Participants:
Series Code: AU
Program Code: AU000095S
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00:01 - Ever feel helpless to change who you are?
00:02 You might wanna stay tuned 00:04 because that's exactly what we're gonna talk about 00:06 on today's episode of Authentic. 00:08 [upbeat music] 00:17 [upbeat music] 00:27 [upbeat music] 00:30 Today, I was trying to think of the most evil person 00:32 I could think of without resorting to Hitler 00:35 because, well, that's just too easy. 00:37 Everybody does that. 00:39 In fact, if it's possible, 00:41 and I'm speaking as part of a family 00:42 that was profoundly affected by what the Nazis did 00:45 to Europe, but if it is possible, 00:47 I think we've begun to overuse the Nazis 00:50 to the point where we almost trivialize what they did. 00:53 For example, I hear people on both sides 00:56 of the aisle throwing around the word fascist 00:58 to describe their political opponents. 01:00 And when you talk to these people, 01:02 it becomes obvious they don't actually know 01:04 what a fascist is, they just know it's a negative word, 01:07 so they apply it to their ideological enemies. 01:10 And of course, if you've spent any time cruising the world 01:12 of social media, you'll know that Hitler's name 01:15 gets thrown around an awful lot 01:17 because people who appear to lack the ability 01:20 to express their point of view in a meaningful way 01:23 seem to resort to the Nazi label to sum things up. 01:26 Honestly, it's just lazy. 01:28 And it's a shame because what happened 01:30 under the Nazis in the first half of the 20th century 01:33 should never be downplayed. 01:35 If you start calling people fascists or Nazis 01:38 because you don't like them, it begins to rob those words 01:42 of real meaning, which in time will water down 01:44 what actually happened. 01:47 And I'm not convinced we want to do that. 01:49 People are doing it now so often 01:51 that someone's actually given this phenomenon a name, 01:53 and it's Godwin's law. 01:56 Godwin's law says the longer an argument goes, 01:58 the more likely somebody will bring up the Nazis. 02:01 And it happens when people get frustrated 02:04 because they've run out of intelligent arguments. 02:07 It's just too easy. 02:09 But the other example I'm gonna resort to, 02:12 to describe evil incarnate, 02:14 I'll admit it's not a whole lot better, 02:16 I'm gonna go with Jeffrey Dahmer, 02:17 the famous cannibal and serial killer. 02:20 But then again, maybe arguing from an extreme example 02:24 will help me make my case. 02:26 A few seasons ago, we looked at that book, 02:28 "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," that famous 19th century novel 02:33 where Robert Louis Stevenson explores 02:36 a bit of a psychotic break in a character 02:38 who's trying to actually eliminate the evil in his heart. 02:42 Dr. Jekyll hates the fact that he has a tendency 02:45 toward evil and he resorts to the world of science 02:48 to help him overcome it. 02:50 Let me read you just a little bit. 02:51 He says, "It was on the moral side, 02:55 and in my own person, that I learned to recognize 02:57 the thorough and primitive duality of man." 03:01 In other words, 03:02 the fact that we seem to be both good and evil 03:04 at the same time. 03:06 "I saw that, of the two natures that contended 03:09 in the field of my consciousness, 03:11 even if I could rightly be said to be either, 03:14 it was only because I was radically both. 03:16 If each, I told myself, could be housed 03:19 in separate identities, 03:20 life would be relieved of all that was unbearable." 03:24 Now, this might be a work of fiction 03:27 intended to amuse people, 03:28 but the themes in this book 03:30 are some of the most important themes 03:32 in the history of human thought. 03:35 When you and I first come into this world, 03:37 we're born into a relatively comfortable environment, 03:41 unless you happen to be born into an abusive household. 03:44 For most people, however, childhood is a pretty good gig. 03:47 Your needs are met, your world is protected. 03:50 But eventually, we do go out into the rest of the world 03:54 and discover that all is not well. 03:56 There are bad people and bad things out there, 03:59 and we're going to have to contend 04:00 with those things on a daily basis 04:02 for the rest of our lives. 