Sermon Tone Analysis

IN SPIRITUAL ADULTHOOD, the believer’s Spiritual momentum follows a definite pattern:.

1.

Consistent perception and metabolism of Truth inside the Spiritual life result in the believer’s giant step into Personal love for God and SPIRITUAL SELF-ESTEEM.

2.

When tested under providential preventive suffering, Spiritual self-esteem becomes SPIRITUAL AUTONOMY.

3.

By successfully passing the momentum tests, Spiritual autonomy be­comes SPIRITUAL MATURITY.

(Matt 13:8) 

4.

When Spiritual maturity stands up under evidence testing, GOD IS *GLORIFIED TO THE MAXIMUM *in the historic angelic conflict.

(John 15:8; John 17:3-4)/ /* *

Paul describes this pattern of momentum in his second epistle to the Corinthians.

/And He has said to me,// My grace is sufficient for you, for power [The Spiritual life] is perfected in weakness.

[Testing] Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, [Sin nature Testing] with insults, [People testing] with distresses, [Thought testing] with persecutions, [System testing — Job, family, social life, Etc.] with difficulties, [Disaster testing] for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, [Under testing] then I am strong.

[We grow by staying in fellowship and Thinking with the Mind of Christ!]/ (1Co 2:16) (2Co 12:9-10) 

     We will examine this passage more thoroughly when we focus on provi­dential preventive suffering.

Here we need to note only the /pattern /of the adult believer’s continued progress.

/“Power is achieved with weakness”/ states that suffering is necessary for Spiritual advance.

The Greek noun, (/Dunamis/)/ “power, or strength”/ refers to God’s omnipotence as utilized by the believer in the advance through Spiritual adulthood: Spiritual self-esteem, Spiritual autonomy, and Spiritual maturity.

The adult believer has power because he consistently lives in the Spiritual life!

The verb, (/Teleo/)/ /which is translated /“made perfect”/ in the King James Version, means /“to finish, to accomplish, to fulfill, to achieve,”/ the latter best agreeing with the context in verse 9. How is power achieved?

How does the believer advance through the final gates of his palace?

The Greek preposition (/En/)/ /plus (/Astheneia/) —/ /in the instrumental case of manner — indicates the manner in which the action of the verb is carried out: /“with weakness.”//

//“Weakness”/ refers to the progressive phases of suffering for blessing.

Weakness here is not failure or sin but /helplessness.

/Suffering for blessing puts the Spiritually adult believer in a situation he cannot resolve with human resources.

(Php 3:3; (1Pe 4:1-2) He is helpless and must totally depend on Divine assets (*/The will of God the Father, the Mind of Christ and the fruit of God the Holy Spirit/*) that he has acquired by metabolizing Truth in his soul.

(Jer 15:16) The suffering itself does not advance the believer; his utilization of God’s power in suffering is what advances him.

(Jer 15:19-21) Power and weakness exist together at the same time: The adult believer uses the strength of Spiritual self-esteem to move through his weakness in providential preventive suffering.

He uses the strength of Spiritual autonomy to go through his weakness in momentum testing.

And he uses the strength of Spiritual maturity to move through his weakness in evidence testing.

He not only exercises the power inherent in each stage of Spiritual adulthood to meet the test, but when he succeeds in passing each test, he achieves the power of the next stage of Spiritual adulthood.

With each test he passes, he moves up! (2Co 3:18) /What degree of strength is required to endure providential preventive suffering?

Spiritual self-esteem.

What power is required to pass momentum testing?

Spiritual autonomy.

And what is needed to pass evidence testing Spiritual maturity./

*As a result of dealing with the undeserved suffering that God sends,* the believer’s strength increases so that he is able to cope with the next increment of suffering when it comes.

In His perfect wisdom God gives each believer the unique sequence of blessing and suffering, of prosperity and adversity necessary to bring him to maximum glorification of God! (Psa 23:4)

/  /

SPIRITUAL SELF-ESTEEM 

THE FLAW IN HUMAN SELF-ESTEEM 

BEFORE GOD ADMINISTERS SUFFERING FOR BLESSING, the believer must have the inner strength necessary to endure and profit from the test.

In other words, the believer must have Spiritual self-esteem.

God will not send suffering for blessing until first the believer is confident in his relationship with God and in his own Spiritual ability to use the assets that God has given him.

He must be inculcated with Truth so that he loves God, and lives by God's Thinking!

(Matt 10:20; John 3:34; John 7:16-18; (1Pe 4:11) For believer and unbeliever alike, a person’s attitude toward self affects his entire outlook on life.

An important branch of psychology emphasizes the key rule of self-esteem.

Of all the judgments we pass in life, none is as important as the one we pass on ourselves; for that judgment touches the very cen­ter of our existence.

We stand in the midst of an almost infinite network of relation­ships: to other people, to things, to the universe.

And yet, at three o’clock in the morning, when we are alone with ourselves, we are aware that the most intimate and powerful of all relationships and the one we can never escape is the relationship to ourselves.

