Benjamin Murphy
Small Group Questions
Benjamin Murphy
Sermon Series Highlights
Sermon Series Highlights

Salvation

Victory Celebration

Introduction:

It Is Impossible to Lose Your Salvation: (Jude 1:24-25)

  1. Because of God's Power . (Jude 1:24a)

    See: John 10:28-29

  2. Because of God's Promise . (Jude 1:24b)

    See: John 6:39 | Philippians 1:6

5 Descriptions of How Thoroughly God Dealt with Your Sin:

  1. Your sin is Washed away . (Isaiah 1:18)

    See: John 15:10

  2. Your sin is Removed . (Psalm 103:12)
  3. Your sin is Lost . (Micah 7:19)
  4. Your sin is Forgotten . (Jeremiah 31:34, Heb 8:12, 10:17)
  5. Your sin is Pardoned . (Romans 8:1)
  1. Because of God's Prestige . (Jude 1:25a)

    See: Psalm 23:3 | Psalm 25:11 | Isaiah 48:9, 11 | Ezekiel 20:44 | 1 John 2:12

  2. Because of God's Permanence . (Jude 1:25b)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

  • 00:50-00:52

    Open up your Bibles with me to the book of Jude.

    00:54-00:56

    And while we're turning there, let's just take a moment and pray.

    00:56-01:03

    I'm going to ask if you would please pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's Word.

    01:04-01:10

    And I will pray for us to be open to receiving it as the Word of God.

    01:10-01:11

    Alright, let's pray.

    01:12-01:15

    Our Father in heaven, there are so many things that could distract us right now.

    01:15-01:32

    And I just ask that we would be so laser-focused that Your Spirit would supernaturally grab our hearts and minds right now to think about nothing else but Your Word.

    01:33-01:36

    We believe that Your Word does Your work.

    01:36-01:39

    That's what You claim, and we trust You.

    01:40-01:43

    That's what we're asking for again today, Father.

    01:45-01:47

    I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

    01:49-01:55

    We're finishing our series in Jude called "The Hill to Die On." And this is the victory celebration.

    01:55-01:59

    And if you haven't been with us the last couple of weeks, I want to give you a quick review.

    02:00-02:07

    Jude was written by one of the half-brothers of Jesus, and he starts with a call to arms.

    02:07-02:14

    He says, "You have to contend for the faith." He's talking about apostates.

    02:14-02:18

    Those are people that go into churches and promote false teaching.

    02:19-02:28

    And it happened even as early as this, and even until today in our church we have dealt with that.

    02:29-02:34

    There are people that want to push their unbiblical false teaching.

    02:37-02:38

    So what are these people like?

    02:38-02:40

    Well, that was the next section of Jude.

    02:40-02:44

    He says, "Here's how you know the enemy." And he describes these enemies of the truth.

    02:45-02:47

    Then last week was a stand your ground.

    02:48-02:50

    He tells us we need to be ready.

    02:50-02:51

    They're coming.

    02:52-02:53

    We need to be strong in the Lord ourselves.

    02:54-02:58

    And we need to be merciful because God was merciful with his enemies.

    02:59-03:01

    And it's a holiday weekend.

    03:01-03:07

    And a lot of times for my family, that means getting together with extended family.

    03:07-03:13

    And normally that sounds like fun, but I got to tell you, It's not always great.

    03:14-03:16

    Like, let me tell you why though.

    03:17-03:25

    This all stems back from a New Year's Eve several years ago at my wife's sister's house.

    03:26-03:41

    Nieces, our cute little nieces said, "Hey, you need to try this buffalo chicken dip." And I'm like, "Okay." And they're like, "Don't worry, there's nothing in it that you won't like." You see where this is going, ladies and gentlemen?

    03:44-03:50

    Well, I took a bite of the buffalo chicken dip and immediately I knew something was dreadfully amiss.

    03:51-04:03

    I was like, "Mm, oh." I'm like, "What was in that?" And they're like, "It had ranch in it!" And they start laughing and I am literally throwing up in their kitchen sink.

    04:06-04:08

    You're like, "Why did you tell us that horrible story?" Well, here's why.

    04:10-04:14

    I trusted them, and they deceived me.

    04:16-04:22

    And because I was gullible enough to fall for their deception, there was a price that I had to pay.

    04:24-04:28

    I.e. being sick in their kitchen sink, literally.

    04:30-04:33

    And that's where we left off last week from Jude.

    04:34-04:43

    He said there's a danger of being deceived by these people who have crept into your church to deceive you.

    04:44-04:46

    And that's where we left off.

    04:46-04:55

    He said, "Show mercy with fear, hating even the garments stained by the flesh." Now listen, they're your mission field.

    04:55-05:02

    We can't look at these people as our enemy and we have to throw them out.

    05:02-05:05

    We have to evangelize them, right?

    05:05-05:06

    That's where we left off.

    05:07-05:13

    But he says, "Hate even the garments stained by the flesh." And we explained in detail what that meant.

    05:13-05:18

    I'm not going to bark up that tree again, but here's the principle, church, and this is so important.

    05:20-05:26

    When somebody creeps in and they're trying to teach false doctrine, you're trying to convert them, right?

    05:26-05:31

    You want them to come to know Jesus Christ, at the same time, they're trying to convert you.

    05:32-05:37

    You see them as your mission field, they see you as their mission field.

    05:37-05:42

    That's why Jude says you have to show mercy with fear.

    05:45-05:55

    Because just like me on New Year's Eve, falling for the horrible chicken dip or whatever it was, there's a danger that you can be deceived.

    05:57-05:59

    And that's why you need to be careful.

    06:01-06:06

    Because we are all prone to being deceived.

    06:08-06:11

    You see, now we have to ask ourselves, "Well, what if I fall for it?

    06:11-06:15

    What if these false teachers come, and what if their thing they're saying makes sense?

    06:15-06:18

    And what if I begin to question certain things?

    06:18-06:21

    And what if I kind of get caught up in what they're teaching?

    06:23-06:29

    Could I lose my salvation?" So here's the truth I want you to see today.

    06:30-06:38

    And this is absolutely critical whether we're dealing with false teachers, or battling with sin, or whatever.

    06:39-06:42

    This is an absolutely critical truth.

    06:43-06:54

    If you are truly saved, if you are a true, born-again believer in Jesus Christ, you absolutely cannot lose your salvation.

    06:57-06:59

    called the doctrine of security.

    07:01-07:02

    That's what we're gonna talk about today.

    07:04-07:06

    And you see how the stage is set here?

    07:07-07:08

    Like, wait a minute, what if I'm deceived?

    07:08-07:12

    What if these people deceive me and I believe it and I could lose my salvation?

    07:12-07:13

    That's how Jude closes this.

    07:13-07:15

    He goes, no, no, no, you're not gonna worry about that.

    07:16-07:17

    You don't get to worry about that.

    07:19-07:22

    If you are truly saved, there's nothing that can take that from you.

    07:24-07:30

    Because if you take away security, you don't have hope.

    07:31-07:32

    All you have is doubt.

    07:33-07:34

    All you have is worry.

    07:34-07:36

    All you have is like just constant anxiety.

    07:39-07:41

    There's no joy in the Christian walk.

    07:41-07:43

    There's no assurance.

    07:43-07:49

    There's no resting in the finished work of Jesus if it's possible that I could lose my salvation.

    07:51-07:53

    But you see, here's the thing.

    07:54-07:58

    We think that we can lose our salvation when we start to think that it's up to me to keep it.

    07:59-08:02

    But it can't be up to me, because I fail every day.

    08:02-08:03

    How about you?

    08:05-08:16

    So the only hope that I have of staying saved, and the only hope that you have of staying saved, if you're really saved, is if God Himself somehow holds on to you.

    08:19-08:39

    Because if God doesn't hold you, hope do you have?" We'd start to ask ourselves questions like this, and I hear this all the time from people, like, "Hey, Pastor Jeff, how much messing up is too much? You know, what sin could I commit that would cost me my salvation?

    08:39-08:58

    Is there a line? Is there some kind of like line that like, if I cross this line, now I'm not saved anymore, like, where is the line? Like, is there some certain sin I could commit, or certain number of sins that I could commit, or what if I start doubting, or what if I have questions about the Bible?

    08:59-09:00

    Is there some kind of a line?

    09:00-09:05

    And if I cross the line, would I be able to go back across the line again if I believe?

    09:06-09:08

    Or is it like you cross the line and you can't go back?

    09:11-09:12

    That's how some Christians live.

    09:13-09:16

    Just with lack of assurance.

    09:18-09:27

    And then some say, "Well, maybe God grades on the curve, right?" Then I want to compare myself to others, but that's a problem.

    09:28-09:29

    That's a problem for all of us.

    09:30-09:34

    Because I can always find somebody worse than me. Always.

    09:34-09:41

    Some of you are laughing because you're like, "That must be hard for you to find somebody worse than you, Jeff." No, I can always find somebody worse than me.

    09:42-09:47

    Like, look, I realize I'm a bad person by nature, but I'm not as bad as that guy.

