Remember to Remember!

A university can start with “Truth for Christ and His Church” and end with a mission that never mentions Christ. That same quiet drift can happen to any of us. We open with the cautionary story of the Ivy League and then turn to 2 Peter 1, where an aging apostle sounds an alarm we still need: remember what is true, apply what you know, and refuse the slow undertow that pulls a life off course.

We walk through Peter’s three anchors for a steady soul. First, application over information: maturity isn’t measured by verses memorized but by habits practiced. Jesus challenged experts who could quote Scripture yet missed obedience. James called Scripture a mirror that demands adjustment, not applause. Second, urgency from brevity: Peter calls his body a tent and his death an exodus, a road out that fuels focus, not fear. When we number our days, we prioritize what matters now—keeping vows, guarding holiness, and waking from spiritual drowsiness. Third, influence over affluence: Peter doesn’t seek to be remembered; he writes so the church will remember “these things.” Real legacy isn’t diplomas and accolades; it is people formed, faith transferred, habits modeled.

Along the way, we name modern lures, the changing bait of temptation across decades, and the practical guardrails that keep us from drifting—rhythms of Scripture and prayer, accountable friendships, quick repentance, and concrete steps that translate belief into obedience. We end with a candid moment of reflection and prayer, asking what promise needs keeping, what habit needs returning, and what plan needs to be abandoned to stay faithful.

If this conversation helps you reset your course, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs encouragement, and leave a review to help others find it. Then tell us: what one step will you take today to resist drift and live for what lasts?

