1 00:00:00,090 --> 00:00:02,520 How many of you here have been to the zoo before? 2 00:00:02,830 --> 00:00:05,170 Throw up your hand If you have another zoo, that's a pretty 3 00:00:05,180 --> 00:00:08,000 good good number. Have you ever stopped long 4 00:00:08,010 --> 00:00:12,400 enough at one of the exhibits to notice an animal just pacing 5 00:00:12,410 --> 00:00:16,239 back and forth and back and forth, just kind of aimlessly, 6 00:00:16,250 --> 00:00:20,990 obsessively back and forth? If you have, you've noticed 7 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:23,890 something that's called zoochosis, a portmanteau of zoo 8 00:00:23,900 --> 00:00:26,540 and psychosis. This is something that happens, 9 00:00:26,550 --> 00:00:30,630 say, to a lion and an exhibit when it's in an environment that 10 00:00:30,640 --> 00:00:33,550 wasn't designed to be in. It's on a continent it was never 11 00:00:33,560 --> 00:00:36,190 supposed to be on. It's smelling things like hot 12 00:00:36,200 --> 00:00:39,890 dogs and churros that it wasn't meant to smell it. 13 00:00:39,900 --> 00:00:43,210 Seeing all these people taking pictures of it and pointing at 14 00:00:43,220 --> 00:00:44,670 it. It's in confinement. 15 00:00:44,680 --> 00:00:46,430 It's in a cage. It's not, you know, just 16 00:00:46,500 --> 00:00:49,310 wandering the plains of the Serengeti or whatever. 17 00:00:49,420 --> 00:00:53,550 It's not hunting for its food. It's just being fed a diet. 18 00:00:53,710 --> 00:00:57,970 And so, yeah, the result is this zoochosis, this obsessive pacing 19 00:00:57,980 --> 00:01:01,500 back and forth is meaningless existence in a cage with the 20 00:01:01,510 --> 00:01:03,360 lions. In many ways, the the 21 00:01:03,370 --> 00:01:05,340 environment is good. It's a pretty good life for the 22 00:01:05,349 --> 00:01:07,220 lion, right? It has a kind of easy life, a 23 00:01:07,230 --> 00:01:09,640 lot of conveniences, that sort of thing. 24 00:01:09,650 --> 00:01:12,920 But it suffers from this, this supposes, this kind of 25 00:01:12,930 --> 00:01:16,480 psychosis. And I wonder if some of you have 26 00:01:16,490 --> 00:01:20,200 maybe felt a little bit like that lion, like in some sense 27 00:01:20,310 --> 00:01:24,460 you are living in an environment that isn't quite designed for 28 00:01:24,470 --> 00:01:27,680 you and you're flourishing. Maybe you notice it. 29 00:01:27,730 --> 00:01:31,160 Not an obsessive physical pacing back and forth, but in doom 30 00:01:31,170 --> 00:01:35,110 scrolling, just pacing through your social media feed. 31 00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:39,150 Maybe it's the daily cycle that you're in of going back and 32 00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:42,370 forth between the job that you're less than excited about 33 00:01:42,380 --> 00:01:47,680 that's slowly killing you and some mind numbing entertainment 34 00:01:47,690 --> 00:01:50,730 to sort of soothe that. Maybe it's just the hurried life 35 00:01:50,740 --> 00:01:52,950 of, you know, going back and forth from thing to thing to 36 00:01:52,960 --> 00:01:55,510 thing and never feeling like you have a moment to slow down. 37 00:01:55,760 --> 00:01:58,920 There's often this kind of undercurrent of restlessness in 38 00:01:58,930 --> 00:02:01,510 the sense of something missing in our modern life and the 39 00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:04,800 environment that we're living in, and it it comes to bear and 40 00:02:04,810 --> 00:02:09,020 burnout, chronic exhaustion, fatigue, depression, anxiety, 41 00:02:09,030 --> 00:02:13,500 mental illness, loneliness. Even though we have a pretty 42 00:02:13,510 --> 00:02:15,360 good life, we're kind of getting killed by it. 43 00:02:16,740 --> 00:02:20,510 Alan Noble, who's a book I'm gonna be drawing on heavily, 44 00:02:20,580 --> 00:02:23,590 just so you know, I'm not gonna quote him all the time, but I'd 45 00:02:23,600 --> 00:02:25,090 rather just read you guys the book. 46 00:02:25,100 --> 00:02:28,370 But I don't have time for that. But I will be trying happily for 47 00:02:28,380 --> 00:02:29,190 him. This is he. 48 00:02:29,240 --> 00:02:30,790 This illustration comes from him. 49 00:02:30,800 --> 00:02:33,580 He says the difference between US and the lion is simply that 50 00:02:33,590 --> 00:02:35,930 we're more successful at treating our zoochosis and 51 00:02:35,940 --> 00:02:39,150 adapting to our environment. We don't mind pacing back and 52 00:02:39,160 --> 00:02:42,080 forth, especially if we can listen to a podcast while we do. 53 00:02:43,330 --> 00:02:46,920 So my argument, and I think what we've maybe been seeing a little 54 00:02:46,930 --> 00:02:51,000 bit in this series is that these these sayings, these secular 55 00:02:51,010 --> 00:02:54,340 sayings, these words to live by that we've been looking at are 56 00:02:54,390 --> 00:02:58,040 symptoms of a culture that is inhuman. 57 00:02:58,090 --> 00:03:02,180 It's actually not designed to promote our flourishing as human 58 00:03:02,190 --> 00:03:04,420 beings. And these grand deceptions that 59 00:03:04,430 --> 00:03:08,000 we've been looking at actually leads to a kind of life that 60 00:03:08,050 --> 00:03:11,000 isn't good for us. And this is partially because of 61 00:03:11,010 --> 00:03:13,000 faulty assumptions that they're making about the nature of 62 00:03:13,010 --> 00:03:16,010 reality and humanity. So we've looked at a few of 63 00:03:16,020 --> 00:03:18,990 these, these secular sayings that are part of this 64 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:21,230 environment. This is zoo that we're in that's 65 00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:26,330 leading to our zoochosis. We've looked at believe in 66 00:03:26,340 --> 00:03:28,370 yourself. We've looked at love is love. 67 00:03:28,380 --> 00:03:32,050 We've looked at manifest your destiny Today and this last one 68 00:03:32,060 --> 00:03:34,550 of the series, we're going to be looking at the saying be true to 69 00:03:34,560 --> 00:03:38,590 yourself. This is definitely a a popular 70 00:03:38,600 --> 00:03:40,670 slogan in our culture. It's part and parcel of our 71 00:03:40,680 --> 00:03:42,790 culture storytelling in many ways. 72 00:03:42,800 --> 00:03:46,150 This kind of self discovery of who am I and how can I be true 73 00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:49,460 to myself and not conform to the pressure of other people to tell 74 00:03:49,470 --> 00:03:52,710 me who I am is sort of the modern day heroes journey for 75 00:03:52,720 --> 00:03:55,170 us, right? You see it in kids movies like 76 00:03:55,180 --> 00:03:58,690 frozen or into the spider verse or High School Musical or The 77 00:03:58,700 --> 00:04:02,110 Little Mermaid. It's also, you know, the motif 78 00:04:02,120 --> 00:04:05,670 of some of the great fiction of the 20th and 21st century, like 79 00:04:05,680 --> 00:04:08,660 Placed the Bell Jar, Emerson's The Invisible Man. 80 00:04:10,180 --> 00:04:13,420 It's definitely, definitely a slogan that whether or not we 81 00:04:13,430 --> 00:04:17,480 use it rings true of how how we view ourselves and our lives in 82 00:04:17,490 --> 00:04:20,160 this world. And I think hopefully we're 83 00:04:20,170 --> 00:04:23,110 going to see that it's actually a slogan that while there's a 84 00:04:23,120 --> 00:04:26,430 grain of truth to it, it is ultimately deceptive. 