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Dealing with Self: The Call to Biblical Change · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to the podcast Formed Thinking.
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Today. We are taking a rigorous deep
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dive, tailored specifically for you, into a concept that turns
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modern psychology completely upside down.
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Oh, totally upside down. Right, Because, you know,
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usually when you talk about treating a physical illness,
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there is an assumption that the medicine you're prescribed is
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actually designed to cure the disease.
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Sure. Yeah.
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You go to a doctor with severe bacterial infection, they hand
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you a broad spectrum antibiotic, and you just trust that the pill
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is engineered to eradicate the bacteria.
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I mean, that's the whole point of medicine, right?
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But imagine if you discover that the medicine the entire world
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has been swallowing to cure its psychological ailments is, well,
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the actual pathogen causing the sickness in the 1st place.
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Yeah, you are diligently taking your daily dose and with every
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swallow the infection just grows stronger.
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That is a startling scenario. I mean, you'd be feeding the
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disease every single time you tried to treat it.
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Exactly. Precisely.
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You'd be caught in this perpetual cycle of worsening
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symptoms and, you know, increasing dosages and.
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That is the actual situation we are scrutinizing today.
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We're looking at lesson 9 from John C Brozier's Self
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Confrontation, a manual for in depth Biblical discipleship.
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Yeah, brilliant text. The specific topic is dealing
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with self, and our mission for this session is pretty clear.
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We are going to completely deconstruct the world's wisdom
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regarding self esteem, self love, and self actualization.
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Huge undertaking. It really is.
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And we're going to replace those cultural assumptions with the
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rigorous scriptural view of denying oneself.
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I think it's critical to set the tone right at the start.
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Here, the biblical perspective concerning self runs completely
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slightly contrary to what modern culture screams at you daily.
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Oh 100%, it's night and day. The conversation today has to
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clearly contrast the natural human philosophy with God's
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Word, and we were relying entirely on the provided text to
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do so. I mean, the wisdom of the world
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says that to find happiness you have to look inward, elevate
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your own desires, and protect yourself.
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Esteem at all costs. Right.
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Preserve the ego. Yes, but the scriptural view
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insists that this inward focus is the root of the disease.
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Let's start with what Broger identifies as the supreme
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challenge. The text points us straight to
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the anchor verse for this entire concept, which is Luke 9.2324.
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Classic passage. It reads, If anyone wishes to
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come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross
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daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his
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life shall lose it. But whoever loses his life for
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my sake, he is the one who will save it.
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And you know, when we read Take Up Your Cross today, modern
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culture often interprets that as dealing with a tough boss or
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having a bad knee. Like an inconvenience, right?
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But in the 1st century context, a cross was not an
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inconvenience. It was a brutal instrument of
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execution it. Meant death.
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Yeah, denying self is not some self improvement strategy, it is
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an execution of the ego. So why does this text identify
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dying to self as the supreme challenge you will face in
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making Christ honoring changes? Well, it's supreme challenge
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because it strikes at the very core of our fallen human nature.
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Principle 33 from the manual provides a really fascinating
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insight here. OK, lay it out.
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It states that no one actually hates himself.
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Wait, really? Yeah, rather, human beings
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naturally love, cherish, and nourish themselves, which aligns
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with Ephesians 5.29. OK.
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So the core problem of humanity is not that you pay too little
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attention to yourself self, but that you pay entirely too much
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attention to yourself. The natural inclination is self
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preservation, self exultation. Your default setting is to make
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sure your needs are met, your feelings are validated, and your
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reputation is protected. So it's all about me.
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Completely so. Denying yourself and taking up
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an instrument of execution is completely contrary to every
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instinct of the flesh. OK, if both boasting and pity
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are just two sides of the ego coin, it seems like the only way
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out isn't better self esteem but zero self esteem.
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Complete self forgetfulness. Yes, absolutely.
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But wait, let me let me push back on that a little bit.
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Society constantly insists that things like self belittlement
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and self pity are clear signs of low self esteem.
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We're told that people who put themselves down or people who
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struggle with severe insecurities actually hate
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themselves. They need a boost in self love.
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How does the text classify those behaviors?
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And that is where the analysis gets piercingly accurate.
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It strips away all the psychological jargon.
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Oh, I. Like.
