2 Peter 1:3-11

Well, else, it is my joy to be able to

be here with you this morning. If you have a

copy of Guy's word, go ahead and turn to Second

Peter chapter one. If you're with us today from Providence

and you've traveled all the way here, you know we've

been in First Thessalonians. Sorry, we'll be back in First

Thessalonians next week, but for today, we're going to be

in Second Peter chapter one. We're going to pick it

up in verse three in just a second. As as

we've been saying, it's it's been. There's been loads of

things that this last season has been. It's just been

kind of crazy time. I realized after we kind of

got started, got launched all of a sudden, I'm the

only guy because I'm the only on site pastor there

right because we have two provisional elders and pastor Treeps

and Pastor Josh. But I'm the only on site pastor.

Therefore I'm the only one doing Step three interviews, meaning

step one, step two. Step Step three is the means

buck which you become a members the It's the conversation

over which you become a member of Providence at Crosswroay.

Before that and then Providence now and so all of

a sudden, like every everybody from the core group. I

even had a Step three membership conversation with my wife

that was fun. It's like, you're not automatically, no, you

have to It's the same as for everybody, and so

these were fun. These were really cool conversations. And that

there are people that I've known for a lot of years.

Sometimes I've worked with and ministry together for a long time.

But I get to hear the story of how they

came to faith in Jesus. That's a cool story. I

mean I've heard, like you know, echoes of it, little

pieces here and there, but to hear the story from

beginning to end, this is who I was, this is

what Christ did, and then this is how I can

see evidence of fruit and work in that Christ is

doing in my life. It is overwhelmingly fun. It is

way joyful. But so many of these stories are there's

some similar patterns to it. You may have heard or

even resonate with some of these, and some people will say,

like I grew up in the church, or I grew

up in a church, and I grew up and maybe

in some contexts I grew up in a Catholic context,

and I did the things. I went to the classes,

I read the books. Maybe I did the confirmation thing,

and then I went into that got the sprinkle thing,

and I did all of the things. I checked all

of the boxes. And yet at some point there was

a shift because I recognized that I was leaning on

those things and checking and just sort of repeating after them,

and it wasn't mine, it wasn't actually my faith. And

so what changed in my life when I found and

met Jesus was I recognized that it's actually about a

relationship with him and not necessarily about doing all of

the things and knowing all of the right answers. There's

probably people in the room today for for whom that

is true, know all the right answers. Like if we

were doing Bible trivia pursuit, you might win the game,

like legitimately. But I just want to I want to

encourage you, both from this text and from in fact

the entirety of Scripture to say that, like knowledge about

God is not sufficient. We think that we are safe

enough if we sort of have a trivial understanding about

the facts about God, and that knowledge is sufficient to

sort of make us safe. The difference is always in

the area of the heart, and that's it. So often

having work in kids ministry and in student ministry now

and continuing your pastor over these years. The difference is

what is your heart's response to the Word and to

the truth of God. How do you respond when God

calls you to walk in His ways? Some many of

our church, they've learned to do the things, but then

they met Jesus, then they found Christ, and that Jesus

changes everything. Recognizing what grace truly has done, what has

truly accomplished in your life, that actually changes everything. What

I want to argue from this text today Second Peter

chapter one, really going to focus on verse five through

verse nine, but we're going to read three to eleven

is I want to show you from this text that

those who truly know Christ's grace bear his nature and

thus bear his fruit. Those who truly know Christ's grace

bear his nature and thus bear his fruit. Let's look

together at tewod Peter chapter one. Starting in verse three,

I'm going to read through eleven, focus in on five

to nine, reading from the English Standard version. If you

want to follow along the word the Lord says, his

divine power has granted to us all things that pertain

to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who

has called us to his own glory and excellence, by

which he has granted to us his precious and very

great promises, so that through them you may become partakers

of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that

is in the world because of sinful desire. For this

very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue,

and virtue with knowledge and knowledge, with self control and

self control, with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness,

with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if

these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you

from becoming ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our

Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so

near sighted that he's blind, having forgotten that he was

cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the

more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if

you practice these qualities, you will never fall, for in

this way they will be richly provided for you an

entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior,

Jesus Christ, fors and sisters. This is the living, an

active word of the living God. If you know Christ's grace,

you bear his nature and you bear his fruit. What

I want to argue again from this text three primary

ways in which grace, the grace that we received, the

grace of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, motivates us. The

first one, what does grace motivate The first thing in

this passage in verse five through verse seven, is that

grace motivates supplements, supplements in terms of like it supplementing

our faith. He says it very clearly in verse five.

