Lets open our Bibles up to 2 Peter 1 (page 1204 of pew Bibles). After five weeks of teaching it, youd think Id know what chapter were on by now. This series is called Virtuous Reality, and our virtue this morning is Self-Control. Its found in Verse 6. He says, …and add to your knowledge, self-control…

[Verse 5], For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to your goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control…

Now weve been trying to define these words. Its pretty important to define what they are. One of the best ways to remember what self-control means in the Greek is to think of a phrase that you and I often use. When we say to somebody, Get a grip! Get a grip on yourself, thats what the definition is. It means to get a grip on yourself-literally, to bring something under control; under management; to get a handle on something. Everybody has areas in their lives where they struggle with self-control. You might struggle with laziness or messiness, your diet, your exercise program or lack thereof. You might struggle with your temper; you might struggle with greed or lust or coveting. You might struggle with gossip. The list of things that we struggle in goes on. Sometimes well be doing well for a period of time, and then well have relapses; and then well feel bad that we thought we were on the right path. We thought wed changed, and here we are back at square one all over again.

One of the things I think that all of us struggle with from time to time is when were in our car. I dont know about you, but when Im in my car sometimes, I can lose my religion-as the saying goes. Its never to the point of road rage…but close. If somebody cuts you off or somebody runs a light or the traffic lights-the fact that theyre not synchronized-[you might think] somebody is deliberately trying to unsynchronize the lights. Theres a gremlin that comes in and makes it so theyre not synchronized. One of my pet peeves is the train. It seems like theres never a good time to run into a train-well, literally, but-figuratively, youre always on a mission. You hit the train, and you think, Oh, why do they have to have these things during the day? They should outlaw them.

Well, this week, I was double-trained. Have you ever been double-trained? I never had been double-trained. I came on HWY 14-I live off HWY 14, so Im on 14 a lot. Just past the jail, there is a set of railroad tracks. I got caught by that train. I was a little annoyed and irritated because it was making me late. Finally, I take off for freedom, and I get by K & W, and I got hit by the second train; so I was double-trained. That one decided to stop on the tracks just so I could admire its cargo. It just sat there for the longest time. I just thought about the message for this weekend. I thought, Well, there are things you can control, and there are things you cant control. I cant control the fact that I left the house as two trains were coming, crossing the street I was driving on. I can control my response to those trains. Am I just going to sit here and seethe, be angry, irritated and cranky? Or, can I use this time for something productive? So I made a choice to get out my cell phone and make some phone calls. Who do I need to talk to? What are my messages? What am I forgetting? I spent the time very productively and rather calmly as I waited for the train to pass.

There is a saying by Martin Luther. He says, You cant stop the birds from flying over your head, but you can stop them from making a nest in your hair. You can say a mess in your hair too.

We cannot stop temptation. We cant stop wrong desires from crossing our minds, but we can do something about how we respond to those temptations when those buttons are pushed. What can we do? Struggling with temptation and the will is as old as the beginning of man. Think about Adam and Eve and their struggle in the Garden for the fruit. Dont eat from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. That didnt work out so well, right?

I think about Cain and Abel, and they had a little bit of sibling rivalry there. Cain especially had resentment toward Abel because Abels offering was received, but Cains offering was not; so he started to plot in his mind some revenge-ways he was going to get even. God knew this, so God confronted Cain about the temptation-about his need for control to not enact revenge against his brother.

Lets turn there to the Book of Genesis 4 (page 4 of pew Bibles). I think one of the things we need to do if were to resist temptation is to see sin for what it is and what its intention is. I think this passage helps us to see that. In of Genesis 4:6, God says to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.

So we get this word picture of sin like some sort of beast crouching at the door, waiting because its desire is you.

Now we should talk about that word desire. When I looked up that word, I saw that it had two meanings. One was a craving of a man for a woman; it had to do with sexuality. The second meaning of the word was a craving of a beast to devour its prey. So the meaning of that word desire depends on the context. Based on the context, what is the meaning of desire? Its of a beast wanting to devour its prey. So God is telling us here that sins intent is to destroy. Sins intent is to devour. Sins intent is to kill, and thats what the Bible says: sin leads to death, so we should not be surprised by that. The problem is that you and I-if were not careful-begin to be at home with sin. If were not careful, we can actually start to welcome it in our lives and become accustomed to its presence.

Weve talked a lot about the role of the Holy Spirit in these virtues when it comes to moral excellence, when it comes to knowledge and understanding the Word of God; so it should be no surprise again that we talk about the role of the Spirit in regards to self-control. So in the Book of Galatians 5, Id like to examine what Paul says about the part the Spirit plays as you and I struggle to resist sin-as we have this inner conflict-this inner battle that we go through.

Paul says in Verse 16 (page 1155), So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. It doesnt say that God will take the sinful nature away-not at all. He simply says that we will not gratify them if we are living by the Spirit for the flesh the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.

So, weve all experienced that conflict. Well experience that conflict today; well experience that conflict tomorrow. It is a part of the human nature, of the sin nature, that you and I struggle with. So he talks about that, and he further talks about the results of that.

[Verse 19], The acts of the sinful nature are obvious; sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies and the like.

In other words, this is not an exhaustive list. Ive given you a representative sample here. I think you get the picture, Paul is saying.

[Verse 21], …I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

Well, youve found yourself on that list; I guarantee it. Youve found yourself in several different places. Youre probably a little bit alarmed at the company youre keeping here. It talks about anger; it talks about jealousy; it talks about hatred; it talks about factions and envy. You go, Boy, thats me. Why do you have to put me in a crowd with witchcraft, orgies and all of that? The core of sin is rebellion against God, so Paul puts them in the same list. The second thing you think of is Paul said they shall not inherit the Kingdom of God, and you say, Oh no, Im in trouble because Im guilty of checking off many of these on the list.

Well, theres a real important point that you need to understand. That is when Paul says in Verse 21, Those who live like this… That means to habitually practice something. This becomes norm for them. This is their lifestyle. Theyre not struggling with sin and feeling bad when they fall; they basically accepted that as an acceptable lifestyle. It becomes the norm rather than the acceptation.

Paul is not saying, Look, if you do these things, you are going to spend a Christ-less eternity. The only thing that causes us to spend a Christ-less eternity is when we refuse to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. Paul says a life that is not reconciled to God will manifest these tendencies, these behavior patterns, so he tells us what sin is. Sin causes separation from God. Sin is not something we should take lightly; sin is not something we should coddle and be comfortable with in our life. See sin for what it is: its desire. Its like a beast to devour. Its like a cancer that eats from the inside out. It grows; and it spreads; it causes corruption, and it causes destruction.

Were going to watch a media right now which is kind of a humorous way to illustrate the point of how you and I can sometimes get comfortable with sin in our lives. (This is a clip from the movie End of the Spear).

Im not hungry anymore [after viewing that clip]. Notice he goes from saying, This is nasty to This is good.

Theres an old saying when you drink something or eat something that you dont like, but you keep drinking or eating it: an acquired taste. What was once repulsive becomes something good. Thats what sin will do.

[Imagine] the person who is overseeing funds of some sort, and they get desperate for the dollar; so they take from that and feel guilty. However, they continue to take when they continue to face hardship. The next thing you know, it doesnt feel so bad. The next thing you know, theyre really enjoying the lifestyle that they have because of these extra funds that are coming into their life. Theyre no longer feeling guilty about robbing from the till.

Its a man or a woman-maybe he or she is single or divorced or having marriage problems. They find a man or a woman theyre attracted to; they become intimate, and they feel bad. They do it again; they feel bad. Maybe as they continue on, they dont feel so bad anymore. Theyre enjoying that elicit relationship.

You can go on with examples, but you understand what were talking about. We can become callous toward sin and become accepting of it in our lives. When the Holy Spirit is working in our lives, we come to see it for what it is; and we become repulsed by it. We say, I dont want that in my life. How do I get rid of this in my life? God says there is a better way.

In Genesis, when God says to Cain, You must master it, hes talking there about his willpower. The Holy Spirit did not come as He has now, so Cain is pretty much on his own to resist this temptation for revenge. He doesnt fare so well.

We live in a better day. We have the Holy Spirit who is promised to the Believer to come and indwell us and empower us to live an upright life.

Lets look at what Paul says as we continue on in this text because there is going to be a change. Hes been talking about the horrendous consequences of sin. Now hes going to talk about the fruit of the Spirit. He says [in Galatians 5:22, page 1155], But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Thats the one were on. Against such things there is no law.

Lets just leave self-control for one moment and talk about the fruit of the Holy Spirit. One of the most common things or misconceptions or wrong interpretations you and I hear of Scripture a lot is when people talk about the fruits of the Spirit. Theyll say, Well, there are nine fruits of the Spirit. No, there is not. How many fruits of the Spirit are there? One. There is one fruit of the Spirit. Some of you are looking at me cross-eyed. Look at your Bible. How many is that? Is there an S after that word? This is the only passage that talks about this. Paul says, But the fruit, singular, of the Spirit is. There is one fruit of the Spirit, and it has these nine different manifestations or characteristics.

Tomorrow I have an important date to keep. I have been asked by Red Robin to be a judge of their burger contest for their cooks. How in the world Red Robin thought of me, that I would want to eat their burgers and judge them, is beyond me. I guess thats one of the mysteries when we get to Heaven that we will find out about how they asked me. Ive been studying my judge criteria. Dont laugh! They award ten points just for the wrapping. You know that thing I rip off to get to the burger? There are like ten points in how you wrap that, so Im going to be more careful with it from now on. You judge it on the patty-how is it cooked? How is it centered on the bun? You judge the bun-is the bun broken? Is the cheese melted right on it? Is it angled correctly? How are the condiments? Are they placed on there the right way? Is it centered in the basked as it should be? You have all these criteria, and they talk about the different characteristics of a hamburger. Now when I judge that burger, I have one burger. It has many different characteristics, but I have a single burger.

You have an apple. That apple has many characteristics. You can say, Well, its red. Its soft. Its hard. Its sweet. Its sour. Its juicy. Hard, soft, whatever the characteristics that apple has, youre not talking about multiple apples. Youre talking about one apple.

So the fruit of the Spirit has manifested itself through these characteristics. Now heres why this is important. There is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and there are the gifts of the Holy Spirit-plural. The Holy Spirit gives different gifts to His church. So all of us, it says, have a gift-first of all. Second of all, none of us have all the gifts. So we have a combination of gifts. We have some primary gifts, some dominant gifts and some more secondary gifts; but you and I all have gift-mix that the Holy Spirit gives to us. Some of you are servers; you love to serve and help people. Some of you are teachers; some of you are administrative; some of you have the gift of help; some have the gift of leadership or administration. We try to put the right people in the right places. We have GPS; we try to find your giftedness and plug you into the right area. If you dont do that, you have a person in administration, and they say, Look, Im not very administrative.

Then we need to say, Oh, okay. Youre not administrative. You shouldnt be in administration. If we have somebody in a teaching role who is not a teacher, thats not going to edify. We need to pull them back and say, We need to find something else for you. Youre not a teacher. We only have certain gifts. We cant say that with the fruit of the Spirit. You cant lay into somebody with your tongue and say evil, bad things about him or her and say, Well, I just dont have the fruit of gentleness. No, you do!

You cant blow your gasket and start throwing things and hitting people and say, Well, I just dont have the gift of self-control. Yes, you do! If the Holy Spirit is residing in you, then all these manifestations of the fruit of the Spirit should be present in your life. Every believer should have each manifestation in their lives, so thats why thats important.

Now lets get back to the subject matter. We talked about no fruit and good fruit; I do think its possible to have fruit thats not so good. I do think as believers, we can have fruit; but that fruit is not as tasty-not as desirable-as it should be. I think sin causes that.

Our family went with another family to an apple orchard in the area. Its a trip we make every year. Its a good orchard with good apples. This year was different. Every tree we went to, the fruit was small. It had bumps on it; it was deformed. It didnt taste right. It didnt look good. We thought maybe they were be more ripe up above on the hill, so we went up on the hill. It was the same deal. [We thought] maybe we were in the wrong region; maybe we needed to go over here, so we went all around that orchard. There was bad fruit everywhere; deformed fruit everywhere; bumps and bruises everywhere. We brought our basket back to the clerk empty-not one apple. Wed bit the apple; it didnt taste as good, so I said, Listen, what happened to your apples this year?

She said, Oh, we had a hail storm here. The hail storm hit the apples at a very important time in their formation. All those little dings and bruises-those arent worms. Thats where the hail struck the apples, and it impeded its growth; but they still taste good.

I wanted to say, Actually, they dont. They dont taste good.

I think thats what sin does. Sin damages us. It sells us short; it robs from you. Your fruit might be there, but may not be as ripe as it should be, as appetizing as it should be or as mature as it should be.

So Paul says, Dont be a friend to sin. Look at the destruction, the havoc that it can bring. Instead, you learn to walk by the Spirit. He is going to reiterate that. In Verse 24, he says, Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Now he says that a second and third time. Anytime you see a passage emphasize something two and three times, the author is saying, This is really important. We need to understand what it means to live by the Spirit. Paul says, I really want you to get that. So lets talk about that. What does it mean to live by the Spirit? We saw a bad example of it in Cain with what its like to live by the flesh and use only our willpower to try to overcome temptation. Lets see what it looks like when the Spirit is in control; lets look at a positive example. Lets look at the life of Christ in Luke 4 as He is undergoing temptation in the wilderness. If we want to learn how to be self-controlled, we should look at the master of self-control-the One who was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Verse 1 of Luke 4 (page 1017 of pew Bibles) says, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert.

