The Outward Disciplines: Simplicity, Solitude, Submission and Service
Can others tell that you follow Christ by your lifestyle? Are people astonished to find out that you follow Christ? Does it come as a surprise to them, saying, “I can’t believe he’s a Christian! I would have never guessed!” Well, more times than not, that means that you’re not living the lifestyle that a Christian should be living. I heard a man once say, “I didn’t know Christians were allowed to cuss like that?!” Well, that will certainly put things in perspective now won’t it!
Like we talked about last week, the Inward Disciplines are geared to build a personal relationship with Christ, the Outward Disciplines are not only geared to this, but to actually realizing the freedom that we indeed have in Christ. Freedom not in that we can sin to beat the band and still be covered by Christ’s blood, but freedom in that we can realize that there is more out there than us. There’s more to life than just the accumulation of wealth, stuff, and all the things that the world tells us is important. If we are practicing the Outward Disciplines, people will be able to tell that we are Christians. Our main goal in practicing these should not be to show everyone we are Christians, no, that is the wrong motive. But if we are doing them for the right reasons…to listen for the voice of God, then the outward result is a lifestyle lived for Christ. This week, we will be looking at the Outward Disciplines of Simplicity, Solitude, Submission and Service. Let’s read the Scripture for the day, it will be Matthew 6:25-34. Right smack dab in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, we’ll look at worry. Within the context of this passage, there is a much deeper meaning than not worrying. It is having the faith and trust in God to be taken care of. If you would, read along with me.
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Footnotes:
a.Matthew 6:27 Or single cubit to your height
Simplicity. What do you think of when I say that word? A hermit? Someone who is richer than rich living in an old broken down house, driving a broken down car and is frugal to the end? In today’s world, we are consumed by the need to have the current fashions, new cars, lust for status and position, buying things for the show rather than the need. We are absolutely consumed by the things we do not have or perhaps the things that others do have and we want. This is not leading a life filled with the discipline of Simplicity. Simplicity is nothing more than setting ‘things’ in their proper place in relation to our God. Have you ever heard the saying ‘first things first’? It’s something my parents always told me. I had, and still have sometimes, some difficulty getting the cart ahead of the horse. We have to slow down sometimes in order to do things in the correct order. We surely can’t go harvest the corn if we haven’t even planted it yet. That would be absurd! So the question then becomes why do we seek material things ahead of God? We know someday our life will come to an end and we won’t take what we have with us. We’ll only have God…and our reward for the work we’ve done while here. So, why do we pursue ‘things’ first and not the Kingdom of God? The Scripture for this morning speaks volumes to the Disciplines we’re talking about this morning. Above all else, we should be seeking the Kingdom of God first, then everything else will fall into place. The Kingdom of God isn’t just referring to Heaven. The Kingdom of God refers to seeking God’s will and pursuing things that will advance his purpose. Theologically, we could split hairs on saying whether or not the Kingdom is yet to come or is here now, but the fact of the matter is, we should be pursuing God before our own motives.
Have you ever thought about who pays your paycheck? It is not your boss or the company you work for. It isn’t the company you sell your seeds to either. It is the sheer grace of God. When I was first hired by Holiday Inn up in Peoria, my main cook, the guy I relied on a lot ended up working for me only because of what happened at his last job. He worked for a small restaurant/bar up in Peoria area. It was a good job, he worked some crazy hours because it was a restaurant/bar, but it brought a good paycheck at the end of the week. Well, one week, that paycheck came and when he put it in the bank, it bounced like a rubber ball off a cement patio. He went into work that evening and the owner apologized repeatedly and promised to get him the money. Well, another week went by and still no money. It was payday again and he got a double paycheck…both weeks were in the check. But once again, it bounced. He went into work that evening again and found that all the furniture had been removed and a permanent closed sign affixed to the door. He said that he never took his paycheck for granted again.
My friends, the only reason we have anything is because of the Grace of God. What are you doing with the resources you have? Here are some ways you can ‘simplify’ your lifestyle. Instead of buying things for status, buy them for their usefulness. Reject things that produce an addiction…TV, movies, game systems, newspapers, coffee, cigarettes, alcohol, cars. Develop a habit that when you are done using things, give them away, donate them. Don’t fall for modern advertising schemes saying you have to have the latest and greatest version of…(insert your favorite gadget here.) Richard Foster gives many more examples in his book, but these are a few to get us started. Simplifying our lives can bring us so much peace.
