Training for godliness. Pastor Benjamin Foster

well good afternoon everybody uh we're glad for our being here on today at the Divine Encounter Church uh here in an Arbor Michigan and we're just blessed to be here in the house of the Lord one more time at this time we're going to have a scripture reading my daughter Eaton is going to come and she's going to read a scripture for us so let us receive her at this time now hold the mic Hebrews chap 11 verse 1 to three and it reads faith means being sure of the things we hope for and faith means knowing that something is real even if we do not see it people who lived in the past became famous because of faith it is by faith we understand that the whole world was made by God's command this means that what we see was made by something that cannot be seen amen thank God for Eden Foster in the scripture reading this time uh let us stand briefly for a word of prayer dear heavenly father in Jesus name we thank you for this service today we thank you for blessing us to make it out oh God to the service one more time time we thank you for your kindness your blessings your goodness in all of our Lives thank you Lord God for our Salvation thank you Lord God for Hope Lord God hope beyond the grave through Jesus Christ thank you for the price that Jesus Christ paid thank you for the blessing oh god of being here today now Lord God move in our midst oh God come in oh God by your Holy Spirit strengthen us build us up encourage us oh God give us your word oh God and give us Lord God to abide by your word and give us Open Hearts to receive your word and these rich blessings we ask in the mighty name of Jesus Christ amen you may be seated praise God so by way of reminder we have a uh Service uh Jam service today at Mount Alive Church of God in Christ Pastor Arnold shared that's at 5:00 pm and so we're going to be uh more abbreviated today we're going to abbreviate things a bit so that way we have time to be able to get home and maybe get a bite to eat change our clothes and all of that to be at the service uh the jam service on today so uh our message today is going to be from first Timothy chapter 4 and we're going to start at verse number eight 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse number eight and what we want to talk about today today is training uh for godliness training for godliness we want to be trained we want to be developed we want to do the exercise that we need to do as Believers in order to uh become all that God wants us to become we want to do the kind of we want to make the kind of effort that God desires of us so that we can be what God wants us to be so 1 Timothy chapter 4 starting at verse 7 says but refuse profane and old wives fables and exercise thyself rather unto godliness for bodily exercise profiteth little but godliness is profitable unto all things having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come okay and so we want to deal with this topic today the topic of godliness well the first thing we want to do is we want to Define what we're really talking about when we're talking about God godliness godliness is Walking In God's ways and God's nature okay uh that's basically in a nutshell what godliness is all about it's walking in God's ways is not walking in your own ways in the way that you want to walk and the way that you want to live but it's walking in his ways okay it's walking in his nature and the Bible tells us that God's nature what it really is is love that's God's very essence that's a description of what God is really like on the inside the Bible says God is love God is love okay so godliness is about walking in God's ways and to walk in God's ways you got to know how God does things you got to know God's Ways by knowing his word godliness is when you imitate imitate God okay imitate God's ways the Bible says we should be followers of God as dear children and when it says followers what it's talking about is imitating him little children tend to imitate and emulate their parents you know uh they sort of copy what their parents do they say okay Daddy is acting this way so let me copy daddy uh daddy is dressing a certain way so let me try to copy the way that Daddy dresses okay or the the uh the daughter might say well mommy likes to dress this way so let me try and dress like Mommy okay uh what is the child doing the child is just imitating the parent the child is imitating their parents and so uh that's what God wants us to do with him he wants us to imitate him follow his ways do as he does and so one thing you should do when you read through the scriptures is this try to figure out what God's ways are try to figure out what his nature is and how he functions and how he does things and uh what motivates him examine his ways read the scriptures uh the gospels and examine how Jesus lived Jesus is our perfect example so you read the scriptures and you look at how Jesus lived and how he functioned and then you emulate him they used to have the little wristbands that said WWJ D which means what would Jesus do I believe that those bands had a very good message what would Jesus do we should always consider that as we function in our daily living we should always consider uh what would Jesus do and consider his life consider his ways consider his actions we got learn how to be uh motivated uh by the ways of Jesus Christ Jesus said that he only did those things that he saw the father doing you see he only did those things that he saw the father doing he had a relationship with his father he walked with his father he he talked with his father he spent time in