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That it clarifies itself. Belittling, self exultation and
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self pity all stem from the exact same root, a massive
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preoccupation with self. I mean think about it, whether
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you are boasting about your achievements to a room full of
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people or you're wallowing in self pity alone in your bedroom,
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who is the central character in your mental narrative?
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Oh, you are. Right you are.
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Self pity is essentially a frustrated form of self love.
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Wow, frustrated self love. Yes, it's the feeling that you
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deserve better than what God has sovereignly provided.
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It focuses inwardly on your own perceived deficits or your own
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greatness, rather than looking upwardly toward God and worship
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or outwardly toward loving others.
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That reframes insecurity entirely.
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I mean, that means that when I'm obsessing over how awkward I
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sounded in a meeting, I'm not suffering from a lack of self
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love. No, not at all.
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I'm suffering from an over abundance of self focus.
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I'm demanding that people perceive me highly.
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So if wallowing in self pity is a sin of self focus, and
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boasting is a sin of self focus, what does the right perspective
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actually look like? A proper view of self only comes
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from understanding who you are in Christ.
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According to the text, you must recognize that you are totally
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inadequate in your own. Strength totally inadequate,
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yeah. I'd say the 64.6 makes it clear
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that all our righteous deeds are like filthy garments.
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You cannot muster up enough strength to live God's way,
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right? However, the counterbalance is
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that God is actively involved in your life as a believer.
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He specifically chooses to use your natural inadequacies to
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display his strength to the world.
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That's First Corinthians chapter 1, right?
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Spot on. God takes the weak things of the
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world to shame the strong. That shifts the entire paradigm
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for you. The world says find your hitting
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strengths and amplify them so you can be independent.
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Yeah, that's the worldly message.
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But the biblical text says acknowledge your total
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inadequacy and watch God use that specific weakness to
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display his might. It takes the pressure off you to
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be the hero of your own story. It really does.
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You are free to be weak because you're standing does not depend
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on your performance. Your natural inadequacies are
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not obstacles to God. They are the very platform He
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uses to demonstrate His grace. That is so freeing.
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Because if you were entirely sufficient, you'd have no need
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to rely on him at all. Now, this friction between the
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biblical worldview and the modern psychological worldview
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leads directly into how we misdiagnose our problems.
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The text lists out what it calls man's mistaken explanations for
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a low view of self. Yeah, we always want a
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scapegoat. Right when people feel
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miserable, they instinctively look around for something to
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blame. The manual lists common excuses
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like poor surroundings, physical handicaps, a lack of money,
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unfulfilling work or even a nagging spouse.
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And notice what all those excuses share.
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They're all external. Yes, they are all external
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circumstances. The natural human mind looks at
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its own dissatisfaction and assumes the problem is located
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outside of its own heart. It's always someone else's
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fault. The logic is, if I just had more
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money, a better job, or a more supportive spouse, my internal
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turmoil would vanish. My unhappiness is just a result
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of my environment. And because the world diagnosis
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the problem externally, it offers these feudal secular
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methods for building up the self to cope with that environment.
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Which is the medicine that makes you sicker?
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Exactly the text list these feudal worldly solutions and
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they sound like the agenda for a modern corporate Wellness
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retreat. Methods like discovering the God
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within, practicing visualization a yourself, blame shifting, and
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getting in touch with yourself. The text points out that these
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methods lead directly to death, citing Proverbs 14 point Wolf.
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There is a way which seems right to a man, but it's end is the
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way of death. That's a heavy warning.
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It is these worldly solutions are futile because they double
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down on the original pathogen we discussed earlier.
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The self focus. Right.
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If your sickness is self focus, practicing visualization to
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manifest your own desires or asserting your own will over
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others is like throwing gasoline on a fire.
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Yeah, just feeds the flesh it. Inflates the ego, which is the
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very thing destroying your peace.
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So if we accept that human value isn't intrinsic and that self
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focus is a pathogen, that completely disrupt how modern
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churches handle counseling and guilt.
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Oh, this is a massive disruption.
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This is where the text gets incredibly challenging, because
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it shifts the critique away from the secular world and calls out
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unbiblical viewpoints actively taught in churches today.
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Infiltrating the pews, basically.
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Yeah, it lists several distinct false teachings.
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Let's examine these closely. The first false idea is the
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teaching that you must love yourself before loving others.
