0:00:00 - 0:00:25 I believe that there's a beach boys song called Heroes and Villains. I'm pretty sure. So it's, it's interesting to think that we, we have this very strong tendency as humans. We want everything to fit into binary categories. It's very easy to see things that way. Um But that, that two color lens, it 0:00:25 - 0:00:44 just doesn't capture very much of life. I mean, just think of this beautiful imagery behind me and you can't see in front of me, but it's even better. Um I've got this nice mountain ridge ahead of me, depending on where you're from, you could call it a hill. But uh it's pretty high, but they're, they're 0:00:44 - 0:01:04 nice greens, yellows. Um It's, it's a beautiful time of the day. The weather is great. It's just a, a great time to be alive right this minute. So imagine if I had to reduce all of that down to monochrome, just black and white. Well, that, that wouldn't be very nice, you'd lose a lot. Sometimes it's 0:01:04 - 0:01:32 not just about aesthetics when we're making judgments about value. Um overly reducing things to more simple perspective, it can be extremely harmful to ourselves and to others. The world is a complicated place. If we insist on shoehorning everything into perfect or the epitome of evil, we're going to 0:01:32 - 0:01:52 make some serious mistakes. Um, I can't delve into this fully. It is a topic. I've, I've brought up many times. I've done presentations on this at least twice but this, this, so I guess it's just super foreign for people. I don't know. Um, not that the second I speak about something I expect the entire 0:01:52 - 0:02:13 world to suddenly get it. But uh you know, there are people who I know watch those things and we're still uh very much in, in the mistaken um a lower form of understanding about this. But so much of the gospel is about zooming in on detail and then dividing zooming in on detail and then dividing. In 0:02:13 - 0:02:38 fact, that's what if you go and reread the creation account, that's what's going on. There's more information and then a separation and more information and then a separation and this is one way of describing um improvement or if you wanna get into religious terms. Exaltation is very important. This 0:02:37 - 0:03:06 is the way holiness works. So it's really important to get this straight and it's not um overly reduce things down to two or, or just much less detail or 22 channels or much less detail. So what's, what's one way that we do this? Well, a as I started heroes and villains, we, we like to see people as 0:03:06 - 0:03:25 either the epitome of virtue or the epitome of vice. We like to see people as, either as good as God himself or as evil as Satan himself. And the really weird thing about this is that the people making the judgment call, I'm not sure they'd be so comfortable assigning themselves into either of those 0:03:25 - 0:03:48 two categories. And yet as easy it is to, to look at yourself and say, hm, I think there are things I can work on, but I think there are things I'm doing ok at. It seems like it's impossible for people to do the same for others. Now, if I had more time, what I really wanna do is take you through the 0:03:48 - 0:04:12 Old Testament and I'd like to show you stories about, uh, people like Gideon or Samson or um, the, the Book of Judges is a good place for these examples where you have people through whom the Lord did incredible miraculous, wonderful things that really helped people. And yet in their stories, there are 0:04:12 - 0:04:36 all these examples of things that, that folks would, would point out as clear cases of limitations, even downright mistakes or sin. Now, um, those are judgment calls in some cases. Um, in others, I think it's pretty, it's a lot more clear. But then if we went through more of the Old Testament, we'll 0:04:36 - 0:05:00 find a pattern where, where um some king is being described, some king of Israel and it will chronicle the account will chronicle the good things that the person did the ways in which they were approved of God in summary of their lives or their reign, I guess. And then it will enumerate ways in which 0:05:00 - 0:05:22 God was not pleased with them. Now, what's amazing about this is that some of these kings are held up as examples of how everyone should be by, by people who cite these stories. And yet right there, the Lord says, and he could have been better in this way or that. And some of those things are really 0:05:22 - 0:05:43 serious. And then you get examples that are sort of more on the fence, they're more balanced between the pluses and minuses. And of course, there are a lot of examples of wicked kings in ancient Israel, but there's no binary stratification. It's a continuous spectrum. So why is this important? These 0:05:43 - 0:06:06 were not normal people? These were kings and yet, and not again that it's not that Ancient Israel is particularly gifted at selecting kings or, or I suppose a lot of them weren't selected because you know, the whole monarchy thing. But um I guess the point here is it's really hard to just write someone 0:06:05 - 0:06:31 off as evil or to certify someone as good. It turns out you need to be a little bit more precise than that. You need to break it down to, hey, this thing that they did or this way that they were, was good this way that they were, was not this way. Maybe it was closer to neutral so they could have been 0:06:31 - 0:06:58 better, but it, it wasn't particularly terrible. What's my point with this? We can very easily dismiss sources that God puts into our life. Whether, whether it's a historic record or a living