Latest / Harvest After Sunday / Practical Atheism: Digging Deeper
Transcript
- Harvest Media: Harvest After Sunday podcast. I'm Natalie, and I'm your host, and I'm here with Stefan, Pastor of Preaching and Teaching. And today we're gonna be digging deeper into Sunday's sermon, which was from Matthew 14, 1 through 13. You titled it Practical Atheism. And I loved the sermon. really, to kind of give people a peek behind the curtain, you gave us almost a primer of like biblical counseling, like what we do in biblical counseling. Counseling. we could take Herod and what happened and say, Hey, this is a case study, or pretend he is someone coming in to the counseling office and saying, This is what happened, and we we dig into why that is happening, why he's responding the way he's responding in his life, and go through what that reveals about what he desires, what he believes. So you start to see, I saw so much, so many parallels as you walked us through. You called it practical atheism. a lot of times we'll use words like functional theology, functional gospel, what's ruling your life? What does that reveal about what you desire and what you believe? And when people come into the office for counseling, even in a lot of our one-on-one discipleship relationships that we have in church, we are walking with people and we're saying, Okay, this is what is going on in your life, and what does that reveal about your heart? What are you most Desire and what are you willing to do in order to get that? What are you willing to put aside? Maybe obedience to the Lord, the way you're behaving and thinking, what does that reveal that you believe about yourself, about God, about the true gospel, about grace, about freedom in Christ? And these are the kind of things we explore. Okay, so let's dig in. You said on Sunday, unbelief trades eternal through truth for temporary pleasure. And I think that is really a great connective tissue for people to be able to reflect and see how this applies in their own life because they could hear practical atheism and think I'm sitting here in church, I'm not an atheist, and not be able to connect it to practically how they're living. So let's talk a little bit more about how this idea of unbelief shows up in our lives practically. Yeah, so in Hebrews 3, the author of Hebrews warns the audience, and he's writing to a church, and he's writing to Christians, and he says, Take care lest there be found in you an evil and unbelief. Believing heart. And the the the way that you know if you have an unbelieving heart is if you're rebellious against the word of the Lord. Because then he links it back to the people in the Old Testament who are in the wilderness who Complained and rebelled against the Lord, and they then died in the wilderness and weren't allowed to enter the promised land. And he says, he says, that same unbelieving heart can be present in you when you reject what God has said because it doesn't fit what you what you desire. So that that idea of calling that unbelief, that trade of of truth for pleasure, that is a biblical idea to call that unbelief. Now I I think it's fair that. A Christian sitting in church would say, But I believe. Like that's why I'm a Christian. And so that's why I made that distinction between total unbelief, the actual rejection of Christ, intentional, conscious, total unbelief, and intermittent unbelief. Because I think that if we talk to most Christians and they were honest. That they can point to times in their lives, even presently, where they struggle to really believe what God's Word says. And where they struggle with some kind of unbelief. And so when we're able to say, Well, yeah, I I I did exchange the truth of God for a lie yesterday when I pursued something I shouldn't have pursued to get a feeling that I shouldn't have been trying to get that that I can then say, okay, that in that moment I'm not believing what God's word says. And so there's a there is a an action that I can take. There's a response that I can take there. I can say, Lord I wanna believe. I want to take you seriously. I want to believe what your word says and I can see in my life just how prone I am to that unbelieving heart when I rebel against your word. And so the you know that that title and the big idea was really it wasn't meant to evoke doubt, you know, in of your own security in Christ, but more to to put real tangible, like felt terms to this phenomenon so that we can call it what it is. So that we can actually deal with it. Because if I if I start saying, well, you know, I I believe in Christ, so unbelief isn't something that I struggle with. Well then how do you make sense out of those times where you aren't listening to God's word? instead when I can say, Yeah, I guess I do struggle with unbelief from time to time. Now I've got a category for it. Now I've got something that I can reflect on, something that I can talk with other people about, something that we can go to the scriptures to say, okay, so then What should we be believing? It it gives us much more tangible ways to be able to then pursue sanctification. Yeah, we kind of went straight to the real issue, which is unbelief. and again, people aren't walking into the counseling office saying, I have an unbelief problem. Can you please help me? It it's a it can be a winding road to understand the connection. so let's talk really granularly so that people can see. And relate and understand. I'm sure people either if they've been to counseling, let's just I'm using counseling as an example, but maybe going to a friend to ask for help or saying I'd like to do one-on-one discipleship, or I really need to get in a group of some kind. We have these categories of issues, struggles, scenarios in life, addiction, pornography, marital