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I mean, I hear this everywhere. You can't pour from an empty
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cup. That idea sounds highly logical
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to modern ears, but it completely ignores John 15.1213.
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How so? Christ commands us to love one
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another as He loved us, laying down His life for His friends.
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Christ did not command self love as a prerequisite for outward
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love. He modeled self sacrifice.
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The natural human already loves himself as we establish from
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Ephesians 5. The biblical command is to deny
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that self love, crucify it, and direct your affection toward God
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and your neighbor. So the empty cup analogy is just
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broken from the start. It assumes you are the source of
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the water. Scripture teaches that God is
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the fountain of living water and you are simply the conduit.
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That is such a crucial distinction.
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OK, the second false teaching is equally pervasive.
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The text highlights the idea that being created in God's
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image makes you inherently worthy of God's grace or of
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infinite value. This one is subtle but very
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dangerous. Break it down for us.
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While being created in God's image gives humanity intrinsic
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dignity and separates us from the animal Kingdom, it does not
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make you inherently worthy of grace.
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Right, because grace is a gift. Grace, by definition, is
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unmarried favor. If you were worthy of it, it
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would be a wage, not a gift. Romans 5.8 right?
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Yes, this false teaching ignores Romans 5.8, which clearly shows
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that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners.
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Grace is given despite our absolute unworthiness, not
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because we possess some infinite inherent value that God was
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obligated to rescue. So if God saved us because we
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were so valuable. Then the cross was not an act of
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mercy, it was just God paying a debt he owed to our greatness.
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Oh wow, that completely changes how we view salvation.
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It removes any ground for boasting whatsoever.
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Absolutely then. OK, the third false teaching the
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text calls out is the idea that pastors shouldn't talk about
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sin, hell, or eternal separation, but should only seek
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to build people out. We see a lot of ministries built
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entirely on positive affirmation.
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Yeah, the feel good approach. But that approach ignores the
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severity of God's holiness and the terrifying reality of human
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depravity. The text points to Ezekiel 33
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and Luke 3 on this. It does.
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You cannot truly appreciate the good news of the gospel until
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you comprehend the reality of God's wrath against sin.
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Trying to build people up by ignoring sin is like a doctor
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trying to make a terminal patient feel better by refusing
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to mention the cancer. It's theological malpractice.
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The patient feels great right up until the moment they die.
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True love warns the patient of the disease so they will accept
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the cure. That's a sobering thought.
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And that leads right into the fourth false teaching, which
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might be the most common counseling probe of our era.
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What's that? The modern concept that you must
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forgive yourself to find peace. The text argues that this phrase
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obscures the reality of Christ's cross, and I want to pause here
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because telling someone to forgive themselves is the
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default response when someone is plagued by past mistakes.
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Why is that concept so problematic?
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Well, first of all, the phrase forgive yourself is nowhere in
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scripture. Nowhere.
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Nowhere. Forgiveness is a transaction
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between an offender and the offended party.
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When you sin, your primary offense is against a holy God,
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David says in Psalm 51. Against you, you only I have
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sinned. So the offense is vertical.
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Yes, Christ's work on the cross secures that forgiveness for the
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believer. We call this substitutionary
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atonement, Christ substituting himself in your place, absorbing
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the wrath of God that your sins deserved, so that God's justice
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is entirely satisfied. Just to make sure we are totally
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clear on that, substitutionary atonement means the debt is paid
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in full. God is no longer angry at the
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believer because Christ took the punishment.
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Right, it's finished. So when a person claims they're
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struggling to forgive themselves for a past sin, they're
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essentially saying that Christ's substitutionary death was
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sufficient to satisfy the wrath of God Almighty, but it is not
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quite good enough to satisfy their own personal standards.
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Oh my goodness. It sets the individual up as a
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higher, more exacting judge than God himself.
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That's incredibly arrogant. It is an incredibly arrogant
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stance masquerading as humility. If the judge of the universe is
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declared you forgiven based on Christ's blood, refusing to
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accept that forgiveness is an insult to the cross.
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Setting yourself up as a higher judge than God.
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That cuts right through the psychological jargon.
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You aren't struggling with low self esteem, you are struggling
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with a pride that demands a higher payment than the blood of
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Christ. That is the reality of it.
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So, synthesizing all of this theology, if the world's methods
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fail, how does a believer actually find contentment?
