We'll dismiss our kiddos to children's ministry. There's one special group of kids that gets to hang out with Wes and Angela today, so you're gonna have a lot of fun. Sometimes, sometimes they get a little loud. They're the only children's ministry leaders that we can hear from up here sometimes. It's usually Wesley.
Well, if you want to open your Bibles to the book of Matthew chapter 1, we're continuing in this series we began last week where we're examining the life of Joseph. In a very limited number of verses, we see some information about Joseph that is just too good to pass up. I want to press into this. I think I gave a list last week of these, these balancing acts that Joseph maintained through the help of God in his most chaotic and traumatic time. And I think last week I said that I would talk about this idea of having awareness without anxiety, and I will cover that, but I want to just maybe branch that out a little bit bigger and just talk about how the intellect without intellectual pride is this overarching balancing act. How to use your mind without being used by your mind might be another way to discuss this.
Over Thanksgiving, I did some studying on human cognition just because I was interested in it. And my goodness, what an amazing thing the brain is. I'm reading all of this stuff that's mostly Darwinian in root, but I'm thinking from a creationist perspective and I'm thinking what an amazing piece of technology the human mind is, this technology that creates technology. Here's some things I learned. I learned about theory of mind. I didn't know about this before, but this is an essential development in cognitive process where a human being begins to be aware that other people have brains and that they are thinking things that are not the same things that you're thinking. And this is when kids develop this at a young age, they begin to realize, and this is unique to human beings, other animals don't have this capacity, to think that the other person is thinking and to somehow inhabit in some way or another that other person's mind to think of, but to realize that you're seeing a different reality than I am right now, that you're having thoughts that I'm not having, that's not something that animals possess. This idea of future modeling, especially in the right hemisphere of the brain, this capacity to build worlds, right? So you have this capacity to build worlds inside your head of future outcomes, of future conditions, and make plans in present time about future worlds, considering all the variables that will come into that. So you have this capacity to imagine, to build these hypothetical worlds in your head, and sort of make choices based on what you think the future is going to look like. Again, something that only human beings have. We're unique in the sense that 20% of our metabolism goes to maintaining our brains. So 20% of all the calories you eat in a day— well, not all the calories you eat in a day, eat in a day, all the calories you should eat in a day, all the calories you need to eat in a day go to caloric expenditure of the brain. And the brain is unique in that when you're under stress and in particular kinds of danger or perceived danger, there is a priority of the brain where you actually get increased blood flow to the brain under stressful times. So your brain actually goes to work for you stronger, but not necessarily stronger during stressful times.
So these are Marvelous tools. Like I said, amazing technology, if you want to call it that, that God created. A technology that has created all the technology you see. But it is also, because it is marvelous, because it is glorious, it is also quite in danger of being hijacked by sin.
Indeed, the story in Genesis 3 has this component of intellectual hijacking rooted right in the middle of the fall. You know, Eve is using her mind to perceive the sensory input she's receiving about the fruit, right? She sees that it is good, that it's good to eat, that it has the capacity to make one wise. And then the consequences of sin after she partakes of the fruit are intellectual in nature as well. They knew that they were naked, right? They begin to lie, they begin to hide. So this marvelous thing that God created has great capacity for good or for for harm.
For instance, this theory of mind, this idea that we understand that everybody here has their own brain and their own perceptions and their own way of thinking through things and their own perception of reality in this moment. When you realize that you know that's happening, you can teach other people. Teaching requires this sort of theory of mind. I need to know that you don't see things exactly like I see them, or I need to know that you don't know what I know in order to tell you what I know. Otherwise, I'm just gonna assume that you know what I know. So this whole idea of teaching, what we're doing right now is an expression of this capacity called theory of mind. This idea that I know you don't know maybe what I know, and that I don't know what you know. But what happens when you're young and you develop this, this is the first sign that a child develops theory of mind, that their cognition is moving in the direction it should, is when they realize that other people can't see inside their head. They figure out that they can tell other people stories that will shape their perception of reality, and they begin to lie. Lying is a consequence of theory of mind. Once I realize that you don't know that I ate the cookies, I can tell you a story that makes someone else liable for eating the cookies. And when you're really young, you're bad at this. So, so you introduce improbables like a monster came into the house while you were in the bathroom and ate the cookies. But as you get older, you get better at this. And unfortunately, a major consequence of pride and sin hijacking this cognitive ability is that we learn how to lie. And lies become a dominant feature of how we deal with other people, even how we deal with ourselves.
