Following for Life
August 2, 2009
David Flowers
Hey, good morning everybody. Welcome to our first Sunday service in 69 weeks. I mean, if you don't count last week. Are you all awake this morning?
We've just come off a 10 week series on spiritual formation, and really the sermon I preached at the camp last Sunday was also on spiritual formation, so really we've been on that topic for eleven weeks. Does that cover it? I mean, I've told you we need to be spiritually reformed in Christ and I've told you we must have the vision for transformation, the intention to pursue that vision, and the means for actually doing so. I've told you that trying is not enough, but that we must train. I taught you about lectio divina. I have been encouraging you to memorize scripture, and now I'm encouraging you to get away and be silent for a few hours. I've given away quite a few books on this topic over the past couple of months and find that people are hungry for it. We're tired of being dogged by the same old sins year after year and we're hungry for change. I know I am, are you?
So what do we do now? Just move on to other things and assume you're doing this? NO WAY! This is a journey I have been on for years and I'm still really struggling with basic things like scheduling my life around spiritual practices, being faithful in the use of them, etc. I know I can't just get up here and tell you what's wrong and tell you how to fix it and that you ought to, and then expect to move on to other things and have you start a new way of living behind the scenes with no further encouragement. That's not gonna happen. So I want to warn you about something. This spiritual formation thing we've been talking about - that's the main thing . I mean, that's what it's all about. That's what's gonna change us. That's what's gonna form us into the image of Christ. That's what's gonna give Wildwind Community Church something amazing to offer to the community -- not programs and ministries and buildings, but changed and changing people who go out into the world and can simply be Christ in a world that needs Christ perspective and Christ presence and Christ power and is only gonna get it from Christ people. We can build a 10 million dollar building in Grand Blanc tomorrow and without changed and changing people, it's just a building. We can launch 150 new ministries in our community next week and without changed and changing people, we might as well be the United Way - Wildwind branch. We can have the greatest worship band, the most amazing and talented teachers, the most sincere leadership, the most delicious coffee, the nicest greeters, and the best-looking preacher's wife on the planet (which of course we do). But without changed people, we're just slick. There are a lot of slick churches around that can offer you the finest of everything. Their goal is to be fine, and they are fine.
That's not our goal. My friends, I have never been more passionate about anything than I am about the need for the people of God to live in ways that speak powerfully to our world. How can we preach sermons about the evils of pornography and gambling and divorce and domestic violence and addictions when every statistical indicator shows that we in the church are just as mired in all of that as non-believers? What credibility do we have in telling others what God can do in their lives if we don't have powerful stories to tell about what he has done in ours? When was the last time you were able to say that's the last time I did that? Know what I mean? How long has it been since you have been able to identify something sinful or toxic or unhealthy that you used to do that you don't do anymore? Are you regularly finding yourself able to say, "I laid this down," or "I quit doing this," or "I'm now free from this or that thing that was dogging me."
Let me tell you something, and we'll call it an open secret. (Because it has been a secret, but now it's gonna be open.) I realize it's not kosher for pastors to share stuff like this, and I realize it's sensitive, but so what? Let's talk about the sensitive stuff, because it's the sensitive stuff in our lives, the stuff that's too embarrassing or awkward to talk about, that's dragging us down. I realized something a few months ago that was devastating to me. I had just lost my temper about something and said something to Christy I immediately regretted saying. And I realized that I had been doing that all my life with her. Saying something stupid that I shouldn't have said, then regretting it, then saying I'm sorry. And I really was sorry. But what I realized - what hit me like a ton of bricks - was that I had never made the decision to STOP doing that. I had never said, "You know what, that's the last time you're going to talk to her like that again," and decided that I was going to walk away from that behavior, that way of talking, that way of being.
Let me ask you something. That thing that is dogging you - that is tearing down your marriage, ripping apart your relationship with your kids, bruising your conscience and leaving scars on your soul -- have you said, "I'm done. I'm not going to live like that anymore." Have you actually decided to be done with it? Because there's a world out there that's watching, but I can't say they're waiting. I mean, they're not waiting on us to clean up our acts. Guys, the world isn't expecting you to start being more gentle with your wife and kids, or to stop looking at porn. Women, the world isn't expecting you to stop gossiping and being critical of your husbands. Because much of the world already thinks we're faking it. They don't expect to see us be any different, because so many of them are already convinced that we're NOT. What would surprise them, quite frankly, is if it were to turn out that we WERE changing. Men walking away from pornography and anger and violence -- forever. Women turning their backs forever on gossip and criticism. Children being expected to honor and respect their parents. The world is watching alright, but they're not waiting. If we actually started changing, they wouldn't say, "Whew, now that's what we've been waiting for." They'd say, "What's this? Christians who practice what they preach? People who stay married to each other? People who honor one another and don't tear each other down? People who do the tough work of bearing with each other's shortcomings, and who stick around to work out grievances with each other instead of cutting and running and telling everyone they meet how terrible that church is and how terrible that person was? People who do nothing for a 24 hour period every week, who live in substantially different ways than I do? People who don't get drawn into petty arguments and who don't take things personally, even when personal things are thrown at them, people who don't react in anger, people who are not driven by fear and suspicion and irritability and short fuses? People who forgive sacrificially and relentlessly? What's up with that? Who are these people? I dream of a day where the only answer to that question won't have to be, "The Amish."
