Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast. Have you ever looked back in time and considered
how certain defining moments have shaped your life in future? Today, John Metter, lead
pastor of Cross City Church, looks at the importance of defining moments and how we
can recognize what God is saying through them.
Well, we're so glad that you're with us this morning on this wonderful, hot June
day. It's going to be 106 degrees outside, but if you can say amen, we have air conditioners
today. Amen. So none of you should be too sweltering today and please take your Bibles
and turn to 2 Peter chapter 1 this morning. 2 Peter chapter 1. We're in our defining
moments series and this series of messages is about defining moments of our lives. Defining
moments where they may have been a brief period of time in which we realized something had
happened to us or that we experienced something and then later on we realized the magnitude
of those defining moments. Because what happened to us in those brief periods of time ended
up changing all through the course of our lives, which is why we call them defining
moments. Last week I shared a defining moment of silence, what I call the moment of silence.
It was the moment that I lost my hearing actually as a young boy. And how God sustained me,
how God encouraged me, how he built me up. I shared my life verse with you. This week
we're talking about moments of faith. Now I'm going to introduce to you the text that's
probably going to be one of the most complex texts you can ever spend time on. In fact,
I'm actually going to give you a homework assignment today. Amen? A homework assignment.
So I can't possibly scratch to the depths of this text in the next 30 or 40 minutes,
but I can introduce it to you and ask you to walk through it over the course of this
next week. Let's stand together as I read 2 Peter chapter 1 and beginning in verse 1.
11 verses that will impact your life and show you moments of faith.
Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a
faith of the same kind as ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, grace
and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 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. For by these
he has granted to us his presence and magnificent promises. So that by them you may become partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this
very reason, also applying all diligence in your faith, supply moral excellence. And in
your moral excellence, knowledge. And in your knowledge, self-control. And in your self-control,
perseverance. And in your perseverance, godliness. And in your godliness, brotherly kindness.
And in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and increasing,
they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For he who likes these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification
from his former sense. Verse 10 now, therefore brethren, be all the more diligent to make
certain about his calling and choosing you. For as long as you practice these things,
you will never stumble. For in this way, the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you. Now I'm taking a deep breath
here because I know there's no way we can touch on every one of these incredible words
or even the incredible phrases that are in this passage. But we're going to hit some
high points of this text. And as I said, give you a homework assignment so you come back
ready next week for a pop quiz, right? We'll be ready to have a quiz. Father, in Jesus'
name, thank you so much for this text, for the vulnerability, the transparency of the
apostle Peter in writing out about his faith. And Father, today my prayer is that you will
allow this text to be so personal to each one of us, every one of us, without exception,
that we will look for our own moments of faith in Peter's description of his moments of faith.
Father, today open our eyes by the power of your Holy Spirit in Jesus' name and all God's
people said. Amen. Please be seated. So I want you to define these moments with me today
and then find these defining moments in your life. There's no way that what I say today
can get all of what this text says and that's okay. But I can't show you the mountain peaks
of this text. I can't show you the ebbs and flows of these moments of faith that become
so important to all of us in the room. Today I'm going to define some things that help
us know about our salvation. I'm going to define some things that help us know what
happens when we seem to wander or stray from them. I'm going to define some things and
clarify some things that help us know how to have confidence in our faith. All those
things are so important to our day-to-day walk of faith in Jesus Christ. So let me give
you three words today and if you're writing these three words down, we're going to come
back and look at each of them individually. But the first word is conversion. We're going
to talk about what the scripture says about your conversion to Jesus Christ as a believer
in him. Secondly, we're going to look at the word contribution because when we get to that
point of the text, you'll see that our faith is not to be left alone. It's to be contributed
to, added to. Thirdly, we're going to look at the word confidence because ultimately
the doubt we have in our life is a lack of evidence of the current work of the Holy Spirit
in our lives. All doubt is a lack of evidence. So it's important for us to have the evidence
of our faith that will later on give us the confidence to weather whatever storms we have
to weather in this life. So getting back to the first, conversion. Peter opens his sat
by talking about conversion. People that move from being unbelievers to believers in Jesus
Christ. And here's what he says in verse one, to those who have received a faith of the
same kind as ours by the righteousness of our God and savior, Jesus Christ. Now look
at that line on the screen if you would. I've highlighted a few words there. The first word
is the word received. It's a key word. We have received faith in Jesus Christ. Peter
said, secondly, he says the same kind as ours. We have the same unique faith today as Peter
did in that day and time as he writes to other believers later on in the timeline. And then
by the righteousness of our God and savior, Jesus Christ. So hold those three words up
for just a moment in your brain, in your mind, and in your heart as you look at this text.
