Session #1

 

Aaron is a high school athlete, and a really good one.  While he plays a variety of sports, and excels in all of them, football is his passion.  It’s all he ever thinks about, and  he is receiving scholarship offers from a variety of U.S. colleges.  What makes Aaron such a unique athlete is his ability to win.  You see, Aaron is an excellent athlete, but it is not natural athletic ability that makes him so great - rather, it is his uncanny ability to always find a way to win.  When the game is on the line, the coach always puts the ball in Aaron’s hands because Aaron knows how to get the job done.  His sheer grit and determination is what makes him excellent.

But it hadn’t always been this way.  It all started when he was in grade 8, and playing house league football in his small town.  Aaron’s team had managed to put together a solid season, and found themselves in the championship game on a crisp Sunday afternoon in October.  Being a small town, everyone seemed to know everyone else, and for this reason it seemed like the entire town had come out to join in the excitement of the big game.  

As Aaron stepped on to the field to receive the opening kick off, someone very special caught his eye - her name was Samantha.  Samantha and her family went to the same church as Aaron and his family, and both he and Samantha went to the same school, but since they weren’t in the same class, they didn’t get a chance to talk as often as he would like.  They were friendly, but that was it.  Aaron was always looking for opportunities to hang out with her, but he was scared.  He wasn’t like a lot of the other boys - confident.  He had a strong ability to identify ahead of time all that could go wrong in a situation, and one of the ways he had become so good at that was seeing how confident other boys were.  They had a confidence in their ability to interact with other people - especially girls - that Aaron envied.  And so as he witnessed their “excellence” in these areas, it only accentuated his feelings of inadequacy.  

But today might be different.  Aaron was a half decent football player, playing in the championship game, and nowhere in the football rulebook did it say that impressing young ladies on the field involved speaking to them.  Today was the day that Samantha would notice him.  He would let his game do the talking.  

Fast forward to the end of the game.  It’s been a hard-fought battle, and the game is tied with twenty-three seconds remaining on the clock.  After three solid plays in the drive, Aaron’s team has managed to get themselves a mere 8 yards from their opponents goal, and as a result appear to have the game in hand.  As the quarterback comes back into the huddle, Aaron feels his stomach tie in knots.  The game is on the line, and he’s beginning to feel the weight of the moment.  And then he hears it - “Reverse 32”.  The words bring an immediate surge of anxiety.  Aaron can hardly focus enough to think straight as he heads to the line of scrimmage to set up for what should be the championship-securing score.  You see, Aaron is number 32, and the play that has been called requires him to receive a reverse handoff and run the ball up the sideline and into the endzone.  He’s run the play many times throughout the course of the season, and it had often worked flawlessly - but in none of those circumstances had the championship game been on the line - in front of the entire town, and his dream girl.

As Aaron lined up, he felt his knees shaking.  He had to get it together.  “Hut!”  The play started, and to Aaron, it felt like a whirlwind.  He shot up and began running his route.  His legs felt like jelly, and his focus wasn’t much better.  As his teammate handed him the ball, he grasped it crisply, giving him a momentary sense of security, all until he realized that the opposing team had read the play perfectly and were collapsing in on him.  Aaron realized that if he was going to pull this play off, he would have to improvise, so instead of running up the sideline, he made a quick fake right, made a sharp cut into the middle of the field.  It was at this moment that disaster struck.  As Aaron cut into the middle, he bobbled the football.  His heart leaped into his chest as he looked down at his hands in order to begin securing the football.  Just as he got a firm grasp on the ball, his eyes lifted just in time to see Tommy Duggan plow right into his chest and free the ball.  As Aaron was driven into the ground, it was all that he could do to roll onto his side in time to see Tommy step over top of him, pick up the ball, and run it down the length of the field for the championship score.  

Tears filled Aaron’s eyes as he lied on the field trying to process what had just transpired.  He had been given the opportunity to be the hero, but instead he had almost literally handed that moment to his opponent.  And just when he thought things couldn’t get any worse, he lifted his eyes to see Tommy holding the game winning ball in one arm, and receiving a hug from Samantha with the other.

