The Return of the King Changes Everything

So as a child I loved the Lord of the Rings. This is a lot before the movies
obviously because I'm old enough to remember when the only movies that were Lord of
the Rings were animated And if you don't even know those existed you can go on
YouTube and find them They're pretty remarkable, but but I loved the Hobbit.
I loved Lord of the Rings books I was a book kid, and I started with those
cartoonish versions of the animated movies and then the actual books when I got into
fourth grade. I loved all of them, but especially the way the story culminates in
the Return of the King. In that story, you get the final defeat of evil,
the restoration of the wounded soldiers and hobbits, and the king's coronation and as
a child that had I had no real clue about the Bible or who Jesus was and this
story even with that lack still stirred me with wonder and longing.
I wanted a king to come back and make everything right, to make all the sacrifices
and struggles and suffering worth it. Now in middle school, I didn't know what that
meant. But I wanted, for my family, I just wanted this good news, this story to go
on. And, you know, as we've been going through the book of Revelation, the good
news of Revelation, indeed, the whole Bible is that God's plan includes sending Jesus
as a baby, but also for Him coming again in glory. At Christmas time,
it's easy to think solely about the newborn king. And that's not bad, we should. We
should focus on the newborn king and sing about him. But we should also always be
thinking of his second advent or coming. And Jesus is the true king that's going to
return and make all things new. For most of us, I put myself in this camp,
it's very easy to lose sight of his return. and to grow weary in what we know
we're supposed to do or things we're supposed to avoid.
And so today we're gonna look at Peter's last words in his second letter. And in
this, he wants to remind his readers and us that Jesus is coming back.
And there's a way we should live in light of that. And so we're gonna be in
second Peter three verses 14 through
We're gonna read that together here in a minute, but let me pray for our time in
God's word. I'm God, I just pray that this would open up a spiritual understanding
of who you are as our King. That you would do what only you can do by your
spirit and your word today. That you would show us Christ and help us love Him
more. We pray in Jesus' good name, amen, amen. So starting in verse 14, You can
follow along as I read. "Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these,
be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace,
and count the patience of our Lord as salvation. Just as our beloved brother Paul
also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters
when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are
hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as
they do the other scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take
care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your
own stability, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ, to him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
Amen.
So I want to give you four big things that we want to look at today just to walk
you through what we're going to look at. I'm going to come back and unpack them.
The things that we can glean from this and learn from is how to have a heavenly
understanding of Christ.
So the first one is that we're all people are to live like Jesus. That this year
if we have a heavenly focus, right, a stronger focus on eternal things in the New
Year, we're gonna all try to live more like Jesus than ever before. But this year
would be a year that we're gonna live more like Christ and be more like Him.
Number We're going to live with greater diligence. Our text is going to teach us
that. We're going to see that. We're going to live with greater gospel diligence.
Number three,
we're going to live with greater theological stability. Towards the end of our
passage, we'll see that we don't want to be carried away. We want to live with
greater theological stability. It's an important part of being a growing, mature
Christian. And number four, we're going to live to grow in grace, live to grow in
grace. We're gonna look at those four things and unpack each one of them to see
what this is about. So the first one is that all people are to live like Jesus in
light of Christ's return. That's the call on all of our lives is to live more like
Christ. And Peter describes this life with three terms at the end of verse 14.
He talks about that being found by him without spot or blemish and at peace.
Now this follows right after the verses when Peter tells his readers that, excuse
me, since the end is coming and all this world will pass away and a new heavens
and a new earth come forth where Jesus is the ruling center of all things, you
should live differently in light of these truths. Just a few verses prior to this.
He talks about living lives of holiness and godliness waiting for the return of
Christ.
The problem was that Peter's hearers thought that God wasn't coming back.
They had lost sight of this reality that Jesus really was going to come back, and
that was within 50 years of Christ.
Would it be fair to say maybe we've lost sight of that?
So how does this pursuit get fueled? How does this reality get pursued that we're
gonna have a heavenly focus that helps us do the things God wants us to do? It's
a deep and growing understanding that you will see the Lord,
and That day will be a day of joy, not of shrinking back.
