Reformation > Experience
Stop Pursuing Emotional Experience, Start Seeking Real Sanctification
Recently, I found myself meditating on Luke 9, where three of the disciples—Peter, James, and John—were with Jesus when he was transfigured on the mountaintop. Peter wants to keep that moment forever by building three tabernacles so that Moses, Elijah, and Jesus can stay there. He is overwhelmed by the experience and wants this mountaintop experience to last.
But God corrects Peter when he says, "This is My beloved Son, Hear Him!" God wanted the disciples to base their lives on Christ's Words, not simply a mountaintop experience.
Years later, Peter remembered that event in 2 Peter 1 and warned his readers that it is easy to be distracted by what is good from something that is best. Peter recognized that he had an incredible experience witnessing the transfiguration, he states, "And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain" (1:18). But he continues on to say, "We have a more sure word of prophecy, which you do well to heed" (1:19).
Don't miss what Peter is stating. The Apostle says that the Scriptures are infinitely more sure than any experience.
In a nutshell, this is God's call to not pursue experiences but rather to be transformed by renewing our minds through the Scriptures (Rom. 12:2). Sadly, so many in evangelicalism can get caught up in experience. In contrast, real reformation in the church is always characterized by Christians going back to the Bible and living a life of holiness according to God's Word.
One of the New Testament's chief concerns is to declare the authority of the Word of God and the application of the principles found in them.
Consider how the Apostle Paul, in the book of Titus, points to preachers, elders, the older generation, the younger generation, men, women, and so on, and he says, "This is how you are to live according to the scriptures. This is how we impact the island of Crete and make the gospel attractive." The Apostle’s Peter, James, and John do exactly the same - take the absolute truth of scripture, and apply them to everyday living.
There is a critical need for reformation in our day. However, if we are honest, the greatest enemy to reformation is not evil in the world outside of the church but experience-seekers inside the church. Especially in my context, the Deep South Bible Belt, one of the greatest enemies of real reformation is counterfeit emotionalism within the church. People in the evangelical church might call it “revival,” but Biblical revival brings individuals and churches back to the scriptures and calls them to obedience.
Sadly, what goes for “revival” today actually turns people against the real thing—holiness in living. Revivalism makes Christians long for things like emotional highs, intense worship, and flamboyant preaching that give them an adrenaline rush and chills. And many look to these things as evidence of God's presence in their midst.
But the scriptures point to something different. God's Word points to holiness displayed in the mundane of everyday life. They point to living in Christlikeness in every facet of our lives. Admittedly, God's people's tough slogging through the muddy fields of life isn't as glamorous as mountaintop experiences, but it's at the heart of what true revival and reformation are all about.
Many people want to celebrate the reoccurring high of emotionalism, but is there anything to celebrate if Christians aren't living the truths of Scripture out by the power of the Holy Spirit?
Revivalism and emotionalism in the church isn't a new problem. In fact, many of the Old Testament prophets dealt with these same issues. Isaiah and Ezekiel all had people who experienced the kinds of things that we see today, and God told them it wasn't revival. In fact, God said that their intense, new, and enthusiastic worship was actually a stench in His nostrils (Is. 65:5).
In Isaiah 1, God described the people's fancy and enthusiastic worship services and said, "My soul hates [it]... I am weary of bearing them." Why? Why would God not want such praise? He said, "I cannot endure iniquity...Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow."
In other words, God rejected their revivalism and wanted genuine reformation. God saw these emotional mountaintops, but he didn't see any newness of heart or people practicing righteous living.
In Ezekiel 33:30-33 the people love to come to worship, they love to hear the preaching of Ezekiel, they are intense in their emotional commitment to God, they are excitedly telling each other, "Please come and hear what the word is that comes from the LORD" (v. 30). What preacher wouldn't be thrilled with that. Ezekiel was, at least for a while, but God told Ezekiel not to get excited. He told Ezekiel that it wasn't a genuine revival or reformation. God complains:
"So they come to you as people do, they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain.
Indeed you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words but do not do them" (Ez. 33:31-32).
In other words, God is saying that He is not interested in emotionalism at all. He is interested in transformed lives.
How many have tasted Lucky Charms cereal? That cereal has the jingle, "Lucky Charms. They're magically delicious." How many here actually like Lucky Charms? It's pretty sweet. It gives you a quick sugar high. It must take magic to make sugarcoated styrofoam taste good. But, admittedly, there is something about the packaging that makes it all seem so great. Context, packaging, expectations, and sugar highs can make a powerful impact on people's lives.
I think that it is packaging, context, and proverbial sugar highs that have made some people believe they are experiencing God; all the while, they are not. We live in a Christian culture that markets shallow sugarcoated styrofoam so effectively through churches that people feel like they are missing out if they have not had certain emotional rushes. They feel sub-Christian because they have not experienced the emotionalism that their friends, who attended the latest community "revival," are talking about. On the other hand, there might be those who feel like all is well with their soul because they have tasted the sweetness of an emotional high, but they aren't paying attention to God's admonition – "This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!"
What evangelicalism needs is fewer people seeking emotionalism and more people sitting under the authority of God's Word. We need Christians who don't prize mountaintop experiences but treasure the reading and preaching of the Bible (Psalm 19:10). Yet evangelicalism is full of people who flagrantly ignore God's Word but feel a false sense of assurance because they are living from one emotional high to the next.
The scriptures are not interested in a church's constant search for emotionalism. God desires something much more than that. He wants men and women, boys and girls, who walk in holiness. This is how the church leads in a true culture-changing reformation.