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The big idea of Christianity is to live Purum Deo, to live all of one's life in the presence of God. Under the authority of God. and to the honor and to the glory of God. Without a goal in life, without clear direction, it's easy for us to veer off course. And that's why it's so vital as Christians for us to know the goal of the Christian life, to know the challenges that might come our way, and how God instructs us to combat those challenges.
Hello and welcome to the Monday edition of Renewing Your Mind. I'm your host, Lee Webb. This week, you will be hearing messages from RC Sproll series Pleasing God. And when you give a donation in support of Renewing Your Mind, We will give you lifetime digital access to the series. Plus, we'll send you Dr.
Sproll's companion book, also titled Pleasing God.
So head on over to renewingyourmind.org and make your donation today.
So what is the goal of the Christian life, and how do we passionately pursue that goal? To start this new study, Here's Dr. Sproll. I had the opportunity to speak with a friend of mine who's a businessman in Orlando, and he was telling me all about the latest developments in the international. World of finance, and he talked about a study that had been made of international corporations.
in terms of their future planning. And he mentioned that there were Japanese corporations that didn't have simply three-year plans or five-year plans for their businesses, but some of them extended their business plans out into time a hundred and two hundred years so that they had an overarching goal that they kept before them at all times so that they could check. periodically to make sure that everything that they were doing in their company was on target.
Now, after this businessman related all this to me about what was going on in the international field of finance, he looked at me and he said, Now, about the Christian life, R.C., he said, tell me. Please. What? is the big idea. We listen to sermons, we read the scriptures, we get caught up in the maze of the details of theology.
But we long for the opportunity to cut through all of the fine points, the particulars of Christianity, and get down to the core, the very essence of what the Christian life is all about. That's what we mean by. Discerning the big idea.
So, when this businessman said, R.C., what's the big idea? I thought about it for a moment. And the answer that popped into my head. Came out of the 16th century Reformation. When the Protestant reformers of that time had to define themselves to a watching world.
And so they had to crystallize the essence of what their ministry and their movement was about. And out of that crystallization process came a phrase, of course, it was Latin. that was introduced and used frequently by Martin Luther To declare the essence of the Christian life. And Luther used this phrase: that the essence of the Christian life. is to live one's life Quorum Deo.
Now that may be a strange phrase to you. Quorum Day Out. Literally what it means is Before The face of God. And what Luther was saying simply was this: that the Christian life means to live all of your life. In the presence of God.
Now, we add to that a couple of other ideas. The big idea of Christianity is to live. Purum Deo, to live all of one's life in the presence of God. Under The authority of God and to the honor and to the glory of God. Let me say that again.
The big idea, quorum Deo, is to live one's life. In the presence of God, under the authority of God, to the honor and glory of God. That's what it's all about. Jesus said it succinctly this way: If you love me, keep my commandments, which is to say, If you want to please me. You please me.
Bye. doing what I have commanded you. To do. But to live this kind of life. Obviously, at the outset, it sounds rather idealistic, doesn't it?
There's nobody that lives all of their life in a constant sense of the presence of God, and none of us is so righteous that everything that we do is in submission to the authority of God and done unto His honor and to His glory. We can say that religiously and define it theologically, but to put that into actual living practice. is not a simple thing to do. We can get excited and emotionally moved and have spiritual experiences where we make vows and promises: oh, God, you know, my life is yours, my heart is on the altar, I'm going to please you and live for you, and so on. But through the day-to-day activities and the pressures that come upon us.
that zeal and that excitement begins to fade. And we fall back into our Old patterns where we live in the absence of God, in defiance of God. and to our own glory.
So, what it means to please God is not simply. to make a commitment or a vow. But to press Forward. Through those moments and times where we are paralyzed and frustrated in our spiritual growth. Let me ask this question.
How many of you have ever taken Piano lessons. Let me see your hands. If you've taken piano lessons, about three out of four in the audience have responded here that you have taken piano lessons at some time in your life. Are any of you, incidentally, at the present time, functioning as a concert pianist? Can't find any of those in here.
Isn't it strange that every year, literally, millions Of people in the United States of America start piano lessons. But there're so very, very few that ever become concert pianists like Von Kleiburn, or even great jazz pianists like Telonius Monk or Oscar Peterson or Sharing or one of the others. I remember when I started taking piano lessons, my mother had a big idea, and she put her hands on her hips and said, Young man, you're going to start taking piano lessons. And so she sent me off to this woman who was 110 years old. And she lived in a house that was 150 years old, that was so musty and creaky and scary.
That woman's name was Miss Bliss, and she brought anything but bliss into my life doing all of these exercises. But I remember vividly my first lesson. I came into this scary, creepy, old, musty house, and I sat down on this bench next to this woman, who was as scary and creepy and musty as the house was, and she opened up to the first lesson of John Thompson's piano book series. And she showed me on the keyboard Where Middle C. was located.
