Sunday Morning Service 8:30AM - "Knowing Jesus - The Power & The Purpose" - 2 Peter - Ryan Nichols

Well, good morning. Happy New Year to you. Glad you guys can make it this morning. Let's go ahead and ask you guys to stand with us. And we'll pray and we'll get started.

Father, we come before you this morning. And we thank you for another day. Thank you for allowing us to be in your house this morning, Lord. And I ask that you bless this time, Lord. Help us to focus on you, to lavish praise upon you this morning, Lord. And may your word go out with power this morning, God. May you be blessed this morning. May you be glorified in Jesus' name.

Amen. And have a seat if you like.

Lord, we just come before you this morning. And we just thank you for who you are, Lord God, for how much you love us. Lord, we thank you that you are on your throne. That nothing takes you by surprise. Lord, no matter what's going on in our lives. Even though sometimes things may not go our way, Lord, we know that. And we just thank you for that, Lord. We know that you are in control.

And we just rest in that. And this morning, Lord, we just offer you our thanks, Lord. We offer you our gratitude, Lord, for who you are again. And what you've done for us and how much you love us.

Would you guys stand with me for the last one?

Let that be our prayer this morning. That we just offer you a sincere heart of gratitude for who you are, God. For what you've done for us. For willingly leaving your throne. Coming to earth. And taking our rightful place on that cross, Lord God. Lord, we thank you. And we praise you, God. We love you so much. And now as Pastor Ryan comes, I ask that you would just be with him.

Give him the words to speak. And give us ears to hear and a heart to receive it, Lord God. In Jesus' name. Let's take some time and greet one another.

Good morning. If you could locate your seat. Grab your bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. Handful of things to take note of in your bulletin. Everything's back online this week. So all the studies are back going again. So find yourself a spot to get plugged into over there on the left-hand side of the bulletin. Middle section of your bulletin. Some things to take note of. First of all, the Bible reading plan, just so you know, is a little bit different this year.

If you usually go along with us in this. This year we are doing the chronological Bible. So kind of a little digression. Different. And so you won't have an old and a new. It'll just take you straight through. So if you were like, hey, they forgot to put the New Testament in there. No, we didn't. Okay. It's coming. It hasn't been written yet according to our plan.

So take note of that. It's on the, if you don't know where that is, it's on that back page right there. And then it also goes out on both our Instagram and Facebook page too. So if you forgot your bulletin, it's okay. It should be on there. So. A couple of other things to take note of. Intercessory prayer is tonight at six o'clock in the Agape room. And then ladies, there is a women's breakfast next Saturday down in the Agape room.

So take note of those things. And then I have a note on here. I don't know if this is still true or not, but it says that there was a silver Dodge pickup truck whose lights were on in the parking lot shortly before worship. So if you have a silver Dodge pickup truck and you're thinking to yourself, gosh, it would be nice. If that started when church ended, I don't know.

Maybe just go check that out real quick. We will not think if somebody gets up right now, no judgment. Okay. We've all been there. We've all been there. We're just going to pretend it didn't happen. Okay. All right. Those are the things that are going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced and for our responsive reading this morning.

Hey, look at that. I like that. Let's focus more on Jesus. So just throw that thing into the ocean. And that's probably the healthiest thing you can do with your life. Anyway. So for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm four, looking at the new American standard so that hopefully we all sound the same. If you need a copy, there should be one in a row around you.

And as you are turning to Psalm four, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's word. We'll read the odd verses. If you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses Psalm four for the choir director on stringed instruments, a Psalm of David. Answer me. When I call, Oh God of my righteousness, you have relieved me in my distress.

Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. Oh, son of man, how long will my honor become a reproach? How long will you love what is worthless and aim at deception? Say, but know that the Lord has set apart the godly man for himself. The Lord hears when I call to him. Tremble and do not sin. Meditate in your heart upon your bed and be still. Say, offer the sacrifices of righteousness and trust in the Lord.

Many are saying who will show us any good. Lift up the light of your countenance upon us. Oh, Lord, you have put gladness in my heart more than when their grain and new wine abound in peace. I will both lie down and sleep for you alone. Oh, Lord, make me to dwell in safety. And father, I thank you that you do answer us when we call Lord, that we can rest in the fact that you are not only a God who hears prayer,

but Lord, you are a God who answers prayer. And so, Father, I ask this morning that you would speak to our hearts. Father, that you would give us ears to hear what your spirit wants to do, not only in our hearts, but in this congregation this morning. And so, Father, I know that I need empowered right now by your Holy Spirit. I pray that you would overflow me with the gift of teaching

and that you would overflow all of us as your people, Lord, with the gift of hearing. Lord, to be able to take in exactly what it is that your Holy Spirit wants to speak this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. And if you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of 2 Peter, chapter 1. 2 Peter, chapter 1. We're not actually starting the book of 2 Peter.

