Sunday Morning Service 10:30AM - "Knowing Jesus - The Power & The Purpose" - 2 Peter - Pastor Ryan N

All right, well, good morning. Happy New Year to you guys. I'm glad you're here. I'm going to ask you to stand with us. We'll pray and we'll get started.

Father, we come before you this morning. We just thank you for allowing us to be here today, Lord. Ask your blessing upon this time, Lord. Help us to lift praise to you this morning, Lord, to lift a joyful noise. And may your word go out with power, Lord. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Seat, if you like.

Lord, this morning, God, we lavish praise upon you, God, because you are worthy of all praise, worthy of all glory. And we thank you for how much you love us, for what you've done for us, Lord God. Lord, nobody else could have done what you've done. Nobody else could have taken my place on that cross. Lord, you looked at my life and you saw how ugly it could be.

And you still chose to go to the cross and take my place there. And so, Lord, I just thank you. I praise you so much. I love you so much, Lord. I just want to offer you our gratitude this morning. Would you stand with me? I throw up my hands and praise you again and again. Because all that I have is a heart. That is our prayer this morning, God. I just want to offer you our gratitude and our thanks for what you've done, for who you are, for how much you love us.

For your grace, for your mercy, Lord, for your wisdom, for your love, for your kindness, Lord God. We're deserving of none of that. Freely give it, Lord, and we thank you. Give you our gratitude this morning. And now as Pastor Ryan comes, I just pray that your Holy Spirit would move mightily this morning. Overflow him. Give him the words to speak. Give us an ear to hear.

And a heart to receive. Believe it this morning. We love you, Lord, and we praise you in your precious and holy name. All God's people said, amen. Let's greet one another.

Good morning. You could begin the process of locating your seats. Grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.

So a few things to take note of. Of course, on the left-hand side are the things that go on throughout the week. And everything is back in action this week. So find yourself a spot to get plugged into. There's lots of home studies to be plugged into. There's a Wednesday. There's a Monday night service here that you can get plugged into. So take note of those things.

Over in the middle section of your bulletin, a few things to take note of. First of all, we are doing our Bible reading plan again this year, but it is a little different. We are doing the chronological Bible this year. So if you were like, hey, they forgot to put the New Testament in there. I promise we did not. We know what we're doing. So we're following it chronologically.

It's kind of a different way to do it, but I thought it might be kind of a kind of a fun way to switch things up. And if you are interested in that, it's right there on the back of your bulletin. It also goes out on both our Facebook and Instagram pages. So there's not any directories out there right now, I don't think, but there will be more. And then intercessory prayer is tonight at six o'clock down at the other end of the hallway in the agape room.

And ladies, there is a women's breakfast next week, next Saturday, January the 10th. Breakfast is at 830 and the devotion is at nine. So those are the things that are going on. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. You have healed me when I call God of my righteousness. You have relieved me in my distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. Oh, sons of men. How long will my honor become a reproach? How long will you love what is worthless and aim at deception? 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. Selah. 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, O 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, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety. And Father, I do praise you that you are the God who hears when we call. And Lord, you are the God who allows us to dwell in safety. And so, Father, be with us now as we cry out to you and say, Lord, we need to hear from you this morning. Father, I need the gift of your Holy Spirit to be able to teach your word.

And Father, we all need the gift of your Holy Spirit to be able to hear what you have to say to us this morning. And so, I just ask that your Holy Spirit would fall on this place and that you would move through this time. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. And if you would, open up in your Bible. Open up in your Bibles to the book of 2 Peter, chapter 1.

2 Peter, chapter 1. So, we're not starting the book of 2 Peter. Someone asked me that at first service. Hebrews is what we'll start next week. This is just a bonus message based on my thoughts from the past couple of weeks. So, my goal in taking the last couple of weeks off, last week and a half or so, my goal was just to spend time with the Lord. And that's kind of what I did.

My goal was just to sit with Jesus and just see what he had to say to me and not only set the tone for the new year, but also just to heal a little bit in life. And my Uncle Joe, when I graduated from Bible college, my aunt and my uncle came out and they were there for it. And I remember us going to Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa. And we were sitting, before church started, we were sitting there waiting for church to start.

My uncle was just talking to me on a level he'd never really spoken to me before because he knew that my goal was to go into ministry and he'd pastored for a very long time. And I always remember him saying, Ryan, you have to be willing to set aside the job, just so that you can always remember why you do what you do. You have to be willing to set aside the job so that Jesus will always come first in your life. And so I've always tried to make that kind of a goal.

And so that's what I did these last couple of weeks. And so I pretty well told my wife, I said, listen, you just need to know when I have time with Jesus, like I'm just, I'm going somewhere, whether it's in my office, whether it's at a coffee shop, whatever. I just, I got to take the time that it takes to really hear from the Lord. And so that's what I did.

I spent a lot of time in God's word. I spent a lot of time in prayer and a lot of time just sitting and thinking. And one of the books that, what I read through was 2 Peter. And a couple of things stuck out to me in 2 Peter. The first one came out of chapter one, verse three. And it says this, it says, 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 and excellence. I've always loved that verse because that verse has always spoken to me because it reminds us that really the key to life, the key to having power as believers in Jesus Christ in this life is truly the knowledge of Jesus. And so I continued reading through 2 Peter, taking about a chapter a day and just kind of meditating on it, journaling through it. Then I came to the very end of 2 Peter.

