This One And Beutiful Life: What Are We? | Pastor Preston | January 15

Lake Ridge Community Church Podcast

[00:00:03.130] - Speaker 1

Hi there. My name is Preston Pouteaux. Welcome to the Lake Ridge Community Church Podcast. This is where we share some of our messages from Sunday mornings. So we're glad you're here to listen. We'd love for you to join us in person. We meet on Sunday mornings at 10:30 a.m at Our Lady of Wisdom School here in Chestermere. At our core, we're a community of people, so we gather on on Sundays, but we also do a lot in the week together. We are people learning to follow Jesus and love our city. So to learn more, visit lakeridgecommunity.com. Hope to check in and visit with you soon. Take care. Thanks for listening.

[00:00:43.440] - Speaker 2

This is the funny part of the whole story. I really don't. I gave some really good spiritual advice to somebody that came back to me after they said that was some of the best advice I'd ever been given. And I was like, I am embarrassed and apologized because I have no idea what I said. Some of you remember this is probably three, maybe four years ago, but I had some really weird neurological nerve thing going on. And they put me on like, there's this drug, this drug. And then they found something from I don't know what corner of what street they found it on, but I was out of the moon. The joke in our house is, after I was better, thank you to a lot of prayer and care from a lot of people. I got better. And it was actually, I think it's miraculous that I did. And sometime later, my brother in law who lives in our basement, he goes, can you make those cinnamon buns again? I said, I've never made cinnamon buns in my life. He said, no, you made the best cinnamon buns we have ever had. Don't you remember?

[00:01:39.450] - Speaker 2

And everybody was just like, yeah, those were just phenomenal. And it was when I was high as a kite, I made these most amazing cinnamon buns. I don't even remember, and I've been asked to make them since. And I just don't want to go down that path again. Sometimes I think of that story because I had no idea what I was making when I was making it. I was not there when I was making this thing. I needed to bruise something up. And somehow out of me came this amazing cinnamon bun feast. I think my question for that, in sharing that, as we talk about a little bit about ingredients, we're going to weave some of these stories together is that sometimes we wonder, did God know what he was doing when he was making us? I don't want to really imply that God as high as the kite when he was making us, but sometimes if you read the Psalms, we get these stories of God's people saying, god, do you know what you're doing here? Do you know what you are making? We identify God that you created everything. And we love that you created everything.

[00:02:49.500] - Speaker 2

But when it comes to people, when it comes to us, we are a little bit mystified. Do you know what you are doing here? Are we, as humans, a cosmic mix up? Are we a mistake? Are we a fluke of nature? There are many philosophies out there that would say we sure are right. Humans are a big byproduct of some weird cosmic gas situation. There's nothing behind it. Enjoy the ride while you have it. Good. Well, it's a question that these writers ask in their anxiety about what it is to be human. In Psalm eight, we get a little bit of this. It's a psalm of David. It says this when I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars you set in place says, what are we, mere mortals? That you would think about them, human beings, that you should care for them. He takes a look at humans and he's wondering, what are these things? The world is so big, there's so much going on, and what's a human? We're mere mortals, we have a short lifespan. We're here and then we're gone. Maybe we pass some stuff onto our kids.

[00:04:02.500] - Speaker 2

But what is this about? Right? Do you know what you've made here? God? Maybe you're wondering this here today too. Maybe you enjoy a good existential crisis sometimes where you stop and lean back and say, what am I here for? What is this life about? What is it to be human? Do we just come here and we suffer a little bit and we're done? Do I work my job and try to save up enough for retirement, which disappears when I finally get there? What is this about? Well, the psalm cries a similar cry and then we read he goes on in it, the writer of this psalm, and it says this says, yet you made them a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority. He tries to orient humans in God's big story. Humans are somehow not as low as worms. They aren't way down there, and they aren't as high as God. They're somewhere in between. They have been given by God this authority to occupy this middle space, higher than this, lower than this. Humans, the ancient songs say they have a place in God's world.

