How to Grow in the Assurance of Your Salvation:
2 Corinthians 13:5, Jeremiah 17:9
1 John 5:13 - I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.
2 Peter 1:1-10
- I grow in assurance when I focus on His POWER. (2 Pet 1:1-3)
- I grow in assurance when rest in His PROMISE. (2 Pet 1:4)
- I grow in assurance when I PRACTICE godly qualities. (2 Pet 1:5-7, 10)
- I grow in assurance when I PERSEVERE through time. (2 Pet 1:8-9)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:11
2 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse 5 says, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith.
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Test yourselves, or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Christ Jesus is in you, unless indeed you fail to meet the test." So that's what we're doing.
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We are testing ourselves.
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Are you saved?
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Are you sure?
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Bible says to test yourself.
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And why are we spending a whole month on this?
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Well because Jeremiah chapter 17 and verse 9 tells us that by nature our hearts are what?
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Above all things.
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Do you remember?
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Deceitful, deceitful.
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Yeah, your heart is a liar.
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So we're going after the joy of assurance, the humble confidence that we are saved.
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You know, in spite of God using us his greatest enemy. In spite of the fact that the Bible says we are hidden with Christ in God. In spite of the fact that the Bible says our names are written in the book of life. In spite of the fact that the Bible says we are called children of God. In spite of the fact that the Bible says we are co-heirs with Christ. In spite of the fact that the Bible says that we are sealed in the Holy Spirit. In spite of the fact that the Bible says that we are overcomers of of the world, many Christians still doubt their salvation.
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Am I really saved?
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Honesty in church, all in favor.
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How many people have wrestled with that at some point or another in your life?
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Am I really saved?
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Put your hands up.
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My hand is up too.
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I've wrestled with that.
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There might be somebody here today wrestling with that.
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They say, "You know what, Pastor Jeff?
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"I don't wanna stand before Jesus and hear Him say, "Depart from me, I never knew you, "and I believe that I am saved." Well, here's a question.
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Is it possible to even know for sure?
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Let's get that question on the table.
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Is it possible that you can be sure?
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Well, according to the Bible, the answer to that question is 100% emphatically yes.
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1 John 5:13.
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John writes, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may suppose that you have eternal," no, that's not it, that you may hope that you have eternal... No, that's not in my Bible either. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may... What? Know.
03:50-04:35
That you may know. How much wiggle room is there in that? The answer is none. There is no wiggle room. John says you can know for sure that you have eternal life. And you know there's one passage explicitly, explicitly in the Bible that tells us how we as Christians can grow in assurance. Did you know that? I'll tell you what, I found this passage like several years ago and just revolutionized my walk with the Lord, my confidence and my salvation because of what God has to say.
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And that is 2 Peter 1.
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Look at verse 10 first.
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This is where we're going to land today.
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But I want you to look at verse 10 first.
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Just so you know, I'm not taking things out of context.
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I would never, ever by God's grace, I would never want to stand before you and try to make the Bible say something.
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I don't make up the message, my job is to just broadcast it.
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Okay?
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I'm just like a flesh and blood microphone is really all I am and that's all I ever want to be.
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But I want you to look at verse 10.
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Peter says, "Therefore," because of everything else we're going to see what Peter said here today. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure. Be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure. In other words, be diligent about growing in assurance. Be diligent about growing in your confidence in your walk with Jesus Christ. He says, "For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall." Meaning, you will never fall concerning what? Concerning your confidence.
05:55-06:18
He says, "If you do some certain things, you are going to walk through your time here on the earth in a humble confidence before the Lord, knowing for sure that you belong to Him and that you're heading to heaven." Would you like to know what those qualities are?
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All right, well, let's look at them.
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Bow your heads with me.
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Father, we're just about to enter a passage of your Word that has really ministered to me, and I have no doubt that it's going to minister to those right here in this room.
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Father, I thank you that you want us to be confident in our salvation.
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You want us to have assurance that you don't want us walking through life never really sure if we belong to you.
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But you want us to walk in full assurance of your love and your grace.
