Sermon - How Can We Grow Spiritually? - Part 3

Sabath to all of you, brother, and special thanks to the Cleveland Chorale. And deeply appreciate, particularly, Sarah and Claire joining the group and participating in our chorale. We like to see individuals of all ages up there in our chorale, and it's always great to see. It's very beautiful, so thank you for that addition to our Sabbath services today. Well, today is part three of a series that we've had entitled, How Can We Grow Spiritually? The first two parts discussed why spiritual growth is so essential in our lives. We reviewed how spiritual growth is more important than acquiring physical things, which is what the world tells us is important, which we are bombarded with constantly, as if we all know the saying that he who dies with the most toys wins. But we know that God has called us to a spiritual life. We discussed how growth doesn't happen automatically. We have to do it intentionally. For transformation to take place in our lives, we have to change how we think. And we talked about self-talk and the negativity that is often within our own heads. Spiritual growth takes commitment. We saw from Scripture that both our spiritual and physical lives receive one most powerful possession, the most powerful possession that we have spiritually. It's the gift of the Holy Spirit. Physically, it's the ability to make choices and to choose. And we saw that spiritual growth occurs when we bring those two powerful gifts together and transform our lives and transform ourselves. Last time, we discussed four common ways that we can get stuck. Four ways that we can get stalled out of our spiritual growth. Today, I'd like to discuss some essential spiritual tools to guide and enhance our personal growth. Some of these you're going to be very aware of and familiar with. If you've been in the Church of God for a while, actually the first half of the sermon is on tools that we may think more commonly as spiritual tools. And the second half of the sermon is on hopefully some tools that will give you food for thought and may enhance your spiritual growth. So we're going to begin with a common spiritual tool that we are aware of. Again, if we've been in the Church of God for a while, we even have a Holy Day that emphasizes the importance of fasting. Turn with me, if you would, to Daniel 10, beginning in verse 1. That's Daniel chapter 10, beginning in verse 1.

Sometimes we may think that the only appropriate kind of fast is what we do on the day of atonement, in which for a 24-hour period of time we don't eat and we don't drink water. Again, that requirement is not expected of those who are elderly or those who have severe diseases like type 1 diabetes or something that could potentially be fatal for doing something like that. For the rest of us who are healthy, there is an instruction on the day of atonement to not eat or drink for 24 hours. And because of that, many of us tend to think that that is fasting and we don't appreciate or understand that God respects partial fasts. Here's an example of one, Daniel chapter 10, beginning in verse 1. This was when Daniel was seeing a vision about the succession of the Persian and the Grecian empires.

It says, in the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, a message was received to Daniel, whose name was Belshazzar. The message was true, but the appointed time was long, and he understood the message, and he had understanding of the vision. Now verse 2. In those days, I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant food, no meat or wine, came into my mouth, and I did not anoint myself. Some translations say that he didn't put lotions on himself. Some other translations say that he didn't ritually bathe himself. So I did not anoint myself at all till three whole weeks were fulfilled.

This is an example of a partial fast. Daniel does not say that he denied himself water.

What he does say is that he didn't eat food, he didn't eat meat, and he didn't eat or drink wine through his mouth. But he doesn't say anything about water. With a partial fast, one only eats as much food or water as necessary to be safe, and then they spend extra time in Bible study or prayer. A partial fast can include just fasting part of a day. And again, if you have the type of illness where you risk seriously complications if you go an entire 24 hours without eating or drinking, God certainly understands your situation. And if you can only fast for 12 hours or 8 hours, or if in your situation you can eat food and not drink water or maybe drink water and not eat food, we need to realize that God looks at our heart and he respects the efforts that we make. Because we don't fast for a whole 24 hours, like we do in the Day of Atonement, does not mean that other methods of fasting are somehow unbiblical or not respected by God. They most certainly are respected by God, just like God respected what Daniel was doing here and still heard his prayer and responded positively to his mourning. Biologically, a healthy person can go without food for about three weeks if he or she is drinking water. But a healthy person can only live about a week if you are denied water, even less if you're in a very hot environment and you're perspiring a lot. So thus, when we look in scriptures and we see the 40-day fast that were by Moses, he fasted 40 days, Elijah fasted 40 days, Jesus Christ fasted 40 days as recorded in the book of Luke, these were by God's supernatural divine intervention that allowed them to go 40 days fasting without expiring, without biologically them dying. So the thing that I want to point out about a spiritual tool regarding fasting is for us to realize that God looks at our heart and he honors the things that we do. And if we fast only part of a day or if we fast eating food and not drinking water or whatever, God certainly understands that. Those are thoroughly acceptable fast, except for the Day of Atonement, where again, if we are healthy, we are expected to obey God's command to go without food and water for 24 hours. Let's talk about Bible study now a little bit. Psalm 19 and verse 7, if you'll turn there with me, Psalm 19 and verse 7.

