Toward the beginning of the book he lists out several problems that the emerging church crowd has with the traditional churches. The problems listed are legitimate concerns and I don’t think anyone, even in the traditional church camp, would disagree. The trouble that the traditional church has, Belcher says, is with the emerging church’s answers to these problems. So the rest of the book follows a similar pattern: Problem, emerging church answer, traditional church pushing back on that answer, how the deep church should think about things.

I really enjoyed the book, myself. It challenged a lot of my views and helped me understand the emerging church a little better. I crave the type of biblical community he lays out in the first chapter as well. The book was well written and easy to follow. I actually listened to the audio version, which was very well read. I would definitely recommend this book, especially to those of us who know something is missing in some of our traditional, bible-belt churches, and want an answer that doesn’t compromise the Gospel we believe.

This letter is written to encourage believers in times of trial.  The author is letting us know that there is rest for our soul in God through Christ (Heb. 4:1), but sin and deceit will try to creep in and harden our heart, pulling us away from God and His rest.  I love the depth and practicality of this section (3:7 – 4:13).  He tells us to find and remain in that rest.  We know that the only way to have rest in God is through Christ and the grace and mercy He shows us in salvation.  But, sin in our lives can harden our hearts and pull us away from that rest.  The author will give us a few ways we can remain in that rest.  I have chosen the three ways that I see most clearly.

1. “Take care brothers…”  Take care of yourself!  Check yourself out.  Like Paul says “examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith”.  Pray, ask God to reveal to you if there is any area of your life where you are walking in sin.  Then take an honest look at you life (thoughts, actions, speech, etc.), repent and walk in the truth.
2. “But exhort one another every day…”  Neither of these are suggestions.  They are commands.  You are your brother’s keeper.  It is our responsibility, if we see one of our fellow believers wondering about in sin, to lead them back to the place of rest for their soul.  There are two large ditches on the sides of this road though.  You have the non-confrontational coward (which I have to battle in my life), who doesn’t say anything and hides behind the mask of “well, I don’t want them to think I’m judging them or I’m better than them”.  And you have the proud referee who goes around blowing the whistle telling everyone else to get right because they “have this thing figured out” and they’re just being God’s little helper.  If we truly love our brothers and sisters, like the Word tells us to, it would be unloving to just sit back and watch them drown in their sin.  Exhort means to encourage.  We should prayerfully, lovingly, gently (at first) show them, in the Bible, where they are wrong and ask them to repent and return to rest in God.  If they do not, then lovingly proceed with Mt. 18:15-20 in hopes that brokenness will lead to repentance.  We need each other, that’s just the way He set things up!
3. “For the Word of God is living and active…”  Read the Word!  Simple, I know, but most of the times we find ourselves in the “wilderness” it’s because we have followed our own directions.  When you read the Bible, read it in such a way that you allow it to read you.  Allow it to cut and carve away wrong thoughts, motives, doctrines, actions, etc.  Don’t pray and ask God to “fix” you and then not do what He says.  Lay your life on top of the Word of God and see where it doesn’t line up.

Heart = Inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding.  i.e. The real us.  The part of us
that no one sees or hears, but we know what’s there.  It’s more than just affections (love) it includes your thoughts, desires, convictions, emotions, etc…

I.Why the heart?

• The Bible mentions the word heart in 875 different verses with hundreds of others referencing the mind, will, or emotions.  (ESV)  So it must be of some importance to God.

A.  Jesus is after our hearts!

• If you look through the Gospels, you will see that God cares much more about our hearts than He does our outward displays of religion.
• The story of the rich young ruler who had done everything right since his youth.  Jesus tells him to sell everything revealing this man’s true god: wealth, power, influence.  (Lk 18)
• He tells His disciples if they do not hate their own families in regards to their love for Him, they are not worthy to follow Him.  (Lk 14)
• When people are questioning Him about the Law, He takes each commandment a step further than the OT does and makes each one a heart issue (adultery = lust of the heart, murder = hating someone, etc. Mt 5:22 – 29).
• Think about it:  What we truly believe (convictions) in our heart guides everything we say and do (Mt 12:34-35).  The book of 1 John also hits this repeatedly.
• It’s not that God doesn’t care about our physical actions, He does and discipline and consequences will result from those outward sins, but He is much more interested in why we do what we do because the outside is merely a reflection of what’s going on inside.
• He is not after our “begrudging submission” to a set of rules and laws…  That’s what He came to set us free from!  I mean how would my wife feel if I said “Well she doesn’t really turn me on anymore and I would probably be happier with some one else, but I made a commitment and I’m a man of my word”?
• Most times when Christ passionately pursues our hearts we do something that looks like this:  We agree to do more or less of a particular thing (More Bible reading,  pray more, stop watching certain movies, listening to more praise music, stop listening to secular music, go to church more, do more at church, etc.) in order to get God to leave our hearts alone because it’s hard work and it hurts when we start dealing with the real, deep issues.

