WEBVTT
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Oh, Father in heaven--
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(organ music)
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(choir singing)
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Let us offer unto God our unison prayer of confession.
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Let us pray.
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Have mercy upon us, oh God, according to
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thy loving kindness, according to a multitude
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of thy tender mercies, blot out our transgressions.
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Wash us thoroughly from our iniquities and cleanse us
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from our sins for we acknowledge our transgressions
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and our sin is ever before us.
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Create in us clean hearts, oh God,
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and renew a right spirit within us,
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through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.
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And now as our savior Christ taught us, we pray.
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Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,
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thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth
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as it is in heaven.
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Give us this day our daily bread
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and forgive us our trespasses
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as we forgive those who trespass against us.
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And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
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For thine is the kingdom and the power
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and the glory forever.
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Amen.
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(organ music)
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(choir singing)
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Our lesson from holy scriptures is taken first
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from the book of Genesis.
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The first chapter beginning with the 26 verse.
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Then God said, let us make man in our own image
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after our likeness and let them have dominion
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over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air
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and over the cattle and over all the earth,
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and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.
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So God created man in His own image,
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in the image of God he created him.
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Male and female, he created them.
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And God blessed them and said to them,
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be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth
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and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea
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and over the birds of the air and over every living thing
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that moves upon the earth.
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God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed
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which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree
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with seed in its fruit, you shall have them for food.
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And it was so.
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And God saw everything that he had made.
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And behold, it was very good and there was evening
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and there was morning, a sixth day.
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And now from the gospel according to Saint John,
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the first chapter beginning with the first verse.
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In the beginning was the word and the word was with God
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and the word was God.
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He was in the beginning with God.
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All things were made through him and without him
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was not anything made that was made.
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In Him was light and the light was the light of men.
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The light shines in the darkness and
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the darkness has not overcome it.
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There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
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He came for testimony to bear witness to the light
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that all might believe through him.
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He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light,
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the true light that enlightens every man
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was coming into the world.
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He was in the world and the world was made through him,
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yet, the world knew him not.
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He came to his own home and his own people received him not.
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But, to all who received him, who believed in his name,
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he gave power to become children of God.
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Thus ended the reading from God's holy word.
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(organ music)
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(choir singing)
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The Lord be with you.
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(audience responding)
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Let us pray.
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Oh Father in heaven who of thy great mercy has brought us
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to the end of another week in safety,
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give us thankful hearts as we recall
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thy continued goodness towards us.
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We thank the, oh Lord, for health, recreation,
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and refreshment, for interest in our work
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and power to do it, for the companionship of fellow workers
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and for all who have helped us with spiritual guidance.
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We also give thee thanks for the
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power and outreach of the mind, lighting the dark places
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of fear and ignorance, for imagination and insight
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and the impulse to discover and create,
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and for courage strengthened by defeat,
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spurring us on to greater efforts.
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Above all, we give thee thanks for thy son
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Jesus Christ and for the gospel he proclaimed with his life,
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death and resurrection.
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Eternal God whose mercy is over all,
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we beseech thee for our brethren in every place
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and most especially for those who are in any way distressed.
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Visit the sick with thy comfort and healing power,
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come to the bereaved with thy peace and increase in them
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the faith that love is stronger than death.
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Hasten with thy protection to those who are sorely tempted.
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Make them strong to resist and conquer.
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Draw near to all who are lonely, all who are anxious,
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all who are cast down and discouraged
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and to those who suffer in the suffering of those they love
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that they may be strengthened with all power
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for endurance and patience.
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Look in thy might, upon those who have no helper,
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defend the poor and save the children of the needy.
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Make haste for relief of those who know the pains of hunger
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and those who have nowhere to lay their heads.
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Bring near the deliverance of those who are persecuted
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and those who are discriminated against,
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exploited and oppressed.
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Show thy compassion to every victim of injustice
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and to those who inflict loss and pain upon others,
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show to the man's of thy righteousness.
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Reveal unto us, we beseech thee those things in ourselves
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which are adding to the sum of human misery.
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Help us to repent of these our sins
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and give us grace to consecrate ourselves to thy service
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that we may be used of thee to help one another
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and to set forward thy blessed kingdom.
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Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
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(organ music)
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(choir singing)
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Almighty God, our Heavenly Father
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who has spared not thine only son,
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but delivered him up for us all and who with him
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has freely given us all things, help us, we beseech thee,
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the with all our gifts to yield ourselves unto thee
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and in thy service find our deepest joy.
