“Training for the Storms”

Romans 12:1-8

Sunday, October 1, 2006

Introduction: Aristotle once said: “You are what you regularly practice.” Now for some of us that might be good news, for others not so good. Because if we practice good things, then we will bring good into our lives. But if we practice things that are not so good for us, we will bring bad things into our lives. But even more than this, we will respond to any storm the way we are trained. For example, you might remember back when you were in elementary school, every so often there would be fire drills. The bell would go off and the class was supposed to line up in an organized manner and walk together out to the play-ground. This was just a drill, not the real thing. But it was to prepare us to be ready just in case there was a real fire. The school believed that if we practiced the fire drill somewhat regularly, we would be ready to act appropriately should there ever really be a fire.

I. Knowing the Mission of our Lives-

a. The Mission- Do you know what the mission of your life is? This is an

important question, because if you do not know the mission of your life, then you will seek after many things, and you will allow yourself to stray this way and that. You will lack direction, focus, and expend your energy in wasteful ways. Beyond this, you will be easily moved or even scared away from the direction you are going if you don’t have a clear sense of what you are supposed to be doing.

Illus. At the “Human Performance Institute” they do training for all

kinds of people; business people, sports teams, FBI, etc… There is a

true story of the Institute doing a training for a football team to deal

with the storms of life. Here they had running backs, and linebackers,

and other large, strong men. They were given these instructions: “Your

goal is to get from this building to the fence on the other side. Stay on

the path, because off the path there are wild boars, alligators, and other

wild animals. Remember, the goal is to get to the fence.” So with these

instructions they were sent off. The truth is, there were no wild animals,

just people making noises from the bushes. The football players were

running down the path scared at the noises, looking back and forth. At

one point not only did they hear a noise, but the rustling of a bush, which

caused them to turn around and run back to the start!!

Now the institute did this same test with FBI agents, but this time when they heard the rustling of the bush, they didn’t turn around and run, they got into a crouched position and prepared their guns to fire!! What was the difference? The FBI agents were trained to deal with the storms of possible danger.

b. Preparing ourselves- In our lives there will always be storms. But the

wild boars and the noises from the bushes are usually not real. They are the imagined problems that we think will rise up. And because we are not prepared, they can keep us from completing our mission. The truth is, we need to put high positive energy into our mission so that even if storms arise, we are strong enough to deal with them and work through them.

To really prepare ourselves for life, and for the mission God calls us to, we need to be able to renew and recapture our energy. Wouldn’t this be helpful if you could renew and recapture your energy? Because one of the great deterrents in life, is having a lack of energy to live our life. We need to understand that “life is not a marathon, but a series of sprints.” When you do a marathon, you have to run over 26 miles straight. You don’t have time to rest. But when you are doing a sprint, you run a short distance, and then you rest before you have to run again.

II. Living the Mission of our Lives- (Romans 12:1-2)

a. Spiritual sacrifice- Romans 12:1-2 tells us: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers,

in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” / The world gives us the example of always running around and keeping busy. We have moved to the point that we are so busy, we don’t even have time for ourselves. This is the pattern that we see around us. But the Bible tells us to transform ourselves by giving our bodies to God. This giving ourselves to God is our spiritual sacrifice to God. We are in essence saying: “God, this body you gave me is yours. I know that with it I need to please you.”/ So, are you pleasing God with what you do and how you live? Are you caring for your total self?

b. Our energy- Energy is finite in a human body. So we can’t just go all out all

the time. On top of this, we have to be caring for our total self; physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Our energy is connected to all four of these dimensions. So we must balance the expenditure or investment of our energy with the energy recovery. To say it another way, when we have energy go out of us, we must find time to bring energy back into us. So let’s take a moment to understand each of these dimensions.

1. Physical. The first is the physical. The physical is the most obvious

because we are so aware of whether or not we have physical energy. There are many things that go into keeping our physical body well and energized; sleep/rest, exercise, diet, and not over extending ourselves.

2. Emotional. The second dimension is emotional. Our emotions can

be up and down, positive or negative. Our emotions determine how we feel and what we think. How we react emotionally to our surroundings helps to determine how we live. Our emotions can effect our physical body as well as our mind. If we can stay emotionally positive even when there are obstacles and setbacks, then this will increase our energy.

3. Mental- The next dimension is mental or our mind. Your mind is

important because it controls your body your emotions. Your mental outlook can affect your energy level greatly. Your mind is what helps you to focus on those things that matter.

4. Spiritual- And the last dimension is the spiritual. The spiritual for

many is more difficult to identify or qualify because it is more abstract. Above that, there are many who do not even believe in the spiritual aspect of life. But the Bible helps us to understand that our spirit is a very important part of our created being. The spirit is what connects us to God and what enables us to live for God. If our spirit is not right with God, then this will definitely affect our being able to live out the mission for which we were created.

III. Changing the Mission of our Lives-

So to move forward in living out our mission, we have to change our lives. Now to

say this means that I believe that we are not living right to begin with. And I do think this is true for too many people. Most people are not in control of the 4 dimensions of their lives; physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.

a. What keeps people from changing? But what keeps us from changing our lives?

The answer to this is: having missions imposed upon us. When we have other missions imposed upon us, we are not living out the mission that God has for us.