Transcript

Ivy League Origins And Mission Drift

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The founding documents of a Christian university spelled out the passion that this school felt for the glory of God. One paragraph reads: Each student will be instructed and pressed to know Jesus Christ, who is eternal life, to lay Christ as the only foundation of all knowledge and learning. If you graduated from this evangelical university, you received your diploma stamped with the words in Latin translated into English, which read, Truth for Christ and His Church. That Christian university is known as Harvard University. Today their diplomas and their curriculum have eliminated any mention of Christ and the church. Nearly 70 years after Harvard was established, pastors I have read in the New England area were concerned that Harvard had already begun to drift. This is only 70 years after their founding. So they appealed to a wealthy individual to consider funding the establishment of a new university. And his name was Elihu Yale, another inexpensive school to attend, but he formed it. And in their original curriculum, their students were required to read the Bible every day, spend time in prayer, and receive instruction in biblical doctrine. Sixty years later, Dartmouth College was founded primarily to equip missionaries to evangelize their world. Today, of course, the nine or ten Ivy League schools have nothing to do with the gospel. This is what you call institutional drift. Mission drift. And frankly, no good, no godly endeavor is ever really safe from the undertow of mission drift. It can happen to an institution. It can happen to an individual. The believer is not immune to that undertow. It's possible to drift away from the simple truths of the gospel. It's possible to drift away from God's standard of morality. It's possible to drift away from believing the reliability of Scripture. It's possible to drift away from responsibilities at home and at work. It's possible to drift away from your wedding vows. It's possible to drift away from ethical decisions in your business world. It's possible to drift away from pursuing God personally. It's possible to drift away from spending time with Him privately. It's possible to drift away from holy living. Mission drift is dangerous because it's never sudden. You don't wake up one day and say, I'm going to live an unholy life today. It's never one decision. It's never spur of the moment. It takes place slowly. It's like the tide going out to sea. But with that, I invite you back to a 2,000-year-old warning. Turn back, if you have your Bibles, to Peter's second letter that we're working through and his discussion on the seven supplements in chapter one. About the time you think Peter's finished writing about these seven supplements, and you think I'm finished preaching about them. He launches into this very personal paragraph where he sort of wraps it up, he summarizes it with a very passionate paragraph. He delivers a warning, basically, to the believer of this constant danger of drifting away from the pursuit of these seven supplements, like virtue and steadfastness and godliness and brotherly love. We've studied them all. Three times in the next four verses, Peter is going to use the word for remember. You might circle them in your copy of the New Testament passage in 2 Peter chapter 1, we're now at verse 12. He writes, Therefore I intend always to remind you, there it is, of these qualities, that is, these supplements. Go down to verse 13. I think it right, as long as I'm in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder. There it is. And then if you go down to verse 15, the middle part, so that after my departure, you may be able at any time to recall, there's that same word, family, remember them, these things. And by the way, not just for the sake of remembering them, you know, for the for the pop quiz, but for the sake of spiritually growing, spiritually surviving, spiritually flourishing, so that you avoid the danger of a wasted life. Peter wrote about back in verse 8, and he called it an ineffective and an unfruitful life. Now, what I want to do is break down this final paragraph on the subject into several reminders. Three reminders that will keep you from drifting away. Here's the first one. Remember that spiritual growth is not matured by information but application. He writes here in verse 12, therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, these supplements. Though you know them, catch that. Though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. See, don't miss the fact that Peter isn't writing to new believers, people who don't know this stuff. Peter doesn't view his original readers as immature believers. They already know what Peter's been writing to them about. They already know about these spiritual disciplines, these supplements of virtue and godliness and steadfastness and agape love. Peter writes here that they are already established in the truth. You already know these supplements. So don't miss the fact that there's this reinforcement to the warning. Even mature Christians can drift. Seasoned saints can lose their balance. Longstanding Christians can lapse into scandalous sin, devastating sin, and leave that fruitful and effective life. Drift away. The devil never stops fishing, by the way, in your life. Changing the bait, tempting you at thirty and changing it at forty, and then trying something new at fifty and changing the lure at sixty, and something brand new at 70. If you think that because you're older in the faith, the more protected you are from spiritual drift, listen to the personal testimony of the apostle Paul, who writes, But I discipline my body and I keep it under control, lest having preached to others, I become disqualified. 