Latest / Teachings On This Day On FerventWord / On Nov 01, 2009: 2 Peter 1:1-11
Transcript
- You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2009. I know God wants to speak to us today and I'm excited for the opportunity to look at 2 Peter as we begin this epistle and be challenged together by these things that Peter brings to us. They're really simple truths, but there's a great challenge for us this morning as we seek to live these things out and make them really a part of our lives. The Apostle Peter is writing this epistle really to deal with three main areas. He's dealing with diligent growth. He'll be talking to us today about the importance of growing, and we'll see that theme throughout the book, the importance of not standing still in our faith, but pushing forward and continuing to grow in our relationship with God. He also in this book deals with false teaching and false teachers. There was those who had risen up within the body of believers and they were trying to lead people astray. Trying to caused them to continue in sin or practice sin, caused them to fall away from the true faith and follow this fake faith that these false teachers were establishing, in which you could be involved in all kinds of sins and lusts and still be a part of this faith that they were teaching about. And there was great deception that was taking place. And so Peter is writing this epistle, as we'll see in the coming weeks, to counter that false teaching and to deal with those false teachers who had risen up within their midst. He also in this epistle deals very greatly with the end times and we'll see that more in chapter 3. The end times scenario, what's going to be taking place at the end of days and really how that should affect our lives. And Peter gives us a good summary of the book in the last two verses of chapter 3. If you'll turn there with me for just a second. We'll get a good picture of what this book is all about in verse 17 and 18 of 2 Peter chapter 3. It says this, You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen. Here Peter wraps up the book with a good summary of what it's about. It's a warning to beware of falling away. Those false teachers rise up. They were there in Peter's day. They are still around today. Those who would take us away from true faith in Jesus Christ and cause us to live contrary to what God has called us to live. He goes on in verse 18 to say, grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That's what he's calling us to do today. God is seeking for us to grow in him, to draw near to him in our relationship with him. ♪ As we were looking at Jeremiah chapter 31, about the difference between simply believing that there is a God or believing in God and making Him your God. And really that's a similar thing to what Peter is dealing with here. He's not just talking about knowing God in the sense of knowing that He exists or knowing that God is real or knowing what Jesus did for us. He's talking about having a real relationship with God through Jesus Christ and such a relationship, knowing Him in such a way that it really impacts and changes our life. Let's check it out. We start in verse 2. We'll pick it up. He says, He starts out with a normal greeting, grace and peace to you. He adds in the word multiplied, which also makes it very exciting. The word grace means unearned and undeserved favor. Basically, grace, as we are familiar with, is God's goodness to us, that we do not deserve and that we cannot earn. We want that. We want God's goodness towards us. We want Him to deal with us in a way that we're not worthy of receiving. And that's the way that God desires to relate to us and impact our lives. He wants to pour out His grace upon us. And so Peter says grace and peace. Peace is the idea of tranquility. It's the idea of a soul that is satisfied, assured of its salvation. Peace also refers to the peace that exists between us and God. At one time, outside of Christ, we were at enmity with God. But now we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. There's harmony there. There's unity there. Grace and peace, Peter says, be multiplied to you. Now, if I were to ask for a show of hands of who wants grace and peace in their life, I think we would all raise our hands. But Maybe not. So let's just check, okay? Would you bear with me for a second? Who wants grace and peace in their life? Who wants God to bless you just beyond what you deserve? Amen? Now, here's a little bit trickier one. Who wants grace and peace multiplied in your life? Anybody? Yeah, I think we all want that, right? So we all want to be blessed. We want God to deal with us better than we deserve. How do we do that? How do we receive that? How is that going to take place? Well, Peter explains to us it's going to happen today. By knowing God. He says, grace to you, or I'm sorry, grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. He's saying, look, if you want grace and peace multiplied in your life, here's where it's found. Here's how that is going to take place. It's found in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord. This word knowledge is a specific word. It means clear and exact knowledge, but it also means a knowledge that has a powerful influence on your life. This type of knowledge is specific knowledge that changes you and influences you. Again, Peter is not just talking about acknowledging that God exists. But he's talking about knowing God in such a way that he is a powerful influence on who you are, on what you do, on how you think, and on what you say. That he is a powerful influence in your life. Now think back with me. I know that you have some examples in your head probably of people who have had some influence in your life. As I was thinking about this, I was remembering when I was really young, living back in Riverside and There was a guy across the street. He was probably about four or five years older than me, but he would allow me to hang out with him. And being an older guy, I looked up to him and he was someone who began to have a real influence on my life. He was really into WWF wrestling. And so I was never into it before. But as I'm hanging out with him, suddenly I'm starting to get involved in that. And I have my favorite guys. I don't remember who they were. But we would get involved. We'd be talking about wrestling and the big matches coming up and all of these things. And... And he was also into baseball cards. And so suddenly I find myself, I'm getting interested in baseball. I'm starting to collect baseball cards. And he was a big influence in my life. In many ways, my parents didn't like this influence. And so they often discouraged me from spending too much time with him. Later on, as I was growing older, I began to have other friends and they began to have influence on me as well. And I remember the days where I had the awesome wave. You remember the wave? I had the best one ever because it kind of like sprayed here and then kind of curled at the end on this side. I mean, it was just, it was fantastic. I used so much hairspray, my hair fell out and I have not been able to do it since. Yeah. I would walk around, you know, junior high age with the fluorescent orange LA gears. I didn't know what they were before that. But my friends, you know, there was this influence on me and it changed the way that I thought. It changed the way that I dressed. It changed the way that I acted. And it changed the words that I said. I was thinking in more recent times, you know, Pastor Dylan and his influence on me. And of course, there's many other examples as well. But I could just picture Dylan in my head all the time because... The word torture is something that he has introduced to my vocabulary. Not that I didn't know what it meant, but he used it in interesting ways. If you're standing in line, you know, for more than a couple of minutes, he's like, oh my goodness, this is like torture. And so every time I say that same thing, oh, it's like torture. I got to hold on the phone, you know, it's like torture. You're killing me, Dylan would always say. And I say those things, I think those things, I always think about Dylan and remember how he's the influence. He's the one who brought that terminology into those situations for me. A couple of years ago, as we were in Okinawa, visiting the Reese family and the Bible college there and doing some ministry there, we were cracking up at Pastor Tom because Pastor Tom had come up with this word juice. And And he used this word for everything. Juice is whatever it is that he wants. Hey, can you pass that juice? And it could be liquid, it could be solid, it could be a potato, it could be an enchilada, whatever, pass that juice. Hey, give me some more of that juice. And he means, you know, he needs some extra change because he's a little short at the cash register. Or, hey, that's some good juice because you taught a good message. I mean, it's just whatever. It applies to everything. And then, you know, as the Bible college students were coming here, as Zach came here, you know, everybody's saying juice. Well, why is everybody saying juice? Well, because of this influence that is being applied. And everything is juicy now. And I don't understand. It doesn't sound like a good thing to me. Like, oh, yeah, that's juicy. That's not a good thing in my head. But anyway. It's this influence that comes upon us. I'm sure you have some examples as well of those who have influenced your life. But what Peter is saying here is your relationship with God such that He is a powerful influence on you. So that introduced into your vocabulary is words that are inspired by Him. So that the way that you dress, well, it's because of His influence. And what he's done, what he has said, so that the actions you take are the result of his influence on your life, that he has impacted you in such a way in your relationship with him that it's transformed you. Is he a powerful influence on you? Peter says, look, if you want grace and peace multiplied in your life, know God in such a way that he is a powerful influence into who you are, to what you think, What you do, how you act, what you say, let Him influence you through your relationship with Him, Peter says. Let's go on in verse 3. He says, His divine power, Peter says, has given to us everything that we need for life and for godliness. Do you ever find yourself needing things for life? Needing character, needing wisdom. Do you ever find yourself needing things for godliness? Needing discipline, needing a heart for the lost. What do you