Sermon - 2 Peter 1:3-11 - Legacy - Littleby Baptist Church - July 12, 2020
For the last couple
of weeks there has been this word bouncing around my head, Legacy. When I think
of Legacy I think of guys like Charles Spurgeon, Billy Graham, Chuck Smith, and
others who have spoken into of our lives whether directly or in-directly.
In my opinion, these
guys left a Godly Legacy. I am not talking about them being famous, wealthy, or
who they may have had dinner with. When I say these guys left a legacy, I mean
that they had an impact on the lives of other people. I know I picked some
famous preachers, but that is because they are well known, and chances are you
have heard of them. It is not about the quantity of lives that they have
touched, they just make good examples for us. I define a Godly Legacy as having
an impact on the lives of others for our Lord and Savior Jesus. A Godly Legacy
comes from someone doing what they were created by God to do.
Do you ever wonder
what your legacy will be? I am wonder if at the end of our lives will we have
done what we were created to do? Will we be people who were faithful in serving
our God and Others? Will we have touched the lives of others for Jesus? Have we
shown the Love of Christ to those in need? Have we passed the torch to the future
generation?
Proverbs 22:1
“A good name is to
be chosen over great wealth; favor is better than silver and gold.”
Great wealth or a
Good Name? I won’t say these have to be exclusive of each other, but sometimes
it does point to a person’s priorities.
Someone who is
focused on amassing great wealth has a different set of priorities than someone
who is trying to leave behind a good name or a Godly Legacy. The obvious
question that comes to mind is, what about that movie star who parties a lot but
gives millions of dollars to one charity or another? Is their donation to those
in need leaving behind a Godly Legacy? Sadly, the answer is no. People will
remember that the donations were nice, but that does not make up for how they
lived their life and treated others.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
“13 If I
speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a
clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and
understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can
move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And
if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast
but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
In one way a Godly
Legacy is based on actions. A Godly Legacy is not something that comes by some grandiose
act of kindness. A Godly Legacy is based on showing the Love of God to others. When
I think about the people who have left a Godly Legacy behind, I think of people
who valued others, made time for others, and they had Loved others.
2 Peter 1:3-11
“3 His
divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through
the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 By
these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them
you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the
world because of evil desire. 5 For this very reason,
make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with
knowledge, 6 knowledge with self-control, self-control
with endurance, endurance with godliness, 7 godliness
with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For
if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from
being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 The
person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the
cleansing from his past sins. 10 Therefore, brothers and
sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you
do these things you will never stumble. 11 For in this
way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be
richly provided for you.”
In these verses
Peter is telling us that we have been given everything that we need to leave a
Godly Legacy. It starts with faith and goodness and ends with spending an
eternity with our Lord and Savior Jesus.
Faith, goodness,
knowledge, self-control, endurance, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. When
you look at this list, do you see things that are part of an occasional act of
generosity or something that points to a lifelong journey of walking with God? In
verse 8 it stated ‘if you possess these qualities in increasing measure’. These
are things that cannot be accomplished and increased overnight, they are things
that grow with us, they are steps in the journey we walk each day as followers
of Christ.
The first step is
having Faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Having Faith that His Word is
true, having Faith that God has a plan for your life, having Faith that God
will work in you and around you. Faith cannot be developed in the next 10
minutes, it is not something that will be accomplished tomorrow, it is part of
that lifelong journey with our Lord.
Faith turns to
Goodness which is a character trait that reflects how a LIFE is lived. A lifetime
of choices, a lifetime of walking with God, a lifetime of meeting the needs of
others, a life time of Loving Others and Goodness will abound.
After Goodness is
Knowledge. True knowledge is not something you can pick up from watching an
occasional YouTube video. Knowledge comes from a lifetime of learning. If we
use schooling as an example. When a child finishes kindergarten they still have
a lot to learn and the same can be said for grade school and middle school.
