Speaker 1: Would you pray with me for the proclamation of God's word. Lord,
Speaker 1: We've gathered here this morning to praise your name, to
Speaker 1: encourage one another in you, to bow our heads in
Speaker 1: prayer in repentance. And Lord, we have come that you
Speaker 1: would work in us by the power of your spirit
Speaker 1: through your word. We're counting on that, and we trust,
Speaker 1: we trust what you have promised, that you do your
Speaker 1: work by your spirit in your people, through your word.
Speaker 1: And so as we open up the scriptures, would you
Speaker 1: open up our hearts do in us what we cannot
Speaker 1: do ourselves, grow us, sanctify us, mature us truly spiritually.
Speaker 1: As we step out in faith, would you meet us
Speaker 1: with power? We ask in Jesus' name. Amen, Let's grab
Speaker 1: our bibles. Let's grab our bibles and turn to Second Peter,
Speaker 1: the first chapter. Second Peter, the first chapter. If you
Speaker 1: don't have a Bible with you, just raise your hand.
Speaker 1: We're passing those out. Just catch the eye of one
Speaker 1: of our ushers there and hold your hand and keep
Speaker 1: it up, and we'll find you with a bible or
Speaker 1: a bulletin or whatever you need.
Speaker 2: Pen or anything like that.
Speaker 1: This is a good opportunity for me to remind you
Speaker 1: to please fill out a connection card, use the QR
Speaker 1: code and.
Speaker 2: The bulletin or on the seatback.
Speaker 1: You can take the rest of this worship service to
Speaker 1: do that, but we just ask that everyone does that.
Speaker 1: Whether you're here a lot or a little, if you're
Speaker 1: a member or a guest, it is important to us
Speaker 1: that we know that you were here by name. That's
Speaker 1: an important pastoral tool for us.
Speaker 2: If you are.
Speaker 1: New, you can leave some contact information. We'll be reaching
Speaker 1: out to you, following up with you. And if you
Speaker 1: are somewhat new and you have questions about how could
Speaker 1: I become a part of this local church, what does
Speaker 1: that like? We have a table out in the lobby
Speaker 1: called Step one and where we just begin that process.
Speaker 1: It's the first step. It's the first step of that
Speaker 1: process of becoming a part of this body of believers.
Speaker 1: That's also a place where you can connect for all
Speaker 1: kinds of questions, questions about this passage of scripture or
Speaker 1: about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you're here and
Speaker 1: you say, you know, I've heard these songs, I've heard
Speaker 1: you sing about and talk about Jesus Christ and faith
Speaker 1: in Him and holiness before God and I don't have
Speaker 1: much clarity around those things. Well, we want you to
Speaker 1: have clarity about those things. In fact, tonight I would
Speaker 1: welcome you to just come over to my house. My
Speaker 1: wife and I are going to have dinner from six
Speaker 1: to eight o'clock tonight and just we're going to focus
Speaker 1: on a conversation like that. So if you're here this
Speaker 1: morning and you're like I would like more clarity, I
Speaker 1: would like a conversation about the Christian faith and getting
Speaker 1: clarity about what it means to become a Christian, well
Speaker 1: we'll do that tonight.
Speaker 2: Just come on over.
Speaker 1: You can meet me at the step one table. I'll
Speaker 1: give you my address and come over tonight and we'll
Speaker 1: just we'll have dinner and we'll have a conversation.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So second Peter, the first chapter. If you're all there,
Speaker 1: I'd like to introduce someone to you. This is a
Speaker 1: passage of scripture. Actually that just picks up right after
Speaker 1: where Pastor Seamus Drake left off. If you remember when
Speaker 1: Pastor Seamus Drake was visiting us and preaching for us here,
Speaker 1: he preached the first paragraph or so of this book.
Speaker 1: And this morning, Scott Graham is going to pick up
Speaker 1: where he left off and preach for us the next
Speaker 1: paragraph in this letter. Now, Scott has been with us
Speaker 1: here at this church, serving on staff for a little
Speaker 1: over a year. He serves as the minister for students.
