Scripture Reading | 2 Peter 1:3-11 NIV
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
10 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The Struggle – Keeping On It
Pastor Thanael Certa-Werner
Today we continue our sermon series looking at the struggles surrounding Christian giving. Last week we looked at the biblical notion of a Tithe. A tithe, we learned, is the first ten percent of anything and the Bible says that this is an appropriate amount to be given to God. We talked about the struggle with giving so much, but ended upon God’s great blessings even through the struggle.
This week we look at the struggle of keeping on it, but before we start, we need to practice our memory verse:
Memory Verse: For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. – Matthew 6:21
I want to start today by taking a poll, and don’t worry, it’s not about who you voted for. I just want to see how many people here have gotten their masters? How about bachelor’s? How about high school? So, most of us know the feeling of writing papers and doing homework. Today I wanted to share with you a bit of the homework I’ve been working on over the last two weeks. One of my assignments was to write a homiletical exegesis and sermon, which means I needed to write a sermon and then provide all of the background information for everything I say in the sermon. In the end, I wrote a 4-page, single space, Times New Romans 12 pt. font sermon, and a 12-page exegesis. And to do that I needed this book right here.
Now if any of you think that I don’t have anything to do outside of church, I want you to take a look at this book and rethink your opinion. And the worst part is, this is the only one I have with me. The rest of the books I used are all at home by my desk. All together I used six different books all a little skinnier than this one. This book is part of a collection of twelve books which you will find on the shelves of seminaries across the country. Have any of you any idea what these books are? They’re actually the successor to the books the kids helped me to stack up here. These are the New Interpreter’s Bible and what’s crazy is that their stack is even larger than this one.
These books contain information, a commentary on every verse of the Bible at length. Truly there is not a verse in the entire scriptures which does not have at least half a page of commentary. Knowing that, doesn’t it just make you want to dive in and read the entire set overnight? While these are certainly helpful tools for writing sermons and understanding the Bible, they are hardly what we might call page-turners. But what they represent is the incredible wealth of knowledge and thought around the scriptures and of our faith. In fact, the library shelves in the parlor are proof of that! And the amazing thing is that people are STILL WRITING MORE! After 2,000 years, you would think that we would run out of things to say about the Bible, but the truth is that our knowledge is never complete and our wisdom always falls short.
But Pastor, you’re thinking, you’ve accidently gone on a tangent and have been rambling about the Bible for the last 5 minutes when we’re supposed to be talking about money. Fear not! I promise that I’m not avoiding the subject, but rather, we’ve been talking about it the entire time! I want us to turn to the scripture for today and take a look.
1 Peter chapter 1 verse 3 says, “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”
In other words, The Holy Spirit has given us everything which we need to be able to live into our call as Christians. How has God done this, by sending us His Son who taught us what it means to live Godly lives.
Peter goes on and says, “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Here Peter is saying, because Jesus has come and because Jesus has taught us how we should live, we can’t live like we have in the past anymore. We have to start changing and challenging ourselves. We need to make efforts towards increasing our goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love. This is where our talk on Christian giving hits.
I told you last week about how I came to begin giving a tithe. What I didn’t tell you about is the struggle that I have always had keeping up with it. I am one of those people who loves to procrastinate. In fact, this sermon was written last night, rather than on Thursday like I had planned. Even when I write my checks for my tithes, I rarely remember to move them from my desk to the offering plate in time for church. Keeping on top of giving is work, just like continuing to build my knowledge of Jesus and what He taught has is work.
That same procrastination which keeps me from giving right on time, or sometimes at all was definitely at work over the last two weeks as I worked on my Homiletical exegesis and sermon. You can’t tell me that looking at this book isn’t daunting though! Nonetheless, what we hear in 1 Peter is that we are to take on this challenge with grit and determination. Being a Christian is not easy and it doesn’t come without work or challenges. One of the greatest of these is simply staying on top of it. For instance, we talk all the time about reading our Bibles every day, but the majority of people who come to church across the country confess that they only read the scriptures when they are in church. One of the most daunting and challenging tasks is taking what we talk about in worship and living into it during the week. It is really easy to be inspired on Sunday, decide to change your life, and then go right back to the way you were living on Monday. I confess that I have done this many, MANY times.
But Peter gives us some encouragement. He says, “Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” Here we receive a promise that if we make effort towards our calling as Christians. If we start working hard to take what we learn on Sundays and living into it through the week, we have a promise that we will receive Jesus’ support.
The reality is that the work ahead of us is never easy and that is especially true when we talk about using our resources, whether they be time, gifts, talent, or money, in a different way. Just as reading this huge stack of books can seem an impossible task, so too can living into our call of generosity and perseverance. But we have been given this promise, that is we work hard towards living into our call as Christians, if we seek after Godly living, if we work on increasing our goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love, that we will not stumble and will be welcomed into the arms of Jesus Himself.
So let’s get to it. The challenge this week is to accept the challenge. You know what God has been working with you on, what He has been calling you to. Take that off the back burner and this week, work hard to get better at or live into what God is calling you to. Know that while it is hard work, and while it will take time, that we have the assurance of Christ, the hope of the Father, and the power of the Holy Spirit all working within us.
And for that, thanks be to God. Amen.