James H. Phillips - "Power to Become" (September 30, 1956)
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Transcript
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- | Oh, Father in heaven-- | 0:03 |
(organ music) | 0:06 | |
(choir singing) | 0:12 | |
- | Let us offer unto God our unison prayer of confession. | 4:39 |
Let us pray. | 4:43 | |
Have mercy upon us, oh God, according to | 4:46 | |
thy loving kindness, according to a multitude | 4:49 | |
of thy tender mercies, blot out our transgressions. | 4:53 | |
Wash us thoroughly from our iniquities and cleanse us | 4:57 | |
from our sins for we acknowledge our transgressions | 5:01 | |
and our sin is ever before us. | 5:06 | |
Create in us clean hearts, oh God, | 5:09 | |
and renew a right spirit within us, | 5:12 | |
through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen. | 5:16 | |
And now as our savior Christ taught us, we pray. | 5:20 | |
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, | 5:25 | |
thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth | 5:30 | |
as it is in heaven. | 5:34 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 5:36 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 5:39 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 5:42 | |
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. | 5:46 | |
For thine is the kingdom and the power | 5:51 | |
and the glory forever. | 5:54 | |
Amen. | 5:57 | |
(organ music) | 6:00 | |
(choir singing) | 7:00 | |
Our lesson from holy scriptures is taken first | 9:13 | |
from the book of Genesis. | 9:15 | |
The first chapter beginning with the 26 verse. | 9:17 | |
Then God said, let us make man in our own image | 9:24 | |
after our likeness and let them have dominion | 9:30 | |
over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air | 9:35 | |
and over the cattle and over all the earth, | 9:40 | |
and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. | 9:44 | |
So God created man in His own image, | 9:49 | |
in the image of God he created him. | 9:52 | |
Male and female, he created them. | 9:57 | |
And God blessed them and said to them, | 10:02 | |
be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth | 10:05 | |
and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea | 10:08 | |
and over the birds of the air and over every living thing | 10:12 | |
that moves upon the earth. | 10:16 | |
God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed | 10:19 | |
which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree | 10:25 | |
with seed in its fruit, you shall have them for food. | 10:29 | |
And it was so. | 10:36 | |
And God saw everything that he had made. | 10:38 | |
And behold, it was very good and there was evening | 10:42 | |
and there was morning, a sixth day. | 10:48 | |
And now from the gospel according to Saint John, | 10:57 | |
the first chapter beginning with the first verse. | 11:01 | |
In the beginning was the word and the word was with God | 11:07 | |
and the word was God. | 11:12 | |
He was in the beginning with God. | 11:15 | |
All things were made through him and without him | 11:18 | |
was not anything made that was made. | 11:22 | |
In Him was light and the light was the light of men. | 11:26 | |
The light shines in the darkness and | 11:33 | |
the darkness has not overcome it. | 11:36 | |
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. | 11:41 | |
He came for testimony to bear witness to the light | 11:45 | |
that all might believe through him. | 11:49 | |
He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light, | 11:53 | |
the true light that enlightens every man | 11:59 | |
was coming into the world. | 12:02 | |
He was in the world and the world was made through him, | 12:05 | |
yet, the world knew him not. | 12:10 | |
He came to his own home and his own people received him not. | 12:15 | |
But, to all who received him, who believed in his name, | 12:22 | |
he gave power to become children of God. | 12:29 | |
Thus ended the reading from God's holy word. | 12:37 | |
(organ music) | 12:43 | |
(choir singing) | 13:23 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 15:54 |
(audience responding) | 15:56 | |
Let us pray. | 15:57 | |
