REVIEW
FLIP CHART: SOM’S KEY VERSE, GOAL, MOTTO
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness ….” (Mt. 6:33a).
The law sends us to Christ for justification; Christ sends us back to the law for sanctification.
FLIP CHART: Show new “Perfect Righteousness” chart explaining steps to coming to Christ (As a worm, mourning, meek, spiritual hunger/thirst with the result of legal righteousness). Explain: moral righteousness, immediate moral change at conversion, gradual change through life’s challenges and speeding up moral change via CCRC (Concentration, Choice, Reflection and Confession/Thanksgiving). Key verse, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb. 10:14).
FLIP CHART: John Stott’s outline of SOM.
INTRODUCTION
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:5-8)
REVIEW:
“What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his
soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark
8:36)
If the soul is of extreme value, then we must cultivate the soul and become a ‘godly’ person. But what does a ‘godly person look like?
A godly person has experienced a Christian conversion. Whereas his life was previously focused on himself it is now focused on Christ. Knowing, loving and pleasing God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit dominates and gives direction to His life. A godly person lives a God-centered life. (John Stott)
One way to help us cultivate the life and growth of our soul is to develop a “Spiritual Life Statement” that focuses our attention on spiritual goals, goals that become a purpose/mission/vision statement for our spiritual life.
A SLS clearly states why we exist as a person, the meaning and purpose of our life and how we visualize it, based on the input of God’s Word, what we want to see happen in the life of our soul.
OUTLINE FOR TODAY:
1. Evaluating Our Spiritual Life Statements
2. Are We Growing Christians?
3. Importance of the Spiritual Disciplines
4. What Keeps Us from Practicing the Spiritual Disciplines?
IS YOUR SPIRITUAL LIFE STALLED???
I. EVALUATING OUR SPIRITUAL LIFE STATEMENTS
ILL: In Book Discussion Group, “Man’s Search for Meaning.” Frankel, a Jewish psychologist from Vienna imprisoned by Nazis while a prison decided to analyze why some prisoners persevered and why others died in the camps. His conclusion is that they lost “hope” because they did not have a purpose of living, a meaning to their lives. He found that the “hope” was often on just being released and, for example, they focused on Christmas as a release date. There were always more deaths during Christmas than any other time of the year.
I asked myself, “Would I manage to survive? What is my purpose for living, the meaning of life for me?” I decided to write a “Spiritual Life Statement.”
QUESTION: How many wrote a “Spiritual Life Statement” this past week? How many started to write one and are still working on it?
SOME SAMPLE SLSs
Heavenly Father, I pray the eyes of my heart may be enlightened, so that I may know and realize the hope to which You have called me … the riches and glory of Your inheritance … and what is the surpassing greatness of Your power at work in me. Open my eyes in this moment* (in this crisis, opportunity, circumstance, etc) to the presence and work of your Holy Spirit that I may be a light to the world reflecting the love of my Savior. Amen (Cheryl Chamberlain)
In increasing measure, the God who exercises loving kindness, righteousness and judgment on the earth will be glorified in my life; not through my wisdom, might or riches but through knowledge and understanding of Him. (Kris Husa)
To know him intimately, grow in His grace, claim His power, love others for Him, walk humbly before Him, glorify Him always. (Gloria)
For me, to live is Christ, my hope and my life. Thus the meaning and purpose of life for me is to know and love Him, be conformed to His image and do the works He prearranged for me in eternity, in summary – loving my neighbor, that by so doing I might glorify Him. (Jeff Gulleson)
The key to a good “SLS” is that it incorporates priority concepts from the Word of God, e.g. loving, knowing, obeying and glorifying God.
QUESTION: Any questions about writing a Spiritual Life Statement?
II. ARE WE GROWING CHRISTIANS?
As newborn babes, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation” (I Peter 2:2).
Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is Christ (Eph. 4:15).
And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God (Col. 1:10).
We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so,because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing (II Thes. 1:3).
For this reason make every effort to add to your faith goodness etc (II Peter 1:5).
It is so easy to be just a religious, church going believer, worn down and discouraged, just treading water spiritually … and if that is the case being carried downstream with all of the dead fish by the river’s current.
