It’s been another great week for me just studying the Word of God, and one of the things I love about the Bible is I, personally, tend to get distracted. I tend to get off course in life. You’re doing really well, and suddenly, you just start heading another direction. That’s one of the things I love about the Word of God is it shows you. It opens your eyes up. And you think, ‘Wow! I think I’ve been heading the wrong direction here.’ And that’s one of the things that God’s Word has done for me this week.
I finally got one of these things. GPS. I’ve been waiting. I keep waiting for the prices to go down, and it’s like half what it used to be. Keep going down, down, down, down, and I can’t wait. I’m just so cheap, and then someone just finally got me one. But it was one of those things I would have saved so much money had I gotten this earlier just in gas and time. It’s just like my wife. I guess I can talk about it. A few weeks ago, she was coming home from Hollywood so she jumped on the 5 South. We could have really used one of these, but she came home with a piñata. And I shouldn’t make it that far, but it’s close. But you know what? Now that I’m in your world, you GPSers, you know what I love about this? I love when you make a wrong turn, it doesn’t get mad at you. It just says recalculating. I love that. I love that. It’s like, ‘Why didn’t you listen to me?’ No, no, it doesn’t say it. It just says, ‘recalculating.’ And it’s so assuring, and I just want you to know because she’s so nice I just want to say, ‘Thank you, I’m sorry.’ But it’s that assuring voice that says- You know what? It gives you that confidence. It’s like it’s basically saying to me- I don’t know what it’s saying to you, but basically, she’s still saying to me, ‘I’ll still get you there. I’ll still get you there. It’ll take a little longer, but I’ll get you there.’
Some of you have taken some wrong turns in life. We all do it. And I hope that this morning is one of those times when you just hear the Holy Spirit saying, ‘Recalculating. I’ll still get you there. It’s going to take a little longer now, but I’ll still get you there.’ That’s what the Word of God does for us. It gives us a new set of directions. At some point, we have to listen though. And so this morning, for some of you that have gone some wrong directions, and the thing I’m learning more and more about God is His grace and just saying, ‘Yeah, you went the wrong way, but I’m not here to just yell at you and tell you that you screwed up. I’m just saying I’m recalculating your life now for you and giving you a new set of directions and seeing we can still get there. We can still get there. Doesn’t matter what you’ve done. We can still get there. But now listen to me this time.’ And so would you stand as we read the Word of God.
Let me read from Second Peter Chapter 1 as we continue in our study of 2 Peter and verse 5. It says, “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they will keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he is cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. For in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” [2 Peter 1:5-11 ESV]
Father, help us to really listen to Your Word today. For those of us who have strayed, maybe have gotten off course a little bit, I just pray that we would really believe in the power of Your Holy Spirit to change us, to get us back on course. And help us this time, Father, to listen to Your Word that we can become those people that You want us to be and that we want to be. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
You can have a seat. So in this passage, He says make every effort, make every effort- I want you to think in your life right now as far as making effort. Think through what do you work hardest at? Think that through right now. What do you- because this word, it’s like bringing all your effort, bringing all your zeal, what do you work hardest at? In this passage, He’s talking about these character qualities, and He’s saying make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and your virtue with knowledge and your knowledge with self- He names all these things that have to do with who we are, and He says make every effort toward this. Be diligent toward this. And here’s where, like I said, I notice, ‘Wow, I think I’ve gone off track here, and the Word of God just brought me back this week.’ Something I’ve noticed is- Ok, ten, fifteen years ago, I specifically remember people asking me this question. They would ask me, what are your goals in life? What are your goals in ministry? And I still remember my answer. I thought about it this week. That’s the first time I thought, ‘Wow, I remember how I used to answer that question.’ I used to tell people, ‘You know what-’ and I was completely sincere, ‘I don’t know what my goals are in ministry. I don’t know what my goals are in life. Life, as far as what I’m going to accomplish or what I even want to accomplish, but I have a very clear vision of the man I want to be one day. I know the type of husband I want to be. I know the type of dad I want to be, and I have a very clear picture especially of the type of Christian that I want to be.’ I had in my mind, my goals were wrapped around who I was going to become, this type of person, not what this person was going to achieve. And I was thinking back. Wow, that’s all I cared about back then. I was focused, and I realized something this last year where I’ve gone astray is I’ve gotten really focused on what I want to accomplish and what I want to do. And it’s not that I’ve fallen apart in my character, but I’ve put it on the back burner. There’s almost this sense of, ‘Well, I’m good enough. I’m doing pretty well in my character, and so I’m going to focus on stuff and what I’m going to do.’ And that’s such a mistake because the truth is like this passage says. It says, “If these qualities are yours, if these character qualities are yours and they’re increasing, that’s what keeps you from being ineffective or unproductive.” See, when you’re the right person, things are going to happen. You’re going to produce the fruit. You’re not going to be ineffective. Things will happen in your life, and it is so true because when I started off, I noticed I had friends that would pursue positions and pursue achieving this, achieving that. I want this. I want that. And they kind of let their character go on the back burner, and it was actually really sad because what happened is they ended up with neither.
