John Launchbury - Class 4: Crucified with Christ

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   You’re listening to a Bible. Talk recorded of the 2011 Western Chris, Duffy and bio escalope Manuka. The speaker is John launch Brewery. And this is the fourth class in this series. The transformed mind, this address is entitled crucified with Christ and was recorded on July 28, 2011, a Buddhist is in New York City because up to the hot dog vendor and he says make me one with everything. So here’s my question.

2. 0:38

   Why isn’t it the Christian Why isn’t it? You know what, you’re a christadelphians. When you go up to a new, add to a hot dog vendor and say make me one with everything. Because it’s a command of Jesus. And and one of the challenges that we have in Christianity, is this inheritance back from the second century, the third century, and so on. When Christianity started to become very creedal from the Nicene Creed and the athanasian Creed, and his whole idea that we’re going to Define ourselves explicitly in intellectual correctness, or particular sets of precise, beliefs as opposed to wait.

3. 1:26

   You matters that Jesus described them of things like mercy and compassion. How come those aren’t the defining characteristics of what it means to be followers of Christ? I think it’s going to be fascinating to explore some of these. The Story Goes On, by the way, the Buddhist pays with a ten dollar bill, and the vendor receives it Pockets it and turns to the next customer. Hey, since the Buddhist.

4. 1:54

   Where’s my change change is within I’m not, of course, is what we’re talking about in this whole series of classes. Yesterday we part of what we were doing in thinking about meditative prayer, was exploring the idea that the past and the future are actually mental constructs that we build and hold. And if we’re not careful, we spend our time living in these worlds that we have created, there were previous moments there will be future moments, but the sense we have of the past isn’t Leave those individual moments, it’s the construct, the model, the interpretation that we’ve built of those things that have happened in the past. And indeed, we don’t have any experience of the future moments.

5. 2:53

   But nonetheless, we build up. Imagining we build up mental constructs and to the extent that we spend our life living in the past, or living in the future, we’re living in the world, we create rather than the world God creates, which is the world of this moment now. And Jesus tells us to let go of the past. Just that it’s done, it’s gone and not to worry about the future and to be anxious about the future, but to step into the reign of God.

6. 3:21

   Today, we’re going to carry on this idea of exploring things that are within us as mental constructs, that get in the way of our ability to actually connect with the things of God. And today, we’re going to explore the idea of crucified with Christ. we’re going to see that our sense of self is also a mental construct that we build and that gets in the way of connecting with God and with each other, If you look at Matthew chapter 10 so it’s very famous passage.

7. 3:59

   We read it many times. Matthew chapter 10 and verse 39, Verse 39, whoever finds his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life, for my sake will find it. I don’t think he’s just talking about the Stevens and the peters and the Paul’s of this world who were stoned or even the Jesus of this world who was crucified I don’t think it’s talking about physical martyrdom. So much as actual spiritual martyrdom to, actually allow ourselves to die before we die.

8. 4:57

   It’s about losing life, it’s about being willing to give up this. This sent this thing that I so desperately guard and protect this sense of me. It’s being willing to give that up and Jesus says, look if you work to get that life to find your life as it were to build that life, that sense of self I think is what he’s talking about. You’ll actually lose life.

9. 5:29

   But the extent to which you’re actually able to die before you die, the extent that you’re able to give up life, is the extent that you’ll be able to find it. And he actually gives an example in the previous two. Verses, anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is? Not worthy of me. Anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is? Not worthy of me, anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me and I think we sometimes think of this simply at the level of relationship that I have to be willing say with Rachel and Zoe and Nathan to say no they’re not as important to me as Christ.

10. 6:12

    As if it’s diminishing somehow them and and I don’t think that’s what Jesus is talking about. I think what Jesus is talking about is my sense of Pride and status and position because I am. So incredibly fortunate to have Rachel as my wife to have Nathan and Zoe as my children, that is what I have to give up.

11. 6:40

    That sense of, of status, almost, did you see what I’m saying? That’s what he’s don’t, don’t so much. Love the idea of This wife or this son or so, but be willing to give that up for my sake, lose your life, and then you’ll be able to find it and this phrase of take up your cross. And follow me.

12. 7:03

    If you ever heard people moan about someone at work and then say, I guess that’s my cross to bear and things like that is not what Jesus is talking about. He’s not talking about enduring and in just a difficult situation with a bit of resentment, as often comes across in that kind of phrase.