85 00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:29,430 And it's not going to lead to our flourishing if we abide by 86 00:04:29,500 --> 00:04:31,430 the assumptions that are underlying it. 87 00:04:31,700 --> 00:04:33,580 Today. The main tax that we're going to 88 00:04:33,590 --> 00:04:37,600 be focusing on is First Corinthians chapter 6, verses 19 89 00:04:37,610 --> 00:04:41,530 through 20. Um, so I'll write you to turn 90 00:04:41,540 --> 00:04:43,340 there. We're not gonna get to it quite 91 00:04:43,350 --> 00:04:46,490 yet. I'll just tell you outright now 92 00:04:46,500 --> 00:04:48,670 sort of the outline of what we're, what we're gonna go 93 00:04:48,680 --> 00:04:51,710 through today. We're going to look first, as we 94 00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:54,590 have in the rest of the sermons in this series, at the good 95 00:04:54,600 --> 00:04:57,130 intention behind the saying, be true to yourself. 96 00:04:57,140 --> 00:04:59,850 So we're going to look at kind of the kernel of truth that's 97 00:04:59,860 --> 00:05:01,770 there. What's the common grace that's 98 00:05:01,780 --> 00:05:04,530 operative in this saying? What can we take from it that's 99 00:05:04,540 --> 00:05:06,840 good? Then we're going to go into the 100 00:05:06,850 --> 00:05:10,270 grand deception. What is it that there's actually 101 00:05:10,280 --> 00:05:13,190 something effective about this saying that that's wrong headed. 102 00:05:13,200 --> 00:05:15,350 That's where we're really gonna dive into this text. 103 00:05:15,360 --> 00:05:18,850 So keep your finger in in the text there in First Corinthians 104 00:05:18,860 --> 00:05:21,110 619 through 20. But just know we're not gonna 105 00:05:21,120 --> 00:05:23,420 get to it quite yet. First, we're going to look at 106 00:05:23,480 --> 00:05:26,410 the good intention of this saying be true to yourself. 107 00:05:26,580 --> 00:05:30,380 So what is the good intention of this saying be true to yourself? 108 00:05:30,390 --> 00:05:33,570 Well, I think there's two things at least tried to pare it down 109 00:05:33,580 --> 00:05:36,560 to two things that that are actually good about this saying 110 00:05:36,570 --> 00:05:39,270 that we can we can say, yeah, that's that's a good thing. 111 00:05:39,280 --> 00:05:43,200 The first one is this emphasis on individuality. 112 00:05:43,420 --> 00:05:48,680 Be true to yourself. There's a there's a idea here in 113 00:05:48,690 --> 00:05:52,310 this saying, be true to yourself that there's a uniqueness to 114 00:05:52,320 --> 00:05:55,450 each human being and there's a dignity that each individual 115 00:05:55,460 --> 00:05:59,090 has. God has created and designed 116 00:05:59,100 --> 00:06:03,110 each of us uniquely, that we shouldn't be a uniform group of 117 00:06:03,120 --> 00:06:06,430 people, even if we're united, but that each one has their own 118 00:06:06,440 --> 00:06:11,180 unique gifts and capacities and that we ought to celebrate those 119 00:06:11,190 --> 00:06:13,630 things and lean into those things and not shy away from 120 00:06:13,640 --> 00:06:17,260 them. Say First Corinthians 12 versus 121 00:06:17,270 --> 00:06:20,260 12 through 20, right? We see this analogy that Paul 122 00:06:20,270 --> 00:06:22,530 makes of the body. I think we've got that up there, 123 00:06:22,540 --> 00:06:26,680 Ruben faces just as a body, though one has many parts, but 124 00:06:26,690 --> 00:06:30,040 all its many parts form 1 body. So it is with Christ. 125 00:06:30,130 --> 00:06:33,370 But in fact, God has placed the parts in the body, every one of 126 00:06:33,380 --> 00:06:35,200 them, just as he wanted them to be. 127 00:06:35,250 --> 00:06:38,160 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 128 00:06:38,290 --> 00:06:40,920 As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 129 00:06:41,250 --> 00:06:43,750 And so you can see, we see that this idea is biblical, right? 130 00:06:43,760 --> 00:06:46,940 That there's there's a goodness to the individuality of each 131 00:06:46,950 --> 00:06:49,310 person, right? If all of us were just eyes, 132 00:06:49,320 --> 00:06:51,650 then that would be a pretty useless body. 133 00:06:51,700 --> 00:06:55,130 We all have to play our own part in our own role as individuals. 134 00:06:55,440 --> 00:06:58,870 See another example of this in in the vision of the throne or 135 00:06:58,880 --> 00:07:01,550 the vision of the end times in Revelation. 136 00:07:02,400 --> 00:07:05,150 John says, after this, I looked and there was before me a great 137 00:07:05,160 --> 00:07:08,330 multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, 138 00:07:08,340 --> 00:07:10,950 people and language standing before the throne and before the 139 00:07:10,960 --> 00:07:12,930 Lamb. They were wearing white robes 140 00:07:12,940 --> 00:07:14,990 and were holding palm branches in their hands. 141 00:07:15,030 --> 00:07:20,270 So if this picture of God is glorified fully only when every 142 00:07:20,280 --> 00:07:23,480 nation, tribe and tongue is there worshipping him in their 143 00:07:23,490 --> 00:07:26,260 own tongue, right? It's not this picture of this 144 00:07:26,310 --> 00:07:28,900 homogeneous glob of people who are all the same, right? 145 00:07:28,910 --> 00:07:31,980 It's these cultures and these people who are in some sense are 146 00:07:31,990 --> 00:07:34,680 being true to themselves. They're speaking in the 147 00:07:34,690 --> 00:07:37,960 languages that God gave them. They're worshipping him in the 148 00:07:37,970 --> 00:07:40,960 cultural forms that that God's given them and something good to 149 00:07:40,970 --> 00:07:43,940 that. And I think in some ways this 150 00:07:44,010 --> 00:07:46,780 this kind of a saying of be true to yourself as a reaction 151 00:07:46,790 --> 00:07:51,310 against some of the abuses of authority hierarchy even in 152 00:07:51,360 --> 00:07:54,750 religious spheres, right, That there's been, you know, kind of 153 00:07:54,840 --> 00:07:58,230 a pressure to conform to a standard that maybe maybe isn't 154 00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:01,830 good for all people. Second thing that I think is is 155 00:08:01,840 --> 00:08:04,310 good about this saying is that it has an emphasis on 156 00:08:04,320 --> 00:08:07,580 authenticity. Just be true to yourself. 157 00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:12,270 There's a the idea here and the saying of honesty, of integrity, 158 00:08:12,280 --> 00:08:14,710 of living a fully integrated life. 159 00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:18,280 It's a calling to live to a certain standard, right? 