Some would like to say after high school they know all they need to, but
whether it is through going to college, learning a trade, working, spending
time reading, or just plain life… eventually everyone comes to the realization
that increasing the amount of knowledge we have will take time and effort. If
we want to follow in the footsteps of our Lord, we need to learn about Him.
The more knowledge
we have, the easier it is to show self-control. I am specifically referring to
the more we know about the Word of God. The more we know about how God works in
our lives; the more self-control we will have to resist the temptations we
encounter. We do not develop that knowledge that helps with the self-control we
need in a matter of minutes; it can take a lifetime. As has been said before,
we are all sinners and everyone of us will struggle with sin until we stand before
our Lord. It takes self-control to reset out focus on God and it takes
Self-Control to choose to follow God and His will each day.
Self-control will
lead to endurance. If you think about long distance running, that is something
that takes a lot of training and requires self-control. It is self-control that
helps you to push through that burning desire to stop when you are tired. If
you decided that tomorrow morning you are going to get up and run a 10K and you
have not run in years, there is a chance that you will reach a point of
exhaustion and fall short of that goal. You will realize that your body has not
built up the needed endurance to make that long of a run. It takes time and
dedication to build up the Endurance. As a Christ follower we need to embrace
that we are on a lifelong journey that will take faith, goodness, knowledge and
self-control to develop the needed Endurance. It takes a lifetime to carry out
the task that God has put before each of us. It will take Endurance when things
get hard or when we want to quit.
Building that Endurance
as we chase the things of God, will help us to develop godliness.
1 Peter 1:15-16
“15 But
as the one who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all
your conduct; 16 for it is written, Be
holy, because I am holy.”
As we chase the
things of God, we show godliness, we begin to live a holy life by imitating our
God. We build up our knowledge by studying the Word of God, we exercise
self-control by regularly trying to follow the Lord’s teachings, we show
Endurance as we repeat these steps even after we faulter and fall. We show
endurance as we keep on keeping on and stay focused on our God. That turns to Godliness
as the Holy Spirit works in us to achieve the work before us.
If we are letting
God work in us and through us it will lead to Brotherly Affection. This is that
instant connection, bond, and favor, that is found between followers of Christ.
It is the realization that we are all serving the same Master, with the same
ultimate purpose, and that we are united in what we have been commanded to do. It
is that love that brings us together to worship our God and that drives us to
be there for each other.
I don’t know if I
have shared this before, but when I interviewed at Hubbell, I shared with the
guy interviewing me that I was a Pastor. From that moment forward a common bond
was established, Brotherly Affection existed. Even though I was there for a
secular job, the understanding that we both serve the same God brought about
that brotherly connection that is only found in the family of God.
Brotherly affection
is love for fellow believers, but as we all know it does not stop there. We are
to love all who are created in God’s image. We are to love them so much, that like
our God, we wish that non will perish which drives us to carry out His mission.
Matthew 28:18-20
“18 Jesus
came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven
and on earth. 19 Go, therefore, and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching
them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with
you always, to the end of the age.””
Our God loves all of
humankind so much that He sent His only son down to this earth, to teach, to
perform miracles, to die on a cross, and to rise again so that we may have
eternal life. That Love that drove Jesus to the cross, is the same Love that flows
from God to us and through us as we let the Holy Spirit guide us. It is that
same Love that drives us to reach out to others, sharing the gospel, meeting
needs, all while showing the love of Christ to them.
It is that same Love
that leads to leaving a Godly Legacy.
Our Legacy is not
defined by what we do just before we die. It is not defined by what we put in
our will. It is not defined by a couple acts of kindness. It is not defined by the
things we do. Our Legacy is defined by us letting God work in us to touch the
lives of others.
Living a life based
on faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, endurance, godliness, brotherly
affection, and love will lead us on an amazing journey as God works through us,
and when we join Him in Glory a Godly Legacy will be left behind here on earth.
Seek your Lord and
Savior and walk in faith and these other steps will fall in place. Let the Holy
Spirit guide you and He will work in you to develop your faith and ultimately
lead you love Others and an eternity with Jesus.
God Bless,
Robert
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