SPEAKER_00: We study through books of the Bible here at the Village Chapel, and we if you need a copy to follow along today, raise your hand up real high, and one of the guys will uh drop one off at your row, your aisle, and you can follow along.
SPEAKER_00: Uh before we get started, a couple things, c couple little little uh uh things I would love to acknowledge and do.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, um some of you know uh Rick and Mary Jane Arendale who are sitting right over here.
SPEAKER_00: Would you guys would you guys stand with fifty years of marriage they're celebrating?
SPEAKER_00: But you would you mind this?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, come on, come on, come on.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, there she is.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And their whole family right here.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: We honor you, we honor you and and and God's work in your lives.
SPEAKER_00: And uh thank you for they they brought the most people this morning, okay?
SPEAKER_00: They they have like two rows over here, I think it was like, and I'm like, I'm really thrown off because it means some of the people that usually sit in certain spots, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And I there's people I have as my go-to faces.
SPEAKER_00: And so I I'm thrown off a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: A couple of my go-to faces have been moved around.
SPEAKER_00: The 8 30 service didn't happen this morning.
SPEAKER_00: So some of those folks are here too, and they're they came in wondering, what are you doing in my seat?
SPEAKER_00: You know, so it's it's then this is a good time.
SPEAKER_00: We're being stirred up a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: This could be called stirred up Sunday, too, uh, as well.
SPEAKER_00: The other thing uh that I wanted to do is this is, I think this may be the first time that the folks in East Nashville are uh taking a feed from this uh this uh Bible study here in Hillsborough Village.
SPEAKER_00: So would you all do me the favor of looking at the uh cameras that are right hanging over the right right underneath the balcony there?
SPEAKER_00: Let's all wave to them.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, love you guys! What's going on?
SPEAKER_00: And uh Matt and Kristen Pearson are over there, and together with uh uh their host team, which includes the Liewikis, the Detwallers, the Simonsons, the Leeds, the Martins, the Jamesons, and there are shots there, all over there, and uh and a bunch of other folks.
SPEAKER_00: And we're just it's an honor to to be able to be connected and to feel like uh we are all part of the same church family, and um uh bless you guys this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I pray the Lord will be with you as as uh as you worship uh in East Nashville there.
SPEAKER_00: Now, uh what we want to do today is, and this is always a good time to do that when you're on the last Sunday of the year, thinking about what has gone you know behind us in the in the rear view mirror, and yet at the same time considering what's in the windshield and and what might be ahead for us.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't do a lot of uh you if you've been coming here at all very long, we're not a real big sort of high anxiety, you know, leadership seminar kind of church.
SPEAKER_00: We're not uh um uh real, you know, we we we have we have a five-year plan, but it's kind of the same as our 10-year plan, our 20-year plan.
SPEAKER_00: And and it's the same as our one-year plan.
SPEAKER_00: And and that's to follow Jesus, is basically, I mean, that's a big broad thing, and it's not trivializing planning.
SPEAKER_00: I think planning is important and all of that.
SPEAKER_00: And I think at the end of the year, it's really good to consider uh the question, what kind of church do we hope to become?
SPEAKER_00: Uh that that uh band switchfoot had that song, are you who you want to be?
SPEAKER_00: That's a great question.
SPEAKER_00: Are we who we want to be as a church?
SPEAKER_00: Are you who you want to be as a disciple of Jesus, as a follower of Christ, as his son or daughter of the King of the universe?
SPEAKER_00: And uh great, great time now, this last Sunday of the year, last Sunday of the decade, leading into the new year, to ask this question: what kind of church do we hope to become?
SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of different categories we could discuss when it comes to the process of becoming.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but essentially for us, it's about a prayerful and thoughtful development as it relates to the directions in which we hope TVC will continue to grow, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Some might focus on attendance numbers, some um on financial giving, some on improvement in facilities or budgetary priorities, that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_00: But our interest, uh, as we hear from the Apostle Peter this morning, we're gonna turn to 2 Peter in your Bibles, will be on how we will grow in our ambition for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and that's a that's not in any of the church growth books.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's just not really the first chapter.
SPEAKER_00: How can you become more ambitious for the glory of God to be seen, to be experienced, to experience it yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and glory is his splendor, it's his his his luminosity, his brilliance.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, at the end of the book of Revelation, uh, as we studied uh in in, I think it was last week, it says at the end of all time, when he wraps up human history, there'll be no need for the Son or the moon because the Lord and the Lamb Himself will be our light.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's how essential God's glory is to his church and to should be to his people.