person, it doesn't matter. Um, we can easily dismiss sources of great value that, that the Lord puts into our 0:06:58 - 0:07:22 reach because we say, well, they're not perfect. Well, last time I checked you weren't either that it doesn't matter if they were perfect. The question is in what ways are you better than them? And in what ways are you worse than them? Because all the ways in which you're worse than them, those are all 0:07:21 - 0:07:48 learning opportunities that you have. And it really doesn't matter how terrible they were in the other things you can benefit from looking at what their strengths are compared to you and, and, and becoming more like that. And that's a wonderful thing. Right. So, um, that's really important because I 0:07:48 - 0:08:12 think what a lot of people do is they take their, their heroes and they put him on a pedestal. And what happens is in the event that those people weren't in fact perfect in every way. And somehow they find out about that, they throw out all the good examples that they are still working towards. And uh 0:08:12 - 0:08:32 conversely if there's a person who they have um, disavowed as evil, what happens if there's something about that person that they could benefit from, from emulating and they've just thrown it out because they're like, well, there's, there's nothing redeemable about this person you have to go through 0:08:31 - 0:08:54 and really compare yourself and say, you know, there's something here, I really don't like these things about this person, but in this way, that's something I could learn from. And, and that's what the Lord would have us do. It's very important. We are intentionally organized in our lives uh with access 0:08:54 - 0:09:21 to people that uh through whom God demonstrates how to be and how, how to not be in ways that, that illustrate uh a path to draw nearer to Him. It's extraordinarily important to get this right now. The good news is it's just not that hard, but the bad news is you gotta let go of this tradition of shoehorning 0:09:20 - 0:09:45 everyone into a saint or a sinner. Most people are a little bit of both is really, really rare to find someone who's much more of one than the other. So our task is to become much more of one than the other. And the only way to do it is to pay attention to the examples around us and absorb everything 0:09:45 - 0:10:07 we can find. That's more like Jesus than we are. Now. One thing that prevents people from doing this is that they have this notion that somehow if we're learning from other, the example of other people, we're quote unquote following them. Now, this is ridiculous for a handful of reasons and I'll only 0:10:07 - 0:10:29 have time to touch on some of the big ones that, that strike me at the moment. Um One big one is that there isn't a place in the scriptures where that's spoken of negatively, quite the opposite. Go look at how many times Paul says, quote. Follow me. Now, we read Jesus saying this, we have no problem 0:10:28 - 0:10:49 with that. But when his servants say it, we have a big problem with that or we would if we actually read the Bible, which apparently very few people do. So then if someone were to come around like Paul today and say the same thing, everyone would lose their minds. Maybe a bigger issue with than that 0:10:49 - 0:11:16 though is that there is an enormous difference between believing that it is not only possible but likely that someone in your life is more like Jesus than you are in some way, some single way. At least that really shouldn't be hard to believe. Uh God encompasses all things. So this is no different than 0:11:16 - 0:11:42 saying do, than asking you. Do you believe that there's at least one person in your life that's better than you at something? Anything? Well, I hope that's not too hard to imagine, right. So the rub becomes, well, um is there a difference between that and finding someone who's better than you in a few 0:11:42 - 0:12:02 things? And is there a difference in between that and finding someone who's better than you in everything in everything and then people get super uncomfortable. Ok. Well, if we're talking about this as if it's a normal thing, sure, you should feel uncomfortable. It's a ridiculous idea. But it is true 0:12:02 - 0:12:31 for babies. So, pretty much any adult, we'll be able to say that relative to any baby. Right. So at some point there's a transition from the one phase to another, right, where it becomes much less likely that it's true. But on the earth, at any time, there will be one person, this is just taught logically 0:12:30 - 0:12:53 true. It's just by definition, it is the case. There will be one person who is more like Jesus than everyone else. Now, it might change in the next minute, it might change 100 times in three hours, but probably not because of the way these things work with the Pareto distribution and that is how it works 0:12:53 - 0:00:00 . But I don't want to get too bogged down. So we've gone to something that ought to be very, very easy to understand and live. And just in about two steps, shoved our finger right in to a sacred cow that's deeply embedded in most people. But those things are not that separate and logically speaking, 0:00:00 - 0:00:00 it's all the same. So if you're OK with one, you need to be OK with the other. And if you're not ok with the one, you need to be not ok with the other. So these are not things that, that we should get weird about. It's, it's, uh, it's one thing to openly admit that these things are the case. It's a, 0:00:00 - 0:00:25 I believe that there's a beach boys song called Heroes and