WEBVTT 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:19.000 [BLANK_AUDIO] 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:25.040 So Greg Popovich, who obviously, greatest coach in NBA history, I would say, 00:00:25.040 --> 00:00:29.280 and an incredible coach for the San Antonio Spurs. 00:00:29.280 --> 00:00:32.840 Anybody ever watched his like interviews after games? 00:00:32.840 --> 00:00:35.400 And he's, he's a nice guy, right? 00:00:35.400 --> 00:00:48.000 Pop was very well known for being someone who would not be nice during interviews. 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:51.440 And almost kind of like this hard personality. 00:00:54.040 --> 00:01:01.280 But there's some really interesting things that, that has happened in the recent years. 00:01:01.280 --> 00:01:05.960 Where people like Dejante Murray who played for the team for, for 00:01:05.960 --> 00:01:08.960 a little while, before he was traded to Atlanta. 00:01:08.960 --> 00:01:11.080 Dejante, is this what happened? 00:01:11.080 --> 00:01:13.720 Did I mess this up? 00:01:13.720 --> 00:01:18.400 It flipped, and the ADHD caught me. 00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:24.080 Dejante Murray on a podcast, not long ago, was talking about Greg Popovich and 00:01:24.080 --> 00:01:26.720 how much he meant to him. 00:01:26.720 --> 00:01:30.800 And I think he was in that podcast. 00:01:30.800 --> 00:01:35.760 But there's a story about, they were on a road trip. 00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:41.840 And the team was getting ready to leave to go to practice before a game. 00:01:43.320 --> 00:01:47.320 And Dejante was sitting in the lobby of the hotel, and 00:01:47.320 --> 00:01:48.760 he was pretty distraught. 00:01:48.760 --> 00:01:51.800 Something had happened with his family back home. 00:01:51.800 --> 00:01:54.960 I think he'd actually lost someone back home, and so he was distraught. 00:01:54.960 --> 00:01:57.920 And wasn't going out with the team, and the team was all coming out. 00:01:57.920 --> 00:02:00.560 It was time to go, he's got a job to do. 00:02:00.560 --> 00:02:04.480 And they're walking out, and Greg Popovich is walking by, head coach. 00:02:04.480 --> 00:02:07.800 Walking by sees Dejante and goes over and starts talking to him. 00:02:07.800 --> 00:02:09.800 Finds out what's going on, sits down. 00:02:09.800 --> 00:02:11.460 Tells the team, go ahead, get out of here. 00:02:12.960 --> 00:02:18.800 And the story, I might be making up some details, but not many. 00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:23.840 I think, from what I remember, Pop took Dejante to go eat, 00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:28.280 and just sat with him and listened, and just kind of poured into him. 00:02:28.280 --> 00:02:32.280 And then said, hey, go home, we're going to send you home. 00:02:32.280 --> 00:02:34.540 Go take every family, do what you need to do, and 00:02:34.540 --> 00:02:36.120 then come back when you're good. 00:02:38.280 --> 00:02:43.440 And Dejante just tells it about how caring it was, and 00:02:43.440 --> 00:02:45.840 how loving Pop was to him. 00:02:45.840 --> 00:02:49.600 And there's stories over and over and over and over again about this type of 00:02:49.600 --> 00:02:52.240 relationship that Greg Popovich had with his players. 00:02:53.600 --> 00:02:58.080 But for most of us, we don't have that relationship with Greg Popovich. 00:02:58.080 --> 00:03:01.140 We see him through a TV or through an interview, and he just seems like he's angry. 00:03:04.320 --> 00:03:07.880 But if you talk to people who know him, he's one of the most caring, 00:03:07.880 --> 00:03:10.800 loving people in their circle. 00:03:13.640 --> 00:03:15.600 Why don't I talk about Greg Popovich? 00:03:15.600 --> 00:03:19.840 Because sometimes, we have an idea about who somebody is, but 00:03:19.840 --> 00:03:22.120 just because we've never experienced who they really are. 00:03:23.920 --> 00:03:27.400 And I think that has happened for most of us in our relationship with God. 00:03:28.280 --> 00:03:31.720 Which is why the series is called Who Told You That? 00:03:32.880 --> 00:03:38.280 It's a sermon series where we're talking about this idea of who told you 00:03:39.960 --> 00:03:41.520 whatever it is that we'll go through. 00:03:41.520 --> 00:03:45.000 But today, who told you that God is like that? 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:47.920 Who told you that that is the characteristics of God? 00:03:47.920 --> 00:03:50.600 I'm going to ask you a question, and I want you to think about this. 00:03:50.600 --> 00:03:54.800 And this, I know it's when you see it and read it. 00:03:56.160 --> 00:04:01.680 You may experience some things, I'm not trying to induce trauma. 00:04:03.160 --> 00:04:06.200 Like really, but I think this is a valid question. 00:04:06.200 --> 00:04:12.520 So the question is, when you imagine God looking at you on your worst day, 00:04:12.520 --> 00:04:17.520 you've done the worst thing that you can imagine what expression is on God's face. 00:04:20.560 --> 00:04:27.000 On your worst day, what expression is on God's face? 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:28.200 Just sit with it for a second. 