Season of Lent February 14 th March 31 st. Ash Wednesday Service 7:15 in the Annex

Transcription

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2 Season of Lent February 14 th March 31 st Ash Wednesday Service 7:15 in the Annex

3 Healing God, how would you like me to cooperate with your restoring work in my life this season?

4 One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began Mary Oliver, The Journey

5 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. For through wisdom your days will be many, and years will be added to your life. If you are wise, your wisdom will reward you; if you are a mocker, you alone will suffer. Proverbs 9:10-12

6 For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to [wisdom] will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm. Proverbs 1:32-33

7 Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding. Cherish her, and she will exalt you; embrace her, and she will honor you. Proverbs 4:6-8

8 Do you want to have a long life? Do you want to be rich and not poor? Do you want others to think highly of you? Do you want your presence to command respect?

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10 External Self External Self (1 st Half: Ego, Self-esteem, 2 nd Half: Old Self, False Self) Our external self is the vulnerable part of who we are. Healthy ego development happens in the 1 st half of life. We need a healthy ego and the ego needs healthy goals.

11 The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding. Cherish her, and she will exalt you; embrace her, and she will honor you. Proverbs 4:7-8

12 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom The end goal of wisdom is oneness, communion, and co-reigning with God.

13 Beginning Wisdom: Don t touch the stove its hot. The ending can produce an accomplished chef.

14 Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you! 1 Corinthians 4:8

15 For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings. 1 Cor. 4:9

16 We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. 1 Cor. 4:10-11

17 When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world right up to this moment. 1 Cor. 4:12-13

18 Therefore I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church. 1 Cor. 4:16-17

19 Imitate my way of life in Christ Jesus

20 Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God on display. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. 1 Corinthians 1:24-25

21 Ego Wisdom = Strong Outside because you believe that you have a Weak Center Soul Wisdom = You can have a Weak Outside, because you know you have a Strong Center

22 External Self True Self Inner Being Inner Being The mind governed by the flesh (external self) is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit (in your inner being) is life and peace. The mind governed by the [ego] is hosmle to God; it does not submit to God s law, nor can it do so. Romans 8:6-7

23 External Self True Self Inner Being Inner Being You, however, are not in the realm of the [Ego] but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. Romans 8:9

24 Two Great Truths ONE: We are blessed, uncondihonally loved by God, and given immense capacity to create and promote goodness, beauty and holishc flourishing in the world.

25 Two Great Truths TWO: We have immense capacity to create and further brutality, brokenness, and despair in ourselves and the world. We can remain dead to our true self.

26 No amount of badness can cancel out the original goodness.

27 External Self It is possible to live your enhre life disconnected, separated, lost, asleep, and unaware of your true inner being. It is impossible for the external self to fully experience and parhcipate in the flourishing life of God that permeates all of creahon.

28 External Self It is possible for community to simply be the collechon of our egos. Your tribe can simply be a larger extension of your external self. People who look like you, act like you, hate like you, worship like you

29 External Self It is impossible for this external tribe to fully experience and parhcipate in the flourishing life of God that permeates all of creahon.

30 External Self True Self Inner Being Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligahon but it is not to the External Self, to live according to it. For if you live according to the external self, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the [Ego], you will live. Romans 8:12-13

31 Living life out of the center is called the 2 nd half of life. It is not Ego driven It is Soul driven. It is not selfprotechve it is self-giving. It is not born from below...it is born from above.

32 It is not the beginning of wisdom it is the goal of wisdom.

33 External Self True Self Inner Being Life is not a maker of creahng a special name for ourselves, but of uncovering the name we have always had. Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond

34 The way up to the 2 nd half of life is down. It almost never happens without suffering, without loss, without a death.

35 The wisdom of God is found and experienced in the pakern of the cross. Wisdom is found in the death, burial and resurrechon of Jesus.

36 By faith, I believe and have experienced that: My external self is not the truest part of me. Through the faithfulness of Jesus, I have been set free by God s spirit to live from my true inner being.

37 By faith, I believe and have experienced that: Your external self, your ego is not the truest part of you. You have an inner being that is blessed, loved and filled by the very Spirit of God. You were intended to wake up to and live from this expansive and inexhaushble center.

38 Is there a pain, a loss, a death that you have been resishng that simultaneously and mysteriously you sense may be an invitahon to a deeper, more alive way of living?

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