We started the year in the book of Numbers, and we walked through that great book, the Old Testament, and saw the gospel, really, in several places. And so thank you for testifying of your son in that book. And thank you, Father, for the book of James, that we considered the beginning of this year, this school year, or this calendar year. and how much you desire to use suffering and trials in our lives. And we must persevere in order to inherit the kingdom of God, to receive life and the kingdom. So thank you, God, that in Christ we're born again. And we do, and we will. And so praise you, Lord, for that reality. In Father in Heaven, we've also considered some other books, like Song of Songs, and Ruth and Jonah, Ecclesiastes. So it's been a rich year, and thank you that your word is inspired and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, thoroughly equipped for every good work, that the word of God is sufficient for the work of ministry. And so we thank you that we can all receive So tonight, Lord, we pray, please grant your word to do its good effect on us. Grant our hearts to be soft, or as James says, to receive with meekness the word implanted, which is able to save our souls. And so may that be tonight. We offer this to you and ask that you would do this for the sake of your son, Jesus. Amen. So This is our last one that we're considering from this little series on emerging adulthood. And it's different than series that I've done, because normally I just take a book and walk through it, where this is something where I was really moved by the needs of emerging adults. I did not know what to speak on at Camp Barakel when they asked me to speak at the beginning of this year. And when I went to the Lord to pray, it was odd because the thing that came to mind was a book that I had on emerging adulthood by a psychologist. But it filled me with a sense of need, a sense of message. And so the answer to that was several basically several books of the Bible, Ecclesiastes, then Ruth, then Jonah, and then the message that I'm gonna give tonight from Jesus' gospel, or from the gospel of Mark on Jesus, and we'll turn there in a second. Again, just so you keep in mind what your age group is, and you may or may not, to whatever extent your own walk with the Lord and your own personality, you may or may not fit this category, you know, well or more or less, but identity, so identity exploration is a big part of your age. Who am I? And then second, and let me get these right, so I got them right, second is instability. You are not settled in where you're gonna live, who you're gonna love, and the work you're gonna do. Those are up in the air, largely for your age group. It is an age of self-focus because you don't have to answer to your parents or your family as much or at all, and you don't have a family of your own. And so you're really caring for yourself. You don't have anybody else if you're fully in this emerging adulthood category. And so it's very much a time period about self-focus and very tempting Feeling in between is the fourth category. You're definitely not in high school, you're definitely not an adolescent, but yet you're not fully making your own way in this world, paying for your own goods, making your own decisions and owning them. The fast track to get there is marriage or have a baby. That basically says, oh, you're done being an emerging adult, it's time to be an adult. Like it or not. Ready or not, it's time to be an adult. But people are pushing and pushing marriage off until their later 20s, and this time period then has been extended. And lastly, there are many possibilities. Lots of possibilities. So that tempts your age group to think, I could craft With this freedom, which I value so much, I can attain the perfect job, the dream job, and find the perfect fit for my life, which is my soulmate. And there's actually names for these things. Versus just a job or just a spouse. But it's free. I'm not obligated. Anybody and who could be out there with all these possibilities, But that's quite a task to set on a 20-year-old. Would you chart your life? Why don't you just plan your life out? Well, that's a big load. And so it also then kind of alternates or oscillates between optimism, all doors are open, and then anxiety. But I don't know which door to choose. And how am I going to get there or find this person? And so this is the time period in which you live. And I know one lady is an RA at a college in Georgia, and she testified to her uncle, who I work with, that every girl on her floor is on a med, and mainly anti-anxiety meds. Every single one. So I don't think I'm exaggerating to say your age group has anxiety. I don't think that's an exaggeration. I think that's a pretty common trait among your age group. And so, what does God say about it? And in praying about it, it's like we've looked at Ecclesiastes, and Ruth, and Jonah, and tonight we're gonna look at the book of Mark and a passage there. But before I do, let me just make a comment on identity exploration. It's not all bad. In fact, some of it I really enjoy conversing with you on and trying to help you to gain a sense of who God made you. Now here's the challenge. The difference is it's who God made you, not who am I. They're slightly different. It's what did God make me to do versus what do I want to do. That's not the same thing. Some of you are quite happy with what God wants, you know, made you and made you to do. And some of you are actually resisting that, and wished it was something different, and are kind of holding out, making a conclusion on that. And so, finding out your vocation, listen to the language carefully, a vocation is a calling, voco is Latin for calling, to call. So vocation has the idea that God, my creator, has called me to things, versus, say, What do I want to do? And craft a path, that's a career, literally a path, or an occupation, which is just a job, something that occupies my time, and I occupy that station in life. So, several years ago, I was having a conversation with a young man in A.J.' 