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Get Spiritually fit!

Sunday, between 1984 and1995

1Timothy 4

 

We 1ive in age when fitness physical a major leisure activity.  Gone are the days when you walked miles to work dug coal out with your own strength, felled trees with an axe or saw, carried your food and firewood home on your back. We have every convenience, even electric pencil sharpeners. So its our to the keep fit club, prancing around the front room in front of the TV imitating the video, jogging, weight-training, aerobics, you name it we do it to keep the body in trim.

1Timothy 4 starts,  not with  the  body,  or even with the mind, the challenge for today is to

GET SPIRITUALLY FIT.

We are going to look at Paul's six - point programme for Spiritual hea1th.

  1. What to avoid
  2. What to enjoy
  3. Training
  4. Aims
  5. Activities
  6. Evaluation

First we consider what to avoid.

The Spirit c1ear1y says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 3They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods.

 

7Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales;

 

What are these false teachings?

Ma1co1m spoke of them in the context of the earlier chapters. In essence the problems false teaching that Timothy and Paul were confronted with was a separation of the physical and spiritual. The physical was either evil   and therefore to be subjugated by refusing to indulge its desires.  This lead to banning certain foods, aestheticism, celibacy, and the like.

 

Alternatively, the spiritual was totally separate from the physical, so you could enjoy what you liked, because you only sinned the body , not in the soul. These are both elements of mainstream Greek philosophies of the day and they were brought into the church. Previously the church battles with Jewish orthodoxy that insisted that Christians should be circumcised and obey the Old Testament Law. You can read Paul’s answer to that in Galatians and other Letters.

 

So what of today? How do we spot false teachers? First note that they are opposites of Biblical statements. Jesus said ‘all foods are clean but the false teachers forbade certain foods. Jesus only forbade adultery but the false teachers forbade all sex. That still happens today. Parts of the church forbid marriage or  insist on vegetarianism.

 

False   teaching   is  when someone contradicts the plain statement of the Bible

 

 

Secondly  False teaching is

when someone  brings  the religion and  phi1osophy of the surrounding culture and  translates the gospel so that it  is a Christian version the world around  us. This is a much  more  subtle  prob1em. It is not easy to know  when  your ideas are  man  made  or  God  made. The influence  of the new-age movement the church, The pressure of the Gay Christian  Movement,  even the modern  business philosophy creeps to our  thinking.  So how do we to avoid these things?  First by challenging them on the basis of the revealed Word of God.

 

 Secondly by looking at the motives of the teacher. This is why Paul's leadership qualifications are so different from the world’s. Jesus said out of the heart the mouth speaks. If the heart is false the teaching will be false.

 

So be aware of  the 1ife of your teachers. If they do not measure up to the gospel be cautious. However, do not assume that if you can find a fault in a speaker, you can i g n o r e his message. That wou1d mean that all teaching in the church wou1d be? written off. Paul warns that these people have abandoned the faith, follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritica1 1iars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.

HAVE  NOTHING  TO  DO  WITH THEM

Stick to the truths of the faith and good teaching. Examine what is said and if it is not God’s word, challenge it and if someone insists on their error, have nothing to do with them.

But we must not be negative as Pau1 is not negative. He points out it is the false  teachers that are negative. They forbid what God has created for good.

3 They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.4For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.

The heart of this doctrine is EVERYTHING GOD CREATED IS GOOD. God created the world and it was good — where things were to be enjoyed. - Genesis 2:17

Only sin has spoilt it. Take sex for examp1e.  It was not intended to be a prob1em, God created it for pleasure in the secure relationship of marriage. It is sin, which has made it mechanica1, 1ife1ess, devoid of love and security. It is sin that turns our sex drive into cravings and temptation.

Food as well is to be enjoyed, not worried about. Of course diet is important - we must not abuse the temple of the Holy Spirit and diets for medical conditions are necessary and important. BUT we have made a fetish of it. If you enjoy a cream cake and it does not ruin your diet, then enjoy it, thanking God for the p1easure. If you sweeten your tea, don't let those with fetishes stop you. If you can go without sugar and enjoy your tea then so much the better. Either way, thank God for the pleasure. Don't feel guilty eating a dinner in a starving world. Thank God for it and do what you can to share that pleasure with the rest of mankind.

What about music? I believe we should apply the same principles here. If you enjoy it as a gift from God, then enjoy it. However if you cannot thank God for the words or thoughts it brings then avoid it.

And that new outfit you are wearing. Did you thank God for it?

The KEY is thanksgiving. Do you give thanks for food? Married couples do you ever give thanks for sex?

And it is to be received with thanksgiving because it is consecrated by the word of God – that is if God says its good, then it is good – and prayer – if you thank God for it, it will do you good. So food is consecrated, sex is sanctified, the CD you listen to becomes a spiritual experience and your new outfit is approved of by God, even if nobody else seems to like it!

