Loving a Challenge

Shackleton's advert is often used in various talks about motivation or challenge, its fascinating to consider how many men signed up to take on such a task.  I've just finished reading Steve Backshall's autobiography and he is one of the type to sign up to just such an undertaking - he loves challenge, the unknown, the risk, pushing himself.

Its interesting to look at the narrative of the Bible and identify just those sorts of characters, characters who were prepared to take a stand, to risk, to push themselves beyond their limits trusting God; Abram, Ruth, Elijah, Jacob, Joseph, Caleb, Joshua, David, Jonathan, Esther, Mary, Peter, Paul and so on...

I wonder if that advert above were reworded and posted in christian magazines how many would respond?

"People wanted for hazardous life, no monetary recompense, life lived as exiles among spiritual darkness, few resources, resentment from the locals, opposition and persecution highly likely, apathy a given.  Honour and recognition in the form of hearing God's well done on that day."

I have to say that there are often times when it seems in talking to people about Doncaster that that is what I am asking people to sign up to.  Yorkshire as a whole is spiritually bleak, there are few sizeable churches, it is so I am told the only county in England never to have experienced revival.  And Doncaster is a typical Yorkshire town with all its great character, friendliness and blunt talking honesty, but also with its suspicion and hardness to the gospel.  It is no different to a Rotherham, a Pontefract, or other Yorkshire towns.  But alongside that God is no different, he is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask, he is a God who patiently waits for the gospel to be proclaimed and people to be won.

I do wonder what has happened to our trust in God, to our taking risks by faith.  It especially makes me wonder when I hear of often young professionals who decide to stay living in their former student city but work in Doncaster because the churches in Doncaster are not like City churches in say Sheffield or Leeds.  No these churches are not like city churches which have a good population of young twenties because those young twenties also commute in.  They are also not like city churches in other ways, they often have small staff teams, often of 1, they do not have lavish resources, and they are often less polished and professional.

Yes, there are struggles with leaving a church you love where many of your friends have stayed after graduation, yes it may mean there is not the same twenties group around you.  But having made that same leap myself  at 25, leaving a church my wife and I loved as students and as a newly married couple, where we were serving in growing ministries to go to a church that was small and where we were the only couple our age, with a gap of about 10 years either way to serve, it is worth it.

How do we decide on where we live?  Is it ease is it comfort it?  What about loving a challenge?  What about looking at the area around where you live with gospel goggles on?  Asking not where am I comfortable but where can I serve?  Not where are there people like me but where can I go which will be accessible to my work colleagues and friends?

How do we make godly decisions?

What makes a good decision? What makes a bad decision? What is a godly decision? Is it the same as a good decision? Will it have the same outcome? Will it be good for us, or might a godly decision be bad for us?

Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

That doesn’t mean fear as in to be terrified of but the appropriate response we make to our creator and redeemer.  ‘LORD’ translates Yahweh – God’s name, God is our creator and redeemer yet reveals himself by name, he call us into relationship with him, in Jesus.  Wisdom is living out that relationship.

Making godly decisions is not slavish obedience to a long list of do’s and don’ts, I’m not going to give you a 27 page list of godly decisions in different scenarios so you can tick them off as you come across them. Making godly decisions is not done on a cost benefit analysis of what will be good for me, but trusting that God is our loving heavenly father who longs for us to live out our gospel freedom for our best and his glory. 3 fundamental principles must influence and drive our thinking:

1. The Gospel causes us to love and pursue GodWe don’t obey God or make godly decision to earn his favour.  In Luke 7:36-50 contrasts Simon and sinful woman.  Jesus tells a story that reveals their hearts, their motives.  (41-42) there are two men both are bankrput, one owes a vast debt, the other a smaller debt, both are amazingly forgiven their debts.  The key is the question Jesus poses (42)’Which one loved him more?’

The woman’s lavish loving worship is the result of her grasp of the magnitude of God’s outrageous love for her in forgiving her sin, she knows how much she has been forgiven so she loves so much.

If we want to make godly decisions we need to grasp this same truth, our love of God who loved us so much he sent his son must be our motivation.  Love for God prompts the desire to make godly decisions.  A desire to make godly decisions flows from a right understanding of the magnitude of our sin and the salvation, and a desire to respond to it.

2. The gospel means we can know GodGodly decision making isn’t obedience to rules but a growing relational reality.  As we come to know God we realise he does all things for our good and his purposes are best – we can do his will even when it runs contrary to ours.  We get to know God by reading his word, studying it with others, and by helping one another apply it to our lives.  We gain new insights into God’s love for us in Christ so that we desire/love him and want to please him. We see what God loves, hear his loving warnings, see his future, are encouraged in our struggles.

3. The Gospel redeems us to walk with GodWe are saved for a purpose; to glorify God by being holy - set apart.  The Epistles talk a lot about walking/living to please God, and they also talk about God equipping us to do so; Gal 5:16 “walk by the Spirit” idea is putting your footsteps where he puts his.  John 16 – In the Spirit we are taught, equipped and led, our hearts and desires are changed (John 3) because of the gospel.  And God also gives us other Christians to encourage, equip, challenge us.

1 Peter describes us as exiles – foreigners living for God. 2:11-12 sums up how exiles live: Fight sin, do good, call sinners, then he fleshes that out.  That is God's will for us.

God’s love seen in the gospel motivates, empowers and enables us to live to please God.

So how do we make godly decisions?

There is a trememndous liberty in the gospel to live out our gospel identity as God's holy people, loved by him and loving him in a community which loves and lives for him.  Knowing who we are in Christ and the nature of our Father is key in motivating us and enabling us to make godly decisions.

Most of the decisions we make are not directly answered in the bible: what to wear, what to watch, where to go etc... But the principles above help us.

God’s will is that we lead holy lives, loving him and each other. Our top priority in our decision making is to love, serve and glorify God.

Some questions to ask of ourselves and with others as we make decisions:

1. What motives come into play as I think about this? Which of them are sinful? Which run counter to the gospel and who God has made me?  Pray that God would show us our hearts.

2. Pray for God to give us wisdom. (James 1v5) Recognise he has as he gives us his word. So study God’s word to you, ask:

a. What does the bible say about this explicitly? 
b. Are there any principles it gives which may be applicable?
c. Are there any examples not to follow or to follow?

3. How are we seeking God’s kingdom in this decision? How will it enable me to serve God? How is it for my building up or that of others?

4. What do my close Christian friends or family say about it?