CHBC Connect for October 11, 2024
What We Value, What We Love, and What We Do:
When something or someone is highly valued you find yourself loving it or them, and you also find yourself doing things to project and protect that which you highly value and love. It might be as a teenager when you get your first car. The time invested in waiting, perhaps paying for all or most of it, as well as its needed repairs, develops a love for that vehicle. You find yourself cleaning it, waxing it, and wanting to drive it around so your friends can see it.
In relationships if you begin to devalue the other person in your relationship, you will begin to feel at best numb towards them, and at worst find a growing disdain for them. Your actions will follow these newfound emotions, and you will, as they say in our culture today, cancel them.
What you value, you love, and it affects what you do. At CHBC we want you to value Christ, the Bible, and God’s glory. We call these non-negotiable features of the people of God, our Piers. Thinking about all the hurricanes and the floods our southern US states are experiencing right now, we have a good grasp of the importance of stable foundations, or piers. You will not stand against the tides of Biblical deception in our world without deep rooted committed to the piers of the Lordship of Christ over His church, the centrality of the Scripture in the life of every believer, and the glory of God as the ultimate purpose of every life.
Once you have these settled convictions in your soul, you will find a growing love of these truths. You will desire to see the Bible influence the teaching and function of the Church. You will become passionate for the mission of Christ to make disciples of all nations. You will love the breadth of Christ’s love for every person, regardless of their age, education, or background. Your life and ministry will be guided by these ever-deepening loves. We call these convictions of the soul our Pillars. You will love a church that is Biblically-modeled, Mission-minded, and Multi-cultural.
What you value, you love, and what you love, you act upon. With the proper convictions in place and your passions focused God-ward, you will purpose to equip believers, exalt Christ, and extend the gospel. You can be involved in the ministries of the church for awhile simply because it is what we are doing: discipling, worshiping, and evangelizing. But without settled convictions and deep passions, eventually you will find yourself going through the motions, and wondering if any of it really matters.
Church, work on what you value. If you value anything above God, destroy those idols. Make Christ, His Word, and His glory the most cherished thing in your life. Then regardless of personal circumstances you will hold the right convictions and pursue the right things. This is why every Sunday as the church gathers the whole focus is not on people, their needs, and their daily lives, but on God, His Word, and His Glory.
By His Grace and For His Glory,
Pastor Mark
