We Need To Add To Our Faith Godliness

How many of us have heard it said from some one near to us, “If you love me, you will love me as I am.” It is the nature of true love to love what is unlovely and even the unlovable. As we read our bibles we find that the word for this deep love is agape. Romans 5:8 “But God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” This means that God’s love is able to find us. He loves me just as I am. Real loves us not leave us just as we are but changes us so we can become what we are meant to be.

The world-famous author, Rudyard Kipling received a rejection letter after applying for a job with a newspaper, it said, ’Sorry Mr. Kipling, but you just don’t know how to use the English Language.’ After a lifetime of defeats, at 62, Winston Churchill became one of Britain’s greatest Prime Ministers. Einstein’s schoolteachers described him as, mentally slow, unsociable and adrift in his foolish dreams. By age 46, Beethoven was completely deaf, yet he wrote some of his greatest symphonies without hearing a note. Life is about overcoming! You conquer one mountain, and then before you know it you’re faced with the next; a bigger one. Remember Peter, who denied Jesus in a moment of weakness, and Jonah who ran from the call of God because he was afraid? We can all mess up or want to give up. In every story of victory there are chapters of defeat. But by God’s grace you can overcome! That’s why the Bible says: ’The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.’ Hudson Taylor, an amazing missionary said, ’Many Christians estimate difficulty in the light of their own resources, thus they attempt very little and they always fail. The real giants have all been weak people who did great things for God because they reckoned on His power and His presence to be with them.’ Bottom line: God has got your back; don’t worry about failing, worry about what you’re going to tell God if you don’t even try! Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." MT 6:34. After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

God’s love takes us in our unlovely state and restores us to what we were made to be.

2 Pt 1:1-9

We need to add to our faith Godliness

This comes from 1 Pt 1:16. The work to add on godliness means to become holy, pure and Christ like. It might seem as we look at this that the work of conversion from being a child of the devil to being a child of God was simple in what we are looking into today. When we come to Christ in repentance and receive His forgives for our sins he makes us a new person with new desires and way of living. Godliness is something that we have to add on to our faith in which we are live like Christ all the time. God can save a person from sin in an instant but to be godly is a work that continues and we can not be idle in working at that. As you remember last week we talked about perseverance which means to stand your ground and hold on to what you have. This comes in the middle of the add on list because it will take this to complete the rest of the list. James 1:4 “Endure until your testing is over. Then you will be mature and complete, and you won’t need anything.” The question we ask is how mature are you in your faith?

Godliness is going to come in two messages and the first one is In your heart set apart the Lord Jesus as Lord of your life. The second message is to set your eyes upon the Christ as Lord. We will cover the first part this morning and the other next Sunday the Lord willing.

Godliness is Christ likeness. We read in 1:3 that we have everything we need for life and godliness. Godliness is a description of an innermost quality that is set totally upon God, for His kingdom and for His purposes. It simply means all of life is God-centered. We look at 1 PT 3:15-16 to help us understand this better. “Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if you are asked about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it. But you must do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak evil against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ.”