The Easy Yoke

If you are a Christian today, like me, you are on a journey of spiritual formation in the way of the Master. We have called it Wayform at NorthernLife. Spiritual formation in the way of the Master.

We're planning on spending the next 10 weeks considering this important subject matter, exploring Christian spiritual formation. It's probably a really a fancy way to talk about discipleship.

It's actually the process which is underpinning discipleship. And there's going to be a topical sense about the style of sermon. If you've been around here for a bit, we've been heavily working through Deuteronomy and lots of other biblical books.

Of course, we will be based in scripture, but it's going to be a different type of series, what we might call more topical. Many of us are familiar with the Great Commission, is that correct? Go into all the world and make disciples.

It's a profoundly important statement that Jesus made just before he ascended back to heaven after his task was completed. He had died and risen again, been with his disciples for some weeks and then he returned.

But just before he left, he said, go, go and make disciples.

And as good evangelicals, we hear, go into all the world and preach that gospel, the perfect life, perfect death and resurrection of Christ, and the fact that by faith in him, we can be forgiven and live forever.

Go and by the grace of God and the power of the Spirit, convert the world, reach them for Christ. Repent and believe the good news. The emphasis is evangelism.

Go into all the world and as fine Baptists, anyone a fine Baptist here? You know, we love to hear and baptise them. In the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

So we love that part. And then we remember that wonderful line, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. And we're reminded, you know, as we go into this evangelistic endeavour, it's Jesus who is with us and we're comforted by that.

That's the great commission. But there is another part that's been referred to as the great omission. Do you know what that part is?

Where Jesus says, yes, go into all the world, tell them about me and teach them to live the way I said they could live. It's been an omission in the church. Teach them all that I commanded you to do.

And in fact, that means live the way that I lived. Teach them how to become like Jesus. Teach them the way of the master.

Teach them how to be formed spiritually, so that good fruit would come out of the good that is inside of them. That's what happens, isn't it, when someone becomes a Christian? We say they're born again.

There's a radical life changing transformation that happens deep within them at a spiritual level. And then over time, there is a progressive transformation into the likeness of Christ. Amen.

Jesus said in Luke 6, no good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its fruit.

In verse 45, a good man brings good things out of the good stood up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil out of the evil stood up in his heart, for the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. Followers of Jesus are changed from the inside out.

It's what Ezekiel was prophesying about, where he said that God is proclaiming in 36, 26 of Ezekiel, I'm gonna give you a new heart.

A day will come that I'll put a new spirit inside of you, and then at the end, there's something very important, and my spirit in you will teach you to walk according to my statutes from the inside out.

There is a transformation that is meant to happen. And so what is this high-faluting word? Two words, spiritual formation.

Spiritual formation in the tradition of the Lord Jesus Christ is the process of transformation of the inmost dimension of the human being, the heart, in essence, the spirit, or will.

It's being transformed in such a way that its natural expression comes to be the deeds of Christ done in the power of Christ. In everyday language, that is, spiritual formation is becoming like Jesus in our actions.

Not just an idea, not just a ticket to get into heaven when we put our faith in Christ, repent and believe, but we are changed people. You know, Christian maturity. What is Christian maturity?

Is it that you can walk down a pathway of temptation and you're so skilled at fighting off every temptation. It's coming at you, you're fired it off.

Well, sometimes, but true godliness, Christian spirit, Christian maturity, growth in Christ's likeness is over time, you're less tempted by the same things that used to tempt you. Is that fair to say?

There is a growth in Christ's likeness such that the devil doesn't have an access to me like he did anymore. Now, this is not saying that we are going to become perfect, not at all, but there is a progression.

And so I think one of the biggest questions we have regarding spiritual formation is, okay, if I'm meant to become more and more like Jesus, is there something for me to do in that process? Well, what's God's part and what's my part?

Jesus did say in John 15 verse 5, apart from me, you can do nothing. And we know that we can't earn our salvation. It's a gift.

We receive it by faith. But you know, it's true to flip that around. It's true.

If you do nothing, it will be without me. Christianity is not a call to do nothing.

It's to receive the gift of righteousness in Christ by grace through faith and then appropriately act and exert effort in a Christ-like direction led by the Spirit of God.