So who led the Lord to the dessert? The Holy Spirit did. Were naïve to think that because the Holy Spirit is present in our lives were not going to undergo temptation-desert, wilderness experiences-because we will. So He leads Him there where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them He was hungry.

Jesus is fully God, but Hes also fully man. When He is tired, He needs to sleep; when He is thirsty, He needs a drink; and when Hes hungry, He needs to eat. You and I have probably not gone a week in our lives without food. Most of us have never gone a day without food. I cant imagine what He is experiencing as systems kind of begin to shut down. Youre in a desert; its hot, and your mind begins to hallucinate a little bit and plays tricks on you. He sees a stone there; and the stone, really if you look at it, its white and its round. Its about this big. It kind of looks like a loaf of bread, and He starts to think about that. He starts to think, Wow. I remember the bread that my mother would make for Me. I can just smell that bread. Wouldnt it be wonderful if that stone were bread, and I could eat and satisfy my hunger? Its there that Satan comes on, and hes going to use that desire because Satan uses our desires. Hes not going to temp you with something thats undesirable. Hes not going to wake you in the middle of the night and tempt you to go in the kitchen. You wake up all groggy, Walk into the kitchen. Open the kitchen drawer. Pull out a knife. Cut off your finger. Oh, I really want to but… No, hes not going to tempt you to do something like that. He is going to use natural inclinations and desires. Jesus is hungry, and hes going to use that hunger as a vehicle to tempt. The first thing hes going to do is what he always does: get Jesus to question what He knows. That's the method of operation hes always used: Adam and Eve-did God really say, Will you really die? He puts those doubts in our mind, and he says to Jesus, If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread. Give in.

Jesus responded, ‘It is written: Man does not live on bread alone.

Whats so bad about that? you might say. Why would that be so harmful if Jesus would just turn the stone into bread? After all, Willie Nelson sang the song about it in ‘We Are the World.

As God has shown us, by turning stone to bread…

God did not do that. It was actually the opposite: He did not turn stone to bread because that would be taking a shortcut. If He turned stone to bread, then you truly cant say He was tempted in all things as we are yet without sin. The truth of the matter is He could have cheated. Instead of trusting the Father to provide food for Him to live, He could have bypassed that and took matters into His own hands. He wouldnt have waited on God and showed a lack of faith and trust.

Its the example of the person dipping into the till that we talked about. Im going to bypass. Im not going to trust God to meet My needs, so Im going to rob this organization. Its a person who is single or in a troubled marriage and says, Well, Im not going to wait on God either to bring healing to my marriage or bring a mate. Im just going to bypass all of that and have this affair. Im going to take the shortcut. Again, you could use a number of examples in that area. Im not going to do the hard work. Im not going to trust. Im just going to bypass.

So what we see here is Jesus response to temptation. Its not just saying no to sin; its saying yes to God, and thats important.

Being in self-control, really-ironically, is a matter of Spirit control. We say self-control in the Bible; its not just your willpower. It is the Spirits power. Its not just self-control. It is Spirit control. It is you yielding to the Spirit; its you saying yes to God. Thats what Jesus did. He said, Im going to trust My Father to meet my needs. Im not going to bypass. Im not going to take a shortcut. Im going to trust and rest in Gods provision. Thats what God has called you and me to do.

We talked about how you dont want to estimate the power of sin in your life; neither do you want to underestimate the power of God in your life. We say the Holy Spirit is working in us and through us. That's no small thing. What does the Bible say in the Book of Romans 8:11, if youd turn there as we close?

In Romans 8:11 (page 1118), Paul is dealing with the church in Rome, and he says to them, And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.

The Spirit that raised Christ from the dead: is there power in that? When you think of the lifeless corpse of Jesus lying on that stone in the tomb, there is dried blood mixed with spices, crucified, buried for three days-do you think about that lifeless pale corpse all of the sudden being energized and brought back to life and strength by the power of the Holy Spirit? It says the same Spirit which raised Christ from the dead dwells in you.

You have not been freed from the presence of sin, but you have been freed from the power and the penalty of sin. You have life a whole lot better than Cain had it. Its not just your willpower. Right now, for sure, if you sin, its because that was your choice; because I guarantee you that if you had yielded to the Lord, if you would have responded to that sin by not only saying no to sin but saying yes to God, you would have overcome that temptation. We all know that were going to fail in certain areas, but failure becomes the exception rather than the norm when the fruit of the Spirit is active in our lives and were growing in the virtue of self-control as we surrender that to Him, yield that to Him and allow His Spirit to work in us and through us.

Father, we come before You today, and we ask for Your forgiveness for our sins. There have been times where we have lost control, the times that weve acted upon those impulses, those urges, those desires. We very much let our flesh control our lives. Weve tried to use willpower, and it hasnt worked. We want to surrender to the control of the Spirit today. We pray that Your Spirit work in us and through us, and we will grow in the virtue of self-control, learning not only to say no to sin but say yes to You and Your will. We want our lives to bear good fruit, mature fruit that is good to the taste and pleasing to the eye. Father, we remember the sacrifice of Your Son. We remember the body that was broken and the blood that was shed for the remission of our sins, and we worship You. We give You thanks. In Jesus name, Amen.

Lets open our Bibles up this morning to 2 Peter 1 (page 1204 of pew Bibles). This is the fourth week of the series weve been on called Virtuous Reality. This morning, were talking about knowledge. Its our third book of virtues that well be discussing today.

Remember back in the day when you would get the knock on the door, and it would be the encyclopedia salesman? Im dating myself here, but we really dont see encyclopedia salesmen too often [anymore], do we? This encyclopedia salesman was trying his best to get this family to buy a set of encyclopedias. No matter how hard he tried to sell them, the father was not interested. He said, I dont need those.

Oh, but you do. It has everything you need, A to Z. There is so much information packed in here. This is the best.

No, really I dont need the encyclopedia.

But you dont understand. When the kids have projects, the kids have reports to do, or you need information about a vacation destination youre going to or whatever… He was thinking off all kinds of uses for the encyclopedia, but to no avail.

Everything he said, the man responded back simply by saying, We dont need those encyclopedias.

Finally in exasperation, the salesman said, Why? Why dont you need this set of encyclopedias? Im offering you a great deal here.

Finally, the man said, Well, I dont need those encyclopedias because I have a set of teenagers, and they know everything. You might have some of those at your home right now.

The truth of the matter is none of us know everything. We are always learning and always growing on this spiritual walk, this spiritual journey.

So Peter tells us that knowledge is the key to this completeness, to this wholeness in Christ that we desire.

Were going to start reading with Verse 2 of this passage that weve read and read and read. You almost have it memorized by now, Im sure. Ive not talked a whole lot about Verse 2. We usually just read it and scan over it. Today, I want to talk a little bit more about it because of the subject matter. Ive been kind of saving it until this week. Verse 2 says, Grace and peace be yours in abundance... How many of you would like more grace and more peace in your life? About half of you. The other half has all the grace and peace you possibly can need. What a group! Wow!

Grace and peace be yours in abundance, how? …through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

So grace and peace grow in our lives; [they] are ours in abundance through our knowledge. That word, that preposition in can mean through; it can mean by; it can mean with. You can insert any of those prepositions in there, and it wont change the meaning. Grace and peace come by or through or in our knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

Now is he teaching here that all you and I have to do is stuff our heads with information and facts? Is that what hes teaching? If you just amass this volume of information, this knowledge, that somehow thats going to multiply grace and peace… Well, I dont think thats true. I think there are a lot of people that have a lot of knowledge that are still very miserable inside and still lack grace and peace.

Its interesting when you study this that this word in Verses 2 and 3 for knowledge is different than the word for knowledge in 5. When we look down to Verse 5, we see the word knowledge, it looks exactly the same in our Bibles; but in the Greek, there was a nuance there that we dont have in our English. It adds the word epi in front of the word knowledge. Epi means to move toward something.

So Peter is not teaching here that you just need to amass knowledge, but it is a knowledge that moves toward [something]. In other words, what Peter is saying is, The more you know Jesus, the more you will experience grace and peace. Thats what hes saying here. As you draw nearer to the Lord, as you learn about Him, youre drawn toward Him; in the process of drawing toward Him-drawing near Him, you will experience more grace and peace in your lives.

Verse 5 says, For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness… Thats moral excellence. …and to your moral excellence, knowledge. Thats the normal word for knowledge. Of course, the implication is that it is knowledge of spiritual things: knowledge of God and His Word that Peter is addressing here.

Just like last week, we talked about moral excellence. That does not happen through your willpower. It is a partnership. Remember we talked about partaker of the divine nature and what that meant? It meant you are a partner with God. You are a sharer of the divine nature-not that you are in any way divine, but God is wanting to partner in you to bring about His will and purpose in your life. You work on your salvation; He works in and through His Spirit and through His Word. So as it is true in the area of our moral excellence or goodness, it is also true in the area of knowledge that we need to partner with the Holy Spirit. Its not just about your human mind trying to wrap itself around these great theological concepts and truths; it is about the Holy Spirit illuminating and disclosing His truth to us.

Please turn to the Book of John 16. John 16 is a part of a discourse in which Jesus is imparting to His Disciples important truths about the working of the Spirit and about the fact that He is going to be leaving soon. He says in Verse 12 (page 1069 of pew Bibles), I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.

In other words, You dont know everything about Me, the Gospel or the Kingdom that youre going to learn; but you know enough for right now. As you grow and as you mature, I will impart more to you.

Our dancers this morning did not start off in the first lesson standing on their toes like they did this morning. They started with basic fundamental movements in ballet that probably even you and I could do. Then they became increasingly more difficult as they learned.

Our musicians didnt start off playing guitar, drums or keyboards like that. They started off with very fundamental scales and grew more complicated-harder-as they learned.

So it is with revelation God revealed Himself progressively: through His Word, through the Prophets, through Jesus and through the Apostles.

So He says in Verse 13 that …when He, the Spirit of truth… Thats the Holy Spirit. …comes, He will guide you into all truth. So the Holy Spirit will be a guide; the Holy Spirit will be a teacher guiding you into truth. …He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come.

So, theyll be a prophetic element to this Holy Spirits teaching.

He will bring glory to Me from taking what is Mine and making it known to you. Knowledge, again the Holy Spirit will impart knowledge. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is Mine and make it known to you. Reveal it to you.

Now, this Scripture is true for you and me in the general sense. The Holy Spirit is still teaching us, guiding us, in the truth. However, this passage is true in a specific sense to the Apostles. I believe Jesus here is speaking of what is to come. He is speaking of the revelation that they would hear from the Holy Spirit and write down for us this Word of truth that we call the Bible, the new covenant.

Jesus was speaking that day to the Apostles and Matthew, John and Peter. He said the Holy Spirit is going to speak to you. This word speak wasnt just an interleading or impression; it meant to communicate in a way that was unmistakable-a clear form of communication. We know that the Holy Spirit communicated to these men the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ, and they wrote it down for us; and thats what we study. The words that were given by the Holy Spirit to the Apostles and written down for us-that is the truth that Jesus said He would reveal about Himself to them and impart to them.

So we need the Spirits help to understand the words of the Spirit as we study them.

Paul talks about that in the Book of 2 Timothy-if youd turn to 2 Timothy 15. [This is] a well-known verse of Scripture that were going to spend some time on this morning. This is page 1179 if youre looking in your church Bible, or you can read it on the wall there. It says, Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the Word of truth.

The first thing I want to draw your attention to is the phrase do your best. Some translate it as be diligent. The New American translates it as to be diligent. It means to make haste or to exhort an effort. In other words, God is not simply just going to dump knowledge into your head while you sleep. You have a part to play. You have to put yourself in a place to hear or to read. You have to be listening. You have to be humble and teachable. You have to work, grapple and wrestle with these truths because sometimes truths are difficult to understand; so I have to study, meditate, and reflect on and work through these principles. He says, You and I are going to be diligent. Were to have that desire in our spirits.

Socrates, the famous philosopher, was said to have had a student come up to him. The student said, Oh Master Socrates, if I could just have your wisdom. If I could just have your knowledge…

Socrates says, Come with me. He took him into a body of water. He did something very unusual. He dunked the young man in the water. He held him down until the man would have had a difficult time not taking a breath, and then he lifted him back up. He said, What is it you seek?

The young man said, I seek knowledge. Down again he went.

He held him down a little longer this time. He pulled him up a second time, and he said, What is it you seek, young man?

Wisdom! I want to be wise like you… Down again, he went a third time into the water. He had to be processing this thinking, Boy, Im not coming up with the right answer. I thought he wanted me to say wisdom or knowledge, but Im still under the water.

Other students are looking in thinking maybe Socrates is going to drown this young man. He finally pulls him up. Hes grasping for air, and he says, What is it you want, young man?

He said, Air! I want to breathe! I want air!

He was gasping, and Socrates said, Young man, when you desire as you desire your next breath, you shall find it.

I dont know if that really happened or not, but its a good story, right? It tells us the importance of desiring knowledge, desiring truth. Is that you?

I think the fact that youre here this morning wanting to study the Word of God is a good indication, but what do we do beyond that?

I was so thrilled to see between our youth, our college and our adults approaching 100 people in Real Zeal, the one-on-one mentoring ministry that has begun. Thats an exciting thing to me to see that take place.

I was, then on the other hand, disappointed when our Theology for Dummies class-which starts at 11 oclock-the enrollment was not what it needs to be for that class. Maybe youre offended because somebody is going to think youre dumb, I aint no dummy! But its basic theology; its not for dummies, really. Its just a play on the book, Computers for Dummies. It is an important theology class. Are you taking advantage of the opportunities that the church has to increase your knowledge?

