Become More in '24 - Knowledge (North OC)

What is up church?

Good morning.

How are we feeling this morning?

We're feeling good.

Sorry about my voice.

Um, I don't know what it is about us preachers and football.

Last week, Marcel was screaming at a football game or last weekend.

Yesterday I was screaming at a football game and my voice is shot right now.

So I really need your encouragement today to get through it.

So, but it's great to be with you all this morning.

Um, my name is Daniel Samogi.

I hope I serve here in Orange County with the youth and the campus

ministry, and it has been amazing.

I've been truly blessed and honored in doing that.

Like this past Friday, with the teens actually, we had

a life size game night, so.

We had, uh, we played Hungry Hungry Hippos.

We put the teams on, like, this dolly and we rolled them in the

center as they try to grab the, the, the balls into their bucket.

And then we also did, like, Human Battleships.

So the teams were having fun with that.

And then yesterday, the Campus Ministry, we had an all LA football tournament.

And, man, that was awesome.

If we can give it up for the men, for the campus men over here.

They fought hard.

They represented OC proudly because we won our first game.

We made it to the semi finals.

We won the semi finals and we made it to the championship game.

We made it to the championship game and college just didn't go our way

and unfortunately we got second place.

But I'm proud of the guys.

If you see them limping, if you see them with the battle scars, just know

that they represented OC proudly.

Uh, but anyways, we're continuing our series, um, we started earlier this year.

It's called Becoming More in 24.

And with that, the theme passage is 2 Peter chapter 1.

2 Peter 1 · chapter mention

And in 2 Peter chapter 1, the message, the passage Peter talks about makes clear

2 Peter 1 · chapter mention

that God provides everything for us.

He gives us all the resources and the tools to live a godly life.

And when I think about that, I think about, when I read the

scripture, I thought about a dad.

I don't know about you guys, but my dad, he was always prepared.

He had that toolbox ready to go.

When something was broken down the house, he was ready to go.

He provided everything for me to have this life.

He provided everything for my siblings and my mom, and I'm

definitely grateful for that.

And, you know, in it, in 2nd Peter chapter 1 verse 3, it says, 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.

And we say, you know, it says divine power, you know, think about God's power.

So God's power has given us everything we need for a godly

life through our knowledge of Him.

And it was through His glory and goodness, uh, that we get to,

to align to His righteousness.

And it mentions that in verse, uh, 8 and 9, I'm jumping over, but, for 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.

But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting what

they have been cleansed from their past.

So, you know, Peter makes it clear for us.

If we do not add to these qualities, if we do not add goodness to our faith,

if we do not add perseverance, if we don't add knowledge and so on, we

become ineffective and unproductive.

We become nearsighted and blind.

And when I think about that, you know, in the other version, when

it talks about ineffective and unproductive, it talks about, uh,

another version, they say barren.

Meaning, you know, you're unable to produce offspring.

You know, think of a woman that is barren, she is without child.

She is unable to reproduce.

Think about a tree that is barren, it is unable to bear fruit.

If, you know, if we have these, if we don't have these qualities, uh, sorry, if

we have these qualities, such as goodness, knowledge, faith, you know, perseverance,

all that, we become effective.

I don't know about you guys, but I feel like all of us, we want to be

effective for God, don't we, church?

We want to be effective.

But in order to be effective, you know, we have to be able to, to produce.

I don't know about you guys, but when I go on campus, sometimes at Cal State

Fullerton, I meet a lot of people who claim to be a Christian and attend church,

but yet they're unable to bear fruit.

And not many people have the fruit of the Spirit.

But in order to produce, be effective, and not be nearsighted and blind, we have

to make every effort to add to our faith.

And last week, you know, Marcel talked about adding goodness to our faith.

And this week, today, I'm going to talk about adding knowledge to our faith.

Let's go to God in prayer.

Father God, just thank you so much we get to be here.

God, just to honor and worship you, God.

I'm so grateful for the people here, God.

And then people online just wanting to know more about you

and add to your faith, God.

And I just pray right now, God, that you just remove me, God.

That, uh, you speak through me, God, that, uh, you know, it's your

word being spoken and not mine, God.

