What is True Spirituality?
1 John 2:6
Introduction:
Hank had attended church since he was a boy and now he was 60 years old. Everyone knew who Hank was, there wasn’t a Sunday that went by that Hank wasn’t in church. The truth however is no one really knew Hank at all. Hank had difficulty loving his wife. His children could not speak freely with him and felt no affection for him. Hank was not concerned about the poor and had little tolerance for those outside the church. Hank also tended to judge those in the church rather harshly. Those kids shouldn’t be running around in the church. Look at what he is wearing to church. Why, I always liked the green carpeting, why change it? If it isn’t broke don’t try to fix it.
On day an elder in the church asked Hank, “Are you happy, Hank?
Without shedding a smile, Hank replied, “Why, Yes?”
The elder then responded, “Well then Hank, you need to tell your face?”
You see Hank’s exterior mirrored his interior. The problem was Hank was not changing? He was not being transformed. But the most remarkable part of it all was, that if you brought this to the congregations attention, the would of simply said, “So.”
No one seemed to care that Hank remained unchanged. There were no emergency board meetings to consider this strange occurrence of a person who was not changing. No one really expected Hank to change, and therefore they were not surprised when that change did not happen.
There were however other expectations of Hank. Everyone expected that each Sunday morning Hank would be at church. He sat there, right were he always sat. The trusted that Hank would take communion like he always did. The congregation knew that Hank would read the scriptures, and give his offering faithfully. Whenever called upon Hank would help with moving the tables and chairs or volunteer on church work days. Hank was a faithful member of his congregation.
But people did not expect that day by day, month by month, decade by decade, Hank would be more transformed into the likeness of Jesus. People did not expect that he would become progressively more loving, joyful, and excited about Christ in His life. So they were not shocked when it did not happen.
Today I want to talk about Spirituality, what it is, and what it means.
Many of us in the restoration movement are simply scared to death about things that deal with our spiritual life. Our mind conjures up images of people rolling in the isles, speaking a bunch of gibberish, raising hands, laughing for no apparent reason, or falling out all over the place shouting, “Praise the Lord.” But if we our honest with ourselves and what the Bible teaches then we know there is a spiritual dimension to our Christian life that we should not ignore.
I. How is Spirituality Wrongly Understood?
“How many people are radically and permanently repelled from The Way by Christians who are unfeeling, stiff, unapproachable, boringly lifeless, obsessive, and dissatisfied? Yet such Christians are everywhere, and what they are missing is the wholesome liveliness springing from a balanced vitality within the freedom of God’s loving rule…”Spirituality” wrongly understood or pursued is a major source of human misery and rebellion against God.” -Dallas Willard, ‘The Spirit of the Disciplines’
-Think of the Irony:
-A spiritual life leading to lifelessness.
-Spiritual growth producing misery.
-A life that supposedly yielded to God, rebelling against Him.
-And yet for many Christians this is the life the have found.
-Are you allowing God to transform your life or have you become a stagnate pool
-God is the giver of life, from the beginning of time God breath into the dust he had shaped in the form of a man and breathing out life.
-Without a fresh supply of water a pond dries up, without the flow of new water, the life within the pond begins to decay and rot, it begins to stink, frogs and parasites infest the pond and fish die.
*I like to hike and one thing you learn as a hiker to always filter your water from a source that is receiving fresh flowing water, if you want to avoid getting sick.
-Jesus called the religious leaders of His day white washed tombs.
-Jeremiah spoke for the Lord saying:
“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” Jeremiah 2:13
-Often we try to replace spirituality with religiousity.
-Simply put we try to cover up our inability to allow God to transform us, with an external display of what we think a Christian should look like..
-We think spiritual maturity is about how much biblical or theological information we have acquired.
-We put on a good show by doing all the things Christian’s should do, like taking communion, reading scripture, bowing our heads and putting our hands together when we pray, or saying I’ll keep you in my prayers. We put on a great show for all to see.
-We look down at those who are not working as hard as we are to be or look spiritual. We are judgmental. We condemn that individual who is wrestling to get their life right with God, but just isn’t as a faithful as we are at coming to church.
