Blessed be the name, blessed be the name Blessed be the name of the Lord
His name shall above all names shall stand Exalted more and more as the Lord
Blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be the name of the Lord,
O share friend of my salvation's plan, for thou hast I.
Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord,
blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord,
his name shall be the counselor.
Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord,
blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord.
We'll sing and let's start off our service with a word of prayer.
Dear God, Heavenly Father, we thank you so much, O Lord, dear God,
for just allowing us to be in your house this morning.
Thank you so much for bringing everybody here safely, Lord God.
And Lord, I do pray that you please just bless every aspect of our service.
Please bless the singing unto you, O Lord, dear God.
And I pray that you'd also just please bless the preaching of your word, most importantly.
I pray that you please just fill our pastor with your Holy Spirit,
guide him to the scriptures, Lord God.
And I pray that you would please also just be with us in the congregation, Lord God.
Help us to have open ears and open hearts to receive your word with gladness, Lord God, this morning.
We pray on these scenes in Jesus' name, amen.
You may be seated, song number 296.
Song number 296.
Song number 296, follow on.
Song number 296.
See that first verse?
Down in the valley with my Savior I would go.
The sweet waters flow.
Everywhere He leads me I would follow, follow on.
Walking in His footsteps 'til the ground be.
Follow, follow, I would follow Jesus.
Anywhere, everywhere I would follow on.
Follow, follow, I would follow Jesus.
Everywhere He leads me I would follow on.
Down in the valley with my Savior I would go.
Where the storms are sweeping and the dark waters flow.
With His hand to lead me I will never, never fear.
Danger cannot fright me if my Lord is near.
Follow, follow, I would follow Jesus.
Anywhere, everywhere I would follow on.
Everywhere He leads me I would follow on.
The valley upon the mountain sea.
Close beside my Savior would my soul ever keep.
He will lead me safely in the path that He has taught.
Up to where they gather on the hills of God.
Right, great singing. Welcome to First Works Baptist Church, just a few announcements here.
Before we sing our next song, which will be song number 173, "Love Lifted Me," if you want to get
that ready in your song books, 173. If you did not get a bulletin, go ahead and raise your hand. One
of the ushers can get one for you. Some important information on there. Of course, we welcome you
to come back tonight for our Sunday evening service at 5 p.m. and tonight I'm actually going to be
preaching on the doctrine of the rapture. So if that interests you, I want to welcome you to come
back to that tonight at 5 p.m. and then we do also welcome you to come to our Thursday night Bible
study at 7 o'clock and we are currently going through the book of Isaiah. We will be in chapter
51 this coming Thursday so hope to see you then. Excuse me. We are a family integrated church
and so infants and children stay with their parents. For your convenience, we do have a
mother baby room located in the back of the building so your child needs some diversion.
Keep that in mind there. If your child gets a little fussy you can escort them out to the
mother baby room. Use the changing tables speakers and screens there as well and so that's there for
your convenience. You see the soul winning times and teams the list of expecting mothers if you
can keep them in prayer. Excuse me. And then you see the stats there for salvations and baptisms
for the month of February. We've got a great month there on the right hand side is the upcoming
church events. We have the homeschool park day on Friday, March 14th. And they'll be meeting at
the park there at 10am. You have the address there. If you have any questions about that,
you can talk to my wife Sarah for more details. The TJ missions trip is coming up on Saturday,
March 29th, meeting at the building at 915am. And if you'd like to participate in that, even
if you don't speak Spanish, just make sure you get with Brother Ulysses Hernandez, and make sure
you bring your passport to that. Be in prayer that we would see a lot of salvations on that Saturday.
Ladies Prayer Breakfast is also coming up on Saturday, April 5th, and they'll be meeting
at the building at 10 a.m. You can talk to Ms. Janelle Gonzalez for more details about that. She
heads that up. And then lastly, big thing coming up here is our Easter service, which will be on
Sunday, April 20th. And so I want to encourage everyone to start inviting people to that Easter
service now. And you can tell people, "Hey, you know, come to my church on Easter." A lot of times
people do have in mind, like, "I need to be in church on Easter." Even if they're not in church
every other time of the year, Easter seems to be a time where they feel like they need to make
a time to go to the house of God. And we want to take advantage of that and bring them here. Amen.
And so in the foyer, we have these invites there. The only problem is, is that it doesn't have
when Easter is, but I'm sure everyone knows it's on. And if you don't, it's right there, April 20th.
But when you're passing out your invites out, take a stack with you, hand them out to your friends,
family, and try to get some people to come for our Easter service. We like to break
record attendance once again. For friend day, we had 218 people in attendance. And I think we can
smash that. I think we could get 225, 230, 235 or so, maybe 240. Any more than that. I don't know
where we're going to put them, but maybe we can have the single stand outside or something. I
don't know. We'll figure something out. But please make sure you hand these out. Of course,
I would say they're time sensitive, but they're actually not. But you know, we still want to hand
them out. And so that's pretty much it. So be in prayer over our Easter service that we would
have a great turnout there. A lot of salvations, a lot of baptisms. And then lastly, please make
sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service.
And that is it for our announcements. Let's go ahead and sing our next song, 173, Love Lifted Me.
173, Love Lifted Me. On that first verse, I was sinking deep in sin.
On that verse, I was sinking deep in sin. Up from the peaceful shore,
very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more. But the master of the sea heard my despairing cry,
From the waters lifted me, now say, am I now second? All my heart to him I give,
ever to him I'll keep. His blessed presence live, ever his praises sing.
Love so mighty and so true, merits my soul's best song. Faithful loving service to the west.
