Unshaken | Part 3: Unshaken Truth | Jeremy Engle

I have felt the hands that bear the storms reach down and rescue me I have known the love of the father's heart a prodigal now From where I was to where I'm now. It's over with me The more and more I see you move all around me come on sing it out I can't help but praise you praise you Lord Oh, I can't help but listen Shouts of joy When I think about good event you're faithful now to the end Oh, I can't help but praise you praise you Lord For the blood you spilled to save my life That did I cannot repay before the cross you bore with open arms Salvation that called my name from where I was to where I'm now Oh, it's over with me The more and more I see you move all around me Oh, I can't help but praise you praise you Lord Oh, I can't help but listen Shouts of joy When I think about good event you're faithful now to the end Oh, I can't help but praise you praise you Lord Oh, I can't help but dance 'cause I'm free Got no chains on me, I'm healed and redeemed Oh, I can't help but call on the name That buried my sin who opened my grave I can't help but dance 'cause I'm free Got no chains on me, I'm healed and redeemed Oh, I can't help but call on the name That buried my sin who opened my grave I can't help but praise you praise you Lord Oh, I can't help but listen Shouts of joy

When I think about good event you're faithful now to the end Oh, I can't help but praise you Praise you Lord Oh, I can't help but praise you Praise you Lord Oh, I can't help but praise you Praise you Lord Oh, I can't help but praise you Praise you Lord And I can't help but lift up Shout to joy for your worthy Jesus When I think about good event You're faithful now to the end Oh, I can't help but praise you Oh, praise you Lord So come on my soul And don't you get shy on me, lift up your, come on 'Cause you got a lion inside of those lungs Oh, get up and praise you Lord Come on Lord, hear the praises of your people today Let's sing, oh, come on my soul Oh, don't you get shy on me, lift up your soul 'Cause you got a lion inside of those lungs Get up and praise you Lord Come on my soul Oh, don't you get shy on me, lift up your soul 'Cause you got a lion inside of those lungs So I'll throw on my hands and praise you again and again, 'Cause all that I have is a hallelujah, a hallelujah. And I know it's not much, but I've nothing else been for a king.

Except for a heart singing hallelujah, a hallelujah. So I'll throw on my hands and praise you again and again. 'Cause all that I have is a hallelujah, a hallelujah. And I know it's not much, but I've nothing else been for a king. Except for a heart singing hallelujah, a hallelujah. Come on church, can we lift our praise today? Oh, hallelujah. A thousand generations falling down in worship to sing the song of ages to the land. And all you've gone before us, and all who will believe, will sing the song of ages to the land. Your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name stands above the mole. All thrones and dominions, all powers and positions. Your name stands above the mole in the angels' cry. Holy, all creation cries. Holy, you are lifted high, holy, holy forever. And if you've been forgiven, and if you've been redeemed, sing a song forever to the land. And if you walk in freedom, and if you've raised me, we'll sing a song forever to the land. Oh, we'll sing a song forever, and amen. And the angels cry, holy, all creation cries. Holy, you are lifted high, holy, holy forever. Hear your people sing, holy, to the key of kings. Holy, you will always be, holy, holy forever. Your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name stands above the mole. All thrones and dominions. Stands above and more

Your name is the highest your name Is the greatest your name Stands above and more All throws, hands and hands, all powers And positions your name Stands above and more And the angels cry Holy, our creation cries Holy, Your lifted heart Holy, holy forever Hear your people sing Holy, to the King of Kings Holy, You will always be Holy, holy forever You will always be Holy, holy forever Amen, Church, it's so good to be with you and worship with you today. It truly brings joy to my heart to look out and see you worshiping, to hear you worshiping, to hear you lift your praises to the Lord. As I was walking in the church this morning, it was really dark out. The sun wasn't up yet and I looked up and I could just see the stars and I began to just be in a state of all of God's creation. We can look up at the sky and know that God placed all

