Remember To Not Forget

I'm so grateful for our worship band and Kashan and his leadership over that.! It takes a lot of work to do that with excellence, and so I'm thankful for them. So I hope you're grateful for them as well.

If you've got your Bible, you can open with me to 2 Peter. We've been working through this letter so far this semester. And we'll work it through to its last verse later on, around spring break or so.

So, just what Grace prayed, we're here to celebrate Christ and celebrate what he has done for his people, for us as sinners.

He has laid down his life on the cross and rose again on the third day to save us from our sins and their consequences. In American history, there are very many important speeches that have changed the course of our history and even shaped our culture as our country has continued to exist.

You think of these important speeches, maybe you've read some of them in school or heard about some of them at least. I think of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, iconic. Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech, an eloquent and powerful speech that propelled the civil rights movement after it had begun.

Zac Efron's Get Your Head in the Game shaped my culture at least. No high school musical fans, anyone? Okay, you're missing. Okay, all right, a few of you. You're missing out. Go watch that. It's your homework.

And maybe most important of all, in my opinion at least, would be George Washington's Farewell Address. If you haven't read it, I would encourage you to read it or listen to it on an audio book or something.

But it was his final public speech as the President of the United States. And this speech shaped the course of American foreign policy and even the office of president for literally centuries of our history.

We haven't been around that long in the grand scheme of things, but it shaped us even down to this day. And part of the reason it landed with so much force, part of the reason it had so much impact, was because you can point to those words and say these are for sure his final words as president.

He might continue to live another several years after this. He'll certainly say other things after this. But as the President of the United States, these are his final words.

And what he did in that speech was prepare the nation for his departure as president and offer his own counsel and wisdom for how the country can move forward in the days after his presidency.

And this letter we're studying, the book of 2 Peter, is pretty much Peter's farewell address. I've mentioned that a couple of times, but in this paragraph we are looking at tonight, he makes it very clear that his life is almost over.

These aren't just his final words as an apostle. Based on what we'll see tonight, these seem to be some of his last words he spoke while he was alive on earth.

There's a lot of weight in these words because he recognizes that his time on earth is short. And what Peter is doing in this letter is he's preparing the church for his departure and offering his authoritative wisdom and counsel for how these churches can move forward in the days after his death.

And his purpose in this letter is to encourage believers in that day, and certainly us as believers today reading this, encouraging them to continue to pursue a godly life.

And the way he encourages them to do that is by constantly reminding them of the truths that he has taught them. Constantly reminding them of the things that they already know, pointing them back to the truth that they have learned.

And sometimes in your life, repetition seems super pointless. Doing something over and over again seems really pointless. Like you're in math class, it's like, I've done this problem ten times, why do I have to do it, why do I have to do twenty more problems in my homework?

You know, it seems kind of pointless. And the most pointless repetition in my life at this point seems to be when I go to Chick-fil-A and they repeat my order back to me. Especially when I'm ordering for my family, it's like we've got five people who are trying to get food and they're like, okay, so I've got a...

I'm like, I don't know, guys. Like, I don't know what I just ordered. Like, I'm sure you guys got it right. You guys never get it wrong. And so it just seems like a waste of time. But Chick-fil-A workers out there, no offense. You guys are just doing your job and you're doing it well.

But maybe just save the repetition next time. But there's a lot of value in repetition. It can kind of seem like a waste of time to us sometimes.

But this is how we learn. You may have heard the phrase, practice makes perfect. The way we learn, the way we get better at things is by doing them over and over again.

A lot of you have your driver's license or your permit. You're working towards your license. The way you get better at driving is by driving. Hopefully you get better. It's not guaranteed, but that's how you get better at it.

Now you can read a book about driving. You can watch videos about driving. The way you get better at driving is by driving over and over again. Repetition helps us remember important things.

And repetition is important in our spiritual lives as well. Because one of the most sinful things that God's people have done throughout history, this is true of Old Testament Israel and true of us today as believers, is forget who the Lord is and what he's done.

