Elements part 1
Scripture
Sunday, November 4th, 2013
I’m excited to begin a brand new
sermon series that flows out of our last series called the Christian Atheist.
If you remember, and I hope you do,
we said that a
Christian Atheist is someone who believes in God, but lives as if He doesn’t
exist.
As we worked our way through the
series, we concluded that God isn’t asking us to know Him with our head—surface
level--- but He wants us to know Him personally and intimately.
God wants us to believe in Him, and
live as if He exists…
This is where this new series comes
in. It’s called Elements
and it will focus on the Spiritual Disciplines.
Now, allow me to explain a few
words, and I have to admit, I had to go back to school on this one.
ILLUSTRATION- I wanted to know what an element was, so I
talked to Mike Liston, who, bless his heart, tried to explain to me what an
element is… but it just wasn’t working.
Something inside of me
was blocking out what he was trying telling me… again, no fault of Mike’s at
all..
I think it was my
love/hate relationship with school kicking in.
So after my conversation
with Mike, I went to my friend Mr. Google, and found a definition of an element
that will work for our purposes.
“An element is a part or
aspect of something especially one that is essential.”
I don’t know if that definition would really apply in the scientific
world in relation to an element, but I know without a shadow of a doubt that it
does apply in the Spiritual world.
If we are going to believe in God and live as if He exists, then we need
to make the Spiritual Disciplines of prayer, scripture, fasting, journaling,
confession, silence and solitude, part of our daily lives.
The spiritual disciplines are
essential elements in the life of the follower of Jesus.
Dietrich Bonheoffer, who was a German Pastor who strongly opposed the
Nazi regime, has said: “Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity
without Christ.” (AJ
Plaizer’s sermon)
It is essential for followers of Jesus Christ to grow in their faith and
one way we do this is by implementing spiritual disciplines into our daily
lives.
Here’s a good working definition of what spiritual disciplines are: They are
activities that can help us gain power to live life as Jesus taught and modeled.
By practicing the Spiritual disciplines, we are actually following the
example of Jesus who often withdrew to be alone to pray, He memorized the Word
of God, and Jesus even took time to rest (one of my favorite spiritual
disciplines)!
If Jesus felt the need to
practice spiritual disciplines, how much more do we need to practice spiritual
disciplines?
Paul wrote in Colossians 2: “And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him.
7 Let your roots grow down
into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong
in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.” (Col. 2:6-7, NLT2)
There is very little wiggle room left in this verse. Once we come to
faith in Jesus, we must continue growing in Jesus, and the elements—or
spiritual disciplines—will help us build our lives on Jesus Christ who is “the author and
perfecter of our faith…” (Heb. 12:2, NIV)
We cannot come to faith in Jesus and live any way that we want to; we
have a responsibility to know Christ and to make Him known.
We have a responsibility to grow in our faith, and the Spiritual
disciplines will help us do that.
In 1st Timothy 4:7 we are instructed to: “discipline yourself
for the purpose of godliness.” (1 Tim 4:7, NASB).
The reason we are instructed to “train yourself to be godly” (1 Tim.4:7, NIV), is
because we
will never drift into godliness…it takes work.
We will not wake up one day and find out that we have become an expert
piano player. We have to work at it, day in and day out, week after week, month
after month….
We will never drift into
godliness; into becoming a fully devoted follower of Jesus,
it takes intentional work—hard work—on our part to become like Jesus, and the 4
Elements that we will be looking at throughout this series, will go a long way
to helping us build our lives on Jesus.
So the first spiritual discipline that I would like us to practice this
week is Scripture.
Author Keith Drury tells us that: “Scripture as a spiritual discipline is reading,
studying, memorizing, meditating upon and obeying the Bible in order to know
God and become more like Him.” (Drury 2005, 102)
The Bible is central to the life of the follower of Jesus. If you want
to know who God is and what He did, you’ve got to read the Book.
Wesleyans believe the Bible is the complete Word of God. It’s completely
inspired and completely infallible.
We believe the Bible is without mistake and is superior to all human authority,
and it has been transmitted to the present without corruption of any essential
doctrine.
The Bible contains all we need to know for salvation, and makes it clear
to us that salvation is found only in the Person of Jesus Christ.
We don’t worship the Bible; we
worship the God of whom the Bible speaks!
Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 3, that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching,
rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,17 so that the man of God
may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:16-17,
NIV)
I want you to notice a few things from this passage. First of all, All Scripture
is inspired by God.
The Bible is God’s word to us. Not the book of Mormon, not the Quran, nor
the teachings of Hare Krishna, or the teachings of Buddha.
The 66 books of the Old and New Testaments are the inspired word of God.
It was written over a period of 1600 years by over 40 different authors
and all point to one main theme: Jesus is the Christ.
The writer of Hebrews tells us that: “The word of God is alive and powerful. It is
sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit,
between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.” (Heb.
4:12, NLT2)
Because God’s word is alive and powerful, #2 it is useful for Teaching.
The word of God gives instructions as to how God’s people are to live in
this world as we await our rightful home in heaven.
I’ll give you a hint: we are to live the Holy Life.
But notice also #3 that the Word of God is useful for Rebuking.
Because God's Word is alive, when I read and study it, I am confronted
with the sin that is in my life.
Then, #4 the
word of God is useful in correcting:
when I have done wrong, I am able to turn to God because of what has been
written in His word.
(If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and
purify us from all unrighteousness.1 John 1:9, NIV)
And #5 the
word of God is useful for Training in Righteousness: the word of God
helps me live the life that God wants me to live.
All of these are true of the Word, and “God uses it to prepare and equip his people to
do every good work.” (2 Tim 3:17, NLT2)
For the word of God to work in my life, there’s something that I must
do…. can you guess what it is? I must DO THE WORD.
David asked a question in Psalm 119: “How can a young man keep his way pure?”
(Psalm 119:9, NIV)
Without giving us time to consider the answer, he tells us that a person
keeps their way pure, “By living according to your word.” (Psalm 119:9, NIV)
We must make it a regular practice to do the word; read it, study it,
memorize it—because the word will help us become the people God wants us to
become.
Here’s what James, the brother of Jesus, had to say about the Word of
God: “Do not
merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (James 1:22 NIV)
“For if you listen to the
word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror.
24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.
25 But if you look carefully
into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t
forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.” (James 1:23-25, NLT2)
It’s not enough for us just to hear the word of God; we’ve got to apply
it to our lives, because “application makes all the difference”
So, how do we apply the element of scripture to our lives?
There are many ways, if you come back tonight, we’ll take a closer look
at some of them, but I want to give you 2 very practice things you can do to
make the Word of God a part of your life.
Have Daily reading times.
It’s interesting to me that we have
no problem reading our favorite novel, or the newspaper from front to back, or even
watching our favorite television show, but we grumble when someone suggests
that we spend time in God’s word on a daily basis.
If we are serious about not becoming Christian Atheists,
we must spend time in God’s word daily.
So, this week I want to encourage
you to begin reading your bible.
But don’t open it at random and read
the first page that lands open, otherwise you’ll come across a verse that says:
"All men
are liars." (Psalm 116:11, NIV)
and you’ll have no idea why it’s there or what that means…
Pick up a bible reading guide off
the table in the lobby; this will guide you through the word of God. Or begin
with the Gospel of John and read it little by little every day.
As you read, ask God to apply what
you are reading—not everything will apply at that exact moment, but eventually
what you are reading will come into play, so ask God to help you discern what
you are reading.
Some of you might not have a Bible
at home to read from. don't let that become a problem, for I want to give you a bible to take home
with you.
They are found on the table in the lobby... If you need one, take one
and begin reading God’s word on a daily basis.
If you have a smartphone or tablet,
you can download the “you version” app; this is one of the best bible apps that
I have ever seen, and it’s free! This app will even help you read the bible on
a daily basis.
As you’re reading the Word of God,
remember this: “The
goal is not for us to get through the Scriptures, the goal is to get the
scriptures through us.” (Ortberg, 1997, 184)
So, let’s make it a priority to
spend time in God’s word this week.
The second way to apply this element
to your life is to memorize it.
ILLUSTRATION- A couple of weeks ago, I had to go to the
Fredericton Hospital for a very unpleasant procedure.
As I was lying on the
hospital bed wrapped up in 3 blankets—why do they keep it like a meat locker in
there?- I became worried at what was about to take place.
Before I
allowed my mind to get carried away, I began recalling verses that I had
memorized, verse like: “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.” (Psalm 23:1, NIV)
Another verse that came to mind was: “Do not let your
hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.” (John 14:1
NIV),
"Father, into your hands
I commit my spirit." (Luke 23:46, NIV) was another verse that jumped into my mind.
Because I had taken the time to memorize these scriptures,
I felt the presence of God with me that day.
This is what memorizing scripture
does to and for us.
It changes us one verse at a time, so
along with your daily bible reading this week, I’m going to suggest that we all
memorize 2 scripture verses, the first one comes from Psalm 46:10:
"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be
exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." (NIV)
And the second verse is 2 Timothy
1:7: “For God
has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and
self-discipline.” (NLT2)
If you’ve already got a handle on
these two verses, then find two other verses to memorize.
You’ll be amazed at how the Holy
Spirit brings these Words into your mind at just the right time.
Paul told us to: “discipline yourself
for the purpose of godliness” (1 Tim. 4:7, NASB)
And knowing that we will never drift into godliness; we must
find the time and apply the element of scripture to our lives… so will you join
me and do the word this week?
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