Solitude is next…or as I prefer to call it, “stopping to smell the flowers.” Please do not get solitude and being lonely confused. Loneliness is better defined as inner emptiness. Solitude is inner fulfillment. Practicing solitude on the inside will have outward effects on your life. Loneliness is being alone longing to be with someone else…being afraid of being alone. In solitude, we seek to be alone to hear God speaking better, not to get away from people. Jesus regularly sought solitude…especially before and after major ministry events. Being with others and being alone both work congruently. If we want to be effective in fellowship, then we need solitude. If we want to be successful in solitude, we need fellowship. During solitude, silence is a must. Silence can be the absence of speech, but it always includes listening; listening for the voice of God. Now, this does not mean that other people cannot be the voice of God. God can speak to us through someone else. Solitude can be practiced even in the midst of people. It’s when we are so focused on ourselves is when we lose the center of the solitude and silence. We must learn to tame our tongues. Our tongue can be a WMD…Weapon of Mass Destruction…OR it can be used as a tool for God. The choice is simply ours. We have to learn when to talk and when to be silent as guided by the Holy Spirit. Solitude is taking time to be silent and listen for the voice of God.
Submission is next and in my personal opinion only, I think this is one of the areas we struggle most with as humans. Submission is HARD…extremely hard as a matter of fact. But, it is not about a hierarchical relationship…from leader to servant, no. It is about how we view the other person and subordinate to them mutually. I want to read a portion of Foster’s book, about a paragraph or two. Before I read this however, I want to offer a warning that this portion of his book nailed me between the eyes. It hit home with me and made me see things in a different light. I pray it does for you too.
“The obsession to demand that things go the way we want them to go is one of the greatest bondages in human society today. People will spend weeks, months, even years in a perpetual stew because some little thing did not go as they wished. They will fuss and fume. They will get mad about it. They will act as if their very life hangs on the issue. They may even get an ulcer over it.” (Skipping down a bit…) “If you will watch these things, you will see, for example, that almost all church fights and splits…” (and I am adding marital fights and divorce here too) “…occur because people do not have the freedom to give in to each other. We insist that a critical issue is at stake; we are fighting for a sacred principle. Perhaps this is the case. Usually it is not. Often we cannot stand to give in simply because it means that we will not get our own way. Only in submission are we enabled to bring this spirit to a place where it no longer controls us. Only submission can free us sufficiently to enable us to distinguish between genuine issues and stubborn self-will. If we could only come to see that most things in life are not major issues, then we could hold them lightly.”
These paragraphs were wrote back in 1978 by Richard Foster. 1978! Since then, more churches have split and the divorce rate has skyrocketed. Apparently we humans still have issues with submission. The reason this hit me was because we’ve been in churches all over the place that struggle with fighting, division and splits. It isn’t just this church, the church down the road or even the church we attended down in St. Louis, it is EVERY CHURCH. There is not one single church that is exempt from conflict and split. When we attended church in St. Louis, we almost left because of the conflict there. But, then we realized that there is no perfect church and that we’d deal with it somewhere else as well. Submission isn’t just about giving in to the other part either…it is about mutually engaging in this activity. In order to submit effectively, we have to deny the self. As humans, we want to gratify the self more than other people, so in order to submit, we have to deny ourselves the gratification of pleasing the ‘me’. Self-denial is simply giving up our right to retaliation and getting our own way. However, we can go too far and submit ourselves to things that are wrong too. This is where we need the Holy Spirit’s guide to help us determine what is biblical and God’s will, and what is not. When the lines are blurry, we need to depend on the Holy Spirit for guidance. We all know that if we were to submit to a government that banned Christianity, that is obviously wrong. However, what about our media who professes that we should be ‘politically correct”? It is not an obvious black or white area. That is where we need to rely on God.
Service is nothing more than the outward expression of submission. True service focuses on God. Self-righteous service seeks personal gain or alternate motives…such as that “look at what I did, I need a pat on the back” type stuff. Service is a way of life. Sometimes, we also need to let others serve us. Otherwise, we could be robbing them of their service too. Stubborn pride, as we talked about in submission can prevent us from allowing others the opportunity to serve God. However, taking advantage of the situation is not acceptable either. Once again, dependence on God is vital. There are many acts of service that can be taken part of…listening to someone when they have an issue. Maybe we won’t have the answer, but they need someone to listen. Being there for someone, we can offer our hospitality to someone, bear their burdens with them or even sharing the Gospel with them. Service can take place anytime, anywhere and involve almost anything. Attitude and willingness is what matters.
So what have you learned today? Have you picked anything up to take with you? Well, to help with that, let me give you the Big Idea for today. It isn’t a statement, just a question. I want you to take this question with you this week and answer it. Can others tell you follow Christ by your lifestyle? That’s it. Your lifestyle is a direct result of the condition of your heart. If it is truly focused on God, your lifestyle will reflect that. Now, nobody is perfect, but we are all a work in progress. We will not be truly sanctified until we reach Heaven.