It's an incredibly heinous sin to forget who the Lord is and what he's done for you.

And it's so easy to do. But not only do we forget who the Lord is and what he's done for us, but we often remember our sin and wish we could return to it.

Like, sometimes I wish, you know, we could go back. That's what our sinful heart desires sometimes. And so we forget what we should remember and we remember what we should forget.

We forget the Lord, but we remember our sin and want to go back to it. And so because of that, we need the truth of God's word to resound in our ears over and over and over again throughout our lives.

So let me read our text for us tonight. We're in 2 Peter 1. We'll be in verses 12 through 15. Peter says, It says, You may be able at any time to recall these things.

We'll cover our text tonight in two sections. The first one is Peter's goal. And the second one is Peter's urgency. So firstly, Peter's goal.

We see that in verses 12 through 13. And he begins with this word, therefore. And when you're reading the New Testament, that's an incredibly important word because it's linking everything that came before it with what is about to be said.

And so I've said this before. It's cheesy. Just deal with it. When you see a therefore, what is the therefore, therefore? What is its function in the text? What is it doing?

And in this case, it's reminding us. It's kind of dragging everything in that he's just said in verses 3 through 11. And if you remember what we've covered the last two weeks, verses 3 and 4 talk about Christ's power and Christ's promise.

His power over sin through his death on the cross and giving us what we need to live a godly life. And then promising us that he will come again and take us to himself.

And in verses 5 through 11, this call, this charge to live a godly life, to live a life that's righteous and holy. And Peter says to confirm, verse 10, your calling and election.

It's through living a godly life that you will confirm or prove that you've been saved by Christ, who is the Savior of all. Therefore, because of all of that, I intend always to remind you of these things.

Or maybe your version says of these qualities. And again, I think he's referring to all of what he said in verses 3 through 11. And so Peter intends to over and over again remind these believers of what he has said.

But this reminder serves even us today. This letter wasn't written to us directly, but it is written for us. And so this was written to these churches that were scattered throughout the ancient world.

But this letter has immense benefit for us as believers today. And so Peter says, I intend, my goal is to always remind you of these things.

Now we've already read ahead. Peter says he's about to die. And yet here he says, I'm always going to remind you of this stuff. How is he actually going to do that?

He's about to die. He won't have communication with these people anymore. How is it that he plans to constantly remind these people of these things? It's through this letter that he's writing. It's through this letter that's going to be sent to them.

That he says, I want you to have this stuff written down. I want you to have what I've taught written down on paper so that you can always recall it. So that you can always go back to it and be reminded of how you're supposed to live this Christian life.

This letter that he's writing is the way that he's going to constantly remind them. And he's going to remind them of these truths that he's taught. Of who Christ is and how we're supposed to live the Christian life.

And he says, even though or though you know them. You know these things and are established in the truth that you have. And so Peter wants to constantly remind them of these things.

Even though they already know them. He wants to give them reminders of them. Even though they're already growing up into them. Even though they're already established in them. And our question is like, well what's the point?

Like if they know them. And if they're established in them. What's the point of taking time to remind them of these things? Safety. It's intended for their safety.

Peter says something very similar to what Paul said in Philippians chapter 3 verse 1. Paul was reminding the Philippians of certain things he had already taught them.

And in chapter 3 verse 1 he says, To write the same things to you is no trouble for me. And it's safe for you. Paul and Peter were very willing to constantly repeat themselves about who Christ was.

What he's done. What his plan is for the future. In order to secure these believers in the faith. And back in the day when I used to play football.

That was a long time ago now. But we had a pretty rigorous lifting program. Which I was very grateful for. It taught me a lot. But very regularly throughout the year. We would stop lifting weights for an entire week.

And go through the fundamentals of lifting. Zero weights would be lifted. And they would teach us. Here's how you squat. Here's how you bench. Here's how you put this back.

