Pastor Jeff emphasizes the importance of constant communication with God as essential for spiritual growth and maintaining faith. He uses the analogy of a coach repeatedly teaching fundamentals to illustrate how believers need reminders of the gospel truths to stay the course. Drawing from the apostle Peter's teachings, Pastor Jeff encourages believers to be diligent in sharing their faith and being considerate of those who already believe, while also recognizing their own mortality and the urgency of their mission. Ultimately, the message empowers Christians to proactively live out their faith, reinforce their assurance of salvation, and share the gospel with others, knowing that it's a crucial task amidst a world often indifferent to the truth.
Sermon Transcript
Father in heaven, we give you all the glory, honor and praise for who you are. We thank you for the privilege of gathering as your saints here this morning to worship your name because you and you alone are worthy of all of our praise. Lord, as we seek you, we ask you to speak directly to us because, Lord, we as a people believe that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that you are speaking. So our prayer this morning is speak, Lord, for we are ready to hear. And so now, for all who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he says and who will, by faith, put into practice what he shows you.
Will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word amen? Amen. Constant communication is an absolute. If you're going to stay the course, if you're going to stay the course, you have to be communicated with consistently in order to get there. If you're an athlete and you have a coach, they don't just tell you something one time.
They repeat things over and over and over, many times about the same thing. There's no football team that just hands you a playbook and says, get ready. We'll see you in three weeks when we have a game. There's no baseball coach that says, here's how to hold a bat. Now you're ready to hit live pitching.
There's technique and things that are taught over and over and over and over again. Parents, you know this is true, too, when it comes to your children. You don't just tell your children something. Once you tell your kids something, sometimes over and over and over again sometimes. I know I've done a good job with my children.
When I begin to tell them something and they begin to give the speech for me and they say, dad, I know what you're going to say. Here's exactly what you're going to say and why you're going to say it. Or even if you have GPs in your car, you know, even if you know the direction you're going, it's incredible how much the GPs will talk to you, even when you're going a straight distance, to tell you how to stay the course and what direction to take or what may have changed out there so that you can listen to the true voice. The same is true spiritually. When it comes to the things of God.
We need to be reminded constantly and communicated to from our God about how it is that we stay the course. Just because we know the gospel doesn't mean that we're living the gospel or staying on course with the gospel. So God has provided us his word as a plumb line so we can stay the course from now until we meet Jesus Christ face to face. So we've been in this series called stay the course. We've been studying the book of two Peter.
And for the first two messages we talked about what real saving faith looks like. And then last week we took a look at if you really have saving faith, and these are evidences that will assure you that you've truly been saved. And before we move on to what the witness in the word looks like, the apostle Peter is going to pause and under the inspiration of the spirit, talk to you about why constant communication is important, why repetition in the christian faith is important, so that you, as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, can truly stay the course to your ultimate destination. So I wanna invite you today to turn to two Peter, chapter one. We're gonna begin in verse twelve and go through verse 15 and take a look at these four verses.
And as we do, we're gonna talk about why you need to be constantly communicating the truth of the gospel. If you're a believer in Christ, you're not only called to live this truth, you're called to proclaim this truth. And for those of us who've been called to vocational ministry, this is what we've been called to do. And why it seems so many times that Pastor Jeff or other pastors that are faithful to the word, he's already told us that. I've already heard this before.
Why is he repeating himself? This will tell you why we do that. So two, Peter, chapter one. Let me read verses twelve through 15, and then we'll take a look at how to consistently communicate the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's what he says.
He says, therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them and have been established in the truth which is present with you. I consider it right as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will also be diligent, that at any time after my departure, you will be able to call these things to mind. And in these four short verses, the apostle Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gives us some understanding of why we need to continually and consistently communicate faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and how it is that we do that. How is it when you have opportunity to share your faith.
How are you going to do it? Whether it be with your children, whether it be with your parents, whether it be with your friends, your neighbors, coworkers, fellow students, however your sphere of influence dictates, how are you going to be able to share your faith? We'll take a look at three of those ways here today. And the first is this, that consistently communicating the faith requires that you be repetitious with reminders. Be repetitious with reminders.
After he shared for us in these first eleven verses what the gospel is and how you can be sure of your calling and Christ's choosing of you, he says, therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these. He says, if there's anything that you need to know, I'm always gonna be ready to remind you of the essential truths of the faith. No matter where you are in your journey and no matter where I'm at, I'm always going to be ready to remind you of the truth that you need to know. Why? Because the fundamentals of the faith are so important.
The fundamentals of anything are so important. The fundamentals of math are important. If you don't know addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication, you can't go on to the finer things in mathematics. You can't do calculus and trigonometry and all that if you don't have the foundation right, if you don't know how to, you know, line up to shoot a free throw, you can't learn the whole game of basketball. There's certain fundamental things you need to know.
