Sometimes this is the motivation for some to:
(1) DIET EACH DAY
Illus: Much has been said about diets, such as:
• It's something most of us do religiously: We eat what we want to eat, drink a diet coke and pray we don't gain weight
• Someone else said that the problem with curbing our appetites is that most of us do it at the drive in window of McDonald’s
• Someone else said that diets are for people who are thick, and tired of it
• Someone else said that a diet is when you have to go to some length to change your width
But many diet each day because they believe they can look like someone they want to look like if they just keep losing that weight.
Some want to be like someone else and this is why they-
(2) EXERCISE EACH DAY
Some folks have a warped view about diets and some also have a warped view about exercise.
Illus: Look what some have said about exercise:
• One man said, “I've been working out every day this week. My TV remote is broken, and getting up out of the chair 50 times a night is going to be the death of me yet.”
• One man said, “My idea of exercise is ripping the wrapper off the Baby Ruth Candy bar.”
• How can one believe in survival of the fittest when you look at some of the people running around in jogging shorts?
• One man said, “I gave up exercising when I broke my nose doing push-ups.”
• A genius said, “Fitness nuts are going to feel really stupid lying in a hospital bed some day dying of nothing.”
• A Preacher said, “These days, many people get their exercise by jumping to conclusions, flying off the handle, dodging responsibilities, bending the rules, running down everything, circulating rumors, passing the buck, stirring up trouble, shooting the bull, digging up dirt, slinging mud, throwing their weight around, beating the system, and pushing their luck.”
• An old beauty queen said, “My figure used to be my fame, and helped me get ahead. But that was fifteen years ago, and now my fame has spread.”
• An old man said, “When I was younger, I looked forward to getting up early in the morning to exercise. Now, getting out of bed in the morning is my exercise.”
• A fellow in this church said, that his idea of vigorous exercise is to lift his feet while his wife is vacuuming.
• An old lady said, “I get enough exercise by stumbling about a mile each day looking for my glasses.”
But there are a lot of folks who exercise daily because they want to look like someone that they admire greatly. They think by DIETING and EXERCISE they will be able to achieve this goal.
(3) SOME EVEN GO TO PLASTIC SURGEONS IN AN ATTEMPT TO LOOK LIKE SOMEONE ELSE
Illus: For example, Janet Reno went to a plastic Surgeon and asked him, “Can you make me beautiful?” He suggested she take up acting and that she ought to get a job on the television program called, “Mission Impossible!”
Illus: Groucho Marx said of one woman, "She got her looks from her father: He's a plastic surgeon."
We all find ourselves wanting to look like someone else. But a lot can be said for people who have learned to be content with who they are and what God has blessed them with.
WHILE WE SHOULD NOT TRY TO BE LIKE OTHERS, WE SHOULD TRY TO BE LIKE CHRIST!
Paul, said, in Gal. 2:20, "I am crucified with Christ: Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
Our heart's desire should be to be more like Him! Let’s look at some qualities that should be part of our lives:
Look at 2 Peter 1:1-11. He shows us things we should add to our FAITH each day to become more like Christ. We want to address each one of these, but in this sermon we want to examine -
I. THE QUALITY OF VIRTUE
Look at 2 Peter 1:5a, we read, “And beside this, giving all diligence, ADD TO YOUR FAITH VIRTUE…”
WHAT IS A VIRTUOUS PERSON? It is a person who practices MORAL EXCELLENCE! If we are going to be the SPIRITUAL PERSON that God wants us to be, we can not live an ungodly life.
A virtuous person is a person who has ADDED VIRTUE TO THEIR CHRISTIAN FAITH.
• For example, when we say a young woman is a virgin, we mean she is a young woman that has abstained from unlawful sexual behavior. She has the same temptations any woman has, but she does not cave in to temptation.
• And when a person is a virtuous person, we mean they are a person who has abstained from sinful behavior. They have the same temptations any Christian has, but they do not cave in to temptation.
Peter is writing to believers who are facing some very difficult
situations. He is telling them they are not to cave in to temptation. He is saying that they need to add VIRTUE to their Christian life.
Every Christian falls into one of three categories. Some are-
(1) SPIRITUAL BABES
Some are babes in Christ, having been just recently born-again. But many are babes in the Lord because they refused to ADD TO THEIR FAITH spiritual things that would cause them to GROW SPIRITUALLY. Such as … VIRTUE!
But there are others among God’s children who are-
(2) BACKSLIDERS
WHAT IS A BACKSLIDER? In the Christian life, we either go FORWARD or we go BACKWARD! We can not come to a standstill.