They didn’t accomplish what they wanted to accomplish because they weren’t the people that they needed to be. And as I look back in life, I realize, ‘Gosh, was it really that I pursued all of this stuff, and then I really tried to accomplish a bunch of things, or was it that I just tried to be the man that God wanted me to be, and all this stuff just started happening?’ And all these results that you didn’t even strive after, these things just started happening. And it was so good for the Word of God just to cleanse me again. And think, ‘Ok, stop trying so hard to fix this, to achieve this, to accomplish that. Just go back to becoming the man that I’ve called you to be, and make every effort toward that. Be diligent towards that.’
See, some of you need to recalculate your life this morning because maybe you’ve been too focused on what you want to do rather than on who God’s called you to be. That doesn’t mean we don’t work. I’ve worked all that time because part of having character is not being lazy and having a good work ethic. But the whole ideal is of pursuing and praying hard and making every effort and bringing all zeal towards these character qualities in your life that haven’t been number one priority.
Some of you came here this morning with a hope that God would change your circumstances and fix your situation. And the first thing I want to say to you is that God is more concerned about changing you than your circumstances. Do you understand that? It could be that God wants to keep you in these difficult circumstances because He’s changing you. You see, it’s about your character. God loves you so much He doesn’t want you to stay where you are. It’s this new person that He wants to make us. We know Him, as we talked about last week. Remember how He’s given us everything that pertains to life and godliness because those are the things that He wants from us. He wants to see His children live. He wants to see His children godly. He wants to see His children with grace and peace multiplied upon them. And that comes from knowing Him. That comes from becoming like Him. And so we make every effort towards these things. And then the other stuff will happen, but here’s the important question. Do you want to change? Is this the desire of your heart this morning? It’s not, ‘I came here, God, because I want you to fix this, fix that,’ but you came here saying, ‘God, I want you to fix me. I want you to change me. That’s what Your Holy Spirit came into me to do.’
He starts the passage. He actually says, “For this very reason, make every effort.” “For this very reason make every effort” towards these things. Now what’s this reason? Remember earlier what we studied last week. He talked about how He’s given us everything. His divine power has given us everything that pertains to life in God, given us everything we need to live these godly lives. We talked about that. Right? And we talked about how that’s in the knowledge of Him. It’s through knowing Him, and then He talks about how we became partakers of the divine nature. Right? That now, I’m not just flesh and blood, I’m not just this human being, but when I gave my life to the Lord, when I decided to follow Him, when I decided I don’t want to live that way anymore, I want to live the way you want me to live. At that moment, He puts His Holy Spirit into me. And so now, I’m a partaker of this divine nature as it says that I’ve escaped the corruption of the sinful desires here on this Earth. I’m not just going down this whirlpool like everyone else, getting sucked in deeper and deeper and deeper, but no, I’ve been given this divine nature. And now I can live a different way. And now He says for this reason because you have this Holy Spirit in you, because you have been given this divine nature, because God’s blessed you and given you everything you need for life and godliness. He says, ‘Because you’ve been given all that, take advantage of it, and make every effort to add to your faith this virtue that He wants you to have.’ It’s this idea of we get to pursue these things. Do you understand that? It’s because why should you pursue all these things- because you can, and because you get to? When you became a believer, was it just because you didn’t want to go to hell, or was it because you saw that God offered a better life, and this morality that He was offering and this way of living was better? And you were saying, ‘God I want to repent. I want to turn from all that stuff, and I want to live this way now.’ Didn’t you desire these things? Isn’t that what the Holy Spirit put on us is this desire for virtue and this desire for character?
