Well, good morning. Before we
get back into 1 Peter, which will be next week, Lord willing,
we're going to continue to just do some prep work. Talk a little
bit about how we embody, how we live out, literally, submission. What it means, what it looks
like, how we do so out of a place of authenticity, out of a place
of realness. Now, let me simplify this mindset
for us for a moment. Because a lot of times people
get confused and they say, what kind of exposition is this? What
kind of teaching is this? Why are we doing these things? Well, let me just lay down a
couple of assertions. The New Testament letters are
written that we may have instruction on how we ought to think and
live our lives. Anybody disagree? Think about
what? Who God is, correct teaching,
doctrine, theological things, and then the difference that
that makes. So what? Now what? What do we do with it? Now how
we live out our lives in submission to these teachings. Because,
just because Jesus Christ is the Son of God and He is God
incarnate, That's good. That is true for every person
that ever walked the face of the earth, whether they believe
it or not. Nothing changes that. Unbelief does not erase the reality
that Jesus Christ is God incarnate. But a lot of people don't understand
it. A lot of people don't grasp it. A lot of people don't know
how to engage with it. But as believers we do. But we're
also continually learning. So now what? Because Jesus Christ
is the Son of God and God incarnate, and even though that is a mystery
and it is very profound and there's not a whole lot that we can really
wrap our little minds around in the context of that, We then
have a lot of therefores in the New Testament. Therefore, because
Jesus is God, what did Jesus do? Well, he gave himself for
his people. He satisfied justice and righteousness. He answered
the call to judgment and wrath. so that we who are in Christ
are forgiven because Christ's life of righteousness and death
of righteousness is proven through his resurrection because of righteousness
unto righteousness and now we have that opportunity to live
it out and embody this person who we are now in. So that's
assertion number one. Assertion number two, is that
there is a real tendency as people to tag our identity on a specific
set of teachings or specific dogmas rather than the embodiment
or the living out the faith. And a lot of people, like my
grandmother Tiffin, she used to always say, a hit dog always hollers.
Yeah, a hit dog always hollers. And sometimes the ones who holler
with that statement the loudest are the ones who are hit the
hardest. There are people who argue that because of sovereign
grace, we shouldn't spend any time at all dealing with how
we ought to live our lives. That's nonsense. I'd actually
just rip out every letter, literally every, I'd rip out the entire
New Testament and just throw it in the trash. There's very
little theological teaching in the Bible in comparison to the
application of that teaching. Okay? The application then, the
assertion number three, is not in and of itself righteousness.
The living out of the things that we're told to live is not
our guide to salvation. It's not our guide to righteousness.
It's not our guide to eternal life. Jesus Christ is our righteousness
given to our account. Therefore, we can live authentically
in that place by embodying modeling our lives after Him. So then we can say we live in
a righteous way because we are the righteousness of God. Now,
I really beat this drum hard last week, so this is a little
bit of a review. And you might think, well, what does this have
to do with submission? Everything. Because living our lives day
to day is about submitting ourselves to the person of Jesus Christ
and His teaching and submitting our will to his as Jesus did. The problem is we can do it in
two ways. We can do it out of obligation,
fear, stress, shame, or we can do it because it's who we really
are. As a kid, I loved Kung Fu movies. That's why I practiced the discipline
today. I loved Kung Fu movies. I mean,
they were awesome. And by the time I was probably
in third grade, I was an absolute certified ninja. The irony behind
that, two different disciplines, two different countries, two
different places in history. I didn't know the difference. And I remember one of the, I
don't know, maybe fifth grade, fourth grade, we got into a little
altercation down here on Smith Street. I know where I was standing. I know what I was wearing. I
know what I had in my hand. And this bully got in my face,
and I'm like, you know what? I'm going to Judy chop this boy.
And he climbed up on the fence, and he spit in my hair, and that
was the end of it. I was done with this guy. I was going to
show him that I'd watched enough movies to embody real kung fu. So I kicked that fence, and he
fell off that fence, and it knocked the air out of him. And in my
glee, ha, ha, ha, ha, turned around, and he actually had taken
karate. And I woke up a couple of minutes
later to my friends laughing, because he knocked me out. Who
embodied it? He did. I pretended. We don't
live our Christian life that way. I'm just going to say the
right thing. I'm going to do the right thing.
I'm going to own the right stuff. I'm going to go to the right
places. Why? We can't even answer what motivates
us to that. We must, as believers, live out of our authentic and
true selves. We must be real and true. We must be honest with God. How
much of that teaching have we talked about over the last year
that we must be honest with ourselves and with our Heavenly Father?
