What Direction is Your Affection?

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, radio friends, how in the world are you? Well, I trust everything’s alright at your house. You know, when I greet you that way, I have a mental picture of so many of you whom I know. And I just pray that God may bless and help and encourage you as the days go on. Some of you listen very early in the morning and others quite late at night. So the time when you listen and the mood in which you may be and the circumstances that surround you may differ, but God is the same. And I want you to know that my concern for you, beloved, is the same as well. May God bless and keep and guide you in this world kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.

Come with me now to Colossians 3. We’re just beginning this third chapter. Paul says, “Since you’re risen with Christ. Seek… ” That word means pursue, get after it. “Those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right Hand of God.” What are the things above? The Savior Himself, a revelation of His nature in you by the indwelling Holy Spirit, fellowship with the Father, and a share in God’s plans for your life. These are some of the things that we might think about.

Now, Paul adds this phrase: “Where Christ sitteth at the right Hand of God.” Why does he say that? Because your only hope of coming into the presence of God and being accepted is because there’s a person there who represents you. “We have,” says John, “an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. We come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need,” says the writer to the Hebrews. You can come there because Jesus is there. People sometimes ask scornfully, “Do you believe that if I don’t receive Christ as my savior, I can’t get into the presence of God?” And the answer is yes. That’s what we believe because that’s what the Bible teaches. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me.” And so, yes, the Christian faith is an exclusive faith in that it’s as exclusive as God Himself. He says, “There’s a way for you to come, and if you’ll come that way, I’ll take you, and if you don’t, I can’t.” Now, that’s a truth that disturbs a lot of people, especially the unbelieving heart that says, “I don’t wanna do it that way.”

Well, beloved, neither did Cain. He said, “I don’t wanna bring a blood sacrifice. I’ll bring my vegetables and my fruits,” but God didn’t accept that offering, did He? You see, God always has His plans, and He wants to be obeyed. Saul, King Saul, was told to go and completely exterminate a group of people whose iniquity had been building up for four centuries. They were incredibly wicked, and now the day of judgment had come. Well, Saul came back with captives and he came back with loot and booty and bragged when he met Samuel, he says, “I have obeyed the commandment of the Lord.” Well, Samuel said, “What’s the lowing of the oxen and the sound of the bleating of the sheep that I hear? What is this?” “Oh,” he said, “the people spared these so they could sacrifice to the Lord thy God.” Well, Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in sacrifice as in obedience? Behold,” he said to Saul, “to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken… ” That means to listen and do something about it. “To hearken is better than the fat of rams. Because you’ve rejected God, he’s rejected you to be king.” That was the beginning of the great, long downfall of King Saul, which ended in his suicide.

As you see, God says, “Do it my way, and if you don’t do it my way, there isn’t any other way.” That is what you and I have to get used to. We do tend to argue with God, don’t we? Even you and I, dear believer, friend, we get our own ideas and we say, “Well God, let me do it my way. Let me have my way. Please bless me, but let me have my way.” We’re a lot like Dr. Narramore’s daughter, who a good many years ago now, as a little child was bent on doing something that was naughty or at least not right. And he wanted to talk her out of it, so he said, “Come up and sit on my knee, and let’s talk about this.” So she came and sat on his knee alright and then she put that little arm around his neck and said to him. “Daddy, let’s not talk about it. Let’s let me have my way.”

[laughter]

That’s what we do to God, isn’t it? Oh yeah, so he says, “Where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.” He adds that just to remind you and me, I think, that there isn’t any other way that you and I can come to God successfully, except through the One who represents us, the Lord Jesus Christ. “There is one God and one mediator between God and men,” Paul says to Timothy, “The man, Christ Jesus.” He’s the one who opens the glory to you and to me. Oh, make much of the Lord Jesus and His grace and love and mercy to you, will you? Honor and magnify and glorify your Savior. The Bible says, “Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me.” Magnify and glorify your Savior. He is your entree to Almighty God. “Worthy is the Lamb,” they say in the book of Revelation. “Worthy is the Lamb.”

So he says, “Seek, go after it.” This involves a decision on your part and action on your part. What? Let me ask this question. If it’s embarrassing, let it be. What, beloved friend, what are you doing today to know God better? What are you doing today to know God better? The things which are above, to be more acquainted with heavenly values and to be more aware of divine plans for you. What are you doing to find out about that? Oh, you say, “Well I have my morning devotions and I said my prayers.” Oh, I know that. So did I. But this is something else, this is something different, this is something additional beyond the routine devotionals that we have.

By the way, I think God must be getting tired of the routine-ness of our devotional life. Don’t you think so? We pray much the same prayers every day, do we not? Just an extra little thought here, vary your prayer life to include more than one or two subjects. God gets tired of prayers like you and I ordinarily pray. He says so in Isaiah 1, He said, “When you make many prayers, I will not hear. I’m weary to bear them.” God gets tired of routine praying. All right.

The question is, then, what are you and I doing? What are we doing to get to know God better? Now, I can’t tell you, I can’t give you a list of actions. I can only say spend time with your Lord, set aside time to seek God. He said, “Seek ye me and ye shall find me. Ye shall search for me and find me when you shall seek me with all your heart” “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you,” says the Bible. Set aside some time to be with God, to wait on him, to let the Holy Spirit of God deal with you. You’ll be surprised what God will say to your heart and how wonderfully He will reveal himself to you by the blessed indwelling Holy Spirit and through his written word, the Bible. Seek those things which are above, work at it. Work at getting to know God better. Will you start that today? Work at getting to know God better, start it today, spend some time alone with your heavenly Father and say, “Lord I wanna know you.” Oh, He’ll speak to you. And you’ll be delighted, and you’ll be blessed, and you’ll grow spiritually as a result.

Now, what’s the first place that needs to be operated on? Verse two, he says, “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” He talked about the earthly attachments we have and the things that we think are of value. In chapter two verse 22, he said, “Which all are to perish with the using.” Have you discovered that things you use are diminishing in value constantly? A friend of mine said sadly that he bought a new car, drove it out of the dealership, out of the showroom, and just drove it out and around the block and a few miles and came back. He said, “I don’t think I like this car, can I… Would you take it back?” Well, they said, “Yes, we’ll take it back, but it’ll cost you $1000.” He said, “That car is worth $1000 less than it was when you drove it out of here new.” Oh, that shook him up. And the longer you use that car of course, the less you can get for it. Things perish with the using, don’t they?

“Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” Jesus said, “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, not on earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal. Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through and steal.” Treasures in heaven, rather than treasures on earth. Why? Because everything here is constantly diminishing in value and finally disappears, so far as its value and usefulness is concerned. Have you discovered that in your life? How attached do we get to things?

I’ve told you I guess about the man who was our next-door neighbor back more than 40 years ago now. He had one great love in his life, I think he loved it more than even than his wife. It was his 1930 Model A Ford sedan, a classic. Even in those days, it was a beautiful car. He really loved it. He’d go out and, well, he called it polishing it, but it was a caress. He just loved that car. He was out driving it somewhere one night and got into a wreck. And I woke up in the middle of the night to hear the sound of a man crying. Well, you know, I never eavesdrop but you can overhear. And so, I overheard a little as I peeked through the Venetian blinds of our bedroom window. And I saw there just a few feet away across the alley, this man in his dining room facedown on the floor, kicking his feet like a child with a tantrum and crying, “Oh, my car, my beautiful car.” Well, I went to the front window to look and sure enough, there was this classic Model A Ford, with the frontend of it all bashed in, and the last drop of antifreeze was sadly dripping from the smashed radiator. He’d had a wreck and the front of that car was all smashed up.

Well, I came back again into our bedroom and then again looked through the blinds, and there he was still crying, “Oh, my car, my beautiful car.” Well, his wife, of course had a good deal more sense than he, and she came and fetched him a resounding kick in the ribs and said, “Get up!” And that ended his crying and he did get up. He loved that car. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. What do you love the most in your life? What is it that really touches your heartstrings? You better transfer those affections to heaven and to Jesus and to eternal values. We’ll talk about that a little more the next time we get together.

Dear Father, today, help us to transfer our affections to heaven and Jesus. Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!