The great psalmist was inspired to write, The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. This is obviously talking about the Word of God, the testimony of the Lord, the statutes of the Lord, which you find in the Word of God.

Continuing, the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes, the fear of the Lord is clean, endearing forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. And where do we find about God's judgments? Where do we define the difference between what right and wrong? We find it through the Word of God, of course. Verse 10, More to be desired are they than gold, yea, much more than fine gold, sweeter, also than honey, and the honeycomb. Moreover by them your servant is warned, and in keeping them is great reward.

So here again, this is talking about the part of the Scriptures that we would know of as the Old Testament. And it is saying that the Word of God is a testimony, and God blesses His Word, and that we certainly should do Bible study. I'm sure most of us understand that. But I'd like to make a few comments about things we may not have thought about before that may help us. The original New Testament is a mixture of two different translations of the Old Testament.

The apostles used freely two different translations of the Old Testament that were available to them. One translation was the original Hebrew Scriptures, the Hebrew Bible also called the Tanakh. That was one. The second was a translation that had been done about 130 years before the birth of Jesus Christ, called the Septuagint. And these were scholars and individuals who took the Hebrew Bible and translated it into Greek because the lingua franqua of the world at that time was Greek, and people spoke that as a common language rather than Hebrew, which was a small minority language in the world.

So by the time the apostles came along, they freely used both translations. And you can literally go to the New Testament and you can find some time when they're quoting scriptures. Sometimes they are obviously quoting from the Septuagint. Other times they're obviously quoting from the Hebrew Bible that was in the original Hebrew. That's a good example for us because we should not be so rigid that we don't explore different translations of the Bible. We don't want to be like that old joke of the man who says, well, I only read the King James Version because if it was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me. Right? Well, of course, the King James Bible was written in 1611, long, long after Jesus Christ walked to the earth.

There are many good modern translations available and we quote from a number of them in services and in our church writings. But I think a key for us is to enjoy different translations for Christian living principles, but not to rely on them for doctrinal teachings. For a lot of doctrines, it actually requires us to go back to a meaning of the original Hebrew or Greek word. And unfortunately, even committees who translate Bible sometimes have an agenda, a Protestant agenda or a Catholic agenda or a particular agenda, and we can't always rely on the translation that's been made into English.

So for a number of our doctrines, it's important to take the time and effort to go back to look at the original meaning of the word in Hebrew or Aramaic in the Old Testament and Greek in the New Testament. So it requires us to do that for clarity and for understanding what God's intentions are.

The only kind of translations that I would caution us not to look at very closely are what are called paraphrased translations. These are a very free rendering of the biblical text with a thought-by-thought approach. Instead of taking word by word and trying to translate it from Greek or Hebrew into English, the authors freely take a thought and reword the thought into modern English, and many times, because it's not a word-for-word rendering but thought-for-thought, they actually make up statements that aren't true.

In other words, the paraphrase is more concerned with expressing ideas than the actual words of what the Bible says. The first well-known paraphrase—and I have one at home—called the Living Bible. It is so free-thinking, for example, in the New Testament where the original is Passover, they inserted Easter. And on Easter morning, such and such happened. So that's why we have to be very careful of those paraphrase versions of the Bible, because they can go right off track. They can go off the rails and basically can invent things that were not originally in the Word of God. These are not designed for serious Bible study, but a lot of people use them just to encourage themselves.

It's because they're easy to read. But again, I would just encourage you to beware of those paraphrase translations of the Scriptures. You can go to Google, and if you're interested in a particular translation, you can find out the history of it and how it was created and what kind of a translation it is. Another thing I would encourage you to beware of is translations created by one person, because one person is a human being who usually has an agenda. The great translations that we've been reading for four or five hundred a thousand years, like the Septuagint, for example, were created by committees.