Remember, we laid the groundwork last week that at the end of
the day, the two closest relationships that you and I have in this life
is with ourself and with our Heavenly Father. every other
relationship that we have is going to be built up or broken
down from those two intimate positions. So I want to talk today about
the grace to grow and the call to patience. Because here's what
I felt when I got through teaching last week, and it may be something
I'm projecting onto you, it may be some of the things that have
been said to me over the last seven days or five days, or it
may just be what the Lord wants me to talk about. But I feel
deep inside of my spirit as if, and I'm going to contradict that
this is an actual barometer of truth in a minute, that maybe
all of us, even if we don't admit it, are motivated by a lot of
guilt or fear. Some of you have directly said
that to me. And at the same time then, once
we come out of that and we go, I really wanna do better, I wanna
be better, I wanna do more, I wanna live for the Lord, I'm such a
sorry, you see, where is that? Then we get to the other side
of this, shame. Then we get to this other side
of the place where, and so that's not joy. And I want you to understand
that joy comes from living authentically who we are without shame. There
is nothing that you have done in life that your Heavenly Father
is upset about. He's poured all of his upsetness,
all of his frustration, all of his righteous wrath and judgment
onto Jesus. And it's over. God is not like
us in that He holds grudges or remembers the bad. The Scripture
is very clear in the imagery that our sins are as far as the
east is from the west, and don't get me started. We know that
it meets up somewhere. Okay, don't go there. It's a
picture. And He remembers our sins no
more. How and why? Because righteousness
reigns in the death and the life of Christ. That's how. So I want
us to find this freedom. Because when I talk about submission
to God, it feels as though it's not freedom. But it's absolute
freedom. I wanna talk a little bit philosophically,
no, not philosophically, I wanna talk a little bit psychologically
for just a moment about the brain, about the mind, just for a second,
45 seconds. And I want you to understand
that authenticity, being real, is a core human need. Knowing
who we are is a core human need. One of the hardest questions
that was asked of me almost two years ago, well, a little at
two years ago, was, James, who are you? And I started to answer
that question very quickly. And they go, no, no, no, those
are things that you do. Who are you? And then I began
to answer that spiritually, like things that I believe. No, no,
no, no, those are things that you hold value, but who are you? And then I cried on the floor.
Because I couldn't answer the question. because everything that I was
was a product of what everyone else thought I should be. The
church, my interpretation of the Bible, your view of me that
was unspoken, that you didn't even have, how other people had treated
me, my toddler years. I mean, you know, you can go
all the way back, and if you can think hard enough, you can
find frustration in the labor and delivery room when you were
born. And we can dig it all out, and it's not very helpful. But
answering the question, this is not new for you all, church,
but who am I and what do I need? I probably say it every day. Well, if we don't know who we
are, then how can we live authentically out of that? I know that who I am is directly
related to whose I am because of the foundation of truth that
I understand how God has made me from his word. That's one
aspect of my life. And our identity and our authenticity
in that identity is a core human need. But the problem is that
this authentic self often conflicts with our fears, with our vulnerabilities,
with the idea of rejection. I remember in middle school where
the Just Say No campaign came out. I think it was Nancy Reagan
who started that. Just say no. Somebody offers you crack, no.
Offers you marijuana, no. Jump off a cliff, maybe, how
far is it? You remember, I remember our
great grandparents and grandparents and all. Somebody told you to
jump in a fire, would you? No. We all call it peer pressure.
No, it's a fear of rejection. It's not pressuring from friends,
it's a fear of not being like others. It's a fear of not being
connected and intimate. And beloved, if you don't think
that works in evangelical life, if you don't think that works
in sovereign grace circles, if you don't think that works in
reformed theology, if you don't think that works in Baptist life,
oh boy, you've not been paying attention. One surefire way of
losing 20 years worth of friendships is to ask a question that may
lead to an answer that someone doesn't like. What is the definition
of is? or the Greek word, pas. You're
a heretic! And you're done. And now because
information can fly faster than we can think it, you're done
everywhere. And that's okay, because people
that have that weak of a constitution, when it comes to their own emotional
intelligence, by their own lives and by their own actions, show
the reality that they don't know who they are. And the only way
that they live in the world is to attach themselves to the next
thing that makes them have an echo chamber to feel like they're
somebody. And beloved, that is an absolute
hellacious place to exist. and it is not joy, and it is
not truth, and it is not living. It is utter walking death. I
don't care how biblical you think it is. Psychology teaches that
living out our true identity is essential for emotional health.