00:04:33.360 --> 00:04:38.240 When you failed, when you've disappointed someone, when you've said the thing you 00:04:38.240 --> 00:04:45.040 wish you could pull back, when you've maybe gone quiet, when you've hidden, 00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:52.000 when you've done the thing that you swore that you would never do again, 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:55.320 when you're not your best self, when you're not even close, 00:04:55.320 --> 00:04:59.040 what expression is on God's face? 00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:03.880 Is it anger, disappointment, frustration? 00:05:03.880 --> 00:05:06.760 Is God tired of you? 00:05:06.760 --> 00:05:09.320 Is God distant? 00:05:09.320 --> 00:05:11.840 Does God look cold? 00:05:11.840 --> 00:05:16.200 Does God look like someone keeping score? 00:05:16.200 --> 00:05:22.440 Or maybe God's turned around and turns back to you, can't even look at you? 00:05:22.440 --> 00:05:24.880 Or does God look like love? 00:05:28.280 --> 00:05:35.120 I mean, this question really gets underneath a lot of our religious language really fast, 00:05:35.120 --> 00:05:41.360 because a lot of us have a God we would describe, 00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:46.880 and then a God we actually expect and experience. 00:05:46.880 --> 00:05:48.720 We know the right words. 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:53.920 God is love, God is good, God is merciful, God is gracious. 00:05:53.920 --> 00:06:00.880 We can say those things, but what we feel in our body when we fail 00:06:00.880 --> 00:06:04.160 can tell a very different story. 00:06:04.160 --> 00:06:10.560 And I think the gap is a lot bigger than many of us realize, 00:06:10.560 --> 00:06:15.000 because a lot of us were handed language about God that sounded loving on the surface, 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:19.800 but underneath it carried something else. 00:06:19.800 --> 00:06:25.840 And usually, what that meant was not just that God cares about what is right, 00:06:25.840 --> 00:06:28.280 usually what it meant was God must punish, 00:06:28.280 --> 00:06:31.280 God must balance the scales through violence, 00:06:31.280 --> 00:06:35.320 God must have payment, God cannot just forgive, 00:06:35.320 --> 00:06:41.600 God cannot just heal, just restore, God cannot just be like Jesus, 00:06:41.600 --> 00:06:43.960 or we hear things like this. 00:06:43.960 --> 00:06:49.840 God loves you too much to leave you the way He found you. 00:06:49.840 --> 00:06:52.840 And I know what people are trying to say with that, 00:06:52.840 --> 00:06:56.680 but depending on how that lands, it can start sounding less like unconditional love 00:06:56.680 --> 00:07:00.080 and more like a coercive love. 00:07:00.080 --> 00:07:06.880 And unconditional real love is not coercive, it can't, it cannot be. 00:07:06.880 --> 00:07:12.800 A love that says I'll stay with you, but only while I'm changing you, 00:07:12.800 --> 00:07:19.360 or I'll love you, but I'm still fundamentally disappointed to what you are, 00:07:19.360 --> 00:07:25.720 or I'm for you, but I'm mostly managing you. 00:07:25.720 --> 00:07:35.000 And for a lot of us, those ideas don't create trust, they create strain. 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:37.640 That there's a statement I hear all the time where, 00:07:37.640 --> 00:07:44.520 well, yeah, God is love, but God is also just, and He's a just God. 00:07:44.520 --> 00:07:51.360 But if God is love, there should be no comma, and there should be no but. 00:07:51.360 --> 00:08:08.440 Right. So, we get this idea about this relationship with God. 00:08:08.440 --> 00:08:11.720 It creates the sense that love always comes with pressure, 00:08:11.720 --> 00:08:14.560 or belonging always comes with a threat. 00:08:14.560 --> 00:08:19.280 Relationship always comes with a warning label. 00:08:19.280 --> 00:08:22.560 I've told you guys this story before the sign that's up here that you are loved here. 00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:27.160 We had screwed it on the front of the wall when we moved in. 00:08:27.160 --> 00:08:30.320 And I remember one Sunday morning, I was in the back, 00:08:30.320 --> 00:08:35.480 probably trying to finish a sermon that I should have finished this week. 00:08:35.480 --> 00:08:38.080 And someone came back there and said, "Hey Chad, somebody's out front. 00:08:38.080 --> 00:08:39.480 They want to talk to you." 00:08:39.480 --> 00:08:41.680 I was like, like, right now? 00:08:41.680 --> 00:08:44.880 Yeah, like they want to talk to you specifically. 00:08:44.880 --> 00:08:49.360 All right, I went out front and someone had pulled their truck up at the corner here 00:08:49.360 --> 00:08:52.720 and hopped out, and she came running over to me and she said, 00:08:52.720 --> 00:08:55.760 "Are you the pastor here?" I said, "I am." 00:08:55.760 --> 00:08:58.280 Your sign says, "You are loved here." 00:08:58.280 --> 00:09:01.120 I said, "Yeah, it does." 00:09:01.120 --> 00:09:04.960 But, and she looks at me, but really? 00:09:04.960 --> 00:09:07.440 Would I be loved here? 00:09:07.440 --> 00:09:09.880 Absolute? Yeah, absolutely. 00:09:09.880 --> 00:09:12.720 She said, "No, no, no, I've heard that before." 