WEBVTT 00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:01.919 Happy New Year. 00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:05.519 A few and happy few year. 00:00:05.759 --> 00:00:06.080 Okay. 00:00:06.959 --> 00:00:10.560 The scripture for today is Joshua 1, 1 through 9. 00:00:11.359 --> 00:00:20.800 After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, Moses, my servant, is dead. 00:00:21.039 --> 00:00:29.039 Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all the people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. 00:00:29.280 --> 00:00:35.679 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. 00:00:36.159 --> 00:00:47.759 From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the great sea, toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory. 00:00:48.079 --> 00:00:52.320 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. 00:00:52.719 --> 00:00:56.399 Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. 00:00:56.719 --> 00:00:59.280 I will not leave you or forsake you. 00:00:59.840 --> 00:01:07.120 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause the people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. 00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:15.120 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. 00:01:15.439 --> 00:01:21.680 Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. 00:01:22.719 --> 00:01:32.319 This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. 00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:38.959 For then you will make your own for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 00:01:39.439 --> 00:01:41.200 Have I not commanded you? 00:01:41.519 --> 00:01:49.040 Be strong and courageous, do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:50.640 Please be seated. 00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:53.359 Okay. 00:01:55.599 --> 00:01:56.560 Hello, good morning. 00:01:56.719 --> 00:01:57.760 Happy New Year. 00:01:58.079 --> 00:02:06.319 So now if you have children with you, the two and three-year-olds will go to Krista's office. 00:02:06.480 --> 00:02:10.000 Basically, you'll meet in the meet in the coffee. 00:02:10.319 --> 00:02:11.680 Meet by the coffee. 00:02:11.919 --> 00:02:14.800 And your children will be taken where they need to go. 00:02:15.199 --> 00:02:21.599 But two and three-year-olds will be in Krista's office, and four and up will be in my office. 00:02:22.479 --> 00:02:26.319 And while you're doing that, I'll tell you a little story about why. 00:02:27.199 --> 00:02:29.439 So we had this wonderful plan. 00:02:29.919 --> 00:02:37.919 And the plan was that when our building was being renovated by the owners of the building, we would be able to kind of hopscotch around to have children's places. 00:02:38.159 --> 00:02:40.800 But then Denver permitting had some other plans. 00:02:40.960 --> 00:02:48.159 So now all of the renovation is taking place at once, and the space that we had counted on to use for our children, we are not able to use. 00:02:48.400 --> 00:02:57.840 But then we came up with this plan to compensate for that, which was we were going to put a one of those portable classrooms on our property. 00:02:58.240 --> 00:03:03.520 But then we were told that because of the construction, we wouldn't wouldn't be able to get power to it. 00:03:03.759 --> 00:03:10.400 And the place that we were going to put it on is owned by another owner, and they just sold that land. 00:03:11.199 --> 00:03:13.520 So we couldn't put it on that either. 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:22.719 Anyway, we're using our offices uh for the kids, and uh it looks like it's gonna work out just fine. 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:24.800 Um so there you go. 00:03:24.960 --> 00:03:26.080 That's the story. 00:03:26.560 --> 00:03:27.599 Yeah, there you go. 00:03:27.840 --> 00:03:28.479 Thanks. 00:03:28.719 --> 00:03:29.439 Thanks. 00:03:29.759 --> 00:03:38.080 Um Krista did an incredible amount of work to turn our offices into uh kids' worlds that are hospitable for children. 00:03:38.319 --> 00:03:41.919 And uh by the way, there's something good on the horizon. 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:53.680 And the good thing on the horizon is when this construction is done, which is happening at a pretty rapid rate now, uh, we'll be able to use the classrooms of the Montessori school for our children on Sunday mornings. 00:03:53.919 --> 00:04:02.560 So that's a a real win, and I think it'll be a more excellent place for them to learn on Sunday mornings, um, which is to come. 00:04:03.039 --> 00:04:03.360 Okay. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:06.479 Happy New Year, happy 2023. 00:04:06.639 --> 00:04:07.199 Let's pray. 00:04:07.280 --> 00:04:09.759 Then we'll move into this year's text. 00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:20.000 Holy Father, we thank you for the passing of years, the cycles of time that allow us to mark your faithfulness towards us. 00:04:20.959 --> 00:04:35.839 Lord, we pray that you would give us hearts that uh see this the sense of new beginning that we get at the start of a new year, that we might be able to understand that we have access to that because of your gospel. 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:41.040 That your arms are ever open for our hearts return to you. 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:50.319 And Lord, I pray that you would draw our hearts more closer, more close to you than than even in previous years. 00:04:51.279 --> 00:04:57.360 Lord, that we might have eyes that are open to see and witness and participate in your faithfulness. 