They were created by groups of very bright men who debated particular words and phrases which were a little cryptic or hard to understand in the original words, and they debated until they came to a consensus that something would be the best way to translate it. You don't have that check and balance when you have one individual just writing a Bible. For example, I have the Moffat translation of the Bible. He was a very smart man, and overall the Bible isn't bad at all.

But Mr. Moffat was biased in his approach to his translation, because he didn't have any particular checks and balances. Many studies support something that you may not have thought of or something you may not be doing. It's the idea that reading information, while at the same time listening to it, listening to what is being read while you're reading it, greatly enhances our comprehension.

So if you're a person who says to yourself, I just read the Bible and I forget what I read. It just goes out of my head, and the next day I don't even remember anything that I read. Well, there's a little trick that we can do, because it actually doubles two different senses that we're using, and studies show it causes a much deeper comprehension. Because, again, we're engaging multiple senses, reading and hearing at the very same time.

This is a way to do more effective Bible studies. Websites such as BibleGateway.com has about 15 free audio translations. So you're reading from the new international version, for example. You can connect to that website, you can begin to play it, and you can read it from your Bible at the very same time. You're engaging two of your senses, hearing and reading at the same time in your comprehension is definitely going to be far deeper. There are phone apps, like the YouVersion, which is a Bible app, an excellent Bible app, I might add, that many people have in their phones or their tablets. It'll allow you to listen to 18 different translations, the audio, and you can even read it at the same time. So it'll allow you to engage the audio of that translation. It'll show you the words on your phone or tablet, and it'll even scroll along automatically as it's being read. So again, this is just a way, if you've been doing Bible study the same old way for a lot of years, and primarily focusing on just one translation, these are ways that can enhance and add a little bit of zest to your Bible study, and perhaps even increase your comprehension at the same time. Let's talk about prayer a little bit. John, chapter 11 and verse 39, if you'll turn there with me, John chapter 11 and verse 39.

Again, much like fasting, we tend to think that proper prayer is when we go into our closet, or we go into a quiet area of our home, and we seclude ourselves, and we just take a certain period of time to pray and talk to God, and though that is very good, we should not limit our understanding of the power of prayer by simply doing that. John, chapter 11 and verse 39, this is an incident that many of us are familiar with. Lazarus, his very close friend, had become sick and had died, and Jesus came and saw everyone weeping and how broken up everyone was over the death of his friend Lazarus. And Jesus said, this is verse 39, take away the stone, Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to him, Lord, by this time there's a stench, or he's been dead four days. And Jesus said to her, did I not say to you that if you would believe that you would see the glory of God, then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying, and Jesus lifted up his eyes. So he looks right up to heaven. He lifted up his eyes, and he said, audibly, Father, I thank you that you've heard me, and I know that you always hear me, but because of the people who are standing by, I said this. In other words, I'm only doing this audibly, Father, for their benefit, because normally, from my heart and mind, I'm talking to you, and I'm making my request. But for their benefit, so that they can believe and see this miracle, and know that it's your divine intervention occurring here, I'm saying this out loud. Again, that they may believe that you sent me. Now, when he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus come forth, and of course, Lazarus did. So Jesus is saying to the Father that he normally speaks to God silently within his mind. But again, this was for the benefit of those who were there, witnessing this incredible event. So he was making this event verbally. Again, we oftentimes tend to think that prayer is done privately for a certain period of time.

But indeed, on the eve of his death, Jesus did privately, at least for an hour, while his disciples were falling asleep, he did privately withdraw, and he had those kinds of prayers. And as I said a few minutes ago, that's fine. That's wonderful. However, if we limit the understanding of the power of prayer to something that's formal, to something that we withdraw ourselves to a private or secluded area, then I think that we're limiting ourselves to understanding the incredible potential that prayer can have in our lives. Frankly, most of the recorded prayers of Jesus in the Scriptures were very short, and like this example, were for an immediate situation. Let's now take a look at another Scripture, and I want to explain something that Paul says here in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 13. Again, Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 13, if you'll turn there with me. He's going to make a phrase here, a comment, in verse 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and I want to talk about that for a little while. But we're going to begin, first of all, in verse 13. Paul is discussing, in context, wearing spiritual armor to protect ourselves from the influence of Satan the Devil and his fiery darts, and the world trying to pull us down. And as we've noted before, about the only area where there's no protection on this spiritual armor is our backside. So if we turn around and run away, we start to turn around and start going backward. We are vulnerable then. If we don't do that, we have absolutely the protection that we need. So continuing here in verse 13, therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Stand, therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, verse 17, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And then he says something here very powerful in verse 18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end, with all perseverance and supplication for the saints. I want you to notice what he says here. He says, praying always in verse 18. Some other translations say, pray at all times, or pray in every situation. So what Paul is discussing here is not a formal or structured prayer where we go and withdraw ourselves and go into our bedroom closet or somewhere in some privacy of some domain in order to pray. What it's talking about is a prayer that is a continuing attitude of having an internal dialogue with our Father all day long.

