(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you how amen. this time we are going to go through our announcements. glad to have you all here with us at Strong Old Baptist Church this morning and if you do not have a bulletin slip your hand up real high and we'll make sure that one of the ushers skits to you with the bulletin. Thank you very much appreciate that sir. Keep your hand raised if you don't have a bulletin that looks just like this and we'll make sure that we get one out to you and if you open up to the first page you will see the service times listed there Sunday morning at 1030 Sunday evening again at 5 p.m. and then Wednesday night 7 is our Bible study we'll be in Psalm 69 this week Psalm 69 is awesome Psalm very prophetic Psalm Jesus about Jesus Christ you don't want to miss that if you can be here at all I encourage you to be here for a Wednesday night Bible study we've got the soul winning opportunities listed there as well as our salvations and baptisms for the month of August as well as for the year let's go ahead and count up if you have any salvation to report for the week just slip your hand up real quick yes sir one on what day Friday man good great one on what day Friday too awesome Saturday one Friday great and what they I have those I have those yes he updates me through the group thank you anyone else very good all right excellent keep up the good work out preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ down at the bottom of the page we've got the offering tolls received through the month of August and prayer requests I can't believe I didn't I just noticed this now but additions before we go into all the rest of the prayer requests brother Jeff Estrada's cousin Rigo I'm not sure if his last name is Estrada as well or not but he lost consciousness while at work on Friday and has been in the hospital ever since and last I I asked yesterday how he was doing and he was still not doing very well not conscious and not looking very good in general so please add Rigo to the prayer list and pray for him he also has a wife that is pregnant I think she's 36 weeks pregnant and he has six children so please pray for the whole family and we also added so we'll just start from the bottom and go up Rebecca Gonzalez has been experiencing I guess a pins and needles type feet feeling in her legs and sort of a loss of feeling in her legs it's been happening for a while I believe it's getting worse so please pray for her Dominique I updated the prayer request to be a little more specific and just call it legal troubles so please be in prayer for him he is going through a very difficult time my daughter with the broken arm we're supposed to be going to the doctor next week and hopefully get her cast removed so nothing too bad there let's see Jax's recovery is going well he's he's getting physical therapy and they're continuing work to try to get him to bend his knee a little bit more but it's still not easy for him to get around so just continue to pray that recovery will will be swift and complete and brother Jared any updates there because she's in a facility now right she's in a like a rehab facility extended sure is okay you'll let us know but so far that's great news and so things are she's being cared for she has an at least an extended amount of time to get her back on her feet excellent praise the Lord very good very good and then my mother-in-law is receiving chemotherapy for her cancer she just had her first round last week and is swell she's doing okay other any oh we had an update this morning brother Jeremy's mother is with us this morning and she does not have to do any treatments now for the foreseeable future and we're very happy to hear that that's a very good news that the last we heard was that it was supposed to continue so we're very very happy to hear that that treatment is on pause and we'll pray that the healing is complete there and that they'll never need to be any more treatment for that and let's see if there's anybody else I don't have any other updates that I'm personally aware of is there anyone else who has an update to people who are listed on the prayer list right now that you could yes sir okay so so his his treatment what what treatment is he receiving again is it a he's receiving injections directly to the area where we're okay is it taking a big toll on him physically like seems to see his upper okay okay so if you could hear that's Ken Carson brother DJ's dad his treatment is going well for the prostate cancer but he is he's at stage four and they're gonna be still looking to see if there's anything going on in the area of his lungs but he's been receiving injections into a stomach but he said that treatments been going well and your dad's other than this healthy you wouldn't be able to tell so good so good we appreciate your prayers there anybody else have any other updates thank you for the update with him make sure I'm not missing anybody behind a pillar all right very good well of course continue to pray for everybody who is on our prayer list bring this home with you be sure to spend time in prayer as these people are very much in need on the next page here continuing on with our announcements labor for the Lord so Labor Day is next weekend Labor Day weekend and this Saturday that's coming up we've got a soul winning marathon scheduled in Charlotte North Carolina and it's gonna be awesome it's gonna be a lot of fun if you've never gone to one of these before any of these events even if you've never gone out so winning with us before I encourage you to try to make it out here for even just part of the day what we're doing we're taking the entire day to go up there and starting in the morning we'll meet up around nine o'clock there'll be some light breakfast food available for you at the meetup location and we'll hang out there until about 940 we'll be partnering people up and splitting up into teams depending on how many people are there and then we'll go out and start knocking on doors soon as soon as we get paired up and we'll be doing that until lunchtime and church will provide lunch for you when you're out there we'll give you the details the location of where we will be eating lunch and then after lunch as soon as you're done essentially you go back out on the field knock some more doors talk to people try to give them the the gospel obviously it's a whole point of being there and then we'll break somewhere around 5 p.m. for dinner before we end up going home so I had mentioned last week and in the previous weeks that we do we will provide hotels for Friday night for anyone who needs to you know if it's really difficult to get there obviously Charlotte isn't close so if you want to get there first to be there first thing in the morning and it's too hard to drive from where you live then we will set you up with some hotels and I did do that for I believe seven people told me that they needed a place to stay so last night late my wife helped me with that if you received a text message I apologize because we reserved it late not everyone gets a text message I will be sending out that confirmation email today for those of you who asked me but if you have not asked me in writing meaning a text message or an email and you want to go to the soul winning event and you feel like you would need that hotel room on Friday night in order to be there on time and to be there for the day then please let me know and I will get that worked out for you as soon as possible and by the end of today if you don't receive notification from me about your confirmation for a reservation then reach out to me in case I might have missed or overlooked your request everybody that I reserved a room for will be receiving their confirmation today so be on the lookout either for a text or an email prompt most likely an email is what I'm gonna be sending most of them out for just if I don't have your email address then you'll get a text for me but check on that and then let me know if you did not receive your reservations for Friday night but it's gonna be a great time and you know you don't have to get hotel if you want to come out there and just join us at any point during the day if you're not gonna be there in the morning all I ask is that you contact me let me know hey I'm gonna be out there but not until maybe the afternoon which is perfectly fine just let me know so that I can get you the information of where exactly will be so you can meet up with us at a place other than this meetup location because a meetup location that's printed here is just we're just using that to meet up at the at basically in the morning or if we need to at any other point during the day but but it's it's mostly just to meet up in the morning if we do lunch there that's a possibility but that's not if you show up there you can't just necessarily expect that someone will be there if you're there late and if you're coming late then let me know so I don't want to leave anybody behind and if you're if you're if you want to participate by all means please just let me know all right and if you say pastor Burns I don't know how to get a hold of you if you have a church phone number you could send a text message to that church phone number and I will