SPEAKER_00: So um we'll focus in on that, how we can develop a steadfast faith and nurture the spiritual health and vitality of God's church as we look at 2 Peter chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to turn there with me, I'm gonna have you read it in a minute up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: But we do recognize the fact that when it comes to our spiritual health, uh we're either moving forward or we're drifting backwards.
SPEAKER_00: And as far as I can tell, Dallas Willard was right when he said, nothing good ever comes from drift, especially in the spiritual life.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing good ever comes from drift in the spiritual life.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you just can't let it, you you, you're you're essentially gonna drift backwards, is what's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: So uh given the fact that this letter was written uh, as far as we know, by a man who calls himself Simon Peter, which I would assume is gonna be uh the Simon Peter that we know of.
SPEAKER_00: He refers to his previous letter, and we have two letters of uh of from Peter to a broad range of churches, I suppose, uh, because in the first letter he he articulates what region those churches are from.
SPEAKER_00: In the second letter here, he does not do that, but he still is identified at the at the first chapter in the first verse as Simon Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Simon wrote uh during a very difficult time for Christians living in the reign of uh the Roman Emperor Nero.
SPEAKER_00: He reigned from 54 A.D.
SPEAKER_00: to 68 A.D.
SPEAKER_00: Toward the end of his reign, which is about the time we think this letter may have been written, it became quite violent toward Christians.
SPEAKER_00: We know a little bit about that, not very much in the West.
SPEAKER_00: We hear about it because we heard just even a few days ago, 11 Christians beheaded because they're Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Beheaded in Nigeria by a terrorist organization.
SPEAKER_00: Um the persecution of Christians is not a new thing, it's actually an old thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's been going on for a long, long time.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we're far removed from it, but we need to be praying as the church and supporting uh the mission of God in this world and especially our brothers and sisters in the persecuted regions of this world.
SPEAKER_00: Um but here we're reading a letter that was written to a group of churches that were undergoing a great deal of persecution.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter, if indeed he's the author of this, and this this is what this is the one of the New Testament books that actually uh down through the uh um entire church period, this is one of the books that had a little bit of difficulty making it into the canon.
SPEAKER_00: There were people that were divided over that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_00: That never bothers me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if that bothers you or not.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't bother me at all.
SPEAKER_00: I like it that it was a thorough process.
SPEAKER_00: I expect there to be some kind of tension in the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: Because we're trying to decide, we're trying to discern what's really from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And so we need to be discriminating in our thinking and not just allow any old book to be included.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's the word of God, and it's really important, and it's the word of God on which we rely.
SPEAKER_00: We just sang that.
SPEAKER_00: I will wait for you, I'll wait for you.
SPEAKER_00: On your word, I will rely.
SPEAKER_00: That's because it's a good, solid foundation for us.
SPEAKER_00: And so we study through books of the Bible here at the Village Chapel.
SPEAKER_00: And if you turn uh either in your Bibles to 2 Peter chapter 3 with me, or even better, if you'll I'm a little scratchy of throat again, just like I was on Christmas Eve, I'm gonna ask you to read this passage aloud with me.
SPEAKER_00: This is how he closes out.
SPEAKER_00: These are the last known written words of the Apostle Peter, one of Jesus' best friends, by the way, one of the inner three.
SPEAKER_00: Peter, James, and John were the three that got to be with Jesus at the Transfiguration.
SPEAKER_00: They were literally there when Jesus had a foot in the heavenly realm and a foot in the earthly realm.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus was talking to Moses and talking to Elijah, and somehow or another, you know, Peter, James, and John got to witness this thing.
SPEAKER_00: They were with him in the garden when he was in agony, and just before he was arrested, and amazing.
SPEAKER_00: They were they were with Jesus when he raised Jarius' daughter from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: In that room, just the three of them watched Jesus raise somebody from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: And so, all along, when he suggested to them that he had the power over life and death, that one day he would be arrested, that he would be betrayed and arrested, that he would be hung on a cross, that he would die, and that he would rise again, you know, he was actually showing them with raising Jarius' daughter that he had the power to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Another reason why we can trust in him.
SPEAKER_00: Would you read aloud with me from 2 Peter 3, 13 through 18?
SPEAKER_00: Ready?
SPEAKER_00: But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace, and count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you, according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters.
SPEAKER_00: There are some things in them that are hard to understand, yeah, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: You, therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people, and lose your own stability, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: To him be the glory.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I'm pretty sure Peter, if he'd lived in America, would be from the Northeast.
SPEAKER_00: He'd probably be a new New Yorker.
SPEAKER_00: You know, he kind of says things like bluntly.
