Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we come before you thanking you for saving unworthy sinners by your grace alone. Thank you for bringing us into this place that you have set aside before the foundation of the world where we can gather together and worship you in spirit and in truth. Lord, there's places on this earth that are persecuted for doing, where people are persecuted for doing just what we're doing right now, but you've given us a place of peace and a place of rest in you. Now, Lord, we ask that you would send your spirit and power and that you would deliver us. Deliver me as the speaker that you may your word may go forth freely with free course that you would bless it according to your will and bless the hearers father that you may open their ears. And Lord, this is all done by your spirit. We can neither. We can either speak nor hear without you being. The cause the first cause. Calm our minds.

Lord, we're often so succumbed to the things of this life that we. often miss seeing you the way that we desire to. So we ask, Lord, that you would be in grace and give us mercy that we may see you and hear from heaven this morning, Lord, what you have prepared and you deliver it to our hearts. We pray for those who are sick, those who are afflicted in our church, those who are battling difficulties. those who are hurting, those who are dealing with different grievances. Father, you know the needs of your people before we even pray. But Lord, we ask that you would deliver and give peace and comfort as only you can. Lord, we pray that you would give strength and you would cause us to see your face, forgive us our sins. In Christ's name, amen.

Ephesians Chapter six, Paul is dealing with children, obey your parents. And then Paul is dealing with servants, submit yourself unto your masters. And the way that this is brought across in so many false religions is that it's a work that must be done. But the words that we need to look at the closest are the words as unto the Lord. as unto the Lord.

That is the believers motivation. It's not to serve you for self gain. It's not to serve you for me to receive something in return. The believers motivation is unto the Lord. It's out of love. Did you know the flesh has never had a sincere, pure, true motive? It can't because it's bound to a sinful nature. Our nature of sin will not allow us to have a sincere, I mean true, perfect motive. Somebody said, yeah, but I serve my children. Why did you have them in the first place? You had them for you. Yeah, that's just how it is. We had our children for us. We wanted children. Did the child want us? Wasn't even born yet. How could it?

Everything we do in life is based upon us. But here is the most glorious part. When we see servitude, it's entirely based upon the new man that the Lord gives. See, whatever the Lord requires, if he requires perfect service from me, perfect service from you, he's gonna have to give that. And he gave us that in the person of Jesus Christ. He gave us that by his spirit, according to his grace, before the foundation of the world. This is the glorious news of God's substitution, the glorious news of God's grace and what he works in his people. Naturally, our motive is ultimately selfish, whether it's consciously or subconsciously. We are prideful, selfish creatures by nature.

So if we were to take this and say, okay, you need to do better and you need to do better. You need to be a better servant unto your masters, which would be our bosses, I suppose, or somebody in authority over you. You need to be a better, it's unto the Lord. We would miss the whole message. We would miss the entire message if we start talking about how we need to clean up our life and how we need to live better and how we need to do better.

What the Lord requires, he provides. And in his people, in his people, we look unto Christ and live and move and have our being in him by faith, by faith alone. And in looking to him, in looking to him, he causes that which he requires to be produced in his people. We really bear fruit. You say, well, I don't see it. Well, if you've seen it, it wouldn't be fruit because the flesh can't see the things of the spirit. They're not of the flesh and the spirit or enmity against one another can't see it. We serve in this flesh others for gain, whether it's a feeling. Sometimes I know, and I make myself vulnerable oftentimes standing up here talking to you because I make it personal.

It's important that you understand. I'm just the same as everybody else. I serve my wife because I love her, but I would be a fool and a liar to say to you, I serve my wife and don't expect anything in return ever. Is that not accurate? I serve her in hopes, in hopes that in return I receive love. You understand what I'm saying. Our love is selfish. Our motivations are selfish. Not the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the, The ultimate unselfish Lord of his people. He, he is our example, how to serve one another. And yet it is impossible in the flesh to do so. As a matter of fact, the scripture tells us they that are in the flesh cannot please God cannot please God.

