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Some ground work before I tackle the question “How do we grow spiritually?”

First, please understand that I have neither the arrogance nor the insanity to think I could give an adequate answer to that question in a single e-link article.  Oceans of ink have been spilled on this question.  (I am only spilling electrons today.)

Second, this article will be a 30,000 foot view—no maybe a 120,000 foot view—of the subject of spiritual formation.

Third, the focus of this article will be on the issue of a model of spiritual formation and the major elements of spiritual formation.  It takes entire books to get into details and nuances. 

Fourth, Paul says in Col 4:19, “My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you.”  One of God’s core goals for us is our spiritual formation into the likeness of Christ.  Romans 8:29 gives us the very same message, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.” 

Fifth, the process of spiritual formation—of the character of Jesus being formed in each one of us—is a factor of the work of the Holy Spirit and of our own work.  Paul puts it this way in Philippians 2:12, 13:  “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”  The Spirit will not do it without us and we cannot do it without Him.  In the wonderful purposes and reasoning of God He has involved us in the process of spiritual growth.

Question: So how do we contribute to the process of spiritual formation in our own individual lives? 

Answer—fully tempered by the five caveats above: 

• We trust Christ for eternal forgiveness and thus gain not only forgiveness of sins but also the resources we need for spiritual formation.  Without salvation through Christ and the relationship that salvation brings and the resources that salvation gives we are dead.

• We enthrone God completely and permanently at the center of our lives—displacing self and all selfish desires and all idols of any description including spouses or children or heroes or ideologies or theologies or allegiances of any kind.  We must die to self.

• We believe that God “has given to us all that we need for life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3) and then we appropriate those resources—the Holy Spirit, the Word, the community of believers, and on and on and on.

• We strive to know all that God said to us and also to do/obey/observe/apply all that God said to us.  We dedicate ourselves to obedience.  Romans 12:1, 2 calls us “living sacrifices” and part of that picture is people who are deeply dedicated to obedience.  We strive to be discipled by God’s Book and not by the culture around us—especially as the culture around us hooks into the sinful aspects of our individual lives.  We make a settled decision to be obedient people and live into that settled decision.  “God when I see what You have said I will simply start doing it or stop doing something as the case may be.”

• We engage in worship of God with our whole lives both corporately and personally.

• We engage with other Christ followers in life-shaping relationships.

• We dedicate our lives to obeying the Great Commandment—loving God with all that we are and loving God well.

• We dedicate our lives to obeying the Great Commission—making disciples of all the nations.  Another way to say this is that we embrace “missional living.”  We come to see ourselves as people on a mission—people under orders—people who are compelled to serve Christ.  We serve Him in the areas of our passions and spiritual giftedness and dedicate ourselves to build bridges in our own zip codes and in the places where there is no such thing as a zip code.

• We embrace a life of incessant transformation through reflective living, the spiritual disciplines.  We actively engage in prayer, reading and studying and memorizing the Word, fasting, sacrifice, serving, worshiping, silence and solitude, and cultivating simplicity in our lives so that we are steadily changing, empowered by the Spirit and guided by the Word, to more fully obey God and more completely look like His Son.  In this we rejoice in the grace of knowing Christ but do not become content at the plateau of spiritual growth we have reached.

• We embrace and live into, in greater and greater ways, the metaphors of the New Testament that describe our lives as Christians: sojourners, servants, slaves, sons, soldiers, farmers, ambassadors, fishers of men, brothers and sisters, saints, children, and on and on and on.

Spiritual formation is very demanding.  Discipleship is a derivative of the word “discipline” and the process of having Christ formed in us demands discipline. 

Spiritual formation is very pervasive.  The process encapsules our entire lives—our thoughts, choices, words, actions, attitudes, beliefs, values, dreams, identities, motives, time, money, experiences, skills, spiritual gifts, passions, identities, bodies, and on and on and on.

Spiritual formation is complex.  It is not a simple formula or a recipe.  Success is certainly more a matter of one’s heart than one’s head.  More than one Christian has tried to reduce the process of spiritual growth to one element and in so doing has not only misrepresented the process but hampered the growth of many.

Spiritual formation is a journey rather than a snapshot.  The road to maturity continues until we see Christ when we “shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He is.”  In the meantime the road of spiritual formation is like all other roads—you must keep driving and dealing with the challenges and joys that arise around the next bend.

Spiritual formation is very rewarding.  The rewards of spiritual maturity, of having Christ formed in me in ever growing ways, are great.  I am closer to God in fellowship and trust; I gain the fruit of the Spirit inside of myself; I gain freedom from the bondages in my life; I am closer to the people around me; I am more useful to God in His Kingdom work; I feel the joy of obedience; I feel the joy of being used by God; I am gaining eternal rewards in heaven and on and on and on.