160 00:08:18,290 --> 00:08:21,690 To be true to our faithful, to some kind of standard that 161 00:08:21,700 --> 00:08:26,350 you're being measured against. We see in Genesis 127 that God 162 00:08:26,360 --> 00:08:29,510 created mankind in his image, in the image of God. 163 00:08:29,520 --> 00:08:31,970 He created them male and female. He created them, right? 164 00:08:31,980 --> 00:08:36,330 God created us with a specific design and intention and purpose 165 00:08:36,340 --> 00:08:39,940 that we're meant to be true to. And so there is a sense to which 166 00:08:40,049 --> 00:08:42,320 this saying is capturing something good, that we are 167 00:08:42,330 --> 00:08:44,460 meant to be true and faithful to something. 168 00:08:44,990 --> 00:08:48,200 Romans 12/1 says, right, Don't conform to the pattern of this 169 00:08:48,210 --> 00:08:51,400 world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. 170 00:08:51,410 --> 00:08:54,120 And we see, you know, examples of these kinds of stories and 171 00:08:54,130 --> 00:08:57,000 scriptures, say in the book of Daniel, the story of Shadrack, 172 00:08:57,010 --> 00:09:01,720 Meshach and Abednego, not conforming to the idolatry of of 173 00:09:01,730 --> 00:09:05,180 Babylon, but being true to who God has called them to be. 174 00:09:05,250 --> 00:09:09,100 So there is something good going on here, both in the 175 00:09:09,500 --> 00:09:12,420 individuality and the authenticity that this this 176 00:09:12,430 --> 00:09:15,500 saying displays. But I think the key distinction 177 00:09:15,510 --> 00:09:21,170 needs to come in where we get our standard from, of what we're 178 00:09:21,180 --> 00:09:25,340 called to be true to, and where are unique individual calling 179 00:09:25,350 --> 00:09:28,950 comes from. There's this brilliant guy, I 180 00:09:28,960 --> 00:09:32,000 don't know if you've heard of him, John Digiovanni, but he 181 00:09:32,010 --> 00:09:35,980 sent me, he sent me some of his notes on a similar sermon he 182 00:09:35,990 --> 00:09:39,660 preached 8 years ago. He said we need to distinguish 183 00:09:39,670 --> 00:09:42,890 between God's image of us and our image of us. 184 00:09:43,140 --> 00:09:46,470 We have to be willing to give up our own image of ourselves to 185 00:09:46,480 --> 00:09:48,990 break embrace the image of God in us. 186 00:09:49,660 --> 00:09:52,390 And so that's kind of the question when it comes to being 187 00:09:52,400 --> 00:09:57,730 true to myself, it's what is my true self and who gets to decide 188 00:09:57,810 --> 00:10:00,130 who that is? It's not so much that it's bad 189 00:10:00,140 --> 00:10:03,690 to try to be true to something and for that something to be who 190 00:10:03,700 --> 00:10:06,270 you really are. But the question is, is who I 191 00:10:06,280 --> 00:10:09,130 really am something that I decide or is it something that 192 00:10:09,140 --> 00:10:12,290 God decides? So now we're going to jump into 193 00:10:12,300 --> 00:10:16,610 into our text, First Corinthians chapter 619 through 20. 194 00:10:17,230 --> 00:10:19,770 We're going to start to look a little bit at at the grand 195 00:10:19,780 --> 00:10:24,230 deception and I will say we're gonna go on a little bit of an 196 00:10:24,240 --> 00:10:26,430 excursion, a little bit of an excavation. 197 00:10:26,440 --> 00:10:29,930 I guess I really chose this saying be true to yourself. 198 00:10:29,940 --> 00:10:32,470 Not so much because I wanted to talk about the saying be true to 199 00:10:32,480 --> 00:10:36,620 yourself, but I wanted to talk about the, the assumption that 200 00:10:36,630 --> 00:10:39,550 is underlying this saying be true to yourself. 201 00:10:39,560 --> 00:10:42,720 And that is the assumption that we belong to ourselves. 202 00:10:42,730 --> 00:10:45,390 And there's actually a whole host of sayings that I was 203 00:10:45,400 --> 00:10:47,910 thinking of choosing because I think that they display this. 204 00:10:47,920 --> 00:10:51,010 I think we've got a bunch of them up on the screen there. 205 00:10:53,360 --> 00:10:54,270 There we go. Yeah. 206 00:10:54,280 --> 00:10:56,410 So take a look at all of those, right? 207 00:10:56,420 --> 00:10:58,880 There's a bunch of these, a bunch of these things you do. 208 00:10:58,890 --> 00:11:02,250 You manifest your destiny. Like Jonas was talking about 209 00:11:02,480 --> 00:11:05,240 lots of different things. Follow your heart, be true to 210 00:11:05,250 --> 00:11:08,060 yourself is just one of these sayings that is predicated on 211 00:11:08,070 --> 00:11:10,710 this assumption that you belong to yourself. 212 00:11:10,800 --> 00:11:13,810 The problem is you belong to yourself isn't actually a slogan 213 00:11:13,820 --> 00:11:15,750 that anyone uses. So I couldn't, I couldn't go 214 00:11:15,760 --> 00:11:18,730 with that. But that's the deception that 215 00:11:18,740 --> 00:11:21,830 we're really looking at today, is this idea that you belong to 216 00:11:21,840 --> 00:11:24,730 yourself. And so with that in mind, let's 217 00:11:24,740 --> 00:11:26,650 take a look at our passage today. 218 00:11:26,720 --> 00:11:31,530 First Corinthians 619 says, or do you not know that your body 219 00:11:31,540 --> 00:11:35,110 is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from 220 00:11:35,120 --> 00:11:37,890 God? You are not your own, for you 221 00:11:37,900 --> 00:11:41,410 are bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. 222 00:11:42,320 --> 00:11:45,950 What's Paul talking about here? This is a little out of context, 223 00:11:45,960 --> 00:11:47,710 so I'll give you some of the context. 224 00:11:47,780 --> 00:11:49,350 First Corinthians is this letter. 225 00:11:49,360 --> 00:11:52,390 Paul spent a year and a half in the city and Corn has a 226 00:11:52,400 --> 00:11:54,730 missionary establishing the church there. 227 00:11:54,780 --> 00:11:57,570 Since then, he's left to go establish the church in other 228 00:11:57,580 --> 00:12:00,330 parts of the world, and he's getting these reports that 229 00:12:00,340 --> 00:12:01,950 things aren't going great in Corinth. 230 00:12:01,960 --> 00:12:06,570 There's a number of issues going on with regards to arguments 231 00:12:06,580 --> 00:12:10,730 about food, misunderstandings about the resurrection, the way 232 00:12:10,740 --> 00:12:13,380 that they're worshipping and gathering together to worship, 233 00:12:13,460 --> 00:12:16,920 as well as sexual immorality. There's still a bunch of people 234 00:12:16,930 --> 00:12:19,880 in the church in Corinth who are sleeping with temple 235 00:12:19,890 --> 00:12:22,910 prostitutes, as well as one guy who's sleeping with his 236 00:12:22,920 --> 00:12:24,860 mother-in-law. And so Paul's hearing this, he's 237 00:12:24,870 --> 00:12:26,470 like, Oh my goodness, what's going on? 238 00:12:26,850 --> 00:12:28,770 I need to write a letter to these people to set them 239 00:12:28,780 --> 00:12:30,210 straight. So that's what he's doing. 