Um, God, we love you so much.

In Jesus name, amen.

Alright, so, we're gonna explore knowledge, okay?

Now, what does that mean, adding knowledge to your faith?

Well, 2 Peter, chapter 1, verse 5, it says, For this very reason make

2 Peter 1:5

every effort to add to your faith, goodness, and to goodness, knowledge.

Alright, so when you think about knowledge, I know we can think about, you

know, facts, you know, stuff we learn in school, stuff we learn in observation.

And here in this context, you know, I don't think this is

what Peter is talking about.

You know, it's great to add knowledge to our faith.

It's great to memorize scriptures.

It's great to know, you know, certain doctrine and theology.

Yes, I'm not trying to dismiss that.

But I think here what Peter's talking about, what I want to take

a closer look at, is more so this spiritual knowledge, this deep

knowledge of really knowing Christ.

And in, you know, 2 Peter 1, verse 5, you know, it's rooted in

2 Peter 1:5

Godin goodness and glory of God.

And, you know, how do we do that?

How do we, you know, become, uh, rooted in the goodness and glory of God?

It comes from God and His Word, obviously.

And in that, we discover that God's power, uh, grants us

everything for this godliness life, this godly life through Him.

An example of this, you know, I think of Knowing God, I feel like

there's two different examples.

There's this distant knowledge of God, and then there's this

intimate knowledge of God.

And when I think of a distant knowledge, I think of someone you may know, you know,

maybe in your classroom or at your work, you're like, yeah, I know this person,

I know of them, I know their name, I know where they're from, I kinda know

a little bit about them, but that's it.

You know, example of this could be maybe knowing someone, uh, a public figure or a

celebrity that you may know, but you don't really have that personal connection with.

And I know for me, honestly, this past Friday, I feel

like I got to live that out.

Uh, this distant knowledge of someone.

You know, this past Friday, I was meeting with Marcel at Starbucks, and

all of a sudden, next thing you know, this celebrity walks in, this musician.

Marcel tells him I didn't believe him.

I, then I go up to the celebrity, and I ask him if that's who he is.

And he said, yes.

And I was like, oh, no, no way.

And that person turned out to be Mr.

Andre 3000 from the OutKast.

Or just OutKast.

I don't know if you guys know OutKast.

You know, the one, two, three, uh, the exact.

Oh, sorry.

I'm so sorry.

There it is.

That's just good.

But there, Andre 3000.

Yes, got to meet Andre 3000.

And you know, it was great.

I knew, I know of Andre 3000 though, but I don't really know him.

I know of his music.

I know of his work.

But he doesn't know me really at all.

He just, he probably forgot my name, but I don't really know him also as well.

And there's this lack of intimacy that we have, like this personal

knowledge that we have of each other.

Rather, it's just a distant knowledge.

But then there's also this intimate knowledge, which I believe what

Peter wants us to have with our Lord.

He wants to have this intimate knowledge where he knows us, or

we know him, and he knows us.

An example of that, I mean, I went to the slide here, but I think of people in my

life who really know me, you know, they know my, my, my joys, my sorrows, they

know my, my weakness, they know my pain, we experience life together, you know, we

know each other's dislikes and everything, and likes, we've spent countless hours

of each other, with each other, in each other's company, and during challenging

times as well, you know, it's great to have this Knowledge of each other, right?

It's great that we have people in our lives that we have this close intimate

relationship with where people really know us and we know Them and they

know what's going on in our lives But I also think that peter wants

us to have that with god as well.

He wants us to have that deep intimate knowledge Of jesus and I

think of story that that kind of encapsulates knowledge knowing really

knowing jesus Is in Luke chapter 10.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

So if you guys can turn your Bibles there to Luke chapter 10.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

We're going to look at a story of, you know, these two women in

the Bible where I feel like we can be either one or the other.

And it's in Luke chapter 10 verse 38.

Luke 10:38

We're going to do 38 through 42.

Sorry.

And it says, As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he

came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.

She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said.

But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.

She came to him and asked, Lord, don't you care that my sister has

left me to do the work by myself?