00:09:12.720 --> 00:09:14.080 See that woman in the truck? That's my wife. 00:09:14.080 --> 00:09:15.880 Would I be loved here? 00:09:15.880 --> 00:09:18.160 And I said, "Absolutely, you'll be loved here." 00:09:18.160 --> 00:09:19.280 I said, "No, no, no, like really." 00:09:19.280 --> 00:09:21.600 I said, "I promise, come inside and talk to people. 00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:24.440 I promise you will be loved here and you will experience something 00:09:24.440 --> 00:09:26.040 that maybe you haven't experienced before." 00:09:26.040 --> 00:09:30.720 And I'm so sorry that you even have to ask this question. 00:09:30.720 --> 00:09:33.800 She looked at me and she said, "Okay, we'll be back next week." 00:09:33.800 --> 00:09:36.560 And they did. 00:09:36.560 --> 00:09:39.000 Incredible people. 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:48.480 Huh? Is that right here? 00:09:48.480 --> 00:09:52.120 And I get it. 00:09:52.120 --> 00:09:53.560 I get the question. 00:09:53.560 --> 00:09:56.720 I hate the question that that even has to happen. 00:09:56.720 --> 00:10:01.280 I get that email or that DM constantly. 00:10:01.280 --> 00:10:05.440 Hey, like, but for real, for real. 00:10:05.440 --> 00:10:09.040 Because from what I've heard, I can't be there. 00:10:09.040 --> 00:10:14.480 No, no, you can be here. 00:10:14.480 --> 00:10:17.960 A lot of us were handed ideas about, 00:10:17.960 --> 00:10:20.320 even on top of this, we were handed these ideas 00:10:20.320 --> 00:10:24.240 about the hell that made all of this even heavier. 00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:27.920 The idea that God would create people, 00:10:27.920 --> 00:10:30.280 love people, long for people, 00:10:30.280 --> 00:10:32.840 and then eternally torture people 00:10:32.840 --> 00:10:36.560 if they did not choose correctly. 00:10:36.560 --> 00:10:40.840 And what does that do inside a person? 00:10:40.840 --> 00:10:44.160 What does that do to the face of God and the imagination? 00:10:44.160 --> 00:10:49.480 What does that do to how we see other people? 00:10:49.480 --> 00:10:52.880 Because if that is the God that you carry, 00:10:52.880 --> 00:11:00.120 it gets really easy to imagine things like a holy war or just war. 00:11:00.120 --> 00:11:05.560 It gets easier to imagine civilization-level enemies. 00:11:05.560 --> 00:11:07.880 It gets easier to imagine our side is righteous 00:11:07.880 --> 00:11:11.440 and their side is disposable. 00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:16.600 It gets easier to imagine God's victory through annihilation. 00:11:16.600 --> 00:11:20.200 And none of that lines up with the actual character 00:11:20.200 --> 00:11:25.920 of God revealed in Jesus. 00:11:25.920 --> 00:11:36.680 If this is the God that we all have and serve and believe in, 00:11:36.680 --> 00:11:41.840 are we really the most loving people in the world? 00:11:41.840 --> 00:11:45.760 Or really the most compassionate people in the world, kind people in the world? 00:11:45.760 --> 00:11:50.680 How can you be if these characteristics are attached 00:11:50.680 --> 00:11:57.000 to the source of life for us? 00:11:57.000 --> 00:12:01.600 And I get like someone or most of you maybe are looking at me like, 00:12:01.600 --> 00:12:06.920 Chad, hold on, wait, because I know there's 00:12:06.920 --> 00:12:09.160 some foundational things that we're talking about 00:12:09.160 --> 00:12:13.400 that are that I'm poking holes in. 00:12:13.400 --> 00:12:16.840 And when you start to poke holes in like fundamental beliefs 00:12:16.840 --> 00:12:21.600 and security starts to go in and we like security. 00:12:21.600 --> 00:12:28.240 So I understand and I try to be the most careful that I can be 00:12:28.240 --> 00:12:30.040 when I go into these type of conversations 00:12:30.040 --> 00:12:34.400 because I understand that we all walk in here in different places. 00:12:34.400 --> 00:12:39.280 And not everybody is like studying this stuff all week like I am 00:12:39.280 --> 00:12:41.720 and it already has this background and information 00:12:41.720 --> 00:12:45.360 and I can just say something and you hear it for the first time 00:12:45.360 --> 00:12:49.520 and I've been thinking about it for five years. 00:12:49.520 --> 00:12:56.080 So if that's you, I'm sorry, just take a breath 00:12:56.080 --> 00:12:58.680 and we can have some more conversations about this. 00:12:58.680 --> 00:13:04.480 But you see this play out. 00:13:04.480 --> 00:13:07.840 We're seeing it play out right now. 00:13:07.840 --> 00:13:16.920 I mean, you know what I'm talking about, you know, the Pulp Fiction Prayer. 00:13:16.920 --> 00:13:19.840 [ Laughter ] 00:13:19.840 --> 00:13:27.000 Well, Samuel L. Jackson, we were actually watching the NCAA, 00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:31.880 let me preface this, our seven-year-old daughter is in gymnastics. 00:13:31.880 --> 00:13:34.920 And so we watch gymnastics. 00:13:34.920 --> 00:13:36.440 And really, I'm the one that usually puts it on. 00:13:36.440 --> 00:13:37.520 I'm like, this is so crazy. 00:13:37.520 --> 00:13:39.240 Like, how do they do this stuff? 00:13:39.240 --> 00:13:41.520 And I know that my daughter is doing some of this crazy stuff. 