So go over to chapter three, verse 18. And as I came to the end of it, which by the way, in the middle of what we've skipped here is Peter is essentially warning the believers against false teaching that would arise. First Peter, he warns about persecution from without. Second Peter, he warns about corruption from within. And so as he comes to the end of the book in 2 Peter,

chapter three, verse 18, he says this, 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. And you know how sometimes something just leaps off the page at you and you're like, whoa, I never put that together before. What leapt off the page to me in this instance is that he said,

grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I thought, man, that sounds really similar to what he said in chapter one. So I flipped back over to chapter one and I'm like, oh yeah, his divine power is given to us. Everything that we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who calls us, but grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it was kind of just one of those moments where the Holy Spirit just goes, and that's what I want you to know. And so what really the Lord spoke to me is that knowing Jesus is truly both the power and the purpose of our life. And so in that moment, I said, well, I've just got my New Year's message that I'm going to give, knowing Jesus, the power and the purpose. And so that's what I'm going to do.

That's what I want to go through this morning. I want to go through these two verses and I want to look at three things. I want to look at the power. I want to look at the purpose. And I want to look at the growing, the power, the purpose, and the growing. And so go over to second Peter chapter one, look at verse three again. Let's talk about the power that comes from 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. Glory and excellence. Now, I'll just remind you a little bit of who Peter is. Peter, of course, was one of the 12 apostles of Jesus. And Peter was the guy who tended to get himself in trouble

with the things that he said. Peter was the guy that had a tendency to stick his foot in his mouth and sometimes got ahead of himself. You know, his mouth wrote checks that his rear end couldn't cash a lot. And so it was just an issue that he had in his life. And Jesus took a man who was incredibly shifty and incredibly unstable and sort of a flake in life and turned him into a pillar,

a pillar of the early church. And so Peter's writing this epistle. And it's funny because in the epistle of second Peter, he says, listen, I've read some of Paul's writings. That's hard stuff. Literally, that's pretty much what he says. And so this is a real dude writing to real people. And second Peter is a part of what we call the general epistles. Most of the epistles you notice usually have a city

that it's written to, but Peter's not written to any particular city. It's just written to the saints, those who are of like faith. And he tells those who are of like faith, he says that his divine power has given to us. So we'll look at that phrase real quick, his divine power. The word power there in the Greek is the word dynamis. And the idea behind the word dynamis, of course,

we get our word dynamite from it, is it is an inherent power or a power that resides in a thing. And of course, the thing that this power resides in is the divinity of God. He says his divine. And interestingly enough, he borrows that word divine actually from Greek scholars of the day who were usually written to the saints. And he says, I'm going to give you a word of divine.

I'm going to give you a word of divine. I'm going to give you a word of divine. I'm going to give you a word of divine. They're usually referring to the Greek gods, i.e. Zeus and guys like that. Peter borrows that word because it would have been a familiar word to the general people that he would have written to. But he refers to a power that is divine, not attributed to the other gods, but attributed to the one true God.

He said his divine power, his dynamis, his dynamite, his inherent power has given to us, has given to us. That phrase has given carries with it the idea of an act, of a power, of a power that is given to us. An act of generosity that grants or bestows. An act of generosity that grants or bestows. And this giving to us means that it is a permanent possession

that we already possess. From the day that you're born again, you possess whatever this divine power has to give to you. He says his divine power has given to us what? Everything we need. Now we'll go on and look at those two words right after that in just a moment, but I want you to think about that. Everything. Everything that you need has been given to you by God.

Have you ever thought about that? I can tell you right now, whatever it is that you're searching for in your life, it ends with Jesus. Whatever it is that you're looking for as far as peace, as far as hope, as far as joy, as far as purpose, as far as any of those things, your search will always end with Jesus. You can spend money on every self-help book that's out there.

You can spend money on every new philosophy that's out there, every new idea that comes across, every new diet fad that happens. And you will always find yourself continually searching for the next right thing, for the next new thing until you come to Jesus. Because at that point in time, your search is done because he has given us everything that we need. This is essentially what he told the woman at the well in John chapter 4.

John chapter 4, Jesus arrives in Samaria and he meets the woman at the well and he says, give me a drink. And she says, sir, you're asking me for a drink? I'm a Samaritan woman. He goes, yeah, I want a drink. And finally, after this conversation, he says, I'll tell you what, I'll give you a drink that will make you never thirst again. This water, you drink it, you'll thirst again.

But I'm going to give you something that will never thirst again. And she said, give me this water. And he said, it's me. Because when we arrive at Jesus, we stop searching for anything else. I'm not looking for the next new philosophy in life. I'm not looking for the next new thing to come out because I already found it in Jesus. My search is done. My only search now is to get to know the one place

where everything I need is possessed. And that's in Jesus Christ. He says, he's given us everything that we need. For what? For both life and godliness. Let's take those in reverse order. He's given us everything that we need for godliness. In other words, if I want godliness to be what rules and reigns in my life, not only a relationship with God, but godly character in my life,

that search ends with Jesus Christ. Because his divine power has given me everything that I need for a proper relationship with the Creator and for a proper life as far as God is concerned. He's given me everything I need for godliness. But not only that, he's given me everything I need for life. That word life literally means animate. In other words, everything that I have in my life,

he has given to me. One of the coolest things about God, and I love this in scripture, is it tells us that not only is God the author of life, but God is the sustainer of life. It tells us that he set the world in motion by the word of his mouth, and he keeps the world in motion by the word of his mouth. It is the word of God, it is the very power, it is the very power of God that put breath into your lungs, and it is the very power of God that causes your lungs to contract and to expand, to cause air to continue to flow to all the parts of your body that are necessary.

