A Daily Walk

Guest (Male): Where to keep growing in our daily walk as long as we have breath. Here's Pastor John Randall.

John Randall: Time to grow up. Time to keep growing. I say that to you, I say it to myself. I'm content with Jesus. I'm thankful. I am blessed by what He's done. I'm not content with John. I want to keep growing. Paul said, "I haven't arrived. God's not finished with me, but I press on that I might reach for that prize, that upward call of God in Christ Jesus." He's not done with me, so I'm still running the race.

It's not like you retire. "Retired from being a Christian." Really? You retired? "Yeah, they gave me a gold Bible. It was so great. It's engraved, signed by Jesus Himself." No!

Guest (Male): Well, maybe like myself, you had parents that would chart your growth on a wall somewhere in the house. There'd be a little dash with the date beside it, giving you an idea of how much you've grown over the years. Today on A Daily Walk, we'll be challenged to keep growing spiritually until we arrive in Heaven. Last time, we examined the requirements for growing, and now let's see the reasons to keep growing. From 2 Peter Chapter 1, here is Pastor John Randall.

John Randall: Now that we know the requirements for growth, in order to keep growing, let's consider, secondly, the reasons to keep growing. The reasons. And Peter gives them to us right here in verse 8. The reasons. Look at verse 8: "If these things are yours and abound, you will neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ."

If these virtues that Peter listed belong to us and we are abounding in them, we're growing in them, then we're not going to be barren or unfruitful. The word "abound" means you'll have more than is necessary to bring forth an abundance. It's a harvest, folks, of spiritual fruit that has been cultivated in the life of the person that loves, serves, and follows Jesus. That's the fruit of their life. You can see it. It's observable. "You will know them," Jesus said, "by their fruit."

You can just see it in their life. And so the reason why we want to continue to cultivate and grow in these areas that are listed is so that we would not be barren. And the word "barren" means useless. When used in the New Testament, it always describes something that is inoperative, unserviceable. It describes that which isn't working. It's just ineffective. It's not yielding anything. It's worthless. It's idle. It's just sitting there. But if you're growing, you're not going to be idle.

In Matthew Chapter 20, Jesus actually tells a parable about a vineyard owner who was hiring workers at different times throughout the day. And at the end, He found some men who were just standing there idle and He asked this question in Matthew Chapter 20, verse 6. It's a good question to ask: "Why stand you idle all day?" It's a good question. Why are you idle right now? Why are you just there? What's happening? He asks them. And then after He asks them this, the landowner in the parable called them to action, urged them to utilize their time more productively and not waste it by being lazy and unengaged.

Get engaged, get involved. And as you're reminded to actively participate to serve God and others, you will not be idle. I hope you know this today on the authority of Scripture: it is the Lord's desire that we would continue to grow, not to become stagnant, not to be subject to arrested development, but continue to grow.

In the book of Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews exhorted a group of people who should have been growing, but they weren't. And this is what he said. Hebrews Chapter 5: "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you've come to need milk and not solid food. Everyone who partakes only of the milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."

In other words, here's a group of people that have been sitting under the word for a long period of time. At this point, they should be teaching other people. But they weren't. The writer of Hebrews says, "You guys, rather than moving on to meat, you're still on the bottle." You should be more mature than that. You should be beyond this point. It's amazing to watch as our children or grandchildren grow. They come into this world and they are completely dependent on milk to survive, to grow, to become strong, etc.

But there comes a point, and it's observable, when they can now sit up, they can hold themselves up. They're in their chair and they see your food. They don't want milk. They want that. Whatever that is. And they start eating it, and suddenly they're growing and maturing. If this kid gets to 16 and he says, "Ba-ba," you realize something's wrong. Something is not right. There's arrested development here. And some, maybe even here today, you're "ba-ba" when you need to be... give me a steak, somebody! Give me meat! Develop an appetite for the word of God. This is what needs to happen. Are you still on the milk, or are you on the meat?

So you're getting a little preachy, Pastor. I know. It's right here. But some of you need to be stirred up to love and good works. You've been a Christian a long time, and you haven't read through the entire Bible. I don't say that to be mean. I'm just saying it's reality. Time to grow up. Time to keep growing. I say that to you, I say it to myself. I'm content with Jesus. I'm thankful. I am blessed by what He's done. I'm not content with John.