00:13:41.520 --> 00:13:45.480 But yesterday we were watching the NCAA National Championships 00:13:45.480 --> 00:13:48.960 for gymnastics. 00:13:48.960 --> 00:13:54.080 Which, by the way, OU won. 00:13:54.080 --> 00:13:55.480 No, it's not why I brought it up. 00:13:55.480 --> 00:13:56.440 That's not why I brought it up. 00:13:56.440 --> 00:13:57.520 That's not why I brought it up. 00:13:57.520 --> 00:13:58.520 But they did win. 00:13:58.520 --> 00:14:01.680 It was our eighth championship, the second one, I think fifth 00:14:01.680 --> 00:14:09.920 and a lot, no, eight in the last 12 years. 00:14:09.920 --> 00:14:12.240 Anyway, in gymnastics? 00:14:12.240 --> 00:14:14.960 That's crazy because I've never even seen Georgia 00:14:14.960 --> 00:14:17.840 at any of the meets. 00:14:17.840 --> 00:14:19.840 But thanks for telling me that. 00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:23.680 Now I know who we're chasing. 00:14:23.680 --> 00:14:28.160 Anyway, this is a long tangent. 00:14:28.160 --> 00:14:30.520 But what I was going to say was, at one point, 00:14:30.520 --> 00:14:31.760 they cut the camera. 00:14:31.760 --> 00:14:34.000 And Samuel L. Jackson was sitting in the bleachers. 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:35.880 And I was like, this is hilarious. 00:14:35.880 --> 00:14:37.880 After everything that's happened, here's Samuel L. Jackson 00:14:37.880 --> 00:14:40.600 watching gymnastics. 00:14:40.600 --> 00:14:45.320 While he's being quoted in a character from Pulp Fiction, 00:14:45.320 --> 00:14:51.560 but that it's a biblical verse because our call 00:14:51.560 --> 00:14:54.680 signed and all this stuff. 00:14:54.680 --> 00:14:56.920 Yeah, because our-- 00:14:56.920 --> 00:15:01.280 Yeah, you know. 00:15:01.280 --> 00:15:04.480 But this is how we can get to these places. 00:15:04.480 --> 00:15:07.640 Because really, the whole point of that prayer from Pete 00:15:07.640 --> 00:15:12.440 Hegseth was to try and talk about how important and how holy 00:15:12.440 --> 00:15:15.360 and how we're going to crush the enemy 00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:17.440 because that's what Jesus and God gives us. 00:15:20.960 --> 00:15:24.920 You get there because you have a false understanding 00:15:24.920 --> 00:15:26.720 of who God is. 00:15:29.560 --> 00:15:34.200 You think that God is on our side to go crush the Muslims 00:15:34.200 --> 00:15:38.360 because they don't believe the way we do. 00:15:38.360 --> 00:15:41.800 And I'm going to say something and you're going to-- 00:15:41.800 --> 00:15:44.760 Muslims believe in the same God we believe in. 00:15:44.760 --> 00:15:45.960 Hold on, hold on. 00:15:49.520 --> 00:15:51.440 Allah just means God. 00:15:51.440 --> 00:15:53.800 That is a translation of God. 00:15:53.800 --> 00:15:56.520 And if we are monotheists, which means we believe there's 00:15:56.520 --> 00:16:03.800 one God, Muslims are monotheists, Jews are monotheists. 00:16:03.800 --> 00:16:06.080 They believe in a God, Allah, a God 00:16:06.080 --> 00:16:12.880 that is the God of Abraham, who is also the God of Jesus. 00:16:12.880 --> 00:16:16.600 The Abrahamic line, these are the Abrahamic religions. 00:16:16.600 --> 00:16:21.200 They all come out of the same people group. 00:16:21.200 --> 00:16:25.640 So they do believe in the same God. 00:16:25.640 --> 00:16:29.320 They just have a maybe false or bad understanding 00:16:29.320 --> 00:16:31.240 of the characteristics of God. 00:16:31.240 --> 00:16:33.600 Now, I'm not saying that to go against them 00:16:33.600 --> 00:16:38.040 because I think a lot of us Christians have the same thing. 00:16:38.040 --> 00:16:40.160 I would say that a lot of evangelical Christians 00:16:40.160 --> 00:16:44.560 and a lot of Muslims are very similar in their idea of who 00:16:44.560 --> 00:16:47.240 God is. 00:16:47.240 --> 00:16:52.200 And I'm not saying that I have it right or that we have it right. 00:16:52.200 --> 00:16:54.480 But I think when you can step back and start 00:16:54.480 --> 00:16:59.000 looking at people as people and not attaching labels to them, 00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:01.360 then it becomes really hard to say 00:17:01.360 --> 00:17:04.440 we should kill all these people. 00:17:04.440 --> 00:17:06.440 Or that if we do this, it's because it's 00:17:06.440 --> 00:17:08.720 got to happen because Jesus is going to come back. 00:17:08.720 --> 00:17:09.920 God wants to kill all these people, 00:17:09.920 --> 00:17:11.520 so Jesus can come back and take us to heaven. 00:17:11.520 --> 00:17:12.020 What? 00:17:17.080 --> 00:17:24.680 And when you start to unpack it, it just doesn't make sense. 00:17:24.680 --> 00:17:26.680 But I grew up in it. 00:17:26.680 --> 00:17:28.040 So it made a lot of sense. 