An example, if you know you're going to have a very difficult situation, a conversation with someone in a few minutes, maybe a family member or a co-worker at work. Father, please give me the strength and help this conversation to go positively. I'm really struggling over this, and I ask you to help this person to be receptive to the things that I need to say. How about a doctor's visit? Father, please give the doctor wisdom and this check-up that I'm going to receive. Please help me to receive a clean bill of health. A job review or a job interview. Father, please grant me favor in the eyes of this human resource person. I need this job, and I pray that you will open up some doors for me so that I can get an offer. These are things that we can say in our hearts and minds immediately upon these situations. And this is what Paul meant when he said, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. He didn't mean some formalized, isolated prayer somewhere, though that's very powerful and biblical and helpful. What he's talking about is having an attitude of prayer in our hearts and minds throughout all of our waking moments.

A prayerful attitude is one that can call upon the Father for guidance and wisdom and help anytime and anywhere, immediately, within our heart and mind. We don't have to isolate ourselves somewhere to do that. In any situation where we need favor or strength throughout the day, we can immediately call upon God, much like Jesus called upon his Father, immediately before the situation of telling Lazarus to come out. He timed it just before that situation is when he made that request. So I think that's very important for us to appreciate the magnificent power and expansiveness of prayer and to not be limiting it in our lives to just some isolated formal prayer that we may do at a particular time each day. The understanding of prayer is far more than that.

I'd like to say a few words about meditation, which is obviously another very powerful spiritual tool. Spiritual meditation is a very close relative to prayer. It's when we take time for focused thinking. Now this is different for most of us, including yours truly. Our thinking is more like a pinball throughout the day. Right? Bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, topic. You know, we're just bouncing around from this topic to another. But meditation is focused thinking. It's when we sit down and we take some time and we make sure we're in a quiet environment and we're not distracted by the radio in the background, by the TV, playing, by any other noise going on, and we take some time and we focus on a particular topic. We were thinking about maybe a particular problem that we have. Sometimes it's very helpful just to focus on one word to begin some time for meditation. You know, communication with our Father is a two-way street. All good communication is two ways. In prayer we speak to Him. In Bible study, He speaks back to us. With meditation, we take our prayer to Him and His response back to us and we process what we have learned, what we have heard, and what we have said, and we are able to come to conclusions to understand maybe the next step, or a very difficult or very important decision that we may have. Let's go to Joshua chapter 1 and verse 8. Joshua chapter 1 and verse 8. Here's what Joshua said after Israel had entered the Promised Land. Something that's very important. Joshua chapter 1 and verse 8.

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. Once again reinforcing the importance of studying the Word of God. At this time, he was obviously talking about what we would call the Pentateuch. The prophecies had not been written and the Old Testament had not been completed. But he says, the book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Now the Hebrew word here is haga, for meditate, and it means to murmur, to ponder, to imagine, to utter, to study. And that's what we do. We get in a quiet area. It's always best to begin with some kind of prayer, and then purposely and in a focused way begin to think about a problem that we're trying to work on, or a difficult decision that we're trying to make, the pros and the cons. All of that is very important. You know, in the Old Testament alone, the Bible mentions meditation 23 times, 19 times alone in the book of Psalms. And when the Bible mentions meditation, it often mentions obedience in the very next scripture. So it connects the importance of obedience to God and thinking about the importance of loving God's word, of loving God's law. Meditation is often when the Holy Spirit within us can bring something to our minds. It's how God talks to us and reveals information to us through periods of meditation, through the power of the Holy Spirit. I'm reminded of what Jesus said in John chapter 16 and verse 13. He said, looking into the future, he said, However, when he the Spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will tell you things to come. What Jesus is saying is the Holy Spirit is a tool. It's going to relate to you what the Father says. The Holy Spirit is not going to speak on its own authority because it's a tool. It's going to tell you what the authority says, and that happens to be God the Father. So that's what Jesus was saying at that time. So again, make sure you're in a quiet place and you begin with prayer. Empty yourself of every other thing in your mind and focus all of your thoughts on God and God alone and the fact that you are in his presence, that you are within his majesty, and then begin to ponder the question or the concern or issue you're seeking direction on. And it's certainly okay if you get stuck to open the Bible and read a few scriptures that are relating to that particular topic. Again, a simple word can help you to begin to focus on God. And most importantly is have patience. Sometimes you don't get an answer immediately. Sometimes we have to go back over and over again and ponder the same issue or the same challenge over and over again. So please, by all means, have patience. And when your thinking begins to stray, as it always will, because we're human, then pull it back to the topic. Expect your thinking to stray. And when it does and it gets off topic, pull it back and again focus on that particular issue.

