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Episode #37 "All Means What?"
Transcript
2 Peter 1:3 tells us that God’s divine power has given you all you need for a godly life. Awesome! The fact is: you cannot manufacture godliness on your own, but hey - you don’t need to. As a born-again believer, God is living in you. That means you already have His godliness. All of it! You don’t have to go looking anywhere else for it. Only God can be godly, and He has already placed all His godliness within you. You have the power, because you have the all-powerful God living within you!
Welcome to today’s episode of the Point of Purity Podcast. A weekly study filled to the brim with the all the tools from Scripture you will ever need to build a lasting life of Biblical purity. I’m your host, Steve Etner, Author, National Speaker, and Purity Coach for The Pure Man Ministry. Grab your Bible and come on in as we seek to answer the question: All Means What?
(01:00) All In!
Before we begin this week’s powerful podcast, I’d like to take just a moment and give you a glimpse into our ministry. You see, we do a whole lot more here at The Pure Man Ministry than just producing a weekly podcast. We have a free APP entitled “My Purity Coach.” This app is chocked full of powerful tools to help you in your walk of purity. You’ll find tons of Scripture. Audio and video lessons from the Bible. You can even listen to this podcast from the app.
We also have designed an online training resource called ChristianGrowthAcademy.com. There you will find a growing library of video courses geared to help you learn how to grow in your Christian walk.
If you’re subscribed to this podcast, then you’ve heard me talk about our “Point of Purity Program” – a 12 week, 1-on-1, Bible-Centered coaching program taking you into Scripture to teach you how to develop a lifelong strategic plan for sexual purity. And I often talk on this podcast about the various books I have written.
As a faith-based, donor-supported ministry, all of this (and so much more) is only made possible by our team of ministry partners who give financially to this ministry. Without compromise The Purity Coach shows men and women how to have a continuous relationship with Jesus that is real and personal. To that end we need financial assistance from partners like you who are committed to providing hope and helping men and women across the globe win their personal battle against the beast of sexual impurity. I am personally inviting you to join us as we impact our world by equipping and training men and women how to live in purity, godliness and integrity. To give your tax deductible gift to this ministry today, simply go to ThePurityCoach.com and click on the Donate button in the upper right corner. And thank you for partnering with us!
Well ... as we continue our thoughts from last week’s episode, there’s one more thing I want you to notice about 2 Peter 1:3. God’s divine power has already given you everything you need. I love that word “everything.” It’s literally the word “all.” Have you ever stopped to consider what that simple little word actually means?
If you took my online course entitled “How to Overcome ANY Temptation” – you might remember the lesson where we focused our attention on that tiny little 3-letter word. When you see the word “all” in the Bible, keep this in mind: “All” means all, and that’s all “all” means! By the way, if you haven’t taken this 9-week course on how to overcome temptation, let me encourage you to go to Christian Growth Academy.com and enroll in this powerful study from God’s Word on “How to Overcome ANY Temptation” in your life. The link is in today’s show notes.
That word “all” is a powerful little word that refers to each and every part of the whole. It’s a word that leaves absolutely nothing out. Think about a power drill. As you hold that drill in your hand, the word “all” certainly refers to the unit as a whole; but it also refers to every gear, every tooth in that gear, every wire, every connection, every screw. Each and every part that makes up the whole. Everything. All.
God’s divine power has given you all you need for a godly life. That’s fantastic! You cannot manufacture godliness on your own, but you don’t need to. As a born-again believer, God is living in you. That means you already have His godliness. All of it! You don’t have to go looking anywhere else for it. Only God can be godly, and He has already placed all His godliness within you in the Person of the Holy Spirit. You have the power; you have the ability to be godly because you have the all-powerful God living His godliness within you!
So how exactly do we “plug in” to this power to live a godly life? How do we surrender ourselves to the Almighty, and allow Him to live His godliness through us? Peter answers that for us in 2 Peter 1:3. He states that we can find everything we need to be godly “through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.”
