" "Divine Versus Human Achievement and the Self-Worth Crisis" The human heart is distinguished by a sense of deep discontentment. As Solomon has said, the soul of man (like Tartarus) is never satisfied. Each of us has within his bosom a breach which is boundless, an emptiness which craves validation and aches for acceptance. The question this sermon addresses is how such infinite yearning can find lasting fulfillment.

"The Good News of the Savior's Birth: The Myth and Fact of the Messiah" The final part of a 3 part series on the birth of Christ Jesus. 00:11 Luke 2 verses 1-14 1:58 Ellicott Quote "In all the Christian year, in all the secular year, there is not a day that has gained the same heartiness of universal welcome as the kindly Christmas. Though Easter-day is chief in the Church's Calendar, and though it comes in the hopeful spring with the first green leaves, when the most care-worn know some fitful waking-up of the old light-heartedness, it has never taken such hold of the common mind of our race as has the Sacred Festival that come in the deadest days of the drear December, when in the wild winter-time "the heaven-born Child lay meanly-wrapt in the rude manger." 4:18 Winter prepares our heart to welcome the Prince 4:49 We don't come upon astonishment; it comes upon us (because elation cannot be manufactured, but it can be extinguished by bitter resentment) 6:14 The Doctrine of Illumination 6:55 Conforming to Christ not through an act of the will, but through an act of worship. 8:31 Narcissism of our age and the running away from responsibility. 10:24 "The great sin of sentimentally" (the two tears cried) 11:25 Focus on Luke 2 verse 11 12:02 Power of archetypal myths (not for their truth), but their reality. (A good fable, while not literally true, is about a deeper reality in life). 13:18 Important distinction between reality and truth (not the same thing). 13:36 C.S. Lewis "Truth is always about something... but reality is that about which truth is." 14:24 Archetypal myth bridges this world and the next. 16:20 Direct experience of God (via indwelling of the Spirit) versus indirect way (via archetype). 18:24 Peril of modern, conservative Christianity in dismissing the power of "myth" in place of emotionless reason. 20:06 We must not be ashamed of the mythical radiance resting upon our theology - C.S. Lewis (proof of this power is shown by those who cherish "myths" of this theology long after dismissing them as factual). 22:30 An example of how "the Religion of Woke" has abandoned the truth, but not the REALITY of such a 'mythical radiance.' 24:31 Christianity is the archetypal myth that explains all myths - and yet it also became fact. 24:49 Jordan Peterson's work (and life) is centered in the reality of the myth, and states that he wishes for it to be true. 25:49 Marvel exemplifies the power of myths, and how some want so desperately for them to be real. 26:28 Galaxy Guest discusses the tension that exists between the "radiance of a myth" (the reality) and the desire that it also be the truth (factual). 28:40 Embracing both the "myth" and the truth (the fact) 28:47 The Scientific Revolution (saw Christianity split) - conservative Christians focused on preserving its truth (facts) at the expense of its mythical radiance (deeper reality). Progressive Christians did the opposite. 29:35 C.S. Lewis Quote "For this is the marriage of heaven and earth: perfect myth and perfect fact: claiming not only our love and our obedience, but also our wonder and delight, addressed to the savage, the child, and the poet in each one of us no less than to the moralist, the scholar, and the philosopher." 30:13 Christianity alone satisfies the imagination and the intellect. It's the Siloam in the soul. Part II of the sermon: 31:04 The Jesus "myth" satisfies both the Jewish and Gentile expectations 32:39 The establishment of the Jewish "myth" (2nd Samuel 7) 37:28 The dual nature of the Messiah (the animating myth of the Jews) 38:32 Good News for the Jews and for the whole world. 39:03 Book of Revelation's account of the birth in chapter 12 40:01 Cosmic Battle Myth (epic battle between good and evil) 40:47 Babylonian creation story (Marduk slays the dragon, Tiamat). Later seen in Roman culture Apollo slaying the dragon, Python. 42:45 Cesar Augustus called himself a "savior," and linked himself to Apollo myth 45:50 The Book of Revelation is using the myth to say not Augustus but Immanuel. 47:28 Bible is not a work of Syncretism 48:29 C.S. Lewis on embracing myths' grip on our imagination "We must not be nervous about "parallels" and "pagan Christs": they ought to be there - it would be a stumbling block if they weren't. We must not, in false spirituality, withhold our imaginative welcome." 49:43 There is a mythical radiance to these stories that stirs in our hearts a longing for fulfillment. For the myth to become fact (as it does in Christ).

When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden a “tension” was created in the heart of God. A conflict between his loyalty to his holiness (i.e. his duty to punish the guilty) and his loyalty to his love (i.e. his duty to show mercy to his beloved). And it is this dilemma which the Apostle Paul aims to resolve in Romans ch3 vrs21-26, answering the perennial question: How is it that God can remain just while justifying sinners? For if God is perfectly holy, then he must punish his son and daughter when they eat of the forbidden fruit. Yet, if he is perfectly loving, then must he not also show them mercy (all things being equal)? How does the apostle resolve this tension?

Proverbs 14 vrs34 - "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people."