I want to keep growing. Paul said, "I haven't arrived. God's not finished with me, but I press on that I might reach for that prize, that upward call of God in Christ Jesus." He's not done with me, so I'm still running the race. It's not like you retire. "Retired from being a Christian." Really? You retired? "Yeah, they gave me a gold Bible. It was so great. It's engraved, signed by Jesus Himself." Suddenly you just checked out? "Leave that to the young people." Listen, if that's you, if you're saying that, you need to be stirred up. You don't retire until you retire in glory.

Listen, listen to what the Psalmist declared. Folks, listen. Psalm 92, verse 12: "The righteous... oh, I love this... shall flourish like a palm tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon." Verse 13: "Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. When?" Verse 14: "They shall still bear fruit in old age." Somebody say amen to that. Come on, you're still going to be bearing fruit in old age and you'll be fresh and flourishing, not withered and stinky. I mean, there's a difference here, right? Fresh and flourishing. That's what we want. To declare that the Lord is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

I want to keep bearing fruit even in my old age. I don't want to stop. And you don't have to stop if you continue to stay planted in the word of God, in the house of God, among the people of God, being used by God. Jesus said in John 15, verse 8, He said, "By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you shall be my disciples." If we will just abide in Christ, yield to the Spirit, stay in the word, we'll continue to grow and flourish even in old age. The outward man may be perishing, but the inward man will be renewed day by day.

Peter then gives the other side of it. He says, "He who lacks... verse 9... these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he is cleansed or was cleansed from his old sins." Here's the other side of this. If a person stops abiding in the word, in fellowship, in prayer, stops serving the Lord, not connected, really, to the local body within the church, it's not long before a few things begin to go spiritually: your spiritual sight, your spiritual memory, and your spiritual footing.

Peter highlights this for us. First of all, he said if these things aren't being cultivated in your life, this is potentially what can happen: you become shortsighted. It literally means one who is unable to see far off. They have to squint. You can't really see clearly. I've noticed in my older age that my sight has been affected. And I can see others of you have been affected as well. I can read things up close. That's not the problem. That's why I use this iPad. I can totally see the words. It's totally fine. Not even a problem. I don't know if you can see that right there. So it's totally good.

But when it comes to seeing things far away, when I drive at night, I'm supposed to wear glasses so that I don't crash and I can see the signs. But if I squint hard enough, I can read that. My wife can see things that are far away. So we compensate for one another. I can see things close up; she sees things far away. We help each other. I'm like, "What does that sign say?" She can see it like a mile away. And I'm like, "Are you kidding me right now?"

And then at our house, she has glasses everywhere. These little cheaters are everywhere. We have pairs everywhere. And she said to me the other day, "Can you grab me a pair of my glasses?" and I went to and I saw there's like five. Which color do you want? And one time she had them over her head. "Where are my..." and I'm like, "They're right there." "Oh, there they are." So we help each other. That is the point. Maybe I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry.

But this is what I want you to know. As a professing Christian walking with Jesus, I don't want to lose sight of Him. Suddenly my vision gets blurred. I'm focused on other things, and I'm not really seeing. I become shortsighted. That's what Peter says. In fact, Jesus exhorted His disciples on one occasion in their shortsightedness during His ministry. He said in John Chapter 4, verse 35, "Don't say that there are still four months and then comes the harvest. Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes. Lift up your eyes and look at the fields; they are already white for harvest."

They were shortsighted; they did not see it. And Jesus said, "Lift up your eyes and look around you. Look at what's available. Look at what's happening. Open your eyes." They were shortsighted. And if you keep walking away from the word, not in the word, not in fellowship, etc., you're not cultivating these things that Peter encourages us to cultivate. Here's what happens: your sight begins to go. Your vision begins to go. And Peter says actually it can lead to blindness. It goes from shortsightedness to actual blindness.

The word that he uses for blindness means to be unable to see clearly. Literally, it's a literal blindness or, figuratively, to be blind to spiritual truths. You just don't see them anymore. They used to impact your life because you were in them constantly, memorizing them, meditating on them. And now you barely pick it up, and so you wonder, "I just don't see it." You know why you don't see it? Because you're not looking at it. Lift up your eyes! Open your Bible! Get back into devotional life. Get back in fellowship. There is no excuse for that. You know better.

I'm talking to mature believers here today. I'm talking to those of you that should be at this place. He's saying, "Hey, get back to it lest you become spiritually blind." And the condition becomes worse than just spiritually blind. Here's what it says: you begin to lose your memory. Verse 9: "And in addition to shortsightedness, in addition to blindness, you forgot something. You've forgotten that he has cleansed you from your old sins." You lose sight of it. You start to forget all the things that the Lord cleansed me from, all the things that He delivered me out of.