Somebody said, ooh, we're starting the book of 2 Peter. That's not actually true. This is just a little bit of a special message here this morning. So, next week, we will jump into the book of Hebrews, actually, is where we're going to be going next. But this is one of those. It's kind of special messages that the Lord gives you when you get a week and a half off.

So, I took a little time off because, honestly, my goal was just to sit with the Lord. I had no plans. We thought about going somewhere. And I said, you know what? I just, what I really feel like needs to happen in my life right now is I just need to sit with God for a little bit and just see what the Lord has to say to me. I remember when I graduated Bible college, my Uncle Joe, who had been in ministry for a very long,

a long time by that point, and even longer now because he's much older than me. My Uncle Joe talked to me and said, you need to know something about ministry, right? Because he knew that that was my goal in life. He said, one of the things that you have to know about ministry is you have to be willing at times to set aside the job so that you don't forget why you're doing what you're doing.

You have to be willing to set aside the job so that you can focus on Jesus, whether that's for a short time or for a long time, because you can never forget that. You have to be willing to set aside the job so that you don't forget why you're doing what you're doing. And so that's what I did over these last couple of weeks is I gave myself no schedule, and I pretty well told my wife, I said, listen, I need to spend some time with Jesus, and I don't know how long each of those times is going to take, but I just need to go sit with the Lord. And sometimes it was in my office at home.

Sometimes it was at a coffee shop. And sometimes it was just on a run to just hear what Jesus had to say to me. And so I just sat with the Lord a lot. And one of the things that God spoke to me was out of 2 Peter. As a matter of fact, I'm going to read two verses to you. And these are going to be what we talk about this morning. But let me just read them to you.

The first one's out of 2 Peter 1, verse 3. It says, I love that verse because it really points out the importance of knowing Jesus and the power that comes with knowing Jesus. And I read that, but I kind of skipped by it because it's underlined in my Bible, and I love that verse. And so I kept cruising through 2 Peter, and 2 Peter is just a great book. 1 Peter deals with persecution that comes from without.

2 Peter deals with false teaching that comes from within and needing to stay focused on knowing Jesus in the midst of the false teaching that can sometimes arise from within. And so as I was finishing the book of 2 Peter, I was reading through, and I came to verse 18 of chapter 3, and it says this. It says, It says, It says, It says, It says, It says, It says, It says, And so as I read that verse, I thought, oh, the word knowledge really stuck out to me. I thought, you know what's wild?

I'm going to look back. I want to make sure that I'm thinking about this correctly. And I said, yep, the book of 2 Peter starts with the power of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And 2 Peter ends with the purpose of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And it's one of those epiphanies. It's one of these sort of moments where you realize that everything in your life

really should focus on that one singular aspect, that one singular thing, and that's knowing Jesus. And 2 Peter so artfully presents that to us. And so as I was thinking and I was meditating and I was praying and I was journaling about all of these things, I thought, I know exactly what I'm going to do for my first message back, for the first message of the new year. It's going to be entitled, Knowing Jesus, the Power and the Purpose.

Knowing Jesus, the Power and the Purpose. Knowing Jesus, the Power and the Purpose. Knowing Jesus, the Power and the Purpose. So there's three things that I want to look at this morning out of 2 Peter. I want to look at the power, I want to look at the purpose, and I want to look at the growing. Go back over to 2 Peter chapter 1. Look at verse 3 again. Because this is the power of knowing Jesus.

It says this, Seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory, by his own glory and excellence. Again, 2 Peter is the last thing that we have written of Peter. He knew his life was drawing to a close, and while he had written to generally just disciples. 1 and 2 Peter are what we call a part of the general epistles, because they're not written to one specific town or one specific group of people.

It's just to the saints, to those who have received the faith. And so it's just to anybody. And so in this general epistle, he's drawing near, near the end of his life. And what he is seeing arise as he is seeing false doctrine begin to pop up. And he wants to not only warn the people of false doctrine, but tell them that the only way you can really avoid the false

is if you know the authentic. The only way that you can be defended against the false is if you know the real. And so he starts off by telling them that they have been given grace through our Lord Jesus Christ, that that grace would be multiplied to you. Seeing that, first of all, his divine power, his divine power has given to us. He said his divine power has given to us.

The word power in the Greek is the word dynamis. And the word dynamis means inherent power or power that resides in a thing. And that power is given a defining word and that it is his divine power. Divine is actually a word in the Greek that is borrowed from the Greek gods because it speaks of any of the Greek gods, but everybody knowing the language at that point in time, knew that what he was talking about is a power that is beyond humanity, a power that is beyond human strength, a power that is beyond something natural, a power that can only be defined as divine.

And in this case, not coming from one of the Greek gods, but coming from the God. He says his divine power. The next thing he says is it has given to us. That phrase has given is a very interesting phrase in the Greek. What it means is an act of generosity that grants or bestows. An act of generosity that grants or bestows. In other words, his divine power has granted to us

or generously bestowed upon us. And there's something else interesting about this phrase has given because it gives the idea of a permanent possession that has already been given. A permanent possession that has already been given. In other words, this power that he is speaking of in talking to the believer, in talking to the saint in Jesus Christ, those who are of a like faith has already been given to you.