And the day of his return is meant to be for his people that know and love Jesus
to be a day of joy. Look what Hebrews 12 says.
"Therefore lift your drooping hands "and strengthen your weak knees "and make straight
paths for your feet "so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather
be healed. Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one
will see the Lord. There's a way we have to live, we're gonna see the Lord with
gladness. All of us who know and love Christ are to strive for peace and holiness
or sanctification that is essential for seeing the Lord when he returns.
Now, for the unbeliever or the unconvinced, you may find this daunting. I mean,
if not impossible, the truth is you'd be right.
None of us can live like Jesus without his spirit in us, energizing our lives and
hearts, revealing him more and more to us every day.
And the truth is that we often try to fill our lives up with all sorts of
religious things that make us feel better about who we are and what we're about.
God doesn't want us to pretend that we know him This is why Peter addresses the
readers as the beloved twice in three verses Those that know the depths of God's
love for them in and through Jesus Christ are the ones that have the Spirit of God
For the believer those that are the beloved of God If you are looking for longing
for the return of Christ, you're called to live knowing that it's true.
So we come back to verse 14. We are waiting for these things to come in fullness.
So we're to live and remember that several things that it says, that we have been
found by him, That we are known by God that is a big part of this that we we
have this knowledge that we are known by God The
believer has to have this deep understanding of that when it says in verse 14 being
found in him We didn't find Jesus and said he found us when we were rebels against
his holy reign and shaking an angry fist at God each day. He sought us out and
brought us into this understanding that we are known and loved by God.
I think we have that for the slide. I think we got, yeah, there we go. So we
wanna know deeply whom you belong to. That's the first idea. Jesus knew right?
If we're going to be more like Jesus, we need to also know who we belong to.
Jesus knew that. He knew he belonged to the Father. He knew he was doing what God
wanted.
And each of us can daily remember and believe that this God found you and loves
you as his child because of the life, death, and resurrection of his son.
Not because you have a great day, and this must mean that God loves you more now,
or not because you have a bad day or bad days, and God must not love you as
much. We are found by Christ because he has loved us from eternity past,
not based on our righteousness, but on his.
But that leads to the second thing, if we're going to live like Christ in light of
Christ's return, is that we're to be without spot or blemish. Honoring God in what
you say and do. This is the story of what Jesus did. Everything he did was about
honoring the Lord. So what he said, what he did, everything he did is healing his
miracles, everything he did, his teaching. Everything was about honoring the Lord.
Now this doesn't mean that we're perfect because none of us do that. None of us
are doing all these things perfectly, but that we're pursuing the means of grace
that help us live these lives that would be beautiful to other people, that reflect
our Savior, and being the aroma of Christ to others.
When we live in a certain way people want to know why do you live that way
and it's not because we're trying to be religious It's because we're following Jesus,
and we're living like he did Because we know he's coming back for us
The third thing he says is that we are at peace Living at peace with God and with
others.
You know, this is one of the huge reasons that Jesus came to earth, was to tear
down the wall of hostility between us and others, and certainly the wall of
hostility between us and God. And if we're in Christ, we have peace with God, and
we can have peace with others. Not perfectly, because there will be times of
conflict and challenge with others.
But if you feel at odds with God, you may need to ask yourself, "Do you know
Christ?" If you feel like God has got his thumb down on you, or you feel like
he's against you, and you feel like there's a constant battle with God,
then you need to ask yourself, "Do I know Christ? Do I know the peace that comes
from God?" Because that's what Peter says. He says, "This is one of the key markers
for people that know Jesus is coming back, is that they will be at peace."
But if you feel at odds with others regularly, you may need to ask yourself, are
you experiencing the peace of Christ in a way that helps you extend that or not?
If you're living at odds with other people and you always find This disgruntled
feeling towards every other person? That's probably not what Jesus wants for you and
you need to repent.
We had to drive home in those storms yesterday and my wife would attest to you
that I was not wanting to be at peace with most of the truck drivers that were on
the road. I don't think they were thinking about my plight and what I was dealing
with, and I think that's where we get off track. We think about ourselves. I have
no idea. My wife's very good to go, "Well, maybe they're having a tough day," and
I'm like, "I don't care. I should get out of that lane and stay in their place,"
right? But we have to come back to that to understand that, right? It's not about
us and getting our way. It's about following Jesus.
So So, if we're gonna live in light of Christ's return, Peter first wants us to
know these three things, know deeply whom you belong to. That should be an ever
-growing understanding that we belong to God. Honoring God in what you say and do,
and living at peace with God and with others.
But secondly, people who long for the return of Christ, it says are to live with
diligence. People who long for the return of Christ are to live with diligence.
So in verse 14, our text says, "Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these,
be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace."
This is one of the first verbs that is actually in the text. This is an imperative
verb. This is a command to us that we are to be diligent for these things to be
true of us. And I think it was easy for people in the first century to get tired
of doing the right things and living well. They started to think that God wasn't
returning, or at least not any time that should affect them.
How much easier is it for us, 2 ,000 years later, for us to get tired of doing
the right things, living the way that God has called all of his people to live for
the return of Christ. We may be like those first century folk who think God may
never come back. But the Bible tells us that nothing is further from the truth.
As you think back to the story of Lord of the Rings, and you think about the
Hobbits who, if you don't know that, they're actually the central character in the
story. They're the normal people that kinda have to do their lives and deal with
stuff. But for so long they'd been waiting for the return of the king,
they had forgotten that a king even existed.
They just began to cultivate gardens and have celebrations and live their lives as
though nothing was ever going to change for them. They had lost a sense of
diligence of what they were supposed to be pursuing.
As we've been studying Revelation, it's deeply apparent that Jesus is coming back to
make all things new. We haven't gotten to the end, I get it, but we're getting
close. And it's either gonna be one of two options, either his full salvation or
his full judgment, right? That's the story of Revelation. You're gonna need one camp
or another.
So in the waiting for the return of Christ, how should we be diligent? Let me give
you a few ideas for that. One way that we're called to be diligent is in our
pursuit of Christ's likeness. Again, we're supposed to be more and more like Jesus.
It's easy to give up or lose hope or not take the time to live like Christ or
follow Jesus in your day -to -day life, but this is not the command or expectation
that Peter or Jesus has for us.
Now when I say this, I don't mean diligent just to be a buttoned up, well thought
of person, although there's a place for that,
but it's more than that, it's being like Christ. And that takes diligence.
No one naturally is like Jesus. I've already shared the story,
I'm not going to say it again. You just get on the highway and you'll figure out
if you're living like Jesus or not. Right? It doesn't take much to figure out that
there's a lot of things that get off track.
It's not just getting everything, but it's following Christ in a daily pattern of
your life. And how hard is that to do out diligence. We need to be faithful and
diligent in our pursuit of Christlikeness. But also, we need to be diligent in being
known by Christ and doing the things that He wants. We need to be constantly coming
back. If you've heard Bob say this once, you've heard him say it a million times,
we need to re -believe the gospel every day. We've got to come back to this that
God fully knows our sins, our failures, our struggles, and yet,
because of Christ loves us. That is a marvelous truth,
an astounding truth that should shock us, because if we know how sinful we are,
we should be surprised that God loves us at all.
How do we know what God wants? Why do we know? Well, we have to know God's word,
right? We have to abide in God's word. We have to soak ourselves in it to know
what God wants. If we're gonna be known by Christ and be reminded of our both our
sinfulness and God's great love for his people and What those people should live
like, we have to know and abide in God's Word. Look at how Paul describes this in
Romans 12.
"Fairly familiar passage for a lot of us. I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by
the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable
to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is
the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. We need God to do this
transforming work, but we have to be diligent to present ourselves to Him. We have
to be diligent in those things, and that's the third thing. We are to be diligent
to abide in Christ. So not only to be transformed by him,
but also to be in him.
