Grow In Perseverance

If you have your Bible, would you open it to 2 Peter chapter 3?

2 Peter 3 · chapter mention

2 Peter chapter 3.

2 Peter 3 · chapter mention

We have previously covered verses 1 and 2 from this chapter.

And today we're going to cover verses 3 through 10, but I want to go back and begin with verse number 1 and show you the continuity, how it all weaves together here.

2 Peter chapter 3 says, This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, and both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first, that there shall come in the last day scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?

2 Peter 3 · chapter mention

For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation, for this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water, perished.

But the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come, as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

Let's pray.

Dear Lord, it is our privilege to be able to hear your voice from your word, to come into your presence in this church, and to be indwelt by your Holy Spirit.

Lord, we realize that we have every resource today that we need to worship you well.

All that requires is our participation.

So, Lord, I pray that we would be eager participants today, not just placeholders, not just biding our time till we get to the next thing that we want to do, but that right now, in this moment, we would intentionally seek to meet with you, to worship you, to adore you, to learn more about you.

Father, we understand that keeping our eyes on you is what will help us to finish the race strong.

And all along the course, there are distractions that want to divert our eyes to lesser things.

God help us to focus on you this morning and to keep that focus on you the following days.

I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

As Peter is concluding this letter, which by the way, he knows is going to be his last word, because he is in a prison in Rome and he is awaiting his execution.

And so as he is writing this letter, he writes it with the burden of a man who knows this is the last word he gets to speak to these people.

He is like Moses of old, really, if you think about the book of Deuteronomy.

The book of Deuteronomy means second law because Moses actually repeats what he said in Exodus and Leviticus.

It's not because he's gotten old and senile and forgotten.

It is because he's speaking to a new generation of Israelites, a generation who is about to face the enemies that occupy the land.

And Moses also knows that he is about to die.

He is not going to get to lead them into the promised land, but he wants them to persevere in faithfulness, to conquer that land, to inherit the promises, to live life in the promised land as God has designed it.

And Peter here wants us to persevere in faithfulness long after he is dead and gone.

As a matter of fact, he expressed that in chapter 1, verses 13 through 15, when he says, Yay, I think it's right.

As long as I am in this tabernacle, in this body, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance, knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me.

Moreover, I will endeavor that you may be able, after my deceased, to have these things always in remembrance.

You see the heart of Peter there, that's the burden with which he is writing.

He's not just trying to stir them up in the moment.

He is wanting to leave them with something that will keep them going long after he has gone off the scene.

Because Peter knows that there will be detractors.

He knows that there will be those who come in opposition and try to place obstacles in the lives of those who follow Christ.

He knows that there will be deterrence, that following Jesus doesn't mean that the road always rises up to meet you and that it's always blue skies.

He knows that there will be discouragements, that human nature can only endure so many of these things without getting discouraged.

He knows that all of that is to come for those who attempt to follow Christ in this world.

So as he pins the last sentences of this letter, he writes about the obstacles they will encounter that could make them want to give up and quit.

He has been encouraging them in their growth up to this point.

And as he gets here in these closing lines, he wants to alert them that there's some things you're going to face that can make you want to give up and quit.

But before we move into that admonition, I want us to understand to whom it's actually addressed.

We're going to get into those things that want to make us quit and how we can persevere through.

But first, let me point out to you whom this is addressed to.

We are told in verse 1 and verse 8 with this little term beloved.

Or if you grew up like I did, beloved, either is acceptable.

It's more than a term of endearment, it's a term of identification.

He's not just saying something to them to be sweet and to be cordial.

That little term beloved is actually an identification.

I would point out to you that the first time, the first nine times that the word, the term beloved, is used in the New Testament, it is used in reference to Jesus Christ as God's, you say the next word, beloved Son.

That's how that word's introduced to us in the Bible, in the Greek.

The first nine times, it is only used for Jesus.

Jesus is God's beloved Son.

Consider the weight of that term in light of its usage in reference to Christ.

Let me ask you, do you have any doubt about the Father's love for the Son?

No doubts.

There's no doubt about that.

I know He loves the Son.

He expressed that.