00:04:57.759 --> 00:05:21.600 And Lord, I pray that you would establish us and encourage our hearts as you encourage the heart of Joshua, as he was headed into an uncertain future, but one in which you promised to be with him and to care for him, and you made his outcome of success sure. 00:05:22.079 --> 00:05:28.639 Lord, we have that same pattern for our lives, and I pray that you would show it to us clearly that we might participate in it by faith. 00:05:28.879 --> 00:05:31.279 I lift this up in Jesus' name, amen. 00:05:32.319 --> 00:05:40.079 So at the beginning of each year, for the past however many years, uh I've started with just sort of a New Year's sermon. 00:05:40.639 --> 00:05:50.720 And the uh uh the hope is to kind of set a bit of a trajectory for this next year. 00:05:50.879 --> 00:05:57.839 Last year I talked a lot about attention and the things that we attend to guiding so much of our of our year. 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:09.199 And this year I was considering what would be a helpful sort of uh value or something to consider when we're heading into this next year, and I thought, I think it, I think it is courage. 00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:27.199 Now, I think it's courage because though the the thing about 2022 and what I had the sense of with the changeover into 2023 is that 2022 was actually just the last year of 2020. 00:06:27.680 --> 00:06:29.279 Did anybody else sense that? 00:06:29.519 --> 00:06:32.240 2020 lasted about three years. 00:06:32.480 --> 00:06:38.480 It was 2020, 2021, and 2022, and now it's over. 00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:48.000 But those years represented a radical transformation in our culture and our world and the world that we operate in. 00:06:48.879 --> 00:06:52.560 Now, I'm not here to say that that transformation is over. 00:06:52.959 --> 00:06:59.600 Uh, it may be a marker of an accelerating pace of change that we may just grow accustomed to this pace of change. 00:06:59.680 --> 00:07:08.560 I don't know what the future holds, but I do know that we have gone through these seasons of deep change. 00:07:09.439 --> 00:07:26.800 And now that things seem to be settling in in a different way, I think that what is clear is that to move forward as Christians in the world which we find ourselves will require an incredible amount of courage. 00:07:27.360 --> 00:07:31.040 I think courage and fortitude will be absolutely necessary. 00:07:31.439 --> 00:07:36.319 Now, here's something that uh someone might say to that. 00:07:36.560 --> 00:07:41.839 Well, of course, James, it always requires courage to be a Christian. 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:46.959 There is no time in church history which has not required courage. 00:07:47.199 --> 00:07:49.519 To which I say, Yeah, of course. 00:07:49.839 --> 00:07:51.040 That's of course true. 00:07:51.199 --> 00:07:53.519 But it's also extremely unhelpful. 00:07:54.160 --> 00:07:56.639 Because we are in this present moment. 00:07:56.800 --> 00:08:02.480 And so what would be helpful is to say something like, What is the shape of the changes? 00:08:02.720 --> 00:08:14.399 What might we anticipate in our experience as Christians in the shape of these changes, and then what type of courage might be necessary for the world that we're entering into now? 00:08:14.800 --> 00:08:18.399 Because it's not the same shape as of courage that we might need. 00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:23.519 I think that there are plenty of times in church history which have required much more courage. 00:08:23.759 --> 00:08:28.639 But I also think that there are times in church history which have required less. 00:08:29.040 --> 00:08:45.200 And to be frank, our lives, us, the people in this room, our lives, the majority of our lives, have required less courage than the world does now. 00:08:45.759 --> 00:08:55.440 Now, I know like we like to flatten and make all things the same for all times and all places, but I don't uh once again, I don't think that's helpful. 00:08:55.679 --> 00:09:01.279 I think it's more important to try and name what's real and then try and engage with that. 00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:03.759 So I'm gonna try and do that a bit this morning. 00:09:04.799 --> 00:09:08.399 Leslie Nubigan is my favorite theologian. 00:09:08.559 --> 00:09:10.320 I think I'm just gonna come out and say it. 00:09:10.559 --> 00:09:15.600 There's no one who I read and my heart is more full than when I read Leslie Newbigan. 00:09:15.759 --> 00:09:19.759 I I uh I feel like a kindred spirit with him. 00:09:20.080 --> 00:09:22.720 I wish we could be friends, um, but he's dead. 00:09:22.879 --> 00:09:25.039 But one day, because of Christianity. 00:09:25.360 --> 00:09:34.399 So he wrote uh one of my favorite books, and it's something, it's one of those books I just returned to over and over again, called Foolishness to the Greeks. 00:09:34.639 --> 00:09:44.960 And at the end of it, he describes what it will take for the church to have a missionary encounter with Western culture. 00:09:45.200 --> 00:09:53.519 Now, his great insight was that Western culture, the the folk religion of Western culture is Christianity. 00:09:53.759 --> 00:09:58.000 But the folk religion is different from what Christianity really is. 00:09:58.399 --> 00:10:13.679 And so we need to find a way to have a real missionary encounter with our culture in the same way as like Leslie Nubigan did, where he spent the majority of his life overseas in India establishing churches in a cross-cultural paradigm. 