 Today we're in 2 Peter we're in chapter 1 we're going to look at verses 12 through 15 originally. I was going to look at Chapter 1 verses 12 through 21 But I chose to stop at verse 15 and we'll pick up next time at verse 16 And you'll see why as we go through this, but it's especially because the apostle Peter begins to speak concerning The word of God and all and I want to give you a deeper study as we look at that portion But today we'll look at verses 12 through 15. Let's read here in 2 Peter chapter 1 Beginning at verse 12 we'll read to verse 15 get into our study the apostle Peter writes Therefore, I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things Though you know them and are established in the present truth Yes, I think it is right as long as I am in this tent to stir you up by reminding you Knowing that shortly I must put off my tent just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me Moreover, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease This is a man who took his duties very seriously This is a man who understood the grace of God because as we study the life of the apostle Peter We note that the apostle Peter was somebody Who had though he had a tremendous love for the Lord Jesus Christ. He was also somebody who? Denied he ever knew him and so this is a man who came into contact with the grace of God And he understood it he understood what it meant to have a relationship with God because he's a man Who claimed to have relationship with the Lord and then denied that he ever knew him and in that knowledge of his denial That knowledge of denial that he carried within him was the means whereby God had brought humility to him because He was broken and when he was broken He found the true meaning of a word that we Christians throw around he he found the true meaning of the word repent Now repent is what has been referred to as the first word of the gospel It's what you need to do in order to progress into a relationship with God The word repent as it is used in scripture is a word that speaks of a change of mind And it's not simply a change of thinking But it's a change of mind that leads to a change of life when you really really repent your life is going to demonstrate that By changes that take place because you've come to understand That you're a sinner in need of forgiveness from God And when you repent you're actually changing the way that you think towards God And you come into a lineup with the way that God speaks concerning himself And and when you repent you're actually simply come into agreement with what God has to say And that's something that happened in the life of the Apostle Peter. This is a man who discovered what it means to really repent Peter had denied the Lord and He came into great conviction Because he did did so after Jesus was resurrected Jesus sought out the Apostle Peter and and he restored him and when we read the story of the restoration of the Apostle Peter We discovered that Jesus began to speak to him and on three occasions in the conversation He asked them basically the same kind of question do you love me and three times the Apostle Peter responded Lord You know all things. You know that I love you. Yes, I do. I love you But as Jesus was restoring him and asking that question Upon the response that Peter gave Jesus would say then feed my lambs tend to my sheep feed my sheep that was What God gave Peter to do that was The work that God gave to him to tend and to feed to care for and So he became deeply serious about the service that he had to the Lord He had a responsibility that God gave to him He was to feed and he was to tend God's people and and this is something that the Apostle would not fail to do That's why when he was writing in 1st Peter chapter 4 verse 10 That's why he wrote as each one has received a gift Minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God God has given to you a gift a gift of the Spirit so use it wield it and Allow God's grace to work through you because God has manifested his grace to you And it's revealed in a variety of ways and so remember who gave you the gift and use it for the glory of God and that's why he encouraged people to do that because This is a man who knew that he was to feed and to tend and he wanted people to have a relationship with God and to grow You see every genuine minister desires their people to grow and mature in their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ The Bible teaches us that that salvation is just the beginning But God wants to do a work through you and in you and he wants to continue to do that until the day He takes you home to be with him and so every minister desires to see those who come to faith in Christ through their ministry They desire them to grow they want to see mature It's it's like what what Peter said in 1st Peter 2 verse 2 when he said his newborn babies desire The sincere the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby that you may grow Get into the word of God so that you might mature It's like what Paul said to the Galatians in chapter 4 verse 19 when he he wrote to them and said oh my dear children I Feel as if I'm going through labor pains for you again and They will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives Every minister wants to see the people that they minister to mature in their faith in Jesus Christ That's why John would write in 3rd John verse 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth Because the great desire of any minister is to see people progress and mature in their faith Every minister wants to see them grow and and and and become Men and women of God who are used by God in a mighty way and and this desire that the Apostle Peter had Was a desire that provoked him to bring a word of reminder to them He's saying you've already heard these things. It's something that you already know and though you may know these things It doesn't mean that I shouldn't drive drive them into you This is something you need to be reminded of often