Jesus told us that the most important commandments are to love God with our whole being (heart, soul, mind and strength), and to love other people as we would love ourselves – in other words, we would always try to do what is in the best interest of others. This is easily said, but often hard to implement in a meaningful and practical way. For one, there always seems to be something that (or perhaps someone who) would draw our first allegiance from God. Our physical and emotional needs and desires often trump loving God – as is demonstrated by our unwillingness to actually do His will. Second, we have an inherent selfish streak that does not want to serve or to help or to be kind, and instead looks for ways to make life more comfortable or enjoyable, regardless of how it will impact others – now or in the future. We can easily be more concerned with feeding our own egos or desires than humbling ourselves or doing without. So we can speak of life-transformation in Christ or sanctification – that process of becoming more and more like Jesus, who demonstrated what obedience to God’s will actually looks like – and at the same time be unwilling to say “no” to ourselves and “yes” to God. We may excuse ourselves by saying that we are incapable of doing God’s will, not realizing that we have not been given a spirit of fear, but a Spirit of power, love and self-control 2 Tim 1:7).
I often think it is this inner battle which makes my sermons so ineffective in helping people to change their lives. They may like the sermon and agree with the concepts in it, but be unwilling to put it into practice. When asked by Mikael, some of the youth from our church agreed with me that we allow way too much garbage into our minds through movies and the internet, but at the same time, they were unwilling to stop going to see movies that contain such garbage. Somehow there is a disconnect between faith and practice.
At a recent staff meeting we mulled over what would be most important for our church in 2011. We came up with concepts such as more body life, more small groups, more service opportunities and the development of a servant’s heart. But the more ideas we came up with, the more we realized that it didn’t matter what opportunities we presented to people, they were not going to respond if they were not passionate about God in the first place – if they did not have a vital relationship with God. They may nod their head in agreement that they should attend a care group or help a senior next door, but life will always get in the way unless a fundamental paradigm shift takes place. It is then that we came up with the idea that the most needful is for everyone to grow deep with God.
Those who have grown spiritually deep with God will naturally have a paradigm shift take place in their minds and hearts. Serving others will trump the constant self-serving focus of our time. There will be an inner conviction and compulsion to use our gifts and talents to do good.
Subsequently, Sharon came up with a covenant that we have introduced at the board level and will introduce at the staff level. It is a renewable three-month covenant to grow deep with God through a regular and timed devotional time every day and add one other spiritual practice to grow deeper with God, whether worshipping him while driving, meditating on a passage of Scripture, spending time in prayer during the day, etc.
This covenant is between us and God. We fill in the details and then sign and date it. I am looking at mine as I’m typing this (I stuck it to my pen holder so I cannot miss it). The board members and pastors also chose accountability partners who we report to as to our progress (or lack thereof). As the leadership commits to this basic spiritual discipline to connect with God in a significant way on a daily basis, the hope is that we will become more passionate about God and therefore that we would experience greater life-transformation.
In February, this is something I would like to challenge all of you to join in. It is time that all of us walked the walk and not just talked the talk. If you are serious about becoming Christ-like, I would encourage you to prayerfully consider what you will commit yourself to when challenged to do so.
If we become a people who are growing deep with God, we will become a people who are going to realign our priorities with God’s and, as a result, produce fruit and move spiritual mountains. I’m fully committed to allow God’s Spirit to do this work in me. What about you?
