Test Yourselves to See if You Are Spiritual — Santosh Poonen

Happy Mother's Day to all of our mothers. I was a few weeks ago, the Lord, just the middle of the week, I forget what day, thank you, of the week it was, the Lord laid a burden on my heart specifically for you sisters, and especially moms with children in the home, but all of you sisters.

I think sometimes you probably face things that us men don't realize. For those of us men who go work, whether it's inside the home or outside the home, we have pressures that perhaps the world can understand, but I just felt like, I got the sense that some of you sisters experience pressures that the world doesn't understand, and it might be easy to forget that.

Faithful Service Within God-Given Boundaries

The Bible tells us to live, us husbands, to live with our wives in an understanding way, as with weaker vessels, 1 Peter chapter 3. Otherwise our prayers will not be heard. And so I ask the Lord to give me a deeper understanding of how to pray for you all, and to, there are probably many things that you all do in the home that we couldn't do.

We recognize that, I know that, as a married father with children, most of the things in the home I couldn't do. Now it's not because I don't want to, or I'm lazy, anything that I can't do I try to help with, but recognize the unique gifts God has given you sisters, and I want to encourage you, just in the faithfulness with which you serve, not only in your families, but also in the church, to press on.

The world is full of vying for that which is big and great and visible, and the churches should be the exact opposite of that, in every area. Churches are full of people, the world is full of churches that want to become bigger, in size, and more well-known, and more popular.

We should be the exact opposite of that. Not against growth, but that should not be our ambition. The world is full of women that want to be big and famous, preachers, authors, and things like that. Again, if God calls them to do that, it's not, the Bible says that a woman should never teach or exercise authority in the church.

So that we believe and stand for, but within the boundaries that God has drawn, women can do some tremendous things for His kingdom. The last two hymns we sang were written by godly women. And what a blessing it is to see the revelation that God gave them, staying within their circle.

And for hundreds, thousands of years after that, Madam Guillaume lived in the 1700s. We're blessed by her words. But in a world that's full of things that are contrary to God's word, and churches that are imitating how things are done in the world, we must be an example.

We must be a testimony that we stand for the word of God, not in a legalistic way, not in a judgmental way, in humility and quietness. And what a blessing it is, dear sisters, that you all in this church are exemplifying that quiet looking to God and saying, Lord, you've drawn a circle around my life.

I'm going to be faithful within that. I tell you, in eternity there are going to be some tremendous surprises. Remember how James and John wanted to sit on the right and left hand of Jesus in the kingdom.

And Jesus said, the Father gets to decide who that will be. And I've often thought, you know, I aspire for that only because it will make me closer to Jesus. Not because you guys will be looking at me on some throne or anything like that.

I want to be as close to Jesus for all eternity. That's it. And if the right hand and the left hand of Jesus is where I can be close to him, then sure. Even if it means it's some lowly place where you can't see me.

What do you think the throne of heaven looks like? It's glorious. It's amazing. And yet it's humble. I don't think we can understand it. I don't even want to say more on it because I couldn't do it justice.

That God, with all his glorious majesty seated on his throne, Jesus is a servant. You'll see a servant sitting on the throne there. It's the exact opposite of what you'll see when you go to the White House.

Or some other palace, Buckingham Palace or something like that. But I've often thought that will it be the most famous preacher, the one who did the most miracles? No. It'll be the one who became most like Christ in their spirit of lowliness.

And it shouldn't surprise you if there are two sisters sitting on either side of Jesus. It won't surprise me now. I'm not saying who it will be or anything like that. But mostly for us men to learn an example from our wives in the quiet, simple way by which they just go about serving.

Think about the sisters who go down and set up for our lunches and clean up afterwards. Let's learn from them. Jesus said we can learn from the children even. Unless you become like little children, you will not even see the kingdom of heaven.

So God bless you dear sisters and especially you mothers also on this day. I hope we remain in gratitude for you every day. I'd like you to turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 13. Last week I was speaking on the difference between religiosity and true spirituality.