So that's gonna help us have a mind that's transformed to know what God's will for
us is. And don't we all desire to know what God wants for us and to be
transformed and daily by his word, by his grace and his spirit.
To get there, we have to have an abiding relationship with him. We have to be
diligent to abide in Christ. Look what John 15 says.
Jesus says, "I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch
in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bear
fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already, you are clean because of
the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in 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, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I
in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. If
anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch in withers, and the
branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my
words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this,
my God, Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my
disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you, abide in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I have kept my
father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you
that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.
What a remarkable thing to think about an abiding relationship with Jesus focused on
him coming back for his people and living that way every day. Not only do we need
our minds transformed, but we need to bear fruit for God's glory. And the growing
knowledge that you belong to him is his disciple.
The end of that passage, Jesus speaks that these things are for his joy to be in
us and that that joy may be full. This isn't a thumb down on us,
white knuckle do it harder, it is a diligence that abides and stays connected to
Christ.
What a promise and exhortation to pursue these things the new year, that we might
have more joy in Christ than in anything else,
that we might remember he's coming back and it would change the way we live.
That joy that we're longing for is only in Christ.
Which leads me to my third point. People who long for the return of Christ are to
be theologically solid. And that's not just a made up idea that I have.
Our text says, "You emphasize therefore beloved, "harkening back just a few verses to
let us know "that we as the beloved of God must be diligent, make every effort to
not lose the stability we have. Verses 16 and 17 again says, as he does in all
his letters, talking about Paul, when he speaks to them in these matters, there are
some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable
twist to their own destruction. As they do the other scriptures, you therefore,
beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you're not carried away with the
error of lawless people and lose your own stability.
I think this passage may resonate with a lot of us just sometimes reading your
Bible is hard. Sometimes the stuff you read you're like when Peter says this about
Paul some things you're like yeah I get it you know I don't like there's parts of
this I don't like and it's hard on me and imprecatory Psalms and just stuff that I
don't get, and there's some things in there that are hard to understand, and some
things, I think, if we're honest, we just don't like.
But as people who know the king of the Bible, we wanna know what type of people
we should be and what our God is actually like. And the Bible gives us reminders
and encouragements about both of those truths.
The Bible actually calls us to be stable in what we believe, not being swayed by
every wind of doctrine. This is one of our big things that we talk about in just
the stability that we talked about in our series that we're supposed to be able to
not be shifting all the time. Look what the passage says. Nope,
I'm not serious. I don't want you. Thank you.
Ephesians 4, 13 to 14. It says, "Until we all attain to the unity of the faith
and the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood, to the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children,
tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by
human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes."
And so, we have to think, what are the things that we're swayed by? We're not to
be swayed by new ideas and doctrines.
I mean, they're going online and you can watch and see all these new ideas.
That doesn't mean they're right or good. We have to be careful that we're not
swayed because something new can sound exciting, and we would start to follow this
wrong -headed idea. We're not to be swayed by new ideas and doctrines,
but hold fast to the truth of God's word. We're to be theologically solid.
We're also not supposed to be swayed by politics or pop culture. That may be even
tougher because we think about all that goes on in the political world and all
that's on the internet, and we're swayed by these things to think, maybe that's
really what's going on. That's what life is really about, is about getting more
followers, being semi -famous or infamous, whatever it takes.
We're not to be swayed by politics or pop culture. Knowing and interacting with both
is fine, as long as they don't diminish your love and longing for the return of
King Jesus. The reason he wanted them to be theologically stable and solid is
because that keeps you focused on the right things.
It's not just to have all these theological terms that you can pitch out, but
having a steadiness in your heart and soul that helps you when the wrong things
come, you know what they are. And that helps us think more about what Jesus would
want. If he were coming back today, how would I live?
Not finding us swaying back and forth with every wind of doctrine, but being steady
and stable, trusting his word.