00:17:30.960 --> 00:17:32.080 That wasn't even all of my talk. 00:17:32.080 --> 00:17:36.720 But last week, we talked about Genesis 3, 00:17:36.720 --> 00:17:40.960 the beginning of life of humanity, 00:17:40.960 --> 00:17:44.840 the fall when Eve ate of the fruit 00:17:44.840 --> 00:17:46.840 and gave the fruit to Adam and Adam ate of the fruit 00:17:46.840 --> 00:17:48.560 and shame entered in. 00:17:48.560 --> 00:17:52.120 And I said, the lie that happened from the serpent to Eve 00:17:52.120 --> 00:17:54.160 was not just like, hey, break a rule. 00:17:54.160 --> 00:17:54.760 You can do this. 00:17:54.760 --> 00:17:56.040 You can eat this. 00:17:56.040 --> 00:17:57.120 The lie was deeper than that. 00:17:57.120 --> 00:17:59.840 It was, you cannot trust the heart of God. 00:17:59.840 --> 00:18:00.980 Did God really say that? 00:18:00.980 --> 00:18:03.480 Oh, no, no, God knows that you'll just be like him. 00:18:03.480 --> 00:18:06.560 That's why he didn't want you to eat this. 00:18:06.560 --> 00:18:12.160 And once God is missing, everything else starts bending too. 00:18:12.160 --> 00:18:15.160 Self gets missing, others get missing, 00:18:15.160 --> 00:18:18.980 hiding begins to feel wise. 00:18:18.980 --> 00:18:20.320 And that was week one, the lie. 00:18:20.320 --> 00:18:21.560 Week two, what we're talking about today 00:18:21.560 --> 00:18:24.520 is what that lie grows into. 00:18:24.520 --> 00:18:28.840 Because when you don't see God in a good light, 00:18:28.840 --> 00:18:31.040 and you don't see yourself in a good light, 00:18:31.040 --> 00:18:32.720 you don't see others in a good light, 00:18:32.720 --> 00:18:36.360 it's going to play out in life. 00:18:36.360 --> 00:18:39.360 Because once you begin to imagine God in a distorted way, 00:18:39.360 --> 00:18:43.480 that does not just stay in your theology. 00:18:43.480 --> 00:18:46.640 It starts shaping the self you become, 00:18:46.640 --> 00:18:50.440 the relationships you build, the world you help create. 00:18:50.440 --> 00:18:54.600 A distorted God image distorts everything else. 00:18:59.560 --> 00:19:03.800 I'm going to explain a couple of things here. 00:19:03.800 --> 00:19:07.960 There's a difference between what I say I believe about God 00:19:07.960 --> 00:19:12.760 and what I emotionally expect God to be like towards me. 00:19:12.760 --> 00:19:13.840 They're not always the same. 00:19:16.600 --> 00:19:19.680 I can even say like God is loving, and caring, and kind, 00:19:19.680 --> 00:19:21.200 and forgiving. 00:19:21.200 --> 00:19:25.320 But when I envision God looking at me on my worst day, 00:19:25.320 --> 00:19:26.600 I may not see that. 00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:32.600 What I say I believe about God 00:19:34.600 --> 00:19:38.400 is this thing that psychologists call the God concept. 00:19:41.160 --> 00:19:44.240 If somebody asks me what do you believe about God? 00:19:44.240 --> 00:19:46.560 You can answer God is loving, God is near, 00:19:46.560 --> 00:19:50.040 forgiving, kind, that that's your God concept. 00:19:50.040 --> 00:19:53.080 God concept is this explicit, intellectual, 00:19:53.080 --> 00:19:55.600 theological knowledge that a person has about God. 00:19:55.600 --> 00:19:57.480 It's what you know. 00:19:57.480 --> 00:20:00.720 It's taught, it's learned, that's the God concept. 00:20:00.720 --> 00:20:03.280 But then there's something deeper than that, 00:20:03.280 --> 00:20:05.920 what you emotionally expect from God. 00:20:06.840 --> 00:20:09.320 What you expect God to be like towards you 00:20:09.320 --> 00:20:13.160 when you're exposed, needy, ashamed, confused, failing. 00:20:14.400 --> 00:20:16.680 And it's what psychology calls the God image. 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:20.520 God image is the implicit, emotional, 00:20:20.520 --> 00:20:22.720 subjective experience of God. 00:20:22.720 --> 00:20:26.160 It's often shaped by early life experiences, actually. 00:20:26.160 --> 00:20:29.400 The relationship you have early, early on with caregivers. 00:20:31.400 --> 00:20:34.360 So it's not just what I say, but it's what I brace for. 00:20:35.880 --> 00:20:37.600 What I expect. 00:20:37.600 --> 00:20:40.200 What I feel from God even before I think. 00:20:41.760 --> 00:20:44.520 So your God concept is what you can say out loud, 00:20:44.520 --> 00:20:47.040 but your God image is what you brace for. 00:20:47.040 --> 00:20:49.200 And they can be two very different things. 00:20:50.680 --> 00:20:53.320 You may say God is loving and still emotionally 00:20:53.320 --> 00:20:55.120 braced for disappointment. 00:20:55.120 --> 00:20:57.080 You may say God is near and still expect distance. 00:20:57.080 --> 00:20:59.560 You may say God is gracious and still feel like 00:20:59.560 --> 00:21:02.880 one wrong move is going to change God's posture towards you. 00:21:05.080 --> 00:21:08.160 Theologically, the picture of the God concept 00:21:08.160 --> 00:21:11.160 should be no different from the picture of the God image. 00:21:12.600 --> 00:21:15.520 God is not surprised by our mistakes. 00:21:17.680 --> 00:21:19.440 And God's degree of love and acceptance 00:21:19.440 --> 00:21:21.680 does not decrease when people blow it. 00:21:23.520 --> 00:21:27.200 So why is it that people forget these beautiful truths 00:21:27.200 --> 00:21:29.400 about God when they're in sin? 00:21:32.080 --> 00:21:33.040 Because underneath it all, 00:21:33.040 --> 00:21:34.600 there's something else going on. 00:21:36.080 --> 00:21:39.320 There's these deep patterns that we carry in relationships. 00:21:43.520 --> 00:21:47.400 Again, in psychology, in early childhood. 00:21:51.680 --> 00:21:55.760 There's this thing called internal working models. 