get it okay so if you just if you don't have my personal contact information already then go ahead and you could send a message to the church number I will receive those messages continuing on we are wrapping up the month of August this week also with our August challenge which is to memorize the entire chapter Hebrews chapter 9 so hopefully you have joined us with this 28 verses this month you've got until midnight last day of the month to get this quoted out loud if you could quote it word perfect without making any errors you will earn a special prize brother Carter do you mind going into my office real quick and getting some those Amazon gift cards that are somewhere on the table out there I'm gonna square up with those who memorize Hebrews chapter 7 Hebrews chapter 7 I'm a little bit behind on some of the prize giving and I don't have Hebrews chapter 8 prizes yet so you'll have to wait a little bit longer if you memorize all of Hebrews chapter 7 we broke that one up into two parts if you memorize the entire chapter and got it quoted in the time frame come on up and get yourself a prize an Amazon gift card for you yeah you could have just taken one thank you you did all seven excellent all right good job on that on Hebrews chapter 7 and then I promise you will be getting chapter 8 pretty soon and chapter 9 you get a prize you get quote that entire passage and this one's a harder one so the the harder the challenge the bigger the prize and then down there we have listed all the birthdays anniversaries that I have in my records for people who have birthdays or anniversaries in the month of September is there anyone that I missed yes sir September 17th thank you anybody else I'm missing some information for the month of September all right and look you'd be like I'm not gonna say anything right because I don't want attention drawn to me if it's your birthday and you're in church you get free ice cream my kids were just talking about this last night they're like they're wondering like who is next year is my birthday gonna be on a church day and some of them were saying I don't want it to be on a church day because I don't like when everybody sings to me but then the other ones are saying yeah but you get ice cream I guess it's worth it to have everybody sing to you because you get free ice cream so if you let us know when your birthday is if you come to church on your birthday you get free ice cream so it's not that bad so sure we're not missing anyone for September all right and then on the back we've got the upcoming events so of course that soul winning marathon September 2nd this Saturday in Charlotte then September 8th it's a Friday is our home school field trips good meeting up right here we should have a sign-up sheet sometime this afternoon put out here to see if you're if you're interested in coming to that there's going to be some classes taught and a lot of fun for the kids and then September 9th is on a Saturday we'll be doing a men's song leading instruction at 930 followed by the preaching class at 1030 for all men welcome to attend love to have you join us for that then the rest of the events listed here except for the last one are put on by other churches so if you have any interest in attending any of these events let me know September 30th though is a soul winning in Chattanooga it's put on by brother Jared who's with us this morning so if you want more details on that you can speak to him personally or I've got his contact information you can you can ask for that later if you forget to talk to him today and then down there at the bottom I have I have the I'm trying something new with this event registration you see there our church camp is gonna be May 6th May 6th through the 11th so I'm trying this online portal to get the details of those who are interested in attending the event so please use that link that and it just got too late I was gonna put a little QR code so you can scan it not have to key in the address but sorry you'll have to actually type I know it's I'm asking a lot of you here but you have to actually type that address if you want to go there and start putting in if you know you're going to attend you want to attend our camping trip then try using that for me if there are any bugs I apologize just let me know if there's any problems doing the registration like I said this is the first time that we're trying to use this type of website to be able to collect that information but it's far enough in advance so I figured we'd be able to work through it and get a good count for who is planning on attending this year all right that is it for our announcement so I'm gonna turn the service back oh just real quickly we've had a lot of items brought in in general that are free for the taking so this room over here there's two school desks that are free for the taking they're not like part of church furniture that that can go there's a box full of clothing there's still some canned goods and a bunch of stuff in boxes on the table out there don't go in the fridge and take food that's people brought their food here to eat for lunch stuff like that but anything that's on the table out here is up for grabs so if you want to go through anything that we have out here please do so it's going to be available for the next week or so and then we're taking it all to be donated somewhere else so we're giving you first dibs on the stuff that we have I'm gonna pull out some of the other things that we've been sitting on for a while that have just been kind of hidden in the back since we had construction and moved everything around and and go through it all if you want anything take it and if you don't leave it and we will end up donating it later on in the next couple weeks so that is it for announcements brother Peter will you please lead us our next song all right church song number 31 he lives real loud on the first Oh Oh Oh Oh And while the offering plates are being passed around church you can open up your Bibles to the book of first Peter chapter one or sorry second Peter chapter one you that's the book of second Peter chapter one and as we do customary here at we're gonna read the entire chapter amen Church once again that's the book of second Peter chapter one second Peter chapter one the Bible reads Simon Peter a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord according as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that have called us to glory and virtue whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these he might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust and beside this giving all diligence as your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and a temperance patience and the patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity for if these things being you and abound they make you they should neither be barren nor fruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ but he that lack of these things is blind and cannot see afar off and have forgotten that he was purged from his old sins wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure for if you do these things he shall never fall for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always a remembrance of these things though you know them and be established in the present truth yay I think it me as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance knowing that surely I must put off this my tabernacle even as our Lord Jesus Christ have showed me moreover I will endeavor that ye may be able to after my deceased to have these things always in remembrance for we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were eyewitnesses of his majesty for he received from God the Father honor and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased and this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount we have also a more sure word of prophecy where onto ye do well that ye take heed as onto a light that shiner than a dark place onto the day dawn and the day star rise in your hearts knowing this first the no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God speak as they removed by the Holy Ghost let's pray father God we thank you for your word we thank you for the book of 2nd Peter thank you for the whole entire Bible and God we want our ears to be intented to your word to hear what you have to say to us and God fill past the versions with boldness and with your spirit allow for him to preach what you need for him to speak today allow for us to be attended and then allow for no distractions to be in his church but allow for us to have your word ringing our hearts and to take with us as we go about our way we praise you thank you in Jesus name amen all right the part of the passage we're going to be focusing on here in second Peter chapter number one actually gonna I know we just read the entire chapter let's look down there again starting in verse number three the Bible reads according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that have called us to glory and virtue whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust verse 5 then says and beside this giving all diligence add to your faith virtue and then it goes on to virtue now now I'm gonna spend some time going through this list of