How Do I Know If I’m Doing the Spiritual Disciplines Right?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Welcome back to a new week of episodes
00:00:06.800 | on the Ask Pastor John podcast.
00:00:08.800 | And for the first few days of this week,
00:00:10.040 | we're gonna be joined by Dr. Don Whitney again,
00:00:12.120 | professor of biblical spirituality
00:00:14.240 | and associate dean of the School of Theology
00:00:16.440 | at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville.
00:00:20.640 | He is well known for his classic book,
00:00:22.640 | Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,
00:00:25.040 | a book originally published in 1991
00:00:28.060 | and then revised and expanded in 2014.
00:00:31.640 | I know a number of listeners are familiar with his book
00:00:33.920 | and he's also the author of a new book from Crossway,
00:00:36.040 | which is titled, Praying the Bible.
00:00:38.400 | Dr. Whitney, onto the next question on my list,
00:00:42.520 | sort of the common questions that we get
00:00:44.800 | on the disciplines here in our inbox.
00:00:47.880 | And this one is really foundational and important
00:00:50.840 | because there's a lot of questions
00:00:52.980 | about why Christians are called
00:00:55.080 | to practice the spiritual disciplines in the first place
00:00:58.140 | or how do we know if we're doing
00:01:00.140 | the spiritual disciplines right?
00:01:01.900 | What should be the goal of it all?
00:01:03.380 | What should we be seeing in our lives?
00:01:05.640 | But essentially, why do we do them in the first place?
00:01:09.580 | - Well, we are to practice the spiritual disciplines,
00:01:11.540 | first of all, because they are commanded in scripture.
00:01:14.300 | First Timothy 4, 7 says,
00:01:15.980 | "Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness."
00:01:20.540 | And the practical ways that we carry those out,
00:01:24.120 | we call the spiritual disciplines.
00:01:26.020 | And so, first of all, the Bible commands these things,
00:01:29.980 | discipline yourself.
00:01:31.120 | And so that's not just some amorphous attitude
00:01:34.940 | that involves actually things we are to do
00:01:38.860 | and biblical activities that we are to engage in,
00:01:42.900 | rightly motivated.
00:01:43.820 | And so, first of all, the Bible commands that.
00:01:46.940 | Discipline is at the very heart of discipleship
00:01:49.980 | in the New Testament.
00:01:51.400 | When Jesus invited people to himself in Matthew 11, 29,
00:01:54.480 | he says, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me."
00:01:58.440 | The same is true in this offer of discipleship
00:02:00.800 | in Luke 9, 23.
00:02:02.000 | He said to them all, "If anyone would come after me,
00:02:04.560 | "let him deny himself, take up his cross daily
00:02:07.260 | "and follow me."
00:02:08.720 | So at the very least, to be a disciple of Jesus
00:02:11.440 | was to follow him.
00:02:13.440 | And as they did, they learned from him.
00:02:15.440 | So if Jesus got up one morning and said,
00:02:17.320 | "Men, get up, we're going to Galilee."
00:02:19.200 | They didn't stretch their arms and say,
00:02:20.620 | "Well, Lord, we kind of thought we'd sleep in today
00:02:22.480 | "and go up there tomorrow."
00:02:23.640 | It had to be a disciplined following.
00:02:26.840 | Discipline is always at the heart of discipleship.
00:02:30.000 | And so to follow Jesus has to be an intentional thing.
00:02:33.640 | You don't follow someone accidentally, not for very long.
00:02:36.640 | So at the very heart of discipleship
00:02:38.820 | is this idea of discipline.
00:02:41.380 | So Jesus has expected this from us in the scriptures.
00:02:46.380 | Another reason we should practice the spiritual disciplines
00:02:50.080 | is found in Hebrews 12, 14, which says,
00:02:52.880 | "Pursue holiness or sanctification,"
00:02:55.420 | some translations say.
00:02:57.100 | First of all, Hebrews 12, 14 says,
00:02:59.420 | "Pursue peace with all men and the sanctification
00:03:03.000 | "or holiness, godliness, Christ-likeness,
00:03:05.560 | "without which no one will see the Lord."
00:03:09.240 | Again, pursue this holiness, sanctification,
00:03:12.280 | Christ-likeness, godliness,
00:03:13.700 | without which no one will see the Lord.
00:03:17.620 | We will not see the Lord because we pursue holiness.
00:03:20.500 | Rather, those who know the Lord will pursue holiness.
00:03:24.980 | Because of their knowledge of God,
00:03:27.360 | they can't help but pursue him.
00:03:29.920 | All those who are born again are given the Holy Spirit.
00:03:34.680 | And the Holy Spirit brings his holy presence
00:03:38.440 | wherever he goes.
