This is a rush transcript.

[00:00:00] This Memorial Day weekend, it was estimated that a near record 43 million Americans planned on traveling.

[00:00:13] I know what you think of when you hear that, but that sounds like a lot of people on the freeway. Sounds like a lot of people at the airports. I mean, maybe some of you you traveled and it brought you here this weekend. We're glad that you with it that you're with us. But some of us maybe that thinks, hey, it sounds like a great weekend to stay home and just enjoy way I already live. And summer is upon us. And I don't know what that makes you think of or what your plans are for the summer. But one of the things we enjoy doing here in America is we enjoy traveling. Anybody go on summer vacations as a kid? Apparently, none of you really grew up in families that loved you and cared about you. Many of us have fond memories of getting into a car, a vehicle or getting on a plane and going somewhere, going to see someone that we love and and care about or having a a special experience as a family. And there's there's certain people that, you know. One of the things that they enjoy most about the trip is the packing beforehand. Have you met one of these people? Maybe you are one of those people where you've got your check lists and you've just folded everything just so and you're so excited about your suitcase and you want to take a picture of it. It's it's something that I personally don't relate to. But. But when you get on a trip, there's this moment that can sometimes happen where you come to the realization that you have forgotten something. Have you ever been on a trip like that and you realize you've forgotten something and maybe it's kind of an important something? Doesn't that change the trip at that moment? Like, maybe our goal of this trip, what we were thinking we're gonna do is like, hey, we're going to go and we're gonna really enjoy time with these people or we're going to go to this place and enjoy this special time as a family. And really, we were thinking like, oh, man, I can't wait to go to this beach, but rather than go into the beach, we're like getting to know the local, like CBS for like a toothbrush or something like that. Or, you know, maybe we're trying to find out how we can get that memory foam pillow that we just can't seem to get a good night of sleep without. Where can I pick up one of those when we when we forget things? It changes the trip entirely. And the way that we should think about ourselves as Christians is like right now we're on a trip.

[00:02:39] We're not home.

[00:02:40] Our home is with the Lord in heaven. And right now, while we're here on earth, we're on a mission trip. We're so journeying, we're not where we want to be.

[00:02:49] And I think many Christians, many people who profess to know the Lord as they think about their life, they think I've I've missed I'm missing something. There's something that I need that's crucial to what's going on down here that I do not have. And the question really is, is God packed everything that you need for this life? Has he is he included at all? Or are there things that were that were missing out on? And to answer that question, I'd invite you to open your Bible and turn with me a second. Peter. Chapter one second, Peter. Chapter one. And this is actually the passage that we're going to start setting today. We're going to keep on studying this passage with the college ministry. It's gonna be so exciting. And then as we get into this letter of second Peter, it's it's on page 1018 if you've got one of our Bibles. But right towards the end of the New Testament, as we study Philippians, that will start next week. And we're gonna see that Paul is writing to a specific group of people in a specific place, people that he's familiar with, that he knows well that he has affection for, that he's even so. He has such fond memories of his time there in Phillip II. But let's read the first verse, few verses of of second Peter together to get a sense of how Peter's writing. He says, Simeon or Simon Peter, a servant, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and savior Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiply to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him, who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he is granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. And what we're seeing here, that Peter, rather than writing to a specific group in a specific place. He's writing to people and the way he characterizes them as those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and savior Jesus Christ. When I think about that, it ages. Reminds me of what we've been studying these this last month or so at our church that done series where we've been really starting at Easter. Thinking about what Jesus Christ accomplished. Right. That I mean, if you think about having a faith of equal standing with Peter, I mean, that's that's seems impressive, right? Peter's a guy who actually got to be with Jesus physically to hang on his every word. He he saw Jesus resurrected. He saw Jesus ascended to heaven. God, it really used him to really even start the the church by preaching that first sermon where thousands of people got saved. And Peter saying that there's a group of people out there that have a faith that's at the same standing as his.

[00:05:45] That's impressive.

[00:05:46] And where do we get that faith? It's not because we've done great things. It's not because of anything within us. It's because of the righteousness of our God and savior Jesus Christ. It's done. Jesus has already paid for our sin in full. He's already completed all of the righteousness that could be given to us so that God would view us as being acceptable before him, of having a standing before him, of having a relationship with him that's already been done through Jesus Christ. Well, it's a little sad that the Done series is done like you wish you would keep on going. Like myself. That's the way I feel about it. But he says that, hey, those are the people that I'm writing to. And then he says in verse to me, grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our Lord. And many times when we you know, when we were reading through an epistle like we are in Scripture of the day right now, whereas we read through the net New Testament, we can just kind of breeze through these first couple verses here, like, OK, who who's he right into? Blah, blah, blah. Greetings and salutations. Now, what is he really gonna say? Let's talk about that. But can we just stop for for a minute? And Peter is saying, may grace and peace be multiplied to you, Grace? That's talking about God's goodness, God's favor, that we don't deserve that that peace is that peace that we have because of our relationship with Christ. And far from this, just being like a filler phrase that Peter's using at the beginning here, like this is something he actually expects to happen with the people that he is writing to, that there is an expectation that the people who are reading this are going to experience God's goodness and his peace being multiplied to them.

[00:07:31] Let me ask you this question. Is that what you expect to happen in your life this next week?

