✨ Summary

What Is Our Purpose? ("Telos")

• Greek concept of "Telos" = final purpose or end goal.
• Examples:
  • Paintbrush → painting
  • Car → driving
  • Humanity → What is our purpose?
• God created us for a reason-not just to have resolutions, but to be what He made us to be.

God's Blueprint for Humanity (Genesis 1-2)

• Genesis 1:26-27 → Humanity created in God’s image (Imago Dei).
  • Not like animals-we are designed to represent God, have complexity, and be in relationship with Him.
  • Created in the image of a relational God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) so we could enter into relationship with Him.
• Genesis 2:8 → God placed man in Eden (place of pleasure/delight) in close proximity to Himself.
  • Eden = Heaven and Earth united (not separate like we see today).
  • Humanity was meant to flourish in God’s presence.

The Fall: Humanity in the Wrong Place

• Adam (Hebrew for "man") = representative of humanity.
  • When he sinned, humanity fell with him.
• Genesis 3 → Adam chose self over God, lost Eden (pleasure/delight), entered exile.
• Genesis 4:16 → Cain exiled further, to Nod (wandering).
  • Humanity has been wandering ever since, restless and disconnected from God.
• We are exiles-living in a world we weren’t designed for, trying to fit in, but it’s destroying us.

We Have Lost Our Humanity

• Because of sin, we have been deformed-no longer the image-bearers we were meant to be.
• We have become a corrupted version of ourselves.
  • Like a glitch in a game (Wreck-It Ralph), or Skexies (Dark Crystal), or cursed beings (Beauty & the Beast).
  • Sin has altered us, and we are no longer fully human as God intended.
• Church tradition teaches: we have forfeited the right to bear God’s image.
  • We can’t truly represent Him or live in His presence.
  • We were made to worship God, but sin has broken that ability.

Our Telos Is to Be Like God, But Sin Has Corrupted Us

• Matthew 5:48 → "Be perfect (teleios) as your Father is perfect."
  • "Perfect" doesn’t mean flawless-it means whole, complete, fully human.
  • We were meant to be fully what God created us to be.
• Augustine: "You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You."

Sin Warps What We Worship

• We were created to worship, so we will worship something.
• Psalm 115:4-8, 2 Kings 17:15 → Those who worship idols become like them (lifeless, worthless).
• Sin reshapes us into the image of what we worship.
  • Like Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Gollum in LOTR, Anakin becoming Vader.
  • The more we give in to sin, the less human we become.
• Isaiah 8:21-22 → Humanity is lost, in darkness, restless, angry at God.

But There Is Hope: The Light Has Come

• Isaiah 9:1-2, 6 → A child will be born (Jesus), bringing light to those in darkness.
• Malachi 4:2, Luke 1:78-79 → Jesus is the "Sun of Righteousness," bringing healing.
  • The world is in darkness, but Christ is the rising sun, restoring what was lost.
• Analogy: Like when the hero in a movie reverses a curse and people are restored.
  • Jesus has come to undo the effects of sin and make us human again.

Jesus Restores Us to Our Purpose

• Romans 8:29 → We are being conformed to the image of Christ.
  • Jesus recreates us, brings order to chaos, restores us to God’s image.
• Jesus is making us human again.
  • He didn’t abandon us-He gave up His own rights so we could regain ours.

The Response: Making Christ the Center in 2025

• Philippians 3:8 → Paul counts everything as loss for the sake of knowing Christ.
  • Nothing is worth more than Him.
• New Year's Challenge:
  • Forget resolutions, habits, self-improvement plans.
  • Instead, ask: "How can I make Christ the center of my life in 2025?"
  • Let everything else-goals, habits, desires-flow from that relationship with God.
• C.S. Lewis: "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."

👉 Key Takeaway: _Jesus is remaking us into the people God intended us to be.

📝 Final Sermon Script

New Year - 2025!

• I was thinking about this year and I wonder where all those 2020 vision preachers are now?
• For those christians who were around in 2018-2019… Remember those preachers who had those words like "2020 is the year of vision," "God will download a vision for your life to you and it will be clear, like 2020 vision"
• I wonder where those guys are now? You reckon they've got their whole life sorted out now?

