All right, thank you, Doug and the band and I'm remiss not saying welcome back to Stephen Tony. Good to have you guys back with us. Thanks, guys. Appreciate that. You'll be hearing that song again in your future, so remember, hey, does your family have family stories? You know the kind that you sit around the table and some of you hope you'll get to tell and some of you fear that we'll be to all families have these stories and our family probably gets together most weeks, our family is probably together for dinner, about three or four out of the seven nights, the other nights I might have a meeting or the one that kids have something to go to, but every now and then one of the kids will say, hey, tell a story about, then they want to know stories, always about a sibling, not about themselves, and they particularly love Andrew's stories. Andrew are only, boy, you know, boys, we just, we do, we have to do stupid things, it's in our DNA, we can't help it. We have to do foolish and risky and testosterone-laden things, we can't help it, we have to get this stuff out. So they'll say, tell the time about when Andrew, and by now I've got a whole new categorization and classification system just for Andrew, you know, the others for Andrew, they'll say, oh, you want Andrew's story number 27, G, part 12 or something, why, why do they want us to tell, why do they want me or why do they want you to tell those families, or they know them as well as I do by now, they know my heart, and all I'm going to say, now where the stories are going, they want us to tell them because they're our family, stories, they're about us, they talk about who we are, and it's our way of feeling that we belong. We like to hear them again and again so that we can remember, remember, read with me from 2 Peter chapter 1, if you will, here on the screen in your own Bible, if you're using a few Bible, it's page 1894, Peter, the apostle Peter writes in 2 Corinthians, Peter verse chapter 1, verse 10, therefore my brothers be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure for if you do these things, you will never fall and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So I will always remind you of these things. Even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have, I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body because I know that I will soon put it aside as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me and I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things. Let's pray together. Our Father our God we thank you again for the eternal unchanging nature of your Word, that your Word is there to instruct us and to enlighten us, to convict us and to mold us and to shape us, to break us into heal us and to make sure we remember, remember that this is your Word. This is the Word of God, I did not make it, no it is making me, it is the very truth of God not the invention of any man, I pray that you will not communicate your Word through me, to do it faithfully, I pray in Jesus name, amen. I already mentioned on a park bench with his head and his hands just sobbing, police officer came by and said, sir are you all right, something happened, are you hurt, man said no, he said were you robbed, were you mugged, no, no, something wrong at home, no, why are you crying, sir, I have a wonderful home, a beautiful 22 year old wife, our kids are healthy, we have a great home and a beautiful part of town, police officer why are you crying, man said I can't remember where I live, to remember folks, to remember, this is the Word this morning, strong emphasis in these verses on remembering, the Latin remember memoraries, to call to mind again, to call to mind again, to remember some key essential truths, why is Peter writing this in this way because Peter knows this time is short, verses 13 to 15, he says so, he says my time here is coming to an end, Jesus is revealed to me, I don't have much time left, and we know by the way, historical legend tells us, it's pretty well attested, that this is written around 64 AD, Peter was martyred, faithful to the end, either that year maybe the next, the Peter died not long after that, now if you knew you were about to die, if you knew your time was short, what would you do, those skydiving, Rocky Mountain Clienton, 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fuman 2, if you don't know why I just said that, you're obviously not a country music fan, and I'm not really a country music fan much either, but I heard Tim McGraw's live like you were dying one time, and it almost converted me, I love that song, I love what it's about, what would you do, if you knew your time was short, what would you say into whom, you would do those things that are most important, and you would say write down or store those words of sauce that are most important for those most important to you, and Peter says here, I want you to remember these things later on, I want you to remember, first of all he says, I want you to remember the place you hold in the plan of redemption, the place you hold in the plan of redemption, look at verse 10 again, therefore my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things you will never fall, therefore what, remember when you see this in scripture, you got to ask what's it, therefore you remember, and he says if you do these things, if you do what things, well I ask you to remember last week, and if you got a Bible open just scan your eyes up a little bit, go up to verse 5, for this very reason Peter writes, make every effort to add your faith goodness, this sound familiar now, if you're here last week you saw it on the screen, we had the building blocks, add your faith goodness, and then add