7 Features of a Spiritually Healthy Believer

We began the conference last night and we began in an appropriate place. The believers gathered before the throne, before the throne of mercy and the throne of grace and I think we all feel our need to come before that throne that we might obtain mercy and find grace to help in our time of need because we are needy people and you have needs and I have needs and they're all different but the Lord is so great and so big that he's able to meet your personal need today and tomorrow and all the days that follow. So we look to him and we believe in a prayer hearing and in a prayer answering God.

There was a dear sister who came to me after the meeting and she says you know you're from Ireland. I said well that's right, how would you know that? She says it's the way you stand. Well that was the first time I had ever heard that but she got it right.

A very sweet lady she was and we chatted a little bit afterwards the way I stand. A brother John I think he comes from Ireland too so you look at how he stands and how I stand and then you look at how brother Marfan stands and you work it out for yourself. So there we are.

Now we're going to read from the Word of God and John's third letter, third John is our reading from the Word of God just now. John wrote five books of the New Testament. For the young believer you would want to know that John wrote five books.

There was the gospel of John and then he wrote three letters and he wrote the last book which is a book of prophecy, the revelation of Jesus Christ. But we're going to read from his last letter and that is third John. Verse one, the elder unto the well-beloved Gaius whom I love in the truth.

Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth. Now that's all we shall read just now from the scriptures of truth. May I ask you when did you have your last checkup, your last health checkup? Because that's very important especially as we grow older to have regular assessment or checkups of our health.

The idea is that we might detect early anything that's going wrong, that we might be diagnosed something's starting up and that it can be corrected and that it can be prevented perhaps by being treated. That's the whole idea of a checkup to find out if there's anything going amiss. But I'm not here to talk about your blood pressure or your glucose level or your cholesterol level or whatever.

My burden this morning is to speak about your spiritual health and mine because we need a regular checkup. We have to examine our lives before the Lord and the problem is with self-examination is that we are often self-deceitful and we're often self-denying. We can see the faults in other people's spiritual health but we're very slow to diagnose the faults in our own spiritual health.

We overlook them. They might be even the very same faults but we're very good at looking at other people and finding the faults in their spiritual health. But we have the Spirit of God within and we have the Word of God and the Spirit of God uses the Word of God to convict us.

And I would challenge you just straight away this morning to be brutally honest about your spiritual health and not only to be honest but to be humble enough to recognize when things are not just as they should be and to set to put them right with the help of God because God is able to do that. God will respect those who come before him in their weakness and in their failure and seek a higher plane, your spiritual health. You see in verse 2 there was a man who was spiritually healthy and his name was Gaius and John is saying my prayer is that your physical health would match your spiritual health.

Now if somebody prayed that for me I'm not so sure. I might end up in the hospital bed. So the important thing is beyond your physical health, your spiritual health.

God wants us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and the high point of spiritual experience is to become more like Christ, his blessed son. And I would ask you today are you more like Christ this year than you were last year? Are you growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you love him better? Do you serve him better? Do you know him more? Our spiritual health is of vital importance. So it's lovely to see older saints you know and as they've grown older they've just grown sweeter and lovelier and more like the Lord Jesus.

That's what we aim for, to become more like him. Now I'm going to mention seven features of a spiritually healthy believer. There may be other features you will think of but just for now seven features of a spiritually healthy believer like Gaius.

First of all, how's your appetite? What do you crave? What do you like to feed on? Doctors tell us that we need regular feeding with a balanced diet. I think we would all agree to that and if you go around the school here I was looking at their notices about their meals and how you have to have your proteins and your carbohydrates and your fats and your vitamins and we need physically at least a regular balanced diet of good food. And in the scriptures the word of God is our food, our food, our milk, and our meat.

We will find it in this book, the Bible, the word of God. And let me say this and I've said it many times before in different places and I see no reason to change it. Every day we have to eat healthy.

Every believer should spend time alone with God and his word. I will repeat that. Every day no matter who you are, where you are, what you are, every day every believer should spend time alone with God in his blessed word because through his word he will speak to you.

Now that's basic, that's fundamental, but sometimes it's not happening. Sometimes we have to admit it doesn't happen and if we don't start the day right with God it can be a muddled, as we say in Northern Ireland, a through other sort of a day. Were you reading this morning? Did you get off to a good start? Good food is necessary for spiritual health before the Lord.