Tell her to help me.

Martha, Martha, the Lord answered.

You are worried and upset about many things, but few things are

needed, or indeed, only one.

Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.

You know, like I said, I love this story of Mary, Martha, and Jesus

because there's certain times, certain seasons of our life where we can be

either Martha or we can either be Mary.

You know, in verse 39 it says, Mary sat at the Lord's feet.

You know, I don't think you guys, I, I, when I was doing research on

it, there's so much importance to, to Mary sitting at the Lord's feet.

Because back then, you know, Jesus being a rabbi, when you're a rabbi, it's

such a high honor and call as a man.

Most rabbis were men, and because you get to, you know the scriptures,

not many people knew how to interpret the scriptures or read it.

And you were able to, to read and, and, um, and help others,

uh, understand it as well.

And, you know, when it becomes a rabbi, you know, it's almost like being a Jedi.

You know, you don't just be born a Jedi.

You gotta, you know, have the midichlorians in you.

And you have to train.

And it begins at a very young age.

So at the age of four and five, there is these Jewish boys who, who, uh, they

would start reading the scriptures.

They'll start reading the Torah.

They'll start memorizing it.

So just imagine some of the kids kingdom, you know, the kids right now, instead

of coloring and doing memory, like, you know, they're actually memorizing

the whole Bible right now, at that age.

But, uh, but yeah, so at four and five, they start studying the Bible,

and as the boys grow older, uh, they start interpreting other texts.

And then, next you know, a rabbi or a teacher would take notice of

a, of a young boy, probably around the age of twelve or thirteen.

And he would choose a young boy who he believes that he

can, you know, he has faith in.

He's like, I know I can train him, and you know, he's gonna, he's gonna be with me.

So the rabbi would take the young boy, and then the rabbi would train him.

And they would follow closely.

It wasn't just, hey, I'm gonna teach you how to interpret scriptures.

But you're gonna see my life.

You're gonna be right behind me.

Whatever I do, you're gonna follow.

You're gonna see how my life is.

And that's where the saying, you know, being in the dust of the rabbi's feet.

You know, the idea of being in the dust of the rabbi's feet where the rabbi is

walking, uh, is walking on these dusty roads that your student will follow so

closely that the dust walked on by your rabbi will fall on your feet as well.

And this symbolizes the, the, the commitment from that student to learn

and imitate the ways of their rabbi.

And when we look at Mary, we see the significance of her choice,

sitting at the Lord's feet.

You know, it wasn't merely about gaining intellectual insight, but it was an

acknowledgment that true knowledge begins in a context of a relationship.

Mary knew what was important.

She knew that sitting at the Lord's feet, Jesus, and being present, getting

to know him is what mattered most.

You know, she wasn't there to impress Jesus with, with her

theology, but to know him intimately.

To understand the heart behind the teachings and be transformed by Jesus.

You know, Mary was making every effort to add knowledge to her faith.

Knowledge that Jesus is the most important relationship in her life.

And because of that, she decided to carry, uh, uh, she decided to drop

everything in the midst of busyness.

And church, I think that's so important for us to kind of

carry that posture of Mary.

Of, hey, I know there's a lot of things going on in my life.

I know there's plenty of busyness.

I know I'm in school.

I know I have a family.

I know I have work.

I have so many things I have to balance.

But all of that, you know, it does matter.

But none of that should compare to being with Jesus.

Really knowing Him intimately.

You know, I also want to remind us, you know, That adding knowledge to our faith

is not passive, but involves actively seeking God's word and teachings.

So we must continue to add knowledge to our faith and continually seek God

on a close intimate level like Mary.

Because we see that Martha was caught up in many things in life that she thought

was important and she had Jesus right there, right in front of her in her house.

She was in the presence of Jesus and had decided to do many other things.

And at times, I think, you know, we can get caught up in that.

I know for me, in my life right now, like, trying to do so many things.

Oh, I'm trying to plan a wedding.

Oh, I'm trying to plan this.

Oh, I gotta, you know, I wanna do all these other things.

And I'm just like, you know what, God?

I feel like these things are more important.

But guess what?

I'm gonna know you, though.