6 · Illustrates future modeling's corruption in two opposite directions: presumption/boasting (thinking you control the future) and paralyzing worry (thinking no one controls the future)
You know, future modeling, this capacity that we have to imagine the future and to kind of make plans for how things are going to play out. Again, a tremendous gift, but because of pride, because of sin, we turn this capacity for future modeling into sinful things. For instance, Some of you will presume upon the future, right? You'll say, 'I have all that I need, my barns are full, so I'll eat and drink and be merry.' You'll presume, you'll boast about tomorrow. You'll presume that the choices that you've made today have assured a secure future. So sin is taking your capacity to think about the future and twisting it to make you think that you're in control. Right? Well, if you think about it, this theory of mind thing can go that direction to where you're boasting about tomorrow. But it can also go in the exact opposite direction where you're worrying about tomorrow. So in that case, the mental trick is that the way that sin and pride hijack isn't to say that you've got everything in control tomorrow. It says that you have nothing in control for tomorrow and that no one has anything in control for tomorrow. And you become crippled by worry and anxiety.
7 · Synthesizes the preceding illustrations into a theological claim: the depth of God's gifts reveals the depth of our sin—we turn the mind into a false god
In these deep cognitive processes that we have that God created, we also find the depth of our sin. We see that even at these deep, marvelous things that God has given us, we can turn them into means of lying, we can turn them into means of boasting, we can turn them into means of worrying. That's what we're gonna talk about today. We're gonna talk about how we use our minds to the glory of God and not be used by our minds. Human beings are such prideful creatures that we take the very best things we're given— this is just the most assured thing you can bet on— we take the very best things we're given and we make them gods. And there's no greater god, greater false god, that human beings worship than their own mind, their own perceptions, their own way of seeing things.
8 · Directly addresses a potential objection or misunderstanding—that Christianity is anti-intellectual
Now, These days you'll hear intellectuals say that Christianity is anti-intellectual, that Christianity is a suppression of the mind, but I just want to make this clear. I won't have time to get into it too much. Christianity is not anti-intellectual, but Christianity is very anti-intellectual pride. And for the majority of so-called intellectuals in the world, intellectual pride has been mistaken as intellectualism. They think that God is opposing their intellect. He's not opposing their intellect. He's opposing their belief that their intellect is ultimate. He's opposing intellectual pride. And in the academy and other places where the mind is kind of risen to preeminence, intellectual pride, they don't even see it as that. They see intellectual pride as intellectualism, which is not the case.
9 · Pivots from the extended introduction on cognitive science and sin back to the biblical text and the sermon's protagonist
Now, how does this all have to do with Joseph?
10 · Zooms into Matthew 1:20's opening phrase 'he considered these things,' explaining the Greek root thumos to reveal Joseph's intense cognitive struggle—fierce mental effort in processing what appears to be an insolvable crisis
Well, if you look at your text, Matthew 1:20, we see Joseph doing what? Let's just pause at the first phrase. But as he considered these things, as he considered these things. Now, if you weren't here last week, we're kind of playing a bit of a game here, and we're imagining what Joseph went through when he did not know the end of the story. We're entering into Joseph's moments when he believed there could possibly be no other explanation for his wife being pregnant other than that she cheated on him. And we're thinking about how Joseph processed that information in that moment. So we don't skip ahead because we know the ending. We enter in with Joseph into this moment, and in this moment he's considering these things. Now the Greek root Behind this word considering is the word thumos, and it just means passion, breathing hard, fierceness. And it's applying here to his cognitive processing. Joseph is putting in serious mental effort into what he sees as the worst day of his life, the worst news of his life, an insolvable problem.
11 · Applies the cognitive science framework to Joseph's situation—he's using theory of mind (What was she thinking? What are others thinking?), future modeling (What comes next?), while his nervous system floods with stress hormones
I mean, think about it, Joseph's probably working his theory of mind cognitive capacities. He's probably asking, 'What was she thinking? Why would she do this? What are other people thinking?' He's probably future modeling. He's probably thinking, 'What comes next? How do I resolve this situation? Will I find another wife in the future? What are all the variables that I can control and turn this into something that is somewhat redeemable?' And then he's also probably just got a bunch of stress hormones and his nervous system is probably pumping really good right now. Imagine that you found out that the person you were engaged to has been cheating on you. Just imagine that for a minute. Imagine what your body is doing in that moment. What's your body doing? What's your heart rate like in that moment? How is your nervous system reacting? What are— are there thoughts that are just rapid cycling in your brain, right? Of course there are. This is a trauma. Your brain has experienced a trauma. Your mind in that moment is forced to assimilate a new reality you did not see coming. Your body's on high alert, your blood pressure's up, everything's pumping. And this is where Joseph is. Hidden behind this word 'considered these things' is the reality of this man He's got a brain and he's trying to use it to grasp on to this new reality that he never saw coming. And he's entirely overwhelmed.
12 · Clarifies that Joseph may not be sinning in this moment of cognitive struggle, but he is in imminent danger of being used by his mind because his brain is telling him it's the best tool available
Each one of these cognitive functions I've talked about are so easily hijacked by sin. I don't think, I don't know, that Joseph is sinning right now. I don't know if he's sinfully worrying right now. I don't know if he's sinfully assigning blame right now. I don't know if it's crossed into the threshold of anxiety or not. I can't know any of that, but what I can tell you is because he's using this marvelous thing called his mind, he is in imminent danger of being used by his mind. Because in this moment, his brain is telling him that his mind is the best shot he's got.