And then she told me to play middle C with my index finger, and I followed the first lesson on the page. And I even remember the words to it as I would strike middle C repeatedly with my index finger and my right hand. The song went like this: I am playing middle C. Then the left hand hit the same note. I can play it well, you see.
I said, Hey, this is a piece of cake. I started piano lessons with a flurry, with gusto. It was simple. And I ripped through the first half of John Thompson in just a few weeks, and I had visions of becoming a great pianist. Five years later, I quit taking piano lessons.
And I was only in the middle. of John Thompson's second Grade. Book. My development as a piano player. Was arrested.
It was frozen. It reached a point of difficulty that signaled a plateau. Where I was stuck. I was frozen. Couldn't go any further.
And so I gave it up. But what I learned about life from studying the piano is this. that we have a tendency to make a running start At certain enterprises, and get all involved and all engrossed in what it is that we're trying to learn, or trying to achieve, or trying to do. And as soon as we run into an obstacle. Or we reach one of those difficult plateaus where we are temporarily paralyzed, that's where we quit.
We say, I've reached the limit of my ability. I'll go no further. But the only way to advance in any enterprise Is to persevere through that level of paralysis.
so that we can get beyond the roadblock and move ahead. In fact, if you look at something, you will see that the higher we go in our attempts to master a procedure. The easier it is to get better. and better. After we learn how to make it through plateaus.
Now, what does that have to do? With pleasing God. Obviously, not all of us are called to be concert pianists. But all of us are called. To please God.
I've spoken many times On the priority of the Christian life, as Jesus declares it in his teaching when he tells his disciples to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all of these other things will be added. Unto you. Elsewhere, Jesus makes a very strange and cryptic statement about this kingdom of God. He speaks about the kingdom of God appearing And he calls his disciples to press into the kingdom of God, saying that the violent take it by force.
Now that perhaps may be a negative. Idea suggesting that the enemies of the kingdom of God use violence to try to oppose God's reign, or it may mean, and I think it means, that those who mean business about Pleasing God. are not casual, or cavalier. in their pursuit of the kingdom of God. But they are like men of violence who storm.
The battlements of the enemy until they break through. Jesus said, that's the way the kingdom is. It's like, he said, a woman. who has lost a coin. Who sweeps the entire house.
Turns everything upside down. She's obsessed until she finds that coin. I can't imagine how Jesus was insightful enough in the first century to tell a story based on the life of my wife. If you would see what happens in my household when my wife loses her purse, you would know what Jesus had in mind when he talked about this woman sweeping the house clean to find. That coin, my wife.
is always hiding things. To keep them safe from burglars or from children, I don't know what she's hiding them from. But she has these wonderful hiding places for her jewelry and for her purse. The only problem is that after she hides them, She forgets where she hides them. And they have been such wonderful hiding places that she can't find what she has hidden.
And then we have to go through the procedure: lifting up the rugs, taking the drawers out of the going through the winter clothes, everything to try to find this thing. Jesus said, The kingdom of God is like a man who finds an extraordinary pearl. It is so precious and so valuable. Singular in its magnificence. That person has such a profound passion to possess that pearl.
Which is more Costly than any other pearl, that he goes and sells all that he has, that he might possess that one single pearl. Jesus said, the kingdom of God is like. A man who lost his son. I've already mentioned that son, the prodigal son, who goes to the far country. Squanders his father's inheritance.
You see these vans, RVs on the highway, and bumper stickers on the back of them, where you see this nice retired couple driving this wonderful Winnebago down the highway, and it says on the back of the thing: we're spending our children's inheritance.
Well, how about when your children spend your children's inheritance before you die? What about a sign on the back of the kids' card says, I'm spending my dad's retirement money. That's what the prodigal son did. He went out and squandered everything that his father worked so hard. To earn.
And then he disgraced the family with his riotous living. You know the story. But yet when he came to himself, And in utter degradation and humiliation, after he lived with the pigs and smelled of swine. With his head bowed. And in tatters he started.
To make his way home. He said to himself, I will arise. and I will go to my Father. All of those parables, the prodigal son, the lost coin. The pearl of great price.
are parables that emphasize The importance of pressing. In to the kingdom of God. of pressing beyond the points of paralysis. the plateau where things become so difficult. That we stop.
Now you who are Christians. Remember The beginnings. of your Christian experience. The zeal and the fire And the passion that you had, and you probably turned off all your friends because you were obnoxious and too pushy, and you were so excited. You wanted to tell everybody about what happened to you, and so on.
We all went through that. But then we have learned how to adjust. To accommodate Our friends, and we've learned how to adjust our goals downward. because as we started to grow When sort of like a puberty spurt, Then we suddenly reach that plateau. And we cooled off.
We said, oh, I'm going to read the Bible from beginning to end. We went through Genesis, we went through Exodus, and then we hit Leviticus. And many of us fell off when we hit Leviticus.
