The Table Video

John Coe (philosopher and theologian at Biola’s Institute for Spiritual Formation) comments on the struggles of human desire in the process of spiritual and psychological transformation.

Transcript:

Thanks for clicking on this video from The Table Conference on the topic of Mind Your Heart. In this video, you’ll be hearing from Dr. John Coe. He will be addressing the topic of Desire. He’ll be talking about how temptation and the will are involved in spiritual formation, giving a depth understanding of the human person.

I want you to begin with prayer just for a moment, but you can keep your hand up while we pray. [crowd laughing] Father, we do come to You, we wanna open our heart to You. What I would ask you to do is, right now, to share with the Lord what is one of the deepest desires you have? Just kind of open your heart, what is it you really want in the most basic way and share that with the Lord. Oh God, God, I don’t want to worry anymore.

God, I wish you would just take my worry away. God, I’m so tired of being angry. God, could you just, could you just take that away? God, I wished I loved You more. God, I wished I would pray more than I do. Now, these are the passionate and strong desires, everyone here has had those.

I’m a pastor in a church and I hear my members and they have those desires and they’re strong and they’re passionate but here’s what I want us to be mindful of. I want you also to hear in those desires the weakness of them. I want you to hear in those desires the potential past failures and regrets and frustrations because often those are the desires that we have that really reflect something opposite in our soul.

And the one who’s been around in the church a few times recognizes, yes, I have those desires, but they come out of failure. And so I’d like you to just read the handout with me. I’ll be reading it, you can follow along, ’cause I want us to think about these things. And so I wanna talk about desire and transformation. And the question I’m thinking about is Lord, how could spiritual transformation be so difficult and so slow even when I desire it so badly? Or maybe another way of putting this is God, how is it that a believer can know what is good and desire it so much and yet so deeply struggle with that same thing?

Why can’t our desires just win the day? Why can’t our strong deepest desires just make it happen? I mean wouldn’t it be wonderful if, let’s say, you struggled with anger and you heard a sermon in Colossians 3, Paul says put away anger. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just sit there and go, “God, Lord, I really desire “this anger to be gone.” Boom! Whoa! It’s gone! [crowd laughing] Wouldn’t that be amazing? Or those of you who struggle with worry. You hear a sermon, Philippians 4, be anxious for nothing.

And your desire is God, that is what I desire. Boom! It happens. You never worry again. According to the apostle Paul, that probably is not going to happen, that’s a fantasy. You know what fascinates me about dedicated Christians ’cause that’s where I’m around, I’m around Talbot, Biola, Rosemead, these are the dedicated neurotic, right? [crowd laughing] What fascinates me about dedicated Christians is that most of us do not intend to sin. You really have to think about that.

That just for most, they don’t will it, it’s not something that they really, on the surface, want. I mean you have to think about that. How many of you wake up in the morning and say, “Lord, you know what I wanna do today? “I really want to worry. “That’s what I wanna do.” Or, “Lord, I really wanna get angry at my wife.” Now, how many of you do that? If you do, Rosemead Counseling Center. [crowd laughs] No, most of you, it’s the opposite. God, I don’t want to worry. God, I don’t want to be angry. God, I wanna pray more.

And then as you go through the day, all of a sudden, poof, God, there’s the anger again. Poof, God, there’s the worry again. I’m not praying through the day. God, what’s wrong with me? So in B, just reading with the handout here. How has the church come to understand this problem? You know, Luther, when he talked about unbelievers he called the Bondage of the Will but when he talked about believers, he talked about the Weakness of the Will.

The ancients, Aristotle, Plato, Jerome, Augustine, they had another name, it was called incontinence. Now that’s not a bladder problem. [crowd laughing] They used the word as kind of a moral bladder problem. And here was the incontinent person. Think about this. This is somebody who knows the good. They know what’s good. They desire the good. They choose it, they say, “I’m gonna do it.” It’s in their will. And then they don’t do the good. Wow, they don’t do it.

So I think of my habits with snacking. God, I know it is not good to eat the cake. I know it. And I mean the cake. [crowd laughing] And, Lord, I desire not to eat the cake. I don’t want to keep growing. [crowd laughing] I am not gonna eat the cake. There’s the decision and the will. And then all of a sudden, at 11 o’clock at night, the telltale crumbs are all over my mouth. I ate the cake! Or I can imagine a father who’s really working on patience.

God, I don’t wanna be impatient. He’s memorizing text. He desires not to be impatient. He wants to be patient. He’s listening to Christian music coming home. He’s feeling good, he’s in the groove. He’s patient. He comes home, the wife opens the door says, “Take the kids, they’re driving me crazy.” And so he’s taking the kids. Stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it. Stop it! Aah! What happened? He knew the good. He desired the good. Just reading these bullets. This demonstrates what Luther called the weakness of will power.

Will power is so weak. This is the weakness of some of our desires. And so philosophers and theologians and now psychologists, all in unanimity. Although with different theories and different details, they all say there must be something else going on beneath the surface. That is there must be something else in the heart that’s betraying us.

There must be something that we’re not in control of. And so they begin to think, there must be then two sets of desires and belief, one that’s on the surface or maybe better it’s actually the deepest, it’s really what we really long for. But there must be another set of desires that’s lurking somewhere, somehow beyond or below our conscious awareness, so that it moves us against our will and against our better desires. And just briefly, this is exactly what Paul said.

Paul said there is a battle in the heart of every believer. Galatians 5, he says this, “But I say walk by the Spirit.” Walk, you’re going to have to learn to walk by the Holy Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. Now here’s the problem. For the flesh, there is a principle in you called flesh and it has desires, and those desires are really now yours. For the flesh sets its desires against the Holy Spirit who also lives in you.