things because we start off these first few verses is implied that these things come by it by your faith because beyond that it's saying you know add to your faith virtue would add this and this and this is add these other things obviously the most important thing is going to start with faith and we're preaching I'm preaching today to a room full of people who all hopefully claim to be believers on the Lord Jesus Christ right you're saved you're born again because you put your trust in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ so I'm gonna assume that everybody here has that faith and if you don't talk to someone about talk to me about it after service you know I'd be happy to help you with that if you don't even understand what that means or if you're not sure if you have faith if you're not sure that you're saved I will be happy to talk to you about that because the rest of this stuff isn't gonna be really important at all if you don't have that faith if you're not saved the rest of this is not gonna do anything for you you need to start off with that foundation of faith and look at this wonder I mean it may be a little difficult to read that's why I slowed down a little bit when I read verse three and four says according as his divine power hath given unto us there in verse number three all things that pertain unto life and godliness God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him that have called us a glory and virtue whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises God has given great promises are of high value it's very precious that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature through the promises of God you can become a partaker of a divine nature because you could have Christ in you you can literally have that divine become a part of you now don't misconstrue what I'm saying I'm not saying you will be a god or that you will be God but you can partake of that divine nature and God is going to transform he does transform those who are saved those who believe you start off with a new spirit and then in the end ultimately the the the full redemption is body soul spirit you are transformed as a new creature in Christ and you're conformed to the image of Christ and that's a good that's a great thing because we could be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust corruption of course brings death decay everything that's bad or refuse we escape that we escape all the corruption that's in the world so that's the good news and that happens when you're saved you escape that now obviously we still live in this body right but we we've escaped that in the grand sense we've escaped that in eternity so the in in a total sense that whatever happens our life here hey all that stuff is gonna be gone we're children of God amen and we have faith in that we have faith in the Word of God but being saved isn't the end point in our life it's the beginning point so we want to add to our faith we want to increase we need to do more things here so what the Bible says here it gives this list of various attributes of things that we ought to be adding to our faith now that we're saved and here's the reason why we're gonna skip forward just a little bit to verse number eight well says for if these things be in you and abound they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ so if you want to be fruitful in your Christian life if you want to be serving the Lord and bringing forth good fruit and and doing things and actually being productive and having God well pleased with you and living a fulfilling life of a Christian life well if we look at these things that are mentioned in the previous few verses he's saying look you need to add this and add this and add this these are the ingredients that are being given so that we could make sure that the result hey you won't be unfruitful you said not only do they have to be in you but they have to abound so we're gonna take some time and focus on each one of these attributes and decide for yourself you know do your internal retrospection and see am I lacking where am I lacking because I'll tell you this much if you are unfruitful as a believer then you are definitely lacking in at least one of these areas because if you had all these and abounded you would be fruitful it makes you so that you won't be unfruitful that's why I mean that's literally what the Bible saying so there would have to be something well we know the Bible is true so you should take a closer look then and what do I mean by even just being you know fruitful the the the ultimate goal kind of the end game for our lives here is to be reaching other people and not just solely reaching them in a way that's you know might make them feel a little bit better if they're down okay which great I mean do that but the ultimate goal is to be leading people to Christ right so through your kindness through through you know all of your efforts to reach people however you do that however you can help you while we could minister to people the ultimate goal is to be able to help other people then put their faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I mean that's really our job it's our duty it's what we're here for it's the grand purpose for the life of a believer is to go out and get more people to put their trust and their faith in Jesus Christ I mean there's nothing of higher value than that or you think about it it's the most precious thing that you have is your own salvation it is eternal value it is eternal life it is something that can't be taken away from you obviously it's the gift of God praise the Lord for that but that's something that you could have everything else in the world you could have every other great attribute you get everything else if you don't have that you're gonna spend an eternity in hell what good is everything else if you're not saved you see what I'm saying so that is the primary focus and that is the primary purpose as a believer is you know great we can we can help people out and do other things and and I'm not saying not to do that of course we should do we should do what we can to help people out but always keep in mind that in order to really be fruitful in the eyes of the Lord we need to be people to Christ and unfortunately these days there's too many people that stop short in their ministering and I hear of a lot of churches that have these you know oh I'm going on this missions trip and I hear a lot of people talk about I go on this missions trip and we're going to this country and it's going to a poor country and we're gonna go and we're gonna build a school we're gonna build a hospital we're gonna kind of just basically just help with their infrastructure but it's like you can do that right that's I'm not saying there's anything wrong with doing that you want to help people out and invest your time to but that's not really mission work definitely not with what we see in the Bible I mean who would we consider to be if we look in the Bible we just want to pick an example of a missionary who do we look at possible possible right the prime example of a mission why because he went out he went to foreign countries he traveled around he labored he worked but what was the whole point what was he doing he was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ that didn't know it people who hadn't heard about Christ he's bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost world and what does he do is he building churches is he building schools no he's starting church excuse is he building schools or hospitals no he's building churches he's starting gatherings of believers I'm sorry I know I misspoke they're caught a little late my time delay from my live to the to the thought was off a little bit I need to get that back in sync he's the example of a missionary and he went out with the with the primary purpose of preaching a gospel that's what he was interested in he came to preach Christ crucified right and not with wisdom of speech not with any fancy words not with it you know he went out and just and just preach the truth and that's the main focus and that should be the main focus and I said there's nothing wrong with helping people out and helping people in poor countries but but don't don't deceive yourself into thinking like that is your missions trip and don't think that you need to do something so grand in order to get people to listen to you and preach the gospel to them you don't have to build big buildings just to get somebody's ear and try to tell them about Jesus Christ if that's your whole well we need a reason to be there how about the reason to be there is your bringing the gospel of Jesus like that's the reason enough to be there and then maybe instead of spending so much money on all of the the resources to build the building you could send more resources in human capacity to go out there and reach even more people and if you really think about it if a whole people whole area turn to the Lord wouldn't God bless those people with the things they need their necessities anyways I mean can't we see that in Scripture that I mean if people turn their heart to the Lord and I'm not this isn't a prosperity gospel I'm not saying they're just gonna have all the riches in