I still know you, God.

But I'm gonna do all these other things because I feel

like that's what matters most.

But no, it's not true.

Jesus is what matters most.

Being in the presence, getting to know Him is what matters most.

And if we want to become more in 2024, we have to make every effort

to add knowledge to our faith.

You know, it's not a suggestion.

It's not, hey, perhaps you may add knowledge.

No.

He said, make every effort to add knowledge.

And not just knowledge of memorizing scriptures, as I

said, or theological teaching.

It's great, but the knowledge that's intimate and personal.

You know, I've made the mistake as a young man who's been very passionate

and eager to To, you know, wield knowing scriptures as a weapon to others.

And because of that, I've been drawing people away from God.

And I had to realize, like, wow, God, like, I don't know why

people don't want to know you.

But I had to take a look in the mirror of myself, knowing that I don't really,

I'm not living the life you called me.

I'm just using scriptures here as a weapon.

I'm, I'm too busy condemning people.

I'm too busy being black and white of the scripture rather than the heart of it.

Rather than having the, the knowledge, intimate knowledge.

Not allowing His Word to be transformative for me.

And I think that we have to allow the knowledge, knowing

Jesus, to be transformative.

To shape every aspect of our lives.

Our thoughts, our actions, our identities, and our purpose.

But practically, what would it look like for us, church, if we

were to add knowledge to our faith?

When I think of the, you know, 2 Peter 1, I think of the

progression of the scripture.

It says,

For this reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness,

and to goodness knowledge.

Add to your faith goodness, which is virtue, and virtue knowledge.

The coupling of adding goodness with knowledge implies that knowledge

is not isolated, but intimately linked with virtuous living.

Knowledge when lived out, Church, translates into virtuous

actions in a life that reflects transformative power of Jesus.

Now, what do I mean by that?

Well, it means, Church, that if I'm at work and I deeply understand the

knowledge of Christ's teaching on servant and leadership and integrity and

fairness, at work, I'm going to foster a relationship, a workplace culture

where respect and teamwork are valued.

Or maybe it's in our community where we are inspired by Christ's teaching on

love and compassion and service of others that we get to organize other community

outreach in addressing local needs.

Maybe we're a student in school and we understand the values

of honesty and integrity.

That, you know, as a student, I'm gonna do everything I can

to, to have academic integrity.

I'm gonna do everything I can to get the, the, the good grade in school.

I'm gonna make every effort to.

I'm gonna help my classmates who are struggling.

I'm gonna help them understand this topic in school.

I'm gonna be, uh, you know, I'm gonna actively promote

positive and inclusiveness environment within the school.

Or maybe it's at church, where we understand Christ's teachings on community

and worship and spiritual growth.

That it will allow, it'll lead us to participate in church activities.

And maybe it's with family and friends where we actively, you know, we know

and add to our faith the values of Christ's teaching on forgiveness and

love and support with relationship.

That it will lead to us actively pursue forgiveness and grace with

our own family and close friends.

You know, in each scenario, you know, knowledge becomes a guiding

principle and informs actions, decisions, and interactions.

And an interaction I think of, we're not going to turn there,

but I think of an interaction with Jesus and the Samaritan woman.

It's in John chapter 4.

John 4 · chapter mention

I really encourage you guys to read it if you guys haven't done so already.

But it's such a powerful story, because Jesus engages in a

conversation with the Samaritan woman.

And in this conversation, Jesus displayed a profound knowledge of her life.

He didn't just know facts about her, or he did know facts.

He didn't know, okay, you're a Samaritan, you're a woman, yes.

He knew the, uh, The distant knowledge, but the intimate

knowledge that he knew of her.

He knew that, hey, you have more than one husband, I know that.

Oh wait, I know you say you're thirsty, but I know you're

longing for something more.

I know your heart, I know your desires, I know your longing.

Jesus knew that.

And because of that, that knowledge, in this instance,

led to a radical transformation.

Because Jesus knew that she was struggling, and she needed a drink

of water from the eternal life, where she would never go thirsty.

And by Jesus engaging in this conversation with the Samaritan

woman, he was breaking cultural norms.

