I told you, Edie, I said, you brought me to tears. Like that was powerful. The warship, the moms, my goodness. You know, isn't it?
You know, dads are great, but I had a really special relationship with my mom growing up. Like, my mom actually thought I could do no wrong. Like, yeah, she thought the best of me. She prayed for me.
She declared God's promises over me. She, she example what that looked like. And she just always thought the best of me. Like, I could do no wrong in her eyes.
And I just wanted to shout out to her there. I remember I was about, I was probably 20 years old. Now, now we didn't have these when I was 20. Like, they didn't even have the big pocket phones when I was 20.
So if we wanted to capture a picture, we had to get a 35 millimeter camera. We had to take it to, you know, the Photoshop. We had to go back and pick up the pictures and then you had to actually put them in an album. And so, for whatever reason, I kept an album of all my debauchery.
It was terrible. Why? I would do that, I don't know. But I kept this album in my car.
And I would party and I kept these pictures of things I would do. One day my dad was helping me clean my car and he sees this photo album. And he grabs it. And he takes off running.
And so I'm running around the car. And I'm chasing my dad. And the more we ran, the more we laugh. And he's running going like this.
And then he realizes what he's looking at. It's not appropriate. And he goes, never let your mother see this. She actually thinks you're an angel.
Don't disappoint her. But thank God for a praying mom. Thank God for a mom that believed in me, that saw God in me, no matter how I was living and what I was doing. Don't give up on your kids.
Prophecy over your kids. Declare God's promises over your kids. Pray for your kids. Because God has a plan for them.
It may not look just like the way you think it should look right now, but he does. And I can stand here and testify to God's goodness and grace and calling on my life. And he has the same for you. OK.
Well, you guys came back for part two today. Like last week, I started a message. And we really ran short on time. I focused last week on the first two verses of 2 Peter 1, verses 1 through 4.
I want to finish it up on really verses 3 and 4 today is the focus. The title of a message is the same for taking of the divine nature. This will be part two. And last week, we were really focused in on the fact that we have obtained not by our effort, not by our actions, not by our goodness, but because of his divine grace.
We've been allotted the same equal value faith as the apostles had. That we have equal value faith. We have apostolic faith. We have the same faith as the apostle Peter.
We have the same faith as the apostle Paul. And it was by a gift. And as we operate in that and as we walk in that, that we can actually increase the measure of grace and the measure of peace that operates in our life. And we do that through the knowledge of him.
Today, we're going to look at again some more about the knowledge of him and how that pertains to the promises and the things God has for us, that he's put aside for us in order to be partakers of this divine nature. So in Seth Hexley this morning, he said, only through the moms can we actually fully see the nature of God. And I said, you've got to say that. Like that has to be said.
I appreciate you receiving that and sharing that with everybody. So true. So true. All right.
Well, I think last week I opened up with this statement. It says being a possessor of the divine nature and being a partaker of the divine nature are two different things. It's very possible and it's probably more times than not. It's probable that we possess things, especially in the spiritual realm.
We possess things. But because we can't see them, we don't know about them. Maybe we don't believe them. Don't think they're for today whatever your reason that we possess things that we never partake of.
And that God by his grace has given us a new nature. We have everything. It says in this verse all things pertaining to life and God in this. Like God has given you everything you'll ever need.
And he's given it to you now. And you possess it. Like you possess it now. But not everybody partakes of it.
And so these verses that the Apostle Peter writes are encouraging us that he wants you to be a partaker. He wants you to share in. He wants you to participate in that which Jesus has already purchased for you. So starting in second Peter, we're going to read all four verses.
And then we'll go back and just make a few points today that I didn't get to last week. Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ. To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
As his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue. By which I've been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. The word partaker, the Greek word coin in us, I mentioned last week you probably heard the word coin o' nia which means fellowship or communion. This is a very similar word.
Next slide. That tells us that a partaker is somebody that isn't associate, that you're a partner, you're a participant, a sharer in something or in anything. But here's what I know about being a partner, as I mentioned a little bit about partnership last week. Do you ever hear of something called a silent partner?
A silent partner is somebody who is a partner in a business. They make an investment but they're not active. I don't have any silent partners in my personal business because it tends toward laziness I guess. I have what are called active partners.
But what I find a lot of people in the Christian life have become silent partners with Jesus. But you have a sharer in and you have by allotment what he has purchased for you but you're not actively participating in it. And see God's not looking for silent partners. God's looking for active participants.
