If you have your Bibles, we're going to start in Mark 9. Last week, we read through Mark 8, and to start next week, God willing, we'll read in Mark 10. And there's this pattern that Mark is trying to establish for us right in the very middle of his gospel narrative. And so at the very heart of it is, who is Jesus? Chiasms are not just in the Old Testament, they're also in the New Testament. And so we come now into the heart of the matter, if you will, of who Jesus is and what Mark wants us to know about him. And last week we saw that Peter is correct, partially, that he is the Messiah. He's the son of the living God. And Jesus went on to tell and teach them that he was also, as this Messiah, to suffer at the hands of sinful men. and he was to be handed over to the chief priests and to be crucified and to rise on the third day, and the disciples didn't get it. They did not compute that the Messiah would actually be a suffering servant, as foretold, not just in Isaiah 53, but throughout the Old Testament. So I'm gonna read from Mark 9.30 to the end of the chapter. Okay, so this is the second lesson. Jesus is gonna say the same thing as he said in Mark 8. Verse 30, they went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise. But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him. And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house, he asked them, what were you discussing on the way? But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve, and he said to them, if anyone would be first, he must be last of all, and servant of all. And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me. John said to him, Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he was not following us. But Jesus said, do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us. For truly I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward. Well, I think we'll stop there. Brother, can you open us up in a word of prayer? Heavenly Father, we come to you this morning and we are thankful once again that you have let your sovereign and all-powerful and all-wise and loving have brought us here. And Father, we pray that you would speak to us, that it would be your words and that they would enter into our hearts, If they would find their place in the soil, that is good soil, prepared, we invite you, Lord, to receive and to bear fruit. We pray that you would teach us that Christ, the King, who humbled himself and became a servant. And Lord, help us, indeed, overcome by your love, rule by your love to serve you and to serve others. As our dear Savior did, we pray that you would bless all who are here this morning, bless the children as they participate in the lessons this morning. I pray that the Word of God will find its root there as well. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in Jesus' name, amen. Well, we'll pick up from where we left off last time, but the reason why I read Mark is because we're seeing what the essence of humanity is. The son of man is this idea of Daniel 7, that this one who is like a son of man will come and he will be given all authority and all dominion. But in the Old Testament, son of man also is just literally the son of Adam. And so yes, it is this eschatological term for the Messiah, but it's also, what does it mean to be human? Sort of like psalm 8. Who is man that you would be mindful of? Son of man that you would care or regard him. And so I'm trying to show you, and I hope I'm successful, that the essence of humanity, as shown most clearly in Jesus, is that of a servant of God and a servant of others. And we have to just get out of our mind that that's like somehow effeminate, or it's not manly. This is how the kingdom came in Christ, and it's how actually it is to come through his church, as we have the mind of a servant. Philippians chapter 2, let this mind be among you. And the you is plural. Let it be in your midst. Let this be the thought pattern of the church. And so the prayer is, and I know it's cliche, but we want the teaching of God to go into our heads, then to take root in our hearts, and then to be expressed in our hands. And so I hope by the time we're done, we're serving others, that we have the mind of Christ, that we're looking for tangible, practical ways to express this mentality and disposition of servanthood. So, last week I said some pretty bold things. I said that if you want to be most joyful as a Christian, serve the most. If you want to be most miserable, serve yourself. Because we're going to see that servanthood is not something that God institutes after the fall of humanity into sin. Like work and like marriage, it is good. And don't be surprised in the new heavens and the new earth if we're basically living a life of joy, of worship. in the presence of God and our Savior, but serving one another, because this is what it means to be human. And as God is now restoring humanity by his Spirit in Christ, we should increasingly be coming more and more, not like Adam so much, but as the second Adam, like Jesus. Okay, so that's still the thing I put before you. Serve more this week than you did last week, and get back to me or tell somebody, were you more joyful this week? I'm not a betting man, but I'd be willing to bet that you were more joyful as you were more full of sacrificial service. Okay, so this morning we're gonna look at Adam. So, you can go back to the first book of the Bible, Genesis, and it's the creation account. It's the story of origins. And origins are