I mean, Jews and Samaritans were not, like, they, there was barriers there.

No one, you know, they didn't like them, or they didn't like each other.

And for Jesus to interact with a woman who was a Samaritan, it

did not go well with the culture.

But the knowledge he demonstrated shattered these prejudices,

and revealed a God whose grace transcends all cultural divides.

You know, the Samaritan woman encountering with the living knowledge of God results

in the transformation of her own heart.

You know, knowledge, when lived out, becomes a beacon

of light in this dark world.

It's not about wielding information as a weapon, but embodying Christ's teaching,

Christ's way, dispelling darkness in this world and bringing healing.

You know, knowledge, when expressed through love, compassion, and

grace, Church, becomes a powerful force of positive change.

And that means knowledge when coupled with goodness has potential

to impact the world around us.

It looks like sacrificial love, compassion for the marginalized, and

forgiveness in the face of wrongs.

So let's have our knowledge be a lived out expression of goodness.

Now, you're probably thinking, how can we add knowledge to our faith though, Dan?

So as we continue about that, you know, I think there's certain ways

to add knowledge to our faith.

There's a few ways, and I think of the first one, You know, just, oh, sorry.

There was supposed to be another slide there.

But the first one is just being in your word.

You know, I think of the scripture in Acts 17 verse 11.

Acts 17:11

It says, Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character

than those in Thessalonica.

For they received the message with great eagerness and examined the scripture every

day to see if what Paul said was true.

You know, the Bereans, they weren't satisfied by just hearing the text.

They went back to see what Paul was said was true.

They were eager to hear it.

They were in noble character of it.

And by that, you know, they were in their word.

And because of that, we have to be in our word in order to

understand the knowledge of Christ.

You know, the second one is prayer.

We have to, we have to be praying.

In Proverbs 2, Verse 3 to 6 says, Indeed, if you all call out for insight

Proverbs 2:3–6

and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and

search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of

the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

For the Lord gives wisdom.

From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

You know, we have to actively seek knowledge and wisdom through prayer.

And I don't know about you guys, but when I read this scripture, what I

thought of is a little kid at Target.

Now, you ever bring your, your kids to Target, you've seen a little kid in

the toy section or the candy section, they start crying to their parents.

They're like, Mom, Dad, I want this toy.

They start pounding the ground, you probably see that.

I want this candy, and you say no.

But, guess what, I thought about, uh, are we doing the same thing in our lives?

Are we crying to God, wanting to know more and more about Him each day?

Are we doing that, church?

You know, another way to add knowledge is to seek advice from others.

You know, I feel like this is, at least for, for my generation, just a lost start.

We're, we're too much in the feeling generation of what feels right.

And that's not the case here.

You know, when we, uh, uh, we actively add knowledge to our faith by going to others.

And the importance of listening to advice and being open and learning

from others, it leads to wisdom there.

You know, just to, to show you, here are a few scriptures to show just, uh,

Searching for wise individuals, how they can contribute to your wisdom, and seeking

their counsel aligns with the idea of actively adding knowledge to your faith.

You know, there is value in seeking the advice and counsels from others

to make informed and wise decisions.

By actively seeking wisdom from others, you don't add to your

faith necessarily like that, but it does complement your faith.

And in that area, it does enhance your faith.

Just as 2 Peter 1.

5 encourages us to.

Uh, add knowledge to the faith.

Engaging in knowledgeable and wise individuals, listening to their

counsel, incorporating their their insights into your understanding can

contribute to spiritual growth from a deeper connection of your faith.

But with that being said, there are also challenges though, of course, of adding

faith or adding knowledge to your faith.

And the first one being complacency.

Being complacent is the most dangerous thing ever.

You know, we, we as humans, we think that we are always right, and

that we don't really have to grow.

But that's not the case as disciples, because we made Jesus Lord of our life.

We said yes to being a disciple.

And the disciple in the heart of it, in the root of all, is a student.

And a student is a learner.

So we are always learning, church.

You know, I think of complacency of being stagnant.

I don't know if you guys ever seen a stagnant water in, at a lake or a pond.

