The Goal of Faith part 9
Growing the Image in God’s People
I mentioned last week that this week and next should be the most practical sermons you hear. My goal for this series was to bridge the gap between the academic and the practical. We have spent the last couple of months examining the theme of Redemption and God’s Image and how it interrelates throughout the Old and New Testament. Having now laid the theological foundation, the question becomes, “So what?”
The answer is that God is doing something with this world, and He wants you to take part in His new creation. And that new creation actually begins with us! We are the first fruits of the new creation. Each person who turns away from sin and turns toward Jesus is joining with God in re-creating this world. We started by looking at how this world was made to be good. We looked at how sin has corrupted our understanding, even destroying our very souls. We then looked at how Jesus restores our image by breaking the chains of darkness. And, last week, we looked at the role of the Holy Spirit who empowers us to live in the image of God and walk in the freedom Christ gives.
This week and next week, I want to answer three specific questions that address how the Holy Spirit empowers us. These questions will also give us very specific, and practical steps we can take today, and each day, as we learn to walk with the Holy Spirit. They are:
How do we grow in God’s Image?
How do we act in God’s Image?
How do we live in God’s Image?
How do we grow in God’s Image?
The short answer to this question is, “Practice the spiritual disciplines.” Sometimes Christians can fall into one of two extremes when it comes to spiritual discipline—either legalistic oppression or libertine foolishness. Ultimately, whether or not you have fallen into one of these traps depends on whether you can honestly say you have met with God in your daily disciplines. Each of these tasks are meant to draw you closer to God. If you find yourself wandering away from God, then something is wrong in your practice.
Paul told Timothy,
Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
1 Timothy 4:7-8
We can’t go into spiritual battle untrained! The untrained soldier is a dead one.
Spiritual disciplines are meant for our training in godliness and draw us closer to God.
To help understand how the disciplines work, I like to break them into three categories.
Meet with God
Prayer
And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Matthew 6:7-13
Pray with purpose knowing your Father knows your needs before you even ask.
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name”
Give praise for who God is.
“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”
Seek God’s will, not your own.
“Give us this day our daily bread”
Focus on the day. Let God deal with tomorrow.
“And forgive us our debts”
Recognize your sin for what it is.
“As we also have forgiven our debtors”
Seek reconciliation, asking God to help you reconcile wherever possible.
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
Ask God to point you to righteousness, so temptation is less an option in your life.
Looking at each of these verses, you may notice the goal of prayer.
Primarily, prayer is for shifting our attitude and focus towards God and away from ourselves.
Scripture Intake
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:14-17
“Continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it.”
We are all products of faithful Christians who have gone before us. If we want another generation of faithful Christians, we must be faithful to continue in what we have been taught.
“Which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus”
Learning Scripture is not just kid’s play. Scripture makes us wise for our salvation. Salvation is not about getting a golden ticket to heaven. It is a process that comes from wisdom and growing into wisdom. We are being transformed by God, and that transformation continues by reading, memorizing, and taking to heart Scripture.
Those last two verses emphasize the source of Scripture—it is breathed out by God Himself. Scripture is a divinely-inspired collection of writings, and they emphasize the effect Scripture has on us. It teaches, it reproofs, it corrects, and it trains us to live in righteousness. All so that we will be complete and equipped for the task God gives us.
Scripture reading is so that we can know what God desires from His people.
“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”
Psalm 119:11 NIV
Fasting
Fasting is a discipline Baptists struggle with, because of two reasons: 1) we really like our potlucks and 2) we are typically a very pragmatic people. Prayer and Bible reading are open and measurable disciplines. We can tell who prays often and who reads often—sometimes. But, fasting requires humility. It’s very difficult to pridefully fast. But it is possible. In fact, Jesus gives instruction about fasting in Matthew 6:16-18.
And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Matthew 6:16-18
“When you fast”—notice Jesus doesn’t say ‘if’. We are supposed to fast. The Early Christians were instructed to fast twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays. It was part of their weekly rituals. But also, Jesus says to not look ‘gloomy’ like the hypocrites. People should not be aware of when we fast, because we aren’t trying to impress others with our spirituality. We are entreating God for something.
In Nehemiah 9, the people fasted out of repentance and for God’s blessing on restoring Jerusalem.
In Isaiah 58, Isaiah chastises the people for their outward fasts but fail to live out the Law. True fasting will “loose the bods of wickedness, undo the straps of the yoke, let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke.” It leads us to share food with the hungry, house the poor, and cover the naked.
Zechariah asks the Israelites if they actually fasted for God or for themselves. He reminds them of their rebelliousness in chapter 7 saying,
And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.”
Zechariah 7:8-10
Prayer is a mental exercise, fasting is a physical exercise, but both are tools to draw our attention toward what God calls us.
Fasting reminds us the blessings God gives us are meant to be used to bless others, as well.
Join with God
Evangelize
But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.
