Reform School for the Spirit
Life Management 101, part 2
Wildwind Community Church
David Flowers
June 25, 2006
What is spirituality? You could define spirituality, in general, as those parts of us that desire fulfillment, passion, purpose, and a sense of being part of something greater than ourselves. We live in a society that teaches us to be excellent consumers, and first-rate competitors. Spirituality picks up where these things leave off. After you have bought all you care to buy, and beat everyone and everything you care to beat, what are the needs inside of you that haven’t been met? Those are spiritual needs.
There are emotions in you, things that happen inside of you, that you take for granted moment by moment, but that are signs of something remarkable that lives inside of you – things that are signs of your spirit. Now when we talk about Christian spirituality, we are talking about the development of your spiritual qualities in such a manner that your spirit begins to resemble the spirit that was (is) in Jesus. That’s why I like to use the term “spiritual formation.” Look at the striking language Paul used when talking about this idea of our spirit coming to resemble the spirit of Jesus:
Galatians 4:19 (NASB77)
19 My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you—
Galatians 4:19 (MSG)
19 Do you know how I feel right now, and will feel until Christ’s life becomes visible in your lives? Like a mother in the pain of childbirth.
Until Christ is formed in you. Until Christ’s life becomes visible in your lives. Until your spirit has taken on the shape of the spirit of Christ, you might say. That’s why I love the phrase “spiritual formation.” Until Christ is formed in you, until Christ’s life becomes visible in your life.
But even though I love the phrase, it still doesn’t quite capture what I want to communicate to you today. For we are spiritual beings at birth, aren’t we? This means that we are in need not so much of spiritual formation, as we are of spiritual reformation! See, you have already been shaped spiritually, into some form or another. You already respond in a certain way when you are provoked. You already have certain feelings and thoughts about your purpose in this world. You already have some sense of whether or not you are part of something larger than yourself. That’s why I have entitled today’s message, “Reform School for the Spirit.” You and I need to go to reform school. Our spirits have already taken on a certain shape because of the environments in which we were raised, and because of the things that have happened to us and the fortunes and misfortunes we have experienced.
Many who surrender their lives to Christ are curious that even though they may feel differently at first, so much about them remains the same. They still have the same temper problem they used to have. Maybe they’re still hooked on pornography. Maybe they are still inclined to speak in ways that are filthy. Maybe they’re still greedy, or unloving toward their spouse and kids. And they ask, “How come I’m still the same, if God’s spirit lives in me?” What they need to understand, what many of us here today need to understand, is that in giving our lives to Christ, what actually happens in that we enroll in spiritual reform school – we enlist ourselves into a new way of life that will allow God to re-form our spirits into the shape of the spirit of Christ. This isn’t about spiritual placement – where God simply places a perfect spirit in each of us and we live happily ever after. It is about spiritual formation, where Christ is formed in us through our everyday experiences and relationships. See, critical to the development of humility is the experience of humiliation. Critical to the development of patience is the experience of aggravation. Critical to the development of love is the experience of apathy. Critical to the development of prayerfulness is the experience of self-sufficiency. And so you live, and you have these experiences again and again and again, and slowly you learn how to think and feel and respond…until Christ is formed in you.
Today I’m going to share with you eight essentials in Christian spiritual formation – eight things you must practice in your life – eight qualities that must be developed in your life in increasing measure – if you would desire for Christ to be formed in you. As I told you I would do last week, I’m lifting these eight things directly out of Charles Swindoll’s readable little book called So, You Want To Be Like Christ. Do you know why it’s important that you know I’m lifting them and not coming up with them on my own? Because you need to know that there are specific things you can do that have been tried and tested by millions of Christ-followers over two millennia, that have been shown to form Christ in us. This really isn’t about you as an individual. This moves us away from the “What about me”-ism that plagues our society and moves us toward a universal brother and sisterhood with believers throughout the ages who have practiced these things and found that they are a way to life, when God is allowed through them to grow His Spirit in us.
I begin with a quote from Swindoll himself. “I don’t want to shame you into walking a spiritual treadmill, nor do I want to convince you that a no-fun checklist of spiritual tedium will somehow pay dividends in eternity. On the other hand I don’t want to suggest that becoming like Christ will be easy. Seeking intimacy with the Almighty requires focused determination, demands specific changes in attitude and behavior, and will come with a number of heartbreaks and setbacks.”