and the reason that's true Is because we don't always understand the first time we hear something much of what we know now Actually develops into depth over time. You have a superficial knowledge now or perhaps a basic grasp of it But over time it matures and and that's what happens. You can read a Bible verse when you're first saved and it has a certain Resonance within you. There's something that happens as you read it. You say this is great But you come back to that same verse maybe a year later or five years or ten years fifteen years later and The verse actually has a deepness that you didn't really experience the first time that you read that verse That's what happens in spiritual growth And and so a minister's responsibility isn't simply to just always give new information a minister's Responsibility is to remind people to stir their memory up to encourage them and rekindle that within them So that their life is based on something that is fundamentally strong. It's foundationally secure So we have to be reminded Saturation and repetition produce a way of thinking and a way of living and In the life of the spirit repetition is necessary because it's one of the ways that we learn It's necessary because some lessons take time to more deeply receive and the repetition of information Benefits and blesses others and that's why we continue to to express these things though people may have heard them in the past When Paul was writing to the Philippians in chapter 3 verse 1 He said to them to write the same things to you. Well to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it's safe I'm reminding you of these things to keep you secure to keep you safe because False teachers will come in and try and build on the foundation that I have laid and try and take you into a different Direction so by giving you the same fundamental truths over and over again and reminding you more than once It keeps you secure in your walk with God when he was writing to Timothy to teach Timothy how to be a good minister in First Timothy chapter 4 verse 6. He said this he said it if you put the brethren in remembrance of these things You shall be a good minister of Jesus Christ Nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine where and to you have attained You need to refresh their memory. You need to remind them You need to stir them up you need to rekindle within them and you do that on the basis of repeating certain things So that it becomes part of who they are That's why he says here in 2nd Peter chapter 1. That's why he says in verse 13 Yes, I think it is right as long as I am in this tent to stir you up by reminding you It's right as long as I'm alive as long as I'm in this tent It's it's right for me to stir you up when he speaks about it being right to stir you up Disrupts is to awaken from sleep. That's what it means to awaken from sleep to arouse the mind To render people active to wake them up because a lot of times the church really is asleep sometimes literally When I church was young I Can still remember teaching a Sunday morning Bible study and it was a time when I church had maybe 50 or 60 people in it and the church that little building that we used to house the church was only able to see it 120 and It was a shallow as a small Meeting place from from the pulpit. I could walk to the back wall and In about 20 strides So it's very small and so when you have something that small you can see everybody you can see them You know when you're speaking to them as a matter of fact That's when I began to learn to kind of just look around because if I keep looking in one direction for Even more than three seconds people think he's looking at me. He's looking at me and it gets kind of awkward And so that's when I started learning just to kind of look around like I do now Because if I looked at we're having a conversation and I started talking about sin the person would get convicted in all of that and In a different kind of way. I Do remember though this one lady On a Sunday morning her son had brought her his his his mom to to church He's now a pastor of a Calvary Chapel in Virginia but he brought mom to church and And as I was speaking she I can tell you where she was she was on my left side right here and You know when people go to sleep their eyes cross She was fighting it and I could see her eyes just wandering like and she closed her eyes and Foul on the person next to her just boom, you know like the Holy Spirit was all over her. No, she fell and Went to sleep right and then when she hit she woke everybody else up that was in that section. I Mean I have seen people Going to sleep in home Bible studies when you've got 20 people and the one guy sitting in Vinny used to do this guy's name Vinny He's not around anymore and he fell asleep and never woke up But as he as he was he would fall asleep and I would I would there he goes, you know I have staff members who during devotions fall asleep on me or ex staff members now But they they fall asleep during devotions. I mean I've seen it so many times and and in a literal sense Sometimes people will actually be so checked out Of what's being said that they literally physically fall asleep, but there's also a Spiritual sleep that people can have where they're not even listening to a thing That's being they are so asleep to the things of God They're not listening to a word that's being said and all and that's why he says I'm gonna stir you up I'm gonna awaken you from sleep. I want to arouse your mind Ephesians 5 14 the Apostle Paul speaking says awake you who sleep Arise from the dead Christ will give you light wake up out of your spiritual sleep. He's saying do not become apathetic Do not become like that like that that that frog in the kettle We all know that illustration of the frog in the kettle if you take a frog and You place it in a kettle of water And it's too it's too tall for the for the frog to jump out of the frog will just just sit in the kettle It'll just sit there if you put that kettle on on