The Disciple's Values

Genuinely Following Jesus — Steve Gregg

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The Disciple's Values

Genuinely Following JesusSteve Gregg

In "The Disciple's Values," Steve Gregg discusses the values, attitudes, and convictions that shape the life of a Christian disciple. He explains that our values should be formed by the influence of the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures, rather than by the world's standards. As disciples of Jesus, our chief value should be to glorify God in all that we do, and we should prioritize eternal values over temporary ones. We should also value loving others above ourselves and valuing truth above worldly things. Overall, Gregg emphasizes that a disciple's values should be centered on Christ and shaped by his teachings.

Transcript

Tonight we're taking the fifth of a series of lectures on the subject of Genuinely Following Jesus, what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. And tonight the lecture is entitled The Disciple's Values. And when we talk about values, we're talking about that which is almost defining of who a person is.

You know, we might tend to define ourselves by race, or by our generation that we belong to, our nationality, or by our hobbies, or whatever. We might tend to think of ourselves in terms of who we are physically, what we look like. But who we really are as persons, what distinguishes us as unique individuals, is the selection of the things we value.

Because those are the things that we will actually pursue in life, and that will shape us and define us into whatever it is we are going to become. In a sense, the thing we are going to become, we already are internally. We are whatever we value.

The things that we desire, the things we set our minds on, the things we set our hearts on. Those really define who we are, and what we will become is in line with those things that we pursue. And when it comes to this issue of our personal values, we find that when we become disciples, there is a need for a radical re-evaluation of these things.

Because it says in Romans chapter 12, in verse 2, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Now the renewing of your mind, we realize of course the mind is not the same thing as the brain. The brain is simply an organ of your body, just like your lungs, or your kidneys, or other things.

Of course it is not just like them, but in the sense that it is a physical machine that has a physical operation to keep the body functioning. Yet, in addition to your brain, there is the mind. You see, we could say in a way that some of the lower forms of animal life, they have brains.

Almost every complex organism has a brain. But do they really have a mind? What makes your mind what it is? It is your beliefs, it is your convictions, it is your values. It is your personality, of course.

And your personality is determined by many of these things I just mentioned. Now, when it comes to being renewed in our minds, or to be transformed by the renewing of your mind, as Paul says in Romans 12, 2, that means that there is a transformation of our life that God intends to see take place. We have already seen that the disciple is one who is being transformed into the image of Christ.

Jesus said no servant is above his master, no disciple is above his master, but he who is fully trained will be like his master. So, as we are being trained, as our minds are being molded, we are becoming like our master, like Jesus. We are being transformed from whatever it was we were before into whatever he is and what we are hoping to be ultimately.

And this transformation, Paul says, comes about by the renewing of your mind. Now, your mind, like I said, it is your values, your beliefs, your opinions, your attitudes, your moods. These are all part of your mind.

They are part of your personality. They are part of who you are. And when you became a believer in Christ, your mind already had its own shape and texture.

You had already developed convictions, and beliefs, and opinions, and attitudes, and those kinds of things that we have just mentioned. Those things already existed. You came with a set of characteristics in your mind that made you the person you were.

Now, there is a sense in which you are going to remain the person that you were, but you are going to renew who you were. Your mind has to be renewed because perhaps it is a little bit like when you have to de-junk your computer, or when you have to de-junk your life, de-junk your house, your garage. There is stuff that is accumulated in there that really isn't the right stuff.

And there are things that ought to be there that maybe weren't put there properly. When you were being brought up, while you were being educated, while you were accumulating your set of characteristics that comprised what your mind set is, before you were a Christian. After all, your values, and your attitudes, and your convictions were formed before you were a Christian without the influence of the Spirit of God, and without the scriptures.

And therefore, you have a mind set before you were a Christian. And that mind has got to be refreshed, it has to be renewed. It has to be changed in many respects.

The contents have to be revamped. Because this is part of how the transformation takes place of you into the image of Christ. Paul says you need to be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

And your mind includes your values. And one of the things that I think is most in need of change very radically at the beginning of a Christian's life is the value system that usually we have picked up because our parents, or our teachers, or our peers, or the media, or someone has put into our heads that we value certain things, and not other things. And so we need to find out what God wants us to value.

In Ephesians 4, 17-20, Paul said, This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, Paul says. That is, we have been learning Christ.

We've been learning what it means to be like Christ. To be followers of Christ. To be part of Christ, a part of his body.

We are learning Christ, Paul says. And what you learned of Christ is not the same thing you learned in the world. He says that you used to walk like the rest of the Gentiles walked.

That's what he means when he says you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walked. You used to. You used to live and think like the rest of the pagans do, because you were one of them.

But he says the way they walked was in the futility of their mind. The emptiness, the foolishness, their understanding was darkened. They were alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them.

Because of the blindness of their heart, Paul says. Now, if they had blind hearts, that is to say, if we had blindness of our hearts and ignorance, and our understanding darkened before we were Christians, that is what contributed to the futility of our mind and the way we walked when we were pagans. So these are the things, obviously, that need to be changed.

You don't want to live the rest of your life having your understanding darkened, and your ignorance and being in blindness of heart. And that's what Christ has come to transform. But that's a transformation of our mind, getting rid of that futility of the mind that was part of our lives as it is part of the other Gentiles, Paul said.

So, Ephesians 4.23, Paul said, And be renewed in the spirit of your mind. It's almost the same as what he said in Romans 12.2, where he said, Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. He says, Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

That is to say, the inward part of your personality, the spirit of your mind. It's not only what you think and your opinions, but what's deeper inside giving you those thoughts and those opinions. On one occasion, the disciples were angry because the Samaritan people were not being hospitable to Jesus and to them.

And they said to Jesus, Shall we call fire out of heaven upon them like Elijah did? And Jesus said, You don't know what manner of spirit you are of. Now, you need to know what manner of spirit you are of. The Holy Spirit, the spirit of Christ, will inform certain attitudes and certain beliefs and certain values, which you will not have without the spirit of Christ.

And those are the things we want to look at today, because these become the new value system of the disciple of Jesus. Philippians 2.5, Paul said, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. So, for us to be transformed in the image of Christ, we have to have His mind, His values, His thoughts, as being echoed in our own.

