Deepening your spiritual walk with God (Part 1)

Deepening Our Spiritual Walk with God: The 8 ‘B’ssentials (Part 1)
Text: Colossians 3:1-24

Introduction

Recently I was a speaker at a student conference organized by the Fellowship of Evangelical Students (FES) on Professionals of Tomorrow (POT). It involves about 200 university students studying healthcare (HOTs), law (LOTs) and teaching (TOTs). I have had an enjoyable time speaking, teaching and sharing with the group of young energetic, idealistic, and committed young adults. They are concerned about their studies and their future. Some of the questions they asked me are:

-How to study well?
-Why is there more girl Christians than boy Christians?
-How do I know my boy/girl friend is the correct one?
-Will I be a good doctor/pharmacist/lawyer/teacher?
-What will Malaysia like in the future?
-How do I know I am in God’s will?
-How do I serve God when I graduate?
-Where did you meet your wife?
-How do I continue and finish well as a Christian and not fall away?
-How do I deepen my spiritual walk with God?

I have been thinking and processing their questions since I came back. Basically they are asking, “How can we deepen our walk with the Lord?” I believe that Col 3:1-24 gives us the answer to that.

The theme of Colossians is the complete adequacy of Christ as contrasted with the emptiness of mere human philosophy. Colossians is a genuine letter of Paul (1:1) is usually not disputed. In the early church, all who speak on the subject of authorship ascribe it to Paul. Instead, it is to be dated during Paul’s first imprisonment in Rome, where he spent at least two years under house arrest (see Ac 28:16–31). Some have argued that Paul wrote Colossians from Ephesus or Caesarea, but most of the evidence favors Rome as the place where Paul penned all the Prison Letters (Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians and Philemon). Colossians should be dated c. A.D. 60, in the same year as Ephesians and Philemon. Paul’s purpose is to refute the Colossian heresy. To accomplish this goal, he exalts Christ as the very image of God (1:15), the Creator (1:16), the preexistent sustainer of all things (1:17), the head of the church (1:18), the first to be resurrected (1:18), the fullness of deity in bodily form (1:19; 2:9) and the reconciler (1:20–22). Thus Christ is completely adequate. We “have been given fullness in Christ” (2:10). On the other hand, the Colossian heresy was altogether inadequate. It was a hollow and deceptive philosophy (2:8), lacking any ability to restrain the old sinful nature (2:23).


Here are eight ‘B’ssentials

(1) Be Aware of Your Calling/Vocation
COL 3:1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.


Os Guinness in his book, The Call, notes
“Calling (or vocation) is the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion and dynamism lived out as a response to his summons and service…

Our primary calling as followers of Christ is by him, to him, and for him.

Our secondary calling, considering God who is as sovereign, is that everyone, everywhere, and in everything should think, speak, live, and act entirely for him… we can therefore properly say that as a matter of secondary calling that we are called to homemaking or to the practice of law or to art history.

The Catholic Distortion
Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, Demonstration of the Gospel argues that Christ gave ‘two ways of life’ to the church. One is the ‘perfect life’ and the other is the ‘permitted life.’
Augustine and Thomas Aquinas elevated the contemplative life (vita contemplative) over the active life (vita active)

The Protestant Distortion
Martin Luther, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church recommends the abolition of all religious orders- one level of vocation.
Elevating the secular at the expense of the spiritual.
At its extreme vocation is an alternative word for job.
Secular-clergy gap

We are not primary called to do something or go somewhere; we are called to someone. We are not called first to special work but to God. The key to answering the call is to be devoted to no one and to nothing above God himself.


(2) Be a Person of Integrity
COL 3:5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.


“Everyone is doing it, so why shouldn’t I?” This is the argument from democracy: numbers define what is right

“It’s not illegal.” True but is it right?

“They did it to me, so I’m going to do it to them.” There is a very seductive logic in that tit-for-tat rationalization.

“If I don’t do it, somebody else will.” But sometimes, they don’t.

“Why follow standard operating protocols? Others don’t” They are there for a reason.
Patient confidentiality


CA Carson, Sermon on the Mount
“It (the sermon on the mount) portrays the pattern of conduct under kingdom authority, a pattern that demands conformity now, even if perfection will not be achieved until the kingdom’s consummation”

Tozer
“Not only are we in the process of becoming; we are becoming what we love. We are to a large degree the sum of our loves and we will of moral necessity grow into the image of what we love most; for love is among other things a creative affinity; it changes and molds and shapes and transform. It is without doubt the most powerful agent affecting human nature next to direct action of the Holy Spirit of God within the soul.”


(3) Be Growing into Christlikeness
8 But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices
10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.


-Self discipline
-Spiritual discipline
-

Dallas Willard
“spiritual formation for the Christian basically refers to the Spirit-driven process of forming the inner world of the human self in such a way that it becomes like the inner self of Christ himself.”

This process of spiritual formation is enhanced by the spiritual disciplines of bible study, prayer, fellowship, liturgy, worship, solitude and decision making.

Willow Creek Repents?
Why the most influential church in America now says "We made a mistake."

"Few would disagree that Willow Creek Community Church has been one of the most influential churches in America over the last thirty years. Willow, through its association, has promoted a vision of church that is big, programmatic, and comprehensive. This vision has been heavily influenced by the methods of secular business. James Twitchell, in his new book Shopping for God, reports that outside Bill Hybels’ office hangs a poster that says: “What is our business? Who is our customer? What does the customer consider value?” Directly or indirectly, this philosophy of ministry—church should be a big box with programs for people at every level of spiritual maturity to consume and engage—has impacted every evangelical church in the country.

So what happens when leaders of Willow Creek stand up and say, “We made a mistake”?
Not long ago Willow released its findings from a multiple year qualitative study of its ministry. Basically, they wanted to know what programs and activities of the church were actually helping people mature spiritually and which were not. The results were published in a book, Reveal: Where Are You?, co-authored by Greg Hawkins, executive pastor of Willow Creek. Hybels called the findings “earth shaking,” “ground breaking,” and “mind blowing.”

If you’d like to get a synopsis of the research you can watch a video with Greg Hawkins here. And Bill Hybels’ reactions, recorded at last summer’s Leadership Summit, below are few highlights.

In the Hawkins’ video he says, “Participation is a big deal. We believe the more people participating in these sets of activities, with higher levels of frequency, it will produce disciples of Christ.” This has been Willow’s philosophy of ministry in a nutshell. The church creates programs/activities. People participate in these activities. The outcome is spiritual maturity. In a moment of stinging honesty Hawkins says, “I know it might sound crazy but that’s how we do it in churches. We measure levels of participation.”

Having put all of their eggs into the program-driven church basket you can understand their shock when the research revealed that “Increasing levels of participation in these sets of activities does NOT predict whether someone’s becoming more of a disciple of Christ. It does NOT predict whether they love God more or they love people more.”

Speaking at the Leadership Summit, Hybels summarized the findings this way:

Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back it wasn’t helping people that much. Other things that we didn’t put that much money into and didn’t put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for.

Having spent thirty years creating and promoting a multi-million dollar organization driven by programs and measuring participation, and convincing other church leaders to do the same, you can see why Hybels called this research “the wake up call” of his adult life.

Hybels confesses:
We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their bible between service, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.

In other words, spiritual growth doesn’t happen best by becoming dependent on elaborate church programs but through the age old spiritual practices of prayer, bible reading, and relationships. And, ironically, these basic disciplines do not require multi-million dollar facilities and hundreds of staff to manage.

Does this mark the end of Willow’s thirty years of influence over the American church? Not according to Hawkins:
Our dream is that we fundamentally change the way we do church. That we take out a clean sheet of paper and we rethink all of our old assumptions. Replace it with new insights. Insights that are informed by research and rooted in Scripture. Our dream is really to discover what God is doing and how he’s asking us to transform this planet."

To be continued…

Deepening your spiritual walk with God (part 2)

Deepening Our Spiritual Walk with God: The 8 ‘B’ssentials (Part 2)
Text: Colossians 3:1-24

Last week, we were talking about the importance of deepening our spiritual walk with God. The Economist ran an 18 page special report on God and religions. This is particularly significant because in the early part of the 20th century there is a general consensus that with reason, socialism and science, religion is on the way out. In 1966, Time magazine even ran a cover with the question, “Is God dead?” The recent resurgence of interest in the four major religions of the world: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism bears testimony to the fact that God is not dead but interest in him is increasing. As Christians, we know that out God lives. And because He lives, we too need to live in such a way that we please Him. Hence there is this need to deepen our walk with God: The eight ‘B’ssentials.

The first three are
(1) Be aware of your calling/vocation
(2) Be a person of integrity
(3) Be growing in Christ-likeness.

We shall continue in the other ‘B’ssentials.

(4) Be Different
COL 3:12 Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Christianity is counter-cultural. It is meant to be different. Someone once said that Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship. This is so true. Christianity s a relationship with God. If our relationship with God is correct, it will reflect in the way we live our lives. And it will also be apparent that we are different.

-Work ethics (marketplace spirituality)
-Forgiveness
-Relationship with other workers

Eugene Peterson in his book, The Resurrected Life, comments,
“The resurrection life is a practice…we engage in a life that is permeable by the presence and companionship of the resurrected Jesus in the company of friends.”
What he meant was that we are actually living the resurrection life now as Jesus is living in us and he has been resurrected. The resurrected life will involve;

(1) Resurrection wonder as we perceive the world through our sixth sense- the spiritual sense. We can see the reality of God presence in the cosmos and in our lives.
(2) Sabbath keeping is not a concept or something we want to do but have not got around to. Living a resurrected life means keeping the Sabbath.
(3) Resurrection meals or Eucharist will be a special time of remembering and being with Christ.
(4) Resurrection Friends are being one with the cloud of witnesses- Christians from the past, present and future.

(5) Be Part of a Community of Faith
COL 3:15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.

Dan Kimball (2007), They Like Jesus But Not The Church: Insights from Emerging Generations (Grand rapids, MI: Zondervan). In this book, Kimball went around the United States and interviews hundreds of young people especially those who have left the institutional church. He came up with some interesting views. One of the questions he asked them was:
What they wish the church were like
I wish the church were not just a sermon or a lecture but a discussion
I wish the church would respect my intelligence
I wish the church weren’t about the church building
I wish the church were less programmed and allowed time to think and pray
I wish the church were a loving place
I wished the church card for the poor and for the environment
I wish the church taught more about Jesus

Looking at the state of our own churches, we need to buck up too.

(6) Be Grateful
17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

We must be a grateful people. Gratefulness is a powerful battery for our spiritual energy. It is also a powerful motivator. Just imagine that out of millions of people, God chose us to be His people! That is a mind boggling thought.


(7) Be Building a Godly Marriage
COL 3:18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.21 Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.

Godly marriage starts with two people.

Trobisch, a missionary in Africa, wrote in his book, I Married You,
“It is the statement about marriage that is repeated four times in the Bible. The Bible does not speak very often about marriage. Therefore it is the more striking that this statement appears four times in very decisive places. First, it sums up the story of creation in the second chapter of Genesis. Then, Jesus quotes this statement in Matthew 19:5 and Mark 10:7, after He is asked about divorce. Finally the apostle Paul relates directly to Jesus in Ephesians 5:31”

Genesis 2:24
GE 2:24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

“This verse has three parts. It mentions three things which are essential to marriage: to leave, to cleave, and to become one flesh.”

Children are a blessings and addition to a Godly marriage but it must first starts with two persons.


(8) Be Excellent
COL 3:22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

As Christians we need to have a start of excellence in all that we do.
-Professionalism in our jobs
-Standard of excellence
-Excellence in our churches


Conclusion

The eight ‘B’ssentials are

(1) Be aware of your calling/vocation
(2) Be a person of integrity
(3) Be growing in Christ-likeness
(4) Be different
(5) Be part of a community of faith
(6) Be grateful
(7) Be building a Godly marriage
(8) Be excellent.


soli deo gloria