Furthering Your Faith-4

FURTHERING Your FAITH-IV—2Peter 1:8-11(:5-11)

Attention:

Suppose you have bought a new vehicle, that will be your ‘daily driver. It will be used to take you to work & back home; To haul your children to school, church, sports events, dance recitals, parades, play-dates, etc.; It will be used to visit & car-pool with your friends; Your new vehicle will be used to travel—To visit your Momma & Daddy, To visit your boyfriend or girlfriend, To visit your siblings, your grown children, your grandchildren, great-grands, etc.

You can very easily be enamored with & take ownership of your new vehicle/purchase, but never once think about or act on ‘maintaining’ it! Thru such neglect, you will NEVER experience the joy of the vehicle’s usefulness.

As the owner, it is your sovereign ‘right’ to ‘limit’ your new purchase, to never use it beyond where the initial tank of gas, or the initial charge leaves you. You can park it where it ran out of juice, & buy yourself another vehicle with another full tank of gas or another full charge, if you choose to do so.

•However, you also can learn to make the sacrifice of saving your money in order to pay for your electric bill &/or a re-charge, or to put gasoline in the vehicle when needed.

Yet, in a gas-powered vehicle, if you never have the oil changed, one day, sooner or later, the oil will degrade to the point that it will no longer lubricate all the hundreds of parts that make the engine work. The oil might begin leaking, & without any lubricant, the engine will seize, & stop working altogether.

•However, you can learn to make the sacrifice of saving your money in order to have the oil changed regularly.

Yet, if you neglect to top off the coolant levels in your vehicle, one day, sooner or later, the engine will overheat, seize, & cease working altogether.

•However, you can learn to make the sacrifice of saving your money in order to have the coolant checked & changed regularly.

Not-to-mention: Tires, Brakes, Shock absorbers, etc. There is a whole host of things that have to be maintained on your vehicle.

To REFUSE to maintain any of those things(electricity, gas, oil, coolant, tires, brakes, etc.) that I’ve mentioned, & more, would be to neglect your responsibility for the vehicle altogether. And thru that neglect, you will NEVER know the freedom of having a trustworthy vehicle!

You & I are urged, thru God’s word, to maintain, the FULLNESS of our “faith” in Christ, so that we will experience a positive, Christ-honoring, & beneficial outcome!

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....

•Struggle with their calling & their giftedness.

•Struggle to ‘fit in’ with the church.

•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 the Kingdom of God.

God’s people are obligated to further their faith.

Here Peter answers the question:

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

We are continuing to examine:

4 Factors For Furthering Your Faith.

In the last weeks we have examined the fact that,

Furthering Your Faith involves...

1. DUE DILIGENCE DONE(:5-7)?•[Part 1--:5a-d]?•[Part 2--:5e-6a]?•[Part 3--:6b-??]

Today, we’ll find that:

2—Furthering Your Faith ALSO involves...

FRUITFULNESS(:8)

Explanation:(:8)

:8—“For if these things are yours & abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

:8a—“For if these things are yours & abound,...”

“IF” a person can truly say that the above “things”/additions/qualities/furnishings(:5-7) are theirs, & that their faith indeed (super)“abounds” or flourishes, increasing in their life, THEN such a person can expect & depend on a particular outcome from it.

“Abound/Increasing”(See :11—plousiwv)—pleonazw—Present Active Participle - Nominative Plural Neuter—1) To superabound—1a) of things—1a1) To exist in abundance, 1a2) To increase, 1a3) Be augmented; 2) To make to increase: one in a thing. Strong—To do, make or be more, i.e. Increase(transitively or intransitively); by extension--To superabound. Used 9X.?From—pleiwn, neuter pleion, or pleon—Adj.—Strong—More in quantity, number, or quality; also(in plural)--The major portion; comparative of poluv/pollov—Much, many, largely.

:8b—“...You will be neither barren nor unfruitful...”

To be neglectful & unconcerned about the state of your personal “faith”, is to be spiritually: ‘lazy’(‘at leisure’), ‘useless’, ‘ineffective’’ or “barren.”

•God’s people have the power of God available to them, 24/7! But it is a personal choice to either use, or to bypass such power!

•So since being spiritually ‘lazy’, ‘useless’, ‘ineffective’’ or “barren”, is a personal choice, That ought to put some fear in you...The only fear that God’s people should regularly deal with, is a fear of failing God!.....A fear of being “unfruitful.”