I love that we are talking about spending time with the Lord because tonight we are going to talk about spiritual disciplines. And I have been laughing with the Lord that this is what him and I are talking about because he knows that this isn't a strength that I carry. And if you know me very well, you know that disciplines and routines, you know, faithfulness is not my strength, right? So I think since I was young, I've kind of had this narrative over my life that I'm the least disciplined person around, you know.
And even in this last season, as the Lord's been teaching me, he's going, you know, that can change, you know, right? Like you don't have to just live with that just because that's, you know, what you function in. If you'd like to change, I could help you. It's like, oh, I guess we could change.
So I've been growing in this area and usually when I'm going to share a message, I like to share something that I feel like I have authority in because I've become the message or lived the message. But today I am bringing you in on something that I don't have authority in. And I have not worked this out in my life yet. And I'm just in the journey.
And so a little bit surprised that the Lord would have me teach on this, but this is what he said. So we're going to go with it. And really my hope is to start a conversation within our community around this topic. I just I believe that the Lord is doing something in the body at large, not just in every day.
I believe he's doing something in the body at large around the topic of spiritual disciplines. And I think there's a returning for this generation to some of those things. And I think we're seeing that. But I want us to start that conversation in our body here so that we can process through how that's going to work itself out in our lives.
And so I'll give us a chance at the end here tonight to talk about it with each other and process through it. But I just want to begin this conversation for us. Does that sound okay? How many of you grew up in a faith-based home?
I'll say faith-based home. Raise them high because I'm curious. Okay. And how many of you had a window into spiritual discipline?
So what I should clarify. When I'm talking in spiritual disciplines, different faith traditions would highlight and emphasize different ones. There's a lot of them. But I'm talking about studying the word time and prayer, communion, celebrating the Lord's Supper, gathering with believers, gathering with others to worship and to gather around teaching, silence and solitude, living a simple life, generosity, engaging with the poor.
These types of things, fasting. Right? Are you tracking with me? Okay.
You got to talk to me a little bit. I'm a little more conversational. And I know we're a little quiet at the 530 sometimes, but not when I talk. We got to talk to each other.
So I know we're together. Okay. Here we go. So you know what I'm talking about.
When I talk about spiritual disciplines. Okay. Great. How many of you saw spiritual disciplines like that modeled consistently in your faith-based home?
Raise them high. I can see. Okay. A lot of us.
I think that a pattern that we see, it's really normal. We see it go from generation to generation. We see one generation react to the generation before them. So in culture, we see, man, the people before us.
So I'll just name this. Maybe for us in faith traditions, we saw the generations before us kind of dip into some legalism. Can you relate with that? Some religion, some legalism, obligation.
It really works based stuff. And so I think we saw that. And then what's natural is to respond to that impingulum saying to the other side. So not that works our bad.
Faith with that works is dead. So, but the ditch of being works focused, we saw that legalism, that religion, the obligation. And so we responded to the ditch of the generation before us that they tripped into. And we've swung over to this other side, which is where we see ourselves today and where the church is predominantly at today.
And that's where we were seeing humanism, sneaking, we're seeing, oh, God is in the trees and God is me and God, you know, what I'm talking about. So we see this switch over here to nothing really about works and it's all about what I know and what I feel, right? Around me. And so we've swung into in response to this ditch or this error, we have actually swung into the other side of the ditch and gone into a different type of error.
So that's what you're seeing culturally. On top of that, I think that we have an interesting dynamic in this house, in our faith tradition, around we're very established in our understanding of our identity and the finished work of the cross. Is that right? So we know that because of Jesus, he removed our sin from us as far as the east is from the west.
He remembers our sin no more. We became one with him, were sons, were daughters, were co-heirs, were seated with him in heavenly places. We've been given all authority. We have the same power that raised Jesus from the dead.
All of these things that were established in our identity before him. And so now we know that my works do not sway the Father's approval of me, right? We're established that we understand that he does not love me more tomorrow if I get it right than if I get it wrong today. So we're just established in the love of God, that it's nothing that we do by works, but it's all because of Jesus and the grace of God.
It's almost too good to be true, right? We talk about this. It's almost too good to be true, the grace of God. But I think, and I am not going to undermine any of what we believe about that.