    09:47-09:50

    Anybody else know what I'm talking about? It's easy to compare.

    09:51-09:53

    Like, okay, so maybe God grades on the curve.

    09:54-09:57

    Like, okay, I'm looking at everybody here and...

    09:59-10:05

    There's another side of that coin though, in that I can always find somebody better than me.

    10:06-10:11

    Right? Like, look, I'm trying really hard, but I'm never going to be as good as this guy.

    10:13-10:13

    Never.

    10:14-10:19

    And no matter how hard I try, He's always way better than me.

    10:19-10:22

    So if God's grading on the curve, boy, He just brought the average way up.

    10:25-10:32

    And I just have to hope that I'm good enough to get to heaven.

    10:32-10:35

    But how good is good enough? And I'm right back where I started.

    10:37-10:40

    Can you lose your salvation if you're truly saved?

    10:40-10:41

    Can you lose your salvation?

    10:41-10:48

    I've talked to so many Christians that say yes, but Jude says no.

    10:50-10:53

    So let's look at what he says, verse 24 and 25.

    10:53-10:55

    Look very closely here, and then we're going to break it down.

    10:58-11:52

    Jude closes his letter by saying, "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God Our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen. And if you're a Christian, this is the best news that I can give you. If you are truly saved, Jude closes by reminding us that nothing can take that away. So if you have an outline, which we always encourage. I want you to jot down four reasons from Jude that it is impossible to lose your salvation. It is impossible to lose your salvation. Why?

    11:53-12:32

    Number one, it's impossible to lose your salvation because of God's power. Because of God's power, look at verse 24 again. It says, "Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling." Stop there. "To him who is able to keep you from stumbling." He says he's able to, first of all, keep you. That word keep is a military term. It was a term used to describe somebody being guarded or watched over. That to me isn't as captivating That is the first part of that phrase.

    12:34-12:36

    He is able.

    12:38-12:39

    He is able.

    12:40-12:46

    Like, "Well, I don't think I can keep my salvation, Jeff." It's not up to you.

    12:47-12:48

    He is able.

    12:48-12:49

    Did you see that?

    12:49-12:54

    You can't save yourself, and you can't keep yourself saved.

    12:55-12:59

    And if you could lose your salvation, You absolutely would.

    13:01-13:08

    But you see, the power to save is God's, and the power to keep you saved is God's.

    13:09-13:10

    He is able.

    13:12-13:18

    And if you think you can lose your salvation, it's because you think that it rests in your power.

    13:20-13:22

    But that's not what the Bible says.

    13:23-13:24

    The Bible says it's in His power.

    13:25-13:27

    He is able. Did you see that?

    13:28-13:31

    Notice how Jesus said it back in John chapter 10.

    13:31-13:32

    We just went through the Gospel of John recently.

    13:34-13:37

    But I have to quote this passage.

    13:37-13:45

    Jesus said, "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish." Look at this, "And no one will snatch them out of my hand.

    13:46-13:54

    My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." Do you see that?

    13:54-13:57

    According to Jesus, if you're truly saved, where are you?

    13:58-14:00

    You're in his hand, right?

    14:01-14:06

    You are in his hand and he says nobody can take you from his hand.

    14:09-14:10

    You know, and I like to use illustration.

    14:11-14:13

    If I had something here, we'll just use my ring for example.

    14:14-14:20

    If I just said, "Hey, I have this ring here and if you can get it out of my hand, you can have it." And it's worth a fortune, it's really not.

    14:21-14:21

    This one's not.

    14:21-14:23

    You can have this.

    14:24-14:25

    All you got to do is take it from me.

    14:27-14:29

    there's a lot of people in this room that could take that from me.

    14:30-14:34

    There's a lot of people in here that can come up and snatch this out of my hand.

    14:35-14:55

    But, if I had, say, Hulk Hogan up here, and the ring was in his hand, and I'm like, "If you can snatch the ring out of Hulk Hogan's hand, brother, then you can have it!" There's not a person here that would be able to take it from him.

    14:56-14:59

    And you're like, "Isn't he 100 now?" That's not the point of the illustration.

    15:01-15:04

    6'7", 2 inches from heaven, 303 pounds, whatever.

    15:05-15:07

    You couldn't take it from his hand.

    15:09-15:10

    You see what Jesus is saying.

    15:11-15:17

    He says, "If you belong to him, you're in his hand." Then he ratchets it up again.

    15:17-15:22

    He goes, "You're in the Father's hand." Now, who could possibly take you from the hand of God?

    15:22-15:23

    Who? Who?

    15:24-15:30

    Anybody that would take you from the hand of God Himself would have to be stronger than God.

    15:32-15:33

    He's able.

    15:35-15:37

    He is able to keep you from stumbling.

    15:38-15:48

    That word "stumbling" literally in the Greek is the same word where we get "apostate." He's able to keep you from falling away if you're truly saved.

    15:48-15:49

    It's a question of ability.

    15:49-15:57

    You can't keep your salvation in your own power, and you don't need to worry about that.

    15:58-16:00

    He has the power to keep you.

    16:01-16:04

    So it's impossible to lose your salvation because of God's power.

    16:05-16:07

    Secondly, because of God's promise.

    16:08-16:09

    Look at verse 24 again.

    16:10-16:24

    It says, "And to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy." So He's able, two things, to keep you from stumbling, and to present you blameless.

    16:26-16:28

    Like when and where?

    16:29-16:32

    Before the presence of His glory, with great joy.

    16:34-16:41

    Boy, I could spend probably four sermons unpacking that statement, but just for today's purpose, I want you to see this.

    16:43-16:46

    When God saves you, He declares what your future holds.

    16:47-16:48

    You see that?

    16:49-17:07

    When God saves you, He's like, "I already know what your end game looks like." In other words, John 6.39, it says, "And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should," look at this, "lose nothing of all that He has given me, but raise it up on the last day." Did you see this?

    17:07-17:11

    When you're saved, Jesus is like, "I'm not going to lose you, but here's what I am going to do.

    17:11-17:14

    I'm going to raise you up on the last day." That's exactly what Jude's talking about here.

    17:17-17:33

    Paul commenting on this concept, Philippians 1.6 says, "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." He promised to see you through to the end.

    17:36-17:38

    He promised to finish what he starts.

    17:40-17:45

    And your salvation being secure, listen, it's based on God's integrity.

    17:47-17:50

    It's based on God keeping His promise, you see.

    17:53-18:02

    So when I say, "I'm saved, I'm going to heaven," that's not a statement of my ability.

    18:03-18:08

    That's a statement of, "This is the promise that God made me and I believe it." It's God's integrity.

    18:10-18:15

    It says, "He'll present you blameless." Blameless.

    18:15-18:21

    You're going to doubt your salvation when you don't truly understand how thoroughly you've been saved.

    18:23-18:25

    So that's why we've talked about this before.

    18:25-18:26

    I'm going to go through this very quickly.

    18:27-18:30

    Five descriptions of how thoroughly God dealt with your sin.

    18:31-18:38

    We're gonna doubt our salvation when we, you know, sometimes we view forgiveness as sort of like God saying, "Okay, you know what?

    18:38-18:46

    You're a sinner and I forgive you, but don't you dare mess up because I remember what you did." And we have this idea that we mess up and God's like, "I knew it!

    18:47-18:47

    You're a screw up.

    18:49-18:55

    You're unsaved." And I need to remind you here of how thoroughly God dealt with your sin.

    18:56-19:00

    All right, quickly, five descriptions of how thoroughly God dealt with your sin.

    19:00-19:02

    First of all, letter A, your sin is washed away.

    19:03-19:11

    Isaiah 1.18 says, "Though your sins are like scarlet, "they shall be white as snow." That's a thorough cleansing.

    19:12-19:13

    Your sin is washed away.

    19:14-19:15

    Letter B, your sin is removed.

    19:17-19:25

    Psalm 103.12, I love this, says, "As far as the east is from the west, "so far does he remove our transgressions from us." How far is the east from the west?

    19:25-19:26

    How far?

    19:26-19:27

    How far is that?

    19:28-19:29

    It's infinite, right?

    19:31-19:33

    You know what's so interesting to me about that?

    19:33-19:36

    Is God didn't say as far as the North is from the South.

    19:36-19:37

    Do you know why God didn't say that?

    19:38-19:43

    Because if you keep going North, eventually you start to go South again.

    19:43-19:43

    You know what I mean?

    19:44-19:48

    Like grab a globe, keep going North, eventually go South.

    19:48-19:50

    That doesn't happen East and West.

    19:50-19:52

    You keep going East, you will never go West.

    19:54-19:55

    Your sin is gone.

    19:56-19:56

    Your sin is removed.

    19:57-19:58

    Letter C, your sin is lost.

    20:00-20:08

    I love this, Micah 7.19 says, "You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea." Think about that.

    20:09-20:11

    Using my ring as an illustration again.

    20:13-20:23

    Imagine that I'm on a cruise ship and I'm standing leaning over the edge of the deck, just leaning over the railing, looking down at the ocean.

