This document discusses the concept of ungodliness, which refers to living one's life with little thought of God, God's will, or dependence on God. While we may avoid obvious sins, we can still be ungodly if we seldom consider how God wants us to live. The document encourages developing intimacy with God, doing all activities to glorify Him, and recognizing that we depend on Him for everything. It urges readers to honestly assess how godly or ungodly they are in their daily lives.

1. Ungodliness
Based on Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges

2. We are all guilty of ungodliness to some
degree.
 We don’t think of ourselves as ungodly because we are Christians, attend church,
avoid scandalous sins, and live respectable lives.
 Romans 1:18
 Paul points out there is a difference between ungodliness and unrighteousness.
 Ungodliness describes an attitude towards God. Unrighteousness refers to sinful
thoughts, actions, or deeds.
 An atheist or an avowed secularist is obviously an ungodly person, but so are a lot
of morally decent people who say they believe in God.

3.  Ungodliness means living one’s everyday life with little or no thought of God, or of
God’s will, or of God’s glory, or of one’s dependence on God.
 We encounter people every day who lead moral, respectable lives yet are still
ungodly because God is essentially irrelevant to their lives.
 There are people who will attend our church today who will not think about God
after they leave here today until next week.
 Some of us will get up, read our Bibles, and pray at the start of the day tomorrow,
but then we go about the day’s activity and live as if God doesn’t exist.
 James 4:13-15
 James doesn’t condemn these people for planning ahead, but for planning that
does not acknowledge their dependence on God.
 How often do you make plans that do not consider God or our dependence on
Him at all?

4.  We couldn’t accomplish the most mundane tasks of life without some planning.
We often make plans without recognizing our utter dependence on God to carry
them out.
 We seldom think of our accountability to God and our responsibility to live
according to His moral will as revealed to us in Scripture.
 It’s not that we are living obviously sinful lives; it’s just that we seldom think about
the will of God and are content to simply avoid obvious sins.
 Colossians 1:9-10
 This is an incredibly God-centered prayer!
 Remember, the Colossians were not super Christians; they were ordinary people
living in the middle of an ungodly culture. Paul still expected them – and prayed
they would live - godly lives.
 How does Paul’s prayer for the Colossians compare with our prayers for ourselves,
our families, and our friends?
 Do your prayers reflect a concern for God’s will, God’s glory, and a desire to live a
life pleasing to God? Or are your prayers more of a “to-do” list for God to
intervene in for family and friends?

5.  There is nothing wrong with bringing your real needs to God: it is one way to
acknowledge our dependence upon Him.
 If that is all you pray about, your prayers are human-centered, not God-centered,
and in that sense we are ungodly to some degree.
 Colossians 3:22-24
 Paul instructs the Christian slaves (likely a large part of the Colossian church) how
to serve their masters in a godly fashion.
 When you go to school or work, do you “work heartily as unto the Lord” or are you
doing your school work or working your job purely for yourself with no thought of
pleasing God?
 I Corinthians 10:31
 “All” includes every activity of our lives. We are to drive to the glory of God. We
are to shop to the glory of God. We are to engage in social relationships (or social
media) to the glory of God.

6. It means doing everything with a two-fold
goal.
 First, I desire that all that I do be pleasing to God. I want God to be pleased with
way I go about ordinary activities. I pray over the day before me, asking the Holy
Spirit to direct my thoughts, words, and actions so they will be pleasing to God.
 Second, to do all to the glory of God means that I desire that all my activities of an
ordinary day will honor God before other people.
 Matthew 5:16
 Romans 2:23-24
 If everyone you interact with in the course of an ordinary day knows that you trust
in Christ as Savior, would your words and actions glorify God before them?

7.  An even more telling indicator of our tendency towards ungodliness is our meager
desire to develop an intimate relationship with God.
 Psalm 42:1-2
 Psalm 63:1
 Psalm 27:4
 Being moral and upright, or even being busy in Christian service yet have little to
no desire to develop an intimate relationship with God is a sure mark of
ungodliness.
 For the godly person, God is the center and focal point of his or her life.
 Every circumstance is viewed through the lens of God-centeredness.
 Here’s the question you should be asking if you are honest with yourself: “How
ungodly am I? How much of my life do I live without any regard to God? How
much of my daily activities do I go through without any reference to God?”

8.  Total godliness and utter ungodliness are opposite ends of the spectrum. All of us
are between these two extremes.
 Only Jesus ever lived a totally godly life, and no believer has ever been utterly
ungodly.
 Remember, we are not talking righteousness versus wickedness. We are talking
about living a life as if God were relevant or irrelevant.
 Why do surveys and studies show that there is so little difference in the values of
Christians and non-Christians?
 Most Christians just ignore God apart from church on Sunday morning.
 This ungodly attitude is one of our most basic sins.
 How much would your pride be curbed if you always remembered that all that you
have, are, and accomplish is by the grace of God?
 How much would your tongue be tamed (from gossip, cursing, sarcasm, etc) if you
lived every moment in the presence of an all-seeing, all-hearing God?

9. I Timothy 4:7
 Exercise here refers to the daily activity necessary to practice and prepare for an athletic
contest. It implies commitment, consistency, and discipline in training.
 You should be as committed to growing in godliness as you are to any physical training.
 The goal in the pursuit of godliness should be to grow more in our conscious awareness
that every moment of our lives is lived in the presence of God; that we are responsible
to Him and dependent upon Him.
 What would you do differently in your various activities of the day if you were seeking
to do all for the glory of God?
 Pray that God will make your more conscious of the fact that you live every moment of
every day under His all-seeing eye.
 Be as mindful of Him as He is of you!

10. Scriptures to memorize, ponder, and pray
over to help in this area:
 I Timothy 4:7-8
 I Corinthians 10:31
 Colossians 1:9-10
 Colossians 3:23
 Psalm 42:1-2
 Psalm 63:1
 Psalm 27:4