This week I read a story about a profoundly disabled little girl named Danielle and Bernie and Diane, the middle-aged couple who adopted her. Dani spent the first 7 years of her life in miserable squalor, surrounded by roaches and maggots. She has no mental or physical disabilities but she is very handicapped. Her birth mother, for reasons still not understood, abandoned her to a bedroom, and never taught her to walk, talk, eat, or care for herself. Neglect robbed this child’s brain of the opportunity to develop!
Bernie and Diane, who are not wealthy, saw a picture of little Dani and, led by God, opened their hearts and their home to her two years ago on Easter. This little girl, now 9, can walk, eat, and attend special school, but she still does not talk, and may never! Why did this couple take on such a huge challenge, such a demanding task?
They are spiritual people, who live not simply to experience pleasure, find the next best restaurant, avoid any kind of hard choice! They are responsive to the Spirit, ready to do what God asks them to do.
In a moment, we are going to explore this issue of spirituality. What does a spiritual person look like?
First, let’s review for a moment, where we’ve been in the series of messages about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. In the first message, we considered that He is a Person,
knowable by us, living in us, and that makes us alive to God!
Last time I talked about three choices to be made by the individual who wants to overflow with the Spirit of God – Submission, Presentation, and Consecration.
You could have walked away thinking, “That’s a lot to ask.” It is!
There are substantial choices that we make as we walk with God. Jesus cautions us to ‘count the cost’ of discipleship. Let’s be radical here! The cost? Total loss! All things! Your life, your wife, your kids, your wealth, your privacy, your freedom, your fulfillment.... Totally abandoned to Him. There is a stinky form of Christianity that is quite popular here in America today that is completely culturally compromised.
It is a Christianity focused on individuality and self- satisfaction. The promise goes a little like this:
“Jesus is the ultimate motivational speaker who will juice your life and make you the happiest guy in your neighborhood!”
The theme song of these disciples is “It’s all about me, Jesus. And all this is for me!” What utter nonsense!
If our desire is to both know Him and please Him, to experience the amazing life in the Spirit - we will give ourselves without reservation to Him. And that leads us to this question:
What does a Spiritual Person look like?
For you, who models what a spiritual person is: Mother Theresa? Billy Graham? Your grandma? Joel Osteen? Bono? This pastor? All kidding aside, each of these people - including yours truly - illustrates a type of spirituality! But to make any one of those people the model of spirituality is a big mistake. Other than Jesus Christ, there is no single ideal! Truthfully, to set anyone up as your ideal is to create problems for yourself in becoming a truly spiritual man or woman! Yes, of course, we have mentors and those who lead us to know Him, but as we grow in Christ, we must realize that He made us to be unique beings. His expectations of us are not shaped by comparison but rather on how we respond to Him in the context of who we are:
the opportunities that belong to us,
the resources He has made available to us,
the experiences that have been a part of our lives!
“Each ONE will give account of HIMSELF to God,” the Bible says.
And yet, to ask the question - “What does a spiritual person look like?” - is not wrong.
Turn with me to this text. – Matthew 7: 1-2, 15-21 PB 1505
Here we find a juxtaposition of two ideas that appear, at least at first glance to be contradictory.
READ v. 1-2 “Don’t judge each other!”
“Don’t be quick to criticize, so ready to tear down, jumping to conclusions about others!”
And yet, there is this complementary word.
READ v. 15-21
There is fruit that is the observable evidence of God’s life in us!
If you were walk through a stand of trees and saw red apples growing on one of them, you would not need a degree in horticulture to know that you were gazing on an apple tree. Likewise, Jesus says that there will be visible qualities in the life of a person that will signal - here is a person is filled with the life of the Spirit of God!
So what are these qualities?
TEXT - Galatians 5: 19-25 PB 1815
It is tremendously important for us to note that this passage does not define spirituality with a list of acts of righteousness! Does this passage tell us that spirituality is about attending worship services, tithing, fasting, prayer, or caring for the poor? No, it goes deeper. That is not to suggest that those things are unimportant!
They are, however, the product of spirituality not the evidence of it!