As I said, you know, those whose Bibles are falling apart, you know those Bibles and they've gone at the seams and the pages are coming out and you have elastic bands around them and sticky tape. Those whose Bibles are falling apart, usually their lives are not falling apart. They're held together by this nutrition from the very word of God.

The Bible meets every need and we need a balanced diet. We need the doctrine to learn and to teach, teach us God teaching us as we learn. But we need practical truth, what to do when we know what we know.

And of course they're always related. Don't try to divide them too rigidly. Doctrine and practice must go together.

And then we have church truth. Why am I in the assembly? Why is there an assembly? What's the purpose of the assembly? How am I to conduct myself? What am I to do? What does God want from me in the assembly? Church truth, vital. Prophetic truth.

A lot of brethren have different points of view about this and that, but just to have a clear outline, the calendar points if you like, the calendar month of God's plan for the days ahead. Because there's a lot of confusion in the world today about such things. Prophetic truth.

Devotional truth. It's lovely when a brother can bring us before the Lord and we feel we've been in his presence and our hearts are touched. You see, the Bible can build us up.

It needs to stir us up. It needs to warm us up. Sometimes it needs to fix us up where we receive correction from the Word of God.

I must confess I'm really frightened at the manner of life today and what have become norms and how sometimes believers after three-minute devotions and a 10-minute epilogue, they've had enough. But they can watch a video for two hours and a sports event for maybe three hours and they want more. We need to be brutally honest here in terms of time.

When you think of the hours you've scrolled, what did you learn in the end? I'm not trying to set rules and regulations or have a hobby horse about the internet or anything like that just now, but dear brother, dear sister in Christ, this is our food. This is our spiritual food. And if we're going to be spiritually healthy, we're going to feed, needing to feed every day upon the Word of God.

Number two, clean water. Now I know in maybe Iowa, it's not such a problem, but in developing countries, clean water cannot be taken for granted. This is clean water.

But in the developing countries, it's a vital part of good health because sometimes the water is scarce, as in Botswana, a desert country. Sometimes it's not clean, it's contaminated, but we need clean water. It is a very valuable resource.

Life is unsustainable without water. And there was a dear elderly lady one day, she was being visited by another brother, and she was reading in her Bible as every old lady, every young lady, every teenage lady should be doing at least sometime during the day. But she was reading in one of those books that are more difficult, the Old Testament.

And the brother said to her, my dear sister, do you understand what you're reading? She says, well, I don't understand all of it, but clean water never did the pipes any harm. I thought that was lovely. Clean water never did the pipes any harm.

And we need the cleansing of the Word of God in this evil, filthy, corrupt, defiled world. And if you're living in the world, well, you know, you see and hear things you wish you'd never seen and never heard, and you need cleansing. And the Bible teaches us that it is a cleanser.

Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed to the Word of God. We read of the church, and oh, how it is cleansed, how it is sanctified with the washing of water by the Word. And if we're reading our Bibles, it will convict us of things that are not clean.

By God's grace, we can put the thing right and be more spiritually healthy. The priest in the tabernacle every day washed. In the temple every day they washed.

You remember the provision that the Lord made for them traveling through the desert, the red heifer, the ashes of the red heifer in the water for cleansing defilement on the way. So again, I'm pointing you to the Scriptures to take the clean water, the clean water. And when we seek to cleanse ourselves, then we can be useful for God.

Have you ever been in a restaurant and you're brought a glass, a glass maybe for a cool drink, and it's a little bit greasy, and a sort of maybe somebody's piece of their hamburger, it hasn't — what would you do? I would say, please, please, would you mind giving me a clean glass? I cannot use that. That's what you would do, I think. And that's what I would do.

God can't use us if we're not clean. I'm saying it to you young folks, but to older folks as well. We need to have clean water if God is going to use us.

Good food, clean water, fresh air, fresh air. The freshest air you will breathe is in the sanctuary with God in prayer. And I'm linking the fresh air with the praying Christian.

Speaking to God every day. So, we're reading His Word every day. He's speaking to us.

We are praying every day. We're speaking to Him, and it's a two-way conversation. And there should be those moments set aside when we come before God in prayer, the activity of prayer every day.

But then beyond that, there is the atmosphere of prayer. When you're in the car or when you're traveling or doing something else, you can lift up your heart before God and keep that two-way conversation going. You don't always have to be on your knees at your bedside.

You can pray your way through the day. Enoch walked with God 300 years. Do you think he just got down on his knees in the morning for two minutes and two minutes at night? Was that the extent of it all? I don't think so.

And listen, the Lord is with you. Why not talk to Him more as you go through the day? Commune with Him. Breathe the fresh air of heaven and speak with Him.

When you're troubled, tell Him. When you're confused, tell Him. When you feel, tell Him.

When you're angry, tell Him. Seek His help. Breathe the fresh air of prayer.

It should be as natural as breathing, speaking to God, praising and praying. I teach the young Christian in Botswana the word acts, A-C-T-S, to give them an idea that prayer is not just as we say in Botswana, hokopa, hokopa, wanting this and wanting that, God give me this, God give me that. A, adoration, giving God thanks for who He is as well as what He has done and for the Lord Jesus too, adoring.

A, C, confession, being honest enough as I said at the beginning and humble enough to confess when you have sinned because believers still sin. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father. And if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Confession is very important for spiritual health. T, thanksgiving, we should be a thankful people. I've heard of some people, they enjoy bad health.

When you ask them how they're doing, well, they have a long, long story. Well, some folk are very sick and we understand that, we appreciate that of course. But we can complain about everything.

Why not be thankful for all you have by God's grace again? Why not be a thankful person? We had a lovely lady in our home assembly. I love her. She's in heaven.

Well, she'd lived in heaven for years before she got there. Her name was Miss Cooley. And she only had one thing to think and talk about and that was the Lord.

A real student of scripture. One day I was getting on the bus to go into Belfast and it was, as we say in Belfast, it was teeming. It was raining so heavily.

And I sat down there, it was Miss Cooley beside me on the bus. I said, Miss Cooley, that's a terrible day, an awful day, isn't it? She says, well, yes, it's raining. But, you know, God knows that at this time of the year, the farmers need the rain.

And isn't God so good? I'm complaining about the weather and she's giving thanks that God has provided the rain. Is your cup half full or half empty? It depends on your point of view. Try and see it's at least half full and be thankful.

Be a thankful Christian. A-C-T, adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and then supplication. Praying for others.

Praying for my wife. Praying for my children. Praying for my friends.

Praying for my extended family. Praying for assembly believers. Praying for those who are not believers.

Praying for our government. Praying for our country. Praying for other worlds, other countries in the world like Ukraine and places going through strife.

Praying, supplicating before God because God, as I said at the beginning, is a prayer hearing and a prayer answering God. We'll have to leave it there in terms of the fresh air. So I hope you've got it now.

Good food, fresh water, clean air, regular exercise. When I first came to this part of the world, I noticed in some of your shopping malls elderly couples striding out in their tracksuit and their trainers in the shopping malls. But they didn't seem to be shopping.

I didn't realize why at first. I didn't realize why they were there. They were taking regular exercise in a covered, a safe environment.

Had it been me, I would have taken the exercise and then headed for the coffee shop and the apple pie. But there it is, regular exercise. They saw the need for their exercise.

Now, if you don't use your muscles, this is the rule. If you don't use it, you lose it. The muscles atrophy.

And we should be exercised in our lives and in the assembly. We should be actively seeking to do something for the Lord. Because this is what the scripture teaches now, not what I'm saying.

Every one of you has a gift that has been given to you by the Holy Spirit, and it's your responsibility to exercise that gift. Dear sister, you have a gift of some kind or other. It will not be a public on-show gift.

But that's not the main thing here, what goes on in the platform. We don't live our lives on a platform. We live our lives in our homes, in our schools, colleges, and workplaces.

Out there in the world, exercise your gift. And listen, even a small thing can be done for his glory. I realized quite a number of years ago that I should not be dividing my week, my time, my energy into the spiritual, the sacred, and the ordinary day thing.

It can all be sacred if we do it for him. It can all be worshiped if we do it for him. In your little home with your children around you, do it for him.

It's an exercise that glorifies God. I used to say, washing the dishes, can you do it for him? Of course you can. Do it for his glory.

Exercise yourself in what you are doing for his glory, for his honor, regular exercise. Whatever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord. Do it for him.

Don't divide your week in the Sunday sort of behavior and then the Monday to Saturday activities. No, it's not like that. It's all for him.

He is worthy of it all, regular exercise. And you know, it's helpful to remember this, dear child of God, you don't belong to you. You belong to him.

You were bought with a price. What a price. You've been purchased.

You belong to him. Don't be a lazy Christian chipping in from the sidelines while the others are doing their best and complaining about this one and that. No, exercise regularly.

