Spiritual Disciplines-Introduction

Before we begin this morning, go ahead and turn in your copies of God’s Word to Acts 2:42-47. We will read these verses shortly, so pleased have them marked and ready for that time.

This first message for this new year, we are starting a brand-new series. Honestly, I believe this will be a very important series to start the new year. This series will be on the Spiritual Disciplines. Today we will begin with an introduction to the series. This has the potential for each of you to be one of the more important sermon series that you’ve ever had the opportunity to listen to, certainly not because of the one delivering the message, but because of the topic and the impact a strong devotion to these Key Spiritual Disciplines can have on your life. Developing a life devoted to the Spiritual Disciplines, can and will take you places you never imagined you would be able to go in your relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. If these become your habits as you walk with Christ, it will have a major impact on you, as well as those around you.

Now, lets go before the Lord in prayer;

Now, would you please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word?

Acts 2:42–47 (ESV)

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common.

45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,

47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Word, please be seated.

Now I have to be honest with you for a moment here. When I think over the word discipline as it relates to my life growing up, it is not one of my favorite words! First of all, let’s look at the dictionary definition of the word discipline:

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

I do not know about the rest of you out there listening this morning and how you were raised, or how you’re raising your children. But I know that as I was growing up, when you disobeyed your parents there was a price to pay!

Now, don’t tell my mom I told you this, but discipline from her really wasn’t that big a deal. But there were a few occasions, when I was bad enough, that she decided that the discipline would be better handled by somebody else! And then she would utter the six most terrifying words that a kid ever heard growing up in the 60s and 70s!

Slide 2

“Wait ’til your father gets home!” Those seven terrible words set in motion great great fear, my eyes would get big, the wheels of my mind would start turning, panic would set in. You knew that anytime mom used those seven terrible words, those seven terrifying words, those seven words that I felt like at the time should have been outlawed by every government agency on the face of the earth, that when dad got home you were going to get “THE BELT”.

Thankfully, the definition I read you earlier doesn’t end there! It goes on to say; “a system of rules of conduct; To(discipline oneself to do something) to train oneself to do something in a controlled and habitual way.”

With that part of the definition in mind, the word discipline can cover many different areas of life, and if you learn how to manage these disciplines your life changes for the better. There are some natural disciplines like healthy diet, physical activity, proper sleeping habits that can have huge benefits for your life physically and in many cases mentally, I certainly encourage all of you to devote yourself to doing better in these areas of natural disciplines. But this morning, and over the next few weeks, we will not be looking at the natural disciplines but the Spiritual Disciplines.

Perhaps more telling is the Greek word that is used for discipline in the New Testament. The word is gymnazo, meaning “to exercise, to train the body or mind” and it is where we get the word gymnasium. The picture here is someone working hard to the point of working up a sweat. In other words, we are to put significant effort in our exercise of the Spiritual Disciplines.

Donald Whitney, has written a book titled

“Spiritual Disciplines For The Christian Life” that is largely considered to be one of the best books written specific to the Spiritual Disciplines. Much of what we will look at in the coming weeks comes from thoughts that he has put together and included in this terrific book. But I will be using many other sources as well, we will also spend time in multiple passages that is the deal with or highlight the Spiritual Disciplines.

The first thing that we need to understand when it comes to discipline is that there has to be a purpose behind any discipline. Discipline without direction is drudgery.

How many of you remember the 1994 classic Karate Kid? One of the more famous scenes from Karate Kid came early in the movie. The night before Daniel was being beat up by several boys when Mr. Myagi came to the rescue. In this particular scene Mr. Myagi begins teaching karate to his young student Daniel. But his lessons have been very unconventional. Instead of taking Daniel to a dojo for his training he has been having him sand and stain his fence and deck and wash and wax his cars. It wasn’t until several days of seemingly doing chores for Mr. Myagi that Daniel began to understand the purpose behind the discipline. Not only was he developing muscles needed for karate, he was also learning specific skills used in karate.

When it comes to discipline in the Christian life, many believers feel as Daniel did towards the instructions that he was receiving from Mr. Myagi— it is discipline without direction. Without direction prayer threatens to be drudgery. The practical value of spending time studying Scripture seems uncertain.

So what is the purpose for the Spiritual Disciplines? First of all, the purpose of Spiritual Disciplines is laid out for us in Romans 8:29 Slide 5 where we read;

Romans 8:29 (ESV)

For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the Image of His Son, in order that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers.

So what is the plan? The plan is that we will ultimately be conformed to the image of Christ, to Christlikeness, that we will be Holy. Now there is something very important to note at this point. This Holiness, this conformity to Christlikeness is not something that is forced upon any believer. While we are the clay and He is the Potter, He does not reach down from heaven and forcefully mold us into what He wants us to become. We play a significant role in being Holy, in becoming like Christ. Hebrews 12:14 where we read;

“Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”

The author makes it very clear that we are to pursue Holiness. This is not given as an option but is a command.