The New Year is always interesting… Full gyms, health foods are all sold out now, IG is full of motivational influencers shaming us all for not having our year worked out yet.

• Wouldn't it be amazing if we have a blueprint for life? "this is how to live"
• You know, like a letter that lays out God's plans for human, or maybe like a collection of letters.
• Let me tell you this, this book has the answer to all of these questions.
• "How am I supposed to be living my life?"
• I'm turning 30 in a few days… I'll tell you what I'm most looking forward to? I feel like 30s is the escape from masculinity limbo.
• For all the guys in their early 20s, you know this.
• Am I a boy or a man? People only refer to you as a guy or a dude? Masculinity Limbo! What decision do you make to be a man?

Concept from Greek Philosophy (Plato/Aristotle) = "Telos"

• "Man's final end" = the purpose of something
  • Telos of Paintbrush = painting
  • Car = driving
  • Fork = eating
  • What's yours?
    • You are a created being, He created you for a reason? What is that?
    • "Josh, I dont even have resolutions, let alone knowing that"
    • Yup, that's the point… This isn't one of those cliche New Years messages about habits or goals… It's about purpose, humanity… How to BE who God created us to be

God, in giving us the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is giving us this vision on how to live in His world

• He's saying "ok, things have fallen apart, it's hard for you to see me or know me"… That's what this is for
• I'm giving you a clear vision of Jesus, of who God is, and now you can build your life on that wisdom and knowledge.
• This morning, I want to talk about this… and how Jesus healed the human experience.
• For those who take notes, I've called this sermon 'How To Be Truly Human'
• In 2025, lets all be truly human… It's hard for some of us gremlins out there.

So we're gonna start at the very beginning… and talk about our favs… Adam & Eve… they just crushed it (not in a good way)

• Ok, let's get deep… Often when we read this… "let US make man" and we immediately go "AH, The Trinity"
• Which is true, but also its this Ancient Near East concept called the "Divine Plural."
  • What kings would do - to show themselves as authoritative = plurality when referring to self (demonstration of royalty)
• Authoritative moment - "Im God, I'm Creating humanity, here's my blueprint"
  • Already created some things - Heaven/Earth/Spiritual/Animal
  • Creating humanity differently - in His image and likeness = Imago Dei
    • Be like God - represent Him - have complexity…compared to animals
    • Complexity is what God wanted us to have cause it makes our relationship with Him more complex, richer, vibrant
    • Being created like this means we have the needed faculties for living in relationship with God AS God is living in relationship with Himself as the Trinity.
      • God is in perfect communion with Himself - Father, Son, HS
      • God creates humans in Him image so that we can enter into that same relationship with God, or as 1 Peter says "so that we can be partakers in the Divine nature"
      • This sets us apart from the rest of Creation
• How God makes us = be like Him, represent Him to the world, be able to have relationship with Him with no separation

Then He puts us somewhere

Genesis 2

• "Eden" = pleasure/delight
• God makes us like Himself + places us in the place of pleasure/delight in proximity with Himself
  • God would literally "walk in the cool of the day in the Garden"
  • Humanity = the perfect place to cultivate His image bearing
  • "this is the perfect place for you to be like me and to exist"… In close proximity with God
• Heavenly and the Earthly co-existed, married together… Unlike the current condition
  • We have Greek dualistic thinking = binary… look at world - Heaven/Earth = separate
  • Eden vision = totally one, spiritual/physical are not separated
• Significance: If you & I were made to live in a world where Heaven & Earth are one but we NOW live in a world where they are not… there's consequences.

Summary: At the Beginning God Made Man the Right way and Put Them in the Right place

• But we know where this is heading

Adam = Hebrew word for "man" = figurehead/representative for the whole of humanity

• When he sucks, we suck
• "That's not fair"… nah, it's not… But have you seen humanity lately?
• We were Christmas shopping in the week before Christmas and we're trying to find a park.
  • I watched as this car was waiting for another car to pull out… they had their indicator on and everything
  • The car reversed out and another car coming to other way IMMEDIATELY pulls into the spot before the guy waiting
• Humanity is sinful… Cause we're son's of Adam.
• Be honest, some of you use the "I'll pray for you" card and never end up praying… cause you're a son of Adam.