Testing Ourselves for True Spirituality

And for a few weeks now the Lord has impressed on me that this is a very very serious thing and something that I think we should be aware, I believe we should be wary of at RLCF. Because the great danger is that in our pursuit of holiness like I said last week, in our pursuit of holiness the devil will show us an alternative route.

He'll say you can become like God like this. It's the age old temptation. God doesn't want you to become like him. You can become like him this way. And the tree of the knowledge of good and evil today is the way that avoids the cross.

The cross in my own life. The way of brokenness. The way of denying myself. Taking up the cross and following Jesus. That's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil today. When I avoid that. Even though that's written in the first pages of the bible, I believe that Christians today are still falling for that lie of the devil.

And I was reading recently in Romans 1 and 2 and you look at the how depraved things got. You read Romans 1 the horrible perverse things that it describes there and it says it's simply because they didn't treat God as God.

Didn't treat his word as holy. So I believe it's a danger. I want to make one point here and that is that I'm not hung up about the word religion and spiritual. Are you religious or spiritual? The book of James does say this is pure and undefiled religion.

He uses that word. So don't get hung up about that. What I mean by religiosity is the form of spirituality without the power. The biblical word for that in 2nd Timothy 3 is the form of godliness. But I believe in today's language we understand what religiosity means.

The term. That means that you've got a good outward appearance of Christianity in terms of where you go to church and what your family is like and what principles you stand on. You read the bible, you pray and you're a good upstanding Christian.

But inwardly you lack the power of God. You really lack the life of Christ in you that's causing you to be changed every day. Paul said in 2nd Corinthians 4 that he was changed daily. Today I would like us to examine ourselves and together let's look at a few tests that we can look into our own hearts to see whether we're really just religious or if we really are spiritual.

There are probably many tests. I hope the Lord will show you some in your own life pertaining to your own tendencies. But here are some I saw in scripture. But before that we read in 2nd Corinthians 13 verse 5.

Test yourselves. Did you know that there's such a word in the bible, a verse in the bible that says you must test yourself? 1st Corinthians 11 says let every man examine himself. Test yourself. For you children who go to school or even school at home you have to do tests every now and then right?

But it's usually a test given by your mom or dad or by a teacher at school and you're given that test. In the Christian life nobody's going to give you a test. Now maybe for you children at home your parents will give you a test to see how you're doing.

They'll ask you how was school or something like that. But as you grow older it will be up to you. If you don't test yourself in the area in which we're about to read you can just go on thinking life is good.

What does he say? Test yourselves to see if you're in the faith. Now is he talking to unbelievers or to Christians? He's talking to a church that he himself planted. A church in Corinth and this is the second letter he has written to them.

He dealt with a pretty serious sexual issue in the church in the first letter. By the time he writes the second letter things have gotten better. They've dealt with the problem. They obeyed his instructions and they set the matter right.

Then he says in chapter 11 I'm concerned that now you're going to be drawn away from simple pure devotion to Christ. So he says test yourselves to see if you be in the faith. This is a message for Christians not for unbelievers.

Test yourself. Examine yourselves. He repeats himself. Or do you not recognize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Do you recognize that Jesus Christ is in you? Now he's not asking have you asked Jesus into your heart?

And you say oh yes I did on such and such a date 1995 or something like that. No. Is Jesus Christ in you unless you fail the test that Jesus Christ is in you? Have you heard of such a sermon for Christians?

Read that carefully again. Do you not recognize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you fail the test? But I trust that you will realize that we ourselves do not fail the test.

So test yourselves. Test yourselves when it says to see if Jesus Christ is in you that means that you actually have spiritual life in you. Not just the language around it. So here are a few tests that the Lord has been using in my own heart I thought I would share with you and I hope that he will show you more in your own life.

Loving God More Than Self and Money

The first is if you secretly love self and money but you talk about loving God. Let's turn to 2nd Timothy chapter 3. If you secretly love self and money but you talk about loving God. That means the language is there you come to the meeting and even at home.

What comes out of your mouth is all religious language but in your heart and this is an area that God has kept private. And that's the thing for most spiritual the reason spirituality is so rare and religiosity is so common is because to be spiritual you have to pay attention to the inside.

What are you like on the inside? It doesn't matter if the whole world thinks that you're a wonderful Christian. Who are you? Test yourself. Don't test yourself by what people think of you. What reputation you have in the church.

You must test yourself by what you know about yourself. About the thoughts that dominate your own life. Your own mind throughout the day. Use that as the gauge. Say Lord I know when I'm around my brothers and sisters in the church or the children or on a Sunday morning lots of religious talk comes out of my mouth.

But when I'm by myself I find myself just thinking about money all the time. You're probably religious then. I find I'm thinking about myself. Just self-centered in my thought. Oh how they treated me or this or that about myself.

If you secretly love self and money but talk about loving God in your religious. 2nd Timothy 3 it says in verse 2 that the last days difficult times will come. Men will be lovers of self and lovers of money.

And he says in verse 5 holding to the form of godliness. So they'll still say I'm a Christian. I'm a conservative. I go to such and such a church. I go to RLCF. We believe in the new covenant. I hear good sermons and I listen to a sermon every day and I have the Bible on audio playing and all this stuff.

But secretly in your heart you love money. You love yourself. And that self-centered money-centered person inside dictates the decisions you make and what you spend your time thinking about and how you make choices on this earth.

That song. Go back and meditate on it. If you need the words we'll post it. Share it with the church. You should find it online that Amy Carmichael wrote. The subtle love of complacency. Subtle love of comfort on this earth.

Such a danger. The love of self and the love of money. And I made the statement at the end of the message last week and I'll say it again. True spirituality is interested in the kingdom of heaven more than heaven itself.

Many Christians. They say I'm a Christian. I want to go to heaven. That could be a love of self. Because who wants to go to hell? It's a miserable place to go. And you could be a self-loving person saying I want to go to heaven because I mean it's like offering kids.

Do you want Brussels sprouts or ice cream? No. I like Brussels sprouts. It's actually one of our favorites in our home. But if you think of something that's really tasteless. Like a horrible acidic medicine or ice cream.

Well of course. Yeah. Every self-loving person will say yeah give me that which tastes good. And heaven could be that ice cream. That the devil has painted in front of our eyes and given us this picture of what heaven is.

Imagining that I can get there with my love of self still here. That's a lie. Ask yourself today. Are you more interested in the kingdom of heaven today? Here on earth? The kingdom of heaven is within you Jesus said.

The kingdom of heaven is righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Are you interested in that? Then you're a spiritual person. But if you just want to go to heaven. You've got the form. You don't want the burning.

You want the streets of gold and the crown on your head. That's a lie of the devil. The kingdom of heaven. You can test yourself today to know if you're really in the faith. If Christ Jesus is really in you.

By whether you're taken up with the kingdom of heaven. More than what will happen to you after you die. You know Paul had many co-workers. Many of them were good. Some of them like Demas fell away. But look at what he says in Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians chapter 2. He says in verse 19 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. Because I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare.

Paul says I don't even have one person. What about Titus? What about Epaphroditus? Now I don't know. I don't want to read too much into it because they also seem to be very godly people. But Paul said he picked out Timothy as the one person whom he said I don't have anybody who's got the same spirit that I have.

Not the same religion. Well of course all these others had the same religion that Paul had. They believe in Jesus Christ. But the same spirit that Paul had. This is spirituality. The spirit that is concerned for the welfare of others genuinely.

Like I really don't care about myself. I care about my brother. I care about my sister. I care about my wife. I care about my children. Not because they're mine but because I want to build them up. I want what will benefit them.