You ever suppress your thoughts? Okay, married folks, we do this
all the time, right? That's something we're upset
about, but we don't say anything. We don't want to rock the boat.
The boat's rocking, baby. Let's be honest. The rope is
rocking. Water's coming in, and we're
acting like it's not. I don't want to say anything. And then finally, when you're
going a little bit to drown, you say something, and everybody's
caught off guard. That's not authenticity. That's
literal liar. That's what? Liar. That's the badge. I'm lying.
It doesn't mean that we aren't able to let go of little petty
things, but there are things that we need to be able to express,
things that we need to be able to do. When we're able to get
those off our chest, what does it feel like? Like the world
has just floated off of us. Oh, you know what that's called?
Emotional health, mental health, peace, joy, hope. That's what it's called. It's very easy to fall into the
trap of living out obligation or pretending to be something
that we're not. The Bible teaches that our true
identity is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible shows
us that we are called then to live authentically from who we
are becoming and not from external pressures or obligations. And
beloved, listen, most of the Christian community of this country
especially, and the way they live in their identity is unbiblical, un-Christlike. I'm gonna be James
for a minute, and I'm gonna go into some old habits that I don't
wanna become habits, but I'm gonna say some things in such
a way that may be a little shocking, but I don't really care about
the fact that you have an incredible, proper foundation of a theological
position on things, and I don't really give a rat's behind if
somebody has a really good gospel presentation that's so solid
that there's nothing that could falter it if you don't have compassion. And neither does our Heavenly
Father, nor does the Son of God who gave Himself for them. If
we don't have compassion, we are a worthless piece of symbol. Clanging gong. With no value. No matter how
true our gospel, You're not saved by the trueness of the assertions
of your apprehension of the gospel of Christ. You are saved by the
work of Christ alone. And salvation and faith is a
disposition that comes by the Spirit of God alone, whereby
without any cognitive arresting of your mind to the place of
an academic proportion, you are able to go, I don't know, but
I do know that Jesus Christ is my righteousness, or that He
saved me. I don't know how. I mean, when
you wake up off the operating table after being in a coma for
a week because you were in a car accident, And you wake up and
you're alive and your body's put back together and your family's
standing. Oh, you're awake and everybody's excited. You don't
wake up because you've come to the conclusion of what the surgeon
did to fix your heart or your brain or your blood vessels.
You just wake up because who you are is alive and healed. We have to live as Christians
out of that real self. Instead of pretending. without external pressures, and
the external pressures are not what most Christians think they
are. Well, this other idea, this worldview, these aren't pressuring
Christians. What's pressuring Christians
is this call to be hateful, haughty, prideful. Three things that the
Bible literally says that God hates. Where are you getting all this,
preacher? How about Psalm 139.14? Authenticity is central to who
we are in Christ. For I am fearfully and wonderfully
made, the Bible says there. Not I am tolerated in my existence
until God makes me bitter so that I can walk as a stoic and
never have any fun to the praise of His glory, amen? To the praise of His glory is
grace. 2 Corinthians 5.17, the new creation
has come. It is here. The old has gone. The new is here. Ephesians chapter
2, for we are God's handiwork. We are God's workmanship. Created
in Christ Jesus to do good works. Not bitter works. Not frustrated
works. Not fearful works. Good works. So we're not called to pretend
or to force authenticity. We are to live from the deep
truth that within us we are being made new in Christ. True authenticity flows from
truly resting in this transformation. And sometimes, as I said earlier
to somebody and then ended up putting it online as a journal
entry, is that in that silence, sometimes when that really hard
battle is happening and there's no one that can see it, that
silence is not lost. That silence is really where
the transformation starts, because we're able to reflect, not ruminate.
We're able to understand. We're able to live. To see ourselves
through the mirror of what God sees. through the lens of what
God sees, so that we may see ourselves as He sees us. True authenticity comes from
this transformation. It does not come from striving
to please other people or avoiding being vulnerable. So let's unpack it. Different
places. different places in scripture.