That’s a huge, huge question, and it has to do with your attitude. Are you thinking in your mind, ‘I get to change’ or ‘I have to change’? In other words, is this what you want? You know, the Holy Spirit came into me, and I get to put off all these deeds of the flesh, or are you here today thinking, ‘Ah man, asking those silly questions I’ve heard my whole life. Do I have to stop drinking? Do I have to forgive? Do I have to stop watching those movies? Do I have to- I mean is God- God will still let me into heaven even if I leave my wife. Right? God will still let me into heaven even though I still hate my parents. Right? God will still let me into heaven even though I’m going to keep on with this addiction that I have. Right? God will still let me into heaven even if I do this wrong. Right?’ Those types of questions reveal a heart that is not about get to but have to. It reveals and gets me to question. ‘Wait, so you don’t actually want to be saved from the old you? You’re actually hoping you can keep those things and still get to heaven?’ Because the way I understand the Holy Spirit coming into a person is that He makes us a slave to righteousness. We have a new master in us that actually desires the things that are right and good. And then He changed our nature that we don’t actually- that doesn’t mean we don’t get off course, that doesn’t mean we don’t get temptations because we’re still in this fallen world and the flesh is still with us, but we have this new master that actually wants to live a righteous life. Isn’t that you? And so whenever you blow it your like, ‘Ah! I didn’t want to be that person.’ See? And the Bible says because you don’t have to be that person anymore, and you’re given a new nature, and now you get to where you have everything you need to live this godly life. So go for it. Go for it. And now make every effort because you get to. Don’t you hate it when someone wastes potential?
It’s like my kid that wanted to quit piano. A couple of years ago, I said no way. No way, I’m not letting you. I’m not letting you waste that gift. You know why? Because as a dad when you see your kids and they’re just an incredible athlete or whatever and they just want to quit, and you’re thinking, ‘No, no you’re not quitting. Ok, you’re going to regret quitting. You’re going to regret quitting because you’ve been given this gift, and you have to go for it. You have to go for it, have to go for it.’ And once they get going and they mature, they think, ‘Ah! Thank you for not letting me quit because I just went through a weird phase there, and thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m so glad I didn’t quit.’ Some of you are looking at your kids. See? It’s all around the room. That’s weird. There’s all this- it’s just this idea. Don’t you understand that’s the thrust of this passage? I have the potential to be an amazingly godly man. I have the potential of being such a virtuous, self-controlled, persevering, just, knowledgeable person that lives so holy, filled with so much love. And that’s why the Bible says because you have that potential now, because the Holy Spirit’s in you, go after it one hundred percent. Don’t quit on these things. Make every effort towards it. That’s what we want for our kids. Right? When we see a gift in them, we’re like, ‘Come on. Go after it. You’ve been given something,’ and that’s this idea here that God has given you His Holy Spirit. He’s given you an ability to be so holy, so righteous, so virtuous, so don’t believe the lies that you can’t be this, you can’t be that. Yeah, you took some wrong turns, but here’s what the Word of God is saying. Ok, now make every effort toward these things.
It starts with faith. You see this new nature? You have to believe that God not only gives you this new desire to want righteousness, but He gives you the power that enables you to achieve it. Isn’t that cool? It’s not just this desire. It’s one thing to desire. Some people may desire righteousness before becoming a believer, but they won’t have the power to accomplish it. And what He’s saying is My divine nature has given you this. You have taken of that divine nature. My divine power has given it to you, but you have to believe that. It all starts with faith. Why even move on in the list if you don’t have faith. Because if you don’t have faith, then you don’t believe that any of these things can be yours. And so you have to believe that, yes, number one, God loves you. And for those of you who have walked away from your old life, and say, ‘God I believe that Jesus died on that Cross for all of my sins. I believe He rose from the grave, and you’ve decided to follow Him,’ He put a new nature in you. You have to believe it. You have to have faith, but you have to move on. You can’t just have that faith. You have to believe that you have that power, but from that faith, He says, you need to add to it. And you need to add virtue.