And when it comes to the christian faith, you need to know the gospel. You need to know how to know that you know that you know that you've truly been born again. And you need to know that there's evidence in your life to demonstrate that you are the. And do you know why that's so important? Because regardless what your plans are for this life, the most important day that you can be preparing for is the day that you meet the Lord Jesus Christ.
On that day, you will realize that nothing else that you did in your life is quite as important as that very moment where you meet Jesus Christ face to face for the first time. So the apostle Peter, after teaching for over three decades now before his death, is going to tell people, I know you know this, but it's no trouble to me at all to always be ready to remind you of the truth of the gospel, because I know that. I know that I'm saved, Peter's saying, but I want to make sure that you know that you know that you know that you're saved. And I want you to be able to communicate the plan of salvation to anybody you come across, because there's nothing more important than that. In any generation, in any nation, regardless of your background, there's nothing more important than the moment that you meet Jesus face to face.
There's nothing, because you get to do it once, and you're either ready at that moment or you're not. And there's nothing more important than that. So he says, I'll always be ready to remind you. It's not trouble for me. The apostle Paul says in Philippians, chapter three, it's no trouble to me to remind you of these things.
Good teachers remind people of the essential truth. Now, why is that important? Because there's no new truth. I mean, if you're going to share the gospel, here's where you're going to get it from the Bible. If you're going to preach, here's where you're getting your message from the Bible.
If you ever hear somebody and you're a seasoned believer and you say, I've never heard anybody share that. I didn't even know that was truth, it's probably not right now. If you're young in your faith and you hear a truth said in a way you haven't heard it, it might be revelatory to you where you're like, I didn't know that before about the faith, but there's nothing new that someone can share today that wasn't always true in God's word. My job is not to come up with clever stories to get you excited about preaching. My job is to faithfully proclaim what's already been written.
Amen. Amen. And that's our job when we share the gospel. So what's the gospel? Well, what is this good news?
How is it that you can be ready to meet Jesus? Now, here's why this is so important. Because if you were in your area, whether you're in the springs or Westminster here in Denver, and you were just to go take a poll today, or you were to go to Mile High Stadium, take a pull today and ask people, hey, when you die, do you think you'll go to heaven? There would be a large percentage of people that would say, yes, of course. There would even be some if you said, well, how do you know they would say, jesus or God is love or, my good outweighs my bad.
But that doesn't necessarily mean that that person is saved. So what Peter is reminding them of is what he's talked about in those first eleven verses. What is real saving faith? Real saving faith is this, that God saves wicked dead people. All of us are born in our sin.
None of us can do anything to get to God. And yet God is so gracious and loving that God sent his son Jesus, who was fully God and fully man, born of a virgin, so that he could come to this earth alive, lived the life he lived, fulfilled the law perfectly and died in your place for all your sins on the cross. And the only way, the only truth and the only life is through Jesus Christ our lord, back to the father. That's it. There is no other way.
And even some people that say, yeah, I buy that, I believe Jesus died. I believe he rose. They're still not saved, because salvation is not an intellectual understanding that God did something for you. Salvation is an act of your will. That because he did something for you, I'm willing to exchange my dead, wicked life for his very righteous life.
And I'm willing to give him my life, and I want him to give me his life. And I'm willing to do whatever he wants me to do. That's salvation. Now, last week we talked about it. How can you be assured of this salvation?
And we gave some evidences which we'll talk about in a little bit. And I had some people come up to me afterwards when I talked about as a believer, here's what you understand in heaven. For those that are truly saved, whether on this side of earth, as you're growing in your faith, or when you get to heaven, you're gonna realize God did all the work. God the father sent Jesus. Jesus died on the cross for your sins and rose from the dead.
He sent the holy spirit who regenerated you when you were dead and gave you the faith to believe he did all the work. It was 100% God. And then some people push back like, well, it's all God. Aren't I responsible? Yeah, it's 100% you too.
Cause what you find if you went to hell today is 100% of the people in hell have refused to repent and believe that Jesus is the Christ. Get exactly what they want. So who's responsible for salvation? God or us? God.
Yes.
You're 100% responsible to respond. And if you're saved, you'll realize God did 100% of the work to make you saved. And that tension is there. It's just there. God is the one who created you.
God is the one who is willing to save you. But you must respond by faith, Christ. And that's what he's saying. And so he's saying, it's not a pain for me to go back and reiterate these truths. It's the reason I'm living.
It's the reason Peter says, I left the fishing business. It's the reason I started fishing for men. It's the reason I'm preaching. It's because of Jesus. That's why the apostle Paul says in two corinthians 13 five, examine yourself to make sure you're in the faith.
Why? Because Jesus said in Matthew 17, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven on that day. There will be many that say to me, Lord, Lord, do we not prophesy in your name? Do we not cast out demons? Do we not heal people?
And then they will hear these horrible words, depart from me, you worker of iniquity. For I never knew you. You gave lip service to me. You believed that I died. You believed that I rose.
