Chapter 3:14-18

All right, thank you very much, choir. René Doug, thank you all for the music. I appreciate that a lot. I keep a file of final words, people say. People's last words, let me give it a few of my favorites. Nice doggy. The trick with the charging Rhino is to stand perfectly these are actual. Oscar Wilde, the flamboyant British writer. Last words, either that wallpaper goes or I do. Let me give you this one, see if you can guess. I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have. Got a guess? How about Leonardo da Vinci? You imagine? George Washington died on December 14, 1799. I die hard, but I'm not afraid to go. If you're a civil war history buff and I know some of you are General Thomas Stonewall Jackson, mortally wounded by accident by his own men at the Battle of Chancellorsville, final words, let us cross over the river and sit in the shade of the trees. Stonewall Jackson was a committed Christian man, also not afraid to die. Here's some more final words, the Apostle Peter, leader of the early church, you have it a second Peter three versus 14 through 18. So then dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort as they do the other scriptures to their own destruction. Therefore dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of all this men and fall from your secure position, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to him be glory both now and forever. Amen. Oh, you pray with me. Father, I echo what Neil has already said, that the grass withers in the flower falls but the word of our God abides forever. This is your eternal abiding, living word. I pray, Father, that you would take this word and use it to mold us and to shape us, to conform us more and more to the image of your son, Jesus. Or where we're stiff-necked, break us. We've already been broken, heal us, we pray. And do in us what you need to do so that when we leave this place, we're more like Jesus. I mean, the word we got here for your honor and glory, for the building up at the body of Christ and for the advance of your kingdom. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, in these words, these are his final words. The final words we have from the apostle Peter call it his last will and testament, if you will. He bequeath to the people who he's writing to, originally. These are Christians, if you remember back from first, I'm sorry, yeah, first Peter chapter one, verse one, these are Christians in Pontus and Galatian, and Cappadocia and Bethany. They're in a northwestern quadrant of Asia Minor, living in the first century. What he bequeath to them, he bequeath to us, Christians living in Miami in the 21st century. And he gives them these following words. First of all, he gives them words of hope. Words of hope. Look at verse 14 again. So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with him. Looking forward to what? Well, if you were here last Sunday, you may remember if not, I'll fill you in quickly. We talked last Sunday a lot about the day of the Lord. The day when God says enough, enough, enough suffering, enough war, enough injustice, enough chances, enough time,

enough, and God blows the final whistle or sounds the final trumpet, and says, I'm bringing all this to an end. Peter says, instead of fear, he says, we're looking forward to it. We're looking forward to that day. Those of you who speak Spanish, one of the loveliest aspects of your language is the word Espera, which means to wait, or it means to hope, depending on your context. You know what's better, I wait, you know what's better, I hope, depending on your context. Well, here's a context in which to wait is to hope. While we wait, we hope, and we hope, while we wait here in this context, the waiting and the hoping are the same. We don't know exactly what it's gonna be. We don't know all the details. We get some ideas. We know this when he comes. We're looking forward to it. We want to be on his side when it happens. You may know the story about the elephant going through the jungles, and he's clomping along, making his way, and it comes across us. A deep, deep ravine. When it's how he's gonna get over, and he looks up to his left and sees there's a bridge going across this ravine, but it's an old rickety wooden bridge. Seeing no other way across, the elephant goes out and steps out onto this rickety wooden bridge. And just as he steps onto the bridge, a net lands on his neck right behind his ear, and hitches a ride. And the elephant takes one step in the bridge sways. He takes another step in the bridge sways more, and every step he takes that bridge is swaying and rocking and trembling and shaking more and more. Finally, they get across the other side. When they step foot on the solid earth on the other side, they turn around and look, and the net says, man, we really shook that thing, didn't we? We may just be the gnats on the back of the elephant, but when the shaking and the rattling and the trembling start, we want to be on his side. We want to be with him when he's time to go across that bridge. So then, dear friends, Peter says, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless and blameless in a piece with him. I promised I'll quit talking about this guy before long, but I've referenced the last seven or eight weeks. Francis Collins, Dr. Francis Collins, I had a human genome project. I've referenced him a number of times in his book, The Language of God, Brilliant Man, PhD in physical chemistry, and then a medical doctor. And it was wild as a medical doctor, comfortably complacent in his agnosticism. He began to run into patients who had painful, terminal illnesses, poor people without resources. And he was struck by how often these people face their death in their illnesses with such calm and such confidence and such assurance. And over and over and over again, as he asked them how they did that, they said they treated their calm and their confidence, confidence to their faith in God. And Dr. Collins says, that's what moved him from his complacent agnosticism to becoming a believer in God and then finally, and he says this in his book. Finally, the