Everything I just said is fact, and it's true about you as a son or a daughter. But I think that there is, because of this pendulum swing, I think the combination of what's happening culturally with that understanding of who we are, I have a concern that it has put a laziness in us in how we pursue the Lord and how we approach him. Romans 12 says to not be slothful in zeal, but to be what? Fervent in spirit.
Maybe we look at the generation before us and we go, they were fervent in spirit maybe. And maybe we're kind of pendulming over here and it's like, are we a little bit slothful in zeal because the work is already finished? We're seated with him in heavenly places. We're not needing to strive anymore.
There's no sweat on our brow. We know the truth. But the reality is there are two parts to this walk with God. And what I'm talking about over here, I'm visual.
So I hope it helps you that I'm kind of like in a category over here, okay? So hopefully it helps my brain. We'll just keep using these categories and you can track with me if you're watching on a screen. Hopefully you guys can capture that too.
The finished work and what that does to our position in God, that is our justification. We have been justified before him at the point of salvation. The old is gone, the new has come. I am pure, I am spotless before him and it is an unshakeable position before him.
Part one. But that salvation. But then there's a part two and that is sanctification. Sanctification is our salvation working itself out in the way that we live our lives.
Sanctification is our justification working its way out into how we walk in our everyday life. Our attitudes. It is the process. Sanctification is the process of my soul submitting to my spirit, the finished work of the cross, right?
So now I go, my soul, my mind, my will, emotions. They are coming into submission to my spirit. But I think maybe some of us are just sitting right here enjoying the perks of the finished work. But has it actually changed us?
It changed my position, that's for sure. But did it change how I think, how I feel, how I act, how I treat my neighbor? Did it impact my temper? Did it impact my lack of disciplined nature?
Has it actually impacted me? Scripture is clear that you, and this is so interesting to me, but I think it points to this whole justification, sanctification thing. But it is clear that you can be a Christian, so to speak, that you can choose to follow Jesus and actually not walk according to the spirit. You can get saved and not become an imitator of him.
But the whole goal is that we would become like him. That we would be imitators of God, that we would grow up into Jesus, who is our head. Christ is to be formed in us. People around you should see you and go, oh, so that's what Jesus looks like.
And so many of us feel so far from that. So please don't look at me to know what Jesus looks like. Please don't look at me. And that's literally why we're here.
Because literally why we're here. All creation, groaning for the sons of God to be revealed. All creation, waiting for you to act like him to know who you are and live according to what he has purchased for you. But so many of us are right here knowing our position, but not looking like the position we've taken.
You don't have to turn here, but if you want to write any scriptures down, you can't. I'm just going to fire through a couple. Ephesians 5-8. You are once in darkness, but now you are of the light.
So walk as children of the light. So you're once in darkness, then you are saved. Now you're in the light. There's another step.
Walk in the light. You're tracking with me. I'm just trying to prove it in the word. Here we go.
Since we live by the spirit, let's keep in step with the spirit. So it's possible to live by the spirit and not keep in step with the spirit. Right? Are you tracking with me?
Walk in the spirit and you just won't gratify the desires of the flesh. I love that so much. In first, Peter, it talks about, he quotes that scripture about be holy as I am holy. And that's a little bit confusing because we actually were already made holy.
At the point of salvation, you've been made holy. So why are you saying be holy as I am holy? He's saying, yeah, I know you're holy. Live like you're holy.
Right? So it's not a position or an identity request when he says be holy. He's saying, hey, act like it. Live like what's actually happened on the inside.
There's this process to work itself out. So before maybe what we've seen or what we've reacted to in the church, where we've maybe seen legalism and where we've seen obligation and religion, maybe what we were seeing isn't the picture of what this was supposed to be in the first place. Can I suggest that maybe what we've seen in this topic of works and sanctification is that if you start in sanctification, if you start in works, it leads to death. It's not from the place of love and so it will not produce life.
So if you're starting from the place of works of I need to be good, do good, do all of these things so that he will love me, so that I will have his approval, it's broken right there. It's dead. But if we can start here understanding our identity and what he's purchased for us, then our sanctification, the outworking of our salvation is a love response to what he's done. Do you see the difference?
You've heard it before. We're not living for his love. We're living from his love, right? It's absolutely different.
So now, as I am engaging in sanctification through works, my motive is love. And as I'm engaging in my sanctification through works, I am not tripped up when I mess up. So now I don't hit that bar. I know that my position is unshakeable in him.