I want you to catch the fact that it is through our knowledge of God that we receive the power to be godly. OK, great! But what exactly does that mean? First, the word “through” carries with it the idea that this is the instrument or the way that something is going to be accomplished. Let me explain. It is through your knowledge of God, it is by means of your knowledge of God, it is as you grow in your knowledge of God, that you will discover everything you need to live a godly life. God teaches you the ins and outs of godliness, He shows you how to make it practical in your life, and He does it all through His Word – the Bible.
(07:39) Know How to Know How
Second, it is important that we pause long enough to make sure we understand the kind of “knowledge” Peter is talking about. If we’re not careful we run the risk of misinterpreting this text, and that could be dangerous. You see, when Peter says that our knowledge of God equips us for living a godly life, he’s referring to far more than just being able to recite a bunch of facts and figures regarding God. Knowing God is far more than just knowing about Him.
Facts and figures about God are all great and good; but knowing details about the Creator of the universe isn’t necessarily going to help you live a godly life. If all you have is an intellectual understanding of God, the only thing you will have gained is a fair amount of head knowledge (and the awesome ability to win hands-down at Bible trivia games). The Bible warns us in 1 Corinthians 8:1 that that kind of knowledge “puffs up.” All that head-knowledge makes King Me feel pretty good.
Peter is telling us that we need to get to know God much deeper than a list of facts and figures. We need to know Him personally.
You see, when your emphasis is simply on increasing your head-knowledge of the Bible, you run the high risk of focusing your life on good works instead of a growing relationship. You will see the Christian life as more of a checklist (do your devotions, pray, review your memory verses, don’t get angry, honor your spouse, don’t swear and so on). Christianity isn’t about being faithful in keeping a checklist – it’s pursuing a deeper relationship with your Heavenly Father. The fact is: When you see the Christian life as a bunch of do’s and don’ts - when you approach Christianity with a “checklist mentality” - You will find it to be more of a burden instead of a blessing, a hassle instead of a help.
(09:55) Work the List
As long as we have a checklist approach to Christianity, we will put all of our attention on right behavior (changing our external actions) instead of getting to know the God who gave us those standards (in other words, developing a deep, internal relationship with our Heavenly Father).
The result of such a works-oriented “faith” is a strong sense of shame, guilt, and failure every time we mess up. That’s not the kind of life God wants you to live. He doesn’t want you to “do this” and “stop doing that.” That’s not what brings Him honor—it’s your heart, it’s your attitude, it’s whom you allow to sit on the throne.
David writes in Psalm 51:16-17, “For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” God is not interested in your external behavior alone. He’s not after you “changing how you act and changing what you do.” It’s your spirit, your heart that needs to change. Change your heart and your behavior will follow.
God says, “I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:6)
Jesus said that “To love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength ... is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” (Mark 12:33)
It’s only as we truly get to know God on an intimate level that we will learn to trust Him with more and more control over our life. Only when I surrender myself, removing King Me from the throne of my heart, and daily choosing to yield all of my life over to God, only then will I become a godly person. That is when King Me gets out of the way and allows God to live out His godliness through me. The result is that I am finally doing godly “things” out of a heart’s desire to please God, rather than a sense of Christian duty or a selfish desire to be recognized.
So, keep this in mind: My behavior will be godly ONLY when my heart is godly.
Unfortunately, some people define godliness as being full of the correct Biblical information. They believe that if they read enough books, attend enough Christian seminars, study as many facts of the Bible as they can, and accumulate enough data about God, then godliness will somehow automatically follow.
Let me be quick to point out that each of these activities has value. There are some great books by Christian authors worthy of reading (see the resources section of ThePurityCoach.com ), and there are wonderful Christian seminars on growing in your relationship with God that are worthy of attending (see IronSharpensIron.net ). Reading God’s Word is always beneficial. In fact, in Isaiah 55:11 God says “so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent in.”
Any time you are pursuing knowledge of the Bible and how to live the Christian life you are choosing well.
