This sermon emphasizes the importance of focusing on developing godly character qualities, such as virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. It challenges individuals to make every effort to grow in these qualities, leading to a fruitful and effective life. The message encourages recalculating one's priorities to prioritize character development over external achievements, relationships, or circumstances.

That's so good. I haven't sung that song in years, but just to remember like what I talked about last week as we turn our eyes on jesus and as we focus on him and as we have those times and it's weird how the things of the earth are just They seem more and more meaningless Don't they the more you focus on the supernatural the more you focus on god himself and the more you know him You realize how trivial everything else appears It's been another great week for me just studying the word of god and uh, one of the things I love about the bible is I personally I tend to Get distracted. I tend to uh Get off course in life Um, you know, you're doing real well and then suddenly you just you start heading in another direction That's one of the things I love about the word of god is it it shows you it opens your eyes up and you go Wow, I think i've been heading the wrong direction here and that's one of the things that god's word has done for me this week um I finally got one of these things uh gps Uh, i've been waiting I keep waiting for the prices to go down, you know And you know, it's it's like half of what it used to be keep going down down down down and I can't wait I always yeah, i'm just so cheap and then someone finally just got me one but um but it was uh It was one of those things where I would have saved so much money had I gotten this earlier just in gas and time um You know, it's it's like my my wife. Uh, I guess I can talk about it. Um Oh a few weeks ago she you know was coming home from hollywood so she jumped on the five south We could have really used one of these she came home with a pinata and uh I shouldn't make it that far but it's close uh But you know Now that i'm in your world you gpsers. Um, you know what I love about this is I love when um I love when you make a wrong turn It doesn't get mad at you It just says recalculating I love that. I love that. It's like why didn't you listen to me? No, it doesn't say it just goes recalculating And uh, and and and it's so assuring, you know, and I just want you know, because she's so nice I just want to go. Thank you. I'm, sorry, you know like But it's that assuring voice that says you know what it gives you that confidence like it's basically saying to me I don't know what's saying to you, but basically she's saying to me i'll still get you there, you know I'll get you there. It'll take a little longer, but i'll get you there Some of you guys have taken some wrong turns in life We all do it And and I hope that that this morning is one of those times where you just hear the holy spirit saying recalculating I'll still get you there. It's gonna take a little longer now, but i'll still get you there um, that's That's what the word of god does for us It gives us a new set of directions At some point we gotta listen though And so this morning I I you know for some of you that have gone some wrong directions and The thing i'm learning more and more about god is his grace and just saying Yeah, you you went the wrong way, but i'm not here to just yell at you and tell you you screwed up I'm, just saying i'm recalculating your life now for you And giving you a new set of directions and saying we can still get there We can still get there doesn't matter what you've done We can still get there but now listen to me this time and so if would you guys stand as we read the word of god Let me read from second peter chapter one as we continue In our study of second peter in verse five It says for this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge and knowledge with self-control and self-control with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love For if these qualities are yours and are increasing They will keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our lord. Jesus christ For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind Having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins therefore brothers Be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure For if you practice these qualities you will never fall for in this way There will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our lord and savior jesus christ father help us to uh Really listen to your word today for those of us who have strayed Maybe gotten off course a little bit. Just pray that we would really believe in the power of your holy spirit To change us to get us back on course And help us this time father to listen to your word That we can become those people that you want us to be and that we want to be in jesus name amen You guys can have a seat So in this passage he says make every effort Make every effort I want you to think in your life right now as far as making effort think through what do you work hardest at? Think that through right now What do you because this this word, you know, it's just like bring in all your effort bring in all your zeal What do you work hardest at? In this passage he's talking about these character qualities and he's saying, you know Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and your virtue with knowledge and your knowledge with self He names all