point we're submitted to Jesus Christ as his Lord, hope, ladies and gentlemen, hope for the day that it's come not fear, but hope in the day of the Lord. Thomas Beckett, the Archbishop of Canterbury, murdered in Canterbury Cathedral on December the 29th of the year 1170, murdered by King George's hit squad, his thugs, his final words, I am ready to die from my Lord, that in my blood, the church may obtain liberty and peace. Contrast this with the final words of Sigmund Freud. Sigmund Freud's final words, this is absurd. This is absurd. What's the difference? Hope, hope, confidence placed in the hands of loving God, a loving and faithful God. Assurance, confidence that death is not the end. It's just a transition. Verse 15, bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation. We wait with hope, we hope while we wait. God's patient, but we cannot wait forever, because he will not wait forever. You know who Chris Rice is? He's a musician, most of them in Christian circles, has a number of hits on the Christian charts. He's got one out right now. I call, when did you fall in love with me? It's a great song. It's getting the airplay on the secular stations as well. It's wonderful. One of my favorite songs by Chris Rice, it's a song he's got called Smile. We talked about how it's very difficult now, but he's looking forward to the day and the chorus of the song runs like this. I just want to be with you. I just want this waiting to be over. Just want to be with you and it helps to know the day is getting closer. Every minute takes an hour, every inch feels like a mile. It won't have to imagine. And I finally get to see you smile. If you've never felt like that before, I probably can't explain it to you. If you have felt like that before you, feel like that right now. I don't need to explain it to you. That's our hope, ladies and gentlemen, that's our hope. First Peter gives us a word of hope and then he gives us a word of encouragement. More final words, John Quincy Adams, the son of John Adams, President John Quincy Adams on the day of his death. This is the last of earth. I am content, a committed Christian man. Joseph Addison, another bread, another writer, another committed Christian, said to his son, see in what piece a Christian can die. Peter says in verse 16, talking about Paul, Paul writes the same way in all his letters, speaking them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand. Let me just say at that point, amen. I think Peter must have had a scroll of Romans in front of him, open to chapter seven. There are some things that are extremely hard to understand, a hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort as they do the other scriptures to their own destruction. You find the Bible hard to understand sometimes. You're in good company. They struggle with it too. Be encouraged. You know the old thing Mark Twain always said, it's not the parts of the Bible I don't understand by the means the parts I do understand. But there are parts of the Bible that are very hard to understand. There are parts that I think we may only understand what they mean when we're home, we seem face to face. Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then it's face to face. Now we know in part, but then we'll know fully completely as we are completely known. There are other parts of the Bible that are hard to understand, but you can get at them if you work at them a while. There are aspects of the minor profits that are very, very involved, very hard to get. Some of the parables of Jesus, it's hard to understand exactly what the major point is. The book of the revelation used to be hard to understand, but Bill Mueller will explain it to you every Sunday morning. He'll just show up over there at 9.30. It is hard. Some of these parts in the Bible are difficult. And then there are some parts of the Bible that are so clear you couldn't miss them if you tried. How about, how about, don't murder? Don't commit adultery. Don't steal, don't lie, don't covet. Love your neighbor as yourself. Have you seen those billboards or read about those billboards that are sensibly from God? And one of them says, which part of thou shalt not did you not understand? There are aspects of the Bible's teaching that you just can't miss. I'll give you one more. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father except through me. Many moons ago, in previous life as a youth pastor, I was doing a car wash with some of my youth group kids, raising money to go to the Dominican Republic. And we're raising, we're washing cars, raising money. Guy comes walking up to me with a badge on that said, Ishkon, ISH K-O-N. And ISH K-C-O-N. And he starts to talk to me about religious things. I was fairly up on my cults in those days and I knew at the Badgemen International Society for a higher Christian of consciousness. So he began to talk to me about God this and God that. And I said, help me understand something here. You're a Christian, right? He's kind of surprised and a little disappointed that I knew what that was. And we began to talk about the differences between Krishna and Jesus. And at one point I said to him, tell me this, when Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and nobody comes to the Father except through me, what do you think that means? And this man said to me, and he was, I mean, I was in my early 20s, he was much older than me. This man said to me something on the lines of, well, what Jesus really meant was, anytime you hear that, the alarm bell's out of ring, okay? Jesus is pretty blunt. Well, what Jesus really meant was, that the way to God, the way to higher consciousness, is through an enlightened one, an avatar, an enlightened master, such as Jesus, such as Krishna, and then he said in all humility, such as myself. And so I said to him, so what you're telling me is that when Jesus said that he is the way, the truth, and the life, and that nobody gets to the Father except through him, what he really meant was exactly the opposite and that there are many in ways to God. And he looked at me and said, you are a Baptist, aren't you?

