FAMOUS LAST WORDS
STEADFASTNESS AND GODLINESS
DR. JIM DIXON
2 PETER 1:1-8
JULY 4, 2010
In the year 1682 William Penn founded the Pennsylvania Colony and he was a Quaker. Today, the state of Pennsylvania takes its name from William Penn’s name and many people today are mistaken in their understanding that William Penn founded the Quaker movement. He did not. The Quaker Movement was founded 35 years earlier in England by George Fox, and George Fox did not call that movement the Quaker Movement. He did not refer to himself as a Quaker or his followers as Quakers. He referred to his movement as the Society of Friends and it was a Christian movement and these people required, wanted, and desired religious freedom, religious liberty. They were dissenters with regard to the Church of England and the British Crown. For this reason, George Fox was brought before an English judge in an English court and it was in that context that George Fox said to this English judge in this English court, “You should tremble, you should quake before the authority of the Word of God,” and the judge laughed. History tells us that the judge laughed and he called George Fox a Quaker, a trembler, and the name caught on and that is why the Society of Friends began to be called Quakers or Tremblers. Now it occurs to me, as we’re gathered here today on this 4th of July, the wish occurs to me that there were more Quakers, more people who quaked before the authority of the Word of God. It occurs to me that here in America I wish we had more judges, more courtrooms that trembled and quaked before the authority of the Word of God. That in this nation we had more people that tremble and quake before the authority of the Word of God.
Woodrow Wilson, when he was president of the United States, made the statement that America was born a Christian nation. Now you may or may not agree with that, but there’s no denying this nation has a very strong Christian heritage with a very strong, very Christian heritage, and I think there are many that have left that heritage. There are many who no longer quake or tremble of the awe and majesty of God. You know, God is Father; he is Abba to all who believe. He does not want us to live in terror of him because he is a loving God, but he does want us to reverence him. He wants us to stand in holy awe of his majesty and something has been lost.
Now I’m concerned for our country, but far more I’m concerned for the church. Understand I’m a pastor, called to serve the church of Jesus Christ and his flock. I’m called to serve the cause of the Kingdom of Heaven. I’m pleased to be a citizen of this nation and I love my country, but I’m far prouder still of my citizenship in Heaven and the privilege that is mine of serving the church of Jesus Christ, and I’m concerned. I’m concerned about the church of Jesus Christ that within the church there are few who still tremble. There are few who still quake that many are departing from the faith. I’m concerned for the church of Jesus Christ and I think Peter was concerned even in his time. And so, we look at the famous last words of Peter and we see two admonitions from him today, and one is that we would strive for steadfastness and the other is that we would strive for godliness. I want us to look at these two teachings this morning.
First of all is Peter’s admonition that we strive for steadfastness. In the Bible there are two different Greek words for steadfastness. The first is the Greek word makrothumia. Makrothumia comes from thumos, which means to suffer. It carries the concept of heat, but it means to suffer and then the word makro, which means long; so, this word literally means long suffering and the Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 13 that love is long suffering, that love is patient and kind. It is long suffering, makrothumia, and if you really love someone, you’re going to be willing to suffer with them for a long, long time, if you really love them. Makrothumia.
Now there’s another Greek word for steadfastness and that’s the word hupomone. It’s the word that is actually used by Peter in his famous last words. It’s the word used in this passage, hupomone, and it’s the compound word from huper meaning under and maneo meaning to abide: to abide under a weight, to abide under a burden, but this word is very special because it was always used in the sense of the pursuit of a goal, so hupomone means patient endurance in pursuit of a goal, to abide under a weight, to abide under a burden while pursuing a goal. And Peter is telling us, this is very important for us as Christians in every generation, in every part of the earth that we would be people, and that in the pursuit of a goal would be steadfast and demonstrate patient endurance.
