I used to worry about a lot of things:

My career

My health

My finances

And many more

In fact, I used to keep a written list of things to worry about. It was arranged in order of priority. It ran into 4 or 5 typewritten pages. When I had some free time, I would pull out the list and start worrying my way down page one. Usually, I would lose interest before page two.

But, over the years, my “worry list” has shriveled up. Part of this is due to my age. But, most of the shrinkage in my “worry list” is due to my growing understanding of the length and breadth of my life.

For much of my 73 years, my understanding of my life was that I had about 80 years to work with. I had about 80 years to get everything done. When I was 20, this was comforting. I had so much time at my disposal that I could throw away a year or two……even a decade or two…….and never miss it. And I did just that as I built my career. But, as I have grown older, the runway ahead of me began to shrink. Death, which was pretty much a theoretical concept when I was young, has become much more real and present. This old understanding of death as the end of my life led to a slowly growing despair. With each passing day, I was one day closer to old age, decrepitude, and, ultimately, the dead black nothing of death.

When I became a functioning Christian, I discovered a new understanding of death…….my death. Instead of the end of my life……the end of me; instead of being a stone wall that I was doomed to crash into at 80 miles an hour, death became something entirely different. Christianity teaches that death is not the end of life. Rather, death is a transition from one format of life into an entirely different format…….a format that is so radically different that we cannot wrap our brains around it. When we die, we change from a time limited physical existence to a new existence, where time imposes no limits. From a practical perspective, time ceases to exist. This eternal, spiritual world is centered around our creator. It is built on one concept……love. This is the “real” world…….because this is the world where we will exist forever. The irony here is that the spiritual world is far more real than our brief temporal/physical world. Eternal life is God’s promise, whether you are a Christian or not.

With that promise in mind, the nature of my “worry list” changed. Suddenly, just about all 5 pages of my “worry list” evaporated. It turns out that almost every worry on my list will go away when I die. The crushing weight of 5 pages of worry will simply disappear. My worries will go away because they are almost all confined to the temporal/physical world that I operate in today……..and for a few more years. They simply will not be relevant in the spiritual world. The great irony here is that my 5 pages of worries will be resolved……..fixed…….by my death.

So……..what is left? As a Christian……..what do I worry about today?

Three things:

I worry about my friend, a Buddhist.

I worry about a young man……..a committed atheist/secular humanist.

I worry about a young woman who defines Christianity as a “cult” and who is dabbling in the occult…..which apparently is not a “cult”.

I love these people. And I worry about them. I worry because God promises them eternity as well…….an eternity devoid of love and joy.

It will just be a different eternity from the eternity God offers me.

‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.

’Jesus describing two different eternities, Luke 16: 25-26, ESV

Let’s face it. We all sin. We do it every day. It is a rare day that goes by when we don’t think, say, or do something that increases our separation from God. To make it worse, we are repeat offenders. We are all serial sinners. Since we commit the same offense over and over, it is worth investigating our motivation.

Why do we repeatedly do things that drive a wedge between us and God?

Why do we choose separation from God?

Why do we sin?

Why do I sin?

I think that it must be that we believe that life can be better apart from God. For some, this is global. Everything they do, they do apart from God. This is the world of the pure secular humanist. For some, perhaps most, the separation is compartmental. They go to church, they put $5 in the collection, they sing the songs, and pray the prayers. Then, they walk out into a secular humanist culture and spend their day following the norms of that culture. They tell small lies. They watch media that is filled with sex, murder, and mayhem. They hate the “other” political party. They ignore the poverty and suffering that surround them. This is the world of the nominal Christian.

Both the global, full-time, serial sinner, and the compartmentalized, part-time, serial sinner intentionally choose separation from God.

Both sin.

Both believe that they can succeed…….apart from God.

Both are wrong.

Both fail to consider the existence of both a temporal realm and an eternal realm. In the temporal realm, we can get away with separation from God. We can even profit from it. Consider our leaders: The average senator has a job that pays less than $200,000/year. The average senator has been in office for a little over 10 years. And yet, the median net worth of a senator is over 3 million dollars. To accumulate a net worth of 3 million over 10 years, the average senator would have to save over $200,000 every year. This doesn’t leave much room for Starbucks. In the eternal realm, separation from God is far more problematic. Say what you will about hell. Eternal separation from God means eternity apart from the source of love and joy in the universe. Eternity is a long time.

Setting the eternal ramifications aside, my experience is that the most fully engaged Christians are some of the most joyful people I have ever met. I believe that this is because they are closer to the source of love and joy than the rest of us. Serious Christians are in touch with the eternal realm.

In the temporal world:

You can have fun……apart from God.

You can make money, even get rich…….apart from God.

You can become powerful…….apart from God.

You can be sexually stimulated…….apart from God.

But

You will never find great love and joy…….apart from God.

The great irony is this:

When God warns you not to sin……he is warning you not to choose separation from him……..he is warning you that by choosing separation from him, you are choosing to sacrifice love and joy………for temporal fun and money.

What is the most devastating thing you could ever possibly hear?

Jesus……..saying “I don’t know you”.

This is the endpoint…….should you choose separation.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Jesus explaining the endpoint of choosing separation, Matthew 7: 21-23, ESV

I grew up with 60’s and 70’s rock and roll. This music, in my never humble opinion, is the greatest popular music of all time. The lyrics cover a broad range of topics. A great many of these songs, probably most of them, were about love. Young people today grow up hearing music that is different. Today’s music deals with a lot of social issues. Love, however, isn’t the central theme. It may not be in the top ten. Today’s young people are missing out. I think that they are struggling to find their footing in a love starved culture.