And to yourself of every other thing in your mind. That's very, very important. Well, those are common things that I think if you've been part of the Church of God for many years, we've emphasized fasting and Bible study and prayer and meditation. Now I'd like to talk about some things that maybe will give you some food for thought. Things that we don't talk about that often that may be helpful. And all of these fall under a broad category that I call self-care. You know, God has given us our physical bodies as an incredible gift. Our biological bodies are a miracle. The way that they function and how they are supported and how they have a way to heal themselves is just an absolute miracle of God's great creative ability. Your human body is a physical temple and we need to care for that temple. We need to care for it physically and making sure we're getting enough rest, that we're eating healthy foods, that we're getting the exercise we need emotionally, spiritually, by going to God in prayer, by emptying out our problems and issues on the throne of grace and asking for his forgiveness and guidance and his answers to things that are going on in our life. All of that is very important. But we must also remember what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 19. He said, Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?

So God's Spirit dwells in this physical biological body that we had. God gave a gift at baptism and the laying on of hands and the Holy Spirit entered our minds and became part of us, part of our mental process, a spiritual essence, and that changes everything. So we no longer belong just to ourselves. God has ownership of this temple that we have been given, and that's why we need to do everything we can to take care of it. He's blessed us with it. It's a gift, and we must exercise self-care in our lives. And exercising self-care then branches out to a number of things that are very important, spiritual tools for us to be on the path that we want to be on to grow and be filled with more of God's Spirit and develop the mind of Christ. Let's go to 1 Samuel chapter 30 and verse 6. Take a look at a time that was horrific for David, probably one of the most horrific times in David's entire life, and we'll see how he responded, something that he had learned. First, a little bit of background. He and his group, this is before he's king, they're out, they're doing their thing, and the Amalekites came and raided the city that David and his men's families were in. It was called Ziglag, and they came and they raided it, and they burnt everything to the ground, and they captured all of their wives and children and anything of value, and they took off. And from a distance, they can see Ziglag burning. Uh-oh. And they ride there as fast as they can, and they just fall to their knees, broken up, torn up over the fact that their families are gone. Ziglag has been burned. Anything they had of real value has been captured and taken away. So we're going to pick that up now, beginning here in verse 6. Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved. So he was being blamed for this. My family's gone. Everything I had, my whole life's possessions are gone, and it's all your fault, David. Continuing, every man for his sons and his daughters, they were grieving because their family was gone, kidnapped. It says, but David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. You know, he lost everything, too. He was in the same situation as everyone else was, but it says here that he strengthened himself in the Lord his God. Somewhere along the line, David knew that it was important for him to learn personal ways to draw close to God and to motivate himself during times of crisis.

We live in a hectic and a very negative world. We're surrounded by evil, by discouraging influences. Mr. Mango talked about some of those influences in his sermonette today. It's important, brethren, that we take the time that we discover and that we use spiritual tools to keep ourselves motivated to continue living God's way of life and continue developing the mind of Christ.

God will always do his part, but as I've explained all along, we have that great physical gift we've been given, and that is the gift of choice. God's Holy Spirit is always there patiently, waiting, willing to help us to intervene, therefore, as God's tool, as God's instrument, but we must do our part. While everyone else was locked in a cycle of grieving so much that they wanted to kill somebody, in contrast to that, David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

Again, God will always do his part, but he expects us to do our part in maintaining balance in our lives and a positive mindset. So I'd like to discuss a number of possible spiritual tools that you can potentially do, and some of these may benefit you personally, and others may not have that much of an attraction for you, and that's okay. But let's talk about a few of them that I think are very powerful and very positive, and they may help you in your own personal journey.

