Becoming More in '24 - Goodness (North OC)

, Marcel: we're going to continue a sermon series that we

started last week, Become More.

There you go.

I like that for sure.

All right.

And so it's called Become More in 24.

That's the slogan of the year.

So you can hashtag that because we want to become more.

We want to be transformed.

We want to grow.

We want to be the spiritual, mature men and women of Christ

that God has designed for us.

And so we're studying now 2 Peter chapter 1 and some would call this the ladder of

2 Peter 1 · chapter mention

transformation or the ladder of growth.

We're going to be studying out the attributes listed in

2 Peter 1 verses 5 through 7.

2 Peter 1:5–7

And so there actually is a.

series, uh, handout and guide.

I know they gave out some hard copies last week, but on our church app, if you just

go to the inbox, uh, you'll see a series, a guide there that can help you understand

a little bit more of the context for this letter written by the apostle Peter, who

was one of Jesus's top friends, top, uh, protegees, and was one of the main leaders

in the church in the first century.

And so one of the things to recap, we know we have some

people here that weren't with us.

In fact, I heard that we have some brothers and sisters from Taiwan and

Canada that are in here in the house.

Okay, is that y'all over here?

Can you go ahead and stand on up?

Let's go.

And we have Vancouver as well.

Come on.

If you didn't know, we are an international fellowship.

So we have churches and brothers and sisters all across the globe.

Welcome.

I wish I knew.

Uh, how to say hello in those particular languages, but hello, uh, so there you go.

All right.

There you go.

All right.

So we learned last week here is that, that God desires for you and me to not

only be converted in Christ, but to become more like Christ so that in our

nature and our character, our desires, the way we think to be more aligned.

With God our creator and God has given us everything we need But

Peter tells us we need to make every effort To add to our faith.

And so although God has provided all he has given us the tools or resources

Everything but now we have to actually utilize those things so that our

faith Our lives can be transformed and we can become more like God.

And so we talked about this and we'll share this real quickly again, is that at

the intersection of God's empowerment and human effort, transformation takes place.

But if you remove either of these, it's like lemonade.

If you remove the lemon or the water, you're not going to get lemonade.

And so when we remove one of these, we won't see the transformation take place.

But when we have those and they intersect, we begin and we continue on

this transformation journey and process.

And so today, we're going to be looking at goodness.

Let's go ahead and let's pray.

Father, thank you so much for the chance already to worship you.

I know, uh, just holding back from, from singing from my voice, just

hearing the voices was so encouraging.

To me, and it made me just think, wow, God, how pleased you are when you hear

your children singing out to you and God, I pray right now for my voice to make it

through, but I pray God that your word is communicated by the every soul will

be, uh, inclined and inspired to, to make every effort to add to our faith.

We pray in Jesus name.

Amen.

Amen.

All right.

So let's go ahead.

Let's go to second Peter chapter one.

Uh, again, you can look at the series handout to get more of an overview

of the context of the letter, but he says here in verse three, 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 very great and precious promises.

So that through them, check it out again, this, this helps us understand everything.

You may participate in the divine nature.

Again, becoming more like God.

Having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

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

We'll stop right there.

One thing I want to mention as we talk about this adding to our faith,

it's not necessarily like stages.

Like first I got to get to the goodness stage and once I complete

that stage then I can move on forward to the knowledge stage.

It's more like ingredients.

If you're baking something, or you're making something,

you put the ingredients in.

So you need all those ingredients in order for the transformation to take place.

So it's not, Oh, let me focus on this area, and once I get to that area or

arrive, then I can go on to another.

No, we're all these, we can actually make every effort in our lives here.

But we want to go ahead and look at this word, goodness.

And now the Bible, this letter was written originally in Greek.

And so this word in Greek is Arate.

There you go.

So that's my international language for the day.

And this word really means moral excellence or moral goodness or virtue.

So it's not goodness as in, uh, being really good or talented at something.

It's not saying add talent to your faith.

It's saying add goodness, moral excellence, moral goodness, moral

purity, virtue to our faith.

And here's what's really cool is that this same Greek word that's used in

verse 5 is the same word in verse 3.

When he says, by his own glory and goodness.

Did you catch that?

He has this goodness.

