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The message you're about to hear was preached at liberty Baptist
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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you would.
You turn your Bibles, please, to Second Peter chapter #3 Now,
believe it or not, that's the last time I'm going to say that
for a while. Second Peter chapter #3 If
you've been with us since the beginning of 2024, you know that
beginning in January of 2024, we started our study of first and
Second Peter, and now we are in our 60th message.
I can't believe I'm saying that, but 60 messages.
And of course, if you do the math, that means we haven't been
every Sunday morning in first and second Peter, but the great
majority of the of says we have been in first and second Peter,
looking at these epistles that Peter wrote before his passing.
And we are going to look at the very last verse and look at very
last words of what he left us in the biblical record and talk a
little bit about Peter's legacy. You know, legacy is important,
isn't it, what you are remembered for?
And I was asking this morning, what do you remember Peter for?
There probably be a lot of different answers out there.
Maybe you're thinking has been skewed a little bit because
you've been listening to maybe these messages for the last year
and a half or so. But if you were just to ask
someone on the street, if you were to ask someone what they
thought of Peter, what would his legacy be?
They might say something like this.
Well, he was a disciple. That could be something that
would be said. Perhaps people would mention
that he was a fisherman and that could also be something that was
said. I have a feeling that there were
probably more that would say something along these lines.
He was the one that denied Jesus Christ.
They might say something like this.
Wasn't he the one that sunk like a rock in the water when he was
walking there and the next minute he was not?
They might mention many of his failures.
They might mention the fact that he always seemed to shoot from
the hip and out from the mouth in ways that were just not
appropriate, that Jesus had to over and over have to say,
Peter, you know, you really shouldn't have said that.
You really shouldn't have brought that forth in that way.
And listen, this isn't the fact that Peter did everything wrong
in the Gospels. Peter did some pretty incredible
things in the Gospels, didn't he?
By God's graciousness I think of his great proclamation that he
made in Matthew chapter 16. And it says there when Jesus
came in the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked the
disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, AM?
And they said, Some say, Thou art John the Baptist, some
Elias, some Jeremias, or one of the prophets.
And he saith unto them, Jesus said, But whom say ye that I am?
So Jesus asked his disciples, What do men say?
What? What is mankind think of me?
And they offered some suggestions of what the common
man would have said about Jesus in his life and his ministry.
But then Jesus asked the poignant question.
And by the way, this is the question that each and every one
of us still have to answer today.
Who do you say that I am? Jesus still asked all of us this
question today. Who do you say that I am?
And when all the other disciples, the other 11 in the
room said nothing, it was Peter who quickly said, Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God.
So no, it wasn't all bad of the things that Peter did.
It wasn't just all bad things that Peter said.
But it begs the question, how should Peter be remembered?
What is his legacy? What should be the first thing
that comes to mind when we think of the apostle Peter?
Well, I would think that our text here this morning, this
very last verse of his very last epistle, might give us a little
bit of a hint of what his legacy is, what should be.
But also a question for us this morning to ask ourselves is,
well, if Peter had this legacy, what kind of legacy will I
leave? Because each and every one of us
are going to leave a legacy as well, aren't we?
Each and every one of us will be remembered by something.
You say, well, no one will Remember Me or no one will care.
And the fact of the matter is, although sometimes maybe in our
discouragement, we think like that, that we're not isolated.
We don't live on islands on our own.
We will be remembered some way. We will be remembered by whether
it's the people we worked with or whether it was the people we
went to school with or whether it was the people who within our
friend group or most importantly, our family, our
church, we will be remembered for something.
And Peter, there's legacy, I believe, you know, the legacy
that we find here in Second Peter chapter #3 should be our
legacy as well. So would you stand, please, for
the reading of God's Word? And we're going to read one
verse, Say, Pastor, do I have to stand for one verse?
And the answer is, look, did I mention 2:00 AM?
See, I thought you weren't going to make us feel sorry for you.
I'm just saying, if you do, I appreciate it.
All right, Anyway, all right, first Peter, or rather Second
Peter chapter 3, verse 18. But grow in grace and the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to him be glory
both now and forever. Amen.
And while you might think that that's a quick verse to read by
remind you that's a culmination of everything that we've seen
over 8 chapters in first and second Peter.
And in many ways, it's a culmination of a life that Peter
had lived for around 60 years or so.
And he said this, but growing grace and the knowledge of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to him be glory now and forever.
Amen. And Peter did a lot of crazy
things, didn't he? He said a lot of dumb things.
But I'll tell you, I believe his legacy is found in this verse
and it should be our legacy as well.
