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Good morning, everybody. How are we? Glad to see you this morning. How many are just getting back from spring break? Good.
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Welcome back. Welcome back home. Yep. From Psalm 92, why don't you stand as as I read this? Psalm 92.
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It is good to give thanks to the Lord to sing praises to the most high. If you agree, let's sing the song together.
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Alright. It is good.
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It is good to praise you, Lord, and make music to your name for most high hands. Sing that again. It is good to praise you, Lord, and make music to your name, oh, most high. Oh most high. Alright, let's sing that again.
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It is good to praise and make music to your name, almost I. It is good to praise you, Lord, and make music to your name, almost high, to proclaim your love, to proclaim your love in the morning. His faithfulness and your faithfulness at night. Let's sing that again. To proclaim, to proclaim it will love in the morning and your faithfulness at night and I sing for joy.
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Oh, I sing for joy at the sounds of your name and the works of your hands. Oh, oh, you make me glad. And for all of my life, let my songs we rise over side.
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Alright. It is good. Let's sing that again.
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It is good to praise you, Lord, and make music to your name, almost high. It is good to praise you, Lord, and make music to your name, almost high. Omoside.
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Yep. Yep. We're we're on. The meals to be confirmed, but I think it's gonna well, it's gonna happen. And, we're in Colossians, and we're talking about Paul's work for the church.
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Why would he strive and suffer for the church? That's what we're talking about tomorrow. So now the door is open, 06:00, meal, music, message.
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Can you hear me now? Oh, very good. Sorry about that. Put it in my pocket upside down. Alright.
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Awana is happening tomorrow night. That is on for tomorrow night. Meal music and a message down that in the hall and then scripture, a scriptural meal. We're pouring it into children's heads to get it to their heart. So, that's happening tomorrow night.
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Same time, 05:45 until about 07:30. Pouring it into the kids because kids matter to God. Precept study is still going on Acts. That's working its way through the Acts of the Apostles. It's a fantastic study and refit.
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How many of y'all know what this is? Okay. So, those are the ones who have done it. How many of y'all no, I'm just kidding. Refit is happening here.
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Every Tuesday, it's free. 05:15, they will turn off the main lights and turn on some more exciting kind of disco lights and I will be doing exercise right here and it is fun and it's prayerful at the same time. Believe it or not, it's a great thing. So, refit is happening. They're revolutionizing fitness in here on Tuesdays, 05:15.
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This movie is out here in Jackson for one night only. It's tonight at 07:15. I think all the tickets have been purchased. So, would y'all be praying about the impact that this film will have in this valley? I heard that it was the came in fourth in box office whatever all across the nation which surprised me but I pray that God will use it and I'd like for y'all to be praying that God will use it too.
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Should be good but if you don't have tickets by now, you're not going to get em for here. It's available elsewhere. That's it. Connect hours happen in between services today. Good time to catch back up with those folks you've been missing all spring break.
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That happens right after this service. And I think if there were any other announcements that I have forgotten, they should be in the bulletin. Is there something I have forgotten? I see Dave Kaufman and that reminds me of Easter breakfast but I think we've made that announcement, right? You've got helpers for that.
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Yes, Do you need more?
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Everybody's welcome.
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Everybody's welcome to help. On Easter morning, they'll be making breakfast before the first service and between the two services too. So, thank you for that. Would you stand up and greet one another and the band will bring you back together with some. Welcome.
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Thank you. What? Oh. Did you come?
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Will bring me safely home by thy grace. And Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from the fallen God. He to rescue me from danger, interposed his precious blood. Oh, to grace and oh, to grace how great a deader, maybe I'm constrained to do. And let that goodness like a fatter by my
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Let's pray on that. God, we are grateful to be here this morning to worship you, together as a church family. One body, one voice together. And God, we are prone to wander. As we sing that song, of course, we're we're we're like lost sheep and yet you draw us in through your loving kindness.
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You draw us in. Thank you, God. Thank you for drawing us to yourself. Thank you for the grace that you've extended that unmerited favor toward us. We always want to remember that and keep that ever before us.
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Your wonderful, wonderful grace. In Jesus name, amen.
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Alright. Before I spoke a word, before I spoke a word, you were saying it over me. Hey, I've been so so good to me. Before I took breath, you breathed your life in me. You have been so, so kind to me.