Churches are good at measuring numerical growth but how do you measure the spiritual life and growth of a Christian, a church?
ILL: At the “Leadership Summit” Bill Hybels gave 10-15 minute talk introducing research concerning spiritual growth they had done at Willow Creek and mentioned the research was reported in a book titled “Reveal.” At the break I ran to the bookstore, purchased the book and started reading immediately since this topic has been perplexing to me.
Eric Aronson worked for many years as a marketing strategist for Proctor and Gamble and then worked for five years as a consultant in strategic planning and product development. Eric with a team at Willow Creek sought to measure spiritual growth. Is it possible? What they discovered shocked the leadership team at Willow Creek.
They interviewed 68 members of the congregation for 30-45 minutes in the more advanced stages of spiritual growth concerning spiritual life history, church background, personal spiritual practices, spiritual attitudes and beliefs in order to get some guidelines for the development of a survey questionnaire.
They then sent out and received 4,943 completed surveys resulting in 1.4 million data points. The questions in the survey focused on attitudes towards Christianity and one’s personal spiritual life; Overall satisfaction with the church and specific church attributes; Participation and satisfaction with church activities, such as weekend services, small groups, ministries and serving.
They eventually categorized four groups that attend their church and all churches:
1) Exploring Christianity – “I believe in God but I’m not sure about Christ. My faith is not a significant part of my life.
2) Growing in Christ – “I believe in Jesus and I’m working on what it means to get to know him.
3) Close to Christ – “I feel real close to Christ and depend on Him for guidance.
(4) Christ-centered – “God is all I need in my life. He is enough. Everything I do is a reflection of Christ.”
What shocked them as that “More than 25 percent of those surveyed described themselves as spiritually “stalled” or “dissatisfied” with the role of the church in their spiritual growth.”
These folks were saying, “I believe in Christ but I haven’t grown much lately” or “My faith is central in my life and I’m trying to grow, but my church is letting me down.” (Reveal, 47)
QUESTION: From their research they discovered why these people “stalled.” Try to determine some reasons that caused these people to be “stalled” or “dissatisfied” in their spiritual lives.
The “stalled” group admitted to having one or more of the following problems:
Addictions – Out of control spending, gambling, alcohol, pornography, overeating. (27%, 50% higher than the total sample)
Inappropriate Relationships – An emotional or physical affair, other relationships that pull them away from God. (16%, 60% higher than the total sample).
Emotional Issues – Depression, anger, stuffing emotions (48%, 35% higher than the total sample.)
Not Prioritizing One’s Spiritual Life – Spending more time on other things like TV, Internet, e-mails, movies, shopping. (89%, 19% higher than the total sample.)
III. IMPORTANCE OF SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES
The question that confronts us then, is how does a person become a godly person.
FLIP-CHART – Review the three sources for spiritual growth (1) The Maternity Ward – Born into the Kingdom by the Spirit of God; (2) The Intensive Care Unit – Living a life dependent on transfusions – He is the vine, we are the branches; (3) The Rehab Unit – Learning to walk again and walk correctly. We leave the maternity ward but Christians never leave the Intensive Care Unit or the Rehab Unit!!!
Some people feel that the Rehab Unit is the church and church activities. This is partly true but Willow Creek research reveal that there was not a sold connection between participation in church activities and spiritual growth.
“We went in (to this study) with some ‘blinders’ on, believing that church activities were predominant drivers of spiritual growth, and we just assumed the church would show up as the central force in the spiritual walk of most Christ-centered people. … We were surprised that personal spiritual disciplined played such a critical role – – showing up as the primary catalyst for growth in the most advanced spiritual segments of our church.” (Reveal, 58)
We see the emphasis on spiritual disciplines and our responsibility again and again in the Scriptures – “train yourselves to be godly” (I Tim 4:7); “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12); “Make every effort to add to your faith” (II Peter 1:5).
QUESTION: Is the following statement from Dietrich Bonhoffer an over-statement? If not, why? If it is, why?
“A day without morning and evening prayer and personal intercession is actually a day without meaning or importance.”
