Fuel for the Furnace: How Your Mind Serves Your Heart

let's pray together father without you no eternal blessing will come in this room and so we pause to just plead with you that you not leave me or listeners to our own resources but rather that you would come and grant that I would speak nothing but the truth and that my demeanor would be shaped by the truth that I would be guarded from the evil one and from every sin of the fear of man or pride and that the listeners would have strength to comprehend with all the saints the truth that is proclaimed I pray for salvation pray for hope I pray for reconciliation of amazing 80 people I pray for courage to come and I pray that exceedingly and abundantly beyond what we ask her think you would work in this room now in Jesus name Amen what an amazing thing that God would raise up in our generation a voice like Tim Keller's sat there reveling in those four points and I want to say them again and show you how they launched this message the gospel is news not advice of something that's been done for you outside of you to which you gladly respond by receiving and believing and enjoying in fact if you were to press on me to say what was done outside of you I would say that Christ bought a gift for you and the gift he bought for you is Christ for your everlasting enjoyment which was his fourth point but number two was yes the gospel does shape a life better than the law because the gospel not only brings direction it also brings motivation which was also given in the fourth point and third there were illustrations of the gospel shaped life finding it's amazing color ask statement between moralism and relativism so wise so necessary I just hope New England will be filled with that kind of shrewd insight into the essence of the gospel and then he ended a point that was his briefest which will be my two messages this is perfect right thank you for letting me have your fourth point he said by quoting Thomas Chalmers an essay a sermon that I read thirty years ago the explosive power of a new affection which is all I have to say in my Christian hedonism and he summed it up by saying how does the gospel change or shape a life and he said by worship implicit in that very short hand statement is that the new affection that is ex pulsing know if that's a word pushing out sin and ungodliness and idolatry is an affection for God which he called worship to which I say amen the main point of my two messages is therefore that God if you've noticed the titles the gospel shaped mind and the gospel shaped heart tonight mind but they're all one the point of my two messages together is that God created you with a mind with a heart so that the heart your heart when rightly served by the mind would treasure God with white-hot affection so that's his fourth point I'm arguing now that the ultimate goal of God in giving you a heart and a mind is found in the act of the heart not the act of the mind and that the mind exists to serve that act and when the mind rightly serves the heart the heart explodes with a new affection which is profoundly transforming and it's an affection that is God word it's white hot for God here's a subordinate what's the main point of my two messages the subordinate point is that because of sin neither the heart nor the mind does what it is supposed to do the mind doesn't serve the heart rightly and the heart doesn't treasure God with white-hot affection until the gospel saves and shapes the mind and the heart so that's the subordinate point of these two messages now implicit in those two points is that the purpose of God in creating you reaches its ultimate end in your heart namely in the treasuring of your heart of God the treasuring of God above all things with white-hot affection and the mind is given to serve that act through the right apprehensions of reality if you you have pretended reality for what it really is your heart would be ignited with a white-hot affection for the supreme reality namely God or to put in several other ways right thinking about God exists for the sake of right feelings for God in that order logic exists for the sake of love reasoning exists for the sake of rejoicing doctrine exists for the sake of delight reflection about God exists for affection for God the head is meant to serve the heart knowing the truth is the basis of admiring the truth both thinking and feeling are essential they are not coordinate rather thinking serves affection the devil has many factually true thoughts and none of them rightly serve his heart and bring him to love the truth and therefore his right thinking is no good I don't care how right it is or how factual it is it aborts it fails it doesn't reach the ultimate goal of people created in God's image namely that the heart would explode with white-hot affection for him that's why we're made and the mind when it's rightly serving the heart brings that forward now as I say that I'm aware of Ephesians 4:18 which seems to say the opposite Sariah to you they are darkened in their understanding alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them do so we're going down down down down to the bottom due to their hardness and heart Oh so here instead of the mind serving the heart well or poorly the heart is darkening the mind due to its hardness some aware of that I didn't craft this thesis statement without awareness of that which seems to say if your heart gets right your mind will get right which is right they're not opposites my point and this point are not opposites there is a reciprocal back-and-forth relationship to the between the function of the mind thinking and the function of the heart right feeling for God there's a reciprocal relationship what I'm arguing is not that it's false that if the heart ceases to be hard and becomes supple and tender and alive to the sweet value of Jesus it won't liberate the