[00:07:37] That is, you're looking at the day ahead or the week ahead as you're looking towards the future? Are you thinking like, I actually expect that I'm going to experience God's goodness in the week ahead? Like, I just want you to know that, like, pessimism and faith do not go well together. Right. As we think about God and all that he wants to do in our lives, if we're thinking like, I don't know how this is going to go, I don't I don't think things are going to go very well. I don't think I'm going to really experience God's goodness. He seems so far off. That's not the attitude that Peter wants his readers to have now. I mean, is, as you think about the future, maybe maybe a great place for us to stir our thoughts up would be thinking, have we experienced God's grace and his peace already in our lives? Anyone want to say they feel like they've X? Variance God's goodness in their life. Maybe you can think of just the ways in general that God has been good to you, the way he's given you life, the way that he's allowed you to experience many good things, many enjoyable things. But turn back with me to the book of a Fenians. There's another letter in the New Testament that we study together. It's on page 976. Turn to Ephesians, chapter one. And let's even see the similarities in the way that Paul starts off this letter that we studied together a while ago at our church, Ephesians Chapter one, one of the more epic chapters in the entire Bible. And Paul, who's writing it, starts off saying, Paul, an apostle of Christ, Jesus by the will of God to the Saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus grace to you and peace from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Did that sound similar to what we read in second, Peter?

[00:09:18] And then he continues in verse three, Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. If you've been placed into Christ, you have already experienced the blessings, every of every blessing in the spiritual places. It's already been given to you in Jesus Christ. And look at the scroll down to verse seven where it says in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. Rite Aid say Paul is saying that God is rich in grace. It's like he's got these vast storehouses of grace. And then in verse eight, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us.

[00:10:10] I mean, just when you hear that word lavished. Doesn't that sound kind of good? Right. Doesn't that sound like elegant? Like man lavish.

[00:10:18] Like like it's not like God is just kind of like given us a meager portion of grace. Like you mean just give you a little bit just to get you started. If you want more, you can come back. Said no, let me give you like an abundance of it. If you ever in the summertime seen someone who is lavish the sunscreen upon themselves. Right. You know how their palate is a little bit different than normal. Right. Because they've really gone for it. That's what God is saying. He's he's already down for everybody who's in Christ that we've experienced that grace. It's been poured out on us in a full and rich and robust way like that is what God has already done. But if you go back to second, Peter, he is saying may grace and peace like far from it, just being something that happened at one time in the past. He's expecting it to be multiplied to you.

[00:11:07] Now, I've got a son in the second grade and he's pretty precocious. He's getting into multiplication tables. Anybody remember getting, like, into multiplication back in the day? And my son, he's he's he's a sharp kid, but he comes up to me and he asks me these questions like a regular part of our dialog involves math in in our in our house these days. It's awesome. And he'll come up to me and he'll be like, Dad, what's nine times nine? And I don't think he realizes I know the answer. Right. Like, I have done this before. I've got this going on. And I'm like, it's eighty one, which you knew that, right? Like me.

[00:11:41] You remember that as well. Right. And and he's so excited about learning this, that like that's the way we should think about is like the investment of grace that God has already given to us. It's not just sitting there doing nothing. It's multiplying. It's accruing. It's growing in our lives. Like we should not just be expecting God to be a tiny bit good to us. Like, here's five units of God's good. It's not like here's five times five units of God's goodness and it just keeps on growing in our lives here. Let's get this down for point number one. If you're taking notes here this morning that you should expect multiples of God's goodness, not just a little bit of it, not just a meager portion of it, but you should be expecting multiples like it is going to be multiplied to you. That's what that's what Peter wants, is his readers to understand. And I want you to write down after you write down point number one, write down the reference to Psalm 27 13. This is gonna be a verse I'm going to ask you to to look up during the week. And this is where David says, I believe that I will look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. I believe it. I'm expecting it. That's what I think is going to happen. I'm going to see the goodness. I'm going to see his grace in the land of the living. But then look at with what Peter writes after this. He says, make grace be and peace be multiplied to you. And it's a very specific way in which it's going to be multiplied to you. It says be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our Lord, in the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our Lord.

[00:13:20] Now, when we hear the word knowledge, we might think about college knowledge. We might think about like maybe some of the facts and figures we might get from like a three on one level course or a four or one level course in our collegiate studies. We might be thinking about information, but the knowledge in the way that it's used here, it's not talking about me.

[00:13:40] I could I could I could ace a multiple choice quiz about God and who he is. Right. That's not what it's talking about at all. It's talking about a relational knowledge. It's talking about the way that, you know, someone not just know about someone, but you have a relationship with them to where you can say that you really have knowledge of them because you've spent time with them, because you have an ongoing relationship with them.

[00:14:07] And I wonder if some of us, like we are expecting there to be goodness, apart from the relationship that we have with God, like we're expecting, like it's just going to be out there somewhere and we're not really focused, like we should be on where that goodness is going to come from, how it's going to be experienced in our lives. Go back to the book of Colossians. We're reading through Colossians right now on Scripture of the Day. Some of you are reading it along with us. But go back to cloches chapter three 984.

[00:14:38] It was some of us are eating popcorn and we've been studying this this letter of Paul to colossi. And we're going to read Chapter four and finish it up on on Tuesday and then we'll write on a First Thessalonians. It's gonna be a great week of getting into the word together. But what Paul just said, well, we just many of us read this last Friday in chapter three. Verse one, it says, If then you have been raised with Christ, if if you've been given this relationship with God, if you've got this new life, it says, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

[00:15:14] Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on Earth for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Maybe you're not having this kind of expectation like Peter wants you to have at the beginning of this letter, because you're too focused on the things of Earth, right? You're too focused on your career. You're too focused on your family and your health and your circumstances in the way from week to week, things are up and down and all over the place. And all you need to do is fix your eyes on the Lord, need to set your mind on him. And this grace in this piece that are available, they're gonna be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and some of us. The problem that we have is we don't know God well enough.