240 00:12:30,220 --> 00:12:33,380 And he's kind of taking on these issues one at a time throughout 241 00:12:33,390 --> 00:12:35,580 the letter. And so this second section that 242 00:12:35,590 --> 00:12:39,620 First Corinthians 619 through 20 is in is the section where he's 243 00:12:39,630 --> 00:12:42,250 dealing with sexual immorality. That's not what we're going to 244 00:12:42,260 --> 00:12:44,380 be talking about today. Don't worry, we've been there 245 00:12:44,390 --> 00:12:47,540 and done that. But I do think that what Paul is 246 00:12:47,550 --> 00:12:51,080 saying here about sexual immorality is more broadly 247 00:12:51,090 --> 00:12:53,160 applicable to our lives in general. 248 00:12:53,720 --> 00:12:57,730 So if we look up at verse 12, we see kind of the argument that's 249 00:12:57,740 --> 00:12:59,820 been going on in the church in Corinth. 250 00:12:59,830 --> 00:13:03,190 They they're not only engaging in sexual immorality, but 251 00:13:03,200 --> 00:13:06,280 there's a bunch of them who are saying all things are lawful for 252 00:13:06,290 --> 00:13:08,380 me. But then Paul says in response, 253 00:13:08,390 --> 00:13:11,040 but not all things are helpful. And so there's this kind of 254 00:13:11,050 --> 00:13:14,480 argument of of liberality with regards to sexuality. 255 00:13:14,560 --> 00:13:19,300 It's like, well, we're covered by the grace of God, so let's 256 00:13:19,310 --> 00:13:20,890 just do whatever we want with our bodies. 257 00:13:20,900 --> 00:13:22,960 It doesn't matter. And Paul is saying, no, no, this 258 00:13:22,970 --> 00:13:25,620 is wrong headed. And so he's gonna argue against 259 00:13:25,630 --> 00:13:27,710 this. And these two verses that we're 260 00:13:27,720 --> 00:13:30,100 looking at aren't the whole of his argument, but it is a really 261 00:13:30,110 --> 00:13:31,490 interesting part of his argument. 262 00:13:32,280 --> 00:13:36,350 Where does he go to argue against this idea that that I 263 00:13:36,360 --> 00:13:39,200 can engage in sexual immorality and that it's lawful for me? 264 00:13:39,210 --> 00:13:42,970 He doesn't say, well, you know, temple prostitution is really an 265 00:13:42,980 --> 00:13:45,370 exploitative thing. And it's actually not really 266 00:13:45,380 --> 00:13:48,810 that consensual because, you know, these these women are 267 00:13:48,820 --> 00:13:50,860 forced into it. I mean, you could go there, 268 00:13:50,870 --> 00:13:51,690 right? But he doesn't. 269 00:13:51,700 --> 00:13:54,810 Instead, he goes to this idea that you don't belong to 270 00:13:54,820 --> 00:13:57,770 yourself. You are not your own, but your 271 00:13:57,780 --> 00:14:02,670 body belongs to God. Really interesting here. 272 00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:08,370 Paul is using this, this Exodus language of, of redemption here, 273 00:14:08,440 --> 00:14:10,150 right? He says that you were bought 274 00:14:10,160 --> 00:14:13,230 with a price. There's this sense in which Paul 275 00:14:13,240 --> 00:14:16,560 is saying, look, you guys were like, you guys were like the 276 00:14:16,570 --> 00:14:22,050 Israelites in Egypt before you were in bondage to your passions 277 00:14:22,160 --> 00:14:25,670 to sin, to death. You were in the wrongful 278 00:14:25,680 --> 00:14:28,850 possession of those things. You were slaves to those things. 279 00:14:29,220 --> 00:14:33,390 But now God through Jesus, has come and set you free from that 280 00:14:33,400 --> 00:14:36,690 bondage and that slavery. But the freedom that he's 281 00:14:36,700 --> 00:14:40,100 brought you into is a freedom of belonging to the true Master, 282 00:14:40,350 --> 00:14:42,020 right? You belong to Him now. 283 00:14:42,770 --> 00:14:47,250 So This is why you're not free to use your body however you 284 00:14:47,260 --> 00:14:49,450 want it. Your true freedom is going to be 285 00:14:49,460 --> 00:14:50,900 found. Your true flourishing is going 286 00:14:50,910 --> 00:14:54,290 to be found and using your body in a way that honors God because 287 00:14:54,300 --> 00:14:57,480 you belong to Him now. So this is this is Paul's 288 00:14:57,490 --> 00:15:00,750 argument. It's a little bit strange to us, 289 00:15:00,760 --> 00:15:03,150 I think in the modern day, cause we don't like to think of 290 00:15:03,160 --> 00:15:06,650 freedom as belonging to the true master. 291 00:15:06,660 --> 00:15:09,610 But this is the biblical idea of what freedom is. 292 00:15:09,620 --> 00:15:11,900 We're going to unpack that a little bit more later, but this 293 00:15:11,910 --> 00:15:15,140 is Paul's argument. So how does this relate to to 294 00:15:15,150 --> 00:15:19,330 our saying be true to yourself? How does this relate to the idea 295 00:15:19,370 --> 00:15:23,470 that you belong to yourself? I think there's 22 grand 296 00:15:23,480 --> 00:15:27,460 deceptions in this saying of being true to yourself and this 297 00:15:27,470 --> 00:15:30,200 idea that you belong to yourself that we're going to tackle 298 00:15:30,210 --> 00:15:33,310 today, that that Paul, what he said here has something to say 299 00:15:33,320 --> 00:15:36,390 about the first is just the myth of self belonging. 300 00:15:37,090 --> 00:15:39,510 So this idea that you belong to yourself, that you're 301 00:15:39,520 --> 00:15:42,860 responsible for your own existence, first of all, is just 302 00:15:42,870 --> 00:15:45,830 a myth. It's a lie outright, as Paul is 303 00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:49,580 arguing here, We can't actually belong to ourselves. 304 00:15:49,590 --> 00:15:52,960 We can't actually have autonomy. It's either that we belong to 305 00:15:52,970 --> 00:15:56,770 God or we're gonna belong to and be slaves to something else. 306 00:15:57,190 --> 00:15:59,820 Bob Dylan, right, said you're gonna have to serve somebody. 307 00:16:00,130 --> 00:16:03,940 And the biblical imaginary here that Paul is is working with is 308 00:16:03,950 --> 00:16:06,660 that, you know, you're either going to belong to Pharaoh or 309 00:16:06,670 --> 00:16:07,990 you're going to belong to Yahweh. 310 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:10,570 You're going to belong to sin and death or you're going to 311 00:16:10,580 --> 00:16:14,900 belong to Jesus. Leslie Newbigin puts this really 312 00:16:14,910 --> 00:16:18,160 well in his book Foolishness to the Greeks when he says from the 313 00:16:18,170 --> 00:16:21,220 point of view of the Enlightenment, the biblical idea 314 00:16:21,230 --> 00:16:25,290 of freedom is paradoxical, a freedom of the one who serves 315 00:16:25,300 --> 00:16:28,240 the true master, right. So that's not how we in a post 316 00:16:28,250 --> 00:16:31,020 Enlightenment world think of freedom as serving the true 317 00:16:31,030 --> 00:16:33,300 master, but that's how the Bible thinks about freedom. 318 00:16:33,640 --> 00:16:36,560 He goes on to say from the point of view of the Bible, the 319 00:16:36,570 --> 00:16:39,480 freedom celebrated in the Enlightenment is the freedom 320 00:16:39,490 --> 00:16:43,020 offered by the serpent in Eden, the freedom to make one's own 321 00:16:43,030 --> 00:16:47,250 decisions about what is good. And ultimately, while it tastes 322 00:16:47,260 --> 00:16:50,270 and it feels like freedom in the moment, that's what Paul would 323 00:16:50,280 --> 00:16:52,430 call being a slave to sin, right? 