these things that have to do with who we are and he says make every effort toward this Be diligent toward this And and here's where like I said, you know, I I noticed wow I think I I've gone off track here and the word of god just brought me back this week something i've noticed is okay 10 15 years ago. I specifically remember People asking me this question They would ask me what are your goals in life? What are your goals in ministry? And I still remember my answer. I thought about it this week as first time. I thought i'm like wow I remember how I used to answer that question I used to tell people you know what? I don't and I was completely sincere. I go. I don't know what my goals are in ministry I don't know what my goals are in life as far as what i'm going to accomplish or what I even want to accomplish I go but I have a very clear vision of the man. I want to be one day I know the type of husband I want to be I know the type of dad I want to be and have a very clear picture especially of the type of christian that I want to be I I had in my mind my goals were wrapped around who I was going to become This type of person not what this person was going to achieve And I was thinking back wow, that's that's all I cared about back then I was focused and I realized something this last year where i've gone astray is i've gotten really focused on what I want to accomplish And what I want to do And it's not that i've fallen apart, you know in my character, but i've put it on the back burner There was almost this sense of well, i'm good enough, you know I'm doing pretty well in my character. And so i'm going to focus on stuff and what i'm going to do And that's such a mistake because the truth is is this this you know Like that path this passage says it says if these qualities are yours if these character qualities are yours and they're increasing That's what keeps you from being ineffective or unproductive See when you're the right person things are going to happen You're going to produce the fruit You're not going to be ineffective things will happen in your life and and it is so true because when I started off I noticed man. I had friends that would pursue positions and pursue You know Achieving this achieving that I want this I want that and they kind of let their character go on the back burner And it was actually really sad because what happens is they end up with neither They don't accomplish what they want to accomplish because they weren't the people that they needed to be And as I look back in life, I realize gosh, you know, was it really that I pursued all of this stuff And then I really try to accomplish a bunch of things or was it that I just tried to be the man that god wanted me to be and Then all this stuff just started happening And all these results that you didn't even strive after you start these things just start happening And it was so good for the word of god just to cleanse me again and go. Okay Stop trying so hard to fix this to achieve this to accomplish that Just go back to becoming the man that i've called you to be And make every effort towards that Be diligent towards that See some of you need to recalculate your life this morning because maybe you've been too focused on what you want to do Rather than on who god's called you to be And it doesn't mean we don't work I've worked all that time because that's part of having character is not being lazy and having a good work ethic But this whole idea of pursuing and praying hard and making every effort and bringing all zeal towards these character qualities in your life It hasn't been number one priority Some of you came here this morning With a hope that god would change your circumstances And fix your situation And the first thing I want to say to you Is that god is more concerned about changing you? than your circumstances You understand that It could be that god wants to keep you in these difficult circumstances because he's changing you See it's about your character God loves you so much. He doesn't want you to stay where you're at It's this It's this new person that he wants to make us as we know him as I talked about last week Remember how he's given us everything that pertains to life and godliness because those are the things that he wants from us He wants to see his children alive. He wants to see his children godly. He wants to see his children with grace and peace multiplied upon them And that comes from knowing him That comes from becoming like him And so we make every effort towards these things And then the other stuff will happen. But here's the Important question is do you? want to change Is this the desire of your heart this morning is is not I came here god because I want you to fix this fix that But you came here going god. I want you to fix me I want you to change me. That's what your holy spirit came into me to do See he starts off the passage. He actually says for this very reason make every effort For this very reason make every effort towards these things Now now what's what's this reason remember earlier what we studied last week? He talked about how he's given us everything his divine power has given us everything that pertains to life and god He's given us everything we need to live these godly lives. We talked about that, right? And we talked about how that's in the knowledge of him It's it's through knowing him and then he talks about him how we became partakers of the divine nature Right that that now i'm not just flesh and blood I'm, not just this human being but