It is often hard to perceive the creep of our culture and its expectations over us. Most of those influences can simply be neutral, but occasionally we are blinded into sinful behavior that has been justified as culturally righteous.
Definitions:
- Healthy Striving: the earnest exertion of effort toward a goal, defined and controlled by God — often involving perseverance and discipline in the pursuit of something good or meaningful
- Sinful Striving: the forced, self-reliant effort to achieve worth, set and meet outcomes, or secure identity apart from trust in God – often involving envy, an unbalanced work-life, and vain pursuits
Observations & Conclusions:
- Sinful striving deceives you from what is best
- Sinful striving distances you from Jesus
- Sinful striving will divide by judgmentalism
- Sinful striving will damage your heart
- Sinful striving demands your plans above God’s
Application:
- Identify and present your motivations to God; to be controlled by Him
- Find your joy and rest in Jesus as Lord
John Piper, Future Grace
“Sin is what you do when your heart is not satisfied with God. No one sins out of duty. We sin because it holds out some promise of happiness.”
John 12:1-3
“Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”
Ecclesiastes 10:10 – NLT
“Using a dull ax requires great strength, so sharpen the blade. That’s the value of wisdom; it helps you succeed.”
Matthew 6:24
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
Luke 15:25-32
“Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
Proverbs 15:16
“Better a little with the fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoil.”
Proverbs 16:3
“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.”
James 4:13-15
“Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
Proverbs 3:5-6
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
Matthew 11:28-30
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Philippians 3:7-11 NET
“But these assets I have come to regard as liabilities because of Christ. More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things—indeed, I regard them as dung!—that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness—a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness. My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”