Oh Father in heaven who of thy great mercy has brought us | 16:07 | |
to the end of another week in safety, | 16:13 | |
give us thankful hearts as we recall | 16:18 | |
thy continued goodness towards us. | 16:21 | |
We thank the, oh Lord, for health, recreation, | 16:26 | |
and refreshment, for interest in our work | 16:32 | |
and power to do it, for the companionship of fellow workers | 16:37 | |
and for all who have helped us with spiritual guidance. | 16:44 | |
We also give thee thanks for the | 16:51 | |
power and outreach of the mind, lighting the dark places | 16:54 | |
of fear and ignorance, for imagination and insight | 16:59 | |
and the impulse to discover and create, | 17:04 | |
and for courage strengthened by defeat, | 17:10 | |
spurring us on to greater efforts. | 17:14 | |
Above all, we give thee thanks for thy son | 17:18 | |
Jesus Christ and for the gospel he proclaimed with his life, | 17:22 | |
death and resurrection. | 17:29 | |
Eternal God whose mercy is over all, | 17:33 | |
we beseech thee for our brethren in every place | 17:38 | |
and most especially for those who are in any way distressed. | 17:42 | |
Visit the sick with thy comfort and healing power, | 17:50 | |
come to the bereaved with thy peace and increase in them | 17:55 | |
the faith that love is stronger than death. | 18:00 | |
Hasten with thy protection to those who are sorely tempted. | 18:06 | |
Make them strong to resist and conquer. | 18:12 | |
Draw near to all who are lonely, all who are anxious, | 18:18 | |
all who are cast down and discouraged | 18:23 | |
and to those who suffer in the suffering of those they love | 18:27 | |
that they may be strengthened with all power | 18:33 | |
for endurance and patience. | 18:36 | |
Look in thy might, upon those who have no helper, | 18:41 | |
defend the poor and save the children of the needy. | 18:47 | |
Make haste for relief of those who know the pains of hunger | 18:53 | |
and those who have nowhere to lay their heads. | 18:59 | |
Bring near the deliverance of those who are persecuted | 19:04 | |
and those who are discriminated against, | 19:08 | |
exploited and oppressed. | 19:11 | |
Show thy compassion to every victim of injustice | 19:14 | |
and to those who inflict loss and pain upon others, | 19:19 | |
show to the man's of thy righteousness. | 19:24 | |
Reveal unto us, we beseech thee those things in ourselves | 19:28 | |
which are adding to the sum of human misery. | 19:35 | |
Help us to repent of these our sins | 19:40 | |
and give us grace to consecrate ourselves to thy service | 19:43 | |
that we may be used of thee to help one another | 19:50 | |
and to set forward thy blessed kingdom. | 19:54 | |
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. | 19:59 | |
(organ music) | 20:07 | |
(choir singing) | 22:38 | |
- | Almighty God, our Heavenly Father | 28:33 |
who has spared not thine only son, | 28:37 | |
but delivered him up for us all and who with him | 28:40 | |
has freely given us all things, help us, we beseech thee, | 28:44 | |
the with all our gifts to yield ourselves unto thee | 28:50 | |
and in thy service find our deepest joy. | 28:55 | |
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. | 28:59 | |
(organ music) | 29:06 | |
- | My text consists of two verses taken from | 29:31 |
the two portions of scripture read as our lesson. | 29:35 | |
First from Genesis. | 29:39 | |
So God created man in his own image. | 29:42 | |
And now from Saint John. | 29:48 | |
To all who received him, who believed on his name, | 29:51 | |
he gave power to become children of God. | 29:58 | |
Power to become. | 30:06 | |
Who is there here who does not want that? | 30:10 | |
I dare say that there is not a person within the reach | 30:16 | |
of my voice who does not find that phrase | 30:19 | |
expressing a deep, deep desire. | 30:24 | |
It is one of the fundamental longings of our age. | 30:29 | |
Perhaps we can safely say that no generation | 30:34 | |
has been preoccupied with it more than our own. | 30:37 | |
As the outside world becomes more chaotic and less secure, | 30:43 | |
we are forced inward to try to | 30:49 | |
muster up ways to face it. | 30:53 | |
Writers in psychology and religion have been prolific | 30:57 | |
in their efforts to help us do just this. | 31:00 | |