Parents, let me talk to you for a second. Our daughter is engaged in a lot of activities right now. She does ballet, Dance Attitudes-like these girls did on stage here. Shes there year-round. She takes piano every week; shes classically trained on the piano. She studies that, and shes involved in sports at her school. So she is a very busy young lady, but there is no higher priority than we have as parents than to get her here on Wednesday nights for F.R.O.G. Club. Thats her time of discipleship. Thats her time when she memorizes the Word of God, when shes trained in the Word of God to increase her knowledge of the Word of God. If anything was to go from that list, sports or dance or piano, they would all go before we would get rid of that Wednesday night commitment to F.R.O.G. Club. As parents, we have to make those decisions. Whats going to come first in our childs life? Making a priority of the knowledge of Gods Word is imperative.

He says in Verse 15, …present yourself to God as one approved… I want to talk about that word approved for a moment. It was most often used in coinage. Their currency was a lot different than ours. They didnt have the banking system. They had a whole different financial economy than we have, which was probably a good thing for them. They didnt have dollars; they had metal-different metals. It was not just the metal that the coin was made from; it was also the weight of the coin that determined the value. There were these people called the money changers who were a dangerous group. The coins were a little bit softer and more pliable than our coins. One of the things they would do was actually shave off some metal to make it lighter when they would exchange money. Youd give them your money, and you would think you were getting back an equal amount of money, but you werent because theyd literally shave the coins. You were not getting what that amount of coin should normally be because it was shaved. Those who refused to practice that were called The Approved. They wouldnt take any shortcuts. They wouldnt compromise. They were people of integrity. They had values.

Hes saying here that you and I are not to compromise when it comes to our study of being a student of the work of God. We are to put forth effort to show ourselves approved.

Pastor Tim, to me, is a poster boy for this. I think about the fact that when Pastor Tim worked for Patch Products, he was doing artwork for places like Wal-Mart, Target, and McDonalds who would contract Patch to design their materials. He was learning how to do things like this banner that were using today. While he was doing that, he was in school studying for the ministry for years, diligently taking class after class to earn his degree. While he was in school earning his degree, he was ministering and leading our mens ministry here at the church, Brother to Brother. He was taking what he learned at school and applying it to ministry as he went on, but he was making knowledge of Gods Word a priority in his life. That's the next part of this verse.

It says, A workman who does not need to be ashamed… A workman or a laborer. God says Hes not just about stuffing our head with knowledge for the sake of having knowledge so you can impress your friends with Bible trivia, so you can get puffed up and impress people with your knowledge of the Word of God. Thats not the purpose. The purpose is that it goes from your head to your heart; and from your heart to your mouth; and from your heart to your hands and feet; and you become a laborer. One of the reasons we have the mentoring ministry that weve started is that we dont want those people who are mentors to then after the end of this year say, Okay, Ive done that mentoring thing. Im done with that now for the rest of my life. Were hoping that group will take another group and mentor them. It doesnt have to just be people within our church. You can mentor somebody outside of our church. Were just interested in building the Kingdom-not just Faith Community. Those who are mentored-[we hope] they will not just say, Thanks! Okay, I have more knowledge. Ive been mentored. See you later. [We hope] the following year, they can become mentors. They can begin investing in other peoples lives as well; so that group of near 100 people doesnt just fade into the sunset, but they find another group they can mentor and invest in. God doesnt want us to just accumulate. Paul says, These things entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

Dennis Babish is one of our teachers here at the church. He invested much of his time in recent years into the theology program through the Centurion ministry. He didnt just amass knowledge and say, Okay, I have a bunch of knowledge. He is teaching classes here at Faith.

I would encourage you to check that theology class out, to start looking and say, What are the opportunities to increase my knowledge? Maybe some of you want to consider going back to school and studying the Bible. Even if you dont want to go into ministry full-time, its a worthy thing to do.

Janet Bales is back in college studying the Bible. Jesse Thompson, our minister to college, is working on his masters degree. Im always taking some. Our trustees are gracious enough to send me to class, so Im taking classes year-round, always, because theres so much to learn. There are so many ways we can grow in our knowledge of the Word of God. He wants us to be workmen. Why is that so important?

He says in the remaining of that verse, …who correctly handles the Word of truth. God wants you to be able to correctly handle His Word.

When you can correctly handle His Word, it forms a Biblical-role view. As you process the events of your world, you can align them with Gods Word and make right decisions. Your decisions should not be based on what an author says, what a talking head on TV says or what a politician says. Your views should be formed by what Gods Word has said. Form a Biblical-role view, so you can guard yourself against air-both air from within and air from without. Paul made it very clear that there would be air within the church. There would be people who would succumb to aberrant doctrines and even heresy, false teaching within the church. There are churches out there, for instance, that say, Dont question me. A teacher or leader might say, Never question what I say. You know what thats called? A cult. If somebody is up there saying, Dont question anything I say, thats a cult. The Bible says that when Paul spoke to the Bereans, they called them noble-minded. Why? Because they went back to the Word of God to determine whether what Paul said was true [or not].

Right away when somebody says, This is the only way to God. Listen to what I say. This is the only church that has it right. Im the only person who has it right, a flag should go off.

There was a church near Rockford where I lived. The pastor taught if you believed, followed that church and followed that pastor, you would never die. [You would] physically, literally never die. I ran into somebody from that church when I was having lunch in Rockford years ago. I said, How is that pastor doing?

He said, Oh, shes dead. That theology didnt work out so well.

How do these cults come about? Its because people are careless and dont investigate truth and align it with the Word of God. God wants us to be discerning.

Then there are attacks from without too. There is a deceiver in the world, and he is spreading lies and half-truths. God wants us to guide and be careful. It says in the Book of Colossians 2:8 (page 1166 of pew Bibles), See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of the world rather than on Christ.

There are lies out there. There are distortions and perversions. When you know the truth, youre not going to succumb to those lies and perversions.

One of the most prominent examples I can think of in recent times is the rise of Gnosticism. It is a first, second and third century heresy that the church-much of the New Testament writings-exists to counteract and fight that heresy of Gnosticism.

There was a book out, a best seller book, called The Da Vinci Code and a subsequent movie that was made by Ron Howard. It starred Tom Hanks. They told a lot of lies, perversions and distortions about the Church and about the Bible. I could elaborate on this for quite a while, but Ill take just a couple from that movie. This is a very prevalent point of view. There is a push in the world, a deception, thats trying to teach that Jesus never claimed to be God. There was a struggle within the church for the deity of Christ. There were those in the church who believed Christ was a man, and there were those who believed He was God; and there was this struggle. Those who believed He was God won, and they did away with the books of the Bible, the Gospels that talked about the humanity of Christ. In the book, the professor says that there was this struggle. The books that talk about the humanity of Christ were removed, and the Gospels that talk about the deity of Christ were kept. What a lie! They were presenting that as fact, but thats a lie. In the Gnostic gospels that were removed, Jesus is a God who creates the world; but Hes incapable of pain. He is not really a man; Hes not fully a man. Hes really still a God, so thats a heresy.

It is only in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that Jesus cries; that He feels pain; that He struggles with temptation; that He is sleepy; that He is hungry. It is the Gospels that we have that preserve the humanity of Jesus. The Gospels where He was not human or rejected by the church-they are second and third century writings called Gnostic Gospels-pseudopigrafa that has the names of people who didnt write the books. It told in that movie that Mary Magdalene is the wife of Jesus. That was something that as soon as I heard that, I just could not believe what I was hearing.

Ive had conversations with people who believe it because it says that in the Da Vinci Code. What is the evidence that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Christ? Zero, nada, zilch. There is one manuscript from the Gospel of Philip-again a Gnostic gospel written in the second and third centuries. There was one extant copy or one existing copy of that manuscript. There are words missing, and it says that Jesus would kiss Mary often on the blank. It doesnt say if its forehead or cheeks, but theyre going to assume it was the lips. That made the Disciples angry. They said, You love her more than us. Because of this little paragraph in the Gospel of Philip [they believe] that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Christ. Wow! What a stretch!

Lets say I gather male staff in our church, so I have a meeting. Jesse is there; Mikes there; Jim is there; Tulio is there; Jerrys there; Tims there, and I have this meeting. My wife walks in. I stand up and I give her a kiss. Would they get mad and go, You love her more than us!

Id go, Yeah, I do, and Im not going to kiss you either. If she was truly Jesus wife, would the Disciples have gotten mad that He kissed her? Would they get mad that He loved her more than them? This is ridiculous, but people just swallow things hook, line and sinker. It said in the movie there was a vote of the Council of Nicaea as to whether Jesus was man or God. After a close vote, they affirmed with Constantine that Jesus was God. Those who decided that Jesus was a man were expelled from the church. Now what makes this so serious is although this is a fictional story, they are portraying it as being fact.

What happened in Nicaea is a historical fact. There was a vote. Bishops and church leaders from the east and the west did assemble. Constantine was neutral in the struggle. There was a vote. It was not on the humanity of Christ vs. the deity of Christ. It was a debate on whether Jesus was of similar substance or the same substance as God. Is He in fact equal with God or was He still divine, but lesser than God the Father? He still created the world but not of the same substance as the Father. That was the debate-not man vs. God, but God vs. divine.

There was a vote. It was 316 to 2 affirming the deity of Christ-that He is of the same substance as the Father. Two bishops from Egypt voted that He was of a similar substance-He created the world, but He was not of the same substance as God. They were expelled and excommunicated from the church. Its a heresy called Arianism. It still exists in religions today: the belief that Jesus is a lesser being, that He is created.

Would you call 316 to 2 a close vote like the movie said?

In our Presidential Election in November, if one of the candidates gets 99 percent and the other one gets 1 percent, are the commentators going to come on the air and say, Well, that was a really close vote this year?

I know people that cross Christianity off their list because they said, Well, it must not be authentic. It must not be real because of the claims of this book and this movie.

I know of Christians whove said, Im not going to church anymore because I feel like Ive been duped. I feel like its a scam or fraud because Ive been believing a lie.

Friends, thats sad, and that makes me angry. At the same time, those people have a responsibility to check out the facts. They have a responsibility to be discerning, to investigate claims for themselves. Dont be lazy and just listen to everything that you hear and swallow it hook, line and sinker. You need to be students of the Word of God, so you can discern truth from air. When we find truth-when truth enters our spirit, that knowledge draws us toward the Lord, so we grow in grace and peace. God doesnt want it just to sit up there in our skulls. He wants us to become laborers so that it goes from our heart to our mouth to our feet to our hands. We begin to pour in to others; we begin to invest in ministry and carry out His will. Thats why He wants us to grow in knowledge.

Lets open our Bibles up to 2 Peter 1. As were on our series of Virtuous Reality, were looking in depth at these eight virtues that Peter says were to have. I think its right-maybe not necessarily every week, but often-to go back through the text, so were familiar with it. On page 1204 in your church Bible, 1 Peter 1:3, it says, 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. 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.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 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. But if anyone does not have them, he is near-sighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.

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, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

So we mentioned that this is not a self-help text. It is not Peter telling you to try harder, do more, work harder and youll earn your way to Heaven. Its not that at all. We do have a part to play. There is work to be done; however, God is at work, too. Neither is it just kicking back and saying, Okay, God, You do all these things in me. Ill just coast and twiddle my thumbs. No, we have a part to play. God has a part to play. We work on our salvation; God works in and through through His spirit in our lives.

My wife had pink eye this week. Her eye was sore, running, itchy and red, so she went to the doctor and got a medicine. Her part was to admit her weakness, to say, Heres what Im struggling with. Heres the pain; heres the hurt. Heres whats going on. So we confess to God. Then we have to exercise faith. She gets that little bottle of prescription pills. She has to trust A) that the doctor prescribed the right medicine, that its not rat poison, a vitamin or a sugar pill. It really is a medication to help with pink eye. Then, B), she ultimately exercises faith when she puts it in her mouth and swallows it.

Faith, we said, was a conviction-pistis-a conviction followed by corresponding action, demonstrating that what you believe is true. So, she partakes of the medicine-thats her part, to confess, to have faith and trust. Then the medicine works in and through her system to rid her of the pink eye. So God works in our lives and through us to remove sin-to cleanse us from unrighteousness; thats something we cannot do ourselves.

So, how does He do that? Say were looking at this bookshelf. We say on one end we have Gods provision. On the other end, we have Gods promise. In between, we have these eight books of virtue that were going to pull off the shelf each week. This week were talking about goodness. Thats the second book on our shelf. What does goodness mean? Does it just mean being a nice person? Is that what its talking about? Actually, the word means moral excellence. Moral excellence. You and I have had times in our lives when weve been morally excellent. Weve had times in our lives when weve been morally average. Weve had times when weve been morally below average. Weve been failing in that area. So everybody in this room can grow in moral excellence. Would you agree? Sometimes we are miserable failures in this area.

How does God work in us and through us to bring about goodness or moral excellence? Turn in your Bibles please to the Book of John, the Gospel of John, the first chapter (page 1050 in church Bibles). John the Baptist, who is the fore-runner of the Messiah, his job was to usher in the Messiah. Remember the Old Testament closes with a prophesy that One in the spirit of Elijah is coming. He will prepare the way for the Lord. John the Baptist is the fulfillment of that prophesy; 400 years later he appears on the scene, announces the coming of Messiah. He is baptizing; he is preaching; people are coming to him and listening to his message of repentance. Now Jesus is about ready to make His way on the scene and begin His earthly ministry.