Singing at this time, ushers will be receiving the offering and please turn your bibles to second
peter chapter one. Second peter chapter number one, second peter chapter one, the bible reads,
Simon peter our servant and an apostle of jesus christ to them that have obtained like precious
faith with us through the righteousness of god and our savior jesus christ grace and peace be
multiplied unto you through the knowledge of god and of jesus our lord according as his divine
power have given us all things that pertain into life and godliness through the knowledge of him
that hath called us to glory and virtue whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust beside this giving all diligence add to your faith virtue
into virtue knowledge into knowledge temperance into temperance patience and patience godliness
and godliness brotherly kindness and brotherly kindness charity for if these things be in you
and abound they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful the knowledge of our lord
jesus christ he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off and hath forgotten
that he was purged from his old sins wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to make your
calling and election sure for if you do these things you shall never fall for so an entrance
shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our lord and savior jesus
christ wherefore i will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things though
you know them and be established in the present truth yea i think it need as long as i'm in this
tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance knowing that shortly i must put off
this my tabernacle even as even as our lord jesus christ hath showed me moreover i will endeavor
that you may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance for we have
not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our lord
jesus christ but were eyewitnesses of his majesty for he received glory from the father for he
received from god the father honor and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent
glory this is my beloved son in whom i am well pleased and this voice which came from heaven we
heard when we were with him in the holy mount we have also a more assured word of prophecy
where until you do well that you take heed as unto a light that shineth in the dark place until the
day dawn and the day star rise in your hearts knowing this verse that no prophecy of the
scriptures have any private interpretation the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man
but holy men of god spake as they were moved by the holy ghost let's pray to lord god thank you
for this church thank you for our pastor i'm just not sure that you would be there now please
fill me with the holy spirit please bless the message he's prepared in Jesus name we pray amen
amen okay we're in second peter chapter one and look down at verse number 10 it says wherefore
the rather rather brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure for if you do these
things i want you to notice this ye shall never fall and the time of my sermon this morning is
never fall never fall now this is actually one of my favorite chapters to preach from i actually
probably preach on it maybe once to twice a year i think it has a lot of great principles
found in this particular chapter that will help us as christians succeed and as we see here in
verse number 10 that we will never fall now this doesn't mean that we'll never sin it doesn't mean
that we're never going to be flawless or excuse me we'll never have flaws we'll never disappoint
the lord maybe we fall short in a particular area in our christian life i believe this is simply
referring to never falling from our own steadfastness from serving god being in the will of god
and that should be the goal for every single christian that we never fall out of church right
that we never fall out of the will of god we never fall out of the bible we never fall out of serving
the lord jesus christ and here it specifically gives us some directives that we can do in order
to never fall now this may seem contradictory because the bible also says elsewhere in first
corinthians chapter 10 verse 12 wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall
right and we often quote that to say hey don't be proud don't be an arrogant person don't think
that you are just the exception to the rules of the bible because of the fact that ultimately
that pride can lead you to destruction it can cause you to fall so you better give heed lest
you fall and that's definitely a good application to that particular passage but i want you to
notice that it actually says take heed lest he fall heed to what well heed to what we're going to
look at this morning in other words in order to avoid falling away from your own steadfastness
falling away from serving god you better make sure that you don't just flippantly live the
christian life don't just well if i just go to church and maybe read my bible every once in a
while pray every once in a while obey the lord at my whim somehow that means that i'm just never
going to fall away from the service of christ but that's wrong you know we need to be intentional
about serving god we need to be intentional about reading our bibles intentional about church you
better make sure listen to me that you never fall okay and so obviously as we see here in second
peter chapter one i'm speaking to a crowd who like those peter is writing to have obtained like
precious faith right meaning that we here at first works baptist church believe in salvation
by grace through faith in jesus christ only faith alone in christ we can never lose our salvation
that is the like precious faith that we all possess that we all share meaning that we're
saved but here's the thing one of the things that second peter chapter one is trying to explain to
us is that in order for us not to fall we need to make sure that we're adding to our faith
that's being intentional about our faith right that we are constantly seeking to grow in our
faith that we are exercising our faith that we're adding works to our faith now thankfully if we
don't do those things we're still saved because the bible tells us but to him that worketh not
but believeth on him that justifieth in godly his faith is counted for righteousness but don't make
that your life verse as a reason why you don't serve god though well i don't work because to
him that worketh that yeah i know you're saved but you know what we're still supposed to work
before the lord though why because we are as workmanship created in christ jesus unto good
works which god hath before ordained that we should walk in them the bible says and so it's
good to use those verses when refuting false doctrines about salvation but at the end of the
day let us let us go on to perfection amen and serve god look at verse number two it says here
according as his divine power given unto us all things that pertain into life and godliness and
by the way the bible has all things that pertain to life and godliness you don't need to go to a
podcast you don't need to go to a book written by joe olstein you don't need to go to a ted talk
you can literally find the answers needed for all matters of life in the word of god it has
everything through the knowledge of him that hath called us into glory and virtue now by the way
you know the world can scour the bible all they want for the answers they'll never find it if
they're not saved because it says that we get it through the knowledge of him that hath called us
into glory and virtue you know the natural man received it not the things of the spirit of god
neither can you know them for the spiritually discerned in fact the bible says that they're
foolishness unto him and people out there can esteem the word of god and believe the word of
god or claim to believe it but if they not come to the saving knowledge of jesus christ they're
ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth so in order for us to
obtain these promises the things that pertain to life and godliness we need to be saved it says
verse four whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises that by these ye might be
partakers of the divine nature so according to the bible the more we read the bible the more we
become like unto the lord right the bible tells us that he wants us to be conformed to the image
of christ we become more christ-like the more we read the bible through these exceeding great
and precious promises and it says here having escaped the corruption that is in the world
through lust now what i want to talk about this morning is these seven directives that we found
we find in second peter chapter one and they come with specific promises right look at verse number
eight if you would it says for if these things be in you and abound so in other words you're
following these directives but you're also abounding in these directives you know in order
to abound in something you have to just continuously do it right grow in that particular area he says
if these things be in you and abound they make you they ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in
the knowledge of our lord jesus christ so look if you want to be a fruitful christian you don't
want to be a barren christian in the knowledge of the bible and in just being fruitful in the
service of god we need to make sure that we have these particular directives and that we abound
therein but hold on a second there's also a warning that if we don't follow these directives
consequences will ensue look at verse number eight verse number nine excuse me it says but he that
lacketh these things is what blind now look unsafe people are blind right meaning that they can't see
anything spiritually speaking they can memorize the entire bible all they want you know i know
catholics believe it or not that can quote the bible but the verses are cool and they don't even