[00:16:02] We might have started a relationship with him, but that relationship is not growing. It's not progressing. We're not getting to know him better day after day, week after week and experiencing more and more of his goodness as we know him better. And so we're gonna talk even more about how God wants us to do that this week. But even as we just get going here this morning. What's your attitude towards God's goodness in the coming week? Are you thinking. I'm not sure if it's going to be there. I don't know if if God can really handle the problems I'm experiencing right now. Are you thinking like, not only am I expecting to experience cats, goodness. I'm expecting more of it this week.

[00:16:43] I'm expecting that there's going to be more there this week than even I experienced last week. Is that the kind of way that you're going into this next week?

[00:16:52] And as we go back to second, Peter, he starts off, he says, make Ray Sympathy's be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our Lord. Then look at what he says next. In verse three, he says his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.

[00:17:20] Now, if you want to talk about phenomenal cosmic power, let's talk about his divine power. Let's talk about the power that the Lord has in your life now. I mean, this word that is used here for power in the Greek is this word do Nimitz. And it's the word that we get dynamite from. Has anyone ever held a stick of dynamite in their hand and considered the power of that stick of dynamite? And maybe like when you hold it, you're like, yeah, it's no big deal. But if you light the Fuze and you wait for that. Thing to go off. You better be a long distance away, my friend, because you're going to see some power.

[00:17:54] You're going to see an explosion. You're going to see a boom as it goes off.

[00:17:59] Right. Like, that's what he's talking about. He's saying, like, when we think about ourselves, we might not see a lot of power.

[00:18:06] We might not think, hey, I've got so many abilities. I've got this wisdom. I've got this strength. I've got it. Many of us, when we look at ourself, we see our lack. We see how we don't have the power that we need. But Peter is is not focusing our attention, not on ourselves, but on his divine power.

[00:18:23] If you just think about it for a moment, we're talking about the power that spoke the universe into existence, that spoke it into existence, like his words themselves, even have that kind of power.

[00:18:38] Now we're talking about the power that Jesus Christ had as he took on flesh and became a man that he was able to completely obey every one of God's commands. He perfectly fulfilled the law. Never sinned one time. That's a power that's foreign to me. That's a power that's foreign to us. The power that he had to endure, the wrath of God being poured out on him and its full measure for our sins upon the cross to take all of that on himself, the power that that he utilized when he conquered death and rose from the dead man.

[00:19:14] That's the power that we're talking about that is available, that it says his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.

[00:19:25] Now, can I just get grammatical with you for for a moment? Would you. Would you pardon my nerviness here, here this morning? I mean, did anybody studied grammar, like in high school or junior high or anything like that? You like you have modified a language arts class. Some of you guys like I don't really want to remember that class that much like I don't think I actually learned grammar that well.

[00:19:45] Maybe that maybe that's why all the other nations of the world make fun of us a little bit because we don't even understand our own language. That's the way it works here in America. But as you get into grammar, you'll talk about like subjects and verbs and like the building blocks of a sentence and some of your saying, please, just stop now. I don't want to hear any more about this. But as you think about verbs, there's different tenses of verbs. Right. That kind of help you understand, like when is what we're talking about happening? When is it happening? And if you look at it here, an inverse three, his divine power that's been granted to us. When was it granted to us? Presently in the future, or has it been granted to us in the past, like is something that for everyone who is in Christ, it's already been granted to you? It's not like you're out there on a treasure hunt this week. Like, man, I gotta I gotta find that power. I got to find those things I need for life and godliness. No, it's already been given to you. And it says that it's granted to us all things. And as I've gotten really into the Greek grammar here, you know what the all things really means all things, right?

[00:20:52] I mean, it's it's it's it's amazing that it's comprehensive. There has been nothing left out that God's divine power has not granted to you.

[00:21:01] And it says that things that pertain these specific things to life and godliness and the word that it uses for life is not just the word that we would think about our physical lives. It's really talking about eternal life. It's really talking about that that quality of life that God gives to everyone. When we get born again, we get granted a new life in Jesus Christ. We have an eternal life. And Jesus says and John 17 three, that that eternal life. It's not just like we're gonna live forever. It's the relationship that we have with God. This is eternal life that they may know you and Jesus Christ, whom you've sent like.

[00:21:37] I mean, that's eternal life that God in Jesus Christ has already done and everything that needs to be done so that we could have eternal life. Can I get name meant for that? I mean, there's nothing that needed to be improved upon in the work of Christ. It wasn't like Jesus said, well, hey, I've kind of gotten the ball rolling. You pick it up from here, kind of finish it off. No, he said to TELESTAR, it is finished.

[00:22:00] All things, everything that you need to have life, everything that you need to have a new life in Jesus Christ. It's already there. It's already been given to you. Jesus Christ has already done the work. But then he says to life and godliness, God doesn't want us just to have a relationship with him. He wants us to live like him in this world.

[00:22:22] He wants us to live a godly life like a life that is set apart from the way everybody else is live and to where we're live in for the Lord that we really want to live in a way that pleases him. And he's saying that everything that we need for that, it's already been given to us.

[00:22:39] I mean, think about that for a moment. When you experience a temptation this week, you already have what you need to face it. When you're thinking about obeying the Lord and things that he he wants you to do, like you've already got what you need to be able to do this, like there's there's nothing there's nothing missing.