00:10:13.919 --> 00:10:27.759 So we as Christians in our culture need to assess the assumptions of modern Western culture and then learn how to have a missionary encounter with the gospel, with even the culture that we inhabit. 00:10:28.159 --> 00:10:39.360 So he lists several reasons at the end of this book, or several uh several things that would be necessary for the church to have a missionary encounter with Western culture. 00:10:39.440 --> 00:10:46.080 And the sixth piece of advice I want to share this morning, this is from his book. 00:10:46.240 --> 00:11:02.240 The sixth piece of advice I would suggest for a missionary encounter with our culture is simply the courage to hold and to proclaim a belief that cannot be proved to be true in terms of the axioms of our society. 00:11:03.919 --> 00:11:24.720 So we need the courage, I'll just say it more slowly, the courage to hold, which means I uh I believe this, and to proclaim a belief that cannot be proved to be true within the axioms, in terms of the axioms of our society. 00:11:24.960 --> 00:11:35.440 Axioms are those presuppositions, those those premises, the the things which our culture takes for granted, which are obvious or feel obvious to everyone. 00:11:35.919 --> 00:11:47.919 So he's saying you need to hold to something which to the majority of people you may engage with, you will not be able to, on their terms, convey to them. 00:11:48.879 --> 00:11:55.759 And to hold something like that requires this virtue, and the virtue is courage. 00:11:56.720 --> 00:12:09.519 Now, Nubigan is writing this 33 years ago, and the world that he was offering this advice to is very different from the world that we are in now. 00:12:09.759 --> 00:12:31.519 So when he looked out and he saw why Christianity would not be able to be acceptable within the axioms of the culture he lived in, he was looking out and seeing a public square, which was most informed by a scientific objective rationalism. 00:12:32.639 --> 00:12:49.600 And so if you were to take Christianity into the public square at that time, then you would hear people say things like, you need to prove to me that Christianity is true before I would be able to engage with what you're saying at all. 00:12:49.840 --> 00:13:09.120 And the proofs of what Christianity, the way that you would prove that Christianity is true is by using something like the scientific method, by using something like pure reason and rationality, and pointing towards objective facts which we can all see and behold and agree upon. 00:13:09.360 --> 00:13:14.879 Now, Christianity cannot be proved in those terms. 00:13:15.840 --> 00:13:21.759 Imagine saying there is no such thing as a spiritual realm. 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:24.960 This is one of our culture's presuppositions. 00:13:25.200 --> 00:13:33.360 And then saying, now, within that world in which there is no spiritual realm, prove to me that Christianity is true. 00:13:34.159 --> 00:13:37.759 We would say, our God is spirit. 00:13:39.600 --> 00:13:56.159 I can't enter that world in which it is presupposed already that there is no spiritual realm, and prove to you within that narrow definition, that narrow framing of what prove means, I cannot prove to you that Christianity is true there. 00:13:56.639 --> 00:14:12.240 And so what happens is within that type of frame, you look like a fool to the culture, because you look like someone who is believing something which is irrational to believe because it can't be proved. 00:14:13.200 --> 00:14:23.039 So, in that type of so this is um that's the environment that Leslie Newbigan is looking out and seeing. 00:14:23.279 --> 00:14:41.519 And he says, in order for the church to exist in this place, it's going to take an incredible amount of courage to believe, hold to, and likewise to proclaim these truths of scripture which cannot be proved within the terms which our culture defines as proof. 00:14:42.159 --> 00:14:44.080 So you'll look like a fool. 00:14:45.120 --> 00:14:51.679 Now, our challenges are similar in shape, but they are different in the particulars. 00:14:51.919 --> 00:15:20.879 You know, we have moved, and I think that what 2016 through 2022-ish, you know, if this is uh uh something like the end of 2020, this is a transformative moment, which which I think can be interpreted as the movement from our culture's modernism to a mainstreaming of postmodern assumptions. 00:15:21.200 --> 00:15:24.399 Now that's probably I might have just like tossed a word salad. 00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:28.159 So we'll try and add some flesh to that. 00:15:28.320 --> 00:15:30.480 But I think it can be a helpful way to understand this. 00:15:30.639 --> 00:15:42.480 So the shape of our culture has moved from the modern assumptions, which are scientific rationalism, a quest for certainty such that we can engage with the world, to a postmodernism. 00:15:42.639 --> 00:15:45.440 Now, postmodernism does not have a quest for certainty. 00:15:45.519 --> 00:15:52.320 In fact, one of its features is an understanding of the quest for certainty as a flawed assumption from the start. 00:15:52.559 --> 00:15:54.799 There is no such thing as certainty. 00:15:55.039 --> 00:16:03.440 These seeds were in modernism anyway, but they really came to the fore uh over these past uh since 2016. 00:16:04.240 --> 00:16:14.399 And this this move into postmodernism means we no longer have a quest for certainty by scientific rationalism or proof. 00:16:14.559 --> 00:16:19.279 That's not what that's not what holds the center of our public discourse. 00:16:19.600 --> 00:16:27.039 What holds the center of our public discourse is now the individual's immediate psychological experience. 