Don't Forget to Remember

Would you pray with me for the proclamation of God's word. Lord,

We've gathered here this morning to praise your name, to

encourage one another in you, to bow our heads in

prayer in repentance. And Lord, we have come that you

would work in us by the power of your spirit

through your word. We're counting on that, and we trust,

we trust what you have promised, that you do your

work by your spirit in your people, through your word.

And so as we open up the scriptures, would you

open up our hearts do in us what we cannot

do ourselves, grow us, sanctify us, mature us truly spiritually.

As we step out in faith, would you meet us

with power? We ask in Jesus' name. Amen, Let's grab

our bibles. Let's grab our bibles and turn to Second Peter,

the first chapter. Second Peter, the first chapter. If you

don't have a Bible with you, just raise your hand.

We're passing those out. Just catch the eye of one

of our ushers there and hold your hand and keep

it up, and we'll find you with a bible or

a bulletin or whatever you need.

Pen or anything like that.

This is a good opportunity for me to remind you

to please fill out a connection card, use the QR

code and.

The bulletin or on the seatback.

You can take the rest of this worship service to

do that, but we just ask that everyone does that.

Whether you're here a lot or a little, if you're

a member or a guest, it is important to us

that we know that you were here by name. That's

an important pastoral tool for us.

If you are.

New, you can leave some contact information. We'll be reaching

out to you, following up with you. And if you

are somewhat new and you have questions about how could

I become a part of this local church, what does

that like? We have a table out in the lobby

called Step one and where we just begin that process.

It's the first step. It's the first step of that

process of becoming a part of this body of believers.

That's also a place where you can connect for all

kinds of questions, questions about this passage of scripture or

about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you're here and

you say, you know, I've heard these songs, I've heard

you sing about and talk about Jesus Christ and faith

in Him and holiness before God and I don't have

much clarity around those things. Well, we want you to

have clarity about those things. In fact, tonight I would

welcome you to just come over to my house. My

wife and I are going to have dinner from six

to eight o'clock tonight and just we're going to focus

on a conversation like that. So if you're here this

morning and you're like I would like more clarity, I

would like a conversation about the Christian faith and getting

clarity about what it means to become a Christian, well

we'll do that tonight.

Just come on over.

You can meet me at the step one table. I'll

give you my address and come over tonight and we'll

just we'll have dinner and we'll have a conversation.

Okay.

So second Peter, the first chapter. If you're all there,

I'd like to introduce someone to you. This is a

passage of scripture. Actually that just picks up right after

where Pastor Seamus Drake left off. If you remember when

Pastor Seamus Drake was visiting us and preaching for us here,

he preached the first paragraph or so of this book.

And this morning, Scott Graham is going to pick up

where he left off and preach for us the next

paragraph in this letter. Now, Scott has been with us

here at this church, serving on staff for a little

over a year. He serves as the minister for students.

And when he came on board here, there were two

things that really really stuck out about his and his

character and his qualities. The things he was focused on

his priorities, and one of them was a high view

of scripture. He wants to see God's word proclaimed talk

to his people. And the other was a high view

of discipleship. And he has been responsible for disciple making

amongst our youth here at Crossway and leading a whole

team of people to focus on discipling those young people

and been doing a great job.

And this will be the.

First time I think that he's preaching for us as

a church. So please welcome Scott Graham.

Thank you, well, good morning, all right, I see you

see you already have your bibles open.

That is amazing.

Why don't we just start there and make much of him?

Therefore verse twelve.

Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities,

though you know them and are established in the truth

that you have. I think it right as long as

I am in this body to stir you up my

way of reminder, since I know that the putting off

of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus

Christ made clear to me, and I will make every

effort so that after my departure you may be able to,

at any time to recall these things. This is the

word of a lord. Thank y'all, by the way, for

allowing me to be up here.

I love you, guys.

