9 Essentials For Effective Spiritual Exercise

Introduction

Good morning. We have a wonderful crowd this morning and thankful for your presence, especially for the visitors. a lot of you here this morning, I’m sure visiting family and so forth, and we’re thankful that you’ve made the decision to come and worship with us this morning. As you can see on the slides, you’re probably going, oh man, nine points. Don’t worry. We will get out of here on time, I promise. it’s more like two points with nine sub points. So you’re gonna be alright. if you were to ask me if I worked out, I think the pretty obvious answer would be no, I do not. That is, I think pretty clear. I always laugh when you’re driving around and you see people with those little stickers on the back of their car that says 26.2.

I’m like, good for you. Even the ones that say 13.1 still have no interest whatsoever. I need one of those stickers that says 0.0. I don’t run.

I laugh at that because it just makes me feel like those people think that they’re better than me because they run. Like they have some sort of superiority compliment. Now, if any of you have one of those stickers, no offense. But it seriously makes me wonder about those people. I think that they just must be crazy. thank you for telling me that you’re crazy. But in any case, that being said, you know, I did go on a vacation last month, and I might have put on a couple extra pounds. might have been eating out a little bit too much, and so when I got back, I resolved that I was going to lose those few pounds that I had put on and really need to probably get rid of a few more that I put on since college.

And so I actually did go start trying to run a little bit. And, well, that’s not fun. I actually I went golfing with Tony last week, and I was sore from golfing. So if I’m sore from golfing, it probably tells you the shape that I’m currently in. And in any case, you know, I used to be in shape. When I was in college, I played frisbee three times a week. I could run like no end. But it’s easy to lose those habits. I got out of college and that just all went out the window. Other priorities get in the way. And it’s easy to lose good habits. It’s easy to get into bad habits. It takes a great amount of resolve to do what is good for us.

To devote that time to say, I’m going to get up, I’m going to go and exercise, I’m going to run, I’m going to go to the gym, whatever it may be. And I’m a big fan now of 1 Timothy chapter 4, verses 7 through 8, where Paul writes, train or exercise yourself for godliness. For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way. As it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. That verse makes me feel a little bit better about not working out quite as much as I ought to, not keeping my body, my physical body in maybe pristine shape. Because it tells me that, yes, the body is of some importance. But our spiritual self is of far greater importance.

Our English word for gymnasium is derived from the Greek word for exercise. It was a place where Greek youths would go and they would they would train themselves for competitions, much like we do today. And all too often that maybe becomes our idol. Our physical selves, our physical appearance, our bodies. And it may not be in an athletic sense, but it may just be in the way that I look, the way my hair is, or the way my makeup is, or people go and they get plastic surgery because they’re so consumed with the way that they look. We as Americans spend too much time worrying about our physical appearance, and not nearly enough time worrying about our spiritual appearance before God. As Paul is quick to point out, it’s not to say that bodily training is of no value.

1. Four Areas of Exercise: Mind, Emotions, Conscience, Will

It clearly is, but he says godliness is of value in every way. And that should be our focus and priority. Training for godly living provides value that is more useful and will be far longer lasting. Our bodies will eventually fail no matter what we do. Our souls will live on. I just turned 29. I’m edging ever closer to 30. And my body, I’m still a young man. My body doesn’t work the way it used to. I know that. And so the reflection on the greater need for spiritual training suggests that there are four major areas in which we need to exercise our spiritual selves. And the greater question, of course, is how do we engage in those exercises? Number one our four areas of exercise. We need to be exercising, brethren, our spiritual minds, our hearts, our spirit.

This is who we are. This is our thoughts. It is who we are at our very core, our inner being. Intellectual training is vital to spiritual growth. We’re challenged to consider the evidence for God. We’re challenged to consider things like the deity of Jesus, the inspiration of the Bible and the words therein. Our mental exercise involves deliberation on God’s word, evaluation of it, interpretation of it. And this thinking leads us to develop a spiritual value system that will allow us to discern between what is good and evil in hopes of being pleasing before God and making it to heaven. Exercising our mind will help us to develop a strong and be firm in the knowledge of our Lord, to be sure of our path before Him that we have chosen.

Scripture tells us that we need to be discerning about good and evil. Proverbs chapter 14 and verse 18 says, The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way. But the folly of fools is deceiving. Romans chapter 12 and verse 2 says that we ought not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewal of our minds. That we may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect before Him. Ephesians chapter 5, verses 8 through 10 tell us much the same thing. We need to be also studying God’s word. 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 15 and 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 15. There’s two verses that have to do with this. It should be easy to remember because they both kind of are the same.