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Fight stealing. Found these nine to nine. I couldn't earn it. I don't deserve it. Still, you give yourself away.
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Oh, the overwhelming, never ending reckless, oh, God. When I was your phone, still your love far from me. You have been so so good to me. I felt no way you paid it all for me. You have been so so kind to me.
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Oh, the overwhelming never ending famous love warrior won't kick down, I won't tear down. Coming after me, there's no shot. No shot of you won't light up and you won't come up. Coming after
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From Romans eight, the spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. Would you consider that for a moment? The spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead. That's power there. Lives in you.
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I'm in Colossians right now, and it's the in you. It's not like Christ and you. He's on the side and we kinda call on him when we want, but Christ in you. Christ through you. It is his power in you.
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Does that make sense? And that same power that raised Christ from the dead lives in you. And just as God raised Christ from the dead, he get he will give life to your model mortal bodies by the same spirit living within you. That Christ gives us new life. We have new life in him.
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He calls us to die to ourselves and to live in him. Amen.
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I can't see. Walters raging at my feet. I can't feel. The breath of those surrounding me, I can't hear. The sound of nations rising up.
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We will not be overtaking. We will not be overcome. And I can't walk down this dark and painful road same power that commands the dead to wait lives in us, lives in us. The same us, lives in us. And we have hope that his promises aren't true in his strength.
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There is nothing we can't do. Yes, we know. There are greater things in store. We will not be overtaking. We will not be overcome.
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The same power us The same power that moves mountains with speeds. The same power that can conquer rage and see lives in us. Lives in us. Us, lives in us, lives in us. And greater sea and greater sea living in me has conquered the enemy.
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And no power, darkness, no weapon prevails. We stand here in victory. Victory. Amen. Let's sing that again.
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The greater sea that's living in me has conquered already in me. The same power that rose Jesus from grace, the same power that commands the dead weight lives in rage and see lives in us, lives in us, lives us, lives in us.
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Y'all can have a seat. I'm going invite the frontline team to come forward though. Would y'all pray with me? God, we thank you for I I personally thank you for resting refreshment and being able to see the world with new eyes and see things differently lord refreshed and renewed and so I'm thankful for that this morning. I thank you for bringing us all together.
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We're gathered in your name to give you the praise and worship that you deserve. God, we also come together right now at this time and we give back a portion of what you provided for us. And we say, we want you to provide for others. We want you to provide the hope of the gospel others lord. So, would you take these tithes and offerings that are placed in these plates and would you lord do your will and your way with them?
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Would you show others to the cross? Would you remind us lord of the sacrifice of the cross? As we approach this Easter season, we're in the midst of it. Lord, I I pray that we would always have our eyes towards Calvary and the resurrection. In Jesus name, lord, we pray that you would do your will with our obedience.
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Amen.
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Walking around these walls. I thought by now they'd fall, but you never felt me there. Waiting for change to come. Oh, when I'm about to lose one, for you've never failed me yet. Promise still stands for it is a faithfulness, faithful My heart will sing your praise again.
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Jesus is still And keep me within your love heart. My heart sing your praise again. Would you
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sing this with your promise still stands.
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Promise still stands. Great is faithfulness, faithfulness, stealing your hands. This is my confidence in their perfecting promise still stands. It is faithfulness, faithful when they were stowed away. And I believe I see it to it again.
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I've seen you move. You move the mountains. And I believe I see it do it again made way when they're stowed away. And I believe I see it do it again.
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Alright. Let's sing your promise still stands.
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Your promise still stands. Great is faithfulness, faithful I'm still in your hands. This is my confidence. You never fail me. Yeah.
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You never fail me.
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Alright. It's time for the children's church downstairs. Let this ease you back into school, alright? Peak Children's Church is starting right now. Well, good morning.
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Thank you. How are you? Really, how are you? Are you back on this time zone? Kinda.
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We are going to go forward like for the last three weeks before spring break, missing last week and I heard last week was fantastic. I'm thankful for Norris Williams and Steve Landis setting that up. But I was kind of in a holding pattern not wanting to start a second Peter, but we're starting second Peter. Here we are. Second Peter one one is where we're going to start off today.