very important. We need to know who are we. Because if we don't know who we are, we won't know how to live. And so every quote-unquote religion, I hate using that word, but you know what I mean, we all have origin stories. And this glorious origin story of how the true and the living God created all things shows us who he created us to be before sin came in and ruined everything, before it tainted everything. And, as we're looking in the book of Genesis, especially chapters 1 and 2, we need to have in our mind that Adam serves as a type. Okay, and I have a nice fancy footnote, but for those of us who don't know what a type is, does anybody know what a type is in scripture? Quit using fancy words. Well, I will use them, but then hopefully I'll have one of you explain them for me. Has anyone heard of typology before? Foreshadowing. Okay, it's like a picture of something in the Old Testament that is realized more fully in the New Testament. You could say it's a shadow. Or it's sort of in its early stages, and so a type might be something like the sacrificial system. So you're reading through the Old Testament, you're like, what's going on in Leviticus? Why do we have all this stuff? Like, why do I have to care about bulls and goats or pigeons for poor people? Like, what's with all this? And then you read the book of Hebrews and you realize that actually those are a type or a shadow or a picture of what God requires for sin, namely, substitutionary atonement. And all of a sudden you say, ah! The Old Testament sacrificial system was a type of Christ and his sacrifice for our sins. Or the temple, which was a picture of God dwelling with his people, right, with his sinful people. And then you realize in the New Testament, oh, Jesus is the temple. And so you'd say in the Old Testament that's a shadow or a type of the true or the essence, okay? And so, you know, a shadow isn't the substance. The sun shines on my cup of coffee, and then there's a shadow. The shadow is not the substance, but the shadow shows that there is a substance. And I know that's a good analogy, but we're starting to see shadows in the Old Testament of the reality of Christ, who's revealed to us most clearly in the New Testament. And Adam, he is the first type. In the Bible, Jesus is seen as a second Adam, a second humanity, the true humanity, the perfected humanity. Where would I get that from? Don't look at your notes, but you should always be questioning, oh, that sounds really fancy. You use a word I've never heard of, typology. Pastor, you're so smart. What? Noni doesn't agree with that. I'm not trying to show off, so the reason why I'm starting with Adam, because Jesus is called the second Adam in some very important places in the New Testament. Does anyone know where those are? And I'm not trying to put you on the spot, but these are good to know because we want to be able to go out into this world that is trying to figure things out. Why is everything so broken? And how do we get out of this mess? And we would say, well, things are broken because of the first Adam, right? In his autonomous choice to defy God and rule himself, he has plunged the world into chaos and death, right? The world was subjected in Romans 8 by God because of Adam's sin. Well, that's terrible, and that's the bad news. The first Adam is the bad news. Well, the good news is the second Adam. He's come to restore what was lost by the first Adam. Has anyone found those passages yet? Romans 5. That's the classic one. Actually, let's just go there. I'm in no rush. I have no agenda. Go there. So that's the first one, and that's the first one I would go to as well, brother. And so what Paul is doing in Romans, is he's trying to show everybody, both Jew and Gentile, their need of Christ and his atoning sacrifice. He says in chapter 1, I'm coming to you because I want to be mutually encouraged, I want to share with you some spiritual gift, and that's not something silly like tongues, but namely the gospel and how it sanctifies us. And so he wants to come to Rome, where he's never been before, to be sent by them to Spain, and he's going to preach the gospel, because he's not ashamed of it, for it is the power of God for salvation. So Romans is all about salvation, and so what he says in Romans 1.16, is that we must preach the gospel, for it is the power that God uses to bring salvation to everyone who believes, the Jew first and also the Greek or the Gentile. For in the gospel, God's righteousness is being revealed from faith unto faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. And so what Paul's trying to show is that we need righteousness because God is righteous. And so in chapter 1, he shows that the Gentiles are inexcused in their judgment by God. That even though they've never heard the gospel, they know there's a God, right? The creation declares that there's a God. And then in chapter 2, the Jews are starting to sort of look down their nose, and like, that's right, stick it to the Gentiles, Paul. And Paul says, and you're no better, old man. that you have the wonderful privileges like law, and yet you continue to live in sin, and so you need Christ as well. You need a perfect righteousness, because God is perfectly righteous and will judge righteously, okay? I know I keep using that, but if we are ever going to stand before God, we need not a partial righteousness, we need a perfect righteousness, and that's found only in Christ. And so by the time you get to chapter three, Paul is