2 Timothy 2.15, 1 Peter 3.15. 2 Timothy 2.15 tells us that we ought to do our best to present ourselves to God as a worker who is approved, with no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 1 Peter 3 15 tells us that we ought to always be ready to give our to give a defense in our hearts to acknowledge and honor Christ as holy, always ready to make a defense for the hope that is within us. We need to be focused on spiritual things. It’s like I preached on last week, last Sunday evening, that we need to make sure that we are not letting sin blind our eyes, that we don’t let the cares of the world cloud our vision, that we don’t lose sight of the goal of heaven, that we don’t let emotions distract and get us focused on the wrong things.

To train our minds is vitally important. And we also need to be training our emotions. Our emotions.

They can easily lead us astray. Because we tend to think that, well, because I felt it, that must make it true. But we have to be in control of them. We have to be the master of our emotions, our feelings, and not the other way around. Emotions test our self-control. The devil wants us to let our emotions control us. Emotions are a very personal thing. I mean, you feel certain ways about certain things, and the devil wants us to vault those emotions up over the truth. Emotions cloud our judgment. Numerous warnings are given in the Bible regarding runaway emotions of anger, envy, jealousy, hatred, bitterness, wrath, lusts. These are things that require self-discipline. We need to train ourselves emotionally to control our feelings and exercise restraint.

We must exercise rather the godly emotions of love, of happiness, of joy, peace, contentment, patience, kindness, and gentleness, while suppressing the devil’s emotions of anger and jealousy, hatred, bitterness, unhappiness, discontent, impatience, and selfishness. We’re told as much in 2 Corinthians 12 and verse 20. Also, if you turn over to Galatians chapter 5 and verse 20, we can look at what Paul writes there in regards to the flesh versus the spirit. He says, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, and divisions. All these things are of the flesh. They are not of the spirit. This is not the controlling our minds, our emotions as we ought to. And we also look at James chapter 3, verses 14 and 16. James chapter 3, verses 14 and 16.

He says there, but if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes from above, it is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder in every vile practice. Our emotions can easily get the better of us if we are not careful. Thirdly, we need to be exercising our conscience. God gave us a moral governor called the conscience. And in that conscience is something that can either commend us to God or it can condemn us before Him. But it depends on how that conscience is taught and how it is trained. We maybe discount the conscience sometimes. It is not something that is just going to be inherently perfect.

It is something that has to be formed and molded and trained into what it ought to be, and it must be. It can be altered, both negatively and positively. Paul makes it very clear that our conscience is important. He mentions it some twenty-six times. or it’s mentioned some twenty-six times in the ESV, but Paul namely uses it many times in 1 Corinthians chapter 8, in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. He says in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 in verse 12 that Paul that his conscience testified of his behavior in a good way. But he also says elsewhere that he acted in all good conscience whilst killing Christians. And so it’s very clear that our conscience can be wrong. And so it must be trained by the Word of God to know, to discern between good and evil.

Paul also speaks in 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 12 of some who had their consciences trained in covetous practices. In fact, he says there, unless we exercise the conscience properly, it can become seared, rendered incapable of rational judgment. And we all know what that is. It’s that process of how you do something and over and over and over again, the first time, it really bothers you. You know that it that it was wrong. And then you do it again and it bothers you a little less, and you do it again, it bothers you a little less and a little less, until it just becomes a habit. And that’s just, it just doesn’t bother you. You just don’t care, and you’re gonna go on doing that, even though you know that it’s wrong.

Your conscience isn’t guiding you properly anymore. These people in 1 Timothy 4, too, their consciences have been seared. But we cannot allow that to happen.

He says rather in 1 Timothy chapter 1, verses 18 and 19. That we must hold faith and a good conscience in order to wage the good warfare. We must hone our consciences to be in line with God’s will. And that is our fourth area of exercise is our will. We must exercise our will. Each of us is given the power to choose every day what we’re going to do, how we are going to serve God. What am I going to do today? I’m giving the choice of whether I’m going to become a Christian or to deny the power in the Word of God. The will of a person can be a great benefit in decision making if it is exercised spiritually. Training our wills to align with God’s will result in being morally resolute.

That is to be absolutely resolved every day that I am going to be a servant of Christ, that I am going to do what is right in his eyes. And I’m going to do that with godly discretion. Our will must be conformed to his will. We are to be clay in the potter’s hand. Isaiah writes in Isaiah chapter 64 and verse 8 that very thing. I think it’s it’s beautiful imagery. The way that we ought to be molded in his hand. Isaiah 64 and verse 8. But now, O Lord, you are our Father.

