Keith Battle - Let Me Remind You

I want to get into the Word of God in the New Testament book of Second Peter—2 Peter—back towards the back. If you get to the maps in the back, you went too far. If you see Revelation, keep going to the left. Yes, Second Peter, 2 Peter, Chapter 1, and I’m going to read verses 12 through 15 for our focus. Second Peter, Chapter 1, beginning in verse 12, says in the New Living Translation, «Therefore, I will always remind you about these things, even though you already know them and are standing firm in the truth you have been taught.» Verse 13: «And it is only right that I should keep on reminding you as long as I live, for our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me that I must soon leave this earthly life.» Verse 15: «So I will work hard to make sure you always remember these things after I am gone.» In verse 12, he says, «I will always remind you.» In verse 13, he says, «I should keep on reminding you.» In verse 15, he says, «I want to make sure you always remember these things after I’m gone.» I’m going to stop reading right there, and I’ve chosen as a subject for today’s conversation a dialogue around the Scriptures: «Let Me Remind You.» Let me remind you. Yes, let me remind you—I don’t want you to forget this. What I’ve taught you and what I’ve shared with you is far too important. Let me remind you; I don’t want you to stray from this, and I don’t want it to slip away from you. Let me remind you—apostle Peter is a very interesting character. If you’ve ever read the Bible, particularly the New Testament, the Gospels, you’ll find a rollercoaster ride if you follow the life of Peter. First, we meet him in Scripture as a Jewish fisherman; he’s an entrepreneur who works in the fishing business. It’s how he paid his bills, built his life, and took care of his family while meeting his material needs until one chance day he met Jesus. At the intersection of that meeting was a transformation of his entire life; he was never the same after that. One meeting with Jesus can change your whole life! Jesus meets Peter in what can seem to be a divine coincidence and tells Peter at their first meeting, «Drop your net and follow Me.» Now, you have to understand how profound that statement is—that’s a profound statement in light of the fact that Peter actually did it. Peter dropped his net and followed Jesus. Jesus said, «I’m gonna make you fish for men. I know what you’ve been fishing for; I know what you’ve been doing. Stop that! Follow Me. Follow Me into the adventure of a lifetime.» But you can’t—oh, watch this—you can’t carry your net and reach for your next at the same time! I just preached that! I just said something to somebody. Your net might be keeping you from your next; you can’t follow Me without dropping your net. That’s so good, right? What amazes me about God is that He will put us in situations where it’s like perfectly timed—He’ll bring someone into our life, something into our life, or some opportunity into our life. They walk across our lives and pull us, calling us into our next. In order to go into your next, you must leave the known to enter the new. Whatever you’re doing, you know—it’s familiar. But sometimes, your familiar is fighting your future because of your unwillingness to disconnect from it. I understand the tension around going into my next; I understand it because my now has been feeding me. My now has been paying my bills; my now has been taking care of me. I went to school for my now; I even opened up my own business for my now. I started a practice for my now. I’ve been trained in my now; I spent my life trying to develop my now. And now, you’re talking about my next, and you’re also telling me I can’t take my now into my next? Some of y’all, I’m preaching to you already because you’re in that tension right now between your now and your next, and you can’t move into your next and take your net. You can’t move into your future and remain committed to the familiar. You’ve got to be willing to make a move, and Jesus will call you in that moment. Something pulls you into uncertainty and, in an irrational way, makes you want to go after what you don’t even know. But it’s pulling me; it’s calling me. Can you relate to that? Can you relate to a pull, something that calls you out of the familiar—something you can’t even explain to your family? They don’t even understand; they think you’re being irresponsible, they think you’re being ridiculous because they watch you go to school for this and they watch you build your life on this. They ask, «Why would you spend all this time building something and walk away from it to go into something you’ve never done before?» I understand the irrationality of it because you can’t make that make sense. You can’t make it make sense. All I can tell you is there’s something pulling me; it’s something pulling me. Jesus has a way of pulling us—He may use someone, He may do something, He may use some opportunity, but it usually comes at the intersection between us.