And look at what he goes on to say in verse 21. Not even out of a desire for them. Because he says for they all seek after their own interests not those of Christ Jesus. If you're only seeking your own interests not the interests of Christ Jesus.

If in any situation your thoughts are directed by how will this help me? More than how will this glorify God? You're a religious person. Yeah I know you go to church and you pray over your job and you pray over your meal and all that.

But that meal is self-centered. That job is self-centered. That pursuit that goal is self-centered with the Christian veneer polished around it. That's religiosity. Genuinely concerned for the welfare of others for your welfare seeking after the interests of Christ Jesus.

If you love self but you talk about loving God then you're religious. Now if you just love self and you don't even talk about loving God then you're a worldly person. But a lot of people think well I'm no longer worldly.

When I was unconverted I used to talk about the worldly things and interested in worldly things. But the danger is that once we are born again the devil says okay I couldn't keep them in the world. Now they're sitting in churches instead of sitting and watching football on a Sunday morning.

Now I've got to find some other way to get them to avoid the cross. So let me give them a way by which they can just talk about God. But inwardly they just love themselves. They love appearing spiritual in front of others.

They love all those other things. They love themselves. They love money. But they've got the language. Now they are the same inwardly dead people just sitting in the church instead of sitting at the football stadium or sitting out in the bar or something like that.

That's a lie. What about the love of money? Let's turn to Matthew chapter 6. It's very easy for us to think that because we may not be millionaires and billionaires we don't love money. That's another lie of the devil.

There are probably very very rich people who don't love money as much as there are also very very very poor people who love money. The love of money has nothing to do with how much you have. That's again the lie of the devil.

I think well I can think of somebody who has more money than me so I must not love money as much as he does. No. The love of money is like layers of an onion. You peel it off and you realize it's there.

It's more deep rooted than you realize. And it has nothing to do with how much money is actually in the account. The bank account or how much you have saved. Matthew 6 Jesus said first of all no one can serve two masters.

For either he will hate the one and love the other. Let's take God's word. I know you've heard this verse before but imagine if you were reading this verse for the very first time. That you'd never had a bible in your hand before.

And for the very first time somebody gave you this and said this is the word of God. Every other book will perish. This will never perish. And what God says here will never perish. And God said you're either loving me and hating money or you're loving money and hating me.

That's it. There's no other option. If you love money even a little bit you hate me. With all the polish around it and all that. He says but if you love me then there will be a hatred for money. No matter how much you have.

No one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. God and mammon. You cannot. But the devil will say did God really say you shouldn't eat out of the tree?

Did God really say you cannot love God? What about all those other preachers that seem to have some good things to say about God and they talk about devotion to Jesus but they talk about money and they love money and they want you to give money to themselves like I've said it like we say often.

Thank God we don't have a donate now button on our website and maybe we never will I don't know. I'm not against that but you see for most churches the focus of dependency is on money. And I tell you this the danger is that it can become a replacement for the Holy Spirit.

Do you realize that if we were completely broke didn't even have a building to sit in barely had clothes to keep us warm but we had the Holy Spirit within us that would be all we need. That's what the early church had.

They met in caves running for their lives but the Holy Spirit was in their midst. And today we have churches that are interested in making the building expanded and of course yeah they talk about the evangelistic work they're doing and they're reaching out so and so and reaching out so and so they love money.

Now I'm not here I really believe it. Nobody can tell you whether you love money or not. We might be able to see evidences of it by how you live your life and how you make your choices but only you and God and the devil know whether you love money.

That's it. Not even your spouse. You could be a wife who's not even the breadwinner in the home let's say and love money. Oh yes. It doesn't matter who you are. You could be a child growing up as a teenager and already the love of money has found a root in your heart.

Perhaps because of the example of your parents. That's why we preach against that in this church and we'll continue to do so and oh that children that you'll grow up as much as we want you to be educated and learn the things that you need to know on this earth.

