Topic: Your Regular Spiritual Checkup
By Ptr Arsenio “Jack” Segismundo
Text:
Philippians 1:24-26
“24 Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. 25 And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith, 26 that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again.”
Intro:
To be successful in ministry, a person must be able to function well on a variety of personal and professional levels at all times. Spiritual Fitness, competency, readiness and effectiveness are necessary to the high-quality practice of ordained and lay ministers. This would be for
1. The purpose of making disciples.
Matthew 28:18-20
“18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go [c]therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” [d]Amen.”
2. For the growth of the body of Christ
Ephesians 4:15-17
“15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”
If you still wanted to continue to work in the ministry, be spiritually fit. We have to through spiritual checkup:
1. The test of vision. Are your eyes focused on the things above or are your eyes focused on the earthly matters life fame and fortune. Are you moving in God’s direction
Colossians 3:2
“Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.”
Romans 8:5-6 5
“Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.”
2. The test of the heart. Is God still your first love? Does your heart still beats for God?
Matthew 22:37
“Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
James 4:4
“Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
3. Do you still breathe the Spirit of Life - Do you still walk according to the works Spirit of God or do you still walk according to the works of the flesh?
Romans 8:1-3
“8 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who[a] do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,”
4. Do you mortify the deeds of the flesh?
Colossians 3:5-11
“5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, 7 in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.
8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, 11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.”
5. Are you cleansed by the blood of Jesus? - The blood is for the cleansing of sin.
2 Corinthians 7:1
“Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
1 John 1:9
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Conclusion:
The purpose of spiritual fitness checkup is the development of our inner being, that which has been transformed by Christ at salvation (2 Corinthians 5:17). Believers have experienced the total regeneration of the whole person from within, involving differences in thought, feeling and character. This is what Paul had in mind when he spoke of taking off the "old self" and putting on the new, “which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (Colossians 3:9-10) still fit to work in the ministry.