He's looking for believers who will not only say I receive what you have but now I'm going to step into it and actually use it for your goodness and your glory. Like I'm going to do something with it. In the message translation it says this in 2nd Peter 1 verses 3 and 4 it says everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us. You are also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to you.
Your tickets to participation in the life of God. See I got a ticket. Say that. I have a ticket.
Somebody give me tickets to the pirates game at the end of this month. The pirates and the braids. They gave them to me. I didn't do anything for them.
I didn't earn them. I didn't deserve them. I just gave them to me. I can't use them.
So I gave them to somebody else. I said hey would you like these tickets? And he said yeah sure I love these tickets. So he has the tickets right.
But if he doesn't actually go to the game there's no participation in the game. There's no value. What's the purpose of having the tickets? I heard a story one time.
I don't know if this is true or not but it really illustrates this point because so many people think putting faith in Jesus is just to get me to the other shore. I want to get saved just so I can get to heaven. See there was a story about this family in London. They want to take a ship all the way from London to New York City and they scrape together.
Everything they have in their house. They take all their money. They buy five tickets to get on this ship to go across the Atlantic Ocean. And several weeks go by and this is when it took a long time.
It takes a long time to get across. And he gets to the New York Harbor and the captain of the ship gets off and he's greeting everybody as they come off the ship. And he sees this family and he doesn't recognize them. And he looks at the dad and he says were you at any breakfast or lunch or dinner?
Because I don't remember seeing you at any of those things. And the dad kind of hung his head and he said you know for all that we had to buy the tickets. We didn't have enough left over to buy breakfast, lunch and dinner. And so we stayed in our room the entire two weeks and ate crackers.
And the captain says what did you know that with the ticket came all the meals along with it. You see so many people when they received Jesus they just think it's just to get them from one shore to another. And he crackers between there and here but all along Jesus has paid for so much more. Like he's paid for so much more.
It says that he has given you everything that pertains to life and godliness. That everything you need to live life he's bought. Everything you need to live a godly life one that's pleasing to him he's bought and he's given it to you. Well I just can't live the Christian life but he's given it to you.
You have it. The reason you can't live an effective Christian life is because you haven't learned a partake of what you already have. Like you don't need more. There is more.
There's more that you can access but in essence you already have it all. Like you need to step into that which you already have. So I want to look today at this thing that what he's given us. It says that his divine power has given us to say this all things.
His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and to godliness and he has given us exceedingly great and precious promises. You see how he gave these things to us. How did he give them by his divine power? It wasn't like he's like well what do you think Holy Spirit?
I don't know. What do you think Jesus? Should we give him something? Should we not?
Well okay let's give him something pertaining to life. Look his divine power divine means everything that proceeds from god. All that proceeds from him his power his dunamis his miracle working power. What do you think of creation?
Do you think creation, you got side? You see creation. Did you guys see the northern lights or maybe it was a conspiracy? I don't know.
Like whatever it was do you doubt that god like created that? You look at creation like you see his power. When you think that Jesus was raised from the dead by the miracle working power of god. Do you think it was a flim flam willy nilly?
Well I don't know come on out of the dead. No he said get up. He said let there be light. Like there was divine power when he created.
There was divine power when he raised Jesus from the dead and seated him as in his right hand. It wasn't an afterthought. It wasn't a willy nilly loll you know let's do this today and some else tomorrow. There was purpose and design and power in it.
And with that same power that he created the universe. With the same power that he raises Jesus from the dead that same power he gives you something. Can you imagine that? Like it's not like well here you go.
This is. Now what are you going to do with it? It says that he's given us. His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness and he has given us exceedingly great and precious promises.
And by those things we become partakers. See that when it says you become a partaker that word become or it says you may be it's written in the subjunctive mood. You know what does that mean? The subjunctive mood is one of potential and possibility.
It's something that may or may not occur depending on certain circumstances. So here it is. He's given it to you. That's done.
But whether you become a partaker that's a maybe. And guess who the maybe relies on? You. He's done it.
He's given it. Look at this word has given. Go back. Back one.
Go back one. The word has given. Dorea. Am I.
Not there. But it means not just to give something. It's not just to be stove something. It actually means to give something say it feel freely.
Look at that. It's not just to give but rather to give or be stove freely. He did it with power but he also did it gratilliously. Like it's for you.
We see the same word used in a noun form when it talks about the gift of grace and the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. When somebody gives me a free gift what's left to do? Receive it. Go to the next slide.