Will you be seated as we pray together, Heavenly Father, just
one more time, ask you that you'd help this morning.
And Lord, it is required of me that what people see of me is,
is you. And so I pray that as I speak
that it would be you that is seen, that it's your spirit that
would be evident. And it's your word that changes
lives. Lord, thank you for this time.
Thank you for the privilege of preaching, not just to be able
to preach that you found me faithful calling me in the
ministry as your word says, but Lord, to preach to these people.
There's no greater joy, there's no greater calling in my mind.
I thank you so much for it. Bless this time.
I do ask and I ask it in Jesus name, Amen.
Mankind has always been thoughtful when it comes this
issue of leaving a legacy. Now why is that?
Because no one wants to think they're forgotten.
Nobody wants to think that they live this life and then it just
didn't matter. We all want to matter in this
life and we all want to be remembered beyond our lives in
this life by those who continue to live after we depart from
this world. That's why people create
endowments and they create scholarships in people's names.
Why? To help people remember someone
who has passed on. That's why there are times that
people have given enough money to have their name on a
building. You go to downtown Boston and
you see the hospitals and you see the colleges and the
universities. You're going to find a lot of
those buildings have names on them.
Names that you and I don't know, but someone gave millions of
dollars because they wanted to be able to leave a legacy so
that when some freshman came under the door frame of their
dormitory or when they went to one of the academic buildings,
they'd see a name there that might have been there 10/20/30 a
hundred years. And it might make a connection
with time pass. It might make a connection with
a legacy. People start businesses and they
want those businesses to continue that.
It's typically the case that if you have a business, you start
it. You want to grow you, you want
to make an impact in the area of which you are doing your work.
You don't want to be the smallest business.
Typically you want to be the most successful.
You want people to know you and sometimes that's not even a
prideful thing necessarily, just what you do, you want to do well
and you want to be recognized for that.
You know, we have we have record books and we have halls of
fames. Why?
Because we want to remember sports stars that have done
great things in the past. And there's one in Springfield,
there's one in Cooperstown, there's one in Canton, and then
there's all kinds of smaller Hall of Fame too.
Most high schools have a Hall of Fame or a Ring of Honor.
Why? To be able to remember those who
have given some sort of impact in the sports or in the city or
within the league of which they played a churches sometimes.
Now, we don't do this here. We don't really have opportunity
to. We rent this building.
I don't know that we'd necessarily put plaques around
here for things that we rent, but you know, if you have a
campaign where maybe people buy hymnals or they purchased a Pew
or they gave money for a classroom, sometimes you'll see
a plaque outside, won't you? Given in honor of or given in
memory of what? We want the legacy to go on.
We want life to have meaning. We don't want to be forgotten by
the next generation. So as we consider this issue of
legacy, we ask ourselves, what's Peter's legacy?
How should we remember Peter? Is it for denying Christ?
Is it for saying I go a fishing? Remember that at the end of the
book of John where basically he just gave up.
And when he said I go a fishing, it wasn't that he just wanted to
fish for a little bit, but basically saying I want to go
back to my old way of living. I want to pick up my Nets again
and I want to go back because I'm worthless for Jesus Christ.
I might as well go back to fishing.
With his legacy sinking in the water, his hasty words, his rash
actions, Was it cutting off a man's ear?
Actually, his legacy could be he wasn't very good with a sword
because he was trying to lop off a guy's head and all he got was
the year. So that was the legacy, right?
I don't know what. What would Peter's legacy be?
But maybe a more contemporary question, a question that's more
fitting for the here and now, would be this What do you want
your legacy to be? What do you want your legacy to
be? How would you want to be
remembered? You know, it seems like the
world tries to take the worst of our times and the worst of our
life. And it's often times in those
moments, sometimes in our control, and sometimes they were
out of our control. And the world wants to define us
by those things. The world wants to define you by
having a business that went belly up.
The world wants to define you by the fact that you were divorced.
The world wants to define you by being someone.
Oh, yeah. They were always angry.
It seemed like they were always angry at everything.
The world might define you saying well, you had kids that
but they didn't stay in church, had trouble finding a job, they
had trouble holding on to money. They walked away from the
church. It seems like the world tries to
maybe in the fact that the world wants to lift themselves up and
try to make themselves feel better.
They try to pound us down, don't they, And try to make us feel
worse about who we are and try to define a life of, even if it
says in the word of God, three score years.
And if by reason of God's grace we have 3 score years and 10,
meaning 60 or 70 years, that that a 60 or 70 year life could
be distilled down to 1 sentence. And usually that sentence isn't
flattering. Oh, he was a Christian, but he
wasn't much of A Christian. She went to church, but she
didn't seem like a believer. And sure, our lives can be
defined by these things. How is Peter defined?
