Promise

You may have heard the story about the elderly woman who passed away. She had always been very active in her small church, and although she did not have much to live on, she tithed faithfully every week and did everything she could to help other people. If ever a prayer warrior lived it surely it was this woman. She loved the Lord and often told others about His great love for them. The only surviving family she had was two grown grandchildren.

While the grandchildren were sorting through their grandmothers belongs, they found their grandmother’s Bible still lying open on the night stand by her bed. As they walked over to pick up the Bible they saw their grandmother’s handwritten notes all in the margins of the page. As they flipped through the pages they noticed again and again the letters “TP” written in red. All throughout Genesis, “TP”, Joshua, “TP”, the book of Psalms “TP”, throughout the Gospels, Acts, Romans and on and on, every book, nearly every page, “TP”.

They could not figure out why their grandmother wrote that, what did it mean? On the very last page of her Bible the grandmother had a key of what different markings were and there they found just a little hand written note that read this, “Promises of God – “TP”, tried and proven.” This woman experienced the promises of God because she knew what they were.

This morning we are going to see that in order to live in the promises of God we need to know what He has promised to us.

Read with me 2 Peter 1:4 it reads, "For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust."

The first key we need to identify is The Source of our promises
Read with me again in verse 4 if you will and look how Peter starts off this verse. He writes “for by these” well what are the “these” that Peter is writing about in this verse? In order to discover that we need to dig into the word of God; look back up with me in the context of this passage in the beginning of this letter. Second part of verse 1.

So you see the “For by these”, the source of our promises is all that precedes verse 4. It is the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ; its by His grace, His peace, it is in the true intimate knowledge of God; His divine power; it is His own glory and His own excellence that He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises! The Source of our Promises flows from the very character of Jesus!

I made a promise to my son that for his fifth birthday we would have a birthday party and celebrate at Pump It Up. That is every kids dream! Well, I’m embarrassed to admit it but when it came time to have his party, we just didn’t have the money to have it at Pump It Up. And I disappointed my son. You see, I’m a fallen person, I wanted to give Him the desires of His heart but I’m limited! I have flaws in my character, but not God! His Character is faithful and righteous. He will never break a promise made to His children.

Once we identify the source of our promises as being God Himself the second key to living in the promises of God is to identify the Substance of our Promises.

You see Peter says that He (Jesus) has granted to us precious and magnificent promises. As you read Peter’s letter you can’t help but to notice that in the first part of his letter he is telling them to remember, remember, look back don’t forget where you came from, don’t forget what Jesus has done in your life.

When I look back at the precious promises of God in my own life, I can’t help but remember when God was calling me to seminary. I tried to talk His out of it! I really did…I would pray, “God, I’m a women, isn’t seminary for men?” God answered me through His word, “I’ve called women. Not to preach, not to be pastors but have I used their voice in past in my Word? YES. I have used women and raised them up for a time such as this? YES. Have women cried out praises to me in my Word? YES. So God would not let me off the hook on that. So then I reminded God, “God, I’m a tenth grade drop out, I never learned how to write papers, I don’t even read well! I’m not smart enough to do this. That same morning, God took me to Joshua 1 and these words jumped off the page at me, “I will not leave you nor forsake you!” God’s promises have substance!

Now that we have identified the Source of God’s promises and know that His promises have substance we see the third key to living in the promises of God which is understanding the Significance of our Promises.

Go with me again to the text, Peter writes “So that By them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” You see God’s promises are significant because it through His promises that we can become partakers of the divine nature. The divine nature is the nature of being born again, being called no longer an enemy of God, but instead a child of God.

Think on these verses, promises, of God…

Temptation: No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also. 1 Corinthians 10:13

Comfort: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1

Salvation: that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made resulting in salvation. Romans 10:9, 10

Those promises of God are Significant!

The Key to living in the promises of God is to first know what He has promised us.

You may be asking, Krystal where do I start! The Word of God is BIG! How can I sort trough and point out His promises. Well, the key is spending time in His word daily, ask God to show you His promises in scripture. Lay hold of the victory we have in Jesus and live your life in His presence.