Because he has given us everything that we need for life through his divine power. Well, if his divine power has given us everything that we need, how do we access it? That's what he says next. Through the knowledge of him. Who has called us. Through the true knowledge of him who has called us. That word knowledge in the Greek is the word epignosis. And it carries with it the idea

of an experiential knowledge or a true and personal knowledge of God. And we need to understand something about this true and personal knowledge of God. True and personal knowledge of God begins the day that you are born again. That is the first step in a true personal knowledge of God in your life. That is when your search ended and you finally, came to a place of understanding

this is knowledge. This is what it really means. Life is truly wrapped up in the understanding of knowing God. But it doesn't end there. Because it continues to give you everything you need as you grow in that knowledge of Jesus Christ. As you grow in that knowledge of him. This knowledge grows throughout our walk. It's interesting because there are two great steps of faith

that are taken in the Old Testament. Have you ever noticed that? With the children of Israel and their wilderness wanderings. The first great step of faith that the children of Israel took in their wilderness wanderings. In their wilderness wanderings was the day that they crossed the Red Sea. Remember that? Book of Exodus, right? Taking you back to Sunday school.

Book of Exodus. The children of Israel leave Pharaoh's slavery and they get out into the wilderness and it seems like everything's going great until they hit the Red Sea. And they can't go around it. They can't go over it. They're gonna have to go through it, right? That bear hunt book comes in super handy a lot of times. They got the army behind them. They got the army behind them.

They got the sea in front of them. And so what do they do? They cry out to God. And God parts the Red Sea and then they walk through on dry ground. That was the first step of faith that they took. But the step of faith was after God had already done the work and they stepped into the finished work of God into the Red Sea and crossed on dry ground. That's salvation.

But then they come at the very end of their wilderness wanderings to the edge of the promised land. And the second great step of faith that they had to take was to cross the Jordan River. Only something different happened with the Jordan River. You see, now they have knowledge of God. And their knowledge of God is gonna have to go deeper. So what happens when they get to the Jordan River

is God tells them, the river's not gonna part before you step into it. This time what you're gonna have to do is you're gonna have to step into the water. And when you step into the water, I will cause the waters to part. That's a deeper step of faith, isn't it? You see, the first step was salvation. It was all prepared for them. The second step is sanctification.

And you just have to trust. That God's gonna do what he says he's gonna do. That's true and personal knowledge of God. And that's him supplying everything that you need through your true and personal knowledge of him. You see, knowing Jesus is the power, the dynamis of our life. But it's not just the power of our life. It's the purpose of our life. Go to chapter three, verse 18.

Again, Peter has warned them about false teaching. He has told them that God is able to preserve them and deal with the false teachers. And now as he comes to chapter three, he instructs them about the coming day of the Lord and how they should live in light of the coming day of the Lord. And he wraps up his letter with verse 18. And he says this, 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. He says, but grow. The word grow there means to increase or to become greater. To increase or to become greater. It means to be constantly growing. The Amplified Bible translates it like this, to become spiritually mature. To become spiritually mature. And isn't that true of our physical lives, right?

Like I have two beautiful daughters, right? 17 and 13. And the day that they were born, they were born is one of the happiest days of my life. I haven't slept since then. But they were two of the happiest days of my life, right? Just incredible days. But if at the ages of 17 and 13, they still behaved, performed, and acted like newborn babies, we would go, that's a problem

because there should be a maturing that takes place in their life. There should be a growing that takes place in their life. The problem is most of us as believers in Jesus Christ are still acting like newborn babies. You still act like you just got saved yesterday. Meanwhile, you've been walking with Jesus. You've been walking with Jesus for 15 to 20 years

and there's no growth in your life. And for some reason with kids, we go, that's a problem. But with believers, we say, it's okay. Let's just be patient with them. Well, maybe let's stop being as patient and start looking at growing because you should be growing into who God wants for you to be because that is your purpose. He says, you need to grow in two things.

You need to constantly be growing or maturing in these two things. Number one, the grace of God. The grace of God. Of course, grace is that Greek word charis, which means unmerited favor. And we usually stop right there with our understanding of grace. That God had granted us his favor and now we're born again believers and you're acting like a newborn baby

because you're just excited to be saved. But grace is more than that. You see, grace is for every part of your life. Grace is there for the living and grace is there for the dying. Grace is there for the power to perform and grace is there to forgive you when you've stumbled again. Grace is what picks you up when everything is too hard for you to stand and grace is what empowers you to keep standing

when nothing else will. You see, grace is like an ocean and we're treading in the middle of it. And so when he says grow in grace, he wants us first of all to grow in our understanding of the grace of God. Because for us, sometimes the grace of God is this small. It's a baby pool that we wade in when what he wants us to understand is it is in an ocean that we will never plumb the depths of

or find the extent of. But not only does he want us to grow in our understanding of the grace of God, but he wants us to grow in our understanding of the grace of God. He wants us to grow in our use of the grace of God to where we rely on God's grace for every aspect of our lives, for every part of our being. He says grow in the grace of God. But the second thing that he tells us

that we need to grow in is that we need to grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. We need to grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Interestingly, this is a different Greek word. This is simply the Greek word gnosis. G-N-O-S-I-S It's the root word for epignosis. And what he means by that, again, is an experiential knowledge. But I loved what David Guzik had to say of this.