We are the clay. And you are the potter. We are all the work of your hand. If he is our Father, that means he has authority over us. If we are the clay, that means he has the right to make us as he wants to make us. We are to be as he wants us to be. We are the work of your hand. I’m not the work of my own hand. I certainly did not make myself. I certainly have no right to tell God how I want to be. I’m to be clay in the potter’s hand, seeking to do his will, seeking to conform our will to his is not the other way around. And Isaiah also says that in Isaiah chapter 29, if you back up over there, Isaiah chapter 29 and verse 16.

He says, Are you turned things upside down? Shall the potter be regarded as the clay? That the thing made should say of its maker? He did not make me. Or the thing formed say of him who formed it. He has no understanding. In other words, how in the world can we presume to tell God what to do? Or to tell God that I have more authority than he does, or to tell God that he has no right to tell me what to do. We cannot be so arrogant. We cannot say to him, to God that he didn’t make me. We can’t say to him that he has no understanding, or that he has no authority. Paul echoes the cinnamon in Romans chapter 9, verses 19 through 21.

And he says, You will say to me then why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will? Amen to that. But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Well, what does Molded say to its molder? Why have you made me like this? Has the potter no right over the clay? To make out of the same one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable. It says, You have no right to ask these kinds of questions of God. I’m reminded also of Job and how he asks God to answer, and he demands of God that he answer him. And what does God say to Job? He says to him, Who are you? Where were you when I formed the earth?

Where were you when I formed the deep? And when I created the heavens, you were nowhere. We have no right to try and say that our will trumps God’s will. We cannot resist his will. And that’s what it says, Paul writes there in verse 19. Who can resist his will? We can’t. We cannot resist his will. God’s will always win. And so we might as well conform to it. We might as well submit to it. One of my favorite songs, I lead it quite often, is a song titled Prince of Peace, Control My Will. Bid this struggling heart be still. May my fears and doubtings cease. We have to just let go. We struggle with that. That’s what that song is saying. I struggle with letting God be in control.

And I’m going to have fear. It’s going to be scary to let go and let him control. But I have to do that. We need to submit to the Father just like Christ did. Christ is our ultimate example of humility. And we read, of course, his prayer in the garden in Luke chapter 22, verses 39 through 42. And it says he came and went as was his custom to the mount of all his and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, Pray that you may not enter into temptation. And he withdrew with them from about a stone’s throw and knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.

2. Four Ways: Word, Prayer, Worship, Meditation

Jesus didn’t just have this burning desire to go and be crucified. But he understood it was the Father’s will. He prayed that it pass from him, but not his will, but the Father’s be done. That is ultimate submission. That is the way that we must conform our will to his. So how do we engage in this kind of spiritual exercise? I want to suggest four things to you this morning that hopefully will help you in that endeavor. Number one, quickly, getting into the word. You know, there are a lot of self-help books out there, and all these books for habits of highly affected people, and those things are all well and good, but they are not God’s word. God’s word is the most effective for spiritually shaping our lives.

We need to be getting into the word. We cannot be correctly trained spiritually, apart from the Bible. God’s word produces faith. It increases knowledge, it provides purpose, develops strength. God’s word grows our character, supplies comfort, it offers hope, and equips us for life’s problems and Satan’s challenges. It develops our mind, our conscience, our will. Look with me, if you would now over to 2 Timothy. Again. And I would note here, of course, two verses that we already mentioned, 2 Timothy 2 and verse 15, and in 1 Peter 3 and verse 15. Being ready to give a defense, being knowledgeable in the Word of God. But I also want to look in 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verses 16 and 17, an equally important verse in this regard.

Paul writes that all scripture was breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and training in righteousness. Why? That the man of God may be competent, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Paul also writes in Ephesians 4 and verse 15 and 16 that while he’s talking about the church, but he talks there about how we ought to grow up into Him that we might be fully equipped, growing up into Christ. And we do that using His Word. And I’m also reminded, of course, of the study we’ve been having on Sunday mornings in Deuteronomy, and we just looked at Deuteronomy chapter 17, where we read about the kings of Israel and the laws that there were, not necessarily laws, but the instructions that they were given about writing down a copy for themselves of God’s law.

How important it was for them to know God’s word in order to follow it, in order to shape their character. Secondly, we need to be engaging in daily prayer. Daily prayer. Prayer brings us into communion with God. It is an exercise of humility, trust, dependence, and reverence. No Christian can be spiritually healthy apart from prayer. Of course, 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 17 necessitates the need for prayer without ceasing. Jesus, as we just read in Luke 22, that it was his habit to go out to the Mount of Olives by himself and pray. He depended on prayer. It was his habit. How often do you pray? Prayer helps us to be God-centered rather than other centered. God-centered and other centered rather than self-centered. It helps us to align our will with his.