324 00:16:52,440 --> 00:16:55,710 Where we're choosing to come under the dominion and the power 325 00:16:55,720 --> 00:16:59,250 of our passions of sin, and we're not actually living the 326 00:16:59,260 --> 00:17:01,170 lives we were meant to live in. That's actually a kind of 327 00:17:01,180 --> 00:17:05,280 bondage. So theologically speaking, the 328 00:17:05,290 --> 00:17:08,540 idea that you can you can belong to yourself is a myth. 329 00:17:09,450 --> 00:17:12,839 We were made to be like God, and this is where our true freedom 330 00:17:12,849 --> 00:17:15,349 and flourishing is found. And there's not really this 331 00:17:15,359 --> 00:17:19,430 neutral ground of I'm just serving and belonging to myself. 332 00:17:19,440 --> 00:17:23,030 I'm either serving sin or I'm serving Jesus. 333 00:17:23,099 --> 00:17:26,690 But practically as well, not just theologically, I think the 334 00:17:26,700 --> 00:17:29,390 idea that I can belong to myself, that I can really be 335 00:17:29,400 --> 00:17:32,470 true to myself is also kind of a myth, right? 336 00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:35,690 We like to think that we are these great rugged 337 00:17:35,700 --> 00:17:40,180 individualists who, you know, are just going deep and 338 00:17:40,190 --> 00:17:44,620 discovering who we are and crafting this identity that's 339 00:17:44,630 --> 00:17:47,100 true to ourselves and our authentic core. 340 00:17:47,150 --> 00:17:50,500 But the reality is, is that most of these identities that we try 341 00:17:50,510 --> 00:17:52,860 aren't are pre selected for us by the market. 342 00:17:52,950 --> 00:17:56,160 They're fed to us through social media, movies. 343 00:17:56,810 --> 00:17:59,180 We're just putting on an amalgamation of things we've 344 00:17:59,190 --> 00:18:03,860 seen from other people, right? So societies foisting upon us 345 00:18:03,870 --> 00:18:06,240 these responsibilities of self belonging. 346 00:18:06,250 --> 00:18:10,070 And then it provides us with a selection of choices of the self 347 00:18:10,080 --> 00:18:12,500 that you can be through to. And so we like to kind of 348 00:18:12,510 --> 00:18:14,990 deceive ourselves into thinking that I've crafted this really 349 00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:18,510 unique identity that I'm really belonging to myself and making 350 00:18:18,520 --> 00:18:21,090 myself my own. But practically speaking, that's 351 00:18:21,100 --> 00:18:24,860 not really what's going on. 2nd deception that we're going to 352 00:18:24,870 --> 00:18:29,330 look at is the burden of self belonging, said the lie. 353 00:18:29,340 --> 00:18:33,110 I think that's operative in this idea that you belong to yourself 354 00:18:33,120 --> 00:18:36,130 and that it's a good thing to be true to yourself is that we find 355 00:18:36,140 --> 00:18:40,280 our greatest fulfillment and breaking from external norms. 356 00:18:41,040 --> 00:18:43,890 So this is the idea, right? That that if you belong to 357 00:18:43,900 --> 00:18:48,020 yourself, if you can break free from all external expectations, 358 00:18:48,030 --> 00:18:50,870 if you can be true to yourself, then that's a kind of freedom. 359 00:18:50,880 --> 00:18:53,660 That's a liberation, right? That this is a good thing. 360 00:18:53,670 --> 00:18:55,520 You're going to find fulfillment if you do this. 361 00:18:55,530 --> 00:18:58,980 It's actually like an ethical imperative to be authentic, to 362 00:18:58,990 --> 00:19:02,490 discover who you are, to not conform to some other standard 363 00:19:02,500 --> 00:19:05,430 from outside yourself. But what I want to argue is that 364 00:19:05,490 --> 00:19:08,670 this isn't actually a freedom and a fulfillment, but it's a 365 00:19:08,730 --> 00:19:13,000 it's an incredible burden. George McDonald, an author who I 366 00:19:13,010 --> 00:19:17,380 love and was a great influence on CS Lewis, for example, said 367 00:19:17,450 --> 00:19:20,290 the one principle of hell is that I am my own. 368 00:19:21,110 --> 00:19:24,900 There's this idea that that belonging to yourself is 369 00:19:24,910 --> 00:19:28,440 actually not good for you. It's actually going to result in 370 00:19:28,510 --> 00:19:32,620 a lot of suffering and pain because it's extending ourselves 371 00:19:32,630 --> 00:19:35,830 beyond our limitations and bringing a burden upon ourselves 372 00:19:35,840 --> 00:19:38,490 that we were never meant to bear as human beings. 373 00:19:39,550 --> 00:19:44,450 Our fusions 420 through 2 through 24 says you were taught 374 00:19:44,460 --> 00:19:47,220 with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old 375 00:19:47,230 --> 00:19:51,440 self which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, to be 376 00:19:51,450 --> 00:19:55,000 made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new 377 00:19:55,010 --> 00:19:59,310 self created to be like God and true righteousness and holiness. 378 00:20:00,440 --> 00:20:02,770 So there's two ideas that I wanna wanna look at here. 379 00:20:02,780 --> 00:20:07,430 First of all is that your former self is corrupted by deceitful 380 00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:09,670 desires. It is human beings. 381 00:20:09,980 --> 00:20:14,390 We we might think that we have this great sense internally of 382 00:20:14,500 --> 00:20:17,650 who we are and what we want and what's going to be good for us. 383 00:20:17,660 --> 00:20:21,130 But Paul says here that our desires are deceitful, that 384 00:20:21,140 --> 00:20:23,980 sometimes when we're trying the hardest to be true to ourselves, 385 00:20:23,990 --> 00:20:26,130 that's when we're the least like ourselves. 386 00:20:26,280 --> 00:20:31,550 Because as he goes on to say, we're created by God to be like 387 00:20:31,560 --> 00:20:34,570 God to for a certain purpose, right? 388 00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:39,020 And so this other sense is that we were actually created with a 389 00:20:39,030 --> 00:20:42,380 certain purpose, with a certain goal in mind. 390 00:20:42,390 --> 00:20:45,930 And if we're not living into that, it's actually going to be 391 00:20:45,940 --> 00:20:47,620 a burden on us. It's like going against the 392 00:20:47,630 --> 00:20:49,830 grain of the universe and getting splinters. 393 00:20:52,610 --> 00:20:56,560 So I think what we need to do is make a distinction between what 394 00:20:56,570 --> 00:21:00,060 feels like our strongest desires and what's actually our deepest 395 00:21:00,070 --> 00:21:02,700 desires, right? We, we were created with a 396 00:21:02,710 --> 00:21:05,720 desire for God, right? Augustine says. 397 00:21:05,730 --> 00:21:08,900 Our hearts are restless until we rest in you because we were made 398 00:21:08,910 --> 00:21:10,880 for you. Sometimes that doesn't feel like 399 00:21:10,890 --> 00:21:13,900 our strongest desire, though. Sometimes my strongest desire 400 00:21:13,910 --> 00:21:17,390 just feels like I'm hungry and I want to eat something or I want 401 00:21:17,400 --> 00:21:19,840 to sin because it will feel good in the moment. 