Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Almighty God, you welcome you.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Hey, there. If you're new to Restored Church, we want to welcome you and thank you for tuning in. You're listening to a portion of our Sunday worship gathering. We believe the church is not an event, but a family you belong to. So we would love the opportunity to connect with you. If you want to learn more about our church or if we can help you in any way, please Visit our website, www.restoredtemecula.church, and click on Contact. With all that said, we, we hope you enjoy the message.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: So this morning, I am excited to share with you guys something that's been just kind of stirring on my heart for the last, actually, several weeks.
And I'm excited to be. Yeah, I'm excited to share this with you. Let me pray. If you'll join me. Pray for me, Pray for us that God might meet us in this time and space.
Our Father, thank you.
Thank you for the opportunity to be here together as your children, as your family.
God, would this be a time where we remember.
We remember how good you've been to us.
That we might remember, regardless of maybe whatever it is that this particular week holds for us, especially if it's hard things, heavy things, that your desire is to give us good things.
And when those hard things come, your desire is to shape us.
Your desire is to make us into new people, resilient.
And so I pray this morning, Father, that you would be pleased to work through your very word to help produce in us what we read about in this text that we're going to go into this morning.
God, we love you, we're grateful to you.
And, of course, this is all in your son's precious name. We pray. Amen.
Okay, so again, if I have any chance to meet you, my name is Eric, one of the elders here, and I love movies.
And I'm hoping some of you do, too, because I have a question for you.
Who is your favorite movie character?
Who would be on the short list? Now, here's the key. You all. When you talk at the same time, this is interactive. But if you all talk at the same time, it's like one murmur.
So nice and loud. This is interactive.
Olaf.
Boy, I didn't see that one coming. But you know what?
We'll come back to that. Jason Bourne. Awesome. All right, Olaf. Jason Bourne. We're covering the. We are a diverse church. Generationally. Sheba, Herox.
Shera. She likes me.
Oh, He Man.
Oh, my gosh. I'm so confused right now. Oh. Cause there's a new He Man.
It's like, where did you guys catch. How did you.
Okay, you know what? This is going differently than I envisioned it. In my head, I was expecting answers that if anything, I thought, I'm not gonna be able to understand what you're saying, and I wasn't. But now I don't get where it's coming from. But now I get it. He man has been repackaged for a new generation. This is what's happening. Yes.
Yeah. Maximus. Very good. Very good.
So thank you guys for participating in that. Thank you for your patience with me as I try to. I'm learning how to do this.
The correct answer is Samwise Gamgee from the Lord of the Rings.
Yep. Yep. Samwise.
Yeah. Here's a generational gap again, showing it's. So Sam is not the hero of the story, is he? If you're unfamiliar with Lord of the Rings, he is Frodo. Oh, is he, though?
Yes, he is.
Some say he is. I would argue that he's not directly the hero of the story, because I need to make a point. And if I don't argue that, this whole sermon falls apart and I will not be able to recover.
We do have a screenwriter in our midst, so I'm just gonna ask you to withhold your answers for the time being. Okay.
The answer is Samwise Gamgee. He's not the hero of the story. Lord of the Rings is epic quest to put this ring of power, as it were, into a fire to destroy it before it destroys everyone and everything.
Sam is not the hero of that story.
But if you know the story, when Sam is with Frodo, and Frodo can't take another step, Sam carries him.
And so let me tell you what makes Sam Wise Gamji so great.
But I'm going to tell it to you in terms of what he doesn't possess.
Main character energy.
Main character energy.
You know, the world is my stage.
I've got sidekicks helping me do my thing.
There are villains over there, haters, and then everyone else is an extra.
That's main character energy.
This is the friend who comes to the party for their friend, and the party becomes their photo shoot.
It's the insta perfect shot with the caption celebrating my bestie.
But it's just a picture that doesn't include the bestie.
You know what I'm talking about. Main character energy. Right. Here's the interesting part about this. Our world disciples us into main character energy.
It's all it can do.
It's all it can do.
Which by the way, I've had a complex relationship with social media. And I'm not entirely against it or
[00:06:14] Speaker B: a hater,
[00:06:17] Speaker A: but I gotta acknowledge the way that it shapes and forms us, right?
A literal highlight reel of our lives.
Anybody? Main character vibes? Anybody picking that up?
And no one puts Tuesday morning unless it's a highlight, right? Unless it's like, best coffee ever, which no one's ever said in Temecula.
Although Abode's giving us hope, right?
I come from San Diego. Total coffee snob. That was so unhelpful. I'm sorry. If you work in the coffee world here, Abode really is giving us hope.
Man, I am a hater. I guess I'm the hater in the story.
We're all capable of it, okay? Now, let's set aside Samwise and all that stuff.
If your life were a movie, what story would it tell?
If your life were a movie, what story would it tell?
Would it be the story of your athleticism?
Your intelligence?
Athleticism is definitely for the younger crowd.
Your intelligence, your hard work, maybe as we age and mature.
The story of your creativity, your popularity, your followers, your romantic pursuits, your rugged independence, the pain that you carry, your courageous stand against, or your success?