According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
1 Corinthians 3:1-15
Evangelism is a discipline, but it is one with a direct impact on the lost around us. Sometimes Christians believe they need to seek a lot of training before they go and evangelize, but the truth is, going out and telling people about Jesus is some of the best training you can get—it’s on-the-job training.
But we can get frustrated as we go, because what we expect, and really want, is for every time we tell someone about Jesus, they break down in tears, repent and follow Christ. It’s a great picture, but the truth is some things take time. It takes time for a prideful person to be humbled. But look how Paul describes the task.
First, we are all working together. The Corinthians were arguing over who was the best apostle, and Paul reminds them he, Apollos, and even the Corinthians are only servants of God. It is God that matters most. God gives the growth. Everyone else is simply doing the task God gave them.
Second, we work for God, and He blesses the work. Akin to that is the fact that Christ is our foundation. No one can start another foundation means that no one else is worthy like Christ. If we start building a program or ministry on a foundation other than Christ, then we are building something else. It is not God’s Church. But each one builds on the foundation Christ laid in order to fulfill the task and purpose God has for them.
Third, the “Day” refers to the culmination of this age. The final test for our work comes at the end of this age when the world will be transformed from its sinful, corrupted state into the New Heaven and New Earth God has in store. When that day comes, there will be some Christians who will make it to Heaven, but will be there with little to show for themselves. Everything they built on this earth was for them and not God. Their work will be burnt up, because they built up treasures that won’t survive the Day. Instead of hearing “Well done, my good and faithful servant,” they will hear “Why did you waste your time?”
Evangelism is us joining with God in building His Church and His people.
Minister
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:8-10
Ministering to others is not about earning our salvation. It is about fulfilling the tasks God has designed for us to do. We are saved by grace through faith. It is not our doing—it is the gift of God. But in that very same thought, Paul says, “We are His workmanship, created for good works.”
Ministering is doing the good works God designed for us.
James says “Faith without works is dead,” because true faith compels us to do good to those around us.
Teach
Next, is the discipline of teaching. Now, it is true not everyone can be a teacher—and nor should everyone want to be. James reminds us teachers are held to a higher standard, so be careful before jumping into teaching. But, at the same time, Scripture is clear that we must learn and teach God’s commands to those around us. At the very least, there are children around us that must learn to fear the Lord. And thus, God tells us in Deuteronomy 6:4-9:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
First, we are given the Shema which is the great proclamation given in Judaism, and with it we read the Great Commandment.
Second, notice right alongside the Great Commandment is the commandment to teach these things to your children. Wherever we go, sitting, walking, lying down, and getting up, we are to teach the children. Living the Christian life is a way of life that we teach and demonstrate to the children around us. If you don’t want to lead a bible study, that’s fine, but find ways to teach others around you about Jesus.
Teaching is being a good steward of the grace and knowledge God has given you.
Rest with God
Sleep
We tend to think of sleeping as laziness, but the truth is—at some point, you have to rest!
Genesis 2 begins with the 7th day of creation, and guess what…God even took a break! The 7 day week is a God-designed rhythm for Creation. Yes, we are called to work 6 days. And yes, we should work with all our heart and might. But on the 7th day, rest!
Mark records an interesting conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees. The disciples were picking grain to make bread as they travelled. The problem for the Pharisees is they did this on the Sabbath. Jesus gives them a quick Bible lesson and declares,
And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
Mark 2:23-28
The Sabbath was never meant to be a time of legal testing. It is a time of rest and worship. We carve a day of the week to give to the Lord in order to be refreshed.
Keeping the Sabbath and getting an appropriate amount of rest helps us maintain the rhythm of growth in our life.
Retreat
This last discipline is one that isn’t mentioned much, but turn with me to Mark 1:35-39.
And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
Mark 1:35-39
Notice where Jesus was when the disciples came looking. He was on his own in a desolate place praying. Taking a retreat every once in awhile helps reset our brains. We can focus on rest and hearing from God. And then, we can rise as Jesus did knowing exactly what our next step is.
Jesus went about preaching and casting out demons, but he started that after taking the time to rest.
Retreating from our normal surroundings every once in awhile helps renew us for the battle ahead.
There will always be work waiting for us. But remember God’s design for Creation is 6 days of work and 1 day of rest. There is a story that at one time Communist Russia attempted to enact a 7 day work week, but fairly quickly, they discovered productivity had plummeted. The people just couldn’t take it. In our day and age, most people are not workaholics…most are lazier than they should be. But, if you happen to be one, take a break!
We will return to our questions next week, but before we close, I must remind you once again…these disciplines only work for those who have trusted in the Lord. If you have never surrendered to Christ, you may find some benefit in them, but until you give your life to Christ, asking forgiveness for your sin and eternal life, they will not have the eternal impact they are meant to have.
Don’t spin your wheels for nothing! Turn to Jesus, find true life, and then, He will guide you into the disciplines that will give you more life, wisdom, and joy than you ever thought possible.