13. 7:22

    He is actually talking about allowing yourself and your sense of self to die to truly die. And he says it strongly anyone who does not take his cross. And follow me is not worthy of me. Again, I don’t want us in any of these. I don’t want us to see them as as law to the provokes guilt. When we realize that we fail, that’s not the intent of these things.

14. 7:54

    The intent of these things is for, Jesus is shining a light on us, so that we can make honest assessments of where we are in the And following him. And so we can look at this and I can say, I realize I may have picked it up occasionally and I kept putting it down and I certainly haven’t yet.

15. 8:15

    Got to Golgotha and I certainly haven’t let them Drive in the nails. Do you see what I mean? And it’s not guilt Associated and will develop that a little bit more. It’s about making an honest assessment of, where am I in the transformation process? That the Lord is working in me. I need to learn to die before I die. And then the life of the father will be fully manifest within me because it’s not going to be this pale shadow of the life of John the self of John but it will be the brilliant glory of the father.

16. 8:52

    That is Manifest. So I’d like us to think about a number of steps in this process about learning to die before we die, this idea of crucified with Christ the first step of this process and it’s kind of sound stupid to say it, but it’s Again, where you are? Actually really hard to do.

17. 9:16

    I’m reminded of the joke. I think it was a joke or the story. This guy in rural Countryside and he’s asked, he’s completely lost. He’s trying to get somewhere in the roads were all wind, and he sees a farmer leaning against the fence. And so, he pulls over and goes over to the farmer and his chewing on the stalk of grass or whatever.

18. 9:37

    He says, how do I get to such? And such a town, says the farmer. If I was Now, I wouldn’t start from here. What is astonishing about that story? Is that it is an accurate description of our path of faith. Where we are unwilling to actually accept that we start from where we are today. As a rule that is, we are unwilling to take on exactly who we are.

19. 10:13

    Today, we have a false image of who we are, and if we have a False Image, that’s like asking for directions of if I wasn’t here, if I was over there, how would I get to the place that I’m trying to get to? God, is actually offering us a great deal of help in starting where we are today and this is the doctrine of forgiveness, it should be a This principle amongst us, I have been forgiven.

20. 10:42

    I have been forgiven, it’s very clear in the New Testament. I’m not going to go to all the passages will dip into one or two as we as we go along. God loves us and forgives us but we don’t believe that he should You see, if we don’t feel forgiven, it’s not because there is any lack on God’s side of extending forgiveness to us. It’s about our inability and unwillingness to receive the Forgiveness that God extends to us. I’d like to look at Hebrews 10 just for a moment just so that you can see that.

21. 11:30

    The sense here. When Barnabas or whoever wrote Hebrews is talking about the law and contrasts with the Covenant in Christ. He says, in chapter 10 and verse 1. The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming. Not the realities themselves which should by the way makers cautious when we’re trying to deduce Christ based just on the law of Moses, the law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the realities themselves for this reason, it’s the law can never by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect, those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they Not have stopped being offered for the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. He’s drawing a contrast between the old Covenant where they didn’t feel cleansed, and they continue to feel guilty for their sins.

22. 12:32

    With the New Covenant, where the clear implication is, we have been cleansed and we have no reason now to feel guilty for our sins. God loves and forgives us. What is it? The stopping us actually. Take that on board. What is it that has us still have that weight of the stuff in the past that somehow it’s not all gone. I mean, it one level.

23. 13:12

    We could say it’s a lack of faith. It’s a lack of belief in God when he says, I forgive you and we say, no, you don’t. Or it’s a matter of obvious. Pride in that God can forgive, I know. God can forgive everyone else in this room, but I am so much worse. A sinner than them that.

24. 13:36

    God can’t forgive me. In fact, my sin is so bad that it was the phrase Mark was using God, who created the whole universe, isn’t powerful enough to forgive me. I mean, is that not a position of pride?

25. 13:52

    But I think it’s actually often much more subtle than that. Here’s what I think goes on. God shouldn’t have to forgive me. I’m better than this.

26. 14:07

    I shouldn’t have done this. You shouldn’t need to forgive me. This is pride slipping in sort of under the door seeping in. And does this resonate at all. Just sometimes that, you know, I wish God didn’t have to forgive me. He ought to have had to forgive me because I shouldn’t have done it.

27. 14:30

    I am better than this. I’m sorry, but you’re not. I’m not. That is a position of confession. That is when we actually get to the point that we say, it may be that I wish I wasn’t like this, but I am. I was, I don’t know, I was the kid who pulled the other kids ears, and I had no excuse for doing that. But it was me, I am the adult who was aggressive at work and who did this particular situation? It was me.

28. 15:15

    That is a manifestation of exactly where I was in that moment. It was me. Ideas, like I’m better than this, or I should be better than this, a statements of non-acceptance of where we are today. They’re resisting today’s reality. And when we resist today’s reality, we put ourselves in this imaginary world that we create not in the world that is here.

29. 15:47

    And now that God has formed and that we are now in this position. And so, it’s hard for us to actually take the Forgiveness of God that comes upon us.

30. 16:01

    Here’s another one. I’m not good enough to be forgiven. Just just change the words a little bit. I’m not rich enough to be given money. Pardon me. I’m not rich enough to be given money. I mean, it’s just ludicrous when you put it that way. I’m not good enough to be forgiven. No, you are forgiven because you’re not good enough.

31. 16:31

    You’re given money because you’re not rich. You’re given forgiveness because you are a sinner. If you weren’t a sinner, if you were good enough, you wouldn’t need to be forgiven. In John’s letter his first letter 1, John 1. This is what he says. End of that first chapter. Verse 8 of 1, John 1.

32. 17:09

    If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Now, we never do that as christadelphians. We are very willing to say that we are sinners in in, it’s in generality. We are sinners. We said all the time, we’re not so willing to actually even in our own private contemplation before God to say, this is what I have done.

33. 17:39

    This is what I continue to do this thing. And this thing and this thing that’s actually the first step of Claiming or accepting our sin as opposed to claiming that we’re not Sinners is being specific with ourselves with God. But also, if we say, yeah, we sin. I sin, but I wish I hadn’t, or I had a reason to do it or this is what anytime that there’s a caveat anytime that there’s a defensiveness anytime that there’s a non acceptance of, this is genuinely how it was.

34. 18:20

    We are actually claiming to be without sin. he is asking us something so so simple and yet so hard which is to empty ourselves just to come before him and say It was me. I did it. I just did.

35. 18:47

    And then what happens? He rails it us, he’s angry at us, he’s dubious as to whether he’s going to accept. No, we are already brothers and sisters. We are already in a covenant of forgiveness. Whereby, our sins are not counted against us. John says, if we forget confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. That that forgiveness is being extended to us all the time. It’s There’s No Lack on God’s willingness to forgive the lack is on our unwillingness to receive and it comes from our resistance and that resistance is actually from the sense of self.

36. 19:45

    Because we haven’t been willing to die. We haven’t been willing to lay aside our ego, our pride. And tell him. It was me, it truly was me. Who did that? Even sometimes when we say and I’m sorry, can get in the way of just plain acceptance of what we did. It seems to me that the only barrier to our forgiveness is our willingness to receive it.

37. 20:29

    It’s no, no barrier to forgiveness on the part of God, we’ll look at a couple of those Rachel’s heavily involved in working through things like 12-step programs with addiction.

38. 20:46

    I think as fascinating to look at you should you should dig it out and think about it from the perspective of Sin, Sin had made our lives unmanageable Step 1. We decided that we couldn’t do it by ourselves. We had to give it over to a higher power. God as we as we understand him, step four is we made a searching moral inventory of ourselves.

39. 21:14

    What one manifestation of that might be to take a day where every time we find ourselves having a sense of annoyance or anger, or irritation, or fear or any kind of negative energy within us, that we just jot it down. No judgment, no assessment, just jot it down. Take a day and just every time something happens, just jot it down and then at the end of the day, look at this.

40. 21:47

    At the very least, we stopped to see something about ourselves. We can bring it to the Lord and we can say, You read this?

41. 22:03

    Through not owning our sin. We create a barrier that doesn’t permit us to receive the Forgiveness of God. And we wish we were starting the transformation process from somewhere else than we actually are today. We own our sin without caveats without defensiveness, without wishing it were. Otherwise it is what it is. And we come before you Lord. Open.