As we look at the idea of conversion. And I'm going to highlight these three words for
you for just a moment. First of all, that first word, the word received. Our salvation
is received and therefore given by God at a certain point in time. Peter is saying to
all the saints who are reading this letter and to us 2000 years ago, to all of you who
have received the same kind of faith as ours. Now I hope you know this today. Your faith
is not something you have achieved. Your salvation is not achieved. It's not something you do.
It's not something you earn on your own. Salvation can never be earned. You can never be good
enough for a perfect God. Can you? You can never be perfect enough for heaven. You can
never alienate all the bad things out of your life enough for you not to be spoiled by sin
and sin's nature in your life. You cannot achieve your salvation. You can't be religious
enough to have salvation by that religion, but you can receive eternal life. That's what
Peter's saying. To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours. And I think
that next word is pretty important too. Our salvation is identical to the original disciples'
faith. Peter is saying all those of you who came after me, who have faith, it's the same
kind of faith we had. Have you ever been guilty of saying, you know what, if I could live
in the days of the disciples, I would be a far better follower of Christ. Right? If I
could have been there with Peter and James and John and all those disciples, if I could
have watched Jesus walk on water, if I could have seen him raise Lazarus up from the dead,
if I could have seen all those miracles, then I would have a greater faith. And yet here's
the apostle Peter saying, no, you have the same kind of faith as we did. The same kind
of faith that transformed our lives, that radically revolutionized our whole way of
thinking, that caused us to follow Jesus Christ completely, even laying our lives down and
dying for him, for his sake, for his testimony. You have that same kind of faith. The apostle
Peter doesn't have anything on you. James and John don't have anything on you. You have
the same thing they have, that is faith in Jesus Christ. He's the same yesterday and
today and forever. And the third thing this line says to us is our salvation is founded
on the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Do you notice that line, by the righteousness of
Jesus Christ, completely separate from anything we can say or do? And that requires conversion.
That requires a moment where we put our faith in Christ and take it off of everything else.
I've talked to so many people over the years that have come to faith in Jesus and often
they say, well, I felt like I was in good shape with God, with the man upstairs because
I was religious. And they had to convert from confidence in religion and put their faith
in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, the perfection of Jesus Christ. And others say,
well, I was just a good kid growing up and I just did everything my parents wanted me
to do and I've always believed. And so since I always believe and I came from a Christian
family then that I know that my salvation is real. But the reality is there has to be
a point in time when you convert from being a good kid to being in the righteousness of
Jesus Christ. I mean, my wife was almost a perfect child growing up. She only had to
repent of chewing bubble gum in church one day. That's about it. But for her to be saved,
she had to put her faith in Jesus Christ instead of being good. And that's true of all of us
today. So Peter's talking about that conversion moment where you have a moment of faith and
you realize you must put your trust and faith in Jesus Christ. And it really becomes our
storyline, our defining moment. And it's amazing how radically our lives are affected by the
defining moment where we receive Christ and put our trust and faith in him by the righteousness
of Jesus we're made right with God and forgiven. My own testimony, my own story is very memorable
to me. I told you last week that I lost my hearing as a young boy about six years of
age. And from that moment of that high temperature, that high fever that I had, I'd lost 80% of
my hearing. Within a few months and years, I'd lost up at 95% of my hearing. So I am
profoundly deaf. And my world is a world of silence. And within a year or two after that,
I remember in the middle of the night hearing my voice being called out audibly. I heard
it clearly. Now keep in mind, my night is silent. My world is silent. By then I'd been
fed with hearing aids and yet we took those off at night. So when I went to sleep at night
without hearing aids, I heard nothing. Nothing at all. That's still true by the way. We
have six children and I've never been awakened in the middle of the night by a child crying.
And yet at that moment in my life, I heard my name being called out. And it frightened
me. Nobody was in the room. It was very dark. And I looked around, saw no one. And I was
afraid enough to just try to cover up and go back to sleep. So I did. Then I heard my
name called a second time. It was clear. It was calm. And yet because it was so unusual
to me, I was afraid. So the next morning after barely getting to sleep, the sun came up a
little later. We had breakfast around the family table and I told my mom and dad what
had happened during the night. And my mom and dad were so wise, so brilliant. They knew
the word of God so well. And they told me, look, let's read to you a story in the Old
Testament. It turned out to be 1 Samuel chapter 3. Many of us know the story of 1 Samuel.
