Everything You Need- Week 2, Muscular Faith

Do ya’ll remember watching the funeral for George HW Bush? I don't know what your political view may be, but whatever it is, if you watched the televised funeral of George H.W. Bush, you probably wiped a tear from your eyes more than once. When George W. Bush gripped the pulpit, he bent over, choked in grief and he called his dad a "great and noble man, and the best father a son or a daughter could ever have". The younger Bush said of his father: "He taught us that a day was not meant to be wasted. He played golf at a legendary pace. I always wondered why he insisted on speed golf. He was a good golfer. Well, here's my conclusion. He played golf fast so they could move on to the next event, to enjoy the rest of the day, to expend his enormous energy. He was born with just two settings: full throttle and then sleep". We’re studying a passage in 2 Peter chapter 1. We’re calling this “everything you need”. I believe the Apostle Peter was a full-throttle guy, too. His adrenaline never seemed to run out, and he encouraged his readers to be fully engaged in their pursuit of Christ and the Christ-like life. Peter uses a word that is frequently found in the Bible. It's the word "diligence". Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Back in 1850, Spurgeon in his mid teens decided to follow Jesus Christ and he started preaching the very next year and there's just no stopping him. At age 19 he became the pastor of the New Park Street Church in London and almost instantly no auditorium in London could hold the crowds that were coming to hear this man preach. With few or no notes, he stood in the pulpit and with great eloquence expounded the Word of God. Without question, he was a brilliant young man. So stenographers, this was before the recordings that we have available now. Stenographers would sit in the audience and they would record his sermon, that way and he would edit them immediately after the sermon and the next day on Monday his sermon that he preached in church on Sunday would be in the London newspaper in its entirety. By the end of Spurgeon's life, the total volumes of his sermons represented the largest single set of Christian books by one author in the history of Christianity. How many words was that? Well, he had 3561 sermons bound in 63 volumes, filled with 20 million words, the equivalent of the 27 volumes of the, "Encyclopedia Britannica". And by the way, he died at the age of 57, and maybe there's a reason, the way he lived, you know? Spurgeon was an amazing person. He was a ravenous reader. His personal library was over 12,000 in number of volumes. He usually read six books a week. He devoured commentaries. He read works that were written by Puritan writers, and if you've ever tried that, that is not easy reading. He read newspapers and periodicals. His Bible was always open, his pen was always working. He answered correspondence, he started dozens of agencies, benevolent agencies. He published a magazine. The magazine was called, " The Sword and the Trowel". He established a college where he lectured. He wrote one book after another on many subjects and he often worked 18 hours a day. He preached ten times a week. Don’t you feel lazy?

Now the problem with everybody who tried to figure him out was that he was like George H.W. Bush. He had two speeds: full throttle and then sleep. One day, he said, "The sin of doing nothing is about the biggest of all sins, for it involves all of the other sins together. Horrible idleness, God save us from it".

So, there were two men: one was a president and one was a preacher. They both shared a common virtue: they were both men of diligence, and they both changed the world. We don't get very far if we idle through life. When your car is idling, it's not going anywhere and when you're idling you're wasting the one resource which is not recoverable: you're wasting your time, the very hours of your life. So, I wanna talk to myself today and talk to all of us about the importance of diligence. “First, let's talk about understanding the heart of diligence.

Let’s start by reading part of this passage again.

2 Peter 1:5–8 (NKJV)

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 1:9–11 NKJV

For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We talked about pressure last week. And God gave us everything we need on this journey, everything we need to live under this pressure. He gave us his power, his promises, and his purposes.

Diligence is an essential ingredient as we pursue “life and godliness.” So what is it? What is at the heart of it?

I. The Heart of Diligence

It’s like a gift, what do you do when you get a gift? You unwrap it and, hopefully, you use it. And God has given us such a gift and we need to do our part. we have to understand what diligence means.

Let me say from the start, this is not about working to earn God’s love. I think that’s the first misunderstanding. Diligence isn’t anti-grace. But it’s taking the gift of grace/salvation, and putting it to work.

A. The Meaning of Diligence

Now, I wanna read this passage from 2 Peter 1:5, and I think you'll get where I'm headed.

2 Peter 1:5 NKJV

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,

Peter writes: "For this very reason," and you have to stop and ask, "What reason"? Because we've been given all this from God. "For this very reason," he says, "giving all diligence". It's not just diligence, it's all diligence. You wanna ask God to help you, work diligently at your life and do the things that God has called you to do and grow in maturity and take the blessings that God has given you and unwrap them and utilize them in your life every day.

Don’t confuse diligence with workaholism! He wasn’t talking about obsessively working. He was saying go full throttle in pursuit of the godly life. And we are not working FOR our salvation, but we do work BECAUSE of our salvation!

Make that your purpose, make that your divine determination. The meaning of diligence.

