Hidden Training with Huge Results | Trinity Sermons

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity

Sermons. This week we are continuing our sermon

series called This is the Way, where we're looking

at what it means to follow in the way of Jesus

and what are some of the spiritual practices

and habits that help us to be able to do that.

And the key word here is practice. We don't just

become spiritual superstars overnight. We need

to work at it. We need to build habits into our

lives. And today, Rob is going to show us how

Jesus emulates that for us and invites us into

a life of practice with him. Today's reading

is from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 1, verses

Mark 1:35–39

35 to 39. Very early in the morning, while it

was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house,

and went off to a solitary place where he prayed.

Simon and his companions went to look for him,

and when they found him, they exclaimed, Everyone

is looking for you. Jesus replied, Let us go

somewhere else, to the nearby villages, so I

can preach there also. That is why I have come.

So he traveled throughout the Galilee, preaching

in their synagogues and driving out demons. The

word of the Lord. I was on the grade 10 basketball

team of my... high school. And I have to tell

you, every single player on that team was inspired

and wanted to imitate and emulate Michael Jordan.

We all wanted to be like Mike. And so we watched,

you know, his every move. We watched his every

game. We always tuned into like the highlights.

And we tried to do all the things that, you know,

Michael Jordan did that we thought were so cool.

Like, so for example, you know, one of the things

Jordan always did was he would always stick his

tongue out when And he was like driving the ball

to the net. And so, you know what? We decided

we were going to stick our tongue out. And I

must have looked totally ridiculous, but I stuck

my tongue out as I went in for a layup, which

I usually missed. But anyways, I had my tongue

stuck out, just like Mike. And, you know, another

thing that Michael Jordan used to do is he would

chew gum. while he was playing basketball. And

so, you know, because Jordan chewed gum, our

whole team, you know, we started like chewing

gum too. But the coach had to like put an end

to it because the gum was like ending up all

over the gym floor. It was sticking to people's

shoes. And it was probably because we had our

mouths open with our tongues sticking out that

the gum was ending up like that. But hey, it

didn't really matter, right? We were trying to

be like Mike. And we did kind of everything that

we could. You know, we would look at, oh, look

at how we turned. Look at how. we shot that like

turnaround baseline, you know, jumper, or look

at how he passes, or look at how he dribbles,

or look at how he plays defense. And we all,

we would even go and get like the Michael Jordan

jerseys, and we would get the Michael Jordan

sneakers, at least the people who could afford,

you know, Air Jordans and stuff like that. They

would get all that. And now, the bad news. As

much as we wanted to be like Mike, It just didn't

work out. You know, as it turns out, no matter

how hard we tried, we could never be like Mike.

And, you know, I would say it's probably true

for the millions and millions of other kids all

around the world who saw this commercial and

watched Michael Jordan play. And all those playgrounds

and basketball courts, they copied all the moves

of Michael Jordan. Did any of them? manage to

be like Mike? And I think you know the answer.

The answer is no, they didn't. With the exception

of a few people who probably went on to basketball

greatness, but no. In fact, I would say to you

that it is actually impossible to be like Mike

just by trying to copy what Mike did in all of

his amazing highlight reels. And why is that?

It is because underneath Michael Jordan's outstanding

performance was a hidden life. discipline that

almost nobody saw. I mean, Michael Jordan was

so committed to the game of basketball. He lived

a life of intense practice and intense preparation.

He was up early, early in the mornings. He was

up late at night. You know, he had personal trainers

working him hard. He had workout regimens that

were like strenuous. He ate a regulated diet.

And he spent thousands and thousands and thousands

of hours in the gym, right? Conditioning his

body, practicing his skills, right? Honing his

talents, training his mind again and again and

again and again. He put his entire lifetime into

this sport. In fact, back then there was an interview

with Jordan and he said, the game of basketball

has been Everything to me. Everything? Everything

to me. So when you see those game -winning shots,

when you see his incredible timing, when you

see the way that he has this incredible athletic

ability, we watch all those highlights and we

love them. But what no one sees was the all -consuming

way of life that made all of those highlights

possible. So no. I was never able to be like

Mike. I copied his looks, but I never copied

his life. I tried to copy his performance, but

I never copied his practice. I saw the highlights,

but I never saw the hidden life behind those

highlights. Well, today, we're continuing this

teaching series we're doing throughout the season

of Lent called This is the Way. And basically

all that we're asking during this month is what

does it mean? What does it look like to follow

the way of Jesus? I mean, Jesus invited us to

follow him. Jesus said, come and follow me. Okay,

great. But what does that look like? How does

one even begin to do that? And today I want to

get one important part of that. And that is in

order to follow the way of Jesus, we have to

practice. We have to practice. I've given you

some teaching notes if you want to follow along

in those. And we always have these teaching notes

available in our church app, Church Center 2.

