Some of you may remember that in my last sermon I talked about how this time of the year is the time we typically look back on our lives and consider just how much God has blessed us and our families. And despite the hustle and bustle of this holiday season, I hope you've taken the time to do that over these last few weeks. And I'm sure that if you've been looking back from the right perspective, you’ve realized that God has indeed abundantly blessed you. In fact, I think we can all say with the psalmist, "the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.." We also talked about how counting our blessings should motivate us to help those who are less fortunate, and I hope you have been moved to that as well during this season of Thanksgiving..
And this morning, the very first Sabbath of 2020, I'm going to ask us, just one final time to look back on this past year. But this time, not only to take note of how blessed we’ve been, but I want us to think back on 2019 from the perspective of our spiritual health. Let’s ask ourselves, "how much have I grown spiritually since this time last year?" In the last 365 days, in what ways and to what degree, have I become a stronger, more committed, and more effective Christian?
I'm sure you realize that every year, the number one New Year's Resolution by far goes something like this, "This is the year that I finally get in shape." Every year people resolve to eat healthier and exercise more and to live a healthier lifestyle. But the sad reality is that more than 90 percent of those resolutions are totally abandoned by the end of January. And what may be even more sad is the fact that many others SHOULD BE making that very resolution---and keeping it, but they don't even bother making the resolution because they've tried so many times in the past and have failed. So month after month and year after year passes by, and instead of setting and working toward goals to improve themselves, they just coast through life, not giving too much thought to their health. And all the while their weight increases, their muscles atrophy, their brains fog and their arteries clog. And all too often, this continues, little by little, until one day, it's too late to do anything about it. But that doesn’t have to happen...
Thanks to modern medical technology, our physical health is relatively easy to monitor. We go to the doctor and he gives us an exam, takes our vitals, does some blood tests, and compares our results to a set standard that tells us where our numbers should fall for a person of our age. And with those results, the doctor determines our overall health and he sets some reasonable goals for us to work toward to get us in optimal health. (importance of yearly wellness examination-- lack of insurance coverage discourages a lot of people for getting one)
That yearly examination is important—I believe it’s especially important as we get older. Most often the decline of our health is so subtle that we don’t even notice that there is anything wrong......we may look and feel okay, but it could be that our blood pressure, cholesterol, or blood sugar is gradually elevated to dangerous levels---- we may not know unless we go for that exam.
I asked you earlier to look back on 2019 and sort of assess how much you’ve grown spiritually this past year. Have you thought about it? Don’t answer out loud, but if you have thought about it, how is your spiritual health?
Keep in mind, I'm not asking you how often you come to church, how much you read your bible and pray, I'm not asking how many offices you have held or currently hold in the church--all these things are definitely very important but it's not what I'm asking you... I'm asking you, How is your spiritual health?
If you’re like most people—even most Christians; you don't really know the answer to this important question. And the reason you don’t know is probably because you haven’t had a thorough spiritual examination lately. And it could be that you haven’t bothered with an examination because you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for to determine how well or how poorly you may be doing— I want to make sure we understand this today, because our spiritual wellness exam is, I believe, even more important than our physical exam.
So what are we looking for? What’s the set standard we should use to tell us where we should be? Our tendency is to compare ourselves to other people. And most often we tend to compare ourselves with those folk that make us look and feel like literal saints. Sort of like that Pharisee who was praying about himself at the temple; “‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’....." Even though he was supposed to be and thought he was a shining example of a godly person... turns out, he was spiritually bankrupt..
Paul tells us that we ought to examine ourselves and see whether we are in the faith. (2 Corinthians 13:5) It also stands to reason that we ought to examine ourselves every once in a while to asses our overall spiritual health. —not just to see if we’re “saved” but to get an idea about our spiritual growth. This is important because even if we are saved, but we’re not continually progressing spiritually, there’s a good chance we might not be saved to the end...
What does the Bible say about how we should determine the status of our spiritual health?
2 Peter 1:3–11 3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
10 Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Are you actively building on your faith?
1 Peter 1:13-16
13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
Hebrews 12:14 tells us that “without holiness, no one will see the Lord..”
Romans 8:28,29
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Paul puts it this way in Galatians 2:20
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Let me ask you again; how is your spiritual health?
1 John 3:4,5 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
Hebrews 10:26 says, “if we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.”
Philippians 3
7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Pressing on Toward the Goal
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (pressing on and forgetting what is behind us—the good and bad..)
ILLUSTRATION (The Times-Reporter of New Philadelphia, Ohio, reported in September, 1985 a celebration of a New Orleans municipal pool. The party around the pool was held to celebrate the first summer in memory without a drowning at a New Orleans city pool. In honor of the occasion, 200 people gathered, including 100 certified lifeguards. As the party was breaking up and the four lifeguards on duty began to clear the pool, they found a fully dressed body in the deep end. They tried to revive Jerome Moody, 31, but it was too late. He had drowned surrounded by lifeguards celebrating their successful season.)