Peter has some harsh words for those who would intentionally distort the word of God. Now listen, folks, you gotta understand something. None of us bats a thousand. John Calvin, probably the greatest theologian that ever lived, said the best of us is probably never more than 80% right at best. So none of us bats a thousand. I want you to understand that I try, the guys that teach in this church try, if you go to any PCA church, you can know that we try hard to accurately and faithfully handle the word of God, even the hard parts of it. We're not always the most entertaining, we're not always most flamboyant or trendy, or culturally hip, but we try really hard to be faithful to the word of God. Paul writes the same way in all his letters, Peter says. Speaking in them of these matters, his letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort. As they do, the other scriptures, did you catch that? As they do the other scriptures to their own destruction. Here we have the Apostle Peter, the leader of the early church, proclaiming that Paul's writings, remember Peter's writing this about 64 AD? Paul's writings are already recognized as being part of the canon, part of the scriptures, part of the inspired writings of the Bible. Already in the seventh decade BC, there's a recognition that while Paul writes a scripture, Dan Brown, are you listening? Peter's last words, hope, encouragement. He's got a word of admonition here too. Queen Elizabeth I of England died in 1603, her last words, all my possessions for a moment of time. Times precious folks, times precious. She was willing to give up all her realm, all her empire, all her possessions for a moment of time. Contrast that with President Woodrow Wilson, a committed Christian, also having to be a Presbyterian for what that's worth. Woodrow Wilson, on his deathbed, February the 3rd of 1924, I am ready. I am ready. Verse 17, Peter says, therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. Be on your guard, Peter says, be ready. Paul has already told us in Ephesians six, this is a war, folks. This is a spiritual war. It's not a spiritual picnic. It's not a spiritual day at the beach. Sometimes it feels that way. This is a spiritual war. There was a time not long ago. And for a preacher like myself, standing in a church like this in the United States to have said, this is a spiritual war, most of you would have said, mm-hmm. Yeah, we get the metaphor. We treated it as a metaphor. We had the luxury of treating it as a metaphor. We don't anymore, do we? This is a war, folks. It's a battle is joined. It's gonna be a long war. And for the sake of our children, for the sake of our grandchildren, for the sake and the honor of the glory of God, we better win it, we better win it. And I don't mean in the military field. That's for the soldiers to do. The soldiers, the Marines, the sailors, and the pilots. That's for the generals to do. Our weapons, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10, verses 4 and 5, the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have our weapons, have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments in every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. Last week I told you about my open letter, Rosie O'Donnell, you're gonna be stunned when I tell you, Rosie's not written me back yet. Some of you, and a number you responded to it, and I appreciate that. Tell you what, we'll try to post that on the website as well if you want it. Some of you said I oughta sent it to the herald. I told you there wasn't any point, but I bet some of you that I would send it, they wouldn't print it, you owe me. I sent it, I didn't check the herald this week, but I judged by the lack of phone calls I got about it, that it hasn't been printed. Some of you owe me, it's a nickel each, and I expect to collect, all right? I didn't expect Miss O'Donnell to respond, I didn't expect the herald print my letter. So what if she got a thousand emails, like mine? What if the herald got a thousand letters, like mine? Then it might not be so easy to ignore, folks. We need to meet this stuff head on, we need to take every thought captive, every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ. Therefore, dear friends, Peter says, since you already know this, be on your guard, so that you may not be carried away by the era of lawless men, and fall from your secure position. What does that mean? Peter does not mean that you can lose your salvation. What he means is that it's possible for anyone, and he means anyone to crash and burn to make shipwreck of their faith. Back in Matthew 26, this is Matthew's account of the night before the betrayal, the arrest, the trial, the sufferings of crucifixion, Matthew accounts this, then Jesus told them their disciples. This very night you will all fall away on account of me. Peter replied, even if all fall away on account of you, I never will. I'll tell you the truth, Jesus answered. This very night before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times. Peter declared, even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you, and all the other disciples said the same. But we know what happened. Peter never forgot it either. And that's why he says that they've got to be on their guard. But, but, verse 18, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to Him be glory both now and forever, amen. That's a pretty good last word. That's a pretty good last will and testament. Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and you say, how? I'm so glad you asked that question. Let's spend a few minutes talking about how we grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I'm going to give you some of the major tools and the vessels in which and through which God works in our lives to help us grow in grace in the knowledge. The first thing is the thing you're doing right now, corporate worship, that we come here together to worship God, to honor and to glorify Him. This is Christianity 101, folks. And I'm preaching not only to the choir, but also the congregation. You're here. So perhaps you don't need to hear this message as much. But I will send it through you to others and there will be those listening to this on the internet at some point. This is Christianity 101. If you can't make it to a worship service on a consistent basis, don't expect anybody to take you very seriously about your Christianity. I mean, if you can't even show up here or wherever you worship on a regular basis, then why would anybody take seriously your claim to be a Christian? I'm not saying you're not. I'm not even saying you're not a good Christian. That's between you and God. But don't expect anybody else to take you seriously. Let me do an analogy I've done with you before. Suspend disbelief with me for a minute. Forget about my disability. Suppose I come in here and tell you I'm a professional baseball player. And some of you don't know much about the game. They say, oh, really? What team do you play for? Well, I'm not on a team right now. Oh, you're free agent. Well, yeah, you can send me free agent. Well, what was the last team you played for? Well, I haven't actually played on any particular team. I'm just part of Major League Baseball. Okay, what position do you play? I haven't decided yet. I haven't decided yet. I think I could probably play them all. There's some I wouldn't want to buy. Well, I think I could probably do it. But I haven't really decided what position I'm going to play. And you'd look at me. Maybe I'm supporting a really cool glove and a cap. Maybe even the jersey would say, well, exactly in what sense do you consider yourself a professional baseball player? Well, I really like baseball. And I know a lot about it. And I go to games every now and then. By this time, you're saying whatever and you're out the door. You would not take me seriously. If I try to tell you a professional baseball player, if I don't even play on a team, I don't even have a position. Folks, being a Christian is not saying things being an athlete. It's not an acquired skill or a set of disciplines. It's a relationship. But don't expect it only to take you seriously if you're not even committed to a local church. Now, I'm going to give you some other ways to grow and grace in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus, that don't require you being here or anywhere else at 11 o'clock on a Sunday. I want to give you a caution here. What I'm about to say, I don't want you to take this as a legalistic checklist that, OK, I did this, I did this, I did this, OK, now I'm a good Christian. These are guidelines. These are suggestions. But they're good ones. So let's begin. The first thing I would tell you to do, if you want to grow and grace in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus, is Bible study. Bible study. How do you study the Bible? Well, you study the Bible by studying the Bible. Pick it up and read it. If you don't know much about it, and you don't know where to start, start with the gospel of John. Just start reading John. It's very basic. Once you've read John, then go back and read the other gospels. Matthew, what comes after Matthew? Help me out here. What does? Mark, OK, and what's next? Look, OK, all right. Some of you are Baptist, I could tell. You go and read the gospels and then read John again. Get to know about the life or segments of the life of Jesus. What Bible do you read? The one you'll read? I'm not an elitist about this all. We have the anti-V, the new international version in our raks, so that's great. Read it, if you can read it. If you like the new American standard, read the new American standard, if you like the King James, or the new King James, read that. Read the new living translation. Read the message, whatever you'll read. For read it, and there's so many Bibles out there now. I mean, we've got Bibles for, we've got Bibles for left-handed geeks who bow on Thursdays. We've got Bibles for everybody. There's no excuse for you not being able to find a Bible that you can read anymore. We'll help. We have four adult Bible studies here every week, two on Sunday mornings, led by Neil and Bill. We have one on Sunday evening, led by Neil. We have another one on Wednesday, nice led by Bill. We've got four adult Bible studies, meaning here. We have other Bible studies for every single age group once a week, at least, here at this property. We have other Bible studies that meet elsewhere throughout the week. People's homes, country clubs, you name it. We have some that meet monthly. If you don't know how else to start, ask a knelder. We'll be glad to help you out. In fact, when you ask a knelder for help, be sure to ask them a really, really tough Bible question. They like it. They like