Chapter 1, we are continuing in our series of sermons entitled Christian Grows Up. Christian Grows Up. And I will read, commencing from verse 5, and make our way to verse 8, 2 Peter, beginning with verse 5 of chapter 1, 2 Peter 1, verse 5 to verse 8. And the Bible says that, 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, steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours, and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. It had been roughly six weeks of a break from the series, and last week we came back to this passage of Scripture. And what were we seeing last week? Well, there are two assumptions that the Apostle Peter made. Two assumptions. The first is that you possess these qualities. And the second is that you are growing in your possession of these qualities. We saw that at the beginning of the stage, for if these qualities are yours and are increasing, and what we saw there is really that this is the fountain which what gives birth or what spurs us on into the whole realm of being effective and being truthful, which is really the point that Nietzsche was making here. Verse 8 again, For if these qualities are yours, and are increasing, They keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Today, I want us to pause for a moment and look at the awful reality of ineffectiveness and fruitlessness. Ineffectiveness and fruitlessness. The very reason why Peter is concerned about Christians growing up is because he saw he was a witness too in the midst of his own ministry as an apostle to so many individuals who profess faith in Christ. In other words, they claim to know Christ, but they are ineffective. They are unproductive. And he was concerned about this. And consequently, he gave the instructions that he's giving here, that this is the medicine, this is the cure of ineffectiveness and fruitlessness. And it is what? Growing up as believers in our Lord Jesus Christ. And I must admit, I am in the same shoes as the apostle Peter here. I've been around the Christian faith long enough, and there is nothing more disturbing than being around individuals who profess to be Christians, but they never throw a punch for Jesus. Never! Somehow they simply flow along with everybody else. There is hardly any dust raised where they are. There are hardly any souls saved where they are. There are hardly any believers who are mentioning their names in terms of, I was helped here in my Christian life. I was helped there in my Christian life. They never appear in any of these. Somehow they tend to think that just because I warm my pew on Sunday, I have done my bit for Jesus Christ. Ineffective. Unproductive. What a sad reality. Let's look at this very quickly together. First of all, ineffectiveness. It is a sad reality. that many Christians are ineffective in their knowledge of Jesus Christ. The Greek word that is used here, agos, can be translated either as lazy or idle or useless. In other words, it's referring to individuals who are inactive. They are indolent. They are individuals who just sort of hang around as the day passes by. We have the example of this in the parable of our Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter 20. Matthew and chapter 20. Listen to this. It's referring to an individual who was hiring other people to come and work in his vineyard. The Lord Jesus Christ says, beginning with verse one, for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. Now listen to this. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace. Standing idle in the marketplace. And to them he said, you go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right, I will give you. Let's jump this five and go to this six. And about the 11th hour, he went out and found others standing. He said to them, why do you stand here idle all day? Now, this is not a strange sight. All you need to do is to visit a lot of our compounds, and you will find that there are individuals who are just standing in street corners, seated in street corners, doing nothing. Minutes are turning into hours, and they're just talking and talking and talking, allowing time to pass. They are completely idle. And some of them are sitting just outside the premises of their own homes. And when you look behind them, the grass is this high. They cannot even think in terms of trimming the grass, looking after the property. No, no, no. They are just idle, waiting for somebody to come and call them for a meal in the house. Now, that's the issue that Peter is talking about here. It's that same phrase, idle, inactive, indolent, and so forth. Now, it is possible to do a lot more than simply sitting doing nothing. It is possible for you to be apparently doing something, and yet it is something that is not useful at all. And in a sense, that's where this word ineffective and unfruitful go together. In other words, a person who's effective is productive. It's possible to be an individual who's up and about, but there's nothing to show for that up and about. A few quick verses will prove the point. Still in Matthew and chapter 12. Matthew 12 and verse 36. We read here Jesus warning. He says, I tell you, Matthew 12 verse 36, I tell you on the day of judgment, people give account for every careless word they speak. Now the word careless there is actually the word idle. Every idle word they speak. In other words, they are talking, talking, talking, talking, but the words are not helping anybody. They're not helping anybody. And we shall see one or two examples of that in a moment. Turn with me to first Timothy and chapter five, verse 13. First Timothy chapter five and verse 13. This is what we read there. 