2022.06.26 Future Church: Practicing The Faith

Future Church: Practicing The Faith

2 Timothy 3:16-17 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Are you superstitious?

Now, TRUE superstition is not Christian. To think that doing a particular action will bring about a particular result is a pagan religious concept, not a Christian one. And paganism is a specific category of religions, not a generic term for anything unchristian. Superstitions are pagan concepts.

But I grew up playing baseball and basketball … and I had lots of … uh … er … “routines” … yeah, that works.

I liked to wear the same socks to each baseball game - Serena Williams wears a single pair of socks for each tournament … and she will NOT allow them to be washed in between matches! My mom washed clothes before they even got dirty, so she would NEVER have allowed that part!

When I played second base, after every batter, I would turn to the outfield and announce how many outs. Then I would turn toward the plate and dig my feet into two ruts I’d dug into the dirt. My routine was actually a hazard for anyone rounding first a little too deep.

In the batter’s box, I would dig my back foot in so deep that the next batter would have to fill the hole.

But my batting routine was tame in comparison to some

Video of Nomar Garciapara

Future Church: Practicing The Faith

It’s not just tennis and baseball, either:

Other sports are full of superstitious routines.

Jeff Hornacek is an NBA coach now. But before that, he spent 15 years as a player for 3 different teams. When he went to the free throw line, he looked at the basket; held the ball in his left hand; and used his right hand to slowly wipe his cheek 3 times … EVERY TIME HE SHOT A FREE THROW!

I was never very good at basketball, but when I shot free throws I had a routine, too. (get basketball and demonstrate). I may do other stuff, but the routine always ended with the same moves:

backspin bounce in front

bend - two dribbles

spin ball in hand

inhale - exhale

shoot

So … if superstition is not a Christian belief, why would I tell you about my routines, and tell you about various superstars with their routines?

People are superstitious for a reason. Whatever they’re doing has worked at some point, and they’re trying to replicate that prior success.

At some point, when I dug in at home plate, I hit the ball … so “I’ll do that every time!”

My free throw percentage went UP when I developed this routine … so “I’ll never shoot another free throw without this routine!”

And I would imagine Nomar Garciapara’s elaborate batting glove, foot tapping batting ritual started similarly.

I can’t explain Serena’s sock thing … sorry that’s just stupid. :)

In my experience, I would say that athletes seem more prone to these routines than we non-athletic types. I’d like to propose a reason for that.

When you think of elite athletes, what do you think of?

ability

money

fame

How about practice? How about training hard? How about discipline?

We often make the mistake of thinking discipline equals punishment.

Webster: Discipline (noun)

Sure, punishment comes into the equation, but two other definitions are completely lost when we think of discipline as only punishment:

1 a : control gained by enforcing obedience or order

b : orderly or prescribed conduct or pattern of behavior

c : self-control

3 : training that corrects, molds, or perfects the mental faculties or moral character

Discipline (verb)

1 : to punish or penalize for the sake of enforcing obedience and perfecting moral character

2 : to train or develop by instruction and exercise especially in self-control

3 a : to bring (a group) under control

b : to impose order upon

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/discipline

Future Church: Practicing The Faith

I never played organized football, but I love watching pro football. When a team is being called for a lot of penalties, the commentators ALWAYS remark that’s a sign of a lack of DISCIPLINE!

They aren’t saying the coach needs to punish the players more. They’re saying the players haven’t trained well enough, so when a play falls apart or the unexpected happens, their default reaction is to commit a penalty. If they were better trained, they’re default would still be playing within the rules of the game.

Jerry Rice was one of the best wide receivers in the history of the NFL. I watched an interview with Jerry Rice, where the interviewer and he threw a football back and forth as they talked. Every time Jerry Rice caught the ball, he cradled it. That had become his natural response to a football being thrown to him, and even an interview became an opportunity to continue his discipline.

The Scriptures are useful for ‘training in righteousness’ - that’s discipline!

My free throw regimen doesn’t make the ball any more likely to go through the hoop! But ME going through the routine is a habit that becomes disciplined, and it makes me more likely to duplicate the successful shots of the past as a completion of that patterned routine. I don’t have to think through the mechanics of shooting a proper free throw. My muscle memory takes over, and I just shoot without any thoughts getting in the way. THAT’S DISCIPLINE - THAT’S TRAINING!

