Moral Excellence
2 Peter • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Last week I asked you all about the way you could determine how you are doing spiritually.
To give you the netflix recap, I shared with everyone that the answer to
How are you doing spiritually?
How are you doing spiritually?
isn’t a religious duty answer as in, How are you doing spiritually? Good, I am attending church more. It also isn’t a feeling answer as in I have joy. Instead according to the ancient text of the Bible in a letter written by the best friend of Jesus, in his letter near to his martyrdom, Peter shared with us that our spiritual health is actually a question of our character. Peter wrote,
In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.
The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The cause of our spiritual health is our character and then effect of our spiritual growth is the more productive and useful you will be to Christ Jesus.
Do you want to be more productive and useful?
Do you want to be more productive and useful?
By the way, if any of you do not know, being a pastor is the job I love, being a teacher is the job I get paid to do. As a person who works in the world I know that if your boss walks in and says who wants to be more useful, what they are really saying is, “who wants to work more for the same pay?”
Watch everyone put there hands down to that one. Who wants to have the same job at work but more labor. We should work for the Lord when we work but while we do, a worker deserves their wages. We agree to a job and we should get paid for the work we agreed to do. Often people don’t do extra productivity because it was not what they agreed to do when they were hired. That is acceptable.
Pastor Phil has pointed out that this idea of what we do in our workplace comes into our spiritual health. Some can come to Jesus and love the fact that faith in Jesus is free! And then see all that church has to offer in helping them. They can become aware that a church is about service, and so they see the church helping them to take classes on the Bible, giving their kids some education, and providing inspiring worship. Some churches do way more, providing something for everyone, every day and night of the week.
It kind of leads to an understanding that you are the customer for church. That like Wal-Mart, Chick-Fil-A, or an auto dealership, the church should work to make you happy with Jesus. A successful leader in Jesus is then how many people attend the meetings or listen to the sermons or read the engaging books written from church leadership. If your not getting “anything out of it” or more spiritual, church answer, “not getting fed” than go to another church.
So pastors and churches end up needing to be popular to be thought of as spiritually healthy. They have the most customers.
Instead of looking to people who need to be popular let’s look to God for what He is calling all of us actually to. When Jesus called us, me, you, everyone you see here to follow Him, he related it to a person who found something that is worth everything.
“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field.
If you were to sell your house, your clothes, everything you owned for a treasurer, how great would that treasure have to be in your life? If you were to sell all the momentos, the old pictures, the stuff that isn’t even as worth that much to others but means a lot to you, for something, it would have to have enormous value. I struggle to think of anything that great, but when we think of Jesus. He gives us salvation. He gives us unmerited favor. He gives us grace. He gives us purpose. He gives us true love.
In all of this, the only way we can come to God is to realize He isn’t a product. He is a life calling. Jesus is the reason for living. To worship Him, To follow Him, to be useful to Him. The church is the community of people dedicated to worship, following him, being useful to him.
And there I said it. Some of you might feel very weird about all this. Why should I be useful to Jesus, why should it matter if I am productive for Jesus?
Isn’t that what cult leaders do?
Here is a great question with a more powerful answer. Do you realize that the only way that Jesus wasn’t crazy, didn’t have some kind of Messiah complex, is if He really is who He says He is. Otherwise He has a Messiah complex.
Yet when Jesus followers like Peter saw not only his death but His resurrection they finally realized He is much more than a cult leader, political leader, important person.
It’s why this calling of Luke 24:40-48, when Jesus appeared to the disciples:
As he (Jesus) said this, he showed them his hands and feet. They still couldn’t believe what they were seeing. It was too much; it seemed too good to be true.
He asked, “Do you have any food here?” They gave him a piece of leftover fish they had cooked. He took it and ate it right before their eyes.
Then he said, “Everything I told you while I was with you comes to this: All the things written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms have to be fulfilled.”
He went on to open their understanding of the Word of God, showing them how to read their Bibles this way. He said, “You can see now how it is written that the Messiah suffers, rises from the dead on the third day, and then a total life-change through the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed in his name to all nations—starting from here, from Jerusalem! You’re the first to hear and see it. You’re the witnesses.
Jesus gives this real calling. All of life is worth selling everything for.
And the only reason this isn’t a cult in the negative since is because it is true. Jesus calls you to make him the most important thing in your life. And the way that you do that is not by following a bunch of people who try to control you by manipulating the words of the Bible to make you lose everything, but instead do what Jesus tells us in 2 Peter 1:5
In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge,
Today we are going to move from our faith, another word for belief, to what we do with our actions that Jesus is the Son of God that He is the purpose for our life, what we do in response to that is to be incredibly generous with our moral excellence.
I really like this phrase, moral excellence, because I don’t think that is really easy to understand. I keep thinking of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, because I am that old, “Moral excellence” so I want to get nerdy with you for a moment, to do a little Bible Study with you, a little language study, you see because when we come to the verse 2 Peter 1:5 you are going to see that words start to see change in the Bible you read depending on the English translation
In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge,
For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge,
But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,
Oh my, my, my. I need to give you a tik-toc now on how they are conspiring to change God’s word and this is a sign that only if you know the truth and buy my supplemental vitamin will you not get caught up in how they are taking over the whole world and getting God out of it.