understand themselves why because they're blind mormons can quote the bible i think but they're
blind jova's witnesses can quote the bible but they're blind they don't understand it they're
spiritually blind and it's not until they come to the saving knowledge of jesus christ that they can
see right spiritually speaking but it says here that the believer if he lacks these particular
directives he can be blind now i don't believe this is referring to just a permanent blind where
they just don't see anything at all because i want you to notice what it says and cannot see
a far off you know there's people in this world who are legally blind but they're not like a
hundred percent blind but they're like legally blind some of you are legally blind right if you
forgot your glasses you just see a blurry face yelling at you this entire time right you cannot
see a far off you are essentially nearsighted so in other words you know you can see what's in
front of you but you cannot see a far off you cannot see what is ahead of you and you know a
Christian who does not add to their faith and actually adopt these directives yeah you know
they can see a little bit they can see what's in front of them but they don't have the discernment
to discern and decide what's going to happen in the future they can't see what's ahead of them
they don't have spiritual discernment is what it's referring to so you know we want to avoid
being being a person who lacks discernment we want to be able to see the future not through palm
readers not through the stars not through whatever we want to be able to discern the future by using
the word of god because our senses are exercised to to discern both good and evil but hold on a
second if you lack these things though you're going to be blind if you lack these things you
cannot see afar off and it says and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins and i do
believe what this is referring to is the fact that people who do not grow in their faith they
don't add to their faith will eventually begin to regress spiritually speaking they don't lose
their salvation it doesn't say that their sins will no longer be forgiven it says that they'll
forget that they were purged from their old sins you know and i know people that i've been at the
door that you know i'll knock on the door i'll preach the gospel into them and come to find out
that they're saved but you know because they've been in the world for so long they've been involved
in sin for so long they can often forget that they were purged from those old sins why is that well
because that person never got into church that person never started reading the bible or that
person once read the bible once was going to church but then stopped what happens they regressed
they became blind they cannot see afar off and they have now forgotten that they were purged from
their old sins okay what happens when you don't grow when you don't add to your faith i'll tell
you what happens is that you'll become blind and you will begin to regress in order to remain
grounded in the spirit in spiritual success we need to make sure that we follow these particular
commands and look at verse number 10 again it says we're for the rather brethren give diligence
to make your calling and election sure what is that referring to the calling and election
well obviously we can relate this to the calling and election of god in regards to salvation right
meaning that when we get saved we become the elect of god we are called of god through jesus christ
correct and you can relate this to the service of god as well but either interpretation is correct
because at the end of the day it says make your calling and election sure meaning steadfast so if
you want to make sure that you remain in the service of god you know you need to make sure
you give diligence to growing in your faith in order to make that happen and then he goes on to
say of course for if you do these things ye shall never fall so let's go over these directives and
i love preaching through this particular list here because in my opinion it's a very powerful
list i believe it's helped me throughout my christian life and i believe it can help you too
so let's talk about it look at verse number five he says here in second peter chapter one verse
number five and beside this the first thing we're going to look at here it says giving all diligence
so what's the first thing that you need to make sure you do well before we even get into the seven
directives he says you need to make sure you give all diligence now what is diligence diligence is
persistence and consistent effort okay what the bible is telling us here is that in order for us
to be successful in the christian life you need consistency you need diligence or what the bible
also refers to as what faithfulness okay persistence consistent effort constant and
earnest effort to accomplish what is undertaken being faithful in the things of god the bible
says a faithful man listen to this shall abound with blessing someone who's consistent in the
things of god you're going to be blessed by god hey if you're consistent in your bible reading
you're going to be blessed of god if you've been consistent since january 1st in reading the word
of god you've been reading the bible you've been consistent with it i promise you today what's
today's date uh march march 9th you can say to yourself i'm blessed because you're understanding
the word of god more and more if you've been in church for any length of time consistently you can
attest to the fact that you are blessed of god why because of diligence consistency faithfulness
faithfulness listen to me is a necessary factor for success in the christian life fact people who
complain about church they complain about the service of god they just complain about oh man
i just don't know why this is happening to me i promise you that person is inconsistent in the
christian life they're not in it long enough to reap the blessings of being faithful and consistent
we are to endeavor all the days of our life to fulfill our christian duty and that requires
you know faithfulness now here's here's the great thing about diligence and faithfulness
is that you can lack talents you can lack giftedness you can lack knowledge intelligence looks
you can be ugly very ugly atrocious talentless just no gifts you just you just got nothing
but you can actually make up for those things for those deficiencies if you're diligent though
in the christian life if you are a consistent faithful diligent person even if you have those
deficiencies you can actually make up for those things you'll make up the difference
because of your diligence and in fact the bible says see as thou a man diligent in his business
he shall stand before kings he shall not stand before mean men meaning average men i mean think
of the apostle paul who says i thank christ jesus our lord who hath enabled me for that he counted
me faithful putting me into the ministry i mean the bible literally says that god put the apostle
paul into the ministry not because he was intelligent not because he was a former
pharisee not because he knew the law greatly although he did he put him into the ministry
because he was faithful he was a consistent man and look prior to christ he was faithful
in persecuting christians he actually went door to door more than the jews who were saved were
going door to door preaching the gospel he was going door to door arresting people and the lord
is just like hey this guy's pretty faithful let's get him saved then he'll just go door to door
preaching the word of god he was a faithful man god counted him as a diligent person
therefore placing him into the ministry enabling him to do the work of god you know as difficult
as these other qualities that we're going to go over this morning may seem for us to adapt to
diligence can break the plateau of difficulty whenever something is difficult in your life
something is just hard it's arduous it just seems too difficult to actually execute and do
just remember this add diligence and you will be able to accomplish that okay giftedness and
talent can only go so far if you do these things ye shall never fall so let's get into these seven
directives here so he says giving all diligence verse number five beside this giving all diligence
i want you to notice this add to your faith virtue okay so i need a virtuous man we're
going to have seven guys come up here in just a bit but let me get a virtuous man who's who's
willing to be humble enough come here damien here's our virtuous young man here there we go
stand right here virtue this is virtue okay amen now what is virtue virtue is moral excellence
okay this is righteous living what is the bible telling us here and let me just say this before
i get into my point i do believe that these are in chronological order like i believe god laid
them out in this manner for a specific reason and when we add to our faith it has to go in
this particular order and i believe one kind of gives over a space for the next so the bible's
saying here you know damien comes to the saving knowledge of jesus christ right so when it comes
to him preaches the gospel into him he gets saved he knows by salvation by grace through faith
it's eternal he can't lose it and he's like man i'm saved i'm a child of god what's the next step
for this guy virtue believe it or not it doesn't say like bible reading it doesn't say knowledge
it actually says virtue and what does what does this mean it means that what god wants this guy to
start doing immediately is cleaning up his life because he's not gonna be able to clean up his
life completely because he hasn't read the bible he hasn't been in church he doesn't know necessarily
what the standard of god is yet but let me just say this everyone who gets saved they have this
innate understanding that there's something in their life they got to get right right everyone
who gets there is just like all right time to get rid of whatever like i gotta stop doing this like
