whatever Peter is talking about, he's saying it's already happened and the effect of what it has given still carries today. His divine power has granted everything we need. All things. Everything. Nothing missing, nothing lacking, nothing forgotten, nothing omitted. Everything we need for life and godliness. Why does Peter use two words? Why didn't he just say life? Because Peter knows his audience. He's a good pastor. And he knows if he said we have already been given everything we need for life, we would stick eternal life in there. We'd say, “Yeah, yeah, we know, we've been given everything we need so that someday we can spend eternity with Jesus.” That is absolutely true, men. It just doesn't happen to be what this passage is talking about. And so, he uses a second word: godliness. This is mind boggling to me. And whenever I talk about this passage, I do feel inadequate to capture the full range of the beauty of what this means and its implications. What is godliness? Godliness is a God-honoring life between the time I come to Christ and the time I go home to be with Him. Peter isn't talking about eternity in this passage. Men, look at me, he's talking about your life right here, right now. Your life right here, right now. Men, hear the gospel: you have been given everything you need to be what you're supposed to be and to do what you're supposed to do to the honor of God and to the good of the people around you right here, right now. It's all been given by the work of Jesus. Wow. You have everything you need to be the kind of husband God wants you to be to your dear wife. You have everything you need to be the kind of father you should be. You have everything you need to be the kind of neighbor you should be. You have everything you need to be the kind of citizen you should be. You have everything you need to be morally and sexually pure. You have everything you need to handle your money well. You have everything you need. You have everything you need. You have everything you need. You have everything you need. You have everything you need. Now, if that truth doesn't make you thankful, you are either seriously comatose or you haven't heard what I just said. Quite apart from anything I would have deserved, anything I could have earned, anything I could have achieved, God placed His love on me. And in His son, He supplied me with everything I could need to be what I’m supposed to be and to do what I'm supposed to do. God never calls you to a task without enabling you to do it. You've been given everything. Now, that should result in deep abiding gratitude, deep abiding thankfulness, and that thankfulness should change the way that you live.
Transcript: Session 3
MEN OF FAITH
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