the stove and you turn up the heat Just a little bit. Just turn up the just a little bit The water's temperature begins to rise by degrees slowly but the frog will just stay in that kettle and Then eventually that frog will boil to death Never even noticing that the water temperature around him was becoming lethal So you can turn the water on in a kettle with a frog in it and he will not jump out Don't ask me how I know that I just do and we are like frogs in the kettle There are things going around us That we don't even notice it becomes just the what is used to be referred to as the milieu It's the atmosphere that we live in That we just it just becomes normal. It becomes Acceptable it becomes the way it is it becomes our common culture. It is just the way it is We've all been hardened to it All of us have been Many years ago in ancient history. There was a prophet by the name of John Lennon a Beetle Who said he is more popular the Beatles are more popular than Jesus Christ? He had a song out where he yelled out and this is a quote and we all remember it for old enough where he's done some ancient discography Christ it ain't easy was one of the phrases he used and it was not played in public radio Until one of the local stations said in the in the You know in order to defend freedom of speech We are going to have this song played in its entirety and it was blasphemous and people used to This is hard for some of us who are younger some of you not us some of you who are younger to understand But there were words that were not used in in public They're called swear words. They weren't used in public There were actually ordinances against public profanity. You could be cited and pay fines for it and There were words that you would not use in on the radio They used to have what they called blue, you know blue there were blue albums Which were profane albums and you bottom at certain places They were profaned because they were uncensored see the word censored to us in our society today has become such a word That is such a bad word But frankly there were those who were guardians of the morals and they said this isn't right These are words that are not proper We shouldn't teach children to speak like this or to believe these kinds of things because words have power and they ultimately will Take over our culture, but there was a strong group of people that said no We have the right freedom of expression So what you have today where you turn on some of the music that some of you listen to without thinking and the words That are being said and the images that are being expressed and the lifestyles that are being exalted These are things that that in the generation that my parents were part of and that I grew in and out of These are things that just were not proper and so what has happened is we like the frog in the kettle have become very Callous to things to the degree that we don't even know when something's right or wrong anymore And the sad thing is is I don't expect the culture to but I do expect the church to and that's why Paul would say Awake out of sleep. That's why Peter says I'm gonna stir your memory up. I Have to awaken you do these things is what he's saying you have to be aroused mentally You need to know what's going on be aware of what's taking place Because you're being brainwashed by the world to believe certain things are right and other things that should be classified as wrong Well, you don't think they're wrong anymore We're salt We are light. That's what Jesus said. You are the salt. You are the light salt of the world the light of the world When he said you are the salt you are the light in the Greek language, there's a Tensits called the emphatic and he was saying you are the only salt you are the only light There is no other light and there is no other salt to stop the decay and the rottenness and To and to fight the darkness other than you is what he said. That's what Jesus said about us You are Not David was also pastor of this church You are he said you believers You are the salt you are the light and that's why the apostle Peter is saying and you Wake up. That's who he's saying why because false teachers are entering into the church Bringing false doctrine and are going to steal the grace of God and the joy of the Lord from these people by their bad Teaching and the culture that they're living in is saturating them with things Causing them to lose sight of eternity We need to be salt and we need to be light In assault and light we need to speak up for God's righteousness and we do so When we cast our votes There are times when events surrounding us call us to moral action And every few years we have an opportunity to express our moral beliefs and the way that we do it here in the United States is Beyond the fact that we share our faith and we live our faith But we also express our faith in one of those ways is when we vote we vote because we're living under a system of government according to Romans 13 that we Live under that is ordained by the Lord and has certain kinds of responsibilities that we exercise and We vote because we care about others and we see the consequences If we remain complacent Some have been asking me In light of the coming election They've asked me on a personal level how do you decide Who to vote for and I thought that I'd take a moment to share a few things with you because perhaps some of you may have the same question How do you vote? Well, this is how I vote. I look at the moral issues Because moral issues are part of the political foundations When I hear somebody for example say well, I believe these things because my religion teaches me that but I only believe those Personally, but I don't let those allow those things to affect the way that I govern And that's a person right away that I have a problem with right away Because if God is saturating me with his spirit in his word, then I'm supposed to live that out wherever it is that I am And so somebody was saying well, I don't bring my moral beliefs