2012-11-04: Spiritual Disciplines – Stewardship

Sermon: Spiritual Disciplines – Stewardship
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Duration: 24:01
Size: 11.0 MB

Spiritual Disciplines
Stewardship

I think that what I present today will be more broadly biblical than just a talk on tithing.

What is a Steward?

There are some notable stewards in the Bible, Joseph being the most notable.

A good steward always remembers that they are a servant of the master or the king, and does all that he or she does with an eye to what is best for their master’s household or kingdom.

Our Stewardship Of the Land Psalm 24:1

An understanding that the land belongs to the Lord has many implications.

As stewards of the land, we are supposed to look after our own needs, but we are to do it in a way that allows others to look after their needs.

Our Stewardship of Our Bodies 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

How does God want you to use the body that he has put you in charge of?

Our Stewardship of Money & Possessions 2 Corinthians 9:7

If we belong to God, then all that we have belongs to God.

I think that God is more concerned with your gracious relationship with your spouse than money coming into the plates.

Our Stewardship of the Gospel & the Grace & Gifts of God 1 Peter 4:10

If you are a Christian, you have Gifts given to the church through you.

How to Steward

Know God

If there is anything that we know about our God is that he is extremely generous, one could even say extravagant.

We are to steward the belonging of God in the same way that he has graced us with them

Gratitude

When we foster an attitude of gratitude for all that God has given us, including our position as stewards, it keeps us from imagining that creation and money is ours for doing as we please.

Practices

Change your Mind
Change your Bankbook
Change your Stomach
Change your footprint

2012-09-30: Spiritual Disciplines – Worship

Sermon: Spiritual Disciplines – Worship
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Isaiah 6:1-8
Duration: 26:53
Size: 12.3 MB

Spiritual Disciplines
Worship

Isaiah 6:1-8

In worship we catch a vision of God, when we join with other Christians to lift our voice in praise.

In worship we come to know God in ways that we can’t just reading about him.

In worship we catch a vision of ourselves.

In worship we catch a vision of God’s grace.

In worship we catch a vision of our call.

The Practice of Worship

Come
It amazes me that Christians not coming to church and trying to live in the Kingdom of God without the Community of God surrounding them is not a new phenomena!

Participate
We don’t come to be a spectator to a performance of worship, we come to worship God!

Bring something to the table:

Find God
You could sit there and criticize the whole gathering, or you could trust in Jesus’ promise and Stop, Listen, Find God, and worship him.

A Life of Worship
Let the discipline of worship flow into your everyday life – learn to worship God by whatever you are doing.

Preparation for corporate worship
There are many reasons to worship – the most important being that God deserves it and we are created for it!

2012-09-09: Spiritual Disciplines – Integrity of Heart

Sermon: Spiritual Disciplines – Integrity of Heart
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Duration: 29:05
Size: 13.3 MB

Spiritual Disciplines
Integrity of Heart

“Integrity is what you do when nobody is around or watching.”

1. Identify the Problems

Thought Life – 1 John 2:15-17

Sexual Immorality – 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5,7

Attitude – Jeremiah 9:23-24

Words – Ephesians 4:29

Priorities – 2 Corinthians 4:18

2. Get Help!

When we keep our sins to our self, it festers and gets worse.

Hear me, you cannot do it alone!

3. Realize, it takes time!

Pursuing the Life of Integrity means always being open to the refining process God is pushing us towards.

Bottom-line: if it interferes with our purity before God, it’s going to take time to fully overcome with God’s help and our constant desire for purity.

4. Never Underestimate!

If you know you struggle in an area don’t put yourself in situations where you’ll be tempted.

We must be considerate that our own actions do not prevent someone from realizing salvation or continuing to live as a new creation.

5. The job is never done!

We will always be a work in progress, until we enter into heaven!

Can people tell what you stand for by the way you act—not what you say, but how you live your life?

2012-07-01: Spiritual Disciplines – Silence

Sermon: Spiritual Disciplines – Silence
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: James 3:2-12
Duration: 29:29
Size: 13.5 MB

Spiritual Disciplines
Silence

James 3:2-12

Have you ever opened your mouth without thinking and said something you regretted later.

The tongue is the most powerful part of the body with the power to curse & the power to bless, the power to start fires and the power to put them out.

Silence of the Mouth

One reason we can hardly bear to remain silent is that it makes us feel so helpless.

