Well, if there's one thing that 2020 has taught us, it is that it is incredibly hard to know who and what to believe. I mean, I'm talking on everything even beyond can the SEC play defense. I'm talking all the way from who to believe about politics, who to believe about our health, who to believe about our economy, who to believe about our beliefs, and who to believe about is that person really a member of our families or not?  The crazy part about 2020 is that I just don't think there is ever a time in at least my lifetime and I'm gonna probably say most of your lifetimes as well that there's been so many narratives being fed at us at the same time through so many information streams, and dependent upon a number that you type into your TV or what website you might visit or not visit. You just don't know what to believe. It's crazy. And even a trip to the grocery store reminded me of this, a couple of weeks ago.  

Number one I'm the worst grocery shopper on the planet. I'm just gonna tell you that right now. I just need to confess that out loud.   If you send me to the grocery store with a list, the list means nothing at that point. It is A, am I hungry or B, what have I not eaten in a long time that looks good at the moment and C, what's buy one get one free.  That's my only shopping rules of any rules.  While I was at the grocery store a couple of weeks ago, actually not this week but last week and I got the four items because if you ask me for more than that, like I said, it's done and I'm coming home with a bucket of chicken. I mean that's it, I'm telling you right now from Publix.  So I'm in the line waiting to check out and and I'm standing there and all of a sudden out of nowhere there is this moment that just grabs me and you know the moment that I'm talking about it's the moment that after you put your stuff on the little magical little train that just stops right at the moment it needs to, you look up and what do you see? You see what the news is not telling you, is what you see in that very moment. Some you know what I'm talking about the tabloids.  The tabloids are my favorite. I'm just gonna confess this you can judge me hard if you want to. But look, it's a multibillion-dollar industry. I ain't the only one. The tabloids are my favorite part of the grocery store. It is everything I can do not to just subscribe right there. I'm just gonna be honest, I'm gonna confess, I know you think less of me at this very moment. But it is not about who's marrying who.   I like the good ones. I mean, I like the ones that, they need to tell us about this stuff. A couple of them I wrote down the other day. Here's one, "Alien mummy goes on the rampage." I didn't hear this. Did y'all? I need to know when this is happening. 

Here's the second one. This one made me just laugh. "Woman gives birth to a two-year-old baby that walks and talks at three days." They're onto something if I could have done, that I might have had another kid. It's all I know. Here was my favorite a couple weeks ago. "Vegan vampire attacks tree." Can you just imagine.  Let that one sink in just for a minute, for those of you that are down that train? Transylvania, it's like give me some pine. Ah, there it is.  And finally, this one, it gets close to being biblical, but not really. "Eve was nothing more than a space alien."   I love that, the mother of our planet. There it is. But here's the thing. There really is so many truth claims. There are so many claims. And it used to be if you put something in writing, it meant something. It used to be if it hit TV, you're like, well, maybe I should follow that. But there's so many things about life that we're having to filter right now of what is truth and what is not truth and which narrative should I jump into? And which one should I just laugh at and shake my head? What animal should I be riding on? What color should I be wearing? Where should my family be worshiping? Or heck should we be worshiping at all? I mean, let's just call it what it is. There's so many truths that are out there. In fact, about once a year, a book comes out and you'll notice this about once a year, some book or some Discovery Channel news show comes out about some long lost discovery of Jesus, that somebody tripped over somewhere, around this planet.  And the fact is their best sellers, because people are starved for truth. People are starved for knowledge. And they have trouble filtering out because there's so many streams coming at us. What is real and what is not? What is truth? And what is not? How should I be living? And how should I not be living? Here's the thing. This is no new phenomenon. It's not new. And I know some of us are thinking, well, yeah, it is Matt, the last nine months, it's new.  It is not a new thing. In fact, this letter that we're studying together of 2 Peter, but a huge portion of this letter is dealing with this idea of what is it that I should believe and how can I actually live that belief out? So we're looking at this ancient document that's over 2000 years old, and it is absolutely written to debunk the tabloids and the news all at one time. And the Apostle Peter says, hey, let me just give you what is truth. So Peter, answers these questions. How do I know what is truth? How do I know how to live out this truth? Last week, we introduced this letter and we said that this letter is written by an older Peter this is after he walked with Jesus, this is later in his life. And we said that it's down toward the end of his life. And Peter has already written 1 Peter, because that's why it's named 1 Peter. And a couple of years later, he came up and he wrote 2 Peter to say, hey, I told you, there was some struggles coming, and now he's going, they're here. They're on us, and they're with us. And he writes this letter to the church that is scattered,  that is scared, that is all over the Roman Empire, that's living under just some incredible persecution, incredible pain, and he looks at the people and he just reminds them that, hey, your salvation we talked about this last week is based on a gift from God, it is a gift of salvation, he has made it available for you, 