And you can actually fill them in right there

if you want. But the first thing I want to talk

about is inspiration. Inspiration. You see, there

is no doubt, yes, a lot of people wanted to be

like Mike. But I would dare say that most of

us sitting here today, who we really want to

be like, is we want to be like Jesus. We are

inspired by the life of Jesus, right? We see

Jesus loving his enemies, and we say, I want

to love my enemies like that. We see Jesus living

without anxiety, and we say, I want to do that

too. Or we see Jesus giving generously, and we

say, I want to do that. We see Jesus forgiving

freely. I want to do that too. Or Jesus sacrificing

everything for others. And we say, you know what?

I am inspired. I want to do that too. And we

think, I want to be like Jesus, right? I want

to do the things that Jesus did, right? You see,

Jesus, he turned the other cheek. I'm going to

turn the other cheek. right jesus he went the

second mile i'm gonna go the second mile jesus

loved his enemies i'm gonna love my enemies too

and so we we get all revved up seeing these amazing

things jesus does and we close our bibles and

we head out to do it or we hear all about it

on a sunday morning at church and we head out

the doors and we're ready to do it or we wake

up in the morning and we put on our wwjd bracelet

and we head out the doors and we are ready to

be like jesus we're truly inspired by the life

of Jesus. And yet, time and time again, we fail.

For all our inspiration, it's usually followed

by frustration, because it turns out we can't

do what Jesus did, right? I mean, we try to turn

the other cheek, but we still find ourselves

getting angry all the time. We try to go to the

second mile, but we always carry this resentment

that people are using us somehow. Or we try to

love our enemies, but we fail and we fall again

and again and again and again. It's like, you

know, every time we have the chance to take the

game -winning shot and do the things that Jesus

did, do the amazing things Jesus did, but more

often than not, it just clangs off the rim. We

try to do the miraculous, amazing kind of things

that he does, but again, more often than not,

we just keep throwing up brick after brick after

brick. I mean, this is something I call highlight

reel Christianity. Highlight reel Christianity,

which is we want to do the amazing things Jesus

did. And why not? Of course, Jesus said, hey,

do what I do. Follow me. In fact, Jesus even

said, you will do greater things than the things

I did. That is absolutely amazing. And yet we

come home time and time again, defeated and defeated

and defeated. And that is when we usually have

a revelation. We realize at some point in our

life, and maybe for some of us, it might even

be today, that the reason that we can't do what

Jesus did is because we don't see the hidden

life underneath. of all of Jesus's incredible

highlights of loving and healing and forgiving

and sacrifice. Underneath all of that was a lifetime

of practice and preparation that was mainly spent

outside of the public eye. Jesus's entire life

was a life of discipline, not athletic discipline,

but spiritual discipline. His entire life was

a life of practice. Again, not, you know, athletic

practice, but spiritual practice, spiritual practices.

And we need look no further than today's reading

to see kind of what I'm talking about. Very early

in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus

got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary

place, and there he prayed. And you'll probably

say, okay, Rob, what's the big deal? This isn't

that exciting of a passage. Why did you highlight

that one, right? And we don't see Jesus doing

anything miraculous here. We don't see, you know,

any great sermons being preached here. We don't

see crowds gathering around Jesus. All it says

is that, you know, Jesus just got up early and

he went to this quiet place and he prayed. Exactly.

That's the point. Jesus rolled out of bed that

morning. And maybe he splashed his face with

some water. He put on some clothes. And then

he went down to his spiritual gym. Right? And

there he did a spiritual workout. You see, somewhere

along the way, Jesus had developed this habit.