Somebody might say, well, then what's the point of trying? Because if you have been given the love of Christ, you desire to serve him and to serve your brethren. You say, well, I can't serve my brethren. I can't serve the Lord. Anybody can pray. That's a service unto your brethren. Prayer is selfless. Whenever you genuinely pray for somebody else other than yourself, you're praying, Lord, help them. Not me, help them in their time of need. That's a selfless thing that the Lord gives to his people to do.

Now, do we look at that ever and say, okay, well, now I know that I've passed from death unto life. Now I know that I'm a believer because I'm praying for you. No, no, the believer never examines themselves, the elect of God, we never examine ourself to see if we're a believer based upon what we do. We look to Christ, who's all of our hope in salvation. Only the Lord's people are given a new heart that seeks to serve God and the church with singleness of heart as it says here. We're about to read that. But our motivation is pure because it's born from above, born from above internally.

Now this doesn't have to do, now think about this. There's a article in your bulletin that sums this up pretty well. You have two natures. You have an old and a new. And in the first nature, is the flesh hates everything about God hates everything about his word hates everything about the truth that wants to do what it wants to do it's full of pride full of sin period that's the first nature also is a picture of the first man Adam. But then you have the second nature born from above born from his spirit born again.

He said, all old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Now that nature looks to Christ by faith alone. And in him, it lives, moves, and has its being. Why am I telling you this? Because that gives me great hope that everything God required, he's already bestowed upon his people.

That means that if I have his nature bestowed, on the inward man, that's all that he sees. He don't see the external ugly that I see when I look in the mirror. He doesn't see my worst enemy that I see when I look in the mirror. He sees his son, it's Christ in you, the hope of glory.

With singleness of heart, brethren, with pure motivation, the Lord causes his people to serve. You came to service this morning. Why do you think it's called service? Come to serve the Lord, to worship Him in the beauty of holiness in the Spirit. And in truth, you come to worship the true and living God. That's a service. Now, did you come here for your salvation or because the Lord has revealed himself to you, saved you by his grace, and you desire to see his face? Do you see what I'm saying? The service of the believer is not a burden. It's a privilege. It's a privilege to come and worship him.

There's people I speak to online that don't have Uh, they're out in the middle of nowhere. They have no church to go to and they stream and they say, I wish that I could come to service and I don't have that ability. I wish the Lord would send us a pastor and we don't have that. And, uh, pray for those individuals because they're, it's a terrible place to be. You all didn't have a pastor for a long time.

You understand that. So what, what was our motivation of gathering here this morning? It's because we want to see his face. We want to worship him. And worship is selfless. Worship is selfless. It just points to Christ. And why do we do this? Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. God's elect serve with a new heart. The service is part. New heart, new creature, new nature that the Lord gives to his people.

Old things are passed away, behold, all things have become new, as I've already said. So let's read our text. the physical and the spiritual aspect at the same time, I suppose, but now I want to primarily focus on the spiritual aspect. So we look at Ephesians chapter six, verse five through eight. It says, servants, be obedient to them that are your masters, according to the flesh. with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ, not with eye service, as men pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with good will, doing service as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. Now, men take that last verse right there and say, okay, so if I do good deeds, the Lord will give me a reward.

I'll receive the same thing. If I do this, and this is a lot of people's motivation, if I do this, then the Lord's gonna do this in return. See, that's the carnal mind, that's the selfish mind. That's the selfish mind. No, we would miss everything if we miss the part where it says in verse seven, with goodwill doing service as unto the Lord and not to men. That's the whole point right there. We serve our Lord because we love. That is the believer's motivation.

The way I serve, the title of the message, I apologize, is where is my heart? Where is my heart? The way that I serve others, the way that you serve others, should not be a reflection about how we feel about them, but it should be a reflection of how we feel unto our Savior. You know, can, is it possible for somebody to be treated really bad and yet treat that person that treated him really bad, really good in the Lord? It is in the Lord. It is. Think about the greatest example I can think of is the Lord dying on the cross said, father, forgive them. They know not what they do.