conflict, even adultery, and unfaithful. all kinds of things and and people say, Okay, I need help with this. Yeah. And then we go in. And then what I'm saying is throughout that process, walking with people and uncovering what's happening in their life, whether it's what they're doing or how they're responding to something that's happening to them is what reveals what they desire and what they believe about God. So they might say, Of course I believe about God, but then I'm struggling with this issue and I don't know what to do and how to make sense of it. And of course These things are connected, but certainly we have to walk with people to see how those connections are made. Right. Yeah, I think about the the husband who struggles with anger in his home. And so he goes to our soul care pastor or he starts doing counseling and and he's like, you know, I just really want to work on my anger. Okay, well anger is a secondary emotion. Like anger is what comes out of me because of something else that happened that made me feel X, so I responded with anger Y. Okay, so what made you angry? Well, I I You know, I I wanted my wife to do this and she didn't she didn't do it and I just feel like she should be listening to me. Okay, so what is that what does that reveal about what you really want? Is it that you really wanted that thing done? Mm-hmm. Or is there something else that you desire? Well yeah, I want I want the people in my home to listen to me. Okay. And Why is it that you feel like that's something that they should do? Well, because I'm the I'm the man of the house and and they should respect me. Okay, so what you're saying is respect is important to you. And when when you feel like the people in your home don't listen to you, they're disrespecting you. Mm-hmm. yeah. Okay. All right. Let's let's talk about that then. And now we start getting down the rabbit hole of You feel disrespected because of the way that you define respect, because of the thing that you think your family should be doing. Nowhere in this conversation has a desire to honor Christ come up. And all of a sudden we start to pull stuff out where it's like there is actually an unbelief problem under here where there's a lack of a desire to submit to the way that God calls you to lead in your home and a desire to have it your way. And I mean we could we could talk about all kinds of all kinds of different things, but I think a lot of a lot of counseling, a lot and and when we say counseling, like yes, we're we can be talking about your typical counseling. Counseling, sitting down with a counselor, but but there are informal versions of that all the time and just one-on-one conversations about what's going on in your heart. And in all of those things, what you find is that almost exclusively, when there is an issue going on in someone's life You just you drill down deep enough and there is at Bedrock a tug of war between God's kingdom and my kingdom. Absolutely. Like it just that's what it comes down to. Mm-hmm. God's way is this. I don't want that. I want this. And it's that's down at the very bottom and it's been covered by layers and layers and layers of our own Justification of why our way should be God's way. And we just want God to agree with us. Because if God agrees with me, then you have to agree with me. but then when it starts to expose the fact that no God does not agree with me on this, now I've got to do the work of now believing what God has said. identifying the tension between God's kingdom and my kingdom is so important. And people talk about, you know, at the root of our sin issues, is it unbelief or is it pride? And it's, you know, really two sides of the same coin. And you just described it there because if I'm believing everything that's true about God, then I will submit to his kingdom. So if I'm not, then there's unbelief, but it's also my pride and my own desires pulling at that. So We can say pride and we can say unbelief. there might even be some people now that are still hesitant to this, to saying like, so you're telling me I'm the issue, like someone else is sinning against me, or I'm going through a period of suffering. And I think there are still things about those scenarios being sinned against by others and just suffering being sinned against is a form of suffering, and there are others that still reveal what we truly believe. Yep. Yeah, I've I mean I think about I think about someone who is being legitimately sinned against and they are negatively experiencing the fallout of someone else's own unbelief or their own self righteousness or their own pride Well, depending on what I think is what I need in that in that moment, whatever's happening to me, okay, what I need now to heal from this or to be guarded against this, that then becomes my own wrestling with my way or God's way. If if I am looking for retribution, if I am holding a a a grudge, if I am Seeking to slander, paint that person in as negative a light as possible, and all those things, like that's that's still just another version of me trying to get my way versus God's way. And so even when I'm being sinned against, there is a way to respond that reveals I believe what God says. believe that he is my comforter. I believe that he fights for my behalf. I believe that he sees what what other people seem to not see or he sees through the lies that people are trying to create and I'm not going to take into my hands the things that should be in his. Like that communicates belief, submission, humility. So as much as sometimes no you're not the problem in that situation, you are still a person who has A nature that will, if left unchecked, lean toward self-preservation and self-interest. And so, in that, regardless of whether I'm the offended or the offender, I have