| The American Definition of LoveHave you taken the American definition of love - being made much of - and so twisted God to fit that definition so that now the only way you would feel loved by God is if he makes much of you? When in fact, the love of God is so working as to change you so that you enjoy making much of him forever and ever and ever. And that's the end of your quest. There is not anything beyond it. I do believe that is in every heart in this room. And we are all fallen, and we are all sinners. And I know that every person in this room has a distorted desire for God, and it's on the way to being purified, and it's being tricked. You are being tricked, many of you, into thinking that the satisfying thing in life is to be made much of. If I could just get some people to clap for me, to like me, to approve of me, to give me a raise or to give me an advancement, if I could just get someone to pay attention to me, I would be satisfied. You wouldn't. I promise you. In the name of Jesus Christ Almighty, you wouldn't. You will be satisfied when you forget yourself and are swallowed up in Jesus Christ, and he becomes your treasure and your delight and what you cherish and what you value and what you spend the rest of your eternity growing in your capacity to see and savor - to know and delight in him forever and ever - and it will get better and better and better. So let me do this for just a moment. If that's true, then perhaps I need to include in this message a few brief pointers for your spirit's eyes, a few pointers for your eyes toward this all-satisfying Christ. If that's what you're made for, which you are, everybody, believer or unbeliever, in this room was made to behold him. You know, there are clues in your life. Everybody in this room right now has clues in your life that you were not made to be made much of; you were made to make much of God. ... There's another clue as well. Nobody in this room would go to the Grand Canyon to increase your sense of self-esteem. Nobody stands on the edge of the Alps or the Rockies or the Grand Canyon in order to go there to feel better about ourselves. Do you know why you go there? Because you were written to be satisfied with splendor, not self. You were created and a law written on your heart to be infinitely, eternally, fully, joyfully satisfied in a grand splendor not a great self. I plead with you lay it down. Lay down your quest for the applause of men, the approval of men, and begin to get on a quest for the one thing that will satisfy your soul—the splendor of Jesus Christ and all that God is for you in him. I just plead with you for your own soul's infinite happiness that you will stop pursuing it in the wrong place. |