SPEAKER_00: And I know he's sort of, you know, everybody thinks of him as the guy that, you know, is always speaking.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's kind of like ready, fire, aim for him.
SPEAKER_00: It's, you know, he's constantly speaking before he thinks.
SPEAKER_00: He's constantly, you know, he's the guy that that rebuked Jesus, and then Jesus said, Get thee behind me, Satan.
SPEAKER_00: And if Jesus calls you Satan, that's not a good day.
SPEAKER_00: That's not a good day at work, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you're not really, as an apostle or disciple, you're not really having a very good day, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Um uh Peter was the one who was overconfident all the time.
SPEAKER_00: He was the one saying, I'll never forsake you, I'll never leave you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, he's the one that denied Christ three times.
SPEAKER_00: And he's the one that the Lord Jesus lovingly restored three times.
SPEAKER_00: Do you love me?
SPEAKER_00: Do you love me three times?
SPEAKER_00: And then he said, Feed my sheep, feed my sheep, and feed my sheep.
SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful thing that Jesus did to do that kind of thing with Peter.
SPEAKER_00: But I like the direct approach uh that Peter takes here.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it reminds me of a photo I saw in a window, uh, or I saw this photo up on the on the internet of a sign in a church window that said, confession today, Saturday, will be until exactly 5:30 p.m.
SPEAKER_00: There's only one priest available for confession today.
SPEAKER_00: Make your confession direct to the point and confess only your sins and offenses.
SPEAKER_00: No need to explain why you did it.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: How's that for direct?
SPEAKER_00: Um, probably not the way we want to go, but an interesting son nonetheless.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I grew up in the Northeast, like I say, I uh I kind of like the direct approach, but not always apropos when it comes to our strategy for ministry and the way we treat people and all that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_00: Um but as we come to the end of the year, in the beginning of another one, that verse 18 that we just read, that's got for me a couple clues to what if if the leadership of this church were to answer the question, what kind of church do we want to become?
SPEAKER_00: This is the kind of answer I think the leadership of this church would want to offer back.
SPEAKER_00: We want to become a church that's growing in grace, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And I know grace is one of those words that um a lot of times it just kind of goes in one ear and out the other because you're not really kind of considering what it means.
SPEAKER_00: Um and we've we've we've heard it so much.
SPEAKER_00: But beloved, and by the way, I don't know if you notice this, but Peter, when he addressed this in the in this uh passage that you just read, he called them beloved twice.
SPEAKER_00: And that was time uh that that was the third and fourth time in this letter, if you take the whole letter, that he calls them beloved.
SPEAKER_00: So Peter the apostle, Peter the overconfident, exuberant, uh you know, quick to speak, slow-to-hear guy, uh, has seasoned as a pastor.
SPEAKER_00: He's learned what it means to love others well and to love those that he serves and leads.
SPEAKER_00: And so he calls them beloved four times in this.
SPEAKER_00: And we've got two of them.
SPEAKER_00: You just read two of them.
SPEAKER_00: So you could you could circle that in your in your Bible or even in the pew Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It's just that's a term of endearment.
SPEAKER_00: He loves these folks, whoever they were, he loves them and he's seeking their highest good, and they and he knows that it's all wrapped up in the disposition of heart they have toward God and God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so we'll we'll we'll we'll just kind of pick it apart from that particular angle if you don't mind uh this morning.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to grow in grace?
SPEAKER_00: Uh it includes the idea of being gracious, uh, but it's not merely about being nice, southern, or civil.
SPEAKER_00: When it comes to the gospel, growing in grace means increasing in our experiential knowledge of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: All right, so we're not just gonna throw it away.
SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna just pass over it.
SPEAKER_00: We want to pick that apart for just a little second.
SPEAKER_00: Are we increasing in our experiential knowledge of God's grace at work in our lives when it comes to the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: And one thing is true: the more we grow in grace, as Peter means it here, the more gracious we will become toward others, including those we have difficulty loving, those we find annoying, and even those who find us annoying.
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: So you just came through the holidays.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you had a dysfunctional family Christmas, um, and and and probably all of us to some degree had moments where the uh the tension was a little, you know, a little much.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and some of you have known how you've learned how to draw the boundaries and the lines and all that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_00: And look, I we have the same thing as a church, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, people in the church, I wish I pastored a church of dogs.
SPEAKER_00: Because I know what dogs are, I mean, dogs are awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Dogs are happy to see you all the time.
SPEAKER_00: You know, hey, welcome home! You know, and and so sometimes, you know, I understand that people are a problem, and other people especially are a problem, but that's when I'm the center of the universe that becomes more evident.
