chapter 61, and I'll be reading verses 1 and 2. If you would please stand for the reading of God's Word. Isaiah 61, 1 and 2. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives. and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn. You may be seated. I'm Andrew Shank, as has been said, the RUF campus minister. at Western Carolina, and we are in a wonderful time of ministry right now called Winter Break, where students are not here, or at Western. So I get to see my family and go to the park with my kids and have RUF stuff to do like raising money and preparing for next spring, but it's just a good time to rest and do all those house projects that my wife asked me to do throughout the semester. I say, yeah, I'll get to that, sweetie. This is the I'll get to that week. So it's, it's been a really good couple weeks at the shank house. I have a wife, Trish, we have two daughters, Maggie turned one yesterday. And in the middle of the night last night, Trish woke me up and said, Hey, will you go give Maggie her pass fire back because she had spit it out and then thrown it out of the crib as she does. and her foot's like caught in the crib and her head's in the corner. And so I went calmed her down and like, why did Trish wake me up to go do something when she was already awake? And, and I came back into our room and realized that it's because on the other side of her, our four year old, almost four year old was sleeping because she had had a nightmare, um, that she has this recurring nightmare, uh, about a volcano, just like manifesting in the middle of her room. And she's trapped on her bed, and so she had a nightmare and woke up so if you know I woke up this morning having shared a bed with a Almost four year old having been woken up in the middle of the night, and it was a little disheveled driving here I'm coming down 23 between Silva and Franklin Hitting one of those valleys where you're coming off the mountain so you got a good head of steam going and a deer like comes out into the road and And I slam on the brakes and so like groggy Andrew is jolted awake. So if I seen this mix of disheveled and like aware this morning, that's why I have two daughters and almost hit a deer this morning. Um, but, uh, yeah, that's our family. That's how we're doing. Um, so if you will turn four, uh, on January the seventh, so whatever that is, Tuesday of next week or Monday of next week, something like that. Um, and they are, A lot of fun. They're a handful, but they're a lot of fun as well. Ministry is good. This year we have a large freshman class, which also wears me out because freshmen have lots of energy and their classes really aren't that hard, so they have lots of time to hang out and they have lots of questions, which is exciting, but this time of Christmas break is very welcome for us. This morning I've chosen to preach on 2 Peter chapter 3. Another campus minister told me a story of when he went to preach at a church and he got about halfway through his sermon and he had this intense moment of deja vu. where he felt like, I've been here before, and I've said these words before, and he realized halfway through his sermon that he had already preached that sermon at this church about a year ago, but he's like 15 minutes in, and so he's committed, and he can't do anything but finish the sermon, and he goes and he stands at the door at the end of the service, and at first he's relieved as everybody's leaving, then nobody mentions it to him. Nobody's like, you know, it was a great sermon, but couldn't you have come up with anything new? They just all said that was a wonderful sermon, Pastor, thank you, and they left, And so at the beginning, he was relieved, and then about halfway through, he started to get angry. He was like, that's a good sermon. Why doesn't anybody remember that I preached that? I thought about trying that out this morning, but I won't, just in case some of you have better memories than I do. This is a sermon that I wrote since I've been here last time, so I know I haven't preached it before. We'll spend most of our time this morning in 2 Peter chapter three, so that's what I'll read for us to start, but it'll take us a while to get back there. So if you would, turn in your Bibles to 2 Peter, chapter three, and let's stand for the reading of God's word. Peter says to a church that is suffering persecution and that is wondering if Jesus' promises are ever going to come true, specifically his promise to return, and he says this, this is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder These should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God. And that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace. and count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures. You, therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the encouragement that it is to us the challenge to persevere. And Father, we pray this morning as we remember Christ's first advent and long for his second, that you would teach us what it is to be faithful people in between. We do this, we pray, for we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. So we've just celebrated Christmas, historically called Advent in the church, and it's a time of enjoyment, a time of celebration, and a time of family. And in this time, you're spending time with family, you've got time off work, so you're just around people, you get to go see. And there's often these funny stories of the kids say the darndest thing variety, right? Like your little nephew or