Speaker 1: And when he came on board here, there were two
Speaker 1: things that really really stuck out about his and his
Speaker 1: character and his qualities. The things he was focused on
Speaker 1: his priorities, and one of them was a high view
Speaker 1: of scripture. He wants to see God's word proclaimed talk
Speaker 1: to his people. And the other was a high view
Speaker 1: of discipleship. And he has been responsible for disciple making
Speaker 1: amongst our youth here at Crossway and leading a whole
Speaker 1: team of people to focus on discipling those young people
Speaker 1: and been doing a great job.
Speaker 2: And this will be the.
Speaker 1: First time I think that he's preaching for us as
Speaker 1: a church. So please welcome Scott Graham.
Speaker 3: Thank you, well, good morning, all right, I see you
Speaker 3: see you already have your bibles open.
Speaker 2: That is amazing.
Speaker 3: Why don't we just start there and make much of him?
Speaker 2: Therefore verse twelve.
Speaker 3: Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities,
Speaker 3: though you know them and are established in the truth
Speaker 3: that you have. I think it right as long as
Speaker 3: I am in this body to stir you up my
Speaker 3: way of reminder, since I know that the putting off
Speaker 3: of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus
Speaker 3: Christ made clear to me, and I will make every
Speaker 3: effort so that after my departure you may be able to,
Speaker 3: at any time to recall these things. This is the
Speaker 3: word of a lord. Thank y'all, by the way, for
Speaker 3: allowing me to be up here.
Speaker 2: I love you, guys.
Speaker 3: It is such a delight to get into God's word
Speaker 3: and to share God's word, but especially to share God's
Speaker 3: world of people that I love. So the title is
Speaker 3: don't forget to remember. That's what's going on in Peter's mind,
Speaker 3: is he's writing this, don't forget to remember? Is anybody
Speaker 3: here forgetful? I'm pretty forgetful. We blame a lot of
Speaker 3: things for our forgetfulness. I've blamed a technology. Some people
Speaker 3: blame their age, some people blame their their distractions. But
Speaker 3: I blame a very familiar culprit right here. I'll remember
Speaker 3: that I forgot something, but I'll forget what that was.
Speaker 3: Peter's final message is an urgent reminder for people who
Speaker 3: may forget. God's people are so.
Speaker 2: Prone to forget.
Speaker 3: Even the very base six of the Gospel, the very
Speaker 3: basics of grace, and how that plays out. And so
Speaker 3: Peter doubles down on the truths that he says they
Speaker 3: already know. Do we outmature these truths? When when we
Speaker 3: say forgetfulness, we're not talking about a lapse of memory.
Speaker 3: We're talking about a very spiritual forgetfulness. This is a
Speaker 3: condition that's preventing them from their own growth. What Peter's
Speaker 3: teaching us here is actually quite simple. It's we need reminders.
Speaker 3: We need reminders. Now, I'm a veteran and the military.
Speaker 3: We we love our acronyms. There are a lot of acronyms,
Speaker 3: and so I'm I've picked a new monic that's going
Speaker 3: to help us remember. It's taken from Peter from the
Speaker 3: text right here, and it's the word is stir stir
Speaker 3: s T, I, R and and four letters with four
Speaker 3: urgent charges that will help us trace the arguments here
Speaker 3: in Peter's in the text of second Peter. All right,
Speaker 3: so the first first main point, all right, s all right,
Speaker 3: this one's easy.
Speaker 2: We're going to keep it simple. Stir stir up.
Speaker 3: Peter wants to stir us up by way of reminder.
Speaker 2: Look at verse twelve and thirteen.
Speaker 3: Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these qualities,
Speaker 3: though you know them and are established in the truth
Speaker 3: that you have. I think it right as long as
Speaker 3: I am in this body to stir you up by
Speaker 3: way of reminder.
Speaker 2: What Peter's saying.
Speaker 3: Here is he's always going to be ready to remind them.