04:05 And then we learn to blame others for our difficulties. 04:10 And it seems like human suffering 04:11 has just got to be somebody else's fault. 04:15 It's something I've witnessed 04:16 in young political activists quite a bit, 04:19 and I used to be one of those. 04:21 Their desire to fix the world 04:22 almost always seems to demand a scapegoat. 04:25 The government, corporations, or, well, frankly, 04:29 anybody who isn't part of their little group. 04:31 Now, that doesn't mean 04:32 that the world doesn't have evil people 04:34 who create a lot of our problems because there are, 04:39 but at the same time, 04:40 we seem to have this massive blind spot 04:42 when it comes to identifying our own contributions 04:46 to pain and suffering. 04:48 Eventually, most of us come to a moment 04:50 when we begin to realize it's not just everybody else; 04:54 that we are a substantial part of the problem 04:58 because you are just as self-centered 05:00 and self-interested as everybody else. 05:03 We finally realize that the evil 05:05 that plagues the human race 05:07 also has some anchors in our own hearts. 05:11 So what Stevenson does with his character 05:14 is have him turn to science to try and fix the problem. 05:18 But what happens is that his experiments 05:20 lead to a split personality where the good Dr. Jekyll 05:24 splits off from the evil Mr. Hyde 05:27 and Mr. Hyde, much to his chagrin, 05:29 begins to wreak havoc in the community. 05:31 So now we have an evil man 05:34 who is completely unhampered by any morality. 05:37 Now, anybody who reads the story honestly 05:40 is going to realize that this is not a tale 05:42 about somebody else. 05:44 It's describing you. 05:46 There is something about all of us that is profoundly broken 05:49 and we seem powerless to fix whatever that is. 05:53 I find the same theme in some Greek tragedies 05:55 where you have a hero trying 05:57 to accomplish something important, 05:59 but that hero is stymied by his or her own flaws. 06:03 A really good example, well known, 06:05 would be Sophocles' famous and horrible story "Oedipus Rex," 06:09 a play about a Greek king who has to live in the shadow 06:12 of a horrible prophecy, 06:14 one that said he would eventually kill his own father 06:17 and then marry his own mother. 06:20 And of course, he doesn't want to do that 06:21 because who in the world would? 06:23 It's wrong. 06:24 And yet, as the story progresses, 06:26 he discovers that he can't fight the prophecy 06:29 and he accidentally kills a stranger 06:31 who turns out to be his father, 06:33 and then he marries a woman 06:35 he later finds out is his birth mother. 06:37 It's a horrible story, 06:40 but the Greeks were illustrating a really important point. 06:43 There's something wrong with us and we can't fix it. 06:46 No matter how hard we try, 06:48 we're always gonna find ourselves powerless 06:50 to eradicate the evil that lurks in our hearts. 06:54 And that is probably the worst realization 06:57 that most of us come to, 06:58 to finally understand that given the right circumstances, 07:01 we are just as capable 07:03 of incredible evil as an Adolf Hitler or a Jeffrey Dahmer. 07:08 I know it's a little bit shocking. 07:10 None of us likes to think that, 07:12 but all of us have a really dark place in our hearts 07:14 that can suddenly emerge if we choose to feed it. 07:17 And of course, with Jeffrey Dahmer, 07:20 the word feed might be inappropriate. 07:22 But of course, this all brings me 07:25 to the claims of the Bible, 07:26 which underlines the idea 07:27 that human beings really do have a terrible flaw, 07:30 that all of us are the real cause of suffering. 07:34 Modern critics, especially those who walk in the footsteps 07:36 of Sigmund Freud, like to suggest 07:39 that the Bible's teachings are harmful. 07:41 They'll cause neurosis by putting limits 07:43 on how you express your natural urges. 07:47 But that's a really shallow understanding 07:48 of what the Bible says about your human nature. 07:51 I mean, right at the beginning of the story, 07:52 as the first two people are being ushered out of paradise, 07:56 we discovered that the real problem 07:59 is the dual nature of the human heart. 08:02 After all, what was the essence 08:04 of Adam and Eve's transgression? 