It's all over the New testament, this idea of effort, not to earn, but to become. Paul writes in that classic life transformation passage in Colossians 3 verse 5. He says, put to death, therefore whatever belongs to your earthly nature.

And the question is, who is putting the death? Who is putting things to death? It's clearly me.

Sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires. You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived, but now who must? You must rid yourselves of all such things as these.

Anger, rage, malice, slander. Now, we're not going to do that in our own strength. We're going to do that by the grace of Jesus.

But there's a part to play. So spiritual formation is this constant tension, this question. So what's God's part and what's my part?

David read for us this passage in 2 Peter 1.3, which is like the gold standard of spiritual formation of passages.

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who has called us by his own glory and goodness. How does that verse alone stand up with? I'm just a miserable worm.

I'm a sinner constantly. Nothing but a sinner. It flies in the face of that.

No one's saying that we're not sinners, but as Christians, we are called saints. Amen. We're called children of the living God.

We are clothed in whose righteousness? The perfect son of God, Jesus Christ. We're clothed in him.

We've been given everything we need for life and godliness, spiritual formation towards christlikeness. Through these, he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them, the promises, the truth, you may do what?

Participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, do what?

Make every effort to add to your faith, goodness, and to goodness, knowledge, and to knowledge, self-control, self-control, perseverance, to perseverance, godliness, and to godliness, mutual affection, to mutual affection, love.

Grace is not opposed to effort. Grace is opposed to earning.

The Bible constantly tells us, certainly it's all through Deuteronomy, choose to stop, choose to start, choose to obey, to put in the effort required by the grace of God to become who we are called to be, who we actually are by faith.

Spiritual formation is the journey of Christianity, a changed heart, renewed mind, a learned way. So throughout this series, Lord willing, we get to teach this series and sort of immerse ourselves in these questions. The rub, as it were, is effort.

The tension is, I thought the gospel was a gift, as I just said before. Aren't you meant to just rest? Why would there be work if I can't earn anything?

But that's the tension. There is something to do.

But before you get caught up in striving and guilt and failure and all that, spiritual formation in the way of the Master is built on top of this verse, many verses, but this one importantly, Matthew 11, 28 to 30.

these words have to flow over us if we're going to do this well. Jesus says to the disciples, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened. And he says this not just to the disciples, it's to the world.

You weary and burdened, come to me and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. Learn from me.

It's a way. For I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Christianity does involve effort, but Jesus describes this effort as an easy yoke. He offers us rest. rest for the hamsters on the wheel.

Anybody feel like a hamster on the wheel? Life is busy. rest from constantly striving to achieve more, to gather more, to climb higher, to fight off that enemy whilst avoiding that one, depending on what time in history you lived in.

The master of the way says, come and sup with me. Are you burdened? What a timeless call, don't you reckon?

It just doesn't matter what time in history you live. We tend to say, oh, no one's been as busy as we are. Well, life-threatening challenges were maybe more common throughout most of history.

The burden of trying to find peace in one's life has always been there. And Jesus says, are you weary and burdened? I'm not going to give you another burden.

I'll give you rest, rest for your souls, rest in the deepest part of who you are as a human being. Can I ask you, who really enjoys sleep? You're meant to enjoy sleep.

If you don't enjoy sleep, you're too busy. You love doing stuff, and that's a good thing. But has anyone had that experience where you wake up a bit too early?

I had this the other day, I think it was a Saturday a few weeks ago. I woke up a bit too early, and I couldn't get back to sleep, and then I did go back to sleep, and when I went back to sleep, it was like an anethetist came and put me down to sleep.

And I was out of it for a couple of hours, and I woke up, and I was like... Just groggy, but wonderfully groggy, you know what I mean? And it just struck me, I think that's what He's offering us, not to be groggy, but to be truly refreshed.

That's what the Greek word for this rest means. Work is paused, and you are refreshed. Jesus says, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Who is the offer to come to? This is really important for spiritual formation. Who is the offer to come to?

He doesn't say, come to church. Come to the commandments. Come to the ministry or ministry center.

He says, come to me. And there's more than just me who needs to hear that today. You might be here today, and I know you are.

Someone's here who needs to hear that. Jesus, He says, come to me. Come to Jesus.

You have to come to a bunch of rules, to a burden, to be something that you can't be. Come to Jesus and you will find what you are looking for. That's the core of spiritual formation.

