Character Renovation Part 1
From: Convergence Teaching by CJ on Jan 11 2007
Character Renovation I
We examined New Year's resolutions, and as we were calling them out, Corrie put them on the board. After about a dozen, he labelled the two columns. One was Behaviour, and the other Values. They were all under the Behavior column.
We were then told they will NOT work. We always try to change our behaviours, but ignore changing our character where these behaviours stem from. In order to change our behaviours, we must change our character first!
If we keep trying to change our behaviour, in the end we will always be trying to explain the difference between who we are and what we have done. We say "I'm not the KIND of person that DOES THAT", when we've done something we don't like. The TRUTH is, you're exactly the kind of person that does that. If you get angry, it's because your the kind of person that gets angry. If you withhold love and forgiveness, its because your the kind of person that is hateful and unforgiving.
Your behavior doesn't determine your values, it reveals them. Or: you are what you do.
You can't avoid who you are. Ask a few people, who are you really?
There are three things we need to get over as we apply this information to our lives.
1. Most of us do not know who we really are.
2. If we do know who we are, how do we change the parts of us that are not Christ-like.
3. If we do know who we are, some of us will realize that we prefer to be anti Christ-like. What then? Repent! You' re in rebellion and salvation requires it!
How do we know who we really are?
Luke 11:33-36
33"No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. 34Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. 35Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. 36If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light."
Time for a little self-diagnosis...
Do you feel unfocused?
Sense a difference between personal and professional goals?
Grow tired of dealing with difficult or negative people in your life?
Desire more meanigful relationships with people?
Feel like your always adapting to life's changing situations?
Are you becoming apathethic, frustated and unproductive?
These are the early symptoms that there is a growing difference between who you are and who you say you are.
To help discover a more real idea of who you are, here is a model that we can all use.
A quick rundown...
This visual model divides our character into 4 parts.
1. OPEN AREA, or who we are in public. This part of us is known to ourselves and known to others.
2. BLIND AREA, These blindspots are parts of us that others know about we don't, yet.
3. HIDDEN AREA, or private space. This is the area that we keep hidden from others and sometimes think we keep hidden from God...
4. UNKNOWN, These are areas of our lives that we dont know, and that others don't either.
The Goal of all of this, is to make (as in a action verb) our public area as big as possible.
There are two ways we can achieve this.
CONFESSION AND DISCLOSURE
This means admitting more things to the people around us. This will move the horizontal line downwards, increasing our public space. It is hard to do, but once we know what we need to do, hey, that's two thirds of the battle.
FEEDBACK
Sometimes we just need to ask the people around us, who am I really, where do you think I'm fooling myself? As people tell us about ourselves, a) we will be surprised and most people will throw in a compliment or two, b) some things that we think we have kept private will prove not to be. and c) we will move the vertical line on the model towards the right, thus enlarging our public area.
Self-Awareness Develops only in Community. Or: you can't know who you are in isolation.
This leads us to a giant question. If we know there are parts of our character that are not Christ-like how do we change them?
Galations 5:16-26
16But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Character Renovation I
We examined New Year's resolutions, and as we were calling them out, Corrie put them on the board. After about a dozen, he labelled the two columns. One was Behaviour, and the other Values. They were all under the Behavior column.
We were then told they will NOT work. We always try to change our behaviours, but ignore changing our character where these behaviours stem from. In order to change our behaviours, we must change our character first!
If we keep trying to change our behaviour, in the end we will always be trying to explain the difference between who we are and what we have done. We say "I'm not the KIND of person that DOES THAT", when we've done something we don't like. The TRUTH is, you're exactly the kind of person that does that. If you get angry, it's because your the kind of person that gets angry. If you withhold love and forgiveness, its because your the kind of person that is hateful and unforgiving.
Your behavior doesn't determine your values, it reveals them. Or: you are what you do.
You can't avoid who you are. Ask a few people, who are you really?
There are three things we need to get over as we apply this information to our lives.
1. Most of us do not know who we really are.
2. If we do know who we are, how do we change the parts of us that are not Christ-like.
3. If we do know who we are, some of us will realize that we prefer to be anti Christ-like. What then? Repent! You' re in rebellion and salvation requires it!
How do we know who we really are?
Luke 11:33-36
33
Time for a little self-diagnosis...
Do you feel unfocused?
Sense a difference between personal and professional goals?
Grow tired of dealing with difficult or negative people in your life?
Desire more meanigful relationships with people?
Feel like your always adapting to life's changing situations?
Are you becoming apathethic, frustated and unproductive?
These are the early symptoms that there is a growing difference between who you are and who you say you are.
To help discover a more real idea of who you are, here is a model that we can all use.
A quick rundown...
This visual model divides our character into 4 parts.
1. OPEN AREA, or who we are in public. This part of us is known to ourselves and known to others.
2. BLIND AREA, These blindspots are parts of us that others know about we don't, yet.
3. HIDDEN AREA, or private space. This is the area that we keep hidden from others and sometimes think we keep hidden from God...
4. UNKNOWN, These are areas of our lives that we dont know, and that others don't either.
The Goal of all of this, is to make (as in a action verb) our public area as big as possible.
There are two ways we can achieve this.
CONFESSION AND DISCLOSURE
This means admitting more things to the people around us. This will move the horizontal line downwards, increasing our public space. It is hard to do, but once we know what we need to do, hey, that's two thirds of the battle.
FEEDBACK
Sometimes we just need to ask the people around us, who am I really, where do you think I'm fooling myself? As people tell us about ourselves, a) we will be surprised and most people will throw in a compliment or two, b) some things that we think we have kept private will prove not to be. and c) we will move the vertical line on the model towards the right, thus enlarging our public area.
Self-Awareness Develops only in Community. Or: you can't know who you are in isolation.
This leads us to a giant question. If we know there are parts of our character that are not Christ-like how do we change them?
Galations 5:16-26
16But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
Philippians 2:5-8
5Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
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