12/9/07 Wrong Tools For the Job

We are going to begin something this morning

that will probably take us through most of the winter.

Sometimes it’s easy to loose perspective in the cold and the darkness.

Sometimes it’s harder during the dark months

to see our God as He really is.

And I think what we will be doing with our Sunday mornings in the weeks ahead will help.

In a broad sense we are going to move into a study of II Peter.

But that isn’t really what we’re going to do.

Back in 1995

I took nearly six months

for a series on Spiritual Growth - what it is, what it’s not, and how it happens.

For a number of years now

I have wanted to go back to that series

and rework it into a more organized

and considerably more condensed form

because some of what we looked at during that series

can be of tremendous value in our walk with the King.

So what we’re going to do

is to take the next month or two...or three

to talk about spiritual growth.

And step one in that process,

and what we’re going to do this morning,

is to look at what spiritual growth is not.

We’ve spent a number of weeks this past fall

talking about lies and the power they have over our lives -

lies we accept as truth,

lies that, once we accept them, can cause no end of unnecessary turmoil in our lives.

Well, it will come as no surprise

that there are a whole bunch of lies

swirling around this thing we call spiritual growth,

lies we have been fed by a religious industry

that has been entrenched in our society for most of the past 2000 years.

And to help us dislodge some of those lies

I want to begin by once again taking us back to a comment made by Christ

as the result of a series of events

that we have recorded for us in the 6^th chapter of John.

But a little background on what led up to this comment will help.

A huge part of successful communication

is knowing when those we are trying to reach

are ready to hear what we have to say.

And our Lord was the absolute master at timing.

At this point in His presentation of Himself to Israel

crowds kept getting larger... and larger.

Rumors of His powers were spreading throughout the nation.

People by the thousands

now followed Him everywhere,

waiting, watching, hoping for another trick,

another miracle,

another lame man springing to his feet,

another blind man shouting, ‟I can see! I can see!”

There were a few, a very few

who seemed more interested in Him

than they were in what He could deliver,

a few who had been caught in His love.

But as yet even they didn’t understand.

He was speaking a foreign language,

a language of the Spirit,

a language His followers couldn’t yet hear.

But on this particular day

the Lord knew He could begin introducing them to the truth.

It all started the day before with that thing about the food.

There they all were - thousands of hungry people

milling around, grumbling, restless, irritable

because there was a little lull in the ‟program”.

The disciples were sticking right by the Master’s side.

It was important to them that people knew who they were -

a part of the inner circle, the few, the chosen.

At that point it was still a status symbol in the right circles

to be identified with Him.

Then Jesus asked Philip a question.

‟Where are we going to buy bread for all these people to eat?” (John 6:5).

It was a test, of course,

an attempt to stretch them just a little beyond their five senses

into the realm of the Spirit.

Philip didn’t do well with the test. (Who would?)

He immediately began estimating crowd size,

figuring how small the servings could be,

tabulating cost per serving,

checking with the group treasurer to see how much cash they had on hand.

Then He broke the news to the Master -

feeding this mob was completely out of the question.

“We seem to have a bit of a cash-flow problem, Master.”

In the end it turned out beautifully of course -

all of that food miraculously appearing,

everyone laughing, and eating, and having a good time.

And under the laughter He knew His men were thinking.

It was a good beginning.

The following day the crowds were back.

They tracked Him in Capernaum

because they wanted more food, of course,

more food, more miracles, more excitement.

But today would be different.

Today He would put it into words.

He began with what they understood - He began by talking about bread.

‟Don’t work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give to you, for on Him the Father, even God, has set His seal.” (John 6:27).

Then He moved them step-by-step

into the world of the Spirit.

He talked about Himself as being the bread of life

and about His ability to offer them eternal life through Himself.

The crowd didn’t understand, of course.

They just wanted more food

and all this talking made them frustrated and confused.

It wasn’t long before most of them walked away.

They didn’t get what they wanted,

they could make no sense of His words,

and there was clearly no longer any reason to stay.

And that, by the way,

is a pattern that has been repeated countless times

by countless people throughout history,

people who come to God with their shopping list,

people who just KNOW what it is that will make them happy,

and fulfilled,

and well-equipped for the life they want to live.