Here's how you spot someone who's lifting. And the entire goal of that was safety. We knew exactly what we were doing. We had been taught by the same coaches who were teaching us again.

The goal was our safety. To keep ourselves safe. And to be able to look out for each other. To keep each other safe. Throughout our time in the gym together. We needed this refresher.

This rehearsal of the fundamentals. And Peter is intending through his repetition. Through his reminders. To keep these believers safe. And these Christians should be safe.

From the false teachers that are arising from within their church. And saying false things. And enticing them to sin. They should be safe. Because as Peter says. You guys are already established in the truth that you have.

But Peter doesn't want them to stay where they are. He wants them to continue to grow stronger. He wants them to continue to grow in these things. And if you look back at verse 8.

He says if these qualities are yours. And are increasing. And so he wants them to not just stay where they're at. But to continue to go further. And be further strengthened in these truths.

And so he knew his readers were saved. He knew his readers were secure in the truth. But he also knew that just because they were grounded in the truth.

Didn't mean they would never stumble. Didn't mean they were beyond the point of being reminded about the truths of who Christ is. We as Christians need to remember the truth every single day of our lives.

Why is that? Because functionally. In the practice of our lives. We can completely forget God.

And I don't know if you've ever had a realization like this before. But it's possible to go through an entire day. And look back and think. Did I even think about God? Like did the person of God have any impact on a decision I made?

A word I spoke today? Okay. And if not. Practically for that day. You forgot who the Lord was. And it's not to say that you lose your salvation if that happens.

But it's so easy for us to practically forget the truth. Even while we know the truth. And would be able to tell someone the truth.

And so we can mentally know the truth. Know the answers to questions. But not let it impact our hearts or our daily lives. And so I love my wife Lacey.

She was at the back. She slipped out. She's pregnant. She's probably walking around. I love her. And I've vowed to her publicly that I would love her until I die. And I remind her of my love.

And yet so often and so easily I can forget to serve her. And so if you ask me if I love my wife I would just say yes. But there are very many times that love doesn't lead to action like it should.

Like it's supposed to. And in a Christian life the same thing can be true. You can know for example that Jesus calls you to holiness.

And yet live in unholy life. You can know that Jesus calls you to not be sinfully angry.

And still live in sinful anger. And so I said last week that Christianity is not just about what you know. It's about how you live. Because if what you know isn't impacting how you live something is going wrong.

And Peter is saying I want to remind you guys of this. Pay attention to your life. Pay attention to how you are living this life following Christ. And so what we need to keep us faithful.

What we need to keep us on the right track isn't a new revelation. Isn't a new experience. We need to remember the old truths of God's word.

And so the mark of a healthy church is not freshness or relevance or coolness. The mark of a healthy church is faithfulness.

Are they in step with God's word? Which means in a healthy church there will be a lot of reminders.

There will be a lot of times you're listening to a sermon and you may think I already knew that. Like I know the gospel or I knew that story. I've heard that story before. And that's good that you know it.

It's good that you have that feeling. We need these reminders though. And when you have that feeling. It would be a wrong response of you to say I already know this.

I'm not going to listen. The right response would say I already know this. Maybe there's something I missed. There's something I need reminded of that I'm not putting into practice.

Or a detail that I've missed in this story on previous occasions of hearing it. We need to be reminded of the truth. And we also need to be reminded of how to live the truth.

Yesterday's godliness doesn't count for us today. Each day requires us to continue our pursuit of godliness.

And each day requires us to kill our sin all over again. And so when you wake up, you can't say, I did a pretty good job being godly yesterday.

That's good enough for this week. You're susceptible of being deceived and even just not making progress. Not being fruitful in your life with Christ.

Now we will make progress day after day. There will be progress year over year. But we can't just rest on something we did yesterday as if it counts for today. We must be faithful today.

And I want you to notice that Peter is just a faithful shepherd. He's a patient shepherd.