Spiritual formation is not “forcing another piece of pie such as a quiet time” into the pie of our already busy lives.  Spiritual formation is placing God at the center of the “pie” and then God taking over the entire “pie.” 

Spiritual formation is a very hard but very good and very rewarding process that God expects us to embrace.  Spiritual formation is a journey that brings to us joy.

When I was in my very first Biblical Hebrew class in graduate school we had about 35 students in the class.  The 35 of us were a fairly homogeneous bunch.  We were all college graduates, all in graduate school at Dallas Seminary, all heading into ministry, all in a degree program called the Master of Theology, all in our 20’s, all focused on the studies, all committed to Christ, and all of us were “modern” thinkers.  (“Modern” in the sense that we were mostly linear/analytical thinkers.)  A homogeneous group like that is much easier to teach than a diverse group. 

The Sunday morning “crowd” at Cypress Bible Church is a markedly un-homogeneous group.  Here is an attempt to give an idea of diversity and complexity of the 900 or so listeners in our chairs on a given Sunday morning.  The individuals in the congregation at CBC are varied along the following lines—and more:

Age and generation:  We have children as young as 6 or 7 paying attention to the message and every age breakdown up to 90 years old paying attention.  We have builders, boomers, busters, Generation X, millennials, and mosaics. 

Learning style:  We have audio learners, kinesthetic learners, visual learners, “show me how it is done” learners, experiential learners, and probably other styles of learners.

Thinking style—Part A:  We have “modern” thinkers—people who are mostly linear and analytic in their thinking.  They generally prefer to hear a preacher give a message based on logic and analysis and breaking down a Text.  We have “post-modern” thinkers—people who are mostly mosaic and narrative in their learning style.  They generally prefer to hear a preacher begin with a story and even stay with a story—“there was a man who went up from Jericho to Jerusalem and he fell among thieves.”

Thinking style—Part B:  Some thinkers are conceptual and some are concrete and some are idealistic.

Spiritual status:  We have people who have not yet trusted Christ, people who have just trusted Christ, people who are very mature in Christ, people who have known Christ a long time and are spiritually stalled, people who have known Christ a long time and are spiritually thriving, and people who think they know Christ but do not know Christ—since they have never put their trust in Him.

Ethnicity:  We have African-Americans, Africans, Caucasians, Asians, Hispanics, Russian-Americans, and others.

Models of spiritual formation:  People listening on a Sunday morning have diverse beliefs about how a person grows spiritually.  Some think you grow by knowing the Bible alone and some by knowing the Bible plus being in community and/or by being in service and/or by living a reflective life and on and on and on.

Preferred teaching style:  Some people like didactic/exegetical teaching and some narrative teaching and some expository teaching and some topical teaching that is aimed at given problems.

Bible knowledge level:  We have people who don’t know that Hezekiah is not a Book of the Bible and people who read Biblical Greek and people everywhere in between.

Spiritual giftedness:  Each Sunday morning we have people with a wide variety of spiritual gifts and thus with a wide variety of ways that they approach listening, and approach the Bible, and their personal ministry, and the application of the Bible.  A person with the gift of evangelism does not have the same approach to the Bible as a person with the gift of mercy or a person with the gift of giving.

Relational status:  On a given Sunday morning we have children and teens living with two parents or living with one parent or living in blended families or living with grandparents, we have young adults who are not yet married, we have people in homosexual relationships, we have young marrieds with or without children, singles who were never married or were divorced or were widowed, single parents, nuclear families with kids at home, empty nesters, senior adults, and we have people who are living together but not married, and others that I did not think of.

Emotional status: Some people in our chairs are emotionally joyful and on top of the world while some are emotionally depressed and despairing—and then folks all along the spectrum in between.

Educational level:  We have listeners who are in grade school all the way to listeners who have done post-doctrinal work.  We have children or teens who are failing spelling and college professors who are teaching advanced math.

Economic status:  We have young people whose net worth is minus $16,000 and people who are well established who are millionaires and every economic level in between.

Family realities:  We have people with families who are thriving all the way to people with family members who have severe permanent disabilities and people who have family members who are dying.

Employment status:  We have people who are unemployed, people who are underemployed, people who are looking for their first full-time job, people working two jobs, people who are afraid of losing their job, people who own their own businesses, people who are very successful in a long-term career and have no anxieties about their job, people who are retired, and other employment realities that I did not think of at this moment.

Our Sunday morning audience is very diverse.  It is in my heart to help everyone who shows up.  These people are here.  They are not here by accident.  They are here by God’s intention.  They need spiritual help.  They need the Word of God to be accurately explained, illustrated, proven, and applied to their lives.  More importantly than my heart is the reality that in God’s heart there is a deep desire and commitment to enhance spiritual maturity in each one of us.