Tommy and Samantha had been good friends for a while, and in the high school years that followed, they would start dating.  Aaron would be reminded every Sunday he saw them both at church of the hurt that this caused him.  He went from bitter, to angry, to determined.  While he went through these phases fairly quickly, he strived to make sure that he never allowed himself to fully get over the pain.  He used it as motivation.  He used it as a reminder of the day he lied on that football field and made a promise to himself that he would never allow a moment like that to happen again.  He promised himself that he would never allow fear to control him - that instead, he would take control, and become the type of person who sets goals and relentlessly pursues them until they are achieved.  He would become the type of person people look up to - the type of person whose confidence always leads him in the direction of achieving what he wants.

Now in his final year of high school, Aaron has successfully implemented this plan of action.  He has hit the gym to get stronger, and practiced his football skills relentlessly on a daily basis.  He is the first to arrive at practice, and the last to leave.  He isn’t the most naturally gifted athlete, but he will never be outworked.  This is what U.S. coaches admire about him, and why he has been so heavily recruited.  They see a young man who knows how to get the job done.  They see a man who knows how to get the best out of himself, who knows how to win, and whose confidence in his own abilities is off the charts.  You won’t see Aaron back down from any challenge, or anyone.  Aaron has gone from a timid 8th grader, to a warrior whose confidence is leading him to the future he always dreamed of.

If we are being honest, as a society we really like these types of stories.  We love hearing about people who overcome significant challenges to achieve big things.  These stories inspire us to go out and find ways to overcome challenges in our own lives, and to achieve those things that we hope for in the future.  We love these stories because stories such as these give us hope that we too can overcome to achieve that which we want.  

After all, we all have our own personal goals and dreams.  We all have things that we hope for.  It might not be an athletic goal - maybe it has to do with academics.  Maybe you want to be more popular in the eyes of your peers.  Maybe you want to be a great musician, or to run your own business one day.  Everyone of us has something that we hope for, because part of being human means we find growth inspiring.  None of us can say that we don’t like improving at things we enjoy, or that we don’t find a sense of satisfaction in personal achievements.  We are drawn to stories like Aaron’s because we are drawn to our own growth, and we like stories that inspire us and provide us hope that our efforts will lead us toward a future we can get excited about.

Now cue the story of Jesus.  If there has ever been a champion, it was Him.  He came to earth and served.  He challenged those in positions of authority by outing their warped and selfish ways of thinking.  He didn’t have to argue or fight, because His teachings were so wise that they always put his challengers in their place.  His enemies who hated Him would get together, and try to trap Him with moral scenarios - all in an attempt to find ways to use His words against Him so that they could discredit Him.  But they couldn’t do it.  His wisdom was unmatched.  Every challenge proved His strength, and outed the tremendous weakness of each of His enemies.  And even though He was eventually captured and killed, it too only served to show His tremendous strength.  He didn’t fight, but rather surrendered willingly.  He was beaten, tortured and crucified.  The fact that He was able to endure the physical torture as long as He did is evidence of the fact that while He was mentally strong, it was complemented by physical strength.  And in the end, not even death could hold Jesus down.  After defeating every challenge His enemies threw at Him, He allowed them to kill Him, providing them a momentary perception of victory, only to come back with a vengeance and deliver the ultimate victory.  In defeating death, Jesus delivered the ultimate mic drop announcing to the world these key messages…

I cannot be defeated.

I love you.  

I died for you.  

Come share in my victory.

So here is a big question.  If Jesus was the ultimate champion, then why do we find such inspiration in quotes from people like Michael Jordan, Steve Jobs, Tom Brady, Jeff Bezos or Oprah Winfrey?  If He was the wisest man to ever live, then why can it be so easy to keep our Bibles on the shelf, but so easy to pick up the latest “self-help” book?  If He couldn’t be defeated and invites us to share in this victory, then why do so many of us feel hesitant to boldly proclaim our love for Him who died for us to secure our victory?     

The answer can be summarized in one word…surrender.  You see, we are so incredibly drawn to stories like that of Aaron - stories of men and women who overcome adversity to make something of themselves.  We are drawn to stories that give us permission to seek exalting ourselves, rather than exalt someone else.  Stories like Aaron’s inspire us because they awaken this desire within us to pursue greatness for our own sakes - they highlight a path that could possibly allow us to be exalted.  But Jesus calls us to exalt Him.  

If Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was to come speak to you today, I’m sure he would share his story, and end his talk with inspirational ideas about how you too can make decisions in your life that will lead to accomplishing hopes and dreams that you have for yourself, just like he has managed to do.  But Jesus has made very clear through His Word the message that He has for us today, and everyday.  He calls us to live a life of surrender.  To make Him our Savior and our Lord.  To make Him our ultimate love, desire and purpose.  He calls us to lay down our own desires so that we can focus on the desires He has for us.  

Stories like Aaron give us permission to pursue what we want with our lives.  Jesus stands directly in the way of such desires and says, “Turn away from what you think you most desire and serve me instead”.  

Anytime someone is told that they can’t have what they desire, there is friction.  When what we desire is challenged, it creates discomfort.  In that moment, there are two ways to deal with the discomfort - you can ignore it and move in the direction you desire, or you can stop and seek to understand it and improve your chances to make a wise decision.  Too many people in our world today hear Christ’s call to surrender, but choose to ignore it.  They never take the time to understand why He calls us to lay down our lives for His sake.  Once we take the time to understand, we come to see that surrender is in no way bad news - rather quite the opposite.  A child who wants to play in the street doesn’t at first understand why they are being told they can’t have what they desire, but once they experience the love of their parent, and understand the reasons why their desire is very dangerous, they begin to find “surrender” to their parent’s instruction as the exact choice they desire.  

And this is what we too need to do.  Christ calls us to surrender, and any discomfort we feel about this means two things - that we don’t understand His love, nor His teachings.  When we begin to understand both, we begin to see surrender as the most exciting and wise option, for we begin to see how God’s ways are always for our benefit.  They will always bring joy, peace, hope and security.  

This idea of surrender leading to prosperity is not a way of thinking for which we are typically accustomed.  It can be referred to as paradox teaching - instruction that at first glance seems illogical, but the more you study it, you discover it to be true.  Many of Jesus' instructions are paradox teachings, which makes sense when we realize that God’s ways are not our own.  He is the Creator, and we are the created - to think that our ways of thinking should match his would be complete foolishness.  

There is absolute beauty in the teachings of Christ.  We come to understand our heavenly Father in deeper ways when our preconceived notions of how we believe things work are flipped on their heads.  Let’s take a look at some examples of paradox teachings that allow us to understand the beauty of what is available for us if we will take the time to seek, understand and apply to our lives.

Verse

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.  Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2)

Paradox

Sacrificing yourself leads to life

Don’t live by the rules of the world that you live in

Reality

This world is broken, so living by its rules will logically lead to brokenness.

The ultimate brokenness in this broken world is sin and death.  

Christ defeated sin and death on the cross.

Therefore, the cure for sin and death is Christ.  

Christ provides us with ways to pursue righteousness rather than sin.

Christ has paid the penalty of death, so we can have eternal life through saving faith in Him.

Giving our bodies as a “living sacrifice” means to sacrifice the brokenness of this world so that we can have life.  The key is in the term living sacrifice.  This sacrifice brings deeper living because it connects us to our Lord and Savior.

The only way to have the life Christ offers is to sacrifice the pursuit of the things of this world.  And this benefits us both now, and eternally.

“Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.” - C.S. Lewis

Verse

Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. (1 Corinthians 3:18-19)

Paradox

To be wise, you must first become foolish.

Reality

God’s ways are drastically different - His ways are wise, the world’s ways are foolish.

It is wise to live according to how you were created to live.

Because of sin, the world does not live according to how we were created to live.

In order to be truly wise, we must learn to recognize the foolishness of what the world values, and instead cling to what God says is valuable - knowing Him, and growing to become more like Him.

Just like you can’t be wise and foolish at the same time, you cannot live according to what the world values and what God values at the same time.

Verse

 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. (Matthew 6:24)

Paradox

You cannot serve or value two things at once.

Reality

God calls us to love and value Him above all else.  This is because we were created for deep relationship with Him.

You cannot have deep relationship if you are valuing something that hurts the relationship.