Let me list these eight essential disciplines that lead to godliness and then we’ll deal with them briefly one at a time. They are Intimacy; Simplicity; Silence/Solitude; Surrender; Prayer; Humility; Self-Control; and Sacrifice. Notice the first four have to do with getting rid of things, creating room in your life. The second four contribute vitality and authenticity to your spiritual life. Here’s our key passage as we look at these qualities:
Philippians 3:10 (AMP)
10 [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death…
This takes us directly to our first quality – intimacy. Paul says my determined purpose – the goal of my life – my focus – my prime objective, is to pursue intimacy with God – “that I may become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him.” The first thing you must do in spiritual reform school is make a decision to make the pursuit of intimacy with God your determined purpose. Of course many Christians never even get to this point. They say the prayer, “Lord Jesus, please forgive my sins and let me live with you in heaven forever.” But they never make a decision to make the pursuit of intimacy with God their determined purpose.
The second practice we must embrace is that of simplicity. Intimacy deepens our lives. Simplicity unclutters our minds. Simplicity is a conscious commitment to remove distractions that will keep you from pursuing intimacy with God.
One ship drives east and another drives west
With the selfsame winds that blow
‘Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales
Which tells us the way to go.
Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate,
As we voyage along through life;
‘Tis the set of a soul
That decides its goal,
And not the calm or the strife
-- Ella Wheeler Wilcox
So the question is, how are your sails set? What is the goal of your soul? It’s not the direction of the winds that determines where you go, it’s how your sails are set. Simplicity sets your soul toward God – simplicity unclutters your mind and helps you choose between activities that compete for your attention.
Let me give you five sources of mind clutter.
1. Saying yes to too many things.
2. Not planning for leisure and rejuvenation. (sharpen the saw – social/emotional)
3. Most of us rarely experience the joy of accomplishment. We’re too hurried to feel the satisfaction of a job well done.
Proverbs 13:19 (NIV)
19 A longing fulfilled is sweet to the soul…
4. Most of us owe more than we can hope to repay.
Proverbs 22:7 (NIV)
7 …the borrower is servant to the lender.
We can’t fully enjoy what we have because we own so little of it! It keeps driving us to work harder and faster to earn more to pay for all that we don’t own, and acquire more we will not own.
5. Most of us have fooled ourselves into thinking we have simplified our lives with technology. It’s like the guy who paid $10,000 for a watch that would not only tell time but temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, and all of these in multiple cities all over the world. He gladly laid down his $10,000 but was upset to find at home that it didn’t work. He opened the instruction book and read, “Requires two double-A batteries, not included.” Those things we think are going to deliver us are almost always going to just be one more thing we have to maintain or keep track of.
Simplicity. Simplifying our lives can require some really tough decisions. It might mean saying no to others, to ourselves, to our children. It might mean getting rid of some of our material possessions. It might mean giving up promotions and staying home. We cannot make it our determined purpose to pursue intimacy with God if we are living cluttered lives. What do you need to do to unclutter?
The third practice this morning is silence and solitude. Yes, they’re two things but they always go together.
Psalms 46:10 (MSG)
10 "Step out of the traffic! Take a long, loving look at me, your High God, above politics, above everything."
When it the last time you stopped? When is the last time you took a long, loving look at God, long enough that God began to stand out against the backdrop of everything else in your life?
We live in a chatty world. TV, radio, movies, magazines, our work environments – everywhere we go we are assaulted by people with opinions – mostly opinions about things that don’t matter, or else opinions that don’t really matter about things that do matter. I have said before that I believe people fear silence because in silence you come face to face with the scariest thing in the world – your own soul. In silence you have to be attentive to endless depths of insecurity and pain and isolation and fear – all found inside of yourself. But if God is to work on our hearts, if God is to form Christ IN us, and not merely ON us or around us, it will require silence and it’s companion, solitude. Solitude is the environment where silence must be pursued. We must get somewhere alone and quiet and allow the voice of God’s Spirit to whisper to us. We must learn to identify God’s voice.
John 10:27 (MSG)
27 My sheep recognize my voice. I know them, and they follow me.
Do you recognize the voice of God? If you are to become like Jesus, you must prioritize moments of silence and solitude. You must slow your pace.
Fourth is surrender, releasing your grip. This is one of the hardest for most of us. We have to learn to let go of our own agenda for our lives and embrace God’s agenda.
Proverbs 3:5-7 (MSG)
5 Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own.
6 Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track.
7 Don’t assume that you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil!
So where are areas where we need to learn to surrender to God?
1. Possessions. As you simplify, also surrender to God. You might take some of the things you are most attached to and give them away or sell them. Think of all you have, all you own, and consider it lost to you, because the truth is that it all belongs to God.
2. Position – Refuse to allow any position or title to determine who you are. Let it go!
3. Plans – Plan wisely, but be ready for God to rearrange things and take you along paths that may feel dangerous to you.