So, we have this need for radical re-evaluation of our values. And we see that when Jesus called His disciples early on, He sat them down and began to reorient them in terms of their values. This is in what we call the Beatitudes.

You know the Beatitudes, they're at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. The Bible says that He lifted His eyes up toward His disciples and said, so He was instructing His disciples in the Sermon on the Mount. And this was early in their acquaintance with Him.

And the first thing He begins to address, as He begins to teach them how to be His disciples, He addresses their values system. That's what is really at stake here when we read the Beatitudes, because the word Beatitude refers to those statements that say, blessed are. Blessed are the poor.

For example, in Luke chapter 6, verse 20, He says, blessed are you poor. He says in the next verse, blessed are you who hunger now. And blessed are you who weep now.

And blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil for the Son of Man's sake. Now, these are what we call Beatitudes, because Jesus took a class of people who He said are poor, who hunger, who are weeping, who are hated and persecuted. And He says, you're blessed in that state.

Now, the word blessed means enviable. The word blessed means you have occasion to be happy. You are fortunate.

Now, all of this is suggesting, of course, what true values are. If you have what is very valuable, you're fortunate. If you have accumulated stuff that is not really valuable, you're not very fortunate.

The blessed person is the one who has what is of worth, what should be valued. And so, a person who's gathered a lot of gold coins over the years, and has quite a stockpile of gold coins, as opposed to a person who's just been gathering, what should we say, agates, pretty little rocks off the shore of the beach, that person who has the gold coins has something of great value. He's really fortunate.

He is to be envied, at least in the worldly sense of the word. The idea is that if you value gold, then the man is fortunate who has gold, more fortunate than the man who only has gravel or agates. And so also, Jesus is telling His disciples, you are blessed if you are X, Y, and Z. And X, Y, and Z, of course, He is saying, are the things that should be valued.

You should be glad that you have such things. These are the things that are worth having. And so He says in Luke 6, verses 20 through 26, when He speaks to His disciples, Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil.

Now, these are not the things people normally value. That's why Jesus had to get to this part first. The disciples, if they were going to be disciples at all, had to have their values challenged.

There had to be a radical reassessment of what is worth having, and what is not worth having. What are you going to pursue? You know why? Because you can't really follow Jesus. If you're pursuing the same things that the world pursues.

I had a friend ask another friend of mine in my presence, this was just a Christian brother who was asking another minister, and I happened to be there to overhear it, and he said, Is it possible to be a Christian and to live in sin? And my friend answered, after only a pause of a few moments, my friend said, Well, is it possible to ride two horses going opposite directions at the same time? And that actually put the question in its proper perspective. What does it mean to be a Christian? It means you're following Jesus. What does it mean to live in sin? It means you're not following Jesus.

You're going the opposite direction. You're pursuing other things. You're pursuing fleshly pleasure.

You're pursuing wealth. You're pursuing popularity. You're pursuing something other than Jesus.

No, you can't live in sin and be a Christian at the same time, any more than you can ride two horses going opposite directions at the same time. And so Jesus pulls these guys away from their fishing nets, and away from their tax collecting booths, and whatever else they were doing before, and says, Okay, you're going to be my disciples now. First things first, you've got to value what's really valuable, and pursue what's really worth pursuing.

And what's valuable is not what the world thinks. It's the opposite. When he says, Blessed are you poor, they say, Wait a minute, that's not what I thought.

I thought it was a blessing to be rich. It seems to me that it's more desirable to be happy than weeping, or to be filled rather than hungry, or to be popular, rather than hated and persecuted. That certainly is what the world has taught us.

And Jesus says, Well, that's why I had to teach you otherwise, because you wouldn't know if I didn't tell you. He followed up those Beatitudes in Luke 6 with these words. He said, But woe to you who are rich, woe to you who are full, woe to you who laugh now, woe to you when all men speak well to you.

In other words, the things that you really, by nature, tend to value, those are the things that you should be pitied, if those are the things you have gained. If you're rich, if you're full, if you're laughing now, if you're satisfied with everything the way your life is now, you're unfortunate, because you know what? You're satisfied with too little. And when you're satisfied with something, then you don't really seek more.

And so, if you're happy being rich, and you're rich, well then, you have valued riches, and you're happy with that, and you're not going to really be pursuing anything of real value afterward. Same thing with the other things. Jesus lists states, poverty, hunger, sadness, persecution, which most people would not value.

And he tells his disciples, this is what you need to understand makes you the fortunate ones, because you have these conditions, you have these traits, and they are not, therefore, interfering with your pursuit of what is truly valuable. He is not saying that poverty, and hunger, and persecution are in themselves really desirable as values in themselves. But rather, if you are poor, and hungry, and persecuted, you should not think that that's an unfortunate state.

But it's a fortunate state. Why? Because it has led you to be discontented in this world, and to seek things that are going to be lasting, and of greater value. And we need to know what those values are.

In Matthew 16, 23, Jesus said to Peter, when Peter said, Lord, you know, when Jesus said he had to go to the cross, and Peter said, no, not so, Lord, we won't let that happen to you. He turned to Peter, in Matthew 16, 23, and said, get behind me, Satan, for you are an offense to me. For you are not mindful of the things of God, but of the things of men.

Mindful of. You are not placing proper value on the things of God. You are minding, that is, being concerned about, esteeming things of men.

And there is a huge difference between the things that God values, and the things men value. In fact, in one place, in Luke 16, 15, a very radical statement of Jesus about this. Luke 16, 15, Jesus said, for what is highly esteemed among men, now esteemed means valued, what is highly valued among men, he says, is an abomination in the sight of God.

Now, an abomination means something that is deeply offensive, loathsome. Now, he says, the things that people highly value, that they highly esteem, are things that are loathsome to God. Now, if you are going to be like Christ, you are going to have to value what God values, not what men value.

And so this is where we begin. We begin realizing that we did not become Christians in a vacuum. We became Christians after having received instruction, conditioning, ideas that we adopted either by default, or by direct intake from the media, and from teachers, and family.

And these things taught us to value certain things, and not other things. And those things that we are taught to value, unless we got them from the Bible itself, unless we got them from God, those things are the things that men value. And those are the things, Jesus said, really are an abomination to God, the things that men value.