God has many things in His Book to say to every one of us in every place of this diverse spectrum.  His Book is a Love Letter to every last one of us.

In our commitment to Celebrate God with our whole lives there are at least two very important things for each of us to adopt as a worshiper in the corporate worship setting.  Please consider these each Sunday morning.

First, please come with a heart for whatever God has for you that morning.  Every Sunday morning it is in the heart of God to help you spiritually in some way on that day.  Please come expecting to meet God and be sensitive to how you might meet Him in the course of the morning.

Second, please come with a heart for however God will use you to bless others in this diverse Body of believers.  A major portion of what God is doing every Sunday morning involves our ministry to each other.  Please come expecting to be used by God in the spiritual upbuilding of each other and please come sensitive to how God might want to use you in someone’s life.

Both of these heart-level expectations grow out of the reality that we are all fellow actors/worshipers on a Sunday morning and that God is the Audience of One.

The Bible is the best-selling Book of all time.  However many people who have a Bible would not call it a “Book” with a capital B.  For them the Bible is only a book, small b, like all the other books in the world.  For them the Bible may be a great read but not a “capital B Book.”

However, for those of us who have put our eternal hope in Jesus and see the Bible as inspired by the Holy Spirit, as the very Word of God, and as essential for our lives the Bible is the only “capital B Book” in all of existence.

So, the first issue surrounding the Bible is whether it is a small b book or a capital B Book.  I take it for the one and only capital B Book. 

The second issue then is this: “Why do we study this Book?”  Fortunately for us the Book itself tells us why to study it.  Given our deep submission to this Book it is essential to approach the Book as the Book itself tells us to approach it—what stance to take toward it—why to study it.  Here is an overview of what the Book says about how we approach it.  This is not an exhaustive biblical theology on the Book but it is some of the core issues:

#1 We study the Book to find God and to come to salvation.  Jesus said to us in John 5:39, 40 that the Scriptures testify about Him and that when we hear that testimony we can come to Him.  Paul said in Romans 1:16 that the Gospel message has power to bring us to salvation.  That Gospel message is found in many places in the Bible—1 Corinthians 15:1-8 being one of the major places.  John 20:30, 31 also speaks to the importance of the Written Word for leading us to believe in Jesus.

#2 We study this Book to know about God, about ourselves, about reality, and to know about the will of God.  Proverbs 2:6 and 8:10 speak of knowledge coming from the Word of God.  God is the Creator of all existence and He is therefore the One who knows what is real and how we should be and act.   “Man shall not live on bread alone but on every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”  Matthew 4:4.  If we want to know what is real, true, and right we must be immersed in the Word of God.  However, if we stop with simply “knowing” we will certainly, according to 1 Corinthians 8:1, become arrogant people.  According to James 4:6, God is opposed to arrogant people.  We study the Bible for knowledge but that is only the beginning.  If knowledge is the final purpose for my study of the Bible I will become arrogant and then I have invited the opposition of the God of the universe against my life.  When the Bible tells me how to approach the Bible there is much more than knowledge.

#3 We study the Book in order to obey the commands of God.  Jesus said in the Great Commission that we are to “observe” all that He commanded.  (Matthew 28:20)  Observing goes beyond knowing.  James said in James 1:22 that we are deceived if we only know the Word and do not do the Word.  It is paramount that we are doers of the Word, people who humbly and faithfully, empowered by the Spirit, align our lives with the will of God as revealed in His Word.

#4 We study the Book in order to become loving people.  In 1 Timothy 1:5 Paul says that “the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”  If I study the Bible a lot and I am not a loving person it does not mean that the Bible has failed.  It means that I have taken the wrong stance toward the Bible—that I have a wrong understanding of the purpose of the Bible or I have an arrogant and un-submitted heart, or both.

#5 We study the Bible in order to correct both our doctrine and our behavior.  In 1 Timothy 3:16, 17 Paul makes it clear that the Bible shows to me correct belief and correct behavior as well as confronting my incorrect beliefs and my ungodly behaviors.  The purpose of the Bible, according to the Bible itself, is far beyond what I believe.  It moves into how I relate to God and who I am and the inner most depths of my heart.  It moves beyond the guidance of my mind to the guidance of my behavior and my heart and my thoughts and my attitudes and my values and my dreams and my loves and my hopes and my motives.  “For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”  This is a Book that claims authority over every square inch of our lives—words, thoughts, relational styles, attitudes, actions, fears, and on and on and on.

#6 We study the Bible to be certain of our eternal salvation.  John explains this in 1 John 13 when he says, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”  One route to the assurance of salvation is through the study, memorization, submission to, and meditation on God’s Word. 

