Spiritual Exercise
I. 1 Timothy 4:6-8-To get your
spirit strong you have to exercise and train your spirit
A.
There is an exercise for your body and
likewise there is an exercise for your spirit
1. You get your body stronger through physical
exercise, you get your mind stronger through mental exercise, you get your
spirit stronger through spiritual exercise
a. 1 Timothy 4:6-8 (Phillips Translation,
Amplified Bible)
2.
Exercising your body will make it stronger;
exercising your spirit will make it stronger
3.
Exercise means to use or to exert
a.
As I use my body or certain parts of my body,
I develop in that area
b.
As I use my spirit (or even certain parts of
my spirit), I develop in that area
B.
You exercise your spirit by practicing,
training in, and doing the Word of God
1.
John 4:24, 6:63-God is spirit, the Word is
spirit, you are spirit and every time you do what the Word says you’ve engaged
a spiritual activity and it exercises your spirit
a.
AMP-8-Godliness or acting like God is
spiritual training
b.
Ex: If you love like he does rather than hold
strife your training and getting stronger
c.
Proverbs 10:29-The way of the Lord is
strength to the upright
2.
Strength comes from not only hearing the
Word, but by doing what you’ve heard
a.
1 Timothy 4:6-7 (Phillips
b. J.B. PHILLIPS-You will show yourself as one
who owes his strength to the
truth of the faith he has absorbed and
the sound teaching that he has
followed GW-Followed closely
c.
John 4:34-Jesus said doing what God has told
me nourishes me
1) CEB-I’m fed by doing the will of the one who sent me
2) DARBY-My food is that I should do the will of that has sent me
3) MSG-The food that keeps my going is that I do the will of the One who
sent me
3.
The sphere in which nourishing takes place is
the Word of God; hearing AND doing
C.
If you’re not exercising your spirit man by
doing what the Word says you won’t get any stronger in your spirit; You will
not get stronger without exercising/using your spirit
1.
People who just eat without exercise can
become spiritually obese (slow to act)
2.
Hearing and not doing is eating spiritually,
but not exercising
a.
James 1:22-25, Ezekiel 33:30-32-We got to be
cautious where hearing and not doing is concerned because, not doing will keep
you weak
b.
So many times we hear things we’ve heard
before and we’re deceived and think we’re strong in it because we’ve heard it a
bunch
1)
You’re not strong in what you’ve heard a
bunch, you’re strong in what you’ve done a bunch
3.
You will not get stronger in what you do not
do (Exercise-To practice habitually)
a.
If
you’re going to be strong like God, you exercise yourself unto it
1)
You
don’t get to godliness without exercise, training
b.
You
practice habitually what he said, and you’ll get stronger at it
II. There is a spiritual
training that a believer must engage in, if his spirit is going to be strong
A.
Exercise yourself unto godliness-Command not
suggestion
1.
This is a word speaking of Greek athletes
engaging in athletic exercise in a gymnasium
2.
The exercise is not that of the physical body
but that of the spiritual part of man
3.
It is vigorous, demanding, strenuous and
radical discipline
4.
Describes professional combat sports which
usually ended with one dead
a.
Knowing it was life and death the athletes
exercised and exercised to get into top physical condition because only those
who were most fit would survive
5.
They submitted themselves to self-imposed
hardships in training (heat, beatings)
6.
They approached hardship in training as a
positive occurrence; an opportunity to develop their strength
B.
The most successful athletes are the ones who
don’t dread training, but embrace it; The most successful Christians are the
ones who embrace spiritual training
1.
Spiritual training is the Christians best
friend
a.
Unto-With a view to; Exercise with a view to
excelling in godliness-Matthew 5:48
2.
The believer who won’t train will circle the
same mountain only to regret later that they didn’t take the time to engage the
training necessary to overcome
C.
We must be more committed to our spiritual
development than professional athletes are to their physical development
1.
This word was only used to describe the professional
athletes of that day; When Timothy saw the word exercise he knew exactly what
Paul was conveying to him
2.
The commitment you make to your spiritual
training will be the determining factor in whether or not you overcome in the
day of adversity-Proverbs 24:10
a.
Maybe your strength is small because you
don’t exercise
III. Exercise always includes
pressure and resistance to that pressure and that what’s makes it seem hard or
unpleasant, but it’s the resistance to that pressure that produces strength
A.
Hebrews 12:11-Pressure and resistance is key
to all exercise, natural and spiritual
1.
MSG-At the time, discipline isn’t much
fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off
handsomely, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves
mature in their relationship with God.
2.
NIRV-No training seems pleasant at the
time. In fact, it seems
painful. But later on it produces a
harvest of godliness and peace. It
does that for those who have been trained by it.
3.
ESV-For the moment all discipline seems
painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of
righteousness to those who have been trained by it
4.
If you’ll engage this exercise, what used to
be hard won’t be hard anymore
B.
1 Peter 5:5-10-This suffering is the flesh
not getting it’s way
1. J.B. PHILLIPS-Resist him, standing
firm in your faith and remember that the strain is the same for all your
fellow-Christians in other parts of the world. And after you have borne these
sufferings a very little while, God himself (from whom we receive all grace and
who has called you to share his eternal splendor through Christ) will make you
whole and secure and strong.
2.
The suffering is the suffering of being
tempted and not giving in-Hebrews 2:18
a.
There is no suffering when you give into the
temptation, but when you resist it and don’t give in there’s a suffering that
you experience
b.
Resist-Set oneself against, oppose
3.
Suffering the flesh not getting its way will
strengthen your spirit
a.
Every time you do what the Spirit of God
tells your spirit rather than what your flesh wants you just got a little
stronger because you resisted the pressure of the flesh
1) Every time you tell your flesh no your spirit just got stronger
b.
Galatians 5:24-Crufify the flesh; every time
you give into the flesh you just exercised it and it got stronger
4.
Luke 22:40-44-When he resisted he was made
stronger
C.
For exercise to be effective and strength to
be developed there has to be pressure on you and resistance to that pressure
1.
Pressure is just another opportunity for you
to develop-1 Peter 1:7
a.
Strength will be developed through the
resistance to pressure
b.
If you are caving in under pressure you’ll
never develop
2.
Acts 24:16-He exercised himself to not be
offended at God or man
a.
He had opportunities to be offended at both,
but by not giving into the pressure and taking offense he became strong in this
area of not being offended; if took offense every time and caved into the
pressure, he’s not going to develop
b.
What are you striving, exercising to develop
3.
1 Sam 17:34-37-David exercised in his
covenant with God in regards to the lion and he got stronger and the bear and
he got stronger and Goliath and he got stronger
a.
If every time pressure showed up he fled,
then he wouldn’t have got stronger
D.
It’s important that you find the pressure
necessary to develop; don’t wait for pressure to show up, rather go in search
of pressure
1.
An athlete seeks this pressure so that he can
develop the strength that he desires
2.
One of the greatest ways you encounter
pressure is just make a decision to develop in some area of the Word of God;
when you do the flesh and the enemy will be there trying to pressure you out of
developing this
3.
It’s when I begin to do that word that I heard
that I’ll encounter pressure
4.
When you encounter the pressure of resistance
and you put pressure on that resistance you’ll get stronger