Thomas Akempis wrote a book back in the, I think it was the 1300s, if I'm not mistaken. He was a Catholic monk. But he wrote a classic devotional book called Of the Imitation of Christ.

It is one of the most read books in history. The Bible, of course, is the most read book in history. Pilgrim's Progress is the second.

I believe that Thomas Akempis' book, Of the Imitation of Christ, holds the third position as the third most read book in history. It's a very important book. It's written by a Catholic, but Catholics and Protestants alike have found much in it to agree with, because most of it, only the last part is really Roman Catholic.

That is distinctly so. Most of it is just Christian. Most of it is just about Christ.

It's called The Imitation of Christ, and it's really a valuable book, I think, for any Christian to read. And in that book, one of the things that Thomas Akempis said is the following. Quote, Now, when he says, it is vanity, he means it's emptiness.

There's no real value in it. If you're courting honor, and you're puffed up with pride, you're seeking riches, you're following the lust of the body, he says, or that you're caring for a long life, though not a well-spent life, or to love what passes quickly, whatever is not eternal. He said, these are the things that really have no value.

It's empty to pursue them. It's empty to value them. And his attitude, of course, is simply reflecting the things that Jesus himself said in the Beatitudes, which every disciple should take to heart, of course.

So, the next question we have to ask is, well, if it is so, that people need to radically re-evaluate their value systems when they become Christians, when they become disciples, how do I identify my present values? You might say, well, I think I know what I value, but do you? You see, we fool ourselves almost as much as we fool others. We want people to think that we have lofty values, and therefore, when we're in a crowd of people who value, let's say somebody who values preserving the rainforests, okay? Well, that's something that many people find very valuable. When you're around those people, you're going to want them to think that you value those things, too.

You'll learn how to talk that way, or at least not to disagree with them when they're talking about the things they value. And I'm not saying it's wrong to value preserving the rainforests, although that certainly is one of the things that is not eternal. But the point is, it's not a bad thing in itself.

What I'm trying to say is that when you're around people who value certain things, well, then, you kind of want to fit in. You want to act like you value them, too. And when you're around Christians who say they value certain things, then you tell yourself that you value them, too.

You try to fool them and yourself. I'm not saying you know you're trying to fool them, but it's more the default to kind of fit in. And then to begin to feel like, well, because you seem to fit in with these people, then it must be really what you do value.

But it is possible to test what you really value by certain infallible tests. For example, we know that life is a series of investments we make. Whatever choice you make, you're investing time, you're investing opportunities, you may be investing money, you're investing things.

You're investing your life in small pieces into the things that you pursue in life. Your life is a series of investments. You either invest in raising a good family or invest in raising a fortune or invest in building a reputation and a career.

Whatever it is you pursue, you are investing time and energy. For example, if you want to be a medical doctor, think of all the time you invest going to college and medical school. You know, years of your life, you're in your 30s before you can even start the thing you've aimed at.

But because you valued that, you invest in it. And every day you invest your time and your money in various things because when you give up your time or when you give up your money for something, it is in order to get something back or it is at least in pursuit of something. And so our life is a series of investments that we make in which we make certain sacrifices in order to reap anticipated rewards.

It's the nature of the rewards that we invest our opportunities in. That is a secure indicator of what we value most in life. If we look at the things we're investing in, those are the things that we value.

It's infallible. It's an infallible test. So you just, if you want to say, well, what is my present value system? Well, just ask yourself, what am I investing in? And there's, you know, there's like four sub points of this I would like to make.

One of them is follow the money. You know, where does your money go? Jesus said where your heart is, excuse me, Jesus said where your treasure is, your heart will be also in Matthew 6, 21. Where your money is, that's where your heart is.

That's what you value. You spend money on, what do you spend money on? Entertainment? Do you spend it on food? Do you spend it on luxury? Do you spend it on image? Do you spend it on style of clothing? Do you spend it on other people? Do you spend it on the things of God? What do you spend your money on? Whatever you spend your money on, you are investing in. You may not realize it, but if you go out and buy nice clothes all the time, even though you have serviceable clothing already, then what you're doing is investing in something.

You're putting money into something that you value. What do you value? Having nice clothes, nicer clothes than the ones you already have, or more of the kinds of clothes you already have. The point is you're investing in style.

You're investing in your wardrobe because you value that for some reason. Now, I'm not trying to make anyone feel guilty about their value. I'm just trying to make people be realistic in assessing their own set of values and not fool yourself.

Where you put your money is where your heart is. Jesus said, where your treasure is, your heart will be also, in Matthew 6.21. Another thing you could look at is where does your time go? Where do you put your time? What do you put your time into? Time and money are kind of the same things because money for most people comes from working and working means spending time. If you work full time, if you work overtime, if you work part time, it's only because that's how you're getting your money and your money then is kind of a symbol of, it's sort of a, what should I say, a token of the hours that you spent of your life, hours you could have stayed home if you didn't work at a job, you could have entertained yourself, you could have done many other things, but you went to work because you were investing in something, you're investing your time, the hours of your day, your 40 hours or whatever it is, you invest your time in.

Now, the thing is here, some people say, well, it's not a question of whether I value the thing I'm doing at work, I just do that because I have to pay the bills, I have to pay the rent, I have to buy clothing, I have to have food. True, you do, and there's nothing wrong with that. The question is, what about the extra time you have, like the extra money you have? It's your elective money, it's your elective time that really tells what you value.

I mean, if you make very little money and you spend most of it just paying rent on a modest domicile and you pay a modest amount out for food and so forth and there's not much left over, well, of course, no one can tell what you value just from seeing how you're spending your money because you're spending it on things necessary, but when you have bought the necessary things and you have extra money, what do you give that to? What do you invest that in? And the same thing with time. You might have to spend 40 hours a week making a living to support a family, but when you're done with that and you have time on your hands, what do you do with that? Whatever you invest your time and your money and the elective time and money you have, that will be a sure indicator of what you value. Another question you could ask yourself to test yourself about what are my present values is what do you desire for your children? Almost all parents desire for their children the things that they, the parents, think are most valuable.

In Luke 11, 13, Jesus said, if you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, well, what Jesus is saying, that even evil fathers have something in them that wants to give good gifts to their children. That is, what you give to your children is what you consider to be good things for them. Now, what you consider to be good might be different than what really is good, depending on what your values are.