[00:05:14.120] - Speaker 2

Humans have a home here. And science would say that we live in this wee little thin layer around a planet that's spinning through cosmic space. If we go up a little higher, we will suffocate. If we go down below, we'll suffocate. But we're all happy, right, in this little layer, right? It's kind of weird when you step back with it. If this is too much for you, then you can go back to what a lot of us do, which is to say, I can't think about it. But these psalms, they unpack it. We stand above the soils and the minerals around us, but we are below the angels, who in turn belong to God. And this cry rings through what are we? Last week we asked, Where are we? And we learned about God finding God's people or finding this husband and wife, Adam and Eve, under the undergrowth and said, Where are you? I had to discover that. And in this, we wonder, along with all these before us, what are we? And so our big conversation that we're doing is we're going to ask these big questions about what it is to be human.

[00:06:17.740] - Speaker 2

Because what you believe about being human will shape your entire life. It will shape everything you do. Your perceived origin story, where you came from, your place in the vast universe and all that we can and cannot do. It will utterly form us. And it could make us hide under a rock and shake in fear or step out boldly into this life. I think we have one beautiful life to live. And I think in Jesus we can step out in a beautiful way. So into this whole vast story comes Jesus, who shows us and demonstrates to us not only what it is to be human, but he reframes everything in a way that we can see ourselves, others and our creator with. This resounding proclamation that humans, the very ones standing in front of him, every human he met, that they can know who they are and whose they are. We are not going around with our eyes closed, blind, but we are stepping in as followers of Jesus with a huge capacity to step into life as a full human. Jesus lays out the foundation for the quest for humanity and for purpose by becoming a human.

[00:07:32.300] - Speaker 2

And to show us how. I want to share just a few things here as to what we are. What we are. There's three really basic biblical principles that we stand on that often goes in contrast to what the world around us might tell us. And if we had even just these three to wake up to every morning, we would be on a good start. For something that I'm going to share here that I think Jesus does in us. And it's this number one, we are God's handiwork. We are his beautiful creation. He made us like a sculptor, make something he loves. But this is a living creation that super surpasses anything. I've been online playing with AI a little bit. Has anybody been playing with this stuff? You can ask a computer to say things and it sounds almost human, right? You can ask it to make art and it sounds almost human. But we are his handiwork. All these things are just trying to mimic what a human can do. Ephesians 210 says this for we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus. To do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.

[00:08:41.890] - Speaker 2

Christians start here. We start by declaring that we are God's design, made by God and in God's creative and abundant love. God made us where's handiwork his workmanship. We are owned by someone in his imagination. He thought of us and said this is just perfect. I want to make this. And creators are proud of what they made. Doesn't matter what it goes through. They are proud of what they made. And they look and they say this is good. And when God is proud of us, it means that he also has a purpose for us, even if we don't always see what that is. So we are God's handiwork number 1. Second, we are dependent on God. Humans have this amazing they occupy an amazing, unique place in the animal world. We are not like all the other animals. And I looked at scientists are trying to figure out why are humans so different from all the other animals? And humans have this amazing capacity to see themselves from outside. And philosophers, they say that humans can see themselves from outside. I actually saw a video of a bear. They had put up a mirror in a forest and this bear came around the corner and saw the mirror and just freaked out on it, right?

[00:10:04.860] - Speaker 2

Smashing it, going around behind it, wondering where the bar is, just not aware that it's just a mirror, right? We as humans, we can see ourselves from outside. And the more we see ourselves from outside, the more we get to actually see what it is we are made of. We like a pantry. We get to see and make sense and go, I'm made of this. This is inside of me. I have this capacity. And the more philosophers call this openness to the world. It is the ability for humans to have this amazing capacity for seeing so much in the future, in the past, in the present. And by having this huge expansive view, christian philosophers actually say then we must have someone who understands what this big burden is that we carry. We can think and dream and participate in the world. But guess what? We realize that for all that we are made of, we have not found something to fulfill us yet. You too? I still haven't found what I'm looking for. Right? We are longing for something. This huge expanse of imagination has only brought us to a place where we go.

