Fully Formed Followers (2)

TRANSFORMED AFFECTIONS

One online dictionary defines the word ‘affection’ as “the feeling of liking or loving somebody/something very much and caring about them.”

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/affection

It’s one of those words whose meaning has shifted across the centuries - for the worse and not for the better!

In 1734-1735 America (still colonies of Great Britain) experienced a religious event so remarkable that historians have defined that era as ‘The Great Awakening.’

Jonathan Edwards, pastor in New England (as most of the British colonies were named) wrote of a remarkable turn of events in which his town was

never so full of love, never so full of joy, and yet so full of distress....

Religious Affections (Carlisle Pennsylvania: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1961, 5th reprint, 1997), quoted by Alexander Smellie in his Introduction, p. 10.

People were attending church services in larger numbers than before. People were meeting together in private homes for talk of divine and eternal subjects.

Several years after the movement had faded, Edwards wrote the book I quoted from a moment ago in order to answer this question:

What are the distinguishing qualifications of those that are in favour with God, and entitled to His eternal rewards…wherein do lie the distinguishing notes of that virtue and holiness that is acceptable in the sight of God?

Religious Affections (Carlisle Pennsylvania: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1961, 5th reprint, 1997), 15.

Fully formed followers of Jesus are those whose heart has been transformed by the new birth - receiving new life from God through Jesus as the Holy Spirit indwells; those whose minds are being transformed by the Word of God so that they are thinking in the same way as Jesus.

Fully formed followers also experience Transformed Affections. Edwards defines ‘affections’ as the

vigorous and lively actings of the inclination and will of the soul, or the fervent exercises of the heart....

Quoted by Sam Storms, Signs of the Spirit: An Interpretation of Jonathan Edwards’ Religious Affections,’ (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2007), 45.

As God’s people camped at the eastern edge of the Jordan River, prior to crossing the river and taking the land, Moses set out the commands and precepts of God for the generation of those born in the wilderness. The OT book of Deuteronomy is a compilation of five messages Moses shared with that generation, preparing them for taking possession of all that God had promised.

Perhaps no section is as well known at what Jews still call the Shema, or the foundational creed of Jewish belief - and by extension the very foundation of what sets believers apart from the world:

Deuteronomy 6:4–5 HCSB

“Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

The rest of the messages of Moses are in a very real sense an expansion of this foundational command to love God with all your heart, soul, and strength.

Throughout the OT and NT we are able to discover several evidences of a transformed affection, a heart solely set upon God:

Evidences of Transformed Affections:

A. Exalting God in Worship.

A first and prominent evidence of transformed affections is clearly evident in our personal and corporate worship experiences.

What do we anticipate happening when we gather on Sunday’s at 11:00am?

We call it a ‘Worship Service.’ But exactly what do we do, what is our objective, what is our goal as we come together?

The word ‘worship’ simply means to give worth of value to someone or something. People worship wealth, people worship their cars, the sun, their health…and far too many other idols to identify.

We, though, gather to ‘worship’ God - to give worth, meaning, and specifically to express love to God - with our heart, soul, and strength.

So, what have we done this morning to express our love to God?

Sing -

Pray -

Read His Word -

Enjoy one another’s company - fellowship

Based on the level of intensity present this morning - the level of feeling, the level of energy - how would you rate what we have done?

We sing, often without much enthusiasm - but who are we singing to?

We pray, often struggling to keep focus because, well, sights, sounds, smells are distracting. Too often when someone else is praying we are thinking about anything EXCEPT what the prayer is praying about!

We read God’s Word - with little or no emotion or expression. (I was gathered with around 280 church planters and their families earlier this week…one of the songs we sang in worship had the line - we shout to the Lord…so, I ‘shouted’ and was immediately embarrassed because everyone else more or less whispered the word…?)

We ‘fellowship.’ That is, we have nice conversations about the weather, about the events of the day, but rarely about what God is doing in our lives!

We need to be careful. The emotional intensity of a public worship service is in no way indicative of the experience of being in God’s presence.