He always wants to teach and help his people. He's constantly willing and available to patiently remind his people of the truth and how to live their lives in accordance with that truth.

And so Peter is someone that I aspire to be like, that I look up to and I'm trying to be like as a pastor. And so I hope that I am the same way towards you all.

And so if you have questions, I love it when you ask me questions. I love it when you stop me in the hallway or send me a text or whatever asking me questions about the Bible or about life. Please don't feel like you're bothering me.

That's my job. And I find a model in people like Peter who are saying, I want to remind you of the truth that you've been taught. And Peter says in verse 13, I think it right.

As long as I am in this body to stir you up by way of reminder. And Peter calls his body here a tent.

He recognizes that his life is just temporary. He won't be here forever.

And so he refers to his body as a tent, something that's here today, something that he lives in today, but one day will just be folded up and put back into the bag. Something that isn't permanent.

Something that won't last. And we need to view our lives in this way. Our lives are equally short. Our lives are equally temporary.

And so this image of his body as a tent shows us that his life was temporary. It also shows us that his life was going somewhere. And so if you have read about something called a nomadic lifestyle, these are people that live in tents.

They just follow their animals around the countryside. They live in tents or chase wild game across the countryside. They don't have a permanent dwelling place. And so Peter is reminding them, I am just a traveler.

I am on my way somewhere and my journey is almost done. While I'm still with you, I think it's right for me to remind you. And he says to stir you up.

To stir you up. This word means to provoke or prod. This is the same word that's used of the disciples waking Jesus up in the middle of the storm when they're on the sea.

It's kind of a shaking him awake. Peter is saying, I'm trying to shake you up so that you'll be awake, so that you'll be alert. Or you can think of a sibling annoying you and pestering you, trying to get a reaction out of you.

And you're like, they stirred you up in that instance. That's what Peter is doing here. Not in an annoying way, but in a way that just wakes them up. And hopefully wakes us up to be alert, to put these truths into action.

That's what Peter's reminders here are intended to do. Peter doesn't want us to fall asleep spiritually. And Peter himself had been guilty of that same thing.

If you remember the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus in his final hours on the night that he was arrested, the night before he was crucified, he told Peter, watch and pray.

And he came back later and found him sleeping. And Peter said, I'm trying to wake you up. I'm trying to keep you watchful in this Christian life.

And we need constant reminders like this. And this has been brought home to me by having little kids. I'm constantly repeating myself over and over again.

Don't climb over the back of the couch. Don't jump off the counter. Don't climb on the table. Don't put your sucker in your brother's ear. Stop. We say a lot of weird things that we repeat quite often, actually. But we need those reminders.

We need to hear the same things over and over again. We know the gospel, but we need to continually hear it over and over again. Now, as you grow up, hopefully your parents don't have to give you the same reminders now that you needed when you were six.

I hope the reminders have changed. And that's probably true of us as Christians, too. The type of reminders we need as we grow in Christ will likely shift. But we constantly need to be reminded of what the gospel is and what it means for how we live our lives.

And so Peter's goal is to remind them of these things. Now, why is this his goal? And why is he writing this letter? Why is he putting these things down?

So secondly, we see Peter's urgency. Peter's urgency in verses 14 and 15. Why is Peter not just visiting them?

Why is Peter writing these reminders? Verse 14. There's an urgency to this letter.

Peter's life isn't just temporary. Peter's life is almost over. And that realization will change the way you live your life.

When someone recognizes they're in their last hours, there's an urgency and this blood earnestness that comes over them. Their communication is specific and weighty because they recognize they won't be able to communicate much longer.

These are some of Peter's final words. He knows he won't be around much longer. And so he wants to make sure that the truth that he has taught them sticks around longer than he does.

He wants to make sure that long after he's gone, 25 years in the future, these churches still have the same gospel that he taught them, the same truths that he taught them.

And how did Peter know that he was about to die? Into verse 14. As our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. This is referring back to John 21.

