Untitled Sermon (4)

Spiritual Habits that bring the presence of God in our lives.

Good Morning! I hope you all had a great Christmas Holiday. My favorite part of beginning of a new decade. The 20’s are rapidly approaching us.

I hope this can relate to you as well!

This time of year is always chaotic, for most of us it doesn’t come without disappointment, hurts, anguish, exhaustion, bitterness and a relationship with Jesus that can become distant and stagnant.

Without raising hands how many of us tend to lose sight of Jesus during this time of year? How many of you does this describe in one way or another.

We’ve all been there: distant, drifting, disconnected from God, moving away from Him instead of moving toward Him. We get distracted by so many different things that fight for our attention. But! We can choose to return to God and get to know Him better. We have the choice to either stay disconnected from Him or to draw closer to Him. We have the choice to confess our sins and repent, or to hide them in hopes that know one will find out.

This is the last Sunday of the 2019 and for those of us who operate on 10 year plans we are days away from the beginning of a new decade. The 20’s are rapidly approaching us.

o ponder it, dwell on it, chew on it and roll it over in our minds in order to apply it to our lives.

(put on overhead)

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

My challenge for us today is,

That we become Spiritually Fit People. That we begin and maintain a spiritual rhythm for our lives. That we move forward instead a backwards in our pursuit of being like Jesus and being with Jesus.

Here are some practical steps to help us get Spiritually fit for Jesus.

We need to have Spiritual Rhythms. (Put on slide)

Engaging in spiritual disciplines or rhythms is like learning a new skill or preparing yourself to run a marathon. In the beginning, your stamina for the activity at hand is really low, you may feel clumsy and unsure, and there is a fairly high chance that you will want to give up on your pursuit. The important part is that we keep showing up even when we don’t feel like it.

Often when it comes to matters of faith or relationship with Jesus, we feel like we have to be in the right place in our lives to enter in. As if there is some sort of prerequisite that prepares us to hear from God. The base obligation being that we feel like it. However, if we wait to engage until we feel like it, we very well may never begin. (REPEAT)

In his book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, Eugene Peterson discusses the importance of perseverance in Christian worship and spiritual discipline. He writes, “If Christians worshiped only when they felt like it, there would be precious little worship...Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship” (pg. 53-54). (Put quote on slide)

In other words, Peterson is suggesting that sometimes it’s not the desire for something that motivates our participation, but rather it is the participation in the practice that fosters a desire within us. When it comes to spiritual fitness, there are many days when one just doesn’t feel like it and that’s why we need a rhythm.

A rhythm is established through consistent practice wherein a priority becomes a habit.

Here are some spiritual disciplines that need to become our main priority for a healthy Rhythmic life in Jesus.

Spiritual Disciplines that need to become the rhythm of our lives are:

Prayer, gratitude, worship, reading the Bible, solitude, fasting, generosity, hospitality, serving.

Spiritual disciplines are activities. These actives, if we practice them in our lives will create a Rhythm for us that we will begin to know when we are off beat with Jesus. They are not attitudes. Disciplines are practices. Spiritual disciplines are things you do. They are not character qualities. They are not graces. They are not the fruit of the Spirit. They are things you do.

So you read the Bible. That is something you do. That is a spiritual discipline. You meditate on Scripture. Your pray, fast, worship, serve, learn, you give, and so forth. These are activities. Now the goal of practicing any given discipline is not about doing as much as it is about being: being like Jesus, being with Jesus. But the biblical way to grow in being more like Jesus is through the rightly motivated doing of the biblical, spiritual disciplines.

The key verse in all this is (ESV) (put all text on slide)

If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

The NASB says it this way. Paraphrased.

“Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness” (NASB). The goal is godliness, but the biblical means to that is to discipline yourself by the power of the Holy Spirit rightly motivated. We are to discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness. The practical ways of doing that are things that you do.

Strictly speaking, joy is not a spiritual discipline. That is the fruit or the result of discipline done rightly. So it is that distinction between doing and being. And the spiritual disciplines are about doing. You can do them as a Pharisee. You can do them wrongly motivated. But rightly motivated, they are things that we are to do in order to be like Jesus, to be with Jesus.

So our main motivation in developing a spiritual rhythm is to be like Jesus and to be with Jesus.

Spiritual Rhythms:

My first point.

First Spiritual Rhythm

1. Read the Bible. Meditate on Gods word. (put on slide)

God’s word is the foundation of our lives. In the Scriptures, God reveals himself and his will for us. If we want to know and enjoy God, the place to begin is God’s word.

Apart from the Bible, we CAN’T know what God is like.

We can see some aspects of God in nature and the creation, but we would never look at an oak tree or a butterfly and know that God is holy, sovereign or loving. We could never know what Jesus did to redeem us by hiking through the Grand Canyon.

We absolutely need God’s word, the only source of absolute, unchanging spiritual truth.

Here’s what Scripture says about itself:

Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts." - (put on slide)

To “eat” God’s words means we take them in; we hear God’s words or read them in the bible. And when we do this consistently and meditate on them God’s words become a joy and the delight of our hearts.

