Two weeks ago I was in the Calgary airport – left early – no time for breakfast
- connection to US customs and security – long lines
- frazzled – needed food
- Tim’s (debit – no cash)
- Sorry – no soup
- Cash machine – back through security
- Defeated – hungry – grumpy
- Behind me in line – old woman – 75 says I’ll buy his soup – no, no, no I’ll buy his soup
- Dean - How about a combo?
- She said, “I wake up everyday and try to see people who need God’s love and I serve them – WOW
- So I got my soup and ate it – got on the plane – thought – what would it take for my life to be that tuned in to God – running – hungry – tired – frustrated – edgy – self-oriented
- She – tuned in to God
Today – we want to talk about how we can better tune in to God with our lives.
Just like last week, we want to answer a critical question. (Last week: How do I develop in community and relationship?) This week’s question, I get asked all the time: How do I take next steps in my life spiritually? Even after 10 years of following Jesus. How do I develop my spiritual life deeper? If what I’m looking for is a growing spiritual life, how can I get that figured out? How can I tune in spiritually to get the very most out of my relationship with God?
I Soul Positioning The Apostle Paul says to a church just like ours.
Colossians 2: 6 & 7 says this, “Just as you received Jesus as Lord (leader), continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him strengthened in the faith as you were taught and overflowing with thankfulness”.
Well, this week I read that over and over because I wanted for us to fully digest these words. I really wanted for us to figure out together what “next steps”, spiritually, might look like for each of us, and how we might develop our faith to continuously deeper and deeper levels. I gotta be honest, my natural inclination when someone says – “how can I develop my faith deeper in my life? My natural response is to give them a bunch of stuff to do (come to church, read the bible, pray every day, read these books). Now those are all good and fine (and it’s good for the preacher to be able to say all those things). However, this week I had a bit of a funny déjà vu kinda experience. I read these verses like, 10 times and suddenly I realized that for years I’ve been giving people bad advice about their spiritual lives (well not bad advice really, just incomplete).
Here’s what I mean –
Look at our verse today – and let me rearrange it a bit – so we can really get what Paul is saying to the church. He says the goal of our faith is this “Continue to live in Him (Jesus) rooted and built up in Him – strengthened in the faith as you were taught.”
That’s great right? We look at that and go – that’s really good – I need to drive down some deep spiritual roots and build up my faith – get it strong. Hard to argue with that – right? But how does that happen? Think about it - What’s the key to actually developing more in our lives spiritually? Well here’s what Paul says, and the answer is right in the first line.
(If you want to deepen your faith, that will only happen by approaching our faith the same way we began it.)
Listen to what the verse says, “Just as you received Jesus as the leader in your life.”
Continue to live in Him
And suddenly when I read it, it lined up like that. I got a different picture. That if I want to grow my faith deeper and stronger all the time (which I think is the goal for most of us – to develop our spiritual lives continuously), well for that to happen in our lives, this says, we have to do exactly the same thing we did when we first received Jesus as the leader of our lives. Now, here’s the question – What did we do to receive Christ? For those of you who are Christ followers (and you know you are), there are lots of different stages on this faith journey. What did you do to receive Christ? (Prayed – came to church – asked Him)
But really – to start your relationship with Jesus – what part did you play in that spiritually? What did you do to get that going? The answer is nothing. You did nothing, you just received from God. Let me explain.
When someone says I want to follow Jesus Christ, a bunch of things are usually going on in your life (and for some of you, you’ll hear this next part and go – that’s me right now). Well listen close. If you say “I want to follow Christ”, usually God has been doing some stuff in your life before that. He’s been calling you as you walk through life, and there’s several ways that He calls us. Maybe you’ve been more aware of the darker sides of your life (and personality) and you want to deal with that stuff for the first time in your life. Or maybe you’ve been on the losing end of whatever addiction you have and you just intuitively know that part of getting that fixed has something to do with God. Or maybe you just have a crazy, very sad or super dysfunctional past and you know your soul isn’t developing because of it, and you just instinctively believe that God/faith might have something to do with the healing that’s needed for your past. Or maybe you’ve just had this indescribable pull towards God and you’ve been searching or seeking Him for no real reason – (but you just want to) – and so you’ve been asking spiritual questions or maybe coming to church, and you just want to know more about this whole Jesus thing. Well folks, let me tell you that all that is very good news, because every one of those things: from a greater awareness of ourselves and even the dark part of ourselves, to our quest for spiritual truth - is all God - all that is the spirit of God, drawing us closer and making us aware of our spiritual condition, until we get to a place in our lives where we say, “okay God, I’ve had enough of where I’m at and what I’m doing and I need you. I want to follow you Jesus“.
And almost every week, I say the same things: if you want to follow Christ today, then all you have to do is ask and receive, and this is how to begin a relationship with Christ: (prayer)
Jesus – come into my life – please forgive my sin and heal my past – thank you for dying on the cross for my sins – I invite you to come in and lead my life, please begin to direct my life from this point on. Thank you Jesus – Amen.