00:21:55.760 --> 00:21:58.600 It's the cognitive unconscious frameworks 00:21:58.600 --> 00:22:00.480 developed from early childhood experiences 00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:02.800 with caregivers guiding how individuals perceive, 00:22:02.800 --> 00:22:05.800 expect, and behave in relationships throughout their life. 00:22:06.800 --> 00:22:09.240 This is early stuff built into us. 00:22:09.240 --> 00:22:11.440 Some of us grew up with, 00:22:11.440 --> 00:22:13.480 we have very different experiences with caregivers, 00:22:13.480 --> 00:22:14.760 or we grew up in a church that gives us 00:22:14.760 --> 00:22:16.800 a very different experience of who God is. 00:22:16.800 --> 00:22:20.280 And it feeds into who we believe we are. 00:22:22.800 --> 00:22:26.000 It's this deep script that expects 00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:28.480 what happens in relationships when you fail, 00:22:28.480 --> 00:22:30.520 or you need help, or you feel exposed. 00:22:30.520 --> 00:22:35.000 It's the thing in you that already knows the move. 00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:38.320 When I fail, do I move towards someone or away? 00:22:38.320 --> 00:22:40.640 When I need help, do I ask, or do I shut down? 00:22:40.640 --> 00:22:42.480 When I'm exposed, do I tell the truth, 00:22:42.480 --> 00:22:44.360 or do I manage the room? 00:22:46.440 --> 00:22:49.000 And a lot of us carry deep expectations 00:22:49.000 --> 00:22:51.640 about what happens in relationships when things get hard. 00:22:52.960 --> 00:22:55.640 And this is not any different. 00:22:55.640 --> 00:22:58.400 Our relationship with God carries a lot of the same things 00:22:58.400 --> 00:22:59.800 because we carry it into it. 00:23:01.520 --> 00:23:06.520 Because the God we learn becomes the God we expect, 00:23:07.520 --> 00:23:11.520 and the God that we expect shapes the kind of person 00:23:11.520 --> 00:23:12.520 that we become. 00:23:16.520 --> 00:23:20.520 When fear is built into all of this. 00:23:21.520 --> 00:23:23.520 We try to manage, we try to figure out 00:23:23.520 --> 00:23:25.520 how to fix the relationship. 00:23:25.520 --> 00:23:29.520 We see this so, so quickly in Scripture. 00:23:29.520 --> 00:23:39.520 Like, right after Genesis 3 is Genesis 4. 00:23:46.520 --> 00:23:49.520 I'm gonna skip down to my stuff 'cause I'm really late. 00:23:50.520 --> 00:23:53.520 Right after Genesis 3, Genesis 4, Genesis 4, 00:23:53.520 --> 00:23:58.520 verse 1, well, Adam and Eve have a baby. 00:24:00.520 --> 00:24:02.520 What the help of the Lord? 00:24:02.520 --> 00:24:04.040 Eve says she brought forth a man later. 00:24:04.040 --> 00:24:06.160 She gave birth to his brother Abel. 00:24:06.160 --> 00:24:09.680 So they give Eve gives birth to Cain, 00:24:09.680 --> 00:24:11.240 then she gives birth to Abel. 00:24:11.240 --> 00:24:14.800 Abel says kept flocks and Cain works the soil. 00:24:17.600 --> 00:24:19.280 And throughout this relationship, 00:24:19.280 --> 00:24:22.040 they have two different ways of doing life. 00:24:22.040 --> 00:24:23.760 And it's interesting, there's a part in here 00:24:23.760 --> 00:24:26.760 where this is verse 4. 00:24:26.760 --> 00:24:29.760 And Abel is verse 3. 00:24:29.760 --> 00:24:31.760 And of course of time, Cain brought some of the fruits 00:24:31.760 --> 00:24:33.760 of the soil as an offering to the Lord 00:24:33.760 --> 00:24:35.760 because this we did, he farmed. 00:24:35.760 --> 00:24:37.760 And then Abel also brought an offering, 00:24:37.760 --> 00:24:41.760 the fat portions from some of the first born of his flock. 00:24:42.760 --> 00:24:46.760 The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering. 00:24:46.760 --> 00:24:49.760 But on Cain and his offering, he did not look with favor. 00:24:49.760 --> 00:24:53.760 So Cain was very angry and his face was downcast. 00:24:53.760 --> 00:24:55.760 Then Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? 00:24:55.760 --> 00:24:57.760 Why is your face downcast? 00:24:57.760 --> 00:25:01.760 If you do what is right, well you not be accepted. 00:25:01.760 --> 00:25:03.760 But if you do not do what is right, 00:25:03.760 --> 00:25:06.760 sin is crouching at your door. 00:25:06.760 --> 00:25:10.760 It desires to have you, but you must rule over it. 00:25:10.760 --> 00:25:13.760 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, let's go out to the field 00:25:13.760 --> 00:25:15.760 while they were in the field. 00:25:15.760 --> 00:25:18.760 Cain attacked his brother Abel and he killed him. 00:25:18.760 --> 00:25:21.760 Right after the fall, right after eating the fruit, 00:25:21.760 --> 00:25:24.760 right after a change of mind and perception 00:25:24.760 --> 00:25:27.760 about who God is, Adam and Eve, they clothed themselves, 00:25:27.760 --> 00:25:31.760 they hide, the shame enters in, they have children. 00:25:31.760 --> 00:25:33.760 Cain and Abel, Cain and Abel, 00:25:33.760 --> 00:25:36.760 there's an interesting part to this theologically. 00:25:36.760 --> 00:25:40.760 Between Genesis 3 and Genesis 4 and before Genesis 3, 00:25:40.760 --> 00:25:46.760 there's nowhere where God says that they have to make an offering to him. 00:25:46.760 --> 00:25:49.760 So where did the offering even come from? 00:25:49.760 --> 00:25:50.760 Why? 00:25:50.760 --> 00:25:52.760 Why did they have to bring an offering to God? 00:25:52.760 --> 00:25:54.760 I've got questions. 