08:06 They ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 08:09 And that was a problem 08:10 because in the original formula, 08:12 we were made to be perfect reflections 08:14 of the goodness of God. 08:16 We were made in his image, 08:18 but then we suddenly became something far less than that. 08:22 All through Genesis 1, 08:23 you have God calling his creation good. 08:25 In fact, he calls it good every single day. 08:28 And when it's completely finished, 08:30 after he creates the human race, he calls it very good. 08:34 So in other words, we weren't always like this, 08:37 not in the beginning, 08:38 and that propensity toward evil 08:40 didn't exist until we chose it, 08:42 and now it's killing us. 08:45 The fruit of the tree wasn't actually toxic. 08:48 It was our willful choice to indulge evil, 08:50 to declare independence from God 08:52 that caused the problems we now live with. 08:55 And now I have another problem that we have to live with 08:57 because the clock on the wall says 08:59 it's time for a break, so don't go away. 09:01 I'll be right back after this. 09:06 [upbeat music] 09:07 - [Narrator] Life can throw a lot at us. 09:10 Sometimes we don't have all the answers, 09:13 but that's where the Bible comes in. 09:15 It's our guide to a more fulfilling life. 09:19 Here at the Voice of Prophecy, 09:20 we've created the Discover Bible Guides 09:22 to be your guide to the Bible. 09:24 They're designed to be simple, easy to use, 09:26 and provide answers to many of life's toughest questions, 09:29 and they're absolutely free. 09:31 So jump online now or give us a call 09:34 and start your journey of discovery 09:37 - In his excellent commentary on the book of Genesis, 09:39 a commentary that I've only just started reading, 09:42 Rabbi David Sykes has a very interesting observation 09:46 about the nature of the Garden of Eden and the tree. 09:49 Just listen to this. 09:51 "What exactly was the tree of knowledge of good and evil? 09:54 Rabbi Moses ben Nahman explains 09:56 that before man ate from that tree, 09:58 he knew only goodness, and so he acted accordingly. 10:02 Not being aware of evil, man was not tempted 10:05 to go against God's will. 10:07 It was only through an outside being, namely, the serpent, 10:10 that evil gained a foothold within man. 10:12 After eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, 10:15 man was capable of both good and evil, 10:18 and these two drives gave 10:19 rise to an internal struggle. 10:22 From good, there was now the descent to good and evil 10:26 and man's task of maintaining good in the world 10:28 became more challenging." 10:31 From the Bible's perspective, 10:32 this is our number one problem. 10:34 We have a tragic flaw, 10:36 a propensity toward evil that we can't fix. 10:39 Wipe out all the world's dictators, 10:41 take away the power that some people 10:43 use to make the rest of us miserable, 10:45 and the problem will still be there. 10:48 Why? 10:49 Because it's endemic. 10:50 It's human. 10:51 It's not just some people 10:52 who pose a problem, it's all of us. 10:56 So consider someone like Karl Marx from that perspective. 11:00 And let's think about some of the ideological changes 11:03 he introduced in the late 19th century. 11:06 What Marx proposed is that the structure 11:08 of classes we have in society is our biggest problem, 11:12 and he taught that in time progress 11:14 would lead to a revolution, and then everybody 11:16 would just start sharing resources equally. 11:19 We would all share the means of production. 11:22 But now look what happened 11:23 when those revolutions actually began to break out. 11:26 The most notable one being the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, 11:30 when angry Russians suddenly got rid of the ruling class 11:33 and seized the reins of power. 11:36 Marx would argue that violent revolutions 11:38 are undesirable but necessary for progress. 11:42 It would just be a temporary problem. 11:45 But then look at what actually happened 11:47 after the Soviets came to power. 11:49 They introduced a new ruling class, 11:51 one that exercised a lot more brutality 11:53 than any monarch ever did. 11:56 The so-called equality people hoped for 11:59 quickly devolved into another two-tiered system. 