Journey to Virtue: Cultivating True Goodness

i want to become a really good person i would like from the core of my being to have virtue and moral beauty flowing through my thought and my will where would you send them see this is a very strange thing that we don't think about very much we assume that that's not a very scientific question to ask [00:01:21]

most cultures most times most places have taken it for granted that there is knowledge available about how to become a person and the question of who is a good person and how to become one is as important to humanity as anything else and this is particularly true from israel [00:02:08]

jesus says that god's divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life now dallas willard in his book renovation of the heart pauses to ask the question how much does that word everything leave out i think peter was serious about this think this is really true [00:03:19]

his divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness through these he has given us his very great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the divine nature [00:03:47]

for this reason make every effort to add to your faith goodness and to goodness knowledge and to knowledge self-control and to self-control perseverance and to perseverance godliness and to godliness mutual affection and to mutual affection love [00:04:29]

what peter's saying here is put forth your very best effort my gosh i'll put all kinds of effort into all kinds of lesser things about career success or how do i get more money or how do i lose a little bit of weight or how do i good at this sport put your very best effort into what matters very most of all [00:05:05]

train yourself to simply do what's right and good obviously this is something weird to do it will not be done for us and then in your virtue add on knowledge or understanding that is come to know why the good and right you do is good and right operate from insight into the realities of it all [00:05:33]

develop the capacity to carry out your intentions and not be thrown off by any turn of events and then in your self-control add on perseverance endurance patience the capacity to stick with the course stay with it over the long haul regardless of how you feel [00:06:05]

the differentiated person is one who has a very solid sense of self who i am does not depend on what you think of me now growing in this direction to become truly differentiated is a process just like sanctification is and the interesting thing about the word to sanctify as you may know in the bible or to be holy [00:09:26]

it is a consciously chosen and sustained relationship of interaction between the lord and his apprentice in which the apprentice is able to do and routinely does what he or she knows to be right before god because all aspects of her or his person have been substantially transformed [00:10:57]

sanctification is not an experience though experiences of different kinds can be involved it's not a status although a status is maintained by it it is not an outward form has no essential connection with outward forms it does however become a track record and a system of habits [00:11:19]

it comes about through the process of spiritual formation by the power of god and that's the invitation today i can't but god can come out and be differentiated [00:11:41]