Training vs Trying

Next Steps

Wk 1. Training vs. Trying:

Why do I need spiritual disciplines to grow in my faith?

One of the goals of our church is that we would grow in number, not just so we can feel better about ourselves but because Jesus commanded us to grow. The last thing Jesus said to his closest followers before he ascended back to heaven was, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I’ll be with you always, to the very end of the age.” . That’s called the Great Commission. Jesus wants us to reach out to those who are not among us yet.

I’ll be with you always, to the very end of the age.” That’s called the Great Commission. Jesus wants us to reach out to those who are not among us yet.

Matthew 28:19–20 NRSV

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

BUT, if it’s just about moving people from unchurched to churched, there are a whole heck of a lot of easier ways to do that. I came up with five.

Top 5 Easier Ways to Get People to Church (feel free to come up with other examples)

5. Offer free beer.

4. Major guilt trips. (Use a picture as an illustration)

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3. Mass kidnapping. (“Then we could hold our second service in prison next week.”)

2. Hold our services at Panther’s Stadium Sundays at 1:00 pm.

1. Get our youth pastor to preach in a Speedo. (Photoshop a picture of your youth pastor.)

We all know something more has to happen if the connection is really going to last. God has to get ahold of our hearts.

We could maybe get record numbers of people to church in a weekend, but they wouldn’t be there the next week unless we did something equally spectacular again. As great as that first week would be, how depressing would the week after be?

We see this every spring time. Everybody and their mother comes out for church on Easter. And we love that and celebrate that. We do everything we can for people to have a real encounter with God. As excited as you can get on that day, the truth is normally the week after Easter is one of the most discouraging weekends of the year for a pastor. Where did everybody go? Was it something I said?

(Personal Story)

The hard truth is people fall away. How many people know someone who was once on fire with God and now isn’t? How many people would say that is part of their own story, too?

There are big fall-aways, like when someone makes a very intentional decision not to follow God anymore. You gotta know when you come back, Jesus isn’t looking down from heaven shaking his head thinking, “Well, it’s about time,” or “Too late.” He’s smiling—rejoicing: “Welcome home!”

There are also subtle fall-aways, too. People wouldn’t know it just by looking at you, but maybe your faith isn’t quite as strong as it once was. The passion you had isn’t as strong as it was before. Those subtle ones can last a few months or even a few days … honestly even a few hours.

Pastors are not immune to this, either, except we have this one added thing: We have to somehow get it all worked out by the weekend every week.

Spiritual growth isn’t so much like taking a step after step towards God. It’s so often two steps forward, one step back, two steps forward, three steps back … you get the idea.

If you are connecting with any of this, today is for you. Whether you are new to this whole Jesus/ Church thing, or if it’s your first time back in a long time, or even if your relationship with God isn’t what it once was, you have come on the perfect week. Today we’re talking about how you actually grow in spiritual maturity.

Am I moving forward spiritually? Or am I stagnant? Or am I moving backwards? Maybe you have had feelings that God is so disappointed in you: You did that again? You’re still struggling with that? I thought we were past this? Here is a cool thing we see over and over in the life of Jesus.

Jesus always called people to higher standard, BUT he never condemned them when they fell short.

He was the ultimate encourager. He was always cheering people on. Get back up. Let’s try again. I believe in you. That’s why people were constantly flocking to him. Those who felt the least worthy and most rejected in this world felt the most loved and accepted by Jesus.

It’s really encouraging to know that the characters in the Bible faced the same things we did. We are going to look at a passage in Hebrews where it sounds like the whole church had faded away. God looks at us as individuals but also as a church. The spiritual temperature of a church is important to God. We as a church will reproduce not just what we say but what we do. Your spiritual maturity is bigger than you … it impacts others.

(Share your own personal illustration here.)

What if we as a church doubled, and all the new people had the same passion for moving forward in spiritual maturity as we do … as you do. Would that be a good or bad thing? With that in mind, check out today’s text,

:

Hebrews 5:11–6:3 NRSV

11 About this we have much to say that is hard to explain, since you have become dull in understanding. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food; 13 for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil. 1 Therefore let us go on toward perfection, leaving behind the basic teaching about Christ, and not laying again the foundation: repentance from dead works and faith toward God, 2 instruction about baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And we will do this, if God permits.

Hebrews 5:11–6:3 NIV

11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. 1 Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, 2 instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And God permitting, we will do so.

Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so.

What’s the problem going on here?

The people are no longer even trying to understand.

Remember these are Christians. He’s not saying they have given up on God; he’s saying they have given up on moving forward in spiritual maturity. Did you know you can be a Christian and give up on growing spiritually? It’s possible to be at church every weekend and no longer be trying to grow closer to Jesus.

The people still needed the elementary truths.

Even though they had many “mature” believers among them, they still needed milk. They were still not ready for solid food.

(Share your own personal illustration here.)

The author of Hebrews is saying, “You should be off the bottle by now and on to steak. You need to grow up spiritually. Every time someone offends you in the slightest way, you get hurt and take it so personally. Any time the pastor challenges you to do something out of your comfort zone, you totally ignore it. You freak out every time you have to wait on someone for an extra two minutes.” Hey, you just described my neighbor.

This is the natural way we’ll act if left to ourselves. If you are not intentional in growing in spiritual maturity, then over time you’ll drift from God. It’s not that you purposefully walked away from God; you just got complacent … to the point where, like the author of Hebrews says, “You are not even acquainted with righteousness.” How did I get here? How did I drift so far from God?

The author gives some answers that I think are huge for us personally and as a church.

1. Understand that God wants you to grow in spiritual maturity.

Read .

Hebrews 6:1 NRSV

1 Therefore let us go on toward perfection, leaving behind the basic teaching about Christ, and not laying again the foundation: repentance from dead works and faith toward God,

How many people here want to mature? Yeah, so it would be a waste of time for me to rail on you about how you just need to grow spiritually. How mature does he want me to grow? The very same answer as what you want for yourselves and your kids: More.

We all want the end result. We want to be mature and maturing—it’s the getting there that’s the problem. Want a deep faith? Want to not get ticked off at the drop of a hat? To not get stressed out by small stuff? We want to be people who are kind and forgiving and secure in who we are as God’s son or daughter. We don’t want to be devastated every time someone critiques us. We want to be full of joy and for people to say that they look up to us. We want God at the end of our lives to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

The first thing we need to know is that all the stuff we want for our own lives, God wants for us, too. He wants to help you. Next, we learn how.

2. Stop trying and start training. :

Hebrews 5:14 NRSV

14 But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.

But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

The passage says trained themselves. They were responsible for training themselves. Not God, not their pastor, not their parents, not their small group leader, but themselves.

I want to clarify that when it comes to receiving Christ, it is completely God’s work. We can’t do anything to be saved. But when it comes to growing up in our faith, we totally play an important role.

It’s like the difference between using a rowboat, motorboat and a sailing boat. While we have a really important role in our spiritual maturity, it’s not all up to us to move forward. God IS the one who actually enables us to grow. At the same time, it’s not like we can just turn on some engine and expect God to make us grow automatically. So our job is more like a sailboat. We are to put ourselves in a place and schedule our lives in a way that God meets us and moves us towards him.

Here is a huge point for us to grasp if we are going to grow in spiritual maturity. We need to realize there is an immense difference between training to do something and trying to do something. Training is required for any significant challenge in your life, and while it’s difficult, training always leads to more joy, more fulfillment.

Object Lesson: Lifting Weights. I could try with every ounce of muscle within me, but there is no way I could lift this. But, if over the next few months I went to 24-Hour Fitness several times a week to work out, I could build myself up to the point of being strong enough.

Listen to what the Bible has to say about spiritual maturity and training.

“Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.” –

“Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” –

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” –

Training methods used to grow in your faith are called spiritual disciplines. They are valuable because they enable us to do what we could not do with willpower alone. For example, disciplines like reading the Bible and prayer enable God to train us to exude the fruit of the spirit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self control.

A disciplined person is not someone who exercises a lot of discipline. A disciplined person is someone who can do the right thing at the right time in the right way with the right spirit.

For example, Stephen Curry (picture) makes tons of money playing basketball. He shoots 200 three-pointers a day in practice, and he makes 40% of his three-pointers in the game.

Spiritually speaking, the goal is not to calculate how many verses we read or how much time we pray but to use the Bible and prayer as opportunities for God to speak to us and to grow us up.

A disciplined lover of Jesus is someone who discerns when laughter, gentleness, silence, healing words or prophetic indignation is called for and offers it promptly, effectively and lovingly.

