Wells Without Water, Clouds Carried By a Tempest - Konrad Stauffer

Greetings to everyone this morning. I really enjoyed, um, Kyle's Sunday school lesson, and I was really surprised as he was sharing how, in some ways, the message I have today—actually, they actually go together, kind of—and I think you'll see why as we go into it. Um, our passage for today is one that I find a little heavy and a little bit difficult to navigate. As with so many of the ancient writers, from the East especially, the passage is rich with meaning but not organized according to our Western minds, and that's what I struggle with a lot when I'm reading scripture—is trying to figure out how to, to use it, you know, and this passage was no exception.

The other issue that I've come run into with this passage is it contains a lot of what I would call negative content, which we have to sometimes face that. And in the past, I would have probably enjoyed this, but in the last, I don't know, maybe five years, something's changed in my mind just a little bit, and I don't enjoy negative content quite as much as I did at one point. So this passage is a little bit of a struggle for me.

However, among all the warnings and promises of reprisal that we see in this passage, there are veins of God's desire and ability to protect, to redeem those who desire to follow truth. So please hang in there with me as we navigate these rough waters.

And as you can see, our, our title for today is "Wells Without Water, Clouds Carried by a Tempest," and it comes from one of the verses in our passage today.

Our text for today is the whole chapter of 2 Peter, chapter 2. Um, and I'm going to encourage you all to really pay attention to the text. What I'm talking this morning is all filler, I'm going to say. I'm going to do my best to help explain it, but I feel like the passage itself is really rich. It has a lot of meaning to it, so please play, pay close attention to this. It's going to be in about, probably about, I'm going to read it in about four different sections just to help me to be able to keep my thoughts on track and everything, because there's a lot to go through.

He starts off by saying, "But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.

And many will follow their destructive ways because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words, and for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber."

The first phrase that jumps out to me is "there will be false teachers among you." Peter starts off with what could almost be construed as a promise. It seems like he's saying, historically, Israel, God's people, had to deal with false prophets. And he, and he, from the way he presents, it's like, and so it's a given that in our day-to-day we're going to have to deal with people who are going to try to bring in false material, false teaching.

So it's almost like a prophet, uh, like a promise from the very start here.

And what are they bringing to the table? They will, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies. First off, since Peter uses the word heresies, I would like to visit, revisit the definition. In the process of my studies for this message, I looked up the renderings the Strong's Concordance gives on this word, and I felt like it opened up my understanding just a bit more. However you may take it or leave it. If it's helpful to you, great. If it isn't, just leave it.

Um, just a little bit of an abbreviated, um, rendering of what the Strong's gives here. Heresies, the word heresies that we use today is actually very close to the Greek word. And we all kind of get a little bit of an idea in our mind what that means. We think about it as being bad content or bad teaching all by itself. But if you look at the meaning, other plausible meanings of this word, it could also mean a party or disunion or a sect, which I think it'd be good if we kept that in our minds today. It's not just content. It's about what's happening.

One of the things I see in this passage is that a false teacher tends to be a self-centered, self-seeking kind of person. Rather than joyfully participating in the body of Christ, they try to start some, what I call a side gig, which results in a clique, a small pockets of people who are out of sync with the rest of the body of Christ. So heresy is not only about the content that is being taught. It is, it has much to do with the effect the individual has on the body of Christ. Hence the phrase destructive heresies. Heresy all by itself sounds bad enough, so why does he say destructive heresies? It's the con, it's what happens around the, the individual or individuals.

He's even denying the Lord who bought them, anything that somehow diminishes the importance of our Lord, what our Lord has done and has done for us. Anyone who downplays the teachings and the commandments of our Lord, anytime someone downplays the importance of our obedience to Christ, our King, they are denying the Lord that bought them. The epitome of denying Christ is the individual who finally decides and says that Christ's teachings aren't relevant to me today. And there are actually a lot of people saying that today. They're not relevant to me today because somehow it doesn't fit in with my values. So they're denying the Lord.