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I usually don't. I mean, I swap it up. I use the new new American standard and the English standard and others, NLT sometimes. Carl always uses New Living. This time, it's going be new international version for the whole of this book.
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So, NIV, if you're wondering which translation but second Peter one and I said one to four but it's one to 11, alright? I'm going forward. Does anybody know what this is? I've been on an antiquities tour if y'all can't tell. We were in Israel this week.
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This is Greek. It's Greek to me. Yeah, it's it's Greek to all of us. This is the end of first Peter and the beginning of second Peter. This is from the Bodmer Papyrus and so, this is the earliest codex like early earliest book that we have of this and it's from the 200, maybe three hundreds AD of manuscript evidence.
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That's pretty, that's pretty close, pretty close to original content. There are others, lots of others but I just like to see these things together. There are people that are argue about everything. Y'all know that because y'all know people. So, there are people that argue about everything and some people say, well, first Peter and second Peter don't sound exactly alike.
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The occasion and the purpose for the letter is slightly different. Same type of letter. It's an epistle from an apostle to a set of people and he gets into that right here. This is the way it begins. Now typically every letter back at this time, a normal salutation or normal beginning point would be the sender, the receiver, and then it would say greetings.
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Okay, just Ray to Chris Darren, greetings. That's the way that it would start off. If it was a group of people, he might describe the group of people. Or if he was unknown to them or if there might be some confusion, he might say, Ray, the preacher to Chris Darren, the video guy with a great podcast. Now, this, you know, and then he would say, greetings, that's the norm.
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Peter starts off sort of like that. It says, Simon, Peter, a servant, an apostle Dulos, servant, slave, and apostle, one who has sent out from Jesus Christ, Simon Peter, it's the Peter that we know about from the gospels. He is one of the inner circle, Peter, James, and John, kind of the leader of the disciples, lead apostle, first half of Acts, first part of Acts at least is mainly about Peter's ministry before switching over to Paul's ministry. We've done lots from Paul but we've heard our last from Paul for a while. With the end of second Timothy.
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Simon Peter, it's the Peter you know about. Impetuous Peter. A servant, slave, and apostle, one who sent out of Jesus Christ and now, the recipients of the letter to those who through the righteousness of our God and savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours. Now, what Peter is known for is, yeah, the discipleship and all of that but in Acts, do you remember where he gets the vision from God that don't call unclean anything that I have called to clean and he's opening up a new era. He's opening up a new thing and Peter said, but I can't do this.
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I can't eat this because I'm a good little Jewish boy and I've never had anything unclean touch my lips. Even that three days we spent in Samaria where all those unclean people, I didn't need anything the whole time we were there. I can't do this. And he said, nope, don't call unclean what I've called clean. And so Peter, being the good Jewish boy he was and following the rules.
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Look at how awesome this statement is. He's writing this to Gentile believers in Jesus. To those who through the righteousness of our God and savior Jesus Christ, our God. He has opened it up beyond the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and just the God of Israel, the God of the Jews. This is God, our God, and our savior, Jesus Christ and then he says, to those who have received a faith as precious as ours, I recognize that I'm a Jewish flavored Christian but I'm a Christian and you maybe Gentile, pagan, whatever, flavored Christian but you are a Christian and it is because of our lord and savior Jesus Christ.
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Amen. That's an amen in the first verse. That's fantastic. Second verse goes, grace and peace be yours in abundance. That brings on point one, introductory point number one.
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Always start with grace and peace. Paul does it. John does it. Peter does it. Why don't we do it?
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Let's start with grace and peace, okay? Always, unmerited favor from the outset and shalom. Peace. So good. Always start with grace and peace and he says, grace and peace be yours in abundance or may it be multiplied to you exceedingly upward more and more.
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Through the knowledge of God. Amen. So, the word for knowledge right there is epigenosis. Epigenosis. It's from Epi on or upon or over fitting which intensifies gnosis.
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Knowledge that's gained through first hand relationship. It's a great, great word. It goes beyond just knowing. In fact, it's properly contact knowledge that is fitting to first hand experiential knowing. Are you with me?
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Grace and peace be yours in abundance through that kind of knowledge, that first hand contact experience with God and of Jesus our lord. Now, the linkage there, the Kai in between those two, the and in between is linking God and Jesus and putting them on the same plane as equal and there's no doubt about whether or not he believes Jesus is God. But it's cool that he's saying grace and peace are going to be yours through knowledge of God and Jesus Christ because the book, this whole three chapter short book is about the knowledge of God. That's what he emphasizes. Our lord again.
