Practice

Those of us who have been Christians long enough are sure to have stories of the people we’ve met along life’s journey who have had one or several religious experiences where they were initially on fire wanting to change everything but eventually fizzled out and or dropped their faith in a fairly short time.

We have all witnessed initial excitement, and feelings of joy, the powerful emotions followed by bold commitments and declarations...

Then there is a disappearance. Whether gradual or all at once, they stop coming to church, start making excuses for not connecting with you and eventually they slip back into self destructive habits.

When we see this happening we often wonder what we have done or could have done to keep the falling away from happening.

The fact of the matter is that The reason for such disappointing stories is often that fact that they failed to continue to pursue spiritual growth through steady, consistent practices of faith.

If people fail to dig roots through steady, consistent practices of faith, they will often disappear when the emotions of faith and the novelty of grace wear off.

This is not only true for the new convert but it is also a real danger for the more mature believer. The mature believer who does not continue to develop deep spiritual practices may not disappear but the joy of their salvation or the wonder of God’s grace seems to lose its place.

Instead of steady growth and power we rely on routine, and other forms of doing.

For some it’s an experience:

experiences of God are good, but we can’t become addicted to experiences.

For some it’s behaviors:

we need to put into place all the rules and behaviors. Legalism can’t sustain a meaningful journey of grace.

For some it’s about knowledge: we sustain our faith and grace by having the right knowledge.

We spend our lives learning, defending, and arguing propositional truths. It’s about the right interpretation of the Bible, the right theological doctrines.

Right knowledge without a right heart will leave us wanting.

For others it’s about being super-spiritual: we believe that if we just get alone, read our Bible enough, pray enough, and volunteer for enough ministries, that will do it.

We become obsessive about our quiet time. We beat ourselves up for perceived failures of discipline. Soon we’ll become defeated.

There’s nothing wrong with any of these.

Experiences are good. Rules can be used to create helpful boundaries, we need to know what we believe, and spiritual disciplines play an important role.

But none of these alone is sufficient.

Dr. Busic shares the story of Captain Chelsea Sullenburger better know as “Sully” The day he landed his commercial jet on the Hudson river losing not one of the passengers or crew. Sully had to make several split decisions in a span of about 3 min in order for this to happen.

He Determined the problem, decide where to land, form an evaluation plan, execute the place and double and triple check the plane before leaving himself.

It was incredible and many people called this a miracle and it was…however the miracle did not just happen…yes God was with Sully and the others but it was also in the countless hours of training for the unexpected....

My Daughter in laws father Jon Shotwell is a commercial pilot and I was amazed at the amount of continuing training on a very regular basis that pilots have to complete to perfection in order to remain pilots. They do not focus on just one aspect of flying they focus on the whole.

All this to say that when it looks like something just happens it generally doesn’t just happen.

Once we have experienced God’s prevenient, saving, and sanctifying Grace we must enter into a partnership with God for that grace to be sustained in our lives.

Our passage today gives us helps us to understand how, from their most formative moments, the members of the early church instituted consistent communal practices that were necessary to shape and sustain their lives in Christ.

Acts 2:42–47 NLT

42 All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. 43 A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. 44 And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. 45 They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. 46 They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—47 all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.

They are together.

They experience God together.

They meet regularly together.

They are vulnerable together

They practice the faith together.

They learn together.

They witness together.

One other fascinating fact about Jon Shotwell’s description of training for pilots…the whole crew practices together.

This is important for learning how to communicate and act as one in an emergency. They get to know each other and they also learn to trust each other. While the captain is in charge and makes the final decision the team works together to fly the plane and deal with any unforeseen issue.

Together…Practicing together all of these things was crucial to the early Church…it is just a crucial today. It is impossible to live in God’s sustaining Grace alone.

As we close I thought we would just take a few moments together to allow the Holy Spirit to connect us to each other and to God....I mean at the end of the day all I am really trying to do every week is find ways to allow us to connect to God through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Let’s pray that we will rediscover spiritual practices together…so that we can fully experience this journey of Grace....Pray....we will take communion after prayer.

Communion is a call to regular remembrance of and participation in the grace of God that has claimed our lives.

It’s done collectively, reminding us that together as a community we are dependent on the grace of God.

It’s an act of receiving. We don’t take the elements but must receive them, remembering that all of life is a gift.

After we finish at the Table, we turn toward the world with the gift of grace still fresh on our lips.

Come to the Table together to experience the sustaining grace together…then go so that we can take the grace of God to the world.