How should we be defined? Now, we'll say this.
We can't control what other people think.
I do think we need to be careful that we don't live our lives
trying to please other people in the sense of trying to make
everyone happy. Listen, if you try to make
everyone happy, you will make nobody happy.
That's a immutable law of life. What are we trying to do with
our life? Our lives are all about, if you
know, Jesus Christ, your Savior. Our lives are all about this
primarily and first and foremost, pleasing God.
Now in the realm of pleasing God, I believe you will please
other people. But I will say this, in the
realm of pleasing God, it will be unpleasing to some people.
So maybe we should look at it and frame it this way.
How did God want us to remember people?
Does God want us to be remembered?
Because again, maybe it's the opinion of others that we
shouldn't rely on so heavily here this morning, but but how
would God want us to see Peter? If God had the opportunity to be
able to tell us how we should have the last thought of him in
our mind, what would it be and how that would relate to us?
I believe we have the answer. I believe we just read it
because these are Peter's words, but we know they're inspired by
God. We know that what Peter wrote
was inspired by the Holy Spirit, meaning this.
This is what God wanted to be Peter's last word.
This is what God wanted us to see as the final glimpse of this
man who came onto the scene as a rough fisherman.
He was rough as a Cobb who said the wrong things, who did the
right do the wrong things. Every once in a while did
something right and it was like a a blind squirrel finding the
nut. Once in a while it's like, yeah,
Peter, you did right, but it was like it was an accident.
How should we remember him and what does it say about us?
Well, it's in verse 18. But growing grace and the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to him be glory
now and forever. Amen.
See, I believe this Peter's legacy could be boiled down to
one word, and that word was this growth.
Growth Peter grew. Everything that I've mentioned
to you about her came from the Gospels.
Everything I mentioned came for the books of Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John while he was walking three years with Jesus
Christ. But there is no doubt that when
we get to the book of Acts, there is no doubt when the
Gospels are left behind and Jesus has ascended into heaven.
And as the Holy Spirit comes and indwells within the lives of the
believers, including Peter. That Peter was a man who grew
from a man who was impetuous, a man who didn't say the right
things, who didn't do the right things, a man who denied he even
knew Jesus Christ. And he grew in a way that's hard
to even explain in Acts chapter one.
They were missing a disciple, weren't they?
Judas had taken his own life and it was Peter who stood up
amongst 120 in that upper room and said this we got to get to
work. We need to find another
disciple. And it was Peter who took
charge, by the way, wasn't because he had a leadership
complex, but I believe he understood that this moment had
been thrust upon him and he was able to the whole by the power
of the Holy Spirit to lead in a way that was gracious and right.
Acts chapter 2. You want to talk about a man who
always said the wrong thing the day of Pentecost.
He said the right things. He preached.
The Bible says that there are 3000 who were saved and baptized
and added into the church. Get to the next chapter.
What happens? Well, he and John are walking
together. By the way, that ought to be a
news flash of growth right there.
He and John are walking together.
Usually when he or John are together, I think of like, you
know, brothers or I think of guys that are, you know,
elementary school age, and they're like walking shoulder to
shoulder, but they're pushing each other the whole time.
I kind of imagine when Peter and John were going down the dusty
roads with Jesus in the back, they were always like pushing
each other and dudging each other.
And Jesus had to look back, say, hey, what are you guys doing?
They're like, oh, nothing. Like Jesus didn't know what they
were doing, but they're walking together and they're like
friends. By the way, people who are saved
ought to be able to get along with one another.
I got one, Amen. I was hoping for a few more than
that, but that's all right. It's a pastor.
I'd say, Amen. But I don't get along with you.
That's all right. OK Amen.
That's two. All right.
So Peter performs his first miracle.
Now, was it Peter that did it? We know it was the Lord, but
Peter is growing. Peter brought the gospel to the
Samaritans and then he brought the gospel to the Gentiles.
You get to Acts chapter 15, and Paul and Barnabas, their
ministry to the Gentiles is called into question.
And Peter stands up before the Church of Jerusalem and says,
no, these men have given to the gospel to the Gentiles, and it's
good and it's right that it's to be done.
I've received a vision and I was told that the Jews and the
Gentiles, there's no difference between the two in the eyes of
God, and they're doing the right thing.
They're given the gospel to all of the world and Peter is
standing up even to the establishment, if you will, to
be able to tell them no, you're thinking wrong.
We need to think rightly. We need to think godly.