Now on this 4th of July, we acknowledge that, as Americans, we love freedom. The year was 1949 when George Orwell wrote 1984. So, in 1949, he wrote 1984 and the book was very popular here in America. It found fertile soil because the book is about an oppressive, totalitarian government. A government characterized as Big Brother. And of course, as Americans we hate oppressive, totalitarian governments and this book came to express some of our fear of government that it might be oppressive or totalitarian. Now we agree with the alleged statement of Patrick Henry, “Give me liberty or give me death,” and we sang those words today: My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims’ pride. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
I believe God has a purpose for America. I do not confuse America with the church as I think some Christians do. But I do believe God has a purpose for America. Bill Armstrong is the president at Colorado Christian University and a good friend, a member of our church. Bill’s wife Ellen is an elder emeritus in our congregation, and I’ve actually heard Bill say on more than one occasion that he believes God’s purpose for America is wrapped up with democratic freedoms and I believe that with all my heart. God didn’t establish America to take the gospel to the nations. That’s why God established the church. God established the church to take the gospel to the nations, but God does have a purpose for America and that purpose is wrapped up with democratic freedoms, with liberty, that we might be a champion in this world where there is so much tyranny and oppression …that we might be a champion of democracy, liberty, and freedom.
But I will say, as you seek to assess the state of America, much is wrong. I don’t see how a rational person could say that America is characterized by hupomone. I don’t see how a rational person could say that America is now characterized by patient endurance. You couldn’t say this sexually. We have no patient endurance sexually. I mean you understand the will of God as revealed in Holy Scripture. I mean sex is an incredible gift from God. It’s a beautiful gift from God. He’s given us the gift of sexuality and it’s a gift by God’s design meant to be opened within the context of marriage and God has made this clear in Holy Scripture and it’s on the physical level meant to be an expression of the oneness and the union that is marriage.
But we don’t have patient endurance. We can’t wait for marriage and so, we are fornicating and promiscuous, even an adulteress society, and 41% of our babies, as we have seen before, 41% are now born out of wedlock. Venereal disease is pandemic in our culture and in our nation from chlamydia to gonorrhea, a tremendous outbreak of sexually transmitted diseases because we are not steadfast. We’re not hupomone. We can’t abide under the weight of waiting for the sake of this beautiful goal that God has set before us. And we’re not patient. We don’t have patient endurance with regard to material things. I mean, we are a culture becoming ever more materialistic and our young people don’t want to wait. They want to have it now and they want to have a lot. You want to know why? In Douglas County and in Highlands Ranch, credit card debt is over the top. So many young people have borrowed in order to get what they really cannot afford because there is no patience. There’s no hupomone, no patient endurance.
When Barb and I were married, in our first 2 years of marriage, we lived in Pasadena California. We lived near Cal Tech and had a one-bedroom apartment that we were pleased to call our home. We moved here to Colorado with the call of God and we came here and we bought our very first house. It was 700 square feet. That’s not very big. Seven hundred square feet was our first home and it was out in Aurora and you had to get to our neighborhood on a dirt road. Seven hundred square feet and we were so excited. I remember we couldn’t believe that we had our own house. We were just amazed we had this place and we would sometimes just stand there looking at the house and just celebrate the fact that we had one.
I remember Barb’s mom and dad came to visit and Barb’s dad loves her very much, loved all of his kids, very much and a very, very good man. What he said to me (I know he meant it out of love) was, “You can do better for my daughter than this.” That’s what he said. He looked at this house and said, “You can do better for my daughter.” But he was wrong. I couldn’t do better. I mean we were new in the ministry and this was it. But the years go by and you’re patient and after some years we bought our second house and it had 1,400 square feet in it. This was a Hutchinson Home in Hutchinson Heights in Aurora and I said to Barb, “This is the greatest house we’ll ever have.” I hoped that that was true because I loved the house that much and it was a wonderful blessing from God. Now Barb and I live in Castle Pines North and our house is over 2,000 square feet. When we have the family over and all the kids and the grandkids, it somehow seems too small. I’m not sure how that works, but I do know with time, God has blessed us.
But I know there are a lot of kids today who are in their 20s and 30s and they want to live just like their parents. They want to start right out living just like mom and dad and they don’t want to wait. We are a culture and a nation increasingly materialistic and there’s not much hupomone, not much patient endurance for the sake of a goal. Now, I think in the church of Jesus Christ, the same problems exist. The same problem sexually exists. It’s a tragic truth that in the churches, across this nation, many who take the name of Christ do not live for Christ and they do not wait for marriage in that their sexual behavior and their sexual conduct reflects the fallen society and the fallen world. There is no patient endurance for a wonderful goal. And the materialism of our culture has also intruded on the life of the church and is a problem throughout our churches, a problem of materialism when we don’t seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.