Oh that you will cry out in your heart Lord preserve me from the love of money and let that be your cry until the end of your life. Do you think that if God freed you from the love of money in some area you don't have to pray for that anymore?

You don't think the devil will bring some other area? He wants you to come to the place where you don't love God. That's it. And if he can get a little bit of the love of money into your life he knows that the hatred of God has already come in.

Let me make it plain and simple. You are a hater of God if there's a little bit of the love of money in you. Now you might think okay how do I know if I have the love of money? Let's continue reading.

For me it's the next page but for you it might not be. It's the very next verse. For this reason I say to you don't be worried about your life and I have found that one of the surest ways to test the love of money in my life is to see if there's anxiety in my life.

If there's anxiety for even one second in my life that's one second that I had the love of money in my life. Worry. Oh how's this going to work out? Anxiety. And I'm not here to condemn you please brothers and sisters and children even.

I see it in my own flesh and I hate it the more I see it. And I hope that in what I'm sharing today that you will be called up to a higher life. Even if you see that many people around you even so called Christians are living lives that are plagued with anxiety and worry.

Where anytime something else comes up there's worry immediately there. And you sit worried for five minutes or ten minutes or an hour or a day or a month. That's a month that you loved money. You loved mammon somehow.

For this reason I say to you do not be worried about your life as to what you will eat or what you will drink nor for your body as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

Talks about the birds and the lilies. Verse 30. If God so clothes the grass of the field which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace will he not much more clothe you? You of little faith do not worry then saying what will we eat or what will we drink or what will we wear for clothing.

What does that mean? You know it means that how will I make it? How will I have enough to live and to provide for myself and for my family including my children's education so that they can live and provide for themselves when they grow up.

For the Gentiles. Verse 32. Eagerly seek these things for your heavenly father knows that you need all these things. Oh your heavenly father knows what you need this week and the weeks to come and the months to come and the years to come.

But seek. Be different from the Gentiles. That's what he's saying. But. Verse 33. Be different from the Gentiles in this. How are you different from the rest of the world? Is it because you read the bible and you pray to Jesus?

No. Prove that you're different from the rest of the world by the fact that there's no anxiety in your life. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. So he says it again.

So do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Seek to be freed from the love of money. If you secretly love self or money but talk about loving God.

You're a religious person not spiritual. Secondly. If you are quick to find fault with others but you justify yourself. Let's turn to Matthew chapter 23. If you're quick to find fault with others you immediately see the glaring fault in your wife or your husband or your children even or other brothers or sisters or your boss but you justify yourself whenever you see something in you or somebody points out something in you.

Finding Fault With Others While Justifying Yourself

Then you're a religious person not a spiritual person. Matthew 23 verse 4 it says. The Pharisees they were experts at being religious. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.

Matthew 23 verse 4. They lay heavy burdens on others but they won't lift even a finger to help them. They're quick to find fault. Immediately that they see a fault in somebody. There's a saying I heard It says before you flare up.

I think my parents used to have that in our home somewhere. I somehow recall seeing it. Before you flare up at someone else's faults take time to count 10 faults of your own. Before you flare up at someone else's faults wait and count 10 of them.

Not their faults your own. Let me say that again. Before you flare up at another's fault take time to count 10 faults 10 of your own. And after you've counted 10 of your own say okay I see that in that person.

Immediately I see that fault. Maybe a sin even. You say Lord show me my fault. He looked beyond my fault and saw my need we sing in that song. You say Lord make me like that. I want to look beyond their fault see their need.

Now we're not going to sweep sin under the carpet. If you've been in this church even a few times you know that we don't condone sin. We don't believe in sweeping sin under the carpet. We'll stand for that.

However let's examine ourselves. Let's see Lord I want to see the fault in my own life. Show me my sin Lord. I am the sinner. Show me what a great sinner I am. And after you've counted 10 of those what that will do if you truly repent.

You will see the joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. And you'll find more of that joy and says Lord I'm not done with 10. I probably have about 100 more faults of my own. Continue to show that to me.

