Live Simply, Part 2

Found some funny military jokes in honor of memorial day:

An Air Force cargo plane was preparing for departure from Thule Air Base in Greenland. They were waiting for the truck to arrive to pump out the aircraft's sewage holding tank. The Aircraft Commander was in a hurry, the truck was late in arriving, and the Airman performing the job was extremely slow in getting the tank pumped out. When the commander berated the Airman for his slowness and promised punishment, the Airman responded: "Sir, I have no stripes, it is 20 below zero, I'm stationed in Greenland, and I am pumping sewage out of airplanes. Just what are you going to do to punish me?"

the Officer said: Soldier, do you have change for a dollar? Soldier replied: Sure, buddy. Officer: That's no way to address an officer! Now let's try it again. Do you have change for a dollar? Soldier: No, SIR!

The Company Commander and the First Sergeant were in the field. As they hit the sack for the night, the First Sergeant said, "Sir, look up into the sky and tell me what you see?" The CO said, "I see millions of stars." 1st Sgt.: "And what does that tell you, sir?" CO: "Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Theologically, it tells me that God is great and that we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, it tells me that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. What does it tell you, Top?" 1st Sgt.: "Well sir, it tells me that somebody stole our tent."

Pardon me...ONE MORE
During training exercises, the lieutenant who was driving down a muddy back road encountered another car stuck in the mud with a red-faced colonel at the wheel. "Your jeep stuck, sir?" asked the lieutenant as he pulled alongside. "Nope," replied the colonel, coming over and handing him the keys, "Yours is."

Today we continue a sermon series entitled:
Live Simply Love Generously Care Deeply Speak Kindly Leave the rest to God…
If you missed last week’s focus on Living Simply I encourage you to visit my blog or sign up for the CD
This morning I want to focus AGAIN on LIVING SIMPLY
I don’t think one week for each focus is enough

Donald Whitney said…
When You start simplifying your spiritual life, it’s easy to fall prey to some misconceptions…

Misconception #1 – Simplifying the spiritual life eliminates the need for spiritual discipline.
The Bible is clear that our purpose is Christlikeness, and discipline is the God-given means to it.
The apostle Paul said…Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness…1 Timothy 4:7

Misconception #2 – Simplifying the spiritual life will simplify the rest of life.
The spiritual life is the eternal and most important part of all of life, but it is not the only part. Work, finance, family schedule, ect. can all become intensely complicated, YET any transformation in your spiritual life will most certainly affect everything else we do…

Misconception #3 – Simplifying the spiritual life is a one-time event.
Even if you experienced a supernatural simplifying of the Spirit in the most dramatic and spectacular way creating smooth sailing in your spirituality…we all inevitably attract old and new complexities of life almost daily…The fresh, clean space that simplifying creates in our spiritual life will not stay that way without an ongoing process.
My goodness, that applies to any and everything
Please be patient with me God’s not through with me yet
all of life is a process

Misconception #4 – Simplifying the spiritual life is to minimize the spiritual life.
This is what we talked about last week
Simplifying is not just doing fewer things
and definitely not cutting back on the time devoted to spiritual things
It’s doing the right things with the right motives
It’s giving your relationship with Jesus a kickstart of focus and priority
I have never met a person who needs to spend less time devoted to things of the soul and more time devoted to temporal matters
The question to address is not how to spend less time devoted exclusively to spiritual pursuits, but how to spend that time better…

For instance…If you go to bed late Saturday eve
You will probably get less out of church Sunday morning while you sleep through service…
Mabye part of the reason people do not give priority to church and complain about it’s impact…is that they come to church expecting the pastor to do all the work…
They aren’t prayed up, or choosing to worship in spirit and truth with all the heart and for real, if going to church is just going through the motions, than ofcourse you won’t get much out of it…
Living Simply helps you slow down enough to actually apply what you learned in church or in your daily reading of scripture and suddenly transformation is possible…

Ok here goes the mean preacher again
One of the things in all of our lives that is complicating our souls and making it almost impossible to live simply is the TELEVISION

Television is the most powerful cultural influence on the planet, but it does little to promote simplicity or biblical spirituality. I know I know some of you TBNers will disagree on that one, but stick with me…TV dulls the sensitivity of the soul like spiritual anesthesia!

For instance, almost any show you see will laugh at something God says is good or normalize something God calls sin…

Isaiah 5:20…Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter…

TV frequently contradicts God, almost as directly as the serpent in the Garden of Eden. It saturates the mind of the viewer with the world’s way of thinking. Television displays a rapid succession of pictures that we passively observe (in contrast to forming mental pictures ourselves, as when reading), which causes the imagination to atrophy with inactivity. And this makes the concentration and meditation on Scripture more difficult. On top of everything else, watching TV simply takes time, time that we don’t have for spiritual disciplines.

LISTEN PEOPLE OF GOD IN ORDER TO LIVE SIMPLY ONE MUST TURN THE TV OFF

Beyond its impact on our spirituality, TV is no friend of anyone trying to simplify. In fact, TV’s very existence depends upon an incessant parade of advertising intended to make us feel discontented with our experiences, possessions, relationships, and appearance. In the words of writer Wendell Berry, TV persuades us to believe “that all worth experiencing is somewhere else and that all worth having must be bought.”

I cannot pronounce God’s complete will for you regarding TV. But as you seek Him on what is good for your soul in this matter, remember James 4:17…Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin…
Television may not have the power to kill the Christian soul, but it anesthetizes it by the hour.
WAKE UP

CONTENTMENT is the greatest simplifier. It helps focus body and soul on the proper priorities. It calms the restless desire for more. It satisfies the heart with the present provision of God. CONTENTMENT deflates pride, drains the drive of selfish ambition, and relaxes the grip of anxiety. It decreases our dependence upon things and circumstances, and increases a restful dependence upon Christ.