#7 We study the Bible to be warned about temptation and to keep clear of sin.  Psalm 19:11 shows that God’s Word (judgments) warns me about sinful choices and brings great reward when obeyed.  “Your Word have I treasured in my heart that I might not sin against You.” Psalm 119:11.  See also Proverbs 8.

This is not an exhaustive theology of the Book.  It is an attempt to say, “Please understand the complexity and the pervasiveness of the Book in our lives.  Please submit to the Book in greater and greater ways.”  As you feed yourself from the Book every day, as you listen to the message on Sunday morning, as you hear a teacher on the radio or in a class—in very venue submit yourself in greater ways to The Book.

Many, many thanks for the wonderful Sabbatical Send-off you gave us last Sunday.  We are very grateful for the gifts, cards, and kind affirmation we received.  We love and appreciate you all, our Cypress Bible Church family.

Last May my son, two friends, and I took a 113 mile backpack trip through the Black Hills of South Dakota.  It was terrific fun.  We saw some wonderful country, had some great fellowship and brought home some fun stories.  The injuries were minor and the memories are good.

The hike was good but it was also challenging.  We were each carrying about 45 pounds.  In addition the trail had plenty of “ups and downs.”  More than once we covered 14 to 16 miles in a day.  Every afternoon about 3 PM we would find a sloping place in the sun, take off our packs, eat a couple of power bars, drink some Gatorade, and sleep in the sun for half an hour or more.  Those afternoon breaks were so renewing.  We got a little sleep and got rehydrated and got a little sugar in our systems.  This gave us the stamina to hike on in to camp without the dragging, slogging, painful trudge that can characterize the end of a backpacking day. 

Kathi and I remain very grateful for your gift of this three month rest.  In the gift we see the generosity of God and of you the family at Cypress Bible.  While we will not be sleeping in the sun for three months we do view this time as an opportunity for renewal—physical, emotional, relational and spiritual.  We have specific plans to pursue renewal in all these areas.  We are optimistic that the renewal will be substantial and that it will give us good personal reserves.

Our previous church generously gave us a sabbatical in the fall of 1998 and it was a time of significant rest and renewal for us.  We were badly worn down at that time.  We came back three and one half months later with substantial energy and hope.

While I am not as depleted today as I was on August 30, 1998 I am nonetheless tired and expecting great help from this next three months. 

In light of the magnitude of this gift I want to make my commitments clear to you:

• I am committing to faithfulness in renewal activities during this time. 
• I am committing to pray for CBC every day. 
• I am committing to keep you posted on our renewal process and our travels via the blog at runningtothetape.wordpress.com.  (I will read any comments but not be responding.)

I am convinced that God will do great things in Kathi and me while we are gone.  It is also my deep belief that God will do great things in and through Cypress while we are gone.  “Neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God Who gives the growth.”  (1 Cor 3:7)

My appeal is simply that you would remain fiercely loyal to Cypress Bible during these next months of my sabbatical—serving, attending, giving, and praying faithfully for the ministry here.

God bless you richly and we will see you, if God wills, on August 15^th! 

We love you.

Dave and Kathi

I went to college and I graduated from college.  All three of our children went to college and all three graduated.  However, one thing was starkly different about our college experiences.  My college experience was about 98.8% responsibility and 1.2% fun.  Our children, while I do not know the exact percentages, all had a much better balance in their approach to college.  They acted responsibly and they also had fun.  They enjoyed their friends and their activities and their school spirit.  I envy them for the way they approached college.  They were not “party hardy” people who got crazy and did illegal or immoral things.  But they did have fun.  And they had scholarships and they got good grades and they got college degrees.

One of my very few regrets in life is that I have not had more fun and have not experienced more joy.  It is no one’s fault but my own.  One of the few regrets of my life is that I have incessantly approached life as a duty and seldom approached life as a party.

In the Bible our relationship with God, our identity in Christ, and our relationships with others are described in many different metaphors: family, soldiers, athletes, farmers, Body members, sojourners, servants, ambassadors, and stewards to name a few.

But, what about “joy” and the Christian life as a “party?”  There are multiple biblical references to the party and rejoicing and celebrating activities.

Nehemiah 8:9-12.  “This day is holy to the Lord; do not mourn or weep.  …Do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”

Luke 15:10.  Jesus told the parable of finding the lost sheep and ended that story by saying, “In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Luke 15:24.  After the prodigal son returned the father threw a party “and they began to celebrate.”

Zephaniah 3:17.  “The LORD your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior.  He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.”

Gal 5:22, 23.  “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control.”

Phil 4:4.  “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!”

As followers of Jesus we have duties to perform and laws to obey and a mission to accomplish.  These all demand our serious attention.