when I gave my life to lord when I decide to follow him when I said I don't want to live that way anymore. I want to live the way you want me to live at that moment He puts his holy spirit into me And so now i'm a partaker of this divine nature as it says that that i i've escaped the corruption Of the sinful desires here on this earth Like i'm not i'm not just i'm not just going down this whirlpool like everyone else getting sucked in deeper and deeper and deeper But no i've been given this divine nature now I can live a different way And now he says for this reason because you have this holy spirit in you Because you have been given this divine nature because god's blessed you and given you everything you need for life and godliness He goes because you've been given all that take advantage of it And make every effort to add to your faith this virtue that he wants you to have see it's this idea of We get to pursue these things Do you understand that? It's it's because why why should you pursue all these things because you can and because you get to I mean when you became a believer was it just because you didn't want to go to hell Or was it because you saw that god offered a better life and this morality that he was offering this way of living Was better and you're saying god, I want to repent. I want to turn from all that stuff and I want to live this way now I mean, didn't you desire these things didn't Isn't isn't that what the holy spirit put on us is this desire for for virtue? And this desire for character is a huge huge question It has to do with your attitude are you thinking in your mind I get to change or I have to change In other words, is this what you want? You know, wow, the holy spirit came into me and I get to put off all this these deeds of the flesh Or are you here today going oh man asking those silly questions i've heard my whole life Do I have to stop drinking? Do I have to forgive? Do I have to stop watching those movies Do I have to I mean Is god I god will still let me into heaven even if I leave my wife, right? Right god will still let me into heaven even though I still hate my parents, right? God will still let me into heaven even though I i'm gonna keep on With this addiction that I have right God will still let me into heaven even if I do this, right? See those types of questions reveal a heart that is not about get to but have to It reveals a it gets me to question wait, so so you don't actually want to be saved From the old you you're actually hoping you can keep those things and still get heaven Because the way I understand the holy spirit coming into a person is that he makes us a slave to righteousness We have a new master in us that actually desires the things that are right and good And then he changed our nature that we actually and that doesn't mean we don't get off course doesn't mean we don't get temptation Because we're still in this fallen world And the flesh is still with us, but we have this new master that actually wants to live a righteous life Isn't that you and so whenever you blow it you're like, I didn't want to be that person See and and the bible says because you don't have to be that person anymore and you're given a new Nature and now you you get to and you've got everything you need to live this godly life. So go for it Go for it and and now make every effort because you get to I mean, don't you hate it when someone wastes potential? You know It was like my My kid that wanted to quit piano, you know a couple years ago and I go. Oh, no, no way. No way I'm not letting you i'm not letting i'm not letting you waste that gift You know why because as a dad, you know when you see your kids, you know Just an incredible athlete or whatever and they just want to quit and you're like no. No, you're not quitting Okay, you're gonna regret quitting you're gonna regret quitting because you've been given this gift and you gotta go for it You gotta go for it gotta go for it And then once they get going and they mature they go. Oh, thank you for not letting me quit So I just went through a weird phase there and thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm so glad I didn't quit Some of you guys are looking at your kids see yeah It was all around the room. It was weird. There's all this it's just this idea That's don't you understand? That's that's the thrust of this passage See, I have the potential to be an amazingly godly man I have the potential of being such a virtuous self-controlled persevering just Knowledgeable person that just lives so holy filled with so much love And that's why the bible says because you have that potential now because the holy spirit's in you Go after it 100. Don't quit on these things Make every effort towards it. That's what we want of our kids, right? When we see a gift in them, we're like come on go after it You've been given something and that's this idea here is god's given you his holy spirit He's given you an ability to be be so holy so righteous so virtuous So don't believe the lies that you can't be this you can't be that. Yeah, you took some wrong turns But here's what the word of god is saying. Okay now Make every effort toward these things It starts with faith See this new nature You gotta believe that god not only gives you this new desire to want righteousness But he gives you the power that enables you to achieve it Isn't that cool? It's it's not just this desire It's one thing to desire some people may desire righteousness before becoming a believer, but they won't have the