it when you ask them really tough questions. Prayer. How do we pray? You pray honestly? You pray frequently? You pray according to the model of the Lord's Prayer, if you want, if you need a model like the Acts, Model ACTS, Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Suffocation. That's a great way to pray. But pray. Pray for your ability to pray. Pray for your desire to pray. Ask God to meet you in prayer and to give you that desire. And to show you that He's real. And to show you that your prayers actually do make an impact. Confess your sins to Him. Tell Him your hurts. Tell Him your needs, thanking for His blessings, His provision, and ask Him to continue to bless and provide. Pray for other people. Pray for Christians. Pray for your non-Christian friends. Pray for me. Pray for us. Pray for your elders and your deacons. Pray for the church staff. Pray for the staffs of Kendall Christian School and the early start infant toddler program. We need your prayers. You know, things are going well here at Kendall Proudos Material right now in all of our ministries. What do you think the enemy of our souls would like to do most? He'd like to bring us down. Pray for us. People sometimes ask me for books on prayer. I don't mind, but I don't think you learn to pray by reading a book. I will tell you, and I don't usually shill for his books, but Steve Brown's book, Approaching God, is a really good one. And it's easy to read. So if you need a book on prayer, go get Steve's book, Approaching God. And make sure you tell him he owes me at least some kind of commission for recommending his book called Approaching God. What do you pray about? Pray about everything. Pray about anything. He's your father. He loves to hear from his children. Levi and Melinda Klick tells a story. It's if for two months before her third birthday, her daughter, Sandy, was telling everybody, I'm going to have a birthday party. I'm going to have a birthday party. Finally, the day of the party came. Sandy was so excited all that day. She kept telling other people, I had a birthday party. I had a birthday party. For a couple of weeks after she continued to tell people, I had a birthday party. And finally, her folks said to her sweetheart, that's where we're really glad you enjoyed your birthday. But let's stop talking about it. Okay, let's not say any more about it. And that day, she didn't say any more about it. But that night, Linda says when she went to Tucker in the bed, she said her prayers. And little Sandy said, dear God, I had a birthday party. You can tell him anything. Now I'm going to put up your people. You want to say, well, duh, of course we need people. Let me tell you, though. And again, I know I'm talking to you. You may not need to hear this. But maybe you know what somebody does. It's not uncommon at all for me to talk with people. And you know what, what's your name? Where are you from? What do you do? When I tell them what I do, they say, what are you? I'll say, you don't, you really don't want to know. And they'll say, okay, you're a pastor. And then they begin the back panel about how long a spin has it been in church. I don't bring it up. They do. And I'll say, well, you know, you might consider. If you're in Miami, you're welcome here. Find a home church. And then I'll hear something like, and you hear this too. Well, I worship God by staying home and watching Dr. Kennedy. He's one of your guys, right, Dr. Kennedy. Like I'm going to give him bonus points because they're watching Dr. Kennedy. I watch Robert Schuller. I watch Charles Stanley. I watch Joel Osteen. I stay home and watch, or I worship God on my own, out in nature. I worship God out on my boat. Now, sometimes depending on the conversation, I'll just say, well, if the time comes, when you need something a little more close and personal, just remember, you're welcome here. We'll be here for you. Find another church. Sometimes it, depending on the conversation, depending on how it's flowing, I will say to them, you know, that's okay, but a time's going to come when you're going to need somebody. Maybe you're going to be in the hospital. I don't think Dr. Kennedy will come visit you. I think Joel Osteen will come up to your bed and visit you and pray with you in the hospital. Nothing against those men. They're not local. They're not going to be here for you. You don't get married. Now, I don't think Charles Stanley will come and do your wedding for you. You're going to want your children baptized. Don't ask Joel Osteen to come up and do that for you. Your boat will not come and see you when you're sick. The trees and the stars and the moon will not be there to conduct your funeral. A day may come when you want something more. Folks, we need one another. We need to be involved in each other's lives. Growth, real growth, the kind that sharpens us, where we need to be sharpens. The kind that sandpaper's off our rough edges. We need to have sandpaper. That only happens in relationship, folks. It happens in community. There's a word for this. It's called church. And we need one another to grow in grace. So I said, let's just preach a talk. You have a pastor-centric view of the world. Yeah, maybe, maybe. And I don't say that because I'm here. I don't believe that to be true because I'm a pastor. I'm a pastor because I believe it to be true. Think of it this way. You have a