Valuing money over any relationship will always hurt the relationship

A master is something that controls you.  If you are mastered by money, it prevents you from being mastered by Christ.

Our world values worldly success - and money is the universal symbol for this.

To value money above all else, it means you are valuing the ways of this world over the God who created it, and created you.  And He created you to know Him deeply.  Therefore, to value money over the world means that you are living for the world, rather than for Him and relationship with Him.

Verse

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. (James 4:10)

Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”  (Mark 9:35)

Paradox

If you want to be great, seek to make others great.

Reality

God created us for relationship with Him.

Relationship strengthens when you serve those whom you are in relationship with.

The ultimate example of this is Christ dying for us to demonstrate His love for us, and make deep relationship with us possible.

The way we engage in relationship is to follow the teachings He has given us - for He has given them to us to promote joyful relationship with Him.

His greatest commandment is to love God and love others.  Therefore, the greatest thing we can do is love, and we are not loving if we are putting our own selfish desires above the people around us we have the opportunity to serve.

Therefore, if you want to be great, it means living in the way you were created to live.  And this means you will become great when you make others great.

When we analyze God’s teachings in these ways, we are able to break down the concepts and develop understanding of why paradoxical teachings actually do make perfect sense.  What doesn’t always make sense however, is when we seek to apply these teachings within the individual moments of our lives.  In those moments the paradox appears clear, and God’s wisdom gets fuzzy.  Because we are living within the context of a broken world, God’s truths don’t always appear obvious.  It is for this reason that we have faith.  God calls us to trust Him and His word, for the world is truly broken, and it is only through Him that we can separate ourselves from the brokenness and cling to what is wise and true.

Let’s examine this so that we can understand it deeply.  Many people would look at the verses above, and interpret them as follows….

“Wait a minute.  Your telling me that in order to be great, I need to make others great?  That would mean instead of doing what is necessary to get ahead in school, I need to sacrifice my own grades in order to help others get good grades.  And how would I even do that if God calls me to see what the world says is foolish?  The world tells me to be smart, and to do well in school.  Last time I checked, that was a wise thing to do because it leads to a spot in a university which will lead to a good job.  And then once I’m in that job, I will be expected to know and understand the business so that I can perform wisely at my work.  How is that ‘broken’, as you say the ways of this world are broken?  You are telling me that God says that it is wise for me to sacrifice all of these things in my life?  You’re right, if I did all that I certainly would be making others greater and humbling myself.  I would be making myself last compared to other people, because I never even gave myself a chance to succeed in the first place.  How is following these teachings, and creating a life for myself that limits me in such great ways wise?  If God loves me, and died for me to enjoy life, why do I have to make myself last in order to benefit from relationship with Him?  Why does God say that I can’t succeed over others?  Why does God say that if I care about making money I don’t care about Him?  How can I be happy if I’m not making money so that I can support my family?  You say the world is broken, but to me, it seems that these ways of thinking are very broken.”

Good news… these ways of thinking above are very broken.  It does not at all reflect God’s wisdom.  Thinking such of this proves how foolish and broken our world is, and how foolish we become when we allow ourselves to think in line with this broken world.  It shows that what is being focused on is the paradox rather than taking the time to see the truth.

Here is what I believe would be a wise response to the above statements….

“My friend, you are looking at these teachings through broken lenses which come from living in a broken world.  As such, you are not seeing clearly the beauty of what God’s wisdom provides for us.  God is never against our success, He is always for it.  He proved this on the cross.  Do you really believe He would willingly die a brutal death so that we can know Him, only to make the reality of knowing Him complicated and miserable?  God is not against your success, He is always for it, and all His teachings point us toward His truth so that we can live in it and enjoy true success.  You have to remember that God's ways are not our ways.  You think that putting others before yourself will put you at a disadvantage, but that simply isn’t true.  You were created to know God, and be in relationship with Him.  when you put others before your own desires, you are showing that you have all that you need.  This is what we do when we are not in need - we give.  And if we are able to give of ourselves, it shows that we are not needing anything.  The Bible says, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want”.  What this is saying is that because I have the Lord to guide me through life, I have all I need.  