power to accomplish it And what he's saying is my divine nature Has given you this you've taken of that divine nature My divine power has given you it to to you, but you got to believe that it all starts with faith You know, why even move on the list if you don't have faith Because if you don't have faith, then you don't believe that any of these things can be yours And so you've got to believe that yes number one god loves you and for those of you who have Walked away from your old life and say god. I believe that jesus died on that cross for all of my sins I believe he rose from the grave. I I and you've decided to follow him He put a new nature in you. You've got to believe that you got to have faith But you you got to move on you can't you can't just have that faith You got to believe that you got to believe you have that power But from that faith, he says you need to add to it and you need to add virtue this idea of virtue Has to do with this this moral excellence It's in your actions in your purity in your thoughts It's this purity it's it's the same thing when he refers to uh To god when he's called us to his own glory or virtue He says in verse three he's called us to have the same glory or excellence that god has So add to your faith. It's not enough for you just to say. Oh, I believe he says no add to that belief now This type of moral character have you know, a lot of people say they believe But your faith needs to be expressed in something concrete and people ought to see this moral excellence in your life And so he says go after it Strive after it This word also has to do with a strength and a courage That goes with it Is virtuous a word that would be used to describe you? And are you going hard after are you making every effort towards this? It's an interesting thing because we know that it's god that works in us, right and it's his power But at the same time there's the command make every effort. So there's something I do also You know remember that illustration I used way back when I brought that treadmill up here, you know And and you know just to help us understand the holy spirit It's when you've been given this gift of this treadmill. You can't take it back a month later and go I didn't lose any weight Because the salesman will say well, did you get on it? You know, oh, I didn't know that it's it's the same thing with the holy spirit It's this idea of yes, we've been given this tremendous gift and this power But there's also this idea where he says, you know make every effort towards these things Make every effort to add to to that faith that you have It's great that you believe and now add to it virtue work hard at your moral excellence Knowing that it's god that's working through you to accomplish these things And then it says to add to your virtue knowledge Excuse me How are you doing with your knowledge have you been working harder and harder to understand god understanding the truth about god Understanding the word of god. How are you doing with your study in the word of god? I've been talking about this a lot about how we've been so busy and scattered and doing these different things and making effort Towards keeping up with everyone and and giving those shallow answers to everyone and making sure everyone hears your opinion and And facebooking and tweeting what you believe and everything to the world We've made a lot of effort towards that but how much effort have you made towards knowing god better? How much effort have you made toward knowing the word of god better some of you guys have been believers for years and years and Years, and the only verse you can quote is john 3 16 Have you made every effort At adding to your virtue, maybe you are living a virtuous life. Maybe you are living that guy life. Are you adding to it knowledge? Start making effort towards that and it's more than just facts This knowledge has to do with an internalization of those facts Because we all know people who know a lot about the scriptures and then we look at their lives and it's obvious that they haven't Internalized those things but they can quote it It has to do with a wisdom of internalizing It's about growing in this knowledge and wisdom that actually directs us in life Then he says to add to your knowledge self-control Self-control has to do with the person who who is able to master his sensual desires And sometimes when we talk about self self-control we just talk about the extremes but you got to understand this word It's it's it's about just the things in natural life and being moderate about those desires Do you understand that we all have natural desires? And those aren't all bad. It's about being able to control them and being moderate in them. I desire eating Okay, that's normal. That's the way god made me It's it's okay. I I but but but Do I do I show self-control in that? We have sexual desires It's normal. It's god-given But are you moderate in that are you in control of those urges those desires? I like to sleep. Don't you love to sleep? But are you in control of that and moderating how how much you sleep do you really need that much sleep It'd be nice to see the sun every once in a while I like to play that's one of my weaknesses. I love to play I love to just laugh and play. I just play every day It's a desire but how are you doing in moderation you need clothes to stay warm, but how How many clothes you need? it's a self-control, you you know, it's it's interesting because I I think there's a weakness Many of us would say i've got way