In John chapter 8, Jesus says these words, I do nothing out
of my own, on my own, or by my own will, but I speak just what
the Father has taught me. In Philippians 2, 5, and 8, Paul
says this, we have the same mind as Christ. He humbled himself,
what does he say? By being obedient, even unto
death on a cross. Hebrews 4.15, we have one who
has been tempted in every way, yet he has not sinned. Therefore, we have a heavenly
father, we have the son, we have a high priest that is able to
sympathize with us in our weakness, not be disgusted with us. But as we're living authentically,
sometimes it's frustrating for us because we don't let ourselves
live authentically without shame, or fear, or whatever the emotion
might be, or indifference. Some of us have learned to cope
with this idea by just being indifferent. I'm just not gonna
worry about it, don't matter. But it does, you know what that is?
That's a veneer. It's a veneer that eventually
will fall apart and catch on fire. You can't hide and pretend
as if it doesn't matter when it matters. But Jesus Christ is the embodiment
of authenticity and identity. Some people say, well, why do
we even have to have this conversation? Because honestly, Jesus is the one. It's like he says in John, I
don't do anything of my own accord. I'm not saying anything. I'm
speaking the words that my father sent me to do. Now, he wasn't
a puppet. He never sought his own glory.
Did He deserve it? Yes. Did He have the authority
to speak on His own behalf? Yes, He's God. But that's not
where His freedom came from, and that's not where our freedom
came from. Our freedom came from His submission
to the Father's will, which is His will, because that's who
He is. When Jesus, throughout all of the Scriptures, when we
see Jesus operate, when we see Jesus talk, when we see Jesus
perform miracles, when we see Jesus interact and have discourse
with individuals and groups, we see Him acting out of His
true self, of His true nature. We see Jesus stressed out and
fearful, hungry and broken, in pain and in tears, with great
agony, with disgust, with anger, yet He never sinned. Because in all those things,
he submitted himself to the one who judges faithful. When he
was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he was wrongly
accused, and everybody's like, well, yeah, but I mean, that
was what his mission was. Hey, that's what our mission
is. See, therein lies the trouble
is that, no, we're not Jesus, but we are to understand that
we are in Him. When did Christian living get
relegated to just a bunch of Bible studies with no living? Bible studies, good, gotta do
it. But now get up and do something else. I mean, doesn't James warn
his readers about that? Be hearers of the word, but be
doers of the word. Go do it, be the hands and feet. When Jesus
rebukes the masses, when he rebukes the spiritual leaders in Matthew's
gospel, he doesn't come around and say, yeah, y'all didn't study
enough. You didn't have the right teachings. No, he said, when
you didn't give this dude a cup of water, you spit in my face.
When you didn't visit these people who were in need and needed compassion
and needed care and needed to know somebody loved them, you
kicked me when I was down. When you didn't do it to the
least of these, you did not do it unto me. And they were astonished,
because the ones who were actually serving, as God had called them
to, were like, oh, we didn't even know we were doing that.
And the ones who were the high authority of all the guarding
of truth, they were appalled that Jesus would even say that
they weren't honoring God. They hated the very people under
their care. So when we see Paul teaching
pastors, overseers, shepherds, servants, about their role and
their mindset to embody Christ in the oversight of the church,
there is never a time to be an overlord. There's never a time
to be the guy in charge. There's never a time to be the
boss. It's always the slave. Speaking the truth in love, it's
about being a servant to someone else, not getting them in line. History has taught us wrong.
That's external pressure. I had a man tell me early in my
ministry in my 20s, he said, boy, the first time you ever
have to say I'm the pastor around here is the day you stop being. And he had a whole lot of else
to say there, too, that I won't say here. But Jesus embodies this. So we
must embody this. Our authenticity is rooted in
His example. Living in alignment with our
true identity. The problem is we haven't seen that as our identity
yet. We can't fake it. We can't force
it. We can't force our actions. We
can't just do the deeds and say the words. You can't just pet the dog and
say, good dog, if you don't really love the dog. Because the dog
knows. You can't go over and clean your
neighbor's yard because you don't want to look bad when other people
are cleaning it. Because you know. And then sometimes we write these
contracts, these little covert, invisible contracts that we don't
even know that's happening. So you know what, I'm gonna do
this, and people are gonna see, and then I'll feel better about
me, and then, okay, then I'll be right, I'll be right, I'll
be okay, I'll just be like this. And then nobody gives you the
attaboy, the attagirl, the gold star, nobody gives you a cookie. Because just like everything
else in life, nobody really notices the good we do, but they sure
as heck figure it out when we miss a spot. Ever seen somebody
clean a glass window pane? Nobody stands back and goes,
amazing! Missed a spot. Who I am today, I'd sneeze on
the window. Perfect. And walk away. No, I
didn't. Be true to life. Our words, our deeds should naturally
flow from our connection with our Heavenly Father, just as
the Lord Jesus Christ did. We are free to be real, to be
true, to be honest, and to be wrong. We are free to make mistakes. We can do bad things, but we're
not bad, because we are the righteousness of God. We've got to stop looking at
ourselves and our identity as a worm But we with gratitude must see
ourselves as our Father sees us. He crushed His Son for our
iniquities. And by His stripes we are healed.
And that's a humbling thing. Our hope is in not what we do,
beloved. It's in who He is and that we're in Him. So how do we think in that way? We need to understand it, we
need to see that Christ is the embodiment of it, but we need
to understand how to filter our life through Christ. Isn't that
the whole idea of Christian living? We're no longer defined by our
old selves, we're not. I mean, Paul says that I was this. Was that and still now
to this day I fight this way Why do I do what I don't want
to do because it's not who I am So we have the painstaking idea
in this culture that If we have these desires, if we're not pure
in everything, if we're just not walking as God Himself, then
we are really failing in life as people, as spouse, as parents,
as leaders. But we're not. We're not failing
if we're in Christ. For what failures of all of this
did God not use for His purpose? And we can either opine and grovel
and ruminate and stay in that state of who we once were or
we can see ourselves for who we are and we can rise and have
impact in the world. We don't need to cope. Because that's what really happens
here. When we try to filter this stuff out, even if it's not in the
faith, and we try to filter out who we are in any area of life,
we begin to cope, right? How do we cope with this? How
do we cope with this dichotomy? How do we cope with this problem?
How do we cope with this difference? There's a lot of ways. We pretend, or we withdraw. That was me. Do them both. Pretend
to withdraw. I could pretend, but you don't
know, we don't know we're pretending. It's not like we get up and go,
okay, I gotta pretend to be a good Christian today. I really wanna go kill
my neighbor, but I'm gonna go cut their grass. I'm just gonna
pretend, but if they get too close, I might accidentally fall
and, I mean, you know. No. We don't know. We're being fueled by this fearful
expectation of what we should be. to the point we either continue
to pretend or we then just give up. We just withdraw and avoid
it all. But we're not called to live
that way. We're called to filter every part of our life, every
part. Now you're thinking, what part
of my life? Your emotions. How many of the New Testament
letters don't talk about how we think and how we feel and
how we process what we think and feel? They all do. Every New Testament letter talks
about the mind, and the thoughts, and the hearts, and the desires,
and the passions. Long before we get to the actions,
we're doing public correction. When James is chopping up neighbors
with lawn mowers, it's long gone. It's way over the top. Should've
been thinking about it the way I think. We're called to filter
everything. Our emotions, our experiences,
our challenges, our trials. Now you just keep thinking along
that line and then you ask yourself, what tangible thing in life doesn't
fall into those categories? Nothing. Because if we're going
to live as Christ's people, then we need to understand how to
put Christ in the front of all of this. And how do we filter it? Through
the truth of who we are in Him. What's the beginning there? We
need to stop denying what we feel and think. But we filter
them through our values in Christ, trusting that He is transforming
us. I don't know how many of you
play an instrument, but Julie didn't wake up two days ago and
go, I know how to play the piano. It doesn't work like that. I
didn't wake up a week or two ago and know how to communicate
with a crowd. We didn't wake up knowing how
to tie our shoes or wipe our backside. Everything requires
discipline. You remember when you're potty
training your children? Children, you don't remember when you were
potty training probably. But that is like next to satanic. It is awful. I did it myself. Oh, no you didn't. Oh well, good
job buddy. Let's go tidy up a little bit. It's everywhere. You know what
I mean? We're not born with the skills of being able to do this
stuff in any form in any place in life. No one learns how to
embody the faith until they do it wrong for a very long time. So the new book that will be
released tomorrow will be one page. Keep failing. You'll finally
get it. I mean, that's it. But don't
be sad, fearful or embarrassed in your failings. Because you
are the righteousness of God, the beloved, the adopted. The
elect. It's a good message. Wait a minute.
We've heard that word before. Good news. Not only who Christ
is and what He did, but who you are now in Him. That's part of
the Gospel. The whole point of the Gospel
is the transformative reality of our position before the Heavenly
Father of righteousness. It's not that, look, Jesus is
not a stage performer. Look at me, I came back! Now
watch me juggle dragons. No, Jesus is a Redeemer. The
gospel is about redeeming us, redeeming you. You are now no
longer subject to the wrath of God. You are free. You are who
you are in Christ and that is you. Live it. Filter it, learn
it, embody it and do it together and stop feeling like you've
got to be like me. If you're like me, you've got
a long way to go. I may present this stuff well,
but this is my sermon to me. If y'all weren't here, I'd still
have to preach it. And that's not lip service. Three hours a week, I reflect
on a lot of this stuff with a bunch of men, about 30 of them on Zoom
calls, three nights a week. About a third of us are Christians. And you know what? We're all
in the same boat. We're all trying to be perfect
when it's not possible, looking to ourselves as the fixer. If you can't fix your standing
before the Father, how in the world are you gonna fix your
life before Him? Talk about hubris. absolute arrogance,
and we don't even know how many times I tried to fix things thinking
it was humble passion. Deep down in my soul, I thought
I could. And some of you depended on me
to do so, and then when I couldn't, it's like, you let me down. I was thinking about superheroes. Who washes their suits? And what do they wear when they're
being washed? Sitting around in a robe with
a little S on it? What happens if they're in the
bathroom and they run out of toilet paper? Who's a superhero now? Me on
the outside of the door. We're just humans. And we need to live that way. We've got to be real about our
struggles. But in that reality, in that vulnerability, in that
honesty, we have to live from a place of security in our identity
in Christ. Romans 12, I've talked about
it many times, be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Go up there for a minute. I'll unpack that a little bit.
Romans 12, 1, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies
of God to present yourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and
acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Don't be conformed
to the world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind so
that by testing you may discern, have the wisdom, understand what
is the will of God. And the will of God is good,
acceptable, and perfect. And I add that little thing there
so people don't think that there are three different types of
God's will. It's just God's will is good
and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me
to say to everyone among you, not to think of yourself more
highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment,
each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not
all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body
in Christ, and individually members one of another." having gifts
that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use
them. If prophecy in proportion to faith, if service in serving,
for the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts
in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the
one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with
cheerfulness. Let love be genuine. Abhor what
is evil. Hold fast to what is good. Love
one another with brotherly, with sibling, with sisterly. It's
not masculine in the sense of gender. With brotherly affection,
outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in
zeal. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the
Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in
tribulation. Be constant in prayer. Contribute
to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless
those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them.
Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Live
in harmony with another. Don't be haughty. Associate with
low-life people. That's what he's saying. Never
be wise in your own spirit. Repay no one evil for evil, but
give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible,
so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with everybody.
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of
God, for it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the
Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy's
hungry, give him something to eat. If he's thirsty, give him
something to drink. For by doing so, you'll heap burning coals
on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome Evil with
good. Hallelujah. Church dismissed.
Let's just go do it. So you wake up tomorrow and the
first thought on your mind is I don't want to get out of the
bed. I can't face this day. I'm tired
of this life. When are things going to change?
You really think you're going to do all this in Romans 12?
No, you're still here. Present yourself as a sacrifice
to God. And be transformed by the changing
of your thoughts. That's where we all should start
every single day. It's easy to fake it. I don't
have time to think that way. Come on, Tiffins. Let's do it. Stand up. Let's get going. Hey,
how's it going? Lord bless you. All right, can
I pray with you? Hey, can I do this thing? Oh, here we go. Fake,
lie, deceit, liar. And don't even know it. The gospel invites us to live
authentically and to be honest, especially when we know we can't
be this. Because Christ is this for us. We have to be real in the trial. We have to be real. Because before
we are able, by the grace given us to serve
cheerfully, with zeal, with fervor, in proportion to our faith, we
have to constantly be filtering our faith. through the external
pressures, through the external noise, through the external observations,
through these unwritten, or through these self-written stories that
we tell ourselves every single day. Back in high school, there was
a comedy sketch organization that used
to have a therapist that was over the top, and he'd talk to
himself in the mirror, and it was silly. You're awesome. You're handsome. Everybody loves
you. And nobody loved me. He was awful.
And that was the funny part, right? It's irony. Is it funny? Why is that funny?
It is funny. It's another conversation. And I used to laugh at that until
one day I realized that I was doing the same thing inside my
mind to the opposite. and then lying to myself and
looking in the mirror on the outside and going, now you got
this. This is a trial. We need to learn to live instinctively
out of who we are in Christ rather than in an obligatory way out
of what we are expected to do by someone else. As a pastor, My family has had
to deal with that my entire life. And my wife and my older four
children have really had to bear the brunt of that. And we didn't even know what's
happening. Can't believe that guy said that.
Can't believe that guy wore that. Can't believe those people do
that. Can't believe they go out there to eat. Can't believe they
watch that. I can't believe they have a picture on the wall. Can't believe they
have a television. Can't believe they did that. Can't believe they read that
book. Can you believe that? And after a while, you're like,
what can I do? Can you just give me the list
of stuff that I can do? Can you just give me the wardrobe? Can
I have the preacher-approved suit show up every Sunday? My wife would reach out to the
older ladies in the church and they'd tell her what her job
was. And then the older men would
tell me what her job was. And it's disgusting. And friends, it may not be the
same way for you in the same context, but it's the same way
for you inside your own mind. If we live out of instinct, people
say, well, that's not good. Well, it is good if we know who
we are. Instinctively, I want to serve people. Instinctively,
I want to be truthful with people. I have a list of core values
that I started writing two years ago. I added two of them yesterday. I have 31 now. And there's not
anything that I do, anything that I say or anywhere that I
go, anybody that I relate to, that if it violates one of those
31, I will not do it. I will not entertain it. I will not entertain it. Because
that would be a denial of who I am. It took 48 years to get there. So what I'm teaching right now
is very important to me because you are very important to me. And I need you to live in the
freedom that Christ has promised us. And pastoral application
isn't always about raking yards or giving cups of cold water.
It's the heart behind it and the authenticity behind it that
matters. And when you don't have that
heart, That's okay too. That's where people get upset. Let the Lord be the God of failure. God's not offering any of us
a second chance. There is no second chance. Because today
is the best day of our life. Today is the day of the Lord. And that is not coming from some
fake it till you make it mindset. This moment right now is the
best day of my life. Is it the happiest experience?
No. Is it the funnest thing I've ever done? No. But it's the best day. It's the best day. When we live out of obligation,
our actions feel forced and inauthentic. But when we live because of who
we truly are, because of whose we are, we live out of that instinctive
core, that root. And then everything that flows
out of us is natural because it's natural. Or we could say
supernatural. Trials and failures then become
opportunities to act authentically, not to pretend or to hide or
to avoid, but to allow ourselves to respond as Christ would respond.
Paul explains it this way in Galatians 2.20. I have been crucified
with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. He would go on to say that this
life I live is not mine, but I live by faith in the Son of
God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Jesus embodies this,
and then He teaches His disciples this in John 15, where He says,
Abide in Me, and I in you. Neither can you bear fruit unless
you remain in Me. And the world is full of fruit
inspectors who don't even have roots, much
less fruit. Their opinion of you is none
of your business. Your opinion of you is none of
your business. For God's declaration of you
should be your identity. So what do we do? How do we do
this? It requires daily alignment with
who we are in Christ. And this isn't something we achieve
through effort. It's not something you can put
on your refrigerator or on your phone and go, okay, check. It's
just, it's through surrender, it's
through submission. It's through trust. Because the
reality of true submission comes from a place of great trust and
peace. I can trust my Father because of His promises and His
power. And He has given me the disposition
to do that by the Spirit. You too. But it's not perfect
and it ebbs and flows. It wanes more than it wins, right?
The whole idea of living out the faith is to fail and keep
standing. And the more we submit to Him
out of who we are, the easier it gets to rest in Him because
of who He is. We welcome the Spirit, we abide
in Christ, and when we do so, our lives become more real. Not
contrived and cultural Christianity, but real and authentic. And when we do this, then we
become more able to discern what is His will. So let me think about just four
quick things to leave you with on how to make this a daily thing. The first thing, ultimately,
is to renew your mind. Here, Romans 12. Think, beloved. Take these things and feel, but
arrest it. You control it. If you need to
know how to do that, I can teach you how to do that. Not from
the pulpit. I can show you. Certainly, today is 551 without
anxiety in my body ever. Not one bit. Day 551, having not felt
any anxiety whatsoever. No, I'm not on drugs. Or medicine. And haven't been. Thoughts, feelings, and emotions,
when they come, they are mine. They are mine. Because they belong
to Him. It's a daily renewal. And for
those of you who knew me, who I was, I'll tell you the number
of texts I've gotten last week. Are you okay? I know these storms
drive you nuts. What storm? I'm just frustrated about the
internet. Give me my broadband so I can talk to people. Doesn't
mean you don't feel, doesn't mean you don't have these things,
doesn't mean they don't arise, but you know what to do with them.
This is like, okay, there's ants in the cupboard. Clean the sugar
up. We know what to do. We know what to do. We know how
to renew our mind. How do we do that? Scripture.
If you don't know where to go and you're struggling, go to
Psalm 40. Brother Mike, March the 4th of last year, sent me
that text. And I didn't read it for hours. I was being stubborn. And then God renewed my mind
with it. And life's not been the same. But transformation only comes
through renewal of the mind. If you're trying to renew your
mind through any other means, through avoidance, Through coping,
maladaptive coping, I didn't even get into that, but maladaptive
coping mechanisms, whether it be work, or hobbies,
or medicine, or alcohol, or TV, or whatever it might be, sports,
it doesn't matter. As long as we're doing that,
it's never gonna transform, it's going to deform. And then in
deforming, it's going to conform to the world. in society's ways
of handling things, Christian, you know, cultural Christianity's
way of looking at things. The second thing is filter your
emotion through your identities. When you feel fear, ask yourself,
why? When you fear shame, why am I
shameful when I am the righteous of God? The enemy accuses you
in your own mind, did you know that? Tells you who you aren't, but
yet there's evidence to prove that he's right. but the greater
evidence is the ruling judge of all creation who says he's
wrong. How can I be righteous? Look
at who I am. This podium's in my way right
now. What did Thomas hear from Jesus? Hey, Thomas. See my hands? You want to put
your finger on my side? And Thomas falls to the ground
and says, the Lord of me and the God of me. Thomas was a doubting, lying
loser. But he wasn't. Because Christ
gave himself. Filter your emotions through
your identity. Bring your feelings to God. Ask, how does this align
with who I am? How does what I feel, how does
what I think, Align with who I am in Christ. Third, abide in the love of Christ. Remain connected to the Lord. Through the Word, through prayer,
through His people, prioritize time with Him. And it's not fun
time. It's not family time. It's not game time. It's not
proper time. This is the best place to start. the means of grace that is promised
to us through the Scripture, being with the church together
in the physicality, this is the best place to start because you
are going to be taught from this pulpit things that will work
for you because God has promised that they will work for you.
Not because James or Trey or anybody else who might preach
here in the future has all the answers. Sometimes being with Jesus is
where our authenticity is really empowered. And sometimes being
with Jesus is being brutally honest with Him about how we
feel, even about Him. You can't hide it anyway. But
you can't say, OK, tomorrow I'm going to be a good Christian.
I'm going to get up. I'm going to have time with Jesus. No, that's that's
not going to work. You get up tomorrow and say,
you know what? I belong to Him. I don't spend time with Him. Not out of guilt. Not out of
obligation. He's not desperate. He's not
in the waiting room going, well, they've just come home. He's never left. And then fourth and finally,
I've already said this, but trust in Him. Trust in the process.
Trust in the process. Don't rush this transformation.
Don't say, you know, by the end of the week, I'm going, by the
end of the month, by January 1st. Don't make resolutions when
it comes to your growth. Resolutions are good for calendar
dates, or savings accounts, or gym discipline, but not growth. Not transformation. Trust that God is shaping you
in His image and your authenticity will grow as you live in His
grace. So as you go through this week,
I want you to reflect on this. I want you to reflect on where you're
living out authentically. Where you're living in pretense. I want you to write it down. I
want you to think about it. and share it with somebody. We are
a safe family. What's left of us? No one will judge you. So stop
judging yourself. And when you find these areas
that are pretense, bring them to Christ. Ask Him clearly. to align these actions, to align
these things into who you really are in Him. And beloved, you
will find joy. You will find joy in submitting
to Him that way. And you will find power, and
your chains will be broken. And then 1 Peter 3, 1, 1 Peter
2, 1, and all of this stuff that we're learning will have so much
more power because the application will make sense. Without which,
it's just another task that we have to do because we're told
to. And that's not intimacy. That's
slavery. Christ died that we may be free.
So let's live in that freedom. Let's pray. We thank you, Father,
for this glorious truth Lord, for the opportunity to come and
to be together, and Lord, for those who aren't able to be here
with us this morning who are able to hear this sermon because
of your provision, Lord, let this be the catalyst
for this week that we may live real and true lives in Christ. As we take up the table, let
us remember who we are and what He's done. And to know that any other story,
any other identity, any other thing that takes us away from
that is not from you. So that we may walk in a manner
worthy of the gospel, which is not just about doing the good
things, but it's about living a free life out of who we truly
are. for our own joy so that one day
we may have an impact on the joy of others. We pray these
things in Christ's name. Amen. Please come take the table.