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Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
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(organ music)
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My text consists of two verses taken from
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the two portions of scripture read as our lesson.
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First from Genesis.
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So God created man in his own image.
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And now from Saint John.
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To all who received him, who believed on his name,
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he gave power to become children of God.
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Power to become.
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Who is there here who does not want that?
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I dare say that there is not a person within the reach
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of my voice who does not find that phrase
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expressing a deep, deep desire.
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It is one of the fundamental longings of our age.
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Perhaps we can safely say that no generation
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has been preoccupied with it more than our own.
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As the outside world becomes more chaotic and less secure,
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we are forced inward to try to
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muster up ways to face it.
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Writers in psychology and religion have been prolific
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in their efforts to help us do just this.
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The other day I thumbed through the card catalog
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in our library under the general subject,
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applied psychology.
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There was of course a long list of books,
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but a title that caught my fancy was,
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"Take a Look at Yourself."
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I turn to the next card and there was another title
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by the same author, "Take a Second Look at Yourself."
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Well, there is no doubt about it,
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we are looking at ourselves.
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But looking at ourselves has different levels of quality.
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I look at myself every morning when I shave and I must
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confess it is a very discouraging way to begin the day.
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Taking a superficial look at ourselves
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can be a means of self despair.
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For some, it seems to be a means of self love.
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Surely we need to go deeper than this.
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Concurrently, we are advised to take a look at ourselves
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with scientific eyes and analyze ourselves with mood meters.
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I'm all for this if it will help,
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and I have no doubt but what it would,
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but the author, in his own most optimistic mood
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has not claimed for his system that his system
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provides a cure-all remedy for a
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man's needs as he looks at himself.
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In fact, he advises that other helps
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must be employed as well.
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Looking at ourselves is important,
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but there are different levels of looking.
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As we look at ourselves in the deepest sense
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with the hope that by doing so, we might find the power
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to become effective persons capable of living
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with a sense of power and accomplishment
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in a world like this, then we do need
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all of the best help that we can find.
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In this sermon I am inviting you to look with me
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at ourselves as Christians,
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and in doing so, I am posing two questions.
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What or who do we Christians say that we are?
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And, how do we take what we are
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and become what we believe we were meant to be?
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Surely, these questions are fundamental.
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Indeed, we would say that no Christian can have
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the power to become unless he arrives
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at significant answers to them.
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First then, what or who do we Christians say that we aren't?
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Our first text states that we are made in the image of God.
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This statement has been pointed to in Christian theology
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as an excellent expression of the
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biblical conception of man.
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Do you know what it means?
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Does it mean that man was made
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in the spiritual likeness of God only?
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Many Christians would say yes,
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but according to good authority,
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this view is foreign to the view of the Bible
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and actually reflects Greek dualism.
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It sharply distinguishes between the spiritual
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and the material natures of man and this can be dangerous.
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It can, as Paul saw it work out
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among Greek Christians at Corinth,
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cause Christians to believe that their faith
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deals only with the spirit and they can be
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even immoral with their bodies.
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It can, as the later church saw it work out among ascetics
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cause Christians to believe that only their spiritual nature
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is good and that all the body desires
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and does is evil.
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Both of these results still plague Christianity.
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But created in the image of God does not have this meaning.
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The Bible rather holds that man is a vital unity.
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That body and spirit are interrelated, interdependent,
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that when God created man, he regarded his creation
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as good because the whole man
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was made to bear a divine resemblance.
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The Biblical stress therefore, is on the wholeness
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of the self and the goodness of the self
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in so far as it is what it was created to be.
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That is why a psalmist poetically proclaims
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a high conception of man when he says,
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Though has made him but a little more than the angels
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and has crowned him with glory and honor.
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Centuries later, John says, we receive power
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to become children of God.
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Are you aware that in this service,
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we have already reaffirmed
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our faith in this biblical view.
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What the psalmist proclaimed we heard thrillingly sung
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just a few moments ago by our choir.
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What John declared, you and I bear witness to
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by our very presence in this chapel,
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for this is Christ's church
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and his church is living witness
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to the faith that by God's action in Christ,
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we who receive him in faith become children of God.
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That is through him, we become true to our real nature
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which the creator ordained from the beginning of creation.
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Now, why do I think that this restatement,
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this re-affirmation of our faith, is so important?
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Because I know that many Christians regard it
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as strange and even fantastic.
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This is so because we have become infected
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far more than we realize with a view of our nature
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that stands in sharp contrast to it.