So we're not doing it to get his affections for us and it shifts everything. So I want to just point us to if we've thrown the baby out with the bathwater, if that's the way you want to look at it, if we have pendulum swung right out of any type of discipline in our relationship with the Lord, I want to invite you to relook it again. I want to invite you to relook it again. Because the reality is Jesus, he modeled these disciplines himself.
He got away to talk to the Father in private. Jesus fasted. Jesus prayed before meals. I mean, it's like Jesus introduced the Lord's Supper.
He told us to fast until the bridegroom returns. It's like he is setting the tone. He was in the synagogue every single day. He was gathering with other believers every single day.
He surrounded himself with people, not once a week, not Sundays and Wednesdays. Every single day, God in the flesh. God in the flesh. Submitted himself under these rhythms and routines and disciplines.
Is it possible that these disciplines were created for our good? Is it possible that God knows our frame? He remembers that we are dust. And he knows how fickle we are.
He knows how swayed we are, blown and tossed by the wind. He understands it. Do you think it's possible that he said, here's a few gifts that will help you stay the course. Here's a few gifts that will help you remember me throughout your day.
I've been thinking about prayer before meals. Okay. Last time I asked the group and they all lied. So I want to know.
I want to know the truth. How many of you pray before every meal? Raise them. Okay.
I might believe you. Last time almost every hand went up. Wrong. That is not true.
It is not true. Okay. After today, we don't, Josh, I do not pray at every meal. After today, we're praying at every meal.
I, listen to me. It's all about your lens. Why do I not pray at every meal? Did I growing up?
Absolutely I did. When I have an extended family who all love the Lord. If we're all together, we pray before meals. Why do we not in our home?
Well, is it authentic? Do I mean it? Am I just going through the motions? Is this just religion?
I only want to do it if I mean it. And we'll talk about that. Wait a second. What if this is God's gift to me?
That's something that I'm already doing in my life. I'm eating three. I don't know how many meals we eat a day. There's lots of snacks in there.
But there's a few meals in a day. What a gift and what a creative idea to go, what if before I ate I actually paused? I'm talking about this like this is profound. And we all know about praying before a meal.
But we can make this sound beautiful because it can be. But it's like, I can't be serious. Okay. It's like you're about to have your meal and how beautiful to pause and look at him as a family, as an individual, with your friends and go, Jesus, you are our food.
Thank you that as we eat this meal, it's a reminder that you are our sustenance. We're so thankful for you, Jesus. Amen. What if these little routines and disciplines actually are little remembrances that we set up to actually have God on the mind throughout our day?
I've set the Lord always before me because he's at my right hand. I won't be shaken. He's at my right hand. But I can still be shaken even though he's there.
But if I remember that he's there by setting him always before me, I won't be shaken. Are you tracking with that? Are we aware of him? Have we set up rhythms and disciplines in our day, in our week, in our month, our season, our years, that cause us to remember him, to notice him, to realize that he's a manual with us.
He knows that we forget his nearness. So he's given us these gifts to stay close. Are you tracking with that? I wonder if these little disciplines could be our road map to get to the rocking chair with a soft heart.
Not a hardened calloused one because all we're doing is going through the motions. But what if these disciplines keep our hearts soft? But what about when I don't mean it? What about when I don't feel it?
We all know this. We are in a culture, a microwave culture. We are in a consumer culture, right? Instant gratification.
If I'm not seeing the benefit in my life for this, I'm going to cut it quick, right? Trust me. I value efficiency, probably my highest value. I love efficiency.
But that's a negative side of what's happening in culture right now. I want to see how this has benefited me and I want to see it now, or I'm going to move on to the next thing. Is this worth my time? And I think it's one of the things that keeps us from these disciplines because I go, well, I read my Bible and it just was boring, so I haven't continued to read it.
I did that 30-day challenge and I didn't really feel like it benefited me that much. I didn't feel that much different. I fasted one time and I didn't see that thing happen that I was fasting to see happen. It's like, well, you're not fasting for the right reason.
That's not what fasting is for. But you tried it once. It didn't work. Are you trapped with that?
It's like, oh, it just didn't work. It's like, oh, I prayed for a long time about that thing. And it didn't happen the way that I wanted it to happen. And so I just don't pray consistently now.