Some in their Christian life are ADDING THE RIGHT KIND OF THINGS TO THEIR FAITH DAILY, and are getting closer and closer to the Lord.
Some are refusing, and they are getting further and further from the Lord each day.
In the church we have THE BABES, THE BACKSLIDERS, and-
(3) THE BUILDERS
They are adding to their faith, and it is growing every day.
If you are going to be the strong SPIRITUAL INDIVIDUAL that God wants you to become, you are going to have to BECOME A VIRTUOUS PERSON.
HOW DO WE BECOME A VIRTUOUS PERSON? Before we can become such a person, we need to consider:
A. VIRTUE IS AN ATTITUDE WE NEED TO HAVE
Some folks are not very virtuous, they go through life with a very rotten attitude.
Illus: Someone said, "If a man has limburger cheese on his upper lip, he thinks the whole world smells." (1001 Humorous Illustrations, p.38)
A lot of folks these days seem to have limburger cheese on their upper lip.
Illus: Church Swindoll said, "The Longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church ... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you...we are in charge of our attitudes." (Submitted by BBFI Missionary)
Virtue is an attitude we must have if we are going to become THE SPIRITUAL PERSON GOD WANTS US TO BECOME.
Illus: have you ever attended a good spiritual service where your soul was blessed? That is, you left blessed and you were on a spiritual high, but then you began to talk with someone who attended the same church service, and they are finding fault with everyone in the church but themselves. Listen, that person has a serious ATTITUDE PROBLEM!
They are not looking for MORAL EXCELLENCE, they are looking for the WORST! MORAL EXCELLENCE it taking the worst and making the best out of it.
Illus: A man dwelt in a very comfortable house, with a large, light, airy cellar. The river ran nearby. One day the river overflowed, the cellar was flooded, and all the hens that he kept in it were drowned. The next day he bounced off to see the landlord. 'I have come to give you notice. I wish to leave the house.' 'How is that?' asked the astonished landlord. 'I thought you liked it so much. It is a very comfortable, well-built house, and cheap. 'Oh, yes,' the tenant replied, 'but the river has overflowed into my cellar, and all my hens are drowned.' 'Oh, don't let that make you give up the house,’ the landlord reasoned; 'try ducks!' (Frank Boreham, Mushrooms on the Moor, London: The Epworth Press, 1930, p. 52-53 )
Illus: Someone said, “To have the OUTWARD EXPRESSION of VIRTUE, we must first have an INWARD EXPRESSION of VIRTUE.”
The outward expression of "virtue" begins within. It is an inner attitude or mindset that says,
• I want to look for the good
• I want to speak the good
• I want to do all the good I can in this life
Illus: A little girl was spending some time with her grandma, and while she was sitting on her lap she said, "Grandma, I love you so much. You’re so pretty!" The thin and wrinkled grandma laughed and said, "Honey, that’s sweet of you to say, but I’m not pretty." The little girl responded, "Oh yes you are. You’re pretty on the inside."
We can look at others who are pretty on the outside and wish we could be like them, but that will never happen. But EVERY ONE OF US CAN BE PRETTY ON THE INSIDE, by adding CHRISTIAN VIRTUE to our faith.
Illus: A little lamb was walking with his mother one day. As they passed the pig pen going to the pasture, the little lamb saw the little pigs playing in the mud. He asked his mother if he could play in the mud also. His mother scolded him and reminded him that, "Sheep don’t wallow in the mud."
Oh, but he wanted to play in the mud. It looked like so
much fun. On hot days the mud looked so cool.
One day, as he and his mother were making their way to
the pasture, he let his mother get ahead of him. He took
off for the pig pen. He jumped over the fence and started
playing in the mud. The cool mud felt good around his ankles, so he went in a little deeper. He got in up to his belly and was cooling down.
Wool and mud, however, don’t mix well. It began to cake
on his wool and eventually he realized he was stuck. He
couldn’t move, he couldn’t get out. What he thought would
bring him pleasure became his prison.
After crying for help, the farmer rescued him. His mother
reminded him, "Sheep don’t wallow in the mud!"
That’s good counsel for Christian sheep too. We must not
play with sin because we know it traps, addicts and destroys.
VIRTUE IS AN ATTITUDE we must have if we are going to become the SPIRITUAL INDIVIDUALS God wants us to be.
B. VIRTUE IS AN ACTION WE MUST HAVE
If something is wrong and we know it is wrong, we ABSTAIN. But virtue is not just abstaining. When we know something is right, we PARTICIPATE.