And little Samuel, he was living in the house of Eli the priest. And if you recall, Eli
was asleep and Samuel was asleep in separate places. And Samuel heard his name called out
in the night by the Lord. He didn't know who it was, so he ran to Eli. Eli said, son, I
didn't call you. Go back to bed. Go back to sleep. It happened a second time, then a third
time. And Samuel was told by Eli these words in 1 Samuel chapter 3 verse 9. Eli said to
Samuel, go lie down and it shall be if he calls you that you shall say, speak, Lord,
for your servant is listening. Now my mom and dad read that passage to me and they said,
look, it's clear that God is doing something, saying something to you because you don't
otherwise hear anything like a voice calling your name at night. So if he calls you again
and if you begin to listen to him, then tell him just what Samuel was told to tell the
Lord. Speak, Lord, your servant is listening. We happened to be in a revival meeting in
our church back in those days. I lived in a small town in Oklahoma and we had revival
meetings that lasted all week long. Anybody ever been in a revival meeting that's one
week long? I mean every night all week long. Sunday night, Monday night, Tuesday night,
Wednesday night, Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night, then on Sunday morning. It
even sounds long when I describe it. It's that long. But every night we heard messages
usually related to salvation. All week long I heard messages about salvation. Now frankly
I don't remember a great deal about what I heard but I do remember that God had called
my name and my parents said, it seems to be that God is calling your name. I came back
to them at the end of that week and said, you know I want to give my life to Jesus as
Lord and Savior. I didn't know a whole lot but I did have great parents that told me
about the Word of God and I did know that I had sin in my life. I did know that I needed
to be forgiven. I did know that I needed a Savior and I decided to put my faith and trust
in Christ at about the age of seven or eight and at that time I knew beyond doubt that
I was a believer in Jesus Christ. I look back and I go, you know it's amazing what a brief
moment can do in a young boy's life in terms of a defining moment that affects you for
the rest of your life. Our conversations couldn't have lasted an hour. My moment of prayer and
trust in Christ could have been 30 minutes long and yet it's defined my life, my faith
in Christ has defined my life in various ways all those years later. Defining moments don't
last long but they have great impact over the long periods of our lives. A moment in
time where you come to the point of realizing that you need a Savior. People ask me, how
do you know you're ready to receive Christ? How do you know you're ready to put your faith
in the gospel of Jesus Christ? And I usually give these three answers. Number one, when
you know the penalty of sin and you know that sin separates you from God, that's number
one. Secondly, when you know you can't save yourself and that no religion can save you
and then number three, when you know that Jesus can save you and you put your faith
and trust in what he did on the cross to forgive you and give you eternal life. When you know
those things, when you're aware of those three things very clearly, you're left with a dilemma
and that dilemma is, do I trust Christ and receive his salvation or do I go on by myself
on my own? But when you know those three things, you're at the place where you can put your
faith and trust in Jesus Christ, whether you're six years old or 60 years old, that can be
your conversion moment where you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
Now let me just tell you that, the faith that Peter talks about here is not just fire insurance
to keep from going to hell. It's not just trying to deal with sin because of guilt.
It really is ultimately a call to know Christ and a call to fight Christ. Everything in
this passage says that. Everything in the gospels say that. All the statements we have
about salvation are not about just a moment that comes and goes and that's it, but a moment
that starts your real walk of faith in a very personal life transforming way with Jesus
Christ. It's a call to know him and follow him that can take place at a single moment
in time. Now I just want to ask you a few questions.
As part of your homework assignment, it can be done in this room, but it can also be done
over the course of the next few days. Have you had that defining moment? Has there been
a moment that you look back to in your life where you realized all of a sudden you changed
from trusting whatever else it was and you began to trust Jesus Christ alone? Where you
received the gift of eternal life and forgiveness, just like Peter talked about, a faith of the
same kind as ours by the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Do you know where you were?