they just kind of innately know that it's not like they're gonna be able to like just conquer
everything and you know they don't come with batteries included right you know they come with
the cheap batteries they give out in an hour or so okay but virtue is important righteous living
just automatically once you get saved start living righteously meaning stop you know get rid of some
of your friends add some good friends you know get you know i know people who get saved and
they're just like you know i just need to stop drinking and it's not for salvation they just
know like i'm struggling with the sin i know i got to get rid of it right what is that that's
called virtue you know what god wants from us he wants us to live virtuously he wants us to live
righteously he wants us to live holy right cleaning up our lives add high moral standards to your
life be a virtuous person go to james chapter four if you would you want to grab you could grab your
bible so you can he can also reference virtue can look at virtue james chapter four look at james
chapter four verse number eight we're talking about how to never fall this is how you can ever
fall once you get saved add virtue to your faith it says in james four verse number eight draw nigh
to god and he'll draw nigh to you and i want you to notice this cleanse your hands the bible says
you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded well hold on a second i thought
i was supposed to purify my heart first well here it says you're supposed to cleanse your hands first
and what is cleansing your hands that's called virtue automatically once you get saved you're
like all right it's time to start living holy now let's just be honest when christians first get
saved even if they try to live a holy life there's still a lot of deficiencies there
right there's still a lot of things that they need to get right and you know we need to be patient
with people and not just come down hard on individuals or whatever we need to make sure
that we give people space to grow that they can pace themselves etc but the point is virtue is
necessary to add to your faith in order to grow he says cleanse your hands these sinners purify
your hearts you double-minded be afflicted and mourn and weep let your laughter be turned to
mourning and your joy to heaviness new christians innately know there's something that's got to be
fixed okay turn with me if you would to second corinthians actually go to luke chapter 3 luke
chapter 3 i'm going to read to you from second corinthians chapter 7 and verse number 1 you go
to luke chapter number 3 second corinthians 7 verse 1 says this having therefore these promises
dearly beloved let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting
holiness in the fear of god now here's the thing is that you know obviously this person is not
going to live 100 virtuously not even 50 virtuously if they don't go to the house of god you know in
order for this person to really meet the standard of god of the bible he needs to bring his rear end
to the local new testament church he needs to hear hard preaching he needs to hear what the bible
expects of him because he's gonna hear some things through preaching he's like whoa i didn't know
fornication was that bad i gotta break up with my girlfriend now i gotta break up with my boyfriend
or we gotta get married i didn't know that but you know i don't know just loving her wasn't enough
you know i gotta get married so he needs to come to church in order to hear hard preaching not
soft preaching not watered down preaching not ted talks not the joe olstein you know sermonette of
the week or whatever he needs to hear legitimate preaching from the word of god to clean up his
life because that's what the bible does to you it cleans you up right but hold on a second even
before that he knows there are certain things that he needs to get right and you know what
once he begins to live virtuously he places himself on a path to virtuous living adding to
his faith virtue and again this is not we're not talking about being sinless we're talking about
sinning less though and that should be our goal as christians right that the longer we're christians
you know we're not sinless but we are seeking and endeavoring to sin less we're seeking to
live a life that's pleasing unto the lord we're seeking to live a virtuous life look at luke
chapter 3 verse 10 and the people ask him saying what shall we do then he referring to john the
baptist answereth and saith unto him unto them he that hath two coats let him impart to him that
hath none and he that hath meat let him do likewise then came also the publicans to be baptized and
said unto him master what shall we do and he said unto them exact no more than that which has appointed
you now do you think that the publicans know that this is something they got to fix yeah you know
the reason john the baptist is even calling this out because he knows the publicans are guilty
of you know taking a little off the top right a little commission here and there and he's telling
them exact no more than that which is appointed you stop stealing from the top and just be happy
with whatever is given to you he says in verse 14 and the soldiers likewise demanded of him saying
and what shall we do and he said into them do violence to no man neither accuse any falsely and
be content with your wages you know the soldiers obviously would take advantage of people in some
instances they would enact violence on individuals they would accuse people and basically for filthy
lucre sake because it says there be content with your wages so we see here that john the baptist
is preaching virtue to these people to these converts and in like manner this is what we need
as well we need to add virtue to our faith well i thought knowledge was important i thought
learning the bible was important yeah but that doesn't come until later though the first thing
god wants you to add is virtue you know you don't want to fall from your own steadfastness
live a virtuous life if you don't want to fall outside of the will of the lord outside of the
service of god be a virtuous person endeavor to live a holy virtuous life ye shall never fall if
you add this to your faith brother damien you can have a seat virtue i'm not gonna have everyone
everyone stand at the same time all right i need knowledge now oh you're waiting for that all right
tj come up cody was just waiting for that one all right tj right there your knowledge okay so person
gets saved he's got the right salvation down and now he's adding virtue right he he chopped off
the beard he's only keeping the mustache now he's putting away the video games amen he's putting
away godless living as best as he can what does god expect from now well god expects his knowledge
okay now what is knowledge knowledge look what it says in second peter one verse five let's read
it first it says beside this giving all diligence add to your faith virtue to virtue knowledge what
is knowledge knowledge is knowing the will of god we're not talking about arithmetic history
english you know knowledge of politics current events we're talking about knowledge of the bible
knowledge of the standard of god what is it that the bible says regarding all things that pertain
to life and godliness right that is what knowledge is and the bible explains to us over and over
again the importance of taking in knowledge and in fact the bible says in ephesians chapter five
you don't have to turn there and verse 15 it says see then that you walk circumspectly not as fools
but as wise redeeming the time because the days are evil listen to this wherefore be not unwise
but understanding what the will of the lord is the best way for you to live your life is knowing
what the will of the lord is and you know a lot of christians don't know how valuable that is
because you don't realize that there's a lot of christians who think they know what the will of
the lord is they claim to know what the will of the lord is they're they're all over social media
everyone just telling you what the will of the lord is they don't know jack squat about the will
of the lord i'll tell you why because they don't know the bible but you know the young man who's
added virtue to his faith who's in church listening to bible preaching and reading the word of god
every single day guess what he understands what the will of the lord is and folks that's more
valuable than all the silver and gold and raises and possessions and abundance of riches of this
world could ever offer is knowing what god's will is through the through the word of god so god
expects for this young man to come to church listen to the preaching of god's word learn the
principles of god of god's word walk with god on his own to understand lord what is it that you
require of me." And look, we got 66 books that tells us what to do, right? Knowing
what God requires of you. This comes as we read the Bible daily, as we digest
biblical content regularly through personal devotions, preaching, and even
sharing with others what we've learned. You know the best way for you to just
keep in mind what you're learning today? Go and teach it to someone else. Go talk
to each other about it. Go talk to your family about it. Go talk to your kids
about it. Go talk to your friends about it. Why? Because we often engraft, we
ingrain, we essentially embed biblical truths in our lives when we teach it to
someone else. Okay? Virtuous living, listen to this, isn't enough to ensure
avoidance of failure. We need knowledge to be added to virtue. Why? Well because
if you have virtue but you don't have knowledge, you have zeal without
knowledge. If you're only living right and/or you know if you are cleaning up
your life but you don't know the standard of God, you become a holier
than now. Because whose standard are you using to determine what is holy living?
Right? God wants you to know knowledge. Knowledge is knowing the why of the what.
