And just like that a world that seemed quite familiar is now unrecognizable.
And God whispers, I have not changed you lament over the life you loved.
That is now a vague memory time seems to be moving faster than you can manage and you’ve gone from simply living to merely surviving.
And what was once certain is now well uncertain.
And God whispers, trust in me.
You face a world that appears to be falling apart.
Foundations have splintered institutions, fractured nations, battered people polarized and God whispers, fear not you mourn that what you once held in your hands is now out of reach.
That the what ifs have become the that I never thought I’d see the day has already come and gone.
That one day might never arrive. And that which lies ahead seems determined to leave you behind.
And God whispers, I am with you.
Always, you navigate the ups and downs of a life filled with hard work, tough decisions, stressful situations and circumstances that seem out of your control.
You spend day and night managing the highs and lows of a marriage, a family, your health and your job and alarmed to discover that you’ve lost yourself along the way.
And God whispers, let me be your strength and though trouble assembles all around you and your enemies prevail against you, you attempt to stay centered and confident and convinced that even in the midst of uncertainty, God has a plan and a purpose for your life.
And God whispers, I love you and just like that, the world seems a bit more familiar and God whispers carry on.
So how do we carry on? The answer may sound counterintuitive.
But the Bible is clear about this, we should stay challenged. I know what you’re probably thinking.
Life is challenging enough as it is right? I understand.
But when everything seems to be falling apart, we shouldn’t be God’s word.
Exhorts us to stay challenged, to keep pressing on in the face of insurmountable circumstances.
And what is the key to do that? It’s diligence.
Let’s talk about why diligence is so important if we want to live confidently in this chaotic world, join Doctor Jeremiah in just a few minutes for today’s message.
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Now here is Doctor Jeremiah with his message, stay challenged, the message that he gives to us in this passage.
In Second Peter is the message for this day, the importance of staying challenged and staying diligent in what we’re doing, not only in life, but especially for Christ.
In these very uncertain days. You see our tendency, men and women is when we come to times like this is to just back down to, to uh to chill out if you will and to say when this is over, I’ll get back to the business of living.
But when we do that, we miss the opportunity that God has given us.
Not only to make a difference in the world where we live, but to make a difference in the world of our own life, to use the challenges to be challenged ourselves.
And that’s the message I want to share with you today.
First of all, this word, diligent, oh, it’s an incredible word.
It’s a word that we don’t talk about very much and we don’t live very much either.
But let me tell you what it’s all about by beginning with this whole idea of the purpose of diligence at the beginning of Second Peter.
In the first chapter of this book, we catch a glimpse of how diligence fits into Peter’s overall theme.
Listen to what he says in second Peter chapter one verses three and four, as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and Godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by his glory and virtue by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that through these, you may be partakers of the divine nature have escape the corruption that is in the world.
Through lust. Peter offers two focal points in this passage.
First, there is this astonishing idea that every follower of Jesus Christ has been given everything that he needs for life and godliness, not some things, not even most things, but everything.
Have you ever thought about the fact that as a Christian, you have everything you need.
And the second focal point of Peter’s message is to tell us where all of that is, this is all we need for life and Godliness.
These are the precious promises of the word of God.
Here in this book, we have God’s wonderful gift to us.
But Peter wants us to understand that once we get the gift, there’s certain diligence that’s demanded of us.
If we’re going to realize the benefit of that, which we have been given, let me speak with you now about the prerequisite of diligence.
Look again in your Bibles and you’ll notice that in this section of Peter, there is a list, a list of seven things, things that were to do, things were to add.
But notice the list begins with one word and it’s the word faith.
Faith is always the prerequisite for our diligence.
Peter begins right there telling us in verse five, what to add to our faith.
And the list of add ons follows. But the steam engine that pulls the whole train is faith without faith.
We’re going nowhere. So the prerequisite for your diligence in your Christian life is you must be a Christian.
You must have faith. Faith is the beginning of the process.
We accept Christ by faith, we are saved completely by God’s grace.
And we move forward from that point onward with due diligence to take what God has given us to the next level.
So we have the purpose of diligence.
What is it to take the things that God has given us in his word and to use diligence to accomplish everything for which they were intended.
And we have the prerequisite of diligence. You can’t have the diligence of the Christian life.
If you don’t have the Christian life, it begins with faith.
Now notice, thirdly the principles of diligence, it’s time to understand the meaning of the word that I believe is the key to our Christian life.
What does it mean to be diligent now, so often as preachers, what we do is we give people some high and lofty principle.
