Just as we go for routine physical checkups, we periodically need to evaluate our spiritual health. This second lesson in a three-part Spring Spiritual Checkup asks, "How's Your Eyesight?" and "How's Your Hearing?"
5. “ those who do not know God” (2 Thess. 1:8) “ at a more convenient time” (Acts 24:25) “ choked” by cares and riches (Matthew 13:22) “ they all began to make excuses” (Luke 14:18-20) “ faith without works is dead” (James 2:14-17) “ love” has “grown cold” (Matthew 24:12) “ lukewarm, neither cold nor hot” (Rev. 3:15-16) putting the “heart” into discipleship (Matt. 6:21) “ like living stones…being built up” (1 Peter 2:5) “ pressing on to maturity” (Hebrews 6:1) “ straining every nerve” (Philippians 3:12-15) “ seeking first the kingdom of God” (Matt. 6:33) fulfilling the “great commands” (Matt. 22:37-39) “ foolish hearts” are “darkened” (Rom. 1:18-21)
7. 2 Peter 1:5-9 -- 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love…
8. 2 Peter 1:5-9 -- 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind , having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.
9. 2 Peter 1:5-9 -- 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue , and virtue with knowledge , 6 and knowledge with self-control , and self-control with steadfastness , and steadfastness with godliness , 7 and godliness with brotherly affection , and brotherly affection with love …
10. 2 Peter 1:10-11 -- 10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. 11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
11. Matthew 7:3-5 -- 3 “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”
21. marriage children anger jealousy finances selfishness sexual immorality attendance weaknesses
22. Matthew 23:23-24 -- 23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others…”
23. Matthew 23:23-24 – 24 “You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!”
24. 2 Peter 2:10 -- 10 …and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.
25. 2 Peter 2:10 -- 10 …and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. 2 Peter 2:13-14 -- 13 …They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!
26. 2 Peter 2:20-22 -- 20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them…
27. 2 Peter 2:20-22 -- 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
28. John 20:24-29 -- 24 Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe”…
29. John 20:24-29 -- 26 Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe”…
30. John 20:24-29 -- 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
31. John 20:24-29 -- 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Hebrews 11:1 -- 1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
32. 1 John 3:6 -- 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.
36. Matthew 13:10-16 -- 10 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” 11 And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away…”
37. Matthew 13:10-16 -- 13 “This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says…”
38. Matthew 13:10-16 -- 14 “‘You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. 15 For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them’…”
39. Matthew 13:10-16 -- 16 “But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.”
40. Matthew 15:10 -- 10 And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand…”
41. Matthew 18:15-17 -- 15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”
42. John 5:24-29 -- 24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. 25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live…”
43. John 5:24-29 -- 26 “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.”
44. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 -- 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
45. John 5:25 -- 25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.”
46. John 5:25 -- 25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” Revelation 1:7 -- 7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.
47. A Spring Spiritual Checkup (2) presented by Jason Hardin to an assembly of the Laurel Canyon church of Christ May 4, 2008