Intro to the Spiritual Disciplines

1 Timothy 4:6-10.

If you are an athlete, what is one of the most important attributes that you need to have in order to be successful?

Discipline

You need to be at practice ALL the time

You need to eat relatively well, regularly

You need to get enough sleep.

You will sacrifice parts of your life because you value the ability to do well.

Discipline: Activity or experience that provides you with mental or physical training.

In the same way, the Christian life is difficult!

No one accidentally becomes a Christian. And no one accidentally grows in their love and knowledge of God!

It’s not like you will feel like you’re so much closer with God if you never take any time to be with Him, read the Bible, or pray outside of when you have to at youth group.

God will feel far from you.

That’s part of why camp is so impactful for us!

Instead of spending almost no time in the Bible and being encouraged in the Lord, we spend a lot of time EVERY DAY with Jesus.

So, over the summer we’re going to talk about the Spiritual Disciplines.

What do you think those are?

What are Spiritual Disciplines?

Spiritual disciplines are practices for the individual and groups that are supposed to direct our bodies, hearts, and minds to God.

They are the things that we do that are supposed to draw us near to God because they are things that pull us away from the other distractions in the world.

So, for instance, we’ll talk about fasting as a spiritual discipline.

Fasting is the practice of giving something up for a time to focus on God.

When we fast, we are giving up the distraction towards food that we have to spend more time with Jesus.

Here’s what the disciplines aren’t

Disciplines aren’t everything that a Christian should do

Just because we’re supposed to do it doesn’t make it a spiritual discipline.

If an old lady needs help crossing the street, you help them!

We do that because we’re supposed to care about people and love them like Jesus does.

That doesn’t mean that helping old ladies across the street is a spiritual discipline!

We can’t just say that everything that is good is a spiritual discipline, that just doesn’t make sense.

The disciplines aren’t just weird rules.

We’re not Buddhists or Hindu monks! You won’t be able to meditate your way into heaven!

You can’t be so disciplined that you get to be one of those super Christians who are better than everyone else.

You aren’t going to see angels or anything like that because you pray enough.

The disciplines don’t save us.

Doing these things will not make Jesus love you any more than He does right now, and they won’t make you any more saved than you are the second you believe in Jesus.

These aren’t to force God to love you more, the disciplines are built to help point us towards God, not the other way around.

Spiritual disciplines must point us to Jesus.

Some people will make weird claims about the spiritual disciplines.

For instance, some people would say, “my spiritual discipline is gardening, because it makes me worship.”

If we aren’t led to a better understanding of Jesus and His sacrifice for us in the discipline, it’s not a discipline!

So, Rob is going to be teaching on Bible reading in two weeks.

That’s a spiritual discipline because when we open the Word of God, we are interacting with God, which leads us to a better love of Jesus.

But, we’re not going to be talking about playing the piano, because even if you love it, just the practice of playing the piano does nothing to point you to the gospel!

So, what we’ve seen so far is that spiritual disciplines are practices that are built to draw us closer to God, but they’re not just good things, weird rules, or ways to make God love us more.

Why Should we do Them?

So, the question would then be, why in the world should we do these things?

They don’t make God love us any more, what’s the point?

We train for godliness.

Just like an athlete trains their body to be able to do the sport that they practice, we are Christians who must continually train our very selves to grow in our knowledge and love of God.

No one accidentally becomes a saint, remember?

So, when we make a regular habit (or practice) of doing these disciplines because we want to grow closer to Jesus, we are training ourselves to be more like Him and doing what He did!

That also means that these disciplines are going to be hard!

Just like how a professional athlete gives up pieces of their lives for the sport, you will have to give up your life to be more like Jesus!

Taking time to read your Bible is work that takes practice

Fasting takes willpower and determination

Silence and solitude is really difficult to do!

These disciplines are simply that, disciplines. They are ways in which we subdue our desires so that we can love God more fully by training ourselves.

Jesus practiced these disciplines.

If you look up a list of the spiritual disciplines, you can find huge lists!

I’m reading a book that has over 40 spiritual disciplines in them that they learned from being a monk!

Here’s the thing:

JESUS DIDN’T DO THOSE THINGS

And I don’t really care if someone did something that they say makes them more faithful if Jesus didn’t do them or the Bible doesn’t say to do them.

So we’re not going to add any disciplines that we’re not confident that Jesus did or the Bible tells us to do.

If Jesus does something, it’s worth trying

Jesus is the perfect human who lived every day of His life in the complete joy and presence of the Lord, so if he tells you to do something, it’s worth doing!

It’s like if you have a professional idol that tells you to do something.

So, for instance, if you’re really into music and then your favorite musician called you and told you, “if you really want to be like me, you need to practice for three hours a day,” then if you really wanted to be like them, you would do it!

So, if we claim to be Jesus-followers, then we should follow His example.

Relationships take practice

The final reason for practicing the spiritual disciplines is that relationships take time and energy to grow.

Your best friend was unknown to you at one point in time! You had no idea who they were, but you spend the time and energy getting to know them, and then you sacrificed pieces of your life to be with them.

You could have slept in and not stayed at their house, but you did it because you love them!

As with any relationship, it takes time, energy, and intention to get to know Jesus, and the spiritual disciplines help us to grow in our relationship with Jesus.

And so maybe, you’re coming into this series not having much of a relationship with Jesus.

That’s ok! We can work to better understand Him through practicing some of these. It’s the process of getting to know Jesus better that might lead you to really knowing Him.

Or, maybe you’ve believed in Jesus for a long time, but He feels really far away.

Take this series seriously and let God work in that. I can’t tell you that doing a couple things suddenly makes God so real to you, but James 4:7–8“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

When we draw near to God, God draws near to us. So, let’s draw near to Him together

Gospel

Questions:

What are you most looking forward to over the summer?

What do you think of when you hear the term “spiritual disciplines?”

How can we “train yourself for godliness?” v. 7. Isn’t that working to make God love you more?

Why should you practice the spiritual disciplines?