need for life and godliness? Peter says, God's divine power has given to us everything that we need for life as well as for godliness. And it's through something very specific. Again, it's all about knowing God. He says it's through the knowledge of him who called you. Peter mentions that it's his divine power that's given this to us. Now, that's significant and important because if you know anything about God's divine power, then you know that he is all-powerful. He does not lack power. Now, If we were to say something like, I will give you everything that you need for life and godliness, well then you'd be in a bad situation. Because I am not capable of providing for you everything that you need for life and godliness. And you would lack what you need for life and godliness. But because God is all-powerful, and His divine power is what is used to give us everything we need for life and godliness, we can know that We can trust. We can have confidence. In fact, we can rejoice that we have everything that we need for life and godliness, lacking nothing, because He is all-powerful. And we have what we need, Peter says, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue. Now, just to make it clear, who is the one who's called us by glory and virtue? We're talking about God. God is the one who has called us. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 1.9 that God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. God is the one who has called us. He's called us into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the one who is reaching out to us and desiring that relationship with us. He's the one who called us. And Peter says, you have everything that you need for life and godliness through knowing the one that called you, and that's God. Through the knowledge of God, you have everything that you need. You lack nothing for life and for godliness. Again, this word knowledge, it's the clear and exact knowledge that is a powerful influence on your life. When you know God... Verse 2 says, Verse 3 says, And not only that, but knowing God in a way that He powerfully influences you, we also see in verse 4, gives us some great and precious promises. Look at verse 4, he says, He says, So it's through the knowledge of God that grace and peace is multiplied, that we have everything we need for life and godliness, and that we've been given exceedingly great and precious promises. Exceedingly great and precious promises. Promises that are really beyond description. The promise of eternity, the promise of partaking of the divine nature, Peter says. We've been called into the fellowship of God's Son, Jesus Christ. We've become a part of the body of Christ as believers in Him. We've become partakers of the divine nature. We have an eternal inheritance awaiting for us where we escape the corruption that is in the world through lust, where there's no more sin. Where no longer do we have to struggle to resist temptation. No longer do we have to wrestle with a heart that is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. No longer do we have to worry because our heart is prone to wander. No, we have an eternal inheritance where there's no more tears, no more sorrow. We have new bodies that God has prepared for us. Exceedingly great and precious promises. An eternal inheritance. beyond our wildest dreams and imaginations. It's given to us through the knowledge of God. Knowing Him. But knowing Him in a way that He is a powerful influence in our lives. How can we know that? How can we know if we know God in this way? It's, of course, easy for us to think that. In fact, we can read these verses and say, great. We can say, great. I already got that check done. No problem. And we can just move on. But, I really believe God wants to challenge us in this area. Do you really know him in a way that he is a powerful influence on who you are and what you do, how you live and what you say? Does he have that kind of influence upon you? And Peter gives us some things to really analyze ourselves and check our hearts. As he goes on in verses 5 through 7, he lists the qualities of, well, the areas that God wants to be a powerful influence upon us. Look at verse 5. He says, but also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, verse 6, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. Peter is sharing this is a sample of the areas that God wants to be a powerful influence in your life. He starts out in verse 5. He says, but also for this very reason. For what reason? Well, it's what he's just been talking about. Knowing God. The knowledge of God, through the knowledge of God, grace and peace is multiplied. We have everything we need for life and godliness and we've been given these exceedingly great and precious promises. And since that's the case, Peter says, since knowing God in such a way that He is a powerful influence in our life, he says, here's what we're to do. Give all diligence to add to your faith these things. Let God influence you in these areas is essentially what Peter is saying. Because knowing God is what produces grace and peace and gives us all things necessary. And we have these great promises as a result of knowing Him and allowing Him to be that influence in our life. Since that comes from knowing God, Peter