This idea of virtue has to do with this moral excellence. It’s in your actions, in your purity, in your thoughts. It’s purity. The same thing when He refers to God when He’s called us to His own glory or virtue, He says in verse 3. He’s called us to have the same glory or excellence that God has. So add to your faith, it’s not enough for you to say, ‘Oh, I believe.’ No, He says add to that belief now this type of moral character. A lot of people say they believe, but your faith needs to be expressed in something concrete. And people ought to see this moral excellence in your life, and so He says go after it. Strive after it. This word also has to do with a strength and a courage that goes with it. Is virtuous a word that would be used to describe you? And are you going hard after it? Are you making every effort towards it? It’s an interesting thing because we know that it’s God that works in us. Right? And it’s His power, but at the same time, there’s the command, make every effort. So there is something I do also, normally. That illustration I used way back when I brought that treadmill up here. Just to help us understand the Holy Spirit. It’s when you’ve been given this gift of this treadmill. You can’t take it back a month later and say, ‘I didn’t lose any weight,’ because the salesman will say, ‘Well, did you get on it?’ ‘Oh, I didn’t know that.’ It’s the same thing with the Holy Spirit. It’s this idea of, yes, we’ve been given this tremendous gift and this power, but there is also this idea where He says make every effort towards these things. Make every effort to add to that faith that you have. It’s great that you believe, and now add to it virtue. Work hard at your moral excellence, knowing that it’s God working through you to accomplish these things.
And then it says to add to your virtue knowledge. How are you doing with your knowledge? Have you been working harder and harder to understand God, understanding the truth about God, understanding the Word of God? How are you doing with your studying the Word of God? We’ve been talking about this a lot, about how we’ve been so busy and scattered and these different things and making effort towards keeping up with everyone. And giving little shallow answers to everyone, and making sure everyone hears your opinion, and Facebooking, and Tweeting what you believe and everything to the world. We’ve made a lot of effort towards that, but how much effort have you made towards knowing God better? How much effort have you made toward knowing the Word of God better? Some of you have been believers for years and years and years. And the only verse you can quote is John 3:16. Have you made every effort at adding to your virtue? Maybe you are living a virtuous life. Maybe you are living that godly life. Are you adding to it knowledge? Start making effort towards that. And it’s more than just facts. This knowledge has to do with an internalization of those facts because we all know people who know a lot about the Scriptures, and then we look at their lives, and it’s obvious that they haven’t internalized those things. But they can quote it. It has to do with the wisdom of internalizing. It’s about growing in this knowledge and wisdom that actually directs us in life.
Then He says to add to your knowledge self-control. Self-control has to do with the person who is able to master his sensual desires. And sometimes when we talk about self-control, we just talk about the extremes, but you have to understand this word. It’s about just things in natural life and being moderate about those desires. Do you understand that? We all have natural desires, and those aren’t all bad. It’s about being able to control that and being moderate in them. I desire eating. Ok, that’s normal. That’s the way God made me. It’s ok, but do I show self-control in that? With sexual desires, it’s normal. It’s God given, but are you moderate in that? Are you in control of those urges, those desires? I like to sleep. Don’t you love to sleep? But are you in control of that, in moderating how much you sleep? Do you really need that much sleep? It would be nice to see the sun every once in a while. I like to play. This is one of my weaknesses. I love to play. I want to just laugh and play. I just play everyday. It’s a desire, but how are you doing in moderation? You need clothes to stay warm, but how many clothes do you need? It’s a self-control. It’s interesting because I think there’s a weakness. Many of us would say I’ve got way too much, but what are you going to do this week? Go buy more. Why? Because we lack self-control. It’s not- We desire all these things, and you see we want to go to the extreme. Well, I’m not doing this- I know, but make every effort towards self-control. This is one of the parts where I messed up in my life was you get to this point that you start comparing yourselves to other people in your character. And you’re thinking, ‘Well, I’m a lot better than you.’ So I’m just kidding. But it’s that idea of where you almost feel like I’m good enough in this area rather than making every effort towards this virtue that God has and getting there to where I am totally content in these areas. I really do have self-control in all these areas. How are you doing in the area of self-control? Are you making efforts? Are you making strides? Are you diligent towards this? Because we can be diligent toward a lot of things and neglect our character.