He says this experiential knowledge is the knowledge of which Christ is the object. The knowledge of which Christ is the object. And another commentator, I don't remember who it was because I forgot to reference it, but it says it's the knowledge where we know God as our Lord and Savior, but we also know him as our friend and companion. Brothers and sisters, God wants to go beyond the place of where he's just the being that dwells in eternity that we have looked to for power.

He wants to be our closest friend. He wants to be the one who is there with us no matter what. And I got to tell you, I was reminded this week that that's exactly who God is for me. Because as I spent time with the Lord, I heard from God again. I heard from him. Not in an audible voice. That would be super weird. I'd be amazing. It'd be super weird. I would probably have a glowing face

at this point in time and wouldn't know what to say. But I heard from God through his word. And what he reminded me of is that he's my friend and companion. He's there with me in the hardest times. He's there with me in the best times. He's the one who is by my side in my greatest victories. And he is the one who's by my side in my greatest defeats. Because the grace of God

and the knowledge of God never end. And it's always got Jesus. At the heart of it. So he says, grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because that is our purpose in life. I've said it before and I'm going to keep saying it over and over again because this is exactly what God brought me back to on Monday morning. Monday morning of this week,

last week. You know what I'm saying. On that Monday morning as I'm sitting there reading, it hit me. This really is the purpose. And I've noticed, I've known that. I've taught that for years. But God reinforced to me that this truly is the purpose of what we're supposed to do. Why did God create man? Have you ever asked yourself that question? I remember when I was in my early 20s,

I was like, why do we keep making tiny people? Right? Like, why do we keep? Why do we just keep populating the earth? It was a genuine question that I had. I know that makes me not a very good human being. It's okay. I changed my mind, clearly. It's like, why do we keep doing it? And I remember the day that my niece was born. And I held my niece for the very first time.

And I was like, ooh, I get it. You don't keep populating the earth because you have to. You keep populating the earth because you want to. Like, this is an amazing miracle of life. And I wanted her to know everything that I knew. And she was just my niece. And then I had my own. And I was like, no, I really get it. Now, I really understand why we keep doing this.

Why did God create you? Why did he make you? Because God said the earth is not complete without one of you. God said there's not one of you in the world, so I'm going to make one of you because I just want to know you. And I want you to know me. And I want to pour all of the knowledge that I have into you so that you can be who I've created for you to be because I just want someone to share

all of the things of life with. That's why he created you. That's why he created you. You were created to know him. You know how I know that? Because what did God do every day with Adam and Eve in the garden? He walked with them. Why did he walk with them? So they wouldn't get fat. No, everything was perfect. That didn't happen yet. He walked with them because he wanted to know them.

And he wanted them to know him. You were created for relationship with your creator. That's your purpose. Secondary to that is serving him. But first is that, is that relationship. And I was reminded again this week, Ryan, this is why you're here. This is why you do what you do. It's because I want you to know me. And I want you to help other people to know me.

That's the purpose. So I started asking myself a question. I said to myself, I said, self, what do we do? How do we do this? I don't want to just give you platitudes and great ideas and be like, no, go forth. No, G. Jesus, right? Let's put some shoes on it and make it run. Okay? Let's see, how do we do this in real life? Well, as I got to thinking, I just started looking back through

what I'd underlined and journaled in my devotional life. And I came up with three things. And I just want to tell you something real quick, okay? This is your motivation. I'll hit this again in just a moment. I did not come up with this study because I started off by looking up Greek words. I want you to know that. I did not come up with this study because I set out to come up with a study.

This was what, this is what God spoke to me through my devotional time. This is what God spoke to me in my own personal time with Jesus as I sat with the Lord. And that's why I cannot reiterate to you enough. I cannot enforce enough that the most important thing that you can do is to have a daily time with the Lord. Because that is where this study came from.

The three points that I'm about to give you are all because I spent time with Jesus. And it's not because I'm some pastor who's really good at what he does. Trust me. Ask anybody that knew me when I was a kid, I'm not that smart of a guy. It's because the Holy Spirit said, I just want to tell you this. I want to show you this. And so what he gave to me, he can give to you too.

Because the same Holy Spirit that lives inside of me lives inside of you. The same Holy Spirit that taught me is going to teach you. And he wants you to learn these exact same things. So these three things are what I pulled out of 2 Peter. If we are going to do the growing, number one, you have to be diligent. Go over to chapter one. I want you to look at verses five through seven.

Now for this very reason, verse five of chapter one. Now for this very reason, what reason? Well, because his divine power has given to us everything that we need pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of him who called us. And in verse four, he says he's given us great and precious promises. For this reason, apply, also applying all diligence in your faith,

supply moral excellence and your moral excellence knowledge and in your knowledge, self-control and in your self-control, perseverance and in your perseverance, godliness and in your godliness, brotherly kindness and in your brotherly kindness, love. Be diligent. From that, I wrote down three things that we need to be diligent about. Number one, 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. When you need to be diligent to take steps of faith. Listen, you never stop taking steps of faith in your life. The very first important step of faith that any individual takes in their life is the day that they come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

That's the first step of faith. Just like the children of Israel stepping into the Red Sea after God had parted, God had already done all of the work. All they had to do is step into the finished work of Jesus Christ. But that first step of faith of salvation is one of the hardest steps of faith that you take. Because what if it's not true? What if you find out this isn't real?