I look at Jesus in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2 and we’re told in Hebrews 12:2 that for the joy that was set before him, Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame, and he is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. What was that joy? It was the joy that he would conquer sin, the joy that he would conquer death, and the joy that he would birth his eternal church. For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame. And he has called us to that same call, that we would have patient endurance for his eternal purposes. I worry about the church. I mean, the goals that he has set before us, the promises that he has set before us, are so great. And if any people group should have patient endurance, it’s us.
I don’t know how many of you have traveled to Alaska. Two years ago, Barb and I went to Alaska. We went there with Gary and Judy Fields, two of our friends, and Gary is an elder emeritus here at our church and Gary is a missionary. He’s a missionary to Mexico and he’s one of the missionaries we support in various parts of the world. Gary used to work for Project Cure with Jim and Doug Jackson and through Project Cure sought to provide medical relief to impoverished parts of the world. Project Cure still faithfully does this. But Gary has been a longtime friend and his wife Judy is my administrative assistant here at the church, and has been from the beginning. So, Barb and I went to Alaska with Judy and Gary and we saw all these mountains and this rugged wilderness and great beauty. I think we never saw the top of any mountain. The whole time we were there it rained, pretty much the whole time. The mountain peaks were always shrouded in clouds and mist. We just never saw the tops of the mountains …
It was amazingly beautiful to go to Alaska and we were just most enchanted by the villages and towns and marveled at how small they were. Some of their cities are, by our standards, so small. So, we went to Juneau, the capitol of Alaska and we went to Sitka and we went to Ketchikan. These are three of the five largest cities in Alaska, along with Anchorage and Fairbanks. Yet those 3 cities are only 20-30,000 people. Isn’t that incredible? What a small population. There are many suburbs of Denver larger than these largest towns in Alaska and the greater metropolitan area has 4 times the population of the entirety of Alaska.
Now, there are a lot of people who live in remote areas in Alaska. I was reading about one of them recently, a guy named Walter Shane who lives on St. Paul Island with his wife and with his kids. St. Paul Island is near St. George Island in the Bering Sea near the Aleutian Chain and it’s very remote. In this article, Walter Shane was talking about what it’s like for his family to order a pizza on St. Paul Island. You order a pizza on the phone and it has to be shipped from Anchorage by Revolution Air and it takes 3 days. You order the pizza on Monday, and on Thursday night you have pizza, and in the article, he talks about how if you live in Alaska, and if you’re going to live in the wilderness, you’ve got to have patience. You’ve got to have patient endurance. You’ve got to be willing to wait for the things that you want.
Now I hope you understand, as Christians we’re not waiting for a pizza. I hope you understand the stuff that we’re waiting for is really, really cool. It’s really important. It’s really great. We’ve been promised new bodies. We’ve been promised new bodies that are indestructible and no longer subject to decay. They will be fit for the heavens, glorious and powerful. We have been promised a new nature so that we’ll never have to wage war again in this great struggle with sin. We’ve been promised a new city, a New Jerusalem, a heavenly city and all of its majesty.
Maybe you love the city of Denver, maybe you love Paris, and maybe you love New York. It all pales compared to the glory of the heavenly city, New Jerusalem, which awaits us. We have been promised a new heavens and a new earth, a new cosmos. We’ve been promised that Christ has dominion and that dominion will be given to the people of God over all the creation, the new heavens and the new earth. Promises, promises, promises and on this earth we have purpose. On this earth we stand against the darkness and the greater tide of evil. On this earth we stand and we work for the cause of heaven, for the kingdom of Jesus. We stand against oppression. We stand against poverty, and we stand against sin. We stand against racism. There’s so much to do. And we stand for Christ and his people. But it all requires patient endurance. Hupomone. Patient endurance.
I’ve always loved the life of Winston Churchill, one of the greatest leaders in a time of war. Winston Churchill, you may or may not know, scripted his own funeral service. It was held at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. He scripted the whole deal and at the very beginning of the funeral service, by his command, they played taps. If you have a military background, you’re familiar with that music, and of course, it signals the end of the day and he thought it appropriate that his funeral service would begin with taps because the day was ending for him. The strange thing was, at the end of the service, as everybody was dismissed, they played revelry, which indicates the dawn of a new day and once again. That was by his command because he believed that he was beginning a wonderful, new day and in the meantime, in this life, his word was “never give up.” Never give up. The day is coming, but never give up. Winston Churchill was once asked, “Are you a pillar of the church?” and he rarely went to church. He smiled and he said, “No, I’m more like a flying buttress. I support the church from the outside.” I hope and I pray that you support the church from the inside, because Christ calls his people into the church, but I also hope and pray that you never give up. There’s a new day coming.