Without denying or in any way minimizing these duties, it is also true that the Christian life, when lived well, has a major element of joy (inside of us) and also of rejoicing (which is the inner joy being demonstrated or spilling outside of us).

Joy is available and expected because we have been rescued.  And the Holy Spirit enables joy in us.  And we have the resources that we need for life and godliness.  And our God loves us intensely.  And we have something meaningful to do with our lives.  And we are heading for an eternity of joy and plenty and fulfillment in the presence of our Father.

The Christian life is a party because our God is worth celebrating.  And our own rescue is worth celebrating.  And our present is worth celebrating.  And our families are worth celebrating.  And the Body of Christ is worth celebrating.  And our future is worth celebrating.

Much of the partying in our nation is done to escape the realities of life.  The joy and the party of the Christian faith are both available to us because of the realities of our spiritual lives. 

When we rejoice and party we are not trying to escape the realities of our lives, we are actually living in harmony with the realities of our lives.

This week will you kindly reflect on the fact that “The joy of the LORD is our strength?”

This week will you take a specific initiative to get in touch with the inner joy of knowing Christ?

This week will you take specific initiative to celebrate our God and to enter into the party of being in relationship with Him?

I am not inviting you to be irresponsible and ignore the commands of God.  I am asking you to be responsible and give attention to all the commands of God.  There are days to clean the garage but there are also days to celebrate a birthday or a job or a problem solved.  Without ignoring the garage on its given day, will you also throw the party on its given day?

This week will you take one specific initiative to “Join the party of faith!”?

Most substantial transformation in our lives is catalyzed by how we feel about something rather than what we know about something.

What we know is very critical.  It is especially critical to know what God has revealed to us in His Word and His Son and His creation.  Beyond knowing, it is also critical to feel and to do.  I am not loving God with my whole self unless I know what He has said and feel the appropriate feelings about what He has said and do the things He said I should do. 

Again, we are more likely to embark on substantial personal transformation based on how we feel about something.  

Consider this example about personal finances.  Imagine yourself in significant debt, with marginal cash flow each month, with no financial margin, with aging cars and home, with your children approaching the college years, and with no prospect of increased income for many years to come.

Something needs to change.  What will motivate that change?

Here is what you know about your situation:  The stress of undisciplined finances contributes to physical and emotional illness.  Financial troubles are the number one or number two cause of trouble listed in 90% of American divorces.  The financial mess is causing a lot of tension in your home.  The financial mess is causing you to lose sleep.  The financial troubles are causing anxiety in your spouse and children.  The financial struggles prevent you from giving much to God’s work.  There are solutions to this problem “out there” somewhere.  Debt is a burden.  Debt compounds terribly when not aggressively paid down.  Financial struggles cause you to feel inadequate and to compare yourself with others who are doing much better—especially other peers and siblings. 

You know a lot about this financial situation.  However, just knowing generally has little or no effect on choosing new financial behaviors.  You can continue for a long, long time in your problems with this knowledge and maybe never change your behavior despite gaining more knowledge about finances and their causes and effects. 

However, what if one day you got up and the finances were immediately pressing you down and you began to feel differently about your problem?  What if the feelings of low-level frustration and general anxiety changed? 

Here are the new feelings about the situation: You feel angry that this problem has burdened you for so long.  You feel angry with yourself for not doing something about this.  You feel intense anxiety about the affect this financial mess is causing in your heart and in your marriage and in your children.  You feel excited that something much better could be gained.  You feel hopeful that this could be fixed.

This simple contrast—what you know about something and how you feel about something—could be applied to perhaps every area of life transformation:  sharing your faith, enhancing your career skills, improving your fitness, improving your finances, tackling your disorganized stuff, beginning to be a life-long learner, finding a new niche for yourself, and on and on.

At this very moment you know a lot about all these areas where life transformation is needed.  What is probably lacking are the necessary feelings about these areas.  So far you have not felt angry enough or not excited enough or not hopeful enough or not burdened enough or not afraid enough to change your ways.

I have told you the story of getting up one day a couple of years ago and feeling overwhelmed and angry and hopeful—all at the same time—about the amount of stuff I owned and about the mess it was in and about the wasted time and energy that it cost me.  This week I got rid of my 7,300^th item.   I have a long ways to go but I am making genuine progress and it began with some very strong feelings inside me.

I have told you the story about getting up one day 15 years ago with 13 separate personal debts and no cash margin and my kids almost ready to start college and I felt so anxious and so angry and so hopeful and so zealously committed to the vision of a better future—felt all of this at the same time—that I took substantial action.  Kathi and I sold our dream home and downsized into a “fixer upper.”  We are substantially closer to some financial margin and man it feels great.  It all began with feeling horrible about my state.