(Put on slide)

Blessed is the man

who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stands in the way of sinners,

nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

but his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree

planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in its season,

and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

In

There are two forces that will shape our thinking: either the world or God’s word.

We can either follow the counsel of the world or the counsel of the Word. tells us that we should make God’s word our delight and meditate on it consistently – day and night.

To “meditate” on God’s word means to ponder it, dwell on it, chew on it and roll it over in our minds in order to apply it to our lives.

Some people like to read so many chapters every day. I would not dissuade them from the practice, but I would rather lay my soul asoak in half a dozen verses all day than rinse my hand in several chapters. Oh, to be bathed in a text of Scripture, and to let it be sucked up into your very soul, till it saturates your heart! Set your heart upon God’s Word! Let your whole nature be plunged into it as cloth into a dye!

Second Spiritual Rhythm

2. Gratitude (put on slide)

Gratitude is simply the spiritual practice of thankfulness. (Put on slide under Gratitude)

Intentionally communicated thankfulness to God is a multi-millennia old practice with many of the oldest recorded accounts being found in the Bible. The book of Psalms has perhaps the most concentrated amount of gratitude, but accounts of thankfulness can be seen throughout. Throughout the Bible, Gratitude serves three primary purposes: to worship God, to remember what God has done, and to encourage one another.

(ESV)(put on slide)

I will praise the name of God with a song;

I will magnify him with thanksgiving.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (ESV)

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

When we spend time thanking God, we remember the things that God has done in our lives. And, as we recall and record long lists of the blessing that have been poured out on us, we can’t help but to be overcome with awe and reverence.

Corporately, when we practice gratitude, we are able to testify to God’s goodness and encourage one another by bolstering each other’s faith through stories of what God has done. These aspects of gratitude provide great reasons to develop this spiritual rhythm, but another beautiful byproduct of gratitude is contentment. In a culture driven by capitalistic consumerism and endless displays of marketing campaigns, we are inundated by voices telling us that we need more. Practicing gratitude reminds us that we already have way more than we need or deserve. It’s not until we take time to tangibly chronicle the many blessings that we have been given that we realize how much we truly have to be thankful for.

As reminds us, every good gift is from God and God is worthy of our gratitude. He is worthy of our praise of thankfulness.

Third Spiritual Rhythm

3. Solitude (Put on slide)

We see examples of God’s people practicing solitude & prayer in the Bible. For instance, Moses met regularly with the Lord at the tabernacle (, ). God spoke with Elijah () and Jacob () while these men were alone. The best example is Jesus, who “often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” ().

Jesus, God Incarnate, spent time alone with His Father. We see Him seeking out solitude after performing miracles (), in times of grief (), before choosing the twelve apostles (), in His distress in Gethsemane (), and at other times in the Bible.

Solitude & Prayer was a consistent practice in Jesus’ life.

(Put on Slide)

35 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.

(post on slide) Jesus just found out that John the Baptist was beheaded and he went out to pray in solitude with no distractions. This is a great example for us to see Jesus seeking the Father during a time of grieving.

In both of these accounts, Jesus practices solitude by removing himself from the excitement and busyness of ministry to spend time with the Father. Now as you can see from Jesus’s example, multiple spiritual disciplines can be used simultaneously as we pursue relationship with God. Like Jesus, you can pray in solitude.

Solitude tends to be more about one’s environment. As we saw illustrated in & , Jesus went somewhere to pray.

He changed His environment so that He could seek uninterrupted time with God. Now, sometimes when people practice solitude they do leave and go somewhere different to hear from God, but at its core solitude isn’t about being somewhere different but quieting the distractions in our environment so that we can concentrate on God. Solitude is simply the practice of presence. Jesus left distraction behind so that He could be completely present while He talked with God in prayer. If you have the freedom and time to seek out a completely new environment to practice solitude in, that’s awesome and I’d recommend that you do that.

But, if you don’t, you can still practice solitude by creating space to tune out all of the day’s distraction to focus completely on God. This spiritual discipline may seem the most foreign. So, if you are looking for a way to practice solitude, I recommend finding a pair of earplugs, placing your cell phone in a different room, setting a loud timer for 5-15 minutes, and simply sitting in silence. While you sit there and thoughts come into your mind, give them over to God in prayer. Write them down in a journal that way you can go back to what God was speaking to you in that moment. Once you feel the most present, ask, “God what do you have for me today.” Keep in mind, implementing a new rhythm can be awkward at first but it’s important to keep at it. It’s important to make time with God of upmost importance.

You will most likely spend multiple times of solitude clearing your mind and not even getting to full presence and that’s okay.

As we continue to work on solitude, slipping into full presence with God will become easier and quicker, allowing you to spend more time alone and uninterrupted with God.

Biblically speaking, solitude is a valuable practice. “Alone time” with God can allow God to examine us. It can be a time of knowing God more deeply, a time of strengthening, a time of refreshment, a time of sharing our deepest concerns with God, and a time of simply being with the One who formed us and loves us beyond our understanding.

