Growing the Fruit of Godliness

Outline

3 actions of making every effort to add to your saving faith – godliness

1 Timothy 4:7-8 - … discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

1 Timothy 6:11 - But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.

Titus 2:11-12 - For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age…

I. Establish a Proper View of God’s Plan of Salvation

A. Consider what Paul believed

1. We began as Christ’s enemies

Philippians 3:6 - …as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.

2. Our works are not enough

Philippians 3:7 - But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss…

3. The cross is a sufficient payment

Philippians 3:8-9 - More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith…

B. Fix your eyes on the eternal

Philippians 3:10-11 - …that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

II. Pursue Christ Above All

A. Seek to know Christ

Philippians 3:8 - More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord…

John 17:3 - This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

2 Peter 1:3 - …seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

B. Value Christ’s purpose in your life

Titus 2:11-12 - For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age…

C. Allow Christ to change you

Philippians 3:15-16 - Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.

III. Be an Example to Family and Others

A. In humility, be an imitator of Paul imitating Christ

1 Corinthians 11:1 - Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.

B. Instruct your children in godliness

Ephesians 6:4 - Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

2 Timothy 2:2 - The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

C. Cultivate a heart for the lost

Philippians 3:18-19 - For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.

D. Patiently wait for the Lord

Philippians 3:20-21 - For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

Good morning, Faith Church West family. It is always a delight to share God’s word with you and it is especially a privilege on this Father’s Day.

-I would like to echo what has already been said this morning in that we are thankful for the fathers in this room, both physical fathers and spiritual fathers.

-The love, care, and protection of a father can reflect the love, care, and protection we receive from our heavenly Father and that role has a special impact on the children in the home.

-So, thank you fathers, for loving your children so well in the name of Christ.

I would like to begin our time this morning by asking you a question that is very relevant to our society.

-I imagine this is something you have thought of before and the older you are, the more you probably have thought about this topic.

What do you think is the greatest attribute an employee can possess?

-I serve as the pastor of community development here at Faith Church and because of that I spend a lot of time focusing on neighborhood revitalization and affordable housing in the Northend of Lafayette.

-In my job I get to rub shoulders with a lot of different kinds of people such as other non-profit leaders, elected officials, and quite a few business owners and bosses.

-In this economic climate, I hear a lot of people talking about how good employees are hard to come by these days. It is often said that employees today are not what they used to be not that long ago.

One of the common qualities I often hear is that employers want their employees to be hard workers. That one seems pretty obvious. If you are paying someone to do a job then you want that person to be working hard while you’re paying them.

-Another quality often referred to is passion. Business owners are looking for employees who are passionate about what they do. They don’t want someone who is just there to earn a paycheck. They want someone who loves what they do because the assumption is if they love what they do, they will do it will excellence.

-Probably the most common quality I hear is needed in employees is somewhat surprising, or maybe it’s not that surprising depending on who you ask.

-Employers want employees that will show up to work. That is pretty mind blowing but in this current climate, many employers are having a hard time finding people who will even show up for the job let alone show up for an interview.

Now, some of us in the room are bosses and some are business owners, but as Christians, all of us in the room know that good character qualities of a person, employee or not, go deeper than a person being a hard worker, passionate, or committed.

-Those are all good attributes but there are qualities of a human that are far greater. Certain attributes are all encompassing and can be seen if you were to look at the innermost parts of a person.

Turn with me if you will to 2 Peter 1. You can find 2 Peter on page 183 in the back section of the Bible under that chair in front of you.

Our church’s theme this year is Hope for Everyday Life and this summer we are doing a series called Hope for Fruitful Service.

We are isolating our attention on the 7 character qualities given in 2 Peter 1:5-7 and we plan to use an example from Scripture to illustrate each of these attributes.

We are in this text because these are qualities all Christians should be pursuing in their Christian walk.

-The qualities lacking in the workforce come and go through different economic seasons, but these attributes we find here in 2 Peter 1 are timeless and ae important for anyone seeking to live a productive Christian life.

We have already learned about knowledge and moral excellence from this text and this morning we are going to spend time looking at Growing the Fruit of Godliness.

Follow along as I read from 2 Peter 1:1-7.