The aposle Paul spoke often of developing contentment, he said…I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all through Christ who strengthens me…Philippians 4:11-13

Notice that Paul speaks of contentment as something to be learned. One way that we can learn contentment is to recognize the true value of things.
To do this, we can learn when we are “full” and we “abound” in material things why the abundance of them cannot content us…Unlike our souls, touchable things will not last.
God never designed tangible and temporal things to satisfy…Material things cannot make us right with God, nor provide any benefit extending into eternity!
How can we find contentment in things so temporary and inconsequential?
Living Simply demands a true understanding of what really matters…

Most Americans are at this full and abounding stage, but on the opposite extreme, recognizing the true value of things also teaches contentment when, like Paul, we “hungry” and “suffer need.”
This is no superficial, untested contentment Paul experienced.
His suffering and needs were real and prolonged, yet he was genuinely content.
Many of us in this room know suffering but do we know contentment in suffering?
Please don’t confuse such contentment with apathy or laziness…
What Paul models and advocates is a circumstance-conquering contentment that does not depend on how much there is to eat, spend, wear, count, collect, or touch!

This LIVING SIMPLY commitment will be challenged if you decide to take the plunge…
For instance will you be content with a simple lifestyle?
Or will you choose to keep a simple lifestyle even if circumstances were such that you could have much more?
Do you know what I’m saying?
Some people have no problem living simply if that’s all they can afford?
But, if you were presented with more?
Can God trust you to share?

When a person can be content “everywhere and in all things,” whether full or hungry, abounding or suffering need, he know a source of contentment beyond anything the world can provide or understand.
True contentment in all places and circumstances is found only, as Paul put it, “through Christ who strengthens me.”
Only Jesus could have given Paul the contentment to sing at midnight in a filthy, rat-infested prison, with his feet in stocks and his back mercilessly and illegally bloodied…
CHECK OUT ACTS 16 if you aren’t familiar with the story of Paul and Silas imprisoned…

Christ, and Christ alone, can strengthen our souls to be content in any and all situations. But this contentment doesn’t come unawares. We must be willing to learn it, and to learn it through Christ.
Where do you think He wants to begin your education in contentment?
He has revealed this week several areas in my heart that are learning to be content!
Holly looked at me the other day and said…You sure want a lot don’t you…I realized she was right, I need to be more content with whatever God has blessed me with…
The LORD gives and the LORD takes away BLESSED Be the name of the LORD!

Let me reiterate Living Simply is not living without discipline!
Remember 1Timothy 4:7 Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness…
In obedience to this command, every Christian should pursue intimacy with Christ and the imitation of Christ through the practice of the personal and congregational spiritual disciplines found in Scripture. What we should oppose is measuring this pursuit by rules that aren’t in the Bible!
Discipline yourself…without legalism

While the Scripture commands us to engage in the spiritual disciplines, we don’t want to pursue them legalistically.
Legalism is the improper emphasis on works in our relationship to God.
It focuses on the manifestations of spirituality that can be measured by number, frequency, duration, amount and so forth…
No one has the authority to force upon themselves or anyone else external measurements of spirituality, especially if they haven no scriptural basis…
And one must be careful when sharing the word with others, it does no good to jam it down someone’s throat…
While we are here, let me issue an important warning!
I have heard story after story of well-intentioned saints…maybe some not so well-meaning…who have wrought disaster on others with their “words from the Lord”
Especially in Pentecostal circles, we sometimes say “thus saith the Lord” and then find out later HE didn’t thus saith anything…
OR we let legalism in the door trying to make certain spiritual ecstasies happen instead of letting the Spirit do it
OR maybe unintentionally making other saints feel “less than” if they haven’t experienced the same outward expressions of faith that we have…
anybody know what I’m talking about!

And yet there is the opposite of legalism, namely license, that is, living as though freedom in Christ means there are no measurable standards of spirituality. License leads a person to presume he can be faithful to the Lord’s word even if he never reads the Bible again…

The disciplined Christian life should be lived between these two errors…
That sound complicated, walking such a line, but really it’s the only way to live simply…
Listen, because of the grace of God experience through Christ Jesus, Believers are free from keeping manmade rules as a way of keeping the love of God.

Galatians 5:1…Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage…

Let’s close with something very practical
Clutter and disorganization is the greatest enemy to living simply!
What if we made a commitment to REMOVE ONE THING from our homes or offices each day and to ORGANIZE ONE THING each day!
Mabye you should even write REMOVE ONE THING and ORGANIZE ONE THING on your to do list or calendar…
Actually, getting practical if you do not keep a calendar or to do list you will never live simply!
Some people actually think that if they don’t keep a calendar that means their life is simple, but the opposite is true!
If you don’t try to manage your schedule, your schedule will manage you!

Mabye the thought of removing one thing and organizing one thing seems overwhelming or impractical because your space is horribly cluttered.
But that’s how you begin, One thing at a time
One day at a time
Listen, maybe you’re not a neat freak, with everything in it’s place and you don’t have to be…
BUT I believe a cluttered home or office reveals a cluttered heart!
That’s a pretty strong statement, I know
My life becomes pretty cluttered sometimes and when you have a big family it’s hard to keep things in order, I know we all have our own idea of what organized is or our own systems…
I remember a high school teacher whos office was impossible to even walk thru, Yet he knew where everything was, and was a rather intelligent individual…
So don’t misunderstand me
Mabye the right way to say it would be SOMETIMES a cluttered environment reveals a cluttered heart!