ALL IN Part 3 - Spiritual Disciplines - June 2

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Team building night June 10th at Pastor Jon’s house

It will be a potluck meal together! Come for around 5 - we will eat some point around 5:30

Baby Shower - june 9th

There will be a potluck after service, and the baby shower after potluck

Father’s Day June 16th

We are doing a BBQ after service! Free hotdogs, hamburgers, chips, and drinks

June 23 - Baptism service!

We are running a baptism service! June 23.

SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES

FITBIT FAITH

Having a ‘smart watch’ helps me exercise more (i’m not saying enough, mind you) because i get a little box to check.

1 Timothy 4:7-8

1 Timothy 4:7–8 NIV

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.

Faith is something we need to ‘train’ in - it’s not handed to us, or imparted by some gifted speaker from a pulpit

We don’t like the idea that faith asks work from us for two reasons

One, work is hard

Two, work seems so… physical. And faith is purely spiritual, right?

Being spiritual doesn’t mean abandoning or ignoring the physical - God’s first plan for humanity was physical bodies in the garden. Heaven isn’t the end goal - it’s the backup plan. And one day, God will be bringing us all back to a new earth

Our lives are meant to be lived as both physical and spiritual, alongside a relationship with God

Faith training has value for every area of life - both in the temporary and the eternal

MONEY TROUBLES

The point - scripture helped me be both more secure, and FEEL more secure

The goal here isn’t to cross the line - the goal is to grow closer to God.

And really, this is the mark of a good relationship - that you are there to be with the person, not just get something out of them.

WHAT ARE SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES?

I’m going to start off with a rule of thumb here, and you may not agree with me.

Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly

I’m not asking you to do spirituality poorly. What i’m saying is - the fact that you can’t jump into a half-an-hour long prayer and bible reading session twice a day doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do anything.

If prayer is actually important, it’s worth praying for 1 minute rather than not at all.

So, ‘I don’t have time’ isn’t an excuse here. These are too important. Do you have a minute? A literal, 60 second minute? Great, that’s enough time to pray.

You don’t have time to read a chapter of your bible? Read a single verse. Get the bible app on your phone, and tell it to remind you the verse of the day. Man, tell ME, and I’ll pester you with a bible verse a day text message. Anything.

I believe spiritual disciplines are so important that i’d rather you do 1 minute of a spiritual discipline than nothing at all. So here is me giving you the permission to do this poorly - because I’d rather you be doing it at all.

And really, the more you do it, the easier it gets. You’ll get there to the high bar - but let’s start with anything at all.

There isn’t an exhaustive list - because the point is ‘what helps me to grow closer to God?’

Here’s a few examples

prayer

bible reading

and not just reading, but memorization

fasting

This is more than ‘don’t eat’. and it can be more than just food.

meditation

What this means is basically, pick a scripture or a concept - either John 3:16 or the idea that God loves you so much that He wants to hear from you every day - and actually sit and process it. Think about what it really means. What difference it would make. Why it’s important. Dwell on the idea.

worship

service

giving

small group

accountability partner

And I genuinely believe that increasing our ‘spiritual disciplines’ is relevant no matter what maturity level you are. New Christian? Old christian? Great. Because God is infinite - we can never get to a place where God goes ‘and now… you’re done. You figured it all out! Great job! Here’s a gold star’.

So, if you are interested in trying something (either for the first time, or something new), I want you to do 3 things.

Pick a practice

Pick a place

Pick a partner