those there for whatever reason he wanted to but so that we can look up and marvel at his beauty and then as I shared with the worship team this morning, a passage of Scripture came to my mind. It's one of my favorite verses. It's verse Peter 2 9. Peter writes to the exiles of Jerusalem and he said that you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood of people for his own possession to declare the excellences of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light and today that's what we're doing. We're declaring the excellences of the Lord most high, lifting our praise to him to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the only one that's worthy of our praise anyways, right? It is such a joy to worship with you all today. If you're joining us online, I want to say welcome. I'm so glad you joined us and if you're new here today, if this is your first time you've come to CPC, if it's the first time you're watching, I want to say welcome. I don't believe you're here by accident but I believe that the Lord woke you up this morning and brought you here, brought you on to

this campus so that you may have an encounter with him today, the Living God. If you could, if that's you scan the QR code, it's going to come up on the screen or text the word "guest" to the number or you can just scan the tap tag on the seat back in front of you. We want to get to know who you are. We want to let you know who we are and we just want to be a part of a family, a part of the CPC family. Here in a moment, we're going to go back into worship and if you've if you've not experienced this before, if you've not been here for a little bit, we're going to have the prayer team come up front. We're a church that believes in the power of prayer and we believe that the miracles that we read about in the Scripture are not confined to those pages and that the Lord is still in the miracle-working business and we're a church that believes in James 5 when it says if you have a need of any kind, if you're sick, if you're hurting, come and ask the elders of the church to pray over you, anointing your head with oil in Jesus' name. It goes on to say that a prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. We believe that

if the Lord wants to do a work today, if he wants to heal, if he wants to restore, we're going to pray that it be done. So if you have a need today, whatever it may be, if you want to come forward in representation of a family member or of a friend, I encourage you to do that. We have I could see your name or all my life and still find more to love each time. Jesus be the name ever on my lives. It's greater every time that I call on. There's just something about your name. There's just something about your name. There's just something about your name that makes me cry only. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. Jesus you're worthy. You have been a friend who never let. I won't forget your faithfulness. Jesus be the name ever on my lives. It's greater every time that I call on. There's just something about your name. There's just something about your name that makes me cry only. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. Jesus you're worthy. There's just something about your name. There's just something about your name. There's just something about your name that makes me cry only. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. Jesus you're worthy. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. (upbeat music) ♪ There's healing in your name ♪ ♪ There's healing in your name ♪ ♪ There's healing in your name ♪ ♪ It makes me cry holy ♪

♪ There's freedom in your name ♪ ♪ There's freedom in your name ♪ ♪ There's freedom in your name ♪ ♪ It makes me cry holy ♪ ♪ There's salvation in your name ♪ ♪ There's salvation in your name ♪ ♪ There's salvation in your name ♪ ♪ It makes me cry holy ♪ ♪ Sing Jesus, be the name ♪ ♪ Jesus, be the name ♪ ♪ Jesus, be the name ♪ ♪ Jesus, be the name ♪ ♪ That gets all the glory ♪ ♪ Jesus, be the name ♪ ♪ Jesus, be the name ♪ ♪ Jesus, be the name ♪ ♪ That gets all the glory ♪ ♪ Jesus, be the name ♪ ♪ Jesus, be the name ♪ ♪ Just be the name that gets all the glory ♪ Yes, Jesus, there is no other name. I thank you, I thank you Jesus for meeting us in this place this morning. Thank you for your holiness. I thank you that you do come in fill rooms like this and that we can feel your presence. And I just pray that you open every ear in this room and every heart to receive the truth that is about to be spoken. We know that you have a word for us

and I just pray that you empower Pastor Jeremy to relay that message that you have for us. In your very precious name I pray, amen. And there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Good morning, you guys gonna have a seat. My name is Devon, I'm the student pastor here. And if you can tell by the sound of my voice, struggling a little bit this morning, it's not even fully holiday season yet, but my children have given me the gift of two viruses in the last couple of weeks. I canceled on hosting the last two weeks in a row and I was like, I can't do it a third one. So I gotta stay right here in this range, but my voice seems to be working okay, well enough. But if I wanna point you guys to something that's coming up here soon, November 8th is gonna be our next starting point class. If you don't know what starting point is, starting point is a great place if you're new here or maybe you've been here for a while, but you haven't fully gotten plugged in yet, fully invested, starting point is a great place to start. It's just an opportunity to get to know more about who we are as a church, what we believe, what God is doing here and more important than that, it gives you an opportunity to be part of what God is doing here at this church