says, give all diligence. Giving all diligence at these things. Peter is explaining here that this is not to be a side note. This is not to be on the back burner for us. You know, it's kind of one of those things we'll get to. We're just kind of keeping it warm, but not actively involved in these things. It's not just to be when it's convenient. Peter's explaining this is to be our life pursuit. Since knowing God produces all these things, he says, make it your life pursuit. Be wholly devoted, giving all diligence. Add to your faith. When he talks about adding to your faith, he's talking about our faith being our proclamation of Jesus Christ as Lord. He's talking about being born again and that as we understand what Jesus did for us, dying on the cross for your sin and my sin, paying the price for us that by believing in him we might have life in his name, as he said, as we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ and receive his finished work upon the cross, We're born again. We have a new life in Christ. But there's a danger for us as Christians. There's a danger of falling into the mentality that, okay, I got my ticket to heaven. That's it. Now I can just kind of live however I want, do whatever I want. Or as we grow as Christians, we become mature and we just kind of get into the mode of, we're just kind of cruising. We've reached the level that, you know, we kind of want to reach in our Christian walk. We're as mature as we want to be and we stop pursuing it like we once did. Think of it like riding a bike. You know how it is when you're riding a bike. When you first start, it's a lot of work. You got to push the pedals. You got to make the bike go. And as you build up speed, you kind of get to the speed that you're comfortable with, the speed that you want to go, and then it's pretty easy. You don't have to push the pedal so hard. You just kind of do a little bit here, a little bit there. Just do enough to maintain your current pace. And sometimes that's how we get as Christians. We get to a place in our Christian life where we just kind of push a little here, push a little there. We do a little here, we do a little there. We try to just do just enough to maintain the place where we are as Christians. Instead of pushing on those pedals and driving forward. Peter says, giving all diligence add to your faith. This is not to be a cruise control type of thing. A pedal to the metal. Pushing forward. Pursuing God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, with all of our strength. So Peter says, add to your faith. Are you adding to your faith? Are you diligently growing as a Christian? Are you giving all diligence to grow in your relationship with God? Are you growing in your walk with Him? Are you giving all diligence in allowing God to be a powerful influence upon you? Look at these areas He gives us so we can kind of check our own hearts and see where we stand and how we measure up. He says, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. These seven things he gives us as a sample. We can check our hearts. Where do we stand? Is God being a powerful influence upon us? The first thing he mentions is virtue. This is a characteristic of God. Remember in verse 3, it tells us that he called us by glory and virtue. The word virtue means moral excellence. It's the idea of integrity and purity kind of all wrapped together. Virtue. Are you adding to your faith virtue? Integrity and purity. Is that something you are purposefully allowing God to work in your life? Integrity and purity. And moral excellence. Not just in having good morals, but of having moral excellence. Having the character, the nature of God. He also says knowledge. This word knowledge, it's a different word than what we've been looking at. It means to know by experience. Do you know God by experience? By the very fact that you've spent so much time with God that you know Him. It's different than knowing about God. It's different than knowing a little bit of God. But it's because you've spent so much time with Him You know Him. You know Him by experience. If all you know about God is what other people tell you, well, that's not what Peter is talking about. Peter is talking about because of what Christ has done for us, we have access to God. We get to have relationship with God. And we're to know Him because we've spent time with Him, because we've talked with Him, because He's talked to us, because we have experience in His presence. Self-control. This isn't a difficult one for us to understand. Do you control yourself? Is this something you're diligently allowing God to do in your life? Adding to your faith so that you can control yourself when your body is demanding something that, well, you know, God would not want you to have. Can you control yourself? When your flesh is screaming because it desires the cravings, the lust of the flesh. Can you control yourself? When you want to explode with the wrath of man that does not produce the righteousness of God. Can you control yourself? Are you adding to your faith self-control? Is this an area that God is a powerful influence in your life? Perseverance. This is the idea of enduring difficult circumstances. When times are tough, when things are difficult, those hard situations, are you able to endure, to