But stagnant water, it's disgusting church.

It's nasty.

There's, there's algae on it.

The, the livestock around it is dead.

You know, dead plants, dead sea animals in there.

Or dead, uh, uh, like fish in there.

But I think about it, like how does, uh, uh, water become stagnant?

Well it becomes stagnant because it has less oxygen.

And I think about how do we become stagnant?

Like what would happen if we were to be stagnant?

Well when we're stagnant church, we also become like that pond.

There's less spiritual oxygen for us.

We start suffocating ourselves.

We start becoming, uh, that body of lake where it becomes nasty, stinky.

The livestock around it's not flourishing.

It's not doing its best.

It's not thriving.

We become that.

We become complacent, church.

That's where we are unable to bear fruit and become barren.

And the second challenge is distractions.

And we live in a fast paced society, guys.

I mean, social media has been, you know, Everything's just

been, uh, enhanced to a 10.

But, I think other distractions besides social media can be, like I said, school.

It can be work.

It can be certain relationships.

And when we, you know, when we're distracted by it, Um, you know, we

just, we lose sight of God, obviously.

And even Peter, writing this before social media, he knew

that there was distractions.

He knows that we have to make every effort.

Yet, as Paul writes in Philippians 3, What is more, I consider everything a

loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ, Jesus my Lord, for

whose sake I have lost all things.

I consider them garbage that I may gain Christ.

Even the Apostle Paul expresses the surpassing value of knowing Christ

compared to the worldly achievements.

He considers everything a loss, Church, in the excellence of knowing Jesus.

And I have to ask, Church, Do we have the same attitude of considering

everything a loss compared to the excellence of knowing Jesus?

Or do we get our value from our achievements and our accomplishments?

No, it's a conscious decision to view the pursuit of knowledge as a priceless

treasure worth more than any temporary pleasure the world has to offer.

And the key in overcoming this challenge lies in prioritizing

your relationship with God.

This involves intentionally setting aside for prayer, Maybe it's setting

time aside for, for studying the Bible and seeking Him and His people.

You know, it's great to have ambition, church.

I, I, I know, like, you know, get that promotion.

Yes, strive for those straight A's.

Yes, do all of those things.

But don't do it at the cost of having Lord be number two in your life.

Amen?

You know, the challenge of complacency and distractions are real.

I get it.

But as we prioritize our relationship with God and view the pursuit of

knowledge as incomparable to worldly distractions, we position ourselves

to experience the surpassing greatness of knowing God more deeply.

So as we add knowledge to our faith, we also get the benefits of it.

Not only for us, but for others around.

You know, I think one of the benefits, well For one, I think it's in this

Proverbs in 18, it says, Blessed are those who find wisdom, those

who gain understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and

yields better return than gold.

She is more precious than rubies.

Nothing you desire can compare with her.

Long life is in her right hand, in her left hand are riches and honor.

Her ways are pleasant ways and all her paths are peace.

She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her.

Those who hold her fast will be blessed.

You know, I, I love this, this, uh, this scripture here, because it

talks about, you know, often using wisdom, adding that to our faith.

And I think about the benefit of adding knowledge to it, for one, is

you get a deeper relationship with God.

You know, this scripture, it talks about a tree, and, you know, obviously a

tree just doesn't spawn out of nowhere.

I mean, in Minecraft it does, but not here in life.

You have to plant the seed.

And just like us, we have to plant this seed, and we have to water

it, and we have to let it grow.

And we grow in it by knowing God more deeply.

We get to think about it.

We have a deeper relationship with God, the creator of us.

That's one of the benefits.

The other benefit is we'll have a strong foundation.

I mean, if you see any big tree in the sequoias, you see

that those trunks are thick.

They have a strong foundation.

And for us, that strong foundation begins with, you know, building it on God.

I think of the wise and foolish builder.

You know, the wise builder who built his foundation on sand.

And when the rain came, the storm came, the house blew off.

But then the wise builder built it on the rock, which is God.

He built it on it, so when times of rain and different seasons

came, that was still standing tall.

And when I think about that, when we have a deep relationship with God,

when we have a strong foundation, we get to experience joy and peace.

