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All of you part of the service tonight, Mark and Clara, we appreciate it very much.

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I'm not sure that we like to believe what we've just sung,

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that we can't prove the delights of His love until all on the altar we lay,

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because we would like to think we could prove the delights

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and experience the delights of God's love without having to put all on the altar.

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Of course, what we've sung is true.

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I just want to say how much I appreciate looking out here almost every Sunday night

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and seeing a line of our single adults who are in the service.

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That blesses me.

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We have such a terrific group of single men and women in our church,

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and I thank God for you and your faithfulness in the service. I really do.

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Would you open your Bible, please, with me to 2 Peter, Chapter 1,

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as we look at our text for this evening, which is verses 5 through 7.

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Now, for this very reason also, applying all diligence in your faith

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supply moral excellence and in your moral excellence knowledge,

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and in your knowledge self-control, and in your self-control perseverance,

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and in your perseverance godliness, and in your godliness brotherly kindness,

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and in your brotherly kindness love.

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The heart of Christian growth is not found in doing more, but in being more.

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It begins with faith, a faith that is genuine,

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the kind of faith that is described in verse 1, which is received.

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It is not a faith that we somehow generate on our own effort or of our own ingenuity,

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but it is a faith that is received, that is granted, that is given freely by God.

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That faith brings genuine salvation, but that faith is only the beginning.

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Because of the greatness of the salvation that God has given to us,

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we are instructed through Peter to apply all diligence to grow beyond the infant stage.

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Literally he says in verse 5, now for this very reason,

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because of this marvelous salvation that God has given you,

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for this reason he says, bringing in all diligence in your faith,

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supply moral excellence, and so on.

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What he is saying here is that we are to bring into this relationship

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that we have with God, in addition to what God has done for us,

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every ounce of determination that we have in our beings.

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We are to muster diligence within,

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so that we may grow beyond the infancy stage of salvation.

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We begin as God gives us faith and we trust in the Savior.

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And we share a like precious faith, a faith of the same kind as others who are genuine believers.

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But that is only the beginning.

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After we have received that gift, we are to dig down within ourselves

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and fulfill our responsibility to apply diligence to grow.

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That concept is largely lost in contemporary Christianity.

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The fact that we have a responsibility to God and we are ordered by God to be diligent about our Christian growth.

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It's more of a laissez-faire attitude that is prominent today.

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Just kind of let it all hang out and just let it happen.

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God says that we are to apply diligence.

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That we are to be earnest and serious about our growth as Christians.

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We are to make every effort to be zealous about this matter of going on beyond the initial faith

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to becoming mature in our walk with God.

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And that does require effort.

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Michelangelo once showed a friend of his an unfinished piece of sculpture in his studio.

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Sometime later the man visited him again and was surprised to see that very little progress had been made on the sculpture.

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And he even remarked to the master regarding that.

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So the great artist showed him how he had rounded out a limb here and smoothed a roughness there

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and put in a touch of expression somewhere else.

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His friend said, but sir these are but trifles.

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Yes, replied Michelangelo, but trifles go to make up perfection.

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And perfection is no trifle.

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We're going to talk tonight about the importance of being diligent to add to our faith some things.

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These are not trifles that we're talking about.

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They come together to bring us to a point of perfection or maturity.

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We are to be diligent, it says, to supply in the NASV.

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To supply, to add to the basics, to further provide more than expected, more than it is demanded.

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We are to lavishly and generously supply something out of our faith.

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The picture that is seen here seems to be of something that grows out of something else.

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It reminds me of the telescope that I wanted when I was a little boy.

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It was a telescope that was at a circus.

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So you know it was of the finest quality.

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It was about that long.

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But the neat thing about this telescope is that when you pulled on it, it got longer.

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Do you remember that kind of a telescope?

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Now when I bought the telescope it seemed this long, but there was more that was added to it as you pulled it out.

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And that's the picture that Peter has here.