's, and he was all distraught. Because he thought he was making a big choice, a big change. He said, I'm going to stop my pre-med track, and I'm going to become a pastor. And he thought this was like a major change. And it was the first time in my life this idea of vocation dawned on me, because I realized this is not a big change for you. Because his friends told me he was one of those individuals that if somebody was hurting, he would drop everything that he was doing and spend four hours just listening and caring for them. And because he was that kind of a man, I knew that he was going then from one occupation that he thought would help me to care for people to another occupation that he thought would help me to care for people. But really, he's a caregiver. Do you follow me? His vocation, who God made him, on the inside, is to be a caregiver. And so I'm not necessarily certain he would make a good doctor, because I don't necessarily want a medical doctor to spend four hours sitting next to me and comforting me and holding my hand or something and listening to me. Maybe a counselor, you know? Maybe not even a good pastor, though pastors are so various, you know? I mean, the pastors are so different. Some pastors, just all they want to do is just have a nice worn path between their study and the pulpit. And if they could spend all their time in books and all their time preaching, they would be happy as a lark. But I knew one man who was pastor of Prattville Community Church on this side of the county. He would actually wait for the phone to ring. Please ring. Please ring. I want to go see somebody. I want to talk to somebody, you know, it's like They're very different But we could actually then get into like well, what kind of a pastor are you like? What kind of a person did God make you? About the time that I discovered this from this other guy I learned about this man who was a father of a student at the college and He switched from being an engineer to being a neurosurgeon. But he wasn't doing anything different. He was like, an engineer is a problem solver. How can we fix it or make it better? So all he did was went from machinery, per se, to the human brain. How can we fix this and make it better? It's like he's just doing the same thing. He's an engineer. He's a problem solver. I mean, I happen to have an engineering brain. And so my mind thinks that way. And it's not always good to apply it to relationships. But there was a sign in the places where I used to work. It wrote like this. It's like, there comes a time in every project when you shoot the engineer and get the job done. Because engineers tend to over-engineer things. They over-think things. And things that are just fine, they think they can make it better, and then they end up making it worse. So it's like, but that's an engineer being an engineer. They're restless. They always got to work on something and solve problems. One student in my school that I teach years ago, Spring Branch Academy, I learned that on his farm, he would like rip into machinery. just to see what was in it and then leave it. In my class, he would interrupt me regularly, like, what does that mean? Why is that true? What do you mean? What are you saying there? And he would like rip into my arguments and kind of leave me there. But I was like, he's an analyst, an analyst, like, you know, rip into something and and kind of like tear it apart. And so that was his bent. That's what he was made to do. Another man I knew would spend like an hour or an evening a month up in Detroit trying to get ladies of the street off the street in a ministry, like caring for night angels, I think it was called or something, like an hour. And then he wanted to go in the police academy to do that. What do you think he's wanting to do? Be a strong arm of the law? Exercise power? He's a rescuer. You follow? He's a rescuer. And so, you know, it's like God didn't call him to that. I think he blew his knee out with his words in the police academy. So that was the end of that. And then God called him into the ministry. He's one of our pastors at Countryside. His name is Pastor Jeremy, and his daughter is with us tonight. And I tell you, he's got a rescuing heart. He really desires to rescue people and save. He used to sit in our elders meetings, and after a while, this is before he became a pastor, and we wanted him to get some experience. And he said, you know what? I think this is not worth my time. I'd rather spend it in the jail. Because he's got a jail ministry. Getting people out of jail, getting them on their feet. OK, I could go on. There are examples after examples after examples of burden relievers, teachers, leaders, besides just caregivers and engineers and analysts and different things. It helped me to realize that it's better to think instead like, what has God made me for? It is better not to think in terms of a job, that he's called me to be a nurse or a pastor. Because even in those occupations, there are many occupations that will satisfy a vocation. A vocation is an ER word. You're a caregiver. A teacher, you're doing something. A rescuer, a burden reliever. If you discover your er, who God made you to be, you have made a mammoth big discovery. Now there are external vocations that you don't get to choose. I'll give you one tonight. Most of you are young. You don't get to choose whether you get to honor the elderly, the older, your parents, or not. Because you're a younger generation, you must honor people like me. Because I'm the age of your parents. OK? That's an external vocation. You are called to honor. You are citizens. Not necessarily of the same country as everybody else, but you are citizens to honor your country, your government. You follow me? You can't just say, but that's not my personality. That's just not gonna cut it. You see what I mean? You are called to do certain things. You are male or female. So you have callings, you follow me, in that realm. You have to figure out what it means in family, in society, in the church, to be male, to be female. Figure it out. But you don't get a choice on that. God's calling you to that, that's external. But then when I look at the internal things, there's some little piece of this Garden of Eden out there that's potential, the potential of which has not been brought out yet because you haven't put your hand to it. Maybe you're an artist, and to get a blank canvas just makes your heart flutter and you go, Oh, what I could do with that. In fact, maybe it's a blank wall. Maybe it's a blank house. And you would just salivate. Like, wow. I don't salivate. Not a bit. I don't think in terms of like, what could be done to make this place beautiful? Being colorblind doesn't help. I