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The text demonstrates that contentment in all circumstances
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relies entirely on an obedient response to God in your
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thoughts, words, and actions. Not on fixing your environment.
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Right. It does not rely on fulfilling
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your own perceived needs, achieving self actualization, or
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arranging your environment to suit your preferences.
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Contentment is the fruit of obedience.
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Resting in what God provides. Resting in the sovereign
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provision of God, trusting that He knows exactly what you need,
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even when what He provides laws like a hardship.
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When you fail to rest in that sovereign provision, you
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naturally start trying to control your own environment,
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and this leads directly to the specific sins that breed from
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self focus. The outward symptoms.
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Right. The text transitions into the
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subtle traps of envy, jealousy, covetousness, and greed.
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It defines the specific sins not as minor emotional struggles,
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but as actions that directly question God's sovereign work
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and provision in your life. That definition alters
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everything. We often treat envy or jealousy
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as minor character flaws. You know, just natural human
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reactions to someone else getting a promotion or buying a
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nicer house. Yeah.
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We excuse it, but. The text elevates the severity
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of these sins. Envy and jealousy are not
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interpersonal squabbles. They are theological accusations
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leveled against the throne of God.
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That is intense. To make this concrete, the text
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provides precise real world manifestations of these sins.
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Let me read a few examples straight from the manual.
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Go for it first. Anyone with half a brain could
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have figured that out. She just happened to do it
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first. That is an example of belittling
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someone's ability. Look at the underlying mechanism
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there to protect your own ego and soothe your own insecurity.
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You diminish the accomplishment of another person.
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It's tearing them down to build yourself up.
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It's a defense mechanism rooted entirely in self exaltation.
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If her accomplishment is genuine, you feel smaller, so
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you attack the legitimacy of her achievement to elevate yourself.
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OK, here's another one. Sure, they're rich, but did you
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ever wonder how they managed to get that much money?
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The text identifies this as belittling deeds and comparing
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yourself with others. Yeah, it implies that their
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success must be illegitimate, which makes you feel superior
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and your relative lack of success.
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You are comforting yourself by assassinating their character.
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You just assume corruption. You assume corruption on their
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part to justify your own financial situation.
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And one more You think she's beautiful?
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Do you know how long it takes her to get that way every
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morning? This is belittling physical
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appearance. Again, it's an attempt to tear
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down another person's provision from God to soothe your own
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insecurities. Let's scrutinize the underlying
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theological issue here, because it's massive.
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When you complain about your circumstances or compare
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yourself with others, you are directly challenging God's
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sovereignty. Absolutely.
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Psalm 75.6 to 7 indicates that exaltation comes from God.
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He is the judge. He puts down 1 and exalts
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another. So it's not random.
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No, promotion does not come from the East or the West, it comes
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from the Lord. If God ordains all things,
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envying another person's provision is actually an
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accusation against God's goodness toward you.
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Yes, If you believe God is absolutely sovereign, then you
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must accept that the other person's success, wealth, or
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abilities were granted by God, right?
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Furthermore, your current circumstances, including your
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struggles, were also ordained by God.
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Therefore, your envy is a declaration that God made a
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mistake. You are telling the Creator of
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the universe that He distributed His gifts incorrectly, that He
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was unfair, and that you know better than He does what you
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truly need to be happy. That makes a passing thought of
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envy a terrifying sin to harbor. You aren't just annoyed with
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your neighbor, you are putting God on trial.
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You are sitting in the judge's seat.
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The text lists out the behavioral signs of this envy in
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action. It talks about practicing 1
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upmanship, avoiding people, people who receive honor,
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demanding an equal measure for yourself, or pretending outward
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happiness while brooding in private.
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That last one is particularly insidious.
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Pretending outward happiness while brooding privately.
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You smile and congratulate a Co worker on their promotion.
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You bring them a coffee, but inside your stomach is tied in
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knots and you are consumed with resentment.
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It's so common though. It is, but the text points out
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that this violates Romans 12.9, which calls for love to be
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without hypocrisy. You are maintaining a polite,
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socially acceptable facade while harboring venomous bitterness,
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which is the very definition of a self focused hypocritical
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heart. This brings up a crucial
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distinction I want to ask you about.
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The Bible describes God as a jealous God, specifically in
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Exodus 34 point R4. If jealousy is this terrible sin
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of self focus and accusation, how can a holy God be jealous?
