Man, the title of my sermon tonight is fake spirituality, or you could call it counterfeit
spirituality.
There are a lot of things in this world that are identified as being spiritual character
traits or people that are looked at as being spiritual people.
And then there's what God says about being spiritual.
And so we're going to compare the two tonight.
Before we get into the fake spirituality, let's start out by looking at what the word
spiritual actually means.
What does it mean to be a spiritual person?
Because we want to have real biblical spirituality in our lives.
We want to be known as one that is spiritual, not by man's standards, but by God's standards.
Well, if you look down at your Bible there in 1 Corinthians 3 verse 1, we'll
see that we can get the definition of spiritual partially by its opposite.
Because the Bible says, and I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual,
not as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
So we get a little bit of a definition there because the opposite of being spiritual is
being carnal.
And carnal simply means fleshly.
Carne in Spanish is meat, right?
Flesh.
So the Bible says that if you're not spiritual, you're carnal.
And then he explains the type of people that are not spiritual, the type of people
that are carnal, are babes in Christ, new believers, or people who might have been
saved for a long time, but they've never grown in grace and in the knowledge of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
So even if they've been saved chronologically for a long time, they're still a spiritual
baby because they have not grown out of that stage.
So he's saying unto them that they should be more mature, but they're carnal.
They're babes in Christ.
Go to Romans chapter number 7.
So the definition of being spiritual is that you're not carnal, you're not fleshly, and
you are also a mature believer in Christ.
You're not a spiritual baby.
You've grown up a little bit.
You've learned more.
You're doing more for yourself.
You've advanced beyond the beginner stages of Christianity.
Look at Romans chapter 7 verse 14.
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.
So again, we clearly see that the opposite of spiritual is carnal.
Go to Romans chapter 8 verse 6, just over one page.
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Flip over to Romans chapter 15.
So we're seeing this in a lot of verses, the juxtaposition of spiritual and carnal.
These are the two opposite ends of the spectrum.
Fleshly or spirit filled, spiritual.
That's what we're looking at.
Look at Romans chapter 15 verse 27, it has pleased them verily.
They're deaders they are.
For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things,
their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things.
Now flip over to 1 Corinthians chapter 14.
Just to the right of Romans is 1 Corinthians.
While you're turning to 1 Corinthians 14,
I'll read to you 1 Corinthians 9-11.
If we've sown unto you spiritual things,
it is a great thing if we reap your carnal things.
So there are just many multitudes of verses
that put carnal and spiritual side by side as opposites.
Look at 1 Corinthians 14 verse 37.
If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual,
acknowledge that the things that I write unto you
are the commandments of the Lord,
but if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.
Another component to being spiritual
is we have to acknowledge God's word.
Because he said, if anybody thinks that they're spiritual,
then they need to acknowledge
that the things that I write unto you
are the commandments of the Lord, the word of God,
the book of 1 Corinthians.
No one is spiritual in God's estimation
unless they would look at the book of 1 Corinthians
and say, this is God's word.
So the spiritualist tarot card reader,
the spiritual seeker of the new age,
unless they're willing to admit
that the Bible is God's word,
that 1 Corinthians specifically is God's word,
that's not a truly spiritual person in God's way.
If anybody thinks they're spiritual,
they need to acknowledge God's word, all of God's word.
But not only that, they need to know God's word
because the Bible says that the opposite
of the one who is truly spiritual
and acknowledges that the things that Paul wrote unto them
are the commandments of the Lord
is the one who is ignorant.
The but at the beginning of verse 38 shows
this is a conjunction with what was just said
in verse 37.
The guy who's truly spiritual and truly a prophet
acknowledges the writings of the apostle Paul
as God's word, then there's the guy who's ignorant.
But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.
The ignorant man is the one who claims to be spiritual
or claims to be a prophet while rejecting God's word
and specifically the writings of the apostle Paul.
Go to John chapter three.
So I'm showing you these scriptures just to give you
an idea of what it means to be spiritual
according to the Bible.
And then we're gonna get into some of the fake
spirituality that's out there and what the world
or other Christians even would commonly identify
as spiritual and we're gonna see if it measures up
to what the Bible's teaching here.
John chapter three, verse 34, this is a great scripture
on being spirit filled, being a spiritual person.
It says in John chapter three, verse 34,
for he whom God has sent speaketh the words of God
for God giveth not the spirit by measure unto him.
Now this verse is specifically John the Baptist
talking about Jesus and talking about Jesus
being sent from God, speaking the words of God
and God not giving the spirit by measure unto him.
Meaning that Jesus Christ was filled
with the spirit above measure.
Other men, other prophets have various levels
of spirit filledness.
But obviously Jesus had the spirit of God upon him
beyond measure, above measure.
He was maxed out on being filled with the spirit.
Would be another way of putting it.
And that's why the Bible says in Hebrews chapter one
that God had anointed him with the oil of gladness
above all his brethren.
The oil of anointing in the Bible
represents the Holy Spirit and Jesus was more anointed
or more spirit filled than any other person.
But notice it says that he whom God had sent
speaketh the words of God.
So the man who is spiritual, the man who is spirit filled
is going to speak God's word.
God's word is going to come out of his mouth.
Look at Ephesians chapter number five
and we're gonna see this reiterated.
Ephesians chapter number five
is one of the most famous verses in the Bible
about being filled with the spirit.
While you're turning there,
I'm gonna read you a similar passage in first,
I'm sorry, Colossians 3 16 says,
let the word of Christ dwell in you richly
in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another
in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
So the Bible said, let the word of Christ
dwell in you richly in all wisdom.
And then it goes on to say exactly
what Ephesians 5 18 says.
Look down at your Bible.
It says, and be not drunk with wine
wherein is excess, but be filled with the spirit
speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.
So verse 19 of Ephesians five
says the exact same thing as Colossians 3 16.
The part that said speaking to yourselves in Psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs.
But in Ephesians 5 18, it said,
be filled with the spirit.
Colossians 3 16 said,
let the word of Christ dwell in you richly
with all wisdom.
So that tells me that being filled with the spirit
and having the word of Christ dwelling you richly
with all wisdom are both the same thing
because they're both achieved by the same means.
If you speak to yourselves with Psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs,
he said, that's a way to be filled with the spirit.
And it's also a way to have the word of Christ
dwelling in you richly with all wisdom.
Why?
Because if your spirit filled,
you're filled with the word of God.
Why?
Because Jesus said the words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are light.
And he whom God had sent speaketh the words of God
for God giveth not the spirit by measure unto him.
Being filled with the spirit
is to acknowledge the word of God,
to have a knowledge of the word of God,
not being ignorant
and to have the word of God dwelling in you richly
with all wisdom,
it's to be filled with the word of God.
And out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
See a person who reads the Bible a lot,
the things that come out of their mouth
are evidence of that
because they will say things from the Bible.
They'll quote scripture,
they'll use words that the Bible uses.
When you hear preachers and teachers of the Bible
using always terminology that's not found in the Bible,
it just tells you they don't read the Bible a lot.
See if you read the Bible a lot,
if God sent you,
then you're gonna speak the words of God.
Bibles have preached the word.
So if I'm reading my Bible like I'm supposed to,
you're gonna hear words like believe
come out of my mouth a lot.
Eternal life, everlasting life, heaven, hell, Christian.
You'll hear words that are biblical.
But if I'm just one who is up there preaching
and teaching in my own words,
not reading a lot of Bible,
then I'm gonna have these kind of weird terminologies
come out of my mouth.
Like for example, here's what I've noticed,
these kind of effeminate skinny jeans,
bar stool, purple lighting kind of preachers.
They don't talk about being a Christian,
talk about being a Jesus follower, like hyphenated.
You know, if you really wanna be a Jesus follower,
you're gonna do X, Y, and Z.
Instead of just talking about being a Christian, right?
Like the Bible would use in 1 Peter 2 and other places.
They don't use biblical terminology.
It's all about having a relationship, man,
a personal relationship with Jesus.
But you're not gonna find a personal relationship
in this book.
It's not, it doesn't use that term.
See, he whom God has sent speaketh the words of God.
The Bible says which things also we speak,
not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth,
but which the Holy Ghost teaches,
comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
The spiritual man is spirit filled.
He's filled with the word of God.
He compares spiritual with spiritual.
Why?
Because he's spiritual.
Say, what does it mean to be spiritual?
It's a spiritual man who reads a spiritual book
and compares it with other things
in that same spiritual book,
comparing spiritual with spiritual.
When I compare Colossians with Ephesians,
that's spiritual with spiritual.
When I compare Colossians with some commentary
written by some guy who's been dead for a few hundred years
that was a Calvinist or something,
that's spiritual with man's wisdom.
That's spiritual with carnal.
So you can tell who reads their Bible and who doesn't
by the things that come out of their mouth
because people who read the Bible a lot,
that's gonna evidence in the way that they talk
because they're gonna use terms
and things from the Bible.
People who don't read the Bible a lot,
they're just reading a lot of man's wisdom,
a lot of commentaries, a lot of teachings about the Bible
but not reading the Bible itself.
They're gonna have all these cute little terms
about you're a Jesus follower
and you got a relationship and everything.
And they'll even say like, man, I don't have a religion.
I've got a relationship.
But here's the thing, religion is in the Bible.
Relationship's not.
But isn't that what they say though?
Hey, it's not a religion.
And you know, I'll admit, I was once a liberal
neo-evangelical teenager
and I said that to somebody before.
We were all one time foolish, disobedient and deceived.
You know, but here's the thing,
but you know when I said that?
When I'd never read the Bible cover to cover one time.
I said, hey, it's not a religion,
it's a relationship, right?
Then I read the Bible for the first time
and I didn't say that anymore.
And I bet you that probably 99% of the people
that are going around saying that
have probably never even read the Bible cover to cover once.
Maybe they've read it once if you're lucky.
See, they're just hearing cute little phrases
and repeating them.
They're not getting it from the word.
Because if you get it from the word,
you know what religion means.
And you know what terms the Bible uses,
what the Bible doesn't use.
And I'm not saying that we should never use a term
that's not in the Bible.
Sometimes there are good terms
that can express what the Bible teaches.
But the thing is,
when somebody's just constantly using newfangled terms
and not using the Bible's terms,
it just shows you that they don't have
a lot of Bible in their heart.
Because out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaketh.
Peter and John said, we cannot help
but speak the things that we've seen and heard.
Without even trying, the word of God's
gonna come out of your mouth.
If you've read a lot of it, it's just gonna happen.
And the same thing goes for whatever TV you watch,
whatever movies you watch,
whatever magazines you read,
whatever newspapers you read,
you're gonna regurgitate that stuff.
And that's why you can tell
when people watch a lot of Fox News,
or they listen to a lot of conservative talk radio,
because they parrot the things that they hear.
Or if they watch a lot of liberal media
and they're watching CNN and MSNBC,
you can tell that too,
because they'll repeat a lot of those talking points.
And those same things will come out of their mouth.
Because it's in their heart.
So whatever goes in is going to be processed
and it's gonna come out.
And so you can tell what's going in.
So being spiritual is having the word of God
deeply in your heart, dwelling in you richly,
and it's a part of you,
and so it comes out of your mouth.
That's part of what it means to be a spiritual man.
The Bible also says in that same passage,
1 Corinthians 2, that I was just quoting,
it says also that he that is spiritual
judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
Why is he able to judge all things?
Because he has the mind of Christ,
because he's comparing spiritual with spiritual,
and he studied in the word of God.
He knows what the Bible says.
Another attribute of being spiritual, Galatians 6, one,
you don't have to turn there, but it says,
brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault,
ye which are spiritual, restore such in one
in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself,
lest thou also be tempted.
So according to Galatians chapter six, verse one,
a spiritual man is one who is able
to restore someone who's overtaken in a fault.
That means someone gets away from the Lord,
they get into sin, they get backslidden.
A spiritual person is one who can go to them
and correct them, which makes sense,
because the Bible says, he that is spiritual
judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
So the spiritual person is one who's able
to correct people that need to be corrected.
The spirit-filled person, not only that,
speaks the word of God boldly,
because the Bible says in Acts chapter four, verse 31,
and when they had prayed, the place was shaken
where they were assembled together,
and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,
and they spake the word of God with boldness.
This is what it means to be a spiritual person,
according to the Bible.
This is what the Bible calls being spiritual,
or spirit-filled.
But what is the counterfeit spirituality?
Well, ironically, much of what we see today
as being spiritual is being emotional.
This is one of the things that'll be labeled today
as being spiritual, being very emotional, okay?
So basically, let's say you go to a church service
and there's a lot of crying, or a lot of laughing,
or a lot of jumping around.
They'll look at that and say,
wow, that's really spiritual, very spiritual.
And sometimes that is mistaken for spirituality,
just being emotional or emotion-driven.
I remember one time, and if you would flip over
to Matthew chapter 11 in your Bible, Matthew chapter 11.
I remember one time when I was
at Regency Baptist Church back in its heyday,
and it was a time when the church was thriving
and doing well.
There were about 50 people out soul-winning
every Saturday morning at the soul-winning time,
and the preaching was hot, and people were being saved,
people were being baptized, and I was there.
Brother Roger Jimenez was there at that time.
And I remember this evangelist came through,
and he was there to bring us revival,
and he said, y'all are dead.
And he's just kinda looking at us, you know?
Y'all are dead.
And I'm just thinking like,
what are you talking about, we're dead.
What's that supposed to mean?
And then he goes on to tell us
about how these camp matins that he was part of down South
where they have these camp matins,
and he's talking about how they're running around
and stuff, these independent Baptists,
and how one of them grabbed the American flag,
is running laps around the service,
and then one of them grabbed the Christian flag,
and they're running laps, and woo,
hooting and hollering, and y'all are dead.
And you know, that made me mad.
As a young adult, I was just a young man,
and I remember just getting angry at that preacher
and thinking to myself, you know what,
we're getting people saved every week,
we're getting people baptized all the time,
lives are being changed, the preaching is hot,
everything's going great at the church,
it's growing and thriving,
how dare you just come in here and declare us dead
because it's not a circus.
Because we don't have a circus going on.
You know, the Bible says,
let all things be done decently and in order,
and that we ought to know how to behave ourselves
in the house of God.
And you know, when you see grown men clowning around,
and then to justify it, they'll say this,
well, but at a sporting event, you'll go crazy
and paint your belly and lift up your shirt,
and it's got a message to the team,
and you know, paint it onto your belly,
and you'll, so if you'll do it for them,
you know, why don't you do it for the Lord?
Why don't you just not do it at all,
you big overgrown baby?
Why don't you act like an adult?
Why don't you act like a normal person
instead of being a clown?
And you know, there's all kinds,
if you wanna see some of this craziness,
just go on YouTube, all right?
There's a video on YouTube called
Crazy White People Church.
Okay, that's, I recommend that one
if you wanna see the wrong kind of spirituality, okay?
And then there's another one called
Tony Hudson's Church of Crazy.
That's another classic, okay?
I mirrored that one, all right?
And you just, you see this nonsense,
but people look at that and they say,
well, God really met with us tonight, amen?
Because they're running around
and you know, acting crazy and acting silly.
I had another similar experience to that,
where there was a girl that I had a college class with,
and I invited her to come visit the church,
and her background was kind of a little bit Pentecostal,
kind of Bapticostal background.
So she came to the church
and she really liked the church.
So then the next time she came,
she brought with her,
I think it was her cousin or somebody
who was just kind of a full blown
charismatic or Pentecostal.
And she came to the church and said the same thing.
Oh, the Baptists are so dead.
Baptist churches are just so dead.
That's what the Pentecostals think of us, by the way,
that we're dead.
Because we're not just gyrating and rolling in the aisles
and barking like dogs and laughing hysterically,
you know, y'all are dead.
But is that really what it means to be spiritual?
I mean, is that what it means?
Do I just have to cry and gyrate and laugh
and fall on the ground and run and jump and skip?
Is that really what it means to be spiritual?
Because I didn't see that
in the verses we've been looking at.
That seems like kind of a physical manifestation.
That almost could be maybe carnal.
Since that's of the flesh.
And let me say this, I'm not against emotion.
I'm not against excitement.
I'm not against joy and exuberance.
And I'm not against sorrow and crying.
I'm not even against running.
I like running.
But I'm here to tell you
that this emotion for the sake of emotion
and this equating of spirituality with emotion
is a false doctrine.
See, emotion that's real, that's natural,
yeah, there are times when we do leap for joy.
When we are, but then there's just being a clown.
Then there's just goofing around and being silly
and being irreverent in the house of God.
When it's just to put on a show.
And that should never be the measuring stick
of spirituality.
And it should never even be anywhere near
what you see on the crazy white people church
or the Tony Hudson's church of crazy.
Or what you see in the charismatic movement,
the silliness that goes on over there.
Now look at this scripture in Matthew chapter 11.