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith.

Grace motivates supplements, the presence of the divine nature in you,

which he talks about in verse three, four and five,

the presence of His nature in you that saved you

from sins. Corruption motivates effort towards Christ's likeness. Grace motivates obedience.

We come to know of this grace as we receive

and hear the Word of Christ, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Faith comes from hearing, hearing from the Word of Christ.

And what Peter says, is here we received. He is

granted to us these precious and very great promises of

God in the Gospel, through which we escape from sins corruption,

and we become partakers in verse four of the divine nature.

We could spend all time there partakers of the divine

nature that Grace otherwise known and tecond Peter as what

he calls us the knowledge of God, the knowledge of

our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, is a theme throughout

two Peter. That Gospel is what Peter is pointing to

when he says, for this very reason, this reason Grace

has come to you, and what he says in verse three,

his divine power is granted to us everything that we

need for life and godliness. Because of that, He's given

us everything precious and very gay promises given us even

to him for takers of the divine nature. For this

very reason, act Grace motivates us to make every effort

to be fruitful in the knowledge of Jesus. Make every

effort to add to and to grow in your current

practice towards God in relation. And he's got a list here,

there's a list. We see several lists of this type

in the New Testament. None of them are intended to

be exhaustive conversation right after. I think the point is

more about where they come from and what kinds of

things God's grace and God's character in you motivates, rather

than them being an exhaustive list. But let's look at

these in relation to faith and virtue, knowledge and self

control and steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. God has

granted to you now all things pretending to life and godliness,

given you his precious and very great promises, granted that

you may become a partaker of His divine nature, and

saved you from sins, corruption, the corruption that is in

the world because of sinful desire. Therefore, make every effort

to supplement, Make every effort to supplement. Some of us

are already really, really squeamish about this. Make every effort

and supplement. Let's walk through these together. First, when he

talks about his faith, and it heads the list because

it's the beginning of the journey. Faith is the means

by which we come into the family of God. Faith

is the means by which we are saved by God's

grace through faith. That's the means by which we are saved.

Faith is the first step in relating to God through Christ.

Everything that we gain in Christ we gain through faith

by faith, by growing in faith in Him. We are

saved by God's grace through faith alone. We'll be clear

on that, saved by grace through faith alone. And yet

the faith that saves is never alone. It's always an

effect to it. And so he says, as we continue on,

then make every effort to add to your faith virtue

or goodness or moral excellence. It's the same thing that

he says in verse three. He has called us by

his glory, the weightiness of his glory, and his excellence,

his goodness. It's the means, part of the means about

which he's called us in wooed us to see his

uncommon character. We're able to see his beauty in a

special kind of way because his call is effective. Then

I can be sure that he's going to bring it about.

Because when he brings it about and he affects it

in us in me, as one writer said, he creates

in in us this moral excellence that he demands. He

works in us by his word and his spirit to

actually affect this in our life. We can be confident

in the pursuit of God's goodness because he ensures its success.

I'm not confident in my capacity to grow. I'm confident

in His capacity to call and to cause me to grow.

And to that add knowledge. We've already talked a little

bit about knowledge, and Peter talks about knowledge. Is that

understanding of the grace of God revealed in Christ, that

affects righteousness, that affects change in your life. It's concept

repeated throughout second Peter. The pursuit of God is never

less than a pursuit of knowledge about him. So he's

more Faith and knowledge are not in competition, though, so

I am adding to my faith. Also, this knowledge is

understanding of who God is, so that I could better

serve him, so that I would grow in love for him.

Make every effort to supplement not just faith, but also knowledge.

They're not in competition. And to that, he says, self control.

Don't we love this. Didn't we just have a Thanksgiving meal?

Didn't we just have like maybe four Thanksgiving meals and

we're still got some leftovers? And self control is not

one of those things that we had in spades last week.

Let's be honest, We'll just walk through this together. Okay.

Self control is not just a New Testament concept, and

it's not just about gluttoning. It's about it actually goes

all the way through the Old Testament as well. Proverbs

chapter twenty five, twenty eight says, a man without self

controls like a city broken into and left without walls.

