VENTURE ONLINE » Theology

Moral vs Spiritual Formation

danny — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:47:56 +0000

Often one of the biggest barriers to our spiritual growth can be our desire to be moral. This sounds like the opposite of what you might think: isn’t it good for our spiritual growth for us to be good people? This desire to be good, however, can be very dangerous to our spiritual growth and to the gospel. In a recent article, Dr. John Coe of Talbot Seminary talked about this danger and called it “the temptation of moral formation.” He defined it as “attempting to deal with our spiritual failure, guilt and shame by means of spiritual efforts, by attempting to perfect oneself in the power of the self.” In a recent two-week Venture sermon series, we discussed Coe’s article and the temptation of moral formation. If you did not hear these sermons, I would encourage you to listen to them. Direct links to the sermons are here:

August 2 The Temptation to be Moral
August 9 Spiritual Formation and the Cross

The gist of the message of the sermons is this: we are to give up the quest to be moral, the drive to improve ourselves and assuage our guilt and shame through our own self-improvement efforts, and we are to rest in the perfect love, perfect forgiveness, and perfect acceptance that we have in Jesus.
I encourage you to listen to the sermons because this discussion is going to be very important to much of what we will be discussing as a community moving forward in sermons, retreats, etc. Also, practically, the sermons will help:

-to define what moral formation is, and how to identify it in our lives
-to understand why we try to improve ourselves
-to be honest about our weaknesses and failures, and to run to the cross
-to experience the perfect love, forgiveness, and acceptance in Jesus
-to trust Jesus to transform us and his Spirit to strengthen us to follow him

So listen to the sermons if you haven’t, and feel free to post any discussion here as a comment.

Questions about Isaiah?

admin — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:24:53 +0000

We have been preaching through Isaiah for the past 4 months and are nearing the end of the first major section, chapters 1-39. Before we move into chapters 40-66, we are going to take one Sunday, Feb 15, to summarize what we have covered and answer any questions you may have. So please, go ahead and submit your questions. They can be questions about the passages themselves, about applications that we have discussed, about the history and culture behind Isaiah…pretty much anything that has something to do with Isaiah 1-39. You can submit your questions as comments below, or you can send them by email to danny@venture-online.org, or you can simply ask them live on Sunday morning Feb. 15.

The Difference Between Us and God

admin — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:02:42 +0000

In the sermon on Isaiah 6 this past Sunday, we were challenged to consider the differences between us and God. This is so that we can really understand why we are called to serve others, namely, for the glory of God and Christ. Three of the main differences between us and God are: first, that we are stupid, and that he has all understanding and wisdom; second, that we are sinners and that he is perfect; and third, that we are human and he is holy and divine. If you did not hear the sermon, I encourage you to listen to it here. I’ve given you some Bible passages below that will allow you to think through some of these things some more as you pray and read Scripture this week. Spend some time telling Jesus how different he is than you. Worship him and give him the glory he deserves.

We are stupid and God is wise:
Job 38-41
Isaiah 41:21-29
Colossians 2:3

We are sinners and God is perfect:
Matthew 5:48
2 Corinthians 5:21
Romans 3:11-24
Isaiah 53

We are human and God is holy, divine:
Isaiah 2:22
Psalm 90:10
John 1:1-18
Colossians 1:16-20; 2:10

Notes from Sunday’s Introduction to Isaiah

admin — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:04:44 +0000

I am posting an outline of last week’s sermon, an introduction to the book of Isaiah. Isaiah is a complex book that covers a long period in Judah’s history. Therefore having these notes on hand will be helpful. Going through Isaiah is going to be important for us. The book is a clear call to servanthood. It challenges us to deny ourselves and to trust God to provide for us and give us strength to serve and love others. Here are the notes:

Isaiah: A Call to Servanthood

Summary of 10/19 Intro Sermon

I. Nature of the Book

Anthology of the prophet Isaiah’s speeches

Prophecy as Foretelling and Forth-telling

History

II. Settings of the Book of Isaiah

Chapters 1-39: 740-701 B.C.

Chapters 40-55: around 520 B.C. (Babylonian exile)

Chapters 56-66: 500 B.C. or later (after the exile)

III. Summary of Contents

1-5 Is this your servant? Israel’s terrible condition

6 Commissioning of Isaiah to service

7-39 The Lord is trustworthy

7-12 History: Failure to trust the Lord

13-23 God is sovereign over nations

24-27 The Lord is judge and king

28-35 Don’t trust the nations!

36-39 History: Hezekiah trusts the Lord

40-55 To the exiles: God has chosen you to serve.

56-66 To the returnees from exile: God strengthens you for service.

IV. Major Themes

Greatness of God

Judgment and Redemption

Pride of Humanity (and its consequences)

Preparation of God’s people for service

V. Challenges for Us

Religion is not to satisfy our needs.

Pride is stupid.

Our view of God is weak.