[00:11:09.660] - Speaker 2

It's not found here. What I'm looking for isn't found here. It's not found at the mall, it's not found on the internet. And if you live long enough, guys like Solomon write great books that say, listen, I tried it all. I've had hundreds of wives. It's still not found there, right? And in the end, we wonder at this great sense of purposelessness. Even though we have the super ability to look at the meaning of it. All right? Humans are caught here. We see how in vain it is that we only have the short life and yet we long still for meaning. St. Augustine, he says this our hearts are restless until they find rest in thee, O God. We are made to be dependent on God. We are humans who are God's handiwork, and we need God for our purpose in life. These are the two foundations. We're God's handiwork, and we are dependent on God for our purpose. You can deviate from it. He'll follow you wherever you go looking for your purpose. He followed Solomon and he's like, Boy, that's a lot of wives. There my boy. But if I get 100 more, maybe okay, I'll be here in the end when you write your book saying it's all purposeless until I find God.

[00:12:26.020] - Speaker 2

Last one. We have a valuable origin story. We have been in our family. We have recently found out more information about Kelly's biological father. And it has been exciting. We are like we have learned more little tidbits of information that are weaving us to interesting distant family relatives. And we discovered, like this auntie. She's lovely. We even went to the same college, Kelly's biological auntie and I. And we're just like a little bit of this little origin story. A little taste of this origin story has brought some joy to us, and it's exciting. But imagine if we know our origin story in God. Imagine if we had an origin story that the Creator made us. Stan Grenz, he says that knowing our origin story comes from God. It does two things in us. It says that I am not the author of my story. Somebody else dreamed this story. Somebody else imagined how this story would go. That's number one. And number two, that we have meaning. That you are made to connect with your Creator, to have purpose, direction and resolve for your life. That being human means having value. Everyone wants to say what you're worth and what you do with your life.

[00:13:42.220] - Speaker 2

But having an origin story in God means that you know your value and your story is in God's hands. So these are the three quite unique Christian proclamations about being human and what we are made of. One, you are God's handiwork, you're dependent on God, and you have an origin story that gives you great value. When those three are held in our eyes and we meet Jesus, something profound happens in that because Jesus shows us how all those three things come alive in us. So Christian anthropology makes some really bold claims here. A Christian view of being human makes some very bold claims here. And either we believe those claims or we don't. There's really no easy middle ground there. Oftentimes in our faith we go, I'm kind of Christian in my worldview, actually. Our worldview needs to hold those things quite up and test stuff against it and say, Am. I really God's handiwork? Can I really depend on him? Does he really provide for me? And does my origin story start there? Or am I trying to write my own story every day? Couple words. Barra is the Hebrew word for create God.

[00:15:00.210] - Speaker 2

Bara everything. God created everything. All of the stuff that you are made of, the periodic table of elements, physics, chemistry, biology, that is God's creative work. Barra. But there's another word that comes a little bit after this. God created you. And you might believe this, and this alone might be your anthropology, that God started you and created you, your belief about humans and God in the created world. So what, God made me, and a lot of Christians stop here with bara. God creates you. You go, thanks. I'm here, I breathe. Now I'm going to find my own way. But there's another word. It's a word called ASA, and it means made. God made you. Did you know that when a child is born, it isn't that God creates the child? God created the mother and everything that made the child, and God created but God made the child. The child was formed in the mother's womb, right? Psalm 121 two says, my help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. It says God created everything, but here it's saying God made it. And this word is like an ongoing word. It means to make.