00:16:27.360 --> 00:16:37.919 Now this makes sense because when we saw, as we've ran out of gas on the modernist project, we saw that this quest for certainty was flawed from the start. 00:16:38.159 --> 00:16:45.200 Certainty is not the way that humans are able to engage with reality for at least one reason, which is you're always looking out your own eyes. 00:16:45.360 --> 00:16:46.799 And they only look forward. 00:16:46.960 --> 00:16:49.759 They don't even, they aren't even 360-degree eyes. 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:52.960 You know, so you so you're always looking perspectively. 00:16:53.600 --> 00:16:56.559 And postmodernism just owns that reality. 00:16:56.720 --> 00:17:10.240 And they say rather than engaging this flawed quest for certainty, we are instead going to center the individual's experience as the as our key way of understanding reality. 00:17:10.400 --> 00:17:15.359 And that means understanding values and truth and justice and morality. 00:17:15.599 --> 00:17:20.400 These become centered on the individual's immediate psychological experience. 00:17:20.640 --> 00:17:24.000 Because it's the only thing that we can really say is real. 00:17:26.160 --> 00:17:28.559 It's the only reality left to us. 00:17:28.720 --> 00:17:32.960 Now the seeds of this were in modernism, but but it really came to the fore in this way. 00:17:33.119 --> 00:17:46.799 So that means that in Leslie Nubigan's world, he would have gone on YouTube if such a thing existed, and he would have seen YouTube titles like this: Richard Dawkins destroys Christian with facts and data. 00:17:47.920 --> 00:17:52.240 That's a that's the type of world that he would have lived in. 00:17:52.799 --> 00:17:56.960 Where the, you know, you you guys are on the internet, right? 00:17:57.119 --> 00:17:58.799 You've seen headlines like that. 00:17:59.599 --> 00:18:10.799 Except for now, it's like Ben Shapiro destroys collects liberal tears into his vat of justice tears land, you know, things like that. 00:18:11.119 --> 00:18:16.640 This is that's operating in a modernist frame to view the world in that way. 00:18:16.799 --> 00:18:23.759 So we would have seen something like, you know, Dawkins or Hitchens destroys Christian with facts and data. 00:18:24.240 --> 00:18:25.839 Do you see the modernism in that? 00:18:26.000 --> 00:18:38.079 There's an objective reality that the Christian is unwilling to acknowledge, and this rational person is acknowledging the objective reality and showing the foolishness of the Christian. 00:18:38.640 --> 00:18:44.400 But that's not the way that Christianity is engaged with in the public square anymore. 00:18:44.640 --> 00:18:58.640 Instead, I think you would be more likely to hear something, you'd be more likely, you wouldn't be likely to hear a Christian as one who is denying objective reality. 00:18:59.279 --> 00:19:02.480 That claim doesn't hold much water and will not trend. 00:19:02.799 --> 00:19:10.000 But you will hear Christianity as uh a mechanism of denying personhood. 00:19:10.799 --> 00:19:14.720 You this is a way of denying my right to exist. 00:19:16.160 --> 00:19:26.880 So if the modernist would say, truth is real, just deal with it, then the postmodernist would say, I am real, just deal with me. 00:19:27.759 --> 00:19:31.920 These are similar in shape, but the particulars are different. 00:19:32.480 --> 00:19:40.799 Now, if we don't understand this difference in shape and the way that Christianity will be engaged with, then we'll be making equivocations all over the place. 00:19:40.960 --> 00:19:43.759 And I think that we're kind of in a moment of that right now. 00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:48.880 An equivocation is when you use the same word to mean two different things. 00:19:49.519 --> 00:20:04.799 And you can see this in the way that conversations typically unfold around these things, because the the Christian thinks of themselves as someone who is obviously opposed to oppression. 00:20:06.480 --> 00:20:15.680 Look at the narratives of Scripture, the exodus from tyranny, the liberation from our enslavement to sin. 00:20:16.319 --> 00:20:23.440 And so we think of ourselves as somebody who as people who ought to and rightly stand against oppression. 00:20:24.160 --> 00:20:29.759 And we also think of the world in terms of our own oppression under sin. 00:20:30.799 --> 00:20:50.880 And so, if we were to say to someone, the way that you're living is actually being oppressed under sin, that very framing can be received as you are oppressing my right to exist, and are actually on the side of oppression. 00:20:51.359 --> 00:21:09.279 So you see, there's tons of missing going on because we're making equivocations all over the place, because we aren't understanding the shape that our particular courage ought to take for this present moment. 00:21:10.400 --> 00:21:17.759 All moments require courage, but we need to understand the particulars of the shapes, that way we aren't just making foolish equivocations. 00:21:20.400 --> 00:21:22.960 So is this making sense? 00:21:23.119 --> 00:21:29.359 I I know this is a this is a lot of puking information, but I want to look out at faces and see yeses or no's. 00:21:30.960 --> 00:21:31.279 Okay. 00:21:32.480 --> 00:21:33.839 Then we'll keep going. 00:21:35.519 --> 00:21:39.920 So here's the question, because I've just said a lot of negative things. 00:21:40.319 --> 00:21:52.079 Um the the negative things are uh we're not in a modernist framework, which I described as a pursuit of objective reality. 00:21:52.559 --> 00:21:59.279 We're in a postmodernist framework, which is a centering of subjective reality. 00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:05.279 And so, what is Christianity then? 00:22:06.079 --> 00:22:14.079 Can we say something positive about what Christianity is, or are we just the type of folks that say, not those, not those things. 