The other day I thumbed through the card catalog | 31:06 | |
in our library under the general subject, | 31:08 | |
applied psychology. | 31:11 | |
There was of course a long list of books, | 31:14 | |
but a title that caught my fancy was, | 31:16 | |
"Take a Look at Yourself." | 31:19 | |
I turn to the next card and there was another title | 31:22 | |
by the same author, "Take a Second Look at Yourself." | 31:25 | |
Well, there is no doubt about it, | 31:31 | |
we are looking at ourselves. | 31:33 | |
But looking at ourselves has different levels of quality. | 31:38 | |
I look at myself every morning when I shave and I must | 31:44 | |
confess it is a very discouraging way to begin the day. | 31:47 | |
Taking a superficial look at ourselves | 31:52 | |
can be a means of self despair. | 31:55 | |
For some, it seems to be a means of self love. | 31:59 | |
Surely we need to go deeper than this. | 32:04 | |
Concurrently, we are advised to take a look at ourselves | 32:08 | |
with scientific eyes and analyze ourselves with mood meters. | 32:13 | |
I'm all for this if it will help, | 32:20 | |
and I have no doubt but what it would, | 32:22 | |
but the author, in his own most optimistic mood | 32:26 | |
has not claimed for his system that his system | 32:30 | |
provides a cure-all remedy for a | 32:34 | |
man's needs as he looks at himself. | 32:36 | |
In fact, he advises that other helps | 32:40 | |
must be employed as well. | 32:43 | |
Looking at ourselves is important, | 32:47 | |
but there are different levels of looking. | 32:50 | |
As we look at ourselves in the deepest sense | 32:55 | |
with the hope that by doing so, we might find the power | 32:59 | |
to become effective persons capable of living | 33:02 | |
with a sense of power and accomplishment | 33:07 | |
in a world like this, then we do need | 33:10 | |
all of the best help that we can find. | 33:13 | |
In this sermon I am inviting you to look with me | 33:18 | |
at ourselves as Christians, | 33:22 | |
and in doing so, I am posing two questions. | 33:27 | |
What or who do we Christians say that we are? | 33:32 | |
And, how do we take what we are | 33:39 | |
and become what we believe we were meant to be? | 33:43 | |
Surely, these questions are fundamental. | 33:50 | |
Indeed, we would say that no Christian can have | 33:54 | |
the power to become unless he arrives | 33:58 | |
at significant answers to them. | 34:02 | |
First then, what or who do we Christians say that we aren't? | 34:06 | |
Our first text states that we are made in the image of God. | 34:14 | |
This statement has been pointed to in Christian theology | 34:20 | |
as an excellent expression of the | 34:23 | |
biblical conception of man. | 34:25 | |
Do you know what it means? | 34:28 | |
Does it mean that man was made | 34:32 | |
in the spiritual likeness of God only? | 34:34 | |
Many Christians would say yes, | 34:38 | |
but according to good authority, | 34:41 | |
this view is foreign to the view of the Bible | 34:42 | |
and actually reflects Greek dualism. | 34:46 | |
It sharply distinguishes between the spiritual | 34:50 | |
and the material natures of man and this can be dangerous. | 34:55 | |
It can, as Paul saw it work out | 35:01 | |
among Greek Christians at Corinth, | 35:03 | |
cause Christians to believe that their faith | 35:06 | |
deals only with the spirit and they can be | 35:08 | |
even immoral with their bodies. | 35:12 | |
It can, as the later church saw it work out among ascetics | 35:16 | |
cause Christians to believe that only their spiritual nature | 35:21 | |
is good and that all the body desires | 35:24 | |
and does is evil. | 35:28 | |
Both of these results still plague Christianity. | 35:31 | |
But created in the image of God does not have this meaning. | 35:38 | |
The Bible rather holds that man is a vital unity. | 35:43 | |
That body and spirit are interrelated, interdependent, | 35:48 | |
that when God created man, he regarded his creation | 35:54 | |
as good because the whole man | 35:58 | |
was made to bear a divine resemblance. | 36:03 | |
The Biblical stress therefore, is on the wholeness | 36:07 | |
of the self and the goodness of the self | 36:11 | |
in so far as it is what it was created to be. | 36:15 | |
