April 20, 2008 - "Who Will You Be When You Grow Up?"

Crescent Hill Baptist Church
Louisville, Kentucky
The Fifth Sunday of Easter
April 20, 2008
W. Gregory Pope

WHO WILL YOU BE
WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Acts 7:55-60; Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16; 1 Peter 2:1-10; John 14:1-14

Someone in my house was recently sent home from school with a book entitled Hands Are Not For Hitting. I know you think you know who it is, but Cindy is not in school right now. (And I’m grateful for the providence of God that has her working in the nursery when I say stuff like that! My mistake will probably be in overestimating your spiritual maturity in keeping secrets from her. But you could surprise me.)

It seems this particular family member has not yet learned how to respond when he or she does not get what he or she wants.

It’s a wonderful little book that tells us what our hands are made for and the hurt that is caused when we use them inappropriately. I recommend its purchase for anyone in your family who is unsure what to do with their hands. And it seems to have the power of scripture to transform because after one evening of reading the book this person was no longer hitting people, and they were repeating the refrain, “Hands are not for hitting.”

However, we had to give the book back, and a week later, it had started up again. You know why? Because for any change to last, spiritual formation is required. Our actions always stem from who we are on the inside and to change requires that we be shaped spiritually. And there are no quick fixes in the realm of spiritual formation. But spiritual formation in the way of Jesus is the primary purpose of the church.

Writer and pastor John Ortberg tells of a man in his church he calls Hank. Hank had attended church since he was a boy, and now was in his sixties. He was known by everyone - but no one really liked him. He had difficulty loving his wife. His children could not speak freely with him and felt no affection from him. He was not concerned for the poor, had little tolerance for those outside the church, and tended to judge harshly those who were inside.

One day someone in the church asked him, “Hank, are you happy?”
Without smiling, he responded, “Yes.”

“Well, then,” the person replied, “tell your face.”

Hank’s outward demeanor mirrored a deeper and much more tragic reality: Hank was not changing. He was not being transformed. He was not growing toward Christlikeness.

But here’s what is most remarkable: Nobody in the church was surprised by this. No one called an emergency meeting of the church leaders to consider this strange case of a person who wasn’t changing. No one really expected Hank to change, so no one was surprised when it didn’t happen.

There were other expectations in the church. People expected that Hank would attend services, give money, and do church work. But no one expected that day by day, month by month, decade by decade, Hank would be transformed and grow more and more into the likeness of Jesus. People did not expect he would become a progressively more loving, joyful, and winsome person. So they were not shocked when it did not happen. [1]

In various ways throughout the Bible, we are encouraged to grow spiritually, to be transformed, to become more like Jesus. Our epistle reading for today calls us to grow into salvation, into wholeness, into the person God created us to be.

But do we really expect one another to change and to grow in Christlikeness? I will say it again: The primary purpose of the church is spiritual formation in the way of Jesus. We should expect change in one another. We should expect each other to become more Christlike as we grow older.

How do we grow into salvation, into Christlikeness?

Dallas Willard is a professor of philosophy at the University of Southern California. He is also a prolific writer on the spiritual life and discipleship in particular. For our help in spiritual formation he offers the acronym “VIM,” as in the phrase “vim and vigor.” “Vim” is a derivative of the Latin term “vis” (v-i-s), referring to direction, strength, energy, virtue; and sometimes having to do the nature and essence of something or someone.

The V stands for Vision: Who are we are and who are we called to be?
The I stands for Intention: Do we intend to live and become this kind of person?
The M stands for Method and Means: What are we going to do in order to become this person? [2]

VISION

We must have a vision of who we are and who we are called to become.

Peter tells us, we who are Gentiles: Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people. That’s who we are. We belong to God, created in God’s image, of infinite worth to God, made to live in love with God and one another.

Two weeks ago in the Karen worship service, someone told the story about his mother being mistreated at work. His mother was told that in essence the Karen people were zeroes. This of course, broke his heart. So he went home that night and prayed. He heard nothing from God. The next morning he woke up and God spoke to him. God said, “I am One. And when you put a One in front of a Zero, you have ten. And you put another Zero after that you have a hundred and then a thousand. With me,” God said, “the Karen are never Zeroes!”

With God no one is a Zero. Not even the ignorant person who had no idea to whom he was speaking. We are all of us God’s people. God’s children. God’s beloved. We must hold before us that vision of ourselves, along with the vision of the kind of people God is creating us to be.

Because you see, if we were insignificant zeroes, our spiritual ruin would not be so heartbreaking. But we are not insignificant zeroes. We are God’s people. It matters who we become.

Our biblical texts this morning describe and give examples of the kind of people God wants us to become. This is what it looks like when we “grow into salvation,” to use Peter’s phrase. This is who we will be when we grow up.

1. To begin with, we will be people filled with the Holy Spirit. This is not only a part of the vision of who are called to be. It is also the means by which we become Christlike. We are filled with the Holy Spirit.