    20:23-20:59

    And we were actually married on a cruise, a party on back in 2002. But imagine I'm leaning over the railing and there's the we're on the cruise middle of the ocean traveling and I'm just playing with my ring and oh that's unfortunate and it goes into the ocean. What are the chances I'm ever going to get that back? What are the chances? Zero! There is no No way anybody's ever going to find that.

    20:59-21:01

    You can hire the best diver...

    21:03-21:04

    Mucklewood, thank you.

    21:10-21:13

    Knowing him, I bet you he'd put on a scuba suit and go look for it.

    21:14-21:15

    Thank you, Muck.

    21:15-21:19

    But if that really did drop into the ocean, I don't even think he'd be able to find that.

    21:19-21:21

    It would be gone forever.

    21:21-21:25

    And that's what God says, "I did with your sin." Or like on the cruise ship, over the edge, boop!

    21:25-21:27

    Your sin is gone!

    21:28-21:29

    Right? Your sin is lost.

    21:30-21:31

    Letter D, your sin is forgotten.

    21:33-21:44

    Jeremiah 31-34, God says, "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." This must be very important to God, because He says it twice in the New Testament.

    21:45-21:48

    Hebrews 8-12, Hebrews 10-17.

    21:50-21:57

    God says, "I will remember their sins no more." I can't even wrap my brain around that because I know, I know my sin.

    21:58-22:08

    And I think people, we get this idea that we're gonna stand before God someday and God's gonna say, well, okay, we're gonna talk about letting you into heaven, but first I gotta talk to you about your sin.

    22:09-22:11

    And remember when you did this?

    22:11-22:13

    And I've had friends tell me that.

    22:13-22:21

    They said, Jeff, I think someday when you die, God kind of shows you a movie of your life and shows you all of the sin that you committed.

    22:21-22:30

    And I said, "That is absolutely not true, "if the Bible's true." Because God says He's willing to forget your sin.

    22:31-22:43

    Then we'll stand before Him someday and say, "God, I was such a screw up and I did this "and boy, I really messed up here." And if the Bible's true, God's response is going to be, "Yeah, I don't remember that.

    22:44-23:05

    "But God, surely you have to understand, "I was such a, you know, I had lustful thoughts, God, and I was deceptive and I lied so many times, and then I received Christ, and God's like, "I just don't remember your sin." He has chosen to forget about it.

    23:08-23:10

    And He said it three times in His Word.

    23:12-23:28

    "Your sin is forgotten." And then finally, "Your sin is pardoned." Romans 8.1, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." When we receive Christ, we are pronounced not guilty.

    23:29-23:30

    This is courtroom terminology.

    23:30-23:38

    God the Judge slams His gavel down, and He says, "Oh, you received My Son for the forgiveness of sin. Payment is made.

    23:38-23:51

    You are pronounced not guilty." Now let me ask you, who's going to run into the courtroom and say, "Hold on, Judge! I have reason that we should pronounce them guilty and condemn them." Who's going to tell God that, really?

    23:52-23:54

    Who's going to overturn that judge's decision?

    23:55-23:56

    Like, anybody? No.

    23:58-24:00

    He's already pronounced you not guilty.

    24:02-24:04

    "No condemnation," it says.

    24:05-24:21

    So do you see - and I could go on, but I'm not going to - Like, "Well, what's your point here?" My point is this, if I can lose salvation, that means my sin will be held against me.

    24:23-24:23

    Right?

    24:24-24:27

    That means God's decided, "You know what?

    24:27-24:30

    I am going to hold your sin against you." And do you know what that means?

    24:31-24:34

    All that stuff I just shared with you, God lied about all of that.

    24:34-24:35

    That was all lies.

    24:38-24:39

    If I can lose my salvation.

    24:42-24:49

    that if all these things are true, and I believe that they are, it's just simply this, church, God promised to keep you.

    24:49-24:50

    He promised.

    24:52-24:52

    Is his word good?

    24:54-24:55

    I'll go with it.

    24:56-25:00

    All right, it is impossible to lose your salvation because of God's power, because of God's promise.

    25:00-25:02

    Thirdly, because of God's prestige.

    25:03-25:07

    Because of God's prestige, look at the beginning of verse 25.

    25:09-25:26

    that says, "To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority." Whatever the false teachers may claim, there's one God, there's one Savior.

    25:27-25:30

    Jude reminds us, and he has a prestige unlike any other.

    25:30-25:32

    He gives us a list again.

    25:32-25:34

    These could all be their own sermon.

    25:35-25:37

    I want us to look at the big picture here, right?

    25:40-25:42

    He describes as God, first of all, glory.

    25:43-25:47

    Glory is the radiance of all that God is in His being and in His nature.

    25:48-25:53

    Glory is what God radiates, like the light from a light bulb.

    25:54-25:56

    That's the glory radiating.

    25:58-25:59

    Speaking to His character.

    26:01-26:03

    Majesty speaks to God's greatness.

    26:05-26:10

    Opinion speaks to God's power, and authority speaks to God's sovereignty.

    26:13-26:18

    We worship God for the way that He's demonstrated His power, and for the way that He keeps His promises.

    26:20-26:28

    So let me ask you, if God lacks the power to keep you, and if God's promises fail, would He be worthy of worship?

    26:31-26:32

    I want you to think about this.

    26:34-26:36

    Why does he list this?

    26:36-26:38

    You know, the glory, the majesty, dominion, and authority.

    26:41-26:42

    Why does he list this here?

    26:42-26:43

    I want you to think about this.

    26:45-26:54

    When God saves someone, obviously that person who is saved receives a benefit, right?

    26:57-26:57

    Eternal life.

    26:59-27:00

    Sin forgiven.

    27:02-27:14

    But God personally has a vested interest in salvation, in the very work of salvation.

    27:16-27:19

    God personally has an interest in the work of salvation.

    27:19-27:22

    It's not just about the benefit of the one who receives it.

    27:24-27:37

    You're like, "Well, what in the world does that mean?" I'm going to tell you, and you're never going to be able to read God's Word again without seeing this phrase and thinking about this.

    27:37-27:44

    Because there's a phrase that comes up in God's Word over and over and over and over and over.

    27:45-27:54

    Old Testament, New Testament, and when you see it, sometimes I think we gloss over it, but this is such an important phrase.

    27:56-28:06

    And the phrase is this, "For His name's sake." Some variation of that.

    28:07-28:08

    For His name's sake.

    28:10-28:11

    What does that mean?

    28:12-28:16

    It means that salvation is more than the person receiving the benefit.

    28:16-28:24

    God personally has a vested personal interest in the work of salvation because salvation has to do with the very reputation of God Himself.

    28:25-28:26

    You understand what I'm saying?

    28:27-28:28

    Let me give you some examples.

    28:30-28:33

    This is about the reputation of God.

    28:34-28:36

    And I had this whole giant list of examples.

    28:36-28:38

    I narrowed it down to just a few here.

    28:39-28:40

    But here's some examples.

    28:40-28:42

    Psalm 23.3.

    28:42-28:43

    You're familiar with this one, right?

    28:44-28:46

    23rd Psalm, he restores my soul.

    28:46-28:48

    He leads me in paths of righteousness.

    28:48-28:49

    Why would he do that?

    28:50-28:51

    Because I'm awesome?

    28:53-28:54

    Because I'm in need?

    28:54-28:55

    Why does he do it?

    28:55-28:55

    Tell me.

    28:57-28:58

    Come on, more than three of you.

    28:58-28:59

    Why does he do it?

    29:00-29:01

    For his namesake, do you see that?

    29:04-29:05

    That's why God is working.

    29:06-29:10

    Not because of me, but because of his reputation, right?

    29:11-29:14

    And then next, Psalm 25 11.

    29:15-29:15

    Look at this.

    29:16-29:20

    For your namesake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great.

    29:21-29:22

    Why should you forgive me, God?

    29:22-29:27

    because I deserve it, because I'm not that bad, because I promise I'm not going to...

    29:28-29:33

    God, why should you be so motivated to pardon my horrible sin?

    29:33-29:34

    Why, God, why?

    29:34-29:35

    Do you see how He appeals?

    29:37-29:38

    It's because of who you are.

    29:39-29:40

    It's because of your reputation.

    29:41-29:44

    It's because of what salvation means to you, right?

    29:44-30:43

    Isaiah 48 verses 9 and 11, it says, this is the Lord speaking, He says, "For my name's sake I defer my anger. For the sake of my praise I restrain it for you that I may not cut you off." Then verse 11, "For my own sake, for my own sake I do it. For how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another." Do you see? God's stressing a point. Why am I doing what I'm doing? It's not because of you, it's Ezekiel 20 verse 44, "And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I deal with you for My name's sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the Lord God." You're like, "That's very Old Testament." Pastor Jeff, do you have anything from the New Testament?

    30:43-30:44

    What about 1 John 2.12?

    30:46-30:47

    This one statement really sums it up.

    30:50-30:57

    As John writes, "I am writing to you little children, because your sins are forgiven." Why? Why are your sins forgiven?

