Discovering the Real Me Part 4
The Loner Me verse the Connected Me
Today we return to our series Discovering the Real Me.
In part one we learned that by
Acknowledging we don’t know who we are
Believing that Jesus is the only on who can show us who we are
Committing to a life of discipleship to discover who are
That God accepts our faith and empowers us to partner with Him in
becoming the person He created us to be, the real Me.
All believers are on a spiritual journey,
As a believer you are either languishing or flourishing in your
spiritual formation.
Only God can reveal to you which state you are in.
Psalms 139:23-24 (NIV)
Search me, O God, and know my heart; … See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
In part two we discovered the gap between the current version of ourselves and the
intended version of ourselves.
It is God’s will that we become a unique expression of Jesus,
That we bear the family resemblance.
2 Corinthians 3: 18 (NIV)
And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
The way of transformation is asking God to fill you with the Holy Spirit,
Asking God to crucify egoism as you jump into the Water of Life
River.
In part three we examined what life in the Water of Life River is like.
The doing me is concerned about living the good life.
The being me is concerned about knowing God.
We need to change from a Doing Me to a Being Me by allowing the Holy
Spirit to sweep us away.
We allow the Spirit to wash us down stream by surrendering.
Galatians 2:20 (MSG)
The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Once again I want to use that metaphor of a might flowing river.
The Water of Life river flows from the Throne of God.
Revelation 22:1-2 (NIV)
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city.
The Water of Life river brings life everywhere it flows.
Ezekiel 47:9-12 (MSG)
Wherever the river flows, life will flourish… Where the river flows, life abounds… on both banks, will grow fruit trees of all kinds. Their leaves won't wither, the fruit won't fail. Every month they'll bear fresh fruit because the river from the Sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing."
The Water of Life river flows from the Throne of God into your very soul.
John 7:38-39 (NCV)
If anyone believes in me, rivers of living water will flow out from that person’s heart, as the Scripture says.“ Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit.
Believers are conduits for The Water of Life river.
It flows into you, through are heart and out to others.
I’ve tried to paint a picture of a mighty river,
Whose current flows in you and through you but also
carries you into being the person God created you to be.
As you progress down the river you discover the Real Me,
You become God’s intended version of you.
The Water of Life river is one of the metaphors we encounter in the Bible for God
the Holy Spirit.
The water is alive with the presence of God.
The prophet Ezekiel has a vision and an Angel of the Lord leads him into the
Water of Life river.
Ezekiel 47:3-5 (MSG)
He walked to the east with a measuring tape and measured off fifteen hundred feet, leading me through water that was ankle-deep. He measured off another fifteen hundred feet, leading me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another fifteen hundred feet, leading me through water waist-deep. He measured off another fifteen hundred feet. By now it was a river over my head, water to swim in, water no one could possibly walk through.
Believers can get ankle-deep,
Knee-deep,
Waist-deep,
But I have urged you to go in over your head.
Into this gushing surge of life in the Holy Spirit.
In the raging rapids its not safe,
But its good.
Caught in the flow of the Spirit you have no guarantees of
Health, wealth or security, but you will know God.
There are times in the river when you are just gentling floating,
Like tubing on a hot summer day.
Growing, maturing, becoming like Jesus is fun, enjoyable,
A pleasure.
There are times in the river when you are in white water,
Being tumbled down stream,
Banging into rocks as you struggle to keep your head above water,
Its frightening, but all the time the challenges and the
difficulty motivates you to seek God with all your heart.
Today I want to use the experience of river rafting as an illustration of how you
can choose to do the Water of life River.
I want to address the difference between the Loner Me and the Connected Me
to encourage you that its best to discover the Real Me in a group of
like minded believers than
trying to do the Water of Life River on your own.
The LONER ME
The Loner Me lives his or her life under the delusion that their spiritual life is just
between God and them.
Faith and Salvation is an individual matter.
Christianity for the Loner Me is a solo adventure.
The Loner Me is determined that others are not necessary,
In fact on this spiritual journey others are often a hindrance.
The Loner Me is confident that with God they can handle whatever comes
their way all by themselves.
And when the Water of Life river is just gently flowing they can.
[Video --River]
The Loner Me prayers to God and reads the Bible.
The Loner Me attends church but doesn’t feel the need to get too
involved like say become a member.
The Loner Me is willing to serve others, willing to lend a hand when
its convenient t or not too much of an imposition.
The Loner Me is not real comfortable with allowing others to serve
them, to minister to them, to lend them a helping hand.
The Loner Me is independent.
Their motto: “If its going to be its up to me.”
“If you want a job done right do it yourself.”
“The only person you can count on is yourself.”
The Loner Me is not a bad person,
They don’t think that they are better than anyone else,
Or just above it all,
They just prefer to keep their spiritual life very private,
Just between God and them.
The Loner Me does well as long as the river stays relatively gentle.
Yet we all know that there are also spots of white water.
[Video—Rapids]
It’s usually only when its too late that the Loner Me discovers that going it alone is
not the best choice.
Each one of us has our own loads to carry,
Our loads consist mainly of our responsibilities,
Our loads can be heavy or they can be light,
Regardless everyone expects that everyone else will carry their
own load.