[00:16:20.850] - Speaker 2

He's making heaven and earth. God created everything and now he's in the business of upgrading it kind of like I talked about with the kids. God created all of the ingredients and now he's cooking, now he's making. Now he's bringing life to these ingredients and he is active in this. The word is assa. God made the heavens and the earth. This helping Lord, my help comes from the Lord who made heavens and the earth. My helping Lord, he is a maker to the present tense. He is ongoing in this making work. Not just back then, not once, not when you were born, not when your great grandparents were born, but he is ongoing in this making work. God's doing more than just great heaven and earth. He is he's building it up. He's mixing these raw ingredients. Humans are made in the image of God. Assa in the image of God. We are being made into the image of God. There was a moment in my story that's my hardest moment, my hardest moment. I've shared the story before, and I only share it once in a while because sometimes when you dig into a hard moment, you're like, I don't really want to go back there.

[00:17:36.100] - Speaker 2

It was a moment that some of you have heard about, but I was married before Kelly, and I was married for three years, and my wife had a series of affairs that just destroyed me. I was utterly undone. I lost my humanity in that. I lost £40. Everything I thought was true about me, that God has a plan for me, that God knows me, that God I'm His handiwork. No, that was all undone in this betraying experience. I was deeply hurt. And I remember one day I'll just tell the story for what it is. But I remember one day I stood I was in a basement street in Calgary where I was living, and I was a pastor and new pastor at this church. And I was just thinking of seeing everything disappear, even myself. I just wanted to shrivel up under the weight of this undoing. I remember I had one hand on this old dresser and another hand on this old dresser. I was standing there, and it's maybe the only time in my life that I've almost perhaps heard the voice of God. And this is what I heard. Preston, I am making you.

[00:18:43.260] - Speaker 2

I am making you. In this moment of my deepest undoing, I am encountering a God who is making me. Did you know that that's what I needed to hear more than anything else in my deep sorrow was that God was making me? That I wasn't just created and left to spin off into this world alone, but that I was being made by a God who sees me and knows how all the pieces go together. He knows the recipe. He knows how life comes to Preston. I am his handiwork. And he wasn't about to abandon his handiwork when I was needing the Creator the most. And he came close to me, and I believe he spoke to me. I am making you. What are you being made into today? I thought I was a worm. I thought this might be true. I thought I could maybe learn it in a book. But I was pretty educated at that time. But what I needed was I needed the presence of Jesus Himself to come to me and whisper into my heart what is true about me. My making and forming and being made is in Jesus. It is in a person.

[00:19:55.160] - Speaker 2

Not a philosophy of something that happened a long time ago, but it's something that is happening right now. He let me borrow his life in my moment when I did not know that I had anything going on. He said, Come and be in me. My life will be yours. The scriptures unpack this that we borrow the very make wholeness of Jesus. He is whole and complete as a human, and we get to enter into his wholeness and be made whole in Him. Two Corinthians 318 it says this and the Lord, who is Spirit, makes us more and more like Him. As we are changed into his glorious image, he is making us into what he looks like. I was a worm, and Jesus says that he wants to make me look like Him. I can't plan that I'm being made into Him. Not to be anxious or cynical or bitter or vindictive. And let me tell you, for 2 hours after I got the worst news in my life, I had 2 hours where I was not following Jesus. 2 hours where I made a master plan to go my own way, to tell my own story, to be my own strength, to figure my own way through.

[00:21:16.830] - Speaker 2

And in those 2 hours, Jesus, he impressed on me that he has never left me. And in those 2 hours, I made a decision that I would be formed into his image. And guess what? It took some time, but guess what I was able to do in the weeks following? I was able to forgive a person that hurt me a great deal. It was a sign that I was being made into the human that God imagined me to be. To begin to be formed into the likeness of Christ. To not carry the cynicism, the anger, the bitterness, the shame, the rage, all the things that were bubbling inside of me. I was being formed into Christ. Even in my darkest time, Jesus was betrayed too. He was sold out by a friend. He was sold out by Judas. He was denied by Peter, and all of his followers fled. If you and I were there, we wouldn't be there. We'd have been like what? Is that the way? Is that the door? We're going there. And I did that too. For two solid hours, I was out of the room until he found me. Jesus was there, alone and dehumanized on a cross, tortured and nailed to a tree.

