2 Peter 1, May 12, 2024

It's time for the Champions in Christ broadcast with Rhonda Harrison on 1017, Bay FM.

Good morning and welcome to Champions in Christ.

Thank you for listening this morning.

Hope your day has started out to be awesome.

We're going to start in the Word of God today.

We're going to go to 2 Peter 1.

This is the day the Lord has made and we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Alright, 2 Peter 1.

Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ,

to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

That's a mouthful.

So Peter is talking here to them that have received or obtained precious faith with us in the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you've received that, him as your Savior, you are the righteousness of God and Christ.

So he's speaking to you and he's speaking to me.

And so this word is for us.

And what does he say?

Let's go on in verse 2.

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So we get grace and peace multiplied to us through what?

How do we do that?

It tells us right here through the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ.

The Word of God is so rich, rich with truth and it will bring you so much peace and the knowledge that you need, the wisdom, the understanding, you know, in that Holy Spirit that we talked about last week is here to teach us.

So we're going to let him do that.

And it says in verse 3, according to his divine power, has he given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that has called us unto glory and virtue.

So it's according to his divine power.

God is all powerful.

He is all powerful.

He's almighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

He's all of it.

And according to that great power, he's given unto us the Word says all things that pertain to life and godliness.

Wow.

Anything that pertains to life, life and godliness, he has given it to you already.

And how do we get it?

We receive it by faith.

Everything, everything we do with God is by faith.

Why?

Because he chose to make it that way.

We have to believe and receive it before we have it.

That's what the Word of God says.

And this isn't name and acclaim it.

It's our heavenly Father that right here in the word says he has given us freely all things that pertain to life and godliness.

So again, whatever you need, if you need healing, if you need strength, if you need vitality, if you need a new job, if you need a new car,

if you need whatever it is, he has already given us all things pertaining to life and godliness.

Now with that faith in believing that you receive it, there has to be action to show that your faith is true.

And we'll get to that.

But let's continue.

It says through the knowledge of him that has called us unto glory and virtue.

So this life and godliness comes through the knowledge again, the knowledge of him.

How do we get that knowledge?

We go to a good church that preaches the Bible.

And when I say that, how do you know they're preaching the Bible?

You go home and you dig in the Word yourself and see, make sure that you're hearing the Word of God.

We don't want to be like when we're watching the news and the media and they feed us what they want to feed us.

And then you take it hook, line and secret.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

Because we know they don't give all the sides of the story.

So again, you want to get into the Word.

A minister that has a heart for God is going to feed you the true Word of God.

But you get in there and dig deeper.

God wants you to have this knowledge yourself and you can't get it all on Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night.

No, sir, you got to get in there and dig.

There's lots of anointed men and women of God, both on radio, on YouTube, on social media.

And they're all can feed the Word of God.

You've got to find those that make your baby leaps, so to speak.

My husband, what used to always say that you go and listen to who makes your baby leap, right?

And if it goes with the Word of God, because the Word of God is powerful, the Holy Spirit will anoint that word and it'll bring life to you and you'll receive it in your spirit.

And so we're going to go on here and we're in verse three still and he says through the knowledge of him has called us to glory and virtue.

Called us to glory and virtue.

He wants you to experience his glory.

You know, the same way you can come and you get excited to see someone that you haven't seen in a long time or maybe it's your spouse, you're on your way home and you're, you've worked all day and you can't get in there.

You've worked all day and you can't wait to see that person.

You know, that's what God wants with you.

He's excited.

He's waiting to spend time with you.

He's waiting to hear you call his name.

He's waiting to bless you just like you want to bless your son or daughter with with a present or something that excites them or you have a surprise for someone's birthday and you're getting all excited.

That's the way God is with us.

He gets excited.

He wants us to get in this word and learn what's available, what we can have in him because he wants to give it to us.

But we have to do it his way.

He wrote the book.

We're just read it, receive it and continue in it.

Hallelujah.

All right.

So he's called us unto glory and virtue, virtue, excellence.

He wants us always walking in excellence, always receiving an excellence.

