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| PROMISES 2 PETER 1:1-8 Pastor Stephen Muncherian August 2, 1998 |
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Nicolo Paganini was probably one of the greatest violinist of all time. On one occasion Paganini was standing before a packed house, playing through a difficult peace of music - a full orchestra surrounded him. Suddenly one string on his violin snapped and hung down from his violin. Beads of perspiration popped out on his forehead. He frowned but continued to play, improvising beautifully. To the conductor’s surprise, a second string broke. And shortly afterwards - a third string broke. Now there were 3 limp strings dangling from Paganini’s violin as the master performer completed the difficult composition on the one remaining string. The audience jumped to its feet with shouts and screams - “Bravo! Bravo!” As the audience died down, the violinist asked the people to sit down. Even though they knew there was no way they could expect and encore, they quietly sank back into their seats. Paganini held the violin high for everyone to see. He nodded at the conductor to begin the encore and then he turned back to the crowd - with a twinkle in his eye - he smiled and shouted, “Paganini....and one string!” After that he placed the single-stringed Stradivarius beneath his chin and played the final piece on one string - as the audience - and the conductor - shook their heads in silent amazement. “Paganini... and one string!” Most of us will never have the opportunity to stand before an adoring crowd and play an encore on one string. But life is like that. Muncherian and one string. Put your name there. Toros and one string. Aznive and one string. Only we lack the ability of Paganini. The symphony of life is moving onward. How can life be played on one string? And what if the string breaks? There are times when we need to be reminded of the promises of God for us - and how we can live within those promises. 2 Peter 1:1-8: Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours in the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: may grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His 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, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature. For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these things are yours and abound, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Keep your Bibles open - and look again with me at verse three - this is a tremendous promise. Let’s read this promise together - out loud: (3) His divine power has granted to us - instead of “us” put your name there - His divine power has granted to (name) all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence. God - through our relationship with Jesus Christ - has supplied us with everything we need to live a life of obedience and service to Him - and the power to live that life. Last Sunday I was flying back from New York and I was thinking about how not too many years ago a trip to the east coast - or overseas was considered a “once-in-a-lifetime” experience. We have people in this church who literally commute around the country - and the world. Recently one of our members was in China on business - another was in Israel. Some in our fellowship commute to Japan for business. I don’t know how people keep themselves together at that pace. While rushing around - how are we suppose to keep up with our family and church responsibilities? How do our wives keep things together? How are we suppose to handle the pace of our homes when we are running after kids and obligations? Do you ever feel exhausted when you go to bed at night? Be honest. How many of you feel tired when you get in them morning? Some here have been putting up with chronic illnesses and pain for years - and today - like most days - you’re wondering how you can keep going. Some here have deep emotional burdens and they carry great emotional weight on their shoulders. Maybe you’ve come this morning and you’re down to your last string. Most of us feel like this more often than we’d like to admit. And there’s the expectation that we should go right on playing - living as though nothing’s wrong. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life. We need to claim that promise this morning. Through Jesus - God has given us all that we need to go on in life. And then Peter says - verse three - that God has given us everything we need to go on spiritually - He has granted to us everything pertaining to godliness. And that’s a tremendous promise because too often we feel spiritually inadequate. Chuck Swindol - in his book, “Three Steps Forward, Two Steps Back,” describes “The Four Spiritual Flaws” - what Christian spirituality is not. Flaw #1: Because you are a Christian - all your problems are solved. Flaw #2: All the problems you will ever have are addressed in the Bible. Let’s face it there are principles in the Bible that apply to all situations in life. But how many times have we wished we could look up a verse - 3rd Amalakites 12:2 - and God would say, “Steve - or Toros - turn back from thy sin for thou eateth too much baklava.” Specific Godly guidance - a Red Phone to God - and we know what God’s will is. There are many times when God desires for us to keep searching for His answer. Flaw #3: If you are having problems, you are unspiritual - we’re ungodly because we’re wrestling with a problem. Flaw #4: Being exposed to sound Bible teaching automatically solves problems. These are flaws in our spiritual thinking. Somehow we get sold this idea that as Christians godliness means being spiritually perfect - and there’s something wrong with us if we’re not. It seems like most of the time when someone talks about godliness they’re talking about someone that none of us could ever become. Impossible standards of spiritually perfection and having it all together. I’m glad that the definition of godliness lies with God and not with myself or any other person. Godliness is the process of spiritual transformation - seeking to be like God. Its