No significant aspect of our thinking, motivation, feelings, or behav­ior is unaffected by our self-evaluation.

In this, psychology has made an accurate observation.

It recognizes man’s genuine need to regard himself in a positive light.

Although self-esteem solves many problems in life, human self-esteem ultimately has a fatal flaw.

/Thus says the LORD,// Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind [For Salvation, help, blessing, Etc.]

And makes flesh [The Old sin nature self] his strength, And whose heart turns away from the LORD./

(Jer 17:5)

     /The heart// [//Old sin nature of man//] //is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?

/(Jer 17:9)* *

     The problem is that man is not worthy of his own esteem.

Since the fall of Adam, the human race has been inherently depraved.

Man is born Spiritually dead, utterly isolated from his Creator, totally incapable of a relationship with God.

(Eph 2:1) Man proves his depravity by the personal sins he com­mits; (Strip club crowd, lust of the flesh; crowds) and by the human old sin nature good; (Glen Beck crowd lust of the eyes; tax collectors) and evil he practices.

(Obama crowd; pride of life; soldiers) (Luk 3:10-14) Man is commonly arrogant, greedy, self-centered, superficial, cowardly, petty, devious, self-righteous, cruel and violent.

Only by a concerted effort of the will can he even partly control his old sin nature.

/I find then the principle that evil is present in me,// //the one who wants to do good.

For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,// //[Spiritual life] but I see a different law in the members of my body, [Sin Nature] waging war against the Law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.

Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, [The Mind of Christ] but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

[The demon influenced sin nature in US]/ (Rom 7:21-25)

     Regard for self is always some form of arrogance.

(2Co 3:4-5) Most people deceive themselves with intel­lectual rationalizations or psychological delusions concerning their own im­portance.

Man feels the need for a positive self-image, yet he falls short of his own relative standards, to say nothing of totally failing by God’s absolute stan­dards.

The very self which man desires to esteem is weak and prone to evil.

Man’s best intentions and greatest achievements are undercut by ignorance, handicaps, distractions, and temptations.

Human self-esteem is an elusive and flimsy substitute for what man really needs, and what God in His grace has provided: /Spiritual self-esteem //— /Spiritual self-esteem is based on Who and What God IS, not on who and what we are.

It stands on God’s absolute in­tegrity, (Gal 5:22-23) not on man’s unstable old sin nature.

(Matt 15:18-20) 

 

THE SUPERIORITY OF SPIRITUAL SELF-ESTEEM 

    Spiritual self-esteem belongs to the protocol plan of God.

The Christian achieves Spiritual self-esteem by faithfully learning and Thinking with Truth, by advancing step by step within God’s protocol system until he reaches Gate 5, Personal love for God.

Spiritual self-esteem is an inevitable result of Personal love for God.

The believer’s self-confidence is not derived from self but from the confidence that he has a unique relationship with the God of the universe.

Believers of the royal family of God have greater cause for Spiritual self-esteem than do believers of any other dispensation.

God displays His glory in the Church as never before in human history.

His objec­tive is to show /“...the riches of His grace which He has lavished upon us.

In all wisdom and insight.”/

(Eph 1:7-8) and to demonstrate /“what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe...”/ (Eph 1:19) Even a partial list of the advantages granted to every Church Age believer will demonstrate the superiority of Spiritual self-esteem over human self-esteem.

As Church Age believers we are a /“new [Spiritual] species”/ in union with Christ.

(2Co 5:17)/ /By the baptism of God the Holy Spirit at the moment of Sal­vation, we are /“created in Christ Jesus”/ for the purpose of utilizing Divine power, not human power.

(Php 3:3) God has made available to us the exer­cise of Divine omnipotence for the execution of His plan.

(Acts 1:8; (1Co 2:4; (2Co 4:7; Eph 1:19-20; Col 1:19-12; (2Ti 1:7) Never before the Church Age did God extend this privilege to every believer.

Only partial utili­zation of God’s omnipotence was made available to a few believers of previ­ous dispensations.

We are instructed to /“walk in newness of life” /(Rom 6:4; Eph 2:10; Eph 4:24) because the new Spiritual species is designed to utilize total availability of the omnipotence of all three members of the Trinity.

The omnipotence of God the Father created for every Church Age believer a portfolio of invisible assets which includes the Spiritual life.

(Eph 1:3) The omnipotence of God the Son sustains the universe and perpetuates human history.

(Heb 1:3) The om­nipotence of God the Holy Spirit provides the function of the Spiritual life.

(Acts 1:8) Furthermore, our bodies are indwelt by all three members of the Trinity.

/     God the Father /indwells us for the glorification of His protocol plan which He designed in eternity past for each Church Age believer.

(John 14:23; Eph 1:3-12; Eph 4:6; (2Jn 1:9)

/     God the Holy Spirit /indwells us to create a temple for the indwelling of Christ as the Shekinah Glory,  to be a down-payment of our royal inheritance, and to empower us in the execution of the Father’s plan.

(Rom 8:11; (1Co 3:16; (1Co 6:19-20; (2Co 6:16, Eph 1:14)