He has sealed you in his name. And at the moment, here it is, that you give your life to Jesus, you are His forever. He told us this, this week in the first 11 verses, but then he continued to tell us because of that, you need to live your faith out. You need to walk your faith out, you need to take the gift, and you need to exercise the promises that are inside that gift. Because we've been given these promises of grace, we've been given these promises of peace. And we've been given these promises of if we will take our salvation, we said last week and step through the marks of what we looked at last week, then we will begin to see our faith grow.  We'll begin to see that, but I want to remind you of the context that he wrote this letter in, because it's important, the context is a lot different than it is today. Here's the thing, the Roman Empire did not have the words in God we trust on their money. They had Caesar on their money. They had Caesar. And so when we begin to kind of put our plight at the same level as these Christians are dealing with, there's really no comparison, because when these people that Peter is writing to when they stood up for the name of Jesus, the reality is they were taking their life into their own hands. Because when you claim that Jesus was Lord, it wasn't the fact that Judas might lose a drinking buddy. All right, it wasn't the fact that Jews might need to get off the drugs. It was the fact that when you said Jesus was Lord, at that moment, you were saying that Caesar was not Lord, and you were putting your life in your own hands, and the government was coming up against you. So we're literally looking at a group of people that are incredibly persecuted. And he's looking at these people that culture didn't want anything to do with.  The government didn't even want anything to do with them, but also even inside the church. So, listen to this, when Peter wrote this letter, he was writing it to debunk a lot of false teaching that was going on inside the church.  There was a group, and this is not really important what the name is, but if you just want to hear it, there's a group called the Gnostics. And basically, that's just a real fancy word that just really means, in the know.  There was a group that claimed to be in the know, that was spreading these false teachings in the church and saying that it really didn't matter what you did with Jesus. It really didn't matter what you believed about the Resurrection. And it really didn't matter what you were putting your faith into that the only way they were saying inside the church, that you can be saved, is to have a special revelation of knowledge and a special revelation of truth and they we're spreading this inside the church. So, think about these people that we're looking at right here. I mean, think about the pain that they're going through.  Their culture doesn't like them, their government is suppressing them and even inside their church families, they're dealing with this idea of, I just don't know what to believe anymore. Here's what I know, that was some of your Saturday mornings. And these guys were in this moment. And Peter steps up as the elder statesman in this moment and says, look, through my life, and through my example and through some bold instruction, here's what Peter does.  He cuts through the noise.

He cuts through the noise of all these different streams of information. You know, the crazy thing about noise?  It's that most of us live such a noisy life, that when it gets quiet, it starts to bother us. That the thing about noise, is that we live such a life that is receiving so many things around us, when the moment of just quietness comes up, we're like, what's wrong? What's going on? Peter looks at all the noise that's going on in the culture and the church and all these places and he looked at these people, and he's like, hey, let me give you the truth. Let me show you what verse 10, we looked at last week of how you can confirm your calling, and how you can know that you're walking out the faith that He's given us.  So here's what we're going to do this morning, I want to give you the four marks that Peter gives right here in these next verses. I didn't make them up, they're just in the verse, I didn't kind of pick specific things. I just want to follow the text this morning. Because here's what Peter does. He says, from my life, from my experience, and from my time walking with Jesus, let me give you what it looks like to walk the life of the disciple. Because here's what I know about some of us, we grew up in churches that we might have met the Lord, we might have given our life to Jesus, they may have even baptized us and given us a certificate that has our name on it. But that was the end of what it looks like. Here's what and how I can walk out my faith and look like a true disciple. So here's what I want you to do this morning, when I give you these four, I just want you to ask yourself for the rest of this week, I'm going to give you your homework on the front end, right? I want you to ask yourself for the rest of this week, how am I measuring up? Not for my faith, right? I don't want you to do that. We don't work for our salvation; we work out of our salvation. But how am I measuring up?  We're gonna pick up right where we left off last week. We did verse 11. We're gonna go to verse 12. This week pick up from there, because we find the first two that he gives us just through looking at Peter's life.  Let's read it together.  2 Peter chapter 1:12, says this. "So, I will always remind you of these things." So now what things are you talking about? 