Turn with me if you would to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter number 1
if you would. Hold your placer in 2nd Peter. Look a lot of churches, they're
they're like against knowledge for whatever reason. You know they kind of
look down on knowledge. They look down on churches that teach the Bible. They look
down on churches that talk about doctrine and they're like well read the
Bible for inspiration not information. Folks I'm for reading the Bible for
inspiration, information, every other Asian in between. I wanted it for all
right and you know what the Bible over and over again talks about knowledge. It
talks about the importance of learning the Word of God and so we are not to
you know talk down on that, despise that, God wants us to understand what the will
of the Lord is and in fact doesn't the Bible literally say grow in grace and in
the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and look when someone tells
me they know Jesus but they don't read the Bible here's my assessment they
don't know Jesus like oh I know Jesus oh really do you read the Bible ever once
in a while then you don't know because Jesus says search the scriptures for in
them you think you have eternal life and they are which testify of me if you want
to know the Lord Jesus Christ you got to be you got to be a Bible thumper you
got to have this right here before your eyes all the time you know I know it
sounds romantic to say that you know Jesus and you have it in your bio or
whatever follower of Jesus I know Jesus and all this stuff but hold on a second
don't kid yourself don't deceive yourself because if you want to know
the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Word of God you actually got to put your eyes
right into here take your eyes off of Facebook and put your face in this book
amen for the boomers the Bible says in Ephesians 4 13 you're in Colossians 1
Ephesians 4 13 says till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the
knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ so it seems to me according to the Bible we
can never reach spiritual maturity we can never be perfect complete and entire
we'll never reach the stature of the fullness of Christ if we don't have the
knowledge of Jesus Christ sounds to me like knowledge is important now
knowledge isn't everything though right obviously there's other steps that we
got to take but in order for us to ensure that we never fall we got to add
to our faith virtue to virtue knowledge look what it says in Colossians chapter
1 and verse number 9 for this cause we also since the day we heard it do not
cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge
of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding that you might walk worthy
of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful and every good work and
increasing in the knowledge of God so I want you to notice according to the
Bible knowledge is necessary to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing like
you want to please God you got to have knowledge you want to be fruitful gotta
have knowledge you want to be fruitful and every good work have knowledge hey
you want to increase the knowledge gotta have knowledge sounds like knowledge is
important knowledge is power believe it or not and according to the Bible if you
do these things ye shall never fall go ahead and have a seat brother TJ you can
get Cody back later if you like let me read to you one last verse Philippians
1 9 says in this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more and people
say oh you know talk about knowledge but you know you know pastor love though
gotta have love gotta bound in your love pastor and to that I say amen because
it says here I pray that your love may abound yet more and more but it goes on
to say yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment so in order for you
to grow properly in your love you actually have to grow in your love for
knowledge and judgment sounds to me like God doesn't separate these two because
you know to know the Lord is to know him through his word and how can you really
truly love the Lord if you don't know his commandments and in fact doesn't he
say if you love me keep my commandments he didn't say if you love me buy me roses
he didn't say if you love me say that you love me you know he says if you love
me you'll keep my commandments and it says that we would abound more and more
in knowledge and in all judgment oh there goes that dirty word judgment
sounds to me like God wants us to understand know and exercise judgment if
you do these things ye shall never fall he goes on to say to add to our faith
virtue to virtue knowledge and now add to knowledge temperance so let's get a
tempered person here let's see here brother Adrian you're smiling come on
up right here yep so this is temperance right here okay why don't laugh he is a
tempered person he's in church amen what is temperance temperance a good
definition of temperance would be this moderation and self-control or
self-restraint okay so how does this look like you know a person comes to the
saving knowledge of Jesus Christ they're like I need to get right with God and I
need to add virtue righteous living he begins to he puts away the video games
amen I keep saying that because that's like a that's like a thing that young
people struggle with puts away Call of Duty that's all the video games I know
Tetris I'm just kidding oh not pong what is that game with pong right you know he
puts away the video games right the things that rot your brain and then you
know he's living righteously comes to church and he starts hearing all this
preaching and the pastor's just yelling at him about reading the Bible and he's
like you know I need to start reading the Bible and then he starts reading the
Bible and he comes across the passage that says you know when I was a child I
spake as a child understood as a child I thought as a child but when I became a
man I put away childish things and he's like oh man I gotta put away childish
things he starts reading the book of Ecclesiastes amen and then he's just
maturing and he's just like growing and now he has all this knowledge now he's
like I know what the Lord does require I need to be out there preaching the
gospel I need to be in church on Sunday I need to live a life that's pleasing
unto the Lord like I know what sin is he starts acquiring all this knowledge and
this knowledge he's acquiring is increasing his love for the Lord all
right because now he's obeying the commandments of God well what's the
next thing that God requires of him temperance temperance is discipline
temperance is self-restraint temperance is self-control temperance is
moderation here's a good way to put it it's the ability to rule over your body
and your spirit okay go to Romans chapter 6 if you would and here's another
way to put it it means that your spirit led see it's not enough to be virtuous
it's not enough to have knowledge now God wants you to govern yourself right
he wants you to rule over yourself he wants you to be a disciplined person and
restrain the appetites of the flesh he wants you to have power over the members
of your body and here's how the Apostle Paul put it I keep under my body and
bring it into subjection lest by any means when I preach to others I myself
should be a castaway what is he saying you know lest by any means I would fall
away I would fall right from his own steadfastness what does that require
temperance self-control discipline look at Romans 6 verse 12 let not sin
therefore reign in your mortal body that you should obey in the luster of neither
yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but yield
yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as
instruments of righteousness unto God for sin shall not have dominion over you
for you are not under the law but under grace so what do we have here the
Apostle Paul saying you know you have the ability to reign over your mortal
body make it do what it's supposed to do because here's the thing you know you
could try to be virtuous you can have knowledge but if you're lazy you're not
gonna come to church what is laziness is when the flesh says you know oh it's
time change right laziness is like I don't feel like reading my Bible
temperance says we're reading the Bible though temperance says you know you got
to do what you got to do okay temperance is I'm gonna make myself do what I'm
supposed to do and you know what this is an important quality in the Christian
life in order to be successful because of the fact that the carnal mind is at
enmity with God it's not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be so our
flesh does not want to do godly things naturally it just doesn't want to obey
the Lord therefore we need to make it obey the Lord okay you know a very carnal
illustration would be you know if you're dieting right and if you're dieting you
know if you're giving over to cupcakes bread and all these delicious foods and
pizza and man I'm hungry don't you know all this good stuff but you're trying to
lose some weight you know you have to have some temperance about yourself to
restrain to have the self-control because here's the thing you know those
things will make you gain weight but knowledge isn't enough if you don't have
temperance and here this particular stage can be vexing for a lot of
Christians especially if they've already grown in knowledge because they know
what's right to do they know the wrong things to stay away from but if they
don't have temperance you know they're always gonna be warring within
themselves they're gonna struggle in the Christian life why because you know the
things that they're supposed to do they do not the things that I hate that I do
right oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death
and that's not to say that we're not gonna struggle from time to time but in
general in order for us to succeed in the Christian life temperance must be
added to knowledge once you know what God requires of you Lord fill me with
the Holy Spirit of God help me to be led of the Holy Spirit help me to be filled
with the power of God to make myself do what I'm supposed to do and to abstain
from that what you would not want me to do if you have virtue in knowledge but
you can't seem to temper your fleshly appetites and the desire and the
desires then you know you're not gonna be spirit-led you're not gonna succeed
in the Christian life you're not gonna read your Bible every single day and it
comes to a point that you know we as Christians can't just live the Christian
life on a whim like I'm so inspired to read the Bible today I'm gonna read like
ten chapters and you end up reading ten chapters but then tomorrow you
don't feel that way tomorrow you're like depressed you're all sad well you know
read the Bible when you're depressed and sad too you need to make sure that
you learn temperance that you restrain yourself that you make yourself do the
things that you're supposed to do you know the Bible says he that is slow to
anger is better than the mighty and he that ruleeth his spirit then he that
taketh the city the Bible also says he that hath no rule over his own spirit is
like a city that is broken down and without walls showing us conclusively
that God expects for us to be tempered in our spirit look we're gonna be
heartbroken we're gonna be sad we're gonna cry we're gonna have maybe some
outburst of anger maybe we might lose our temper but may we not be
characterized by that we need to be characterized by spirit-filled spirit
led Christians who are tempered in their Christian life and now you say well how
do I do that well obviously you got to ask for the filling of the Holy Spirit
but you know it's good I keep relating this back to church because I'm telling
you church helps with all this when you come to church you run other tempered
people and tempered people help you to be tempered you know if you start like
you know crashing out start whining you know and you got a brother or sister in
Christ they got there you're gonna come and say hey stop whining so much you're
a man of God you're a Christian stop being a little buster let's go eat you
know you need to quit you cry too much stop complaining stop whining you playing
video games too that's what helps we exhort one another to be tempered and
then we're inspired by the temperance of others right why is this important
because it'll ensure that you never fall go ahead have a seat brother Adrian
temperance if you do these things you shall never fall the Bible tells us add
to your faith virtue to virtue knowledge to knowledge temperance all right let's
get patience up here brother Maury man that was quick all right come on brother
Maury go brother Maury I ain't got the patience leave your jacket I'm just
kidding all right so what do we add to temperance we add patience okay now
patience is in the Bible isn't necessarily used the way we would use it
they're very much very closely closely related we think of patience like well
we just need to wait you know but patience simply means endurance in the
Christian life okay the ability to withstand hardships and here is where
the men are separated from the boys in the Christian life because you can have
virtue you can have a lot of knowledge of the Bible and in fact you could even
temper yourself in the Christian life and being having self-control self
restraint oh man but endurance that's a tough one right there so what's endurance
endurance is being able to just hack it in the Christian life no matter what and
you don't quit it means that you do virtue knowledge and temperance when
you're going through a hard time it means you're in church even though
you're heartbroken it means do you read in the Bible even though you don't feel
like it and you're just you're down in the dumps you are going through
afflictions you're going through hardships and you're still fulfilling
the will of God you know what that is that's called endurance and you know
what I'm this right here is something that I cannot teach people I can try to
inspire people to be virtuous inspire people to have knowledge teach people
how to have temperance only you can teach yourself to have patience though
you're the only one who can keep yourself in this race and to hack it and
look every single person here every person under the sound of my voice
you're gonna experience something super hard in the Christian life you're gonna
experience hardships and afflictions that make you want to take the towel and
just throw it in but you got to remember I need to add patience to my
temperance how do you add patience you just push through it you got to push
through it and push through it while serving God you don't push it's not
called pushing through it if you quit well I'm just working on my endurance
right now so I'm just gonna take a break from church for a while that's
that's called quitting it's not called patience endurance is the ability to
execute the tasks at hand while weary pursuing yet weary pressing towards the
mark even though you're tired seeking to serve God even though all odds are
against you serving the Lord Jesus Christ even though it seems nothing in
the end will work out for your benefit that's called endurance don't quit in
the Christian life and you know what let me just give you a list of things that
will cause you to quit offenses right disillusionment failure of your spouse
the failure of your children the you know the failure of a church member that
you look to just so many things that can cause you to get out of the race folks
learn endurance be patient to temperance patience you know knowledge
does you no good I've known people in the Christian life as a pastor who have
had knowledge of the Word of God and they're not here today they know the
deep truths of end times Bible prophecy they can find all kinds of nuggets of
gold in the Word of God I mean the Holy Spirit led them to deep truths in the
Bible they're not here today I'll tell you why they didn't add patience to
their temperance and you know what I've said this before and I'll say it again
I'll take a tempered person who has patience who has a little bit of Bible
knowledge than the person who has a lot of Bible knowledge but no patience
because at least this guy is gonna he's gonna hang for the rest of the ride
you know what the longer he's in the ride he's gonna learn more knowledge but
the guy who has knowledge now he's vexing himself in the world because he
knows he's not living right and he knows he has no endurance hey folks let me
let me just give you a harsh reminder from the Word of God it's just a verse
if thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small that's a hard
truth right there there's been times when I wanted to quit as a Christian
prior to being a pastor in tears reading that verse and I thought to myself I
don't want to be a punk like the Bible's calling me out right now and it's just
like I need some comfort here I need something it's like if thou faint in the
day of adversity thy strength is small it's like all right all right how do you
handle that it's a reality check I don't want to have small strength therefore be
strong in the Lord in the power of his might grow in your strength grow in your
ability to withstand and you know we all have opportunities wherewith we are
presented with the temptation to quit and that is an opportunity for you to
learn patience and you don't have to go it alone that's why you have a church
that's why it's important that when you go through battles go through with the
church you feel like quitting go tell a brother I feel like quitting you know
the brother will say you know what that's a completely normal feeling I've
been through times when I wanted to quit I'm here for you I'm praying for you
that thy faith fail not I want you to make it through you got this call me
text me let's go out to eat let's spend time together let's help you to make it
through this trial gain patience learn endurance I want to see everyone here
who's in this room here 10 years from now 15 years from now 20 years from now
30 years from now 40 years from now but it's not gonna happen if you don't have
patience and sadly enough as much as I want that I know there's people here
who because they're not adding patience to their temperance I probably won't see
you and that's an unfortunate reality and all I can do as a pastor is try to
exhort you have patience hey are you going through a tough month have
patience endure strengthen yourself in the Lord and here's the thing folks let
me say one last thing regarding this point actually go to Mark chapter 4
Mark chapter 4 if you would if you don't learn patience and endurance in the
Christian life when you go through a hardship and offense and affliction and
you don't learn patience that ends up coming back around sometime later in
life and ends up being harder the second time than it does the first like the
purposes of these afflictions is for us to withstand in the evil day so that the
next time it comes around it's just kind of like water for ducks back you know if
you learn to endure the hardships of the Christian life you'll find that you'll
go through that hardship again sometime later in life and you're like actually
that's this is actually not as hard because you've built up strength you've
built up the ability to withstand in the evil day hold on a second but if you
don't pass with flying colors the first time you're gonna be extremely weak the
second time this is an admonishment to you an instruction to you to make sure