Sorry, I keep clicking fast, guys.

I'm like really excited.

We experience joy and peace, all right?

And think about this world, everyone thinks, you know, they want joy

and peace and people think they have joy and peace in their life.

But when I ask them and see, you know, what they're doing and stuff, they're

finding it all in this, in substances, in different relationships, in their

accomplishments and achievements.

But then when they look at, you know, our lives, they're

just gonna see joy and peace.

Because no matter what, regardless if we're having a good day or a

bad day, if we're having drama or no drama in our life, we're still

gonna look at it as joy and peace.

We're gonna consider it pure joy as it was written in James.

And when we have that joy and peace in our life, we see that we become

a blessing to others around us.

You know, in Proverbs 3 and 18, I'm so sorry, guys.

This is Proverbs 3 18, you know, it talks about the, she is a tree of

life to those who take hold of her.

Uh, those who will hold fast will be blessed by her.

I think about being a blessing of others, you know, when a tree grows

and becomes bigger and healthy and strong, it has healthy branches and,

and, and leaves and bushes around it and becomes a shade for us to be in.

And I think about when we have a deep relationship with God, when we

have a strong foundation, when we experience the joy and peace, that

others will come to us like a tree.

And they will take comfort in us.

They will take shade in us from this dark world that they desperately need.

And I think that's where the blessing lies, when we really know God.

It doesn't just benefit us, but it benefits those around us as well.

And similarly, as we grow in our knowledge, our lives become testimonies

to the transformative power of faith, enriched with divine knowledge.

It's not just about personal growth.

It's about becoming vessels through which God's wisdom and

love flow into the lives of others.

Our actions, and attitudes, and responses become living expressions

of the knowledge that we've gained.

And encourage us to keep adding to the faith, church.

Let's add knowledge to our faith.

Let's be at the feet of the Lord, just like Mary.

Let's grow in our knowledge and our depth of God, so we can be a beacon of light.

To this world and be wise around others be, you know beacon of light and wisdom

around others So let's make every effort church So as we close church, I'd like

to give a few practicals today You know action steps to adding knowledge to your

faith this week I mean first we gotta let's pray through second peter chapter

one five through seven Let's pray that we continuously add knowledge to our faith.

Let's not be stagnant.

Let's not be complacent with where we're at But let's continue to pray to God

to actively work in our lives so we can keep, um, adding knowledge to our faith.

The second one is, do something to add knowledge each day of the week.

What does that look like?

Well, it meanit could mean, hey, I'm gonna set time aside to read my Bible.

I'm gonna set time aside to pray to God.

Or maybe I'm gonna set time aside to think about ways I've been stagnant in my life.

Or what are the distractions in my life?

I'm gonna take time aside to write that down and combat that this week.

So let's continue to make every effort, church, to add knowledge to our faith.

Right now we're about to take communion, and during this time

of communion, we get to reflect on Jesus dying on the cross for us.

And in Luke 22, verse 19 20, it says, And he took the bread, and gave thanks,

Luke 22:19

and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is my body given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant

in my blood, which is poured out for you.

No, it's a simple yet powerful act Jesus was teaching us and his disciples and

extension all of us, that the significance of adding knowledge to your faith,

a knowledge of sacrifice when Jesus says, this is my body, a knowledge of

remembrance and a knowledge of unity.

Let's go to God in prayer.

Uh, God, thank you so much just for, for your word, God.

I'm just so grateful for the fact that you've just given us all

the resources already, God, to live a godly life for you, God.

God, I just pray, God, that, uh, as we reflect on adding knowledge, God,

uh, throughout our week, God, I pray, God, that we can, uh, really take

time aside, God, to, to really add to our faith, knowledge, to really just

knowing you, having the posture of Mary, of just being at your feet, Lord.

God, as we, uh, take communion, as we take the, the bread that represents your body

and the, the juice that represents your blood on the cross, God, help us remember,

God, the sacrifice that you've made, God.

Help us acknowledge that in knowing, in, in doing that, making us wanting

to know you more and more, God.

God, we love you so much.

In Jesus name, amen.