Acts chapter 5 verse 17. That should be just 17. Look at that. Receive.
Much more. Receive the abundance of grace and the gift. Again it's a gratuitous gift. It's a gift that's given freely will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ.
On the day of Pentecost Peter stands up in Acts 2.38 and he says repent and receive the remission of sins be baptized and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. See righteousness is a gift. What do you have to do? Receive it.
The Holy Spirit upon your life is a gift. What do you have to do? Receive them. All things pertaining to life and godliness are the same gift.
But for some reason, oh yeah I want to get saved. Oh yeah I want me some Holy Spirit. But all the other things God's provided I don't know if they apply. You receive them the same way that you receive Him.
You receive Him first and when you receive Him you get everything that goes along with Him. Paul said this in Romans 8 says how will He who offered up or delivered up Him for our offenses not with Him freely give us all things. When He gave us Christ He gave us everything with Christ. Like it's all it's a complete package.
So God has given us freely all things pertaining to life and godliness. So we can freely receive and when we freely receive we freely partake of His nature so that we can live His kind of life right now. See the life that He gives it says He's given us all things that pertain to life. That's the way that means it's the God kind of life.
I can live. You can live the God kind of life now. You can live believe it or not. You can live a godly life now because He's already given it to you.
Like there's no reason why you should have to wonder can I live a godly life. You can because He's given it to you. See He didn't just give you part one and then He skipped part two and okay give you three four and oh skipping He's given you all things. We're going to talk later about how we come to this knowledge but let me tell you that well how do I know all things.
Who do you know that knows all things? Jesus. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. He says we speak the wisdom of God.
We speak the wisdom of God in mysteries. The wisdom that was hidden from the ages. That God ordained before the world began for our glory. So there's certain things that God kept hidden that He intended for your glory.
He says we speak the wisdom of God in the mystery, the hidden wisdom that God ordained before the ages for our glory, for how the rulers of the world known they never would have crucified the Lord of glory. So here's what he's saying, God ordained things and eternity passed for your glory and had the rulers of the world known it, they never would have crucified Jesus the Lord of But as it is written, I has not seen, ear heard nor entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared. When did he prepare him? In eternity passed for those who love him.
So you're like, well, how can you know? I wasn't seen here and hurt. Hasn't entered a heart of man. The next verse says this, but God has revealed them to us by His Spirit.
The Spirit searches, get this, all things. The Spirit searches, all things. God's given you all things. The Spirit searches all things.
Yes, the deep things of God. Who can know the things of a man except the spirit of man that is in him? In the same way, who can know the things of God except the spirit of God? We have not been given the spirit of this world, but we have been given the spirit of God so that we may know the things of God that are freely given to us.
That's a mouthful. But let me put it like this, Jesus said, the Holy Spirit will take up what is mine and declare it unto you. See, God has given you everything. Everything you need in this life is in you.
It's in there. One of the ways you get it out is it says the Holy Spirit searches all those things. Yes, the deep things of God. He goes in.
He draws them out and he declares them to you. You can know them. You can know it. There is no excuse because he's put in you.
It's kind of like having AI build in. You guys ever use chat GPT? Yeah. You ever use any kind of like, the one I don't like meta AI?
I hate you guys on Facebook and you go where it used to be the search thing and it gives you all kinds of stuff. You have something so much better than AI. You have the one that knows all those things. He searches them out for you and he brings them back and he speaks them to you.
He's given us all things that pertain to life and Godliness here. Here's the thing. He's given them. If he's given them, what do we have to do?
We have to receive them. But how can I receive something that I don't know about? Here's the disconnect for most believers. They know that they're saved.
They know that they're secure in Christ. They know they're going to heaven. They know they have a relationship with the Father, but they don't realize what they have. They don't know.
He says that the reason you're not partaking is because these things come, all these things, the promises, all these things come through the knowledge of him. There's got to be a relationship. There's got to be intimacy. We talked about this word last week.
It's epicnosis. Next slide. It's precise and correct knowledge. It's the result of being thoroughly and accurately acquainted with someone or something.
I love this thing. It requires or involves greater participation by the no-er in the object known, thus more powerfully influencing him. The greater the intimacy, the greater the influence. Now you may have, think about the people that have influenced their life.
My mom, my dad. There might have been a sports figure. There might have been somebody you're disconnected with. I get that there could have been a business person that has been, but the people that had the greatest impact and the greatest influence in your life are the ones that you're the most intimate with.