[00:22:59] There's nothing left out. And look at the way it says it again, that all things that pertain to life and godliness. How was this happening through the knowledge of him? Right, sir. Just like in verse two, that there's this goodness is going to be multiplied in the knowledge of God. It says that these things have been granted to us for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. Let's talk about this for a second, because I talked to far too many Christians that that when we're we're out there, we're thinking we're powerless. We're looking to ourselves and we're thinking, I can't do this. I can't really do what God is calling me to do. I don't I don't have the power. Maybe some super Christian could do that or somebody like Pastor Bobby. What is he in for breakfast? Maybe he could do something like that to me. I'm just a lowly Christian. I'm just a normal person. And a lot of us, we think really what I need is I need to look elsewhere.

[00:23:53] I need to look maybe maybe I've got my own ideas about how I could try to do this, or maybe there's some strategy or some tips out there in the general wisdom of this world. And and so many people who profess Christ, they're on this like treasure hunt to kind of feel like, why don't have it? So I gotta go find it this week.

[00:24:09] And they forget like, no, it's already been given to me and it's been given to me through the knowledge of him who called me to his own glory is an excellence like let's get it down like this for point number two. You already have all you need.

[00:24:23] If you are in Christ, you already have all you need.

[00:24:29] It has been granted to you. You to have it. It's already yours.

[00:24:36] It's already yours. But look at what it says here. It says, it is granted to us through the knowledge of him who called us. And either to or by.

[00:24:46] By his own glory and excellence. We turn back with me to the Book of Exodus. The Book of Exodus. The second book in the Bible. Exodus 33. For for a moment.

[00:25:01] And you might be saying, I care well, if I already have all of mine. All I need. Why doesn't it feel like I'm experiencing it? Why? Why doesn't why doesn't it seem like that's the way it went for me last week? Why? Why is that?

[00:25:14] The index is 33. We see an exchange between God and a man who the Bible talks about it and the Old Testament. This man had a relationship with God. This man had a knowledge of God. There was an intimacy. There was there was the times where these two would have exchanges that were that were personal was the man who really knew God. And we're talking about Moses. And in you, if you remember from the story, God used Moses to lead the nation of Israel out of the land of Egypt, out of slavery. And then he led them into the wilderness and he brought them to Mount Sinai, where he was going to really say, hey, this nation that I've brought together and which I'm the head of. Let me tell you how I wanted to go. Let me give you my law. Let me give you my commands that there are going to be for your good here in the nation of Israel. Moses goes up on the mountain and, you know, it's 40 days that he's up there on the mountain and all the rest of the Israelites. I mean, they're looking at their well. Well, maybe they like their sundials or whatever it might be. And their calendars now, like what has happened to Moses. And they make one of the worst decisions of all time and they make golden calf and they start worshiping it like that makes sense. And basically, like God judges them, many people get killed. And now we're we're reading this exchange that now Moses is going to the Lord and he's interceding on behalf of the nation of Israel and saying, we really need you to lead us. We need you to keep showing us where to go. And we come to the end of this exchange in verse 17 and where it says the Lord said to Moses Exodus 33 17. This very thing that you have spoken, I will do for you have found favor in my sight.

[00:26:45] And I know you by name.

[00:26:50] Okay. We we've kind of concluded this request that Moses says has brought before the Lord on behalf of the people. And then look at it.

[00:26:58] Look at what Moses says next. Moses said, please show me your glory. Please show me your glory.

[00:27:07] So so here we are, Moses has the relationship with God. But does he seem satisfied with that relationship where it stands that day or does he want more?

[00:27:17] Does he want to see God more?

[00:27:21] I wonder with so many of us, a, you know, maybe we're gonna get to a point this week where we're we're getting up and maybe we're getting up at, oh, Dark Thirty, some of us are like Memorial Day. Who cares? I'm still gonna get up early. Some of us are gonna wait till Tuesday to get up that kind of kind of early.

[00:27:37] And we're there and it's still dark outside. And the coffee is not yet working as advertised. Right. And we're just feeling like. All right. Like that. That feeling that you might have in the morning. Maybe some of you bound out of bed with limitless energy. But for a lot of us, that's where we're at. And maybe we're at our table or whatever, and we we're gonna open up our Bible.

[00:27:58] You want to know how that experience could be completely transformed if we started off with this same request, if we weren't just like, God, I'm just gonna check this off.

[00:28:07] I'm just going to read this. I'm just going to breeze through it, not really think about it very much.

[00:28:11] But if we really started and we said, God, would you please show me your glory? I want to know you more as a result of reading this portion of your work.

[00:28:22] I gotta. I need to see your glory. Right. Like, if I just read it and I'm not thinking about it, I'm going to miss what this passage is telling me about you. I can actually grow to know you better how I can commune with you. I mean, think we're going to we're going to see and look at what you look at what God says in response to this request. I mean, he doesn't. Let me tell you what he doesn't say. He doesn't like, say, Moses. Request denied. Sorry, not gonna be good. No, look what he says. He says, I will make all my goodness pass before you and I will proclaim before you my name, the Lord, and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious.

[00:29:03] And I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy and God's like will. Actually, Moses, let me just modify your request a little bit, because to really unveil all of my glory to you would kill you. Right? So what I'm gonna do is going to put you in the rock. And I mean, I put my hand over you and I'm going to proclaim before you my name. But as as I kind of go away, like you're going to take my hand away and all you're gonna be able to handle is just the fading echoes of my glory. You know what happened to Moses after even just seeing the fading echoes? His face was glowing like so much so that like when he came down the mountain, the Israelites are like, Moses, can you. Can you put a veil over your face? Like like it's a he was so affected by it that he was transformed by it had an effect on him.

[00:29:50] And that's what God wants to happen each and every day, that the things that God is gonna call us to do. They're all going to flow from that time with the Lord, from that time of abiding with him, of asking him, God, I want to see your glory. I want to see it more than I've ever seen it before. I mean, turn with me to John. Chapter fifteen.

