Joy of Culture vs the Joy of Christ -- How do we be happy?? -- Part 1 /// In Rest

Discover the contrast between cultural and Christ-like joy as we explore the impact of desires, appearances, and the need for recognition on our happiness. Unearth how these factors can trap us in a cycle of temporary gratification, and learn about the profound connection between pride, insecurity, humility, love, and authentic joy. Join us for a self-reflective journey towards experiencing the genuine joy Christ offers, breaking free from the pursuit of short-lived desires and enhancing our relationships.

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Transcript

Noah: 0:08

Hello and welcome to In Rest Podcast podcast with Noah James Wiebe. I am your host, noah, and today we are going to be talking about joy. Specifically, we're going to be talking about the difference between culture's joy and Christ's joy. So culture's joy versus Christ's joy is an amazing topic. But before I get into anything, I want to let you know that we have a one-day free crucible masterclass coming up Saturday, october 21st, and I want you to be a part of it. If you want to be joining me, youtube live on Saturday, october 21st, get your name in the list by registering for that event. You can go to the description here on Spotify or wherever you're listening to this podcast or if you're watching it on YouTube, well done, and go ahead and check the link in the description. You can also go to my Instagram in restinsta and you can either send a DM saying crucible or you could just check out the link in the bio and sign up that way. But without further ado, here is the episode. Okay, so Christ's joy versus the joy of culture.

Noah: 1:21

When you think about the joy of culture, you probably think of something similar to a carnival yeah, you might think of a ferris wheel or the look of the lights reflecting off of a port or harbor where an exhibition is being held. Maybe you imagine something more. Maybe you think about a movie or a TV show. Maybe you think about Jerry Maguire in that scene where he says you complete me, whatever it is. You might think of culture's joy as an idea of wish fulfillment. Wish fulfillment, it's also this sort of a gratification or satisfaction of a short term, usually lustful desire of some kind. And I want to say lustful I don't necessarily mean sexual. What I mean is also lust in the sense of I must have it now. Oswald Chambers actually defines lust as not just sexual lust but as an insistence that I have the gratification of my desires met right now. My desires, my preferences, my expectations, I want them now, and that's lust.

Noah: 2:33

You know, anything of a lust of the eyes or the lust of the flesh or the pride of life would be something that first John actually talks about as somewhat to the core of earthly or worldly joy he talks about. I'm not sure if he talks about, I think it's actually Paul talks about it in 1 Corinthians or 2 Corinthians. But worldly joy or worldly sorrow, rather, is another topic that is similar or maybe on the same vein, or the opposite side of the same coin, where worldly sorrow leads to death but godly sorrow leads to repentance and life. So there's always this tension and divide between life and death when it comes to the contrary nature of the flesh to the spirit or to the things of this world to the things of God. And so when you're looking at worldly joy, it's basically the same tension, it's the same problem, it's the same dilemma. So if you're looking at worldly joy, you're looking at the satisfaction of the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life.

Noah: 3:33

If you look at hubris as a general theme in our culture, this constant, unending ache for accomplishing our ambitions, meeting goals, being productive, it's actually exhausting. Hustle culture is something that this upcoming generation, generation Z, finds nearly repulsive nearly not completely, but nearly repulsive. It's to this point where there's actually this increasing divide between millennials and Gen Z, because they just don't see eye to eye on living the hustle culture way. And so if you look at the pride of life and the satisfaction of the pride of life, that's what you're looking at, and I won't lie to you, I've fallen into this trap too. So if you're a Christian and you've struggled with ambitions and being a workaholic or whatever else you've looked to work to provide you a sense of peace, you know what that hubris feels like. It feels really good to get something accomplished and actually it releases a lot of dopamine in our brains when we accomplish a goal. And so it's not a bad thing to accomplish goals and, of course, god's people have accomplished many good goals, and even God talks about how a noble man plans noble things and is rewarded for it. But when you look at the hubris of humanity expressed in today's hustle culture, it is not something that leads to wholesomeness, joy. It's not something that leads to, you know, an encouragement of one's family, even if it leads to the acclamation of a family or the acquisition of a family. Even if someone thinks about, you know, of gaining a family as an ambition, sometimes that's done from a really selfish, self-centered place and then, once they get there, they have no idea how to handle a family, they have no idea how to take care of one, because it's all about them. You know.

Noah: 5:24

I think about the story of Garrett White, who is somewhat of a sensationalist coach guy who is an entrepreneur whatever online entrepreneur and he you know he talked about his initial journey of struggling with what he called the pit, this moment of, you know, realizing that he is in rock bottom right now. He had had an affair, he had built multiple businesses and now they've all fallen apart around him. His wife and his children have left him and he's left with nothing. And all of that came after years of being successful from the world's eyes, you know, and that. But regardless, he had this mix of boredom and burnout that ended up him. Ended up with him sitting on his, you know, sitting in his sofa chair, drinking, realizing that he'd lost. He'd lost. Now, that's not to say that his coaching program is evil or anything else. I'm sure that it's really cool. Wake up, warrior, I think it's what it's called.

