Thou Shall Love the Lord Thy God with all Thy Mind

 There’s a Stirring # 7

           If you give a baby Gerber’s baby food, that is cute. If you had to give me Gerber’s, that would be a tragedy. Something catastrophic would have occurred.

            If you are a new Christian, you need to be on Gerber’s spiritual baby food. If you have been in Christ for a while and still need Gerber’s, something is wrong.

            We have too many Christians in pews today who are still feeding on Gerber’s baby food. This is not good.

            First, let’s build a bridge back to something we talked about two weeks ago. If you remember, the Preacher channeled Jesus and said, to paraphrase, “If you are going to fear somebody, fear God.”

            So how did he apply this? He applied it by going to the heart of the matter; whose opinion did those early Christians value?

            Why is it we Americans typically don't care what people in New Guinea think about us? Are they any less human?

            Why is it that we Texas Rangers fans do not care what St. Louis Cardinals’ fans think about us? Are they any less human?

            In both cases, we understand that the citizens of New Guinea and citizens of St. Louis are human. However, we assign credibility to people. The higher the credibility, the more we care about their opinions.

            If I like you, if I fear you, or if I respect you, if I know you, or if I want to know you, chances are I want you to have a high opinion of me; I certainly have a high opinion of you. I want to know what you think, how you dress, what movies you like, and more. Your opinion matters.

            That is another way of saying that your word matters. Back then, the Christians in Hebrews were concerned about the word of various people or groups. They were not concerned enough about the word of God.

            They got that wrong. Here is how he phrased it, 12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account (Hebrews 4:12–13.)

            Don't worry about Shriners’ word (or anyone else’s), he would tell us today, let’s concern ourselves with God’s Word.

            The Christians in Hebrews were not doing that; they were too busy listening to the word of somebody they respected, feared, or revered more than God.

            After attempting to explain the greatness of Jesus, the preacher writes, 5:11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

            6:  1 Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, 2 instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And God permitting, we will do so.

            In 5:11, “slow to learn” literally means lazy. This is interesting. Laziness is certainly talked about the Bible.  Ever heard the seven deadly sins?

            Back in the dark ages, monks compiled the list of sins they considered particularly deadly to one’s spiritual health. On that list were sins such as pride, envy, gluttony, and laziness.

            I am certainly not a big fan of laziness. None of us are. This preacher is not a fan of spiritual laziness. And so that's what this passage is about. He is attacking the problem of spiritual laziness.

            The word he uses for the term we translate “slow to learn,” is the same word he will use in chapter six verse eleven, which many translations term “laziness.”

            The Preacher is attacking the problem of spiritual laziness. These Christians are drifting away and they have become spiritually lazy. He attacks that problem.

            That got me thinking, what are signs of spiritual laziness today? If you made a list of the symptoms of spiritual laziness, what would you put on it? I've got some for you:

                                      

            What about not spending time reading or studying the Bible?

                        What is the difference between a pagan who lives a moral life and does not spend time growing closer to Jesus and a Christian who behaves well but does not spend time growing closer to Jesus?

            What about coming to worship or Bible class without a Bible?

                         It seems to me pretty obvious: for one to study the Bible one needs the Bible. (I personally consider a cell phone that has the Bible translations to be a Bible. I am referring to function, not appearance.)

            What about listening to a sermon or Bible class without ever opening up a Bible?

                        Is this not the spectator mentality?

            What about limiting the Bible we study?

                        I am blessed at my church to be able to preach out of any book of the Bible. If it is located in the Bible, it is fair game. Do you realize how many preachers cannot do what I do? They cannot preach out of the Bible.

                        And what about Bible classes? Isn’t it an irony that some churches frown upon studying the Bible in Bible classes?

            I am attempting to say this in love. These Christians in Hebrews were losing their faith; if you don’t have your faith, what do you have? Therefore, the Preacher addresses their laziness when it comes to interfacing with the word of God.

            Their spiritual laziness was caused by a lack of respect for God and for his Word. They are not growing in Christ because they don’t care what God says.

            Let me offer you one final translation of Heb. 5:11. It is from the God’s Word Translation, and I like it a lot: We have a lot to explain about this. But since you have become too lazy to pay attention, explaining it to you is hard. [GW]

This preacher of Hebrews has a two-pronged solution to spiritual laziness:

            1. He chews them out for what they are doing wrong.

2. He challenges them to do right.

            Christianity, from the beginning, has been a religion that has been taught. We Grow in God’s Word to Grow in God.