B.  The enemy is also after our hearts!

• He is prowling around looking for someone whom he may destroy (1 Pet 5:8)

• When we think about the devil coming after us, we tend to think that he is coming with some kind of oppression or trial or some kind of physical temptation.  I think those do occur, but I also think his best work is “unseen”. It takes place when he tries to work on our attitudes, and thought life.
• This is why Peter is telling the church to be aware of and watchful for the enemy.  He’s not warning them about some suffering that is headed their way.  They and others were already suffering (and according to ch.4:19 it is God who is allowing them to suffer).  Peter is warning them of the enemy’s attacks on their mind, will, and emotions (heart).  Warning them not to lose trust, hope, or faith and fall into some form of pride.

II.Sin and the heart.

• Sin = Anything (though, action, attitude) that does not express or conform to the holy character of God.
• When we hear “thought, action, and attitude we immediately think about the negative end of the scale.

1. Thoughts – Lustful thoughts, road rage thoughts, prideful thoughts, etc.
2. Actions – Adultery, murder, punching that guy in the throat that just cut you off in traffic, etc.
3. Attitudes – Disrespectful, saying things in a wrong tone, etc

• We tend to forget about other sins we commit through these avenues.

1. Thoughts – Selfishness in non-moral things that are not sinful in and of themselves, but will consume us if we let them.
2. Actions – Doing or not doing something in order to keep your family safe when God has told you to do something that seems dangerous.
3. Attitudes – Being overly passive when God has called you to confront a brother or sister about a certain issue in their lives, just so you can “keep the peace”.

A.  Condition of the heart.

• Our hearts are dark, wicked, deceitful places and without the regeneration of our souls by Christ and the overcoming-power of the Holy Spirit we remain slaves to our hearts and have to obey the wickedness.  (Mk 7:14-23)

Turning point in my life is when I realized this.  It was one of the most freeing, difficult thing I think I’ve ever learned.  To really understand that the reason I couldn’t get over certain issues was because I have an evil heart that wars against all that is godly and I had set up idols in my life that were causing me to act out in a certain way.  The thing that resonated with me the most and was the hardest to hear was when I was sharing with a friend of mine what I was going through and I said that I thought I was a godly man who just happened to sin, his words to me were ‘I think you’re worse off than you think you are’.  Then he said he was worse off than he though he was as well.  Then he explained to me my heart issue.  You see the heart by nature is deceptive and will also deceive us if we let it.  That’s why if we see something repeatedly in scripture and it just doesn’t “feel” right to us, we must conform our hearts to God’s Word.

• Sin = misplaced worship.

B.  The 2 Great Temptations.

• “Temptations to sin are sure to come…”  (Lk 17:1)
• When we talk about temptation most people tend to think about some immoral action we are drawn to do.  We rarely talk about the temptations on the heart level.
• There are many ways and temptations to sin, but all can be boiled down to one of two root sins:  Pride or Idolatry.
• That’s why it is ridiculous to try and “fix” some problem or sin externally.
• Dealing with externals without addressing the heart is the equivalent to mowing your yard to get rid of the weeds.  It all looks good for like 2 days…  It would also be like treating some internal cancer with a band aide.

1.Idolatry.

• Taking something other than God and making it ultimate in your life.
• It is usually something that is morally neutral if not a morally positive thing.
• No matter what it is, this thing now runs your life.  It controls your thoughts, will and emotions, not God.

2.Pride.

• We make our own god or we make ourselves god.

• We won’t come right out and say this of course because that would be heresy, but we read things in God’s word and we don’t like what He asks us to do or don’t believe God would be that way, so we do our own thing.

• Pride also comes in other forms.  It’s not just haughtiness and bragging, but also attitudes like self-pity – deep down you think that God owes you something and somehow He has wronged you.

C.  2 Kinds of Temptation.

1.Internal.

• It just wells up from within (check the extensive list found in Mark 7:21-23) from our own evil desires.

2.External.

• Someone  brings it to us.  It could also come from one of two areas.

1.From without – outside the family of God.