saying, that all are under the power of sin, all are under the condemnation of sin. That's his summary statement in chapter three, verse 10. All, are the Jews any better off? No, Paul said, if you're following my argument. He says, we have seen and made the charge that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin. No one is righteous. Not Jew, not Gentile, not old, not young, not male, not female, not rich, not poor. No one is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they've become worthless. No one does good, not even one. And then he goes through all the human anatomy, starting from the top to the bottom. We're completely tarnished by sin. From the words we say, to the actions we do with our hands, to our very feet, and there's no fear of God before us. And then he presents to us this righteousness that God has provided for us in Christ. And as you work through, he says that this righteousness is applied to us by faith, as it was even in the Old Testament, to people like Abraham and David. Well, why do they need righteousness? Why do I need righteousness? Well, we find ourselves now in Romans 5. That's a quick flyover. The reason why we need this righteousness, Old Covenant into the New Testament, right, is because we're all in Adam by nature, right? Whether you're born in Canada or in the United States or in India or wherever you are, you're born in Adam. And whether you think it's fair or not, this is the reality, and this is why Paul says, this is why you need the gospel. Look in verse 12 of chapter 5. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, the wages of sin, Paul says earlier, is death, right? Actually, he says that in chapter six. Death came into the world through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned. Stop. So the reason why you sin is because you are born a sinner. It's not the other way around. You're not born into this world neutral, and you become a sinner when you sin. This is why, if you ever have children, as young as they can be, they want to slap your hand, they want to have the fit, they want to scream in your face. They didn't learn that from you, or I sure hope they didn't. That's innate. And again, if you think that's unfair, just wait. I'm going to show you something even more radically unfair. Because all have sinned, Jew and Gentile. And because you have sinned, because I have sinned, I don't meet that perfect bar of righteousness. That's all the Hebrew word means. Tzedek is a bar of right, a standard that you must meet. And because of sin, we've fallen short of that standard. And God is perfect. And if we are to dwell in the presence of perfection, we must have that account of perfection. For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law, yet death reigned, here it is, it reigned, from Adam, hey. That's the Adam of Genesis 1. He's not some evolutionary figure that appears on the scene millions of years after the creation. This is a historical Adam. And I don't want to be too stinky, but there are Christians, some who deny. They say, no, Genesis 1 through 11, it's kind of poetic. It's not. I'm not the world's greatest Hebrew scholar, but it's not poetry. This is a narrative. Genesis is a narrative. And it's a historical account of our origins. And if you want to believe that we came from a monkey, then of course, then you don't have to believe this, and this sin is a bunch of rubbish. But if Adam was created by the very hands of God from the earth, Adam means earth, then this is true, and it is true. And this is why Paul is so adamant to get to Rome and to go to Spain, because people are perishing in their sin apart from Christ and the perfect righteousness he alone can impute to us. yet death reigns, and so if you're not in Christ, you might think you're ruling, but you're not. Sin is ruling, and we're gonna see that later in John chapter eight. Even these religious Pharisees, hey, we're in Abraham. Don't tell us who our master is, and Jesus says, sin is your master, and Paul concurs. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a? A type. See, pastor's not making up words. Pastor's just trying to use words that even the apostle Paul uses. He was a tupos of the one who was to come. And then what he goes on to do is he goes on to actually contrast the wages of Adam's actions versus the wages of Christ's action. Adam's one sin brought death. Christ's one act of obedience, and of course his entire life was one of obedience, but Paul is saying that climaxes in the cross, it brings righteousness and life. So this is why we need the gospel. I don't just want us to say, I need to be a better servant. You cannot become a servant until your sins are forgiven in Christ, that he makes you a new creation. The old Adam has to be put to death. And that's impossible by working hard or by being religious or even coming to church. That's not going to put away Adam. Only Christ can displace him. And so please don't hear this, I need to try to be a better servant if God is going to be pleased with me. God is pleased in only one, in his Son. Behold my Son in whom I am well pleased, this one endued and empowered by the Spirit for a life of perfect sacrifice. I'll give you a little bit of a shocker. I want to be a better servant, and this week I was not a perfect servant. I tried to be, but I wasn't. And so I need, as it were, a perfect servanthood righteousness accredited to me, which is why, throughout this entire thing, we're going to be looking at Adam and