Villains. I'm pretty sure. So it's, it's interesting to think that we, we have this very strong tendency as humans. We want everything to fit into binary categories. It's very easy to see things that way. Um But that, that two color lens, it 0:00:25 - 0:00:44 just doesn't capture very much of life. I mean, just think of this beautiful imagery behind me and you can't see in front of me, but it's even better. Um I've got this nice mountain ridge ahead of me, depending on where you're from, you could call it a hill. But uh it's pretty high, but they're, they're 0:00:44 - 0:01:04 nice greens, yellows. Um It's, it's a beautiful time of the day. The weather is great. It's just a, a great time to be alive right this minute. So imagine if I had to reduce all of that down to monochrome, just black and white. Well, that, that wouldn't be very nice, you'd lose a lot. Sometimes it's 0:01:04 - 0:01:32 not just about aesthetics when we're making judgments about value. Um overly reducing things to more simple perspective, it can be extremely harmful to ourselves and to others. The world is a complicated place. If we insist on shoehorning everything into perfect or the epitome of evil, we're going to 0:01:32 - 0:01:52 make some serious mistakes. Um, I can't delve into this fully. It is a topic. I've, I've brought up many times. I've done presentations on this at least twice but this, this, so I guess it's just super foreign for people. I don't know. Um, not that the second I speak about something I expect the entire 0:01:52 - 0:02:13 world to suddenly get it. But uh you know, there are people who I know watch those things and we're still uh very much in, in the mistaken um a lower form of understanding about this. But so much of the gospel is about zooming in on detail and then dividing zooming in on detail and then dividing. In 0:02:13 - 0:02:38 fact, that's what if you go and reread the creation account, that's what's going on. There's more information and then a separation and more information and then a separation and this is one way of describing um improvement or if you wanna get into religious terms. Exaltation is very important. This 0:02:37 - 0:03:06 is the way holiness works. So it's really important to get this straight and it's not um overly reduce things down to two or, or just much less detail or 22 channels or much less detail. So what's, what's one way that we do this? Well, a as I started heroes and villains, we, we like to see people as 0:03:06 - 0:03:25 either the epitome of virtue or the epitome of vice. We like to see people as, either as good as God himself or as evil as Satan himself. And the really weird thing about this is that the people making the judgment call, I'm not sure they'd be so comfortable assigning themselves into either of those 0:03:25 - 0:03:48 two categories. And yet as easy it is to, to look at yourself and say, hm, I think there are things I can work on, but I think there are things I'm doing ok at. It seems like it's impossible for people to do the same for others. Now, if I had more time, what I really wanna do is take you through the 0:03:48 - 0:04:12 Old Testament and I'd like to show you stories about, uh, people like Gideon or Samson or um, the, the Book of Judges is a good place for these examples where you have people through whom the Lord did incredible miraculous, wonderful things that really helped people. And yet in their stories, there are 0:04:12 - 0:04:36 all these examples of things that, that folks would, would point out as clear cases of limitations, even downright mistakes or sin. Now, um, those are judgment calls in some cases. Um, in others, I think it's pretty, it's a lot more clear. But then if we went through more of the Old Testament, we'll 0:04:36 - 0:05:00 find a pattern where, where um some king is being described, some king of Israel and it will chronicle the account will chronicle the good things that the person did the ways in which they were approved of God in summary of their lives or their reign, I guess. And then it will enumerate ways in which 0:05:00 - 0:05:22 God was not pleased with them. Now, what's amazing about this is that some of these kings are held up as examples of how everyone should be by, by people who cite these stories. And yet right there, the Lord says, and he could have been better in this way or that. And some of those things are really 0:05:22 - 0:05:43 serious. And then you get examples that are sort of more on the fence, they're more balanced between the pluses and minuses. And of course, there are a lot of examples of wicked kings in ancient Israel, but there's no binary stratification. It's a continuous spectrum. So why is this important? These 0:05:43 - 0:06:06 were not normal people? These were kings and yet, and not again that it's not that Ancient Israel is particularly gifted at selecting kings or, or I suppose a lot of them weren't selected because you know, the whole monarchy thing. But um I guess the point here is it's really hard to just write someone 0:06:05 - 0:06:31 off as evil or to certify someone as good. It turns out you need to be a little bit more precise than that. You need to break it down to, hey, this thing that they did or this way that they were, was good this way that they were, was not this way. Maybe it was closer to neutral so they could have been 0:06:31 - 0:06:58 better, but it, it wasn't particularly terrible. What's my point with this? We can very easily dismiss sources that God puts into our life. Whether, whether it's a historic record or a living person, it doesn't matter. Um, we can easily dismiss sources of great value