We need to grow in our capacity to control our

desires of all sorts. Right. Add to that again, he says, steadfastness.

Those who are steadfast don't crumple when it gets difficult.

They when the challenge comes, they don't. They don't fade away.

They're the ones who choose the best and the difficult

rather than the easy and the comfortable. It's one of

our coaches says. And to that stead fastness seeks to

add godliness. We'll spend some more time on this in

just a second. But add to that godliness. Godliness is

not something that's going to happen by accident. No one

is effortlessly godly. Right. Godliness doesn't grow on podcasts or

increase based on the number of Bibles or devotional books

that you have. Those things can be helpful, and they

can be wonderful, much like a treadmill. If you use them. Okay,

if you use it, then it can be very effective.

Otherwise it's just a very very expensive code rack or

a place where you keep your Christmas gifts. Not that

I wouldn't know anything about that. Paul tells Timothy to

actually train himself for godliness. Godliness in the Christian life

is not going to function like gravity. If I step

off of this platform, I will fall. I hope I

would try to jump. If I did that a few

feet to the ground. Gravity is necessarily going to pull

me down. In the Christian life, you're not going to

automatically grow in Christ's likeness or automatically grow in Godliness

just because you're around the people of God. You would

be more likely to do that. And God so often

uses the people of God to arrest us from the

ways in which our flesh would love to take us

outside of him. That's the grace of community, and it's

a beautiful thing. But make no mistake, you're not going

to automatically grow in Godliness as gravity functions for you.

That's actually more like I'm more likely to gravitate towards

an actual laziness. There's the reason that I need passages

like I need passages like this to pay attention to

the things that I'm likely to forget. Spiritual laziness draws

me like gravity draws me as the sparks fly upward.

I'm trying to look for the easy way, and he

calls me to more and to that. Then also add

brotherly affection. This has been a wonderful warning. Again, when

we're together as Providence, it's super sweet. And I see

so many face Providence faces around you, guys. I love it.

This is y'all. Just yea. I see you, I see you,

and I get to see so many others that I

have just missed. You know, part of the pain of

planting is that we just don't get to spend Sunday

mornings together. That's part of it. That's part of the

heart that we that we took on when we when

we went out and trusted the Lord to go plant

this church. But it's still good for us to regularly

see like it's right for us to hug, it's right

for us to give a holy fist bump, whatever, you know,

whatever's manliest for you. Right, it's right for us to

see each other and be excited when we and for

your face to light up. And it's not just not

just when I get to see you, guys, but you

see in each other, praying for each other, engaging each other,

loving each other, hugging each other's Next, what you're doing

to do so more and more is what Paul would

tell the Thessalonians. But lean in the way that we love

each other shows the world that we're Jesus's followers. And

then he says, even to that brotherly affection ad love,

which is when Writers said the apex of the Christian virtues,

the work of God in us is evident by the

way that we love. We love because He first loved us.

We love our even our enemies, we love our friends.

We love God, seek to love Him with our whole

heart and soul and mind and strength, and our neighbor

as ourself. It's what began with faith is now then

finds its fullness or its perfection in love, what Paul

calls the thing that binds everything together in perfect harmony

and Colosss chapter three. And so each of these things

their commands for us to then make every It's in

your book too. You can't get mad at me about this.

Look at verse five. For this very reason, you can

get mad if you want. Make every effort to supplement

and this is he's already talked about Grace, and he's

going to continue to talk about Grace. Grace motivates this

sort of supplementation. Make every effort to supplement these things

often in our context, and I did ask my wife

I could talk about this often in our context. Supplements

are those things that we add to our life because

we either wouldn't get them by the normal means, or

we're just trying to optimize in some way. Right, I

didn't realize this. I'm now in my forties, and I'm

realizing that apparently there comes a time in the life

of some ladies, most ladies that they have a full

time or a part time job just figuring out how

they can get all the protein that they need in

their life. Some of you know this, some of you

are not there yet, and some of you have already

passed that, and you can look back and you can say,

but all of you are going to be impacted by

this at some point. I actually don't know how you're

supposed to do it. I don't know how you can

have that much protein without eating meat. At every single meal,

and of course at our house we also drink it

in our coffee. And I didn't even know you could

do this. They make extra protein milk now to to

help you hit these particular goals. Why because there is

literally no way for a person to eat that much protein.

