Spiritual Formation Introduction Lesson 1 Spring 2018 Series 2

Transcription

1 Spiritual Formation Introduction Lesson 1 Spring 2018 Series 2 Purpose: To help class members recognize the need for spiritual disciplines for the purpose of spiritual formation; to de9ine spiritual formation. Opening Question: Describe a time when you have worked really hard to accomplish a goal. What was your goal? What did you do to accomplish it? Usually when setting a goal, we must build up to being able to attain that goal. No one runs a marathon the 9irst time they run neither do they run a marathon without much training. Why did you decide to be a Christian? As you follow Christ, who do you want to become? True or False The longer you follow Christ, the more like him you should become. How do we become like Christ? 1 of 7

2 We have often looked at baptism as being the point of our transformation this is when the Holy Spirit enters us. However, does transformation naturally follow without any action on our part? Read Luke 10:25-28: On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. Teacher, he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What is written in the Law? he replied. How do you read it? He answered, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself. You have answered correctly, Jesus replied. Do this and you will live. In a society that placed emphasis on knowing the law, Jesus says, Do this. Jesus teaches us that loving God and loving our neighbors involves action. Read John 15:1-17 What instruction does Jesus give his followers in verse 4? 2 of 7

3 What might keep Christians from bearing fruit? What brings glory to God? (vs. 8) What command does Jesus give his disciples? Would Jesus agree with the statements: If it is to be, it is up to me or If you didn t do it right the 9irst time, try harder? In these verses, we see that Jesus calls us to live in Him. It is by God s grace that we are able to live the Christian life. In the spiritual life, there is no independence. We live and breathe Jesus. We allow Him to transform us into being people who obey, people who love. However, it does involve effort on our part. We are to obey (15:10) and to love (15:12-17). Paul writes about it in this way in I Corinthians 9:25-27: 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. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not 9ight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disquali9ied for the prize. (NIV) 3 of 7

4 James 1:22, Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. (NIV) Simply reading what Jesus said to do is not enough. Dallas Willard cautions, Our mistake is to think that following Jesus consists in loving our enemies, going the second mile, turning the other cheek, suffering patiently and hopefully -while living the rest of our lives just as everyone else does (Willard, Spirit of the Disciplines, 5). Attempting to behave like Christ without obeying his teachings and imitating his example will only bring failure. In the past, we may have seen spiritual disciplines such as prayer and reading the Bible as things that we must do in order to get to Heaven. We are not teaching about spiritual disciplines now because we believe that they are our ticket to earning our way to Heaven. We only get to have eternal life because we have been redeemed by the death and resurrection of the Son of God because of the love of the Father. We believe spiritual disciplines are important because they are a means through which the Holy Spirit transforms us to be more like the Father. Ending question: 4 of 7

5 Have you ever spent so much time with someone or a group of people that the way you talked changed, your behavior changed, or even the way you thought changed? (Can be positive or negative examples.) Most of us have experienced being in9luenced by others. We are usually in9luenced by our families of origin as children we like the things our parents taught us to like, we say similar things as our parents, we act in similar ways. As we grow older, we begin to be more in9luenced by friends. It is not uncommon for parents to be surprised when their children are in middle school at what their kids say or how they speak they are becoming more like the friends they are around. Young adults are also often transformed into being more like a group of friends either friends they go to school with or friends they work with. Sometimes a young adult may even change the way they speak based on the people they are around. For those who marry, they often become more and more like their partner as time goes by. We are transformed by spending time with people. If we want to become like God, we must spend time with Him. If we want to be transformed into being the kind of people who know the heart of 5 of 7

6 God the kind of people who think like God, see like God, love like God, speak with the words of Jesus we must give him time devoted to being with Him, to be transformed by Him. We cannot transform ourselves. We must be transformed by Him. Dallas Willard writes in Spirit of the Disciplines: My central claim is that we can become like Christ by doing one thing- by following him in the overall style of life he chose for himself. If we have faith in Christ, we must believe that he knew how to live. We can, though faith and grace, become like Christ by practicing the types of activities he engaged in, by arranging our whole lives around the activities he himself practiced in order to remain constantly at home in the fellowship of the Father. (Willard, ix) What kind of activities did Jesus practice? Solitude Prayer Simple and Sacri9icial Living Study of God s Word Memorization of God s Word Service to Others 6 of 7

7 Fellowship in Community 7 of 7