The first one is something that I talked about, I think the very first series I can't talk about enough, the importance of positive personal affirmations. Again, we spoke about these a few weeks ago. These are positive declarations we make to ourselves of something we expect to become true or something we desire to live by. They're an enemy to self-talk. You know what the antidote is? The negative self-talk? Positive personal affirmations. I'll give you an example of one. Jeremiah chapter 29 and verse 11. Jeremiah said, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

So with that scripture, a positive personal affirmation would be something like this. I believe God has given my life purpose and a prosperous future as part of his plan.

And that's something we would repeat to ourselves. And when we're starting to get down, or we're starting to get discouraged, or we have a traditional bad day and everything seems to be going wrong and seems to be going against us, we use those positive personal affirmations which come from scriptures to strengthen ourselves in the Lord, just like David was able to do here.

Something else that can be very helpful is affirmations of God's awesome majesty.

That's also related to prayer, and it's a kind of thought and something that we say in our heads throughout the day as we come upon different situations. About 250 times in the Bible, the word praise is mentioned in the King James Version of the Bible alone. Here's an example, Psalm 150. Tell me if you see a common thread here.

Praise the Lord, praise God in his sanctuary, praise him in his mighty firmament, praise him for his mighty axe, praise him according to his excellent greatness, praise him with the sound of the trumpet, praise him with the lute and the harp.

Did you see a common theme there? And it's praise. Affirmations of God's majesty should be something that, again, if we have a heart, if we're mindful, if we have a prayerful attitude throughout the day on a beautiful day, thank you, God, for this beautiful day that you have given me. Thank you, God, for the check that just showed up in my mailbox. So there's so many things in which we can praise God and be thankful for.

Now, again, as in all things, balance is required here. I know that there are some very religious people. It's like the only thing that ever comes out of their mouths is praise this and praise that, and they're doing it verbally, and they do it to the point of great excess, and they diminish the ability of ourselves and the power of just giving thanks to God and praising His glory and His name throughout the day as we are inspired and as we come upon certain situations and certain things. So, again, these are affirmations of God's awesome majesty. Another thing that I think is important, we often forget, is singing hymns or psalms throughout the day.

Are we doing that? Do we have a melody in our heart? Because that's very important. It says in Psalms chapter 146 verse 2, While I live, I will praise the Lord, I will sing praises to my God, while I have being. End of quote. From our very hymnal, you can read aloud or you can sing the words to our hymnal. But music is a gift. Music is emotional. Music can pull us from being in the doldrums to literally lifting up our hearts and our minds, the right kind of music, the kind of music that's inspiring and praises God.

And that's something that we can do, particularly during those times, we can use as a spiritual tool when we're maybe a little bit down, when we're not feeling as good or as positive as we should to make sure that we are having affirmations of God's awesome majesty and also singing hymns in our hearts, or listening to hymns on our tablet or our device. Another thing I would encourage everyone to do is to maximize the Sabbath.

We know what the Sabbath day is. We've been observing the Sabbath for many years. And we know from Scripture that the Sabbath day is a holy convocation. And, of course, that means a holy convention. And it's mentioned in Leviticus chapter 23 and verse 3, and it's one of the 10 commandments, which is the reason we continue to observe it. We continue to observe it, because if you go in the book of Acts, Paul over and over and over and over again is going on the Sabbath day to worship in the synagogues.

And then from there, he uses that example from worship in order to preach the good news of the kingdom of God, to preach the Word of God. God declares or desires a public demonstration of our worship with other believers. The reason we're a holy convention is that God wants us to get out of our homes, again, if we are physically able. And there are certainly people who are too sick to come to Sabbath services. God understands that, and that's not a problem.

But again, for the rest of us, for the overwhelming majority of the time, the Sabbath is a holy convocation. And if we are not meeting with God's people, then we are not maximizing the Sabbath. We are not taking advantage of the spiritual tool that God gives us. We need to fellowship with one another. We have that need. We need to be encouraged and encourage other people.