Come to Jesus, the person. He's God, He's man, He's Savior King. Come and be yoked with Him.

And that's what John's Gospel is all about. John's Gospel is very clear. You don't come to Jesus to transaction something from Him, life, and then go on with your life.

John's Gospel says, no, you come to sup with Jesus constantly because he or she who has Jesus has life. And the opposite is true. He or she who does not have Jesus does not have life.

So the life we have as Christians is only there if Jesus is in us and with us, amen. Life, the Christian life, the way is the with God life. It's with Jesus.

And we've talked about this lots of times. I'm just going to mention it very briefly. The yoke is the idea of the two oxen, an old oxen, a young oxen.

And Jesus says, come and put this piece of wood around you. Look, I'll teach you the unhurried rhythms of grace. You don't want to go crooked or tooth.

You need to know the cadence of life, Jesus is saying. I'm going to show you how to do enough because God's not going to ask you to do too much that you can't fit in. But I'll show you, come here, come on.

I'll show you how to do it. Isn't it a wonderful picture of Christianity rather than get saved, come to the front, get a prayer, and then you're on your own? It's not that it's a way of the master.

It's to be with Jesus and learn in relationship what this life is all about. It's an apprenticeship. And we'll throw out words that are important to carry with us.

apprentices of Jesus, that's who we are. We're learning the way of the master. And so importantly in spiritual formation, when you see a progression towards christlikeness, what would you off the top of your head say the end result of our actions is?

It's always love, it's love. Second Peter 1, 7, to godliness, add mutual affection to mutual affection, love. Colossians 3, that awesome passage we've talked about just earlier.

Bear with each other and forgive one another, all this stuff that's challenging. If any of you has a grievance against someone, learn the way of the master. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

And over all these virtues put on love because it binds them all together. The end result is always love, the fruit of the spirit. At NorthernLife, we've talked about this picture, these concentric circles, often over the years.

And it's a really wonderful picture for this body, this life we're living, and some of the components that need to be brought under the will of Christ. At the core, you have, it's really like an ordering of executive power in person's life.

At the start, there's the heart, the will, the spirit, which needs to come alive, and it's really the driver right at the core of us.

And then the mind, the emotions, the body, the social context, and an order of executive power might sound like this. God renews us at the deepest place, and this changes and renews and reframes and reorders our thoughts.

If you just look at this as I talk, which affects our emotions, and then affects the actions of our body, and how we interact with our social context, can you see how that can easily get flipped?

Especially in a world of social media, where the directive comes from the social context. Are you with me? It's flipped around exactly the opposite way.

And we do whatever our body desires, because body is boss for whatever socially we're told is normal. And then that drives our emotions, and lagging behind is our mind, and our spirit heart transformed will. Jesus calls us to see this transformed.

It's exactly what Matthew 11 in the message translation is talking about. Let me read from it. Some of us are familiar with it.

The same passage read in a different way. Are you tired, worn out, burned out on religion? Jesus says, come to me.

Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me.

Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.

Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly. What Jesus uses to teach us the way of the master is the golden triangle of spiritual formation. It's a hang with me.

We're not moving. It's a little bit topical, I know, but it really is the essence of understanding spiritual transformation. When we say whole gospel at the top, it's more than a sin management gospel.

Sin management gospel is all I get from the Lord is my sins forgiven and a ticket to heaven. But we know it's not just the death and resurrection, it's his life that allowed Christ to be the perfect sacrifice.

And he says to his disciples, go and tell the world how I lived, how I commanded you to live. So when we say the whole gospel, it's a life transforming gospel that takes us all the way through to heaven and the new earth. But not just sin management.

Me becoming the way Jesus said I could become. How does that happen? Well, it happens through habits of the way, which is sometimes called spiritual disciplines.

Things like study, prayer, worship, service, giving, submission, solitude, silence. Don't hear me saying we earn our way in that. It is Jesus plus nothing.

Amen. Nothing added. But learning the way of the master is part of becoming like Christ.

And the other part that we sometimes forget, what james told us about, is trials and temptations and persecution and suffering is sort of part of the deal.

It's completely naive to think you're going to be, I'm going to become like Jesus without trials. It doesn't work that way. Jesus himself learned obedience through suffering.

