Everything We Need

2 Peter 1:3-4

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

  

This past week we experienced some amazing things in this church. Last year some of us gathered on New Year’s Eve to pray for the church, and one of the scriptures we focused on was from Isaiah 42:10: Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth. God has anointed us to sing to him a new song. This has nothing to do with worship wars between contemporary and traditional worship; it’s about God doing a new thing. While our God never changes, God is always doing new things. In Genesis 12, God did something he’d never done before when he called Abraham and told him he would bless him to be a blessing to the nations. In 1 Kings, God allows King Solomon to build a Temple, so now God’s presence is no longer in a tent, but in a temple. In the prophets, we see God using the people’s enemies to teach them to follow him. Then God sends his Son to die for his people, and after three days rise again. God is always doing new things. In Acts 2, we see God doing another new thing, sending the Holy Spirit to live within his people.

In John 14:12, Jesus tells his followers: I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these [new things!], because I am going to the Father.  

Jesus is promising us that we will do even greater things than he did because he is going to the Father and sending us the Holy Spirit.  His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

Pastor Scott relayed to us several questions that God asks. The first question was: Is anything too hard for God? The answer is that nothing is impossible for God. Nothing. OK, follow me here. God has given us Himself, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, who lives within us. If the Holy Spirit lives in us, what is too hard for us? Nothing!

Because God, in his divine power, has given us everything we need. Everything. In giving us the Holy Spirit, God has given us everything we need for life and godliness. That means you don’t need a seminary course. You don’t need to be in a special class. You don’t need to go out and live in the wilderness like a hermit. God has given us everything we need for life and godliness, and that everything has a name and that name is the Holy Spirit.

You see, we were not made to live dull, boring, hum-drum lives. The church was never meant to be a nursing home for dying Christians; God purposed us to be the living Body of Christ! I was in a group of pastors the other day, and we were talking about fear. It is a sad thing when the church begins to live and make decisions out of fear instead of by the Holy Spirit. Just think back to familiar Bible stories and think what would have happened if Bible heroes had acted out of fear.

Noah would have stopped building the ark when his neighbors started in on him. Abraham would never have left his land to head to a land God promised him. David would never have defeated Goliath, and Israel would have been defeated by the Philistines. Nehemiah would never have rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego would have just gone ahead and bowed to the statue of King Nebuchadnezzar. Peter, Andrew, James, and John would never have left their fishing boats to follow Jesus. None of the disciples would have preached. Paul would have just shut his mouth.

And when it comes to other heroes of the faith, what would have happened if John Wesley had lived by fear when it came to preaching? If you know anything about Wesley, his conversion came after his ordination. In other words, he was a pastor before he was a Christian. It doesn’t seem like he wanted to split from the Church of England; he wanted to reform the church, but his fiery sermons got him expelled from many churches where he preached. Living by fear, Wesley would have apologized and cut back his Holy Spirit-inspired preaching. But that’s not what Wesley did. John Wesley, not allowed to preach in church buildings, went to where the people were. Listen to this excerpt from Wesley’s Journal: "Saturday, 31 March, 1731. In the evening I reached Bristol, and met Mr. Whitefield there. I could scarce reconcile myself at first to this strange way of preaching in the fields, of which he set me an example on Sunday; having been all my life (till very lately) so tenacious of every point relating to decency and order, that I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin, if it had not been done in a church."

This hero of “street preaching” had been so tied to tradition (decency and order) that he would have thought saving souls almost sinful if it wasn’t done in a church building. I don’t think that John Wesley would recognize most United Methodist churches. Or worse, he would recognize us as little different from the Church of England which he set out to reform. Many of us have slipped into an existence that is based primarily on self-preservation. We live in fear. What would happen if God had a fantastic purpose for us? What if God actually believed that His people would do even greater things than Jesus did while he was on earth? What if God actually thought we could?

Pastor Scott taught us a lot about the Holy Spirit and about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that it’s not us somehow receiving more of God, because we received all of the Spirit when we accepted Jesus’ gift to us, but it’s about God receiving more of us. And when God has a hold of all of us, every bit of every one of us, then God can (and will!) do amazing things through us.