It can't be done, not without an effort at supplementing.

And this is my point. The whole point is like, oh,

not without an effort towards supplementing. I'm not going to

gravitate in a way that a moth moves towards a

light towards God. That's not how it works. I'm not

going to get there by accident. And just because here's

the other part of this, God is sovereign and providentially

in control, and he will bring me to the fullness

of Look, I'm going to look like Jesus one day,

and yet this passage commands me to be a part

of that. I don't get to just say, oh, well,

just sort of let go and let God. He'll make

me as holy as he feels like he needs me

to be. Make every effort to supplement your life towards

God and your fellow man with these things. Listen, again,

he says this in light of the fact that God

has already his power has already granted to you all

things that you need for life and godliness and the Gospel. Therefore,

for that reason, make every effort to pursue these things

in your life. Are there not stages as though, like

in a video game, you gotta complete stage one before

you can go to stage two. And you know, and

if you're playing one of those games where you're like,

I gotta get I gotta get all five stars. Only

got five stars three stars this time, that's not what

this is. Right, You can actually work on them all

at the same time. Some of you that hit with

and some of you it didn't. But the point is

that if you don't nurture or supplement or eat, or

actually make an effort towards these things, bringing every effort

to bear upon them, they're not going to accidentally increase.

And I know that some of you have a little

inner theologian inside you. It says, well, you know God

is going to bring this about in me. Yeah, that's true,

and it's true. And I want to be real clear

that effort is not what saves you, but crossway, it

is what saved people do the grace of God inside

you motivates you to change. Peter goes on in verse ten,

in fact, to say that his hearer should be all

the more diligent to confirm your calling an election. In

this effort, our calling and our election is going to

be confirmed, not earned, confirmed to be true by the

presence and the growth of these qualities. This passage is

not going to submit to a let go and let

God approach to spiritual life and growth. These imperatives flow

from the work of God revealed in Jesus Christ. You

saw a video up here at the beginning of kids.

Do you know how many of those were able to

stand still? Some of the gals, some of the ladies

were able to kids minister in stud minister for a

long time. Girls can sit still, but you cannot cause

a four or five year old boy to sit still.

They've just got this. There's just this energy in them.

Even if they're sitting still, they're just going to It's

just like this, right, I don't know, makes fun of

your particular kid, that's just the nature of being a kid.

There's an energy inside them that causes that sort of movement.

What I'm saying is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ

inside you causes this movement towards holiness and godliness and

christ likeness. If He is in you, then he bears

fruit through you. Since he has granted to us all

things pertaining to life and godliness and the Gospel, then

we're commanded to make every effort to put on the

character of the one who was put on the cross.

For us. Sanctification is not a lazy river or we're

just sort of carried along on the current towards Christ's likeness.

No matter our effort. We might as well just grab

a float and a drink and just sit back let

him do the work. Growth in Christ's likeness does not

happen by accident. It happens as the divine nature that

we share in through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, empowers

our effort in response to his grace. That is growth

in Christ's likeness. Grace motivates this work, and this work

is the very evidence that confirms that grace has taken hold.

That's why he says, make be all the more diligent

down in verse ten. And it's not our text to

confirm your calling and election and So I'll be honest.

If you're not a follower of Jesus and you are

here in this conversation, you might wonder why I get

so worked up about this. What's the big deal? It

seems like kind of a small thing. And I'll have

to say it seems like a tedious point make, but

it makes all the difference. Each of us are sinners

in need of salvation. I don't just need a leg up.

I don't just need to repeat after somebody. I need

Jesus to actually completely recreate me through the Gospel. I

cannot and I'm never going to be able to earn

that salvation. That's why Jesus came. He actually came to

earn the salvation that I could not on my behalf.

And so that's the only hope that I have is

trusting in Him and not trusting in myself, not trusting

in my own effort. But some of us, and we

all trend in this way, some of us have paid

mere lip service to that reality, sort of by stating

out loud that they believe in Jesus without having any

of that corroborating evidence in their life. And you can

fool me, You could fool your pastors. You can fool

your small group leaders, you can fool the people who

are closest to you. But that at the end of

the day doesn't matter, because you cannot fool God. He

knows why you do what you do. He knows what's

actually happening at a heart level. But there are people

who preach or teach a version of Christianity that they

just get mad at when you read verses about effort

because it upsets lazy faith. Make no mistake. When you

believe in Jesus, when you put your trust in him,

he truly does save you by his grace. And then

he goes to work on you. And when he does that,

he changes you. He loves you just as you are,

but he loves you too much to leave you there.