What do you remember about that? Now let me be very clear about this. You do not have
to have heard Jesus personally audibly to be saved, but I think the significance of
that on me was that I was a deaf boy. I was a boy that didn't hear anything and God allowed
me to hear his voice audibly. I believe that with all my heart. I remember that with clarity,
but he doesn't call all people audibly, but he does call all people to salvation. He calls
you to salvation. Somebody said one time, God did not speak to me audibly, but it was
louder than that. Has that ever happened to you? He didn't say it out loud, but you knew
he was talking to you. You knew he was convicting you. You knew he was drawing you. You knew
he wanted you to respond to him. Conversion. When did it happen? Can you describe it? Did
you place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ at that moment? So Peter is talking about
a defining moment that begins with conversion. Let me look at the second word, contribution.
If you look at verses 5, 6, and 7, you see these words. Now for this very reason also,
applying all diligence in your faith supply moral excellence. Then he goes through the
list of these incredible qualities. Excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness,
brotherly kindness, love. Two of those words, applying and supplying, are action words.
Look at those action words with me for just a moment. He says, for this very reason, for
the very reason that you have received a faith of the same kind as ours by the righteousness
of Jesus, because of that, I'm asking you to apply and supply to that. The word means
to contribute or to furnish. It's basically active faith. It doesn't mean that we secure
our salvation. You can't secure our salvation. It's secured in the righteousness of Jesus.
It's secured in the finished work of the cross. But we all call to cultivate our faith, to
contribute to our faith. We're called to construct on our faith, on the foundation of our faith.
My wife is a phenomenal home interior designer. That's not her profession. That's just what
she asked me to help her do at every house we've ever lived in. We move into a home and
she'll say, I like this wall a different color. Let's do that. I think we ought to add into
this room. I think we ought to add something to the porch. We always move into a home and
she's always got a project planned for me. I do a lot of projects. I remember one house
that we bought, we added three bedrooms and two bathrooms in seven years. I was tired
at the end of that seven years. But that's just what she does. She moves into the house
and she says, let's build on this. Let's add to this. Let's make this better. Let's make
this fit our family. That's what we do. There's a very similar concept going on here in 2
Peter chapter 1 where we're told that we're given the house of faith. We're placed in
the righteousness of Jesus Christ. But what we ought to do is build on it. Let me make
it clear. We do not contribute to our salvation. Pause. We do not contribute to our salvation.
You cannot make your salvation happen. Only Jesus is big enough to do that. Trust me.
He is perfect enough to die on the cross in your place. Only by His blood can you gain
salvation. Can salvation be secured for you? But we do contribute to our growth. We build
on the foundation of our faith. We add, we supply, just what these words say right here.
We contribute and furnish to the foundation of our faith. Some people move into the house
of faith that Jesus built for them and they keep it responsibly. They live faith out from
day one and they do everything they can to be strong and vibrant in faith. But others
move into that house and take it for granted. They become lazy or negligent to the house
and while still standing it's still neglected. And they don't appreciate the house or the
price that was paid for. They don't appreciate and understand the value of their faith. But
what you do on the basis of your faith is extremely important. What you do with your
faith brings a quality of life and faith that far exceeds any other kind of life possible.
Now Peter is going to delve into this. He is going to show you two options that happen
with those who have received the same kind of faith as he did. And I want you to see
what these words are that he gives us. First of all he says in verse 8, For if these qualities
are yours and increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful. Now I love
that line. If I want to walk in confidence and boldness and growth then I need to make
sure that these qualities that were named in the previous verses, I need to make sure
they are in my life, that I am pursuing them, that I am building them in my life because
I am building them on the foundation of my faith in Jesus Christ. So where do you learn
these qualities? These are great qualities. Where do these come from? We don't find moral
excellence and knowledge and self-control and perseverance and godliness and brotherly
kindness and all these qualities. We don't find them in the world. We don't find them
in movies. Culture doesn't teach us these things. They are not found in the media. So
where do we find these? Where do we read about them? Where do we see examples of them? Well
if you think for just a moment you will see. Now we find these qualities in a word-based
community of faith. We find them in the church. We find them in the church that relies upon
the word of God, that teaches the word of God. In a church that has other disciples
who are following Jesus and building on the faith that he gave them just like Peter had
and just like the disciples have. When you see others following Christ and when you walk
consistently with them you find the inspiration, you find the encouragement and you begin to
want to add them to your own life and add to that the internal force of the Holy Spirit
inside of you drawing you to become more and more like Jesus Christ and you are on your
path to building on the house of faith you were given by Jesus. That's what Peter is
saying. If these qualities are in your life and increasing you will be neither useless
nor unfruitful. Now I want to be neither useless nor unfruitful. You want to be neither useless
nor unfruitful. The opposite of that of course is being useful and fruitful. Say those two
words with me. Useful, fruitful. Say it one more time. Useful and fruitful. That's really
God's desire for us. His goal for us is to be useful and fruitful for him in the kingdom.