the world like no but but God will definitely take care of all their needs you know a people that is serving the Lord they'll have the hospitals or you know the the these things that these kind of basic needs that you want to go there and fulfill God will make those things come to pass they'll definitely come to happen but if on the flip side if you have a people who just reject Christ and you just want to keep going over there and build stuff for them well who's to say God's not just gonna knock that right back down until they humble themselves and put their trust in Christ we need to have the right focus and in that faith is the primary that's that's step number one but let's keep reading here we jumped ahead remember I said if these things be in you verse number eight and abound they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ but he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins so if you don't have these things if you if you know you're lacking these items that we're gonna go in detail the Bible is basically saying you're blind okay and you don't really know anything you need to you need to get and focus on you so obviously is a very important attributes that we really want to make sure we're abounding in in our life and let's keep reading because there's a little bit more to be said here verse number 10 wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure for if you do these things you shall never fall for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ wherefore and look at verse 12 wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things though you know them and be established in the present truth now so for those of you who are sitting there this morning and going past the persons I've heard sermons on this passage before I know these things I think these things are very basic I think they're very elementary I you know what's the big deal well you know what as the Apostle Paul is saying or it's excuse me not the possible Peter apostle Peter saying here in this letter he's saying I'm not gonna be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things and part of the Christian life and I'll say this especially for those of you who are grown spiritually in in your spiritual life you're not necessarily a new believer you know new believers there's a lot to absorb there's a lot to pick up you've been going at this thing for a long time you get to a point where you kind of feel like man I've heard sermons on this before I know this stuff don't get sloppy in a sense where you just think you know everything don't get a little don't get too proud always be able to renew refresh am I missing something where in my life cuz I mean if you think are you perfect don't ever get that attitude like just because you've heard something a million times especially from the Word of God you hear them a word of God a million times don't turn your ears off don't turn your thinking off don't start going on whatever there's a boring you know look it there's a reason that Peter is being diligent to make sure he's instructing these things and and let's with renewed minds just dig into these attributes and give it a serious consideration because these are often things you used to be like oh yeah I know all this stuff is I got that taken care of good I'm looking for other stuff well let's dig in and see where maybe we can do better because we definitely want to make sure that we continue to abound in the Lord that we want to get we want to be successful we want to be fruitful right we want to have that entrance ministered abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as the Bible say in there so let's dig into obviously faith everything starts with faith the Bible says in Turkey would the first John chapter 5 and Hebrews 11 6 the Bible says but without faith it is impossible to please him right so you can have knowledge you can have temperance you can have virtue right you can have patience you could have godliness you could have brotherly kindness you could even have charity but if you don't have faith God's not pleased with you you have all the rest of those things without faith hey it's impossible to please him for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him doing the things that God said it but if you don't believe in him it's not pleasing to him at all it's not pleasing it all starts with faith first John chapter 5 verse number 4 Bible says for whatsoever is born of God over cometh the world and this is the victory that over cometh the world even our faith who is he that over cometh the world but he that believe it that Jesus is the Son of God that is the starting point having that faith overcoming the world overcoming like the Bible says in 2nd Peter 1 for having escaped the corruption is in the world through lust you know we've we could become partakers of divine nature we're born again we become children of God and it's that faith that's overcomes the world now let's dig into the next thing says add to your faith virtue virtue now that word virtue isn't used in the Bible a whole lot there's a few times where it's referenced we're like it says virtue went out of Jesus but in the context here what's talking about just having virtue it's another word for righteousness just doing what's right so being being virtuous means you're doing good things you're doing good deeds right so you have a righteousness now you're still in 1st John chapter 5 go back to verse number 2 so we're adding to faith it starts off with faith you start off by putting your trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior that has nothing to do with works that is just I need a Savior Lord please save my soul you paid the price for me God please save my soul now from that moment forward that you put your trust in Christ you are saved you are saved eternally you can never lose that you're a child of God amen and amen but as a child of God you still have the will the free will to choose am I gonna walk in my flesh or am I gonna walk in that new man I'm gonna walk in the spirit am I gonna am I gonna now try to do what's right and follow the Lord because he saved me because he's good because I owe everything you know am I gonna I'm gonna make that choice to do right by him well that choice is up to you and we need to add now to our faith you've got the faith praise the Lord you're saved that's the starting point like I said that's not the end you know the end point that's the beginning it's the beginning of your new life now that you have that let's start adding virtue let's start adding works let's start adding doing good things let's start adding keeping the law you're already saved you've got that done now we're gonna we're gonna build on that Bible says in verse number two there by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous so we're instructed as believers in turn if you would Ephesians chapter 2 to keep God's commandments because they're commandments they're not suggestions there's not no part of that word changes before or after salvation it's still a commandment but this is also how we show God that we love him because we're listening to him we're being obedient children God likes that he wants to see our obedience and that's what we ought to do if you want to grow spiritually if you want to make sure you're fruitful start off by just listening to the Lord and doing what he says virtue do what's right do what's good stop you know die to the old self die to the to the to the old ways and in the lusts of the flesh that we all used to walk in Ephesians 2 of course verses 8 9 very clearly again illustrate salvation by grace through faith first I'm ready for my grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works as any man should boast very clear zero works involved completely by grace through faith it's undeserved it's unmerited it's God's grace that allows you to be saved it's through faith so you have to have faith right that's the beginning point you trust in the Lord he saves you but then this verse continues so it starts off with that foundation of faith verse 10 says for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works so let's add to that faith virtue by doing the good works which got up before ordained that we should walk in them we should be doing the good works we need to make sure we're adding that so if you're saved today but you're really not doing anything good you're not keeping his commandments you're unfruitful you need to add to your faith virtue and here's the thing especially from a new believer perspective oftentimes I mean if you put your trust in Jesus Christ you inherently are putting your trust in the Holy Bible in the Word of God Jesus is the word incarnate you don't have the luxury to pick and choose which parts of the Bible you're gonna believe in in which parts you're not because Jesus is the word okay and when you accept Christ you're accepting the word you're accepting the Word of God as a whole you cannot parse it out and piecemeal and do all this other stuff look if you think you could do that I would just check your salvation because you probably got the wrong Jesus if you're not accepting the whole word you've built up a different Jesus in your mind because Jesus is the Jesus of the