that you pass that test when it comes your way look at mark chapter 4 verse
15 and these are they by the wayside where the word is sown but when they
have heard saying come it immediately take it away the word that was sown in
their hearts he says and these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground
who when they have heard the word immediately receive it with gladness and
I want you to notice this and have no root in themselves and so endure before
a time afterward when affliction or persecution arises for the word's sake
immediately they are offended the Bible says so this person could not endure
this person does not have patience because they're not rooted in the
Christian life okay turn with me if you would to Romans chapter 8 Romans
chapter 8 I'm gonna reach you from James chapter 1 in verse number 2 says
brethren count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations now that's kind
of weird he says when you fall into diverse temptations what is temptation
it's a trial to tribulation and James is saying you got to count it all joy when
that happens to you now that's really hard to do to be happy when you're
going through a hard time to be joyful during times of tribulation and
temptation but I want I'm gonna continue reading here says knowing this that the
trying of your faith worketh patience but let patience have a perfect work
that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing in other words trials and
tribulations if you make it through if it tries your faith it works patience
and patience makes you a mature Christian and he goes on to say in
verse 12 verse 12 blessed is the man that endureth temptations for when he
is tried he shall receive a crown of life which the Lord has promised to them
that love him let me admonish you this morning endure hardness as a good
soldier of Jesus Christ the year is not over - there's gonna be some hardships
may be coming your way coming my way and they never stop it's not like oh man we
went through a hardship I'm never gonna experience another hardship again
it's worse the older you get it just gets worse sometimes sorry to be like a
downer but it's true like it just gets worse sometimes but that's why it's
important for you to pass the previous trial to make it to the next level go
to have a seat brother more thank you see patience endurance gives you stamina
the ability to withstand an evil day and if you want your virtue to count for
something if you want your knowledge to count for something if you want your
temperance to count for something you better add patience and endurance in the
Christian life why well if you do these things you shall never fall what's the
next one I need another guy godliness all right who's willing to stand up and
be godliness all right Cody come on up you made eye contact he's all reluctant
all right now after patience when you begin to work on patience you know the
Bible says that we need to add godliness to patience now what is
godliness how do we define godliness well godliness is when the Bible becomes
the centerpiece of your life it's when you basically make all decisions based
upon the Word of God now the person who has added virtue has not yet done that
the person who has added knowledge has not yet done that the person who has
added temperance has not yet done that the person who's learning endurance has
not yet done that the godly individual is the person who recognizes I need to
make all decisions based upon how it affects though my relationship with the
Lord meaning that the Bible dictates every facet of your life meaning you
this person does not compartmentalize God meaning that you're a Christian not
just when you come to first words about this church that's expected but you
behave as a Christian at work you behave as a Christian at home you behave as a
Christian with your friends with your family in every situation that you're
in you look at life through the lens of scripture and you make decisions based
off of what is the Bible say that is a godly person they've essentially made
the Bible the centerpiece of their life like what do you think about this
situation well the Bible says well I don't care what the Bible says tell me
what you think about this situation well what I think is what the Bible says
that is a godly individual are you planning to take this job well really
depends if there's you know is there a church out there will it take me out of
serving God if it does then I'm not doing it because I want to live a godly
life that's gonna affect my service for the Lord now this what is what does this
require it requires commitment in a lot of ways it means that you make your home
as an atmosphere conducive to spiritual growth Jesus Christ is the Lord of the
house and not just in word but indeed as well meaning that you raise your
children in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord they hear about
the Lord Jesus Christ and biblical things from sunrise to sunset that
requires commitment but that is what godliness is let me read to you from
first Timothy chapter 4 and verse number 7 says but refuse profane and old wives
fables and exercise thyself rather unto godliness for bodily exercise profiteth
little but godliness is profitable into all things having promise of the life
that now is and of that which is to come this is a faithful excuse me this is a
faithful saying and worthy of all expectation so this guy he gets saved
comes to saving knowledge of Jesus Christ he gets baptized because that's
what you're supposed to do after you get saved by the way come to church like I
need to start living virtuously you know he's got Tarzan hair so he chops that
off right because he's like this is not becoming unto the Lord I know God wants
me to get rid of this and then he begins to add knowledge he starts reading the
King James Bible such learning he started finding all these truths in the
Word of God he's increasing he's abounding in his knowledge and then he's
like you know I need to be disciplined because I didn't read my Bible yesterday
but I can't I can't be a punk like I need to make sure that I rule over my
flesh and do what I'm supposed to do so he starts to practice temperance and
then he starts seeing that there's old heads at the church he's like these
people have stuck it out for a long time I want to be an old disciple one day I
need to endure the Christian life I'm kind of weak emotionally sometimes I get
offended easily sometimes I feel like I'm not strong I need to learn patience I
need to learn endurance begins to add that right but then he's realizing you
know what I think I need to just live my life in accordance to the Bible at all
times you know like not be so worldly and godless when I go home you know not
be a hypocrite not live a double life right and we're not saying that you have
to be all extreme about it and holier than now we're just saying you're
living a godly life meaning like I'm a Christian 24/7 like when you go to work
you don't take off your Christian garment and like all right time to put
on my worldly garment it's like no you're a Christian at work too because
Christianity permeates all facets of our life it's supposed to and it improves
every facet of our life but it's supposed to permeate every aspect of our
life okay meaning that you know now he's not ashamed to call himself a
Christian before his friends when he's around friends he's not like you know
they're they're over here using the Lord's name in vain and he's not gonna
shut up about it now he's like hey don't do that don't use the Lord's name in
vain around me I'm a Christian that's wrong ah get out of here we used to do
I'll tell you used to do yeah but I'm a Christian now and I don't believe that
that should be done well I'm gonna continue to alright then you and I
can't be friends cuz I'm loyal to the Lord Jesus Christ that's a godly man you
know he has a girlfriend he doesn't we're just the example he has a wife
actually but you know he has a girlfriend and she doesn't want to come
to church she's like I'm fine with you being a Christian I will never stop you
from serving God I will support you and everything that you do and he's like oh
great come to church why can't dump her this is a godly man that's kind of
extreme no it's kind of godly is what it is what's extreme to you it's actually
what godliness is in the Bible so when you make certain decisions based off of
what does the Bible says when you put God first over everything else look at
Romans 828 and you know at the end of the day it's Christ's likeness it's
growing in your love for the Lord it says in Romans 828 and we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called
according to his purpose for whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many
brethren so godliness is when you take on that divine nature you begin to love
the things that God loves hate the things that God hates and you seek to
live a life that's pleasing unto the Lord at all times now let me just give
this disclaimer no one in here does that perfectly a hundred percent of the time
so don't think oh that's an unreasonable standard no obviously we're
supposed to strive for this particular directive the goal should be this
directive and you know I hope you walk out of this building saying you know I
need to live a more godly life Lord help me to be more godly help me to
exercise myself rather unto godliness and to put you first maybe some of you
parents need to go home and say you know what we need to put a Bible in the
center of our house and read it at our house we need to have family devotions
we need a prayer with our children more I need to talk to my kids about the Lord
Jesus Christ more instead of talking about sports instead of talking about