Speaker 3: If there's an opportunity to talk about Christ, his grace
Speaker 3: and how that works in our growth and our response
Speaker 3: to him, he's gonna take that opportunity. It's necessary. So
Speaker 3: he's reminding us that it's important. But they already know
Speaker 3: these things. They're established in these truths. And he's going, yes,
Speaker 3: I see that, and I'm encouraging you. Yes you do
Speaker 3: know that, Yes, you are established in that. And yet
Speaker 3: it's necessary to remind you. So he keeps reminding they
Speaker 3: need these reminders in these very basic truths to.
Speaker 2: Stir them up.
Speaker 3: Stir up that that word it's it's a wake up call,
Speaker 3: that's what it is. This isn't the wake up call
Speaker 3: when you call the front desk of a hotel. And
Speaker 3: this isn't Peter going, hey, I've got a devotional for you,
Speaker 3: and I've got some things I have to remind you of. No,
Speaker 3: he's he's saying, wake up, stay alert, your your hands
Speaker 3: are on the wheel, don't drift. Be reminded of these truths.
Speaker 3: These truths you have in Christ. You're you're going to
Speaker 3: need them. You're going to need them. He's reminding us
Speaker 3: what he's said since the very beginning of his letter.
Speaker 3: They must not forget God's blessings, their salvation, and their
Speaker 3: response to that. You see, without these reminders, they're running
Speaker 3: a very big risk that the stakes are high. Without
Speaker 3: these reminders, they can forget that they've ever been cleansed
Speaker 3: from their former sins. Peter earlier, he lists these qualities.
Speaker 3: Supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, knowledge with
Speaker 3: self control, steadfastness with godliness, godliness with brotherly love and
Speaker 3: brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. It starts in faith,
Speaker 3: it ends in love. I do love that. But there's
Speaker 3: this warning, you see, as if these people lack these qualities,
Speaker 3: if it's not there, I'm not saying growth can be
Speaker 3: a messy thing, but if they're not there, what he's
Speaker 3: warning is they can forget that they've ever been cleansed
Speaker 3: from their former sins.
Speaker 2: The stakes are high.
Speaker 3: We can forget that we've ever even been given the
Speaker 3: very life and the godliness in it that Christ has
Speaker 3: supplied for us by his divine power. And Peter knows
Speaker 3: the value of reminders. They stir us up. We need
Speaker 3: this wake up call. They needed this.
Speaker 2: Wake up call.
Speaker 3: I want you to think about the daily rhythms of
Speaker 3: a church. One of them we just did. We were
Speaker 3: worshiping the Lord. That daily rhythm. You know that moment,
Speaker 3: that moment where the body of the church is almost
Speaker 3: singing louder than the worship leaders that are leading us
Speaker 3: in that worship. That stirs me up. Baptisms, Baptisms, that
Speaker 3: is a reminder that stirs me up. How about testimonies, testimony?
Speaker 3: You want to know what I love about testimonies. I
Speaker 3: love this about testimonies. It's when they're telling us this
Speaker 3: story of their past and we're getting and I can't
Speaker 3: wait to get to that moment, that moment where they
Speaker 3: go and Jesus showed up.
Speaker 2: But God, but God.
Speaker 3: That that is a reminder that stirs me up. Or
Speaker 3: participating in the Lord's Supper, it's a local body. We
Speaker 3: participate in this together and it reminds us of his sacrifice.
Speaker 2: It stirs me up.
Speaker 3: Another one that's real close and real dear to me
Speaker 3: is just living life in the church with y'all, with
Speaker 3: my small group, as they are constantly and persistently giving
Speaker 3: me these kinds of reminders, constantly saying you need to
Speaker 3: remember Christ, you need to have this biblical framework when
Speaker 3: as you're working your way through these phases in life,
Speaker 3: keep Him in mind. He's them stirring me up. I
Speaker 3: need those reminders. So I don't know about you, but
Speaker 3: I get pretty stirred up in these daily these habits
Speaker 3: that we find ourselves in, just in the life of
Speaker 3: the church. God's Word tells us that we need continuous reminders.
Speaker 3: He's saying, I will always I will always be ready
Speaker 3: to remind you. This is a repetitious reminder we need
Speaker 3: to get our reps in. God's Word tells us this.
