Participating in Family of God

I know this is somewhat of a difficult time with you all not having a pastor, but just our time with you, as we're talking, is God's grace. There's evidence of it here. It's sufficient for you all. It's obvious. He's caring for you all, and you just have a lot of dear saints among you. So persevere, brothers and sisters. Tonight is about perseverance, actually. One of my favorite parts of Peter's theology is what we call a pilgrim theology. He talks about, he has a lot of themes and motifs in his letters where he talks about how we're not citizens of this world. We're citizens of heaven. That's why it's so strange to be living here. That's why you face many difficulties. That's why temptations are bizarre. I love the pilgrim theology because it gives me hope. It makes me realize my temptations aren't natural. They're not going to be permanent. It gives me something to look forward to when I'm not going to have to face these temptations. It helps me to see that God is working with me through all these problems. And most of all, the pilgrim theology I like is the fact that I'm not meant to be a pilgrim together. We're supposed to be pilgrim-ing as a church, as fellow believers. So brothers and sisters, we think about tonight, we want to, we're going to think about the night as being a pilgrim-ing family. And we're going to be just focusing on just a few verses, a couple verses and a few phrases in 2 Peter 1, 3-4. divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. Now, if you look at this verse, I've broken it into two parts. One is asking the question, what is the foundation of the family? And the second one is, what is the nature of the family? So, I want to first discuss, what are the foundations? More grammatically appropriate, what are the foundations of the family? And I see three here. The first foundation of the family we can see is in verse 3. His divine power has granted to us all things. that pertain to life and godliness. Now, as we think about how we're supposed to be living as faithful pilgrims here, we can be overwhelmed with the darkness, we can be overwhelmed with how things look, how bad they can actually appear. We can be overwhelmed by these things, but we have to cling to this. God's Word says that by His divine power, which we do not question, which we should not question, He has granted all things that we need. for life and godliness. Let's just think of some of those things that He has given to us that are for our good, for our life, for our godliness. Well, the first thing He's given to us, the greatest gift the Son has sent to us, is the Holy Spirit. One of the things that intrigues me, I've been thinking about this for some time, in John 16, Jesus actually says, it is to your advantage for me to go to heaven, because the Spirit will come. I so often think, if only I could walk and talk with Jesus, then everything would be great. Well, no. I'm no better than Matthew and the other disciples. I would be as goofy as they are. They are just frustrating in Scripture. They don't get it. And they're walking and talking with God. Friends, we have the gift of the Holy Spirit. We have what, as Paul describes in Romans 8.11, the same power that raised Christ from the grave. It's living inside of us. The power of God, the third person of the Trinity, lives inside of us, giving us the power we need to fight temptation. Giving us the power and the hope we need to resist the things of this world. So, that enough is enough. The very fact that we have the Holy Spirit to give us the strength to help us fight temptation, to give us new desires that compete with the sinful desires. In addition to that, He's given us the church. He's given us friends, believers, brothers and sisters to build us up, to encourage us, to look into our lives and say, friend, this is not right. By God's grace, let me help. Let me walk with you in this sin. Let me share with you my sin. Let me share with you what God's grace has done for me. We have one another. This is a good thing God has given to us. God's given us the promise of forgiveness. We are not entangled by our past sins. We know that we can claim we are forgiven. It's just like the sweetness of the woman experience we talked about this morning. If we really think about the sweetness of it is to say, I am forgiven for all my sin if I place my faith in Christ. It's reassuring. It's energizing. And that's what gives us really the fourth thing I want us to think about. That's hope. Four things. The Holy Spirit, the church, forgiveness, and then hope. Hope that Christ is coming back. That He's going to give us an imperishable life. That He's going to give us a seat at the table with the King where we can wine and dine and feast and glorify Him. We get to share a meal with Him forever. Sweet, intimate, face-to-face fellowship. We desire to see Him. And one day when He comes back, John tells us, we will see Him as He is, face to face. So the first thing we think about as a foundation of what it means to be a family trying to pilgrim together here, is that God has supplied us with such great gifts. The Spirit, the Church, forgiveness and hope. The second thing we see as a foundation for the family is still in verse three, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. Now, I believe here this is speaking of Christ, the knowledge of him. And obviously, this is another great gift. The Father has sent His Son to die on the cross for us. When we know Him, and not just knowledge about Him, but when we know Him, we love Him, we desire Him, we recognize Him as the only Savior. This is a foundation for the family. This is what makes us brothers and sisters. That we place our faith in Him. And through that Son, we become adopted into God's family. We become sons and daughters. That's what unites us. The third foundation, in verse 4, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises. If we think about all the problems in life, losing jobs, losing family members, Not knowing what the future holds for the church, not knowing what the future holds for our families, not knowing what the future holds for our children. God's promises become sweeter and sweeter. God's promises, we realize, are so stable, so foundational. And see, what's