2 Peter: KIngdom People

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Most Christians want to have a confident and compelling walk with the Lord, but simply knowing God's Word is not enough to create such a walk. We must remember daily the truth He has spoken through His Word, abiding in Christ and keeping in step with the Spirit and the day-to-day attitudes and decisions of our lives. How encouraging that as we make every effort to follow after Him, God is completing the work in us. He's teaching us to be kingdom people. Let's listen to this message from 2 Peter 1 10 through 11 titled Kingdom People. This is part five of the sermon, which was first preached on June 18th, 2023 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. If you'd like to hear the whole message, you can visit us at www.delightingrace.com.

It is lavish provision, lavishly pouring on. So that moment when Christ appears and we are with Him face to face, what is it you want to hear? Well done, good and faithful servant.

Listen to me, please, listen. Those words are not for someone who has been complacent with just drifting through the Christian life, putting it on cruise control and cruising. Those words will not be spoken. Consider what Jesus said in verse 12, another one of His parables, Luke Chapter 12, not verse 12, Luke Chapter 12.

Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home. Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Blessed, that word blessed, it's what Peter's referring to here, will be richly provided an entrance into the eternal kingdom.

Blessed. It is the satisfaction of success. What do I mean by success?

Living according to design, realized purpose. You are entering into your master's joy. That's what he said in the parable of Matthew 25, enter into the joy of your master. In other words, you are persevering, you are faithful through adversity because the Christian life was a race, it was a marathon. It's like the song, one of my favorite artists back in the 80s and 90s was Twyla Peres, when the race is done, you will run into his arms.

I love the imagery of that. That is the richly provided entrance when you are face to face with Jesus and you meet his gaze and he says, well done, good and faithful servant. It's not going to be, hey, you made it, you attended church most Sundays, good for you.

It's not what we're talking about. And faithful servant, well done. What will make it, one last thing here, what will make it a rich welcome?

No play on words here. I want you to consider a verse because if you indeed are a good and faithful servant, what is the mission of the master? One word, reconciliation. And because we have been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, our ministry then that has been entrusted to us is what? The ministry of reconciliation. You are a POW who has been rescued because you surrendered to the master.

There are still other POWs who have yet to be rescued. That's part of your mission. And what will be part of that richly provided entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Could it be that it might be what Paul was talking about as the crown of rejoicing in First Thessalonians 2? For what is our hope, what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing before the Lord Jesus at His coming?

Is it not you? Think about that. When you meet Jesus gaze and He says, well done, and then He will say, you helped others know me and follow me.

That will be part of the richly provided for you an entrance into the kingdom. Back in the late 80s, a song was written and it was popularized by Ray Bolts. If you're younger than 40, you have no clue what I'm talking about right now. But Ray Bolts popularized this song. It's called Thank You.

You remember the song? Thank you for giving to the Lord. I am a life that was changed. You served faithfully, sacrificially. You gave sacrificially. You taught faithfully, sacrificially. You prayed faithfully, sacrificially.

Thank you for giving to the Lord. I am a life that was changed. Just yesterday, Andrea had a Zoom meeting with her high school graduating class 40 years ago. She doesn't even look it.

She looks like she's straight out of high school. Anyway, 40 years ago and they had this class reunion. Some of them were meeting together up in Michigan, which is, you know, where their school was. There's one outlier in the class, one that might have been more, but this one in particular's name is Dave.

He's an outlier in the class. And he asked Andrea, remember the mall? And Andrea's like, what? And she wanted to apologize to him for being mean to him. But he brought up a situation in the mall, an event, one event 40 years ago in the mall where she showed kindness to him. And he's kept that all these 40 years. Don't know if he's a believer or not.

But it impacted him. Christians, listen. Do you realize the power of one small act of kindness, one encouraging word?

It is powerful. And prepare yourselves to hear the words from Jesus, thank you for giving to me. Because that life was changing.

It could be. It could be that the rich entrance into the kingdom could be where there are people coming to you and repeating the phrase, thank you for giving to the Lord. I am a life that was changed.

Well done, good and faithful servant. In other words, because you lived in the outflow, you were diligent to nurture and bring to outward expression the reality of Christ in you. Your faith was effective and fruitful. In other words, it was compelling.

It was compelling. Let me just close now with, I guess you could call this a caveat. This is a moment where the adversary of our souls can really distract us. And he might distract us by causing us to compare ourselves to others. Well I don't do as much as this person does. I'm not as out there with my faith as Max Floyd is. I'm not as good a communicator as Bobby is.

I don't pray as much as Susan does. If you find yourself comparing yourself with another person, you need to rebuke the adversary. You need to rebuke the voice of lies. He is the adversary of your soul and he is the accuser. And by comparison, he will bring about guilt. He will bring to your remembrance stuff that you've done or stuff that you haven't done. And he will work with guilt. He will work with shame. He wants you.

He is bent on making you feel unworthy. Who wrote this letter? I asked this question last time.

Remember that? It's a trick question. Who wrote this letter? Peter did. Did Peter fail Jesus?

Miserably. So hear Peter saying to you right now, if you feel like you've failed Jesus, what do you need to do? Get up and walk with him. He's there ready to take you under his arm.

Get up and walk with him. And listen to the voice of truth. The voice of truth who is from your savior, your brother, the king.

You are mine. I've got you. You are fully known, fully accepted, fully loved. And nothing changes that. Nothing. Know that. Remember that. Walk in light of that. March to his drumbeat because you belong to him and you belong to his kingdom.

March to it. Stand with me please. Father, we are joyful, humble, we are blessed to know you, to know your son, the Lord Jesus, and to walk with him so that we can delight in you. Father, I pray that you would work in our hearts this morning. As your people, as members of your kingdom, Father, work in our hearts and compel us by your love, Father, to faithfully persevere and to do so first of all by remembering and exercising our memory and training our vision and walking with Jesus and walking up the steps to spiritual maturity as we become more and more like Christ. Because Father, we long to hear the words from your son, well done, good and faithful servant. So find us, Father, to be people of the kingdom, marching as people of the kingdom, living as people who remember. Thank you for what you have done and for what you will do, in Jesus' name, Amen. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.