Furthering Your Faith-2

FURTHERING Your FAITH-II—2Peter 1:5-11[Part 2--:5e-6a(:5-7)]

Attention:

*For your ‘basic’ room:

?How will the room be used?--

Let’s try to imagine the ‘sanctuary’ of this our ‘church-house’, where we are now sitting.

Suppose there were no pews at all.

Suppose there was no stained glass. No depictions of Jesus, or the cross, or angels, or doves, or baptisms, or disciples, or the birth, or the resurrection, or ascension.

Suppose there were no chandeliers.

Suppose there was no soundboard or sound system at all. No microphones. No speakers.

Suppose there were no carpet. And no piano.

Suppose there was no platform. No choir-loft, No podium, No ‘speaker’s chairs.’ No baptismal pool. No screen for video.

No offering plates. No table for the Lord’s Supper.

All those things must be ‘added’ to the room, in order to furnish it in such a way, as to make it truly useful as a church-house...So that it would be conducive to worship.

A ‘basic’ room is a platform, to which necessities are added, so that the intended use might be well met.

Consider then, in the same manner as an empty room, Likewise, your Christian saving faith, is a ‘basic’ platform, to which Christ-honoring necessities must be added, so that God’s people might be properly equipped to do the work God desires.

Need:

?Are you satisfied with your walk with Jesus?

?Are you pleased with your working relationship with the Father, the Son, & the Holy Spirit?

Some Christians float around & flounder about like a fish out of water.

•They struggle with their calling & their giftedness.

•They struggle to ‘fit in’ with the church.

•They struggle with using their calling & giftedness outside a church setting—at home or in the ‘work-a-day-world.’

The apostle Peter encouraged the Churches to bolster/strengthen/further support their initial faith in Christ, in order to provide an ‘abundant’ entrance to God’s kingdom.

God’s people are obligated to further their faith.

In our text, Peter answers the question:

?What does ‘Furthering Your Faith’ involve or entail?...OR...

?What does it mean to ‘Further Your Faith’?

We are continuing to examine:

4 factors for Furthering Your Faith.

Last week we began looking at the fact that,

Furthering Your Faith involves...

1. DUE DILIGENCE DONE(:5-7)[Part 1--:5a-d]

We ran short of time then, so Today, we’ll continue looking at the fact that:

(CONT...)1—Furthering Your Faith involves...

DUE DILIGENCE DONE(:5-7)[Part 2--:5e-6a]

Before we address the remainder of the “additions to your faith” in :5-7, please recall the following

from Part--1:5a-d.:

1)“Faith” that saves your soul from hell, is just the ‘beginning point’ of a much more intentional & complex work of God in your life.

2)So each of these “additions” brings a ‘needed’/necessary element to your Christian “faith.”

3)Each of these “additions”, furnish you the believer, with an intensification of Christ-honoring spiritual strengths, that will bring boldness & fulfillment to your life.

4)Each element is “added” to the other, so that the Christian’s “faith” will become consistent, & overwhelmingly full & whole.

5)All these elements(“additions”) together, are characteristic of STRONG Christian “faith.”

6)Your Christian “faith” can become a source of encouragement for you, as well as for those who encounter that fullness of “faith” in your life!

Another quick reminder...

“Virtue”(:5d) or ‘moral excellence’ is accepting God’s determinations of ‘right’ versus ‘wrong’, so that you live by them.

Everything about your Christian “faith” is tempered & strengthened by it’s being furnished with “virtue.”(:5)

*?Does Christ-honoring “virtue”(morality) accent/characterize the way you live the life that God has granted to you?

NOW, ON TO OUR TEXT:

:5e—“add to your faith”...to virtue knowledge...”

*Just as “virtue”(‘moral excellence’) is to be “added”, furnished, & supplied “to” your “faith”...

...So your Christian “faith” becomes FURTHER normalized, fleshed-out, manifested, bolstered, tempered, & strengthened, in & thru, “knowledge”[gnwsiv](cf.-:2, 3[epignwsiv])

“Knowledge”[gnwsiv] here speaks to the believer having a ‘basic intelligence’ regarding the things of God, so that you are no longer ignorant of God’s plan for man... “Knowledge”[gnwsiv] here speaks to your having a general comprehension of truth...That is, a comprehension of the reality that God has brought about/ordered for His creation.

“Knowledge”[gnwsiv] for the faithful, includes the fact that, you are aware that all people are condemned to hell unless they individually & personally accept Jesus Christ as their Savior.

•And “Knowledge”[gnwsiv] for the faithful, includes an awareness that the life of anyone, can & will be changed dramatically for the good, should they accept Him as Savior & Lord.

A Christian is expected by God to have his/her “faith” bolstered & tempered thru a ‘cognitive’(“knowledge”[gnwsiv]) grasp of the truths of God.

A Christian “faith” without “knowledge” is ‘dead in the water,’ having no viable focus for your “faith” to hang onto. A “faith” WITHOUT “knowledge” does NOT have an actual basis by which to live out that “faith.” ‘Ignorance’ is why some leave the Christian faith, for what is always less.