Found how many time’s the bible says God desires obedience over sacrifice.

Keep reading.

Yeap, a few more in the Psalms…

…Mhmm Major and minor Prophets…

…Jesus himself (that a doosy “That’s in red, I can argue with that”)…

…Paul…

…glorified Jesus.

To be short, it’s a lot.

We talk about giving our money and our time to the church or to God, But what about our eyes? What about our influence? what about our love?

Do we have to fear God moving cause he might ask us to throw away our TVs? Or our season tickets? Does Christ really have preeminence in all things in our lives? We say we put Christ in the center of our relationships, would we opening pray with our friends in the mail? Or our girlfriends?

Is Christ Glorified in our relationships? Does he look at it an say “I would walk with them like I did the twelve”?

Why do I say this?

Well we have a stadium in Tallahassee that fills 80,000 people per game consistently yet the churches struggle to have more than a few hundred.When the campuses these arenas where built on were designed for God’s glory and his study.

We have movies that gross just shy of 3 BILLION dollars the likes of Avatar, Titanic, Pirates of the Caribbean, dark knight ect. and have no appetite for real adventure, Just living vicariously through motion pictures.

We have albums for the last hundred years on “love” and how wonderful love is, and how fulfilling it is and how it all doesn’t matter if there is love. Or we are told about the heartache of love and why it’s better to just be alone. And we listen to this and numb ourselves to true love, and the truth about love and worship a false idea of love at these consents than open our hearts to god in worship day to day.

And all of this we agree with, with our wallets!

They testify against our culture having reverence as a whole for God.

For ever aspect of God we could be fascinated and enthralled and in wonder and in rapturous love but we “worship the creation rather than the creator” and we trade real pies for mud pies in the dirt (CS Lewis).

We endorse it to happen over and over again with our money. Dollars that were meant to be stewarded for the kingdom that we will have to make an account for like the 3 servants with the talents.

You want to get entertained? Learn how people live when they encounter the heart of God.

David Brainerd

Jonathan Edwards

Rees Howells

Charles Finney

Jon G Lake

George Whitefield

E.M. Bounds

Brother Lawrence

Jay Hudson Taylor

Count Zinzendorf

These were men that knew God and knew his attributes and shared them with people and changed eternal souls.

They were not a mixed drink, weakened with the things of this world,But were wholly consumed with heaven. None of there lives were easy, But we have a terrible misconception that falling Christ would be easy. He says take up your cross and follow.He tells the rich to leave all he has to follow. He says to the wise be made fools for my sake (through Paul). The ones he loves all died the worst deaths this world could create. So that their testimony is the power of God and no of the strength or wisdom of man.He gives grace and miracles and rest, but scarcely comfort.

All this to be said, I challenge to to ask God “all the grace you are willing to give me to love you, pour it out” That this world would “grow a strange dim” and uninviting. That we may be living in the world, But not of it, setting our eyes on things above.

(More on brainerd coming up)