402 00:21:19,930 --> 00:21:23,760 And so our desires, they can be these deceptive things that it 403 00:21:23,770 --> 00:21:26,850 feels like, well, it would be authentic to me right now to, 404 00:21:26,980 --> 00:21:30,190 you know, explode and be angry at this person because it feels 405 00:21:30,200 --> 00:21:32,570 right. But my deepest desire is 406 00:21:32,580 --> 00:21:34,730 actually to be in right relationship with this person 407 00:21:34,740 --> 00:21:36,810 and be in right relationship with God. 408 00:21:36,960 --> 00:21:42,250 And so we're not often very good at at figuring out how how we 409 00:21:42,260 --> 00:21:44,580 can be true to ourselves and what that looks like. 410 00:21:46,500 --> 00:21:49,890 Now, I think that this ends up becoming a burden because of 411 00:21:49,900 --> 00:21:53,170 what Alan Noble calls the responsibilities of self 412 00:21:53,180 --> 00:21:56,410 belonging. If I my own and I belong to 413 00:21:56,420 --> 00:22:01,930 myself and I don't belong to God, then I have to justify my 414 00:22:01,940 --> 00:22:04,990 own existence, right? I have to. 415 00:22:05,440 --> 00:22:08,910 I have to be the one to justify why I'm here on this planet. 416 00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:12,470 I have to look good enough or be smart enough or make enough 417 00:22:12,480 --> 00:22:15,890 money or make a positive enough contribution in order for my 418 00:22:15,900 --> 00:22:17,680 existence to be worth something, right? 419 00:22:17,690 --> 00:22:20,210 That's on me now. I belong to myself. 420 00:22:20,220 --> 00:22:22,350 I am my own. I have to do these things. 421 00:22:22,520 --> 00:22:24,330 I have to define my own morality. 422 00:22:24,340 --> 00:22:26,420 I have to decide what's right and what's wrong. 423 00:22:27,230 --> 00:22:29,160 I have to define my own identity. 424 00:22:29,230 --> 00:22:31,840 God can't tell me who I am if I belong to myself. 425 00:22:31,890 --> 00:22:34,740 I have to figure that out for myself, and I have to express it 426 00:22:34,810 --> 00:22:37,070 as well. In order for that to be 427 00:22:37,080 --> 00:22:40,270 validated by other people, I have to create my own sense of 428 00:22:40,280 --> 00:22:44,180 meaning and purpose. And I have to exist in a world 429 00:22:44,190 --> 00:22:48,280 of voluntary social ties, right? Nobody can tell me who I belong 430 00:22:48,290 --> 00:22:51,070 to and who I don't belong to in terms of other people, right? 431 00:22:51,080 --> 00:22:55,400 I don't belong to the, to the family of God by virtue of being 432 00:22:55,410 --> 00:22:59,300 in union with Christ. All my ties are voluntary ties 433 00:22:59,310 --> 00:23:02,200 that I choose. And so I think what, what ends 434 00:23:02,210 --> 00:23:05,760 up happening is that this ends up being a great burden upon us. 435 00:23:06,070 --> 00:23:09,460 I think when we when we wake up every single day and we have to 436 00:23:09,470 --> 00:23:12,320 face, OK, I need to define who I am. 437 00:23:12,600 --> 00:23:16,160 I need to create meaning. I need to create my sense of 438 00:23:16,170 --> 00:23:18,500 purpose. I have to justify my existence 439 00:23:18,510 --> 00:23:21,250 today that actually ends up really wearing on us. 440 00:23:22,130 --> 00:23:24,560 To live authentically ends up meaning to justify our 441 00:23:24,570 --> 00:23:28,250 existence, express our identity, interpret meaning, judge 442 00:23:28,260 --> 00:23:31,220 according to our own moral compass, and belong only where 443 00:23:31,230 --> 00:23:34,430 we choose. And this wears us out in the 444 00:23:34,440 --> 00:23:36,350 end. It becomes a burden, a daily 445 00:23:36,360 --> 00:23:38,930 burden, to discover and express ourselves. 446 00:23:39,010 --> 00:23:40,690 That's just too much to cope with. 447 00:23:41,260 --> 00:23:44,360 There's no objective standard against which we can measure 448 00:23:44,370 --> 00:23:49,010 whether or not we're doing well. Alan Noble says that to be true 449 00:23:49,020 --> 00:23:52,310 to ourselves is categorically different from being true in an 450 00:23:52,320 --> 00:23:56,960 empirical or logical sense, because there's no external or 451 00:23:56,970 --> 00:23:59,950 objective way to judge or reassure ourselves, right? 452 00:23:59,960 --> 00:24:04,250 So we can judge if something's true in an external or logical 453 00:24:04,260 --> 00:24:07,980 sense based on something external to it, right? 454 00:24:08,860 --> 00:24:12,590 Like is this, you know, is this line true, right? 455 00:24:12,600 --> 00:24:15,120 We can measure it with a ruler. There's something external to it 456 00:24:15,130 --> 00:24:18,370 to measure it against. But if you belong to yourself, 457 00:24:18,380 --> 00:24:21,150 then the only thing that you can measure against is yourself. 458 00:24:21,780 --> 00:24:24,150 How can you ever be sure that you're being true to yourself? 459 00:24:24,220 --> 00:24:26,410 How can you ever know if you're being authentic? 460 00:24:26,520 --> 00:24:30,170 You're utterly alone in your judgment, sovereign, but alone. 461 00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:33,110 And to make matters worse, you can't trust yourself because the 462 00:24:33,120 --> 00:24:36,220 human mind is capable of tremendous self deception. 463 00:24:36,620 --> 00:24:39,010 Maybe you are at least true to yourself when you're trying to 464 00:24:39,020 --> 00:24:41,230 be like yourself, Alan Noble says. 465 00:24:41,660 --> 00:24:45,590 So the question is, is there any good news for us? 466 00:24:47,190 --> 00:24:51,360 Is there any good news for us as we as we try to bear this burden 467 00:24:51,370 --> 00:24:53,560 of the responsibility of self belonging? 468 00:24:53,570 --> 00:24:59,020 And I believe the answer is yes, but it's not not a a gospel of 469 00:24:59,030 --> 00:25:01,310 cheap grace that we're going to be looking at today. 470 00:25:02,610 --> 00:25:06,000 So we remember our verse in First Corinthians 6. 471 00:25:06,610 --> 00:25:11,530 It says that we belong to God, we belong to Christ. 472 00:25:11,540 --> 00:25:13,420 We actually have to give something up. 473 00:25:13,490 --> 00:25:16,540 So the gospel of grace, the good news that we belong to Christ 474 00:25:16,550 --> 00:25:21,960 means we have to give up that that right to autonomy to the 475 00:25:22,030 --> 00:25:25,440 illusion at least that I get to decide all of these things for 476 00:25:25,450 --> 00:25:28,190 myself. The the illusion of freedom that 477 00:25:28,200 --> 00:25:31,880 that comes with if we want to be relieved of the burden of self 478 00:25:31,890 --> 00:25:36,470 belonging. I think the call of the gospel 479 00:25:36,520 --> 00:25:39,790 again, it's not an easy call, but ultimately it's a call that 480 00:25:39,860 --> 00:25:43,000 will lead to greater joy and fulfillment and satisfaction on 481 00:25:43,010 --> 00:25:46,620 the other side as not to be true to yourself, but to deny 482 00:25:46,630 --> 00:25:50,110 yourself to take up your cross and to follow Jesus. 