Character Issues and Distortions in the Arts

Last Saturday (June 18) evening at the Arts Seminar in Paris, Dr. Colin Harbinson gave what he considered to be his most important talk of the series on the theme "Character Issues and Distortions in the Arts" based on Isaiah 6. This was the only talk of the series (except for the Sunday sermon at our church the next day) that I was able to catch. Except for needing to take a brief phone call during the talk, I took notes on the phone thing. Here they are:

Historical context: "In the year that King Uzziah died..." (Is. 6:1)

Uzziah: 2 Kings 14:21, 2 Chron. 26:1.
Uzziah (also called Azariah) became king at a young age (16) and reigned for 52 years. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and God blessed him. He was a creative genius and a successful leader of the army. His fame spread in his land and beyond.

"But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall" (2 Chron. 26:16). This shows his distortion of pride. This is a distortion that brings many artists down if this is not dealt with.

He was unfaithful to the LORD his God, and entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense. Azariah the chief priest with 80 other courageous priests confronted him, as only priests were consacrated to burn incense. They ask Uzziah to leave the sanctuary, as he had been unfaithful and would not be honored by the Lord God.

Instead of repenting of his error, he became angry and raged at the priests in front of them. This shows an unteachable spirit, another character distortion.

The LORD afflicted Uzziah with leprosy on his forehead. Azariah and all the others saw this and huried him out of the temple. From this day until his death, he had leprosy. He lived in a separate house and was excluded from the temple. His son Jotham governed the land.

This is a tragic story of a brilliantly creative young man who loved God. But because of undealt with character distortions in his life, his destiny was taken away from him. At the end of his life, people didn't summarize his life as being a brilliant and gifted leader, but rather "He had leprosy."

Isaiah was about 25 years old when Uzziah died and he saw the LORD in Isaiah 6. It was like God said, "What I have for you, the next level of impact and ministry will require a deeper level of purity in your life.”

Colin gave the example of a man he knows who felt that his marriage needed to be stronger for the next level of anointing that God had for him.

You don’t build a citadel in the middle of the battle, but during a peace time.
We all need that place of refuge where we can receive spiritual food and nurturing and deal with issues in our lives before we get into the heat of the battle. If we haven’t done it then, it will be too late.

God says to Isaiah, “I need a deeper level of purity in your life.”

He gives him 3 visions:
We also need these 3 visions.

1. Holiness of God.
If we have this, we will have the fear of the Lord.
Not frightened by God.
The hatred of sin.
If we hated it, we wouldn’t keep sinning.
The problem is that we hate the guilt and feeling of uncleanness and the feeling that we have let God down.
But we won’t be free of that sin until we agree with God about that sin and hate it.
It’s not enough to hate the guilt, but we need to hate the sin.
The fear of the Lord is the hatred of sin.
The fear of the Lord is also the beginning of wisdom.
It speaks to character and godliness.

2. His own sinfulness.
God doesn’t dump on him or condemn him.
God is very specific: “Isaiah, you have a problem with your mouth.”
Isaiah responds that he recognizes his own.
When the coal touched his lips, it was a fearful experience.
When we finally come out of denial and decide to respond to the promptings of the Lord and deal with the issues and distortions in our lives, it can be a painful experience.
We need to confess things that we don’t want to confess and make things right with certain people that we don't necessarily want to make things right with.
It is announced that his sin is pardoned and his iniquity has been removed.

3. Service and ministry (8)
If we don’t deal with our distortions and issues, we won’t last in service and ministry.
These issues brought destruction into their lives.
What part does the prophet use? His mouth.
What part does the angel touch? His mouth.
The very part of his body that God wanted to use is touched.
Without God’s cleansing, there would have been distortion coming forth.
Encouraged to see that like Isaiah, my weakness can be turned into strength if I allow God to touch it.
Maybe if we look at the other side of the coin, we will have another perspective.God need to cleanse this gift so that it could be used for the original intention of it.
The cleansing is related to the calling.