12:02 You had the party elite who lived in the halls of power, 12:05 and then everybody else who ended up living like paupers. 12:08 It was exactly the same problem 12:10 they had before the revolution, 12:12 but now it was amplified. 12:15 But why? 12:16 Why did that happen? 12:17 It's because no matter how good our intentions, 12:20 there's a deep well of evil 12:21 and selfishness lurking in every human heart 12:24 and even a basic book on world history quickly reveals 12:27 that we have never, ever, been able to change this. 12:31 All we ever do is substitute one horrible idea 12:33 for another one, and the suffering never stops. 12:37 And just in case someone wants to accuse me 12:40 of playing ideological favorites, 12:41 you can see the same thing right here in the United States. 12:44 Every four years, we elect a new president 12:47 who promises that this election 12:49 is going to dramatically improve our lives. 12:52 Every two years, we elect a somewhat new Congress, 12:54 and every six years, we reformulate the Senate. 12:58 It's been going on now for nearly a quarter of a millennium. 13:01 And while some governments have proven better than others, 13:04 not one of them has ever solved our biggest problems. 13:08 Why? 13:09 Because unless we figure out 13:10 how to change our essential human nature, 13:12 that is never going to happen. 13:14 That's kind of the point you find 13:16 in the Old Testament Book of Daniel, 13:18 which shows us a progression of human governments 13:21 that only get worse with the passage of time. 13:24 In Daniel 7, the prophet sees a series 13:26 of animals coming up out of the sea, 13:29 each of which represents a different major empire. 13:32 There's a Babylonian lion, a Persian bear, a Greek leopard, 13:35 and then a ferocious Roman beast. 13:38 Now, at the time he had the vision, 13:41 the prophet Daniel was living in captivity, 13:43 something that God allowed to happen 13:45 because the nation of Judah had started living 13:47 like their gentile neighbors anyway. 13:50 Originally, the descendants of Abraham 13:52 were supposed to be different 13:54 from all other systems of government. 13:56 They were something of a republic, 13:58 with a supreme written law 14:00 that was anchored in the temple and its services, 14:03 but then they demanded a human king 14:04 like the Gentiles had, and God allowed it. 14:07 And from that moment forward, 14:09 the Hebrew kings became more and more and more corrupt 14:13 until God just blew the whistle 14:14 and told whole his kids, time to get out of the pool. 14:17 They had done the same thing as Adam and Eve. 14:19 They told God, no thank you, sir. 14:21 We're gonna do things our way. 14:24 Of course, that meant there was no point 14:26 to maintaining the social structure 14:28 that God had established, 14:29 a situation where every individual 14:31 essentially answered to God directly. 14:35 Now that they had demanded a gentile form of government, 14:37 there was no reason for them to have their own republic. 14:40 And I'm using the word republic quite deliberately 14:43 because that was the word 14:44 that 17th century English dissenters used 14:47 as they debated the idea 14:49 that God didn't intend for monarchies. 14:51 And those debates were part 14:53 of how the American Constitution was conceived. 14:57 Once God's people in Daniel's day became indistinguishable 15:00 from the other nations, God just gave them what they wanted 15:04 and from that moment forward, 15:05 they had to live under the thumb 15:07 of pagan oppressors just like everybody else, 15:10 and their special protection was gone. 15:14 Then in Daniel 7, 15:15 we discovered that the only thing 15:17 that will ever fix the mess we live in 15:19 is a new kind of government, 15:21 one introduced by the divine intervention of the Creator. 15:25 Here's what it actually says in Daniel 7:14. 