00:22:14.240 --> 00:22:16.400 We're whatever those aren't. 00:22:16.799 --> 00:22:24.880 I think we can say something positive about what Christianity is and how we engage with reality, what our assumptions are for that. 00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:36.960 Christianity understands reality to be objective in that it is outside of ourselves. 00:22:38.640 --> 00:22:47.359 There is a truth that stands outside of you, which you are not the arbiter of, but you actually receive truth from. 00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:55.359 So that means we are not like the postmodernist who centers our own experience as the center of reality. 00:22:56.960 --> 00:23:15.920 But nor are we like the modernist who says, I can impersonally stand back and simply assess the facts and data of a situation in a dispassionate way, and in a dispassionate way arrive at an objective reality. 00:23:16.880 --> 00:23:23.279 Because the truth which is objective, which stands outside of ourselves, is a person. 00:23:25.039 --> 00:23:26.240 It is a person. 00:23:27.119 --> 00:23:33.039 And that means the way that we engage with this truth is the way that you engage with a person. 00:23:33.759 --> 00:23:38.079 So knowing a person is very different from knowing facts and data. 00:23:38.319 --> 00:23:48.640 You know a person by hearing the things that they say and then by engaging with yourself in a trusting relationship with them. 00:23:49.279 --> 00:24:04.160 And that means that the way that we know truth is not like a scientist prodding at something where we are the ones that ask the questions, but we engage with truth in a way which truth also asks questions of us. 00:24:05.279 --> 00:24:07.200 So we have skin in the game. 00:24:07.359 --> 00:24:16.640 And there is a personal engagement with our knowledge of the truth that gets known and revealed in process and in our lives. 00:24:16.799 --> 00:24:19.839 And that is the way that we come to know Jesus. 00:24:20.079 --> 00:24:21.839 We know him in his word. 00:24:22.240 --> 00:24:29.519 But it is not just that we can read his word and then claim to have known him, because we also know him in our obedience to his word. 00:24:29.920 --> 00:24:36.319 And we know him in his self-revelation to us, in the way that we participate with him. 00:24:37.440 --> 00:24:42.480 So it is it is a personal form of knowing. 00:24:42.640 --> 00:24:46.480 And this is very different from the modernist and the postmodernist. 00:24:47.200 --> 00:24:55.279 It's a way of saying it is not so so consider this. 00:25:09.440 --> 00:25:11.599 In Christ is two things. 00:25:12.559 --> 00:25:18.880 He is the ideal, and he is the redeemer. 00:25:20.079 --> 00:25:26.880 Now, the ideal, an ideal always stands in judgment over you. 00:25:27.519 --> 00:25:29.680 That's what an ideal does. 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:32.319 It shows you the way things ought to be. 00:25:32.559 --> 00:25:37.119 So that's why Christ, the ideal man, the perfect man, is also the judge. 00:25:37.599 --> 00:25:42.400 Because he is doing things perfectly and exactly the way that God intended them to be done. 00:25:42.640 --> 00:25:44.720 So he stands as the judge. 00:25:45.440 --> 00:26:03.920 And he is the redeemer, which means that he is always graciously extending himself to us, even in spite of our sin, even in means that clearly account for our sin, even at great harm to himself. 00:26:04.720 --> 00:26:06.960 He is both of those things. 00:26:07.359 --> 00:26:10.240 That's a very different way of engaging with the world. 00:26:11.039 --> 00:26:13.920 Now, none of what I've said is intuitive. 00:26:14.400 --> 00:26:24.799 Okay, so this type of this type of fact of reality of who Christ is, this is not something that you can just intuitively grasp. 00:26:24.960 --> 00:26:30.319 This is something that had to be revealed, which is true of persons. 00:26:31.359 --> 00:26:33.599 You can't get to know somebody. 00:26:33.839 --> 00:26:37.200 You know, I love it when people like describe themselves as empaths. 00:26:37.279 --> 00:26:39.119 Do you know what an empath is? 00:26:39.599 --> 00:26:43.599 An empath is somebody who believes everything that they think about you. 00:26:44.559 --> 00:26:46.400 That's my empath joke. 00:26:47.279 --> 00:26:50.319 Whatever they think about you, they also believe. 00:26:50.480 --> 00:26:52.319 That's terrifying. 00:26:53.519 --> 00:26:59.519 Um the uh it would be better if you know a better way to approach people is I think this about you now, but my mind could be changed. 00:26:59.680 --> 00:27:03.519 But an impasse is just like, I think this about you now, and I'm right. 00:27:03.920 --> 00:27:05.119 Um anyway. 00:27:07.279 --> 00:27:08.960 I think that's funny. 00:27:11.599 --> 00:27:17.279 Okay, so but the way a person is revealed to you is they have to show themselves to you. 00:27:17.680 --> 00:27:25.519 And they show themselves to you both in knowing you and in you knowing them. 00:27:26.240 --> 00:27:29.119 It's a relational dynamic to our knowing. 00:27:29.440 --> 00:27:40.799 See, the modernist wants to stand back and have something completely impersonal because it's our it's our personal engagement with something that makes it subjective and therefore untrustworthy. 00:27:41.039 --> 00:27:53.599 The postmodernist wants to say, eliminate all objectivity and center my experience as the most important factor in my understanding and description of the world. 