Speaker 1: God, we give you thanks this morning for your presence here and we just ask for your grace and mercy to be, yeah, made present to us this morning and this time.
Speaker 1: We pray during this Lenten journey you would help us to have just a clearer, keener picture of you in our lives and, yeah, may we grasp fully, during this time, the good news and we pray that you would help us to unpack this scripture and the story and bless our time together in Jesus, holy and precious name.
Speaker 1: Amen, amen, you can be seated.
Speaker 1: Good morning everyone.
Speaker 1: How we doing Good.
Speaker 1: My name is Ryan, I'm the pastor here and it is a privilege to be with you guys and we are right in the beginning of our Lenten journey.
Speaker 1: If you don't know what Lent is, I'm gonna tell you, and it's one of these rhythms we have as a church.
Speaker 1: There's a church that sort of yeah, there's all these different seasons of church and this one's called Lent.
Speaker 1: It's the 40 days leading up to Easter.
Speaker 1: We wanna go towards Easter, which is the story of the cross.
Speaker 1: Actually, good Friday comes first too, but Luther believed that God was made.
Speaker 1: God was revealed most dramatically and emphatically on the cross.
Speaker 1: The suffering and death of God is like the most revealing moment in human history, and so without that it's hard to know God.
Speaker 1: But in this moment in Jesus Christ, god has revealed to us on the cross.
Speaker 1: And so we take 40 days.
Speaker 1: It's like this moment of time or this number that is prevalent in scripture.
Speaker 1: Jesus was in the desert for 40 days.
Speaker 1: The Israelites were in the wilderness for 40 years.
Speaker 1: These are times of trial and testing, but during this time we wanna slow down and kinda listen to the messages or the questions or the longings of the soul and figure out what is it that our soul is asking of us, or what is God asking of us?
Speaker 1: It's maybe a better way to put it.
Speaker 1: And so and I found that many times we were so busy and inundated with stuff and we've got so many things in our hands that God can't get our attention.
Speaker 1: Are you with me, especially in this part of the world?
Speaker 1: We're very blessed.
Speaker 1: In this part of the world, many of us have more things and we know what to do with.
Speaker 1: And Saint Augustine says this.
Speaker 1: I love this about Saint Augustine.
Speaker 1: He says this God is always trying to give us good things, but our hands are already too full to receive them.
Speaker 1: So I think much of spirituality is one great Franciscan monk says is about letting go, like letting go of all the things that easily entangle us or bog us down or distract us, and we would do well to cut some things out.
Speaker 1: So this Lent our theme is giving up and we're gonna talk about giving up all kinds of stuff, and today I wanna talk about giving up control.
Speaker 1: Oh, everyone got nervous there.
Speaker 1: Just for a moment, I can feel it.
Speaker 1: One quick thing I mentioned in an email a couple weeks ago.
Speaker 1: A good friend of mine and Katie's died about a week and a half ago and his name is John and he leaves behind his wife.
Speaker 1: They've been married for a long time I think as long as we have maybe 20 years and they have eight kids, and one who actually died as an eight month old tragically, and, yes, she's a single mother now.
Speaker 1: Anyway, katie and I are flying out to Colorado on Wednesday night late to be with them on Thursday and she asked me to share at the funeral.
Speaker 1: So I just would love your prayers for them.
Speaker 1: Her name is Bethany and their kids and yeah, there's gonna be a whole bunch of Y-Wammers who are kind of descending on Colorado to celebrate his life and memory and, of course, grieve the tragedy that befell that family.
Speaker 1: So I'd love your prayers for that as well.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1: So no easy way to tragedy out of that.
Speaker 1: But back to the sermon.
Speaker 1: Yes, we are gonna talk to about giving up control.
Speaker 1: Now here's what I wanna do, though.
Speaker 1: Some of you in this room have told me, ron, I love it when you put your outline on the board, on the screen.
Speaker 1: It helps me follow along.
Speaker 1: I can kind of have the sense of I know where I'm going.
Speaker 1: I have the sense of maybe control, and so I'm gonna give it to you, because as I give it to you, I'm gonna start taking it away from you as the sermon goes on.
Speaker 1: Fair enough.
Speaker 1: Also, you should have gotten a little small piece of paper when you came in.
Speaker 1: If you don't have that, would you raise your hand and then I'll show you a piece of paper it's free to write something down on.
Speaker 1: Later I'll tell you what you're gonna write down and what you'll do with it, but in the meantime, here's what our sermon this morning will be about.
