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.