1 Timothy 5 and verse 13 about widows, by the way, especially younger widows. We read there in verse 13, besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies saying what they should not. Again, you can't miss this picture. It's referring to individuals who you find when you go to different homes, they are there. They are occupied with talking when they are there. But when you listen to what they're talking about, it is nothing but gossip. It is, have you heard? You know, I picked this up there. Have you heard? You know, this one did this. Have you heard? And that's all they are doing. So they are talking, but they're not helping anybody. Now today, we can do that quite a lot through texting. So it's not necessary going from home to home, especially during COVID. Nobody wants you to come through their front doors. But we do it still with our little cell phones, if you heard, and especially forwarding, bam, forwarding this and bam, forwarding that and bam, forwarding. It's all nothing but rumors that we are spreading. Well, Jesus was saying, you will have to give an account for all this information that basically amounts to rumors, to gossip, or to borrow a more modern term now, fake news, fake news. You're not helping anybody. And Titus chapter one, Titus chapter 1 also says the same thing. We read there in verse 12, Titus 1 verse 12, the Apostle Paul says, one of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars. evil beasts, and then listen to this, lazy gluttons, lazy gluttons, idle gluttons. In other words, when they have eaten, when they have fed their stomachs, what do they do? They simply now sit back and engage in nothing but lies, engage in nothing but gossip. Well, that's what the Apostle Paul is really referring to in these passages. That's what Jesus was referring to in Matthew. And that's what Peter is also referring to in this passage. You see, it is the exact opposite of the very nature of God. Jesus once said when he was on earth, that my father is always at work. And then he throws himself in as well and says the son is basically doing the same thing. God is not one in terms of the way he has shown himself. to be an idol god. No, he exerts energy not only in creation, he also exerts energy in upholding the entire universe. And we who claim to belong to him must be individuals who are also being deliberately effective, deliberately not idle. We are living in days of COVID-19, aren't we? Where people are constantly thinking about God. They're thinking about death. They're losing their jobs. They're stuck at home and so on. What days of opportunity we have. But let me ask, are we being effective in such days? Or are we also simply now becoming idle and simply participating in spreading stories, spreading rumors, spreading gossip? Are our lives counting in the days in which we are? Can people say of a truth that we have ministered to them in these very, very difficult times? Can they speak in those terms? Well, Peter is basically saying that if we are growing as believers, It will drive us to being effective. Even in the days of COVID-19, we will be effective because the life of God, like a stream, will be flowing through us, flowing through us in order to impact other people. Let's go on quickly to the area of unfruitfulness. the area of unfruitfulness. That's another area of real sadness. Some believers are unfruitful in their knowledge of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Peter says there, for if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful. This time the Greek word akapos that Peter uses is translated as either unfruitful, which we've seen here, or bare, or unproductive. It's a phrase that we often use in agriculture, don't we? We speak of an unfruitful mango tree. And some of us have had that experience to be in an area where it is now the rain season. And our neighbors' mangoes, the trees there are bearing a lot of mangoes. And then here we are in the midst of our own property in the midst of our yard and there is this tree, it is green, it is full with leaves, but no mangoes. Wow, we are going to have to buy mangoes from the shops, from the market. We have a mango tree on our property and it's not bearing any fruit. That's really the picture that is being captured here by being unfruitful. Now, spiritually, this means at least one area is that of winning souls. Because what do we mean by fruitfulness? Well, to be fruitful is basically to produce your own kind. That's what it is. It's to produce your own kind. So you've got a seed, which is a mango seed. You plant it into the ground. It becomes a tree. Well, you're looking forward to the day when that seed will now produce many mangoes, and consequently, many seeds. When you speak about a fruitful womb, you are speaking in terms of a mother who produces children. So in the same way, being fruitful, one of the ways we apply that is in terms of, yes, when I got converted, I was alone. But by the time I die, There will be so many other individuals who will be rejoicing that through my life, through my labors, they came to know Christ. And consequently, they are now believers. That's one way. Another way in which we are productive or fruitful is in terms of passing on our godliness to others, our godliness to others, building them up. So it is evangelism and it is also edification, the two going together, individuals being saved and individuals being sanctified. We are having that impact on others. So that they are able to say, when I lived with him, when I lived with her, my spiritual life received extra impetus. I was pushed further in order to live for the Lord Jesus Christ. Because this person impacted my life that way. Well, that's what fruitfulness is all about spiritually. Let me ask, are you being fruitful? Are you? Are individual lives being transformed in terms of salvation? Are individual lives being transformed in terms of sanctification? Now often, this is hindered by our failure to lovingly help people's felt needs. By lovingly, rather failing to lovingly help people's felt needs. What do I mean by that? You see, often when we begin to relate to people, what causes us to come into their lives is not so much that we have seen that they need to go from the kingdom of darkness to light or that they need to be enhanced in their spiritual life. Often it's basic things like food, transport, school fees. and so on, the basic issues. In these days, we might even throw in medical help. And as people's felt needs are met by you, you come alongside them, you help them with a little bit of your hard-earned kwacha. They begin to look at you with a different