He wants to make you a new creation. And that

grace that he puts in you motivates this change, this

effort towards this direction. Grace, as I said, motivates supplements. Secondly,

I want you to see in verse eight, Grace motivates supplements.

Grace motivates Secondly, progress. Grace motivates progress. Primarily you see it.

In verse eight he says, these qualities, these particular qualities.

If they're yours and if they're increasing, that they're present

in you, and if they're abounding in you, they're going

to keep you from being ineffectual and unfruitful in the

knowledge of Jesus. This passage is not about primarily fixing

the first one before you move to the next one. Right.

What he says rather is that each of these qualities

should be yours and increasing. So he just asks those

two questions, ask those two questions of each of these qualities.

Is it yours? Are there evidences in my life of

self control of godliness of these the goodness of God

reflecting the character qualities of God, these things? Is it

in you? Do you have this one? Is it active?

Is it present in your life? And is it? Secondly,

is it increasing? Is it yours? And is it increasing?

That's his question? Are you growing in this quality of

Christ's likeness? So, when Peter's asking, what he's asking us

to do actually should be encouraging if the work of

Christ is if his work is actually working in it,

if the spirit of God is alive in us, then

you may ask somebody who's close to you, hey, can

you see evidences of God's grace in my life. Can

you see evidence of Godliness or evidence of self control,

or evidence you might be so encouraged because you usually

can't see those things. I don't usually sit down to

spiritual conversation saying yes, I'm definitely growing in Godliness. Right,

that seems like something I shouldn't say. In fact, it

might be evidence of its opposite. Right, but somebody else

might be able to see in you evidence is that

you wouldn't be able to see, and you can actually

see through their eyes the beauty and the wonder of

God's work in your life, and you can praise Him

and thank them for that too. Peter's hearers should not

be satisfied if one of these things, or one or

more of these things is not present or progressing in

their life. Why Because Peter assumes, and the last part

of verse eight, these things will keep you from being

ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Peter assumes and God does, that those God saves don't

want to be ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of

the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He's assuming that you

don't want to be ineffective or unfruitful. One of the

major themes in this book again is the true impact

of the true knowledge of God. Peter speaks of grace

and peace being multiplied to them through the knowledge of

the Lord of God and Jesus rest of our lolergency

right there in verse two, and he speaks of that

in the knowledge of God. And then at the end

of Second Peter. We'll read this here in a minute,

But at the end of Second Peter, he says in

chapter three, verse eighteen, grow in the grace and knowledge

of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Grow. Now you

couple that with the way that the false teachers. False

teachers also taught a version of a Christianish christianity Ish

type thing, but it was really only to serve their

own desires. They knew how to exploit others and to

Blaspheme to such an extreme that it would have been

better for those teachers had never even heard the Gospel

because of the judgment that they're going to now face,

because of how they treated it, and because of what

we know about God's coming Kingdom, the new heavens and

the new Earth, and which righteousness dwells, we are now

waiting for it. We're watching for it. In chapter three,

verse thirteen, we should be diligent to be found in

Him without splot or blemish, and be at peace. Chapter three,

verse fourteen he assumes and thus commands in the Holy

Spirit that we progress in the knowledge of God, because

true grace motivates progress. There are essentially two different kinds

of students. Most of the time we're shades of them.

I've been both of them in my life. One of

the students is the person is the one who gets

the syllabus on the first day of class and says, ah,

get I get five tartis, I get three skips, and

I have two unexcused absences? When am I going to

schedule those? Right? It says you can read five books

and you can get an A. You could read two

books and you can get a B. Two Am I

going to read? Right? Whatever? Whatever the lowest lowest comment

in dominator right, just gonna do whatever I gotta do

to get by right. I've been that student. I've also

been the student who picks up the syllabus on the

first day and is like, this is amazing. I'm not

gonna miss a second of this. Right, I'm not gonna.

I'm gonna I'm gonna get a study group together to

make sure that we can nail all these things down.

I'm gonna help. We're gonna all learn this together. This

is this is Why would I miss Why would I

miss a class? Why would I be five minutes late? Why?