The word hupomone, one of Peter’s last words, means patience endurance, but it’s not a passive word. It doesn’t refer to the kind of patience where you just sit around and wait. This is dynamic and active. This word, hupomone, means that you have patient endurance in pursuit of a goal and in a great cause. This is needed by the people of Christ. It’s needed by our generation. It’s needed today.
Well, one final teaching concerning godliness. Peter tells us that we must strive for godliness and that this call is upon the church and the people of Christ. Now the word for godliness that Peter uses is the word eusebeia, a compound Greek word with the prefix eu, which means good and then sebomai. Sebomai means worship. So, eusebeia literally means good worship, and you might think worship is something that you do in a building on a Sunday morning. Worship is something that should consume every breath, every moment in every day. Godliness is approaching every moment, every breath, every day as good worship, as an opportunity for good worship. Every day you seek to worship God and to do it well. And you seek to do it all day long. It’s kind of like the Latin concept of Coram Deo, “before the face of God.” We live every moment before the face of God and we are conscious of the fact that we live every moment before the face of God and we want to do it well and this is godliness. This is godliness.
Now I think the question is, “What are you living for?” Have you ever asked yourself that question? What are you actually living for? What are most of your days about? What are most of your years about? What are most of your moments about? What are you living for? Now I have a number of friends who live in Memphis, Tennessee, and as I’ve journeyed through life, Barb and I have made a number of friends in Memphis. As it turns out, and one of my friends in Memphis, Tennessee, is Sandy Wilson and Sandy is the senior pastor at Second Presbyterian Church, Memphis, Tennessee—a very great, historic church. Sandy is just a great guy and he has been my co-chair this past year on a national committee for examining the subject of women’s ordination. Sandy and I had a committee that we assembled for a year and made our report to General Assembly. I’d known Sandy for many years, but we’ve just become good friends in the process and I respect him so much. I’ve gone down to Memphis and he’s come here to Denver.
Another friend in Memphis is Craig Strickland who is the pastor of Hope Presbyterian Church, the largest church in the state of Tennessee. Hope Presbyterian Church is a wonderful church in Memphis and Craig and his wife Lee are just great friends. His executive pastor there at Hope is Mike Sadler. His wife Jeannine and Mike used to be our church administrator here and has been a good friend. Barb and I were just reminiscing with Mike and Jeannine. We’ve been friends now for 36 years. Great friends.
But you go to Memphis and you visit your friends and I don’t know how many of you have been to Memphis. It’s kind of a strange town; it’s kind of funky. There’s a lot of wonderful barbeque, but kind of a strange culture. You can go to Graceland. I don’t know how many of you have ever gone to Graceland to see the house that Elvis built. Graceland is just kind of a strange experience. At least it was for me. I mean, just go on through the house, Barb and I would look around and we’d think, well why did he do this and why did he put that there and why is this room decorated this way. It all just looks so weird. But of course, people love Elvis.
People love Elvis, and one person who loves Elvis is a gal named Carol Fraser. She’s left Texas and she’s moved to Memphis and she’s moved and bought a place as close to Graceland as she could possibly find. She loves not only the music of Elvis Presley, which is understandable, she loves his movies, which is less understandable. She has watched his movies many, many, many times. She’s watched Love Me Tender 107 times. That movie is hard to watch one time. She has watched it 107 times and Loving You 110 times and King Creole 93 times, and Jail House Rock 79 times. In her house she has 40,000 pictures of Elvis Presley. Now you ask the question, “What is she living for? Who is she living for?” And it’s all tied to Elvis Presley and that sub-culture that surrounds the memory of Elvis Presley. That’s what her life is about. And you think, well, how strange.
