To Be Useful and Fruitful, Here's How, Part 1

Today, from Chuck Swindoll. Just about everybody I know wants the same two things in life. They want to be useful and they want to be fruitful. They don't want to look back in their memory and see their lives as spent in uselessness and unfruitfulness. Most of us thrive on productivity. We love the rush we get by completing a task. We love to put our head on the pillow at night knowing we've finished a fruitful day. But if you've ever come to a place where you've been sidelined, you know how discouraging the idleness can be.

Maybe your health or your occupation has brought your productivity to a screeching halt. Well, today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll invites us to consider the biblical cure. He titled his message, To Be Useful and Fruitful.

Here's how. One of the many things I love about the letter, titled Second Peter, is the practical nature of it. I mean, Peter pulls no punches. The old fisherman has lived life to the fullest – a life, by the way, that included bumbling mistakes along with heartbreaking setbacks in his life. Not to mention the magnificent lessons Peter learned directly from the mouth of Jesus Christ. Drawing from the wealth of his life experiences and in anticipation of his imminent death, Peter pens his final letter with a practical slant. We don't find deep theology in his words. He's dying.

There's no academic mumbo-jumbo that leaves us scratching our heads wondering what this is all about. Instead, right out of the chute, Peter offers his readers a challenge and a promise. He challenges his fellow Christians to make their lives count, not just to live and die, but to add to their faith seven practical distinctives that are for every Christian absolutely essential. Peter's challenge also comes with a promise.

If you do these things, your life will be neither useless nor unfruitful. Now, how great is that? Peter is quick to remind us that both the challenge and the promise are not from him, both are from God. I'm reading now from the New American Standard Bible. This is Peter's second letter, the first chapter, the first 11 verses.

Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ. To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence. For by these he has granted to us his precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For he who lacks these qualities is blind or shortsighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing you, for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble. For in this way, the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you. You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into the Bible with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scriptures studies by going to insight.org slash studies. And now the message from Chuck titled, To Be Useful and Fruitful, Here's How.

When is the last time you stopped to think about how many people are living lives that are both useless and fruitless? You come to a place of worship and you hear a few stories of people whose lives have been spent in that way and they encountered the message of the gospel and gave their lives to the Lord Jesus. And in a wonderful way, he begins the process of turning them toward a life of usefulness and fruitfulness and something down deep inside. When you hear their stories, for example, in a time of baptism, something inside you grips you.

It certainly does me. It makes me aware of two things. First of all, of the emptiness of life without the Savior.

And second, I realize once again the incredible power of God in which he and no one else is able to reach down into a heart and massage it to life and point it in a direction that it never had before and that person responds in a wonderful way and the life begins to be changed. Just about everybody I know wants the same two things in life. About everybody I know except those who are so emotionally or mentally ill they do not know where they are or where they are going. They want to be useful and they want to be fruitful. They don't want to look back in their memory and see their lives as spent in uselessness and unfruitfulness.

Perhaps that's one of the most difficult parts of having a lingering illness. When you are either bedridden or you are forced to stay in a wheelchair or you are unable to be up and about as you once were and you have to live your life staring at a ceiling in a hospital or in a bedroom in the home or you have to live your life dependent upon someone else to make life possible for you, to feed you, to clothe you, to help you with your many high-genetical needs as a human being and you spend your days feeling useless and unfruitful. Perhaps it is this very problem that makes being in prison so horrible especially if you have come to know the Lord Jesus as an inmate. You are living your life behind bars. You know there is a better life to be lived outside that place of incarceration.

You have made some terrible mistakes and done some foolish things in your life that has resulted in this punishment and yet you have years stretched out in front of you where you must live what appears to be a useless and unfruitful life. I think maybe more than anything else this is what causes the aged among us to suffer such depression especially those who have known a life of productivity and usefulness. Perhaps they knew a time in their lives when they were in demand, when their opinions counted, when their gifts were being used in the church or in the community, in a home and now life seems to have passed them by and they have come to the place where they are literally dependent on others to go on.

I have found in my few years on earth that it isn't limited to the people who are sick or who are in prison or who are up in years. One can live a useless and unfruitful life as a young individual, as a young adult, as a person in a career. Johann Goethe was right, a useless life is an early death, he wrote. How many people today are very much involved in life and yet it seems to them useless?