15:29 "Then to Him was given dominion 15:31 and glory in a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, 15:34 and languages should serve Him. 15:36 His dominion is an everlasting dominion, 15:38 which shall not pass away 15:40 and His Kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed." 15:44 Turns out, the Bible raises the same questions 15:47 the pagan philosophers did. 15:49 What is the nature of evil and suffering 15:51 and why do we have to live with it? 15:53 Why can't we seem to fix what's wrong with us? 15:57 There's a passage in the book of Romans 15:59 that I've read on this show many times, 16:00 but I'll read it one more time 16:02 because it's an amazing description of the internal struggle 16:05 that you and I have to live with. 16:07 It was written by Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles, 16:11 a man you would think would feel some kind of sense 16:13 of accomplishment for all he did, 16:16 maybe even a sense of moral perfection. 16:18 But instead, he struggled with the evil 16:21 that lurked in his heart. 16:22 He writes, "For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, 16:26 nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, 16:30 but how to perform what is good, I do not find. 16:33 For the good that I will to do, 16:35 I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 16:39 Now, if I do what I will not to do, 16:41 it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells in me. 16:44 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, 16:47 the one who wills to do good, 16:49 for I delight in the law of God 16:51 according to the inward man." 16:54 Now, that might seem familiar to you. 16:56 Most of us understand 16:57 if we haven't been desensitized, right? 16:59 If we haven't ruined our moral compass by abusing it, 17:02 that we should be a lot better than we actually are. 17:06 To varying degrees, we recognize the difference 17:08 between good and evil. 17:09 And once we see that 17:11 and we understand our role in it, 17:13 we begin to present the evil that we produce. 17:16 But our attempts to fix it, 17:18 our attempts to correct the darkness never work. 17:20 And so Paul writes this, "O, wretched man that I am! 17:24 Who will deliver me from this body of death?" 17:27 Okay, we're gonna have to take another quick break 17:29 because it's not just the evil in my heart 17:31 that can't be controlled, it's also the clock on the wall 17:35 and the violation of timelines on TV 17:37 or radio also cannot be fixed. 17:39 So let me do the right thing 17:41 and I'll come right back after this. 17:46 [upbeat music] 17:47 - [Narrator] Here at the Voice of Prophecy, 17:48 we're committed to creating top quality programming 17:50 for the whole family, 17:52 like our audio adventure series: Discovery Mountain. 17:55 Discovery Mountain is a bible-based program 17:57 for kids of all ages and backgrounds. 18:00 Your family will enjoy the faith-building stories 18:02 from this small mountain summer camp and town, 18:05 with 24 seasonal episodes every year 18:08 and fresh content every week. 18:10 There's always a new adventure just on the horizon. 18:16 - A little while ago, I was reading a 19th century author 18:19 who suggested that one of the very worst moments 18:21 that life has to offer 18:23 is when you see your own negative traits 18:25 coming out of your child. 18:28 It turns out it's not just you and me 18:30 who are morally compromised, but our kids are too. 18:33 And it's frustrating because if we can't control ourselves, 18:36 how are we supposed to correct it 18:38 when it shows up in our kids? 18:40 The longer you live, the more you realize 18:42 that you are a part of the problem. 18:44 It is not just everybody else, 18:47 which brings us to the Bible's explanation 18:50 of sin and repentance. 18:51 Just before the break, we left Paul mourning 18:53 over the sinful thoughts and deeds he couldn't seem to stop, 18:56 and he suddenly wails, "O, wretched man that I am! 18:59 Who will deliver me from this body of death?" 19:02 And here's the solution he comes up with. 19:05 "I thank God-through Jesus Christ, our Lord." 19:10 What he's suggesting is that the solution 19:12 to my wickedness is the same solution 19:14 that Daniel witnessed for the world's wickedness 19:17 and it's Christ where you and I fail to exhibit 19:20 the image of God, where you and I fall short 19:22 of the glory of God, 19:24 the spotless Son of God offers, to stand in your place. 