You might value something that is of very little value in the eternal scheme of things, but you will give your children what you count to be good things. It's inevitable, unless you're just a terrible parent. And there are a few of those, but I think the majority of parents are just like what Jesus said.

You earthly fathers, even being evil, know how to give good things to your children. That is, you know how to give things that you regard to be good to them, because you care about your children's well-being. And so you will give them the things that you think are going to benefit them.

In another scripture, 3 John, verse 4, John says, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth. Now, if that is true, if I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth, then my children walking in the truth is my highest value, isn't it? Because that's what I want for them. Well, what if my children walk in the truth, but they're poor? What if my children walk in the truth, but they're sick? What if my children walk in the truth, but they're persecuted? Well, would it be more my desire for them not to walk in the truth and have no persecution, or for them to not walk in the truth and be rich? Well, some people would certainly have that set of values, but not John.

John says, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth. Whatever else I hear about them, if they have misery and hardship and so forth, that may make me very sad, but at least if they're walking in the truth, they're doing the thing that makes me the most happy, that I consider to be the most important thing for them. You see, what you desire, what makes you joyful about your children doing and having, is what will tell you what you really value, because you value your children, and you want for them the best things.

A fourth question is, what will you sacrifice other things for? Now, everybody has a hierarchy of values. For example, let's say we all value filling our stomach when we're hungry. Alright? That's fair enough.

God has made us such that we need food. And when we get hungry, that's a signal that we need to put some food in there. And so we value that.

But suppose we felt that there was something worth fasting and praying for, and therefore we gave up food, we sacrificed food for that thing that we're fasting and praying for. Well, that demonstrates that we value that thing we're praying for more than we value food. Now, we value food.

There's nothing wrong with valuing food. You need food. But there are some things more important.

There's a hierarchy of values. Some things are more valued than others. If you felt that by fasting and praying one day a week, you could, let's say, perhaps have your friend healed of cancer, if you thought that would do it, and you did that, it shows that you care more about your friend being healed of cancer than you care about your meals.

Now, you care about your meals, but you care more about something else. In that case, something more commendable, more unselfish. Job said, I have esteemed the words of God's mouth above my necessary food.

Now, that doesn't mean he doesn't value his food, but he esteems the words of God's mouth more than he esteems his necessary food. He would make sacrifices in the area of food in order to have the Word of God, rather than sacrifice the Word of God in order to have food. You see, you can know what your chief values are by knowing what things you are sacrificing other things for.

So, you follow the money, and you check where your time is going. Now, in these cases, we're talking about your elective money and your elective time after you've paid and done the things that you have to do to survive or to meet your obligations. Once you've done that, where do you spend the rest of your money and your time? I'm not telling you at this point where you need to be spending it.

I'm just saying, if you look at that and answer that question honestly, you'll have discovered what your present values are, and you'll know whether they need to be reassessed or not. What do you desire for your children? And what will you sacrifice other things for? These are the questions that if you ask them and answer them honestly, you will be able to make a proper assessment of what your present value system is, and whether it is something that is like God's values or like man's values, and whether you need to change that. And so, so much for the test of what our present values are.

Let's move on to another point. What are the values of a disciple? What are the correct values? What should a disciple value? Now, lots of things that disciples value are going to be similar to things that other people value, because, I mean, there are some things that all people should value. There are people who are not disciples who care, for example, about the general public good, about living in peace rather than war, or having a society that's free of crime or free of disease, and free of plagues and so forth.

And, you know, there's lots of things that disciples will care about that unbelievers will care about too. But, like I said, there are some things that the disciple, well, that anyone, will sacrifice other things for. There are some things that are the highest values that inform and convey, you know, a certain value upon other things that are subordinate things.

And so, what are the highest values? What are the correct values that a disciple of Jesus should be living out of? A system of values out of which life comes. Remember, Jesus said, or it says in Proverbs, actually, in Chapter 4 of Proverbs, it says, Guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. The streams of life flow out of where your heart's at.

And where your heart's at is really what you value. What do you value? That will determine how your life is lived. Well, I found that I made a list of these values on my own as I was preparing this study.

I just was considering the scriptures themselves and came up with a list that I thought were the chief values of a disciple. And after I had completed the study, I remembered that many years ago I had read something that A.W. Tozer had written. This was one of his editorials.

And I think, although I'm not sure, but I think it was found in the book, the collection of editorials that was called That Incredible Christian. That Incredible Christian was the name of the editorial collection of A.W. Tozer. There were many books of his editorials collected, but I think it was the one by that name, which is called That Incredible Christian.

And the particular editorial I'm thinking of was called The Marks of the Spiritual Man. Marks of the Spiritual Man. And so I looked it up online and found that article, that editorial, and found that Tozer had listed a number of things he called The Marks of a Spiritual Man, which corresponded very closely to the things I had listed as the values of a true disciple.

And so, I decided to add his comments to my own. Almost every time I discuss one of the values that I think a Christian should have, a disciple should have, I'm going to tell you how Tozer said the same thing, usually in a single sentence. He was more succinct than I was.

But Tozer started out sort of like I've just started out. There is a hierarchy of values in people's lives. And Tozer was talking about spirituality and he said, True spirituality manifests itself in certain dominant desires.

These are ever-present, deep-settled wants, sufficiently powerful to motivate and control the life. Now notice he's really talking about values without using the word values. He doesn't say values.

But he talks about dominant desires. Ever-present, deep-settled wants. Those are the things we value.

The deep-settled things we desire are the things we value. They are the dominant desires of our lives. And he says, Spirituality manifests itself in certain dominant desires.

That's what spirituality is, he said. These ever-present, deep-settled wants, sufficiently powerful to motivate and control the life. That's what we're talking about.

Your values will be the things that motivate and control your life and make you live like Jesus or like something else. Depending on what your values are. So, I'd like to make this observation.

What I'm calling values are the things that you esteem. The things that you would sacrifice other things for. The things that you... They form sort of a center of your life, like the hub of a wheel from which all the other things in your life radiate like spokes from the wheel.

All the spokes of a wheel, they go out all different directions, but they all have their center at the hub of the wheel. And your value system is that hub from which all of your decisions and other choices are made. And these values, obviously, are determined by our perception of purpose.