-We focus solely on outward behavior and ignore the inner being, you know those secret sins that we hide.
II. What is the Right Understanding of Spiritual Life?
If someone were to ask you how is your spiritual life going, what would you say?
-How do you define spirituality?
-How do you gauge spiritual progress or growth?
“Whoever claims to live in Him [God] must walk as Jesus did.” 1 John 2:6
To pursue spiritual life means simply this: To know Jesus more intimately and to live as if he were in your place.
(Read Mark 12:28-34)
A. Love God First
-Jesus knew the father intimately; of course you say, after-all they were not the two in fact one.
-And what does the Bible say of the marriage relationship; that the two shall become as one flesh.
-Are we not the bride of Christ; not that we shall be gods, but that Christ desires that close relationship with us, that oneness of spirit.
-Our personal relationship with Jesus Christ comes from our pursuit of Him in our lives.
-Reading the Bible, praying, seeking Him with all our being.
-Do you pray; “God I want more of you in my life, I want to know you personally, I want you to fill my life with your love.”
B. Love Others Second
-As we grow in our relationship with God, then that over whelming love will so fill our lives that we just want to share that love with others.
-The supreme diagnostic for the Christian as to the depth of our spiritual life is demonstrated by our love for others.
-That love comes from our desire to please the savior of our souls, Jesus Christ.
-WWJD; What would Jesus Do if he were standing in my shoes?
III. Doing Life in Jesus’ Name
-The Apostle Paul says in Colossians 3:7
“Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.”
-God doesn’t want just a part of your life, just two hours on Sunday. God wants your entire life. Spirituality is a matter of living every moment for God.
David Winter, author of Closer Than a Brother writes: “What makes you think that God is absent from the maintenance shop but present in the chapel? Holiness doesn’t depend on changing our jobs, but doing for God’s skae what we have been used to doing for our own. Seriously –repair the equipment for God, answer the abusive phone calls for God, concentrate fully on the job you’re doing for God. He isn’t obsessed with religion --- he’s the God of the whole of life. But we need to give in to him, consciously turning it over into his hands. Then whatever we’re doing – provided it is not against his will – becomes an act of Christian service.
(2 Corinthians 3:12-18)
v12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. –our hope is the glorious salvation through Jesus Christ that restores our right relationship with God and opens the doors to eternity.
V13 We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. –being in the very presence of God when he received the ten commandments, Moses’ face literally glowed and the people were afraid of him. So to hide the affects of being in God’s presence Moses wore a veil over his face and took it off when he went back to talk to God and put it back on only after he had shared God’s message with His people.
V14, 15 But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. –The Jew failed to see the temporary nature of the Mosaic covenant and therefore the glory of God is still hidden from them. Remember Jesus came first to the Jews, Paul preached first to the Jews.
-Religion can make our minds dull. I use religion in the sense that we get into habits or ways of doing things and lose the meaning behind what we are doing, just like the Jews did.
-The ritual replaces the relationship with God.
V16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. –We have to put our focus back upon God, we have to get spiritual, then and only then can we see the truth, then we can live a life of God’s truth.
V17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. –Our relationship with God is with His Spirit, therefore that relationship is a spiritual one. Our freedom is not the freedom to sin. Paul says in Romans; shall we go on sinning that grace might increase, indeed not. No, way! Our freedom is from the bondage that comes from sin as defined by the Law of Moses. The Christian is free from the bonds of death, the penalty for our rebellion towards God. We who have been saved should no longer feel the guilt associated with our sins. If we do feel guilt, then we are either not been saved, or have refused to accept the forgiveness of Jesus.
V18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. –Like Moses the Christian can come face to face with God’s presence. Although we do not glow on the outside like Moses, we should glow from within.
Our lives should reflect the glory of God.
We should continually be in the process of transformation, growing more and more Christ-like as our spirit dwells with the Spirit of God.
Are you spiritual?
Are you being transformed or are you still waiting to be formed into the image of Christ?