We talk about how wonderful it is and we never tell them what it is.
What does it mean to be diligent? So let me take the word apart.
Let me go back to the, to the the languages in which it was written and let me describe for you what I believe this word was meant to convey to our souls.
First of all, diligence means in the language of the new testament to strenuously give yourself to something strenuous is the key word.
And it’s a, it’s a word that comes out of the realm of athletics.
It is a demanding and sweat producing word.
If you will, it means to give all strenuous activity toward a goal.
It comes from the athletic world of intense concentration on the goal of becoming a champion.
Secondly, the word has another meaning. There’s a secondary meaning to the word diligent.
And that’s the word lavish to give yourself to something lavishly.
Those two words, strenuous and lavish combine together to help us understand what the word diligence means.
So how do we apply that to our lives as Christians?
It’s almost so foreign from our actual practice that it’s hard to make the application.
Could you think for a moment of what would happen if you took all the precious promises, the exceedingly precious promises of this book which God has given to you so that you can have everything you need for life and Godliness.
And you took all of those precious promises and with diligence, you mind them. What is diligence?
Strenuous, lavish activity. Nothing is too hard.
Nothing is requiring too much for you to learn the principles of the word of God.
That’s what diligence means. Now, we have to take this little list that we find here in Second Peter and take it quickly and go through and examine what it says because Peter offers us seven priorities of diligence.
All of them are built upon the foundation called faith. Like many biblical lists. This one isn’t exhaustive.
There are other things that could be added to it. But I believe these seven things are special.
They kind of form a basic matrix that we can use to build our Christian lives.
These are seven elements you should look for when you’re checking up on yourself periodically.
And I’m gonna take them one at a time and add them as we go along.
Notice, first of all, it says to your faith, add virtue. Second Peter 15, do you know what virtue is?
Virtue is courage. This is the New Testament word for moral goodness, having the courage to do the right thing, no matter what the circumstances might dictate people with strong integrity are consistent from one situation to another.
They act from their moral base rather than from consensus or popular opinion.
This kind of virtue develops as we become diligent in the word of God and begin to show the mind of Christ in our actions.
Peter says, add to your faith, virtue and then he says, and add to your virtue knowledge.
This one means exactly what it says. It means we’re to continue growing in the knowledge of God’s word.
In fact, the word knowledge is found five times in the first chapter of Second Peter.
What we need is knowledge that’s anchored in the truth. And we have it in the scriptures.
It only remains for us to extract that knowledge and make it part of all that we do.
And then he says, add to your knowledge, self control.
Now, I have to tell you everybody take a deep breath. We all don’t like this word. Self control.
We’re OK with gaining knowledge. Uh we, we can deal with moral virtue but self control.
This concept is a tough one. Yet, if you study the Bible, you know, it shows up a lot.
It’s in many of the key lists of the New Testament, self control.
And then Peter says, add to self control, perseverance, it sounds similar.
But uh perseverance is a glorified synonym for patience.
It means to voluntarily and continually endure difficulties and hardship for the sake of honor.
Perseverance is silencing your body.
When it begins to complain, perseverance is forcing yourself awake to study the Bible in the morning when you know you could use another 15 minutes of sleep.
Perseverance is the trademark of every champion you have ever met. Now, notice to perseverance, add Godliness.
Godliness is a word that means to have reverence and respect for God.
We need real Godliness all the time.
But it is especially necessary in chaotic days like the ones we are currently experiencing.
And when I say Godliness, I’m not talking about the everyday kind of run of the mill pattern that passes for Godliness.
Sometimes today we seem to be presenting our concept of God in a more casual user friendly way and I see some dangers there.
We want unbelievers to see a positive faith and that’s good.
We want them to see a God of love instead of one who is relentlessly angry and that too is good.
But I worry that bit by bit. We’re losing the concept of His holiness and his majestic, infinite magnitude.
Yes, even his judgment of our sin. Our God is an awesome God, a glorious king.
And so much more than a grandfather in heaven, which is the way so many paint him these days.
I bring this up because the Godly Christian is the one who is truly humble before God.
We need to stop and quit being a frivolous.
As we talk about the one who is our creator and is the giver of life to us all.
That’s what it means to be Godly. It means to have a reverence for the God we serve.
And then finally, uh and I’m gonna add these two together because they’re very similar.
Add to your Godliness, brotherly, kindness and love.
Second Peter 17 says to Godliness, we are to add brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness.
We are to add love.
When we practice brotherly kindness and love, we are different than the people around us and especially, is that true?