because we don't want you to just come here on Sundays. We want you to be able to plug in and find community and ultimately be part of everything that God is doing at this church. But in a moment here, we're gonna move into a time of giving and I'm gonna pray over the offering, but before I do, giving out of your generosity, it just allows the church to continue to fulfill the mission of Jesus, the mission that he gives us by your generosity. We're able to be here, we're able to hopefully expand this room eventually, we're running out of room here and it's only made possible by your generosity. And if you've been faithfully giving here for a long time, we just wanna thank you for that and we just wanna ask that you would just give generously so that we can continue to just see incredible things happen here at this church. But if you would, let's power heads and let's pray. Father God, we thank you for gathering us here this morning. We thank you for all that you're doing in this church. We thank you that lives are being changed, that families are being transformed and that you are just drawing many people to you, drawing many people into deeper relationships with you. We just, we thank you for generosity, Lord, and we just pray that you would bless it. Pray that you would bless the giving and the giver, and that you would give our leadership wisdom to be good stewards over what is given to us so that we can continue to do our part

in building your kingdom. Father, we pray for Jeremy this morning. We pray that you would fill him with your Holy Spirit and speak through him. Prepare our hearts and our minds for the message that you have given him this morning. God, we thank you for all that you're doing. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. - Amen. Hey, can we give it up for Devin? Doing his announcements without a voice? That's hard to do, good job, good job, Devin. All right, morning church, how we doing this morning? Good, for those of you all who don't know me, my name is Jeremy, I'm the young adults pastor here at CPC, which means I have the best job in the world 'cause I get to hang out with people and tell them about Jesus, how cool is that? And so I'm excited to be here today talking about God's word with you. We're gonna be a second Peter. If you wanna open up your Bibles to second Peter, that's where we're gonna spend all of our time. We're going through the whole book, y'all. So buckle up, buttercup, it's gonna be fun. Who's excited that it's the season of fall? Who likes fall? Yes. Finally done with the sweltering heat, praise Jesus. I love when it's turns to fall

because the colors start to change, you can smell it in the air, it's a little crispier, and we get to look forward to the holidays. Holidays are one of my favorite times of the year. I love to spend time with family. Our family likes to play lots and lots of board games. How many are the gamers out there? Some of us like to play some board games, yep. My personal favorite is Catan. It's Catan, if you're one of those weirdos who call it Catan, don't talk to me, it's Catan. If you've never played Catan, shame on you, you need to give it a try. It's a lot of fun, it's like if risk and monopoly had a baby, it's a beautiful baby, and it's a ton of fun, you should try it. But here's the thing, if you go to play Catan with a different family, first thing you need to do is say, hey, are we playing by Catan rules or are we playing by house rules? Because nobody plays Catan by the original rules. The original rules are challenging, they're hard, and it can make the game take longer. And so everybody's always like, ah, let's just tweak this rule a little bit. Let's tweak that one. All of a sudden everybody's playing a different game. Nobody's playing the same one. And when I read through second Peter this week, I realized that this is what Peter was addressing

with early Christians because following Jesus is hard. It's hard, this game is hard. They faced persecution, pressure from Rome, they had pressure to live differently than the way that God had called them to live. And when following Jesus gets difficult, there's this temptation to change the rules. Maybe we soften what God says, maybe we redefine what's right and wrong, maybe we reshape our beliefs to fit what the world wants it to look like or what we want to be true. But Peter reminds us that we don't need a more comfortable Christianity. We need a Christianity that stands on truth given to us by God. In the last few weeks of our Bible reading, Phil and Pastor Chris has seen a theme emerge through the reading and he's called this theme, unshaken in the middle of trials and temptations and pressure to redefine what God has called us to do. We have an unshaken faith in God. We have an unshaken grace to lean on and we have unshaken truth to stand on. If we start redefining the rules, we'll realize we're on unstable ground. Unstable ground, it reminds me of my niece and nephew, Grayson and Ila playing on the lake, the lily pads. You know the lily pads where you're standing up