[00:30:08] John, the gospel of John. Another another passage that's very dear to many of us was we studied it together here at our church in and Jesus makes this statement is just so helpful for us that we need to be reminded of so, so often. Any any says.

[00:30:27] Inverse four of John, Chapter 15. Page 901. He says this, he says, Abide in me and I in you. And word for abide is the word that we it's a Greek word, Menno, which means to like stay or remain or linger. He says, Abidin, me and I knew you as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine and you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I am he it is that bears much fruit for apart from me.

[00:31:03] You can do nothing.

[00:31:07] And then verse seven, it says, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, I think that there's the possibility that for a lot of us, we're coming to the scripture in the wrong way. We're coming to the scripture as as merely an academic exercise or maybe something that's going to add to our list of to DOS during the week. We need to become into the scripture. When you think I'm spending time with God.

[00:31:31] I'm hearing from him. I'm letting his words abide in me. And every every passage that I'm going to I'm asking the question like, how am I getting to know God better by what I just read? How my understanding him more, how my understanding what pleases him, what displeases him, like I'm growing in my knowledge of God, in my relationship with him as a result of letting his word abide in me.

[00:31:57] Now, I mean, let's just think about this as if we go to the word and we're asking him to show us his glory, turn with me back to Colossians, the passage of we've been reading. Let's just let's just take a gander at the way this could be working this week as we start out this the scripture and we're saying, hey, God, show me your glory. I want to behold you. I want to know you better. I want to understand you more. I mean, read with me Clawson's Chapter one, verse 15.

[00:32:26] Where it's talking about Christ. And it says he is the image of the invisible God, the first spawn of all creation four by him. All things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things. And in him, all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning. The first born from the dead. That in everything he might be preeminent for in him all the fullness of God. God was pleased to dwell. And through him to reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

[00:33:12] Like many of us. We read that last week.

[00:33:15] But did we get. Do we really linger on that a little bit, too? Do we really say, God, show me your glory? Like, hey, one thing I would ask. One thing I would seek to see your beauty, to find you in the place, your glory. Was that something even saying here today? And if you just spend a little bit of time just thinking about that, where it's more than just I breezed through it. There is glory that is being expressed. Like God is revealing to you who he is in a way that is majestic and glorious and excellent. Like, it's right there. All we have to do is asking God is can he let all of his goodness pass before us? He's going to declare to us his name and we are going to see his glory and go back to second Peter here.

[00:34:03] And he and he says, this is everything we need for life and godliness. It's going to come through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. And it says that in verse four. By his own glory. By which? By his own glory and excellence, he has granted to us his precious and very great promises. He is granted to us his precious and very great promises. You ever have a time where you feel like he can't find the right word that does a situation justice. You can almost have to, like, make it up. Are you? You like, add a whole bunch of superlatives on top of one another to really kind of try to express what you try. That's what Peter is trying to do. Right. Here he is. He's trying when he thinks about the promises of God, like he doesn't even have all the words at his disposal.

[00:34:57] He feels like he needs to show us how great like his precious and very great promises, like he's trying to go big and he's trying to show us how awesome it is that look at this, that they are his precious and very gate promises like these are truths of the Lord, of what he has said, of what he has done, that they are his. But they have been granted to us.

[00:35:26] I mean, I don't know if, like when we've gone through this done series, have there been any, like, statements of fact or truth or promises about the Lord that it become that much more precious, like they're really the Lord's? But now, as we've studied them, we realize like their powers.

[00:35:42] I mean, anybody familiar with a verse in Romans, chapter eight, maybe like verse one, we're so that says that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Is that verse precious to anyone here in the room?

[00:35:58] Is that verse gone to bat for you at all in the last month since we studied it? Well, maybe there was a time where it's sin is in a pattern in your life, but you gave into a temptation. You did something that that was wrong. And you're feeling it. You're for your bond.

[00:36:13] You're you're you're upset with yourself that you would do something that would displease the Lord. And now there's another temptation that's right there that's trying to get you to believe that now God is mad at you, that now God doesn't care about you, that now somehow your sin has been able to really, like, separate you from the Lord that one time. And you've you've brought your mind back to this verse and you're like, yeah, I mean, sin is serious. I don't want to take it lightly, but the condemnation that my sin deserves has been done. It's been finished like Jesus took that upon himself. And now that I'm in Christ Jesus, condemnation is never something I will experience again in my life.

[00:36:56] That's precious. It's very, very great.

[00:37:01] I mean, while we're on the the journey of this life, on the trip of this life, I mean, do family vacations always go the way that they are planned to go? I mean, does anybody else have some epic disaster stories of family vacations that they took on the past? I remember one family vacation we took in the Blakey household where we jumped into the Ford Aerostar. You guys remember those those glorious minivans of back in the day? Right. We piled all into the the minivan and we were driving through Arizona. And you're seeing those signs that tell you the temperature on the side of the road.

[00:37:35] And you see in numbers like 113, 114, 115. You know, like, how can these things be? Is this real? Is this really good? And then the air conditioning breaks on the Ford Aerostar. And you were looking at your precious mother who is very dear to you, and it looks as if she is melting in the car beside you and the plan changes that point.

[00:37:57] It's like, no, we're pulling over, we're stop and we're getting the hotel. How can we get into the pool as fast as physically possible? Things don't always go the way that we're planning, that we're hoping that they're going to go in this life. A lot of us, when that happens, we're really tempted to be anxious about it.

