Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

When you follow a sports team, it really doesn’t matter what team you follow, sooner or later you are going to be disappointed.

Last week as a Chicago Bear fan, I was extremely disappointed.

They had the lead, and it looked like they were going to win, and yet they lost to the Green Bay Packers.

This week, as most everyone knows the Minnesota Vikings play the Green Bay Packers.

It is very unique here in Minnesota, we do not only have Viking fans, but we also have a fair amount of Packer fans.

It is interesting to listen to both sides talk about how great their particular team is.

I have a friend who has a real dilemma this weekend.

He is a young father and He and his wife have several friends that also have young children.

Their friend group is getting together for a BBQ, yard games and of course the centerpiece is the football game.

My friend’s dilemma is that He and His wife are both Green Bay Packer fans.

All of the other people at the party are Viking fans.

They were born and raised in Wisconsin.

This is a real problem.

He doesn’t know what to do.

He wants to be a part of the group, and enjoy the party but it will be really hard to watch the game.

If his team wins, he will have to deal with everyone being grumpy toward him, as if he has anything to do with it, and if team loses, he will have to deal with everyone gloating, as if they are responsible.

Each team is promising a victory for their followers, and one way or another one side is going to be very disappointed.

Fans and followers deal with disappointment differently.

Fans have a less confidant approach to things.

A fan is less intense, they maybe feel if their team wins, that’s great, but if they lose, oh well.

Most fans lose interest if it appears the season is going poorly.

A follower on the other hand almost prides them self on hanging on no matter what comes.

But no matter what you follow, if you follow things of this world they inevitably will let you down, and they will leave you disappointed.

Let’s watch the intro video, one more time.

Intro video

Pray

Last week we looked at this idea of Fan or Follower, and I tried to make several points that were take-aways, and we can carry those into this week.

First there is a difference between being a fan of Jesus and being a follower of Jesus.

The call of the gospel is to be a follower of Jesus.

This is a serious call, and you must consider if you are a fan or a follower.

You can identify a follower by the following characteristics.

A Follower is...

A follower is growing.

A follower’s faith is precious.

A follower is called to life.

A follower interacts with God.

Let’s pick our reading in 2 Peter again today. 2 Peter 1:3-11 on page 1204 of the Pew Bibles.

Scripture Reading

2 Peter 1:3-11.

page 1204

Before we go any farther with this letter, I would like to take a moment to remind you of the writer.

This is the second letter written by Simon Peter one of the Lord’s first disciples.

Matthew recorded Jesus calling Peter in chapter 4 verses 18-20.

Peter jumped in with both feet-pun intended.

Remember he was the guy that got out of the boat when he saw Jesus walking on the water.

Peter was a follower.

He bought the Jesus jersey, and not the cheap one from Kohl’s either, he bought the real deal at the Galilee gift shop.

The thing about followers is often they are proud of being followers.

They let everyone know they are are not just fans, and Peter was no exception.

Life of Peter

At the last supper.

In Matthew 26, Peter talked about how great a follower he was.

Peter adamantly declared he would not fall away.

But Jesus knows how strong Peter is, and how strong the pull of evil is.

Jesus, because He is God, knows Peter’s heart, and also knows the future.

Jesus predicts in detail that Peter will deny Him, and Peter does deny Him.

After Jesus is arrested Peter denies Jesus three times.

Then in Matthew 26, verse 75 Peter remembers what Jesus says....

I gave you this brief portrait of the man writing this letter, so you know that you aren’t alone.

This letter is not coming to you from someone who doesn’t know the struggles of being a follower.

Rather this letter is coming to us from someone who knows exactly what it is like to be a follower.

We hear a message, we read a verse, we have a moment where we are like Peter, we are convinced we are not going to fall away.

We vow to do better.

The message in 2 Peter is coming from a guy who knows.

A guy knows what it means to fall away-In fact he uses similar sounding phrases, in this letter, he talks about stumbling and falling away.

and

With Peter’s background in our minds, let’s pick up where we left off last week at verse 3.

We talked about this last week…through God’s divine power-the same power that raises the dead-God has given us everything we need for a Godly life-that is the Holy Spirit- and God has done this because of HIS glory and goodness.

On to verse 4....

Through these (That is is His Glory and Goodness) He has given us His very great and Precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

His very great and precious promises-(That’s Why)

Because God is good, and for His glory---God has given us His very great and precious promises.

There is that word we talked about last week-precious-precious like a jewel.

Peter would know how precious, and very great those promises are.

See Peter, when He was convinced He would never fall away, that was when he denied the Lord Jesus.

After he did that what would Peter have left?

Put yourself in his shoes for a moment-after denying the Lord Jesus Peter saw his beloved Lord whipped, and carried off for crucifixion.

He witnessed the spikes being driven through His hands and feet.

And Peter watched His righteous God and Savior Jesus die on the cross.

Yet there was Peter, in his denial.

Peter, guilt ridden with his denial, would have nothing left.

All he would have to hang onto as Hs Lord was dead in the tomb, was the promises.

A some point Peter realized that the promises that Lord Jesus makes are precious, When everything is shattered, when you bitterly fail when you cannot see God through what is happening-you need to know that this book, God’s word, the Bible is filled with very great and precious promises.

Promises Like.

Promise #1 -Salvation is found in Jesus

That is everyone.

That includes the prideful denier He with a broken and contrite Heart who calls on the name of the Lord-He will be saved.

That includes fans who see what it means to be a follower and realize that they aren’t one.

Everyone-who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Those caught in sins of a sexual nature, or sins of addiction, unbelief, and idolatry.

People who have looked to themselves, the thieves, and the immoral, the self seeking, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

And if you are in grief, over your sins today you can cling to this very great and precious promise.

Or Promises like we talked about last week, when you believe in Jesus Christ you have the Holy Spirit.

John 14:6 and Ephesians 1:13.

Promise # 2 You have the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is also the person of the Godhead that will help keep you from stumbling.

He-as you interact with God through prayer and His word, will keep you from sin.

The Holy Spirit is the second great and precious promise.

Promise #3 You have a new nature