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If some phases of early Christianity went overboard
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in emphasis upon the spirit of man to the neglect
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and even denial of the body of man,
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this century has put that emphasis in reverse order
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in such a way that has produced
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far-reaching consequences for our faith.
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I'm not concerned here about the kind of philosophy
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that teaches the view that man, to quote,
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originated in muck, wades awhile in muck,
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makes muck and in the end returns to muck.
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I doubt that many Christians would swallow that.
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I'm not concerned primarily about a pessimistic view of man
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given poetic form, for instance, by Lord Byron,
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who as you know grew very old while he was yet very young.
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Listen to this.
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Oh man, thou feeble tenant of an hour,
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debased by slavery or corrupt by power,
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who knows thee well must quit thee with disgust,
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degraded mass of animated dust!
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Thy love is lust, they friendship all a cheat,
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thy smiles hypocrisy, thy words deceit.
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Thy nature vile, ennobled but by name,
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each kindred brute might bid thee blush for shame.
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I doubt if any Christians would go for that.
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They see the good in man as well as his evil.
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I'm not even greatly concerned about certain academic dues,
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although here I confess some concerns.
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Several weeks ago I picked up a well known textbook
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that is used in an introductory course in psychology.
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In the preface, the author states to quote,
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that the basic assumption of psychology is that
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human behavior is a result of natural processes.
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Supernatural phenomenon, even if they exist,
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are not a part of what psychologists studies.
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I was not surprised after reading this to find
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no further reference to religion
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and its part in human behavior,
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but I was surprised that in his treatment
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of human drives and motivations,
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the author gave no acknowledgement of the possibility
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of moral and spiritual conditioning in human behavior.
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I did see that the sex drive received
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much of its treatment in terms of Kinsey data
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as though the standard of behavior should be established
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simply by looking at statistics
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that tell what people are reported doing.
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Now, some Christian students
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would grab hold of academic views like this
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and have a field day of rationalizing.
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But most, I believe, would have the insight to see
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that this isn't very good psychology,
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to say nothing about seeing it's
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dangerous possibilities for morality.
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Some psychologists would.
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I believe I can illustrate this judgment by relating an
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experience which professor Albert Outler of SMU
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who preached the powerful sermon in this chapel last year,
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00:41:58.680 --> 00:42:01.127
describes in his brilliant book,
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"Psychotherapy and the Christian Message."
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There he recalls an incident which happened during a forum
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sponsored several years ago by Life magazine
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on the pursuit of happiness.
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You may have read that article.
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He was a member of that forum along with representatives
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from various fields, including Doctor Erich Fromm,
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an internationally known psychologist.
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Doctor Outler reports that in the course
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of a rather confused discussion,
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a noted public opinion analyst offered a rather blunt dictum
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that the whole problem of the pursuit of happiness
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could be readily solved if people
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were assured of two things.
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That they would be protected against poverty
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in their old age, and could be persuaded that sex
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was not a moral but merely a biological matter.
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Says Doctor Outler,
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while I was clearing my throat
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and assorting my somewhat startled wits
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to comment on this provocative panacea,
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Doctor Fromm rushed in ahead of us all and delivered
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a brief but quite definitive lecture on the
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psychological disabilities produced
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by irresponsible promiscuity.
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I repeat, when psychology fails to look at
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all the facts of human behavior and response,
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it is not very good psychology.
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It can be irresponsible psychology and I believe that
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most Christians can determine when it is,
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00:43:57.433 --> 00:44:02.433
so I am not too greatly concerned about that.
348
00:44:02.780 --> 00:44:06.400
No, I'm not even greatly concerned about the hysteria
349
00:44:06.400 --> 00:44:11.400
created by the man is a hound dog philosophy put to music.
350
00:44:12.190 --> 00:44:16.050
And that is saying quite a bit,
351
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saying quite a bit with a daughter on the threshold
352
00:44:19.180 --> 00:44:24.180
of her teens who has shown some of the symptoms.
353
00:44:24.860 --> 00:44:29.860
I am embarrassed by my profession
354
00:44:29.985 --> 00:44:33.393
that a professor has initiated a cult
355
00:44:33.393 --> 00:44:35.184
by suggesting similarities
356
00:44:35.184 --> 00:44:40.063
between its singer and certain Greek gods.
357
00:44:42.700 --> 00:44:47.700
What then, concerns me, and here I am dead serious.
358
00:44:49.180 --> 00:44:53.947
What really concerns me, it is this.
