Apr 22 2018 The Wisdom of Living a "With God" Life

Lord, thank You for this opportunity to be with You and one another. We have hearts that love You – help us to have hearts this morning to dwell on the good – true and noble and good – that our hearts would dwell on those things. It is so easy to dwell on the negative, but You want us to dwell on the praiseworthy and noble and good, especially in these times. Speak to our hearts as we continue looking at how to live in Wisdom.

Proverbs 4:26 Make the path for your feet level, so that all your ways may be established. 27 Do not turn to the right or to the left; turn yourself away from evil.

Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure (Pro 4:26 ESV)

Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. (Pro 4:26 TNIV)

He is painting a picture of a road – where the carts would cut grooves in the road – and they would fit perfectly in the grooves and would roll down the dirt path. That is similar to what our lives are like.

In the winter of 77-78, I was in Columbus. The way the OSU campus is set up – off campus – most of the streets are one way – and you have parking on both sides of the street – and cars parked behind in alleys – but the city never got to the alleys. What would happen – as people would drive, and the snow piled up, there would be ruts and you knew you wouldn’t get out of those ruts. That was great when you wanted to drive straight – and it kept you from dropping off into Tuttle Park – but the problem was when you tried to get out of the rut!

He is relating this to our character – Ponder the path of your feet – give careful thought. Pay attention to the paths of our feet – and in the same way those ruts are made, the patterns of thought and behavior we allow ourselves to engage in will become the ruts in our lives and will shape our character – watch those carefully.

Because they will become like the ruts in those alleys – and they will shape our character. That is how we are formed. We are formed by what we allow ourselves to think about and how we allow ourselves to behave – for good or bad. Good thoughts and good behavior form good character.

Prov. 5:6 She does not ponder the path of life; Her ways are unstable, she does not know it. (Pro 5:6 NAU)

Not pondering our paths has devastating results.

Eph. 5:15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, 16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

Paul uses the same thinking – watch the path of your feet – be careful what patterns of thought and behavior you allow yourself to get into – as that will determine whether you are wise or foolish.

When we think about character and behavior – is it nature or nurture? Here is my answer to this: Yes! And!

First – nature – yes it is nature – because of sin and brokenness, we have been born with certain tendencies – we might even say sinful tendencies – we are bent, because of sin, in certain ways – with brokenness from birth.. Yes, even the cutest grandbaby in the world has a brokenness, a bent inside of them.

Dave Brunelle told me of a Christian country gospel song – “you may have Jesus in your heart, but Grandpa is in your bones.”

The Bible talks about sin from generation to generation. Here is an example – alcoholism. Whoever has had children knows – from an early age – this child is willful – or has a temper!

For me, I have found, throughout my life – what I can remember – so from about 40 on – ha – earlier than that – I have struggled with fear and insecurity. But I also remember my parents saying – Mike – when you were just a baby – nobody could hold you except your mom – ever! You would cling to her. It was something in me that was broken that I have had to deal with that makes me fearful and insecure.

Nature is reinforced by nurture – our environment. It starts with our family. Parents! That is the problem, right? Parents! No, but YES! Think of it this way – if you had perfectionist parents – they created an environment that is perfectionist. So when you came home with 3 A’s a B, and a B-, in my family – I’d have been given a free vacation wherever I wanted to go, because that never happened – but in a perfectionist family – hey – you could have done better! The apple does not fall far from the tree – but it goes beyond nature and nurture. If you think – well, I was born this way – then that would be it! But that is not it.

How do some people overcome dreadful circumstances?

In college, Cindy had a friend who came from an abusive family. All her siblings had ruined lives – but not Cindy’s friend - she overcame it all. How does that happen? For those in that circumstance – it is much harder. But we all have the freedom to react to our nature and nurture. In reacting to it – those thoughts and behaviors – will determine how we have been formed.

If you have been through really bad things – it will be much harder than those who had better nurturing. But we have people who tell us – and show us – that it can be done.

