Transcription
What's a good parent? What's a good spouse? What's a good marriage? We have all these things that are like measurement systems, and in this worldview, it's built on measuring one another. These are the most important things in a culture: love, joy, peace. The immeasurable is unimportant here.
Every human being looks through a lens when they look at the world. And so, like, when I pick up the scripture, or I pick up the newspaper, or I pick up anything, I already have a worldview that informs how I'm going to understand the information that I'm going to read. I already have it. It's built into me from being from young. You, the worldview is given to you very young in your life, and you start learning the truth of it and you accept it because you never question it because you don't know how to question it because what, the way you're asking questions is through your worldview. Even what you question is because of your worldview. Your worldview decides whether you think something's right or wrong. And the sad thing about it is, we don't know what it is.
So if I went around this room and I asked each person in this room, and we've done this many, many times, and, um, I did this, I taught this at Harvard, uh, at the beginning of the year, um, in the Harvard Fellows program. Doesn't matter where I am, that means nothing that I was there. I'm just telling you I've done this all over the place. What I'm going to do with you, um, this is how real this is. So if I went around the room, so if I went around the Harvard Fellows room and I said, "What's your worldview?" Or I asked you guys, "What's your worldview?" A lot of us don't know. Like, "I don't know." That's fine. Okay, you don't know. Or we might say, "I have a biblical worldview." And I would say, "Which biblical worldview do you have?" Because there's about 50 of them, and they, they've been fighting against each other since the beginning of biblical worldviews. So there's lots of different biblical worldviews. How do you know which biblical worldview is *the* biblical worldview?
So when I say, "I have a biblical worldview," which I wouldn't say personally, you'll see why. Do I believe the Bible? Yep. Do I have a biblical worldview? That's no. That's too little of an idea. So biblical worldview, how I see the Bible is because of my worldview. That's how we have different biblical worldviews. People have different worldviews, and they're reading the Bible, and they're reading the same passage, and one says, "This is what it means," and one says, "This is what it means," and we will no longer associate with one another because our biblical worldviews separate us. Is that what the Bible is supposed to be doing to us? Separating us? No. Why is it separating us? It's because of the worldview through which I'm reading the text.
A person says, "Well, I have a, you know, um, we're going to go the end of October and speak to the Muslim, um, leaders of Minneapolis." And if I ask them, "What's your worldview?" What I will, although they've heard me do this, so they'll know, they'll be ready for me, but they would say, "Quranic, have a Quranic worldview or an Islamic worldview." Not a worldview. Not a worldview. "I have a conservative worldview." Not a worldview. "I have a progressive worldview." Not, none of those are worldviews. At Harvard, one of the guys said, "I'm a capitalist." Good. Is not a worldview. Communist, capitalist, social, not a worldview. Those aren't worldviews. A worldview is the lens through which you see everything in the world. Everything. So the worldview, I, is the kind of the most important thing you understand about yourself is your worldview.
So the beautiful thing about the scriptures is that the very beginning of the scriptures, Genesis, which is the beginning of the sacred scriptures. In Genesis, remember who's who's writing? They're not writing necessarily, who's telling the story of Genesis? Who's doing it? Who? Moses. Okay. So I didn't think of this. You know, I grew up with the flannel graph, you know, and there's Adam and Eve. Where did they come from? Where's the story coming from? God. All right. Whatever. Okay. Anyway, and then you just start. It's the beginning of the world. Here's where we start. But Moses is the one telling the story of Genesis and Exodus and, like, he's the one telling the Torah. There might be multiple, but he's the main guy. Okay. So he's telling the story and he's telling the story to who? Do you remember who he's telling the story to? Israelites. Okay. So he's orally telling the story to the Israelites, and the Israelites are where when he's telling it to them? They're in the wilderness. Okay. So they're in the wilderness, and, and something has happened to them here. And what's happened to them is the gospel of God. They're in bondage up until Thursday. It ends on a day, and on that day, at just the right time, Moses, God, the whole thing comes in, and the bondage is broken, which they had been in so many years that they probably kind of gave up. Pharaoh's too strong. We've run out of time. We're powerless and alone. But on a Tuesday or a Wednesday, it's like when, uh, who says that? Joshua says, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow God is going to do a new thing." I, I, that has not changed. You all, that has not changed. It's like, man, this life is, is it Wednesday yet? No. Well, it's not time yet. Hang on. Keep walking because you will walk right into it. And we're going to find out. The only way you can miss it is by either going backwards, or walking in a circle, or stopping dead. This never moves. You stopped. That's all. Why'd you stop? It's not going to work. Keep walking. Okay.