    30:59-31:00

    Do you see it? Say it. Say it.

    31:02-31:04

    "For His name's sake." Do you see that?

    31:06-31:08

    God has His reputation attached to His work.

    31:11-31:13

    And here's the point. Listen closely, please.

    31:14-31:19

    God works for His glory and for our good. Both.

    31:19-31:31

    But, the Bible puts the priority on God's interest over ours as the basis of His action.

    31:33-31:38

    In other words, God's actions are based on and motivated by His glory, not us.

    31:40-31:47

    Or to put it another way, you being saved says nothing about you, but it says everything about God.

    31:50-32:03

    So God saving people speaks to how awesome He is, His prestige, so He will keep you, He will fulfill His promise to you all the way to the end because that's what brings Him glory.

    32:05-32:10

    It's impossible for you to lose your salvation because of God's prestige, right?

    32:11-32:11

    It's not about you.

    32:14-32:17

    We are the recipients of the most awesome benefit.

    32:20-32:23

    Salvation is about God's glory, and that's why He's going to keep you.

    32:25-32:28

    And finally, number four, because of God's permanence.

    32:29-32:36

    It's impossible to lose your salvation because of God's power, because of God's promise, because of God's prestige, and finally because of God's permanence.

    32:37-32:38

    Look at the end of verse 25.

    32:39-32:47

    He says, "Before all time and now and forever, Amen." That's pretty simple, isn't it?

    32:48-32:49

    This is all time, right?

    32:49-32:50

    Past, present, and future.

    32:52-32:58

    God's plan will be carried out because God doesn't change.

    32:59-32:59

    You see that?

    33:01-33:06

    When God saved you, He made a promise to keep you.

    33:07-33:10

    And it's not as if God's gonna change His mind about that.

    33:12-33:25

    God adopted you as His child in Christ, and you don't have to worry that tomorrow God's going to take you back to the adoption agency and say, "Hey, sorry, it's just not working out.

    33:25-33:29

    "I'm gonna have to give her back." That's not how He works.

    33:31-33:33

    Because He doesn't change.

    33:34-33:41

    He goes, "Look, did I make a promise to save you Did I make a promise to pronounce you righteous and holy in Christ?

    33:41-33:43

    Did I make a promise to keep you?

    33:43-33:47

    Did I make a promise to someday present you blameless in heaven?

    33:48-33:50

    I'm standing by that promise.

    33:51-33:58

    God's not like us, where we change our minds and we're so fickle and we change.

    33:58-33:59

    God's not like that.

    34:01-34:02

    He doesn't change.

    34:02-34:04

    His word doesn't change.

    34:04-34:06

    His promise to keep you doesn't change.

    34:06-34:13

    His power doesn't change, and His motivation of His glory, that will not change.

    34:15-34:26

    So when you fully embrace this truth, that in Christ your salvation is a done deal, you're free to be who God called you to be.

    34:28-34:32

    You're free to do the work that God has prepared for you.

    34:33-34:48

    free to pray, and you're free to worship, and you're free to love others, even apostates, without fear of messing up, without fear of getting kicked out of the family, without fear of somehow doing something so bad that you forfeited heaven.

    34:49-34:50

    It's not going to happen.

    34:52-35:17

    So listen, if you're a believer and you've been plagued with doubt, and I know a lot of believers are. Now's the time to confess that. And now's the time to receive the truth of God's Word and joyfully live in the power and the promise of God. To His glory. Forever.

    35:18-35:23

    I'd like the worship team to come back up please. I'm going to lead us in a prayer and I'd like you to bow your heads with me.

    35:25-35:33

    Because I know, church, so many times over the years I've had people come to me, and this is the thing they struggle with.

    35:36-35:37

    And I'd just like you to bow your heads.

    35:37-35:43

    If this is you, if you're like, man, this is the thing that I'm struggling with right now.

    35:44-35:52

    I do believe that I sincerely receive Christ, but I just, I don't know, I think I forfeited that.

    35:52-35:56

    Listen, it's time to take God at His Word.

    35:59-36:01

    It's time to confess this truth before Him.

    36:03-36:07

    That Father, there are times that I doubt.

    36:09-36:27

    Because I recognize my own sinfulness and my own waywardness, and I look at Your holiness, and I start to compare myself with others, And Father, I start to wonder if I truly lost my salvation that I knew that I had.

    36:30-36:38

    Today, no matter what I've thought in the past or what I've wrestled with, Father, today I embrace your promise.

    36:40-36:43

    You have promised to keep me in your power, and God, I believe that.

    36:44-36:47

    I believe that it's not up to me and it can't be up to me.

    36:50-36:51

    Father, I receive that today.

    36:53-36:56

    Salvation is based on Your power, it's based on Your promise, God.

    36:56-36:59

    It's Your integrity, God. It speaks to who You are.

    37:01-37:03

    It's based on Your prestige, God.

    37:04-37:07

    That my salvation isn't even really about me.

    37:07-37:10

    It doesn't even speak anything about me, but it says much about You.

    37:13-37:15

    And God, we rest in the truth that You never change.

    37:16-37:27

    We don't have to worry that next week, Jeff or Rich or Matt or somebody from the church is going to stand up and say, "Hey, we got new information.

    37:29-37:33

    God's changed His terms and conditions." We don't worry about that.

    37:34-37:36

    Because You've told us this is forever.

    37:38-37:45

    So Father, I pray that we would be a church that has a humble confidence before You.

    37:47-37:57

    Yes, confident in Your power and the truth of Your Word, but humble, knowing that it's not anything in or of us.

    37:59-38:12

    But Father, as we embrace this humble confidence and turn from Your Word to proclaiming how we feel about You in song.

    38:12-38:24

    Father, I pray now we would lift our voices and truly celebrate the joy that comes from knowing that once we belong to You, there is not a force in the universe that can take that away.

    38:25-38:28

    We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Jude 1:24-25

  1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?

  2. What do you think makes true Christians doubt their salvation?

  3. Have you ever doubted your salvation? Why? How did that situation resolve?

  4. Can a true Christian ever become apostate? Why or why not?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Life after Salvation: Where's the Effort?

Introduction:

Three Parts to Salvation (2 Peter 1:3-10)

  • Justification: Past
  • Sanctification: Present
  • Glorification: Future

Results When Every Effort is Made:

  1. Making every effort results in Spiritual Maturity. (2 Pet 1:8)

    2. Jeremiah 29:13 - "You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart."

  2. Making every effort keeps us from Habitual Sin. (2 Pet 1:9)
  3. Making every effort produces Confidence in our salvation. (2 Pet 1:10)

Ryan Stroupe - Harvest Bible Chapel Pittsburgh North Small Groups Ministry Leader

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

  • 00:28-00:30

    All right, welcome.

    00:30-00:31

    And that was a funny joke.

    00:32-00:34

    I laughed for a long time about that.

    00:36-00:39

    And it was my uncle, so I'll admit who it was.

    00:40-00:41

    Most of that was true.

    00:42-00:44

    It wasn't the next day, but it was several hours.

    00:45-00:46

    And I actually did feel a little bit bad.

    00:48-00:52

    I did feel a little bit bad after it, but I did laugh for a long time.

    00:53-00:54

    You should have just asked Erin.

    00:54-00:55

    She saw right through it from the beginning.

    00:56-01:01

    All right. Before I get started, I just want to say I am humbled to be here.

    01:02-01:07

    I do not take it lightly to bring the gospel. This is something I've never done before.

    01:08-01:15

    And most people are always, "Hey, you give the announcements, it's great." That's a lot different giving the announcements than it is getting up here and telling you what the Bible says.

    01:15-01:18

    The announcements I can get wrong, and nobody cares.

    01:19-01:33

    So this is a little bit more important, and I want to, on behalf of Mike, Rich, and Justin, I want to say thank you to Jeff for the past six months, for putting your faith in us to bring the message, and I hope we've brought honor to you and honor to God.

    01:34-01:37

    And I want to say thank you very much for the training that we've had.

    01:37-01:50

    And church, trust me, after seeing what Jeff does behind the scenes, the passion and the commitment that he puts into preaching, we can all rest assured that he's putting everything he has into this church and into the gospel, into each and every person here.

    01:51-01:51

    So Jeff, thank you.

    01:53-01:54

    All right, before we get started, let's pray.

    01:56-01:57

    Heavenly Father, I want to thank you for this day.

    01:58-02:01

    I want to ask you to please speak through me.

    02:02-02:05

    Don't allow my words to come out, but allow your words.

    02:06-02:15

    Father, if there's somebody here that has not received you as their Savior, please do not let them leave this building today without getting that taken care of.

    02:16-02:18

    I ask you to bless this day and bless this sermon.

    02:19-02:20

    In Jesus' name, amen.

    02:21-02:29

    Like Jeff said, my wife and I are the small group coordinators at the church, and that's something that we never had at our other churches.

    02:30-02:32

    And so coming here was kind of a new thing.

    02:33-02:35

    It was something that we kind of got asked to do.

