REVIEW
FLIP CHART: SOM’S KEY VERSE, GOAL, MOTTO
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness ….” (Mt. 6:33a).
The law sends us to Christ for justification; Christ sends us back to the law for sanctification.
FLIP CHART: Show new “Perfect Righteousness” chart explaining steps to coming to Christ (As a worm, mourning, meek, spiritual hunger/thirst with the result of legal righteousness). Explain: moral righteousness, immediate moral change at conversion, gradual change through life’s challenges and speeding up moral change via CCRC (Concentration, Choice, Reflection and Confession/Thanksgiving). Key verse, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb. 10:14).
FLIP CHART: John Stott’s outline of SOM.
INTRODUCTION
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:5-8)
INTRODUCTION:
With fear of belaboring the point, yet feeling it necessary, I am going to focus for the next three weeks on spiritual disciplines, but hopefully in a new and interesting way.
OUTLINE FOR TODAY:
1. The Value of the Human Soul
2. Defining Holiness, a Godly Life
3. Why Not Have a Spiritual Life Statement
4. Content for a Spiritual Life Statement
SOUL FOCUS!!!
I. THE VALUE OF THE HUMAN SOUL
“What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his
soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark
8:36)
QUESTION: What are the implications derived from this question?
(1) The soul is of supreme value, the whole world is not equal to its
Value
(2) The well-being of my soul should be a priority
(3) Everything in my life should be subservient to the well-being of my soul
(4) The eternal well-being of others should be high on my list of priorities, etc.
QUESTION: Can you give Biblical examples of where individuals were challenged to give their soul in exchange for something?
(1) Satan challenged God for Job’s soul, “Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life” (Job 2:4). (2) Satan offered Jesus the kingdoms of this world in exchange for his soul. (Mt. 4:8-10)
THE VALUE THE BIBLE PUTS ON THE SOUL
(1) It is God’s breath … God breathed into man, he became a living soul.
(2) The soul is created in the image of God and in His likeness
(3) God desires to have communion with our soul, not our body
(4) Our souls are vessels of grace – God reveals his graces, fruits of the Spirit in our souls
(5) Christ shed His blood to save our souls (I Cor. 6:20; I Peter 1:18-19)
(6) The soul is immortal; none can kill the soul (Lk. 12:4; Mt. 10:28)
WHAT ABOUT THE BODY? Our body is:
(1) The tent/house of the soul (II Cor. 5:1)
(2) The clothing of the soul (II Cor. 5:4)
(3) The vessel of the soul (I Thes. 4:4)
(4) The tabernacle of the soul (II Peter 1:14)
If we believe these words we will automatically prioritize the well-being of our souls …. But do we?
AN EXERCISE: Take a piece of paper and set up 15 minute segments for a 24 hour period. You will have 96 segments. Then keep track throughout a 24 hour period of what you did with each 15 minute segment. Do it for two days. Then ask your self, “Based on the use of my time during the past 24 hours how should I rank the priority of my soul in my life?
II. A GODLY LIFE – WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?
The Pharisees sought to live a godly life, to be godly people, yet Jesus said, “…unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees …” (Mt. 5:20).
QUESTION: How would you define a godly person?
“The supreme matter in this life and world for all of us is to realize our relationship to God” (MLJ, 14).
Living out the spiritual qualities and life as explained in the Sermon on the Mount.
Godliness / Spiritual growth – an increasing love for God and for other people (Reveal, Pg. 29).
A godly person has experienced a Christian conversion. Whereas his life was previously focused on himself it is now focused on Christ. Knowing, loving and pleasing God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit dominates and gives direction to His life. A godly person lives a God-centered life. (John Stott)
III. THE VALUE OF A “SPIRITUAL LIFE STATEMENT”
Companies, missions, organizations all develop what is called “Vision Statements,” “Mission Statements,” “Purpose Statements.”
Hours and days are spent by organizations defining and refining their purpose statement / mission statement / vision statement.
Purpose Statement – Napoleon Hill introduced the concept of a major definite purpose in his classic Think and Grow Rich. Your purpose statement represents the main or central mission of your life at this moment. It is what you would call your life’s work. It attempts to answer the questions “why am I here?” and “what am I going to do with the rest of my life?”
Mission Statement is a brief description of a company’s fundamental purpose. A mission statement answers the question, “Why do we exist?”
The mission statement of Canadian Tire: “Canadian Tire is a growing network of interrelated businesses… Canadian Tire continuously strives to meet the needs of its customers for total value by offering a unique package of location, price, service and assortment.”
Vision Statement: Defines where the organization wants to be in the future. What you are doing when creating a vision statement is articulating your dreams and hopes for your business. It reminds you of what you are trying to build.
Indopartners Agency Vision Statement: Indopartners Agency exist to be a channel and catalyst in reaching Indonesian Muslim Unreached People Groups through partnering with indigenous Indonesian church planting missions, inspiring innovative ministries, engaging in direct evangelization.
I have not read anywhere of individual Christians developing their own “Spiritual Life Statements,” or “Spiritual Life Purpose-Mission-Vision Statements.”
I think it would be good if each of us had a SLS that clearly states why we exist as a person, the meaning and purpose of our life and how we visualize what we want to see happen in the life of our soul.
IV. WHAT SHOULD WE INCLUDE IN OUR “SPIRITUAL LIFE STATEMENT?”
QUESTION / FLIP CHART: What words should we include in our spiritual life statement?
Write all responses on a flip chart. Talk about them one by one as they come up, especially the ones that I want us to focus on. Have several pieces of paper on the whiteboard so that I can write key words there and give extra time.
1. “For me to live is Christ ….” (Phil. 1:21)
2. “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and Christ Jesus our hope …” (I Tim. 1:1)
ILL: Victor Frankl, in Man’s Search for Meaning, said an increased number of prisoners died at Christmas.
3. But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, 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 on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ . . . (Phil. 3:7-10)
4. Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment” (Mt. 22:37-38).
The above verse is referred to as “the organizing principle of Christianity.”
5. “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son …” (Romans 8:29).
The emphasis of this verse is that holiness, not happiness should be a primary goal. Spiritual formation needs to be prioritized.
6. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10).
7. “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus replied …. “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 22:36, 39).
8. “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work” . . . “I have brought you glory on the earth by completing the work you gave me to do” (John 4:34, 17:4).
9. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (wisdom). . . . . . “Here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Prov. 1:7, Eccl. 12:13).
10. “When Christ, who is your life, appears . . . .” (Col. 3:4).
11. “But seek first His kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Mt. 6:33).
TABLE ACTIVITY: At your table write as a group an “SLS” of not more than 50 words.
TABLE ACTIVITY: Now write that Spiritual Life Statement in the form of a prayer.
SO WHAT???
1. God has created us with an immortal soul and housed that soul in a wonderful body.
2. The value of our soul is so great that we must prioritize its care and development above everything else.
3. One way to focus on the development of our soul is to write a “Spiritual Life Statement” to focus on daily.
4. The Bible clearly directs us what to include in our Spiritual Life Statement.
5. Please write out your own spiritual life statement as both a declaration and a prayer and email it to me this week: [email protected].