Cooking Spiritually - Oct. 2nd, 2011

Date: October 2nd, 2011

Speaker: Pastor Kevin Snyder

Title: Cooking Spiritually

Part 1:

2 -3 volunteers – guys/girls (1 child) - mix up a cake

Rules: Get her done in 2 songs (8 mins)

“East Side Bake Off”

As you worship this morning I want you to reflect on the analogy or lessons of how making a cake relates to making disciples…spiritual growth.

Come back later and make some observations.

Part 2:

What analogies can you draw from a cooking a cake to spiritual growth?

Lessons:

I’ve gone pretty deep on these and so really challenge you to think

1. Cakes are the product of many ingredients and so is spiritual growth.

In my casual look through a cookbook I discovered a cake has about 9 or 10 ingredients on average. And it is the mixture & quantity of those various ingredients that give you the type of cake….chocolate vs carrot vs black forest…

a. From scratch vs easy bake

Now you can buy ready-made cake mixes which require you just add water and bake… easy…someone has done the thinking and work already…made it easy for us.

When it comes to spiritual growth we have in recent years wanted to discover “easy-bake cake mixes”. We want spiritual growth to be easy…painless & brainless…”Feed me what I need to know. We want ready-made discipleship. We want to it quick & easy.

But spiritual growth is more like the “real” thing than “easy-bake” mixes. Making it easy, makes it weak.

There is a reason Jesus said; “If any man wants to be my disciples , he must deny himself, pick up his cross and follow me.”

Spiritual growth doesn’t have to be complex, but it’s not able to be reduced down to “just add water.”

It requires a shift in how we do things. It requires that we dig in, commit, and change our pattern. To be a disciple of Jesus meant you left your livelihood, house, family and followed. …it was costly.

This spiritual development plan is “not easy bake”. It calls on you to get intentional about your spiritual growth. To doing something different.

You need to sign up
You need to go to group
You need to give yourself to exercises
You need to put spiritual growth up the list of priorities.

Saying: “If keep doing what you’ve always done will keep getting what you’ve always got.”

To change the product, have to change the process.

There is no ready-made discipleship.

b. A Good Cake Requires Mixing

A good cake requires a mixing of ingredients….not mixed well…got problems.

Sp growth requires the mixing of these ingredients together into our everyday life.

Spiritual growth can’t be compartmentalized….can’t just have a section called “spiritual life”…like “home life”, work life”.

No, spiritual life has to get mixed into the other aspects of our life…has to permeate all those arenas.

Without the mixing you have a terrible cake , and a terrible Christian.

Without the mixing you get the dreaded “Sunday Cn”, the “hypocrite – speaks different than lives.

Christian discipleship isn’t adding Jesus to our lives like adding salt…it is mixing Jesus into our lives….letting him permeate into the entire mix of our lives.

It isn’t just adding church attendance, Bible reading…religious activities… those are good…but the goal of those is that the teaching, attitudes, values, permeate into the rest of our lives…indistinguishable from who you are….(Christianity is not something you take off when go to work…but it permeates how you work, how you relate, your ethics…)

How does this happen?

a. Mixing life in – “do life together”…don’t compartmentalize

i.e. small group – Bible & life troubles intersect.

LTG – read 3- 5X, get together, see how that mixed with our lives that week…

b. Meditating/Journalling/Applying

Longest & hardest journey in spiritual growth is the road between our head and heart.

i.e.

Key isn’t how much you hear on a Sunday morning but how much you apply.

James 1: 22

22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. 23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. 24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. 25 But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

i.e. Mirror

There are times as I get older that I look in the mirror and don’t necessarily like what I see in the mirror. I don’t like it and want to say “No, that’s not me” and want to forget what I look like….remember20 years ago….look thru that lens.

Now some of you are far more disciplined and you take that look and you do something about it. You cut out the snacks , you step up the exercise routine. You act.

Often in our spiritual life we come (Sunday morning), get a look at us through biblical mirror), don’t like what we see and try to forget it. However, the key to spiritual growth is to act on it when God reveals some undesirable aspect of our character.

i.e

Story about a guy who came to church late. He walked in right near the end of the service. He said to an usher, "Is the sermon done yet?" The usher answered wisely. He said, "The sermon has been preached, but it has yet to be done."

Point:

No easy “add water” way to spiritual growth – change the process change the product
Mix these ingredients into your life to become true disciple.

2. Not all cakes are the same

Spiritual growth is not about all becoming the same, but becoming the best of who we are. It is not about becoming clones…who think, look and act the same.

It is about if you are a carrot cake being the best carrot cake you can be.
If you are a black forest being the best black forest cake you can be.
We all have or need some basic ingredients, but there is variety…God is making you unique.

Your goal is not to become like someone else, but about the best you can be.

God isn’t about making you into something different . He is about taking out all the impurities and making you the purest form of you….