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Father, I ask by the power of your Holy Spirit that you would do big things today in the lives of the people sitting in this room right now.
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And it's all to your glory and honor, we pray in Jesus' name.
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Amen.
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All right, 2 Peter chapter 1, are you there?
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this down on your outline first of all. How can I grow in assurance? That's what we're talking about today. The title of the message is "Rest Assured." How to grow in the assurance of your salvation.
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Jot this down. Number one, I grow in assurance when I focus on His power, when I focus on God's power. Peter writes, "Simon Peter," or Simeon Peter, "a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence. Let's stop right there, I grow in assurance first of all when I focus on His power. It's His power. Verse 3, "His divine power has granted to us," what? What do you have in Christ? Somebody tell me. How much? How much do you have in Christ? Is it like, "Well, you know, Jesus, here's what I'm able to bring to the table, and And golly, can you please supplement what I'm lacking?
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How much does Jesus Christ bring to the table here?
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Well let's look at verse 3 again.
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"His divine power has granted to us," what?
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Oh, don't be shy.
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We're all friends here.
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"Has granted to us," what?
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All things.
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Circle the word "all" in your Bible.
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God's power, He has given us everything.
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Like, well, why did He do that? Well, He tells us because He called us to His own glory and excellence. If you want to grow in assurance, it has to start here. It has to start in focusing on God's power because, listen church, there is no confidence when I'm living in my power, because I don't have any. True or false?
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True or false? If I'm going through life and Jeff's gonna do it, and Jeff's gonna make sure this happens, and Jeff's gonna lead the church, and Jeff's gonna lead his family, and Jeff sounds like a caveman, and if I go through life that way, I'm not going to go very far in confidence because I don't have any I don't. Do you know what I am? I'm a handful of dirt and a lot of water. That's all I am, inherently.
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But the good news is, God didn't leave me just as that. He has given me His power so that I might have everything that pertains to life and godliness for his glory and excellence.
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And here's where many people lose confidence, because the devil comes along and he tries to convince you of some things.
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The devil comes along and he starts telling you things like, "You are worthless.
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God can't use you.
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Your time is past.
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Your time will never come.
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Your sins can't be forgiven.
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Sound familiar?
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He's come at me with all of those.
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As you know, I love sports, and I love a lot of aspects of sports.
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And you know one of my favorite aspects of sports?
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I might be the only person in the room.
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So if you're with me on this, please back me up here.
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Don't leave me hanging.
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But I love the post-game press conference with the coach when he loses and he's furious.
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Anybody else?
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Anybody else?
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Just me?
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OK, OK, a couple of you.
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Oh, thank you.
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YouTube some.
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They're hysterical because sports can be so emotional and people get so passionate.
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And I think of Jim Mora, kind of a famous one after an embarrassing episode from the Indianapolis Colts, I believe he coached at the time.
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Maybe you've seen it where the team just performed horribly and he's at this press conference and some reporter in the crowd asks him about the playoffs.
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Did you ever see that?
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I see some heads nodding.
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And you remember his response?
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He's like, "Playoffs?
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"Playoffs?
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"You wanna talk?
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"Playoffs?
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"I'd like to just win a game." I love that stuff.
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And I was thinking about this this week.
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You're like, "Where in the world are you going with this?" I believe it was Dennis Green who, his post-game rant after a embarrassing defeat from the Chicago Bears came out.
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And I think this was ESPN's number one post-game tirade from a coach.
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But he comes out and he goes, "They were who they thought, "they were who we thought they were." Did you ever see that one?
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"They were who we thought they were." And the reporters are like asking questions and he's just like, "They were who we thought they were.
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"That's why we took the field, "because they were who we thought they were." just like walks off like, okay. Well here's what I'm suggesting to you. When Satan comes and starts making all these accusations and starts trying to plant things in your mind that aren't true, I want you to take a page out of Dennis Green's book and I want you to say, "I am who God says I am." But I want you to say it like Dennis Green.