too much But what are you going to do this week go buy more? Why because we lack self-control It's not We desire all these things like you see and we want to go to the extreme. Well, i'm not doing this This is I know but just make every effort towards self-control See, this was one of the parts where I messed up in my life was you get to this point? You start comparing yourselves to other people in your character and you're going well, you know for me I'm going i'm a lot better than you guys So you know i'm just kidding But it's that idea of of where you almost feel like you know what i'm good enough in this area rather than making every effort towards this virtue that god has And getting there to where wow, I totally am content in these areas I really do have self-control in all these areas. How are you doing in the area of self-control? Are you making efforts? Are you making strides? Are you diligent toward this because we can be diligent toward a lot of things and and neglect our character This next one's tough Because he he tells us to Add to our self-control this idea of steadfastness Steadfastness is a word for patience Steadfastness is the word for when you have a weight on you and you just keep holding it up It's like holding up under that weight He says, you know, we need to be because that it's this endurance like i'm gonna hold it up longer I'm gonna hold it up longer. I'm gonna hold it up. See that's the steadfastness And what we want to do is say god get rid of that weight Right Because then I can just relax And everything would be easy But this idea of steadfastness, you don't become steadfast. You don't persevere unless there's some weight on you And there's some pressure on you and And you're gonna feel like quitting it's gonna get more and more difficult and you feel like quitting and you want to collapse And so most of us let's be honest we pray and say god get rid of that weight Because we're not so concerned about developing steadfastness When's the last time have you ever think about this? Have you ever in your life? Asked god to make your life a little more difficult So that you could develop steadfastness Have you ever in your life thought to yourself, you know what i'm kind of weak every little trial comes my way and I fall apart And you say god, I want to work on that because I want to become this man or woman who is steadfast. So Keep it coming You see it's it's comical But really, I mean you think about it because we care about our comfort far more than we care about our character But that's not god's desire, okay think about this i've used this many many times but think about this 2010 is coming up right? It's it's right around the corner. We got it. We got a little month and a half to prepare for it let's say Jesus came in the room today And said 2010 is coming As you guys walk out today I'm going to give you an option Everyone has an option of plan a or plan b for 2010 In 2010, here's your here's your choice you get to make today 2010 I can make it a very easy and comfortable year for you Everything's going to go your way You want you you want a great marriage? It'll be there. You're not married. You want a perfect mate. She's coming Uh, you you you want, uh, you know a new job where you make three times as much as last year. You'll get it You want no one in your family to get sick and you won't get sick In fact, you won't end up with a six-pack everything just supernaturally you know, it's just It's all gonna be there now at the end of the year You're not going to be any stronger Than you were in 09 You're not going to be any closer to me. We're not going to be any more intimate, but it will have been a fun year Or i'll give you plan b Plan b 2010 i'm gonna have you go through some hardships And it's not going to be an easy year But during those times you and I are gonna get so close. You get so close to me I mean, we're gonna you're gonna experience me like never before And at the end of the year, you're gonna be this man or woman that is just so far beyond who you are today The steadfast is the strength you've never had And i'll get you through it But it'll be tough And so you're walking out the door and jesus greets you and goes, what do you want plan a plan b To be honest, what are you going to choose think that through? See, I found myself frustrated at hardship lately As though something were going wrong See but if I were The reason why I was so frustrated was because I wasn't thinking about my character Most days I wake up and I don't think about my character and wanting to be a certain type of man I just want to be happy I just want all the problems to go away What do you want for yourself? Because i'll tell you what god wants He wants you to be holy He wants you to be the steadfast person You see instead of being frustrated at hardship If I was really concerned about my character then I could obey james one that says consider it all joy When you encounter these trials Because you're going oh good trials are here And i've been concerned about my steadfastness so here's an opportunity to get stronger I I haven't pulled that one off yet. So But it's it's just god Recalculating going friends. You've been frustrated at so many things. Don't you understand? I've been trying to Change you and make you stronger and turn you into this man that you want to be right? Yeah, I do. Yeah, I do All right, keep them coming That's a hard prayer. That's a hard hard prayer And as we talk about persevering understand i'm not going to get through