That is why a psalmist poetically proclaims | 36:22 | |
a high conception of man when he says, | 36:25 | |
Though has made him but a little more than the angels | 36:28 | |
and has crowned him with glory and honor. | 36:31 | |
Centuries later, John says, we receive power | 36:35 | |
to become children of God. | 36:40 | |
Are you aware that in this service, | 36:46 | |
we have already reaffirmed | 36:52 | |
our faith in this biblical view. | 36:55 | |
What the psalmist proclaimed we heard thrillingly sung | 36:59 | |
just a few moments ago by our choir. | 37:03 | |
What John declared, you and I bear witness to | 37:08 | |
by our very presence in this chapel, | 37:13 | |
for this is Christ's church | 37:17 | |
and his church is living witness | 37:20 | |
to the faith that by God's action in Christ, | 37:23 | |
we who receive him in faith become children of God. | 37:26 | |
That is through him, we become true to our real nature | 37:31 | |
which the creator ordained from the beginning of creation. | 37:37 | |
Now, why do I think that this restatement, | 37:43 | |
this re-affirmation of our faith, is so important? | 37:46 | |
Because I know that many Christians regard it | 37:52 | |
as strange and even fantastic. | 37:55 | |
This is so because we have become infected | 38:01 | |
far more than we realize with a view of our nature | 38:05 | |
that stands in sharp contrast to it. | 38:09 | |
If some phases of early Christianity went overboard | 38:14 | |
in emphasis upon the spirit of man to the neglect | 38:17 | |
and even denial of the body of man, | 38:22 | |
this century has put that emphasis in reverse order | 38:25 | |
in such a way that has produced | 38:29 | |
far-reaching consequences for our faith. | 38:32 | |
I'm not concerned here about the kind of philosophy | 38:39 | |
that teaches the view that man, to quote, | 38:41 | |
originated in muck, wades awhile in muck, | 38:45 | |
makes muck and in the end returns to muck. | 38:49 | |
I doubt that many Christians would swallow that. | 38:53 | |
I'm not concerned primarily about a pessimistic view of man | 38:59 | |
given poetic form, for instance, by Lord Byron, | 39:04 | |
who as you know grew very old while he was yet very young. | 39:09 | |
Listen to this. | 39:14 | |
Oh man, thou feeble tenant of an hour, | 39:17 | |
debased by slavery or corrupt by power, | 39:20 | |
who knows thee well must quit thee with disgust, | 39:25 | |
degraded mass of animated dust! | 39:28 | |
Thy love is lust, they friendship all a cheat, | 39:32 | |
thy smiles hypocrisy, thy words deceit. | 39:36 | |
Thy nature vile, ennobled but by name, | 39:39 | |
each kindred brute might bid thee blush for shame. | 39:42 | |
I doubt if any Christians would go for that. | 39:48 | |
They see the good in man as well as his evil. | 39:51 | |
I'm not even greatly concerned about certain academic dues, | 39:58 | |
although here I confess some concerns. | 40:03 | |
Several weeks ago I picked up a well known textbook | 40:08 | |
that is used in an introductory course in psychology. | 40:12 | |
In the preface, the author states to quote, | 40:16 | |
that the basic assumption of psychology is that | 40:20 | |
human behavior is a result of natural processes. | 40:22 | |
Supernatural phenomenon, even if they exist, | 40:28 | |
are not a part of what psychologists studies. | 40:32 | |
I was not surprised after reading this to find | 40:37 | |
no further reference to religion | 40:40 | |
and its part in human behavior, | 40:42 | |
but I was surprised that in his treatment | 40:44 | |
of human drives and motivations, | 40:49 | |
the author gave no acknowledgement of the possibility | 40:51 | |
of moral and spiritual conditioning in human behavior. | 40:55 | |
I did see that the sex drive received | 41:00 | |
much of its treatment in terms of Kinsey data | 41:03 | |
as though the standard of behavior should be established | 41:07 | |
simply by looking at statistics | 41:11 | |
that tell what people are reported doing. | 41:13 | |
Now, some Christian students | 41:18 | |
would grab hold of academic views like this | 41:23 | |
and have a field day of rationalizing. | 41:26 | |
But most, I believe, would have the insight to see | 41:30 | |
