Authority and happiness

I talked about an idol of self and self fulfillment in the message yesterday (8.23) I heard some good stuff from Matt Chandler today that got me to thinking deeper about it. It came from his sermon called "Games People Play Part 1" You can find it on iTunes under the Village Church podcast.

Chandler says that as evangelicals, we do not want to tell Jesus that he has no authority and denounce Jesus all together and become atheists. Instead, we decide to redefine his authority. When confronted by the Holy Spirit on a direction, people who do not want to denounce Jesus will most commonly say, "Jesus wants me to happy so he would not ask me to do that." "He would not ask me to go there, to give that away, to do that, to walk away from her or some other thing, Jesus wants me to be happy."

First of all, Jesus has never promised you that he is here to make you happy. So we hold to this flawed idea that Jesus, foremost, wants us to happy, but that is not in the scriptures. So it becomes Jesus that we love, but the scriptures that we do not trust. So Jesus becomes whoever we say that he is and not who the scriptures say he is. We are more comfortable with our invented Jesus than with the one of the scriptures. Why? Because my Jesus lets me do what I want. Chandler says, "Jesus is far more interested in your joy and holiness than in your happiness."

Chandler goes on to say, "I believe that the bulk of evangelicals think that Jesus is Santa Claus and that we have been nice and that he has kept track of that and so there will never be any coal for us. That what we get is candies and fire trucks, everyday."

What you have done is recreate a Jesus that only commands of you what is easy for you to do or submit to. This winds up fleshing itself in the earthly authority that we willingly submit to(Pastors, churches, mentors, parents, friends) so long as they don't tell you to do something that you do not want to do.

That is such a lie and you are your own god and if you are your own god then you have to be your own savior. And that is failure waiting to happen.

Practical application for this is to submit to God and the authority in your life. If you have not authority, find some and expressly ask them to look into your life and challenge you, then submit to that.