and it's playing king of the hill trying to see who can stand up the longest. It's hard to stand on unstable ground. But Jesus gives us solid ground to stand on and that's what we're gonna talk about today. So this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna pray for us and after we pray, we're gonna look at this unshaken truth. Founded Jesus. Father God, thank you for your word. Lord, thank you for teaching us and helping us live in a manner worthy of the gospel. Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit would come and that you would teach not only us, but those that are listening online, those are in prisons across America. hands of service and feet of purpose. We love you in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Let's get into it. Number one, truth never changes, but it should change you. Truth never changes, but it ought to be changing you. Second Peter, verse one, it says, "His divine power has given us everything required for life "and godliness through the knowledge of Him "who called us by His own glory and goodness." What does this verse tell us? It tells us that God has a life of godliness for us to live in. What is godliness? It's living in a manner worthy of the gospel.

It's living life close to Jesus, living life the way that He designed us to live in. And His divine power gives us everything we need to be able to live this kind of life. He boils it down to two things. Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. If we're doing these two things well, we're living a life of godliness. And Peter says you got all that you need to be able to do that well. Now, when you hear that, you might think, I don't know if I have everything I need to live a life of godliness because I'm not loving God very well. I'm not loving my neighbor very well. When you look in the mirror, you might see the pride. You might see the selfishness. You might see the desire to chase after the cravings of your flesh. If you come in here and you hear those words and you're discouraged because you're painfully aware of your own shortcomings, your own failures, take a breath, join the club because we all feel that way at times. But what you need to hear is the gospel truth. God has given you what you need. Listen through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory in Jesus. The truth is you can't do it on your own.

The truth is you're gonna fail, but through the knowledge of Jesus, you have the ability to live a life pleasing to God. The more we know Jesus, the more we become like Jesus. The more we become like Jesus, the more we do things, the way Jesus did. Knowing Jesus is really, really, really important. He says it like this in the Sermon on the Mount. This is Jesus himself. He says, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' "will enter the kingdom of heaven. "Only the one who does the will of my Father is in heaven." On that day, many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, "did we not prophesy in your name? "Drive out demons in your name? "Do many miracles in your name, "and I'll announce to them I never knew you. "Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." So what is the will of the Father? To know the Son. There will be people on that great day that stand before Jesus, and they had their life full of Christian activity, doing powerful things, but they were doing the things for the wrong reasons, and they didn't know Jesus, which was the most important thing of all. Jesus says you need to know me. Knowing Jesus is the pathway to doing the will of the Father. And knowing Jesus isn't just knowing facts about Him

like your favorite sports player. My buddy, Dylan, he loves LeBron James. He could tell you every team that LeBron played for. He can name all the stats. He can make an argument for LeBron being the goat. Greatest of all time. But he doesn't know LeBron's mama knows him. He doesn't know LeBron like his wife and kids know him. And so really, Dylan just knows about LeBron. Church, the question we have to ask is, do we know about Jesus, or do we really know Him like we know a friend? Peter continues, "By these, "he has given us a very great and precious promise, "so that through them we may share in the divine nature, "escaping the corruption that is in the world "because of evil desire." As we get to know Jesus, we receive His promises and share in His divine nature. Isn't that cool to think about? When you say yes to Jesus, His Holy Spirit comes to dwell in you. It literally changes the person that you are. As the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in you, He breathes life into you, and He changes you from the inside out. But here's the thing, Church, in order for that change to continue. Jesus says it this way, John 15, I am the vine, you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in Him, He it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. Look to your neighbor and say, nothing means nothing. You can do nothing of spiritual significance apart from Christ. - Hey, Elaine and I, we have our bedroom is on the upstairs of our house. And we learned this summer that it gets really, really hot in the upstairs, like sweltering heat. And so my best friend became the box fan. I'd set that bad boy up right in front of me. It would blow the cold air on me. It was beautiful. The box fan worked exactly as it was designed to work. But here's the thing. If I set up the box fan in the right position, but it's not plugged into the power source, is it gonna be able to do what it's designed to do? No, church, you were designed with purpose. God has purpose for you in mind, but unless you're connected to the right power source, you're not gonna be able to do what He's called you to do. Maybe you're looking in the mirror and you're feeling a little bit of guilt. You're feeling a little bit of shame 'cause you're not in your word enough or you're not leading your family well or you're tired from work, you're coming home and you're feeling miserable and you want to change,