in my religious beliefs Well for me moral beliefs and religious beliefs are pretty much the same How do you divide those things up and where did you get your moral beliefs from? I got my moral beliefs from my religious beliefs Well, if you got your religious beliefs that established your moral beliefs And how do you vacillate because if you have a religious faith and a belief and a certain thing that's scripturally solid Then how do you change the way that you lead based on what the majority of people say is right? Because I believe there's a time when you have to stand up in spite of what everybody thinks may be right when it's wrong You stand up and you say it's wrong. That's what you're supposed to do. That's what moral courage is That's what it's always been and So when I hear somebody say well, it's my religious faith, but it's not my actual practice then I say that's hypocrisy And so I don't hold that person in regard So that's one of the things that I do. That's how I think there are issues that God's word makes clear There's no room for compromise in so I look at those issues one of those issues Would be the fundamental right to life. I look at that very closely. How does that candidate stand on that particular issue? I? did some research and Got some figures and since The 1973 Roe v. Wade decision to make abortion legal There have been over 55 million abortions 55 million abortions So I'm 2411 says deliver those who are drawn toward death hold back those stumbling to the slaughter We have a moral voice that we should exercise right There are those to say well, that's a potential life in the womb. Are you kidding me a potential life? That's a potential human being. I've heard that argument to a potential human being What point is that a human being? If you allow that child to go through full term is the child going to be born potentially human Or is it going to be is it potentially in the womb of dog? I mean, what is it a potentially? It's a cat or pen potentially human that's human life going through various stages of growth and So I believe The way I vote is I look at their concept of life human life. Are they pro-life? Psalm 139 verses 13 through 16 you created my inmost being you knit me together in my mother's womb I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made Your works are wonderful. I know that full well My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place When I was woven together in the depths of the earth your eyes saw my informed body All the days are dain for me were written in your book before one of them came to be Elizabeth in hearing the greeting of Mary When Mary came into the home said the child within my womb Lapped at the recognition of your voice Life begins at conception. I look at the candidate. How do you view that? I look at marriage Marriage has been redefined by denying the biblical definition of marriage But marriage as the Bible has laid it out as a fundamental building block of society That's why we attempt to strengthen marriages in Genesis 1 27 and 28 it says God created man in his own image in the image of God He created them male and female he created them Then God blessed them and God said to them be fruitful and multiply fill the earth and subdue it have dominion over the Fish of the sea over the birds of the air Over every living thing that moves on the earth I look at their definition of marriage and how they feel concerning the traditional marriage that we received instruction from God himself concerning I Look at how they treat the nation of Israel Israel is being abandoned even now as our only ally in the Middle East and yet in Genesis 12 3 God said I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you and In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. I want to be blessed. I will bless Israel That doesn't mean I support everything it does It doesn't mean that I'm a hundred percent behind the nation and everything that it decides to do as a nation Simply means that my heart is towards them because out of Israel came my Messiah And I want to be blessed by the Lord and then a fourth thing Then some people don't see this as a moral thing by the way, but I look at our economy. I Look at our economy And here's something for you a lot of people don't have a concept of numbers because the numbers that we use today are so huge That it's hard to get a mind around it. It's hard to get your mind around the numbers Again, my dad bought a brand-new house in 1951 a brand-new house in a brand-new neighborhood for $9,000 My dad was making $45 a week His house payment was around $90 a month So we can't get our minds around that and Today if somebody says I've got a million dollar house, there are a lot of people would say so who doesn't Because there are neighborhoods that are made up of million dollar homes And so for us the word a million doesn't mean a lot but the number million doesn't mean that much It used to mean something and other days So when somebody says he's a millionaire well think about it check your own heart right now if I say oh that guy's got a million dollars Do you say wow? A lot of people don't that doesn't mean you wouldn't like a million dollars yourself. It simply means that's not that much So if somebody says oh, I wish I had a lot of money It's not that they're not going to say I wish I had a million dollars because a million dollars could be spent at the rate of $50,000 a year over what 20 years So that's that's not that much. It really isn't so the number does not grab our attention anymore Numbers don't do that, but let me illustrate it for you if you had a strand of hair and you laid it down and then you started putting strands of hair next to it if You were to put a million strands of hair side by side a Million would stretch the size of the length of a football field Including the end zone. That's a million if you took a billion strands of hair and began to put them side by side a Billion will stretch 63 miles from here to Kanoga Park just human hairs 