A 'Weightless' God?- Lesson 7- "Living to Prove He is More Precious than Life"

Leading Question to start us out:

1. "If someone who did not know that you were a Christian observed the way you spend your money, the kind of clothes you wear, the way you spend your free time, and how you raised your family, would they notice a significant difference between you and the world? What differences would they notice?"

I still remember clearly the day I was sitting on my dorm bed at college and deeply affected by this verse in Matthew, "While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. But go and learn what this means; "I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners."

Seriously, that hit me SO hard. It is not the healthy. In light of where God has you right now, would you consider yourself 'healthy'? or 'sick'? Are you in need of His mercy or are you sacrificing worthless items to walk a path of deeper 'righteousness'?

We are clearly called as followers of Jesus to be holy: 1 Peter 1:15-16 "But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." [cross reference is Lev. 11:44,45] And so walking in a deeper righteousness is essential, however at the same time we are called to "live according to God in regard to the spirit." (1 Pet. 4:6) As he continues to speak about this, he says, "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms."

We do this all in the power and strength that God provides us through His Spirit, and it is not contingent upon what the people we serve look like, smell like, what they say, or where they came from.

Christ's call was one to compassion, one that stores up treasures in heaven, and one that receives the kingdom of God by making much of Christ rather than making much of one's self. [Mk 10:21; Lk 6:20,24; Lk 18:25]

2. Take a look at those verses in brackets above and underline the theme of each verse. Consider how you are seeking to obey these texts in your life

In chapter 7 living to prove he is more precious than life, Piper reminds followers of Jesus that magnifying Christ through generosity and mercy is more satisfying than selfishness. The question which is uses to probe our consciences is this; 'Is Christ our "all satisfying treasure"?' This question reminds us of John 4 where Christ is talking with the Samaritan woman at the well. The Jews and Samaritan's were at odds with each other because the Samaritans were Jews that had inter-married with the Gentiles (which was against Jewish law) and so when Jesus opened his mouth and directly addressed the woman, she was incredibly shocked. Not only was this experience odd because of the culture surrounding it, but what seems to even me as being odd is Jesus offering her water living water that will satisfy her in such a way that all other things are not needed. Maybe I have been disillusioned in ways, but I do find it difficult to think that all I EVER need is just Jesus.
"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

Christ is to be our all-satisfying treasure. Piper challenges Christ followers to live lives of faith-filled risk and challenges us to use our money and our lifestyles to impact the kingdom of God. If this is not the case, it could very well be that we have created a "weightless God."
"It is one of the defining marks of Our time that God is now weightless. He has become unimportant. He rests upon the world so inconsequentially as not to be noticeable. He has lost his saliency for human life." (Piper, 121)

Will the things of our life point to a God who is all powerful? Do our clothes or our lifestyles, how we spend our evenings magnify Christ? Do they point to Christ as the treasure of our lives?
These are questions to think on, and things we will be discussing next week at study.