And it says in verse four, whereby are given unto us exceedingly great and precious promises that we might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

You know, God's promises, they, he has given unto us and they are exceedingly great.

We're talking about some big promises and precious.

They're precious.

You know, when you think of something that's or precious to you, you know, those are great.

The promises of God are precious and they're exceedingly great.

So God doesn't want you to think small.

He doesn't want you to believe small.

He wants you to have a big dream.

If you're young and you're just starting out, maybe you're getting ready to go to college or just coming out of college, dream big and ask God to help you with that dream.

Do you know God knows better than we do how to bring a dream to pass.

He can touch that.

He can anoint it.

He can put the right people in your path.

The Bible says those that are his, he encamps roundabout with favor.

That's right.

Favor.

Do you need favor today?

Maybe you're waiting to get a job you've been applying and looking and you really want this one job.

Ask God and thank him for the favor that you have favor.

You know, ask him for his will to be done.

You know, God's perfect will is always the best thing for our life.

Why?

Because he loves us so much.

He has a perfect will for us.

We can choose other wills.

He gives us a free will.

So we don't always, we don't have to follow God.

But you know, the more you find out about him, the more you want to follow him because he's that good.

He is that good.

And by these great and precious promises, again, going back to through knowledge, going back to according to his divine power, we can have these be partakers of that divine nature.

That's right.

You can partake of that nature.

You can walk in that piece.

You can walk in his love, even when those that aren't lovely, the people that are rude or obnoxious or maybe are giving you trouble.

Maybe they've been hurt.

A lot of hurt people will hurt people.

So you have to look at them and pray that God gives you eyes to see them to love them the way he loves them.

That's what I pray for myself and to see people the way he sees them because I want to be a partaker of these exceedingly great and precious promises.

So I want to walk in that divine nature with God.

You know, even when he was hanging on that cross after being beaten unrecognizable, it says in Isaiah, the hanging on that cross with nails and with the crown of thorns bleeding from his back and from all down his front and that sword being thrust in his side.

He still said, Father, forgive them.

They know not what they do.

That's the love of God.

That's the he loved us yet while we were sinners.

He loves you today.

If you've never met him, you'll get an opportunity at the end, but he is worth it.

He's holy.

He's he's wonderful.

He's our mighty God out.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Let's continue.

And it says that through this divine nature, we have escaped the corruption in the world through lust.

You know, there's a lot of lust in the in the world today.

Lust for things and lust for money and lust for, for people and, and lust for food and, and addictions.

And there's all kinds of corruption going on, but you can escape all that being a partaker of his divine nature through the knowledge of God.

And it says in verse six and to the knowledge self control and to self control patients to patients godliness to godliness, brotherly love and to brotherly love.

I mean, to brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness love.

There is no greater power on earth than love and God is love.

And if you're a vessel of his, you should be an instrument of love.

We should be loving on people.

There's so many people hurting young people, old people, teenagers, children, reach out to them, love on them, help them any way you can.

Pray for them.

Lay hands on them.

Pray for them.

God really wants you to know that you are a champion in Christ.

You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you because of the word of God.

You know, I am so thankful for the word of God.

I'm so thankful that God gave us his word, you know, because there's a war that goes on between your flesh and your spirit.

And we don't want to walk in the flesh.

We want to walk in the spirit.

Now we have the flesh.

We are a spirit.

We have a mind, will and emotions, which is your soul and we live in a body.

And so with that wrestling between the flesh and the spirit can happen.

So we want to go to Galatians and we're going to talk about that in first chapter five verse 16.

It says this I say then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh for the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.

And these are contrary one to another so that you cannot do things that you would, you know, Paul said, why do I do things I don't want to and I don't do the things that I want to because there's that war between the flesh and the spirit.

So what you feed grows and what you starve dies.

If you feed your spirit man, you'll grow strong in the spirit and you'll be able to withstand the temptations that the enemy brings.

But if you walk after the flesh, you'll yield to the flesh, right?

Sin always starts as a seed in the mind and it's thought about and it's thought about and it's thought about and then it comes down into the heart and then it becomes an action.

