What Is My Spiritual Condition?

How many of you love to take tests? I don't see too many hands. I thought we would all love tests. Now, we don't do it too often, let's say of recent date, but I remember years ago when I would give a test at Bible study, all at once I would hear moans and groans going around among the audience. And it seems like when you talk about a test, you get a negative reaction.

Maybe that goes back to our school days when we would have these tests sprung on us, especially a surprise test, and we were afraid we were going to fail the test or we weren't prepared for the test. And so, therefore, we didn't know what to do. Well, brethren, I want you to notice over here in 1 Peter 4, 17 that you and I are being, in one sense, tested daily.

1 Peter 4, verse 17, we find that the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. And if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? You and I are being tested daily or judged daily by God. We're being evaluated on how we live our lives, what we think, what we do, how we serve.

Let me read this from a couple of modern translation. One, the message says it's judgment time for God's own family. We're first in line. And then the CEV translation says God has already begun to judge His own people. And if His judgment begins with us, imagine how terrible it would be for those who refuse to obey the message.

So what we find is that judgment is on the church of God today. The world is not being judged in the same way that we are. They've not had a chance at salvation. Their minds have not been opened. God has not called them. But He has called us. He has opened our minds to see and to know the truth. Every year to pass overseas, and we're told to examine ourselves. In 1 Corinthians 11 verse 23, let's notice 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 23.

Notice what Paul wrote here. He said, I receive from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread. And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, Take eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same manner, He took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant of my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. So we know, as we observe the Passover, we keep the symbols that we are proclaiming the fact of Christ's death for our sins, His beating, suffering, so that we could be healed.

But let's notice verse 27. Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Now, the problem in Corinth was they were eating a meal that evening. They were sort of imitating the Lord keeping a dinner that evening. Some didn't have food to eat. Some ate too much. Some got drunk. And some were going off over here in little groups. And the whole reason, the whole purpose for the Passover was being undermined. So He tells them in verse 28, Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, drink of the cup.

Now, I want you to notice this does not say, Let you examine yourself and become so discouraged you feel that you're unworthy to keep the Passover. No, it says, Examine yourself and eat. So we're commanded to do both, to look at ourselves, to examine ourselves, to make sure that we do take the Passover in a worthy manner as far as how it's being physically observed, but also that we have the right spirit, right attitude, and the right motives.

You realize that God doesn't want you and me to be kept in the dark about our spiritual condition. God wants us to be very much aware of where we stand with Him, our relationship.

What if you were a man pursuing a girl and you thought you had this wonderful relationship with this girl? In fact, you thought that she loved you so much that if you popped the question you proposed, give her a ring, she would say yes and fall at your feet.

So what if, you know, one night you take her out and you propose and she starts laughing. You're the last person in the world I would marry. Why do you think I wanted to marry you?

Well, you would be startled, broken-hearted, because you were not aware, truly, of your relationship. Well, God wants us to be aware of our relationship with Him. Notice over here in 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5, 2 Corinthians 13 verse 5, there are three things we're told to do.

Examine yourselves, we're told, as to whether you are in the faith. So are we in the faith? Do we believe? Do we hold to the doctrine, the truth, God's way of life?

Test yourselves. So we examine ourselves and we put ourselves to the test.

Now, how do you put yourself to the test? Well, if you were to go buy a car and the man who's trying to sell you the car, a salesman, says, you want to road test it? What does that mean? That means you're going to take it out and you're going to test it. You're going to see how fast it gets up to 100. Wanting to success? No, you wouldn't do that, but you would probably want to see how quiet it is, how good the air conditioner, how great the radio is. You want to see the road noises, the pep, how good is the engine. There will be a number of things that you'd want to check out on the car. You would road test it. So you'll find here it says, test yourselves. Put yourselves to the test to see. Are we truly converted? Or, as it goes on to say here, do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? So we need to know that Jesus Christ resides in us, lives in us. It's not just a matter that you have God's Spirit, but is Christ living in you? Is God's Spirit actively motivating you, leading you, or are you being guided by it? It says, unless indeed you are disqualified, or you do not stand the test, you don't come through the test in the way that you should. See, a test is a yardstick to measure your progress and our understanding of our spiritual condition. We don't want to be totally unaware of our spiritual growth, development. We want to know. Do we become discouraged when we see that we need to change? Are there areas that we need to grow in?

Well, I'll let you in on a little secret. Yes, there are. There are areas that all of us need to grow in.

We shouldn't become discouraged if we find out we need to change something, because it shows that God is still working with us. That God is willing to still reveal information to us to help us to become God. Now, that's not bad. God is in the process with us of eliminating everything that doesn't look like Him from our character, of perfecting us, of changing us, of helping us to become like Him. It shows that God has not given up on us yet, that He's still willing to work with us. He's working in our lives. It reveals a great concern, love, that God has for each one of us individually, because if God weren't concerned about us, He wouldn't even fool with us. He'd just say fool you with them and just let you go do your own thing. But God is very much concerned about each one of us. In Psalm 103, you'll come back here to Psalm 103 verse 10. You might remember this section, and it really does describe God's working relationship with us. Sesper, He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. If God dealt with us according to our sins, we'd all be grease spots.

None of us would be alive. We would be destroyed. But it says here, for as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy towards those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far as He removed our transgressions from us. And as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame, and He remembers that we are dust. So God knows that we're just dust, but He's here to help us. You see, God made us the way we are. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and you find that God created man. He created Eve. So God made us out of the physical materials that we're made out of, but He realizes our limitations. He knows how frail we are. He knows what our weaknesses are. And He has created us. He's there to help us. He made us for the purpose of becoming members of His family.

God is reproducing a family. He wants us in His family in the kingdom of God, the God family. And so He didn't create us to destroy us. He created us to give us eternal life so that we can be in His family.

So when you examine yourself, you can see the progress being made. Stop and think of it this way. God has given you another year since the Passover last year. He's given you another year to grow, another year to overcome, another year to change, another year to progress. And now we're approaching a season when, perhaps more than any time of the year, we focus on what we need to do in putting sin out of our lives, but also what we need to do to put righteousness in and to do what's right. And so when you look back, you ought to be able to look back and say, you know, I've made progress this year. I've changed. I've grown here. I've changed in this area. It's not just a matter of deficiencies, but it's a matter of seeing the progress. God looks at our overall scope of our progress. We tend to focus in on one or two weaknesses, don't we?

Sometimes our weaknesses are like a big ward on the end of our nose. All we can see is this ward sticking out there on our nose. And, you know, we think we view everything else. We think everybody else sees this big ward out there, and that's all that you can see. But that's not the way God is. God looks at you, looks at me, and He says, well, look there, son. I called that person 40 years ago. Look at the changes they've made. Look at how much they've grown. Look at how much they've matured. Look at the character they've developed. Look at what they're doing. Well, this past year, they did this, this, and this. Yeah, you know, they still need to work on, you know, they may line out a couple of things. We'll work with them on those. But what we need to realize is that God is for us. He wants us in His kingdom. That's why we were created. So we're going to do something a little different today. We're going to look at a progress report on how you're doing. I want you to imagine that God's the teacher, the professor, and you're the student. You're the disciple, and guess what? We are the disciples, and we're the students. That's what the word disciple means. And we're going to jointly evaluate ourselves in several categories. In fact, I'm going to give you 10 categories to look at very quickly. We won't spend much time on any one of them. But where you can evaluate yourself, and let's take a look. I mean, these are 10 things. We could look at 50 if we wanted to. But these are broad categories that we can look at. There's a number of scriptures that deal with these. We'll just focus on one or two as we go through this. And what I'd like for you to do is grade yourself 1 to 10 in each one of these categories. Just put down a number. That's for your eyes only. Now, James Bond made a movie called that for your eyes only, but this will be for your eyes only. And for you to look at, you can tally all those scores up. And I think what you will find as you go through this, there are areas that you say, I'm strong in this area, and nobody is necessarily perfect. But to other areas, you may say, oops, we need to work in this area. So, again, taking a test is not something that's a failure. It's like Dr. Hay used to say at Ambassador College. He used to take tests with Dr. Hay, and he said a test is to reveal what you don't know. And so, whenever he gave us a test, it was never on anything we covered.

I mean, he never gave it to you on anything you were studying. It was always something you'd never studied so that you could know what you don't know. And in some way, he came up with a grade. I don't know how he did it. I remember a final test one year. He said, okay, I would like for you in the next two hours to start back as far back as you can go in history and write down every major event that's happened in history. Give the year and the event up to the present.