mean, it's like, it's just, I'm functional. I'm an engineer. I'm just, what can we do to make it work better? But I have, my oldest daughter, She was just like, I have to create. She just burst out on the piano and just all sorts of things. No music. There was never any sheet music. It was just, I just got to create. Her papers, her homework papers, were turned in. She drew the best picture of Abraham Lincoln I've hardly ever seen on lined paper. Honey, you know, it's like, you're so good. But she could not concentrate on math. She just had to create. That's her. She wants to make the world beautiful. Okay. That's who God made her. I got another son who's a grower. He's got to grow things. My parents are like that. I got another son who's a builder. He was two years old. He always carried around his toy hammer. You'd see him fall asleep with his toy hammer. I mean, it's just like, it was so clear what you were made to do, you know? And when you think about it, God called shepherds like Moses and David to shepherd God's people. God called fishermen to be fishers of men. And God called a carpenter of Nazareth to be the builder of a church. There's overlap between your, as it were, natural calling and your spiritual gift set. There's one body but many members, right? And so the who you are also can be sanctified and serve the church in various ways, in which ways we are all gifted in different ways. So it's an exciting thing to discover. Basically, think to this. If you discover your vocation, whatever that may be, builder, grower, analyst, caregiver, then you can come up with training and experiences that fit who you are, who God made you, and enhance it and put more skills in your bucket. You don't have to know which is horrible, like my end result. I'm going to be a city planner. Whatever that occupation is. That's what I thought I was going to be when I was a kid because I drew maps all the time. What I didn't realize is I drew maps all the time in part because I like seeing the big picture. And that's one of the reasons why I like history and church history, is I can trace the big picture and all the lines of influence and draw a big map of time. That's a trade inside here, but it doesn't mean I'm called to be a city planner or that I'm called to be a historian. That gift can be used in a variety of ways. Okay, do you understand what I'm saying? There are many occupations that satisfy your vocation And so you can find training that helps you in that vocation that enhances you. And you can test it out in your 20s. Try this. Try that. 10 days of milking cows cured me of thinking I'd ever be a farmer. I was age 30. I milked the cows. By the way, the people that tested the cow milk said that the tank had never been so clean, like it was stellar clean. But I was a window washer at the time. I did great with the tank. The cows, that was not my thing. So test some things. Try it out. And then the other thing is, whatever occupation you get, you're going to bend it to your vocation. I can dare say, if you're a teacher in a classroom, I bet you you bend your classroom towards your personality and who God made you. I'm looking at a teacher right now. I know what that's like as a teacher. You're going to do that with a household someday. It's an old proverb that all in a fiddler's house fiddle. Everyone in a fiddler's house fiddles. There's going to be something you're going to influence your kids, but then you need to be aware they have their own callings and seek to give them opportunities. That's my little spiel. I wanted to give that little spiel up front. It is not always bad to do identity exploration. But it's a calling. It's not what do I want to do with my life, in which case you will guard your freedom with a tenacity, because I want to make sure I'm the one that chooses. Because if I'm not happy, life isn't worth it. Happiness is my greatest goal, therefore I need to retain my ability to choose. That's not what it is. You've already lost some freedom. You have a creator God that made you a certain way, and he didn't make you a certain way. To discover that is to already realize you have limits. You're a certain kind of person. Does that make sense? So tonight, I want to look at then how identity can go bad. I just shared with you identity can be a good thing, especially in light of vocation. Who did God make me? That's a good thing. It's an act of worship and obedience. But identity can go bad or be good. And so tonight we're going to look at Mark and we're going to look at the identity of Christ and then the identity of a Christian. So turn with me to Mark chapter 8. We're just going to read about 10 verses from Mark 8 verse 27 to 38. Very, very famous passage. It's the middle of the gospel. It's kind of the high point. It's actually the pivot point in the gospel of Mark. Jesus went out, verse 27, Mark 8, 27. Jesus went out along with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi, way in the north. He's on retreat. He took his disciples away from the crowds, way up north. And on the way, he questioned his disciples, saying to them, who do people say that I am? That's a good way to get a conversation started, because it's not direct. It's about them. Who do they say that I am? They told him, saying, John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others one of the prophets. And he continued to question them, saying, but who do you say that I am? Peter answered and said to him, you are the Christ. That's Greek for anointed one. In Hebrew, it would be Messiah. You're the one we've been waiting for, the one that the prophets speak about. You are the Christ. And he warned them to tell no one about him. Now, that's really weird. They just got a key insight into the identity of Jesus, and Jesus said, don't tell anybody. Now we get something new in the gospel. You'll see it in the word began, and he began. He hasn't said anything yet. This is brand new. And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he was stating the matter plainly. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, which means Stop talking like that. That's not what's gonna happen. Don't let that happen to you, Jesus. Okay, now that's a rebuke. Rebuke means stop it. Now that's pretty bold to tell, you just got done saying he's the king, the Messiah, and you're now telling him what to do. That's pretty bold. But turning around and seeing his disciples, Jesus rebuked Peter. So now Jesus is telling Peter, stop it. and said, get behind me, Satan, for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's interests. And he summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, so he gets a big group together, both of believers and unbelievers, both of his disciples and those just around there at the time, gathered them all together and said to them, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with his holy angels." Notice the identity of Jesus, the Christ, and there was wrestling with it. there was some implications in this identity that bothered Peter. And so Peter interjected himself where he shouldn't, gets a rebuke, and from the identity of Christ, we now get the identity of the Christian. So I want to see the linkage between the two. We're going to look at the identity of Christ and the identity of the Christian. But before I do, did you notice Ecclesiastes? What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? Now think about that for the emerging adulthood generation. What if your peers, or even you, retain all your freedom and you actually do make the exact right choice amidst all your anxiety You have your dream job. You have your soulmate. You've attained all that this world could offer. And then you die. And all that was a breath, right? Do you hear Ecclesiastes? What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world? If he attains his goals, but loses his soul? The retaining of our soul, right? The salvation of our soul of ending up in heaven and obtaining the kingdom of God, that's where it counts. What does it matter if you lose this life or keep this life? If you don't have your soul, you don't have anything. And so you hear Ecclesiastes in this? Jesus is right with Ecclesiastes. So very first thing, let's get this straight, Peter. Crowd, let's get this straight. What does it profit a man? How does he get ahead? What advantage is there if all that freedom gives him everything he wants, but he's not saved? That needs to be reckoned with. And so there's the dot, and there's the line. This is a Randy Elkhorn little illustration. My wife, she has a variation of it. She says, when you're driving down the freeway and there's that white line on the side of the road, did you see that little kernel of corn? That was your life. That's my wife's illustration of it. So, I mean, you know, Dave Ramsey talks about, you know, live a life like nobody else so you can live a life like nobody else on Earth. is what it appears like he's saying. So it's like, don't live for the front of the dot, live for the back of the dot. I think Jesus would say, don't live for the corn, live for the line, right? Boom, you're done. Your life is a vapor, right? We're like grass, the Bible says, that grows up in the morning and evening, it's gone. All our best achievements are like a day lily. That's it. That's our life. So why would we live for that? I got everything I wanted and then I died. So you can hear Jesus, right? We know the most about eternity because of Jesus. Nobody told as much about heaven or hell than Jesus did. He totally brought life and immortality to light. So, that's number one, you see Ecclesiastes. Number two, Do you remember the analogy about, unless a grain of wheat dies, it remains by itself alone? Remember when I emphasized that? Unless a grain of wheat dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. For whoever seeks to save his life shall lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel will keep it. That's verse 35, is it not? That saying is quoted by Jesus five times in the gospel. This is a moral law of the universe. Please note this. There is no lasting life nor lasting fruitfulness without dying. If you want to attain life, you first must die. If you want to attain glory, you first must suffer. That's Romans 8 verse 17. We will be glorified with him if we suffer with him. If indeed we suffer with him. There is no glory without the cross. Do you follow? So Jesus just got done saying if you want to follow me. Whoever wishes to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever seeks to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake shall keep it. How many of your generation are carefully guarding their freedom? They won't lose their freedom because they want to retain this life. So they're guarding it against commitments. They won't make a commitment. Because I must be free in order to be happy and enjoy this life. Where Jesus turns it on its head and says, lose your life, die, make a commitment, close those doors, and watch where life will come. Do you follow? There's a paradox here. Another paradox, this time is on three times on Jesus' lips. He says this three times in the Gospels. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled. But whoever humbles himself will be exalted. You see the same paradox? Let me use this language. Because the wording is, it's a visual image of verticalness. Literally, humble in the Greek is lower. To lower, I mean, actually, to exalt means to make higher. Humble, I think, is referred to lowness. So think of it this way. Whoever promotes himself will be demoted. But whoever demotes themself will be promoted. Now think to yourself how many young adults are carefully crafting how they can be promoted in this world. I worked for a guy at an engineering company in Farmington Hills, Detroit, northwest side of Detroit. I was 23, 24, and he was about the same age. He was quite the guy. He listened to a band called Nine Inch Nails. I don't think that was all that edifying. But he had a whole plan. He was using our company. I think we were the second or third company in his plan. He was building an entire career using companies. He had it all laid out. I'm going to end up in this position in this company. And he was using all these companies all along the line to like gain that CEO position or whatever. I was like shocked. I mean, I'm 24. I'm not really thinking all that big, you know. I'm sitting next to this guy with nine inch nails, leather jacket on and he's got this big plan on how to be the CEO. But it's like, think about it. He's not thinking about how can I go down in life so that at the proper time Jesus promotes me. No, he's thinking about how can I stair-step in life, you follow me? He's climbing a ladder to get up. And this verse tells me whoever promotes himself