Train Yourself to be Godly

Transcription

1 Train Yourself to be Godly An 8-week Spiritual Fitness Class Strength Endurance Flexibility

2 I Timothy 4:7,8 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.

3 List of 12 Disciplines: Inward: Meditation Prayer Fasting Study Outward: Simplicity Solitude Submission Service Corporate: Confession Worship Guidance Celebration

4 List of 12 Disciplines: Inward: Meditation Prayer Fasting Study Outward: Simplicity Solitude Submission Service Corporate: Confession Worship Guidance Celebration

5 List of 12 Disciplines: Inward: Meditation Prayer Fasting Study Outward: Simplicity Solitude Submission Service Corporate: Confession Worship Guidance Celebration

6 Physical Fitness Nutrition: what comes in to the body. Work: what the muscles produce. Elimination: what goes out of the body. (expiration, sweat, food remains)

7 Spiritual Fitness Nutrition: what comes in to the soul. Meditation, Study, Solitude, Guidance Elimination: what goes out of the soul. Work: what the soul produces. Prayer, Service, Worship, Celebration Fasting, Simplicity, Submission, Confession

8 I want my life to be different. My Relationships. My schedule. My stresses. My home. Everything under control and running like it should be. I want to be different. Bad habits. Besetting sins. How I act, talk, think. Things I love.

9 The Spiritual Disciplines are not a way to add God to the equation of life so that I reach my goals and everything starts working the way I want it to. That is called managing life.

10 Outcome Goals vs. Process Goals Outcome goal: By March I am going to fit into the dress I wore at my high school prom. I am going to be a loving person by Dec. 31. Process goal: I am going to walk 45 min. 5x a week until Easter. I am going to read a chapter of the New Testament every day until I finish.

11 What is the Goal? Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the LORD your God gives you for all time. Deuteronomy 4:40 If I keep all of God s laws, things will go well with me and I will be happy. How many laws were there? 613.

12 Which is the Greatest Commandment? Love the Lord your God with All your heart. All your soul. All your mind. All your strength. The second is like it Love your neighbor as yourself. Mark 12:29-33

13 Why don t we do that? GOD What happened to the heart? NO! MINE! Self-righteous Self-indulgent Self-exalting How did we get this heart? Born into it!

14 I will do the best I can. We don t do our best. We love ourselves more than God. We give our minds to useless pursuits. We give our strength to indulging appetites. We want our way more than God s way. We don t care about others the way we care about our own lives. It s easy to be indifferent.

15 The Goal: Connectedness The problem is not brokenness. The problem is disconnection. Figuring out ways to manage and control the broken pieces is not the solution. What is the solution? Reconnect the heart.

16 Who does the pursuing? Adam, where are you? GOD I am afraid. I am exposed. I hid. Self-righteous Self-indulgent Self-exalting How did we get this heart? Born into it!

17 Who does the pursuing? GOD What happens to the heart? NO! YES YOURS MINE! Righteousness Self-righteous of Christ Control of the Self-indulgent Holy Spirit Glorify/Exalt the Self-exalting Father How did we get this heart? Born (again) into it!

18 What the Disciplines are NOT. A checklist that shows me how good I am doing. r r r r Bible study. Prayer. Service. Worship We naturally revert to our default a self-righteous and legalistic approach to God and self. This results in PRIDE something God HATES.

19 A way to earn God s favor. This approach results in SHAME because I realize I am unworthy of his love and attention. Can you disappoint God? Disappointment has to do with expectation. God knows the WHOLE package when He buys me. I can t get more righteous than the righteousness of Jesus!

20 What the Disciplines ARE. A way to deny the old nature and strengthen the new nature. We gravitate toward the strengthening exercises (Bible study, prayer, worship) rather than the ones that hit squarely at denying the old nature.

21 Spiritual Fitness Nutrition: what comes in to the soul. Meditation, Study, Solitude, Guidance Elimination: what goes out of the soul. Work: what the soul produces. Prayer, Service, Worship, Celebration Fasting, Simplicity, Submission, Confession

22 What the Disciplines ARE. A way to deny the old nature and strengthen the new nature. We gravitate toward the strengthening exercises (Bible study, prayer, worship) rather than the ones that hit squarely at denying the old nature. A vehicle to get me to Jesus. A way to allow God IN to relate to me.

23 The spiritual disciplines are not a way to do what we think God wants us to do for Him. They are the way to open ourselves up to what He wants to do in us. and that feels terrifying because it is giving HIM the control over the outcome. It is also the safest place to be.

24 How we will train. Notebook! To stay organized. To be able to add information. To be able to teach from. We are training at different levels. Even if you can t do the homework come! Listening is first step of meditation discipline. If you are short on time, do the PRACTICE of the discipline before reading about it. You are in charge of your training intensity. You never need to come in hanging your head.

25 Assessment: Where is your heart? NO! YES YOURS MINE! God is wanting to come in and work in us what needs to be done. We have vulnerable places that He wants to gently probe. We have painful places that He needs to clean out and heal. We have misguided places that He needs to correct. We have independent places that we want to hang on to. We have proud places that are screaming and kicking at the thought of bending the knee.

26 Spiritual Training will involve letting God in to do the work that needs to be done in the heart. It will be surrendering to the process of spiritual growth these next few weeks regardless of the outcome.