baby. You bring that child home. Sit the child up in the nursery. You say to him, listen, son, daughter, I'm going to leave you some books on parenting. I'm going to use some books on childhood development. I'm going to leave you some videos and some DVDs on family life. We'll leave you some language training tapes in here. We'll leave this stuff for you. And we'll check in on you every now and then. We'll give you a phone call. We'll show up Christmas and Easter, see how you're doing. What kind of life will that child have? Well, you know the answer. We can't do it in the spiritual realm, either, folks. Let me push again. That's why Christian education is so important. I'm going to urge you again if you possibly can. Some of you can't. We understand that. If you can be here at 9.30 on Sunday morning, be here. Sit in Niels' class. Sit in Bill's class. We get enough of you. The one in the third one will offer it. We got four or five. We'd like to teach, but we don't know if anybody will come. Show up on Wednesday nights for Bill's Bible study. Get involved in Christian education in a home Bible study. Come with me, Wednesday morning men. Forget involved in Christian education. It just doesn't work any other way. Let me put another one up your books. Oh, this is Mother's Milk to Presbyterian Folks. We love books. We can commit bibliolatry sometimes. We love our books. Take a look. I'm speaking through the eyes of faith because I haven't seen it by, but leave. There's going to be a book table out there when you leave. Folks, check them out. And I started to put together a recommended reading list for you. It got so long, and I thought, can't get real. These people can't read all this stuff. Most of them can. Could I just encourage you about a few books? Remure Christianity by C.S. Lewis. That is the book over the last mail he wrote in the 50s. Late 40s, I guess. Over the last 60 years, that is the book that has impacted more people after the Bible itself than any other book. Remure Christianity. If you have children, read the Chronicles of Narnia to them. You probably saw the line in the Witch in the Wardrobe. The book's even better. Read the Chronicles. They're marvelous reading. Read The Christian Mind by Harry Blameyre is another Brit. Read How Now Shall We Live by Chuck Colson. I know it's long and it's big. Read the sections of it that apply to you. It's a great way to get into a Christian worldview. Read The Pilgrim's Progress. Do you know that after the Bible itself, the number two bestselling book of all time, is Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunion? It's a marvelous allegory. The Christian life's a language is a little tough in place of the story's marvelous. Show yourself to be an educated Christian by reading Pilgrim's Progress. Those of you who love science, if you're scientifically thinking, get the soul of science, by Nancy Piercy and Charles Staxton, it will change the way you see science forever in a good way. Not anti-science, but you'll understand it better. Those of you who watch TV, anybody here watch TV? Get Neil Postman's amusing ourselves to death. After you read Neil Postman's book, amusing ourselves to death, you will never look at that electronic box the same. You won't look at your computer the same, the internet the same. You won't look at a newspaper or the Bible the same way. After reading and using ourselves as any short, there's about 160, 170 pages. You're reading a few hours, no kidding. Marvelous stuff. And I'd recommend you also, especially those of you who are struggling because you just think you can't do this. Read Brendan Manning's The Rag and Muffin Gospel. You read it, you may be surprised or recommended to you, but I do. And I could go on, my list was so long, and I said, book, that's enough, but please check the book standout out there at the book table. One more, a couple more media. By that I mean CDs, DVD, CRCCN, broadcasts in here, use the internet. You know what, God created the internet, just so that we could have access to all these marvelous resources. Look at our website, KendallPres.org. We're doing a massive, I don't know what you call it when you move bits and bytes around, but we're expanding the thing, we're rearranging the thing, we're rearranging all the furniture in it. We're putting a whole lot more resources on it, linking to a lot more websites. Our goal is that at some point in the not-too-distant future, by going on our website and the links that we give you there, you can get a really good, solid Christian education. You could go on Richard Pratt's third mill dot, or right now, get a seminary education. Part of it, we're gonna link you up with that so that you can be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Can you handle one more? You may have liked them all at this point. How about service? How about service? Folks, it's not enough to study the Bible. It's not enough to discuss our faith. We gotta live it. We gotta put it into practice. We're called to experience the Christian life. That's why every Sunday when I pronounce the benediction, the last thing I say, after we've said it and sung it and given our offerings and shaken each other's hands, after we've prayed and listened to the sermon, I'll take it with you and go out there and live the life. You've heard me say this before, servanthood is credibility. They'll argue