Also, not swaying and twisting difficult passages to make him easier for you to
digest. That's one of the things he's talking about here. We don't avoid the
difficult things. We read the whole counsel of God. We take time with it and we
let it shape us rather than us shaping it. We don't come to the word and say,
"Well, I want it to say this." We come to it and it speaks to us and we align
our lives under it.
Also, not listening so much to yourself that you start running away from God. We're
supposed to preach to ourselves and tell ourselves the truth of God's Word and stay,
have a stability in our lives.
But sometimes we listen to our inner monologue so much that we think Jesus isn't
coming back, I guess I can live however I want to live.
This can't really be true. If God really loved me, I wouldn't go through this hard
thing, I wouldn't deal with this. And so that's the other thing we have to do is
not malign the character of God when life is hard.
These people said, "I don't think Jesus is coming back because we've got these Roman
emperors and things that are going on and it's hard. Life is hard, we're persecuted.
And Peter reminds them, "No, God's patient.
Don't think he's forgotten about you." He doesn't. He loves us.
He's for us. And you need stability and theological stability to remember that in
the midst of the challenges of suffering and hard things. But you have to be
careful. We don't malign the character of God and start thinking thinking he is
wrongheaded and doing the wrong thing. And that's what some of Peter's hears and
been doing. Forgetting God's not returning quickly is not a sign of forgetfulness of
God, but rather of his immense patience.
That's what verse 15 says.
We have to have a growing stability as maturing believers that settles us in the
midst of cultural winds, of theological newness, of all these different things that
come suffering that comes against us so that we can have the right understanding of
how to speak to and live in light of those difficulties.
So how do we do that? If we're going to keep our eyes focused on the return of
Christ and on heavenly things, the last words that Peter gives are the antidote for
all of these things. People who long for the return of Christ are to daily grow in
grace.
People who long for the return of Christ are to daily grow in grace.
In verse 18 he says, "Grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ." This is the
expectation that God has for us in Christ, that we would not take our spiritual
growth or the true means by which it happens lightly or for granted.
And Peter's final words to these followers of Jesus were profound. He knew what it
was to fail and be restored by Jesus. He knew more than anything that he wanted to
see Jesus again, and until that day, no matter how long, he would remind himself
and others to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus.
The root of all this desire and fuel for growth is the longing for and believing
that Jesus will truly return. If we lose sight of that, I don't know that we're
going to be fueled to grow.
The return of Christ along with the resurrection of Jesus were the hallmarks that
fueled the graceful lives of early Christians And their desire to live on mission
for Christ
Think about Jesus's parables We've done some series on that but just remember some
of these the parables about the managers the stewards the bride and the bridegroom,
all of those were resonated with God's people as an ever -provoking fuel for living
the way Jesus has called each of us to. We're called to be watchful,
to be waiting and expectant for the return of Christ,
but be honest, is that hard?
This all happened 2 ,000 years ago and they're having trouble with it. So it's a
challenge for us to be constantly coming back to this reality.
But as it has been in the past, so it should be for us today. So we're supposed
to grow in what? What does the text say? Grow in grace, right? We're called to be
givers as well as recipients of grace. Dispensers as well as recipients.
We each need to cultivate an awareness that we don't just need grace,
but that we need to dispense grace freely.
This is rooted in the grace of Jesus toward us as sinful people. When we know that
Jesus is always for us, calling us back over and over again, never giving up on
us, we begin to grow in following Him in these ways. that we can be gracious to
people who sin against us.
Now, don't hear me say it's just letting evil be done to you or gotten away with,
but most people, including you and me, don't need more condemnation.
We need grace.
So we have to learn to not just be recipients of grace, but dispensers of grace.
As we receive Christ, so we're to walk in him by grace through faith. Look at what
Colossians two says. This is our student ministry verses.
These are powerful verses. Therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus as Lord,
so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as
you were taught abounding in thanksgiving. We received Christ by grace through faith.
We're to walk by grace through faith.
We're to grow in the grace that we understand more and more that God is for us
and we begin to live that way towards other people and dispense grace. We're to
grow in the grace of God to understand what grace really is,
that it's not just to get out of jail free card, but it's something that even
teaches us to say no to ungodliness.