The word deny, again, from the Strong's, is to contradict, disavow, reject, abnegate, deny, or refuse. And we see that happening. It's not just a, it's very easy to see this. Sometimes I find it helpful to amplify the definitions or the renderings of certain ones of these words we so commonly read in scripture. The word deny is not an exception. When we contradict something that makes us uncomfortable, especially in regard to the teachings of our Lord, we are treading in a danger zone. And if we outright refuse to obey, we have already taken our own path.

And bring upon themselves swift destruction. And yes, there is a promise that those who have known Christ, the communion of His people, and they choose to create division, mistrust, and disillusionment are in danger of destruction.

And he also gives this promise, or this warning, you could say, and many will follow their destructive ways. Here we have another one of Peter's promises, and he says that many will end up following the ruinous ways of these false individuals. We then see the effect that this has on the rest of the world around them. He says, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. The rest of the world looks on, and they see the divisions, the infighting, and instead of seeing the love of Christ, they see the same issues that they deal with day in and day out. The result is they mock the church. They mock the body of Christ.

I think I've quoted this before, but as Mahatma Gandhi said, I think it was maybe to E. Stanley Jones or somebody, said, "I love Christianity, but I dislike the Christians." Because of what he saw. He was looking at their fruit, and it wasn't matching up.

I love Christianity, but I dislike the Christians.

It doesn't have to be this way. And I'm thankful to say I know of a lot of people who do not present this picture, but this is a warning that Peter is giving.

By covetousness, they will exploit you with deceptive words. Who does this sound like? The first thing that pops to my mind is Satan, always desiring to have what does not belong to him. So to gain a following, he comes up with this mixture of partial truths, a mixture that appeals to the flesh, but at the same time makes men feel like they're godly, special, and in control of their own lives.

Just remember the serpent talking to Eve in the garden. And I'm just going to jump back there briefly to look, take a look at that in Genesis chapter 3, starting at verse 4. But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

Satan promises Eve knowledge and understanding. This is what the Gnostics promise their followers. They claim to have a secret knowledge. And I even see this played out today. So many, so much of Christianity today claims to understand what God's intent was and what He commanded.

They claim to understand what Christ's intent was for the people. And so, um, God's intent of mankind without the need for obedience to the law of Christ. Does this sound familiar to you? The passage in Genesis goes on to say that the fruit looks, looked good to Eve, a delight to the eyes, and further, she gave to her husband. The choices, I guess the bottom line is the choices we make today affect generations of people to come. And we see that from what happened in the garden.

So I'm just going to pause here. These first few verses are a fairly comprehensive introduction to what Peter is going to be addressing in the following passage. It's all part of the letter, but he starts off with those two verses, and they have everything jammed into it where his mind's at. So we're going to just recap this real quick, and then we're going to move on to the next part of the chapter.

The first thing that we saw is that Peter promises, citing from history, looking back at history for the example, that there will be false teachers. Secondly, these false teachers will come from among those in the body of Christ.

So many churches today are looking outward. They're looking outward for the danger. They're looking out there somewhere. They think it's going to come from the outside. And a lot of the danger is, is in the, it's already here. It's already in the assembly of the people.

They will secretly bring in ruinous heresies, or you could say ruinous divisions among the people, creating parties, you could say.

The content of their speech and teaching often leads to denial of Christ. Many will end up following or falling prey to their, the teacher's destructive ways. As a result of, of the ruin they bring to the church, many will end up despising the church or the body of Christ or the way of Christ.

The seedbed from which these false teachings springs is covetousness. And as we dig deeper, we'll see that covetousness is the fuel that keeps it going. Peter promises destruction to those who bring ruin to the body of Christ. So you all can see why I said this is a little bit of a negative, a little bit more of a negative passage in a sense, but there's good in it too.

The question that pops in my mind, into my mind here is how much does God care about mankind and His people in particular? Sometimes God's love to us looks different at given at certain points in history than what we would imagine.

And Peter gets into this here. Back to our passage, verse 4, "For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into the chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but saved no one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterwards would live ungodly, and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked, for that righteous man dwelling among them tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds.

Then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment.

For if God did not spare the angels who sinned," and we ask right away, what did, how did the angels sin? Peter uses the example of the angels who, through covetousness and selfish desire, left their positions as servants to the cause of the Father to serve themselves.

