TRACKING – LEVEL ONE by Dr. Shah, Clearview Church, Henderson, NC

Introduction:  My introduction to Nicole’s family began with meeting her dad. As you’ve heard me share before, he made a profound impact on my life on a spiritual level. When it came time to meeting her mom and siblings, I remember bringing a gift for her mom, which she appreciated; and I could relate with her 12-year old sister because I had a sister too about her age, but I was not quite sure how it would be with her 14-year-old brother (the older one had moved out by that time). After a few minutes of conversation with him, I realized that he liked some of the same video games that I did! Before we knew it, we were sharing tips and tricks on how to get from one level in a video game to the next! I hate to admit it, but I was not as concerned about the next level of my relationship with Nicole as I was about the next level on Mario 64, Street Fighter, Mortal Combat, and Metal Gear Solid. In our series called “On Track,” today’s message is titled “TRACKING – LEVEL ONE.” Big Question: If you had to rate your Christian life, what level would you place yourself? If some of us were honest, we would have to admit that we are still on level one! Can you imagine playing a video game where after 40, 50, 60 years of playing, you couldn’t get past level one! Sadly, we move through the levels in other areas of life, but we have very little motivation when it comes to the Christian life.

2 Peter 1      5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.

Context: The passage we just read makes up one of the many ethical lists found in the New Testament (13 virtue lists; 23 vice lists – J. D. Charles, DNTB). Here we are not even including 1 Corinthians 13, the list on love. Lists of Virtues and Vices were not uncommon in ancient times. The Indians, Egyptians, Persians, and other Mediterranean cultures had such lists as well. So also, the Greek philosophers like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics had their lists of good and bad attributes. What made the New Testament lists different from these other lists was that the NT lists were based on one’s relationship with Jesus Christ. In other words, you cannot apply these lists, whether good or bad, without knowing Jesus Christ as your Savior and King. Some people would rather have a list than a relationship with Christ.

Question: Do you have a list, or do you have a relationship?

The list of virtues in 2 Peter 1:5-7 is the most important and wide-ranging list in the entire New Testament. They are not just a random bunch of good things thrown together, but the apostle Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit used a literary device known as “sorites” where each quality builds on the previous one, leading to a climax (See commentaries by Baukham, Green, and Callan). Listen again to 2 Peter 1:5 “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue…” I’ve pointed out two important Greek words here in the previous messages: “diligence” is “spoude,” which means “be earnest,” “make haste,” or “make every effort” and “add” is “epichoregeo, which means “to furnish,” or “to fully supply.” There is one more word in between which is found only once in the New Testament, and it was also rare in ancient times: “pareisphero” means “bring in beside” or “introduce.” Here it means “introduce one virtue after another.” In other words, build each virtue on top of the other.

What is very interesting is that this list begins with faith and ends with love. This is not accidental. It is intentional. In today’s message, we will focus on just faith because we must get this right. If not, the rest of the list will collapse.

Before we begin this list focusing on faith, there’s a Warning: This is not a ladder that leads to salvation. This ladder begins with salvation. In a sense, we furnish/supply each of these virtues, but it is really God who has already furnished/supplied these virtues to us when we got saved. Listen to 2 Peter 1:1 “Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.” In other words, we are only working out what has been worked in. With that said, let’s begin:

1. Faith – the Greek word is “pistei.” This word can have two meanings. The first meaning is “trust in God or the gospel.” The second meaning is “faithfulness” or “loyalty.” Some people pick the first and some pick the second. I believe that both meanings are implied here. 

A. Faith in God:

Christian life is a life of faith in God and his promises. Here the focus is not on the faith we exercised when we got saved, but it is the daily faith we exercise now. 2 Corinthians 5:7 “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” Also, Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Jesus demonstrated this life of faith, and he taught on the life lived by faith.

In the Beatitudes – Matthew 6       25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

In his many miracles and ministry, just in Matthew – Matt. 8:26 But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. Matt. 9:2 Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.” Matt. 9:22 But Jesus turned around, and when He saw her He said, “Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that hour. Matt. 9:29 Then He touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith let it be to you.” Matt. 15:28 Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour. Matt. 17:20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.

I can give many more references from Paul’s letters and other writings in the New Testament, but there’s one I have to mention when it comes to faith – Hebrews 11 (The Hall of Faith). Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”

One of my heroes in faith was R. G. LeTourneau. He was known as the “Dean of Earthmoving” – one of the greatest inventors of heavy equipment. When he started his business in 1921, in just two years he was $100,00 dollars in debt. But over the next 18 years, his business grew to $10 million dollar with 4 factories and 3000 employees.

• His heavy equipment has been used around the world to clear land and build highways, dams, reservoirs, and everything big you can imagine.
• During World War II, 70 percent of bulldozers and engineering vehicles were LeTourneau’s inventions, even some of the machinery that carried our men to the shores of Normandy.
• He was responsible for as many as 300 patents. His huge mobile offshore drilling platforms are used for drilling oil in the seas around the world.
• He founded LeTourneau University and supported many colleges, even the one that Nicole and I attended.

