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Gospel Community | Romans 12 | Colin Provart · The Salt Company Denver

0:02
SPEAKER_00: What's up, Small Company?
0:04
SPEAKER_00: You guys can go ahead and take a seat.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: How are you doing tonight?
0:08
SPEAKER_00: Good.
0:09
SPEAKER_00: Hey, my name is Colin.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: I get to work here at Stall Company, which is amazing.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: We're so glad that you're here tonight.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: We think this is the best place that you can be on a Tuesday evening.
0:19
SPEAKER_00: There's no other place I'd rather be, so I'm glad you guys are here.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: Hey, if this is your first week as Tall Company, we're glad you're here.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: We actually have a gift for you.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: And so if you walk out those doors, you'll see a welcome little booth area.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: And we want you to stop by.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: And can I just, if it's your first week, let me just challenge you.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: You should just jump in, be all in with Salt Company to the point that you'd actually go to fall retreat with us in just a couple weekends.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: But tonight, tonight we're actually starting a new series called Gospel Community: how the people around us and the friendships that we have shape how we see and follow Jesus.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna we're gonna start the series and we're gonna be in Romans 12.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: So uh Romans 12 is where we're gonna be.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: If you got a Bible, that's where I'd love you to turn uh because that's where we're gonna be tonight.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: As you turn there, I got a question for you.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: Uh how many of you remember when you were a kid running away from home, or at least attempting it?
1:16
SPEAKER_00: Like whether it's like in a grocery store, or you like you know, sprinted out your front door and you thought you had a lot of courage, and then you like turned the corner of your house and just hit around a bush in your backyard, you know, because you're not actually that courageous at the time.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: Okay, some of you ran away from home.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: I was uh listening to a podcast uh over the last couple weeks of a guy that ran away from home and he took it to the utmost extreme.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: So it was a history podcast.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: Uh in the early 1900s, Soviet, the Soviet Union uh begins to rise, Stalin begins to rise, and when Stalin rises, so does the belief of atheism.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so he basically starts persecuting anyone that is not an atheist, including Christians.
2:02
SPEAKER_00: They're uh the primary kind of Christianity in what is now Russia was kind of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and the Eastern Orthodox Church begins to split into two, and there's kind of a more conservative bunch, and then a little bit less conservative bunch, and this this really conservative bunch begins to get persecuted pretty severely.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: So things begin to get real, and that's when our character enters the story.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: His name is Karp Laikov, which a name like Karp means you have to have an awesome story about your life.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: And he does.
2:40
SPEAKER_00: So Karp Laikov begins to experience this persecution because his brother is actually killed for his orthodox beliefs.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: So Karp and his family, he decides, man, I don't want my family to be persecuted.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna run.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna run from home.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: So he takes his wife and two young kids and they start running.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: And they run for a long time.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: And they end up in the middle of Siberia.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: They're 250 kilometers from the nearest human settlement.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: So if you're like, how far is 250 kilometers?
3:13
SPEAKER_00: They are where you're sitting right now, to Nebraska away from the nearest people to them.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
3:20
SPEAKER_00: So they began to like, the four of them, this man, his wife, and their two kids, they began to establish a life in one of the most remote places on the planet.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: They would go on to have two more kids, one of them by the name of Dmitri.
3:35
SPEAKER_00: Okay, Dmitri Laikov is an absolute baller.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: Okay, he grows up.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna end up living like 50 years of his life, interacting with no other human being outside of the five people in his immediate family.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: Okay, but he like grows up outside in Siberia to the point that he can run on snow with no problem, barefooted.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: Because the cold doesn't affect him anymore.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: He can go on a on a like days worth of journeys with almost no shelter in the middle of winter because his body is so used to being in the cold.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: When they run, they have like pots, knives, you know, essentials, and all of them rust over time that they no longer have any pots from civilization, no knives from civilization.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: And like the real genius that carp was, he brought zero weapons with them.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: So they began just like eating off the land.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: They kind of learn how to make traps, but they don't really because they're not really outdoors people, to the point that Carp's wife ends up starving herself to death in order to save her children.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: Okay, 42 years later, after they run, 42 years, a helicopter is seen over overhead.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: And they think the helicopter is from the Soviet Union, trying to find the last Orthodox believers and kill them.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
4:58
SPEAKER_00: They end up landing the helicopter about 10 miles away because that was the nearest clearing, and the people in the helicopter who were geologists and surveyors end up hiking 10 miles to this clearing that they saw from a helicopter.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: They see almost like weird things about human civilization.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: They're like, there's no way anyone actually lives here, but there is this tiny hut, and we're gonna knock on the door.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: So they knock on the door.