In other words, as a believer in Jesus Christ, the divine power of Jesus has already been given to you. But what is the purpose of this power? His divine power has given to us everything that we need for life and godliness. Everything that we need for life and godliness. In other words, there is nothing, nothing in your life that has not been supplied to you

by the divine power of Jesus Christ. You can stop looking for the secret to life. You can stop looking for the purpose in life. You can stop looking for the power in life because it has found no other place than in Jesus Christ himself. Throw your self-help books away. Throw all of the other things away because you need to stop the search. That's why Jesus told the woman at the well,

he said, I give you a different kind of water because whoever drinks from this well, is going to be thirsty again. But whoever drinks from this well, will never thirst again because the search is over. Potentially, I just saved you a lot of money this year, right? Because everything that we need, both for life and godliness, that speaks of every aspect of human life, both the divine aspect where we are seeking a relationship with God, because I'll tell you this, everybody is seeking, for a relationship with the divine.

Everyone is seeking for a relationship with a higher power, something that is beyond themselves. Everybody is seeking for that. It's just most people are looking in the wrong place. Most people are looking for a divine power in the things of the world or they're looking for a divine power in the gods of this world or they're looking for a divine power in the philosophies of this world.

And what we need to realize is everyone has the search. Jesus is the answer. And so his divine power has given to us everything that we need for godliness, not only in our relationship with Jesus Christ, but to live godly in the world, but also for life. That means that every part of your life is supplied to you by Jesus Christ. The word life there literally means animate.

In other words, every part of how you are animated is provided to you by the divine power of Jesus Christ. Not only the breath that's in your lungs, but the purpose for that breath being in your lungs. I think one of the coolest things that's given to us in the book of Hebrews and in other places in scripture is the fact that not only does God supply the life, God supports the life. Do you realize that we are told in the Bible that the world is held in motion by the word of his mouth?

In other words, God speaking is the one that is keeping the world in motion. Do you know the thing that is sustaining your life is the very thing that gave you your life, the God who breathed life into your lungs is the God who sustains that life in your lungs, which is why we know that life is not only a gift from God, but our lives are in God's hands. So we will not arrive earlier than we are supposed to and we will not depart earlier than we are supposed to because my life is completely animated by God and he gives me everything that I need for life and godliness through his divine power. His divine power has given to us everything that we need for life and godliness.

everything that we need for life and godliness. everything that we need for life and godliness. How? Through the knowledge of him who called us. I appreciate the way that the New American Standard translates this because it says through the true knowledge of him who calls us. That word knowledge is epignosis, which means experiential knowledge or literally true and personal knowledge.

Again, where do you find the purpose for life? Where do you find the power for life? In God. It is found in the divine power of Jesus Christ that is granted to you through your knowledge of him, through your true and personal knowledge of him. I want you to know something. It does not come to you because you know what the Bible says. It does not come to you

because you attend a church. It doesn't come to you because your parents were saved, or your grandparents were saved, or your friends are saved. You can't get it because of the people that are around you. You cannot catch the life of Jesus Christ. It comes through a true, and personal knowledge of him. That true and personal knowledge of Jesus Christ begins the day that you put your faith in him.

You don't even understand how it works at that point in time. You just know you need something outside of yourself, so you take that step of faith. And more and more I've realized that accepting Jesus as your savior is truly a step of faith. Because when you talk to people that are skeptical about the Bible, and they're skeptical about God because they have trust issues of what people have done to them, the past, or how they've seen church hurt affect people in the past, and they go, I just don't know if I can really believe.

You realize faith really is a step, or salvation really is a step of faith. Because you have to decide, I'm going to step into the unknown in order to truly become who I want to be, or who God wants me to be. There's a beautiful picture of this in the Old Testament. You see, in the Old Testament, the first step of faith that the children of Israel took was an easier step of faith.

Not that salvation is an easy step of faith. Don't get me wrong. But they had to step into the Red Sea after God parted it. You see, God's already done the work of salvation. He's already done the parting of the Red Sea. The first step of faith you take is to step into what God has already done in the work of salvation. But you know, there was a second step of faith

that the children of Israel had to take. Only this step of faith was a little bit deeper because that true and personal knowledge of Jesus Christ starts off on the day of salvation, but it doesn't end there. That's just the beginning of your journey. And now you continue to take that step of faith to take steps of faith because that experiential knowledge is growing in our walk with Jesus Christ.