[00:38:14] We're really tempted to worry about these things that we can't control in the future, things that that are beyond us and and and man, knowing that if we decide not to be anxious about that, but we decide to pray about that with all kinds of prayer and Thanksgiving, that we're letting our requests be made known to God. And we and we know that there's a promise that when we do that, that the peace of God, which we don't understand. Right. That it's going to guard our hearts and minds in Christ. Jesus anybody ever put that promise to work in the last couple weeks and you've experienced that goodness you like. Hey, rather than this worry, quite literally, eating me alive to where I feel sick, to my stomach. I have experienced grace.

[00:38:59] I've experienced peace.

[00:39:02] A piece that I'm like, wow, this is amazing. I guess that promise become precious to anyone you like. That is very great what God has been willing to do for me. So, I mean, those are some that we've studied in the last month here at our church. But if I were to ask you, like, hey, what are the precious and very great promises that God has given to you?

[00:39:25] What would you say?

[00:39:27] Mindy, do you have on your mind? Peter seems to be very excited about these things, he seems to think that these are a very big deal, that God, by his own glory and excellence, would grant to us his precious and very great promises. Do you have things that come to your mind? I mean, maybe one that a lot of us have thought about before is later on in Romans Chapter eight, where it talks about that for everyone who is right with God, who loves God, who got his call, that God is working all things together for our good.

[00:39:57] I mean, is that is that precious to any of us?

[00:40:00] Any of you ever had a time where it was something happened and you're like, how could this be good? And then later on in your life, you see it more clearly and you're actually thanking the Lord for something very difficult that happened in your life. Anybody got an experience like that where you're like, I can say that that promise. It's true. I have seen that happen in my life.

[00:40:19] And when something happens that I don't understand, I remember what's true. I remember that, like, even if I can't really picture how it's really going, I know for sure that God is working this together for my good means.

[00:40:34] We think about the summer of joy here at our church.

[00:40:36] It really reminds us of the whole purpose of why we exist as a church that we look to the end of Matthew, Chapter 28 of what Jesus Christ himself gave the mission. What's what's the purpose of this trip that we're on? It's to make disciples. It's to spread the good news so that more people will come to know Jesus Christ. And we're supposed to be making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that Christ commanded like. And sometimes when you're trying to do that, it it's heart. Like some of us in this last week, we've been encouraged to pray, as we're gonna read in clashes for on Tuesday, for open doors, for opportunities that we could actually speak and make clear what God has done to other people on some of you. Pray that. And then the door got opened and you're like, well.

[00:41:25] Not not going to. Now, I got to say something. I got I got everybody to talk to this person like like I prayed for this opportunity, like God answered my prayer as God is faithful to do.

[00:41:37] And sometimes you're you're sharing it with people. And it's it's difficult and it's hard. And you think, well, OK, well, I'm called to make disciples. Do you realize there's also a promise at the end of that passage about making disciples were Jesus says and behold, I'm going to be with you always, even to the end of the age.

[00:41:55] Even thousands of years later here in Huntington Beach, all the way across the world from where Jesus Christ said that that promise is still true. And if I believe in it and I'm going to experience it, how many times have we gone into a time when we're trying to talk to someone and all of a sudden versus you come into my mind that I hadn't thought about and God is just giving me compassion for this person and love for them in a way that's so much more than I would have had on my own. And it's like, wow, like I went for it. I prayed for an open door and God was with me.

[00:42:28] Like, it was quite literally like he was doing it through me, like he was making his appeal through me to this other person.

[00:42:35] And it's awesome. And it's because of precious and very great promise that God has given to us now. I mean, you might know if I were to ask you what some of the promises are, you might be able to write some of them down. But we need to do so much more than just know them to be aware of them. We need to cling to them. They need to be precious to us. So get this down for point number three on your notes. Cling to the precious promises God has given his precious and very great promises to you.

[00:43:06] Do you know what they are? Are you. Are you making use of them in your in your daily life?

[00:43:10] Have you thought about them at all? Has that been something that you've brought to your mind? Maybe you think it's so important that, like, man, I want to have this on the front of my mind that you're writing it down, that you're putting it somewhere, that you're going to see it. You're getting one of those trendy letter boards and you're like, boom, let me put a promise on there. And it's going to stoke me up. It's going to encourage me every time that I see it. We need to cling to these promises. And you're like, wow, this is exciting. I loved hearing these sermons. And now while there's even a couple more promises, like like maybe some of your thinking, like, well, how am I going to know these promises? They're like a a comprehensive book that we could just write them all down. And I could I could read that. And but Pastor Bill, could we publish that here at CompassHB HB and and maybe I might think, well, that sounds like a good idea, but it's already been published. It's right here in front of you.

[00:43:59] Right. Each and every day is you're going to the word you were going to come face to face with precious truths that can go to bat for you in the week ahead, that can actually be the conduit through which you're going to experience God's goodness and his grace, everything that you need through these promises.

[00:44:17] I mean, let's just go back to Colossians and let's just take a perusal through the last week of the last half of the last week of our lives in some ways. And let's look at Colossians, chapter one we already read versus 15 through 20. Let's start reading with me in inverse 12th of Chapter one.

[00:44:36] It says, giving thanks to the father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the Saints in light, he has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son.

[00:44:55] I mean, man. If there is a time that you might stumble this next week to remember that the way you got qualified to be part of this inheritance, to have this relationship, it wasn't you. It wasn't you who qualified yourself. Like God has qualified you through the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and he has delivered you from the domain of darkness that before you were in Christ, your sin had power over you. It was a cruel master that you even if you wanted to, you couldn't say no to it.

[00:45:27] But that's not the domain that you're living in any longer. He's transferred you. He's transfer you to the kingdom of his beloved son.