As you can see in this passage, godliness is something that all Christians should be pursuing and as the text states we are to “apply all diligence” in our pursuit of it.

Now godliness can be described in a variety of ways.

It is often described as a reverence toward God or having a godward attitude.

-When someone has reverence toward God they want to give God honor, glory, and praise in every area of their life.

-They want to live in a way that is pleasing to God and in a manner that others would see the character of God by the way they live their life.

-Godliness is conscious of the fact that God is the Creator of the world and it always wants to live in a state that serves the Creator in whatever way is best.

Godliness is also described as living the way God wants someone to live, namely that they are pursuing righteousness and not unrighteousness.

-It is a quality of immense value and one that should be sought after because godliness is profitable for this life and for the life to come.

We can see this in Paul’s writing to Timothy where he writes…

1 Timothy 4:7–8 - … discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

And later in 1 Timothy, Paul writes…

1 Timothy 6:11 - But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.

Paul is a fascinating subject when it comes to the topic of godliness because he writes about it often, he is one of the most godly men in the pages of Scripture, and yet we see times in his life where he displays everything that is opposite to godliness.

And that is why this morning, we are going to take a look at the life of Paul as we study the topic of godliness.

Go ahead and turn with me in your Bibles to Philippians 3. Philippians 3 is on page 155 of the back section of the Bible under the chair in front of you.

-Now if you are not familiar with Paul, he is an apostle of Jesus Christ and he became an apostle after Jesus had died, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven.

-We know a lot about Paul from Scripture because he wrote much of the New Testament and we also know a lot about Paul because he is one of the main characters of the book of Acts.

-Paul was a very godly man, but he wasn’t always a godly man.

-In fact, before Paul became a believer, his job was to persecute the church of Jesus Christ and many were martyred and suffered under Paul’s hand.

Paul is someone who was made new because of the power of Jesus Christ in his life and that is what we will see in Philippians 3 today.

Follow along as I read in Philippians 3.

In our time remaining this morning, we are going to look at 3 Actions of Making Every Effort to Add to your Saving Faith – Godliness

The first action we can take toward godliness from our text is to…

I. Establish a proper view of God’s plan of salvation

A. Consider what Paul believed

-Paul did not originally believe the Gospel and in fact he says himself that he was an enemy of Christ and that is what we must all come to understand.

1. We began as Christ’s enemies

Paul says…

Philippians 3:6 - as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.

For someone to be godly, they must first understand that they are not godly.

-We all by nature are people that pursue our own pleasures and whatever we believe will serve us best.

-Godliness is a reverence toward God and we are naturally ungodly in that we are reverent toward ourselves.

-Instead of believing that God is the center of the universe, we view ourselves as the center of all existence.

-That creation was made to worship me, not worship God.

We might not have persecuted the church in the same way that Paul did, but we have all most definitely been opposed to Christ’s kingdom because it’s in the way of our kingdom.

-Paul came to realize this and so should we.

And when Paul realized this, he knew that his works could not make him godly because…

2. Our works are not enough

Paul had quite the resume going for him.

-He was a Hebrew of Hebrews, he obeyed the law, and he had reached one of the highest religious statuses of that time, he was a pharisee.

If anyone had a right to claim godliness because of their works, it was Paul and yet he says in this text…

Philippians 3:7 - But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss…

And for us to pursue godliness, we must do the same.

-Our works are not good enough to earn our way into the kingdom of heaven.

-In fact, the only thing our works do for us is they dig the hole deeper.

-We have all sinned against a holy and righteous God and deserve eternal punishment because of our sin.

Our works are not good enough to satisfy the justice of God and the price is too high for any person to pay on their own which is why Paul rejoices in Christ.

Because…

3. The cross is a sufficient payment

For our sin.

Philippians 3:8–9 - More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,

You see, Paul was able to pursue godliness in this life because he had been made right with God through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

-Before Paul was a Christian, he was seen as unrighteous in the eyes of God.

-The only righteousness he had was his own which was not good enough to meet God’s holy standard.

-But God in Christ Jesus, gave Paul His righteousness so that Paul could be redeemed.

-It was once Paul had been saved by the grace of God that he then could pursue godliness with all diligence.