So I don't want to get out of my. They're in the wilderness. They've come out of at least 200 years of slavery. They didn't start in slavery in Egypt. They started in huge wealth in Egypt. People forget this. They were significant influencers with the Pharaoh in Goshen once upon a time. And somehow they went from that position of, "Brought in by Joseph. We love you guys. Pharaoh, we love you guys. We love Joseph. Come on in. There's a famine. Come on in. Be with us. Bless us like Joseph blessed us." They come in, and 400 years later, they're all slaves. How did that happen? How did that happen? They forgot God. I know, but like on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday, what happened? They didn't just go, "I know, let's forget God." They didn't do that. They probably didn't think they were forgetting God, but they, they did. But we want to know how and why. And over time, they end up in complete bondage. Influencers, you're an influencer, policy makers, you're writing pets or literature, you're leading the universities, and now we're making bricks and getting all of our approval from the number of bricks we can make in a factory and a 9-to-5 job. H. Something happened there historically. Anyway.
So the time has come. The kingdom is at hand. Repent to this situation. Turn away. You're not slaves. You're not brick makers. That never happened. Stop acting like that. And believe the new thing. Follow me. It's all what Jesus is going to say. And I will make you to become what you are all always supposed to be. And you actually always have been. You don't believe it. You stopped. God didn't stop. So let's start walking again. You guys stopped in Goshen. You stopped when you got wealthy and comfortable, and you stopped walking. And the empire got you. It took a while, but it got you. And it made you slaves. And, and there's nothing you can do about it. This is the story Moses is telling these people. And so he's telling them this story. And imagine all they've ever known is bondage and slavery and factory jobs and 9-to-5. And what's life worth? It's not worth anything. It's pointless. Do you believe in God? Yeah, whatever kind of, whatever. And it's just that's how life's been going as far back as they can remember. And Moses says, "You know what? There was a time before that. There, there was a time before the bondage thing happened, but you don't remember what it was. So I'm going to tell you the story of worldview."
And so he starts in the very first cause of this. He's not saying science book. He's saying the very beginning of what this is going to be. "In the beginning of that, it was utter chaos, and the world was formless and in complete chaos, and darkness ruled." That's how he starts the story. Can't you see him? He's telling a group this, and they're like, "Oh my gosh, what happened in the darkness?" And he starts to tell them the story. And what he tells them in the story of Genesis 1 to 3, even actually on to 12, 1 through 12, they don't have chapters. He's just telling the story. He's telling, "This is what he's saying. I want you to really see this. What this is, um, because we, you know, we worked a long time in the Muslim world. We came out of the Muslim world. We started working in marketplace kind of stuff. We understood identity really well. We'll get to that briefly. But even though we taught identity, and Muslims were receiving their identity from God, and it was drawing them straight into relationship with Jesus, because you can't understand identity without God himself standing there as an example." Let me say that again. You can't understand your true identity, or what identity even means, unless you can see God himself demonstrating identity, real human identity, right in front of you. And that demonstration is Jesus.
So as they begin the journey into like, "I don't, I, my identity is Muslim. My identity is Hamas." Those, those are not identities. Those are team names and club names and affiliations and vocations, not identity. "Well, if I'm not Hamas and I'm not Muslim, then what am I?" "Yes, right. Not what am I, who am I? Who knows that? Does God speak to us? Does he love us? Yes. How do we know? Jesus." And so now we lift up Christ, and Christ draws. And these folks came to faith. I just like this great Muslim friend who came to faith. He just texted me the other day. He's hated Israel his entire life because he was born in Jerusalem and all that stuff. Anyway, doesn't matter. And when we met, started meeting together in Jerusalem, long time ago, we started reading through these books. And I, they know the Tanakh, they call the Old Testament the Tanakh, and the Zabur. And I said, "Let's read the Tanakh together." Because he kept saying, "I'm a terrible student. I'm a terrible student. And I'm, I'm a Palestinian, and I will, I'm not allowed to go to any school here. And I'm not allowed to get a driver's license. And I'm not allowed to go to university. I can't, I can't leave the country. I'm powerless and alone. And I will never be able to do anything with my life." And I'm like, "That's not true. None of that's true, except the part that you're in *this*." That's true. The rest of it's not true. "Israel controls my future." That is not true. "Americans hate my guts." Partially true, but it doesn't matter. None of that matters. Let's look. Let's read the Tanakh together. Let's read the Torah together and see what these guys learned. They're the prophets, Nabi, they called them. And so we start reading. And I tell them, "Do you know who Nabi Musa, Musa is talking to?" No. He's talking to the, we're doing this number, and he's talking to people that have been bonded their whole life. And, and Sam says, "That's me, right?" "Yes. Good. All right." So he said, "But there was a way before that. And this is the right worldview, and this is the wrong worldview. And there's only two worldviews." And Sam embraced the shift in worldview first, and then the move in identity second, and everything was different.
