Spiritual Disciplines

Tonight, we are going to talk about spiritual disciplines.

It seems as if there are lots of ways to grow and pursue Christ.

We are always looking for something new and better.

But many times these new ways of growing, new disciplines, are more work than they should be and in the effort they lose their focus.

Before having kids, I enjoyed working out.

I’d go to the gym.

I did a lot of running and bike riding as well.

But I’m also a tech guy.

I have little gadget, or tech tools that I always enjoy using.

There have been a few times, I’d get ready for a run.

I’d have my shoes on.

My shorts.

My shirt.

My headphones.

Then it’d come time to start my music, because you can’t work out with listening to something.

The music would stream from my watch, and for whatever reason, the LTE connection, the cell phone component to my watch wouldn’t work.

And there I’d sit, for too long, playing with my phone to try and get music to play.

There were a few times I ended up not working out because I couldn’t get the music to play the right way off of my phone.

Were there other things I could have done?

Sure.

Did I actually need that music?

No.

I had made things harder than they needed to be.

And what I wanted to accomplish in the first place, didn’t happen.

There are times we approach spiritual disciplines the same way.

We make things harder than they should be.

Sometimes we take workout cliches and apply them to sanctification:

“No pain no gain.”

“God helps those who help themselves.”

I remember one shirt that said, “Pain is bread, and I’m hungry.”

We take these cliches and apply them to sanctification and say, “If I’m gonna grow it better be hard.”

But should sanctification be like that?

Should spiritual disciplines be this hard?

Remember the Gospel in your Growth

As we begin, we must remember Gospel.

The Gospel is critical in your growth.

What is the Gospel?

Ask the question and allow for discussion.

Good.

Let me go even a step further, let’s think about this in terms of the story of the Bible.

Let’s go back to the Garden.

What was the expectation on Adam?

“Don’t eat from that tree.”

Perfection.

Obedience.

Do this and live.

And how did it go for Adam?

His failure is our failure.

Romans 5:19 says “For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners ...”

We are sinners and found guilty because of him.

That guilt is confirmed through the Law.

It confirms Adam’s fall is our fall.

The Law can be summed up in that statement, “Do this and live.”

For example, Leviticus 18:5, “‘So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am the Lord.”

We see throughout the Bible that people are never able to do this and live.

It doesn’t happen.

We all fail to keep God’s law.

You see this in your own life, even in your converted state.

We still sin.

We still break God’s Law.

And because man isn’t able to “do this and live” he is found to be unrighteous.

Adam’s guilt is confirmed in our lives.

Then what is the Gospel?

Yes, He came to die for us on the Cross.

We are really good at knowing this.

But He also came for your righteousness.

Jesus did what you could not do!

Think of when Jesus was tempted by Satan.

3 times tempted.

3 times He didn’t sin.

Why is that important?

Because you failed to be perfect.

You have been tempted and sinned.

He was tempted and was perfect.

Now that obedience is your obedience.

Isn’t that cool?

He was the Last Adam.

He came to obey.

He did what you could not do.

Our faith is that not only did He die for our sins, but He lived for our righteousness.

The theological term is that His righteousness is imputed onto us.

We are covered by His righteousness.

This means when we die

and we stand in front of God,

His righteousness covers us

so that God sees Christ instead of us.

I don’t know about you, but I need that.

Romans 5:19, “For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.”

This means that when it comes to your salvation, you can say it was all Him.

All of this is important, because we need to remember, that Jesus did not come so that you would work hard.

Jesus never said, “God helps those who help themselves.”

Matthew 11:30 ““For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.””

He came to do what you could not do.

So why is it when it comes to our sanctification and our spiritual growth we make things so difficult?

I think that there is a simpler method. - Simple Disciplines

I also don’t think we need to reinvent the wheel.

I like to follow the lead of others who have gone ahead of us.

Heidelberg Catechism - Question 65

“It is by faith alone that we share in Christ and all his benefits: where then does that faith come from? The Holy Spirit works it in our hearts by the preaching of the holy gospel, and confirms it by the use of the holy sacraments.”