19:29 Paul refers to Christ as a last Adam, 19:31 and that's because Jesus was a replacement 19:33 for the first Adam, the man who blew it. 19:37 So God and human flesh is now a perfect human being, 19:41 and because of that, he's earned the right 19:43 to stand at the head of the human race. 19:45 And at that point, 19:47 to use the language of the Bible, he offers to adopt us. 19:51 "For you did not receive the spirit 19:52 of bondage again to fear," Paul writes, 19:55 "but you received the Spirit of adoption 19:57 by whom we cry out Abba, Father!" 20:00 To the church of Ephesus, Paul wrote, 20:02 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 20:05 who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing 20:07 in the heavenly places in Christ, 20:10 just as He chose us in Him 20:12 before the foundation of the world, 20:14 that we should be holy and without blame 20:16 before Him in love, having predestined us 20:19 to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, 20:24 according to the good pleasure of His will, 20:26 to the praise of the glory of His grace, 20:29 by which he made us accepted in the Beloved." 20:33 Now, I have no idea if it's still on the air 20:35 because I actually don't have cable, 20:36 but you might remember a program on ABC 20:39 called "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" with Ty Pennington. 20:43 The premise was that they were gonna make tweaks 20:45 to existing homes in order to make more livable, you know, 20:48 minor modifications, 20:50 but then a surprising number of times, 20:52 they seemed to just bulldoze the house and then rebuild it. 20:55 So one day, I'm watching this, 20:57 and it occurs to me that 20:59 that's the way the Bible describes 21:00 the problem with humanity. 21:02 You and I typically expend a lot of effort 21:04 trying to paint over our serious moral flaws, 21:06 even throwing a second coat on it, 21:09 if it doesn't seem to go away, 21:11 but it never fixes it. 21:13 That's because our moral flaws run far too deep 21:16 to be solved by a coat of paint. 21:19 Evil is not just an aesthetic problem, 21:21 it's a structural problem. 21:24 If the foundation of a house continues to shift, 21:27 patching the cracks in the wall 21:28 is going to become a never-ending job. 21:31 What we really need is a brand new structure, 21:34 a new foundation, which is what the Bible teaches. 21:38 From the biblical perspective, 21:39 sin is not just a list of dos and don'ts. 21:41 It's a much deeper problem. 21:43 Sin is not just what you do, it's actually who you are. 21:49 So let's say you have a robotic arm 21:50 in a factory that starts to malfunction. 21:52 It's drilling holes in the wrong places 21:55 in some product because its ability 21:57 to do accurate math has been compromised somehow. 22:00 So as a programmer, it occurs to you 22:02 that this robot has all the tools it needs to fix itself. 22:05 You're just gonna tell it to adjust, 22:07 move the hole it typically drills 22:09 in some product three millimeters to the left, 22:12 and that should solve the problem, 22:14 but it doesn't, because the real problem 22:16 is that the whole program is wrong. 22:18 The robot had bad instructions 22:20 that compromised its capacity, 22:22 and it has no idea what three millimeters even looks like. 22:27 Unless you fix the core problem, 22:29 it's gonna continue to make the same mistakes. 22:32 Now, what's interesting is how the word 22:34 that's usually translated 22:35 as sin in the New Testament 22:36 literally means missing the mark. 22:40 You might be trying to live a good and moral life, 22:42 but you're never gonna score a bullseye 22:44 as long as the fundamental problem continues to be there. 22:48 That's what the Bible means when it says 22:50 that you and I fall short of the glory of God. 22:52 We might be trying, but we're never gonna hit the mark 22:56 unless something radical, something fundamental changes. 23:00 And now I've gotta take one last break, 23:02 so that I don't miss the mark. 23:03 I'll be right back after this. 23:08 [upbeat music] 23:10 - [Narrator] Dragons, beasts, cryptic statues; 23:14 Bible prophecy can be incredibly vivid and confusing. 23:18 If you've ever read Daniel and Revelation 23:20 and come away scratching your head, you are not alone. 23:23 Our free focus on prophecy guides 23:26 are designed to help you unlock the mysteries of the Bible 23:29 and deepen your understanding of God's plan for you 23:32 and our world. 23:33 Study online or request them by mail 23:35 and start bringing prophecy into focus today. 