Peter and Jesus are having a conversation after Jesus has been resurrected from the dead. And Peter's asking about how John's going to die, how John, how long he's going to live.

And Jesus looks at Peter and says, don't worry about him. Here's how you're going to die. When you're young, you dress yourself and you go wherever you want.

When you're older, someone else is going to dress you and lead you by the hand where you don't want to go. And John inserts a little statement and says, he said this to indicate by what kind of death he was to glorify the Lord.

And so Jesus was predicting the kind of death that Peter would die. He was predicting that Peter would be chained up and killed for his testimony in Christ.

He would die as a martyr for his willingness to identify with Christ. And we don't know Peter's life situation as he's writing this letter, but somehow it became clear to him that what Jesus predicted is about to come true.

What Jesus predicted is about to come true. And we don't know Peter's life situation, but possibly he's been arrested or he knows that his arrest is coming soon. And so he's putting these things down on paper before the time of his death.

And according to church history, Peter was crucified upside down. And crucifixion was already a horrible torture. Jesus himself was tortured to death in this way.

And it seems like, as the story goes, that as Peter was about to be crucified, he said, I'm not worthy to be crucified. I'm not worthy to die in the same way that my Lord died.

And the Roman soldiers who were so cold and unloving and who were experts at torture and putting people to death said, we can solve that. And crucified him upside down.

And not only that, but Peter's wife was killed on the same day that he was. And she was actually crucified before he was so that he had to watch her die and watch her be tortured.

And his final words to his wife, he said, remember the Lord. Remember him. Don't forget. Remember who he was.

Don't forget. And so he recognizes that his life is about to be over and he wants these people to remember the Lord. Don't forget who he is.

Verse 15. And I will make every effort so that after my departure or literally after my exodus, you may be able at any time to recall these things.

Peter will devote himself to this task completely. All of his remaining effort will be poured into this letter so that they can remember the Lord.

And if you look back with me at verse 10, Peter says to them, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. That phrase, be all the more diligent, is the phrase that he uses here of himself.

He says, I will be all the more diligent. You guys be diligent to pursue these things, to remember the truth. I will be diligent with whatever time I have left to remind you guys of that truth so that when I die, you can remember these things.

And he calls this death his exodus, which is interesting because when you exit, you're going somewhere else. So when the Israelites had their exodus from Egypt, they didn't just go nowhere, they were going to the promised land.

And so Peter is saying, my exit from this world into another world is coming. And when that happens, I want you guys to remember what I have taught you.

I want you to recall these things. And I think these things here refers to everything he's written so far in this letter and everything he's going to write in this letter.

This is his purpose statement for this entire book. And I want you guys to just think about the importance of the written word, the importance of writing things down, especially scripture, but certainly just anything in general being written down.

Our memories can be good, but they get foggy over time. And so one guy who's smarter than me said a statement, it's a little bit cheesy, but he said a dull pencil is better than a sharp mind.

And the idea is that getting things down on paper freezes those words in time. It freezes them in time as they were written. And so one good example of that would be love letters between a husband and wife, for example.

Those letters freeze those thoughts in time. It's something that can be returned to. It's something that can be gone back over and studied. And scripture is so important that it's written down because these truths will not change.

These truths are stuck in some sense. They will not change. They're unchanging because in part they're written down and they don't fade in our memories. And this is so important.

I encourage you to have a hard copy of the Bible, a physical copy of the Bible, because there's no software update for your Bible. It will never change.

And there's less distractions than on a phone, for example. But the word of God is so important to us. And Peter is saying, I want you to have this written down so that you can study it.

So that at any time, you can go back to these pages and think back through what I've written to you. And as we think about the writing of scripture, some critics, whether atheist or agnostic or just non-Christian in general, they will criticize Christianity.