Suddenly you forget? Suddenly you've forgotten and now you're going back to those things that He delivered you out of? That's where it can lead. You're no longer cultivating, no longer working it out spiritually, no longer invested. And before you know it, you just don't even remember your conversion. How did you get saved? What happened? What happened to you? How come you don't remember? Some blind believers fail to look back on their conversion when God purified them from their sins.

And then there are shortsighted believers. They can't look far enough ahead to see the coming of Christ and His reward for those that are faithful. And those that focus only on the present life and live for themselves lack these qualities, and they end up squandering the power that God has made available. You lose your memory, and so you forget what it was to be delivered from your sins, and then you go back to the old sins and re-engage. In order to keep growing, these are the requirements to help us grow. The virtues that are a blessing, it's important to know the reasons in order to keep growing.

I don't want to become barren. I don't want to be unfruitful. I want to be flourishing. I want to bear fruit to the glory of God. I don't want to lose sight. I want to be able to see. You know, some people follow Jesus at a distance, and that's dangerous. Like, I can kind of see Him, but I'm not really following closely. Follow closely. Don't be at a distance. You don't want to lose sight of Him. Have you lost sight? Have you kind of gone back to old sins? You forgot what He took you out of? Did He take you out of that so you could now say, "I'm mature now; I can go back to this. It's not really a problem because I can handle it now." Oh, you can handle it now? You couldn't handle it then, but suddenly you're able to handle it? You're not able to handle it. None of us are.

Don't think you're that strong that you could mess with that and think that it's not going to ruin your walk with the Lord. Listen, there's enough tension in Scripture, folks, right here to keep us in the right spot. Abide in Jesus. The requirements to keep growing, the reasons to keep growing. But he also says here the rewards as you keep growing. Look at what it says. "Therefore, brethren... verse 10... therefore, or in light of everything I've just said in the previous verses, therefore, brethren, believers, be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble." Wow.

Peter, again, a second time, uses the word "diligence," as he did previously in verse 5. Same word. Urgency, eagerness, certainty of your calling, of your salvation. In light of this, and again remember he's writing this letter to people who are under attack from false teachers. So keep that in mind. There's false teachers coming in. He's saying, "Listen, you've got to be more diligent. Don't get sidetracked, don't lose sight. Be more diligent to make your calling and your election sure." Know that you're in Christ. Be certain of that.

Paul said it this way in writing to the Corinthians, and it's a powerful cross-reference in 2 Corinthians Chapter 13, verse 5. Mark this verse. He said, "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you are disqualified?" That's a pretty powerful exhortation from Paul. Check yourself. It's like going to the Great Physician and getting a panel done. Tell me what needs to change. You go to the doctor, you do the blood work. They tell you, "Well, you need to do that, and you also need to do this, and this will alter that." "Okay, I guess I can't eat that ever again. That's sad. It doesn't seem right, but it causes this to go up and that to go down, and I really need that." So suddenly you make the alterations. Check yourself. Examine it. See where you're at with the Lord.

Am I closer to Jesus today than I was last year, or am I further away? Am I still growing? Am I still running hard? Am I still pursuing Him, or have I kind of retired, checked out? Am I still in this? Am I in it? Am I growing, or have I become barren? It's a good question to ask. And the great news is as we examine these things, it says here, "if you do these things." You know, the Bible talks about those that are just hearers of the word and not doers; they deceive themselves. But a hearer and a doer, that's the one. "If you do these things," what does it say? "You won't stumble."

It doesn't mean you'll never sin, you'll never blow it again. That's not what it's saying because we all do; we all stumble. But I'll tell you this: you'll stumble less. You're far more surefooted. If we are growing in these things that we looked at, cultivating these things in our life, what happens is my footing is a lot more sure. I used to stumble, fall into that every time. Just put it out in front of me and boom, there I am. Not anymore. Now I'm like, no, no, no. I know what it's like to fall flat on my face and the result of that. I don't want to do that again. I'm more cognizant, I'm more aware, more surefooted. I'm not going to stumble as I once would.

In fact, the Bible tells us in Jude Chapter 1, verse 24, Jude gives us this promise: "Now unto Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory, majesty, dominion, power, both now and forever." Listen, God is able to keep me from stumbling. He gives me what I need in order that I won't stumble. The question is whether or not I'm going to apply what He's given. This is the exhortation that Peter gives.