grandchild will come up to you and say something adorable. Back in October, we were up in Virginia celebrating my grandpa's 80th birthday, and Sophie, our almost four-year-old, was sitting next to him. She's been asking questions about aging, and we have a neighbor, Ms. Gladys, who's probably mid-80s, and you can see her veins, and she's got white hair, and so she's asking all these questions, and she looked at my grandpa and said, Papa Jim, what color was your hair when you were still alive? And he told that story to everybody at the party. He thought it was the funniest thing in the world. But this Christmas, we had not a kid say the darndest things, but nanas say the darndest things. My mother goes by Nana. And she asked my daughter a question. They were all up at our house before Christmas for a few days. And she asked Sophie, Sophie, why do you think we give presents at Christmas? And in my mind, I was like, darn, I don't know the answer to that. And she said, you know, ask your Uncle Jared. And so she asked my brother, and Jared kind of fumbled around and was like, I think you maybe should ask somebody else. And we like kicked the question around the table because, like, there's so much about the practice of the culture. And even the way that we practice and celebrate Christmas in the church, that to me doesn't make sense in light of what scripture reveals about Christmas. I heard one comedian one time say, you know, Christmas is the time of year where we go outside and cut down a tree and we bring it and we put it in our living room and then we take off our socks and we nail them to the fireplace. He said like those aren't traditions, those are things that college students do at two in the morning on a dare. And there's just this disconnect that I feel between celebrating Christmas, the way that we celebrate Christmas and the way that the Bible talks about the advent of Christ. It seems to me in the church or has in the past that our approach to Christmas feels like this agreed upon mass delusion, that we're all gonna pretend like Jesus hasn't come, so that we're surprised on Christmas morning when again, he shows up as a baby. So what I wanna do this morning, having just celebrated Christmas, is to kind of put it in context of the rest of the story of the Bible. And to do that, we need to look first at the Old Testament longing for the Christ. and then put it in the context of our own position on this side of Christ's first coming. Peter, in 2 Peter 3, uses this phrase, the day of the Lord. He says the day of the Lord will come, and to understand what the coming of Christ means, we need to understand this concept of the day of the Lord. If you have your Bibles and can flip quickly to Isaiah 61, we get kind of this summary of what the day of the Lord is. We've heard it read earlier in our service But Isaiah says in 61 verses one and two, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn. That right there is the kind of the heart, the classic summary passage of what the day of the Lord is. In the Old Testament, especially as you get into the prophets, they talk about the day of the Lord over and over, and there are always two aspects of it. There's an aspect of blessing. There's an aspect of blessing from God on his people, on his friends. In the Old Testament, this is Israel. There's blessing on Israel, there's restoration, there's freedom, there's restoration of sight, liberty to the captives. And there's judgment. God, on the day of the Lord, is going to come to earth and restore Israel and judge her enemies. So all the enemies of God, there will be a setting right. Evil will be dealt with, finally, once and for all. And these two things are inextricably tied together in the Old Testament. There's never a longing for God's return that doesn't include both blessing and judgment. I think it's interesting that our most beloved Christmas passages, full of promise and hope, we kind of cherry pick out the aspects of judgment. So Isaiah chapter nine, starting in verse two, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness, on them has a light shone. You've multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy, they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, and they are glad when they divide the spoil. So the good part, right, the part we love, those who have dwelt in darkness have seen a great light, and then he continues, For the yoke of his burden and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor you have broken as on the day of Midian. Every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given. Right? We know the bookends of that, but we leave aside the judgment. Or Malachi chapter three, which closes out the Old Testament. We, We love, this is one of my favorite Christmas passages, but for you who fear my name, the son of righteousness shall rise with healing in his wings. But right before that, we read, behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch, but for you who fear my name, the son of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall, Leaping on what, you ask? And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts. So we get this expectation of the day of the Lord from the Old Testament. If we read, if we enter into the Old Testament, we'll see that the longing for God to come was not just for righteousness for Israel, not just for God to restore them, but for him to deal with evil, for him to deal with the wickedness of the world. And then we get darkness for 400 years. No word from God. The prophets fall silent. Israel is under Assyria, and then under Babylon, and then under Persia, and then Greece, and now Rome. And the people are wondering, is this ever going to happen? Is the day of the Lord ever going to come? And then we get Jesus. He's born, a little baby, in a manger. And all of the descriptions of him coming talk about this day of the Lord, talk about this promise, and they hark back to these passages. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. As John says in his gospel, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. So the day of the Lord is here in Jesus Christ, and we read in Luke about his birth, about all the different people that come and visit him, the wise men, we read about the temptation of Jesus, and then, In Luke chapter 4, Jesus comes to announce that he is starting his ministry. He's coming, and this is kind of his campaign announcement speech. This is what I'm about. We read in Luke chapter 4, starting in verse 16, he, Jesus, came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him, and he began to say to them, today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. That doesn't shock us the way that it would have shocked them, because Jesus here commits the worst exegetical sin that you can. He stops halfway through a verse. This is what prosperity gospel preachers do. This is what false teachers do. They cherry pick pieces of verses and promises out of the Bible, and it seems that this is what Jesus has done. Because we've heard twice this morning that Isaiah 61, one and two, which Jesus is reading here, say, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of judgment of our God. But Jesus doesn't read that last line. He says to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and he closes the book and he sits down. What is Jesus saying here? He's saying that half of the day of the Lord is here. So what Old Testament believers have been longing for, the blessing and judgment of God when he comes back, only half of that is here. The blessing, the forgiveness, and bringing righteousness, but not the half of judgment. Not the half of righting wrongs. Not the half of punishment for sins. That's why you see so much confusion around Jesus, because again, Those two things, the blessing and the judgment, came as one in the Old Testament expectation. So you have the disciples asking questions like, are you at this point going to restore Israel? You say you're bringing the day of the Lord, when are we gonna kick the Romans out of here? Or you get John the Baptist, who is the clearest herald of Christ, he's Elijah come again, surely he knows what's going on with Jesus. When he's imprisoned, he sends some of his disciples to Jesus to ask them, was I right? Like, are you the Messiah? Or should we wait for somebody else? Because this is not what we expected. Part of the reason for that is just the way that Old Testament prophecy works. As Old Testament prophets look or are given a sight and a vision into the future, they see the future like we see mountain ranges, right? You get up high enough, you stand in a good overlooked place and you look out and you see truly, you see what's actually out there, you see the mountains. And you might see a mountain peak over here and a mountain peak over here and over here, but what you can't really tell when you're standing up on that high vantage point is how much distance there is between them. It's like that with the prophets. They looked into the future and they saw the blessings of God of the day of the Lord, and they saw the judgment of God in the day of the Lord, but they couldn't tell that there's this vast difference between them. There's time in between the blessing and the judgment. Because again, when you're standing up looking, it all looks flat. And so they see truly, but they don't see the whole depth of the picture. This is one of the great surprises of the Old Testament, one of the great hurdles to Jewish belief. God and man together in Jesus Christ, that's difficult for them. Salvation to the Gentiles, that's difficult for them. Delay in judgment on our enemies. No, we want that now. We don't like this Messiah. How can Christ do this? How can he bring blessing without judgment, because as we've confessed earlier in our service today, we deserve the judgment of God. We've all sinned, we've all fallen short of his standard. It's easier to compare ourselves to others than to his perfect holiness. Well, Christ can do this because he was put to death by the people who were disappointed in him. He was put to death. He took the judgment on himself. And that's why he can bring blessing without judgment. That's why he can give forgiveness without requiring retribution. And it's at this point that we find ourselves in a similar place to Israel, waiting for the day of the Lord in the Old Testament. Because Jesus didn't just die on a cross, he rose again from the dead, promised his disciples, hey, I'm gonna go prepare a place for you, and if I go, I will come back. And it's been a couple thousand years. And we ask the question, where is the promise of his coming? Why has he delayed? And more importantly, what are we supposed to do until he returns? This is the question that's front and center in 2 Peter chapter 3, which we're finally back to. This congregation is asking questions about the second coming of Christ. How long do we have to wait? It's similar to second Thessalonians when Paul writes this letter to the church in which members have begun to die