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Yeah, we come from different backgrounds but we've been brought to the same place. There are folks who believe that all roads lead to heaven. That is heresy and that is not true but there are many roads that lead to Jesus. Does that make sense? Many roads can lead you to Jesus and that's what he's saying here.
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My Jewish upbringing as a good little Jewish boy all the way through has brought me to recognize the Messiah of the Old Testament is Jesus. This guy I knew and I've been a witness of and your past has led you to that. Praise God. First two verses right there. Introductory point and I'm distinguished between the two because in the introduction, it's just those two verses but then going forward from three on up through 11, I think it's a three point mini sermon that preach Peter is preaching to them and I'm going to hopefully preach it to you.
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Grace and peace come abundantly through an experiential knowledge of God. Do you believe that? Yeah. Grace and peace. The the ability to transmit unmerited favor has to come from somewhere.
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And it comes from an experiential knowledge of God and more specifically, Jesus, our lord. He makes that distinction. So, this is it. Simon Peter, a servant apostle Jesus Christ to those who through the righteousness of God, it's not because of what you've done. It's not merited.
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Through the righteousness of our God and savior Jesus Christ, you have received that gift that God has given a faith as precious as ours. Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our lord. That's the salutation and then these three through 11 are going to be about this. God's provision. He provides.
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He's already alluded to it in that. He said, God has given and you have received. So, God's provision and the believer's responsibility. If you believe it, you receive it, right? Grab on to it and then the last couple of verses are just reiterating why godliness then is important.
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In the theological vernacular or at least in other words, I think that the first couple verses are about God is sovereign. God's sovereign and then, man is responsible. Now, if that blows your mind how that can be, both God can be completely sovereign and you can be responsible. It's scriptural. It's one of those mysteries.
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God is sovereign and man is responsible and then we'll close out with a therefore. The therefore is striving for godliness is important, okay? Alright. So, if you take that introduction, the NIV does leave out one word here. It leaves out host and host is seeing that or sense or even so because of this, his defined power has given us everything we need for a godly life.
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Life and godliness is some translations. He's given us everything we need for life and godliness. His divine power. So, he's mentioned God and he's mentioned Jesus Christ and now, he follows it up with his divine power. The spirit, the Holy Spirit has been called his divine power multiple places throughout the New Testament and so he's going with hearing from a Jewish boy.
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If you just said God, they would assume what you just meant, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob but if you say, God and Jesus Christ, our lord, that brings Jesus up and then he says, his divine power has given us everything we need for godly life because he chose to do so. It's about God's provision or God's sovereignty. He has given us everything that we need for a godly life. How did he do it? Through our knowledge of him.
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Do you remember the little slide I use it a lot of times about the from here to eternity. You know, it's eternity both directions. God chooses from the beginning and then, Christ's death on the cross is going to be the way that people are saved. I know some of you haven't written in the back of your Bible. God chooses from the beginning.
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Man needs a savior. Christ is going to be that savior, his life, his death, his burial, his resurrection, and then the gospel witness goes forward and that is the knowledge of that. That's the knowledge of God through our knowledge of him. He's given everything we need for a godly life, his divine power through the knowledge of Jesus our lord. The knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
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The last three sermons have been on the glory of God. Specifically, in the face of Jesus Christ. He called us by his own glory and goodness. Did he have to? Nope.
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But he did and that's grace. It was unmerited favor when he did it. So, it takes us from God's sovereignty and he says, through these, he has given us his very great and precious promises. These are his glory and goodness. Through his glory and his goodness because he is that holy and that different and that amazing and that astonishingly good.
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He's given us his very great precious promises. So, again, that points to God's provision. He has made the way when there was no way as the song just said. He gives us a so that at the end here too. Through them, through the great and precious promises, you may participate in the divine nature.
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Does that mean that he's going to make you into a god? No. It has been misinterpreted that way by various cults throughout history. But you may participate in his divine nature. Having his Holy Spirit in your life is a participation in the divine nature.
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Very great and precious promises. Low, I am with you always even to the end of the age. In this life, you will have troubles. You will have trials but take heart. I've overcome the world.