Where does your faith come from and how does it grow?

By the Holy Spirit.

It is not something made by you.

It is not something increased by you.

It is from the Holy Spirit.

And the means ordained by Him for you to grow is through:

Isn’t by:

Working really hard.

No pain, no gain.

First, it’s the Holy Spirit who works.

He gets the credit.

And He works by the preaching of the Gospel.

And the sacraments.

That is communion and baptism.

This is for believers.

As believers we need to hear the Gospel preached.

It’s not just for the unconverted.

Believers need to hear the Gospel.

And communion -

Why is that so critical?

Because we need to be reminded of something.

Another example, the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith Chapter 22, paragraph 5 says,

The elements of religious worship of God include reading the Scriptures, preaching and hearing the Word of God, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord, as well as the administration of baptism and the Lord’s supper. They must be performed out of obedience to him, with understanding, faith, reverence, and godly fear.

Scripture

Preaching

Hearing

Teaching

Worship through song

And the sacraments are the disciplines ordained for us.

Historically, this is how the church has recognized we grow in our faith.

And those statements are summaries of what Scripture has already said:

Colossians 3:15–17 “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.”

Ephesians 5:19–20 “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;”

The Biblical method is:

The Word

Prayer

Teaching one another

Regular Sunday worship

Hearing the Word preached

Receiving the sacraments

These are called Ordinary Means

Ordinary Means we take what God has ordained and we use them.

They are ordinary, because they are God’s practices.

We don’t have to do anything different.

We don’t need to invent new methods.

This is simple

Built around the Gospel

The Gospel tells us we are:

Weak

Helpless

Dependant upon Him.

The Gospel is simple.

It places our lives at His mercy.

So in the same way that when it comes to our salvation, there is an element of surrendering our works to Christ.

We must do the same in our growth.

Trust and rest in Him.

Remember this because there is always a pull towards works.

This is true in our salvation.

And its true in our growth.

On some level we think it should be hard.

Maybe it’s our American virtue of anything worth having is worth fighting for.

And this gets applied to our sanctification.

As if somehow we need to pay Jesus back for what He has done.

That if we are going to grow we need to push ourselves harder.

What I’m proposing is that we use the means that God has ordained for us.

This mean resting in His way.

Trusting in His way.

Trusting that His way really is the best way.

For some of us the idea of not working hard might be the hardest part.

I just finished a book called The Marrow of Modern Divinity, written in 1646 by Edward Fisher.

The same question we are talking about was raised.

"What you would have me to do, that I may grow more strong?”

Isn’t that why we’re here tonight?

What do I need to grow?

The answer given is, “Why, surely, the best advice and counsel that I can give you, is to exercise that faith which you have, and wrestle against doubting, and be earnest with God in prayer for the increase of it. … you must also be diligent in hearing the word preached; for as "faith cometh by hearing," (Rom 10:17), so is it also increased by hearing. And you must also read the word, and meditate upon the free and gracious promises of God; for the promise is the immortal seed, whereby the Spirit of Christ begets and increases faith in the hearts of all his.”

The answer was that we live in the Word.

We hear it.

We meditate on it.

We rest in the free and gracious promises of God, this is the Gospel.

And the promise is that as we meditate on the Gospel, we will grow.

I think you will grow in your affections for Christ.

You will grow in your faith.

You will see growth.

The Practice

Remember the elements:

Prayer

Word

Preaching

Teaching one another

Sacraments

Songs

What I do:

My daily routine incorporates prayer, Scripture, and allows previous generations to teach me.

While being built and structured upon the Gospel.

This model is similar to the ACTS format of prayer.

Run Down

Adoration

It opens in a time of worship of God.

I’ll read a Psalm.

This might sound strange, but read from Revelation, especially chapters 5-7.

It’s a time of praise to God.

The Law

I’ll read the Law.

The Law is anything that says, “Do this”

Could be:

10 Commandments

The greatest commandment.

Any command:

Love your neighbor

The purpose of reading the Law is not to tell myself to try harder.

It’s actually to reveal my own personal sin.

The truth is that I have not loved my neighbor as myself, I have sinned, I still sin.