What grace. what grace the Lord gave us as an example. And yet everybody here would agree with me in saying, there's no way I would have done that. And I agree 100% unless the Lord gave the grace to do so. The Lord gives the grace to do so. No, brethren, our servitude is unto the Lord. And this is what Paul is stating. If the Lord requires our service, whether it be prayer, whether it be time, whether it be monetary, whatever it be, whatever it is, it should not be for me to gain in any way, shape, or form.

But here's the conundrum. That's all our flesh can do, is serve for self. And I've got a message for us this morning, and I'm getting to that. But It's important that we realize the flesh can't produce that which God is saying, do right here. You're going to find yourself falling short.

If this is your striving, your motivation. Okay. God says to do this. Now that's going to be my focus point. I'm going to continue to do this. I'm going to do this and I'm going to do a good, do it well. But if we do feel that we've done that, we're, we've made it into a law and we've made self-righteousness out of it. And that's the issue so many times with what churches do. No, he's saying, do this as unto the Lord. We can't miss that.

Some people say, well, I serve others because the Lord's going to reward me in this life or I serve others because you ever heard somebody say, um, there's multiple crowns you can win and glory. There's multiple jewels that you can get in your crown and the more good deeds that you do, there's more that you serve others. The more jewels that you'll have over everybody ever heard of before. I see some of you shaking your head.

That was really big back. where I came from, somebody would brag, they said, I'm gonna get all seven of those crowns. I was like, how do you know that? Because I've done this, and I've done this, and I've done this. You know what a servant, you know what a believer truly wants? A crown of righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ alone.

Somebody said, well, my mansion's gonna be bigger than yours. I heard somebody say that one time. What do you mean your mansion's gonna be bigger than mine? They said, well, because I've done this and you haven't. And I said, first of all, I don't want a mansion.

I want to be found in him, be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but having that righteousness, which is by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I'm not looking for a reward outside of it being the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that's the whole point behind the servitude. We serve because it's unto him. We desire him. It's impossible for this flesh to serve someone without expecting something in return. So if the Lord requires my perfect service, he's going to have to provide perfect service for me. That's exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on the face of the service. When he became a man, he served God and he served man, his fellow man and his brethren and the church. Perfectly. Perfectly. And the glorious news is the substitution of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our substitute. He is our surety. What is the substitute? Someone that takes the place of someone else to perform the same duties. That's their responsibility.

When the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth, he lived in his people's stead and room. When he went to the cross, he died in their stead and room. But at the same time, It's we were in him before the foundation of the world given to him by the father.

Therefore, when God sees his people, he sees you as serving perfect in everything that you do. Think about that because you're in Christ. You're saying, what about the sin that I do? In God's eyes, you've never sinned one time if you're in Christ. Not one time. It's not that you sinned and then Christ put it away in God's eyes. It says in their sin and their iniquity, I will remember no more. That's what the scripture says. That means he don't remember your sin. They're gone. They never happened. They never happened. If that's not motivation for service, I don't know what it is.

Everything God required, he provided in the person and work of his son on the cross. And when the Lord Jesus Christ bowed his head and said, it is finished, his people were made perfectly righteous. Perfectly righteous. That's the greatest act of servitude that's ever happened, isn't it? The good news, brethren, that God did give us exactly what he requires. He gives his people a new heart that's beats by looking unto Him in all things. Faith just believes Him to serve Him. Why do we desire to serve? Well, we desire to serve for His glory. We desire to serve for His glory, not ours.

You, in a false religion, every single one of them, they, think about the Pharisees. The Lord told them, that's false religion, so it's a good example. He says, you love coming out here. I'm paraphrasing. He told the Pharisees, you love coming out here with your robes and praying your big prayers and being seen of everybody.

They weren't serving anybody but themselves. The one Pharisee said, Lord, I thank you that I'm not like him, or I'm not like that person, or I'm not like so-and-so. I'm not even like that publican back there. I do this, and I do that, and I do this, and I do that. But the publican wouldn't even look up to the heavens.