And the Holy Spirit living in you also has desires with your deep I against the flesh. These are in oppositional relation to one another. Now get this, so that you just can’t do the things that you please. The Greek word is Thelo. You just can’t do the thing that you want. And wouldn’t it be cool if you hear sermon on anger and you have the problem with anger, you could just say, you know, I want anger to be gone. Paul the Apostle says it’s not gonna work that way. It’s not gonna go that way.

So number two, according to Paul, there’s a tension between these desires of the flesh that are within, these vice habits of the heart and the desires of the Spirit within, they’re part of our core. So Paul’s view here is not that we have two natures at war with one another. Now, there’s a whole theology behind this but rather Paul’s view is that there are two sets of desires within you. So be at the core of the person, we believe that we’re a new creature. So at the very core of my personality, the Spirit has regenerated and enlivened me.

At the core of you, you have been crucified with Christ. And it’s no longer I who live but Christ lives in me. He lives at me in the core. And so at the core where my desires are and these are my deepest, deepest desires, where the Spirit is, I desire the good. Isn’t that, that is a wonderful thing. No matter even in all your failure, somewhere in the deep because of the Spirit there, I’m a new creature. I do desire the good.

And that’s gonna be an opposition to this thing called the flesh. Because we also have, in C, this flesh residue. See, the flesh and the old man have been crucified but the scriptures teach there’s still this residue that’s part, it’s in there, the flesh, the old man residue. And you know what this is? This consists of all the vice and the sin habits of the heart that you’ve collected over time.

And it’s produced now this disposition within you, this tendency to act in a certain way and it may not be the deepest desire in you ’cause that’s where the Spirit is, but you know what often it is? It’s the strongest desire. And that is why we act contrary to the Spirit.

For each of you, this is gonna be different. For some of you, the flesh looks like excess worry, excess fear. For some of you, it’s excess anger. For some of you, it’s envy, bitterness, hatred, distrust. Who knows what the cauldron pot is for you. So for me, at the core, I desire not to worry. That is a deep desire. God, I don’t wanna, I wanna trust you, I want to pray without ceasing. But also in me, and I’ll say truly in me, there is a dark side, there is a disposition to worry, to not trust God when things get really tough.

You know, right now I feel like I’m trusting God, I’m not worrying. ♪ Trust and obey ♪ ♪ For there’s no– ♪ And I’m feeling good. But you know I may go home and Greta may say, “Well, John, something really bad has happened. “You need to sit down.” Whoa! Something is starting to vibrate here. Now, Greta and I have been married almost 39 years. And Greta and I are pretty crazy and so 39 years ago, it might have gone like this, “John I think you need to sit down “and pray ’cause it’s gonna be hard.” Oh, oh. And then she might start, “Lord, help John, you know how much he worries.” Oh, my gosh. [crowd laughs] Oh, my God. “And Lord, help him forgive me “’cause he has an anger problem, too.” Oh, my God. What have you done? [crowd laughs] My heart is betraying me. And while Greta is praying, I noticed that the length of her prayer is proportionate to the problem. [crowd laughing] And after a five minute prayer, I have stopped praying.

A theologian has stopped praying and now I’m saying inside, “Greta, what happened!” Wow. What’s happening? It’s my character. It’s my flesh habits of the heart, they’re betraying me. I didn’t want to worry. I didn’t wanna choose worrying and now I’m worrying. Here’s the weakness of the will. Here’s where I’m acting against my desires. I wanted something different. This is why you cannot just do the things you please.

This is why so many believers have such goodness in their will but the sin habits of the heart can’t sustain the will. Remember when Dallas Willard talked about this once, he said, “You know, the will is so weak. “And it can’t sustain itself. “It’s the character only that can sustain the will.” And if there’s bad things in the character, it will take the will where it wants. That’s why so many believers, sincere believers are frustrated with their lives.

They wonder why they sin when they know better and desire what is better and will better. So the moral is this: Don’t be Pollyannish about change. Our life is full with good intentions but the degree to which our character is contrary, it’s a fantasy to think that you’ll change in a moment. I’m a preacher as well and it’s a fantasy for me to think that my one sermon, if somebody has a vice contrary to the thing I’m talking about, that they will be able to will in a moment that radical change so it’ll be altered forever.

So the point is you’re going to have to do more than try if you’re going to change this. You’re going to have to train. You’re going to have to retrain the heart. The heart didn’t get that way in a day, and now we’re gonna have to retrain it, to retrain it in the Spirit. Now that’s a long story. That’s a very long story.

But here’s maybe we start. I gave you that verse in Ephesians 4:22. Paul says this, “That, in reference to your former “manner of life, you’ve got to lay aside the old self.” That in reference to that former manner of stuff that you have collected in the heart, you’re going to have to lay it aside. You know why? Because right now, while we’re sitting here, it’s corrupting you. Whatever that pot of habit and vice habits are, right now, they are corrupting us and so we’re going to have to deal with it.

And perhaps the first thing to do is we’re just going to have bring it out in the open. No manner of putting on just the good is going to cover the dealing with the bad. And so we may start with just something as simple like this: God, I need to come out of hiding with this. And rather than just say, Lord I wanna work on my anger. No, God, here’s the truth, I have got an anger problem. God, what is going on? Take me on a journey. If you’re worrier, you’re gonna have to come out of hiding. God, here’s my worry, let’s begin the discussion.

Take me on a journey. Psalm 139, open my heart, search my heart. That has changed my prayer life. And if it’s difficult to start there in prayer, then perhaps you need to do it with another person. This is just the beginning of a retraining. And there’s a longer story to this. So, God be with us. Amen.

Thanks for watching everyone! If you wanna watch other videos from the same session, check ’em out right here. And if you really wanna follow all the videos that are coming out of the Center for Christian Thought, make sure you subscribe to our channel.