Broadlands Bible Church
October 4, 2023
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Thesis: Our "wills" are not the real solution to the very real problem(s) that we face; the Holy Shepherd God is.
Introduction: In our last study we considered the issue of "constrained choices". If we are not given a choice, we simply enter into the progression of events in time as those events unfold upon us as the "
choices by others" generate circumstances that sweep us along. But, if we are given a choice, the choice we make will invariably be in harmony with our "Love System" and our "Faith System". That we all will be examined by Jesus as to the deeds we have done and the words that we have spoken sustains this concept of "loves" and "beliefs" as the undergirders of all of our behavior. When we talk about "free will", we are actually talking about being unaware of how our "wills" are being influenced by what we love and what we believe. As long as we have a choice between two or more options
that do not challenge our most deeply loved and most tenaciously held values/beliefs, we feel "free" to choose between the options with no heartburn.
But this issue is complicated by the reality that conflicts will arise in both our "Loves" and by our "Beliefs" whenever choices are "forced" upon us regarding issues that are extremely close to one another in the order of "Loves" and in the tangle of "Beliefs". This is the issue to which I would like to turn our attention this evening.
Our problem here is that a veritable host of "loves" and "beliefs" exist within us and many of them are not well established by virtue of the fact that they have never been challenged by our circumstances. It is when our circumstances force us to choose between two (or more) tightly held "loves" or "beliefs" that we realize which of our "loves" is highest in the pecking order, or which of our "beliefs" is most firmly grounded.
- I. The Magnitude Of The Problem.
- A. A biblical foundation.
- 1. Proverbs 4:23 identifies the "heart" as the root of "the issues of life", and insists upon our awareness of its values.
- 2. 1 Peter 1:13 contains the command that we "gird up the loins of our minds" with the strong implication that its "reproductive" abilities in terms of the actions it sponsors is to be an active part of our mental lives.
- 3. Romans 12:2 declares that we are transformed as the outcome of mental "renewal" which is tied, contextually (12:3), to "thinking according to the reality of biblical revelation".
- B. The number of "commitments of love" we actually hold within our hearts is so massive that we do not even have the ability to recognize an "object of love" until our circumstances bring it into our conscious awareness.
- 1. Our brains hold a massive amount of information.
- a. "Memories" exist by reason of their roots in the records residing in our brain cells.
- b. Since we "remember" matters of our past, we know that our experiences were recorded by our brains.
- 2. Our ability to "recall" events of the past, as memories, depends upon how well our brains are functioning.
- 3. Often our memories are buried deeply enough in our brains that they only surface when some present stimulus "jogs our memory", but the fact that our memory can be "jogged" means that the information is present though not recallable on our own.
- 4. We might say, then, that the massive amount of information recorded by our brains can be divided between the issues of "love" and of "belief".
- C. The number of "commitments of faith" we actually hold within our hearts is also massive so that we may not even be able to identify the particular "belief" that is sponsoring our choices.
- 1. This reality, like that of "loves", is also mostly under our conscious radar, and we only become aware when something brings the question to the level of consciousness in us.
- 2. Much of the time, these "commitments of faith" are unexamined under the question of "Truth".
- 3. Too much of the time these "commitments of faith" are held tenaciously so that we are "unwilling" to subject them to a rigorous comparison to Scripture.
- II. The Magnitude Of The Divine Solution.
- A. First, the sacrifice of the Lamb of God makes a relationship with the omniscient and all-wise God possible.
- B. Second, the gift of the Holy Spirit to dwell in our bodies as an Active Resident provides a "Helper" to address our inabilities and, even, our reluctances.
- C. Third, the major biblical metaphor of a Shepherd Who covers the entire gamut of "Life" is the basis for God's commitment to us to cover the bases that we cannot cover.