But so is the word of God, the word of God is a seed and if you let it fall on good ground of your heart and you and you nurture it and you cultivate it with more word and more worship and prayer, you will grow to be a strong tree of righteousness.

And the Bible continues to say in verse 18, but if you are led by the spirit, you're not under the law.

Now the works of the flesh are these adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, jealousy, strife, divisions, heresies, envy, murder, drunkenness, rivalies and such that I tell you before.

I've also told you in time fast that they which do these things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

We want to inherit the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

You cannot inherit those things living the life of all these things we just listed in the flesh.

These things in the flesh are yuck.

Let's say it three times yuck, yuck, yuck.

We don't want to indulge in this and if you have just repent, God will forgive you.

It's that simple.

God wants relationship with you so much that he gave us two commandments to which every other commandment hangs on.

To love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself.

So when we love our neighbor, we won't steal from them.

When we love our neighbor, we won't murder them.

When we love our neighbor and your neighbor is not just your next door neighbor.

That's everyone in your life.

That's everyone involved.

So we want to love and we want to hate what God hates and love what God loves.

And verse 22 says the fruit of the spirit.

When you walk in the spirit, this is what will flow in your life.

Love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, which is humility, temperance, which is self-control.

And against such there is no law and it says, and they that are Christ have been crucified with the flesh and the affections and the lust.

If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

We are going to walk in the spirit when we get in the knowledge of God and we let it just soak in and we meditate on it and we think about it and we chew on it.

And we live that joyous life. Not without trouble.

The Bible says we will be persecuted. That's a part of being a Christian.

You will be persecuted for your faith, but it's okay.

The Bible says be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.

God has overcome the world. Praise God.

And we are so thankful that he's overcome the world and that his yoke is easy and the Bible says his burden is light.

Why is it light? Because he cares for us and the word says we can cast all our cares on him because he cares for us.

Because he cares for us. He cares for you. He loves you so much today.

So we are going to be partakers of his divine nature according to the knowledge in him.

So we want to go ahead. We're going to break away and we're going to go into a couple of songs right now and just praise the Lord.

Enjoy him and then receive the blessing of God that's available for you and for me.

I'm going to come right back to you just a moment.

Whoever more will be, he opened the prison door. He parted the legions.

My God, he holds the victory.

Let's draw in the house of the Lord. Let's draw in the house of the Lord today.

And we won't be quiet. We shout out your praise. Let's draw in the house of the Lord. Our God is surely in this place.

And we won't be quiet. We shout out your praise. Oh, oh, oh. We shout out your praise.

We sing to the God who heals. We sing to the God who saves. We sing to the God who always makes a way.

Cause he opened up on that cross. Then he rose up from that grave. My God is still rolling stones away.

Let's draw in the house of the Lord. Let's draw in the house of the Lord today. And we won't be quiet. We shout out your praise.

Let's draw in the house of the Lord. Our God is surely in this place. And we won't be quiet. We shout out your praise.

We were the beggars. Now we're royalty. We were the presidents. Now we're running free. We are forgiven, accepted, redeemed by His grace.

Let the house of the Lord sing praise. Cause we were the beggars. Now we're royalty. We were the presidents. Now we're running free.

We are forgiven, accepted, redeemed by His grace. Let the house of the Lord sing praise.

Let's draw in the house of the Lord today. And we won't be quiet. We shout out your praise. Let's draw in the house of the Lord today.

We won't be quiet. We're gonna shout out your praise. Let's draw in the house of the Lord. Our God is surely in this place. And we won't be quiet. We shout out your praise.

We shout out your praise. Let us draw in the house. Let us draw in the house today. We shout out your praise. We shout out your praise.

The Lord bless you and keep you. Make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.

Amen, amen, amen.

The Lord bless you and keep you. Make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.

Amen, amen, amen.

Amen, amen, amen.

Amen, amen, amen.

Amen, amen, amen.

Amen, amen, amen.

Amen, amen, amen.

Amen, amen, amen.

Amen, amen, amen.

Amen, amen, amen.

Amen, amen, amen.

Amen, amen, amen.