And so you gain more of that power as you walk with Jesus Christ. You know what the second step of faith that the children of Israel took was? The day that they crossed the Jordan River. But you know what they had to do that time? The waters of the Jordan River did not part until when? Until they stepped into it. Why? Because it was a deeper step of faith. The day that you start walking with Jesus,

the day that you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, He's already part of the waters. He's already cleared the way. He's already provided everything. You just have to walk into the finished work of Christ. But as you grow in your relationship with Him, as you grow in your understanding of Him, He continues to give you everything that you need for life and godliness,

but it requires greater steps of faith. It requires a greater step of faith. And so what we see in that first verse, there, that I wanted to look at, is we see the power that God has given to us. We sometimes, as believers in Jesus Christ, live as if we have no power in our life, as if we have no power over the things that go on around us, as if we have no power to walk with the Lord, to live as He's called us to live.

I'm just always going to be the person who fails. I'm always going to be the person who sins. I'm always going to be the person who just hopes that I skate in by the skin of my teeth. That is not how God wants us to live, because His divine power has given to us everything. That we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us. But the second thing that really struck me

was the purpose. Go over to 2 Peter chapter 3. I want you to look at verse 18.

What we missed in the middle, there's a whole lot of stuff. I recommend you go back and read 2 Peter again. Three chapters. It won't take you that long, I promise. Is Peter encouraging them to grow in their walk with Jesus Christ, to be diligent in their walk, with Jesus Christ, to beware in their walk with Jesus Christ. But then he tells them something very interesting at the very end.

He says, but grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. I've always said, the one purpose for which you were created was to know your Savior. That secondary purpose that is an addendum to that is to serve Him. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. That's the purpose that you were created for is to know Jesus. We know that because in the book of Genesis chapter 3, when God showed up after Adam and Eve sinned, He showed up like He did every day in the cool of the day, in the breeze of the day, to walk with them and spend time with them

just like He did every single day because that's the reason why they were created. That was their purpose in being created is to know God. And that's the purpose for which we were created. It's the purpose that sin destroyed and it's the purpose that Jesus restored restored at the cross. But knowing Jesus is an ever-growing relationship with him, and we have

to remember that. Too many people are content with the fact that you prayed a prayer one time. One time, are you saved? Yep, when I was five years old, I prayed to receive Jesus. That's great. Have you grown in your walk with him since then? Well, I didn't even think about that. Then are you really saved? I'm sorry, that's a question you have to ask yourself. If you have not grown in your walk

with Jesus, but you just prayed a prayer one time, if there's no fruit in your life, if there's no change in your life, then we are completely allowed to ask you the question, did Jesus really change your life? Do you really belong to him? Because if he didn't, then I'm not sure that the gospel really took its hold on you. Why? Because his divine power has given to us everything that we

need for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us. But now that you know him, you need to fulfill the purpose. What's the purpose in your life? But grow. But grow. That word grow means to increase or to become greater. The idea is a constant growing. The Amplified Bible puts it this way, to become spiritually mature. To become spiritually mature. Two beautiful daughters, and I loved the day that

both of them were born. I haven't slept since the day that both of them were born, but I loved that day. It was great. It was a great day. But if at the ages of 17 and 13, let's not add any time. If at the ages of 17 and 13, they still acted like they were newborn babies, we would all think that there was a problem, right? We would all say that's a problem in life

because there's been no growing. No, what we've looked for throughout their lives is milestones that they would hit. Things that they would end up doing and becoming and growing into because that's what we expect of us as human beings. And it's no different in our walk with Jesus Christ. We are to grow. We are to become mature. There should be a, continual growth in your life it's it's been interesting because i am not as young as i used

to be and i've been walking with jesus for a long time now and the numbers of the years that i've been walking with jesus now have really well this bothers me how many years i can say i started walking with jesus in april of 1998 if you're doing math that was a long time ago um i started in ministry in 2002 and again if you're doing math that was a while ago and because of everything that's happened over this last year i've been incredibly reflective especially about what god has done in my life over those 20 some years almost 30 of walking with jesus and what's been fantastic is to look back and and see how i have grown in some ways because god's taught me really hard lessons

because because i've been through the ups and the downs because i've been through the hard things the benefit that i have is i write studies about them so i can go back and look at those and i can go wow have i come a long way since then i could go back and listen to the cassette tape of the first study that i ever did on psalm 23 and i can know that my knowledge of jesus has grown a lot since then because nobody uses a cassette tape any longer right and so and so i can see that growth but but i i i still see areas where i need to grow and so if 20 years from now i'm telling you the exact same stories it's like well did i even grow because we're to be in a growing relationship that's my

purpose in life is to grow and he tells us to grow in two things number one to grow in the grace of god the grace of god of course that grace is the the word grace in the greek is the is the word charis which is an undeserved favor the idea is to grow not only in my understanding of the grace of god but to grow in my use of the grace of god because the grace of god is not just there for salvation the grace of god is there for sanctification the grace of god is there for my growth the grace of god is there for my strength for my encouragement for my power to give you everything that you need along those lines it's almost like the divine power has granted to us everything that we need not only

through the power of the holy spirit but through the grace of god so if i'm going to grow in the I need to grow in my understanding of the power that I have through Jesus Christ. And I need to grow in my understanding of the grace that I have in Jesus Christ. C.H. Spurgeon referred to it as an ocean that we will never plumb the depths of or never reach the extent of.