this passage today So you're thinking oh man, he's just there and we're never going to get through verse 11 Well, we'll we'll keep plugging away. We'll we'll do it. We'll finish next week But let's let's continue through these character qualities next he he says, you know add to it godliness Godliness this this word has to do with like a reverence a respect toward god kind of a religious more of a piety It's this idea of um and understand this isn't meant to be an exhaustive list of all the character qualities It's just a general, you know It's just this principle of you know All these things are the things we ought to be striving for it's not exhaustive There's not every single one and it doesn't have to be in this order. It's just saying in general Do you want to be a godly person? Do you want to be a persevering person? You want to be a self-controlled person? Do you want to be a loving person? Don't you want to go after go after these things? You've been given the ability to become this person that has all of these qualities It's about the fruit of the holy spirit are all of these qualities not one of them All of them go after don't you want to be this awesome person that that's godly that's steadfast and self-control that's knowledgeable That's virtuous And then and then the next way he says brotherly affection Or brotherly affection it's this idea of of tender affection towards your spiritual family this brotherly Affection that we ought to have the word is philadelphia. You know, that's where we get the city of brotherly love, which is funny that it's philadelphia, but it's it's this idea of Of this word is just you know, we're a family in here Okay Do you get that? And he wants us to have this tender affection for one another like a true true family member To long for that. That's why a lot of times we we push for man You've got family members on your own block in your own neighborhood and and god wants this brotherly affection Amidst you that yeah, you may have nothing in common with them other than jesus christ and your salvation your desire to live a holy life in his mission But on a fleshly level you may i'd never hang out with that guy and god says but don't you want to have this? brotherly affection with them Because that's god's desire is that you work through those relationships you stick with them and you you have this tenderness toward them And in first john 4 20 he says you can't say that you love god and you hate your brother That doesn't make any sense There ought to be this brotherly affection You know someone in our church, uh Was asked to go to another religion and attend their service And so she told the school people. Okay, i'll go to yours, but you got to come to mine and uh And I don't advise that for everyone but for those who are strong and for this person She was I go man, that's that's that's pretty cool And I said, so what was it like, you know going to this other place and what was the difference between the two religions? And she goes well the message here was better, of course, but uh The truth But uh But they were so much friendlier it's like you walked in and it's like everyone knew each other And asked how are you doing? How are you doing and they just overwhelmed me I mean she's you know people here were friendly to my friends, but It was just high type of thing Whereas there was family And I and that hurts to hear doesn't it? And at the same time we also know it's true And so understand when we we I know I know we've made some mistakes as leaders and maybe going overboard and pushing Pushing pushing like love each other get to know each other spend time with each other and almost a forcing thing But do you understand our heart behind it that we just go this isn't right. I can't do this anymore God wants a brotherly affection amongst us and and we've got to somehow create it and it's hard to turn a ship this big And say okay everyone come next sunday. We're gonna love on each other. It just doesn't it's not an overnight thing But we're just working and working and striving after it because it's what god wants and he wants us to be diligent in this area Add to your brotherly affection love Understand this love that he talks about and it's the last one that he mentions He says this love is uh It's a god love. It's an agape love. It's you know, god is love Right, that's it's who he is But understand his love Is a subjective love not an objective one It's it's not one that's based upon the object of his love and what they do for him. Oh, they love me I'll love them in return It's just no I myself am love and so I do nothing but love I love not because of who you are I love in spite of who you are Is is that what you're known for don't you want to be that person though? Or people hate you spit on you curse you and you can just love them in return Isn't that what we signed up for? I want to be like jesus. Go ahead. Nail me to a cross and i'll still love you And say forgive them. They know not what they do How are you doing on that? Because the bible says verse 8 and i'll just close with this and we'll pick it up next week. Sorry I'm If these qualities are yours and are increasing They keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our lord jesus christ If these qualities are yours and are increasing as we look at those qualities, are they increasing in your life? Because it's not a question of are you better than other people? The question is are they increasing? Are you more loving than you were a few months ago? Do you