not perfection - but process. “I’m not there - but my desire is to to get there.” Allowing the Holy Spirit to work deep down in our lives - where attitudes are formed and decisions are made. David, in Psalm 42 described godliness this way, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for Thee, O God. My soul thirst for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalm 42;1,2) Peter says that God - when we come to know Jesus as our Savior - God gives to us everything we need for life and to pursue godliness. Its a promise: His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Jesus who called us to His own glory and excellence. Practically speaking - how do we apply this promise to our lives? Back in the ‘70’s they were building the 101 - 280 - 680 freeway interchange. Do any of you remember what this looked like? They had built the overpass for 280 and 680 and two parts of the cross-over bridges. It looked like this giant X in the sky - maybe 300 feet tall. And then somewhere in Sacramento they got the idea that they didn’t have enough money to finish the freeway. This was back when Jerry Brown was Governor and everyone talked about cutting budgets and how to protect the environment instead of protecting people. So the foundation was laid and it just stood there - for years - this giant X in the sky - until somehow they finished arguing and completed the interchange. God - through Jesus - has laid a foundation for us - our relationship with Jesus Christ and God’s promises. But that’s not the end. We need to build on that foundation - to seek to grow in the promises of God through Christ. This is what Peter is writing about in verse 5: Verse 5: We (Christians) are to “make every effort to supplement - to build upon - to add to - our faith...”. The Greek word for this “effort” is "epichoregeo." In Greek drama - when they would stage plays - there was a combined effort of at least 3 key partners. There was the poet - who wrote the script. The state - which provided the theater. And thirdly a wealthy individual - a patron - called a “choregos” - which is the word we get"epichoregeo" -"effort” - from. The “choregos” made the “effort” - spent a lot of money and put in a tremendous amount of physical “effort” to make sure the play became a reality. What Peter is saying is that God has written the script in the blood of Jesus Christ. The world is the theater where our lives in Christ are played out. And we are to supply our diligent efforts to make the script come alive each day of our lives. How do we do that? In the midst of all the rushing around in our lives - in the midst of all the things we could spend our time and energy on - Peter says, that if we really want to live within the promise of God for life and godliness - then there are 7 specific character qualities - building blocks - that we must make effort towards supplying to our foundation in Christ. Here they are - starting in verse 5: 1. MORAL EXCELLENCEMoral excellence is when we choose to act in such a way that we reflect the moral excellence - the sinless character - of Jesus who dwells within us.2. KNOWLEDGEI’ve heard that most children today have been exposed to more information by the age of 5 than most of us were exposed to by the age of 18. Ponder that. The problem is that they don’t have an understanding of what to do with that knowledge. The idea of really “knowing” something or someone relates to what we do with that knowledge - how we personally experience knowing God. Reading His word - studying - memorizing - discussing - and prayerfully seeking to obey and understand how His word applies in the daily experiences of our lives. Practical - experiential knowledge of God.3. SELF-CONTROLMastering our moods and passions rather than being controlled by them - so that when we have moods - anger - happiness - and passions - our sexuality - these are expressed - lived out - according to the teaching of the Bible and power of the Holy Spirit.4. PERSEVERANCEPatience - learning to view all circumstances as coming from the hand of our loving Heavenly Father - who is in control of all events - being able to trust God and His timing in the midst of all of the circumstances of our lives.5. GODLINESSPiety and devotion to the person of God - a very practical - continual - awareness of God - His presence - power - and working - in every aspect of our lives.6. BROTHERLY KINDNESSThe Apostle John wrote, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar” (1 John 4:20). Love for each other means serving each other - laying down our lives for each other. Sharing with each other - practically and intimately. Praying for each other. Watching our attitudes and words about and towards each other. Rejecting prejudice - exclusiveness or elitism. There should be a warmth of affection that characterizes our fellowship as believers.7. LOVEThis is God’s kind of love in which the origin is not in the one being loved - but in the one who loves. God loves because He is love. We are to love - not because someone is lovable - but because we are of God. This kind of love reaches even beyond our community of faith here - it reaches anywhere - to anyone - seeking that person’s highest good - even at a cost to ourselves.Its a tough list. When I look at a list like this I know that I’ve failed - I’m not even close to mastering this list. Anyone here want to say that they’re experts at all of these? No problem - been there - done that - next list. And yet this is what needs to be added to the foundation of our faith. And it requires our commitment - our daily effort and the priority of our lives to make this happen. I thank God that this list does not mean that we have to “be perfect” - to have all of these character qualities already worked out in our lives. But there is a reminder in what Peter is saying - that we can hear this morning. The promise of God is tremendous - the foundation of our faith laid in Jesus - the power for life and godliness. But we can’t rest there. To experience that promise means sustained effort to grow deeper in our relationship with God. |