4For 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. 5Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. 10Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; 11for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you. 2 Peter 1:4-11

If we do not make the effort to build our faith, our heart’s vision becomes darkened. When our heart’s vision is darkened, we lose understanding of our faith, salvation, heaven, and our connection with God. Our faith is asleep. We are unable to gain new insight when reading the Bible or listening to sermons. When a minister’s faith is asleep, there is no new insight delivered in their sermons. When our attention is devoted to the issues we encounter in our daily lives rather than our faith, we are distracted from building our understanding. We are so focused on how and what we should do to succeed in our livelihoods that our faith sleeps. 

The more effort we put into our faith, the better our vision to see where we are going wrong or where we are disconnected from God. We feel at peace because we know that we are repenting and correcting. When we do not see anything to correct and receive only praise, we should be worried. Are we missing something? Has God abandoned me or have I abandoned Him? Do not be envious of those who make no effort to believe faithfully yet live comfortable lives. It is through hardship that we become cleaner and grow in our faith. If we have this approach, we see hardships as blessings which will provide stronger insight and faith in the future. 

To combat a sleeping faith, we must constantly review how or why we fall short in aligning with God’s purpose. The enemy of our faith is complacency, pride, and our old self which cause us to focus on our own desires and seek to disconnect us from God. As we look more closely and deeply into ourselves, we will see that our old self sabotages us. Our old self is our enemy. We must identify our evil nature, spirit, and habits that block our connection with God and repent them.

We must pay attention to our present, how we have acted in the past, and how we should act in the future. Ask ourselves, “if I continue to live in this way, what will happen in the future?” “What kind of person will I be, what kind of faith will I have?” “If I carry on this way, how will I face God on judgment day?” Those who use their conscience to review their past gain insight and prepare their faith for the future and are ready for the present. This happens only when we pray and seek to align to be righteous before God.

The next step is to look at ourselves from the perspective of others and how we treat them. “Have I considered how my actions have affected others: have I treated them in the right way?” The selfish person only sees from their point of view, constantly complaining about how they have been treated poorly and wronged. Here the old self becomes strong, not the new self. They stop caring for others. They always believe they are right. The most pitiful person in our society is the one who uses religion to live according to their own agenda. They never critique themselves. This is the original sin, the sin of trying to become like God to serve ourselves, our vision, and our desires. This is a prison we build when we stop focusing on improving and building our faith.

To summarize, we must constantly put the effort into increasing our faith to enhance our vision. We must review our faith with respect to our past and present with the ability to act faithfully in the future. We must see ourselves from others’ perspectives. We must eliminate our old self and build our new self through our repentance, correcting what our stronger vision shows us to fix. We cannot become distracted, short-sighted, or complacent when it comes to building our faith. The more effort we put forth, the better the understanding of how to act faithfully before God.

Click for Korean sermon https://soundcloud.com/yhpaik/1984-5-17a?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing