Northside Church - Sydney
Modern Family // Week 3: Spiritual Growth
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Well, Sam introduced a brand new series a couple of weeks ago entitled Modern Family. And no for all you modern family fans, we're not going to show an extract from that very popular show. I wish we were because it was one of my favourites. But really it's a series about the church, the modern family of God. And it's a series based on the book of Ephesians. And that's what we're walking through. And tonight we're looking at the theme of spiritual growth. And I realise that there is a mixed group here tonight. And many of you have been Christians for a number of years, many, many years. Some of you are very new to the faith and others of you who would consider yourselves kind of on the fringes, not really sure what it's all about. My prayer is that in the next little while, 20 minutes or so bit over, maybe we will all get a message, something that will speak to each one of us and move us all a little bit closer to an understanding of what it means to do exactly what Brendan has done tonight. In other words, what it means to be a Christian. I think that that's possible tonight. It'll be beyond the words I say, it'll be in accordance with your openness to what God will do in your life. So can I just urge all of you, all of us together to be open to what he might say to us in these coming moments. There will be a message for each and every person if we are willing to listen. I'm going to Bible read tonight from the book of Ephesians, not surprisingly. It's chapter 4 and it's verses 17 to 24. If you've got your Bible there or your iPad or your smartphone, you can read along with it. It's Ephesians, chapter 4. This is 17 to 24. Bearing in mind, the theme here is spiritual growth. What does it mean to grow spiritually? Here it is. In the Lord's name, this is Paul talking, "In the Lord's name, then, I warn you. Do not continue to live like the heathen whose thoughts are worthless and whose minds are in the dark. They have no part in the life that God gives. Well they are completely ignorant and stubborn. They have lost all feeling of shame. They give themselves over to vice and do all sorts of indecent things without restraint. That was not what you learned about Christ. You certainly heard about him and his followers. And as his followers rather, you were taught the truth that is in Jesus. So get rid of your old nature which made you live as you used to. The old nature that was being destroyed by its deceitful desires, your hearts and minds, your hearts and minds must be made completely new and you must put on the new nature which is created in God's true life that is upright and holy, there's some pretty heavy stuff in there. We're going to unpack this tonight against the backdrop of the original hearers. That's where we always should start with the Word of God. Who were the original hearers? What was their world view? What was their situation? Why did the apostle address them in the way that he did? I've got a question tonight. Who has been to Ephesus? Matthew Wallace, I knew you put up your hand. Can we get a microphone to Matthew Wallace? Can we get this up Phil's asleep, just up there mate, okay. Matthew in two sentences maximum, what was your impression of the city of Ephesus? And when did you go there? I went there about this time last year on a study tour for college, and it was huge. It was huge. That's in two words. It was huge. It was huge. That's three words. That's three words. Okay. I'm going to give you another sentence if you want him, is that just, you had an idea of what it might be like, but just bigger and more impressive than you could have imagined huh? And I think the overall likes, particularly sitting in the amphitheater where Paul had the riot and sitting there reading that in acts and reading there and witnessing that 2000 years later was just a phenomenal. I'm very envious of this man. He's talked to me about his Ephesus experience. Who else have been to Ephesus? Come on, let's go. Oh, oh gosh. Okay. Fantastic. It's one of my yet to be fulfilled travel aspirations. I hope to get there one day. Check out some of these images. Just take a few of Google images. This is the best preserved ancient city in the Middle East, the best preserved of all of them. In fact, the temple of Artemis, the main god of Ephesus, that is one of the seven wonders of the world of antiquity. This is, yeah, that's all three, Josh, well done, good on you mate. He's on the ball tonight, good on you. Guys, these images give us an insight into the world of the original Ephesians, the world into which Paul spoke, the world to which, or the people to which he wrote his letter. And from what we can gather, these guys were doing okay as new Christians. They were doing okay, but even so, Paul had a very strong word for them. You could tell from the tone of his letter. And the strongest word comes in verses 23 and 24 of chapter four, listen to this, get rid of your old nature, which made you live as you used to. Your hearts and minds must be made completely new. Now this reference to living as you used to. You get the strong impression there's a before and after experience with these Ephesians. Am I right? Living as you used to, there's a before and after aspect to this and that would have been the case. See, these people weren't backsliding baptists. They weren't lapsed Lutherans. These people had absolutely no idea about Jesus Christ and about the Christian message. They were coming from outright paganism to this point of commitment to Jesus Christ. They would have been used to worship, the worship of idols made of stone, of wood, of metal. They would have been involved in some weird rituals, some very weird ceremonies in the Temple of Artemis. She was the main God of the city of Ephesus in those days. Everything about Christianity was new to them, brand new, and they had no background whatsoever. So when Paul talks about their old nature, living as they used to, when he talks about like in verse 19, giving themselves over to vice and to all kinds of indecent things without restraint, we get a picture of the ancient Roman Empire of the first century. These guys are right in the thick of it. That was their life. That was their world. If you've done some travel to other parts of the Middle East, you get an idea of what the Roman Empire was like in the first century. If you've been to places like Pompeii and even Rome itself, you get an impression with their obsession with sex and pretty wild kind of living. And a lot of this was built into the fabric of their religion. And so these guys have come into Christianity from a totally different world. That's why the language is so strong. That's why Paul comes on, you know, your past life, get rid of it. It's a whole new world for you guys now. We've got a new allegiance, and so he gets to great lengths to point that out. Now, why is Paul, here's the question, why is Paul focusing on the mind? He mentions it all the time. Why is he focusing on the mind? Why isn't he telling him to read the latest Joyce Meyer book or to get into 40 days of purpose with Rick Warren or get in a bit of a John Bevere? Why isn't he telling him to do something like that? Well, I'll tell you why. He wanted them to understand that renewal of a person's mind goes way beyond any external influence, any superficial influence, no matter how good and how strong and how effective some of those influences may be. No, Paul is saying spiritual transformation begins in the heart and in the mind. Now this makes sense. This makes sense when you consider what the mind is. Check this out. The mind, the human, what is it? It's the human consciousness that originates in the brain and is manifested, especially in thought, perception, emotion, will, memory, and imagination. I mean, that's us at our deepest level, and that's who we are when you're pulling back all the layers, that's us at the core. And so here in Ephesians 4, Paul is saying there's a problem, spiritually speaking there's a problem with our minds in the natural state. And when you think about it, these are the areas of our vulnerability, aren't they? I mean, when things go off the rails for the human race, it's usually in one of these areas. Thought, somebody gets a crazy thought of destruction that leads to horrific devastation and injury and death, somebody perceives things in a certain way, somebody throws their emotion behind something, they act on the basis of their will. I mean, these are the areas where we are most vulnerable. Now the humanist says that the problem with the human mind is lack of information. What the human mind needs is more information, education, that's the trick. Education will solve the problems, the dark side of the human mind. There are educations of a fantastic thing, but there's some that have been laden, studied engineering at university and business administration, he didn't finish, but he was good enough to get there. One of the Boston bombers was a medical student. I mean, that's arguing from the extreme, I know, but here's the point. If education alone could do it, education is a great thing. If education alone could do it, with the billions of dollars we spend on education in Australia, we would be as a nation. We would be much healthier emotionally and spiritually and morally if education alone could do it. The gospel says our minds need to be returned to the original maker, that's in a nutshell. For the original maker, we all need to participate if you like in a massive spiritual recall. Anybody ever have their vehicle subject to a massive recall where they take it back to the factory and kind of got to fix something up? Well, that's in a sense what we're all in need of, a massive spiritual recall at the level of our mind. In 1971, when I candidate for the ministry, when I said a definite yes, I will be a minister. God, I hear you, I'm going to do it, but yeah, my pride and joy was a 1967 Holden HR. Does anybody here have any idea what a HR Holden was like? No, not one. Well, maybe, well, Jeff, bless you, okay, and you're not that old. Yeah, I see that hand, fantastic. There aren't many guys, I'm speaking with the guys now, this was a gorgeous vehicle. It was turquoise, not your aqua, no, no, no, turquoise, okay. And turquoise seats and a wood rim steering wheel, huh, you with me? And chrome wheels, radial tires, and the real feature was inside, I'd made the lights glow red. In another life, and wasn't so much for the romantic influence, although it was pretty effective. More to conceal what clear us all couldn't. You try it, my smooth complexion under a red light. Now my dad said, Graham, how serious are you about training for the ministry? My dad was a leader in the church, he wasn't trying to talk me out of it, he was this little test. He said, how serious are you? I said, well, I'm really serious, I'm sure this is what God wants me to do. He said, how are you going to fund it? This was pre-government assistance for any learning institution outside of the recognised government universities and colleges. He said, how are you going to fund it? I said, well, if this is where I'll sell the HR, he said, what? I said, I'll sell the HR, if I have to, I'll get an old bomb. He said, would you do that? And I was so passionate, so zealous at that point, I said, look, I would dad, yeah. He said, okay, I see what we're going to do. You will always need a good car in the ministry. I will lend you the money to buy your first brand new car. And hopefully you'll be able to continue on in that pattern, get decent cars all the way through your ministry. Well, I bought a 1972 Holden Tarana. I'm going to tell you, I don't mind saying this public, it was a dog of a car. It was an absolute shocker. One of the many problems was when you put it into reverse eight times out of ten, the whole car would shake violently. And I would take it back to the dealership and they, oh, okay, mate, we'll give it to us for a couple of days. It was always, it would last a while. The point I'm making is I ended up going back to GMH in Dandenong. I lived in Melbourne at the time. And I spoke to a guy in a white suit, a white coat, you know, who took me into a special area and they replaced the drive shaft or something and clutch housing. I got a pretty much a fool sort of makeover to try to solve this car's problem. It went back to the manufacturer. It had a mind of its own. It had a mind that was in need of a recall. Guys, here's Paul, and he's word to these Ephesian Christians is, your minds must be made completely new. Back to the manufacturer, back to the one who created us. Now that's where the miracle of conversion comes in. As we invite Jesus Christ into our life, as Brendan has done, he's demonstrated that so powerfully in baptism, God through the Holy Spirit begins a work of renewal and transformation. I can't explain it. It doesn't make us perfect by a long shot. But something happens, and I've seen this over nearly 40 years of ministry, things that once kind of grab people and turn it by priorities change. People alter their orientation in life. In some extreme cases, it means almost overnight giving up the bottle or giving up drugs. I've seen this stuff that some of the rehabilitation clinics couldn't achieve. Not in every case, but in some cases, the changes are so dramatic. Here's the thing. Here's the point. The renewal of our minds is an ongoing process in which we become increasingly aware of certain very powerful influences in our lives. I should add, this is an ongoing process. It's a lifetime. It doesn't always happen overnight in the way that I've just described, and even those cases, there's usually lots of growing to do in other areas. This is one way of measuring the spiritual growth of somebody, the extent to which their minds are being renewed. It's one way of measuring spiritual growth. It's ongoing. It's for the whole of life. One of these powerful influences, I want to run you through just a handful of them as we move this message to a close. The first is this, the power of choice. That's the first really powerful influence in our lives, the power of choice. You and I make choices every day. Every day about what we will see, what we will hear, what we'll touch, what we'll experience, what we'll participate in. Peter, the apostle Peter, has a very graphic way of expressing a warning in this area. It's pretty full on. Listen to what he says in 1 Peter, chapter 5, verses 8 to 9. He says, "Be sober minded," that's a great word for many in a younger generation today in Australia. Be sober minded. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, what an image, seeking someone to devour. Then he says, "Resist him." It's that evil force that's trying to tempt you and get you to make wrong choices. Someone has said, "It's harder to rebuild than it is to resist." How easy is it for us to cave in, to cave into the pressures, to go along with the crowd in vital decisions to do with social and moral behavior? It can lead to a life in need of a pretty significant rebuild. It's easier to resist than it is to rebuild. Someone else has said, there's an old axiom, inevitably we will resemble those with whom we assemble. Inevitably we'll resemble those with whom we assemble. I guess in today's language, it's choose carefully. Choose carefully the people whom you hang out with. Now you'll hang out with a wide range of people and we must, if we're going to be lights in the world. But I'm talking about the people you allow to influence your life deeply. The people you allow to influence your thinking, your behavior, your attitudes, choose those people carefully. We will resemble, we will resemble the people with whom we assemble. We need that sort of Taylor Swift sensitivity. You've got to no trouble when it walks in. Oh yes. Look, I was up in Queensland recently and I was listening to a radio station and that's all they played the whole weekend. So I became, I actually like it, I like it. It's great. Try blah, blah, blah. I really like it. I might even download that. Might. Hey guys, here's another powerful influence we need to be aware of. The power of thought. The power of thought. There's a powerful verse in Proverbs 23, verse 7. As a person thinks, as a person thinks, so shall they be. What we think and how we think about ourselves will have a profound bearing on the rate of our spiritual growth. That's it. That's at the bottom line. Now I'm going to time to unpack this fully except to say this. There are four beliefs that I believe are essential for spiritual health and spiritual growth. There are four beliefs that are essential because the opposite to these beliefs will contribute to a stunted spiritual growth. It will contribute to inhibiting us and our progress in our relationship with God. The first belief is this, I am valued. God says, I am valuable. The opposite to that is, I'm nothing. I'm not worthy. I'm just not worthy of his love and I'm just, I'm down on myself and I am valuable. That's the first belief. I am forgiven. That's the second belief that we need for spiritual growth. Because the alternative to that is, I'm riddled with guilt. He couldn't possibly forgive me for what I've done there. And that season in my life and so a person who can't believe they are forgiven is riddled with guilt. I am capable. That's the third belief because the opposite to that is, what can I do? I see these people up the front here and they're so gifted and, gee, look at the lack of gifts God's given me. What can I do? What am I capable of? That's a downward, downward slippery slope in terms of spiritual growth. The fourth one is this and it really summarizes the others, I am loved. I am loved. The alternative to that is, God has mad at me. I know he is. Look at what's happening in my life. Look at the way things are going wrong. Sorry, God. Why are you doing this to me? And that is a sure sign of spiritual ill health. Get those four again. I am valued. I am forgiven. I am capable. I am loved. Here's a third powerful influence. The power of perspectives. And guys, here I'm talking about how we view, how we regard the things that happen to us and to others in life. Our theological perspective, if you like. And it's such a vital factor in spiritual growth. Dallas Willard, and this is in your study this week, he says, action always flows from belief. Action always flows from belief. And I take that to mean that our beliefs, our theological perspective, they'll determine our responses to various situations. Now, tonight I've only got time to talk about one and that's prayer, or more particularly unanswered prayer. How we deal with suffering? How we deal with things when they go wrong? And when God seems to be either unable or unwilling to act. If you get chipped up on that area, you're not going to grow spiritually, if that humanity even lasts in the church. I've seen so many people over the years give up on God, give up on the church, because prayers won't answer because things didn't work out as they would have liked. I mentioned to the morning congregation last week, and I wrote it in the church paper, if you read the cover ever, of the church paper. I wrote about this experience I had in Queensland when I went up for the big Easter service. Drove past the church in Ipswich, Queensland. And fortunately we were in traffic, I could sort of take it in. I wish I'd taken a picture, but not wanted to touch my phone while I'm driving, of course. I didn't do that. But the answer to this church, there was this chalkboard, right? And on the chalkboard were these words, I wish God would. I mean, there was chalk there, and you could write in what you wish God would do. And I saw a few of them. I wish God would make Grandma better. I wish God would help us win the footy this week. Yeah. I wish God would help you pass these exams. And I thought, no, no, no, this is not the theological message you want to give to people. God's not like some sort of Santa Claus, you're presenting with your big long list of things you want him to do. My mind immediately went to Micah, the prophet Micah, in chapter 6 verse 8 where the prophet says, "What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" Guys, the most important list in our relationship with Jesus Christ is not the list we give to him, it's the list he gives to us, it's to what he requires of us. That's maturity in the faith. That's accelerated spiritual growth. What does Jesus say in Matthew 6.33, seek first the kingdom of God, seek first the kingdom of God. And his righteousness and all these other things shall be yours as well. Not necessarily the things we want, but the things we need for the journey. And if we had time, we could really unpack that in terms of spiritual health and spiritual growth. You see, I believe God's not here to solve all our problems. I left that thinking many years ago. God's not here to solve our problems. He's here to provide us with the strength to get through and plot a Christ-centered course through our problems. How does that grab you? Don't pray for an easy life. Pray to be a strong person. That's been an axiom of mine for years. God's not here to solve all our problems. Praise God, he does work miracles. Every mature believer in this church can cite moments when God came through in a way that just defies description. But sometimes they're more the exception than the rule. For most of the time it's just trekking through the hard stuff of life, believing that he'll never leave us or forsake us. And this side of heaven, there aren't all that many easy and quick answers. That's been my experience. It's a perfect segue to the final powerful influence. And that's the power of surrender. And that's the real key to spiritual growth. That's the real key to the renewal of our minds. If you guys, it's not about us trying to be good. It's not about us trying to say and do the right thing all the time. If it was possible for us to do that, Jesus wouldn't have to die on the cross. No, it's about entering and maintaining a relationship with God, our Father, through Jesus Christ. It's about dying to self-daily, inviting God to work through us in bringing in his light, his love, his mercy, his justice. Back when I was a youth leader, there was a guy called Mike Yaconelli, unusual name, but he was the guru at the time in youth work. And it was pretty current right up until just recent times, actually. Look at a quote from him. I'm going to read this to you tonight. This is a quote from Mike Yaconelli many years ago. He said this, "Spirituality is not a formula. It is not a test. It is a relationship. Spirituality is not about competency. It's about intimacy. Spirituality is not about perfection. It's about connection. The way of the spiritual life begins where we are now in the mess of our lives, accepting the reality of our broken, flawed lives is the beginning of spirituality. If you get that, accepting the brokenness or the reality of our broken, flawed lives is the beginning of spirituality. Not because the spiritual life will remove our flaws, but because we let go of seeking perfection and instead we start seeking God really earnestly, the one who was present in the tangledness of our lives, the one who's right there while we grow up and struggle and try to be the best we can be for him." Wow. It sort of turns a lot of popular ideas about spirituality on their head. That's the power of surrender, and it's a daily decision. It's part of a process of spiritual growth which begins and ends with the renewal of our mind. The great spiritual cosmic recall, back to the maker, back to the creator. I'm going to let Paul have the last word because he talks about this renewal of mind a lot, and here's another very well-known passage from Paul in Romans. He says this, "Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind." Guys, that's at the bottom line what we're on about. It's not about being good, trying harder, it's about entering into a relationship. It's not about perfection, it's about connection.