July 20, 2018

“Vices or Virtues: Part 2”

Vice or virtue – which will define your life? Yielding to vices is easy; whereas, developing virtues is hard work. Consider King Solomon whose promising beginning ended in painful failure.  He finished his life as an old man who compromised his values, who possessed a lustful mind, and who squandered his life away on trivial things. As we age, we can be tempted to do the same thing.  This is why a series on aging matters!  The longer we live the more vices we should discard and the more virtues we should develop! Last week we looked at seven vices, also known as the Seven Deadly Sins, which can easily destroy us in our golden years.  Those seven vices include lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. Contrary to popular opinion, vices don’t automatically end in old age.  As a matter-of-fact, they can grow worse if left unchecked. Now for the Good News – every born-again follower of Jesus Christ has been given a new nature that enables him or her to live a life free from the domination of sin. In other words, every believer in Jesus can walk away from vice in order to pursue virtue.  It was that very promise I highlighted in last week’s message.  Here it is again from 2 Peter 1:3 – God has given us [believers] everything we need for living a godly life. On Sunday, I’ll focus on the seven virtues God tells us to add to our lives.  They’re listed in 2 Peter 1:5-7.  I hope you’ll read about them before we gather for worship this coming Sunday. Believing it matters, pastor jamie