prayer with his father he knew the father and he knew the father's ways he knew the father and he knew the father's very heart and so Jesus uh was concerned about just doing what the father would do just doing what the father would do and we got to get to the place where we are that way too we got to get to the place where that we are not concerned about pleasing people where not concerned about pleasing man we're not concerned about pleasing our friends we're not concerned about P pleasing our families but we're only concerned about making sure that we please Our Father which is in heaven Jesus said this he said my meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work there's something about food when he said me he was talking about his food okay food nourishes you food strengthens you if you're tired and exhausted and you haven't eaten all day one way to get some strength is you just eat a meal okay Jesus was saying that what gives me strength is doing the will of my father I get strength from it I get built up from it I get uh Stronger when I just do the will of my father okay so godliness is when we walk in God's ways godliness is when we learn to live according to the divine nature we don't want to live according to the human nature the human nature is Fallen H the human nature is sinful okay the Bible says in Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God we've all sinned as human beings so walking in the human nature is not where we want to be at because that would just mean that we would keep on sinning we would keep on doing unrighteous things we would keep on doing things that are Unholy impure and ungodly if we just walk in the human nature but no we got to learn to walk in God's nature Hallelujah and the truth of the matter is that you cannot walk in God's nature until God changes your nature you just can't do it it is an impossibility you can't walk in God's nature and if God has not changed your nature you won't be able to do it you'll fail every time okay so you got to make sure that uh you do the first thing the first thing is that you got to allow God to transform you inwardly you got to allow God to change you on the inside you got to allow God to change your very heart you've got to be born again Jesus said unless a man is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God you must be born again okay uh to be born again means that God changes your heart heart he takes out the old Stony heart that resists him that resists his will that fights against him he takes that heart out and he puts in you a heart of Flesh soft tender towards God wants to do God's will that's what God does he changes your heart when you're born again and you get a new spirit okay and this is why the scriptures says that therefore If any man be in Christ he is a new creature old passed away and behold all things are become new that's why it says that because you become a new creation when you're born again that old uh heart that you had that resisted God that fought against God and said I want to do things my own way God takes that out of you gives you a heart of Flesh causes you to be born a new a new nature is born within you a new heart is given to you uh because of Jesus and you begin to see the world in a different light you begin to walk a new walk you begin to talk a new talk you begin to live a new life why you've been born again hallelujah hallelujah and so godliness is about walking in God's ways and his nature godliness is very valuable because it benefits Us in all things godliness is valuable is very precious it will benefit you in ways that you haven't even thought about it will benefit you and will cause you to avoid a lot of evil that would have come your way a lot of trouble a lot of uh anguish a lot of difficulty that would have come your way you end up avoiding it you won't even have to deal with it because of godliness godliness will benefit you in every aspect of your life every aspect of your life is benefited when you walk in godliness everything okay uh godliness will benefit your health okay before I go into that let me read verse eight uh so that so that way I give you a foundation for what I'm saying verse eight says for bodily exercise profit of little but godliness is profitable unto all things okay unto all things so that's what I'm emphasizing is that godliness will benefit you in all things okay uh your health will go up because of godliness okay one of the principles of godliness is that you shouldn't be fearful worried or full of anxiety the Bible says be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God uh godliness will cause you not to live a life of anxiety godliness will cause you not to live a life of fear godliness will cause you to walk with confidence because you have faith in God you walk in confidence not because you believe in you but you walk in confidence because of the fact that God is with you Hallelujah your confidence should be in the reality that God is backing you and if God is for you there more than in the world against us and if God is for you who can be against you okay so we've got to uh realize that there's benefits in godliness there's blessings that come from it okay you're not going to be worried and full of anxiety if you really really get full of godliness Jesus didn't walk around worried when he was here on this Earth he didn't walk around worried and fearful and Afraid as a matter of fact he rebuked his disciples when they were worried and Afraid when they were full of anxiety he rebuked them and he corrected them Jesus was not full of anxiety the Bible teaches us not to