It is such a delight to get into God's word

and to share God's word, but especially to share God's

world of people that I love. So the title is

don't forget to remember. That's what's going on in Peter's mind,

is he's writing this, don't forget to remember? Is anybody

here forgetful? I'm pretty forgetful. We blame a lot of

things for our forgetfulness. I've blamed a technology. Some people

blame their age, some people blame their their distractions. But

I blame a very familiar culprit right here. I'll remember

that I forgot something, but I'll forget what that was.

Peter's final message is an urgent reminder for people who

may forget. God's people are so.

Prone to forget.

Even the very base six of the Gospel, the very

basics of grace, and how that plays out. And so

Peter doubles down on the truths that he says they

already know. Do we outmature these truths? When when we

say forgetfulness, we're not talking about a lapse of memory.

We're talking about a very spiritual forgetfulness. This is a

condition that's preventing them from their own growth. What Peter's

teaching us here is actually quite simple. It's we need reminders.

We need reminders. Now, I'm a veteran and the military.

We we love our acronyms. There are a lot of acronyms,

and so I'm I've picked a new monic that's going

to help us remember. It's taken from Peter from the

text right here, and it's the word is stir stir

s T, I, R and and four letters with four

urgent charges that will help us trace the arguments here

in Peter's in the text of second Peter. All right,

so the first first main point, all right, s all right,

this one's easy.

We're going to keep it simple. Stir stir up.

Peter wants to stir us up by way of reminder.

Look at verse twelve and thirteen.

Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these qualities,

though you know them and are established in the truth

that you have. I think it right as long as

I am in this body to stir you up by

way of reminder.

What Peter's saying.

Here is he's always going to be ready to remind them.

If there's an opportunity to talk about Christ, his grace

and how that works in our growth and our response

to him, he's gonna take that opportunity. It's necessary. So

he's reminding us that it's important. But they already know

these things. They're established in these truths. And he's going, yes,

I see that, and I'm encouraging you. Yes you do

know that, Yes, you are established in that. And yet

it's necessary to remind you. So he keeps reminding they

need these reminders in these very basic truths to.

Stir them up.

Stir up that that word it's it's a wake up call,

that's what it is. This isn't the wake up call

when you call the front desk of a hotel. And

this isn't Peter going, hey, I've got a devotional for you,

and I've got some things I have to remind you of. No,

he's he's saying, wake up, stay alert, your your hands

are on the wheel, don't drift. Be reminded of these truths.

These truths you have in Christ. You're you're going to

need them. You're going to need them. He's reminding us

what he's said since the very beginning of his letter.

They must not forget God's blessings, their salvation, and their

response to that. You see, without these reminders, they're running

a very big risk that the stakes are high. Without

these reminders, they can forget that they've ever been cleansed

from their former sins. Peter earlier, he lists these qualities.

Supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, knowledge with

self control, steadfastness with godliness, godliness with brotherly love and

brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. It starts in faith,

it ends in love. I do love that. But there's

this warning, you see, as if these people lack these qualities,

if it's not there, I'm not saying growth can be

a messy thing, but if they're not there, what he's

warning is they can forget that they've ever been cleansed

from their former sins.

The stakes are high.

We can forget that we've ever even been given the

very life and the godliness in it that Christ has

supplied for us by his divine power. And Peter knows

the value of reminders. They stir us up. We need

this wake up call. They needed this.

Wake up call.

I want you to think about the daily rhythms of

a church. One of them we just did. We were

worshiping the Lord. That daily rhythm. You know that moment,

that moment where the body of the church is almost

singing louder than the worship leaders that are leading us

in that worship. That stirs me up. Baptisms, Baptisms, that

is a reminder that stirs me up. How about testimonies, testimony?

You want to know what I love about testimonies. I

love this about testimonies. It's when they're telling us this

story of their past and we're getting and I can't

wait to get to that moment, that moment where they

go and Jesus showed up.

But God, but God.

That that is a reminder that stirs me up. Or

participating in the Lord's Supper, it's a local body. We

participate in this together and it reminds us of his sacrifice.

It stirs me up.