To mine the depths and know the grace of Christ more and more and more,
and that would lead us to dispense grace and growing in that ability to be gracious
to other people,
but he doesn't just say the grace, he says the grace and the knowledge of Christ.
We need to daily grow to know Jesus more.
If this is your first year walking with Christ, or this is your sixtieth year
walking with Christ,
We all need to daily grow to know Jesus more and more, no matter how long you've
been walking with the Lord. Each of us needs to grow in our understanding of who
Jesus is and what he's done and where he is currently.
We need to know several things about Christ in a growing fashion. We need to know
what his heart is like,
that he is gentle and lowly and a friend of sinners, we need to know that.
We need to know the Gospel more.
Sometimes we can think it's like just a flat two -dimensional image, but really to
think of the Gospel is like a precious jewel with millions of facets that we should
take time with and reflect on as often as we can. We need to know Christ.
We need to know the Gospel more, we need to know that Jesus is on his throne and
ruling over creation right now. We need to know those things and have a growing
understanding of that. But we also need to know, again, coming back to the
beginning, that Jesus will return and come for his people that hang on and endure.
We're called to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. Peter, days,
months after this, is killed for his faith because he wouldn't renounce his faith.
These are his final words to these people. He has said over and over again through
his letters, "As long as I'm in this body, I want to remind you of these things.
I want to remind myself of these things. I want to remind you you these things, we
are meant to be growing and I hope we can grow in the new year. So I'm going to
give you two resources, two ideas and some questions each of us can ask ourselves
as we start the new year in just a couple of days. So here you go. Here's the
two resources. The first one is there is a podcast called Things Above.
That's the little logo.
You can listen to it. It's been going on for years so you can pull this up and
it's they're not super long but it gives you ways to set your mind on things
above. It's a podcast you can listen to regularly and it's very solid, very gospel
-centered and good, good things to listen to. Check that out. It'd be a great thing
just to do on your drive. Set your mind on things above. where Christ is. You can
also either listen to the podcast or get the book version of the Daily Devotion by
Sinclair Ferguson called "Things Unseen." I'll show you the pictures for the next
slide. That's Sinclair, handsome fella. But that's the cover of the book,
but it's also a podcast on Ligonier. You can listen to it, you can read it. It's
daily short little devotion thoughts that help you put your mind in the right place
to think about eternal, weighty things, unseen things.
Third, you can recommit yourself to community. These are the two ideas I have.
If our spiritual growth is a community project, as Paul Tripp courts, we need to be
with other Christ -centered, gospel -focused people who we can talk openly,
honestly, with about our struggles and be dispensers and recipients of grace in.
We learn how to be better dispensers and recipients in community. In these
relationships, we have to learn to give grace and receive grace. So So we're gonna
grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. We can't just read some books and do it
We also need to be in community
Fourthly get a solid Bible reading plan that you know you listen Be honest about
your struggles with reading the Bible Don't pick something that says you need to
read two hours a day seven days a week None of you are going to do that. Well,
some of you might, but most of you won't. But know your own challenges and
struggles, but find something that helps you be in the Bible. That's going to help
your theological stability. That's going to help you have eternal focus. That's going
to be the help you need is a daily time with God to know Him more. You're going
to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ by spending time in word. So that's
two resources, two ideas. Check those out and do that. Now, Don Whitney,
the little spiel little thing that I got to watch through Midwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary, that he proposed ten questions each of us can ask ourselves in
the new year.
And And so I wanna finish with this.
We'll go through 'em, and if you are a screenshotter kind of person, you can get
these all. It'll also be when we post this, I don't know if you know this, on our
website now with the sermon, you can get the PowerPoint from it. So if you miss
something, it's there. So just click on the resources when you go to that sermon.
That's an easy thing for you to do. So 10 questions, we're gonna go one by one.