As I was writing this sermon, this popped into my mind.
Where John the Baptist has doubts about Jesus.
So he sends a few of his disciples
to kind of confront Jesus.
Cause John the Baptist is sitting in prison right now.
He's at a low point in his life.
He's at a low point spiritually.
He has doubts.
So he sends his disciples, look at chapter 11 verse one.
It came to pass when Jesus had made an end
of commanding his 12 disciples.
He departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.
Now when John had heard in the prison,
the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples.
So what was it that he heard about?
He heard about the works of Christ.
And said unto him, art thou he that should come
or do we look for another?
Now that's kind of a silly question.
Since John the Baptist already saw the spirit of God
descending upon him and said, behold the lamb of God
which taketh away the sin of the world.
But he's at a low point, he's having doubts.
You've never been to prison.
I've never been to prison.
We don't know what he's experiencing.
Obviously he's going through a hard time.
And so he asked that question.
Do we look for another?
Jesus answered and said unto him, go and show John again.
What does he mean go and show John again?
Basically, he's not gonna show John anything new.
He's not gonna tell him anything new.
John already heard the works of Christ.
That's why he even sent the disciples in the first place.
And you know what he tells them to go back
and tell them again, go show John again
those things which he do here and see.
The blind receive their sight and the lame walk.
The leopards are cleansed and the deaf hear.
The dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel
preached to them and blessed is he
whosoever shall not be offended in me.
So how did Jesus Christ legitimize his ministry
to John the Baptist that his ministry
was thriving or legitimate?
He talked about the great works that were being done.
He talked about of course the miracles
that he performed which obviously not everybody
is able to work miracles.
Most of the people in the Bible did not work
any miracles including John the Baptist himself.
John did no miracle the Bible says.
But yet we see that people are being saved.
The poor, look at the end of verse number five.
The poor have the gospel preached to them.
So people are getting saved.
Poor people are hearing the gospel.
We know from elsewhere that Jesus talked about
how many people were being baptized
and also lives are being changed.
Obviously these are physical healings
but this could also be symbolic as well
when people's lives are healed in other ways.
You know when their lives are changed
and things are fixed in their life.
The bottom line and it could also refer
to literal healing as well.
But the point is notice what he didn't say.
Well go tell John how you tingled.
Go tell John about the chills
that went up and down your spine.
Go show John again about the running
and the hootin' and the hollerin'
and the flags being waved and the woo,
the rolling in the aisles.
Notice none of it has to do with anything
that's emotion driven.
Go and show John again all the people crying.
And all the people laughing hysterically.
Is that what he said?
There's nothing like that.
See the Bible when it talks about being spiritual
it talks about knowing the Bible.
It talks about acknowledging God's word.
It talks about being filled with God's word.
It talks about praying.
It talks about singing hymns,
singing psalms, singing spiritual songs.
It talks about preaching the word of God with boldness.
It talks about daily in the temple
and in every house they cease not to teach
and preach Jesus Christ.
It talks about the poor having the gospel preach them.
You know it doesn't just talk about
having an emotional or a wild experience.
But yet today people say God met with us
because of an emotional experience.
Whether that's yelling and jumping around,
a kind of a herd mentality where people
get all worked up in a crowd.
Just like they do at the sporting event.
I mean did God's spirit come down at that sporting event?
At the immaculate reception
or whatever blasphemous thing people bring up?
The point is that's not spirit filled.
That's not what spirit filled looks like in the Bible.
That's not what it means to be spiritual.
That's a fake spirituality.
That's a counterfeit spirituality.
Now because of the fact that people often equate
emotion with being spiritual,
this sometimes leads to problems in marriages.
Because who's more emotional, men or women?
Women are more emotional, right?
That's not a criticism, it's just a fact of life.
Women tend to be more emotional than men.
So what'll often happen is that sometimes
wives will often think that they're more spiritual
than their husband just because they're more emotional
than their husband.
You know so their husband might just kind of
stoically read the Bible.
With a stern look on his face.
He's reading the Bible.
He might go to church and sit there.
But he's taken it in.
You know he's listening to it.
He's receiving it.
He's reading it.
He believes it.
He shows up for soul winning.
He does the works.
He sings the hymns.
He does what he's supposed to be doing.
But I mean but she's crying.
You know and more emotional about it.
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that.
And there's nothing wrong with men crying
and Jesus wept.
Amen, you know David wept.
All the great men of God wept in the Bible at some point.
But what I'm saying is that because
emotionalism has been elevated as spirituality
sometimes wives will just automatically think
that they must be more spiritual than their husband
because they're more moved by the singing
or they're more moved by their Bible reading
or they're more moved by the sermon or whatever.
When in reality that's just a difference
in the character of men versus women.
And therefore sometimes women will think
well my husband can't be my spiritual leader
because I'm so much more spiritual than him.
And if I had a nickel for every time I've heard that
I'd be a wealthy man.
Many women and then you meet their husband
and talk to him and he's actually a pretty spiritual guy.
And you're wondering well why do you think
you're so much more spiritual than your husband?
He's actually a pretty spiritual guy.
Really it's just they don't wanna submit to their husband
so they pull that out.
And you know what even if you are more spiritual
than your husband?
God didn't say wives submit to your husband
because he's more spiritual.
It says wives submit to your husband period.
Because he's your husband that's why.
Not because he's smarter than you.
It doesn't say wives submit yourselves
under your own husbands if he's smarter.
But if you're smarter don't follow that idiot.
You're smarter lead.
Is that what he said?
You're smarter lead.
I mean is that what he says to children?
Children as soon as you get smarter than your parents
then every child becomes smarter
than their parents at the same age.
13, right?
Just ask any 13 year old, they'll tell you.
He didn't say children obey your parents
as long as they know more than you.
No he just said children obey your parents
and the Lord for this is right.
He didn't say servants be obedient to them
that are your masters whenever they're right.
No it's just you obey the boss at work
not because he's smarter, not because he's better,
not because he's always right but because he's the boss.
That's why you obey the boss.
Why do you obey your parents?
Because they're your parents.
Why do wives obey their husbands?
Because it's your husband.
That's what the Bible said.
So it's not about who's more spiritual,
who's smarter but that's an excuse
and because of the emotional aspect
that's where a lot of people get mixed up.
I heard a story that a preacher told also
that was a really funny story where he went soul winning
and in one night he knocked on this one door
and he gives this guy the gospel
and this guy receives the gospel, he's crying,
he's getting his wife from the other room.
I got saved!
I mean he's hugging his wife, he hugs the preacher,
he hugs the children and he's so excited
about getting saved.
I mean just he's happy, he's crying, he's thrilled
and he just, you know, swear it up and down
he's gonna be there on Sunday.
Guy never showed up, never saw the guy again,
never came to church again.
The same night he went out soul winning
and he gave the gospel to this guy
that was just really gruff and stoic,
just barely gave him any reaction at all.
You know, do you believe that?
Yeah, I mean, you know, you wanna receive Christ?
Okay, you know, and the guy was just nowhere,
so he walked away from that guy,
went like, man, I don't know if that guy got it
and that guy actually showed up for church on Sunday,
got baptized and it was a faithful church member,
became a deacon, he was there for like 20 years
or something, no joke.
Now, probably both of them got saved.
I'm not saying that the other guy didn't get saved
because you don't have to go to church
to be saved, do you?
All you gotta do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved.
So, you know, they're probably both saved, chances are
but the point is, all that emotion doesn't always
translate into real world spirituality.
Weather of these twain was more spiritual.
The guy who gushed and hugged and laughed and cried
or the guy who showed up for the next 20 years?
You know, week in, week out, week in.
You know, now here, this is a good tip
when you're going soul winning to the Indians,
to the Native Americans that is,
the Indian reservation soul winning.
We've been doing a lot of soul winning
on Indian reservations.
I had to learn this when I first started going soul winning
on the Indian reservations,
is that they're not as emotional as we are.
They don't emote, they don't gush.
I mean, they're very stoic people.
So I'd be giving them the gospel
and I feel like, man,
I don't even know if this guy's listening.
Like, does this guy just not care at all
what I'm saying?
Do I just need to go to another door?
And you give them the gospel and you're wondering like,
is this guy even saved?
Cause he just, there's just, it's just so serious, stoic.
Just, you know, how, you know?
Well, not really, but anyway.
You know what I'm saying though?
I'm not, I'm not kidding.
That's how they are.
Who's kind of experienced that a little bit,
soul winning to the Indians.
You kind of noticed that a little bit.
Well, Indians are raising their hands.
So that proves that what I'm saying is true.
They don't act the same way.
It's just a cultural difference.
So whenever I take people soul winning on the reservation,
I always warn them
because it can make you a little uncomfortable
if you're not used to it because you feel like
you're just kind of like talking to this tree
and it can be a little uncomfortable.
You feel a little bit embarrassed.
Like it makes you feel awkward
cause you're not getting a lot of feedback.
You're used to getting a lot of feedback
and you know, they're nodding their head.
They're listening, they're responding.
So I always warn people.
I say, look, just keep giving them the gospel.
Just keep talking to them.
Don't let that bother you.
Don't let that put you off or get you awkward.
Cause then you might walk away from someone
who's genuinely interested
and miss out on the opportunity to win that soul
just because you're not getting enough feedback.
So you need to just stand your ground
and just keep talking to them, keep preaching.
You know, and obviously you gotta ask questions
and get answers, but don't expect a lot of emotion.
Now, you know, does that just mean
that they're just a really unspiritual group of people?
No, because emotion is not mentioned in the Bible
as being the evidence of spirituality.
We're not always gonna see an emotional experience
from people.
And I'm sure that after the Indians get saved
and join the church, they don't probably all
just become these wells of emotion.
If they grow up their whole life being stoic,
just because they got saved about it,
they're probably not gonna join the church
and be, you know, shouting and hooting and hollering
and just exuberant.
But that has nothing to do with being spiritual.
Another thing that people sometimes think of
as a fake spirituality, and if you would,
flip over to 1 Corinthians chapter number three
where we started, 1 Corinthians chapter number three.
And this kind of ties in with that point a little bit
of fake spirituality being an emotionalism
and that that's why sometimes women can be confused
and think that they're more spiritual than they are,
or men that they're less spiritual than they are
because it becomes equated with emotion,
which is just a difference in gender.
I've noticed that sometimes people that are effeminate
are sometimes just labeled as being spiritual.
Now that would never happen at our church, thank God.
We don't have that kind of a culture
that elevates effeminacy.
But you that kind of came out
of the New Evangelical movement
or went to Christian school,
you know that that's true because I remember
there was a guy that I went to school with
and he was the most effeminate guy in the class.
And the word effeminate is used in the Bible.
It means one who is soft, one who is girly.
It's a man who has feminine attributes.
It's great for a woman to have feminine attributes,
but you don't want a man to have feminine attributes.
That's a sin in and of itself.
Even if the guy's straight.
Okay, effeminate in and of itself is wrong.
We're supposed to be manly.
And you know, obviously different men
have different levels of manliness
and everybody doesn't have to just be a complete he-man.
But you definitely don't want to be a she-ra, you know.
You need to be a man
and you need to strive toward manly ideals
and teach your children to be manly.
You don't want to be effeminate, okay.
But I remember this guy in school,
I remember people would just always say,
oh, he's so spiritual.
Oh, he's so spiritual.
And I remember, I would ask him,
I would say, what's spiritual about him?
Like, is he reading his Bible more than us?
I mean, is he going soul-winding more than us?
Is he praying more than us?
Is he preaching the word of God with boldness?
What's, I don't know, he's just so spiritual.
But it was really just because he would just,
when he would pray, he'd get all sensual sounding.
Oh, do you, you know,
I don't even want to impersonate it, it's so weird.
But you know, he'd get all sensual and feminine
when he prayed.
But again, could that be carnal?
Sensual, perhaps?
But it was just, he was just labeled as spiritual,
not because of any works that he did for the Lord,
not because the poor in his area
had the gospel preached unto them,
but just because he prayed in an effeminate manner.
He carried himself, because there's like,
oh, he's just so soft, he's just so gentle,
and the fruit of the spirit's gentleness.
Case closed.
This guy.
So we don't want to, being effeminate's a sin.
And sin is carnal.
Carnal is not spiritual.
Another thing that can sometimes be equated
with spirituality that's a fake spirituality
is a flowery speech.
What the Bible calls speaking with great swelling words.
Bible says their mouth speaks with great swelling words,
having men's persons and admiration.
This is where people will just sprinkle,
sprinkle biblical and spiritual words
into situations where they don't even belong.
Just everything out of their mouth is hallelujah,
praise the Lord, amen, brother.
And it's like, whoa.
That's not necessarily meaning that you're spiritual
when you're just dropping hallelujahs and amens
where they don't even belong.
But look at 1 Corinthians chapter three.
This is one that a lot of people think of as a spirituality.
It's a fake spirituality.
The Bible says in verse one,
and I brethren cannot speak unto you as unto spiritual,
but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ,
I've fed you with milk and not with meat,
for hitherto you were not able to bear it,
neither yet now are ye able.
So again, his definition of spiritual is
you're not able to understand deep truths in the Bible.
You can't handle the meat of the Bible.
All you can handle is the milk of the Bible.
I can't even feed you with meat.
He says, for you're yet carnal.
Then he brings up another aspect.
He says, for whereas there is among you envying
and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal
and walk as men, for while one sayeth I am of Paul
and another I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal?
Who then is Paul and who is Apollos,
but ministers by whom ye believed,
even as the Lord gave to every man?
So what he's talking about here is that people
are elevating human leadership too highly.
Putting the preacher on too high of a pedestal
and he says, when you do that and you divide from people
not over doctrine, not over what you believe,
not over issues, but you divide over personalities,
that's carnal.
Why?
Because the baby in this world,
they rely on everything from their parents.
I mean, my baby, Chloe, can't do anything for herself.
She needs us to feed her, to change her diaper,
to close her, to carry her from point A to point B.
She can't do anything for herself.
Well, the babe in Christ, he can't think for himself.
He can't learn for himself.
He can't understand the Bible for himself.
He's a baby, so he's constantly expecting
to be spoon fed everything by man.
Therefore, he doesn't always have enough
of a walk with the Lord where it's just him and the Lord,
going to the Bible himself and gaining truth
and gaining understanding and learning.
Everything is through an intermediary.
Just like the baby doesn't feed itself,
the spiritual baby doesn't feed him or herself,
he is spoon fed from the pulpit.
See, the mature Christian goes home
and reads the Bible for themselves.
The spiritual man goes home Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, he's learning.
Reading the Bible, she's learning, she's reading the Bible
whereas the babe only gets teaching from the church.
So therefore, they tend to elevate the man of God
sometimes too highly because he's everything to them
because that's their main source of food.
As you grow up in the faith, you're feeding yourself,
you're reading the Bible.
Now, you don't want to abuse that
and think to yourself, oh, well, being spiritual
means I don't follow anyone.
This is a fake spirituality that you'll find a lot.
What have we seen so far as a fake spirituality?
We've seen the emotionalism, the feminacy,
the great swelling words,
but also there's a fake spirituality that says,
well, I don't follow anybody, I just follow Christ.
I don't follow anybody.
But what you have to understand is that
one of the options that's listed,
if you go back to chapter one, verse 12,
talks about the contentions and stripes and bickering
and divisions where they say, I'm of Paul,
I'm of Apollos, but look at 1 Corinthians 1.12.
Now, this I say that every one of you say it,
I'm of Paul and I have Apollos
and I have Cephas and I have Christ.
Look, even a carnal person could just say,
well, I'm of Christ.
That doesn't make you spiritual just to say,
I'm of Christ.
I don't follow anybody.
They were carnal as well.
Why?
Because the Bible does teach
that we are to follow leadership.
And let me give you an illustration this way.
If my children get to a point
where they start feeding themselves,
like for example, my two-year-old that feeds himself,
would it be wise of him to just say,
oh, I don't need anything from my parents anymore then.
I'm feeding myself now.
I'm going to the toilet on my own.
I'm eating the word of God on my own.
Well, you know what?
I don't need my parents at all.
I'm just gonna move out at age two
and get my own place and get my own job.
You see, that wouldn't make any sense, would it?
So the point is that we always,
as we're growing in the Lord,
can still look to leadership.
We can still look to leaders and role models.
And the wise person will follow Paul
or will follow Apollos or will follow Cephas.
Why?
Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ.
Paul said, be followers together of me
and mark them which walk
so as you have us for an ensemble.
So a fake spirituality says, well, I don't follow anybody.
Real spirituality says, well, you know what?
I follow the man of God as long as he's following Christ.
But I'm not just blindly following the man of God.
I'm not gonna follow the man of God off the cliff.
And when he preaches false doctrine and lies,
I'm not just gonna say, well, how dare you?
If Pastor Anderson said it, it must be right.
That's carnal.
To just, even if Pastor Anderson preaches false doctrine,
just defend it because it's Pastor Anderson.
You know, the wise person,
if they hear a preacher that they respect and admire
and look up to preach a false doctrine,
if it's not a big deal would just be to say,
well, he's wrong about that,
but he's still following Christ.
He's still a great man of God.
I'm still gonna follow him
even though he's wrong about that one thing.
Or if he preaches something that's so false
and so serious that it's a deal breaker,
then you'd say, well, you know what?
I've been following Pastor Anderson,
but now that Pastor Anderson has apostatized on the gospel,
or he switched to another Bible version,
or he's preaching this heresy that's a deal breaker,
you know, he's preaching that sodomites
are actually biblical eunuchs
and need to be brought in as children workers.
You know, at that point you'd say,
whoa, you know what?
It's time for me to find a new church.
It's time for me to find a new role model.
It's time for me to find a new leadership
that I can follow.
And you say, well, what do you need that for?
Just go in your basement, eat chips off your chest,
and be your own leader,
because God ordained the local church
as his institution to reach the world
with the gospel of Jesus Christ,
and he gave us pastors and teachers
and bishops for our benefit.
We need that structure in the local church.
Otherwise, why has he spent whole chapters
giving you the qualifications of a guy
that you don't even need?
Here's two chapters on what the bishop should be like.
Psych, you don't even need one.
You're spiritually two years old?
Time to quit the church and do your own thing.
You're ready to go out on your own, buddy.
That's the mentality, that's the logic, and it's false.
So a fake spirituality of,
well, I'm not gonna follow anybody.
I'm just gonna do my own.
That doesn't make you spiritual.
Being spiritual is when you are feeding yourself,
discerning the word of God for yourself,
and you're an active member of your local church.
You're following the faith of the pastor.
You're following the faith of other leaders in the church
and other spiritual role models in the church
that you can look to,
and maybe ladies looking to other ladies in the church,
too, that are more mature or more spiritual.
Hey, there's nothing wrong with learning
from other people having other role models,
but the carnal person,
their identity is so wrapped up in that role model
that they're, I am of Paul.
I am of Apollos.
I am of Cephas, to where they,
it's like they can't separate from that role model
because that role model has become who they are.
And look, this is what we're seeing today
amongst a lot of Baptists.
I mean, look at this thing with Bob Gray, right?
Where Bob Gray is promoting
this weird sodomite eunuch doctrine,
and I'm not even gonna rehash that garbage again.
It was painful enough the first five times I brought it up.
He's embraced the weirdest, creepiest doctrine,
but it's like people,
they're just so wrapped up in that their identity
is that they follow Bob Gray,
or people who follow Jack Hiles,
just, they're just, that's what they're all,
it's just like, it's who they are,
to where they don't even know,
they wouldn't even know what to do without that leader.
Because their identity is just so wrapped up
in just that person.
Here's the thing.
You're a member of Faithful Word Baptist Church, great.
You're loving me and following me, great.
I'm your pastor.
I'm here to help you.
I'm here to preach you, I'm here to teach you.
But you know what?
If I fall over dead tonight,
your life will go on,
and this church will go on,
and you can continue serving God.
And there are other great preachers
and other great teachers that live before me
and will live after me.
I'm not the only one, I'm just one of them.
And if I just start preaching some weird,
creepy, perverted doctrine about homos or something,
if I get up and start preaching some heresy
about salvation or whatever,
look, you can still detach yourself from me
because you're not saved by me.
You're not baptized in the name of me.
Your whole identity is not wrapped up
in the fact that you go to this church.
You could go to another Baptist church
and still serve God, still love the Lord,
still win souls.
Now, does that mean, oh, I don't need church?
No, you do need church,
and you should go to the best church in your area.
And you find a church that you agree with
on as much as possible
that doesn't have any terrible deal breakers.
You go to that church, you get involved,
you respect the pastor, you honor the pastor,
but you don't just, you don't marry the pastor.
You know what I mean?
You don't just become a spiritual Siamese twin
with the pastor, where if we divide this thing,
they're both gonna die, or you're gonna die.
You see what I'm saying?
And that's where people,
so we don't wanna misunderstand this passage.
We don't wanna throw out the baby with the bathwater
and say, oh, well, if you're spiritual,
you don't follow anybody.
That's not what this passage is teaching.
If you're spiritual, when your leader lets you down,
you keep going for Christ.
When your pastor quits, you keep going.
If your pastor apostatizes, you keep going.
Your pastor dies, you keep going.
That's spiritual.
See, a guy like Joash in the Old Testament,
all of his spirituality was wrapped up in another person,
Jehoiada.
Jehoiada the prophet was his man of God
that led him and guided him.
And as soon as Jehoiada died, his spirituality failed.
And then Joash ruins the kingdom.
As long as Jehoiada was alive, it was great.
And there are people who could maybe be in a church
like Faithful Word Baptist Church,
and as long as they're here, they're serving God,
but it's like without our church, they would fail.
That's a carnal person.
Okay, the spiritual person will keep going
no matter who lets them down
because Christ is still there, looking at you.
It doesn't mean that they don't follow anyone
or don't have leadership in their lives.
That's ridiculous.
All throughout the Bible, God used leadership.
Even men like Elisha had Elijah.
Even men like the apostles had Jesus.
Even Timothy had Paul.
Everybody in the Bible who was a great man
or a great woman looked to leadership
and role models and so forth.
So that's really silly.
And lastly, this, the last fake spirituality
that I've seen a lot of is this attitude
of sit back and let God do it is more spiritual.
I remember one time somebody pointed out a preacher
who was a hardworking preacher.
And this guy was working hard.
He's getting up early, staying up late, working hard.
And they said, well, I looked at that preacher's face
up close and I could see he had bags under his eyes.
He looked really tired.