It is evident.

I have no doubts that when the Father calls the Son beloved, that He loves him.

Do you think that there are any limits to the Father's love for the Son?

No.

When He calls Him His beloved Son, we understand that there's no limit to the love that the Father has for the Son.

I say this because it's important for you and I to get it fixed in our mind, because after the Gospels, the term beloved is only used in reference to believers in Christ.

After the Gospels, the term beloved is only used in reference to believers in Christ, like you and I.

For example, Peter himself told us who he was addressing with that term beloved.

He says there, chapter 3, verse 1, this second epistle I write unto you, beloved.

Well, who's he writing to?

You go back to chapter 1, verse 1, and he says, to them who have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ.

So who does Peter have in mind when he says beloved?

Is he speaking to the whole world?

No.

He's speaking to a specific group of people.

Those people who have obtained like precious faith with him in Christ.

That's who he's talking to.

And so this term beloved that is using is specifically towards believers.

And so you might sit there and think, sure, we're called beloved, but Justin, are you really insinuating that God loves us the same as he loves Jesus?

And I would say to you, no, I'm not insinuating that.

I'm declaring it.

It's not an insinuation.

I'm not proposing to you that God loves you as much as he loves Jesus.

I am telling you, if you are in Christ, he loves you as much as he loves Christ.

How can I declare that with confidence?

How can I declare that with authority?

I can do that because of what Jesus Himself said in John 17.

In John 17, Jesus is praying to the Father on behalf of his disciples and us the night before he is crucified.

And he says, Neither pray I for these alone, speaking about the twelve who are with him, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.

So let me ask you, have you believed on Jesus through their word?

Then John 17, Jesus is praying for you, not just for those disciples, he's praying for us who will believe through their word.

What is he praying for us?

That they all may be one as you, Father, are in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.

And the glory which you gave to me, I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one.

I in them, you in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent me.

Now listen to this last line that Jesus prays.

That the world may know that you have sent me, and you have loved them as you have loved me.

Those are from the lips of Jesus.

Jesus is saying that God the Father loves every believer just as much as God the Father loves him.

It's hard for me to wrap my head around because Jesus is Jesus.

Jesus is God.

Jesus is perfect.

Jesus always did what the Father wanted.

Jesus sacrificed his life for the Father.

And we find that in, at least in my own life, I'm not as obedient as Jesus.

I'm not as sacrificial as Jesus.

I'm not holy as Jesus.

How could God love me like he loves Jesus?

And it is because his love is an agape love.

It is not a love based on my performance or your performance.

It is a love based upon his character and his nature.

And so, according to these verses, the Father loves those who are in Christ just as he loves his own son.

That's foundational to our text in 2 Peter.

Because it is the assurance of God's love that will help us to persevere in the face of detractors, difficulties, and discouragement.

You say, what is it that's going to get me through the tough times?

What is it that's going to help me to overcome the opposition?

What is it going to help me to push through the challenges that I'm going to face when I follow Christ?

And I am telling you, it is the assurance of God's love.

Paul said, but the love of Christ constrains me.

That's a powerful word that is saying that it is the love of God that motivated him to do what he did to keep him going in the face of those impossibilities.

Let me dig this well a little bit deeper.

Let me dig this well a little bit deeper to get you through the droughts that you're going to find in life.

I'd like to dig it a little bit deeper with Romans chapter 8, verses 35 through 39.

Romans 8:35–39

Talking about the love of God for you.

It says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

And then it gives us some possibilities.

Shall tribulation?

Shall tribulation separate you from the love of Christ?

Or distress?

Or persecution?

Or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

For I am persuaded, Paul writes, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depths, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Man, that's a strong assurance, is it not?

I mean, it's like God really wants us to know how much He loves us.

However, I would point out to you that in that text of Scripture, we find juxtaposed or set side by side the love of God and the tribulation of the saints.

You find it both there, do you not?

We're talking about the love of God.

What can separate us from the love of God?

Tribulation, peril, persecution, principalities.

It is talking both about the love of God and the tribulation of the saints.

This is important because we need to know that the love of God does not prevent us from experiencing difficulties.

It doesn't prevent us.

