Tag: Precious & Magnificent Moments

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Sermon: Precious & Magnificent Moments – Men Moved by the Holy Spirit Spoke from God
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: II Peter 1:20-21
Duration: 21:49
Size: 9.98 MB

Precious & Magnificent Moments
Men Moved by the Holy Spirit Spoke from God
II Peter 1:20-21

Be a people empowered by hope to lead lives of love. Let your confidence in the coming day of joy make you compassionate in the present night of woe.

I. Why or How?

“Pay attention to the prophetic word … knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation.”

Peter is either giving us a why to pay close attention to the prophetic word, or is telling us how to pay attention to the prophetic word.

II. Whose Interpretation of What?

You can’t just give Scripture any old meaning you please.

No individual is entitled to interpret prophecy, or Scripture, according to his personal whim.

III. The Way in Which We Should Heed the Word

The meaning of Scripture does not change with every new reader or every new reading. It cannot be twisted to mean whatever we like.

IV. God’s Meaning not Man’s

The meaning of Scripture is not like putty that we can mold according to our desires. It is the work of the Holy Spirit and carries a solid, firm, divine intention.

Do you need encouragement that the day is really going to dawn—that the life of self-control, patience, brotherly affection, and love is really leading to glory? Then go to the Scriptures.

V. Three Implications for Our Lives

And to that end you submit yourself to the severe discipline of memory and analysis and construction, until you have assurance that his meaning and not your own has been found.

If you believe that the Bible is the Word of God with authority over your life, it takes a good deal of humility to interpret it correctly.

The work of the Spirit is not to add new information to the Scripture, but to make us sensitive and submissive to what is already there.

Next Week
Destruction Is Not Sleeping
II Peter 2:1-10

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Sermon: Precious & Magnificent Moments – Listen to the Eyewitness of His Majesty
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: II Peter 1:12-19
Duration: 27:02
Size: 12.3 MB

Precious & Magnificent Moments
Listen to the Eyewitness of His Majesty
II Peter 1:12-19

The main point has been to urge Christians to make sure that they are truly saved.

God’s divine power has already given us all things which lead to life and godliness.

I. Peter’s Thought Process

His readers are well grounded and established in the truth.

No matter how tragic the death of a believer seems to us, God has universal perspective and does all things well.

It means that even we who know the truth and are established in it need repeated reminders of its greatness, unless we fall asleep or forget.

This letter is Peter’s last will and testament.

II. Myth Versus History

The reason Peter’s word to you is so weighty-is because it is not based on a myth but on an eyewitness account of Christ’s majesty.

If our faith is not grounded in reliable observations of historical reality, it is a “cleverly devised stories” and unworthy of acceptance.

III. The Glory of the Second Coming

Thirty years after the event the revelation of the majesty of Christ fills the mind of Peter with awe, and he wants more than anything to share the hope of that vision with us before he dies.

IV. The Lamp of the Prophetic Word

The world is covered with the darkness of sin and deceit and fear and greed.

What is the hope that lures us on to walk in the light as he is in the light, two things: dawn without and daystar within.

Next Week
Men Moved by the Holy Spirit Spoke from God
II Peter 1:20-21

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Sermon: Precious & Magnificent Moments – Confirm Your Election
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: II Peter 1:5-11
Duration: 25:34
Size: 11.7 MB

Precious & Magnificent Moments
Confirm Your Election
II Peter 1:5-11

Our goal is: life and godliness, the source of strength to become godly is divine power, and the activating connection between the goal of godliness and the source of divine power is knowing and trusting the promises of God.

I. The Logic of Godliness

Since God has given power for godliness, strive to become godly!

True Christians do not stop pursuing growth in grace. They go on. They advance.

II. Don’t Float, Swim Hard

We must strive even to stand still, the tide of temptation is so strong.

If the knowledge of God’s glorious promises does not spur us on to strive against the tide, then we will be barren and fruitless and drift to our destruction.

III. The Consequence of Not Swimming

The problem with the person who does not strive toward all the fruit of faith is that he is blind in two directions, the future and the past.

The assumption is that the whole world lies under the righteous judgment of God because of sin. But because of His great mercy, God ordained that a people for his own be saved by grace.

IV. Sanctification and Assurance

The confirmation of your election is your progress in sanctification.

Therefore, the Word of God warns us against being lazy in our faith and drifting away from Jesus Christ our only hope.

Next Week
Listen to the Eyewitness of His Majesty
II Peter 1:12-19

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Sermon: Precious & Magnificent Moments – Liberating Promises
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: II Peter 1:1-4
Duration: 30:04
Size: 13.7 MB

Precious & Magnificent Moments
Liberating Promises
II Peter 1:1-4

I believe that if we saturate our minds and hearts with the glory and excellence of God in the Scriptures, there will one day come an explosion at Richmond Community Church:

I. Peter: Servant and Apostle

But Peter is not eager to flaunt this authority. “Apostle” comes second, not first.

What is most important in anyone’s life is their faith, and on that score Peter is on a level plane with the church.

Peter does have authority, but he bends over backward to meet them as a brother and serve them, rather than lord it over them.

II. Peter’s Greeting

He pictures grace and peace as something that comes to us from God.

If you want to enjoy God’s peace and be the aroma of his grace in the world, your knowledge of him has to grow.

A. The Goal – Life and Godliness

First, Peter is aiming at two things: eternal life and godliness; moral and spiritual transformation now, and hope for life in the age to come.

The hope of life and the way of godliness stand or fall together.

B. The Source – Divine Power

Second, the way of godliness and the hope of eternal life do not lie within our own power to produce or attain.

The Christian faith is not merely a set of doctrines to be accepted. It is a power to be experienced.

God’s grace is a free power that works in us for our good.

C. The Means – Knowledge of God

The knowledge that leads to life and godliness is said to be the knowledge of God’s precious and very great promises.

Very practically, I think this means we must day-by-day go to the Word of God and search for great promises.

III. Conclusion

We can sum up these first four verses of II Peter with four words: power, promises, practice, and prospect.

God’s divine power (v. 3) flows into our lives when we know (v. 2) and trust (v. 1) his precious and very great promises (v. 4). And this power flowing through these promises produces practice of godliness (v. 3) and the prospect of life eternal (v. 3).

Next Week
Confirm Your Election
II Peter 1:5-11