Speaker 1: So if you're like one of those people that likes to know what's happening, this is for you.
Speaker 1: If you're more of a person who loves mystery and embracing the.
Speaker 1: We need a piece of paper over here.
Speaker 1: Kirsten Brittany needs one over here, thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, kirsten's just jumping.
Speaker 1: Give Kirsten some love.
Speaker 1: She's not even an usher, she's just helping out.
Speaker 1: What a servant.
Speaker 1: All right, oh, carl's over here if you want to.
Speaker 1: Okay, so if you're like I, love mystery and being surprised, ron, then don't look at the board, okay.
Speaker 1: Just close your eyes to the board.
Speaker 1: Otherwise, I wanna tell you, guys, some things I've learned in my years.
Speaker 1: That all right.
Speaker 1: Then we'll talk about not two and a halfs, but two halves.
Speaker 1: Then I wanna talk about control, because of course there's a sermon on about giving up control.
Speaker 1: Then we're gonna talk about death.
Speaker 1: This part might be a little bit heavy, but we're gonna get there, we'll go together.
Speaker 1: Then we're gonna talk about demons, as you do in a sermon in a church.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about demons, alright.
Speaker 1: Then we're going to talk about either I haven't decided yet either how not to be mean like don't be mean or I might share with you what I don't mean.
Speaker 1: Just hold loosely to that, we'll see.
Speaker 1: Then I'm going to share why.
Speaker 1: I know you're all asking why.
Speaker 1: You'll see, then this one's kind of up for grabs too.
Speaker 1: I might do a vote halfway through to see what you will pull the audience.
Speaker 1: We're going to either talk about American Eagle, the clothing brand, or Adam and Eve.
Speaker 1: I feel a bit obliged to talk about Adam and Eve because it was the scripture, but we'll see, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Then you're like is this guy for real Culture?
Speaker 1: Culture?
Speaker 1: Then my favorite man I love this about Luther.
Speaker 1: If you're like I'm not a Lutheran, ryan, that's okay, I can be a Lutheran enough for all of us in this room.
Speaker 1: Luther this is one of the things that drew me to Lutheran theology.
Speaker 1: I didn't grow up Lutheran either, so you're fine if you didn't either.
Speaker 1: But Luther had this juxtaposition, which is a fancy way, like a comparison of a theology of glory versus the theology of the cross.
Speaker 1: It's awesome.
Speaker 1: I'm going to show you about that.
Speaker 1: Then the good news If you came in for some good news this morning, you came to the right place.
Speaker 1: Are you with me?
Speaker 1: Yesterday I woke up and my knee was a bit stiff and sore.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh man, I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 1: So I walk out to the living room and I sit down on the couch and I get my book out and I'm reading my daughter Scarlett's out there and she's ever just gracious towards me.
Speaker 1: I said, oh man, my knee hurts.
Speaker 1: I have no idea what I did.
Speaker 1: She just says, oh, maybe it's because you're getting old.
Speaker 1: Now I thought, okay, I'm mature, I'm an adult pastor.
Speaker 1: I need to have a measured response, one of wisdom and grace, in return.
Speaker 1: So I of course said I'm not old, you're old, revealing my maturity in that moment.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we're immature on the outside or inside, but mature on the outside.
Speaker 1: Whatever the case might be, I think she's partly right that I'm getting older.
Speaker 1: Maybe you've noticed that you're getting older.
Speaker 1: This is how life seems to work now.
Speaker 1: I didn't know it when I was younger.
Speaker 1: Life just keeps going one direction and I'm like what the heck man?
Speaker 1: I did not sign up for this.
Speaker 1: But here I am.
Speaker 1: I'm no longer 24.
Speaker 1: I'm not even 34.
Speaker 1: I'm 44.
Speaker 1: I'm baptizing kids who I married or kids of parents I've married, who used to be my youth program.
Speaker 1: Believe it or not, that's how old I'm getting.
Speaker 1: But I want to show you a couple of things I've learned in the last 44 years.
Speaker 1: Is that be all right?
Speaker 1: Okay, take them or leave them, but you should take them.
Speaker 1: They're helpful.
Speaker 1: I got five things.
Speaker 1: Number one the most important part of my day any longer more than I mean, not more than my quiet time with Jesus is, of course, number one.
Speaker 1: That's right, okay, jesus.
Speaker 1: Number two the next Mike, the most important thing I do every day is stretch.