that this isn't very good psychology, | 41:33 | |
to say nothing about seeing it's | 41:37 | |
dangerous possibilities for morality. | 41:39 | |
Some psychologists would. | 41:42 | |
I believe I can illustrate this judgment by relating an | 41:46 | |
experience which professor Albert Outler of SMU | 41:49 | |
who preached the powerful sermon in this chapel last year, | 41:54 | |
describes in his brilliant book, | 41:58 | |
"Psychotherapy and the Christian Message." | 42:01 | |
There he recalls an incident which happened during a forum | 42:06 | |
sponsored several years ago by Life magazine | 42:10 | |
on the pursuit of happiness. | 42:14 | |
You may have read that article. | 42:18 | |
He was a member of that forum along with representatives | 42:23 | |
from various fields, including Doctor Erich Fromm, | 42:26 | |
an internationally known psychologist. | 42:30 | |
Doctor Outler reports that in the course | 42:35 | |
of a rather confused discussion, | 42:37 | |
a noted public opinion analyst offered a rather blunt dictum | 42:41 | |
that the whole problem of the pursuit of happiness | 42:46 | |
could be readily solved if people | 42:50 | |
were assured of two things. | 42:53 | |
That they would be protected against poverty | 42:56 | |
in their old age, and could be persuaded that sex | 42:58 | |
was not a moral but merely a biological matter. | 43:02 | |
Says Doctor Outler, | 43:07 | |
while I was clearing my throat | 43:11 | |
and assorting my somewhat startled wits | 43:14 | |
to comment on this provocative panacea, | 43:17 | |
Doctor Fromm rushed in ahead of us all and delivered | 43:21 | |
a brief but quite definitive lecture on the | 43:25 | |
psychological disabilities produced | 43:29 | |
by irresponsible promiscuity. | 43:31 | |
I repeat, when psychology fails to look at | 43:37 | |
all the facts of human behavior and response, | 43:42 | |
it is not very good psychology. | 43:45 | |
It can be irresponsible psychology and I believe that | 43:48 | |
most Christians can determine when it is, | 43:52 | |
so I am not too greatly concerned about that. | 43:57 | |
No, I'm not even greatly concerned about the hysteria | 44:02 | |
created by the man is a hound dog philosophy put to music. | 44:06 | |
And that is saying quite a bit, | 44:12 | |
saying quite a bit with a daughter on the threshold | 44:16 | |
of her teens who has shown some of the symptoms. | 44:19 | |
I am embarrassed by my profession | 44:24 | |
that a professor has initiated a cult | 44:29 | |
by suggesting similarities | 44:33 | |
between its singer and certain Greek gods. | 44:35 | |
What then, concerns me, and here I am dead serious. | 44:42 | |
What really concerns me, it is this. | 44:49 | |
That Christians, even though they might say that they | 44:53 | |
see through all of these views, | 44:57 | |
have nevertheless permitted the influence of this | 45:00 | |
naturalistic explanation of man and this exultation | 45:04 | |
of the human body and its appetites to seep into their minds | 45:09 | |
and souls and devitalize their faith in themselves | 45:14 | |
as made in the image of God. | 45:19 | |
Brethren, we are losing the noble vision of who we are | 45:23 | |
and without that, there can be no strong urge | 45:28 | |
to become what we were created to be. | 45:31 | |
I honestly believe that this is one of the main causes | 45:35 | |
of the mediocrity that characterizes | 45:38 | |
a good deal of Christian living today. | 45:41 | |
But we would not be gloomy. | 45:44 | |
Surely there are Christians, probably more | 45:47 | |
than it would appear, who do have this vision, | 45:49 | |
who do have this urge and surely there are evidences | 45:52 | |
of increasing numbers who see the need for it | 45:56 | |
and who are earnestly praying for it. | 45:59 | |
Let us assume that this is so. | 46:01 | |
Then what? | 46:04 | |
That takes me to the second question. | 46:06 | |
How do we take what we believe we are | 46:09 | |
and become what we believe we were meant to be? | 46:12 | |
We were created in the image of God. | 46:16 | |
We were meant to become children of God. | 46:18 | |
The answer to the second question depends in large measure, | 46:25 | |
I believe, on the interpretation of freedom | 46:28 | |
and what we do with it. | 46:31 | |
Freedom is not only the Christian's problem, | 46:34 | |
it is everybody's problem and perhaps man's central problem. | 46:36 | |
And there are multitudes of people | 46:41 | |
who are breaking themselves on it, | 46:42 | |
they do not see or they will not see | 46:45 | |
that freedom must be interpreted by the very nature | 46:48 | |
in which the creator made us. | 46:52 | |
For example, most of us, I dare say have been inclined | 46:56 | |
at one time or another to be not one person, | 46:59 | |
but several persons. | 47:02 | |
William James, with delightful candor, | 47:05 | |
confessed such an inclination, but in doing so, | 47:08 | |
he pointed to a fundamental truth. | 47:11 | |
I am often confronted by the necessity of standing by one | 47:15 | |
of my selves, he said, and relinquishing the rest. | 47:18 | |
Not that I would not if I could be both handsome and fat | 47:23 | |
and well dressed and a great athlete | 47:26 | |
and make a million a year, a bon de bon, | 47:28 | |
and a lady killer as well as a philosopher, | 47:32 | |
a philanthropist, statesman, warrior, an African explorer | 47:35 | |
as well as a poet and a saint. | 47:38 | |
But the millionaire's work would run counter to the saints. | 47:42 | |
The bon de bon and the philanthropist would trip each other. | 47:48 | |
The philosopher and the lady killer could not well | 47:52 | |
keep house in the same tenement of place. | 47:56 | |
Such different characters may conceivably, | 48:00 | |
at the outset of life, be possible to a man, | 48:02 | |
but to make any one of him actual, | 48:05 | |
the rest must more or less be suppressed. | 48:08 | |
This illustrates what we are saying. | 48:12 | |
Our very group dictates that some things | 48:16 | |
we might like to be just don't mix. | 48:19 | |
Of course, we can choose to persist | 48:24 | |
in this multiple personality, | 48:27 | |
but this is not the way to wholeness of personality, | 48:29 | |
to effective, powerful living. | 48:34 | |
Let us see this principle apply | 48:40 | |
to freedom in moral behavior. | 48:42 | |
There are those who say that they are | 48:46 | |
free to behave as they please. | 48:49 | |
They are free to do what appeals to them at the moment. | 48:52 | |
They think it is good strategy when in Rome | 48:57 | |
to do as Romans do, to change their character so that | 48:59 | |
one feels relaxed and adjusted to diverse situations. | 49:03 | |
And so they act much like moral chameleons, | 49:08 | |
changing their color as the occasions permit or demand, | 49:12 | |
all the way from unrestrained looseness | 49:15 | |
to formal respectability. | 49:18 | |
But soon or late, this kind of individual | 49:23 | |
runs up against the stubborn fact of his own nature. | 49:27 | |
Behavior tends to develop a pattern. | 49:32 | |
Some things we think we are free to do become set | 49:36 | |
and the time comes when we are no longer able to switch | 49:40 | |
from one moral style to another | 49:43 | |
and rigorous limits are imposed upon us. | 49:47 | |
Let me illustrate this truth in two areas that, | 49:51 | |
I think in particular, involve young people. | 49:55 | |
Drinking and lovemaking. | 49:59 | |
We shall deal with them separately because we believe | 50:03 | |
there is danger in mixing them. | 50:05 | |
(audience laughing) | 50:08 | |
Someone has said, | 50:10 | |
perhaps half in jest | 50:17 | |
and half in seriousness, that there are | 50:19 | |
two stages in the life of a drinker. | 50:21 | |
The first is when he could stop, if only he would, | 50:24 | |
and the second stage is when he would stop, | 50:28 | |
if only he could. | 50:30 | |
Of course, such a statement would be misleading | 50:33 | |
if it sought to imply that all drinkers in the first stage | 50:36 | |
will soon or late reach the second. | 50:39 | |
But this we can say, no drinker can afford | 50:42 | |
to take that possibility lightly. | 50:46 | |
Professor Bacon of Yale considered | 50:49 | |
the foremost authority on alcoholism, | 50:51 | |
has reported that there are nearly | 50:53 | |
four million drinkers in this country who are losing | 50:55 | |
or who have already lost complete control. | 50:58 | |
Most of these alcoholics were free to drink | 51:02 | |