And we realized you can work on identity with a person, but the worldview will ultimately kill them. It's like raising a fish in a fish farm where you control all the elements, and that fish grows big and healthy, beautiful, and you drop it in a toxic pond, and the fish doesn't know what water is. It knows what to eat. It knows what not to eat. It knows what to avoid in terms of predators. It knows all that stuff. It doesn't know that what it's breathing every day is killing it, and it dies, and it doesn't know why. That's us. That's humans. So Sam, the reason I'm talking about him is he texted me the other day. I'm, this is what he used to say to me, "I'm a terrible student." We did identity. "God said, 'You're a healer of the city. A healer of the city.'" He knows that's God speaking to him. What's God's picture of a healer of a city? Jesus, the great physician, the great healer. What does he do to his enemy? He dies for them. Sam's like, "Well, I don't know if I can go this road." It's like, most of us don't go that road. And then he starts to follow Jesus. "Follow me, and I will make you to become a healer of a city at a level you've never even dreamed of." But deep in your heart, you've always longed for, haven't you longed to be the healer of the city? "Yeah, I have. But I hate the injustice of the city." Then heal it. Don't fight it. Heal it. So he gets that. We work on worldview, kind of. Anyway, he ended up getting a degree in the US from, uh, because he could never leave the country. He wasn't smart enough. And I went, we went to his graduation where he got his bachelor's degree in public health. And he texted me the other day, and he just finished his MBA where he Hebrew University. That's how God works. That's how God works. The people that hung the MBA around his neck were his enemies. But they were never his enemy. They weren't. That's why Jesus says, "Love your enemies." You know why they're not your enemy?
So Moses is telling them two worldviews. He says, "Here's the worldview you've been living in your entire existence. This one, separation worldview." Okay. So the separation worldview, by the way, we're talking in the back here. I first started reading about this stuff in economics. I didn't learn this from the scriptures. I didn't know how to read the scriptures this way because of my worldview. But I started, I started asking God, "How come people in their true identity are falling apart? And they're not changing anything? We're not reforming the criminal justice system. We're not making healthcare work. We're not, do we're not helping public education? It's just dying slowly. All where's all the believers? What's going on? How come we're so powerless? We're good at arguing and fighting and trying to take power from one another, but we don't know how to heal anything?" Why? Because we're in this worldview. That's why, as believers. So separation worldview.
So I started reading economic theory and policy and the history of economics and the history of economics in scripture, and the history of economics through Augustine and all those church fathers had all deep theories of economics. And then I started, "Wow, that's interesting." And then I started thinking, "Well, if this is real, then it's got to match with anthropology and archaeology and psychology, and it's got to go, it's got to go with the word. It's got to be in the Bible for me." So we just read and read and researched and researched. And sure enough, there it was. And this is what Moses is trying to tell the Israelites and us. This worldview is the worldview the Israelites were living in, and Pharaoh, and everybody in the whole world. It didn't matter what country they came from. It didn't matter their discourse style. It didn't matter what they thought or believed about religion. This was the worldview they were living in.
So here's the worldview. It's called the separation worldview. It has different names according to whoever you read or whatever you're reading, economics or anthropology or religion. Separation worldview believes that separation is a good idea. That separating, you'll see what I mean, is a good idea. Okay. The counter worldview to that, obviously, is called the connection worldview, the interbeing worldview, something like that. Just call it connection here. So you can see these two worldviews are diametrically opposed to each other. They're not close. They're opposite. Okay. So what we want to do is figure out which one am I living in all the time? Which one did I grow up in? Which one did I breathe in every day? And it's so deep in the way I think that even when I read the Bible, I see this. Even when I listen to a speaker speak, I hear this because it's so deep in my subconscious, in my neural pathways, in my memory bank, in my amygdala goes straight to separation in every situation. It's so deep in me. It would take utter spiritual deep transformation to get out of this. I mean, it would take dramatic transformation to get out of this worldview. It's so deep, and it's been taught for generation after generation after generation. Public school, private school, Christian school, Muslim school, all of them teaching this.