Verse 29 tells us this story: The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! The Lamb of God meant that was drawing a comparison to a sacrificial lamb. When the Jews would sacrifice for sin, they would sacrifice that innocent, spotless lamb as an atonement; and the sins of the people would be placed upon that lamb, and it would be slain. They understand the Lamb of God signifies death and sacrifice. Isnt it interesting that as Jesus begins His ministry, before He has uttered a word of His official public ministry, it already speaks of His death? Just as He is beginning to serve, John foreshadows His death-the fact that He will die on behalf of the world, that He will die for sin. He will become a lamb. I find that very fascinating.

He takes away the sin of the world, and then Verse 32, Then John gave this testimony: I saw the Spirit come down from Heaven as a dove and remain on Him. I would not have known Him… In other words, there is nothing exceptional about Him. There are no angels floating around Him. There is no halo over His head. He walks on the ground just like you and I; Hes not floating on a cloud. Hes just like a normal man.

I would not have known Him except that the One who sent me to baptize with water told me, The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is He who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.

So John says, He will come. He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit. So this text talks about a removal and a bestowing; a taking and a giving. God is going to remove sin; Hes going to take away sin-the penalty for sin; but Hes going to bestow His spirit. He is going to give His spirit.

From time to time, Ill talk a little bit about the original languages to give you some nuances and some insight. Im going to talk about it a lot this week. Last week, we talked about faith, and I told you some stories about a miracle bus ride. We just had fun together. This week, I really need you to have your A game and really be focused and listening because the theology were talking about-its a little bit difficult to understand; but then well bring it around to something intensely practical at the end. Were talking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There is a giving and a taking. In the Greek, those verbs-talking about taking away the sin of the world and baptizing in the Holy Spirit-the giving and the taking-are whats called the present active indicative. This means that Jesus took away the sins of the world; is continuing to take away the sin of the world; and will continue to take away the sin of the world. He is still forgiving sins, baptizing in the Holy Spirit. He has baptized; He is baptizing; and He will continue to baptize new believers in the Holy Spirit, so this work is ongoing and continuing to this day. That gives us the right understanding of what hes talking about here; so the giving and the taking-an ongoing work of the Spirit of God.

Now the baptism of the Holy Spirit-thats kind of a controversial subject matter, and it really shouldnt be. It appears seven times in the Scripture. Six times its in reference to this quote from John the Baptist, so six of the seven times it says the baptism of the Holy Spirit… By the way, that preposition in can mean with, by, or in; it can be any of those: in the Holy Spirit; with the Holy Spirit; by the Holy Spirit-all good. It all means the same thing. Seven times it appears: six times its in reference to John the Baptist-four times by John in each of the Gospels; once by Jesus quoting John; and once by Peter going back to this quote by John. To be baptized in the Spirit-the word baptism, baptiso, means to immerse, to submerge. One of the ways to learn what a word means in the Bible is to see how it was used in contemporary literature outside the Bible. That word is most often used when you take a cucumber, and you pickle it. You put in water, spices and salt; you would can it. That began to change that cucumber into a pickle. It was immersed in it, and it began to change it from the inside out so that it was different. It wasnt the same anymore; it has a different flavor; it has a different look. Its a pickle. The Holy Spirit in, through and around begins to baptize us and change us from the inside out. So how do we have the power to live a morally-excellent life? How do we have the power to live for God? It is through the power of the Spirit of God.

Now we should talk about the Spirit of God because the Spirit of God is not an impersonal force. The Spirit of God is not a ghost. Theres an unfortunate translation of that in the King James where it says the Holy Ghost. Spirit means wind, numa-wind. Normally in the Bible, translated, he would say here, I saw the wind come down from Heaven. Hes not talking about wind here. Hes talking about spirit. In the Greek, this word spirit has the masculine to it. Normally, wind is neutral, so it would be neuter, so it wouldnt be masculine or feminine. Since hes talking about a person, he uses the masculine word for spirit. When he talks about the spirit, he says He; he doesnt say it. The Holy Spirit is a person. The Holy Spirit does things only a person can do. The Holy Spirit teaches; the Holy Spirit guides; the Holy Spirit comforts; the Holy Spirit strengthens; the Holy Spirit can be grieved, and only a person can be grieved. The Holy Spirit can be blasphemed, and only a person can be blasphemed. So the Spirit is a person, and the Holy Spirit is also God. There are many evidences of that. If this were a different Bible study, we could spend our whole time talking about that, but often the Holy Spirit is interchanged with God. Sometimes it will say Spirit; sometimes it will say God. It will say in one passage, Your body is a temple of God. The next verse, Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is called the Eternal Spirit in Hebrews. Only God is eternal, so if the Spirit is eternal, the Holy Spirit must also be God. So what this means is something very exciting. This means that Jesus promised and John promised that they would baptize in the Spirit, so the Holy Spirit would not only come upon you but reside in you. When does that happen? Act 2, On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit falls and indwells the believers in a new dimension, a new realm that it never had happened before. In the past, Hed come on people, but now the Holy Spirit is coming in to empower us, dunamis, power. So the baptism of the Holy Spirit is an event that happens at the new birth, but it is also a process because the Bible says, Be filled with the Spirit. Again, present active imperative this time. Its a command. Imperative means to command. It is ongoing, Be filled with the Spirit, continue to be filled with the Spirit. Just like you have air in your tires, occasionally you have to put air in that tower. God exhorts us to be filled with the Spirit because sometimes we become dull or less aware of His presence. His presence isnt diminished; He hasnt gone away, but we become less aware of His presence in our lives.

Its like a story I told several years ago about a lady who went to church. Every Sunday, there was a guy there who was a very charismatic individual. Hed pray, and hed say, Oh, fill me Jesus, and hed shake his hands. Hed go, Oh, Lord, fill me with Your Spirit, Lord! I can just see somebody tuning into our television program that is on cable watching; theyd be saying, What kind of guy…? Whats up with that guy? (referring to what Pastor is doing by waving his arms around).

But he would be going, Oh, Lord, fill me with Your Spirit! Oh, more of the Holy Spirit, Lord! Oh, Lord! She would know that he would go out on Monday and live like the devil. She knew that he didnt have moral excellence, that he was somebody who was vulgar, rude and unethical. He didnt treat people with kindness.

She just thought, Boy, this guy… This is so hypocritical to ask God to fill you with His Spirit and then go out and live like that!

So one Sunday, shed had enough. He starts his thing, and hes like, Oh, fill me, Jesus! Oh, fill me with Your Spirit! Oh, Lord, fill me!

She finally stands up and she says, Lord, dont fill him, Jesus! He leaks! (congregation laughing).

See you and I, we leak, dont we? You and I leak; we do. There are times when we dont live by the power of the Spirit. We live in our flesh, very much so. We indulge in our sinful nature. We do not live morally, excellent lives. This being filled with the Spirit is something we should probably look into, right, because it holds the key on how to live a morally excellent life?

Lets turn to that text in Ephesians 5. This is page 1159. Were going to start reading with Verse 15 of Ephesians 5. Paul writes to the church in Ephesus, and he says, Be very careful, then, how you live-not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lords will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery... or a lack of restraint and destruction. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Its interesting that he makes a contrast of somebody whos intoxicated and somebody who is filled with the Spirit. Of course, in Acts 2, when they were baptized in the Spirit, people thought they were intoxicated, didnt they? When you become intoxicated, what you have done is you have yielded much of the control of your body, your mind and your mouth to alcohol.

When you put yourself in an environment where alcohol is consumed or you purchase alcohol, or if you consume alcohol, now youve yielded to that and you start to be under its control. It affects your speech; it affects your motor skills; your balance; your reflexes. It makes you more vulnerable. You may say things that embarrass you. You may disclose things that are embarrassing. You may say things that are offensive; you may change your personality so that you become rude and obnoxious or silly and crazy. [You may] do embarrassing things, but it will blur your judgment, your reaction, your reflexes. It will have an effect on your attitude and your behavior.

When I grew up, I saw this lived out so many times. As you know, the area of Rockford I grew up in was not the best area of town. There were two bars right by our house. To see winos coming by or people passing out in the street was a regular occurrence for me; I saw it all the time. It was also in our family; my father was an alcoholic. My brother-in-law was an alcoholic. He would get mean when he was drunk. Hed be mean, and my sister would have to leave with her daughters. She had to leave with her two daughters, and theyd come to our house and hide. Hed come pounding on the door. My little heart would pound. Sometimes wed have to leave the house and wonder the streets from him, hoping he wouldnt find us. It was kind of traumatic to be woken up in the middle of the night to stuff like that. His sons drank too and from time to time, there were physical altercations. My step-dad and my brother-in-law got into a fist fight. My step-dad and my brother-in-laws son got into fist fights, drunken alcoholic brawls. I had two neighbors, one up above and one next door, who when they drank would cause trouble. One would yell at his wife and was abusive to her and abusive to the children. These were nice people if they werent drinking! Youd talk to them, and they were nice people, good people; but when they got drunk, they got mean. They did despicable things, and they said despicable things. I saw what happened when they were under that influence in their lives.

I made a decision then. I said, I want no part of that in my life when I grow up. I saw what it did.

What being filled with the Spirit means is that you and I are putting ourselves under the control of the Spirit. It means to yield to the Spirit. When he says, Be filled with the Spirit, its not a matter of you trying harder and going, Ahhh, I have to be filled with the Spirit. What it is, in fact, is in whats called the passive voice. When you see something in the passive voice, it means the subject is being acted upon; so Paul is saying, You are being acted upon by the Spirit. You are the passive one here. The Spirit one is the active one here, and you must allow yourself or yield to the Holy Spirit.

So I put myself in an environment where the Holy Spirit can fill me. That's what youve done this morning. Youre now in an environment where the Holy Spirit can fill you. I consume that which the Holy Spirit can use in my life to fill me. I consume spiritual things. I read His Word; I pray; I serve; I meditate; I fellowship with other believers. I consume that spiritual food. The Holy Spirit uses that to fill me. When I yield to the Spirit, the Spirit begins to work in and through me and change me, like that cucumber is changed by that vinegar, salt and spices. We become changed as were baptized in His spirit. It begins to change the way we talk; it begins to change our attitude; it begins to change our actions. I say to you, What does a spirit-filled life look like? If I said, What if everybody in this church was filled with the Spirit, what would that look like? For some of you when you hear spirit-filled life, maybe it conjures up images of a holy roller. Well, if we were all filled with the Spirit, wed be rolling in the aisles and stuff. Maybe its just something kind of spooky, mystical and kind of weird if were all filled with the Spirit, right?

Hes going to tell us what life looks like when were filled with the Spirit. There are four participles in this passage we want to look at beginning with Verse 19. So, do not be drunk with wine…but be filled with the Spirit. Heres what its going to look like. Speak to one another with Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. In other words, positive things are going to come out of your mouth-words of encouragement; words of truth; words of hope and life are going to come from your mouth to other people. When were filled with the Spirit, it says, we will sing and make music in our hearts to the Lord.

Youll enter into praise and worship of God. When we are filled with the Spirit, we will give thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. It will change our attitudes. It will change the words that come from our mouths. It will change our attitude. In Verse 21, Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. We will be humble with our brothers and sisters. It will change our actions.

When were under the influence of the Holy Spirit, it changes our words; it changes our actions; it changes our attitudes. When weve yielded to alcohol-too much of it-it changes to the negative, so yielding to the Spirit changes us in the positive.

Now, what is the greatest commandment according to the Bible? It is to love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and your neighbors as yourself. So, what is this passage saying? Two things. If were filled with the Spirit, its going to help us to love God; and its going to help us to love our neighbor, right? So a spirit-filled life isnt this weird, mystical thing. A spirit-filled life manifests itself in greater community, community with God, community with one another. The Spirit works in us and through us; it changes our tone, our heart, our mouth, our behavior. Now, being filled with the Spirit is having an awareness of the Spirit of God in your life.

I want you to think of a good friend in your life, somebody that youre very close to-maybe its your spouse; maybe its a parent; maybe its your best friend-somebody that youre very close to in your life. Imagine if for whatever reason, they stopped talking to you. Now, they didnt talk bad about you. They didnt say mean things; they just stopped talking to you. So as youre in your car, theyre not talking. Youll speak, and they dont answer. Occasionally, theyll respond, but just occasionally. And they seldom, if ever, initiate anything. They never turn to you and start a conversation. They respond occasionally, never initiate, but they usually dont even respond. You write them letters, Im your friend. I love you. I appreciate you. Ive got something to offer you, but they dont read the letters.

How would you feel if that relationship was a one-way relationship? Youd be very discouraged by that. You would think, Man, I have something to offer this person. I have friendship I can give this person.

Let me ask you a question using that illustration. How many of you this week practiced the presence of God in your lives? How many of you initiated conversation with God? How many of you? Because the Holy Spirit is with us and in us all the time-even when we dont feel Him. The way we acknowledge His presence-the Bible says to pray continually.

Paul doesnt mean walk around like this all the time. Paul says, Be in a continual conversation with the Lord. Talk to the Lord about your hopes; your dreams; your frustrations; your sadness; what youre frustrated and angry about; what youre confused about; what youre struggling with; your weaknesses.

Who did Jesus say the Holy Spirit would be to us? Our comforter, very good. Comforter means a Paraclete or one called alongside to help. He says, I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. Who will come to us? He says, I will, in the person of the Holy Spirit who is God.

He is in our lives, called alongside to help to comfort us. Are you taking advantage of what God has provided for you? Are you taking advantage of the Holy Spirit that lives inside of you? Are you reading the letters that He has written to you? Are you responding to His Spirits promptings? Are you initiating conversation with Him?

