Intro
Welcome to this Legacy Ministry College chapel service. We take as our subject today: Seven Habits for Spiritual Health. What are the essentials for a successful life journey in Christ? It is one thing to begin a journey; it is another to finish that journey. To finish and finish well, you will have to maintain your spiritual health in the years ahead. You will face many challenges along the way. There will be times of encouragement and refreshing in the Holy Spirit. There will be times of elation over lost souls coming into the kingdom. But there will also be times of discouragement. There will be times when others don’t appreciate you the way they should. There will be times when you disappoint yourself. At times you will not understand what God is doing or why he is do it. That why the Bible says so much about perseverance, about the importance of continuing in the faith.
What enables a Christian to manage those ups and down successfully? What enables a Christian to run this race with perseverance and finish well? Paul was able to say at the end of his life, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.”i That’s a strong finish. That’s the kind of finish you and I want. Amen?
Robert Clinton was a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary for many years. He did extensive research on leaders in the Bible, contemporary leaders, and other historical leaders. In that research, he found that less than one-third of those leaders finished well.ii Solomon began well. He had powerful experiences with God in his youth. He received excellent training from his father David. But Solomon did not finish well. A good beginning does not guarantee a strong finish. King Asa began with great zeal for the Lord. When he became king, he tore down the idols in Israel. He commanded Judah to seek the Lord and keep his commandments. When the enemy came against him in overwhelming numbers, he trusted the Lord and experienced awesome miracles. But in his latter years, when faced with similar circumstances, he turned to Syria for help instead of the Lord. He became diseased in his feet, and instead of seeking God for his healing, he put his trust in the physicians.iii Where did he go wrong?
To finish well we must habitually maintain our spiritual health and vitality. We must establish lifelong habits that sustain our relationship with God and guide us in our relationships with others. When asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus answered, “'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 22:37-40). Those are the two great essentials of life. All the commandments come down to loving God and loving our neighbor. But to understand those two commandments we must have a biblical understanding of love; we must know how to practice that in our lives. We cannot exhaustively address that today. But hopefully, we can gain insight on how to live in those two commandments and finish well.
Habits are settled, established patterns of behavior. Habits are established by repeating a behavior over and over. It is activity we consistently operate in. Habits help define our lifestyle. And lifestyle defines and demonstrates our destiny. A primary way we know the spiritual condition of a person is lifestyle behavior. The Apostle John put it this way in 1 John 3:7-8: “Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.” The lifestyle reveals the heart.iv Emerson is credited with the saying, “Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.”v Seven habits of spiritually healthy people”
I. CONNECTING with God:
We must begin our journey with a genuine connection with the living God. Jesus told the woman at the well, and his statement was generally directed at the Samaritans, “You worship what you do not know” (John 4:22). Their worship was vain because it was misguided. Jesus explained to her that our worship of the Father must be “spirit and truth.” There must be a spiritual engagement with God. Otherwise, we are just doing religion. And religion without genuine relationship with God will destroy you. It will make you think you’re okay when you're not okay. Religion gives people false hope.
Over the years I have encountered many people who did not know God, but they thought they were going to heaven because they were religious. The scribes and Pharisees who had Jesus executed were very religious. The priests who insisted that he be crucified were actively participating in a God-ordained religion. You have not even begun the journey if you are not born again. Nicodemus was a highly respected leader in the Jewish Sanhedrin. But Jesus confronted him with this truth in John 3:3 when he told him, “unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” After a brief explanation of that, Jesus said to him, “Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.” The new birth is a miracle only God can do. No religion can give it to you. God must grant the new birth. But to all those who will seek him, he will bring about this transformation. Jesus promised in John 6:37: “the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” We must come in humility acknowledging our sin, acknowledging our inability to save ourselves, acknowledging his work on the cross as the only way of salvation. But when we come in that kind of brokenness, he will receive us; he will change us from the inside out. And he will let us know that change has occurred.
Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself [the Holy Spirit] bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” When we are born of the Spirit, God lets us know that has happened by an inner assurance confirming it. The Amplified Bible says, “The Spirit Himself testifies and confirms together with our spirt [assuring us] that we [believers] are children of God.” Do you have that assurance in your heart? If not, make it your top priority to know God has applied the work of the cross to your innermost being. Make it your top priority to know you have been born again. Ask Christians who have that assurance to pray with you that you may have it as well. Everything else we will say depends on this foundation. This spiritual connection with God must occur.
But once it has occurred, we are to nurture that connection with the Father. We do that through prayer and worship. Jesus said to his followers in John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” We develop a lifestyle of communion with God. We talk with him as we drive down the road. We wake up each morning thanking him for the new day and the opportunities it presents. We develop a regular time of prayer for each day—a specified time of prayer in which we are not distracted by other things—time in which we give our full attention to God. The author of Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan made the point, “Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer.”vi
To be consistent in prayer requires two things: (1) We must truly see God as our source; we must believe Jesus’s words when he said, “without Me you can do nothing.” The more self-sufficient we are, the harder it is to establish the habit of prayer. Biblical humility prays. It’s as simple as that. (2) Disciple is required in order to be consistent in prayer. If we live on our feelings, we will not establish a prayer habit. Sometimes in prayer, it is joy and refreshing. But sometimes it is as dry as powder, and you keep doing it because it’s the right thing to do. We must nurture our connection with God as the source for all that we are and all that we do. The next habit is
II. CONGREGATING with God’s people:
We need a life of private prayer, but we also need corporate prayer. Each one fortifies the other.
In our individualistic culture, it's easy for Christians to underestimate the value of habitually gathering with God’s people for mutual edification and worship of God. Heb 10:24-25 commands Christians, “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” We live in perilous times when many are falling away from the faith. That often begins with a simple neglect of church attendance.
God did not design us to go it alone. According to 1 Corinthians 12 we are vitally connected with one another and need one another. God wants to use you to encourage and strengthen others and he expects you to gather with others and receive what they have to give. Sometimes those gatherings are refreshing and exciting. Sometimes they are not so exciting. But we are to be there anyway, available to others and available to God. On the Day of Pentecost, 120 people congregated in the upper room. They were the ones that received the miracle when God moved. There were 380 others who were told to be there. We don’t know why they weren’t there. Some no doubt felt they had an excellent excuse. Bottom line, they were not there. Bottom line, they missed what God had for them.
It is easy to find fault with the churches. You have to be blind and undiscerning to not see some of the glaring weaknesses. But that is not a call to leave. That is a call to contribute what you can to make it better. What can you do to empower you church to be more effective in its testimony of Christ.
It is also easy to get hurt in church. We have high expectations of the people in our church, especially of the leaders. But they are just people like you, people with flaws and struggles. Someone has insightfully said, “If you find a perfect church, don’t join it. You’ll ruin it.” Church is full of imperfect people. And imperfect people hurt and disappoint others. That’s why we must learn to be good forgivers. In fact, a sound theology of forgiveness is important to our spiritual health. Bitterness will take you out just as surely as lust, adultery, and murder. Unforgiveness will rot your soul and rob you of a strong finish. A lot of people stop going to church because someone there hurt their feelings. It’s happening by the thousands as we speak.
Paul began 1 Timothy 4 saying, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith. . . .” That departure often begins by reduced faithfulness in church attendance. People drift ever so slowly until one day they are further from God than they ever intended to be. Our gathering together in his name gives opportunity for the Holy Spirit to encourage us and to warn us. At these gatherings we are reminded of what is important in life and encouraged to continue to serve the Lord. Healthy Christians do not forsake the assembling of themselves with other believers.
III. RELYING on the Word of God:
Do you believe the Bible is divinely inspired? Do you believe it is a revelation from God? Second Peter 1:21 tells us, “. . . prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” We have an absolutely reliable measurement of truth in the Bible. If the devil can convince you otherwise, then you have fallen under his spell and you will not finish well. Without confidence in Scripture, you have no objective source of truth. You have forsaken the wellspring of guidance from the Lord. In Jeremiah 8:9 God comments on the confusion of the so called “wise men,” then adds, “Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord; So what wisdom do they have?” Once people reject the authority of God’s word, they are wide open for deception. They will not only go off the cliff themselves but in most cases lead others into destruction as well.