But there was nothing in your will that ever wanted to be a part of me. You wanted to live your own life. You believe in one God. Good. Even the demons believe in shudder.
Believing cognitively that Jesus died in Rose doesn't do anything. I spent my 1st 18 years of my life believing that if I died, I would go to heaven. Because I believe Jesus died in rose. And if you were to ask me why I was going to heaven, because I believe Jesus died in Rose. And I'm a pretty good person compared to my friends by my own standards.
It wasn't until I was 18 where I heard that I was dead in my sins. It wasn't until I was 18 I heard that I wasn't going to heaven just because I believed an event that took place. Because, you see, the gospel is more than just a cognitive belief. Here's what happens when a person's converted. When you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart God raised him from the dead.
The spirit of God comes to indwell. You. Colossians 127 says, this is the mystery. Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's the gospel.
The gospel is not just belief about goddess. It's the belief that that God comes in and dwells me. There's a massive difference between believing facts and believing that. For instance, I believe George Washington was the first president of the United States. I really do.
I do not believe that George Washington is still alive, nor do I believe he lives inside of me, nor do I believe he talks to me every day, nor do I believe that he wrote a book that's authoritative for all life, for all people of all ages and all times? Nor do I believe that when I die he's going to get to decide my future. But when I talk about Jesus, that's exactly what I'm saying. He dwells in me, he lives in me, he has saved me. He wrote his word.
Every part of it's true. When I read it, he speaks to me. My eternal security is based in him and him alone. He's the only way truth and life for anybody, anywhere, at any time. It's only through Christ a person can be saved.
Now here's the truth. If Christ come into your life, some people will be like, well, how do I know that he came into my life? How do I know? Well, Peter went through evidences last week. Remember, he gave us seven to add to our faith.
He said, you know, to your goodness, supply, moral excellence. So if you're truly saved and Christ is in you, you're going to grow in your christian virtue. And to that virtue and that moral excellence, supply, knowledge is your understanding of the person of Jesus will grow. He won't just be someone that you talk about, you'll know him because he lives inside of you. And to your knowledge, self control, which is the restraining power of the spirit.
You're going to be spirit controlled. There's going to be things that you don't say that you would have said, or things that you say that you wouldn't have said or things that you don't do that you would have done or things that you do that you wouldn't have done. Because you're being controlled by the spirit in you. There's evidences of that. Or number four, perseverance, remaining under a trial.
That when you go through a trial you're going to trust God more. You'll find that when you go through a trial as a believer, you're going to press more into Jesus rather than try to control the circumstances around you. And then finally, there's a growth in godliness. There's a desire for spiritual piety, a desire to grow in the things of God, to study his word, to pray, to seek his face and all that. And then there's going to be a growth that comes out horizontally too, in brotherly kindness or brotherly love, where we love other people in the body of Christ as family.
And the people that you once thought weird now are your family. And then there's agape love, which is the I don't feel like loving you. And I don't feel like forgiving you, and I don't feel like doing it, but I just have to because Christ loves me, so I'm loving you. I'm going to demonstrate that. And those are evidences that you are growing in Christ.
Because the purpose of the gospel and the reason to hear the word over and over again is not just to remind you in your head, yeah, I'm saved. It's to remind you that the God of the universe lives in you, and you can experience more of him now that he wants to live his life in and through you more that he wants to come through you. In John seven says, if you're rightly related to me, streams of living water will flow from you. Jesus told the woman at the well in John chapter 410, if you knew who it was who asked you for a drink, you would have asked me. I would have given you living water.
What's the purpose of hearing these same truths? So that the well of the Lord Jesus Christ, through your obedience, continues to work himself out of your life more and more and more and more. That's how you know that you're saved. I'm borrowing this illustration, and I've used it before, and I don't know who to give credit to. So if you know, you can tell me.
But I think this is a great illustration. I mean, imagine if you had a flat tire on I 25 and you were changing your tire and a lug nut rolled out in the middle of the road, and while you were putting it back together, which obviously would never happen to me because I'd be calling somebody to do it. But if it happened and you kind of reached out in the road, but you weren't paying attention, and a car came by and hit you at 85 miles an hour, it would alter everything in your life. Most likely, you'd be dead. If not, you'd be in the ICU.
Question, who is more powerful, the Lord Jesus Christ or a car traveling at 85 miles an hour? So if the Lord Jesus Christ was not living in you, and you were dead, and now he's come into your life and he's living into you, how is it that there is no change? It can't be in the parable of the soils? Every single time that seed, the seed of God's word, falls on good soil, it always produces 30, 60, or 100 fold. Christians always bear fruit.
If you're rightly related to Jesus, you're going to bear fruit, more fruit and much fruit. Now, you bear it, you don't produce it. You don't make the fruit. But if there's no evidence in your life over time that anything's changed, then you need to examine yourself and say, have I really been saved or converted? Or am I just hoping.