A child who is criticized when he makes mistakes – or is abused – will react by concealing mistakes and lying and blame shifting – OR they will react by becoming a perfectionist – To avoid criticism – they will do nothing wrong. Little children learn to cope. That is a coping skill. It is a way to survive. But here is the problem – it doesn’t work as well when you are 20, 40, or 60. We allow our coping skills – that which helps us survive – turn into ruts – and all of us have negative ruts to some degree – we need to get out – break out – and start good ruts.

Col 3:8 But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, 10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him--

Paul is using a word picture – some call it the “put off, put on” principle – the idea of taking off dirty clothes and replacing them with clean clothes. This is not an exhaustive list – just a beginning.

In order to re-form those patterns of thought and behavior – we must uncover our negative sinful patterns. The worst place to be is when you don’t know what you don’t know.

Oftentimes, we are like the guy who goes to an Italian restaurant during lunch and gets spaghetti sauce all over his shirt. We all do this.

Reminds me of a story – I’ll tell it – Cindy is not here.

I was on the final leg on my flight to see my parents in Palm Springs – two young women were in front of me – talking about some presentation they were putting together for this conference they are heading to – and they were going on and on – and I notice that the woman has a big sticker stuck to the back of her pants – and I thought – what do I do? I panicked! I really should tell her - but I thought it better to do nothing.

But that is how we are – we have a big sticker stuck on our back.

How do we uncover what is in there? Either we look in a mirror or someone tells us. All of the deep work of the soul will often require help from a counselor or friend. We all have this looping tape in our minds – for me – my nurture – I had really good parents – but they were sinners like all of us – and I don’t know if it was the Italian influence – but they had this phrase – SHAME ON YOU! You tie that with a religious upbringing that focused on guilt – and you have a young kid who thinks that God is condemning me and God is shaming or embarrassed by me.

Each of us has these loops. We need to discover them and take that dirty stuff off – throw it in the wash – take a shower and put on the new self.

10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—

We each have new clothes, but we keep putting the dirty ones on.

Here is how we do this – We need to change the story in our heads– that loop – it starts with our view of God – The old story is filled with lies about God – like he is embarrassed by you – and we need to change that to the true story about you and God – He is pleased with you – he is satisfied with you – he loves you.

2 Cor. 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

In the Bible – we see the phrase – the Word of God – usually it is not speaking about this – we tend to think it is the Bible – but often, it is talking about Jesus. Paul is saying – we need to take the Bible – and through the Bible to see Jesus and His attitudes toward us. Then we begin to look like what we are seeing in Christ through this book. And our story about WHO God is and His attitude toward us change.

As we see Him as He is, His Spirit moves within us to transform us to His image.

Phil 2:12 says it is a lot of work:

Phil 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Work it out. To be formed in the image of Jesus, we need to engage in a similar lifestyle of Jesus. The patterns and thoughts that Jesus demonstrated need to become our pattern of thoughts.

How did Jesus live? What was His lifestyle? He lived a WITH-GOD life. He would often slip away to the wilderness to pray. He would consistently place himself in the presence of God. You can’t just leave work and go to the wilderness. But you can close the door and get into God’s presence. When you have a break, you can walk around that building and focus on God. When you drive to and from work, you can turn off the radio and have a ‘with-God’ time.

When Jesus did that – every time He did that – His calling and vision were clarified and he reengages in what God has called him to do.

The second practical – learn to live a lifestyle of cross-bearing – denying self and taking up the cross. It plays a critical role in our formation.

It is impossible to be shaped into the image of Christ – like Jesus said – if you want to follow Him – you have to take up your cross and follow Him.

This is not something we can get around – we cannot get around taking up the cross. It is a critical role in Christian formation.

Dallas Willard – “Christian spiritual formation rests on the indispensable foundation of death to self and cannot proceed except insofar as that foundation is being firmly laid and sustained.”

So we don’t end on a downer: It is never too late – no matter how old you are – to learn new patterns of thought behavior. No matter where you are, you can begin today with that. It is always possible to grow.

“One of the amazing things about human beings – it is capable of restoration, and indeed, a restoration that makes it somehow more magnificent because it has been ruined.”

Like Kintsugi – the Japanese art form of taking a shattered vessel and repairing it with gold – and it becomes something more beautiful because it was broken.

Let’s pray