We need to worship God publicly because that's what he desires. Finally, a spiritual message. The sermons, the sermonettes, can strengthen us and teach us about God and his values from someone who looks at something differently than we might if we were just doing our own Bible study at home. None of the things that I mentioned can be done sitting at home. And if we want to maximize the Sabbath, use it as a spiritual tool for our growth, we need to be here. What kind of a college education would you get if you paid all that money for college and you never went to the classes?

How much do you think you'd pick up if you went to a college course and never attended any of the lectures? Not much. You would have spent a whole lot of money and what would you have the show for the textbook? You could have bought the textbook without paying the fees for the class. And we come here on God's Sabbath day as students, as disciples, and that word means learners, to learn of God's way. We can't do that if we are sitting at home. And again, as I always clarify, if due to health reasons or whatever, there are certainly legitimate reasons why people can't be with us. And we certainly pray for them that they could be healed and that ultimately they could come and join us again. Another spiritual tool, one that we don't often think of, is very important because it gets us out of our heads. And that tool is service towards others. We've been called to be servants. Why? Because Jesus Christ was the ultimate servant. Jesus Christ lived his life perfectly and was willing to die a horrible death and shed his blood so that you and I could be reconciled to God, to be part of God's family. That's ultimate servant. That's what Jesus Christ was. He set us an example. He served humanity for all ages. As a matter of fact, service is part of our calling. It's what we are. It's what we should be doing, as Paul wrote in Galatians chapter 5 and verse 13, For you, brethren, have been called to liberty, only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. You see, that's our calling. Mr. Mango read Galatians 6 a little earlier today. He actually turned to it, so I'll just read it. Paul wrote in Galatians chapter 6 and verse 10, Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all. What is that? That's serving people. Let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. So a powerful spiritual tool to get us out of our heads and out of our own self-centered little world of taking care of everything that I want is to go and serve someone else. Go and invest some time in someone else's situation. Help them out materially if they need. If they have a need, give them some time. Listen to them. Whatever it takes, serve people in that way. Another essential tool for many people, including yours truly, is silence. It's a spiritual tool. Again, we live in a complex, helter, skelter world, where we're bombarded by constant messages. Just turn on the radio or turn on a website, constantly bombarded by this. Do this. Don't do that. Just over and over again, our world is saturated with what I call white noise. That's just background distraction that's constantly going on around us. Those shiny objects that the enemy puts out there to distract us from thinking about the things we should be focusing on. So, silence is very important. Let's go to Psalm 62 and verse 5 and see what the psalmist said here. Psalm 62 and verse 5.

It's so easy to lose peace and serenity that usually can only come through a period of silence.

The most effective degree of meditation I talked about a little earlier happens in environments of silence where there are no distractions, nothing from the outside world. You know, many of us as kids developed some bad habits. My parents used to lecture me on how it was possible for me to do homework with the TV on. Right? Oh, I can do it! That's okay, Mom! I can, sure, I can do it! And we learned these habits of being distracted and too many things distracting us and pulling us in many directions instead of appreciating the gift that God gives us that's called silence. Here's what David was inspired to write in Psalm 62 verses 5 and 6. My soul wait silently for God alone. For my expectation is from him. He is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not be moved. You know, studies have shown that silence offers significant health benefits to boost our overall well-being? Here's what some studies have shown. It helps to lower blood pressure. Silence, as we're sitting silently and just without all the stuff going on around us, it boosts the body's immune system. It decreases stress by lowering blood, cortisol levels, and adrenaline. Those are all the benefits of taking a period out of silence every day.

Another spiritual tool for many is journaling. Writing down every day our thoughts, our feelings, what's going on in our heads and in our lives, depending on our personality and how we're wired, it can be very helpful. Many individuals keep a diary or journaling. It can be an expression of their innermost feelings. Now, are there any examples of journaling in the scriptures?

All kinds. Have you ever heard of the book of Psalms? You know what that is. That's basically David journaling. And when you read it, you find out his emotions from the highs to the lows to his faith to his fears. It's all there. Now, in his case, for all the world to see. I wouldn't recommend you ever doing that with your diary or journal, but that's what happened to King David. It says here in Psalm chapter 3 and verse 2, and again, this was written by David himself, quote, Many are they who say to me, There is no help for him in God's salah. But you, O Lord, are a shield for me, my glory and the one who lifts up my head. I cried to the Lord with my voice, and he heard me on his holy hill, salah, I lay down and slept, and I awoke for the Lord sustained me. So there's an example of David's personal thoughts. Here's the things that were going on, and God sustained me in spite of my enemies, in spite of everything going on. And that's the kind of thing that people do in journaling or keeping a diary. And for some people, they find that very, very helpful.

