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INTRODUCTION
Preserve means - make sure something
lasts; to keep something protected from
anything that would cause its current quality or
condition to change or deteriorate or cause it to
fall out of use; maintain something; to keep up
or maintain something.
Let us not know that God’s word is relevant
in every age, for if the principles are applied in
every age they get the best of all results.
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We are the luckiest of all generations with
the advent of Information Technology – we
have the Bible and Bible materials online at our
finger tips. Yet this age has the worst enslaving
gargets ever known to man. Consider its
greatest advantage versus the greatest
disadvantage.
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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. 8
For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither
barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9
For he who lacks these things is short-sighted, even to blindness,
and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. 10
Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and
election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; 11
for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the
everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1.5-11 (NKJV).
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Preserving Our Christian Faith In the 21st
Century we need to follow God’s formula to
maintain and sustain our Christian faith in this
perverse and permissive generation.
HAVE FAITH IN GOD
"Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in
God, believe also in Me. John 14.1 (NKJV). Our
conversion presupposes that we have faith in
God.
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•That we believe that God is and He is the
creator of heaven and earth.
•That in His power He made the earth to stands
on nothing.
•The God destroyed the world of Noah; He
rained water on the earth for 40 days saving
only eight souls.
•The God Who saved Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego in the furnace of fire.
•The God Who saved Daniel in the lion’s Den.
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•The God Who raise the dead, Walked on the
sea, and who raised Jesus Christ from the dead.
Etc.
•That His promises are sure in this life and the
life to come.
For our faith to be strong we need to add the
supplements that will make for healthy
spiritual living. Now we must add spiritual
supplements to our faith.
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ADD TO YOUR FAITH - VIRTUE (GOODNESS)
Virtue is the first spiritual supplement you
add to your faith. For no one can say he is a
Christian when his moral life is poor. What you
say, what you see or watch, what you listen to
and what you do must be morally clean (If you
add virtue to your faith). We must add to our
faith virtue, which is moral goodness or moral
purity.
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Fine brethren have been among those
excommunicated for immorality. We live today
in a very permissive society. Daily we are
broken down by what the people say: what we
see and watch in the television and in the
internet. Our music videos break us down etc.
After our baptism, we are supposed to have
been dead to sin but this not the case.
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“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on
sinning so that grace may increase? By no
means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any
longer? Or don't you know that all of us who
were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized
into his death: We were therefore buried with
him through baptism into death in order that,
just as Christ was raised from the dead through
the glory of the Father, we too may live a new
life” (Rom.6.1-4 NIV).
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The song written by L.O. Sanderson best
describes the thought. “Buried with Christ, my
blessed Redeemer; Dead to the old life of folly and
sin; Satan may call, the world may entreat me;
There is no voice that answers within; Dead to the
world, to voices that call me. Living a new
obedient but free, Dead to the joys that once did
enthral me – Yet ‘tis not I, Christ liveth in me.”
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We can illustrate being dead to sin with one
who smokes but stopped because he is now a
Christian. After some time, he detests the odour
of cigarette as if he never once enjoyed it. Such
a person is dead to smoking cigarette. So are we
to die to sin. Daily we are broken down by the
Social media - Email, Twitter, Facebook,
YouTube, Google etc. When we are dead to the
world we will no longer listen to voices of sin in
the social media.
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We will concentrate on God’s side period! We
are supposed to grow better year after year. We
can live above sin not by our power but His
grace.
ADD TO VIRTUE - KNOWLEDGE
Knowledge is the next spiritual supplement
to add to our faith after we have added virtue.
Pure
academic
knowledge
without
unwholesome distraction plus spiritual
knowledge is progressive in this age.
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You google for far enriching information that will
make you increase your knowledge academically and
spiritually. The search engine is so wonderful a tool
but it can be used for the good, the bad and the ugly.
If you have virtue you have to maintain and sustain
it with knowledge. Virtue demands that
“Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile,
insincerity, envy, and all slander. Like new-born infants, long
for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into
salvation-- if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good”
(1Pet.1.1-3 NRSV).
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The spiritual milk in this context is the Word of
God. Paul the apostle wrote by the Holy Spirit
that about the word of God saying:
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness, 17that the man of God
may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good
work” 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NKJV).
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It is sufficient to teach all God wants us know; it
is also enough to make bare our faults; and
show us the way out of our faults; then it
instructs us on living right, thus equipping us
for every good work.
Many have refused to grow. They revolve around one
year’s growth for fifteen years.
How sad!
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“But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ.
To him be glory both now and forever. Amen” (2 Pet.
3.18 KJV).
This I have proved in many congregations that I
have visited.
We invest in our academic
education. We spend a lot in our children’s
education. These are alright! But we fail invest in
our spiritual education. Most of the books we
have were given to us by our American brethren.