If your life were a movie, what story would it tell?
Everything I just mentioned is legitimate and part of a good story. It can be. They're not necessarily bad things. In fact, they could be extraordinary stories. The kind of things we celebrate.
But what if these things are answering the wrong question?
What if the key question isn't what story would your life tell?
But whose?
Whose?
What if the story of your life is meant to be more like this Jesus at work in your life. Through your circumstances, through your relationships, through your pain points, through your struggles to make you more and more like himself.
What if that's the story that is meant to be written of your life?
What if the story of your life is meant to be one of love, growing so much consistently, so much so consistently and so clearly that the people around you have an encounter with Jesus when they encounter you.
It's very different than main character energy, isn't it?
It's a totally different thing this morning. I just want to ask a question.
And I'm going to invite you guys to ponder this with me. The question is this. How do we become people who love like Jesus?
That is the point of life.
That's why we're here. Turn over with me to second Peter, chapter one. We're going to look at the first 12 verses.
Second Peter, chapter one. Will be in the CSB.
If you don't have a Bible, that's okay. We're going to have it up on the screen.
Second Peter, chapter one.
The Apostle Peter penned these words and he was writing to a people who were actually dealing with.
In his first letter, Peter dealt with persecutions. You've ever read that? It's pretty intense, pretty gnarly, dealing with persecution, like the problems that Christians face at that time. This letter is equally intense, maybe gnarlier.
But it wasn't dealing primarily with persecution. It was dealing with false teaching. The Church was just inundated with it.
And ultimately what the false teaching was doing was leading the Church into a kind of life that didn't look like Jesus life at all.
And so I want you to see what Peter does with that, Starting in verse one.
We'll read it. We'll read it through one to 12. Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ.
To those who have received a faith equal to ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, may grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus Our Lord.
Verse 3.
His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. By these he has given us very great and precious promises so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of main character syndrome, evil desire.
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness. Goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self control, self control with endurance, endurance with godliness, Godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love. There it is, the whole point.
For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or. Or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election.
Because if you do these things, you will never stumble. For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we will be richly provided for you.
Therefore, I will always remind you about these things, even though you know them and are established in the truth that you now have.
Okay, we're talking today about growing in maturity, growing in maturity and the Apostle Peter, the way he lays this out and breaks this down. It's very, very easy to read what we just read and think, do more and try harder.
I don't know if You've ever actually read this passage and thought to yourself, I'm not doing enough.
And that's a very understandable way to.
That's a very understandable conclusion to come to.
However, a really careful reading of this text shows us a few things.
And the first thing I want to point out to you, this is point number one for you note takers, is that growing in maturity, it's actually a gift.
Growing in maturity is actually a gift.
Growing in maturity is not an accomplishment, according to Peter. It's not like you work really hard, you sacrifice, and through grit you mature.
It's not automatic either. You don't just wake up one morning and you're like, I'm mature.
It's also not optional.
It's not like this thing that you can just be like, I'll get around to that someday.
And we're going to unpack kind of these three things this morning. That's kind of the big idea of the message, but it's actually a gift.
If we look back to verses three to five, Peter says that his divine power has given us. Can you say given us everything?
Yes, you can repeat it. Everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. By these, he has given us very great and precious promises. So that through them, not through you, not through your hard work and effort, through them you may share in the divine nature. Doesn't mean that you become deified, you don't become God. But very clearly you become like him in the ways that we can become like him in our character.
Escaping the corruption that's in the world because of evil desire for this very reason. And then he keeps going.
Then it gets into our part. But notice where it comes. Sequencing really matters.
Sequencing is really important. I'm actually learning this. I'm actually being really careful. Well, more careful than I've ever been about sequencing what I eat.
I'll start with protein and fiber. I really enjoy fiber. Unlike fiber maxing as a way of life.
So fiber first.
It helps in every way.
And then enough water too, because when you mix those two things, dehydration and fiber, you have problems.
But that was neither here nor there.
And you don't get like a rewind button when you're up here with a mic.
Sequencing matters is the point.
So it is with our faith.
So it is with our faith. Notice that Peter gets into it with us and he gives us this, and then this, and then this, and then this and then this. He gets into our part. But only after the fiber of God's grace.
Only after God's grace has given us everything we need.
Let's forget about the fiber for a minute. Seriously. Sequencing God's grace first, then our response.
If you invert those, you got a real problem on your hands.
That's where you get duty.
D u T y.
This is where you get no more delights, but duty in your faith. It's fine. It's my turn. Winter camp last week.
It's fine.
Sequencing really matters. Okay.
Maturity is a result of a gift, not your grit.
Okay. I want to ask you to do something and I'm going to. Don't do this if you're gonna fall asleep. Okay? Close your eyes.
It's okay. It's not less spiritual if you keep em open. It's just acknowledging.
It's 11 o' clock in the morning.
Okay? So close your eyes if you can.
I want you to imagine something. It's your 16th birthday.
Okay?
Sweet 16.
A lot easier for some than others to imagine this. Okay? But picture it either way.
This is very important, especially for you younger folks. Imagine that you want to drive, that you dream of it.