It’s daily brought to my mind.

Confession of Sin

After the Law exposes my sin, I then confess my sin to God.

In this I see that I continue to need the Gospel in my daily life.

I am not perfect, I am not a finished product.

It brings me back to the foot of the Cross.

It keeps the Gospel fresh in my mind.

And in that moment I’m most vulnerable.

My sin is there.

I grieve my sin.

I’m humbled.

Assurance of Pardon

This is two fold.

It reminds me that Jesus accomplished something.

It takes my eyes off my guilt and onto Christ.

Jesus didn’t die to make salvation possible.

He died to accomplish something.

So if He died for my sins, then my sin is gone.

It gives me a hope that I need now.

Assurance is not found in my works.

It is only found in Jesus’ actions.

Creeds

Part of the ordinary means is that we teach one another.

Some of the historical statements of the church are super helpful in our growth as Christians.

I read daily from:

Niceness Creed

Apostles’ Creed

Athanasian Creed

Second London Baptist Confession of Faith

The Heidelberg Catechism

Westminster Shorter Catechism

Reading these older documents help maintain my alignment with the historic Christian faith.

I do not want to go down a path where I am diverting from the historic faith.

We should be in Scripture, but I don’t want to read the Bible by myself in a bubble.

I want to know what did previous generations think.

I mean they were Christians right?

Scripture

It is helpful to have a strategy when reading Scripture.

I’ve followed multiple formats over the years.

I am currently reading the M’Cheyne Reading Plan.

It includes reading:

The Old Testament once.

The New Testament twice.

The Psalms twice.

Prayer

Throughoit the process I am constantly praying.

My understanding of prayer is that:

I can only pray because I am at peace with God through Christ.

My prayer is enabled by the Holy Spirit, by the peace of Christ, to God the Father.

In this way, it is Trinitarian, and Gospel saturated.

This is done through journaling and meditating on whatever I am reading.

I also spend devoted time in prayer during adoration and at the conclusion.

Regular worship on the Christian Sabbath

I don’t think that this is a problem here, but one of the means for growth is regular worship on the Christian Sabbath, Sundays.

I specifically mean Sundays as well.

It is what the New Testament calls the Lord’s Day.

It is the day that Christ rose from the grave.

This means that our gathering is not random, but is in response to His victory from the grave.

Includes:

Communion

Communion is a community event.

I Corinthians 11 says that when we take it we are proclaiming the Lord’s death.

Why do we need to proclaim His death?

Because of the Gospel.

It is a needed means of assurance to the battered Christian.

We continue to sin.

We struggle.

We need to be reminded that Jesus died for us.

And even though we still sin, there is victory.

Preaching of the Word

Not just preaching the Bible, but preaching Christ, Who is the Word made flesh.

He is the Word.

We don’t need words, we need The Word, Jesus.

We need to hear the Gospel preached regularly.

Isaiah 40:1–2 ““Comfort, O comfort My people,” says your God. “Speak kindly to Jerusalem; And call out to her, that her warfare has ended, That her iniquity has been removed … .””

1 Corinthians 1:23 “but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness,”

κηρύσσομεν - Kerussomen - 1st persen present active indicative

Paul was writing to the Corinthian church which was already Christian, and he continued to preach Christ crucified.

You will never outgrow.

We need to hear the Gospel.

Singing of Songs

Ephesians 5:19 “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;”

Part of God’s plan for your growth is to sing songs with the church.

Music is powerful.

My boys are 3 and 4.

They know their ABCs, counting, and way too much about the planets.

How’d they learn so much?

They learned songs.

Songs somehow work their way into our soul and put truths on our heart.

I get up early and get this done.

I treasure that time.

But its different for everyone.

Spiritual Disciplines

They should be simple.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

Use what God has given us.

How can you do this?

Has any of this struck you or caused you to think differently?

Do you have a time you can be with the Lord?

How can you incorporate worship into your time?

How can you utilize the Law, to reveal your sin?

How can you confess to the Lord?

How you need assurance?

Do you have any resources that you can read to make sure you are inline with the church universal?