Noah: 6:15

But the point of it is that, you know, hubris leads us down that path to a pit. Pride leads us to a pit almost every time. Remember that, or write it down. Maybe, if you're in Glenda, do so folding laundry or driving home from work today, don't actually stop to. I mean, you could stop to write something down if you're driving, you know what I'm saying be safe, but anyway, that's something good to write down. Pride always leads us to a pit nearly every time. So when it comes to pride or hubris, that's obviously an issue. It's problematic. First, john talks about it. Obviously, the whole Bible has stuff to say about pride. You know, pride's a problem that's called, you know, one of the seven deadly sins, pride. But pride is not just about, you know, exalting myself over somebody else or a comparison game. It's also just about being self-centered.

Noah: 7:05

Cs Lewis defined humility as not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less. Get your head around that one. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less or forgetting oneself. Anne Voskamp, in her book Waymaker, actually talked about how joy, the key to finding meaningful, true happiness, is found in forgetting of oneself. True joy, or godly joy, is found in the opposite of pride. It's found in humility.

Noah: 7:37

Love is found in humility and interestingly about both, the first Corinthians 13 definition of love love is patient, love is kind, love is so on and so forth. It mentions specifically love is not proud, it's not boastful, it's not rude, love is not self-serving meaning or in another way meaning. Love is not insistent on its own way. Love does not use ambition as an excuse for tearing others down or not prioritizing others or seeking one's interest over another's. And then, if Philippians, chapter two talks about that as well, I mean when Paul is talking about hey, make my joy complete by being of one mind, and yadda, yadda, yadda, he says specifically do not look only for your own interests, but look out for the interests of others. You all must have the same mindset of Christ Jesus who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but rather emptied himself, becoming nothing, taking on the very form of a servant and in the end took on obedience to death, even death on a cross, which is the most humiliating way to die fathomable according to human beings up until that time. So humility, to Paul and the other writers in the scriptures, is like crucial.

Noah: 8:59

The church fathers talks about humility, talk about humility, and every Christian spiritual writer worth their salt, henry Nalin or John Eldridge there's a guy I think it's Augustine maybe, or someone else that said that the four, no, the three main virtues of Christianity is humility, humility, humility. So I mean humility is crucial, but why? Why? Because it's so interconnected with love. I mean, if you are living a life of humility, you're living a life of love. If you're living a life of rest. If you're living in rest, you're living in humility. It's meaning that you're setting down your work in order to prioritize Christ and others, christ, the gospel and other people, not insisting that you be the one to be exalted before others, to always be the smartest person in the room or to look like the most smart person in the room.

Noah: 9:51

Really, the pride of life leads us into insecurity, or insecurity leads us into the pride of life. Insecurity is deeply related to pride just as much as humility is deeply related to love. If you are insecure, you are prideful. My friend, I am sorry to break it to you and I'm just. I've been just the same way. I remember when I first started at my job at a Christian university, my supervisor, who had met me a few months prior, said to me that when we first met, I'd sat down across from her little work table desk thing in her office and she said yeah, I saw it. On the first day I met you Like this guy who's done a lot of good things or whatever, but you're super insecure and I was. I totally was.

Noah: 10:34

Now I'd come out of a season of like really deep toxicity where I was not prioritizing my family. I was burning myself out during COVID, to, you know, make up for stuff at work, and I was taking on other people's responsibility so that I could look like I was doing my job. There was a lot of insecurity but also big damage to my confidence. So everywhere I went I just carried this like cloak of insecurity and non-confidence everywhere I went. But that was prideful, you know. It was actually self-centered to the point where I never stopped thinking about myself. I only thought about me, you know, and that's not to say I never stopped. I mean, of course, I stopped thinking about myself Sometimes. I had a lot of joys in my life in that season.

Noah: 11:15

But what I mean is, or what I'm getting at, is that, like anyone, everyone goes through that and insecurity can be rooted back to feeling unloved in their past, right and so like. But you see that right, see that relationship, see that correlation. People who struggle with insecurity tend to not have a secure attachment to their parents or to people that were meant to love them. They have a hard time building friendships and relationships. That may seem like a narcissist or a vulnerable narcissist, which is a, you know, a fun alteration of narcissism. You should look into it, google it vulnerable narcissism. It's basically insecurity, pride on steroids.

Noah: 11:52

So anyway, the point is, it doesn't matter what you're going through. If you've got insecurity in your life, you got pride, and usually that means you're not. You're not living a life of love. That's just the facts, man, no printer. Anyway, I'm not supposed to say that stuff because I'm not Gen Z. I look Gen Z though, so I get away with it all the time. Anyway, the point is, if you're prideful, you're not loving the end. That's the way it goes. But here's the thing. That's not the only lust that we're dealing with, right? So I'm gonna come back to love and humility in a minute and its relationship to joy.

Noah: 12:24

So, lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, the pride of life, lust of the flesh. Come on, guys, this is pretty easy. I mean, like it speaks for itself. Lust of the flesh is any kind of thing that your body is connected to in terms of its desiring. That could be food, it could be a particular drink, it could be alcohol, it could be a sexual relationship, it could be pornography. It could be an inappropriate relationship with someone, even if it's just emotional. You know it's an adulterous situation.