When I look at my world……..when I try to find the most important thing. I think that it is love. There is nothing that you could take away from me that would be more painful than the loss of a loved one. There is nothing that you could add to my life that would make me happier than to love and be loved.

This is not the way that our culture operates. Turn on your TV tonight. Count the number of times that you see an act of love. There is plenty of sex……but love……not so much. Count the number of times that you see anger, violence, and even hate. Listen to our leaders. Do they teach love and generosity……or do they sell anger and hate. Watch the news…….more of the same.

Our culture wants and needs to love and be loved. And yet, we consume a diet of anger and hate. Our need for love should not come as a surprise. Love is the very heart of Christianity and of the Bible. Christianity and the Bible teach that we were put here by a creator who operates in both our temporal realm and his spiritual realm. But why were we created? Why did God go to all of the trouble? I believe that we were put here for one reason……to love. We were put here to love and be loved. We were put here to love God and each other. Love and God are one and the same. Love is the very definition of God. The impetus to love is written on our hearts. It was put there by our creator. When we ignore it…..when we indulge in hate and anger, we are going to war against the very core of our being.

We have lost our way.

Why?

We have lost our way because our culture has shifted from love to science and technology. We have shifted from God to secular humanism.

There is good news and bad.

The good news is that science and technology…….secular humanism…….will not destroy us. The bad news is that they won’t save us either.

The absence of love is what will destroy us. And only love can save us.

So……how do we save ourselves?

We save ourselves……..our culture……by returning to our roots. The survival of our temporal culture requires us to turn away from secular humanism and return to Christianity…….to return to our core……to love…….to love God and each other. If we can do that……individually and corporately……….we can fix our temporal world.

God will take care of the spiritual world.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians, 1-13, ESV

If you are a parent, you will recognize the characters in today’s post.

Even if you are not a parent, you have certainly seen them out in public: a parent trying to corral a child who just will not obey…….a child who is determined to get what he wants even against his parent’s wishes. The scene is usually ugly……sometimes a little ugly…….sometimes it is awful. Without getting into the specifics of their disagreement, I think that we can all agree that the fight itself is unpleasant to watch. If you could replay the last time you saw this scene play out, I’m fairly sure you would be sympathetic to the parent. If you could offer a solution to the problem, it would probably be that the child should settle down and obey his parent. Your solution would be for the child to submit to the authority of the parent……..the sovereignty of the parent. While this is not an absolute, the parent typically has more knowledge and experience. Furthermore, the parent loves the child and is looking out for the child’s best interests…….in the long run. We know from experience that the world runs better when the parent is in control than when the child is in control. This is true, even when the parent is not completely in the right. I can recall an episode where my father and I had a disagreement about a pair of jeans that I had just bought. Looking back, as a parent myself, I can say with confidence that my father was wrong. But, I obeyed him. I submitted to his authority. And our family survived.

The post this week is not about whether our parent is right or wrong. It is not about whether God is right or wrong from our temporal perspective.

The post is about authority and submission to authority.

Authority…….sovereignty…….comes in several “flavors”.

Absolute sovereignty……..whatever the boss says is true whether you like or not. When the boss says jump……you jump. Good and bad……right and wrong are defined by the sovereign. This is not negotiable. Everybody operates on the same set of rules……the same set of definitions. Everybody is headed in the same direction.

Limited sovereignty………most of what the boss says is true. When the boss tells you to do something, you assess it and decide if it suits you. If it works for you…….you obey. The same applies to right and wrong…….good and bad. You listen, you assess, you accept what you like and discard what you don’t like. Everything is negotiable. You have a personal veto over the boss.

Non-sovereignty…….an external boss does not exist. You do as you please. No need to negotiate. No need to justify your behavior. You are the boss of your tiny corner of the universe. You go your own way……and so does everybody else. You make your own rules and definitions and so does everybody else. The guy who robs you in the alley……..is just as right as you are. Hitler is just as right as mother Teresa.

The tradeoff here is clear. Absolute sovereignty yields uniformity. Uniformity yields peace. Conflict……war…….is eliminated. We all work together toward a common goal……..a goal chosen by the sovereign……..whether we agree with that goal or not. Non-sovereignty gives us freedom. We look at the world. We assess our appetites. We act in a way that gives us what we want. But……so does the other guy. We believe that we are right. We believe that we are good people. But so does he. We butt heads…….we go to war. Nobody is right. Nobody is good…….because there is no uniform definition of right and good. When you boil it down this tradeoff is the dividing line between Creationism……..Christianity……..and secular humanism.

It doesn’t take an intellectual giant to determine which path the world is on.

But………it’s not that simple.

There is a temporal world and there is an eternal spiritual world. God’s absolute sovereignty extends over both. Our freedom is absolutely confined to the temporal world. Our freedom ends when our temporal clock runs out. God’s sovereignty has no end….no limits.

In the final analysis, the only escape from the eternal sovereignty of God is to deny his sovereignty. The only intellectually honest way to deny God’s sovereignty……..is to deny his existence. This is the “unforgivable sin” described in Matthew.

Denying the absolute sovereignty of God can work. People do it every day. But, it can only work in the temporal world. And even then, ignoring or denying God’s sovereignty often fails. At death, we all transition from our temporal world to God’s eternal world. When we die, we can no longer evade the absolute sovereignty of God.

In a nutshell…….this is the fate of man. One day, we will all experience God’s absolute sovereignty. It is worth the trouble to become familiar with it now.

“Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come”.

Jesus explaining “the unforgiveable sin”, Matthew 12: 31-32, ESV