or not to drink in the beginning, | 51:05 | |
but now they are set in their drinking | 51:07 | |
in a way that is bold, pathological, and pathetic. | 51:10 | |
Look at lovemaking. | 51:18 | |
There are young people who boast | 51:21 | |
that they are free to be indiscriminate. | 51:23 | |
Love for them is free. | 51:26 | |
But is it? | 51:29 | |
Is it? | 51:32 | |
Those persons who think they are free | 51:35 | |
will establish patterns of indiscriminate expression | 51:37 | |
that in time become set. | 51:42 | |
And dear friends, that kind of freedom | 51:46 | |
has a high price to it. | 51:50 | |
It can close the door to the deepest | 51:52 | |
and most precious experience of marriage. | 51:56 | |
One love, faithfully and wonderfully expressed. | 51:59 | |
And marriage without that has been robbed | 52:05 | |
of its highest and most precious expressions. | 52:08 | |
Do you see what we're saying? | 52:12 | |
There is no such thing as freedom in the sense | 52:15 | |
that we can continue to be free | 52:18 | |
to do whatever we want to do. | 52:21 | |
Our nature, the way we are made, will not allow it. | 52:24 | |
There's a law about our nature that takes our | 52:28 | |
free expressions and organizes them into patterns | 52:31 | |
and unless we come to have profound respect for that law, | 52:35 | |
we run into trouble. | 52:38 | |
As someone has well put it, the real explanation | 52:42 | |
for most people who can't seem to deal with life effectively | 52:45 | |
is not that they are disorganized, | 52:49 | |
but rather that they become organized to the wrong things. | 52:53 | |
But we must not regard this law | 53:03 | |
within our nature as a handicap. | 53:05 | |
It is instead one of God's greatest gifts, | 53:09 | |
without which there could be no development, | 53:12 | |
no dependable pattern of action. | 53:15 | |
A musician takes what is natural to himself, | 53:19 | |
that is his special native capacities for music. | 53:22 | |
Puts this principle to work and thereby develops | 53:28 | |
skills and patterns of creative expression | 53:31 | |
upon which he and music lovers can depend. | 53:35 | |
Just so, a Christian restored to his true nature | 53:40 | |
is a child of God by his faith in Jesus Christ, | 53:44 | |
puts this principle to work and Godliness takes form | 53:48 | |
in what he is and what he does with | 53:53 | |
ever increasing power and dependability. | 53:55 | |
God has made us this way, not so much to limit our | 54:00 | |
untrue nature as to enable us to fulfill our true nature. | 54:04 | |
We were made to love and the Christian holds that | 54:09 | |
body and mind and soul are involved in this loving. | 54:13 | |
When man chooses to turn love to license, | 54:19 | |
his love is pathetically limited. | 54:23 | |
When it is turned to God's purposes in marriage | 54:27 | |
and the family, it is wonderfully fulfilled, | 54:30 | |
and the home becomes less with patterns of fidelity | 54:34 | |
and shared joy that are dependable. | 54:40 | |
In the light of this truth, I think we can see more clearly | 54:47 | |
what sin is and what its punishment is. | 54:52 | |
Much of the Bible's use of sin indicates that it is | 54:58 | |
to deviate from the right way, | 55:01 | |
to miss the goal. | 55:06 | |
We sin, therefore when we chose to rebel against God's will | 55:10 | |
for us to live as a child of his, | 55:15 | |
which was the goal of our creation, | 55:18 | |
and we are punished in this life by limitations | 55:21 | |
and unfulfillment which we impose upon ourselves | 55:25 | |
by our sinning. | 55:30 | |
But we also see more clearly what redemption is. | 55:34 | |
Through Christ, it means self realization | 55:38 | |
to grow toward the goal of our being. | 55:43 | |
Now, why have I dwelt so long upon this problem of freedom? | 55:50 | |
Because I heard a Dean say not very long ago | 55:59 | |
that more students shipwreck their academic career | 56:02 | |
on the misuse of freedom than any one other single thing, | 56:06 | |
and to me this is great tragedy. | 56:12 | |
Their parents sent them here knowing that they would | 56:16 | |
have more freedom than they ever had before, | 56:20 | |
and in spite of certain protests, you do. | 56:24 | |