A key to spiritual health is a daily diet of Scripture. In Matthew 4:4 Jesus defeated Satan with this truth: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”vii Do you daily feed on God’s word? Spiritually healthy people do not live by bread alone. They nurture their inner soul by reading, studying, and meditating on God’s word. God told Joshua, “This Book of the Law [a reference to Scripture] shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” (Josh. 1:8). Joshua did that, and he had good success. If we do that, God will give us success in our journey as well.
When I talk about relying on God’s word, I include a faith that believes what God has said, enough to obey it. I’m talking about a level of confidence that steps out on the promises of God and trusts God for the results. God’s word to Joshua was, “Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you . . . No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you” (Josh. 1:3, 5). On the strength of that promise, Joshua stepped out in faith to conquer Canaan Land. We draw our strength from God’s word. We gain direction from God’s word. We live by the commandments of God’s word. And we trust the promises of God’s word. That becomes our way of life.
IV. SEEKING first the kingdom of God:
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talked about the way the world worries about the natural provisions of life and spend their lives seeking those things. Then he gave this directive. “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (Matt. 6:33). There is a promise there from Christ himself. Do you believe it? Do you believe it enough to live by the principle?
Everybody is pursuing something in life. Some people pursue fame. Some seek comfort. Others are consumed with a pursuit of pleasure. Many make money their primary goal in life. They invest their time and energy to have those things. We’re talking about how you will invest the hours, days, months, and years of your life. We’re talking about what your priority in life is. To be spiritually healthy, you must make God, his kingdom, and his righteousness your priority. You must keep the main thing, the main thing.
As a practical matter, you will make decisions daily choosing what God wants versus what you want, choosing between the will of God versus you own comfort, pleasure, position. Jesus said in John 6:38, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” Every decision we make should be filtered through that principle.viii On the surface, one would seem to lose his life by doing that. But in reality it is the only way to save your life and make it eternally worthwhile. God empowers us to do his will. He does not empower us for a self-centered life. “If anyone desires to come after Me [Jesus said], let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matt. 16:24-25). You can win, but you win by losing. Another habit of spiritually healthy people is:
V. DISCOVERING God’s calling and living to fulfill it:
You have to get in your lane and run that track. Some other assignment might look more prestigious or rewarding.ix But if it were better for you, God would have you in that lane. Spiritual vitality is not found in setting personal goals you desire and pursuing that. It is found in discovering God’s call on your life and diligently going after that. Looking from the outside they may look much the same. But the internal motives are different. In setting my own goals, I am operating independently of God. In discovering his goals for me, I am living in submission and reliance on him. He has a wonderful plan for your life, much better than anything you can come up with. Trust him with the decision.
When you tap into God’s purpose, you will be energized by the Holy Spirit, you will have passion for the work he gives you to do. There will be a sense of his pleasure on your life. It will add meaning and purpose that gets you up in the morning ready to go. Paul described it in Philippians 3: “. . . I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:12-14). Not the order of things here. The passion follows the discovery of purpose. If you are just treading through life, ask God to open your eyes to his purpose for you. Do that with a willingness to follow that purpose no matter what it is. Spiritually healthy people habitually pursue God’s purpose for their lives. They are also characterized by
VI. GUARDING the heart:
Proverbs 4:23 instructs, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (NIV). God looks on the heart. Everything we do is launched from the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. To stay spiritually healthy, we must diligently monitor what we take in and how we process things in our thought life.
The book of Philippians has a lot of instruction about how to stay spiritually healthy. For example, Philippians 4:6 cautions us about anxiety: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” So when anxious thoughts begin to arise in our hearts, when we begin to worry, we counter that by praying. We turn the problem over to God, and we sprinkle in a good portion of thanksgiving. Cultivating gratitude is one way we guard our hearts.