all these Old Testament figures, but at the end of the day, they point to Christ, who is the true essence. He is the very servant that we need. and his righteousness needs to be imputed to us. Okay, so that's not in the notes, but Romans 5 is where you go, or 1 Corinthians 15. Paul's using a lot of the same arguments there, so I'm not gonna read it, but Christ is the second Adam. Okay, the first Adam, who was created to be a servant, did not serve as he ought. And this is important. Because I was thinking, if Adam was created, before even sin came into the world, if Adam was created to be a servant, what does that mean? It means that we're created to be servants as well, and servanthood is not the result of sin. Right? Just like marriage is not the result of sin, or work is not the result of sin. These all are before Genesis 3. In Genesis 3, Adam sins, right? Him and Eve sin against God. But I'm reading from Genesis 1 and 2. So work is not God trying to fix things. Oh, Adam sinned. How are we gonna restore the world? Okay, I'm gonna make... No, in his goodness, he created us to be servants. And at the very end of chapter three, he says, behold, it was very good. Working is good. Marriage is good. Servanthood is very good too. And so we have to get it out of our minds that somehow this is some kind of derogatory or diminutive title that we would say. We should revel that in Christ we are servants of God. So I have in the notes, if Jesus is the second Adam, which Romans 5 says, we shouldn't be surprised that the Bible teaches that the first Adam is a servant, right? If Jesus is the servant, all throughout Isaiah you keep seeing the servant songs culminating in chapter 53, where the servant He acts wisely, he accomplishes his purposes by dying in place of his people, that they might be forgiven and justified, right? If the second Adam is a servant, that means the first Adam. Does that make sense? I'm not the sharpest tack, but I'm trying to show you how Paul reasons. Okay, and so if Adam was created to be a servant, and we're offspring of Adam, then we should say, well then, I don't get out of this. I've also been created to be a servant. However, sin has distorted that. And so everyone in this room is a servant. Everyone in this room is a slave. To whom I would ask, who is your master? Yes, sir. Yes. Thank you. That's actually a better way of putting it. It's ingrained into us. It's inescapable. Just like we are by nature worshippers, right, go to Romans 1, right? I know atheists has thankfully had its kind of way out. When I was young, way back when dinosaurs walked the earth, atheism was the big ticket. But that's been shown to be such a scam, even intellectually, and even other unbelievers see that atheism, or at least Darwinian evolution, is not all it was cracked up to be, right? But even an atheist who with his mouth would defy and deny there is a God, he or she is still a worshipper. It's inescapable. And being a slave or a servant is inescapable. It's ingrained into us. It's part of what it means to be a created being. And so the thing is, yes, you will worship, but who? Who will you worship? Yes, you will serve, but who will you worship? So you can't just turn, right? It's not like, you know, a breaker you can turn on and off, right? That would be nice, right, John? If you could just turn the breaker off. Right? But it doesn't work that way. The breaker's always on. And it's just a matter of whom will you serve? Whom will you worship? And the two are actually linked. It's not in the notes, but actually servanthood and worship are linked. And maybe we could say they're like Siamese twins. That Adam was created to be God's servant is important, for it helps us better to understand who we are and why we are here, okay? So these are big things if you study psychology, identity and purpose. Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? That sounds like a university campus. And yet the Bible deals with that. It answers it glorious. With hope, who are you? You are created in the image of God. Why are you here? To serve and to honor and to live a life of joy and peace. And where are you going? To a new heavens and a new earth where in righteousness dwells. Okay, so those are basic questions, and I hope as you're sharing the gospel with your children or your neighbors or your fellow students, oh, Christianity, you just believe in some fairy tale in the sky. It doesn't deal with the real issues of life. Yes, it does. Who am I? That's ontology, right? Why am I here? This is the purpose. Where am I going? That's teleology. These are big, fancy words, and the Bible, even in Genesis, deals with them. We are created in the image of God for God, and if we're in Christ, we're returning to him, okay? And it helps us, actually, in our day-to-day. Be who you are. If you're in Christ, You're a servant, and it will help you to live in this world rightly. If you're living in the world wrongly, like if you're... Has anyone ever heard Bad Harmonies? Like where you just like, it sounds like someone's scratching a chalkboard, like there's two people trying, they're just off. I was watching an old video of a band before I was converted, and they were playing on, it used to be called Saturday Night Live, I don't even know if it's still up, but their guitars were out of tune, and it was dreadful. And if we're living out of tune with who we are, it looks dreadful. We're created to be a servant. And if we're in Christ, we're going to see in Ephesians 