Walking In Step With The Spirit Series

Spiritual Rhythm

Walking in Step with the Spirit

Online Sermon: http://www.mckeesfamily.com/?page_id=3567

Many Christians believe that the key to serving God faithfully is to seek a good balance between work, play, and worship. They feel that those who attain this balance will be filled with much spiritual fruit. As we have already seen in the prior four sermons none of the seasons are inherently balanced nor do they require the same response. Solomon was correct in stating there is a season for everything (Ecclesiastes 3:1). In all its brokenness, pain, and suffering winter is one of the best times to pray, prune that which bears little or no fruit, wait upon the Lord to seek and know His will, and to reflect on those things unseen. In all its newness, growth, and splendor Spring is the perfect time to listen attentively to the Lord and plow new fields, plant new spiritual seeds of righteousness, and clean the inside of the cup of one’s soul. In all its fruit, warmth, light, rest, play, wonder, festival, joy, reunion, and holidays Summertime is the perfect time to seek the kingdom of God, and to gather in the first fruits of blessings. And Fall is the perfect time to bring in the lost, to thank God for one’s prosperity, and to become right in His sight. Basking in its harvests Fall tends to be the perfect time to memorize God’s word and to ask Him to search one’s heart so that one might know and confess one’s sins. Since every season has different spiritual activities that excel during their times, what we truly need is not balance but rhythm. Though every season be different, our attitude towards the Lord must remain the same. This series is going to conclude by discussing six things that will help us in any season to keep a spiritual rhythm that honors God!

Abiding

To first thing one can do to keep a good spiritual rhythm is abide in Christ! In John 15:5 Jesus tells us, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.” Whether one be in the cold, dark, painful winter or basking in the harvests of the Fall; the key to honoring the Lord is in all that we think or do, to remain the vine! Being “in Christ” means our identities, abilities, and destinies (208) are shaped by the One who gave His life so that the branches, i.e., believers, might have the opportunity to be transformed into His glorious image. “We are saints in Christ. We are confident in Christ. We are called heavenward in Christ. We stand firm in Christ, rejoice in Him, hope in Him, agree in Him, glory in Him, are found in Him, are guarded, heart and mind, in Him, have all our needs met in Him, and welcome others in Him” (208). No matter what season that one goes through without life in the vine one simply cannot bear fruit … even in the fall seasons of life! While we can all produce something in any season without Christ it will be fruit that does not last or worse, yet it does, and we wish we could get rid of it (209)! Apart from Christ we can do nothing but can do everything through Him who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13). If we are to live for Jesus with integrity, not duplicity, then we simply must take every word, thought, or deed captive to the One who gives us branches life. To keep our service from being nothing more than filthy rags of pretend righteousness then the roots of our efforts must be deeply entrenched in His word, grace, and mercy! And to remain in the vine, we must pray without ceasing, “search me O Lord and when find sin in me give me the courage to repent and keep my heart utterly dependent on You!”

Seeking

The second thing one can do to keep a good spiritual rhythm in any season is to seek ye first the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33). Those who are intimate with the King, faithfully and joyfully serve in His kingdom. They are not interested in chasing after some kind of “American dream” where the objective is self-pleasure but rather in doing good deeds that point to God the Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16)! I can only imagine what it was like to hear Jesus when He first announced His kingdom would not be based on genealogy, temple, Torah, politics, good looks, or even riches but on faith in a risen Savior. He told us that the first must become the last and that children, tax collectors and prostitutes would enter His kingdom (Matthew 21:28-32) quicker than the most pretentious of religious leaders who only wanted to please “men rather than God.” Not only is the invitation to join His kingdom inclusive to all so is His demand of allegiance! While faith alone in the atoning sacrifice of Christ is how one becomes born again and enters His kingdom this does not negate our obligation to give our whole hearts to the Lord. Jesus said, “whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me” (Luke 9:23)! Jesus wants us to seek Him for He is always near and obey His will in everything that we do! “If Jesus wants us to both bears much fruit and to pursue the kingdom of God first – if to do one is, indeed, to do the other, and vice versa – then one of the best shifts we could make in our churches is to dismantle the model of spirituality that equates busyness with faithfulness and replace it with the simple idea that fruit alone denotes faithfulness, and fruit requires seasons” (221). Seeking the Lord means no longer being transformed by the ways of this world but instead being transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we might test, approve, and live in accordance with His good, pleasing, and perfect will (Romans 12:2)!