Speaker 3: One of my favorite places to go for this is
Speaker 3: actually the Shemah. And that's not because before we're Hebrew linguist.
Speaker 2: It might be.
Speaker 3: I could read it for you in Hebrew if you'd like,
Speaker 3: We'll stick with English. It tells us that that we
Speaker 3: are to love the Lord, our God, with our whole soul,
Speaker 3: with our whole heart, and with all of our might.
Speaker 3: And how do we do that by taking all of
Speaker 3: these words and teaching our kids. It's in every facet
Speaker 3: of our lives. We're putting it on the door when
Speaker 3: we go outside. We're bringing this word with us when
Speaker 3: we go to bed, before we go tonight, that's our
Speaker 3: last thought on our minds when we wake up. It's
Speaker 3: the first thought in the morning. That his word is
Speaker 3: constantly when we make him the center of our lives,
Speaker 3: it is constantly stirring us up. But how do we
Speaker 3: stir one another up?
Speaker 2: You see?
Speaker 3: Because all these words here, that all the imperatives here
Speaker 3: are we see it as you, you, you, you, But
Speaker 3: they're in the they're in the plural, and we're in Texas,
Speaker 3: so it's okay to say this. But he's saying y'all,
Speaker 3: He's saying, y'all. How do y'all? And how do we
Speaker 3: How do we stir one another up by reminding one another,
Speaker 3: by taking every opportunity to remind us of these gospel truths. Also,
Speaker 3: this is another part welcoming these repetitive reminders, and sometimes
Speaker 3: that comes with a little bit of accountability. We get
Speaker 3: these reminders, and you know I might go, yeah.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 3: I needed I needed to hear that I do need to.
Speaker 2: Grow in that area.
Speaker 3: Pray for me, help me, help me get through that.
Speaker 3: These mutual stirrings, they keep us awake, They keep awake
Speaker 3: the Gospel in our lives, in our in in this church.
Speaker 3: Reminded serves to stir us. But it's also urgent because
Speaker 3: time time is brief, and that time brings us to
Speaker 3: tea tea. So we had stir and now we're at
Speaker 3: tea for time, tea time. Peter has a proper perspective
Speaker 3: of time. Look at verse thirteen and fourteen. I think
Speaker 3: it right as long as I am in this body
Speaker 3: to stir you up by way of reminder, since I
Speaker 3: know that the putting off of my body will be soon.
Speaker 3: Peter still thinks it's right to continue to remind them
Speaker 3: because time is short. He repeats the word body here
Speaker 3: and it's painting this picture of tent, okay, of tabernacle
Speaker 3: of booth. And I know some of us might nerd
Speaker 3: out over that round, oh all these old Testament reminders,
Speaker 3: but we're going to keep it simple. Tent temporary tents temporary.
Speaker 3: This will one day roll up. It's temporary. His duties
Speaker 3: are almost complete, his watch is almost over. He's about
Speaker 3: to hear well done, good and faithful servant, and he
Speaker 3: won't stop reminding. He refuses to stop reminding them. Why
Speaker 3: because time is short and we need reminders. Our tendency
Speaker 3: must be toward making the best use.
Speaker 2: Of the time we have.
Speaker 3: I don't know about you, but I could use this
Speaker 3: warning that's coming from Proverbs, because sometimes time gets the
Speaker 3: best of me. It says, how long will you lie there,
Speaker 3: oh sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A
Speaker 3: little sleep, a little slumber?
Speaker 2: I love this part.
Speaker 3: A little folding of the hands as to rest, and
Speaker 3: poverty will come upon you like a robber.
Speaker 2: How do we lose our time?
Speaker 3: Through small, repeated choices, little by little.
Speaker 2: And then all at once.
Speaker 3: When we lose our time, it surprises us. We trick
Speaker 3: ourselves into thinking that we have more time than we
Speaker 3: actually do. We need to know that time is short,
Speaker 3: and that should motivate us to remind others and to
Speaker 3: stir others up. Because the time it's urgent. How do
Speaker 3: we fight against this? We'll call it spiritual laziness. How
Speaker 3: do we fight against that? Paul tells us that look
Speaker 3: carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise
Speaker 3: making the best use of the time. Because the days
Speaker 3: are evil, this world is evil. It will do everything
Speaker 3: it can to distract you and to take that time
Speaker 3: from you. What's making the best use of the time?