Consider this quote from author Tim Keller….

‘(Imagine if) the distance between the Earth and the sun—ninety-three million miles—was no more than the thickness of a sheet of paper, then the distance from the Earth to the nearest star would be a stack of papers seventy feet high; the diameter of the Milky Way would be a stack of paper over three hundred miles high. Keep in mind that there are more galaxies in the universe than we can number. There are more, it seems, than dust specks in the air or grains of sand on the seashores. Now, if Jesus Christ holds all this together with just a word of his power (Hebrews 1:3)—is he the kind of person you ask into your life to be your assistant?’

When we have the Lord of the Universe in our life, it is foolish to use Him as our personal “helper”.  He has to be Lord and Savior.  And when that happens, I am not in want.  And when that happens, my own personal ambitions become much deeper and richer.  All that I pursue, I get to pursue through the lens of the One Who created me.  And He created me to know Him, and that means that relationship is what He values.  And this is why Jesus said in Matthew 22  that the greatest commandments are to love God and love others.  He is saying that we were created for relationship and that when we make this our focus we will be fulfilled.  This is how we were created.  When we make our own selfish ambitions our focus, we actually limit our potential because we limit our access to God.  The Bible also makes it clear that pride makes us opposed to God (James 4:4-6).  Selfish ambition points us to pride, and therefore away from God.  And anything that points us away from God absolutely limits our potential - both here on Earth and eternally - because we are removing ourselves from the power of the one who created the entire universe and holds it together.  When we have Christ, we have the Fruits of the Spirit - which include love, joy, peace, patience and self-control.  These are the exact qualities that we need for success.  They are the keys to being a successful athlete, musician, business person, doctor, lawyer, teacher, or anything else.  These qualities are what it takes to be excellent at any pursuit.  Putting others before yourself doesn’t mean you have to give up your pursuits.  It just means that you are developing mindsets that value the right things.  It means that your pursuits are not controlling you, so that you can be in control of the pursuits.  Most people in this world are held hostage by their pursuits because the only way they will be happy in them is if they get the exact outcomes that they want.  And this creates anxiety, for the reality is that you cannot control outcomes, you can only influence them.  But when we realize that because the Lord is our Shepherd, and we have everything we need, we place ourselves in mindsets that actually promote performance.   So when God calls us to surrender ourselves to Him, and to put others before ourselves, and to make ourselves last in order to be first, He is not telling us that we must give up success, He is pointing us directly to it.  What we have to decide is whether or not we will have the ears to listen, and the wisdom to apply.”

We began with the story of Aaron - a tale that when we first examine it appears to be filled with inspiration that encourages action that we can take in our own lives to pursue the things that we desire.  But Aaron’s story follows the popular patterns of this world, while at the same time highlighting our insecurities.  Aaron was in want - of respect, achievement and popularity.  And all of these desires pointed Him in the direction of pride, rather than peace.  The reality was that pride was a tremendous motivator, but it came at a cost.  It came at the cost of relationship with God.  No matter how many Sundays Aaron went to church, he wasn’t going to know God deeply if his focused pursuits were driven by selfish ambition and pride.  God makes it very clear, that pride points us away from God.  And to point ourselves away from God means that we are choosing things of this world over relationship with the One who created the world.  Christ paid the ultimate cost so that we could have a deep relationship with Him, and He desires our ultimate success - both on this Earth and for eternity.  

Yes, we get inspired by stories of Aaron, and hesitate when it comes to the story of Jesus.  We love to take action in the direction of the things that we desire, but Christ has made it clear that our greatest desires can only be fulfilled through Him.  The reason why His teachings are paradoxical is because they get in the way of our selfishness, and our selfishness prevents us from immediately seeing what is true and wise.  Once we take our selfish blinders off, we begin to see that what He has for us is absolutely what is best for us.  There is no greater peace than to know the eternal security that Christ provies.  And it starts with understanding who He is, what He has taught, and the incredible peace it means for us. 

Do you want His peace?

Do you want His wisdom?

Do you want eternity?

Do you want Him?

Take the time to understand His word, and you will understand Him, His peace, His wisdom, the eternity that is available for you - and it only comes through Him.