483 00:25:50,220 --> 00:25:54,910 Matthew 1624 through 25. Jesus says whoever wants to be 484 00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:58,570 my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and 485 00:25:58,580 --> 00:26:01,110 follow me. For whoever wants to save their 486 00:26:01,120 --> 00:26:05,160 life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find 487 00:26:05,170 --> 00:26:08,800 it, right? There's the there's the paradox 488 00:26:08,810 --> 00:26:12,240 of the gospel of grace and following Jesus, that when we're 489 00:26:12,250 --> 00:26:17,620 trying so hard to to be true to ourselves, to find who we are, 490 00:26:17,690 --> 00:26:20,800 to hold so tightly on to this inner sense and conviction of 491 00:26:20,810 --> 00:26:24,020 this is who I am, we actually end up losing our lives. 492 00:26:24,190 --> 00:26:28,620 But when we let go of that, when we belong fully to Jesus, when 493 00:26:28,630 --> 00:26:31,960 we die to ourselves and give something up, that's when we 494 00:26:31,970 --> 00:26:37,290 actually find our lives. If we belong to God, then that 495 00:26:37,300 --> 00:26:40,470 means that we exist in the world in a way that there's actually 496 00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:43,870 limits on ourselves that aren't freely chosen by us. 497 00:26:44,260 --> 00:26:48,490 But I think this is good news because we aren't God, right? 498 00:26:48,500 --> 00:26:51,390 We're made to be like God, to be in his image, but we aren't 499 00:26:51,400 --> 00:26:54,990 Gods, right? We were never made to to justify 500 00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:58,810 our own existence and create our own meaning in our own identity. 501 00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:02,470 And so there's actually such a freedom in having these external 502 00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:05,880 limits that aren't freely chosen by us, but are given. 503 00:27:05,950 --> 00:27:08,310 It's a gracious gift to us by God. 504 00:27:08,780 --> 00:27:13,190 Matthew 1128 through 30 is one of my favorite verses. 505 00:27:13,200 --> 00:27:16,290 Jesus says, come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and 506 00:27:16,300 --> 00:27:19,610 I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn 507 00:27:19,620 --> 00:27:22,750 from me, for I am gentle and humble and heart, and you will 508 00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:26,590 find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and My 509 00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:29,560 burden is light. It was really interesting here 510 00:27:29,570 --> 00:27:34,500 is that Jesus isn't talking about or he isn't offering an 511 00:27:34,510 --> 00:27:37,490 option of being burden less, right? 512 00:27:37,500 --> 00:27:39,770 The two options that he's offering are like, look, you're 513 00:27:39,780 --> 00:27:43,920 you're heavy laden and burdened. You're carrying your, you know, 514 00:27:43,930 --> 00:27:46,780 the maybe in our case, the responsibilities of self 515 00:27:46,790 --> 00:27:49,560 belonging on your back. But it doesn't say I'll set you 516 00:27:49,570 --> 00:27:51,810 free from that. So you can just be wandering 517 00:27:51,820 --> 00:27:53,180 around with nothing on your shoulders. 518 00:27:53,190 --> 00:27:54,910 He says no, take my yoke upon you. 519 00:27:55,600 --> 00:27:58,650 But it's actually a yoke that's easy and light and it's going to 520 00:27:58,660 --> 00:28:03,900 lead to rest for your souls. When we take the burden of Jesus 521 00:28:03,910 --> 00:28:07,840 upon us, when we belong to him, when we allow him to set these 522 00:28:07,850 --> 00:28:11,700 limits on our life and our existence and define us in some 523 00:28:11,710 --> 00:28:15,060 way, then we no longer find ourselves having to engage in 524 00:28:15,070 --> 00:28:18,860 the the competition of expressive individualism, right? 525 00:28:18,870 --> 00:28:22,240 I don't have to continue to shout into the void along with 526 00:28:22,250 --> 00:28:25,140 everyone else on social media and everything else, trying to 527 00:28:25,210 --> 00:28:27,980 justify my own existence and show that I'm good enough and 528 00:28:27,990 --> 00:28:30,780 receive validation for the identity that I've chosen for 529 00:28:30,790 --> 00:28:32,120 myself. I can just rest. 530 00:28:32,130 --> 00:28:35,730 And the fact that I belong to Jesus, that I belong to God and 531 00:28:35,740 --> 00:28:39,070 to his people. So we'll just look at a few few 532 00:28:39,080 --> 00:28:42,970 quick ways here that that the gospel of grace is operative 1 533 00:28:42,980 --> 00:28:45,050 is in this area of justification, right? 534 00:28:45,120 --> 00:28:48,130 This is obviously like a theological thing that were made 535 00:28:48,140 --> 00:28:52,190 right with God and with others through the blood of Jesus that 536 00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:55,690 were justified before God. But also that our existence like 537 00:28:55,700 --> 00:28:57,990 existentially were justified, right? 538 00:28:58,080 --> 00:29:02,490 When we belong to God, when we recognize I'm created by Him and 539 00:29:02,500 --> 00:29:06,990 He loves me and created me, then I'm inherently valuable and 540 00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:10,400 dignified and justify it. I don't have to try to show 541 00:29:10,410 --> 00:29:14,440 everybody and prove to myself that I ought to be around 542 00:29:14,450 --> 00:29:17,440 because God has created me and is continuing to create and 543 00:29:17,450 --> 00:29:21,200 sustain me every day, and He's the one who justifies my 544 00:29:21,210 --> 00:29:24,630 existence by making me my identity. 545 00:29:25,540 --> 00:29:28,310 I don't have to create my own identity anymore. 546 00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:30,260 I don't have to wonder, is this who I really am? 547 00:29:30,270 --> 00:29:33,070 Is this good enough? I can just rest in the identity 548 00:29:33,080 --> 00:29:36,230 that I'm a beloved child of God meaning. 549 00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:39,760 I don't have to try to create my own meaning and have it be as a 550 00:29:39,770 --> 00:29:43,080 slippery, subjective thing that's changing all the time and 551 00:29:43,090 --> 00:29:45,480 isn't really meaning because I made it. 552 00:29:45,570 --> 00:29:48,820 I can actually find purpose in life and living as a part of 553 00:29:48,830 --> 00:29:52,520 God's mission and imaging Him values. 554 00:29:52,570 --> 00:29:55,820 I don't have to be the one to decide what's right and wrong, 555 00:29:55,830 --> 00:29:59,260 what's good and what's not good. I can rest in knowing there's a 556 00:29:59,270 --> 00:30:01,880 God who's determined what's what's right and what's wrong, 557 00:30:01,890 --> 00:30:07,910 and that burden is not on me. And belonging, I don't have to 558 00:30:07,960 --> 00:30:11,270 have to go out and earn belonging with other people. 