• When we got saved we all had those friends we knew we should not be around.  They would always say “Oh you don’t have to do the things we do, we just like hanging out with you.”  The next morning you wake up on the in a strange house with aluminum foil on the windows and some strange animal smell, not knowing how you got there or how you will get home.  Or maybe that was just me.

2.From within – People inside the church teaching different gospels.

• The greatest damage ever done to the church was not some kind of religious persecution from evil rulers or dictators.  But rather from gifted, charismatic teachers who taught heretical gospels and led thousands and thousands astray.

III.  What are we to do?

• We have a few options when it comes to working on our heart.

1. Do Nothing – “All my sins, past, present, & future are forgiven” = Worldly
2. Do Nothing – Overwhelmed at how much there is to do = Apathy
3. Be Moral – Doing without being (no intimacy with God) = Prideful/Legalistic
4. Be Christian – Intimacy with God reveals areas of our life that He will give us the power to work on. = Godly

A.  God’s Part.

• Sanctification has to start with Him which is why legalism and pride are so goofy sounding.
• He gives us the desire to do good and gives us the power and strength to do it! (Phil 2:13)

B.  Our Part.

• I’m very hesitant to give a 1-2-3 list here because I’m afraid we would take it and create a formula and checklist for pursuing God and living holy.  Then we are right back in the boat of legalism.  I will tell you what the Bible has to say about it though.  My prayer is that God begins to reveal things to you even as you hear these things!
• “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”
• Prov. 4:23 (ESV)   NIV says “guard your heart”
• The word picture here is to build fortified walls around and set guards to watch over from the walls.
• Romans 8:13 “…by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body…”
• We work with God in the process of sanctification.  It’s kind of like pedaling a bike.  One pedal goes sown as the other comes up and both propel the bike. Not that our role in this is equal to God’s, I’m just trying to use flawed human logic to communicate how this happens.
• He reveals our need, gives us the desire to fix it, gives us the strength to fix it. Then we, using His strength… “Work out our salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12)
• WWII was over the day our troops secured the beaches of Normandy, but we still had to fight through to Germany.
• Israel and the Promised Land – God basically said ‘It’s yours, now go fight for it.  I’ll be with you as you fight.’
• (2 Tim 2:1-7) The hard working farmer is still dependent on God for rain.
• One of my favorite parables: Mt 13:44.

C.  Our prayers.

• God give me eyes to see and ears to hear what you are truly showing me through your Spirit and you Word.
• God give me knowledge and wisdom of your will and the schemes of the devil.
• God, give me strength to do what you’re calling me to do.
• God, your will be done.

It’s really no wonder that the smallest demographic for church attendance is 18-35 year old males.  They are being confused by culture and not pursued by the church, because they may be a little too rough around the edges for our own comfort.  Younger men, such as myself, live in a world that is constantly inundating them with the wrong ideas on manhood:  ‘The more chicks the better’ ‘More money’ ‘More stuff’ ‘Better stuff’ ‘More fun’ ‘No responsibilities’.  I know, I was one of them and battle it everyday still.  So what you end up with is a bunch of over grown boys who don’t know how to commit or lead and a church that is impotent and lacking in solid biblical leadership.  I’m not slamming every church, I love the church, I’m just playing the statistics.  I’m also not slamming women nor am I a sexist.  God has completely created men and women equal (Gen. 1:27, 31; Acts 2:17–18; 8:12; Gal. 3:28; 1 Pet. 3:7), but given us different roles ( 1 Cor. 11:3; Col. 3:18–19; Titus 2:5; 1 Pet. 3:1–7).  I would not be the man I am if God had not sent my beautiful wife into my life!  However, the Bible specifically states that the home and the church were designed to have male leadership or headship.  Contrasting of men’s and women’s biblical roles is for another blog all together though.

It’s time for our young men to step up into the roles they have been called, lovingly leading their families and the church.  Even as you read this some of you are thinking to yourself “That’s right, they need to do something”.  But consider this, how are they to know what to do or how to do it?  I’m still learning every day, but without a loving, supportive, patient, submissive wife, solid biblical teaching, and other men in my life that are willing to pour into me and call me out when I’m wrong… I’m just another overgrown boy.

Our older and or spiritually more mature men need to be doing more in an effort to reach out to a hurting generation of men who really do desire someone to show them what true manhood really is.  Leadership is not rocket science, but it is work… Constant work!  It’s not something we can fully grasp on our own either.  We need each other!  God help us as we try to become the men you have called us to be!