Read the first 11 verses. "Even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have."   Now pause right there for a minute, leave that verse up, I promise you, we're not going to stop this much. Here's what that means. That means he's giving people like me, and people like you that teach the Bible permission to say the same thing over and over and over and over again until we finally do it. All right? That's what he's saying. Look at this, verse 13.  "I think it's right to refresh your memory as long as I live in this tent of the body, because I know that I will soon put it aside," he's talking about himself  "as our Lord Christ Jesus 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." Now what is Peter doing?   Peter is saying, after I've given you the message that Jesus is the gift, he's gifted us salvation, now if you want to show that Jesus is in your life, if you want to show that Jesus is working in your life, if you want to show that Jesus has changed you, he says, number one, you need to live with eternity in mind. Live with eternity in mind. Now, what does that mean? That means that we should live in such a life, that the affairs of this life should never consume more of us than the affairs of the next life. That's what that means. Now, this is hard. All right?   I'm not claiming I have the market on this one. All right? I struggle on this one. Why? Because most of us have been taught our whole lives that everything matters in life is like right now. Right? We're taught like seize the day; Carpe Diem right now is the moment everything that matters is like right now. Do everything right now. But if you're looking at the Bible, the Bible is concerned with the right now. But it says this, your right now will always figure itself out if your gaze is on eternity. That's what he's saying. But we don't do this, do we?

We don't do this because we're taught from the time we're born all the way up not really like with words, but just by actions that so much of this lie is about me producing in this moment how somebody else wants me to produce rather than what God wants me to produce. But I want you to see what Peter says right here because it's incredible, because Peters looking at us and he's saying to us right here that eternity matters. In fact, he's saying to us that this life, it is really temporary. It's just a temporary blip on the  eternal scale. But how many mornings do we wake up going, man, God, I'm just really glad you gave me this moment because this might be the last moment until I enter into the next moment. That's what Peter's saying right here.  In fact, look at verse 13, I love how he says it. He says this, "I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent," alright, you might want to circle that word tent, "in the tent of this body."  Now, I love this language of the body being a tent. I love it. Why? Because here's the question, What are tents good for? Which half of you went nothing? All right, I get that. All right?  I feel that a little bit, right? I do. But the reality is, by definition, a tent, catch this, it's nothing more than a temporary structure to get you through to where you're going. Now, let that language just settle in for a minute. Let that language settle in at Peter he's looking at his life right here and he's going, hey, listen, I'm just in a tent of a body. What's he saying? He says, hey, I may be living in this thing right now this little suit of flesh that I got going, it may be okay at the moment. But this is not my eternity. This is not where I'm going to spend the rest of my life. Notice Peter, he never calls his body a castle. He never calls his body godly. He never calls his body his eternal dwelling place, right? There's a whole lot in that. All he's saying is look, this thing right here that I got going on where I'm at right now, this is extremely temporary in the light of eternity. Therefore, I'm going to live with my gaze on the eternity. Now look, when we live with our gaze on eternity, it changes things for us. Why? Because those things that really and truly matter in the decision moments. The now decisions versus the eternal decisions are rarely the same. They're rarely the same. You say, Matt what are you talking about? Think back to how many times in your life where you have really blown it. Were you thinking now or were you thinking eternity? Now you see where he's going.