This next one is tough because he tells us to add to our self-control this idea of steadfastness. Steadfastness is a word for patience. Steadfastness is the word for when you have a weight on you, and you just keep holding up under that weight. He says we need to have this endurance. I’m going to hold it up longer. I’m going to hold it up longer. That’s the steadfastness, and what we want to do is say, ‘God, get rid of that weight.’ Right? Because then I can just relax and everything would be easy. But this idea of steadfastness, you don’t become steadfast. You don’t persevere unless there’s some weight on you, and there’s some pressure on you. And you’re going to feel like quitting. It’s going to get more and more difficult, and you’ll feel like quitting, and you’ll want to collapse. And so most of us, lets be honest, we pray and say, ‘God, get rid of that weight,’ because we’re not so concerned about developing steadfastness. When’s the last time? Have you ever? Think about this. Have you ever in your life asked God to make your life a little more difficult so that you could develop steadfastness? Have you ever in your life thought to yourself, ‘You know what, I’m kind of weak? Every little trial comes my way, and I fall apart,’ and you say, ‘God, I want to work on that because I want to become this man or woman who is steadfast. So keep it coming.’ You see, it’s comical really, when you think about it because we care about our comfort far more than we care about our character. But that’s not God’s desire. Ok, think about this. I’ve used this many, many times, but think about this. Two thousand and ten’s coming up. We have a little over a month and a half to prepare for it. Let’s say Jesus came in the room today and said, ‘2010 is coming. As you walk out today, I’m going to give you an option. Everyone has an option of plan A or plan B for 2010. In 2010, here’s your choice you get to make today. In 2010, I can make it a very easy and comfortable year for you. Everything is going to go your way. You want a great marriage? It’ll be there. You’re not married? You want a perfect mate? She’s coming. You want a new job where you make three times as much as last year? You’ll get it. You want no one in your family to get sick, and you won’t get sick, and in fact, you want to end up with a six-pack, everything. It’s just supernaturally. It’s just all going to be there. Now at the end of the year, you’re not going to be any stronger than you were in ‘09. You’re not going to be any closer to Me. We’re not going to be anymore intimate, but it will have been a fun year, or I’ll give you plan B. Plan B, 2010, I’m going to have you go through some hardships. And it’s not going to be an easy year, but during those times, you and I are going to get so close. You’re going to get so close to Me, you’re going to experience Me like never before. And at the end of the year, you’re going to be this man or woman that is just so far beyond who you are today. This steadfastness, this strength you’ve never had. I’ll get you through it, but it’ll be tough. And so you’re walking out the door, and Jesus greets you and says, ‘What do you want, plan A, plan B?’ Be honest; what are you going to choose? Think that through. See, I found myself frustrated at hardship lately, as if something were going wrong. But if I were- the reason I was so frustrated is that I wasn’t thinking about my character. Most days I wake up, and I don’t even think about my character and wanting to be a certain type of man. I just want to be happy. I just want all the problems to go away. What do you want for yourself? Because I’ll tell you what God wants. He wants you to be holy. He wants you to be this steadfast person. You see, instead of being frustrated at hardship, if I was really concerned about my character, then I could obey James 1 that says consider it all joy when you encounter these trials. Because you’re thinking, ‘Ok, trials are here, and I’ve been concerned about my steadfastness. So here’s an opportunity to get stronger.’ I haven’t pulled that one off yet. But it’s just God recalculating, saying, ‘Francis, you’ve been frustrated at so many things. Don’t you understand I’ve been trying to change you and make you stronger and turn you into this man that you want to be, right?’ ‘Yeah I do, yeah I do. All right, keep them coming.’ That’s a hard prayer. That’s a hard, hard prayer. And as we talk about persevering, understanding I’m not going to get through this passage today. So you’re thinking, ‘Ah, man he’s just there, and we’re never going to get through verse 11.’ We’ll keep plugging away. We’ll do it. We’ll finish next week. But let’s continue through these character qualities.