and there's this question of our brothers and sisters who are believers have died before Christ has come back, what happens to them? We sometimes find ourselves in a place of confusion because the waiting at times can seem unbearable. My wife and I have been married for six years and we met, this all happened in 2012, we met in January, went on our first date in January. She tried to date somebody else in February. I told her that was a bad idea and she should date me. So she did. Then we got engaged in June and married in September. So we've known each other for about nine months by the time we get married and Thanksgiving rolls around. And because we're stupid, we think it will be a great idea to not only spend Thanksgiving with her extended family in Northern Virginia, which is about a seven hour drive away from Charlotte, we think it would be a great idea to take my new niece and nephew with us. At this point, they're about five and eight, six and nine, something in that realm. And if you've ever been on a long car trip with young children, you'll know exactly what's coming here. We go and we pick them up at daycare and put their car seats in our car and get their Game Boys and their toys and books and coloring books and all the distractions that you throw at kids on long car trips to keep them from driving you crazy. And we start driving to Northern Virginia. And we're about half hour out of Charlotte, so six and a half hours to go. And Dakota, my nephew, who's five, six or so, asks, Uncle Andrew, how many minutes do we have left? Not like when are we gonna get there or what time do you think we'll get there, like he wants to know, how many minutes do we have left? Don't worry about it, buddy. It's gonna be dark when we get there. Just try and enjoy the ride. Well, as you can imagine, the ride continued to go on and things spiral from curiosity into frustration, right? And that frustration starts to come out sideways. She's on my side of the car. Hey, I have to go to the bathroom. Why didn't you go to the bathroom 15 minutes ago when we stopped for your sister to go to the bathroom? And like all these stereotypical woes of driving young children on a long trip. the curiosity turns to frustration, finally turns to despair, right? Have you ever been in the car with a little kid when they get to that moment of despair of, we're never going to get there, right? I'm gonna die in this car. And I'm thinking, yes, somebody is going to die in this car if we don't get there soon. We run up against that when we talk about the fact that the second coming hasn't happened yet. Have you ever wondered about that? It's been 2,000 years since Jesus said, I'll be right back. What's taking so long? And usually when somebody says, I'll be right back, we give them about five minutes, maybe 20 if they're running to the grocery store or something, but I'll be right back. 2,000 years seems like a long time for that. Again, we're not the first to ask this question. This church that Peter is writing to asks the same question. And first, Peter deals with the reality of their situation. He says, don't be surprised when scoffers come with scoffing. Because what they do is they forget that the regularity of creation, you know, they say things like, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. You know, yesterday was a lot like today, and tomorrow will be really, really similar. Why do you think it's gonna be any different? And Peter points them back to Noah and the covenant that God makes with Noah where God himself says summer and winter and springtime and harvest and all of these things will continue with regularity so that you might live and thrive in this creation that I've given you. Peter says they forget that the reason that yesterday is a lot like today and tomorrow will not be that much different is because God has ordained it to be so. So he says they don't even realize that the evidence they point to is exactly what God promised. So don't listen to them, don't worry about them. But then he talks to them, he talks to the church, starting in verse eight. Do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and all the works that are done on it will be exposed. What is Peter doing in this passage? He's explaining the reason for the apparent delay of God. And the first thing he does is he says, don't think of it as slowness. Don't think of it as delay, because time works differently for God, first of all. But second, don't think of it as delay. Think of it as patience. There's a good reason for the apparent delay of God for the second return of Christ, for his second advent. And the reason for that delay is opportunity for repentance. Peter says in verse nine, The Lord is not slow to you to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. The repentance that he's talking about there is that initial repentance, that initial, Christ, I've been trying to be Lord of my own life. I recognize that you are all good and there's nothing good in me. It's that first coming to Christ. It's that moment of regeneration and conversion. And Peter says that God's delay is so that none would perish, but that all should reach repentance. But he's writing to people who have already reached that repentance. Peter's writing to a church full of people who have already reached that repentance, and so what Peter is saying to them, God's delay, God's patience, is for the benefit of the people who are mocking you. God's patience is so that those scoffers might become your brothers and