2 Peter: The Power of Remembering

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. What would life be like without the ability to remember? It would be chaotic and largely meaningless. Memory allows individuals to draw upon past events to frame their understanding and behavior in the present. What we remember also provides a framework for us to make sense of the present and future. Peter calls God's people to remember the gospel of Jesus as it was accomplished in history, because such memory provides stability, understanding, wisdom, and hope.

None of us can afford to leave remembering up to chance, like when a friend says to you, Well, if you happen to remember. We learn from the scriptures that worship is actually what stirs our capacity to remember the vital things. The psalmist proclaims, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Let's listen to this message titled The Power of Remembering from 2 Peter 1, 12-15. This is part three of a message first preached on July 2nd, 2023 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem.

Because of the strong stability and because of the discernment that I have, critical discernment that I have, then I will have confident wisdom. I will know how to engage my world. This is what Peter is calling us to when he says to be stirred up.

He wants to stir us up by way of reminder. In other words, I am aware and I am active. I am engaging my world. I'm not just drifting through life. I'm not on a comfortable path. I'm not hiding in a corner. I'm engaging my world with confident wisdom.

Why? Because of God's self-disclosure. Because of the grace that he's lavished on me. Because of the grace that is laid up for me. And we do that instead of retreat and isolation and fear.

This is what he said in 1 Peter 1, verse 13 at the beginning of his writing to this church. He says, Prepare your minds for action. Prepare your minds for action.

In fact, that's the whole point of memory. Prepare your minds for action. In other words, you are called in Christ. You are chosen and beloved.

You're not just drifting through life. Prepare your minds for action. In other words, engage.

That's what he said in chapter 3, in verse 11. And you get a good pianist before a good pianist goes into a recital. What is the pianist going to do? The pianist is going to sit there and you're going to practice scales up and down, up and down the piano in one key. And then in another key, up and down. You say, why would an accomplished pianist practice scales?

Because the scales are the foundational elements of their music. It's practice over and over and over again. That's what a robust memory does. And when you have confident wisdom, that will lead you and you are able to engage your world in order to live well. That's why I call it confident wisdom. Wisdom is living well, meaningfully, purposefully. So that indeed you are making a difference. Why? Because we're called to ministry.

Every one of us. If you are in Christ, you are a minister. You're a minister of reconciliation. And a robust memory stirs us up to action with confident wisdom. And that confident wisdom and being able to live well, meaningfully and purposefully, even in the face of opposition.

Even when somebody comes up to you and says, aren't you, are you, are you really a Christian? Do you really believe that? And you can say, yes. And here's why. And here's the difference it makes. Your life can communicate that.

It requires a robust memory. Instead of being distracted and carried away by shiny things that are not lasting and true, you become, with confident wisdom, you become successful at things that will last and make a difference for the glory of God with confident wisdom, flowing out of a robust memory. Benefit number four, a joyful hope. Look at me at verses 14 and 15. A joyful hope.

Since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, let me just be clear here on this. What does he mean by that? He's going to what? Die.

He knows it. He's going to be executed at the hands of the wonderful ancient Roman Emperor Nero. He's going to die. Here he is, an apostle.

He's been given the authority to establish truth for the church. He says, I'm going to die soon. I am leaving the scene, but I want you to be able to remember these things.

I'm going to stir you up by way of reminder. So we get back to verse 14. As our Lord Jesus made clear to me, we're not sure what he's actually referring to there, whether it was at the sea when he was talking with Jesus, or if Jesus let him know a different time that's not recorded in the Canada scripture. But at any rate, Jesus made clear to him that he was going to die soon. And verse 15, and I will make every effort so that after my departure, you may be able at any time to recall these things.

A joyful hope. Death was coming soon for Peter, and he was up to passing the baton, passing the baton of faith. In other words, these are his last words. These are his last words.

And he wants to make sure that they're meaningful, they're compelling, they're clear. I was friends on Facebook with Ed Rupp, and in his last days, in his last words, we're all about what? Jesus Christ. That's beautiful. I saw it all over there.

Message after message, post after post after post. It's all about Jesus Christ. You need to know Jesus. 1 Peter 1.13, I've quoted already at the beginning, it says, set your hope fully on the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Set your hope fully on that, the grace that is laid up for you. In other words, not preoccupied with your surrounding context. But that joyful hope, and I like to associate it with an athletic idea. And you take a highly trained athlete, world class Olympic class athlete, and they're on the starting line. Or they have to focus. They have to have perfect focus. And what they have in athletic terms, they have what's called the quiet eye. What does that mean?

It means they are fixated on the goal, and everything else around them is silent. That's how you and I need to be in the chaos, in the darkness of this world, in terms of what's going to motivate us. The joyful hope that is ours in Jesus Christ, which requires a robust memory. God is like what he has done. He is unchanging.

He is unfailingly good. And so we are called, as the writer of Hebrews puts it, run the race that is set before us. And what comes next? Looking unto Jesus. Fix your gaze on Jesus Christ. He is your goal.

He is the finish line. Paul says it to the Colossians, set your mind on things above, not on things on... Now that doesn't mean you're completely blind to and ignorant of what's going on around you. That's not what that's calling us to. Remember, the whole point of this is to stir us up by way of reminder so that we indeed can engage our world with confident wisdom and critical understanding. Now we've talked about four benefits of a robust memory. Want to move on from there, because when we talk about memory, here's what we don't want to do.

We don't want to be just leaving memory up to chance. You know, like somebody will ask me to pray for them and say, if you happen to think about me, would you pray, okay, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to write it down and I'm going to purpose to pray for that person. I will actively take steps to remember to pray for this person.

Happened just last Wednesday. Somebody asked me to specifically pray for him. I prayed for him.

I sent him a text yesterday morning. He says, Rich, that was so incredibly encouraging. Because I didn't just leave it up to chance that I would remember to pray for him. And so it is with these truths that God has given us and these qualities that he's called us to, and the grace that's been lavished on us, the grace that is laid up for us. We don't just leave it up to chance to remember that.

How do we purposefully remember and develop a robust memory of what God has done and who we are in Christ and what he has for us? From the very beginning of time, in the Garden of Eden, there was an adversary. He is the adversary of our souls and he has one chief tactic. And that chief tactic is for us to do what? To forget the goodness of God. To be distracted away from the goodness of God. That's his tactic.

It hasn't changed. It's a very successful tactic. That's why Peter is writing this letter. Because he knows we are prone to forget. And when we forget the goodness of God and we forget his benefits, we tend to focus on what we don't have or can't have, or what we think is going to be taken away from us. And we become preoccupied, fixated on either attaining, acquiring, or keeping. And that becomes the preoccupation of our lives.

Peter says, that's no way to live. I am made to stir you up by way of reminder. Prepare your minds for action. We sang it. We read it this morning. You can quote it with me. Psalm 103. How does it begin? Bless the Lord, O my soul.

What is that? That's worship and forget not all his benefits. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.