Speaker 1: True story, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Kobe Bryant was asked hey, kobe, if you could give your younger self some advice, what would you tell your younger self?
Speaker 1: And, without skipping a beat, he said stretch.
Speaker 1: And the interviewer laughed.
Speaker 1: He's like no, I'm serious, I'm like all right if Kobe can do it.
Speaker 1: So everyone has to take about five minutes.
Speaker 1: I do some yoga, stretching on the floor.
Speaker 1: You can ask my kids and man, I feel great when I'm done.
Speaker 1: I'm like, hey, look, lifting weights and cardio, all good, eating right.
Speaker 1: But man, I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1: If you want to live long and prosperous, stretch, okay.
Speaker 1: Number two there's nothing I enjoy more, not many things I enjoy more nowadays than a good night's sleep.
Speaker 1: Are you with me?
Speaker 1: This is a picture of me sleeping that my wife took.
Speaker 1: I let my hair.
Speaker 1: I let my hair down when I go to sleep.
Speaker 1: I found that I used that.
Speaker 1: That's perfect.
Speaker 1: That is, of course, he man, but man, I just love coming.
Speaker 1: You know like I love going out, hanging out with friends, partying a little bit here and there, having a good time, even going downtown, which is now like 45 minutes away oh gosh, 45 minutes.
Speaker 1: But I mean I love it when my friends cancel plans the last minute.
Speaker 1: Oh right, I love just getting into bed and getting a nice book, a warm glass of milk, some chamomile tea and turn the lights out at 9.30, 10 o'clock, getting up at like 7.
Speaker 1: I got to get up.
Speaker 1: I got to get my rest and get up and stretch.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: You got to get the number three.
Speaker 1: I learned this when I in these last 44 years, I think I need to stop worrying about all my insecurities.
Speaker 1: And when everyone thinks about me because I've learned in 44 years, everybody's just as insecure as I am the more I'm like oh, what do they think of me?
Speaker 1: Do they like me?
Speaker 1: They're all asking the same thing I am oh, does he like my shoes?
Speaker 1: What are they?
Speaker 1: Did I say something wrong?
Speaker 1: I'm fucking an idiot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we all think that we're all imposters.
Speaker 1: We all suffer from imposter syndrome.
Speaker 1: So we're going to be okay, all right.
Speaker 1: So okay, you don't have to worry, but you can dial that part of your psyche or your brain down.
Speaker 1: Next, I learned this in 44 years.
Speaker 1: When I was younger, I used to think that life was so simple that every problem had a solution.
Speaker 1: It was one right answer, not five or even a debate to be had.
Speaker 1: It was just an answer.
Speaker 1: That was it.
Speaker 1: Getting into a nice, neat, clean box is black and white, that's it.
Speaker 1: Well, as I've gotten older, I've learned that life is a bit gray sometimes.
Speaker 1: Look, I'm not saying there's no absolute truth, I don't believe that.
Speaker 1: I'm saying look, jesus is the divine Son of God.
Speaker 1: He came undone.
Speaker 1: Those are all fine, but a majority of things in life are like kind of this gray area, like is the internet good or bad?
Speaker 1: What do you do if your son or daughter roots for an opposing football team?
Speaker 1: Well, what do Christians do with things like war and recycling?
Speaker 1: So like, life is just a bit more gray than I once thought and I'm okay with that.
Speaker 1: I really am.
Speaker 1: Lastly, I think I've learned this In my life I have way less control than I ever thought I did.
Speaker 1: When I was younger I thought I can control my own destiny.
Speaker 1: By the way, this shows my age here.
Speaker 1: This is the greatest gaming system in all of the human kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Thank you, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, super Mario Brothers 1 was the best Tech, most super bowl you got me.
Speaker 1: I'm distracted now I'm moving on Way less control than I ever thought I did.
Speaker 1: When I was younger I thought I could control everything my own destiny, my fate, life, all these things.
Speaker 1: And this is when I began to learn about what Carl Jung calls the two halves of life.
Speaker 1: There are others who also use his terminology, I think who wrote the two mountains?
Speaker 1: That guy I don't know if you're too, I forget his name, but there are two halves of life.
Speaker 1: The first half of life is over here, so when you're about zero years old to about 40, 50 years old, somewhere in there about midlife, and that first half of life is all about building.
Speaker 1: You're building your empire, your security, your financial well-being, your foundation.
Speaker 1: You're building a family, probably.