I want to encourage you this week to practice the presence of the Lord. Recognize you can pray to Him any hour of any day, but bring the Lord into your lives. Christianity is not just about a set-up, doctrines, a dogma or a creed-something that we recite and repeat back, and thats our Christianity. Christianity is about a relationship with the Lord, Jesus Christ who loves you, who indwells you. He wants to have a relationship with you.

When I put myself in an environment for the Holy Spirit to fill me, when I consume spiritual food that the Holy Spirit can use to fill me, when I acknowledge the presence of the Lord in my life and I pray with Him and dialogue with Him and have that awareness, when I yield to what He is doing in my life instead of fighting and resisting, I am filled with His Spirit. When I am filled with His Spirit, I will live out His greatest command: to love God and love my neighbor. I will grow in moral excellence; thats the promise of His Word. Amen?

Now, next week were going to talk about the third part, which is knowledge-why knowledge is important, what knowledge means, and what some of the dangers of acquiring knowledge are. There are some dangers, and were going to get you so excited that youre going to say, I have to go out and do something. I have to go learn something! So thats going to be our virtue that we talk about next week.

Would you open your Bibles please to 2 Peter 1? The series we are on is called Virtuous Reality. We said that this section of text from Verse 3-11 we described it as this little library. It has bookends on each end. There is the provision of God on one side, and theres the promise of God at the end of the text. In between are these virtues that were going to examine each and every week. We made the point last week that Peter is not teaching a self-help lesson here. This is not about you just trying harder, having more willpower, digging deeper and doing all of that. It is about effort, but its not about you exclusively helping yourself. It is about a partnership between you and God. Peter says, Through these promises, we become partakers of the divine nature. To be a partaker of the divine nature means to partner with God. You work with God, in tandem with God, to bring about His redemptive plan in the world and in your life. We talked about Philippians 2:12-13 (page 1162 in pew Bibles) where Paul says, Work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who is at work in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. We said in our English Bible, the word work appears to be the same in both verses. When we examine it in the Greek, the word work is two different words. The first word for work as its used for people is to work on something, to work on a project and bring it to completion. The second word work that is used of God is to work in and through something-to accomplish a change from the inside out.

So we gave you an example. We gave you an example; we asked how many of you took a shower this morning. Hands went up all over the place. I asked how many of you needed help; all the hands went down. Well, it was a trick question; I said, You mean you walked into the shower with no shampoo, no running water, and no soap?

You said, Oh, yeah, I guess I did need help. You work on the body, and the products worked in your pores. You put the toothpaste on, and the toothpaste does its job cleaning the teeth. We work on, and these products work in and through.

We talked about a stain. You cant remove a stain with your own efforts, so you buy Formula 409. You spray it on there, and it starts dissolving. While youre working on the stain, the product is working in and through to remove it and do for you what you cannot do for yourself. The same thing is true here. We work on our salvation; God works in us and through us-through His Spirit, through His promises-to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, to change our hearts and purify our souls. Thats Gods responsibility, so its a joint effort.

Now, Peter says for this reason, for this reality, this provision, it says that you and I, in Verse 5, …are to make every effort. So we have a part to play too. Were to make every effort to add to your faith goodness.

Now well stop right there. He says add to your faith. Faith is foundational. Its not a coincidence that he says add to your faith and not to your knowledge, not add to your goodness or kindness. He says first and foremost add to your faith. It is fundamental. It is foundational.

Its like water is the universal solvent; we add ingredients to the water. Faith is like that. It is what we add to. It is the basis of what we have. If we dont have that strong basis, then we arent going to have anything to add to it. If you dont have that basis of faith, Peter says, then its useless to try to grow in these other areas because you dont have the foundation. Try erecting walls in a house without laying the foundation first, and see how that house stands up to the elements and to time. You have to have the foundation, and the foundation for the believer is faith. We are called to be in Christ; and if we are in Christ, then faith should be something that is manifested in our lives. It says, The just shall live by faith.

Hebrews 11 says, It is impossible to please God without faith.

Brenda and I went to the Brewers game with our good friends, Mark and Sherry. They have a minivan, and we were driving in the parking lot. I had the window rolled down, and there was this guy who started talking to me. He has a big smile on his face, so I knew he was friendly. I dont know if he had a little bit too much to drink or something, but he looked at me and he said, Youre in a minivan!

I said, Huh?

He goes, Youre in a minivan!

I go, Yeah.

He goes, Youre the minivan man!

Ive never been called that. I didnt know quite what to do. Wow! Im the minivan man! What hes saying is, Youre characterized by what youre in. Youre known by what youre in. I was in a minivan, so Im the minivan man. We are in Christ; we should be characterized, the Bible says, by faith. We should live by faith. It should be what we are known for. Now, if faith is that important, if were known by our faith-if without faith, its impossible to please God, we better understand what it is and what it isnt, right? The word faith here in Peter and elsewhere is the Greek word pistis. Pistis has a very distinct meaning. We saw some eloquent and poetic definitions, but the real base hard line definition of faith is a conviction that something is true that manifests itself with corresponding action, a conviction that something is true that is lived out or demonstrated through action. Thats conviction.

Did any of you watch the Hurricane Ike coverage a couple of days ago? Wasnt that just like riveting television? Im watching Geraldo standing on the beach of Galveston getting pummeled by 120 mile an hour winds. Hes talking to the camera man; hes getting hit in the head. The image is going out and coming back. I just want to say, Geraldo, just go inside. We get it. Its windy; its wet. Geraldo was saying that the crew was staying at some hotel, CNN or FOX. They were staying at this hotel: the mayor of Galveston, the first responders, this large hotel that had been built for a category five hurricane. Nobodys ever experienced a category five hurricane there, but we have been told that the building will stand a category five hurricane; so when they stay in that hotel during a hurricane, what were they demonstrating? Faith? Faith doesnt just say something is possible. Faith begins to live as if it is possible-through its experience, through its living out-it demonstrates that that is true. It demonstrates that what has been said is true. It would be one thing if they said, Well, we believe this hotel could withstand a category five hurricane, but were out of here. Were heading to Arizona. See you later. Thats not really faith. Its not just enough to say something. They occupied that building. They stayed there all night, and it did live up to its promise.

They interviewed a man, 77 years old. They said, Are you going to evacuate? He said, Nope. I believe in the man upstairs, and Im going to stay right here. I think Hes going to keep me safe. Im not going anywhere, and he stayed. You can call that crazy if you want to, but he demonstrated faith, didnt he? He backed his talk; he walked his talk. The Bible demonstrates this also in the Book of James, if youll turn there to the second chapter. This is page 1197. James writes in Verse 18, But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds, as though those two can be separated.

‘Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe there is one God. Good! Youre on the right track. ‘Even the demons believe that-and shudder.

It says Satan doesnt doubt the existence of God. Demons dont doubt the existence of God. This word here, thats pretty powerful stuff, and shudder… Youve done that. If something is really creepy or scary, you kind of go, Ooooohh. In the Greek, this verb is in the present active indicative which means theyre still shuddering. Its not a past tense shudder. Theyre still shuddering because they know God exists, and they know their faith. He demonstrates that. He gives some examples of faith-Abraham believing.

Then it says in Verse 26, As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. What hes saying is thats not really faith. If all it is is empty words, thats not faith at all. Faith is more than just an intellectual assent. Its more than just a creed we can say and acknowledge and say, Yeah, I think thats true. Faith is lived out in the real world-true biblical faith.

Someone said that James contradicts Paul because Paul says, We are saved by grace through faith, not by works.

James says, Were not saved by faith alone, right?

So you say, Oh, those two are contradicting. Not at all. Each is dealing with the extreme points of view of faith.

Paul is attacking those who would say, Well, I just have to work harder for my salvation. I just have to try more. If Im just a good enough person, I can earn Heaven. Paul says, No, you cant. No, you cant. You are saved by the grace of God through faith. You cannot work for it.

James is attacking the other extreme, the extreme that says, All I have to do is just believe the right thing and then just kick back and relax. He says, No, thats not a true faith because if you truly had a faith in God, that faith would be lived out in the real world. You have an intellectual knowledge of God, but youre not living out your faith. Youre not putting feet to your faith. There is no action behind your faith.

Peter says if these things arent in our lives in increasing, weve forgotten our purification from sin. Faith is taking a risk. Its having the audacity to believe a promise of God.

About 12 years ago, I was playing basketball and I jumped in the air. This guy undercut me and kind of catapulted me in the air. I came down with my full weight on my right knee. I went to the doctor, and he said, You have some loose bodies floating around. We need to scope you. I went in, and I was frozen from the waist down so I was actually watching the operation on the little monitor. He was wiggling around my ACL, and he was saying, See and this is all loose like that? Its kind of like when you stretch out a rubber band. We cant fix that. Youre just going to have to live with that. Maybe you can get a brace and try to brace that leg. Then he said, See this meniscus? This is torn. Were going to fix that.

Then he goes, Oh, man, there are a lot of loose bodies. Lets get these all out of here. Well get you back out on the court in a few weeks, Mr. Williams.

I went, Well, thats great.

He goes, Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Then they started mumbling. I didnt like that.

I said, Whats going on?

He said, See how that looks like the Grand Canyon?

I said, Yeah.

He said, Thats where your cartilage used to be. Now thats just bone. Im going to drill holes in your bone that is going to cause blood to come into the cavity. I watched that happen. He said, Its going to take you about four months for that to clot. Youre going to have to have no activity; just lie on your back for four months. That was a long four months while that clotted.

He says, And your sports days are over. You can ride a bike; you can swim; you can play golf; coach, but youll never do anything with running or jumping the rest of your life.

I said, Well, what if I dont play as hard? What if I dont play as long?

They all laughed, and they said, Thats just the anesthetic talking. He went on, You have no cartilage. There is no way to grow cartilage; theres no way to get cartilage in there. You cant run and jump without cartilage. He said, Its time to coach.

I was so depressed. Im just lying on that couch. I worked, but I lived on that couch. I told Brenda one day, Im going to play ball again. Im going to find a doctor friend, Dr. Hubrets, who I know likes athletics. Hes going to understand. Hell get me a brace, and Im going to play.

She said, Thats crazy.

I said, I know, but I just know Gods used me. I know God can heal me, and Im going to play. I got out there in this brace. You know when youre at the dentist and he hits a nerve, and it sends a shock? Every once in a while Id hit that on my knee, and Id just fall. Id have to quit. The way I stopped myself was I would just slow down a little bit, and then I would use the wall to stop to run the other way. It was not a pretty sight. I said, Lord, Im not healed now, but Youre going to have to heal me because Im going to keep going on this court. Im going to keep putting on this brace, and Im going to keep playing until You do.

There is aggressiveness to faith. Its Jacob touching the angel, I wont let you go until you bless me. Faith is not passive; faith doesnt just sit back and wait for things to happen. Faith goes and gets it. So I showed up the next day, and I said, Im here, bobbling and hobbling, running into the walls and falling down. I strapped on my brace the next week, Im here. I played a little longer, and a little longer and a little longer. Now, Im playing in a normal week about three days a week at the club. Sometimes Ill go to the Y and see my old friends, but three days a week, I play full-court basketball. [I am out there] dunking the ball-no; Im not doing that (congregation laughing), but Im playing. Im out there. I dont know how much of its my age, how much of it is my knee. I cant play like I used to, but Im out there. Im trying; Im working. God did a work [in me]. I dont even use a brace anymore now, no brace. Thats what faith does. Faith straps on the brace.

Are there things in your life? Is there a storm in your life, and everything in you is telling you to run? Everything in you is telling you to leave? God says, I have enabled you to withstand this storm. I have built strength in you through My Spirit that you can withstand this storm. You need to stay.

The hurricane looks ominous; it looks scary; it looks powerful, but greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.

Im going to tell you a story that is going to seem amazing to you, but its true. Many years ago-this was probably 23 years ago when this took place. I was the youth minister in Rockford at our church. We took a trip to Great America every year. We needed a bus driver, and a lady from our church said, Well, I have a friend of mine who is a bus driver, but hes not a Christian. Is that okay?

I said, Listen, we need a bus driver, absolutely.

Hes a nice guy, but he just doesnt believe in God.

I said, Okay. Well have a chance to talk. Maybe well have a chance to tell him a little bit about the Lord. So we get on the bus, and we get there and have a fun day. We said, Okay, were going to meet at 10 oclock at the bus. You know teenagers. They dont come on time, so by the time we got ready to roll, its close to 11 oclock, and the bus doesnt start. We call Great America security, and they came and jumped it. We take off, and we get as far as the gas station in Gurnee about two blocks away, and it dies again. We roll into the gas station, no juice. There happened to be a mechanic there at 11 oclock at night. You could tell this was 23 years ago; try finding a mechanic at 11 oclock at night in a gas station now. We take the battery out; he tests the battery, and he says, Man, this thing is low. Im going to put it on the charger, but its going to take quite a while to charge this thing up. Its really dead.

I called the boss and said, Hey, boss. Im sorry were stuck here in Gurnee. We have no battery. Were trying to get home. We also have no money because you know whatever money the parents gave the children was gone by noon, right? Its 12 oclock soon, and we had no money for a hotel. What are we going we do? I had worried parents back home. I have this bus full of teenagers. What are we going to do? I kept checking, Hows it going?

He said, Its not very good. It has increased a little bit, but its nowhere close what you need to drive home. So another half hour goes by.

The next thing you know wed been at the station for an hour. I said, Hows it going? He said, Its not good. Its maybe a third of where it needs to be. Its not safe to drive.

I said, Well, I dont know what to do. Were here. We have no money. We have no place to stay. I have 50 kids with worried parents. Im going to pray, and I want you to put the battery back in the bus.

The mechanic said, Thats not a good idea.

