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Deep Faith Destroys • Mar 10th 1985

The Cost of the Deeper Christian Life

Fellowship New Testament Organic Church

Gene Edwards lays bare the true cost of intimacy, cautioning that this deeper walk can eventually lead to devastation, social rejection—often from fellow Christians—and a psychological testing so severe it feels like abandonment. The pursuit is not about maintaining the initial “warm puppy feeling”; it is about weathering the “dark night of the Spirit” when your health, circumstances, and emotional security are stripped away. This message challenges the listener to establish an unconditional love for Jesus Christ—a commitment that remains when all the conditions of comfort, success, and approval are gone. Hear this message if you are hungry for the depths, but know that following Him into the absolute truth requires total self-destruction and holy sorrow.

DCLC 1985 #1 Why You Should not be Interested in the Deeper Christian Life

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Well, on that I’m going to end. I’m going to say, in one summarizing sentence, that I’ve watched many people say they were interested in knowing the Lord better, and believe it or not, the reason most of us turn around or quit where we’re while we’re ahead, quit while we’re even, or quit while we’re only slightly behind is incredible, incredibly simple. They quit because the good feeling went away.

Well, I want you to give some consideration to this. I don’t want you to go out and deliberately dig up the cross. I don’t want you to deliberately dig up pain. If the Lord’s good to you this week and you go away saying, “That was wonderful,” if He keeps on blessing you and every once in a while, oh, wouldn’t you like to be that rare Christian in church history where the Lord, the day you get saved, the day you give your life to Him in a real and meaningful way from that day of the day He died, they’re always blessed, everything is just great. Yeah, Robin, I would have liked to be that person.

I want you to start considering your commitment not to me, not to the church, not to conditions, not to a visible church or an invisible church, but your commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ and where it ends. Does it end in discouragement and despair? Then it will definitely end. Does it end when things aren’t going well? Does it end when you get hungry for a bigger home, a nicer car, and more security? How really interested are you and knowing your Lord? Will you follow Him when the good feelings go?

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