And they'll say, why is there such a big gap of time between when Jesus was alive on earth and when he died and when these events were written down? And so if Jesus dies around 30 AD and some of the letters aren't written until 50 AD, why is there a 20-year gap between when they happened and when they were written down?

Well, that's a fair question. First of all, we need to think about there's a difference in the ancient world from our world today. We write things down instantly. It's going out on Instagram.

It's going out on X. It's going out on news articles everywhere. We write things down immediately. That's not how the ancient world worked. They were very good at retaining stories and passing down stories. But we also need to think about why were these things written down in the first place?

Why would you write letters in the ancient world? Well, one reason you'd write a letter in the ancient world was to teach people that you couldn't physically be present with. So for example, Paul wanted to visit Rome.

He couldn't get to Rome and so he wrote the letter of Romans to teach people you couldn't be physically present with. Another reason these letters were written was because the apostles were dying.

The apostles were aging out of their life on earth. And so while they're alive, they can confirm the truthfulness of these stories about Christ. They can repeat the stories about Christ, but once they're gone, they need the truth of what they're telling to go on.

And so they're not only just teaching people they can't be with physically, but they're about to die and so able to write these things down so that we can remember them long after their final breath on this earth.

I want you to notice something important about Peter here. Peter doesn't want them to remember him. Peter wants them to remember the truth that he taught them.

Peter doesn't care if he's forgotten about. Peter doesn't care if there's Christians in these cities who never actually got to meet him because they were too young or too far apart.

Peter just wants the truth of what he taught them to be remembered. And one day, you will all be done with youth ministry.

For some of you, that's closer than others. But all of you will be done with youth ministry at some point. And I hope you remember these days with fondness and affection and joy and love.

But I hope most of all, you remember the truth of God's word. If you remember me or Kashawn or Hadley, that's great. I hope the memories are fond and you remember the love that's been poured into you.

But above everything else, what I desire for you to remember is the truth that you've been taught. And again, Peter is a model for me in this.

He doesn't say, hey, I hope you guys remember all the good times we had together once I die. He wants them to remember the truth that they've been taught. And so, when those days of you being done with youth ministry come and you're maybe even finding a new church in a new town, watch out for churches where the pastor wants to be remembered or wants to be well-liked.

Because, first of all, it's out of step with the example of scripture. And secondly, in a pastor like that, you have a man who will compromise if it makes him popular or if it gets him favor among the people.

We need more pastors like Peter who just want the truth of what they've taught to go on beyond their life. And whether they're remembered or not is irrelevant to them.

Peter's farewell address, which is this letter, but especially this paragraph, reminds us that Jesus Christ is our great God and Savior. And he reminds us of the salvation that he's given us.

He wants us to pay attention so that we're not taken captive by false teachers. And so, a faithful response to this text would be to remember God's word and to bury it in our hearts.

To hide it in our hearts. To store it up in our hearts. Peter took the time to write these things and so, let's be a friend to him and study what he's written.

Learn what he has taught us. And it's an amazing privilege to have the Bible written down in our own language. There are Christians right now across the world who don't have a full Bible in their own language.

Missionaries are working on it. Interpreters are working on it. That's incredibly important work. But they may just have one or two books of the New Testament and they love those. They pass those around.

They share those. They memorize those. And so, it's a shame for us to have such easy access to God's word and kind of just disregard it sometimes.

And so, let's be a good listener of what Peter has taught here in this letter. Let's be good stewards of what God's given us and love and cherish God's word. Don't waste your life pursuing entertainment or comfort.

Read the Bible. It is our life. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you so much for the reminders that are contained within your word.

We want to know more. We want to be good students of your word and constantly grow in our knowledge but we also certainly want to make sure that knowledge is being put into practice. And so, we thank you for how practical this letter has been so far.

We thank you for Peter being patient and kind to his people and gently reminding them of the truth that they've been taught. I pray for these students as they go to small groups to think about these things further and to share fellowship with each other.

I pray that you'd bless their time together. In the name of Christ, we pray. Amen.