And you see how that brings a slowness in our lives into pointing a finger at others. Finding fault with them. Because I've counted. I see Lord I've been so loved. I'll risk loving too. I want to live as one who's been forgiven.

1 Corinthians chapter 11. I believe that one of the reasons that there is sickness. You know there's many reasons for sickness and a lack of health and disease and whatever. Some of it is just because of the nature of the world we live in.

And the world is under a curse. We're not. But the flesh that we live in. We're still in flesh. That is under that curse that God. God didn't curse man. You know that right? He cursed the ground. And so there's a curse that's upon the earth.

Christ has redeemed us from the curse. However as long as we're in this body we'll still experience sickness and death. Right? We know that. While our outer man is decaying our inner man is being renewed.

So part of that being spiritual on the inside. Not being religious is that we recognize our outer man will still decay. We might have sickness. However there are other types of sicknesses. James 5 talks about a sickness that is a result of of unconfessed sin.

Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray. Let the elders lay hands over you and pray for you. That's why whenever we pray for anybody who asks for healing and we anoint them with oil we always ask is there any unconfessed sin in your life?

If there is then we could pray and it's a waste of prayer. Because the sin has not been confessed. If you confess that sin immediately you might experience healing. Another thing is if you haven't forgiven somebody else.

If you hold on to unforgiveness in your heart God won't forgive you and that sickness could remain. So there are some sicknesses that are related to that. Here's another sickness that is a result of a person judging others 1st Corinthians 11 verse 30.

For this reason many among you are weak and sick and a number are dead even. Died. Because he says verse 31 If we judged ourselves rightly we would not be judged. These were a bunch of people that were busy judging others and finding fault in the others and saying that brother is like that that sister is like that, my wife is like this, my husband is like that.

And that's the problem in our home. We have this sickness in our home because my husband is like this or like that or my wife is like this or like that. He says if you judged yourself rightly you wouldn't be judged.

Look at that. For this reason many among you are weak and sick and a number have even died. So test ourselves first on this. If you are quick to find fault with others but you justify yourself. It's becoming popular I don't know among Christians today to post publicly whether it's on Facebook or Twitter or whatever just point the faults with others.

And a lot of it I'm not here to judge anybody but I recognize that a lot of that comes from maybe wanting to vent. You've got this stuff, somebody treated you badly or something like that. It's not to condone the fact that they did that bad thing maybe.

But the devil will kill two birds with one stone by allowing that bad thing to have been done to you and then for you to judge them over it and to have a bitterness towards them over it. Or worse to spread it across the whole world.

And I'll tell you the internet is one of the most. I believe the Lord is using the internet for his glory by the way. But the devil is also using it for his kingdom. And the devil is allowing a lot of things to spread that might not otherwise spread because of the internet.

So be wary of it. When you see somebody post something or share something. Gossip can spread a lot more quickly on the internet than it used to before the internet. Because now you just spread from one person to the other and then they go person to person.

But now with the internet you can spread gossip and evil speaking and slander much more quickly. Be wary of it dear brothers and sisters. Children be wary if and when you do have access to the internet and your own accounts and such.

Be careful how you use it. Because the devil will allow sin to spread. And don't be a part of it. Have nothing to do with those evil works. So that's judging others. Justifying ourselves. Jesus said in Luke chapter 16 about the Pharisees.

If you find when somebody points out a fault in you. Immediately there's a ah but. You didn't understand me or you don't know the whole story. No maybe they don't. But just realize that it doesn't matter what that person thinks.

If somebody points out a fault in you. You go and judge yourself in the light of God. And if God shows you that that person was right then you'll be freed of it. If God shows you that that person is wrong then you just ignore what that person has said.

Take everything. I tell you you know a lot of people send hurtful have done in the past. Say hurtful things about me and all that. I tell you honestly as I've matured as I've sought to become more spiritual and less than religious I take everything that people say about me.