359
00:44:53.947 --> 00:44:57.570
That Christians, even though they might say that they
360
00:44:57.570 --> 00:45:00.506
see through all of these views,
361
00:45:00.506 --> 00:45:04.370
have nevertheless permitted the influence of this
362
00:45:04.370 --> 00:45:09.010
naturalistic explanation of man and this exultation
363
00:45:09.010 --> 00:45:14.010
of the human body and its appetites to seep into their minds
364
00:45:14.010 --> 00:45:19.010
and souls and devitalize their faith in themselves
365
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as made in the image of God.
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00:45:23.525 --> 00:45:28.525
Brethren, we are losing the noble vision of who we are
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and without that, there can be no strong urge
368
00:45:31.805 --> 00:45:35.130
to become what we were created to be.
369
00:45:35.130 --> 00:45:38.290
I honestly believe that this is one of the main causes
370
00:45:38.290 --> 00:45:41.100
of the mediocrity that characterizes
371
00:45:41.100 --> 00:45:44.842
a good deal of Christian living today.
372
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But we would not be gloomy.
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Surely there are Christians, probably more
374
00:45:49.410 --> 00:45:52.542
than it would appear, who do have this vision,
375
00:45:52.542 --> 00:45:56.840
who do have this urge and surely there are evidences
376
00:45:56.840 --> 00:45:59.590
of increasing numbers who see the need for it
377
00:45:59.590 --> 00:46:01.930
and who are earnestly praying for it.
378
00:46:01.930 --> 00:46:04.621
Let us assume that this is so.
379
00:46:04.621 --> 00:46:06.130
Then what?
380
00:46:06.130 --> 00:46:09.531
That takes me to the second question.
381
00:46:09.531 --> 00:46:12.470
How do we take what we believe we are
382
00:46:12.470 --> 00:46:16.346
and become what we believe we were meant to be?
383
00:46:16.346 --> 00:46:18.880
We were created in the image of God.
384
00:46:18.880 --> 00:46:23.711
We were meant to become children of God.
385
00:46:25.700 --> 00:46:28.530
The answer to the second question depends in large measure,
386
00:46:28.530 --> 00:46:31.360
I believe, on the interpretation of freedom
387
00:46:31.360 --> 00:46:34.561
and what we do with it.
388
00:46:34.561 --> 00:46:36.700
Freedom is not only the Christian's problem,
389
00:46:36.700 --> 00:46:41.168
it is everybody's problem and perhaps man's central problem.
390
00:46:41.168 --> 00:46:42.860
And there are multitudes of people
391
00:46:42.860 --> 00:46:45.546
who are breaking themselves on it,
392
00:46:45.546 --> 00:46:48.590
they do not see or they will not see
393
00:46:48.590 --> 00:46:52.745
that freedom must be interpreted by the very nature
394
00:46:52.745 --> 00:46:56.593
in which the creator made us.
395
00:46:56.593 --> 00:46:59.370
For example, most of us, I dare say have been inclined
396
00:46:59.370 --> 00:47:02.510
at one time or another to be not one person,
397
00:47:02.510 --> 00:47:05.760
but several persons.
398
00:47:05.760 --> 00:47:08.620
William James, with delightful candor,
399
00:47:08.620 --> 00:47:11.240
confessed such an inclination, but in doing so,
400
00:47:11.240 --> 00:47:15.400
he pointed to a fundamental truth.
401
00:47:15.400 --> 00:47:18.490
I am often confronted by the necessity of standing by one
402
00:47:18.490 --> 00:47:23.040
of my selves, he said, and relinquishing the rest.
403
00:47:23.040 --> 00:47:26.900
Not that I would not if I could be both handsome and fat
404
00:47:26.900 --> 00:47:28.840
and well dressed and a great athlete
405
00:47:28.840 --> 00:47:32.817
and make a million a year, a bon de bon,
406
00:47:32.817 --> 00:47:35.370
and a lady killer as well as a philosopher,
407
00:47:35.370 --> 00:47:38.970
a philanthropist, statesman, warrior, an African explorer
408
00:47:38.970 --> 00:47:42.766
as well as a poet and a saint.
409
00:47:42.766 --> 00:47:47.766
But the millionaire's work would run counter to the saints.
410
00:47:48.230 --> 00:47:52.890
The bon de bon and the philanthropist would trip each other.
411
00:47:52.890 --> 00:47:56.670
The philosopher and the lady killer could not well
412
00:47:56.670 --> 00:48:00.098
keep house in the same tenement of place.