What if their trust, their past issues hold you back? What if your past sin and guilt holds you back? What if, what if, what if? Until finally you say, I just need something. Because what I'm doing is not working. Because the way I'm living isn't working. Because I just don't see anything taking place in my life that's producing anything good. I'm going to take a step of faith and say,

Lord, if you're real, I'm calling out to you. And then he proved himself to be real to you. Because when you took that step of faith, he met you right where you were. Everybody remember that? I do. I remember him meeting me right where I was. I remember where I was after I took that step of faith and it was like, oh, he is real. And now I can tell you story and story

over and over again of how real God is in my life. But listen, many of us, that's the only step of faith we've taken. The only step of faith you took was the day that you got saved. And God wants you to be diligent to continue to take steps of faith. For some of you, one of the biggest steps of faith that you need to take is you need to ask somebody for help.

You need to ask somebody for help in some area of your life. Whether it's because you're dealing with emotional issues, whether it's because you're dealing with emotional things, whether it's because you're dealing with spiritual things, whether it's because you're dealing with physical things, you just need to ask people for help. But it's really hard to ask people for help. You know why? Because we have to tear down our pride

and we have to put trust in somebody else, first of all, God. But you need to take that step of faith. Because once you've taken that step of faith, you'll find that God meets you where you are. And usually he meets you where you are, but he looks like somebody else. Because his face looks a lot like the person sitting next to you. But it's still God meeting you where you are.

For some of you, the step of faith you need to take is you're going to decide that today you are not going to continue to give in to that sin. For today, today's the first day where you say, you know what, I'm not doing it today. I don't care if it's alcohol, drugs, pornography, I don't care what it is. Today's the day that you say, not anymore. And you take a step of faith.

And it's going to be hard because there's going to be cravings and everything else, but you're going to take that step of faith. And once you've taken that step of faith, God's going to meet you where you are. For some of you, taking a step of faith means that God is calling you deeper into the world. It means that you're going to walk with Jesus Christ. It means that you're going to start becoming someone who prays

not only quietly or at dinner time, but in front of other people. It's scary, I know, but you can do it. I believe in you. And God will meet you right where you are. For some of you, the step of faith means you need to start ministering to the people that are around you. Because there are people that God has laid on your heart. He says, I want you to tell them about Jesus.

I want you to show them some love. Matter of fact, they're going to come and ask you for something and you need to do it. Because this is their step of faith and this is your step of faith. And you need to take that step. For some of you, God's calling you to do really hard things. Maybe get involved in ministry in your neighborhood, at your work, in your school, at your church,

whatever it is, and you need to take a step of faith because you're going, I don't have what it takes to do this. Trust me, He knows that. If you thought you had what it would take, you couldn't do it. Because it would be your flesh. And He wants you to take that step of faith. But He wants you to get beyond just that single step that you took for salvation.

And He wants to see you grow. And I'm here to tell you, when you take a step of faith, you grow. Because you have to. Number two, you need to be, or second of all, you need to be diligent in the Word. This is still under be diligent. You need to be diligent in the Word. And again, I don't know if that means you've got to plug into our daily Bible reading program here,

or whether you just need to choose a book and you're just going to read a chapter a day and start going through it. Choose the book of John, the Psalms, Romans, 1 Corinthians. I don't care where you start. Just start somewhere. Be in the Word every single day. Because what God spoke to me, He wants to speak to you too. God is just waiting there for you to call Him.

God is just waiting there for you to hear back from Him. That's all He wants, right? Those of us that are parents of teenagers, what is your favorite thing in the world? When your kid texts you, right? Because usually you're like, hey sweetie, love you, hope you have a great day. And they're like, okay. But when they text you something, you're just like, yay!

They want to talk to me! I remember the first time my daughter said, Dad, will you go to the gym with me? And I was like, yes. Of course I will. Don't work out with me. I get that. But I want you to go to the gym with me. Perfect. We don't even have to pretend we know each other. You just want me to go with you. That's the way God is, man. Like if I'm that excited that my daughters feel that way,

how much more is God, the one who created you, going to be excited for you to hear from Him to hear from you? Be diligent in the Word. Be diligent. Dig it into what it has to say. Mull it over. Think it over. Pray it over. And let God minister to your heart. But the last part of being diligent is that we need to be diligent in enduring trials. Be diligent in enduring trials.

This is a hard one. If we look at those verses again, you'll notice one of the things that he says we're supposed to add is we're supposed to add perseverance. That word perseverance in the Greek is kind of an interesting word. I wrote this down out of one of the Greek dictionaries that I have, and it says this. Perseverance in the New Testament is the characteristic of a man

who is not swerved from his purpose and 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 is not swerved from his purpose and faith even by the greatest trials and sufferings. It literally means to endure. Listen, there's two reactions that you have to difficulties,

and you have to endure. There's two reactions in your life. You'll either run from it or you'll lean into it. If you run from it, you become bitter, and you become angry, and you become jaded because you feel like everything in the world is against you. If you lean into it through the grace of God, then you learn from it. And all of a sudden, your knowledge of God goes deeper

because he can teach you things in trials that he can't teach you any other way. One of my favorite quotes on this is from Chuck Swindoll, and he said, I've never met anyone with a deep walk with Jesus Christ that I've never met anyone with a deep walk with Jesus Christ that did not go through incredibly hard times in their life. I've never met anyone with a deep walk with Jesus Christ that did not get there by going through hard times in their life. I follow this CrossFit guy.