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Is God guilty of a moral failing?
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That's a great question. The text explains that the
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difference lies entirely in the focus and the motivation.
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OK, unpack that. God's jealousy focuses on His
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absolute holiness, His honor, and the purity of His people.
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He is jealous for the worship that is rightfully His because
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He's the only being in the universe who actually deserves
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it. So it's a righteous protection
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of truth. Exactly.
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If God were to point us to worship anything other than
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Himself, He would be pointing us toward a lie which would make
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Him unholy human. Sinful.
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Jealousy, on the other hand, focuses purely on pleasing self
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and harming others. So God's jealousy protects the
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truth and brings life to His people.
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And human jealousy is rooted in selfishness and brings
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destruction. So the action itself isn't the
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problem. It all comes down to the
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motivation of the heart. Always.
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And that reality leads us to one of the most fascinating
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linguistic anomalies pointed out in the text.
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The manual has a section called The Vocabulary of the Heart,
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Dealing with Pleasing God versus Pleasing Self.
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I love this section. It reveals that in the original
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language of the New Testament, the exact same Greek words are
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translated entirely differently based on whether the motivation
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of the person is pleasing self or pleasing God.
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This translation principle acts as a mirror.
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It reveals the true nature of our psychological drives.
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Let's look at the examples. The first one is worry versus
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concern. The word for worry or anxiety is
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a self-centered response showing a lack of trust in God.
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We see this condemned in Matthew 6, where Christ tells us not to
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be anxious about what we will eat or wear.
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Right, do not be anxious for tomorrow.
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But here's the catch. That identical original Greek
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word is translated as concern or care for when the focus is on
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the welfare of others and God's glory.
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Wait, it's the exact same Greek word.
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The exact same word. For instance, in First
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Corinthians 12.25, Paul says members of the church body
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should have the same care or concern for one another.
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So the mental energy is the same, but the direction changes
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everything. Linger on that for a second.
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Think about what worry physically feels like in your
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body. The tight chest.
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Right. The racing thoughts, the
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inability to sleep. If that intense mental energy is
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directed inward to protect myself from a future I cannot
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control, it is the sin of worry. But if I take that exact same
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physiological Dr., that same intense mental focus, and direct
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it outward to care for the needs of my church family, it becomes
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godly concern. That is a brilliant way to frame
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it. The raw material of the emotion
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is neutral. The target of the emotion
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dictates its righteousness. That's incredible.
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Let's take another examle from the text Fear versus Reference.
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Living in fear of what men think of you or what they can do to
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you is a self focused sin. It paralyzes you.
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Fearing man is a snare. Yet that exact same root word is
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used to describe reverencing the Lord in a holy life.
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Fearing God is commanded as the beginning of wisdom.
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Then the text brings up covetousness and lust versus
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desire. Lust is a sinful consuming
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desire for self gratification, demanding something God has
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forbidden. Right?
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But that same word is used by the Apostle Paul in Philippians
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1.23 when he talks about having the desire to depart and be with
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Christ. Because it's an intense driving
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yearning, when that yearning is aimed at possessing what God has
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withheld to satisfy the flesh. It is the sin of lust or
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covetousness. But when it's aimed at God?
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When that intense yearning is aimed at pleasing God and
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edifying others, it is a holy, righteous desire.
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And the final example is jealousy versus zeal.
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Fleshly jealousy is destructive and selfish, tearing down others
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to build yourself up. Yet it shares the same original
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word as zeal, which is an earnest desire to please God.
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We see this clearly when Christ clears the temple of the money
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changers. The disciples remember the
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verse, Zeal for your house will consume me.
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It is an intense, burning passion for God's honor,
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completely devoid of self-interest.
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Completely outward focused. I want to use a metaphor here to
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explain the mechanics of this because it is so vital to
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understand. Think of these human drives,
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these intense emotional energies like desire, fear or mental
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focus, like a magnifying glass. OK, a magnifying glass.
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If you hold a magnifying glass and turn it inward, angling it
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to focus the sun's rays onto your own arm, you are just going
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to burn a hole in yourself. Ouch.
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That is worry, lust and fleshly jealousy.