have more self-control than you had a few months? It doesn't matter what level you're at. The question is is are they increasing? Are they abounding? Do you just see more and more and more of it? Because that's what's going to keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful And isn't that what we are? I mean, no one wants to live a pointless life, right? You just want to take up space and survive Or don't you want to know that you did something here on this earth And he says well if these character qualities are in you and they're increasing, you know what it'll keep you That's that's your promise. That's your guard from being ineffective Now when I asked you that question earlier What do you work hardest at? Some would say your jobs Some would say at raising your kids Some would say Maybe at ministering to other people and trying to change them Even change your own spouse Some of you maybe it's toward relationships and getting relationships But let me give you this one last thought let me just throw this out let's take parenting Some of you parents you take this so seriously And that's awesome You don't see being a mom or a dad as your secondary role or just you know A little side thing you got to do you see it as a responsibility before the lord and that's great and so you work hard at teaching your Kids by putting them in in programs giving them rules Putting them in whatever school you you think is best for them. All those things are good But the greatest thing you can do for your kids is pursue your own character It really is This whole hey, I want you to obey me so you don't end up like me That's been our go-to line. It's never really worked The best thing is for you to choose to pursue moral excellence yourself Because so much of what they learn is caught and not taught you've heard that before for them to see a life that's been changed And for them to go I want that Rather than say i'll do all the right things because I don't want to be like my parents It's not effective parenting God's Plan for parenting was always the same deuteronomy 6 That as you go along life as you walk about your way as your kids are lying down You're just teaching them all along life's road. They're watching your life and seeing these character qualities And you're teaching them the word of god as they walk alongside of you You're going to see see how god's blessed look at his grace and peace in my life See mom and dad and the grace and peace amidst us. This is what we want for you that's been god's desire and I understand some of you you can't do that because you're you're not in a relationship where both people want to follow after god and So there's some recalculating that needs to be done there But you as an individual as a spirit filled man or woman of god by yourself It's amazing what god can do through you And for them to see maybe even the difference of a person who understands the grace and peace of god And be in that home Along with a person who doesn't have that let's be diligent in these things some of you You're so focused on maybe it's a relationship you want, you know, we've seen it the people that want a relationship so badly That they focus on finding the right person rather than being the right person And that never works does it you just keep looking looking looking you keep finding the right people But they have no reason for wanting to be with you Because you haven't focused on your own character you find that person they go. Why would I want to be with you? You haven't you haven't worked on the character see what what i'm saying is what the scripture is saying is God wants us to live a fruitful life and we we become the people that he wants us to be The other things will come into place It'll happen And and if not, there's going to be a persevering and a steadfastness that he's going to create in you I'm, not saying you do this and everything's going to be easy I'm saying but at the end you become the person you want to be For me, I've noticed that even in ministry Even in good things like parenting and even in ministry. I've been too focused on Fixing and making things happen and God saying francis just just walk with me. Just know me just become the man of god you were meant to be Isn't that how everything happened? Anyways Let's get back on that path recalculating Getting back and listening and I hope you do the same in your life, too i'm gonna have the worship team come up and I'm going to give you some time for reflection As the worship team plays what we're going to do is We're going to throw some verses up on the screen They just talk about these qualities that we've been talking about And as you as you read those just take some time to meditate And to seek diligently these things And and and don't forget There's a truth that as we seek god that these things will come to us You know how you become like the people you hang out with a lot As we know god more and more and as we're closer and closer to him You become more and more like him that's why we so emphasize knowing god These qualities are the qualities of god himself And that's why he says I want you to become like me make every effort to become like me I saved you to become like me. I made you ambassadorism. You want to look down and see me and you That's why he wants these things because god's the ultimate good And so as you look at these qualities, it's a time of repentance to say god Tell me to make every effort toward these things fix this in me Change me Not my circumstances change me