00:27:53.920 --> 00:28:07.599 But the Christian says, my engagement is as me, this creature, with the reality who is governed by this one who is objective and can be personally made known to me. 00:28:08.480 --> 00:28:12.400 That's a relational dynamic of our engagement with the world. 00:28:12.640 --> 00:28:16.640 And it will not be sense-making in our postmodern culture. 00:28:16.880 --> 00:28:25.839 In fact, it will often just be heared as a regressive modernism, saying you need to engage with the objective reality. 00:28:27.039 --> 00:28:30.640 That just snaps quickly into a modernist frame. 00:28:32.960 --> 00:28:44.000 So I want to make sure I covered everything. 00:28:55.119 --> 00:29:00.240 Okay, so here's my here's my hope. 00:29:05.920 --> 00:29:09.119 This world requires a lot of courage. 00:29:12.480 --> 00:29:27.759 And the reason that it requires courage is because you cannot look to the world to assess whether or not you're being courageous. 00:29:30.079 --> 00:29:34.480 Because there's a couple of things that we need there's a couple of things that we need to know. 00:29:34.559 --> 00:29:43.119 Like, first of all, um, just because you're being called a bigot, it doesn't mean you are. 00:29:44.720 --> 00:29:48.880 But just because you're being called a bigot, it doesn't mean you aren't. 00:29:50.319 --> 00:29:52.240 So we need a metric. 00:29:53.440 --> 00:29:57.680 We need it, we need something to ground and center us in this world. 00:29:58.160 --> 00:30:04.720 And I want to delicately, even delicately use the word courage. 00:30:05.839 --> 00:30:16.160 Because with the type of transformation that we've seen in our culture, you see both extremes at the same time. 00:30:16.319 --> 00:30:21.200 You're con will will in the strangeness of our world, there's always both extremes at the same time. 00:30:21.519 --> 00:30:31.279 Because at the dis at the disintegration, uh courage, here's why I'm saying this, courage is something which automatically snaps into the masculine virtues for you. 00:30:32.319 --> 00:30:34.400 Uh, because you're a human in the world. 00:30:34.640 --> 00:30:43.599 And so as courage snaps into the masculine virtues, then it's easy to just react against the disintegration of the masculine virtues in our culture. 00:30:43.759 --> 00:30:46.079 But look at the strangeness of our culture. 00:30:46.400 --> 00:31:03.359 Because at the same time as there's the disintegration of the masculine virtues uh with the deconstruction of gender and uh all of all of these things, there's also these strange hyper-masculine figures that are mainstreaming themselves. 00:31:03.599 --> 00:31:05.680 You know, like the liver king. 00:31:06.640 --> 00:31:10.400 It's hilarious, you know, because that's an absurd person. 00:31:10.480 --> 00:31:12.160 Or what's the guy who's just arrested? 00:31:13.359 --> 00:31:14.319 Uh Andrew Tate. 00:31:14.480 --> 00:31:14.720 Right. 00:31:14.799 --> 00:31:16.640 He's another perfect example of this. 00:31:16.880 --> 00:31:21.279 You know, you should we you need to look for the extremes. 00:31:21.519 --> 00:31:27.359 Okay, so when I'm saying courage, uh it you here's the type of courage that it takes. 00:31:28.960 --> 00:31:32.160 To Andrew Tate, this is a terrible example. 00:31:32.400 --> 00:31:36.319 Because he's like a what even is I don't know what that person is. 00:31:36.480 --> 00:31:37.920 There is probably nothing there. 00:31:38.079 --> 00:31:44.160 If I were to find out like that wasn't real, that was an AI program, I would be like, yeah, that makes just as much sense. 00:31:44.319 --> 00:31:47.599 But anyway, for this sermon and illustration, I'm going to use Andrew Tate. 00:31:48.559 --> 00:31:54.240 To Andrew Tate, your courage will not look courageous. 00:31:54.480 --> 00:31:57.680 It will look cowardly to Andrew Tate. 00:31:57.839 --> 00:32:04.559 So you cannot use that culture's absurdity as a metric for your courage. 00:32:04.960 --> 00:32:07.839 To what's the opposite of Andrew Tate? 00:32:08.000 --> 00:32:21.200 This is happening femininely as well, because uh along with Andrew, along with Andrew Tate, there's like a cautery of um loose women. 00:32:23.119 --> 00:32:34.640 See, so there's this at this, there's this extreme end of the hypermasculinity and this also uh absurd femininity, uh, which is in that narrative structure. 00:32:34.960 --> 00:32:49.279 Now at the other end, to what would be more like mainstream culture in Denver, then your expression of courage will be interpreted as oppression. 00:32:50.319 --> 00:32:53.599 Now, you can't use either of those metrics. 00:32:54.640 --> 00:33:07.119 Instead, to understand our courage, it must be in our relating to the Lord who promises to be with us. 00:33:09.119 --> 00:33:25.839 So I'm going to quickly move through this text to show us how God provides, how God shows Joshua the need that he has for courage, the hope that courage offers, and the means of courage. 00:33:26.000 --> 00:33:32.160 And then we're going to spend the rest of January looking at how to develop these means of courage. 00:33:32.960 --> 00:33:44.160 Okay, so Joshua 1, 1 through 2, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, Moses, my servant, is dead. 00:33:44.400 --> 00:33:51.599 Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. 00:33:52.640 --> 00:33:58.160 After forty years of wandering in the desert, the one who had held the nation together. 00:33:58.319 --> 00:34:04.240 You know, nations are held together from the bottom in some sort of agreement and from the top in the ideal that they look towards. 00:34:04.400 --> 00:34:08.079 And that had been manifest in Moses for the nation of Israel. 00:34:08.239 --> 00:34:14.239 And now that it is time to finally enter into the promised land, Moses is dead. 00:34:14.559 --> 00:34:17.039 What is going to hold this nation together? 