13 · States the sermon's core problem plainly: the mind is the best tool we have, which means if we rely solely on it, we're in trouble
You know, I came to realize as I studied this issue that the mind is the best tool we have. That means some of us are in a lot of trouble. This message is basically about not leaning solely on your own understanding. This message is basically about using your brain without turning your brain into the ultimate tool in your toolbox, because there's one bigger and you need it.
14 · Expounds the intervention in Matthew 1:20—an angel appears to Joseph in a dream
What happens next? What happens next in the midst of Joseph's cognitive rapid firing. Well, as he considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. Don't get sidetracked by the unusuals, the things that may not apply in your experience. Don't get sidetracked by the dream or the angel. Understand the basic pattern, which is to say in general terms that as Joseph's mind is in danger of running away from him, God runs up beside him with his word and he puts a rein on those potentially wild horses and he says, 'Here's what you can't see.' That's what's happening in this text. Beyond the dream, beyond the angel, what you have is a man deep in thought, struggling to understand his reality, this new reality, in danger of all kinds of intellectual sins and you have God intervening with His mind. You have the mind of God stepping right up into the limitations of the mind of man.
15 · Generalizes the Joseph pattern to 'overthinking texts' across Scripture—passages that command using your mind without crossing into worry or anxiety
And that pattern is consistent across all these overthinking texts, I call them. You know, these texts in Scripture that say, use your mind, but don't use it to the point where you begin to worry. Don't use it to the point where you're anxious. Think through things, But there has to be a terminus where you say, my brain can't go any further. What do I trust instead?
16 · Illustrates the wrong way to handle cognitive overload—a young pastor turned to bourbon every night to shut off his higher brain functions
See, I have a pastor that has a friend. I have a pastor friend that's got a pastor friend. And this guy was young and his church just grew, just exploded. And he's suddenly this young guy and he's managing this enormous responsibility. And there are so many open-ended questions, and he's working theory of mind, and he's working future modeling, and he's seeing all of these variables enter his life that he never thought he'd ever have to deal with. And he figures out a simple way to shut all that off. A bottle of bourbon every night when he gets home. And that bottle of bourbon turned those higher functioning parts of his brain off. And the future didn't matter anymore, for at least as long as that bottle lasted. And he didn't have to worry about what he was going to do next because his brain didn't process that way anymore. And he chose, instead of fighting the fight— we'll talk about fighting intellectually in a minute— instead of fighting with God intellectually, he just chose a bottle of bourbon. And friends, That's just one way we do it. We distract ourselves with TV. We empty ourselves out into exercise. I was talking to someone the other day, people that don't go to our church, and he's struggling with anxiety and just thinking through all the things that he's got going on. And his wife kindly says, 'You need a hobby.' And I'm thinking, it's got to be some hobby. Because building dollhouses isn't going to fix what this guy's got.
17 · Claims that God did not give us higher cognitive functions to be turned off through distraction, but to be used to meet Him
You know, we think that we're going to be able to distract ourselves from these higher functions of our brain, but that's not what God made us for. God didn't make us with these higher functions so that we could turn them off. He made them so that we could use them and meet God in them. And that's where we see Joseph. He's considering these things, he's having the worst day of his life, but he gets the mercy of God to step into this moment where he's in danger of overthinking. And God says, here's what you don't see.
18 · States the sermon's thesis plainly: use your mind fully, but don't confuse it with God's mind
So the basic gist of this message is this: the mind is a great thing, use it, wear that puppy out. But don't confuse your mind with the mind of God. Your brain is pretty great, but it's not God. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.
19 · Identifies the Joseph story as a narrative instantiation of a pattern found throughout Scripture: the mind being subordinated and humbled in the presence of God's mind
In this story, the Joseph story, in narrative form, we just see this basic pattern that we see all over Scripture of how the mind becomes subordinated, humbled, and in the presence of God's mind. And this is a pattern you can see all throughout Scripture.
20 · Re-expounds Joseph's situation in verse 20 with emphasis on him hitting the wall of his own understanding
In verse 20, we see he's thinking, he's having the worst day possible, the foundations of his life are shaking, he is a public spectacle. Think of all the variables he's got to manage with this new information. His fiancée has been found pregnant, seemingly from another man. He's thinking about all this. He's not doing anything wrong. He's doing the best he can. He's using the best tool he has, and it's a marvelous tool. He's mentally entering into the chaos, he's wrestling with it, he's trying to understand, he's trying to think about how to proceed, and he keeps hitting the wall of his own limited understanding. What do you do when you keep hitting the wall of your own understanding and you come to this realization that My goodness, I don't even control my next heartbeat. Or you realize, yeah, I've made a lot of wise choices in my life and they've set me in a place that seems secure, but that security is what ultimately, considering all the variables outside of my control? What do you do when you slam up against the limitations of your mind? Well, you could lie to yourself and you could say, this is the best thing I've got. Or you could say, is there anything bigger than me? Anyone who knows more than I know?