He looked really worn out.
And you know, that just tells me
he's just doing it in the flesh.
You know, basically chastising him
or criticizing him for working hard.
Well, he's just trying to do it in the flesh.
And this is where the Calvinists are.
I mean, look, the Calvinists, if you ask them,
they have more spirituality in their pinky
than we have in our whole bodies, if you ask them.
I mean, these guys are just dripping with spirituality,
just exuding spirituality.
I mean, right?
I mean, these guys, they just sit back
and let God do everything.
I mean, they're so enlightened.
They just sit back and say that God's got a plan
and it's all gonna happen.
And they just have such peace about just sitting back
and just letting God do his work.
And then you tell, hey, don't you need to preach
on this, I don't wanna get in the way
of the Holy Spirit.
Hey, don't you think you need to preach on sin
every once in a while?
I'm gonna let the Holy Spirit convict people.
I don't wanna get in the way
of what the Holy Spirit's trying to do.
You know, I'm just gonna kind of read a verse,
exegete it.
God forbid that I would eisegete.
I'm gonna exegete.
I'm going to expose, expository exposition
at my expo.
And I'm just gonna let the Holy Spirit do the work.
Oh, that's so spirit, man, that's so spiritual.
Right?
And then you start like rolling up your sleeves
and working, whoa, that's carnal.
You're working too much.
That's physical, that's carnal.
No, no, wrong.
The Bible commands us to work.
If we obey the Lord, that's spiritual.
If we disobey, that's carnal.
So it, no, it's not carnal to work, to serve God.
I mean, when the apostles were spirit filled
and the spirit of the Lord came upon them
in mighty power in the early church,
it said daily in the temple and in every house,
they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
Looks like they're working pretty hard to me.
But then the spirit filled, just so-called sit back
and just, we're just gonna let God.
You know, let go and let God.
Right?
I mean, that's, I don't know.
I wonder what advertising boardroom
that slogan was come up in.
Is that what it was?
Oh, it's from Alcoholics Anonymous, okay.
God grant me to the serenity to accept
the things that I cannot change.
I agree with that, actually.
So, you know, let go and let God.
Well, it sounds great, beautiful slogan,
but you know what?
We need to roll up our sleeves and do something
and work something, build something, plant something.
And it doesn't make you spiritual
to disobey the Lord's command
to go work today in my vineyard,
to just sit back and say, well, if I'm really spiritual,
I can just sit back and watch the vineyard.
And it's just, it's all gonna happen
because God's so powerful.
If I were to go out and do some work,
that would show a lack of faith.
Cause I mean, that means I don't think God can do it.
Like I have to help him or something.
That's what they, I've heard them say this kind of stuff.
And again, this idea that inactivity equals spirituality.
You wanna know where it comes from?
Eastern mysticism, Hinduism, Buddhism.
Inactivity equals spirituality.
That's Hinduism.
You know, like we're just gonna sit back
and just use the force or something
to just move things around, you know.
You know, this kind of Eastern mysticism mumbo jumbo
of inactivity and just spiritual meditation
as opposed to action.
This attitude is what has caused a lot of countries
to decay and fail and Christian nations
to thrive and succeed because Christianity
has always taught a work ethic.
Christianity has always taught to build something,
plant something, do something.
Christianity has its own cute slogan
that God helps those who help themselves.
That actually makes sense, right?
That's actually biblical.
You know, we do our best.
We work as hard as we can
and then God makes up the difference.
We don't just sit back, just sit back
and just let God do it.
Just let God do it.
That's a false teaching.
So when it comes to being spiritual,
we need to make sure that we have a biblical definition
of what it means to be spiritual.
You say, Pastor Anderson, I want to be a spiritual person.
What do I do?
Do I get a little wilder at church?
Little louder, a little more excited during the singing.
Now I do think you should sing loud.
Bible says to lift up our voice and sing.
Do I get wilder at church?
What do I do?
Do I get a little more sensual when I pray,
when I'm called upon to pray?
A little more feminine?
Maybe hand you the microphone
and you can really breathe into it.
Should I start adding more praise, the Lord, hallelujah
and amen into my speech at totally inappropriate times,
like just at work operating a machine?
Should I stop following anyone and say,
well, I'm my own leader.
Should I just sit back and let God do it all?
No, no, no, you want to be spiritual.
Here's the recipe for being spiritual.
Acknowledge the Bible as God's word.
Read it, learn it, know it, talk about it,
pray, sing hymns, go soul winning,
go to church, obey the Bible.
It's nothing mystical or magical.
It's about obeying the Lord, serving the Lord.
That's why Jesus said, okay,
tell John about the work I'm doing.
He didn't say, tell him about the feelings
that you felt.
And even when people went and heard Jesus preach
and were blown away by it, they came back and said,
never man spake like this man.
They didn't come back and say,
never felt I the way I felt this time.
You know, it was the word of God that had power.
It's the works that were on display.
So being filled with the spirit has to do
with the word of God.
It has to do with work that we do.
It has to do with attributes in our lives
that are straight from the Bible.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, help us all to be spiritual, Lord.
Help us to be spirit filled.
And Lord help every person in this room
to decide that they don't want to be a baby in Christ,
Lord, but that they want to grow up
and help them to take the steps necessary
to learn how to feed themselves
and to feast on God's word, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, not just on Sunday.
Lord, and I pray that we would be a spiritual church,
not because someone walks in
and has an emotional experience,
but because someone walks in and sees the souls
that are being saved, the lives that are being changed,
and they hear the way people talk, Lord.
Help them to hear the way we talk and to think,
there's a guy who loves the Lord.
There's a lady who really knows her Bible.
Help them to think that, Lord,
when they meet us because we're spiritual.
And in Jesus' name, we pray, amen.