If you’re here today and you’ve been searching (seeking God) or looking for a way to deal with your past, you may be at the point where you want to receive Christ. If that’s you today – (awesome) – then take a moment and pray that prayer, and begin your walk with Jesus. Awesome.
Let’s get back to our verse, (put Colossians 2:6 & 7 back on screen) So, say you prayed that prayer today to begin your walk with Jesus. Now, let me ask you: what did you do to receive Jesus into your life – and to be forgiven and to have Him walk with you? What did you do? The answer is nothing. You didn’t do anything – you just received – you simply positioned your soul in such a way so as to allow Jesus access. You opened your life up to Christ, and in a moment you were forgiven and in a moment His presence began to fill up your soul. (That all happens, in a moment, when we position our soul to receive).
So here’s my point: to receive Christ and start our initial steps towards God, who does the work of that?
Step 1 Who draws us to Him? God does
Step 2 Who convicts us of our sin? God does
Step 3 Who gives us a desire to be healed? God does or is that us?
Step 4 Who causes us to seek spiritually? God does
Step 5 Who gives us forgiveness and healing? God does
You get my point – there is no way we can do any of that stuff on our own – and there’s nothing we can do to achieve a relationship with God or gain forgiveness and healing for our souls, on our own – nothing.
It would seem absurd for us to try and do anything on our own to receive Christ – except to position our lives – or better put – we just place our lives in a position of faith, and Jesus does everything else. And when we are in a position to receive, then we say, “Lord lead me – Lord forgive me – Lord come into my life”, because we can’t do that soul stuff on our own. See folks, our job is just to follow Jesus; His job is to change us. Our job is just to receive; His job is to transform. Our job is to position our soul in such a way that we are open to Jesus’ work; His job is to do the work of salvation in our lives.
At Hockey Camp
– Kaden – to receive a pass – had to do nothing but position himself correctly to receive (hockey stick)
-coach Greg said to Kaden this week:
-position your arms and body and skates and stick in a position to receive and then don’t do anything else – just receive.
It’s someone else’s responsibility to get you the puck.
Folks, God is waiting to pour His power into our lives and that power will transform us from the inside out. But to receive that power, the only thing we have to do is position our soul in such a way so we are ready to receive.
II Soul Strengthening
So let’s take this to another level. Say you’ve been following Jesus for 10 years or more, and you know you’re supposed to grow spiritually (and all that), but maybe it isn’t happening. Or maybe you’ve been doing all the ‘right things’ (and it still isn’t happening). You’ve been coming to church and you’re trying to read your bible, and you’ve been up early at Tim Horton’s to try to pray (because the preacher said it was a good idea). Maybe you’ve been trying really hard to grow spiritually.
(Any of you out there?) Or what about this: maybe you were doing really good with God, putting down some strong roots spiritually, but then you come up against something that stalled that growth (a particular sin or habit that’s holding you back), or an attitude that you have that you can’t get a hold of (rid of), or an addiction that just doesn’t seem to let go of you. And these things have stopped your spiritual growth (or if it hasn’t stopped it, it’s hindered it substantially).
And no matter what you do (no matter how hard you work) – you can’t seem to get your faith to the next level. Well, listen closely, because I think there is good news. Hear this, soul development – soul strengthening – has nothing to do with trying harder – or doing more. Soul strengthening is all about faith and the position of our souls in order to receive that soul strength from God.
Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord. (What? Remember how that happened – it had nothing to do with us – we received and Christ did the work, right?)
Just as you received Jesus as leader of your life, continue to live in Him . . . rooted and built up in Him.
This says, if you want to develop your soul (even after 10 years of faith) and strengthen your walk with Christ, or have a breakthrough spiritually over an attitude or sin or addiction that’s got your spiritual growth stopped, if you want to strengthen your spiritual life - don’t do anything - except to position your soul and faith in order to receive from God. Remember what we said a few minutes ago:
Who does it?
Step 1 Spiritually - feeling drawn to God God
Step 2 Spiritually - aware of sin God
Step 3 Spiritually - seeking faith God
Step 4 Spiritually - receive Jesus God
Step 5 Spiritually - beginning a relationship with Him God
It has nothing to do with us – it’s God.
Well how about:
Who’s gonna do it?
Step 37 I can’t shake my addiction me? God?
Step 42 I can’t serve my husband/wife anymore
- they make me mad me? God?
(I’ll just work harder)
Step 46 I can’t forgive myself for that thing I did me? God?
Step 47 I need strength to fend off temptation? me? God?
Step 49 I need physical healing me? God?
Step 62 Release the grip money has on me? me? God?
People, hear the Apostle Paul again . . . “so then just as you received Christ” (Step 1-4) continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him – strengthened in the faith – step 5 & 16 & 35 & 49 & 106
Folks this is key to our spiritual development.
Strengthening your soul is not about trying harder, it’s about giving up control and letting go and as we let go, God strengthens us.