I'm not a real big CrossFit guy, but I kind of like this guy. He's kind of interesting. His name is Rich Froning, and Rich Froning actually owns a bison farm. And I've actually bought some of his bison sticks, and may I say they are rather tasty. If you're looking for bison sticks, you should go to richfrodingfarms.com. I did not get paid for that commercial.

Although now that I think about it, I'm just kidding. But he puts these different posts out. One of them I thought was really interesting because he has this philosophy, and the philosophy is into the storm. He said, bison are kind of interesting because when they know a storm is coming, they don't run from it, they run towards it. The reason why they run towards it

is because they know they'll get through it that much faster. And I've always taken that to heart and thought, what a fantastic way to look at trials. You can run from it, or you can run into it. Either way, you're going to deal with it. But if you're going to run into it, you're going to run into it. You're going to run into it. You're going to run into it.

You're going to run into it. You're going to run into it. But if you lean into it, and the power and the grace of Jesus Christ, then what you find is you learn from it. Not only do you get through it faster, but you learn from it, and you come out stronger on the other side, and you come out better on the other side because you have to be diligent in the midst of trials.

And so if we're going to grow in Jesus Christ, number one, we need to be diligent. Number two, we need to be holy. Go over to 2 Peter 3, verse 11. 2 Peter 3. 2 Peter 3. 2 Peter 3. 2 Peter 3. It's the Greek word hagios, and it literally means set apart. Set apart unto God for a divine use is what it actually means. And that's what we are to be. And you will be set apart to something.

You will either be set apart to sin, or you will be set apart to God because one of two things is going to dominate your life. You're either going to be dominated by the sins of this world, or you're going to be dominated by the truth of Jesus Christ. That's your choice. There's no happy middle ground where you can just kind of be a good person who just floats through.

You're either dominated by sin, or you are controlled by Jesus Christ. So why do we choose to be holy? Well, first of all, we choose to be holy because it protects your conscience. It protects your conscience. In our reading, it's kind of fascinating because those first three chapters of Genesis are just, I love reading them because there is a wealth of knowledge

in those first three chapters of the book of Genesis. And in chapter three, we notice something. We notice that before Adam and Eve sinned, they were naked, right? They were naked because they were ultimately clothed in the righteousness of God. So there was no shame, and there was no reason to hide anything at that point in time. But when sin entered the world,

what were the first two things that Adam and Eve did? Number one, they covered themselves. Number two, they hid themselves. Why did they cover themselves? And why did they hide themselves? Because they were ashamed. Their consciences were bothered, and so they were ashamed. And so what did, what did a lack of holiness lead them to? Hide themselves from God.

Because God shows up, and they're hidden amongst the trees, and God says, where are you guys? They said, well, we sinned, and so we've hidden from you. Holiness brings you closer to God. Sin pushes you away from God. You know why? Because sin creates a burden for our conscience that we carry around with us. Now, I'm not saying all depression is this, but I'm saying a lot of,

a lot of depression is this. A lot of depression is linked to the burden of sin that people carry on their conscience. A lot of anxiety is linked to the burden of sin that people carry on their conscience. If people come to me, and they say that they're struggling with anxiety and depression, one of the first things I'm probably going to ask is, when did this start?

Because sometimes it's just an issue that you're dealing with in your life. It's just life in general. Sometimes there's a chemical imbalance. There can be lots of things. But for a lot of people, their anxiety and depression started because they started suppressing conviction, conviction of sin. Their conscience is bothered by their sin, and they have to suppress it

in order to go throughout their life. And because of that constant suppression of the conscience, it causes depression and anxiety in our lives. And so usually, one of the greatest cures that you can have to that is by owning up to your sin, is by confessing your sin to the Lord. Because if you want a clear conscience before God, it starts with confession. Because do you know how you strip away shame

in your life? By not hiding. By not hiding any longer. You come out from behind the bushes. You come out from behind what you're hiding behind, and you say, this is who I really am. And all of a sudden, you're set free now. Why? Because your conscience is clear. You've set that free before the Lord. That's what 1 John 1, verse 9 says. 1 John 1, verse 9 says

that if we confess our sin, that He is faithful, because He's a gracious God, and He is just, because of what the blood of Jesus Christ did for us, to forgive us from our sin. And so once we've come out from behind there, our consciences are clear. So why do we continue to live a holy life? Because I want a clear conscience. I don't want to be the guy who's always scared

of what's coming next, or who's going to find out. So we keep our conscience clear before the Lord, so we live a holy life. But the second reason we live a holy life is because it keeps you free. It keeps you free. The world can say all that they want, that living in sin is freedom. They can say, listen, love who you want to love, do what you want to do, be who you want to be,

but at the end of the day, if it's not holiness, it's bondage. And while they sell it as freedom, what you don't hear in the background is the prison cell closing. That sound is muffled by the world yelling, you're finally free. Meanwhile, you've just imprisoned yourself behind the walls of sin. And that's the only place where you can be until you start to walk with Jesus.