Speaker 1: You're building your empire, your business.
Speaker 1: You're constructing like this ego.
Speaker 1: You're going, you're grinding, you're working late hours, three jobs, you're just getting after it and you're building and you're making sure you're safe and secure.
Speaker 1: You're controlling everything.
Speaker 1: You're working out, you're exercising.
Speaker 1: It's like you got.
Speaker 1: You got to dial them.
Speaker 1: That's how it should be.
Speaker 1: So if you're in that first half of life, if you're from zero at about 40, that's kind of what you do and good for you.
Speaker 1: Keep doing that.
Speaker 1: But here's the secret to life and somewhere Ah, I don't know yeah, around here in midlife some things begin to change 45, 50, 55, some things might happen in your life and you begin to question all of this stuff over here.
Speaker 1: But the second half of life goes from about that 50 to when you know, when you die, maybe 100, or if you do your stretching and get to bed early, maybe 120,.
Speaker 1: You might live a little bit longer than everybody else.
Speaker 1: But somewhere in here you be, it dawns on you that this building of all this stuff the empire, your security, your safety, your finances, your health, your business it doesn't give you meaning like it once used to.
Speaker 1: And these questions arise that you don't have answers for.
Speaker 1: And the solutions that you had that worked back here and the way you've functioned in life.
Speaker 1: It doesn't work anymore because you're like you're trying it, you're like what the heck is going on?
Speaker 1: Nothing's working for me, like I used to have this locked down.
Speaker 1: Now it's like what's happening.
Speaker 1: You might have a sense of like depression or anxiety, and maybe it's depression and anxiety, but maybe it's the soul summoning you to go deeper, because the second half of life, this half, is like building this way and then the soul, or God, calls you to start building this way.
Speaker 1: Over here you're building the container, but you've got nothing in it, and fair enough.
Speaker 1: Over here you've got to fill the container, otherwise you'll always be empty.
Speaker 1: Are you with me?
Speaker 1: There's a book called it's Not Always Depression, it's actually a great book.
Speaker 1: If you're in this age you're like this is like blah.
Speaker 1: I call them the Christian.
Speaker 1: The Christian word is the funks.
Speaker 1: That might be what's happening.
Speaker 1: There's a summons of the soul.
Speaker 1: God is calling you deeper into the second half of life and if you don't transition gracefully, then you'll be this empty container, still clinging to things back there that just don't do you any good anymore and the emperor has no clothes.
Speaker 1: But also you might have this moment, like you know what'll help if I buy that Corvette?
Speaker 1: Okay, maybe, but probably not, and you might still want to buy it because it's a great car.
Speaker 1: Or if I just go back to that old high school sweetheart, I can recapture my youth.
Speaker 1: No, that longing to do that is actually good, but that action is the wrong action, let's say mismanagement of the questions of your soul calling you deeper.
Speaker 1: So the first half of life is all about control.
Speaker 1: And look, if you're a young person here, look me in the eyeballs, go get it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, do it, it's good, and we'll cheer you on and build the empire and work long hours if you want to and, and you know, grind out a little thing and make, build wealth and find someone you love and share with them.
Speaker 1: That's great.
Speaker 1: But just know, at some point those questions just won't go away and when they don't come, talk to me or your parents or someone else, and also we would do well to begin practicing the second half of life back here.
Speaker 1: So the first half of life is all about control.
Speaker 1: The second half of life is really about giving up control and letting go of control, realizing there's many things in your life you cannot control, you can't.
Speaker 1: You could be super healthy and wealthy and still get diagnosed with cancer.
Speaker 1: You didn't see that coming.
Speaker 1: You could be engaged fully in your marriage and be romantic and take them out, and they still might leave you.
Speaker 1: And you have control over very few things, in fact.
Speaker 1: So here's what Lent is.
Speaker 1: Lent is an opportunity for us to practice letting go Because, by the way, in case you hadn't noticed, the elephant in the room is down.
Speaker 1: Here is the ultimate giving up.
Speaker 1: Death is the end for all of us.
Speaker 1: It awaits for all of us.
Speaker 1: It really does, and many of us get there and don't want to let go, and I've seen it.
Speaker 1: I've been with many people who are in their death bed and they won't let go For all the reasons I don't know if they're good or bad reasons, they're just the reasons and I've had loved ones lean over and say to them out loud you can go, it's okay, you can let go, and they let go.
Speaker 1: And I've seen people die within minutes when someone said that.