Speaker 3: In Peter's perspective, what does that look like? Looks like
Speaker 3: reminding one another, reminding one another of these gospel truths.
Speaker 3: Don't fall into the traps of thinking that you have
Speaker 3: more time than you actually do. Don't postpone these gospel actions.
Speaker 3: If you're considering talking to that person, talk to that
Speaker 3: person while you still have time. Pray for that person.
Speaker 3: It can't wait diligently pursue opportunities to remind others of
Speaker 3: these basic truths. We need reminders, and time rarely sobers
Speaker 3: us until we realize how little we have. So how
Speaker 3: should we use the remainder of our time by pointing
Speaker 3: believers back to the precious promises that we have in
Speaker 3: Christ and encourage them as you see them growing in Christ,
Speaker 3: growing in this grace, and then pleading with others who
Speaker 3: may be uncertain about who they are in Christ plead
Speaker 3: with them. I know that uncertainty. I've lived in that uncertainty.
Speaker 3: So if that is you, I need you to hear this.
Speaker 3: Time it's short.
Speaker 2: It is so short.
Speaker 3: There is no more urgent, pressing need in your life
Speaker 3: than this. Stop wasting your time, stop putting it off.
Speaker 3: Turn to him, Turn to him that the gospel, it
Speaker 3: was planned before time began. But with people like you
Speaker 3: in mind, it means he loved you far soon than
Speaker 3: you were ever even capable of loving him. The Father
Speaker 3: planned it in love. He sent his son to take
Speaker 3: on human form, live the life that we could not live,
Speaker 3: bore the wrath that we could not we couldn't.
Speaker 2: Even understand, bearing that.
Speaker 3: He who knew no sin became sin, so that when
Speaker 3: the Father looked to the son on the cross, he
Speaker 3: saw my wreck of a life. And when he turned
Speaker 3: to look at me, he saw his righteousness. You can
Speaker 3: have that now too. Time is short, and the Holy
Speaker 3: Spirit today, the Holy Spirit applies it awakening dead hearts
Speaker 3: to enable us to trust in him. Trust him now.
Speaker 3: And here's the deal. Even mature believers, we need to
Speaker 3: hear the God Gospel. There's something about it. As we
Speaker 3: hear it, we experience some of our own sins and convictions.
Speaker 3: But then we rejoice as we're reminded of the remedy.
Speaker 3: We rejoice in him. So reminding is urgent because time
Speaker 3: is short. But even shepherds are temporary. Peter's reminding us,
Speaker 3: but it's imminent his departure. It's imminent, which brings us
Speaker 3: to our next point.
Speaker 2: I so st I I.
Speaker 3: Is imminent departure. Peter announces this imminent departure in verse fourteen,
Speaker 3: since I know that the putting off of my body
Speaker 3: will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear
Speaker 3: to me. See, Peter knows that it's imminent, just Jesus
Speaker 3: foretold it in John chapter twenty one. He's in prisons,
Speaker 3: he's under persecution of Nero. His reminders here are are
Speaker 3: meant to remind and to guard believers against false teachers
Speaker 3: and scoffers that are coming in light of his departure.
Speaker 3: Churches in this region are experienced a great deal of
Speaker 3: tension and persecution, challenges. He knows the struggles, and he
Speaker 3: knows the drift that comes with those struggles, the doubt,
Speaker 3: the listening that the listening to these voices and these
Speaker 3: false teachers. As he describes these false teachers, he's saying
Speaker 3: that they are destructive, they're dangerous, they're deceptive. They're deceptive
Speaker 3: because they're using God's word and they're twisting it, and
Speaker 3: they're preaching a gospel of grace without transformation. This is
Speaker 3: this is a grace of Oh, I've been am I saved,
Speaker 3: but I don't I don't have to live that way.