Your gift. The time is going. Good food, clean water, fresh air, regular exercise.

Weight control. That's something, isn't it? Some of us have a sweet tooth, you know. Weight control.

But generally our lives are cluttered with things that we don't need. And there's too much going on sometimes and we don't get our priorities sorted out. We start skipping the meeting because, well, something seemed a bit more important that night.

And we're littering our lives with things sometimes that don't matter. If God has enriched you, thank him. Those are not your riches, they're his.

The things you have maybe in your home, use them for him. The same if you're poor, use what you have for him. But we clutter our lives with so many things that we don't really need.

We get mixed up in our priorities. And I'm not trying to speak in a legalistic way about what you should have and what you shouldn't. I don't mean it like that.

I mean, I'm just saying our lives are so often cluttered. We could do with less. The soldier in active duty, no man that woreth entangleth himself with all the things he doesn't need.

They will weigh him down. They will weight him down so that he's not effective on the battlefield. All of our riches, of course, are found in Christ, blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies, in Christ Jesus, where Bill Gates, Elon Musk can't compete with us.

The headline is he's the first trillionaire. Is that right? Something like that. Hmm.

He can't compete with us. Blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies, in Christ Jesus. The things we really need we have in Christ.

And sometimes we're so cluttered, so much going on, and we could do with less. May the Lord help us not to necessarily get rid of everything. I don't mean it like that, but to put first things first.

In 1922, Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. And the Egyptians believed when you died, you were going out on a journey to the afterlife, and you needed things around you. When the tomb was opened, all the gold and silver were still there.

There was food for the journey in the afterlife. There was clothing and other things. But all the riches were still there.

Why? You leave them behind. You're not. One day, all that you will have is what you gave to God.

Think of that. One day, all that you will have is what you gave to God. Now we must leave the weight control.

Number six more. In a wider sense, health now is defined as wellness, and it includes our relationships, strong relationships, strong relationships, that we should be part of a loving family in the assembly, that we should love one another. When people talk about love, some dear brethren used to think, oh, he's gone soft.

He's gone sentimental. It's not easy to love as the Lord would love. But love is giving.

For God so loved the world. How do we know? He gave. Christ loved the church.

How do I know? He gave. The Son of God, He loved me. How do I know? He gave.

And strong, loving relationships, loving the family, loving our friends, fellow believers, loving our neighbors, being kind. Please be kind to your neighbors. It's not transactional, but if you are kind, you might find it a little bit easier to get them to come to hear the gospel.

Always be kind because we represent a kind God. Be kind with others. Show them the love as well as telling them about the love.

Love your enemies. That's a hard one, isn't it? Love your enemies. But we need that love.

And that love promotes unity. What was the Lord's prayer in John 17? That they may be one. The devil will do everything to divide.

He's dividing families. He wants to divide assemblies. He wants to divide communities and countries and nations.

These are not soft things, sentimental things. These are biblical things. These are true things.

Strong relationships with others, love. And that unifies us because we have all come to know the love of God. Finally, good food, clean water, fresh air, regular exercise, weight control, strong relationships.

Finally, a positive outlook on life. That's part of good health physically. Now, some people are more pessimistic than others.

We divide life into the optimists and the pessimists. But the believer is a realist. He functions in the area of truth.

But his truth is hopeful. Have you got it? His truth is hopeful. His truth is joyful.

And that's why we read in Acts chapter 16 of two men who have been beaten, scourged for the sake of Christ, in the deepest dungeon in the darkest night. What are they doing? Complaining about the mattresses and the food and the cold and the no. They're praying and giving thanks to God.

Joyful. In the prison of Philippi. Why? Because joy, the joy of the Lord is our strength.

And it depends not on what is happening around us, but what is in us forever. That positive outlook. You remember Paul on the shipwreck, before the shipwreck, be of good cheer, be of good cheer, be of good cheer.

Oh, dear child of God, keep positive, be hopeful and joyful. That will stand you in good stead. How's your health doing? Your spiritual health? Do you need to make some corrections? Well, you can, with the Lord's help.

The same goes for the preacher. We think of Gaius. Maybe not so well physically, but certainly in robust health.

Spiritually, go for it. Time is short. We have a lot of things to put right in our lives.

Somebody says, you know, I'm not afraid of failing. I'm afraid of being successful in things that don't really matter. May the Lord bless his word.

Amen.