Adam, in garden… forsakes his companionship with God, He falls

• He trades his relationship with God for his own gain = expelled from the Garden, place of pleasure/delight
• We've been making this decision every day since… Self over God
  • I'm good at choosing myself… I love ME, I'm awesome… That's my nature, I care about myself first.
  • that's what we're told… "Focus on YOU," just lock in, be yourself, focus on self-care, you've got this.
  • You don't got this… I suck at being good, I need to look to God
  • Adam seeks self-gain and loses the pleasure/delight of Eden.
  • The lesson here: The road to flourishing/delight is self-sacrifice. To love God more than self.
• The life God designed for you, you at the centre… those two=not compatible

Genesis 4 - Adam & Eve establish this settlement just outside of Eden - God would still visit and talk

• Eventually: Cain & Abel… Cain commits fratricide = ends up further east from Eden at a place called Nod
  • Nod = wandering

Genesis 4

• "I have become a restless wanderer"
• Genealogy = Noah comes from Cain, and then the rest of humanity
• Progressive fall of Humanity over time
  • Where we ultimately end up is the place of restless wandering outside of the presence of God

Point: You & I are exiles. We are living in a world we were not technically designed for and all our lives we are doing everything we can to get back to the place that, deep inside we know we belong but, we never know where to begin.

• We've been kicked out of Eden & forced into wilderness.
• We've moved from the place of pleasure and forced into a place of wandering.
• Because of our selfish desires and self-preservation instincts, we've adapted and assimilated to a fallen world.
• We have the nature given to us by God and we've been trying to tear it apart, adjust it, tweak it, so that we can fit into a world that weren't made for… and it's been destroying us since.

God Made Us the Right way & Put Us in the Right Place. Now, We Are in the Wrong place and We've Been Remaking Ourselves to Try and Fit here Ever Since.

• = We have lost our humanity. We have been uncreated and have become something that is less than the vision of humanity that God originally intended.
• We are not as God intended us to be.

Eg. Ever seen Wreck It Ralph? - Venelope Von Schweets - coding hacked (sin) - becomes a glitch

• Our coding has been changed and we don't fit this world as it is.
  Really old, seen The Dark Crystal? made by guy who made Muppets - This crystal gets broken and this shard comes out and the people get split into two groups… One Group - Skexies (bad guys/crawl/"hmmm") - weird movie
• You & I are a bunch of Skexies, the Crystal has been shattered, and everything's broken and wrong

Church historically taught: because of our wilful choice to defy God, and slavery to sin's power, which has corrupted us… We have forfeited the right to bear God's image.

• We can't represent God as we should, we can't live in proximity with God, we can't be like God anymore.
• You can't get around that we have a God-given function… God made us to know Him
  • He programmed us to know Him, living in relationship with Him, and to worship Him.
• Because we can't bear God's image as we originally meant to, we can't live up to that function as we are supposed to

Remember the Greek word "Telos"?

• "Ridiculous standard"
• Perfect = "Teleios" = idea is "wholeness," "the same from top to bottom," "complete"
  • The Father is absolutely and completely "Father." He is perfectly completely God.
  • The idea isn't "you have to be perfect, no mistake, no mess ups or we are done"
  • It's "you are to be completely human"
• The be "Teleios," we are to be completely Human as God created us to be
• Humanity, whose "Telos" or purpose is to know God, have relationship with God, and worship Him.
• But because of sin, we cannot truly live our "Telos" and therefore cannot be "Teleios"

Augustine

Man is one of your creatures, Lord, and his instinct is to praise you. He bears about himself the mark of death, the sign of his own sin. But still, since he is part of your creation, he wishes to praise you. The thought of you stirs him so deeply that he cannot be content unless he praises you, because you made us for yourself and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you.