Admittedly this is a very tall order. I mean how do you “Make every effort to live at peace with all men and be holy”? The apostle Paul gives us the answer to this In his letter to the Ephesians. Let’s see what he writes Ephesians 1:13–14;

“In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, Who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory.”

In his book on the Spiritual Disciplines, Donald Whitney writes;

“The presence of the Holy Spirit causes all those in whom He resides to have new holy hungers they didn’t have before. The hunger, for example, for the Holy Word of God — the Bible — that they used to find boring or irrelevant. They have new holy longings, such as the longing to live in a body without sin and to have a mind no longer tempted by sin. They yearn to live in a holy and perfect world with holy and perfect people, and to see at last the angels perpetually praise the Lord as “holy, holy, holy” (Rev. 4:8). These are some of the holy heartbeats in all those in whom the Holy Spirit resides. Consequently, when the Holy Spirit indwells in someone, that person begins to prize and pursue holiness.”

That brings us to a very important question for everyone here today. How are you doing in this area? Do you have that holy heartbeat, that yearning for the things of God, that desire to spend time in the Word of God, that desire to win in the battle over sin? Now please understand something here. I am not at all saying that we will have great success at all times in these areas, but I am saying that these desires need to be present in the mind of the genuine believer. The success in these things come from our devotion to the spiritual disciplines that we will be looking at in the coming weeks.

A week before my college started in 1982, our soccer team came back to school earlier to begin our training camp. It was by far the most intense training I have ever been a part of. To begin with, every morning we met at 6 AM as a team to go out on a 3-mile run. This was a “voluntary” run…Our goal was to finish the run in about 18 minutes. For those of you doing the math in your head right now, you know that in order to do 3 miles in 18 minutes, you have to average each mile at six minutes. At first, there were many who had a hard time finishing in 20 minutes. But by the end of our training camp, almost every single player was able to finish in right around 18 minutes. Of course, this was before we would start the 2 a day practices! Most of our morning practices that week did not even include the use of a soccer ball. We did sprints, we ran lines, as well as many other team running drills. And before the afternoon practice, we again met for a 12-minute run, to usher in an intense afternoon practice. Now I have to admit, there were a few times while doing these runs drills that I was a little confused as to how this was going to help us win soccer games. But before long I begin to understand our coach’s reasoning behind our intense training. We were in better physical condition than any team we played that year. This was most evident about the fourth week of the season. We were traveling to play Eastern College in Saint Davids, Pennsylvania. At the time there were close to 3000 students attending Eastern College. The majority of their team was there on soccer scholarships. On the flip-side, we had less than 200 students in my Bible College, and not a single individual was there on a scholarship for soccer. Easter College had scheduled us for their home coming game. Who do you schedule for homecoming games? Well generally, you schedule a team that you can easily defeat. At the start of the game, it looked like their plan was working well. Before long they were up 1 to 0, and at half time they were up 2 to 1. But not long into the second half the tide of the game begin to change. Within five minutes we begin to realize that they were already wearing down. But no one on our team was even remotely tired so we kept pushing and pushing. By the end of the game they headed dejectedly to their bench with a loss losing to what they called “the Bible Boys” 3 to 2. Our discipline paid off!

So what is the point of this story? From a talent and experience standpoint, we had no business winning that game. But our devotion to physical discipline enabled us to do something we could not have done without it. The same thing can happen in our spiritual lives as we devote ourselves to the spiritual disciplines that we are going to be looking at in the coming weeks. We are in the middle of an intense spiritual battle that we have no business winning. But with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and our devotion to these spiritual disciplines, we can do better than we ever dreamed possible.

In 1 Timothy 4:7, the apostle Paul writes

“…discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness”. 1 Timothy 4:7 NASB

In this verse the apostle Paul makes it clear that godliness is something that should be a sincere pursuit of ours, and that this pursuit will only come through discipline, and in this instance, it is the spiritual disciplines. Donald Whitney writes; “the only road to Christian maturity and godliness (a biblical term synonymous with Christ likeness and holiness) passes through the practice of the spiritual disciplines.”

So, what exactly are Spiritual Disciplines? Spiritual Disciplines are those practices found in Scripture that promote spiritual growth among believers in the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are specific habits that the believer devotes themselves to, that bring about spiritual growth in their life. For an example of this, look again at Acts 2:42-47. We read these verses earlier in the service. In these verses you see a few spiritual disciplines highlighted in verse 42 and verse 46. And you see the results of what takes place when believers practice them in verses 43, 44, 45 and 47.

Acts 2:42–47 (ESV)

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common.

45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,

47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

So, what are Spiritual Disciplines?

First there are two specific types of spiritual disciplines prescribed in the Bible.

Personal & Corporate.

1. Personal-Spiritual Disciplines, those that are practiced alone.

2. Corporate-Spiritual Disciplines, those that are practiced with others.

There are a few spiritual disciplines that are both personal and corporate. For example, the believer should read and study God’s Word on their own. That is a personal spiritual discipline. But they should also hear the Bible read and study it together in church settings. For instance a Sunday morning messages like this, & Bible studies. This would be an example of corporate spiritual disciplines.

