Belong, Believe, Become

Today's youth led worship reminded us again of the value of family.  I was particularly impressed with the sheer number of people involved in leading our service.  The obvious, "up front" people were the praise team and the different speakers.  There was also the eight teens that gave the drama demonstrating the value of being connected with one another.  There were several Bible readers both up front and reading from the pews. There were also the boys who passed the collection plates.  But the most meaningful part of the service for me was watching the various families passing communion. 

As Jeremy reminded us, meal time is a great point of connection for a family.  It is sad to say that the family table is now often only a nostalgic memory in our fast-paced, over-committed lives.  It is worth the sacrifice, however, to slow down a little to sit together and eat a meal as a family.  How appropriate, on this day when we were reminded that we are all family in Christ; we would have individual family units serve the various sections of the sanctuary.  David Layman handed me the trays and near to him were his wife and his two daughters all working together to see that their designated section was served.

In a healthy family, everyone serves using whatever they have to contribute to the whole.  Today, we were blessed to be served by our teenagers and their families. Many of those teenagers have been served by this church for many years while they were growing up.  That is the cycle of love and service that builds strong, healthy families.  May we continue to love, to serve, and to build each other up.

Are You Being Saved?

After the sermon this morning I had a conversation concerning the extremes that we Christians seem to continually battle.  On the one hand, is the extreme of legalism where no matter what you do, or how much you do, it is never enough.  At the end of the day you feel unsure of your salvation knowing that you could have done more and that you could have done better than you did. 

The other extreme is libertineism (or more popularly known as "cheap grace") where you don't worry about about a thing since God's got everything covered.  The consequence of living in legalism is that you are continually either proud of your accomplishments or guilty for not achieving enough.  Either way you become a very poor reflection of Christ who opposes the proud and sets the guilty free. 

The consequence of living under "cheap grace" is that you ultimately live anyway you want to so that there is no discernible difference between you and someone who claims no belief in Jesus.  This is, of course, an unacceptable option for one who claims to serve Jesus as Lord. 

The concept of salvation we talked about this morning is a grateful acknowledgment of how Jesus has supplied all we need for life and godliness AND a working out of that salvation through repentance and growth in the Holy Spirit.  It is truly a marvelous concept that absolutely must be recovered if we would be the transformed people of God living as Christ in our communities. 

I must give credit for the "garden tools" illustration to Marjorie Thompson and her marvelous book, Soul Feast.  These are her words which sparked my illustration, "Spiritual disciplines are like garden tools.  The best spade and hoe in the world cannot guarantee a good crop.  They only make it more likely that growth will be unobstructed.  The mystery of maturation lies in the heart of the seed, and the outcome of planting depends largely on the vagaries of weather.  Still, tools are important in helping to ensure that planted seeds will bear fruit.  Tools can remove stones and roots, aerate the soil, weed and water the garden.  Disciplines like prayer, spiritual reflection, and hospitality have the character of garden tools."

For those who might like one good book introducing the concept of spiritual disciplines I would recommend Soul Feast.  There is plenty of depth so that the book is not simplistic, but it is also extremely practical with thought provoking questions and many easy to learn exercises. 

Seven Disciplines of Jesus

You realize that every sermon I preach to the Clear Lake Church I must first preach to myself.  Often while I'm standing up front preaching I'm still preaching to myself.  How can I teach anyone anything unless I myself am a student.  When it comes to examining the seven disciplines of Jesus we talked about this morning, I find myself in the disciple who said, "Lord, teach us to pray." 

The most profound statement I made to myself in this week's sermon was an insight I think I got from Dallas Willard's book, The Spirit of the Disciplines.  It was the idea that we often try to obey Jesus' teachings while living like the rest of the world, instead of following the disciplines of Jesus' life.  I read that statement and thought to myself, "Of course!"  How can anyone possibly obey Jesus unless they live like Jesus?  It was then that I knew I needed to preach on the disciplines of Jesus' life.  The discipline comes first, obedience follows.  

Spiritual training in God's gym follows this order: Exercises, Discipline, Habit, Lifestyle. How often we want to follow the lifestyle of Jesus without learning the disciplines of his life.   This morning in class we learned one small exercise to develop the discipline of prayer in our lives.  What would happen in your attitudes this week if you simply said the "Jesus prayer" as you drove to work each morning?"  What would happen if you said the prayer as you fell asleep each night this week? 

We will be learning several such exercises to help us focus on the Lord and grow in our obedience to all of his commands.  And as John reminds us, "his commands are not burdensome" (1 John 5:3).  Jesus' commands are designed to set us free, to allow us to really live!  But first, we've got to get our mind's right.  We've got to allow the Master to train us in God's gym.

Let the Training Begin

 A few hours after I was baptized, way back on February 20, 1977, I read the New Testament book of James in it's entirety and offered a brief prayer to God asking for help in living this new life I had just been given.  Thus began my quest for spiritual formation.  In the 34 years since that day I have experimented with many spiritual disciplines and exercises seeking to know how best to cooperate with God's Spirit who is working to form me into the image of Christ.  

In my early years we talked about Spiritual Growth instead of Spiritual Formation and the tools offered were few.  In addition to weekly church attendance the Christians I associated with strongly urged me to develop the practice of a daily Quiet Time.  The first activity of each morning was thus spent in intercessory prayer and Bible reading.  This practice of Quiet Time served me well for a number of years.  Eventually, however, I realized that my daily habit had been taken over by Satan and continually led me into guilt (for not doing it enough) or pride (for my successful accomplishment).  After a great deal of struggle I just had to let the practice go away.

In it's place I've developed a number of other "habits" that have served me well.  As our series of sermons (and Bible Classes) continue I will be sharing with you some of the disciplines that have been well tested by many believers over the centuries.  After today's sermon a woman in her 60's told me that just this morning she had been praying, "Lord, I'm so tired of trying."  When she heard in the sermon the encouragement to "stop trying and start training" she knew the Lord had heard her prayer and was answering the cry of her heart. 

I've put Amazon links to some additional resources for those readers who want to go deeper.  I'll be saying more about these books in the future.  Each of the ones listed here has been personally helpful to me on my journey.  Let the Training Begin!