21 · Reads and expounds Matthew 1:20-21, emphasizing how completely opposite God's word is to Joseph's expectations—the virgin birth was not on his list of possible explanations
And mercifully, in this case, God intervenes into Joseph's cognitive functions. Verse 20, again, as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife. Completely the opposite of what he was about to do. He didn't see this coming at all. For that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. There is no way that was on his list of possible explanations. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. So through an angel, God brings his word to Joseph. He connects his mind. It's like It's like Joseph's freight train full of worry, and the engine of God's Word and power backs up and couples into Joseph's mind and says, 'I got this.'
22 · Identifies the three-part pattern God uses when His mind couples with ours: (1) This is the way things really are, (2) This is where the future is headed, (3) This is what you need to do about it
Through an angel, God communicates His Word to Joseph. And here's just some basic patterns of what we see in Scripture when our mind gets coupled with God's mind and we allow Him to think in the things that we can't think about, which is like the future and other people and millions of other things. He comes and says, 'This is the way things really are.' This is one of the things God's word does for you. When your brain is slamming up against the wall of its own limitations and you can't see what really is happening, God's word comes and says, 'This is the way things really are.' Then he says, 'This is where the future is headed.' Again, something you can't know. And then he says, and this is what you need to do about it. Well, that's basically the recipe for one more day of peace, right? One more day of peace. This is what's real. This is where we're headed. And this is what you should do. And that's what we get when we couple our brain, our limited brain, to God's. He says, this is the way things really are. Mary was not unfaithful to you. This is where the future is headed. This child is going to be the Christ, and this is what you need to do about it. Marry the girl. Marry her.
23 · Humorous imagined dialogue between Joseph and the angel about 'Merry Christmas' referencing the wrong Mary
I was thinking my imaginary conversation with Joseph and the angel. The angel says, marry Mary, and one day people will say Merry Christmas as a result of this event. And Joseph says, is that because they're celebrating Mary? And he said, the angel says, no, it's a different Mary. He says, oh, is that because we got married? He's like, no, it's the other Mary.
24 · Synthesizes the Joseph story into 'the basic architecture of what we're supposed to do with our brains'—use the mind but allow it to meet God's mind
So what I want you to see is that in this story is the basic architecture of what we're supposed to do with our brains. Was that like a delayed getting it? Alright, okay, okay. I want you to see that there's a basic architecture in this story that's just like, what do you do with your brain? Use it. But allow it to meet God's brain, God's mind. This is really just this pattern we see. There's 3 ways I can, I put it up on a slide for you, 3 different ways to think about this. It's just all saying the same thing. Cognition unto conversation with God, worry unto the word of God, pondering unto the promises of God. And I could probably do some more alliterations if you'd like me to. But the idea is simple. We go there, we use our intellect, but we understand there is a limitation of how far we can go. And our intellect is made to lead us into an interface with the intellect of God.
25 · Uses technology adapter analogy to illustrate that the higher functions of the brain are designed as an interface for communication with God
You know, you've ever gone through that frustrating realization that you don't have the right adapter for whatever you're trying to charge, or that you can't get this computer to talk to this printer because you don't have the right cable. This higher function of your brain was created by God for you to communicate with God. He's giving you the capacity to see your limitations. No other animal sees them. No other animal is aware of them. He's given you this capacity. It's an interface. He's given you the ability to turn these higher functionings of your brain into conversation with God.
26 · Clarifies that cognitive capacities (future modeling, theory of mind) are not enemies—they become enemies only when relied on as ultimate sources of truth
These things are not our enemies. Thinking about the future, modeling the future, thinking about other people's what they're thinking. These aren't our enemies, as long as we don't rely on them as our ultimate source of information and truth. Then they're our enemies. But when we say, 'These things are here for me to have a relationship with the God of the universe,' cool things happen.
27 · Illustrates through personal address ('Chris') how God's word interacts with various cognitive distortions—seeing chaos when God is in control, seeing false security, misjudging others' sin, blaming God for evil
So what we do is we allow God's word to enter into our cognitive processes, and we hear God say things like this: Chris, your mind right now sees chaos. Your pattern recognition is not working for you. You don't see any cause that makes any sense. But I am really in control. Do not fear. It says, Chris, you see security that you've built with a number of wise choices, but if you really thought about it, you'd realize that your next heartbeat is outside of your control. Don't boast about tomorrow. Say, 'Chris, you see someone else's sin, but you've got it all wrong. Either they didn't sin like you thought they did, or you've got the whole story wrong. You don't understand how difficult it was,' and so on and so forth. Be merciful. Says, 'Chris, you're angry with the problem of evil, but you're wrong in blaming me because I'm good,' and so on and so forth. God interacts with these thoughts and He helps us.
