Spiritual Disciplines: Conclusion
August 29, 2021
Today is the final message on the Spiritual Disciplines series. Amazingly, this is message 18. I was asked if I was serious last week when I said - - America is totally lost!! And my answer is 100% YES! And I fully believe the church is the only and final answer for what ails our country and in fact our world.
That’s why spiritual disciplines are so important. That’s why we need to take these disciplines which help us grow to be more Christlike very seriously. You see, many of the ways of the world, are meant to deceive us. I truly believe satan is out to destroy us and that’s one of the curses we’ve experienced throughout this pandemic.
As I said last week, we don’t agree with anyone. We’re angry, bitter, foolish, ignorant, and we state we know the answers, when more often than not, we’re clueless. And that feeds right into what satan wants. Think about it. If we’re arguing amongst ourselves, especially within the church, and if churches are splitting over politics more than theology, we’ve got a problem.
Let me give you 2 examples - - this week as I was cleaning out my spam folder, I noticed a group of emails which were all very similar. They were all in a row.
If you notice, the sender is the same person . . . and they’re telling me I just subscribed to Norton anti-virus protection. Each email is different, with different dollar amounts and different invoice numbers. I know it’s fake. But this fraudulent company wants me to call them so they can gather my information so they can steal it and get my money.
The same is true in the world. There are lots of deceivers, lots of frauds out there. The only way to combat this and to know what’s legit and what’s not, is to draw closer to God. It’s to be led by God, because we know His plan in our lives.
Here’s a 2nd example -- that was totally shocking! Most colleges have chaplains. Take a close look at this picture. There’s a new lead chaplain at Harvard University - - - and the dude is an atheist. How’s he going to help someone with a spiritual problem? Simply say, ‘I know why you’re messed up, you believe in God.’ He was voted in unanimously. We are being led so far away from God, and if we’re not careful, we will slowly get sucked right into their ways.
Oswald Sanders wrote, ‘we are as close to God as we choose to be.’ Man, doesn’t that smack you upside the head? It’s always our choice. And he’s right! What will we choose? How much of Jesus do we want? Are you where you want to be in your relationship with God?
We’ve looked at 10 disciplines - - -
1. Bible Reading 2. Service 3. Confession
4. Celebration 5. Meditation 6. Silence / Solitude
7. Worship 8. Prayer 9. Fasting 10. Fellowship
The disciplines should be making a difference in our lives. Obviously, we can’t do all of the disciplines all of the time. But we should be discovering which ones help us in our everyday lives.
Too often, I sense that we’re discontent with our spiritual life, yet, we just don’t go the extra mile. Maybe we don’t know what to do, or we’re embarrassed about not knowing what to do - - and you don’t want to ask. Maybe, you’re content in a discontented way. You accepted Jesus, so you’re content in that way.
Many of us try to be a better person on our own, using our willpower. But that gets us into trouble, because there’s always that sin nature that pops up. We try, we give it a great effort, but, we don’t succeed. And we beat ourselves up because we feel we’ve failed. So many of us have been down that road, whether it’s patience, spending, anger, control, pride, addictions and so on, they’re all out there - - - and satan loves that.
Instead, we should be using the spiritual resources offered to us by Christ. When we use the God-centered resources, we’ll succeed in God’s power and presence. And we find that connection with God and it changes us, but we must take the step to draw closer to God.
So, what’s making a difference in your life? When we change on the inside, it should lead to external changes as well. When we’re renewed and excited, it needs to be visible to the world, otherwise, I really don’t think we’ve changed. Maybe we’ve gained some head knowledge, but if our actions don’t change, then . . . so what. The world needs to know it’s Jesus who’s at work within you.
The main scripture verse we started with came from John 15:5. Jesus 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.”
We’ve talked about it before, but it is so vital to our life in Christ. Because Jesus tells us - - - - APART FROM ME YOU CAN DO NOTHING!! Literally, the word NOTHING — is a powerful negating conjunction. It rules out, "it shuts the door" and leaves no exceptions.
So, when Jesus says apart from me you can do nothing. It’s as if we’ve slammed the door in Jesus’ face and said, I’m doing all of this on my own. I can handle it.
That’s the bad news. But the good news is that God wants us to succeed. God has so much more for us. He wants us to BEAR MUCH FRUIT. He wants us to live lives that make a difference. The fruit we produce is not for our own personal enjoyment, it’s for others to enjoy. We’re to be so connected to God that others will reap what we’ve sown, they will be able to enjoy our fruit.
And - - - - the more fruit we produce, the more fruit God will bring into our lives. When we’re honoring God, following His plan, He will reward us with more fruit, so we can produce even more fruit for ourselves and others to enjoy.
And - - - - when we’re bearing this fruit, we’re having the time of our lives. When we know, without a doubt, God is with us. That we’re living the God Spirited life, we have this skip in our step. We know He’s with us. Nothing can defeat us.
Even when we go through difficult times, periods of temptation, of persecution, sickness and more . . . We have this joy which cannot be taken away, because our branch is connected to the vine, we continue to receive God’s life source and blessings - - which flows into us, that’s the Holy Spirit, whom God has given us.
And we know, we trust, we believe . . . . nothing can defeat us. Absolutely nothing! We always win! Isn’t it great to know that! satan can’t defeat us. He always loses! That’s part of the good news of the story.