ILL: “By nature I resist techniques, especially those relating to spiritual disciplines. I would prefer to keep my relationship with God impromptu. The problem is, every time I proceed down such an idealistic path God gets pushed to the side. … Henri Nouwen (A Dutch Catholic priest who authored 40 books on the spiritual life including The Wounded Healer.) suggests that we “create space in which God can act.” While he was working among the poor in Bolivia, Nouwen took an evening off during Advent season to see a movie. He writes: “The movie was so filled with images of greed and lust, manipulation and exploitation, fearful and painful sensations, that it filled all the empty spaces that could have been blessed by the spirit of Advent.” How often do I let that happen? I asked myself when I read that passage. I enter a motel room and switch on the television. I have CNN going when I eat lunch and the radio playing when I drive the car. I’m always reading a newspaper, magazine, computer manual, Internet blog, something. I fill up spaces.” (Yancey, Prayer, 286)
Willow Creeks Conclusion: At the heart of the unhappiness the ‘stalled’ and ‘dissatisfied’ have with the church is the failure to realize that responsibility for their spiritual growth belongs to them. And it begs the question: Who should have pointed this out to them? Who should have helped them to begin taking more responsibility for their own spiritual growth? The answer is pretty obvious. (Reveal, 54)
Christians are stalled in their spiritual growth because of addictions, inappropriate relationship, emotional issues but mainly because they are not prioritizing their spiritual growth. (Reveal, 99)
The spiritual disciplines of prayer, journaling, solitude, studying Scripture etc. are the driving force for spiritual growth for Christians (Reveal, 43).
Willow Creek concluded: Our people need to learn to feed themselves through personal spiritual practices that allow them to deepen their relationship with Christ … We want to transition the role of the church from spiritual parent to spiritual coach. (Reveal, 65).
READING: Question: If you do not burn with the zeal that you long for, are you willing to make some experiments with high-dosage, extended-time, prayer-driven Bible meditation? Very honestly, there is in my own life a close correspondence between the time and amount of prayerful Bible opening, and the depth and strength and warmth of my zeal for God. Without large and deep doses of God’s Word, I am very vulnerable to worldly mindset. One church in Korean expects its members to read 5 chapters of the Bible a day and its pastors to read 20 chapters a day.” (Taste and See, John Piper, Pg. 221)
QUESTION: On a scale of 1-10, 1 being excellent, how would you grade your spiritual growth? Do you feel “stalled?” Are you “dissatisfied” with the church?
IV. WHAT KEEPS US FROM PRACTICING SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES?
QUESTION: What keeps us from practicing the spiritual disciplines?
1. Lack of time
TV, Internet, Emails, Tel. conversations, Newspapers, busyness
ILL: While doing the study of the “Persistent Widow” in Luke 18:1-8 I was studied the context and noted that Jesus didn’t talk about the sin at the time of Noah or even the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. Instead he describes societies that were eating, drinking, marrying, buying, selling, planting, building …. What struck Jesus is that no one was focusing on the spiritual aspect of life.
2. Pain is involved
When you start a physical training program pain is involved but once you get into it you like it, you feel better. This is the same with a spiritual training program. Gloria really ached when she got started her training program at Lifetime. She couldn’t even roll over in bed but a couple weeks later she came home and said, “I really feel good. The gym gets me going.”
READING: Prayer, Phil Yancey, Pg. 165-6.
3. The Spiritual Disciplines are boring.
QUESTION: What are some of the negative feelings, terms words that come to your mind or have come to your mind, when you think about having morning devotions?
Answer: Later, I don’t have time now, boring, routine, always the same, unproductive, tired, wasting time, doesn’t really matter, uninteresting etc.
*** I can’t handle the time problem. You need to deal with that. I can assure you the “pain” of starting a new habit or intensifying an old one will dissipate. I can make some suggestions on how to make your devotional time more interesting and attractive and we will do that next week.
SO WHAT???
1. A “Spiritual Life Statement” can be a great tool to help us focus on the cultivation of our soul, the development of our spiritual life.
2. Although it is plain that we are to grow in our spiritual lives maybe 25% of us are stalled and I am sure the rest of us are not satisfied with our rate of spiritual growth.
3. Responsibility for spiritual growth first and foremost falls on the individual Christian. The church should function as the coach but we have to do the heavy lifting.
4. In developing a personal spiritual training routine we will face the hurdles of a lack of time, pain and boredom but each of these can be overcome.