2nd revelation: I live among a people of unclean lips.
It wasn’t just a personal distortion, but one of his culture, the same one he was going into to bring God’s word.
Before you can go to the people of my own culture, you need God to cleanse your lips.
Danger of being sucked into the culture.
He had a vision of sin and his sinfulness and allowed the hot coal of God on his lips (the deformed part) so that he could go the people of the unclean lips to be used in the original way that God had planned.
As missionaries, we go into cultures with their particular distortions. These distortions will confront you. If you have that distortion in your life, you are going to be attracted to it and sin and fall and even destroy the very thing that God is calling you to do.
The same for artists.
If God is calling you into the world of arts to be His agents of reconciliation, we need to understand the distortions of this world.
We will face these.
If we haven’t looked into our own hearts and asked God is we struggle with this distortion. If we don’t ask God to touch this area with his coal, we risk to stumble in this area.

Issues that artists face:
1. Idolatry
Art has the ability to take away our attention upon God and put it upon ourselves.
Every artist is taken away from love of the thing that he tells to love of the telling.
Art will replace God in our affections.
Ephesus, a “growing church,” didn’t impress God because it loved serving God more than God. You love your church growth, your missionary work, more than you love me. God told this church to repent (and not just to readjust their schedule).
We need to love God most of all.
Whether we love art too much or don’t love God enough, the temptation to idolatry is constantly present.

The solution: We become worshippers of God (a life-style of worship).

We’re not collecting applause for ourselves, but saying thank you to God in our hearts, because all that we have is from Him.

2. Ego
Types of pride: That of the boaster (who overvalues himself) and the pride of the world (“I’m not very good” and grovel). This is equally pride because we undervalue who we are.
Wherever you go in arts, you will confront massive egos.
Prima donnas.

3. Sexual impurity
For some pastors, arts equal sexuality.
There is a good sensuality, in the right way.
We navigate our world through our God-given senses.
As we work with the arts, if we don’t deal with these issues, we can have a broken sensuality (immorality and sexual brokenness).
This pervades the art world.

The solution: Yield our body as an instrument of righteousness and allow God to take a coal off the altar and place it where it needs to be.

4. Independence
Independence form the body is Christ opens the door to deception.
There is a healthy independence for artists.
But sometimes there is an independence from the body of Christ.
Lone Ranger.
Many Christians are lone rangers, who want to live and act independently.

The solution: Depend on the Lord and be interdependent on the body of Christ

5. Selfishness
Climbing on others to get to the top.
Self-centeredness
Consumed by ourselves, our gifts, our problems, our issues.
Rather than Christ-centeredness

The solution: Take on the form of a servant, like Jesus. God wants servant-artists who have a gentle spirit, walk in humility. Humility releases you into what God want you to go.

Nebuchadnezzar, after 7 years of sanity, is put on his throne and gave him even greater glory than before. When we deal with our pride, God can trust us with more success and it won’t become something destructive in our lives.


6. Insecurity
Some excellent performers are very nervous when they leave the stage.
It is easy to hide behind your gift or relate to people through your gift.
Take away your gift or your artistic expression and it’s like someone has taken away our life.
Many artists have their security in their gift.
But what happens when you can’t exercise this gift, due to a handicap, illness, old age, etc.?

Solution: Place our security in the Living God.

7. Rejection
In Toronto, he was served in restaurants 90% of the time by artists waiting for their big movement.
Someone he knows was rejected at a tryout with a “Wrong body type: Next!”
This happens to artists over and over again, in all areas.
If you already struggle with rejection and continue to hear “next,” this will continue to build your complex of rejection. This could lead to depression and eventual suicide.

Solutions: Be encouragers of one another. Be truthful in love. It’s not a loving thing to lie to somebody. Be stirring each other on to excellent. Make room for each other at the table. This defines an artist who can walk in the middle of his culture. An artist in spirit and in truth. Walk in purity. Dependent upon Lord and Body of Christ. Servant heart. Not secure in their gift, but in their God, the root of their security.

In conclusion,

We don’t need to be perfect, but we do need to recognize that these are distortions (deformations) in our lives.

Accountability: Give someone who loves us and give them permission to ask us how we’re doing and what we’re struggling with. Can I pray for you? Ask hard questions.

Run race and hear words “Well done good and faithful servant.