I come and I gather with other believers. I come to services. But man, there was a couple of weeks where I just didn't really connect with worship and the message wasn't really for me. They were altar calls, but I didn't go far.
They weren't really for me. So I just kind of haven't been going very much. And I just realized I don't really need to go every week because, you know, things are so busy. It's so hard to actually get there.
And when I get there, it really needs to be worth my time. We respond because every single one of us is not that. But our perspective is skewed. Our perspective is skewed on how we interact with him in this way.
We have this perspective that if it isn't a lights out encounter, then I don't know if it was worth my time. Jesus is our daily bread. He is the bread of life, our daily bread. Another way to say it is the bread of our necessity.
I love that. You can meditate on that this week if you want to do Jesus. Is the bread of our necessity. Just enough for today.
Meant to be partaken in every day. Our source. Every day. If you're going to go eat a meal and you thought, like this would be so weird.
You'd have to have a really unhealthy relationship with food to think this way. Okay, I'm going to eat dinner, but dinner better be the best dinner I've ever had. And it better hit my taste buds in a way that my taste buds haven't ever experienced food before. And I want to remember this meal for the rest of my life.
And so you sit down and you eat and it doesn't blow your mind. How insane to think like that. But how crazy would it be to go, I'm not eating dinner anymore. I'm not going to eat dinner the rest of this week.
That's for sure. The next day it's dinner time and you're like, hmm, I don't know if I should eat because dinner last night wasn't that great. I don't feel that motivated to eat dinner because I was a little disappointed with dinner last night. Okay, retracking.
So I think every time that you sit down with the word that you're in prayer, that you fast, that you gather like we're gathering right now, it's rarely going to be an encounter. How many meals can you remember throughout your life that are just like that meal? That was a feast and I won't forget it. I can probably count it on hand.
What if I told you it might be kind of similar in God? But when those moments come, it sustains you in a different way. But when they don't, we have to understand that it's the little meals, like just how food sustains us. The little meals of being with him and being in the word and gathering with believers, all of these disciplines.
They are what are sustaining us and we aren't even realizing that we are malnourished. Because I know my identity, but are you connected to the vine? Like how? Just because we know that he's the vine, I know I'm the branches.
Does it mean that I've chosen to plug myself into the vine and let his DNA run through me, let his life source run through me, be nourished by his spirit? It's possible to be completely disconnected to him, but still have right standing with him. His grace is wild, but his grace is to empower us to live a holy life. It is the only way it's possible to submit to the sanctification processes by his spirit.
So this meal, every time I eat, sometimes it's like I'm just going to eat some moments, sometimes just going to eat a salad. And it's like I'm not remembering that salad after that day, but it sustained me for today. And so I believe that he's cultivating in us a faithfulness in our feasting on him. That would sustain us and not just be, oh, I just came for the shot in the arm.
I came into service for the shot in the arm. I just needed joy. I was feeling, I needed peace. I was feeling so anxious.
So I came in and I didn't leave feeling peace. It's like that's not even what it's about. It's like, hey, you're dealing with anxiety. You're coming to the Lord.
Talk to me in a couple years. How is peace on your heart? You gave me this 30-day challenge. You told me to spend an hour a day with God, and I did it, and it didn't work.
What does that mean to you? What were you hoping would work? Because of how our society functions with this instant gratification thing, we just get really confused and lost in this topic. Because it's like, if it didn't work for me, then I give up on it to move to the next thing.
And so what does it look like, Lord, to cultivate a faithfulness in us? Because we don't want to be a flash in the pan moment. We don't want it to just be a season. We want longevity.
Over seasons and decades. Man, I just don't feel it though. I don't feel it and I want it to be authentic for me. Can you relate to this?
This is me. It doesn't feel authentic to do that because I don't actually feel drawn in this moment to do that. And I think we get confused about that because authenticity is not submitting to your emotions. Authenticity is not submitting to your emotions.
Your emotions need to come up under the Lordship of Jesus. Our emotions need to submit to Him. Now I'm not saying emotions are bad. Carries all of the emotions to the infinite degree.
Emotions are not bad. But they do not dictate what we choose or what our supreme desire is. We choose our supreme desire, our supreme affection, and it's Him. That then trumps whatever our emotions are telling us.