5:21
SPEAKER_00: And it carps hesitant at first, but finally he opens the door thinking this is the end for me and my family.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: We're about to get killed by the Soviet Union, they're persecuting uh the uh Orthodox believers, and they come to find out that helicopters have been invented, satellites have been invented.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: There are geologists that showed up at their door.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: Stalin is dead, World War II has started and ended, and there is functionally no threat to their safety.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is this is a bonus.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: This is a bonus.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: How the story ends is they begin interacting with other humans, they don't leave their home, but they get interacting with humans, and because they have no immunity to any human disease, uh, four of the five remaining Layovs die almost like within a few months of human interaction.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: But there is one remaining Layov, her name is Agaphia Laikov, who is an elderly woman who still lives on her own in Siberia to the time I listened to the podcast, which was or the time that the podcast was released, which was like, I don't know, five or six years ago.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: Are you kidding me?
6:33
SPEAKER_00: So if you're wondering if you're tough, Agatha Laikov is tougher than you.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: Why do I tell the story?
6:42
SPEAKER_00: Why do I tell the story of the Laikov family who goes on the run, who thinks the good life is living utterly separated from all of human civilization?
6:52
SPEAKER_00: But here's what we can learn from the Laikov family is you cannot come to truth when you're utterly alone.
6:59
SPEAKER_00: And you're like, oh man, Colin, here's the good news.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: I am in a room of a few hundred people.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: That's not a threat to me and my life.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: And I think that the threat is not that you don't live around people, but that you live around people and you don't live with people.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: That there are a bunch of people around you in your life, but no one really knows you, and you don't live to know very many other people.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: And when we live individual lives, we end up failing.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: We fail to know God rightly, we fail to know God's will for our lives, and we fail to live in the way that God invites us to.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: So here's the main point of tonight.
7:41
SPEAKER_00: If you're like, okay, Colin, where are you going?
7:43
SPEAKER_00: What does the story of the Lycows have to do with my life and have to do with the Bible?
7:46
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it has to do with here's the point.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: You can't do it.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: That's a big idea tonight.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Salt Company, how encouraging.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: You can't do it.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: We'll keep the cheering going.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: That'll be awesome.
8:02
SPEAKER_00: But man, we we so often think we can.
8:05
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna look to myself to try to discover my purpose.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna look to myself to know what I think about God and what I believe to be true.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: And God has absolutely created us as individuals with souls, and yet we live in this world right now that idolizes the self.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: And that's permeated the church where we believe our relationship with God is for me, myself, and I.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: And the way that I know what God has for me is by looking inward, not by looking outward.
8:34
SPEAKER_00: And I think there's a real threat to that.
8:37
SPEAKER_00: Here's the point tonight: you can't do it.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: You can't by yourself discover what God has for you, or all of what God has for you.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: So let's look at Romans 12 together.
8:49
SPEAKER_00: Romans 12, starting in verse 1.
8:51
SPEAKER_00: If you're not open to it in your Bibles, that's alright, it's gonna be on the screen behind me.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: Romans 12, one, therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: So if you don't know something about Saul Company, I need to stop right there.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: You can leave the text up, but I'm gonna stop right there.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: The Saul Company is a part of a local church.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: So this isn't uh just a building we meet in on Tuesday nights, but it's a building we meet in on Sunday mornings as well.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: We're a part of Storyline Church.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: And here's why I tell you that is because on Sunday, Pastor JT unpacked this idea, you might not have seen of heard him say it, but let me explain it, of mercy.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: See, Pastor JT talked about this idea of propitiation.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: And we answered the question is God angry with me?
9:35
SPEAKER_00: And in our sin and our unrighteousness, the ways we deviate from his will and his design, we actually, in our sin, deserve the wrath of God.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: But what?
9:49
SPEAKER_00: So then the question is, God must be angry with me because everyone in the room is a sinner.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't believe you're a sinner, you're a liar, which makes you a sinner.
9:56
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, we all are deserving of the wrath of God.
10:03
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus is our propitiation, which means the wrath of God has been poured out on Jesus Christ, which means we are now free from the wrath of God.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: So in Jesus Christ, is God angry with you?
10:15
SPEAKER_00: No.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: So how does that have to do with mercy?
10:19
SPEAKER_00: Mercy is undeserved, is like with is God withholding what you rightly deserve?
10:26
SPEAKER_00: So if you rightly deserve his wrath, he withholds it from you because he's poured it out on Jesus Christ.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus is our propitiation.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: I know it's a big word, it's a theological word, but it matters to us.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: So, in view of the mercies of God, that Jesus is our propitiation, in light of that, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: This is your true worship.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: So the first 11 chapters of Romans, which is the book that this is in, are is all God has done for us in Christ.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: And in light of that, present your bodies as a sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, because that's true worship.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: And then he goes on to say, do not be conformed to this age.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: That's the Greek word aeon, which means worlds, the world that we live in.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: Don't be conformed to the world that we live in, but be transformed.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: The Greek word there is metaphor ao, or metamor, yeah, I think something like that, I think is how you pronounce it.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: Which means like to change, to change one's being, right?