Early mornings, quiet places, prayer, scripture,

meditation. And he did it over and over and over

again. The highlights, yeah, they were going

to come later. But the training came first. Or

just a little earlier, just before this reading,

Jesus spends 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness,

fasting and praying. He had not preached a single

sermon yet, done one miracle yet. He had not

yet healed one sick person. Those highlights.

would come later. The training came first. Our

mistake is to think that we can do the things

that Jesus did without putting in the work that

Jesus did. Just like Michael Jordan had all these

routines and all these habits that built skill

and strength, so too in the spiritual life. You

read the gospels and you will see Jesus had this

regimen. He had this pattern of his life. He

had all these practice sessions. He withdrew

to quiet places. He prayed. He read the scriptures.

He kept the Sabbath. He fasted. He did community

with a group of other people. That was his gym

routine. These were his practices. And if we

want to avoid the problem and failures that come

along with highlight reel Christianity and actually

be like Jesus, we are going to need to adopt

the practices of Jesus. We can't just step onto

the court and hope that we can somehow pull off

the game -winning shot. And we can't just go

step into life and hope that, oh, I'm going to

be able to forgive that person who hurt me. I'm

going to be able to bless these people around

me. I'm going to be able to grow spiritually.

Because in that moment, you are trying to accomplish

a spiritual feat that actually takes a lifetime

of training to develop. We are trying to do in

a moment what can only be formed in us over years

of practice. It's like the old saying goes, the

road to hell is paved with what? Good intentions,

right? We all intend well. We all want to do

these things, but we can't because we miss the

big picture, the life of Jesus. was not just

a series of dramatic moments, one after the other.

No, no, no. It was all built on a hidden life

of practice. Now, let's talk about what we mean

when we talk about practice. Spiritual practices

are the training routines of Jesus that build

spiritual muscle over time. And that's a really...

important definition. Let me go through it bit

by bit. First of all, they are training routines.

These things are not things you just do once

or do every now and again. They are habits. They

are rhythms of your life that you do over and

over and over again. Secondly, these practices

are based on the lifestyle of Jesus. These are...

the exact things that we see jesus himself doing

in the scriptures over and over and over again

so we're not pulling them out of the blue these

are things jesus did and thirdly they're spiritual

in nature and this is really important because

doing these practices isn't a way of us summoning

up strength of our own to become better at living

our lives no no no They're a way of accessing

the Spirit's power in our life. And these practices

invite the Holy Spirit into us to do amazing

work in us so that actually we begin to be able

to change over time, right? They're spiritual.

And then fourthly, these practices work over

time, not overnight, right? If you go to the

gym once, you're probably not going to have a

lot to show for it except for soreness the next

morning. But if you go every day, you will have

something to show for it. If you decide this

week you're going to practice Sabbath once, you

may not feel that it did anything for you. But

if Sabbath becomes a regular part of your weekly

routine, it will begin to transform you from

the inside out. Now, there are various practices

out there. Dozens and dozens of them, right?

If you read Richard Foster, he has a list of

12. If you read Kenneth Boah, he has a list of

20. Some say there's eight. Some say there's

10. Some say there's 11. There really is no one

definitive list of the spiritual practices. But

here at Trinity, we have adopted a list of nine.

And the reason we've adopted these nine is because

they are the very same nine that are used in

this great video. video curriculum we've been

using, including the curriculum we're using right

now for the prayer course, this curriculum put

out by Practicing the Way. And we like these

nine. And here they are. Prayer, scripture, and

solitude. Sabbath, fasting, and community. Service,

generosity, and witness. You know when you walk

into the gym and you see all these different

machines? Oh, there's a treadmill over there.

There's the elliptical over there. There's the

assault bike over there. There's the rower. There's

the freeway. It's over there. All these different

machines you can go and use. I want you to think

of this as walking into a spiritual gym, and

these are all the different spiritual machines

you can work out on. And you'll actually, as

you work out on them, you become more like Jesus.

right and you'll recognize them because they're

the same nine that are found in the little pocket

guide that we're using all through lent right

as we try to figure out together how we can develop

a workout regimen in these spiritual practices

and if we don't train in this way if we don't

we are always going to be just like kids on a

playground we're kind of fooling around and we're

you know we're doing all these trick shots and

circus shots and and maybe oh baby sometimes

they go in yay for us right but i'll tell you

a lifetime of learning how to turn the other

cheek or how to go the second mile or how to

love our enemies. You cannot just do that on

the spot. You can't, you can't, right? And the

kind of person who can do that on the spot is

a person who has been working at this and spent

countless hours in the spiritual gym practicing

this. Now, there is a danger in how I've been

presenting this so far to you this morning. And

the danger is, because I'm talking about Michael

Jordan, who is a superstar and perhaps the greatest

basketball player who ever lived, you're going

to think, oh, this stuff is only for experts.

