Are You In Fit Condition Series

What type of spiritual nutrition do you get? A prayer at meals and at bed? Read three bible verses and your daily bread? Or do you study to show yourself approved to God. Jesus says in Matt 4:4 - Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Psalm 119:103 - How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path.

When you’re down, God’s word will lift you up. When you’re lost, it will give you direction. When you’re afraid, it will give you hope. When you’re weak, it will give you strength. When you’re hurting, it will bring you healing. We need to feed daily on the word of God for good spiritual nutrition. Spiritual fitness

• it requires exercise - to be physically fit, we need exercise, we need to get up of the couch and walk a couple miles. We need to raise our heart rate. We need to push our bodies out of our comfort zone. And spiritually, we need to push ourselves also. Paul says in verse 10 - for this we labor and strive -- the NLT puts it this way - We work hard and suffer much in order that people will believe the truth, for our hope is in the living God. The word “labor” indicates growing weary, and the word strive or toil or suffer -- is the word for the athletic matches - agon - he says we agonize and wear ourselves out - we exhaust all energy to grow spiritually.

Growing easy is simple, but it is hard work. It is easy to know what to do; it is just exhausting to do it. Running in the Boston Marathon isn’t hard to know what to do; it’s just exhausting to do it.

Sometimes as Christians, we don’t like all we have to do to be faithful. Sometimes it would just seem easier to watch the questionable shows. Sometimes we don’t want to speak up to confront someone who is doing wrong. Sometimes we don’t want to have to take a stand for what is right. But we wear ourselves out, because that is how we grow spiritually.

My mother used to have a little saying on her desk: Christians are like tea; their real strength comes out when they are placed in hot water! So, as Christians, we need proper nutrition, proper exercise, and we need

• it requires progress - To grow spiritually, we need to make progress. Look down in verse 15 - Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. We need to look for spiritual maturity to come over time. But we have to be faithful in our nutrition and exercise.

Some people approach dieting with the mentality that they will starve themselves for three days, they lose two pounds, and then they go out and binge for a week and gain 5 pounds. To diet effectively, we need a lifestyle change, we need to change how we think about eating on an ongoing basis. And to see spiritual growth, we need a lifestyle change. We can’t just sit down this afternoon and read 20 chapters and think we will suddenly be spiritual. It is an ongoing effort. Paul tells Timothy in verse 11 - Command and teach these things. This is in the present tense, which shows continuing action. He is saying, Timothy, Keep on commanding these things. Don’t give up! He needs daily exercise to see progress. And Paul tells Timothy the progress will be seen as he focuses on ministry, on serving God. He first needs so set an example: verse 12 - set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. To have a successful ministry, you need a life that backs up your teaching. But notice verse 13 - Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Public reading - they used to read from the OT scrolls and comment on them. Some people feel that the only thing the OT is good for is to give the prophecies in the Christmas Story. If we are going to grow spiritually, it means we need to break away from matthew and John and Philippians, and start reading 1 Kings, and Isaiah and the book of Job. When is the last time you read the OT and really sought for God to speak to your heart out of it? Timothy is to read the OT publicly. He is to preach - to give encouragement and exhortation to others through the scripture. And he is to teach -- to systematically look at themes and subjects and what the Bible has to say about them. And he needed to keep on doing this.