And you got to give yourself an objective test, because I've done it. I've officiated at a number of funerals, and no matter how pagan the person is for the funeral that I'm doing, I've never been to a funeral where somebody comes up to me and says, hey, Pastor Jeff, thanks for doing this. I know they're in hell.
Not once every single time. I know they're up in heaven looking down. I know they're here. I know they're having a cocktail, no matter what. And the reality is, a majority of people are not saved.
Jesus said, enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the road, and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And many are on it. But small is the gate, and narrow the road that leads to life, and few find it. So how many people are saved? I don't know, but there's a few of them.
It's not the majority. Majority are not going to heaven. That's why Peter says, I love it.
Thanks for joining. Jesus said, let the little children come to me. All right.
But that's why it says, it's not trouble for me. Because I want you to know. I want you to know that you know that you know, because I'm telling you, the day that you breathe your last, which some of us may have the experience of being on hospice for a period and know it's coming, and others of it, of us, may not know. And in a moment, it's this afternoon, and we didn't expect. We're standing.
But every single one of you is going to stand before the Lord. And I'm telling you, and I'm pleading with you as your pastor, and I try to do it every single week, that God created you. He loves you so much, but the only way that you can truly be redeemed is through the Lord Jesus Christ. And the only person that can respond to him is you. I can't save you.
Your wife can't save you. Your husband can't save you. Jesus Christ can save you if you'll repent and believe in him. Amen.
And that's what he's saying, and he wants you to experience through your act of the will. And that's why we should have so much scripture, the longer we're in the Lord that we just know it like two corinthians 521 for God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Or one. Peter 318 for Christ died once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring you to God. And on and on and on.
It's the word of God. And when it comes to God, we need to understand that he wants to dwell in us now. He wants to be our hope, and he wants to give us the assurance that we know on this side of heaven that we have him. And I'm talking to all you young people out here, too, that are like, hey, when I get old like you, Pastor Jeff, then I'll think about it. I'm telling you, there's no greater opportunity you have in your life than to give your whole heart to Jesus Christ.
There's no greater hope you can have right now than to give your heart to Jesus Christ. Because it's not just about meeting Jesus on that day. It's having him use your life until you meet him on that day in such a way that you're filled with incredible hope. Because if you live every single moment of this life knowing that no matter what happens, I'm going to stand in the presence of Jesus and hear these words, well done, good and faithful servant. It will change everything about your present day circumstances.
Amen. So when it comes to choosing a church, choose a church that's faithful to this book.
Choose a church that's going to say, hey, this is what God says. This is what he's always said. Let's talk about what God says. When you're sharing the gospel with your friends, your family, your neighbors, and a majority of people in Denver who don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, use this book. Use your word.
Use your story. You know, tell them the same old, same old truths that have always been true and let God do the work. Amen. So be repetitious with reminders. If we're so repetitious.
I mean, you think about the things that you know the most in life, that you'd be the expert on that. If you were to stand here. You could give us a TED talk, or you could school us in some idea that, you know, probably more than anybody else in this auditorium, something that something. I promise you. You've been schooled a lot in that over the years.
Had a lot of people speaking into your ear. A lot of people speak. Here's how you do it. Here's how you do it. Here's how you do it.
So it's second nature to you. And he's saying, when it comes to spiritual things, Peter's saying it's second nature to me. I've been preaching this for 30 plus years, almost 40 years. It is no trouble at all because I want to make sure you get this because I care about you. Amen.
So be repetitious with reminders. Don't be afraid. Because I've heard people say, because I've traveled all over the world and preached, and I've heard people before, I get to preach, don't share the gospel. Everybody here knows that that's just not true. If there's five people, it's just not true.
Everybody already knows that. Nobody knows it. I'm still growing it. I'm still learning the gospel, right? So nobody knows it.
They don't know they're sinners. I listen to pastors. Everybody knows they're a sinner. They need to hear hope. Most people don't think they're bad.
Most people think they're good. Most people think they're going to heaven because they're good. So if nobody's up here telling them, you're not going to heaven because you're not good, and the only good one on the planet is God, and he made a way for you to come, but you need to repent and believe. That needs to be declared, and it needs to be declared all the time. Amen.
So be repetitious with reminders. Second is this. Be considerate with the convinced. Be considerate with the convinced. Notice what Peter's saying and who he's talking to.
He's like, I'll always be ready to remind you of these things, even though he says you already know them. Because I realize most of you already know this and have been established, which means strengthened in the truth, which is present with you. I know most of you know this, and I've seen evidence that you're strengthened in this and you're being established in this. And I sense God's presence with you, but I consider it right. That means I consider it righteous.
As long as I am in this earthly dwelling, that's my body, to stir you up by way of reminder. Peter says, I'm considerate toward. I get it that most of you get it, and I've seen Christ in most of you, he says, but as long as I'm in this body, I'm going to stir it up in you some more. It means he's compassionate for God's people, but he's going to stir things up, it's very similar to what you read about in Hebrews, chapter ten, verse 24, where he says, and let us consider how to stimulate one another towards love and good deeds. That word stimulate.
