Leaning heavenward

Let me begin with two observations. The first comes from the Shorter Catechism. Q. What is the chief end of man? A. To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. For hundreds of years we’ve been learning that question. Yet how many of us can say that our chief end is to glorify and enjoy God? Are we even planning how we will better glorify and enjoy God this year? Recently, I heard a song which had this line “I was made to praise Him.” Some people see praising God as one step on the way to being what we want to be—something that “good people” ought to do. Other people praise God out of genuine gratitude, but do not look at is as a life’s work—a “tip of the hat” to God. Still others praise God as means of getting Him on their side—a kind of magical thinking that says if we flatter God, he will give us what we ask. But few of us can genuinely and sincerely say that praising God is our chief end. It is an activity, but it is not a calling. There is a huge difference between getting God on our side and living for Him. In the latter case, we live only to serve Him. In the former, we look to God to serve us. What we typically there are two things we want from God: 1. To leave us alone most of the time. Our life is planned out ahead of time. It would be inconvenient for God to interfere in our lives by calling us to the mission field, or convicting us that what we have been doing is wrong, so that we would have to change. 2. To be there when we need Him. At the same time, we willingly and enthusiastically call upon God in times of trouble. The minute things do not go our way, we want Him there. The Catechism inconveniently says my chief end is to glorify God. This is the reason for existence. We were made to praise Him, which takes a commitment that is intellectual, volitional, and emotional. Out of our love for Him, we serve Him. The second observation is from my own experience. People who were saved as adults seem to have a significant advantage in this over those who grew up Christian. On the whole, they are more committed to the faith and more joyful in it. It should not be that way. Christian children should have the advantage. After all, they should know more scripture, give more readily, and have greater faith, because they have known their faith forever. They have had the Christian life modeled before them. But this is not the case. Adult converts are more zealous than childhood converts. The reason (I believe) has to do with the first question of the Catechism. For the lifelong Christian, there is often confusion about our personal chief end. Our parents taught us to worship and obey God. At first, our worship was a duty we owed our parents. Our parents taught us Christian values, reinforced by Sunday school and (in some cases) by our schools. For a child growing up Christian, there is little perceived difference between commitment to parents and community and commitment to Christ. This would be all right if the Catechism taught us that the chief end of man was to glorify our parents and community, and to enjoy them forever, but it does not. It tells us that we should rest in God, and in God alone. He is our chief end. Christian culture is better than the rest, but only slightly. We are only slightly closer to God’s perfection than the worst sinner on earth. From a human perspective, the distance seems much greater. But a truly Christian life is not judged by comparison with others, but by the Son of God. God’s holiness is our standard, not peer review. Adult have already undergone many changes of heart. They know they have not arrived, so they seek to draw closer to Him. They are still on the road to perfection. For the lifelong Christian, Christianity equals the status quo. We defend our way of way of life as if it were Christ’s way of life. We grow up thinking our way and Christ’s way are the same thing. A history professor once told me a story that had been passed down in his family. After the Civil War, people came South as missionaries to “convert” Southerners to Christianity. They assumed any country which defended slavery could not be Christian. This was curious since many of the Southerners did not understand how Yankees could be Christian. One well-meaning woman came to South Carolina. A family invited her to Sunday dinner. The family served pie before the meal, which was a custom in that area. The woman was horrified, and told them so. She lectured them that the only “Christian” way to eat pie was after the meal. Needless to say, she won few converts. This story illustrates my point. The reason a Christian culture like the South could tolerate slavery was the same reason this woman condemned eating pie. We mix up with our cultural customs with God’s word so we often cannot tell much difference. Christ is not our chief end. Preserving our way of life is our chief end. The novel A River Runs Through it is about a Presbyterian minister his two sons. The narrator begins by saying that in his household, there was little difference between the Presbyterian church and fly fishing. His family pursued them both with equal vigor. Paul did not live within the unspoken limits of cultural Christianity. Glorifying God really was his chief end. Praise and obedience was his ongoing quest. Listen to what he says in Philippians 3:12-14. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. We are called heavenward. We are always seeking a greater perfection, a greater obedience, and a greater love for Christ. To get where we are going, we must forget the past and lean forward. We must be dissatisfied with where we are going. Do we leaning towards the past—the world of our birth and childhood—or towards heaven? Is His glory before or behind us? I believe we should lean towards heaven as Paul did. If we seek to make glorifying God our chief end, then we will forget the past and lean towards the future. This year, I want to put a series of challenges before us. I want to challenge us all (myself included) to glorify God and enjoy Him more than we did last year. This is of course impossible if you are satisfied with your life. But if you yearn for a deeper and more fully realized faith, if you want Christ to be your chief end, then take these challenges from the Scriptures to start us on your way. The Challenges There are three levels of challenges. The first is vision. It is the purpose to which we sacrifice everything. The second are our values. These are qualities we pursue in order to fulfill our vision. In the next few weeks, I challenge us to seven values that will help us glorify God and enjoy Him. In summary, these values are: 1. Worship that is vital, original, and exciting. 2. Learning the Bible with comprehension. 3. Forming small group for mutual sharing. 4. Making sharing our faith a natural and normal part of our lives 5. Putting God first by spiritually-guided stewardship. 6. Demonstrating our concern for others by reaching out to real needs. 7. Making an impact through home and foreign missions. The third level are our goals. Week after week, I am going to lay out specific goals to meet those values. These will be specific, measurable results that will manifest each of these values. This is the reason I am doing this. As a church, we have become complacent. For years, we have been acting as if we have already arrived at perfection. God says we have not. If the apostle Paul could struggle with his need to grow in Christ, how much should we? We are nowhere near as godly as him, yet, he knew he had so much farther to go. I challenge you to join me in seeking the high calling of God. Let’s not rest this year. Instead, let’s grow in our appreciation of God’s grace, and seek as our chief end “to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”