SPEAKER_00: When God's grace that's been lavished upon me is recognized, appreciated, and all of a sudden I'm grateful for it and walking in it, that all of a sudden I begin to grow in grace.
SPEAKER_00: In my personal experiential knowledge of it.
SPEAKER_00: The 17th-century nonconformist church leader and theologian uh John Owen said it this way.
SPEAKER_00: The growth of trees and plants takes place so slowly that it's not easily seen.
SPEAKER_00: Daily we notice little change, but in course of time we see that great change has taken place.
SPEAKER_00: So it is with grace.
SPEAKER_00: Sanctification is a progressive, lifelong work.
SPEAKER_00: It is an amazing work of God's grace, and it is a work to be prayed for.
SPEAKER_00: So I pray that.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that we will grow in grace.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you and I are justified by faith.
SPEAKER_00: We learn this when we study the book of Romans.
SPEAKER_00: We're justified, we're re-regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and then all of a sudden we come, we're given this gift of faith that leads to repentance, and we repent, turn away from our sins, turn toward God, toward Christ, of faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And he who went to the cross for us has paid the price in full for our sins, past, present, and future.
SPEAKER_00: So we have our legal standing before God set.
SPEAKER_00: Christ has done it, he's done everything necessary, okay?
SPEAKER_00: That's wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: Now we have this process that we are going through called sanctification, and we are saved by grace through faith.
SPEAKER_00: That's true.
SPEAKER_00: The initial thing that happens is all by grace.
SPEAKER_00: Guess what else is all by grace?
SPEAKER_00: Sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And so we want to grow in grace.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be those who are learning more and more and more what it means to walk in God's grace, to experience God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: I think it looks like something.
SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of the things that we talk about in the scriptures that we think of as things that happen when we first walk the aisle or first raised our hand or first became a Christian, if that's if that's you.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're not here and you're, or if you are here rather, and you are not a Christian, I hope I can persuade you to see how loving and how rich is God's grace toward us.
SPEAKER_00: All of us who are sinners, who need the outside help of rescuing, redeeming God to come and to save us.
SPEAKER_00: It looks like something.
SPEAKER_00: I think it means an increasing awareness of God's unmerited favor and steadfast love.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, I can't do anything to make God love me more.
SPEAKER_00: And that's good news, actually.
SPEAKER_00: He already loves me.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: And I also can't do anything to make him love me less.
SPEAKER_00: And that's called, that's because it's grace.
SPEAKER_00: It's unmerited favor, and it's his steadfast love that's based on his heart.
SPEAKER_00: And that's really wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: It's not based on my performance, it's not based on your performance.
SPEAKER_00: And there's so many people in this world that think that religion is about following rules.
SPEAKER_00: And yes, the burden of every religion is to answer those two questions: who is God and how can sinful human beings be reconciled to a holy and righteous God?
SPEAKER_00: And the Christian faith says, who is God?
SPEAKER_00: It's the God of the Bible who has revealed himself to us.
SPEAKER_00: We don't discover him, he reveals himself to us.
SPEAKER_00: We don't create our own little God in our own image.
SPEAKER_00: He has revealed himself to us, and he's spoken through his word, and he's spoken most clearly through his son Jesus Christ, who all of these scriptures point to and find their fulfillment in.
SPEAKER_00: And so we look to him, and what we find in him is one who would come on a rescue mission for us, even though we were sinners.
SPEAKER_00: While we were sinners, Christ came and he died for us.
SPEAKER_00: So it looks like learning more and more about God's unmerited favor and his steadfast love.
SPEAKER_00: It looks like growing in humility.
SPEAKER_00: How can I be arrogant when I didn't do anything to earn his love?
SPEAKER_00: Where I can't do anything to earn his love.
SPEAKER_00: How can I become elitist or arrogant if I'm in proper, if I have a proper understanding of grace, it will increase humility as well.
SPEAKER_00: It means we'll also move more eagerly to repent.
SPEAKER_00: Why is that?
SPEAKER_00: Because we know the response to our repentance already.
SPEAKER_00: God's already done everything necessary for our uh for our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: So He's already taken, He's already paid the check.
SPEAKER_00: He's already paid the invoice.
SPEAKER_00: We know the response to our repentance is forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Because He's done it once and for all.
SPEAKER_00: And so we are more eager to repent.
SPEAKER_00: We're not resisting, we're not afraid we're gonna be rejected, we're not afraid that God somehow or another is gonna throw us out.
SPEAKER_00: He has already done everything necessary and he's gone to great lengths to save us.
SPEAKER_00: We're also faster to forgive others.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, now I'm starting to get, I know some of you going, hey man, don't start digging in that, man.