00:34:17.199 --> 00:34:21.360 There is now no more embodied ideal to look up to. 00:34:21.920 --> 00:34:29.360 Instead, what they have is the assistant, assistant to the, you know, head of the tribes of Israel. 00:34:32.239 --> 00:34:34.000 Moses is dead. 00:34:34.239 --> 00:34:36.719 And now it is time to enter into the promised land. 00:34:36.960 --> 00:34:45.840 There is no going back to the way things were with Moses in place, and where we are going forward to, no one has ever been. 00:34:46.400 --> 00:34:53.199 I just want to draw an analog because I think that the transitional moment in our culture that we're seeing now is similar to this. 00:34:53.440 --> 00:34:54.960 There's no going back. 00:34:55.679 --> 00:35:00.159 And by the way, we've exhausted this in two ways now. 00:35:00.400 --> 00:35:05.679 We've tried to make things the way they were again, and the steam has run out on that. 00:35:06.079 --> 00:35:11.360 And we've tried to build back, and the steam has run out on that. 00:35:11.599 --> 00:35:14.639 So look, everybody got a chance to try. 00:35:14.960 --> 00:35:18.000 The lesson to learn here, there's no going back. 00:35:18.719 --> 00:35:19.920 Things have changed. 00:35:20.079 --> 00:35:21.440 You are in a different world. 00:35:21.599 --> 00:35:22.719 Welcome. 00:35:23.519 --> 00:35:25.760 We have no idea what it's going to be like. 00:35:26.400 --> 00:35:29.199 This is what it is like for Joshua. 00:35:29.440 --> 00:35:32.079 So there is a need for courage here. 00:35:33.519 --> 00:35:45.280 But just as Jesus calls his church into all of the corners of the world, God called Joshua into the promised land with this hope. 00:35:46.719 --> 00:35:54.000 In Joshua 1.3, it says, Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. 00:35:54.480 --> 00:36:02.639 So he does not go on just on some internal mustered up strength, but instead he goes on on the promises of the Lord, and this is the hope of courage. 00:36:02.880 --> 00:36:04.079 Look at how it continues. 00:36:04.239 --> 00:36:05.440 God gets so specific. 00:36:05.679 --> 00:36:15.679 From the wilderness and this Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. 00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:20.159 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. 00:36:21.519 --> 00:36:24.559 So this is important to recognize. 00:36:25.760 --> 00:36:28.320 This is the hope of courage. 00:36:29.039 --> 00:36:40.960 The reason that we would cultivate courage is not so that we can sit self-assured and think of ourselves and be seen as courageous people. 00:36:42.400 --> 00:36:47.440 That is not the reason why we would try and cultivate courage. 00:36:48.079 --> 00:36:56.880 And look, if that is your aim, I think that you will almost certainly waver to the right or to the left. 00:36:57.679 --> 00:37:00.239 To use language we'll encounter here soon. 00:37:01.039 --> 00:37:15.760 Because you'll either desire to feel courageous within yourself, and that will be your guiding focus, and you will engage in all sorts of self-deception and even work yourself into places where you'll just try and get to feel courageous. 00:37:15.920 --> 00:37:26.320 Or you will gauge your courage by the world that you happen to be living in and what people see as courageous there, and you'll get tossed about by whatever courage is there. 00:37:27.920 --> 00:37:35.360 Our courage has an end that it is aiming at, a mission that it is seeking to accomplish. 00:37:35.599 --> 00:37:41.039 The mission is not just your immediate psychological experience of your courage. 00:37:42.000 --> 00:37:50.239 The mission is the kingdom of heaven and the proclamation of Christ as king. 00:37:51.119 --> 00:37:53.280 This is the mission that we are aiming at. 00:37:53.519 --> 00:38:00.800 The proclamation of Christ as king, the good news of what he has accomplished on behalf of his people. 00:38:01.039 --> 00:38:08.880 So when he lays out the particulars of what he's aiming at, he's like, feel he doesn't say to Joshua, be strong and courageous, because won't that be so sweet? 00:38:10.480 --> 00:38:16.320 Wouldn't that be nice to like when you go into battle to not feel frightened, but to actually feel courageous? 00:38:16.960 --> 00:38:17.280 No. 00:38:17.679 --> 00:38:20.239 He says, because look at what I've given you. 00:38:20.400 --> 00:38:22.079 Look at what you're aiming at. 00:38:22.320 --> 00:38:30.079 So you do well to consider the ends, the aim of what you're aiming at for your courage. 00:38:30.320 --> 00:38:37.920 I can tell you that the only courageous things that I have done as a Christian have been with this phrase in mind. 00:38:38.159 --> 00:38:39.440 This is not about me. 00:38:39.679 --> 00:38:41.360 This is about the glory of God. 00:38:41.599 --> 00:38:48.239 And until that phrase clicks and sinks in, I am, I am, Zach seen it, torn. 00:38:48.800 --> 00:38:53.760 I become this useless person who's unable to move forward in anything. 00:38:54.480 --> 00:38:58.639 But when that phrase finally, because I'm trying to discern, what do I think about myself? 00:38:58.880 --> 00:39:00.239 Am I man enough for this? 00:39:00.320 --> 00:39:01.440 What will they think of this? 00:39:01.599 --> 00:39:03.039 Will they think of me as man enough? 00:39:03.199 --> 00:39:08.079 If they don't think of me as man enough, will I still be able to have this job on Sunday mornings? 00:39:08.159 --> 00:39:09.840 You know, the things that you think. 00:39:12.960 --> 00:39:14.239 Maybe not Sunday mornings. 00:39:14.400 --> 00:39:16.800 There's a lot of you, this is your day off, I've noticed. 00:39:20.960 --> 00:39:28.960 But then my courage is for the glory of God. 00:39:30.480 --> 00:39:32.000 Doesn't matter what I think. 