What is the purpose of living? If we don't know what the purpose of living is, we don't know what the value is. For example, if I consider that it's my purpose to get someplace I've never been, I might value having a GPS or at least a map. But if I don't see my purpose is to get anywhere that I've never been before, then I won't value a map.

It's just a piece of paper to me, just colored paper. If I don't know that I'm trying to get someplace, the map will not be held in high value by me. I'll value other things that I see more suited to my perceived purposes.

And so if you feel like your purpose in life is to become an attorney, then you will value the education and the time and the money spent to become an attorney. If you don't see that as your purpose in life, then all that time and money spent to become an attorney will not be anything you have any value for. And you won't, you know, you won't sacrifice for it at all.

And rightly so. You need to know what purpose there is for living and that purpose will define what is valuable. Because what is valuable is that which will be conducive toward reaching toward that purpose.

And so there's one purpose, one overarching purpose of the disciple's life. And it's not what you might think. I mean, some people might think it correctly, but some people would not.

Some Christians think that the purpose of life is to be good, or the purpose of life is to go to heaven, or something like that. But actually the purpose of life, according to Scripture, is that God will receive the glory that is His due. That is, when you become a disciple of Jesus, you come from a background where you were pursuing your own satisfaction, your own security, your own reputation, your own well-being.

When you become converted, your heart is changed, your orientation is changed to this. It's no longer about me, it's about God. And that God deserves certain things.

God deserves to be glorified and pleased in the things that He has created. That includes me. Therefore the purpose of my existence is not to please me, but to please God.

And the Bible says that pleasing God, for me to please God, means that I bring Him glory. So, the one purpose of the disciple's life is that God will receive the glory that is His due. I, if I'm a Christian, am willing to sacrifice other things for that purpose.

If my chief purpose and my chief value is that God will receive glory, then He might receive glory by me being sick, or by me being healed. He might receive glory by me being rich, or by my being poor. He might receive glory by me being persecuted, or by my being elevated and popular.

Really, these other things are things that will be valued one way or the other, depending on how we see them as fulfilling the purpose. The purpose is to glorify God, or that God would receive the glory that is rightfully His. Isaiah 43, verses 6 and 7 says, Bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I have created for my glory.

God says, I want my children, my sons and daughters, gathered from all over the world, the ones I have called by my name. These are the ones He says, I have created for my glory. He created us for His glory.

So, if we were made for His glory, that means the purpose of our being made was that He would be glorified. The purpose of our existence is that God receive glory in our lives. So, once you see this in the Bible, you see it everywhere in the Bible.

Once you realize that God made us for His glory, you see that glorifying God is the purpose of, for example, God giving grace to us. Why did God give His grace to us? We think it's so we could go to heaven. Well, that is a consequence of our receiving grace, but actually Paul said that God's grace was given to us for God's glory.

In 2 Corinthians 4.15, he says, For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. Now, God has done many things for your sake, things that were good for you, but he says He did that so that grace may cause thanksgiving. When God has shown grace, that He will be thanked for it, and that will abound to the glory of God.

2 Corinthians 4.15. So, even when God gives grace to us, that is for His glory, ultimately, that thanksgiving may abound to His glory. The glory of God is also the purpose, ultimately, for all religious activity. It says in Haggai 1.8, Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified, says the Lord.

Haggai 1.8. What he is saying is, I want you to build a temple for me. I want you to be about my business. I want you to be building my kingdom, my house.

This is religious work. This is work dedicated to God. What is its purpose? He says, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified.

God's temple is to be built for His glory. His work is to be done for His glory when we do religious work. Actually, the purpose of answered prayer is also for the glory of God, according to John 14.13. Jesus said, Whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

Notice, Jesus said, If you ask in my name, I will answer your prayer, and I will do it so that the Father will be glorified. Our prayers are answered, not because of our importance, but because of God receiving glory through answered prayer. That is the thing that concerns the true disciple.

Actually, even the ultimate purpose of our trials is the glory of God. In John 9, verses 2-3, when the disciples and Jesus came upon a man who was born blind, and they wondered, why was he born blind? His disciples asked him, saying, Rabbi, meaning Jesus, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? And Jesus answered, Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God could be revealed to him. In other words, he was in this condition so that God's work could be seen, so that God could receive glory in this situation.

The man wasn't being punished for something. His parents weren't being punished for anything they had done. It's just so that people could see God work, and God could receive the glory in the situation.

In John 11, verses 3-4, when Lazarus was sick, his sisters came to Jesus. And in John 11, verses 3-4, it says, Therefore the sisters sent to him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick. And when Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.

Now notice, Lazarus being sick, why was he sick? It was for the glory of God, Jesus said. Now in this case, the glory of God was served by the man dying. He was sick for days, maybe weeks, and then he died.

But when the sisters said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, our brother would not have died. Jesus said to them, Didn't I tell you, if you would believe, you'd see the glory of God. In other words, the man was sick and even died for the glory of God.

In this particular case, God was glorified in raising Lazarus from the dead. Other people have not been raised from the dead, but their deaths could be said to be the glory of God too. Many martyrs have died for the glory of God, and it has brought great fruit to the kingdom of God, great inspiration to people to be strong in the Lord, or even to be converted, because they saw Christians give their lives for Christ.

Our trials, our sicknesses, even our deaths, what is the main purpose served by them? Well, we hope it is the glory of God. We hope that God will be glorified in our lives and our deaths. The glory of God is also the ultimate purpose of the gifts of the Spirit.

The gifts of the Spirit, what are they for? Well, ultimately, they are for the glory of God. In 1 Peter 4.11, Peter said, As each one has received a gift, and this is the ordinary word that Paul also uses for the gifts of the Spirit, charisma, he says, As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God.

If anyone ministers, let him do it as of the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. Notice, if you have a gift of the Spirit, maybe it is a serving gift, maybe it is a speaking gift of some kind, he says, We will do it in such a way that God may be glorified in all things. Because that is what the gifts of the Spirit are for.

Ultimately, that God will be glorified. Everything is for God to be glorified. Even our Christian fruitfulness is for God's glory.

Because it says in John 15, 8, Jesus said, By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, so you will be my disciples. Okay, you will be my disciples if you bear much fruit. But he says, By this my Father is glorified.