So I go, oh, I'm not feeling it. What does it look like to be authentic then? So it's like, okay, let's think of an example. I am binge watching some Netflix show and I have the thought, oh, I was going to spend time with the Lord today.
I was going to read my Bible today. And it's like, I don't feel like it. First of all, for sure you won't feel like it. If you just got to watch TV, 99.9% chance you do not have any desire to go to your Bible.
So normal. Normal. That doesn't mean anything. So if we, it literally means nothing.
It's like, hmm, do I want to? It's like that's irrelevant to the conversation. So I was going to read my Bible. This is what's authentic.
Authenticity is not like, well, I don't want to. So I'm just going to smoke it up and keep watching the show. Authenticity before the Lord would go, man, Lord, I know that I was going to spend time with you today and I don't want to. I'm watching the show.
It seems way more interesting to me. I feel like compared to the show, the Bible is going to be boring. And I feel like you're not even going to show up when we are together. But I know that what I want is you.
And so I'm going to turn this off even though I don't feel like it. And I'm going to force myself to sit down in this chair and open the Bible. That's authenticity. Because you're being honest, but you're staying true to what you actually desire.
Does that make sense? When you don't feel hunger, you can still make choices that look like hunger. And as you make those choices that look like hunger, hunger will be produced on the inside of you. Just like, you know, you hear it.
It's like, love is a choice. You don't wake up in love. Ever. Ever.
I mean, I love you. But it's like, I, when is the last time I woke up and like, how I love him? It's just not normal. But I, how crazy would it be to go?
So I'm not going to put any effort toward this relationship because I didn't feel loved this morning and the butterflies aren't there. And whatever, it's like butterflies. My goodness. I mean, we need marriage counseling, but we'll talk about it later.
It's a choice. It's a choice. And we know that. But I think we just forget it because we're so run by our emotions sometimes.
There's so much grace. I want you to feel from the Lord. Like, I think of what do I want you to know about him? Is he is not trying to like, stiff arm you and force you into all of these hard things because he gets pleasure in watching you struggle.
It's just not what he's like. But we have to shift our understanding to get that these things are for our good to tether us to him, to remember him. And so, Isaac in here, do you want to come and play the keys? We're going to talk about this a little bit.
I want us to talk about what is your journey in spiritual disciplines? Are you like me? And you're like, oh, a rule means I find a way to break it. Are you like me?
Are you like, I'm actually extremely disciplined? And so I can kind of fall into the other ditch of I am just doing this because this is what I signed up to do. Like, where are you in that process and on that spectrum of even your wiring? And have you seen spiritual disciplines as a gift to you to keep you connected to him?
Not a dread, not something that you have to grudgingly do. It's like a gift to keep you connected, to remember him and to stay near. I want you to look at them. I want you to think about fasting, prayer, reading the word, gathering with other believers, communion.
I mean, what an interesting one. We're really pressing in a communion right now. If I'm honest, I don't connect with communion very deeply right now. I understand it.
I get what it means. I can go there mentally. But I don't have an emotional connection to communion where when we go into communion, oh, this is just where I meet with God. But choosing to continue to do it to grow in my understanding of the depth of what it represents and how that actually shapes me.
We want Christ to be formed in us. And so for me, I want to submit to these rhythms and disciplines so that I can stay connected to him with a soft heart. Like the goal is love at the end of the day. And so can we, let's all stand.
Why don't you just turn to the people around you, ask them, you know, what was your upbringing with this? How do you process this? Ready, go. All right.
I'm going to commission you out. If you're not standing already, would you stand with us as we commission you out? If you're just having the best conversation, you can keep having it after we commission. We got time.
Are we ready to go? All right. Jesus, we just say that we want to be faithful ones. We want to go the distance.
We want longevity in our stride, in our steps that we would walk according to the spirit. That's our desire. And so we thank you, Lord, for these gifts of discipline in our life. We thank you for the way that they tether us to you and keep us connected to you, God.
We are thankful for any opportunity to remain connected to you. It's such a gift. Lord, we just say that we will not allow the legalism of another to keep us from the depth of the riches of knowing you through discipline. We're not going to let it hinder us from grabbing hold of you.
So God, I ask that you would work in us a zeal to stay committed to you in and out of season when we feel like it and when we don't strengthen us, God, to stay connected to you. In Jesus name, amen.