Some persevered through Leviticus all the way into numbers. And after they got into numbers, they said, I can't do it anymore. And so they quit. And this is what happens. We start, but we don't finish.
What we start. Ladies and gentlemen, what pleases God is somebody who signs up for the duration.
Somebody who prays every day. Thy kingdom come.
Somebody who Spends his life, not just the beginning of his life, his life seeking. the kingdom of God. Again, Edwards made this statement that the seeking of the kingdom of God is not something that unbelievers do. The seeking of the kingdom of God is the chief business of the Christian. And it's a lifelong enterprise.
It's a lifelong pursuit. And I think that that's what it means to be a disciple. is to come under the discipline Of someone more mature. If I wanted to get over my periods of paralysis where I was stuck in music, I had to go to a teacher. A teacher who was on the other side of that plateau.
who could help bring me across the threshold. Into a new liberation and a new freedom. And I think the same thing's true in spiritual life. and in spiritual growth. Finally, let me give you this one.
Illustration. of how God is pleased by those who seek His kingdom. Again when I was a boy, I went to a movie. And I don't remember even the exact title of the movie.
Well, who even starred in the movie? It had to do with the adventures of Robin Hood. And I don't know whether it was Earl Flynn or Or Douglas Fairbanks Jr., I think it was Douglas Fairbanks Jr. who played in this particular version where Basil Rathbone was the sheriff of Nottingham. And I saw this magic story.
of Robin Hood. on the screen and I was Captured by it. What a tremendous story. The king of the land, Richard, has to depart and go on a spiritual mission. And while he's gone, His reign and his power and his authority is usurped by wicked Prince John, his younger brother.
Now Robin Hood is loyal to the king. But the king's gone. And so Robin Hood and his men are forced to live out in the woods, finding shelter there in the countryside. And so a price comes on his head. And we see the conflict throughout the whole story of one who is loyal to a foreign king.
to the king who has gone. And he will not submit. to the usurper who has supplanted the rightful king. Robin Hood lives to please King Richard. not Prince John.
He harasses Prince John. He sends little forays out into the forest to bother his tax collectors and so on.
Well, then we see at the end of the movie this magnificent scene. where Richard the Lionheart is coming back from the Crusades and is returning to England. But he's going to enter into the country Incognito. And so he and his traveling partners are robed in the robes of monks. And wearing this disguise, they stop at a neighboring inn, and one of the merry men of Robin Hood's band spots these men dressed as monks, and he thinks that they're the entourage of Prince John.
And they run back to the camp and they said, Hey, There's some of these men coming through here. They look like they're carrying some money. Let's go get them. And so, as King Richard is on his horse and the horse is sort of walking down through a narrow glen in the forest, suddenly the trees are alive. With the men of Robin Hood's band, and they jump out of the trees and they stop King Richard.
And they capture him and they bring him back. to the camp. And they present these two. monks apparently to Robin Hood. And Robin Hood comes out and he begins to interrogate these men and speak to them in a kind of authoritative voice.
But this one monk will not be cowed before Robin Hood. And he begins to speak to him. with the words of regal authority. and Robin Hood is taken aback. And then in one dramatic moment, Richard.
Pools apart. The robe of the monk and there Is his shield, his heraldic sign on his chest of the lion. And Robin immediately recognizes him. And he falls to his knees and says, my lead. And the king, having heard of Robin's loyalty and devotion, said, Rise, Robin.
And then at the end of the movie, Sir Richard. knights Robin Hood, making him the Earl of Locksley. Because Mm. persevered. Robin Hood lived in the presence of his king.
Under the authority of his king. to the honor and to the glory. of his king. I see no finer Parallel. to the call of the Christian.
who would please His God. than to serve the one who is now enthroned as the king of kings. and in his absence. Seek to please him. to honor him.
and to obey him. I hope that's your desire. I know it's mine: to please, honor, and obey our King, the King of Kings. That was R. C.
Sproll on this Monday edition of Renewing Your Mind, and I'm glad you're with us. Even though we may desire to please God, why is it that we can stumble and get distracted? It may be that we've forgotten the goal of the Christian life, or that we don't understand the weapons of our warfare. In this series, Pleasing God, doctor Sproll outlines the strategy for our battle with the world, the flesh, and the devil, as he seeks to help each of us, by the grace of God, to live lives that please God. You can request digital access to the messages and study guide plus a copy of the companion book when you give a donation in support of Renewing Your Mind at Renewing Your Mind.
org or when you click the link in the podcast show notes.
So please call us today. Here's our number. It's 800-435-4343. Or you can go to renewingyourmind.org. Thank you.
Jesus warned that unless our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, we will never enter the kingdom of heaven. What does that morning really mean? That's what Dr. Skroll considers tomorrow. Here on Renewing Your Mind.