knowledge, and then self-control, and perseverance, and Godliness, brotherly kindness, and love, and then verse 8 he says, for if you possess these qualities and increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, because see us show of hands of having you want to be ineffective and unproductive, anybody wants to be? Okay, but if anyone does not have them, Peter says in verse 9, he is near sighted and blind and has forgotten he's been cleansed from his past sins, therefore Peter says in verse 10, therefore my brothers be all the more eager to make a calling and election sure, if you do these things you will never fall, Peter calls them and through them he calls us brothers, brothers and sisters, if you know Jesus is Lord, then you have God as a Father, Jesus as an older brother, as well as a friend, Holy Spirit is your family tie, you are children of God, but aren't we also servants? Yes, we're servants, we're also living stones in God's new temple, yup, all true, we're priests of the new priesthood, all true, but above and beyond and beneath all else, we are children of God. You all heard me say before and it's true, I didn't rarely see any movies that aren't animated, saw cars last week, by the way, phenomenal movie, but that's not my point. Do you remember the Lion King? Well, if you had kids in the last 15 years, you had to see it many, many, many times, great movie, great movie. If you don't know it very briefly, it's a story of a lion cub named Symba, whose father Mufasa is the king, and then early in the movie, through treachery and deceit and betrayal, Mufasa the king is killed, Symba thinks it's his fault, so Symba slinks off into exile, hoping to never have to come back and face his past again, and he's going to spend the rest of his days paling around with a mere cat named Timon and a warthog named Pumba, and who wouldn't? So he's going to spend his days just paling around with these guys, but his past he's calling back, and there's a great pivotal scene where Symba looks into the night sky, and the stars begin to resemble the shape of his father Mufasa, whose sounds of course like James Earl Jones. If you've got to have a deep voice to say something to you, you've got to have James Earl Jones. And Symba wants to run and hide from who he is, but James Earl Jones says three octaves lower than I can do it. He says, Symba, you have forgotten who you are. Symba, you're royalty, you're the heir to the throne. Symba, you're Mufasa's son, and you've got to go back and claim what yours. You're feeling down on yourself, feeling a little lost, guilty, feel ashamed, hopeless, clueless, useless, worthless. Christian, you have forgotten who you are. You're a child of God. You're a son of the heavenly king, lift up your heads. Yes, your sins may have debased you and others, but you're a child of God, you're a child of the king. Paul says in Romans 8, for you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the spirit of sonship, and by him we cry, Abba, father. The spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now, if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings, in order that we make sure also in his glory. And Apostle John says something very similar, 1 John 3, how great is the love the father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are, for this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and it has not as yet appeared what we shall be, but we know that when we see him, we shall be like him. We'll see him as he is. Children of God, remember the place you hold in the plan of redemption. Remember, Peter says, remember the prerogative of God in our redemption. Go back to verse 10 again. Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. Eager to make your calling and election sure. For some of you, this is old news, it's old family story. For some of you, this will be a bit of a revelation to you. The Bible teaches from Genesis to the revelation that this great plan of redemption is initiated by God. It is overseen by God. It is accomplished by God. It is of God from beginning to end. He is the author of, and the main character in the great unfolding drama, of how God himself is reconciling his lost planet back to himself. We just said this in the affirmation when Jim let us, he rules over the destinies of men and nations. I love history. I really love American history. Let me go back and remind you again of some of the words from our founding. Patrick Henry called the firebrand of the American Revolution. He still remembered for his words, give me liberty or give me death. But what most public school textbooks leave out now is the rest of the context. Here is what he actually said. An appeal to arms and the God of hosts is all that has left us. But we shall not fight our battle alone. There is a just God that presides over the destinies of nations. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone. Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God. I do not know what course others may take. But as for me, give me liberty or give me death. That was written a year before the Declaration of Independence. The next year, 1776, he wrote this, it cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians. Not on religions but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For that reason alone, people of other faiths have been afforded freedom of worship here. In those words are every bit as true today as they were back then. He rules over the destinies of men and nations. We've talked about the nations a bit. Let's talk about his ruling over the destinies of men. I'm going to do in about two or three minutes, about 4,000 years of church history. You ready? Buckle in. And again, for some of you, this is old news. This is family story. For some of you, this will be new. I'm going to skip great big chunks but stay with me. Around 4,000 years ago, give or take a few hundred years. God calls out a man, the city of Err, the Caldeans. A man named Abram. He says, Abram, come on and follow me. Where, God, I'll show you. I'm going to make of you a great nation but I don't have any kids. I'm old. You know, the air I've got is serving in my house. God says, stay with me son. I'm going to make of you a great nation. You're going to be blessed into all the other peoples in the earth. Whoever blesses you, I will bless. Whoever curses you, I will curse. And God does indeed make of Abram. Not one but two great nations. His first child is Ishmael. He is the father of the Arab people. His second son is Isaac. Who is the father of all the Jews and the Semitic people. And even though Ishmael was the older in the first born, God places his hand to blessing on Isaac. He says, I'm going to make my chosen people through your line. Isaac has two sons, Jacob and Issa. They're twins. Issa is older. Even so, God places his hand to blessing on Jacob. Jacob, who could be a real scoundrel. Jacob goes on to become the man known as Israel. He who wrestles with God. He who strives and struggles with God. Israel has twelve sons. I can't name them all. And if you can, consider yourselves extremely biblically astute. But there are Simeon and Levi and Dan and Asher and Naftali and Simon and Garfuck. I can't name them all. But there's also Joseph, just seeing if you're awake. Joseph, Benjamin and Judah. And God blesses them all in various ways. But he says, you, Judah. Out of you, I'm going to raise up a king. Several hundred years later, he does raise up a king out of the sons of Jesse. Jesse, a common man with seven sons. And the prophet goes to Jesse and says, one of your boys is going to be king. Well, must be the oldest. Nope, not him. Next oldest. Nope, not him. It goes all the way down to that seventh son, a ruddy faced youth, a shepherd boy named David. Who goes on to become the greatest king in the history of the nation of Israel. Well, sort of. Because a thousand years after David, God raises up another one from the tribe of Jesse, the lion of the tribe of Jesse. His name is Jesus. I see throughout history, God, passing this person over, passing that group over and saying, I'm going to put my hand of blessing on this one. I'm calling this one out, not that one. Why? Because these people that he called were also good and so noble and so upright and so smart and thrifty and courteous. No, I'm telling you, they could all be scoundrels, everyone of them. And yet God, for his purposes, places his hand of calling and blessing on whom he will, take his reasons and it mystifies the world to this day. Before the foundations of time, ladies and gentlemen, God called out for himself a people, people who would follow him, would serve him, would glorify him, enjoy him forever. He said, this people would be his people and he himself would be their God. And he would dwell in the midst of them. And he would call them to himself not because they were so good and wonderful. But in spite of the fact, they were not. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the doctrine of election. God choosing some for himself and not others, somebody who says, that's not fair. It's not right. Certainly isn't very American. When you say, it's not fair and it's not right, I would simply ask you, according to whom, from whose perspective? We got to remember folks, this is God's party. He can invite whom every once. This is God's ballgame. He can choose whom every once on his team and he can set up the rules anyway he wants. This is God's kingdom. He can write his constitution and his bylaws as he sees fit. Good news. By his mercy and his grace, he does invite some to come to the party, to play on the team, to be a citizen of his kingdom. For his reasons of his own good pleasure, for his glory and for our good, he does call some. And if you want an invitation, you just got it. Because if you're interested and you want it, then God's calling you. Those whom he calls, he will never say no. Look carefully at that invitation. Look at it, it's the most expensive invitation ever printed. It's written in red. It's written in red. By the way, you're all invited, whether you want to join the church or not, this Wednesday night in the inquires class, I'm going to talk a lot more about this very thing. By the election, our system of doctrine. And even if you're already a member, you want to refresher, you want to remind her. You're welcome to come. This Wednesday night is seven. Remember the prerogative of God in our redemption. Remember the part we play in the process of our redemption. Therefore, my brothers back to verse 10, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall. He says, therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager. It means move it. Do it. Be eager. In fact, the word that he uses here, Spudazzo, can be translated, make haste. Get moving. Paddle to the metal. If you ask our fans, slingshot it. Get moving toward the goal. To make your calling and election sure. Folks, election is God's prerogative. But we do get a chance to respond to it. We experience his calling as a decision we make. Election was settled in eternity, but he calls us in time. For me, August 11, 1971. I heard the gospel the first time in a way that made sense to me. I had heard it before. But it penetrated the fog, and I responded to the Lordship of Christ. It's how old I am. August 11, 1971. I remember the time, the place, I remember a great deal of the circumstances around it. That's when