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He says here's your faith.

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But now out of that faith you're to provide for some other things.

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As I was thinking about this, the picture of a computer came to mind too.

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I'm about as close to computer illiterate as one can be and still use the things.

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They fascinate me though.

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When I turn on my computer in the morning it reminds me of how much I have to learn.

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It shows me a directory and I pick the program that I want.

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On the computer I most often use WordPerfect 5.0 at this present time.

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So I choose WordPerfect 5.0 and it takes me to that program.

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Then a menu comes up and there are some subdirectories and I pick which one of those I want.

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That brings me to that sub-directory and then it shows me a list of the files that are in that sub-directory of that program or in that one computer.

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I pick that file that I want and then once I get to that file I perhaps look for the page within that file that I want.

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It's within that sub-directory, within that program, within the directory of the computer.

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Now those of you familiar with computers know that you just have the one computer but within that computer are tremendous divisions.

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You can go down and down and down into these things and pull out what you want.

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Peter says, here's your faith.

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Now in that faith provide for all of these other things that are really built into it, that are a part of it.

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Go on to experience them, he says, and be diligent about it.

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Lavishly provide out of your basic faith these qualities and then he lists them for us.

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He says, supply moral excellence.

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Out of your faith, that basic gift of God, out of that now provide for moral excellence.

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The word here is the same word used back in verse 3 of God where he calls us by his own glory and excellence.

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We are told to add this to our character.

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It means that we are to add virtue and moral energy to our lives.

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In classical times we are told that this word meant the God-given power or ability to perform heroic deeds.

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That's what it meant, heroic deeds, the ability to do great things,

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whether military deeds or athletic or artistic accomplishments or the conducting of one's life.

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The basic meaning of the word indicated the quality by which one stands out as being excellent.

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Having been on the golf course a few times and having walked over more of the golf courses I've been on than most people ever see,

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it was a thrill to me to go out to the open and to see some people who really know how to play the game.

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You don't have to wonder why those people are up on the green and not yourself,

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because they stand out as excellent.

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I mean, when they're just standing there looking at the ball, they're excellent.

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They hold that club up and you know they get around it and you know they know what they're doing.

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When they stand over that ball and they grip that club and they make that simple little movement

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and it hops out of the rough and it goes out there and then gets onto the green and into that cup,

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as I saw one of Scott Simpson's do, you know that guy is excellent.

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Now he says, to your faith, provide the quality so that you stand out morally from the crowd.

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You're not just one of the group, but you stand out.

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There's an excellence about your virtue.

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He's talking here about an energy, a courage to stand up for what is right in the sight of God,

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to make no compromise with sin.

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I think the NIV puts it goodness here. We are to have a goodness about us that causes us to stand out from the crowd.

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What kind of a project can you put into your life this week that will add this quality to your basic faith?

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Maybe it's a project to determine, to be more selective about the movies that you watch,

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the television programs that you view.

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We need to be diligent about this matter of being moral and of being excellent in our morality

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and of standing out from the crowd, being different.

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Not because we want to boast in ourselves, but because we want to please the Savior and be fruitful.

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We'll talk about that next week, how important that is.

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Then he says to add to our moral excellence knowledge.

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Faith and moral excellence grow on the knowledge of God's promises and what God wants.

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It's like a fuel. When we grow in the knowledge of the Word of God,

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and I don't mean just merely intellectually, but I mean allowing the Word of God to come down into our hearts

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so that we grow spiritually as well as intellectually.

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So that the Holy Spirit is in charge in our lives.

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When we grow in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ in this way,

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when we focus on the Word of God, that just provides fuel for the moral excellence and the faith that have come before us.

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What project might you put into place in your life this week that would focus on the knowledge of the Word of God?

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Would it be to find a book that you this summer are going to read your way through every day?

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Or would you take the time and put in the diligence to memorize a book?