Well, that was not what the purpose of his class was. I think it was survey of the Old Testament or something. But he threw that in. He was known to do that, and it was always very humbling to realize what you didn't know. We just happened to have one lady in our class who was a history buff, and she had, I don't know, dozens and dozens of hundreds of things lined out. And the rest of us just sort of sat there 1492. I got that one. 1917, the second world, or let's say 1914, the second world war. You could begin to put down our first world war. You can begin to put some things down and then try to fill in in between, but that's the way it was. Okay, let's look at point number one here. We'll call this overcoming.

Are you overcoming? Or are you complacent?

In Revelation chapter 2 and 3, the message to the seven churches, every one of them has an admonition from Christ to him who overcomes. Notice chapter 3 and verse 5. The Sardis era, he who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the book of life. Verse 12, Philadelphia, he who overcomes, I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Verse 21, to him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me in my throne. The word overcome in the Greek means to conquer. It means to be victorious.

It refers to one who is arraigned or goes to the law and wins his case. In other words, he is victorious. The word to overcome means, again, to conquer, to vanquish, to whip, to triumph over, to master, to prevail, defeat, subjugate, subdue, overthrow. You can use all of those synonyms to describe overcoming.

Now, the question is, are we overcoming? How do you know if you're overcoming or not?

Well, is there anything you've been working on this past year?

Did we go through the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread last year, sail through, and say, well, you know, that's the first Holy Day. Now, I'm looking forward to Pentecost. And was there anything that you came out of those days and said, you know, this year, I'm going to work on being more loving, more giving, serving more, helping more, or, you know, whatever it might be. What did you put down? All of us should have something that occasionally we write down. I find that if I don't write it down, you know what, outside, out of mind, I forget it. And how often do you forget? I find that in order to really work on something, generally, I've got to write it down, put it somewhere where I see it. If I want to study more, if I want to pray more, then you need to remind yourself, because we get up and sometimes we become so busy, so preoccupied that, boom, we forget to do what we're supposed to be doing. The opposite of overcoming is to be complacent. To be complacent. Complacency is being self-satisfied.

Yeah, I'm okay, you know, so you don't have to worry. You're self-satisfied. Accompanied, though, by an unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies. You have deficiencies, you have problems, but you don't realize what they are. Complacency is being uninterested, unresponsive, unaffected, untouched, immune, indifferent, unconcerned, nonchalant. You see, if we approach overcoming with a complacent attitude, and, you know, we're just complacent about it, we will be complacent. We need to make sure that we have some type of a plan for overcoming.

And the biggest problem we have in overcoming is simply, I remember one day, unleavened bread, and I was an ambassador to college. I heard a sermon about overcoming, exhorting us to go home, examine ourselves. I came up with about 50 different points. These were things I was going to work on. I wrote those 50 points down, and guess what? I didn't overcome any of them. Too many! How in the world was I going to overcome 50? It would have been better to select one or two and work on that, keep the list, and when you get those overcome, go to another one. So, how are we doing with overcoming? You can rate yourself one to ten.

Let's go to point two. I'll call this stability. How stable are we?

Now, when I use the term stability, I'm talking about being firmly established, fixed, steadfast. Let's go over to Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians the fourth chapter and verse 14.

I want you to notice one area that we are told to be especially established in and stable. Ephesians four. We should, verse 14, should no longer be children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. But speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things unto him who is the head Christ. So, you and I should be established in the doctrines or the teachings of the church. We should not have our own pet doctrines or pet ideas.

I remember years ago we had a gentleman in the church who became what I would call a food fanatic. Now, how did I know he became a food fanatic? Well, the only thing he believed in eating was bananas. He finally came to the point. Now, he came to this progressively. Over a period of time, I talked to him and he was eating bananas and he was eating this and eating that. And then slowly but surely everything disappeared. And he told me bananas were the perfect food and that's all you needed to eat. Well, I gave a couple of sermons where I went through everything in the Bible where it talked about Christ fixed fish for his disciples. We find that he ate with Abraham, ate meat, cooked bread. You can go through the Bible. You can find all kinds of things that they ate. And the Bible very clearly talks about unclean foods and clean foods, you know, these type of things. Well, all of us from time to time, if we're not careful, get hung up on our own pet doctrine or teaching. The word stability means a fixed anchor or secure, solidly rooted, steady or firm, consistent, even.

