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Restoration Ministry

Restoration 2009: Expect It

Marc Swearingen

Love With a Risk

Running From Duty

The Pearl of Great Price

A Universal Cross

The Voice of Conscience

God’s First Promise

Iron Mixed With Clay

Christ Our Righteousness

By Faith or By Sight?

Questions and Answers with Marc Swearingen

A Knowledge of Evil

Our First Love

Father in heaven, we come to you on bended knee tonight, thanking you for the blessings that we've received this past week.

And Lord, we do pray in this moment of time, again, as our dear sister prayed earlier, that we would center our minds on you for a moment tonight.

Lord, we've had a busy week, most of us, and our minds are racing, our hearts are racing, and we need to come into your rest for a short while tonight.

So we pray, Lord, that you would send your Spirit upon us to cause us to have peace, That our minds would be still, that we might hear Your voice speak to us in a very powerful way.

Bless us as we go into this message tonight, and may we receive a blessing that we need.

Tonight I want to talk about God's first promise.

Have you ever made a promise you did not keep?

Now, have you ever made a promise to God that you didn't keep?

And unlike human beings, God always keeps His promises.

Of course, some of His promises are conditional upon human choice.

If humans comply and meet the conditions, God will fulfill the promise in a lot of cases.

But as I said, God always keeps His promise.

And in the Bible, some experts estimate that there are over 3, 000 promises in the Bible.

I've heard different numbers through the years, but the figure that I can rest upon is something around the neighborhood of 3, 000 promises in the Bible.

Now, what I want to do is I want to go to the text found in 2 Peter just for a moment.

So, if you have your Bibles, let's turn to 2 Peter.

And I want to start there in the first chapter of 2 Peter.

I want to read the first 4 verses of 2 Peter 1.

We're going to be unpacking the subject of God's first promise tonight.

And Peter talks about the promises of God in this passage of Scripture, beginning there in verse 1 of 2 Peter chapter 1.

He begins that text by saying, Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ.

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Now this is a very important passage because here Peter says basically that he is called by God to be an apostle through the righteousness of Christ.

And then he tells us right there, beginning in verses 3 and 4, that unto us are given exceeding precious promises from God.

And through these promises, we can be partakers of God's character, the divine nature, and through that power that comes along with God's nature, we can actually escape the sinful pull of this world.

Now that is a tremendous promise because many times Christians stop at the forgiveness of God and omit the power that God gives the individual Christian in the daily walk with God.

But Peter says here that if we believe and ingest the promises of God, friends, then we are going to partake of the character of God and live the very life of God.

And Christ is not the minister of sin, friends.

And so we can see and we're going to come back to this in a minute when we look at God's first promise.

But Peter says right there that that we have many, many precious promises from God that are great.

In fact, he uses the phrase exceeding great.

When I think of my favorite promises in the Bible, many texts come to mind.

And I'm going to share those with you in a minute.

But I would like to just take a moment to maybe take some hands from some of you.

If you'd like to raise your hand and just briefly read a favorite promise to our group here tonight.

Does anyone have a promise they would like to read just briefly?

Okay, does anyone have a promise they'd like to read?

Please don't preach a sermon, just read your promise, okay?

But I just want to open it up so that you can share what's on your heart as far as a promise.

Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

That's a precious promise, isn't it my friend?

Jeremiah 29 11, for I know the thoughts I have for you, thoughts of good and not of evil to bring you to an expected end.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.

I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments and do them." So God promises us a new heart, amen.

Okay, okay, finally hands are starting to go up.

Okay, yeah, the gentleman right here in the white.

And then we'll get this gentleman down here.

Okay, this is Psalms 37 verses 23 and 24.

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his way.

Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.

And then I think we have a gentleman back here.

To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in His throne.

Okay, okay, maybe we can get over here and then we'll get this gentleman.

Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.

Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it." We have a couple more.

We've got 2 people over here and then we've got our sister right here.

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Series

Restoration 2009: Expect It

God’s First Promise

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Christ: Our Example in Prayer

1h

Forward On Your Knees- Part 2

1h 32m

Restoration 2005: To The Point

Clean, but Empty

38m

Systematic Benevolence

Systematic Benevolence- Part 2

52m

Forward On Your Knees- Part 1

1h 29m

Restoration 2005: To The Point

What and Where is the Kingdom of God?

50m

Soul Thirst: Going Deeper with God

Jump Start Your Devotional Life

53m

The Way of Love

The Way of Love- Part 4

46m

Plenary

The Elusive Fountain of Youth, Part 2

1h 14m

A Praying Man

1h 3m

Restoration 2003: From Eden to Eternity

An Issue of the Heart

40m

Sound Doctrine