1st Timothy 4:7 – Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.
8 – For physical training is of some value, but Godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.
Joshua 1:7 – “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law My servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.
8 – Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
2nd Timothy 2:15 – Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the Word of Truth.
I have a confession to make. When our children were little—Sue and I were not very disciplined when it came to training them for bed time. Sure—we tried—we’d put our babies down at 8pm—but they’d cry—and we’d eventually go get them. More-experienced parents advised us to let them cry—to let them learn to soothe themselves back to sleep—and we tried that—but not long enough—we always broke down. We just couldn’t handle their sobs—they sounded so pitiful—and so loud.
Then—when they got bigger and would sleep through the night, we didn’t do any better when it came to getting them to go to bed. Again, we’d try—but eventually we’d get tired of putting them back in bed—over and over again—and we’d just lay down with them until they fell asleep. You can guess what would happen. Right—we’d fall asleep ourselves. Lots of nights Sue would have to wake me up or vice versa and we’d crawl out of Daniel’s bed and stumble to our own.
Ironically, Daniel has been exactly the opposite when it came to the sleep discipline of his own kids. Lydia and Joel and Nathan know EXACTLY when they are to go to bed—and exactly what things have to happen in the process. I mean, at 7PM sharp they are marched up to their bedrooms. First, they put on their PJ’s—of course Nathan needs help with this—but not Lydia and Joel. They have been taught how to find and put on their own sleepwear. Once they are dressed for bed, it’s time to head to the bathroom to brush their teeth—and they all know how to do that. It’s kind of fun watching all three of them standing over the sink—brushing way. Once teeth are brushed and everyone has had a drink of water, it’s time to read a book or two. Then they say their prayers together—and by 7:20ish—they are all down and they pretty much stay down. It’s really amazing—it’s a great proof that—when used rightly discipline can even bend the will of a sleep-resistant child.
I’m not going to ask how many of you are disciplined parents when it comes to bed time but I will ask this: What’s our vision for this year in one word?
Right! NEIGHBORING!
Well, for the next couple months we’re going to focus on using the power of discipline to become the best possible neighbors. And, of course, the best neighbor anyone could have is Jesus—so that’s our goal—to become more and more like our Master—we want to learn to treat our neighbors like Jesus would. With this in mind, we’re going to begin by looking at those tried-but-true SPIRITUAL disciplines that help us mature as Christians—Bible study, prayer, worship, fasting, and giving.
Let’s begin by reminding ourselves what the spiritual disciplines are NOT:
A. First of all, they are not—a ONE TIME thing.
This is a disappointment to many of us because we WANT to grow—we want to make progress in becoming more Christlike—but we want it fast—we want it convenient. We wonder, “Isn’t there an app for spiritual growth?” But, of course, that’s not how it works. Spiritual maturity takes time. As the old cliché goes, it’s more of a marathon than a sprint. Think of it this way. These disciplines we are going to be looking at are really different kinds of TRAINING that we must practice daily for the rest of our lives.
As most of you know, every year I serve as an assistant coach in Upward Basketball. I really enjoy it. This year my team was the WEASELS—five and six-year-old boys. This is them on the first day of practice. That first practice it was so obvious that they had so much to learn—how to dribble—how to pass and shoot—which is their left hand and which is their right.
My head coach was very patient. Every week we ran drills to help them learn these basic basketball skills—but we still lost every game. That’s okay though—because we don’t expect them to become perfectly-skilled ball players in one season. That takes time—years. Oh—my guys made progress—but they didn’t come close to becoming perfect ball handlers. I see MORE progress in kids who’ve been on my teams years ago. They’ve hung with it and become very good—thanks to other coaches who continued their training!
Well, spiritual growth is like that.
You have to hang with it. It never comes cheaply or easily or quickly. We must practice Christlikeness in the same way an athlete practices a sport day after day after day—year after year. This is what Paul meant in our text when he encouraged young Timothy to TRAIN himself to be godly. So, my point is when we talk about a spiritual discipline—we are talking about a lifestyle. Many people refer to them as holy HABITS—daily practices that—over the years—help us to grow to be more and more like Jesus.
B. Another thing these disciplines are NOT is a barometer of spiritual maturity.
I’ve met many people who seem to believe that THEY have arrived because they read their Bible daily and fast twice a week. They get into a sort of spiritual pride thing because they feel they have been more faithful in these disciplines than others around them. When we fall into this flawed way of thinking we are defining how GOOD a Christian we are by how well we are performing the disciplines. And when this happens, the disciplines become an end in themselves rather than a means to an end. Looking at these holy habits in this way is wrong because it’s equating spiritual DOING with spiritual BEING.
Back to my basketball illustration. The spiritual disciplines are to life what practice is to a basketball game. I mean, once the game starts basketball players get no bonus points for the number of lay ups they shot in practice. The only reason they practice these shots is to be able to make them in the game.
And, we read the BIBLE and pray and fast and worship, and tithe for the purpose of training ourselves to react in the “game of life” more like Jesus would. So, the TRUE barometer of spiritual maturity is seen in how we live—not in how often we engage in these disciplines.
C. One more NOT—these disciplines are NOT a way to earn favor with God.
They are not about trying to be good enough to merit God’s forgiveness and goodwill. We don’t do them to get extra credit with God. They are simply a means of growing toward the wonderful quality of life that God graciously offers. Richard Foster puts it this way, “God has given us the Disciplines of the spiritual life as a means of receiving His grace. The Disciplines allow us to place ourselves before God so that He can transform us.”
Okay, enough of the negative—what IS a spiritual discipline? Well I think we should begin by defining the word DISCIPLINE. And I like the way John Ortberg does that. He says a discipline is, “any activity I can do by direct effort that will help me do what I cannot do now by direct effort.”
Back to basketball one more time—let’s say I have a five-year-old boy who cannot dribble. On the first day of practice when we say, “Dribble Fred!” Fred slaps the ball once with the palm of his little hand and then chases it down the court as it bounces lower and lower—slapping at it as much as he can trying to get it to bounce higher. In other words, he CANNOT dribble. But after weeks of coaching and practice—suddenly he begins to get it. He starts using his fingers to push the ball down instead of his palm to slap it—he gets control of that bouncing sphere—it’s wonderful to behold! The discipline of practice made him able to dribble.
A spiritual discipline is like that—it helps us to do what we cannot do by our own willpower. It trains us to rely on God—trains us to hear and heed His still small voice.
This is the secret of the success of Alcoholics Anonymous. The first of their famous twelve steps is to acknowledge that an alcoholic cannot stop drinking by willpower alone. He must arrange his life around certain disciplines or practices that will enable him to do what willpower can’t. He must enter a life of TRAINING for sobriety.
Well a SPIRITUAL discipline then, is any activity that helps us access the power to live life as JESUS would want us to. A spiritually-disciplined person is someone who, due to his training in godliness, is more likely to do the right thing at the right time in the right way with the right spirit—it’s someone who has trained himself to act and re-act and think in any situation as Jesus would—someone who is then trained or disciplined to become the best possible kind of neighbor. So, these disciplines are the secret to spiritual power—but they are more than that.
They are also the secret to growing an ever-closer RELATIONSHIP with God. These holy habits help us to develop a deep fellowship with Him. And we must understand at the onset of this study that God wants this—so very much. Like a father misses his grown-up son—or daughters—or grand-children—God misses us. He yearns to be in close relationship with us. Our Heavenly Father wants to fellowship with us. He wants to share our moments and our days, to talk with us and guide us. In Matthew 23:37 Jesus expressed this when He looked out across Jerusalem and said, “How often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” God wants to walk with us through life and the spiritual disciplines provide a way for this to happen.
Okay with these basic understandings in mind—let’s begin our study by looking at the first and most important discipline—the discipline of PERSONAL BIBLE STUDY—because as Jerry Bridges says, “Discipline toward holiness BEGINS with the Word of God.”And I love how Rick Warren puts it. He says, “The SPIRIT of God uses the WORD of God to make us like the SON of God.” The fact is—if we truly want to move toward Christlikness—we must discipline our lives with a healthy diet of the Word of God.
Remember, the word “disciple” means “student” and a student is someone who studies. And the focus of our study—our textbook—is the Bible. So—how do you do that? How do you go about studying the Bible?
(1) Well the first step is to READ it.
If this sounds TOO basic—I mention it because I have known too many Christians who seem to think you can sort of absorb the Bible by osmosis. They think if they have all the latest Bible aps on their phones or if they have multiple copies of the latest translations and paraphrases filling their book shelves that counts. It doesn’t. For us to benefit from the Bible—requires that we actually READ it.
I remember marrying a couple a few years back and they were able to buy and completely furnish a huge house before they got married. It was an amazing home. I mean they didn’t just have a deck. Their deck had a screened in area—a wet-bar—and each piece of wood was covered with siding. As I walked through that “mansion” I worried about their focus on the things of this world because they had LOTS of expensive things. My worry increased during the rehearsal because when we practiced the vows the future bride nudged her future groom and said, “for richer—AND RICHER”—instead of “richer or poorer.”
Another thing that bothered me is the fact that they had a wonderful collection of books on their brand-new built-in bookshelves. I picked up one and told the bride-to-be, “Hey this is a great book! Did you enjoy reading it?” And she said, “Oh we haven’t read any of those books—we just think they look good on the shelves.” I almost had a stroke. As a book lover I can’t imaging having a book you never read.
Well, not reading the latest Grisham or not being knowledgeable of that beautiful set of Shakespeare’s plays that make you look well-read to your house guests is one thing—but to have a Bible and not read it—what a waste!
A Bible does no good—it has no life-changing power—if it remains on your coffee table—or in an unopened ap. So, get a good translation—NIV, NASB, ESV—HCSB—we are blessed with an almost limitless list of good translation acronyms. Get one—and read it—every day.
About ten years ago I started reading the Chronological Bible. It’s the first thing I do every morning. I’ve disciplined myself to start each day like that. In fact, if I have to start my morning without doing that because I have an early hospital visit—or because the grandkids are visiting and they hop in bed with us before I’ve had a chance to read—if that part of my day is interrupted, I feel this OCD unrest in my soul—until I can find a quiet place to pull out my Bible and read. I don’t try to get rid of that OCD unrest deal because I have found that just READING the Bible has had a powerful impact on my day-to-day life. It helps me connect with my Heavenly Father. It corrects flawed thinking. It shows me my sins and short-comings. It reminds me of God’s plan to save sinful people like you and me.
So—READ your Bible.
And don’t do so just to cross it off your to do list. Read it—because you NEED it. We need this Word of truth to be counter the lies and falsehoods of our culture. Our world is SO messed up—and we’ll get messed up too unless we READ God’s unchanging word. If you’re in Bob Michael’s Sunday School class you know of a “Christmas tradition” his class has. Sometime in January you all gather at the Michael’s for a post-Christmas party. But in addition to the wonderful food and fellowship—there’s an “after-party tradition.” It’s been unintentionally repeated at least twice now. People who come have to park in the Michael’s back yard—and the problem is if it rains or snows while we are eating—getting your car out of the yard can be a problem. The men have to go out there and push cars out of the mud or new fallen snow—and in the process they get covered in mud. I helped out this year and it’s actually very fulfilling—you work with other guys to push and it feels great to free a vehicle. There’s a lot of “testosterone fellowship” to be had. But there’s a price to be paid—your clothes get filthy—as you can see in this pic. That’s okay though because we go home and throw our clothes in the washer—and the soap and water move through the fibers of our dirty shirts and pants and socks—lifting out the mud—restoring our apparel to their original state.
The Bible does that for our souls.
Being in this fallen world clutters our mined with false beliefs and attitudes—unfounded fears—selfishness, covetousness and so on. When we read the Bible we see those “stains” and with God’s help are able to remove them. This is what Paul was talking about in Ephesians 5 when he said, “…Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, in order to make her holy—by cleansing her with the washing of water by the Word so as to present the church to Himself in splendor, without a spot of a wrinkle or anything of the kind—so she may be holy and without blemish.”
Say this with me: “We READ it because we NEED it.”
Reading God’s Word shows us how much we’ve been conformed to this world—and how much we need to be TRANSFORMED by the renewing of our minds. Here’s a second tip.
(2) Read it—read the Bible—with God.
Whenever you pick up this book, take a moment to ask God to speak to you. Then as you read, anticipate that He will do exactly that—because Jesus promised that He would. In John 16:13 He said, “The Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth.” Remember, one thing that distinguishes this Book from all other books is the fact that, as we said last week—if you are a Christian—you have the Author of this Book living in you. So—as you read the Bible you can count on the Holy Spirit of God Himself—to speak to you and explain things to you.
As you know, Sue and I have been to conferences at THE COVE in North Carolina several times. Many of you joined us there this past year to hear Dr. Tony Evans. Dr. Evans and any speaker they have at the cove usually bases their teachings for the conference on a book they have written—and they have those books for sale in the book store. You can get them signed—like Sue is doing here—it’s very cool.
Well, one of my favorite parts of the conference is their “Q and A” time. You can ask the speaker—the author—a question about his or her book. It’s great—you have the author right there to help you understand his or her writings. Well, as Christians, we have don’t have to go to the Cove for that kind of insider info. We have the Author of this book with us—IN US always—and He will help us understand His book and how to apply it to our lives. So, as you read learn to pray with the Psalmist, God, “Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in Your law.” (Psalm 119:105)
Here’s something else.
(3) Read it—read the Bible—with others.
To fully benefit from this spiritual discipline—you need the input of other readers—other pilgrims on the journey to becoming a more Christlike neighbor. I mean, listening to sermons is not enough. Going to conferences at the Cove is not enough. Subscribing to a podcast of John Ortberg or Ravi Zacharias or Tim Keller is not enough. You need to be in a small-group of Christians studying the Bible together—people who can KNOW you—people YOU can know—people with whom you can share insights. This is what the early Christians did. Acts 2 says, “Every day…they devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and to fellowship.”
I’m thinking of a Sunday school class or a small group Bible study. I know it adds time to our busy Montgomery County Schedules—but we can’t grow as well on our own—as we can in a group of other Christians.
You know, every grocery store these days offers low fat—low calorie versions of things. In fact, one of the most POPULAR diet words these days: “lite,” spelled “L I T E.” And this trendy word is applied to all kinds of products. You can buy “lite” bread, “lite mayonnaise,” “lite syrup,” “lite butter,” “lite fruit juice,” “lite chocolate syrup,” etc. They even have SPAM LITE!
Well, this skinny little adjective is supposed to convey the idea that all these “lite” food items HAVE THE SAME TASTE BUT ARE LESS FILLING. In other words, consuming them won’t add as many pounds to our frame as the normal brands. The idea is that “LESS IS BETTER.”
And, don’t get me wrong—when it comes to food, less IS better for many of us—including me!
The problem with this way of thinking is that this “Less is better” philosophy is now found not just in the aisles of grocery stores but also in the aisles of many churches! You see, these days people seem to want LESS church. I mean, they want the same “taste” when it comes to the “spiritual food” churches dish out—but they want it to be less “filling” when it comes to their weekly schedules. In short, they want what the church can give—but they aren’t willing to invest as much time in getting it. They want to get all the disciplines required for spiritual growth in one worship service—fellowship, prayer, a little fasting, some giving—and Bible study in one hour.
That won’t work.
Lite won’t do it when it comes to spiritual growth—we need the MEAT—and the best way to get the MEAT of the Word is to study it with others. Here’s a fourth thing we need to know when it comes to the discipline of Bible study.
(4) Read it for the right REASON.
I say this because some people make the mistake of reading the Bible just to amass information. But the main reason we study this Book is for TRANSFORMATION! In fact, if your personal Bible study isn’t making you less braggy and more humble, less selfish and more selfless—if it’s not making you more like Jesus—it it’s not making you a better neighbor—then you are probably reading it for the wrong reason. I can’t help but think of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. Our Lord cautioned them: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on MY behalf. Yet you refuse to come to Me to have life.”
These religious leaders thought their great knowledge of Scripture was proof of their spiritual greatness. But they never allowed the Bible’s teachings on humility to cleanse their mind of pride, never allowed its teachings on love to purge their judgmentalism. Listen—it’s not HOW much you read the Bible—it’s HOW. We read it to be changed.
Ortberg writes about a 99-year-old woman who lived about two hours outside Addis Ababa. This woman had become a follower of Jesus in middle age, and she was both blind and illiterate.
She lived in a little hut where she kept two Bibles on her table—one in Amharic (the official language of Ethiopia) and one in English. Whenever someone came to visit her, she would ask the person to read. Over time, her favorite passages became so familiar that she could recite them from memory and if her visitors couldn’t read, she would recite as a kind of gift to them. People from far away came just to visit her.
Why?
Because some how in her presence, through her voice, the words, “The Lord is my shepherd” ceased to be just words. Those thoughts had washed over he mind so deeply, so often, that there was simply no way that anxiety-producing thoughts could survive. The words had changed her into a beacon of hope. That shows the transformational power of this Book of books. We read it to be changed. That leads me to mention something else.
(5) Read the Bible in the right way.
Don’t take verses out of context. Read what went before and after. And—don’t hurry your reading. Remember—success in Bible study is not measured by the number of verses you read. The goal is not to get through the Scriptures—but for the Scriptures to get through us. So—read slowly—MEDITATE on it—and as you do ask God, “What do You want to say to me here?” In Psalm 119 David advises us to meditate on the God’s Word day and night—and I think this infers this practice of taking portions of Scripture and dwelling on them until their truth dwells in us.
Meditation implies sustained attention. It is built around this simple principle: “What the mind REPEATS, it RETAINS.” Here’s a suggestion for how to MEDITATE on Scripture. Choose a single verse—one “thought” from the Bible that you will live with for one entire day. For example, you might select Psalm 46:10 where God says: “Be still, and know that I am God.”
For one day, decide to LIVE with these words. Think about them all day long. If you do this you may learn that being still is a good thing because it is a discipline that reminds you that the Lord really is God.
One more bit of wisdom when it comes to this first spiritual discipline:
(6) Apply what you read.
In our reading of God’s Word, we must move beyond the question, “What does it mean?” to asking, “What does it mean TO ME?” Bible study is incomplete and really pointless unless we apply it’s truth to our lives…unless as Blackaby says, we adjust our lives in obedience to God’s teaching. So, as James 1:22 says, “Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” For Bible study to benefit our lives we have to apply its truths to our lives.
And you know, the same thing is true of worship. It is pointless for us to gather here each week unless we apply what we learn—unless we respond personally, individually—to what God says.
We come now to the time of our service in which we encourage you to do just that. Today God may have told you that you need to commit to personal Bible study—to reading His Word daily.
If that is true then I challenge you to make that a public decision—walk forward and say, “Mark, I am going to study the Bible every day. Pray for me as I do so.” Others of you may feel God guiding you to join this church—to become a part of this spiritual family as we seek to grow and be more and more like Jesus. And then—there may be someone here this morning who know about the WORD OF GOD—but don’t know the GOD of the WORD. You don’t know God personally. You’ve never asked Jesus to forgive you of your sin and to come into your heart and life as Savior and Lord. If that applies to you, then I urge you to make that commitment—and if you do come and share it with me. Whatever decisions you have to make, I invite you to do so by walking an aisle and sharing them with me or one of the other pastors as we stand and sing.