Speaker 1: So if we want to get to here and have a gracious entrance into God, we can practice all the way through here.
Speaker 1: Lent is practice.
Speaker 1: We've already told you on Wednesday, if you were here from dust, you came into dust.
Speaker 1: You're going to return and God forbid anytime soon, but it's down there, it waits for all of us.
Speaker 1: So practice giving up the things that entangle you, that bog you down, and letting go of control.
Speaker 1: Even now Are you with me?
Speaker 1: That way, when you get to this part of life, you'll be a gracious old wizard who's secure and deep and knows their place in God and their place in life and they know their role in the cosmos.
Speaker 1: They're just not that big a deal and they love and they give and they receive and they share and they're a blast to be around and they're kind of quirky and aw, but you love.
Speaker 1: That's what I want to be like when I'm down here.
Speaker 1: So I learned some of this when I went to go visit demons.
Speaker 1: You ever visited demons before?
Speaker 1: When I first got ordained, my first job was to go visit demons and I was like, okay, and I would visit these demons every couple of months.
Speaker 1: And they came to church here, if you didn't know that, and they sat in the back where demons usually sit in church.
Speaker 1: Oh, by the way, I should clarify you guys aren't the, not you guys Behind behind, you guys behind.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, there was nobody back there at the 830.
Speaker 1: It was fine, it worked, my bad.
Speaker 1: I should also clarify demons are a people.
Speaker 1: They're D?
Speaker 1: M A N, s is their name.
Speaker 1: The demons less than Elaine.
Speaker 1: Demon Paul was like Pastor Paul.
Speaker 1: My predecessor was like hey, ryan, I got ordained on that Sunday and Paul's like I want you to go visit the demons.
Speaker 1: I'm like darn right, I will, I'm gonna cast those demons out of there.
Speaker 1: He's like no, dude, it's the.
Speaker 1: In fact, Paul used to be like when I started, when I would call them the demons, people were like is that I think it's demons or demons?
Speaker 1: So I asked them they're like no, our names the demons, that less than Elaine.
Speaker 1: And here's what happened.
Speaker 1: It was like my first ever official visit this old couple.
Speaker 1: She's like 80 something, he's early nineties.
Speaker 1: He had a stroke.
Speaker 1: He couldn't talk and Paul was ready to go visit with them and sit with them for an hour or more.
Speaker 1: And I'm like Paul, I got things to do, man, I come over here still right in the first half of life.
Speaker 1: Like I got to write a sermon, brother, the people want to hear me preach.
Speaker 1: I got to save the world.
Speaker 1: I got to go somewhere where people can see me and hear my wisdom.
Speaker 1: I can't go to demons house.
Speaker 1: Like what am I doing?
Speaker 1: He's like go there and sit with them for an hour and bring them communion, but my brother can't even talk.
Speaker 1: He had a stroke.
Speaker 1: What am I going to do?
Speaker 1: What is it Go Fine.
Speaker 1: So I go over there and it's whisper quiet in their house, got floral print, everything.
Speaker 1: Tv doesn't work, he can't talk, he's mumbling and she invites me in, elaine, and she's like I made you some tea and some cookies.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh man, like my heart began to melt.
Speaker 1: I sat down, I opened up my communion box we're just talking and I felt like God said to me Ryan, you are exactly where I want you to be.
Speaker 1: Like this is it man?
Speaker 1: This is the sacred place, pastor Ryan.
Speaker 1: And there was nobody there to hear me say anything fancier, wise.
Speaker 1: No one there to applaud me what I did, no one there to give me accolades or an offering.
Speaker 1: No one even knew I was there, just Elaine and her husband who had a stroke and couldn't even talk.
Speaker 1: So I sat with them for over an hour I think it was an hour and a half, two hours, I can't remember and we shared the meal.
Speaker 1: We had tea and cookies and I'd go back every couple of months and sit with them.
Speaker 1: They loved the cubs, I loved the Rockies.
Speaker 1: We would talk trash back and forth.
Speaker 1: Of course the Rockies are abysmal, but whatever.
Speaker 1: And when they died, they left me.
Speaker 1: They had two chairs from the original Wrigley Field and they left them to me when they died.
Speaker 1: See, I would have missed it if I stayed in control, and I think God had kind of knocked me over the head in some ways too to get me to go.
Speaker 1: There is this element of where God calls us to just give up control, and when I don't mean by that I will go with this.
Speaker 1: I'm going to say what I don't mean.