How many people are living what they have been told is the great American dream only to discover that making a lot of money and being involved in an enormous amount of work or keeping up a schedule that leaves few days free for leisure has brought any sense of satisfaction. Tucked away in a rather obscure section of the Bible is a small letter that includes only 61 verses. It is the letter of 2 Peter and it gives some awfully clear counsel on how to keep all of this that I've been talking about from happening in our lives.

It is written to folks just like us who probably struggled with many of the same things that we struggle with, only difference is they lived in the first century and we live in the 21st. The first couple or three verses of this second letter that Peter wrote form what I might call some introductory remarks. In the first verse, the apostle opens his letter by talking first about the writer himself, then the recipients, and then some things having to do with faith. Listen to me as I read, Simon Peter, a bond servant and apostle of Jesus Christ.

Now that's the man who wrote the letter. He's called in secular work or you've read it in popular books, the big fisherman. He is a man who was once the spokesman for the disciples.

He failed the Lord miserably when Jesus was taken under arrest and that I think lived in the memory of Peter for the rest of his days and who wouldn't have that happen to them. But he sees himself not as a failure but as a bond servant of the Lord Jesus and of all things an apostle, one who has been sent forth with his message. Notice those who received the letter. To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours.

Now that tells us that the people who received the letter are different from the one who wrote the letter. I think he has reference to the fact that they were Gentiles and he is Jewish. They received a faith the same kind as ours. The ours would be the reference to those who have been Jews and have come to know the Lord Jesus.

People like Peter and Paul and the other apostles and the many Jews they have led to Christ but for direct reason he is addressing people who are not of that race but they are of the same faith. They have received a faith the same kind as the believing Jews. The righteousness by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. To be justified is to be declared righteous. It is the sovereign act of God whereby he declares righteous the believing sinner while we are still in our sinning state.

It makes no difference whether one is male or female regardless of one's race, regardless of one's age, regardless of geography. When a person gives his heart to the Lord Jesus Christ he receives or she receives in return the righteousness of God which is credited to our spiritual account. We come to him bankrupt and we leave the cross with our account full of righteousness. We have nothing we can give and we only have something to receive. We give our sinfulness, our lostness, our emptiness, our fruitlessness, our uselessness to him and he in return gives us righteousness and hope and faith and the assurance of eternal life. That's a deal nobody can pass up.

It is a wonderful trade. We give him nothing and in return he gives us everything. We give him our lives and he gives us eternity. We give him our mess, our sin and he gives us purpose and reason and usefulness. In the second verse you will notice Peter then talks about grace and peace and knowledge.

The reason this transfer is possible is because of the grace of God. That which God does for the sinner which we do not deserve, which we do not earn and which we can never repay. By the way, purpose, usefulness and fruitfulness begins with grace. These things begin with grace. God gives us what we don't deserve and in return we receive all that we can never pay back.

He gives us by his grace this sense of peace, a tranquility of soul. Just this evening we have heard the testimony of a man who testified that he spent his life on drugs. I don't know about you, but I immediately did an imaginary replay because I have never been on drugs, because I have never been closely associated over a long period of time with someone who lives in this horrible habit. I had to imagine and some of you could imagine, some of you could remember because you've been there. And I thought of the turmoil of soul. I thought of the brokenness of life, the broken relationships with a daughter, with a wife, with a family. I thought of the emptiness day after day, week, month, year after year. Think of that. And the worst part of it all is the absence of peace.

No peace. Why, I don't know about you, but I can tell you when I go to sleep at night, it is fast. I put my head on the pillow and it is in a matter of seconds before I am gone. My family tells me that I snore.

I don't believe it. I have never, well every once in a while I do wake up to some sounds that are going on, but for all I know it's my wife or it's my kids. But the sleep is so sound and the peace is so constant and the tranquility is so pervasive that I can't imagine living in any other way.

But now I can. I bring it back to reality at times and I know that most people on earth don't live such tranquil lives within. And by the grace of God and only his grace we have that peace. He comes to us in all of our lostness and absence of peace and he grants us what Peter calls multiplied peace. Grace and peace be multiplied to you believing Gentiles. May you have the same kind of peace that we who are in the chosen race and by faith in the Lord Jesus are completed Jews.

May you know the same peace and may it be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. This word knowledge is not just basic theoretical knowledge. It isn't academic knowledge. It is full knowledge. It is a knowledge that overflows into experience. It is a person with person, capital P. A person with person knowledge gained through an intimate fellowship with God and the Savior Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied because of a full knowledge. A knowledge that grows into experience with the Lord God himself and with his son Jesus Christ.

But the sentence isn't over. Verse 3 continues. Seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and everything pertaining to godliness through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence. That verse is rich.