By observing a silence in our lives on a regular basis, we are training our tongue so that we learn to control it rather than have it control us.

In our personal relationships, our words often express a lack of faith, a lack of trust – if we do not trust some one to drive properly; we take to back seat driving.

We need to find ways of practicing silence in our everyday life.

Silence of the Ears

Even if we cannot keep a time of silence ourselves, we can learn to live without the constant noise of background music, TV or radio.

Interior Silence

Keeping silent on the outside, either through not talking, or shutting the noise off, is easy compared with learning inner silence.

As Eli teaches the young boy Samuel, we have to learn to say “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening“, and then actually listen.

2012-05-27: Spiritual Disciplines – Submission

Sermon: Spiritual Disciplines – Submission
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Ephesians 5:15-21
Duration: 28:37
Size: 13.1 MB

Spiritual Disciplines
Submission

Ephesians 5:15-21

Christian Submission…
Out of all the spiritual disciplines, I think that submission is the most counter cultural.

The Submission that Paul is calling us to is a mutual submission – not one where there is one person in submission, and another in authority, but that we would submit to each other.

It is not the abdication of responsibility or authority so we get no where and no decisions get made because we are so worried about stepping on each others toes.

Submission is – a voluntary attitude of giving in, cooperating, assuming responsibility, and carrying a burden. “put others first.”

The most amazing picture I have of submitting from a place of strength is that of Jesus standing before Pilate.

Laying down one’s life is not just about dying it is about giving up what we hold dear because our friend is even more dear to us.

Our Submission to each other is an outworking of the Spirit’s filling of our lives.

Areas to Submit…
I ask for the grace to let myself be shaped by my loving Creator.

I believe that God gives us families to practice love on, because if we can love them, we can love anybody.

If you look around you, these are all the “one-another’s” that God calls you to love and serve, to lift up and honor above yourself.

The Spiritual Disciple of Submission is as about as counter-cultural as you can get – you may feel it within you as you bristle at the very word “submission”.

Christian Submission…

  • Christian Submission is not about being a Doormat.
  • Christian Submission is not about the lowest common denominator.
  • Christian Submission Flows Out of Strength, Not Weakness.
  • Christian submission is not about placating a bully.
  • Christian Submission must come in Relationship.
  • Christian Submission is about Sacrifice.
  • Christian Submission flows from the filling of the Spirit.
  • Christian Submission is about Honor.

Areas to Submit…

  • Submit to God.
  • Submit to God’s Word.
  • Submit to our Families.
  • Submit to your neighbors, coworkers, friend…
  • Submit to the Christian Community.
  • Submit to the Broken & Despised.

2012-05-06: Spiritual Disciplines – Solitude

Sermon: Spiritual Disciplines – Solitude
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Luke 13:6-8
Duration: 25:45
Size: 11.7 MB

Spiritual Disciplines
Solitude

Luke 13:6-8

The gardener of our soul is the Holy Spirit, he digs around our roots and feeds us so that we might bear good fruit.

What is Solitude
Just as fasting is the abstinence from food for spiritual purposes, solitude is the withdrawing to privacy for spiritual purposes.

True solitude removes ourselves from company, but it also removes ourselves from other distractions as well.

Loneliness is inner emptiness. Solitude is inner fulfillment. Solitude is not first a place but a state of mind and heart.

We only have to look at Jesus’ life if we want to find the practice of Solitude in scripture.

The Benefits of Solitude
In the quiet of solitude, all pretensions can be striped away, all the things in life that are trying to mold us in their image are removed, all the requirements of the world disappear, and we can stand before God “just as I am”.

Remember that Dallas Willard said that the Discipline of Solitude is for strengthening.

You can see that Jesus sought out solitude before the big events in his life.

When we are tempted to live in a way that will please those around us, rather than live in integrity with who the Father has called us to be, the more time we spend in solitude with the Father, the less other’s judgments stick to us!

How to Practice Solitude
The important thing is to get alone and recognize God’s presence with you before you read or pray.

They say that you can be alone even when standing in a crowd.

The truth is, I believe that all Christians should take some kind of solitary retreat at times.

