“If we were to put as much energy into our spiritual life as an athlete does into their training for a temporary competition, we will grow and accomplish much for God and His Kingdom.”

After our sermon a couple weeks ago about “going deeper”, there was an evident need for a series on 1 Timothy chapter 4 on how to practically “go deeper” and have a foundational Christ-like mindset through the Biblical Christian habits that Paul instructed to Timothy as he trained him up to have a Christ minded ministry.

The goal in this series is to understand the “Godly Values” that Paul gives to Timothy as we try to continue to shape that same Christ-like mindset in our own lives as we chose to have a deep relationship with God today.

In todays sermon we look at the need for all of us as Christians to be absorbing God's Word. As we listen to the public reading of the Word, we should be encouraged by it and make sure to apply in in our lives. That application is one of the ways every day Christianity can be preached and taught to the world around us.

We also have a call to teach the Word to others, but we must first be reminded to let it teach us in order to teach it to others. Through that spiritual growth and progress, we can effectively share the "Good News" with others.

We also are looking at the need to NOT neglect our spiritual gifts. The church needs all parts of the body working and active to be effective in being the example we ought to be to our world. We must continue to exercise the spiritual gifts we see in scripture in order to keep them strong and active in our lives, and we must put them into practice for them to do any good for us and the church.

Finally, we need to be diligent! Our spiritual life is to be the "absorbing things" in our life, not merely sidelines that we occasionally practice on Sundays. We have to dedicate ourselves to the task!

This week's WEEKLY EXERCISE'S:

-Devote yourself to:

a) The encouragement of applying God's Word to your life

b) Be a living example of what God can do in someones life

-Exercise your gifts in the church

-Be diligent/give yourself wholly to Godly Value