That's who he is.

So now we're being called to add to our faith what he is so that what?

We will eventually become more like him.

This is just so cool.

It's like, God, we've already got a picture and a glimpse of this.

And so you need to add what he's liking to your life.

And so I started asking the question, okay, well, what

does goodness look like then?

What does this arete look like?

Well, it means to do what's good.

To do what's right morally.

Being moral and righteous in our conduct, in our interactions,

and in our dealings with others.

A good or righteous life in response to God's mercy in our lives and

therefore also doing good to others.

You guys get what I'm saying.

So my conduct is good because of the grace and mercy of God.

And because of that grace and mercy in God, because of the character

of God, I also want to do good to those I come in contact with.

So living a morally excellent life.

Now think about this for a second.

Does anyone come into mind in all of history who lived an exemplary

exemplary life of moral excellence?

Jesus, right?

Of course it's Jesus.

Again, this is so cool because if you think about this, again, Jesus

models and exemplifies what this is.

He's the epitome of this.

So when we think, well, what does goodness look like?

All we need to think about and look to is.

Jesus.

His lifestyle, his character, his ambition.

And, you know, Peter saw the goodness of Jesus.

Again, he was one of his top followers, one of his top protégés, one of the

leaders in the first century church.

And so he saw this up close and personal.

And now he challenges us and encourages and directs us, hey,

become more like our Lord and Savior.

And it's really cool in 2 Peter if we go down in the letter He says this for we

did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our

Lord Jesus Christ in power But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty He says we

were eyewitnesses and he talks about it later on the transfiguration that Jesus

has to talk about the splendor and the awe and the Miracles, but he also saw his

majesty in his life and in his character and in his teachings And so it makes

me think, okay, all right, we know what it means to add to goodness, but how

then can we add goodness to our faith?

And so here are a couple ways, and really how we add goodness is

going to be how we add any of the things that are listed in 2 Peter.

So they're really applicable to everything that we'll study out.

But how do we add goodness to our faith and to our lives?

Well, number one.

We're going to always accomplish growth by praying to God, praying for these

things, but we're not talking about just a simple, quick, Hey God, can you help

me be good today, prayer, and that's it.

Many years ago, my friend and former mentor, uh, Reese Nealon,

we were, uh, having, uh, what we call a discipling time together.

It's short in our church.

We call it a D time.

And praise God for discipleship partners and, and discipleship times.

I, I, I just would not be here if it wasn't for God using people

and those times in my life.

You know what I'm saying?

And so we're sitting there, Reese, and, and, and he gave me this challenge.

He said, hey, why don't you go find out, uh, from your friends.

Uh, like ask him, what are like three of your strengths and one weakness?

So I went to all my close friends at the time and I asked and they gave me some

feedback and almost to a tee, everybody said, well, the weakness, uh, is pride.

I was like, man, these guys are so wrong.

No, I didn't, but I'm sure in my heart I did, you know?

And so I said, okay, you know, so I, so I came back and said, Reese, here you go.

He goes, Hey, well, you know what?

If you really want to grow after this, if you want to go after this and you

want to see this change your life, you're going to have to focus in on this.

It has to be something you really, truly focus in on.

And when you pray about it, it can't just be a simple prayer.

Hey, God, just help me with this.

It's gonna be more.

And so then I started to pray more about it and I learned,

I was like, it's so true.

This praying about it isn't just, hey, real quickly, before I eat.

Hey, God, also, hey, can you just help me be good today?

No, it, it, desire, there had to be a desire, a commitment.

And an earnest plea to God, God, help me to become this, not just

to want this, but to become this, not to just deny myself, but to be

this, you guys get what I'm saying.

And so for a long time, and I'll share about it in a minute,

I started to pray about this.

And you know what I realized, too, as well, is that when we pray about things,

God helps our desire for those things.

What I mean is this.

Look at this verse that many of us are familiar with.

Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Now, I think you can read this, and it's okay to interpret this and

go, Okay, hey, I delight in God.

He's going to give me what I want.

Now, we know that's a general truth, not an absolute truth, because some things I

want, guys, like that's not good for you.

But I think it's also, you can still, and I think it's safe, to interpret

this as, you know what, he's not just going to give me the things that I want,

no, he's going to give me new desires.

