Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / November 5, 2017 | Living At The End Of Time - Take The Next Step

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November 5, 2017 | Living At The End Of Time - Take The Next Step · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: And the sand runs out on that bumper video.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: The last time you're gonna see it, because this is the last message in the series, that series.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, uh before I kind of you know get into this, I'd like to share with you something you should be proud of that our church is doing.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh nine days ago, we sent down a team, a medical team to Haiti.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't know, we're deeply involved in an orphanage and school uh that are in the capital city of Haiti.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: And nine days ago, we sent down a medical team.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: We do that about three times a year.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then the day before yesterday, we sent down a second team to run a pastor's conference there in the church, uh, which we are working through, a large Baptist church in town that we're working through with the with the orphanage.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: And some of you, as some of you know, we have some of these kids that we've adopted, some of our families have adopted that that are here in Topeka.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: So we're involved in a number of ways in the Haiti Lifeline Project, orphanage school, medical clinics, pastors, conferences.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: But a couple of years ago, we got involved in uh something additional.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Our people realized they wanted to also touch some of the poor villages around the country.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so we started something called the one body project to bring Christ and clean water to communities, uh uh, distant communities in Haiti.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: And last Christmas, I told you that our Christmas project would be divided between the one body project to build churches and dig wells in Haiti and uh and the Topeka Rescue Mission.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: And you generously gave over$120,000, and we were able to make those two people, you know, those two groups very, very happy.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I was able to twist Barry Fieker's arm to come here and preach about a month ago, because you know, if you give somebody$60,000, they'll usually come and speak.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, and he did, he did, I love Barry Feeker.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And and anyway, but this one by and this is one of the churches, by the way, that we built.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: And you may notice how good looking that roof is.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: They don't they don't build roofs that strong in Haiti.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have the wood, they don't have the knowledge, and so we have to fly those roofs down uh wholesale, and the Air Force allows us to do that free occasionally.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: We're flying three of them down this month, uh, but it that's a little more difficult to get that down, and so we had about uh uh thousands of dollars left in that fund that you gave to generously last Christmas.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so right now we're in the process of uh digging ten wells in in Haiti.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Want you to know that.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Here are some of the people in our church, Patty Diberto, Jeff Sorensen, Terry Barker, who are helping, you know, make that happen in distant communities.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: They're in Haiti, digging wells to transform, give clean water to village.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: We like to build both the church, usually it's been the church first and the well second, but now because it's hard to get those roofs down there, we've gone ahead and released the money to put wells in 10 more villages.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: So wanted you to know that's where your money is going to.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: You're doing a great job at transforming communities.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: And and right now, of course, we are starting a pastor's conference, not just to pastors, but to their wives down there.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: And the, and and those hundred pastors' wives are so noisy, they're so excited.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, somebody's paying attention to them.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: So now we're uh so I wanted to say that because I'm really proud of you, proud of our church for doing that.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: And and that's one of the best things that we do, in my view, uh with our giving.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, uh this the series that I'm finishing today is called Living at the End of Time.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's a series on the three chapters in 2 Peter, and and I could I could do what I'm about to do.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: I could have done this every week, uh, but it's just a quick glance at world news.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm about to do, to remind you that there are a lot of reasons to think that this world cannot long continue as it is.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, I can mention uh what happened uh five days ago in in New York City.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh uh a terrorist, an Islamist radical, though you'll never hear that.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: You can, by the way, if you Google what happened in New York City, you'll see two interesting things right now.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: You will see no news articles on this in the last four days, because it doesn't fit the reigning narrative in our country, which is that Islamism is good and guns are bad.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so the fact that a a truck, a rented truck, killed eight people on a bike path and injured another couple dozen, uh doesn't fit the narrative.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: So you won't hear about it.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: You also won't see the word Islamist radical, but he yelled Allah as he got out.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: And and and we need to remind ourselves that this kind of terror, the using of vehicles, ISIS about two years ago, told its people around the world to start using their vehicles to kill people.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's been happening in Europe, but now it seems to be coming to America.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, another thing that's happened this week, this past week, which we're not happy about, America's not happy about, is that Putin, Vladimir Putin, who is the premier of Russia, has gone down to Khamenei, who is the uh uh leader of Iran.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: We don't like that because Iran is the most freaky, eschatological end of times, America is the great Satan, Israel's the little Satan country, and and they're getting together to talk about uh uh uh cooperating.