but you don't know how. Here is the unshaken truth. Run to Jesus. Run to Jesus. Stay connected to Jesus. His Holy Spirit is going to transform you into the kind of person that you desire to be. So the question is, how do I run to Jesus? Peter tells us, you don't have to worry. Verse five, it says, for this reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, brotherly affection with love. I wish I had time to break down each one of these and meditate on them. And I invite you to do that. Look at that list of different attributes and circle the one that you feel like this Holy Spirit is saying, we need to work on this. I need you to pursue me more in this way. I need you to grow in your knowledge. I need you to grow in your perseverance. I need you to grow in your brotherly affection. But notice Peter's words. It says, make every effort. The Greek word is spudae. Think I'm saying that right, spudae.

It means diligence, urgency, intentional effort. Peter is showing us what our responsibility is in relationship. You see, God's responsibility in the relationship is he gives you a righteousness that you could not earn on your own. God's responsibility in the relationship is to empower you with this Holy Spirit to live a life worthy of the gospel. But your responsibility in the relationship is to run hard after Jesus, to make every effort to supplement your faith. We pursue goodness and knowledge and self control and endurance and godliness and brotherly affection and love, not to earn God's approval, but to grow in our faith, to grow in our knowledge and understanding of who he is, to know Jesus. You want to know Jesus better? Pursue him by doing these things. Pastor Chris has been talking about momentum, focused intensity over time. We run after Jesus and get to know him better. And if we have a focused intensity in that, our faith is going to grow stronger. These attributes, they remind me of logs of wood that you would throw on a fire. God has given us a faith and that faith is a flame that sits inside of us. But in order for that flame to grow, we got to start throwing some logs on the fire.

We had a bonfire the other night at Young Adults. And it was a cold night. It was a cold night. And I looked at Matt and I looked at Roger and I said, guys, I need your job tonight. Just please keep the fires going. 'Cause if not, I'm going to be shivering all night long. And so that was their job. They'd watch the fire. And when the fire started to get low, they'd start to throw another log on. Peter is telling us that we need to start throwing logs on our fire to build up the faith inside of us by running hard after these things and getting to know Jesus. Not to earn his approval, but to grow closer to him. And I know that there are people in this church They're in their here journals. They're listening to sermons. They're reading. They're listening to podcasts. They're getting into huddles. They're joining life groups, getting on serve teams. They are hungry for Jesus. And you know what's happening? Their faith is growing and they want more. They're coming back for more. They're experiencing the life and the peace that God has promised when you chase hard after Him. God's truth doesn't change,

but it's always meant to change you. His truth is like a compass. A compass doesn't move, you do. A compass has a needle that always points north. It doesn't adjust because you want it to. It doesn't matter how you feel about north. North is always north. That's what makes a compass useful. But a compass only helps if you are willing to adjust your direction to what the compass is telling you. You can own a compass. You can admire a compass. You can even talk about how much you love this compass. But the truth is, if you're not willing to adjust your course of direction to do what the compass is telling you to do, you're lost. And you're gonna remain lost. We want truth to stay true. We want it to stay put so that we can feel secure, but we don't want it to move us. We want a savior who never changes, but we'd prefer he didn't change us. And Peter says, that's not how this works. He says in verse eight, for if you possess these qualities, the ones that we had just talked about in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The person who lacks these things, watch this,

is blind and short-sighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins. That's sobering. If we're not growing, it's not like we stay in neutral, we start to go backwards. We start to go backwards. We start to feel lost. We lose sight of what God has done for us, and we become vulnerable to being deceived. We have to continue to pursue growing. My brother-in-law, Matt, he is doing something called the 75 Hard Challenge. Has anybody heard of this before? This is saying, you have to do two workouts a day. You have to eat really clean. You have to drink a gallon of water every single day. I didn't even know that was possible. And you have to read at least 10 pages of something every day. And Matt has taken this 75 Hard Challenge and he's felt like the Lord has said, "I want you to have a restart with me." And so he's used this as a restart in his relationship with the Lord. He wanted to grow closer to Jesus through discipline. And the Lord is using it in really cool ways because Matt has learned that by disciplining his body and his mind and making every effort to pursue Jesus, his relationship with the Lord has grown. If you were to ask him a year ago how he felt about his relationship, he'll tell you this.

He felt like he was going through the motions. But now that he's making every effort to pursue Jesus, he feels like he's closer to the Lord than he's ever been before. And it's not like his life is perfect. Things are still hard. But here's the thing, we get to choose our hard because being healthy is hard, being unhealthy is hard. Having financial discipline is hard, being broke is hard. Having a healthy marriage is hard. Having a bad marriage is hard. Growing in your knowledge and understanding of God's word is hard, but feeling lost and full of anxiety is hard. So you get to choose, which hard are you going to chase after? Matt has chosen to chase after a hard that's beneficial. And now the trials and the frustrations that he faces during the day, they don't rob him of his peace like they used to. I wonder how many of us are longing for the same thing. How many of us, if we honestly ask ourselves, do I look more like Jesus now than I did a year ago, we wouldn't be able to answer the way we want to. How many of us would say, I know more about Jesus, "Chase hard after Jesus. "Truth never changes, "but if it isn't changing you, "are you really standing on it?" So Peter has given us an unchanging truth to stand on. God calls us to grow and to change,

and that growth comes through knowing Jesus. But Peter also warns us that there are people who are trying to distort this truth. We see it in verse 16. "Truth isn't determined by what's trending." He says, "For we did not follow cleverly devised myths "when we made known to you the power "and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. "Instead, we were eyewitnesses of His majesty." Peter knows that his time is short, and he wants Christians to understand that his message isn't made a made up story. How many of y'all have heard of what are they called conspiracy theory parties? Have y'all ever been to a conspiracy theory party? My wife is wanting to throw one. It's where you invite all of your friends over, and everybody makes a presentation on a conspiracy, and they try and get you to believe that that conspiracy is true. And there's a whole bunch of them. I'm not gonna name all of them. But what was happening in this time is that people were saying this is a cleverly devised myth. This is a conspiracy. And what Peter is saying is no, I witnessed it with my very own eyes. I was there. He takes us back to the transfiguration where Jesus was revealed in His heavenly glory.

Matthew chapter 17 is where it's at, if you're wanting to go look. Says that Jesus' face shone like the sun. His clothes became white as light. Peter heard with his own ears. This is my beloved son. He heard it from the Father in the heavens. And as Peter writes, he says, we ourselves heard this very voice when we were with him on the Holy mountain. Peter's testimony is not based on rumor. It's not a cleverly devised myth. It's his own testimony from what he experienced. Here's why that matters. Peter is facing execution. He's about to die for his faith. Nobody dies for something that's made up. People will die for things that they believe in and they're passionate about, but nobody dies for something that they made up. Nobody's gonna die for a lie. Peter not only tells us that he has an eyewitness testimony, but he also says we have the prophetic word. Verse 19, he says, we also have the prophetic word, strongly confirmed, and you will do well to pay attention to it as a lamp to a shining and a dark place till the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Because no prophecy ever came by the will of man. Instead, men spoke from God

as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. In Luke chapter 24, Jesus had risen from the grave and his disciples were wrestling with the trauma of seeing the man that they had followed for the last three years, crucified. And then all of the sudden they're hearing these reports that he was no longer in the grave. Some were saying that he had been taken away. Some were saying that he rose from the grave and they're wrestling with this. And then Jesus decides to come alongside them. These two disciples are walking on this road to Emmaus and they're having this conversation wrestling with these things and Jesus comes alongside them and starts walking with them. And let's look what he says. It says while they were discussing and arguing, Jesus himself came near and began to walk along with them. But they were prevented from recognizing him. You might say, that's kind of weird. Why or how could they not recognize Jesus? And I used to struggle with that a little bit, but the truth is Jesus just rose from the grave. So that's a pretty big deal. I think the Holy Spirit has the power and the capability to keep his identity disguised too. Then he asked them, what is this dispute that you're having with each other as you're walking? And they started to explain what happened and why they were so discouraged