If you are a fruit-bearing disciple, it is for the glory of God. God is glorified in it. So, essentially everything is for the glory of God.

Even the second coming of Christ, we sometimes look at the second coming of Christ as the rescue, to rescue us from a hard situation in life. But actually, the Bible indicates that the second coming of Christ, like everything else, is for the glory of God. In 2 Thessalonians 1, 10, it says, When he comes in that day to be glorified in his saints, Jesus is going to come back in that day in order to be glorified.

Everything is that he would be glorified. That's what the church exists for. And by the way, this is something that churches ought to take into consideration because sometimes churches operate like businesses.

And if you ask them, What do they exist for? They might say, Well, we exist to, you know, provide services for the community. Or we exist to get people saved. Or we exist to help the poor, or whatever.

Churches might have a lot of different ideas of what they exist for. But, like everything else, the church exists for the glory of God. That is the purpose of the church.

And every time church leaders get together and say, Are we fulfilling our purpose? They need to say, Well, our purpose here is to glorify God. Is God being glorified in our church? Or maybe is some man being glorified? Or a denomination being glorified? It says in Ephesians 3, and verse 21, Paul says, To him be glory in the church, by Christ Jesus, to all generations, forever and ever. To God be glory in the church.

The church is for God's glory. And so, everything we do is for the glory of God. Paul said that in 1 Corinthians 10, and verse 31.

He said, Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 31. Whatever you do, even what you eat and drink, what he's saying is, everything in life is for the glory of God.

Whether it's the grace we receive, whether it's our prayers being answered, whether it is our trials, whether it is the second coming of Christ, no matter what it is, it exists for, that's the purpose. The purpose of all things is for the glory of God. So Paul says, whatever you do, even in your choices of what you eat and drink, or how much you eat and drink, do it all for the glory of God.

I'd say that, you know, eating and drinking, Paul selects as pretty, what should we say, pretty mundane activities. You know, just ordinary everyday things that you do. Eat, drink, the clothes you wear, you know, that kind of stuff.

The everyday stuff of life, the mundane things, do everything for the glory of God. When you are picking out your wardrobe, when you are deciding what image you're going to put forward, what style you're going to be, what kind of car you're going to drive, what and how much you're going to eat. By the way, in this particular case, Paul's talking about whether people eat meat sacrificed to idols or not, because it will stumble other people.

And he's saying, well, you shouldn't eat it, not because it's in itself necessarily evil to eat it, but because you're stumbling other people, and therefore God is not glorified, ultimately, by you doing that. And you need to be considering what messages are you sending by your lifestyle choices, because whatever they are, they should be done for the glory of God, and not just for some personal desires of your own. Now, the values of a disciple are all going to be, therefore, related to this purpose.

The overarching purpose is to glorify God. So, what specifically will I value in the pursuit of that purpose? One, of course, is to please God more than self. In Galatians 1.10, Paul said, For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.

Paul said, I couldn't be a servant of Christ, I couldn't be a disciple, if I'm still seeking to please men. It's not my place to please men, or myself, but to please Christ. Am I now seeking to please men, or God? Well, it better be God.

And in Colossians 1.10, Paul says, That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him. The way you walk, the way you live, in other words, should be in all respects pleasing to the Lord, may be worthy of the Lord, which is a way that pleases Him. So, pleasing God.

The first concern toward the purpose of God being glorified is that we value those things in life, those circumstances in life, those objects in life, those relationships in our lives, that are pleasing to God. It's the pleasing of God that is the first of these values, more than pleasing ourselves or man. A.W. Tozer, in his editorial that I mentioned earlier, The Marks of a Spiritual Man, he said the first mark of a spiritual man is, he said, The spiritual person desires to be holy, rather than happy.

Now, that's putting it in different words, but it's obviously the same thought I just gave you. To please God, more than to please yourself. To be holy, which pleases God, rather than to be happy, which pleases you.

Being happy means you're pleased. Being holy means God is pleased. Now, Tozer is not suggesting that you can't be both holy and happy.

You can be. Living a holy life can be the most happy of all lives. But the thing is, when we're making decisions about our lives, we often are thinking first about what will make me happy.

Because if that's our value, if we want to please ourselves, then we're going to be thinking what will make me happy, what's conducive to my happiness. Many times, if we make that our object, then we will not choose the thing that is really consistent with holiness. If our first instance is, well, what will please God, not me? What will be the holy thing to do? What will be the thing pleasing to God? Then we will find, I believe, that being holy also makes us happy.

You can be holy and happy, but only as you desire to be holy, rather than happy. You find that happiness is a sort of a side benefit. There's a poster that the hippies had back in the 70s.

I saw something like, I can't quote it exactly, but I saw it in a number of people's houses over the years, so I do remember it. It had a picture, I think, of a butterfly, and it said, happiness is like a butterfly. It said, if you pursue it, it may stay always just beyond your reach.

But if you sit quietly, it may come and land on your shoulder. Now, that's sort of a humanistic, hippie way of looking at things, but it's still not too far from the truth. If you're pursuing happiness, it'll stay always outside your reach.

But if you pursue something else, if you ignore the pursuit of happiness, you may find that happiness comes and lights on your shoulder after all. You'll find that if you give up the pursuit of happiness, and begin the pursuit of holiness, that you may be surprised to find how happy you end up being in the pursuit of holiness. Because, after all, if you are not holy, whatever happiness you have will be tainted by problems with your conscience.

And a poor conscience is very much not conducive to happiness. So, the spiritual person, Tozer says, desires to be holy rather than happy. So, as I have put it, to please God more than self, or more than man, is the first value.

The second value that I'd like to identify would be to value eternal things above temporal things. Now, this only makes sense if you have the choice between a disposable thing and something that is permanent. Let's say a paper plate, or a paper cup.

On the one hand. And, you know, one that is made to be used and discarded. Or, between something durable.

Let's say you are trying to set up a household. You are newly married, and you don't have much stuff, so you go shopping. What are you going to buy for your flatware, or whatever, you know? Are you going to buy paper plates? Or are you going to buy corralware? One thing nice about corralware is that it doesn't break easily.

It'll last. It's durable. You know that you can have lots of meals on that plate, and only one meal on the paper plate.