28 · Restates the core claim with emphasis: think, but don't be fooled into thinking your thinking is ultimate
Now, by all means think, but don't be fooled into thinking that your thinking is the best access, the best kind of thinking you have access to. I'll say that again. By all means think, but don't be fooled into thinking that your thinking is the best thinking that's ever been thought. Your mind just has extreme limitations. Your perceptions are not ultimate. You are probably wrong at a number of levels about how you're perceiving even this moment. But there is someone who sees, and there is someone who sees perfectly, and he is not hiding himself from you. He has called you to be his child. He's called you into conversation. He's called you into relationship.
29 · Transitions from Joseph (innocent victim) to Jacob (guilty schemer) to show that the pattern applies both when mental anguish is imposed and when it's self-created
Now, with Joseph, we have a kind of a heroic version of this. There's nothing here that suggests that Joseph was to blame for any of this. This is all sprung on him, which is nice. I like a good hero story, but I don't necessarily know how to relate to that moment because much of the time my mental anguish is self-imposed. Much of the time I have created a problem, and I'm— I've created a problem perhaps with my own mind, and I'm in a place where now I'm like, well, what do I do? And I try to solve the problem I've created with my mind with my mind. So I want to tell you about another story in the Old Testament about a guy named Jacob.
30 · Narrates Jacob's story—he used his agile mind (future modeling, theory of mind) to scheme and steal Esau's birthright
Jacob had an agile mind. He really did the whole future modeling and theory of mind thing really well. And he used it to scheme and extort his dumb older brother. Named Esau. Jacob extorted him, he lied, he tricked him, he'd taken Esau's birthright and his blessing, and naturally Esau the hunter is furious and bent on revenge. So here's the deal: Jacob uses his brain wrongly, he is forced to flee his homeland, he's in the wilderness, which in the Bible is kind of the place of worry, the place of uncertainty, the place of darkness, He has the birthright, but his plan has backfired because he can't be home to enjoy it. His brother the hunter isn't gonna let him live. So he has the birthright, but he has no homeland. He's used his brain wrongly, and now he's in the desert suffering, thinking of all the chaos that is about to come on his head. Huge uncertainties. He'd used his mind for evil, and And now all of these consequences were outside of his control.
31 · Applies Jacob's self-created suffering directly to the congregation—you've probably thought yourself into a hole, trained your brain for evil (sexual sin, lying, manipulation)
Friends, you've probably thought yourself into a hole once or twice in your life. You've probably used your mind for evil and not for good. You've probably trained your brain to go to dark places once or twice. Anything like a sexual sin, anything like a habit of lying, anything like potentially just manipulation in your marriage, whatever, these are things you've trained your brain to do. These are holes you've dug with your own sinful use of this marvelous tool that God has given you.
32 · Narrates Genesis 28—Jacob in the wilderness, guilty and worried, falls asleep and dreams
So now let's join Jacob in the wilderness. He is in the chaos that he created with his own sinful use of his mind. And he falls asleep, just like Joseph did, and God appears to him in a dream, just like Joseph. But in this dream, he sees a ladder descending from heaven. This is a guilty man. This is a, a worried man. This is a man who deserves some harsh consequences. And he falls asleep, and God shows him a ladder descending from heaven. That's the connection between heaven and earth, right? It's the It's the connection of the God who sees is present with you. The God who can control the future is present in your current moment. The known and the unknown, the finite and the infinite. Jacob sees this. He sees that God is working his heavenly power to help even him.
33 · Quotes Genesis 28:13-15 where God speaks to Jacob, promising presence, protection, and future return
And in this dream, God speaks to him saying, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. And he says, behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you. Right, we see the brain spinning its wheels, can't get traction. His capacity for mental cleverness is fully limited out. And God comes to him in this place of anxiety and says, this is the way things really are. This is what you can't see, and this is what you need to do today. This is what comes next.
34 · Narrates Jacob's second wilderness encounter years later (Genesis 32)—returning home to face Esau, alone at night, anxious
Now the story's not over. A number of chapters later, a number of years later, Jacob— it's time for Jacob to go home. And then going home, it's time for him to meet You know who. He knows he can't get around this. His mind has spun all these terrible things, and he feels like, now I have to go home and face the consequences, and Esau's gonna kill me. He's again alone in the wilderness at night. More anxiety, more uncertainty, and this time he wrestles with God, and he's blessed by God. At the end of this wrestling, and he's given the name Israel. What does the name Israel mean? It means contends with God, wrestles with God, but it also means rules with God.