00:03:40.420 | When someone walks into a room,
00:03:41.660 | they don't pause at the door and say,
00:03:43.080 | "Hmm, I wonder what nature I will bring with me.
00:03:45.780 | "Maybe I'll bring my alligator nature into this room."
00:03:48.180 | And no, we don't do that
00:03:49.180 | because we don't have an alligator nature.
00:03:51.000 | We only have a human nature,
00:03:52.420 | and we take our human nature with us wherever we go.
00:03:55.780 | In the same way, wherever the Holy Spirit goes,
00:03:57.960 | he brings his holy nature with him.
00:04:00.340 | And when he indwells any flesh and blood creature,
00:04:03.520 | he brings that holy nature,
00:04:05.020 | and that person, therefore,
00:04:06.780 | has new holy hungers they didn't have before.
00:04:10.620 | They hunger for the holy word of God
00:04:12.580 | that they used to find boring or irrelevant.
00:04:15.340 | They hunger for fellowship with God's people.
00:04:18.580 | They can't imagine life
00:04:20.340 | apart from the people of God anymore
00:04:22.400 | because the Holy Spirit ministers to them
00:04:25.180 | through the people of God.
00:04:27.220 | And so to cut themselves off
00:04:28.660 | from fellowship with God's people is in a real sense
00:04:30.860 | to cut themself off from so much of the ministry
00:04:33.380 | of the Holy Spirit to them, and they can't bear that.
00:04:35.680 | Anyone indwelled by the Holy Spirit
00:04:37.620 | has new holy longings they did not have before.
00:04:41.220 | They long for a holy body without sin anymore.
00:04:44.940 | They long to live with a holy mind,
00:04:47.040 | no longer affected by temptation ever again.
00:04:49.860 | They long to live in a holy and perfect world
00:04:52.100 | with holy and perfect people.
00:04:53.540 | And at last, see face to face
00:04:55.220 | in one that the angels call holy, holy, holy.
00:04:58.580 | And that's the heartbeat of all those
00:05:00.620 | in whom the Holy Spirit dwells.
00:05:03.000 | They may be nine years old,
00:05:04.580 | and those things will be expressed in nine-year-old ways,
00:05:06.840 | but they will be there because he is there.
00:05:08.700 | And a person may be 99 with the encrusted traditions
00:05:12.040 | and experiences of the years over their heart,
00:05:14.140 | but pulsing underneath that is the evergreen,
00:05:16.580 | ever-fresh work of the Holy Spirit.
00:05:19.500 | And so wherever the Holy Spirit dwells,
00:05:21.800 | he gives us hunger and longing and aspiration for holiness.
00:05:26.700 | And so you are compelled by the presence of the Holy Spirit
00:05:30.340 | to pursue holiness, sanctification, godliness.
00:05:34.740 | And so if you're not pursuing that, you won't see the Lord.
00:05:37.700 | And the reason is you don't know the Lord.
00:05:39.840 | You don't know the Lord if you're not pursuing holiness.
00:05:42.600 | Anyone who doesn't want to be with Jesus,
00:05:45.220 | I submit, has not met the man.
00:05:46.980 | Well, how do we do that then?
00:05:48.740 | If we will not see the Lord without pursuing holiness,
00:05:53.080 | anyone who wants to see the Lord is gonna say,
00:05:55.580 | "How then do I pursue this holiness
00:05:58.460 | without which no one sees the Lord?"
00:05:59.940 | The answer is in 1 Timothy 4, 7.
00:06:02.660 | Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.
00:06:06.360 | Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness,
00:06:08.780 | holiness, Christ-likeness.
00:06:10.540 | So the practical everyday way we pursue the holiness
00:06:14.600 | without which we will not see the Lord
00:06:16.240 | is the practice of the biblical spiritual disciplines.
00:06:19.440 | That's why it is so important
00:06:21.520 | to practice the biblical spiritual disciplines.
00:06:24.640 | - That's so important.
00:06:26.000 | God, give us the focus and the discipline
00:06:28.240 | for this work in our lives in 2016.
00:06:31.840 | Thank you, Dr. Whitney.
00:06:33.400 | So what are the most important spiritual disciplines,
00:06:36.440 | the ones we cannot neglect,
00:06:38.000 | the ones we need regularly, even daily?
00:06:41.420 | And can we even talk in those terms
00:06:43.120 | when we talk about the spiritual disciplines?
00:06:45.360 | I'll ask Don that tomorrow when he joins us again.
00:06:47.400 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:06:48.340 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.
00:06:50.940 | (silence)
00:06:53.100 | (silence)
00:06:55.260 | (silence)
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