Bible of the whole Bible but as a new believer once you put your faith in Christ you may not always understand God's commandments and that's fair enough that's a fair point some things are harder to understand than others but I'll tell you this God's commandments are clear maybe you don't understand why but the commandments themselves are clear there's there's not a lot of room to be like so if this says not to do whatever you know not to kill or not to steal like well does it really mean yeah that's what it really means like that's that's what it says it means what it says now in some cases you might be thinking that just a little bit harder you know some people struggle with with capital crimes in the Bible you look at the commandments and and you see things like well if if a son curses his father then he'd be like whoa it's a shock to many people because you're used to the justice or the thinking and the mindset of this world so as a new believer you may not be used to seeing and hearing what real justice and judgment is from the Bible and just what commandments are in some people like like my wife is a good example and I'm not picking on her but you know she when she was raised she wasn't raised with any religion so she was just really ignorant on a lot of things and and some things that the Bible strictly prohibits she had no idea like we're really wrong or that that was even contained in Scripture I just she was ignorant she didn't know but once you see that and once you're aware of that you need to be like okay I'm gonna I'm gonna add to my faith now virtue by keeping what God's commandments are and it may not all make sense a lot of most of them make sense just inherently anyways I mean commandments to not get drunk Commandments not fornicate and all this other stuff it's not that hard to make sense of them right alcohol is poison it's not gonna be poisoning your body you know fornication and bring disease it's gonna bring you know you're gonna start maybe having children out of wedlock and all these other thing you're gonna have all these other problems that go along with that it's not that hard to see why God made these rules but in any case you have to start with your faith and be like well God says this then I'm just gonna go with that and I'm just gonna add virtue to my faith and just start trying to live my life core and what God said what the Bible says that's what we're gonna do that's that's the next step forward turn if you would to Proverbs chapter 12 and I'll read for you from Romans 6 real famous passage just to kind of close out that that adding virtue to your faith I already showed you Ephesians 2 8 9 and 10 it as soon as it's done mentioning things that are salvific salvation then talks about doing works right Romans chapter 6 and Romans chapter 5 it goes in depth on hey we're grace it we're gonna sit we're sitting it about grace and much more bound and how much God's grace covers all sin and how you know by one man you know the payment was made for all said all this stuff goes really in depth on salvation on how much and on how complete salvation is and it's 100% by faith Romans 5 goes in depth a lot on that but then Romans 6 continues the same thought in verse number one says what shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may about because the more you sin grace covers all of your sins that's a fact every believer in Jesus Christ it's not like you could sin and then oh now I've lost my salvation now I'm going to hell no I mean if you continue to sin and we do God's grace still covers your sin and that's good news right I mean it's great news because we're all sinners and there's nobody that's perfect on this earth but at the same time just because that is a fact does that mean we should just say hey cool let's just go off and sin because that just means more grace right grace is good let's just add more grace by sinning and sinning and sinning and sinning no God forbid don't do that that's bad how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer there in know you not that so many of us as we're baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life get saved what should we do get baptized and start walking in newness of life newness of life meaning virtuously righteously makes sense right that's kind of the progression we're seeing here now as you add that virtue to your faith it says add to your virtue knowledge start to know more increase your learning right you've got your faith you're starting to do what's right well in order to even do right and notice all these things it's not like okay I'm in all the virtue and then I'm gonna move on to knowledge no this is this is like cycle repeat over and over and over and over and over again not like done with that done with that and you know start brand new like now I'm gonna start knowledge well no you need some knowledge to even understand what's right and wrong it's this continual cycle but you need all of these things right you need you need the virtue but you also need the knowledge look at Proverbs 12 verse number one who so loveth instruction loveth knowledge instruction is being told what to do you're getting instructions right I mean if you want to if you receive something that you buy off Amazon or wherever and you have to build it normally they come with instructions well the instructions do they tell you what to do this is how you build this well God has given us instructions in his word this is how you live a virtuous life this is how you please me this is how you raise children this is how you know those instructions are there so if you love instruction you love knowledge these instructions help you to know more but he that hateth look at how contrast he that hateth reproof is brutish so not only is this instruction just talking away these are things do but it also includes being reproved which means being told you're wrong right so you love the instruction because it's true you love the instruction even if that instruction is telling you you were wrong right I mean think about if you had instructions like well I thought I was gonna have to do this or this or this yeah and if you were done that you would have screwed it up the instructions told you otherwise I thought I had to do this and I'm not gonna ask for a show of hands but how many guys have received something and you're just like I don't need instructions I'm just gonna build this and then you ended up having some parts left over and maybe maybe some pieces didn't function the way that they were supposed to right and you got a backtrack and okay now let's let me see that thing did I throw that away we need to be able to receive that reproof the correction through the instruction of God's Word and that means you love knowledge and and you know this is something that that has driven me in my own personal walk and this is what what continues to this day that I want to surround myself with people who love knowledge and because that's true you know that this is every preacher should love knowledge and sharing that knowledge because you know it's not up to me to decide what to withhold from God rush withhold nothing ready to preach the whole counsel of God and when people are truly interested in the truth then you don't have to worry about what's gonna offend people or anything like that because look we're just gonna preach the truth I just want knowledge if I could put aside my my own feelings of oh man if this person hears that they're wrong about something they're being corrected about this or that look when you come together and we care just about like I just have this hunger and this thirst for knowledge I want to know what's true and I want to know what's false if that's in your heart the rest of it doesn't matter like like that'll deal with itself you could be humble enough to just say okay well I guess I was wrong now I'm gonna change and get right but withholding those truths does no good for anybody and if God put it in his word I think he put it in there for a reason so that we could know those instructions and not hide those instructions God's more worried about people getting right with him then he is worried about people's feelings getting hurt or people reacting poorly to his word God never said well don't if they start to get upset then don't tell them what I'm telling you to tell them we're chapter and verse on that event because I see the exact opposite I see God saying hey don't worry about their faces I already know they're stubborn rebellious but you tell them anyways I see Jesus going what does this offend you and then turn your disciples hey you guys gonna leave too go ahead why because he's not gonna stop preaching the truth because it's the truth it's the truth now how a person responds that that's up to you that's up to you how do you respond to God's Word how are you going to respond to the instruction if you respond poorly you don't really love knowledge now obviously I'm not saying that just because I say something and if you don't like it then you don't love knowledge okay and this is important because we should never elevate any one person to the to the oh well if they said it then you just must hate knowledge if I but if I'm saying what the Word of God says that this