Sermon for 09/10/06

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Sermon for 09/10/06
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So you want to be like Christ? – INTIMACY: Deepening our lives

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, AMEN

Main Theme: This series is designed to take us past the good news of God’s grace! Grace is amazing but it is completely God driven. AFTER salvation comes the task that includes our participation: Becoming more and more Christ-like; the purpose of a Christian’s life! How we grow deeper in love with Jesus requires an intentional lifestyle aimed at becoming godly, not religious! We will look at 8 essential disciplines that will help our relationship with Jesus grow! Today, in our 1st week, we explore the Christian’s purpose and goal in life: to know Christ! Intimacy with God however requires work: and Jesus provides “disciplines” – spiritual exercises and conditioning - to help us achieve spiritual depth and wisdom that comes from getting closer to God! (Based on Chuck Swindoll’s book “So, you want to be like Christ?” and other research.)

1) DISCIPLINE! Tom Landry, one of the most successful Dallas Cowboys head coaches, was once asked how he was able to forge a team out of individuals so that they could win year after year. He said, “My job is to get men to do what they don’t want to do in order to achieve what they’ve always wanted to achieve.” He knew – every player wanted to go to the Super Bowl. But what they didn’t want to do was the grueling work it would take to get them there. Achieving anything in football requires discipline – determined, deliberate, definable actions with a clear goal in mind. Facilitating and encouraging discipline in order to win is what coaching is all about. Developing discipline helps athletes to do what they don’t want to do in order to achieve what they’ve always wanted to achieve.

2) GODLINESS! Except for baby Christians, (who mistakenly think that they’re done after receiving God’s amazing gift of “salvation”), the rest of us know that we’re saved for a purpose: to be more and more Christ-like! …to be more and more godly each and every day! And the Apostle Paul said it well when he said to young Timothy, (1 Tim. 4:7) “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.” That tells us a couple of things: 1) Becoming Christ-like will not be automatic, nor easy, nor come quickly! 2) Seeking intimacy with the Almighty requires focused determination, demands specific changes in attitude and behavior, and will come with a number of heartbreak and setbacks. But the goal, (living our life as CHRIST INTENDED IT), is a great goal! …a goal of godliness inspired by divine love! But godliness is only accomplished through discipline.

3) CHRIST-LIKE! Yes, I know, “discipline” is a hard word to swallow. It drips with sweat. Sounds so… unpleasant. Other Bible versions use words like, “train yourself”, “exercise yourself”, or “condition yourself” – and to anyone who’s tried to lose weight – these words hardly conjure up great bursts of joy and anticipated fun. But if Jesus’ love has taught us anything – it’s that our goal of being more Christ-like carries with it great blessings. Becoming less and less self-centered, and more and more God-centered, leads to the abundant life God intended us to have! Hence, our “spiritual super-bowl” goal as Christians is to become progressively more Christ-like. The “disciplines” we’ll explore in this series, are exercises by which the Holy Spirit will help us do what we don’t want to do in order to achieve what we’ve always wanted to do: to be more and more Christ-like!

4) CHANGE AND PERSPECTIVE! Anyone here ever traveled back to a place you used to live years ago to find everything had changed? At our last high school reunion, Charlotte and I went back to Illinois and took a tour of Scott Air Force Base where we both had lived. The officers housing was the only thing that had not changed. But the NCO housing, where my parents raised me… was gone! Except for the roads and piles of bricks left behind – they’d been destroyed when a new runway went in. All my memories were still there, familiarity lingered, but it was NOT the same. Though I had learned this before, these two realizations were reinforced: 1) first, how necessary is change! It’s a part of life! And 2) secondly, how essential is perspective. After 4 decades had passed – things look very different because I am different. Hindsight and growth changes our perspective.

5) 1^st LOVE! Let’s apply this to young Timothy and the church he was serving in Ephesus. It started off as a great church – faithful and on fire for Christ! At the end of the 1^st century, Christ revealed to John in a vision what He thought of the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2:2-3 - “I know your deeds, your hard work, and your perseverance. I know you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.” Now watch the shift in Christ’s conversation,(verse 4) “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love!” Now what is this 1^st love: it’s the love they first had for Jesus and for one another! Their Christian hearts had faded, cooled off, and chilled over time. Can this happen to us? …sadly, “Yes.”