Separation is a good idea. For separation to be a good idea, you have to have certain things you hold to. And not just you, your whole culture has to hold to it as true. And here's the number one pillar of a separation worldview: you have to believe in scarcity. You have to believe in scarcity. Scarcity is the absolute truth in my mind that in this world, there is not enough. There is not enough of what? Anything. So let's think, in my day, what is there not enough of? What would you say? We all know this. We all agree. We write books about it. There's not enough what? Time. We as, um, humans have agreed. Do you have enough time? Nope. As I said at the beginning, time is my enemy. Time is my enemy. There is not enough time. Not enough time for what? To do what I want to do, to be who I want to be, uh, to, to rest, to not be in anxiety. There just isn't enough time. I, you, I have to learn how to not be anxious, but there's, I can't. I don't have the time. And the Christians are like, "Well, let's write books on what to do because there's not enough time." Our books are about, yep, yep. So let's write books on how to manage our little teeny amount of time that we do get. So the tyranny of the urge and all these goofy sayings. It's like, time is a god. But so there's not enough time. Agreed. Now, if I was in a room full of Muslims, which we've been many times, or Buddhists or Hindu, and I said, "What is there not enough of?" They would all say, "Time." This is a universal agreement. We've all gotten together and agreed there's not enough time. What else is there not enough of? Money. Never enough money. Not just money, like I want more money. There's not enough funding to do the things I want to do. I would do it, but we don't have the money. Or the time. If I had the time, I don't have the money. Right? God, if you would give me the money, I would make the time. I would make the time. Oh, you're a god. Not enough time and not enough money. What else is there not enough of? Jobs. Well, there used to be not enough jobs, but now there's not enough employees. Isn't that weird? Before COVID, not enough jobs. After COVID, people have just vanished. Like there's suddenly, did the population change? This is important. Did the population change? No. If you have the same number of people here and the same number of people here, how can you have not enough jobs here? Too many people. And now too many jobs and not enough people. And nothing's really changed. And we still don't have enough time and money, though. That remained the same. Like, this is like this is so bizarre.
So is there enough love? Is there enough forgiveness? Is there enough joy? What is there? There's not enough of anything. Did you get enough time watching your kids grow up? I didn't. It all went by like that. Where were you? Is it over? Did the time end? Does time end? It must because we're so regretful that we missed it. What did you miss? Who said you missed anything? Where did you learn that? Where did you learn any of this? Is there enough land? We know there's. How do we know there's not enough land? How do we know? I mean, you read the newspaper. How do you know people have agreed there's not enough land? How do we know? We all agree there's not enough land. How do we know? What's the evidence that we all believe there's not enough land? Going up. Yeah, that prices are going up because there's not enough money for those guys. Or the, we know there's not enough land because of war. That's how we know there's apparently not enough land because we got to go kill people to get more of it. Or there's not enough, so we got to make sure nobody comes and takes ours, right? Man, we can't let them hear. Why? Because we're here. That's always a great reason for something. Because I'm here. So what I have, this, this is mine, and they might take it from me, and that can't happen. Why? Because I don't, we need to be separate from them. Why? Because they might take my stuff. This is a never-ending war. It cannot be stopped. We know that. We've never stopped a war. We've been exhausted in war where we can't fight anymore. Like, let's just stop. Or we've killed everyone on the other team so they can't come back. We didn't end anything. We just temporarily shut it down. They'll be back. Oh, they'll be back. Well, if we just get enough guns aimed at them, and then we won't fight because we're both afraid to die. But what if we really run out of land? And what if there's one guy that's so deep in separation that he thinks he has the right to push a button because he thinks that country belongs to him? Well, why wouldn't he? He's living in the same worldview I'm living in. Do you see that? Like, there's no end. There's absolutely no end to this.