I entered into my understanding, began to enter into my understanding of God's calling. How about you? For some of you have a very specific point in time experience where you weren't a Christian, then you met Jesus, and then you were. Some of you, it's a period of time. You don't remember the day of the time, the circumstances you just knew for a while you didn't believe, and then you did. Some of you were raised in covenant homes. You can never remember a time you didn't serve in. That's the greatest testimony. God bless you for that. And for some of you others, maybe today. This would be the day. It's you entering into an eternal covenant relationship with your Heavenly Father, the person of the Son Jesus. Are you ready for that? Are you looking for that? Or did you come here thinking you just checked or religious experience off your to-do list this week? God's calling is not merely an invitation, folks. It's a command. It's the difference between going to court and sitting there and being moral support for somebody and being subpoenaed. If you receive God's calling, you've just been subpoenaed. You will say yes. How does Peter tell us to make our calling and election sure by appropriating and practicing all his values we've talked about last week? The goodness, the kindness, the brotherhood, love, and so forth. For if you do these things, you'll never fall. Say what? Never fall. I fall every day, and I don't mean just physically. How can he say that, folks? He means not never fail, which we do occasionally, frequently, daily, constantly. But you never fall as in, ultimately. You're calling your election or sure. Look where it leads, verse 11, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Brennan Manning's book, Ragamuffin Gospel, which I recommend you highly. He's a great, great quote. He says, on the last day, when we arrived at the great cabin in the sky, many of us will be bloodied, battered, bruised, and limping. But by God and by Christ, there will be a light in the window and a welcome home sign on the door. By God and by Christ, by mercy and by grace, by water and by blood. Welcome home. Remember the part we play in the process of redemption. Remember the price that was paid for our redemption. It's Independence Day, you know that for many, maybe most of us, it's just a nice big, long holiday weekend. A chance to fire up the grill. I'm looking forward to both. But while we're out there grilling and chilling, it would behooves us to remember that our independence, our freedom, freedom is not free. It would behooves to remember the price that many paid so that we could enjoy this kind of freedom. Summer of 1776, 56 men gathered in a really, really hot part of Philadelphia and a really, really hot building. And they signed the document that we would call our Declaration of Independence. The closing words of the Declaration of Independence read as follows. For the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other's our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. Our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. They wrote it. They signed it. They meant it. The terrible price these men paid for what they had done of the original 56, five were captured and tortured by the British. Twelve had their homes looted, occupied by the enemy or burned to the ground. Two lost sons in the war. One had two sons captured. Nine of those 56 men died in the war. Either from bullets or from hardship. This is the price of our freedom as Americans. Thomas Payne, who was no Christian, wrote in 1776. Well, we obtained too cheaply, we esteemed too lightly. It is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a price on its goods, and it would be strange indeed if so celestial and article's freedom should not be highly rated. This 4th of July, ladies and gentlemen, let's remember our national story of who we are and how we got here. Let's remember the price that was paid for our freedoms, and this morning, as we received these elements together. Let's remember this part of our family's stories, Christians. The price that was paid for our redemption was paid in the body and the blood of Jesus Christ. I'd like to take this down a few moments of silence while we all do business with God. There are places in your life that you know are out of a core, but as will, where we've been disobedient, now's the time. Let's do business with God, and then just a few moments. Doug and the others will come and lead us in our song of preparation. If you were not able to receive communion this morning for whatever reason, you need to talk with someone about it. This is an invitation in Christ's name to get with any of the man you see standing here, myself. There will be a number of other people who will be glad to meet with you privately so that we don't call attention to you and make you feel self-conscious anyway after this service. If you'll just let us know. There's something we can talk with you about or pray with you about. That would be our privilege. Let's pray together. Lord God, forgive us when we forget. We forget it's your God and we're not. We want to nudge you off your throne. We forget that the Holy Spirit makes us brothers and sisters. We treat one another as less so. Forgive us for forgetting the price that was paid for our forgiveness, for our redemption on the cross of Calvary. Remind us today, Father. Remind us so that we are truly grateful. We're truly, truly joyful in what you've done for us. In this reminder of this celebration of the Lord's Supper, we ask in Jesus' name, Amen. Go down the love of God the Father, the grace and mercy of God the Son, fellowship and companionship of God the Holy Spirit and live the life, Amen.