Building Faith: Assembling Christian Virtues Together

Summary

### Summary

In today's sermon, we explored the practical application of living out the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and love, using the metaphor of assembling an Ikea cabinet. Just as Ikea provides all the necessary parts and instructions to build furniture, God has given us everything we need to live a godly life through His divine power and promises. We delved into 2 Peter 1:2-11, where Peter outlines a step-by-step guide to spiritual growth, starting with faith and adding goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and finally, love.

Peter emphasizes that these qualities should be possessed in increasing measure, ensuring that we remain effective and productive in our knowledge of Jesus Christ. The process of spiritual growth is akin to assembling a complex piece of furniture; it requires patience, perseverance, and a willingness to follow the instructions laid out in Scripture. We are reminded that the Christian life is not about achieving flawless perfection but about continuous growth and adding to our faith step by step.

We also discussed the importance of community and mutual support in this journey. Just as the early church had to find a word to communicate Jesus' teachings on love, we too must find ways to serve and support one another. The story of Jesus washing the disciples' feet at the Last Supper serves as a powerful example of agape love—selfless, active service to others.

Finally, we looked at practical examples of how our church has embodied these principles through initiatives like starting a school in Honduras and drilling wells in Africa. These acts of service demonstrate that while we may not be able to solve every problem, we can make a significant impact by taking one step at a time, adding to our faith and love through tangible actions.

### Key Takeaways

1. Faith as the Foundation: Faith is the starting point of our spiritual journey. It is not about having more faith but about using the faith we already possess to believe in God and His promises. This foundational belief sets the stage for all other virtues to be built upon. [12:03]

2. The Importance of Incremental Growth: Spiritual growth is a step-by-step process. Peter's list in 2 Peter 1:2-11 shows that we must add to our faith goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love. Each step builds upon the previous one, emphasizing that growth is a continuous journey. [13:47]

3. Community and Mutual Support: The Christian life is not meant to be lived in isolation. Peter's mention of mutual affection and brotherly love highlights the importance of community. We are called to support and encourage one another, building a network of relationships that reflect God's love. [17:02]

4. Agape Love as the Pinnacle: The ultimate goal of our spiritual journey is to embody agape love, which is selfless, active service to others. Jesus' act of washing the disciples' feet serves as a powerful example of this kind of love. It is not about feelings or emotions but about tangible actions that meet the needs of others. [21:59]

5. Practical Application: Our faith must translate into action. Whether it's starting a school in Honduras or drilling wells in Africa, we are called to make a difference in the world. While we may not be able to solve every problem, we can take meaningful steps that reflect our faith and love. [26:47]

### YouTube Chapters

[0:00] - Welcome
[01:54] - Introduction to Faith, Hope, and Love
[03:23] - Understanding Agape Love
[05:17] - The Ikea Metaphor
[07:02] - Everything We Need for a Godly Life
[08:52] - The Manual for Spiritual Growth
[10:34] - The Given of Faith
[12:03] - Adding to Your Faith
[13:47] - The Importance of Self-Control
[15:27] - Perseverance and Godliness
[17:02] - Mutual Affection and Community
[18:45] - Jesus' Example of Agape Love
[20:07] - Serving One Another
[23:54] - Practical Examples of Service
[26:47] - The School in Honduras
[28:25] - Drilling Wells in Africa
[30:00] - The Importance of Clean Water
[31:21] - Adding to Your Faith in Daily Life
[33:08] - Continuous Growth and Avoiding Stumbling
[34:33] - The Journey of Faith, Hope, and Love
[36:21] - Jesus' Rebuke and Learning from Mistakes
[38:08] - Conclusion and Prayer

Study Guide

### Bible Study Discussion Guide

#### Bible Reading
- 2 Peter 1:2-11
- 1 Corinthians 13

#### Observation Questions
1. What metaphor did the pastor use to describe the process of spiritual growth, and how does it relate to the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and love? [05:17]
2. According to the sermon, what is the significance of the word "agape" in the context of Jesus' teachings? [03:23]
3. How does the pastor describe the role of community in the Christian journey, and what example from Jesus' life illustrates this? [20:07]
4. What practical examples were given in the sermon to demonstrate the application of faith and love in action? [23:54]

#### Interpretation Questions
1. How does the metaphor of assembling an Ikea cabinet help us understand the process of adding virtues to our faith as described in 2 Peter 1:2-11? [07:02]
2. In what ways does the concept of agape love challenge our modern understanding of love, and how does it relate to the ultimate goal of our spiritual journey? [21:59]
3. What does the pastor suggest about the importance of incremental growth in our spiritual lives, and how does this relate to the idea of not achieving flawless perfection? [33:08]
4. How does the story of the school in Honduras and the wells in Africa illustrate the principle of taking meaningful steps in faith and love? [26:47]

