Spiritual Disciplines: Introduction
1 Timothy 4:7-8
John 10:10, 15:5
April 11, 2021
Do you have any bad habits? Is there anything about you that you would like to change? That’s a pretty loaded question. I’m not going to ask the person who is sitting next to you, either! Today and for the next weeks we’re going to be looking at spiritual disciplines. Today is the intro and next week we get into the meat, what I would call the practical applications.
Richard Foster once wrote, “The purpose of the Spiritual Disciplines is the total transformation of the person. They aim at replacing old destructive habits of thought with new life-giving habits” (Foster 1998, 62).
We’d like to think we’re in pretty good shape, but we tend to have these habits which pull us further from God, than towards God. If we would be willing to embrace these disciplines, or at least even attempt them with the expectations we will grow closer to Christ, we might find ourselves changing and becoming a little more Christ-like, which is a good thing.
Yet, to change . . . UGH! It’s not so easy. It sounds easy, but it’s not always that way. We may be able to easily name the problem, but the application is not always so easy.
When we were in Michigan, I had the opportunity to meet Robert Quinn. Quinn was a business professor at University of Michigan. After reading his book, Deep Change, I called him and met him for lunch. This book is one of the best business leadership / spiritual transformational books I’ve ever read.
In his book, Quinn explains,
Few people are good at reinventing themselves (what I will call spiritual transformation). They often choose the destructive alternative of staying very busy. It may not be effective behavior, but it has the effect of a good narcotic. It diverts attention from the real issue and temporarily saves them from having to tackle and resolve the actual problem (Quinn, 1996, 20).
You see, Quinn’s premise is that people need to make deep changes in their lives, which as we spoke - - he agreed has a direct correlation to spiritual transformation. His premise is this - - - the very event we fear in our lives often occurs because we are unwilling to risk deep change and we end up experiencing what we feared, slow death (Quinn 1996, 21).
Let me put that into spiritual talk. We desire to be more like Jesus, we desire to give up some of those bad habits or even destructive choices and thoughts . . . but we fear making those changes, yet at the same time we fear that if we don’t, we will die a slow death. Yet, we don’t make the changes, because of fear.
I know that’s kind of deep . . . but I really believe that is so true for the church. We struggle with becoming who Christ is calling us to be. We want to get there, but we aren’t always sure we want to do the hard work, so we settle or we become so busy - - we don’t have the time to draw closer to Jesus.
Discipleship is a real buzz word in the church. In reality discipleship means we are growing in union with Jesus Christ and growing in conformity to his image. We become more like the Master, Jesus.
Yet, this is where the ‘rubber meets the road’ and we are called to take action so that we can become more like the Master. Taking this action always involves risk and sacrifice, which is a crucial ingredient if a we are willing to grow, that is, bear fruit, through the practice of Spiritual Disciplines.
Let me tell you a sad fact. Until I was in my 9th class in my doctoral program, I had no clue what Spiritual Disciplines were. I never formally practiced them, I couldn’t name more than one discipline and that would have been a guess. If pastors don’t know what they are, then we can’t help the church. So, my hope is that you will not brush these off, some you may already be doing. Some of these disciplines that we talk about over the weeks may be foreign to you, but in the end, my deepest hope and prayer is that you will be willing to try, willing to experiment, and therefore, grow in Christ.
If you want to get better at something, you have to practice, you have to do it, in order to get better. You just don’t get better wishing to get better. I asked Joni how many hours she thinks she has practiced singing. She estimated around 20,000 hours refining her gift. Folks, that’s about 2.3 years singing. That’s a lot of singing.
I read about a women’s college basketball player who wants to make 1000 shots per day. The only way to get good is to practice and then practice more.
We may not like to call it practicing when we talk about our faith, but I really believe we must be involved in spiritual disciplines for us to grow in who Christ is calling us to be.
During this series, I very well may step on your toes. You may not want to hear some of what I say. I don’t always want to hear what I need to do, but this is about our faith, our trust, our beliefs in who Jesus is and moving beyond that . . . . it’ about how we connect with Jesus.
You see, in many respects, that may be the more difficult part for us. Saying yes to Jesus was a no brainer. That was easy . . . but now the part about growing in who Christ calls us to be and how we can draw closer to God is so vital.
So, over the next several weeks, we will begin to learn and practice ways which will draw us closer to Christ. Hopefully you will try some of these out. My hope is that by the time we are done, you will have discovered new and maybe old ways to connect with God. Maybe we will give up some of that control we crave, and give it back to God.