We foolishly trust things other than God.

We are to live for others, the poor, lowly.

We are all chosen, called to serve.

Assignments for Husbands and Wives

admin — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:39:25 +0000

Just a reminder of the assignments that we given in the past two sermons about marriage from Ephesians 5:22-33. Husbands, you are to 1) take your wives out on a date and tell why you love them, 2) talk to your wives about where you are in your spiritual life right now (and ask her about where she is), and 3) express to her that, apart from Christ, she is first in your life, and then talk to her about how you are doing with that.

Wives, remember, you are to write three “respect” letters or notes to your husbands that say, “I respect you because…”

IMPORTANT CORRECTION from Sunday’s sermon

admin — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 19:07:51 +0000

I made a mistake in the sermon this morning. In a discussion for how wives are supposed to be a higher prioroty for husbands than other things (espcially career), I made a statement like this: “I talk to guys in ministry and they say, ‘Ministry first, Jesus first’, but that’s wrong. Your wife comes first.” Well, it was a mistake for me to say that our wives are more important than Jesus. This is not true. Jesus is certainly a higher priority for husbands (in ministry or not) than their wives. I had not planned on making this statement (and I did not even realize that I did say it until about 5 people approached me after the sermon about it). So please forgive me. I do not want to mislead you about this. Pursuing Christ and your relationship with him is the chief priority of everyone, including husbands.

At the same time, I think it is important that wives are a higher priority than anything else other than Christ, even more important than any ‘ministry’ that a husband might do (the actual point I was trying to make). If we are to truly love our wives and give ourselves for them sacrificially (Eph 5:25), then our wives have to be our highest priority (apart from Christ). And while the pull of career and achievement and ministry is so strong for husbands, they have to prioritize thier wives above those things.

Again, I aplogize for any confusion this caused you. Thanks a lot for your patience with me. Danny

Does Venture have a culture of service?

admin — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 12:53:39 +0000

We just returned from the Venture Fall Retreat. As a reminder for those who went, and to let the people who did not go on the retreat know about it, I would like to make a few posts over the next couple of weeks to summarize what was talked about and discussed. It was a great weekend. More spcifically, it was a challenging weekend. We were challenged to create a culture of service within the Venture ministry that helps us to grow together in Christ and to love and serve the world around us. The topic of today’s post is actually a question. It is a question that was raised on the retreat to help us start thinking about having a culture of service. The question is: does Venture have a culture of service right now?

The answer to that question, I think, is “not really.” We have pockets of service here and there, and we have a few people who really understand it and get it. Overall, however, I think we have a long way to go. (I think this became very clear when we discussed what a culture of service actually looks like. We’ll get to that a few posts from now.) And as I said on the retreat, it’s really my fault. As pastor of this group, I have done a poor job of emphasizing the need and importance of it. And when I have talked about it, I have not done a good job of following up with it. That is why we made creating a culture of service the topic of our retreat.

And I began the weekend by giving everyone the following list of questions to help them think through their own attutude and posture towards service. Please take a minute to carefully read through these questions, and ask God to search your heart about your own attitude towards service. Just as a hint, you should know that almost all of these answers are bad and do not reflect a culture of service.

What statement best describes your present posture towards Venture?

1. It is a place designed by IBC for me and people my age so that we can grow spiritually and have a community.

2. It is place for me to meet friends and people I can spend time with.

3. It is the place where I can serve Christ and love people.

4. I’m not sure.

5. Why do I care? When is the next fun event?

How do you feel when you are asked or challenged to serve in some way? What is your gut/first response?

1. Why are they asking me to do their job?

2. I can’t do that. I don’t have that gift.

3. AGAIN!?! Why can’t you find someone else?

4. I don’t have time. I’m too busy.

5. I’ve paid my dues. I’ve done enough serving for this ministry. It’s time for me to relax and enjoy.

6. I need to be investing my time in school, my marriage, my job, etc.

7. I need to grow more spiritually before I can do this.

Assuming that you would want to serve, how do you know where to serve?

1. I’ll just wait until someone tells me what to do.

2. I’ll do what I’m good and gifted at.

3. I’ll do what I enjoy most.

4. Whatever. Sign me up.

5. I will do what I can do when I have some time.

6. I will serve only where it’s easy for me. If it is hard, I should not have to be serving there.

What would you think/say if asked to take leadership or ownership in something in Venture where you would have to recruit and/or serve with others?

1. That’s too much of a commitment for me.

2. I can do this, but lead it? Nope.

3. I don’t want to contact or reach out to people I don’t know because it is hard.

4. I’m too busy with work.

5. That’s the job of the Venture staff.

6. I’m not qualified to lead in this way. I need experience.

7. I don’t want to. Stop bugging me. I don’t care enough.

In the next post, I will talk a bit about why it is important that we have a culture of service in Venture. Is it because I want to do less work or because I want other people to do my job? Or is there a greater reason?