Here are a couple methods for training in any discipline.

a. Decide that you are going to train.

You can’t drift into spiritual training. You must decide to train.

(Share your own personal illustration here.) — Losing weight — learned about having High Blood Pressure diabetes.

If I am going to grow spiritually, it does not happen on accident. It’s from intentionality.

b. Get a workout plan.

You need to set some goals. The physical training industry is a billion-dollar business. The #1 thing they will give you is a schedule. They first will give you basic fitness steps like exercise, getting enough sleep and eating right. Then they normally ask, “Do you have any specific goals you want to work on, as well?” For example, I want a six-pack, but not the kind you keep in the refrigerator. The same is true spiritually. There are some basic spiritual habits that are good for all Christians, no matter where you are in your spiritual journey. Then there are some that are more specific for what you’re dealing with in life.

While exercise and a healthy diet are your one-two punch for physical health, your one-two punch spiritually is the Bible and prayer. The Bible is the primary way that God speaks to you, and prayer is the primary way you speak to God.

Think about this: If you and your spouse or good friend just stopped communicating, what would it do to your relationship? It would kill it. It wouldn’t matter if you still were nice to each other or even if you had a short conversation one day a week or on the weekends. Communication is vital to any relationship—if you never talked to each other, people would notice. People would see you two and think there was something seriously messed up. Same is true with God.

Next week, we are going to speak in depth about these two powerful spiritual disciplines. I’ve titled the message, “Overcoming Spiritual A.D.D.”

God also wants you to be growing in spiritual maturity in ways that are specific to you. While the Bible and prayer are for everyone, there are tons of other spiritual disciplines you need to try out. Here are a few that we will talk about in two weeks:

· The spiritual discipline of fasting will help you…

· The spiritual discipline of silence and solitude will help you…

· The spiritual discipline of joy will help you…

There are countless disciplines to help you grow in spiritual maturity. Dallas Willard was a brilliant Christian professor at USC. One time one of his students challenged him in class about something he’d said in his lecture. Dallas heard the argument, smiled and said, “Good comment. That seems like a great place to end today.” His TA came forward and asked incredulously “Why did you let that kid get away with that? You could have run intellectual circles around him.” Dallas said, “I’m practicing the spiritual discipline of not always

needing to have the last word.”

c. Get some workout buddies.

(Share your own personal illustration here.)

The word we often use for this spiritually is accountability. Christianity was never meant to just be an individual experience. Around here, the best way to find spiritual accountability is to get in a small group. One of the lesser-known descriptions of the church is that we are like a deodorant stick. We rub off on one another. When we are pursuing after God alongside others, our ability to grow goes way up.

This can also take place in your family. Great questions to ask around the dinner table are, “What have you been reading in the Bible lately?” or “How can we be praying for each other?”

d. Take a first step.

(Share your own personal illustration here.)

The good news is that faith is contagious, and when you take a step of faith, it always grows more faith in you.

It’s why Jesus says faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains. When you take a step of faith, it doesn’t stay the size of a mustard seed for long.

So I want to challenge you to take a step of faith before you even leave the room today. I’ve included in your program a card with a bunch of great first-steps that would help you apply today’s message.

Here are a few great first faith steps. (feel free to personalize this list)

· Receive Christ

· Set a date to be baptized.

· Start reading the Bible on your own.

· Set aside several minutes to pray daily.

· Begin tithing.

· Invite a friend to church.

· Join a small group

· One last thing that is really the biggest step that goes unseen.

One last thing that is really the biggest step that goes unseen.

e. Move from “got to” to “get to.”

God’s ultimate goal is not that you would just obey him but that you would love him, and obedience would overflow out of that. God is the only one that can do this transformational work within us where we are so blown away by what God has done for us that our only response is to live for him.

:

Hebrews 12:1–3 NRSV

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the

cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Our ultimate inspiration has to be Jesus. It has to start with him. It’s not all about moving toward an arbitrary line of spiritual maturity; it’s about moving toward a person. Toward Jesus. He left a throne in heaven in exchange for a cross on Calvary to make it possible for us to get close to him. When we really start to get this, then our spiritual disciplines move from something we “got to” do to something we “get to” do. That changes everything.

Understand that God wants you to grow in spiritual maturity.

Stop trying and start training. Allow God to move your pursuit of him from something you’ve got to do to something you get to do.

Let’s pray.