That used to be a given. It's not anymore. This analogy only works if this is a dream.
So you're dreaming of driving. It's your 16th birthday.
You wake up. Mom and dad are looking at you, smiling. Not weird.
They're just there when you wake up, they're just ready to bless you. They just can't wait.
They're smiling. They walk you to the garage and they open the door and there it is.
A brand new scooter.
I'm kidding. It's a car.
[00:18:29] Speaker B: It's a car.
[00:18:30] Speaker A: A brand new car. Guys, they hand you the keys and they tell you, we love you. Number one, that's the most important thing.
Number two, it's all paid for.
And number three, it's yours.
Try to imagine how you would feel. Anybody like doing a backflip spontaneously.
Oh my gosh. It's an expensive gift, but through sheer generosity and love, it's given to you. You guys can open your eyes now.
You didn't earn this one.
This wasn't like you've been working for a long time, saving money. No, no, no, no. This one is irrespective of what you've done, you've actually never had a job. This is my story. So I turned 16.
Okay? You've never had a job. You could never pay for this through sheer generosity and love that's given to you. Okay? Can't afford it yet it's in your name. There's a piece of paper that is recognized by the state, the whoever.
Department of Motor Vehicles. And it's got your name on it.
It's yours.
It's just as if you had bought it yourself, but you didn't.
It's a pure gift.
Now, here's what's wild.
Peter says that faith is a gift. Did you notice in verse one, he says, this is faith that you have received.
The whole fascinating rabbit hole theologically that I'm not going to get into.
Some of you really want me to get into it. Not gonna do it.
You can take me out to coffee and ask me questions. I may or may not answer them.
But today, verse one says, you've received this faith, but it's also true of maturity, which comes through God's great promises.
How would your life change if you didn't have to earn your place?
You didn't have to prove anything to anyone, but you just received this gift.
I remember in high school, cars were like, you drive into the senior lot.
Who's driving what?
I had this dream. 1998 Mustang Cobra.
Silence your judgment for a minute.
Silence. It. It was a vibe and it was a.
The 1990s, okay?
That's what I wanted.
And I think I primarily wanted it because I wanted to drive into the parking lot and have people here, you know, that's a V8.
What you driving? Yeah, what you pack in there? That V6, that Camry that your grandpa gave you, A Ford baby.
I've since found out that Ford's.
That doesn't matter.
Set it aside. The point is, that's what I really wanted. I really wanted this validation through this car.
Right?
What if I had just been secure?
What about that? What's that worth?
I drove a 92 Volvo Swedish car, very safe. And I put it to the test at 16, cracked the radiator, but I was intact.
I was completely intact.
This is a gift, you guys.
Faith is a gift. Maturity is a gift. This is really important. Some of you really need to hear this this morning.
I know that I needed this. I actually wish I had read 2nd Peter 1 when I was younger in my faith.
Because when I came to faith in Jesus, and I won't get into all the details, I've already done that, like two weeks ago. But when I came to faith in Jesus, I remember starting with grace as the foundation, and then very quickly kind of moving on to something else.
I was at my workstation. I got a job in downtown San Diego. I worked in A high rise over there.
It was cool.
And at my first job, I had a workstation. And in this workstation, I had a list.
And it was a list of questions for me. And it was things like, am I being kind to my neighbor? Which meant the person on the cubicle to my left or the right.
Am I serving with joy? Do I have a smile on my face? These were the things that I thought would keep me on track.
Asking myself these questions. Fascinatingly, the answer was often no.
I was kind of miserable.
And the questions themselves really weren't the problem. It took me a while to figure this out.
The problem wasn't the questions. The problem was that I was asking them without remembering what Jesus had already done for me.
So what I ended up doing repeatedly was like responding to altar calls every week. I don't know if you've ever gone through a season like this. We don't really do altar calls in our church here. But imagine yourself. Some of you can. This is easier for you to imagine than others. If you're in a church that does altar calls, every week you raise your hand. Every week you come to the front. Every single week, we have people come up for prayer. So there is a response. But it's not typically, like, come up and rededicate yourself.
Not in those words. But where I was, it was.
And so I used to rededicate myself repeatedly. Altar calls at home, in the shower. Once I thought of something I did earlier, I was like, that wasn't good. Lord, wash me little on the nose. But that's where I was.
And I needed to be reminded of something really deeply transformational.
So the growing in maturity, it's a gift.
It's not something you accomplish.
It's a gift.
I think that's what Peter is telling us.
And if we don't have that, our heart will probably harden to the point where we just kind of forget about Jesus.
And this can happen to disciples, by the way. This isn't like those people that are out there that don't know Jesus. It's like, actually, this is written to disciples.
He literally talks about their faith. You can't be a disciple unless you have faith, right?
And so the key to love, it's not focusing on what we need to do first of all. It's centering on what has been done for us.
If you think about the first, you know, the main character energy, this can be applied to spiritual growth, where the camera can just center on us. Look at how mature I'm becoming. Look at how bad I'm doing. Look at what? Whatever it is, fill in the blank. And it's kind of like Peter is saying, like, hey, man, turn the camera onto Jesus.