You know? And before we start making fun of the

students in our life, because again I've been both at

two different institutions, So I've been both. Depending on the

level of your your interest in the in the subject

is really what will make the difference in a lot

of ways. But we have people who are like that

in relation to Christianity as well. Right, I didn't say

that so we can make fun of students. There are

there are people that would be disciples and disciple makers

in the churches that are very very similar to this.

There are those who are there all the time to

turn on the lights. They're going to be the last

people out of the parking lot. They show up to

do everything, and not only that, they even create things

in their free time to do things with other Christians

to help them to grow up as Christians. Can you imagine?

And then there are those who are on the outskirts

who just kind of look at them like, yeah, I mean,

they're really trying too hard because church isn't really their hobby,

but they're happy for it to be yours. No, to

be fair, most of us are somewhere in between. Those

extremes are often exemplified, but rarely completely matched. True grace,

true knowledge of God in Christ, motivates us to be

effective and fruitful. Too many of us, Too many of

us believe that we've already done everything we were supposed

to do. I'm saved, so I'm safe, and that's sufficient.

I've already done it. Too many of us subscribed sort

of a maximize my skips mentality in pursuit of God.

Haven't I already done enough to pass into eternity? Why

would I keep going to church every single week? Is

that necessary? Why would I join a church, let alone

get into a small group or serve on a ministry team.

That's all unnecessary. I don't have to because salvation. Salvation

is by faith. Too many professing Christians further asked am

I being entertained? Rather than asking am I being effective?

In the light of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Too

many professing Christians those who profess with their mouth are

in serious danger of getting to the end and seeing

Jesus on his judgment seat and saying to him, Lord Lord,

and him turning to them and saying, I never knew you.

Depart from me. Why because right before that Jesus said,

not everyone who says to me, Lord Lord will of

the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the

will of my Father, who in heaven. You may know

a lot about him, but not really having a desire

to know him, and so you might not Grace. True

grace affects diligence and drives those that God transforms with

a sort of energy towards fruitfulness and effectiveness. In the

knowledge of Jesus Christ, grace motivates progress. Grace motivates supplements.

Grace motivates progress. Lastly, and verse nine, grace motivates memory. Memory.

Grace motivates memory because when we see, he says in

verse nine, whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that

he's blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his

former sins. It's easy to forget when we see forgiveness

in our proper perspective, we are motivated to make fruitful

progress and light of Christ's cleansing work. A person who

realizes and remembers what they've been cleansed from is motivated

to make fruitful progress in this life. I remembered, when

you remember what you've been cleansed from, you remember the

cost of that cleansing, and the one who went before

you into the waters of baptism, where you left your

life of sin and death behind and took hold of

him by faith, saying I want eternal life. And if

you forget, forget that, if we forget, as he says

in verse nine, and become blind, even near sighted, reliable

to fall into an understanding of grace, that cheapens it

to the point of what even diet Bonharper called cheap grace.

I think very little about the effort that grace motivates

because they're never really wrapped around the axle about their

sin in the first place. Cheap grace, Bonhoffer wrote in

his book on Discipleship justifies sin but doesn't justify the sinner,

rather than an actual movement of God to overcome and

make for vision for action rual sin. One of those

conversations that I have every time Are you a follower

of Jesus? What has he saved you from? What did

he forgive you? Of friends? The only way living in

this version of cheap grace makes sense is if we

forget about the eternally damning fact of our real sin

that was actually cleansed by the blood of God's perfect sacrifice,

Jesus Christ. Do you remember what you turned away from

when you turned to Jesus? Do you remember what he

cleansed you of when you got into that water of baptism?

Do you remember what was washed away? That symbol was

washing away in that moment? Can you remember that? Because

when you remember that, grace becomes anything but cheap. When

the real grace that we've received is costly, We're not

going to cease to pursue these things with all diligence

because of the one who called us by his own

glory and goodness excellence. Keeping what we've been forgiven from

in the frame in the way that we think about

our life motivates us to pursue these qualities. We don't

ever want to think back, or pursue or even share

the story about our life before Jesus Christ, as though

that was somehow the good old days. I have an

honest question each of us need to answer, especially those

who would call themselves Christians. What sins did Christ cleanse

you from when you came to him in faith? What

were you aware of that made you aware of your

need for Him? Do you remember? And if you can remember,

no matter how far along you are in this journey,

can you think for just a second where you would

be if Christ had not saved you by his grace,

if He had not arrested you by his mercy in

that moment and shared with you a different path, a

path towards the two, a life at path towards eternal peace.