6) REMEMBER! Do you remember when you first fell in love with Jesus? Even if you’ve known Christ all your life, perhaps it was in confirmation, or as a young adult, or after a huge crisis that your budding love for Jesus emerged into full bloom. Remember when you couldn’t get enough of Christ, when conversations about him where exciting? Remember when prayer was new and untried, and when you felt its power as you talked with God Almighty? Remember when the Bible was a delicious book of “ah-ha’s” filled with delights you had never experienced before? Often, time passes and we ask ourselves “What happened to all that?” We, like the church in Ephesus, need to hear the next verse, (vs 5) when Jesus says “Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.” In other words, your spiritual life requires some major changes that can rekindle that first-love kind of relationship where God is real again, and where you both become closer and the relationship is deeper! That kind of INTIMACY with God requires action! Work. Training. Exercising. Conditioning. INTIMACY with God requires discipline.

7) HIS! Think about this: Distance from God is a frightening thing! But understand, God has an divine agenda, and it isn’t changed to meet ours. When we live in the “fast lane”, God will not speed up to catch up with us; we need to slow our pace in order to recover our walk with Him. Nor will God scream and shout over the millions of voices that pound away at us every day, He expects us to find quietness during the day where His small, quiet voice can be heard. He has no intension of working within the complicated framework of our busy schedules, we must adapt to His style! We need to conform, change, be transformed to His ways if we are to be characterized by the word “Godliness”.

8) GOAL? Of course, I should not assume anything – so I will bluntly ask: Is godliness your goal? Do YOU sincerely desire to be more “Christ-like” each and every day? Or are those just words? As you sit here, do you truly seek intimacy with God? Or do you find yourself “using” God in consumer fashion, like He was a cosmic vending machine? (Pulling the right “religious” handles - expecting to reap rewards?) Is your life’s goal truly aimed at “walking closer with Christ” – seeking increasing intimacy? Only you and God can work that out. But don’t expect the busy, distracting, fast-paced world to help you make this goal happen. If a deeper relationship with the Lord IS TRULY the 1st priority in your life; then know the “goal of godliness” takes work, action, patience, and discipline on your part.

9) INTIMACY! As strange as it sounds: INTIMACY requires discipline! Becoming Christ-like doesn’t “just happen”! We have to willingly step into the spiritual gymnasium and start working at making the relationship deeper! (Now remember, discipline does not EARN you God’s love – you already have that as a free gift.) Disciplines are necessary to tap into the abundant blessings that God longs to pour into our lives. Spiritual exercises bring us closer to Him and that INTIMACY brings us greater joy and inner peace! But INTIMACY must not be mistaken for being RELIGIOUS. There are many church-goers that attend, do religious things, and talk “about” God, but that is not the same as KNOWING God INTIMATELY. Knowledge “of” God is not the same as being “spiritually connected!” And intimacy (God’s goal) takes intentional effort! It takes discipline.

10) WANT? Try this question on for size: “Do you want ‘The Kingdom of God’ to be the major focus of your daily life?’” Do you? I do! But I’m not naïve; one of the hardest things for us to do is to give God our full attention so that intimacy with Him glows from within …and can be seen by others as a passion that is authentic! When it does happen – God can do miraculous things through His people – despite our weaknesses and frailty! Where intimacy exists, God reveals His will in ways that are full of mystery, and surprise, and wonder! Becoming soft and moldable clay in the hands of the divine Potter, takes will power and work. But that’s what we want, …isn’t it? Don’t we want a relationship with depth and substance? Don’t we want more than just Biblical knowledge? …more than just religion? Don’t we want to be intimately, lovingly, and constantly embraced by God?

11) DEEP! Richard Foster once wrote “Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.” There are a lot of intelligent and gifted people who do not possess spiritual wisdom! Deep people do. And deep people are those who focus on, and invite Christ into their heart daily to transform them and shape them! That’s how spiritual wisdom begins to grow within them. Knowledge alone does not produce a personal relationship with Christ and His people! A personal and DEEP relationship leads to true wisdom. See, in a crisis, intelligence and skills shrink before spiritual depth!

12) JOB! Job had depth! When the bottom fell out of his life, his intimacy with God was reflected in these words: (Job 23:10-12)

“But He knows the way that I will take;
when He has tested me,
I will come forth as gold.
My feet have closely followed His steps;
I have kept His way without turning aside.
I have not departed from the commands of His lips;
I have treasured the words from His mouth more than my daily bread.

That kind of wisdom did not come from book knowledge, nor religiosity! Job’s wisdom came from an intimate relationship with God that was intentional and required discipline; a reflection of real “depth” in Job’s relationship with the Father!

13) PAUL! It’s the kind of depth Paul possessed, who after asking God to take away his health challenges - received and accepted God’s answer “no”! We read (2 Cor. 12:8-10) “Three times I pleaded with God to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My Grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest upon me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak I am strong.” To say that, requires spiritual depth! Instead of a pity party, Paul embraces his affliction so that he can have the privilege of experiencing even more of Christ’s power over him. Intimacy with God empowered Paul to walk in step with the Lord – even when he didn’t get his own way.

14) SURPRISE! Fact is, God often does his best work in us when He catches us by surprise and introduces a change that is completely against our own desire. For example, take our own beloved Sheri K.; who is about to start her internship down at a Lutheran church in Castle Rock. She’s excited about it. But I remember the day I first planted the seeds of ministry in her head. She looked like a deer in the headlights – shocked at the idea! And she bolted from it as fast as she could. Maybe a spiritual director, or a small group leader – but NOT a pastor! But over time, as the Holy Spirit started winning the argument, she stopped resisting and surrendered to the idea. And you and I know that the ELCA is going to be greatly blessed by her ministry. She’s going to be a great pastor! Sometimes God does his best work in us when He catches us by surprise and introduces a change that is completely against our own desire. But Sheri only heard the call because of an increasing INTIMACY with God! How many of us are preventing God from doing His best work in us, because we are satisfied with salvation alone, and are not seeking the deep wisdom that comes from an INTIMATE relationship with Jesus?

15) KNOW CHRIST! While sitting in jail, the Apostle Paul wrote the Philippian church some amazing words! He said, (Phil. 3:10) “I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His suffering, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (NIV) Now I want to reread this from the Amplified New Testament (which is a paraphrase version) and I want you to ask yourself – is this what I want too? Is this my purpose in life? “For my determined purpose is that I may know Him – that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding (the wonders of His person) more strongly and more clearly, and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from his resurrection (which it exerts over believers); and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed (in spirit into His likeness even) to his death.” There are a lot of people attending church this Sunday across this country, but I can only wonder how many’s highest priority in life, (their most determined purpose) is to KNOW Jesus Christ: deeply and intimately? Are you one of them? Christ wants nothing more!

16) INTIMACY! Over the next 7 weeks we’ll be using two terms regularly. The first word is “INTIMACY”. It’s a scary word for some – I’ve seen some men run for the hills at the very mention of it! But all it means relationally - is that we experience a warm and satisfying friendship that develops through a long association on a very, very personal and private level. Remember in Genesis 2:25 we read “The man and the wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.” There was innocence and honesty, and they knew each other intimately. It’s not just about being physically naked and unashamed, it’s also about being emotionally and spiritually naked and unashamed. Imagine the awesome freedom of becoming so personally unguarded, that you’re able to share your deepest fear, your most guarded secret, or your most frightening thoughts, …and you have no shame. That’s intimacy.

17) YOU! Ask yourself; how distant are you from God right now? Has your closeness chilled? Has your worship here become just a habitual routine? Do you sing the songs or say the words but your mind is somewhere else? Are you sometimes so critical of your brothers and sisters in Christ that you sound just like an unbeliever? Paul would answer, “My determined purpose is for that to never be true of me. I will pursue a relationship with Jesus that becomes so close, He and I will walk consistently together through whatever pressures that occur!” See, that’s intimacy! That’s a blessed Christian’s goal! Is it yours?

18) DISCIPLINE! The second term we’ll use through out this series is discipline. Remember what coach Tom Landry said? My job is to get men to do what they don’t want to do in order to achieve what they’ve always wanted to achieve.” Jesus knows that his beloved children may also have a goal of getting closer to God, but don’t always get excited about the training or spiritual exercises needed to attain that goal. So the Holy Spirit comes to provide the means by which we attain INTIMACY with God. Spirit inspired “Discipline” is training that corrects and perfects our mental faculties or molds our moral character. Discipline is control… gained by intentional obedience. It is the deliberate cultivation of inner order. Remember: if intimacy is the goal, the spiritual disciplines are the means to that end! They don’t come naturally nor automatically! They don’t come quickly or easily! Have you ever seen a beautiful garden, without appreciating the work and cultivation that went into growing the pleasing plants while rooting out the weeds. It is God’s desire that you let Him teach you through these disciplines how to cultivate a personal intimacy with Him, like a good gardener cultivates beautiful flowers!

19) JESUS! Friends, Jesus wants you to know, that after salvation, comes purpose; To know him! Intimacy is both a discipline and a goal! He is aware of our cultural tendency to increase our speed, to run faster - even in the Christian life. As a result our walk with God can stay shallow and superficial. Our tank can run low on fumes. Jesus offers you and I the disciplines that lead to “Intimacy” – for they offer a full tank of spiritual fuel that can only be found by pulling up closer to God. He’s here today to empower you to make that happen. There is no greater joy or blessing than intimacy with Jesus Christ, and He offers us the disciplines to lead us to that goal. The series is entitled, “So you want to be more like Christ?” …and it purposely ends with a question mark. Christ’s hand is extended to you now – will you take this blessed relationship to the next level of intimacy through the development of new disciplines? Jesus comes now to inspire and empower you and I to do what we don’t want to do in order to achieve what we’ve always wanted to achieve; Intimacy with God! Praise God! AMEN

Note: The other disciplines we will explore: 2) Simplicity, 3) Silence and solitude, 4) Surrender, 5) Prayer, 6) Humility, 7) Self-control, and 8) Sacrifice.

Sermon/Confessional Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, we confess that we are far from being Christ-like. We are still too self-centered, and not near enough God-centered! Forgive us, and inspire and empower us today to begin developing the disciplines that bring us closer to you. Forgive us when we expect you to come fit into our busy and fast paced lives, and show us how to slow down and adapt to your life-giving life-style! Draw us closer – help us to bring our whole life to focus on and serve the Kingdom of God.

Lord, you helped Job and Paul develop the disciplines that brought them joy and inner peace even in the midst of chaos and crisis. We have too often depended upon our intelligence or skills to get us through. Forgive us and enable us to discover the true spiritual wisdom that comes through a deeper relationship with you.

And now Lord, although you know us better than we know ourselves, listen as we share in a moment of silence, those other parts of our lives that need to be forgiven, washed clean, healed, and recommitted to you! (made anew.)

(Silence)

Lord, it is easy to have a goal – but we are not always eager or willing to do the hard work to accomplish that goal. So come inspire and empower us to do what we could never do on our own: become more and more like you – each and every day! In Jesus Name We Pray. AMEN

Assurance of Forgiveness:

Friends, listen to the good news: The Lord, who seeks an intimate and loving relationship with you, …that Lord has mercifully heard your confession and eagerly forgives you all your sins. Go now, and remember: After receiving the free and amazing gift of salvation – comes the invitation to KNOW CHRIST! May your prayer request – to grow closer to God – take you to the next level of intimacy, that the abundant life Christ desires you to have becomes a reality! Praise God! AMEN

Opening prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, this week we walked once again through a superficial world – filled with busyness and empty activity – and often forgot or was distracted from our true purpose in life – to love and serve you and your people. Though we desire increased intimacy with you – we spent too little time in prayer. Though our goal is to grow closer to you, we spent too little time in your word, and struggled to find a quiet place of solitude to hear your voice! So it is with great thanks and praise that we find ourselves in this Holy Place – where the thousands of worldly voices are shut out, and we can stand before you face to face, be embraced in your loving arms, and be plugged into your divine power! We lay our self-centered lives before you and with repentant hearts await your life-giving forgiveness. We present our damaged or broken relationships knowing that you have the means, wisdom, and power to renew them. We present ourselves as soft and moldable clay and ask that your hands would be free to do their awesome and creative work in sculpting us into the people you would have us be. Use us Lord! We praise you for graciously saving us from sin, Satan, and death, now we pray you would reveal what you saved us for! Show us and empower us to love and serve you and your people according to your will. In Jesus Name We Pray! AMEN!

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