35 · Theologizes the Israel name—the goal is to stop wrestling with ourselves and start wrestling with God
And that's all we're trying to get to, right? What we're trying to say, what we're trying to see happen in our lives, is that our brains stop wrestling with themselves and they start wrestling with God. And if we'll allow our cognitive functions to couple up with the mind of God, if we'll subordinate our brains to the Bible, we'll wrestle, we'll struggle, we'll get our mind in a kind of wrestling match with the God of the universe. And that's exactly where we want to be. That's the place of blessing. This name Israel isn't just wrestle with God, it's rule with God. And friends, that's how we actually become who God's called us to be, is we don't leave our thinking, we don't make our thinking and our minds and our perceptions the ultimate arbiter of reality. We wrestle with God's perceptions, we wrestle with God's Word, and not only do we struggle with Him mentally, but we reign with Him because it finally clicks one day. This is the way things are. This is how the future is going. This is what you need to do. And we reign with him. Suddenly our minds and his mind are not as enmity-filled as they once were. And suddenly this struggle with God pays off.
36 · Issues the core application command in repetitive form: use your mind to talk to God, listen to God, contend with God
So use your mind to talk to God. Use your mind to talk to God. Use your mind to listen to God. Use your mind to talk to God. Use your mind to contend with God. Philippians 4:6, do not be anxious with anything about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
37 · Personal story—grew up wrestling with father and brother who outweighed him by 100 pounds
You know, I grew up wrestling every day, my dad and my brother. My little brother. And it was just so much fun. And he was way stronger than me, and I was— he way outweighed me, had 100 pounds on me at least. And we would wrestle just about every time I saw him. Now, I didn't see him every day necessarily, but every time we were together, we would wrestle. And he would not show me any— well, he probably did show me mercy, but I didn't think he did. Well, those years went by. I went to high school. And I got in trouble for talking about this one time before, but I got in a fight, a real playground fight, freshman year of high school. And I wrestled the guy, just instinctively I wrestled the guy. And I won the fight. And the wrestling coach, who used to be an NFL lineman, he saw me, he broke up the fight. And he told me, come wrestle for me. So I did, I joined the wrestling team. And I was pretty good. I was way better than anybody else my age. Way better. And I didn't really understand why I was better. And then I realized all these years I'd been wrestling with my father, who had 100 pounds on me and who was smarter than me and had better motor functions than I did. And now I was wrestling people that were my age. And my weight, and I was pretty good.
38 · Applies the wrestling illustration—people who have wrestled with God (not just with themselves) have gravitas and centeredness
Friends, there's a certain kind of person with a certain kind of gravitas, a certain kind of centeredness, and you meet these people and you realize, oh, you've wrestled with God. Oh, you've had some hard mental things to deal with. You've walked into some darkness, some uncertainty, and you've wrestled with God. And there's a stability and a centeredness about you because you didn't just wrestle with yourself. You didn't just let your mind be this sort of ultimate arbiter. You brought your mind and your perceptions to God and said, 'Let's go. Pull me in. Embrace me. Toss me around if you need to.' Let's do this together.
39 · Identifies the Psalms as the biblical training manual for cognitive wrestling—the book that teaches you how to bring your brain into contact with God's mind in father-son wrestling
Well, that's the cognitive struggle that typifies the book of Psalms. If you want to know what the Psalms— like, well, there's many things the Psalms are meant to do for you, but the Psalms are meant to train you how to wrestle. The Psalms are meant to train you how to bring your brain into the mind of God and do father-son wrestling.
40 · Summarizes the basic architecture again—whatever cognitive dysfunction (anxiety, worry, boasting), bring it into the Word, lock arms with God, figure it out with Him
Now, this is just like— this is just kind of basic architecture of how we deal with anxiety or worry or boasting, a million other cognitive functions. We bring them into the Word of God, we lock arms with God, and we figure it out with him.
41 · Signals a major structural shift from the general pattern (mind meeting God's mind) to something more specific—a Christological turn
But there's something more specific that I want you to see. The general pattern is when you are locked in worry, encounter the Word. The general pattern is when you're pondering your problems, go to the promises of God. You know this. But the pattern gets more specific.
42 · Reveals the Christological dimension of Jacob's encounters—Jesus is the ladder in John 1; the wrestling opponent at Jabbok was a pre-incarnate theophany of Christ
In Jacob's experiences in the wilderness, Jesus Christ was preeminent. You realize that? He didn't necessarily know this entirely, but we know later that Jesus says in John 1 that he is that ladder. He is the ladder that connects heaven and earth. He is the visible evidence of God's concern for this place, and he is the solution to the particular problems in your life. Later on, he wrestles with God. This is what theologians refer to as a pre-incarnate theophany. You should put that word on your refrigerator, teach it to your kids. Impress the relatives at Christmas. Yes, Jesus came, but there were pre-incarnate theophanies where Jesus came before he came. There are moments where Jesus appears in the Old Testament. Those are called pre-incarnate theophanies. And that's who Jacob was wrestling with. He was wrestling with Christ.
