David Platt from Radical :
If you ask most people, they would say, "The message of Christianity is that God loves me enough to send his Son, Jesus, to die for me.”
As wonderful as this sentiment sounds, is it biblical? Isn’t it incomplete, based on what we have seen in the Bible? “God loves me” is not the essence of biblical Christianity. Because if “God loves me” is the message of Christianity, then who is the object of Christianity?
God loves me.
Me.
Christianity’s object is me...
The message of biblical Christianity is not “God loves me, period,” as if we were the object of our own faith. The message of biblical Christianity is “God loves me so that I might make him—his ways, his salvation, his glory, and his greatness—known among all nations.” Now God is the object of our faith, and Christianity centers around him. We are not the end of the gospel; God is."
What we need to tell people is it's not about "you." Francis Chan said the story moving throughout history is about God, not us. In the movie of life, we are extras that get the back of our head seen for a fraction of a second.
God did all this, creation through restoration, for His glory.
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace... to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory." Eph 1:3-7, 12
If you are thinking, "Wow. That sounds like a really selfish God. You mean He did all this so we would praise Him?" Here's how John Piper would answer that:
"For many people, this is not obviously an act of love. They do not feel loved when they are told that God created them for his glory. They feel used. This is understandable given the way love has been almost completely distorted in our world. For most people, to be loved is to be made much of. Almost everything in our Western culture serves this distortion of love. We are taught in a thousand ways that love means increasing someone's self-esteem. Love is helping someone feel good about themselves. Love is giving someone a mirror and helping him like what he sees.
This is not what the Bible means by the love of God. Love is doing what is best for someone. But making self the object of our highest affections is not best for us. It is, in fact, a lethal distraction. We were made to see and savor God-and savoring him, to be supremely satisfied, and thus spread in all the world the worth of his presence. Not to show people the all-satisfying God is not to love them. To make them feel good about themselves when they were made to feel good about seeing God is like taking someone to the Alps and locking them in a room full of mirrors."
If you want to get out of your "room full of mirrors" and get a passion for God, go listen to Louie Giglio's message at the "Finish the Mission" conference. It comes as close as I have ever heard in describing the process I went through last year when God began a work in my heart - and got really BIG in my life. It is around an hour, but I promise you, it is well worth it. Take an evening this week and turn off the t.v. and get a glimpse of how BIG your God is. And join me in "singing with the stars and the whales."
Louie Giglio Video Link