go through, to pass through well? Is that an area where God has had a profound influence on your life? Godliness is devotion to God. Are you devoted to Him? Do you seek to be pleasing to Him? Is that an area where He's been a powerful influence upon you? Brotherly kindness? That's love between Christians. Is that an area that you're diligently adding to your faith? That you're pursuing? That you're pushing forward in? Learning to love other Christians? Even when they mess up? Even when they do you wrong? Even if you don't like this or that about them? Are you pursuing brotherly kindness? And finally, love. If you want the... Full description of love, you can check out 1 Corinthians chapter 13 later. It's agape love. It's the perfect love that God has towards us, that we're to have towards everyone around us. And it's a characteristic. It's an area where God desires to have influence in our life. Where God wants to impact us in such a way that we demonstrate these characteristics because these are reflective of Him. So Peter says... giving all diligence, add to your faith these things. These are things that are modeled for us by Jesus Christ. And in doing these things, in practicing these things, in letting God influence your life in this way, the result is grace and peace will be multiplied to you. You have everything that you need for life and godliness. And you've been given these great, exceedingly great and precious promises. Since knowing God produces this in your life, Peter is saying, let him influence you. Add to your faith. Let him transform you. Take these steps. Follow the model of Jesus that he has given to us. It's all about knowing him. As we go on finishing up our passage this morning, we now focus on the abundant entrance that is provided for those who know God in this way. Look at verse 8. He says, For if these things are yours and abound, you will neither be barren... nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. He starts out here in verse 8 saying, If these things are yours and abound, what things? Well, the things he's just been talking about, of course. The areas where he wants to be a powerful influence in your life. And if you add to your faith these things, he says, if they are yours, if they abound in your life, he says, you will neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Are they yours? Again, those characteristics, do they describe you? Not only that, Peter says, if they're yours and abound. So we're not just talking about a little bit of virtue, a little bit of moral excellence. The question really is, do you abound in moral excellence? Are you overflowing with moral excellence, with integrity and purity? Is that a characteristic of your life? Because that God has had such a powerful influence upon you that you are a person of character, of integrity. Do you abound in knowledge? Not just that you have a little bit of experience with God, that you know Him a little bit, that you've had some contact with Him. But do you abound, do you overflow with experience with God, that you know Him because you've spent so much time with Him? You can think about Jesus in the Gospels as it tells us time and time again, He went off by Himself to pray. He knew God by experience. He knew the Father because He often, frequently went off to spend time with Him. Do you abound in knowledge? Not facts and figures, but do you know God by experience? Do you abound in self-control? Do you abound in it? Not do you have a little bit of self-control, But do you abound in self-control? So that even when temptations are great, even when the flesh is weak, that you're able to control yourself. Do you abound in perseverance? Not just, you know, you endure little trials pretty good, but what about the heavy ones? The difficult ones? The hard things that we face in life? Do you abound in perseverance? Has God influenced you in such a way that you abound in godliness? Yes. Now, if you want an interesting challenge and if you're up to it, you know, write these things down, maybe make a little checklist or a self-evaluation form and then go talk to your co-workers. Say, hey, this word godliness, it kind of means like devotion to God and being dedicated to Him and wanting to live life to please Him. You know, what do you think about my life? Do I fit that? Do you see that in me? Do you abound? So that it's evident. Has God had a profound influence upon your life in that way? Do you abound in brotherly kindness? Yes. Maybe after service, if you dare, look at the person next to you and say, Hey, is that something you've noticed about me that I just am overwhelmed with love for you? Do I abound in brotherly kindness? Do you abound in love? Peter says, look, if these are yours and if they abound, you will not be barren and nor will you be unfruitful. You'll be the opposite of those. You'll be fruitful. The word barren literally means idle. And so as we talked about, just kind of like maintaining speed, just kind of cruising, not really going forward. Peter's saying, no, no, no. If these are yours and abound, you're not going to be just sitting there. You're not going to have it in neutral. You're going to be engaged. You're going to be going forward. You're going to be growing and you're going to be producing fruit. You're