We also know how Satan came to be who he is today. What he, this through covetousness and the desire of personal gain. He was willing to mar God's creation to his own ends. Here again, we see that the evil seed of self-serving and covetousness creeping into the body of Christ. Once again, the work of the Lord is in danger of being marred. Peter's warning, God did not spare those angels who attempted to ruin God's creation. And if at the moment, it may seem nothing is happening, he says this very strong phrase here, "Their damnation slumbereth not." That's Old King James language. I kind of like that phrase. "Their damnation slumbereth not." It might seem like things are dormant right now, but God is watching this, and there's a day of reckoning coming.

The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation. I love that phrase.

We may ask, what about the people who are getting taken in by these, what I call charlatans? Might not be the right word, but it's the first thing that comes to my mind. Why can't God just remove them from the bad situation or remove the bad person from the situation? First of all, God's people are not helpless. We may be sheep, but we don't need to be like dumb sheep being led to the slaughter. We need to know our true shepherd, first of all. Jesus said that His sheep would know His voice, and they would follow Him, and they wouldn't follow somebody else because they understood, and they could understand, they could hear His voice.

We don't need to be like dumb sheep that don't have a master.

We need to know the true shepherd, first of all, then we'll know when something that's being taught, or even the attitude being behind what is being taught, does not harmonize with the character of our Lord. And I think that's just as important as the message is the attitude or the character of the person sharing. However, if we are continually desirous to participate in the ongoing foolishness of the society around us, whether it's politics or anything else, and if the values that drive society around us have entered into our hearts, our senses will be dull, and yes, we may be taken in by a false teacher.

Peter uses the example of Noah and Lot. God cares so much about even just a few righteous people that He will go out of His way to save them. He will even allow all that they have here on this earth to be destroyed so that they may not be touched and tainted by the wickedness around them. I think sometimes we forget this aspect about Noah and about Lot.

It, yeah, they, I'm sure they were glad that God saved them, but they lost everything they knew. They had to start over again. I often think about that with Lot and Noah both, is that even though God saved them out of the place where they were and Abraham, you can go look at Abraham's life too, that it was a huge sacrifice because they lost everything they knew. They had to start all over again. They had rebuilt their life in a lot of ways. Sometimes God's salvation looks like that. Sometimes God's love for us looks like that, but it's God's love.

Lot, his wife, and two daughters were led out of the city of Sodom by none other than the angels themselves. Actually, if that's not God's love, I don't know what is. But what does Peter say about Lot? And this is what really stands out to me. And he delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked, for that righteous man dwelling among them tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds.

Lot never accepted the conduct of the people of Sodom. Even though there was so much of it, he never accepted that. Peter says he was oppressed. Peter also says Lot tormented his righteous soul from day to day. And the question for us today is, how are we handling what is happening around us today?

In short, there are two examples and two parties mentioned here today. First, God will judge the wickedness. Secondly, He will save the righteous by whatever means necessary. There are those who follow the current of society in the flesh, and there are those who swim against that current.

I just wanted to read this, this passage here. For some reason, as I was studying this, this came to my mind, and I'm hoping I'm not taking this out of context, but I felt like it fitted somehow. So I'm going to read that. "For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid in Christ Jesus. Now, if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one's work will become manifest, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.

If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only through fire, or only as through fire. Do you know that you are God's temple? Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him, for God's temple is holy, and you are that temple."

So sometimes salvation comes through fire. Sometimes salvation does come through fire.

Back to our passage for the day. And especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil dignitaries. Whereas angels who are greater in power and might do not bring reviling accusation against them before the Lord. But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil things they do not understand and will utterly perish in their own corruption.

And will receive the wages of unrighteousness as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices and are accursed children. They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Baal, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. But he was rebuked for his iniquity, a dumb donkey speaking with a man's voice restrained the madness of the prophet.

Especially those who walk according to the flesh. As we think back to the beginning of this passage, and as we read down to the end of the passage, most of this is written in the context of his warning, Peter's warning about false teachers.

False teachers not only teaching false content, they are false people, meaning they are hollow, devoid of true character. The very soul is like a vacuum. It takes and takes, it wants and wants, but it is never satisfied. In these verses, Peter helps us understand what characterizes a false teacher or a false individual.