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All authority has been given to me and I'm sending you. You've got all this precious and great promises. Through them, you may participate in the divine nature. God is sovereign but he has chosen to use responsible moral agents to carry his gospel forward and you get to be a part of that. Does that just floor you?
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It has to be through the yielding of your will to his. But he is chosen to do that. Goes on from there and says, having escaped the corruption in the world that's caused by evil desires. You can look at that two ways. One of eschatologically where you have escaped the punishment for sin or you can look at it that Christ has provided in his death and in his resurrection and his ascension and session and sending the Holy Spirit, he has provided all you need for life and godliness here and now and so you can escape from the corruption that in the world that's caused by evil desires.
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Alright. So, God's provision is what that's about or God's sovereignty is what that section is about and then, we're going to get a call to holiness from the lead apostle here that man is responsible and so, knowing that because he has given all that he needs to give for you to be a participant in the divine nature, his divine power, Holy Spirit, has given you all you need for life and godliness. He says, for this very reason and that is because God has provided. Make every effort to add to your faith. You've already got the faith.
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You're in the faith. In fact, this letter was written to Christians. He has already said that those who have been saved out of whatever their background was into the family of God. So, when I'm speaking today, I'm speaking to just like he is, to those of you who have believed because if you don't have the faith, then you don't even get to start this list. Does that make sense?
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These are not necessarily sequential. It's a time period thing. In the first century, they wrote letters like this. It is a long list of eight. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith which you already have.
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Add to that goodness and to goodness. Actually, he uses a lot of terms from the Greeks, Arate is goodness and they spend a lot of time on that. Being good. Goodness to goodness also add knowledge. Different word.
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It's not as strong. It's not as intense right here. This knowledge is just gnosis which is still good. It's first hand experience. It's a working knowledge that's been gleaned from first hand personal experience.
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When God says, put me to the test. Taste and see that the Lord is good. It's first hand experience of the goodness of God that leads to a knowledge that's first hand like this. Connecting theory. Yes, I believe that that's true to application and this is what I do because I believe that it's true.
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And to knowledge, add self control. Self control, we've read about quite a bit. It was in Timothy. It was in Titus. It is being able to control oneself.
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Just that simple. Vigilance. And to self control, add perseverance. These are not necessarily stair steps like I say. You don't have to have one and I've read actually two books this week that said, this is the order.
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This is the order you're supposed to do this in. After you get saved, you should start with faith and you should go to goodness and you should go to knowledge. I don't think that it's, I'm not convinced. All of these things are something that should be building and I'll show you that from scripture in just a minute. To knowledge, self control, to self control, add perseverance, and to perseverance, godliness, godliness there is this, someone's inner response to the things of God which shows itself in godly piety or reverence.
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Or the godly heart response. It naturally expresses itself in reverence towards God but also in everything that he calls sacred and holy. Does that make sense? Desire mercy not sacrifice the things of God, the attributes of God but also the actions and attitudes and the fruits of the spirit. To godliness, add mutual affection.
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Mutual affection is brotherly love in some of your translations and there's the word for that. Philadelphia, right? City of brotherly love. Brotherly
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love.
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And to mutual affection add love. So, we just said to brotherly love, add love. What do you think this one's going to be? Agape. Agape love.
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So, that is a godly others focused leaning towards gracious type of unconditional love. For if you possess these qualities, Which qualities? Are you with me? Y'all are sleepy or I am. One or the other.
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Which qualities? These are the four, these are the eight that he just listed. Faith and goodness and knowledge and self control and perseverance and godliness and mutual affection or brotherly love and godly love. Those are the qualities. If you possess these qualities in increasing measure, did he say at the very beginning of this, you have received all that you need from his divine power for life and godliness and then he points to this list.
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If you possess these qualities and increasing measure, there's our list again. It's the work of the Holy Spirit. He's going to do it but this is what it looks like when he's doing it. Does that make sense? You get more and more comfortable in God's plan.
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His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life and if you possess these qualities, they, these qualities will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and we know that it's through our knowledge that we have those divine gifts, right? So, who wants to be ineffective and unproductive? Does anybody want to be ineffective and unproductive? Ineffective is great. The word for that just means not work.
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Not work. And then unproductive is not fruit. Ain't that great? Argos. Ah, ergos.