At one time we thought everybody in the church was that way, didn't we? But over the years we've found that that's not true. You and I need to make sure that we are rooted, that we're grounded, that our roots go down. If you have a tree and you want that tree to stand, the roots have to go down. And any tree has a tap root, you know, that goes under the ground. We know that when you look at the limbs around the tree, there are that many roots around that tree. That's why they're hard to cut down and try to get the stump out when you come to trying to do that. But this is the way we should be when it comes to doctrine, to teaching. Now, we also need to realize that the opposite of this, the opposite of being stable in this way, would be unbalanced. Unbalanced means unstable, uneven, lopsided, unsettled, unsteady. Somebody who is this way is going to eventually be overthrown. You have to realize that it's easy to become overthrown. Just have your own baby, your own doctrine, your own teaching, hold on to it, be stubborn about it, and then eventually, you know, it'll take you out. In Hebrews 13.8, we find Hebrews 13.8 that Jesus Christ, the Bible says, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. When it comes to stability, the right way, there's no variation with God. We don't have to worry about God. We don't have to wake up one morning and wonder if God changed his law or changed his way of life or has a different standard for us. God does not do that. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. As verse 9 says, do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who've been occupied with them. So you and I need to be established, brethren. We need to be balanced. And there are times that we all become unbalanced. We go off in different directions. We're not as balanced as we should be.

So, how do we do with being stable? Okay, another category is obedience. You could call obedience versus self-willed.

What does it mean to be obedient? Obedient means to be submissive, to the restraint of command of authority willing to obey, yielding or surrendering. Who is it that every one of us here is supposed to submit to?

Is it not God? When you were baptized, did you not give up your will? You said, yes, Lord.

When we're baptized and we're taken under the water, the old man is buried, the new man comes up. And you and I come up to live a completely different life, to live as God wants us to live. We are to totally surrender ourselves to God, to yield to Him and to His way of life, to His calling, to the purpose that He has. You and I yield to God through the authority of the Scriptures also. Because in the Bible, in the Scriptures, God reveals to us how He wants us to live, the standards He wants us to abide by. And so, you and I, when we see it in the Scriptures, we have to yield to that. We obey that. We don't say, well, yeah, but...

In the past, I think there have been too many yeah, buts around. We need to make sure that we obey God and we serve Him. Do we look to ourselves or do we look to the authority of God? In Deuteronomy chapter 10 and verse 12, we find a Scripture that shows us what God is looking for in His people. This was directed to ancient Israel, but the principle applies to spiritual Israel today also. Deuteronomy 10 verse 12 says, now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you?

But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, keep His commandments of the Lord in His statues which I've commanded you today for your good. So you find that God wants us to obey Him, to walk in His ways.

Now the opposite of being obedient is to be self-willed. Self-willed means headstrong, obdurate, stubborn, recalcitrant, intractable, willfully adhering to one's own ideas or desires governed by one's own will, not yielding. And I think that there are times that all of us come up face to face with, here is something that God tells us to do, and then here is something that we want to do.

You know, the lust of the flesh or the lust of the eyes or the pride of life, and there's this battle going on, and we have to say no to the self, and we have to yield to God. Now we don't always accomplish that, do we?

Remember back in 1 Samuel 15 and verse 22, 1 Samuel chapter 15, verse 22, when Samuel spoke to Saul.

Samuel told Saul, Has the Lord is great delight and burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. And because you've rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you from being king. You and I need to make sure that we do not allow our way to get in front of God.

One way to evaluate this is to ask ourselves, how willing are we to take correction?

How well do you accept correction? How well do I accept correction? One of the hardest things for a human being to do is to say, I'm sorry, you're right, I'm wrong, or to just simply open the scriptures up and be corrected by it. Sometimes we don't mind being corrected by the scriptures because we look around, there's nobody else around, we read this, aha, yeah, I need to be doing this. But what if it comes from another human being? What if your wife says, honey, and you know something's coming. Why do you do such and such? Or do you know that you do this or say this and you may be totally oblivious or you may be completely aware of it? But why is it so hard to take correction that way? That there's just a natural proclivity in human beings. It's sort of like a cat getting its back up when another person says something to you. But yet, you and I are to be willing to take correction. I've learned a long time ago that it doesn't matter where correction comes from, if I'm wrong, then they're right and I need to change. It doesn't matter what angle, where it comes from, who it is, you just have to accept it and move on.