with your theology. They'll bristle at your morality. They'll laugh at your doxology, but nobody argues with servanthood. You wanna be taken seriously? Serve. That's why Mother Teresa was so widely university respected. If people knew what she really believed, they'd been scandalized, but she represented sacrificial selfless servanthood. That's why the Salvation Army is the number one charity year after year in terms of money offered whether the target lets them put the kettles out there or not. Salvation Army year after year is the number one charity because people know they're a bunch of servants. That's why we're so big on these mission projects. I would urge you to talk with Andy or Valerie about this mission project to the Dominican Republic next summer. I had a call Friday. As I was working on this stuff, I had a call Friday for me, young lady, who was in my youth group. Back around the time, the Earth's crust cooled. She went on a couple of mission projects with us, one to Mexico, one to Jamaica. And I didn't remember this. She said, can't somebody in the church scholarship me on that? So that those two trips changed my life. I've never forgotten. I've always wanted to pay back. How can I pay it back? Of course, I refer to the pastoral retirement fund, but my name on it. They're powerful, folks. Get with Barbara Zasko and go swing a hammer for habitat for humanity. Come to the church's workday here. I believe it's coming October 21st, but serve. It doesn't have to be an official church function. It doesn't have to take place here. It doesn't have to have anything to do with church at all. Just find a need and meet it. And you'll experience God's blessing. Last one. Are you with me so far? Some of you nudged the other one. Here's the last one. Evangelism. Uh-oh, can't we? You're OK up to them. But you expect me to share my faith in Christ with somebody else? Let me tell you something. Paul says to a friend, I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. It's Philemon 5.6 if you want to see it. There are aspects of the Christian life. There are depths of understanding. We simply cannot access. We cannot experience. We cannot understand unless we're actively sharing our faith with those. But I don't know enough. I don't know what you know about this day. I probably don't study. Read, you can learn it. But you know your story. You are the world's leading authority on you. Tell somebody who wants to hear it. Don't inflict it on some of you who has no ears. Tell somebody, this is what I was like. This was my need. This is what happened when I received Christ as Lord. This is what my life has been like since. And for God's sakes, folks, be honest. Don't paint it up some rosy picture. We got enough phonies in the name of God, including most of us pastors, or at least a lot of us. Don't dress up. Be honest about who you are and what you are. And if you can't do that, then I would simply urge you to. And this is a radical new formula. Pray and invite. Pray and invite. Invite them here. If you can't do it on your own, it's OK. I understand. I'll start the conversation for you. And then you take them to lunch and see what happens. I know it's frightening. I know it's intimidating sometimes. Somebody took the risk for you. Somebody stopped and told you that God created you in His image with dignity and with purpose. He created you to know Him and be in relationship with Him. That your sins were a barrier between you and God. And that no amount of penance could pull the wall down. No amount of good works could build a ladder over it. That your own way back to relationship with God was through Jesus Christ. And you pray and you ask Christ to take away your sins and your life was changed. Somebody did it for you. Take a chance, folks. Take a risk. Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Why, Peter's last words for the glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus, his dying breath, his last words about the glory of God, how fitting, how fitting. I'll give you one last set of last words. You know, Charlemagne was Charles the Magnificent, great conqueror of Europe and the Middle Ages, great ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, late 8th century, early 9th century, conquered his known world at the time, Charlemagne, Charles the Magnificent, was also a committed Christian. When he died, he had left instructions. And he was to be set up in his royal throne with his robes and his scepter and his rings. And he had his ring finger pointed to Matthew, chapter 16, verses 25 and 26, whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for these words from your servant, Peter. I thank you, Father, that you saw to it that in spite of the odds against all odds, Peter lived long enough to have these words written down for us, for our instruction, for our hope, for our encouragement, for our admonition, Father, that we would take Peter's words, take him to heart and embrace him. Let him work in us and work on us and work through us. Once again, to mold us and to shape us and to conform us, mourn more into the image your son, Jesus. I pray in Jesus' name, amen. Let's see what we see in front of us, what does it mean? Now we see the benediction. Going down the love of God, the Father, grace and mercy of God, the Son, the fellowship and companionship of God, the Holy Spirit, live the life, amen.