You Shall Be Godly

As people we are natural hoarders. There is a television show that chronicles the lives of people with extreme hoarding problems. They have somehow come to feel that they need more stuff. Some people are terrified that they are going to run out of something. For example, my wife’s grandmother has as much sugar on hand as a grocery store has. She buys it every time she shops.

You may not be an extreme hoarder, but we all have at least one item that we are hoarders with and we worry that we might run out. Will what we have be enough.

We can be that way with God as well. We can feel like we need something more to make us holy like Christ. We need one more class, or one more program. Churches can fall into this trap and feel that they need the Word of God AND something else. We counsel people and feel that the Word of God might not be enough so we try to supplement it with psychology. We think our preaching won’t be entertaining to people if we stick to the Bible, so we feel the need to add a lot of pop-psycho-babel to the sermon as well.

We have to get to the point were we realize that Christ is enough. He is enough for everything we need. We also have to realize that He calls us to a life of holiness. He calls us to look like Christ. He doesn’t leave us at the decision to follow Christ, but actually expects us to follow Jesus and become like Him.

1. God gives us what we need for life and godliness (v.3)

In verse 3, Peter tells us that by God’s power we are given everything we will ever need for life an godliness. Life and godliness - what do these two things mean?

Life = the gospel, salvation

Godliness = sanctification, our walk with Jesus

When we hear the word “sanctification” think sanctuary. A sanctuary is a holy place set aside for us to commune with and worship God. You have heard preachers say often that the church building isn’t the sanctuary, but you are. The Bible tells us this in .

1 Corinthians 3:16–17 ESV

16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

We are a temple, but maybe you don’t feel so much like a temple? Here are a few questions we should ask ourselves?

What do you feel that you need to do to be made right with God?

Do you feel like things are right between you and God? Have you ever been having a tough go with someone that you were close to and you just knew that things weren’t right with the person? What do you do? You often will avoid them! That’s what Adam and Eve did in . They hid from God after they had sinned against Him. For some of you today, you may be hiding from God. You may not be right with Him. Adam and Eve tried to make themselves right with God by covering up, but it didn’t work. It took God providing a covering for them through a sacrifice. Jesus is that sacrifice for us. Because of His sacrifice, we are covered by His blood and accepted and made right with God.

2. Do you find yourself struggling to be good enough for Jesus?

3. God’s power has given us what we need for godliness. What does this mean for your life?

2. Godliness comes through knowing Jesus (vv. 3-4)

So, if God has given us what we need for life and godliness, then it might be expected that we are supposed to be godly. But how? Peter tells us that it only comes from knowing Jesus. He knew Jesus and it changed His life.

4. How can you know Jesus?

In the world we live in today where we don’t walk with Jesus and talk with Him like we would another human, how can we know Jesus? How can we be around Him?

Here are a couple of ways:

* Talk with Him in prayer.

* Read what God has said to us in the Bible.

* Spend time with His body on earth, the church.

Verse 3 also tells us what we are called to. Look again at verse 3.

5. What has God called us to according to verse 3?

We are called to His glory and excellence. We will talk about God’s glory in just a minute, but let’s look at His excellence first.

Everything God does is excellent. Have you ever thought about that? If we are to share in His excellence, what does that mean for you? Do you give God your best in everything you do? Do you do everything you do with your best effort.? People don’t seem to really care about this anymore, but we should. We should strive to share in the glory and excellence of God’s calling.

3. God shares His nature with the godly (v.4)

The promise for us is that God desires to share His nature with us. Think about this for a minute.

What is God like? How would you describe God?

Would you say that He is love?

Would you say that He is kind?

Would you say that He is good?

Would you say that He is patient and long-suffering?

Would you say that He is powerful and sufficient for what you need?

God is all of these things and more. What’s more, God wants to share Himself and who He is with you? He wants you to be made into the likeness of Christ.

scripture reference

However, Satan wants anything but for you to become like God. Look with me for a moment back in . Let’s look at verses 1-5:

Genesis 3:1–5 ESV

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Satan accused God of being jealous and trying to keep Adam and Eve from becoming like Him. Satan said that God didn’t want them to share in His godliness and that’s why He forbade them from eating from the tree. Now, this was obviously a lie and let to the fall of mankind, but notice that God has been trying to draw us to Himself ever since in a relationship with Jesus where we can become like Christ. When we become like Christ, we share the nature of God.

6. What does it mean to have a nature like God’s?

Having a nature like God doesn’t mean we become little gods. This is a misconception that Mormonism teaches. In Mormonism, we are told that God, who is called Elohim, was once a man that became a God and had all of us as celestial children. If we will obey him and marry in the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, we can also become gods and have our own universe and our own celestial children.

Folks, this is heresy and it isn’t Christian. This passage is not saying that we become gods, it is actually talking about the fact that we become partakers of the body of Christ. Let’s read what Paul writes in .

Romans 6:3–5 ESV

3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Romans 6:11 ESV

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Notice that this says we become alive to God IN Christ Jesus.

However, what we hang around is what rubs off on us. That’s why we have to be careful who our closest friends are and what we allow in to influence us.

7. Do you spend more time with the things of God or the things of the world?

Now the truth is that we will always struggle with sin on this side of eternity. We are all on a journey. Our confession of faith in Jesus at our salvation is only the first step on that journey. We then begin a process called progressive sanctification. Let’s break that down for a minute. It means we are progressively getting holier. Or, at least that is the expected path for us. We should be defeating sin in our life. But, we will never fully be holy as God is holy until we get to heaven and are glorified like Him.

8. What sinful desire(s) are you currently struggling with?

9. Are you trying to defeat your sin in your own power, or by the power of God?

If we try to live the Christian life without the power of God, we will fail! We will fail in our holiness; we will fail in our mission. We need the Holy Spirit. That’s why Jesus told the disciples that he would send the Helper to them in . Listen to what He does.

John 16:7–15 ESV

7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. 12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

John 16:7-

So, we need the Holy Spirit to live a holy life, but we have to realize that He is our free Gift when we believe and receive Christ.

Conclusion:

God loves us. He wants us to know Him. He knows us very well, but He wants to reveal Himself to us. However, God will not force Himself on us. He wants us to share in His nature. He wants to give us His power. He wants us to be holy.

We have everything we need for this to happen. We don’t need more technology. We don’t need another church program. We need Jesus. We need to know Him through His word. The more we hang around Jesus, the more like Jesus we will be!

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