11:23
SPEAKER_00: That's where we get the word metamorphosis, that we're not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: How are we transformed by the renewing of our mind?
11:32
SPEAKER_00: Why do we remove renew our mind so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God?
11:44
SPEAKER_00: This is let me just stop for a second.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: Is that not what you want in your life?
11:49
SPEAKER_00: To know the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God?
11:52
SPEAKER_00: Like to be able to discern that and to know that?
11:56
SPEAKER_00: Like imagine for just a second.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're a Christian, maybe you're not.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: What if I told you you could know God's will for your life?
12:03
SPEAKER_00: Like you could discern it.
12:04
SPEAKER_00: How much freedom would that give you?
12:06
unknown: Right?
12:07
SPEAKER_00: Like, we get so caught up like, what should my major be?
12:09
SPEAKER_00: Well, I know God's will.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: Who should I date?
12:11
SPEAKER_00: Well, I know God's will.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: Like, what should I do with my Thursday night?
12:15
SPEAKER_00: I know God's will.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: Right?
12:17
SPEAKER_00: Like, we like that would that would be incredibly freeing.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: That would be amazing.
12:23
SPEAKER_00: But to get to get the second half of verse 2, so verse uh two starts with, do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: If we want to be people that get the second half of verse two right, we need to be people that get the first half of verse two right too.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: Which starts with, do not be conformed to this age.
12:49
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot I could say here.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I say a lot, though, that's really gonna summarize it.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: Here's what the world does.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: Here's what this age does.
13:00
SPEAKER_00: This age over-promises and under-delivers.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: I can give you the good life when it can't.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: I can satisfy you, but it never does to the full extent you want it to.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: I can make you successful, just not enough.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: I can give you prominence, but you'll always want more.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: It over-promises and underdelivers.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: And so what we need to do is if we want to be the second half of verse two people, people that discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God, we need to be verse one or the beginning of verse two people, which says, do not be conformed to this age, which means we have to know what this age is saying to us so we can know whether it's like over-promising and under-delivering, or whether that's from God and we should conform to it.
13:44
SPEAKER_00: Like whether we should or transform into it.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: So we need to know what this age is saying in order to know what we should reject, in order to be people that can discern what God's good, pleasing, and perfect will is.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so there's a there again, there's a lot I could say here, but here's what the world's telling you.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna focus in on one idea for just a second.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: Here's what the world's telling you.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: You got it.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: Right?
14:15
SPEAKER_00: We started with we started with you can't do it.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: That was a big idea.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: Here's what the world tells you.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: You can you can do it on your own.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: You can do it.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: What you need to do is search, find yourself, and then you'll begin living your best life.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: And I think this is so indoctrinated into the world that you grew up in that you can't really imagine a world that's not like this.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: Like, how do I find the good life?
14:42
SPEAKER_00: Well, I look at myself and what I love and how I feel, and like my desire, and I begin to fulfill those desires, and that's how the good life is discovered.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: You cannot imagine a world where that's not true.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: But what I want to show to you over the next minute or two is that's not true over the course of human history.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: Like that's not actually the most true thing.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: So let me give you a few examples.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: This is from a guy by the name of Philip Reef.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: Uh he writes this uh about a few of these things.
15:12
SPEAKER_00: This is overly simplistic.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be overly simplistic for just a second, but it's gonna summarize like a bunch of ideas into a really simple idea, which is that over the over the course of history, uh what has been idolized or seen as good has transformed.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: So, like Aristotle and Plato, he would consider that was the age of the political man, where involvement in society was the highest stated good.
15:35
SPEAKER_00: Then that's gonna transform into the religious man, where involvement in a church or or conformity to a deity or to a religious uh group of people, that's the highest state of good.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: And then the religious man is gonna transform into the economic man where the more I can produce and the more uh income I can generate, and the more uh like goods I can be a part of bringing to the world, that's the highest state of good.
15:55
SPEAKER_00: And the world you've grown up in is actually not the world of the economic man.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: It's actually the decline of the economic man and the rise of what's called the psychological man, is what Philip Reef would say.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: That the highest stated good is gonna be people who look internally at themselves, who look at what they feel and what they think, and that's where the good life is gonna be found.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: Not in societal involvement, not in religious involvement, not in economic involvement, but in the self.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: That we look inward at our thoughts, emotions, and feelings, and that's gonna explain the rest of the world.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I need you to understand is identity over the course of human history has fundamentally shifted from something we receive to something we construct from within.