Churches are full of people who do not know the first thing about Jesus, who know nothing of the Holy Spirit’s life, who attend faithfully, tithe generously, fast, pray, and care for those in need. They are good people perhaps, but unless they have the fruit that is described here, they are not spiritual!
The Bible says that spirituality is evidenced by CHARACTER that grows out of our intimate relationship with Christ, through the Spirit; not acts of righteousness that we do to earn the approval of God or other people!
Some of you may be thinking, –
“But, Jerry, aren’t we supposed to be holy people who live in a way that demonstrates that we the people of God?” Of course, we are! God has always had a holy people, those who lived in a way that is distinct, that enjoy His blessings, and that make His Presence known in the world.
In the Old Testament those holy people were the Jewish people who kept the Torah! They observed the laws that God gave about keeping Sabbath, eating kosher, bearing the mark of circumcision, giving their tithe, and observing the ritual sacrifices, the various feasts, and festivals. But, as the Biblical record shows, they failed miserably and frequently. Paul tells us that it wasn’t the Law of Moses that was flawed, it was the people trying to observe it! They kept tripping up over their sinful nature. Despite good intentions, they failed.
The New Covenant with God, under which you and I now live, does not discard the requirements for holy living, but there is a new component that makes it possible for us to be the holy people God loves. Paul tells us that now God writes His requirements on our hearts, rather than on tablets of stone! He now lives in us and empowers us by the complete transformation of our hearts and minds with His Holy Spirit. So, we are told that "the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." (Romans 14:17, NIV)
PRINCIPLE - God, the Holy Spirit, receives us in Christ and with our cooperation He creates new character in us from which flow the acts of righteousness that please Him!
The passage we read a few moments describes the universal traits of that new character.
Re-read Galatians 5: 22-23
The first evidence of the Spirit-life is LOVE! Everywhere in the New Testament love takes first place among the traits that mark those who follow Christ. Jesus Himself insisted that when we love God wholeheartedly and others totally, we fulfill ALL of God’s law! He also said simply - “By this will all people know you are my disciples - by your love for one another!”
It is quite difficult for us to really understand the quality and essence of the love of which the Scripture speaks. Our culture twists love into a means of gaining good feelings about ourselves.
∙ “I love you,” says the earnest young man to his lady. What does he almost always mean? “You make me feel a surge of good emotions. You are attractive to me.” Does he think about giving himself for her, about waking up at 4:30 AM, day in and day out, to make a living for her and his family? Does he think about setting aside his desire to enjoy her for himself so that they can have children together? Probably not! “I love you,” at least initially is really more about HIM than her!
Love, as the Bible presents it, is not about feeling good about another. It is about giving one’s self to another, for their benefit! Only this kind of love can put the evidences of Self that are listed in the previous verses to death. Where the Spirit is creating real love in us, things like-"paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; ... divided homes and divided lives" (Galatians 5:20, The Message) cease to exist.
The Spirit introduces another quality to our character called JOY!
Once again, we must not mistake this for the happiness we feel as individuals when life is going our way. As wonderful as that is, the joy that comes from the Spirit, is something far more profound that flourishes equally in the best of times and the worst of times.
Ill. - As my Dad was dying with cancer last year, I experienced some of the most profound moments of joy I have ever known in my life. I’m not just sugar-coating a bad experience with revisions of memory either. I look back in my journals and I see that God brought hope of eternal life that let me keep hope even as Dad’s life was slipping away. I was asked often, ‘How do you do this?’ I believe that it was the JOY of the Lord that gave me hope that superceded the sad circumstances that Dad was going through.
The Spirit constantly reminds us that we live in the “now and the not yet!” We are fully Christ’s and yet what we will be is not yet fully revealed! “Rejoice in the Lord,” Paul says, indicating that our joy finds a different source than temporal happiness. And remember this, too, the difference between the disciple’s joy and those who live in denial of their circumstances is that the Spirit makes eternity and God’s promises available to us right now.
Then, there is PEACE!
In Christ, we are brought to wholeness. Our fragmented lives find a unifying purpose. We are reconciled to God, to our past, to others by the Spirit’s work in us. And, we enjoy a tranquility as a result. Again, we must not simply see this as an individual serenity, though that is a blessing. God’s peace is expressed in us as we learn to live in community, where the rough edges of individuality are rubbed away.