Those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, Peter really couldn't make it any clearer. These people are ruled by their own desires. A little while ago, in another message, I used the analogy of a boat or a canoe, and I just, for some reason, this is one of my favorite analogies.

A canoe is made to float on top of the water. A canoe can move quite fast if the person knows how to handle it, which I don't, and is very maneuverable. The Native American people and many other cultures throughout the centuries, or maybe in thousands of years, have used canoes for their transportation.

And the canoes, especially Native Americans, they built their canoes with great care. They did it very carefully. They did it perfectly to make them work right. And you could say in certain sense that a canoe can be a symbol of freedom, because you just think you can put your canoe on the water and you head down the river and go where you want to.

However, let's look at the other side of this. If you should have holes in your canoe, and let's say you're not willing to take the time to repair those holes, the canoe will become a death trap to whoever is on board, especially if the person can't swim.

Our minds are a lot like a canoe. God, through the love and work of our Lord, has made it possible for us to have a clear mind so that we might focus on a point in the future and navigate life's waters and make it safely to the goal. However, should we allow our mind to become a reservoir of those waters? Should the ideals and the desires that are drowning the rest of society around us also fill our minds? We're no longer free.

Such are they who walk according to the flesh. And I'm just going to ask us to keep the analogy of the canoe in our mind as we go through this.

They despise authority. Now we're going to go down through a little bit of a list where he gives these characteristics of the false individual or the false teacher. And since he comes from inside the body of Christ, I'm going to say it's a warning to us as people, as God's people, to look at ourselves and evaluate ourselves. This is not something out there. It's with each one of us. We need to think about it. They despise authority. They despise or resent anyone who poses any opposition to what they desire, whether church leadership or civil authorities.

Pay attention to how an individual talks about the authorities in their life.

They are presumptuous, self-willed. Strong once again says that presumptuous is like a daring or audacious man. They take no thought as to what their actions and teachings are doing to themselves and others. And self-willed is just a self-pleasing or arrogant person. The attitude is, I want it, so it must be right.

They're not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries. And I did not take the opportunity or I didn't think about looking up this word to see what it actually means by dignitaries, but I'm going to put it a little bit in the same class with those in authority. They're not afraid to tear down and destroy the character of an upright person. They especially enjoy defaming those who are in positions of authority of any kind.

They speak evil things they do not understand. Anything that poses a threat to this person's characterless being and poses a threat to their anonymity or is downplayed or mocked, anything that makes them feel uncomfortable is derided. It's like put aside as worthless.

They are spots and blemishes. Imagine with me, if you will, a pure white shirt or a wedding dress. Virtually flawless, but with a coffee stain right on front of it. I've had a few experiences where I accidentally dumped coffee on myself, mostly when I'm studying for a message.

And it just leaves a really bad mark. And if you can imagine something really white, it looks even worse. That's what Peter says. This individual is like that on the bride of Christ. It's like that blemish or that spot on something that's beautiful.

And the more beautiful something is, the more marred it will be when it has a spot on it.

They have eyes full of adultery. To their whole existence is characterized by covetousness. They are always desiring that which does not belong to them. They are jealous of the success of others, and they would cheat in an effort to have the same.

I'm thankful I have not run into the actual true adultery a whole lot yet in my life. I'm sure others have experienced this or seen this happen in churches. I haven't yet. But there's such a thing as spiritual adultery too, is when you desire to have something that doesn't belong to you.

And Peter goes, he fills that whole thing in. He says they have a heart trained in covetous practices, and they follow the way of Balaam, the son of Baal, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. And we all know the story of Balaam, how he went. He said the right things, but obviously God knew that something inside Balaam was not in the right place because he ended up going and doing that, and he wanted the proceeds. He really did.

This phrase here jars me just a little bit. They are accursed children. This description, accursed children that Peter uses, probably makes us cringe, maybe even clench our teeth. However, let me use an example from real life that may help us digest what Peter's trying to say. I believe we all understand. Let's just say a child that grows up in a seriously dysfunctional home that is, let's say the parents use heavy drugs.

They sit around and watch horror movies and X-rated movies all the time. It's just like constant trash just filtering into that child's life. A number of us have worked with children from homes like this. We work in children's ministry.