is the standard this is what's true right it's the Word of God that's true so when I just give my own opinion about something whatever right it doesn't mean you hate knowledge if you disagree with me it doesn't mean you hate knowledge if you reject what I say or the things that come out of my heart but if what I'm saying is what the Word of God says then that's where you fall into the category of hating knowledge turning food to Proverbs chapter 2 I'll read for you from Isaiah 28 Isaiah 28 verse 9 the Bible says whom shall he teach knowledge and whom shall he make to understand doctrine them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts so really to really get knowledge you need to grow past the baby stage so you think about a new belief every look there's nothing wrong with babies we love babies here right as is evidence you could probably hear some babies maybe even right now we love babies babies are good babies are a blessing we like babies we all started as babies right but you don't want to have a baby like for decades like the same one just like if any one of your children my children was still just like this baby acted like a baby just everything about them was a baby and there's no growth that's not going to be very pleasant right it's well here's the thing it may not be pleasant but they're not going to get knowledge either you got to get past the point of being a baby to get knowledge and that's why you know new believers hey you want to get knowledge great start off by just being obedient to the Word of God add that virtue to your faith and then you're gonna have to start gaining out but knowledge comes slowly we also have to recognize this as Isaiah 20 continues to say you're in Proverbs to you to stay there that was in verse 10 for precept must be upon precept precept upon precept line upon line line upon line here a little in there a little for with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people so knowledge comes slowly it could come kind of quickly at first if you're you know if you're if you're kind of like a sponge you could you could absorb a lot of things just as children have this this curve right human beings we have we have this curve I mean the amount of information that that babies will start the process as you know within a couple years growing into little people and being able to pick up language and be able you know just just communication all these other things just just various things how much growth there really is from going from nothing inside the womb and being completely right and you see them grow they are learning so fast so many different things but there comes a point where that knowledge starts to you know you're you're increasing of learning starts to taper off you should always be on the increase but it's the rate at which you learn slows down a little bit as you get older so new believers things of God you know you've had the blinders on while you're unsaved when you try to read the Word of God but as soon as you get saved those blinders are removed man you can actually start to understand and see like wow I've and and I hear this from everybody this is true I was myself the same thing I was brought up in a Christian home I had to read the Bible didn't understand it you know yes there's some some sort of a level of understanding like just as far as reading comprehension goes but not a real understanding of the Bible right you can you can read the words you could see them there but overall it's still just kind of like what's the point what's that you know you can be taught and trained with some things but it's still not really impactful and and once you're saved man you start really like wow wow it's amazing and you can learn a lot but so you need you need to learn point by point doctrine by doctrine you start with the fundamental okay the harder things I don't really know what that means it's gonna take some time and we had a conversation come up recently something similar to this and what you have to understand when it comes to people who teach the Bible or somebody like man you've got a lot of knowledge or you know like like how do you even know this stuff and how well it doesn't happen overnight first of all any knowledge that I possess was given to me every bit of it everything that I have any wisdom any knowledge I have was given to me so I can't take ownership or pride over anything that I've learned from the Word of God because if I haven't learned it from another teacher who's pointed out to me I learned it definitely by the Holy Ghost who's instructing me and leading me into the way of the truth and righteousness and here's the thing though I'm continuing to learn I hope I continue to learn I'm gonna strive to continue to learn but it comes through reading and study and taking the time and putting forth the effort regularly so day upon day precept upon precept day day day day and if you just add up all of that time well yeah you know you should you know and for someone like me I got saved 26 years ago but didn't really start growing until I got plugged into a really good church and got baptized and started serving the Lord and really started growing and learning and I cared a lot about the things of God and that was about 17 years ago so 17 years ago is when I seriously started reading the Bible on the daily every day and and whatever and I don't want to go in into like how many it doesn't matter but 17 years is a long time so yeah there's gonna come some knowledge that just comes with that so you might be sitting there thinking maybe you've been saved or reading your Bible for like a year how do you even see this I never saw that yeah I know but like if you keep reading and you keep studying you're gonna you're gonna keep increasing that knowledge and it's and God's gonna help you with that and God's gonna open up more things to you and it's just the way that knowledge works right and that's why we have to always be seeking to add to that knowledge because you're never gonna know everything it always it's slightly amusing kind of sad and a little angering when you go to the door and someone's like oh yeah I know what the Bible says I've already read that you know like someone savers you don't even know how to be saved and they're just gonna tell you I know all about the Bible really it's kind of a rash statement to make I can't tell you that I know all about the Bible even after you know reading and studying for 17 years like that's no but knowledge comes it's gonna come slowly it's gonna come line upon line look at verse number or verse number one in chapter 2 in Proverbs I was says my son if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding yay if thou criest after knowledge and lift us up thy voice for understanding if thou seekest her as silver and searches for her as for hid treasures then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God for the Lord giveth wisdom out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding and this is a great passage look God wants you to have knowledge but you have to seek after it you have to put forth the effort it doesn't just come by itself just like virtue doesn't come on its own you have to put forth the effort you have to try to do what's right well at the same token you need to add to that virtue knowledge which means you have to put forth the effort you need to see cuz you need to to recognize and say I need to know more I want to know more about the things of God I want to know more and see more instruction and what can I do right and how can I please God and what does God have for my life and I want to know more so I'm gonna keep reading more and more and more I'm gonna go to church and I'm gonna hear preaching I'm gonna you know do all these things to try to increase my knowledge and pray to God to help me understand his word better and that pleases God and God will answer that prayer let's keep moving on here I'm going a little bit longer than I'd hoped for this point in a sermon so we need to add add to knowledge add to knowledge what temperance is the next thing we need to add to your faith virtue add to your virtue knowledge add to your knowledge temperance turn if you would to first Corinthians chapter 9 when we look at one passage regarding this I think first Corinthians 9 is an excellent job of explaining temperance what temperance is ultimately it's when you develop self-control or restraint so the word temperance comes from like your temper your you know kind of like your temperature these are all very related words so if you think about someone who loses their temper if you lose your temper that's when people get kind of out of control they start reacting differently than they would when they're well regulated in control of themselves so someone loses their temper sometimes they fly off the handle and you become volatile and you don't know what's gonna happen right but a person who is temperate is able to keep control and keep your facility even in the difficult situation so when highly emotionally charged situations present themselves when people come at you whether whether you're facing fear whether you're facing anger whether you're facing you know whatever it is a temperate person will retain control of themselves