413
00:48:00.098 --> 00:48:02.350
Such different characters may conceivably,
414
00:48:02.350 --> 00:48:05.890
at the outset of life, be possible to a man,
415
00:48:05.890 --> 00:48:08.130
but to make any one of him actual,
416
00:48:08.130 --> 00:48:12.610
the rest must more or less be suppressed.
417
00:48:12.610 --> 00:48:16.000
This illustrates what we are saying.
418
00:48:16.000 --> 00:48:19.510
Our very group dictates that some things
419
00:48:19.510 --> 00:48:24.510
we might like to be just don't mix.
420
00:48:24.890 --> 00:48:27.570
Of course, we can choose to persist
421
00:48:27.570 --> 00:48:29.890
in this multiple personality,
422
00:48:29.890 --> 00:48:34.830
but this is not the way to wholeness of personality,
423
00:48:34.830 --> 00:48:39.830
to effective, powerful living.
424
00:48:40.589 --> 00:48:42.120
Let us see this principle apply
425
00:48:42.120 --> 00:48:46.850
to freedom in moral behavior.
426
00:48:46.850 --> 00:48:49.170
There are those who say that they are
427
00:48:49.170 --> 00:48:52.826
free to behave as they please.
428
00:48:52.826 --> 00:48:57.320
They are free to do what appeals to them at the moment.
429
00:48:57.320 --> 00:48:59.610
They think it is good strategy when in Rome
430
00:48:59.610 --> 00:49:03.790
to do as Romans do, to change their character so that
431
00:49:03.790 --> 00:49:08.790
one feels relaxed and adjusted to diverse situations.
432
00:49:08.930 --> 00:49:12.030
And so they act much like moral chameleons,
433
00:49:12.030 --> 00:49:15.750
changing their color as the occasions permit or demand,
434
00:49:15.750 --> 00:49:18.900
all the way from unrestrained looseness
435
00:49:18.900 --> 00:49:23.736
to formal respectability.
436
00:49:23.736 --> 00:49:27.272
But soon or late, this kind of individual
437
00:49:27.272 --> 00:49:32.272
runs up against the stubborn fact of his own nature.
438
00:49:32.509 --> 00:49:36.330
Behavior tends to develop a pattern.
439
00:49:36.330 --> 00:49:40.349
Some things we think we are free to do become set
440
00:49:40.349 --> 00:49:43.810
and the time comes when we are no longer able to switch
441
00:49:43.810 --> 00:49:47.050
from one moral style to another
442
00:49:47.050 --> 00:49:51.323
and rigorous limits are imposed upon us.
443
00:49:51.323 --> 00:49:55.319
Let me illustrate this truth in two areas that,
444
00:49:55.319 --> 00:49:59.245
I think in particular, involve young people.
445
00:49:59.245 --> 00:50:03.305
Drinking and lovemaking.
446
00:50:03.305 --> 00:50:05.600
We shall deal with them separately because we believe
447
00:50:05.600 --> 00:50:08.431
there is danger in mixing them.
448
00:50:08.431 --> 00:50:10.860
(audience laughing)
449
00:50:10.860 --> 00:50:15.651
Someone has said,
450
00:50:17.652 --> 00:50:19.060
perhaps half in jest
451
00:50:19.060 --> 00:50:21.350
and half in seriousness, that there are
452
00:50:21.350 --> 00:50:24.997
two stages in the life of a drinker.
453
00:50:24.997 --> 00:50:28.470
The first is when he could stop, if only he would,
454
00:50:28.470 --> 00:50:30.700
and the second stage is when he would stop,
455
00:50:30.700 --> 00:50:33.866
if only he could.
456
00:50:33.866 --> 00:50:36.778
Of course, such a statement would be misleading
457
00:50:36.778 --> 00:50:39.860
if it sought to imply that all drinkers in the first stage
458
00:50:39.860 --> 00:50:42.883
will soon or late reach the second.
459
00:50:42.883 --> 00:50:46.290
But this we can say, no drinker can afford
460
00:50:46.290 --> 00:50:49.273
to take that possibility lightly.
461
00:50:49.273 --> 00:50:51.060
Professor Bacon of Yale considered
462
00:50:51.060 --> 00:50:53.610
the foremost authority on alcoholism,
463
00:50:53.610 --> 00:50:55.220
has reported that there are nearly
464
00:50:55.220 --> 00:50:58.390
four million drinkers in this country who are losing
465
00:50:58.390 --> 00:51:02.700
or who have already lost complete control.