Another one that's real close and real dear to me

is just living life in the church with y'all, with

my small group, as they are constantly and persistently giving

me these kinds of reminders, constantly saying you need to

remember Christ, you need to have this biblical framework when

as you're working your way through these phases in life,

keep Him in mind. He's them stirring me up. I

need those reminders. So I don't know about you, but

I get pretty stirred up in these daily these habits

that we find ourselves in, just in the life of

the church. God's Word tells us that we need continuous reminders.

He's saying, I will always I will always be ready

to remind you. This is a repetitious reminder we need

to get our reps in. God's Word tells us this.

One of my favorite places to go for this is

actually the Shemah. And that's not because before we're Hebrew linguist.

It might be.

I could read it for you in Hebrew if you'd like,

We'll stick with English. It tells us that that we

are to love the Lord, our God, with our whole soul,

with our whole heart, and with all of our might.

And how do we do that by taking all of

these words and teaching our kids. It's in every facet

of our lives. We're putting it on the door when

we go outside. We're bringing this word with us when

we go to bed, before we go tonight, that's our

last thought on our minds when we wake up. It's

the first thought in the morning. That his word is

constantly when we make him the center of our lives,

it is constantly stirring us up. But how do we

stir one another up?

You see?

Because all these words here, that all the imperatives here

are we see it as you, you, you, you, But

they're in the they're in the plural, and we're in Texas,

so it's okay to say this. But he's saying y'all,

He's saying, y'all. How do y'all? And how do we

How do we stir one another up by reminding one another,

by taking every opportunity to remind us of these gospel truths. Also,

this is another part welcoming these repetitive reminders, and sometimes

that comes with a little bit of accountability. We get

these reminders, and you know I might go, yeah.

Thank you.

I needed I needed to hear that I do need to.

Grow in that area.

Pray for me, help me, help me get through that.

These mutual stirrings, they keep us awake, They keep awake

the Gospel in our lives, in our in in this church.

Reminded serves to stir us. But it's also urgent because

time time is brief, and that time brings us to

tea tea. So we had stir and now we're at

tea for time, tea time. Peter has a proper perspective

of time. Look at verse thirteen and fourteen. I think

it right as long as I am in this body

to stir you up by way of reminder, since I

know that the putting off of my body will be soon.

Peter still thinks it's right to continue to remind them

because time is short. He repeats the word body here

and it's painting this picture of tent, okay, of tabernacle

of booth. And I know some of us might nerd

out over that round, oh all these old Testament reminders,

but we're going to keep it simple. Tent temporary tents temporary.

This will one day roll up. It's temporary. His duties

are almost complete, his watch is almost over. He's about

to hear well done, good and faithful servant, and he

won't stop reminding. He refuses to stop reminding them. Why

because time is short and we need reminders. Our tendency

must be toward making the best use.

Of the time we have.

I don't know about you, but I could use this

warning that's coming from Proverbs, because sometimes time gets the

best of me. It says, how long will you lie there,

oh sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A

little sleep, a little slumber?

I love this part.

A little folding of the hands as to rest, and

poverty will come upon you like a robber.

How do we lose our time?

Through small, repeated choices, little by little.

And then all at once.

When we lose our time, it surprises us. We trick

ourselves into thinking that we have more time than we

actually do. We need to know that time is short,

and that should motivate us to remind others and to

stir others up. Because the time it's urgent. How do

we fight against this? We'll call it spiritual laziness. How

do we fight against that? Paul tells us that look

carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise

making the best use of the time. Because the days

are evil, this world is evil. It will do everything

it can to distract you and to take that time

from you. What's making the best use of the time?

In Peter's perspective, what does that look like? Looks like

reminding one another, reminding one another of these gospel truths.

Don't fall into the traps of thinking that you have

more time than you actually do. Don't postpone these gospel actions.

If you're considering talking to that person, talk to that

person while you still have time. Pray for that person.