You guys get what I'm saying?

It's that now God's going to give you the desires of your hearts.

I used to desire this, but now that I take delight in God,

He's given me desires from Him.

And I have to pray about these things.

In order for this transformation process to continue church.

Are you getting what I'm saying here second not only prayer We have to develop

a conviction This is where it becomes the desire, but the standard for our lives.

I have a conviction, as you can see.

Uh, I need to get some water, but I have a strong conviction about USC.

Some will say, Marcel, you know what, on the, uh, the rankings,

it's like number 25 or 26.

Somehow, some way, some UCLA paid people off and they surpassed

USC in the last couple years.

But we'll get that fixed.

I have a strong conviction.

I say, you know what, it might say 26.

But in my heart, it's number one, and then Cal State Fullerton and

Chapman, you guys get what I'm saying.

But it's number one, I have a conviction.

You can't tell me a thing about this.

I'm convinced of this.

And so if we want to add to something, we need to pray about it.

But it must become our conviction for our lives.

Something that's unshakable.

It's the standard now by which we live.

And the way we can do this is through scripture.

Scripture plays a huge role in developing a conviction about something.

If I tell you, do you have a conviction about sharing your faith?

You will probably say, yes, because of this verse right here.

Do you have a conviction about how you should live?

Yes, and I think of this verse right here.

So if we're going to add to our faith any of these attributes, especially

goodness, we need to have a conviction that is inspired from Scripture.

Going back to this time with Reese.

And he said, hey, you know, you're going to have to really go after it.

So I made this decision.

I can't remember if he encouraged me or not, but I made a decision.

I'm going to study out humility and pride throughout the whole Bible.

I thought, okay, this would be quick.

I ended up going on a three year journey studying out from Genesis

to Revelation every instance I could find pride or humility.

And this developed a rock solid conviction to be humble.

I wish I could say I'm like Moses, the most humble man on the earth.

I'm not.

But when challenged and confronted, I can quickly go, you know what?

I see that now because there's a conviction about being this, and so

I'm quicker to respond when pride is.

Exposed in my life.

You guys get what I'm saying?

And so we have to develop a conviction if we're going to add.

And then thirdly, we have to have intentional decisions and actions.

I'm going to be good to this person at work tomorrow.

I'm going to be honest to my mom or my dad.

I'm going to be respectful to my classmates.

I'm going to do.

I might not want to do it, but I'm going to do it.

You guys get what I'm saying?

Because if we just pray, God, help me and I got a scripture, but then

I don't have anything intentional, then the growth isn't going to

take place the way it could.

So we have to be very intentional in our decisions and in our actions.

Asking ourselves, the famous WWJD, what would Jesus Another good question

that God has helped me to see.

Is to ask, is this holy?

Not is this a sin, but is this holy?

Because then God starts to reveal the heart and the essence of what

it is that I'm thinking about.

And what it is that I truly desire.

Is it to be right, please and honor God and be like God?

Or is it to have whatever it is that I'm thinking of?

And so we need to then put it into practice.

I ask these questions that God starts to reveal or I get input.

And then I make sure to follow.

So let's really, let's quickly talk about what subtracts goodness from our faith.

We know how, some ways how, but what are some things that are challenging?

Maybe our natural tendency and takes away from goodness in our faith.

Well, number one is the flesh or what some scholars translate as

the flesh being our sinful nature.

You know, many times we, we, we are attracted and desire what's not good.

Right?

I know I'm attracted to things that maybe aren't good for my soul or

they're not in the right context or they're outside of my boundaries.

And so therefore, they're not good for me at that moment.

And many times in our flesh and in our sinful nature, we

desire really what's evil.

And the problem is then we give in so easily or too quickly to our impulses,

our feelings and emotions and our desires.

And we make poor choices and then that stunts our growth.

And then we don't become good.

The other thing that I want to hit on and talk a good amount

about is some stinking thinking.

Also from my friend Reece Nealon right there.

Some stinking thinking.

And what, what do I mean by this is that really, the world's philosophy,

the world's rules and ideas and, and, and, and, and worldview influence us

more than God's Word and God's Spirit.

