Intro: One of Greatest Challenges of All Time is Climbing Mt. Everest, the Highest Mountain in the World.

· 150 people have died climbing Mr. Everest - 1 dies for every 3.5 that make it.
· At 5 Miles High, Winds 177 Miles per hour
· Warmest days are still well below freezing
· Avalanches
· Falls

Today if I told you we were going to take a plane to Mt. Everest tomorrow and try to climb that mountain, you would think I was crazy. There's no way you would entertain that idea. You would say that would be an impossible task for you and I. You would know that we would not physically or mentally be able to do it. Why? Because we haven't trained to do it, have we? We wouldn't dare try to do it because we know we wouldn't stand a chance.

Ever heard of Tom Whittaker? He's an Arizona man who climbed to the top of Mt. Everest in 1998. What makes his climb so special? Tom's climb was all the greater because he made it an on artificial foot. He is the world's first amputee to reach the summit.

I'm sure before Tom could climb Mt. Everest he had to train for hours to get his body used to scaling mountains in all types of weather. He had to train for long periods for endurance. Not to mention eating correctly and excercising to stay in shape. Mental preparation would also be a big part of the process. Training would be the only way to take on such a huge challenge.

Tom Whittaker is a personal trainer these days. But he doesn't train people so much to climb physical mountains, as to think like a mountain climber - learning to mount the challenges and obstacles they face each day. He trains people to transform their way of thinking and acting, so they can take on those obstacles and reach the summit. What Tom teaches is that training leads to transformation.

Today we can take Tom's advice to heart in our journey to reach the summit. We learn from the Bible that if we have enough faith, we can "move mountains." So we keep trying our best to have that kind of faith don't we. We assume we can reach that goal by trying to be more like Christ. As you read your Bible and spiritual books, and pray and participate in worship, listening to sermons, you become more aware of how your life doesn't quite exhibit Christ-like love, forgtiveness, peace, and joy. So you decide to try harder. But day after day, nothing much changes. You struggle with the same sins, attitudes, problems, and routines that have hampered our Christian walk.

For example - Patience - I struggle with being patient. I tell myself I'm going to try to be more patient with my wife and children. But then, no matter how hard I try, my patience runs thin. Ever tried to be patient with a 4 yr. old and an 8 yr. old when they are doing everything but what you told them to do? I can't be more patient without being transformed in that area of my life. Transformation requires that I go into patience training. It's not going to happen overnight just because I received Christ into my life as my Savior. That was the first step toward transformation. But each day that I wake up I must train to keep Christ at the center of my life. What I mean by this is that I must be willing to do those things that would help me grow each day to be more Christ-like.

Remember last week when I shared with the children that I like to think of butterflies as beautiful caterpillars? When a caterpillar spins its caccoon and is waiting to become a butterfly, its organs break down into a liquid form and imaginal cells began to direct the liquid to change shape and become a butterfly. This change is miraculous - just like the change that occurs when the Holy Spirit enters into our lives. Whet the Holy Spirit is invited into your life, Christ enters your heart and started the transformation. The Holy Spirit is like the imaginal cells in the caterpillar - it directs the change that starts to take place. It begins to change you at the very core.

I like to think of it as the DNA of the heart. Nothing but the Spirit of God can gring this change. What is the transformation's full result?
Look at Galations 5:22 - "Fruit of the Spirit" : love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, & self-control.

How many of us exhibit these characteristics naturally without God's help. How many us can achieve all these simply by trying to do then 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?
It doesn't work that way, does it? These fruit are the result of becoming more Christ-like through training, not trying. And there are others goals that Christ gavus us too - forgiveness, giving, serving, self-sacrifice. What Christ enters into our lives we have the possibility of developing these traits. But we also have the possibility of not bearing this fruit. We can let our natural self and flesh continue to control us and our minds and hearts can remain conformed to this world and we won't be transformed even though we have allowed the Holy Spirit to enter in. This is where all too often we end up in our spiritual lives because we are simply trying to be a Christian, which is impossible. Paul explains this dilemma in Romans 7:18-19 (read).

Paul says not matter how hard I try, I cannot do the good I want to do. That's because it is only Christ who has the power to transform our hearts. He must be formed in us. Trying won't achieve much. We must begin following the instructions of the ultimate trainer - the Holy Spirit - if we are to train to be like Christ. (Romans 8:9a).

When we accepted Christ as our Savior, we made a commitment to deny ourselves, to take up our cross daily, and to follow him. Doing such a thing was like entering into training for mountain climbing. To be able to reach the summit, we must exhibit that we are a living Christ - that Christ is fully alive in our hearts.

Just like the person training to make the hardest climb of their life, we are training for a lifetime of climbing to Golgatha everyday. It is demanding - it calls us to think, feel, and act like Jesus. Remember how all along the way Jesus was listening to God and doing only what God told him. So it is with us. We must be listening to our trainer, the Holy Spirit, as we seek to become more like Christ. How do we hear the Holy Spirit? That's where the training comes in. We must train through practices such as prayer, fasting, meditating on the scriptures, serving, living life in a certain way that allows us to be formed and shaped by God's voice.

The church is a huge part of this endeavor. The church is the team that we are on where we support one another, equip one another, help each other, keep one another accountable, and where we climb together. Just like a group of climbers, our goal is to get everyone to the top, not just one person.