We need to think biblically. Here is Peter, he's standing up
and he's doing right. And listen, that doesn't mean he
was perfect in the book of Acts. We saw a few weeks ago how even
in the issue with the Gentiles, he got a little bit cross ways
with Paul once and how he even got caught up in some
embarrassment of being with the Gentiles when he was around the
Jews. No, no, we're not talking here
about perfection. What we're talking about is that
as he got older, he wasn't perfect, but as he got older he
grew. A legacy of a.
Christian shouldn't be one of a flawless St.
But rather as a. Flawed servant.
But a flawed. Servant who's willing to grow
moment by moment, day by day, year by year.
You know, every time. I think I've gotten someplace in
my Christian life the Lord has a way of reminding me that I
haven't. Anyone else feel that?
Way start to feel like I'm I'm actually doing pretty good, he
says. Oh really?
I. Like to reveal a few.
Things to you and you get to the place like, all right, Lord,
stop revealing things to me. What?
About this and what about? This and all these things come
to mind. I think No, no, I'm sorry for
all those things. I.
I, you know, we've, we've had the opportunity to write a
couple books. Diane and I have a particularly
special needs ministry and, and all of that.
And I thank the Lord for that. But I remember when we wrote our
first book, when I was done, it was, it was somewhere around 120
pages, somewhere around there. It took a long time.
We worked on it for quite a while, but we're done.
I felt like Moses coming down with the tablets.
Do you know what I'm saying? I wanted to hold that binder up
above my head, said this is it, it's perfect, It's incredible.
I was so proud. And then I read it again.
And I thought, this is a mess. And, you know, it took as long
to correct it as it did to write it.
And I would read, I said I caught everything, and I'd
reprint it. So I wouldn't see any of the
edits that I made. I wouldn't see where the
markings were. And I'd read it again.
I'd find more. I'd find more.
I think we at least did that six or seven times.
And then we had to pay someone to tell how wrong we were, which
is called an editor. We and.
She found stuff. You get to the place where?
Well, well, certainly she's not going to find anything because
we spent months trying to find all the stuff.
Oh, she found plenty. I'm glad we didn't pay her by
the error that she found, or else it probably never been
published. But in the Christian.
Life is like you think, well, I'm saved.
This should be it, right? I'm saved.
I know. Jesus Christ and my Savior.
I have arrived. Amen.
You've just begun. You've just started.
No, I don't mean you're just begun in your process of getting
saved. The moment you got saved was the
moment that that the Holy Spirit came in your life, that that you
passed from death into life, that you became a new creature.
You know, we're not talking about a process of salvation,
but rather we're talking about a process of Christ's likeness in
your life. It's something that takes
moments and days and years and a lifetime.
And it's like. I believe Michelangelo, who said
every block of stone has a statue inside it, and it's the
task of the sculptor to discover it being this, that Michelangelo
would start with just a block of marble chip here, a chip there,
over a long period of time and before you know it, something
recognized. What is in our?
Life, it ought to be oh, oh sure you're changed, but it ought to
be a chip here, chip here. You grow a little bit here.
A little bit there, and before you know it, you're changed.
It's not just growth for the growth sake, but it's growing to
be like Christ. Who's our example.
We even talked about this on Wednesday night, First
Corinthians chapter #3 or as we build, our foundation is Jesus
Christ. By the way, there is no further
foundation that you can build your life upon.
Every other foundation that you build your life upon is sinking
sand. There is nothing else you can
build upon the Jesus Christ. But when he's that foundation,
we have to build a top of him. Our life is built in such a way
that we were to be able to, to build something that's a
glorify, glorification of Him. And so we're not just to grow,
but we're to grow a certain way. Well, how is that?
Well, I don't want to ignore the other words in our text.
I don't want to just focus on the word grow and just harp on
that for 30 or so minutes. No, there's other verses or
other words that are there. Well, it tells us how to grow,
because growth just for the sake of growth isn't what he's
looking for. There's some very specific ways
he's told us to grow. First of all, it says, but grow
in grace. What has God?
Called us to do to be people of growth and we're to grow in
grace. Listen, who are gracious people?
I would put it to you. This way, gracious people are
those who recognize that they've received grace from God and are
willing to give that grace to others as well, in equal
measure. Let me run that by.
You again, gracious people or those who recognize they've been
given grace from God. Have you been given grace from
God? If you're saved this morning?
If you are saved and you haven't been grace from God, you can't
be saved for by grace. Are you saved through faith?
And aren't you glad that the spicket?
Of Grace doesn't just turn off the moment you got saved, but
that it almost seems like it's thrown even further wide open as
you are saying, you realize because now you can see God's
grace upon your life. You know, a gracious person,
someone who grows in grace, says I have received a great deal of
grace. You say, what is grace?