Why do you think they say after about 50 years of marriage, the husband and wife begin to look like? That's good news for me, bad news for her. But as I become more intimate with my wife, the intimacy all sudden, as I become more intimate, as I begin to know her, she knows me all sudden that intimacy begins to influence the way I act. And as I begin to know Jesus and as I begin to be intimate with Jesus, all of a sudden the nature that's in me begins to come out of me.
And I begin to look like the very one that I spent time with. So obviously the Holy Spirit is key. God's word is key, but I just want to touch just briefly on five whole minister guess and how it pertains to you understanding more that God has for you. Paul says this in Acts chapter, I'm sorry, Romans, G was.
God's going to tell me it's Ephesians chapter four. I got so many scriptures running through my head right now. I feel like, I feel like AI, yeah. Okay, Holy Spirit, calm down.
All right, let's focus on one thing. It says that he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, and some teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. So he gives these five whole minister gifts. Early in the chapter it says these ministry gifts were actually the gifts of Jesus to the church.
So again, it's that free gift. He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, some teachers for the equipping. That means the building, the furnishing, it means making complete. Right, he's actually the ministry gifts, a lot of times we think of them up here, they're actually down here.
They're like the equipment manager on the football team. Like they're the ones that equip you. They give you the helmet and the pads and the shoes and the cleat, all that stuff. They equip you.
And it says they build you up. They actually raise you up from where you're at. So here, a lot of the things we misconceived, the five whole minister gifts really are to expose you to what's possible in your own life. Like they actually show you and work with you what's actually possible in your own life.
The next verse says this. It says until. So I get that you may think differently, but I believe it's really clear that all five of these gifts were given apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher, until we all come to the unity of the faith and the unity of the knowledge of God. So until we get to that point, unity means unanimity, which means that if we took a vote, it would be unanimous.
So until we could take a vote on what faith looks like and where unanimous on it. And until we take a vote and talk about what the knowledge of God looks like and where unanimous on it, those gifts have a place in the church. Because we're not there yet. Until we all come to the unity of the faith of the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man to the measure of the stature, which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
Here's what happens a lot of times. Ministry gifts are to train and equip you to grow in your faith. But what happens with a lot of apostolic ministries, they create an environment of spiritual dependency instead of spiritual development. It's almost like they create spiritual addicts.
Because we could talk about what a false prophet or false apostle looks like. Obviously, if there's false ones, there's real ones, right? But I think a characteristic of a false prophet or apostle is one that does this, that actually keeps you needing them. See if their job is to equip you to do the work, but they never really release you and they keep you in spiritual bondage to where you continually need them, you never get free.
See the prophet is not your mediator between you and God. In the Old Testament, that's how it works. In the New Testament, there is one mediator between me and God between you and God, the man Christ Jesus. You have the same access as everybody else.
See, here's what happens though, in those types of environments where they create dependency, there's also the flip side to where the person that's going to them becomes like a professional surfer. And they learn to ride the wave of somebody else's breakthrough, anointing in grace, and never learn how to appropriate it for themselves. See, the sign of an immature believer is one that after years continually goes back to the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, the pastor, and the teacher to do the very thing they've already been taught to do. See, it's like when you need a miracle, oh, we need to run to the apostle.
Instead of realizing that Jesus says the works I do, you will do also and greater than these. When you need a, oh, I need a word from God. Who do we run to? We go to the prophet.
I am so for this, I don't think I'm not. But I'm more for you being equipped to do what God's called you to do. We need a word from God so we go to the prophet. But forget that Paul says this, he says, pursue love, desire, spiritual gifts, but even more so that you prophesy.
Like you can do it. Or, oh, I got a friend that needs saved. Let me take him to the evangelist. He'll know how to get him saved.
And you forget that you will receive power after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you will be witnesses. Like he's equipped, you to do it. Or you go to the pastor.
Oh, I just don't know what to do. I need some guidance in my life. And now I'm here for that. But there gets to be a point in your life where you got to pull your panties up.
And you got to realize that the Spirit of truth that dwells in you will guide you into all truth. Oh, pastor, I need to go. Tell me what this verse says. I need you to explain it to me.
I'll do that. But John says in 1 John 2, he says, you need to know that you have an anointing in you that remains. And that anointing the Holy Spirit will teach you all things. Like he knows way more than I do.