to be aware of my own proclivities to try and get things my way and actively ask the Lord to help me to believe Him rather than believing myself. And we might need some help not not only identifying our unbelief and but certainly correcting it. And you said a couple of things in there that really highlight that and obviously you mentioned them in the sermon o as well. you said things like, We're gonna need to submit, we're gonna be corrected, God letting God's word correct my desires. maybe we have problems of unbelief because we haven't even learned it about God. We're not getting God's word in front of our eyes enough to know that that is his character and this is a promise of his character that we can see in scripture. this is an invitation for people to engage in the things that we've talked about so often this year on this podcast. being anchored in God's word. That is his means of grace for us. Being in a community of other believers that are gonna help by speaking into our lives lives and helping us identify areas where we might have pride and unbelief. what are some of the common ways that you think people might avoid but are the quickest to help correct these things? Yeah so I think the biggest one that we avoid like the plague is accountability. Yeah. Intentional, purposeful accountability. Now I have come from a background where accountability was like all the worst things that you can imagine accountability being like You're in a you're in a small group and s and th you know ever it it's your turn now to tell us all the ways that you failed this week and you know that's not is it here's my phone, look through my history and my text messages, like what do we mean by accountability? And what I think biblical accountability is, is that one, I'm known and I To ask me questions and I'm committing to being honest with you. Just so that I'm known. Not so that you can investigate a way to skewer me to the wall on something that I did, but but you can ask me things and I will be honest with you so that I'm known. Because if I'm not known, then there is no way for me to be able to to to be able to compare my life to the truth of God's word because I'm keeping hidden the things that should be being compared to God's word. is typically a indicator that things aren't right. Yeah, anyways. So stop for a minute. Just like I want people to think and reflect right now, even as they're listening, who in like how in my life am I known and by who? And see if the names and faces come into your mind and think like, do they know where I am on a given day at a given hour? Do they know my life rhythms? If I'm home with my family, if I'm coming to church, if I'm at my Job like I said I would be, or different things like that. Are there periods of time where I'm not accountable to anyone and can't it can't be accounted for by anyone outside of myself or ways that I'm spending my money or relationships that I have, the way I'm communicating with people, the things that I am engaging in that no one in my life knows. You said hidden. Like, are there areas of my life that are hidden intentionally or unintentionally? From a certain person that I am close to, but I still keep some things hidden. Do I keep whole areas of my life hidden and why? Yeah. I know immediately of a few people that if they did not see me at something, hear from me, you know, they would be able to know if something was off in all areas of they know what's going on with my job, with my marriage, with my kids, with you know, my personal. Life, my spiritual struggles or where I'm at, things that I'm questioning, maybe a very limited amount of people, but there are people that know and they ask, and I I've asked them to ask, and I've said, Will you please speak in if you see something not aligned here? I mean, being present, we've talked about this. How do we say it? How do we phrase it before? Like attendance isn't engagement or isn't community I think when we were talking about our it was that it was that proximity is not community yes being around other believers is not having community with believers so it's not how many people know you how many friends do you have in your phone or on your Instagram that are liking the photos you choose to post but how are you truly known and by whom and what areas of your life might be hidden and why? Yeah and when when I will when I will Give someone permission to know me. I am I want to be known by you. What I'm saying is, I want you to speak into the things that you see that are out of step with the truth of God's word. So when you know that there are things in my life that are going on that shouldn't be, you can now speak into them. You can confront me. That the the New Testament is full of examples. Where believers confront one another or are encouraged to confront one another with love for the sake of building one another up and spurring one another on towards Christlikeness. And if I am not participating in a relationship in which accountability is a part of that relationship where I'm known and that person has the freedom to speak into my life, I cannot be built up by others in the church toward Christlikeness. So I think that's the probably the biggest thing that people avoid that is so important for the the process of of being confronted with the things that I'm I'm not believing or the things that I'm trading the truth for, I need other people to point it out to me. Because you and I, as people, and anybody listening to this, is equally as good. We are so good at giving an explanation and a justification and an excuse for literally everything that we do. If if left to just myself and my own assessment of myself, I don't Do anything wrong. Because all of us have a reason for what we do, and we're really good at at framing it in a way where our reason is the exception to whatever issue is going on. And when I have someone in my life who can put my heart in conversation with God's word, and I can't run away from it, then it becomes very difficult for me to self-justify. And the doorway is open for me to say, You're totally right. I hadn't seen that until you pointed out to me. Thank you for that. I needed that correction. but that takes humility. It does. And I just I feel prompted to say because I I told you how I do have people that speak into my life and I am known. that is because I know the dangers of protecting my my image so much that I was not in relationships where I was known. And so I don't I don't want to climb across as like self righteous and I have it figured out when I do it well. this is God's grace in my life and teaching me through his loving discipline over years because I can point very specifically to a time in my life where I my heart was very hard and I did not I I was not vulnerable with people that I even considered my closest friends because I was so concerned about preserving my image and my identity the way that I had it all set up. And I was walking towards some really destructive things and I felt the Lord, the Holy Spirit tell me and I don't have many experiences like this in my life probably less Than a handful, but two times very, very clearly in my mind or my heart. I felt the spirit say, tell, and then one of my friends' names. Like that was it. Tell so and so about like what's going on in your mind at heart. I was not even engaging in in anything yet, but like, go tell that person, and I just willfully ignored it. And then there was a second prompting that I again willfully ignored, and then continued down. An extremely destructive path, and that is the goodness and kindness of the Lord. It's mysterious. I don't understand how that happens. I knew it was the prompting from the Lord, and it's those one of those amazing, mysterious things. Why does he use other imperfect people and use community? But he does, and so I can speak to the danger and destruction from ignoring that kind of being known and how God uses. uses it as a part of our sanctification to help us. Yeah. I mean I I can think of times in my life where I was making that trade of truth for temporary pleasure. And it was the confession of it that is what brought it to an end. It was the going to someone and saying, Hey, this is going on and having that person say, Man, you shouldn't be doing that. Yeah. And here's why. And being able to say, You're right. Like I shouldn't be doing that. Help me. Help me to stop doing this. Help me to stop going down that road. And and I can think of so many people I've personally known who have done the same thing through bringing the the desires, bringing the pursuit of pleasure out into the light, those things shrivel up and die. When they're kept in hidden in the dark, they stay alive and well. Mm-hmm. Think of so many who brought it out into the light and and God used his people in one another's lives to set that person free from from that as you as you're in Galatians 6 bearing one another's burdens. If if someone is caught in a sin, restore them in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you not be caught in the same sin as well. Like scripture commands us to come alongside one another when we are prone to give up the truth for the sake of things we shouldn't. Be pursuing. I can think of just as many people who kept it hidden and ruined their lives. And you just look at that and it's a cautionary tale. Your own testimony, my testimony, the testimony of so many others, it is a cautionary tale. Be known. Because you will, in your own heart, you will be drawn toward temporary pleasures that will beckon you to trade the truth of God for them. You will. And when you are known by people, they can help hold you back from that from that ledge so that you can continue walking in the truth. It it is a mystery why God chose to do it for us in community, but it is very obvious that he did choose to do it in community. Mm-hmm. And I think again, we've talked about this verse before, but this application is specifically for this situation that we're describing, confess your sins to one another and you will be healed. We know there's forgiveness from God and we are to confess our sin before God. But the healing comes from confessing it to one another. And it that confused me for so long I didn't understand it until I realized that being able to do it, I mean, like you said, it loses its power. It brings it from the darkness into the light. But a huge piece of it is humility. It's humility, and we already talked about how unbelief and pride go hand in hand, and that is where we're gonna remain just stuck and in bondage, and it does lead to death and destruction. But being able to confess to another requires humility, and that is the beginning of us being changed. Like you said, we are being corrected, we're submitting to God's word in that process, and so it it feels difficult. I know there's people right. Right now listening and they have things popping up in their mind, areas of life that they know they're intentionally keeping hidden, promptings that they've ignored to be honest to someone about something that they're just thinking about, maybe not even engaged in, but they're deceiving themselves and thinking they can just entertain it in their mind and their heart and it's not a problem. And I will tell you right now, it's going to become a problem. It it's already a problem and you resisting confessing it to someone else is allowing the problem to become a bigger problem. So it's God's goodness and his kindness, and I can't help thinking, I was just talking about it, but again, it's so applicable. Psalm 32, 3 through 5, about groaning under the weight of our own sin when we refuse to confess. And then when we confess our sins, we are freed from our guilt. When I confess my sins to the Lord, I was freed from my guilt. It's a beautiful passage about the reality of the bondage and the weight. Of sin and how confession is required, and then God's forgiveness and faithfulness is right there and it leads to freedom. So just for the person who is who is in bondage currently and is allowing shame to prevent them from going forward, whether it's to their spouse, a trusted friend, their small group, or to say, I think this is a real problem. I need some, I want to walk with somebody. I want to be in a discipleship group or walk with somebody one-on-one or do count. Counseling for a few months, there is freedom and there is forgiveness and there is healing. This is God's grace for our sanctification. And when we keep these things hidden and we trade the temporary things for trade the truth for temporary things, then we are just choosing to live in death and destruction. Yeah. Yeah. And if if the narrative about Herod tells us anything. and then the subsequent narratives in the rest of the gospels and acts tell us anything. It is that when I choose myself over God's way, it will not end well. Mm-hmm. I mean, he right like he he has the banquet. Then he has Jesus in front of him. it in it's in Luke twenty three, I believe. he has Jesus in front of him and mocks him. And then only A little while after that, people are cheering about him, speaking with the voice of God, and he falls over dead because he doesn't tell them, No, not God, I'm just a man. Falls over dead. So the pride that we see that is present in Herod in the beginning doesn't go away. It only grows. And the the the narrative about Herod is such a great Warning, especially when we like I did in the sermon, when we flip those three things, and we say, Okay, if unbelief is I distort Jesus to fit what I want, I I I exchange what I should do for what I want to do, and I care far more about what people think of me than what God thinks, if that's unbelief, and we flip that and say, Therefore, Lord, let that not be true of me. Let me embrace Jesus for who he is. Let me see your way as right and good. Let me fear you above anyone else. Now the response from that will be the opposite of pride. It will be submission, it will be humility, it will be saying, Lord, let me be known by anybody if it just means that I keep walking in the way that you have for me. And then we can walk in confidence. Yeah. Knowing that we're walking by faith. We're walking in dependence upon the Lord for him to do in us what only he can do. And that is a much more confident life than one that's lived in the darkness. I was challenged, I was encouraged, I'm hoping this is an encouragement for people to see for themselves what they might need in their life, some more accountability, like you said. I pray and trust that God is already impressing like the name and face in their heart and mind right now of who they need to go talk to. And I would say, do not delay. Yeah. Do not delay. Sending the text message, opening your mouth. That is the hardest part. And there is freedom. Like there is freedom just on the other side. And it is a step of obedience to the Lord. And it shows that you desire to obey the Lord. You fear the Lord more than you fear what others will. think of you and there's freedom beyond that first step. and maybe some will say, I I think I have some patterns and some beliefs that have been ruling my life in such a significant way or for so many years. I'm not even sure w what they are, but I know there's a problem and I think I'm gonna need some help being corrected with the truth of God's word and even helping I've desensitized myself to the truth of God's word. I've turned away from it so often And the promptings of the Holy Spirit attempting to convict and correct me that I'm gonna need some accountability to walk through this. And so how are there opportunities for me to be in relationship with people at Harvest? We've talked recently about our groups and studies, and I'll just say here as well because these are the areas that I'm specifically involved in for women, we have one-on-one discipleship opportunities. And if you go on the website under Women's Ministry, there is a page for one-on-one discipleship and you can click there to get some more information, kind of fill out a form, and that will come to me. I would be the next person that you talk to. And then we have opportunities for a little bit more formalized biblical counseling with Nick as our pastor of Soul Care and then Katie Koppenstein and I counsel women as well, and then we have a growing team, a cohort that's currently in training to be available for more formalized biblical counseling for our church. And so I want to just encourage people to step towards those things today, this week, because there's freedom in Christ. but we need to correct our thinking and believe the truth. Yeah. And for the men, there are D groups which are small group, men's discipleship groups. There is our finally free men's group that is for men recovering from addiction to pornography and things of that nature. there are Similar discipleship opportunities and soul care is available to men as well. Like these things are here. We have small groups that in the small group time there is time for confession and sharing about what's going on in your life. And like we have these avenues. So take advantage of Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you for joining us for the Harvest After Sunday podcast, where we help you grow into the image of Christ by applying the truth of his word for his mission. We'll see you Sunday.