Building a Forever Faith

You have obtained light, precious faith. You have received faith. That's a gift. But sanctification, ah, that's teamwork. That's teamwork. You just don't sit back and watch it happen. You are involved in the process. Spiritual growth is never accidental.

It is always intentional. Spiritual growth is not optional. God intends you to grow after you're born again. Today we continue our countdown of Skip's top 40 messages on the Connect with Skip Heitzig YouTube channel. In the number 23 spot is Skip's message, Building a Forever Faith, where he shares several important principles to help you build a mature faith that lasts. But first, we want to invite you to be a part of an unforgettable journey to Israel.

Here's the invitation from Skip. You're in for an incredible time as we travel throughout Israel and experience the culture that's so unique to that country. Now, I've been to Israel a number of times over the years, and I can honestly say that visiting the places where the events of the scriptures unfolded, where Jesus lived, taught and healed, it just never gets old. I hope you'll join Lenny and me on what is always an unforgettable trip. I can't wait to see you in Israel. This dream can come true for you. Start planning and saving now to tour Israel with Skip Heitzig. Information at inspirationcruises.com slash C-A-B-Q.

That's inspirationcruises.com slash C-A-B-Q. Now, we're in 2 Peter chapter 1 as we dive into our study with Skip Heitzig. My dad was a builder. I used to watch him go to empty lots and tell me what is going to go there, and I couldn't see it. He could see it.

He had the vision for it. And even when he would build a cement foundation and I would stand upon it and he would say, now this room will be there and this office will be there, and even standing on such a solid foundation, I still didn't see what he saw. But I thought about him some years later when I was at a very interesting architectural place in Italy called the Leaning Tower of Pisa. And I saw that thing leaning, and I thought, my dad never would have built that structure.

It wouldn't look like that. And I remember looking at that interesting piece of architecture, and the reason, by the way, it is so famous isn't because its height. It's only 179 feet tall. It is not because of its Romanesque architecture, though it's a great piece of that and it's a great study in that. That's not why it's famous. It is famous for one reason, because it leans.

That's it. It leans. Now, you know it's going to fall. The experts tell us that it should have fallen in 2007, but it didn't, and I'll tell you why before the study is over. But they say it's going to fall because it started leaning from almost the time it was constructed in 1173, I believe. And it falls at the rate of 1 20th of an inch every single year.

It is presently 17 feet out of plum. I have a question for you. Do you want your life to resemble some freaky tourist attraction that's leaning, or something solid and helpful and permanent? Those are the thoughts that are in Peter's mind as he pens 2 Peter. It's all about growth. It's all about the audience taking what he teaches and developing from that. Now, 2 Peter is a little bit different than 1 Peter. In 1 Peter, he was concerned about the dangers from the outside, like persecution and oppression. But in 2 Peter, he's more concerned about dangers from the inside in terms of deception, false teaching. But at the very core, at the very core of this whole beginning introduction chapter, this section, it's all about spiritual growth.

Let's look at it together. 2 Peter 1, beginning in verse 1. Simon Peter, a bondservant and a apostle of Jesus Christ to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that through these, you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. But also, for this very reason, giving all diligence add to your faith, virtue, and to virtue, knowledge, and to knowledge, self-control, and to self-control, perseverance, to perseverance, godliness, to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is short-sighted even to blindness and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble.

For so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Are you growing up or are you just growing old? It's a good question to ask yourself from time to time. We're all growing older. But are you growing up and growing strong or are you just growing old? Because we all know that growth is a normal part of life. Whenever there's birth, there is growth.

And that's what we expect. When we have children, we are willing to put up with the noise and with the messes and all that happens in babyhood because we are aiming for that child maturing into a responsible adult. And we mark that growth and we get excited when there's a birthday. The favorite door of my old house was our pantry door where we would mark every year how high Nate was getting and what that date was.

And we'd write right on the door just to keep a marker of that kind of progress. Well, with the Christian life, it begins with birth. You must be born again, Jesus said. But it continues with growth, with development, with a blossoming, with maturity. And we want to talk about that and look at that in this section that we just read. Now before we begin, and I'm going to give you four prerequisites to building a forever faith.

I'll talk about that in a moment. Let me begin by giving you two overarching principles about growth that you need to know. Two principles that are general overarching principles about spiritual growth. Number one, your spiritual growth has nothing to do with your physical age. You can be an older person, but a spiritual infant, Charles Spurgeon, said there are children in the church of God who are 70 years old.

But he also said, on the other hand, there are wise and instructed and stable folk who are relatively young. So physical age and spiritual maturity aren't necessarily equal. That's the first principle. Second principle, you can grow spiritually as much as you want to grow.

You can grow as much as you want to grow. And that brings us to the central theme of what Peter is getting at. The secret is using what God has provided.