So are we obedient or are we self-willed? You compare between those two and where do we stand. Okay, another point. Point four I have here.

And this is something that we can evaluate. How joyful, how happy are we?

Or are we always discouraged? In Galatians 5.22, you might remember the fruits of the Spirit. In Galatians 5.22, and one of those happens to be the fruitless Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, and goodness. Joy is a fruit of God's Holy Spirit.

Joy and happiness are things that are internal. I mean, inside, they're not necessarily based upon external conditions.

If they're based on external conditions, do you have to have a Mercedes to be happy? Do you have to live in a $500,000 home to be happy? Do you have to make $100,000 a year to be happy?

All those things could help. I'm not against those things. But is that what our happiness is predicated on? If it is, then it's predicated on the wrong values. It has to be predicated on God's Spirit, on the right values.

When you look around at the world and the 7 billion people that are in this world, and you look at the few thousands of people that God has called, and you understand your potential, you understand that you have God's Spirit, you have a connection between you and God, that God can work with you and in you.

And we look at the truth, the understanding that we have.

There should be a joy, an excitement, a happiness that we have.

Now, are there times that we go through trials? Major disappointments? Well, certainly. I would be foolish to say that if you lost a mate or a loved one, that you're not unhappy. Obviously, we are. If you have a major disappointment or a major reversal, that those type of things occur. But I'm talking about the overview, that our life as a whole should be one filled with joy and excitement and happiness. We find that most people in society do not understand why they go through what they go through. I mean, they can have major trials. The Bible says there's nothing that happens to us that's not common to all men. I mean, all human beings go through different tests and trials, but generally they don't have a clue as to why they're going through them. They don't know the purpose. You and I know the reason why. And we also realize that we have a source of strength or help that we can go to that will give us aid, that will help us. Back here in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, or excuse me, 2 Corinthians chapter 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 3 says, Blessed be God the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort. So God is the one who gives us comfort and encouragement, who comforts us in all of our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. So God turns around and encourages us, comforts us, extends mercy to us, so much so that we then turn around and become encouragers to others, and we're able to help them. Christianity is a way of life that produces happiness, just as a way of obeying God's law. As an example, faith helps us to overcome fear. Faith helps us to overcome doubt and suspicion. It's easy to become discouraged or depressed. You want me to tell you how to be miserable? I have a little article here titled, How to Be Miserable. I think it summarizes it very well. Think about yourself. Now, what are we told to think about? Well, we're told to think about others. We're to love our neighbors ourselves, so we're not totally devoid of thoughts about ourselves, obviously, but if our mind is just totally inward thinking about the self, and we're not outgoing thinking about other people, I'll guarantee you you will be miserable. Talk about yourself. Use eye as often as possible. Mirror yourself continually in the opinions of others. Listen greedily to what people say about you. Expect to be appreciated. Be suspicious. Be jealous and envious. Be sensitive to slights. Never forgive a criticism. Trust nobody but yourself. Insist on consideration and respect. Demand agreement with your own views on everything. Sulk of people are not grateful to you for the favors that you've shown them. Never forget a service you've rendered. Shirk your duties if you can. Do as little as possible for others, and you will be miserable. Well, God hasn't called us to be miserable. He's called us to be happy. And even though we go through trials, and some of those may be major, we can still have a comfort and encouragement. As James chapter 1 tells us, James 1 verses 2 and 3, Count at all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. It seems to me I heard something about patience earlier today, that you and I need to have patience, brethren. We need to grow in that.

So, we need to stop and ask ourselves, do we personify happiness and joy? I mean, is that the overall direction of our lives? Okay, a fifth point. How giving are we? How giving are we? Are we self-centered? In 2 Timothy chapter 3, beginning in verse 1, we find that the Bible very clearly predicted in the last days, that's the days that we live in, that men would be self-centered, that we live in a self-centered society. We live in an age that has been characterized by the word, me, the me generation. And as we find here, but know this, that in the last days, perilous times, will come, for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, and he goes on talking about being unloving, unforgiving.

