Untitled Sermon

Spiritual Disciplines in Community

We are continuing a conversation we have been having concerning spiritual disciplines. Tonight we are talking about community and how it plays a part in your practice of the spiritual disciplines. Before I delve too deep into that, I want to discuss first what is a spiritual discipline. Let’s simplify it…

What is spiritual?

Related to religion or religious belief

Something related to the human soul or spirit as opposed to material or physical things.

What is discipline?

The practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience.

Branch of knowledge, typically one studied in higher education.

To train someone to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience.

The definition of discipline offered by Webster is revealing of how we can be tempted to view discipline. We affiliate it with punishment. When we say discipline to our child, we often are saying punishment. Discipline is greater than punishment. There is a time to punish a child, but it’s not always. However, discipline is something that should happen consistently. Teaching your child patience, respect, honor, to put others before themselves, to love above all things, to be governed by peace and operate out of hope. This isn't a product of punishment, it is a fruit of discipline though.

We understand that discipline is desirable, we also understand that the process is painful at times. The physical world abounds in examples;

Eating properly.

Physical training.

Healthy relationships.

Go back to our two definitions and let's join them together. The spiritual discipline is where the physical and the spiritual interact. It's the space where our flesh (physical) is submitted to the Lord (spiritual).

The definition I operate with; Spiritual disciplines are physical actions and practices that aid in our sanctification. They should be consistent, habitual and formative. Spiritual disciplines take hold of the flesh and push and pull it into conformity with God’s Heart and God’s Will.

Community is not a spiritual discipline on its own. Just like the Bible isn't a spiritual discipline, but reading, studying, memorizing, and meditating on it is. The Oneness of the Lord is what compels us to be a community. The need and desire for community is something every person experiences. They want a place to belong, a group to find solace and meaning in. Even if that group is a bunch of loners, they would say those are my people and we stay far from one another. But it's the impression left by the image of God we all bear as his creation.

Our redemption, justification and adoption by the Lord provides us with the truest way to fulfill that compulsion. It’s where an individual is reconciled, rejoined to their creator and then reconciled and rejoined to one another.

Ephesians 4:1-6

You are the sons or daughters of God, you are His ambassador, His treasured possession, live a life worthy of that calling.

Displaying humility, being patient and bearing with one another requires one anothers.

We run from people because they make us crazy, they test our patience, I don't like them but Paul would say that's exactly why you come to these people. So you can practice and experience gentleness, patience and humility. You can’t do that alone.

Again see how the Oneness of God in this passage and what it brings about, or that it even demands a single community of believers.

One another, One body, One spirit, One hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God

God’s love for us as individuals is pure and rich, but His Love is made abundant and resourced through His One Church. God’s love for individuals doesn't just call them to Him, it also places them firmly within the Church.

These spiritual truths are what has caused individual Chrisitians to prioritize community.

4 Specific Spiritual Discipline for Community

Gathered Worship

Confession

Guidance

Celebration

Gathered worship. This is a spiritual discipline, churchmanship more than church attendance or membership. Churchmanship is belonging and participating in the local church.

This term plays on the fact that we are gathered or assembled not only by our own will, but by the Will of the One who gathers us together. Worship is not just an event, but the worship of our daily lives should be punctuated with the gathering of Christians. Early Christians traditionally gathered on Sunday morning to memorialize and honor the resurrection of Christ. Most of the world viewed Saturday as a holiday, it was also the Jewish Sabbath. When Christians gathered on Sunday they often did it before the work day. They sacrificed sleep for gathered worship.

At other times and today in other places, Christians sacrifice not just comfort and preference but also their physical well being. It was dangerous to gather together when Christianity was illegal, but they did it. Not as rebels of the state, but as followers of Christ. It was dangerous at times to get up and speak in a group, lest you be identified as a preacher and find yourself imprisoned.

Heb 10:23–25: Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, 25 not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.

These followers of Christ, and we as followers of Christ, should not gather because it is simply good for us, or our tradition, or our desire, but because it is righteous.

It is obedient for us to do.

It reflects our oneness in Christ

It foreshadows the assembly of the righteous when all this fades away into oblivion and we exist eternally, incorruptible and immortal together.

Gathered Worship is a discipline because it…

Goes against our impulses to isolate and distance from other

It inconveniences us at times

It costs us; time, money, opportunity…

Confession

This is not always a community or corporate activity, but it gains great power when it goes beyond something done privately with good and becomes something done with a brother or sister.

*Richard Foster example of writing out past sins and reading them to someone…

Psalm 32:1–3: How joyful is the one, whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! 2 How joyful is a person whom the Lord does not charge with iniquity and in whose spirit is no deceit! 3 When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.

This Psalm is King David working through an inner struggle. That is the first step of this discipline. Notice the pain and self-harm caused by hidden sin. But this is greater than therapy. We don’t just confess sins because it feels good to get off our chest.

It reveals the first and second step to confession and repentance;

Examination of self under the gaze of God

Sorrow in response to sin

Determination to avoid sin

Often done privately, sometimes with another.

Sometimes another brings forward.

Other times you invite someone in.

This is what repentance looks like, we voice this to the Lord and its confession. But when we invite another brother or sister in, it becomes something amazing. We suddenly enable someone to do Gospel work. They become a vessel for healing and love. We gain an increasing bond to one another as we work out these issues.

James 5:13-16: 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

For receiving a confession…

Live under the Cross

Only speak Gospel truth

Listen, say little

Say nothing to another outside of the circle

Pray, apply God’s Mercy and Grace

Confession is a spiritual discipline because it…

Is in an act of humility; the admission of being sinner and saint

It goes against our desire to maintain a good reputation even if its false

It increases strengthens the bonds that bind us together

Guidance

Proverbs 15:22 Plans fail when there is no counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.

Can be a personal thing…

It’s great to receive advice, especially from someone who knows and cares about you.

You can gain perspective from others with similar experiences or very different backgrounds

It can give you assurance…

It can cause you to slow down…

It's also something for the church though…

Matthew 18:18-20: Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.

The early church and the Apostles would seek guidance together. Filled with the Holy Spirit they would join together and petition the Lord. WHen they came to a decision, they understood it to not only be consensus, they understood it to be the directing of the Lord.

For this reason, our churches do not submit to one man, other than Jesus, the God Man. Instead we operate under the council of Ministers and Edler and the prodding of the congregation.

Guidance is a spiritual discipline because…

It humbles us to admit our opinions are not always right.

It places the Lord’s Will over our own.

It increases our faithful dependance on one another

It provides an avenue for loving encouragement and refutation.

Celebration

*Example of a birthday without no guests

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

Psalm 150: Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens!Praise him for his mighty deeds;praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe!Praise him with sounding cymbals;praise him with loud clashing cymbals!Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!Praise the LORD!

How is celebration a spiritual discipline?

It can take the carnal and turn it into a moment of worship; expressed gratitude

It can eliminate false humility, a desire to remain unknown

It calls us to weep and rejoice with others

It can encourage others

So, all of these spiritual disciplines, and all others for that matter, are amplified by having community. Two is better than one! All of these disciplines today are truly dependent on the community.

It can be difficult to gather, to confess, to receive or give guidance, or celebrate on your own. Invite others into these parts of your life and accept the invitation of others. Remember the Kingdom of God is real and near, it's also highly relational and communal.