See, far too often when it comes to spiritual growth we think we’ve just gotta try harder (if I just pray more, or if I just confess more, or if I just read my bible more, or if I go to church more, then the good thing will happen because I’m trying so hard).
Now, none of those things are bad things, in fact they’re great, but often they alone aren’t what you need to get to a new place with Christ or to strengthen and develop your soul.
I think the principle behind this soul strengthening that the Apostle Paul is getting at is simply this (and it’s a paradox,it’s backwards thinking with the kingdom of God) – Ready – Here’s the principle:
As I quit trying to do it myself and as I give up control, I receive strength to be changed. So much about the kingdom of God is upside down – if you want to be great then serve other people. Jesus said – if you want to be rich in spirit, release the grip that money has on you. And He said, if you want to continue to develop your soul, you have to learn to give up trying to do it yourself. You have to be willing to let go and let God.
Let me take this one step further:
You know I’ve always been a wee bit troubled by some of the words Jesus said to people about the commitment they would need to follow Him.
He said some incredibly strong words and I’ve seldom talked about them – because they’re so strong – and a bit disturbing.
I’m gonna read some of them for you.
Luke 9:57-62
As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family." Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."
Luke 14:25-27
Large crowds were travelling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: anyone who does not carry his cross everyday and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Luke 14:33
In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.
For the longest time those words from Jesus seemed so harsh and so unnecessarily strong (to me), until you put those words with our verses today.
What Jesus was saying was this: unless you come to terms with all the stuff that controls you, whether that be possessions, or preference, or comfort, or family, or even our own will, unless you place all that stuff under the control of Jesus it will control you and it will ruin you, and you will not be able to expand your soul.
(Hear this) Unless I am able to let go of everything and anything that comes before Jesus, I cannot really follow Him.
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as the leader of your life – continue to live in Him. (Prayer) Not on my own strength, Lord I do not want to control my spiritual life – I give up control to you – Lord I realize that in order to be strong spiritually, I have to let go. Forgive me for holding on to everything so tightly. Help me let go – I want to receive your power and I want to change. I want to position my life in such a way that I rest in you. Would you change me and work in my life and take me deeper? I know that it’s all about you – and not about me. It’s not about my strength – it’s about Yours. It’s not about what I can do, it’s about what You can do. Lord my job is to receive – please do Your work in me and transform me.
Colossians 2:6 & 7
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
Focus – verse 7 - Quickly - one more principle:
III Soul Multiplication
And this is where the words “something more” comes in. Now, if you haven’t caught it yet, I’ve said all morning that spiritual growth in our lives isn’t our deal, it’s God’s. He does the work – not us – right?
However, our job is to position our lives in such a way for God to best pour into us, and there are several ways that can get done – (lest you think being a coach potato is the ultimate spiritual workout stance.)
This verse says what? Continue to live in Him – strengthened in the faith as you were taught – over flowing with thankfulness.
When I read that, (and because I’m a pretty practical guy), I just made a quick list of a few things we can participate in on a regular or daily basis to continue to strengthen our relationship with Christ – to keep our lives positioned/aligned with His:
1. Daily connection – Daily positioning
Read
Pray Position
Journal
Small group Last week’s message – Lakeview church community
2. Be thankful Part of being rooted and established in the faith is about overflowing with thankfulness.
If you’ve come up against a wall spiritually – thankfulness is part of the fix.
3. Get Teaching
Classes Basics and other learning opportunities – take advantage of those
4. Get Knowledge
Read books
Here’s a principle I fully believe – I’ve seen it in my own life:
Every moment you and I put into positioning our lives in Christ – to aligning our spirits up with His – He will multiply those moments within our souls.
Every minute we spend looking at and positioning ourselves spiritually for something more – He will multiply.
Here’s a crazy story – fascinating.
Bamboo farmers in Vietnam . . . some of the strongest bamboo in the world is the hardest to develop and grow – sequence of these plants and their growth.
Year 1 - plant – fertilize – water- sunshine and warmth – nothing happens
Year 2 – fertilize – water – tend plants – nothing happens
Year 3 – fertilize - water – wee – grows maybe 6 inches
Year 4 – fertilize – water – tend – very specific water and fertilizer – grows maybe another 6 inches (mirror growth)
Year 5 – fertilize – water – in year 5 (5 years) – grows 90 feet in 30 days. Not 9 inches or not 9 feet but 90 feet in 30 days!
Principle – doing the right things over time = multiplication of effort
Folks hear this, whatever time and energy and effort you are willing to spend (in your life) positioning your soul in a better place to receive from God.
God will multiply that over and over and over again into the strengthening of your soul.
So, if it feels like nothing’s happening and if it feels like you’re not growing – be patient and continue to water and fertilize and position your soul to receive from God.
Because even if it takes way longer than we might want – God will multiply every moment we take in positioning our souls to receive and you will have growth breakthroughs.
What’s the one thing you need to let go of (release) (or do) to position your life more fully in Christ?
(Prayer) Jesus help me let go. Help me spend time. Help me position my life – I want to receive.
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