Turn the camera onto the gift. You walked down one day and there was a car waiting for you there.
So first things first. Growing in maturity, it's a gift. It's not an accomplishment.
Which begs the next question.
If God has supplied everything we need, what is there for us to do?
As it turns out, a lot.
A lot for you. Note takers. My second point is that growing in maturity is a process.
Growing in maturity, it's a process.
It's not automatic.
You don't become a good driver overnight.
Seriously, at first, you are a danger to everyone, to yourself.
But not just you, to me, to everybody else on the road. That is why you are impossible to insure.
Possibly expensive to insure.
It costs a fortune, right? But here's the cool part.
Just as we don't leave it to 16 year olds to figure out how to drive on their own, in the same way the scriptures, the heart of God is not to do that either.
The heart of God is to shepherd you through a process of growth.
We can see this in the driving world. You have driver's ed, you have a permanent exam. I forget which comes first. Maybe it's driver's ed.
Either way, there's study. You have to pass a test. You can fail it here and there. I did that.
Then you have behind the wheel instruction. That is a vibe for your parents.
My parents were so into it, in fact, that they hired the most expensive guy in Orange county who had a little Corolla and he had his own steering wheel on the side so he could just take over. And he did.
Behind the wheel instruction, by the way. Sometimes it's gonna happen to you as a disciple. You step into something, it's like, I got the wheel.
Your parents may have to step in and be like, my car. Like a pilot does with their my plane.
It's okay. It's not the end of the world.
You're learning. This is a process.
What can happen that really gets rough is we're like, well, I'm not cut out to be a driver anymore. Guess that's it. And we don't typically do that or say that directly, but we can slowly withdraw, right? We can back down from opportunities that God puts in front of us because we're afraid of failing.
And here's the reality. This is something I've learned the hard way over the years. Failure is a part of how you learn.
Peter Gives us a process for a reason.
And he gives us grace first for a reason. Why do you think he does that?
Could it be because we're going to fail at this a lot?
Could it be that we are going to be tempted in all sorts of ways to give up?
This is a process, and you don't go at it alone.
The scripture tells us you're given a gift and everything you need to put it into use and to. And I need some of you to hear this.
Enjoy it.
Actually enjoy it.
What about Peter's list? Could you imagine yourself growing as Peter talks about?
Would that not be enjoyable?
One of the greatest gifts that God has given me in my life is to be able to see children grow up and mature.
Not everybody's called to be a parent, and that's okay. That doesn't make you secondary.
The point is, I'm just using this as an example, a frame of reference. You could take kids out of it. Just somebody that you care about. Maybe it's an employee that you've been investing in and they're actually taking steps. Maybe you're a coach and you're seeing kids that you have taught, that you've instructed, that you have said, like, hey, squat. You know, you've taught how to feel a ground ball.
Never mind.
And they get down and they actually feel a ground ball cleanly.
You know, it's the smallest thing. Like, hey, just put your glove up there. I'll take care of the rest. And he actually puts his glove up. Sandlot reference. For you who have no idea what I'm talking about.
It's like there's a pure joy and delight in seeing other people grow up and mature?
And so it is for yourself.
Did you know that you can take pleasure and enjoy the fact that you are not the same person you were five months ago? Five years ago, God willing, if God grants you a long life, 50 years ago, if he grants you faith early in life, you get to see yourself grow over decades.
That's a real gift. That's a pleasure.
That's a joy. Now, that doesn't erase the pain points and the ways in which we might go sideways or the people that you invest in that seem to not grow, that seem to go backwards or that seem to give up.
I'm not erasing that stuff, and God doesn't either.
The point is, it's still supposed to be a joy.
When was the last time you had just a casual drive?
Like, I'm taking the car out and I'm driving through wine country or Whatever. And if you have a convertible, I'm dropping the top.
And as a middle aged man, they call to me, they beckoned me.
I'm gonna go in my convertible, I'm gonna drop the top and I am going to have a sparkling at the winery.
Sounds great.
I'm not kidding.
I've become a sparkling rose guy as I've aged.
Your palate changes over time. It's fun. As you mature and grow, rose gets more and more attractive.
Okay.
But the point is, like, this is something, this process is meant to be enjoyed. You were meant to get in the car and go driving.
And here's what happens. It's a process, right? So here's what happens. As you learn when you're a new driver, you tend into it.
Typically, unless you're really cool and you're like, well, mom and dad aren't around, like, I'm doing this, you're driving a truck.
But typically you're like this. And you're keeping an eye on everything and you're probably like white knuckling it, right?
How am I doing? How am I doing? How am I doing? How am I doing?
It's fine, just relax.
But as you get older and you get more comfortable driving, your attention goes less on, like, how am I doing? 10 and 2 and this. And you actually become more aware of what's happening on the road around you and you're looking out for other people.
This morning I saw a guy drive through a red light just because like he was stopped behind it. He saw. This is you. We'll talk later.
This is a hot call out, but I think there's a purpose to it.
This person. I pulled up to Margarita and Red Hawk. I think those streets intersect, right?