    02:35-02:38

    We weren't really expecting to ever be in this position.

    02:39-02:40

    And it's been such a blessing to us.

    02:41-02:48

    And if you're not in a small group, please come see me afterwards, because I can go on and on about the blessings of what small group will do for you personally.

    02:49-02:52

    But that's what I do under the name Harvest Bible Chapel.

    02:52-02:55

    That's what we do inside the church for the church.

    02:56-02:59

    Some of you may not know what I do outside of the church.

    03:00-03:02

    I work for my father, who's here today.

    03:03-03:04

    I'm gonna talk about you, Dad.

    03:07-03:22

    But I've now gotten to a position in our company that my dad has given up, my brothers and I also, or my brothers work for my dad as well, and we all have a part ownership in the company, and we have a vice president position, which means nothing because my mom runs everything.

    03:23-03:23

    (Laughter)

    03:26-03:29

    That is not where I started at all.

    03:29-03:30

    That is not where I started.

    03:30-03:33

    I have to take you back 13 years ago to when I started.

    03:34-03:38

    I was 18 years old, coming out of high school, no idea what I wanted to do in life.

    03:38-03:42

    And my dad was not going to pay for me to go to college to major in Undecided.

    03:43-03:47

    If that's you today, I'm sorry, but my dad was not paying for that.

    03:47-03:53

    So, he told me, "Hey, come to work for me until you know what you want to do." I'm still waiting to figure out what I want to do.

    03:54-03:55

    But it's been pretty good so far.

    03:57-04:06

    So I came to work for him, and I thought in my mind, I was going to spend the summer goofing around, all my buddies weren't going to college till September, I thought this was going to be great, going to be the summer of awesome.

    04:07-04:14

    It was not, because my dad gave me a week off from school and I had to go to work, and rent was due at the end of June.

    04:15-04:15

    (Laughs)

    04:16-04:29

    But then I thought, "Okay, this will be great, because by the end of summer, I'm going to have this cool car, I'm going to have all this cool stuff, and all my buddies are going to be jealous of me." Again, I was wrong, because it's really hard to make a car payment on $9 an hour.

    04:30-04:30

    (Laughter)

    04:30-04:31

    And again, rent was due.

    04:33-04:37

    So you see, what my dad did was my dad gave me an entry-level position.

    04:37-04:39

    I was the bottom of the barrel.

    04:39-04:41

    Everybody told me what to do.

    04:41-04:45

    I was the youngest brother, I was the youngest guy in the company, I was the new guy in the company.

    04:46-04:47

    I had to start at the bottom.

    04:48-04:52

    But you could not deny that I was an employee of my company.

    04:53-04:56

    So my dad gave me a job, and that was it.

    04:57-05:02

    But beyond that, it was up to me to take the tools that my dad had given me and learn how to use them.

    05:03-05:05

    Follow the path that my dad had put down for me.

    05:05-05:09

    Follow the path that my dad had laid out for me to become successful in the company.

    05:10-05:13

    My dad could not force me to work hard.

    05:14-05:18

    My dad could not force me to become very good with the tools that we use.

    05:20-05:25

    Now he'll tell this story differently that I still don't work quite hard enough, but he's not up here preaching today, I am.

    05:26-05:28

    So I get to say what I want.

    05:29-05:34

    No, but I don't say it publicly enough, "Dad, thank you for what you've done for us.

    05:36-05:45

    And thank you for laying out that path for us and making our lives successful that way." So like I said, it was up to me to take those steps.

    05:45-05:49

    It was up to me to follow that path that was laid out before me.

    05:50-05:56

    And even still to this day, 13 years later, I still go to my dad and ask for advice, ask for questions.

    05:56-06:00

    My dad is still leading us along as we try to become more successful.

    06:01-06:03

    But again, my dad could not force that.

    06:04-06:05

    I could have, "Hey, I'm an employee.

    06:06-06:07

    I like $9 an hour.

    06:08-06:14

    I'm going to live like that forever." I probably would have gotten my beautiful wife that I have now, but that's okay.

    06:15-06:23

    I could have stayed there, and I could have been just a mediocre employee, but I was an employee and you couldn't deny me of that.

    06:23-06:24

    But I wanted more than that.

    06:24-06:26

    I wanted to become successful in the company.

    06:28-07:03

    When I tell that story, in my mind it's going to relate to what we're going to speak about today because God too gave us a free gift and all we had to do was accept that. But then we had to put out an effort as to whether we were going to be successful in our Christian walk. And you might say, "Ryan, whoa, that sounds like legalism. That sounds like works-based salvation." No, legalism and works-based salvation tells you you have to do that before you're saved. You see, Christ died on the cross for us and in that moment when we accept that gift we are saved.

    07:03-07:35

    Nothing we have to do on our own. Why we are here on earth. We have work to do. We have to prove our salvation. We have to make every effort to have a successful walk with God and a successful Christian life and a Christian relationship with God. It's up to us to start taking those steps and just as my dad laid out the path for my brothers and I to become successful in our company. Christ too has laid out the path for us. But God cannot make us start walking that path.

    07:36-07:43

    We have to decide whether we are going to take the steps and we're going to follow Christ and we're going to keep our eyes on Christ. God can't force us to do that.

    07:44-07:52

    He wants us to. He's already done the work. It's up to us now to prove our salvation and do our work for Christ.

    07:54-08:02

    Because you see, if all the gospel is to you is punching your ticket to heaven and avoiding hell, then you are not understanding the gospel.

    08:03-08:04

    You see, there's three parts of salvation.

    08:05-08:09

    You see, there's justification, there's sanctification, and there's glorification.

    08:10-08:12

    Justification is what God did for us on the cross.

    08:12-08:14

    That was the past, that's been done.

    08:14-08:16

    Our sins were paid on the cross.

    08:18-08:21

    When we become saved, that's what God did on the cross.

    08:21-08:23

    That's the past, it's been done.

    08:24-08:28

    And a lot of times what we want to do is we want to skip from justification down to glorification.

    08:29-08:31

    And that's the future, that's the ultimate prize.

    08:31-08:34

    That's when we get to heaven, that's when we get to spend eternity with Christ.

    08:35-08:37

    'Cause that is the ultimate goal, is that we do want to go to heaven.

    08:38-08:41

    We want to escape the death of hell, and the pain of hell.

    08:43-08:51

    But you see, what we so often want to do, and what so many Christians want to do, and so many churches today wanna do, we wanna skip sanctification.

    08:52-08:56

    And that is us in a process becoming more Christ-like.

    08:57-09:00

    That is what we are doing right here and right now.

    09:01-09:05

    We have to make the effort to become sanctified.

    09:06-09:09

    And that's what our passage is gonna talk about today.

    09:10-09:17

    So everybody, if you turn in your Bibles or if you have something with your Bible on it, Turn to 2 Peter 1, verses 3 through 10.

    09:18-09:25

    And as you're turning there, I want you to understand that when Peter wrote this, God had revealed to him that he was about to die.

    09:25-09:27

    His life was about to end.

    09:27-09:33

    So this was the last letter that Peter got to write to the church at the time, Church of Asia Minor.

    09:34-09:35

    So I want you to kind of picture that.

    09:36-09:40

    If somebody, if there was a way that somebody had reeled to you, hey, next Tuesday, you're out.

    09:40-09:41

    You're going to heaven.

    09:42-09:44

    Life is done for you next Tuesday.

    09:45-09:47

    So you have to picture yourself, what am I gonna tell my children?

    09:48-09:49

    What am I gonna tell my wife?

    09:49-09:50

    What am I gonna tell my parents?

    09:50-09:53

    What am I going to leave on this earth?

    09:53-09:59

    What are the most important things that if you get nothing out of my life, this is what I want you to understand.

    09:59-10:02

    And so that is how Peter was writing this letter.

    10:03-10:05

    He's going, listen, my time is short.

    10:05-10:09

    I don't have a lot of time left, so please understand these truths before I leave.

    10:09-10:13

    If there's nothing that you get out of this, please understand these truths.

    10:14-10:16

    So have that in your mind as we read this.

    10:17-10:19

    All right, picking up in verse number three.

    10:20-11:14

    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, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in this world of a sinful desire. So we pause there for a minute. So Peter's talking to people that are already saved. They understand, they have access to the divine power that we have through God. Because we've accepted the free gift of salvation, we now have this access to a power that God may at times use through us. We have the power to defeat sin. We have the power that we've escaped death because of Christ. So that's what he's talking about in those verses. Picking up back in verse This next phrase is where I want to focus our sermon today.

    11:15-11:29

    "For this reason, because you were saved, make every effort." And I talked to Jeff about this, and he told me that the Greek, if you translate it in the Greek, it literally means, "Make every effort." That translates perfectly.

    11:30-11:34

    Not make a little effort, not make some effort, make every effort.

    11:36-11:56

    Make every effort to supplement or add to your faith with virtue, that's moral excellence, and virtue with knowledge, that's a spiritual discernment, and knowledge with self-control, this is a hard one, that's a spirit-empowered ability to say no to sin, and self-control with steadfastness.