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I don't give you a run at that, okay? So Satan comes and he's like, "You're worthless." And you say, "I am who God says I am." Like Dennis Green, okay? You ready?
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Oh, come on, if you don't participate, it's no fun. You ready? You are worthless.
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I am who God says I am.
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God can never use you.
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I am who God says I am.
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Your sins are too bad to be forgiven.
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I am who God says I am.
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You're getting it.
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I'd work a little bit on the temper though, like get really fired up about that.
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The next time Satan shows up, I am who God says I am.
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Because really, doesn't that settle it?
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I mean, look what Peter said here already.
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You know, when Satan comes along, he's like, "You're worthless." Right here, "I'm a servant of Christ, okay?
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I'm a servant of Jesus Christ." Like, yeah, but you're like a lame Christian, right?
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You missed the bus that took off with the cool Christians on it, and you're like on the second path Christian.
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Look at what Peter says.
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We're talking about Peter, okay?
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Look what he says.
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"To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing "with ours." Peter wasn't like, "I'm up here, people, "and you're down here, and too bad your faith "isn't as great as my faith, and too bad you're not "as great of a Christian as I am." Peter says, "Your faith puts you on equal standing "with God as me." And I would say to you, church, your faith in Christ is just as great, just as valuable, just as precious as Peter's, as Billy Graham's, as James MacDonald, as John MacArthur, John Piper, insert your favorite preacher name here.
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Your faith has put you on the same standing with God through Jesus Christ as anybody.
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I am who God says I am.
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Like I'm so lacking in the Christian life.
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Wrong, I have everything in Christ.
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His power has granted to me all things that pertain to life and godliness.
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I am who God says I am.
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And God says I have everything in Christ.
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I am not who my enemies say that I am.
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I'm not who Satan says I am.
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Church, I'm not even who you say that I am.
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I am who God says I am.
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First of all, let's focus on the power.
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You get off that and start looking at yourself and thinking about your power.
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You're not going to make it very far down the path of assurance.
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Secondly, I grow in assurance when I rest in His promises.
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When I rest in His promises, this is so beautiful.
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He says, verse four, he continues, "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." I've meditated on that last phrase for years.
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We are partakers of the divine nature.
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God has put his Holy Spirit in us.
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Isn't that glorious?
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Listen, salvation isn't just, I pray to receive Jesus and I get my ticket to heaven.
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And God's like, good luck until you get there.
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That's not it.
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It's not just a pardon where God says, "Okay, you were a sinner, and now I pronounce you not guilty.
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"Best of luck to you." You see, it is those things, but it's so much more than that.
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I think people lack assurance because they sort of look at the Christian life as just that, that's just my ticket to heaven.
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It's not, it is, you have become a partaker of the divine nature.
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God is living in you.
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But he says at the first part of this verse, "By His glory and excellence, He's given us promises." He's given us promises.
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Like what kind of promises?
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Well, he describes them in a couple of ways.
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He says they're precious and very great.
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God has given us His promises and you will grow in assurance when you rest in those promises.
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This past Wednesday I met with my friend Levi for lunch and I said, "I'll be there at 1230." I made a promise, "I'll be there." Levi shows up at loafers over there in 228.
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He was just sitting in the booth and he's like, before I got there, he was just sitting there.
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He's like, he's not coming.
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I just know he's not coming.
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I just know he's not coming.
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This is a waste of time.
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I shouldn't have come here.
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Did you do that?
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No, you were there, why?
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Because I told you I'd be there, right?
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And you just took me at my word and you believed me and you acted upon believing what I told you.
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And here's the thing, I'm just a guy.
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Right? I'm just a guy. God Almighty has made you promises. And sometimes we put ourselves in that ridiculous scenario of wringing our hands, "Is it really gonna happen? Is it really gonna happen? Is it really gonna happen?" God is trustworthy.
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He trusted me and I'm just a guy. Almighty, sovereign God has made you promises, are you going to trust them? Are you going to trust Him?