will be demoted. You follow that path, It's guaranteed you're going to get cut down at some point. You're going to be chopped Listen to the parable of the of the wedding feast When you go to a wedding and even our weddings have a head table right and honored guests When you go to a wedding don't take the high seat where the host comes along and says, please, make room for somebody more honorable than you, and you become dishonored in the eyes of everyone. No, take the lowest seat at the table so that the host comes to you and says, please, no, come up here. Take this seat, and you become honored. For everyone who promotes himself will be demoted. Whoever demotes himself shall be promoted. So if you want to be promoted in this life, the God factor, now watch this, the God factor is He's got to be the one to promote you, exalt you at the proper time. If you try to do it on your own, He will be against you. For He opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Now you've made God your enemy, if you promote yourself. But if you humble yourself and take a low seat, you provide the opportunity for Jesus, your Lord and Savior, to promote you when it's proper for his kingdom's sake. You follow me? We live in 2024. I don't think Jesus had that problem. At least it wasn't serious. Could you repeat that? I did not understand you. Anyways, so... This is so practical. You guys are gonna, you know, you're venturing forth, you're looking for work, you're looking for opportunities. I'm telling you, don't sniff at and pass by the opportunities that are low and go, that's beneath me. Can you imagine? Listen to this. The disciples are listening to Jesus saying, the Son of Man is going to be betrayed, rejected by man, suffer, and die. Up until this point in the book, they've listened to five different conversations that have questioned Jesus' authority, and Jesus has come away, I have authority to forgive sins, the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath, He's like, whoa, Lord of the Sabbath. Yeah, I'm the boss of the Sabbath day. That's a bold statement. They've seen Jesus in chapter 4, chapter 5. They've seen Jesus have authority over the great deep when the storm winds came up, over a legion of demons that inhabited a man that chains could not bind, over disease that afflicted a woman 12 years over death with a 12 year old girl that died and Jesus said, little girl arise. They've seen Jesus exercise authority. This book was written to the Romans who were all about authority and this book is establishing this Jesus of Nazareth has authority. Don't think that anybody is controlling him. He is nobody's victim. He is absolute inauthority. And you can imagine the disciples going, I'm sure glad we signed on this campaign. This guy's a winner. He's going all the way, folks. There ain't anybody going to stop him. We've seen devils try to stop him, disease, death, danger. Nothing can stop him. He even rearranges the law, pronounces foods clean, pronounces the Sabbath day. Now he's lord over it. He forgives sins. He's the Christ. And then he turns around and said, yeah, and I'm going to die. And you're like, no wonder Peter took him aside and said, don't you know who you are? Given all that you are, you should have a much higher status in life than that. Do you hear that? His brothers said the same thing in John 7. If you want to promote yourself, if you want to be somebody in this world, go out and promote yourself, market yourself. Given who you are, Christian, the devil's going to come to you and tempt you and say, you deserve a higher place than what Jesus gave you. That's exactly what the devil tried to do to Jesus. It's the devil who's speaking in Jesus. Get behind me, Satan. You're setting your interests, your eyes on man's interests, not God's. That's exactly what it is. When that thought crosses your mind, it says, I'm above that. Given my training, given my abilities, given my excellent character, this is the position that I'm worthy of, not that. That's a devil's voice crossing your mind. Because Jesus humbled himself. Jesus demoted himself and waited on the Lord to promote him. At the right time, 1 Peter and James says, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that at the proper time he may exalt you. He does want to exalt you, but it's got to be the right timing. Does that make sense? That's a big warning for each of us We all have that level of pride that says, I'm better than this. I dare say we all do. So given that is what Jesus is saying, given that he's now gonna capitalize on it, so listen, listen then as he then applies it to the crowd and his disciples. If anyone wishes to follow me, Please note the word anyone. This is not dependent on personality. This is not dependent on talent. There's no little asterisk by this unless you're highly talented, ambitious, and young. No, if anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Now, here's what we do with these. We do this, we squish them together, and we make them say the same thing. When we hear those words, we typically hear the word suffering, dying, the cross, and we go pain. It's gonna be hard, it's gonna be difficult. If anyone wishes to come after me, like Simon of Cyrene is pictured doing at the end of Mark, when Jesus' cross is laid on him, they pull him from the crowd, and they put the cross on him. In Mark's gospel, many things are actually pictured in real life, like a living parable. You see Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus. That means they're Christians, basically. They're known in the Christian community. He's carrying the literal cross of Jesus. That's how much this gospel wants to impress upon your imagination. This isn't fooling around. This is literally, you're gonna die. In some way, you're gonna suffer. And so we get that. I think we get that. Not that we like it, but we recognize if we're a Christian, we are gonna suffer, we're gonna be persecuted, we're gonna be hated by the world because they hated Jesus. You follow me? We're gonna get that. But we pass over the deny yourself command. That deny yourself command is not the same thing as like, you know, something you want to do for Lent and deny yourself chocolate or, you know, something like, you know, the kind of traditional church has done in the past. It's not that kind of a word. When do you ever see somebody in the Gospel of Mark deny somebody? Yes