466
00:51:02.700 --> 00:51:05.170
Most of these alcoholics were free to drink
467
00:51:05.170 --> 00:51:07.500
or not to drink in the beginning,
468
00:51:07.500 --> 00:51:10.870
but now they are set in their drinking
469
00:51:10.870 --> 00:51:15.870
in a way that is bold, pathological, and pathetic.
470
00:51:18.900 --> 00:51:21.823
Look at lovemaking.
471
00:51:21.823 --> 00:51:23.140
There are young people who boast
472
00:51:23.140 --> 00:51:26.448
that they are free to be indiscriminate.
473
00:51:26.448 --> 00:51:29.385
Love for them is free.
474
00:51:29.385 --> 00:51:32.300
But is it?
475
00:51:32.300 --> 00:51:35.175
Is it?
476
00:51:35.175 --> 00:51:37.950
Those persons who think they are free
477
00:51:37.950 --> 00:51:42.240
will establish patterns of indiscriminate expression
478
00:51:42.240 --> 00:51:46.757
that in time become set.
479
00:51:46.757 --> 00:51:50.410
And dear friends, that kind of freedom
480
00:51:50.410 --> 00:51:52.960
has a high price to it.
481
00:51:52.960 --> 00:51:56.140
It can close the door to the deepest
482
00:51:56.140 --> 00:51:59.968
and most precious experience of marriage.
483
00:51:59.968 --> 00:52:04.968
One love, faithfully and wonderfully expressed.
484
00:52:05.220 --> 00:52:08.530
And marriage without that has been robbed
485
00:52:08.530 --> 00:52:12.960
of its highest and most precious expressions.
486
00:52:12.960 --> 00:52:15.706
Do you see what we're saying?
487
00:52:15.706 --> 00:52:18.890
There is no such thing as freedom in the sense
488
00:52:18.890 --> 00:52:21.300
that we can continue to be free
489
00:52:21.300 --> 00:52:24.508
to do whatever we want to do.
490
00:52:24.508 --> 00:52:28.520
Our nature, the way we are made, will not allow it.
491
00:52:28.520 --> 00:52:31.030
There's a law about our nature that takes our
492
00:52:31.030 --> 00:52:35.100
free expressions and organizes them into patterns
493
00:52:35.100 --> 00:52:38.930
and unless we come to have profound respect for that law,
494
00:52:38.930 --> 00:52:42.075
we run into trouble.
495
00:52:42.075 --> 00:52:45.670
As someone has well put it, the real explanation
496
00:52:45.670 --> 00:52:49.980
for most people who can't seem to deal with life effectively
497
00:52:49.980 --> 00:52:53.730
is not that they are disorganized,
498
00:52:53.730 --> 00:52:58.726
but rather that they become organized to the wrong things.
499
00:53:03.130 --> 00:53:05.810
But we must not regard this law
500
00:53:05.810 --> 00:53:09.158
within our nature as a handicap.
501
00:53:09.158 --> 00:53:12.910
It is instead one of God's greatest gifts,
502
00:53:12.910 --> 00:53:15.600
without which there could be no development,
503
00:53:15.600 --> 00:53:19.180
no dependable pattern of action.
504
00:53:19.180 --> 00:53:22.810
A musician takes what is natural to himself,
505
00:53:22.810 --> 00:53:27.810
that is his special native capacities for music.
506
00:53:28.030 --> 00:53:31.990
Puts this principle to work and thereby develops
507
00:53:31.990 --> 00:53:35.420
skills and patterns of creative expression
508
00:53:35.420 --> 00:53:40.420
upon which he and music lovers can depend.
509
00:53:40.420 --> 00:53:44.580
Just so, a Christian restored to his true nature
510
00:53:44.580 --> 00:53:48.300
is a child of God by his faith in Jesus Christ,
511
00:53:48.300 --> 00:53:53.300
puts this principle to work and Godliness takes form
512
00:53:53.470 --> 00:53:55.570
in what he is and what he does with
513
00:53:55.570 --> 00:54:00.115
ever increasing power and dependability.
514
00:54:00.115 --> 00:54:04.100
God has made us this way, not so much to limit our
515
00:54:04.100 --> 00:54:09.100
untrue nature as to enable us to fulfill our true nature.
516
00:54:09.820 --> 00:54:13.900
We were made to love and the Christian holds that
517
00:54:13.900 --> 00:54:18.900
body and mind and soul are involved in this loving.
518
00:54:19.240 --> 00:54:23.584
When man chooses to turn love to license,
519
00:54:23.584 --> 00:54:27.710
his love is pathetically limited.