And when we’re living this type of life, we better understand our role and purpose in life. We realize life is not supposed to be a drudgery, it’s a joy. It’s in one of the verses we’ve talked about. In John 10:10, Jesus said - - -
10 “the thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, I have come that you may have life, and have it MORE ABUNDANTLY.” (NKJV) - John 10:10
How do we get that abundant life He promises us?
Consider for a moment what Jesus is telling us about this life. Jesus came, not anyone else, not your spouse, your best friend, your children, or your parents, no material items . . . . BUT Jesus came to give us LIFE — — a real and genuine life right here on earth and a future life in heaven. On this earth, He offers us an active and passionate, vigorous life, which is devoted to God, who is the source of life.
Jesus tells us He wants to give us LIFE MORE ABUNDANTLY. In Greek, that literally means — —
1. over and above, more than is necessary, superadded
1. exceeding abundantly, supremely
2. superior, extraordinary, surpassing, uncommon
1. more remarkable, more excellent
Can anyone say AMEN to that?!
That is the type of life God wants to give us. But we must be connected to Him in order to experience that type of life. If we aren’t connected, we will miss out on that super-added abundant life.
Because, if you remember, the first part of that verse tells us satan is out to steal, kill and destroy us. That’s his plan. But God offers the super added, super sized, extraordinary, super-abundant, more than is necessary life. That’s the life I want! Why would I want something which is meant to destroy me?
So, when crunch time comes and we want to experience - - God’s peace, comfort, grace, joy, mercy - - - His power, strength and courage, we must be connected to the vine.
You see, our nondiscipleship costs us the peace and power of God we desperately want. When we refuse to grow into the people God wants us to be, when we turn down the spiritual power available to us, give up hope which gives us the courage to go on, faith to see life according to God’s vision for what is good . . . we are also giving up on the promise of John 10:10 . . . to live the abundant life. (Paraphrased from Willard The Spirit of the Disciplines page 263).
That’s the life Jesus tells us is available for us. But are we living that life?
In his paraphrase of the Bible, Eugene Peterson expressed John 10:10, like this --
10 Jesus came so that we could have real and eternal life, more and better life than we ever dreamed of. (The Message)
A better life than we ever dreamed of. . . AHH! That’s what I want! Not that there won’t be any problems, but I’ll be able to handle them, because I’m so connected to God.
So what should we be doing? If we want to experience the super abundant life God’s offering us, not to sound totally redundant, but we must be connected to God, there is no other way.
Our lives should be living representations of God’s presence in our lives. We can complain all we want about what we don’t have, about what we don’t like, but we all know that gets us nowhere. We won’t experience the joy and hope Christ offers us when we are the pilot. God must pilot our ship, nobody else, and when we do that, our lives should be filled with power and energy.
So, how do we get that abundant life? The first thing is to believe in Jesus as Lord, Savior, Leader and Forgiver of our lives. That goes without saying.
But once we believe in Jesus, what do we do? We need to start practicing the spiritual disciplines.
Many of you know I’ve taken up disc golf in the past year. I can throw pretty far, but I’m a terrible putter. I really am. So, I’ve practiced. I’ve tried things out. To make a 20 foot putt was a miracle for me.
The other day, it took one take to do this.
VIDEO of DISC GOLF
4 out of 4! I’m not quite ready for the senior tour! But it’s an improvement. It took practice to get there.
We don’t like to think of spiritual disciplines as practice, but sometimes it takes practice to get there. I read in a book recently, that it actually takes 66 days to develop a habit. That’s over 2 months.
If you aren’t sure about reading the Bible, if you’ve never done it, then ask! I’d be thrilled to help you.
Maybe it’s how do you pray? Let’s talk about it. It’s actually easier than you think and you’ve already done it.
We can try all of these disciplines . . .
Silence and solitude to better connect with God and honor your neighbor when they’re talking to you.
Fasting as we seek to grow closer to God and better know His plans.
Celebration - - Allowing yourself to celebrate God’s presence in your life.
Giving - giving back to God because He has so richly blessed you. Remember, those 100 french fries? You only have to give God 10, you keep 90.
Worship - extending ourselves in worship as we praise and revere the One from whom all blessings flow.
Serving others because we follow the fact that Jesus came to serve, not be served.
Confessing your sinfulness to God and knowing, believing and trusting that He forgives you and empowers you to forgive others.
And we commit to fellowship. Like this rubber band ball. We are all unique and different, some are broken, but they are held up by the stronger ones.
It’s our time, church! It’s our time!
We need to move toward God in our relationship with Him. So begin to practice, even experiment with the different disciplines. We might find there’s one or more than one which really helps lead us to Jesus, in all seasons of our lives.
By regularly practicing spiritual disciplines we find ourselves in a better rhythm in life as you’re growing more and more to be the person Christ has called you to be.
I believe we will find more joy, more power, more healing and hope in these disciplines. And when we’ve really experienced His forgiveness and embrace it, we will find forgiving others, even though difficult, comes a little easier.
We think spiritual practices or disciplines should not be much fun, but that’s silly. We should enjoy engaging God as we draw closer to Hm.
God calls us to come to Him.
Come to me all who are weary and heavy burdened . . .
Draw near to me and I will draw near to you.
Open the door and I will eat with you and you with me.
It’s a constant theme in the Bible. Come . . . Draw near to God!
Let me give you another statement from Oswald Sanders - -
“Once the joy of intimacy with God has been experienced, life becomes unbearable without it.”
Isn’t that powerful?! So, let me ask you ‘how close to God do you want to be?’
