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Grace Emmanuel Church
Pastor Sam Chess
The Grounds of Faith
Fred is thinking…It’s
the day before his 40th
birthday. He’s been married to Sally for 18 years….a good wife the
mother of his son and daughter; age 15 and 13. In his early years he
had live pretty mush the way he chose, He answer to nobody. Ten years
ago the responsibilities of life had begun to strike home; He and Sally
had begun to attend a little church and eventually had accepted Christ
as their Savior.
As he sat thinking
that day he was not in a particularly positive mood. He and Sally had
become fairly regular church attenders, had even gotten involved in
some of the ministries in the church. His children had made commitments
to Christ in their youth group, but the whole process hadn’t
drastically altered their life.
Fred had seen people
within the church come to Christ and their whole life had been changed.
He found himself still wrestling with some overpowering temptations
that constantly threatened to overpower him. He watched his wife
finding far greater interest in
her meaningless
temporal activites than she ever showed in anything eternal His son
seemed to be straying toward the activities of non-Christian friends at
school rather than
the things of God.
Last week his Pastor
had preached from II Peter 1:
(2 Peter 1:3-4) His
divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness
through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and
goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious
promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature
and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (NIV)
What could Fred do to
change the status quo?___________
I, of course, made up
this story but you may find enough similarities to your own life to
change a few details and make it fit….
Fred had premises to
base his thoughts on…so do you.. so do I:
1) God had given Fred
everything he needed for; Life and
Godliness
2) Fred had been
called by God’s glory and goodness. (You too!)
3) Fred had very
great and precious promises directed toward his life
4) He was to be
allowed to participate in the divine nature (You too!)
5) He could escape
the corruption in the world caused by evil desires
6) God had promised
that Fred could become:
More like God…. Less
like Fred!
7) In order to move
from “like Fred” to “like God” what needs to change.
8) How is this change
supposed to come about?______________________
Let’s go back and
read this powerful passage out of II Peter, read a little further than
we did and see what we can learn:
(2 Peter 1:3-8) His
divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness
through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and
goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious
promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature
and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this
very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to
goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to
self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to
godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if
you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you
from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ. (NIV)
I. The Grounds of
Faith
Before we further
tear into this section of Scripture lets fill in some background:
Who wrote Ii
Peter?…..Peter!…one of the original 12 disciples/apostles directly
commissioned by Jesus. Later in this chapter he stresses:
I saw him…I heard him
with my own ears, I was there on Mt. Tabor when God transfigured Jesus
and said “this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”
As Peter is sitting
down to dictate this letter.. he is now getting old.
-He vividly remembers
his three years with Jesus
-He was at the core
of leadership as the early church developed
-In the last few
years of his life he had watched Caesar slaughter the church like
cattle.
-His time is up and
he knows it…later in the chapter he writes: “I’m going to take up my
tent”
So what truth is his
last to the church?….what is burning to get out of him as he writes his
last “circular” letter to the churches. After the greeting of this last
letter what comes bubbling out onto the page as foremost on his
mind?????
(2 Peter 1:3-8) His
divine power has given us everything we need for life and
godliness…………. he has given us his very great and precious promises, so
that through them you may participate in the divine nature…. make every
effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and
to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to
perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to
brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in
increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and
unproductive..
Then he gets
downright mean:
(2 Peter 1:9) But if
anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has
forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. (NIV)
So add these
ingredients to you faith!
II. The Growth of
Faith
What is Faith? This
is not faith (verb), this is faith (noun). Much like it is used to day
to describe Christianity… people of faith. People with faith in Christ
are “Christian”people.
Webster gives two
definitions for a Christian.
1) A person
professing belief in Jesus as the Christ; or in the religion based on
the teachings of Jesus.
2) A decent,
respectable person. ( He is simply defining what society says)
Many in our
hemisphere, including many sitting in churches today, believe that the
second definition is accurate. Unfortunately many in other parts of the
world have been programmed to believe that a Christian isn’t even a
decent and respectable. person. But you sitting here…; you know that
Christianity…real “faith” is far more than being decent and
respectable. It’s even more than professing a belief in the religion
based on the teachings of Jesus. Even the phrase: a person professing
believe in Jesus as the Christ, while technically accurate, is still
not potent enough to explain what it mean to truly say you are people
of “Faith”…you are Christian!
What Peter is
hammering home.. what is bubbling out of his mind and onto paper…what
was on the mind of our imaginary Fred in my opening illustration, and
what should be in the forefront of your mind as you contemplate your
growing faith is:
Is my faith alive?..
Is it vital?… Is it growing?
Peter, in this letter
is obviously writing to Christians…
(2 Peter 1:1) Simon
Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who through the
righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith
as precious as ours: (NIV)
But peter says:
Becoming a Christian is not like getting a polio vaccine…something you
do and once it’s over you never have to think about it again.
Becoming the
Christian is not the end of something…it is the beginning of the rest
of your eternal life…
Peter says:
You have Faith… now
add to your faith… add those things to your faith that will ultimately
transform you into something that looks completely different than when
you started out.
In fact Peter is even
more insistent:
(2 Peter 1:5) For
this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith
goodness……
- make every effort!
-give all diligence !
-give it all you
have!
What do you need to
add:
KJV NIV SEC
virtue goodness
living morally right
(excellence in living
like the honed edge of a knife)
knowledge knowledge
knowing the Book
temperance
self-control like tempered steel
(spring when
stretched returns immediately to it original shape)
patience perseverance
“lean into the wind”
godliness godliness
holy attitudes
(awareness/reverence
of God in every aspect of life)
brotherly kindness
brotherly kindness be nice already!
(phileo- brotherly
love-
charity love love in
action
III. The Promise of
Faith
(2 Peter 1:8) For if
you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you
from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ. (NIV)
Will be effective and
productive!
(2 Peter 1:9) But if
anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has
forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. (NIV)
Will not be effective
and productive
Watch this:
(2 Peter 1:10)
Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and
election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall,
(NIV)
How can I be sure of
having these characteristics in my life?
(Galatians 5:16-26) I
say, then, Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of
the flesh. … the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control;
against such things there is no law. But those belonging to Christ have
crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. If we live in the
Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (MKJV)
It’s not how much of
the Holy Spirit you have…
It’s how much of you
the Holy Spirit has!- Billy Graham
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