The reward is I'm not going to stumble. I'm going to be more surefooted and, more than that, he says this in verse 11: "For so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." I mean, this is what you have. This is the reward. I mean, look at what you get to experience in the future. Again, he's not saying you work for this. You have this, but there's far more assurance of your salvation when you are cultivating this relationship with Jesus.

People used to ask my pastor, and I remember it well, and people ask me even now: "Can you lose your salvation? Are you once saved, always saved?" It's an interesting question that people ask. Because my question in response to that is: what does it mean to be saved? What does that look like to you? Does that mean I prayed a prayer and then I walked out the door and never walked with Jesus again and lived in the world? Is that person saved? Ultimately Jesus decides. I don't know whether that person was truly saved. I know the Bible says you'll know them by their fruit.

Here's my pastor's response was, and I appreciated it. He said, "As long as you abide in Christ, you've got nothing to worry about." Just abide in Jesus. Just love Jesus. Walk with Jesus. My question to those people is: were they ever really saved to begin with? Did they ever really know what it meant to walk with Jesus at the start? Maybe they didn't. It's not too late for them to come back. But the real point here that Peter is saying is as we continue to grow in these things, there's just this assurance. I know where I'm going. I know where I'm headed. My home is Heaven, and this earth is just temporary. I have that assurance. Why? Because I am daily being reminded of it. I'm growing in the grace and the knowledge and the virtue and self-control. All of these things are being added, and as a result, I see it, I get it, I know where I'm headed. I long for the entrance into the kingdom of my Lord and Savior. I want to keep growing.

Guest (Male): Pastor John Randall encouraging us to keep growing in our daily walk as we continue through the Bible here on A Daily Walk. Today's message is aptly titled "Keep Growing" and can be heard again at adailywalk.org. Don't go away; Pastor John will be right back.

Hear this study again anytime you'd like at adailywalk.org, and look for us wherever you get your podcasts. Have you downloaded our free app? You know, this is a great way to listen to weekly teachings from John. Search for Calvary South OC. It's always encouraging to hear from our listeners. Even just a brief email letting us know you're listening and where means a lot. It's an opportunity to say thanks to God for what He's doing. Share a praise report or a prayer request today. You can email that to us at adailywalk@gmail.com. That's adailywalk@gmail.com.

We've picked out an encouraging book this month from John MacArthur. It's titled *12 Ordinary Men*. John uncovers how the Master shaped His disciples for greatness and how He wants to do the same with us. You don't have to be perfect to do God's work, and the 12 disciples are proof of that. We're making this available to our A Daily Walk listeners for the special price of $12 at adailywalk.org. You can also call 877-242-0828. A Daily Walk is heard on stations like this one all across the nation, but we can't do this alone. We rely on the Lord to make this happen. And perhaps He's stirring in your heart a desire to get involved in what we're doing. People are being blessed and helped in their daily walk, and your gifts help to make that possible. Again, to make a secure donation, drop by adailywalk.org or call 877-242-0828. Before the day is done, check out A Daily Walk devotion. These short, powerful videos are released each day at adailywalk.org with the aim of helping you grow in your daily walk with Jesus. And now with this parting challenge to keep growing, here again is Pastor John.

John Randall: Let me ask you a question in conclusion. A couple of questions. Searching ones for sure. Listen. Are you still growing as a believer in Christ? Are you working out your salvation, as Paul said? Are you applying the precious resources of Heaven that we've been given? Are you still reading your Bible? Are you still sharing your faith? Are you still about your Father's business? Are you loving the Lord and loving people? Or has your spiritual eyesight become blurred, losing focus, your memory a little fuzzy, and you find yourself back in the places that the Lord delivered you from?

Do you remember who you are? Do you know who you are? You're a child of God. You're born again. You're a Christian. So let's live like it. Let's grow. The Bible says stir one another up to love and good works. Stir one another up. Provoke one another. Not in the negative sense. Provocation in the best sense. "Oh, you're going to read five chapters? Alright, let's go. I'm going 10." You're provoking one another to love and to good works, stirring each other up, challenging each other in our faith. Hey, how's it going? Holding each other accountable. Not being critical, not putting yourself above somebody else, but just encouraging one another. Guys, we need to know who we are. I want to encourage all of us here, myself included. Let's keep growing. We haven't arrived. We haven't arrived until we've arrived.

Guest (Male): That's a good way to put it. We haven't arrived until we've arrived. So keep growing. With that, we'll leave you today. Join us next time when we'll receive a good reminder from 2 Peter Chapter 1. That's here on A Daily Walk with Pastor John Randall.

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