SPEAKER_00: Don't start digging in that.
SPEAKER_00: That's gonna mess with me.
SPEAKER_00: I know some of us in this room can probably think of one or two people that annoy us.
SPEAKER_00: Or worse, maybe one or two people that we actually loathe.
SPEAKER_00: We may know them personally, we may not know them personally.
SPEAKER_00: But in our hearts, we hold them in contempt.
SPEAKER_00: And I would suggest to you from the Bible that's just rat poison that you just drank and continue to drink.
SPEAKER_00: We gotta set that aside.
SPEAKER_00: We have to be people that learn to walk in the grace that's been freely bestowed upon us, and then we go out into the world as agents of his grace and reflect.
SPEAKER_00: It's not we're not drawing it from within ourselves, we're merely reflecting like little mirrors the grace that's been shown to us.
SPEAKER_00: And we do that with people that you hold in contempt in your own family, in your place of work, in the world in general.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you think about who that might be and ask yourself if there's some part of you, some play, some part of you, that needs to forgive.
SPEAKER_00: And I I'll say this every time we talk about the word forgiveness, because usually there's somebody within the sound of my voice here in this room, this many people, or on the internet, somebody that's holding on to unforgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: It's time.
SPEAKER_00: When is it time to forgive?
SPEAKER_00: It's time now to do that.
SPEAKER_00: It's not helping you, and certainly not doing what you think it might be doing to them.
SPEAKER_00: But forgive.
SPEAKER_00: Be immersive.
SPEAKER_00: As your heavenly Father has been merciful to you.
SPEAKER_00: It's the only conditional part of the Lord's Prayer that we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand what you're saying when you say the Lord's Prayer?
SPEAKER_00: You're saying, God forgive me the same way I'm forgiving that fool or that person that hurt me or that idiot or whatever it might be.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're not forgiving that person, you're praying, God, forgive me the same way I'm forgiving them.
SPEAKER_00: So it's the only conditional statement up there in that Lord's Prayer, and I want us, we need to become a people that are faster to forgive, people that are confident, have confident assurance of God's love.
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
SPEAKER_00: You can rest in the assurance of God's love.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of the things that I think is unique about the Christian faith, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: Assurance.
SPEAKER_00: See, all of the other religious belief systems are about you trying to balance out the moral scales.
SPEAKER_00: In the case of the Christian faith, there's no scales.
SPEAKER_00: There are no scales.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the symbol of the Christian faith.
SPEAKER_00: The symbol of the Christian faith?
SPEAKER_00: The cross where Jesus paid it all.
SPEAKER_00: So here's assurance for you.
SPEAKER_00: Some people say, I don't, can you really know if you're saved or not?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you can.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because you're not trusting in you to be saved, you're trusting in Jesus to save you.
SPEAKER_00: And he's done everything necessary for your salvation and for mine.
SPEAKER_00: And so I can rest in the assurance of God.
SPEAKER_00: It leads to a deeper rest in the peace of God, which is so wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: We now have peace with God, but we also have the peace of God.
SPEAKER_00: And that's wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: That really starts to set a person free.
SPEAKER_00: It leads to an increasing holiness and transformation of life.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, now again, we're starting to sort of, this is starting to mess with some of us, right?
SPEAKER_00: If you can look back on your life and you see a little bit of spiritual fruit growing, I'm talking about the fruit of the Spirit, not the fruit of you becoming a southerner, not the fruit of you becoming more civil or following the rules, but the fruit of the spirit actually working in your life.
SPEAKER_00: You're actually seeing more love, joy, peace.
SPEAKER_00: You know that it isn't measured by how many arguments you want on the internet.
SPEAKER_00: It's not measured by, it's not measured by the end of that's right.
SPEAKER_00: It's measured by how the fruit of the spirit is blooming, blossoming, you know, in your life or in mine.
SPEAKER_00: And there's an increasing uh transformation that goes on our lives in our lives when we're growing in God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: And then it also leads to a more properly directed and heartfelt worship.
SPEAKER_00: And I gotta say, man, you know, this church started in 01, so we're like almost two decades old.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing that thrills this pastor more than to hear you guys sing, man.
SPEAKER_00: I love to hear you sing.
SPEAKER_00: I love to look out.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it just I can't sing myself because I'm too choked up looking at you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh seeing what God has done, knowing some of your stories, and uh knowing the kind of transformation God has been bringing about in some of your lives and the kind of courage some of you have needed from the Lord as you've gone through so many of the trials and tribulations that you've had to face.
SPEAKER_00: But a more properly directed and heartfelt worship isn't just about singing louder, it's about actually singing to him for his glory, connecting, engaging with God in worship.