competing with these promises are lies, and these lies are fun and easy to believe in. Because these lies sometimes even give us some kind of comfort. But if you really want comfort, think about the promises God has made. Think about the one promise that God made in the Old Testament. That as soon as Adam and Eve fell, He promised that one day He was going to send someone from the seed of Adam and Eve to conquer sin and death. That He was going to send a son, like the son of Abraham, who would finally become the atoning lamb And we get to see those promises fulfilled. We get to think about the Incarnation. God Himself becoming like us in every way. That is an amazing act of God. That is an amazing act of grace that God does for us. He could have just let His wrath pour out upon our sins. He didn't have to do this. But He promised He would. And if He can keep those promises, can He not keep every promise? Can I keep the very basic and simple promise that is so sweet? We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. Now, that's one of the verses we learn as a young child in Sunday school, and it sounds so simple, and that's why it's so great. Because when we learn that as a child, we remember as an adult, and the depth The depth of the promise that all things work together for good for those who love God. The depth of that in the face of crisis, in the face of despair. That promise is so sweet. It is a steadfast anchor for our soul. So friends, whenever you're doubting, when you're in the midst of this pilgrimage and you're worrying, remember the Incarnation. That great fulfillment of God's promises. No other promise has ever been fulfilled that great before in the history of the world. The only one that's going to compare is when Christ comes back. That's the one we're still looking forward to. And that's the one that's going to still happen. And remember those sweet promises like Romans 8.28 or Hebrews 6. Christ is the right hand of the Father. He is the sure and steadfast anchor of the soul. Remember these things. It helps us not be distracted by the lies that tell us we can find comfort in anything else but Christ. So the foundation of the family are the great gifts of God, the knowledge of Christ, and His wonderful promises. Now let's ask, what is the nature of the family? And this is found in verse 4 as we continue to read. Here we have a so that. So all of these promises, all of these things are given to us so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature. Now this little phrase, partakers of the divine nature, are why I chose this verse. I love this phrase because it's a little weird. And I like weird things, I guess. That's what I just confessed. So we have to ask ourselves, what does this mean? What does it mean to become partakers of divine nature? Now, what we could say is that we will become like gods. We will get divine natures. Now, there are some sects or other groups that make such claims. I don't think we could ever say this as Christians. This is a problem that Adam and Eve had. They wanted to become like God in a way that was inappropriate. God is God. He is the only creator and we're creatures. We have to keep our proper role. So what does it mean to partake of God's nature? Well, it doesn't mean we're going to get a divine nature in terms of our beings going to be changed. Well, the early church interpreted it this way. God has a nature that is in heaven, or in eternity, and then He has a nature that is working towards us. God has an economy, God has a household. His work towards us is seeking to reorder the world that has fallen because of our sin. And I think what this verse is saying is that we get to partake in God's household order. We get to participate in God's reordering, bringing salvation to this world. Now, I was, as a child, we grew up on a farm in North Carolina. And I look back and I just think, why did I do the things I did? I'm pretty sure my parents were forcing labor upon me. That would be against many codes of our nation, with child labor codes and such. I woke up at like 5 a.m. and watered the sheep. I would have to carry buckets of water to the sheep. And we had this one ram that would butt you if you'd been over to pour the water, so we had to take another bucket, throw it on him, and then pour the waters. Why did I do this as an eight-year-old, carrying these five-gallon buckets of water? It seemed like yards away, it may have been feet, but a long way for me. All the chores that I did on this farm, we dug post holes all over the thing. The reason I did it, and I actually enjoyed it, was because my father was doing it. You see, I saw my father doing work. I saw my father rising early in the morning and feeding the sheep. I saw my father taking his Saturday off and putting a fence up all over the farm. And I thought, that's cool. My dad's doing it. I want to go do that. I think that's what he's talking about here. It's not that I get to become like God. It's that I get to participate in my father's work. I get to be like Christ in the sense that He is the Son of the Father and He was doing His Father's work. Well, I now get to enter into that work. That's actually just an extra sweet bonus of grace. I am saved from my sin. I am saved from destruction. And then I get to jump into the game and start fighting with God against sin and corruption. We're not just saved to sit here and enjoy the view. No, we're saved to a better life, to godliness, where we fight sin and corruption. We fight to bring shalom back. And there are three ways that I think we can do this. The first way we could work in God's kingdom with Him, the first way we could participate in His work is through mercy ministries. We can go out and we can feed the poor. We can clothe them. We can go out and find people who have physical needs and we can try to meet those needs. That's one way. We will battle fallen conditions by helping them who are not able to help themselves with physical needs. Another way, more spiritual here, is evangelism. Those who are down and out, also need the gospel. Mercy ministries is never enough in terms of really bringing shalom back. Because you're only helping their physical needs. No, another step, another way is by sharing the gospel. Proclaiming to others, Christ has died for sinners like you and me. Christ is the perfect atonement for sinners like you and me. Christ is risen to conquer the grave. But if we really want to think about how we can participate in God's kingdom, there's an even more immediate place we can do battle. It's in our own hearts. If we think about where sin exists, sin exists in the fallen nature of this world where people are starving and people don't have clean water and people have physical needs. We can think about sharing the gospel all over the world. And we can do this on a regular basis, but the place where we can always be doing battle is our hearts. We have access to our hearts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and this is where most of our energy should be going. We should be battling the sin within us. We should be participating with God in overcoming the sin that lies within us. And I think Peter has this in mind because if you look at the very next passage, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. When we think about participating with God, we have to realize that He has set us apart from the corruption. We know we're still corrupt. And that's why we need to continue to fight the corruption. So as we think about how we are going to participate in God's work, let's do the battle inside. Let's do the battle over the desires that we have because from our sinful nature, from our fallen nature, come perverse desires. What's amazing to me is that God gives us so many good gifts. What do we do with those gifts? We seek to use them for our own gain. God gives us many talents. God gives us great blessings. And instead of using those blessings to enjoy God, we want to use those blessings to enjoy them, to enjoy ourselves, to enjoy everything but God. You see, there's only one thing in this world that's meant to be enjoyed in and of himself, and it's God. That's what it means to love God, to enjoy Him, to be satisfied by Him, to desire Him. We are called to enjoy God. And He gives us gifts to use to enjoy Him. But our hearts pervert those good gifts and use them for other ends. So the first thing we need to do is think about how we can use all things in this life to enjoy God. Our children, our jobs, our school, whatever it is, it's all meant to be used to enjoy God. If we were to continue to look down the list that we don't have really the time to go through, I think, tonight, it's really an ethics list. What Peter gives us here is, add to your knowledge, self-control, and all these different things. I want to sit here and think about self-control for a second. We don't want to discuss love. If we were to add to our faith, love, a love for God, a true enjoyment of God. Self-control is interesting because I think in order to truly love God, We have to exercise a self-control that says no to sin. In order to truly grow in your love for God, you have to stop loving sin. In order to love God, you must stop loving something else. You only have so much capacity to love, and if you're loving other things, you're not going to have enough love for God. You're not going to find your enjoyment in God. Two particular areas that I've struggled with, is I have a true desire for entertainment. I love to be entertained and I'm very easily entertained. It's this bad. Hulu, it's H-U-L-U dot com, I shouldn't tempt you with this, but it's TV on the internet and I can just watch any program I want at any time. I ended up watching an entire season of 21 Jump Street. And you all are laughing because it's not that entertaining. It's a ridiculous show. But I love being entertained so much, I just sit there and all you gotta do is hit the play button over and over again and it just keeps coming. It's like candy, I just couldn't get enough. The other thing I truly enjoy and have a hard time with self-control over is food. That wasn't up today at lunch. That was incredible. I love food. I desire food. I'm not sure what these two desires are and where they root. But at a very basic level, these things can be used to enjoy God, especially food. But I really just enjoy them in themselves too often. I have to practice self-control with wanting to be entertained regularly or wanting to eat all the time. I had to practice self-control, or else these things become my enjoyment, and I miss out on enjoying God. These sins compete with God. These desires compete with God. And so self-control is essential. It's essential for me to purify myself from entertainment, purify myself from desiring food, in order for me to truly enjoy a desire for God. For as we cannot fall in love with the pleasures of this world, they are also tempting. They are also alluring. They are also promising. They are also failing. As we think about how we are going to participate in God's work, I pray that you will be challenged to help the poor. I pray that you will be challenged to share the gospel. For the most immediate place, I want you to be challenged. That's in your own heart. That's what you have the most control over. Control yourself and your appetites. Because if you let your appetites be satisfied by this world, they will not be satisfied with the love of God. Let's pray. Almighty God, we thank you for opportunity to come together again tonight to think about our hearts and our desires. We thank you that while we are so prone to abuse your gifts, to abuse what you've given to us, and to even ignore the great promises you've given to us, you continue to be persistent and patient and kind and gracious towards us. Thank you for your love for us. Thank you that when we do turn from the sins of this world and seek you, your love is always overwhelming, your love is always satisfying. I pray that we would grow as believers, as brothers and sisters, to stop desiring things of this world and to only find true satisfaction in You. Be with this church, be with these individual brothers and sisters as whatever darkness, whatever problems they are facing in this life, I pray that they would be encouraged that they are only pilgrims, that You have set them apart, that You have already separated them from the destruction that is to come from their own desires. Help the Lord to find the great peace that comes from meditating upon your wonderful hope. In the name we pray, Amen.