sisters. There's a good reason for the delay of Christ. Opportunity for repentance. And then to help believers and non-believers alike, Peter adds a note of urgency to it. He says in chapter three, verse 10, the day of the Lord will come like a thief. He says the promise is not in vain. The day of the Lord will come. God will come back in judgment and in what manner? Like a thief. So there will be loud trumpets announcing it, right? There will be warning signs. The thief is going to call the afternoon before and say, hey, I'm planning on robbing your house tonight. I mean, that's the plot of the movie Home Alone, but that's not how a thief normally comes. A thief normally comes without warning. A thief normally comes in secret, when you're not prepared for it, when you're not looking for it. In other places in the New Testament, Christ says no one knows the day or the hour. That's why you should stop listening when someone predicts the end of the world. When someone says, I've had a vision and God told me that Jesus is going to come back on this day, this year. Not too long ago, a man named Harold Camping predicted the end of the world, predicted when Christ would come back. He said it would be on May 21st, 2011. And I remember this pretty vividly because May 21st is my birthday. And so I was like, well, that's interesting. But on this particular May 21st, I was driving from Panama City Beach to Sarasota, Florida, which is like eight hours in the car. And I was like, well, that's kind of a bummer. Like who wants to spend their last day on earth on an eight-hour road trip across the panhandle of Florida? And on top of that, there's a time change in that. So you're driving west to east, so I lose an hour. So great, my last day on Earth is shorter than everybody else's. And to top it all off, it's my birthday. But I wasn't that worried about it, because Jesus says no one knows the day or the hour. He's gonna come like a thief. Why does Peter remind us of this, that the day of the Lord will come like a thief? Well, it's because you and me, like my students, are procrastinators. We're procrastinators in repentance, of all kinds of repentance, of that first repentance. I'm sure you all know people or have heard of people in your life who say, yeah, maybe I do need to deal with God, but I'll get to that later. We procrastinate in our own repentance of our sins against one another, those things that we cling to and in some sense cherish. We say, I've got time to deal with that. We're procrastinators when it comes to our evangelism, Right? There's time for that later. I don't want to ruin the friendship. I need to work on my gospel presentation. I need to kind of focus down and hone my testimony. Or I don't want to make every Christmas and Thanksgiving and Easter with extended family awkward from now until one of us dies because my atheist uncle just like, He doesn't want to hear another gospel presentation. So we procrastinate. We need a burr in the saddle to spur us to action in our evangelism and in our repentance. So let me be that burr in the saddle for you this morning. The day of the Lord will come like a thief. Have you repented? Maybe for the first time, maybe for a sin that you've clung to for a long time and you know you need to repent of. Why are you waiting? And do you feel this urgency in your evangelism, your relationships and conversations with non-believers? Because again, the day of the Lord will come like a thief. And remember, this is day of the Lord part two. This is Advent part two, not day of the Lord part one where God restores and offers righteousness and forgiveness. This is day of the Lord part two, with all this fire imagery and like creation melting. It's not a good day of the Lord for those who are not his friends. There's another question to ask, and Peter introduces it to us in verse 11. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, since the day of the Lord will come, since all of this is going to happen, what sort of people ought you to be? While we wait for the return of Christ, while we long for his second advent, what are we to do? What kind of people are we, as the people of God, to be? And Peter gives us three answers in the last verses of this passage. First, we're to be expectant people. He says this in verse 12. Waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God. How do you do that? How do you both wait for and hasten something? I imagine it's kind of like what it means to be a little kid on Christmas Eve, right? You can't do anything but wait because the clock's not going to move any faster. But you will do everything in your power to get to Christmas morning quicker. You will focus your energy and try and mentally move the clock forward by the power of your mind. You will try and go to sleep at 5.30 in the afternoon so that you can more quickly pass the time between Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. You wait and long for it and will do everything in your power to make it happen more quickly. How do we do this? How do we walk with this kind of, this expectation, this longing for Christ to come back? Because what I find for Christians is that we either go the Harold Camping route of obsessing over it and trying to predict it, or we go the route of just kind of forgetting about it. And yeah, Jesus will come back someday, and that'll be nice, but I've got my life to live in the meantime. How do we walk expectantly for the return of Christ? I think this is particularly difficult for us in our cultural