He beat upon his breasts and said, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. That's the prayer of the believer. The Lord said one of these went home justified. That was the one that was justified, was the one that said, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner, not the one that bragged about how good he did in his servitude.

The believer don't have time to think about the good deeds that they're doing because they can't get out of their own way. Isn't that true? I can't get out of my own way. That which I would do, I do not, but that which I would never ever do, that's what I find myself doing. Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? I can't examine myself and find one good thing about me that why God would save me.

But as we heard last Sunday, the good news is I'll do it for my sake, he said, not for your sake. I'll do it for my sake, not because of what you've done or haven't done, but for my sake. Listen to the glorious news of the substitutionary work of the gospel, what the Lord did. If he requires me to be perfectly, a perfect servant, This is what he says he has done. Scripture says, let this mind be in you that was in Christ. The Lord told his disciples, I was sick or I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was sick and you visited me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was a stranger and you took me in. I was in prison and you visited me.

The disciples said, when did we do all these things? And he said, as often as you did it unto the least of these thy brethren, you've done it unto me. You've done it unto me. And you say, well, does that mean I need to do these to our brethren so that I do it to Christ so that he'll give? No, no, no, no. What we do unto our brethren is unto the Lord. And that's the whole point. What we do unto our brethren is because it's unto the Lord. And that is the point. This is what the Lord causes these people to do as unto him.

Understand something, brethren, our right doctrine won't mean anything if our attitude isn't one of love and servitude. If I get up here, I can say the right doctrine, but if I speak in a condescending, arrogant way that puts people down, no. Lord says, preach the truth in love, in love. You know, if a man gets up and he has to speak that way, there's a lot of underlining issues because the Lord never spoke that way, did he? Peter never spoke that way.

Somebody said, well, Peter spoke with boldness. Boldness is confidence in the Holy Spirit. Boldness is having confidence in the Lord alone. That's what boldness is. It's not being brash or harsh or rude. No, we're to speak the truth in love. That's why you can tell whenever That's why we don't debate. We don't have any debates here. We don't debate with people that come in. We just preach the truth and love.

So all this begs the question, where's my heart? Where's my heart in all this? Where's my heart in servitude? Where's my heart in, I have three questions for us. I think we can answer this. Who am I looking to? Who am I trusting in? And what is all my desire? Who am I looking to? Who am I trusting in? And what is all my desire?

These may seem simple on the surface, but only the Lord's people are enabled to answer them honestly. Everyone else will answer them, but they won't be able to answer them truthfully, even though if they know what the answer is. Only the Lord's people are enabled to answer it truthfully, truthfully.

So the first question, who am I looking to? Well, am I looking to myself, my works, my service, my sacrifice, my self-denial? Am I looking to my life, my heart, my good deeds? I heard somebody else say one time that my good deeds will equal my reward in this life and the life to come. I'm like, chapter and verse, man, show me where that's written. It's not true.

But preachers preach health, wealth, and prosperity if you serve God. God never promised us health, wealth, and prosperity on this life, but you know what he promised? In the life to come, eternal life. That's what he promised us. Matter of fact, he says you're gonna have tribulation in this world, didn't he? but be of good cheer, I've overcome the world. He didn't promise us health, wealth, or prosperity. He promised us grace for today and mercy beyond measure. He promised us peace with God. And to the believer, that's everything. That's everything.

No, brethren, God's not looking for me or to me in any way. As evidence or part of my salvation, the scripture says clearly in Romans 8 verse 8. They that are in the flesh cannot please God. The next part says, but you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. How is that possible? Lord's giving you a spirit. Lord's birthed you from above. He's giving you a new heart, a new heart.

God's elect are not looking to their service, their sacrifice, or their self-denial as part or evidence of salvation. We are made to know that it is not my service that will merit anything of goodness or anything good with God. It's the servitude of Christ. It's the sacrifice of Christ. It's the selflessness of our Savior. That's what we look to. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name be all glory and honor and praise forever.