Now this is an incredible picture of what it ought to be like. The book of Jude has
a great message in verses 20 and 21 that speaks so loudly to this. It says that you building
yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the
love of God. In other words keep building on that faith. Keep adding to it. Keep making
it all it can be and you will be neither useless nor unfruitful. Then there is the other approach.
Peter gives that first option, door number one. Then the second option, door number two,
I fear most of us choose that door rather than the first one. What does he say about
that door? Verse nine, for he who lacks these qualities is blind or short sighted having
forgotten his purification from his former sins. Look at those words again. Blind or
short sighted having forgotten his purification from his former sins. One of my favorite
preachers of all time, a guy named Ron Dunn preached a message on that text and the title
of the message was A Nearsighted Blind Man with Amnesia. Now if you look at the verse
you'll see why he comes to that conclusion. But there are people today that have placed
their faith in Jesus Christ at some point in the past but they live like a nearsighted
blind man with amnesia. They don't see what God is doing. They can't remember all he
has done and all he desires to do and they're just making it kind of through life but they
don't have any confidence. They don't have any boldness. In fact they have a great deal
of doubt because they forget what happened earlier on in their lives. I was like that.
I was like that. I remember as a young boy seeing my faith work in a powerful way. I
remember growing in the scriptures. I had as I said great parents and I was involved
deeply in the church so I learned scripture, memorized scripture. I really began to grow.
I remember sharing the gospel with a friend of mine at the age of 10 and helping lead
him to Christ with a Gideon Bible in my back pocket after we played football one day. I
dreamed about that kind of thing. I prayed for that kind of thing. So I remember a time
of vibrant growth, seasons of growth in my life. I know my faith was very, very real
but about the age of 13 or so we moved to a different community and all of a sudden
I began to take a different direction in life. I began to decide for myself that I was going
to live life my way and I wanted to participate in the things I wanted to do and I didn't
want to follow Christ in the same way I had before. As time went on I began to move further
and further away from what God had called me to. In fact I even got to the place where
I couldn't really remember much of that early spiritual life. I didn't remember praying.
I didn't remember having answers to prayer. I didn't remember trying to lead people to
Jesus. I didn't remember having joy and confidence in my faith. I was like a near sided blind
man with amnesia far, far from where I needed to be. It was as though I wanted to have an
outward respectability of faith. I mean I still came to church. My dad was the pastor.
I had to come and I wanted to have an air of respectability but after church man I did
what I wanted to do. There was something in my life that kept me from going too far. I
remember some of my friends were doing crazy things. I mean crazy things and there was
this invisible line I would never cross and they used to mock me a little bit and they
used to say you're just afraid to go do this or go do that. I didn't know what to say
to them but later on I looked back and I thought that's just the fear of God. I just had a
fear of God in my life and I just didn't want to cross those invisible lines because to
me that was way too far and I just didn't want to go that far. I just wanted to go this
far which was hypocritical, which was very carnal, embarrassingly disobedient to God.
There was a period of time where that's just where I was and that's why this passage describes
my life so clearly. I remember one day someone said to me in sarcasm they said hey John when
you grow up are you going to be a pastor like your dad? Now he said that to me during a
time when I was at my worst compromise and of course I responded by saying I will never
be a preacher as long as I live. I promise you that will never happen. I had deep respect
for my father, deep respect for his faith but it wasn't for me. I learned a lot of things
during that period of time, one of them being never say never because God will often bring
that back around to you. But that's where I was. All kinds of weird things happened
to those of us who have given our lives to Jesus but who are drifting and who are moving
away. I can say this, I can say beyond doubt if you are a true believer in Jesus Christ
you will not be happy living a life of disobedience. You will be miserable. How do I know that?
Because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life. He never gives up on you. He
never stops convicting you and while that voice may be a little bit more silent as time
goes on he may shout a little less loud at some point you will recognize that you are
out of God's will and that's a big deal to you. So I was like a blind, near sighted man
with amnesia during those years of my life. I was like that spiritually. But God was pursuing
me. Those of you who just love the fact that God our Father pursues us, I just love that.