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Every teacher or preacher of the gospel who
wants to be relevant today must have a computer
preferably a laptop. There are many soft-wares
that are very helpful, with a lot of books all at your
finger tip. It contains amongst others the
following: Many versions of the Bible, many Bible
dictionaries, concordances, treasury of scripture,
commentaries, many helpful books, etc. The
church is indeed the pillar and ground of Truth.
We must therefore exercise our senses and study
to be approved of God (1Tim.3.15, 2Tim. 2.15).
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ADD TO KNOWLEDGE - TEMPERANCE
(SELF-CONTROL)
The next spiritual supplement to add to
knowledge is self-control. You keep increasing
your knowledge and this makes you know
more of the things you should do and not do.
The temptation comes because you know. Eve,
the mother of all living may not have eaten that
fruit because there are many fruits in the
garden.
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Temptation comes because her attention
was now drawn to it. She now “saw that the
tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to
the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise,
she took of its fruit and ate [Gen. 3.6 (NKJV).]
It is true today for many, who use the
internet they know that there is pornography
there, and then cometh the devil telling them,
‘just a quick look will not do much harm’, and
one tries it and gets addicted to it.
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This destroys their senses and they crave
seriously to satisfy the urge. Many fine men and
women have fallen beyond redemption. Try it by
buying ice cream for children in the house and
you keep it in the freezer without their knowing
then you can give it to them when you think fit.
But if you show it to them and say this is your ice
cream but you will take it after lunch. More often
than not, they will come saying we want it now
even crying for it. It works for all ages.
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Self-control is needed by every Christian to
stay alive spiritually and we all need it to
preserve our faith in these perverse generation.
This is one of the positive traits that must be
seen practically in our lives as evidence of how
much of God’s word we have taken into our
hearts. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly
in all wisdom;...” (Col. 3.16 KJV).
How much God’s word have you taken in the
past ten years?
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When you are provoked by a brother’s
uncomplimentary speech how do you react? Self-control
is that quality that keeps you calm when others lose their
head. The way some of our brethren behave in our
Business Meetings is shameful. If God is present in our
midst then it means that these railing brethren do not fear
God and they are not converted yet. No matter how
passionate you are about the matter under consideration
you must speak with decorum and with the fear of God.
This is self-control! When you are provoked, you must
speak truly with the fear of God and if you do, you have
this quality of temperance. It is one of the visible sign of
maturity.
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When the matter in question affects our
personal interest? Temperance is the ability to
stay to give a soft answer that turns away anger.
“A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous
words stir up anger” (Prov. 15.1 KJV). Selfcontrol is the quality to be quick to hear and
slow to speak. “Wherefore, my beloved brethren,
let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak,
slow to wrath” James 1:19 (KJV).
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We have irrational brethren in every church
and they are a disgrace to the church. They
have a factious spirit. They like to lobby
brethren to support their selfish evil. In most
cases they constitute more than half of the
vocal members of the leaders of the church.
Some vocal brethren are of sound mind and I
respect them. They have self-control these are
true servants of Jesus Christ in the church.
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Preserving our faith therefore needs the
addition of this supplement called self-control
every sphere of our life.
ADD TO TEMPERANCE - PATIENCE
(PERSEVERANCE, ENDURANCE)
Patience (KJV), Perseverance (NIV),
Endurance (NRSV), is the anchor that holds
and sustains self-control. Any time a brother
loses self-control he has already lost patience.
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It is one thing to know that bribery in any
form is sinful but it is yet another thing to
refuse to bribe to get what we want. Offering
bribe to get admission instead of doing our best
to doing it right in exams we resort to bribe and
most of the time we lose out. So this
supplement called patience or perseverance
keeps us holding on to the conviction of our
faith. It is patience that upholds our self-control
when we said no to the temptation to sin.
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One of the characteristic of the love of Christ
as stated in 1Cor.13.4 is that “Love is patient,”
(NIV/NRSV), “Charity suffereth long”(KJV),
“Love suffers long” (NKJV). Love suffers long
that is it persevere and endures long to
maintain our integrity. This is what our Lord
Jesus Christ displayed during His trial and
crucifixion as recorded by Peter.
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“For to this you have been called, because Christ also
suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you
should follow in his steps.”He committed no sin, and no
deceit was found in his mouth." When he was abused, he
did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not
threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges
justly” (1 Pet. 2.21-23 NRSV) .
May we follow that example daily! This is
the sense of discipline that makes one hold on.
It says “I am a Christian and must maintain and
sustain it.
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ADD TO PATIENCE - GODLINESS
This supplement is seen in our everyday life.
This word comes from two Greek words and if
combined will mean well devoted and it is said
to denote piety – dutifulness in religion that is
characterized by a God-ward attitude.
Godliness therefore, is our visible commitment
in the faith we profess. We work hard in our
place of work. Some are very passionate about
football and give it so much time and energy.