Speaker 1: Not don't be mean, but also don't be mean.
Speaker 1: Okay, what I don't mean is some kind of fatalistic approach to life or, if you know theology, a Calvinist approach to life, which means you're just a robot.
Speaker 1: God has preordained everything and micromanages all things, and it's all caused directly by God.
Speaker 1: You're just living out some sort of prewritten script.
Speaker 1: I don't, I don't personally believe that.
Speaker 1: So I don't mean just kind of go on autopilot and go through life like that.
Speaker 1: I don't mean that by giving up control.
Speaker 1: I also don't mean give up on life and just kind of wear pajamas all day and eat Lay's potato chips.
Speaker 1: I don't mean that.
Speaker 1: I believe that God has called us to be collaborators, co-creators with God.
Speaker 1: It's like a partnership, it's like a dance that God is sort of leading.
Speaker 1: But what I mean is, when Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God and everything else will just Fall in the place, control says seek first Ryan's kingdom and then God.
Speaker 1: No, it doesn't work that way.
Speaker 1: I mean seek first the king, god, give up that desire for control.
Speaker 1: Why do I love control?
Speaker 1: Because it feels good, man, it's predictable, it's safe.
Speaker 1: I can keep everything in this nice tight thing when I drive on road trips.
Speaker 1: I love driving because I want to stop where I want to stop for lunch and coffee and when I have to use the bathroom.
Speaker 1: I want to be in control.
Speaker 1: I like being in control.
Speaker 1: It makes life way more predictable and easy.
Speaker 1: I also like control, I think, because, well, I don't know, to be honest.
Speaker 1: I know better, I know where to stop for lunch and coffees and I know better than you do.
Speaker 1: So why don't I let you do it when I can do better?
Speaker 1: The third thing I like about being in control is that, or rather, why I am addicted to control is perhaps because I think deep down I don't trust other people and I certainly don't trust God If I let go of control and give God any kind of leverage in my life or another person in my life.
Speaker 1: What about my way?
Speaker 1: It's no wonder that all the great spiritual traditions talk about letting go, relinquishing thy will, not my will be done, giving up surrender, it's all in all of them.
Speaker 1: So for me, I love it, it feels good, I know better and I'm afraid, I'm afraid what will happen if I let go, and I think Adam and Eve are the same way.
Speaker 1: I will go with Adam and Eve.
Speaker 1: Although American Eagle is a great place, shop there.
Speaker 1: I'm probably too old to shop there, but you can shop there.
Speaker 1: Adam and Eve, god puts them in a garden paradise, we call it, and they had everything.
Speaker 1: They needed Everything.
Speaker 1: They had food, water.
Speaker 1: There were animals there.
Speaker 1: God wants to collaborate with them, co-create with them.
Speaker 1: Hey, you guys named the animals.
Speaker 1: Yeah, cool, I'll be God and you be humans.
Speaker 1: You know what.
Speaker 1: You want to take care of the land and tend it and, kind of exercise, care for it.
Speaker 1: Great, and I'll be God and you be people.
Speaker 1: Cool, cool, all right, good.
Speaker 1: And he says, hey, one thing, just don't eat of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Speaker 1: Then the story says that a shrewd serpent that God had created comes along.
Speaker 1: You know that God made that serpent.
Speaker 1: It doesn't say in the text right then that it's the devil or the Satan.
Speaker 1: That's sort of.
Speaker 1: We read into that later.
Speaker 1: It's sort of a you know, but in the moment you don't know what's going on there.
Speaker 1: And the serpent is more shrewd or wise or savvy or conniving than all the other beings that God had made.
Speaker 1: And the serpent simply says did God say that?
Speaker 1: Did God really say that?
Speaker 1: What's he doing?
Speaker 1: He's provoking a mistrust in Adam and Eve.
Speaker 1: God, maybe God's holding out on you?
Speaker 1: Why don't you be God?
Speaker 1: I think that would work better.
Speaker 1: Feels good to be God.
Speaker 1: You probably know better than God.
Speaker 1: And also, can you really trust God?
Speaker 1: Chapp Clarke says that sin is at its core and unwillingness to trust the Father.
Speaker 1: I like that.
Speaker 1: That deep down beneath all my shenanigans and sinful crooked behavior, is an unwillingness to let go and trust God, that God can be God.
Speaker 1: And I'll be Ryan Because I want to be God.
Speaker 1: I think I would do a better job.
Speaker 1: I think I know better.