He was pursuing me. He never would let me forget that he loved me, that he had a plan
for my life. And ultimately he brought me to a place of abject misery and fear and concern
where I said I don't care about all those other things. I just want to know am I right
with you God? Am I right with you? And I remember going out to a wheat field that belonged to
a friend of mine all by myself laying in that wheat field as the sun was going down and
saying God I cannot imagine being any more miserable and yet I've done everything I
want to do. And I said I'm not even sure if I really ever gave my life to you and if I
haven't I'm giving it to you today. But from this day forward I belong to you. And I waited.
I don't know if I was expecting God to speak to me. I didn't know if God was going to
I don't know send angels in the sky but I just laid in that field looking up saying
that to God over and over. And the only thing I remember about those moments were just the
clear impression of his love for me. The undeniable fact that he'd send his son Jesus to die on
the cross for me and that cross became a very important image to me from that day forward.
And I knew that I had gotten back with God that I had become right with God at that moment.
Some of us need to be in that place where we say God I don't remember if what I had
was real before and if I've never given myself to you I'm going to give it to you today.
Please forgive me. Please make me yours. You are my Lord from this day forward. Those were
the exact words I pray. And again God did not speak to me audibly but he helped me know
of his love and that the cross was for purposes that would allow me to be right with him.
And I never looked back. From that moment forward I never looked back. There was a song
going on in the radio back during those times and it was called I Can See Clearly Now The
Rain Is Gone. Johnny Nash sang that song. A few others did. And I wasn't really into
Christian music too much at that point so I just listened to the radio right. But that
song was being sung a lot and I thought man that describes so much what has just happened.
I can now see how real my faith was as a young boy and all that God had done in my life when
before my sin had obscured it all. The dark clouds of sin and disobedience and rebellion
had obscured all the reality of the faith that I had and that he was real to me. I just
wasn't building on the house he gave me. Now my experience says the same thing this verse
says. If you're building on your salvation you'll grow and have vibrant faith but if
you don't build, if these qualities are not yours and increasing you'll be blind to what
happened. You won't see what God was doing. You may even forget and doubt the reality
of your faith at any point in the path. So I want to ask you this question. Part of your
homework assignment. Are you building on your faith? Are you adding to it? Are you contributing?
Are you cultivating the house of faith that God may have given you as a child or as a
younger person or in previous time? Now here's the third word. The third word is confidence.
Say the word confidence with me. Confidence. We want to walk in confidence. We want to
be bold and confident in our faith and this is where Peter is taking us. It says in verse
10, therefore brethren be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and his
choosing of you. That's the word that means confident. Be confident in what you have.
Make sure it's valid. Make sure it's guaranteed and unwavering. Make sure your salvation is
secure. Now you see the first word of that verse 10? It's the word therefore. The therefore
in this verse, therefore brethren be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling
and his choosing you. It's there because it points back to the whole context of where
we've been. The faith of the same kind that we've received as the disciples had by the
righteousness of Jesus Christ, adding to it so that Jesus qualities are increasing and
present in your life, you're going to have confidence when you do that. Now Peter is
basically saying to all who come after him, make sure your conversion is real. Make sure
your construction is ongoing and when you do that you build great confidence in his
calling in your life. When you see God at work it's undeniable that his presence is
in you. When you listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit convicting you and leading you,
you know that's real. That's not just feeling guilty for something. That is the Holy Spirit
directing you. When you see your faith work you have all kinds of confidence in your personal
relationship with him. It helps you weather temptations. It helps you get through the
trials. It prepares you for heaven. Do you notice what it says in verses 11 and 12? As
long as you practice these things you will never stumble for in this way the entrance
into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to
you. Earlier today in an earlier service we were singing songs that were older songs about
the faith. One of them is Amazing Grace and one of the lines of Amazing Grace, the very
last dance is when we've been there 10,000 years. I'm on the front row here like preachers
do whenever the song service is happening and the choir is up here and there's a lady
in the choir. Now don't get me wrong, our choir is very vibrant, they're very expressive
but there was one lady that I thought was getting raptured when she was singing when
we've been there 10,000 years. It was so real. It was so obvious that that's her only
hope. It was so obvious that I actually said something about it and I may have embarrassed