Yeah.
So we pull up, about to turn left, I'm several cars back, it's a red light, everybody stopped. And then all of a sudden I hear this. You know, this truck hit the gas and they just turn left with a red light. And it's Margarita or it's Margarita and Red Hawk. And he just did it just because he could.
And sometimes like, you know, I can imagine that at 11 o' clock at night when there's no traffic around, this was like a form of art in Puerto Rico. Driving late at night, you just run red lights. This is a little different. This is where I'm from originally, but I just haven't seen it here.
And to see someone just turn left with a red light in the middle of a really crowded intersection at 9am it just struck me like how you can get so comfortable doing something that you get careless.
Now, to be fair to this person, he didn't see anybody coming, so we thought there's no downside. Or maybe he was distracted, like, just looking at his phone. But either way, like, situational awareness was not strong because there was a cop three cars behind.
Kidding. That part wasn't real.
It's one of those moments where you do want a cop there, though. Like, what the. I get a, you know, fix ticket, and this is allowed to happen.
Ridiculous.
But the point is, it's a process.
And sometimes we can become so comfortable that we get careless.
So I'm not talking about being scared of stepping out in faith, but I'm also not talking about becoming careless, where we're just so used to this that we're like, whatever.
I'm talking about intentionality with the process.
I'm talking about a growth that you can mark, that you can see, and that ultimately becomes increasingly for the benefit of other people. That's love.
That's love. Here's how Peter describes it. Supplement your faith, okay? This gift, this car with goodness, with knowledge. Knowledge with self control, self control with endurance. Endurance with godliness.
Godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. By the way, how cool is it that Peter includes brotherly affection?
Like, he could have just left it at love. You know, love can sometimes be just like, okay, this is what I'm supposed to do.
But that wasn't enough for Peter. He actually wanted us to remain affectionate.
Like, have you ever seen.
I was at Better Buzz this morning, and I saw this dad with his daughter, and she was probably. She was about this tall. She was walking, and she was just kind of, like, stumbling around the Better Buzz coffee shop, and she was going up and talking to people, and she was playing, like, hide and seek and peek a boo with some of the people that were sitting there. And I just got to see the whole thing, and the look on the dad's face was just of pure delight, pure joy, pure affection.
And I realize that as a parent, you see other things, too, that make it harder to feel like pure joy and delight and affection.
But I think, nevertheless, we're meant to have that kind of a heart towards the people that God puts in front of us. A familial affection, a tenderness.
And that is the thing that. I think one of the things that happens to us when we get main character syndrome is that gets lost because we just focus on other things.
We focus on what's been done to us, the ways people have failed us, people have wronged us.
What I'm supposed to do, which is my tendency, how I'm failing, But whatever it is, the camera goes all over the place, but it doesn't go into the one place that it's meant to be on, which is on the person of Jesus, this gift.
And as we behold him and focus on him, we become like Him.
And he, by the way, is affectionate.
Some of you, you could forget everything I've said at this point in the message. You just need to know this. This is descriptive of the way Jesus is. We are called to be partakers of the divine nature, to become like him in Peter's language, in everyday language, to become like Him. He is affectionate.
Brotherly affection. In fact, in the other book of the Bible, it calls Jesus our big brother, effectively.
I don't know if you have a big brother, you can imagine yourself having one. Sometimes big brothers can pound us.
Right? I'm thinking of no one in the room in particular.
It's just a reality.
If you're a big brother in this room, you know, if you. If you're a little brother, a little sister in the room, you know, big brothers can pound us.
Yeah. This isn't gender specific. Sisters can also beat the crap out of us. Right.
Get them on the wrong day. Hormones are real.
Yeah. I'm just gonna have a shot at everybody.
But at the end of the day, if you have a brother who's somewhat stable, you know what they're gonna do for you when you're in trouble? They're gonna be like, you gotta go through me first.
Right?
And boy, that does something, doesn't it?
It's like, oh, man, big bro, I thought you were kind of a jerk, but you're sort of my hero. Maybe you're both.
I'm not impressed by you and I'm in awe of you all at the same time.
Yeah, but Jesus has a brotherly affection.
A big brother who's not sinful, stupid, or just prone to all sorts of things like we are.
That's what he's like, and that's what he wants to reproduce in you.
And that's what he wants your experience of church to be like. By the way, this is his intention.
These qualities are growing together.
It's all pointed to love as the highest value and aim.
Let me tell you a little bit about what this process looked like for me lately. I'll keep this really brief. I'm running out of time.
We got rear ended multiple times this year. Fun and so One of the times we got rear ended by people that all had USAA insurance, which was great. I knew the drill by the second time. I was like, okay, cool, I know where to go and who to talk to, what, body shops, all that stuff.
So the first time, I think it was Valentine's Day, actually got rear ended. Little love tap from someone.
A little dad humor for you.
I got rear ended. The point is, I got rear ended.
I drive a fairly old car, but it's another Volvo. Actually, I started with a Volvo. Looks like I'm going to end with one because this one just keeps going.
I had to take it to the body shop.
The USAA people set me up with a rental, which was cool.
