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Iowa City Church Podcast


Welcome to the Iowa City Church sermon and teaching page.  We know that life can be confusing, and sometime just plain hard.  We believe the best way to live life comes through following Jesus.  These lessons and sermons are designed to be a resource to help you on that journey.  We hope you find them helpful!

Dec 17, 2021

What do successful athletes, musicians, authors, entrepreneurs, and leaders have in common?  The are disciplined.  They have strong, clear principles that they follow, and they discipline themselves to stay on "on course" to reach their desired destinations. 

It's interesting how when Christians talk about discipline, it's almost perceived as being a dirty word.  "Oh, we are saved by grace...so just believe in your heart."  One kind of gets the sense that following Jesus is a random thought or feeling as opposed to a person one must discipline themselves to pursue!

Let's not kid ourselves, being devoted to Jesus and living as his disciple is the most difficult thing a person will ever do!  The adventure of becoming like Jesus requires people to literally "swim against" the powerful current of the American culture.  Following Jesus takes practice and hard work!

To help us on this daunting task, Jesus has gifted us spiritual disciplines; habits, practices and experiences that are designed to develop, grow and strengthen one's faith and dependence on God.  Some of these spiritual disciplines include, prayer, generosity, service, fasting, and solitude.  These disciplines, when practiced on a regular basis, provide the practice and exercise needed to develop people's faith.

The apostle Paul when coaching Timothy makes this same comparison between physical and spiritual disciplines.  He writes:

"Train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come." ~ 1 Timothy 4:7-8 

In this sermon we will continue our study of the spiritual disciplines of prayer and fasting by looking at what Jesus teaches about how to practice fasting.  The goal of this sermon will be to help each person to develop a plan that works best for their life situation.  If you are looking to deepen your dependence upon Jesus, and strengthen your faith, don't miss part four of Less of Me ~ More of Him!