It was said of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, that he was filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:55). And when we are filled with Holy Spirit on the inside, we will put away, as Peter said, all malice and guile and insincerity and envy and slander, and we will produce in our lives what the Bible calls fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

That is the kind of person the Holy Spirit shapes into being. And if that is not who we are becoming then something is wrong. If you want to know whether or not you are growing, ask the members of your family. That should make for a pleasant ride home. But they know us better than anyone.

The role of the Holy Spirit is crucial in our spiritual growth. Because simply trying to act more lovingly will only lead to despair. It is the work of God’s Spirit in the depths of our being that enables us to grow in Christlikeness.

2. Perhaps the most difficult part of spiritual growth is forgiving those who hurt us. We have our model both Jesus and Stephen (Acts 7:60) who, when they are being killed, ask God to forgive them and to not hold their sin against them.

Forgiveness is crucial to the spiritual life. Because we all have to live with the Hanks of the world. And while they are changing and growing, it is part of our spiritual formation to learn to forgive them as they say and do hurtful things.

We also have to remember that there is a Hank inside us all, still changing, still growing toward Christlikeness. And others will need to forgive us too.

3. A third part of the vision of the person growing into salvation is trusting God and depending upon God’s leading and guiding in your life.

Jesus said, “Do not let your heart be troubled; trust in God, trust in me” (John 14:1). The psalmist prayed, “For your name’s sake, O Lord, lead me and guide me” (Psalm 31:3). The person growing into salvation is the person leaning less and less upon their own understanding and trusting God more and more, allowing God to shape our decisions, and living more at peace in the world with a heart less troubled.

4. The fourth part of the vision has to do with living in community with others. It takes great spiritual maturity to choose to live with others and to grow together in spiritual formation. Community is hard work. You have to live with the Hanks of the world. And others have to live with the Hank inside of you. It is easier to avoid community, especially with those who are different than you. It is easier to just gather with a small group of friends.

But scripture reminds us that we are all God’s people and that the whole world is made up of God’s children. As the church, Peter says we must let ourselves be built into a spiritual house and a holy priesthood, for we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people (1 Peter 2:5,9).

A sign of growing up spiritually is to be able to live in community with others, some of whom we may not like. And in the midst of community grow in Christlikeness.

That is the vision of who God wants us to as we grow up: filled with the Holy Spirit, producing fruit of the Spirit, forgiving those who hurt us, trusting God more and more to lead and guide us, and to do so living in community with one another. In essence, we are to be people who embody the kingdom of God, the kingdom of justice and joy and righteousness.

INTENTION

The question we each must ask ourselves is whether or not this is our Intention? Do you intend to grow and change and be transformed into Christlikeness? Have you ever decided: This is the kind of person I am going to become. I’m going to bring every element of my being, working from the inside out, into harmony with the will of God and the character of Jesus.

We must intend the vision if it is to be realized.

A man meets a woman at a party, and he is stunned by her beauty. He thinks to himself, “I cannot let this women get away. I’ve got to figure out some way to create a connection.” So he says to her, “You know, I may not look like much, but my father is a very wealthy man, and he’s in bad health. He’s an old guy. He’s not going to live more than two years at the most. And when he dies, I will be worth fifty million dollars.” Well, you can tell the woman is impressed. She asks for his business card. Three days later he gets a note from her informing him that she is now his stepmother.

This woman caught a vision. Then she set her intentions upon obtaining that vision. And then she discovered the means and method whereby to make that vision a reality.

Of course, that’s not exactly the vision, intention, and method we are striving for as we grow into salvation. But it is an example of how often we set our hearts on something and do what we have to do to make that vision a reality.

What is the vision of your life? Have you set your heart on growing toward Christlikeness? Is Christlikeness something you intend for your life?

METHOD AND MEANS

If it is, then there are methods and means by which you make your vision a reality. To grow, to change, to be more loving, forgiving, trusting, requires more than intention; it requires: one, a reliance upon the Spirit of God to work within us; and two, it requires effort on our part through spiritual disciplines and practices through which God can shape us inwardly.

It’s what Peter was talking about when he said we must long for pure spiritual milk so that we might grow into salvation (1 Peter 2:2). We long for this, Peter says, because we have “tasted the kindness of the Lord.”

He’s talking about nourishing our souls on the basics of spiritual formation: prayer, scripture, worship, reflecting on God’s goodness, meditating on the person and teachings of Jesus, setting aside the time where we can be filled with God’s Spirit.

Our actions spring from who we are inside. Our inner being has to change. The process of spiritual formation is a renovation of the mind, the emotions, the heart, the will, the spirit, the body, and the soul to the point where the entire self is organized around God and fully integrated under God.

Is that what your want for your life? Well that is why we are here: to grow together into Christlikeness. May it be our vision and intention. And may God grant us the means to make it so. Amen.
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1. John Ortberg, Laurie Pederson, Judson Poling, Fully Devoted: Living Each Day in Jesus’ Name, Zondervan, 2000, 15-16
2. Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart, NavPress, 2002, 85-91