Does your lifestyle need changing today? Is today the day to commit your life to Christ fully? Maybe you need to recommit. Today, I want to urge you to take the opportunity to come forward as we sing a hymn of invitation.
Like we talked about last week, the Inward Disciplines are geared to build a personal relationship with Christ, the Outward Disciplines are not only geared to this, but to actually realizing the freedom that we indeed have in Christ. Freedom not in that we can sin to beat the band and still be covered by Christ’s blood, but freedom in that we can realize that there is more out there than us. There’s more to life than just the accumulation of wealth, stuff, and all the things that the world tells us is important. If we are practicing the Outward Disciplines, people will be able to tell that we are Christians. Our main goal in practicing these should not be to show everyone we are Christians, no, that is the wrong motive. But if we are doing them for the right reasons…to listen for the voice of God, then the outward result is a lifestyle lived for Christ. This week, we will be looking at the Outward Disciplines of Simplicity, Solitude, Submission and Service. Let’s read the Scripture for the day, it will be Matthew 6:25-34. Right smack dab in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, we’ll look at worry. Within the context of this passage, there is a much deeper meaning than not worrying. It is having the faith and trust in God to be taken care of. If you would, read along with me.
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Footnotes:
a.Matthew 6:27 Or single cubit to your height
Simplicity. What do you think of when I say that word? A hermit? Someone who is richer than rich living in an old broken down house, driving a broken down car and is frugal to the end? In today’s world, we are consumed by the need to have the current fashions, new cars, lust for status and position, buying things for the show rather than the need. We are absolutely consumed by the things we do not have or perhaps the things that others do have and we want. This is not leading a life filled with the discipline of Simplicity. Simplicity is nothing more than setting ‘things’ in their proper place in relation to our God. Have you ever heard the saying ‘first things first’? It’s something my parents always told me. I had, and still have sometimes, some difficulty getting the cart ahead of the horse. We have to slow down sometimes in order to do things in the correct order. We surely can’t go harvest the corn if we haven’t even planted it yet. That would be absurd! So the question then becomes why do we seek material things ahead of God? We know someday our life will come to an end and we won’t take what we have with us. We’ll only have God…and our reward for the work we’ve done while here. So, why do we pursue ‘things’ first and not the Kingdom of God? The Scripture for this morning speaks volumes to the Disciplines we’re talking about this morning. Above all else, we should be seeking the Kingdom of God first, then everything else will fall into place. The Kingdom of God isn’t just referring to Heaven. The Kingdom of God refers to seeking God’s will and pursuing things that will advance his purpose. Theologically, we could split hairs on saying whether or not the Kingdom is yet to come or is here now, but the fact of the matter is, we should be pursuing God before our own motives.
Have you ever thought about who pays your paycheck? It is not your boss or the company you work for. It isn’t the company you sell your seeds to either. It is the sheer grace of God. When I was first hired by Holiday Inn up in Peoria, my main cook, the guy I relied on a lot ended up working for me only because of what happened at his last job. He worked for a small restaurant/bar up in Peoria area. It was a good job, he worked some crazy hours because it was a restaurant/bar, but it brought a good paycheck at the end of the week. Well, one week, that paycheck came and when he put it in the bank, it bounced like a rubber ball off a cement patio. He went into work that evening and the owner apologized repeatedly and promised to get him the money. Well, another week went by and still no money. It was payday again and he got a double paycheck…both weeks were in the check. But once again, it bounced. He went into work that evening again and found that all the furniture had been removed and a permanent closed sign affixed to the door. He said that he never took his paycheck for granted again.
My friends, the only reason we have anything is because of the Grace of God. What are you doing with the resources you have? Here are some ways you can ‘simplify’ your lifestyle. Instead of buying things for status, buy them for their usefulness. Reject things that produce an addiction…TV, movies, game systems, newspapers, coffee, cigarettes, alcohol, cars. Develop a habit that when you are done using things, give them away, donate them. Don’t fall for modern advertising schemes saying you have to have the latest and greatest version of…(insert your favorite gadget here.) Richard Foster gives many more examples in his book, but these are a few to get us started. Simplifying our lives can bring us so much peace.