be people of anxiety stress is very dangerous to your health did you know that that's simple principle don't be a person of anxiety will benefit you remarkably I remember being checked out some years ago maybe good 20 maybe 20 years ago I was checked out once by uh medical professionals and they' they told me they said you know what what you're experiencing could just be stress and I said I didn't realize that stress was that powerful I just didn't realize that just being a little anxious at times could cause health problems okay and so I had to be more careful make sure I don't allow anxi anxiety and stress uh to build up within me so I had to learn that principle but if I had just looked into God's word more then perhaps I would have been more diligent more diligent in that area but godliness is going to benefit your health your health gets better you'll start treating your body better eating a healthier diet because of godliness when I came to Jesus Christ and really began to walk with him in sincerity my diet began to change I began to watch what I ate okay I began to watch what I ate because of the fact that I realize that my body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost okay and I realized that you know I got to take care of this body I want to live out my days I want to be able to impact people for Jesus Christ and so my health was benefited my diet changed your finances will get better because of godliness your finances will go up because of Godly principles just start giving Jesus taught that it is more blessed to give than to receive just start giving consistently make it your habit you go into a restaurant and order a meal give a nice tip to the to the waitress or waiter okay do that on a consistent basis just start doing things like that when you go to church and there's an offering raid given the offering okay uh consistently give give to poor people people that are struggling Jesus taught that we should what remember the poor okay giving on a consistent basis okay if you do that consistently in faith and trust the Lord with time you will benefit from it your finances will go up your finances will get better okay godliness will benefit your finances there's principles in God's word that tell you how to manage your money just get into God's word and study it it gives you Insight it gives you knowledge and wisdom concerning finances any area of your life if you get into God's word you'll find there are principles that God gives you concerning how you ought to handle those things okay godliness will benefit your finances God godliness will benefit your family and your family relationships you won't have arguments as much if you live in if you walk in godliness okay the Bible says follow peace with all men okay and Holiness without which no man shall see the Lord and so if you follow that principle follow peace with all men it's going to cause your family relationships your friend relationships to get better okay just being a Peaceable personable person and the Bible says if it be possible as much as lith in you live peaceably with all men okay if it's possible as much as lith in you in other words as much as it's in your power live peaceably with all men okay there's some people who before they came to Jesus Christ they were Hellraisers they caused trouble wherever they went they were drunkards okay and they got in fight and things like that when they came to Jesus Christ and learned about how that godliness means living peaceably with all men they begin to make changes okay and God has a way of taking a person with a tempestuous temper and turning them into a tame little kitten that's the kind of power that God has he has the power to tame the human heart he has the power to tame us and cause us to walk uh in a manner that honors him everywhere we go your family relationships your friend relationships relationships with your neighbors people in your neighborhood they'll go up they'll get better people will notice you know what I think uh I think Benjamin is different now I see a difference in him he doesn't cause the arguments that he normally would cause when we play basketball he's easier to get along with with okay there's something different about Benjamin okay uh I believe uh that it makes a difference I believe that Anna when Anna goes to work uh people can see that she just gets along with people she works to get along she's not a troublemaker okay she's not a troublemaker there's something different about her the difference is that she's been born again Hallelujah so godliness will benefit your relation ship godliness will benefit your career your career will go up you you'll do better okay in your career because of godliness why because God's word teaches that whatever your hand finds to do you should do it with your strength do it with your might okay so that that tells you that you need to be excellent in on in your career be excellent is what that scripture teaches don't just a person that's looking to get a paycheck and have it uh have it easy no be excellent in your career okay and uh you should do it as unto the Lord you should do your career as unto the Lord and not as unto men that's another principle that the Bible teaches don't do your work in your job as as though you're serving a manager or a boss or as though you're serving the University of Michigan do it as though though you're serving the lord Hallelujah you do it as unto the Lord and not as unto men and God will reward you okay to bless your career every aspect of your life will go up because of godliness hallelu hallelujah hallelujah righteousness