CRCF””8/23/09
“Constant Conditioning”
Introduction””Rocky IV Training Montage Video
THAT is what a life of following Jesus is supposed to look like!
(A quick aside: your enemy, Satan, will continue to condition himself far more intensely than Rocky”™s opponent, Drago””so that he can be more effective in harming your witness for Jesus!)
“But, Chad, I thought ”˜God loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life”™? How can THAT be what He wants for me?”
*Our life as Christ-followers is one of constant conditioning to make us more like Jesus!
It IS a “wonderful” plan for our lives””it”™s just that GOD (not you and me with our selfish/self-serving perspectives) give definition to “wonderful”, specifically, “becoming more like Jesus”!
James 1:2-8 (The Message)
2-4Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.
5-8If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.
*Our life as Christ-followers is one of constant conditioning to make us more like Jesus!
HOW can we keep that perspective day by day?
There are 3 keys to living every day “in training” with Jesus:
1. You and I must realize GOD”™s goal for our lives. (4b)
“you will be strong in character and ready for anything” (NLT)
God is committed to make us more like Jesus!
“We must realize that God”™s purpose in redeeming us is not primarily to make us happy, or healthy, or free from trouble, but to make us holy, to make us like His Son” (Grace Grows Best in Winter, Margaret Clarkson, 66).
“The Undetected Sacredness of Circumstances”
“We know that all things work together for good to those who love God . . . Rom. 8:28. The circumstances of a saint”™s life are ordained of God. In the life of a saint there is no such thing as chance. God by His providence brings you into circumstances that you can”™t understand at all, but the Spirit of God understands. God brings you to places, among people, and into certain conditions to accomplish a definite purpose through the intercession of the Spirit in you. Never put yourself in front of your circumstances and say, ”˜I”™m going to be my own providence here; I will watch this closely, or protect myself from that.”™ All your circumstances are in the hand of God, and therefore you don”™t ever have to think that they are unnatural or unique.” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest).
Romans 8:29””“For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son . . . .” (NLT)
2 Corinthians 3:18””“And all of us have had that veil removed so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more.” (NLT)
If it”™s God”™s goal to make us more like Jesus, then we ought to consider what He was like.
What was the main focus of His heart?
In Matthew 16, beginning in verse 21, Jesus tells His disciples “plainly”, the text says, that he must suffer and be crucified and then raised again on the third day.
“But Peter took him aside and corrected him. ”˜Heaven forbid, Lord,”™ he said. ”˜This will never happen to you!”™. Jesus turned to Peter and said, ”˜Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, and not from God”™s.”™ Then Jesus said to the disciples, ”˜If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life. And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process? Is anything worth more than your soul?”
(Matthew 16:22-26)
Peter”™s focus was the same perspective that you and I struggle against every day””an ideal for our lives that is free of pain, full of happiness and prosperity and ease. We really think THAT is what life is all about””and we measure our days by that standard! Jesus says that such thinking is a “trap”! Jesus tells us that for His followers things are radically different!
Jesus says that, IF we”™re going to follow Him, life is about carrying a cross and following Him! And following Jesus means giving up our dreams of a life of ease and waking up every day to a life of “constant conditioning”, daily cross-bearing!
Jesus”™ Focus:
At perhaps His most trying moment, Jesus prayed, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine” (Matthew 26:39, NLT).
Jesus fully trusted His Father and obeyed Him no matter what! And THAT is the goal for every Christ-follower””to be more like Jesus by trusting and obeying God!
You and I must realize GOD”™s goal for our lives.
2. You and I must understand God”™s training program in our lives. (3-4a)
“You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way” (The Message)
“There are two ways to pass a hurdle: leaping over or plowing through… There needs to be a monster truck option.” – Jeph Jacques
But in God”™s training program, the key is enduring through the tests!
“So be truly glad! There is wonderful joy ahead, even though it is necessary for you to endure many trials for awhile. These trials are only to test your faith, to show that it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold””and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold. So if your faith remains strong after being tried by fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world” (1 Peter 1:6-7, NLT).
“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us””they help us learn to endure. And endurance develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation” (Romans 5:3-4, NLT).
John Newton: “Thus the Lord, by pain, sickness, and disappointments, by breaking our cisterns and withering our gourds, weakens our attachment to this world, and makes the thought of quitting it more familiar and more desirable” (Tabletalk, Nov. 2003, 33-34).
Kistemaker: “God stands behind every trial and test . . . The Christian ought to see the hand of God in all of life” (32-33).
You and I must learn to see trials as the next exercise in God”™s training program!
Is God”™s goal for your life worth the pain of the training program to you?
If you answered “yes”, here comes the final key to allowing God to get, and keep, you in tip-top condition.
3. You and I must embrace God”™s training as a gift. (2)
“Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides” (The Message)
We must keep God”™s goal in our lives in mind””that though the trials/tests will be unpleasant and endurance will be hard, in the end we will be more like Jesus, which is worth any cost!
“We must not only accept what suffering He may see fit to send into our lives, but actually seize upon it as a means of bringing about within us that conformity to His image in which, finally perfected, we shall serve and glorify Him throughout eternity” (Clarkson, 66).
Jesus said, “If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give it up for me, you will find it” (Matthew 10:38-39).
Is this ever a struggle for you? Is it hard to keep this perspective day by day?
Ask your Trainer for help!
“If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.”
(James 1:5-8, The Message)
“Wisdom is what’s left after we’ve run out of personal opinions.” – Cullen Hightower
“Ask God to help you to lay hold upon Him to work out the full meaning and purpose of His cross in your life, remembering that ”˜the weightiest end of the cross that is laid upon you lieth upon your strong Savior”™” (Clarkson, 68).
Romans 5:3-5””“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us””they help us learn to endure. And endurance develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation. And this expectation will not disappoint us. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has give us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love” (NLT).
“The plain truth is that our witness often is most powerful in the ”˜bad days”™” (Singer/Reccord, 42).
Kistemaker: “We cannot hasten perseverance. It needs time. Do not interfere with God”™s plan for your life” (34).
James 1:12””“God blesses the people who patiently endure testing. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.” (NLT)
You and I must embrace God”™s training as a gift.
Conclusion””“A bar of steel worth $5, when made into ordinary horseshoes, is then worth $10. If this same $5 bar is manufactured into needles, the value rises to over $350. And yet if it”™s made into delicate springs for expensive watches, it is worth more than $250,000. The same bar of steel is made more valuable by being cut to its proper size, passed through one blast furnace after another, again and again, hammered and manipulated, beaten and pounded, finished and polished until it”™s ready for those delicate tasks” (M.R. DeHaan, Swindoll, 585).
Trouble and trials in your life do NOT mean that you and I are out of line with God, or that God is withholding blessings from you. In fact, challenges and tests are a good sign that you are a Christ-follower and are right where God wants you””in training!
The key is to realize that and “get with the program” so that you and I can get the most out of each trial!
Samuel Rutherford: “His cross is the sweetest burden that I ever bare; it is such a burden as wings are to a bird, or sails are to a ship, to carry me forward to my harbour” (Clarkson, 65).
*Our life as Christ-followers is one of constant conditioning to make us more like Jesus!
James 1:12””“God blesses the people who patiently endure testing. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.”
Celebration of Lord”™s Supper
This table is a celebration of the forgiveness of our sins that comes to us through Jesus”™ body and blood given on the Cross, and through His resurrection from the dead. But it is also a celebration of the Cross-life that you and I are called to live””that life of constant conditioning where, through the crucifixion of our own wills, we grow to be more like the One who died for us!
Today as you come to the Table, embrace the Cross as your salvation and embrace the Cross as your path to real life!