42. 22:31

    And just showing ourselves. But I think there’s also another barrier, which I think we I’m going to suggest a different interpretation from how we normally give this that, I’d like you to chew on and this one just comes from the Lord’s Prayer, but it also comes from elsewhere where, where Jesus said, forgive us our sins. As we forgive those who sin against us. Hey, you know that idea and it occurs in a bunch of his Parables.

43. 23:04

    I’d always heard in the past that it was that God, is, is limiting his forgiveness based on how much I’m willing to forgive someone else. So, you know, you’d better learn got nowhere, nobody actually said that but that was the idea. You’d better earn God’s forgiveness by forgiving other people. I don’t think, I don’t think that’s the idea at all. Doesn’t fit with the other scriptures, which talked about the Overwhelming forgiveness that is pouring out of God. It seems to me that it’s an issue of us not being able to receive forgiveness unless we forgive, it’s like there’s this spiritual equation at work.

44. 23:45

    The amount that you extend forgiveness to others. guides the amount of forgiveness you are actually going to be able to receive If your heart is closed, if there’s a barrier between you and someone else that barrier will be reflected between you and God, and you won’t be able to actually have that sense of forgiveness because of your inability or unwillingness to Extended to someone else. So it’s not that God is saying I won’t forgive you. It’s that he’s saying, look the way to actually access the forgiveness from God, is to put it in practice in your life. Make goat go out, go out, explicitly and forgiving other people as you as you see opportunity and have need and that will start to allow you to actually have the sense of the Forgiveness of God coming upon you. So I don’t think it’s God’s refusal. Forget to forgive it’s that we can’t receive it. When we hold something against someone else, Creates a barrier within us.

45. 25:02

    Had a wonderful example of forgiveness and I slightly hesitate to give this because it’s so so bizarre. But I tried it out on the teens and they quite enjoyed it. So I’m going to inflict it on you to have you ever driven around with a GPS unit in your, in your car? You ever tried to mess it up? So it says turn right.

46. 25:25

    You know the next Junction, you turn left and then it says you’re doing a U-turn and then you turn, right? And then it says, well turn. And you turn left. And then it says turn left and you go straight on and have you ever done that? I have.

47. 25:43

    Yeah, Randy has as well. Imagine just just for the sake of argument, just just for again, I’m not trying to lay any kind of law or rule or I’m just trying to create a mental image for you to play with here. Imagine that you are that GPS unit. And you say to the driver turn right here, the driver turns left.

48. 26:17

    Without being in any sense, upset you say when you have an opportunity to do a U-turn, they turn, right? Two moves ahead turn, right? They turn left. Jus just see what I’m trying to point out. Just what an incredible spirit, that would be if you could just be. So completely accepting of, this is where we are. And I mean there may be other factors going on that need to be dealt with.

49. 26:47

    So I’m not trying to say, this is how you should be. But what it seems to me is that, that shows just an incredible Spirit of forgiveness If you can anyway, I don’t know if you find that idea helpful, but but I thought it was an intriguing thing to play with just as just as an idea.

50. 27:08

    So the process of dying before you die, Step 1 or step 0, essentially is start from where you are today. Just accept fully fully Embrace where you are today. Understand it, take it on board, except it be it because you are it and don’t have an imagination that you’re something different from what you are related to that.

51. 27:44

    We could think of, as step to, they’re not really steps. They’re more like, sort of aspects, is a continual process of acceptance of where we are. Seems to me that as we become more practiced at self-examination, will be able again and again, to present things to God, without the burden of guilt getting, in the way.

52. 28:08

    Remember, we are in a covenant of forgiveness whereby, our sins are not held against us. Guilt is a problem because it doesn’t allow us actually to see the thing. It’s like we put a barrier in front of it.

53. 28:26

    And so, we ought to bring things before God without a sense of guilt. Without a burden of guilt and it seems to me. Each time we do this, another part of us Dies, this is a good thing, remember? Because it’s another part of the pride that I have of who, I think I ought to be Dies. Here’s another one.

54. 28:55

    God I want you to know that this one. There’s no prideful positioning, no wishing it were otherwise because we’re better than this. It’s just honest acceptance. It seems to me that in the New Covenant where to see the external Deeds as symptoms of the state of our spirit as opposed to things that are restricted by external mandate.

55. 29:31

    That’s really what the first class was all about those rules were there under the first Covenant, to restrain the vicious dog. Now, what we get to see is, how is my spirit being manifest in day-to-day life?

