Grace & Growth I
Sermon Review
21 October 2001
(1 Cor 9:24-27)There are many sports heroes in Australia. Think of Thorpedo, or Klim, or Kieran Perkins and Kathy Freeman etc. Each having excelled as athletes. Wouldn't it be wonderful to swim or run as well as each of them. Imagine being in their place on the winner's podium, or beating all the opposition in particular races. The problem is though, even if we dressed like them and put our utmost into each race they have won in, we still would not perform as well. Why? Partly because of less natural talent than they, but mainly because their wins are the result of an overall life of preparation, not just because they put their all into their moment on the public stage. They would have failed if this were not so. The hours, days, months, and years of serious physical, mental, and psychological preparation, has enabled them to be so competitive and to win. The thought of them being champions without such a way of life as preparation is really ridiculous.
As such it raises a question. Why do we not see as equally ridiculous the expectation that as Christians we should be able to act in the manner of Christ when put to the test, without appropriate discipline, spiritual nourishment and preparation? You see the amazing strength, timing, stamina, and performance of top athletes are not established and maintained by the short hours or sometimes minutes of their games, or races, or competitions. Such things are theirs when they need them because of the all-important daily regimen that the public does not see.
The same can be said for the Christian. Handling the daily demands as well as the unexpected problems of life as Christ would, will not happen on demand unless the Christian is preparing for them when not required. Dallas Willard, a deeply knowledgable Christian and spiritual academic picked up something significant in the late 1980's when he highlighted a flaw in the 'What Would Jesus Do?' movement. He points out that the WWJD question is a good one when confronted with specific decisions, but fails to take into account that asking such a question in no way guarantees either a right answer, nor the power to act, even if one has the right answer. The reason is that both power and wisdom flow from a deep and intimate relationship with Christ. Without such a relationship, JWWD will ultimately lead to frustration, failure and discouragement.
Simply put, it is a ridiculous expectation that Christians should be able to perform like an athlete without appropriate preparation.
Paul's Advice: 'It takes sweat to win!' (OHT). Run to win just like an athlete, says Paul. Don't dilly-dally around. He says be serious; don't just shadow box, but as a Christian, bring your mind, emotions, and physical body under control and make it your slave. Bring your thoughts into the captivity of Christ 2Cor.10:5; compete as an athlete within established rules 2Tim.2:5; run the race and fight the good fight 2Tim.4:7 etc.
If you look at Paul's life, you and I would wince at its difficulties 2Cor.11:23-29. How do you think that he was able to run his particular race? An amazing power encounter on the road to Damascus set him on the right path, but would never have been enough to sustain him. What really helped him was his 3 year preparation out in the desert and back blocks of Arabia Gal.3:17, and his ongoing disciplined spiritual life. Time in Arabia must have helped him enormously in establishing disciplines of solitude, silence, Bible study, extensive and extended prayer etc. And during his public ministry we know that he engaged in fasting Acts.13:1,2, 18:18, 21:23,24, extensive prayer Rom.1:9,10; Eph.1:15; Col.1:9 etc., time out while walking and travelling from place to place, and ongoing study and preaching of the word etc.
The spiritual nourishment he received through his spiritual disciplines was equal to the task of hanging in with God and engaging fully with life and people, dealing with all his many difficulties and pressures.
Automatic Growth?
One of the most important truths for Christians to come to grips with is that growth in grace and power does not come automatically, any more than plant life automatically grows because certain ingredients are available for it to grow. The plant has to absorb the nutrients, convert them, engage in the process of photosynthesis, and contribute to its growth. It is the same for the Christian. A person is saved by grace through faith, but is to 'work it out' Eph.2:8,9; Phil.2:12,13. And the truth is that it takes more effort and faith to grow as we go on because going deeper means dealing more deeply with our ingrained habits of thought, attitude, and character which resist increasingly stronger as their superficial elements are dealt with. The flesh is opposed to the Spirit Gal.6, and the Spirit has to more deeply invade our inner territory in order for our journey into the character of Christ to take place.
Personal Evaluation:
Have you ever stopped to think about why you often struggle to have the right attitude, a spiritual graciousness reflecting the presence of the Holy Spirit? After all the Holy Spirit is quite capable of providing the handling capacity of Jesus in our daily life - in the hum drum and the inspiring; both the expected and the unexpected, during both tragedy and triumph?
Take a moment to reflect on Jesus. How was he able to make the right decisions, to handle vigorous opposition, the rigorous demands of public life and Mentoring his demanding disciples? The answer is not just that he was divine, the Son of God. If you look at Jesus' life you will see that the answer lay in the spiritual discipline and preparation that were an ongoing part of his life. Stop and think for a moment. He didn't begin his ministry till after 30 odd years of preparation.