520
00:54:27.710 --> 00:54:30.520
When it is turned to God's purposes in marriage
521
00:54:30.520 --> 00:54:34.670
and the family, it is wonderfully fulfilled,
522
00:54:34.670 --> 00:54:39.670
and the home becomes less with patterns of fidelity
523
00:54:40.410 --> 00:54:45.303
and shared joy that are dependable.
524
00:54:47.810 --> 00:54:52.280
In the light of this truth, I think we can see more clearly
525
00:54:52.280 --> 00:54:57.225
what sin is and what its punishment is.
526
00:54:58.610 --> 00:55:01.750
Much of the Bible's use of sin indicates that it is
527
00:55:01.750 --> 00:55:06.383
to deviate from the right way,
528
00:55:06.383 --> 00:55:10.825
to miss the goal.
529
00:55:10.825 --> 00:55:15.818
We sin, therefore when we chose to rebel against God's will
530
00:55:15.818 --> 00:55:18.350
for us to live as a child of his,
531
00:55:18.350 --> 00:55:21.955
which was the goal of our creation,
532
00:55:21.955 --> 00:55:25.170
and we are punished in this life by limitations
533
00:55:25.170 --> 00:55:30.170
and unfulfillment which we impose upon ourselves
534
00:55:30.520 --> 00:55:34.180
by our sinning.
535
00:55:34.180 --> 00:55:38.965
But we also see more clearly what redemption is.
536
00:55:38.965 --> 00:55:43.653
Through Christ, it means self realization
537
00:55:43.653 --> 00:55:48.651
to grow toward the goal of our being.
538
00:55:50.990 --> 00:55:55.990
Now, why have I dwelt so long upon this problem of freedom?
539
00:55:59.010 --> 00:56:02.350
Because I heard a Dean say not very long ago
540
00:56:02.350 --> 00:56:06.370
that more students shipwreck their academic career
541
00:56:06.370 --> 00:56:11.370
on the misuse of freedom than any one other single thing,
542
00:56:12.560 --> 00:56:16.236
and to me this is great tragedy.
543
00:56:16.236 --> 00:56:20.570
Their parents sent them here knowing that they would
544
00:56:20.570 --> 00:56:24.201
have more freedom than they ever had before,
545
00:56:24.201 --> 00:56:28.785
and in spite of certain protests, you do.
546
00:56:28.785 --> 00:56:32.860
And your parents willingly consented to this freedom
547
00:56:32.860 --> 00:56:36.368
because they know that freedom
548
00:56:36.368 --> 00:56:40.076
is necessary for growth.
549
00:56:40.076 --> 00:56:45.076
And then for any one of you to shipwreck upon it,
550
00:56:45.100 --> 00:56:49.881
that is tragic.
551
00:56:49.881 --> 00:56:54.860
Just so it is with us all, God gave His children freedom
552
00:56:54.860 --> 00:56:57.630
for the sake of this children's growth.
553
00:56:57.630 --> 00:57:02.630
Then for us to shipwreck upon it, that is the human tragedy
554
00:57:03.075 --> 00:57:08.075
and it is especially tragic because through Christ,
555
00:57:08.330 --> 00:57:12.313
we have the means both
556
00:57:12.313 --> 00:57:15.304
to avoid freedom's misuse
557
00:57:15.304 --> 00:57:20.246
and to fulfill freedom's end.
558
00:57:22.693 --> 00:57:27.693
The power to become, it is our faith that the Christian
559
00:57:27.810 --> 00:57:32.785
can possess this power, but he does not create it.
560
00:57:35.130 --> 00:57:38.220
Any writer who tries to stir up Christians
561
00:57:38.220 --> 00:57:42.965
to generate their own power, is misleading.
562
00:57:42.965 --> 00:57:46.050
We need resources of power to become effective persons
563
00:57:46.050 --> 00:57:48.240
in this kind of world that are far greater
564
00:57:48.240 --> 00:57:52.176
than our puny efforts can muster.
565
00:57:52.176 --> 00:57:56.899
The Christian does not approach his needs in this way.
566
00:57:56.899 --> 00:57:59.651
With the Christ to make it possible,
567
00:57:59.651 --> 00:58:03.630
he places himself in his true relationship with God
568
00:58:03.630 --> 00:58:07.741
who is the creator of all power.
569
00:58:07.741 --> 00:58:12.741
Thus he does not create his own power, he appropriates it.
570
00:58:13.489 --> 00:58:18.489
And that is infinitely better than anything he can generate.
571
00:58:19.230 --> 00:58:22.128
Do you doubt this?