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You are inflicting damage on your own soul through self
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focus, but if you take that exact same magnifying glass and
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turn it outward, angling the rays onto a pile of kindling,
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you can start a fire that brings warmth and light to everyone
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around you. I love that.
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That is godly concern, righteous desire and zeal.
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The glass is the same, the sunlight is the same.
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The direction of the focus determines whether it brings
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destruction or life. That captures the psychological
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mechanics of the text perfectly. Your desires, your passions,
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your concerns, they are all instruments of focus.
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And who is aiming? Them right When wielded by a
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heart focused on pleasing self, they become the weapons of
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anxiety and envy. When yielded to the Holy Spirit
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and focused on pleasing God, those same faculties become the
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instruments of holy affection. Now, all of this theology sounds
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incredibly solid on paper. It's easy to agree with a
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metaphor or totally. But the text doesn't let us stay
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in the realm of theory. It forces us to put it to the
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test with a real world case study.
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This is where it gets tough. Let's look at Mary's situation.
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Here is the scenario provided in the text.
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Mary is a professing believer. Her unbelieving husband Tom
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suddenly leaves her after a bitter argument.
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He walks out on her and their three young children.
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A. Nightmare scenario.
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Mary comes to a fellow believer weeping, frantic and highly
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emotional. She claims she has been a Good
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Wife and cannot understand how this could happen to her.
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She admits she is bitter and wants to get even with Tom.
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This is where the rubber meets the road.
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It is very easy to read a book about denying self, but when
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your spouse abandons you, the reality of your functional
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theology is instantly exposed. Just to pause on that, by
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functional theology, you mean the difference between what Mary
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claims to believe on a Sunday morning when life is fine,
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versus what her panic and bitterness actually dictate on a
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Tuesday afternoon when her world collapses, right?
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Correct. Her functional theology is what
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she actually relies on when the pressure is applied.
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OK, let me push back hard here because I think a lot of
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listeners will struggle with this.
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Go ahead. From a purely human perspective,
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Mary is entirely the victim in the scenario.
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Her husband abandoned her. He shattered a covenant.
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He left her as a single mother to three children.
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It's horrific. Telling a betrayed, traumatized
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woman that her reaction reveals a dangerous self focus sounds
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perilously close to victim blaming.
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How does the text protect against spiritual abuse here?
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Shouldn't we just validate her feelings of bitterness and
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anger? Validating her bitterness would
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be offering her the world's medicine, which we established
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in the beginning is actually the pathogen.
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Right, the pathogen. It is vital to understand that
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the text is not minimizing Tom's sin.
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Tom's actions are grievous, entirely sinful, and he will be
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held accountable by God. Mary is a victim of his sin.
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So we aren't dismissing what he did.
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Not at all. However, we have to analyze
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Mary's response from God's view, not a human psychological view.
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Mary's reaction, her bitterness, her desire for revenge and
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specifically her complaint of how could this happen to me when
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I was a Good Wife reveals a self focus that will destroy her if
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left unchecked. Addressing her response is not
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victim blaming, it is a rescue mission.
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You are saying she is evaluating her trauma based on her own
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perceived merit rather than God's sovereignty.
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Exactly that her statement I was a Good Wife implies an
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unbiblical theology of works. How so?
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She believes her good behavior should have guaranteed a
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comfortable life. She operated under a secret
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contract with God. I perform well.
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You prevent tragedy. Oh wow, so it's a transaction?
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Right. She is trying to find
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contentment in her circumstances in her own merit, rather than
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trusting God's absolute sovereignty.
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She's evaluating her tragedy through the lens of what she
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thinks she deserves, rather than looking at her situation as an
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opportunity to respond in obedience to God.
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And the text warns about a severe downward spiral if Mary
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continues in the self focused response.
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If she stays locked in this bitterness, what happens to her
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mind and body? The text outlines A devastating
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trajectory. If she continues to focus on how
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unfairly she's been treated, she opens the door to severe
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depression, paralyzing anxiety, physical breakdown, or living as
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a recluse. It just rots you from the
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inside. Bitterness is an acid that
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destroys its container. By focusing entirely on getting
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even and wallowing in the injustice of her situation,
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she's effectively choosing a path of self destruction.
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Her husband Sin wounded her, but her own bitterness will kill
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her. So how do we give Mary true hope
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if validating her bitterness destroys her and minimizing her
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pain is cruel? What is the biblical
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intervention? How do you counsel someone in
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that level of pain? True hope involves helping Mary
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see God's view of her problem. You would gently guide her back
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to Principal 38 in the manual. Or remind us of that one.