4. People – Hold the people you love loosely. No relationship on earth is meant to be permanent. The ones that don’t end will surely change, so enjoy your loved ones, but avoid being clingy. Parents, especially learn this with your kids.
Release your grip. Give everything to God, including your anxiety about giving everything to Him.
Fifth is prayer. We did a whole series on prayer last fall, but we always need to be reminded. A primary purpose of prayer is connecting with God in order to transfer His will into your life. Prayer is being attentive to God – paying attention to God’s reality. We must be intentional in learning to turn to prayer as our first, not our last, resort. This takes effort and practice.
1 Timothy 2:1 (MSG)
1 The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.
One way you can do this: next time something very upsetting happens to you, I encourage you to pray before you pick up the phone, send that email, or jump in your car. The time after that, do it again. And again. Learn to make prayer your first resort.
Sixth is humility – bowing low. If you know a person who you respect because of their spirituality, you can be certain that person has cultivated disciplines that lead to godliness. He or she wasn’t born that way. The life you respect and hope to emulate didn’t come automatically with age or a promotion to some position. You can be sure the person you admire paid dearly for his or her spiritual depth – hours of trying, failing, and trying again; suffering through hardship, learning to rely on God; yielding to these spiritual disciplines because he or she finds that life works better that way. Humility is a character quality that emerges as we practice the other disciplines, but there are three things we can do to help humility grow in us.
1. We need to stop promoting ourselves. Those who need your talent will find it because God will direct them to you. Learn to be content in obscurity.
1 Peter 5:6 (NCV)
6 Be humble under God’s powerful hand so he will lift you up when the right time comes.
2. We need to stand up for others. Look for chances to serve those who would seem to not deserve your service.
Mark 10:43-44 (NIV)
43 …whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.
3. We need to bow low before God. Accept God’s disciplines, don’t resist them. Learn to rely on God and to go to Him in prayer and praise and thanksgiving. Learn to control your fear every time you think God might be asking something new of you.
Seventh is self-control, holding back. Will Rogers once said, “Never miss a good chance to shut up.” Whether we’re dealing with talking, eating, interfering, sex, or money, we all need to learn greater self-control. I spoke on this at length in our Bible book series a few weeks back so I won’t belabor this one, but I’ll say that you can take comfort from Romans chapter 7, where Paul writes about his own inability to exercise all the self-control he wishes he could. If this undisputed spiritual giant found himself screwing up, so will you and I. There is a universal civil war going on and it wages between what we want for ourselves, and what God wants for us. Learning to surrender to God and control our own desires takes a lifetime. But it’s a huge part of becoming like Christ and we can’t ignore it just because the way is fraught with failure. And remember, as I said last week, that self-control always leads to greater freedom. Discipline yourself to work out and you’ll find that you can do more than you used to. Discipline yourself to manage your money and you’ll find yourself becoming financially free. Discipline yourself to control your diet and you’ll find yourself free from the physical and emotional burden you were carrying around. Learn to view self-control not as restriction, but as the pursuit of freedom.
Finally today is sacrifice – giving over. Remember our theme passage?
Philippians 3:10 (AMP)
10 [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death…
Sharing in his sufferings in order to be transformed in spirit into His likeness even to His death. In other words, Paul wanted to become enough like Jesus that Paul, like Jesus, would be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice by laying down his life, like Jesus did. And Paul was in fact destined to make that sacrifice.
You want to be like Christ? Become a person characterized by the discipline of sacrifice. Personal sacrifice. Who will you trust to meet your needs? We serve whatever, or whoever, we trust. Financial sacrifice. Have you intentionally cultivated a generous lifestyle? Are you giving to God through your church, willing to help those in need, and clear that money is not God in your life? Relational sacrifice. Choosing to get rid of relationships (romantic and otherwise) that hinder your relationship with God. Elise and Scott have taught us all what it looks like to make sacrifices in a relationship in order to honor God. What about time sacrifice? Have you chosen a lifestyle of generous service to God and others?
Folks, each of these things could be not only a sermon, but a sermon series in itself. Perhaps this year we’ll revisit each of these more specifically in an extended series, but for now we’ve at least covered them. If you will exercise the discipline of sharpening the saw in the spiritual area of life, if you want to be like Christ, your determined purpose must be to practice these disciplines until Christ is formed in you…
1. Intimacy: Deepening Our Lives
2. Simplicity: Uncluttering Our Minds
3. Silence and Solitude: Slowing Our Pace
4. Surrender: Releasing Our Grip
5. Prayer: Calling Out
6. Humility: Bowing Low
7. Self-Control: Holding Back
8. Sacrifice: Giving Over
What can you do to begin implementing some of these things before the day is through?