I have told you the story about getting up one day and being sick to death of my emotional bondages and the path of counseling that I took.  It began with a feeling of emotional illness.

I have told you the story about getting up one day in my early twenties and feeling horrible about wasting my life watching TV every spare minute, and turning it off and beginning to read and get into ministry and go to seminary and apply myself to my life, relationships, and ministry.

All these things happened not because of what I knew but because I felt something so intensely that as much as it was within my power I simply was not going to live with the old realities any longer.

I was emotionally fed up and therefore I acted.  Or I was emotionally hopeful and I acted.  Or I was emotionally angry and I acted.  Or I was emotionally excited and I acted.

I would bet the farm that you have pieces of your life that you know are messed up.  I would bet the farm that you have known about these areas for a long time and that you have known the consequences for a long time and have known the solutions for a long time. 

Your problem is that you have not gotten yourself sufficiently emotionally stirred up about those areas.  Your feelings are not low enough or not high enough.  What you need is either a good meltdown or a good “Wheel-of-Fortune-I-just-won-a-Ford-pickup” excitement or both.

Sometimes emotional stability is not helpful.  It is not helpful when it leaves us drifting along in the mess that we know so much about.

I am an incurable collector of quotes.  I make them into single-page posters and I have them pinned up all over my office.  The posters help me spiritually, emotionally, and professionally to stay on an intentional course of pursuing God and pursuing others and pursing personal growth.  One of my favorite quotes is this one from Teddy Roosevelt:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly—so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

The Christian faith, by even the most cursory reading of the New Testament, is an “In-the-arena” faith.  Following Jesus means leaving the sidelines and getting into the arena.  It means being a “severe striver.”  It means being infected with the cause and the vision for the greater glory of God.  It means both dependence and striving.

In my mind all of this points to two major applications.

First, living out faith in Christ involves me so deeply in the fight that I have no time for the criticism of my brother or sister.  I become so focused on the mutual goal and work of the Body of Christ that I cannot “point out where the doer of deeds could have done them better.”  I am simply so absorbed with the pursuit of God and with obedience to Him and with my contribution to the Great Commission that I have neither time nor motivation for the criticism of my fellow believers.

In my experience the major portion of criticism about others and about ministries come from people who are not in the arena and thus are not throwing themselves into the cause of Christ.  They have time to critique their fellow believers because they are seated passively on the sidelines of ministry.

I am not advocating that we never say hard things or ask hard questions of other believers.  However, I am saying that when I am a striver, when I am up to my chest in the ministry fight, my time and my motivation for criticizing my fellow workers is almost zero.

Second, living out faith in Christ involves me so deeply in the fight that I must lean fully on God for victory and I must exert myself in extraordinary ways.  (At Cypress we talk often about “depending and striving.”  I am focusing today on the striving aspect of this principle.)  The New Testament is loaded with “striving/exerting” metaphors—soldier, sojourner, servant, farmer, and athlete come immediately to mind.  The Christian faith really knows nothing of passivity and coasting and side-line spectators.  The truths about the Body of Christ and the army of Christ and the servants of Christ all demand 100% participation by the body. 

Christianity is a “sport” in which everyone is first string.  Everyone is on the field.  No one is on the bench.  There are no “backup” players.  We are not “saving anyone in case a starter gets into foul trouble.” 

So:  “In what way are you in the arena for the cause of Christ?”  What are you good at and what are you passionate about?  How have you “jumped into the arena?”  How are you striving to Celebrate God with your whole life?  How are you investing to Build Bridges here in your own zip code and in the places where there is no such thing as mail service?  How are you insuring that your life will be shaped by others as you Connect Together?

The options for involvement are very simple—just two options. 

Option A:  I can be the one “who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself or herself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly”

Or Option B:  I can be one of “those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Please see this:  In the striving there will certainly be some error and shortcomings.  (No hurdler ever cleared 100% of her hurdles.)  Ultimately however, because of the power and intention of our Captain, there will be “the triumph of high achievement.”  Trust me; you don’t want to miss this!

By now you have probably heard about the fire alarm going off in the middle of the sermon during third hour last Sunday.  (It looks like the culprit was a bunch of helium balloons which set off a smoke detector in one of our kid’s buildings.)  If you were not there I should say that after 10 minutes our very capable facilities folks were able to determine that there was not an actual fire and most of us went back into the services and classes.

One of the big “Wins” from the event was the skill and calmness with which our children’s workers took the kid’s out of the buildings and kept them safe.  Bravo!

The 11:00 service on that day held literally the most people in a single worship service in a year—maybe ever.  It was cram packed.  Then, right in the middle of the message and five minutes before I was going to give the Gospel, the alarm went off and a woman’s voice was saying, “Please exit the building in an orderly fashion.”