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And Iran is, of course, the font of a lot of terrorism, Hezbollah, which by the way, also their leader met with Hamas this week.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: And Khamani Is uh announced uh the in in the headline in Tehran this week that Iran and Russia should cooperate to isolate the U.S.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: and put our dollar out of business.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Good luck.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, just showing it, continuing on the news of this week, uh Israel doesn't care about this stuff and decided to send a message to both Iran and Russia.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so on Wednesday, it bombed a chemical weapons depot in northern Syria that Iran had sponsored, sent the money for, and sent advisors to build chemical weapons to attack uh Israel.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: And and Israel uh at night bombed this thing.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: And and and and of course, there's a lot of screams about them doing that.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: That was nasty and unfair.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: But they were sending a message to both Putin and Khamenei that we will not allow Iran, you to mess around in Syria to establish weapons that could be used against us.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: And the final news item is that the very same day, Israel bombed a tunnel that was no less than 200 feet underground from Gaza into Israel, where uh where militants, where terrorists, where Islamist radicals were creeping through to come out into Israel to kidnap soldiers and kill women and children.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: And they sent enough, uh they dropped enough bombs on it from jets to to bomb it out.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it turned out that 10 leaders, terrorist leaders, were actually, and they only bombed the Israel side of it.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't touch the Gaza side of the tunnel.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: But these leaders, they were leaders of terrorists, that that the eight of them that were in the tunnel at the time, and they had lots of ammunition.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: And they died, and the ammunition blew up and killed about another 20 back on the Gaza side.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: And and so what's happened is, as you can guess, is that Israel is now being blamed for doing something really awful.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Iran slams bloodthirsty Israel following Gaza terror tunnel destruction.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Qatar, IDF bombing of Gaza attack tunnel violates Palestinian rights.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: There's a petition that's now before the United Nations that says that Israel shouldn't be allowed to bomb tunnels.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, this is the kind of world we live in.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Is this crazy?
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so you'd be forgiven for saying, you know, Peter, you know, uh, you're uh we can understand why you'd say the end is near.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: For 2,000 years we've been walking along the edge of a cliff.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: And what Peter is saying, we've learned in the little book of 2 Peter, especially in the chapter we're in, chapter 3, is that we live at the end of the second age.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: The age that began after Noah's flood and will continue until the second coming of Christ is the second age.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that age is about to come to an end, uh, the great apostle says, Apostle Peter.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: And the third age is about to begin, the age of the new heavens and the new earth.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: And he ends his little epistle, 2 Peter chapter 3, the last five verses, by saying that you and I, as the second age is coming to an end, need to take the next step.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: And the way he says that is he begins in verse 14 by saying, while you are waiting for the coming of the Lord, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I know this is just coming at you really quickly, but if you could stop and back up and look at the words he used and think, what would I expect a person to write who was telling me that the end of the world might be coming soon?
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the last thing I would expect is something like this.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: I would expect something a little bit more like what you read in a couple of quite popular books, quite popular pastors.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I happen to like them so much, both of these pastors, that I am not going to tell you their names.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: But I am going to quote from some of a couple of their books, which have been used in Bible studies and Sunday school classes in our church.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I like their point that is trying to challenge lazy, uh contented Christians to get off of their duffs, but they go a little too far.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: For they say, and I'm quoting them, Christian, we're at war.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: People at war can't, and I'm quoting, move to Idaho, plant potatoes, and be irrelevant.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: God wants you to adopt a wartime lifestyle, sacrifice more, get crazy, get radical.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why you're a little surprised when as Peter and Paul are talking about the end of time, they don't say that at all.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, they talk about being quiet.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Peter says, quote, while you're waiting for the coming of the Lord, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, be at war with the spiritual lusts that were against you, be at war with sin, but don't be in a wartime lifestyle against the whole world.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul says it even stronger in 1 Thessalonians 4, in the context of talking about the end of the world, he says, aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands as we commanded you.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just simply saying that it's some of the most spiritual Christians among us really find themselves drawn to calls to live a radical, crazy Christian warfare existence.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's tempting, and it's tempting then to become a little neurotic.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Just saying, back off from that, because that's not what Peter or Paul would have said.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: And with that, because I love these pastors very much and admire them and read their books, I'm not going to say anything more.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: As somebody I really admire said, and that's all I have to say about that.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: 2 Peter 3, 15 and 16.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Next couple verses.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: And consider, he says, that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Literally, that that consider the long suffering of our Lord to be salvation.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: What does he mean by that?