It's receiving that which I do not deserve.
And I am. Going to give it out in equal
measure, you say? To who?
To everyone else around me. A gracious.
Person realizes God, I don't deserve this life you've given
me. I don't deserve how?
You've cared for me. I don't deserve your love, but
you know what? There's a lot of other people
around me that need that grace as well.
And so I'm going to be a conduit.
Of that grace. To other people.
But listen, we often get so frustrated our situations.
We get so frustrated to other people that we don't even have
time to give grace. Listen, we all want it.
But we don't want to. Give it why?
Because life doesn't go the way we want it to go.
Even yesterday I'm. Sitting, I'm sitting there at a
gate and I'm, I'm checking trains and I'm checking cars and
I'm trying to figure out how I can get from Philadelphia to
Boston. I'm trying to wrap my head
around all this and, and I can feel myself getting aggravated.
I can feel myself getting annoyed.
I can feel myself. Some of you are looking at me.
You do the same all right. Don't judge me, the Bible.
Says don't judge me, all right? That's not what it says anyway.
That's that's the way people say it though, isn't it?
All right. But listen, I'm getting, I
realize. God's put me in a.
Safe place. I'm looking this.
Up on my computer, I have a laptop in my hand, I have a
phone by my side. I have any number of people that
if I asked them to help me in some way, and a couple of people
I did ask to help me with certain things and they did.
I was able to find a. Car I had safe travel.
I was able to get here. Do you realize God's grace all
through all that? But we don't look at it.
That way it's almost like we just expect God to do it.
God, just take. It's the way it's supposed to
be. What it's supposed to be is
death and hell. That's what we.
Deserve. But God in His graciousness sent
Christ to die in the cross. We need be growing as gracious
people. Are you more gracious now than
you used to be? Are you more willing?
To be a conduit of God's grace to other people than you used
to. Even.
When you get into those moments of aggravation, is the Spirit a
little bit quicker? Or rather, maybe I could put it
this way. Are you quicker to respond to
the Spirit when he tells you don't act like that?
And in those. Moments of frustration Or in
those moments of difficulty, are you able to offer grace to other
people even as you are inconvenienced?
That's growing in. Grace Elizabeth Elliott said
this growing in grace means daily yielding to the spirits
work, allowing God's love to chip away our pride and fill us
with his peace. When you have the pride chipped
away and to be filled with peace.
So it's a growing grace, but what else are we supposed to
grow in? To grow in.
The knowledge. Of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. It's not a stretch.
To be able to say although the words are not together, grow in
the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
That word and that conjunction ties the two thoughts together.
Grow in grace. Grow in the knowledge of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We need to be learning more
about God every single day. Every single day.
We should do a little bit more to be able to learn more about
him. Say, well, pastor, how on earth
am I supposed to learn more about Jesus Christ?
Well, the best place, well really the only place that you
can start to be able to learn about Jesus Christ is in God's
holy Word, because he is the Word.
Why is it so important that we read God's word?
Because you need to grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. Listen, if we're called to be
like Christ, how can you live like Christ if you don't know
Him? How can you mimic?
How can you imitate? How can you try to be conformed
into His image if you don't even know what that image is?
If you don't know His graciousness, if you don't see
how He treated those who were unsaved, if you see how how he
worked amongst mankind, if you don't see his tears, yes, his
tears. John 11 as he looked at the
faithlessness at that time as as Lazarus was dead.
That that should inform us and should help us how how we live
our lives. We got to grow in knowledge.
I guess I got to. Go to Bible college.
That's what you're saying, Pastor.
Well, I mean you. Can but.
I don't think that's what it's. Saying.
All right, so I got audit. Classes at some seminary?
No, no, that's not what I'm saying at all.
I'm saying the holy. Spirit is your teacher book of
first John. By the way, God's given us a
church where we learn as well. That's why being involved in a
church is is is so a vital. It's the way God designed you.
Yes, I'll say that again. God designed you to be part of a
church. Amen.
Why? Because it's through that that
we learn more about Jesus. In fact, I kept thinking of that
hymn more about Jesus. The chorus says more about
Jesus. Would I know or rather, the
verse says more about Jesus, would I know?
More of His grace to others show that goes with what we just read
too. Isn't it more of His saving
fullness? See more of His love who died
for me meaning this. The more we know him, the more
gracious we can be. The more we.
Know of him, the more gracious we could be.
It's amazing to me how much people know about things that
just don't matter in this life. They know sport statistics.