4 that Christ is restoring us to who we were always created to be. But if I'm living out of tune, if I'm not in harmony with who I am, my life will sound and look like two guitars that are trying to play together, but are out of tune. And so I'm trying to just show you from various angles, this is important. This isn't like, well, you know, we can study something else. No, I think this will be one of the most practical things for us is understanding that Adam, was created to be a servant. Jesus Christ is the second Adam, is the true servant, and now we're being recreated into his image as servants. And that will look differently, right? Whether you're young or you're old, right? Parents, it will look different as your children are growing up. What does it look like to serve one another? What does it look like to serve at work? What does it look like to serve as a citizen? What does it look like to serve in the church? The opening chapters of Genesis provide us with the ultimate origin story. They explain to us who God is, how the world came into existence, and who we are as human beings. Or, if you're following my notes, humans being. Sorry, I cannot let that stand. Genesis 1 to 3, the first three chapters, reveal what is wrong with the world, introduces the first hints of what God will do to fix what is broken. And thus it is no exaggeration to say that a correct understanding of these chapters is essential for formulating a biblical worldview. So please do not you know, jump over the first 11 chapters of Genesis. The liberals did that. We will not do that. Our starting point for understanding humanity's identity as servants of God starts in Genesis 1 and 2. Although nowhere in these chapters is Adam or humanity in general referred to the title servant, the picture Moses gives us is that created, human beings were created to serve as image bearers. and in their image-bearing, they're kings and priests. And this will help you understand Christ a little bit more in the New Testament, right? The apostles wanted him to be a king, but they didn't understand that from all the way back in Genesis, that kingly overtones had servant ideology in it, right? A priest, of course, serves. Everyone knows a priest serves. Prophet, I guess he's sent to tell us what God says. Kings are servants in the very essence of it. That's what it means to serve, or at least it's what it means to serve as God would have us. See, when it's twisted, what do tyrants do as kings? They subjugate people, and they are harsh taskmasters. You see it in government, you see it in homes, but to be a, right? I pray it's true, and if it's not, pray that it would become true, but the leaders of a church should be the most servant-like people you know. It's servant leadership. It's not like, hey, I'll go to seminary, get my degree, and now I can have a whole bunch of pawns doing what I say. That's not what it is. You remember on the very eve of Christ's arrest, they all come in with their stinky, dirty feet. And it's not like us, after all, had a hard day at work. They're wearing sandals, and they've got all kinds of fun stuff caked onto their feet. And it was the lowest of the servants' duty to wash the feet of guests, of honored, dignified guests. And what happens in John 13? Jesus is preparing them how to live. And of course, we need the Holy Spirit of John 14, 15, and 16, of course. But in John 13, the most Spirit-filled human, the Son of God, what does he do? Does he put his feet up on the coffee table and say, who wants first dibs? He girds himself and he humbly washes the dirty feet of his sinful disciples. That's greatness. That's what it means to be a king. What about the horse? And what about, you know, you cutting down the Romans? This is what a king looks like. So, husbands, it's convicting me as I'm speaking now, right? Parents, this is what it looks like to be kingly. Husbands, you are the kings, you are the heads of your household. But this is what it looks like. Husbands, love your wives the way a king loves a queen, as the way Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. That he might wash her, that she might be sanctified and increasingly beautified. Anyways, that's not in the notes either. But I want us to understand, this is what it means to be fully human. Genesis 2, verse 5. I'm just going to read it. It's in the notes. You can follow along in your Bibles if you want. So nowhere is Adam literally called, you are my servant. However, the verb's used, to serve. And so I hope you don't think that I'm trying to be fast and loose with the text. God forbid that I would ever do that, to have some kind of Sunday school series. But it says this, when no bush of the field was yet in the land, I can't talk. No splant, no small plant of the field had yet sprung up for Yahweh Elohim had not caused it to rain on the land and there was no adam to work the ground. Okay, so God is the great creator, right? He alone is the one who is able to create. He distinguishes himself from creation as creator. However, he calls humanity into this wonderful purpose and this wonderful plan to make the world fruitful, to make the world beautiful, to make the world a place of peace. God could have easily done it and made us robots. And yet, he calls his image bearers into his mission. Like, Adam gets to join God in his mission, in this glorious creation. I'm not saying Adam's creating, please don't hear little God theology, that's heresy. But you see that God is filling the world