Paul goes on:

 7Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales; rather, train vourself to be godly. 8 For physica1 training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come .

I have been told that ten minutes brisk walking would keep most of us fit and avoid the dangers of excessive fitness. And its good to have a stretch if you have been sitting still a long time. Go on then! Have a stretch!

There is a 1atin proverb: Mens sano in sano corporae — a healthy mind in a healthy body. So what are you doing to get your mind fit? We probably live in a society with the healthiest bodies but the sickest minds in our history. We sit in front of TV, described as "the chewing-gum of the eyes" and without effort absorb whatever is poured out. We fai1 even to challenge what once we thought unacceptable. The internet’s deluge of pornography, violence and degradation simply underlines how diseased is the co11ective thinking of our present society.

Paul says “Get spiritual1y fit”  - TRAIN YOURSELF IN GODLINESS

For god1iness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come

What is godliness?  well look back to 1Timothy 3:16    its Jesus’ life. Being like God is being like Jesus. So what was Jesus Like?

9 pointers but I must impress on you the need to read the gospels to understand the full nature of godliness.

1.       Father's business  -  we  must
spend time learning about it.

2.     Baptised with water

3.     Baptised with the Holy Spirit.

4.     Overcoming temptation

5.     Prayer

6„ Preaching

7.     Healing

8.     Sacrificing

9.     Rising again and ascending to
you Father and my Father.

Godliness is living a life, it can never be a sterile obedience to duty.

Here is a promise to encourage you to train yourself in godliness: In 2Peter1:3

3His 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.

It is possible t o 1ive godly lives. What is required is our willingness to trust God and rest in his power and do battle with Satan. Remember most people are unfit because they can't be bothered to get fit.

 

Pau1 continues:

9This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance 10(and for this we labour and strive), that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, and especially of those who believe.

 

Here is the aim – HOPE

But not hope in our godliness. We are not hopeless if we fail in out godliness; Neither is our hope ‘pie in the sky'. Our hope is in the living God he is real and is able to keep  that which we have committed to him . He is the Saviour of all men. All have sinned, we are all fai1ures in the pursuit of godliness - but Jesus died to forgive us for our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Our aim is hope, positive, worthwhile, obtainable and of the highest value. The struggle of faith is not easy doubts constantly run through the minds of every one of us. We need, to train to be godly so that faith and hope can overcome every trial.

Two things need to be mentioned in passing

First is that:

“This is a trustworthy saying”

 

There are 5 of these in the pastoral epist1es.  They make a study in themselves but in Titus 1:9 Paul describes all Christian teaching in the same expression. There are specia1sayings but 1ets not just 1earn proof texts, lets be grounded in the who1e of God’s word.

Secondly this    strange expression:

God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.

What does it mean? The word "especially" is a Greek word 'malista' which is the superlative of 'mala' which means 'very'. So 'malista' means 'above everything else', 'most of al1',supremely'. It is not suggesting a universalism - that God will save a11 men regard1ess of their beliefs - but that God's salvation is available as a speciality to those who be1i eve.

First set an examp1e in 5 things:

Speech.

James 3;9-10

Life. - your family, work, friendships - godliness is a 24 hour a day activity.

Love.

1Corinthians13:4-7

Faith.

Matthew 17:20-21

Purity:

1John3:9; Jude23; Romans6:11-13

Second:

13Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.

Third:

14Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.

C1ear1y the church recognised through prophecy that Timothy had a gift and the elders publicly indentified that gift by laying on of hands.

This encapsulates an interdependence we are not used to. It is part of our cooperate life together to seek God's will and purpose for our fellowship, to ask him to indentify gifts that he wants to distribute in our fellowship and to whom and then publicly declare it. This is a spirit-filled fellowship, sensitive to God's word, identifying and using the gifts of the Spirit that have been given. I believe that we need to spend much more of our prayer life asking God to speak to us rather than just asking for what we think is important.

Fina11y:

15Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. 16Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

We need to evaluate what we are doing and measure our success. But by what? Certainly not by our giving, godless men could achieve that, Nor by conversions, that is God's task. Not even by our work output

1Corinthians13:1 -3

1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

No the Bible is quite clear on this

Matthew 7:16

16By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?

What fruits?

Ga1atians5:22-23

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control.

It does not matter that SRCF never makes it place in the news, Never gets a reputation for being the place to be. What does matter, to God, is whether it exhibits the fruits of the Spirit the evidence of godliness, so work out on your speech, life, 1ove f a i t h an d purity, pray over them, ask for your life real godliness and then REVIVAL WILL COME You will see peop1e coming to Jesus for salvation because they will see the life of God in your life. The trouble is we want revival on the cheap, The Olympics is not for the jogger, nor is the London Marathon, Revival is not the result of religious activity it is a consequence ofpeop1emoved by the Holy Spirit to train in godliness.          

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