Guarding the Affection of Great Worth, Part 3
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· 14 viewsBig Idea: Protecting GOD as THE affection of great worth in our hearts requires us to guard with all diligence the values and affections of our lives.
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Introduction
Introduction
The signs of a flesh-pleaser or sensualist are these:
1. When a man in his desire to please his appetite, does not do it with a view to a higher end, that is to say to the preparing himself for the service of God; but does it only for the delight itself.
2. When he looks more eagerly and industriously after the prosperity of his body than of his soul.
3. When he will not refrain from his pleasures, when God forbids them, or when they hurt his soul, or when the necessities of his soul call him away from them.
4. When the pleasures of his flesh exceed his delights in God, and His holy word and ways, and the expectations of endless pleasure. When he had rather be at a play, or feast, or other entertainment, or getting good bargains or profits in the world, than to live in the life of faith and love, which would be a holy and heavenly way of living.
5. When men set their minds to scheme and study to make provision for the pleasures of the flesh; and this is first and sweetest in their thoughts.
6. When they had rather talk, or hear, or read of fleshly pleasures, than of spiritual and heavenly delights.
7. When they love the company of merry sensualists, better than the communion of saints, in which they may be exercised in the praises of their Maker.
8. When they consider that the best place to live and work is where they have the pleasure of the flesh. They would rather be where they have things easy, and lack nothing for the body, rather than where they have far better help and provision for the soul, though the flesh be pinched for it.
9. When he will be more eager to spend money to please his flesh than to please God.
10. When he will believe or like no doctrine but “easy-believism,” and hate mortification as too strict “legalism.” By these, and similar signs, sensuality may easily be known; indeed, by the main bent of the life.
Richard Baxter
When you evaluate yourself according to this list, how do you do?
Did you become concerned over the reading of this list? Was your soul pricked or convicted?
If so, then perhaps the Spirit is calling you to confess and repent of ways in which God is not THE affection of great worth in your heart.
Protecting GOD as THE affection of great worth in our hearts requires us to guard with all diligence the values and affections of our lives.
Outline/Review
Outline/Review
Big Idea: Protecting GOD as THE affection of great worth in our hearts requires us to guard with all diligence the values and affections of our lives.
Four values we must guard...
Guard the value of time: Be available to God - Matthew 21:1-5.
Guard the value of your gaze: Don’t miss the spectacular - Matthew 21:6-11.
Guard the value of your passions: Don’t value the wrong thing! - Matthew 21:12-13.
Guard the value of faith: Protect the simplicity of childlike faith Matthew 21:14-17.
Sermon Body
Sermon Body
Big Idea: Protecting GOD as THE affection of great worth in our hearts requires us to guard with all diligence the values and affections of our lives.
Matthew 21:1-17.
1 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples,
2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me.
3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.”
4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,
5 “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ”
6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.
7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them.
8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?”
11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”
12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.
13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.
15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant,
16 and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “ ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?”
17 And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.
First, we need to guard the value of our time.
Second, we need to guard the value of our gaze.
THIRD.... we need guard the value of our passions....do not value the wrong things...
Guard the value of your passions: Don’t value the wrong thing! - Matthew 21:12-13.
Guard the value of your passions: Don’t value the wrong thing! - Matthew 21:12-13.
Before we look at Matthew 21:12-13, look with me at Luke 19:41-44.
41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it,
42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.
43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side
44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
What is Jesus weeping for?
Jesus knows what is coming. He knows that some of these very people will be crying for his death in a weeks time. He knows the superficiality of the people.
He knows their spiritual blindness and failure to understand.
He knows the very destruction of the city that will come through Titus in AD 70. The Romans would indeed surround the city, building embankments around the city, starving the city out over a course of months and slaughter them brutally and mercilessly. Those few who survived were carted off for Roman circus games and gladiatorial fights.
This sacking and destruction is a direct result, a direct punishment for their failure to recognize the coming of their Messiah.
Jesus’ heart weeps for their failure to see, to accept.
What is Jesus weeping for?
Their spiritual blindness and failure to understand what truly brings peace.
He is weeping for their failure to desire PEACE WITH GOD over political and physical peace.
Jesus is weeping over the coming judgment for their spiritual blindness.
This deep sorrow is strongly contrasted here with their jubilant shouts of the crowds.
Only Luke records this moment.
But it precedes the text of Matthew 21:12-13 and builds a picture for us of the heart of God.