He keeps going verse 14, he says, because I know that I will soon put it aside. In other words, I know that I will soon put this tent down. I'm out of this place. As the Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me, he kind of goes into two levels of conversation he knows naturally, Peter confirms what we all know. Listen, I got news for you. You're not going to live forever. All right?  After the fall in Genesis that game was over with, there's only two options for you on this planet. Number one, you die, alright you die. I know. That's like, woah Matt, thanks. Well, it's true, all right?  Or number two, Jesus doesn't tarry any longer. We'll see that later on in the book, and he comes back. That's it, you have 100% rate of not entering the rest of this earth for eternity. I mean, how it is now that is just how it is right? So, what is he saying? He saying to all of us right here, Hey, I know that I'm gonna die. But he's also saying I know specifically; I'm going to die soon. And now I just want you to see this because it's just really cool sometimes how the web of the Bible goes together. John chapter 21, Peter has denied Jesus at the Crucifixion. In other words, he had said, no, I don't know that guy over there. But then after Jesus rose from the dead, he reinstates Peter, but I want you to just hear what Jesus says to Peter right here. He says this in John 21. He says, "Very truly I tell you, when you were younger, you dressed yourself,"  he's talking to Peter, "and you went where you wanted; but when you are old,"  this is Jesus, telling Peter, what's going to happen in his life is scary, "you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." It's a little bit confusing, but here's what that means. That means that Peter, you're going to do what you want to early in life, you're going to go where you want to, you're gonna live out your calling, there's going to be a time in your life, you're going to end up being persecuted in prison, putting your hands out and having chains put on you and being led to your death.  You say, Matt, how do you know?  Read verse 19, "Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God.  Then He said to him, follow me."  So, what is Peter doing here? Peter is living out this calling in his life, that he knows that he's going to die for his faith at some point. He knows that he's a follower of Jesus, but he's living with eternity in mind, because he's not ready to give up yet. He's not ready to just hang it up yet. Peter, his whole life has shown that he walks with Jesus that he loves Jesus that he knows Jesus, and now it comes down to the end of his life, and he's still pointing towards making an eternal difference. I love what CS Lewis put about this. He says this, CS Lewis says, "It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world. They have become so ineffective in this one." He says this, "Aim at heaven and you will get Earth thrown in.  Aim at earth, and you will get neither.

That's what Peter is saying right here, he's just echoing what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6, "Do not store up for yourself treasures on earth," right? What does it say where moths and vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal?  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal.   For where your treasure is," Jesus says, "there your heart will be also."  I love this idea in Peters mind that he is still gazing towards eternity, still encouraging us not to look at this thing as a solidified eternal body, but to say, hey, I'm gonna do everything I can in this tent right now. I'm gonna put it aside to glorify God in my life. Here's the question that's been all over me this week.  If you were to take this week, like every day, this week, all the way till next Sunday morning. And if you were to log your eternal activities versus your earthly activities, where would they fall? Wherever they fall? Would it be close? I mean, would it even be in the running? Or would you and I'm not kind of pressing it on the heart. I'm just saying this, would there be very much to show in the eternal category even? That's what he's saying right here. This thing is just temporary, we got to get out of the temporal and move towards the eternal, number one, but number two, he says this, not only do we live with eternity as a goal, but Peter says, if you're going to be a true disciple, you've got to live to leave a godly legacy. You've got to live in order to leave a godly legacy. Now remember, Peter, he said he's about 70ish years old, we won't argue over a few years. But that's about where he's at in this. He has walked with Jesus, he has led the church, he has preached at Pentecost, he has, I mean, church history shows that he was incredibly active from the time of the Ascension to the time where we are right now. Also, just kind of side note, Peter was the firsthand witness that Mark used to write his gospel. That's where we get a lot of Mark's gospel from was Peters kind of dealings with Jesus. And now we find Peter at the end of his life, realizing that he probably should just be getting his earthly affairs and honor just kind of getting things straight talking to the family, but he doesn't do it, he draws back and listen to what he says in verse 15. He says, "And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things."  Now, that's an incredible line there.   I love that He uses these words, after my departure, because here's what he's done for me and here's what he's done for you. He's said, it's not just about us dying, that we need to leave a legacy, it's about every conversation that we're in, that we need to leave a godly legacy. You see, when we read this, we're filtering this through gosh, he's about to die. He's about to die. He's about to remove himself from the tent.  Well, there's a double application here that challenges me and you to, here's the thing, in every relationship that you have, at the moment that you step out of the conversation, or out of the relationship, or out of the work group, or out of the friend group, or out of the phone call, are you leaving a godly legacy or are you leaving a legacy of destruction in your wake? That's what he's saying. So here's the question when we post, when we talk, when we ask people things, are we doing it with an eternal mindset to leave a godly legacy? Are we just driving some earthly stake in the ground and making a wake behind this? I love what this means to Peter.   Peters saying, hey, I'm gonna write these things down. I'm gonna write these things down. I've been telling you this for 30 years, but now I'm going to write it down so that when I leave, you still have a legacy to follow after I leave. And did he accomplish this? Yes, that's not a rhetorical question. He did. How do we know? What are we doing right now? We're looking at what he wrote down 2000 years later.  What an example, what a godly legacy that this guy, that knew he was about the die, he's still living it. He's writing it down. You say, well, Matt, that's just Peter, come on. We're never gonna get to that stage in life. Here's what I'm going to tell you and I need you to listen really closely to me.  In this, you're going to be remembered for something.