NO! Never ever believe someone who is trying to tell you that the whole world is arranged in some secret, that somehow God is not in control and not powerful.
No conspiracy has come upon this world that is more powerful than Jesus.
And this isn’t a conspiracy, the difference in this Bibles is simply a problem with languages.
The first language the Bible is written in is ancient greek which is no longer changing but the second language modern English is constantly changing.
Think about some words that have totally changed their meaning in the last 30 years:
Cloud, Catfish, Canceled
Cloud, Catfish, Canceled
Cloud - like the phrase, “it is in the cloud”
Catfish - like “I got catfished”
Canceled. Like “He got canceled”
Those phrases didn’t used to exist and I just stuck with C words.
Our language, our phrasing is constantly changing. So the Greek word, arate is tough to make into English. Here is one definition,
(arete) denotes whatever procures preeminent estimation for a person or thing; hence, “intrinsic eminence, moral goodness, virtue
That is a mouthful isn’t it. Another part of the same book says that when this word is used with a person, it seems to be an impression made on others.
Now let me help you with your greek word arete. is your faith needs to arete.
grow in doing good, doing the right that makes an impact on other people.
grow in doing good, doing the right that makes an impact on other people.
What kind of English word right now means that?
More importantly, who cares?
It can be incredibly interesting and nerdy, but when we study the Bible we are looking for what difference it makes in our day. After all ,we are pursuing the attitude of Christ Jesus.
So our faith that Jesus is God, that He came and lived the perfect life, He was the perfect sacrifice on the cross, and He died paying the price for our sin, then he rose on the third day, and if we believe in Him, we too will be forgiven and have eternal life.
That is the faith, but now we must generously, like a very rich person giving a very big gift of
doing good, doing the right that makes an impact on other people.
The original scripture we were looking at
Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence,
Have you ever thought that to add to your belief in Jesus, such good that people are incredibly impressed by your goodness.
When you think about others it make perfect sense doesn’t it. A follower of Jesus should be good.
If you are a follower of Jesus you should be good.
Now realize, that People look to us for right following of God, therefore they should see us doing right.
They should know that we are a follower of Jesus just by watching how we live.
An example from school, and not what you think. Romance. All schools have a break time. And in those break times these children from 3 to 18 get to have times of relaxed freedom. At those times romance can break out.
In high school, especially around this time of year, you think I mean spring, no I mean daytime, a large percentage of boys and girls attempt to lure each other. For most adults it takes but a second to realize who are the couples. Its obvious.
Then there is elementary school. The same thing occurs, and supposedly some will claim they are boyfriend and girlfriend. A group of girls may say that one of their girls is in a relationship with one of the boys. The boy might barely know it.
In middle school, their are many boys who are dealing with immigration because their make believe girlfriends are all in Canada or Mexico.
Why share this story, because the reality of a commitment is shown in its practice, the reality of a relationship is shown by its effect on others.
Jesus said,
So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
Right actions comes from love. First love of God. Not the feelings of women or men but what God calls right is right. Second love of others.
If we live this way it effects our relationship with others.
Therefore you and I must struggle to find the right thing, we must seek Jesus.
We must seek with the same effort Jesus told us to seek
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Like the hunger and thirst after a colonoscopy. Can I get an amen my above 50 year old's?
We need to be urgently, generously looking for loving and living by doing the right thing.
The opposite is living doing what feels right to us at the time.
If right was simple, we wouldn’t have to teach it to children. We wouldn’t need a savior.
You can have time in your life when telling people, no is the absolute right thing, but it hurts their feelings, breaks their hearts, and is actually the right thing to do. They might actually hate your guts after you do the painfully right thing.
You will feel the pain of abandonment a little like Jesus did, when almost everyone left him as he died on the cross. Yet remember what Jesus told us about loss for Him.
“Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Good News, will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property—along with persecution. And in the world to come that person will have eternal life.
I want to challenge us to take Jesus at His word. To be willing to do the right thing, even when we don’t know what will happen and trust that Jesus will bless it. We don’t know how the other person will react. Because we know that Jesus is Lord so He is who matters. Jesus is the master of our life, and the way the world is these days, doesn’t matter, we live to make Him happy. We talk to others to make Jesus happy. We work to make Jesus happy. We love our children and our spouses to make Jesus happy. We love our fellow church members, our fellow Christians to make Jesus happy.
Then realize what this community becomes. A bunch of people focused on treating each other right, doing right, hungering for the right. Because people struggle to do the right in all things you begin to learn what the right actually is in your world with ai, 401K, medical apps, and all the weird stuff we now have. Because life is very complicated. But we are a community that looks to live rightly.
When we move beyond not doing evil like committing crime to thinking about how we make the best sell without doing wrong to buyer or the seller. When we love difficult people but not get used for all of our money and resources or become bitter and heartless.
Living Right on this side of heaven takes effort. It isn’t simple, so it makes sense that the next most important thing in our spiritual health is
For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge,
That’s what we will discuss next time, Lord willing, the knowledge that must generously support our faith being expressed in living right so that others notice.