SPEAKER_00: Um, it it it it's it's it's about when you walk in here and you're with God's people, actually engaging as part of the family of God, as brothers and sisters, more of you thinking like hosts, and less to let less of you thinking like guests here.
SPEAKER_00: How can I serve?
SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad you're here today.
SPEAKER_00: You look for the one that has no one sitting with them or no one to go to lunch with, and you you reach out and you you're actually moving as the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And that's a more properly directed, heartfelt part of our worship as well.
SPEAKER_00: The sometimes rather salty Anne Lamotte said this I do not understand the mystery of grace, only that it meets us where we are and does not leave us where it found us.
SPEAKER_00: See, for all of us who are ready to admit that we aren't perfect, that we've strayed, that we're broken, and that we've broken ourselves against some of God's standards, that life doesn't always go quite exactly as we have planned, that we don't really have control.
SPEAKER_00: If we know that we're gonna need some outside help to make it through, here's the good news: God's grace is always enough.
SPEAKER_00: Because you can trust Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He proved this by leaving the comforts of heaven to come to this rebel planet and give his life a ransom for his people.
SPEAKER_00: God's grace always makes up the difference, and this God of the Bible is eagerly watching from the windows for every prodigal son or daughter, no matter how far or in which direction you may have wandered, he's watching from the windows.
SPEAKER_00: Just like the father in the prodigal son's story.
SPEAKER_00: No matter how foolish you've been, no matter what you have done, he's watching.
SPEAKER_00: He's waiting for you to just turn around, take that one little step.
SPEAKER_00: If there's a thousand steps between you and God, he'll take 999 of them.
SPEAKER_00: You just take that first one and turn toward him in repentance and growing in grace.
SPEAKER_00: It's just like salvation itself, but it's about receiving, not achieving.
SPEAKER_00: It's receiving something from Jesus on an ongoing basis, not achieving something for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved TVCers, I pray that in 2020 we will continue to grow in grace.
SPEAKER_00: I also pray that we'll be a church that's growing in its knowledge of Jesus, verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: In a world confused by its worship of the two altars of ambiguity and autonomy.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that for just a second.
SPEAKER_00: Our world does worship at those two altars.
SPEAKER_00: Ambiguity, keep it vague.
SPEAKER_00: Spirituality, that's right, but not Christianity, not Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Certainly an anti-institutional sort of approach towards spirituality.
SPEAKER_00: Uh keep it ambiguous and then autonomy, keep it mine.
SPEAKER_00: Let me have it my way.
SPEAKER_00: And that's that's the tone and the sort of uh paradigm that the world we live in thinks in.
SPEAKER_00: It it's throughout every bit of media that you digest, uh, whether it's TV shows, movies, books, whatever it is, it we're all being schooled in this sort of uh uh ambiguity and autonomy, as if that's sort of the highest goal.
SPEAKER_00: And yet at the same time, we see people who are just chronically disappointed, chronically hopeless and in despair.
SPEAKER_00: Why is that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's because we were never meant to bear the weight of ambiguity or autonomy.
SPEAKER_00: God actually put eternity in our hearts, but he also came and said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: And it's all wrapped up in this person, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing ambiguous about that.
SPEAKER_00: So we want to be a church that's growing in our knowledge of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he's the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: And in him we find everything we need.
SPEAKER_00: Um so this is a this is, I think, fundamental to what Peter is saying here at the end of chapter three.
SPEAKER_00: And I agree with others who have opined that it's not um, or that that it's that it's true that the the institutions and churches and all that are shrinking and younger folks are abandoning traditional religious views to become the so-called nuns.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sad that I think that that's partly the case.
SPEAKER_00: However, I would push back just a little bit and agree with those who have opined that it's not the faithful who have become faithless, but rather it's the nominals who have become the nuns.
SPEAKER_00: Those who have never really taken convictional Christianity seriously, they're coming from a cultural Christianity perspective.
SPEAKER_00: And for them, it's never been about Jesus, it's never been about the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It's just been about a part of a cultural thing.
SPEAKER_00: And so, of course, if the pressure's on, of course, if the heat gets turned up, they're the ones that might be shaken because they haven't put their faith in Christ and in Christ alone.
SPEAKER_00: According to a recent Pew research poll, religiously unaffiliated Christians, or Americans rather, grew from 16 to nearly 23% over the last seven years.
SPEAKER_00: That increase largely came from the ranks of religious traditions with higher numbers of nominals in them.
SPEAKER_00: Among those adults who now claim no religious affiliation, 28% were raised Catholic, 21% grew up in a mainline denomination of some sort.