00:25:54.760 --> 00:25:58.760 It might be that they've got a new concept of who God is. 00:25:58.760 --> 00:26:03.760 And they think this is their way of showing that they are acceptable 00:26:03.760 --> 00:26:05.760 and that they should be accepted by God. 00:26:05.760 --> 00:26:10.760 And when they come, Cain, his offering is not good enough. 00:26:10.760 --> 00:26:14.760 Because God doesn't like fruit, he likes meat. 00:26:14.760 --> 00:26:19.760 Like, we don't even have an idea because it doesn't say why God didn't like 00:26:19.760 --> 00:26:23.760 Cain's offering. 00:26:23.760 --> 00:26:25.760 He's not a vegetarian. 00:26:25.760 --> 00:26:28.760 Got it. 00:26:28.760 --> 00:26:34.760 Cain gets angry and he turns that anger that shame to his brother 00:26:34.760 --> 00:26:37.760 and he kills him. 00:26:37.760 --> 00:26:40.760 This is the beginning of our story. 00:26:40.760 --> 00:26:43.760 Because when you believe that God is someone that you have to work for 00:26:43.760 --> 00:26:47.760 and prove yourself to and then I have to compete against you. 00:26:47.760 --> 00:26:51.760 And if I can be better than you, then God will accept me. 00:26:51.760 --> 00:26:55.760 But when I'm not, Cain says the only way I can fix this 00:26:55.760 --> 00:27:00.760 is to get rid of the guides ahead of me. 00:27:00.760 --> 00:27:03.760 What we believe about God fades out. 00:27:03.760 --> 00:27:04.760 It goes horizontal. 00:27:04.760 --> 00:27:08.760 It fades into who we think we are and who we think others are. 00:27:08.760 --> 00:27:16.760 And it leads us into a place where a brother can kill a brother. 00:27:16.760 --> 00:27:24.760 What begins as a distorted relationship with God? 00:27:24.760 --> 00:27:28.760 It doesn't stay private. 00:27:28.760 --> 00:27:31.760 It spills into brotherhood, it spills into family, into community. 00:27:31.760 --> 00:27:34.760 It ended the way we see one another. 00:27:34.760 --> 00:27:38.760 And I think it's one of the big themes between Genesis 1 through 4. 00:27:38.760 --> 00:27:44.760 When God has misimagined, humans become misaligned. 00:27:44.760 --> 00:27:49.760 When God is seen as unsafe, love itself becomes harder to trust. 00:27:49.760 --> 00:27:54.760 And then God comes to Cain with another question in the story 00:27:54.760 --> 00:27:58.760 that should sound familiar like, why are you so angry? 00:27:58.760 --> 00:28:01.760 What happened? 00:28:01.760 --> 00:28:05.760 The story, it's not soft, there's judgment that happens, there's consequences. 00:28:05.760 --> 00:28:12.760 But at the end of this story, the Lord says to Cain 00:28:12.760 --> 00:28:14.760 after saying, where's your brother? 00:28:14.760 --> 00:28:16.760 Am I my brother's keeper? 00:28:16.760 --> 00:28:18.760 Cain says, yes, you are. 00:28:18.760 --> 00:28:20.760 The Lord said, what have you done? 00:28:20.760 --> 00:28:23.760 Listen, your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. 00:28:23.760 --> 00:28:26.760 Now you're under a curse and driven from the ground, 00:28:26.760 --> 00:28:30.760 which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. 00:28:30.760 --> 00:28:33.760 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. 00:28:33.760 --> 00:28:36.760 You will be restless, a restless wanderer on the earth. 00:28:36.760 --> 00:28:39.760 Cain said to the Lord, my punishment is more than I can bear. 00:28:39.760 --> 00:28:43.760 Today you're driving me from the land and I will be hidden from your presence. 00:28:43.760 --> 00:28:47.760 I will be a restless wanderer on the earth and whoever finds me will kill me. 00:28:47.760 --> 00:28:53.760 But the Lord said to him not so, anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over. 00:28:53.760 --> 00:28:58.760 Then the Lord puts a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. 00:28:58.760 --> 00:29:04.760 So Cain went out from the Lord's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. 00:29:04.760 --> 00:29:09.760 There's a lot here here, I don't have time to unpack. 00:29:09.760 --> 00:29:12.760 God says, this is what's going to happen. 00:29:12.760 --> 00:29:14.760 These are some consequences of your actions. 00:29:14.760 --> 00:29:16.760 I don't even think they're a punishment. 00:29:16.760 --> 00:29:19.760 I think they're just saying, this is what happens when you do things like this. 00:29:19.760 --> 00:29:21.760 There are consequences. 00:29:21.760 --> 00:29:25.760 And Cain says, I'm going to be away from your presence and God says, no, no, no, no, you're not. 00:29:25.760 --> 00:29:28.760 I'm going to mark you and I'm going to protect you. 00:29:28.760 --> 00:29:31.760 There's forgiveness in that. 00:29:31.760 --> 00:29:36.760 There's a protection for Cain. Anyone who comes after you, they've got to mess with me. 00:29:36.760 --> 00:29:42.760 It doesn't make sense if God's angry and punitive. 00:29:42.760 --> 00:29:44.760 I mean, that should be it. 00:29:44.760 --> 00:29:47.760 God should turn his back on Cain. 00:29:47.760 --> 00:29:50.760 And I know it seems like he sends him out. 00:29:50.760 --> 00:29:56.760 No, he is reminding Cain, no, I got you. 00:29:56.760 --> 00:30:00.760 It's going to be hard, but we're going to work through that. 00:30:00.760 --> 00:30:02.760 We're going to talk with you. 00:30:02.760 --> 00:30:06.760 That's not an angry, punitive God. 00:30:06.760 --> 00:30:16.760 The first lie about God, it is followed by an immediate first wound between brothers. 