A Worthy Goal

“Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.” (2 Peter 1:5-10)

The above text is an incredible passage addressing the things that must be present in our lives if we are to be useful to our Master. As vessels of the King, our faith must be expressed by virtue (moral purity), knowledge, self-control, steadfastness (patience), godliness, brotherly affection, and love.

What motivates us to these things is, of course, the source of all things that lead to sanctification, righteousness and joy. Paul stated earlier,

“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 (v. 2-4).”

Just take a look at what God has done for you. By His divine power you have all you need in your pursuit of godliness. John MacArthur adds, “Christ’s power is the source of the believer’s sufficiency and perseverance.” So, He (Jesus) has granted you all things pertaining to life (redemption by His blood), and godliness (all that is necessary for conformity to His design for your life). Just think: you and I are partakers of the divine. We have escaped the wrath to come, having put to death all that corrupts eternally. And I love the fact that these are “precious and magnificent promises.”

Therefore, we march forward to Christlikeness because we have received His divine power. We rest in the security of knowing that He who has called us is faithful to keep us forever and ever. May our proclamation today be like that of Paul in Philippians 3: “I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” (v. 12)

Until Next Week,

Dr. Derek

PRAISE

What an incredible worship experience yesterday led by our students and our “rappin’, rockin’ student pastor, sockless Jay Monroe. I am pumped about what God is doing in our student ministry. Jay, you are the man!

This Sunday we will be focusing on what it means to be “tireless” in ministry. Our text will be 2 Corinthians 4:7-18. We will have our “Servant Team” training on the 27^th, from 8:00 – 12:00. As a volunteer in any area of our ministry, you need to call the church office at 435-7263 and sign up for the training. We will begin with a “southern style” breakfast, followed by training sessions for all our precious volunteers. Then, on February 28, we will wrap up our “Servant’s Heart” series with our “Time to Unleash the Church” wrap-up in all three of our worship services.