If you read God’s Word you will find that one of the most common reactions to God’s presence is falling face down, being silent, or as we have seen in Revelation joyful and exuberant singing!

Transformed Affections will remind us that worship is nothing less and nothing more than acknowledging the presence of God - The God who created all that is; the God who sustains creation; the God who makes Himself known in Jesus, His One and Only Son; the God who indwells us through the Holy Spirit whom He gives to all who believe.

B. Craving Communion with God in prayer

A second sign of a transformed affection relates to our prayer life.

What exactly is prayer? While we won’t be able this morning to spend an extended amount of time defining prayer let me offer this simple definition:

PRAYER: tuning our heart, soul, and strength to God’s purposes and His presence.

Instruments in an orchestra tune to one unchanging standard :

A = 440 vibrations per second

Prayer is not about changing God’s mind - He knows what we need before we ask. Prayer is not seeking to change God’s heart’s desire - His desire is that all would come to know Him (see 2 Peter 3:9).

Prayer is tuning our heart, soul, and strength to the frequency of God’s heart, soul, and strength.

Prayer is having a genuine two-way conversation. Our prayers are often one-sided. We talk, expecting God to listen and then answer.

As God’s presence transforms us, we will discover that prayer is genuinely more about listening than talking, it is more about straining to hear God - as we read His Word, as we lean in to the circumstances in which God is working.

C. Hunger for God’s Word

We noted this attribute last Sunday.

As God’s Holy Spirit births in us a transformed affection we will literally become ‘hungry’ for the things of God.

Sam Storms, in his book Signs of the Spirit notes that “true knowledge will never be total knowledge.” (p. 181.)

If you totaled up the number of hours you spend in Bible Study - and I mean total: listening, reading, examining, analyzing and so on and compared that number to the total hours you spend in recreational television what what you learn about yourself?

God’s Word is an inexhaustible supply of truth about an inexhaustible God!

D. Confessing sin and receiving forgiveness

As God’s Holy Spirit penetrates the depths of our heart, soul, and strength we will discover how deeply sin is ingrained in us.

As our affections are transformed we will be quick to confess and repent, knowing how freely God forgives.

As Jesus and His followers were traveling through Judea and Galilee, some parents asked Jesus to bless their children. The innermost circle of disciples tried in vain to keep these parents and children from distracting Jesus.

Jesus’ reply is worth repeating:

Matthew 19:14 HCSB

Then Jesus said, “Leave the children alone, and don’t try to keep them from coming to Me, because the kingdom of heaven is made up of people like this.”

Why does Jesus liken those in the kingdom of heaven to children?

We all notice how sensitive children are to doing wrong and having wrong done to them. Our counsel is usually -toughen up, get over it, and so on.

As our affections are transformed we will become deeply sensitive to how grievous our sins are to God and how deeply He cares for us and how genuinely He forgives.

E. Living for the glory of God - even at the cost of our own life

Loving God with all our heart, soul, and strength is costly.

As Jesus prepared to send out His followers He gave them some very clear instructions:

Matthew 10:34–39 HCSB

Don’t assume that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. The person who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; the person who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And whoever doesn’t take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Anyone finding his life will lose it, and anyone losing his life because of Me will find it.

After all these years of following Jesus I am slowly beginning to recognize what Jesus meant in these words.

Like you, I have marvelled at the accounts of men and women who have given their lives for the kingdom of God.

Let me close by sharing some of the life of one family whose transformed affections are still reverberating throughout our world nearly 200 years later:

SEE ATTACHED RE Judson

Copies available on the table in back of the auditorium

REFLECT AND RESPOND

It isn’t always visible emotions that reflect transformed affections. The evidence of transformed affections as indicated in this message comes down to one simple test:

Matthew 7:17–20 HCSB

In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit; neither can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So you’ll recognize them by their fruit.

Loving God with all our heart, soul, and strength is expressed in our worship,

in our communion with God,

in our hunger for His Word,

in our sensitivity sin and eagerness to confess and repent,

and in our choice to lose this life in order to discover genuine life.