This is only for religious professionals like

monks or nuns or seminarians or clergy or something

like that. But that is not true whatsoever. Richard

Foster, who wrote a book called Celebration of

Discipline, he writes this, God intends spiritual

practices to be for ordinary human beings, people

who have jobs, people who care for children,

who wash dishes and mow lawns. In other words,

you do not have to be a spiritual Michael Jordan

to embrace these practices. They're for ordinary

people. They're for ordinary lives like yours

and mine. Now, I'm anticipating there's a question

that's kind of buried in your minds right now.

And the question is, Rob, I don't get it. Okay,

tell me, Rob, please, how does this formation

actually work, right? Because how does me learning

how to pray help me, say, forgive someone who's

hurt me? What's the connection? Or how does Sabbath

help me overcome my problem with anxiety? Or

how does reading the Bible, you know, help me

to conquer some of these big fears I have in

my life? What is the connection? How does practicing

those little things enable me to conquer these

bigger things in my life? That is the secret

of spiritual practices, right? The little things

we can do train us for the big things we can't.

Do you guys remember the Karate Kid? movie. Remember

Karate Kid, the original? Mr. Miyagi. Mr. Miyagi

is training Daniel in how to do karate. And Daniel's

really frustrated because so far the training

looks like this. Mr. Miyagi says, hey, Daniel,

wax my car. Wax on, wax off. Wax on, wax off.

All day long. Wax on, wax off. Or paint the fence,

Daniel. Paint the fence. Paint the fence. Paint

the fence. Paint the fence. Or, you know, sand

the floor, Daniel. Sand the floor. And Daniel

gets... so frustrated with this approach. He

says, you know, how is this going to enable me

to learn karate? But later, he realizes that

those small, repetitive movements have been training

his muscles all along, and he didn't realize

it. The practice did not look like the fight,

okay? But the practice prepared him for the fight.

You see, and the same is true of Michael Jordan,

right? Michael Jordan didn't spend all his time

in the gym practicing his turnaround fadeaway

three -pointers or his, you know, behind the

back loop -de -loop reverse dunks. No, no, no.

He did drills. He did strength training. He looked

at the X's and O's of the game. He trained his

mind. He developed a muscle memory. right? And

though those drills didn't look like they had

anything to do with the big moments that we celebrate,

those are the very things that made those big

moments possible. Spiritual formation works in

the same way. When we practice prayer or scripture

or Sabbath or generosity or community or whatever,

it doesn't seem like, how is this going to help

me solve, say, my anger problems? Or how is this

going to help me deal with these addictions I'm

wrestling with that I just can't seem to shake?

What's the connection? But remember, over time,

These practices are shaping us. They're accessing

the Holy Spirit's power in our life. So much

so that almost without us even noticing it, we

do become the kind of people who can actually

forgive after all. I can do this. Or people who

can resist temptations and do away with their

addictions. I can do that. I can do this now

with the Spirit working in me, right? The little

things we can do train us for the big things

we can't. Now, just in case, I just want to make

a few clarifications. And the first is this.

The praxis are not about the mechanics, right?

It's not about just going through the motions.

And if you somehow just go through the motions,

everything's going to work out for you. Last

week, Kristen told us, she said, lots of people

are very faithful in their church attendance

and they read their Bibles regularly. And then

they go into the world and they do. all manner

of horrible things and so in the spiritual life

your inner attitude matters far more than your

outer actions right the goal is not simply for

you to do the practices there i did it check

no the goal is for you to become more like jesus

and that's not happening you're doing something

wrong right you let's say you're you're fasting

and so you practiced your fast down to the t

you've got it exactly the way the book you're

reading tells you you ought to do it but guess

what It's not making you a more loving person.