00:30:16.760 --> 00:30:21.760 And God still says, I got you. 00:30:21.760 --> 00:30:31.760 It's not cool for Abel, if we're honest. 00:30:31.760 --> 00:30:40.760 So, next week we'll talk about the other side of God, not the other side, the other view of God. 00:30:40.760 --> 00:30:50.760 I'll get into a little more theological understanding of how we even get to this place of who God is or what we believe God is. 00:30:50.760 --> 00:30:59.760 There's an 18th century pastor in the United States named Jonathan Edwards, 00:30:59.760 --> 00:31:07.760 who famously preached a sermon called Centers in the Hands of an Angry God. 00:31:07.760 --> 00:31:19.760 And there's so much church history and theological makeup that goes into his beginning of that sermon and how he gets there. 00:31:19.760 --> 00:31:25.760 That most of us have grown up in that stream of theology. 00:31:25.760 --> 00:31:29.760 Augustine of Hippo, John Calvin. 00:31:29.760 --> 00:31:34.760 There's a line, a lineage of it, and we're going to walk through some of that next week. 00:31:34.760 --> 00:31:47.760 There's a modern pastor, Brian Zond, who years ago wrote a book called Centers in the Hands of a Loving God as a response to Jonathan Edwards' sermon. 00:31:47.760 --> 00:31:50.760 Two very different views of God. 00:31:50.760 --> 00:31:56.760 And Brian Zond wasn't just a new pastor that's like, I'm kind of uncomfortable with what I'm hearing. 00:31:56.760 --> 00:31:58.760 Let me just come up with something here. 00:31:58.760 --> 00:32:08.760 Brian Zond's theology goes back also to 2nd, 3rd, 4th century to people like Athanasius and Aaronius. 00:32:08.760 --> 00:32:14.760 And it goes way back on these views of God and healing and love. 00:32:14.760 --> 00:32:18.760 So what I'm trying to say is these are not new theologies. 00:32:18.760 --> 00:32:23.760 These are streams of theology that have shaped some of us. 00:32:23.760 --> 00:32:37.760 And I think we have to step back and look at where we've been formed and where we may be missed who God is. 00:32:37.760 --> 00:32:45.760 Because as Paul prayed for the Ephesians, I'm going to leave you with this, my last little passage, man. I have so many notes. 00:32:45.760 --> 00:32:48.760 That went quick. 00:32:48.760 --> 00:32:56.760 Ephesians 3, Paul says to the Ephesians, "For this reason I kneel before the Father. 00:32:56.760 --> 00:33:02.760 From a whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 00:33:02.760 --> 00:33:10.760 I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his spirit and your inner being. 00:33:10.760 --> 00:33:13.760 So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. 00:33:13.760 --> 00:33:22.760 And I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the Lord's people, holy people, 00:33:22.760 --> 00:33:28.760 to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. 00:33:28.760 --> 00:33:35.760 And to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 00:33:35.760 --> 00:33:43.760 Not to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us. 00:33:43.760 --> 00:33:51.760 To him, to the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever, amen." 00:33:51.760 --> 00:34:00.760 Paul's prayer in Ephesians is just like this dealing of understanding of who God is as we are dealing with now. 00:34:00.760 --> 00:34:06.760 I mean, I just pray that you would know the depths of God's love. 00:34:06.760 --> 00:34:15.760 Because when you know the depths of God's love, then when I ask you the question, what does God's face look like when you have messed up? 00:34:15.760 --> 00:34:20.760 I think the face may not be the same as you originally thought. 00:34:20.760 --> 00:34:25.760 Because when you experience love, when your God image is one that God is love and is loving and caring and forgiving 00:34:25.760 --> 00:34:31.760 and kind and moves towards you in your worst moment, then everything changes. 00:34:31.760 --> 00:34:37.760 Because then our view of God changes, our view of our self-changes and our view of others changes. 00:34:37.760 --> 00:34:44.760 And when you experience this love, when you're theology and your idea of who God is is more Christ-centric, 00:34:44.760 --> 00:34:51.760 understand that God is who Jesus is, Jesus is the characteristics of God and anything that doesn't match up with Jesus, 00:34:51.760 --> 00:34:54.760 we got to ask questions about. 00:34:54.760 --> 00:35:00.760 Because when you experience this love, then you begin to love others. 00:35:00.760 --> 00:35:07.760 And every single week, we say to go love well, because who you're made to be. 00:35:07.760 --> 00:35:13.760 But I think the only way that you get to do that and the only way that you will be able to do that is by experiencing the love of God first. 00:35:13.760 --> 00:35:15.760 Allow God to love you. 00:35:15.760 --> 00:35:23.760 If you have an idea that God is angry at you or mad at you and wants to punish you, then ask why. 00:35:23.760 --> 00:35:26.760 Ask where God is love fits into that story. 00:35:26.760 --> 00:35:29.760 We'll talk way more about it next week, but I love you. 00:35:29.760 --> 00:35:32.760 Go love some people well and we'll see you next week.