23:39 - Just as in the book of Daniel, 23:40 the book of Ezekiel was written 23:42 during the Babylonian captivity 23:44 and at one point, this is what God says 23:47 to his wayward people. 23:48 Listen to this. 23:50 "For I will take you from among the nations, 23:53 gather you out of all countries 23:54 and bring you into your own land. 23:57 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you 23:59 and you shall be clean. 24:00 I will cleanse you from all your filthiness 24:02 and from all your idols. 24:04 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. 24:08 I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh 24:10 and give you a heart of flesh. 24:12 I will put My Spirit within you 24:14 and cause you to walk in My statutes 24:17 and you will keep My judgments and do them." 24:22 What we really need, according to the words of the Bible, 24:25 is a change of heart. 24:27 But before that could happen, 24:28 we have to admit that our tragic flaw 24:31 is real and that it's deadly. 24:33 It's killing us. 24:35 We've become experts at blaming God 24:37 for the state of this world, 24:39 while ignoring our own contribution to it. 24:42 And until we can admit that we are the actual problem, 24:45 the situation is never going to change. 24:49 The biggest thing that stands in the way 24:51 of that happening is pride, 24:53 because admitting you're broken can be difficult, 24:57 especially if we've been pushing the evil in our own hearts 25:00 down behind some kind of moral blind spot 25:04 so that we don't have to look at them anymore. 25:06 And it's a very real struggle 25:09 because, well, God has given us the gift of freedom. 25:13 We are free, moral agents 25:15 who actually have been given the power to choose. 25:19 It's the way that a God of love has designed this place. 25:22 This is why Paul continued to struggle with his own evil. 25:25 And we're talking the apostle. 25:27 He struggles with it after his conversion. 25:31 And this is the reason you often see church people 25:34 point their finger at everybody else 25:37 instead of dealing with their own problems. 25:39 I mean, just try to imagine a church 25:42 where everybody accepts the notion, 25:44 the idea, I am the problem here, not everybody else. 25:49 Now, sadly, that doesn't happen very often. 25:51 It's rare, because, well, church people also have pride 25:55 and sometimes, unfortunately, more than other people. 25:59 And pride is the original problem, 26:01 the original sin that gave birth to all the other problems. 26:06 Maybe the strongest illustration the Bible has 26:09 for our need to surrender 26:11 and our hesitation to do it 26:13 is a guy by the name of Naaman the Syrian. 26:16 He was a military commander 26:18 who found himself infected with leprosy, 26:21 which, of course, is a completely incurable disease, 26:24 or was at the time. 26:26 When the prophet of God informs this man 26:28 that the cure for his leprosy 26:30 is to bathe in the Jordan River seven times, 26:33 he was completely insulted. 26:35 The Jordan was this muddy little creek, 26:38 and a man of his stature 26:40 should be bathing in a much nicer place. 26:44 But you know, there was nothing magical 26:45 about that Jordan River water. 26:48 The whole thing was just a challenge to his pride. 26:51 He had to humble himself in order to be cured 26:55 of his deep-seated problem. 26:58 So maybe you're one of those people 26:59 who has come to realize that it's not just everybody else. 27:02 It's not just other people. 27:04 You've been contributing to the mess in this world 27:07 because you also have very serious character flaws. 27:10 The longer you live, the more obvious that becomes. 27:14 Our pride tends to convince us 27:16 that we should assert our flaws and treasure them. 27:19 Just live them out. 27:20 Follow your instincts. 27:21 Just relabel those instincts as something positive. 27:25 But what you might need to do is swallow your pride 27:29 and take an honest look at this book. 27:31 Maybe, just maybe, the real answer can be found here, 27:36 with a God who had no problem humbling himself 27:40 if it meant he could save you. 27:42 I'm Shawn Boonstra. 27:43 Thanks for watching. 27:44 This has been another episode of Authentic. 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Revised 2024-04-03