Training for Spiritual Fitness

Spiritual Disciplines
“Training for Spiritual Fitness”
Heb. 12:7-14
March 4, 2001

Mark Eberly

   Turn with me to Heb. 12 for our scripture passage this morning. As you find your place, let me share a brief story with you.
    An elderly man lay in a hospital with his wife of 55 years sitting at his beside. “Is that you, Ethel, at my side again?” he whispered.
    “Yes, dear,” she answered.
    “Remember years ago when I was in the Veteran's Hospital? You were with me then. You were with me when we lost everything in a fire. And Ethel, when we were poor - you were with be there, too.”
    The man sighed and said, “I tell you, Ethel, you're bad luck.”
    Sometimes we have bad perspectives on situations and opportunities. Spiritual disciplines for many Christians seem to have a bad reputation. Some see them as a waste of time. Some see them as something only for the elite. For others, they are just unnecessary hogwash.
What are spiritual disciplines?
They are the disciplines of the spiritual life that move us beyond surface living.
They are first of all disciplines or training in the ways of the Spirit and the ways of Christ. They do not just happen by accident. They must be intentionally practiced and consciously cultivated. No one ever suddenly woke up and won a gold medal in any event. It takes commitment to do what it takes physically and mentally to prepare beforehand for the event. Hours of training are logged to reach one's potential and even then you are not guaranteed to win a medal.
    Spiritual disciplines are training our minds and bodies to get beyond the superficial arena of our lives to gain a deep intimacy and connection with Christ. They do make us enter into the Holy of Holies but they prepare our hearts, minds, and bodies so that we are able to do so. For thousands of years, God's saints have trained themselves so that they could be self-controlled and able to experience God according to their potential.
What are they not?

1. They are not a competition.

   The Olympics are a competition for a single prize. Spiritual disciplines although they do have a reward are not a competition where one person wins and another loses. They train us so that we all can win!

2. They are not just for spiritual giants.

   A common misconception is that only a certain select few can reach this level. This is not true. The saints who have practiced these have not devoted themselves 24/7 to prayer and meditation. Each person can and should engage in spiritual training for spiritual warfare as God equips them. Beginners are welcome.     
   “We do not want to be beginners. But let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything else but beginners, all our life!” - Thomas Merton
   Even those who have not turned their lives over to Christ are welcome to participate. Many have discovered a spiritual awakening and been saved because they started to practice these things and found that they and God indeed made a difference in their lives!
   One of Charles Schulz's Peanuts strips pictures Charlie Brown looking up at the stars and says, “Let's go inside and watch TV. I'm beginning to feel insignificant.”
   We often feel that way when considering the spiritual disciplines. They are humbling, yes, but they do not humiliate us. Although they both have the same root word, with humility you bring yourself low while in the humiliation, someone else brings us low. The disciplines are not for spiritual giants but the humble in spirit.

3. They are not about self-mutilation.

    God does not want you to go out of your way to choose what is most painful to you. Some people mistakenly believe that if they are suffering, they must be in God's will. And the opposite is true. If you followed this path, you would soon ruin your health, reputation, business, and friendships. This is self-mutilation.
    Disciplines are rather about self-denial as you bear patiently all those things that God allows to pass into your life. If you don't refuse anything that comes in God's order, you taste of the cross of Christ.

4. They are not drudgery or ritualistic.

They are completely the opposite! They give us life and awaken us to the subtle promptings of the Spirit. Rituals do not become “ritualistic” because of repetition. They become habitual but not ritualistic. Rituals become rituals, that is devoid of meaning, when our hearts grow cold to the actions and we do not adequately reflect on our experiences.

5. They are not complicated.

They are hard because they are difficult to make into a constant habit in our lives. They are not hard things to actually do. They are not complicated. They in fact are really very simple.
Swimming is said to be great example of this. I personally do not know how to swim. This is one of my goals that I am going to accomplish for myself, by the way. Anyway, those who have tried to briefly teach me how to swim or describe how to swim have told me that it is really rather simple. It is not complicated especially for a drummer who is used to using all four limbs to work together. However, I know from experience it is not easy. I swim like a rock. You know straight down. I guess it is all the rocks in my head. It is a very simple concept but because it is a new skill, it is hard for me to actually do.
    Compounding the difficulty is the fact that we do not know how to explore the inward life. We live in a materialistic society that proclaims, “What you see is what you get.” All this talk about a spiritual journey is fine for a few weeks or even months but then it comes time to get on with real business in the real world.
    What an opportunity that the church has today!! Many people are searching for authentic spiritual encounters not the psychological manipulation of hucksters and Pharisees who put on the whitewashed show every Sunday morning for people to see!
    I can teach you the mechanics of the spiritual disciplines and in fact many of you are quite familiar with them. Just because you know the mechanics does not mean that we are practicing the disciplines. They are an inward and spiritual reality. The heart is far more important than the mechanics. The absence of a heart-felt intimacy with God is what leads to “ritualism” and this is what Paul means when in the last days people will have the form of godliness but lack the power. This is the great temptation of the church today!