and not lose it when we lose it we get into trouble when you allow emotion to take over when you you know allow fear to take over you allow things to when you allow yourself to just become responsive to some stimulus without thinking without a control in place you will end up giving into your flesh we need to temper and control our flesh with our spirit we need to control with our mind 1st Corinthians chapter 9 verse number 24 the Bible reads know ye not that they which run in a race run all but one receiveth the prize so run that ye may obtain so he's talking about just in the world of just some race you know the Olympics or some other type of race people run a race and what happens in a race everybody's racing and one person wins right so he's saying now applying this spiritually you now you want you need to be running you need to be like have the mindset that you're in a race right the race of our life we want to win we want to get trophies we want to get rewards we want to we want to succeed we want to win at life so we need to run not go take a nap right not go forsake the race completely let's run the race but then he says this verse 25 and every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things so the people who really want to win I mean you want to be you want to strive at that master you want to be number one how many Olympic athletes do you think have no control over their diet have no control over being able to wake up really early in the morning have no country I'll just like oh I'm just gonna hit snooze again or what you know like no the people who win the people who get to that level they're in control say I'm tired but I'm getting up and I'm doing it anyways the people who are in control are gonna be able to overcome the obstacles just the physical things that might be preventing you from going to I don't really feel like working out yet no one ever feels like working out yes well you just got to do it right and then you're gonna receive the results that's how you're gonna get the prize I'm gonna you need to overcome the desire to have that chocolate cake or whatever like no I'm training I can't have that right now that's not gonna help me succeed every man is striving for the mastery is temperate in all things now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown so the people the world right the people are looking for these crowns the Olympic athletes stuff they're able to control themselves and they're able to remain temperate they're able to keep their schedules and they're able to do the training but that's all just to get the gold medal right that is a temporary crown that is the fame that is that that goal but that's not our race see he's likening that say hey they're able to do that in their race but you need to be running a race and your prize is way better than their prize and if they're able to keep themselves in control to get their physical prize to get their gold to get their silver why can't you be in control of your body to run your race and have that temperance let's keep reading he says I therefore so run verse 26 not is uncertainly so fight I not as one that beateth the air and isn't that I mean isn't that what training does in boxing a lot of times like you know he's like they're training right now that's how they train sometimes right now my form may be terrible I get that hey I was never a boxer but sometimes you beat the air but he's saying we don't do that okay all right we're not beating the air we are training and we're fighting in a real battle verse 27 says but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection so in my training in my striving for a mastery in my in my race I need to keep my body in check why because in in your flesh in your body is the lust of the flesh it's gonna be the things are gonna drive you into sin and those sins they do easily beset us in our race they're gonna hold us back they're gonna prevent you from being fruitful they're gonna prevent you from winning trophies in the prize they're gonna prevent you from from reaping rewards when you allow these sins to just keep you back that's why you need to overcome that you need to get control and be temperate over your body and if you really want to be used of God and you want to be a vessel that's made unto honor and not unto dishonor hey you need to be ready and meet for the Masters use by purging out the old leaven and dying to the old self and walking in newness of spirit and walking in newness of life and and obeying the commandments having virtue having knowledge and here having temperance let's move on to patience turn to Romans chapter 5 Romans chapter 5 I'm gonna try to wrap this up as quickly as I can every one of these points is important though because if you lack any of these it's gonna make you be unfruitful you can have a lot of knowledge you can have virtue you can do good things but if you lack self-control if you don't have that temperance and you're not in charge of your body it's gonna cause you to be unfruitful it's gonna cause you to get lazy it's gonna cause you get get wrapped up with maybe some other cares of the world right you need you need to stay diligent on top of those things we also need to have patience right why do we need patience because patience is what helps you to endure patience is what you need for the marathon right we're in a race it's not a sprint we're in a race it's a marathon so the marathon runners you know the sprinters it's just I'm just put all of it in and I know it's gonna be over real quick and then I'm done and great the marathon man you're gonna be going for a while and you're gonna be coming across pains and you're gonna be and look I don't even know the extent of the pains because I've never run a marathon before but I've run long enough to know that the pains come and it wasn't even as long as a marathon and I've run long enough to feel the pains but then you keep pushing through it and the pain can subside and you can kind of get in a rhythm and you keep going but then sometimes you get some more pains and then you got to get through that you need a second win and a third win and a fourth win right but this is where the patience comes in to where you could get to the point where you know hey hard times are gonna come there's gonna be some setbacks there's gonna be some oppositions but I'm gonna make it through that I'm not going to quit and the patience is gonna help you not to quit Romans chapter 5 look at verse number 3 the Bible says and not only so but we glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation worketh patience the troubles that you face will help you become more patient they help you to endure and patience experience and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad excuse me in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us flip over to Romans chapter 8 real quickly just a few pages forward in your Bibles Romans 8 and verse number 24 I said for we're saved by hope but hope that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth why did he yet hope for but if we hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it yes believers because of our faith we know that there is an endgame we know that there's a you know we know that Christ is gonna be coming back we know that we're gonna be standing before the judgment seat of Christ one day we know that what we do in this life is going to matter we may not see those things right now we may not have it right in front of us but when times get hard and and we we know that we still can't see things physically we have that hope and then that patience helps us to endure and wait for that final day and all the things that we work for and all the trials and tribulations and sacrifices that you make and the troubles that come your way because you're serving God because people are gonna either make fun of you or not one of anything to do with you and call you out and say you're part of a cult and all these other things that they might want to say and and slander you and and just have nothing to do with you whatever we have the patience when you have the patience through those tribulations it's gonna help you to continue to endure and then continue to be fruitful because when you quit you're not fruitful anymore going back to our original passage right so we're adding to our temperance patience what do we add to patience godliness now I have a lot of passages I'm not gonna look at all of these just for sake of time let's look at 1st Timothy chapter 2 because the godliness is very very similar to virtue I mean godliness is like acting God like not in the sense of being all powerful but in the sense of being godly that you're you're obeying God and obeying his commandments here you're following the Word of God and you're trying to do things like Christ like right and this ties in with good works as we're gonna see here in 1st Timothy chapter 2 verse number 9 Bible reads in like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shame face and this and sobriety not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly ray but which becometh women professing godliness so here if you're a woman and you want to and you in your professing godliness yeah I'm adding to my to my knowledge