They respectfully put in their requests,

wait patiently for the Creator of all things to deliver the goods,

and if He doesn’t

they walk away,

and they do it believing that they are absolutely justified in their actions.

After all, what good is a God who won’t give you what you honestly believe you need?

Well, it was at this point in His earthly ministry

that the Lord turned to His chosen few

and introduced them to a concept

that would become crucial in the lives of all those who would ultimately respond to His call.

He said simply, ‟It’s the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I’ve spoken to you are spirit and are life.”(John 6:63).

And here’s where we come to what is their first understandable mistake.

The challenge that confronted those disciples of Jesus in the first century

is no different from the one each of us brings with us

into our walk with Christ today.

We’re physical beings, born into a physical world.

We know and understand the basic operating principles of the world in which we live.

We depend upon the input of our physical senses for communication with this world.

From the day of our birth we carefully train our minds

to process the information we receive

so that it makes sense within the context of this physical world.

It’s not surprising that, when Jesus offered His listeners the bread of life,

they looked around for more baskets heaped high with something to eat.

And not only do we learn the rules of the physical world in which we live,

but we also learn the rules of our own particular social setting.

We understand the things that determine success and status.

We learn how to influence or impress those who make up our world.

We seek to master and apply all those approaches, techniques, and systems

that we just know will move us ahead in this world.

In other words, we understand how life works.

We understand and actively, aggressively, unconsciously

apply the rules of the game of life.

And when we come to Christ

and begin seeking growth in our walk with Him

we instinctively assume that the same principles and techniques

that have worked for us in life up to this point

will also work in the world of the Spirit.

If we have found self-discipline and hard work

to be the keys to our progress in life up to this point,

then certainly self-discipline and hard work will also bring rewards in our walk with the King.

If we have found increased success by learning the system and cooperating with it,

then surely the same key will unlock doors in the Body of Christ.

If we have found increased knowledge,

or the use of special talents,

or maybe identification with important people

to be our gateway to progress in life,

then of course these same things will be important in the life of the Spirit.

But when the Lord told His few faithful followers,

‟It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing;”

He was introducing them to one of the most unsettling and revolutionary concepts of the Christian life.

He was beginning to reveal to them

that the abilities, skills, and techniques of the flesh

are powerless to produce anything of value or significance in our walk with God.

In true spiritual growth the flesh really does profit nothing!

It’s not simply a matter of redirecting the efforts of the flesh

so that we now use our talents and abilities to ‟serve God”.

It’s not a process of energizing the flesh through the presence of God’s Spirit

so that it can now succeed where once it had failed,

or so that it can now succeed for God as it once succeeded for ourselves.

It’s a matter of learning how to function in an entirely new environment

governed by totally different principles, goals, and means for achieving those goals.

The Apostle Paul made this distinction between flesh and spirit a major theme in his writings.

He strongly condemned the Galatian Christians’ flesh-based approach to spiritual growth by asking,

‟Are you so foolish? having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”(Galatians 3:3).

To the Philippian Christians he proclaimed confidently,

‟...for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh...”(Philippians 3:3)

And to his Corinthian brothers and sisters he said simply,

‟Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (II Corinthians 3:5-6).

Each of these passages is talking about

that process by which our lives are transformed

from the people we once were to the people God created us to be.

Each of them tells us that anything generated by human effort

is incapable of producing spiritual life or spiritual maturity.

When Paul says, ‟Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God...”,

he is presenting a simple statement of fact -

we brought nothing with us into this world at birth

that in any way equips us to successfully produce true Christian living.

Of course I know what we typically do with statements like these in Scripture.

Without consciously thinking about it

we modify what is actually said

so that it becomes what we think it should say.

We tell ourselves these verses mean

that we need to rely on God to give us the strength for the work He has called us to do.

We hear Him saying

that His Spirit can direct and guide our efforts and talents and skills

so as to make them truly productive in the work of God’s Kingdom.

We assume our Lord and the Apostle Paul are offering us

a sort of call to a partnership

in which we place our personalities, talents, time, gifts, determination, and developed skills

under the direction of the Spirit of God

so that we can then use all of these things

to move us into spiritual strength, maturity, and productivity.

But that is not what the passages say.

