Practicing faith: learning to live like Jesus

Play-Doh

Play-Doh Excercise: 10 minutes

We are beginning our series today on Spiritual practices. You might be thinking, why are we devoting a whole series to something that seems so simple and obvious. Well, I think that even though we kind of assume that there are certain things we should be doing as Christians, we might not always think about what is actually going on under the surface or behind the scenes.

You have probably heard me mention this before, but I will mention it again because it is important! Who we are is greatly influenced by the world around us. We sometimes hear the message that we get to make up whoever we want to be, we get to choose and we are able to be completely objective and individual in our path to success in the future. Many philosophers throughout history have thought about this idea. In fact, one of the named Martin Heidegger, talked and thought extensively along these lines and believed that it was possible for someone to exist totally and completely separate from the world around us. And that this was the ideal which people ought to strive for. Now we don’t often take this idea to that extreme, but we do tend to undervalue or underappreciate how influenced we are by people, ideas and experiences around us.

This goes for our software, the things we believe feel and think, and our hardware, biological elements, as well. Did you know that when you use certain parts of your brain it forms networks of connections to optimize that usage? So, when you are doing something repeatedly over and over again that your brain can actually make it easier for you to do things or accomplish certain tasks. Your brain literally changes based on your inputs.

In a lot of ways we are like the play-doh that we just used. We are being formed all the time. We don’t get a choice whether that happens or not, the choice we do get is what kinds of things we allow in our lives to be those formative influences.

A new set of clothes - Eph. 4:22-24

The Bible talks a lot about this type of phenomenon. It uses words and phrases like being transformed, training for godliness, or putting on the new self. These are all references to the type of change that occurs in our lives when we make a commitment to following Jesus. The Bible does not describe following Jesus as something we just add to our already set way of life. Its a big change, a complete life change actually.

In his letter to the church in an ancient city called Ephesus, the apostle Paul speaks about this transformation like putting on a new set of clothing. Let’s take a look at what he says in Ephesians 4:22-24

Ephesians 4:22–24 NIV

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Paul points out that becoming a follower of Jesus is a total shift from one way of life to another. It is like having a whole new identity it really is becoming a new person. And what is this person supposed to look like?

“Like God…” what do you think this phrase means? Does it mean that we are meant to be our own God? No! In Colossians chapter 1 Paul says that Jesus is the fullness of God, or the perfect representation of God, in human form. And in Romans chapter 8 we learn that God’s plan for us is that we would be conformed to the image of Jesus. This means that the goal of this new self, the end that we are moving towards is becoming more like Jesus. The hope is that by living faithfully in our lives we would become more and more like Jesus.

This is what Paul means when he says that we are to put on the new self… the new self is Jesus’ very own character and likeness.

Four practices -

Presentation

These are not achievements but tools for the journey

They help us stay on track and slowly shift our understanding of who we are supposed to be

The end goal is not that e are the best at the practices, but that we are more like Jesus.