But it will preserve us through them.

Because what's going to happen is you're going to hit the hard times and you're going to question, does God love me?

Why would God allow this to happen to me?

I mean, if he loves me, why would he allow XYZ to come into my life?

And so the Bible is teaching us that the love of God doesn't prevent us from going through difficulties.

But the love of God will preserve us through the difficulties.

With that in mind, as part of the full scope of scripture that Peter encourages to have in verses 1 and 2, let's come back to our text and see what Peter is saying about the beloved in Christ.

Now that we know who he's writing to, he's writing to the beloved in Christ.

He's writing to you.

If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you're beloved by God.

You're so loved, you couldn't be less loved.

You couldn't be more loved.

You have the full, perfect love of God.

On your best day and on your worst day, you are loved with an unconditional love.

But notice that there are two areas of awareness that Peter wants the beloved to keep in mind in order to persevere to the end.

Two things you need to know is what he's saying.

As a matter of fact, he says it this way.

They're indicated in the opening phrases of verse 3 and verse 8.

Verse 3, knowing this first, right?

He wants us to know something.

And then verse 8, he says, but beloved, don't be ignorant of this.

So I'd say those are two things that we need to know.

We know this first, don't be ignorant of this.

Me as a beloved one of God in Christ who is going to face difficulties and wants to persevere to the end, I need to know these two things.

I need to be aware of these two areas.

Number one, we need to know that scoffers will come.

Knowing this first, that there shall be scoffers.

A scoffer is a mocker, a critic, a skeptic who mocks and makes fun of Christianity, its beliefs and its values.

The world is full of scoffers.

They are vocal in their critique and in their detraction of all things Christ.

Peter describes them as walking after their own lust.

In other words, they pursue what pleases themselves in their chosen lifestyle.

This is the lifestyle they've chosen, whatever it may be.

This is how I want to live my life.

Now, what is it that will please me in this chosen lifestyle?

That's what I'm going to pursue.

That's what I'm going to walk after.

That's who these scoffers are.

They're not walking after Christ, they're walking after what pleases them.

And since the way of Christ and the Word of God does not support their chosen way of life, they in turn attack it and they attack those who believe it.

Do you understand that you are a threat to their way of life if you believe that book?

And so they're going to attack you.

They're going to try to push you back.

They're trying to get you to back down off of what you believe about God and how you pursue Him.

The Apostle Jude also writes about the scoffers, and he describes them as being hedonistic.

Not heathenistic, hedonistic.

Hedonism means pursuing the pleasures of the senses.

There's doing what feels good, right?

We came up with that motto back in the late 60s, early 70s.

Do what feels good.

Well, the problem with doing what feels good isn't what pleases God.

What pleases me does not please the Lord.

Peter goes on to say that not only are they wanton, but they're willfully ignorant, he says.

Willfully ignorant.

They're willingly ignorant, he says of them in verse 5.

And you know I've observed that firsthand with people who reject Christianity in the Bible.

They are not nearly as open-minded as they claim to be, or as they want you to be.

Oh, you're just so narrow-minded, you Bible-believing Christians.

You're a product of your environment.

You just need to be open-minded that there are other avenues to God.

There are other ways to live life.

Let me tell you, they want you and I to lay aside every presupposition and conviction that we have about God and openly accept everything they present to us.

But may I say to you that they're not that open minded?

They don't read the Bible with an open mind that they could actually be wrong.

They don't read the Bible with an open mind that maybe they're wrong about what they believe and how they live their life.

I find that they quickly adopt.

Someone else's critique of the Bible and then they dismiss it.

They don't say read what the Bible says, they listen to what somebody else said in critique of the Bible, and they're like, yeah, that's right, and they can just dismiss it and file it away, without giving it an honest examination.

They imbibe the teachings of a professor, of an author, or of an influencer who holds a similar worldview to their own, essentially creating for themselves an echo chamber.

They get to college, they already have these preconceived ideas, and here's a professor who makes this critique, and they're like, yes, that's, I agree, that's right.

Never bothering to go back and to examine both sides of the argument.

They just readily accept that.

