Have you ever wondered how living a godly life can strengthen your faith? Imagine the impact of integrating godliness into your daily routine and experiencing a deeper level of spiritual growth. We will explore the connection between godliness and faith guided by the Bible, helping us cultivate unwavering trust in God. Discover the power of holiness in building your faith in our tenth faith series’ instalment, “How Godliness Builds Faith.”
Kingdom Way Church – https://KingdomWay.ca is our church in Edmonton, Alberta. Watch us live at https://KWay.live Sundays at 10:00 AM Mountain time. Watch Video on Demand at https://Kway.tv Connect and learn more at https://MyKWC.ca
Notes from How Godliness Builds Faith
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. 4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. 5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:3–8 NASB95
Thanks to Trevor for filling in for me last Sunday
as you can tell my voice has returned,
I received many messages of people who where praying for me
thanks to all those, I really appreciate it.
God is truly good.
I know the enemy wants to silence me,
but that’s never going to last long
Whether I’m preaching on Sunday, teaching on Tuesday, leading a meeting on Wednesday or a Podcast on Friday. may God strengthen my voice so His Word is release to millions of people.
Today we are in part 10 of our How to grow your faith series. we want to focus in on How Godliness builds your faith.
I understand this may sound like a pretty obvious topic.
after all.
the closer you get to God, the greater your faith will rise
the farther you fall from God, your more your faith falters
But lets first begin with defining what Godliness actually means.
contrary to the cult of mormonism, I want to clarify
being Godly does not mean you become a god.
thats a heresy from the pit of Hell.
rather godliness means:
the quality of being godly (= obeying and respecting God)
so its not becoming God, but instead obeying what God has commanded you to do.
The most important thing you can do in Life is to Love God
Well I’m just repeating Jesus
37 And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 “This is the great and foremost commandment.
Matthew 22:37–38 NASB95
The Greatest thing you can do in Life is to Love your God with all your heart, soul and mind
Jesus was quoting a key passage from the Old Testament.
The Old Testament is primarily written in Hebrew and the
New Testament is primarily written in Greek.
So Jesus quotes a Hebrew statement in Greek.
By doing so, we are able to get a richer and deeper insight about this word “love” and what it means.
Jesus says in John 14:15 NASB95
15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
John 14:15 NASB95
So loving God=Obeying God.
So if want to to become more Godly….which means to obey God
what we are actually saying is Loving God, build your faith!
because becoming more Godly can only be done by Loving God!
a) Love is a choice (Hebrew: aheb)
This is to build on what Pastor Trevor shared last week
if you missed that…watch it on youtube or Kway.tv
First, love is a choice.
We see this in the Hebrew word aheb.
It is an act of the mind and will.
It is the determined care for the welfare of something or someone.
It can include strong emotion,
but it is a clear and firm decision to be committed toward someone.
It is the type of love that recognizes and chooses to follow that which is righteous, noble, and true, regardless of what one’s feelings in a matter might be or the consequences.
This love is a decision that one makes.
You may have heard the expression
Fell in Love
or reversly Fell out of Love
Love is not something that you fall into
like its something that just happens beyond your control
Infatuation can do that, but not Love
Love is a decision you make, you choose to Love or Not Love
In your relationship with God you make a decision,
a choice, to love Him or not.
You make a choice to obey Him or not.
You make a decision to listen to Him or not.
You make a choice to do what He says or not,
to care about what He cares about or not.
Love is a choice and we demonstrate our love for God or lack of love for God
b) Love is a commitment (Greek: agape).
Secondly, love is a commitment.
While aheb emphasizes the choice that love makes,
agape emphasizes the commitment that love makes.
Agape love is the intelligent, purposeful, and committed love that is an act of the will.
This committed love is an all-in type of love.
There is no going back. Jesus expressed this love toward the Father when He said,
42 saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”
Luke 22:42 NASB95
He was committing Himself to the cross and God’s plan.
At the same time the Heavenly Father was demonstrating His commitment and love to you.
Romans 5:8 says,
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 NASB95
Who are we to love first?
We are to love the “Lord”
We are to love God as our Lord.
The word “Lord” means master or sovereign.
The title suggests supreme authority and supreme rule.
Our love for Him should identify Him as our master, supreme ruler.
If a person loves the Lord, they will want to obey Him.
We are to love our “God”
The name “God” highlights everything about Him.
The name “God” is a catch-all name for everything that God is.
We must remember we are in love with the God of the universe.
We are in love with our creator and He is perfectly holy, absolutely faithful, and incredibly loving.
He is our guide, counselor, provider, shelter, rock, and fortress.
He is our heavenly Father.
He is all-knowing, all-powerful, and ever-present.
Notice Jesus said that you are to love the Lord “your” God.
He is “your” God.
He belongs to you and you belong to Him.
There is a personal relationship between you and Him.
Our first love is to make a choice to commit to the one true Lord who is our God.
How are we to love?