Everybody in this room is going to remember you; your friend group, your people, your family, they're going to remember you for something. What is it going to be?  I mean, is it going to be, ah man thanks, they really passed down just a little money to me or wow, look at that, now I get the lake house, or is it gonna be that guy, he showed me what it looked like to walk with Jesus. Listen, this week, we lost an incredible legacy liver in this church.

Incredible. And you know her, you don't know that you know her, but you know her.  Her name was Miss Effie Hartzog.  Miss Effie was the lady that sat at one of the two tables out here in the lobby. Every single Wednesday night with oxygen on taking up your money, if you were a Wednesday night supper person.  Miss Effie hadn't been a member of this church very long. She's been here about eight years. And here's the deal as she progressed in her body just given up on her, her only desire was how can I continue to serve? How can I continue to encourage other people? And how can I not be a burden on other people? That's a legacy. That's the things that we know about Miss Effie.  But let me tell you the things that we don't know about Miss Effie that I learned this week that blew me away. Miss Effie has lived a generational life of missions. Long time ago, she decided that something in her heart was calling her into missions, and she ended up in South Vietnam. She ended up in South Vietnam as a single lady living the life of a missionary in South Vietnam, teaching children and leading them in the name of Jesus. She did that for years, until one day something came up in the org structure and it wasn't available anymore and she wanted to move back to the States. But she couldn't move back to the States because something inside of her called her to go become a missionary or a nanny to missions’ families all over the world. And she went first to Canada and lived in Canada for a couple years ministering to missions’ families. And then in the afternoons doing evangelism, she lived there for a couple years, and did that then moved down to Costa Rica, and lived for the next years of her life in Costa Rica. Living in that same lifestyle, going I don't know why, but God has called me to live this moment in this lifestyle in my life. If that wasn't enough, God stirred in her heart, something different after that and she ended up being called to move her whole life to the country of Albania, Albania, for years. For years, Miss Effie moved to Albania and catch this, her one goal in life was to do two things. She taught kindergarten in the morning to introduce these kids to the name of Jesus. And she taught English as a second language in the afternoon and in the evening so that she could have conversations about the name of Jesus in a country that would not let that happen. Wouldn't let it happen. When her body began to fail, or she knew that she had to move back, she moved back to Georgia, she moved back into this area and from that point forward, that lady sat at that desk out there and served in the only way she could.  But here's the deal, she was successful in that, but she was also successful on this earth. She was an Ethan Allen designer.  She was an Ethan Allen designer, interior designer, but here's the deal at her funeral this week. Are we gonna remember Miss Effie because she could pick out a velvet couch? Are we gonna remember her because of the thousands of kids that are now going to walk into eternity because of what she did? That's the point that he's making here. It's making the point, that if we're going to say we're a disciple, let's live a legacy of godliness. Let's live a life. The question I've got is this where your life is right now? Is this where it is? Live with eternity as the goal.  Live to make a godly legacy when you leave. 