[00:45:36] Things don't work the way they used to work. And even as we think about spiritual warfare, as we think about the forces of evil that are at work against us sometimes. If you were to interact with something like that, I could feel very intimidating. That could feel very scary. But we're part of a different kingdom. There's no power that Satan and his forces have over us who are in Christ any longer. I mean, like, wow, here it is. We're just reading Caution's one and boom, there is precious truth there. That is true of me that it's the Lord's, but he's given it to me through Christ.

[00:46:09] Go to go to chapter two, verse 13, where it says in you who were dead in your Trece passes and the UN circumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us some of our trespasses.

[00:46:26] That's not what it says.

[00:46:27] All are trespassing by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside nailing it to the cross.

[00:46:39] That precious was that precious to you as you read it this week? Hey, there's there's no sin that's going to stick to you. It's all been forgiven in Christ. He's canceled it. It's been set aside and nailed to the cross. Well, you're never going to bear the shame, the guilt of that sin ever again. That seems precious.

[00:46:59] Chapter three. We've already read this passage. If you've been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. And why. Why is that? It's because it's where Christ is. That everything that we need is going to be coming through the knowledge of him. And so we got to focus on him. We got to keep our our minds set on him. And it says in verse three four, you have died and your life is Heyden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears. Then you also will appear with him in glory.

[00:47:27] Well.

[00:47:28] That's stokes me up that, like, hey, my life is not wrapped up in America, my life is not hidden in my career. My life is not hidden in the summer vacation. I'm going to take in twenty nineteen. My life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ on that day, he is going to return, he is going to be unveiled. He is going to appear.

[00:47:53] I'm going to be with him and I'm going to be with him in glory.

[00:47:59] In glory, like, I will actually get a new body that will be able to handle the experience of God's law when we're in heaven. No other light sources required. There will be no light switches on the walls in the new Jerusalem because the glory of the Lord, it's going to shine through and through. It's going to light that place up. And we're gonna be with it. We're gonna be experiencing it.

[00:48:22] And even so much deeper and richer away than even Moses. All he could handle was the fading echoes. We're gonna get the whole thing.

[00:48:31] That's a promise, that's for you. That's a promise that man, if I really think about that, if it's precious to me, it's going to change the way I think about right now. I'm not going to be thinking about this is where my life consists. I'm gonna be thinking I'm on a trip. I'm on a mission trip right now. And that's where I'm going to be home. That's my destination. That's where I'm really trying to get to. That's where my life is going to consist. And if you go back to second, Peter.

[00:48:56] Chapter three says in verse four that he's granted to us these precious and very great promises. And it says so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature.

[00:49:11] That's a phrase that if I think about it for a second, that there is a divine nature.

[00:49:18] Different than my human nature that I am going to be a part taker of now, I mean, we're not saying that like you're going to be granted omnipotence, right?

[00:49:28] You're gonna be omnipresent. You can be everywhere at the same time where there are certain things about God and who he is that they're not gonna transfer to us.

[00:49:35] But there's so many things where we can actually be like the Lord. We can actually be godly. We can actually act in the same way that God is going to act, things like the way that God has love, the way that that God has compassion, the way that they got his faithful, that God is is righteous, is holy. Do you realize that through these promises, Peter is saying through them, you're going to be like the Lord, you got everything you need for godliness through these promises in your life. So when I ask you this week, like, hey, is your reason, you gotta be asking yourself questions of the text, like, hey, what am I learning about God?

[00:50:16] What promises am I seeing here that I want to cling to, that I want to make precious to me because it's a as a result of that, that I'm going to be live in the way that God wants me to live. I'm going to be like the Lord right now. So another reference I'm gonna ask you to to read this week, Second Corinthians, chapter three, verse 18, where Paul was right. And he was even referring to the fact that Moses had to have a veil over his face. And he says this in Second Corinthians, three, 18.

[00:50:43] All we with unveiled face are beholding.

[00:50:46] The glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, says Work as we're really looking at the Lord, as we're really like thinking about his precious promises. That's going to be the process that God uses to transform us to where we're actually going to act like the Lord. I mean, a lot of us is we're gonna read cloches for on Tuesday. We've been encouraged to pray for open doors, to pray for opportunities to share the gospel when I think about that. Another passage in First Timothy two comes to my mind, where it also commands us to pray for all kinds of people and all kinds of ways. And it says that this is a good thing and it pleases the Lord and it says that God desires all people to be saved, that that is really the heart of our Lord. That is his nature, his his disposition towards people who are his enemies and his we're really looking at him as we're really studying him and getting to know him better. That's going to become our heart as well.

[00:51:50] So when we see an example that Paul had. He's like, hey, pray for opportunities, I'm in jail for preaching the gospel, pray for more opportunities for me to preach the gospel. I mean, like we can follow Paul's example because he had really seen the heart of the Lord and it become pulser.

[00:52:06] When we think about praying for an open door, that's not going to be some scary thing that we're like. I don't think that's for me.

[00:52:12] That's going to be like, yes, I want that as well, because I now I've become a partaker of the divine nature and actually an act in a similar way to as the Lord would act. And that's gonna give you compassion for people that maybe are not very fun to be around around you that's gonna give you love for them, that you're actually gonna want to share that joy that we have in Christ this summer. And it all comes from looking at the board. And let me just direct your attention to this last phrase or verse for just for just for a moment where it says we've become partakers of the divine nature. And again, it says having escaped so it when we get placed into Christ, it says having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire, having escaped.

[00:52:59] Now, when we think of that word corruption, we might think of like some unjust politician who is like taking, you know, doing shady things under the table, taking bribes, really looking out for their own self-interest rather than fulfilling their oath of office. And some video. Yeah. Tell me about it, America. That's what we're experiencing today. That's what we think about it.