We don't look at ourself and say, look how good I am serving. And yet on the other side, we don't make excuses and say, well, I don't have to do anything because I don't want to. We desire to serve, just not as part of our salvation, not as evidence of our salvation. We don't serve one another out of obligation. We don't serve one another because we're made to. I desire to serve unto the Lord. We never examine it, though. We never look at it and say, look at what I have done.

Think about Nebuchadnezzar. This is a great example. If that was the case, if our servitude was based upon evidence of our salvation, we would be like Nebuchadnezzar and say, look at this great Babylon that I have created. I did this. And it points to self.

If it points to you or points to me, it's not pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. If it points to me or points to you, it's not pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ fulfilled everything required in order for God's people to receive the reward. It's not my merits that earn me a reward or favor, or favor with God.

Let me be clear on this. Favor with God, people talk about your service will equal favor with God. That's not true. Your service is entirely based upon the love that you have towards God. If you want favor with God, look to Christ. He's the one that has favor with God. And if you're in him, you have favor with God.

Aren't you glad that as the Lord's people, you can't, he doesn't fall out of love with you and then back in love with you like humans do. You can't fall out of his grace and then back into his grace. He doesn't allow you to fall out of his favor and then back into his favor.

God is the alpha and the omega of salvation. What does that mean? It means he's the beginning all the way through and the end of salvation. He's not looking to me and you in order for us to keep the relationship going. He's not depending upon me and my love, my service, my anything for my salvation. He's looking to the work of Christ, the merits of Christ, the life, the servitude, the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ alone.

The question is, where's my heart? Who am I looking to? Who am I looking to? Because so often this flesh wants to look and see, okay, am I doing this? Am I doing that? What am I getting in return for this? Or what am I getting in return for that? Aren't you glad the scripture says the elder shall serve the younger? That's the old man and the new man. The elder shall serve the younger.

So where's my heart? Looking to myself? Or are we looking to the author and finisher of faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross? You think about that statement. The cross was joy set before him. Can you imagine that? The agony that he endured? His soul being made an offering for sin, yet it's called the joy that was set before him. Why?

He was doing the work of the Father. He was redeeming his chosen people to God. He was finishing the work. Not my will, but thy will be done. He honored the Father unto death, even the death of the cross. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endeared the cross, despising the shame.

You know what that word despise means? He didn't pay any attention to it. They put him to open shame, the scripture says. He didn't pay any attention to it. Why? The love that he had to his father and the love that God has for his church. He didn't pay any attention to the shame. The next part says, and now he's seated at the right hand of God. That means he was successful. It means he's successful.

Who am I looking to? Am I looking to Christ alone? Well, he's the one that has to give faith to believe, or I won't even believe. Let's just start there. Somebody said, well, I see my servitude is the evidence of salvation. No. No, you can serve out of, You can serve out of spite. You can serve out of obligation. There's many reasons you can serve. So who are we looking to? Self or to the Lord Jesus Christ? Christ alone is whom we look to by faith.

He is the treasure of his people. Can you say that? The Lord's my treasure. What is my treasure? If I have him, I have everything, but if I don't have him, I have nothing. Christ is my treasure. Lord said, where your heart is, I'm sorry, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So where's my heart?

Am I looking to self, examining me, or am I looking to Christ and resting in his finished work? The second point is who am I trusting in? Am I trusting in my life, my righteous living? Am I trusting in my servitude? Am I trusting in what I do and what I don't do? I hear so many people that say, well, I used to do that, I don't do that anymore. Or I used to do this, I don't do that anymore.

There's nothing wrong with having morality in your life, that's fantastic. But not as part or evidence of salvation. No, we are just as bad right now as we was when the Lord called us out of darkness into his light. We're sanctified in his eyes, we're made holy in his eyes, we have been justified in his eyes, but you and I in this flesh dwelleth no good thing, never will.