And then number three, Peter gets extremely practical here. I love this. And he gives us 2 of what I think are the most central truths. And I'm going to read them to you because some of it's going to be a little bit of review. For 16 hold on,  I'm reading a lot of verses says, "For we." this is Peter talking, "did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of His Majesty.  He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying this is My Son in whom I love and with Him I am well pleased.  We ourselves heard this voice that came from the heaven when we were with Him on the sacred mountain."  Put your finger right there. What's he talking about?  He's talking about the Transfiguration; we just spent a whole series beating that dead horse? I mean, for weeks, we talked about what that means, right? He's going back to it and he's saying, we were there. We saw it and we experienced it. Don't you love how the Bible all comes together. Look at verse 19. "We also have the prophetic message, as the Old Testament, "as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it."  That's a message for the day, "as to a light shining in the dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all," he says, "you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture," or in other words the Bible, "came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."  Now that's a lot. I mean, that's like a whole fall right there. But here's what it says. Peter looks at the believers all around him and he goes I know there's a lot of noise. I know there's a lot going on. I know a lot is happening. But look, if you're setting your minds in a direction to live a godly life then you're setting your minds to live a life of legacy, he says number three, you need to live in a way that is fully trusting in the Word of God.  You need to live. Peter says it right here. You need to live fully trusting God's word. And if there's two things that you're going to hear every single week in this church, as long as I'm here, it's number one. Jesus loves you. Jesus desires you. He wants a relationship with you. And he wants to give you eternal life through a relationship with him. But number two, you're going to hear, please fall in love with the Word of God. That's what he's saying. That's what he's saying in this message right here, it can, and it will change you. 

I love how Tozer says it. He says, "The word of God well understood and religiously obeyed is the shortest route to spiritual perfection.

What is Peter doing in these verses? I know it's a lot of verses. But let me just draw it down to a couple things. Because Peter is giving a defense of the Bible.  He's giving a defense of the New Testament, the letters, he's given a defense of the Old Testament, and he's teaching us that we as believers can stand behind the Word of God on way more than just saying that you gotta have faith, you gotta have faith, because God can promise you something when you begin to step out into culture and when you begin to talk about the Word of God, people are not going to hold it at the same level of respect that you do. I promise you this. And when that happens, Peter is saying that you not only need to trust the Word of God, but you've got to have a trust in it that has some backing on it. That is more than just this idea. Well, I just got faith, it's God's word. That's not good enough. So what Peter does is he gives us three quick qualities that makes the Bible significant, and what makes the Bible distinct. He gives us three I want to give them to you real fast. And number one, he says the Bible is not a myth. It was written by eyewitnesses. The Bible is not a myth. It was written by eyewitnesses. Look at verse 16. For we did not follow cleverly devised stories, when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and power, but we were eyewitnesses to His Majesty. What does that mean? That means this idea of cleverly devised stories, if you take that and kind of boil it down in Greek, you can always have one word for every three English words. It really just means myth, for we didn't follow myths. And here's the thing about Roman civilization and Greek civilization, they love that good myth. But Peter sayin look, people are gonna tell you all the time that this book that you have in your hand is just a myth. And I got news for you, people are gonna say that to you now. People are gonna say all the time that this thing is just a legend. This is just a collection of funny stories or earthly events. But Peter goes, no, they weren't that, it's not that and then in the text, it kind of shows us how it can't be that by saying I mean, first of all, that this book hasn't had time to become a legend. You realize when Peter is saying this that there were still people on this planet that were healed by Jesus? You realize there were people and members of these families that he's talking to that, still watch people that were dead rise, still watch Jesus and sin, still saw Jesus's resurrected body and he's going hey, if something is gonna be a legend, it has to have time to grow, right? I mean, that fish has to grow over time when you're telling the story.   Paul Bunyan's axe has to get bigger and bigger I mean, the Iliad, the Odyssey, Beowulf,  all of these things that we're looking at now in our lit classes in Hayden, I'm well, if you're an English teacher you love him, nobody else does. But here's when we're looking at things those are myth that's mythology. He's saying this is not a myth.  Why?  There are too many details. The king of the story are the protagonists of the story that got suffers and that never happens in myth. He died and came back, that never happens in myths. There are too many places and too many times, too many things that can be confirmed you're getting the point, right? And this is not a myth. It's not a myth. And then he goes on to say, we were also eyewitnesses to this. If you notice the first four verses that we read this morning, we're all in the I, right? They're all singular. But now what has Peter swapped to?  He says, we.