politics instead of talking about whatever other subject maybe we need to
communicate due to Deuteronomy 6 and just communicate the Word of God unto
our children maybe you need to start communicating what you read out of your
Bible as long as you add a knowledge to virtue though communicate what you got
from the Bible to your children amen or you could just talk to your spouse about
the Bible and let your children hear it Godliness you say why well I'll tell you
why because if you do these things you shall never fall go have a seat brother
Cody thank you we're almost done here I need brotherly kindness Philadelphia I
need brotherly kindness brother Paul come on up your name starts with a P come on
up come on down so after we've added godliness now the Bible says we need to
add brotherly kindness okay to the right a little bit brother Paul to the right
to the right all right go a little inch to the right I'm just messing what's
brotherly kindness brotherly kindness is simply preferring and giving to your
brothers and sisters in Christ now what's interesting is godliness it like
grows here in your love for God right because you love the Lord therefore you
want to please the Lord now God says all right now I want you to love the
I want you to show brotherly kindness to the brethren. Now, how do you learn godliness? Well, come into church
But you are able to exercise brotherly kindness if you also come to church because now you have the now you have recipients
That you can express these things to right you can be a blessing to people. So now this guy he gets saved
You know, he adds virtue to his faith. He adds knowledge to virtue. He adds temperance. He adds endurance
He adds godliness. He's like I'm gonna determine my life based upon what the Bible says now the Bible says, okay
Now go be a blessing to someone in this building go prefer someone else in this building over your own needs
I know you love the Lord but kind of show that by going and loving your brother your neighbor as yourself
That's what brotherly kindness is now the Bible says to love our neighbor as ourselves
But the Bible also teaches that as we therefore have opportunity let us do good into all men
but listen to this but especially to those of the household of faith meaning that God wants us to favor God's people and
We have a perfect opportunity here to be a blessing as Christians because we have a church filled with people with needs
So Paul just needs to look for someone and it's like who needs my encouragement today
Who needs a meal and you know, honestly, by the way, Paul is actually really good example of this in my opinion
Because at our church when the lady has a baby
We typically do like meal trains and he always gets involved like I know that he gets involved
Sorry to embarrass you like this, but like I always know like Paul is gonna like do something even you know
He's a single guy. He's not married or anything. But what is he doing? He's expressing brotherly kindness to others
Right go with me if you look to Philippians chapter 2 Philippians chapter 2
How can we make sure that we never fall from our steadfastness that we stay in the will of God that we keep serving God
I'll tell you how add
brotherly kindness to your repertoire make sure you look for an opportunity to be a blessing to someone else and look it's great to
Come to church and fellowship and just talk and laugh
I love doing those things but the house of God is also to come to be a blessing to other people as well
You know before you go find your click after church after church service
Go find someone else's click and go click with them a little bit go encourage someone else
And look if you've added virtue to your faith if you've added knowledge to that if you've had a temperance to that if you've had
All these other directives to that you can add brotherly kindness by being a blessing to someone else
Okay, look what it says in Philippians chapter 2 and verse number one
It says if there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the spirit if any bows and
Mercies fulfill you my joy that be like-minded having the same love being of one accord and of one mind
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other
better than themselves
Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others meaning
Esteem someone else's benefit over your own
Inconvenience yourself for someone else's benefit. That's what it's saying. That's what brotherly
Kindness is. Thank you brother Paul. If you do these things you shall never fall
And here's the last one go to Colossians chapter 3 if you would Colossians 3
What do we add to brotherly kindness charity?
What is charity? Charity is simply love and more specifically unfeigned love love that is without dissimulation
So when you are growing in your Christian faith when you're adding to your faith these directives
It's important that you top it off with the cherry on top and that is
unfeigned love meaning you're real like the things that you're doing are out of a heart of
Love and you may think like oh, yeah, of course
But you'd be surprised how many churches have fake love a lot of churches out there that have a lot of feigned love
Pastors who have feigned love for their congregants church members that feign love for their pastor
Members that have feigned love for one another you go to some some church and it's just like they talk about love and they all
They talk about is love all I want to do is talk about the love of God
But I'll tell you why they talk about it so much because they're overcompensating for the fact that they don't they don't have love
We want to make sure that we're real with our love that we have charity that we have
Unfeigned love in all matters now. Why is that important? Look at Colossians chapter 3 in verse 12
And again, I believe that this is in chronological order and this would add this is what adds the cherry on top
Look at Colossians 3 verse 12
He says put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindness humbleness of mind
Meekness long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man have a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave you
So also do ye and above all these things put on
Charity and I want you to notice this which is the bond of
Perfectness, you know why charities last because it brings everything together
brings the virtue along with the knowledge with the temperance with the endurance with the
Brotherly kindness with it adds everything together
It's the bond of perfectness because at the end of the day you do all things out of a heart that loves the Lord
Jesus Christ and that loves your neighbor as
Yourself, you know, oh man, are you sure? This is a loving church folks
We wouldn't be able to function as a church if we weren't this would be a circus
This would be a church of just like holier than now hyper spiritual with no brotherly kindness
Whatsoever if we didn't have love and I could and obviously I'm biased because I'm the pastor here
But I honestly say from the bottom of my heart
I believe we have very loving people that are striving to add to their faith that are striving to grow in
Unfamed love and if there's someone in here that doesn't by the end of this sermon, they will you know that one person's like, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah and they're like I need to work on this love real quick
Love is important charity is important. But let me tell you what's more important is unfeigned love unhypocritical love love
That's not simulated legitimate love. Amen. What's the point here? Go back to 2nd Peter chapter 1, by the way
Let me read to you from 1st Corinthians real quick verse 1 verse 4 says charity suffereth long and it's kind charity enviath
Not charity vaunteth not itself is not puffed up does not behave itself unseemly seeketh not our own
It's not easily provoked thinketh no evil rejoiceth not in iniquity
But rejoiceth in the truth bareth all things believeth all things. Hope with all things endureth all things charity
Never faileth sounds to me like charity is involved in all of these directives look at 2nd Peter chapter 1
I hope today that you add to your
Faith these directives and you know what if you could just pick one out of these that you need to add
It's a success but the but the goal would be to add all of these
Why well if it says in verse 8 for if these things be in you and abound
They make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ
But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off and has forgotten he was purged from his old sins
Folks, what's the message this morning?
The message is simply this you know if you don't want to fall you want to stay in this thing from the long haul
You want to succeed and prosper and achieve great things for God you want your children to succeed and prosper and?
Serve the Lord all the days of their life add
To your faith and be diligent about it for if you do these things ye shall never fall let's pray father
We thank you so much for your word
Thank you for the principles of the word of God that helps us to not just be functioning members of society
But just to live a life that's pleasing unto you and Lord
It's true you came to give life and life more abundantly
And I pray that Lord as we're as your people that we would esteem the principles of the word of God and
That you would help us and enable us to obey these commandments Lord and to add to our faith all the days of our life
And we obviously understand that once we moved on from one directive to the next it doesn't mean we stopped working on the previous one
But rather we add it to the bulk of the work that we have and I pray that you'd strengthen us help us
And may we live lives that are pleasing unto you. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen
*music*