That which lasts longer is obviously more valuable, and you're going to spend more money on the corralware than you do on the paper plate. Because it's worth more. And it's only understandable that you buy a Toyota or a Honda instead of... Well, I don't want to name some cars, because someone here might drive them.

But Hondas and Toyotas have a reputation for going, you know, 300,000 miles before they die. A lot of cars don't. You may pay a little extra money for one, but that's because they're more valuable.

You see them as longer-lasting. The benefit of that purchase is going to be more enduring. Now, that's just in material things.

When it comes to valuing things that are the things for your life, eternal things are obviously infinitely more valuable than things that are not eternal. And so, the disciple informed by God's Spirit and by the Word of God will always know that the things that are eternal are more to be desired than the things that are temporal or that are temporary. In 2 Corinthians 4, verses 17 and 18, Paul said, "...for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.

For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal." Paul said, "...the things we have our sights set upon," the things we value, in other words, "...are the things that are unseen rather than the things that are seen." Why? Well, it's quite simple. The things you can see are the things that are temporary, that pass away. The things that are unseen, the spiritual things, those are eternal, and that's why we value those.

That's why we focus on those instead. Matthew 16, 26, Jesus said, "...for what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?" Matthew 16, 26. What profit is it? What have you gained of value if you gain the whole world, which is that which is seen, but you lose your own soul, which is that which is not seen? To value the things that are eternal rather than the things that are temporal is the right value system for a disciple to adopt.

Tozer put it this way in his editorial. He said, "...the spiritual person habitually judges things in the light of eternity." Habitually judges things in the light of eternity. That's what spiritual thinking is.

You want to be renewed in the spirit of your mind and have values that are pleasing and sensible for a disciple to have. Then, make eternity-based judgments. When you're trying to decide what to invest your time and your money and your life in, say, well, is this thing that I could invest my life in, is that eternal? Or is it temporary? If I have the choice, I'd rather invest in something eternal rather than something temporary.

If you have a certain amount of money and you want to invest it in some company with the hope that you will make some money on it, you're going to want to try to pick a company that's going to be around for a while. If someone says, well, there's a start-up company over here, but they don't have any funding and they're deep in debt, and there's a 50% chance that they'll be gone by this time next year, well, you don't want to invest in them because they're not long-term investments. They won't pay off long-term.

But if you invest in, you know, Microsoft or Apple or Disneyland or Coca-Cola, you know, they're going to be around for a while. I'm not saying you should invest now. I'm simply saying that people value, people will invest in things that they see as having long-term value rather than temporary.

And that's what Tozer says. A spiritual person habitually judges things in light of eternity, or as I put it, you simply value the eternal above the temporary. Let's look at another value of the disciple.

To esteem others above self. To put others above self. To treat others as if they're more valuable than you.

Now, they aren't. People are not, you know, nobody is more valuable than you are. There's no sense in pretending that, you know, you're just the scum and everybody else is better than you.

That's not what it's talking about. It's talking about treating people as if they are more valuable than you. Why? Because it pleases God for you to put others ahead of yourself.

That is essentially what we're tested in in this life. Will we put others ahead of ourselves or will we put ourselves first? In the story of the Good Samaritan, of course, the two men who would not help the afflicted man, the priest and the Levite, they were looking out for themselves. They didn't help him.

The Samaritan took pains, took danger upon himself, took inconvenience and expense upon himself to help another man. Jesus said that's what you need to do. Love your neighbor as you love yourself.

Go and do likewise like that man did, Jesus said. So, you put others' interests and needs above your own. Now, it's not because they really are more valuable, but it's good for you.

It's good for you in terms of pleasing God, bringing glory to God, for you to serve others rather than to serve yourself. And so, Paul said in Philippians 2, verses 3 and 4, Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind. Let each esteem others better than himself.

Now, what's that mean? Do I really think they're better than me? Well, some people are better than me, and some aren't. But we should always esteem others better than ourselves in this way. He says, Let each of you look not out only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

This is how you are to esteem others better than yourself, by looking out for their interests, not just your own interests. That's Philippians 2, verses 3 and 4. There's a similar verse in Romans 12 and verse 10. Romans 12, 10.

Paul said, Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another. In honor giving preference to one another. It means you defer to other people.

You prefer them above yourself. You prefer their interests above your own interests. This is what Jesus did.

If you want to be like Jesus, he certainly put others ahead of himself. He died so that we could live. He became poor so we could be rich.

He became what we are so that we become what he is. That's Jesus' value. He put others above himself and that's what we are to do also if we are to be like him.

Now Tozer had something to say along these lines also. Let me find what he said. He said the spiritual person wants to see others advance at his expense.

You can see that's essentially the same thing I was saying. To esteem others above self. Tozer says the spiritual person wants to see others advance at his expense.

If I'm a spiritual person, if I'm a disciple who values spiritual things, then I will prefer to see you advance even if it costs me. Why? Because that's Christ-like and being Christ-like is what I value. Because God is glorified in Christ.

When Jesus gave his life for us, that glorified his Father. And when I'm told to be like him, that's how I will glorify God. By putting another above myself.

That's what the Bible says. And that is the next value. The fourth value I'd like to advocate is to prefer suffering, maybe even in death, for righteousness sake, rather than prolonging your life by compromising.

Remember, I quoted Thomas who said something like, it is vain to care about a long life and then be unconcerned about a well-lived life. This is really kind of the same idea here. You should rather suffer and die, if necessary, in order to remain righteous.

To have a well-lived life. You'd rather do that than to prolong your life by compromising. By compromising your righteousness, that is.

There are many times when Christians have been in the position to either deny their faith, or their convictions, or die. We think of, of course, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who were told if they don't bow down to an idol they'll be thrown in the fiery furnace. They would prefer to die than to compromise.

Daniel was in the same mindset. He was told he could not pray to any god except for the king Darius, for a period of, I think it was 30 days. But if he did pray to God, he would be thrown into a den of lions, obviously risking his life.

He valued, he didn't value the length of his life as much as he valued a well-lived life. Praying to God was part of his obligations, he felt. And so, he valued that more than he valued to live long.

That's how a disciple thinks. Jesus said, he that would seek to save his life will lose it. He means by that, if you seek to prolong your life by doing the wrong thing, then you will lose your life.