The rental people set me up with a pickup because I had to get from the body shop to the rental place. Cool.
When I'm in those spaces, I tend to recognize sometimes, not always, the opportunity that I have with people that I may never see again, which is just like low hanging fruit to just like, let's see what happens.
Let's see. I'll be a little more bold with these people that I won't ever see again. And so I don't, for whatever reason, the little evangelist within me becomes big in these random rides with people, Uber drivers, whatever it is. And so I get going.
I just start asking questions. By the way, I'm not like pushy.
I try not to be weird, although that, that may still happen.
But I just ask questions. I take an interest in people, I start asking questions. First person that drove me, zero interest in spiritual realities. None whatsoever. Cool.
I didn't force it. We had a nice conversation about music.
Done.
The second time that picked up, I started asking questions.
Find a little link point between my story and this person's story and I just start sharing. Oh, this is who I am. This is what I do. This is what's happened in my life.
Turns out we went to the same church in San Diego for a while, which is pretty, you know, Million churches in San Diego, same one.
And so I feel emboldened. I'm like, well, let me tell you what happened there. Let me tell you what's happened since I'm not sure where this person's at.
To make a short story long, they had grown up in the church and are no longer following Jesus.
They're no longer. This is not like an active part of their life. And so I start just hearing my story of how I went through something very, very similar.
The same stage of life that this person is in.
And by the End of the conversation. There were tears starting to form. So I was like, that's either a really good sign or a really bad one. Like, bored to tears. I've done that before to people. I may be doing that to some of you this morning.
Just wipe them away. I don't need to see.
So bored to tears. But also, I've recognized that sometimes tears are a sign of tenderization that's taking place.
And I think it was more of that than this in this case.
And so I just share the gospel I share about Jesus, what he's done in my life.
And I just had the sense to be like, hey. And I think.
I think God's after you.
This is too. Like, we had so many interconnected parts to our story.
Fast forward. This was Valentine's Day was like, eight months ago.
So fast forward to this week.
I've been praying for this person.
And I got this sense as I'm praying, what I try to do is I try to stay open to things that God may want me to do that make me uncomfortable.
Typically, that's a good sign.
However, that doesn't mean that I'm comfortable.
So depending on what I'm prioritizing, it could go really well or really badly.
And so in this case, I sense God saying, it's time to go share a message with this person. Like, I know where she works, so it's like, I know exactly where to go.
And I was like, okay, Lord, that might be kind of weird because I'm like, a borderline acquaintance at best to this person.
What do you have?
And so I sensed him giving me, like, something to share with this person.
Which, by the way, this doesn't happen every day. It's not like every day sensing God, giving me messages for people, random people.
I'm not typically wired for that way. Some of you thrive on that and be like, yeah, give me a random person in five minutes and let's go. I'm usually not like that, but I've been praying. I specifically been praying for this person. And I think God's saying, have at it.
So I show up, I take four steps out of my car, and I get back in the car and leave.
Like, this is too weird. This is too stupid. Like, who am I? Could you imagine if somebody goes to your workplace and like, hey, I know we met eight months ago.
Eight months ago.
I think I have a message from God for you.
Could you imagine? You'd be like, you want to get, you know, the manager. You want to see, like, what's the Nearest exit out of here. Can I make it? If I'm. Is there anything in my way? Will I trip? Can I jump over it?
And so. And by the way, I'm not unaware of this dynamic. I am very aware of this dynamic is weird.
And so I get up and I leave, I drive off.
And so here's what ends up happening as I'm driving away. I'm driving down Rancho Cal, heading to the office, and I just get this sense of, like, what if Jesus had done that to me?
What if because of the shame and the discomfort of the cross, which, by the way, most shameful, uncomfortable thing that anyone's ever had to experience, get staked to a tree with no clothes on in front of everyone, and it's like, this is what happens when you mess with Rome.
You look like a failure, right? Does Jesus look like a failure to the world?
Looked like a failure to the empire? He looked like a failure in every way.
Then it like, struck me like, dude, if Jesus had taken the approach I'm currently taking, I would have no hope.
I'd be dead in my sins. I actually think I'd literally be dead. I think he literally saved my life on more than one occasion.
But I would be spiritually dead for sure. I would just be living out my life, trying to maximize pleasure, because that's all we got. If there is no nothing after this life, let's live it up, baby. Let's go to brunch, let's go to wine country in a convertible.
I just mix metaphors. It's not a bad thing. But I think you know what I'm saying.
And I turned around.
I turned around because I was like, dude, Jesus never treated me this way. How could I treat other people this way?
Something struck me that was deep.
Not wanting the spotlight out of fear is the opposite of wanting to fill the whole camera.
But it's still like main character energy just in reverse.
Because what I centered was me.
What I centered was my comfort, my reputation, what somebody might think of me.
There was a person that I really did sense God was moving me to encourage.
And how I felt about it became more important than what he wanted.
And that is not what Jesus did at all.
In the garden, Jesus was suffering through the his impending agony and shame.
And Hebrews tells us he despised the shame, but for the joy that was set before him. He went to the cross.