It can't wait diligently pursue opportunities to remind others of

these basic truths. We need reminders, and time rarely sobers

us until we realize how little we have. So how

should we use the remainder of our time by pointing

believers back to the precious promises that we have in

Christ and encourage them as you see them growing in Christ,

growing in this grace, and then pleading with others who

may be uncertain about who they are in Christ plead

with them. I know that uncertainty. I've lived in that uncertainty.

So if that is you, I need you to hear this.

Time it's short.

It is so short.

There is no more urgent, pressing need in your life

than this. Stop wasting your time, stop putting it off.

Turn to him, Turn to him that the gospel, it

was planned before time began. But with people like you

in mind, it means he loved you far soon than

you were ever even capable of loving him. The Father

planned it in love. He sent his son to take

on human form, live the life that we could not live,

bore the wrath that we could not we couldn't.

Even understand, bearing that.

He who knew no sin became sin, so that when

the Father looked to the son on the cross, he

saw my wreck of a life. And when he turned

to look at me, he saw his righteousness. You can

have that now too. Time is short, and the Holy

Spirit today, the Holy Spirit applies it awakening dead hearts

to enable us to trust in him. Trust him now.

And here's the deal. Even mature believers, we need to

hear the God Gospel. There's something about it. As we

hear it, we experience some of our own sins and convictions.

But then we rejoice as we're reminded of the remedy.

We rejoice in him. So reminding is urgent because time

is short. But even shepherds are temporary. Peter's reminding us,

but it's imminent his departure. It's imminent, which brings us

to our next point.

I so st I I.

Is imminent departure. Peter announces this imminent departure in verse fourteen,

since I know that the putting off of my body

will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear

to me. See, Peter knows that it's imminent, just Jesus

foretold it in John chapter twenty one. He's in prisons,

he's under persecution of Nero. His reminders here are are

meant to remind and to guard believers against false teachers

and scoffers that are coming in light of his departure.

Churches in this region are experienced a great deal of

tension and persecution, challenges. He knows the struggles, and he

knows the drift that comes with those struggles, the doubt,

the listening that the listening to these voices and these

false teachers. As he describes these false teachers, he's saying

that they are destructive, they're dangerous, they're deceptive. They're deceptive

because they're using God's word and they're twisting it, and

they're preaching a gospel of grace without transformation. This is

this is a grace of Oh, I've been am I saved,

but I don't I don't have to live that way.

And I think that's one of the reasons why he

lays out first what a Christian actually looks like. This

is not a stagnant faith. It's all these qualities that

you and me and we all should be reminding one another, like, hey,

we're growing in these things. I see that in you,

and it helps us when we see those that lack

those qualities, you will know them by their fruit. So

they're twisting God's word for their own self gain. Peter

announces that this imminent departure and their need to place

their hope in something beyond him, in Jesus, in the

truths of these gospels, of this gospel that he is

now preaching to them. So how do we keep our faith?

As leaders go we urgently remind one another of Christ

and his grace and the sustaining grace and this transforming grace.

Over the years, we've lost a lot of good, faithful pastors.

You may have a few of them on your mind.

I will name one, Arci Sproull.

And it's a.

Common question that I think comes up during this time.

And I don't know if it's because of curiosity or

it's because of doubt, but I hear.

Who will replace them?

How do you restore the hope of someone that has

such doubts by doing the same thing that those faithful

pastors were doing, constantly reminding us and pointing us to

these gospel truths. We remind them of the hope, we

remind them of disgrace. But faithful and effective leaders are also.

They also have this.

Imminent departure perspective which motivates them to invest in the future,

to invest in the next generation.

Peter's no exception.

We can learn a lot about his leadership in light

of this imminent departure perspective. He invests in people. He

taught them to remain stable by reminding one another of

these truths. He discipled John Mark, who penned the Gospel

of Mark. He invested in discipling network of churches and

across Asia Minor, and he pastored those in Jerusalem. He

invested in people because his departure was imminent. His departure

didn't motivate him to get his affairs in order, No,

it drove him more and more into this. I need

to create these discipleship opportunities. I need to obey and

courage others to remind them of these gospel truths. So

as we keep our own imminent departure in mind, what

does that look like? We need these reminders to motivate

us to disciple those who are coming next. We need

to remember it doesn't end with us, Thank God, it

doesn't end with us. Invest in those young in the faith.