and listen to what Jesus says to them. He says, how foolish are you? And slow to believe that all that the prophets have spoken wasn't necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and enter into his glory. And then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted them. And so Jesus walks alongside of them and then he begins to teach them from the law all the way through the prophets. All of the Old Testament, he starts telling them, that was about me, that was about me, that was about me. No doubt, he talked about Ezekiel 34 where it says Jesus is the good shepherd. No doubt, he talked about Psalm 110 where it talks about a priest forever from the order of Melchizedek. No doubt, he talked about Isaiah 53 that talks of a suffering servant who was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our sins. Jesus is saying, it's all about me. So why does Peter go out of his way to show us that the gospel is reliable through his eyewitness testimony and the scriptures we have in the Old Testament? Why is he saying these things? It's because there are people who are trying to distort the truth. We see it in chapter two.

He says there were indeed false prophets among the people just as there will be false teachers among you. They will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them and will bring swift destruction on themselves. They will exploit you with their greed, with made up stories. Their condemnation pronounced long ago is not idle, their destruction does not sleep. Here's the warning, trending doesn't mean the same thing as true. Trending doesn't mean the same thing as true, just because someone is popular and what they say kind of sounds good doesn't mean that there's truth to what they're saying. Just because someone says something that sounds spiritual doesn't mean that it's safe. False teaching rarely walks through the front door wearing a sign saying I'm a false teacher. It slips alongside the truth, it uses our words, it quotes our verses and quietly moves Jesus off the center where he should be. One of my wife's favorite sayings is that's not truth. Whenever we're in conversation or she hears something, she'll say that's not truth. Y'all she knows God's word really, really well. And so she filters everything that she hears through what she knows about who God is. There's a quote that we say a lot in our house, it's by one of our mentors, we'll wire it. The truest thing about God is what he says about himself.

The truest thing about us is what God says about us, whether we think it or believe it to be true. The truest thing about God is what he says about himself. And the truest thing about you and me is what God says about us, whether we think it or believe it to be true. And so everything we hear is filtered in light of that truth, especially the teaching that we're receiving. A couple of years ago, Haley and I were on a date, have y'all ever heard of the adventure date? It's this book that gives you really creative date ideas. And so it had us tie dying a shirt. We took these shirts and we went down to a creek and we started tie-dying. It was very romantic and fun, except I kept getting a whiff of a dead fish. Just kept getting this whiff, not fun, not romantic. And it just kept lingering around. And there was a time where I got down on my knee and I was getting the t-shirt kind of bunched up the way you're supposed to tie-dye and I felt it. My foot was stuck in this dead fish. And I was wearing chocos, so my toes were all up in this dead fish. But here's the thing, we smelt it way before we saw it. We smelt it way before we saw it. Church, when you're in conversation with others, when you're listening to a sermon, when you're receiving teaching, do you know God's word well enough

that you can smell the dead fish? That you can smell the lie. When you are spending time with Jesus and growing in your understanding of his word, he heightens your senses to be able to smell the lie before you actually see it. To where you're able to identify, that's not truth. So Peter, he gives us some questions that we can ask in order to tell the difference between a truth and a lie. Number one, does it make much of Jesus or something else? He says that false teachers deny the master who balked. "If a message makes you the hero, "your comfort, the goal, or the speaker, the star, "then it's time to look a little closer "and to try and discern if it's true." Number two, who benefits if I believe this? Peter says that false teachers exploit people for gain. If the main beneficiary is the person selling the message, their platform, their following, their wallet, that's probably a red flag. We need to look a little closer. The best protection of all is just knowing the real thing because you can't spot a counterfeit if you don't know what the real thing looks like. So when we chase after Jesus and we understand his word, we can identify the lies. Not everyone who talks about Jesus