And it's one of those moments where, like, I think I'm called to despise this shame that I feel, the rejection that I'm about to encounter potentially those weird looks, like, who is this guy?
And so I turn around, I go, I have to wait in line. Which is weird. Have you ever been like a delayed, you know, kind of obedience? Things like, oh, no, I don't want to talk to you. I need to talk to her. Real weird.
I'm like, I got every opportunity to just run. The door's right behind me.
But I stopped. I stayed.
Jesus, what he did for me, his promise that when he says, I will be at the end of Matthew, which we'll finish one day, it finishes with, I will be with you to the end of the age. And the context of what he says right there is in the context of making disciples.
It's not just in general, although I think he generally will be with us. It's especially when you lean out into discomfort, when you need an energy and a power that you cannot muster up yourself.
He is there, and he supplies what's needed.
And so I share the message.
She was like, that resonates. I remember. And actually, you crossed my mind recently.
She was like, okay.
Must not have just been me.
It wasn't just the caffeine.
I think it was the spirit at work in that moment. I needed to remember the promise. Peter talks about how we grow through these promises, right? How about this promise?
There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
God's verdict on me is settled.
So I don't need to worry about anybody else's verdict on me. How about that?
To free and empower a fearful disciple to take a step of faith for the sake of someone else.
So if you're here and you know, like, there's stuff that you need to attend to, stuff that's like, God's been putting in front of you that you maybe haven't gotten around yet.
There's a quote from Michael Eaton that I found very helpful when I was reading through a second Peter commentary. He says, when we go wrong, we despise the shame, get up, put things right and carry on.
How cool is that? And this isn't like, pull yourself up by your bootstraps and do better.
It's like the context is promises of God that you hold onto. It's like, jesus, I need you.
Please help me.
You can ask people to pray for you.
You can be honest and open about what's going on in your life.
And this, by the way, doesn't just happen in the context of mission. This could happen in the context of everyday life. You snap at someone, despise the shame of, like, Oh, I gotta own this.
Worth it.
Immediately get up and put things right and carry on.
You hold on to bitterness at someone for a long time, but then you despise the shame. Immediately get up, put things right and carry on.
I am a work in progress cannot mean I have no intention of working on this.
I am a work in progress cannot mean I have no intention of working on this.
It doesn't.
Growing in maturity is a process. It's not automatic.
But the beautiful part is if you parked your car, you can get back in it.
I have a whole third point. I have to make it really brief.
The third point is growing in maturity is a priority.
It's a gift, it's a process, and it is a priority.
What happens when we put this off?
I was driving once. Keep this really brief. I was driving once through Oceanside back road, trying to avoid traffic. Have you ever been there through this back road of Oceanside?
Something caught my attention. I was like, what did I just see? And I didn't believe that I saw what I just saw. So I kind of put it out of mind until the next time I went down that road.
This must have been during the summer. We were going to the beach a lot in Oceanside.
So this time when I drove past what I thought I saw, I looked and I was like, oh, I'm not seeing things that's there.
What that was was a Ferrari F40.
Some of you guys are like, wow. Some of you guys are like, what are you talking about? When I was 12, 13 years old, it was on seemingly every boy's wall.
These cars, the McLaren F1, the Dodge Viper, the Ferrari F40, to me was the pinnacle of. It was the most beautiful car I've ever seen.
And here it was in this random place in Oceanside in the sun, like getting destroyed, parked on grass.
And I was like, this is an outrage.
That has to be a fake. That must be a movie prop, some weird stuff they're filming in Oceanside. It can't be.
It cannot be. But it was real. It was there.
This is a million dollar car, probably multimillion dollar car at this point from the 1980s.
That's what happens when we put what I'm talking about off.
You have this stunning, beautiful work of art, essentially, that's rotting.
That sounds harsh, because if you're tracking with me, I'm talking about people, their faith. You can have a rotting faith.
But Peter cares about us too much not to let us off the hook. He literally says, whoever lacks these qualities is blind and short Sighted having forgotten the cleansing from his past sins, having forgotten the gift.
Imagine if you get an F40 on your 16th birthday. Probably not ready for that, to be fair, man. This is a form of spiritual amnesia, as someone has called it before.
We forget and when we forget, things fall apart.
But the good news is that even though neglect has consequences, it can be made right.
Cars can actually be restored. It's actually one of the most beautiful things. Like, if you ever watch a TV show where they're restoring a famous car, there's a whole documentary about the Back to the future DeLorean being restored. It's a must watch.
And if you watch it through the lens of God restoring a human soul to its original beauty.
We are made in the image of God.
Do you know what it means to be made in the image of God? It means that every single one of us is extraordinary.
Every single one of us images God in a unique way because we're all different.
And you are worth restoring.
If an 81 DeLorean that's underpowered.
It doesn't matter the defects of the car. It's not a great car. Actually looks cool.
Kind of a pain to drive, apparently. I've never driven one, but this is what I hear.
If that's worth it because it's an icon of Hollywood. How much more are you worth it? Because you are an icon of the living God.
An image of the living God going to invite you to stand.
I'm going to call the band up to the front.