1 Corinthians 9 27. He knew the word. He spent years teaching the word, yet he knew at some point he could violate the word by not applying it. See, you pull Paul over, by the way, as an older man, and you ask him if there was anything he was afraid of, and he'd tell you, oh yeah, let me tell you something. I am afraid of failing in the final lap of my race. This is a possibility he never got over. See, what keeps you in the race is not information alone, but the application of the truth. Nine different times, Jesus Christ will ask the spiritual leaders, the spiritually knowledgeable leaders of the nation Israel, have you never read? In reference to the Old Testament. Of course, they'd read it, they didn't have to answer it. Many of them had many of the books of the Old Testament memorized. Jesus was simply making the point that knowing was not the same thing as obeying, which is why the Bible never equates spiritual maturity with knowing. It always equates it with doing. Peter's writing to believers who, in a sense, had all the awards already pinned on their awana vests, their trail life vests, shepherds girls, they'd done it all. They knew it. Jesus would say to them, if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. John 13, 17. He would say, Blessed are those who hear the word of God and do it. Luke 11, 28. This is what James is referring to in chapter 1, where he says that the person who hears the word of God and refuses to apply the word of God is like somebody looking in the mirror and then not doing anything about it. I mean, we all looked in the mirror this morning, from what I can tell. Many of us made some major adjustments. Some of us prayed for miracles. The Bible is in the mirror in this analogy, and you look in it and you see yourself. And oh, the major adjustments that we need to make. See, these people knew the word, but they were, according to Peter's warning, not out of danger. It's interesting, by the way, that Peter uses a different word here in verse 12 when he says, I know that you know, you know them. You know these supplements. He uses the word oida for knowing mentally rather than gonuska, which is knowing experientially. One New Testament scholar pointed out the very interesting fact that it's possible, then Peter's implying, to know something intellectually and not know it experientially. They know it, but they're not living it. They're gonna drift. Here's a second warning. Remember that what matters most in life is motivated by the brevity of life. He now writes in verse 13 I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder. Since I know that the putting off of my tent, a reference to taking the tent down, the body, will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. Peter's giving us a little bit of his personal testimony. Now, we're not sure. Uh commentators debate as to whether or not Peter was given fresh revelation from the Lord that he's about to die. Peter doesn't clarify that for us. I think he's more than likely basing this on what the Lord had already told him 50 years earlier. The Lord recommissioned Peter. The Lord met Peter, you may remember, and other disciples after the Lord resurrected from the dead. He met them down by the seashore and he had fixed breakfast there, a charcoal fire, and had some fresh bread and fish that he had miraculously created, which is easy to overlook. And he recommissions Peter to take care of the flock, but then the Lord says this to him, and I'll paraphrase it. He says, Peter, when you were young, you used to go wherever you wanted to go. But when you're an old man, you're gonna go somewhere you really don't want to go, and they're gonna stretch out your arms. This is a reference, in case there's any doubt, by the way, that Jesus is talking about Peter's crucifixion. In John's account, he adds after Jesus' words, that a little parenthesis that says, Jesus says, this was to indicate, or John writes, this was to indicate what kind of death Peter would experience. So Peter was told as a younger man, you're gonna die by crucifixion. But he's also told it's gonna happen when you're an old man. When Peter's writing this letter, he's in his 80s, late 80s, with the clues we have. So he says, I'm an old man now. It can't be long. He's fully aware that he doesn't have much time left. Let me tell you, beloved, that the awareness that life is soon over becomes a powerful motivator, certainly for Peter, with what he wants to do with the time remaining, and it should be for us. This is the truth of Psalm 90 and verse 12. Teach us to number our days. Teach us to think about the brevity of our life and the fact that we don't know how many days we have left, but let's number them. Let's keep in mind they're not going to be very long. So that we can present to you, oh God, a heart of wisdom. Thinking about the brevity of life develops wisdom. It makes life matter when you think about the fact that you might not have much time left. Think about it this way: if the doctor told you that you've got two weeks to live, what would you do? One Sunday school teacher asked his class that question. If the doctor told you you had two weeks to live, what would you do? One of the men raised his hand and said, I'd get a second opinion. Well, I would too. But what would you do with your life? Well, Peter's not scratching his head. He's not wondering what he's gonna do. He spells it out here. As long as I am in this body. As long as the tent is still up, and well, I know I'm gonna take the stakes out and I'm heading out. But until then, I'm gonna stir you up. I love that expression. I'm gonna stir you up. That's intensive. In its original form, it's forceful. It was used for keeping a soldier alert. It was used for waking somebody out of a deep sleep. It stirred them up. Peter's saying, I want to shake you, every one of you, out of spiritual drowsiness so that you would be alert. He wants to spend the rest of his life for you and me. To keep us from drifting. Now he's not depressed as he thinks about his soon-coming execution. He seems to be energized by it. In fact, even the way he talks about dying is interesting. Down in verse 15, if you look down there quickly, he just refers to his death as a departure. And he uses a rare word. It only appears one other time in the New Testament. That's in Luke's gospel where Jesus is on the Mount of Transfiguration and he meets with Elijah and Moses, and they talk about Jesus' departure. Same word death, resurrection, and ascension. Peter uses that word here for his own death. He writes in verse 15 about his departure. And the word is exodus. It gives us our word exit. It means the road out. The way out. So Peter, like the Israelites, they didn't cease to exist when they departed. Peter's not saying, well, I'm going to cease to exist when I get on this road out. No, I'm leaving this land. I'm going to the promised land. That's what he's saying. In light of his exodus, here's what he wants to experience. Here's what he wants us to expect from him. He says, I'm going to stir you up. I'm going to wake you up. I want to warn you of the danger in your life right now, no matter what your age, the danger of drifting away. Now here's the third reminder. Remember that true success in life is marked by godly influence, not affluence. He writes in verse 15, and I will make every effort so that after my departure, you may be able at any time to recall these things. It's as if Peter's saying, I'm an old man now. You know what I want? More than anything, I want you to be able to recall things. It's as if Peter says, That's why I'm