The Benefits of Solitude

  • Being Real
  • Getting Centered
  • Learn to Live in Integrity

How To Practice Solitude

  • Daily Solitude
  • Spontaneous Solitude
  • Retreats

2012-04-01: Spiritual Disciplines – Confession

Sermon: Spiritual Disciplines – Confession
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Luke 15:17-20
Duration: 36:15
Size: 16.5 MB

Spiritual Disciplines
Confession

Luke 15:17-20

What God wants to hear is an honest answer to a simple question.

True confession is marked by honesty.

God can forgive any sin, but he will not forgive us until there is honest confession.

We have lost our moral bearings, we are spiritually adrift, and we are unaware of it.

The good news is that when we do confess our sin, we do not find rejection but acceptance from God.

True confession is marked by sorrow.

Real confession means that we regret what we have done.

Sin brings sorrow because it alienates us from God, from other people, and it leaves us broken within.

True confession is marked by change.

Once we become honest with ourselves, others and God, once we have repented with godly sorrow, a change takes place in our hearts.

It is a good thing to have someone to whom we can confess our sins.

When we are determined to seek the forgiveness of those we have wronged and make restitution, then we are on the path of a new obedience.

His heart is full of love and forgiveness.

2012-03-04: Spiritual Disciplines – Contemplative Prayer

Sermon: Spiritual Disciplines – Contemplative Prayer
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Psalm 27
Duration: 32:33
Size: 14.9 MB

Spiritual Disciplines
Contemplative Prayer

Psalm 27

Most of us realize that we cannot grow the fruit of the Spirit, or weed out the sins of our lives by sheer will power alone.

How do we develop a relationship with our maker?

PRAYER!

Often times our prayers are the same way, we are running around in our lives and we stop for a second and say, “Oh, God, I need you.”

We must pray not just to speak to God, but also, to hear from Him what we are to speak.

Real prayer is something we learn.

Begin With Scripture
Meditate on Scripture before you pray.

Listen Before You Speak
Spend time in silence before God, wait to see what he says.

As we learn to listen to each other, we can apply that skill to God in our prayers.

Imagination
God may not speak to you in words audible or inaudible. He may speak to you in pictures, images, feelings, sensations, dreams, and visions.

Speak
Prayer is about relationship, and although we should not make it one-sided by doing all the talking, we should also not make it one-sided by doing all the listening!

Having a spiritual friend or soul-friend is like having a training buddy.

Pray
We need to dig the well deeper, so that it won’t go dry during the hard times, and we need to develop our relationship with God so that we can enjoy the good times with Him.

2012-02-05: Spiritual Disciplines – Fasting

Sermon: Spiritual Disciplines – Fasting
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Matthew 6:16-18
Duration: 32:16
Size: 14.7 MB

Spiritual Disciplines
Fasting

Matthew 6:16-18

Simply put, fasting is the voluntary abstinence from food for spiritual purposes.

When Jesus taught on fasting, he would say “when you fast”, not “if you fast”.

Fasting reminds us that we can get by without most things in our lives for a time, but we cannot get by without God.

Fasting is voluntarily turning up the heat in our lives.

It is both physical and spiritual and it builds our faith muscles so that we can withstand the bigger contests that come our way.

Our hunger pangs also remind us to lift our voice up to God.

When we fast in our repentance, it is not an attempt to punish ourselves for our past sin, but as a commitment and preparation for our future righteousness.

Determine the purpose of the fast. Is it to seek God, to seek direction, to pray for others?

There is so much potential power in seeking God in this way that Satan will do whatever necessary to derail your plan.

Remember that your fast is about you and God, not about impressing others, or even yourself.

Remember that we are not twisting God’s arm, we are trying to draw closer to Him.

The goal is spiritual not physical. If you want to loose weight, find a way to eat healthier, if you want to draw closer to God, try fasting.

Why Fast?

  • Fasting increases our hunger for God.
  • Fasting can train our passions.
  • Fasting can be an earnest prayer.
  • Fasting can help us humble ourselves.
  • Fasting can be a sign of Repentance.

How to Fast.

  • Start small.
  • Determine the purpose of the fast.
  • Determine the nature of the fast.
  • Determine the length of the fast.
  • Get people praying for you.

Pitfalls of Fasting.

  • Pride
  • Coercion of God
  • Penance
  • Dieting

If you’re satisfied with the status quo of your spiritual life, then just go ahead and ignore everything I’ve said today.

If you’re ready to move on to another level, and you’re not fasting as a part of your walk with Christ already, then I’d say, start right away.