The Need for Self-Awareness
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian LIfe • Sermon • Submitted
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“Humanity is not a disease that needs to be cured or a state of deficiency from which we need to escape. The spiritual journey is not intended to make us into angels, gods, or some other form of spiritual beings. It is intended to help us become all that we, as humans, can be.
If any religion holds the potential for supporting this journey, Christianity should be at the top of that list, as it not only presents humans as created in the Divine image but also reveals a God who becomes human” (David Benner).
Continuing from last week’s discussion on our humanness, I said that Jesus did not die on the cross to crucify our humanity but to give us victory over sin so that we could become fully human. And one of the ways that the disciple of Jesus embraces his or her humanity as God would have us, is through self-awareness and self-examination. Let’s look again at 1 Tim.
Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness;
In v7 we have a negative juxtaposed by a positive. This is often seen in Scripture where the Biblical writers teach us to avoid practices that are destructive and replace them with practices that build up, that bring life. So, the Christian journey is not all about focusing on and eliminating the negative, but it’s also about being aware of and building up the positive. (e.g. stop cursing, but if you don’t bless …)
In v7, silly myths literally refer to “old wives’ tales” – silly things that adults makeup just because. “Daddy, what’s rain?” “Those are the tears of sad angels because of what you did to your sisters’ Barbie dolls.”
I want to clarify something – Paul is not referring to Sasquatch as a silly myth.
Irreverent or profane– refers to a violation of someone or something that is sacred. E.g. don’t profane God’s holy name or character. When we read v7, we might think in terms of the external - to avoid irreverent ideas, language, myths, whatever that are “out there.” That’s true, Christians should not be engaged in and perpetuate information that is destructive or false. This is one reason why gossip is a sin because gossip profanes the sacred, it profanes someone who is made in the image of God. But irreverent silly myths are not just external – they can also be internal – irreverent lies and beliefs that we tell ourselves that profane our own sacredness as humans, but also as people indwelt by the Holy Spirit? How many of us believe things about ourselves that’s contrary to God’s Word?
This is why self-awareness, self-examination, accountability with others, and knowledge of God’s Word all under the guidance of the Holy Spirit is so critical to godliness.
Rather than believing lies (irreverent silly myths), we’re to train ourselves to be godly – why?
for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
What is godliness? Talked about this before - it’s multifaceted, but here’s another aspect – Godliness is being the person (the human) we were designed to be (physically, spiritually, emotionally), and of course that requires continuous communion with Christ and transformation. To become that person God wants us to be requires ongoing unity with the Father. Jesus said. “I and the Father are one, and we want this oneness to be part of our relationship.” That’s the goal. It’s in that journey toward unity that we learn to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, to love others and self – allowing our humanness and our spirituality to coincide.
In my experience, we humans tend to get one or two out of the three (my observation; my opinion). I know people who love God and others well, but not self. I know people who love God and self but struggle with loving others. There are some who love self and others but struggle with loving God. Again, this is why self-awareness, self-examination, accountability, and knowledge of God’s Word, and living in the Spirit is so critical to a godly life.
What’s this self-awareness / examination stuff? I alluded to this last week.
Keep a close watch on how you live and on your teaching. Stay true to what is right for the sake of your own salvation and the salvation of those who hear you.
Some don’t like this idea of self-awareness, examination, of sitting with Jesus and letting Him ‘examine your soul.’ Afraid that He's going to be angry or of what He might find. The truth is unless we engage in self-examination, we’ll never become godly (might be saved, but not godly).
“Author Andreas Ebert remarked that many people are afraid of being swallowed up in themselves: ‘Many avoid the path of self-knowledge because they are afraid of being swallowed up in their own abysses. But Christians have confidence that Christ has lived through all the abysses of human life
and that he goes with us when we dare to engage in sincere confrontation with ourselves. Because God loves us unconditionally - along with our dark sides - we don't need to dodge ourselves. In the light of this love the pain of self-knowledge can be at the same time the beginning of our healing” (Rich Villodas).
Whatever Jesus exposes in us (light and dark) is for our healing and to further that oneness with Him and to love Him and others and self.
A healthy self-awareness and examination or personal and spiritual contemplation has always been valued in the Judeo-Christian faith, and it started with God.
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?
If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
What’s God telling Cain? Examine his life.
Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord!
In both letters to the Corinthians, Paul says, “Examine yourselves. Test yourselves.”
Thomas À Kempis (14thCentury theologian) said, a “Humble knowledge of self is a surer path to God than the ardent pursuit of learning.”
So, you can see taking time to reflect on self and on Christ not only has value, but it’s an imperative. If we want to be godly, if we want to be Christlike, if we want to be human, this is a spiritual discipline that should be cultivated.
A little more to it than being godly.
“The deeply formed mission is fundamentally about becoming a particular person and offering that to the world. This kind of mission is not just about activity; it's about being Christ for another. Anyone who belongs to Jesus is indwelled by his Spirit.
This indwelling life is not simply for the purpose of private, mystical experiences; it's also for the purpose of being shared with the world around us” (Rich Villodas).
Becoming the human God wants us to be is so that He can share us with others.
This takes us back to verse 7.
Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness;
Train – intentional practice – spiritual discipline – creating space to be transformed by Christ, which is what we'll be talking about for the next several weeks.
To get us started, I’m going to challenge us to do some self-reflection this week. Look at
Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.
There's five of areas, so take one each day - so Monday would be speech, Tuesday would be conduct, and so forth. You do what you want, but I encourage you to spend at least 15 minutes alone with the Lord. Before you open your Bible, begin with the prayer that I introduced last week – “Lord, open my eyes. Lord, incline my heart. Lord, order my steps.”
Open your Bibles. Ask Jesus questions. How am I talking? How am I living? How am I loving? How am I believing? How’s my morality?
Look up Scriptures. Ask more questions. Read slow. Reflect. Think. Then pray.
If you’ve never trusted in Jesus ….