That word stir up means to provoke. It means to irritate. It means wake up, sleeper. I'm looking around. I don't see anybody sleeping today.
I put many people asleep in sermons I preach. That's what he's saying. He says, wake up. He goes, I'm provoking you. It's like a spur and a cowboy's boot going into a horse.
Like, wake up. Like, when you hear preaching, that's effective. That's coming out of God's word. There should be times that you hear it where it feels like the Holy Spirit is nudging you in the side or in your heart or in your mind, saying, oh, I needed to hear that. I didn't like that, but I needed to hear that that's provoking you.
I know you know God. I know you know the truth. I know you believe this, but did you understand? This is how you should live your marriage. This is how you should live your single life.
This is how you should handle your money. This is how you should love your neighbor. This is how you should forget. Did you hear that? And I was, ugh.
Didn't want it. You're getting provoked. You're getting, hey, wake up and hear this. Because what we as christians tend to do is think, well, I got it. I'm saved.
I know I'm going to heaven. So I guess there's nothing else for me. I guess I'll just live my life now. And God's like, no, no, you don't understand. I'm trying to grow you into holiness.
I'm trying to grow you into Christ likeness. I want you to look like my son, and there's always going to be things to see you grow. Will you continue to walk with me? Right? That's what good preaching does.
That's what good communication does. That's what Peter is saying that he's doing. So he's cultivating these things and his people. It's interesting that when Jesus restored Peter in John 21, after Peter had denied him three times, and Peter said, even if all men fall away, that's not me, Lord, even if I have to die for you, I'll die for you this night. And Jesus said, peter, before the rooster crows, you will betray me tonight.
Three times. Which is exactly what Peter did. And he went out and wept bitterly. But then after Jesus rose from the dead and they met on the beach and they had breakfast together. What happened?
He restored Peter, and he told him three different times, feed my sheep like, tend my lambs, take care of my people. What's one job we have as christians to teach people the word of God? What's the main job of a pastor to teach this book? In case you're wondering, because I've said this before, is it wrong for me to want to go to a church where I get fed? Is it wrong for you to go to a restaurant where you can eat?
I mean, we need to be fed the word of God. That's why God has called pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry. If you're not getting fed, you're starving. If you've been in a church where the word of God is not being heralded and you walk into a church where the word of God is being heralded, you'll feel like you've moved from a TED talk to a steakhouse very, very quickly, and you'll say to yourself, what in the world have I been missing? I didn't know I was missing anything.
And what you've been missing is the word of God being proclaimed. Because for the believer, there's a hunger for the word of God, to know what God is saying, to know what God wants and to know what it looks like to be obedient to the God that we love. Amen. I. And so Peter is being considerate and he's being compassionate and he's cultivating them, and he sees that they're established in the faith.
But he's doing the work of an evangelist, too. He's sharing the gospel. Why can I tell you? Because it doesn't matter what generation you live in. It doesn't matter if you live in our generation, doesn't matter what country you live in, whether you live in our country, it doesn't matter over the last 2000 years, what country, what nation you lived in, where you live or what you do.
The world has always been hostile to the message of this book. And you think about what the messages are that you hear and listen to on a daily basis. I mean, just think about it. Where else this week did you go for 90 minutes where you heard a group of people all proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord, that he's worthy of all your worship, that you need to change your ways and align them with his, because he's so worthy and you're so dependent, and everything in you needs to change so you can align with the glorious God of the universe. There's nowhere.
You went this week and heard that. You didn't hear it on Fox. You didn't hear it on CNN. You didn't hear it on MSNBC. You didn't hear it on ESPN.
You didn't hear it on Fox. I said Fox already. You didn't hear it anywhere. The only place you're going to get it is when somebody opens up the word of God and heralds it. And normally we get that for 60 minutes, 90 minutes a week.
That's all we get. And then all the other messaging throughout the whole week is telling you things that go counter to what you just hear today. That there are other things more important in your life than knowing Jesus and following him. There's nothing more important than knowing Jesus and following him. I'm just telling you there's nothing.
One day you're going to tell me you're right. You were right. You were right. I know I'm right because the word of God tells me I'm right. When you meet Jesus, well, by marriage, it's not as important as following Jesus.
I'm not even married. I want to date. Not as important as following Jesus. My money, not as important as following Jesus. My career, not as important as following Jesus.
You can't come up with my kids. Not as important as following Jesus. There's nothing more important than knowing and following Jesus. And yet there's no place in the world that's going to tell you that other than somebody that's faithfully proclaiming the word of God. Or if you're spending time with them by yourself and you're hearing him say that to you.