It happened in 1931 (2 years after the Great Depression hit the United States and the world) LeTourneau had two construction projects in hand – one, a million-dollar contract, to build a highway to Boulder Dam on the Colorado River in Nevada; the second, a half a million-dollar contract, to build the Orange County Dam in Southern California. There were some problems in completing the Boulder Dam and LeTourneau was in a loss of $100,000 – in today’s standards it would be a $1 million dollars. Anyways, bonding company in San Francisco was willing to do one of two things – take it out of LeTourneau’s hands or oversee as he did it. To make matters worse – the State Inspector came and said “It is too late to get started because rainy season is just a few months away. You cannot complete it. Have to wait till next year.” To wait a year, might as well as call it the end – there will be no recovery. LeTourneau begged and pleaded with the inspector who finally said there is some work to be done at the base of the dam. If you can complete the work in 1 month, I will believe that you can finish the dam before the rainy season comes. LeTourneau and his men worked days, night and Sundays. The job was done. Nothing like it was done. Inspector said, “Alright if you work at the same speed, I know you will get it done before the rains.” Prior to this LeTourneau had never worked his men on Sundays. It troubled his conscience to work on Sundays and keep his men from God’s Day of rest. (I know that some of us in the medical field or law enforcement or professions like them are required to be there. We are not talking about that.) He approached the Bonding company and said “I want to stop the work on Sunday. We’ll still get the job done.” They said, “No way – to much of a risk for us. You do that – we take over.” LeTourneau prayed and asked the Lord. A still voice said “Obey God rather than man.”

They did not show up Sunday. The next day the head man at San Francisco called “What do you think you are doing? We try to help you and this is what you do. Either you work Sundays or we take over.” LeTourneau answered, “I cannot change my decision. You can take everything I have except my wife and children.” Three days later the headman came to the scene and said, “Alright fellow, you do it your way. I will back you up. I guess it will be alright.” Needless to say, the work was completed and LeTourneau was able to save the business. Bottom line – LeTourneau honored God.

The very next year, 1932, things were not much better. He was again in hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. The pay roll was five weeks behind. LeTourneau did not know what would happen next. It felt like it was over. That Sunday he was in church. It was a Missions Sunday and people were pledging for missions. God spoke to his heart and said – “How about making a pledge to missions this year?” He answered – “How can I? There are people in church here who work for me. I haven’t paid them in five weeks. If I do this, they would call me a hypocrite for making a pledge when I wasn’t paying my bills.” God told him to divide the pledge and make it in the names of his children. He made a pledge of $5000, which was a lot by today’s standards.

About this time, he had sold a machine to a contractor, but he was having trouble with the steel tires in the desert sand. The contractor wanted to go elsewhere but LeTourneau persuaded him to let him try the pneumatic tires. It worked like a charm. The contractor bought two of the scrapers and even told him to build another one. R.G. asked if he could have a small down payment. The man said – “Down payment! I’ll give you the check for the whole thing!” He gave him a check for $25,000. From there on, God became his business partner. He would often say: “Not how much of my money I give to God, but how much of His money I keep for myself.” R.G. also gave way 90% of his income to the Lord’s work.

He put it this way: “I shovel out the money and God shovels it back in—but God has a bigger shovel.”

Application: If there is one point I want to stress more than others, then it’s this one. Do you trust God? Are you trusting him right now in your life? Are we as a church Clearview trusting God for future? When there is no faith element, there is no place for God to step in. Are we trusting God for big things? Someone might say – “It’s hard to trust God at times, especially with money.” One time someone asked R.G. LeTourneau, “If you know a thing is the will of God and you do not feel you have the faith, what do you do?” He said, “I go ahead and act like I have the faith.”

Question: How is your faith in God level?

B. Faithfulness to God

The Bible (just looking at New Testament) is full of passages that talk about the faithfulness of God, especially of his Son Jesus:

• 1 Corinthians 1:9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
• 1 Cor. 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
• 2 Thessalonians 3:3 But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one.
• 2 Timothy 2:13 If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.
• Heb. 2:17 Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
• 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
• Rev. 1:5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth.

Paul repeatedly used it to describe some churches and believers: Eph. 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus: Eph. 6:21 “…Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord.” Col. 1:7 as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, Col. 4:7 Tychicus, a beloved brother, faithful minister, and fellow servant in the Lord, will tell you all the news about me. Col. 4:9 with Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you…” 1Tim. 1:12  And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.” Rev. 17:14 These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.”

But God desires for us to be faithful to him. Jesus taught this. Matthew 25:21 His lord said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’”

Example of the family my father met in seminary. They were very poor, lived in a one room house where each person got a nail to hang their belongings. When he woke up early morning, they were all outside reading their Bible and praying. Later, he recounts, every one of them became very affluent and influential for God.

Application: Are you faithful to the Lord in your promises, daily walk, prayer life, giving?

Question: How is your faithfulness to God level?

C. Faithfulness to Others

This flows out of the other two. If the other two are off, this will be off as well.

Application: Do people see you as a faithful person? Do they see you as a loyal person?

Question: How is your faithfulness to Others level?

Are you saved? Do you trust God? Are you faithful to God? Are you faithful to others?