We are swimming in the ocean of God's grace. So he says, grow in the grace. And so I have a question for you. Are you growing in the grace of God? Are you growing in that? Or are you still just like, well, thank God his grace was there to save me. Look, that was just the beginning of your story. The rest of your story is over and over and over again, God showing you his grace in your life.

He says, but grow in the grace of God. But not only that, he says to grow in the knowledge of God. That word knowledge in this sense is just the word gnosis, which again is an experiential knowledge. I love what David Guzik had to say about this. He says, this is the knowledge. The knowledge of which Christ is the object. The knowledge of which Christ is the object.

You want to grow in your knowledge of God, then you need to grow in your knowledge of Christ. You want to grow in your knowledge of God, then you grow in your understanding of who he is. And I don't remember where I read this, but I loved it. He said, growing in the knowledge of God means growing not only in your knowledge of him as the Lord and Savior, but also your knowledge of him as your friend and companion.

Also growing in the knowledge that he is your friend. and he's your companion because he's there with you in the best of times and he's right there beside you in the hardest of times and i've seen him in both and i can tell you he's a he's a faithful friend and companion and so i asked myself a question if knowing jesus is the power of my life and knowing jesus is the purpose of my life and growing is what i'm supposed to do then what does the growing look like because you know me i like to put shoes on it make it walk i don't want to just give you some platitude some idea and be like now go figure that out no let's figure out how we do this together shall we and so i prayed about

this and i thought about it i really just took some parts of second peter and i'm just going to be honest with you i did not put this study together i did not put this study together i did not put this study together i did not put this study together i did not put this study together together because I really started doing all the research. I put this study together in my time alone with the Lord. And you need to know that because there was no magic to how I put this together, which means that what God spoke to me, he can speak to you too. This is not something that I'm given because I'm a pastor and I'm a teacher. This is something that I'm given because I'm a

child of God. And I want you to know that because in the hardest of times, you need to remember you're still a child of God. And the same Holy Spirit that speaks to guys like me and every other guy that preaches the word is the same Holy Spirit that preaches to you and speaks to you. And you can get all of these exact same things out of the word. There's no magic to it.

All of these points I got without looking up what the Greek words were. I figured that out later because I still needed to be given an intelligent study. I figured these out without knowing what the Greek words of all these things were. I just simply said, Lord, I just need to hear from you. I just need to hear from you. I just need to hear from you. I just need to hear from you.

And these are the three things he told me. If I'm going to grow in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ, number one, I'm going to have to be diligent. I'm going to need to be diligent. Go over to chapter one. I want you to look down at verse five. Chapter one, verse five. This is what he says. Now, for this very reason also, since his divine power has given us everything

that we need, verse four, he said he's granted us great and precious promises. Now, for this very reason also, applying all diligence in your faith supply moral excellence and in your moral excellence, knowledge and in your knowledge, self-control and in your self-control, perseverance and in your perseverance, godliness. So what does it mean to be diligent? Number one, it means you need to be diligent in faith. You need to be diligent in

faith. And what I mean by that is you need to be diligent in faith. You need to be diligent in faith. And what I mean by that is you need to be diligent to take steps of faith. Because you will not grow in your knowledge of Jesus Christ if you never challenge the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Because I guarantee God is calling every person in this room to take another step of faith. I don't know

what that looks like for you, but God is calling you to take a step of faith, to do something to get outside of your comfort zone, to do something to get outside of your little bubble that you won't let anyone or anything else into. And to begin to take steps of faith. For some of you, taking a step of faith is going to be admitting that you need help in some area of your life. Admitting that you are not okay is the biggest step of faith that you need to take.

Telling somebody, you know what? I've been putting up a front like everything is good. Everything is not good and I need to let somebody else in on what's going on. And that's the hardest thing in the world to do. You know why? Because it means I have to take down my walls. It means I have to take down all of the protection that's kept me safe inside of this prison for so long. And I have

to do it. And I have to do it. And I have to do it. And I have to do it. And I have to do it. But it is a step of faith because you know what? Jesus meets you in those steps of faith. When you say, I'm not okay in this, it's amazing how not only does he meet you there, but he provides other people to meet you there. Because usually the person that you need to admit that to is the person that God

wants to use in your life. But it takes a step of faith. For some of you, the step of faith that you need to take is you need to minister to somebody. You need to quit just reading and taking in because you're becoming a fat Christian. No offense. I know you're not supposed to use that word. It's 2026 now, and I'm sure that's not allowed, but it just is what it is.

But as a Christian, you've become bloated. You know a whole lot about the Bible, but you're never putting it into action. And because you're never putting it into action, a whole lot of other bad things begin to build up inside of you. And God is saying, I want you to go put it into action with the people that you work with, with the people that you go to school with, with the church that you attend, in your neighborhood.