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No work. And then, no fruit. Ineffective is to be idle or to be lazy or to be thoughtless or to be unprofitable or even injurious. Ain't that terrible? Who wants to be that?
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How about unproductive, unfruitful, barren, profitless. Nobody wants that. If we don't want that, well, let me read this. I thought this was good. The lexicon definition of a carpas, unfruitful.
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It refers to any thought, action that is not originated and empowered by the Lord. That which is not born of faith or birth or empowered by God. By definition, all decisions that are not born of faith for the belief, they're sin. Romans fourteen twenty three, which automatically renders them eternally fruitless or a waste. This is the case regardless of how impressive or acceptable they are in the eyes of the world.
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Wow. That's pretty heavy. So if you don't want to be ineffective and unproductive, then concentrate some effort. Actually, look towards that initial list, the faith, goodness, self control. Lean into it.
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He's given you what you need. He's given you his divine power. He's given you his Holy Spirit. Now, I know that there are some of you saying, in your heart, you can do no good. You're right but with the Holy Spirit, directing your heart and giving you the strength to walk in it, you can't.
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You can't and that's what the balance here is. God is sovereign but you are also responsible and he's making a call through Peter for holiness. In nine, he says, but whoever does not have them, these qualities, whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind. How can you be both nearsighted and blind? Willfully closing your eyes.
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It's only seeing what's right here and then willfully closing your eyes. That's tough. Whoever does not have them in increasing measure is nearsighted and blind. They're only thinking about the present and they're ignoring the very great and very good and great promises that he's given. Forgetting even that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
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So, he's saying that the offer of salvation is real and once you have accepted it, you actually seem to have a choice of whether to progress in faith or whether to stagnate. Satisfied, and content with Just Fire Insurance. And you'll be ineffective and unproductive. You won't be receiving any bit for benefit from the promise and worse than that, the people around you won't either. Forgetting that they've been cleansed from their past sins.
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That's also a reference to baptism, I believe. We're going to do a baptism at the end of the service but haven't been in Israel for the past week. Everywhere we went, had ritual pools, right? There are ritual pools for cleansing. Lot of rules about that.
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He probably calling back to that some too. God is sovereign and man is responsible. So, therefore, last two verses right here say this, therefore, my brothers and sisters, brethren, my brothers and sisters, make every effort. He says it again. It has to be that his divine power has availed us everything we need for life and godliness.
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We have a savior and we have a comforter that can direct us in where we should go and what we should do and how we should go about it. So, make every effort to do that. Are you with me? Make every effort to confirm your calling and election because God is sovereign and from this point, people, if you're a believer in Jesus, you have to, if you're honest and humble, you have to go, why did he do that? He sovereignly chose and you have accepted and you're in a place where you know that you're a believer in Jesus and that's your way.
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That is the way. Going forward from here, you do have a choice as to whether you'll follow or not. Are you with me? Okay. Make every effort then to confirm your calling and election.
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Confirm it. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. Does that mean you'll never sin? No. But you'll never stumble, he says.
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You won't stumble irrevocably as Paul says in Romans. If you do these things, you will never stumble. You'll be sure footed and you'll receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our lord and savior Jesus Christ. Amen. So, he gives a negative example.
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You will not stumble and you will receive an inheritance. So, it's avoiding hell and receiving heaven. It's also, it's a much more peaceable existence when you live on standing on the promises, right? Standing on the promises of God. Alright, you will receive a rich welcome and into the eternal kingdom of our lord and savior Jesus Christ.
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The rest of this book is kind of contained in this mini sermon but he differentiates a bit more and he talks specifically about false teachers who are leading people astray in the next couple of chapters. That's it. His mini sermon. God is sovereign. Man's responsible and striving for godliness is important.
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When he makes that reference to baptism and he talks about about that that forgetting that your sins have been cleansed. You walk away from it and you don't pay attention to it. It's nearsighted and blind. It's not looking forward to the incorruptible hope. It's not looking forward to a life that is of greater use for the Lord.
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It's selfish is what it is. Through little steps of obedience you can see that he will follow through on his promise to progress us. Are you with This happened this past week. Little picture. That is the Jordan River and that is Inger Peterson under the water.