Speaker 1: It feels good for me to control my own destiny and I can't.
Speaker 1: I can't.
Speaker 1: I don't know what he'll do if I give him control.
Speaker 1: See, it's an unquestioned cultural value in our life today to have control.
Speaker 1: We're taught this from an early age.
Speaker 1: And fair enough, right, it's actually okay Over here.
Speaker 1: It's fine.
Speaker 1: You should have some sense of control, control yourself, control your.
Speaker 1: Get up early, you know, go eat your good breakfast, maybe work out, go to the job and do your thing, and great.
Speaker 1: But, like I said somewhere in here, some tragedy might befall you and all of a sudden you're like wait a minute, who's in control?
Speaker 1: Here?
Speaker 1: I did all the right things and I still got leukemia.
Speaker 1: Man, my kids I raised them in the ways of God and I was controlling.
Speaker 1: And man, two of them, it won't even talk to me.
Speaker 1: Man, I prayed and I did all the things and like there's still a war going on, what?
Speaker 1: So over here, yes, control, but that all begins to crumble rapidly when life happens and we're confronted by the tragedy, or rather the truth of the fact that we control very little.
Speaker 1: I can maybe control myself to some degree, but I can't control others.
Speaker 1: Man, ask my wife.
Speaker 1: I've tried for 25 years.
Speaker 1: I can't do it.
Speaker 1: In fact, the more I try, the more it strangles the life out of the thing.
Speaker 1: Don't ask my wife, I can't control the world.
Speaker 1: Luther calls this, this addiction to control, the theology of glory.
Speaker 1: It's the natural inclination of human beings to desire control and to want to achieve and climb.
Speaker 1: It's like a ladder.
Speaker 1: So the theology of glory is this ladder that we got to climb and we're taught.
Speaker 1: Just keep on going, do your best, try harder, pull yourself up by your bootstraps and you keep climbing.
Speaker 1: Get the next job, and then the next raise and the next you get a boat, and then the house and your kids, and you keep climbing to the top, which is always just out of reach.
Speaker 1: You can't quite see it and you keep going, and you try hard to keep going and you get this idea you can manage your own self, even your own sin and your own destructive ways and your own you know hurtful or harmful thought patterns.
Speaker 1: I can just try harder and buy one more self help book or listen to another TED talk or YouTube video, or pray one more time, or buy the right Bible translation.
Speaker 1: Then I'll have it all figured out.
Speaker 1: Are you with me?
Speaker 1: This is the theology of glory, friends, that you can just figure it out all on your own.
Speaker 1: Given enough time and enough wisdom and enough self-esteem.
Speaker 1: You can figure it out.
Speaker 1: The great Gerhard Ferdi, who is a wonderful Lutheran theologian, says it this way.
Speaker 1: I love this.
Speaker 1: He says this A theology of glory operates on the assumption that what we need is merely optimistic encouragement, some flattery, some positive thinking, some support to build up our self-esteem.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 1: Hey, your hair looks great today, bucko, keep on going, just keep on grinding.
Speaker 1: You're doing great, you look wonderful.
Speaker 1: Just think happy thoughts and you'll be fine.
Speaker 1: Theologically speaking, he says it operates the theology of glory on the assumption that we're not seriously addicted to our own sin or to ourselves.
Speaker 1: Not Luther, but Daniel Erlander says that sin is self-love run amok.
Speaker 1: I like that one too.
Speaker 1: It's like my sins aren't too bad, I'm fine, I'll be all right, I can manage myself.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to try harder.
Speaker 1: Stay a little bit later.
Speaker 1: Our improvement is both necessary and possible.
Speaker 1: Necessary because if I just keep working hard enough, not only will you all like me, but God might like me, and all we need is a little bit of a boost and our desire to do good works.
Speaker 1: Then he goes on to say this However the hallmark of a theology of glory is that it will always consider grace as something of a supplement to whatever is left of human will and power.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to take care of this on my own human might, my willpower.
Speaker 1: I got this I'll take a little bit of grace here but only as a supplemental element, but otherwise I don't really.
Speaker 1: I got it.
Speaker 1: The problem is that it doesn't work.
Speaker 1: So Luther said we need a theology of the cross.
Speaker 1: Rather, he called us to be theologians of the cross, that you and I recognize our own brokenness, our own wayward ways.
Speaker 1: Just be honest, that around here we start to let go, okay, of the facade, the trying, the incessant buying of the things to fill the void.
