Sermon Tone Analysis

! Introduction

            This summer on our vacation, we travelled through southern Saskatchewan on our way to Banff.

Instead of driving down the Trans-Canada, we drove on Hwy. 13 at the south of the province.

As we travelled further west, it got drier and drier.

The area south of Swift Current and west from there was a barren, brown land.

Hardly a tree, just miles and miles of brown grass and rolling hills.

To make it feel even more dead, the temperature was between 35 and 37 degrees.

We had planned to stop at Cyprus Hills and camp there, but as we looked around, we said to each other, “if it looks anything like this, we are travelling right on to Medicine Hat.”

When we saw the sign for Cyprus Hills, we were still doubtful, but as we drove up the hill to the park, everything changed.

Suddenly, and I do mean suddenly, we were surrounded by tall evergreen trees.

There was a lake and it was a beautiful place, a pleasant contrast to the dryness of the surrounding land.

As we set up camp, went for a walk and as I had a chance to kayak on the lake, our spirits revived from our afternoon of hot, dry barrenness.

How would you describe your spiritual life?

Would it be best described by the barrenness of southern Saskatchewan or the refreshing aliveness of Cyprus Hills?

Jesus promised us abundant life, but many of us find our spiritual lives anything but abundant.

This morning, and in the next two messages, I would like to talk to you about the spiritual disciplines which help us find spiritual refreshment and live the abundant life God intended.

I Timothy 4:8 points our thinking in this direction when it says, “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”

We will discover that although life comes from God, our training in godliness is a key factor to allow that life to make itself known in us.

!

I. What we are, what we desire and how we fail.

!! A. Created In God’s Image

            Of all that God has created, we as human beings are very unique.

The heavenly beings are created solely to be spiritual beings, to know God and worship God.

The creatures of earth - the trees, the animals and birds and so on are purely that - creatures.

They are of the earth, of the dust of the earth.

As human beings, however, we stand between.

Although we are made of dust, just like all the other animals, we are also made in the image of God.

Genesis 1:26 says, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’”

Although we share in dust with the animals, we also share in the image of God.

Being in the image of God, as the text says, we are involved in ruling over the earth.

We are the ones who have dominion over all other of the creatures made of dust.

Someday I would like to talk about why that means that we need to be concerned about the environment and why we should recycle and care for the air and the water, but that is for another day.

Being made in the image of God means that of all creatures on earth, we are the only ones who have the possibility of a relationship with the Creator.

We are able to know God, to relate to God.

We are able to live in a knowing relationship with the one who made all the things we see.

Psalm 8:5 indicates the powerful relationship that is ours.

The Psalmist says, “You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.”

We are god-like creatures and can live at a level far above the dust of the earth.

Yet we do not live in that relationship.

We do not see God in the world.

We do not walk with God.

We do not experience the life that God has intended for us.

We are much more like all the creatures of the earth than we are like the creatures of heaven.

Why do we not live at the level for which we were created?

Of course we know that it is because of sin.

We have sinned against our Creator and because sin has entered our world, the image of God is broken in us.

Sin has stolen what we were created for.

We are made of dust and seem to live at the level of dust even though we were created to aspire to the heavens.

!! B. Born To Live

            Of course, we know that Jesus’ death on the cross has covered our sin and that in Christ we are born again.

The life of God has been placed in us by the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 2:5 assures us that God, “made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions…” I John 5:12 also indicates, “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

So the heavenly life that we were created for, which was spoiled by sin, has been restored in Christ.

That is the reality of who we are, but do we live in that reality?

We say we are dead to sins, but we still live so much in them.

We say that God’s Spirit lives in us, but we are influenced much more by the spirit which is in this world.

Why is this so?

We have been waiting for the birth of our first grand-child.

What we are looking forward to, however, is not so much the birth, but the presence, the life of our grandchild.

Part of the problem is that for some Evangelical Christians, we have emphasized the spiritual rebirth so much that we have forgotten that it isn’t only the birth that is important, but the life that arises from the birth.

As Christians we sometimes think that a Christian is born to be born, not to live.

Much of what I am sharing with you today comes from a book called “The Spirit of the Disciplines” by Dallas Willard.

He asks, “Why is it that we look upon our salvation as a moment that began our religious life instead of the daily life we receive from God?”

            Yet there is a longing.

God has created us for life and He has re-created us for life and promised us life.

How can we live?

!! C. Salt Of The Earth

            Last week I talked about the current situation in Canada and the redefinition of marriage which our government is considering.

When I thought about how many evangelical Christians there are in Canada, how many Catholics and other Christians who are deeply concerned about this, I mused that perhaps with the significant numbers, we ought to be able to have an influence on our society.

Yet, I wonder if we will?

In Matthew 5:13 Jesus calls us the “salt of the earth.”

Dallas Willard considers that in the United States where about 25% of Americans claim to be born again, they ought to have a profound influence.

Twenty-five percent salt would have a significant influence on 75% of meat.

But we don’t have that kind of an influence.

Jesus suggests the reason - the salt has lost its saltiness.

Why is that?

Is it perhaps that we are not being transformed into Christlikeness?

Is it perhaps that somehow the influence of the Spirit is not allowed to make himself known in us because we are still so much of the dust of the earth?

We were created in the image of God, born in Christ to live a life in Christlikeness and as such influence the entire world.

But we don’t.

We live at the level of dust, like the creatures.

We fall far short of the abundant life God intends us to live and we do not influence the world.

Yet I think that we are not satisfied with this situation.

We want the life of God.

Willard says, “For serious churchgoing Christians, the hindrance to true spiritual growth is not unwillingness.”

!

II.

The Necessity Of Spiritual Disciplines

!! A. Transformed Flesh

            Where is the problem?

Since we don’t understand the problem, we draw some conclusions.

We conclude that God’s power is not adequate, but we know that isn’t true.

We conclude that the life we were meant for is for a future life, not for now.

But there is too much in the Bible, like the promise of abundant life, which tells us that that also is not true.

We are encouraged by II Corinthians 3:18 which promises that we “are being transformed.”

We hope in God and recognize that He is at work, but we wonder if there is more.

Willard asks, “What is missing in our deformed condition?

I think that Jesus put his finger on it when he told the disciples in the garden, in Matthew 26:41, “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Can this be changed?

When we came back from vacation, our lawn was quite brown.

It had been very hot and dry and only the quack grass was still flourishing.

Today, our lawn looks much better than it did.