Verse 3 begins by talking about power that comes from God. That is how a life is changed. That is how usefulness takes the place of boredom. That is how fruitfulness replaces this absence of reason.

Any reason to go on. The power of God called here divine power has been granted to us and with it has come everything pertaining to life and godliness. I call it our introductory packet. When we give our lives to Jesus Christ he gives us an initial issue.

Military terms I suppose. He gives us a basic issue and in that basic issue in the basic uniform of life come look at it all things pertaining to life and godliness. Our life before him and our life before others.

Both of these dimensions are affected. All things pertaining to life and all things pertaining to godliness. I think life has reference to the horizontal life lived on this earth and his divine power meets those demands and all things pertaining to godliness I believe that's the vertical. Our relationship with people, life. Our relationship to God, godliness. Through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence. This is a basic equipment and it comes by the way with no guarantee. That is as far as usefulness and fruitfulness are concerned. The initial packet is ours.

The equipment is supplied but it requires our acting upon it. And that brings us to verses 4 through 9 where God's promises and our part in those promises come together. This is what I might call the flip side of the record. The other side of God's grace.

Now watch closely. For by these, by his glory and by the excellence mentioned at the end of verse 3, he has granted to us his precious and magnificent promises. In order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

This is what God gives us and why. Verse 4 speaks for itself. God has granted us his precious and magnificent promises. Someone has numbered the promises in the Bible.

Seven thousand four hundred and sixty four if I remember the article correctly. I can't vouch for that number because I've not stopped to count them but literally there are hundreds, there are thousands of promises many of which apply to us directly. Some of which do not apply to us but apply to someone in the scriptures. But the point is he has given to his children precious and magnificent promises. Do you remember when you were just a little fellow or gal and your parents made a promise? In the Swindoll home a promise changed just a hope into a certainty. If we say with a shrug, yeah well we'll go to Disneyland one of these days, that meant very little.

Every parent in Southern California says that to get the kids off his back. But if we said we promise you next Saturday we are going to Disneyland, that did it. They put it down. They wrote it in blood and held us to it. It was an absolute certainty.

We would go even if one of us was sick. It was a promise that came from a father or a mother and it said it's sure. God has written in blood promises that are, he puts it, precious and magnificent. And these promises wouldn't, why Disneyland wouldn't hold a candle to these promises. These are not promises of fantasy.

Listen to a few of them. Forgiveness to the sinful. Strength for the weary. Rewards for the undeserving. Blessing for the obedient. Comfort to the struggler. Power to the weak. Hope to the dying.

His presence in threatening situations. Resurrection at his return, to name just a few. And over in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 20 we are told that all the promises of God are yes and amen. 2 Corinthians 1 verse 20, As many as may be the promises of God, in him they are yes, and also by him is our amen. The promises in the Bible are ours to claim. To receive them, it's helpful to know exactly what God has promised to those who follow him. We invite you to keep listening to this study in 2 Peter.

Chuck Swindoll titled this series, Conquering Through Conflict. To learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org. In the event that you missed any portion of this presentation, you can catch up by listening online at insight.org. Or you can download the daily podcast at your favorite app store so these daily programs will load on your mobile device. While Chuck and his creative team have prepared online study notes for you, we call this feature Searching the Scriptures Studies.

These are interactive, meaning you can type your thoughts directly into the document. Or feel free to print out the PDF and use the notes during your personal quiet times. To access the Searching the Scriptures study guides for Chuck's daily messages, go to insightworld.org slash studies. And then bear in mind it's your voluntary donations that make it possible for us to provide these daily visits with Chuck. To give a donation today, call us.

If you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888. Rest assured, your gifts truly make a difference. Recently, we heard from a widow who left us an affirming note. Responding to a particular message about the struggles within many homes, she said, Chuck, thank you for this rare and beautiful comfort to my 75-year-old heart. I'm a devoted Christian widow living all alone.

Even though I've been rejected by my own children, I've come to terms with my life. And your message about the family was sweet refreshment to my soul. Well, it's your donation that allows us to reach grateful listeners like this one. So give us a call. If you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888. Or you can give a donation online at insight.org.

I'm Bill Meyer. Join us next time when Chuck Swindoll continues to explain how to become useful and fruitful on Insight for Living. The preceding message, To Be Useful and Fruitful, Here's How, was copyrighted in 1989, 1990, 2011, and 2023. And the sound recording was copyrighted in 2023 by Charles R. Swindoll Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.