SPEAKER_00: That's close, that's almost 50% of the people coming from a more nominal place, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: That's half of the people who claim no religious affiliation.
SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, according to that same Pew research poll, convictional Christianity is growing.
SPEAKER_00: Churches who hold to a biblical teaching and proclaim the gospel are increasing in numbers.
SPEAKER_00: What's been traditionally called evangelical Christianity is actually growing in America.
SPEAKER_00: From 2007 to 2014, the number of evangelicals in America rose from 59.8 million to 62.2 million.
SPEAKER_00: Caution.
SPEAKER_00: I want to point out that in spite of how some in the media and some in the public square have tried to redefine the term evangelical, it is not about being a part of one particular socio-political group.
SPEAKER_00: This is just a sign that those folks don't really understand what it means to be an evangelical.
SPEAKER_00: The word evangelical comes from evangelion.
SPEAKER_00: It means good news.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't mean self-righteous religious posers.
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't mean, you know, people that are that have elevated human systems to such a degree that their entire life revolves around whatever the latest outrage is.
unknown: No, no.
SPEAKER_00: I love it that I walk in here and and there are people from a lot of different places in the world, a lot of different, you know, you're sitting with at arm's length of somebody that voted the other way.
SPEAKER_00: And what's awesome about that is that Jesus is more important to you than the way somebody voted.
SPEAKER_00: And even more important than the way you voted.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we can be the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why, for us, it's about knowledge of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I love the wise old sage Warren Wearsby.
SPEAKER_00: Brilliant, man.
SPEAKER_00: I want to keep growing, he said, even though the older I get, the more difficult it becomes.
SPEAKER_00: There's no time to waste on scaffolding.
SPEAKER_00: I got to build on essentials, not accidentals.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: So we will be a church, I pray, that is growing in grace.
SPEAKER_00: We will be a church that's growing in our knowledge of Jesus in creation regained.
SPEAKER_00: 35 years ago, this book was published, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: It's been a part of all of us that have gone to Covenant Seminary.
SPEAKER_00: We've it's been part of our reading to study this Walter's book.
SPEAKER_00: What was formed in creation has been historically deformed by sin and must be reformed in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So growing in our knowledge of Jesus, that's why we're studying through books of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: We seek to hear from God, to be shaped and influenced by the Bible and by the Holy Spirit as He takes God's word, applies it to our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We begin to see things the way God sees them, to weep over what God weeps over, to rejoice over what Jesus rejoices over, and to look for opportunities to be Jesus, that hands and feet of Jesus in this world in which we live.
SPEAKER_00: Because we want to be shaped and formed and reformed in our increasing knowledge of Jesus Himself.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly and finally, we want to be next year a church and this year, a church that's growing in its desire to glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: Did you see that at the end?
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 18 if you have your Bible open.
SPEAKER_00: Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says this to him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity.
SPEAKER_00: And then he punctuates it with, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That means truly or verily.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: And again, we we we we tend to read that and read right over it and don't really get that.
SPEAKER_00: That's the that's the purpose of the entire letter.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he opens the letter talking about the glory of God, and he closes the letter talking about the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to be about the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to be people who are growing in our desire, in even in our ambition to see God glorified.
SPEAKER_00: That's a holy ambition.
SPEAKER_00: To see God glorified in all things, to see God glorified in our work.
SPEAKER_00: So your work ethic, you have an opportunity there to glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: Your relationships with each other as part of this church, you have an opportunity to glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: The way you're a parent, the way you're a son, daughter, the way you're a spouse, the way you're a friend, whatever it might be.
SPEAKER_00: Is the glory of God even considered?
SPEAKER_00: Is it even on the radar?
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you're a person who's a part of a church that, like Peter's writing to, that's his desire for us.
SPEAKER_00: That we would be growing in grace, growing in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus, and also growing in our desire to see God glorified.
SPEAKER_00: C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis, who we quote around here a little bit, says the Scotch Catechism says that the man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
SPEAKER_00: But we shall then know that these are the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: Fully to enjoy is to glorify.
SPEAKER_00: In commanding us to glorify him, God's inviting us to enjoy him.
SPEAKER_00: To glorify God is to reflect God's luminous splendor.
SPEAKER_00: Just as the moon has no light of its own, but reflects the light of the sun.
SPEAKER_00: That's us.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean we're a bunch of moonies, but it does mean that we're supposed to be reflecting something that isn't ours.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And that glory of God, looking for the glory of God in each and every situation in our lives, is really, really important.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to become increasingly ambitious for God's glory in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Eager to give God the glory, due to his name, eager to watch out for his reputation in all your decisions, in the way you serve, how can I glorify God in this?