What is he doing? He's roping the other disciples in with him. He's bringing them in saying, we were there, confirming it.  It's not a myth by witnesses. But look at this. number two, the Bible is significant because the ultimate author of the Bible is God. Not man. The ultimate author of the Bible, college students, high school students, listen to me. Man did not write the Bible. Man did not write the Bible. Look at verse 21, "For prophecy never had its origin, in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."  What does that mean? The Bible is not a book from man, it is 100% the word that has been inspired by God, therefore it is inerrant.  There's a lot in that sentence, but here's what it means. It means that God gave these guys the message. Well, Matt, how did he give them the message? Did they wake up one morning and their hand was out of control?  It's like give me a piece of paper. No, that's not how it happened. I've never heard anybody talk about this before. That's not how it happened. Did they wake up one morning and it was just written on their tablet? No. That's not it.  Did they wake up one morning and there was a voice from the cloud speaking down so they can hear it? No, that's not how it happened. How it happened is, is that God use some people that were already traveling in a godly way. He heightened their senses to hear his word, God use their experiences, and used their personalities and used their family structures, and God gave them word. Listen, this is important, word by word, every single verbal word that is written in this book that we have in our hands. That's why it's important not to skip words. That's why it's important to not just take a verse and go nah, I don't like that one, I'm just gonna leave it. Why? Because God didn't just give these people a thought to expand on, some people will say that.  He gave them the message, every single word, and he inspired them. Therefore, it's inerrant. What does that mean? That means you cannot take a word from the Bible that is not true. You can't take a sentence and go that's out of here. You can't take an Old Testament and say, that's not a big deal anymore. You can't do that. It's inspired. It's inerrant. And that's not popular news today, I promise you.   I'm gonna get somebody who will go, well Matt, no, there's no, well, Matt.   It's not myth, and it's from God. That's all it is. There's some, we can do this all morning, let's keep going.  Number three, we're never getting home. Number three, look at this. He says the central message of the Bible is this divine announcement about Jesus. You can blow all the Bible down, in other words, to this, Jesus.

That's it. It ain't about you. I know. We tried to make it about us. The Bible is Jesus. How do we know the Old Testament? What does it do? It points to Jesus.  The New Testament letters, what are they doing?  Pointing to how we walk with Jesus.  The gospels, what are they doing?  They're telling us a story about Jesus.  So when we look at the Bible, what makes it distinct, not myth, eyewitnesses from God, not man. And what is it all about? Jesus, verse 16, "we told you about the coming of,"  what, "our Lord Jesus Christ in power," verse 19, "you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts." What is that? No time for it. But that is Jesus. When it comes back to this earth. He's called the morning star. And we're waiting and we're tarrying. Until that happens, therefore, here's the principle. The principle is the Bible is the standard in which we should judge everything else. Everything else? Here's not the principle. Matt, I take my life and then I interpret the Bible.  You say Matt, I would never do that. Oh, yeah, you would. You would. Here's why I know. You know, the people that have a problem with the Bible calling adultery, adultery?  It's the people that are in adultery.