Where would you be if Christ had not arrested your

slide into sexual immorality? Where would you be if He

hadn't arrested you from your lack of self control? Would

be your life if you had continued down the path

of anger or hatred or revenge or unforgiveness? And are

you in danger of forgetting that? What is God worthy

of for doing that work in your life? What does

he deserve? It's not a question of Okay, I've now

got to do all these things to gain No, He's

done it. He has given us everything we need for

life and godliness and the knowledge of our Lord and savior,

Jesus Christ. He has extended that to you, offered forgiveness,

and if you have received it by faith, that's done.

But then, in light of that, what does he now

deserve in light of what He's done for me? You,

disciple makers, this week, you're having conversations with people who

are not thinking a whole lot or a lot of

clarity at about their sin. They're not making a lot

of diligent effort at fruitful progress. Walk back with them

to the moment of their salvation. Ask them, do you

remember what you were saved from? Do you remember what

Christ did? Do you remember what you were cleansed, what

you've actually been forgiven? Of where you would be if

it were not for that. Don't let them be so

near sighted that they become blind to what He's done

and to what he deserves because of it. Grace motivates

the memory of what we've been cleansed from, which motivates

for the fruitful progress in it. I've been arguing this

whole time from this text, Christ in you brings about

his fruitfulness, essentially to those who know Christ's grace not

only do they bear His nature, but they bear His

fruit unless something is critically wrong, and it could be

I can't see your heart. I can't see in I

can't actually see what's happening in there, only the Holy Spirit. God.

You don't know your heart as well as even you

think you do, but God does. I don't want you

to walk around or to continue to walk around considering

yourself to be a Christian when you may not be.

I hope that God would clarify that for you in

this moment. And so one response from this passage is

to say, I don't know that that kind of grace

has actually gotten hold of my heart. And then in

that case, I have a savior to introduce you to.

His name is Jesus. I recognize also that there are

there is in my heart and in each of our hearts,

a slide towards a spiritual minimalism, a slide towards a

lowest common denominator kind of just doing the minimum. I've

labeled it spiritual laziness. And this passage I think that

part of the reason that He speaks so clearly about

this is to shock us in that way. If you

recognize that's you I have good news. The same God

who saved you from sin and death can save you

from your flesh's laziness right now. You can, right now,

in and through this. And here's the beauty of the

Christian walk. If God commands it, he's going to fulfill

it in you by the power of the Holy Spirit.

If he says, then then make every effort to supplement

faith with virtue in all of these things. You say, well,

that's just a whole lot. It is. It's going to

take you your whole life. But you can trust that

He will do it because this is his word. I

trust this more than any other thing in my life.

You can take him at his word if you have

a bent towards that. If you're there right now, if

you're feeling the bent towards that, know that the same

grace that saved you can continue to sanctify you. But

not if you keep playing the game. And I just

urge you, please don't keep playing the game. That's possible

just because there's no major sin issues in your life

that would get you on the news or break up

your marriage or cause your friends to stop talking to you,

that you're just not all that motivated by Jesus. But

I encourage you take hold of the grace that is

yours in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And know also

that I've prayed for you. Know also that your pastors

your crossway pray for you. Know that there are those

who don't even know you who are praying that God's wonderful,

marvelous grace would get hold of your heart in such

a way that it would make sense to make every

effort to grow in fruitful obedience to him. Today is

the day for that change to happen. Let us prepare

to make every effort to see that it does. Let's

pray together. Father, you are good to us. Your loving

kindness towards us is evident in countless ways. But the

presence of your word and your spirit in this place,

at this moment is also grace. You let us here again,

You call us to yourself again. You remind us of

your forgiveness and your mercy and your love again. And

You've provided for us everything that we need in the

knowledge of Jesus Christ. We're going to face anything in

this life that somehow we're going to be unsupplied. You provide.

So from wherever we are to the place that you

want to bring us Right now, the path is Jesus.

The way forward is your grace, your spirit working through

your word in this moment in our hearts, let us

trust you with it. Give us grace and courage to

make every effort, and Jesus name Amen,