And we all saw that it was really hard for those children to actually ever come out of that. They always tend to, not always, but so often they tend to want to repeat that cycle again that their parents started for them. And I'm thankful that it is possible to break that with God's help.

But I think in like manner, our true character is the product of our continual choices. And I think that's what Peter's trying to bring out. Wherever we choose to put ourselves, where we choose to put our minds is what forms us. The fruit that springs forth from our lives gives evidence of all those inner choices we make day to day.

As John Dee said in a message, I can't remember what the message was, it's just the phrase that sticks in my head. We make our choices and our choices make us. These false teachers became accursed children by their own deliberate choices. All they do is an overflow of what goes on inside.

They entice unstable souls. They draw in people who are disillusioned, discontent, discouraged, wavering, and undecided. Anyone hanging on the fringes is fair game for this kind of person. They have forsaken the right way. The way of Christ, the teachings of our Lord, have become secondary in their efforts to gain admirations of others.

And then finally, down to verse 17 here, these are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lust of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error.

While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption. For by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.

For if they had escaped, for if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome. The latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.

But it has happened to them according to the true proverb, a dog returns to his own vomit and a sow having washed to her wallowing in the mire.

They are wells without water. Imagine being very thirsty. So you come to this old hand-dug well like the one in the picture. And you lower your bucket into the well, hoping for a refreshing drink of cold water. However, when you draw up the bucket, you may have some water or maybe not at all, but it's muddy.

You lose your desire to drink and you become suspicious of all hand-dug wells. I don't know if you guys ever had something like that happen to you in your life where something went bad where you're expecting something really good and something bad came out of it. And ever after that, when you see that object or you think about that, you're just, uh, I don't know if I want any parts of it anymore.

I had a friend who ate a bad fish one time. He got extremely sick. To this day, he can't think of eating fish. It probably wouldn't hurt him, but he just cannot get himself to eat fish after that.

That's the effect a false teacher has on those who have dealings with them.

Clouds carried by a tempest. It has been a hot summer day, about 98 degrees with about 90% humidity.

You are looking, longing for a thunderstorm with refreshing cooling rain. You see the clouds begin to build up on the horizon. And as they come closer, you're sure you smell the rain. The clouds are boiling. There's sure to be a good rainstorm. You may even feel a few drops of rain on your forehead. The wind begins to blow. You're thinking, here it comes at last. However, 15, maybe 20 minutes go by and the wind dies down again. And after a while, you begin to realize the storm has passed you by and you didn't get any refreshment from that storm. If anything, the heat and dryness is even more oppressive.

I think all of us that live here in this valley have experienced this at some point or another. It seems like with the mountains and stuff, funny things can happen with the weather. You see a thunderstorm coming, you're waiting for it, you're excited about it because it's been hot and oppressive. It comes and goes. Somebody, a county over gets it and you don't get any.

That's the picture I get, what Peter shows here. This is what I believe Peter is describing of these false individuals. People are feeling dry spiritually. They long for something to refresh them. An individual comes along with some charisma.

Bruce and I were talking about charisma at work the other day. They seem to be saying things that stir up something inside you. They rant and they rave about this and that. But when they've done, they've left even more thirst and hunger. They've drained you. They may have even used you, but they really gave nothing lasting but disappointment.

They speak great swelling words of emptiness. They speak. Many people who are at some point have fallen prey to a false individual cease to believe that there is such a thing as true love, true self-sacrifice, a body of Christ where love, joy, peace abound. They come to believe that all of life is a sham.

They cease to hope. They no longer trust developing meaningful relationships with others. Peter knew this. That is why he is coming out so strong and he is saying, beware.

They allure through the lusts of the flesh. The main tool of the false teacher is that of imparting the idea that you can gratify your flesh and still please God. You can have what you want in this life and still inherit eternal life.

Peter said, Jesus, the saying today is, as Jesus paid the debt, now you can go, you're free to live. And that's true. But it depends what you mean by living. Be careful of anyone who gives off the vibe that you can have what you want in your flesh and still please God.

They allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error.