So, what do we do? Begin by making a new years resolution to be a better Christian… Joking

• We're forced into the land of wandering + cant be in relationship with God the way I know I'm supposed to… What do we do?
• Part of our Telos, part of how we were created = created to worship
• Which means, we're going to worship something no matter what
• Historical pattern = try to replace God
• We think doing this is just idolatry, elevating something to the primary place in our life
• That's true = worse than that… It corrupts us on a nature level

Psalm 115

• Similarly 2 Kings 17:15, the Bible describes the Israelites rebellion

2 Kings 17

• Ever heard of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde? Dr Jekyll has this potion to separate his darker impulses from his noble side yet the more and more he indulges Mr Hyde, he becomes more and more corrupt as he becomes darker and darker.
• Or like Smeagol, corrupted by the ring.
• Or like Anakin Skywalker "You were the chosen one, you were meant to bring balance to the force" - he becomes seduced by the dark side, which eventually transforms him into Darth Vader.
• This is what sin has done to us… we are re-formed into the image of whatever we worship
  • Whether that's success, money, or simply self-satisfaction / Im just going to do what I WANT to do

Isaiah does a really great job describing what it's like to be human… and it's depressing but JUST WAIT

Isaiah 8

• That is the fall of man
• Man is no longer himself - hopelessly enslaved to sin - dominated by his own evil - been kidnapped by the evil one - restlessly wondering in a darkened world

Isaiah 9

Isaiah 9

• Aka. Jesus Christ - that is who this prophecy is about
  • The dawn will rise on humanity, the darkness and gloom will be overcome because of Christ
  • He is the light to a dark world.
• Means: you and I dont have to be blinded by darkness because the sun is risen and the path back to Eden has been revealed to us.

Malachi 4

Luke 1

• The sun has set on our world, we are living in darkness but there is coming, one who will be like the sun that will rise again and shed light upon this world.
  • So that the gloom we have been trapped in can be undone.
  • What sin has done to us can be reversed
  • And we can be brought back into the likeness and friendship with God.
• This is kind of like Beauty and the Beast
  • Jesus is Belle, kinda
  • And we're just a bunch of monsters and candles and teacups
  • Then he turns up and we turn back into people and everything's awesome
• It's like Amazing Spiderman 2, Andrew Garfield
  • They shoot the gas all over the city and everyone turns into lizards
  • Then Andrew Garfield is like "I got the antidote" and they put it in and everyone turns back into humans
• Ever seen Narnia?
  • Like when Aslan breaths on all the frozen people
• Basically any movie where people get cursed and then theres a 30 second montage of the hero reversing the curse
• That's what happens with Jesus
• We're all a bunch of frozen beast lizards and it's all our fault BUT… Jesus has come, the sun has risen

The gospel: Jesus has looked at a people who have forfeited their rights to the thing that they were made for

• & instead of condemning us and abandoning us, He laid down His rights so that we could have ours back
• So He could re-give us a right to be image-bearers, to live in relationship with God

Romans 8

• Where you & I have forfeited the right to bear God's image, Jesus came and said "I am re-creating you"
• When you think about the Creation narrative, that's God bringing order into chaos
  • You and I have devolved back into chaos… Jesus brings order again
  • When Jesus walks on water, that chaos of the waves and the deep… That's Him saying "I'm reigning over chaos, I'm putting order back into humanity"
  • He's re-making us into the image of God

The story of Man is the story of Jesus coming with mercy & compassion, more than we've ever known

• And making us human again.

This is why the Apostle Paul said:

Philippians 3

• He lists off all the reason's he has to boast… I can claim all these things, but I forsake them all
• I count them all as loss for the sake of knowing Christ.
• A heart that sees the truth that the bright light of Jesus Christ has risen upon the world and has given you and I, by His own shed blood, the opportunity to come back to the place we belong.
• That heart says, For HIM I will give up everything to know Him
  • Because no one has been so sweet to me
  • No one has been greater / better
  • No one is so holy / compares to Him
  • I need Jesus, and I need Him now
  • I need to fulness of God and I will not trade anything if it means I have less of Him

I know you have a list of Goals for 2025

• I know you may have resolutions, plans, habit you want to start or break
• Or maybe your plans are just a blank piece of paper at the moment
• Take an eraser, erase it all… start again.
• Write at the top of the page "How can I make Christ centre in 2025?"

Make Christ centre, because He has redeemed us, He is re-making us… not me and my goals

• He is return us to our "Telos," our God-given purpose.
• And FROM that central point, that relationship with God and worship of God… allow THAT to shape our lives, our desires, our goals.
• As Lewis said: I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

🧠 Brain Dump