Or they read a book that was recommended to them and they like the way the author articulates their worldview for them, and they say, Oh, I'll take that.

Or in our day, it's some influencer that hops on in a hot minute with a video and tells you something that aligns with what you already believe.

And you're like, yep, that's it.

I believe it.

I saw it on TikTok.

They then dismiss and mock the Bible and those who believe in it.

They dismiss us as being ignorant, unintelligent, unenlightened.

There can't be an intelligent person who actually believes what the Bible says from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22?

I mean, do you believe that God created the earth in six literal 24-hour days?

Don't you know that it took billions of years for it to get here?

Do you really believe that there's only one way to God?

That every other religion is wrong and doomed to hell.

You're telling me that you believe your way is the only way.

I'm telling you, they write us off as ignorant and unintelligent and unenlightened, and they consider religion to be nothing more than a superstition.

I was watching a debate one time between uh two pretty well-known debaters, one's an atheist and one was a Bible believer, and the atheists said, Oh, you Christians, you're just you're just afraid of the dark.

And the Christians said, Oh, you atheists, you're just afraid of the light.

And I thought, what a beautiful way to say it.

If you want to talk about true enlightenment, God is the light of the world.

And only those who have had their eyes open to him are actually enlightened.

You don't have to set your brain outside your head to enter into a church and to worship God.

God says things like, Come now, let us reason together.

God says things like, Jesus says, What do you think about this and about that?

I'm telling you, the Bible will stand up to your scrutiny.

You, you, you will not find it deficient.

There's nothing wrong with coming to the Bible and asking for evidence and for facts.

Faith was never asked to be given blindly.

I know that sometimes we celebrate blind faith and we're just leaping out by blind faith, but you're really not.

That blind faith is predicated on what you know about God.

So you might be able to step into a situation blindly saying, I don't know what's going to happen, but your faith is because of what you know about God who is going to take care of you.

Romans 10 says, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God because of what you know about God from his word is what enables you to have faith.

And so I'm telling you, when you examine Scripture, you will find that it stands up to any test you want to put it to.

Peter makes a reference to the days of Noah here and the flood, about the earth being destroyed by water.

And that just immediately reminds us that that came in a time when the scoffers were the majority and the believers were a minority.

And it kind of sends the message to us, his readers, to say it's always going to be that way.

We're not being pessimistic, we're just taking it at face value.

Those who reject the true God have always been outnumbered those who accept the true God.

You look at Israel in the Old Testament.

It was divided into Jews, Gentiles.

You look at the New Testament church, they're persecuted, they're maligned, they're martyred.

Why?

Because they're the minority.

And so don't think that today we have somehow made Christianity so popular that we're going to be the majority.

I praise God for the places, the pockets where there is a number of Christians, but worldwide it'll never be the majority.

I must admit that I find a certain irony in this reference, though.

Because when you think about it, the flood is one of the most disputed portions in the entire Bible by unbelievers.

They scoff at that, don't they?

That's a good word for it.

Scoff.

You believe that there was a flood that covered this whole earth and destroyed it, and one guy built a boat and he survived and saved all the animals?

Again, you can do the calculations, and the average size of an animal is like a sheep.

And when you do the capacity of that boat given by its dimensions, it's more than enough to save every kind of animal.

You don't need every derivation, you just need the major kinds of the species.

And by the way, there's nothing that says that he took on fully mature animals.

All those big animals, like elephants, start out little animals.

And so, yeah, absolutely I believe that.

Because you can do the calculation, you can say there's room for him to do it.

But it's one of the most disputed passages in the Bible.

And that's the one that Peter points to, and he's saying basically, as it was then, so it is now.

They didn't think God was coming.

Now you don't think God is coming.

God came and judged them.

He's coming back this time to judge.

He is laying it down.

And what I find is that Peter offers them the hardest pill to swallow first.

I mean, think about it.

He's not making any concession.

He's not making any apology.

He's not even compromising.

He's not trying to ease the scoffers into a more friendly position towards Christianity, which is what I find modern Christianity tries to do.

We try to downplay the harsh stuff.

Well, we can't talk about hell.

We can't talk about sin.

We can't talk about people not coming to Christ.