16:41
SPEAKER_00: Identity has shifted from something we receive to something we construct.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: But here's what the world tells you.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: You don't need anyone else to tell you what's true or how to live.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: And in fact, if anyone does try to tell you what's true or how to live, that they're a threat to your own, what psychologists would call expressive individualism.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: Which the thing you have to see is this idea is new to almost all of world history, and because it's new, we think it's better.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: Are you guys tracking with me this idea of the psychological man?
17:16
SPEAKER_00: We look within, but it's this new idea to world history, and we think it's better.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you a story that's gonna get uh that's gonna get this in your bones.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: Any of you ever heard of a guy by the name of Ebenezer Byers?
17:28
SPEAKER_00: I told Nate this story already, so he's fired up about it.
17:31
SPEAKER_00: You guys are all gonna go home talking about Ebenezer Byers.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: Ebenezer, uh, which again, another guy with a name that you better do something amazing in your life, and this guy's gonna do something radically stupid that earns him the name Ebenezer.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: But his parents give him the name Ebenezer.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: In 1880, he's born.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna go on to win amateur golf championships.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: He's a pretty successful guy.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: Uh he's gonna he's gonna leave amateur golf to pursue an entrepreneurial like business venture.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna become really successful.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna start a business that's gonna be worth what would now be about 20 million dollars.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: He lives in luxury.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: This is a guy who gets what he wants.
18:07
SPEAKER_00: He's like successful by every stretch of the imagination.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: And so in the in the early 1900s, when you're successful, you don't have like your own private jet, but you do get your own private train car.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: And so he's riding in his own private train car, train takes an unexpected turn, he falls out of his private train car bed, lands on his shoulder, and hurts his shoulder.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're Ebon, you know that's what that's what uh he'll be called.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: If you're Ebon, he is gonna like look for the best medical attention that anyone can find, right?
18:37
SPEAKER_00: That money can buy, and so he goes to a doctor.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: And the doctor's like, hey, I've heard of this new medicine called Radathor.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: Now, here's the I need to pause pause on our story of Ebenezer and let me tell you the story of Radathor for just a second.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: This is true, you can look it up.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: Okay, here's what radoth, here's how Radathor comes is a guy fakes his medical degree and produces this medicine called Radathor.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: Now the question is if you fake your medical degree and start a medicine that promises to like cure headaches and muscle aches and pain, how do you possibly pull off this like this much of a scheme?
19:09
SPEAKER_00: Well, you incentivize doctors to prescribe Radathor by giving them a cut of the profit that you're gonna make, which is what this guy does.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: Resume Ebenezer, who's like, what do I do?
19:21
SPEAKER_00: I've been prescribed Radathor, I'm not just gonna take it, I'm gonna take it in mass quantity.
19:26
SPEAKER_00: Over the course of three years, he's gonna drink 1,400 bottles of Radathor.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: That's over a bottle a day of Radathor.
19:34
SPEAKER_00: Okay, you're like, how bad could it be?
19:36
SPEAKER_00: So eventually, he starts feeling like not right, right?
19:39
SPEAKER_00: Evan Easer starts feeling like a little wheezy.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: Like, this is not great.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: He's like lightheaded, his stomach starts to hurt, and he knows there's a problem when his teeth start falling out.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: So his teeth start falling out, he stops taking Radathor.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, over here, this other part of the story, there's a case opened into how Radathor becomes this like approved drug that people are taking.
20:01
SPEAKER_00: So it's like, man, we're gonna go, you know, call to the stand, the guy who's taken more Radathor than probably everyone else on planet Earth combined.
20:10
SPEAKER_00: So over here, Ebenezer's like, yeah, hey, you're called to the stand.
20:14
SPEAKER_00: He's like, I can't come, I'm so sick.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: Like, I literally can't leave my house, I'm so sick.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: They're like, no worries, we'll send a judge to you.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: So the judge, this is true, this is true, this is true.
20:22
SPEAKER_00: So the judge starts getting prepared, and the judge is like, hey, you know, even he like looks a little goofy, like his teeth have started to fall out, he's like got some weird stuff on his face.
20:30
SPEAKER_00: Like he took this Radathor thing really seriously.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: They're like, no problem.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: So uh Ebenezer, over the course of waiting for the judge to come, continues to get more and more sick.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: Right before the judge gets there, the guy walks out and he's like, hey, you remember how I told you he's like losing teeth?
20:47
SPEAKER_00: Like he you might struggle to hear him?
20:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, totally.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I just want you to know he's not losing any teeth anymore.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: Good news.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: Because his entire jaw has fallen off of his face.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: This is true.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: He can't testify anymore.
21:02
SPEAKER_00: Because this guy's jaw has fallen off of his face.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: He can't testify.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna die a few days later.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: Why?
21:09
SPEAKER_00: Because what Radathor is, is radium salts dissolved in water.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: So what even buyers did is he essentially dissolved himself from the inside out.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: The terrible fate of even buyers.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: I mean, how amazing is that, but awful, you know?
21:27
SPEAKER_00: Here's the point.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: Here's the point.
21:29
SPEAKER_00: You've been sold expressive individualism as a new fad that's gonna give you life, and I'm telling you it's Radathor that's gonna consume you from the inside out.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: That if you drink the medicine of expressive individualism, it will feel good until it doesn't anymore.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: And it will start to like dissolve who you are from the inside out.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: Caution the thinking that it's new, so it must be good, because throughout all of human history, we've Received identity, we have not produced it from within.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you a couple examples.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: Why do people have the last name Johnson?
22:07
SPEAKER_00: Because they're John's son.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: You receive it, right?
22:10
SPEAKER_00: Like your vocation for most of human history, you just did what your dad did.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: You just received your vocation.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: You lived where your parents lived.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not saying all of these things should be celebrated and there shouldn't be progress around some of these things.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: There are certainly healthy progressions, but we need to be careful that we don't just go to in like expressive individualism is the new fad, therefore it must be the best thing, because I think expressive individualism is our current culture's radator.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: Right?
22:37
SPEAKER_00: And Romans 12 said, don't be conformed to this age, but be transformed, transformed by the renewing of your mind, so you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: And so my question is, are you consuming what the world's offering to you in expressive individualism and constructing your identity from within, or are you receiving an identity that's spoken over you?
22:59
SPEAKER_00: Like, where do you find what's most true of you?
23:04
SPEAKER_00: Is it what you feel?
23:07
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's from what your professors say or your parents say, and you're you're trying to receive it.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: Is it from what makes you happy, what makes you feel like you're in control, what makes you feel like you have pleasure?
23:20
SPEAKER_00: Or is it true of what God has said of you in Christ Jesus?
23:26
SPEAKER_00: That you're a son of God, adopted, accepted, beloved, chosen, and a member of God's family.
23:37
SPEAKER_00: See, you can't do it.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: The problem is the world tells you you can.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: Here's the second thing I want to show you is that the Bible tells you you can't.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells you you can't.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: Keep reading with me in Romans 12, starting in verse 3.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: For the grace given to me.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: So Paul's the author of Romans, and Paul has this crazy story.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: He goes from persecuting Christians to being like an encounter with the risen Lord Jesus, and he suffers, but he's like given this authority in the early church because he's seen the risen Lord Jesus, and Jesus gives him a command to go and reach people, and he's just like captivated by grace.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so so he's captivated by grace and he gives this authority in the local church, and he says, For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: So what Paul says is the author of Romans says, Man, I've received grace.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: I've seen Jesus.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: Like Jesus has changed everything about my life.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: I I'm not the same, not because of what I've done, but because of who Jesus says that I am.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Don't think of yourself more highly.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: Which I think for us is like, whoa, that that's pretty strong.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: But in a Roman culture, that's going to be like super strong.
24:54
SPEAKER_00: Because the highest stated good of Roman culture was to be honored and praised, was to be better than others so people would recognize you, so people would give recognition to you, would award you.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: And I think we we actually don't live in a culture that's all that different from first century Rome.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: That we want to be honored and praised, that we want to be seen as having our life together, don't we?
25:20
SPEAKER_00: We want to be seen as people like, man, that that person has it together, they have it figured out.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: And so what we do when we try to have it figured out is we just try to be a little bit more impressive than other people.
25:28
SPEAKER_00: Whether it's IQ, EQ, our social status, our social circles, the insights we have, the athletic ability we have, the attractiveness that we have, the wisdom that we can offer.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: We just try to be a little bit better than everyone else so we get some recognition from other people.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: And that's how we think we're gonna get our life figured out.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: It's like I'm gonna figure out my life when I figure out what I'm better at than everyone else.
25:52
SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's you.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: And my question for you is just really simple.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: Do you really have it figured out?
26:00
SPEAKER_00: Do you really have it figured out?
26:02
SPEAKER_00: Let me just read you some questions that I think will help us diagnose this, okay?
26:06
SPEAKER_00: Just listen to these questions.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: Do you trust your own judgment more or less than you did 10 years ago?
26:14
SPEAKER_00: What changed?
26:15
SPEAKER_00: Because you probably thought you had it figured out then.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let me give you another one.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: If you had to I like this one.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: If you had to bet your life on the plan you have right now and not the plan you'll have in five years, the one you actually have today.
