In order to be successful at golf, one must become proficient in the use of a dozen or more clubs, their stance, club grip, and ability to read the green. In my mind, the commitment to mastery of these various skills is what separates a golfer from one who plays golf.
I am sure this is also true for the careers or hobbies in which most of you engage. Music. Arts. Sports. Technical fields. Knowledge, understanding, and talent are important, but the repetition of the skills involved is what makes all the difference.
The same is true of our spiritual lives. If our goal is Christlikeness, head knowledge will only take us so far. True transformation is the result of adopting and practicing the practices and patterns evident in the life of Jesus Christ. As the apostle John wrote, “By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he [or she] abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” (1 John 2:5b-6, ESV)
It is the embrace of these practices and patterns of Jesus which result in our transformation. Concerted exertion of willpower alone will not get us there. As John Ortberg writes, “…you will have to enter into a life of training. You must arrange your life around certain practices that will enable you to do what you cannot do now by willpower alone.”[1]
For the next several weeks, Sunday sermons will be focused on a variety of these practices, these spiritual disciplines. In order to determine which of these disciplines to prioritize, you must understand what Christlikeness looks like in this world, and what keeps you from achieving that transformation. This requires that we each,
1) understand clearly what it means to live in the Kingdom of God. A review of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) paints a very clear picture.
2) must learn what particular barriers keep us from living this kind of life. With what sinful behaviors are you struggling? What virtues of Jesus and fruits of the Spirit do not appear to be present in your life?
3) we must discover what particular practices, experiences, or relationships can help us overcome these barriers. Some of these options will be presented each Sunday morning over the next several weeks.
This will not be a quick or easy process. Most likely, it will not be painless. But it most assuredly will be worth it. Scripture assures us,
For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
(Hebrews 12:11 ESV)
[1] John Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. 2002), 42.
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