This flesh is just as bad right now, actually it's worse than it was whenever we, you know, I see Linda nodding, she knows what I'm talking about. This flesh is worse right now than it was the day that the Lord called me out of darkness into his light. I've committed more sin than I did back then, And this flesh will continue to do so.

Do you know why? Because the flesh is not sinful because of what it does. It's sinful because of what it is. And that's so important that we understand sin is not something that I just do. Yes, I can commit a sin, but it's what I am. So everything I do is sinful. Everything I touch, I pollute, I taint. I need a substitute. Am I trusting in myself knowing that everything that I touch I pollute?

Or am I trusting to the one who obeyed God perfectly, who never sinned one single time, whom the Lord said, this is my beloved son and whom I am well pleased. Lord never said that about me and you until after the Lord calls us out of darkness into his light. Because we're in Christ, he says, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Her name, the church, shall be called Jehovah Sitkinu, the Lord our righteousness. That's the good news about substitution, isn't it? Made bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh. Am I trusting in my sacrifice? Or am I trusting in the life the righteousness and the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only one that God is pleased with. He's the only one that had the power. He's the only one that had the authority. He's the only one that had the ability to save his people from their sin.

You and I didn't have the power, the ability. We didn't have any means that we needed in order to save ourself. Somebody says, well, you have to choose. No. No, salvation's a choice, yes, but it's just not my choice or yours. It's God's choice. It's God's choice to redeem. And if you're made to be a sinner, and if I'm made to be a sinner, I will see. That has to be the way that it is, because there is no way this flesh would choose God, because it minds not the things of God. Neither indeed can be, because it's enmity against God.

All we can do, you know what we can do? We can run to the law. Every time, brethren, every time we go and look at what we do in life, anything that we've done, and we're trying to look at maybe our servitude, or maybe we're looking at our good deeds, or I've done this and I feel good about myself. Every time we're doing that, we're comparing ourself to someone else that hasn't done that. What we're doing is we're going back to the law. That's all that we're doing.

We're trying to justify ourself and say, I know that I'm a believer because I have done this. And that's not of the Lord. That's not up the Lord, it puff up the flesh. No, Paul didn't say, I know that I'm a believer because I've done this. Paul said, I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. Somebody said, what have I committed unto him against that day?

Everything. Everything. Everything that I am. Lord, you're gonna have to take my life and save me because everything I am is corrupted and putrid and polluted. You're gonna have to make a new creature in me because I can't change what I am. I would love to, but I can't. And Lord said, I will and you shall be made perfect. Fear not, I put away your sin, you shall not die.

Now we don't trust ourself because God revealed his son. We see that it's his life that's acceptable, not mine. It's his servitude that's acceptable, not mine. Lord, don't look at my service, look at his service. Don't look at my merits, look at his merits. Don't look at my life, look at his life. And cause my life to be hid in his. Cause my life to be hid in him.

Because if I'm not hid in Christ, I'm doomed. The Lord required a blood sacrifice in order for you and I to be made righteous. Because the scripture says clearly without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin, but the Lord's blood is what the Lord purposed to be the purchase price.

We couldn't present it our blood. Think about presenting our, how blasphemous a thought that would be to try to take the place of the Lamb of God, the blood of the Lamb of God. Why would we think we could, present our works in His place? Or why do we think we could present our merits in His place, or our sacrifice, or our servitude in His place? Because everything that we present before Him is literally saying, okay, Christ didn't do a good enough job. Here's my merits, here's my service, here's my sacrifice. No, look to Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and serve in love, if it is your desire to do so. Serve in love unto the Lord, not unto man, not for man's praise. But unto the Lord.

His blood is what washed away our sins. His death is how we were made righteous. His resurrection reveals that His elect were justified freely by His grace. And the glorious substitution of Lord Jesus Christ causes us to realize we've been made the very righteousness of God in Him. The very righteousness of God in Him.