And we start to adopt, whether consciously or subconsciously, the, Society's views

about life and that takes away from the goodness that we desire and that God has

implanted in our hearts and in our faith.

And so some of the rationale and thinking that's become pretty popular of late.

Things like, you know, it's a couple of years old now, but

YOLO, you only live once, right?

So I better, it's YOLO, right?

That was a big thing.

Drake, right?

YOLO.

You know what I'm saying?

Some of you are like, who is he talking about?

Just ask your kids.

All right.

Another one, do you, or I'm going to just do me this thinking.

Just do you do me another one.

Live your best life.

Well, I'm just trying to live my best life.

There's another phrase.

That's who I am.

Well, that's just who I am.

And last but not least here.

Well, that's my truth.

You know, in a very limited, very limited way, these things can be right, accurate

and helpful in a very limited way.

But overall, this is the antithesis of Jesus and being good.

Because all of these things are about me, I, and what I feel, and what I think.

Not the Bible, not God, not goodness.

And here's the problem, if we're gonna be honest.

I don't want to be a politician, I want to be a prophet.

Amen?

Some of this thinking has influenced several of us here in the congregation.

It's infiltrated the church and we don't go out and consciously say, yeah, I'm

just all about that YOLO life or I'm just going to do me, forget Christ.

We don't say that consciously, but subconsciously, that's

the way we're living.

And we make decisions based on this thinking.

And so being good and being holy, it's not appealing, nor is it honored.

So we say, you know what, I'm a talk and cuss.

The way I want to.

Speak however I want to.

I'm going to dress however I want to and feel.

I'm going to hold a grudge and I'm going to get even.

I'm going to seek to get from this relationship as opposed to seeking

to give in this relationship because that's what I think and feel.

Again, it might not be consciously.

We might not say that out loud, but in our hearts, that's what's going on.

Brethren and sisters, this is ungodly.

This subtracts, it removes the goodness of Christ in our lives.

It is the opposite of goodness.

Therefore, it is the opposite of Jesus.

And what happens again when we have this mentality, when challenged or

confronted about this, we get upset.

We get offended.

We get defensive.

How dare you?

Who are you?

And we push away and we cancel these people in our lives with

humanistic arguments and logic.

Not with scripture.

You don't know what you're talking about.

That's just your opinion.

What, what, what?

Oh, this is what I feel.

This is what I think.

This is my truth.

Jesus didn't talk about truth being subjective.

He says He is the truth.

He is the life and He is the way.

And so brothers and sisters, if we're going to add to our faith goodness,

then we need to recognize what's taking away the goodness from our life.

And once we acknowledge it, and just accept, you know what, this has been me,

or it has been me in some degree, or I had this subconsciously, this thinking,

acknowledge it, because if you acknowledge it, then you can repent from it.

So we have to acknowledge it.

And say, you know what, yes.

But deep down, I want to be godly.

Because of the mercy and the grace that God has lavished on my life.

And so therefore, I'm going to address it.

And I'm going to get help from my brothers and sisters.

Because I have blind spots, or I don't know how, or I can't see it.

So that they can help me, so that I can become godly and

participate in the divine nature.

Church, are you with me here?

And I believe every single one of us, deep down, all of us want to be good.

We want to be like Jesus, but we must recognize what's

preventing us and address it.

So made me think, okay, well, what are some of the benefits of

adding goodness to our life here?

And so some of the benefits, these are just some that, that, that came to mind

for me is that when we add goodness, it helps us to actually be truly human.

You know, in our family group last week, uh, again, it was mentioned

where our family groups and so these are geographic, uh, uh, groups that we

get together, call them family groups because we want to be a spiritual family.

And in our family group, Charles Lennox, uh, we were talking, he said, you know

what, uh, Jesus, man, he was truly human.

I guess he's God in the flesh, but he was truly human.

He's a definition of what it means to be human.

And when we become like Jesus, we therefore start to really

live out our true intention by God, by truly being human.

I thought, man, that's really good.

That's a good Thought and insight right there because Jesus was truly human.

So when we become like him we become more of what God Intended so adding

goodness will lead us to experience more and more of God our Creators

design another benefit real quickly here is assurance of God's pleasure.

We know when we do what's right We know God is pleased with that.