My hope, my prayer, my expectation is that when all is said and done, we will understand what works for us and what doesn’t. We will discover how we can draw closer to Jesus and be more passionate about Jesus Christ. Think about what we just celebrated last Sunday! Jesus gave up His life for us. What does that mean for you?
Our spiritual growth will be demonstrated and accomplished in our actions, words, and attitudes . . . because we will gain a greater awareness of who God is calling us to be and how we are to draw closer to God, stay connected to God and celebrate individually and corporately who God is calling us to be.
14 years ago, when I came to FBC, I spoke about what it means to follow what Jesus said in John 15:5, when He said,
5 "I am the vine, you are the branches, if you abide in me, and I in you, you will bear much fruit, apart from me, you can do nothing."
What does that mean about our spiritual life?
Many of us would say we want to be connected to Jesus, but we just aren’t sure how to do it. Sometimes we just need to try something new, something different. You know they say when you weight lift, you have to trick your muscles. You can’t do the same lifts everyday. So, you have to vary what you are doing. Have different routines spurs muscle growth.
I think in the same way, we sometimes need to change it up a little, try something different. Maybe something that we’re a little uncomfortable with, but it may draw you closer to the presence of God.
And maybe even the prospect of drawing closer to Jesus is a little scary. Because if we come closer to Jesus, what is He going to want from us. Does that scare you a little?
If you really got close to Jesus, that would be great, and you would not only feel great about it, but you would be demonstrating this amazing power, courage, joy, peace and love to others. So . . . what stops us on the path to Jesus? Ourselves.
Over and over again, Jesus calls us to follow Him, but to do that we must come to Him. And there are the passages which are so wonderfully comforting, passages like Matthew 11:28, when Jesus said,
28 Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. - Matthew 11:28
Doesn’t that sound great!? Yet, let me ask you to be brutally honest for a moment, ‘how many times have you COME to Jesus, expecting to find rest and comfort . . . and . . . nothing? Yup, you experience nothing. And you wonder, ‘what’s this all about? Why nothing?’ Where is God when I need Him the most?
These questions are similar to the ones the Psalmist asked in Psalm 77, consider --
7 "Will the Lord reject forever? Will He never show His favor again?
8 Has His unfailing love vanished forever? Has His promise failed for all time?
9 Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has He in anger withheld His compassion?" - Psalm 77:7-9
Those are powerful questions.
How many times have you come to Jesus when you were feeling depressed?
How many times have you come to Jesus when you were overwhelmed with life?
How many times have you come to Jesus when you were facing illnesses and surgeries?
How many times have you come to Jesus when your relationships were not right?
How many times have you come to Jesus?
We could all stand up and say something about this. You come to Jesus and you wait to experience the good news, the healing balm, the medicine that the Great Physician is going to bring to you, and you’re left laying or sitting, maybe even crawling, waiting for your answer . . . and it does not seem to be coming? Why?
Well, I don’t want to say I have the magic answer for it all, but I do believe I am gaining a much better perspective on why we often remain stuck. I believe it has to do with the fact that when we come to God, we have not been abiding in God.
Let me explain. When we are in trouble, when we are sick, when our kids mess up, when our marriages are struggling . . . what do we do? We come to Jesus, we petition Jesus, but we often do it and ask for results on our own terms? When sick, we want to be made well, when our marriages are stuck, we want God to fix the marriage, or fix him or her; when our kids mess up, we want God to heal our kids afflictions; and when we are in trouble, we just want to get out of it.
What I am driving at is when we come to God, we usually haven’t been abiding or remaining, stuck to the vine. We’ve been off doing our own thing. Have we really given up control of the branch and said, "God, I’m yours, you do what You do best, and I’ll accept it and be ready for my next assignment, whatever it is, wherever it is."
And I’m not saying that God is punishing you! Please don’t hear that. But life happens to us, doesn’t it? When we’re moving through the good times, we can look back and see that prayer, Bible reading, biblical meditation, solitude, giving, serving, and more are sometimes not there because we expect the good times.
So, when the not so good hits us, we’re shocked. We sometimes wonder what did I do to deserve this. Nothing! When this happens we’re often just ill equipped spiritually because we have not been abiding in His presence on a regular basis. I’m not just talking about Sunday worship because there are 167 other hours during the week for you to grow in Christ.
Are you with me on this? It may sound a little confusing, but I need to tell you God does not want us to sit around and wonder. He wants us to experience the glorious life He has promised us.