mind from having to constantly defend deceptive affections it does liberate the mind from having to constantly work out and manipulate and defend defective affection that's what the mind of the flesh is it's constantly defending defective emotions and the mind is thus contaminated by the heart I am admitting that and saying yes when we are born again by the Spirit of God the heart is replaced from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh which is alive to the infinite value of Jesus and the mind is wonderfully liberated from all of its deceptions and then I ask for what as that as I have we reached the goal van that the mind has now become the pinnacle so that right thinking about God is what you were made for and the feast so this talk is no in the reciprocal relationship the mind is set free in order that it might continually throw the kindling and the fuel of truth into the furnace of the heart for the flame of love to God that's why the mine exists to serve the white-hot affection of the furnace of your heart for God so my point is when it's freed by the transformation of the heart from hardness to tender sensitivities it then reciprocity goes about it's wonderful work of throwing logs of combustible truth into the furnace of the heart for the sake of and flaming love affection for God let me give you a text that really points strongly for me in this direction it's a little bit technical but I'll do it anyway Luke's version of the first commandment spoken by the lawyer followed by Jesus saying you are correct so I'm gonna quote him as though Jesus said it here's what he said differently from the other Synoptics I think in order to draw out my point actually I learned my point from him goes like this you shall love the Lord your God exhale ace card iesous X from your whole heart and an Holly tapes ookay with your whole soul chi n ha light a is Skua su with your whole strength and n ha late a odd D annoy on su with your whole mind no the point you don't even know what I was saying s is gibberish to most of you the point is there's one preposition for heart and three of the same prepositions for strength soul and mind let me paraphrase it like this you shall love the Lord your God from your heart with the aid of the systems of strength and mind and soul serving the heart from which worship of love explodes to God I think that's what Luke wants us to understand by making the preposition different for heart so if you would ask me what it means to love God with with all my mind I would not say think right thoughts about God so many people say that I wouldn't say that I would say use your mind to stoke your heart with passion for God and there is a way to use your mind stoke your heart with passion for God and there's a way to waste it so my thesis remains God's purpose for you reaches its ultimate climax not in right thinking about him but in right affections for him and the right thinking about him is a right serving of the heart which then is the organ of affection for him your mind and your heart can only do that your mind can only function in the right service to your heart if it is saved by the gospel and shaped by the gospel so I'm gonna give you three ways your mind is is shaped by the gospel and give you some illustrations from the Bible of how crucial this function of the mind serving the heart is the first way that your mind is shaped by the gospel is this since the gospel involves the objectivity of a God outside of you and since it involves the historicity of a Christ outside of you in history and since it involves visible tangible events like crucifixion and resurrection and since it involves articulation with sentences that are construal and here a bull like he died for our sins therefore the gospel demands that the mind not be a creative organ bringing reality out of itself but that it's submit to the objective historical visible here will construe both realities totally outside itself that's what your mind is for this is a passionate plea for you to be objective not subjective in your submission to truth very countercultural anywhere on the planet today and I would guess here as well that's the first way the gospel shapes your mind by the very nature of the gospel having an object of God and historical Christ and a visible touchable crucifixion and a visible touchable resurrection it demands mind deal with that and don't just go inside and create it your own reality number two the gospel shapes the mind by liberating the mine from self deceived reality distorting bondage to self exaltation and self-preservation in Christ and here we just repeat Tim's truth in Christ all the destructive powers of my badness are over I can't be destroyed by my badness if I'm holding fast Jesus and the gospel provides an absolutely certain outcome of my final glory so my badness can't destroy me my emerging identity as a new person is guaranteed to be supremely glorious someday so that if you saw me in the age to come you'd be tempted to worship me CS Lewis said rightly since that's what the gospel does for us the mind is wonderfully liberated from having to constantly suppress my badness and create alternative futures for me that make me look good sound like Keller it's just Bible it's just wonderful so the gospel shapes my mind by delivering my mind from all of its need to run away from self incriminating truth and a lot of truth is John Piper incriminating a lot of it is and if I don't have a way to solve that other than suppression my mind is very skilled at defending me falsely and that's not the right use of the mind and therefore it's a glorious Liberty that comes for the mind with the gospel that's number two here's the third way that the gospel shapes the mine the Holy Spirit takes the objective statement of the gospel and makes that gospel mysteriously the instrument of the miracle of regeneration