But I would submit to you we’re all pretty strange. We’re all pretty strange because most people in this world, and perhaps most people in this room, live for themselves and that’s just as strange as living for Elvis Presley because you’re no better than Elvis Presley. So, if you’re going to live for yourself, that’s really strange. But the Bible prophesies that in the last days, people will be philautos, lovers of self rather than lovers of God. Now you might argue that that’s been true of every generation. Maybe so, but, oh, is it true today. In this narcissistic age and culture, people live for themselves with every breath they draw, with every moment they live, every day of their life, every year of their life, every year people live for themselves.
Something’s very radical about the call of Jesus. Something’s very radical about Christ because Christ says, “NO. He who would come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” So, this is radical. And it’s a great struggle because we’re fallen, so every day there are times we fail and we live for ourselves, but we’re called to live for him. We’re called to live for him and this is godliness that we would live for him. So, the Apostle Paul, in Philippians 3, writes these words: “I press on towards the call of God and Christ Jesus that I might be like him.” He says, “I strive for this. This is my supreme goal that I might be like Jesus. This is the outward call of God that I might be like Jesus,” and he said, “Everything else, when compared to this, is skubalon.” Do you know what skubalon is, the Greek word? You don’t find it but in this one place. Skubalon means dung. It means excrement. It means refuse, and Paul is saying there’s a lot of good things in this world and you might have reasons to pursue them, but when you compare them with the call of Christ, everything else is dung. Everything else is refuse. It’s skubalon by way of comparison.
One of my favorite passages in the Bible is in Matthew 8 and I love the gospel of Matthew. Matthew 5, 6 and 7 you have the Sermon on the Mount. All those three chapters, Matthew 5, 6, 7…three of the most beautiful chapters in the whole of the Bible, and you have the precious and very great words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount as he spoke to multitudes on the Hill of Beatitudes above the Sea of Galilee. When he was done, with the sermon at the end of Matthew 7, he walked down the grassy slope. As he walks down the grassy slope towards the Sea of Galilee, a man approaches him. This is Matthew 8. So, a man approaches Jesus and this man should not have been there. This man had no right to be there. This man was there in violation of Jewish law, in violation of all law because this man was a leper. This man was a leper, and of course, the Greek word for leprosy in the Bible can be used for a variety of afflictions and illnesses of the skin. If this man had true leprosy, anesthetic or tubercular leprosy, his nervous system was degenerating, his musculature degenerating, his skin was ulcerating and he literally stunk. His destiny was coma and death and it was as long slow fate.
Yet, whatever he had, anyone in that culture and time who had these serious afflictions of the skin were banished. They were excommunicated from their villages, from their towns, from their synagogues. They were fired from their jobs and excommunicated from their families. They could not see their wife again, could not see their husband again, could not see their parents or children and they were forced to live in dens and caves of the earth.
If you saw the movie Ben Hur so many years ago, you saw that leper colony dwelling in that deep cave. People would bring food and they’d set it outside, but nobody wanted to be near a leper and by Jewish law a leper could not come within 100 feet of a normal human being. And so, here’s Jesus going down the grassy slope on the Mount of Beatitudes towards the Sea of Galilee and a leper comes right up to him. This man was desperate. He was desperate. We don’t know how far he walked, we don’t know all of his life circumstances, we can guess, and he was desperate. He said a very simple thing as he stood in front of the Son of God. He said “Master,” he said, “Rabbi, if you will, you can make me whole”. Pretty simple and pretty powerful. “Master, if you will, you can make me whole.” These are some of my favorite words in the Bible as Jesus did the unthinkable and he touched the untouchable. The Bible tells us that Jesus looked at this leper, reached out and touched him, and holding him said to him,” I will. Be whole.” and in that moment, by the power of the Son of God, he was healed.
The Bible tells us that we’re all lepers. The Bible tells me that I am a leper that my soul is leprous that before a holy God, all of my righteousness is like filthy rags and I’m a leper. But I had a day many years ago when I said to Jesus, “Master, if you will, you can make me whole,” and he touched me and said, “I will. Be whole.”
Many of you in this room have felt his touch. Many of you in this room have said to him, “Master, if you will, you can make me whole,” and he touched you and he said, “I will. Be whole.” And this is the beginning of our journey in godliness and good worship. So, I’m engaged in a war with sin. I don’t always win. I’m very fallen but I’m in this battle for sanctification and I want to be like Jesus, and it’s every day. And it’s part of godliness, but I don’t want you to think it’s all there is to godliness. There’s great joy, great happiness, an eternal family, brothers and sisters, and a kingdom to serve. I don’t want you to think that godliness is simply about orthopraxy and right conduct. Godliness is also about orthodoxy and right thinking. And I worry for the church of Jesus Christ.
