The Level Ground of Grace

So if we think in overview terms of the first part of second Peter, there are three focuses that we'll cover over the next month or so, and and they could be outlined like this. First, status and then supply and then striving. These are kind of the movements of these first 11 verses. Right? Your status as a believer is that you are fully accepted, fully qualified as God's child. Secondly, you're fully equipped. And thirdly, fully engaged. And we are to be fully engaged. [00:05:17] (43 seconds)  #StatusSupplyStrive

We think, oh, they're so great in their faith. And what we do is we start to belittle our place in the faith, if you will. And maybe you've, been a Christian for some years and you think, oh, I I really should know more about the bible. Shoulda is a phrase that'll take the wind out of everybody's sails. K? Maybe you shoulda, but you are where you are. And thankfully, how well we do season to season in our relationship with the Lord does not change the value of the love God has bestowed upon you in Christ. [00:08:46] (40 seconds)  #FaithWhereYouAre

to the Lord. I want you to think about a a diamond mind for a minute. The owner would be Jesus, and he hands a diamond to his foreman, Peter. Now Peter's in charge of the group working in the diamond mine. You and I were janitors. Already, we don't like this illustration. Nothing wrong with janitors. The focus, although, should not be on the foreman or the janitor or whatever role someone has working in the mine. What is the focus to be on? The diamond. [00:18:33] (45 seconds)  #DiamondOverRoles

And you see, when we get into the mode of thinking, I have to do this, and I have to do that, and this is expected of me. And and they, those people over there, have you heard the way she taught? See, we start comparing ourselves to one another, We take our eyes off the jewel. And Peter is saying, your faith, your focus on that jewel, equally precious, equally valuable. [00:19:57] (34 seconds)  #KeepEyesOnTheJewel

The value is not in the one who holds the diamond, the janitor, the one with the pickaxe, the foreman. No. The value is in the diamond, in the object. And so Peter addresses this myth of hierarchy. Right? He's like, we we we don't believe that the ground that we're on is level at the cross. Sometimes we believe I'll go so far as to say sometimes we like the myth of hierarchy. [00:21:59] (31 seconds)  #ValueInTheDiamond

I've seen people almost have their faith shipwrecked because their pastor of however many years has failed. Pastors are gonna fail. That's not an excuse. It doesn't diminish the high calling of a teacher or a pastor. But to think that they're not gonna fail or fall in some ways would be to set everybody up for failure of expectations. [00:23:04] (34 seconds)  #FaithBeyondPastors

Sometimes we assume that somebody who is more disciplined or more focused, they've got special access to the Lord. No. They've just disciplined their spiritual life, and that's okay. It's a good thing. In fact, it's wonderful. We all ought to strive for that, but for the right reason, in the right motive. When we devalue our faith, we we stop using it. We stop living according to the grace that God supplies, and we start living out of human effort. [00:24:02] (31 seconds)  #GraceNotPerformance

There's a spiritual first class, we think, for super saints, and there's an economy class for the rest of us, and we often feel like we're stuck back by the bathroom in Row 34 B. Oh, I'm never gonna attain that. My life of faith is not gonna amount to the value of whatever that might be. Peter says, hey. Look look down again. You're missing it. You're missing it. Look at your border boarding pass. It doesn't say economy class. It doesn't say business class. It says righteous in Christ. [00:37:13] (39 seconds)  #RighteousInChrist