43 · Applies the Christ-wrestling pattern directly—we need to bring our mental turmoil to Jesus and wrestle with Him
Boy, we could do with some Jesus wrestling. We could really do with some, I'm going to bring my mental turmoil to you and let's just roll. Let's just sort this out.
44 · Returns to Matthew 1:20-21, emphasizing that the answer to Joseph's mental turmoil was Jesus—something Joseph never would have guessed
Joseph's mental turmoil, Jacob's mental turmoil, it's more than just a generic trust God. It's a go to Christ. Go to the perfect mind. And by the way, the perfectly sympathetic mind. I want to talk to you— just, just throw this in there, you know, the Bible says all our promises are yes, all God's promises are yes in Jesus. But I want to, I want to show you that that's exactly where Joseph winds up, right? Verse 20 again: He considered these things. Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear 'Be not afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you will call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.' Now, never in a million years would Joseph think that the answer to his problem was Jesus. Okay, take that sentence and replace Joseph's name with your name. Because that's the way it is. Like, never in a million years would you think that the answer to your problem is Jesus. It's always the answer. It always winds up being the answer. And it, it may not make sense to you. It may be completely out of left field. You would never have any expectation that Jesus would be the answer to this particular problem. But that's the deal, man. That's the deal. Jesus is the answer to your problems.
45 · Transitions to the soteriological payoff—Jesus saves by offering righteousness for sin
Now it says that he will save his people from their sins. How will he save these people from their sins? Well, one of the things that Jesus does is he offers righteousness for sin, right? He offers righteousness, he takes sin. He offers righteousness, he receives sin on himself. So what we want to see Jesus do is we want to see Jesus engaging in intellectual humility and understand how that righteousness is given to us. Just real quickly, I want to talk about two ways that Jesus engages in mental humility. And one of those ways is really speculative, and I just want you to know that to begin with. But I want you to understand that Jesus' mind was never hijacked by pride, and Jesus never treated his mind as ultimate. Alright, I want you to see that.
46 · Speculative exposition—Joseph likely died before Jesus' public ministry, meaning Jesus experienced early loss of His father, became primary breadwinner, had to balance human capacity with divine calling, chose not to perform certain miracles, not to heal certain people
And the first one is just some speculation, but I want you to hear a little bit more about Joseph. So in my study of Joseph, all evidence points to the idea that Joseph died sometime before Jesus's public ministry. He's only mentioned in the biblical story of Jesus's childhood when Jesus was about 12 years old, is never mentioned again. Luke contains a prophecy around Jesus's birth that predicts that only Mary would experience the crucifixion, not Joseph. So it seems likely that Joseph died sometime between Jesus's 12th birthday and, well, his 13th birthday and his 30th year. Okay, so I want you to think about that for a minute. That means that Jesus would have experienced losing his earthly father at a young age. I was reading the story of Nietzsche, who is probably the most influential philosopher in modernity, famous for declaring himself the Antichrist, famous for saying God is dead. And the best account of what turned Nietzsche into Nietzsche was that he watched his pastor father, his happy pastor father, suffer from brain cancer for a year. And it turned him. Because his mental process said, my mind is ultimate, and what I just saw tells me that there is no God. Because this man who served God suffered. There is no God. It's likely that Jesus experienced the death of his father. It's also likely, therefore, that as firstborn, Jesus would have been in charge of leading his own household. He would have been the primary breadwinner. He would have thought about paying the bills. He would have thought about taking care of his family, probably at a time in which he was not necessarily prepared to do so. Had to get his younger brothers trained up at least. This means if he did experience his father's death, this means if he was the primary breadwinner, that there came a point where he had to decide to leave home as the primary breadwinner and leave his family under the care of his younger brothers. This means that it would have been very socially unlikely for him to do I can't do this. It would have been this moment we don't see, but we can imagine this moment and many moments where Jesus would have had to kind of balance what he could do with what God was calling him to do. Think of all the miracles Jesus didn't perform, all the people Jesus didn't heal, all the sermons Jesus didn't preach. This is a man who had to use his mind well, and we see him using his mind well, We also see Him having this mental humility that said, 'I see this, but I trust ultimately in what the Father sees.'
47 · Exposition of Gethsemane—Jesus' nervous system on high alert, sweating blood, future modeling the cross, asking 'Is there any other way?' Then submits: 'Not my will but thy will'—which is intellectual humility: not my mind but thy mind be ultimate
Now that's a lot of speculation, but let me give you one that's not speculation at all. He's in the garden. His nervous system is on high alert. His blood pressure is causing His capillaries to burst. He's sweating blood. There Jesus Christ, God of very God, who did not consider equality with God something to be grasped— he's in the garden, and Jesus's mind is future modeling. He says, is there any other way? Is there any other way? And then he says, not my will, but thy will be done. It's no stretch at all to say not Not my mind, but thy mind be ultimate.