I don't know what it is for you, but you need to take a step of faith. Some of you, the step of faith that God is telling you to take is going to be dangerous. It's going to be so outside of your comfort zone that you think, Lord, it's going to have to be from you, because otherwise I'm not going to know that this is truly what I'm supposed to do, because this is life-changing.

But if you're going to grow, you're going to have to be diligent to take steps of faith. The second thing that you have to be diligent in is you have to be diligent in the Word, because he says, add to your faith knowledge. You have to grow in your knowledge of Jesus Christ, and the way that he has revealed himself to us is through the Word, so you're going to have to be diligent in the Word. And I keep bringing that up, because literally the Bible calls itself the Word of God.

The bread that we eat refers to it as the water that we drink. It's what makes us grow. And if you're going to be diligent in your growing in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, you're going to have to grow in what his Word has to say. That will protect you. It will protect you from false doctrine, but it will also guide you into what God wants for you. And so, take that Bible reading plan we got on the back of that bulletin and just get after it.

Ryan, I don't always understand everything I read. Welcome to the club, right? Me neither. I'm still in the book of Jeremiah right now, and I've even started this reading plan, because Jeremiah is a hard book to read. And I'm like, ah. So I have to dig into it. Listen, the only reason I can ever give you guys a Bible study, it's not because I'm a very smart guy.

Those of you that have known me since I was a kid know that that's true. It's not because I'm a really smart guy. It's because I take a lot of time in God's Word and a whole lot of prayer. Be diligent in what God's Word has to say, because he wants to speak to you just like he did to me. Number three. The next one, though, is we have to be diligent in enduring trials.

We have to be diligent in enduring trials. I read this quote from Chuck Swindoll, and it said, I have never met anyone with a, with a deep walk with Jesus Christ that didn't get there through very hard times. I've never known anyone with a deep walk with Jesus Christ that didn't have to get there through very hard times. We can try to insulate ourselves from hard things all that we want to.

Here's the thing. You can run, but you can't hide. Because God will allow in your life what's necessary to grow you in him. In this particular instance, in verses five through seven, he says that we need to add perseverance. That word perseverance is kind of interesting. I copied this down out of one of the dictionaries that I have on a Bible study program.

It says, Perseverance in the New Testament is the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith by even the greatest trials and sufferings. Let me read that to you again. Perseverance in the New Testament is the characteristic of a man, who has not swerved from his deliberate purpose and loyalty to faith by even the greatest trials and sufferings you see perseverance is the characteristic of diligence within the saint that allows them when the hardest times come to not run from them but to lean into them and one of the things that i have learned is that when the hard times come i can try to run from it or i can lean into it and if i'll lean into it then i'm probably going to grow from it if i run from

it it will create bitterness and anger in my life i follow this crossfit guy his name is rich froning and he has a company where he uh he's a bison farmer too and it's kind of fascinating so he puts out these like motivational quotes based on being a bison farmer isn't it great that you can have motivation and spirituality from even being a farmer it's almost like the invisible attributes of god are clearly seen in nature i read that somewhere um but one of the things he said is one of the fascinating thing about bison is that when a bison knows the storm is coming they don't run from the storm they run into the storm because they know that if they run into the storm they'll

get through it that much faster kind of sounds like something we need to do huh when the trials and the difficulties come lean in don't run because if you lean in not only will you get through it faster but you will grow deeper and you will become stronger if you want to grow in the grace and the knowledge of jesus christ if you want to know both the power and the purpose of knowing jesus number one you need to be diligent number two we need to be holy we need to be holy right that's legalistic is it go over to chapter three

i don't want you to look at verse 11. chapter 3 verse 11 of second peter it says this since all these things are to be destroyed in this way by the way he said that there's going to come a day when fire will consume everything since all these things are be to are to be destroyed in this way what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness holy conduct and godliness and as i thought about this i thought why do we need to be holy why does he tell us that if this if this is what's coming holiness should be what's most important in our lives why is holiness so important to us well i wrote down two things that i think are important number one holiness which by the way the word holy means to be set apart

it needs to be set apart unto god you have to be set apart in every way of your life you can't just be set apart in one aspect your entire life needs to be set apart to god in other words sin can no longer dominate your life god is going to dominate your life there's really only those two options you're either going to have your life be holy and controlled by the things of the lord or you're going to have your life be unholy and controlled by the things of sin there is no happy middle ground where you can just be a good person and so why is it important that we be holy well number one it protects your conscience it protects your conscience aren't you tired of living in shame aren't you tired of that

aren't you tired of living with the fear that someone's going to find out aren't you tired of living depressed because sin is what dominates your life you see that's a guilty conscience and holiness protects you from that guilty conscience like i said i'm doing this reading plan too and so i read in genesis chapter three and genesis chapter three well the first three chapters of genesis to me are are truly some of the most important chapters in the bible i mean they lay the groundwork for everything else that's going to take place and do you remember what happened when when adam and eve sinned the first thing they did is they covered themselves the second thing that they did is they hid themselves why because a lack