going to be living the life that God has desired for you. You remember in John chapter 15, as Jesus talked about abiding in the vine and if we abide in the vine, we produce much fruit and that fruit remains forever. That's the result of knowing God in a way that He has a powerful influence upon us. We're not just sitting still. We're not just in idle, in neutral. But we're going and we're growing. And there's fruit that's being produced in our lives. God will be working tremendously. Verse 9, For he who lacks these things is short-sighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Verse 10, So we have the opposite now. If they're yours and abound, you're going to be going forward, you're going to be growing, you're going to be fruitful. But if you lack these things, Peter says, then you're short-sighted, you're blind, and you've forgotten that you've been cleansed from sin. Basically, Peter's saying, look, if we lack these things, we've forgotten that we're even saved. We've forgotten what salvation is all about. We've forgotten what God has done for us and what a relationship with Him is all about. Do you lack these things? What are these things? Well, the things he's been talking about in verses 5 through 7. The ways that God seeks to be an influence in our lives. Do you lack moral excellence? Do you lack integrity? Do you lack purity? Do you lack knowledge of God by experience? Do you lack self-control? Do you lack perseverance? Do you lack godliness? Do you lack brotherly kindness? Do you lack love? Peter says if we lack these things, if these things aren't part of our lives, part of who we are, if God hasn't influenced us in this way or in these ways, he says we're short-sighted, we're blind, we've forgotten that we've been cleansed from our sins. We've forgotten to live the Christian life. We're living like heathens. We're living like those who don't know God and have no relationship with God. If we lack these things... So he goes on in verse 10, Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. For so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Peter concludes the thought saying, therefore, wrapping it all together, since this is the case, since knowing God in such a way that he's a powerful influence upon us, produces, and it's through that knowledge that grace and peace are multiplied to us and we have all things necessary for life and godliness and we have these exceedingly great and precious promises. He says, therefore, be even more diligent. Even more diligent. He already said giving all diligence there in verse 5. To allow God to influence you this way, to add to your faith these things. He says, now be even more diligent. Now, Again, it's not to be on the back burner. It's not a side note. This is to consume us. This is to be the pursuits of our life. Giving all diligence. Being even more diligent. If you want to think about it this way, sometimes we know a word best by the opposite. The opposite of diligence is laziness. So in those terms, which better describes your relationship with God? Diligence or laziness? He says, be even more diligent. God has called you, but he wants you to participate in the work that he is doing. And so he says, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. God chose you. God called you. And he says, now you make it sure. You have a responsibility as a Christian to go, to grow, and to let God do the work that he wants to do in you. You have a responsibility to get to know God, to spend time with Him, and to allow Him to work in you and to be a powerful influence upon you. He says, Be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things... What does He mean when He says, do these things? Of course, it's the things we've been talking about. Adding to your faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love. Add to your faith. If you do these things, he says, you will never stumble. You want to rest assured that you won't fall away as a Christian? You want to rest assured that you won't backslide? You want to know that you will never stumble? Not that we don't fall short as far as sin is concerned, but stumble, he means to walk away. Remember, he's dealing with false teachers as we'll get into in the next couple of weeks who are causing people to walk away from Jesus Christ. He says, you want to make sure you don't walk away from God? Do these things. If you do these things, you will never stumble. You'll never walk away. He says, not only that, but an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If they're yours and abound, if you're even more diligent, if you do these things, you'll never stumble and you'll have an abundant entrance into the kingdom of God. Peter really is talking about the great reward. that God desires to give you. You know, we will stand before God one day to give account of the life that we lived, how we lived it, our motivations, what we did with the resources He gave us, how we lived with what He has done for us. We're going to stand before Him and give an account. The Apostle Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 3 that the foundation of the Christian life is Jesus Christ. And we're to build upon that foundation. Much like Peter said, we're to add to our faith. and knowledge and so forth. Paul explains, look, if we build with good materials, with gold and silver and precious stones, well, it'll be clear on the day that we stand before God because our work is going to be tested with fire. And so if we build with precious stones and silver and gold, then it'll be clear because as we stand before God to give account, our motivations, our hearts, what we did with what God gave it to us, it's going to be revealed through fire. And he says, if anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive reward. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 14. If you add to your faith, you allow God by spending time with him, by walking in relationship with him to be a powerful influence upon you, there's great reward there. There's an abundant entrance into the kingdom of God. On the other hand, Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 14, You can also build out of wood, hay, and straw. And when that is tested by fire, it won't survive. So if your life is burned up on the day that you stand before God to give account, Paul says it this way in 1 Corinthians 3.15, If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss. He in safe will be saved, yet so is through fire. He's talking about the reward, the entrance into the kingdom of God. There's an abundant entrance that comes from God. pursuing God, walking with Him, allowing Him to be a powerful influence upon you because you have that relationship with Him. And then there's the entrance. You're saved, but He says, yet so is through fire. It's like, you know, you're at the reward ceremonies and you're given the skin of the teeth award. You know, you just barely made it by the skin of your teeth. You were saved. You believed in Jesus, but you never grew. You didn't go forward. You did nothing with all that God had given to you. That's not how I want to enter into heaven. That's not the entrance that I want. An abundant entrance is what is in store for those who know God in such a way that He is a powerful influence upon their life. At this time, we get to partake of communion together. So if I could have the worship team come up and the ushers make ready. As we partake of communion, I want you to consider for a moment what Peter said there in verse 9. He said, He who lacks these things is short-sighted even to blindness and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. You know, we partake of communion regularly because Jesus told us to do so in remembrance of Him, in remembrance of what He has done for us. And so as we partake of communion together, let's do it in remembrance of Him. Let's remember what He has done for us. in taking our place upon the cross, in dying for our sin, paying the price that there's no more penalty that's due to us. And if we believe in Him, we have salvation, we have forgiveness, we have right standing with God and the promise of eternity with God. This is what God has done for us. If you lack in these areas that Peter was dealing with, Peter says you've forgotten that you've been cleansed from your old sins. So let's take this time to remember. If you've forgotten, you know, it's a saying we use often, God allows U-turns. It's true. It's not too late. If you've forgotten, remember what Christ has done for you. Devote yourself to knowing Him. As we partake together, let's remember Him. Let's draw near to Him. Let's seek that relationship with Him that He would be a powerful influence upon us. And you know, if... You're here this morning and your heart's not right. As you came in, you were not right with God. This is a great opportunity to get right with Him, to turn back to Him. If you've never been born again, if you've never given your heart to God, this is a great opportunity. I invite you to partake with us. Just express in your heart to God that you believe in what Jesus Christ did for you upon the cross and you receive Him as your Lord and Savior. Let's take this time to remember what He's done for us. But listen, if you don't want to remember, if it's not important to you that you pursue this relationship with God, if you don't desire an abundant entrance into the kingdom of God, well, don't partake. Don't partake. Paul explained in 1 Corinthians 11 that if you partake in an unworthy manner, not really recognizing and receiving it for what God has given it to us for, you just... Partake of judgment to yourself. Because the bread and the cup Jesus gave to us is reminders of what he did for us. And if you receive it, but you say, I don't really care about Jesus. I don't want to walk with him. I don't want to know him. I'm not interested in laying aside my life so that I can pursue a relationship with him. If you're more important to you than Jesus, don't partake. Because you're saying, I recognize what Jesus did, but I just don't care. And I don't want to walk with him. So don't partake if that's you. But if that's not you, if you want to be right with God, if you want to remember, if you've already been walking with God, you are pursuing God, let's take this time, as Jesus said. Let's remember what He has done for us. So as the worship team leads us, let's just spend this time worshiping God. Hold both the bread and the juice. We'll partake together at the end of the song. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.