What's his name? It's the same guy. It's the same guy. It's Peter. Yeah who says Lord. I'll die with you, right? Before the rooster crows three times or whatever or twice you'll deny me three times and he did And when you notice the language of it, I don't know the man. That's what denying means. I don't know him. It's the opposite of confess, to own up to, to identify with. You follow me? To confess. In Proverbs 30, it's the same thing. The prayer of Edgar is, don't make me rich, don't make me poor. If I'm poor, I may steal and profane your name. If I'm rich, I may deny you. Who is the Lord? I don't need him. To deny somebody is to say, who's he? This is remarkable. I am called to deny myself. This is where identity comes in. I'm called to deny myself, my name. is at stake in so much of what I do. And I'm not to care about my name. Who's Bob? I don't know Bob. I don't care. You ever heard of this guy? I don't know. I don't care about him. I don't know him. That's how I treat yourself like that. So let me give you an example. This is a real life example. Happened many years ago. I was in a meeting. And we were around a table, like meetings often are, and I had an idea. And I presented it to the meeting. And I got utterly insulted, at least in my, you know, perception. Probably wasn't meant to be, you know, but I got cut down like, like something like, you know, you're no administrator. Something like that. Like, you know, it'd be like somebody saying, you're no engineer. I'm like, what? Wait a minute. I have engineering training. I have engineering experience. I design things. I fix things. I solve problems. Let me at it. Let me show you. I'll prove myself. You're going to eat those words. OK, now that's not denying myself. You follow me? That's like standing up for myself, sticking up for myself. I've got a name to protect here. You just trashed my name. You can't trash my name like that. You follow? So the odd thing was, my idea won. Like, the group did it, but I didn't get acknowledged. No attaboy, no pat on the back. Hey, Bob, that was a great idea. So glad you're part of the group. Instead, like, my pride was wounded. I walked away from that meeting hurt. Like, man, I just got put down at this meeting. What's with this group? Don't they know who I am? You follow me? See that? Don't they know who I am? The next day, I went on a road trip, and I was thinking to myself, one of those when you talk to yourself moments, and you argue with yourself, I'm like, hey you, your idea won. The work of the organization is moving ahead. What you thought would be best is happening. What do you care about? What do you care more about, the team or your name? The good of the cause is moving forward. If you really loved and we're all about the good of the organization and what we're all about, you'd be happy right now. You'd be thrilled. Why are you sulking? Or is this really about you getting recognized in your name, in your glory? You feeling good. You follow what I'm saying? Boy, was that a moment. I mean, it was like, I had to deal with my sin and go, I am not denying myself because I care way too much about my name right now, my recognition, my reputation, that I would be noted. And so I repented. And the next meeting, no ill feelings, no bitterness in my heart. I was amazed. I was like, wow. To look the person in the eye, smile, have a sense of warmth, I was like, All that estrangement. It would have been estranged. It would have grown in my heart. I would have grown resentful, bitter. I would not have felt comfortable. I wouldn't have liked looking the person in the eye. Because you think low of me. You don't think well of me. Well, it's all about me. That's going to be hard to follow. But if it's not about me, who cares? Who cares? Now, I want you to picture this. You were bought voluntarily with the blood of Jesus. Mark chapter 8 says you need to know who Jesus is before you understand what he did. What he did makes sense only because of who he is. He's God. Therefore, his death makes up for the sin of the world. I think I've told you that, right? Leviticus 4, a little bit of sin done without knowledge, you kill a ram. When the whole congregation sins, you kill a bull. When there's murder, there's no animal sacrifice allowed. You have to kill the murderer. If there's more sin, you need a bigger life, a more valuable life to be taken to make up for the sin. Where will you find a life so valuable that the taking of that one life covers not just one of your sins, but all of your sins, and not just your sin, but the sin of the entire world? Only if God's life is taken. And because God's life has been taken, your conscience can rest that a genuine, complete payment has been given on behalf of your sin. The damage done to God's name has been made up for by God himself. His righteousness is revealed, both in being just and in being merciful. His glory is exalted in a marvelous way. Your conscience can rest That's what Mark 8 is saying. This is who I am and this is what I'll do. It's because of who I am that makes what I do effective for everyone. How can you look at Jesus then and say, this is really not about you. It's really about me. You can't do that. How can you look at Jesus as part of the bride of Christ and realized that this rich husband, who never did anything wrong, married this very indebted woman. And the moment that she married to him, the moment they're married, all her debt is absorbed by his riches. And all his riches becomes hers by right. She has his name. You guys belong to Mrs. Jesus. You have the name of Christ as your last name. You have every right in the kingdom. The jersey you wear, the uniform that you carry, is the best in the universe. And now are you going to care about your little name? I hope that each of us can sense the grandeur of the play that we've been invited to, the drama that is spanning centuries. that is being witnessed by the angels, that was plotted out and literally scripted in the Old Testament so that Jesus came along and followed the script, it is written, it is written, it is written, that he is a drama that he's playing out in the church for the centuries, and you who despised him and rebelled against him and broke his law have been called to himself, called to him, And you've been given a part to play in his performance, in his drama. Can you feel the sense of privilege that you get to play a