Look right now, our culture is changing the opportunities for discipleship.

They're rich, this new generation, they're hungry. They are coming

into the churches and they are looking for answers. This

age of deconstructionism that used to scare us, that is

fading away into the background, and this new generation is

coming in and looking for truths. It's gonna be messy,

it will could be scary. The discipleship is messy. Who's

going to remind them who's going to have these conversations

with them, who's going to be pointing them to these

gospel truths.

As a church. As a church, we're.

Called to this communal faithfulness, and Peter's eminent departure reminds

us that we need to continue. We need to continue

fostering this culture of discipleship, of building up the next leaders,

of educating new and raising up new elders, training volunteers,

training new small group leaders, enabling, equipping and training church planners.

When we do this, they're also able to minister to

this new generation. There is this new culture that's coming

in and looking for these truths. Peter's departure was imminent,

but he's planning for a reminder that's permanent that brings

us to our It's the last one recall he wants

us to recall. He wants these truths etched in our minds,

burning into our memories so that we never forget. Look

at verse fifteen, and I will make every effort so

that after my departure, you may be able at any

time to recall these things. If Peter's not winding down,

he's ramping it up with departure that's imminent. He doubles

down on this diligence, striving to ensure that these gospel

truths remain. He wants this etched and embedded in them.

He knows false teachers are on the rise, He knows

the scoffers are coming. He knows that the trials will intensify,

that leaders will fall.

So he labors. He labors with this.

Recallable anchor, truths that we can recall and count on

at any time, amid doubt, amid persecution, amid the busyness,

amid deception. Even when apostles are gone, the word abides forever.

It's this word that stirs us up. It's still reminding

us today, in twenty twenty almost six, still reminding us.

So Peter's own life shows us that the danger of

spiritual forgetfulness. But then also this power, a free call.

He once swore, undenyingly this loyalty, yet denied Christ three times.

The question of a servant girl.

It's that crushing moment that the Lord turned and looked

at Peter, and he remembered the words that Jesus spoke,

and he went away weeping bitterly. But restoration came through

Jesus recalling these same gospel truths of you need me,

you're restored. Now feed them. And now he's facing his end,

and he's continuing to feed us. Look these the things

that we value most. I think that they are on

our minds quite a bit. We recall them, we talk

about them. I find myself talking a lot about barbecue.

We live by them. Peter refuses to let these gospel

truths fade in the background. He's not okay with them

hearing it one time, He's not okay with them hearing

it two times, He's not okay with hearing it three times.

Every effort, every opportunity, he is reminding them and stirring

them up in these reminders. We need to make it

a necessity. We need to make it a necessity to

return to these gospel truths, return to them again and

again and again. We never outgrow or out mature our

need for reminding. So let's continue reminding one another. But

with this in view, one day, one day, all these

reminders will come to their perfect completion.

We won't have.

To say remember or know the Lord. Imagine that a

day without apologetics, we won't need it. Faith will be sight.

We will see the Lord, we will be with the Lord.

He will be with us. Know the Lord, we'll.

See him face to face. No more sin, no more doubting,

no more wandering. Until then, continue stirring.

One another up.

Now, as the band makes their their way up to

the platform, we're gonna participate in stirring one another up

and singing one of my favorite songs. Come thou found.

We are so prone to wander. We need these reminders.

Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it. Seal it

for thy courts above. We are so prone to wander.

Let's continue remind one another. Let us pray, Lord, God,

Heavenly Father, we are so needy. We are so needy

of the grace that saved us, the grace that transforms us,

and the grace that sustains us. Lord, we need you.

We thank you for your word. We thank you for

the saints that continue to stir us up as you

work in them and as you work in us, that

we might stir them up. Let us create a community

that stirs one another up and never gets tired of

these old truths that make us new. In your Son's name,

we pray Jesus Christ.

Amen,