Sermon Notes

“Faith Is Not Enough”

By George Holmes

September 12^th, 2010

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            Faith is not enough.  To some, that sounds harsh, or sacrilegious, doesn’t it?  Faith is so important.  There are some that will say, “All I need is faith.”  That statement reflects an element of our religious culture that isolates faith from its true source:  Having faith in God.  It’s easy to say that you have faith, and sit in a pew and not do anything with it.

            I spoke a couple of weeks ago about having faith in faith, not faith in God.  Peter gives us some words, through God’s Spirit, on how to add to your faith to be more fruitful.

 2 Peter 1:5-7   …add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and …temperance; …patience; … godliness; and…charity.

             The word, “add” means to supply, to furnish, to stock like a retail store.  Ladies, if it’s not stocked or furnished, why waste your time?  Or, if it’s empty and unfurnished, then what is it? a single guy’s first apartment.  We need a faith that has substance, that is stocked, supplied, and furnished.  We are going to go over the list of things that Peter told us to add to our faith.

 1.         Add to your faith virtue:

 1 Corinthians 16:13    …stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.

             So, man up.  Virtue means strength, backbone, moral courage.  It’s not a desire to do the right thing, but to take a stand, no matter the consequences.

 Acts 20:22-24  …none of these things move me…

             Last year, at the Zion Labor day parade, there was a group of girls that were in the parade.  They were in it two years ago, too, and my wife and I had decided that, if they were in the parade again, then we were just going to walk away from that part of the parade.  So, we’re loading our chairs in the truck, and I heard Jeff Lynch say, “You ought to be ashamed of yourself.”  We turned around, and he was talking to one of the adults with these girls.  These girls ranged from about ten to fifteen years old, and they had practically noting on, and they were doing some kind of an MTV dance, very provocative.  These girls just gathered around him, and got in his face, and just started dancing at him, but they never touched him.  It reminded me of Daniel in the lion’s den.  The Bible only says that God shut the lions’ mouths; I don’t think that they were cuddling, letting Daniel rub their bellies…  I’m sure that they were sniffing him, and wanting to eat him, but they couldn’t.  Later on, several people came over and wanted to shake Jeff’s hand, saying, “Thank you for making a stand.”

2.         Add to your faith knowledge:

Hosea 4:6        My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…

            Not just general knowledge, or even a knowledge of God (like coming to church twice a year, at Easter and Christmas).  It’s having an intimate relationship, learning, wisdom, understanding, prayer, worship, meditation in the Word. 

Proverbs 2:5-7            …For the LORD giveth wisdom…

3.         Add to your faith temperance:

            Self control begins with God control.  I’ve seen this bumper sticker that reads, “God is my co-pilot.”  So, who is the pilot?  I can see why they fly high on Sunday, and are out of control on Monday.  NOTE:  Someone said, after service, that, on an airplane, the pilot may be the one actually manning the controls, but the co-pilot is navigating, and telling the pilot what to do.  In that sense, yes, God should be the co-pilot.

Matthew 5:16     Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works…

            During my “Spiritual Maintenance,” I spoke with brother Jason Burton.  During the talk, we realized that we may be the only Bible some people will ever read, the only sermons they will ever hear.  So, what is your life saying?

4.                  Add to your faith patience:

This guy, Frank, went to his pastor and asked if he would pray with him for more patience.  The pastor said, “Sure, we’ll do it right now.”  The pastor started to pray, “Lord we come to you this day for Frank, and he needs more patience.  Lord, I pray give him much hardship and tribulation—” At that time, Frank stopped him, and said, “Hold on, hang up, I didn’t ask for that!”  The pastor said, “Sure you did; how else are you going to grow?”  We all have hardships—financial, physical or spiritual; go to God in prayer with them.

James 1:2-4     …the trying of your faith worketh patience…

            Patience is long-suffering, enduring hardship.  Paul wrote to the church in Rome that tribulation works patience:

Romans 5:3-4  …tribulation worketh patience…

            When you go through hardships, and pray to God for help, you gain victories and experience, which help you with the next hardship.  Each time, it gets easier.

5.         Add to your faith godliness:

            Godliness means being about your Father’s business, doing what pleases God, devout, living sacrifice, showing respect and reverence.

Acts 10:1-2      …a devout man, and one that feared God…and prayed to God alway.

            Three things:  Notice that he feared God, gave much, and prayed always.  A godly person worships God, and one who worships gives something of himself to God.

Romans 12:1-2            …prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect…

            A Godly person shows respect to God the Creator and knows that there is no other God but Him.

Isaiah 45:18    the LORD that created the heavens…

            A Godly person is one who acts properly, reacts properly, and leaves no doubt in anyone’s mind that he is a child of God, inside and out.

6.         Add to your faith brotherly kindness:

1 John 4:7-12  …if we love one another, God dwelleth in us…

            We all have different likes, tastes, cultures, ways, political views, etc.  The one thing that we have in common is the Spirit of God.  God loves us, and we ought to love one another also.  We should be sympathetic, friendly, tenderhearted, and we should care for others.  As the elect of God, we are to put on kindness.

Colossians 3:12-13     …Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another…

7.         Add to your faith charity:

            Charity is defined as Godly love expressed from one person to another, or, God’s love in action.  The first two greatest commandments:

Matthew 22:37-40       …thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself…

            This love is the greatest gift that we have and that we can share.  Paul speaking:

1 Corinthians 13:1-3   …have not charity, I am nothing…

            If we do have the love of God in our lives, and we can’t do anything with it, then we become unfruitful.  Finally, when your faith is added with, stocked up, furnished in all that we spoke about today, this will be the outcome:

2 Peter 1:8      … ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful.

                             Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd