over-desires and idolatry, and the Gospel - part 2

Now what do we do about these idols. You have to believe and have your heart riveted by some things:

the idols of your heart cannot simply be removed, they can only be replaced. We are slaves to _____ . Most people, once realized to their condition, will white-knuckle it saying, 'I am not going to be controlled by these things!' But it will never work, at least not for very long. There is not one personal transformation in which the heart is not left with an object of ultimate beauty and joy. The heart's desire for one particular object can be conquerable, but its desire to have some object is unconquerable. Something you grasp with the mind, has to be something that rivets and captures your heart, that is the only things that is going to save you, change you. That is the only thing that will move you into the "you have died" "and your real life is with Christ". This is radical.

First there is a truth. What is it? We are being told here: when you become a Christian, when you say "I believe!!!" What makes you a Christian is not now I am living in a certain way (though change does come - we are not saved by our "fruit" but there never is "fruitless" faith), what makes you a Christian is now you are IN Christ. It means God sees you as so one with Him. He looks as you as though you have died and have been raised with Him because you have in a sense. This means that God sees you free from the guilt of anything you have done wrong, having died on the cross to pay for it. But it was already paid by Him! Jesus has THE place of highest honor having come down and been brought back up victoriously. It says here that you are raised with Him. You are seated with Him. That means that if you give yourself to Jesus Christ, God now delights so much in you as if you had done everything that He had done. God delights in you as much as He delights in His own Son. Unless you know these things can you even begin to be free of people's approval, family relationships, parental expectations, the way the world sees money and power and sexual beauty. These very things that drive you, with anxiety, addictions. The only way is to first know this. Do you believe that? That is the Gospel. The Gospel is not that we give God a good record and then God blesses us, BUT rather that God, through Jesus Christ, gives us a perfect record and delights in us through Him and then we cannot help but live for Him out of the freeness of that.

You have to set your heart on that. (now what does that REALLY mean?)
If live for a career my whole life and fail it will beat me up for the rest of my life. But if I fail Jesus... He died for me to forgive me. Jesus is the only Savior who will satisfy you. And if you fail Him, and we do, He died for you.

Religious people, when they get down cast they start putting their emphasis on the will, and they say buck up! be strong!
Non religious people, when they are downcast put all of their emphasis on their emotions. And they say feel better about yourself, do nice things for yourself.

The REAL solution is worship. Paul is saying in Colossians 3 - go back into what Jesus has done for you. Go back into your story. You are there! He is doing that for you!

If you saw a sculptor run into the path of a bulldozer that was about to take out a prized sculpture of his you would say, 'That sculpture must have been his life!'

Jesus died for us. We were His life. When that moves you, when you see Him doing that for you, when you see yourself as being apart of that story, it changes your heart... You can then look at anything and say 'you are not my life!' Paul always does it this way. 2 Corinthians 8 - he doesn't work on the will, or the emotions, he says you know the generosity of Jesus on the cross for you, he was infinitely rich and became infinitely poor so that you through His poverty can become rich. you are freed from the need to have a lot of money... Paul takes you back into the story. You don't do it by working through the will, the emotions... Ephesians 5 - you know that Jesus was infinitely faithful to you on the cross, you now have the freedom from going to some other woman... Instead of just being generous, being faithful because I want to feel better about myself, the Gospel utterly changes you in the heart, in the root, and it frees you to live as He intended. Free from death, and free to venture into love, hope, and life to the fullest.