56. 29:49

    And we do things that a Shamus. We bring it before. God. Not as I’ve broken your rules again, Lord. But I see that there’s manifestation of my spirit of my character of my being It’s not christ-like. I bring it before you, and I accept this and I acknowledge it, and I’m not burdened down by guilt. Because I know you’ve taken the guilt away. But I bring it before you as a step in the transformation process that you’re working in me. Rules.

57. 30:23

    I think can be useful as a test to see whether our spirit is in tune with them, to see whether there’s more growing to do. Well, see whether there’s more dying to do. More transforming to do. And part of this is, we might notice some of the things that are actually the acts of the self in day-to-day moment. Sitting quietly at home and and and then the car alarm goes off. And how long does it take before you first hear that car alarm for irritation and annoyance to Builder? Boom, it’s there or the dog is barking. Those neighbors should do something about their dog. Irritation.

58. 31:17

    Is a mental construct. It’s nothing. Absolute or fundamental in it. It’s something that is created in our mind. And somehow deep in our minds, in our sense of self our ego, if you like, there must be some senses to this is serving a purpose, otherwise it wouldn’t happen. But what that purpose is if you look at it carefully and deeply over time, is that it bolsters, the sense of self. Because you get to take a position of rightness, against somebody else’s position of wrongness, and it’s an establishment, then of the self.

59. 32:08

    Actually, what’s interesting about irritation, Is that irritation is actually more disturbing to you than the irritant itself. Something very similar with said by the emperor Marcus Aurelius who said, the effects of anger are almost always more serious than the causes of anger.

60. 32:38

    I think it’s fascinating that when we allow that’s the wrong word. When we notice irritation growing within us, we have actually created a disturbance that is significantly greater than the external effect. We have developed a whole pattern of mental thinking Immediately just gets built, boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Built up. There’s this huge thing there in our minds.

61. 33:07

    And it is that thing, which is more disturbing than the original irritant. Or another Act of the self is feeling, sorry for yourself. Where you just have this sense of of wallowing in the particular circumstance. Again, there’s nothing in what is going on in that moment that necessitates that particular reaction in our minds?

62. 33:37

    That is a construct of our minds. That is the self. Doing something, this is exactly the part of us that Jesus is saying, allow that to die.

63. 33:51

    Because that sense of feeling sorry for ourselves then has consequences. At the very least, what it does is takes us out of the joy of living in the domain of God. And again, I’m not saying these things to you as rules to be obeyed or to beat you on the head. With I’m saying these things as offers for you to examine in your prayerful contemplation time.

64. 34:18

    So you may look at some of these things that have occurred in the day as you examine yourself and there’s nothing to be done with them, you don’t have to fix anything. That’s Christ job. What you need to do is notice them and then the Light of Christ will shine on whatever it is. Wake up, o sleeper rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you while we go about life, unconscious of these things. We can’t let the light of Christ shine on it when we see them for what they are.

65. 34:55

    That’s all we have to do. And Jesus is able to take over from that point, he shines his light on it and it goes away.

66. 35:08

    Another aspect of the process and we’ll go to 2 Corinthians. 12:4 this is to be willing for God to take things away from you. 2 Corinthians 12. Paul had been given tremendous Revelations into the nature of the New Covenant, the removal of the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile. The mystery of Christ. He talks about all of these sorts of things and that allowed him to write the incredible letters, that that he’s written. He says in verse 7 to keep me from being conceited because of these surpassingly.

67. 35:50

    Great Revelations. This is 2 Corinthians 12. Verse 7. There was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me. A lot of people have lots of ideas about The Thorn In the Flesh, from a site and things like that. And like, I don’t believe any of those if you follow where we don’t have time to actually do the work.

68. 36:13

    But if you follow themes in the Old Testament, where this word thorn, scroll UPS is used in the Old Testament. It’s used of the nations in the area where Israel were going to come in, they will be thorns in your side and Barbs in your eyes. That’s the idea that Paul is picking up. So there’s a thorn in the flesh of the community that is being created.

69. 36:37

    Think of what Paul was doing. He was going out, preaching, his preaching Liberation in Christ, freedom from the old rules, and regulations of the law of Moses transformation of spirit. This was the message of Paul. This is the New Covenant.

