Essential Elements of Life in Christ
In Acts 1:8, Jesus’ final message to His followers was: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” There is no uncertainty in His statement–we will be His witnesses–the question is what kind of witnesses will we be?
Paul wrote to the church of Thessalonica and urged them “to aspire to live quietly, and to mind [their] own affairs” (1 Thessalonians 4:11). If we look at our lives honestly, that is not who we are nor is it how we live. Richard Foster wrote, “We crave things we neither need nor enjoy. ‘We buy things we do not want to impress people we do not like.’” He went on to say that, “Simplicity is freedom. Duplicity is bondage. Simplicity brings joy and balance. Duplicity brings anxiety and fear.” Jesus explained it this way: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:24).
As we continue to study the Essential Elements of Life in Christ, we will continue once again this week to consider a spiritual discipline that, while essential, it is not something that we practice every day. In fact, this particular element is practiced on a weekly basis by design. Of course, the element that I am referring to is the spiritual practice of Sabbath. I’m sure that many of you are aware of what the Sabbath is in a Jewish context, but today, I want us to realize that celebrating Sabbath is not just a Jewish thing! God intends for all followers of Christ to practice Sabbath rest.
In the early Church, there were three religious practices that were practiced regularly; Giving, Praying, and Fasting. Some where along the way, fasting fell off the bandwagon and became more of a diet plan. When we deny our selves the physical gratification of food, and put our trust in the word of God, the hold that the physical has on our lives begins to lessen. And the growth towards the spiritual, increases greatly. It’s time that we start making Fasting a priority in our worship.
As we seek to find significance in our lives, we need to remember that it is not about what we do for God that is important—it is discovering who you already are in Christ! “Since there is no one else in the Body of Christ quite like you, discovering your ministry identity—who you are in Christ—is absolutely essential.” When it comes to ministry, “you must discover and fulfill the design components which the Lord has strategically placed in you. You don’t need to DO anything, other than to learn to fulfill who and what God has already prepared” (Paul Ford). Ministry is about who you are—who God created you to be—not what you do in trying to serve Him! In our text this morning, we’re going to explore some lessons about ministry that we learn from Moses in Exodus 18. We will spend some time applying his father-in-law’s advice to our own situation here at Temple Rogers.
When Joshua was charged by God to lead the nation of Israel into the Promised Land, he was not given a series of military strategies or a five-step plan for success. Instead, God’s instruction included meditating on His Word day and night. Why this? What is so significant about meditation and how is it different than what we see portrayed in Hollywood or in Eastern cultures?
The idea of doctrine, according to Chuck Swindoll, “has gotten a bum rap.” He goes on to say, “Unless you are most unusual, the study of doctrine would be ranked toward the bottom [of a list of topics that most people would find interesting to study], if not altogether in last place. Compared to success principles on the home and family, ‘a serious study of biblical doctrines’ does not seem nearly as important or relevant to most evangelical congregations.” The problem is that most people don’t realize how important our doctrine is to our daily Christian walk. Our positions on doctrinal issues determine the way in which we interpret and apply the Bible whether we realize it or not.
The Spiritual Disciplines of silence and solitude—while unique from one another—go hand-in-hand. You can have solitude without silence, but it is almost impossible to have silence without solitude. So rather than spending two weeks discussing these disciplines separately, I will do my best to address them as two sides of the same coin. By definition, solitude is the state or “situation of being alone without other people.” Solitude provides believers with an opportunity to reflect on spiritual matters by removing the distraction of people and things. A few weeks ago, Pastor John preached on the discipline of community and how we need one another to grow in spiritual maturity. Experiencing community is essential to our spiritual growth, but so is being alone with God!
In the Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, the author writes, “When we are preoccupied with our own concerns, much of the world is simply invisible to us. Service is rooted in seeing—in seeing others as God does. God cares about productive and nonproductive people, poor people and rich people, educated and non-educated people. God cares about everybody.” God wants us to see people as He sees them. He wants us to have the same mindset as Christ—in humility He put the needs of others before His own. As Foster explained, “More than any other single way, the grace of humility is worked into our lives through the Discipline of service. Humility, as we all know, is one of those virtues that is never gained by seeking it. The more we pursue it the more distant it becomes. To think we have it is evidence that we don’t… Of all the classical Spiritual Disciplines, service is the most conducive to the growth of humility… a deep change occurs in our spirits” as a result of true service.
To avoid becoming a deformed disciple, Dr. Eugene Peterson suggests that we need a framework—and that framework should be worship. As we gather together week-by-week to worship God in this place, we experience this framework through the systematic teaching of God’s Word, through the people of God “sharpening” us and encouraging us, through lifting our voices in praise and adoration for who God is and for all He has done. Worship is that weekly reminder that provides us with a working definition for life.