Some people thought it was a part of my message—an unexpected interruption in the message for shock value.  It was not and apparently the look on my face said as much.

I was shocked and I was depressed.  From the platform I watched hundreds of people leaving the building.  Many of them did not know Christ.  I was just a couple of minutes from giving the Good News about rescue in Jesus Christ to all of them.  It was all fully depressing to me.  I was afraid that the service might be completely over.  I was afraid that many pre-Christians were not going to hear the Gospel.  I was afraid that if we got the “all clear” to return to the building that many people who needed to hear about rescue in Jesus would not come back.  Maybe 100 did not come back.  They skipped out just before hearing how to spend eternity with God.

I had control of the service and the message until the alarm sounded.  Then I lost control of something that was very important to me.  I want life to work and I like to be able to make life work.  God knows that.  God doesn’t like Dave trying to control the world.

So, some lessons from a fire alarm and other losses of control:

God was still in control.  God is not overwhelmed by anything.  He is not wringing His hands in heaven about anything.

God was not taken by surprise.  God knew about this from eternity past.  God knows about all the accidents, ambushes, and unexpected developments in our lives from eternity past.  He is blindsided by nothing.

God does some great things when we lose control.  After we resumed the service about 30 responded to Christ—in that single service!  (I estimated, without any “evangelistic exaggeration” that 38 people responded to Christ on Easter!)

God works with power when we are fully dependent on Him.  There are two ways for us to lose control.  Option A is when something like a fire alarm rings and we cannot do anything about it.  Option B is when we voluntarily give control to Him, submit to His Spirit, and strive to understand and align with what He is doing at a given time and place.

In our weakness is His greatest strength.

Spiritually greater things will happen when we voluntarily submit to Him or when we involuntarily submit to Him. 

What are the “fire alarms or other losses of control in your life?”  Guess what?  God is not harming you.  He is up to something.  Please pay attention.

Remember the story about a friend inviting his roommate to a dinner party and the roommate tags along and meets a girl there and these two find out that they are soul-mates and they start dating immediately and they fall in love and they get married and they have four children and they live happily ever after?  (I love that story.)  The whole happy relationship began with an invitation from a guy to his roommate.  The dinner party was happening and the girl was going to be there. But the roommate would never have been there if he had not been invited.  He would never have met the girl if he had not been invited.  He would never have gotten married and had four kids and lived happily ever after if it were not for that simple invitation.

     Kathi and I went to Liberia, West Africa one summer because someone invited us.

     Lots of people came to our wedding because we invited them.

     I put my resume in at Cypress Bible Church because someone invited me.

     I have a friend who went to the University of Idaho because someone invited him.

     Five people went to South America with me for two weeks because I invited them.

Two important things to know about invitations: 

     First, invitations are powerful, they are important, and they are potentially life changing—you never know what God might do through a simple invitation. 

     Second, they are not that hard.

Here is the deal.  We are having a party this Sunday—not a dinner party but a party to be sure.  We are having an Easter party—a Resurrection Day party.  Jesus is going to be presented there.  And, if you invite your roommate (or neighbor or friend or co-worker or relative or golfing buddy or book club acquaintance) he or she or they will be here to potentially meet Jesus and live happily ever after.  (This is not the “happily ever after” of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan holding hands in an elevator at the end of Sleepless in Seattle.  This is the “happily ever after” of being with God in joy and with plenty of meaningful occupations and free from all sin forever—this is the really, real ever after and the really, real happy!)

     First, invitations are powerful, they are important, and they are potentially life changing—you never know what God might do through a simple invitation. 

     Second, they are not that hard.  You can do this and it might result is someone’s happily ever after.

     Invite some people to the party!

If you tried to write a formula for an effective church ministry you could include many of the following variables—not all would be valid and helpful:  size of church, having a building or not, resource base, location, age, submission to the Spirit, reputation, submission to the Word of God, mission statement of the church, belief in the power of God, color of the building, quality of the kid’s ministry, type of church government,…  The list could go on and on.  All of these variables may be of some importance and of some indication of the spiritual effectiveness of the church. 

However I think the most important variables in this formula would be these: the intentions of God, the power of God, the submission of the people to the Word of God, and the submission of the people to the Spirit of God.

The intentions of God.  God has His plans and His reasons and His timing.  He does what He wants to do and He shows up and accomplishes great work in various times and various ways—and sometimes for unknown reasons.  No church can be effective unless God shows up and works in His wisdom.

The power of God.  God is capable of doing whatever He desires to do.  When He intends to use a church greatly for His work He also accomplishes that.  No church can be effective unless God shows up and works in His power.

The submission of the people to the Word of God.  God causes great things to happen when His Word is taught, honored, and obeyed.  Any ministry formula without a core variable being submission to the Word is not going to add up.