Now, uh I’ve noticed that as I look around in the culture today, as we’re going through these chaotic times, there’s a lot of selfishness and there’s no looking around for the needs of others.
That’s exactly opposite from what we are instructed to do in this, in this book, we call the Bible.
We are to diligently add to our faith, virtue.
And at the end of our virtue is godliness and brotherly, kindness and love.
We’re to be people who are known by the way we care about others.
Let me come to the end of this discussion and make a couple of practical applications that are really important.
I want to talk with you about the possibilities of diligence in your life.
Peter offers us some pictures of what will happen if we determine by the grace of God and in the power of the Holy Spirit that we’re going to be diligent in the way we live life.
Here are three things that will happen to you. If you do it.
First of all, in second Peter 18, we read for if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren, nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Number one, if you allow yourself to embrace the diligent life, you will have stability in the way you live.
Peter wants us to know that if we pursue God and focus on these qualities, we will begin to see them come together in our lives.
Character is the result of persistent action and a pattern of diligence will lead to ability.
But if you will be diligent in these days, when you are tested, God will give you some spiritual muscles that will grow on your spiritual frame and you will discover a kind of inner strength that will take you through things you never believed you could endure and, and give you the opportunity to help others along the way, you will have stability in your Christian life.
Secondly, you will have vitality in your Christian life. Vitality is defined as abundant mental and physical energy.
And then thirdly, you will have reality in your Christian life. Stability, vitality and reality.
Peter says that we will be neither barren, nor unfruitful in the knowledge of Jesus, that means we will know his truth deeply and it will bear real fruit all around us.
We’ll be involved in the real world connecting the truth of the gospel to the needs of the people that we see.
Some people believe that faith is some kind of fantasy world where we escape the problems of the day.
But Peter says, when we have diligence in developing our walk with Christ, we will become more real than we’ve ever been before.
We won’t be escape artists. We will be embrace artists, we will embrace the problems of the world and bring the presence of Jesus right into the center of them, which is something we all dream about if we’re true Christians.
So there are three things that will happen to you.
If you determine to make diligence, a part of your life.
Let me give you three things that will happen to you.
If you don’t, this is no easy in and out message, you don’t just come and say, well, I think I’ll do that.
And if I don’t do that, I’ll still be the same.
No having heard these words, you cannot be the same because the Bible tells us that if you embrace diligence in your walk with Christ, here are some things that will happen.
And in the same passage, he tells us that if we refuse to take the challenge and live our lives challenged by God’s word, there are certain things we can expect to happen.
Number one, we will lack spiritual power.
Verse nine of second, Peter one says for he who lacks these things, Peter speaks of life, for those who lack the list he has just given.
And he says there are millions of people who profess to be Christians and they manage to avoid going after virtue.
They manage to avoid going after knowledge and self control and you have a reunion with them after 30 years.
And what you discover is they haven’t changed at all.
They’re at the same level of spiritual immaturity as they were.
When you first knew them as Christians without a diligent walk with Christ, you will end up powerless in your, in your life as a Christian.
Number two, you will lack spiritual perception. Interesting. Second Peter 19 says they will be short sighted even to blindness.
Peter speaks of the immature Christian as so short sighted that it’s like he’s blind.
We live in an era in which keen eyes are essential spiritual equipment.
And you realize what kind of sight I’m talking about, we have to be able to see truth as if looking through the eyes of God.
There are so many things that swirl around us every day, so many different ways that we can be taken away from the path.
We need to have discernment. We need to be able to see things as they really are.
And the Bible says that when a person no longer has, especially in the word of God, he loses his perception.
He becomes an easy target for all of the false doctrines that flow around us in the world today as we read the headlines and consider our own business and housing decisions.
And we try to figure out what to do.
We need to pray, but we need to read the word of God and we need the strength that comes through a diligent walk with Jesus Christ.
So if you decide you are not going to live a diligent life, you’re just happy where you are.
And thank you very much pastor. I wish I hadn’t listened to this message. If that’s where you are.
If, if you think ok, I can just be happy where I am. I’m telling you where you’re going.
First of all, you will lack spiritual power and you will lose your sense of perception about life.
And here’s the third one, you will lose your spiritual privilege.
You can never lose your salvation, but you can lose the joy of it.
You can lose the sense of God’s presence in your life.
Listen to Second Peter 19 and I’m gonna read it and I want you to listen to it and I want you to understand it means exactly what it says.