I want you to stretch the wiggles out, Guys. Growing in maturity is a gift. It's not the result of your accomplishments.
Growing in maturity is a process. It is not automatic.
And growing in maturity is a priority.
In fact, you could say, based on this text, that your experience on the other side of death, what you can expect to some degree or another is impacted by what you do with what Peter says.
It says it holds out a promise. It says, a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom. Do you catch that language?
A rich welcome is on the line.
But it's a gift.
And so let's go back to the car in the garage.
Completely paid for by someone else.
I'm gonna ask you guys to throw up the slide.
I put together this slide to help us respond to this.
Where are you at?
You're in the garage looking at the gift.
Are you kind of like wondering if it's really for you?
Maybe you're new to all this.
You're hearing the claims of Jesus. People are telling you about him. But if you're honest, like, you haven't gotten in the car and started it. The car's in the garage.
If you're just looking at the gift for you, like Jesus, I think would tell you from this text, like, come to me.
Embrace the gift. It's for you. That gift is the promise of forgiveness. It's the promise of new life.
It's the promise of restoration in this world.
It's the promise of not going it alone.
If you're looking at the gift, wondering, is this real? Is this really for me? The answer is yes, but you have to take him up on it.
Others of you, maybe you're a passenger and you're kind of riding along on someone else's faith. If you're honest, you're like, I haven't really believed in Jesus. I haven't embraced this. My mom and dad, my spouse, someone that I'm dating, someone that I want to get to know, they have faith, and I'm riding along. That's okay for a time, but I'm just letting you know that at a certain point, it's for you to drive.
Faith is for you. It's time for you to get in the car and accept the gift and actually learn how to drive yourself.
Some of you, I'll be sensitive to this if you're honest. The car is parked.
You have been stopped by hurt or failure, somebody else's failure, maybe even your own, or you feel blocked, or there's different things. For whatever reason you're parked, I need you to know today, I think God extends an invitation to receive his mercy wherever you need it.
You can receive mercy and you can pursue wisdom. Because it may not be simple to know where to go from here.
You might need a lot of help, and that's okay.
Warning lights. I've used this before. I keep coming back to it.
But some of you, if you're honest, the warning lights are going off. Something in your heart and your soul needs attention.
And they've been going off for a while. Maybe, maybe you've just gotten so used to it that you drive around with a warning light and it's like. It just becomes like white noise to you.
If God brings something to your attention, he doesn't do it to shame you, but to free you.
And so you might need to name whatever that is and bring it into the light to people, to your community.
I'm gonna invite the prayer team to come up to the front, actually meaning to confess it this morning.
And there is a big group of you, and you need to hear this you're still running.
You have been faithful for years.
You are the mid-2000s Toyota.
Bulletproof, as it were.
Missed that. Why did they add the twin turbo? Why did they do this?
Stupid.
Actually, I shouldn't. Here's my issue. I think I know more than I really do. I'm not a car guy, but I use car analogies and I use plane analogies. Doesn't matter.
The point is, you have been faithful for years, but if you're honest, you really need some refreshment.
Maybe it's been a while since you've tasted and experienced the joy of driving.
You need to put the top down and go to wine country and have some. Spiritually speaking, or whatever your thing is, maybe it's not. Maybe you're a white wine guy, maybe you're a red wine guy.
The point is, you really need some refreshment. And I have a feeling that's the most common person in the room for you. Hebrews would tell you to fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith. He's going to see you through, but you keep your eyes on Him. You don't look elsewhere. You don't get off the road.
You're still driving. You're still a driver.
But you got to remember who's in the car with you.
So I'm going to pray if any of this stuff makes sense.
Going to ask you to come up and receive.
And if. If none of this makes sense because you're like, I'm not a car guy. I didn't particularly care for your sermon, but I'm struggling with something. Come up and receive anyway. I won't take it personal. In fact, I won't even know it's between you and God.
So I'm going to pray for us.
Father, thank you for this morning, for what you're doing in our lives.
Thank you for the ways that you've been at work in us.
Thank you. Thank you that you promise us so, so much, and we just sometimes don't even know what to do with all that. You promise, you promise to love us.
You promise to take care of us, God, you promise to make us more like your son as we grab hold of him, but sometimes we don't even know what that means, what that looks like, or it's been so long since we've done it that we've forgotten how to do this. We've forgotten how to drive.
Maybe we've never stepped into the driver's seat, or maybe even there could be one or two people that are like, if I'm honest, I'm joyriding.
I'm driving in ways that are not safe.
I'm not permitted. I'm going places I'm not permitted to go.
Now, whatever it is in this room. Would you give every person a next step?
Would you help us to not be so proud that we won't respond?
Would you help us to forget the person next to us and just focus on the person in front of us?
[01:03:03] Speaker B: Jesus.
[01:03:05] Speaker A: And may you just release the spirit of freedom and joy in this place.
So, Father, we love you. We're grateful to you. It's in your son's name we pray.
[01:03:14] Speaker B: Amen.
[01:03:15] Speaker A: All right, the band's gonna.
You guys can respond as you feel led.