In Paul’s day, a foot race was THE sport for the people of Corinth. So, Paul talking about running a race is, for them, like me talking with you about baseball, basketball, or football.

1 Corinthians 9:27 NASB

27 but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

He’s trained in righteousness. He’s studied the Scriptures. He’s interpreted and applied the Scriptures to real like, and handling the Scripture has become habit to him. He trained hard, so that he wouldn’t commit penalties in his use of Scripture. Training in righteousness is about self-control… one of the characteristics of the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5.

We talk about ‘practicing’ our faith, but many of us just walk around in the hopes that faith might fall on us like an avil in a Roadrunner cartoon.

Wile Coyote slide

But this is not how faith happens. It’s not how faith deepens. It’s not how growth in faith happens.

Growth in your faith takes DISCIPLINE!

Shooting Range pic

I’m a State Police Chaplain, one of our meetings was held at the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy. On the facility tour, we were told a little bit about the training regimen. Each trainee will shoot AT LEAST 5000 rounds during their training! That’s the MINIMUM!

Spiritual Disciplines graphic

It takes a lot of repetition and practice to get good at something … to get good at ANYTHING!

There are literally thousands of disciplines that would help grow your faith, but the most elementary of them … is a regular Bible Reading. I know many people love them, but I don’t like devotionals. I may have said that more strongly in the past … I may have even used terms like “despise” and “hot flaming hatred”. The reason I don’t like devotions is that most of them include a small blurb of Scripture followed by a paragraph or more of someone’s opinion or interpretation of that Scripture. I have always felt like that draws me closer to the author of the devotional than the God of the Scriptures.

Reading Plan (delayed click)

So a few years back, I changed my devotional practice to include more Scripture. In fact, I quit using devotionals altogether and have begun a Scripture reading discipline instead. [click here] In the past, I’ve used several reading plans that are available free on the Bible App “youversion”. You can find the app and their thousands of reading plans for free at bible.com.

Future Church: Practicing The Faith

So how does this relate to Future Church?

Future Church will be a very different experience for all of us. Just like an athlete, if we are disciplined in our faith, when we’re faced with something unexpected, we’ll naturally follow Jesus as our default reaction. That’s the benefit of discipline. The angry Christians we talked about last week who get the airtime are reacting to unexpected events and decisions in the world by lashing out in FEAR.

And with this week’s Supreme Court decision, I’ve seen a LOT of Christians reacting online with FEAR as their primary response.

Christians expressing deep fear are demonstrating their lack of discipline. Their faith has been based on their own past instead of being based on the Word of God! And they will continue to demonstrate their lack of discipline until they sit for training in righteousness using Bible study as the process:

Discipline (noun)

b : orderly … patterns of behavior

c : self-control

They won’t like hearing me say this … and some of them are no-doubt here today. But this truth is a biblical one. Angry Christians demonstrate their lack of discipline when they lash out.

Future Church: Practicing The Faith

The angry person lashes out because they’re fearful of losing something, and they’re stuck in dying Historic Church.

Future Church people aren’t fearful of losing anything! They’ve been given biblical promises that are guaranteed, and that’s where we must hang our hats, not on societal or governmental promises or cultural nostalgia.

This lack of fear will propel us to courageous outreach and a willingness to take risks for the sake of God’s Kingdom. By “willingness to take risks”, I’m not talking about making foolhardy decisions. I’m talking about taking calculated risks in order to win the opportunity to share the Gospel with every man, woman, and child in this community and beyond!

Next week, I’ll be on vacation and a friend of mine will be preaching for us. When I return, we’ll jump right back into Future Church with a bit of a shift.

From here, this series moves us from learning and growing in Scripture to being changed people in the world, so that others may find out about Jesus and respond to him.

But we can’t do that as well as we should if we’re stagnant in our own faith. Our turn at bat is here. If you’re not prepared to face the world’s curve ball, it’s time to start practicing, and that begins with a beginning.

So what commitment are you willing to make today? Where are you willing to begin now? What discipline are you willing to start developing further right now?