The bus driver said, Youre only going to get a couple blocks down the road. Were not going to make it.

The mechanic said, Listen, youre going to get stranded on the interstate with 50 kids. Youd rather be here than on the interstate with 50 kids.

But there was something in me that just said, We need to give this a go. I gathered the kids together. I said, Come on, kids. Come off the bus. Were going to talk. So we gathered together. I explained the situation, and I said, We are going to ask God to touch our bus, and we are going to ask God to bring us safely to Rockford. I start telling them about who God is, reminding them about who God is and the power God has. We believe that God is able to do this, dont we, kids?

Yeah!

So, Lord, were asking You right now that You touch our bus, that You bring us safely to Rockford, so we get on the bus.

The bus driver is like, This is a bad idea.

I was like, I know youve shared that.

We used no defroster because we didnt want to use energy, so I would have to wipe off the windshield every few minutes. We werent running the fan because we wanted to save energy, so I had to kind of fan him as he was driving. Im standing next to him as hes driving, fanning and wiping off the windshield. I said, Were just going to go straight through, so we started on the journey.

We get on the interstate, and we get a few miles out of town; the bus driver says, I dont believe this.

I said, Well, its happening.

So we would drive 10, 15, 20 miles, I dont believe this. Did I tell you-you know I dont believe in God, right?

I said, Yeah, youve shared that with me.

He said, Yeah, but this is really-this is a miracle. This is amazing.

I said, Yeah, its pretty cool. We just kept driving.

Hed say, Wow! I just really cant get over whats happening! He kept saying it over and over and over again. Finally, at 1 oclock or 1:30 in the morning, we pulled into the parking lot of the church. He said to me, Pastor, you dont understand. At the gas station, I disconnected the battery from the alternator. Were not having mechanical energy turned to electrical energy to charge the battery because its not hooked up to the alternator. We started on a dead battery, which should have gone to a completely dead battery. Yet, we made it here. I dont know how to explain that.

A long story short, that bus driver became a Christian. Through that incident, he gave his life to Christ. He said, I cant deny whats happened today. It defies logic.

Sometimes in faith, God will ask you to do something that doesnt make sense in the natural mind, but make sure its God, right? Dont do something just crazy for no reason and test God. Dont jump off a building and say, I think youre going to rescue me, God.

Jesus says, Dont put the Lord, your God, to the test. There will be times in your life when God says, Test me. I think God loves it when we step out in faith. I think God loves it when we say, Lord, for man, this is impossible; but, God, with You, it is possible. We take that step of obedience and faith. [If you] remember who our God is, then its not such a leap of faith. Remember what He has done.

Rick Warren says were all banking on something. Were all batting on something. He said, The atheists-theyre betting that theres no God that they have to give an account to. The Hindus? Theyre betting on reincarnation and good karma to keep coming back as a higher life form until they can reach nirvana. The Muslim terrorist extremists? Theyre counting on Allah being on their side; so when they blow themselves up, theyre going to go to paradise. Theyre banking on that.

Were banking on the One that said, Im the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but through Me. He lived a perfect, sinless life all for that sinless life on the cross, died and was buried, and on the third day rose again. Today, we could go to Jerusalem and go inside the empty tomb to see where He is not. Thats who were banking on. Thats who were putting our faith and our trust in.

We talked a little bit about the miraculous. Sometimes in everyday life there are things around us that are special. Miracles are around us every day that we just take for granted.

Were going to close out our service this morning with just a reflective song which talks about the greatness of God and the miracles that you and I see every day. Lets listen to this song called Ordinary Miracle. (Click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8SMsMnA1cI for this video) Its a beautiful song by Sarah McLachlan. Were going to pick up next week from where we left off, so next week well talk on the next virtue. I believe it is goodness. We hope to see you back for that.

Lets pray:

Father, as we reflect on Your creation, we see Your greatness and Your glory. We think that a God who made all of that surely can help me in the problems and struggles I face. We see Your grandeur; we see Your majesty. We can have the faith to believe You to meet the needs of everyday life. Lord, were thankful we can enter into that divine partnership, that we can add to our faith. Our faith is our foundation. It is our conviction that You are God. It is our conviction that You are Lord. It is our conviction that You have given us all things pertaining unto life and godliness and that we are in You. Being in You, our life should be a life of faith. I pray that Youd help us to put feet to our faith, to live out our faith. I pray for the one who is facing a storm right now-that they will be able to stand. I pray for the one who is contemplating a risk, something Youve asked them to do that is difficult-that, Lord, they get on the bus, that theyd trust You. Father, help us to grow in our faith, that our lives might reflect Your glory. In Jesus name I pray, amen.

We are going to be watching a little short video now that our programming team has put together for us for this series. Well be meeting these two from time to time throughout the Virtuous Reality series. (This was a movie clip from Disneys Wall-E.)

You thought the Jokers performance was something this summer. I think were right up there with that, so well be watching that adventure unfold before our eyes. Lets open the Bible this morning to 2 Peter 1. While youre finding 2 Peter 1, I want you to know who Peter is writing to, why he is writing. This, like the book we looked at last week-2 Timothy, is Peters last book. Its a testamental book. He is going to die very shortly. He speaks about his departure. He, too, like Paul, would die under the reign of Emperor Nero. He is fighting, whereas Paul wrote to Timothy trying to mentor him one last time. Peter is writing to the church to warn them about a heresy, a false doctrine that was becoming pervasive. Its called antinomianism. Antinomianism means anti-law. There was a group within the region that was teaching that God is so loving and gracious; the Gospel is so wonderful that you can go out and live anyway you want to live, and God will forgive you. It says, Go out and commit any sin you want to, pursue any desire you want to, its okay because Gods grace will cover it. So live any way you want to live because your soul will be saved. Thats antinomianism, against the law. There should be no law, and everybody can just do what they want.

Peter is writing them, and he says, Listen, we need to live a virtuous life. If Gods called us to belong to Him, we have to fight those temptations. We have to fight that sinful nature. We have to strive to live, be diligent to live virtuous lives. Then toward the end of the book, hes going to really come out and attack those false teachers. Hes going to say some very unkind things about them, but he is fighting this battle here. Understanding that as a backdrop, it will help us understand why Peter says the things that he says. Were going to read the first 11 verses, and then were going to talk about one phrase. Were going to hone in on it.

Verse 1 (page 1204 of pew Bibles), 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…

Who does Peter think Jesus is? A good teacher? A good leader? Philosopher? How does he address Jesus? God and Savior. He recognizes the deity of Jesus. Can you imagine living with somebody for three years and still recognizing their deity? You live with somebody, and you find out the shortcomings really quick, dont you? He lived with Jesus and knew Him to be divine.

Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

His divine power has given us… Past tense-not will but has. …everything we need for life and godliness. Through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these… That is through His goodness, His glory, and His divine power. …He has given us His very great and precious promises so that through them… And heres the phrase were going to study today. …you may participate in the divine nature. What does that mean? …and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. Dont give into them. We can escape them. We can overcome them.

For this reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 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.

Those words seem very similar, but really theyre quite different. The first word, ineffective, comes from the root word of lazy. It means its going to keep you from being lazy in your Christian walk. The second word is a word of somebody who is very busy but just not very productive.

Have you ever been really busy and unproductive? You worked really hard and accomplished nothing? Like your last garage sale kind-of-thing. You say, Listen if you will grow in these virtues, you are going to be productive, and you are going to be fruitful. Youre going to accomplish things for the kingdom.

But if anyone does not have them, he is near-sighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.

Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things… And listen to this, …you will never fall.

So, theoretically, Peter said, if you actually lived a life with all these virtues and were increasing in these virtues, youd never fall. Youd never stumble. Thats quite a thing to think about. Im not there yet; I dont know about you, but Peter said if a person theoretically did this, they would never fall.

…And you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

So if you think about this passage as there is a book in it, this end of the bookend is the power and provision of God. This end of the book is the promises; this is Verse 3-4, and this is Verse 11, the promise. In between are these eight volumes of virtues. This morning, were talking about the provision, and then were going to end the series talking about the promise. In between, were going to pull out those virtues one book at a time and look at them-whether its perseverance, self-control, love or whatever it is-and talk about what Gods Word says about how that virtue can be cultivated in our lives.

Now, when youre first reading this, it almost sounds like a self-help book. There are a lot of self-help books in the marketplace today. You can do it; you just read this and follow these easy steps, and you can change your life. Well, youre the problem, right? Youre the one who got yourself into this mess. How in the world are you going to fix yourself? You need outside intervention. Peter is not saying here that its just a matter of your willpower and your strength.

You say, Well, he says well never fall. Is Peter wanting us to be Superman or some of these super Christians who never, never fall? This passage is about corruption; its about a corrupt world; its about a dark world.

Hes saying, With Gods help, with His divine power, Hes given us everything we need for life in godliness. We can, with the help of God, grow in these virtues.

Did you know that Superman originated from a young mans vulnerability as he looked at the darkness of the world? There are some interesting things that have come to light just recently about the creator of the Superman character. In 1932, the father of a young man by the name of Jerry Siegel owned a business and was killed during a robbery of his business. Jerry Siegels young world was shattered. His father he was so close to was gone. His whole world had come apart. Any coincidence that a year later in 1933, he introduced a character to the world called Superman? He was a boy who had lost his father, and his whole world had been destroyed on another planet. He comes to the earth, and hes invincible. Bullets wont touch him; bullets cant hurt him. The first illustration you ever see Superman in is not action number one. It precedes that by five years. Its a cartoon of showing the Superman coming to rescue a man who is being robbed at gunpoint like his father was. No question, no doubt where the inspiration for Superman came from. It came from the vulnerability of a young boy. It came as a young boy was looking at a world that was now very scary and dark and wishing there was a savior who could fly in and save the day-one that could have protected his father from the harm that came to him.

Peter is not asking that you or I be Superman here. He knows were very much vulnerable. He knows the world is very corrupt, but what he is offering us is hope. Hes saying, Listen, you need to understand something. God has invited you to partner with Him in this spiritual journey. In fact, in Verse 4, thats the phrase. It says, You might participate in the divine nature. Participate in the divine nature. What does that mean? Does that mean that we become like God, we become divine in some way? There are false religions or cults who might take this verse and twist it in that way, but thats not what he means.

The word here means a partnership or to become a sharer with. Hes saying, God wants to partner with you on this faith journey. You wont walk alone. God wants to be with you. You have a part to play, and God has a part to play.

Did you hear about the guy who wanted to get rich? He prayed to God that he would win the lottery? So every night hed pray, Lord, help me to win the lottery, and he wouldnt win it. Week after week, hed say, Lord, Ill give money to the church. Ill do good things for the kingdom. Just help me to win the lottery. He wouldnt win it. Lord, you said if we asked anything in Your name, itll be done, and Im asking in faith to please help me win the lottery. He didnt win. Finally, he gets angry and says to God, I dont understand! Why wont You answer this prayer? You know my heart. You know Id help the church. The Lord answered him and said, Work with Me on this one. Buy a ticket. There is something you have to do; its not just to sit back. We have to purchase a ticket. We have to get involved here.

When I was a young man, I grew up in poverty. My father came from Sweden, as was very common for immigrants. They would take the medial jobs, the hard jobs with little pay. Then after a bout with cancer, he passed away when I was five years old. Our family was very poor. When I grew up, we were still poor; and there was no way we could have afforded college. I wanted to go; my mother wanted to go, so we applied for grants. Because we had so little money, I was able to get a lot of grants, a lot of scholarships from the state that enabled me to get my education. The state did their part; it was as if they said, Were going to partner with you to get an education. What was my part? Did I just sit back and collect the checks, or did I do something else? I showed up for class; I took notes; I listened; I studied; I took the tests; I wrote the papers. I passed the class, and if I did enough of that-get enough credits-then I could graduate.

It was a partnership, but the partnership that Gods talking about here is much deeper than that. Its much more intimate than that. Were going to see what Im talking about. I want you to turn to Philippians 2, or you can watch this on the screen-either way. Philippians 2:12 (page 1162 in church Bibles), the Apostle Paul is going to give an admonition to the believers in Philippi.

He says, Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed-not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence-continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling… comma.

Be thankful that theres a comma there instead of a period. If there were a period there, end of story-you and I would be hurting right now. If Paul said, Look, there is such a thing called salvation. Work it out. Struggle. Some people believe that. They still think they work out their salvation, that they earn in some way their salvation. There is not a period there; there is a comma there. Theres another verse, …for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.

So God is there. Hes partnering with you on this journey.

Now, youll notice in Verse 12-13, each one uses the word work, right? Were to work out our salvation. It says, Gods at work in you. Now in our Bibles, the word work is the same in both verses; but in the Greek Bible, its a different word. The word work in 12 is different than the word work in Verse 13. In Verse 12, the word work is the same word that we would use to work on a project. Im working on adding a room to my house. Or you might say, Im making an outfit for my grandchild. Im working on the car. Im trying to fix the car. Its a project that youre doing where youre working on something. Youre involved; youre participating; youre laboring an endeavor.

The second word in verse 13 that pertains to God is the word we get energy from. Its always used in the contents of working in and through-in and through something. God is not just working with us; He is working in us and through our lives, in our lives and through the Spirit to bring about transformation and change from the inside out. He is doing something for us that we cannot do for ourselves. Its a totally different word. God provides the energy. He is a catalyst for that change.