Another example of a spiritual discipline that can be both personal and corporate, is worship. The believer should worship God privately, but the believer should also worship Him publicly with others who believe in Him. This makes worship at times a personal spiritual discipline, and at other times they are corporate spiritual discipline. Both personal and corporate spiritual disciplines are an avenue of great spiritual blessing for the believer.

Additionally, as you look through the Gospels, you see that Jesus Himself, practiced both personal and corporate spiritual disciplines. In Mt. 4:1, 14:3; Mark 1:35; & Luke 4:42 we see Jesus going off to be by Himself to spend time in prayer, which would be an example of a personal spiritual discipline. And in Luke 4:16 we see Him going to the synagogue on the Sabbath, which would be an example of corporate spiritual discipline.

The Second thing Spiritual Disciplines are is they are

Activities not Attitudes.

Disciplines are practices, not character qualities. Disciplines are things you do — such as read, meditate, pray, fast, worship, serve, learn, and so on. So, if these are activities then what are examples of attitudes? For that, turn in your Bibles to Galatians 5:22–23

Galatians 5:22–23 (ESV)

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Here we read about the “fruit of the spirit”. These attitudes are all things that we should see in the life of the believer.

· The believer should have an attitude of love.

· The believer should have an attitude of joy.

· The believer should have an attitude of peace towards others.

· The believer should have a attitude of patience.

· Of kindness.

· Of goodness.

· Of faithfulness.

· Of gentleness.

· Of self-control.

Each of these attitudes should be commonly displayed in the life of the believer.

The next question would be, how do activities and attitudes fit together? To answer this question, let’s consider both of these from the spiritual standpoint. In looking at Galatians 5:22-23 And the “fruit of the Spirit”. These would be considered spiritual attitudes. When we compare spiritual attitudes, like the “fruit of the spirit”, to spiritual disciplines, it becomes very clear early on that the goal of spiritual disciplines is that spiritual attitudes would be the automatic outflow of the spiritual disciplined person. In other words, the more you and I diligently practice the spiritual disciplines that we will be studying in the coming weeks, the more we become like Christ. The more we become like Christ, the more our spiritual attitudes, like the “fruit of the Spirit” become the natural outflow of who we are.

Here is the key, and if you are a note taker this is something you should put down on paper.

The goal of practicing the Spiritual Disciplines is not about doing as much as it is about being, that is, being like Jesus.

Let me repeat that for you, The goal of practicing the Spiritual Disciplines is not about doing as much as it is about being, that is, being like Jesus.

Donald Whitney writes; “Godliness — being like Jesus — is the purpose, but the God given path to that purpose is through certain activities found in Scripture known as Spiritual Disciplines. To put it another way, there are specific practices we are to do sometimes that cultivate genuinely being like Jesus all the time.”

Since being like Christ is our goal, then we should practice these spiritual disciplines with that goal in mind at all times. Without this purpose in our minds, the performance of spiritual disciplines — no matter how consistent or how hard we may practice them —is worth nothing. So while we cannot be godly without the practice of the spiritual disciplines, we can also practice these disciplines without being godly. In fact Jesus faced many who daily practiced spiritual disciplines but were anything but Christ-like. And those were the only individuals that He attacked when He was here doing His public ministry. So who were these individuals that regularly practiced spiritual disciplines without the goal of being Christ-like? They were the Pharisees, the Scribes, the teachers of the law.

Really it all comes down to the heart of the individual and his or her goal of being like Christ. That attitude of the heart and goal of being like Christ is what gives transformative power to the spiritual disciplines.

In spite of what we see in the life of Christ and read in the pages of the New Testament, there are far too many believers who are spiritually undisciplined and who have little if any of the fruit or power of the Holy Spirit in their life. The interesting thing is, that many of those same individuals have incredible discipline in other areas of life. They show remarkable discipline in the area of athletics, in areas of their musical endeavors, in areas of their studies, in the areas of advancing their career, in the areas of taking care of their yards, the lists of their disciplines is practically endless, yet when it comes to the area of spiritual disciplines we see next to nothing taking place. It is like they look at all those other areas, where they have shown great discipline and thought to themselves; “There is no way I can succeed if I don’t work hard!” But when it comes to becoming more like Christ, they have no desire to work hard, they would rather that God would just touch them and make them instantly like Christ. But that is not the way it happens. God graciously gives us the opportunity to play a role in our becoming like Christ. And one of those roles that we play is the spiritual disciplines.

So, in the coming weeks as we look through, in great detail, these spiritual disciplines, one of the things that you need to do is to evaluate each week how you are doing in that specific spiritual discipline. Hopefully, we can come up with a plan together, as a church, in these spiritual disciplines, that will help all of us in our desire to become more like Christ through the practice of these spiritual disciplines.

My prayer is that this study will have an incredible impact on our lives individually, and on the life of Sheridan Lake Bible Church corporately!

Let’s close our time this morning in prayer.