So we live in a society in an age where people are self-centered.

Giving, if you ever stop to think about it, giving is a way of life with us.

The giving personifies God's very nature. God gave his Son. Christ gave his life. You and I are to give to one another.

Giving is a way of life with us. When we were baptized, we gave up the old man. You and I give of our money. That's tithes and offerings. We give of our time and helping one another. We give of our prayers when we pray for each other. We give of our service when we serve one another. There are three levels of giving, and I'm not saying any one of these are wrong, but you have to. That's level one. Okay, we're collecting money. Do I have to? Yes, you have to. So you throw some in. You ought to. That's the second level. You ought to, so you do it. Thirdly, you want to. We should all want to give.

Giving should be a way of life with us. The opposite is being self-centered, self-indulgent, greedy. In Matthew 25, beginning in verse 34, you find how God is going to judge who will be in His kingdom and who is not in His kingdom. Matthew 25, verse 34, verse 34, He says to those on His right hand, Come, blessed my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you. He says, I was hungry. You fed me. I was thirsty. You gave me drink. I was a stranger. You took me in. I was naked. You clothed me. I was in prison. You came and visited me. And they said, When did we ever do this for you, Lord? In verse 40, He said, Assuredly I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these. My brethren, you did it to me. So you find the attitude of giving to one another. This is talking about giving to the least, whoever you might consider the least within the church or the body. We should be willing to give to all, but especially to those of the household of God, those within the church. So an attitude of service. What is an attitude of giving? Isn't it not thinking of others? Isn't it an outgoing love, an outgoing concern, an attitude of help in this way? Okay, let's take a look at another category here very quickly. How peaceful are you? Are you a person of peace? Are you contentious?

Peaceful or contentious? We live in an age that's characterized by wars, fighting, violence. Look at the political process going on right now, and it's a wonderful process of peace and cooperation between all of those running for the president. No, you find they try everything in the world to put the other person down, to belittle them, ridicule them, and there's you know the struggle going on. But let's notice in Matthew 5 and verse 9.

Matthew 5 verse 9 says, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.

Those who promote peace, do we promote peace? You realize that in order to have peace, sometimes you have to take a loss.

What do I mean by that? Well, you're not always going to get justice and fairness. Sometimes you have to just simply say, I'm willing to take a loss for the, you know, in order to keep peace.

We live in an age in a society where everybody believes they have quote-unquote rights. So you have animal rights, cats rights, dogs rights, you know, children's rights, wives rights, husbands rights, everybody has rights. And if somebody thinks you're stepping on their rights, they'll take you to court and sue you at a drop of a hat. Well, sometimes in order to have peace, you've got to be willing to take a loss.

You and I, above all things, brethren, should have peace of mind. Christ said that He gives us peace that passes all understanding. The world doesn't comprehend this type of peace. The world's standard of peace is, okay, we're not killing each other right now, but I'm developing a weapon that if I can get it developed before you do, I'll kill you with it.

You know, it's just a matter that we're not fighting right now. No, you and I need to have peace of mind. We need to have peace in our families, husbands and wives, parents and children. What about our spiritual family? Do we get along with our spiritual family with one another? Are we at peace with each other here? Or do we have contentions? You know, contentions is arguing all the time. Rivalry, competition, discord, quarreling, disputing, being belligerent. Does that describe your marriage? Does that describe how you deal with people? There are some people that it just seems like everywhere they go, there's contention. Wherever they go, they rub people raw. Well, we're not to be that way. Wherever we go, we should rub people right. And we should be peacemakers. So when you look at the area of peacefulness, do we have peace in our minds? Can we lay down at night and be at peace with ourselves? You know, God promises to give us that. Okay, let's move on here quickly.

Another category is righteousness.

Righteousness. Psalm 119.172 says, all thy commandments are righteousness. So God's commandments, we keep His commandments, we're doing what's right. Righteousness is doing what is right. How far away from the world have we come?

Have we come out of the world? The opposite of righteousness would be worldliness.

You see, the world has a standard that it lives by. And God has standards that He lives by. So you and I have to ask ourselves, are we attuned to God's standards and values, or are we attuned to the world's standards and values?