part in his drama, even though it's 15 seconds of human history? Or are you going to sit there and go, but I didn't get to play that role? Do you feel the difference? Is it about him or about you? Because many people will bear a cross if they can be known for how much they suffered for Jesus and make sacrifices. Many people will do all sorts of Christian service and Christian ministry and sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice, as long as they can cherish and relish that sweet sense in them how much better they are than these other lazy Christians. And that becomes their identity. That came home to me when I studied several years ago a man named John Nelson Darby. He's the founder of dispensationalism. He was an Irishman back in the 1800s, and he had an odd personality. He was known for caring for the poor. He cared for all the poor, like he would give the shirt off his back. All sorts of, like, go cottage after cottage, care for them, travel around to make sure they... And yet, he couldn't get along with other Christians. He was always seeing rivals coming up in the movement who could become the chief teacher. And then he'd end up turning on them and start talking down on them and bad-mouthing them and putting them down and disagreeing with their doctrine and picking fights with them. And you look at this personality and go, this is really odd. On the one hand, he seems to be so humble. He's willing to sacrifice time for people in need, willing to give money and make sure they have their material needs met for them, and do so much for them. But he can't get along with fellow leaders. And my conclusion was, he was willing to bear the cross, but he was not willing to deny himself, give up his name, It was too big a deal to John Nelson Darby, it appeared, of who was head of the movement, who was in charge, and who was recognized and seen as the leader. I think he cared too much about his name. Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, Paul wrote. Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the very form of God, that means he is God, did not regard equality with God, equal status with God, as something to be held on to, but emptied himself, the King James has it right, made himself of no reputation, we would say became a nobody, Nobody in his hometown recognized his specialness. When he started teaching, they all got together and said, who does this guy think he is? And they were scandalized and offended. Ha, he's just the carpenter's son. What does he think he, who does he think he is? Some big shot? He's just one of us. When he grew up, nobody knew he was special. He made himself of no reputation. And then it says, and being made in the likeness of men, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Do you see the two steps? He made himself of no reputation. He denied himself. Then he humbled himself by taking a cross, which is exactly what he's calling you and I to do. He's calling us to do what he did. Deny yourself and take up a cross. Then notice how it goes in the other way. Therefore, God highly exalted him and gave him a name that's above all names. Now he has a name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. He didn't live for his name. He made himself a no-name. He denied himself. Then he humbled himself. Then God exalted him. Then God gave him a name. So here's my challenge to you tonight. Young adult, your identity is very important to God. He made you to do something in this world. You have a calling. I don't know what that may be. And it may take you a while to find it. And it may not be all that you thought it should be. Okay, but find that calling, your external calling, figure out what it means to be young, male or female, a citizen, right, a son or a daughter. Figure out what that means. Fulfill your calling and fulfill your inner calling, but don't wreck it by making it your identity. Your identity is Christ. Boast in Him. Enjoy Him. Follow me? Live for Christ. When you came to Jesus as a sinner, you forfeited your name. You gave up your identity. You had no righteousness of your own. You already ruined your name. And you cashed that name in. You took that jersey off so that you could wear the jersey of Christ. That's your identity now. You have nothing to prove to anybody. You don't have to stand up to anybody and say, you think I'm that? Well, I'm going to prove it. You think I'm racist? I'm not racist. I'm going to prove it to you. You have nothing to prove. You have no name to salvage. You follow me? You let God care for your name. You let God defend you. You live for pleasing him. Paul said, I make it my one ambition to be pleasing to him who died for you. You live to be pleasing to him. Don't live to prove yourself. and save your name. Lord, you bought me with a price, therefore be glorified in my body. And it will show up again and again and again in life as temptation to reach down and grab that name again. To argue with somebody, defend yourself, grab that promotion or push your way forward in life. Don't do it. Take the low seat and trust that Jesus, who knows where you're seated, he'll move you up at the proper time. What you should do, you should go talk to people a generation older than you, seasoned Christians. And say, Pastor Bob talked about this one saying that occurs five times. If you seek to lose your life, you'll save it. Right? If you seek to save your life, you lose it. Or if you humble yourself, you'll be exalted. And if you exalt yourself, you'll be humbled. How has that played out in your life? Now, if it's a godly Christian, a genuinely humble soul, you'll be able to hear stories. OK? And I think you'll be encouraged, because God has surprising ways of exalting people. The Old Testament is full of it. of a Joseph in prison that becomes chief in the land, right? Of a David who's being chased around by the king himself, who all of a sudden becomes king. The Bible is full of these. And so ask those that you respect. Give me your story. I would like to hear how when you have accepted a low position that seemed to be beneath your abilities and your good name, that God used it to open up a door to something you would have never expected, to bring him glory. But you had to wait. Tell me those stories, because I'm young, and I'm tempted to make a way in this life and push my name and my agenda forward. I'd like to hear how waiting on the