And then he sets you free from the guilt, and he sets you free from the shame. And if you live holy, you live free. It's interesting. Go back to verses five through seven of chapter one again. Go look at that again.

It says this. Now, for this reason also, applying all diligence in your faith, supply moral excellence, that's holiness, and your moral excellence knowledge, that's the knowledge of the word, and to your knowledge, self-control. The word self-control, it's the word self-control, it's the word self-control, it's the word self-control, according to Kenneth Weiss, is pretty interesting in the Greek because that word self-control literally means not ruled by your desire for sex. That's what that word in the Greek means, not ruled by your desire for sex.

You know what that tells me? That tells me that if I want to live a holy life, I live a self-controlled life because self-control actually sets me free from the rule of everything else. You see, the people that are around you, maybe even you in your own life, dominated by the things of this world, telling yourself you're free, you're telling yourself a lie because you are under its control. And so we live holy so that we can live free.

Freedom begins the day I confess my sins to the Lord, and it continues as I choose to follow what Jesus has to say and not what my flesh has to say. So number one, we're going to be diligent. Number two, we're going to be holy. Number three, we're going to be focused. Go back to 2 Peter 3. I want you to look at verses 12 through 14.

He 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 new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, my beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless. He tells us to be focused.

What are we focused? Well, he says it right there. According to his promise, we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. What's the promise that we have? The promised return of Christ. When we will live in a place where everything is as it was intended to be. This place is not our home. This is not what God ever intended. There will come a time

when it will be exactly as he has intended, but we have to stay focused on the prize. We have to stay focused on what's ahead of us. Too many of us are getting distracted with all the things of the world. And listen, I listen to some of these Bible teachers and they want you to stay distracted. I don't think they intend to, but it's what they do because messages are just spiritual life hacks.

Like, how can you be a better person today? How can you live a better life? Listen, I don't care as much about living a better life today. I want to live a holy life today, but my goal is not a better life today. My goal is when Jesus comes back, that's the prize I'm looking for. That's the thing I want to stay focused on. Everything else is just preparing me for that.

See? You can endure a lot when you know that you're looking forward to something. You can endure a lot when you know that the finish line is at the end. And we're looking at the finish line. Stay focused on the finish line. Why? Why do we stay focused on the finish line? Number one, because it produces diligence. Do you notice what it said in verse 14? Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things,

the promised return of Christ, be diligent. How does it produce diligence? I'm going to give you the same illustration I've given you a lot of times. It's the best one I can come up with, okay? Are you with me on this? Everybody say, all right. I'll keep going then. Remember when we were kids, those of us my age and maybe a little older, mom didn't send you a text message

when you were a kid, right? Kids, we didn't have cell phones back then. And so what mom did when she left for work in the morning is she would grab an envelope. It was a random envelope. Actually had a little bearing on anything in life. And she would write the list of things you needed to accomplish that day while she was at work on the back of the phone. On the back of the envelope.

And it would usually be some sort of old bill envelope. Any most bearing witness with this here? Yeah. All right. I see some smiles out there. And you usually had to make sure that the back flap of the envelope was closed because that's where the writing would begin. You'd read it like, I don't even know what that means. Close the flap. Oh, okay. That makes more sense, right?

And you knew at the bottom it said, this needs to be done before I get home, right? You had the promise of the return. And it created diligence. And it created diligence. And the closer the return got, that you'd put off everything for the entire day, the more diligent you got. You know, we usually knew that mom and dad, they both worked down here in the summertime, especially.

We knew that 3.30 or 4.00 is when they were going to be home. So about 2.30 in the afternoon, you're like, well, we better get on it. We'd better get diligent. Because if mom got home and that list was not complete, if mom ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. Right? Well, that's kind of the diligence that it produces in us. Only we're not fearful that God's going to be angry with us

when he gets back and we don't have things done. We're like, no, I can't wait for him to get back and I just want to occupy until he does. I have an envelope with the things I'm supposed to be doing on it. I have an envelope of the list of things that I'm supposed to be doing and that's what I'm doing right now. This is what I'm going to continue to do with my life

and I want you to do the same thing. I want the focus of the promise of his return to create a diligence in you so that you are not, so that you are not swept away by the things of this world so that you are not distracted by the things of this world but that you are focused on Jesus because you go, if I get to see him anytime now, then I'm going to stay focused on that. It produces a diligence inside of us but not only does it produce a diligence, we are reminded that it is the ultimate fulfillment of our purpose. The return of Jesus Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of our purpose.

What do I mean by that? Right now, our knowledge, Jesus restored the purpose at the cross. We can have personal relationship with the creator of the heavens and the earth because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, right? But we still have a problem on this side of eternity and the problem that we have on this side of eternity is we still have the veil of flesh over our eyes, right?

Like we are still hampered by these bodies that we live in and we see everything through the veil of the old man that we still wear. First Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 13 puts it like this. He says, but now we see in a glass darkly but then it will be face to face. Then we will know even as also we are known. You see, our ultimate purpose is to know Jesus and right now we can know him

but we're still limited because of these fleshly bodies that we live in. That's why in the Bible, anytime anyone has a vision of God, they are jacked up from it. You know why? Because these physical bodies just can't endure that much spiritualization. That's the spiritual truth. But when Jesus returns and we receive brand new bodies, there will be nothing holding us back.