first Peter 1:23 you have been born again through the living and abiding Word of God which is the gospel which we preach to you so here's this objective proposition 'le stated gospel about events in history and a god and a christ and a transaction on the cross and it is articulated with the mind and with the mouth and the Holy Spirit takes it and creates a new being with it here's here's the point about how the that shapes the mind the mind is engaged as the organ that perceives construes and articulates that gospel which then serves regeneration which is the coming alive of a person who is in love with Jesus and doesn't regarding this boring or mythological anymore so now this third point is my first point way back at the beginning was the mind here by grasping and articulating speaking the gospel is becoming the instrument by which the heart is set on fire through regeneration for an affection for God so summing up those three ways that the gospel shakes the mind one the gospel makes the mind serve objective reality by being objective reality number two the gospel shapes the mind by making the mind serve truth even when it's self incriminating by freeing me from the need to defend myself since I have an advocate now that can't be improved upon and number three the gospel shapes my mind by forcing it to serve my heart through being the organ of articulating the gospel that the Holy Spirit uses to wake me up to the beauty of God now what I want to do with the rest of the time is give you illustrate some many testament of how crucial the mind is in serving the heart and or to use Tim Keller's fourth point serving the new affection or serving worship and I would simply say serving the white-hot affection for God that you were made to have in your heart so I've got about seven of these I think and let's go number one Romans chapter 10 verses 1 and 2 you don't need to look them up you're sure welcome to sometimes there's time to look them up sometimes there's not here's what it says Romans 10:1 and two brothers my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is Jewish kinsmen is that they may be saved I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge okay so here are some hearts of Jewish kinsmen that are passionate for God and they are hell bound lost perishing sinners we know that because of verse 1 brothers my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved because they have a zeal for God but not according to minds that are rightly construing reality they aren't getting it being ignorant of the righteousness of God they are seeking to establish their own and they are lost regardless of what passion for God they have so the point here is if the mind does not serve the heart rightly the heart can have white-hot affections that are hellish for God that incredible kill the Muslims about it Jews Hindus Buddhists this is a very religious planet it always will be that's number one let your mind serve your zeal by bringing truth concerning the gospel into the furnace of that zeal so that when you have it it does accord with knowledge rather than according with pride here's number two second Timothy 2:7 think over what I say Timothy for the Lord will give you understanding in everything so this is a command from Paul to all of you and me think over what I say why for the Lord will give give you understanding now that's remarkable because how many people you've met perhaps who say thinking that's what counts and by thinking you find truth and the text says by thinking he gives truth others say he gives truth phooey on all that thinking stuff it just dead ends the heart heard that there's a just a huge cleavage in a lot of churches and a lot of people's lives the thinkers and the feelers and I've tried to spend most of my life pleading with people not to make that choice because it says pink over what I say for the Lord yes the Lord Himself in Supernatural ways works insight in you through thinking don't limit yourself to thinking that thinking is the key it is a path and the keys in heaven and he can shut your mind while you're thinking or open your mind while you're thinking the Lord gives but he doesn't give apart from thinking if you go yo GaN me I think it's a real sad thing and it's gonna offend some of you you go to those classes and you think there's no religious dimension to that cross-legged empty-headed thing there is a religious dimension to it emptying the head is not the way the Lord gives it's not the Lord gives two thinkers who open their Bible and say O God what does this mean help me to see what these words mean I will study with all my might but I must have you that's number two number three acts 17 verses two and three Paul when went into the synagogue as was his custom and on the three Sabbath days he reasoned with them while the from the scriptures explaining and pre thing that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and rise from the dead so Paul's reasoning explaining proving he's engaging the organ of his mind and addressing people with rational content and he knows cuz he's the one who taught us these people I'm talking to our dead in trespasses and sins they're dead he knows number two that the mind of the flesh does not receive the things of the Spirit he knows number three that the god of this age is blinding the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light in the beauty of what he's saying he knows all that and he keeps on talking with rational arguments and sentences from the Old Testament trying to reasonably persuade them that the Christ must really suffer and rise from the dead why because God has ordained that the mind served the heart that's what he has ordained when Paul in the previous chapter approached Lydia who got saved do you remember what it said about her conversion very important sentence in the Bible it says in chapter 16 verse 14 of