Spiritual Disciplines: There's a Book for that!
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Spiritual Disciplines
Hey all, excited to to be involved tonight, love this this environment and the vision of Jon and his leaders here. To hone in on community, to see the church as more than the box we meet in on Sunday, but as the ecclesia, the living breathing extension of Christ to each other and to the community.
Part of that vision is to take some time to learn and grow in faith and practice and I think in some real ways prepare our harts and minds for the worship that is going to take place in a little while upstairs.
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Tonight I want to talk briefly on the importance of learning.
It is clear throughout scripture that learning, is an important aspect of what is means to pursue and follow God.
There is an implication that he is not simply talking about memorizing them, but unpacking what it means to follow God and obey his decrees.
In the psalmist says this..
25 My soul clings to the dust;
give me life according to your word!
26 When I told of my ways, you answered me;
teach me your statutes!
27 Make me understand the way of your precepts,
and I will meditate on your wondrous works.
28 My soul melts away for sorrow;
strengthen me according to your word!
29 Put false ways far from me
and graciously teach me your law!
30 I have chosen the way of faithfulness;
I set your rules before me.
31 I cling to your testimonies, O Lord;
let me not be put to shame!
32 I will run in the way of your commandments
when you enlarge my heart!
The entire psalm goes on and on about loving God’s laws, and wanting to learn more an more about them.
There is an implication that he is not simply talking about memorizing them, but unpacking what it means to follow God and obey his decrees. He wants learn not only the words but the depth of its truth.
There is something that he wants to take place in his mind so that it can inform his heart.
When Jesus was speaking to the scribes and lawmakers in he is asks about the most important command and he says...
29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
Mark 12:
The implication seems to be that we do not simply evolve deep affection for God but that it is a result, that it is in strong connection with how we engage our mind.
The very fact that we associate ourselves with Jesus, our gospel life has its foundations in learning. We are not made children of the living God by osmosis!
We are not made right with God without learning at least the basics of the gospel that put us face to face with the facts that we need grace and forgiveness.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
There must be a hearing, a learning, a convincing!
As Paul says, how can they believe if they haven’t heard.
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
We worship a God Who revealed himself, for the purpose that we may hear, may be convinced, and may respond.
BUT, BUT....is that it!?!
Just tell us what we need for eternal life and pop a lid on it! And Jesus we will see you when you get back!
Many seem to be happy to accept that a I’m forgiven, and accepted gospel and leave it at that.
And “Hey Jesus, thanks for the gift, let’s hang out when you get back!”
And that type of Christianity is, I would say a shallow form that lacks any real depth, and often means that when faith is found difficult it is disowned.
Why?
An incomplete version of the Gospel that says we are good on limited information. Just tell us what we need for eternal life and pop a lid on it!
It is an understanding on Christianity that we have inherited, from a say a prayer, get your passport stamped.
That is a form of the Christian faith that will lack real vitality.
As R.C. Sproul once wrote, “Burning hearts are not nourished by empty heads.” God’s truth — which must be learned — is the fuel for the spiritual fire that lights in the Christian heart.
One of the serious issues of being a learning disciple today is that we live in one of the fastest shifting cultures technologically ideologically, but we do so in an environment that produces stupidity. there is so much distraction and encouragement to not dig deeper, amd to stay distracted.
Binge watching series on netflix, (#guilty, So much so that the TV asks us…are you still watching!!!??
We get our information from world events from Facebook, memes, two sentence headlines, soundbites.
How do we compete with that? all the nformatiom, shifting idea....By making learning a part of the rhythm of our Christian discipleship.
Because when learning is a part of our discipleship…if gives us legs to carry our faith, tools to unpack it, and clarity in its expression.
WE ARE IN DANGER OF BECOMING STUPID
We are not made right with God without learning at least the basics of the gospel that puts us face to face with the facts that we need grace and forgiveness.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
There must be a hearing, a learning, a convincing!
As Paul says, how can they believe if they haven’t heard.
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
But
We worship a Who revealed himself, for the purpose that we may hear, may be convinced, and may respond.
BUT, BUT....is that it!?!
Many seem to think it is!!
Many seem to be happy to accept that a I’m forgiven, and accepted gospel and leave it at that.
And “Hey Jesus, thanks for the gift, let’s hang out when you get back!”
And that type of Christianity is, I would say a shallow form that lacks any real depth, and often means that when faith is found difficult it is disowned.
Why?
An incomplete version of the Gospel that says we are good on limited information. Just tell us what we need for eternal life and pop a lid on it!
It is an understanding on Christianity that we have inherited, from a say a prayer, get your passport stamped.
I. LEGS to Carry our faith
ill. weight lifter
Cam- I had a buddy i grew up with, he was an all or nothing guys..when we were kids he was Han Solo, and his entire basemen was laid out like the Millenium Falcon. High School, heavy Metal drummer, long permed hair band look, ripped shirts and wrist bands, after we graduated from High School, he became a body builder...., huge muscles, totally intimidating....but I’ll tell you what.