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Others are passionate about home video and they give
it so much time. The same is true of many youth with their
phones on Facebook that they give it so much attention.
Many have being engrossed in their business so much that
God’s business has been neglected. This has triggered a
growing apathy, disinterest in the word of God. They
should make the best use they can of the present seasons
of grace.
Our time is a talent given us by God for some good end,
and it is misspent and lost when it is not employed
according to his design. If we have lost our time therefore,
we must endeavour to redeem it by doubling our diligence
in doing our duty for the future.
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We draw from this time bank every day
86400 seconds and how many of it do we really
use for God?
Patience has already made one who has it
disposed to having the motive from which all
godlike action flows and causes one to do only
that which is well pleasing to God. Those with
this disposition are serious members of the
church and see every church activity as a serious
business that their participation is needed, so
could not afford to be absent.
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Their social and extended family meetings and
activities will never be allowed to take any
prominence over the least activity of the local
church. One with such disposition is compelled to
always be there even if it turns out that he is the
only one there, he will still want to be there at the
next opportunity.
ADD TO GODLINESS - BROTHERLY KINDNESS
We need add one more supplement to our
spiritual well-being and this is Brotherly kindness.
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You cannot tell the love of Christ to others without
first showing that you have it. If we are the light of the
world we must exhibit love of Christ to the world, a
reason that made the early church enjoyed favour
among the people and many were added to the
church. You spend time with those you love. Means
you relate with brethren well before you can relate to
outsiders. Men have said charity begins at home.
Making friends of God’s children will keep you
from many sinful thoughts and deeds. God’s children
around you serve as a wall of defence around you.
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Geo C. Stebbins wrote the song “Take Time to Be Holy”:
Take time to be holy, speak oft with the Lord; Abide in
Him always, and feed on his word. Make friends of God’s
children; Help those who are weak,
forgetting in nothing His blessings to seek.
This love of the brethren must be seen and felt
in the church. And many scriptures mention it.
Some call it the one another concept and is
everywhere in the New Testament. Christ has
enjoined to love one another.
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“A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one
another as I have loved you, that ye also love one
another” John 13.34 (KJV). “Be kindly affectionate one
to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one
another;” (Rom 12.10 KJV). “Owe no man anything, but
to love one another.” (Rom. 13.8 KJV). “Wherefore
receive ye one another.” (Rom. 15.7 KJV). “You also be
filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one
another.” (Rom. 15.14 KJV). “Let us not be desirous of
vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another”
(Gal 5:26 KJV).
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“With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering,
forbearing one another in love;” (Eph. 4:2 KJV).“And be ye
kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one
another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you”
(Eph. 4:32 KJV). “Forbearing one another, and forgiving
one anothe.” (Col 3:13 KJV). “Wherefore comfort
yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye
do” (1 Thess.5.11 KJV). “And let us consider one another
to provoke unto love and to good works” (Hebs. 10.24
KJV). “But exhorting one another: and so much the more,
as ye see the day approaching” (Hebs. 10.25 KJV).
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ADD TO BROTHERLY KINDNESS CHARITY (LOVE)
This is the most potent supplement to our
spiritual health in this Christian race. After
loving ourselves we must love others. This love
cannot be over emphasised. This is the love for
all mankind irrespective of race, colour and
tongue.
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“For God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have everlasting life” John 3.16 (KJV).
“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ
died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a
righteous person--though perhaps for a good person
someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his
love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died
for us” (Rom.5.6-8 NRSV). “For the love of Christ urges
us on, because we are convinced that one has died for
all; therefore all have died.
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And he died for all, so that those who live might live
no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was
raised for them. From now on, therefore, we regard no
one from a human point of view; even though we once
knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him
no longer in that way” (2Cor.5.14-16NRSV). “Therefore,
if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has
gone, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17 NIV).
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This is the AGAPE love. This is the real
motivation for preaching the GOSPEL to all
mankind. Loving those of different faith and
even those who pose to be our enemies we seek
opportunity to do good things to them. “Let this
mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:”
(Phil 2.5 KJV).
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SUMMARY
8For if these things are yours and abound, you
will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When we take this complete range of
supplements our spiritual immunity reaches its
peak, and our spiritual cells, tissues, systems
and organs now function at optimum level.
Then we are truly preserving our Christian
faith.
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9For
he who lacks these things is short-sighted,
even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was
cleansed from his old sins. 10Therefore, brethren, be
even more diligent to make your call and election
sure, for if you do these things you will never
stumble; 11for so an entrance will be supplied to you
abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Those who lack these nutrients will be shortsighted and even going blind because they have
forgotten they were cleansed from their sins.
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While those who added these nutrients to
their faith will never stumble but remain firm
and these will have an entrance not only
supplied but abundantly supplied into the
everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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