So we have to remember this process of transformation from the inside out will involve us learning habits, habits of Christianity, and it will involve those habits helping us by God's grace deal with in godly ways the trials and temptations and

hardships that life brings. james says in chapter one, verse two, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because God's doing something in it. You know the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. And that mature word is teleos, which means perfect. This is how we become more and more like Jesus, through the tough stuff.

So spiritual formation is this process of the gospel working through us from the inside out.

And what is a super important part of this discipleship journey is the will, the will, the will of a human being might be called the executive center of the self. It's very, very important. babies learn that they have a will, don't they?

And about two or three years old, they grab that will and go, I'm coming with my will. And I'm going to let you know, I have desire and I will have my way. My will will be exerted.

And it tends to be, it tends to be from a baby, it's quite externally driven. I want that. I don't want that.

I'm just expressing my will and it's often called the vital will or impulsive will. I want this. It's pretty clear that impulsive will is not a mature way to live your life, yes?

It's just not. But there's another type of will called the reflective will. And it's oriented toward what is good for the person as a whole.

It takes a little bit longer to form this. It's not just what I want, not what I desire.

The reflective will engages in a conflict that we are all too aware of as human beings, the conflict between good and bad, or good and the not so good, or the good and the better. And there's an angst that goes on in this reflective will.

Now think about this. I think I've got this as a quote up here, that this is a key thought.

Well, when you bring the reflective will to life in Christ, and add the instruction of the Bible and the person of Christ through his Spirit, along with the fellowship of the body of Christ, you then have the capacity to live in such a way that God

is glorified in everything you do. does that make sense? Because if the will is the executive power of your life, that's the thing that needs to be transformed and brought under the will of Christ.

And when that happens more and more, and our will is a Christ-flavoured, godly, kingdom-oriented will, it's possible to live the way Paul says we can live in Colossians 3.

Whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

We look over these passages, that we can become, not perfect, but we are living in such a way that our will is being transformed so that it's coming out in a more automated way. And this is actually what tends to happen.

The tricky thing about the will is that one of these two wills tends to get embodied in a person to a place of automation. Would you agree? If you're not careful, that impulsive will will be embodied inside of your life.

Or is it going to be more the reflective will? This is the challenge that I think people have all the time. And in the back of our minds, we should be looking at the picture of the diagram.

I think I've got it there. There is impulsive will, the baby will, do whatever the desire wants. And there's a reflective will.

But either one will get down into our body in such a way that it's automated. Are you with me? So this is what Peter the Apostle had.

He had an automated will, an impulsive will, to protect himself. As much as he wanted to be courageous and stand up for Jesus, it took a little girl to just say, you were with him, you're an associate. And he says, no, I wasn't, no, I wasn't.

Because that will had not found a way into him. And this is what's happening in what you might call an epidermal sort of response level, which is that surface level when you drive your car.

And that person has a disproportionate response to you of anger. It's because their impulsive will is living in their body ready to go. And we can be exactly the same.

Because our will is living because it's in embodied. It's ready at the. Like we get hurt and the impulsive will says, I'm going to hurt you back.

We get insulted. I'm going to hurt you. I'm going to insult you back.

That's the thing that we're working on in spiritual formation, to allow the Spirit of Christ and the power of the Word of God to speak into what is embodied in us in automated ways.

Christian spirituality is the process through which the embodied, reflective will takes on the character of Christ's will, the deep level change, which ironically is all about our bodies. This stuff sounds so highfalutin in spiritual, doesn't it?

Spiritual formation, oh yeah, naval gazes. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Spiritual formation, getting the truth of the way of the master into my mind and my heart and my will, and then living out through repetitive action into my body, it's exactly that, it's a bodily thing.

It's so to do with the practical, the learned way of the master. So, I guess we're scratching the surface on a big area that we're going to explore a bit over the next 10 weeks. I want to finish with something very practical.

One of the most challenging things we all have to deal with in dealing with life is anxiety. And anxiety tends to be something about control. I'm not an expert in it.

Some of us in the room are, but one thing we need to learn in managing this life of ours is learning to hand outcomes over to God. Abandoning outcomes to God. When we truly come to Christ and we say, you know what?

This day, I'm going to live in the yoke of Christ. You're not going to make me do more than I can handle. So there's a part for me to play in this issue I'm dealing with, and there's your part, God.