00:39:32.800 --> 00:39:34.559 It matters what he thinks. 00:39:34.880 --> 00:39:37.440 This seems like the way to move forward for the glory of God. 00:39:38.000 --> 00:39:39.840 There's a space for courage there. 00:39:40.639 --> 00:39:44.639 That's a way to experience, to participate in courage. 00:39:45.760 --> 00:39:48.320 So we think about the ends we're aiming at. 00:39:49.440 --> 00:39:51.440 Now the means of courage. 00:39:52.400 --> 00:39:53.760 Joshua 1.5. 00:39:54.559 --> 00:39:58.880 Just as I was with Moses, how do I become that type of courageous person? 00:39:59.119 --> 00:40:00.800 I'll ask the question. 00:40:01.119 --> 00:40:04.559 How how do I become someone who could be so centered? 00:40:04.719 --> 00:40:08.400 You know, there's a there's a um to use like a therapeutic word. 00:40:08.480 --> 00:40:10.320 You need to be a differentiated person. 00:40:10.559 --> 00:40:12.239 Does that make sense when I say that? 00:40:12.719 --> 00:40:21.039 Our culture is like, uh, I don't know, we're like a there's people in here who are like actual therapists. 00:40:21.280 --> 00:40:26.239 And then there's the rest of us that over the past two years learned all the words that they were taught on Instagram. 00:40:27.679 --> 00:40:29.920 And so we just like say them now. 00:40:30.719 --> 00:40:32.559 But anyway, let's say them. 00:40:33.039 --> 00:40:36.880 The uh it that must be frustrating. 00:40:36.960 --> 00:40:38.079 I imagine that's frustrating. 00:40:38.320 --> 00:40:45.440 But a differentiated person is somebody who's able to maintain their own sense of self while they're entering into relationships with others, something like that. 00:40:45.519 --> 00:40:46.960 You can fact check me later. 00:40:48.639 --> 00:40:51.039 We need to be that type of person. 00:40:51.599 --> 00:40:54.079 But here's a way to not do that. 00:40:54.400 --> 00:40:55.840 Be differentiated. 00:40:56.559 --> 00:41:02.480 Uh, don't be so concerned with what the people you're in relationship with think about you so that you lose yourself. 00:41:02.639 --> 00:41:04.960 It's like, okay, I'll just go do that. 00:41:05.199 --> 00:41:06.639 No, that's not the way that happens. 00:41:06.800 --> 00:41:08.000 You're a relational person. 00:41:08.559 --> 00:41:15.039 And so you actually require relational connection even to be yourself. 00:41:15.599 --> 00:41:21.679 You aren't yourself just there is no such thing as a person with no context. 00:41:21.840 --> 00:41:26.960 You came from somewhere, you have parents, where all these biological things that came out of a woman's body. 00:41:27.119 --> 00:41:36.159 Like you're a can you're a contexted type of thing, and in the context that you exist in is a relational one, and therefore you require relationships, even to be yourself. 00:41:36.320 --> 00:41:44.639 So you can't just go be differentiated, which is a manifestation of courage, is what I'm saying, the type of differentiation. 00:41:45.039 --> 00:41:47.360 So then how do I be a courageous person? 00:41:47.599 --> 00:42:15.440 How am I able to stand with the hope of what the Lord has said and with my sense of who I am coming most fundamentally and certainly from the Lord, so that I am able to seek his glory above all and then legitimately love the people around me, even when they dislike me for it, or even if they would even if they would applaud me for it, I would, I would not get taken in. 00:42:16.880 --> 00:42:17.519 How? 00:42:18.719 --> 00:42:29.199 I think God's exhortation to Joshua here is a pattern of how that could be participated in in our hearts. 00:42:29.280 --> 00:42:36.480 The first thing, Joshua 1.5, just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. 00:42:36.719 --> 00:42:39.840 I will not leave you or forsake you. 00:42:40.159 --> 00:42:44.159 The first thing that we do is not a doing, it is a reception. 00:42:44.880 --> 00:42:52.079 It is a receiving of the Lord's covenant faithfulness, the Lord's promised presence. 00:42:52.960 --> 00:42:56.000 We need to learn that that is the starting point. 00:42:56.480 --> 00:43:13.840 And understanding that that is the starting point actually positions us properly into the way that Christians can engage with the world, which is in a relational means, a relational pattern which we did not initiate, but which we can participate in with our initiator. 00:43:14.000 --> 00:43:17.119 And our initiator is the Lord. 00:43:17.440 --> 00:43:23.840 He is the one who comes to us and says, I will not leave you or forsake you. 00:43:24.079 --> 00:43:33.519 Now, the way that we participate with that is in learning to be people who receive gladly and confidently the presence of the Lord. 00:43:33.840 --> 00:43:40.480 Because I know you don't feel like someone that the Lord will not leave or forsake. 00:43:40.639 --> 00:43:59.360 If you have any sense of self awareness whatsoever, unless you're literally Andrew Tate, then you have some sense in your soul that you're leavable and you're forsakable, especially once someone really gets to know you. 00:44:00.239 --> 00:44:02.239 And God really knows you. 00:44:03.199 --> 00:44:08.159 So, how do we how do we learn to trust this? 00:44:08.400 --> 00:44:09.760 Well, imagine then. 00:44:10.880 --> 00:44:13.440 Well, first of all, we just see his presence, okay? 00:44:13.599 --> 00:44:14.880 We see his presence. 00:44:16.880 --> 00:44:27.519 The second thing is Joshua 1.7, and continues on, only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses, my servant, commanded you. 00:44:27.760 --> 00:44:33.840 Do not turn to it from the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. 00:44:34.239 --> 00:44:38.000 Part of it is we are entering into a new land. 00:44:39.119 --> 00:44:45.679