3. Cakes don’t make themselves, and neither do we.

According to Ephesians, God’s desire for us is to be a great cake..…

Looked through and found titles he applies to us:

God’s workmanship (2:10) – bears the mark of his hand….
Member of God’s household – (2:19) – bear family resemblance

Servant of the gospel (3:7)
Imitators of God (5:1)
Children of Light (5:8)

John highlighted last week: God’s part. God reveals and empowers. He has given us everything we need to become a great cake…

So God is at work…

Now where our cake analogy breaks down is the that ingredients are inanimate….they have no choice, no will to cooperate or not.

But we do.

We have the choice – to know and work with Christ and his Holy Spirit or to grieve, resist, battle his work in our lives…but we need him.

This is not a work we can do ourselves.
This isn’t a “self-help” endeavor.
This isn’t a “run harder…faster…longer” exercise.
This is an intentional focus to allow God to work in us an make us into “good” cakes.

This spiritual development plan is a call to US to become persons who bear the workmanship of Christ, who are a good imitation of his character, who are light in the darkness.

This is about change….about intentionally seeking to become what God wants us – a great cake

4. Cookbooks & Others Help

For many of us putting a cake together with no cookbook & no help would be a recipe for disaster. I could try and try and eventually might get it right….1000x later. But sometimes it helps to have others to learn and bounce ideas off of. It would also help if we had a cookbook or knew enough to write the recipe.

Spiritual growth is the same. God has blessed us with a cookbook, and others to help us.

But instead of using it…we fumble along. Trying to get it right.

Sp Growth is not so much about trying , but training.

Becoming a good cake-maker starts with following a cookbook. Internalizing it. Practicing. At some point don’t need recipe…could write recipe verbatim. It about training ourselves in the process. Trying isn’t enough.

Friends, this development plan is not about getting into a “trying” program… It is about getting into a training program.

I Tim 4:7,8

Exercise daily in God—no spiritual flabbiness, please! Workouts in the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever.

Think training not trying.

5. Cakes need heat to become all they can be and so do we.

How many of you learn more from your failures and hard times than you do easy times?

Trials and difficulties in life are some of the best forming tools in our lives. I’d love to tell you that our sp formation plan will make you a mature cn . It won’t by itself. But God will weave these truths in to the fabric of life and grow you more in the oven.

i.e.

I learn more about trusting God when my bank account is empty than when it’s amply supplied.
I learn more about prayer when life goes sideways than when things are going good.
I learn more about my faith when it is challenged than when we all agree.
I learn more faith when being stretched than when I’m in the comfort zone.
I learn character when I’m tempted than when it’s not tested.

The best spiritual formation is the mixing of these ingredients & being thrown in the oven.

James 1: 2 – 4 :

Dear brothers and sisters,?*? when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

The oven of life has a way of taking these ingredients and transforming them into something good & tasty.

6. “What is so important about becoming a good cake?

We have cake for special occasions – weddings, birthdays, anniversaries. Cakes are marks of celebrations, symbols of fun, …are good.

Key things: we tend to make them for others.

We often forget that in spiritual growth. We tend to think it’s just about me. It’s about me being more Christ-formed….and that is true but that’s not all.

This is bigger than just about you. It’s about your marriage…your family…your workplace…this community…about the mission of God.

Switch metaphors…go to 1 of my favorites pictures of spiritual growth in Scripture.

It paints a great picture of what this growth is all about.

Ezekiel 47

THE SOURCE

In my vision, the man brought me back to the entrance of the Temple. There I saw a stream flowing east from beneath the door of the Temple and passing to the right of the altar on its south side. 2 The man brought me outside the wall through the north gateway and led me around to the eastern entrance. There I could see the water flowing out through the south side of the east gateway.

Note: Source is temple – river of God, his grace, his life

THE ISSUE

3 Measuring as he went, he took me along the stream for 1,750 feet?*? and then led me across. The water was up to my ankles. 4 He measured off another 1,750 feet and led me across again. This time the water was up to my knees. After another 1,750 feet, it was up to my waist. 5 Then he measured another 1,750 feet, and the river was too deep to walk across. It was deep enough to swim in, but too deep to walk through.

Note: Process – we progress, object is to get deeper further we go. Measure of church – at some point you entered via birth, conversion or transfer.

Key Question: Have you moved any further down the river? Are you deeper in your faith or more shallow than 5 years ago?

How far and how deep will you go?
How much will you allow your life to be immersed & filled with Christ?
Cns that only want to get in ankle deep or knee deep.
Are you ankle deep ? Will you go another step and go knee deep?
Are you waist deep? Will you surrender all and allow yourself to be immersed?

THE RESULTS

6 He asked me, “Have you been watching, son of man?” Then he led me back along the riverbank. 7 When I returned, I was surprised by the sight of many trees growing on both sides of the river. 8 Then he said to me, “This river flows east through the desert into the valley of the Dead Sea.?*? The waters of this stream will make the salty waters of the Dead Sea fresh and pure. 9 There will be swarms of living things wherever the water of this river flows. Fish will abound in the Dead Sea, for its waters will become fresh. Life will flourish wherever this water flows. 10 Fishermen will stand along the shores of the Dead Sea. All the way from En-gedi to En-eglaim, the shores will be covered with nets drying in the sun. Fish of every kind will fill the Dead Sea, just as they fill the Mediterranean.?*? 11 But the marshes and swamps will not be purified; they will still be salty. 12 Fruit trees of all kinds will grow along both sides of the river. The leaves of these trees will never turn brown and fall, and there will always be fruit on their branches. There will be a new crop every month, for they are watered by the river flowing from the Temple. The fruit will be for food and the leaves for healing.”

