I read an interview last week in Leadership magazine with Matt Chandler, pastor of The Village Church in Texas. He was talking about how his church encourages its members in progressive sanctification… fancy words for growing up in Christ. I found one of his comments very helpful:
Sanctification here at The Village begins by answering two questions. What stirs your affections for Jesus Christ? And what robs you of those affections? Many of the things that stifle growth are morally neutral. They're not bad things. Facebook is not bad. Television and movies are not bad. I enjoy TV, but it doesn't take long for me to begin to find humorous on TV what the Lord finds heartbreaking.
The same goes for following sports. It's not wrong, but if I start watching sports, I begin to care too much. I get stupid. If 19-year-old boys are ruining your day because of what they do with a ball, that's a problem. These things rob my affections for Christ. I want to fill my life with things that stir my affections for him. . . .
We want our people to think beyond simply what's right and wrong. We want them to fill their lives with things that stir their affections for Jesus Christ and, as best as they can, to walk away from things that rob those affections—even when they're not immoral.
The point he is trying to make is so important! Being a good, mature Christian is not about doing all the right things and avoiding all the bad things. It is a heart issue.
The greatest commandment is to love God fully and supremely. So the questions we need to ask ourselves in our Christian growth are not merely about right and wrong actions. We must ask where our affections lie. Who do you love? What do you love?
When we get to that level of examination of our hearts we will often find that our love for God is disproportionate to our love for seemingly amoral things and activities.
What happens is that as we give much of our time and affection to hobbies, TV, sports, and even our own families, we find our love for God is diminished.
John Piper put it like this (I’m paraphrasing), we stuff ourselves with the white bread of the world, and when we find ourselves presented with the banquet table of God’s glories, we are no longer hungry.
Our problem is our heart. We will spend time and energy on the things we desire/love. And the more we fulfill our desires for things apart from Jesus Christ, we will diminish our desire for Him.
So, let me ask Matt’s questions a little differently. What stirs your affections? What gets you passionate and excited? Does Christ arouse your passions? Or does football? Or maybe TV?
We should spend our time and energy with things that point us to Jesus, that arouse our affections for Him.
Beware of the hindrances to your monogamous relationship with Christ this world offers. There are mistresses aplenty. Christian maturity is identified by a heart that is consistently loving God more and more and loving this world less and less.
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