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You know Hebrews chapter 6 verses 17 through 18, the Hebrew writer says, "It is impossible for God to lie." Did you know that? Do you know there are some things that God is just unable to do? Like, "Oh, that sounds blasphemous." Well, that's what the Bible says. Here's something that God can't do. God can't lie. He just can't. Why? It is completely contradictory to his very nature. He is a God of truth. And when he makes a promise, he cashes in a hundred percent of the time. He never fails. He never disappoints. He's never left anybody going, "Well, I trusted God and he didn't show up." He's not like that. God has promised that those who come to him by faith in Jesus Christ will be saved. Did you know that? God their sins forgiven, have the promise of eternal life.
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That's a promise.
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So you have to rest in this church.
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Salvation is not based on you keeping your word.
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Because you will fail.
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And there should be like the biggest sigh of relief come from the church right now.
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I'm gonna give you another run at that.
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And afterwards, I want you to give the biggest sigh of relief you can.
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Listen, salvation is not based on you keeping your word.
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(sighs)
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Oh, I'm so with you.
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It's like, well, I made this commitment to God, but I haven't really been doing it.
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Gosh, maybe...
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It's not about you keeping your word, because you're going to fail.
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Your salvation is based on God keeping his word and he will never fail.
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Some people think assurance is arrogance.
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I stand up before you today and I say, I believe 100% that I am saved and going to heaven.
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Somebody will say, well, that's arrogance.
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I completely disagree.
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I think assurance is faith.
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Because when I stand before you and say, I'm a child of God, I've been born again heading to heaven. It's not because of anything that I've done. What I'm saying is I believe in an awesome God who has done that for me. And my confidence is in Him keeping His word.
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Assurance is faith. Rest in His promises. Rest in His promises. Thirdly, I grow in assurance and I practice godly qualities.
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Remember that at the beginning of the message, verse 10?
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He says, "If you practice these qualities, "you will never fall." And what qualities?
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Well, here they are.
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Look at verses five through seven, and we're gonna mention these very briefly.
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Well, picking up in verse four where we left off, he says, "Having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
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That's why we're partakers of the divine nature.
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But verse five, he says, "For this very reason, "make every effort to supplement your faith with," and he's gonna give us a list here.
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So I wanna pause here for a second.
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Before we get to this list, you have to understand a couple of things.
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First of all, he says, "For this very reason," meaning because you live by his power, because you trust in his promises.
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See, that's the backdrop for everything.
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That's the foundation for everything that's coming.
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You can't do these things and have assurance if you haven't done the first two, trusting his power and his promises.
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So when you get there, you have to, Peter tells us, "Practice certain qualities." These aren't about getting saved.
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He's addressing Christians emphatically here.
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And these qualities aren't about keeping your salvation.
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God sustains your salvation by grace just as he gives you salvation by grace.
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Understand that.
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You can't lose it because it's all grace.
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There are people that teach anti-biblical doctrine that say, "Well, it's God's grace that saves you, but it's up to you to maintain that." Wrong.
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It's all His power.
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So these aren't about getting saved.
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We're not about keeping salvation, if that's all grace.
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This list he's sharing with us is about growing in assurance.
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He said, "You go after these things.
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"This is how you grow in assurance." And you're like, "Interesting.
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"I'll take a look at this list "and maybe think about possibly incorporating "some of these things into my life." Wrong, look at verse five again.
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He says, "For this very reason, make every effort." Now, as you know, while you're at work doing your thing, I'm at work doing my thing, and my thing is studying the Bible.
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And one of the things I do in studying the Bible is to see what things meant in the original language.
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And in the original language, do you know what it meant when he says, "Make every effort"?
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Do you know what that means?
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Literally, it means to make every effort.
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I get paid for this.
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(congregation laughing)
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Actually, in the Greek, the word was used to describe somebody that was in a hurry.
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You ever seen somebody in a hurry?
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Yeah, like, oh, they started worship and I'm still out coming down the sidewalk, in a hurry.
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That's the idea, get on this.
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Peter's not throwing this list out to say, Peter's like church, get on this right now.
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Get on this, move, move, move.
