AS SPIRITUAL AS YOU WANT TO BE

You know how there are those special moments when you hear something profound, and it’s forever recorded on the gray matter of your brain? Well over ten years ago I was listening to my pastor preach on a Sunday night (you know it had to be a while ago because we still had Sunday night services), and as he was concluding he made a statement that I will never forget: “You’re as spiritual as you want to be.” I don’t know how that statement hits you, but it hit me like a punch to the mid-section. There’s a tendency in all of us to blame our spiritual health, or lack thereof, on everyone and everything, and to avoid accepting full responsibility for how we’re following Jesus. I saw a post on Facebook the other day that said something like, “If you’re not following the commandments of God, you’re not following God!” I don’t think it would be too hard to find scriptures to support that statement.

As I was teaching God’s Word yesterday I focused on Esau and the reference to his life in Hebrews 12:16 (NLT) “Make sure that no one is immoral or godless like Esau.” As I was reviewing my notes at Starbucks early on Sunday morning the word “godless” jumped off the page and grabbed my attention. As I reflected on the word I began to see the two syllables, GOD-LESS. So in Sunday’s teaching I challenged my friends to live GOD-MORE, not GOD-LESS. If we choose to live GOD-MORE kinds of lives we will find ourselves becoming more and more like the One we follow, and isn’t that the goal?

So the question of the day is: How spiritual do you want to be? Are you concerned you’re going to become a spiritual wacko or fanatic if you become too intense in following Jesus? Do you operate from a flawed perspective that suggests people who are fully devoted to loving God and loving others miss out on all the fun and are relegated to boringly dull lives? My experience in life has been that the most frustrated Christians are those who know they’re not living for God the way they should. They’re seeking to live between two worlds: the world of the Spirit (and following Christ) and the world of the flesh (seeking to satisfy fleshly desires). The most miserable person on the planet is the one who knows the good they ought to do, but they refuse to obey. They know there’s a better way than the way they’re living, but they won’t commit to fully following Jesus.

Jonah 2:8 (NLT) reads: “Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God's mercies.” The NIV reads: “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.” GODLESS and WORTHLESS are strong, strong words, yet hopefully they serve to re-focus our attention on what is most important in life: Growing in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, you’re as spiritual as you want to be! Now, let’s live GOD-MORE kind of lives today!!!

“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.”  (2 Peter 3:18 NIV)

GOD IS MERCIFUL, BUT DON'T PUSH IT

In the teaching yesterday at Life Church Bayside, I spent a few moments dealing with one of the more challenging verses in the whole Bible, Deuteronomy 28:63 (NIV) ”Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you.” The first reaction is to assume that in the original Hebrew “please” doesn’t mean please. Other translation use words, such as: “pleasure” and “delight.” It’s shocking to think that God receives some type of pleasure in “destroying” and disciplining people. The commentators, Keil & Delitzsch, wrote the following regarding this verse: “With this bold anthropomorphic expression (using a human expression to describe God) Moses seeks to remove from the nation the last prop of false confidence in the mercy of God. Greatly as the sin of man troubles God, and little as the pleasure may be which He has in the death of the wicked, yet the holiness of His love demands the punishment and destruction of those who despise the riches of His goodness and long-suffering; so that He displays His glory in the judgment and destruction of the wicked no less than in blessing and prospering the righteous.” Personally, I think the commentators’ perspective is very helpful. We live in a time and place where God’s love and mercy are all too frequently used to excuse blatant disobedience. I’ve had people straight up tell me, “I know what I’m doing isn’t the best, but God wants me to be happy.” It’s as if “happy” and the desire to be happy trumps everything. I think there are many people who place “false confidence in the mercy of God.” They figure they can live however they want, and do whatever they want to do, and the grace and mercy of God will cover them.

We talked about Deuteronomy 28:63 in our small group last night. One of the things which came up in our discussion is the idea that if we’re going to talk about the love of God, i.e. His amazing grace and mercy, we need to follow it by also referring to the holiness of God. On the other hand, if we’re going to talk about the holiness of God, we need to quickly follow it by referring to the love of God. The idea is that you can’t separate the character and nature of God, as if He has multiple personalities: He is loving and He is holy; He is holy and He is loving!

When Moses encountered the Lord on Mount Sinai he received a profound revelation of God’s character, which I think is relevant and helpful in understanding how the Lord could be pleased to destroy the disobedient. Exodus 34:6-7

(NIV) “And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.’" This verse helps me. It describes the mercy of God without diminishing His holiness. It communicates the compassion of the Lord without compromising His character.

I think what it comes down to is this: God is merciful. He loves to love on His children and pour huge blessings into their lives. But if we decide we want to disregard the commandments of God and do our own thing, we need to be aware that the mercy of God only goes so far and for so long. In other words, God is merciful, but don’t push it!