Sermon series- 6 qualities for spiritual health part 4
4) I love God’s Church and God’s Word.
- Today I’m picking back up with the fourth part of my series about 6 qualities for
spiritual health.
- With the turmoil we’ve had in recent days. I don’t know how closely everyone else
looks at everyday things around you, but I do.
- From the Sunday I chose to have a meeting our Sunday school lessons taught on
coming together, & then working together.
- Our bulletins reflected a similar message.
- Now today, mind you I had these 6 topics put in order well over a month ago.
Q- What should our fourth quality be?
- Love God’s Church & His Word!
- Let’s open our Bibles to John 13:33-35
- To be a healthy Spiritual person, It begins with a mindset.
John 13:33-35
33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you.
34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
Prayer
> A study was done on sports teams. They found that the more optimistic teams created more positive synergy and performed better than the pessimistic ones.
> Another study showed that pessimistic swimmers who were led to believe they’d done worse than they had were prone to future poor performance. Optimistic swimmers didn’t have this vulnerability.
> Also studied were 34 healthy Hall of Fame baseball players who played between 1900 and 1950, optimists lived significantly longer.
> Other studies have shown that optimistic breast cancer patients had better health outcomes than pessimistic and hopeless patients.
- Immediately from the day God created mankind, He gave us the ability to
better/prosper ourselves or condemn ourselves.
- This is why Jesus literally spells it out to us,
John 13:35
35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
- The Word disciple means follower. This wasn’t clarifying the salvation of these
people.
- It was showing them that to be a true witness of the form of Christ, you must show
the same love that Christ did.
Q-Did Jesus die just for those that loved Him?
- No! He died for those who despised & hated Him.
Q- Do you remember the centurion at the feet of Jesus?
Mark 15:39
39 And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.
Q- This is the only mentioning we have of this man, but don’t you think he was soon to
be saved by the same Jesus he was crucifying?
- This same event is happening all across the world.
- People who we would say, torment will freeze over before they ever get saved, are
getting saved.
Q- How are these people being saved?
- By God leading them away from themselves to the foot of the cross.
- What’s more amazing is, He can use His disciples in this leading.
- From Wednesday night to today I have seen God’s hand moving all around me.
- On Thursday, I had been in deep thoughts & conversations with God all night
& had made a completely out of the norm trip to the post office for stamps.
- I ran into a lady who just asked, can I pray for you.
- We talked & prayed some more.
- God was using one of His Disciples to tell me, I’ve got you Son!
- Listen to this,
1 Thessalonians 4:7-12
7 For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
8 He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.
9 But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.
10 And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more;
11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;
12 That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.
- Paul says, Now reach out to the stranger. The one who isn’t in Macedonia.
- Let’s be so close to God that we hear His guidance.
- Now Notice something else!!!!
- He tells them to increase or reach out after he says, we’re supposed to first have
brotherly Love & then reach out.
- Our outreach will always be flawed & ineffective, if we don’t have brotherly love
first!
Q- Do we want to be Spiritually healthy?
- Then we have to choose to be healthy.
- Listen to Paul!
Philippians 3:14
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
- Listen, as I’m running out of time.
Q- What are we all called to do?
- Yes, we love God. We love the brethren.
Q- What’s the calling?
- It’s the Word.
- I know we backtrack & say I can’t share the gospel like others do, I can’t speak
well.
- The Love of God’s Word.
- When you look at someone who’s fallen in love you say, they’re smitten. You
see it written all over them.
- That’s our calling.
- Our last verses,
2 Corinthians 3:2-3
2 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
- We may not be the greatest spokesperson in the world, because that’s not our
calling.
- We might be the greatest artist, singer, & Listen to this one, the most joyful person to
be around.
- In each quality we have God Can be seen, first off if He’s there (think about being
a disciple!), & secondly if God’s opening the eyes of the people looking at you.
- I know that I would not have had the prayer time like I did if God hadn’t have
opened this lady’s heart to pray with me.
- I don’t know about you, but as I study harder for these 6 qualities, I find that I need
more checkups than what I first thought.
- If you’re not there with me yet, let me close with this stirring story.
> A Baby’s Hug by Morgan
www.varietyreading.carlsguides.com
We were the only family with children in the restaurant. I sat Erik in a high chair and noticed everyone was quietly seated and talking. Suddenly, Erik squealed with glee and said, "Hi there." He pounded his fat baby hands on the high chair tray. His eyes we crinkled in laughter and his mouth was bared in a toothless grin as he wriggled and giggled with merriment.
I looked around and saw the source of his merriment. It was a man whose pants were baggy whose toes poked out of would-be shoes. His shirt was dirty and his hair was uncombed and unwashed. His whiskers were too short to be called a beard, and his nose was so varicose that it looked like a road map.
We were too far from him to smell, but I was sure he smelled. His hands waved and flapped on loose wrists. "Hi there, baby; Hi there, big boy. I see ya, buster," the man said to Erik. My husband and I exchanged looks, "What do we do?" Erik continued to laugh and answer, "Hi, hi there." Everyone in the restaurant noticed and looked at us and then at the man. The old geezer was creating a nuisance with my beautiful baby.
Our meal came and the man began shouting from across the room, "Do ya patty cake? Do you know peek-a-boo? Hey, look, he knows peek-a-boo." Nobody thought the old man was cute. He was obviously drunk. My husband and I were embarrassed. We ate in silence but not Erik, who was running through his repertoire for the admiring skidrow bum, who in turn, reciprocated with his cute comments.
We finally got through the meal and headed for the door. My husband went to pay the check and told me to meet him in the parking lot. The old man sat poised between me and the door. "Lord, just let me out of here before he speaks to me or Erik," I prayed. As I drew closer to the man, I turned my back, trying to sidestep him and avoid any air he might be breathing. As I did, Erik leaned over my arm, reaching with both arms in a baby's "pick-me-up" position. Before I could stop him, Erik had propelled himself from my arms to the man's. Suddenly, a very smelly old man and a baby expressed their love and kinship. Erik, in an act of total trust, love, and submission, laid his tiny head upon the man's ragged shoulder. The man's eyes closed, and I saw tears hover beneath his lashes. His aged hands full of grime, pain, and hard labor, cradled my baby. No two beings have ever loved so deeply for so short a time. I stood, awestruck. The old man rocked and cradled Erik in his arms and his eyes opened and set squarely on mine. He said in a firm commanding voice, "You take care of this baby." Somehow I managed, "I will," from a throat that contained a stone. He pried Erik from his chest lovingly, as though he were in pain.
I received my baby, and the man said, "God bless you, ma'am; you've given me my Christmas gift." I said nothing more than a muttered thanks. With Erik in my arms, I ran for the car. My husband was wondering why I was crying and holding Erik so tightly and why I was saying, "My God, my God, forgive me." I had just witnessed Christ's love shown through the innocence of a tiny child who saw no sin, who made no judgment. The child saw a soul, and his mother saw a suit of clothes. I was a Christian who was blind holding a child who was not. I felt it was God asking, "Are you willing to share your son for a moment?" when He shared His for all eternity. The ragged old man, unwittingly, had reminded me, "Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:3)
- In this story the SON showed the way.
- In the middle of people closing their eyes, hearts, & minds the Son opened their
eyes, broke the hardened hearts, & gave wisdom to them.
- As we sing our invitation, it’s an invitation to see the Son & allow Him to do His
great work in your life, but it’s up to you to see Him.