Illus: Years ago, some of the Christian young people wore bracelets with the letters WWJD on them. When they faced certain choices in life they would ask themselves, “What Would Jesus Do?”
That is exactly what every person who wants to become like Christ should do. If we want to be the same virtuous person He is, we need to ask ourselves, “What Would Jesus Do?”
INWARDLY, VIRTUE IS AN ATTITUDE THAT WE NEED, AND OUTWARDLY, VIRTUE IS AN ACTION THAT WE MUST TAKE.
You see, something in our life is guiding us in the direction we are going.
There is a lot of talk today about core values. Once these values are established in our lives, these values define the boundaries of how we conduct our lives. These values must become VIRTUES that we have added to our Christian faith.
We live in a society where there isn’t much emphasis on virtue.
Illus: In a article titled "Teaching the Virtues", Christina Hoff Sommers, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Clark University tells this story.
She said, “Not very long ago, I published an article called "Ethics without Virtue" in which I criticized the way ethics is being taught in American colleges.”
“I pointed out that there is an overemphasis on social policy questions, with little or no attention being paid to private morality.”
She said, “I noted that students taking college ethics are debating abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, DNA research, and the ethics of transplant surgery, while they learn almost nothing about private decency, honesty, personal responsibility, or honor. Topics such as hypocrisy, self-deception, cruelty or selfishness rarely came up. I argued that the current style of ethics teaching, which concentrated so much on social policy was giving students the wrong ideas about ethics. Social morality is only half of the moral life; the other half is private morality. I urged that we attend to both.”
“A colleague of mine did not like what I said. She told me that in her classroom she would continue to focus on issues of social injustice.” “She taught about women’s oppression, corruption in big business, multinational corporations and their transgressions in the Third World - that sort of thing.” “She said to me, ‘You are not going to have moral people until you have moral institutions. You will not have moral citizens until you have a moral government.’” “She made it clear that I was wasting time and even doing harm by promoting bourgeois morality and the bourgeois virtues instead of awakening the social conscience of my students.”
“At the end of the semester, she came into my office carrying a stack of exams and looking very upset. ‘What’s wrong?’ I asked.”
“‘They cheated on their social justice take-home finals. They plagiarized!’ More than half of the students in her ethics class had copied long passages from the secondary literature.”
"What are you going to do?" I asked her. She gave me a self-mocking smile and said, ‘I’d like to borrow a copy of that article you wrote on ethics without virtue.’"
If we are going to be the SPIRITUAL INDIVIDUAL that God wants us to become, we are going to have to be diligent as the scriptures says, and ADD VIRTUE TO OUR FAITH.
HOW DO WE ACQUIRE THESE VIRTUES? Look at Gal. 5:22-23, we read, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”
Notice, in this Scripture, these virtues come from the Holy Spirit who controls our lives. He will produce this kind of fruit in us. He produces these virtues when we give him control of our lives.
The Apostle Paul isn’t saying that we passively sit back and wait for the Holy Spirit to produce these virtues within us. We have a part to take in the production of these virtues as well. Our responsibility is to do what the Holy Spirit tells us to do.
Jesus said it this way in John 15:1-5, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”
Illus: In his book, Abundant Living,” E. Stanley Jones, wrote a devotional titled "Fastening on Dead Branches". He tells the story of a vine he watched stretch across space to attach itself to a tree. In due time, the vine made it. A few days later a storm came through and pulled the vine from its limb. The vine had attached itself to a dead limb of the tree. If it had attached to the tree trunk, it would have survived the storm.
So many times, we attach ourselves to the dead limbs of religion, good resolutions, church, rituals, or ministers. All of these will let us down.
We cannot produce these virtues. They are the products of the work of the Holy Spirit within us. Our part is to attach ourselves to Him daily, and He will produce the VIRTUES! They are the virtues which our Lord modeled for us when He was on this earth.
Conclusion:
We can not become like some folks, no matter how hard we may try. But there is good news! The CLOSER WE ARE TO THE LORD, THE MORE WE WANT TO BECOME LIKE HIM, AND THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD WE CAN HAVE THE SAME VIRTUES IN OUR LIVES ALSO.
Our Christian life has been compared to a garden. If we really want to, we can have a beautiful garden. But to achieve this we are going to have to WORK AT IT. Why? Because if we do not, the weeds will take over and grow without us doing anything.
I. THE QUALITY OF VIRTUE
A. VIRTUE IS AN ATTITUDE
B. VIRTUE IS AN ACTION