So I'm only going to stress about my part, and then I'm handing over the outcome to you. Amen? I'm going to abandon the outcome to you, and that's a process.

So how do you get that at a deep level? Well, one of the deepest level routine things we do, what do you reckon is one of the most deep level routine things? Hey?

Prayer, physically. Breathing. There's not too much.

I'm sure the doctors in the room would tell me there's something more than this. But like breathing is pretty close to something that's a habit. It's a wonderful habit to keep doing.

And physically, breathing is like going into my lungs. But I know enough to know that it's taking oxygen through red blood cells, I think, to the rest of my body.

So prayer and the renewal of the will through the presence of Christ and the Word of God, it's a bit like breathing, which is pretty cool, because wind, breath, spirit, all the same Greek and Hebrew words.

So those who have tried to learn the art of the way of the Master have found breath prayers helpful. And I'm one of them. I've found it to be really helpful.

Breath prayers are just having a prayer that you breathe in when you wake up at 4 o'clock. Is anyone up at 4 o'clock with me? Yeah, we wake up at 4 and we start stressing about things you can't change.

What do you do? Let me encourage you. Start breathing breath prayers.

And when you breathe in, you say something, and when you breathe out, you say something else. And you learn to have that rhythm with Jesus. That which is so deep, it's hard to even process, but it's just the truth.

When I think about the most anxious prayer ever given, ever given in the history of the human race, there is nothing that comes close to this one prayer. Jesus has already in the garden said, not my will, but yours be done.

It's not an impulsive will that's going to take me to the cross. It's a reflective will. It's a submission of will.

But then he gets to the cross, and he is about to die and go to hell in our place. He's about to be separated from the Father for the first time in all eternity. And what is his prayer at that moment to abandon outcomes to God?

He says, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. So I would put it to you, if you need to abandon outcomes to God, and we all do at times, there is no more powerful prayer than that.

So I can encourage you, not just at 4am, but when you feel your heart beat racing because you just don't know what to do with the outcome that you can't control, say, breathe in and say, Father, into your hands I commit and label it, name it.

If it's a person who's causing you grief, it's a child that you're praying for, for salvation, it's a situation that's happening in your life. Father, into your hands I commit this. I just leave that with you, encourage you.

We need to find how to access the power of the way of the master. And it's through Jesus. It's not through anyone else.

It's not through some new age practice or something weird and wonderful. Don't hear it the wrong way. It's just we need to find out how to become more like Jesus.

And Jesus' abandoned outcomes to God. So that's one practical way. Father, into your hands, breathing in, I commit my frustration.

I commit my fear. I commit. Can you see why we're starting these four spiritual commitments this week?

It makes sense for this journey of spiritual formation, which I know so many of us are well and truly on, and you're further along the journey. And the ones that are further along the journey have lived a tough life. I can bet you that.

They've learned this through the process of that Golden Triangle. Sup, I will stop and listen. I need to stop and just think, Lord, how do I even process the fact that you're with me?

You know, I talk to you out loud. That's what it is, working out, how do I stop and listen? How do I sup with the Lord?

Salt, I'm going to make a difference because this is what I've been called for. I've been transformed that I might be the hands and feet of Jesus.

Scripture, of course, I'm going to try my best to dwell in the Word, learn the unforced rhythms of grace. And Sunday, I do my best to go to church on Sunday and be encouraged by the people of God. Wave form.

What do you see? What do you see happening in our church, through our church? Can we dream?

Can we dream of what Christ would see formed in us as community and then what that would do out into the world? And what does that mean for your life?

We see people transformed from the inside out by the grace of God and through our appropriate effort in the Easy Yoke. Is there an amen? What a privilege it is to be on this journey.

Maxi, it's the truth, isn't it? What a privilege to be on this journey of becoming more and more like Jesus. Come to me, Jesus said, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Lord Jesus, we thank you that you're here with us, closer than we could ever imagine by your Spirit, and we're your people, and Lord, some here don't even know you as Lord and Saviour, and we pray that you would reveal yourself powerfully to them,

today, tomorrow, soon as possible, that blind eyes might see. For those of us who are on the journey, we want to submit ourselves to becoming the church that you would be proud of, the church that you can shape and mould and give tasks for the

kingdom to. We want to be that church that you can trust. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

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