    11:57-11:59

    Steadfastness is perseverance in our walk with Christ.

    12:00-12:05

    And steadfastness with godliness, becoming Christlike, In godliness with brotherly affection.

    12:06-12:12

    That's the same love you would have for your own kin, but extending that to your brother or sister in Christ.

    12:13-12:14

    In brotherly affection with love.

    12:14-12:16

    That's agape love, that's unconditional love.

    12:16-12:18

    That's the love that Christ has for us.

    12:19-12:22

    There's nothing we do that makes God love us more.

    12:22-12:23

    He already ultimately loves us.

    12:23-12:25

    He paid the price for us on the cross.

    12:27-12:28

    It's unconditional.

    12:29-12:31

    But man, those are some powerful tools, are they not?

    12:32-12:33

    Those are hard tools.

    12:34-12:35

    Characteristics of Christ.

    12:36-12:37

    That's who Christ is.

    12:38-12:42

    And we are to make every effort to become like that.

    12:43-12:49

    And I don't want to spend a lot of time just on those characteristics alone because I want to see what the results are of those characteristics.

    12:49-12:57

    But I urge each and every person here, go home, study those, make those your bucket of tools.

    12:59-13:04

    go home, master them, become students of those.

    13:04-13:09

    Because I promise you they're gonna come up every day and you're gonna need them every day.

    13:09-13:12

    And you might say, "Hey, I'm good at some of these." Are you?

    13:13-13:15

    Are you a virtuous person when somebody cuts you off in traffic?

    13:17-13:18

    'Cause I don't know if I always am.

    13:19-13:22

    Are you always able to say no to sin?

    13:25-13:27

    Are you persevering in your walk with Christ?

    13:28-13:40

    being steadfast? At times, yes. But what happens when somebody makes fun of you at work about being a Christian? Or what happens when somebody wants to take your life because you're a Christian?

    13:42-13:56

    And sometimes we don't experience that in Wexford here. But the day may come when you have to stand up when somebody's pointing a gun at you and say, "Denounce Christ or or you're gonna die, are you able to persevere through that?

    13:59-14:06

    These are the tools that God gave us if we wanna have a successful walk and a successful relationship with God.

    14:07-14:08

    And that should be our desire.

    14:08-14:15

    Every person's desire is to be as successful as we can be in our walk with Christ.

    14:16-14:22

    Effort is defined by Webster as a vigorous and determined attempt.

    14:22-14:30

    A vigorous, determined, I'm determined to make every single one of these characteristics who I am.

    14:31-14:34

    Those characteristics are going to start defining who I am.

    14:35-14:38

    Because I'm a child of God and these characteristics are who God is.

    14:40-14:42

    So I want to be more Christ-like.

    14:42-14:44

    I want to be like God.

    14:46-14:48

    And you should never stop trying.

    14:49-14:53

    You have to constantly make that attempt, constantly make the effort.

    14:55-15:03

    If we want to do more than just punch our ticket to heaven like I said earlier, then you must continually be growing in these qualities.

    15:04-15:07

    You must make these qualities everything.

    15:09-15:12

    And again, I encourage you, go home, study these.

    15:14-15:14

    Figure out where they are.

    15:15-15:16

    I'm telling you, they are all through the Bible.

    15:17-15:19

    All of these are everywhere through the Bible.

    15:19-15:21

    What's the Strong's Concordance?

    15:21-15:23

    It's like five Bibles put together.

    15:23-15:25

    Open that up and just look up virtue.

    15:25-15:27

    See how many verses are under there.

    15:27-15:31

    Look up all those and see how many verses the Bible talks about.

    15:33-15:43

    And I'm telling you, you're going to grow if you start studying those and practicing those and not just becoming knowledgeable, but putting them in practice, using them.

    15:43-15:44

    You're going to grow in Christ.

    15:46-15:47

    That was all my intro.

    15:49-15:58

    Now, what I really wanna discuss and what I really wanna get into is what are the results when every effort is applied in our salvation?

    16:00-16:05

    Number one, making every effort results in spiritual maturity.

    16:06-16:07

    Let's look at verse eight.

    16:08-16:14

    For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of God.

    16:16-16:20

    You know, when I first met my wife, I think we were 18 years old.

    16:21-16:22

    We dated for a couple years.

    16:23-16:24

    I don't even know if it was that long.

    16:24-16:26

    A couple years, maybe.

    16:27-16:28

    We were married at 20 years old.

    16:30-16:31

    And we've now been married 11 years.

    16:32-16:34

    Very proud and thankful to be married to my wife.

    16:35-16:53

    You know, but I look back at year one, it makes us chuckle and sometimes we talk about this and how, you know, I know a lot of you in here are newly married, and I know a lot of you have been married longer than I have, and so I get that, but when I look at year 1 and I look at year 11, year 1 was such an infatuation.

    16:54-16:57

    You know, you thought the world could be conquered with love.

    16:58-17:00

    Love does not pay the heat bill, okay?

    17:01-17:01

    Money does.

    17:04-17:07

    Love doesn't always solve the problem.

    17:08-17:18

    You know, it's an infatuation that we had with each other, and I love my wife, but when I look back at it, it was much more immature of a marriage than what it is now at year 11.

    17:20-17:22

    You know, and why is that?

    17:22-17:24

    Because we grew with each other.

    17:24-17:25

    We got to know each other.

    17:25-17:36

    We put time into our marriage because there was this desire for us to get to know each other, to have a strong relationship that we could conquer anything as long as we were together.

    17:38-17:43

    And we went through hard times, we went through good times, we had children, the hardest thing of all.

    17:43-17:44

    That'll turn your life upside down.

    17:46-17:57

    But I love my children, and I love my wife, and our marriage would not have been what it is today if we had not put the time and the effort into our marriage, to get to know each other.

    17:59-18:01

    And that's exactly what God is telling us to do.

    18:02-18:05

    Get to know Him, spend time with Him.

    18:05-18:10

    So many times we want to do as Christians is just go, hey, I'm like, I'm not good at reading my Bible.

    18:10-18:13

    I'm not good at praying, you know, but I, but hey, I want to be spiritually mature.

    18:14-18:16

    And you always want to be like, how much time have you put into it?

    18:17-18:17

    What do you do?

    18:17-18:19

    Do you sit down and read your Bible?

    18:19-18:20

    And you just go, okay.

    18:21-18:25

    But if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of God.

    18:25-18:26

    All right, good set.

    18:26-18:27

    And you go on with your day.

    18:29-18:30

    But do you study that?

    18:31-18:33

    Do you look into what does that mean?

    18:35-18:38

    How is that affecting my daily life?

    18:40-18:54

    You know, one of the best answers I got was actually from Rich Sprunk, who preached a couple weeks ago, and it was so simple, and I always kind of had this idea in my head that's like, oh man, I'm not that educated of a guy.

    18:54-18:55

    I didn't go to college.

    18:55-18:57

    I don't always understand the Bible.

    18:59-19:04

    Sometimes it's hard for me to read, and I said to Rich, hey, how do you do that?

    19:04-19:05

    Like, Rich is a smart guy.

    19:05-19:11

    If you've ever talked to Rich, Rich is super smart and he knows the Bible and I love Rich and I love his knowledge.

    19:13-19:17

    And he said to me, he's like, "Ryan, you're being dumb." I was like, "Wow, that's hard."

    19:17-19:18

    (audience laughing)

    19:19-19:22

    He's like, "The Bible was written by simple men.

    19:23-19:24

    "Not always was it educated men.

    19:25-19:34

    "They were average men that wrote the Bible." He said, "Start on page one and read it "and you'd be surprised what you learn." And it was like, man, that's so simple.

    19:35-19:36

    Just read it.

    19:37-19:39

    Just open it and want to learn.

    19:40-19:41

    Actually read it.

    19:41-19:42

    Don't just read it because that's what you have to do.

    19:43-19:43

    Hey, I got my check mark.

    19:43-19:44

    I read my Bible today.

    19:45-19:47

    No, pour yourself into it.

    19:47-19:49

    Jeremiah 29, 13 tells us this.

    19:51-20:00

    "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart." When you make every effort, God will reveal himself to you.

    20:00-20:08

    When you come after God, when you get down on your knees and cry out to God and spend the time in the Bible, God will reveal himself to you.

    20:08-20:12

    He will give you the mind to interpret what he is saying.

    20:13-20:24

    And in today's world, there is no excuse for us to go, "Hey, I don't know what this means." Just in this church alone, the elders and Jeff that we have, you can go to them anytime.

    20:24-20:26

    I'll send you all of their numbers if you want it.

    20:26-20:28

    And you can text them at any time.

    20:28-20:29

    (audience laughing)

    20:31-20:37

    And Google, and I know like Mike said a couple weeks ago, not always does Google have the best answers, but so what?

    20:38-20:43

    Read it, figure out if it's right or wrong, and then read something, ask somebody.