63 miles if you put a trillion hairs together it will stretch 63,000 miles which is equivalent to going around the earth two and a half times That's a trillion if you put our national debt of over 16 trillion together Strands a hair it would go around the earth over 40 times That's your national debt and Even as I'm speaking it got greater It is increasing every moment. We are here. Is that a moral issue? Yes, why? Because the scripture says in 2nd Corinthians 12 14 the children ought not to lay up for the parents but the parents for the children and What we are doing is we're stealing the futures from our children and our grandchildren within four years the National debt is estimated to be 20 trillion We are establishing An amount of money owed that cannot be repaid Is that a moral issue? Yes, it is Because it all falls under the category of proper stewardship. Now. Here's something for you a lot of people don't understand budgets a Lot of people don't even budget so to illustrate We have a retreat the retreat cost two hundred and sixty dollars It's a couples retreat. We tell the church. We're gonna have our retreat. It's going to be in August We tell them a year in advance The last month before August people are saying I wish I could go but I don't have the money And and the way I approach it is like this I'll say well, wait a minute if you started a year before and you didn't have one cup of coffee We say you didn't go to your favorite coffee place which sells five dollar coffee If you didn't have one cup of coffee one week and you did that for a year. You'd have two hundred sixty dollars You would have money to go to a retreat because you did something called Budgeting and a lot of people don't even know what that word means. What do you mean budgeting? It means not having a cup of coffee so I can do something a year from now But we Americans don't really understand what that means to actually put something off because after all I've got a dollar in my wallet And I want to spend it and if I pull it out it speaks to me and it says spend me buy something That's what it might dollars as it speaks Money does talk it says goodbye It and so a lot of people don't know that listen if you if you go and you buy something and you get some change Take the change and put it in a bottle Get a big bottle and just drop the change in a bottle in a year you can have between three to five hundred dollars in change If you go and buy something they give you a dollar in your change in return get an envelope put the dollar in an envelope Don't spend the dollar in a year. You can have three to five hundred dollars in just one dollar bills that you didn't spend You combine that with your change you've got a thousand dollars But people don't think that way they think I just want to spend it and then they say I don't have any money There have been people who have said to me. I don't have any money, but they do do you have a pair of shoes? Yeah, you got some money. You got some pants on I see you got some money. You have a house that you live in Yeah, you've got some money. Do you have a bed that you sleep in? Yes. Do you have blankets on it sheets? Do you have pillows? Yeah, you've got some money. Do you have a TV set more than one? Is it color? Absolutely Fine, do you have a cell phone two or three you got a car? Yes, but I'm poor. No, you're not You're dumb you got plenty But you don't see it and That's them. That's the nation we live in It's just I got it. I gotta spend it. It's like that old joke where the guy says I know I have money in the bank I still have checks We're not budgeting and we have a nation that doesn't budget. We don't even have a budget What home lives without a budget what business lives without a budget? What church could make it without a budget? It doesn't happen You can't do that. So I see this as stewardship. Is that biblical? Yeah Yes. Oh, you're a Republican. Oh, you're a Democrat. I'm not talking Republican independent Democrat. I'm talking common sense Just basic moral sense Make the decision based on what scripture teaches you. That's what the Bible supposed to do That's what people like me who are supposed to stir you up and remind you. That's what we're supposed to do Oh, you're meddling in my business, man. Yes Yes, God told me to And he meddles in mine all the time Because I want to live for Jesus Christ and be blessed by God How are you gonna vote? I look at those issues Very common sensically has nothing to do with my mom was this and my dad was that and so was my grandparents and my people I've nothing like that Who is the best candidate and by the way, I'm not voting for a religious leader. I don't have a president I have a king but what I want is somebody who can at least Reflect the morals that I hold fast to and teach from this pulpit every Sunday I do not understand how somebody can on the one hand say I believe in life But it's okay for you to put a rod of a baby's head suck out the brain It's called partial birth abortion. I cannot see how a Christian could ever say that is right It is not right. It is wrong and I cannot support someone who does that. I won't I won't it is wrong I was just holding my granddaughter. She's two three months old now You know and that's that's a miracle of life. I Could never have counseled my daughter Just put her down You don't need her What a trouble raise of that child We don't think that way because we value life We value marriage We value our relationship with the nation of Israel We value Leave an inheritance for my child my children's children because they will never Never be able to pay off the debt if it doesn't come under control That's how I make decisions by the way because God established out of Romans 13 God established human government all the way back in Genesis 9 I Feel that it's Christian responsibility and duty to vote It's been said and rightly so that some 17 million evangelical Christians didn't even vote in the last presidential election 17 million stayed home 17 million and