You know I was reading Christianity Today this last week, the last issue, and the Christianity Today is one of the most prominent Christian magazines in the world and the cover story in Christianity Today in its most recent issue is about catechesis. It’s about catechesis, and I’ve never, in all my life, in any Christian publication seen a cover story about catechesis. I’m sure you haven’t either and maybe you don’t know what it is. Catechesis is for catechumens and, normally, catechesis is expressed through catechisms. You think of catechism and you think of the Catholic Church. Maybe you think of the Lutheran Church, the orthodox churches, but catechism and catechesis used to be everywhere.
Catechesis comes from the Greek word Katecheo. Katecheo means to teach doctrine. The Bible says to teach doctrine is at the heart of the gospel. The Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 14:19, says, ”I’d rather speak 5 words of catechesis than 10,000 words of glossolalia.” And Paul loved the gifts of the Holy Spirit, including tongues. Then in Galatians 6:6 he says, “Those who teach catechesis will be blessed by God.” Doctrine is simply an effort to summarize the truth of Holy Scripture. So, to teach catechesis is to summarize the truth of Holy Scripture.
Here’s what you need to understand. In the first 500 years of the church, children were taught catechesis and new converts were taught catechesis. They were taught summary Christian doctrine. That’s what the original creeds—the Apostles Creed, the Nicean Creed and then later the confession—were all about: catechesis. We’ve got to help them understand the truth in summary. Catechesis. Then it faded away and for a thousand years, much of which were the Dark Ages, there was no catechesis. But then came the reformation. Then came Martin Luther and John Calvin, and what did they say? They said, “We’ve got bring back catechesis.” and John Calvin said, “Without catechesis the church of Jesus Christ is dead.” And so, for hundreds of years following the reformation, catechesis began to be taught.
Now it’s all slipping away again. I grew up in the Presbyterian Church and I had catechism. In the Presbyterian Church, when I accepted Christ, I was put in a catechism class. I was made to memorize the Westminster Confession of Faith, a shorter catechism. And most catechisms exist in the form of question and answer. What is the chief end of men? The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. So, you go through your catechism and you learn the basic truths of the Bible. You learn about the nature of man. You learn about the nature of God. You learn about the plan of God for the world. You learn about God’s plan for salvation. It’s all in catechesis.
Now something came along called the Sunday School Movement and the Sunday School Movement, which originated in England, was a great movement. It is a great movement, but somehow it replaced catechesis and it should not have. It should have been “and,” not “either-or.” There need not be a plurality here. So, as kids began to go to Sunday School, they didn’t do catechesis, they just learned Bible stories. So, today, all over the Christian world, in all the churches, you see kids that learn Bible stories. And there’s nothing wrong with that. In fact there’s a lot right that these kids would learn Bible stories, but they have no theological framework. They’ve never done catechesis and it’s a scary situation because the Bible says in the last days (and you know that I believe we are approaching the last days) people would depart from the faith. People no longer will endure sound teaching, sound doctrine. They will accumulate teachers to suit their own liking. They will turn away from listening to the truth and all this is tied to godliness and what it means to be steadfast as we live out our lives in service to Christ.
I think when a lot of people think of doctrine they think of the inquisition. They think of the powers that be incarcerating and torturing those who do not conform. I think when people think of doctrine people think of, perhaps, boring, kind of nerdy professors debating the number of angels on the head of a pin at theological seminaries. Maybe when people think of doctrine, they think of seminerdy bloggers debating endlessly theological minutia while the church loses its relevance in the once Christian west. When people think of doctrine, maybe they think of rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking ship.
These are tragic stereotypes because, biblically, doctrine is at the core of the faith and we need to be grounded in Christian doctrine, catechesis, understanding how to summarize the truth of Holy Scripture with regard to the nature of God, the nature of man, the plan of salvation. It’s our worldview. It’s all so critical. So we need to do a better job at the church with our children, with our new believers, and with us all. We need to do a better job. So much is at stake. In these famous last words of Peter, we have this call to steadfastness, patient endurance in pursuit of a goal, and good worship with every breath. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.