Now I'd like to talk about a spiritual tool, and I have to be honest, and as your pastor, I have to say some things that might come across as strong. But a very powerful spiritual tool is the act of forgiveness. Forgiveness. Not only seeking forgiveness, but forgiving others who have hurt you or offended you. To not forgive someone is a spiritual disease, like a spiritual cancer that eats away at your life and causes deep, chronic spiritual illness. Resentment and bitterness are poisons that eat away at our spiritual health. Withhold forgiveness, keeps alive emotions of hurt, and anger, and blame, which discolor your entire perception of life. It discolors your perception of church, of the brethren. It discolors your perception of God. In Matthew 6, verse 15, Jesus tells us that if we do not forgive others, our Father in heaven will not forgive us. That's the tough part. I'm going to read what Jesus said. This is from the New Century Version. Yes, if you forgive others of their sins, your Father in heaven will also forgive you of your sins. But if you don't forgive others, your Father in heaven will not forgive your sins.

So, to put it bluntly, when we don't forgive others, we put ourselves under a self-imposed curse that only hurts us. It hurts us physically, it hurts us emotionally, it hurts us spiritually.

So, it's very important that we understand the power of forgiveness. And forgiveness is an incredible spiritual tool. Just like we want it from God, we need to offer it to others, whether that be our spouse, whether it be a family member, whether it be someone in our local community, whether it be a church member, whoever it may be. It's something that we must do to remain spiritually healthy. There's one final thing I would like to talk about as we get near the conclusion of the sermon today, a spiritual tool, and that is creative work. Creative work! Let's go to Genesis chapter 1 and verse 26. Genesis chapter 1 and verse 26, our final scripture today.

An important spiritual tool. You and I were created in the image of God. That means we were created like God is to be creative, productive, to do things that are fulfilling, to do things that have meaning in life. And when we stop doing those kinds of things, we become spiritually ill.

Genesis chapter 1 and verse 26, then God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish and the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. I want you to notice the connection between being created like God and productive activity. In the next chapter, in the next chapter, God told them to keep the garden. In other words, maintain the garden. Don't just sit around and vegetate. Do something productive. In this case, keep the garden. A significant spiritual tool is to use our gifts and talents to do worthwhile, productive things.

I'm going to give you a word of advice that I say to organizations all the time in my management consultations with them. Very important. Being busy does not mean we are being productive.

Busyness simply fills up time. Productivity provides fulfillment because we feel like we've accomplished something of value that's different than just being busy, than just doing stuff to fill up our time and fill up the whole day. Busyness does not give you a sense of fulfillment.

Productivity, doing things of value, give us fulfillment. Paul wrote in Titus 3, verse 14, he said, quote, and let our people also learn to maintain good works to meet urgent needs that they may not be unfruitful, end of quote. I think one of the saddest commentaries of our age here in the 21st century, and this is a cultural dysfunction. This is a real problem in our world today. One of the saddest commentaries is that people are living longer than ever before, with nothing to do all day.

I think that's very sad. All of their 50, 60 years of experience and wisdom, not being used, just going to waste. Not being valued, not being appreciated, not being used.

So I want to encourage you, brethren, whatever your situation in life, maybe you're retired, maybe you just have lots of time on your hands, whatever your situation is, if you are in that situation, to realize that an important spiritual tool is doing creative work. That is, again, something of value, something that's productive, something in which you feel a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment by completing it. That is not the same as just making ourselves busy. Big difference between the two. So, brethren, as we conclude the sermon today and the series, it's important for us to realize that God wants us to be filled with His Spirit.

And we've looked at some spiritual tools that can certainly benefit our spiritual growth. Like any tool, they're not of any good, they're of no use if we've forgotten about them and if we simply put them away. So let's do everything we can to foster spiritual growth in ourselves and to be an example and a light to others in our family, in our spiritual family, in our physical families. Let's remember what Paul told us in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 10. He said, for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. God has a plan for us. God wants our lives to be filled with spiritual growth, for us to do wonderful things because they give glory to God, and to be going forward and moving forward using the Spirit of God to transform our lives into the mind of Jesus Christ.