“Not everyone who says Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?  And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” – Matthew 7: 21-23

Pleasure or Purpose

 “There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end there of is death.” – Proverbs 14:12

So often we hear our favourite songs on the radio and we get so anxious to sing them, we turn the music up in our ears, we raise our voices, we raise our hands, we queue the tears, our emotions are running high, it feels good and we believe that we are crying out to God. We are so eager to sing the words of worship music about surrender, sacrifice and obedience. We bow our knees so easily but, equally, have we bowed our hearts? The spiritual aerobics that has captured the heart of the church has most of God’s people feeling good but standing still. We all love to act, show and sing that we surrender, but the truth is, most of us sing to please ourselves while rebellion is ripe in our hearts.

A life of full obedience to God requires giving up everything for Him. Some of us today may think it doesn’t take all that, so instead, we play worship music, check in with Jesus on a Sunday in church and go on with our lives. We pick Him up when we feel like it and put Him on when it pleases us.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:21 what will be the downfall of many in this walk, the answer is simply this, in a choice between pleasure and purpose, we choose pleasure.

We have favoured doing over surrendering, pleasure over purpose and chanting songs over transformation, we are the Matthew 7:22-23 doers.

We want the songs but resist the action, we want the spiritual gifting but we don’t want the purpose for which we were gifted. We want God to bless us but we don’t want Him to change us. This is not unique to our generation, since the beginning of time; this has been the downfall of mankind. Adam and Eve wanted the pleasure of doing their own thing in the garden, so they disobeyed God and forfeited their purpose. They chose to give up who they were, so they could do what they want. We are just like Adam and Eve, as sad as it was, we should always remember, they both made a choice and so do we.

Pleasure is pleasing you; purpose is dying to you and surrendering to God.

I know many may look at their lives and say, but I have surrendered to God, I give my tithes, I repent, I help out at church, yes, I am in purpose!

If this is your answer, then Matthew 7:21-23 applies to you. You see, we somehow have gotten this concept in our minds that purpose is doing stuff for God, but that is not it at all, God doesn’t need your pleasure (doing what feels good), he requires your obedience.

I think we believe if we sing enough songs, if we cry, if we wave, if we dance, if we get involved enough, then it will excuse our brokenness, our sins, and our carnal weaknesses. When we appear cheerful, happy, broken for our sins and hungry for God, we don’t need to talk about purity, obedience and surrender. We don’t need to talk about counting the cost, denying self and dying to emotions. We don’t need to actually do these things; we just need to look like we are doing it.

But who are we doing it for? Is it true to God, because unless we worship God in spirit and in truth (John 4:24), we have not moved Him.

So, maybe we should stop all the activities that keep us so busy that we excuse the heart examination that God is prompting in us. Maybe we should stop the music, maybe we should be still and allow God to truly examine us and see where we truly are in Him, if in fact we are in Him.

We have surrendered our lips, but have we surrendered our hearts?

What is the true cost of obedience?

 “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” Luke 9:23