They know what's how many seasons are of their favorite
show and who the characters are in the minor characters.
And they know all about cars and they know all about computers
and they know about all these things.
I'm not saying that there's not a place for some of those things
because like, you ought to know how a car works enough to like,
get it to go places. You ought to know what to do.
With the computer if it freezes. Which is, you know.
Call someone else to help you. Usually I think is what it is.
And you get to a certain age, I think, and I'm getting to that
age. I'm feeling it already.
But what is there greater to know than to know our Savior?
What could? Possibly be greater than knowing
him so that we can be gracious people.
No, Peter grew in grace. He grew in knowledge.
And then we also. See, the end of that verse says
this. To him be glory both now and
forever, Amen. And while I can't say that the
command of growth is directly connected to to Him be glory
both now and forever Amen in the verse, because obviously there
are two different sentences. But as we.
Are told to him be glory both now and forever.
Amen. I don't believe it's a stretch
for us to say, you know, we ought to grow in giving him
glory in our life as well. Because it's so.
Easy for us to take the glory that belongs to him.
We had a wonderful charge this morning from Brother Dan, who
got up in Daniel chapter 4 and talked about how Nebuchadnezzar.
Thought how? Glorious his Kingdom was.
And really, the glory. All belonged to him.
Know him as in the Lord. What happened?
The Lord. In a moment, made the most
powerful man in the world, like an animal that was of no stretch
of God's power to take the most powerful man on this earth and
turn him into nothing. And what do we find at the end
of Daniel chapter 4? He gives all praise and glory to
the God of heaven. God had worked him over for a
few chapters, hadn't he? He'd worked him over, but he
finally got to the place where he got it to him be glory.
It's so easy to be able to preach a message and maybe to
feel like I presented it. Well, maybe have somebody come
up to me and say, hey, I appreciate the message.
By the way, thank you. When you say you appreciate the
message or even if you want to be able to, to help me as a
pastor, encourage me. You can tell me how how
specifically God spoke to you during the message that that's
an encouragement to me. But certainly I'm not looking
for that. I don't, I don't need that in
the sense that if I, I'm looking, I don't stand in the
back hoping everyone's going to tell me how great the message
was. I want to stand in the back to
be able to talk to you and, and get I'm not going to I don't
know if I'm going to stay in the back today.
It's not looking good. All right, but I'll stay in
somewhere and talk to you. All right.
But here's what I. Know here's here's what I know
there have been times I've left here and thought that was pretty
good. You're laughing uncomfortably a
little bit. But listen, don't say that you
don't do stuff like that on your own.
Like you do something at work and you make a big sale.
Like I landed that sale. You.
Do the report and the report comes out perfectly.
You do something to the church and it comes out well.
And you get an attaboy from somebody or or from several
people. You build something and you look
at it, you step back and say, Oh yeah, and that's great.
You look at it and you start to think how great you are.
And I'll tell you, there have been times on Sunday morning
I've left here and I thought, let me tell you, this guy has
it. And it's like as if
Nebuchadnezzar in a moment lost it.
I get up in the evening service and go.
And maybe you don't feel. Like that, but that's how I
feel. It's as if the Lord.
Says. Oh yeah, Adam.
Because, by the way, the Lord calls me Adam, not Pastor
Rivera. He says.
Oh, yeah, Adam, he says. If you want to do that yourself,
go ahead and try. And I realized maybe I should
have gave him glory. Because I can't even.
Stand behind this. No, no, I'm not saying I can't
even stand behind this pulpit without his help.
We got to grow in. Giving God glory.
Peter Man. He, he had a weird life, didn't
he? He lived in a way in the Gospels
that was not good. Although there were flashes.
Of brilliance you find him, an axe you find more good than bad.
From Jesus, ascension and beyond.
But he grew. He grew in grace.
He grew in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
He grew in giving. God, glory.
The Bible talks. Many ways about how we can give
God glory. We can give God.
Glory by worshipping the Lord and the beauty of holiness.
It says that in Psalm 29. Two, we give Him glory through
worship. Why is worship so important?
Why do we have corporate worship at our church?
It's about giving Him glory. Why do we encourage you to
worship at home and not just here?
Because we need to bring him. Glory.
Psalm 90. 6 verse 8 tells us that we can bring God glory by
giving him an offering. We glorify.
God with our ties and offerings. By the way, it's not just
through our ties and offerings. We glorify God by giving Him of
ourselves. What's the the, the outline that
I often give you? Our time, our talents, and our
treasure. We honor.
Him, we glorify him when we say, Lord, look at what you've done
with my life. I can't do any of this, so I'm
going to give what you have enabled me.