Warning: Disciplines must never become law!

    This is our great warning. Turning them into legalism leads manipulation. We use them against people and they become a devastating weapon that divides the body of Christ. Doing so leads to two things:

A. Pride

We begin to believe that we are the right kind of people and they are not. It happens all the time in the church in OUR church. “You shouldn't hang out with those people just look at their lives.” “We can't have them in our church. What would happen then?” I don't know maybe they might get SAVED!
Researchers at Duke, Harvard, and Northwestern asked investors how their mutual funds performed last year compared to the Standard and Poor's (S & P) 500-stock index. 1/3 claimed their funds outperformed the market by at least 5%. One in six said their funds faired better than 10%. However, when they checked the portfolios of those who claimed they had beaten the market, 88% had overestimated their earnings. In fact, some “market beaters” lagged between 5 to 15 percent behind the S & P. Everybody wants to look better than their neighbor and unfortunately this is true in the church as well.
The second thing legalism leads to is:

B. Fear

We dread losing control. Somebody might actually want to change something that would help bring the unsaved in the church. An unbeliever might make us look bad. It might give a bad impression or a bad witness. Nothing worse than having our whitewashed exteriors blackened because we let a “sinner” too close to us.
    Our world is hungry for genuinely changed people. The world wants to see people who have sought the kingdom not those who stumble upon a good time. Christ calls us to seek not look for kingdom. To search it out with all of our being: our heart, mind, body, and soul. This takes time and discipline. You won't reach it over night and probably not even in the next year. But ten years down the line, if you are disciplined you will be able to look back and see a marked difference between who you were and what you have become.
    Leo Tolstoy said, “Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself.”
    So the next few weeks we are going to look at some of the basic inward disciplines. There are three types of spiritual disciplines.
Three types of spiritual disciplines

1. Inward (such as prayer)

2. Outward (such as service)

3. Corporate (such as worship)

Later down the line I may do a series on the outward disciplines and another on corporate disciplines but this time we will focus on four inward disciplines:
Four Inward Disciplines

a. Meditation

b. Prayer

c. Study

d. Fasting

In the next several weeks we be introduced to each of these core, inward disciplines. These are all things, as we will see that Jesus expects that His disciple or follower would be engaged in. After all even the Pharisees performed the basic minimum requirements in each of these areas. We should never approach these in the same fashion as if we do just because we know we should. We may start out not being sure but in order to follow Christ, we must let our heart be tender to His instruction.
    The scriptures again and again when speaking on the issue of discipline tell us several things.
God's Disciplines

1. Teach us

God shows us His heart. He shows us what is important to Him. He instructs us in His ways.

2. Tweak us

When God disciplines us, He corrects us and keeps us from straying down the wide of destruction.

3. Train us

Not only do we know God's ways, we live out what we know. We make these habits and a way of life.

4. Touch us

God instructs our minds, corrects our mistakes, replaces the bad with good behavior and habits, but He also molds our hearts so that we learn to love the disciplined life. We may not love it when He corrects or tweaks us but we certainly love the results that the disciplines bring. Sometimes it is painful but sometimes that pain is the only way through which God can save us.
   A Norfolk-Southern train was rolling down the rails of Indiana at 24 miles per hour. Suddenly, the conductor, Robert Mohr, spotted an object on the tracks roughly a city block away. Initially the engineer, Rod Lindley, thought it was a dog on the tracks. Then Mohr screamed, “That's a baby!”
   The baby was 19-month-old Emily Marshall, who had wandered away from home while her mother planted flowers in her yard.
   Lindley hit the brakes. Mohr bolted out the door and raced along a ledge to the front of the engine. He realized there was no time to jump ahead of the train and grab the baby. So he ran down a set of steps, squatted at the bottom of the grill, and hung on.
   As the train drew close to Emily, she rolled off the rail onto the roadbed, but she was still in danger of being hit by the train. So Mohr stretched out his leg and pushed her out of harm's way. Mohr then jumped off the train, picked up the little girl, and cradled her in his arms. Little Emily ended up with just a cut on her head and a swollen lip.
   Sometimes, like this train conductor, God must hurt us in order to save us.
   In closing, I want to call for repentance. Let us repent that we haven't been as disciplined in our spiritual as we know that we should be. There is no shame in admitting this. The greater shame is allowing our pride and whitewashed exteriors to keep us from a godly humility and admitting that we need to do better.
   If you want to do better, then come and make that petition before God. Tell God that during the next month, you will endeavor to put into practice more consistently and intentionally each of these spiritual disciplines as we learn about them. You may find that you are doing one or two pretty well, but you realize even now that there are areas that you aren't doing very well in. Perhaps not doing anything at all. Who would humble themselves this morning?

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