So, if you are here today and you come to the understanding that you need a Savior, we would encourage you to repent of your sin and place your faith in Christ today.

-Pursuing godliness is a large part of the Christian life but you cannot grow in godliness if you have not yet placed your faith in the Lord Jesus.

When you place your faith in Christ, God will then declare you righteous in His eyes and you will be set on the trajectory of godliness.

That brings up an important distinction we should make this morning and that is the difference between positional righteousness and practical righteousness.

Someone becomes positionally righteous once they place their faith in Christ.

-At that moment in time they are forever declared a saint and they are forgiven of their sins.

-This all has to do with their position before God.

Practical righteousness is related to positional righteous in that the practical follows the positional.

-When someone becomes a believer, they are instantly righteous in the eyes of God but that does not mean they are practically righteous.

-Practical righteousness refers to how a person acts and behaves.

When people become Christians, they still struggle with sin.

If someone is a lazy, complaining, and discontent person before they become a Christian, when they first become a believer they will probably be a lazy, complaining, discontent Christian but that’s not how they are supposed to stay right?

-No, their life should continue to conform into a more godly form all the time.

Have you ever heard someone press the keys on a piano that was out of tune?

-It’s not a very pleasant sound.

-Even Beethoven’s 5^th symphony sounds like a train wreck on a piano that is out of tune.

Some have said before that growing in godliness is similar to the tuning of a complex instrument like a piano.

-Throughout our lives, various aspects are changed to look more and more like Christ.

-If we seek to grow in godliness, parts of us begin to change to resemble the image of Christ more than we did before.

So, the lazy, complaining, and discontent Christiaan will grow to be more content.

-Instead of manifesting laziness they will begin to display productivity.

-Their complaining spirit will start to look more and more like a thankful spirit.

And finally, having a proper view of God’s plan of salvation means you will…

B. Fix your eyes on the eternal

Paul says…

Philippians 3:10–11 - …that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Another action associated with growing in godliness is that we are to…

II. Pursue Christ above all

And that means we must…

Seek to know Christ

Paul writes…

Philippians 3:8 - More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord…

Paul sought to know Jesus Christ more and more. He valued the relationship he had with the Lord Jesus more than anything.

Nothing compares to the surpassing worth or value of know Jesus in the eyes of the apostle Paul and that’s how it should be for us as well.

Brothers and sisters, when you go to the word, do you do it to know Jesus Christ?

When you pray, do you do it so that you may grow closer to Christ.

True religion comes from the heart and is set on knowing the person of Jesus.

One of the dangers in discussing spiritual disciplines like reading the word and prayer with the topic of godliness is that we would begin to measure godliness by the time you spend reading and praying.

Now don’t hear me wrong, godly people read the word and godly people pray, but we must never measure the godliness of another by the amount of time they spend in these disciplines.

-Otherwise the godliest people would be people you never see!

-They would be people that lock the doors of their houses and spend every waking moment studying or praying.

To measure someone’s godliness by how much they do certain things would be a form of legalism!

Godliness is shown by how much someone knows Christ.

This is similar to what Jesus says in the gospel of John.

John 17:3 - This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

All Christians know Christ, but throughout our lives we grow to know Him more and more.

You cannot divorce the concept of knowing Christ and growing in godliness because Christ is the definition of godliness and he is the provider of godliness!

2 Peter 1:3 - …seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

Any spiritual growth we have now or will have in the future comes through the Son of God.

And that is why you should also,

Value Christ’s Purpose in your life

Paul writes elsewhere that…

Titus 2:11–12 - For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,

Christ appeared to make men and women godly and as a believer you must…

C. Allow Christ to change you

Paul writes…

Philippians 3:15–16 - Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.

What is Paul talking about here when he refers to the perfect?

Again, this is referring to the difference between positional righteousness and practical righteousness.

This is an encouraging verse when you understand it because God will do whatever is necessary to show you where you need to grow in godliness.

-There are many ways He does this.

-Sometimes it is through His word. You are reading the word and you come to see an area of your life that needs to change.

-It can be through other believers. Someone might correct you for sin they see in your life and that gives you an opportunity to change.

-Often times it comes through trial. Trials show us what we worship and they are opportunities to grow in our faith.

God has given you the blessing of His Son, He’s given you His word, and He’s given you a family of believers.