writing this stuff down. The older you get, the more you gotta write it down, or you're gonna forget from the bedroom to the living room, which you left for. I read an article recently entitled The Librarian in Your Brain is Slowing Down. Just the title made me want to read it. Because I knew you needed it, not me. He wrote this by the time you're 50, your brain is as crowded with information as the Library of Congress. Meanwhile, that personal librarian who lives in your brain is Now slow and easily distracted. When you send him to get some information you need, like the guy's name who just stopped to talk to you, you can't remember your librarian. Well, he takes a minute to get up out of his chair. He stops to get a cup of coffee. He wanders over and talks to an old friend in the periodicals section. Then he forgets where he was going in the first place. And then when the librarian finally shows back up and whispers, his name is Mike. Mike is long gone. And you're doing something else. Reminded me of a story went off and recorded about three sisters, ages 92, 94, and 96. They lived together in a two-story house. One night the 96-year-old drew her bath upstairs, got halfway in and then paused and hollered, Was I getting in or getting out? The 94-year-old was downstairs in the kitchen and she hollered back, Well, I'll come upstairs and I'll see. So she started up the stairs, but at the landing halfway up, she stopped and yelled, Was I coming up or going down? Well, the 92-year-old, you know, the youngest of them, was in the kitchen drinking a cup of tea and listening to all this commotion and shaking her head in disbelief. She muttered to herself, you know, I hope I never get that forgetful. And you know, for good luck she she knocked on the table. And, you know, I hope I'm never that forgetful. And she humbled up, come on, help you out as soon as I find out who's at the front door. Well, you don't think Peter's being real here? Oh man, is he ever being real? He's he's being realistic. You're not gonna remember any of this. That's why I'm gonna write it down. And the Spirit of God knows our biggest problem in life is forgetting. So I'm gonna write it down so that at any time you want, you've got my two letters, you can recall it. I love the fact that now Peter applies something to himself that he's challenged his readers with twice before. In verses 5 and verse 10, he's used the expression to give all diligence. You can translate that as we have give it everything you've got. Give it everything you've got to pursue these seven supplements. Well, now he uses that same expression for himself here at the beginning of verse 15. I will make every effort, same word. I'm gonna give it everything I've got, all diligence to help you remember how to live for Christ. The truth is we forget what we ought to remember, and we remember what we ought to forget. We forget so many things that are worth remembering, and we remember so many things we really ought to forget. Well, Peter's coming to the end of his life, and what energizes him? What does he want to leave behind? His influence in the lives of these individuals. He's led many of them to Christ. He's personally discipled many of them, and now through his letters, he's been discipling the church, encouraging, loving. Influence matters most. If you've been to a funeral before the service begins, you've sat there and you've watched this PowerPoint that documents the life of the deceased. I have watched many of them over the years. And let me tell you, I have yet to see photographs of their favorite outfits, of their jewelry, of their automobiles, of their diplomas. It's all about relationship. It's all about that individual's influence on their world. The Apostle Peter is modeling that here. In fact, would you notice that Peter does not write here, I will make every effort so that after my departure you will remember me. He doesn't write that. He's saying, more than anything, I want you to remember these supplements that God has given me to pass on to you, to influence you, to urge you, to stir you up so that you will not drift. A song written 40 years ago came to my mind as I was reading and studying Peter's words. The lyrics might be familiar to some of you. They go like this. Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us run the race, not only for the prize, but for those who've gone before us, let us leave to those behind us the heritage of faithfulness passed on through godly lives. After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone, and our children sift through all we've left behind. May the clues that they discover and the memories they uncover become the light that leads them to the road we each must find. Oh, may all who come behind us find us faithful. May the fire of our devotion light their way. May the footprints that we leave lead them to believe, and the lives we live inspire them to obey. Oh, may all who come behind us find us faithful. This is Peter's passion. This is God's Spirit's desire for you and me. To remember that a maturing, godly life isn't just about information, it's about application. To remember and become equally convinced with Peter that affluence will never be as important as influence. And then to remember that life is brief. So don't forget what matters most. Pray with me. With your heads bowed for just a moment, we have looked into the word and it is a mirror. You've seen yourself, I've seen myself. Are you drifting? The fact that you are here this moment is not a coincidence. It's the grace of God. What adjustment needs to be made? What decision? What commitment? What are you drifting away from? God is pulling you back by his goodness. For it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. What promises have you made that you need to keep? What decisions are you contemplating that need to be abandoned? What strength do you need today to stand for what's right? Only you know. So right here and now, let's put an exclamation point, not a question mark, to this study on these critical disciplines, these supplements. Say, Lord, this is what I want as a believer. I want to follow you. Even if it means I leave so much behind. I want to do what's right. I want to follow your spirit's guiding. I need to stop something. I need to start something. Peter has stirred me up. Empower me. Forgive me. Enable me to run the race. Make that commitment to your Lord. Whose personality over these decades mellowed so obviously, who urges us onto this path that he has given his life to walk. Thank you, Spirit of God, for moving him to write every word, every unique expression. None of it a throwaway. All of it's significant. Thank you for your word.