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You wanna grow in assurance?
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Today, today, right now, get on this, get on this.
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Why haven't you started?
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Get on this.
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Five minutes ago, get on this.
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That's what this word means.
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Hurry.
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Get after this.
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Make maximum efforts.
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It's the paradox that we talked about back in Philippians chapter two as we went through Philippians this past year.
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It's a paradox and Peter addresses it here.
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Christ has given us everything, now go after it with everything you got.
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Philippians 2, Paul writes, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you." And I've shared with you before, I don't understand how all that works.
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I know that it's God's power, He's the one that regenerates us and somehow we cooperate with Him and Christ has given us everything, now go after it.
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Go after what?
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Well, add these to your faith.
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I'm gonna read through the list and I'm gonna go back and make a few comments on these.
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I'd encourage you, write these words down.
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What I want you to do is to take this sermon outline, write these words down and take the sermon outline and stick it in the back of your Bible So the next time you're struggling with assurance, pull this out and say, "I need to hurry and get on some things." Because Peter says, "This is how I grow in assurance." 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.
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Add these to your faith.
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First of all, virtue.
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Virtue.
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The Greek word literally means excellence.
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Excellence.
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Growing in Christ-likeness, not phoning it in.
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Not in my family, not in my small group, not in my ministry.
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It's I'm going after the Christ like this.
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I'm going after that upward call.
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I'm pushing forward to grow more and more like Jesus Christ.
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It's excellence.
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Literally, you could say it's about being the best Christian that you can be.
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And we know God has pronounced us perfect in Christ.
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And he sees us as totally righteous.
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And what Peter's saying here is, act like how God identifies you.
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Go after that.
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You're like, "Yeah, I'm Christ-like enough." Anybody here that's like, "Yeah, I'm Christ-like enough." I'm like, to use a Pittsburgh term, I'm pretty near Jesus.
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No, you're not.
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Neither am I.
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Go after it.
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Grow in Christ-likeness.
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Do you see some areas of your life where you're not like Jesus?
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Hurry up and get after that, is what Peter's saying.
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Excellence.
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Excellence, you're going for that.
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God sees you as an A plus in Christ.
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Go after that.
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That's how you grow in assurance as you're pursuing the excellence of Christ-likeness, being more like Jesus.
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I wanna forgive like Jesus.
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I wanna pray like Jesus.
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We've talked about this the last couple of weeks.
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Peter chimes in again with it.
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Go after excellence.
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Secondly, knowledge.
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Knowledge, that's spiritual discernment, that's spending time in the word.
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Spending time in the word.
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We're pretty big on that at Harvest Bible Chapel.
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Bible's like our middle name.
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And I would ask you, where else are you going to learn about your Savior?
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Where else?
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Where are you gonna learn about Jesus if you're not in the Bible?
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Not on Wall Street.
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You're not going to turn on Fox News or ESPN to learn about Jesus.
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You're not going to learn about Jesus by going to a website, allaboutjesus.com or something.
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Here's where you learn.
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Here's where you grow in your spiritual discernment.
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And you saw over and over in this passage, he says, you know, in verse 2, "In the knowledge of God," verse 3, "through the knowledge of Him." Where else?
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Oh, okay, we're going to see it again in verse 8, "The knowledge," verse 5, "The knowledge," you know, what was that, five times I lost count?
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Like more than like two times in this passage, he keeps going back, "The knowledge of the knowledge of the knowledge of the knowledge." Where are you getting this knowledge?
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You've got to be in the Word.
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You've got to be in the Word.
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you have a Bible reading plan, get one, okay?
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You should be in God's word, prayerfully reading through it yourself.
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That's how you grow in spiritual discernment.
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And that's how you're going to grow in assurance.
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A lot of people aren't sure about their salvation because they don't really understand their salvation because they're not reading the handbook about salvation.
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You wanna grow in assurance, get your nose in the book.
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Thirdly, he says self-control.
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Self-control, literally this is translated, holding yourself in.
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It's described as one of the fruit of the Holy Spirit in Galatians chapter 5.
