WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE SPIRITUAL?

• I want to ask your permission to think with you by using a different approach.

• Please do not “TURN ME OFF” or “CHANGE THE CHANNEL.”

• My beginning may not appeal to all of you, but please follow me to the end. By the time I reach the end, I hope to connect with every teen and every adult present.

I want to begin simply.

• What is you definition of Spiritual?

You have a personal concept.

• What is it?

• Should a Christian be a spiritual person?

• As a Christian, is it your goal to be spiritual?

• How do you know when you are spiritual?

• Is spirituality just a matter of being in a church building on Sunday?

• Owning a Bible?

• Believing Gods exists?

• Believing Jesus died and was resurrected?

• Is spirituality just a matter of rules and regulations?

• Just a matter of accepting the right set of beliefs?

• Just a matter of doing right things and not doing wrong things?

•I want to take us on a journey of

remembrance over the last 70 or

so years.

– NAZI GERMANY

– JAPANENSE ATTACK- PEARL

HARBOR

– ATOMIC ATTACK

– THE VIET NAM CONFLICT

A. Today there are powerful forces that influence us

mightily.

1.One of the most powerful international force

known in today’s world IS MUSIC.

2. Song lyrics and musical sounds powerfully

impact people’s views of life.

a. I struggle to get people’s attention for less than two hours a week- in a year, the average weekly time is less than that.

b. How many hours a week do you listen to

music on a radio station, on a CD, on MTV, on VH1, on MP3, or on Napster?

3. What does the music you hear say:

a. About hopelessness?

b. About worthlessness?

c. About sex?

d. About anger?

e. About selfish pleasure?

4. Which influence is the most

powerful in the way you look at life-

the words of Jesus Christ or the

words of your music?

5. Do the songs you listen to over

and over do the same thing to

the way you look at life that

German death camps, Pearl

Harbor, atomic energy, and the

“MAKE LOVE NOT WAR” did long

before you were born?

B. Another of the powerful forces is

entertainment. (other than music)

1. What does Hollywood tell us about life,

and Godliness?

- About values, right and wrong?

C. Finishing out the powerful forces that

confront us, is a culture that promotes

and exemplifies almost a 100% Secular

view of Life.

- education; career ambition and

promotion, government and media.

So everyone asks, “ What does that have to do with being spiritual?

EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING!

Listen to John's thoughts:

1 John 2:15-17

(15) “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If

anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not

in him.

(16]) For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful

man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he

has and does--comes not from the Father but from

the world.

(17)The world and its desires pass away, but the man

who does the will of God lives forever.”

•Listen to the same statement as

paraphrased by THE MESSAGE:

Don’t love the world’s ways. Don't love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world– wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting , wanting, wanting is on the way out- but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.

• If you love God’s values, God’s love lives in you.

• If you reject God’s values, God’s love cannot live in you.

• You cannot love the things that oppose spirituality and love God at the same time.

Listen to Paul’s words:

Ephesians 5:15-21

(15)” Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise

but as wise,

(16) making the most of every opportunity, because the

days are evil.

(17)Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the

Lord's will is.

(18)Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.

Instead, be filled with the Spirit.

(19) Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and

spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart

to the Lord,

(20) always giving thanks to God the Father for

everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

(21) Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Listen to the same statement

paraphrased by THE MESSAGE:

So watch your step. Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times! Don’t live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the Master wants. Don’t drink too much wine. That cheapens your life. Drink the spirit of God, huge draughts of him. Sing hymns instead of drinking songs! Sing songs from your heart to Christ. Sing praises over everything, any excuse for a song to God the Father in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ.

• Be very careful in deciding how to live

your life and use your time.

• Do not let drinking determine your

songs and lifestyle.

• Let your feelings for God and Christ and

your knowledge of God and Christ

determine your songs.

For a hundred of years man has

systematically created a monster,

and now the monster has turned

on us.

-A secular view of life is the

result.

I. Spiritual people accept God as the source of life and the world, and Jesus as the answer to the world’s dilemmas.

a. The Bible begins with God.

1. The Bible begins with God creating

the world and creating us and

declaring all He created was good

and then the FALL.

2. The story is completed by God

promising a Savior and His coming to

redeem man.

Paul wrote in:

Romans 8:38,39

(38) “For I am convinced that neither death

nor life, neither angels nor demons,

neither the present nor the future, nor

any powers,

(39) neither height nor depth, nor anything

else in all creation, will be able to

separate us from the love of God that

is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Paul wrote in:

Ephesians 4: 23,24

(23) “to be made new in the attitude of your

minds;

(24) and to put on the new self, created to be like

God in true righteousness and holiness.”

So strong is the connection between God and His creative acts that several times the Bible refers to God simply as the Creator.

For a moment, consider a perspective:

1. From chaos God created the world and life.

2. From Adam and Eve’s failure, God created

grace in God-human relationship.

3. From the flood, God created a new beginning.

4. From Abraham, God created Israel.

5. From Israel, God brought Jesus

6. From Jesus’ death and resurrection, God

created the savior.

7. From the savior, God created our salvation.

8. From our salvation, God created a new “me”.

9. From our physical deaths, God will create an

eternal existence.