Consider one of my favorite passages. It’s one of my favorite passages for a reason. It’s what Jesus said in John 10:10 - - 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, I came that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.
What does that mean for you and I? And how do we get that abundant life He promises us?
Consider for a moment what Jesus is telling us about this life. Jesus is telling us HE came, not anyone else, not your spouse, your best friend, your children, or your parents, BUT Jesus came to give us LIFE — — a real and genuine life right here on earth . . . and as we saw in the past few weeks, eternal life as well. He came to give us a life active and vigorous, a life which is devoted to God, who is the source of life.
The thief is satan and he wants to suck the life out of you. His goal is for you to live a worthless, unsatisfying, and purposeless life. That’s what satan wants for you. He wants to steal, kill and destroy your spirit, heart and soul.
But Jesus tells us He wants to give us an abundant life. The word abundant literally means — —
1. over and above, more than is necessary, superadded
1. exceeding abundantly, supremely
2. something further, much more than all
2. superior, extraordinary, surpassing, uncommon
1. more eminent, more remarkable, more excellent
Can anyone say AMEN to that?! Folks that is the life Jesus tells us is available for us. But are we really living that life?
So . . . how do we get that abundant life? I would say, the first thing is to believe in Jesus as Lord, Savior, Leader and Forgiver of our lives. That goes without saying. That is always my assumption.
But once we believe in Jesus, what do we do? We need to start practicing the spiritual disciplines. We need to engage God, to move toward God in our relationship with Him. So we begin to practice, even to experiment with the different disciplines. By doing this we might find that there is one or more which really help lead us to Jesus, in all seasons of our lives.
By regularly practicing spiritual disciplines we find ourselves in a better rhythm in life. By that I mean you’re practicing your faith on a regular basis, a daily basis.
Often times we think that spiritual practices or disciplines should not be much fun, but that is silly. It’s really absurd. I have said it a number of times this year, reading the Bible has been so much fun. I’ve had new learnings, new discoveries and overall it’s just been fun to read God’s word.
We should move with a sense of expectancy. I am expecting to gain from reading God’s word, I’m expecting to meet God in worship today, I’m expecting to meet God in this time of prayer or when I sit in silence, or when I journal... and so on.
But one of our issues and I know it’s mine . . . we try to meet what I am calling - GOD ON THE GO! It means, we don’t take the time to meet with God, we just want to have a quick encounter with God while we are on the go. It’s a quick, “hey God, how’s it going?” Then we’re off to the next thing.
The last thing I want to say about spiritual disciplines comes from Paul’s words to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:7-8, when Paul said,
7 exercise yourself toward godliness. 8 For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. - 1 Timothy 4:7-8
You see, we are to exercise or practice our way toward godliness. Now, this does not mean spiritual disciplines will earn us brownie points or give us more credits with God. But, spiritual disciplines will help us to move closer to God, to better understand the plan He has for us, to help us in times of need, because we’ve already learned ways to experience His presence.
Paul seems to be echoing the words of Jesus when he explains godliness is profitable for us . . . why? Because God has promised us this super abundant life, so as we move toward God, we experience more and more of this great life which comes through joy and love and peace and grace and more.
And the other benefit Paul explains comes in our death when we remain or abide with Jesus in heaven. We can’t lose, we have God in this life and we have God in the life that is to come.
Our goal for the next few months is to grow spiritually. Our spiritual life is not just a separate section of our lives which is removed from the other parts of our life, like our financial, emotional, physical, work, or school part of life. Our spiritual life delves into every section of our lives and is intimately linked with every other aspect of our lives because of our close relationship with Jesus.
Oswald Sanders said, ‘we are as close to God as we choose to be.’ Man, I don’t like that!! God lays it on me and says “OK Michael, how close to me do you really want to get? That’s a biting question. So, I’ll ask you the same question - - How close to God are you? How close to God do you want to get?
Over the next weeks, we will have the opportunity to learn and practice the spiritual disciplines.
Not only will we read (Bible Study), but we’ll write (journaling).
Not only will we withdraw (silence and solitude), but we will advance (service).
Note only will we feast on God (prayer, but we’ll fast (fasting).
Not only will we grieve our sinfulness (confession), but we’ll rejoice (celebration).
I have so much more to say, but for now, join me. My greatest hope in the end is that each of us is stretched just a little more than before and we use this time to grow in Christ, to be transformed more and more into that new creation, doing it all in the name of Jesus.