And next he says add to it godliness. Godliness, this word has to do with a reverence, a respect toward God, kind of like a religious- more of a piety. It’s this idea of- and understand, this isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list of all the character qualities. This is just a general principle of all these things that we are to be striving for. It’s not exhaustive. This is not every single one, and it doesn’t have to be in this order. It’s just thinking in general. Do you want to be a godly person? Do you want to be a persevering person? Do you want to be a self-controlled person? Do you want to be a loving person? Don’t you want to be? So go after, go after these things. You’ve been given the ability to become this person that has all of these qualities. It’s about the fruit of the Holy Spirit, or all of these qualities, not one of them. All of them, go after it. Don’t you want to be this awesome person that’s godly, that’s steadfast, that’s self-controlled, that’s knowledgeable, that’s virtuous?
And next he says brotherly affection, that we’re brotherly affectionate. It’s this idea of tender affection toward your spiritual family, this brotherly affection that we aught to have. The word is philadelphia. That’s where we get the city of brotherly love, which is funny. It’s philadelphia, but it’s this idea of this word is just- we’re a family in here. Ok, do you get that? And He wants us to have this tender affection for one another like a true, true family member. To long for, that’s why a lot of times we push for man, you’ve got family members on your own block, in your own neighborhood, and God wants this brotherly affection amidst you. That yeah, you may have nothing in common with them other than Jesus Christ and your salvation and your desire to live a holy life and His mission, but on a fleshly level, you think, ‘I’d never hang out with that guy.’ And God says, ‘But don’t you want to have this brotherly affection with them?’ because that’s God’s desire. I said you work through those relationships. You stick with them, and you have this tenderness toward them. First John 4:20 says you can’t say that you love God and you hate your brother. That doesn’t make any sense. There ought to be this brotherly affection.
Someone in our church was asked to go to another religion and attend their service. And so she told this group of people, ‘Ok, I’ll go to yours, but you have to come to mine.’ And I don’t advise that for everyone, but for those who are strong. And for this person, she was, and I thought, ‘Man, that’s pretty cool.’ And I said, “So what was it like going to this other place, and what was the difference between the two religions?” And she said, “Well, the message here was better, of course. But the truth, they were so much friendlier. It’s like you walked in, and it’s like everyone knew each other and asked how are you doing, how are you doing? And they just overwhelmed me. And people here were friendly to my friends, but it was just hi type of thing. Where as there, it was family,” and that hurts to hear doesn’t it? And at the same time, we also know it’s true. And so understand when we – I know we’ve made some mistakes as leaders, and maybe gone overboard in pushing, pushing, pushing, love each other, get to know each other, spend time with each other, and almost a forcing thing. But do you understand our heart behind it? That we just know this isn’t right, I can’t do this anymore. God wants a brotherly affection amongst us, and we have to somehow create it. And it’s hard to turn a ship this big, and say, ‘Ok, everyone come next Sunday. And we’re going to love on each other.’ It just doesn’t- it’s not an overnight thing, but we’re just working, working, and striving after it because it’s what God wants. And He wants us to be diligent in this area.
Add to your brotherly affection love. Understand this love that He talks about, and it’s the last one that He mentions, He says this love is a God love. It’s an agape love. God is love. Right? It’s who He is, but understand His love is a subjective love not an objective one. It’s not one that’s based upon the object of His love and what they do for Him. Oh, they love Me; I’ll love them in return. It’s just, ‘No, I Myself Am love. And so I do nothing but love. I love not because of who you are. I love in spite of who you are.’ Is that what you’re known for? Don’t you want to be that person though? Where people hate you, spit on you, curse you, and you can just love them in return? Isn’t that what we signed up for? I want to be like Jesus. Go ahead, nail me to a Cross, and I’ll still love you, and say “Forgive them; they know not what they do.” How are you doing on that? Because the Bible says, verse 8 [2 Peter1:8], and I’ll just close with this. And we’ll pick it up next week. See what time it is.