26:31
SPEAKER_00: So the plan you have today versus all potential possible outcomes that could happen in your life, where are you putting your money?
26:40
SPEAKER_00: I bet not on the plan you have today, but we want to have it figured out, right?
26:46
SPEAKER_00: I use another one.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: What's something you were completely sure about five years ago that you wouldn't even say out loud today?
26:52
SPEAKER_00: I know.
26:54
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are like, I'm gonna marry this boy in eighth grade, you know?
27:00
SPEAKER_00: It's like, ooh, that guy's a total jerk now.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: I would not want anyone to know that, right?
27:06
SPEAKER_00: Okay, more than more than girls, guys might do that.
27:09
SPEAKER_00: I know that some of you were like, this girl's gonna be my high school sweetheart.
27:12
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't admit it, but you totally felt it.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: Okay, anyway, let's keep going.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: Let me transition these questions a little bit.
27:21
SPEAKER_00: Who taught you the thing you're most confident about and could you have figured it out alone?
27:25
SPEAKER_00: I'm transitioning the idea here.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: If having it figured out means you never need to be corrected, taught, or carried, has anyone you respect actually ever gotten there?
27:39
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
27:41
SPEAKER_00: If having it figured out, like I'm better than people, I don't really need other people, I I I kind of think of myself as like I'm good on my own.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: If having it figured out means you never need to be corrected, taught, or carried, has anyone you've respected ever gotten there?
27:56
SPEAKER_00: Or is it possible that the wisest people you know are the ones who stop pretending they have it all figured out?
28:03
SPEAKER_00: They stop pretending they like they don't need anyone and they're better than you.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: Friends, if we want to have it figured out, perhaps the first step is realizing that we don't have it figured out and that we might not actually think of ourselves as highly as we do right now.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: We need to like pursue humility.
28:22
unknown: Right?
28:22
SPEAKER_00: Because the moment you think of yourself highly is the moment you think you don't need people, and soon after that comes the moment you realize you don't have it figured out.
28:30
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you a quick example on this.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: You guys know when you're getting ready for a first date.
28:39
SPEAKER_00: Guys in the room, meet the girls in the room, you know?
28:43
SPEAKER_00: Girls in the room, meet the guys in the room.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: You're getting ready to go on a first date, right?
28:48
SPEAKER_00: You gotta someone, please tell me you've gone on a first date.
28:51
SPEAKER_00: Okay, thank you.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: I was not planning on saying that.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you some good news, people.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: In three weeks, we're gonna do a dating message.
29:01
SPEAKER_00: Come on back to Talk Company.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: Okay, you're getting ready for a first date.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: You're like, mm, I'm looking good, you know.
29:10
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm gonna I'm like dripped out.
29:11
SPEAKER_00: This is the outfit I picked out a long time ago.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: Like, this is the outfit I'm hanging on my rack for this special day, and the day has come.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: You're looking good, you're like, you know, coaching yourself up, getting ready for this first date.
29:24
SPEAKER_00: And you go to like, like if you're a guy, you go to you go to your boys, you're like, I'm looking good, you know?
29:30
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking good, you know.
29:32
SPEAKER_00: And then they're like, you need to stop.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: You need to stop.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: Because you do look good.
29:38
SPEAKER_00: But you know, the the snack that you had before you went to dinner because you can't overeat at dinner, otherwise that's gross, you know.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: You like got a little something in your teeth.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: Let me help, let me help you out a little bit.
29:49
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
29:50
SPEAKER_00: Like, that's a good friend who's like, hey, you gotta like get cleaned up a little bit.
29:53
SPEAKER_00: Like, because you can't see it unless you're staring in the mirror, which you guys probably are.
29:57
SPEAKER_00: But if you're not, someone needs to help you out by saying, like, man, you thought you had it figured out, but let me show you something that you're not seeing right now.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: So, friends, we can't be people that walk around like we have it figured out because I think what the moment we start walking around like we have it figured out is people that go on first dates with stucks stuck all over their teeth.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: Like we just think we have it.
30:21
SPEAKER_00: We need some people to come alongside us and say, you don't got it figured out.
30:24
SPEAKER_00: Like you need some help.
30:25
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to be people that don't elevate ourselves but lower ourselves because we think of ourselves rightly as people under the cross of Jesus Christ.
30:33
SPEAKER_00: Like no one has it figured out, no one urges their way to heaven, but in our sin, we all need grace and mercy, and so we should pursue humility.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: So let me really quickly give you three ways to pursue humility.
30:43
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna rapid fire them.
30:44
SPEAKER_00: Acknowledge your sin.