I'm going to give back to you. That's glorifying to Him.
First Chronicles 1629 says give unto the Lord the glory, do unto
his name, bring an offering, and come before him.
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
So it incorporates all of those and then it adds an extra layer
saying this, that you glorify God when you live a holy life.
Well, there it. Goes it's a Pharisee stuff.
You, you, you independent Baptist.
I know the way you are. You you just wanted to live a
certain way. This is what it is.
You probably you don't even want us to have any fun, Pastor.
We know the way it is. You just you, you, you're
miserable and you want to make everyone else miserable.
I don't think I'm miserable. And I don't want to.
Make you miserable? In fact, quite the opposite.
A good life comes from honoring the Lord and following His word.
Why? Because He wants to show us that
with sin comes pain. With.
Sin comes aggravation. With sin.
Comes consequences. With sin, strings are always
attached. But with God.
There's liberty and with God there's life.
And so holy living isn't about being a Pharisee.
Holy living is about trying to be better than other people.
Holy living is about trying to stick your nose so high in the
air that if you went out there, you drown right now.
Holy living. Is about this.
I'm commanded to grow and giving him glory.
And so you know. What?
I'm not going to yell at people when I drive.
Oh. That was the bridge.
Too far out of this all time. Oh, now I lost you after 30
minutes. Wow.
OK. You should see the Jersey
Turnpike, all right. It's a.
Yeah, so. Listen, listen.
We might as well have the invitation right now.
It seems like we lost it. All right, get angry.
Listen, you know how we give, how we grow.
In giving God glory, We don't take His name in vain.
We don't put things. In front of our eyes.
Entertainment that is not honoring to God.
We don't gossip with people. Oh, I was just sharing a prayer
request. Well, if it's a prayer request,
you got to pray for it. But most people just.
Share it as a prayer request and it's really just gossip.
I want to say most people. But that can happen if we're not
careful. We're thankful for requests, but
gossip over and over, you know, we're to glorify God.
Where to grow in these areas? So what's Peter's legacy?
Peter's legacy. Could be the denying of Christ.
It's not mentioned. In this book, Peter's legacy
could be sinking like a rock in the water.
It's not mentioned. His legacy could be I go of
fishing. It's not mentioned.
By the way, his legacy wasn't even preaching of the day of
Pentecost. His legacy wasn't even the good
things necessarily in the sense that that's not mentioned.
The miracles aren't mentioned. None of those things are
mentioned. The very last word that Peter
gave us, but the very last word in essence that God gave us is
this. Peter was a man who grew.
He wasn't defined by 1 moment. He wasn't defined by one event.
Listen, in God's eyes, Peter's legacy wasn't a moment, it was a
lifetime. A lifetime of growth.
And your legacy will not be defined on a moment.
If you live the way that. God wants you to live.
It can be defined by a lifetime of growth.
It wasn't always. What you were, but you're
getting where you're supposed to be with the help of Jesus
Christ. And you'll get there when you
meet him in glory. And we'll be changed.
I know how many of you do this. We, we rented far too many
places to be able to do this. But some of you probably lived
in the same area long enough that you could when you had the
kids and they were growing up, you know, you had them stand
back against the door jamb or a wall in your house and you
marked how much they grew. Like I said, we didn't live
anywhere long enough to be able to do that.
Do just have another renter come and say why is there 3 lines on
the wall here? You know, we really haven't
other than the last few years, but.
So we never did. That, but a lot of families do
something like that. They just, they want to see the
growth. And you know, it's always funny
is that you see the kids will back up into the wall to kind of
do one of these because they want to see how much they've
grown over time. They enjoy seeing it.
They enjoy seeing the progress because they can't feel it even
though it's happening. But it's just so short.
It's. Over such a it's so small, so
minuscule. It's like the growth of your
hair in a day. It's so small you don't even
perceive it until you look and say I need to get a haircut.
Or you look in the mirror and you say I'm bald.
I don't need a haircut, but whatever it is.
Whatever it is, you. Don't see it?
Is your legacy. One of growth.
Are you further? Ahead before.
Or whether you're further ahead. Now than you were before.
Have you stagnated? Have you shrunk?
By the way, those aren't signs of health.
There's signs, there's. Something wrong?
Well, how do you? Know if you've grown?
Could I encourage you to do something?
Over the next few. Days.
I want you to think. About this I want you to
consider this with your own life.
Just like someone was able to measure growth on a chart, a
doctor's chart, a wall, maybe you need to measure your own
growth in your spiritual life. Have something that you?
Mark down maybe? Maybe you need to get a notebook
from the dollar store, or maybe just need to take your notes app
on your phone. And say you know there's.
