Main Session 1 - Saturday Evening

New Attitude 2008

Main Session 1 – Saturday Evening

Joshua Harris

Didn’t bring a Bible? Concern about appearances…. our greatest concern should be God’s approval. Seeking that no matter if we have the biggest Bible in the room or none. Praying that our thoughts and meditations would be pleasing to Him, and for no distractions by what other people are thinking.

What Na is all about: Humble orthodoxy.

Orthodoxy: the established, proven, cherished truths of the faith. At the center of these truths is that God has sent Jesus Christ to rescue us from the punishment our sins deserve. That’s why we care about truth, about theology and doctrine.

But we don’t only want truth in our heads – we want that truth to shape the way we live. That’s where humility comes into play: we believe that Christian orthodoxy should do a work in our hearts that leads to compassion, humility, and wonder before God.

A lot of people think that if you’re concerned about doctrine than you’re uptight and self-righteous. It shouldn’t be that way. This is truth we’ve received through the mercy of God – because He opened our eyes, became one of us, and died for us on a cross.

Humble orthodoxy: a commitment to believe, live, and proclaim God’s truth, the Gospel.

Why are we spending a whole conference on this? Orthodoxy is based on the truth that God has revealed to us in His Word. It’s God’s word that informs us who He is, about our need for salvation, about His plan to meet that need. It’s not because we are concerned with pieces of paper, it’s because we want to know the living God as He’s revealed himself in scripture.

Theme verse: Jeremiah 15:16. “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart.”

What’s our attitude towards God’s word? Do we delight in it?

How do you think about the Bible? How do you relate to it?

There are many different ideas today about how we should relate to the Scripture. A book came out last year called “The Year of Living Biblically” – A.J. Jacobs. Jacobs was a secular, agnostic writer, who decided to write a book demonstrating what it would be like to follow the Bible for an entire year. He read through the bible in four weeks, notating every instruction that was given – all the OT laws, ceremonial rites, diet, “let the edges of your beard be unshaven,” laws about harps, sheep, staffs, everything. As you can imagine, his life got pretty interesting that year. In public places he would actually take tiny pebbles and fling them at people in an attempt to stone adulterers.

The book is a good gimmick and it’s played up for maximum comedic effect. Yet it raises some questions – How should we relate to the Bible? Is it a bunch of irrelevant, outdated laws? Or does it have meaning for our lives? And if it does, how do we interpret it to our lives?

I want to ask a more basic question: How do we personally relate to the Bible? Most people will say: “I believe the Bible is God’s word and it has authority over my life.” Some people here won’t say that, but most will, and tonight I want to speak to all the people who would say they’re on board with Scripture, that they should follow it as the inspired word of God. The question is, does our living match our confession? Do our practice and our passion for God’s Word match our profession?

To help us examine how we respond to God’s Word, I want to look at the stories of three very different men. One sets a bad example; the other two are positive and to be emulated.

Ripping, Burning, and Eating: Three Stories

Josiah, 2 Kings 22

Josiah was a contemporary of Jeremiah, the “weeping prophet.” Josiah was really the only good king during Jeremiah’s lifetime. They were close in age, and kindred spirits in love for the word of God.

Josiah “… did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and walked in all the way of David his father. He did not turn aside to the right or the left.” When you read this description, you wouldn’t guess that Josiah came from a family that did not love God at all. Josiah’s grandfather, Manasseh, was one of the most wicked kings in all of Judah. He reigned for 55 years and was Josiah’s only model of what a king looked like. He filled the city with innocent blood, sacrificed one of his children to a false god, twisted justice.

Then Josiah came along and he “had a heart that was set on the Lord.” This should especially be encouraging for those who do not come from a Christian family. Isn’t it encouraging that the grace of God is more powerful than your gene pool? It doesn’t matter what your parents or grandparents or siblings are like – God can choose you, and you can respond to His calling and obey him. There was “no king like Josiah, who turned to the Lord with all his heart.”

Wouldn’t you love for that description to be read over your life one day?

But how would you do that? How do you turn to the Lord with all your heart? Sounds like a pretty vague idea. But here’s the connection: You turn to the Lord and love Him with all your heart by responding to and obeying His Word. Your heart for God is revealed by the way you respond to the Bible.