As a parent I know that I have to balance 2 things: one, is helping to raise my child so that he or she grows up to be a healthy, independent, God loving adult./ And yet, as I raise my child, I should not impose my will on the child, but rather help them to discover the will God has for them. If I do this right, then they will be in a place where they can know, understand, and seek to live the mission that God created for them.

The problem is that too many people haven’t learned how to know God’s plan for their lives. For too long they have had others impose upon them how they are to live or what they are to do. The church can even be guilty of this. The church shouldn’t tell you what you are to do, but rather encourage you and give you opportunities to discover who you are in Christ, and how to live the life God has called you to live with the gifts you have been given.

So to change, you have to first understand that you are the one who is to seek out God’s call for your own life. To do this you need to seek God with your mind and spirit. To do this you might need to travel down the road you think God is leading you on, always open to the fact that God may redirect you as you travel. But don’t let others impose upon you their will or what they think is God’s will for your life.

b. Making the change- Once you have an idea of what the mission is God is calling

you to make happen, you need to begin to make the changes in your life to keep yourself healthy, and to help you live out that mission. The first step in this is to be specific. The worst thing we can do is to write down general goals for ourselves. General goals will not be lived out, because they don’t direct us anywhere.

So, I know that the mission that God is calling me to is: “I invest myself in my family, and a church which engages itself in a culturally diverse community, to motivate them to know God, be committed in service, and faithful in character.”/

So the physical part of this mission is to be in good health. To do this I have committed to walk at least twice a week, eat a healthy and balanced diet (which Tami helps me to do, and which also means that I don’t eat out very often), and to get at least 7 hours of sleep a night. This might increase to 8 if I feel myself getting overly tired. And step out and do the ministry I believe God is calling me and the church to instead of just talking and teaching about it. Next comes the emotional: To stay healthy and energized emotionally I am spending regular times with Tami (on Fridays), spending time with my children individually once a month, spending more time with others who encourage and strengthen me (at least once a week), and have someone in my life who I can vent to (Jim Wilson). The third dimension is mental: In this area of mental I am reading a chapter a week in a book that helps me to move forward in my mission (lately I have read (The Present Future, The 7 Practices for Effective Ministry, and The 10 Mistakes Leaders Make Most). I also have 2 mentors who are helping me to grow. Lastly, there is the area of Spiritual: In this area, I take ½ hour a week to spend time in quiet meditation with God, fast once a month, have a regular time for prayer, and once a quarter take a half day spiritual retreat. I also get to go to 2 ministry conferences a year.

You can see that my goals are specific, and will help me to make the changes I need to make to stay on course for the mission to which God calls me!

IV. The Reality of the Mission-

So what we really need to do to be prepared to live out our mission is to move from

intention to reality. You know, intention is something you are always going to do but never get around to doing it. I’m going to get in shape, I’m going to go on a diet, I’m going to eat less desserts, I’m going to pray more, I’m going to read my bible. People rarely fail in new ways. We fail in the same ways because we are always living on intention. So first we need to admit our weaknesses and then seek to move beyond them. And how do we move beyond them?

1. Grace motivation- We start by understanding that we have been

given grace from God. Grace is receiving a gift that we don’t deserve. We don’t deserve to be forgiven, but we are forgiven anyway. So we understand that to move past our weaknesses we paint a picture of what we really want to accomplish. And even though we don’t necessarily deserve it because of our past, we can receive it because God is there leading us forward into this future we imagine. We believe we can accomplish change.

2. Structure and discipline- The next comes structure and discipline.

And actually, this structure and discipline comes from the outside. Since we can’t be structured and disciplined because of our weaknesses, we ask the help of others to help us be structured and disciplined in this new mission. This means we have to identify a person or persons who can help us to be more structured and disciplined. Who are those people for you?

3. Support and healing- Along with this, we need to find healing for

our inner hearts. There is hurt in all of us. Some of this hurt comes from others, some of this hurt comes from failed expectations, some of this hurt has been brought on ourselves. You can get this support and healing from the Bible, from Christians, from me (your pastor), from a parent, or even a trusted friend. We can never have enough support in our lives.

4. Quarantine your weakness- And lastly, we need to quarantine our

weaknesses. When you quarantine something, you isolate it from everything else; you lock it up in a place where it won’t infect anything else. We have to quarantine our weaknesses so that they won’t dismantle what we are accomplishing. We quarantine them so that they can’t infect who we are trying to become. And because they are quarantined, they are kept out of our efforts and our actions.

Conclusion: Did you know that ants build a city one grain of sand at a time? Growth for you and me will be a slow process like this as well. But if you want to grow, and I know that I do, then we have to prepare ourselves not only for the growth, but for the storms that might come and threaten that growth. EX. If you have ever built a sandcastle at the beach, you know that the biggest thing that threatens it is the waves that come and knock it down. So to prepare for this, you build a wall and a mote around the castle.

The storms in our lives will knock down the castles we are building if we are not prepared for them. And we prepare by making sure that we take care of our health, renewing our energy, setting specific goals, moving past our weaknesses, and bringing in others to help us with the process./ In this way, both individually, and as a church, we can live out the mission that God has for us; now and always. Amen.