Speaker 3: And I think that's one of the reasons why he
Speaker 3: lays out first what a Christian actually looks like. This
Speaker 3: is not a stagnant faith. It's all these qualities that
Speaker 3: you and me and we all should be reminding one another, like, hey,
Speaker 3: we're growing in these things. I see that in you,
Speaker 3: and it helps us when we see those that lack
Speaker 3: those qualities, you will know them by their fruit. So
Speaker 3: they're twisting God's word for their own self gain. Peter
Speaker 3: announces that this imminent departure and their need to place
Speaker 3: their hope in something beyond him, in Jesus, in the
Speaker 3: truths of these gospels, of this gospel that he is
Speaker 3: now preaching to them. So how do we keep our faith?
Speaker 3: As leaders go we urgently remind one another of Christ
Speaker 3: and his grace and the sustaining grace and this transforming grace.
Speaker 3: Over the years, we've lost a lot of good, faithful pastors.
Speaker 3: You may have a few of them on your mind.
Speaker 3: I will name one, Arci Sproull.
Speaker 2: And it's a.
Speaker 3: Common question that I think comes up during this time.
Speaker 3: And I don't know if it's because of curiosity or
Speaker 3: it's because of doubt, but I hear.
Speaker 2: Who will replace them?
Speaker 3: How do you restore the hope of someone that has
Speaker 3: such doubts by doing the same thing that those faithful
Speaker 3: pastors were doing, constantly reminding us and pointing us to
Speaker 3: these gospel truths. We remind them of the hope, we
Speaker 3: remind them of disgrace. But faithful and effective leaders are also.
Speaker 2: They also have this.
Speaker 3: Imminent departure perspective which motivates them to invest in the future,
Speaker 3: to invest in the next generation.
Speaker 2: Peter's no exception.
Speaker 3: We can learn a lot about his leadership in light
Speaker 3: of this imminent departure perspective. He invests in people. He
Speaker 3: taught them to remain stable by reminding one another of
Speaker 3: these truths. He discipled John Mark, who penned the Gospel
Speaker 3: of Mark. He invested in discipling network of churches and
Speaker 3: across Asia Minor, and he pastored those in Jerusalem. He
Speaker 3: invested in people because his departure was imminent. His departure
Speaker 3: didn't motivate him to get his affairs in order, No,
Speaker 3: it drove him more and more into this. I need
Speaker 3: to create these discipleship opportunities. I need to obey and
Speaker 3: courage others to remind them of these gospel truths. So
Speaker 3: as we keep our own imminent departure in mind, what
Speaker 3: does that look like? We need these reminders to motivate
Speaker 3: us to disciple those who are coming next. We need
Speaker 3: to remember it doesn't end with us, Thank God, it
Speaker 3: doesn't end with us. Invest in those young in the faith.
Speaker 3: Look right now, our culture is changing the opportunities for discipleship.
Speaker 3: They're rich, this new generation, they're hungry. They are coming
Speaker 3: into the churches and they are looking for answers. This
Speaker 3: age of deconstructionism that used to scare us, that is
Speaker 3: fading away into the background, and this new generation is
Speaker 3: coming in and looking for truths. It's gonna be messy,
Speaker 3: it will could be scary. The discipleship is messy. Who's
Speaker 3: going to remind them who's going to have these conversations
Speaker 3: with them, who's going to be pointing them to these
Speaker 3: gospel truths.
Speaker 2: As a church. As a church, we're.
Speaker 3: Called to this communal faithfulness, and Peter's eminent departure reminds
Speaker 3: us that we need to continue. We need to continue
Speaker 3: fostering this culture of discipleship, of building up the next leaders,
Speaker 3: of educating new and raising up new elders, training volunteers,
Speaker 3: training new small group leaders, enabling, equipping and training church planners.