Once you have the faith that he gives you, you obtain like precious faith, verse one and two, then you must grow in that faith, verse three through 11. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to look at our life, your life, the Christian life as building a structure, building a forever faith. And there are four prerequisites that you need to build it. Number one, you got to get the right investor.

You got to find somebody who's going to bankroll this project. And we have God as the investor. It all begins with God. He gives the gift of salvation, but he also has two things that are important. He has power and he has promises.

He has power and he has promises. Look at verse three, here's the power. As his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue. Have you ever thought what divine power can do? Let's see, divine power can create the universe, divine power can sustain all the natural forces of our natural world, divine power can heal the sick, divine power can raise the dead. Jesus said all power in heaven and earth is given to me. All power.

So here's the deal, you can grow as much as you want because you have access to God's power. Can you imagine having a battery that never goes out? This summer I decided I'd start my motorcycle, I think for the first time in months, it had been sitting in the garage for the winter and I went to start it and it did this.

I had forgotten to keep that trickle charger that I should have kept for the winter applied to the bike. But imagine having a power source that never runs out. God has invested his power in your spiritual growth. That's why Paul the apostle said this and you know it, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. The word strengthen means puts his power into me. So you got to find the right investor and he has to have the power and our investor does.

What God expects you to attempt, he also enables you to achieve by his power. There's a second qualification as being the right investor, promises. Our investor has made some promises.

Verse four, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. If you're building a project and you have an investor, he's going to write the checks. Now checks are just promises, that's all they are. You really can't do anything with a check until you go to the bank and cash it.

A check has the person's name on it, he fills in the amount but it will do you no good until you cash the check. So the money in the bank, that's the power. The check that is written, those are the promises.

Our God has the power and he also has the promises but a promise is only as good as the one who makes the promise. You can make a promise but if you have no power to back it up, so what? So after church, I could write you a personal check for a million dollars. The problem will be when you go to the bank to cash it, they're going to say to you, nice try, this guy doesn't have near the money required for you to cash his check. It wouldn't work, I can make you the promise but I don't have the power. But I do know some people who could actually write you that check and you could cash it.

I will not give you their names but they have the power behind the promise. God has promised that we can escape from our old life and we can go in a whole new direction but you have to cash the check. You have to actually take that promise and say, I'm going to apply that promise to my life.

That's cashing the check. You can always tell how mature a Christian is by how that person treats God's promises, always. How do they treat the promises of God? For example, a fearful panicked believer speaks volumes of one who doesn't really believe in God's promises.

But a calm believer, a confident believer speaks of somebody who believes the promise, who thinks this way, if God has written the check, I can cash it. I can take that promise to the bank. There's power behind the promise. So if you're going to build anything of eternal value, you need the right investor and our investor has power and promises. And they're great promises. He says great and precious promises.

You know why they're great? Because they're from a great God and they lead to a great life. And what is the promise, at least in part, that you will be partakers of the divine nature?

Now think about this. The kind of life that you have in you right now as born again believers is the life of God. You are a partner with that life. When you are born again, that's what happens. The life of God gets attached to your life. So that means, here's the way to live. You can face your future with the kind of confidence that says no matter what comes my way, God's power will be there and his promises to meet all of those hardships or potential problems along the way. So you need the right investor.

That's the first prerequisite. The second prerequisite to building a forever faith is you've got to follow the building code. And God has outlined through Peter what that is. Look at verse five. But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, to brotherly kindness, love. Now this, folks, is your part. God's part we've already talked about. Those are the previous verses. God's given you the power and the promises.

This is your part. Now I know some of you are reading this critically, and that's good to read the Bible that way, but it seems contradictory. It almost seems paradoxical because it says God gives you everything you need. And then he says now add to that. So you wonder how can you add anything to everything?

And here's the answer. Growth takes cooperation. Growth always takes cooperation. I must have a cooperation with God's operation.

I am involved in this process. You know, if you or I were to have written this, we might have said God has given you everything you need to grow and be godly. Therefore, let go and let God. Just veg in the spirit.

Just lounge in the spirit and just take it easy and watch the whole thing go up. No, but he says it takes cooperation. Look at the language. Giving all diligence.

Literally means make every possible effort or intensively exert yourself. Now don't misunderstand me. We're not speaking about salvation.

You don't work hard to get saved. It's a gift. That's verse one and two. You have obtained light, precious faith. You have received faith.

That's a gift. But sanctification, ah, that's teamwork. That's teamwork. You just don't sit back and watch it happen. You are involved in the process. Spiritual growth is never accidental.

It is always intentional. I can tell you how Paul wrote the same thought, but different words. Paul the Apostle in Philippians chapter two verse 12 says this, and you'll recall it when I quote it. Therefore, brethren, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Ever read that verse? Ever puzzled by it? Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. But it's followed by this. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Same thought. God works in you. He gives you the power. He makes the promise.