Does that make sense? The people that have a problem with certain parts of the Bible are always the people that are not living that part of the Bible. So what are they doing? They're taking their context, and they're taking their life and then they're beginning to filter that into the Bible. That's the wrong direction. It never goes that way. The Bible always is the truth and filters to our life therefore college students, when you decide to move in with your boyfriend, girlfriend, when you decide to get drunk every night of the weekend and when you decide to sleep around and do whatever you want to listen, the Bible is still the Bible and you're wrong. You're wrong. And it's not about culture. It's just not. When you decide that you're done with your marriage, you don't get to change that part of the Bible. When you decide that your family's not worth it. You don't get to change that. Alright, we're gonna keep going. But it's important for us to see it is the standard.  He says, you want to be a disciple of Jesus trust the Word of God. And when you trust the Word of God, what does it do? It changes you.

Number one, live for eternity. Number two, live to have a godly legacy. Number three, what do we do?  We live as the Bible fully trusting in it. And number four, I love this one, live fully submitted to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Live fully submitted, now we're going to spend less time on this we're going to land right here. But this is what he's saying right here. He said there needs to be a point in our life.  Where we just say yes.

Where we just say yes. And Matt, what do you mean by that? There needs to be points in our lives where every morning when we wake up and we crack open our word. Before we crack open the word, we pre, pre say the word. Yes. Well, Matt, what if I don't know what he's gonna call me to? That's the point.  What if I don't know what he's gonna ask of me?  That's the point.

Look at verse 21. Look at the last line we read in verse 21. "They were carried along by the Holy Spirit." That's a nautical word in the Greek and it literally means this. Those who wrote the Bible, those who follow Christ as their true disciples of the word, what do they do? They put their sail in the air. This is what it means.  And the wind takes them where it needs to take them. I got news for you as we leave this room and here's the deal. The winds of grace and peace that He offers us that Jesus offers us is a promise are always blowing. The question is, will we submit to the Lord Jesus, and just say yes. Just say yes. Well Matt, what if I don't know what it's gonna do to my family? It doesn't matter. Because we have to trust.  What if I don't know how this is gonna work out? It doesn't matter. We have to trust our answer is yes.

Yes, Lord. For what? I don't know. I don't know. That's the point here, right? What is Peter saying?   You say, man there's there's a lot of stuff coming. I don't know when that stuff is gonna come. But here's the deal. Yes, Lord, is the answer. So, as we close this morning, here's my question to you. Has there been a moment in your life? Where you've said yes. Even to invite the Holy Spirit in your life? You say Matt, what does that mean? That means that you aren't born a Christian. That means that just because you went to vacation Bible school and got the ribbon doesn't give you eternal life with the Father.  There has to be a point in your life where you turn from your sins, you turn to Jesus, and you just say, Yes, I'm yours.  Is that you today?  There's something in your spirit that just says that's today.

Because if it is, listen, you can settle that right now. Just by going, Lord, I need you. Earlier, we mentioned that if you'll just text this word next, here's what we do. Every single week, we walk through every one of these responses. We make appointments personally, and we walk how it looks to live that next step of your life as a believer in Christ, and a member of this church, here's the deal. If you need to give your life to Jesus, here's what I need you to do. Take out your phone right now and just text next to that. And we'll walk you through and we'll get back with you this week on what that looks like. Matt, I'm just not sure?  Go for it. Matt, I don't know where I'm at in my faith? Go for it. That's what that number is for you don't the walk down here, you don't have to do anything like crazy. We're not gonna ask you to run around the building or anything. It's just you going “I need to know.” Text that and here's the second question. So get ready to worship for a couple minutes this morning. Here's what I want to tell you.  Which one of these 4 this week, do you need to tackle first? Which one?  Cause I know there's one that's sticking out? Which one is it?  

Lord Jesus, as we worship in this moment, God I pray that your spirit begins to press into us. Where is it that we need to take a next step into becoming a disciple with you, not a church person, a disciple and God as we stand at your throne, as we tremble in your presence, as we lift up you Jesus. Today, we're giving you permission to show us what it looks like to live for eternity. Show us what it looks like to leave a godly legacy.  Show us what it looks like to fully trust in your word, and have it change us and God, show us what it looks like, just to say yes. Thank you, Lord Jesus.  Thank you.  

Let us stand and sing together.