Philippians 4:8 tells us something else about guarding our hearts. “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy — meditate on these things.” Joshua 1:8 has already commended meditating on the Word of God for our spiritual well-being. Here we are given boundaries on what we’re to let into our thought life and what we’re to rehearse in our minds. If you meditate on injustices done to you, you will lose your peace. If you dwell on impure thoughts, you will defile your soul. There is a maintenance program for spiritual health here. Guard your mind. If we can win the battle in our minds, we will defeat our adversary. One other habit for spiritually healthy Christians is
VII. SHARING the good news:
The Great Commission should motivate all Christians, not just preachers. In a sense, we are all called to be preachers. We are all to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. Whether you are doing that from a pulpit or from a office chair where you work, preach Jesus. He is the only way of salvation. He is the foundational answer everyone needs. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:2, “. . . I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” The message of the cross is not only central to the church, it is central to our lives as well. There is forgiveness in the cross. There is healing in the cross. There is power in the cross. Keep Jesus Christ and him crucified central to everything.
Churches are getting in trouble because they have a” better” idea. They adapt the message to what they think people want to hear. In doing that, they remove the heart and soul of the gospel. And they render the message powerless. You can teach people how to pursue the American dream. But if that is your message, don’t expect the Holy Spirit to show up. He was sent by the Father to testify of Jesus.x He will stay true to that commission no matter what direction the culture takes.
The Great Commission commands us to “Go 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.”xi There are various ways we teach others the way of Christ: first and foremost, by our personal example. We may do it from a podium like this. We may do it over a cup of coffee. Parents are responsible to teach their children the way of the Lord. If my generation had done that one thing, we wouldn’t have the political mess we’re in today. The lasting way to turn around the nation is to lead people to Christ and teach them the way of the Lord.
There is a personal benefit when you share Christ with others. You experience God’s grace in the process. You are strengthened in your own faith. Alcoholics Anonymous learned the value of sharing a liberating message with others. Their twelfth step says, “Having had a spiritual awakening, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.”xii They did not come up with that on their own. They got the principle from the Bible. They learned the necessity of it for the health and recovery of their constituents.
The principle is essential for our spiritual health as well. It keeps us from excessive introspection and unhealthy self-centeredness. When we share, when we serve under God’s direction we are empowered, not only for the specific endeavor, but for our own spiritual health.
Conclusion:
We have shared seven habits for spiritual health. These are to characterize our lifestyle as a Christian. 1. Connect with God and stay connected with him as your source of life and strength. 2. Congregate with other believers for you were not designed to live this out in isolation. 3. Rely on God’s word for truth and direction in your life. 4. Seek first the kingdom of God as your priority in life. 5. Discover God’s call on your life and live to fulfill it. 6. Guard your heart from all anxiety, bitterness, and corruption. 7. Share the good news of Christ wherever you go.
May God help live spiritually healthy lives and finish strong.
ENDNOTES:
i Second Timothy 4:7-8. All Scripture quotes are from the New King James Version unless indicated otherwise.
ii J. Robert Clinton, “Finishing Well—Six Characteristics.” Accessed at http://storage.cloversites.com/missouristateassociationoffreewillbaptists/documents/Finishing-Well-Six-Characteristics.pdf.
iii Second Chronicles 14-16.
iv Cf. James 2:18. Richard W. Tow, Authentic Christianity: Studies in 1 John (Bloomington, IN: WestBow Press, 2019), 170-172.
v Ralph Waldo Emerson, Goodreads. Accessed at https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/416934-sow-a-thought-and-you-reap-an-action-sow-an.
vi John Bunyan, Goodreads. Accessed at https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/401457-prayer-will-make-a-man-cease-from-sin-or-sin#:~:text=%28%3F%29%20%E2%80%9CPrayer%20will%20make%20a%20man%20cease%20from,man%20to%20cease%20from%20prayer.%E2%80%9D%20%E2%80%95%20John%20Bunyan.
vii Cf. Deut. 8:3.
viii Cf. Matt. 6:24.
ix Cf. 2 Cor. 10:12.
x Cf. John 15:26.
xi Matt. 28:19-20.
xii Alcoholics Anonymous, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, 1952 (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1981), 8.