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She needs to realize that God is sovereign over this agonizing
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situation. He has her best interests at
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heart. He will accomplish His purposes
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in her life through this trial and He will equip her for every
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circumstance. She has to look up, not inward.
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Yes, she must transition her focus from how could Tom do this
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to me to how can I honor God in my response to this trial.
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She has to surrender her right to a comfortable life and trust
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that God is at work in the wreckage.
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That is a staggering shift. It demands that she deny
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herself, take up her cross, and trust God in the darkest valley
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of her life. It requires her to drop the
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magnifying glass that is burning a hole in her own heart.
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Which brings us to the final major section of our text, the
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discipline of change. Yes, because the manual does not
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just offer theory, and it doesn't just analyze case
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studies. It demands a daily structured
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response to retrain the mind. This is where the seven day
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homework process comes in. The manual recognizes that you
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cannot simply wish away deeply ingrained habits of self focus.
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You don't read a chapter and instantly become selfless.
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If it only it were that easy. Right.
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It requires disciplined active obedience.
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One of the primary tools the manual uses is the Victory over
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Failures worksheet. Let's talk about that worksheet.
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Believers are instructed to meticulously track their
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unbiblical thoughts, words, and actions throughout the day.
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You don't just passively let your mind wander, you take every
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thought captive. Let's explain the actual
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mechanism behind this, because honestly, it sounds exhausting.
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The text specifies giving special attention to tracking
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sins like self pity, self belittlement and self
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gratification. You literally write down the
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moments when you catch yourself brooding over an offense or
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comparing yourself to a neighbor.
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How does this daily tracking actually rewire the spiritual
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habits of the mind? It creates a constant state of
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self examination that interrupts your default neural pathways.
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Interrupts them. Yeah, when a thought of self
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pity rises, your natural habit is to indulge it, to let it run
29:48
its course and produce negative emotions.
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By forcing yourself to write it down on the worksheet, you
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create friction. You stop it in its tracks.
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You arrest the thought, you label it as sin, and along with
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tracking your failures, there is a rigorous requirement for
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memorization as a defense. The homework mandates memorizing
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Luke 9.2324 and Romans 6.1213. Which commands us not to let sin
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reign in our mortal bodies. And the text instructs you to
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carry memory verse cards with you everywhere.
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I want to highlight the physical friction of this practice.
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When the thought of envy arises because a Co worker gets praise,
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you don't just try to suppress the thought.
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You physically pull out a card. Yes.
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You pull out a card and confront the lie immediately with the
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memorized word of God. You replace the self focused
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thought with a God focused truth.
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Making Christ honoring changes requires this rigorous daily
30:39
routine. It proves that shifting away
30:42
from pleasing self is an active, ongoing obedience of faith, not
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a passive emotional shift. It's work.
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It is work. You don't just attend a seminar,
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feel a warm emotional glow and slowly stop being self-centered.
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You train your mind day by day, hour by hour.
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It is the consistent application of Scripture to your daily
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routine, replacing the world's wisdom with God's truth until
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obedience becomes your new default setting.
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Let's synthesize everything we have covered today.
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The core lesson from John C Broger's text is unmistakable.
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The wisdom of this world leads to death by convincing you to
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obsess over yourself, esteem your rights and your perceived
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needs. It hands you a magnifying glass
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and tells you to focus the sun's heat entirely on yourself.
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Such a dangerous practice. True contentment only arrives
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when you recognize your total inadequacy, trust the absolute
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sovereignty of God over every single detail of your life,
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including your deepest traumas, and take up your cross daily to
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follow Christ. I will leave you with a final
31:42
thought to ponder as we conclude our analysis.
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What's that? If every twinge of self pity,
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every moment of envy, and every complaint about your
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circumstances is actually a direct theological accusation
31:53
against the sovereign provision of God, how will that alter the
31:56
way you react to the very next inconvenience you face today?
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That is the mirror we all need to look into, rather than the
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magnifying glass the world hands us.
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We want to thank you for joining this rigorous deep dive into the
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text. We trust that the scriptural
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truths scrutinized today will bear real fruit in your
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thoughts, your words, and your actions.