559 00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:15,990 I don't have to live in this world where where every tie that 560 00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:18,910 I have with people is something that they've really chosen, that 561 00:30:18,920 --> 00:30:21,570 I've really chosen, and can be severed at any moment. 562 00:30:21,580 --> 00:30:24,310 But there's actually a really true and mysterious sense in 563 00:30:24,320 --> 00:30:27,430 which I belong to God's people and I belong to him, and I can 564 00:30:27,440 --> 00:30:30,130 rest in that. I don't have to earn belonging 565 00:30:30,140 --> 00:30:32,850 with people, but I'm part of God's family no matter what 566 00:30:32,860 --> 00:30:39,200 because I'm in Christ. So I think, um, it's a 567 00:30:39,210 --> 00:30:42,420 paradoxical thing. It's a strange thing for us to 568 00:30:42,430 --> 00:30:44,640 follow. And we were really living at the 569 00:30:44,650 --> 00:30:47,900 crossroads of two very different ways of seeing the world and two 570 00:30:47,910 --> 00:30:50,460 very different ideas of what freedom is. 571 00:30:50,650 --> 00:30:53,700 So it's a strange, strange pill for us to swallow. 572 00:30:53,710 --> 00:30:57,200 But I really do think that when we come to recognize our 573 00:30:57,210 --> 00:31:01,420 contingency, our dependence upon God, that this is actually the 574 00:31:01,430 --> 00:31:05,290 way of grace. I mean, doesn't free us from the 575 00:31:05,300 --> 00:31:07,870 obligation of living rightly, right? 576 00:31:07,880 --> 00:31:11,550 Like we still, we still need to live rightly. 577 00:31:11,560 --> 00:31:14,150 We still need to live the way that God's called us to. 578 00:31:14,580 --> 00:31:18,050 But it does change the terms of our, our duty as human beings, 579 00:31:18,060 --> 00:31:21,170 of our ethical duty, living rightly before God. 580 00:31:21,560 --> 00:31:25,070 It's a way of living honestly in the world and of being our true 581 00:31:25,080 --> 00:31:28,030 self. It doesn't justify our 582 00:31:28,040 --> 00:31:30,410 existence. It doesn't define our identity 583 00:31:30,420 --> 00:31:33,990 like what we do and, and how we operate ethically, but it is an 584 00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:36,650 outflow of truth in the practice of grace. 585 00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:41,780 Um, yeah. So I think this is a, this is a 586 00:31:41,830 --> 00:31:47,960 strange idea for us to, to try to really, really get deep into 587 00:31:47,970 --> 00:31:52,160 our souls because, right, the stories of self belonging and 588 00:31:52,170 --> 00:31:55,070 the stories of being true to yourself are so prevalent in our 589 00:31:55,080 --> 00:31:58,330 culture. That's such a, a major, major 590 00:31:58,340 --> 00:32:00,510 story that we're hearing all the time. 591 00:32:00,580 --> 00:32:04,030 And so I was thinking about how do you make this sermon 592 00:32:04,040 --> 00:32:06,420 practical? Jacob, this is so heady. 593 00:32:06,700 --> 00:32:11,810 This is such a sermon that's like, yeah, believe the right 594 00:32:11,820 --> 00:32:13,620 thing, but but what do we do with this? 595 00:32:13,630 --> 00:32:16,590 Where do we go from here? How do we get this gospel of 596 00:32:16,600 --> 00:32:20,810 grace into our bones? How do we go from here, 597 00:32:20,820 --> 00:32:24,870 continuing to believe this, recognizing that we might be 598 00:32:24,880 --> 00:32:27,870 slipping into thinking the way that the world thinks, into the 599 00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:31,590 pattern of the world? I think my, my practice is 600 00:32:31,600 --> 00:32:36,350 actually kind of a non practice. It's to not do anything. 601 00:32:36,420 --> 00:32:43,010 It's simply to rest, right, to stop, stop the striving. 602 00:32:43,600 --> 00:32:47,490 And in particular, I think like Sabbath is a great, a great 603 00:32:47,500 --> 00:32:51,390 practice of ritualizing this and making it consistent pattern 604 00:32:51,400 --> 00:32:56,890 rhythm in your life to to remind yourself that I don't belong to 605 00:32:56,900 --> 00:32:59,450 anybody but God. My time belongs to God, my 606 00:32:59,460 --> 00:33:03,650 existence belongs to God. But just in general, taking time 607 00:33:03,660 --> 00:33:08,440 to just stop to realize, like man, I'm working so hard and 608 00:33:08,450 --> 00:33:12,260 trying so hard and caught up in the rat race of trying to 609 00:33:12,270 --> 00:33:16,520 express my own unique individual identity and and justify my own 610 00:33:16,530 --> 00:33:18,950 existence. Taking a day, taking moments 611 00:33:18,960 --> 00:33:22,640 throughout the day to simply stop and be present to God and 612 00:33:22,650 --> 00:33:26,080 come before him and just not do anything but just be. 613 00:33:26,310 --> 00:33:30,760 I think it's such a powerful way to to remind ourselves and to 614 00:33:30,770 --> 00:33:34,590 get into our bones this idea that I belong to God and that is 615 00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:37,930 a gift of grace. Yeah. 616 00:33:37,940 --> 00:33:40,170 So that's that's all I have for you today. 617 00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:46,990 Just wanna end in in prayer. Yeah, there we do ask that. 618 00:33:49,940 --> 00:33:57,260 Yeah, you would help us to help us to accept the gospel of 619 00:33:57,270 --> 00:33:59,660 grace. God, Lord, would you help us to 620 00:33:59,670 --> 00:34:03,980 continue to see where the stories, where the ideas of our 621 00:34:03,990 --> 00:34:07,690 culture are actually deceptive and aren't going to lead to our 622 00:34:07,700 --> 00:34:10,590 flourishing? God, we ask that you would give 623 00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:13,920 us your eyes to see that the wisdom to discern those things. 624 00:34:13,929 --> 00:34:17,960 And God, we ask in particular today, would you help us to rest 625 00:34:17,969 --> 00:34:22,560 in the fact that we belong to You That we don't have to decide 626 00:34:22,610 --> 00:34:26,699 who we are and strive to be true to an ever shifting standard 627 00:34:26,710 --> 00:34:31,290 that comes from within, but that we can rest in the grace of of 628 00:34:31,300 --> 00:34:34,969 the love of your Son for us and the fact that that you have a 629 00:34:34,980 --> 00:34:39,219 calling for us. Yeah, I got I pray that that you 630 00:34:39,230 --> 00:34:43,719 would help us to, to resist the the pull and the idolatry of our 631 00:34:43,730 --> 00:34:50,010 culture God and to yeah, Lord, really find true rest in you and 632 00:34:50,020 --> 00:34:54,600 to to make it a priority to practice rhythms of rest in our 633 00:34:54,610 --> 00:34:56,520 lives. God, we pray this in Jesus name, 634 00:34:56,610 --> 00:34:56,980 Amen.