But there are times in life when we get burdened down with something.
A burden is a something that no one can carry by themselves.
Galatians 6:2-5 (NIV)
Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load.
Everyone can carry their own load when the Water of Life is being gentle.
But when you hit the rapids—that’s when you don’t want to go it alone.
Unfortunately its usually not until the Loner Me gets into trouble that
they realize they really did need others the whole time.
Why would a Christian rather be a Loner than a person who is connected to others?
Let’s go back to river rafting again.
The raft represents the church,
The paddlers other believer in the church
The river guide the pastor
I think you will see why some believers have
decided to go it alone.
[Video—losing it]
When we first started HBCC one of our target groups,
The type of person we wanted to reach,
was the person who had been shipwrecked by the church.
If you haven’t figured it out yet,
People who attend church are far from perfect.
Anytime there are people involved, you’re going to run into problems.
Throw sin into the mix,
The stuff that deters, damages and destroys right
relationships and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.
Its been said the church is the only place were they shoot their wounded.
Its been said that there is nothing more corrupt and defiled than the church.
Its been said the church is a gathering for hypocrites,
the intolerant, and the backwards thinking.
In some instances those observations have been found to be true.
People have been terribly hurt by their brothers and sisters in Christ.
So people have fled what is popularly called organized religion.
They like Jesus, but dislike church.
Get thrown out of the raft enough times and you think,
“I’m better off going alone.”
If that’s been your experience in the church,
I want to apologize to you.
The church is supposed to be a place of love.
The church is supposed to be a place where you find help in
living your life to the full.
It’s in the church where forgiveness and understanding is supposed to be found.
Where love not only covers a multitude of sins, but where love redeems the
sinner.
It in the church where acceptance and belonging and respect is
supposed to be found.
But if you have gone through one of those raft disasters,
When the church wasn’t what it was supposed to be,
Would you allow this church family to try to make it up to you?
No one here is perfect,
No one here is without faults,
Just a bunch of believers struggling to be family with one
another.
I can’t promise that the raft wont go over again
But when you hit those crazy rapids in the Water of Life River we do
our best to keep everyone in the raft.
[Video of the American River Rafting]
In this journey of discovering the real me
“More than anything else, we are shaped by people.” (Ortberg, The Me I Want To Be, p. 182)
You are going to need others to become the person God intends for
you to be.
We need the encouragement of others because we all get discouraged.
We need the accountability of others because we all get off track
We need the security of others because we all get scared.
We need the strength of others because we can’t make it on our
own.
THE CONNECTED ME
The Connected Me is a participant in a spiritual community.
I don’t mean warming a seat Sunday morning together,
Rather a spiritual community is a network of like minded believers
who call the best out of one another in the quest of knowing
God.
A spiritual community is interested in doing the will of God together,
In being real with one another,
In building righteous relationships.
1 Peter 2:5 (MSG)
Present yourselves as building stones for the construction of a sanctuary vibrant with life, in which you'll serve as holy priests offering Christ-approved lives up to God.
The Connected Me has this inner sense of being in this thing called life with
others caught up in something grander than what the Loner Me
couldn’t even imagine.
The Connected Me experiences fellowship.
When I refer to fellowship I don’t mean pot luck after church,
I’m speaking about the binding together of hearts,
Where you know I have your back and you have mine.
No masks, no games.
Brothers and sisters in Christ are patient with one another.
They are kind with their thoughts and with their words
There is no place for envy, or boasting or pride.
Those in fellowship are not easily angered and they are
quick to forgive.
Acts 2:42 (MSG)
They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers.
“Connectedness is not the same thing as knowing many people.
People may have many contacts in many networks,
but they may not have any [soul] friends.” (Ortberg, p. 183)
The Connected Me is rooted in love. (Ortberg, p. 183)
Love is seeking to meet the need of another even at the cost of a personal
sacrifice.
When love is flowing in a spiritual community it’s a glorious
thing, because each one’s highest priority is to be the
servant of the other.
Ephesians 3:16-19 (NIV)
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
The Connected Me has discovered that being rooted and established in love
begets love.
Love joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control. Gal 5:22-23 (NIV)
are the character qualities developing within the
life of the Connected Me.
Like attracts like.
“When you are loved, it is not just that you receive from someone else,
but also that you become more yourself. You-ier.
Being loved empowers you to love.” (Ortberg, p. 184)
Within the this spiritual community where fellowship is rooted and established in
Love the Connected Me knows the freedom to be real.
The Connected Me doesn’t hide because there is no fear of rejection.
The Connected Me is secure in knowing that love is not based
on performance.
The Connected Me is confident that through mutual support everyone
will make it through the rapids.
“By ourselves, we will slowly, and usually subconsciously,
be drawn towards a selfishly lived life.” http://truthandpurpose.com/?p=86
The Loner Me spends a lot more time in the rapids than the Connected
me.
The Real You, the person God intends for you to be,
will be discovered in the fellowship of like believers.
Simple question: Are you in a raft?
Or are you doing the Water of Life River on your own?