The submission of the people to the Spirit of God.  Self-willed, independent, and even highly skilled people are incapable of genuine spiritual impact without the Holy Spirit.  And the Holy Spirit works and empowers submitted, dependent people. 

More than our size, location, age, color of carpets, or even reputation in the community I believe we need to align ourselves with these four “variables” in the ministry effectiveness formula.  Here are some of the particulars of that alignment.  I am stating these in the form of an ancient creed:

I believe in the Person of God and the power of God and the grace of God. 

I believe in the purposes and the timing of God.

I believe in God’s habit of using the “foolish, weak, and ignoble.”

I believe in the work of the Holy Spirit through submitted people.

I believe in the non-partiality of God.  He is interested in using big churches and little churches, old churches and new churches, suburban churches and urban churches—any churches that are submitted to Him and to His Word.

I believe in the power of God through submission to His Word.  For one example consider Ephesians 3:20, 21:   “Now to Him Who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.  Amen.”  Ephesians 3:20, 21 has absolutely nothing to do with the age or location of a church.  It has everything to do with the plans of God and the submitted, hoping hearts of His people.

I believe in you, the Body of Christ at Cypress Bible Church.  I believe in you the people who are throwing your energy, hearts, time, prayer, money and spiritual gifts into the fray.  You do not look “washed up” to me.  You look good-hearted and striving and sacrificial and full of faith.  You look discontent with the approach of “just pulling off another Sunday and then getting back to ‘our real lives’ during the week.”  You look hopeful to me.

Because of these true statements above here is every reason to stay hopeful about Cypress Bible Church—to stay hopeful about God showing up in and through us.  Please stay hopeful about God using us for spiritual impact that is “far more abundant beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to His glory.”

God is generously giving to me renewed energy for the Body here—before my sabbatical!  God is giving to me renewed hope about His using us for spiritual impact.  God is giving me renewed commitment to both prayer and striving.  I am thrilled about what He might do.

What He might do is a factor of several things.  The major factor is what He will do.  The minor factor is what I, Dave Gibson, will do.  And the other major factor is what you, every member of the Body here, will do.

This past Sunday in our worship service we watched a video about Alexandre Bilodeau who is a world class, Canadian freestyle skier and was highly motivated by his older brother who has cerebral palsy.  Alexandre said, “My brother has a wicked level of determination.”  Then he said that because of his brother’s determination he decided to be “all in” for skiing.

“All in” is a gambling metaphor and I never promote gambling because it is addictive (and for many other reasons) but “all in” is really good metaphor.  It refers, obviously, to holding a poker hand that is so good that a player pushes all of his or her chips into the pot and stakes the whole game on the hand they are holding. 

The Christian faith is an “all in” faith—no matter what kind of a church you are in.  Again the issue is not “the hand we are holding” but the God we are serving and the submission and faith we are exhibiting.

Here is my commitment to you:  “I am ‘all in’ here at Cypress.”  I will be all in with my heart, my prayer, my money, my spiritual gifts, my energy, my personality, my time, and my hopefulness.  I will serve here at Cypress with a “wicked level of determination.”

I am all in for the reasons I mentioned earlier and I am all in because I see evidence that God is showing up.  I see three teenage girls trusting Christ this month through our student ministry.  I see a bunch of adults and kids getting ready to be baptized this month.  I see a positive impact of our team that built a home in Acuna, Mexico and also had a part of leading two people to Christ.  I see the impact of our team that ministered in Chennai, India over spring break.  I see us being faithful in our service to Lamkin Elementary School.  I see 130 people joining small groups this past year.  I see people worshiping in spirit and truth on Sunday mornings.  I see you caring for each other and welcoming new people.  I see our elders and staff working with diligence and relational skill.  I see our deacons and other volunteers giving of themselves for the wellbeing of others.  I see our folks caring for the elderly and visiting the sick and giving to the unemployed.  I see hundreds of you coming up to the crosses two Sundays ago and nailing your confessions and prayers up before God.  I see God bringing the resources we need to press on. 

I am hopeful about Cypress and I am all in.

Here is my request of you:  “Will you be all in for the Body at Cypress?”  Will you be all in with your hearts, your prayer, your money, your spiritual gifts, your energy, your personality, your time, and your hopefulness?”  I am not asking you to burn yourself to a charred stick by giving too much to CBC.  I am asking that you be faithful about loving your family. That you fulfill your responsibilities at work and make impact for Christ in the workplace and neighborhood and school.  That you are skillful in “self-management.”  And that you contribute with diligence to CBC.  

I am asking that you be hopeful and prayerful and diligent about the spiritual impact of Cypress—not because of the hand we are holding but because of the God we are serving.