Six Habits For Highly Effective Christians
(Based upon concepts from John Calvin’s Institutes)
Topical Message
September 5, 2004 Chester FBC, Chester, Illinois Mike Fogerson
A school teacher who was bypassed for a promotion went to her administrator and complained, "I have twenty years of experience, and you promoted someone who had only been teaching five years." The administrator replied, "No, you don’t have twenty years of experience. You have one year of experience twenty times. You’re still teaching the same things and in the same way you did your first year. You haven’t grown in your profession." Christ wants us to grow, to develop, to become effective representatives of Himself.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
We can expect growth but should never expect perfection.
During the reign of Oliver Cromwell, there was a shortage of currency in the British Empire. Representatives carefully searched the nation in hopes of finding silver to meet the emergency. After one month, the committee returned with its report. "We have searched the empire in vain seeking to find silver. To our dismay, we found none anywhere except in the cathedrals where the statures of the saints are made of choice silver.’
To this, Oliver Cromwell eloquently answered, "Let’s melt down the saints and put them into circulation."
That reply carries a deeper meaning than Cromwell ever intended. It contains the secret of effective witnessing.
Prayer: Lord, forgive us for being ‘silver saints’, church. Give us a new appreciation of your love for us and for a lost world. Melt us down, Lord, and keep us in circulation with the warmth of your constraining love.
I Habit One: Depend on the Holy Spirit
The secret of holiness in the inner working of the effective Christian is the Holy Spirit.
A Jesus promised the Holy Spirit would come to comfort and guide His disciples.
11 Whenever they bring you before synagogues and rulers and authorities, don’t worry about how you should defend yourselves or what you should say. 12 For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what must be said." Luke 12:11-12 (HCSB)
a 38 Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:38
*When conversion occurred, the Holy Spirt came.
b The Holy Spirit brought people/ drew people into a union with Jesus Christ. (The Holy Spirit’s job is to bring you and I to a faith/closeness/union with Jesus!!!)
B The Holy Spirit causes two internal actions.
a Mortification (Killing off of the old life)
b Vivification (Creating new life)
These are the major components of REPENTANCE
The Holy Spirit does to the sin our lives what Jesus did to sin on the cross - - - removes the curse.
C Our sin is forgiven in an instant, but sanctification takes a lifetime.
a We’ll fight with/ struggle with/ occasionally lose to sin our whole lives.
b When we depend on the Holy Spirit, He takes us to Jesus and union occurs. (No longer "got" religion, we’ve got a relationship with Jesus!)
TS: The effective Christian depends first on the Holy Spirit, and then depend less on themselves.
II Habit Two: Practice Self-Denial
Matthew 16.24a If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, . . .
Self-denial is not giving up sweets for lent or punishing your body.
A At the heart of the issue of self-denial is a question of ownership: Who is really in charge of my life – God or me?
You already know that the hardest person in the world to deny is yourself. To deny myself dessert is hard enough, but to deny myself is difficult indeed. To deny myself is to put self out of the picture and to put Christ in the place of self. —J. Vernon McGee’s Thru The Bible
a 1 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life— your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life— and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 2 Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Romans 12:1-2 (MSG)
Double Denial
We are not our own
We Belong to God
b My will/wishes/ways are no longer my own. OWNERSHIP!
B What does self-denial look like?
a Detachment & Contentment
b Whatever happens is okay because God has ordained all of our days.
*Peace *Surrendered myself & every possessions
III Habit Three: Bear The Cross
Matt 16.24b "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.
A Our most troublesome bloody battles are not with territorial spirits or demonic forces: the true war is within us.
a It is a war to keep our faith alive & growing.
b Always at war with unbelief, doubt, uncertainty.
B How do we win this daily battle? SUFFERING
a You and I are going to suffer; how we approach/react to suffering is our choice.
Hurt/Pain/Trouble . . . sounds like a crucifixion to me!
He’s making us look more like Jesus.
that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Phil 3:10-11 (NASB)
Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. Heb 5:8 (NASB)
b But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. 1 Peter 3:14 (NASB)
See your suffering cross-eyed.
41 So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name. Acts 5:41 (NASB)
There is a secret joy in suffering!
IV Habit Four: Focus on the Eternal
Matt 16.24b "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.
A Following Him meant to keep your eyes gazed upon Him.
a Since Christ rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, to follow Christ means to keep your heart on the eternal and future dimension where Christ reigns in power and He’s coming to reign!
b 15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. 1 John 2:15-17 (NASB)
B Don’t fall in love with this world because the world is passing away!!
a This life is a gamble, don’t bet the house on it. (Sinking sand)
b We must choose which world will have first place in our hearts: the passing world around us or the world that is coming.
TS: We keep our eyes focused on heaven, but we make the most of this earth & creation.
V Habit Five: Use All of Life for God’s Glory
Stewardship Habit!!
Four rules for using a holy creation:
1 Detachment: We’ve got to develop a "take it or leave it" attitude to the passing things of this earth.
2 Contentment: Enables us to have fairly constant joy in time of plenty and in times of want.
3 Accountability: We understand that God will judge us for the ways we use of gifts of creation & culture. (IL.) We’ll work hard whether the boss is looking or not!
4 Diligence: Daily practice. Persevere in our calling. WE are just as good stewards in September as we were in January, March.
You are in the world, not of world!
VI Habit Six: Persist in Prayer
Prayer is how you dig up God’s treasure that our faith has gazed upon.
17 pray without ceasing; 1 Thess 5:17 (NASB)
Four rules for effectiveness in prayer:
1 Reverence for God: We depend on the Spirit, who helps us to pray.
26 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; Romans 8:26 (NASB)
2 Sincere Need: You not only pray for a REAL need, you also desire to obtain from God.
14 Now this is the confidence we have before Him: whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked Him for. 1 John 5:14-15 (HCSB)
3 Humble & Contrite Spirit: You understand you can’t answer your prayer and we’re unworthy to even ask.
4 Confident Faith:
Rule: Whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
Rule: I’ve asked according to His will.
Rule: Therefore, I have asked according to His will, and He hears my prayer.