            To put it another way, let’s devote ourselves to seek God’s approval and God’s values, and let’s allow our spiritual family (the church) to affirm us.

            There is a lot to faith and to being formed into the image of Christ. Last year in Revelation, our church talked about worship. Growing in Christ is not just memorizing facts about Him. It is worshipping Him. It is communing with Him. It is praying to the Father through Him. It is putting into practice what we read about Him. But somebody’s word is going to be heard, respected and obeyed. And it had better be God’s.

            WITH THAT RESPECT IN MIND, we go to scripture—all of it—and we dig in. We hear, and we obey. And that leads to growing up.

            This preacher says in Hebrews, “If you respected God and fed on His Word, you would be at a different place now.”

            Make no mistake—this preacher goes on the attack. So let's pause here. He is telling them, “I want to go deep with you, but you are spiritually lazy.”

            What do you think he is going to do at that point? What would some churches today do at this point if they had his problem? What would some preachers do today?

            Well, I can tell you, at some churches they have had this problem. And I have had a chance to assess through the years the manner in which these churches have dealt with this challenge.

            Some churches say, “Let's take Christians who have been in Christ for ten, twenty, thirty years, and let's continue to give them Gerber baby food. We will make our Sunday assembly a therapy session. We will have a Christianized version of social psychology. Anything that is of depth biblically, we will chew it up for them and then pass it along like Mama birds feeding their babies.”

            They will tell their preachers to quit preaching 30 minutes, and get them to preach only 20 minutes-max. (The exception is those churches in the evangelical world, who expect their preachers to preach 45 minutes–or even more!) Basically what leadership is saying is, “Let's give sermonettes for Christianetts.”

            Some churches say, “Let's find out what the secular people of our community are thinking, and let's organize our entire worship service around the data that we find.” So every song has the non-Christian in mind, every prayer has the non-Christian in mind, every sermon has the non-Christian in mind, and the entire assembly, which in the New Testament was for the Christians, is built for the non-Christians.

            Now, I am not against our recognition of the non-Christian. Paul said as much in first Corinthians chapter fourteen. Nor am I opposed to an occasional sermon series with the young Christian in mind. Yet, it is critical to recognize that this writer, after lamenting how these Christians had been drinking spiritual milk, proceeds to give them spiritual meat. We cannot neglect the periodic need to offer meat to our assemblies.

            Consequently, let me address one more trend in modern Christian worship–the pep rally. A lot of churches today organize their assemblies as spiritual pep rallies.

            I don't want to diminish the role of emotion in the Christian assembly. Indeed, in many cases, I am sure there is not enough allowance for emotion. That should be addressed in an appropriate text. Here, the message is: never forget the role of substance.

            Think of athletic teams. Is emotion important? Definitely. Do teams have pep rallies? Yes, mainly in high school and college. However, assess the amount of time these teams spend in intense workouts and in mental study. The comparison between the pep rallies and the intense work reveals a heavy emphasis on the commitment and the mental aspect of these athletic pursuits.             

            At the professional level, the amount of work is heavily skewed toward the mental side. Much less is done with the emotional facets, or with the physical aspects either.

            In the church, balance is important. And in this passage, the preacher emphasizes the importance of the commitment of the will and mind in the pursuit of what God is trying to teach his people.

            We love God with all our heart, strength, soul, and mind. We grow in Christ. We grow up in Christ.

            My last day of my first semester of college, I was eating lunch with a fellow counselor from Camp Deer Run, and she introduced me to a girl from another state. We hit it off great.

            My counselor friend left and this girl and I talked, and we talked for three or four hours. We had a connection there. It went on into the next semester.

            I, however, had this unspoken uncertainty, and she did too. We were from different states and different cultures, so we had some hesitation on both of our parts to going farther.

            I went home during spring break and was talking about this with a mentor. He advised me, “Mark, relationships grow, and relationships die, but relationships never stay the same. I never forgot that.

            Apparently she didn’t either, because when I got back from Spring Break, I found out she was engaged, to a guy she had gotten to know on a Spring Break Campaign.

            Okay, that is an extreme, but the principle holds true: relationships grow stronger or weaker, but they do not remain the same. This principle applies to our relationship with Jesus—and to out Heavenly Father.

            Either, I am growing closer in my relationship to God, or I am distancing myself. Our relationship is not remaining the same.

            You and I can choose to grow closer to God. We can cultivate habits that will lead to this. One place to begin is by diving into the word of God.

 

Fill(et) Me With The Word of God

There’s a Stirring # 5                                                                                           3/12/12

Hebrews 4:12-13

            Have you ever gone to a scary movie at night, returned home, and not slept well? Did scenes of Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolfman, the Mummy, or vampires, keep playing your mind over and over again?

            For me, the scariest movies were always the ones that seemed to be real-life possibilities. When I was about ten or eleven, I went to see a movie called “What's the matter with Helen.” It was a murder movie. It starred Debbie Reynolds and Shelley Winters. It was the type of movie that seemed like it was ripped straight out of the day's newspaper headlines. I had trouble sleeping for days after that.

            We are all afraid of something. We may not even realize it. Even in everyday life a lot of what we do is based upon fear.

            That's the way it was for these Christians in the book of Hebrews. This preacher from Hebrews is attempting to preach a sermon to them. He knows that, at one time, they were walking according to the values of the Lord. They were allowing the church to affirm them in their faith. Somewhere along the way, their friends who were not Christians, or their coworkers, or their bosses, or their civic clubs, or somebody they respected so much they feared going against them, started saying, “What is the matter with you? Why are you doing this?”

            Some began threatening these Christians; some of these Christians even lost their jobs. Some had their property taken away from them. But these Christians began living out of fear. And they quit doing what God had told them to do, such as ceasing to meet with the church.

            Incidentally, today, we see it illustrated much more in the fear of our friend’s having a negative opinion of us than of someone taking away our property. I remember we had a young convert in Argentina, who brought a friend to a college Bible study and fellowship night that Judy and I offered in our home.

            The friend, who was a partier, left saying, “What do you see in those people?” Afraid of losing her friend’s respect, our young convert began a slow fade to spiritual oblivion.

            Last week, we saw where God rescued the ancient Hebrews, who were down and out in Egypt. God came along and rescued them.

            As you listen to the story being retold in Hebrews, what you naturally think is that the people respond in loving kindness and seek to offer God great pleasure. But that is not the case.

            They get to the Jordan River they send spies out, the spies come back, and God's people become very afraid. People begin crying out, “Hey! There are giants out there.” They become upset with God. Then they complain to him, asking why in the world he is taking them out somewhere to get them killed. So instead of honoring the person who rescued them, they dishonor him. They complain, and, because of their fear, they refuse to follow his leadership.

            They distrust God, and they disobey. Have you ever heard the song “Trust and Obey?” They sing a new song, “Distrust and Disobey.”

            Last week, we saw this preacher tell the church, “Guys, learn from their mistakes. Some of you are headed in this very direction. Some of your fellow Christians have already abandoned God. You can still cross over the Jordan. It is not too late.”

            There was a generation that crossed to the other side of Jordan. They were the children of those Israelites. They made it, and the Preacher describes how they found rest. He then says, “You can find the rest too.” Furthermore, he says to them, “Make every effort to find that rest.” (Hebrews chapter 4:11)

            Years later, after the children of Israel had failed, Jesus spoke to their descendents, who were afraid of the religious leaders and said, “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. (Luke 24:4-5.) NIV 1984

       In essence Jesus says, “If you want to fear somebody, fear God.”

            That is a good synopsis for what God is saying in Hebrews. Respect God; respect what He says.

            That is his sermon, but he has an application, which leads us to Hebrews 4:12–13, 12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

            So in Hebrews 4:12–13, the Preacher tells them, “Let your reverence and awe of God determine how you live.” Have you ever heard somebody say, “I'm going to put the fear of God into you?” Well, this guy is going to try to do that. And he sees the word of God is the answer.

            Remember, this is a tired church in Hebrews. This guy is not looking to reinforce their lifestyles. He gets really tough with them. And he does so with the Word of God.

            One aside: he is not addressing broken people. Instead, these guys have not been humbled to the point they are ready to hear a Word from God--and act upon it. These are complacent Christians—people who were perhaps broken long ago but had since become self-satisfied.

            People can be like that today. One time a guy was preaching out of some of the books of the Old Testament, and a sister came up to him and said, “I don't think you should preach these.”

            The guy asked her, “Why?”

            She replied, “Because we already know all the stories.”

            The irony of this was that that lady was considered a major complainer in that church. Here she was hearing stories about the children of Israel complaining and failing-stories she needed to hear-yet, in her complacency, she had closed her heart to the word of God. Her attitude was the opposite of the one the Preacher is calling for in Hebrews 4.

            A practice I maintained in high school was to read different verses to prove things that I wanted to prove to my friends. Whenever I did read the Bible, my readings were exclusively focused on those points. The only time I read my Bible was to find out where my friends were wrong, or my friends’ churches were wrong. Basically, I was using the Bible as a club to hit other people. That's not what this preacher is talking about in Hebrews 4.

            The world says that the Bible is a dead letter. Notice this preacher says that the Bible is living, For the word of God is alive and active. The word is active–literally, it is energy. It is energetic.

            It is also a warning. He's sounding the alarm. He said to these Christians, “Listen, you have heard; now, obey.”

            The sword cuts both ways, Sharper than any double-edged sword. To Christians who are broken, who truly buy into Christ, it is a word of promise. To Christians who are slipping away, this message is a word of judgment—that's the other side of the sword.

            Now, keep in mind, when he speaks of the word of God, he is talking about the word of God that had been spoken. He is talking primarily about the Old Testament. This can apply to the New Testament, obviously, but, here, it is the Old Testament that he proclaims powerful.

            He said that before the word of God—Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. The word we translate “uncovered” can be transliterated to the word “gym.”

            Back in this time, these people had inherited a culture from the Greeks. The Greeks were into athletics. The Greeks would practice their athletics naked (only the men participated.) The arena for athletics was the place where these men would go, strip off their clothes, and practice.

             So the readers understood the Preacher saying was this—we go before the word of God… naked. We are totally vulnerable. Everything is uncovered--laid bare. He's talking about the Day of Judgment, and he's talking about today.

            The words “laid bare” are where we get the word “trachea.” This word is used to describe an animal that was laid upon an altar with his neck exposed. Then the throat was slit.

            That is the idea he has for us when we approach the word of God. We don't come to this book primarily to show where someone else is wrong. It is not my job to study the word of God everyday to discover where you have messed up. No, you and I are called to go before the word of God, expose our necks, understand we are disrobed before Him, and let the scriptures work on us.

            Is this Word-from this God-worthy of our respect?

            We are deluded, one commentator said, if we believe these Christians in Hebrews sat in their worship assembly, listening to this letter read, with great joy and pleasure. For many who received this message, it was very painful. It hurt.            

            What is the basic story of the Bible? We've got a problem. We have a sinful nature, and we cannot take care of ourselves. We have fallen, and we cannot get up. So God, over and over again, is portrayed as rescuing his people. Hence, there is a call to humility before God. Nothing to the cross I bring, simply to the cross I cling. The Bible is not a telegram from God saying, “Congratulations, you're doing great!”

            One time I went to my allergist for a checkup. My appointment did not last long, maybe five minutes. She asked how I was doing. I told her I was doing great. She checked me. She said I looked good. She concurred that everything was going well. Her admonition to me was to keep it up.

            Sometimes, I think I do the same when I set up an appointment with God’s word. I expect to open up the Bible and hear the scriptures say, “You’re doing good; keep it up”—sort of a spiritual version of a smiley face.

            The Preacher of Hebrews says, “No, God is going to be completely honest with you.” Isn't that what we need?

            Granted, this process can be painful; consequently, we too often avoid it. You know what often gets our nation’s presidents in trouble? They surround themselves with people who tell them what they want to hear. They isolate themselves from those who tell them things they do not want to hear.

            It is easy to do. I certainly do not want to hear the negative about me. Sometimes, it makes me feel bad, but I need it.

            Over 30 years ago, I had an uncle named Wally, (everybody needs an uncle Wally!), and he had to have open-heart surgery. Now that was in the day when it was a much more primitive operation--much more dangerous. It was an extremely painful process. Surgeons took a small saw and sawed right through the breastbone, went to work on his heart, and performed a number of dangerous maneuvers.

            They had to do this to my uncle Wally because his life was in danger; if they had done nothing, he would have died. But they did operate—they opened him up. Afterwards, he was weak and sore. However, that operation saved his life. He is still alive today.

            In a sense, that's what the preacher is telling us the Bible does with us. God comes to us and says, “You're going to die. I’m going to have to do some major surgery.” God gets a double-edged sword, he cuts, and he goes right for our hearts. We are exposed. We hurt. But if we are willing to submit ourselves to this operation, it will save our lives.

            You may been thinking, “Mark, what does this have to do with respecting God and holding him in awe?” Look again at the last part of v. 13: Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

            There's something else in this passage that stands out to me. It is the phrase “the eyes of God.”

            When I was in college, we would make fun of a song (which I had actually never heard, but of which I was aware) called, “There’s an all Seeing Eye Watching You.”

            We would deride the culture of fear that we imagined it must have created. We smugly thought ourselves enlightened, and we figured that, in our own superiority, we had no one to fear. Before long, God took on the persona, to many of us, of “Big King Buddy.”

            I now wonder if the song came from this passage. I must confess to you, as I have been reading about the word of God, this book of Hebrews has been cutting on me. Hebrews has made me repent of some of the things I have preached. It has made me ashamed for some of the things I have said. I gather from this a sense of respect for the God who sees all that I do.

            Now, we can come into the Father’s presence with confidence, but it is because of the work of the Son—Jesus. (We will get to that in future weeks.) That only enhances our respect of the Father—and the Son.

            Some do not like this. It is not fun to preach about. It is not popular to talk about. It is, nevertheless, an element of our Christian faith.

            Fear was driving these Christians in the book of Hebrews. They were afraid of what their friends would think. Some were afraid of their bosses, “If I give my life completely to Jesus, my boss is going to fire me.” Some were thinking, “If I really serve Jesus with everything I have, I will not get a promotion.”

            Some guy in their youth group was thinking, “God sounds really good. But if I totally sell out to Jesus, that girl down the street that I like is going to think I'm weird.” So out of fear, he abandoned Jesus.

            There was somebody thinking, “If I do this, they are going to kick me out of the Shriners club.” Out of fear, he obeyed the Shriners.

            Someone else was thinking, “If we attend worship services every Sunday without fail, our neighbors, with whom we play bridge on Friday nights, will freeze us out and not let us play with them anymore.” So they did not go as much, to preserve that relationship. They did this out of fear.

            This preacher was saying to them, “Listen, if your collective fear drives you, here is who you need to fear, the living God.”

            So how do we apply this? We apply it by asking, “Who’s approval am I seeking? Whose words determine how I live?”

            Second, we eliminate all rivals to God.

            Third, we risk by exposing ourselves to the only words that matter—God’s.

            Don't worry about the word of the Rotary club, the boss’s word, the boyfriend’s word. Let’s concern ourselves with God’s Word.

            The Christians in Hebrews were not doing that, they were too busy listening to the word of somebody they respected, feared, or revered more than God.

            Several years ago, I made a decision to leave the valley of Texas and move to West Texas to preach and to go back to graduate school and Abilene Christian University. I told a meeting of a group of preachers my decision. I told them that I especially wanted to study under the feet of a specific professor, and named his name. When I did, one of the preachers there immediately began to laugh. He laughed hard.

            I asked him “Why are you laughing?”

            He told me that when he'd gone to ACU to study for his Master of Divinity, the only two C’s he received in the entire program were under this professor. He said, “There was a guy in my class who got an engineering degree at one of finest schools in our country. And then he decided, ‘I want to be a foreign missionary.’ He decided to go to ACU. He took this professor. At the midterm, with the 500-question test before him, he broke down weeping. He could not handle it. His dreams had gone down the tubes. That's who you're going to study under.”

            I must admit—my friend scared me. I immediately purchased the textbook for the first course I was to take and worked through it—four months before class started. I wanted to be as prepared as possible.

            We moved to West Texas and I began taking this professor’s classes with fear and trembling. By the grace of God, everything worked out well.

            I found the professor to be very gracious and helpful. It was a joy to study under him. I appreciated the relationship that developed between us. He would occasionally take me to lunch. I could talk and ask questions. I hold an enormous respect for him to this day.

            If he were to e-mail me this afternoon, I would possibly feel a little nervous in my stomach. Part of me would probably be thinking, “I hope he doesn't ask me to do something that I cannot deliver on. I would not want to let him down.” Such is the respect and appreciation I hold for him.

            This professor and I will never be big buddies; I think this is the way it is with our Heavenly Father, according to Hebrews. God and I will never have an adult-to-adult relationship. God and I will never be buddies. There will always be the thought in the back of my mind, “He is God. I am not. He is dangerous. I am not. He controls my destiny; I do not. I must always respect him.” However, also ever present will be this thought, “I love my Heavenly Father. Where would I be without him? My, how he has blessed me.”

            I will always hold a genuine love and appreciation for him. I want you to as well.

           

Thanks Dr. James Thompson for the insights from your class.