And your parents willingly consented to this freedom | 56:28 | |
because they know that freedom | 56:32 | |
is necessary for growth. | 56:36 | |
And then for any one of you to shipwreck upon it, | 56:40 | |
that is tragic. | 56:45 | |
Just so it is with us all, God gave His children freedom | 56:49 | |
for the sake of this children's growth. | 56:54 | |
Then for us to shipwreck upon it, that is the human tragedy | 56:57 | |
and it is especially tragic because through Christ, | 57:03 | |
we have the means both | 57:08 | |
to avoid freedom's misuse | 57:12 | |
and to fulfill freedom's end. | 57:15 | |
The power to become, it is our faith that the Christian | 57:22 | |
can possess this power, but he does not create it. | 57:27 | |
Any writer who tries to stir up Christians | 57:35 | |
to generate their own power, is misleading. | 57:38 | |
We need resources of power to become effective persons | 57:42 | |
in this kind of world that are far greater | 57:46 | |
than our puny efforts can muster. | 57:48 | |
The Christian does not approach his needs in this way. | 57:52 | |
With the Christ to make it possible, | 57:56 | |
he places himself in his true relationship with God | 57:59 | |
who is the creator of all power. | 58:03 | |
Thus he does not create his own power, he appropriates it. | 58:07 | |
And that is infinitely better than anything he can generate. | 58:13 | |
Do you doubt this? | 58:19 | |
Then review your knowledge of early Christianity. | 58:22 | |
The Christian faith took root in and overcame a more | 58:26 | |
pagan world than we live in, where life was cheap, | 58:30 | |
where pessimism flourished, | 58:34 | |
where cruelty and immorality where taken for granted. | 58:35 | |
Read Paul's letters again if you need reminding | 58:39 | |
and within this mess, Paul dared his converts | 58:44 | |
to bear the image of the heavenly man, Christ, | 58:48 | |
and they did just that. | 58:52 | |
These were not men and women of exceptional caliber. | 58:55 | |
The answer is not to be found there. | 58:58 | |
Rather, the answer is this. | 59:01 | |
They took literally the word of God that renewed | 59:03 | |
after the image of him that created them, | 59:07 | |
they would receive power. | 59:09 | |
That is the key to their profound and | 59:13 | |
lasting mark upon history. | 59:17 | |
And it is my sincere conviction that if this | 59:21 | |
Christian generation is to have visions of great living, | 59:23 | |
of growing into effective persons who are able to live | 59:28 | |
with power in this time that surely | 59:31 | |
calls out for great living, | 59:33 | |
then we must break through this crust of modern | 59:38 | |
disbelief that has reduced us Christians to mediocrity. | 59:41 | |
We must know our faith, we must feel it. | 59:47 | |
We must show it. | 59:50 | |
We must live it. | 59:51 | |
This is the only way that an unbelieving world | 59:54 | |
will ever be persuaded and saved, | 59:58 | |
and if we fail, then this is our great sin. | 1:00:01 | |
We, we who are Christians | 1:00:08 | |
will cause humanity | 1:00:12 | |
to miss creation's goal. | 1:00:15 | |
Let us earnestly pray | 1:00:19 | |
that we who bear the image | 1:00:22 | |
of Christ and his name | 1:00:26 | |
will not contribute to that calamity. | 1:00:30 | |
Let us pray. | 1:00:36 | |
Oh God of grace and God of glory, | 1:00:43 | |
on thy people pour thy power, | 1:00:46 | |
crown thine ancient church's story, | 1:00:50 | |
bring her bud to glorious flower. | 1:00:53 | |
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage | 1:00:56 | |
for the facing of this hour. | 1:01:01 | |
Set our feet on lofty places, gird our lives | 1:01:03 | |
that they may be armored with all Christ-like graces | 1:01:08 | |
in the fight to set men free. | 1:01:13 | |
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage | 1:01:16 | |
that we fail not man nor thee. | 1:01:20 | |
And now unto him that is able to keep you from falling | 1:01:25 | |
and to present you faultless before the presence | 1:01:28 | |
of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God, | 1:01:31 | |
our Savior, be glory and majesty, | 1:01:36 | |
dominion and power now and forever. | 1:01:38 | |
(choir singing) | 1:01:48 |