And if there's scarcity, well, then I better be certain about everything I do because I don't want to miss the one opportunity I'm going to get in my life, and I'm only going to get one. You're only going to get one shot. If you went to the right school, if you got the right grades, if you studied the right thing at the right time, you might get it. But you definitely don't want to miss it. So you got to be certain. There's not enough. It forces us into certainty. What if God is not loving enough? What if His grace isn't enough for me? Well, then I better be certain to make Him happy. How? Well, I'll tell you what we've come up with. We've come up with six things that God demands. Where does he demand them? On our, our list. And you have to say these words this way, and if you say them the wrong way, you're out. God only offers limited opportunities. And fortunately, we're the ones that know what it is. No, you don't. We do. Don't take any of our members. The war is on, and we're going to separate because those guys are all going to hell, and they, they don't. And so certainty produces extremism. So you want to see a country that's struggling in scarcity and certainty? How extreme it is in its separation. In a country where everyone is struggling with scarcity, interestingly, it doesn't matter whether the country is rich or poor. Makes no difference. Could be a really wealthy country that thinks there's not enough for us. And the way you can tell they're in certainty is if you say one thing counter to what I believe, you are my enemy. Have you ever seen a country like that? We're like, "I love my neighbor unless they did or didn't get a shot." Then the war is on. You're kidding. You're going to fight over that? Yeah, because there's only one way, and you guys are going to get me killed. It's always, "We're going to get the other person killed." I'm telling you right now, if those guys come into power, you're dead. The weird thing is, you go into their room, they're like, "Did he tell you? Did they say you're dead if they're, if we're in power? If they get in power, you're dead." Here's a conclusion: we're all just dead because both groups are all in the same worldview. They all are. Certainty leads to perfectionism. You cannot fail. You cannot fail. We don't have time to fail. "How'd you do on that test?" The little kid comes to him. "Uh, what does F mean?" And the parents like, "Oh, it's over. That's what it means. It's over. That's what it means. It's over." He's in kindergarten. He failed scissors. I remember when our youngest failed scissors, and me and Donna were like, "I think this is beyond God. I really do."
Here's another little error that God did. He, we moved into the Muslim world where the worst thing you could do in meeting anyone is use your left hand. All of our kids are left-handed. Donna, like, we would tie things around their left hand like, "Keep it over here. Use this hand." And they're like, "Yeah, but I throw it with this one." And, uh, you tie it around their back, and they're like, "Hi, I'd like like this." Because the left hand is completely unclean. And it was, we just laughed. It's like, "God, thank you for our kids that you clearly didn't make to live in the Muslim world." And that's where we're going to be for 27 years. Like that kind of stuff. Super. So perfectionism. It's, it's no failure. Here's why there's no failure. Because in the, in this worldview, failure is an identity. It's not something that happened. It's an identity that people take on. You didn't fail a test. You are a failure. You didn't fail math. You're a failure. You know how we know people believe that? Because if you're in, in a public school, you know this, especially if you're in a, in a public school that doesn't have tons of money, those kids will do anything rather than go in that math class. Anything. They will sacrifice their entire future rather than go on that math class. Why? Because that math class names me failure. And you can't fail math because there's not enough opportunity in the world or whatever. And so scarcity, certainty, perfection. It only can lead to one thing in a human being when they're in this world. They have to focus on themselves above all else. They have to. You have to. Do you see that? Do you understand that? Then who's going to help me? Who's going to protect me? Who's going to guard my yard? Who's going to protect my family? God? Come on, really? Really, seriously? Who's going to do it? I have to protect myself. Who's going to make me a good Christian father? Who's going to make me that? What is, is it, what is a good Christian father? Where's the definition of that? All I've been told is, "You better be one. You better be one, or you fail your family, and you're a failure as a father unless you're a good Christian father." Where is the definition of that? Where did Jesus say, "Get ready, here comes the requirements for a good Christian father"? Remember when he gave that lecture? Who gave that lecture? We gave that lecture. We came up with that lecture. And we get measured by it.
What's a good parent? What's a good spouse? What's a good marriage? We have all these things that are like measurement systems, and in this worldview, it's built on measuring one another. So what's most important in your life is the immeasurable. Love, joy, peace. These are the most important things in a culture. Love, joy, peace. The immeasurable. Measurable, unimportant here. The measurable. How many sales did you make? How many people did you witness to? How much money do you have? How big is your house? How well did you do? Measurement, measurement, measurement, measurement. Do you know how young kids are when they know they're being measured? They're young. They are young. There's an article I talk about this. I love this example. I hate the example, but it's a good one. In the New Yorker, there was an article about a kindergarten that opened up, and it was for elite kids. Don't you love that? What does that mean? It's for elite kids. What do you think "elite" means in that sentence? Rich. Yeah, exactly. Rich kids. Anyway, elite kids. That's to discourage the not-elite kids from even applying. And it's kindergarten. Can you imagine parents looking like that? That's for elite kids. So how much money do we have? Can our kid be elite or not? Like that. So the reporter that wrote the article talks about meritocracy and all this stuff, and then he goes and talks to the parents whose kid, the kids had to be interviewed, and the parents, and for the parents whose kids didn't get in, he interviewed the parents. And then he asked to talk to the kids that didn't get in. They were four years old. Do you know what they knew? Those four-year-olds knew. What do you think they knew? They weren't good enough. You know how you know where they learned that from? Their parents.