Number one, how can the enjoyment of the Lord increase in the new year. How can my
enjoyment of the Lord increase in the new year? What will be the things that help
me enjoy God more this year
versus last year? Verse 25 to be the year we enjoy the Lord more. Number two,
what's the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year.
See, that takes faith, right? And without faith, it's impossible to please God. So
what's the most humanly impossible thing you ask God to do this year?
Third, what's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of
your family life this year?
Not the 10 most, One thing, what's one thing you could do practically to improve
the quality of your family life this year?
Number four, in which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this
year and what will you do about it? You gotta figure it out, what's the play you
wanna grow? Is it Bible reading? Is it prayer? Is it giving? What are the spiritual
disciplines that need to you go that's the one I want to really grow in and come
up with a plan because if you don't it won't happen. Number five what's the single
biggest time waster in your life?
For people under a certain age there's a lot of just games that are I know just
like we just rode in the car and I'm just like they played games and stuff.
They're just trying to get in a hot spot and play games. So I'm not looking at
any particular kid. I'm just saying it happens. We all have time wasters.
We all do.
So what's the single biggest time waster in your life and what will you do about
it this year?
Number six, what's the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?
So we're all in this together. So how could you strengthen the church? We've all
been given gifts and
We all have abilities and talents that we're supposed to use to build each other up
So how this year what's the most one most helpful new way you could strengthen your
church? Is it in kids? Is it students? Is it outreach? Is it Giving,
what is it? What's the one thing? Is it coming to church every Sunday? Talking to
you people that are watching online. I don't know, just if you come every Sunday.
Maybe that's a big way that could strengthen your church that people could see your
face and go, we're in this together.
Number seven, whose salvation will you pray most fervently for this year?
That's an easy thing to get tired of.
I spent 30 years praying for my dad and he did not come to faith.
That's hard. And some of you have those experiences and you know that.
But recommit to whose salvation will you pray most fervently for this year? Who's
the one person? Is it a kid? Is it one of your children? Is it a co -worker? Is
it your House.
Number eight, what's the most important way you will, by God's grace, try to make
this year different from last year?
What's the most important way you will, by God's grace, try to make this year
different from last year? How can it be an amazing year of focusing on Christ,
enjoying his goodness and looking to his coming. But what is the most important way
you'll do that? Just the one thing. No, number nine, what's one thing you could do
to improve your prayer life this year? One thing is pray.
That's one way. I'll go ahead and give you that, Freebie. None of us pray like we
should, right? None of us pray without ceasing?
But think practically between now and the end of the year, what's one thing you
could do? Is it setting apart time to do it? Is it getting with other people?
The candidates have done a great job leading and helping our church pray before the
service. Maybe you want to get invested in that and start praying for the service.
Maybe we just want to get together with small groups and pray. Some of our women
have been very faithful to pray for years.
One thing you could do to improve your prayer life this year, last. Number 10, what
single thing do you plan to do this year that will matter most in 10 years?
And what single thing do you plan to do this year that will matter the most in
eternity.
If having an eternal focus changes the way we live, we got to think about these
things. What is the thing you need to do differently this year?
And what will matter in 10 years?
I know how old I'll be in 10 years. You think you'd just do that math real quick
and think about how old you'll be.
I think our elderboard will look differently in 10 years. Is that fair? That's
probably fair, yeah.
What will you do that will matter most in 10 years, and what will you do this
year that will matter most in eternity?
Again, if you miss some of this, it'll be on the website tomorrow, and you can
pull it up and redo that if that helps you.
My hope for this year is that I can have a more eternal focus, I hope you do
too. I hope you just be focused on the return of Christ. And it helps us live
differently. And one of the ways that we get to remember and grow and grace each
week is by taking the Lord's Supper.
We remind ourselves each week of the life, death, and resurrection and return of
Christ. Because it's something we all need each and every week.
That's what the table is about. It's about grace.
Let's pray together. Father, we just thank you for your work. Pray you continue it
today in our own hearts to see Christ better, to long for His return,
to be those that long for for his glorious appearing and to live differently in
light of it.
I ask your blessing over our time at your table. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.