We need to be worshiping weekly. When we come together like we are right now, we experience many things, but we experience fellowship with the Father and worship. And we experience fellowship with one another. We encourage one another. We enjoy association with fellow believers. The exercise of worship brings us together. It makes our experience one. It makes our love sweeter, our faith deeper, and our hope brighter. It regulates our conscience. It hones our emotions toward God and toward others. It refocuses our mind on where it ought to be. After we’ve gone out in the world all week and we’ve been distracted by all these many things, we come back here and we are refocused. And there’s no need for me to recite Hebrews 10, 25 and John 4, 24 about worshiping in spirit and truth and not neglecting to meet together.

We all know that a failure to worship is a failure to recognize that God is more important than me. It’s a failure of priorities. It’s a failure to properly and habitually exercise our spiritual muscles. And finally, we need regular meditation. Dee Bowman once wrote that meditation is vital to spiritual development. We need not discount the importance and the need and the benefits of meditation. The exercise and reflection on divine matters causes our spiritual muscles to develop and grow stronger. Paul writes in Philippians chapter 4 and verse 8 of all those things, whatever’s lovely and commendable and true and right, all those things we have to meditate on or think on constantly. It is the exercise of the mind and the development of the conscience.

3. Make Spiritual Exercise a Habit

Four areas of exercise, four ways to make it happen. You said nine, right? That’s eight. I know Aaron struggles with math. We discovered here in class this morning. Not really. So what’s the ninth? Make spiritual exercise a habit. And that’s been running through. If you notice, I’ve said that word several times already. It’s been a constant theme in this. We must be regular, consistent, persistent. The only way to make running a habit is if you set a schedule and you stick to it, and it becomes a habit. Otherwise, you fall off the wagon. I have a little app on my phone. It’s like a social media app, but I don’t really care about social media. So I got off Facebook. Done with that. I use Instagram a little bit, but I have another one called Path, and it’s I literally, it’s only my family that I have on there.

And I it tracks, there’s another app that when you go running, it actually throws it up on there. And even though I didn’t tell it to. I was kind of trying to keep it a secret. But anyway, so it pops it up on there. My brother sees it and he goes, Way to get on the wagon. My brother is a crazy runner person. And he saw it and he goes, Way to get on the wagon. I’m like, okay, great. Yeah, hopefully I can stay on the wagon this time. I’ve tried it before, you know. And that’s what I’m thinking because it’s hard. It’s hard for me to make that a habit. I do not enjoy it. It’s hard for us to make making the right decisions day in and day out.

And teaching others about the word and being example to them. It’s hard to do that day in and day out to make it out. It’s hard to have a regular prayer life, a schedule that is that we do it all the time, but we have to do that. It’s hard. But God said it never said that it was going to be easy. To run the race every day, to press on towards the goal. We can’t just do it on Sunday and Wednesday. We can’t just do it when our kids or our parents are around or when our elders or teachers are around. It has to be every day. Even when we’re out there fighting the battles of the world. Don’t get out of the habit of spiritual exercise like I have with my physical exercise.

Conclusion

It does not take long to get out of shape. That slope is gradual and you don’t notice it, but before long, it feels like you’re maybe too far gone. And it takes a lot longer, and it’s a lot more work to get back into shape than it is to get out of shape. One author said that we first form our habits and then our habits form us. So how are your exercise habits? And what are they forming? Are they forming in you a creature who is more like Christ? Who is molded like clay in the potter’s hand? Something that is suitable for service to God, both here on earth and in and for a future of an eternity in heaven. The Lord wants you to be a vessel for honorable use and service to Him.

I spent a lot of time around people who are in the military, especially when we were serving in the congregation in Rampstein, Germany, and they had no choice. They had to go and do their PT. Caleb, I’m sure, knows about all about PT. Caleb makes his physical exercise important. That’s that’s good. He’s always asking me to go work out with him and I never have. I gotta do that. But no military commander is going to let all of his subordinates get out of shape. That would not be very wise. And our all knowing and all powerful God and his ultimate wisdom wants us to exercise as well. God is no different. If we spent as much and hopefully more time worrying about our spiritual condition as we do our physical conditions, we would be suitable for service to him.

So if you’re here this morning and you believe that Jesus is the crucified Son of God, then you need to respond to the gospel this morning by coming to him, coming forward this morning to become a Christian, by repenting of your sins, by confessing his name and by being baptized for the forgiveness of your sins. Or if you have stopped exercising, if you’ve just given up, gotten out of the habit of doing the right things day in and day out, you’ve just gotten lax. And need prayers of the congregation for strength to do the right thing, to get back into the right habits. Maybe you’ve fallen into a habitual sin. Make your life right this morning. Let your needs be known we can pray for you and help you and encourage you as you walk a daily walk with him.

Won’t you come forward now while we stand and sing.