Apparently, Peter was encountering some of the same kinds of issues, or maybe he just foresaw it. I'm not sure what all Peter was dealing with in this when he was writing this letter. But I'm assuming he had saw some of the things that's what we do today. Apparently, there were people going around trying to convince the followers of Jesus that to live a true life of holiness as taught by Jesus and his apostles was too restrictive, not broad enough, too legalistic. They were now free in Christ to really live life. The problem with this gospel, if you will, is that it leads right back into our former slavery to nothing other than self and sin.

And yes, the person who teaches this kind of gospel is already in bondage to themselves and sin.

He says the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. I'm pretty certain Peter is thinking of a parable Jesus taught where the evil spirit was driven out of a man and that spirit wandered in dry and desolate places. And then he suddenly remembered how nice it was to dwell where he had been previously.

He comes back and finds the man washed and clean and empty. So the evil spirit takes seven other spirits worse than himself and they live together in that man. The man's end was much worse than his beginning. This is one great danger in our day. There are many who have been cleansed. There are many who open up their lives to Christ in a certain sense.

They're empty. They have not filled themselves with the delights and richness of God's kingdom. So they're even more vulnerable than before.

A dog returns to his own vomit and a sow having washed to her wallowing in the mire. I decided not to illustrate the dog. I don't think that's worth it. Peter used this proverb to indicate the foolishness and the state of the mind of the individual who has been made free from sin to then return to this former life or something even worse. It is like the dog who ate something that made him vomit. And then he thinks his vomit looks appetizing and we're not going to go into that. Or the pig who has no appreciation for cleanliness, has been meticulously washed, waits until his master is out of sight and heads for the mud puddle again.

The question that comes to mind is, what is the underlying issue? Why does this happen? I think it's ungratefulness, it's unthankfulness. Too many people do not comprehend what Jesus has done for them. Instead of being patient and thankful, they begin to look back at what they left behind.

And the perception of the past or the memory is always flawed. I don't know how many of you have noticed, especially older people, the memory of the past is so much better sometimes than the reality. And that's what happens to lots of people. It happens in spiritual life too.

They remember the good old days, but they also forget how miserable they were in the good old days too. Jesus wants to lead his people into an abundant life. And I think that's what Peter is so much trying to spare the flock of God from with this very heavy, very warning letter that he gave. He wants them to experience Christ.

I didn't want to, that was the end of the chapter and I didn't want to just leave it like that because that feels like ending a song on a minor note. Or like they do sometimes, sometimes when they're listening to a piece of music, they end on a note that's a suspended note and it leaves you feeling like you didn't land. Bruce knows all about that with music. They sometimes do that on purpose. They'll end on a note that's not a finishing note. Well, I didn't want to do that with the message. So in closing, I'm just going to give a few thoughts and suggestions of things we can do. And there's a lot more that could be said, but it's just a few things that go through my mind, things that have helped me.

Before you sign on with anyone, give yourself the time you need to see the true colors or character of the individual who's drawing you in. If they act like it's a big hurry or it's an emergency somehow, look out.

Secondly, pay close attention to how a person talks about civil authorities and especially church authorities. Because we're going to have to deal with authorities all through our life. It's a part of life and we need to learn how to accept that. Us Americans don't like that very much.

Make an effort to capture the vision and to get on board with the vision of the congregation where you are. This will help you give you a sense of purpose and insulate you from discontent.

Be very careful of anyone who seems dismissive of the commands of Christ or his teachings in general. In any way, beware of the person who is constantly making excuses or room for their flesh.

Evaluate and weigh the content coming from an individual's mouth. The tongue is, after all, the barometer of the heart. Is their speech positive and encouraging or do you find that whenever you really get into a conversation, it tends towards the wrongs of the world, the mistreatments of oneself, or maybe no one seems to get what I'm saying?

These are phrases that come from a self-centered individual.

Does the vision or agenda of a given individual honor Christ and his church, or does it honor the individual? If it seems to be about the individual, beware, you will be used to fuel their agenda and then discarded when you no longer serve that purpose.

If you don't know where you belong, be an encourager to those who are directly involved in bringing things together in the body of Christ. Oil the machinery of the church with love and kindness, and you will never lack for purpose. It will be hard for some malcontent to get under your skin.