Grow in Grace: Active Faith While We Wait

Just take a look at the author of this letter, Peter. That man went through some drastic change. He went from denying his Lord three times, but God in his grace still used that. He used him and God changed the entire course of his life and gave him a new purpose, a new joy, a new hope, a new identity. And that's the purpose of this letter he's writing to show us that this is possible, that he can do that in your life as well because he's given us everything through his power to do so. [00:23:37] (45 seconds)  #GraceChangesEverything

And here's how I wanna wrap everything up. Let's be a church that never stops growing in our love for Jesus. We can do all the other things right. We can check the box. We can be on a we can be on a team that serves. We can go to church every Sunday. We can do all the right things. But if we neglect this command and abandon our first love and we fail to love the God who loved us first, fail to appreciate the grace that he poured out on us, There's no reason to believe at all that any single one of us, myself included, is going to grow. [00:49:03] (54 seconds)  #KeepLoveFirst

This is not the kind of waiting that you do at Starbucks while you wait for your coffee order, where you zone out and mindlessly just scroll on your phone until the barista calls out your name. That's not the kind of waiting that Peter is talking about. That's passive waiting. He calls us to actively wait. Our role as Christians is not to just pass the time of this life and to be idle, live unfruitful lives after we've all received God's incredible gift of salvation. [00:31:57] (37 seconds)  #WaitActively

It makes every effort to please him, to regard him as holy, and above all, to love him, to love his people. Because that's what Jesus tells us that all the law and the prophets depend on. And it repents quickly when we fail to do these things. This is the type of faith that Peter's talking about. Faith that makes every effort to love and please God, to care about the things that God cares about, to love the things that God loves, and to detest the things that God detests. [00:33:44] (41 seconds)  #FaithThatActs

I'll give you an example. Last year, I just went on this crazy, running spree. All I wanted to do was run. I don't know why. Maybe I was just like, I don't know, Forrest Gump. I just felt like running. And at times, I didn't particularly enjoy it. My knees for sure didn't enjoy it. But I knew it was good for me, and so I fit it into my daily schedule. I I planned my whole day around it. Now, although running was good for my health, I ran myself into the ground where I didn't even have enough energy to stay awake and read my bible much less pray before I went to sleep. Really showed me how disordered my priorities were. [00:43:50] (53 seconds)  #PrioritizeWhatMatters

Why? Get verse 14 again. Make every effort to be found without spot or blemish in his sight at peace. In whose sight? Jesus' sight. That's the goal, to be found without spot or blemish in the sight of our Lord Jesus Christ. A day is coming when all of us will stand before the risen Christ and give him an account of our lives. And so, therefore, we should make every effort to be found without spot or stain. [00:26:44] (46 seconds)  #AimForChristsApproval

Grow in your knowledge and understanding of who God is. Grow in your appreciation for the love that Jesus publicly demonstrated for us on the cross. Grow in your understanding of how incredibly harmful and vile sin is. Grow in your understanding of how good God is. Grow in your understanding that every good thing that you have in this life is not because you are good or because of your efforts, but it's that because God is good. And we should always grow in our appreciation and love for who God is. [00:48:34] (43 seconds)  #GrowInKnowingGod

We can't avoid waiting. We're all waiting. We're waiting for God to redeem all of our suffering. We're waiting on God to fulfill the promises that he's made to us individually and collectively. We're waiting for Jesus to return. We're waiting for God to restore his creation. And it will happen because God is faithful to his word, faithful to every single one of his promises. But here's the thing, we're gonna have to wait for it. We cannot avoid it. We cannot avoid waiting. [00:31:02] (45 seconds)  #WaitingWithHope