Spiritual Rhythm

4. Prayer (Put on slide)

We just hit on prayer in the last point. Mainly because a lot of times Solitude and Prayer come together.

Prayer is potentially one of the most straight-forward spiritual disciplines because it focuses on talking to God. Talking is pretty easy, right? Yet, it can be one of the most intimidating and perplexing disciplines because it focuses on talking to God. So, it can be hard to know where to begin. Not to mention, for those of us who have thrown up a prayer of desperation in a time of need only for a situation to not turn out the way we thought it should or hoped it would, prayer might be something that feels impotent and may even have incited some doubt. So if you are feeling any hesitancy, I want you to know that you are in good company and in the right place.

To begin, there are many different ways to pray. You may wonder about timing, posture, and/or length. You also may have heard that there are many different types of prayer offered up for different reasons throughout the Bible, which sorting through those can definitely be overwhelming. So, for our purposes today, we are going to keep it simple and go back to the basics; the Lord’s Prayer. Much like us, the disciples watched as Jesus retreated often to talk with God and wanted to know the “right” things to say. In , Jesus gave the disciples a prayer that is both whole and conclusive in and of itself, but also can be used as an outline of the things for which we should be praying.

(put below scripture on overhead)

    hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

    Your will be done,

        on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,

        as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And do not bring us to the time of trial.

        but rescue us from the evil one.

This prayer covers all of the basics and helps us to think through the fundamentals of prayer: honoring and praising God, ushering in the kingdom of God, asking that we would corporately receive the bread of life (Jesus), that we would be people focused on and known for our forgiveness, and finally, that when we face the hardships of this world that God would be with us and deliver us through them. If we create space to talk with God about these things, we are on the right track.Our lives, our inner being, should be radically changed as followers of Jesus. Not just once, or twice, but continually transformed into His image, bearing His Fruit.

When we pray we are allowing God access to guide our lives. And helps us to walk in the spirit.

I love how the NLT version of puts it, “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.”

The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God. This is an assurance we get when we walk by the spirit.

"God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (put on slide)

Practicing a spiritual discipline is about creating a spiritual rhythm in our busy lives to connect with God and strengthen our relationship with Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. If you are interested in seeking spiritual health in 2020, I challenge you to make it a top priority beginning today. I promise that you won’t regret it.

It is also imperative that we discover and act on whatever it is that helps us grow deeper in our relationship with Jesus.

Here are some questions we can ask to see how we are developing spiritually:

( PUT ALL THE QUESTIONS ON THE SLIDE) (I’LL SAY THEM AND THEN PUT IT ON)

These questions are from Dave Ferguson’s book Exponential.

How would you describe your relationship with Christ right now?

out turning our eyes to Jesus.

Which spiritual disciplines seem to help you draw closer to Jesus? Prayer? Journaling? Worship? Solitude?

Who is holding you accountable to practicing these disciplines?

What has God been saying to me lately through his Word?

The Holy Spirit?

Other Christ followers?

Prayer?

Exponential By Dave Ferguson(put on slide after questions)

Here are some questions to help you build a rhythm for spiritual fitness: (put on slide)

How many times a week will you set aside intentional time to pursue spiritual disciplines? (Put on slide) (If you are new to this, start with 2-4 times a week)

How long will each of your prayer times be? (Put on slide) (10-15 minutes tends to be a sweet spot at the beginning)Take a moment to think about your week.

When can you consistently set aside time?( Put on slide) (Before the kids wake up, at the beginning of your work day, at lunch, or right after the kids go to bed at night may be options to consider)Who are you going to tell? (A friend, a co-worker, or a spouse are all great options)

Finally, when are you going to start? (Put on slide) I want to challenge all of us to start now. To begin to seek God in a new and refreshing way. In a way that isn’t religious. In a way that isn’t based off of works. In way that will affect our lives in Jesus to the core of who we are in Him. That we would become the Salt of the Earth that we are all called to be.

** In all of these things talked about today I want encourage you to get an accountability partner. Men with Men, Women with Women. Men we need each other to share our victories and mistakes. Women you need each other to share your victories and mistakes. We need each other to be held accountable to what God has for us corporately and as individuals. All of us have a story to tell. Let that story impact the lives of others. We need each other to hold us accountable

As we are looking to close the chapter on 2019 and move into the New Year 2020. A new Decade.

Let’s be a people that meditate on God’s word the Bible, live with Gratitude, take time to seek God in quiet in alone time, and talk with Him thru prayer! Let’s be a thankful people. Let’s be a people that by allowing God to remind us of what He has done for us, in us, and thru us. We will become a people marked by His Grace, and that my friends we will begin to affect others around us.

We are going to end today with a Hymn talking about turning our eyes to Jesus.

There are some of us here today that are dealing with sin and guilt and don’t know where to start. How we should start is to confess and repent. And allow Jesus to saturate your heart

We would love to pray with you and walk with you through this. Please come up for prayer. There are some of us that don’t know where to start in beginning or restarting a spiritual rhythm for our lives. We would love to pray with you for a strong relationship with Jesus.