That's why it's so important that we hear this over and over and over, because the world continues to spew lies. And for the nonbelievers, it keeps you blind so that you don't realize that you're dead. Don't realize you're not going to heaven. Don't realize you don't have a relationship with Jesus. And how shocking it will be for some people to show up on Judgment Day and meet Jesus face to face thinking that they're saved, but they're not saved.
You talk about all time tragedy. I pray for our church all the time because I don't think you're a Christian, because you walk into brave. I'm hoping that you hear the message of the truth and that God uses it to change your heart for him. But how tragic would it be that if you attended brave and you a tithe theater and you were in a cadre, you served in the core. You were faithful every week, good person.
But you never had given your heart and life to Jesus Christ. How tragic would that be? It just pains me to know that's true for some of you who come in and try to fake out your mom and dad and say, well, I'm a Christian. But you don't act christian, because you're not. And you can't fake that in front of God.
You can fake your parents out. You just can't fake out God. Or those of you that think you're really godly man, but you're a liar and a cheat. And you know you are. But you think you can come to church and fake out God.
You're not faking out God. And I'm pleading with you, because on this side of heaven, God's willing to forgive anything. And God's willing to rescue you from all your sin and invade your life with his very presence. So come to him. That's what he's saying.
Because this world spews lies. This world runs in the opposite direction of God. This world has its own agenda. And here's one of the ways that you know that you want what God wants. If you have a hunger to love God more, and you have a hunger to let him live his life through you so that you love other people more and things begin to change.
I think we talked about it last week. You know, you've changed when you meet, like, weird church people that are the weirdest people on the planet, and all of a sudden you love them like your own family, right? You know you've changed when somebody wrongs you and somebody's miserable to you, somebody's been hurtful to you, and your first response is, Lord, help me forgive them. And not only that, but Lord, let me bless them with my mouth and I'll keep that between us. And I'm never going to talk bad about them.
You know you've changed, right? Because only a Christian can do that. Only someone that's spirit controlled can do that. And that's why God's wanting us to grow, so that we can be a living testimony. But then, as we have opportunities to share our faith, because if comparatively few, and we don't know, because the Lord knows those who are his, we can't look into the heart of somebody.
Potentially we can know people by their fruit. We can see God's producing fruit in their life, and we can, you know, discern potentially they're believers, but we don't know until judgment day. God's the one that gets to decide. Amen. But if it's true that comparatively few are believers, then why is it when it comes to our family, our friends, our neighbors, our coworkers, we are so shy of sharing the truth?
Like, if you really, really believe that hell was a real place and that hundreds of thousands to millions of people go there every single day to spend the rest of eternity, and you think about how long eternity is. I mean, some of you have stood in a line at the shopping center or waited on food like my son and I did on Friday night at a restaurant that I won't mention or whatever, and you're like, that was forever. When that's over, forever is just getting started. Do you understand what I mean? I mean, forever is forever.
And if you really believed that, if you don't see evidence in your brother, your sister, your mom, your dad, like, that's where they're going. Not because they're not good people, they may be great people, right? But if they've not repented and trusted Jesus, and you don't have the guts to share, why? Because the enemy's lying to you, saying if you do that, they're going to hate you. If you do that, you're going to lose this friendship.
If you do that, they're going to think you're weird. Are you willing to be weird because of your love for the people that God created? That's what Peter's saying. It's not trouble for me. I'm always going to be ready to tell you this.
I'm always going to share the truth of this. I'm going to let you know the only way is that Jesus is the savior. Now, for those of you with oversensitive conscience that know you've been saved for 15 years, that are now saying, I don't think I'm saved anymore, that's evidence that you probably are saved. When you feel conviction of sin, when you're like, I wanna love God more, that's an evidence that you know the Lord. Amen.
And this is what God wants. So be considerate with the convinced, but encourage people, encourage people that call themselves believers to continue to take steps of faith and continue to grow with Christ. If you're gonna constantly communicate your faith, so be repetitious with reminders, be considerate with the convinced. And then the final one here is this. Be diligent before your departure.
Be diligent before your departure. Diligent, as he's been using in this entire text means give it your best. Go all in on this. He's been using that word over and over. Notice what he says in verse 14.
He says, knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent. His earthly dwelling is his body. He's saying, this outward tent, I'm going to lay it aside, and it's going to be eminent. Eminent means soon. I know it's coming quickly.
Jesus had told him when he was on the planet some 30 plus years ago, hey, Peter, here's how you're going to die. You're going to go in a place you don't want to go. They're going to stretch out your arms. He was telling them about the kind of death he was going to have through crucifixion. And Peter looked at some of the other disciples like, what about them?
And Jesus is like, what is that to you? What if I choose to keep one of them alive till I return? What is that to you? I'm leading you, Peter, and you need to know. So for three plus decades, Peter's now an old man.
Now he's preaching. He's telling them the gospel. He wants them to know the gospel. And he's like, as long as I still have my life, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to make the Lord Jesus Christ known as also the Lord Jesus Christ, has made clear to me, and he said, and I will also be diligent, that at any time after my departure, you will be able to call these things to mind.