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And in 1 Corinthians 9.27, Paul uses it in the analogy of athletics.
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Athletes have to learn self-control, don't they?
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I was gonna say unless you play baseball, but I'm not gonna say that.
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Athletes have to learn self-control in things like training.
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I don't really feel like going to the gym.
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I went to the gym last month.
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Hey, you're an athlete.
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Yeah, the bed's more comfortable than getting up out of it.
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says I have to make some decisions.
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Diet, right?
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If you're in athletics, you gotta watch your diet.
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I could go for a whole box of Twinkies, but I'm not going to because I'm training.
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I'm using self-control.
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I'm holding myself in.
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Sleep and practice.
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And as an athlete, They learn to say no to some things.
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They just have to learn to say no to some things.
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Christians, in the same way, self-control, you're going to have to say no to sin.
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More and again, believers, please hear me.
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Sinning does not take away your salvation, but sinning will take away your confidence.
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It will, because it's hard to feel triumphant when you're acting defeated.
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That's why Peter says, "Self-control, go after it.
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"Go after it, hurry.
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"Go after it." Is there sin in your life?
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Go after it, repent of it, get rid of it.
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Hurry.
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You have some stuff in your house that needs thrown away or flushed or thrown in the shredder.
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He's like, "Get after that now.
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"Hurry, you wanna grow an assurance?
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"You're not gonna do it while you're living in sin." Fourthly, steadfastness.
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Steadfastness, that's just never giving up.
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That's just never giving up.
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That's falling off the horse seven times and getting on the horse eight times, steadfastness.
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Did you blow it yesterday?
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Well, then get back at it today.
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But steadfastness is that attitude that just says, look, I will not quit.
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I will not quit.
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I want you to say that.
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I'm gonna give you an opportunity here, prepare yourself.
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I just want you in a second, I just want you to bow your head.
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You're not saying it to me, you're not saying it to your family.
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I just want you to bow your head for a second here.
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And I want us to say that out loud before God.
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I will not quit.
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That's what Peter says we need to be going after here.
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I will not quit.
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Yeah, but life is hard, I'm not gonna quit.
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Yeah, but there are a lot of people that don't like you.
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I will not quit.
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But you have a lot of reasons to just give up.
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I will not quit.
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It's not an option.
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It's not like plan B.
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There is no plan B.
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Plan A is I'm pursuing Jesus Christ.
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What's plan B?
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I don't have one because I'm not gonna quit.
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Are you ready?
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Bow your heads.
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And I want you to say that.
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Say, I will not quit.
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Say it again.
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I will not quit.
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It's going to be hard.
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And God, you know these things that we go through.
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I will not quit.
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I will not quit.
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I encourage you to make that part of your prayer life.
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I don't know how many times I've been on my face before the Lord.
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Just repeating that, I will not quit.
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Things are getting hard, but I'm not going to quit.
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Steadfastness.
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Godliness is number five.
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Big Brother already gave you the heads up on that earlier in a statement that he made.
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But what does godliness mean?
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It means reverence.
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It means God consciousness.
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And here's what Darren said earlier.
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It's God in every area of my life.
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That's godliness.
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God in every area of my life.
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Meaning this, you want assurance?
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Well, here's something you can't do and still have assurance.
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And that's compartmentalize your life.
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This is who I am in church and this is who I am at home, and this is who I am when I'm with my buddies and this is who I am at work.
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And some people try to live that mode of being some kind of a chameleon.
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And Peter says, no, you want you want to grow an assurance?
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God consciousness in every area of your life, every area.
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There's no compartments.
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I'm the same no matter where you find me or who you find me with.
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Number six is brotherly affection.
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Brotherly affection.
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You know what the Greek word is for that, Amanda?
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Yeah, it's hard to say.
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It's Philadelphia.
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Brotherly affection.
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She's from Philadelphia, so she's always there to help me out.
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Brotherly affection.
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1 John says, "If you love God, you'll love others.
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If you say you love God, you don't love others." He says, "You're a liar.