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That don't look like Inger Peterson, does it? I got to baptize people in the Jordan River. That was pretty awesome. Looking back, when Jesus went right ahead of his ministry, right ahead of his ministry before it started. He went to John and he asked him to baptize him and John said, you have no need of this.
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You have no need of this. He knew that he was without sin. He knew that. He had known him and knew that. He knew why he was baptizing and the baptism of John was one for the repentance of sins and so he didn't need that and he argued back a little bit and said, but you don't need this and Jesus said, in order to fulfill all righteousness though, go ahead.
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Permit it to be so and so he did and so when he baptized Jesus and Peter makes a reference to this later on in chapter one, he says, I was there and I heard the voice from heaven when he dunked him. Sorry, that's the Baptist slant, right? That's what it says though. Sorry. He dunked him and when he came up, spirit of God descended like a dove upon him and he heard a voice from heaven said, beloved, behold, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.
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So, it was, who knows if it was that spot or even close by? The same river, you know, pretty cool. The act of obedience is even more cool to take the step of faith. It's an initial step of faith that identifies with Christ and I think that that's what's awesome. I was thankful for anger doing that.
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So, we're doing a baptism right here, right now, today. Dean, if you haven't made your way to put on your outfit, would you? And I'm going to go downstairs and put on mine. Thank you, Paul for fixing the leak in the baptistry. It's going be mighty cold.
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If not, but if y'all would, stand up, the band's going to lead you in a standing on the promises and I don't want you to be sitting on the premises just waiting for us. Alright.
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Hebrews ten twenty three, let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope that we affirm for God can be.
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Standing on the promises of Christ my king, who eternal ladies and lit his praises reign. Glory in the highest. Standing in the liberty where Christ makes free. Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God Standing God.
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Standing on the promises I cannot
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Is there anybody else that'd like to be baptized? Actually, actually, I want to mention that next week, we are also doing a baptism. We are going to baptize Never mind. I'm going to cry. Sadie, welcome next week.
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So, we're doing that next week. So, the water will be here and like the Ethiopian eunuch said to Philip, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized? If you are a believer in Jesus and you have not yet been baptized, next week, the water will be here. Bring two sets of clothes and a testimony.
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Okay? Short testimony. Shorts and a testimony. Anyway, if you would, do that. We'll do a a bigger, more ample, fuller baptism next week and here is Dean.
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I think you had something you wanna say.
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Not yet.
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Okay. Alright. Okay.
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I'm out of breath. When
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you're ready. I'm gonna step on you.
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Oh, I thought
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That's good. Can I do it? Can do my smile?
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No. Oh.
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Wasn't sure what I was gonna say. I had a couple weeks to think about this, and now that I'm here I'm too nervous to say anything so thanks for coming out and I don't have really an amazing story to tell but I have some amazing people in my life.
1:00:10
Amen.
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If I look at my mom too much, I'm gonna really lose it. So but I I'm just very thankful to be at this church. I've come here off and on for many years, and I just wanna say thank you for making me feel so welcome and so friendly. And sometimes I'm not as friendly and I apologize about that. I through some issues in life and so thank you for for making me feel welcome here.
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And I hope to find a church. Am I going too long? No. Okay. So I just hope to find a church down in Colorado just like this.
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It's it's really been a pleasure being here and meeting all of you. And mom, for all that you do and the example
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that you set
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for me all my years and I wouldn't be here without you.
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Thank you, love. Alright. So you can come on out. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so right here. Go for it.
1:02:14
Good morning, everybody.
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Good morning.
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It's a pleasure being here and being so away from home and this becomes our family home. I want to say thanks for accepting us into your church and into your fellowship and most thanks to Ann Stocker and her husband. They have been a family to us. As we come, they take care of us the best way they can and I just want to say thanks to everybody and we will be back for this summer so just continue to pray for us and we will do whatever we can to be part of this church. God bless you all.
1:02:58
Thank you.
1:03:02
So the closing benediction today, I'm gonna do two two couple verses from Colossians. It says, having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised up with him. I didn't hold you under and keep you under. Right? You're also raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead.
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Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above. This is the message from this morning's sermon. Keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Amen.
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Would y'all stand? You can kick off another one of those verses if you want to but I'm just going to give you a blessing. May God bless and and keep you, make his face to shine upon you, and give you peace in abundance. Amen.
