Welcome to Delight in Grace. The Teaching Ministry of Rich Powell. pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. This is part four of the message. It was first preached on october twenty ninth, twenty nineteen.
Mm-hmm. And it's the final message in this series from Second Peter, titled Live as People Who Remember. If you want to hear the rest of this message and other messages in the series, You can visit www.delighting.com. Just get over that. Dig in.
No God. Let the Spirit illuminate his word to you. listen to his promptings to engage in his mission. I learned so much from my wife about that. It's happening to her all the time.
And Susan, bless her heart, that woman walks in the Spirit. And I could see many of you out here today do the same. But we should all be doing that because the Holy Spirit will prompt us. To walk as Jesus walked and engage the way Jesus engaged. Am I all in?
Ask yourself. Am I all in? The Spirit of God is a grace of God. God has given himself to us. Thirdly, The Son of God.
Is a grace of God. God has given us His Son, that is His grace. And I'm called to abide in him. He invites me to abide in him. What does that mean?
What does that look like to find myself at home in his presence? Practicing his presence. And this is not a call to just be able to recite.
Sound Christology. We should, we should, yes. But it's one thing to be able to recite sound Christology. It's an entirely different thing to be at home in the presence of Christ and practicing his presence, abiding in him. It's a sad, sad truth, but in my Years of Christian walk, I've encountered way too many, and I've even been guilty of it myself.
of being able to recite sound biblical Christology. But I'm not abiding in Christ. Christ. Are you all in? The grace of God.
God didn't just sit aloof. in his heavenly kingdom. and point his finger at us and command, you need to do this. No. He gave us his son.
His grace to redeem us, to reconcile us. Tell me someone we can follow. in his steps. Am I all in? With the Son of God.
And lastly, All in the grace of God, am I all in God's family? Am I all in God's family? drawing near to the father. together. Russ started us out well this morning, didn't he?
Drawing near to the Father. Together. We are family. You need the family. Are you all in?
The family needs you. Practicing his presence. And you're in the family. Am I all in the family? Because in the family, I get equipping and I get encouragement.
Yeah. It's like Brent's living picture this morning. A thirst for the Word of God, a sense of family. for encouragement and for growth. That's what the church is about, and when the church is being the church, she's beautiful.
And the unregenerate world will look at it, and they might not understand it, but they will marvel at it. because there's nothing else like it. Relationships based on grace. Not affinity. Not affinity.
Grace. We go out in public, and probably some of us would have. Very little to do with each other. But because we are one in the grace of God, we've got so much in common. Relationships built on grace, that's the church.
That's the beauty of the church. We're drawing near to the Father together. We're being equipped and encouraged together. And the church is stirring me up to love and good deeds. Stirring me up to love and good deeds.
So are you all in? Are you all in the grace of God? The Word of God, the Spirit of God, the Son of God, the Church of God. Am I all in? And as I was saying before.
It's not just about knowledge. When he says grow in grace and knowledge, it's not about just knowing. It's about A life transformation. It's about a life that looks like Jesus Christ. That's why he says way back in 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 13, he says, prepare your minds for what?
Action. Prepare your minds for action.
Okay. You see, it begins with affections and attitudes, doesn't it? Prepare your minds for action.
There is hardship in this world. It's a given. There is suffering.
Some of you are suffering. I should say, some of us are suffering. We are suffering. Because we suffer together. But Your walk of faith is not intended to be merely therapeutic.
Is it? What does he say? Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What does he say in 1:13? Prepare your minds for.
Action. It is a life. In 1 Peter 1:13, prepare your minds for action. In 2 Peter 1:5, make every effort. to build your walk of faith.
Verses five through seven, add this, add that. 2 Peter 1.10, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. Diligence. Diligence is not something you need to pray about. It's a command.
Be diligent. Engage the mission Jesus has entrusted to us, his family. Engage that mission. We are Recipients of his grace. And because we are recipients of His grace, we should be conduits of His grace.
That's what Christ did. And as we are conduits of His grace, we will find that being that conduit of His grace. the outward focus of my walk of faith. My servant Hart, My compassion for others. My desire to engage them lovingly, compassionately.
reasonably I will find that as a conduit of grace, I will find that healing. I will find it refreshing. I will find it transforming. I will find it maturing. It's not just head knowledge.
It's grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let's stand and read this last verse together. Second Peter 3. Verse 18. Let's read.
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. This is, Christians, listen, this is your path. This verse is your path.
Grow. Are you all in? Are you growing? Can you measurably... identify the growth in your walk of faith, are you becoming more like Jesus Christ?
This is your path. Right now is the dot. Right now is the dot on the line. Let's not live for the dot. Let's live for the lion.
Because the line is the rest of eternity that you and I will have with Jesus Christ. in fullness of joy and complete satisfaction. Let's live for that line. And then the last word is amen. What does that mean?
This is true. This is true. So let's do it. You with me? Let's be all in.
We coming up on the holiday season now. Thanksgiving. Christmas. Then the new year. Engaging unbelief November, we're going to be expositing Psalm 118.
In December, we're going to be looking at the first two chapters of Matthew. Let's commit ourselves to being all in. With The Word of God, the Spirit of God, the Son of God. And the family of God. Let's pray together.
Father, we thank you. For your word. Thank you for turning your light on into our darkness and rescuing us from our delusions and from despair. And even death. Father, I also ask that your light will rescue us from distractions.
For they are abundant today, Father. And many of them are quite destructive.
So, Father, find us to be your people. on guard taking care that we are not carried away. But that we will resolve and we will commit ourselves to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that we will rise up and be the church. The church beautiful. The body of Jesus Christ, the gospel incarnate.
Thank you, Father, for this. High calling. An awesome privilege. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.
You've been listening to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. To hear this message and others, check out WWW dot delight and grace dot com to discover how to live by grace, Tune in with us on weekdays at ten AM.
Okay.