that, that the Lord puts into our 0:06:58 - 0:07:22 reach because we say, well, they're not perfect. Well, last time I checked you weren't either that it doesn't matter if they were perfect. The question is in what ways are you better than them? And in what ways are you worse than them? Because all the ways in which you're worse than them, those are all 0:07:21 - 0:07:48 learning opportunities that you have. And it really doesn't matter how terrible they were in the other things you can benefit from looking at what their strengths are compared to you and, and, and becoming more like that. And that's a wonderful thing. Right. So, um, that's really important because I 0:07:48 - 0:08:12 think what a lot of people do is they take their, their heroes and they put him on a pedestal. And what happens is in the event that those people weren't in fact perfect in every way. And somehow they find out about that, they throw out all the good examples that they are still working towards. And uh 0:08:12 - 0:08:32 conversely if there's a person who they have um, disavowed as evil, what happens if there's something about that person that they could benefit from, from emulating and they've just thrown it out because they're like, well, there's, there's nothing redeemable about this person you have to go through 0:08:31 - 0:08:54 and really compare yourself and say, you know, there's something here, I really don't like these things about this person, but in this way, that's something I could learn from. And, and that's what the Lord would have us do. It's very important. We are intentionally organized in our lives uh with access 0:08:54 - 0:09:21 to people that uh through whom God demonstrates how to be and how, how to not be in ways that, that illustrate uh a path to draw nearer to Him. It's extraordinarily important to get this right now. The good news is it's just not that hard, but the bad news is you gotta let go of this tradition of shoehorning 0:09:20 - 0:09:45 everyone into a saint or a sinner. Most people are a little bit of both is really, really rare to find someone who's much more of one than the other. So our task is to become much more of one than the other. And the only way to do it is to pay attention to the examples around us and absorb everything 0:09:45 - 0:10:07 we can find. That's more like Jesus than we are. Now. One thing that prevents people from doing this is that they have this notion that somehow if we're learning from other, the example of other people, we're quote unquote following them. Now, this is ridiculous for a handful of reasons and I'll only 0:10:07 - 0:10:29 have time to touch on some of the big ones that, that strike me at the moment. Um One big one is that there isn't a place in the scriptures where that's spoken of negatively, quite the opposite. Go look at how many times Paul says, quote. Follow me. Now, we read Jesus saying this, we have no problem 0:10:28 - 0:10:49 with that. But when his servants say it, we have a big problem with that or we would if we actually read the Bible, which apparently very few people do. So then if someone were to come around like Paul today and say the same thing, everyone would lose their minds. Maybe a bigger issue with than that 0:10:49 - 0:11:16 though is that there is an enormous difference between believing that it is not only possible but likely that someone in your life is more like Jesus than you are in some way, some single way. At least that really shouldn't be hard to believe. Uh God encompasses all things. So this is no different than 0:11:16 - 0:11:42 saying do, than asking you. Do you believe that there's at least one person in your life that's better than you at something? Anything? Well, I hope that's not too hard to imagine, right. So the rub becomes, well, um is there a difference between that and finding someone who's better than you in a few 0:11:42 - 0:12:02 things? And is there a difference in between that and finding someone who's better than you in everything in everything and then people get super uncomfortable. Ok. Well, if we're talking about this as if it's a normal thing, sure, you should feel uncomfortable. It's a ridiculous idea. But it is true 0:12:02 - 0:12:31 for babies. So, pretty much any adult, we'll be able to say that relative to any baby. Right. So at some point there's a transition from the one phase to another, right, where it becomes much less likely that it's true. But on the earth, at any time, there will be one person, this is just taught logically 0:12:30 - 0:12:53 true. It's just by definition, it is the case. There will be one person who is more like Jesus than everyone else. Now, it might change in the next minute, it might change 100 times in three hours, but probably not because of the way these things work with the Pareto distribution and that is how it works 0:12:53 - 0:00:00 . But I don't want to get too bogged down. So we've gone to something that ought to be very, very easy to understand and live. And just in about two steps, shoved our finger right in to a sacred cow that's deeply embedded in most people. But those things are not that separate and logically speaking, 0:00:00 - 0:00:00 it's all the same. So if you're OK with one, you need to be OK with the other. And if you're not ok with the one, you need to be not ok with the other. So these are not things that, that we should get weird about. It's, it's, uh, it's one thing to openly admit that these things are the case. It's a, 0:00:00 - 0:13:54 it's another thing to discuss how the heck you would know right, how you could tell it either way. But these things ought to be pretty simple.