B. The Motivation for Diligence

Now, what is the motivation for diligence? Peter comes back and he says, "For this very reason". What is the reason? Because you have been blessed so much by God. "For this very reason, add to your faith diligence," and everything covers it all. It's not just your spiritual life. That doesn't mean we have to be energizer bunnies. I know some people that they burn all their energy, but they don't go anywhere. They just sort of, you know, they just move. But God wants us to do what we do with a purpose. You heard about the lady who said she was 49 and holding? Her little grandson said, "Grandma, how old would you be if you let go"? Age has nothing to do with where we are and how we live our lives. We may not always be able to do some of the things we used to do but I always think about Caleb. You know what it says about Caleb? He was as strong when he was 80, as he was when he was 40. That gives me great hope, amen? That ought to be a goal for all of us. Let me just ask you this question. How do we incorporate diligence into our lives? Are we living a diligent life? Am I living a life of diligence? Do I take every day as a gift from God, realizing that he's given me all these great promises, all this great potential, and my goal is to max it out for his glory and give him everything I've got and leave nothing left to look back on that I wish I had done. Let me show you how important diligence was to Peter. He devoted nine verses in this passage to the subject of living a godly life and, twice in this little passage, he talks about diligence. He says in verse 5:

"But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue".

And then in verse 10 he says,

2 Peter 1:10 NKJV

Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;

God has given us everything we need through his “great and precious promises” so we can live a truly godly life and, for this reason, we should be diligent to take advantage of everything he's given to us. Now, let's pause for a moment and acknowledge, this puts us right in the middle of kind of a hairy confrontation among Christians. And it probably goes something like this and you've maybe heard people teach this: "When you become a Christian, you rest in the Lord. You rest in the Lord," I believe that. That means you trust him. And then other people say, "No, when you become a Christian you get up on your horse and you start galloping toward heaven". Some people say Christianity is, "Let go and let God," and they're very passive about their faith. The bad side of that is, that sometimes we think “let go and let God” means I put it in neutral for life. And they're not actively pursue the Lord. We all have gifts and our responsibility is to take that spiritual gift that God has given us and develop it and make it the best it can be and use it for the glory of God. Make sure that we diligently follow God's plan for our life.

So, that's the meaning of diligence and that's sort of the motivation for it.

3. The Method of Diligence

Let’s look at a small word in verse 5-7

2 Peter 1:5–7 NKJV

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.

that the word “add” This word is only printed once in the 2 Peter 1, but it’s kinda assumed a few more times. add faith, add virtue, add knowledge, add self control, add perseverance, add godliness, add kindness, add love.

it gives us a picture of never being done with God giving you more. don’t stop there! Don’t stop with faith, but virtue, and don’t stop there, add knowledge, and so on… It’s the method of addition.

Diligently adding. If you remember taking higher math, it all builds on the previous year. If you get behind, you’ve had it. You have to be adding to it.

II. Undertaking the Habits of Diligence

So it’s not enough to just have a heart of diligence, we must turn our heart into habits. There is a chapter in Colossians, chapter 3, that is a great explanation of this. This verse doesn’t say diligence but it defines it.

Colossians 3:23–24 NKJV

And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.

Now, this will help us understand what it means to develop the habits of diligence. It tells us to look in several different directions

A. Look Around- “Whatever you do”

Here's what the text says: "Whatever you do".

If you read the entire 3rd chapter of Colossians where these verses are found, you will discover that these verses are right in the section of a context of husbands, wives, children, fathers, bondservants. So impressive is that to me. Because that means that my diligence isn't just about when I go to church. It's the way I'm supposed to live my life all the time. Now, you can't live, you know, 100 miles an hour all the time. You burn out in a week or so. But you can live your life with this sense of urgency and diligence in all that you do. You can't just switch it on and switch it off. You can't say, "Oh, it's Sunday, it's time to be diligent," you know? No, you have to be diligent in the way you live. And once you do that, it becomes a part of who you are. We're to dive into all of our relationships and dive into them diligently. "fixing a leaky faucet, changing diapers, paying bills, resolving conflicts, grocery shopping, job hunting, building your career, the word 'whatever' means whatever. It covers anything and everything we do, no matter who we are as followers of Christ". Whatever you do, do it heartily. Do it with diligence. And most of you know what I'm talking about. You have some project in your life that just seems overwhelming. You look at it and it's like a huge mountain and you say to yourself, "How am I ever gonna get over that mountain"? Let me tell you how you get over there. One step, one day, one determination, one bit of obedience to the Lord, one at a time. That's diligence.

B. Look Within- “do it heartily”

Here's the second step: look within. Paul wrote to the Colossians: "Whatever you do, do it heartily". Looking within means that you ask yourself, "What does my motivation look like? What does it mean to do something heartily"? Well, it means to do it with all your heart. You know that in the New Testament there are three possible temperatures for your heart? First of all, there's the cold heart. Matthew 24:12 describes the people of the last days as those whose love shall wax cold. And then, in Revelation chapter 3 you read about the people who have a heart that's lukewarm. Writing to the church at Laodicea, the Lord described his disdain for a half-lived life. He said, "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I'm gonna vomit you out of My mouth". Those are the words of God. And then there's the burning heart. Luke 24 tells us that two disciples talked with Jesus on the road to Emmaus and they described their experience with him like this: "Did not our heart burn within us when he talked with us on the road, and while he opened the Scriptures to us"? A cold heart, a lukewarm heart, a burning heart. Which one describes you? I read about this swimmer whose name is "Rowdy" Gaines. Rowdy Gaines tabulated how much practice it took to develop the stamina, the technique, the confidence, and the judgment to win an Olympic gold medal, and he did this during an eight-year period leading up to the 1984 Games. He swam in increments of 50-yard laps at least 20,000 miles. Of course, if you add in the years before and after, the odometer goes even higher. But I'll never forget the statement that he made. He said: "I swam around the world for a race that lasted 49 seconds". If diligence would drive a man to swim around the world, what kind of diligence should we be striving for with eternity as our goal? I think I hear the Apostle Paul saying, "They do it to obtain a perishable crown but we for an imperishable crown". Look around, whatever you do. Look within. Do it heartily.

C. Look Above- “as to the Lord”

And then look above, "as to the Lord". The real secret to developing diligence in your life is to realize that you don't serve people. You serve God. And you serve the Lord, not men. This is reoccurring theme in Paul's letters if you read them carefully. He constantly is reminding of this, like in Romans 14:

Romans 14:7–8 NKJV

For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.

Colossians 3:17 NKJV

And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

If we would just really comprehend the fact that when we go out to do our duty, to do our thing that God has called us to do, we're really doing it before an audience of one. We're not doing it before the audiences of people around us. You know, some of them are gonna like it and some of 'em aren't. In his book, "Lyrics," songwriter and producer, Oscar Hammerstein II, tells of seeing a picture of the Statue of Liberty that was taken from a helicopter. The photo showed the top of the statue's head and Hammerstein was impressed with the detail and excellence the sculptor had taken to complete a portion of the statue that few eyes would ever see. "He was artist enough," wrote Hammerstein, "to finish off this part of the statue with as much care as he had devoted to her face and her arms and the torch and everything that people can see as they sail up the bay".

There’s also the story of Michaelangelo painting a portion of the Sistene Chapel that was in a far corner and was obstructed from people’s view, and he spent so much time on it, they asked him why, no one will ever see it? He said, God will see it. Whatever we do, we should be doing for God. Look around, whatever you do. Look within. Do it heartily. Look above, as to the Lord.

That brings us to the best part: looking ahead.

D. Look Ahead- “you will receive the reward”

The same God who has given us everything we need for a life of goodness and godliness is gonna reward us for living our lives that way. that verse ends by saying:

Colossians 3:24 NKJV

knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.

This is the same reward Peter mentions as he wraps up his paragraph in 2 Peter 1. Peter commands believers to add one quality after another to their lives, and then, if you will do that, here’s another promise…

2 Peter 1:10–11 NKJV

Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And he says, "If you do that, an entrance will be supplied abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ".

He wasn't saying you will get to heaven by doing all of these things, but he says you'll go to heaven like a lot of other people won't. You'll go to heaven with your hands up high. You'll go to heaven with a sense of victory because you've lived the way God has called you to live and I believe that's living with diligence. Back when Elvis Presley was in his heyday, he hired a bodyguard named, "Sonny" West. Sonny West served with him all the days that Elvis was around and he gave him all the energy he could muster. Sonny broke into "The King's" inner circle and became part of what was known as the Memphis Mafia. Elvis was the best man at Sonny's wedding and the two were best friends. Sonny even appeared in a movie with Elvis Presley. But then, Elvis died, and Sonny's life began to spiral downwards. He and his wife battled cancer, faced foreclosure because of mounting medical bills. He eventually began selling all of his Elvis Presley memorabilia, including the jewelry Presley gave him. He said, "I don't wanna leave my family behind. I just feel very depressed". "Inside Edition," which reported this story months before his death in 2017, said: "Sonny West once rode Elvis Presley's coattails to fame as his best friend and bodyguard, but decades later the glitz and the glamour has faded away".

And this story provides a tremendous contrast for me and for you. Here was this man who served "The King" with all of his heart but the experience ended, and the glitz evaporated, and the glory faded. On the other side, I have a "King" I'm serving with all my heart, and you know what? The best is yet to come. The best is yet to come.

All of us who strive live full throttle for Jesus Christ, all of us who do whatever we do heartily to the Lord, will receive our reward from an eternal inheritance with God and there'll be no end to the hallelujahs and no end to the joy and no end to the fellowship with Jesus and no end to the days of our lives or the answers to our prayers. No end to our passion and purpose, for even in heaven his servants will serve him.

We serve Him diligently, not to earn his love, but to express our love, adding all those virtues to our life, developing a muscular faith, because we are working it out.