572
00:58:22.128 --> 00:58:26.688
Then review your knowledge of early Christianity.
573
00:58:26.688 --> 00:58:30.610
The Christian faith took root in and overcame a more
574
00:58:30.610 --> 00:58:34.340
pagan world than we live in, where life was cheap,
575
00:58:34.340 --> 00:58:35.890
where pessimism flourished,
576
00:58:35.890 --> 00:58:39.750
where cruelty and immorality where taken for granted.
577
00:58:39.750 --> 00:58:44.545
Read Paul's letters again if you need reminding
578
00:58:44.545 --> 00:58:48.332
and within this mess, Paul dared his converts
579
00:58:48.332 --> 00:58:52.010
to bear the image of the heavenly man, Christ,
580
00:58:52.010 --> 00:58:55.178
and they did just that.
581
00:58:55.178 --> 00:58:58.670
These were not men and women of exceptional caliber.
582
00:58:58.670 --> 00:59:01.330
The answer is not to be found there.
583
00:59:01.330 --> 00:59:03.200
Rather, the answer is this.
584
00:59:03.200 --> 00:59:07.070
They took literally the word of God that renewed
585
00:59:07.070 --> 00:59:09.970
after the image of him that created them,
586
00:59:09.970 --> 00:59:13.030
they would receive power.
587
00:59:13.030 --> 00:59:17.290
That is the key to their profound and
588
00:59:17.290 --> 00:59:21.176
lasting mark upon history.
589
00:59:21.176 --> 00:59:23.990
And it is my sincere conviction that if this
590
00:59:23.990 --> 00:59:28.315
Christian generation is to have visions of great living,
591
00:59:28.315 --> 00:59:31.610
of growing into effective persons who are able to live
592
00:59:31.610 --> 00:59:33.930
with power in this time that surely
593
00:59:33.930 --> 00:59:38.000
calls out for great living,
594
00:59:38.000 --> 00:59:41.530
then we must break through this crust of modern
595
00:59:41.530 --> 00:59:46.523
disbelief that has reduced us Christians to mediocrity.
596
00:59:47.400 --> 00:59:50.480
We must know our faith, we must feel it.
597
00:59:50.480 --> 00:59:51.690
We must show it.
598
00:59:51.690 --> 00:59:54.110
We must live it.
599
00:59:54.110 --> 00:59:58.188
This is the only way that an unbelieving world
600
00:59:58.188 --> 01:00:01.740
will ever be persuaded and saved,
601
01:00:01.740 --> 01:00:06.715
and if we fail, then this is our great sin.
602
01:00:08.330 --> 01:00:12.838
We, we who are Christians
603
01:00:12.838 --> 01:00:15.171
will cause humanity
604
01:00:15.171 --> 01:00:19.700
to miss creation's goal.
605
01:00:19.700 --> 01:00:22.792
Let us earnestly pray
606
01:00:22.792 --> 01:00:26.483
that we who bear the image
607
01:00:26.483 --> 01:00:30.741
of Christ and his name
608
01:00:30.741 --> 01:00:35.741
will not contribute to that calamity.
609
01:00:36.330 --> 01:00:39.496
Let us pray.
610
01:00:43.337 --> 01:00:46.710
Oh God of grace and God of glory,
611
01:00:46.710 --> 01:00:50.463
on thy people pour thy power,
612
01:00:50.463 --> 01:00:53.280
crown thine ancient church's story,
613
01:00:53.280 --> 01:00:56.796
bring her bud to glorious flower.
614
01:00:56.796 --> 01:01:01.210
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage
615
01:01:01.210 --> 01:01:03.900
for the facing of this hour.
616
01:01:03.900 --> 01:01:08.610
Set our feet on lofty places, gird our lives
617
01:01:08.610 --> 01:01:13.460
that they may be armored with all Christ-like graces
618
01:01:13.460 --> 01:01:16.720
in the fight to set men free.
619
01:01:16.720 --> 01:01:20.780
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage
620
01:01:20.780 --> 01:01:25.563
that we fail not man nor thee.
621
01:01:25.563 --> 01:01:28.540
And now unto him that is able to keep you from falling
622
01:01:28.540 --> 01:01:31.010
and to present you faultless before the presence
623
01:01:31.010 --> 01:01:36.010
of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God,
624
01:01:36.030 --> 01:01:38.700
our Savior, be glory and majesty,
625
01:01:38.700 --> 01:01:43.622
dominion and power now and forever.
626
01:01:48.521 --> 01:01:51.188
(choir singing)