They’re not offering us a call to integrate flesh and Spirit.

They are offering us a clear statement and with it a clear warning

that the flesh always has been and always will be incapable

of producing any true forward movement in our walk with our Lord Jesus Christ.

If we turn this around it might be easier for us to see it.

When the Lord tells us ‟the flesh profits nothing...”

He’s telling us that anything the flesh can produce cannot be true spiritual growth or maturity.

Anything we can create, accomplish, or maintain

as a result of skills, attributes, or abilities we brought with us into this world at birth

cannot be true spiritual growth.

Do you know what that means?

It means we could spend two hours every day

reading the Bible and praying and never grow in spirit.

We could graduate from a masters level seminary program

and never experience any amount of spiritual growth.

We could attend every meeting,

every Bible study,

every seminar,

and every program the church has to offer

and never grow in our Christian life.

Both Christ and Paul tell us that, whatever true spiritual growth is,

it is not something that can be produced by human fleshly effort.

And since daily devotions, church attendance, and formal and informal education programs

can be accomplished by any sufficiently disciplined and motivated human being

they in themselves can never produce spiritual growth.

Our human will, intellect, creativity, and determination

can produce some very impressive results.

We can create powerful religious systems that motivate people to high levels of performance.

We can build huge cathedrals that make those who enter them

feel as if they were entering into the very presence of God.

We can develop and refine highly complex programs

to address every social ill in our community.

We can create intricate systems of doctrine and theology

that provide intellectual answers to a multitude of questions.

We can do all of this and far more through the effort, determination, and gifts of the flesh.

But we cannot produce one ounce of true spiritual growth

through any of those attributes and abilities.

So then what is spiritual growth

and how does it become a reality in the life of the Christian?

Well, that’s obviously the focus of what we’re going to look at in the weeks ahead.

But step one in discovering the answer

is recognizing and rejecting the lies that blind us to that answer.

For countless years our Christian community

has belched out an endless supply of programs, systems, and lists of rules

all guaranteed to produce spiritual maturity if they are followed with diligence.

Though many of these are created and followed from the purest of motives,

most of them are little more than motivational techniques

that are designed to clothe the flesh with the appearance of true godliness.

You see, the problem is that we begin with our thought processes upside down.

All of our fervent efforts

to generate greater commitment, determination, and self-discipline

will never produce spiritual growth.

And yet, true spiritual growth

will always eventually produce

greater commitment, determination, and self-discipline in the child of God.

True spiritual maturity will always result in major changes in our flesh,

but attempting to bring about changes in or through our flesh

can never produce spiritual maturity.

This is exactly what Paul is saying in Romans 8:10-11.

‟And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.”

Nothing we bring with us into this world at birth

can generate true life in the Spirit,

no matter how determined or self-disciplined we may be.

But...but the presence and work of God’s Spirit inside us,

can transform our minds, emotions, talents, and unique abilities

into effective tools

with which to express the new life in the Spirit

that our Lord has created within us.

Maybe this will help.

Imagine for a moment that God brings into your life a truly mature and godly Christian.

He or she has a heart for God and a depth in their walk with the King

that has developed over many years.

As you spend time with this person

you begin to realize that prayer is as much a part of their life as breathing.

Communication between them and their God

appears to be a constant backdrop to their life.

And you discover

that their knowledge of the ways and mind of God is truly remarkable.

They know things.

So, you conclude that prayer and increased Bible knowledge

have got to be two key ingredients

that will bring you into greater spiritual maturity.

But the truth is that your conclusion is upside down.

More prayer and greater Bible knowledge will not bring you into greater spiritual maturity.

But greater spiritual maturity

will draw you into a growing communication with God

and an increasing knowledge of the mind and heart of God.

Christ Himself has told us where our thinking has to start .

‟It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing;”...

Our goal isn’t to clothe the flesh

in a pathetic costume of spiritual growth

through pasted-on layers of self-discipline and determination.

Our goal is to have the eyes of our spirit opened

to the true intimacy with our God that He wants to share with each of us.

Only as we discover the true nature of spiritual growth

and give ourselves whole-heartedly to it

is our Lord then freed to begin transforming our lives from the inside out.

‟...for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh,”(Philippians 3:3).