When Josiah was 26 he presided over the rebuilding of the temple. During that process they discovered a scroll. It was God’s Law, literally lost by the people. An entire generation had forgotten and no longer had access to the word of God. As a result, they were living lives of sin, with no anchor, completely disconnected.

This is a defining moment in the life of Josiah. He’s already sought to obey God. Now the scroll is found, and I want you to watch the way he seeks to obey God in the way he responds to His word.

“Hilkiah the priest has given me a book…” and Shafan read it before the king.

We are so used to growing up around God’s word. Can you imagine it being lost for decades, and then someone brings it and reads. Here is what God said.

“When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes….. ‘Go inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah concerning the words of this book that has been found… for great is the wrath of the Lord that has been kindled against us!”

In ancient times, tearing your clothes was a demonstration of agony and anguish. When disaster took place. To have the king tear his royal robes was a statement of incredible despair, and of humility before God.

What an example for all of us. It’s so personal. He tears his own robes. (Sometimes our first response reading the Bible can be to tear someone else’s robes.) The fact that he’s the king doesn’t stop him from saying: “This is speaking to me.”

He recognizes we have all disobeyed. He’s not exempt. This holy God has spoken, and we have broken His commands. He’s taking the Bible seriously, and reading as if God really means what He’s saying.

Do you ever do that?

They went to a prophetess to seek an explanation for what God is doing. She says (verse 18): “…. because your heart was penitent and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard how I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants… and you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the Lord.”

To be penitent means to be repentant – it means to say “I’m wrong, and I’m turning around and going a different direction.” “I’m sorry.”

“When Your words disagree with the way I have been living and the way we have lived as a nation, then WE are wrong and must change.”

You might be asking: “God, do You hear me? Are you listening up there?” There’s a more important question, which is: Are you hearing God? Until you respond to Him with repentance and faith and trust and humility, God’s not going to hear you. The Bible says that we’re to draw near to God, and when we do He’ll draw near to us. That drawing near begins with saying, God, I want to hear and obey Your word. I want to humble myself.

Josiah humbled himself and wept. When’s the last time you wept before God’s word?

There’s not something magical about tears that makes them somehow more acceptable to God – but when our heart is affected, there are emotions that come with that. When’s the last time there were emotions when you read the Word of God? If it was too long ago, are you willing to ask: “What is it that’s moving my heart?”

What’s owning me? What’s preoccupying me? What’s filling my vision and my thoughts?

Entertainment? A relationship? School?

When’s the last time you were broken before the word of God? If it’s been a long time, are you willing to make room in your life to sit under that word of God and wait upon the Lord? Saying to Him, “Lord, I want to hear You”?

Our prayer is that this time will be the beginning of that.

Josiah is such a compelling example of someone who allowed the word of God to reform him. That’s what I want to challenge you to do. Allow it to reshape us. The church is constantly in need of reformation. That reformation is not found in the pursuit of some new technique – the discovery of something new. All reformation in the Church has always been a return to the authority of God. It’s saying “Where my life disagrees with Your words, I will change. I want to be re-formed and re-shaped by Your word. I’m not here to twist Your words to fit my lifestyle – I’m here to have Your Word reshape my life.”

That’s the reformation to which God is calling the Church, and you.

Second story: Burning. King Jehoiakim – Jeremiah 36

Jehoiakim was Josiah’s son. You would hope and pray that he would have followed in his father’s footsteps, but unfortunately he turned from his father’s example. His life is a sobering reminder that it’s not enough to be in close proximity to godliness. You have to follow God’s word yourself. It won’t rub off on you. Jehoiakim is an example of how someone can see a compelling example of godliness – his own father – and still turn from that.

Some of you can have this mindset of trying out what the word has: “you can always come back – I mean, I’m related to all these Godly people!”

The Spirit would say to you: You yourself must obey. It’s not enough to be related to Godly people. You are setting your own self on a course of destruction. Don’t take that lightly. Fear God.

Jehoiakim made that mistake. He was so flippant about God’s Word. In Chapter 36, Jeremiah has had a run-in with Jehoiakim. They’ve banned Jeremiah from the temple for preaching God’s prophecies. Jeremiah calls his scribe Baruch and has him write down all the words Jeremiah’s receiving from God, and then go read them at the temple. (What a guy!)

The words say that God is going to send judgment and the nation is going to be overthrown, and this is brought to King Jehoiakim. Listen to how he responds. Chapter 36:20

“So they went into the court to the king having put the scroll in the chamber of... the secretary, and they reported all the words to the king. Then the king sent… to get the scroll…. and all the officials who stood beside the king. 22: “and there was a fire burning in the fire-pot before him. As Jehudi read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a knife and throw them in the fire in the fire-pot, until the entire scroll was consumed…”

Isn’t that chilling? God is declaring judgment, that this nation is going to be decimated by a foreign land. This is the holy God speaking – and line by line he cuts it off and throws it into the fire. The contrast between Jehoiakim and his dad Josiah couldn’t be more pronounced. Josiah tore his robes; Jehoiakim cut the word of God. Josiah was penitent; Jehoiakim was cold-hearted. Josiah reformed his life by God’s word; Jehoiakim burned God’s word. Jehoiakim had no fear of God.

The king’s got his entourage, all agreeing with him as he sits there. So he feels cool destroying the word of God. We can operate that way. We find people who’ll agree with us and we think we’re safe. We shouldn’t feel safe at all! I don’t care if you have an entire denomination of friends, it’s God you’ll answer to. No matter how cool they might be, how smooth their words, one day you’ll stand before God and they will be no good to you.

This is true in the life of Jehoiakim. All that the prophecy said came to pass, and his life ended in shame.

Today most people are probably too superstitious to burn the Bible. But think about more subtle ways in which we essentially burn the Bible with the way we live. What about when we don’t read it, or read it and ignore what it is telling us to do? Other times we treat the word of God like music tracks on iTunes. Used to be, if you wanted an album you had to buy the whole thing. Now you can just buy one song that you like.

We can so easily bring that “iTunes mentality” into how we view God’s word. We can say “I like this track because it’s got a nice beat you can dance to, but I don’t want that track because it tells me hard things about how to live.”

That passage in Jeremiah about how God has a future and a hope for all of that – we all know that one. Most of us haven’t studied as closely the passages that talk about God’s wrath against idolatry and sin. Why don’t we know those passages as well? For most of our lives, we’ve been “picking tracks” from the Bible. Is there any difference between that and cutting up the Bible? Burning pages?

Here I would encourage you to get into a local church. Campus ministry is great, podcasted sermons are great – they don’t replace being in a local church, listening to God’s word being taught. But let me ask you: how do you think about God’s Word being taught? Is it about the person who’s speaking? Do you view yourself as a connoisseur of sermons, only listening to the guys who are really good? Or only liking it when so-and-so preaches at church? Is it all about the delivery, the personality, and the preferences? No!

It’s all about God speaking through His Word! That’s what it’s about.

Let’s leave behind this mindset of treating God’s Word as thought it’s some sort of performance to be gauged. If God’s Word is being taught, you need to listen, receive, and be humbled before the power of God’s word. You might not be entertained, but that’s not what it’s about.

Let’s humble ourselves. Let’s stand in awe before God. Let’s turn from any form of rejecting, cutting, or burning God’s word.

Jeremiah: Eating – Chapter 15

This is another look at the theme verse for the conference. “Your words were found, and I ate them.” I love that imagery. “I ate them – and your words became to me a joy.” Scholars guess it was portions of Deuteronomy which were found then. What does he say? “and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.”

You eat something that you trust. Putting something in your mouth and letting your body digest it takes a certain amount of trust. It becomes part of you and you feed on it. That’s how Jeremiah says to relate to God’s Word. Not only did I eat it, but it became a joy and a delight to me. It’s wonderfully good food.

What do you delight in? What gets you excited? What do you anticipate and look forward to?

When I think about my own life, there can be so many secondary worthless things that I take delight in. But do I delight in the word of God that way? Let’s ask God to give us that delight.

In one way, Jeremiah’s statement can be discouraging. You’re trying to be excited about God’s Word, and Jeremiah’s over here going munch, munch, munch! I love it, I love it! You know your friends like that. God gives them songs and melodies and angels minister to them, they’re crying all the time, and you’re just trying to remember what you read in your quiet time. Jeremiah can be one of those super-spiritual people who annoy you, as he’s talking about eating the Word and it becoming his joy.

But back up and look at verse 10. He’s a lot more like you and me than you think. This statement about delight in God’s Word is coming in the midst of one of Jeremiah’s complaints! “Woe is me and my mother who bore me!” (Gosh, Jeremiah, leave your mom out of it!) “.. a man of strife and contention to the whole land! I have not lent, nor have I borrowed, yet all of them curse me… I did not sit in the company of revelers, nor did I rejoice… I sat alone because Your hand was upon me, for You had filled me with indignation. Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will you be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that failed?”

Jeremiah is almost sinfully accusing God. He’s tempted to call God a deceitful brook. He’s saying, “You’re not coming through, God! I’m trying to obey you, and all I’m facing is opposition! I wish I’d never been born! I’ve missed out on all the joys of life!”

It’s really true. God called Jeremiah to be separate from all the normal joys of life, so that his very life would be a very witness to the sorrow of God, and the burden of His heart for the people. Doesn’t that passage take on a different meaning when you read it in that context? Jeremiah is fighting for joy in God’s truth in the midst of a moment when he is very discouraged and ready to give up.

What do we learn from Jeremiah’s example? First: God’s word meets us right where we are.

It meets us in moments of doubt, asking questions, where we don’t feel that super, happy, chipper, I-love-Jesus person we’d like to be. When there’s no strength inside us to generate some kind of feeling for God. If you’re in that place, God’s word speaks perfectly even when you’re not doing perfectly. God is able to meet you and minister to and help you, even when all the prayer you can muster is the prayer that says, “Help!”

He will answer that prayer as you pursue Him, cry out to Him, and humble yourself before His word.

Jeremiah’s struggle also shows us that delight in God’s word is often something we have to fight for. “Your word BECAME a joy.” It wasn’t an immediate process, perhaps. The laws of God seemed restrictive, discouraging, and yet as he continued to press into God they became a joy. They weren’t a joy, he was discouraged; and he needed to fight for that joy.

Maybe you don’t want to be in that place where your faith is weak. You want to be on the spiritual mountaintop and just sort of float along!

Know what? This might be God’s way of encouraging you of the fight ahead for joy. There is a sweetness that comes from acknowledging those feelings and saying, God, I will fight for your joy even though I don’t FEEL anything right now! God will meet you.

Finally: Jeremiah’s complaint and God’s eventual loving rebuke of him remind us that we don’t love God’s word so that we can earn our standing before him. We love God’s word because this God has established our standing before Him through the death of His Son. He’s justified us. He’s made us righteous before Himself not because we love God’s Word; not because we perfectly obey God’s Word; but because Jesus did those things in our place. Jesus saved us.

“… if you utter what is precious and not what is worthless, you shall be as My mouth.”

Lay those accusations aside. Maybe you don’t understand the circumstances of your life right now. Believe the word: God is good, and He is faithful. Humble yourself before the Lord, believe what He says about Himself, and stop uttering worthless words.

God goes on to say to Jeremiah: “For I am with you to save you and deliver you… I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked and redeem you from the grasp of the worthless.”

No matter how difficult your life might be, how great your sin might seem, God’s grace is greater. God can redeem. God can rescue. God can intervene and help you. That is the central message of the Bible – that God does the redeeming. We don’t redeem ourselves! We don’t obey and then present ourselves worthy; no, God comes, and by the power of His Holy Spirit God makes our hearts alive.

That’s the Gospel. That’s what the message of the Bible is about. When you understand that good news, it transforms how you read the Bible. There are many people here who have been reading the Bible as a list of all that you need to do for God. Those are in there – but if that’s your primary way of understanding the Bible, it’ll be drudgery to you.

The way that the word of God becomes a delight is when you realize that this Book is not about all that you need to do for God; it’s about all that God has done for you through Jesus Christ. It’s the story of Jesus and what He’s accomplished through His death and resurrection. When you read it as a story of what He’s done, joy will flood your heart. It’ll transform your obeying. You’ll obey because He’s loved you first.

That’s my prayer for you in the coming days. That as we draw near to the word of God, it would not just be lifeless words on a page – it would be the words of the One who gave himself for you. Who has broken into this world and overcome sin so that you could do what you were made to do – know Him and worship Him and delight in Him.

It’s my prayer that we would be able to say with Jeremiah: “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart. For I am called by Your name.”