Add to your faith!
2 Peter 1:1-11 NIV
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:
2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Making Ones Calling and Election Sure
3 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. 4 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.
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 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. 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.
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, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
"Im gonna tell you the same thing Elizabeth Taylor told all her husbands. And that is - Im not gonna keep you long!"
What does it mean when the preacher takes off his watch and lays it on top of the pulpit before his sermon? Usually nothing.
Sermon:
In the coming weeks I will be inviting you and your neighbours and friends to get to know Jesus and to consider visiting us as we meet with God each Sunday.
There are two things we have to do to create a genuine interest in our church and in our church family.
The first thing I want us to do is Learn how to Add.
If we learn how to add God will do the multiplying.
We need to add what Peter suggests in today text:
make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For 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.
A father who was reading to his son put it this way;
Add to your faith virtue and courage like David, and to the courage of David add the knowledge of Solomon, and to the knowledge of Solomon add the patience of Job; and to the patience of Job add the godliness of Daniel; and to the godliness of Daniel add the brotherly kindness of Jonathan; and to the brotherly kindness of Jonathan add the love of John.
There is a famous Christian book called Pilgrims Progress written by John Bunyan.
John Bunyan (November 28, 1628 August 31, 1688), a Christian writer and preacher, was born at Harrowden (one mile south-east of Bedford), in the Parish of Elstow, England.
In 1660 Puritan John Bunyan was imprisoned for 12 years for preaching (sharing the gospel) without a license. Bunyan was a tinker with very little formal education but with a great love for the Bible. The Pilgrims Progress (said to be the first Christian novel) was written in his prison cell. Biblical truth emanates from his simple and straightforward writing, and blends with his imagination to create unforgettable, genuine characters.
These allegorical characters are similar to those we are likely to encounter today. Who, in real life, has not known a Mr. Pliable, a Mr. Worldly-wise, a Mr. Vain-Confidence, or a Mr. Money-love? And just as in real life, there are characters who make it to the Celestial City and others who sadly do not. Only those who lay their burden of sin at the cross and follow the narrow path the way of the Lord are victorious.
Clearly John Bunyan knew todays passage and how it related to the people of his time. Just as we live in a godless society in 2007 the same kind of society existed in John Bunyans day. But now we have so much more to contend with or do we? You see sin is sin whether it is the year 1660 or 2007. People are people and the lost are the lost regardless of the time or age you live in.
Some of the people that Christian encounters include:
Worldly wise-men
Good will
Evangelist
The interpreter
Simple, Sloth, Presumption, Formalist, Hypocrisy
Great heart
Steadfast
I think it safe to say we have all encountered both kinds of people along our Christian path. Those who were there to encourage and guide us and those who were there to discourage and blind us. But along the way we had to make the choices and press on.
The second thing I want you to do is to stop inviting people to church.
Im sure if we can do these two things really well that the church will grow beyond our wildest expectations.
Some of you may be shocked that I suggest using this method but let me explain.
Eventually the people around you should want to come to church on their own out of their own desire to see more of what it is that makes you so different from their other friends.
They will want to know how it is you get your husband to be so considerate to you. They will want to know why your wife respects you so much. They will want to know why bad news never seems to keep you down. They will want to know why it is that you always seem to have friends dropping in.
Rather than invite people to church invite them to your homes or out for a get together so they can get to know you. Now I know now is a busy time for a lot of you on the farms. So Ill be doing the visiting for now, but winter is coming and when it does we can open our hearts and homes.
For if and when they get to know you, they will be getting to know Christ. This is the kind of character we should be demonstrating.
Its a lot like what Ive been telling the children before Sunday School each week. Be a billboard for Jesus Let your life be a living advertisement for Jesus.
What is more we should and can and must demonstrate a Jesus kind of love towards everyone around us. That includes the people who do not know Jesus and who are hard to love or who are far away from us and God. This is what we the church are called to do.
Getting someone to come to church is a huge thing if they do not know what to expect. We need to be examples of what they can expect to see and hear at church. They need to be attracted to us because of the Jesus they see in us. Then they will be all the more curious to see and experience this place where we meet to worship Jesus each week.
That is how we build a church. You already know who you are in Christ. If not, you need to review your standing. You are a child of God, (1John 3:1) you are a joint heir with Jesus, (Galatians 4:7) (Romans 8:17) you are adopted into the family of God, (Ephesians
1:5) and you are brothers and sisters in Christ. (1Timothy 5:1) You are the family of God (Galatians 6:10 You are in fact to display to the world the very character of God as demonstrated to us through His son our Saviour Jesus Christ. ), that character includes displaying His love, His grace, His forgiveness, His patience, His long suffering, His self sacrifice and His longing to see sinners saved.
Saved from what you might ask? Saved from an eternal hell, yes but also saved from this corruptible world that we live in. Verse 3 of todays text tells us.
3His 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. 4Through 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.
You have demonstrated that you have turned from the evil desires of the world and have turned to live for Gods desires. That is what makes you different from the rest of the people in the world. You have found a way to turn away from the highway of worldly desires and onto the pathway of Gods desires by trusting in Gods promises.
It is estimated that there are at least 30,000 promises in the bible. John Bunyan once said The pathway of life is strewn so thickly with the promises of God that it is impossible to take one step without treading upon one of them.
To put it in the vernacular of today we can not take a single step along lifes pathway without stepping and standing on Gods promises since they are so plentiful.
So we the church as the saints, the Christians are to be helping people escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. Wow that seems like a lot of responsibility and it is. It seems like a pretty tuff job one that some people might not want to take on. It sounds a lot like the responsibilities we take on as parents.
Last week we had little Joshua with us as he was being baptized. We all agreed we would help as we are able to see him grow in Christ and develop a Christian character. His parents stuck out their necks first and then we joined in. We agreed to help keep him on the straight and narrow. In the same way we are to reach out to those who have fallen off that road and gently persuade them to make their way back.
Let your life be a light to those in the dark and help guide them to our Lord. Do you know someone who is off on the wrong road? Invite them out to your home or our annual hayride and let them see the Jesus in you. The rest we can trust to God.
Let us pray.