I was speaking to somebody that may be tuning in this morning, but I made this statement. We've been made holy. Not going to be. We've been made holy. You say, well, I don't see it. Well, that's the point. It's not on the outward, man. The flesh isn't holy. The flesh is just as sinful and wicked and evil as it's ever been. But the new man created in righteousness and true holiness is just as holy as God is right now. That's the only way God would be pleased with his people.

She's been robed in white, if you remember in Revelation. That means we've never sinned one time. And he said, I can't understand that. And I said, I can't either. But as the scripture declares it clearly, we believe it by faith alone. That's all that you can do is just believe what the Lord has said. So I ask again, brethren, who am I trusting in? Myself or the Lord Jesus Christ?

The last question I have for us is, what is my greatest desire? Now, I may ask that question when we see each other at Walmart or something like that, or a place of business may ask you the same thing. And you'd be like, well, right now my greatest desire is to get out of here because it's busy. But I'm talking whenever you boil it all the way down Whenever you really think about the depth of the question and you let it sink in, what is your greatest desire?

Paul said it best. Turn with me to Philippians chapter three. It's just the next book over to the right. Look at verse three. For we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might have, I also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath wear up, he might trust in the flesh, I more. And now he's gonna give us his pedigree. Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, is touching the law of a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church. Touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

But what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I counted all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung. that I may win Christ. Can anybody else agree with that?

That's your testimony. Everything before Christ, you count but done because of who you see Christ is now. Now here in verse nine and 10 is every single believer's greatest desire. Every single elect child of God's greatest desire. This is it right here.

Verse nine, and be found in Christ, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness, which is of God by faith, that I may know him. and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable unto his death.

That's it, isn't it? That I may know him, that I may be found in him. That I may be found in him, not left to myself. That's it, isn't it? Not left to myself. Not examining myself to see if I've done enough, not looking and seeing if my life lines up with what everybody else thinks that it should, but being found in Him.

That's the believer's greatest desire. Christ is the treasure, brethren. Christ is the treasure, Christ is the prize. He's the prize of his people. All our confidence is in him. Therefore, our greatest desire is Him alone. Him alone. Lord, save me. Lord, save my children. Lord, save me. Lord, save my children. That is the prayer I pray so often. Lord, save me. Somebody said, well, you're a preacher. You should know whether you're saved or not. I know whom I have believed. But I also know that if he leaves me unto myself today, that's exactly what I deserve, unless I'm in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because if that's the case, he put away all my sin, all my guilt, and all my shame by the sacrifice of himself. Therefore, he is all my desire. David said on his deathbed, though it be not so with my house, yet the Lord hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things ensured. This is all my salvation and all my desire, though he maketh not it to grow. It's all his desire on his deathbed.

Our desire is that God would make Christ unto us all of our wisdom, all of our righteousness, all of our sanctification, and all of our redemption, that I might live, move, and have my being in him, in him. And our desire is to awaken his likeness, is it not? That's our desire, to awake in his likeness. He said, brethren, we know not what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is, to be made just like him. That's the desire, isn't it? That's the desire, that we would be just like him. Now go back to our text, Ephesians chapter six.

Let's just read this one more time, in light of everything that's been spoken. servants be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling and singleness of your heart as unto Christ not with our service as men pleasers but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart with goodwill doing service as unto the Lord and not to men knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth the same shall he receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free. You know what that good thing is he talks about there? The goodwill doing service. That's looking to Christ.

That's what that is. He's not saying look at how good deed you've done. Don't look at your service. Don't look at your. What the Lord is going to give you in return for what you're doing. No, it's looking to Christ. Those of you if you desire to serve him, look to him. Look to him.

Where's my heart? For where my heart is, there my treasure will be also. Who am I looking to? Who am I trusting in? And what is all my desire? What is my only desire? If I'm made to look, trust in, and desire nothing but the Lord Jesus Christ, God is the doer of it. And he gets all the glory. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We ask that you would take it and bless it for your glory and honor. In Christ's name, amen. Let's take a break.