I am completely convinced that one of the reasons Prozac® and it’s cousin drugs that treat depression are so commonly prescribed for Americans is our insistence of living life on own terms. We are so in love with ME that we can never come to the peace that is only available to those who give up Self and learn to live in harmony and submission to God and authority!
NIV - "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful." (Colossians 3:15, NIV)
MSG- "Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness." (Colossians 3:15, The Message)
The Spirit creates FORBEARANCE in us. The NIV says, “patience.” The KJV says, “longsuffering.”
Patience implied ‘gritted teeth’ a sheer determination to get through a hard time, or deal with a difficult person. The Spirit does more than help us to get through tough times. He actually creates a genuine ability to ‘suffer long,’ to graciously live in the rough and tumble of life without getting all bent out of shape by it!
Without forbearance, there is little hope for the next quality of character that Spirit empowers in us - KINDNESS.
Have you ever noticed that small dogs - like chihuahuas - are often snippy and irritable? Why? Because they are small! They have to live defensively so they don’t get stepped on. Small people, and I don’t mean short in stature - are likewise miserable, defensive, and quick to snap at others.
When the Spirit comes to live in us, he makes us GREAT-hearted! He secures us in His love, reminds us that we are people of incredible worth, with a destiny that nothing and no one can rob from us. Secure in this, we lower our defenses, and we grow in amazing kindness, even towards those who are miserable towards us. It is the kindness birthed in us by the Spirit that causes us to ‘turn the other cheek and go the second mile’ with gracious joy!
The Spirit also brings GOODNESS to our lives.
I find it sad that being ‘bad’ is an admired thing by so many, including Christians. True goodness of heart is despised by many, mocked by those who consider themselves sophisticated. Is using foul language, telling dirty jokes, or using sarcasm to cut down others really compatible with the goodness of the Spirit? Will a Spirit-filled Believer desire the foulness of our base contemporary culture? You be the judge of that for yourself. I pray for goodness to fill my life - a wholesomeness that some may mock - which God says is part of the evidence of His life in me!
The next cluster of the Spirit’s character is, to me, a package deal -
FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, and SELF-CONTROL.
God’s faithfulness means that He is not changing, fickle, or unpredictable. We trust Him because He is faithful. Similarly, when the Spirit lives in us He will cause us to become people who are no longer blown around by fashion, who rise above being slaves to trendiness, who are not subject to whim and/or emotion.
That makes us approachable gentle people who have no need to force our agenda on others. We gently live in this world. Our gentleness is born out of humility that reminds us that we are not kings of the universe, that we are not here to be served but to serve just as our Master did.
The greatest illustration of the characteristic of gentleness is seen in Jesus as He hung on the Cross. He did not hurl accusation at His tormentors. He did not rail on them or threaten them. Gently, He prayed for their forgiveness!
WOW!
The Spirit makes it possible for us to take charge of Self with the grace of SELF-CONTROL. Do not confuse this with rigid rules about food, abstinence from sexual behavior, or imposed controls. Paul clearly reminds us that we cannot create virtue in ourselves by creating elaborate structures of restraint built on fear or peer pressures. If we confuse genuine self-control that comes from a transformed mind with religious rules, we are no longer practicing Christianity! We are simply engaging in “sin management,” to use that great phrase of Dr. Dallas Willard. The promise of the Spirit knows nothing of ‘managing’ our sin! It speaks consistently of gaining victory over it.
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As I close today, disciple, I want to ask you if there is evidence of the life of the Spirit in you?
Do those who rub shoulders with you soon come to know that there is Someone living in you that has changed your life?
Or, are you simply religious - doing your best to be a Godly person - and failing, repeatedly?
In our text, there is a verse often overlooked, but which is actually the key to the passage:
"Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." (Galatians 5:25, NIV)
Are you letting Him call the cadence for the march of your life?
In whom is your faith residing... Self or the Spirit ... to make you pleasing to God?
Pray.
Amen
Jerry D. Scott, copyright 2009
www.WashingtonAG.com