Dallas Willard says the greatest problem with Christians in the Western world (that's us) is that we have not yet decided to follow Jesus. And that is precisely the decision that confronts us as we think about whether or not to structure our lives around spiritual practices. It's a decision about whether or not to follow the Jesus way, into the Jesus truth, so we can have the Jesus life. Now let me be clear about something. Protestant churches have way overemphasized the decision. For 100 years they have told us to come up to an altar and make this or that spiritual decision. Then a few weeks after making that decision, people would find themselves falling back into the same old habits and patterns. Why? Because the focus was on the decision (an event) and not on the daily choices of life after the decision (a process). But we've swung the other way. We focus so much on the process that we forget that every process must start somewhere. And it starts with a decision. Guys, you're never going to stop looking at pornography until you decide you're not going to do it anymore, ever again. You can make that decision right now - today. Women, you're never gonna stop being critical until you decide you're just not going to be that way anymore. You can decide that right now. The process should begin with an event!
The Jesus life is the same way. The process of following Jesus began with an event - which was the decision to follow him.
Matthew 9:9 (NIV)
9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
That decision was an event that kicked off a process that lasted Matthew's whole life long. What process does God need to get underway in your life? I'm asking. Don't pray about it! You already know! You already know if you need to stop looking at porno, or being critical, or gossiping or losing your temper. My question for you this morning is do you want to be healed? Do you WANT to leave those things behind?
John 5:1-6 (NIV)
1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews.
2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades.
3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie--the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.
4
5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
See, when you get well, it changes your life in ways you aren't prepared for. And in order to get well, you have to start making some of those changes. Do you want to get well? Do you want to stop looking at pornography? I'm not looking for the Sunday school flip answer. I mean, when you think about the buzz you get out of looking at porno, and then you think about the hurt and anger it causes your wife, which do you want more -- porno with a hurting and angry wife, or no porno with a wife who is increasingly opening up to you, who loves you for treasuring her the way you should? That is the choice you are making every time. Do you want to get well? What is it you want?
Do you want to stop gossiping? I mean really. Because we know what a buzz there is in knowing something others don't know and being the one to tell everybody else. It's rewarding. You absolutely love it, or you wouldn't be doing it. But it's diminishing you. It's tarnishing your reputation and most of the friends you tell stuff to who lap it up and love hearing it also know you're the most dangerous person around and you'll turn coat on any of them in an instant. Is that what you want people to think about you? What do you want - a clean character, or the temporary buzz of making the witty remark at someone else's expense?
See, God calls his people to become like he is. And what is God? God is holy. Our call is a call to holiness, and a life of spiritual formation is the way we pursue that call.
1 Peter 1:15-16 (AMP)
15 But as the One Who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all your conduct and manner of living.
16 For it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy.
Holiness is being completely clean and free of all sin. Now simply deciding to be holy will not make us holy. But we will never become holy until we decide we're going to pursue holiness. And when we have decided to pursue holiness, the first thing we do is stop making excuses for our sin. For years I would get angry with Christy and yell at her and say terrible things to her and for years I felt bad about it, but made excuses for it. "She pushed my buttons." "She drove me to it." "I can't help it - that's a weakness." And so I entertained and accepted that sin in my life. And I was diminished by it. I knew I didn't want to be that person, and I didn't want Christy to have to live with that person. I knew that's not who God would have me be. But for years I simply never made a decision to stop yelling. Now am I going to be perfect? Probably not. I have this habit, after all, and habits take time to break. But you have to start by deciding that it's time to break them! My friends, perhaps your sins are different than mine but what we have in common is that we'll never be free of our sins until we decide we'd rather have Jesus instead. We'd rather have life than death; we'd rather have peace than anxiety; we'd rather have light than darkness; we'd rather have a clean conscience than a guilty one; we'd rather have joy than condemnation; we'd rather have calm than rage; we'd rather have kindness than meanness; we'd rather have sexual purity than sexual indulgence at the expense of someone we love. I don't care what political party you're in this morning, I want to tell you that God is pro-choice. Do I have your attention?
Joshua 24:15 (AMP)
15 ...choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve...but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
This is a choice we all must make, and God wants you to make that choice. And anytime we make a choice, we are ruling out other options, other ways of being. In fact Paul makes it clear that choosing to live in God's freedom is also choosing to spend our lives putting ungodly ideas and ways of thinking behind bars.
2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (HCSB)
4...We demolish arguments 5 and every high-minded thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
I was thinking what better thing to do this morning in our first Sunday service in 69 weeks than to make some decisions about who we want to be from this point forward. See, we don't get to approach spiritual formation as a sermon topic, spend our three months on it, then move on. The call of Jesus is to follow him and we are to follow for a lifetime. Discipleship is forever. So what kind of church are we going to be? What kind of people are we going to be? What kind of person are you going to be?
What are the sins in your life you have been coddling? Maybe it's time today to put them away and be done with them. Maybe it's time to learn to live in ways that will be surprising to the community around us. Maybe it's time to give people what they are not expecting, but what they, like us, desperately need. Maybe it's time to change the statistics that show we're living exactly the same was as everybody else. Maybe some good old fashioned repentance and confession of sin is needed this morning. It's time to be the church, church. The only thing we have to offer our community that other organizations can't offer is spiritual freedom, and we can't give what we don't have. Is it time for you today to make a decision that's going to kick off a process? Do you need to repent of sin, and make some decisions to trust God with some stuff? Do you maybe need to go home and call a friend today and say I'm sorry, or maybe call a counselor's office and say, "Please hold a spot for me, I need help." Time to clean up our act and get right with God and pursue holiness.
Now remember - this is a church. If you can't admit you're a sinner at church, then you can't admit it anywhere -- because that's all we have around here. Every single person in this room is a sinner - every person stands in need of the healing ministry of God's Holy Spirit. Every person in this room has something they could confess, and what I'm doing this morning is just asking who's gonna get the ball rolling? Whatever God has for Wildwind Church (explosive growth, slow and steady on, whatever), we'll need to be ready to listen and obey.
