Spiritual Health Check-up
26/07/09
Last week was one of those great times where God seems to be bringing a lot of truth together to be a really powerful message in your life. As I went from preaching at Kingsley on Sunday, teaching Scripture on Wednesday, Bible Study on Wednesday night and Young Adults Group on Thursday night as well as other conversations during the week there was an incredible overlap in what the Scriptures have been saying that I’ve really enjoyed.
I want to share some of those things with you this morning, and I hope that you will be challenged and encouraged by them as much as I have been.
I want to start with this morning by reminding you of the classic passage that describes what a healthy and active church looks like – Acts 2:42-47.
Acts 2:42-47 (NIV)
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
When we read about this church we see what it’s like to be right at the beginning of a new work that God is doing, before Satan has a chance to infiltrate it and attack it, and before it is weakened by all of the frailties and failures of the people who are a part of it.
The church in Acts 2 is not yet a mature church, but it’s heading in the right direction. If they keep up with what they are doing here there will be no way that the gates of hell will be able to stand against this church.
They have not yet had to contend with serious opposition. They have not yet had to stand firm against temptation and false teaching. They have not yet had to protect their hearts from becoming colder with the passing of time as their initial enthusiasm naturally wears off.
When we read the rest of the New Testament we find that the going was not always easy for the church, and they failed often. As the church grew and spread we see different congregations struggling with different issues.
Listen to what Jesus said to the church at
Revelation 2:1-5 (NIV)
“To the angel of the church in
These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands: 2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5 Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
So here we see a church which was doctrinally more mature than the
Yet, they are threatened with spiritual extinction! They are a dying church! Jesus says that their witness in
What could be missing? They are faithful. They are hard working. They have pure teaching and love the truth.
But they have forsaken their first love.
What is their first love? Simply love for Christ and for others. Love of truth has replaced love of God and love of people.
Is that possible? It shouldn’t be, because the truth clearly tells us to love. The truth tells us that love is the very character of God. But throughout history we have seen very often a swing between groups who do well at loving others, yet are soft on the truth, and groups who do well at standing for the truth, but tend to have a low regard for people, and little awareness or care for their impact on people. The Bible speaks again and again on the importance of truth and love existing together, and only then are both made complete.
So as we return to Acts 2, we see there a church that is not yet mature but a church that is alive and growing. That is the type of church that we want to be. A church that is alive and growing.
On Thursday night I asked the young adults to look at each of the things that those early Christians were doing, the things that the Ephesians of Revelation 2 were told to return to, and I asked them to evaluate themselves by that list. Are they devoted to and doing the same things as these early Christians? In effect what I was asking was “Are we a healthy and growing group, or have we forsaken our first love?”
A couple of weeks back I took our car up to Merredin to the place where we bought it for it’s 90,000km service. It took most of the day, and in the middle of a busy period that was a real nuisance. But I know that if I don’t pay attention to maintaining the car it’s not going to last the distance.
Our spiritual life needs regular check-up’s too. I’m not talking about the regular work of fueling up, cleaning out and so on – you know, things like reading our bibles, praying, serving and so on. I mean every now and then taking some time to take a close look at every part of our lives to see how it is going. To give our spiritual life a thorough going over.
Galatians 6:4-5 (NLT)
4 Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. 5 For we are each responsible for our own conduct.[2]
I have brought along a couple of things which I hope will be of help to everyone as we each pay careful attention to our own conduct. The first is a Spiritual Health Check Up that I found on a website during the week. This one comes from Sugar Grove Church of Christ in
Now before I show you the second thing I’ve brought along for you today, I want to remind you of what was going on in
It didn’t need to be that way. Jesus gives them the remedy – repent! Change course and start doing the things that you have stopped doing. Reignite that passion that has grown cold.
Some people look at the
I disagree! I think you can choose to love God and love others no matter how long you’ve been a Christian. I think you can be enthusiastic and excited about Jesus all the time. I think that passion does naturally cool off, but God has given us everything we need to keep that passion alive – we just need to choose to do so.
On Thursday night with the young adults I spoke a bit about how much I had enjoyed Bible Study the previous night at Ari & Wilma’s house. I really enjoyed studying the Bible together and praying. We had a great time of sharing stories and enjoying lovely food & drink. It was just a really good night. It was a good night because some people chose to come and other people chose to open their home. It was a good night because people chose to have a good attitude. They chose to be interested in the Bible and in each other. They chose thankfulness to God.
As I mentioned earlier I looked at the website for the Sugar Grove Church of Christ during the week, and had a glance at their calendar of events. Do you know what? There was stuff happening practically every day! Every day groups are getting together for all sorts of purposes, just like in the early church. Are the same people going to all those events? I don’t think so! Did all of those 3000 and more early Christians attend events every day with other believers? Probably not!
The point is that they were devoted to it – whether once or twice a week or some other frequency, they got together as often as they could in order to be the church for each other. Did all of them sell their possessions and give to the poor in the first week? Nope! Acts 4 tells us that these things were happening from time to time as some had need and others had opportunity to meet that need! I’ve seen exactly the same thing happen here in this church, where people have sacrificially given money, goods and time that would have been very helpful used on their own needs, but they’ve given for the sake of others’ needs. Not a big broadcast to advertise it, but it happens.
I believe that we see Acts 2 churches all the time – not perfect churches, but growing churches. Churches marked by a vibrant love for God and each other. Churches that value teaching, fellowship, prayer and generosity. Churches that focus their people on Jesus. Churches that are seeing evidence of the work of the Spirit in their members. Churches to whom God is adding those who are being saved.
My question for you today is what role do you play in all of this? Are you doing what you need to do in order to make us an Acts 2 church?
The second thing I’ve brought along for you today is a list of “One-Another’s” of the Bible. It’s a resource for you to be able to get a quick overview of what the Bible says about how we should be connecting with one another. I’m sure that as you read it you will be very challenged about the role that you have been called to play in relationship with other Christians. It will convict you of some things that you need to get right with God and with others. It will show you things that you can do to make us an Acts 2 church.
Link 1: Spiritual Health Check-up from Sugar Grove Church of Christ
Link 2: The "One-Another's" of the Bible from memoryverses.org
[1]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984.
[2]Tyndale House Publishers. (2004). Holy Bible : New Living Translation. "Text edition"--Spine. (2nd ed.) (Ga 6:4-5).
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