Here’s what Peter said. And in that moment, when you have no longer diligently followed Christ, you will have forgotten that you were cleansed from your old sins.
Let me read that again. You will have forgotten that you have been cleansed from your old sins.
Can you imagine experiencing the miracle of salvation, the cleansing of the blood of Christ, Christ, the arrival of the Holy Spirit, the joy of Christian fellowship?
Only to forget that that ever happened.
Do you know that you can get so far away from God as a Christian, so far away from the instruction of His word?
So lacking in diligence, so lacking in strenuous and lavish pursuit of the things of God that you wake up one day and you can hardly find any, any evidence in your own life.
And then you come along and you say to the pastor, pastor, I I, I don’t know what’s going on.
I am I really saved. How can I be sure this is why as a Christian, you want to develop a passionate, focused, diligent life growing in the traits that Peter mentions.
Everything we could possibly need to be difference makers in this world.
Once again has been given to us, we don’t need any more information. We don’t need another revelation.
We have it all God has given to us in between the covers of this, of this book.
Now, it’s up to us to take what we have been given and give it back to God in the life of diligence that will bring honor to his name and strength to our lives.
I’ve talked with you today about the purpose of diligence and the prerequisite of it, the principles of it, the priorities of it, the possibilities of it.
And I wanna finish with the promise of it. If you got your Bible still open.
Look down at second Peter one verse 10. Here’s what it says.
If you do these things, you will never stumble. Say that again.
If you do these things, you will never stumble.
And it says in second Peter 1 11, you will be given an entrance into heaven that is abundant.
I remember studying this some years ago and realizing that Peter was using a nautical phrase here.
He’s given an illustration from the world of boats from the nautical world.
He says, if you will live your life with diligence.
When it comes time for you to go to heaven, you will enter into the everlasting kingdom in an abundance.
Now, let me see if I can get that through to us before we close our Bibles today.
This is actually this picture that heaven has a harbor.
And as we sail God word toward that harbor, moving through the storms and the rocks that lurk in the waves, some ships barely make it into the port.
Some ships get to heaven. The crew is exhausted. There’s almost mutiny. The rigging is torn. Supplies are low.
The ship has sprung leaks. It’s not exactly like hail, the conquering hero entrance into heaven.
Peter says, you don’t want to go to heaven that way and you don’t have to go to heaven that way.
Peter is telling us that diligent believers are like diligent captains and sailors.
They sail with discipline, manning the watch tower, maintaining the ship, keeping the morale high among the crew.
It’s a picture of the well lived Christian life.
The storms will come, but God has given us what we need to come through.
All of them, all the stronger.
In other words, it isn’t about just going to heaven if you have trusted Jesus Christ, your name is on the crew list by order of the captain.
What is at issue is the quality of your journey?
Think about the sailors of old and the life they led on the sea, the confinement of a small ship and the dangers of storm and stone and shipwreck and the hard life of the open sea required absolute discipline, unquestioned diligence, and particularly an unquestioning obedience to the captain, no matter how desperate the voyage became.
So I want to ask you today, how strong is your faith?
Are you disciplined and diligent enough to weather the storm? Let me encourage you with these words.
as we see the world around us disintegrating.
There has never been a time for us to take up the call to diligence that we have been given in the word of God to live our lives for Christ with strenuous activity and lavish involvement and self control.
And we will discover in the process that it not only will prepare us for where we are heading, but it will help us on the way there.
Doctor Jeremiah just shared his heart about how we can stay confident in this chaotic world.
And he would like to extend an invitation for you to know the true source and foundation for a confident life, Jesus Christ.
If you would like to know more about how you can begin or grow in your relationship with Jesus, Doctor Jeremiah would like to help by sending you two free resources.
The first is a booklet called Your Greatest Turning Point. And the second is our monthly devotional magazine Turning Points.
These resources are yours completely free when you contact turning point today. Thank you for watching.
Turning point. When you support this program with a gift of any amount, Doctor Jeremiah will send you in appreciation his book, living with confidence in a chaotic world.
Certain hope for uncertain times and for a generous gift of $65 or more.
Doctor Jeremiah will send you the living with confidence set containing his book, his teaching series on your Choice of CD or DVD and a companion study guide.
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Each day, receive these resources when you support the ministry of turning point. Today.
Next time on turning point, the two gatherings are equally important in the mind of God.
One day we’re going to be gathered together with Christ and ushered into the kingdom.
But the Bible says we’re together together now in anticipation of that time.
Thank you for being with us today. Join Doctor Jeremiah.
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