A Crash Course In Character Series

John Ortberg tells of a man in a church he once pastored whom he called Denny. Denny was not a happy man. He had attended church his whole life, but he had never been happy. Even the expression on his face was perpetually negative – so much so that one day a deacon asked him, "Denny, are you happy?" Denny answered, "Yeah." The deacon replied, "Then tell your face."

Now, one of the MANY things Denny did not approve of was contemporary music in the church. He often complained that the music was too loud. But no one realized how far he would go until one day a man came to the church office, flashed his badge, and announced that he was from OSHA. He was under orders to investigate a complaint someone had made about the decibel levels at Church services. Of course, it was Denny who had registered the complaint. The staff could only laugh – and the agent could only join them.

But actually, Denny’s attitude is no laughing matter. Listen to John Ortberg’s observation as he looked back on this situation:

“Denny is not changing. He is a cranky guy. He has been cranky his whole life. Not just about church – he does not effectively know how to love his wife; his children cannot tolerate him; and he has no joy. He’s been going to church his whole life, sixty years. And nobody in the church is surprised that he stays cranky year after year. It is as if we expect a bad attitude – that’s just Denny. Nobody is expecting him to be more like Jesus year after year." (John Ortberg, The Life You’ve always Wanted)

For some reason, in the modern evangelical church, we’ve left the idea of spiritual formation as a nice option rather than an essential part of our faith. We focus on evangelism and personal conversion. After people make professions of faith we encourage them to be baptized, join the church, read their Bible, and pray. We may council them not to drink, smoke, cuss, or chew or go with girls that do, we may even tisk-tisk them if they mow their yard on Sunday, but we don’t talk much about being “conformed to the likeness of Christ” (Romans 8:29). Yet, this is just as much God’s revealed will as personal salvation:

For this is the will of God, your sanctification 1 Thessalonians 4:3

Someone once taught me that sanctification means “saint making.” God makes us into the saints He’s already pronounced us to be through our trust in Jesus. Obviously a saint would act, think, and speak like the Lord as He’s portrayed in the gospels.

After we come to faith in Christ, God begins the process of shaping our souls. He saved us, in part, to remake our character, so that we would once again reflect His purity and goodness. God renews His original image in us. Here’s the catch: on this side of eternity we’ve got to cooperate with the process. Cooperation or a lack thereof is the reason why some Christians look a lot like Jesus, while others (the majority) are virtually indistinguishable from the rest of the world. The power of God is an absolute necessity for transformation, but we have a role to play as well.

Think of your spiritual life as a sail boat. Unless the wind blows that vessel is dead in the water. But even when the wind blows it won’t necessarily do any good. You’ve got to hoist the sails and guide the rudder before you’ll make any progress. Many Christians go passive and refuse to hoist the sails when the wind of God blows. Usually it’s because they’ve been taught that beyond a profession of faith they just bide their time until eternity rolls in and sweeps over them. Others raise the sail, but pilot it in the wrong direction.

This morning I want to show you how God shapes a human soul to change their character and show you how to cooperate. This is the life that God has in mind for you. By cooperating with Him you’ll begin to live the life you’ve always wanted.

How God Shapes a Human Soul

He’ll make you swallow some of your own medicine

When we swallow the bitter pill that we’ve been dishing out it will do one of two things: either makes us bitter or develop a sense of empathy and compassion for others. You have to be alert to this or you won’t see the connection. I can promise you, however, that whatever you dish out will be returned to make you better.

That’s how it happened with Jacob. Remember his medicine? Trickery and deceit. God led Jacob to live with and work for one of the greatest con artists of the Bible, his uncle Laban. Just as Jacob used a disguise, his father’s blindness, and his father’s craving for tasty game to steal the blessing from his brother Esau, old uncle Laban used a wedding veil, the darkness of night, and Jacob’s dulled senses from too much drinking to fool him into marrying the wrong woman. In this way Laban was able to swindle 7 more years of labor out of Jacob.