moment, because for Peter to write to his church, they're experiencing persecution, they're being put to death, they are suffering for the fact that they're believers. But we don't, by and large. we don't experience persecution, we don't experience suffering, our lives are pretty good. And if life is pretty good here, why do we need to long for new heavens and a new earth? I think one of the ways that we can walk expectantly is that we don't turn our eyes away from the suffering of the world. Because, remember, the day of the Lord is blessing and judgment, and blessing on God's friend, and judgment on evil. And if the judgment part hasn't happened yet, that means that evil is still here and present in the world. But we do everything that we can to shield ourselves from it and not have to see it. There was a news story a week and a half, two weeks ago, about a seven-year-old immigrant child who had crossed the border between Mexico and the United States, had been apprehended by border patrol with her family and taken back to one of these internment villages or like holding places where they wait to process people. And she got lost in the bureaucratic shuffle and she died. And whatever you think about border security and immigration and all that, the death of a seven-year-old is evil. There are stories like this every day in the newspaper. But we flip past them to the comics or we go straight to the sports section because we don't like to see evil. But Christ has promised that he will come and he will deal with it. And seeing that, looking it in the face and saying, that is wrong, and recognizing our own inability to really affect change will help us to long for Christ. Will help us to long for new heavens and new earth, where every tear will be wiped away. So I think being expectant people means being realistic people. being people who aren't addicted to sentimentality but will look at the world and look at our communities the way that they really are and grieve over the brokenness of it, enter into it and work to bring change at the same time that we long for the one who can ultimately and finally restore all things. So first, we're to be expectant people. Second, we are to be godly people. Peter says this in verse 14. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace. Two different images here. The first, that we are to be found by him, by Christ, without spot or blemish when he returns. This is the imagery of a Passover lamb that's supposed to be brought and sacrificed without spot or without blemish. This is the language of Paul in Romans 12, one and two, that we already heard. Present your bodies as living sacrifices. In other words, there's a cost to following Christ, and it's best described as being sacrificed. Right, Jesus says, if you would be my disciples, if you want to walk the way that I walk, here's the most, here's the best description I can give you. Take up your cross and follow me. When people are considering whether or not to follow Christ, he looks at them in the face and he says, count the cost. It's worth it. but recognize that there is a cost to being a Christian. Whoever loses his life will find it. We are to be diligent to be found godly, to be found as spotless sacrifices. And the knowledge that Christ is returning helps us to work towards that holiness, right? Because it's kind of like teenagers whose parents go away for a night or two. The parents have an anniversary coming up, maybe there's a work trip and they've been able to save enough to where dad's trip is paid by work and now all they have to do is pay mom's airline fare. And so the kids are at a stage where the parents, for some reason, trust them to be at home for two or three days by themselves. And what happens, right? The kid throws a party. Because that's the cultural expectation of teenagers when parents are out of the house. Parents, when you do this, come home like four hours earlier than you said you would. Come home, like say, I'll be home sometime this weekend. And just like show up. Things will be much better at your house. Because that expectation, that knowledge that the ones in charge, the ones who own the house, the ones who care about what you do are coming back and you don't know when is a great encouragement to our holiness. It's good that we don't know the day or the hour because then we would delay our holiness. We would wait to clean up the house until just before our parents got home. We're to be found diligent without spot or blemish and at peace. I love the way that Peter He puts these opposites together. He says, waiting for and hastening the day of the Lord. And here, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace. Work really hard at this and receive this. Because peace is not something that we achieve. Peace is a gift that God gives his people. We're not to be quarrelsome, but we are able to be forgiving and reconciling because Christ has forgiven us and he has reconciled us to God. We are not to hold anger in our heart. We're to receive the gift of peace. And in addition to this, as he continues in verses 15 through 17, not confused in your mind, but at peace in your mind, settled in the scriptures. Listen again to verses 15 through 17. I love these. Count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. I love this because Peter says, Paul is difficult to read. And it's great that inspired scripture tells us that other inspired scripture is difficult to read. Because sometimes we're reading the Bible and we come up against