Text:
Ephesians 4:11-16
INTRODUCTION:
1) Wrong measurement in a
school: A
high school teacher found a student using a thermometer to measure a table, he
was dumb-founded. In his 15 years of teaching, he had seen many sad and
shocking situations of students did funny things but not as this one. He was
amazed that this student could make it to high school without the knowledge of
using different instruments to measure different thing.
2) Wrong measurement in a
church:
Don¡¯t we sometimes do the same thing when we use some wrong measurements for
spiritual quality? For example, do we assume that churches with biggest number
of people are the most blessed by God? And do we even think that popular
preachers of larger churches are more godly than
preachers of small churches in obscure places? Don¡¯t we sometimes believe that
people who occupy key positions in a church are spiritually more mature than
regular members?
SPIRITUAL QUALITY MATTERS:
1) We were created with spirit: ¡°The Lord God formed the
man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his
nostrils and the man became a living soul.¡± (Genesis 2:7) In recent years,
there is a debate on the nature of man: is he a human being with the spirit of
God in him or is he a spiritual being lives in the human body. Regardless
whichever position you may take, one thing stands out: we have the spirit of
God in us and that spirit comes from God. This is the most distinctive quality
of human being different from the rest of God¡¯s creation. It is this spirit
that lives in us generates in us the desire of spiritual things. Without the
spirit, human beings may be just like all other animals.
2) Our spirit connected with
God: ¡°When
my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who know my way.¡± (Psalm 142:3) Men
communicate with different people in different level and different way. We
communicate to others mostly with our intellect. We communicate with love one with
emotion. When we communicate with God, we do it with the spirit of God in us.
So, our spiritual quality is vitally important when we communicate with God.
3) Our spirit directs our life: ¡°Create in me a clean
heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.¡± (Psalm 51:10) ¡°Clean¡±
can be translated as ¡°pure, clear¡±, and steadfast can also be translated as
¡°righteous, up-right¡±. It was in the moments of dull, unclean or unclear, the
spirit of King David became unrighteous, that he committed a sin which has been
the a black mark of his life. The carnal, or the flesh, of man is in constantly
conflict with the spirit of God to control or direct our life. When the light
of our spirit grows dim, it can¡¯t shine clear to direct the path of our life
that is when we are in danger of sin.
4) God loves a clean spirit: ¡°Since we have these
promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that
contami-nates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.¡±
(2 Cor. 7:1) This is God¡¯s desire that we purify our body and spirit for paying
reverence to God. If we truly desire a closer walk with God, we need to grow
our spiritual quality, keep our body and spirit clean so our understanding of
God will be clear and bright to follow his lead.
REASONS FOR USING WRONG
MEASUREMENT:
1) We have dull spiritual
insight:
¡°Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your body also is
full of light. But when your eyes are bad, your body also is full of darkness.¡±
(Luke 11:34) Jesus cautioned us the importance of keeping our spiritual eyes in
good condition so we can discern right from wrong, good from bad. When our
spiritual condition is dull, we tend to use wrong measurement to measure God,
church, people or things around us. We just can¡¯t see the true light.
2) We are blinded by the world: ¡°The god of this age has
blinded the mind of the unbelievers, so they cannot see the light of the gospel
of the glory of Christ.¡± (2 Cor. 4:4) When we are deep in the culture and
beliefs of the world, we tend to use world criteria to measure spiritual things
and that is dead wrong. Even in Christian circles, many still use worldly
standard to measure a church, a pastor, a brother or sister, a ministry or
mission. The worldly culture has affected the perspective of many Christians
and churches in determining goals, approach, ministry and even everyday running
of a church. Too often, people of worldly status like education, title, money
and power will be respected more and ascent higher in church leadership faster
regardless of their spiritual quality.
3) We follow blind church
leaders:
¡°He also told them this parable: Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they
not both fall into a pit?¡± (Luke 6:6) There are blind leaders in denominations
and churches, using wrong approach to lead their denomination and churches.
Many of these people play the ¡°politically correct¡± games and disregard the
teaching of God¡¯s word. They hungry for numbers and social acceptance more than
for God and His leadership. People in those churches and denominations have no
choice but being influenced to use wrong measurement of their churches.
4) We follow the ¡°success¡±
trend: If
we use today¡¯s approach to measure the ministry results of Jesus and Paul
during their life- time, they are far from being successful. They had few
followers, no money, no record of any success. They
did not build any huge church buildings, not baptized many believers, didn¡¯t
raise huge amounts of funds, became famous of church
or denominational leaders. They didn¡¯t have support from leaders of their
people, government officials. Today, we are blinded to follow the success trend
to measure spiritual quality of pastor or church leaders: how big is their
congregation, how much church property they own, how big is
their church budget and if they have doctoral degrees. All these are not
bad or evil, but they are never the biblical measurements of spiritual quality
of anyone. God never asks us to be successful, but he asked that we become more
like His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
BIBLICAL MEASUREMENTS OF
SPIRITUAL QUALITY:
(Ephesians 4:11-16)