Speaker 3: When we do this, they're also able to minister to
Speaker 3: this new generation. There is this new culture that's coming
Speaker 3: in and looking for these truths. Peter's departure was imminent,
Speaker 3: but he's planning for a reminder that's permanent that brings
Speaker 3: us to our It's the last one recall he wants
Speaker 3: us to recall. He wants these truths etched in our minds,
Speaker 3: burning into our memories so that we never forget. Look
Speaker 3: at verse fifteen, and I will make every effort so
Speaker 3: that after my departure, you may be able at any
Speaker 3: time to recall these things. If Peter's not winding down,
Speaker 3: he's ramping it up with departure that's imminent. He doubles
Speaker 3: down on this diligence, striving to ensure that these gospel
Speaker 3: truths remain. He wants this etched and embedded in them.
Speaker 3: He knows false teachers are on the rise, He knows
Speaker 3: the scoffers are coming. He knows that the trials will intensify,
Speaker 3: that leaders will fall.
Speaker 2: So he labors. He labors with this.
Speaker 3: Recallable anchor, truths that we can recall and count on
Speaker 3: at any time, amid doubt, amid persecution, amid the busyness,
Speaker 3: amid deception. Even when apostles are gone, the word abides forever.
Speaker 3: It's this word that stirs us up. It's still reminding
Speaker 3: us today, in twenty twenty almost six, still reminding us.
Speaker 3: So Peter's own life shows us that the danger of
Speaker 3: spiritual forgetfulness. But then also this power, a free call.
Speaker 3: He once swore, undenyingly this loyalty, yet denied Christ three times.
Speaker 2: The question of a servant girl.
Speaker 3: It's that crushing moment that the Lord turned and looked
Speaker 3: at Peter, and he remembered the words that Jesus spoke,
Speaker 3: and he went away weeping bitterly. But restoration came through
Speaker 3: Jesus recalling these same gospel truths of you need me,
Speaker 3: you're restored. Now feed them. And now he's facing his end,
Speaker 3: and he's continuing to feed us. Look these the things
Speaker 3: that we value most. I think that they are on
Speaker 3: our minds quite a bit. We recall them, we talk
Speaker 3: about them. I find myself talking a lot about barbecue.
Speaker 3: We live by them. Peter refuses to let these gospel
Speaker 3: truths fade in the background. He's not okay with them
Speaker 3: hearing it one time, He's not okay with them hearing
Speaker 3: it two times, He's not okay with hearing it three times.
Speaker 3: Every effort, every opportunity, he is reminding them and stirring
Speaker 3: them up in these reminders. We need to make it
Speaker 3: a necessity. We need to make it a necessity to
Speaker 3: return to these gospel truths, return to them again and
Speaker 3: again and again. We never outgrow or out mature our
Speaker 3: need for reminding. So let's continue reminding one another. But
Speaker 3: with this in view, one day, one day, all these
Speaker 3: reminders will come to their perfect completion.
Speaker 2: We won't have.
Speaker 3: To say remember or know the Lord. Imagine that a
Speaker 3: day without apologetics, we won't need it. Faith will be sight.
Speaker 3: We will see the Lord, we will be with the Lord.
Speaker 2: He will be with us. Know the Lord, we'll.
Speaker 3: See him face to face. No more sin, no more doubting,
Speaker 3: no more wandering. Until then, continue stirring.
Speaker 2: One another up.
Speaker 3: Now, as the band makes their their way up to
Speaker 3: the platform, we're gonna participate in stirring one another up
Speaker 3: and singing one of my favorite songs. Come thou found.
Speaker 3: We are so prone to wander. We need these reminders.
Speaker 3: Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it. Seal it
Speaker 3: for thy courts above. We are so prone to wander.
Speaker 3: Let's continue remind one another. Let us pray, Lord, God,
Speaker 3: Heavenly Father, we are so needy. We are so needy
Speaker 3: of the grace that saved us, the grace that transforms us,
Speaker 3: and the grace that sustains us. Lord, we need you.
Speaker 3: We thank you for your word. We thank you for
Speaker 3: the saints that continue to stir us up as you
Speaker 3: work in them and as you work in us, that
Speaker 3: we might stir them up. Let us create a community
Speaker 3: that stirs one another up and never gets tired of
Speaker 3: these old truths that make us new. In your Son's name,
Speaker 3: we pray Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: Amen,