Noah: 12:53

You know there have been moments in my life when I was especially when in my teen years where I struggled almost unendingly with lust of the flesh. You know, whether that was binge eating or it was struggling with, you know, sexual relationships, or struggling with internet pornography, whatever it was, I mean all over the place. I just had a hard time having any sense of conteminence or peace Because I was always giving in to these lusts. And even now, god continues to encourage me, empower me and help me and challenge me and correct me in order to master the flesh and to say no, you are not the boss here, jesus is the boss and I'm in charge of you. You are not the master here, but most of us.

Noah: 13:37

If there's areas where we're struggling in the lust of the flesh, usually there's issues underneath that inclination that we haven't addressed yet, or if we have addressed them, we're not really putting them into practice. We're not really letting those things make their whole way into our life. Now, that's not to say we're not trying to fight the lust of the flesh, but there are times when we fight a losing battle because we're not addressing certain issues. Take, for example, the issue with the issue with pornography. So a lot of times. One of the things that I did with research into internet pornography, especially as a teen, was why do I keep struggling with this? Even if I don't want to do it, even if I don't want to go to this thing for comfort, why do I keep doing it? So I looked into it and apparently internet pornography is actually linked to a lack in intimacy, and this intimacy is actually connected not just to romantic relationships, but is also connected to friendships and love in other express and other ways. Up until that time in my life I really wasn't experiencing the love of God in a knowing kind of way.

Noah: 14:43

I mentioned Anne Voskamp earlier. She talked about in her book Waymaker about this iyadah, iyadah knowing of God, which is talked about throughout the Old Testament scriptures. That's a Hebrew word. Iyadah means no, or no by experience, and that's how Adam knew his wife. That's like intimate knowledge, but it's also how God knows us. It's also how we know God. It's also how we know our close personal friends. So when we are getting to know someone, we're getting to iyadah them. We're getting to know them in an intimate way. We learn about someone, facts about someone, or facts about something like a hippopotamus or whatever else. Whatever the facts you are learning about, it's just prepositions, it's just moments of like hey, this is what this is about, here's the facts. But iyadah, knowing is getting to know intimately and personally.

Noah: 15:39

So a lack in that area, a lack of having any kind of deep connection with other people, which, interestingly, research has shown is connected to addictions of any kind. If you're struggling with addiction of any kind, whether that's drugs or alcohol, there's a lack of connection in your life and you are way like, more likely to die early or die young or die younger or die miserable. If you are struggling with this area of connectedness, you're more likely to struggle with heart disease and stroke. You're more likely to struggle or to be diagnosed with cancer. You're more likely to die of an overdose or commit suicide If you have bad connections in your life and pornography is no different you are more likely to be addicted to pornography if you have a lack of intimacy in your life. So intimacy is not just about close sexual relationship, it's about friendship, it's about closeness with the person, it's about connection. So my growth in my relationship with God, my growth in love, my growth as a friend, as a dad, as a husband, has helped me immensely. Of course, the battle wages on internally all the time. I have to fight those thoughts every day, but that doesn't mean that I'm an addict anymore. I'm absolutely. I feel like I got so much victory in that area of my life because God helped me uncover this issue that was underneath it. He's actually more interested in focusing on the underlying issue as far as it pertains to the solution.

Noah: 17:09

Thank you for joining us for part one of Culture's Joy versus Christ's Joy. So glad you're joining us for this podcast episode. Before you go, hey, thank you for being a listener of the NRES Podcast. Thank you for watching this on YouTube or for subscribing, leaving a five-star review. All those things, thank you, thank you, thank you. You add so much joy to me and to my life by letting me be a part of your life and your devotional life with God.

Noah: 17:35

Now here's the thing Before you go, I want to let you know that on Saturday, october 21st, we are being we're going to be in a crucible masterclass, a free crucible masterclass that I want you to be a part of. If you want to get on the list for that, make sure you go to nresinstag, go to the link in our bio and you can sign up for that, or you can leave a comment on the YouTube or in Facebook or send a message whatever. Send a message to nresinstag, send a DM and say crucible and I'll help you get registered for that. We're really looking forward to that event. We're going to be talking about the five overlapping step process of taking a crucial step forward in our life and in our life with God into a life of greater integrity. Super excited for talking about that.

Noah: 18:21

Make sure you check out NRES on YouTube, on NRESLivingcom and anywhere else that you find NRES content like Facebook or Instagram. Become a follower, like the pages, subscribe to this stuff and, if you're watching this on YouTube, subscribe. Be a subscriber. I would love for you to be a part of our NRES community. Don't forget to join us for part two of Christ's Joy versus Cultures Joy as we continue to talk about the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and how we overcome in those areas of our life, but specifically how we experience Christ's Joy through union with Him. Looking forward to being with you for that Tune in next time. Jesus loves you. Live your best in Christ. Bye.