[00:53:19] But this word isn't talking about anything political. It's talking about decay. Like when a human body dies, it goes through corruption. Like that's what it's referring to. I don't know if you've ever had the experience of being close to a dead body and smelling the smell of death. That's something we really try to insulate ourselves from, that here in America, we want to be as far away from death as possible. But if you know what I'm talking about, if you've experienced that, you realize you really understand it. And it's it's you will never forget it when you smell the smell of death. And let me just remind you that for those of us, many of us, we can think about our old life before we end Jesus Christ. And we could see how much of a mess it was, how much corruption there was, how we thought that just by following our own desires, by doing what everybody in America is encouraging us to do, by just us doing us and following our hearts like Disney has told us to do.

[00:54:25] Right. We're just going in that way.

[00:54:27] And it's not leading to our life. It's leading to our death. And the stench of the corruption that's in this world because of sinful desire, it's all around us. Huntington Beach reeks of it. And I really want to plead with you. I really want to plead with you that that when you look at the Lord and you see his glory and how good he's been to you and how much he has a heart to save people who are lost, would you pray that God would give you that same heart as well? Many of you. You're so glad. Praise the Lord. I have escaped. I've been delivered. I've been rescued from the corruption that my sin has brought. And that's what God wants to keep going in the lives of other people. I mean, we're going to take over one hundred college students to Malibu this next week. And and so many of them there. I mean, a lot of us were like, oh, college students, those young young pups. Right. Like, they're just we're older and they're young and it's like they haven't lived very long, but they've lived long enough to see their life fall apart. I have lived long enough to experience the consequences of their sin. Would you really join me in praying that God's.

[00:55:41] Going to do a work. So people will escape that corruption.

[00:55:48] Well, you really join me in praying, that is, we think about our summer, that it's not going to be mostly about our trips, that it's going to be about seeing other people come to know this grace and this goodness.

[00:56:00] That we know. That we could see people escape from that corruption here this summer because of the grace and the mercy of Jesus Christ in as we live for him, right?

[00:56:11] Well, we really need what we really need is we need to take such a look at the Lord that it's going to have such an effect on us that the people around us, they're going to see that person's gotten life.

[00:56:20] My life is fallen apart. My life is decaying. But that person has found a certain joy that I don't know how to explain. And they're going to come up to you and they're going to say, hey, you have what I want. How does it work? And you're going to say, it's not for me. It's all through Jesus Christ. You're going to get to explain to them the gospel. And that's what we need. We need to really be convinced here this morning here this summer, in the summer of joy that we have everything that we need in our relationship with Jesus Christ. I once heard the story of a poor man in America who was given a ticket to go on a cruise.

[00:56:56] And this was in a day where maybe cruises were a little bit more elegant than they were are today. There is a little bit of class associated with going on a cruise, and this poor man is so excited that someone bought him a ticket to go on this this cruise ship. And as he's thinking about it, he's thinking, all right, well, my ticket is pay for it, but what am I going to do about the cost of food? There's no way that I could afford the food that's going to be offered on this ship. And so what he does is he he gets some of the, you know, the kind of the normal food that that he would have. That's not very much. And he packs it with him and he takes it on this trip. Maybe just a few things to make some sandwiches, some very, very simple food. And so he gets on the cruise and he's so excited. He's walking on the decks and he really hasn't had much opportunity to travel and he's just so thrilled to be there. But the thing that he's not thrilled about is the mealtime.

[00:57:46] Where he goes back to his room and makes a sandwich and he can tell that everyone else, they are feasting and he can smell the delicious aroma of the food that's being prepared. And as this cruise goes on, as he reaches the final day of the cruise. He says, OK, whatever I have to do to get some of this delicious food, I am so sick of these sandwiches.

[00:58:07] I need to get it. If I need to, like, take a loan now or if I need to, like, do some work on the way back to port, whatever I got to do. I'm going to do it. And so he goes up to one of the crew members that's there and he's and he's pleading with them and he says, how can I get some of this delicious food?

[00:58:21] And the crew member looks at him in surprise and says it's included in the price of your ticket.

[00:58:29] I mean, how many of us we need to come to that realization far before the end of the cruise.

[00:58:35] That when we got given life in Jesus Christ with that, we were also given everything we need. In Christ, you have all you need. Let's pray together.

[00:58:54] Your father was so thankful that you have allowed your goodness to pass before us this morning. Guy that you've unveiled for us just how good you are. God, that that even even today's we've looked at your work and it feels like your grace has been multiplied to us as we've gotten to know you better and God as we've gotten to know your heart for us better God, the riches of your power, of your grace than we've experienced your precious and your very great promises. God, it's so good.

[00:59:27] It's so good that you are so good.

[00:59:31] And Gatta, I feared, Lord, even as we've spent this time looking at your goodness that there are those here among us, that this talk is so foreign to them. Got that right now. All they know is the corruption in their life. Their life is falling apart. Maybe they don't even realize it, maybe think they think their life is going well. But, God, they're living in such decay that they've become so familiar with it. It's been all they've known and experienced and they don't know what is possible through Jesus Christ. So we got to pray that you would draw people to yourself and those of us, Lord, that you have drawn to yourself, Phyllis, with such great joy in what you've done. God help us to to look at this upcoming week with such confidence, not in ourselves, but in you and in your power and what we already have got.

[01:00:18] May our times, in your word, be the sweetest we've ever experienced this week. May your promises be that much more precious to us and God as we as we rise to our feet.

[01:00:30] Now, when we as we want to respond in worship and praise God, may we proclaim with great joy that your ways of loving us, they are so high in that you are good. We do this for your glory. It's your name that we ask Ima.