“If these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” “If these qualities are yours and are increasing.” As we look at those qualities, are they increasing in your life? It’s not a question of are you better than other people? The question is are they increasing? Are you more loving than you were a few months ago? Do you have more self-control than you had a few months ago? It doesn’t matter what level you’re at. The question is are they increasing, are they abounding? Do you just see more and more and more of it because that’s what’s going to keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful? And isn’t that what we want? No one wants to live a pointless life. Right? You just want to take up space and survive, or don’t you want to know that you did something here on this Earth? And He says, ‘Well, if these character qualities are in you and they’re increasing, you know what? It will keep you. That’s your promise. It’s your guard from being ineffective.’
Now when I asked you that question earlier, what do you work hardest at? Some would say your jobs. Some would say at raising your kids. Some would say maybe at ministering to other people and trying to change them, even change your own spouse. Some of you maybe it’s toward relationships and getting relationships, but let me give you this one last thought. Let me just throw this out. Let’s take parenting. Some of you parents take this so seriously, and that’s awesome. You don’t see being a mom or a dad as your secondary role or little side thing you have to do. You see it as a responsibility before the Lord, and that’s great. And so you work hard at teaching your kids by putting them in programs, giving them rules, putting them in whatever school you think is best for them. All those things are good, but the greatest thing you can do for your kids is pursue your own character. It really is. This whole ‘I want you to obey me so you don’t end up like me.’ That’s been our go to line. It’s never really worked. The best thing is for you to choose to pursue moral excellence yourself because so much of what they learn is caught and not taught. You’ve heard that before? For them to see a life that’s been changed, and for them to think, ‘I want that.’ Rather than say, ‘I will do all the right things because I don’t want to be like my parents.’ It’s not affective parenting. God’s plan for parenting was always the same. Deuteronomy 6, that as you go along life, as you walk about your ways, your kids are lying down. You’re just teaching them all along life’s road. They’re watching your life and seeing these character qualities. And you’re teaching them the Word of God as they walk along side of you. You’re saying, ‘See, see how God’s blessed. Look at His grace and peace in my life. See mom and dad, and the grace and peace amidst us. This is what we want for you.’ That’s been God’s desire. And I understand some of you, you can’t do that because you’re not in a relationship where both people want to follow God. And so there is some recalculating that needs to be done there. But you as an individual, as a Spirit-filled man or woman of God by yourself, it’s amazing what God can do through you, and for them to see maybe the difference of a person who understands the grace and peace of God and be in that home along with a person who doesn’t have that. Let’s be diligent in these things. Some of you, you’re so focused on maybe it’s a relationship you want. We’ve seen it. The people who want a relationship so badly that they focus on finding the right person rather than being the right person, and that never works does it? They just keep looking, looking, looking. You keep finding the right people, but they have no reason for wanting to be with you because you haven’t focused on your own character. You find that person, and they think, ‘Well, why would I want to be with you? You haven’t worked on the character.’ See what I’m saying is, what the Scripture is saying is God wants us to live a fruitful life, and if we become the people that He wants us to be, the other things will come into place. It’ll happen, and if not, there’s going to be a persevering and a steadfastness that He’s going to create in you. I’m not saying you do this, and everything is going to be easy. I’m saying that at the end, you become the person you want to be. For me, I’ve noticed that even in ministry, even in good things like parenting, and even in ministry, I’ve been too focused on fixing and making things happen. And God’s saying, ‘Francis, just walk with Me, just know Me, just become the man of God you are meant to be. Isn’t that how everything happened anyways? Let’s get back on that path recalculating, getting back, and listening. I hope you’ll do the same in your life, too.
I’m going to have the worship team come up, and I’m going to give you some time of reflection. As the worship team plays, what we’re going to do is we’re going to throw some verses up on the screen. They just talk about these qualities that we’ve been talking about. And as you read those, just take some time to meditate and to seek diligently these things. And don’t forget that there’s a truth that as we seek God that these things will come to us. You know how you become like the people you hang out with a lot? As we know God more and more and as we’re closer and closer to Him, you become more and more like Him. That’s why we so emphasize knowing God. These qualities are the qualities of God Himself. And that’s why He says I want you to become like Me. Make every effort to become like Me. I saved you to become like Me. I made you ambassadors, and I want to look down and see Me in you. That’s why He wants these things because God’s the ultimate good. And so as you look at these qualities, it’s a time of repentance. Say, ‘God, help me to make every effort toward these things. Fix this in me. Change me, not my circumstances. Change me.’