and he creates man ultimately to work the ground. That's the Hebrew word avad. The Hebrew word for servant is avad. That's just how Hebrew works. Same consonants, different vowels. Avad, avad, same thing. Genesis 2.15, the Lord God took the man, took Adam, and put him in the Garden of Eden to do what? To work it. To work it and to take care of it, or in the ESV, to watch it. First, Moses shows that humanity's work in the garden is framed as a form of service. So Adam is created to serve God in the garden. Second, Adam's commission to keep or watch over or take care of the garden carries with it notions of provision and protection. within the context of a relationship with Yahweh. What does that mean? I quoted an author, so let me explain what he's trying to say. It's that you will not serve rightly unless you're in a right relationship with Yahweh. Does that make sense? Okay, if you're doubting his authority or his goodness, if you're estranged from him, you will serve, but not rightly. Okay, so I've got sort of the first and the second applications out of Genesis 2.5 and 2.15, is yes, Adam is created to be a servant, but he serves rightly when he's in a right relationship with his creator. Which means what? Before you hunker down and start saying, how am I gonna serve rightly? You should say, how do I relate to my creator rightly? So don't just start leaving here with your feet moving like a cartoon, like the roadrunner, but maybe pray and be in the Word, and ask God to give you a heart of a servant. As you're in sweet fellowship with your Creator, in a right relationship with the God who made you, as you're looking to Christ, as you're meditating on all He has done for you and all that He is for you, servanthood will come, as it were, supernaturally. The Spirit will begin to work in you, and He will begin to conform you into the image of God. Okay, so I'm going to close here. We will pick up. I thought we were going to get through this entire thing, but I do want to close here, since the time has escaped me. Go to Ephesians 4. You guys know this is literally one of the most applicable passages. I probably go here in almost every sermon series I do, or every Sunday school series, and I don't say this lightly. If you're into biblical counseling, you need to memorize these. Actually, I'm gonna start, I'm thinking mostly verses 22 to 24, but I'm gonna start in verse 17. Because Paul's trying to explain how the church is to live together so that the temple, God's temple, might grow and build itself up in love and permeate the world and carry out God's purposes. Paul says, now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. This is because they're still an atom. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated. Goes back to chapter two, they're alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. Please see in this worship and servanthood. Verse 20, but that is not the way you learned Christ. Assuming that you heard him, the ESV has heard about him, but literally in the Greek, it's you have heard him, And we're taught in Him, even as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old man. Put off your old Adam. I don't like the word self there. Paul is talking about the old Adam, which belongs to your former manner of life and is being corrupted through deceitful desires. Right? You're going to serve out of those desires, which is why you need to be in a right relationship with God that he might reorient those desires. Verse 3, and to be renewed, to be restored in the spirit of your minds, and here it is, and to put on the new man. put on Christ, listen to this language, created after the likeness of God in righteousness and holiness of truth. Now, the ISV says, in true righteousness and holiness, and that's a wonderful translation, but anyone who studies languages knows that there's a little bit of a spectrum. And so, I like the literal, in righteousness and holiness, and if Levi has his NET, it would say, righteousness and holiness that comes by the truth. So if you want to be serving rightly, you must relate to your Creator rightly. And this comes about as you're in the truth, or in the Word, as you learn Jesus rightly. Amazingly, the Spirit begins to renew your minds, and your hearts, and your hands, and you begin to serve others as God created you to be. Let me close in prayer and we'll pick up. Sorry if this is going a little slower. Hopefully we can pick up the pace. But I did want us to start on a sure foundation all the way back in Adam as the first servant. Father, we would ask that you would give us the mind of Christ. I ask, Lord, that we would increasingly be gazing upon him and be transformed from one degree of glory one degree of servanthood to another, even by the Spirit. And I pray that even those around us would sense something different about us, that there's a different fragrance about us, that we're more like Jesus and more like a servant. This is who we are and why we're here. And I ask, Lord, that it would be practical. Please don't let this just be some kind of heavy study, learning the words like typology or Latin or Greek. That's not enough. We pray, Lord, that you would radically be at work in our hearts and that we would live the life you have created us to live, that we would not be like the disciples who saw Jesus only as a king but not as a servant. Help us to see him as the servant shepherd king and to follow him into eternity. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.