SPEAKER_00: In the way you respond in a conversation, how can I glorify God in this moment?
SPEAKER_00: Don't just react.
SPEAKER_00: Don't just, I mean, it's again, don't be, Peter's, one of the weaknesses of Peter early on was that that sort of ready aim fire, you know, or fire, you know, he always fired before he aimed, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't want to do that.
SPEAKER_00: We want to think, how do we glorify God, his marvelous nature, his character, to consider uh his reputation uh as others might see it in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: J.I.
SPEAKER_00: Packer was interviewed, uh, one of his uh most brilliant interviews here in the last year or two.
SPEAKER_00: Uh they asked him, what would be your final words to the church?
SPEAKER_00: He's getting much older and don't know how long he'll be with us, but uh his answer was I can think, I think I can boil it all down to four words.
SPEAKER_00: Glorify Christ every way.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: It's that simple.
SPEAKER_00: What's your five-year plan as a church?
SPEAKER_00: Glorify Christ every way.
SPEAKER_00: Every way.
SPEAKER_00: The way that we are a staff, the way that we are a church, the way that we are a two-campus church, we want to glorify God in every way.
SPEAKER_00: I hope that expresses the desire of your heart as well.
SPEAKER_00: I hope that you'll be a part of that as we move forward.
SPEAKER_00: Um, in the 19th and 20th century, there's an American author and poet, whatever works, solitude, contains these lines that uh that you do know, and it's not the ones that are on the screen right now.
SPEAKER_00: Um you you've all heard, laugh and the world laughs with you.
SPEAKER_00: Weep and you weep.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for the sad old earth must borrow its mirth, but has trouble enough of its own.
SPEAKER_00: She wasn't necessarily a Christian believer, but I I did find this other little, and I've quoted this before, I think it's really common sense that remains good common sense.
SPEAKER_00: One ship drives east, another drives west, with the selfsame winds that blow.
SPEAKER_00: It's the set of the sails and not the gales, which tells us the way to go.
SPEAKER_00: So, my beloved TVCers from both campuses, this is for each one of us, and this is for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Peter chapter 3, verses 13 through 18.
SPEAKER_00: In which direction will we be setting our sails as we close out this year and look at next year?
SPEAKER_00: Anytime you're piloting or driving a plane, train, or an automobile for that matter, a boat, a ship, or even a starship, it's good to have the destination in mind so you can set a course.
SPEAKER_00: In order to reach your desired destination, it takes repeated reorientation.
SPEAKER_00: That's why if you watch someone navigate a boat, it's never in a straight line.
SPEAKER_00: Continued course corrections are necessary to account for changes in the current, in the wind, the objects that one might encounter along the way.
SPEAKER_00: Our walk with Christ is the same.
SPEAKER_00: We encounter obstacles, we encounter resistance, we encounter the changing tides of culture, and sometimes the annoying habits of other church members.
SPEAKER_00: We encounter all of that.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the pastor failing us in some way.
SPEAKER_00: And all that happens, see.
SPEAKER_00: The question is: can we keep going back to the scripture, increase in our knowledge of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Can we keep standing under the spout where the glory comes out?
SPEAKER_00: The glory of God's grace, uh, and receiving more and more as we learn to walk in the grace and grow in the grace that God has put on offer for us, and then become a church that is growing in its desire to glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved TVCers, this is for each one of us, and this is for all of us together.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for our older brother Peter.
SPEAKER_00: I think of him as one of the personalities that, in some ways, I can identify with in the Bible because of his propensity to say things awkwardly sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: But to say this so clearly and so straightforwardly, um, to have been somebody who knew what it meant to fail and to be restored and redeemed and recommissioned.
SPEAKER_00: That that holds uh carries a lot of weight for me and maybe for some others here too.
SPEAKER_00: So, Lord, um please move in our hearts and stir us up to be your people.
SPEAKER_00: Um make us more and more aware of the grace that you've lavished upon us.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to be those who are blessed because we are hungry and thirsty for righteousness and hungry for more knowledge of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Um of us need to be stirred up to a one-year Bible reading plan or to uh just a more uh consistent daily devotional life, uh, or to be more intentional when we gather with God's people so that we don't just sing songs, but we actually engage in worshiping you and adoring you.
SPEAKER_00: I pray, Lord, that you would do all of that here at the village chapel, revive us again, continually revive us and renew us.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Lord, that we might glorify you in this world that is uh in the grip of darkness and confusion, uh, that the word of God uh and the light of Christ might be evident to all.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.