How many of you this morning practiced good personal hygiene before you came to church this morning? You had cleaned up, took a shower, washed your hair, brushed your teeth and all that good stuff? Let me see your hands. Those who did not raise your hands, in the foyer we do have a TV if you could please dismiss yourselves at this time for the good of the body-our body, not yours (congregation laughing). But you did-you practiced good hygiene. As I look out, I see shampooed, combed hair, and Im really proud of you. Listen, how many of you this morning who cleaned up needed some help? Let me see your hands if you needed help this morning. Oh, got you-trick question. You didnt need help? You mean to tell me you just stepped in the shower with your clothes? No water, no shampoo, no soap, and you came out clean? Wow! Can you tell me how you did that? How many of you needed help this morning to get clean? All right. Yeah, you needed water; you needed soap; you needed shampoo. You worked on it, right? You scrubbed it in. You rubbed in the soap, and you went under the water and rinsed. You did work, and while you worked on your body, the shampoo and the soap worked in and through. They did for you what you could not do for yourself. The shampoo does shampooey things. It removes those things that need to be removed. The soap goes into the pores, and it cleanses you deep in those pores. It does for you what you cannot do for yourself.

Maybe you encounter a stain. It just seems like youre scrubbing, and youre sweaty. Its just not coming out. Youre frustrated and youre exasperated because you scrub it with hot water, and its just not coming out. You say, I have to get some help. You go to the grocery store, and you buy Lysol or Formula 409, whatever you like to use. You come home and you spray it on that stain, and immediately it starts to bubble. It starts to get kind of all oozy and drippy and everything. You say, Somethings happening there. Now you take your towel and you start rubbing it, and that stain comes off. Whats happened? That chemical began to work in and through that stain to break it up and dissolve it, so you can wipe it away. It did for you something you could not do for yourself. You partnered with that product. You still had an effort to make. You had to go out and buy it; apply it; wait; scrub it, but you still had something to do. So it had a part, and you had a part. Yours was to work on; the agent was to work in and through.

When I go to prepare a message, I study the text. I dont just show up on Sunday morning and say, Okay, God, lets teach. Tell me what to say. I pray and I pray; I study; I meditate; I think, but at a certain point, the Holy Spirit has to come, and He has to help me. He has to give me insight. He has to help me to see things. Sometimes there is a hunch like those words work, like Im going to study those two words of work and see if there is any difference between those two words, where that thought came from. It came from the Lord. Hes guiding me on that journey. He gives me illustrations; He talks to me throughout the week. He helps me prepare a message; and then as I give it, Im working here this morning, but the Lord is working, and youre listening. He is working in and through this message through the Holy Spirit. Hes working in your lives. So even this morning, there is a partnership going on between the Lord and myself and between you and the Lord as youre listening to His Word.

Were working on this stuff, but He is working in us and through us. The farmer plants the seed that God gave. God gave the seed; God gave the soil; God gives the sun; God sends the rain. The farmer has to buy the seed; plant the seed; sometimes water the seed; weed; fertilize; harvest. There is a divine partnership because the farmer cant make the seed, and he cant cause whats inside that seed to grow. Thats Gods part. God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Were starting to understand this now, right?

Remember he says in 2 Peter, …but if anyone does not have them… these virtues, …he is nearsighted and blind and has forgotten he has been cleansed from his past sins. You and I forget things, dont we?

Just this week, I went to pump my gas, and it wasnt coming out. I went in to talk to the clerk, and he says, Well, you have to pump the gas first.

I said, But theres no sign that says that, and there wasnt. I went back and checked, so I paid for my gas. I have such a habit of coming out to the car after I paid and getting in the car to go; so I still have the hose in the car; I get in the car, and I start driving off. Now, I dont think starting your car with a gas hose in the tank is probably a good idea, but a fellow actually pulled his car in front of me and stopped. I was like, What does this guy want here?

He said, You have the hose in the gas tank.

Then I wanted to go hug him, Thanks! I turned off my car. We forget stuff. We forget spiritual things too. We forget very important spiritual matters, very life-essential spiritual matters. Peter says, Its very possible that if youre not seeing these virtues increase or if youre seeing these virtues diminishing your life, youve really forgotten what the Lord has done for you; and I need to remind you of what He did. So thats what Im going to do this morning; Im going to remind you.

Turn one page over to 1 John 1:5 (page 1207 in pew Bibles). It says, This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.

Now hes not talking here about your sinning. Hes talking about you living in a lifestyle of sin. Hes talking about how you walk in it; youre embracing it. Thats become the normal for you. He says, If youre living in that state, then youre lying. Youre just deceiving yourself. The truths not in you.

…But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Thats the promise. So what is our part? Our part is to confess. Confess comes from two words: homologeo, meaning the same word. It means to say the same thing that God says about our sins. To confess means to be in agreement with God. So I come to Him, and I say, Im sorry for my sins. Im in agreement. Youre right; Im wrong. Forgive me. That is our part-to come in faith to confess our sin, to repent.

What is Gods part? Gods part is to cleanse. Talking about a cleansing agent, he said, The blood of Jesus is such an effective stain remover that it even removes the sin on your soul, the result of your unrighteousness. Those [are the] things you did do that you shouldnt have done or you didnt do and should have, your sin-where you missed the mark. His blood will remove that, the consequence of that.

Even more, Gods part-it says, He will not only cleanse us of our sin, but He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Thats the source; thats talking about your heart. Sin is the act; its the result, but the very source is your heart. He says, God will even work in your heart to change your heart if you will work with Him, if you will partner with Him, be in agreement with Him, God will work to change your heart. God will do something for you that you cannot do yourself. If you know somebody who has had a heart procedure done-maybe theyve had open-heart surgery… Anybody know anybody like that in your life? Did they do it themselves? Did they get in front of a mirror and try to unplug the artery? Did they or did they need outside intervention for that? They needed somebody else to do that. They had to cooperate. They had to sign the papers, go see the doctor, submit to the anesthetic and say, Here I am. They had to admit themselves in the hospital, put their trust in the doctor. Then the doctor partnered with them to bring about a healing for that heart.

Friends, just like you cannot operate on your own physical heart, you cannot operate on your spiritual heart. You cannot cleanse your spiritual heart.

If you have some self-help books out there, the best thing you can do is put them in the trash because, friends, youre the problem. Youre not going to fix yourselves. You need to understand that. You need outside intervention. You need somebody to do for you what you cannot do for yourself. You cannot remove sin, and you cannot remove unrighteousness from your soul.

So Peter is not giving us a self-help chapter here. Everything he said, every virtue he talked about he said, This is possible because of His divine power has given us everything pertaining to life and godliness. We are invited in Verse 4 to partner with Him, become a partaker of the divine nature. So what were talking about doing is planting some good seeds here, watering them and watching God grow them.

How many of you a few months from now would like a nice harvest to perseverance, self-control, love or kindness in your lives? So youre in the right place. Thats what this series is about. Its about removing those things from our lives that plague us. Were going to illustrate this in closing with one of our friends weve come to know and love from another civilization. His name is Wall-E, and hes going to show us right now, so lets watch old Wall-E here right now and see if this doesnt look familiar.

You think you get rid of evidence, but its right there behind you. You cant shake it; you cant move it. Probably as you go through all of this to virtue, there are areas that you really struggle with-perseverance. Boy, it seems like I always quit too soon when opposition comes. Or its self-control. You just cant get a handle on that self-control, that area of your life. Brotherly-kindness: sometimes my tongue is so sharp, and my words are so binding. I really need help or I need to just love more. There is something that youve tried to change, and it just seems like you cant change it. Lets believe and trust God in this series that Hell bring about the change as we plant these seeds; as we cooperate with Him, that Hell grow those in our lives. Does that sound like a plan? Okay, thats our plan. Bring somebody with you next week. Were going to start that first virtue.

2 Timothy 2:2 & You -- Real Zeal Part 2

Real Zeal

Open your Bibles if you would please to 1 Samuel 30 (page 292 of pew Bibles). We are winding to a close our series that weve been on: Is There Life After GM? or Is There Life After Loss? The bad news that has come to our community-were talking about the things that are associated with that: dealing with fear and dealing with anxiety. What does Gods Word say to us about those topics? Its rich in what is said to us about change, about faith. This morning were talking about discouragement. Its something we all face. How many of you here have been discouraged by something this week? Almost everybody. It could be a big thing, or it could be something small. Weve been discouraged by something. Maybe your athlete didnt win the event. Everybody was kind of sad when the mom, the 41-year-old, didnt win the gold. She lost by 1/100th of a second. That was discouraging. Maybe youre discouraged because your favorite football player was traded to an East Coast team or something. As a Bears fan, Im encouraged by that news because he scared us, and he hurt us many times.

Depending on where youre at, there are things youre encouraged about and there are things youre discouraged about. Maybe there is something in the home relationship, something in your marriage or with your children that just causes you to be discouraged. Maybe on the job, things arent going as you hoped. Maybe in school, things arent going as you planned. Maybe youre in a weight loss program, and the scales not cooperating. Its just discouraging. There could be health concerns, some problem that doesnt seem to get any better. Maybe its a ministry thats not being blessed as you thought it would be. You can think of any number of things that you and I struggle with on a daily, weekly basis. There are plenty of reasons to be discouraged.

Were going to see what David did. [These are] some very discouraging times in his life. In fact, its hard to imagine having a worse day than David is about to have. Were going to see what he does to deal with that discouragement. That will help us to deal with discouragement in our lives as well. So whats happening here in 1 Samuel? David is a young man. David came to prominence when he slew Goliath, as you and I know. David became a warrior, and he fought many great battles for Israel. He gained a reputation as a man of God, as a warrior. As a result of that, King Saul became jealous because the people seemed to love David more than they loved Saul. In fact, it got so intense between the two that Saul actually tried to take Davids life-pursued him, hunted him down to try to take his life. Twice, Saul was delivered into Davids hand, and David spared his life. David knew that he was not safe in Israel, so David wanted to go to the one place in the world where he knew he was safe from Sauls attack. That was, of all places, a city called Gath. Remember Gath? Who else was from Gath? Goliath, Goliath of Gath. Of all places for David to take refuge but in the land of the Philistines-very ironic; but he developed a relationship, a faith and a trust, with a king whose name was Achish. Achish loved David and began to trust David. He began to think that David had indeed broken off of Israel, and he [became] welcome in the land of the Philistines. Long story short, David asked for a city. He said, There are a lot of us here. David had 600 men with him, fighting with him along with their families; so there are maybe 1,500 Israelites that have been displaced. David asked for a city, and he gave him a southern city by the name of Ziklag. David built houses there and they had a settlement there. For over a year, they lived there in peace and quiet; and that was their home.

One day, David is put in a precarious situation. David thought he would buy time. One day Saul would die, and then it would be safe to go back home; but the Philistines go to war, and they go to war against the Israelites. Guess who they enlist to join their army? Its David. If David doesnt go, his cover is blown, right? Because he still loves his people, but Achish believes David no longer loves his people. He says, Youre going to come with us, and youre going to help us fight against the Philistines. What will David do? Will he fight with the Philistines against his king, against Jonathan and against his own race or will he turn on Achish and fight against the Philistines? We dont know what will happen because the drama never unfolds.

When David gets to the city of Aphek, guess what happens? The other Philistine commanders say, Were not going to fight with that. No matter what you say, King Achish, were not going to fight with him because as soon as we do, hes going to turn on us. Hes going to fight against us. We dont trust him; so regardless of what you say, he needs to go home.

Achish says, Listen, David, youre a good guy. Im sorry I have to do this, but you and your men need to go back to Ziklag because we cant use you here. So David and his men return home. As they are approaching their city, they begin to notice some eerie and strange things. Number one is they smell smoke. It seems to be coming from their village. There is a stench and aroma coming from their building, from their village. Secondly, as they get closer, they dont hear any sound. They dont hear the livestock; they dont hear children playing; they dont hear the sound of community. This is very odd; this is very strange. Im sure at a certain point they began to run toward the city. When they reached the clearing and came into the city, the sight that they see is devastating to their eyes. Their city has been burned to the ground. Who has done it? Why did they do it; they dont know. All they know is their homes, their place of worship, their place of businesses; everything is down and smoldering in ruin, and their families are gone. Not one child; not one wife; not one elderly parent; not one animal is left.

The good news, if theres good news in this situation, is that theyre not dead-as far as they know. Theyre not lying on the ground somewhere. Theyre gone. They may be dead, but they may very well be alive. Had they seen them dead, there would be no hope. Now at least there is some hope, but where do you go? They dont know where to go. They dont know who took their families. They dont know what direction they took them in, so they are just desperate and helpless. They break down and they start to cry. These brave warriors cry. The Bible says they cry until they had no more tears to cry. They dont know what to do.

Then, their tears become anger. They say to David, Youre our leader. You brought us to the land of the Philistines. You brought us to Ziklag. It was your idea to follow after Achish for this war that never happened. Youre the problem. You made us leave our families. If it hadnt been for you, they would still be here. They decided that they were going to stone David, kill him.

So heres David. The king is trying to assassinate him-the head of state. Hes in exile from his country, his family, his friends, his home. His family is now missing along with all of his comrades, their families; and the men who hes gone to battle with-his friends-they want to kill him. Do you think that qualifies as a day that could lead one to be discouraged? I mean that is a bad day.

What will David do? Will he try to commit suicide? Will he run? Will he curse God? What will David do? Were going to find out what David does; its going to help you and me when we encounter our discouraging days. Look at Verse 6. David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord his God.

