Connect360: More Like Jesus

• Lesson Thirteen in the Connect360 unit “Find Us Faithful: Standing Firm in Our Faith” focuses on 2 Peter 3:10-18

I played basketball in high school and had a teammate named Johnny.

Johnny had great athletic talent but lived in the coach’s doghouse.

He was late to practice. He was not eligible to play for several weeks due to poor grades.

Every time Johnny found trouble, his teammates would warn him that the coach would eventually kick him off the team.

Johnny just smiled as he showed off his basketball skills to the rest of us.

One day, we arrived at practice and did not see Johnny. Coach walked in and informed us that Johnny was no longer on our team.

One of my teammates said, “I wish he would have listened to us.”

Even though Christ’s return might be delayed due to God’s love, patience and hope that every person will repent and come to have a saving relationship through Christ, God’s patience will not last forever.

Jesus Christ will return as a thief in the night, suddenly and without warning.

There will be a day when it will be too late to come to Christ, a day where the only comment one might make is, “I wish he/she would have listened to God when the Spirit of the Lord was knocking at the door of his/her soul.”

On more than one occasion, I have told the congregation that we can trust God with our present because we can see God in our past.

Peter proclaims that the opposite is true, too.

We trust God with our present (no matter the questions, no matter the hurt, no matter the pain) because we know what is true for our future.

Knowing and expecting Christ’s return stimulates Christ’s followers to live holy lives.

There ought to be a connection between belief and behavior.

The great truth of Christ’s return gives the church its purpose and passion.

People who believe there is nothing after this life or that God is distant and not active in his creation can live with no sense of mission.

There are three likely conclusions for a life lived in this manner.

A person can seek pleasure, be indifferent, or live in depression. However, the good news of Christianity is history is moving in a certain direction.

God, Creator of all, has not only come into his world once but promises to come again, and this changes everything.

There will be a new heaven, a new earth and a new home for those in Christ.

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