Acts the Lord opened her heart to give heed to what was spoken by the Apostles it's not she's dead she's got the mind of the flesh the god of this world is blinding her there is no point in talking to her zombies don't hear oh yes they do Lazarus heard the gospel is the power of God unto salvation the gospel looks out on dead people and says live in the name of Jesus Christ rise and walk and the the words the rational words and the arguments are used by the sovereign Holy Spirit to open hearts to give heed to that the very words become the means by which the dead lived so my point is the mind in construing the meaning of history and the cross and the gospel and then the mind and articulating it in sentences that can be grasped by human brains becomes the instrument by which the Holy Spirit in his supernatural power opens the heart raises the dead gives eyes to the blind digs an ear and save sinners so that they have a white-hot affection for Jesus number four Jesus assumes that we will use logic here I'm gonna look it up myself Luke 12 verses 54 to 57 goes like this this is an argument here's the background for this in my life I remember going to school in the days when Hebraic thought and Hellenistic thought were opposites big conflict it was avant-garde to say Hellenistic bad Hebraic good platonic Aristotelian foreign this indigenous to the Bible I would listen to this stuff I'd say I don't think that it makes sense to me I mean I didn't know anything about Hellenistic thought so how could I judge well I just grew up in a bible-thumping home I mean I I just my mom and my dad just read me Bible over and over again not I just smell bad stuff just that's just and and then you know later on I I began to be able to explain things so listen to this see if you think this is right this is Luke 12 54 he said to the crowds when you see a cloud rising in the West you say it once showers coming so it happens and when you see the south wind blow you say they'll be scorching heat and it happens you hypocrites you know how to interpret the appearance of the sky and the earth why don't you know how to interpret the present time what's that mean he's saying you use Aristotelian logic every day of your life and you won't bring it to bear on the things that really matter Aristotelian logic is built on the syllogism right all men are mortal play does a man there pour Plato's mortal that Western far into the Bible it's right there you get up in the morning red sky premise number one premise number two red sky means gonna be dangerous today gonna be bad windy day conclusion gonna be a bad windy day because it happens every day when it's red this is now Western this is human this is God this is the brain of God I just he got really bent out of shape at these people you hypocrites drawing down inferences with such clear logic that you know how to go out on the Sea of Galilee when it's safe and not to go out when it's safe because when it's red you got premise 1 and you know premise 2 is all red days or dangerous days them so this must be a dangerous day so I'm not going out and you won't do that with your Rane for the gospel truths all around you so I don't like it when people dump on thinking as though it were somehow foreign to Christ and to his word in clear old Aristotelian syllogistic ways here's another one that really got Jesus bent out of shape this is this is number five and this is Matthew 21 21 verses 23 following you look for how the mind is used in this story boy is this relevant for our day when he entered the temple the chief priests and the elders the people came up to him as he was teaching and said by what authority do you do these things and who gave you this authority and jesus answered them I'll ask you a question and if you tell me the answer I'll tell you about what authority now what's he doing he's giving them a test to see whether they're the kind of people he's willing to talk to this is really important you want to be the kind of person Jesus willing to answer your questions I do and this is the text that will tell me one of the ways I can be that kind of person I'll ask you a question you tell me the baptism of John where he come from heaven or man they went off for a little huddle and they discussed it among themselves saying if we say from heaven then he'll say well why didn't you believe on him and if we say from man we're afraid of the crowds because they all hold John to be a prophet so what are they doing they're using their brains there's just your sharp guys they're using their brains they're saying if we stay this then he'll trap us by saying you didn't believe on him and we don't really trapped because our ego will be hurt and the other alternative was getting stoned because the people think he's a prophet so if we stay just just human he's gonna get mad at us so we love our flesh and we love our ego so what are we gonna use our brains to do this is total politics we will say we don't know so they answered Jesus we don't know and Jesus said I won't tell you about what authority I do these things I'll talk to you I hate that use of the brain my father gave you spin to protect yourself zero interest in the truth zero just ego flesh this is really not just so long for Christians to be different if you ever run for office answer the question what a witness what a witness if you ask is there a biblical statement about the alternative to that that ugly manipulation of truth to escape your ego issues and your your dangerous use there's an alternative I'll read you a beautiful alternative I love the Apostle Paul costume is life to be this kind of man but let me let me read it to you this is second Corinthians chapter 4 verse 2 we have renounced disgraceful and underhanded ways we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's Word but by an open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God