[00:22:32.820] - Speaker 2

I want to end with this. The most beautiful words that Jesus shared as Jesus. This man, God come man to live in the world of all of the brokenness, who knew that every human he met was God's handiwork, that they were each dependent on God, that they had this valuable origin story. He knew all that inherently because he was the one who great gave it. And there he hung on the cross, dying a criminal's death. And he said this word when he died. His last words on the cross was this teta lisa tai which is the Greek word assa. It is finished. I made it. I did it on the cross. Jesus finishes making his people on the cross. He says, Ay, they are now complete. These people that I made in my image, I made them. And their completion is now full in me because I took on everything that is broken about them and it is in me now. That means they can live, is finished. I wonder if Jesus took his last breath as one of great pride, to feel like he was able to finish something that he started. That no sin, shame, brokenness and death would come between Him and his people anymore.

[00:24:00.900] - Speaker 2

That he created them. But now he made them done. Humans are done. They are whole. They are complete. When he rises from the dead, the job is over right now. You might be sitting here today and wondering. I don't feel that the goal isn't for you to sometimes feel it, but the goal isn't for you to the goal isn't for you to convince God to finish something he didn't ever finish. The goal is for you to accept what he already did for you. I finished you. I finished you. You are whole and complete. I made you. You are done. You can now be a new creation in me. All those things that cling to you to say you are undone, to say that you need to spend your life striving for some sort of career, for some sort of becoming a better parent, for becoming richer, for whatever it is you are pursuing after and going, I'm incomplete and I'm looking for these things. Jesus is saying, I finished. You already come live in me. Everything you are looking for your happiness, for your joy, for your purpose, how to live this one and beautiful life, it's fulfilled in me.

[00:25:21.100] - Speaker 2

I live in you and you live in me. And when you do, you get to be the complete human. You don't have to live with the cynicism and the anger and the fear anymore. You can leave that and let me show you even more and even more and even more. Our humanity is now bound in his, and it is the greatest gift I think we can give. It is the good news of the gospel, is that our humanity finds its completion in him. What are we? We are made and done in Christ and the Lord, who is Spirit, makes us more and more like Him and we are changed into his glorious image. Paul says in Psalm 22 31 says his righteous acts will be told to those not yet born and they will hear about everything he has done. Jesus, it is done. Amen. Heavenly Father, thank you that you have completed something. You created the world and then you made Jesus, who welcomes us, to be done in him too. To be completed, to be made to made whole. All the broken pieces are wrapped up in you. I pray for these my friends who have this one and beautiful life.

[00:26:44.430] - Speaker 2

I pray that they would discover what it is to be made in you, to be completed in you, to make their lives in you. And all the things that my friends in this room, these followers of Jesus along with me, are longing for in this life, this one and beautiful and good life, all the things they are pursuing, that are giving them anxiety, that are keeping them up at night, that are making them turn to all sorts of things that are into you. I pray that in that moment, as they grip onto the sides of their dressers, that they would know that you are making each and every one of them too, that they are not undone, but they are being made and that they can trust you with every step of the making, even if it hurts. Make us. Amen. Please stand with me. I did a funeral on Saturday, and it wasn't for I hope I'm not giving much away here. I might regret saying this, but it wasn't for a family that was explicit about their hope in Jesus. And throughout the whole time, I was giving the homily and all these things, and the family asked me to kind of stay in my lane.

[00:28:04.050] - Speaker 2

Right. I'm a Christian pastor, so they want at least a bit of me, but not all of me. Sorry I'm being crass, but I want to just scream out the hope of Jesus. I just wanted to just yell out and say, do you know there's great hope here? This person who has passed away, guess what? They are in the hands of someone who made them, who loves them, and so are all of you. This is not hopeless. This is good. May Lord bless you and keep you. May Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May Lord lift up his countenance upon you and grant you his peace. You are his handiwork. You can depend on him. And your story begins and ends with the One who dreamed you up and holds you in his imagination even now. Amen. Amen. Go peace, my friends. Have a good week. We'll see you next week here. Bless you all. Bye.