Sermon Cloud

Yesterday I paged through the sports section of the GR Press and noticed something. You can hardly find an article about an athlete that doesn't mention his or her coach. Read about a successful athlete or a winning team, and you‘ll hear about the successful, winning coach behind the victory. An athlete without a coach is like a defendant without an attorney. You're free to stand alone and make it up as you go, but I've never heard of anyone winning that way!

b. We're participating in a national study called REVEAL. Several years ago, Willow Creek Church in greater Chicago launched a study of its own ministry and how the church could better help its members grow toward spiritual maturity-that place in life in which men and women do not just go to a lot of meetings or know a lot about the Bible or kick all their bad habits, but are consistently growing in their love for God and other people. One of the insights of the REVEAL study is that there are several passages in every Christian's faith journey in which we all need some personal coaching-a personal trainer, a mentor, a sponsor, a coach.

There are times in our lives when what we most need is a class or a conference, a small group or a counselor. There are times when we just need to settled down and develop consistency in Sunday worship and instruction. But, there are a couple passages in the journey in which many Christians stumble and get stuck. The way forward, generally is not more meetings or better music or preaching or therapy. The way forward requires a coach-a different set of eyes and ears, a different perspective on what's going on, courageous counsel, wise planning, and fairly stiff discipline . . . over an extended period of time. Over the past couple Sundays we've been talking about different

PASSAGES IN OUR FAITH JOURNEY

1. Exploring Jesus-brand spirituality. Jesus himself declared, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one come to the Father except through me". Either Jesus was right or he was wrong, but it he was right all paths do not lead to the top of the mountain. There is only one way to find God, and his name is Jesus. As a church, we think generic spirituality is just a sugar pill, sweet but powerless to connect you with God; we only promote Jesus-brand spirituality.

2. Deciding to trust and follow Jesus. Jesus once said to people like us, "Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me". Jesus isn't looking for fans/donors/voters/clients/supporters; he's calling us to be followers. Men and women who trust him enough to follow him, obey him, and join his cause. Real faith in Jesus shows up in a life of following Jesus' teaching and example. Last Sunday we considered the third passage . . .

3. Inviting Jesus into my struggles, sins, and secrets. Almost all of us come to a point in which going to meetings, giving money, singing songs, listening to sermons, and attending classes loses its zing. In the midst of all our church activities, deeply personal struggles, sins, and secrets begin to bubble up and create a lot of discouragement and pain for us and for the people who love us. We had hoped that these struggles, sins, and secrets would go away, but they didn't. Depression returns. . . the old eating disorder is back . . . the short-tempered rage is back . . . the constant temptation to shift blame returns . . . the pull of porn, the hankering for Jack Daniels or prescription pain killers-they're back. Maybe you're overeating again, or charging up another credit card, or just being lazy and undisciplined and lying to the people you say you love. When the old stuff comes back, it's time to take your faith to a new level and invite Jesus into the real stuff. There's no other path to spiritual maturity. You can't stay in childhood forever.

This passage is almost like adolescence. It's time to change and grow up. Teens generally don't need more parenting; actually, they resent it. What they need are scary, adult challenges and coaching that calls them to stand up and give their best. Many of us can look back on our teen years with real gratitude to a high school coach who refused to let us whine and blame others; coaches call the best out of us.

In Philippians 2, the Apostle Paul comes on like a hard-charging coach and challenges Christians like us to grow up . . . to stop relating to life or even to church like a child. It's time to take on the adult responsibility to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Yes, it's frightening to invite Jesus into our struggles and secrets, but it's what maturing Christians do. They tell someone about the real stuff, and ask for prayer about that stuff. They look around for another guy or gal who seems to be consistently growing in love for God and others, and they ask for coaching. Together with their coach, they form a plan to deal with the real, ugly stuff, and they work on the plan together.
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As I shared this talk last Sunday, one of my home group members, Joni, was smiling and nodding at me from start to finish. Joni has agreed to come up this morning and tell you a little bit of her story and how big a part of her story coaching has been and continues to be. You might think that there is another path for you-something other than personal coaching-because you're different, because you're better or worse, stronger or weaker than ordinary folks. I hope that, after meeting Joni this morning, you'll reconsider and say, "I want to have a story like Joni's".
Questions and Discussion Help for Home Group Leaders

Last Sunday, Ray talked again about how important it is for Christians who are stalled or stuck to seek out a personal coach, to ask for help in overcoming personal struggles, sins, and secrets. The key Bible text was Philippians 2:12-13. To make his point, Ray interviewed a VN church member named Joni.

Have any of the things you heard last Sunday-from Ray or Joni- stayed with you?

In all that you heard last Sunday, do you think God was trying to communicate something to you personally? What do you think God was saying to you about your life?

Would any of you be willing to come out into the open and say, "I think I'm stuck; I think I need some personal coaching?"

If VN is going to be a church that provides growing Christians with coaches during difficult seasons in their lives, we're all going to have to re-think our part in church life-even in our home group. In the Recovery Movement that Joni talked about, everyone has a coach and is a coach. Coaching is a shared lifestyle. Are you ready to become someone else's spiritual life coach? Why or why not?

A week earlier, Ray described a simple coaching model that he called "The Pyramid of Power". He said that the foundation is a decision-a decision to take personal responsibility to act, regardless of what anyone else might do. The three points of the triangle are a) PRAY-ask for personal prayer for specific struggles and secrets, b) PARTNER-ask another Christian to be your growth partner or coach, and to begin by telling you what they see and hear, c) PLAN-together with your growth partner, form a strategic plan for establishing accountability and overcoming these private struggles. How is this "Pyramid of Power" coaching formula different than getting together with a Christian friend just to encourage him or her or to pray for healing?

End this discussion by reading I Corinthians 9:24-27. The context for this passage is a larger discussion of Christian freedom (see vv. 1 & 19). We're all free to decide to keep our struggles and sins private. We don't have to reveal the truth about ourselves. No one is going to kick us out of the church for having private struggles. It's our privilege to stay stuck, if we choose to stay stuck! But, Paul reminds us of what we all know: Olympic athletes don't settle for being in the game; they don't settle for running in circles around a track. They want to be the best they can be and to win! So, they train hard. Paul says that they go into strict training . . . and even in ancient times, with a coach.

Building on the Olympic metaphor, Paul concludes by saying that he doesn't want to get to the end of his life, having talked to everyone about running hard and going for the gold, only to be disqualified for the prize because he didn't train with a gold medal vision, attitude, or commitment.

Can we agree that we really do want to help each other, as home group members, to develop gold medal character, marriages, finances, and ministries? Can we agree that if anyone in this room needs a coach, and asks us for help, we'll serious consider their request? Let's do it!