Example: Small Groups are so important. How we stay in touch with the scripture and see how we are walking together in the word. Support one another in the journey, help one another to grow and mature, pick each other up, and cheer one another on. Groups help us to train through using spiritual disciples. Jesus taught the disciples to do just this.

At times they wondered why they couldn't do what Jesus did just because they tried to. Look at Mark 9:28-29. The disciples were trying to cast a demon out of a boy, but they failed. Listen to Jesus' response:

"Why couldn't we drive it out?"
Jesus replied, "This kind can come out only by prayers and fasting."

It took more than mental faith for them to be like Jesus. It took a practice of prayer and fasting for them to be able to drive out demons as Jesus did. Jesus trained his disciples to pray. The earliest church also met together and trained in discipleship: Acts 2:42:

"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." (Acts 2:42) The early church was very devoted to training through these spiritual disciplines in small groups.

It is the same if we are to learn to be Christ-like in many areas of our lives. We will have to be practicing the disciplines to train our minds and hearts so that we can do the RIGHT THING at the RIGHT TIME in the RIGHT WAY for the RIGHT REASON. In the Life You've Always Wanted, John Ortberg reminds us that "Spiritual Disciples are any activity that can help me gain power to life life as Jesus taught and modeled it."

See, many of us have tried before - maybe over and over again. Maybe youe've tried to start a discipline of reading the bible, but didn't stick with it. Or maybe you've tried a discipline of prayer, but just let it slide over and over again. Or mabWe failed to do what we wanted because we tried but we started out in the wrong place with the wrong motive. This always leads to defeat:

EXAMPLE: Reading the Bible Through in a Year/Praying Everyday/Journaling

We start measuring by time - I'll do this 10 minutes everyday. To do it is the GOAL. I have succeeded if I set aside the time and did it. But you see that's starting in the wrong place with the wrong motive. What good will it do to read the Bible through in a year to say I've read it? If the goal is 10 minutes a day, then you've made the practice the goal. However, the real goal is to be changed by what I am reading - "to grow in Christ-like love for God and for others,"

The goal of spiritual training is not to prove how spiritual we can become. Spiritual training is not to impress others or to try to impress God. I remember when I was a kid practicing piano, I was to practice for 30 minutes. I was proud of myself after I had practiced that I had been able to last for the 30 minutes. At one time I became so focused on the 30 minutes that I even bragged to my friend that I could practice for 30 minutes! It was like this was the whole goal - to just get through 30 minutes of practice was the achievement. Later, I realized that the achievement was not practicing for a certain amount of time, but actually learning to play a piece of music! The reward is not in the practice, but in the playing. It's when we read the scripture to learn how to be more Christ-like in our daily lives. Don't fall into the trap of letting the spiritual discipline become the goal. It's a mean to another end.

Likewise, don't become defeated from the beginning by thinking that disciplines are burdensome. Some people assume that practicing spiritual disciplines is unpleasant. However, God brings joy, peace, and love to us when we begin to practice disciplines for the right reason. Prayer can be one of those areas. Sometimes it seems such a challenge each day. Yet, when we pray the Holy Spirit begins to pray and we experience a change in our hearts through praying. A peace comes that we had not experienced before. We can have joy even in the midst of great trouble, and we want to pray because it is a relationship with God that we hunger for, not a burden that we must carry.

Example: Praying at 6:30 a.m. at first was burdensome, but it became a joy and brought a peace to my heart.

So where do you start in training? Start with any activity that can help you live your life as Jesus taught and modeled it. How many should you engage in? - As many as it takes. Remember, this is a lifelong journey. The number is not important. The transformation is. Look at what true life is and purse it:

EXAMPLE: Daniel at beach - "This is the life, Daddy."

What is the real life?
What do I need to walk in it?
What are the barriers that must be faced and surmounted?
What practices can help me?

Apply the discipline that helps you deal with that part of your life. In the next few weeks we'll look more in depth at these disciples. Until then, you can begin by accessing where you are now.

Look at where you've been and chart it out. Where has God been at work? Where am I going?

Goal is to live a life that when people see us they will see Christ.

Closing Illustration:

Preparing for Stephens Piano Competition. Had to memorize three pieces -
Bach Prelude/Fugue
Beethoven Sonata
Debussy Prelude
Very long pieces - many pages of music. My first challenge was learning the music - to just be able to play the notes. Then to memorize the music. Then to really play the music the way it was supposed to be played. Practiced for four hours a day. Had to deal with sickness - Colitus along the way. Wanted to back out. I would have if it hadn't been for my trainer - Bill DeVan. He pushed and pushed and pushed me. He made me be disciplined. He encouraged me. Piano class we played for one another. Learned from one another. Everyone in this together. Everyone preparing together.

Tough to do. Had to train my hands first. Then had to train my mind. But then my heart had to begin to shape the music. Took full body to make it happen.
But the discipline was the key. Without the disciplines, the music couldn't be played.

I didn't know I would be able to play well enough to win a place in the competition. But I won second.

It's the same in our lives. Can we live in such a way that when people see us, they will say to themselves, "Wow! I didn't know that a life could look like that." We can't by trying. But when we train by listening to the greatest trainer, it will be possible.