But you must work out your own salvation. He said, I still don't quite get how it works, so I'll give you an example, an analogy. A composer sits down to write a musical score. In doing so, he provides everything that is needed. He's writing the melody. He's writing the melody because he's writing the notes. He's writing the timing down, the cadence of it, if it picks up or if it slows down. So he gives everything that is needed for the production.

However, it still takes a musician to work that out and to play that score and to give what is written down all that is provided a voice. Or here's another analogy. You go to the doctor. The doctor says, I've examined you.

It doesn't look good. Here is the diagnosis. You require surgery. I'll perform the surgery. And then afterwards, I'm going to give you some medications post-op that will help in the healing. So the doctor has done it all.

He's diagnosed. He performs the surgery and gives the medication. You don't help in that process so far. You don't help the doctor do surgery. Doctor, I'll work on this side. You work on that side. Here, give me a scalpel. You're not going to do that.

That'd be foolish. But though he provides everything that you need, you still post-op have to work that out by taking the medication and by following his instructions. That's following the building code. So it requires cooperation and it requires supplementation. Please notice.

Therefore, giving all diligence or making maximum effort, add to your faith. And then seven supplements are listed. We here in New Mexico know something about supplements. When we eat food, it is not complete until we have our supplements. So you might be from the Midwest and a meal to you is meat and potatoes. It's good enough. Not here.

Not going to fly here. If we're going to have meat and potatoes, we need our supplements. And they're either red or green, those supplements. You know what I'm talking about. We need chili with it.

And I have just so become accustomed to it that a meal isn't complete without the supplements that go with it. It has to have it has to have a little to it. Well, if we were to think about it in building terms, a building analogy, this is the building code.

Here are seven things I want you. God says to add to the house that you are building. And they're going to spice things up and they're going to be supplements that make your house a killer house. So for example, I know you got to put in a sink, but don't put in the little metal sink. I want you to put in the marble farm sink. Or, yeah, I know you need to cook your food, but you're not going to put in that hot plate that you're picking out. You're going to put in a Viking stove. Or not for Micah. We're not going to put that on the countertop. You're going to put marble in. We want this thing to last.

So, so far, this is what we've learned. He's given the power and he makes the promises, but we add the perks. And he'll give you everything you need to pull that off.

What are the supplements? We'll look at the first one, virtue. Virtue means moral excellence. Add that to your faith, a moral excellence.

One way to look at excellence is something that fulfills the purpose for which it was made. When you do that, you've added something special, some excellence to your faith. Then he says, add to that knowledge. This is a different word for knowledge than what is typically a New Testament word.

This word is epinosis, which means an expert knowledge, a full knowledge, the ultimate knowledge, a growing, personal, authentic knowledge, one that is practical. And then add to that self-control. Add to knowledge self-control. You know, sometimes there's a huge gap between what we know, our knowledge, and what we do, our actions.

You know what will bridge that gap? Self-control. Add to what you know about God and know God with self-control. Self-control is a word that was a Greek word that means to hold oneself together. It spoke of an athlete who would say no to eating certain kinds of food, and yes to certain kinds of training, because he wanted to win a race.

Look at what's next. Perseverance. It means to bear up under the trial or the hardship, the difficult circumstance. We would say to somebody, hang in there. That's perseverance. Hang in there. Hang in there. That's Skip Hytig's number 23 message on our Top 40 Messages countdown.

It's from the series Rock Solid. Find the full message and more of Skip's teachings, and watch him teach live twice a week at youtube.com slash Calvary ABQ. Right now, we want to share about a resource that will show you how you can enjoy an even more abundant and satisfying life in Jesus. When Neil Armstrong took man's first step on the moon, the whole world watched, and his first words are well known. That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. What is not common knowledge is that the first meal on the moon was the Last Supper. Here's Levi Lesko to discuss his new book, The Last Supper on the Moon. Just quick, Last Supper on the Moon. It begins with Buzz Aldrin, 1969, July, summer on the lunar surface before Neil Armstrong gets out of the eagle to take that famous first step on the moon, the giant leap. But just before that, Buzz Aldrin opened a pouch and took out wine and bread representing the body and blood of Jesus Christ, and he had a personal communion service. And that moment, when I found out about it about a year previously, hit me like a thunderbolt just to realize that the first thing ever eaten on the moon was the Last Supper.

The Last Supper on the Moon is an epic new hardcover book by Levi Lesko, and it's our resource offer this month. Receive your copy when you give a gift of $35 or more to support this program. Just go to connectwithskip.com or call 1-800-922-1888.

That's connectwithskip.com or call 1-800-922-1888. Tune in tomorrow as Skip Heitzig shares another Top 40 message with practical insight to help you manage your thoughts carefully and according to God's truth. My thought life is attached to the rest of my life. Whatever it is that you think on is what you will eventually do so that good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bear bad fruit, and guess what? You're the gardener.

You're the one doing the planting. Make a connection. Make a connection at the foot of the crossing. Cast all burdens on His word. Make a connection. Connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.