I'm adding to my faith I'm adding to my patience I'm adding godliness women which become which become as women present godliness with good works so if you want to be God if your woman professing godliness it's not about the hair and the pearls and how you look on the outside it's what you do it's the good works right so that's what we're adding on top of that and hopefully you know we're adding the virtue and then you're adding the godliness on top of that and then on godliness we go to brotherly kindness and turn if you would to first Thessalonians chapter 4 and the kindness and charity are the last two things that we add and those are both also very closely linked together but also extremely every one of these extremely important every single attribute because if you're missing one of these it's gonna cause you to be unfruitful brotherly kindness first of all in chapter 4 verse number 9 the Bible says but it's touching brotherly love you need not that I write unto you for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another and I love this exhortation and and it's really a props to the the Christians at Thessalonica because he's saying like I don't even really need to write unto you touching brotherly love because you're doing really good at this they the church of Thessalonica was there and they were distributing like they were they're willing to give to help other Saints and other areas and when people were in need they were there for them like they did a lot of good things in that regard and said look I know I know your brotherly love you like you're doing really good at this he said for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another but look at verse number 10 and indeed you do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia like you are a good example for all these brethren there but we beseech you brethren that you increase more and more so he's never still saying that they've arrived we're like hey you're doing really good at this you're getting a critique you're doing great but you know what keep doing more keep increasing more and more and more and this is how we need to look at all these attributes as well don't ever think I've arrived in my knowledge I've arrived in my virtue I've arrived in my godliness I mean that's a pretty proud statement to make right I've arrived in any of these capacities we need to keep looking at them and going no we need to increase let's let's continue because the better I am at these things the more fruitful I'm gonna be overall for the Lord I'll return to 1st Corinthians 13 last place I'll have you turn Romans 12 10 says be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love and honor preferring one another so with brotherly kindness inherently comes humility because you're preferring one another you're doing things you're going out of your way to help other people help your brother Bible says in Ephesians 4 31 32 let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake I've forgiven you being compassionate being humble and having a forgiving mindset and a forgiving heart that is what you need to keep working on to have that brotherly kindness in this ties in kind of the perfecting of the brotherly kindness is charity and charity requires an entire sermon in itself 1st Corinthians chapter 13 is the charity chapter but we'll dig into this just real briefly just so you understand you know modern versions will use the word love instead of charity in 1st Corinthians chapter 13 it's not that love is wrong because charity is love but it's it's more accurate to use the word charity because it's it's it's a specific kind of love it's it's standing out that comes from more of a root of putting other people first type of a love it really goes to the motivation in the heart type of love and when we read this you start to understand and that's why I like the separation of charity just from the generic term love because oh we're talking about charity and look at verse number one the Bible says this though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity I am become a sounding brass or tinkling symbol now just that first statement alone you can speak with the tongues of men of angels that's pretty amazing I mean speaking with the tongues of angels like being able to communicate and have this knowledge right to be able to have that ability maybe to even have that spiritual gift but he's saying but if I don't have charity I'm just like sounding brass I'm just like a noise that means nothing right I'm just I'm just sounding off and it's not gonna do any good verse 2 and though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and remember knowledge is one of those attributes that we were supposed to add to our faith right and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains I mean he's got good things these are great things that we are striving to have so you can have knowledge you can have all faith such faith that is that is moving mountains that much trust that much faith in God but if you have these things and have not charity says I am nothing you can have all of that and it really doesn't matter it's gonna do nothing because you need charity and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and I love that this is included in the Bible too because our common misunderstanding of charity is just people who give money to an organization or something that that's just called charity inherently but that's not charity it could be charity it could be but the intention and motivations and things of the heart is what really matters so when some billionaire or trillionaire gives money as a tax write-off to some organization that doesn't mean they have charity in their heart they could very well just be buying fame for themselves they just want to look good in front of people that and there are definitely people out there that that's what they want they're gonna sound the trumpet before they give and you know what they have their reward he says though I though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity it profiteth me nothing doesn't do me any good and then he goes on to explain charity charity suffereth long and is kind charity envieth not charity vaunteth not itself is not puffed up does not behave itself unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil so a lot of this revolves around pride and humility right charity has nothing to do with pride it's all about humility it's all about other people it's kind rejoiceth not an iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endure with all things it goes on and on not gonna go through the rest of that passage but we need to add all of these things if we can add virtue to our faith if we could add knowledge to our virtue if we could add temperance to our knowledge being in control patience to endure godliness in obedience in righteousness brotherly kindness where we're we care about our brothers and sisters in Christ but then that overall charity where it really is selfless like Christ who gave himself for all of mankind when he died on the cross that is the ultimate love the Bible says greater love at no man than this and a man laid down his life for his friends so someone who's able to give his you know he gave his life for the whole world that's why he has unmatched love but that's our goal if we want to be Christ like if we want to be Christians hey we should try to have the love and the charity like Christ had and if we're missing these things if you're just going through the motions but it's not real in your heart guess what you're gonna be unfruitful you can look really good on the outside but if you don't have that charity in your heart it's not gonna do you any good you're not gonna succeed you're not gonna abound you're not going to to be fruitful all these things are necessary but praise the Lord if these things be in you and abound they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful knowledge of Lord Jesus Christ and and it gives us this you know it's so many things to look at but look at it for yourself where do you feel like I could do more here I could be better off here I can I can improve in this area and if you can improve in these areas it's gonna help you to improve to be more fruitful for the Lord and for the things of God let's borrow a word of prayer dear Lord we love you thank you so much for your word I pray that you please help us all to improve in all of these areas dear Lord and that we would take the time as we've already heard now from your word we could see the importance of these things and now we wouldn't just walk away and and forget about all these truths and just continue doing everything exactly the same as we've done before but Lord that you would lead us and help us to identify hey what can I do better where am I lacking where am I failing Lord we love the truth open up and expose our areas where we're lacking to us so that we can fix those areas and continue to improve God we love you we want to serve you and be fruitful in our service to you Lord it's in Jesus name we pray amen all right we're gonna sing one last song before we are dismissed brother Peter will you please lead us three hundred and twenty so Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh