Sermon Tone Analysis

! Introduction

            The other day, I watched a portion of “Fear Factor.”

Several people were willing to do a bunch of scary things in order to win $1 million.

They did some manoeuvres high in the sky, ate leeches, swam in fish guts and drove a 4 wheeler off a 200 foot cliff.

Only the one who did all of these things best won the $1 million.

What do you want?

Is it a million dollars?

I think that people really don’t want $1 million, they want what it can buy which ultimately is peace, joy, love, meaning, hope.

What you do to receive these things?

If a guy is willing to do a bunch of disgusting and scary things for a mere $mil what would we be willing to do for what will really satisfy?

Over the past few weeks, we have examined the idea that spiritual disciplines are exercises that train us in godliness.

They help us grow towards participation in the divine nature and towards escape from the corruption of the world.

Last week, we looked particularly at the disciplines of abstinence - things we avoid in order to train ourselves.

Today we will look at the disciplines of engagement - things we do in order to train ourselves.

I realize that some of these ideas have been quite heavy, perhaps a little new for some of us.

I hope that today we can wrap it up to something helpful and encouraging.

I am especially glad to be talking about these things today as we anticipate the baptism of two young men.

When we baptize someone, we make a commitment to them, as they do to us.

We become responsible for their spiritual maturity and care.

So to share with you, Christopher and Daniel, thoughts about the spiritual disciplines is an appropriate thing to do because it is through these that you will be able to grow strong in the faith life to which you are publicly committing yourself today.

!

I. Disciplines Of Engagement

            What are the disciplines of engagement?

!! A. Study

David Watson wrote, “God’s word to us, especially his word spoken by his Spirit through the Bible, is the very ingredient that feeds our faith.

If we feed our souls regularly on God’s word, several times each day, we should become robust spiritually just as we feed on ordinary food several times each day, and become robust physically.

Nothing is more important than hearing and obeying the word of God.”

You know the value of the Word of God and so I want to encourage you once again to daily Bible reading, meditation and study.

I also want to encourage participation in two opportunities for Bible study.

In a few weeks we will begin Sunday School again.

I encourage all - adults included - to partake of this opportunity.

I also want to encourage participation in Bible Studies.

In fact, I want you to know that I will be phoning around to encourage you to participate.

If the only Bible you take in is on Sunday morning, it is like eating only one meal a week.

Physically that isn’t enough.

Neither is it spiritually.

If the only Bible you take in during the week is reading the Daily Bread, it is like existing on snacks.

I want to invite you to a feast.

A feast takes preparation, you don’t just pop a feast into the microwave and eat it in front of the TV.

Let us take every opportunity to enjoy the great feast God has for us in His Word.

II Timothy 3:16,17 tells us the tremendous value of the study of God’s Word.

It says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

In other words, the Word of God is valuable for the whole range of needs leading towards spiritual maturity.

!! B. Worship

            The second discipline of engagement is worship.

Willard says, “In worship we engage ourselves with, dwell upon, and express the greatness, beauty, and goodness of God through thought and the use of words, rituals and symbols.”

Psalm 95:6,7 invites us, “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.”

As we see God in His Word, as we see God in nature, as we see how God is at work in our life and in the world, and as we direct our thoughts to Him in response, we worship.

We have the privilege to worship alone, but also in community.

Worship is an important spiritual discipline because as we worship, “the good we adore enters our minds and hearts to increase our faith and strengthen us to be as he is.”

!! C. Celebration

            Celebration is a wonderful discipline, which allows us to rejoice in the world which God has made.

“We engage in celebration when we enjoy ourselves, our life, our world, in conjunction with our faith and confidence in God’s greatness, beauty, and goodness.”

Sometimes it is hard for us to think of celebration as a discipline that will lead us to God.

We have gotten used to seeing pleasure as separate from our life in God.

Many people in our world depend on pleasure or live for pleasure, but God has called us to enjoy pleasure in His presence as a part of our relationship to Him.

The Bible encourages celebration.

Deuteronomy 14:26 says, “Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish.

Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice.”

We experience many celebrations as a normal part of life.

We do them joyfully and frequently, but sometimes wondering what they have to do with our spiritual life.

Celebrations become a spiritual discipline when we do them, as Deuteronomy says, “in the presence of Lord.”

What will our birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, thanksgiving meals and Christmas parties look if we do them “in the presence of the Lord?”

When we celebrate with an attitude of heart that recognizes God in the midst of it all and when we celebrate with a pure joy then we will have engaged the discipline of celebration.

The value of such a discipline is that it integrates our whole life into God.

It helps us realize that “Holy delight and joy is the great antidote to despair and is a wellspring of genuine gratitude…”

!! D. Service

            I won’t spend much time with the next discipline because it is one we do well.

I just need to mention: MDS, camp, Heritage, Lodge, Union Gospel, Sunday School, Awana and so many other areas.

I rejoiced when I found out that some of the young people used their vacation time to work at VBS and Camp.

The discipline of service is alive in our church.

To this, I say AMEN!

When we serve, we follow the example of Jesus.

In Matthew 20:28 it says, “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Service is valuable because “In service we engage our goods and our strength in the active promotion of the good of others and the causes of God in our world.”

Although service can be done as duty or to give the appearance of righteousness, we know that true service must be done in the Spirit of Jesus and with a love for those we serve.

The value of service is, as Willard says, “…to train myself away from arrogance, possessiveness, envy, resentment, or covetousness.”

Let us keep on with this discipline.

!! E. Prayer

            Another discipline we are familiar with, but could also learn more about is the discipline of prayer.

Earlier we examined the prayer of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.

His disciples were with him and as he prayed about his upcoming arrest and death when he returned, he found the disciples sleeping.

In Matthew 26:41, Jesus identified the problem of people in the area of spiritual growth and maturity when he said, “the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

His solution to the weakness of the flesh was to tell the disciples to “watch and pray.”

Daily, regular prayer will have a powerful effect on our whole life.

Willard says, “the effect of conversing with God cannot fail to have a pervasive and spiritually strengthening effect on all aspects of our personality.”

The value of regular prayer is that “The more we pray, the more we think to pray, and as we see the results of prayer - the responses of our Father to our requests - our confidence in God’s power spills over into other areas of our life.”

!! F. Fellowship

            I have already alluded to the importance of community.

Bible reading and worship, as well as many of these other disciplines are to be done in the context of community.

Those of you who read the Daily Bread read the illustration the other day of what happens when we fail to connect with a body of believers.

Like a coal apart from the fire soon loses its warmth, so a life separated from the body of believers does not glow with spiritual warmth.

Hebrews 10:25 encourages us, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Although the discipline of fellowship can be a cause of frustration and sometimes even temptation, it has tremendous value in spiritual growth.

Others challenge us, encourage us, keep us accountable and these things surely help in our spiritual growth.

This is the reason to keep coming to church and it is also the reason why it is important to become involved in a small group.

We know the importance of this and have looked at it before, but for this fellowship to be really a spiritually growing experience, there are two other disciplines that must be practiced in the context of fellowship.

!! G. Confession

The Bible calls us to confess our sins to one another.

James 5:16 says, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”