#### Application Questions
1. Reflect on your own spiritual journey. What is one virtue from 2 Peter 1:2-11 that you feel called to focus on adding to your faith this week? How will you do this practically? [12:03]
2. Consider a community or group you are part of. How can you contribute to building mutual affection and support within that group, as emphasized in the sermon? [17:02]
3. Think of a situation where you can demonstrate agape love through selfless service. What specific action can you take this week to serve someone in need? [21:59]
4. The pastor mentioned the importance of not being isolated in our Christian walk. How can you actively seek out or strengthen a community of believers to support your spiritual growth? [20:07]
5. Reflect on a challenge or obstacle you are currently facing. How can the principle of perseverance, as discussed in the sermon, help you navigate this situation? [15:27]
6. Identify a practical way you can contribute to a cause or initiative that aligns with your faith, similar to the examples given in the sermon. What steps will you take to get involved? [26:47]
7. How can you apply the lesson of continuous growth in your daily life, ensuring that you remain effective and productive in your knowledge of Jesus Christ? [33:08]

Devotional

Day 1: Faith as the Foundation
Faith is the cornerstone of our spiritual journey. It is not about the quantity of faith we possess but about utilizing the faith we already have to trust in God and His promises. This foundational belief sets the stage for all other virtues to be built upon. Just as a house needs a solid foundation to stand firm, our spiritual lives require faith as the bedrock upon which everything else is constructed. Without faith, it is impossible to please God or to grow in our relationship with Him. Faith is the starting point that enables us to embark on the journey of spiritual growth and transformation. [12:03]

2 Peter 1:5-7 (ESV): "For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love."

Reflection: Think about a promise from God that you find difficult to believe. How can you use the faith you already have to trust in that promise today?

Day 2: The Importance of Incremental Growth
Spiritual growth is a step-by-step process, much like assembling a complex piece of furniture. Peter's list in 2 Peter 1:2-11 shows that we must add to our faith goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love. Each step builds upon the previous one, emphasizing that growth is a continuous journey. This incremental approach ensures that we remain effective and productive in our knowledge of Jesus Christ. It requires patience, perseverance, and a willingness to follow the instructions laid out in Scripture. The Christian life is not about achieving flawless perfection but about continuous growth and adding to our faith step by step. [13:47]

2 Peter 1:8 (ESV): "For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Reflection: Identify one area in your spiritual life where you need to grow. What is one practical step you can take today to begin that growth?

Day 3: Community and Mutual Support
The Christian life is not meant to be lived in isolation. Peter's mention of mutual affection and brotherly love highlights the importance of community. We are called to support and encourage one another, building a network of relationships that reflect God's love. Just as the early church had to find ways to communicate Jesus' teachings on love, we too must find ways to serve and support one another. The story of Jesus washing the disciples' feet at the Last Supper serves as a powerful example of agape love—selfless, active service to others. In community, we find strength, encouragement, and the opportunity to grow together in faith. [17:02]

Hebrews 10:24-25 (ESV): "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."

Reflection: Think of someone in your church community who might need encouragement. How can you reach out to them today to offer support and love?

Day 4: Agape Love as the Pinnacle
The ultimate goal of our spiritual journey is to embody agape love, which is selfless, active service to others. Jesus' act of washing the disciples' feet serves as a powerful example of this kind of love. It is not about feelings or emotions but about tangible actions that meet the needs of others. Agape love is the highest form of love, characterized by selflessness and a commitment to the well-being of others. It is the pinnacle of our spiritual growth and the ultimate expression of our faith. By serving others in love, we reflect the character of Christ and fulfill His command to love one another as He has loved us. [21:59]

1 John 3:18 (ESV): "Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth."

Reflection: Identify a specific way you can serve someone in your community this week. How can you demonstrate agape love through your actions?

Day 5: Practical Application
Our faith must translate into action. Whether it's starting a school in Honduras or drilling wells in Africa, we are called to make a difference in the world. While we may not be able to solve every problem, we can take meaningful steps that reflect our faith and love. These acts of service demonstrate that while we may not be able to solve every problem, we can make a significant impact by taking one step at a time, adding to our faith and love through tangible actions. Our faith is not just a private matter but something that should have a visible impact on the world around us. [26:47]

James 2:17 (ESV): "So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."

Reflection: What is one specific action you can take this week to make a positive impact in your community? How can this action reflect your faith and love?

