The Thinker

Advent: Joy

Reading by Megan Rottmann

Sermon Notes

• What Does it mean to be Human?
  • Next 4 Sundays we will be asking this question in 4 ways.
  • The thinker, a cognitive person; intelligent, smart, & quick on his feet.
    • Process
      • This makes sense so I feel good about it and give it a go
  • The Feeler, an emotional person; positive, empathetic, loving, caring
    • Process
      • I like it so it makes sense and give it a go
  • The Worker, a task-orientated person; implements, reliable, get’s things done
    • Process
      • I’m doing this so there must be a good reason & I feel good about it
  • The Fullness, holistically and perfectly all of the above. Jesus has come and lived as we ought.
    • Process
      • I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
• Head, heart, hands / think, feel, do

Lay a Foundation

• Urban Dictionary
  • HUMAN:
  • “The doom of this planet.”
  • “Self-absorbed animals in clothes”
  • “A species of idiots that, unfortunately, WE ALL belong to.”
  • The #1. answer ends with this… “The only hope for stopping this madness is the nuclear weapons arsenal”

Does the bible support this?  (Well.. maybe not that last one)

• Does a Christian world view support such negativity?

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Genesis 6:5

None is righteous, no, not one  no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.  Romans 3:1-12

‘‘For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’’ Mark 7:21-23

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?  Jeremiah 17:9

The bible seems to agree with our friends at Urban dictionary; Doomed, self absorbed, idiots…  One thing we can all agree on; we need help.

J.D. Meier, the creator of changingminds.org and best selling author writes in an article called head, heart, hands: a pattern for change says,

A century or so ago, psychology emerged out of the evolving ‘age of enlightenment’, where science grew wings and truth was what you could prove rather than what the local priest said. Psychologists sought to use the methods of natural sciences, where measurement, causality and proof were the order of the day. They could not measure what brains were doing, but they could analyze what people said and did, which led to behaviorism developing as the first step along the way.

Hard at the heels of psychological science came management science, which adopted the behavioral principles. Treat a person in a certain way and they will respond in a predictable manner. In other words it was all about ‘hands’.    The Worker

Further developments in psychology found that to explain what people did, you had to consider what they were thinking. Therapy went this way too, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) recognizes how behavior is closely linked to thinking. Then management followed suit, with motivation being more about getting people to understand rather than just telling them what to do. And so we had ‘hands follow head’.  The Thinker

Yet this still had problems. Psychologists had largely ignored emotions for a long time as they were almost the opposite of rational thinking and rather hard to measure. But they steadily realized that how you feel is real and cannot be ignored. And so now we had ‘hands follow head and heart’.  The Feeler

It’s all asking the question, How do people change?

• Whether you are looking for help emotionally, motivationally, relationally, in business, marriage or leadership, it seems many are asking, How?
• Some may know of 4H
• This has huge influence on us. Psychology and business ethics hugely define the way we think. We can see this generationally as well in the church and Christian thought.
  • Example: When I said that beauty is a higher currency than truth with our current generation it was like I stated heresy!
• I don’t want to cast it out, I want to redeem it.

Please turn in your bibles to Luke 10:25-37

Counseling with man who knew it all but his marriage and family was a mess. He didn’t want help but He needed it, according to his wife anyway… but knew all the answers. He noticed I didn’t need to do all the talking so he took over, beginning to teach me about marriage and theology.  After a while I stopped him and asked, “if you know all of this, why is your life such a mess?” After a long pause he said, “I don’t know”.

• The Thinker
  • A cognitive person; intelligent, smart, & quick on his feet.
    • Process
      • This makes sense so I feel good about it and give it a go
  • The Postive- You have the answers. People come to you for advice. You cause a team to think through the possibilities, both good and bad. Sharp, quick on your feet.

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ  2 Corinthians 10:5

• The negative- Overthink things, Sometimes hard to pull the trigger, arrogant know it all, lack of self awareness, and pharisaical- tendency towards religiousness much like the religious leaders in Jesus’ day.

Jesus was hanging out with a bunch of “sinners”… the people the scriptures addressed in the beginning. Remember, Doomed, self absorbed, idiots, and the religious leaders were criticizing him.

But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Matthew 9:12–13

• Christian worldview of sin and the arrogance it comes with.

Read –Luke 10:25-37

• What does redemption look like for the Thinker? Mercy.
• What does redemption look like for the church in regards to our arrogance towards unbelievers? Mercy.
• We look to Jesus, Love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. Love God with our thoughts, our emotions and deeds. Love others the way we are loved. Have Mercy and compassion.
• GOSPEL- Look to Jesus.
• Communion. Invitation

Sermon Slides