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Last summer I got started on the book of Ephesians and memorized the first two chapters before I quit.

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I'm sorry I quit.

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And I wish I had gone back and reviewed that more faithfully than I have, but I can tell you this,

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that memorizing those two chapters did something for me.

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There is something about getting the Word of God, beginning to know it, not just up here, but deeply in your spirit,

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that enables you to go on and grow. That's what Peter's talking about.

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He says, out of your knowledge, supply lavishly for self-control.

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Only two other times is this word found in the New Testament. It's not a common word.

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It means literally to hold yourself in, and the emphasis is upon controlling the sensual appetites of your body.

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Not allowing the basic drives in your humanness to take over and control you, but to control them.

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The drives for nourishment and intimacy and possession and meaning,

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all of these things are part of the drive of being a human person.

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That if we allow our desire for nourishment to get out of hand, we become gluttonous.

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If we allow our desire for intimacy to control us, then we may become immoral.

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If we allow the desire for possessions to be in charge, we will become covetous and greedy.

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If we allow the search for meaning to be number one in our lives, we may become arrogant and egotistic.

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So he says, isolate those drives that are part of being human and bring them under control.

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Put the bridle on them and lead them. Don't let them lead you.

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The opposite of this, of course, would be excess, and that's what we're to avoid.

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Out of your knowledge, he says, as you come to know God more deeply,

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then provide for self-control to hold yourself in from excess.

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What project this week could you focus on, if this is the quality that God wants you to work on this week?

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Would it be to focus on an area that is not in control,

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and by God's grace to begin bringing that area under the discipline and the lordship of Jesus Christ?

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Out of your self-control, he says, provide lavishly for perseverance.

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This is the same word we looked at this morning in the services, at least, where I preached,

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in God's giving to us both perseverance and encouragement.

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And the word means to remain, to stay, to live under pressure.

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Continuance in the faith and resistance to the pressures of the world system, those are essential.

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And often when you find this word in the Scriptures, it's tied together with the coming of Christ,

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that coming of the Lord, that thought of home that we heard sung about so beautifully.

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That is what provides for us hope to remain under the load that God causes us and calls us to bear.

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Let's remember that the pressures of life are an essential part of God's work in us.

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They're not accidental.

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They are provided for our learning, that we might add perseverance among the qualities of our life.

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What project this week would allow you to work on perseverance?

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Maybe it'll be driving through rush hour tomorrow to downtown St. Paul or Minneapolis.

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Maybe God is going to provide some perseverance, or at least the opportunity for it in your life at that moment.

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Maybe it'll be a snub that you will experience that hurts.

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And it brings sorrow to your heart, and it's a load, it's a burden.

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The Lord says, I'll give you the ability to abide under this load, not to be discouraged.

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He says, out of your perseverance provide for godliness.

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Godliness.

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This refers to man's obligation of reverence toward God.

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We have that obligation.

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You see it in the Ten Commandments all over the place, but especially where it says we are to reverence God's name.

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We are to keep it holy.

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We are not to blaspheme the name of God.

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We are to have reverence for Him in our lives, godliness.

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A respect for spiritual things.

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We are to remember that there are some things that are not common, that are not ordinary.

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Among those are the things of God.

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We're to have reverence for them.

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One commentator says this refers to a very practical awareness of God in every aspect of life.

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How aware are you of God in your life?

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Perhaps the project for godliness this week, if that's what you want to give diligence to,

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would be to look for some eye spy sorts of experiences where you see God at work.

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And God, through perhaps bringing some timing together or in some other unusual way, has said,

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Hi, here I am, right here in your life, today.

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And you see Him.

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You don't just let it pass as coincidence.

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You're determined this week to be looking for God as He's working in your circumstances and in your life

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and in that way being reverential of Him.

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Perhaps it would be viewing the news this week with a particular perspective of finding God at work in the world.

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And you read about what is happening in Russia.