He has done His part in your Christian growth, now by His grace, what does it look like for you to be growing in the fruit of godliness?

-If you are not sure where you need to grow next, I would encourage you to reach out to one of your brothers or sisters for help in this area.

-It doesn’t have to be a pastor, although it is always a joy to help you in your walk. There are many people in this room that can help you understand what it looks like to grow in Christ and what getting there might look like.

Our final point for this morning is that in your godliness, you should…

III. Be an Example to family and others

This is especially appropriate for this Father’s Day.

In humility, be an imitator of Paul imitating Christ

1 Corinthians 11:1 - Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.

At this time, we cannot physically see the Lord Jesus therefore we cannot imitate him by observation.

But Christ can be seen through godly people who live their lives for Him.

Just like how others followed Paul, we can follow others we see and others will follow us.

If you are a father here today I would encourage you to view yourself as a window to Christ.

When your children look at you, they should see Christ through you.

-It is almost as if you are transparent and when they see you they can’t help but look through you are see Christ on the other side.

-When they see your actions, they see Christ’s actions; when they hear your words, they hear words that honor Christ; and when they understand your desires, they know that those are desires that honor God.

And this isn’t just for fathers in the physical sense. This is for anyone who wants to have a spiritual influence on someone else.

Not only are fathers to be imitated, but you should also…

Instruct your children in godliness

Ephesians 6:4 - Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

The word of God is the foundation of godly living.

-Just like how a foundation of a house is essential for the proper building of the rest of the house, so a foundation of truth is essential for the building of godly character.

Remember, it’s not that the one who memorizes the most verses wins, but it’s the one who applies the word of God to his or her life is the one that grows in godliness.

-In community development, we often clean and remodel houses so that they can be a home for a family in need that community.

-To say that some of the houses we deal with need to be cleaned before we can perform any construction is an understatement.

-Going to Meijer and purchasing every single bottle of cleaning solution will not help that house if we have no idea how to apply it.

-Often times just a few bottles of the right cleaning solution can fix the problem at hand.

-We don’t need a 55 gallon drum of Dawn Dish detergent.

-What we need is the right solution properly applied.

That is similar how it is with the word of God.

-We often don’t need to rehearse or memorize 50 different truths at once

-Rather, 1 or 2 truths properly applied will produce a godly result in a person trying to grow.

2 Timothy 2:2 - The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also”

Godliness should also seek to…

Cultivate a heart for the lost

Philippians 3:18–19 - For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.

Because godliness is focused on living a godward life, it seeks to grow God’s kingdom.

One of the dangers that has always been a temptation for Christians is to believe that God primarily uses giftedness to further His kingdom.

-This is something I have heard often. If God would only save “so and so”, that person would do great things for His kingdom.

-For example, this man has a great gift of teaching, if that guys were to be saved so many other people would come to know Jesus.

-Or this person is so outgoing. If she became a Christian, she would be evangelizing all the time.

-This person has an immense capacity to organize and administrate. The church would look radically different if it had someone with his skills.

I would encourage you not to think that way. God uses giftedness, in fact He has given us all specific spiritual gifts, but God primarily uses godliness to grow His kingdom.

Our greatest example is Paul.

Paul had it all. He was at the top of the spiritual totem pole. He had gifting and yet it is clear that God used Paul not because he was a gifted individual, but because He was a godly man.

That is one reason why I am thankful for the body that the Lord has given us here at Faith Church West.

God has given us gifted people, but more than that He has given us godly people.

-People that view their time, talents, and treasures not as their own but as something that belongs to the Lord.

-During the 9:30 service, I lead the youth group in the PBF room in the corner of the building and that is where the extra chairs are stacked.

-It is always a joyful sight to see someone come into that room with a chair cart right before the 9:30 service starts because that means more people have come to worship the Lord on the Lord’s day.

And lastly, godliness means we will…

Patiently wait for the Lord

Philippians 3:20–21 - For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

Just like Paul, we should have the Hope of heaven knowing that the practical will become just like the positional.

-Our godliness will be perfect and we will dwell with God.

So, on this Father’s Day, I hope you are considering the importance of godliness.

That you would be doing everything to pursue it and that you’d be helping those around you do the same.