Speaker 1: It's just not working.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and when you're here, come and talk to me, because we got a lot more to figure out for this next half of life.
Speaker 1: So here's the good news.
Speaker 1: Are you ready for some good news?
Speaker 1: Okay, thank you for that.
Speaker 1: Amen, let's go.
Speaker 1: Oh, tulien Shevige says this we come to the end of ourselves.
Speaker 1: This is where you kind of are, where I'm inviting you to come.
Speaker 1: And when you're a, if you're a young person here, great, practice this now and it'll make you a more gracious person the older you get.
Speaker 1: We come to the end of ourselves, in other words, to our ruin, to our knees, to the place where, if we are to find any help or comfort, it must come from somewhere outside of us.
Speaker 1: I can't manage my own self.
Speaker 1: I can't do it, Much to our surprise.
Speaker 1: This is the precise place where the good news of the gospel, that God did for you what you couldn't do for yourself, finally makes sense.
Speaker 1: It finally sounds good.
Speaker 1: That's the theology of the cross.
Speaker 1: So here's the good news.
Speaker 1: Jesus says this.
Speaker 1: Jesus says this Go ahead from me, sarah.
Speaker 1: Jesus says hey, come to me, come to me All you who are weary and burdened.
Speaker 1: All of you have tried so hard and you've been told try harder, try harder.
Speaker 1: I'm freaking, trying as hard as I can.
Speaker 1: It's not working.
Speaker 1: I've done everything I can.
Speaker 1: I can't figure it out.
Speaker 1: I'm at a loss, I'm empty, I'm broken, I'm addicted to myself, to sin.
Speaker 1: I've bought all the books, I've done all the things and I can't figure it out and nothing's working.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Now you're ready for the good news.
Speaker 1: Come, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Speaker 1: You can give up control.
Speaker 1: I got you.
Speaker 1: We're going to be okay.
Speaker 1: Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart.
Speaker 1: I love you and you could find rest for your souls.
Speaker 1: How many of you need rest for your soul today?
Speaker 1: My yoke is easy.
Speaker 1: My burden is light.
Speaker 1: You see the paper.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you to write something down on that.
Speaker 1: We're going to sing a song.
Speaker 1: We're going to do an offering.
Speaker 1: All the offerings go towards helping us run this place.
Speaker 1: So thank you for all your generosity.
Speaker 1: If you want to be a part of that, you can drop some money in there.
Speaker 1: If not, you're fine, Take that piece of paper out.
Speaker 1: What is it that God is asking you to give up today?
Speaker 1: What control of what?
Speaker 1: Who are you trying to control?
Speaker 1: It's just not working.
Speaker 1: What are you trying to control?
Speaker 1: What part of your life are you trying to manage yourself out of and figure out all on your own?
Speaker 1: And it's not like you just become a robot.
Speaker 1: God wants to just have a dance with you.
Speaker 1: Let's figure out together.
Speaker 1: I got you.
Speaker 1: Come, take on, come to me, you're tired.
Speaker 1: I got you.
Speaker 1: Write it down and then, when you're done, when we're coming forward for this song or rather we're going to sing anytime during the song you can come forward and put your burden, whatever it is, at the cross I'm not going to read them, no one will read them and just drop it there as a declaration of trust.
Speaker 1: I want to trust you, god, even if that's your only like, the only amount of trust you got, or faith mustard seed, right, god's like, hey, just give it over.
Speaker 1: Okay, I think.
Speaker 1: Well, I can write it down on this sheet of paper, because Ryan told me to.
Speaker 1: I'll just drop it there.
Speaker 1: Great, that's a start.
Speaker 1: And you're declaring in this symbolic action, like I do trust in you, god, or I want to trust in you, or I think I maybe want to, maybe think about it.
Speaker 1: I'll do this.
Speaker 1: Great, and come with your hands open and you just drop it down.
Speaker 1: Amen, please stand.
Speaker 1: We're going to close with the serenity prayer.
Speaker 1: Reinhold Niebuhr wrote this, or at least most folks think he wrote it a long time ago.
Speaker 1: He's a great philosopher-thinker of our day and it's used in the AA tradition and I love it.
Speaker 1: I want to pray together and then, when we're done praying, you can stand or sit, I don't care.
Speaker 1: We'll sing and you can write down your thing and we'll pass offering globes and we'll pray.
Speaker 1: So let's pray together this serenity prayer.
Speaker 1: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.
Speaker 1: Amen.