We got to kind of downplay that.

Let's just talk about the love and the glory and the celebration and the acceptance and all those things.

And Peter's like, nu-uh.

Let me tell you something.

If you can't swallow this pill, you don't get to swallow any of the others.

Because if you can't believe all of the Bible, you can't believe any of the Bible.

You're going to tell me that you don't believe in Genesis 1 and 2, but you believe in John 3.16?

You cannot.

You don't believe in Genesis 6 flood, but you believe Romans 6.23.

I'm telling you, if you can't believe all the Bible, you can't believe any of the Bible.

But Peter is not writing to scoffers.

Peter is writing to the beloved who are going to be scoffed at.

And that's why he wanted us to know first that scoffers will come.

And in addition to that, he wants us to know that the Lord will come so that we can persevere through the scoffing.

Which brings us to the second area of awareness.

Number two, we need to know that the Lord will come.

Scoffers will come.

Yes, absolutely.

We'll never be free of them.

But know this: the Lord will come.

Peter actually tells us three things about the second coming of the Lord that'll help us persevere.

He said, How do I push through the scoffing, mocking crowd to make it faithfully till Jesus comes back?

How do I stay faithful all the way to there?

Well, know that the Lord is coming back, and know this the Lord doesn't keep time the same way that you keep time.

That's where he says, hey, a day is as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day with the Lord.

A thousand years seems like an extremely long time to you and I, but not to God.

That's because God's eternal.

He exists outside of time and space.

He had no beginning, he has no ending, but we all have a start date, and we all have an end date.

And because we have such a limited commodity of time, we calculate it differently.

Let me ask those of you who have lived through different economic stages in your own life.

Let me state it that way.

Does a dollar have a different value to you when you're making$50,000 a year as opposed to making$15,000 a year?

You're like, yeah, yeah.

I mean, I went from having$15,000 of those to having$50,000 of those.

And so I calculated differently.

Well, now imagine how billionaires like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk view a dollar differently than you do.

You think those guys view a dollar differently than you do?

Yes.

Now, now multiply that by infinity and you'll understand that time looks different to God than it does to us.

It's been so long since Jesus was here.

What's he delaying and it's coming back?

Oh man, I've been going through it now for weeks and months and years.

I don't understand why it's lasting so long.

Listen, you and I are just tracking time differently than God does.

And so keep persevering because God's never late.

He's never late.

He's just not on our time schedule.

He will work all things according to his plan in his own time.

Peter says, here's what you need to know about the Lord's coming.

Secondly, the Lord does not slack off.

The Lord does not slack off.

You might think, I get that God tracks time differently, but why doesn't he get on with it since he knows what we're going through down here?

I mean, sure, I can tread water for a few more days, but if you're in the boat and you got the light preserver, go ahead and throw it on out here.

Why doesn't the Lord get on with it?

Well, let me offer you three hypotheses to uh in answer to this quandary.

Why doesn't the Lord get on with it?

Well, hypothesis number one, the Lord's not able to do what he promised to do.

That's one option.

Why isn't he coming already?

Why?

Well, because he's not able to do what he promised to do.

There are simply some things that are too hard for God, perhaps.

Maybe he's not all powerful.

Well, if that's the case, then why would you even believe in a God like that?

Why would you be here today?

If I didn't believe that my God was all powerful, he wouldn't be my God.

I wouldn't, I wouldn't bend my life to him.

To the contrary, the Bible repeatedly declares God to be almighty.

In fact, it is one of the primary attributes that makes him God, the Bible points to.

That he is Almighty, and there is none like him.

And if he's not all-powerful, then he's not God.

Here's the second hypothesis.

The Lord doesn't care.

Well, I believe that the Lord has the power, but it doesn't seem like he cares.

That's why he's delaying his coming.

But this doesn't make sense because God has already committed the greatest act of caring that the world has ever seen when he died on the cross for us.

And so why would God go to that extent to show us how much he cared only to turn around to care less about us after we are already his children?

Hypothesis number three.

The Lord's delay is a grace period.

That's what Peter actually says in verse 9.

The Lord's not slacking off.

The Lord's not slacking off.