her by saying that but it was so real it could not go without observation. Here is a woman
that has such confidence in her faith that she was already there. I mean she's not there
yet but she was already there in her mind, in her heart. Don't get me wrong she did not
die, nobody died in the first service okay but she's almost there. It's so real, it's
so powerful. That's what's being described right here. The abundant entrance into the
eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You want that confidence that's why
you make sure your conversion is real. Make sure your construction, your contribution
is ongoing because you want the kind of confidence that just lets you live that way anticipating
Jesus Christ's return. Since the age of 18 I can look back and see all the defining moments
of my life, all the defining moments of faith where God would direct me, where he would
answer prayer, where he would put people in my life. I believe those kinds of things were
always there even when I was running from God. I just didn't see them. I didn't acknowledge
them, I didn't recognize them. I wasn't aware of what God was doing. I was a near
sighted blind man with amnesia. But since that date where I said Lord if I'm not yours
I'm making myself yours right now. If I've never been yours I'm wanting to make sure
I surrender completely. I've seen all these different ways that God has worked in my life
and I began to grow in confidence. I began to have no doubts. The word of God began to
be alive to me. The Holy Spirit began to be a friend to me. I knew he was speaking to
me, knew he was leading me. I could even go back and see what God had done during those
years that I was running from him later on. It's not just hindsight, it's 2020, it's
not just that. It's that relationship with him lets me see. John I place this person
in your life you just didn't, you didn't open up to him. I put this message in front
of you but you didn't acknowledge it. I put this line in the sand and you just weren't
aware that it was the fear of God that I was placing in your life. And I look back I see
how much he preserved me, how much he rescued me and still rescues me. Is your conversion
real? Are you contributing to the household of faith? Do you have confidence and lack
doubt in your salvation? You see when your conversion to Christ is real and your contribution
to your faith is ongoing your confidence is unshakable. It's as real as life gets. It's
real faith and it's real hope and it's real life. Has this happened to you? Have you grown
in your confidence in faith? Is your faith real and active and growing and bold? Now
if I could put this in my hands and offer this to you then I'd do that today. Something
better than this has happened. God has offered this to you today. The message is ongoing,
it's clear. The offer is standing. Do you want the conversion? Do you want to be contributing?
Do you want to have confidence? In just a few moments we're going to close our service
and at the end of our service we'll do what we do every week. We have our decision stations
that are available. And as you walk out in just a few moments you'll see those decision
stations and I would encourage you to stop. There are people in this room today that needed
to hear what was said. They need to see this passage. They need to see what salvation looks
like even when it's not seemingly going well. That that faith, that real life of Christ
inside of you is still there if you've ever given your life to Him. And you also need
to be aware that if you've never given your life to Him, never had that defining moment
of placing your faith and trust in Him and by the righteousness of Jesus Christ received
salvation. This is the day that you can do that. This is the moment you can do that.
And we have people waiting that will talk with you about that. And I can't wait to
find out if you stopped and if you had that conversation and if you had that moment of
prayer. See what happened to me was a very short period of time as a seven or eight year
old boy and that faith is still real in my life and will be until Christ comes back and
consummates that fully. In a brief period of time that salvation could be real to you.
I also invite you if you're a guest to come to our guest reception center. I'd love to
meet with you. It's just outside the center exit doors across the hallway. Would you stand
with me as we close in prayer? Father, there are many people in this room
with a variety of kinds of experiences in life, variety of upbringing, different messages
they've heard throughout their lives. Father, today we all come together to this one text
where Peter writes about faith and the defining moments of faith. Now Lord, do you know what
my prayer is? My prayer is that every person in this room will experience conversion to
Jesus Christ and that if that hasn't happened with them yet that it will happen today. Lord,
I beg you, I plead with you that you would bring them to the place where they would be
courageous enough to stop and have the conversation and not walk around with doubt and not walk
around wondering what if. Father, those that have put their faith and trust in you but
maybe have veered, have wandered, I ask you Lord to show them the value of contributing
to their faith. Not to secure their salvation but to add to it, to build on it.
And Father, my ultimate prayer for all of us in this room is to have confidence in the
faith in Jesus Christ that you've given us. So Lord, today move in our hearts while we
may conclude this service. The ongoing work of your Holy Spirit is expected and asked
for. And Father, I pray that we will realize that and experience it. We ask this in Jesus
name, Amen.