The world has standards when it comes to music.

And I would say that quite a bit for what passes for music in the world is not music. What about entertainment? You look at what is allowed on television, what's allowed in movies. Is that something that we want to indulge in? You look at dress in society, and you find that you wonder who's making these things, because you can't go out and find a dress that is decent today. Thankfully, men still basically wear suits, and they still... not too many things you can do with them. You put three buttons, two buttons, four buttons. You put, you know, three or four buttons here, one button here. You can put a slit up the back, or you can make it straight down the back, but slits on the side. But basically, it's a suit. But when it comes to clothing and styles today, you find the world has its customs, its values, and its standards. Now, when God calls us into His Church, we are called to live by a different system, a different value system.

If somebody were to look at you, how you live your life, could they say that there's a difference between you and your neighbor, who is not a Christian? Would there be a difference? Or would we basically do the same things? Now, I know we all go to work. I'm not talking about that. It's how you work when you go to work. There are values. Let me just illustrate. When it comes to things like the world has certain values, such as what days they observe. Maybe they observe Sunday. They observe Easter. They observe Christmas. We don't observe those days. So obviously, those things stick out. But when it gets to attitude, to approaches, to real values and standards, these are the areas that we need to look at and make sure that we're not compromising. It's like Paul said back in 1 Corinthians, that we are in the world, but we're not a part of the world. If God was going to deliver us from the world, He'd have to take us out of the world. So we have to live in the society around us. But we're not to be a part of that society, meaning of its system and of its way of life. The world today is very hedonistic, very materialistic in its approaches, and our approach is to be a way of love, a way of give, a way of service.

That brings us to what I have in my notes, the eighth point. And that is, how friendly are we? How friendly are we? Are we friendly or are we aloof?

We find in Hebrews 13, Hebrews 13, very interesting Scripture. It says, let brotherly love, verse 1, continue. Verse 2, Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.

How many angels have come among us recently? I don't know, but I have seen a stranger now and then come in, sit down, and you wonder who they are.

What we find is that too often, brethren, and I might just stop and have a little commentary here, that too often, we're not as friendly to new people or to strangers as we ought to be.

When somebody new attends, do we go out of our way to make sure that that person doesn't sit alone or stand alone? It's very easy to come into a group where everybody knows everybody. And then here you are, you come in and you sort of stand over to the side, nobody comes up. You wonder, am I invisible? Did my deodorant fail me this morning? What's going on here? Nobody wants to be around me. No, what we should always do is to make sure that you go up to anyone that you don't recognize and welcome them, get to know them, make them feel welcome and valued. And before you leave them, pass them on to somebody else. Don't just walk up and say, hi, I value you, welcome and walk off. Now you walk up, you get acquainted with them, and then have you met Joe over here, her, Susie over there, and you take them up? Well, I'd like to introduce you to so-and-so, and so you pass them on, and then they pass them on. And the first thing you know, almost everybody is getting to know that person. I find that that doesn't always happen, and as a result, sometimes people come, people go, and they don't feel welcome. They don't feel a part of this. We need to be able to show kindness and goodness to others, and for them to feel that they can walk in, and it's almost like they walked into a big family reunion. You know, here we are, we're all family, and we see somebody else, well, welcome to the family. You don't use those words, but that's exactly what you are doing. See the word aloof, I mentioned how friendly our aloof are. It means to stand at a distance, not to be involved, to be indifferent, detached, remote, apart. Well, sometimes we can be that way within the congregation ourselves, and yet we need to make sure that we're not that way. If you look around this room and you see somebody you don't know, make a beeline. Get to know that person. We all need to get to know one another because we are to be a family. We're here today as a family because we're united by a common father. See, I have five sons. They're my sons. I'm their father. Norm is their mother. Well, the church is the mother. God is our father. We're united through God's spirit, and it is God's spirit that brings us into the family. We wouldn't be here otherwise. And so we need to make sure that we are friendly and that we don't stand aloof.