is pointing you to Jesus. Number three, truth remains certain even when God's promises take time. The last threat Peter addresses in his letter might be the most relatable of all. It's not persecution, it's not false teaching, it's just waiting. Peter says, "Above all, be aware of this. "Scauphers will come in the last days, scoffing, "and following their own evil desires saying, "where is his coming that he promised?" Ever since our ancestors fell asleep, all things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation. It's an age-old doubt. If God were really gonna do something, he would have done it already. Nothing seems to be happening, so maybe he isn't coming after all. But Church, we need to know that his timing isn't slow, it's merciful. God's timing is not slow, it's merciful. Listen to what he says in verse eight, Dear friends, don't overlook this one fact. With the Lord, one day is a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. The Lord doesn't delay in his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but all to come to repentance.

What looks like delay is actually patience. And every day that Jesus hasn't returned is another opportunity for those who are far from him to draw near. Some of us are here today because Jesus was choosing patience over coming. Some of us are here right now and we're grateful that Jesus didn't come yesterday because I needed to be here today. Peter continues, "The day of the Lord will come like a thief. On that day, heavens will pass away with the loud noise, the elements will burn and be dissolved and the earth and the works on it will be disclosed since all these things are to be dissolved in this way. It is clear what sort of people we should be and holy conduct and godliness as you wait for the day of God and the hastening of its coming." Notice he says, "The day will come." Not maybe, not might, it will come. God's promise doesn't have an expiration date. It's gonna come. Peter says that the right response to waiting is not anxiety, it's readiness. Are you ready? Are you ready for his second coming? We live today as if Jesus is gonna return tomorrow. So how do we hold steady and hold on to this promise? First name your someone. Who is the person that the Lord is showing patience

toward right now? Who do you know that's far from God? Be praying for them by name, lifting their name up to the heavenly Father, asking him to draw near, to call them by name, to make them his. And don't live anxious, live ready. Ask what would I change this week if I believe that Jesus could return at any moment? Here's our big takeaway. In a world that keeps changing, stand on the truth that never will. We've been talking about being unshaken. James showed us that there's a faith that we can hold on to under trial. Peter shows us that there's a grace we can lean on through our suffering and now he tells us there's a truth that we can stand on when the voices get loud. He says, dear friends, since you know this in advance, be on your guard so that you are not led away by the error of lawlessness and fall from your stable position. Maybe you're here today and you realize that your fire's gone out. You haven't been making every effort to grow in your relationship with Jesus. The worship team is about to come back out and we're gonna spend one more song and worship and I invite you to do some business with the Lord. To draw near to the Lord in repentance and make your heart ready for His second coming. And some of you, you're in here and maybe you haven't ever trusted Jesus at all.

Here Peter say again, "God is patient, not wanting any to perish, but everyone to come to Him in repentance." You don't have to keep searching for stability. You can stand on the rock, you can stand on Jesus. And so as we worship together, maybe it's time for you to put your trust back in Him. Maybe it's time for you to stop walking on unstable ground and to stand on the truth, the unshaken truth of Jesus. I'm gonna pray for us and as we worship, I invite you guys. If you need to come to the altar for prayer, please do that. We have people here that are ready to pray with you and ready to help you surrender to the Lord. Father God, thank you for your word. Lord, thank you for the unshaken truth of the hope that we have in Jesus. Lord, pray that we wouldn't lean on our own strength, but that we would lean on you and that we would grow closer to you and become more like you. Help us shine as lights and dark places. Help us be a hope to a hurting people. Help us live our lives in a way that glorify you in Jesus' name, Amen. [MUSIC] The highest your name is the greatest, your name, stands above the mole, all thrones and dominions, all powers and positions, your name stands above the mole, your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest, your name stands above the mole, all thrones and dominions, all powers and positions, your name stands above the mole and the angels cry. Holy, a creation cries. Holy, you are lifted, holy, holy forever, hear your people sing. Holy, to the King of Kings, holy, you will always be holy, holy forever. Come on, can we give God praise today? Amen, amen, CPC family, thank you for joining us today. Go and be the hands of Peter Jesus.

We love you guys. We'll see you next week. [MUSIC PLAYING]