I'm writing this down. I'm clearly communicating to you so that even after I'm gone through my life, through my witness for the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll know that the truths that I'm telling you are still true. So here's what I would say. Be diligent before your departure. I mean, be earnest before you die.
Why? Because here's how the enemy works in your life. He will lie to you and tell you, I don't mind you serving the Lord. And I don't mind you being generous to the things of God. I don't mind you attending church, and I don't mind you sharing your faith.
Just not today. Just not today. Do it tomorrow. Share the gospel with your. Share the gospel with that person at work.
Do it next week. Do it when the time's right. Share the gospel with your family member down the road. Share it over here. Cause right now, you know what?
You gotta get married first. Or if you're married, hey, right now, you gotta establish your marriage. Or you know what? Go all in with Jesus. But make sure you have your family first.
Okay, well, now you have the family. Make sure you raise your family and they're out of the house. Hey, now that they're out of the house, make sure you get your retirement savings together. And now that you got that, hey, make sure that you got your friendships ready to go. Make sure you got your funeral all planned.
Do you see what the enemy does? There's some time in the future that's supposedly perfect for you to serve Jesus, but that time doesn't exist. So be diligent now. Cause you don't know when the end of your life will be. Don't believe the lie that one day I will make that one day today.
Has God been prompting you with somebody that you know is unsaved, that you need to share the gospel with? Why don't you call them after church and be like, I want to set up a time to talk with you. One of your neighbors, why don't you have him over for dinner this week? One of the people in your class. Why go to a christian school?
There's many lost people in christian schools, as there are non christian schools. Just because you walk into a christian school doesn't make you a Christian. Because you walk into a church doesn't make you a Christian. Do you understand what I'm saying? Like, are you going to be prompted by the Lord to do what he wants you to do now?
Hey, one day, Lord, when I got it all together, then I'll serve you fully. Be diligent before your departure. There's nothing better than you can do with your life than give Christ your best. Now, there's no greater return on investment. Return on investment is when you kind of measure and calculate what you give up front compared to what you get on the back end, right?
So if you invest $10 and you get $100 back, that's a better ROI than if you invest $10 upfront and you get $5 back. That's not a good return on investment. And when it comes to your activity with the Lord, there's great return on investment, right? There's incredible return on investment. I promise you.
Hear me from the authority of God's word, you go all in with Jesus. You can't miss on this one. It may not be comfortable on this side of heaven, but I promise you, when you meet Jesus, you will never be disappointed for going in too much. You will never be disappointed for being too generous with God. You will never be too disappointed from sharing the gospel too much.
You will never be disappointed from being to obedient you'll never be disappointed from remaining under a trial for too long. You'll never be disappointed for doing the things that God wants you to do. Now, let me be clear on this. If you've truly been saved, you're saved. And it's not because of any work you will ever do.
And you can be saved without doing any work. But there is reward for those who are doing them. Make no mistake about it, Peter is in heaven still getting rewarded for writing these words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, because of what's taking here in Denver today. I mean, there's return on investment even after you're gone if you do it right. And why is it so important?
Because it makes a difference in how you live now. You want to certify your salvation. When I say certify, you want to know that you know that you know in about a month they're going to talk about certifying the election, which they probably won't do. But whole other topic, you want to certify your. You want to know that you know that you know that between you and the Lord, you're certified and you're his.
And I tell you this because it's interesting to me that as I get ready to preach a passage, the Lord takes me through things where he kind of prepares me for what I'm about ready to teach. I mean, this week has been like the week of death for me. The guy on our staff, his father died, did his funeral Monday morning. During that funeral, I got a call to go to the hospital up in Westminster because our campus pastor, AJ and his wife Adriel, they had gone to the hospital on Saturday to check the baby and all the vitals of their baby. Everything looked good.
They went in on Monday morning to deliver the baby. Caesarean baby was dead.
My grandmother, who died at 101, was buried next to my grandfather in Arlington National Cemetery this week. Got good friends that at first Tuesday found out they were going to put their dog to sleep the next day. As a son of a veterinarian, I realize how much animals are part of your family. I get it. And my daughter, my youngest, she loves animals more than anybody in the whole world, I think.
So she was begging me to take her to their house and all this stuff, and I'm like, it's a school night. You're gonna be out late. We gotta go. And by the way, dad, you need to know that dog of theirs loves me more than anybody in their whole family.
So we went, right. But you see the pain of loss but the reality is, one day, we're all gonna be there. We're all gonna be there. And it doesn't even matter. I mean, even this morning, one of the guys is my assistant.
His mom's been on hospice, and Kim and I have been over to his mom's twice in the last week. And he came up to me right before first service started, said, my mom just went home to be with the Lord right now. So he went home to be with her. I'm like, death, death, death. Everybody's dying.