eye. They begin to think you are different from so many selfish and self-centered individuals. You are helping them without any hidden agenda. How come? It opens their hearts. It opens their minds. And then you are able to say to them, I'm a Christian. That's what makes the difference. The Lord Jesus saved me. He can save you too. Let me emphasize that because often that's where we miss the point. We think that evangelism is simply going out of our house, standing by the roadside and beginning to talk to the first person that passes by. Well, that's also evangelism. But often, it's the needy individuals that Jesus brings into our lives and our willingness to meet them at that practical, social, physical level. And when we do that, it pops up their ears. They want to hear. Now, what is it then that stops us from being thus effective and productive. What is it? It's, as I said, the absence of these qualities, the absence of these qualities. Let's go to the very last one, for instance, the one that says, add to brotherly affection love, add to brotherly affection love. Well, when you yourself, for instance, love with the world more than you ought to be in love with God, then inevitably you will fail because of your worldliness. Or, let's use another example, and that is when you have a lack of knowledge. Verse 5, the last part, that you are to add to your virtue knowledge. In other words, you have not, you are not growing in your appreciation that God, your father is in sovereign control over everything in your life. And that even COVID-19 has not come as a shock to him. Because you have not come to grasp God that way. You are always full of worry, worry, worry. I met believers who, they've got a job. As we can see, it's a steady job. And when you try to find out about their lives. They're telling you, you know, if I lose my job, I don't know what might happen to me. And so, you know, I'm trying to do these studies and do those studies. And I'm trying to invest here and to invest there. And they are so worried that they are not being productive now. The Lord Jesus Christ in his parable of the sower in Matthew and chapter 13 puts it this way. Matthew and chapter 13. The parable of the sower explained. Verse 22. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of this world, that is worry, And the deceitfulness of riches, again, what we talked about there, loving the world, they choke the word. And as a result, it proves unfruitful in their lives. And inevitably, they also prove unfruitful in the world. You see the point? Worry is an opportunity cost. All because you are not growing in your knowledge of God. You are not deliberate in studying who God is and his ways. You are not doing that. And as a result, you are being robbed of time of productivity. Productivity. Before I get on to my last point, it's worth stating that fruitlessness is as a result of ineffectiveness. Ineffectiveness is as a result of not being busy about the Lord's work. Not being busy about the Lord's work. Can you believe that there are Christians who when you ask them how is today, they say, it's boring. Boring! How can a Christian's life be boring? How can a farmer's life in the midst of farming be boring? How can a soldier's life in the midst of war be boring? Tell me, how? The Apostle Paul ended his letter to Titus with his words. Titus chapter 3 and verse 14. And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works so as to help cases of urgent need and not be unfruitful. There it is. Let our people learn to be committed to good works, to be busy about the Lord's work. to help cases of urgent need. In other words, right now, there are people who are in need of physical things, in need of food, in need of transport, in need of medical help, in need of this, that, and the other. They are there right now. School fees desperately needed now. And Postopo is saying, let our people be busy about this, busy. rather than being unfruitful. Let me hurry on to my last point. Why should we as Christians be concerned about living a life that is not ineffective and not unfruitful? Why should that be the case? Well, I want to suggest to you that it is because the Bible has given us a peep into eternity so that we can see God's attitude towards those who claim to be his children who are ineffective and unproductive. Let me say it again. The Bible has given us a peep into eternity. It's functioned like a stethoscope so that we can put it against the heart of God in eternity, in heaven, so that we can see how does God view us on earth when we are idle, when we are lazy, when we are barren and unproductive. How does God view it? And the reason why God, through his word, has given us that peep is so that we can have, as it were, a sucker punch to hit us between the eyes, saying, wake up before it is too late. Because God does not take kindly half-heartedness and coldness. Let's quickly look at a few of these examples. Let's go back to Matthew. Matthew and chapter 25. This is our Lord drawing to the end of his earthly ministry. Matthew 25. The whole chapter really is worth reading, but I don't have time to do that, so we will just read sections of it. First of all, the parable of the talents. The parable of the talents. I'll read just the first part. It says there in verse 14, for it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. This is what the kingdom of heaven is like. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. Listen to what these three men did. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them and he made five talents more. In other words, he was productive. Definitely not lazy. He was productive. He was effective. Verse 17, so also he who had two talents made two more talents. He was effective, he was active, he was fruitful. Listen to verse 18. But he who had received one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Well, we know the story. The master praised the one who had given five and brought five more. The master praised the one who had given two and brought two more. Let's go to what he said concerning the one who was unproductive. We read there, verse 24. He also who had received the one talent came forward saying, Master, I knew you had to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. So I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours. His master answered him, you wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I scattered no seed. Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming out have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has 10 talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away." And listen to this. and cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place, they will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now that's serious. Our Lord is actually teaching here that the unfruitful servant was thrown into hell. Now how does that fit in? with my Calvinistic theology, that a person who is saved never loses his salvation. Quite simple. And I'll prove it in a moment. And it is this, that often an unproductive soul is a soul that is actually not saved. Religious, yes, but not really saved by the spirit of the living God. in the ineffectiveness, it is in the fruitlessness. Let's hurry on. Because sometimes you'd almost think that Jesus is teaching a salvation by works. Let's begin with verse 31. When the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the gods. And he will place the sheep on his right and the gods on the left. Now let's keep the sheep for now. Let's go to the gods. Verse 49, verse 41. Then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, you cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. And trust me, that's hell. That's hell. Now, why was he sending these people to hell? Well, simple. They were ineffective and they were unfruitful. beginning at a physical level. Listen to this. Verse 42. For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty, you gave me no drink. I was a stranger, you did not welcome me. Naked, you did not close me. Sick and in prison and you did not visit me. Yes. You did not care. There was no love. There was no brotherly affection in you. Nothing. And so we read in verse 46, and these will go away into eternal punishment by the righteous into eternal life. If there's a parable that gives me the chills, it is in Luke 13. Luke 13. And clearly, our Lord was deliberately using these pictures in order to, as it were, send that blow, that sucker punch between our eyes to wake us up that a slothful, lazy, indolent Christian life leads to hell. Trust me, it's a back door into hell. Because it's not real Christianity. A thousand times no. Listen to this. Verse six, Luke 13 and verse six. And he told this parable. A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Remember it's a parable. It's an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Remember that. And he said to the vine dresser, look, for three years now, I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. That's what gives me the chills. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground? And he answered, sir, let it alone this year also until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good. But if not, you can cut it down. It's an earthly story, but with a heavenly meaning. And this vine dresser is saying, allow me to get a fork and dig in the soil around the roots and put in some manure in hope that as we work around this, there might be fruit. often God does this. He brings difficult times in our lives. He brings sickness. He brings death. He brings a loss of employment. He brings situations like COVID-19 into our lives. You just shake us up to say you are in the sleep of death. Wake up! And sadly, many of us can go right through COVID-19 the way we began, right the same way at the end, ineffective, unfruitful, and our time is over. And God says to the angel of death, cut him down. We've wasted enough time. Cut him down. That's Jesus giving us a paper. of how God feels concerning individuals who claim his name. They claim he is their savior. But they are still little, warped, selfish, self-centered souls, ineffective, unproductive, idle, gossipers, slanderers. That's all they do. Friend, if that's your life, you're on your way to hell. Trust me, you're on your way to hell. You might not like what I'm saying, but I'm warning you, based on these stories. Because true faith, the gift of God, never comes alone. It comes with works. It produces works. That's what James tells us. It produces works. You cannot be an individual who's come to know that God gave his son, his only son. He sent him from the glories of heaven to come into a sin-ridden world to live a life of poverty and finally die on the cross in order to bring your soul from hell to heaven and then you realize all that and you still remain a selfish life. You can't! You can't! The more you know, as we said, you add knowledge to virtue, you bring in self-control, You bring in steadfastness. You bring in godliness. Inevitably, it works its way out into brotherly affection and love. It is inevitable. So here's my plea again. Christian, grow up. I'm not asking that at the end of this one sermon, suddenly your life might be completely transformed. No, no, no. It won't happen. I'm saying grow up, add these qualities to your life. It's only as you add them to your life that it stops you from being ineffective. It stops you from being unproductive. If that doesn't happen, you're most likely just not saved. And the sooner you cry to Jesus, saying, Lord, why is it that my life is just about me, myself, and I? Despite my church going, despite my professing faith in you, Lord, save me. Save me now. And you will find, as we shall be seeing in closing, that there's a work for Jesus ready at your hand. A task that the master has planned just for you. And you will haste to do his bidding. You will seek to save him truthfully because There's a work for Jesus none but you can do. You'll give yourself to him, working for Jesus day by day, serving him ever, never faltering, obeying Christ, yielding your service to him because your life is full of virtue. of knowledge, of self-control, of steadfastness, of godliness, of brotherly affection, and of love. Christian, grow up. Amen.