Other versions render that, but David encouraged himself in the Lord, his God. David encouraged himself. You know, you can encourage yourself, or you can discourage yourself. Have you ever discouraged yourself? Do you ever have a pity party and youre the only one invited to it? You just start negative talking about I never do this. This never works out. Its all my fault. Im a loser. This is bad. Itll never be good. Next thing, you know, you have talked yourself into a bad mood. Youve talked yourself into discouragement. In that same way, you can do things that will allow God to encourage you rather than discourage you because you and I as a people are very prone to negativism. Somebody says a compliment about you, and you go, Aw, shucks, and you brush it off. Somebody says something bad about you, true or not, and you soak it in like a sponge. You think about it all day, maybe into the next day. You cry and you get depressed. Youre like, Why dont they like me? Whats wrong with me? You just really take it in. Its easy to do.

If youre around a negative influence at the workplace or someplace else, if youre around people that talk negative long enough, pretty soon, its starts to impact you. You begin to thing negatively as well.

I was playing ball a couple weeks ago. We were playing some full-court basketball, and our team was winning. I was happy. Then we started to make bad decisions, and they started gaining ground. We needed one more basket to go. We just couldnt get it done. There was a guy on our squad who kept saying, Were going to lose. Thats it. Were going to lose. Hes yelling at everybody; hes mad. Hes like, Were going to lose. Thats it. Thats it. The games done, and I would say, No were not. He would say, Yes we are. Were going to lose. He keeps this up. Finally the games done, and we lost. So I go over to him-hes a friend of mine. Hes a good guy. I say, Look, that doesnt help. When youre yelling at everybody, that doesnt help any of us play better. In fact, it makes matters worse. When you say were going to lose, that makes it even worse.

He goes, I said we were going to lose; I thought we were going to lose; and we lost. I go, Well, keep it to yourself. You know, in Jesus name (congregation laughing). Im being polite. But just keep it to yourself because I dont want to hear that. Lets be positive the next time we play, all right? It brings you down.

So heres David. Theres loss, theres devastation and negativity all around him. Where does he go? He goes to God. He says, Im going to go to the one source that doesnt change, and Im going to reflect upon His promise. I cant die this way because Gods promised through Samuel Im going to be king. So he focuses on Gods promise; he focuses on Gods goodness; he focuses on Gods faithfulness; he focuses on Gods love. The next thing you know, in the midst of this despair and this chaos, David finds encouragement and hope. Isnt that amazing? David finds encouragement and hope.

David had been doing this since he was a lad. Goliath comes and he challenges the armies of Israel. Everybody goes, Oh, Goliath, look how great he is. Look how strong he is. We cant beat him. Hes too great; hes too strong; hes too mighty.

David comes on the scene, and what does he do? He encourages himself in the Lord his God. He says, I was shepherding the sheep, and a lion came. I grabbed it by its beard, and I killed it. I was shepherding the sheep, and a bear came, and I killed it. The same God who was with me when I killed the bear and the lion will be with me as I battle this uncircumcised Philistine. He has defied the God of Heaven, and this day he will know that there is a God in Heaven. He began to speak of life and truth and encourage himself in the Lord his God. The next thing you know, he has a whole army of Israelites and a king believing this pimply-faced teenage boy can take on that monster giant because he spoke words of life and hope. So here is David in his time of great despair. He seeks God. He enquires of God.

Now he had to enquire of God in a different way than you and I enquire our God. We seek Gods written Word, and we pray. We trust the guidance of the Holy Spirit who indwells us as believers. Before the Holy Spirit came and Pentecost, the Holy Spirit did not dwell in believers. He would come on an individual for a task, but He did not live within us. So to seek Gods guidance back in those days, they relied on something that was in the ephod or the high priestly garment. There were some stones there called the Urim and the Thummim. Thats kind of a funny name. It means light and reflection; and somehow, God would speak to them through this. We dont exactly know how it happened. It may have been a casting of lots in some way. Maybe one stone meant yes, and another stone meant no. We dont know that.

So David received clear guidance from God that he was to pursue and that he would overtake. So he gathers the men together. He says, Men, we are going to go after our families. Were going to go after our property, and God is going to give us victory. Now heres the problem. They dont know where theyre going. They dont know who the enemy is. They dont know what direction to go-north, south, east or west; so they are just trusting God. Sometimes when you trust God, you dont always know where to go, right? You dont always know which direction to take, but David and his men are tired and in spite of their fatigue, they are going to persevere. In fact, the Bible tells us that theyre so tired that when they get to the Stream of Besor, 200 of them cant go on any farther. Verse 10 (still on page 292), …two hundred men were too exhausted to cross the ravine. But David and four hundred men continued the pursuit. So here they are. To go from Ziklag to Aphek was 45 miles. They went there on foot. Can you imagine hiking for 45 miles with all your gear, all your food, your equipment? You get there and they say, We dont need you, and you have to hike 45 miles back. Ninety miles! You finally get home; you finally get to rest and see your family. Your family is now gone. Your feet are blistered and sore; youre hungry and youre thirsty; and you have to turn around and march right back into the wilderness. This time, you dont know where youre going. Persevere-they persevere because God had given them a promise. God had given them a purpose that allowed them to endure. God will also allow us to endure and persevere through those times of disappointment and discouragement because we, too, have a purpose and a promise.

There was a man who lived back in the early 1900s. He was a brilliant man by the name of Clarence Jordan. Clarence grew up and received two PhDs-one in agriculture and one in Hebrew and Greek; so he was a farmer and a theologian. He combined those two educations beautifully by starting a ministry called Koinonia Farms in Georgia, in the Deep South. The concept was, Listen, were going to help the poor. Were going to start these farms. He bought over 400 acres, and they began to farm them. They would distribute them, and the poor would be able to buy food very inexpensively. So he was helping to solve the hunger problem. He was also providing jobs and a place to live. On this land, they built houses, so families would actually come together and live in community. Now, there was not a cult. There wasnt anything weird going on. Nobody was worshipping Clarence Jordan or anything like that. It was just a community, and they would grow these crops, they would sell them, and they would help the poor with them. Blacks and whites were working together in harmony-as it should be.

Well, there were some white supremacists that didnt like what was going on. They wanted to cause some trouble for Clarence Jordan. They let him know in no uncertain terms that if he didnt shut down the farm, some bad things would happen. He informed the authorities but there was some corruption going on, and nobody was coming to his defense. One day, the KKK-these idiots-came into the farm, and they burned it down. They burned down every building. They burned down the farm; they ransacked the fields-every home except for one because Clarence Jordan refused to abandon his home. They burned them all down. It was gone. Koinonia Farms was gone. The next morning, a reporter from the newspaper came. Clarence Jordan would later say he recognized that mans voice as being one of the men under a hood the night before. Clarence Jordan was out in the field with his hoe. He was working. [There were] charred remains, rubble, smolder, smoke all around. The reporter pulled up kind of smug, and he said (Pastors speaking with a southern accent), Well now, Dr. Jordan, Im here to do a story on the paper about the closing of Koinonia Farms. How do you feel about that?

Dr. Jordan just ignored him and kept working, kept hoeing. The reporter decided to get a little rise out of him. He said, Dr. Jordan, you have two PhDs. Youve given 14 years of your life to this farm. Now, you have nothing to show for it. Now tell me, how successful do you think youve been?

That caused Dr. Jordan to stop. That would have caused me to wrap him upside the head with my hoe, but he was a more Godly man than I. He stopped, he looked the reporter in the eye, and he said, How successful have we been? The reporter had his piece of paper and pen in hand ready to write a story on the closing of the farm. He said, I think weve been as successful as the cross of Jesus Christ. You see, Sir, this farm is not about success. This farm is about faithfulness, and were not going anywhere. Were staying right here. Good day, and he went back to work.

You can go online today, and you can type in Koinonia Farms in Georgia. You would find that its still thriving. Its still going strong. The communities there have devotions in the morning and devotions at night; and in between, they work. In fact, you could even go and stay a couple weeks if you wanted to and hear the story for yourself and work on the farms. Theyre still doing wonderful work. They could do that because they had received a call from God, a purpose from God and a promise from God that He would never leave them nor forsake them. The same God who was Davids God in his day of discouragement is the same God who is Clarence Jordans God who is your God. It doesnt matter what discouraging times you go through, what dreams dash or what is taken away from us. In those times, we encourage ourselves in the Lord our God, and we press on.

Youre going to find a theme. Weve found a theme, havent we? We found a theme. That is we see Gods providence; we see God working in adverse situations; and we also see God bringing restoration. We see His providence, and we see His restoration.

David and his men take off. They dont know where theyre going. They run across a man who they think might be dead, but they arose him and they found out he was alive-but just barely. They give him rice cakes; they give him raisins it says or figs and cakes of raisins. He eats them and he drinks, and hes revived. David says in Verse 13, Who are you? To whom do you belong, and where do you come from?

He explains, I am an Egyptian, the slave of an Amalekite. He goes on to say that he had been a part of the raids in the Negev and that he had been in Ziklag. Hed been a part of that raid as well. Hed become ill, and his master had left him there to die. Hed been there for three days.

David says, Will you take us? Do you know where they are?

He says, Yeah, I know where they are. They told me where they were going to go.

He said, Can you take us there?

Now the man knows that hed just been a part of a raid that had taken these mens families captive and destroyed their village, so he wants to first secure his own well-being; and he says, I will if you promise you wont kill me.

David says, I promise. You take us to our families. We wont kill you.

So the man then becomes their guide, their means to find their loved ones and their possessions. What a coincidence, ha? What a coincidence that this guy is abandoned by his owner, that hes still alive three days later and that hes exactly the guy that they need to give them the directions to find their families. What a coincidence. Just by chance, ha?

You ever notice that when you truly trust God and put yourself in His hands and His care, all of the random coincidences that you have happen? All the divine appointments, the people that you just happen to meet?

I had a lot of time with Pastor Sean this week. We spent several hours together. It was just fun to hear all the divine coincidences that happened for him to provide for he and Heather and for their ministry. God will do that. Youll see His hand in those situations.

I remember I was on a trip-this was before GPS was available. This was when you had to rely on your instinct or the gas station, if you didnt have a map. I pulled into a lot of gas stations back in the day. Im on my way, and Im late. Im in a region Im not familiar with, and Im pretty lost; and now Im getting pretty late. I finally pray. I say, Lord, Im lost. I dont know where Im at. I dont know where Im going. Please, Lord, can you guide me to my destination? I felt a prompting to pull off to a gas station. I pulled off to the gas station, and I get inside the convenience store. There is a clerk, myself and there is one other individual. I go in and I say, Im looking to find this industrial park.

She says, How did you get out here? Youre lost.

I said, Yeah, I know.

The man behind me in the checkout, he says, Im going there. Just follow me.

I thought, Well, how about that? I pull in, and there is only one customer in the store besides myself, and he happens to be going to the exact same location Im going. Coincidence, right? If I hadnt prayed, Id still be lost. I dont know if I would have ever found my way home. I would have started a church in Timbuktu somewhere. God will do that when you trust Him with that reckless abandon. Hell send people across your way.

Look at these negative circumstances. This man was left behind to die. He became their guide. They are sent back from Aphek. If they stay any longer, there is no hope to find their family. Because they come back so quickly, they can be hot on the trail. Ziklag is destroyed, but that will serve as a catalyst for David to move back to Judah and become king because Saul will die in that battle that David will not get to participate in. Saul dies there, and David becomes the king.

Then the bounty that David gets, he distributes it to all these regions. That endears him so when he does become the king, they love him.

Have you noticed a theme? Pastor Tim talked about Joseph and all that was lost, and God gave back to Joseph everything he had lost and then some. We talked about Job, and Job lost everything; and God gave him back everything hed lost and then some.

Here, David loses everything, and God gives back everything hes lost and then some; because he comes into the village and it says… Remember now, these are the men who were cowards; and they know that the Israelites have left the village. They know its vulnerable because its only men and children and old people left. Thats when they choose to attack. These guys are thugs and bullies; so when David finds them, it doesnt go well for these guys. It says in Verse 16, this Egyptian led David down, and there they were, scattered over the countryside, eating, drinking and reveling because of the great amount of plunder they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from Judah. They were just having a good time. Theyre not ready to fight. In fact, half of them are drunk; theyre reveling-theyre drunk. David fought them from dusk until the evening of the next day. None of them got away except 400 men who rode off on their camels. David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives.

One he had taken in as a widow. This is another culture. Were not going to go there right now. Nothing was missing: young or old, boy or girl, plunder or anything else that had been taken. David brought everything back. He took all the flocks and herds, and his men drove them ahead of the other livestock, saying, This is Davids plunder.

Friends, when we go through those discouraging times, we focus on Gods Promise. We persevere; we encourage ourselves in the Lord our God, and were going to find inevitably that God will restore what was lost and then some. We know there are times were discouraged. We know there are times we want to quit, give up or run and hide; but God is faithful.

There is a song that is sung by Martina McBride, a country music artist. She occasionally has a song that crosses over on the popular charts. This song was such a song. Its called, Anyways, so lets listen and reflect on the words of this song. Its powerful. (Lyrics can be found here: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/m/martinamcbridelyrics/anywaylyrics.html)

Lets close our service in prayer:

Father, thank You for the things that Youve shown us in our series, and thank You for the encouraging words today in the example of David. In the midst of this incredible adversity, chaos and heartache, he found hope, faith and courage in the Lord his God. I pray that these who come forward would find that same encouragement. Those who could have come forward who are facing discouraging situations will not give up hope. Because You have given a promise, and because You have given a purpose and because we live for the glory of our God, that we will persevere with the strength of Your spirit; that we will press on to see You work in and through the negative circumstances; that we will not succumb to them and begin to speak negatively. Lord, we will hold fast to Your promise, and that we will see Your restoration because Youre the God who gives back and then some-the same God of Clarence Jordan, the same God of David is our God. We trust and hope in You. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.

The Economy of Heaven -- Is There Life After GM? Part 7

The Fountain of Youth