This wasn't because he was inept or dimwitted. At age 12 he was out-debating the religious heavy weights at the Temple, yet still spent the next 18 years out of the public eye in family and social life 'growing in stature and wisdom and in favour with God and with men' Lk.2:52.
His ministry demonstrates that he must have studied both people and the O.T. deeply and extensively during that time, and established disciplines of prayer and fasting, solitude and silence etc. Throughout His ministry he extensively used vigils of prayer, silence and solitude before giving out to others. He started his ministry with a 40 day fast which you do not do without much previous practise in fasting! Neither do you spend nights in prayer or have astuteness enough to schedule in solitude and silence for yourself and your disciples, or become a Bible 'buff', overnight! I would find it hard to believe that such things only became a part of his life during the last 3 years of it. What you see Jesus doing behind the scenes, out of the public eye, in those 3 short years can only have come from many weeks, months, and years of preparation before the event. And the only reason he maintained such poise, power and character, wisdom, graciousness, and goodness in the face of the demands of those 3 years was of his continued spiritual discipline in the midst of them.
You see the problem is that most Christians want to do what is right - to act like Christ would do if he were them with their own background and present circumstances, but unfortunately avoid the disciplines in their life that would make it possible. Avoiding the discipline and the disciplines that take us deeper into Christ, and that help the process of character transformation that make it possible to live life as he intends, means that we can only at best imitate him at a very superficial level, and bear the consequential pain of failure, disappointment, and discouragement.
Historical Mistake:
In the early and middle ages, many or most of what has come to known as Spiritual Disciplines like those in Jesus and Paul's lives, came to be associated with earning divine merit or forgiveness through denial and suffering. Hence this abuse stimulated the Protestants to throw out the baby with the bath water. This action resulted in a view that salvation in the fullest sense, heaven then and transformation into Christ now, requires little or no effort or engagement in spiritual disciplines other than perhaps a quiet time a day, a bible study a week, and church on Sunday. These things came to be generally seen as sufficient to enable a person to live a deeply devoted and joy-filled Christian life - to be capable of wisely and efficiently doing what Christ would do in all circumstances.
Q. I wonder how Paul would have handled things if he had to live on your spiritual nourishment? How would Jesus have fared with your spiritual discipline? (OHT) Your devotional life? Your worship and fellowship? Your bible study and meditation and reflection? The truth is that you probably struggle to engage with God, yourself, and life with your present level of discipline and nourishment, never lone Paul or Jesus! We are too well acquainted with a fast food spiritual life style, and both Jesus and Paul would have been anaemic and very undernourished had they copied ours.
To tread water with God we need at the very least, to be doing more than simply going to church and engaging in sporadic prayer and short devotional readings - these are a bare minimum. To really find the impact of God in our character and in the daily grind, we need to come to grips with the fact that far more discipline and effort is needed than we usually exercise. We need to be experimenting with different types of praying, getting into Bible study and not just devotional reading. We need to learn to use silence and solitude, meditation, fasting etc. These things are not only for the 'heavy-weights - they are what make heavy-weights'.
Don't think that you have to start big - you don't. But you do need to start experimenting with a few of these things so that they can be built into important habits. I have no doubt that Christ started sensibly first, building into what we know as his habitual engagement in such things. This will not be easy - it will require self-discipline, something that the Holy Spirit will supply 2Tim.1:7. But the Holy Spirit doesn't do it for you; we have to put in effort as well 2Pet.1:6. Remember, it not only takes faith to win in the Christian life, but it also takes sweat to win!
Conclusion:
The truth all of us must face is that we will never ever grow and engage with life and people fully in all the power and love that God promises if we don't throw out our fast food spiritual diet. If we want to find the reality of God's power and grace in our every day affairs as well as the unexpected moments, or times in the 'public eye'; if we want to grow in Christ-likeness; to get to know God, ourselves and others, at satisfying depth, then we need to restructure our lives so as to discipline ourselves in spiritual disciplines. Neither church nor God can be responsible for this. Responsibility begins with us as individuals.
It is challenging to think that on the night in Gethsemane Jesus gave the disciples a way to overcome their immediate crisis - to pray for the spirit was willing but their flesh was weak. They didn't pray and failed; Jesus prayed and he did not! As the athlete cannot depend on doing the right thing, on performing well, or handling stress positively in the heat of the moment unless they have prepared well before hand - neither can you or I. Don't expect to find yourself handling life well if you are not investing time and effort in your seeking of God and His power, reality and grace in disciplines that were a part of Jesus' life, Paul's life, and million's of Christian's throughout history. However, do expect to increasingly engage joyfully with God, yourself, life, and others when you do!
Blessings