70. 36:55

    And immediately following him came the judea’s who would say I’m sorry. But Paul didn’t explain it all to you. You do need to be circumcised, you do need to do this, you do need to do that. And until you do, we’re not allowed to break bread with you. And, and all of these rules that followed, as the consequential effect of the judea’s is coming in and destroying what Paul, in the Name of Christ was creating. I should really say that Christ through. Paul was crazy.

71. 37:28

    Imagine this, your lifework being dismantled before your eyes. He says, I prayed to Jesus, three times to take it away from me, verse 9, but he said, to me, my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses. So that Power May rest on me.

72. 37:59

    It’s a very powerful lesson. I had this idea said, Paul that through the revelations that were given to me. I was accomplishing these great things and I saw this Thorn In the Flesh and it’s just destroying it again and again and again. And I know it’s Jesus is work. So I said, please take away this Thorn In the Flesh so that we can accomplish something together.

73. 38:23

    Lord, and he says, no, No. I need you to learn how to be weak. And not be able to accomplish anything. because then when you have realized that you have no strength, when you have been able to empty yourself, then you’ll be strong. And so, Paul said, I for Christ’s sake, I Delight in weaknesses in insults, in hardships, in persecutions. All the things that he faced from the judea’s in elements and elsewhere as he was doing the work of the Lord. It’s really actually quite quite sad. If you look at 2 Timothy, this is the last letter we have from Paul before his final defense, there’s some debate as to, whether to Timothy was written before his first trial to Nero or his first one, he got released and then went around and traveled.

74. 39:31

    It seems even as far as Spain. And, and now he’s this may actually be The final letter, just a short while before he dies that he writes to Timothy 1 verse 15. He says You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, all of those. Ecclesia has all of that effort that he put into establishing it.

75. 40:02

    His life work, he sees them having turned away. And he dies, it seems to me not having any sense of the Legacy that the Lord has actually created through him. And I think that that was not an accident. Paul says, it was to stop me from being conceited and so genuinely, he died. Perhaps thinking that his life’s work had been destroyed completely destroyed.

76. 40:34

    And why? Because, that allowed him to die before he died. And that’s what we’re being called, too. So much of our sense of self comes for from our job. I am a computer scientist. I’m a mathematician, those kinds of things are family. This is where I am in here. This was my father, my mother, these are my children, this is my wife, my husband or our church. I’m a third-generation christadelphians and I’m proud of that or, or whatever it is.

77. 41:11

    This is our sense of self, and Jesus. In the words that we read earlier, I think he’s saying, don’t take your standing from your, from your family. Hate father, mother brothers, sisters, even your own life. Don’t take it from your job, leave these fish. Leave this table where you’re making money, come, and come, and follow me. This is not what your life consists of. It seems to me that the Book of Job, the one who truly died in the Book of Job was job himself.

78. 41:47

    Say incredible man of Faith, just wonderful blameless, man. And he says, things like I had thought to go to the grave in peace with my children and grandchildren and possessions as it were all around me. God says, you need to learn to give that up. Job says, I will hold on to my integrity. God says here are three friends to malign you to say things about you and indeed when I come to you I will point out that you’re not so perfect either.

79. 42:27

    Job finally dies. And that is when the Lord is able. To resurrect him, we are crucified with Christ so that we may also live with Christ.

80. 42:45

    For us our sense of self may come from many dimensions. It may come from our looks kind of handsome, right? Yeah. Give them up before they’re gone. If you age and you’re still trying to hold on to your looks, it’s a failing battle. If you can relinquish that sense of yourself long before it’s gone, it will be replaced with an incredible beauty.

81. 43:23

    That is shining from the inside. We’ve all seen older people, who just glow Beauty and it’s not because of their outer looks Maybe your physical capabilities that you’re strong and energetic and Powerful. Give It Up. Don’t make that your sense of self. Allow your sense of self to hand that over. Maybe your intellectual standing.

82. 43:55

    I know many people in the academic world bright people win all sorts of prizes, incredibly insecure. Because anything like this, you can always find somebody who is that bit better than you. give it up, don’t take your sense of value from from that or on the other side of things, your pain, and the story that you tell yourself The kind of defines Who You Are. You know, you can never be free of that pain. Until you’re willing to give up your sense of identity that’s rooted in it.

