True beauty. In today's Faith2C message.
We will talk about true Beauty what God regards
as beautiful our first scripture today is Proverbs
chapter 31 verse 30 It says charm is deceitful
and beauty is passing but a woman who fears the
Lord she shall be praised So what is true beauty?
Well, it is having a beautiful spirit. One that
reflects Jesus and the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
And I know it's cliche to say beauty starts on
the inside, but it really does. Who cares if
I have a trendy outfit if my attitude is not
reflecting Jesus? Another thing I want us to
get from this scripture, Proverbs 31 verse 30,
is that Jesus does not look at the physical.
Yes, he made us in his image, and we are all beautiful,
but God looks He doesn't just measure beauty
by how we look, as the world does. He measures
beauty by how we are, if we're reflecting Him,
if we are showing the fruit of the Spirit, which
are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
gentleness, faithfulness, and self -control.
Our second scripture is 1 Peter chapter 3 verse
4, and this says, you should clothe yourselves
instead with the beauty that comes from within.
The unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit,
which is so precious to God. So, like I said,
God looks at beauty differently than how the
world looks at beauty. God's standard of beauty
is spiritual, but the world's standard of beauty
is physical. Have you ever taken a doom scroll
on social media and seen that a lot of people
look the same? There's nothing wrong with hopping
on a trend or two, but make sure that the trend
is honoring to God and also just because someone
you saw on social media looks a certain way doesn't
mean God created you to be the same way as that
person. We shouldn't try to change ourselves
because God has already created us beautifully.
Instead of putting the emphasis on what we're
wearing or how we did our hair, let's put the
emphasis on how we clothe our spirits with the
fruit of the Holy Spirit and I'll let you in
on a little secret. When we stop worrying about
how we look It literally kills comparison. Our
last scripture today is 1st Timothy chapter 4
verse 8 and I want to read this in two versions.
Let's start with the easy English Bible version
which says People say this, if a person works
to make his body strong and healthy, that will
help him a little. But if a person works to live
in a way that makes God happy, that will help
him much more. But the ERV version also says,
training your body helps you in some ways, but
devotion to God helps you in every way. It brings
you blessings in this life and in the future
life too, which is heaven. So, what I want us
to get from the scripture is that, yes, God wants
us to take care of ourselves and He wants us
to treat our body with respect. That means eating
proper food, working out, and doing stuff to
keep it healthy. But He also wants us to take
care of our spirits, because true beauty starts
from the inside. God won't ever ask us how many
likes we got or how many followers we gained
from a new post. God will ask us how many people
we led to Him through our actions and behavior
because of how we spoke and if we reflected Jesus.
Another thing I want to say too is the physical
beauty is only for a season, but the spirit is
for eternity. The scripture says that we should
set our minds on heavenly eternal things and
not things that pass away. And one of those includes
physical beauty. It's not going to be there forever.
But the impression that we can make on people
no matter how old we get is how we treated them.
How we presented ourselves and what our attitudes
were like. But the only way we can get to that
is if we take the time we have right now on this
earth to allow God to shape us into Christ likeness.
So, our points for today are 1) take care of
the physical, but more importantly, take care
of the spiritual. 2) don't forget, God's beauty
standard is all about the spirit, and it's also
different from the world, which is all about
the body. Face, outfit, followers, which is all
temporary. And 3), Let's equip ourselves with
godly knowledge so that we can be more like Christ
not more like your favorite celebrity. So, if you
have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ,
then this faith to see message will definitely
help you! But if you don't have a personal relationship
with Jesus Christ, then I do invite you to give
your heart to the Lord today. To receive Him into
your heart, go to Romans 10, 9 through 10, which
says, "if you confess with your mouth the Lord
Jesus and believe in your heart that God has
raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
For with the heart, one believes unto righteousness
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
If you said this prayer with sincerity, you are
saved and now have eternal life with Jesus. You
are saved from all, yes, all of your sins, past,
present, and future sins you may commit. However,
this truth is not a free past this in any time.
Instead, Jesus gives you power over all wrong
choices and empowers you to spread the gospel
to others. You are saved forever and your name
is written in the book of life!