30:46
SPEAKER_00: You want to know how you're not that impressive when you realize that you have sin in your life that disqualifies you from being with God, but that in Jesus Christ, he like washes your disqualification by his blood.
30:58
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so you acknowledge your sin, you meditate on God, you want to be humble, think about God.
31:04
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't need anything.
31:07
SPEAKER_00: Like he knows everything.
31:09
SPEAKER_00: He can do whatever he wants.
31:12
SPEAKER_00: Like, just think of it, he is self-sufficient, he's omniscient, he's sovereign, he's good, he's loving.
31:22
SPEAKER_00: Like, think about God, it'll humble you.
31:24
SPEAKER_00: Third one, this is my favorite one, go to sleep.
31:27
SPEAKER_00: You want to pursue humility every night before you fall asleep?
31:30
SPEAKER_00: You say, God, I need to sleep, you don't.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: I'm a created being, you're the creator, and that will, over the course of your life, make you a humble person.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: Because every time you close your eyes and go to sleep, you're ex you're you're acknowledging your finiteness.
31:46
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, okay.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: Pursue humility.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: So the you can't do it.
31:51
SPEAKER_00: The world tells you you can, the Bible tells you you can't.
31:53
SPEAKER_00: And so what do we do about this?
31:54
SPEAKER_00: Let's keep reading in Romans 12.
31:56
SPEAKER_00: Look at what it says.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: It says, now as we have many parts in the body, and all parts of the body do not have the same function in the same way.
32:01
SPEAKER_00: We who are one in the body in Christ and individually members of one another.
32:07
SPEAKER_00: So check out how the Bible talks.
32:09
SPEAKER_00: It acknowledges individuality.
32:10
SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes we can think of the Bible as like totally whack and totally weird.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: And like it like totally neglects the individual self and personhood and ignores it completely.
32:19
SPEAKER_00: But that's not at all how the Bible talks.
32:21
SPEAKER_00: But it does make a radical claim.
32:23
SPEAKER_00: You are an individual, but you belong to one another, that there's unity in the midst of diversity.
32:29
SPEAKER_00: So one of the reasons we love being a part of the local church is because this isn't ultimately God's plan for the world, but God's plan for the world is seen in the local church where there's uh uh racial and socioeconomic and age and life stage diversity, but in the unity, despite the diversity, there's beauty.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: And he goes on to use this image of body.
32:53
SPEAKER_00: It's an image through used throughout all of scripture that we're individual parts but belong to the same body, that the part alone is of no use and has no life.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: But when the parts come together, there's something beautiful and magnificent that happens, that there's unity with one another, and that's how the mission of God is carried forward, and that's how we see the role that we play in God's kingdom.
33:19
SPEAKER_00: But friends, I think we're quick to reject other people.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: We're quick to say, like, I need some people, but I don't need them, and I just want to be really, I want to caution you really quickly with that sort of thinking, because here's what that thinking is is that thinking is saying God says that person is of value, and I think they don't.
33:37
SPEAKER_00: They have none.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: God says that person is good for me, and I'm choosing to reject that and think that my opinion of that person is more important than God's opinion of that person.
33:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying everyone here needs to be your best friend, but I do need, I do think we need to acknowledge that the body of Christ is beautiful and part of God's design for the world, where he redeems people into a unified body of believers.
34:12
SPEAKER_00: So, what does this have to do with understanding what God has for us?
34:16
SPEAKER_00: Here's what's true is in Christ, when we receive salvation, the Spirit of God begins to dwell in us, and I think we're so quick to believe that what other people have to offer isn't actually from God.
34:28
SPEAKER_00: Like you would rather listen to signs from the universe or a magic eight ball than listen to an image bearer indwelled by the Spirit of God living inside of them.
34:42
SPEAKER_00: That's like rejecting marriage counseling and going to your chronically single friend for marriage advice.
34:49
SPEAKER_00: Like it's just not a very good idea.
34:52
SPEAKER_00: Let me let me get this let me get this in your bones.
34:55
SPEAKER_00: Like, okay, we need each other, but we play different roles.
34:57
SPEAKER_00: Let me let me just tease this out for just a second.
34:59
SPEAKER_00: Uh on Sunday I was given tickets to the Broncos game.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: They got the win.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: Come on, go Broncos.
35:06
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
35:07
SPEAKER_00: Bo Nicks is the quarterback.
35:09
SPEAKER_00: Imagine if Bo Nicks, really imagine this, really imagine this.
35:13
SPEAKER_00: Imagine if Bo Nicks like got into the team huddle when they're struggling at halftime, and he's like, I just wish you guys understood it.
35:21
SPEAKER_00: It's like, what do you mean?