of holiness created a guilty conscience which caused them to want to hide from god answer me this question how can you focus on knowing god if you're also hiding from god kind of seems difficult doesn't it kind of seems like those two are at the opposite ends of the spectrum therefore a lack of holiness will hurt your conscience which will cause you to hide from god where did shame come from shame came from the fall where did the desire to hide our sin come from it came from the fall so if you want to overcome that if you don't want to live in shame if you don't want to live in guilt if you don't want to live hiding then you need to live in a clear conscience

say ryan i've already sinned enough i don't know how to get back to a clear conscience well it's easy first john chapter one verse nine tells us that if you confess your sin he's faithful and just to forgive you of your sin you know how you answer the problem of shame you know how you answer the problem of hiding you come out of hiding and you uncover what's got you feeling shameful and you uncover those things to the lord you say this is why i feel ashamed and you know what god does in that moment he says that's why i died for you that's what the blood of jesus christ is for and now your conscience is clean so live with a clean conscience do everything within your power to live with a clean conscience to live holy

but the second thing that living holy does not only is it protect your conscience but number two it keeps you free it keeps you free remember something is going to dominate your life it's either going to be jesus or it's going to be sin but something is going to control you if jesus is who controls your life then you live in freedom if sin is what controls your life then you live in bondage as a matter of fact if we were to go back to uh to the beginning of second peter in chapter one where he says add all of these things he uses a very interesting word he says self-control matter of fact just go back there and look at it real quick it's just one page over

second peter chapter one verse five now for this reason applying all diligence in your faith supply moral excellence that's holiness in your moral excellence knowledge and in your knowledge self-control and self-control perseverance perseverance godliness so on and so forth the word self-control is really interesting kenneth weiss and his word study of self-control says this means not ruled by your desire for sex that's what the word self-control there means not ruled by your desire for sex you know what that means that means that you can either live ruled by your desires for sin or you can live ruled by the freedom in jesus christ holiness allows you to live in freedom because i'm here to tell you right now what most people

don't realize is when you give in to sin in your life you close the door to sin and you close the door of the prison you've just put yourself in a cell and you close the door of the prison and in your mind you're free but in reality you're in bondage you want to know jesus you want to grow in your knowledge of jesus you have to live wholly because that's the only way that you can live in freedom and that's the only way that you can live in growth so number one if you're going to grow the grace and knowledge of jesus christ number one you have to be diligent number two you have to be holy but number three you have to be focused go back to chapter three i want you to look at verse

12 it says this looking for and hastening the coming of the day of god because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning and the elements will melt with intense heat but according to his promise we are looking for a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells therefore my beloved since you look for these things be diligent interesting isn't it be diligent to be found by him in peace and spotless and blameless he tells us to keep our focus on the promise and the promise that he tells us to keep our focus on is the fact that we are all looking forward to the second coming of jesus we are all looking forward to the promise of his return why because that promise produces diligence in our

life holding on to that promise produces the diligence in our lives i've used this example over and over again but it's the best one i can come up with to uh to give to you when i was a little kid little kid junior high high school uh my mom and dad would leave for work in the in the morning they both worked down here and um they would leave for work in the morning and my mom would leave us a list kids before we had cell phones that your mom could text you on they left you a list on the back of an envelope right it was a random envelope usually from some sort of a bill and so it was written yeah sometimes you had to make sure the envelope was folded just right otherwise the flap was there and you're like i don't even know what that says

and you close the flap like okay that makes sense now and on that envelope was written the list of things we were supposed to do before my mom got home and we all knew if that list was not done before mom got home it was a bad deal bad things would come about when mama ain't happy ain't nobody happy we usually knew when she was coming home but every now and then we'd get a phone call hey we wrapped up early we're on our way home and you went right because you haven't the promise of the return created the diligence right all of a sudden you are scooting to get all that stuff done because you put it off till the end of the day listen it's the same with us the knowledge of his return produces diligence in our lives

because we realize there's only so much time on top side of planet earth and so i want to do all the things that he's called for me to do i want to finish the list on the back of the envelope not just because i'm scared of god being mad but because i want to hear well done good and faithful servants and so i'm looking forward to the promise of his return and that promise of his return produces a focus that produces diligence but the next thing that the promise of his return does is it reminds us of the fulfillment of our ultimate purpose the promise of his return is the fulfillment of our ultimate purpose see right now the knowledge of jesus that we have is always going to be filtered through the fleshly lens that

we look through first corinthians 13 puts it like this he says but now we see in a glass darkly but then we will see face to face then we will know even as now we are known see right now our knowledge of jesus is still very veiled by this world that we live in because we see through fleshly eyes we we see through a fallen nature we see through the fallen bodies that we live in but the promise of his return will restore ultimately the purpose that we have in our lives that's why eternity will not just be spent playing harps on top of a cloud so this be playing a harp by the way playing playing a harp on top of a cloud somewhere it's going to be spent knowing and serving my savior the very purpose for which