The Lord is patient.

He's long-suffering because he wants people to repent and be saved.

There are people right now that if Jesus came back, they would be forever lost.

And so it is by God's grace that the coming of the Lord is delayed, which is why we should persevere and pursue and make the most of our time to seek the salvation of the lost, because God's given this grace period here.

And that grace period is not just for those who haven't believed, but it's also for us who haven't went and told.

That is the command that we were given before he left.

Go into all the world and preach the gospel.

And so he delays his coming.

He gives you and I time to obey.

He gives them time to repent and be saved.

And that brings us to the last factor Peter wants us to know and add to our calculation.

The Lord's coming back when you don't expect it.

The Lord's coming back when you don't expect it.

It seems kind of strange to analogize the coming of the Lord with the thief in the night.

Doesn't it?

I mean, why why why are we talking about the Holy One and we're using the illustration of a thief in the night?

Well, it's obvious that it is meant to be a vivid imagery of unexpectedness.

That's why it's used.

It's the idea that you're totally, I mean, you're sleeping in your bed and a thief then strikes and robs your house and you don't know.

It is so unexpected.

Jesus himself used this imagery, but he infused it with an important lesson in Luke 12, 39 and 40.

Listen to what Jesus said.

This know that if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not have suffered his house to be broken into.

Be ye therefore ready also, for the Son of Man comes at an hour when you think not.

Oh, that's why Peter uses that analogy.

Because Jesus is coming when we don't expect him to come.

That's another reason for us to persevere.

Because we don't know when Jesus is coming back.

But we want to be found faithful when he does, don't we?

I mean, do you want to be at your worst point when Jesus comes back?

Do you want to be at your furthest from God when He comes back?

Do you want to be in the middle of whatever it is that you know you shouldn't be doing when Jesus comes back?

Or do you want to be found faithful?

That's what perseverance is.

It's not just lasting, it is being faithful to Christ to the end.

And our faithfulness to Christ will be challenged at every turn.

Every turn.

Our faithfulness will be challenged by the scoffing culture of this world.

We're never going to escape that.

I think it's going to get worse.

Our faithfulness will be challenged by temptations to hedonistic indulgences.

We're not immune to that.

We have our own desires.

There are things that we want to indulge in, and why on their face they may not be sinful, but if they are keeping us from being faithful to God as we could be, then they become sinful.

I would say to you that our faithfulness will be challenged by time itself.

The longer you live, you're going to struggle with some of these things.

When you first get saved, you're so excited Jesus is coming back.

It could be today.

I saw this cloud and the light was coming through, and I thought maybe this is the moment.

But after you've seen like 6,000 of those in your life, you don't think twice about it.

And sometimes you go through life and life gets harder than you ever thought it would be.

And the plans that you made when you were young didn't play out the way that you thought they would.

And time itself can be a challenge to you and I persevering.

We can slack off.

The Lord doesn't, but we sure can.

Our faithfulness will be challenged by doubt and discouragement.

And so that's why we need to grow in perseverance.

That's why Peter's encouraging us to grow in our perseverance so that we remain faithful until Jesus comes back.

Would you bow with me?

Faithfulness.

Faithfulness to Christ.

It is that we fervently and energetically and actively keep serving him and living for him.

And just like in all pursuits in life, we do get tired.

We do run into some troubles that make us want to back off or slack off.

And yet we need to persevere.

We need to grow in our perseverance for the Lord.

Thank God his Holy Spirit is able to empower us.

Never runs low, never runs out, never diminished.

It's not like a battery that needs recharged or a part that wears out.

May we look to him in faith for our strength today to persevere.

Dear Heavenly Father, we want to be faithful to you all the way to the end.

I thank you for our sisters May and Lois who finished their journey last night.

What a picture of perseverance.

Making it into the eighties and nineties and still faithfully following you.

Oh Lord, we want to follow you faithfully.

We want to be those who don't get sidetracked by scoffers and temptations.

But we know we can't do it in our own power and our own strength, Lord, and so help us to do it in the power and strength of your Holy Spirit.

I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

If you would stand with me and we'll sing, turn your eyes upon Jesus.