35:23
SPEAKER_00: Like, why aren't you guys all better quarterbacks?
35:27
SPEAKER_00: It's like, dude, what are you talking about?
35:31
SPEAKER_00: It's like, you guys don't get it.
35:33
SPEAKER_00: I wish you guys were all quarterbacks like me, so you got it.
35:37
SPEAKER_00: And I think what the huddle would look at him and say is like, dude, the reason you have pass protection is because the rest of us aren't quarterbacks.
35:48
SPEAKER_00: Like what you think you need from us is actually the thing that's protecting you to do what you're called to do.
35:55
SPEAKER_00: Like, we need each other.
35:57
SPEAKER_00: And so my question for you is is your life marked by this dependence on other people?
36:01
SPEAKER_00: This like boneks level dependence that when I snap the ball, there are gonna be guys who get into the trenches so I'm not hit a second after I snap it.
36:12
SPEAKER_00: Like, see that their job is to help me, and my job is to help them.
36:18
SPEAKER_00: How do you know your life is marked by that?
36:20
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you three things really quickly: that people know you.
36:25
SPEAKER_00: That there's something in your life that you need others for.
36:32
SPEAKER_00: What in your life do you need someone else for?
36:35
SPEAKER_00: That will tell me if you are living your life dependent on the body of Christ.
36:41
SPEAKER_00: Third one.
36:42
SPEAKER_00: A regular and radical commitment to gathering with God's people.
36:49
SPEAKER_00: How do I know your life is marked by this dependence on other people, this acknowledgement that alone I can't do it, but together we can?
36:56
SPEAKER_00: People know you, there's something in your life that you need others for, or many things in your life, and you have a regular and radical commitment to gathering with God's people.
37:08
SPEAKER_00: See, I think we so often undersell what the gospel is.
37:13
SPEAKER_00: Like we're like, if the gospel's good news, and it certainly is, and we think the story of the Bible is how do we get into a right relationship with God?
37:19
SPEAKER_00: And it's like we build a unified culture, we build success through a political kingdom.
37:24
SPEAKER_00: This is the story of the Old Testament.
37:27
SPEAKER_00: And now today, if that story were played out, it would be we pursue personal autonomy, and in that we'll find God.
37:34
SPEAKER_00: But God in Christ has been our propitiation, that he's been our mercy, that the punishment for our sin has been laid on him.
37:43
SPEAKER_00: But the good news of the gospel is not just that you now have this personal and private relationship with God, not just that Jesus is your substitute, but that Jesus is our substitute.
37:52
SPEAKER_00: Do you realize that that's part of the good news of Jesus Christ?
37:55
SPEAKER_00: Is not just that Jesus is your substitute, but that Jesus is our substitute.
37:59
SPEAKER_00: That you've been adopted into a family where you have brothers and sisters, and this is what Paul says.
38:04
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.
38:10
SPEAKER_00: This is your true worship.
38:13
SPEAKER_00: Don't be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
38:20
SPEAKER_00: And the next thing he's gonna go on to say is that you need other people, and other people might just be able to help you do that.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: Let me close with three more commitments.
38:29
SPEAKER_00: I know I've given you a lot of threes, but three more commitments.
38:32
SPEAKER_00: If you want to be someone that lives into this, let me give you three quick commitments.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: Go to your city group and participate and be known and like stumble and make a mistake and say something other people think is weird and just try it out.
38:45
SPEAKER_00: Number two, go to salt, which you're all here, nice.
38:49
SPEAKER_00: But I think we sometimes have this like uh salt is a convenience play.
38:54
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just wondering, like, what if Tuesday nights became the thing where you actually began to see what God has for you, not just for tomorrow, but for the rest of the next 40 years of your life?
39:04
SPEAKER_00: Third one, find a church and commit to it.
39:06
SPEAKER_00: We'd love it to be storyline, it doesn't have to be storyline, but God's plan for the world is a local church of a local multi-generational church of believers.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: We'd love to have you at Storyline, but if not, we'd love for you to commit to a local church because I think in doing so, you might just become the type of person that knows what God has for you.
39:21
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for you.
39:23
SPEAKER_00: God, we want to know you.
39:25
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to love you.
39:32
SPEAKER_00: But God, we need to acknowledge that we can't do it.
39:35
SPEAKER_00: That seeking our own feelings, our own intentions, our own thoughts, over promises and under-delivers, and so help us to reject individualism and seek one another.
39:48
SPEAKER_00: Seek an identity that's been given to us in Christ Jesus that now makes us not only saved, but saved into a body of believers that help us to know you more and love you and help this room to commit to that body.
40:01
SPEAKER_00: We love you and praise in Jesus' name.
40:03
SPEAKER_00: Amen.