What kind of love are we talking about?
Jesus tells us we are to love the Lord our God
“with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind.”
In the big picture, this simply means with everything you have and with everything you are.
However, I think it would be helpful to dissect this phrase into three parts and examine each aspect a little closer.
We are to love God with the heart: doer, will
First, we are to love God with our heart.
This refers to the core of who you are,
but with an emphasis on the will.
The will deals with your behavior, actions, and choices.
It deals with what you do.
When it comes to the heart, the will, our actions and behavior the Bible says some interesting things. For example…
Jesus said in Matthew 12:35
35 “The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil.
Matthew 12:35 NASB95
Good behavior, good actions, and good choices come from a heart that is committed to God.
Jesus said in Matthew 7:20
20 “So then, you will know them by their fruits.
Matthew 7:20 NASB95
You can tell where a person’s heart is based on what they say and do.
We are told in 1 Peter,
12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.
1 Peter 2:12 NASB95
When your heart loves God the unbelievers in your life will notice your honorable behavior
We are told in James 1:22
22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.
James 1:22 NASB95
A heart committed to God has a hunger to do the Word of God,
apply the Word of God to one’s life.
All that deals with our heart in some way.
Jesus says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart.”
Align your will, behavior, action, and choices with what God wants you to do.
We are to love God with the soul: feeler, emotions
Secondly, you are to love God with your soul.
The term “soul” is closest to what we would call emotion and is the word Jesus used when He cried out in the Garden of Gethsemane the night He was arrested.
Jesus said,
38 Then He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.”
Matthew 26:38 NASB95
When we are talking about the soul we must include our emotions, feelings, attitudes, and convictions.
Jesus is saying let your emotions, feelings, attitudes and convictions express your love for Him.
It’s okay to get emotional about Jesus and the things of God.
Let’s talk about our soul in regards to our emotions and feelings.
21 My son, let them not vanish from your sight; Keep sound wisdom and discretion, 22 So they will be life to your soul And adornment to your neck.
Proverbs 3:21–22 NASB95
When someone says they feel refreshed on the inside,
they are usually referring to their emotions.
They feel better emotionally.
They are happier, more content.
God wants your emotions to be involved in loving Him.
24 Pleasant words are a honeycomb, Sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
Proverbs 16:24 NASB95
If you want to encourage someone and uplift someone speak to their soul.
God says kind, loving, encouraging words are sweet to the soul.
23 But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin.
Romans 14:23 NASB95
There were certain things that people had been taught were sin, but actually were not.
One of those things they had been taught was that if you ate meat that had been offered to an idol you would be sinning.
Paul would come along later to explain that it was okay to eat that meat and there was nothing wrong with it.
However, if you still believed it was a sin to eat it then it would still be a sin to you.
A “conviction” is something you feel is either right or wrong.
If you feel that something is wrong and you do it, that is sin to you.
To love God with all your soul is to follow your convictions based on the truth you know and understand.
21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, 22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
Ephesians 4:21–24 NASB95
Your attitude is a part of your soul and you want to love God will all your attitude.
Because we all have a bad attitude about something the Spirit of God is going to need to renew our attitudes.
This is part of loving God with our soul.
We are to love God with all our soul… all our emotions, all our convictions, all our attitudes.
We are to love God with the mind: thinker, mind
Finally, we are to love God with the mind.
This deal with our intellect, our understanding, and our thinking.
Let’s take a look at what God says about our mind and thinking.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:2 NASB95
There are certain aspects of God’s will that you will not and cannot understanding without a change of thinking.
To love God with all your mind means to allow God to change your thinking.
To love God with the mind is to let God change the way you think.
8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
Philippians 4:8 NASB95
A mind that loves God is not thinking about how to get revenge,
ways to lie about something,
or assuming the worst of others.
A mind that loves God thinks about what is true (facts, accurate, correct),
what is honorable (ethical, respectable),
and what is right (authentic, genuine).
To love God with the mind is to fix your thoughts on what is true.
His Truth…not your own!
5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,
2 Corinthians 10:5 NASB95
We don’t want thoughts running wild,
we want to take them captive and make them obedient to Christ and His truth.
To love God with your mind is to take every thought captive.
have you ever had a time when your your going through a struggle and all you can think about is the issues at hand?
no matter How hard your try to think about something else
those recurring thought seems to take control
Your run the scenrio over and over again in your head?
thats not healthy and its not Godly
pray and trust God answer
God understands the importance of the mind He created.
He knows the power and influence of your thoughts.
Your best life involves loving God with all your mind.
Love God with all your
Jesus said,
37 And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 “This is the great and foremost commandment.
Matthew 22:37–38 NASB95
If you are here today and you would like to know more about growing your faith by becoming more Godly …..loving God.
take the time and talk with someone about it!
share your thoughts and experiences and listen to theirs.
God desire you have unsurmountable faith.
the only way to do that is to choose to Love Him the way He loves you
Let’s Pray!
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