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Or you hear about what is happening in the Philippines or in some other nation.

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And you think, you purpose in your heart, you give diligence to say to yourself,

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Now, how is God perhaps at work in this?

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You see, that brings God into focus in our lives. It's godliness.

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And out of your godliness, He says, provide for brotherly kindness.

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This is that word that you know well, Philadelphia.

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It refers to a fervent practical care for others, a warmth of affection that comes from being in a family.

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You will notice that suddenly we've turned a corner here in these qualities.

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Up to this point, they've been all inward.

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But in the last two, we suddenly turned outward. Brotherly kindness does that.

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How might you show brotherly kindness this week?

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Give diligence in your life to add brotherly kindness to the qualities in your character.

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Would it be perhaps to send a note to a shut-in friend?

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Or maybe even better, to stop by and see that person.

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And to show kindness out of the sense of being a brother or a sister to this person.

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You're in the family together.

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And then he concludes by saying, and in your brotherly kindness, lavishly provide for love.

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And here's the word agape, that self-sacrificing action that we take on behalf of others, God's kind of love.

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It flows from God, who is love.

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This love desires the highest good for the other, just like God does.

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A project for this one, if you want to focus on it.

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If you would dare to start with love this week, a project would perhaps be to find a way of doing good to someone that you naturally find annoying.

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Now granted, there are so few people like that in your life that you'll have to think a while.

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But when you have gone far enough into your personnel file to find somebody that there just isn't this natural bond with,

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how can you do good for that person?

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You see, that goes beyond brotherly kindness, because there aren't those kinds of affections there.

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This says that person is a sorry rascal.

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But I will nonetheless do this in Jesus' name for that person, love.

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Notice that in this list of qualities, we begin with faith.

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That's the beginning, and then we extend it all the way out here to love.

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Faith is the root, and all the way out here at the end is the real fruit of love,

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the loveliest of blossoms, which provides a fragrance that is noticeable and pleasurable in this world.

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Have you ever walked out in a pig lot on a hot summer day?

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Well, if you have, you remember the experience.

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There is an odor about a pig lot that is unforgettable.

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It's unforgettable for one thing because it hangs on your clothes wherever you go,

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but it's unforgettable because it's written on the sensory nerves in your brain.

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We live in a world that is odious. It stinks, in other words.

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It's a whole lot like a pig lot with pigs wallowing around in the mud and eating slop.

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But in this pig lot, there is someone with a fragrant perfume on.

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And how that stands out in contrast. And as people walk through the pig lot of this world,

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and there's someone there with the lovely fragrance of love about them,

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how that person is immediately noticed.

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God wants us to be that person.

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If we were to put it a different way, if we would take all the colors of these godly characteristics in the list,

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and we began to paint, and we took some of faith and we put it on the canvas,

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and we dip down with our brush and we pick up a little bit of moral excellence in all of its perfection.

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We put it there. And then we reach for the color of knowledge and we mix with it some self-control and we add that.

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And then some perseverance and godliness and brotherly kindness.

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And then we're just about finished and we reach down with love. We finish the portrait.

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When you look at that picture, you will see Jesus Christ.

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Because all of these qualities are found in their perfection in Him.

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And that's what we want to look like.

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So give diligence to add these colors to your portrait, to your picture that you're painting of yourself.

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And know that when you have finished, the portrait will be you, but it will look like Jesus.

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Let's pray.

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Father, thank You for giving us this pattern for growth.

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As we see these characteristics and qualities in all of their beauty, we sense, I'm sure all of us, that we have a long, long way to go.

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And the picture that's being painted of us is not at all what we would like to see it be now.

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But Lord, I pray that You will give us diligence to do our part.

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That we might provide lavishly for these things.

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That we will focus on them and understand the importance of these qualities and know that our part is to be serious about becoming what You want us to be.

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Show us that growth is not what we do, it's what we're becoming.

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In Jesus' name, Amen.