something, Paul says, and that's confusing. And Peter says, yeah, I know, Paul is difficult to understand. But saturate yourselves in the scriptures, be diligent to be found in them, to be steady in them, that you're not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. So we're to be expectant people, we're to be godly people, and finally, we're to be growing people. Chapter 3, verse 18. Instead, grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Christians are not perfect people. If that were the case, then the New Testament all over the place, and Peter here specifically, would not tell us to grow. Because if Christians were perfect people, we wouldn't have any need to grow. Christians are not perfect people, Christians are growing people. This is a misconception that those outside the church often have. You know, I'm not good enough to be a Christian. And that's your opportunity to say, it's like, no, you're not and neither am I. Like, isn't Jesus great that we're not good enough and yet he still welcomes us in and he makes us good? Because what happens if the biggest jerk in Murphy becomes a Christian today? You know, maybe his family is in town, they drag him to church, he hears the gospel, and he becomes a Christian today. What will he be tomorrow morning? the biggest jerk in Murphy, right? Because it's not like all of the sudden his whole entire character and person will be different. But by the grace of God, in two weeks, he might not be the biggest jerk in Murphy. And in two months, he might actually be an okay guy. And in two years, he might actually be selfless and be helping other people, right? Because again, believers are not perfect people. They are growing people. So believers, here's a way to test your faith. Are you growing? Are you growing? And what does it mean to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus? I think recognition of the fact, as Peter says, that he is Lord and Savior. Because we get off balance here, right? Some of us find it really easy to grow in the knowledge of Christ as our Lord. And we know the word really well, and we know what he requires of us, and we know the law of God. So we have a lot of rules. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves. There's a lot riding on our shoulders. There's much knowledge, but no grace. For ourselves, there's no grace for others. And some of us only know Christ as Savior. You know, you hear jokes about, yeah, I believe in God for divine fire insurance. Or once saved, always saved, I'm forgiven, I can go live however I want. It's all grace, but it's no knowledge. Growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ looks like growing in both of these together and pushing on toward love. So are you more loving than you were a year ago? Do you know more about God than you were a year ago? Are you quicker to forgive others than you were a year ago? Take stock of yourself this afternoon. How am I growing in both the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? Are there things that I'm unwilling to do because I'm a Christian? When was the last time you did something you didn't want to do or didn't do something that you did want to do only because of the fact that Jesus Christ is your Lord and your Savior? Growing in grace and knowledge means we grow in knowing who he is and what he's done and in obedience to his commands. It's not a balancing act between legalism and license, but pressing on to love for God and love for others with our minds and with our actions. This, I think, is what it looks like to be in between people, to be expectant, to be godly, and to be growing. And this, it has helped me a lot in my celebration of Christmas, in my celebration of Advent, to where I can be overwhelmingly grateful that Christ has come and brought reconciliation. And I can long for the day where he comes again and makes all things new. And in between, in the meantime, while we wait, We are to be expectant and godly and growing. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we genuinely thank you for sending Christ. We thank you that he took on flesh, that he took on helplessness, that he humbled himself to submit to life as my one-year-old, as one who has to be fed, as one who cries in the middle of the night and needs to be taken care of. as one who is just curious and cries for no reason and is beautiful. We thank you that he submitted to being like my four-year-old, to exploring, to learning, to conversing. We thank you that he consented to becoming flesh as awkward adolescents and teenagers with voice cracks and young adults with all their, who am I going to be in this world? And we thank you that he did it perfectly, that he did it without sin. And that when he went to the cross, he took not his own sin, but ours because he had none. Father, we have plenty. We thank you that he hung on that cross for us, for the forgiveness of our sins. And he was raised for our justification. We thank you that he has promised to return. We pray, Father, that this season, as we have looked back and celebrated his first advent, that you would help us now to look forward to and long for his second advent. Help us to be expectant people. Help us to be godly people. Help us to be growing people. Father, the day of the Lord will come like a thief. Help us not to procrastinate in our repentance or in our evangelism, but help us to call others to be expectant, godly, and growing as well. Do this all we pray. for we ask it in Christ's name, amen. If you would stand now for our.