Are We There Yet?

Notes from Scott Sutton's sermon on Sunday, October 12, 2025.
Sermon text: 2 Peter 3:8-13

"But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9  The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance."

The ONLY reason God has not come back yet is His patience for the lost.

• Impatience exists because time exists.
• God’s relationship with time isn’t the same as ours.
• 2 Faults: Not believing that the Lord will come back. Not living as though the Lord will come back.
• The ONLY reason for God's delay is His patience... or to say it another way, there are still some who belong to God and they do not know it yet.
• Your life should reflect the belief that Christ will return AND the reason that he hasn't returned yet
• Are there any that you wish should perish? Do you wish that all should reach repentance? "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed."

God can return at any time and will do so with FIRE.

• The Lord will come like a thief in the night... we must ALWAYS be ready! Preparations!
• The Lord will bring catastrophic cataclysmic terrifying roaring fire
• Isaiah 34:4 “All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree.”
• Isaiah 13:9 “Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.”
• Joel 2 & 3 “Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes… The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.
• Matt 24:29-31“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30  Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31  And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
• Revelation 6:13-14 “…and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. 14  The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
• Ezekiel 32:7-8 “When I blot you out, I will cover the heavens and make their stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light.  8  All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over you, and put darkness on your land, declares the Lord God.”

And then there is a shift in Ezekiel 33:10-11, which is similar to the shift in 2 Peter…

• Thus have you said: ‘Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away because of them. How then can we live?’ 11  Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?” 11  Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12  waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!

Anticipate God’s return with lives of holiness and godliness.

• "What sort of people ought you to be?" Once commentator explained, "How outstandingly excellent" would be a fair paraphrase"... Lives of holiness and godliness
• Holiness = Set Apart… Godliness = According to the ways of God…
• HASTENING = "hurry by extra effort" 13  But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Wait for new heavens and a new earth.

• Good news... everything burning up in a cataclysmic fire is not the end of the story.
• Remember, impatience exists because of time. One day the waiting will stop.
• We wait in great anticipation!

Conclusion: Like the child asking the parent, "Are we there yet?", We ask God, “How much longer until you return?” God's answer to us is, "You are getting closer." But unlike children who need to be distracted and entertained in the back seat of a car, we are called to lives of holiness and godliness, as we wait with anticipation for a new heavens and a new earth… a place where evil, temptation, and the corrupt desires of a sinful nature have been burned up and destroyed… a place in which righteousness dwells.


Discipleship Questions:

1. Do you wish that all would reach repentance?
2. How does God's patience for the lost impact your patience for the lost?
3. Why do you think Scripture uses such vivid imagery to explain the second coming of Jesus?
4. What areas of your life need more holiness and more godliness? Be specific.
5. How do holiness and godliness HASTEN (hurry by extra effort) the coming of the day of God?
6. How does anticipation of new heavens and a new earth help us right now?
7. How can you help your children to rightly anticipate the return of Jesus?