Lord pays off. I'm going to leave you with that tonight. So any questions? This is very rare. It's not even 10 o'clock. It's only three minutes to 10, though, so it's not that. Yes? Well, I was thinking about, like, Joseph and the book with Joe, where, I mean, he's, like, a really good guy, and hopefully, like, he can try to get, like, a suit or something. That's right. Yeah, that's a good point. He gets tested, doesn't he, for his season. And so maybe that fits in with the proper time. You know that there's a timing to this, where for a season it looks like it doesn't work. So we're tested in our faith because we walk by faith, not by sight. So I wonder if that's true, you know what I mean? That we have to wait on the Lord until it actually happens. Because James, chapter 5, cites Job and says, look at the end of Job's life, and you see him exalted, and how it pays to wait on the Lord, and to persevere. So I wonder if that's how it would be. But that's a very good point, because it does look like, of course, that bothered Job, too, didn't it? I've cared for the poor, right? And so Job is upset over that. Does that satisfy or do you want to go further with it? Yeah. It's at least a possibility. So any other thought tonight? Yes, Calum. I was going to ask, what's the outcome of Irish law? Where does the Oregon leader buy in? Does he depend well? He never changed, as far as I could tell, when I read the story of his life. He basically ended with just a lot of infighting in the churches. There was a man named Robert Chapman that sought to be a peacemaker. And I think there was another one, too, in that same movement that really sought to make peace. So there were people that were really pushing against it. It was the Plymouth Brethren movement that was really seeking to push against it and create peace. But it's one of those I would like to trace out in church history more. Because at first glance, there's such an oddity. How can somebody be so giving and yet so easily offended? And I think it's because there's two kinds of humility. There's the sacrifice humility, I'll do anything for you. And then there's the name humility, the no name. And I don't care if I get any recognition. And those have to be together to follow Christ. That's the kind of double humility he had, no name and a cross, and we need to follow the same way. And so, see if that plays out in people you know, in kind of your own past, as well as looking at your own life, times where you really laid it out. How many of you have had this in an organization, it's like, or a group project in a class, I did more for this project than anybody around here. And I got the same B plus that everybody else got. I should have got a, OK, you follow me? Anytime we get into those modes, like I have borne the pain and the cross more than anybody else around here, and where is my recognition? When you get in that kind of mode, recognize you're not denying yourself. You're caring way too much about your name, your reputation, and what's coming back there. Yes, you bore the cross, but you care too much about your name. Does that make sense? Yes. So yeah, Christina? I think earlier you mentioned training in your vocation. Yeah. How do you do that when you feel like God is calling you to a job that doesn't seem at home and it's your vocation? Are you sure God's calling you to that job that's not related at all to your vocation? Without specifics, it may be hard to answer that one. Maybe we could talk if that's something that you're wrestling with. I have John Piper in mind where I asked him after Bethlehem Baptist service one morning, I said, how did you know that you were supposed to be a pastor? And he said, I didn't. You know, I didn't. All I knew was I was called to the ministry of the word. And because I was called to the ministry of the word, I'm going to get as much training in the word as I can. And then I'll let God decide where that all works out as a job. So he was six years as a professor, and then became a pastor for 30 years. So it's like, your occupation may change, but your vocation doesn't. It's who you are. Fishermen are still fishermen and shepherds are still shepherds and Jesus was still a builder Which is interesting to me. And so you're gonna still be you But your job may change because many occupations can satisfy one vocation And you'll bend it in that direction I dare say If you have specifics you want to like talk to me about one of the fun exercises is a is to actually explore what you pretended to do when you were 10. Because usually that shows who you are on the inside and your vocation. And it might be odd, though, because I drew maps. So it's like you've got to fish around a little bit and get several examples, and then see how they're similar to actually try to find the commonality, the common ground. The other exercise that can be helpful is if I gave you 100 acres, and $100,000 to do anything with, what would you do with it? And then see what your imagination comes up. Even a better one is, though, when you hear people in need, hurting people in need, where does your mind go if you're in a loving spirit? Like, oh, I wish I could do X for them. What that typically is is your calling. You know, whatever that is. will come out, if you're in a truly loving spirit, it'll be typically something along the line of your calling. And so those are just some, I don't know, some hints that you can play around with. But if you want to talk some time about it, feel free to let me know, sbacademy1210 at gmail.com. Now I sound like a radio program. OK, let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for this evening and for this semester. Lord, as a group, we're gonna offer ourselves to you. You bought us with a price. Really, you redeemed our callings from their perverted bent to promote our own name. Now we offer our callings to you. As little or as great as we understand them, we offer our callings to you to promote the name of Jesus. So lead us, be faithful, When we're humbled, when we humble ourselves, at the right time, exalt us. We want to gain life, but in your way and in your timing. And so bless, I pray, this group. Bless these young adults. May they be led into that fruitful calling you have for them. To the glory of your son, Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen. All right. Next week, burrito night, 6 o'clock, 1840. East Litchfield Road.