i was created and it will and it will produce that ultimate purpose in our lives and so brothers and sisters i want you to know something knowing jesus is the power of our life and knowing jesus is the purpose of our life and if you're going to grow in that power of our life you're going to grow in that power and that purpose you need to be diligent you need to be holy and you need to be focused amen well this morning is communion sunday and so as we start off not only this new month but this new year i think it's a wonderful thing to be able to take time to remember why we do what we do to remember why we gather as the body of christ it's not just so that we can be some sort of a holy club and and uh

get some great motivational life hacks to go about life actually that's the problem in the church today is it's just a bunch of motivational life hacks now we gather as the body of jesus christ because we are the body of jesus christ so i'm going to invite the worship team to come on up and i'm going to take just a minute to share with you what we do with communion and then we'll partake together as always inside of each of these trays there's a couple of cups stacked together the top cup has the juice and the bottom cup has the crackers and i always like to tell you in and of themselves they're pretty mundane things and they're not worth very much but what they represent is the very purpose for which we are gathered

because what it represents is what jesus did to restore our purpose in life on that last great night of the feast he took the bread and he and he broke it i've shared this with you before but it's just another moment where it kind of hits you and you're like oh my god i'm i love i love the truth of what that bread is because that bread is that unleavened bread there were three things that were very interesting about the bread that was used first of all it was unleavened and leaven in scripture represents sin and so this bread was if you will sinless but this bread was also pierced because of the way that it was baked and it was striped because of the way that it was baked and so as jesus held up this unleavened pierced

and striped bread he broke it and he said this is my body which is broken for you there was so much more power in it than the disciples even realized in that moment now i often wonder how many times they thought back on that moment and said i wish we'd have paid closer attention but isn't it amazing that it truly represented the body of jesus that was sinless and that was pierced and that was striped for us he said every time you do this you declare the death of jesus and then he took the cup and the cup was that cup of redemption he said this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood that is shed for you the new covenant that makes us holy that did away with all of the sin that

holds us back that did away with everything that kept us from the purpose that we have in life and provided for us everything that we need for life and godliness because it allowed us to know jesus and so as we partake of that cup we are reminded of the blood of jesus christ that was shed for us the blood that ran down his face because of that crown of thorns the the blood that flowed from his back as he endured the beating it flowed from his hands and his feet as he was pierced for us and that blood that flowed from his side after he had given up the ghost to prove to everyone that the sacrifice was complete the blood of jesus christ that takes away sin and so as we partake we're to make sure that we do this with the understanding

that what we do here is serious because we are declaring the death of jesus we are declaring the thing that not only unites us to god but unites us with each other that's why it's called communion because we all have this in common so he tells us to make sure that we partake of it in a worthy manner first is what i just did for us to make sure that you understand exactly what we're doing and then we're going to do it in a worthy manner and we're going to do it in a second of all to make sure that your heart is prepared so if you're here this morning and you're not a believer in jesus christ and today better be that day of salvation for you and i don't just say that because i want you to partake of communion with us i mean it because

you're only going to have so many chances you're only going to have so many opportunities to give your heart to jesus until eventually you harden your heart so much that nothing gets through any longer so he says today if you hear his voice don't harden your heart because today is the day of salvation but the same is true for us as believers partaking of it as believers is making sure that our heart is right with jesus to make sure that that there's nothing that is that is between us and him listen i don't think you can lose your salvation but you can definitely cut off the fellowship there's definitely things that can hold you back from your purpose and you need to confess those to jesus and you need to deal with him in your heart

so as the worship team plays this last song and as the ushers hand out the elements i would just really encourage you to do the business in your heart that needs to be done with the lord get that heart cleared out if you don't know jesus then it's just time to cry out to him there's no magic to it bible says all who call on the name of the lord shall be saved so call on the name of the lord and you'll be saved forgive who needs to be forgiven confess what needs to be confessed and praise god for the finished work of jesus on the cross amen this is the body

thank you for the sacrifice of jesus on the cross lord for his blood that was shed for us lord his blood that is enough to not only cover our sins lord but to make us brand new and for the body of jesus christ it was broken for us and so lord i just pray that as we partake of this or that you would help us to keep in mind lord the sacrifice that you make and lord as we present ourselves new again this year i just pray lord as we take this fresh start that you would move in our hearts and that you would keep in our hearts and that you would keep in our hearts and that you hearts and our lives in jesus name amen let's partake and if you'd bow with me one last time

father we come before you and lord i just thank you for the morning that you've given to us lord i thank you for the start not only to a new month but to a new year and lord i just ask that you would move in our hearts and lives by the power of your holy spirit father may we as we approach this new year do so with the desire to grow deeper in you so lord move in our hearts and lives we pray in jesus name amen be blessed