those who don't vote should go to any National cemetery that's that's housing the the bodies of veterans who lost their lives Defending our rights. They ought to go into that cemetery And apologize if it were possible to all those people who died Giving me the right to vote they ought to apologize to them If there was a way they could do that because they died to give you and me the right to go on a Tuesday and vote I already voted I vote by mail. It's already done. It's a done deal Because I see it as the right that God gave to me and a responsibility that I have and when Christians stay home It is wrong. We need to make our voices heard And that's in a in a practical application in a nutshell Awaken now that sleep is Christ will give you light rise up and Make your voices heard in the society that we live in that is in Darkness and needs the light of the gospel and needs the salt and light effect of the church So the Apostle Peter is writing concerning those things And he says we need to be careful not to become spiritually dull in Romans 13 11 through 14 It says do this knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep For now our salvation is near than when we first believe the night is far spent the day is at hand Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness. Let us put on the armor of light Let us walk properly as in the day not in revelry and drunkenness not in lewdness and lust Not in strife and envy but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts You see he says in verse 14 That shortly I must put off my tent just as the Lord Jesus Christ showed me When Jesus was ministering to the Apostle Peter Jesus said to him and was speaking to him It's recorded in John 21. He said to him when you were younger you girded yourself and walked where you wished and When you're old you'll stretch out your hands and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish This he spoke signifying by what death he would glorify God and when he had spoken this he said to him follow me So he's saying Jesus told me I was gonna give up my life for him. I was gonna be taken and martyred If I took that story a little bit further There's a certain thing there that the Lord used in my life a long time ago That's it an addition and that is this When the Lord said you're gonna die The first thing the Apostle Peter did is he saw John and he says what about him Which I find very human Jesus is saying you're gonna die. Well, what about him? What has he got to do with you? Jesus said You follow me It's the next time you feel tempted to say how come Lord your hand is heavy upon me But it's not on that person over there. Just remember Jesus's words. What does he got to do with you? You follow me. That's the responsibility that you have follow me And so he knew the Lord had made it clear to him that he was gonna die a martyr's death And because he knew he is gonna die He wanted to be careful at verse 15. I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my disease I know that I'm gonna go home to be with the Lord, but I've made sure to leave behind a witness for you I've trained men In order that they might communicate these words to you I've helped people to know the truth of the gospel I've mentored men Encourage them and train them so that when I go home, they're gonna carry on the work beyond that I wrote a letter called first Peter I've written this letter called second Peter and by the way it is common belief that the Apostle Peter dictated to a young man named Mark who is one of his converts one of his men that he mentored and and That's where the gospel of Mark originates. So he said I have left a witness See the most important thing for us to do Is to leave a legacy? He left a written legacy a legacy of the love of God and the work of the spirit in a person's life He left that legacy because he wanted after he was gone his decease after he had stricken his tent and was with the Lord He wanted to make sure that the people that were Remaining after he had gone on to be with the Lord that they would have a record a witness of what God can do in a human being's life Leave a legacy behind That is worth your children reading or knowing I've done that my children and my grandchildren Have CD's and tapes Booklets books radio ministry Fired to be taken home today They have something for them. They could always listen to a tape if they wanted they could watch a DVD Of their grandfather or their dad or Marie could watch Should she want to put up with it a? DVD of me sharing she'll always have my voice always my children will always have my voice They always will I've written little private notes that I have on my computer That on the time of my going home will be given to my kids so that they'll read the words of their dad Each one has a personal Message, I love you for this reason. This is what I wanted to see in your life This is what God can do. I've done that for my children for my wife my grandchildren. I Understand what Peter is saying I Have given you this so that it might disease You will know the love of Christ and how to live for Jesus Christ. I have prepared for you. It's one thing Leave Money because a good man leaves an inheritance for his children and his children's children. It's wise to do that But it's a greater thing to leave him the legacy of faith To leave him something that matters in eternity to leave him something that counts faith in Jesus Christ These letters he left. We're not just letters saying hi guys. I love you These were letters that say do these things and you'll never fail Do these things and Christ will be with you do these things your life will be blessed and that's what he left for us as We read this 2000 years later But that's what you leave behind for those who will read your life When you go home to be with the Lord leave them a legacy that is worth reading leave that and Live for Jesus awake because it's time to be awake. We're living in difficult days awake Now that sleep is and Christ will shine on you