It's not making you more Christ -like. Well,

then something... has gone wrong right it's not

about the mechanics it's about what's going on

inside and secondly it's also not about bragging

if if you're doing your spiritual practices and

your spiritual workout it's like you know you

don't go up to somebody and like do a pose down

right in front of them to show off all your muscles

right to brag about how fit you are no no no

and you don't start looking down on other christians

and say oh i i i fast and i read my bible every

day and i've never missed a sunday at church

and i i'm not like these wannabe since I'm the

real deal. I mean, if you ever start finding

that you're looking down on others because, oh,

you've got such a disciplined life now, then

my goodness, you have completely missed the point.

That is not what this is about at all. And finally,

it is also not about earning. And I've actually

heard a few of you... expressed to me already

over the last few weeks that you're a little

worried with some of the language that you're

hearing in this series you're hearing me say

things like practice and and discipline and training

and what it sounds like to you is that i'm saying

something like hey if you try real hard if you

work real hard that god will accept you and god

will love you and you you say but rob i thought

we were saved by grace i thought it was christ's

sacrifice on the cross that actually saved us

not all of our hard work rob what is going on

here and i want to say, yes, of course. Please

don't call the bishop. Just don't call the bishop

on me, right? Let me assure you, the practices

do not earn your salvation. Our salvation, our

hope, it rests solely in God's amazing grace

showed to us through the life, death, and resurrection

of Jesus, right? Nothing else saves us. But,

As Dallas Willard famously said, God's grace

isn't opposed to effort. It is opposed to earning,

but it's not opposed to effort, which is another

way of saying, yes, of course, we don't earn

our way into God's family. That's all grace.

But we do have to work at it and figure out how

to live in God's family. That takes some effort.

We don't practice these things in order to be

accepted. We practice them in order to become

more like the one who has accepted us. So there

you go. And that brings me to the last thing

I want to say to you this morning. And that is

an invitation. This Lent, Jesus is inviting you.

And Jesus is inviting me to step into the gym

of the spiritual life. And to begin again and

to work up a spiritual sweat to stop living as

highlight real Christians and to actually start

practicing the disciplines that Jesus himself

practiced, that Christians down through the ages

of practice, and that all of us must practice

if we're ever going to have a chance of actually

living like Jesus and following him as his disciples.

And again, I just want to stress, this is an

invitation for... everyone in in jesus spiritual

gym there are no expensive membership fees you

know nobody is excluded anyone can join and it's

not just for the the spiritual superstars out

there anyone can join anyone right and i know

what it's like when you walk into a gym and you

look around you see all these people who look

so much more fit than you and you say to yourself

oh i don't belong here i i'm not as strong as

these other people and maybe you're tempted to

go walk right back out the door but don't think

that for a second, not in the spiritual life,

no way, right? Thomas Merton, this spiritual

master, once said, when it comes to spiritual

practices, we will never be anything but beginners

our whole lives. And yeah, as you try to... develop

a life of practice, you're going to screw up.

You're going to make mistakes, and someday it'll

feel like you're not getting anywhere. And other

days, it'll feel like, yeah, you know what? I

feel like God is doing something in me. It takes

some ups and downs. You know, Michael Jordan

himself said, I've never been afraid to fail.

He said, I've missed more than 9 ,000 shots in

my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times

they put the ball in my hands, trusting me to

take the game -winning shot, and I missed. I

failed over and over and over again in my life,

and that is why I succeed. Failure is part of

the training. So yeah, nobody becomes like Mike

by watching him on TV. And nobody becomes like

Jesus. just by admiring his amazing highlights

either. No, we have to actually go back to the

gym, back to the way of practicing like Jesus

practiced. And again, it's not about trying harder.

It's not about earning anything. It's just about

developing a hidden life of discipline in your

routine, because that is where the transformation

happens. And it happens slowly, and it happens

quietly, and it happens over time. But little

by little, we will become people who can do,

believe it or not, the things that Jesus did.

And as Jesus said, even greater things than that.

So thanks be to God. Amen. Thanks for tuning

in to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons.

This sermon was recorded at Trinity Church Streetsville

in Mississauga, Ontario on March 8th, 2026.