83. 44:41

    Hand it over. Give it up. These things all Define our sense of self. And yet, they’re all imaginings, there’s no depth to them, and they interfere with our relationship with God.

84. 45:01

    So another aspect of it and this will be our final aspect is when we talk about the sense of self and the sense of ego and Rec and we’re starting perhaps to recognize at least many aspects of it that are mental constructs, that are actually things that we have created in our minds rather than actual realities that God has put there.

85. 45:25

    My separation as an individual from you also is a fiction. It is a mental position. It is a construct, it’s an illusion, it’s a mod, it’s a model of reality. It isn’t reality itself. And models of reality have value sometimes and they don’t have value other times. We often confuse the idea of model and an actuality There is no such thing as the force of gravity.

86. 46:04

    What I hear you say or you could say that Newton invented gravity that is actually an accurate statement and it’s surprising at first because we think, of course, he didn’t invent it. He discovered it. But actually gravity is a mathematical model as Newton did. It is a mathematical model that needed to be invented.

87. 46:26

    What we have is a set of phenomena that if I hold something and let go it will go to the ground set a phenomena. What Newton did was he said, oh you could you could see that as a force which is proportional to the mass of the object. And so he constructed Newton’s theory of gravity as beautiful Theory, it explained all sorts of things about how the planets worked and so on. But it was a model, it wasn’t reality. We now know that there are flaws in that model, it doesn’t explain How some of the planets move and Einstein got rid of that.

88. 47:03

    And said, here’s a different model of how things move in the universe. It’s because of curvature of space time. And space time is this four dimensional thing. And it has curvature in it and gravity fits in as things are actually moving in a straight line in space time. But that’s another model, it’s not reality. The reality are the individual things. The models are ways of explaining in. The reason I say this is that our sense of separation from one, another is a model of reality. It is not actually reality itself. We are.

89. 47:45

    And it’s a, it’s a model of reality. That when you examine it, you start to see flaws in it, you start to see failures in it. And Actually a model of reality that creates suffering. It is probably the primary cause of suffering in this world. Is this model of reality that says I am separate from you so much more.

90. 48:08

    Like we’re waves on the sea That come into being and that move for a while and then pass out of being an each wave actually interacts and evokes. Other ways, you can’t just take a single wave, get rid of all the other waves and think that that wave will continue. Waves are part of a whole that are connected below the surface. I have no independent existence from you and we know lots of scripture about it was so short on time, I hardly can go there. 1 Corinthians 12, you’re the body of Christ. We’re all part of it.

91. 48:48

    What Paul is trying to do is to give us a different mental model. He says, don’t have this idea of yourself as an individual. That is Separate from one another, take on Instead, This alternative model, which is that we are a single body, the collectively we are Christ.

92. 49:10

    And now I’m this portion of Christ and you’re that portion of Christ and so on just you see what I’m saying? He’s trying to shift the way that we think about ourselves. I am a rock, I am an island that song is pain. He knows he is not Where I end and where you begin is a construct of my mind. And through deep examination, I come to see that and again, as I come to see it and the Light of Christ shines upon it, it has profound impact on me.

93. 49:48

    Let’s look at John 17. Just as our final scripture, this is what Jesus was trying to convey. So eagerly to them, you know, when this prayer John 17 was given it was after the last Upper that had the Last Supper he’d been giving all sorts of teaching about the vine and the branches, and the comforter, and then had the him, they’d left the upper room, and they’re walking through through Jerusalem, and they’re coming down to the kedron river and maybe it was at the shore of the kedron river, and after this prayer, he’s going to cross the river with his disciples.

94. 50:23

    They’re going to go up to the Mount of Olives and he’s going to now spend three hours in meditative prayer about in the Garden of Gethsemane. This is his prayer at that point. This is the longest prayer Jesus ever gives us the theme of this prayer. Unity and I don’t mean unity in terms of documents and you know finally sort of I mean he’s talking about real deep you can feel it in your bones Unity verse 11 last phrase so that they may be one. As we are one verse 21 that all of them may be one. Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. It’s an interconnectedness end of verse 22 that they may be one as we are one verse 23.

95. 51:18

    May they be brought to complete Unity? This is the idea that Jesus is wanting us to take on, its wondering, as to lay aside, this notion that I am a separate being from you. and accept that I am part of a much greater whole and that I’m connected with you. Make me one with everything.