See, the ministry gifts are not for me to do it for you. It's for us to do it together. Like I'll teach you but for the purpose so that you can learn how to be taught by him. I'll help you to prophesy so you can prophesy.
We'll do all those things so that you can do them too. You know, we have too many souls in the church today. So could prophesy when Saul was with the prophets. Saul could worship when David was in his presence.
See, we think we've got to get beside somebody to do what they do. Initially, yes, I believe in impartation. I believe in training. I believe in equipping.
But there comes a time when you've got to step out and start doing what God's equipped you to do. See, it took David to learn how when his city was burned in 1 Samuel 30 and they had taken his wives and his kids. Everybody captive in the entire city wanted to stone him. It says in verse 6, it says David, encourage and strengthen himself in the Lord.
Oh, better go get to prophet. I better go get to the apostle. I better go get to pastor. No, you got to get to the point where you learn how to draw on the Holy Spirit because he's the one that searches all things.
The deep things of God and he'll reveal to you what you need to do. See, instead of becoming a partaker of the divine nature, we've gotten a habit of becoming a partaker of our divine neighbor. And there's a place for that. The Holy Spirit's upon me for you.
He's on me for you. But don't become a spiritual addict of somebody else's anointing. Learn how to draw a form. Learn how to learn from it.
Grow in the grace that God's given you. Paul says this. He says the mystery that was hidden from the ages is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ is in me.
Christ is in you. The fullness of all that he is is in you. Why do we complain so much? Look at how Paul describes this.
Say, this is what's in me. The image of the invisible. What does that say? It says he created them male and female in his likeness and in his image.
Adam forfeited it, lost it, gave it away. Jesus came, got it back and freely gave it back to you. He is the image. The image of God is in me.
The first born of our all creation. By him were all things created that are in heaven and on earth. Visible and invisible. Whether thrones, dominions, principalities or powers.
All things created by him and for him. The creator of all things is in me. If we just got a glimpse of it, we could walk in so much more. Verse 17 says this, he is before all things and in him all things consist.
He is the head of the body, the church who is the beginning, the first born from the dead. That in all things he may have pre-eminence for it, please the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. All the fullness. If you go to chapter 2 of Colossians it says the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily.
It says in him dwells all the treasuries of wisdom and knowledge. Everything you ever want to know, every decision you ever want to make, anything you ever want to do is in him. It's in him, in you. And he has given it to you.
And all you have to do is partake. The partaking comes through having a knowledge of Jesus, of who Jesus is, what he's done, who he is in you. A knowledge that only comes through intimacy. A knowledge that's birthed out of spending time around leaders that will help grow you.
Time spending with Jesus yourself. It says in 2 Corinthians 4 it says God who said let light shine of darkness as shown in our hearts to give light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus. So you need people pouring in your life, but you need face time with him. You need to get on that phone like face time with the one who's in you.
And the Holy Spirit will begin to reveal things to you. I want to close with this verse. You've probably heard this verse before, Revelation 3 verse 20. It says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him and he with me. See, now God can use any scripture, even scripture that's used out of context. I'm not going to do that here. Normally this is used for unsafe people, right?
You've heard this for a salvation message. That Jesus is, what's Jesus doing? It says that Jesus is standing at the door and knocking. And he says, If anybody hears my voice and opens the door, I'll come in and dine with him.
Well, where is Christ right now? We just read it. See, this verse, as of all of Revelation 2 and 3, was written to the church who already have Christ in them. Jesus is not standing outside the house knocking to get in.
He's in the house knocking to get out. He's in you. He's in you. He wants out.
God spoke to me two days ago. He says, Too many Christians have left Jesus in solitary confinement. You've accepted Jesus. He lives in you.
And now I put him in solitary my whole life. I've sent him to a life in me, but not through me. He wants out. He says, If anybody hears my voice, opens the door.
I will come in and dine with him. Let me read this to you. This word dine, listen to this. This is talking about the evening meal.
The day was over. The work was done. This was the main meal of the day. This was the meal at which a man sat and talked for long, for there was time, for the work had ended.
It wasn't a courtesy visit. Paid in passing. That's what Jesus offers to us. He desires to come in, to sit long with us, and wait as long as we wish him to wait.
He wants intimacy. Like you have relationship. Relationship is the fact that God is your Father. Intimacy comes when I open the door and let him sit down on my couch.
And have coffee. And talk. And chat. And discuss his work.
That's what he wants.