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think he means by that pretty much what he meant by it five verses before when he said the Lord's not being slow about his promise, as some people think.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: He's being patient for your sake, doesn't want anybody to perish, but wants everybody to repent.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: We learned in our study last week on that verse that God's clock isn't our clock.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's no delay on his clock.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: And secondly, his heart isn't our heart.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: He's not painfully slow in the second coming, but he's patient and he's soft.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: So his long suffering, he says, this patience is salvation.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: For whom?
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, for clearly for Peter's readers who had just recently perhaps trusted Christ as his Savior, the delay, parent delay, meant salvation for them.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know who else it means salvation for?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: The millions, no billions of people who've come to Christ in the last 2,000 years.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Did you realize that over two billion, two billion people around the world, from the Arctic Circle to Antarctica, have come to Christ in the last 100 years?
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: According to the Pew Research Study, 1910 to 2010, 2.19 billion billion people.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Three times as fast as the world's growth rate, population growth rate, twice as fast as the Islam growth rate, is the Christian growth rate around the world.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord says, if you say to the Lord, Lord, why are you waiting so long?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: I wish you would come back now.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the Lord says, I want to come back too.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: I want to bring about an era of justice and peace and put my son on the throne in Jerusalem.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: But don't you understand?
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: I love these people for whom I died.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: I love that I want more of them in there.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so every little delay, apparent delay I make, is means salvation to people, perhaps some of your loved ones.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what Peter concludes with.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Consider the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation, as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Stop for a second.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine for a second you were a leader in a church.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're teaching Sunday school, you were standing up and you were saying something in your class, and somebody who was really admired and really respected, maybe the lead pastor, stood up and told you and announced to everyone.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: He rebuked you in front of everyone and told you you were preaching, you were saying, you were saying stuff that was false.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: And you were humiliated.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: You were crushed.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: You went back to your seat and hung your head.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Would you ever return to that church?
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: Would you ever even talk to that pastor again?
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's what happened to Peter.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: And who did it to him?
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Paul, Galatians chapter 2, Paul said, I confronted him publicly in this large church in Antioch and said, You're preaching falsehood.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so a lot of critics, of course, New Testament critics will say, the real story of the old of the New Testament is the animosity between Peter and Paul and the jealousy because of what Paul did to Peter.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: You look here and you go, no, isn't this cool?
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: Peter not only forgave Paul for rebuking him, but clearly has reconciled to him, and in fact has become one of Paul's biggest fans, so that he says here that Paul in all his epistles, speaking in them of all this stuff, yeah, some of it's hard to understand.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: Can I get an amen on that?
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: Some of Paul's writings are hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now get this.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: As they do the rest of the scriptures, Peter calling Paul's letters scriptures on a level with the Bible, with the Old Testament at that time.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, you can forgive and reconcile with anybody if Peter can forgive and reconcile with Paul.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: Don't give up on that.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what's he saying here, untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the combination of words here can include really intelligent, really well-educated people who don't really understand the message of the Bible, they're uninstructed, they're untaught, they, and so they'll quote the Bible, they'll misquote the Bible, and they're unstable because they're not standing on firm foundation.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: And don't you ever giggle a little bit when you hear media people or political figures try to quote the Bible?
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, even recent presidents, as smart as they are, say the most humorous things at times.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Obama at one point speaking, he probably said, the good book says, uh, don't throw stones in glass houses.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, but Trump, and I think he actually did this at Liberty University, Christian University, said 2 Corinthians, right?
