Desire & Fight
Habit 8 of the Discipleship Guidebook is an important one! Just like all the rest… but it’s uniquely foundational to our discipleship and growth in Christ. ( Catch our peek into Habit 7 here ) Habit 8 is finding our Desire and Fight! But what does this mean?
Jesus is a radical person. There’s nothing status quo or tame about following Jesus. His call to discipleship is daring, dangerous, dynamic. Jesus isn’t interested in the surface of our lives, he’s interested in the depths of our lives. He’s after our desires—the deep motivations and longings of our hearts. If we’re not tapping into desire in our relationships, not awakening and transforming our deep wants, then our discipleship is superficial and will not bear long-term fruit. Our next step is to follow Jesus together in the arena of desire, discover what’s there, be prepared to fight sin and Satan, and take some risks.
To be human is to desire. When we fail to engage our heart’s desire we settle to pay attention to only the surface of our souls. Desire matters to God. The Bible reveals a God who wants to awaken our desire, forming disciples who worship him and enjoy abundant life from a place of desire and delight, instead of duty or drudgery. The problem is that because of desires gone sideways, most Christian community settles for the tame territory of behavior modification. We don’t let one another get away with that. At the time of writing, last weekend’s sermon by Youth Director Max discusses the desires of Mary and Judas in John 12. Catch it here. Garden City’s culture is one of learning to awaken, surface, and pay attention to our deep desires so that Jesus can meet us in the deep drive of our heart and form our desires towards what is most Life-giving. We see Jesus practicing this culture with people when he simply and often asks: “What do you want?”, or “What are you seeking?”
“Christianity has nothing to say to the person who is completely happy with the way things are. Its message is for those who hunger and thirst—for those who desire life as it was meant to be.”
- John Eldredge
Fight Sin.
Though we are justified (Habit #4) and freed from the penalty of sin, and are set free by Jesus and the Holy Spirit to overcome the power of sin, we are not yet free from the presence of sin. Each of us have particular sins (usually stemming from our root idols, see Habit #6) that we struggle with and need to fight. Some of these are sins of commission (something we’re doing), some of these are sins of omission (something we’re not doing and ought to be doing). Discuss together 1 or 2 particular sins God is calling you to fight against, and discuss the strategies you and other Christians throughout history have found effective for fighting sin. How can you lovingly hold one another accountable in your fight against sin?
Take a look at this sermon by Justin from last year on Habit 8:
Here is the full Habit 8 in the Guidebook to flip through, too:
We also want you to have access to the whole Guidebook if you don’t already, so below is a link to download it. We have a physical Guidebook for you too, so you can scribble down your thoughts and prayers and dive into the resource in a Lifegroup! Just email Alayne and we will get you a copy!