However, Scripture warns that there are also those who “are always learning but never able to come to acknowledge the truth.” (2 Timothy 3:7) Oh, my friend, don’t become one of those people. It’s possible to know the Word of God frontward and backward. However, if that head knowledge is not accompanied by a change in your life in response to what you’ve learned about God, that knowledge is worthless. Beware of becoming so dependent on knowing about Scripture that you never work on applying to your life the things that you already know from Scripture. James warns, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (James 1:22)
Jesus said to the religious leaders of the day, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5:39-40) At first glance it may appear that Jesus is complimenting these guys for being in the Word. But a closer examination reveals something completely different.
Think about it: Of course, they were intent on learning and knowing Scriptures; they were the spiritual leaders of the day—it was expected of them. But their motivation was wrong. Their focus was on gaining knowledge of the Word of God for the sake of knowledge itself. It was all about King Me sitting on the throne, appearing to be wise and holy in the eyes of the people—not about growing in a deeper relationship with God.
They were placing their hope for eternity upon how much of the Scriptures they knew and “understood.” However, they put so much value on their head knowledge that they totally missed the Son of God—the one whom the Scripture is about—who was standing right before them. Jesus verbally grabbed them by the collars of their sanctimonious robes and said, “These are the Scriptures that testify about Me!”
(17:26) Can You Relate?
What about you? Do you have a head knowledge of the Word of God, but not a heart relationship with the God of The Word? You can know great Biblical truths and principles, have passages memorized and know Bible doctrine, but if you are not living out those truths in your daily life, you are not glorifying God. If you are not living by the doctrine you know to be true, you are not godly. Period. King Me is still sitting on the throne of your heart.
The more time you invest with your Heavenly Father, the more you get to truly know Him. The more you know Him, the greater His impact will be upon your life. As you study His Word, He is speaking to you from His heart, teaching you how to live your life in such a way as to please Him in everything you think, everything you say, and everything you do.
It is important to our study that you understand that the Bible is God’s Word. It is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is His personal letter to you. So, to get to know the God of the Word you must be in the Word of God, for it is there – within the pages of Scripture - that you discover who your Heavenly Father truly is. It is there that you will find everything you need to live a godly life.
So, if you are going to be serious about living a life that glorifies God – it is vital that you choose to daily roll up your sleeves, grab your shovel and pickaxe, and begin digging into the Word of God. That is where you are going to find your answers.
(19:44) Great Resources
If you would like to learn more about today’s study, or if you’re interested in learning more about our ministry, be sure to visit our website to see the multitude of resources we’ve made available to you – you can find our website at ThePurityCoach.com
One of those resources I would like to highlight for you today is my book entitled “The Pure Man’s Devotional Guide: A Biblical Toolbox for Purity.” You see, building a life of purity doesn’t happen overnight, and like any building project – it will be best when you use the right tools for the task.
This book, “The Pure Man’s Devotional Guide: A Biblical Toolbox for Purity,” is a toolbox filled with nearly 700 passages of Scripture all for the purpose of equipping you with the proper tools to build a lasting life of Biblical purity.
This 5-week devotional guide will help you see how the enemy attacks and, more importantly, how to skillfully handle the Word of God as you learn to fight back. So I encourage you to visit the resource section of our website, or go directly to Amazon.com and search either for “The Pure Man’s Devotional Guide” or just look up my name, Steve Etner , and purchase your copy today.
(21:21) In Conclusion
Thank you so much for listening to today’s podcast. If this has ministered to you, if this has blessed you, challenged you, or encouraged you - I ask you to do three things. First of all: would you please let your friends know about The Point of Purity Podcast. Help us help men and women across the globe win their war for sexual purity and live in freedom. Because I am a not-for-profit ministry, I cannot afford a marketing budget. As a result, the only way people are going to know about this Point of Purity Podcast is if my listeners ... if you ... tell others about it. So, would you please partner with us by helping spread the news?
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So, until next time this is Author, Speaker, and Purity Coach Steve Etner reminding you that if you are going to glorify God in your everyday living, He must first be glorified in your every moment thinking.
To give your tax deductible gift to this ministry today, simply go to ThePurityCoach.com and click on the Donate button in the upper right corner.