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 3.17.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's the whole ball game.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: I laughed for a day and a half after I watched that YouTube.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: I thought that was such a kick.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: But that's now now the thing is what Peter's saying that that's the way that people are, if they're uninstructed.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what he says, he's talking actually about people then who become teachers and twist the scriptures.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: And you hear that a lot.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: I preached a sermon series this summer called Dumb Things Christians, Smart Christians believe.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, these aren't necessarily Christians, but they're they're they're people who speak in the media or speak in classrooms, they're professors, and they say things like this: scripture twisting things like this.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: Good people go to heaven.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: Everything happens for a reason.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: God won't give you more than you can handle.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible says never to judge.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: He or she is in a better place.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: If you're in a valley, you took a wrong turn.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: Let your conscience be your guide.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: God helps those who help themselves.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: If you believe hard enough, it'll happen.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: I know I've just offended most of you because some of you have some of these on a little plaque up in your bathroom at home.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Before Melody and I come over, take it down, because it's not worth the plaster it's on.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, these are all wrong, but this is what he's talking about.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: He's talking about the misconceptions and the scripture twisting of people who are untaught, and that he says is going to happen a lot at the end of time.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then he concludes with these words.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, dear friends, since you've been forewarned, be on your guard, that's defense, so that you don't get led astray by the error of these unprincipled men and fall from your firm grasp of the truth.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, chapter one, he talked about growing, growing, growing, growing in the Lord.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: And if you grow and become really mature, but then you fall, you know, out of lust or whatever, it's a harder landing and it's more embarrassing for Christ and for the church and for you than if you'd never grown at all.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: So you've got to be on guard against this.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then on the offense, you need to grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord to save Jesus Christ.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let's just review really quickly the defense.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: You need to know who the false teachers are today and guard yourself against two things, what they say, their lip, which is that Jesus return is a ridiculous idea, and their life, which is I'm just living, satisfying my urges, and why are you so inhibited?
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, you need to defend yourself against that so you don't fall.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: And on offense, say this with me, the one of the theme verse of the book, grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: You ought to know this by heart, so let's say it again together.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is the offense.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: So you guard against, but if you just sit there and you're stuck on defense, you may have the greatest defense in the world, but if you never march the ball down the field and score.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if you're Denver, you can still score by your defense.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Let's forget that.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: But um, or the chiefs.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: But you need an offense, right?
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, the New Testament is full of this grow, grow, grow type language.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Let's press on to maturity, Hebrews chapter 6.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Speaking the truth and love, grow up in all aspects, and to him who is the head, even Christ, Paul says in Ephesians.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Peter says in chapter in his first book, like newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, so that you may grow thereby.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: And even in this book, in chapter 1, Peter says, listen, make every effort to grow, to add to your faith goodness and goodness knowledge and so forth.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: Let me talk to you about growth for just a second, okay?
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because I, you know, I Melanie and I are talking about always setting goals and talking.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about growing physically, you know, with diet and exercise, like many of you are.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes, you know, you talk, you say, I need to grow, I need to grow intellectually, I need to read better books.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: I, you know, I'm thinking about taking a course online, or maybe taking that afternoon washburning course, or whatever.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you need to grow intellectually.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you also need to grow relationally.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: You need to, you need to become more friendly, you need to get out of your little huddle, you need to get in a small group, you need to get a Sunday school class.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's growing relationally.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: What Peter's talking about is is, of course, something different.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: He's talking about growing spiritually, isn't he?
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because he's talking about growing in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: And in the knowledge of, not the knowledge about him, but but knowing him intimately and personally.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: You need to know Jesus better.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: You need to grow spiritually, and that's going to take prayer.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to take an improved prayer life.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna it's gonna take thinking and talking to God.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so you and I need to ask, as the second age comes to an end, am I growing?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: Am I growing or or or am I just you know playing around?