Solitude is next…or as I prefer to call it, “stopping to smell the flowers.” Please do not get solitude and being lonely confused. Loneliness is better defined as inner emptiness. Solitude is inner fulfillment. Practicing solitude on the inside will have outward effects on your life. Loneliness is being alone longing to be with someone else…being afraid of being alone. In solitude, we seek to be alone to hear God speaking better, not to get away from people. Jesus regularly sought solitude…especially before and after major ministry events. Being with others and being alone both work congruently. If we want to be effective in fellowship, then we need solitude. If we want to be successful in solitude, we need fellowship. During solitude, silence is a must. Silence can be the absence of speech, but it always includes listening; listening for the voice of God. Now, this does not mean that other people cannot be the voice of God. God can speak to us through someone else. Solitude can be practiced even in the midst of people. It’s when we are so focused on ourselves is when we lose the center of the solitude and silence. We must learn to tame our tongues. Our tongue can be a WMD…Weapon of Mass Destruction…OR it can be used as a tool for God. The choice is simply ours. We have to learn when to talk and when to be silent as guided by the Holy Spirit. Solitude is taking time to be silent and listen for the voice of God.
Submission is next and in my personal opinion only, I think this is one of the areas we struggle most with as humans. Submission is HARD…extremely hard as a matter of fact. But, it is not about a hierarchical relationship…from leader to servant, no. It is about how we view the other person and subordinate to them mutually. I want to read a portion of Foster’s book, about a paragraph or two. Before I read this however, I want to offer a warning that this portion of his book nailed me between the eyes. It hit home with me and made me see things in a different light. I pray it does for you too.
“The obsession to demand that things go the way we want them to go is one of the greatest bondages in human society today. People will spend weeks, months, even years in a perpetual stew because some little thing did not go as they wished. They will fuss and fume. They will get mad about it. They will act as if their very life hangs on the issue. They may even get an ulcer over it.” (Skipping down a bit…) “If you will watch these things, you will see, for example, that almost all church fights and splits…” (and I am adding marital fights and divorce here too) “…occur because people do not have the freedom to give in to each other. We insist that a critical issue is at stake; we are fighting for a sacred principle. Perhaps this is the case. Usually it is not. Often we cannot stand to give in simply because it means that we will not get our own way. Only in submission are we enabled to bring this spirit to a place where it no longer controls us. Only submission can free us sufficiently to enable us to distinguish between genuine issues and stubborn self-will. If we could only come to see that most things in life are not major issues, then we could hold them lightly.”
These paragraphs were wrote back in 1978 by Richard Foster. 1978! Since then, more churches have split and the divorce rate has skyrocketed. Apparently we humans still have issues with submission. The reason this hit me was because we’ve been in churches all over the place that struggle with fighting, division and splits. It isn’t just this church, the church down the road or even the church we attended down in St. Louis, it is EVERY CHURCH. There is not one single church that is exempt from conflict and split. When we attended church in St. Louis, we almost left because of the conflict there. But, then we realized that there is no perfect church and that we’d deal with it somewhere else as well. Submission isn’t just about giving in to the other part either…it is about mutually engaging in this activity. In order to submit effectively, we have to deny the self. As humans, we want to gratify the self more than other people, so in order to submit, we have to deny ourselves the gratification of pleasing the ‘me’. Self-denial is simply giving up our right to retaliation and getting our own way. However, we can go too far and submit ourselves to things that are wrong too. This is where we need the Holy Spirit’s guide to help us determine what is biblical and God’s will, and what is not. When the lines are blurry, we need to depend on the Holy Spirit for guidance. We all know that if we were to submit to a government that banned Christianity, that is obviously wrong. However, what about our media who professes that we should be ‘politically correct”? It is not an obvious black or white area. That is where we need to rely on God.
Service is nothing more than the outward expression of submission. True service focuses on God. Self-righteous service seeks personal gain or alternate motives…such as that “look at what I did, I need a pat on the back” type stuff. Service is a way of life. Sometimes, we also need to let others serve us. Otherwise, we could be robbing them of their service too. Stubborn pride, as we talked about in submission can prevent us from allowing others the opportunity to serve God. However, taking advantage of the situation is not acceptable either. Once again, dependence on God is vital. There are many acts of service that can be taken part of…listening to someone when they have an issue. Maybe we won’t have the answer, but they need someone to listen. Being there for someone, we can offer our hospitality to someone, bear their burdens with them or even sharing the Gospel with them. Service can take place anytime, anywhere and involve almost anything. Attitude and willingness is what matters.
So what have you learned today? Have you picked anything up to take with you? Well, to help with that, let me give you the Big Idea for today. It isn’t a statement, just a question. I want you to take this question with you this week and answer it. Can others tell you follow Christ by your lifestyle? That’s it. Your lifestyle is a direct result of the condition of your heart. If it is truly focused on God, your lifestyle will reflect that. Now, nobody is perfect, but we are all a work in progress. We will not be truly sanctified until we reach Heaven.
Does your lifestyle need changing today? Is today the day to commit your life to Christ fully? Maybe you need to recommit. Today, I want to urge you to take the opportunity to come forward as we sing a hymn of invitation.
Food for thought. Submiting to ones family. Convicted to continue to show Christ likeness.
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