Three areas in my life. There's four areas in my
Christian life that I don't think I've grown as much as I
should. It could be something.
Like prayer? Could be something like.
Bible reading something like giving could be tense.
It could be your struggle with saying certain words that you
know you shouldn't. Could be your temper, it could
be pride and arrogance. And listen, anything that's a
plan, or rather anything that is a desire to change.
Without a plan, it's really just a dream.
And it won't come to. Pass.
So maybe you need to write something like this?
Over the next few. Months or so.
I'll, I'll wait till January. Listen, if you wait till January
1st to make a New Year's resolution, you're not serious
because by January 1st this will be so far gone.
It's serious. Maybe you need to write down.
I want to. Write or I want to read this
much of the Bible. I'm going to read a chapter of
the Bible a day. I'm going to read 5 verses of
the Bible a day. I'm going to pray for two
minutes a day. I'm going to pray for 5 minutes
a day. You say only two minutes.
If you're praying, 02 minutes is good.
I know I'm not. Mocking.
I'm not even trying to be sarcastic, I'm saying you got to
start somewhere. You hear a sweet hour.
Of prayer. And you think, how can I spend a
sweet hour of prayer? Well, it's probably because you
spent 58 minutes in prayer once and spent 56 minutes in prayer
before, and you worked your way to that place.
It's probably not going. To happen the first day you
pray. Maybe you need to make?
Some grow a growth chart. And you can see.
That in three months, maybe every quarter, maybe every six
months, you look back and you can see where you've grown, you
can see where you've shrunk, see where you've stagnated.
God to help you to be able to be who you need to be.
Listen, you expect your children to grow.
And God expects. You to grow.
A child that does. Not grow has real health issues
that must be addressed and a spiritual being a Christian that
is not growing has very real spiritual needs that must be
addressed. Ask God to help.
You with it, He will help you with it.
Well, I. Just don't.
I just don't. I don't.
Think it's going to help? How much power do you?
Think God has he? Had enough power to.
Save you. You mean you trust?
That He had enough power to pass you from death into life and to
give you a home in heaven, but you don't think he can help you
with your sinful habit? You don't think he can?
Help you with prayer. You don't think he can?
Help you with giving. You don't think he can help you
with holy living? He don't think he can help you
with worship? You don't think he can help you
in these areas? Of course he can.
Submit yourself to him. Plot the growth.
See where you're. Growing.
See where you're anemic, write it down, check it daily, check
it weekly. However you do it, there's not a
right way or wrong way to do it, but understand this, your legacy
can be this growth because your legacy is should not be just one
moment of your life. It is what Pete, what the Lord
gave us here. Your legacy is this.
Did you grow as a believer? But I will say this.
And I'm and I'm done. I'm talking about your legacy
being a lifetime. And and they were talking about
a lifetime of growth, but there is one part of everybody's
legacy that is created in a moment, one part.
And that's this. The day you call upon Jesus
Christ to save you. Because nothing.
Can follow in Christ likeness if you haven't called upon Christ
to save you in the 1st place. So it's that moment of what?
Realizing I'm a Sinner, only Jesus Christ can save me, and by
His grace and His power, I call upon him to save me today, and
he'll help me pass from death unto life.
And it won't be a process that takes days or months or years.
It won't be something where I need to take the sacraments.
It's not about joining a church. It's about Christ's blood and
Christ's blood alone that saves me.
And from. That moment from that individual
decision. A life can.
Be changed forever and your legacy can be one of growth.
December 2nd. 1998, I decided to plot a different path.
I grew up in a Lutheran home and I was living that way.
I was going to a Lutheran college.
I've been looking at Lutheran colleges and I realized at that
point my life was forever changed.
And you know that moment create a legacy of now I have a
beautiful wife. I have 4:00.
Amazing children. One of them's married.
Another one's getting married and some some gaining more
children. They're expensive.
You know what I'm saying? At least the wedding part is.
Man, I get to be a pastor. All of that came.
From that one decision, but listen also a lifetime of having
to grow a little bit by a little bit.
Well, you're pastor. You're, you're look, look at
you, you got a suit. You, you talk right and do all
that. Have I reminded you how I was as
a teenager? Have I reminded you?
That I still struggle with things as an adult.
So I remind you that even though I'm a pastor, I still have sins
I have to ask the Lord to help me with every single day.
And I'm like, why haven't I got over this yet?
Just got to grow and you got to grow.
So I'll say this for the last time this week as we add to our
faith. We need to grow.
But you need to grow God's way. Thank.
You for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of Liberty
Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.