(So, let’s not rest on our past victories, growth or achievements; let’s forget what is behind...)
15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained. (The reason many of us are stuck on a spiritual growth plateau is that we’re not living up to what God has already revealed to us... I think it was Mark Twain that was credited with saying, “it’s not the things I don’t understand about the Bible that trouble me, it’s the things I do understand that trouble me..”)
17 Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. 18 For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
One of my favorite Christian writers, Ellen White, writes this touching letter to her son on his birthday. It was written around 1870 or so.
Testimonies to the Church Volume 2 pp 261-268
"My Dear Son,I write this for your nineteenth birthday. It has been a pleasure to have you with us a few weeks in the past. You are about to leave us, yet our prayers shall follow you.
Another year of your life closes today. How can you look back upon it? Have you made advancement in the divine life? Have you increased in spirituality? Have you crucified self, with the affections and lusts? Have you an increased interest in the study of God’s word? Have you gained decided victories over your own failings and waywardness? Oh, what has been the record of your life for the year which has now passed into eternity, never to be recalled?
As you enter upon a new year, let it be with an earnest resolve to have your course onward and upward. Let your life be more elevated and exalted than it has hitherto been..... Aim to honor God in everything, always and everywhere. Carry your religion into everything. Be thorough in whatever you undertake.
You have not experienced the saving power of God as it is your privilege, because you have not made it the great aim of your life to glorify Christ. Let every purpose you form, every work in which you engage, and every pleasure you enjoy, be to the glory of God. Let this be the language of your heart: I am thine, O God, to live for Thee, to work for Thee, and to suffer for Thee.
…....... A new year of your life now commences. A new page is turned in the book of the recording angel. What will be the record upon its pages? Shall it be blotted with neglect of God, with unfulfilled duties? God forbid. Let a record be stamped there which you will not be ashamed to have revealed to the gaze of men and angels."
I think we would all do well to review these questions and exhortations on each of our own birthdays.
Paul says in Acts 20:24 “I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.”
Paul was in Prison in Rome about to be martyred and he knew it. Notice what he wrote to his fellow gospel worker, Timothy in his second letter to Timothy chapter 4:6-8 “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
Here we have the apostle Paul looking back, not only on the past year but on the overall progression and growth of his ministry and his own faith. And this mighty and yet humble man of God could honestly say, “I have fought the good fight, finished the race and kept the faith...”
Looking back on this past year, knowing what you know, being blessed with the spiritual gifts and abilities that you have; have you fought the good fight? Are you on track to finish the race? Have you truly kept the faith?.....
So, how is your spiritual health? The truth is that everyone is at a different place in his or her spiritual journey, and our spiritual health and endurance varies, based on many different factors. So, how can we tell if we are in good spiritual health?? Born again, brother or sister I ask you, "are you FIGHTING" the good fight? Are you ACTIVELY engaged in battle with the world, the flesh and the devil? Are you, with each passing year: growing more spiritual, hungering for more of the Word of God, praying more often and earnestly, hating and conquering more sin in your life, becoming more loving, gaining a greater burden for reaching the lost, and longing for the soon return of Jesus Christ?
If you love the Lord but don't seem to have the motivation to even desire these things as much as you know you should, pray about that as well. The Word of God tells us that it is "God who works in you both to WILL and to do His good pleasure." (Philippians 2:13) Ask Him to make you willing.
I feel the need to interject something at this point that I believe we often forget. When we consider our spiritual health we need to realize that if we are not growing, there's a good chance we are dying. Once we accept Christ and are "born again," we begin a new life in which we will continue to grow until we die. Throughout the rest of our lives we are undergoing the process of sanctification ( explain the difference between justification and sanctification if needed). During this process we are continually being transformed into the likeness of Christ. But should we ever feel contented to quit striving toward that goal of Christ-likeness, we should take that as a sign that our spiritual health has been compromised.
One other thing we tend to forget is the fact that the old bodybuilding adage, "no pain, no gain" is also true in regard to our spiritual growth. Most of our spiritual growth happens during the more difficult times in our lives. In fact, our greatest spiritual growth takes place when we suffer BECAUSE of decisions we make FOR God and endure those hardships by faith in His love for us and His infinite wisdom in allowing the hardship in the first place. In ways I can't fully understand, the Bible says that even Jesus "was made perfect through sufferings." (Hebrews 2:10)
Throughout the Bible all the way up to our day, godly men and women have lived their lives actively engaged in battle and continually fighting for more ground. As I study the lives of the patriarchs, Jesus, the apostles and many of the early church fathers and reformers, I can’t help but to realize that I, for one, have fallen way short. Although I truly love the Lord, I haven’t been “fighting the good fight” and straining toward the goal of Christ-likeness as I should have.. Maybe some of you know feel the same way.
If you do, there is good news; this is a new day, it’s a new year, it’s a brand new decade. Is there any better time to resolve to live a brand new life—a life dedicated to truly fighting the good fight and finishing the race for the glory of Him who laid down His own life that we might truly live!
What do you say? Let’s Fight!