Note: THE RESULTS

3 results:

brings life to riverbanks…to the dry world around it
Brings life into the dead sea…fresh water
Brings food and healing for people

THE LESSON:

The more you grow and allow Christ to be formed in you, the greater impact you will have on a dry, dead, hungry, and sick world. You can make a difference.

You see, spiritual growth isn’t just a selfish endeavor to become a better person. It’s about making a better world. It’s about bringing the refreshing waters of Christ to a spiritually wasteland. It’s about bringing life into deadness. It’s about being a part of the mission God has of redeeming and reclaiming this world.

Eph 4,5, 6 says

its about making a difference in your social world – bringing peace
It about bringing life and joy to your marriage as you become more like Christ in that relationship.
It’s about changing your family as you learn to be more like your Heavenly Father in how you parent
It’s about impacting your workplace as your attitudes and behaviors get shaped by Christ.
It’s about making a difference in the spiritual climate of the community as you become more armed with the armor of Christ.

Wrap-Up

Brace yourself…let me land this picture

i.e. Thurs- Global Leadership Summit in Medicine Hat

Talk given by woman who was hired as Superintendant to fix a broken school system in Washington DC (8% were at grade level in math) Enrolled her 2 children in system.

Instituted a plan to put “students first”

Test students at beginning of year for basic competencies & then again at end of year.

Basic question: Have the children grown?

Everything geared around that question: If not , why not? Addressed all the factors influencing that – teacher competency, material delivery, structural issues, etc

In 4 years she moved the situation up immensely but in so doing she

Let go 1000 ineffective teachers

Closed 23 substandard schools

Cut bureaucracy by 50%

Courageous woman

But I had this haunting question:

What if we did this in the church?
What if we measured your spiritual competency when you came in & a plan was developed. And at certain intervals you were tested again to see if you had grown.

And what if we were willing to turn over stone to make sure that we were doing what Jesus gave as our Commission to “make Disciples”?

What if as pastors and staff we were measured by the growth of the people under our care?
What if our ministries were measured by “are they producing fruit”?
And what if we looked at the Reveal Survey at the top reasons people were stalled & and sat down and asked:

How are you doing in your personal spiritual practices? (Top reason for stalled, )
What are you doing to learn from others & what are you doing to being taught?

#2 reason – priorities that this isn’t that important, not in a group where support & accountability)

What would the church look like if we really got serious and intentional about growing spiritually? About being made disciples?

Think with me…

What would happen…. in this community if we here at ES committed ourselves to become a growing army of people who sought to bear more life, more fruit, more impact on this community?

What would happen…If we got serious and asked?

Where am I in that river? Am I ankle deep? Knee deep?

(Colson – 3000 miles wide & ½ inch deep)& committed to getting to the next stage…?

What would happen if you committed today to intentionally taking a step to move from ankle deep to knee deep or waist deep …to making an impact?

What would happen…

If you were serious about taking all the ingredients God has given for life and godliness and working them into your life instead wanting it easy bake, fed to you?
If you were reading the cookbook & learning with others to learn to make the best cake possible?
If you learning to see “heat” as Christ-forming opportunities?

What would that look like?

It would look like a place that is committed to no longer “playing” at church

It would be a place

where growth is no longer optional & accepted.
where it’s not okay to be stuck and stalled for years – where we never get out of the nursery or toddler room and get on to being teachers, & servants & leaders & influencers…
where it’s not okay to stay in grade school in our Cn life
where it’s not the norm to depend & expect someone else to give us spiritual food
where this plan isn’t just a nice thing but it is core to who we are and where we are going…

but rather we would be partying a lot… we would be celebrating at the growing number & variety of good & amazing cakes that are coming out of our ovens and are bringing life, and food, and refreshing to our homes, workplaces, and community groups, and to this community.

Basic Point:

Where are you in terms of your spiritual growth?
Are you stalled? Stuck? Repeating the same grade again?
If you want to change the product, change the process. Become intentional. Make a step.

Click here to return to sermon page

Tyndale House Publishers: Holy Bible : New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2004, S. Jas 1:22-25

Peterson, Eugene H.: The Message : The Bible in Contemporary Language. Colorado Springs, Colo. : NavPress, 2002, S. 1 Ti 4:7-8

* Greek brothers; also in 1:16, 19.

Tyndale House Publishers: Holy Bible : New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2004, S. Jas 1:2-4

* Hebrew 1,000 cubits [530 meters]; also in 47:4, 5.

* Hebrew the sea.

* Hebrew the great sea; also in 47:15, 17, 19, 20.

Tyndale House Publishers: Holy Bible : New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2004, S. Eze 47:1-12