We also know that we feel good about ourselves What happened

when you do something, you know was good You feel good, right?

You're like, yeah, you know, let me get myself a pat on the back.

Now, if you go and broadcast it, then, then you lose your reward.

But, you know, we feel good about that.

And I don't think that's bad.

I think that's a good thing because we're acknowledging, wow, something.

I think this is what God designs.

We know it feels good.

And therefore we rejoice because that's what God wanted us to live.

And that's how he wanted us to be.

And we also see our relationships improve.

Well, we're good to others.

The relationships.

And one more thing here is that we're treated, therefore, with goodness.

People treat you with goodness when you treat them with goodness.

Even people with no faith in Christ, they can respond to this.

Now again, this is a general truth, not an absolute truth that everybody you

come in contact with will be good to you.

But we know that in general, when we live a Christ life, it will

reciprocate in how we are treated.

And so I look at this and I go, why would I not want to add goodness?

Which one of these things doesn't sound appealing?

I want every single one of these in my life.

And I want others to have this as well.

And so what's our response to what we're seeing here in the scriptures?

I believe our response is this week as it was last week, as it probably really

will be every week as we study this out.

And that's to make every effort.

You know, Ramon Diaz was on here, on stage there.

That's so cool, right?

The whole family up here, right?

Or at least part of the family, uh, uh, uh, being recognized.

But we're in our family group on Wednesday, and Ramon, uh,

he used to be a wrestler.

And, uh, we're talking like legit wrestling.

We're not like Hulk Hogan wrestling, you know what I'm saying?

We're talking, all the wrestlers are like, Yeah, that's that

real wrestler right there.

And so he was big time.

He was like going all across the world and he actually even got invited

recently to do something international.

And so he was a real big time wrestler.

And he says, you know, this idea of making every effort.

I realized, man, when I was wrestling, I made every effort.

I would watch what I, what I was eating, my sleep schedule,

my, my workout schedule.

He goes, man, I was dedicated.

I was committed.

I made every effort.

And so what would that look like spiritually then?

And so we have to make every effort, not little efforts.

Not half stepping, but we need to make a full effort in adding to our phase.

And so let's get real practical here for the week here action steps this

week number one similar last week Let's pray for the church Let's pray for all

of us to grow in the things listed in second Peter 1 every day this week God

help us as a church to grow in goodness and knowledge self control all these

different things God Lead us to this help us not to just choose this help it to

us to become Let's pray for one another.

And then number two, real simply, do something good each day this week.

I'm just going to do something good today.

Picking maybe something real simple.

You know what?

Maybe it's, I'm going to take out the trash.

I know my wife's been hitting me over the head.

I need to take out your, I'm going to take out the trash today.

If that's what it is, then please do good.

Cause that'll help your marriage out.

You get what I'm saying?

But just pick something, something simple, whatever it is.

Is this the fix all?

No, but this will start to take root.

In your habit and in your character and we can see the benefit of it.

And as we pray more about it and we make intentional decisions, we'll see

us become more and more like Jesus.

Right now we're going to take communion and Jesus is the example

of goodness and his goodness is seen.

Through the cross in Luke 23 as Luke a doctor.

He's documenting what what happened to Jesus life and he's recounting

the Jesus dying upon a cross.

He says something interesting.

He says Jesus called out with the loud voice father into your hands I

commit my spirit when he has said this he breathed his last the centurion

seeing what had happened praised God and said Surely this was a righteous.

Let's pray Father, we thank you so much for Jesus.

We thank you for his example.

God, every time we think of any attribute in the scriptures, Father,

we know that Jesus modeled it.

And we're so grateful that Jesus, even on the cross, his

righteousness was displayed.

His goodness was seen.

And we thank you that he was good because therefore he could be the

sacrificial lamb for our salvation.

Thank you that we have an example of what it means to be human.

What it means to be good.

I ought to take.

And God, we pray that as we reflect upon Jesus life, death, and resurrection.

As we take the emblems that represent his body and his blood that was sacrificed.

Father, may we be inspired to give you our very, Father, may we make every

effort to add to our faith so that we can participate in your divine nature.

We thank you for Jesus perseverance on the cross and for our salvation that comes

through the cross and his resurrection.

In Jesus name, Amen.