Key Truth: God’s people are called to live in light of the future Jesus is bringing.

What factors most often form the framework for determining what is important in your week?

Waiting for & Hastening Judgment & Restoration

2 Peter 3:11-15

“Christians have enormous difficulty in grasping the two points that although Jesus has left us a number of things to do, there is a clear order of priority in their relative importance. We easily attach greatest importance to the visible and the urgent…But it is clear from what peter has taught that the greatest need our world faces is its need for a Savior on the day of judgment. That helps us order our priorities, for everything we do will be laid bare and exposed to God’s scrutiny in the cosmic judgment.”

Dick Lucas & Christopher Green, The Message of 2 Peter & Jude

What idols in my life need to be addressed by the reality of coming judgment?
What gifts has Jesus given me to cultivate in anticipation and hastening of his final restoration?
How might the participation of God’s people in God’s redemptive patience encourage you in holiness and peace?

Humbly Holding to Scripture

2 Peter 3:15-17

“We must go to the Book in that spirit of humility and with a readiness to listen and to learn. Though my pet theory may prove to be wrong it does not matter; I must go in that childlike manner; even as Peter listened to his beloved brother Paul.”

DM Loyd Jones, Expository Sermons on 2 Peter

Have you felt the freedom Peter feels to submit to the scriptures while admitting “there are some things in them that are hard to understand”?
How can the balance of scripture help us move toward what matters most?

Always Growing

2 Peter 3:18

“How we should all long for that deeper knowledge of and relationship with Jesus! Herein lies our Christian joy, but here also lies our ultimate defense against false teachers. Through his grace, through the relationship the Lord Jesus forges with us, his children, we will not fall from our secure positon (3:17) but will remain firmly established in the truth’ (1:12).”

Paul Gardner, 1 & 2 Peter & Jude: Christian Living in an Age of Suffering

Why is it often so hard to reconcile waiting and growth?
How should growth get us back to Christ’s glory both now and in the future?

Communion

Benediction:

2 Peter 3:17-18