Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness. That's 2 Peter 1-3, and part of the text for today's message. God has packed in around the believer rich promises and resources that enable us to live meaningful lives that magnify our Lord.
We have but to remember, keeping our eyes fixed on our provider. Let's listen in. This is part two of a message titled An Awesome Grant. It was first preached on May 7, 2023 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem.
Listen to me please. All we need live meaningfully and purposefully in Christ. He has granted to us all we need to overcome obstacles. He's granted to us all we need to persevere. Remember who Peter was writing to? Christians who were displaced and disdained in the Roman Empire. That's why he wrote 1 Peter.
Now he's writing 2 Peter. So Christians who had every right to be scared, anxious, frustrated, fearful. He's saying listen, in Christ you have been granted all you need to live meaningfully and purposefully. To overcome obstacles and to persevere.
You have been granted all you need to live well in Christ. What does that mean, to live well? To live meaningfully and purposefully. Not hiding, not running away, not looking for the next escape. To live meaningfully and purposefully.
To live with aim. Aim to reflect Christ and to please him. To live with the end in view.
You're in a marathon and you're in the sprint headed for the tape. He has granted you all you need to finish the race and finish it well. Do you know what you have in Christ?
This is one reason he has written 2 Peter. This is teaching us the sufficiency of God. Is God enough for you? Please hear this. Whatever case you may find yourself in, God is more than enough.
He's more than enough. He has granted to us all things that pertain to life in godliness. How do we acquire this grant?
What's the next phrase say? Through the knowledge of him. Through the knowledge of him.
The word here is epinosis. That is to experience him. To encounter God. To entrust yourself to him. To dwell with him.
To make yourself at home with him. This is as opposed to merely knowing about God. There's many people in this world that I know about. But in this family here, I have done life with you. I know you. I have encountered you. We've interacted with each other.
We bless each other with our presence and with what we have in common in Christ. There's a difference between knowing someone and knowing about someone. Do you know God? I'm not asking you if you know about him.
Do you know him? Through the knowledge of him, I want you to turn with me. Keep your finger in 2 Peter. Turn with me back to the Gospel of John. Look at verse 14. I want you to see the heart of God here.
Because God made you and he made you for himself. So this is Jesus speaking in John's record. John chapter 14. Look at verse 21. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. What Jesus is saying is obeying him is the outflow of loving him. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father and I will love him and manifest myself to him.
Imagine that. In fresh, unprecedented ways, God wants to make himself known to you again and again and again as you walk with him. Then one of the disciples asked the question and Jesus answered it. Look at verse 23 now. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. Listen to this.
Watch this. My Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. Did you know that was in the Bible? That's the heart of God, folks.
He wants you. You know how many, you know why there's so many frustrated Christians? Because the only thing they think about is, what do I have to do for God? What do I have to do for God? What do I have to do for God?
And they think that's their walk with God. God didn't create you and redeem you for the stuff you can do for him. He wants you. He wants me. Therein, therein lies this power of which Peter speaks. When you and I know God and he dwells with us and we love him and he loves us and we know that and we sense that, that's where you start realizing the power that is ours in Jesus Christ. Why does he grant this to us?
End of verse 3. Because he called us to his own glory and excellence. He wants us with himself. He wants us, he created us and he created us for himself.
He called us to his own glory and excellence. You were made, you have to understand this, you have to understand this. Why do you even exist? You exist for this purpose, to know God and enjoy him.
That's why you exist. Some of you right now are thinking, but I thought it was to glorify God. Okay, if you know him and enjoy him, guess what? You're going to be glorifying him. Because as you enjoy him, that's how you glorify him.
You know why? You're enjoying God so much and you're satisfied in him that you are pointing other people's attention to him. And I'm not necessarily even talking about active, personal evangelism. I'm talking about someone who even might be going through a crisis and yet they manifest the joy and satisfaction of God that other people are sitting there like, what's with this person? And I witnessed it this morning in Jan's eyes. She's had to say goodbye to her dad. But she's full of joy. You can't explain that in natural terms. That's a God thing.
That's cranking the engine. You were made to know God and enjoy him. That is your very purpose for being. To know God and enjoy him.
That also is the criteria that defines your success. God and enjoy him. As Peter says in 1 Peter 2 verse 9, he called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Colossians 1 13, we have been rescued from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the son of his love. God wants you with him. That's why he created you. That's why he redeemed you.
That's what we need to pursue. And so it says here that he has called us to his own glory and excellence. He's called us to, therefore he has made it possible in Christ, he has made it possible for you to be in his glory and excellence. To enjoy it. He totally invested himself in us.
Have you gotten that? That's what the gospel is, right? We could not even come close to approaching God were it not for the redemptive grace of Jesus Christ. Who absorbed the wrath of God in himself. God made him to be sin for us who knew, he knew no sin.
That we might be made what? The righteousness of God in him. So at the cross, God poured all of my sin, all of your sin onto Jesus Christ. So that I by faith might receive all the righteousness of Jesus Christ, I thereby can draw near to God.
That's the gospel. He invested himself totally in us. That's how much he cares, that's how much he loves us, that's how much he wants us.
This is what we need to understand. He has invested that so that we can realize this purpose that he has for us. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him.
Called us to his own glory and excellence. So here's my next question. So what?
So what? What difference does this make in my daily life? 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.