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Go after it.
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Go after it.
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Love others." Come on, hurry up.
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Come to church early and meet people.
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Stick around church a little bit afterwards and meet people.
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Invite someone to lunch.
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Get involved with people.
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Get in a small group where you're loving people.
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You're like, oh no, he's not talking about small groups again.
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Yeah, I am, because they're a big deal.
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You need to be involved in a community of people.
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You have to be.
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You know, I just show up Sunday and I'll see you next Sunday thing.
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You know what?
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missing it. All I can tell you is you're missing it. You're missing out on something greater, being involved with a group of people, authentic, who will love you and pray with you and pray for you and brotherly affection. Hurry up and get on that and you'll grow in assurance. And then last but not least, actually this is last and most important, this is last and top of the list, this is last and sort of "All encompassing," he says, "love." That's the top of the list.
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We're talking about growing any assurance of your faith.
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Faith works by love.
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Did you know that?
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That's how faith works.
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Faith doesn't work by guilt.
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It doesn't work.
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Well, I should probably go to small group 'cause I feel guilty if I don't.
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Yeah, that's gonna last.
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I should probably give to the church and I'll feel guilty if I don't.
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Yeah, that's gonna last.
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Faith works by love.
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I'm involved in a small group because I love the people in this church.
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I love our small group.
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I wish I could go to every small group.
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In fact, Justin and Michelle, get on that.
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Let's have our small groups arranged as such so that I can go to everyone every week.
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I would love that.
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I don't think my family would, so maybe I need to rethink this.
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I love this church.
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Faith works by love.
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It's love for God, first of all, love for God's people, love for God's work, love for God's church, love for God's world.
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We could go on and on.
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But how do these things, how does going after these things grow my assurance?
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You know, Peter gives this list here.
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How do these things grow my assurance?
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Or I want you to imagine, I want you to think of, just imagine these friends that you have that are married.
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And specifically, you're friends with the man.
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And one day he says to you, you know, he's just kind of confiding to you, Ken.
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He's like, you know what, Ken?
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You're like, how's the marriage going?
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And how's your wife?
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And he makes this statement.
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He says, you know, I don't really feel married.
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Well, what's the first thing you say?
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The first thing you say is, well, you are married, whether you feel like it or not.
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But then Ken would dig a little deeper and he'd say, well, tell me about your, well, talk to me about that.
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Tell me like, what does a weekly schedule look like for you?
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And this man says, well, I'm at work late two nights a week and I'm at the bar late the other three nights.
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Usually in the weekends, I take these fishing trips with my buddies.
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A lot of times when I am home, I just sleep in the den or in the basement.
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What's the obvious problem here?
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You see it?
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The problem is his lifestyle doesn't match up with his identity, right?
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His lifestyle doesn't match up with his identity.
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You would say to him, do you wanna feel married?
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Well, yeah, I really do wanna feel married.
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Here's what you do.
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Go home instead of going to the bar.
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Take your wife on a date twice a month.
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Go to bed with your wife.
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Write little notes to your wife.
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Buy your wife presents.
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In other words, if you start doing the things that married people should do, you're going to feel married.
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And church, I would say to you in the same way, when you embrace your identity in Jesus Christ, when you rest in the promises of God and you deliberately go after the things that are directly tied into your identity, you're going to feel the assurance of salvation.
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Because, bottom line, assurance is tied into your lifestyle.
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It's tied into your lifestyle.
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Finally, I grow in assurance when I persevere through time.
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When I persevere through time, look at verse eight.
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He says, "For if these qualities are yours and increasing, they keep you from becoming ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." I'm gonna pause here for a second.
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I grow in assurance when I persevere through time.
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Listen, don't misunderstand me today.
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I'm not saying, you know what?
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Just go home and do the things on this list like sometime this afternoon before supper and everything's gonna be great.
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You know, just take three or four minutes this afternoon and work through this list and assurance all the way to heaven.
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You're gonna feel all better.
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No, he says, if these are yours and increasing, meaning you're maturing in Christ going after these things, he says, "They keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful." What does he mean by that?