48 · Theologizes the atonement specifically for intellectual sin—Jesus offers His perfect intellectual humility (using His mind without pride) as righteousness and takes our intellectual pride (lying, making perceptions ultimate) as sin
So Jesus is offering his perfectly righteous intellect, that humble intellect that looked at the most excruciating death, most excruciating separation from God, that saw that coming in the future and said, is there any other way? Is there any other way? Is there any other way? His mind is racing. Is there some other capacity And he says ultimately, in intellectual humility, I'm not gonna trust my mind as the ultimate source of truth. I'm gonna trust you, Father. So when Jesus goes to the cross, one of the many pieces of righteousness he has to offer on our behalf is the way he used his mind in perfect intellectual humility. Perfect intellect, perfect intellectual humility. And my goodness, my goodness, how the world would be a different place if our intellectuals were humble. He offers that up for you and me, and He doesn't only offer that up so that we like get credit for it, which is true. He offers up His righteousness in exchange for our sin. He takes all of our intellectual pride on Himself It takes all the times when we use our perceptions as ultimate. It takes all of our lying, all of the sinful use of our brains. He takes all of that on himself and he suffers for it. But he also offers up his perfect intellectual humility. He clears our guilt and through faith we now have access to the mind of Christ.
49 · Claims that because of Christ's work, wrestling with God is not abstract—we can literally put on the mind of Christ (Philippians 2)
So this concept of wrestling with God isn't abstract at all. We literally are promised that we can put on the mind of Christ. We're promised that, that our mind and Christ's mind are now, because of the work of Jesus, perfectly compatible. They can connect. The information can transmit. Philippians 2 says, have this mind among you which is yours in Christ Jesus. It's yours. If you're in Christ, you have access to the mind of God. 1 Peter 3:8 says, finally, all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Humble mind. A mind that says, I'm pretty good, but I'm not God. Not a false humility that says, well, I can't think my way out of a paper bag. No, a true humility says I got a pretty cool thing up here. I could do a lot of cool things with it, but it has its limits, and those limits are meant to lead me to the mind of God.
50 · Applies mind-renewal to future modeling—instead of boasting or worrying, we can hope
Now what happens when we begin to put on the mind of Christ? What happens when, as Romans 12 says, we begin to have our minds renewed? Well, you know, this future modeling thing, in the past we've used it to boast about tomorrow, or we've used it to worry about tomorrow, but now we can use it to hope. Hope does not disappoint. When we train our minds into the mind of Christ, we can actually begin to hope We aren't suspended between what feels like, in most of the time, two equally wrong possibilities. We can either boast about tomorrow or we can be anxious as all get out about tomorrow. We're not hamstrung between those two anymore. We have a third option. We just hope. Hope in God. Future modeling, we can hope in big things. We can imagine what God could do tomorrow. We could imagine what God could do through our church in 10 years. We can imagine what God could do in the world in 1,000 years, and we're able to imagine the place that the Bible says is our true home. This future modeling capacity, you can use that to build heaven in your head. Use the Bible, be informed, and build a real hope for heaven.
51 · Applies mind-renewal to theory of mind—when put on the mind of Christ, theory of mind becomes empathy and patience
When we put on the mind of Christ, this theory of mind, this ability to conceptualize what others see, You know how that helps when we put on the mind of Christ? We have empathy for people. You know, something seems super clear to you, but we understand, well, that doesn't mean that it's clear to me. We find patience for other people in a whole new way. We are able to bear one another's burdens in a unique way. We're able to encourage each other in a unique way. Not simply what you would find encouraging, but how can I help this person be encouraged.
52 · Concluding synthesis—when we understand that God's mind (not our own) is our ultimate resting place, resource, and hope, we find rest, wisdom, knowledge, goodness, and trust
When we understand that the mind of God is our ultimate resting place— that's key— when we understand that the mind of God is our ultimate resting place, not in your own head, when the mind of God is our ultimate resource, when the mind of God is our ultimate hope and not our own cognitive capacities, when we understand that, we find rest and we find wisdom and we find knowledge and we find goodness, and we can trust him.
53 · Communion invitation—the table is for those with faith in Jesus who can say He offered His righteous mind and took the consequences of our evil minds
So as the Lord's table is presented to you this morning, it's really for those of you that have a faith relationship with Jesus who can confidently say that at the cross Jesus offered up his righteous mind and took on the burdens and the sins, the consequences of my evil mind. And it's really an opportunity, I think, today for you to say I am thankful that I have access to the mind of Christ, that I can wrestle with God every day as I try to subordinate the way my brain is working with what's real, with what's true, with where the future is actually headed, and with what I must do today to be faithful to him.
54 · Closing transition to prayer before communion
Let me pray for us and then we'll partake.