O Lord make it happen in New England may this room be filled with people like that renouncing all disgraceful underhanded cunning ways oh the brain can be misused oh the brain the brilliant beautiful gift of God to serve the hearts passion for Jesus can be turned into cunning he would not talk to them and if you want to alienate Jesus start being cunning with your brain that's number 6 no that's number 5 here's number 6 two more to go in Paul's letters there are 13 times where he asks the question do you not know remember that question do you not know what's he saying when he asked it do you not know or do you not know I'll read them to you Norrell 13 but several and then and then you you decide what you think he's doing when he says that first Corinthians 3:16 do you not know your body is the temple the Holy Spirit 6:3 1st Corinthians 6 3 do you not know we will judge angels do you not know still 6 3 to lie with a prostitute is to be one with her do you not know a little leaven leavens the whole lump do you not know unrighteousness will not inherit the kingdom of God do you not know your bodies are members of Christ what's doing in the context a rhetorical question like that used to begins with or or did you not know he says something or did you not know and the point is if you knew you'd know how to add if you knew you know how to think if you knew it would make a difference in your life and you're acting as though you didn't know that's gonna judge angels when you can't even fix a little problem of a dispute in the church and you go get a pagan judge to work on this you know something you shouldn't the knowing of something is gonna keep you from doing that like you're gonna judge angels that amazing she's amazing to me that Paul would use knowledge with such force to say it really does change the way you behave the way you feel the way live does because it changes your heart thinking rightly and knowing the truth are crucial to valuing the truth and living the truth and here's my last one number number 7 so obvious so simple and so I think amazingly profound the Bible is a book there it is it's a book we call it I call it the Word of God objectively outside of me containing truth Jesus Christ came into the world as the truth we love that we learn it here but when he was finished with his work and returned he left behind apostles prophets who became the foundation of the church and what they did in founding the church was right inspired guidance and teaching for the church which became enshrined in in the second half of our Bible called the New Testament so now we have one Word of God in a book God did not have to do it this way could have done it with videos could have done with the internet could have could have caused the Incarnation to happen in our century he chose to preserve his holy inspired inerrant Word in a book the implications of that historically are simply mind-boggling in terms of how Christian mission is done and what happens when the church takes root in a preliterate culture everything changes everything changes over time may take centuries but it changes this changes everything that it's a book changes everything not just what it says that it must be read to have any influence at all and to read is to be educated to be educated to learn to think and to read well is to think well and here's a verse to show you the connection between what it says and what it is this is Ephesians 3 for I remember teaching Ephesians about 35 years ago and seeing this for the first time chapter 3 verse 4 Paul says when you read this and he meant his letter when you read this you are able to perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ you wonder why Christians found schools raise their kids up by teaching them to read early when you read this you will be able to perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ because the Holy Spirit who inspired the book is jealous to use the book to open our eyes to see the glories of what's in the book but now without reading that is thinking that is the use of the mind to throw kindling into the furnace of the heart for the flame of affection now without thinking so I'm done here's a summary of what I've tried to do God created you with a mind and with a heart an organ of thinking and reflection pondering meditating truth handling and Anna Hart an organ of affection and emotion feeling inclination and the mind when it's rightly serving the heart causes the heart to be a flame with Christ as a supreme treasure so brothers and sisters spare no effort to use your mind spare no effort to think rightly so that you will then by your mental apprehension of truth wherever it comes from especially in the word by your mind the right use of it you will be pouring fuel into the furnace of the heart for the sake of and flaming a white-hot affection for God and to that and its power to do what Tim Keller said I will turn Lord willing tomorrow so let's pray father in heaven thank you for the gospel that shows us that we are not God and we're not creators we submit to reality we don't make reality thank you for the gospel that frees our mind from all of its distorting self justifications and manipulations of reality two escapes self incriminating truth thank you thank you and forgive us for not living up into these freedoms and these gifts and grant that in this room every person with a mind would engage it nobody here would minimize the sweet gift of thinking and nobody would overplay it as the goal of life but make it the servant of all our affections for you I pray this in Jesus name

Channel: Desiring God

Views: 11,810

Rating: 4.9145298 out of 5

Keywords: Desiring God, John Piper, God, Jesus Christ, Christianity, Christian Hedonism, Pastors, Ministry, Mind, Heart

Id: WlpBH0bf9l8

Length: 48min 45sec (2925 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 03 2017