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He means it's hard to be effective or fruitful in ministry, however God's called you to ministry.
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It's hard to be effective or fruitful when you're always unsure about your own salvation.
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That's what he's saying.
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In other words, if I'm not sure about my own salvation, I'm not going to be a very effective preacher, am I?
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I get up on Sunday, it's like, Derek, you know, the Bible's kind of like, you know, believe in Jesus.
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Like, wow, that was like whatever's on the other end of the spectrum from hellfire and brimstone.
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Like, where's the passion?
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Where's the confidence in the word of God?
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If I'm not confident in my own salvation, how am I going to stand up before you and say, "Thus saith the Lord." Trust God to keep his promises, embrace who you are in Christ.
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I'm not gonna have the confidence for that if I don't have it personally.
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Same way for the worship team.
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It's going to be awfully hard to stand up, right, Bob?
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It's gonna be awfully hard to stand up.
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We're going to lead the congregation in worship.
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And we're like, okay, we're going to sing "Your Grace is Enough." And meanwhile, you're not even convinced of that in your own life.
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And you're just kind of like, "Your grace is enough." Like, really?
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It's standing up confidently saying, "I have found that Jesus Christ is sufficient "and He is everything and everything I need is in Him.
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"That's why I can stand before you and say, "'His grace is enough.'" That's a different worship set, isn't it?
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You know, you're back working with the children.
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You're not gonna have fruitful ministry if it's sort of like, "Well, I probably should teach them the Bible, "but I'll just kind of babysit them." stuff some goldfish crackers in their mouth and hope that the sermon doesn't go too long.
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Unfruitful.
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But when you have this fire of what God's doing in your life, I can't wait to teach this to the kids about how awesome Jesus is.
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You have no effectiveness or fruitfulness in your ministry if you're unsure yourself.
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Your ministry has to be an overflow what God's doing in your heart, or it's gonna show eventually, it's gonna show.
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In that case, we might have to ask you to step down and work on your thing with God before you're put in a position of ministry.
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Today, he says, look at verse nine.
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"For whoever lacks these qualities "is so nearsighted that he is blind." Many of us can relate to the concept of being so nearsighted that you're practically blind.
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Anybody else?
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Like the Hubble Space Telescope people, like have me on speed dial just in case something happens with their telescope and they need my glasses.
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But he says if you lack these qualities, he's talking about spiritual nearsightedness, right?
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Yeah, you got that.
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He says he's so nearsighted that he is blind.
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And then look at this next statement.
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having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.
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If you lack these qualities, you're nearsighted, you're blind, you have forgotten.
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Once upon a time, once upon a time, you were so enamored with grace, and you loved Jesus so much, and you felt so free from your sin and the guilt and the shame, and you just wanted to serve Christ and tell people about Christ just because you love Christ.
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And it was so like, man.
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And Peter says, you know, some of you have gotten away from that.
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You've gotten away from that.
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Remember when you were so passionate about serving Christ because you loved him?
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Well, if you get away from that and the Christian life becomes stale and routine and you come to church, time to make the donuts, roll the stuff off the truck, hook up the microphones, put out the friendship registers, see you next week, yawn, you're going to lose your assurance.
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That's why Peter says, "Hurry up, hurry up, get back to these qualities." And then you'll find a day at a time, over a period of time, you will find that assurance isn't even a question you're thinking about.
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Peter says, "Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure.
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For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall." Pray with me.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read 2 Peter 1:1-10
Why do you think it’s so important to be confident in your salvation? How does confidence affect your walk with Christ? How does not being confident affect your walk?
Why do you think many Christians struggle with assurance? What would you say to a friend who confides in you, “I just don’t know if I am really saved?”
Breakout Questions:
On a scale of 1-10 (1 = I have NO idea, in fact, I may be a Pagan, 10 = I am 100% positive) rate your assurance of your own salvation as of right now.
What can you do to grow in assurance right now? Tonight? This week? (2 Peter 1:1-10).
Pray for one another.