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: Denzel Washington does these great commencement addresses, and since I've had to deliver a couple commencement addresses in my life, I've become a fan of following, reading commencement addresses, and watching them in case I ever get asked again, hoping to do a better job.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: And Denzel, uh, in one of his Several outstanding commencement addresses, said this, basically telling us not to confuse activity with growth.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: He said, just because you're doing a lot more doesn't mean you're getting a lot more done.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Don't confuse movement with progress.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: My mother told me, you can run in place all the time and never get anywhere.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: There are, friends, and I know you'll understand what I mean when I say that plenty of Christians, young Christians, are rocking horse Christians, and adult Christians are rocking chair Christians.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Lots of motion, but no progress.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: So don't confuse activity and being busy with actually growing.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: And the other thing I think sometimes we confuse with growing is dreaming.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: Don't confuse dreams with growth.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: And we do, don't we?
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: We have this way of today we we train our children, you know, by our Disney movies, to think that the most important thing in the world for their future is to dream big.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you keep believing, the dream that you wish will come true.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you dream a thing more than once, it's sure to come true.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: And we forget that Proverbs 14, 18 is pretty clear that foolish dreamers live in a world of illusion while wise realists plant their feet on the ground.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: Again, Denzel in that same commencement speech said don't confuse dreams with growth.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, dreams without goals are just dreams, and they ultimately fuel disappointment.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: Have dreams, but have goals.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Life goals, yearly goals, monthly goals, daily goals.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: I try to give myself a goal every day.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: In order to achieve your goals, you have to work at it every day.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: And my favorite line from him is the next one: Hard work works.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: Working really hard is what successful people do.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: I've been around for a while, and my suggestion would be, as I look back at my life and what's worked and what hasn't, is let Hollywood, let Disney, let those young singers on talent, American singers on talent shows, talk about their dreams.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's fine.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: Let them have that, let them chase their dreams.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: But you and I, let's do something more biblical, and let's do something more practical, and let's do something that has a better result.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: Let's be passionately dedicated to doing the job that God has put right in front of us.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: The next step.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: Let's be microambitious about that thing right there.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you focus too far down the line, then you'll often miss that golden opportunity that's in your periphery, because that's usually where it appears, is you're working really hard on what's right there in front of you.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: You catch that glitter, and all of a sudden you see that cool opportunity, and that becomes the next place that God moves you.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: And eventually, as you work really hard at what's right in front of you, you find that you achieve maybe not what you had huge dreamed of when you were eight years old, but something even better.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: But don't confuse dreams with growth.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll give you three growth steps: one, two, and three.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: All right?
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: Illustrate 2 Peter 3.18.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, start where you are, wherever that is, wherever that is.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: Start where you are.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you're way down the journey, climbed most of the way to heaven, or whether you're at the very beginning.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, set goals.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: Write down some goals, like Denzel said.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe daily goals, weekly goals, monthly goals, annual goals, grow step three, no matter where you are, take the next step.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: Just take the, even if it's financial.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: Just, just, you know, as Dave Ramsey says, just keep taking the next step.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: Putting one foot in front of the other.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: And remember, do that especially when it comes to God and spiritual things.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to him be glory, both now and forever.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: A.W.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: Tozer said what I think we ought to end this book with about growth.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I suggest it to you as a prayer right now, as I read it slowly.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: Let this be the prayer of your heart about your spiritual growth to God.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Oh God, I have tasted thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: I am ashamed of my lack of desire.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: Oh God, I want to want thee.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: I long to be filled with longing.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: I thirst to be made more thirsty still.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: Show me thy glory, I pray thee, so that I may know thee indeed.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: Say to my soul, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: Then give me the grace to rise and follow thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: Let's take the next step spiritually.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: Do that even as we sit around the Lord's table now, even as you break the bread, drink the cup.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: Begin that talk with God.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: Say, God, I really do want to take the next step spiritually with you.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: Bow your head with me in prayer.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for your son, and we thank you that you're about to return.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know how soon.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: We're certainly not going to predict dates, but it just seems to us that it might be coming sooner rather than later.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: And we like we'd like to be ready, and we'd like our families and loved ones to be ready.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: We understand that what you'd like more than anything is for us to take the next step toward you to grow in grace and in a personal relationship, personal knowledge of you.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: So this morning we tell you we're willing to do that.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: Help us as we speak to you, talk to you, walk with you this week in Jesus' name.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.