There will be nothing between us and Jesus at that point in time. The veil will be removed and we will see him face to face. We will know even as also we are known and his second coming, his return will be the ultimate fulfillment of our purpose. To know God. And secondarily, to serve him for all of eternity. I don't know about you but I'm looking forward to that day.

I'm looking forward to the day when I can know him without the flesh being the thing that gets in the way. Without this body being the thing that gets in the way. But to know him in a perfect and holy way. Brothers and sisters, knowing Jesus is the power that we have for living and it's the purpose that we have for living. Our goal is to grow into that knowledge.

And we grow into that knowledge by being diligent, by being holy, and by being focused. Amen. Well this morning is communion Sunday. And so I'm hoping this, I just saw Usher scurry. There they go. So I'm going to invite the worship team to come on up. And while the kids are on their way in, I'll take a little time to pray. I'll take a little time to share with you

exactly what we do with communion. Inside of each of these trays, there's a bunch of cups in there. There's two cups stacked together. The top cup has the juice in it and the bottom cup has the cracker in it. As I always say in and of themselves, they're pretty mundane things and they don't mean a whole lot. But what they represent means everything. On that last night of the feast,

Jesus took the bread and he broke it. He said, this is my body. This is my body. This is my body which is broken for you. Take and eat. It's kind of interesting because when you look at that bread, and I've shared this before, when you look at that bread, there were three things unique about the bread that Jesus used. Number one, it was unleavened. Number two, it was pierced.

Number three, it was striped. It was unleavened, meaning that it was sinless because leaven's always a picture of sin in the Bible. It was pierced because of the way that it was baked and it was striped because of the way that it was baked. And so when Jesus held up that bread that was sinless and it was pierced and it was striped and he broke it, it had to have spoken volumes to him and his humanity to think about what was exactly about to take place with him.

But also it spoke volumes to his disciples as they began to understand exactly what that bread represented. Just wait a minute. And so when we partake of this bread, we are reminded that it is representative of the body of Jesus Christ that was perfect, that was pierced for our transgressions. We are healed. We are healed by the stripes. It was broken for us.

And the cup, he took that cup on the last night of the feast and it was the cup of redemption. He said, this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you. Take and drink. So we are reminded that the blood of Jesus Christ, which by the way, blood throughout scripture was always to be heralded as holy. No one was supposed to drink blood. The reason why is because the scripture says

the life of Jesus Christ, the life of Jesus Christ, the life of Jesus Christ, the life of Jesus Christ, is in the blood. And that always pointed us to the fact that the life would be in the blood of Jesus Christ. And so as we partake of the cup, we are reminded of the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for us, that poured from his brow because of the crown of thorns that was placed on his head, that flowed from his hands and his feet because of the nails that pierced him, that came from his back because of the stripes that he endured for us, that flowed from his side when they made sure that he was dead. The blood of Jesus Christ that covers all of us.

All of our sin. The blood that has the life. And so we're told when we do this to partake in a worthy manner. So that means a handful of things. Number one, it means you better understand what you're doing, which is why I took the time to explain it to you. Number two, it means that this is a meal for believers. And if you've never come to Jesus as your Lord and Savior,

then today is your day. And I tell you that because you may not have tomorrow. You just need to know that. Not only do you maybe not have tomorrow because none of us is guaranteed tomorrow, but the Bible tells us that the more you put that off, the greater of a callous you create in your heart, the harder that decision becomes. The Bible says, he saves all who call upon him.

So if that's what you need today, then today's the day you need to call upon him. But the last way that we partake in a worthy manner is you need to make sure that your heart's right with Jesus. Listen, I don't believe that you can lose your salvation, but I do believe that we can cut off that fellowship. We can interrupt that purpose through sin. But if you don't,

the way that that purpose is restored, the way that that fellowship is restored is through confession. And so as the worship team plays this last song, I'm just gonna ask you to allow the Lord to search your heart. And if there's things that need confessed, then you need to confess those sins. If it's a day of salvation, then today's your day of salvation. If you need to forgive somebody, forgive them.

If you need to let go of bitterness, let go of bitterness. But let the Lord do the work in your heart that needs to be done so that as we not only start this new month, but this new year, we do so with a renewed vision and focus on Jesus. Amen. All right, hold on. They're gonna bring the kids in. So if you could keep an eye out because I don't know all the kids anymore.

So as the worship team does this last song, the ushers are gonna hand out the elements. As you receive your elements, if you would please stand.

This is the body. Lord, I just thank you for the day that you've given to us. And I thank you for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. Lord, I thank you for your body that was broken for us. Lord, pierced for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace laid upon you and by your stripes were healed. Thank you for the body of Jesus Christ that was broken.

And I thank you for the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for us. Lord, the blood that had the life in it. And Lord, I thank you that that blood is what washes us white as snow. So Father, I thank you for the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for us. And so Father, every time we partake of this, may we keep in mind that we declare the death of Jesus every time.

And so Lord, we thank you for your sacrifice for us. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's partake.

And if you'd bow with me one last time. Father, we come before you and I thank you for another morning with family. Lord, I thank you for another time in your word and I ask that your Holy Spirit would take the things that we've heard this morning and only the things of you and that you administer it to our hearts. Father, I pray that the truth of your word would sink deeply into us, marinate us so that we come out smelling just like you.

Amen. Father, we thank you and we praise you. In Jesus' name, amen. Be blessed.