But he that will lose his life for my sake shall find it to life everlasting, Jesus said. That's in Matthew 16 verses 24 and 25. So, that value is to preferred suffering and death if necessary for righteousness sake.

To the option of prolonging your life by compromising your righteousness. Tozer had something that corresponds to that too in his book. He said, the spiritual person would rather die right than live wrong.

Like I said, Tozer says these things more briefly, more succinctly than I do. And basically, it's the same idea. The spiritual person would rather die right than live wrong.

Better to die righteous than to live displeasing to God. And the final value I'd like to suggest is that the disciple must value the truth above all worldly things. That means that he wants to know the truth.

And if necessary, he'll sacrifice anything he has to for it. Now, you might say, well, what do you have to sacrifice for the truth? Truth is kind of just a, you know, I mean, who's going to bother you if you pursue the truth? Lots of people may. Because the truth may lie along different lines than what the culture or even the denomination we attend or our neighbors or anyone else may think.

The government might think a certain way and the truth lies along a different way. And by pursuing truth, you can get yourself persecuted. You can get yourself killed.

You can lose friends. You can lose position. There's a lot to be lost if you value the truth above all worldly things.

However, Proverbs 23 23, Solomon says, buy the truth and do not sell it. Buy the truth. He doesn't say how much it'll cost because it doesn't matter how much it costs.

You have to buy it. You have to buy it no matter how expensive it is. Because there's nothing more worth having than the truth.

He said, buy the truth and don't sell it. And that, in those short clauses, he's saying you must obtain the truth at whatever cost and do not part with it for any price. Don't sell it for anything.

Lots of people will sell out the truth in order to be accepted in a certain group of people or to retain their job or to avoid persecution or to pay less taxes or something else. People will lie. People will defect from what they know is true in order to get something out of it or in order to avoid something negative that they would get if they stood firm by the truth.

Jesus said in John 17, 17 as he was praying to his father, sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. So, the disciple values the word of God because it is truth.

And we know that a disciple is defined by someone who continues in Jesus' words. So, a great value the disciple has is the word of God because the truth of God is in it. We value the truth and in the word of God we find the truth.

And so we value the words of God. In Psalm 19, verses 7 through 10, David said, more to be desired are they than gold. Yea, than much fine gold.

What are they? He's talking about the commandments and the statutes, the words of God, the revealed word of God. He's talking about the law of God, which is his Bible. He says, these statutes and sayings and testimonies of God, they're more to be desired than gold is.

And they're sweeter also than honey in the honeycomb. The two things that really motivate many people are wealth and pleasure. Honey in the honeycomb is sort of an emblem of physical pleasure.

It's pleasure to the palate. And he says, it's, the words of God are sweeter than honey and more valuable than gold. So, the things that motivate most people may be riches and pleasure, but he says, I'm motivated by something else.

My love for God's word is greater than for gold or for pleasure. In Job 23, 12, Job said, I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. Job 23, 12.

The words of God's mouth, he valued more than his necessary food. Jeremiah 15, 16. Jeremiah said, your words were found and I ate them and your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart, for I'm called by your name, O Lord.

Jeremiah 15, 16. I found your words, I ate them and they were delicious to me. They were the joy of my heart.

Why? Because I value your words. In John 6, verses 67 and 68, Jesus said to the twelve, do you also want to go away? This is when a lot of the crowd abandoned Jesus because of his hard sayings that he preached. And he said to his disciples, do you want to go away too? But Simon Peter answered him and said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

In other words, these people have left because they didn't like the hard words and the commitment you're calling for. Well, we may not like it either, but what else can we do? We're putting your words first. You have the words of eternal life, so we can't leave you.

No matter what it costs us to stay with you, we have to stay with you because you're the only source of the words that we crave and the words that we value. The words of eternal life, said Peter. John 6, verses 67 and 68.

So, we know that a disciple is defined as one, as Jesus said, who continues in his words. John 8, verse 31, told us that. And therefore, a chief value of a disciple is the truth, which is in the word of God.

And so, we value the word of God, the scriptures. A.W. Tozer, in his editorial, said this interesting thing. He said, if I can have either truth or happiness, give me truth.

I will have all eternity in which to be happy. Isn't that good? If I can have truth or happiness, that means maybe I'd be happier believing some happy lie. Some things that aren't true would make me happier to believe than believing the things that are true at times.

The truth is sometimes sad. Sometimes it condemns what I'm doing. The truth sometimes requires me to change in ways I don't want to change.

Well, what if following the truth impinges on my happiness? Tozer said, well then, if I can only have the truth or happiness, give me the truth now. I'll have happiness in eternity. Would you rather have happiness in the short term or happiness in eternity? Tozer had it right.

This is the true values of a disciple. I'll take the truth now. Happiness can wait, if necessary.

So, in summary, let me summarize all that we've said, because we're done here. There is a need for a radical re-evaluation of our value system. And we need to correctly and honestly identify what our present values are, so we can know whether they need to be improved on or replaced.

How do we know what our default values are, the ones we already have? Well, see where your elective money is being spent. See where your elective time is being invested. What do you desire for your children? Check that out.

That's what you value. You want the best for them. You want at least what you think is best for them, and so what you want for them will show you what you think is best.

Also, what will you sacrifice other things for? Those will tell you what your present values are. But what are the chief values of the disciple? Well, remember the chief purpose of all things is to glorify God. So, the things we value will be the things that serve that purpose.

The first, I suggested, is to please God more than self or man. The second, is to value the eternal above the temporal. The third would be to esteem others above yourself.

The fourth would be to prefer to suffer and die if necessary for righteousness rather than to prolong your life by compromise. And the fifth value would be to value the truth above all worldly things. And that is the end of my list.

There are probably sub-points under each of these that a person can fill in for himself. It's not my desire to say everything. It's up to the Holy Spirit to, of course, fill in any blanks.

But these are the directions we need to be looking. Do I really value the things of man or the things of God? Remember Jesus said to Peter, you are a fence to me because you are mindful of the things of man, not the things of God. And Jesus said that the things that are highly esteemed among men are an abomination to God.

So these are the things that we need to be aware of. That the things that actually help us to bring glory to God are the things that are of value. The things that have temporal value are of very little value, might even be an abomination to God.

And if they are, then they should be an abomination to us as well.