exalts a nation righteousness causes thing you to rise okay it'll cause you to be exalted if you live in righteousness okay and the Bible lets us know that godliness will result in not only blessings in this life but also in the world to come it'll bless you not only here in the here and now but in the world to come you got blessings waiting for you if you're living Godly here and those blessings are waiting for you in eternity there's Treasures that are unspeakable that God has for you in heaven he's going to reward your righteousness your righteousness is not in vain it's not for nothing the troubles that you go through in life are not for nothing no God is taking notice of it God is paying attention to it and he's going to reward you for your righteousness the Bible says blessed is the man that endureth Temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the Crown of Life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him God has a crown of life for you if you endure the Temptations of this world Hallelujah he has a crown of life that's more glorious and magnificent than you can imagine he's going to place it on your head one day a Crown of Life Hallelujah he's gonna give you a treasure ah that is something that's going to last forever the Treasures in Heaven they don't ever Decay they don't go away no the Treasures in Heaven are Eternal and that's what makes them so great uh is that they're Eternal it's much better to have Treasures in Heaven than to be rich here on Earth because everybody that's rich here on Earth the unfortunate thing about it is that when they die they leave it all behind and their children and their friends and whoever else they get to fight over it okay but when you lay up Treasures in Heaven there's not going to be anybody that can take it away nope and moth and rust is not going to corrupt it hallelujah hallelujah it's not to corrupt it but it's going to last forever what you do for Christ is going to last it's worth it to serve him it's worth it to do what is righteous is worth it in the end to do God's Will and so we got to endure Hallelujah we got to endure and we got to just trust the simple reality that there's great Treasures that God gives us in heaven Hallelujah when we do what is righteous uh another principle is this we've got to train ourselves in godliness okay in other words don't think that God is just going to make you Godly and you're not going to do anything to participate in becoming Godly no that's not the way it works it doesn't work that way godliness is something that God wants you as a Believer to participate in the formation of okay it's something that you participate in and it's formed as you participate uh and you work with God okay your salvation when you're born again is a free gift you cannot earn salvation I don't care how many Good Deeds you do you'll never earn a place in heaven because of your good works because of your good deeds okay the Bible says Ephesians chapter 2 for by grace are ye saved D through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of Works in other words not of Good Deeds okay lest any man should boast okay so none of us is g to be able to boast in the end about how we came to Christ and how that uh we are sa we were saved none of us is going to be able to boast in the last day no the truth of the matter is that our Salvation is something that God granted us as a free gift our Salvation is something that God gave us okay he gives you the gift of Salvation okay and so the good deeds that we do as Believers we're not doing these deeds in order to earn a place in heaven we're doing the good deeds that we do because we're grateful to God hallelujah we're doing the good deeds that we do because we love God hallelujah we're doing the good deeds that we do because we know God hallelujah we know the change that he's brought about in our lives we know where we used to be we know how we used to think we know how we used to live and we're rejoicing in the fact that God has changed us we're rejoicing in it and so that's why we do good that's why we do good is because of the grace of God God hallelujah is because of his work uh in our hearts okay so you're not we're not earning salvation okay we're not earning a place in heaven nope you can't you can never do it it's not possible Heaven is too great for you to ever earn a place there it's just too great it's too magnificent eternal life is too valuable for you as a mere human to think that you you can earn it and so God says it's my free gift to anybody that will what believe the gospel believe on Jesus Christ put your faith in what Jesus did and you will be saved trust in his death burial and Resurrection put firm faith in the fact that he died for your sins he paid your price he paid your penalty and his blood put firm faith in what he did don't put firm faith in what you can do let your faith be in what Jesus did that's where our faith has to be okay so we got to train ourselves in godliness according to this verse verse 7even it says exercise thyself rather unto godliness exercise yourself unto godliness to exercise excise another uh rendition is train train yourself okay in godliness you can train and develop yourself in the ways of godliness okay one way to train yourself in the ways of godliness is to do what God's word says just force yourself to begin to practice it and when you force yourself to follow God's where what happens is that you begin to behave differently uh by the grace of God you begin to behave differently and when you behave differently it becomes a part of your lifestyle okay that's one principle right there just force yourself to follow the word okay one principle in the Bible is this don't seek revenge okay that's a Biblical principle don't seek revenge bless those that curse you okay bless and curse not so somebody does evil to you and tries to bring you down and harm you don't curse them back instead find a way to bless them pray for that person okay uh humble yourself and seek God on their behalf don't okay that's a Biblical principle and when you do that when you follow that principle that begins to get ingrained into who you are see what are you doing you're cooperating with God you're cooperating with God you're doing things according to his word and when you do that there's a change that begins to take place within you okay prayer is something you can use to train and exercise yourself for godliness there's something about prayer you taking out time with God on a consistent basis there's something about it it it it develops you spiritually it causes you to come in contact with the very presence of God and when you come into contact with God's presence and you fellowship with him and you spend time with him change begins to take place change take takes place through prayer okay meditation is another biblical principle uh that we've got to utilize in training ourselves for godliness we got to learn to meditate we see a move in America uh and I think a lot of many parts of the world where that people are getting all into Eastern religions and things uh getting all into uh Eastern mysticism and things like that and a big part of Eastern mysticism is meditation well the truth of the matter is that our enemy uh never does anything doesn't just do something unless he can find it somewhere else and so the biblical principle of meditation is something that goes back to the very beginning of time okay the biblical principle of meditation okay what do I mean by meditation the Bible Way meditation the Bible Way is just thinking on God and His goodness okay being thankful to God okay I hear people that are unbelievers uh that don't even have faith that there is a God and they're talking about oh I'm I have to practice gratitude I'm going to get alone and practice some gratitude okay they don't even believe in God and they recognize that gratitude is good okay well we had this principle in the Bible for thousands of years okay so meditation okay thinking on the goodness of God okay spending time thinking on God and who he is is and his ways okay meditation in God's word okay in other words you take a scripture and you meditate on a scripture you take a scripture and you think on a scripture and you Ponder a scripture okay deeply in your heart this is something you can do uh to start your day I get up in the morning and I go out into the sunshine early in the morning I get up and I walk out in the sunshine and when I do this little five minute or so walk every day I take I make it a practice to meditate on God's word I get a scripture and I think on it and let it get deposited down into my spirit okay so that's meditation thinking deeply there's benefits in thinking deeply on the word of God there's benefits in allowing God's word to go from the mind to the heart you see uh uh to just read the Bible okay you're you're benefiting the mind your mind is learning some things but when you meditate I believe that what happens is you take things from the realm of the Mind down into your spirit that's what I'm talking about when I speak of the heart is your spirit okay things get down into your spirit through meditation meditate on the word of God just take a scripture one scripture at a time and just think on it ponder it and say well for today let me just Ponder throughout my day when I have spare moments I'm going to ponder this verse okay a certain verse that you find is helpful to you do that and you'll grow okay fasting is a part of your training okay self-denial okay when you deny yourself the pleasure of food for seasons of time there's benefits if you pray it causes your prayers to be more effective when you fast fast okay so remember the the blessing of fasting you can do something like this you can say you know what uh Mondays I'm gonna miss breakfast and instead of eating breakfast I'm gonna focus on the Lord and I wait until lunch to eat that's a good starting point okay something simple like that then grow and develop in fasting and there are some people who grow to the place where they take a whole week and say I'm not going to eat I'm just and drink water okay they grow and develop to that level of spiritual discipline okay and it's very beneficial you'll find your spiritual hearing your spiritual perception your spiritual uh discernment all of these things get heightened when you fast okay things get heightened you just become you're able to hear God so much easier you're able to to pray so much easier you're able to do things for the Lord so much easier if you'll take out some time to fast attending church okay when we attend church that's part of our training in spirituality okay uh these are all things that we must do okay we got to push okay if we want to grow we want to be more like God we want to be more like Jesus it's going to require us to pay a price okay you got to train yourself okay nobody else is g to take you and and do it for you even God is not going to take you and do it for you you got to do it you got to put some effort in yourself you gotta uh uh push yourself okay exercise yourself develop yourself in godliness as we all stand hallelujah praise God hallelujah blessed is the name of the Lord amen perhaps there is