    20:44-20:55

    There's no excuse for us not knowing the Bible, and I've been guilty of this myself, and I've had to put this into practice, especially if I was gonna get up here and tell you you had to do it, I had to do it too.

    20:56-21:05

    And I'm telling you, just in the past couple years of me getting into the Word and studying and pouring myself into it, it's changed my life.

    21:05-21:08

    And I understand a lot more than I thought I was going.

    21:10-21:14

    So making every effort results in spiritual maturity.

    21:15-21:21

    Point number two, making every effort keeps us from living in habitual sin.

    21:21-21:25

    Notice I said habitual sin, and I'll explain that more in a minute.

    21:25-21:26

    Let's look at verse nine.

    21:27-21:34

    Whoever lacks these qualities, he is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he is cleansed from his former sins.

    21:36-21:39

    When I say habitual sin, I'm not talking about a stumble.

    21:40-21:42

    As humans, we are always going to stumble.

    21:42-21:46

    We're gonna have moments where we go, oh man, I messed up there, I messed up there.

    21:46-21:49

    I'm talking about a sin that controls your life.

    21:49-21:51

    It's a stronghold.

    21:51-21:53

    Satan's got his foot on your throat and he's not letting up.

    21:55-21:58

    and your own flesh is taking over.

    21:58-22:02

    Your own flesh is controlling you.

    22:02-22:05

    And that sin controls every aspect of your life.

    22:06-22:13

    It controls your relationships, your work, your marriage, your relationship with your children, your relationship with friends, everything.

    22:14-22:15

    It borderline defines who you are.

    22:17-22:20

    It's a stronghold, it's something you can't get out from under.

    22:22-22:27

    And by the way, you thinking that that sin defines you is a lie of the devil.

    22:28-22:31

    Because if you're a born again believer in Christ, that is what defines you.

    22:31-22:33

    That sin will never define you.

    22:33-22:37

    Even though Satan will tell you over and over and over again, no, that's who you are.

    22:37-22:39

    Don't you forget, that's who you are.

    22:39-22:41

    No, you're not, you're a child of God.

    22:43-22:51

    You know, in an illustration that I was trying to come up with how to explain this, and I actually found it on Google.

    22:51-22:51

    (laughs)

    22:53-22:54

    Sometimes Google does help, Mike.

    22:55-22:55

    (laughs)

    22:57-22:59

    I actually looked it up from another pastor, so I'm stealing it from him.

    23:01-23:02

    The Christian life is like swimming against the current.

    23:03-23:05

    Okay, and I want everybody to picture a lazy river at a water park.

    23:05-23:08

    We all been to one of those lazy rivers, they're awesome.

    23:08-23:11

    You just sit on a raft and you float, life is awesome.

    23:12-23:15

    But there's a current and you go in a circle and you just keep kind of going that way.

    23:16-23:20

    But the thing about it is you can get off that raft and you can swim against that.

    23:21-23:23

    I mean, I can't, I'm a terrible swimmer, but most people can.

    23:24-23:26

    Sometimes you can even just walk along it.

    23:26-23:28

    It's not that hard of a current.

    23:28-23:29

    So that's kind of the current I want you to picture.

    23:30-23:36

    And that's what we do as Christians, is we are constantly, if we're following Christ, we are swimming against the current.

    23:37-23:42

    We can do it, and there are times you're gonna get tired, and you're gonna go, "Am I going anywhere?

    23:43-23:49

    "'Cause all I'm doing is swimming against this current, "and I'm so tired." Because God does not promise ease in our Christian walk.

    23:50-23:56

    He promises temptation, he promises struggle, but he promises he will always be there for us.

    23:57-24:03

    So you're swimming, you're constantly swimming, you're tired, and you might say to yourself, okay, I gotta let up, I gotta take a break.

    24:03-24:05

    I'm out of breath, I gotta catch my breath.

    24:06-24:10

    The second you stop swimming, you do not stay still.

    24:10-24:13

    There is no such thing as a stationary Christian.

    24:14-24:21

    The second you stop swimming, you go backwards, right back to the old person that you were, right back to the person you were before you were saved.

    24:22-24:23

    And Satan knows that.

    24:24-24:28

    And the second he sees you stop swimming, he is gonna pounce.

    24:28-24:30

    And he is going to help you go backwards.

    24:30-24:32

    And he is gonna push you.

    24:32-24:35

    And he is going to get that stronghold back in your life.

    24:36-24:38

    So you have to keep swimming.

    24:39-24:40

    You have to keep swimming.

    24:40-24:49

    You have to continually chase after God 'cause if you don't, Satan is there to pounce and he will take you backwards.

    24:50-24:52

    You have to make every effort.

    24:54-24:58

    'Cause if you do, you will avoid that habitual sin.

    24:59-25:02

    And I could go on and on and on about sin.

    25:03-25:05

    Sin, I think Jeff and I were talking, that's what, like a year long sermon?

    25:06-25:07

    If you actually just talk about sin.

    25:08-25:10

    But I wanna leave you with this.

    25:11-25:24

    I don't wanna avoid this because you may be here today and you're struggling with a sin and there is a stronghold in your life, and there's something that Satan's got you, or your own flesh has you locked in the sin.

    25:24-25:40

    And you might say, "Ryan, I've tried and I've tried "and I've tried to defeat sin, and I'm not successful at it." Maybe you've just given up and you've accepted that sin, and you've almost started defining yourself as that sin.

    25:41-25:47

    I'm here to tell you, and this is hard for me to say, but I love you and I have to say this.

    25:48-25:55

    If you're here today and that's you, you are completely ignoring what Jesus did for us on the cross.

    25:56-25:57

    He paid our sin.

    25:58-26:02

    That sin was wiped away when he died on that cross.

    26:02-26:08

    And if you live in that sin and you profess to be a Christian, you are denying what he did on the cross.

    26:09-26:19

    And when you deny what he did on the cross, you as well also say to God, hey, the power that you had that raised your son from the dead, that's not strong enough to beat my sin.

    26:19-26:23

    That's not strong enough to defeat the devil.

    26:25-26:38

    Just like we talked about back in verse three and four, we have access to a divine power through God because of the death of the cross, and he can defeat anything in our lives.

    26:39-26:44

    There is nothing that God cannot defeat, And all we have to do is say, "God, take it.

    26:45-26:53

    I can't do it because I've been trying to do it on my own, and I don't have the power to do it." And you never, ever will defeat sin on your own.

    26:54-26:55

    Only God can.

    26:56-26:58

    You must immerse yourself in Christ.

    26:59-27:04

    You must make every effort to go after God, and He will take that sin from you.

    27:04-27:09

    He doesn't promise you won't be tempted by that sin again, 'cause you will be tempted, just as God was tempted in the wilderness.

    27:11-27:24

    but God knew the Bible and he was able to stare sin in the face and go, "No, that is not what my father's word says." You have to make every effort to pursue God.

    27:27-27:33

    Point number three, making every effort produces confidence in our salvation.

    27:35-27:36

    Let's look at verse 10.

    27:37-28:15

    Therefore brothers, be all the more diligent to make calling an election sure. For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. You will never fall. I've struggled with doubt in my life. I've struggled with doubt in my salvation. And I want you to kind of picture this. I talked about my dad and myself earlier in my intro, and I've never doubted my father's love for me. Why? Because he was always there hunting, he took me to baseball games, he put in the effort and there was never a doubt that I knew my dad loved me.

    28:17-28:18

    And the same went back and forth.

    28:18-28:20

    There's no doubt that I love my dad.

    28:21-28:23

    And my dad never doubts that I love him.

    28:23-28:25

    Because we put effort, we had a relationship.

    28:26-28:27

    But I want you to picture this.

    28:28-28:43

    Let's picture my dad constantly is texting me, constantly is calling me, constantly is showing up at my house and when he texts me, when he calls me, either I don't answer the text or I send him the voicemail or when he shows up at my house I'm real quick to kind of, "Dad, just get out of here.

    28:44-28:45

    I don't want to do anything with you.

    28:45-28:51

    Just go." And I'm nice to him, but I don't really do anything with him.

    28:52-29:00

    And then one day I'm sitting there at home with Sarah and I say, "You know, I don't know if my dad loves me." She goes, "Well, no kidding you don't know because you don't spend any time with him.

    29:01-29:02

    He's here all the time.

    29:02-29:09

    He's constantly trying to reach out to you, but you never reciprocate." Man, that sounds familiar.

    29:10-29:12

    We do that to God all the time.

    29:13-29:14

    God is constantly reaching out to us.

    29:15-29:16

    God is constantly calling us.

    29:16-29:18

    God is constantly begging us to spend time with Him.

    29:20-29:27

    And we're real quick to kind of dismiss it or we're real quick to kind of come up with an excuse why we can't read our Bible, why we can't pray, why we can't develop our relationship with God.

    29:29-29:30

    We're real quick to dismiss it.

    29:30-29:34

    And then we want to sit here and go, "I don't know if God loves me." Hey, just so you know, it's not God, it's you.

    29:36-29:38

    You're the one that may not love God enough.

    29:38-29:39

    God loves you.