He couldn’t run, he had no endurance. And he was ....top heavy.
You could push him over by leaning into him.
Why he head all the weight up hear and didn’t have the ability to carry it with his tiny tooth pic legs.
no endurance and no balance
couldn’t run, couldn’t balance
The gospel is a massive claim to invest our lives into
To say we believe in things like the atonement for our sins, the incarnation, that the God who created everything took on human flesh, walked among us and lived a perfect life, died, rose again from the dead..(that this took place at an actual time, that it took place at an actually geographical location) not sure if you realize this, but these are nit your everyday claims!!
It is robust and needs to stand on some strong legs.
It is only a continued exploring of our faith that will sustain any real faith! Leaning gives our faith legs to stand on.
It also gives......
II. Tools to Unpack our faith
The Apostle Peter writes...
Learning about our faith gives the the legs to better carry the weight of the gospel in our lives and to be prepared .....
15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
How do we know our faith is a good faith?
How do we know how to answer the questions of the day....if we are not learners?
A Christian who isn’t learning, isn’t digging deeper is like a person carrying a load on their shoulders they have been told to carry, but have not unpacked it to see why!!
Ill. Airport----one time I dropped the missions team off at SEATAC, and I was still leading worship up here at the Mariner, and had to make it back in time for afternoon rehearsal.
I had dropped them with a trailer hitched to the back of the van.
And as I was heading back into Canada, they asked me what I had in the back, and it was at that point I realized, I had never once looked inside the trailer. They said…what is in the back and I said......
I don’t think there is anything in the back…I don’t really know!!
When we devote ourselves to learning as a continual process of unpacking the gospel that we have been welcomed into we are equipping ourselves for those kinds of questions!!
What is this Christianity? How does this faith of yours play out in a ever shifting culture.
Why do we hold to thing so strongly EVEN THOUGH OUR CULTURE IS TELLING US TO GIVE THEM UP AND FALL IN LINE?
How do I respond to difficulty and suffering in my life, if I haven’t learned to unpack my faith. We never graduate!!
Learning gives the tools we need to unpack our faith
and it also....
And unpacking sch
III. Clarity in our expression of our faith
II. Inform our worship
If we are called to worship in Spirit and in truth what does that look like.
a wrestling with, an unpacking and pealing back, means a better and “proper” response to the God who has revealed himself, through creation, through scripture and ultimately through Christ
so that we can worship him better and more fully!!
See God’s revelation of himself is not simply so we can know facts about him ,it is so that we can know HIM, and the more we know HIM, the better we can worship him.
The more we know Christ the greatest revelation of God himself the better we will worship our creator.
intellectual
correct doctrine leads to correct affection
How do I worship God i I do not know him.
experiencial
pursue the experience of what is true
I was geeking out the other day reading Reformed Dogmatics by Bavink, and found myself overwhelmed reflecting on God’s revelation of himself. I just meant to fill a few minutes of sitting around and found myselves broken by God’s beauty and found myself in a time of prayer and thanksgiving.
I’m not saying read Bavink, Im saying pursue your Creator and desire to know him more. As many have walked through and unpacked and had to walk as men and women of faith through great difficulties in the past, we are invited to learn from them to be encouraged and explore and unpack this gospel we have been entrusted with.
And as we do we find that He becomes more familiar. That he is not just a fact he is an affection.
BECAUSE I KNOW HIM!
Ill. If I wake up in the morning and I roll over and say to my wife....
Sweetheart..after 22 years of marriage I still love waking up and looking into your deep green eyes and seeing the way your raven black hair falls over your shoulders, something is very flawed in my praise of my wife!!
Something is very flawed in the way just tried to praise my wife.
She is blue eyed and and blond and she is not gonna give me points for trying!!
I cannot praise and lets say this …serve my wife properly, if I do now know her well, and the more I know about her the deeper my devotion grows and the more intimate we can be and the more my accurate praise of her is.
Can we believe for a second that a faith unconcerned with turning and exploring and unpacking, diving in, will bring about the devotion of the saints?
You and I are not called to LEARN we are invited to learn, …if gives us legs to carry our faith, tools to unpack it, and clarity in its expression, it should be our desire not our burden.
CONCLUSION
Now you happen to attend a church that loves and makes a priority of learning for all these reasons!!
The day I started working here, I think before he said, hi, David Wood handed me a book and said, you should read this!
There is rarely a time when CAChurch is not offering a class for the purpose of giving your faith the legs it needs to stand, the tools to unpack its implications for your life in Christ and for our culture, and for the purpose of enhancing and growing your faith in a fuller understanding of the God who loves you and pursues you!
I would enc
We do not offer them to fill space, the are a part of our discipleship. The great commission was to go into all the world, making disciples, baptizing in the name of the father and the son and the Holy spirit and teaching them all that I have told you.
Learning has always been a part of the life of a discipleship who wants to know him more and serve him more fully.
Let’s Pray