So how friendly are we? Well, you can't be too friendly if you come late and leave early. That's another factor. And you can't always be friendly if you always sit in the same place either. Sometimes you've got to move around so that, oh, somebody over here on this side I haven't seen before. And we tend to just get pegged into one spot. Okay, another area to look at is, how unified are we? How unified are we? Unity and harmony in the church and unity and harmony among ourselves. On 1 Corinthians 1, we find that Satan the devil will do his very best to create disunity and disharmony. He will try to strike at us at every time that he can. And in verse 10 it says, Now I plead with you, brethren, 1 Corinthians 1, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

Now, one of the things that I'm talking about here is, are we united in doing a work, in accomplishing the goals of the church? Why did God call us into this church and the sage? Mr. Armstrong used to say, it's not just for salvation. That's obviously a major reason. We're being called, trained, and prepared to be kings and priests. But while we're here, we have a work to do. So we're united in that work. That is, to preach the gospel to the world, and to prepare a people. You and I need to be prepared. When Christ comes back, we need to be ready. And I gave a sermon on that here recently, how we need to be prepared and ready. But we also need to be behind doing the work. Do we support activities in the local area? Or do we just complain about them? You don't have to attend everything. I realize if we're having a basketball tournament, not everybody's going to go to that or want to play a sports night. We understand that. But I'm saying, do we support? Do we try to help in every way possible so that we are united and we're working harmoniously together? Sometimes, if we're not careful, we can become clique-ish in our approach. Clique-ish means to have a narrow exclusive group or circle of people.

A little circle or group that, you know, they're the only ones that you really hang out with instead of trying to hang out with a whole group, so to speak. Now, there are always people you're going to be identified with, people that you click with, and I'm not talking about that. Obviously, we all have the best of friends, that type of thing. But not to be so clique-ish that we come into church and we just talk to one or two people and that's about it. We don't want to get acquainted with everyone. We need to be unified in doing the work of God at every level. And that brings us to the tenth point, and that is commitment.

Commitment. How wholeheartedly do we support and back the work of God? Is this our life? No, God has called us to a way of life. Is this our life? Is this the way that we live?

Do we tithe? Do we pray for others? Are we involved with others? Do we serve? Are we committed? In other words, is this a way of life? Is this the way that we live? Your commitment is duty, obligation, responsibility, faithfulness. That we are responsible and we have faithfulness. We don't want to be uninvolved, but we want to be involved in the calling that God has given us. There is no greater calling than what God has called us to. To be a member of His kingdom, to be a part of His church now, and to be committed to the calling that He has given to us.

I'd like to give you a quotation from Luciano or Pavarotti.

We're all familiar with Pavarotti, the great tenor who died here recently. I want you to notice, he said, when I was a boy, my father at Baker introduced me to the wonders of song.

Tenor Luciano Pavarotti relates, he urged me to work very hard to develop my voice.

Arrigo Pola, a professional tenor in my hometown of Medina, Italy, took me as a pupil.

I also enrolled in a teacher's college. On graduating, I asked my father, shall I be a teacher or shall I be a singer?

Luciano, my father, replied, if you try to sit on two chairs, you will fall between them.

For life, you must choose one chair. I chose one. It took me seven years of study and frustration before I made my first professional appearance.

It took me another seven years to reach the Metropolitan Opera.

And now, I think, whether it's lame bricks, writing a book, whatever we choose, we should give ourselves to it. Commitment, that's the key. Choose one chair.

Now, you and I have been called out by God, and we had to make a choice, and we were baptized.

We had to make a choice to go God's way, to be willing to die for it. We had to choose one chair, one way of life, one calling, and to make a commitment to that one chair. Are we still committed to that? Is that the driving force and purpose in our life?

Ask yourself, am I an exceptionally zealous person? Does that describe the way I am today?

Or am I an enthusiastically zealous person? Or am I enthusiastically committed? Or am I just loyally committed? Or am I committed when motivated? Or am I weakly committed?

How committed are we to God's way of life? You and I are being judged daily by how we live, by our attitude, by our works, by our growth, by our development, by overcoming, as I mentioned to begin with. Testing doesn't have to be a totally negative process. As we go up to the Passover, and we examine ourselves, we need to look at areas that we've overcome. We can look back over a year, and we can say, yes, I've made progress. I've grown here. I have a few areas I need to continue to work on. Or maybe you have a whole host of things. But what we need to realize is that it's not all negative. God has given us more time to become more like Him. He wants us to be shaped, molded, and His character. So, brethren, as we examine ourselves, ask ourselves, what is our spiritual condition?