    29:40-29:43

    He sent his son to die on the cross for you.

    29:44-29:46

    He loved us before we were even a thought.

    29:47-29:51

    He loved us in a way that we cannot imagine.

    29:52-29:56

    And then we wanna sit here and go, I don't know if God loves me.

    29:56-29:58

    It is not God, it is you.

    29:59-30:50

    You have to make the effort and God will reveal himself and you will not doubt your salvation If you make every effort And I kind of love how Peter put these in my mind he put them in succession Because first you got to have spiritual maturity because once you're spiritually mature you're gonna avoid habitual sin Once you have those two in your life, you're not gonna doubt Your salvation because your spirits are mature You're living in God's Word. You're making every effort. So you're constantly spending time with God. Just like I said with my dad and I, we're constantly together. We work together. We do everything together. But I never doubt it because I see it. I live it. I know it. And that's what we have to do with God.

    30:51-30:56

    We must make every effort in our Christian walk.

    30:59-31:02

    Every effort, not a little effort, every effort.

    31:02-31:05

    Every fiber of our being has to chase after God.

    31:08-31:15

    And as I close, I want to use this analogy that I got off YouTube of all things.

    31:15-31:19

    And it was one night I was sitting there laying in bed and I had the iPad.

    31:20-31:31

    You ever get stuck in a YouTube wormhole where it's like you're just clicking and clicking and clicking and like two hours later you're like, "Whoa, how did I get here?" And sometimes that suggestion list is just awesome.

    31:32-31:34

    You're just like, "Yup, yup, yup," and you're watching them all.

    31:35-31:38

    If you know anything about me, I love comedians.

    31:38-31:39

    I love them.

    31:39-31:42

    And my favorite comedian right now is this Christian comedian and his name is Michael Jr.

    31:43-31:46

    I actually had the privilege to go see him for my birthday.

    31:46-31:47

    My wife took me to see him.

    31:47-31:50

    It's just, I encourage you, go home with your family.

    31:50-31:53

    He's super friendly, super clean, awesome comedian.

    31:54-31:55

    You'll laugh forever.

    31:57-32:00

    But I was in this wormhole, and I'm watching Michael Jr. videos like crazy.

    32:01-32:03

    I'm starting to memorize his jokes.

    32:03-32:05

    I've seen so many of them now.

    32:06-32:13

    But I clicked on this one called The Good Room, and I thought it was gonna be funny, and it was not at all.

    32:14-32:16

    Because what he did was he started preaching at his audience.

    32:18-32:25

    And when I heard this analogy, it was so fitting to what I was talking about today and just kind of put everything into perspective for me.

    32:25-32:28

    All right, so I don't want to take credit for it, so it's Michael Jr.'s, but I'm going to tell you about it.

    32:29-32:31

    So I want everybody to picture themselves as a house.

    32:32-32:36

    You can make it whatever you want it to look like, but it's a house.

    32:37-32:39

    And outside that house is Jesus, and he's knocking.

    32:41-32:43

    And it's just this knock, this steady knock.

    32:44-32:47

    and he's not gonna force his way in, he's just gonna keep knocking.

    32:49-32:52

    He's never gonna kick that door in, but he's never gonna stop knocking.

    32:54-33:00

    And inside your house is just this filth, this sin everywhere, that filth represents sin.

    33:01-33:12

    And you might say, "No, no, I don't want God to come in "until I get this cleaned up, until I get this in order, "this sin, whatever it may be, until I get that in order, "I don't want God to come in.

    33:12-33:16

    I know he's there, but stay out there until I get this under control.

    33:16-33:30

    And you might bring in other Christians, or you might bring in people that you know are Christians, and they might temporarily help you clean that up, and you might have this feel-good day, but that filth and that sin is gonna come back with a vengeance, 'cause it always comes back harder.

    33:31-33:33

    And you might get it cleaned up and it's coming back.

    33:34-33:43

    And the only person that can clean up that sin is at your door knocking, and he's got a mop and a bucket, and he's begging you to let him inside.

    33:45-33:52

    And you might go through a hard time and you might go to the front door and you might open it, just a crack so you can pray and you feel better and you go back to your sin.

    33:54-34:05

    And then finally, one day, you open that door and Jesus comes blasting through that door and he brings in this contractor named the Holy Spirit and your house is running at optimum.

    34:06-34:07

    And it's amazing.

    34:08-34:13

    And your house is so full because you finally let Jesus into your life.

    34:13-34:23

    You've accepted that free gift, and you let him into your life, and he has your house spotless, and he's running your life, and things are great.

    34:25-34:31

    And then as time goes on, Christ is still in your life, but you put him into your good room.

    34:32-34:34

    You guys know what I mean by good room?

    34:35-34:36

    You know what I mean by good room, Mike?

    34:37-34:40

    All right, so we had a good room in our house, And this was right in the front of the house.

    34:42-34:47

    My parents took the carpet out of this room like 35 years later after it was put in.

    34:47-34:50

    It didn't have footprints in it because we weren't allowed in the good room.

    34:51-34:53

    It had sharp corners on the furniture.

    34:53-34:55

    You could go in there once a year.

    34:55-34:56

    That was for Christmas.

    34:56-34:59

    And I think my mom made us take the presents out of the room to open them.

    35:01-35:02

    Nobody was allowed in that room.

    35:04-35:06

    But you know, we've been to people's houses.

    35:06-35:07

    Maybe they still have plastic on the furniture.

    35:08-35:41

    like this really nice room, but it's always in the front of the house. So when somebody were to look into the windows, they see this good and they go, "Wow, look at that guy's house." And that's where we put God. We put him in the good room. So he's still in our lives, but we kind of are starting, we want to control things again. And what nobody sees is the rest of our house that has gone back to the filth and the sin because we're not allowing God access to our entire house or our entire lives.

    35:42-35:47

    We come to church on Sunday and we put on a show and everybody goes, "Wow, look at that guy.

    35:48-35:50

    He's got it going on." All you're seeing is this good room.

    35:52-35:54

    So I ask you, is that you today?

    35:56-35:58

    Is God in your good room?

    35:58-35:59

    Is God in your house?

    36:01-36:09

    I beg you, if he's not in your house, go to the prayer team in the back after I'm done preaching, pray with them, they will lead you to Christ.

    36:09-36:10

    I promise you they will.

    36:12-36:15

    If God's in your good room, let him out.

    36:16-36:19

    Remember what it was like when he had complete access to your house.

    36:20-36:28

    Let him out and start making the effort to allow God to control your life, to run your life.

    36:29-36:35

    You start making the effort to have a relationship with God.

    36:36-36:39

    Make every effort in your walk with Christ.

    36:41-36:46

    If God's running your whole house, then praise the Lord today and don't ever let him in your good room.

    36:47-36:54

    Make every effort to keep him out of your-- we must make the effort in our relationship with God.

    36:55-36:56

    Let's pray.

    36:58-36:59

    Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day.

    37:01-37:09

    I thank you for this opportunity, and I am humbled as a blue-collar construction worker to get up and think that I can share your word.

    37:11-37:14

    And I thank you for allowing that.

    37:14-37:26

    And God, I beg you right now, if there's somebody in this building today that does not know you, please do not let them leave this building until they get that taken care of.

    37:28-37:37

    And God, if somebody has you in their good room, I beg you the same way, don't let them leave today without getting that taken care of.

    37:38-37:50

    And please help each and every person in this room to remind them to make an effort to chase you, God, so we can experience complete sanctification through you.

    37:52-37:54

    I ask you to bless this day, amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read 2 Peter 1:3-10

  1. Why should we want to do more than just "punch our ticket to Heaven"? What would you say to someone that doesn't want to do more than the bare minimum to get to Heaven?

  2. Why do we as Christians ignore Sanctification and focus on Justification and Glorification?

  3. As Small Groups what are some practical ways we can assist a fellow Christian or Small Group Member get past a habitual sin? 

  4. What are ways we can teach our children to start making every effort at a young age, i.e. teenagers?

  5. How much effort do you put into your relationship with God compared to other areas of your life? Would you say God is outside your house, in your "Good Room", or is running your entire house?

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.

The Power Explained - Part 3

Five Ingredients of True Conversion:
  1. Heart-felt CONVICTION . (Acts 2:37)


  2. Sincere REPENTANCE . (Acts 2:38)


  3. Godly MOTIVATION . (Acts 2:39)


  4. Radical SEPARATION . (Acts 2:40)


  5. Public PROFESSION . (Acts 2:41)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 2:37-41

  1. How can you tell if someone is truly "cut to the heart", that is, they are genuinely sorry for their sins? (Acts 2:37)
  2. How would you answer someone who asks, "Why should I get baptized? What does it mean?" (Acts 2:38)
  3. Is Acts 2:38 teaching that "you can't get saved unless you are baptized"? Why or why not?
  4. What are wrong motivations to come to Christ? (See Acts 2:39 for the right motivation)
  5. What did Peter mean by, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation"? (Acts 2:40) 

Breakout Questions:

Pray for one another.