But the reality is, so are you. And the reality is, so am I. And it's sobering when we think about our own mortality. Have you ever seen on your iPhone when you get these crazy ads and they flip through, and especially if you're older, like me? Like, you know, you look at where are they now?
And it's like, you know, 1980s character in a movie, and then it shows their picture now and what they look like, and you can start scrolling through those. You're looking at four. Like, man, they really got old. They really got old. While you're thinking to yourself, I still look the same.
You ever have that? Yeah. So I was doing that recently. And, you know, my kids, they like to, you know, make fun of me because they only know me to look like this. So several months ago, I was trying to show them I didn't always look like this.
And so I had a picture of me, which I did not bring with me, and you won't see, but I showed it to them. It's a three by five photograph. And I said, this was me about the time I met your mom. And my son looked at it. He looked up at me, and he looked at it.
He goes, dad, that is so photoshopped.
Which made me feel good because I'm like, bro, we didn't have Photoshop back then. That's me. He's like, no way. You look like that. I'm like, yeah, I look like that.
But isn't it interesting? As we age, we don't look like we used to look. It's almost like God's ways that you get ready, get ready, get ready, get ready. You're not the same as you used to be. Bible says, outwardly, we're wasting away.
Inwardly, we're being renewed day by day. Be diligent before your departure. Give God everything that you can possibly give him, everything he prompts you to give him. I'm not talking about works righteous religion where you're working really hard for your salvation. I'm talking about where God prompts you and you work out of your life the very things he's prompting you to do.
I promise you this. For that person that you say, there's no way I'll ever forgive them. You'll be glad on judgment day that you did. And by the way, you'll be glad long before judgment day that you do because you'll be freed from them. God's prompting you to give more resources.
Just do it. You'll be glad you did it. There's nothing that you're going to give to Christ where one day you're going to say, I wish I would have held back. Not one thing. Be diligent before your departure, where he prompts you when you hear his voice, just go do it now.
You don't need to tell anybody else about it. It's just between you and Jesus. Ah, Lord, I heard that. This is what you're having me do. I'm going to be obedient to you.
And the more obedient you are, the more streams of living water will flow from you and be a blessing to others. See, what does it profit a man, Jesus says, to gain the entire world and forfeit your soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? Don't live for this life and use Jesus as an asterisk in hopes that you'll go to heaven someday. Make Jesus the central foundational piece of your life and grow in and through him.
Live the gospel. Share the gospel. Love the people you're sharing the gospel with, and watch God grow your heart for him more and more and more. Be constantly communicating your faith. Why?
Because no matter where you live, whether you live here in Denver, whether you're watching online somewhere around the world, there are millions of people out there that don't know this gospel. There are millions of people out there who, if the world were to end today or their life were to end today, they would go to hell for all eternity. And once you cross that chasm, there is no coming back. If you're here today and you've never responded to Christ, I'm begging you today, I'm not even going to make you stand or raise a hand or pray some prayer, do whatever. I'm just telling you right where you're at.
Give your life to Christ. And if you do, you'll see the evidence of that over time. And if you know Christ, here's what I'm going to encourage you to do. Take that step of faith he's asking you to do by living more fully for him. And then don't be afraid, because I've been praying for each and every one of you that God's going to give you opportunity this week to have a conversation where you can open up your mouth and tell other people about what Jesus has done for you or share some scripture about how they can meet the Lord.
And all I'm asking is and what the Lord wants, just take a step of faith and share. See what God does. You'll be surprised at how powerful he works in your life. Because one day we're going to gather around his throne. We're going to give him all the praise.
We're going to give him all the glory. We're going to give him all the honor for all he's done with people from every tribe, every tongue, every nation, every generation. It's going to be incredible. And all of you are invited to be there. You just have to respond.
If you've never responded, make the day, the day that you respond and begin your life with Christ. Amen. Would you stand with me? Our father in heaven, we give you all the glory, honor and praise for who you are. And, Lord, we thank you for these words from the apostle Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who spent as much time with you as anybody, who is proud to call himself a slave of yours, who is reminding us of the power of the gospel.
If you're here today, this is how you can pray. And like I told you, I'm not asking you to walk an aisle or raise a hand or do anything. You can pray this right where you're at. If you want to give your heart and life to Christ and you're tired of religion or all that, you just know that you need Jesus to save you. Here's how you can pray.
Lord Jesus, save me from my sin right now. I give you my life. Give me all of your life and be my lord. And for those of you that have a relationship with Jesus Christ, how's he prompting you? Be reminded of his love for you today, with which he had when he died for you and rose, which he's always had for you when he came into your life, which he still has for you now.
And I'm just asking you to follow the promptings of the holy spirit he shared with you today to go live and tell the good news of the gospel. Father, we give you all the praise, glory, and honor we sing to you this morning, that you be enthroned above our praises of a thousand generations and generations to come. We give you all the glory, honor and praise. And it's in Jesus name we ask all this amen and amen and amen. Could we give God praise for his word?