Now, look at Matthew 21:12-13
12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.
13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
Notice where Jesus goes immediately upon entering the city - HIS FATHER’s house of prayer
What does he do?
He turns over the tables of money changes and drives them out, rebuking them for corrupting the very purpose for which this dwelling and structure existed…to commune with God.
What do these two events reveal to us about the heart of God?
That God is INFINITELY more concerned with the heart of man, the spiritual, then the physical.
Deeply etched on the heart of God is the concern for man’s spiritual life.
Embracing of God, faith, repentance is the deep concern of Christ
Intimacy with God (prayer) is the deep concern of Christ.
BOTH of which they missed.
Can we say that this same value, this same focus drives us?
What did they value instead?
How do we learn to value that which Christ values and grieve for that which Christ grieves for?
Spend time in His word. Unhurried, meditative time. FOCUS on personal application.
Spend time in prayer. Ask God to expose and convict us of areas we need to change and grow.
Spend time with the body of Christ
Spend time with those passionate for God
Guard the priorities, values, and responsibilities of our lives to make sure we are making time for God.
What specific and practical steps can we take this week to move value God’s values and grieve for what God grieves for?
Take a short/extended fast/break from certain things to make more time for God.
Seek accountability to ensure we are being motivated and challenged to spend that unhurried, focused time with God.
Find a set place and time to give to God.
Read the word slowly, carefully making sure to do you best to understand the text.
Look for commands to obey, truths to follow, attributes of God to worship, works of God to give thanks for as you read the text.
The Value of Political freedom/deliverance. Earthly and temporal comfort and ease.
The Value of Political freedom/deliverance. Earthly and temporal comfort and ease.
They wanted deliverance from the Roman oppression.
They wanted a political savior like the ones of old that delivered them from every oppression in OT times that they faced.
They wanted the restoration of the Davidic kingdom.
In essence, they wanted their prosperity, physical freedom, and comfort/ease restored.
Their god was their comfort and ease; their trouble free life.
We are no different.
Listen to the admonition/warning Paul gives in Philippians
Philippians 3:17-21.
17 Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.
18 For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.
19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.
20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
What was Paul in tears for?
Paul, in tears, was devastated by the many whose eyes NO LONGER RESTED ON GOD but on their own shame (as if it were their glory) and whose god were the things of the fleshly appetites and longings.
What is their end? Destruction.
What are their minds set on? Earthly things.
Just like those in Jerusalem who failed to recognize their Messiah and who would face destruction later on for their blindness.
Notice…when we walk as such, what does the text describe us as? Enemies of the cross.
That seem harsh and severe to you? It is! BUT, it is truth. Sobering and real.
What did Jesus say to Peter when Peter tried to deny that Jesus would have to suffer? Get thee behind me....Satan...
When we live in ANY OTHER WAY, pursing ANY OTHER PASSION besides that of God and His glory…we live as enemies of the cross.
James 4:4.
4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
There is no middle ground.
What are your passions? What are you desiring?
Let me give a few common ones as an example.
Like the ones that Jesus drove out of the temple, we can be lovers of money
In what way(s), specifically, do we set our minds on fleshly things?
We spend too much time focusing on earthly things and not enough on spiritual
We spend too much time pursing temporal pleasure.
We do not seek God’s wisdom and will before making decisions.
We become preoccupied with the things of this life over the things of eternity.
We fail to obey the great commission and go make disciples
Where, in your life, might you have too much love and affection for the things of this world? Where might you actually be making yourself an enemy of God?
The Value of the Love of money
The Value of the Love of money
Matthew 21:12-13.
12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.
13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
Their value and priority was not on prayer...
What is prayer?
Their value and priority was not on prayer...intimacy with God, and spiritual wholeness…it was on their monetary gain.
They are accused of being robbers, which suggest they were overcharging and cheating people out of their money.
They lost sight of the highest priority and distorted the purpose of the temple of God.
Intimacy with God
Prayer
Fellowship
Worship
Repentance
Sacrifice
They exploited the house of God for personal gain.
Love of money ruled their hearts.
We are warned of the same danger.
1 Timothy 6:3-10.
3 If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness,
4 he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions,
5 and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain,
7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.
8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.
9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
The love of money is the root of all kinds of evils.
Why? Because it is focused on satisfying the desires of the flesh rather than the things of eternity, the things of the kingdom.
Love of money is aimed at the flesh
And it is subtle how fast healthy desires can turn to it.
Consider these…the selling the sacrificial animal started well; so that those traveling distances did not have to carry those animals with them, tending them along the way.
But....this began OUTSIDE of the temple.
Not only has it moved INSIDE
But they are robbing people in the process.
What was supposed to AID in WORSHIP AND SPIRITUAL NEEDS was distorted and abused…even under the guise of ministry.
For even those under the guise of ministry can manipulate and distort.
3 If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness,
4 he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions,
5 and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.
That is exactly what happened here. Ministry was not a means to serve others, but a means to selfish gain.
The love of money struck....
There are some who will use the guise of ministry, spiritual things for the wrong reasons.
Some will exploit “godliness” for personal gain.
The love of money being at the root of their pseudo godliness.
This is why Paul speaks to the issue of contentment and warns against the love of money.
We can mask it in many ways and “justify” it in many ways, but if we are honest, do we not know the love of money in our lives?
Truth is, probably all fight with it so a certain extent, some more than others.
But the love of money is at odds with love of God.
Consider this quote by AW Pink when he rightfully notes...
These orders [love for God and love for money] are diametrically opposed. The one commands you to walk by faith; the other to walk by sight. The one to be humble; the other to be proud. The one to set your affections on things above; the other to set them on the things that are on the earth. The one to look at the things unseen and eternal; the other to look at the things seen and temporal. The one to have your conversation in heaven; the other to cleave to the dust. The one to be careful for nothing; the other to be full of anxiety. The one to be content with such things as you have; the other to enlarge your desires. The one to be ready to distribute; the other to withhold. The one to look at the things of others; the other to look at one’s own things. The one to seek happiness in the Creator; the other to seek happiness in the creature. Is it not plain? There is no serving two such masters. A.W. Pink
Are we guarding our passions against the love of things…the love of money....
Is God guarded as THE affection of great worth in our hearts?
Where is the love of money/things present in your life?
What are some ways that we justify our love of money that may really be a mask to conceal wrongfully focused affections?
We try to justify purchased as if they will be used for ministry to others when really we are simply using that as a way to rationalize our expense.
We find reason for not tithing that seems others focused when in reality it may be a way of avoiding the command to give as the Lord has blessed.
We justify purchases of bigger homes, vehicles, additional homes, etc under the guise of using for them for ministry but never seem to get around to doing so.
Etc
The value of being served...
The value of being served...
Jesus valued serving...
Matthew 20:25-28.
25 But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.
26 It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,
27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave,
28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Jesus came to be a servant.
Philippians 2:1-11.
1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,
2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The greatest act of service, EVER, was the GOD…DIVINE, eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, holy, just God…SERVING the very THING he created....LOWERING HIMSELF BENEATH IT, to serve it, to suffer for it, to save it.
John 13 - Jesus washed his disciples feet and modeled for his disciples what they were to do for one another....
AND
Judas was there.
The example? Wash even our enemies feet. Serve even our enemies.
The true test of a servant’s heart is seen in how you respond when you are treated like one.
Do you and I value serving or being served?
In what ways can we better serve those whom God has placed in our lives? Be specific.
What can we learn from Jesus’ example of servanthood? How do we emulate his example?
Serving ought to be a high priority.
If we are not actively involved in serving others, we should be looking for and engaging in service to others.
If we are “too busy,” we need to make some changes that permit us to obey and follow Christ’s example.
There is no excuse for not loving and serving, even our enemies. Refusal to serve our enemies should be repented of.
The value of man’s praise and acceptance
The value of man’s praise and acceptance
John 12:37-43.
37 Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him,
38 so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
39 Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said,
40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.”
41 Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.
42 Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue;
43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.
Verse 43 sums it up well - We love the glory that comes from men more than the glory that comes from God.
People’s opinions of us, their value of us becomes too important
God’s becomes too small.
Book - When People Are Big and God is Small
People and their approval become our god, our idol.
Jesus valued His Father’s will and pleasure.
34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.
Repeatedly, Jesus made clear what his goal, agenda, and desires were…to please his father and seek to do His will.
Is that true of us?
So let me end, for today, with two thoughts on what we should value.
What should we value?
In what way are people big and and God small in your life?
How do we make God big and people small in our lives?
Spend time in scripture and with the body of Christ enlarging our view of God.
Repent of making people too big and God too small and ask the Spirit to make God bigger in our minds.
Rid ourselves of worldly ideals and philosophies that are unbiblical and renew our mind with truth.
Value pleasing God above all else.
Value pleasing God above all else.
2 Cor 5:9.
9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
1 Corinthians 10:31.
31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Is the goal of our lives, IN EVERYTHING....
Every action
Every thought
Every desire
Are they bent....on pleasing God? On making His glory known?
Is this the filter through which we run all of our choices, desires, motives, thoughts, and actions?
Do we consciously think...
Does this desire please God?
Will this action make much of his glory?
Is my response (both internal and external) pleasing to God and showing how glorious he is?
Does this value that I am valuing please God? Does he value the same?
How do we know whether or not the answer to these questions is yes or no? What is God pleased with?
Matthew 3:16-17.
16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him;
17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Romans 8:28-29.
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
God is pleased with His son.
God is pleased with us WHEN WE LOOK LIKE HIS SON.
Therefore, every value we value, every desire we desire, every thought we think, and every action we perform....should be run through the filter of....
Does Jesus value this?
Does Jesus desire this?
Does/Would Jesus think this?
Does/Would Jesus do this?
God knows we will not be perfect, but there should be progress in this area.
Ephesians 4:22-24.
22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,
23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
THE WORD OF GOD needs to be our basis in determining this progress and this likeness.
Too much humanistic and material thinking has crept into thought process these days.
One final thought for today, a thought I even touched on last week is this....
How do we please God in all we do?
Strive to be like Jesus. Imitate Christ
What steps can you take in your life, personally, this week to more actively please him?
Value the GIVER over the gift
Value the GIVER over the gift
We must value the GIVER over the gift.
“God is not glorified if the foundation of our gratitude for the gospel is the worth of its gifts and not the value of the Giver. If gratitude for the gospel is not rooted in the glory of God beneath the gift of God, it is disguised idolatry. May God grant us a heart to see in the gospel the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ. May he grant us to delight in him for who he is, so that all our gratitude for his gifts will be the echo of our joy in the excellency of the Giver!”
― John Piper, God Is the Gospel: Meditations on God's Love as the Gift of Himself
It is easy to get this backwards.
And this problem is the root of the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel.
GOD IS THE GIFT.
HE IS THE GOSPEL.
“The ultimate good of the gospel is seeing and savoring the beauty and value of God. God’s wrath and our sin obstruct that vision and that pleasure. You can’t see and savor God as supremely satisfying while you are full of rebellion against Him and He is full of wrath against you. The removal of this wrath and this rebellion is what the gospel is for. The ultimate aim of the gospel is the display of God’s glory and the removal of every obstacle to our seeing it and savoring it as our highest treasure. “Behold Your God!” is the most gracious command and the best gift of the gospel. If we do not see Him and savor Him as our greatest fortune, we have not obeyed or believed the gospel.”
― John Piper, God Is the Gospel: Meditations on God's Love as the Gift of Himself
And our affections must be centered on HIM and not on the gifts He gives.
Big Idea: Protecting GOD as THE affection of great worth in our hearts requires us to guard with all diligence the values and affections of our lives.
In what way(s) are you valuing God’s gifts over the God Himself?
What steps can you take this week to repent and change this?
Conclusion
Conclusion
Big Idea: Protecting GOD as THE affection of great worth in our hearts requires us to guard with all diligence the values and affections of our lives.
Four values we must guard...
Guard the value of time: Be available to God - Matthew 21:1-5.
Guard the value of your gaze: Don’t miss the spectacular - Matthew 21:6-11.
Guard the value of your passions: Don’t value the wrong thing! - Matthew 21:12-13.
Guard the value of faith: Protect the simplicity of childlike faith Matthew 21:14-17.
Let me end with this quote, this challenge.
How would you finish [this] sentence? “One thing have I desired of the Lord; that will I seek after _________.” What is the greatest desire and longing of your heart? In the answer to that question lies the explanation for much of what we do – our choices, our priorities, our use of time, the way we spend money, the way we respond to pressure, whom or what we love. [King] David’s answer (see Psm. 27:4) reveals why God could say, “This man’s heart beats like mine.” A Place of Quiet Rest, Moody, 2000, p. 39. Nancy Leigh DeMoss
As you meditate and reflect upon these truth’s today, I pray that strength and challenge you to be growing together to become more like Jesus for the glory of God.