Quotes

1) "Josh started out this year, since September, doing a short series that is on the three kind of essential aspects of what it means to be a Christian. The Christian walk, the Christian identity, all that stuff. Faith, hope, and love. And his key verse that he built those three ideas from, like seeds that sprouted, was 1 Corinthians 13, chapter 13. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul is explaining a word in the first century to the church they didn't really use a lot. The concept of love now, we kind of think of it as romance, or flowers, or chocolate. But in the first century, they didn't really use a lot. They didn't really use a lot. Or getting married, or loving hot dogs, or whatever it is. We use the word a lot. But in the first century, there were different words that had to do with human relationships, and the word Paul used in 1 Corinthians 13 is not one of the common words." [01:54] (67 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

2) "Grace and peace be yours. Those are two really commodities in short supply. They were in the first century, and they still are today. We don't see a lot of grace out there, and there's certainly not a lot of peace in the world. So Peter starts out by saying, hey, let's lay a foundation here. There's some stuff you don't have. Let's get grace and peace up on the table. Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life. When I read that in my study this week, I thought, okay, there's the Ikea package. It just got delivered." [05:17] (50 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

3) "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness. And one thing's really important to understand. The Bible never starts out to prove that God exists. Never. You read all the way through from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, you're not going to find God proving himself. I love math. I love algebra. I love trigonometry. I love that stuff. I love calculus. And in solving math problems, you get this really complex equation, and the equation is true and it works, but you have to be given some piece of information to figure it out. That's called a given. You have to be given that. Whoever it is that's trying to solve a problem says, X equals, here's the number. If you don't know that, you're never going to be able to use the formulas. It just is never going to work. So the Bible starts out with a given." [08:52] (71 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

4) "Faith is just your belief system. So you either believe that God is, or you don't believe that God is. You believe the chair is going to hold you up, or you don't believe that. If you don't believe that, what are you sitting there for? If you really don't believe the chair is going to hold you up, you would not sit in that chair. If you believed that black ice is on a corner, you're going to drive that corner more carefully than if you believe there's no black ice there. You believe something. So scripture says, scoop your faith from all the various options that are out there and just believe in God, because you already have enough faith. So add to your faith." [10:34] (41 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

5) "Add to your knowledge self-control. This is kind of an interesting one. I have a whole passel of grandchildren. They were just sneaking back and forth through there. So I don't know what they're doing today in the kids area, but they're sneaking back and forth. You can't see that. I can see that. But the idea of self-control is taking one thing that you know and doing it now. You can't do everything, but you can do something. So add to your knowledge what you know to be. Add self-control. And self-control is an interesting word in Greek. It's edkrateia, and it means out of yourself there's a strength." [12:03] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

6) "Perseverance is an interesting word. It just means keep going. Keep at it. Perseverance doesn't mean you are going to run a marathon the first time you get out and run. It means just keep one step going in front of another and keep at that for a while. To perseverance, add godliness. And this is the first mention he's had of any kind of godliness. He's had a lot of godliness. He's had a lot of spirituality at all. Everything up until now is just common life, just how you do it. Godliness is that comes like the fifth or sixth item that Peter mentions in this list that has to do with capturing something divine that comes out of your faith and your goodness." [13:47] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

7) "And then add to your Philadelphia, agape, love. And what Jesus said and taught about agape, he used whatever Aramaic word. He didn't speak Greek. He spoke Aramaic. So whatever word that he used in that context, the early disciples said, everyone else in the world that we're reaching speaks Greek. So we've got to find a word that communicates to Greek-speaking people what Jesus meant when he used chesed, or whatever word in Aramaic he used. Agape is the word that was chosen by the early church to communicate what Jesus meant. But it wasn't romance. It wasn't affection. It wasn't desire. It wasn't liking somebody or falling in love. It wasn't that." [17:02] (58 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

8) "We can't solve every problem in the world, but we can do something. And it took a lot of steps, one by one by one, to take a starting point and add to it. That's ultimately all the Christian life is. That's how you do faith, hope, and love. You can't get it all. You don't get it all. I understand. Understand. Peter understood that. Jesus understood that. And what's interesting is sometimes you walk around the Ikea building of Christianity and you see saints that are porcelain. People have gold on them and beautiful robes and all the fancy stuff. You say, I could never get there. I can't do that. I can't be that good. I can't be that. I don't know that much of the Bible. I can't figure all that stuff out. I'm such a loser. I'm such a, at the bottom, I can't get it. Faith, hope, and love, it's just hopeless." [30:00] (48 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

9) "If you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Peter says right there, you don't have it all finished and that's okay. It's not if you have these qualities perfect and you're the Ikea display case. No. If you're building it as you go along, if you're figuring it out step by step, if you're adding a little bit each day, each experience, each trial, each success, if they're increasing in you, that's what will keep you from being unproductive. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from past sins." [31:21] (55 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

10) "Faith, hope, and love, the essentials of Christian life. How do you do it? You just start. If we were all to stand up and kind of aim southeast, we all turn and face southeast. And I say, we're going to go to New York City. How are we going to do that? You take one step and you're on your way. That's all it takes. And that's what Peter's talking about in terms of understanding what it really means to be a Christian. Not that you're flawless, not that you're perfect. Somebody could examine every moment of your life and find a flaw, find something you did wrong, some word you said. Wasn't the right word to say, some scowl. Your feet are going to stink. Okay, people are going to find that out. But Peter says, start where you're starting, add to it, and then add to that, and then add to that. And the process is okay. That's what God is looking for, not flawless perfection that you've got it all answered." [34:33] (69 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

Chatbot

Transcript

What was the most surprising thing in this sermon?

Were there any personal stories shared?