What might we look like if we stopped being afraid? I see people who are afraid of what God might call them to do. This is a big problem for churches. What would happen if God calls us to reach out to those people? What would happen if God calls us to structure everything about the life of our church to glorify Him instead of to glorify ourselves? If you don’t think we’re structured to glorify ourselves, then let me suggest completely changing worship style and see how people respond. A church nearby got a $2000 grant from the district this year to feed children… but they spent $65000 of their own money to buy a new organ. If you don’t see how that’s a problem, that’s a problem! They can come up with $65000 for themselves, but they have to ask the district for $2000? What would happen if God called us to give money away? The last two years I asked this church to give sacrificially for a Christmas offering and we didn’t. Yes, we gave an offering, but it wasn’t a sacrifice. It didn’t cost us anything. When one family gives one third of the Christmas offering, that really reflects badly on the rest of the church. It means that Christmas is really about you giving out Christmas presents, not celebrating Jesus’ birth. What are you scared of? Not having enough money? Maybe you’re afraid to trust Jesus for everything. Maybe you are putting your trust in money. Heck, even our money says “In God we trust” on it.

Pastor Scott said he doesn’t do counseling anymore because he’s found that people just don’t do what he tells them to. I’ve had much less experience than he has, but I’ve already experienced the same thing. People come to me wanting an easy fix, and honestly if you want to fix anything that has become enough of a problem that you’re willing to ask someone for help, then it’s going to be hard to fix it.

Don’t you realize that you don’t have to do it on your own? God has given us everything we need. He gave us himself, and he is sufficient for us.

God called us by his own glory and goodness – everything about him – his character, and because of his character, he has made promises to us. What has God promised us? God promises us himself. Some of you have just started to experience God for the first time ever, even though you’ve been going to church for years.

One thing I often hear is Christians who are working really hard to overcome their sins all on their own. Maybe you’ve got a sin problem and you are going to every length to make sure to avoid it. That’s good, but it’s not the best. Maybe you have friends and community who are asking you the tough questions and keeping you accountable. Yes, that’s good, but it’s not the best. When I went off to college, I jumped into the party scene, but during my junior year, I recommitted my life to Christ. Living in the fraternity house left me open to temptation, so I completely avoided the parties; on party nights, I would switch shifts and go to work. It kept me away from the party and from the temptation to jump back into that lifestyle. Which was good for a season.

But it’s not the best, because what living like that says is “God isn’t enough for me.” Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying that you need to take stupid risks and put yourself into areas of temptation. What I am saying is that you need is for God to be sufficient. Scripture tells us that God gives us his promises so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

Sometimes we hear phrases like “escape the corruption in the world” and think that it means we need to keep ourselves apart from everything in the world. We can’t allow ourselves to be around non-Christians or in places where non-Christians gather. We only drink milk from Christian cows.

Friends, escaping the corruption in the world doesn’t mean hiding. It doesn’t mean walling yourself off from the world. It doesn’t mean pretending that the world doesn’t exist. We were never meant to be a holy huddle, ignoring the world around us. Let’s look at what scripture says.

It says that receiving God’s promises, we may participate in the divine nature. We now have a part in God’s nature! If that’s confusing to you, it just means that we now do what God does because God has replaced our will with His and our power with His. So instead of hiding from the world in fear of having the world corrupt you, we live our lives doing what God does. And what does God do? God goes into the place where He is needed most. God didn’t shun the world, but instead sent Jesus Christ into the world. And Jesus went out and socialized and ate with the “sinners and tax collectors.” Obviously Jesus never walled himself off from society.

I want to also recognize here that Peter declares that the corruption in the world is caused by our evil desires. Jesus was able to be among the worst temptations because he did not share our evil desires. Why not? Because he was totally 100% submitted to God the Father’s desire, not his own. Remember when he was in the Garden, before his arrest? He prayed “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42) He was completely submitted to God’s will. Therefore he remained uncorrupted.

Many times when we struggle again and again and again with the same sinful desires and behaviors the problem is not primarily a behavior problem. It’s a heart problem. That’s why it’s not enough to just avoid sinful behavior. We have to let God get at the root of the problem, to transform us!

This doesn’t mean being ignorant or putting ourselves in compromising or tempting situations. If you’re a recovering alcoholic, you can minister to alcoholics, but the best venue isn’t a bar. Men, leave the ministry to strippers to the women. But the answer to the problems of life isn’t hiding. It’s allowing God to have more of you… all of you.