Am I a Servant? | Who Am I

My name is Pastor Steven. I'm one of the pastors here at 180 Chicago at the downtown campus, and it's a joy to have you guys here. We're continuing on in our series called Who Am I? We're looking at core identity principles of the Christian faith. What does it really mean to follow Jesus? Who are we? And therefore, how do we live out this walk with him? And so I invite you to, during this time, to really evaluate your own heart. Where am I with this? How can I be living further into my identity as a believer in this way? I want to start with a story about my wife. By asking a question first, you ever said a prayer like this? God, I will go anywhere for you. I will do anything for you. I mean, that's a big prayer, and you got to be careful when you pray stuff like that, because those are the prayers God answers, right? But I met Nikki about 10 years ago, and from the moment that I met her, I saw her as that sort of person who would not only pray those sort of things, but but genuinely because of her love for jesus how much she just had passion to share the gospel to to get out there and to help people understand the the savior that she had experienced she was the sort of person that really lived out that sort of identity so servant-hearted so loving and so about 10 years ago when i met her i just loved to hear all of the stories in her life of of her walk with jesus I met Nikki one week before I became a believer, so she saw both sides of me. I was young in the faith and had so many questions about what it really looked like to follow Jesus. Now, when I met Nikki, she was 21 years old, so she was a young'un. And she had already been on the mission field three times over, twice to Kenya and once to a country in Southeast Asia for three months where she was actually preparing to live full time as a missionary. There's a picture up here of her and the team she was with and a couple of her neighbors that they were ministering to. in this country. She loved these people. She was ready to give anything to follow Jesus. The comfort of the American life, the safety and security of the American life, she was ready to leave behind in order to serve others in a country that is very closed and against the gospel, to put it all on the line to serve Jesus. You'll see even in this next picture, her and her two teammates are on their way to an unreached people group who had never even heard of the name of Jesus before. Can you imagine that? never having heard of the name of Jesus and her and her team and a couple of the people from this country that they lived with were the very first people that got to introduce the person of Jesus to a whole village. I'll never forget the first time she told me about another big thing that happened in her life. Almost exactly a year before I met her, so I met her in November of 2015. On November 16th of 2014, she got in a terrible car accident. She was hit by a drunk driver. Her car flipped over multiple times. She was left hanging suspended from the seatbelt. She fractured her C2 vertebrae, second highest vertebrae in your neck, which often will leave somebody paralyzed or dead. And yet, the Lord rescued her. He saved her. And so hearing this story and hearing all about what God had already been doing in her young life, as somebody who was starting to become interested in her beyond just being friends, I thought, I can't wait to see what God is going to do with her life. He saved her for a purpose. He's got such incredible big plans for her. She's willing to go anywhere, do anything for Jesus. What is it in her life that God has for her? I want to see and I want to be a part of it. So what was it for? Now, I wonder if the 20 or 21 year old Nikki would have looked at her life now and thought, oh, no, there's got to be more than that. It's not as flashy as the mission field reaching unreached people groups. But what? do we see in a servant-hearted person? What I see in Nikki is not that she's a servant-hearted person because she went to the mission field a few times and we've gotten to go to India multiple times. She's gotten to serve in Kenya again. But where I see her same heart that was willing to go anywhere and do anything on the mission field, she now lives out moment by moment in her home. Raising our children, loving me, serving our local church community here at 180 and the churches we've been blessed to be at in the past, the same servant-hearted person willing to lay their life on the line to go to these countries and serve, I see moment by moment her living a life for others and has the hands and feet and heart of Jesus as she pours out his love in the day to day. And I think this is really important to make this sort of connection for our lives. Because when we think, oh, you know, if I just, maybe I could go, you know, third world missions. If I could do that, then I would be, you know, an incredible servant of the Lord. Or, you know, if I just sold my house or quit my job or did this. And if we have this grandiose vision of what it means to be a servant, we can kind of see ourselves as not being in a place where we can even do those things. But if we see our servant-hearted person as living out the love of Jesus, the radical love of Jesus in whatever space you're in, laying down yourself, saying yes to God, yes to others, and no to self, you can be a radically servant-hearted person in any sphere that you're in. And to be honest, that's what we need in this world to change the world for Jesus. We don't just need third world missionaries. We certainly need that. But you know what? Many of the third world missionaries in those countries are sending them to America. This is the place that they see as the most unchurched and desperately in need of missions work is America. So our work is here. So how are you living out your identity as a servant in the circles of influence you're in, in your family, and in your workspace, in your homes? Because that's what Jesus is calling you to. So we're asking the question today, am I a servant? Am I a servant? Let's pray and we'll get into the word. Gracious Lord, we come before you and we thank you for the invitation to follow in your footsteps and to be a servant as you were. Jesus, you do not call us to go anywhere that your feet have not already walked. You don't point us in the direction of laying down our lives for others with no context of how you did it. You call us to become like you and follow your example. So Lord, help us today to not just understand this intellectually, theologically, but grip our hearts and help us to understand how we can truly lay down our lives for you and for others moment by moment of each day in the circles that we're in so that people might see you through us. That we might make the invisible God visible by loving and living like you. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So today we're asking the question again, am I a servant? Well, an important place to start for this is understanding what it even means to be a servant. What does it mean to be a servant? In the New Testament, there's a two-word relationship that we see between the word doulos and kurios. So in the New Testament, the word doulos means servant, bond servant, slave. And in order to understand what that means, the implications of living into that identity, you have to understand the word it relates to, which is kurios. And what does that word mean? It means master, owner, lord. So, to understand what it means to be a servant, you first have to understand who is your lord, who is your master. You see, being a servant, ultimately, it flows from our identity, not just about what we do, it's about who you are because of whose you are. So your identity is rooted in who you are based on whose you are. Makes me think of a verse that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 6, verses 19 through 20, where he's talking to the believers in Corinth and instructing them to live a specific way. Well, why? It's grounded in who you are. their master is he says do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy spirit who is in you whom you have from god and you are not your own for so why is this the case the living god lives in me i'm no longer my own for you have been bought with a price therefore glorify god with your body You have been bought with the precious blood of Jesus. God shows how valuable you are to them by the price he was willing to pay to purchase you. Through the blood of Jesus and in response to his love, we pour out our hearts to him and to others in love and in service. We see a gracious invitation from Paul into this sort of life of self-sacrificial love in 2 Corinthians 5, 15 as well, where he says, and he, Jesus, died for all so that, why? Here's the purpose. Here's the intended result. So that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised. Now, we look at that, and how radically countercultural is that? We live in an incredibly individualistic society, and if we're honest with ourselves, we live into that probably more than we would like to. It's the air that we breathe that's easier. The natural inclination of our heart, like it's a ramp if you put a ball on it, naturally goes towards selfishness rather than selflessness. But Jesus graciously invites us into an upward and outward focused life rather than an inward focused life. And to be honest, if we live into that at all, we see the joy and the true life that is in that that you can never find in a life that is all about yourself. Am I right? We see that. But we have to remember our identity and live into it in order to experience this. So another helpful way to see it is being a servant of Jesus means no longer living for self, but for God and for others. My life is no longer my own, it is God's. And what it means to love God, we see because he loves everyone, means if I love him, then I love what he loves and I'm going to love people and pour my life out for them. This is something essential for us to understand. Because Jesus has some very pointed warnings for those who call him Lord, kurios, but don't live like his servants, his doulos. He says in Luke chapter 6 verse 46, why do you call me Lord and do not do what I say? See, that is a total misrepresentation of the relationship between Lord and servant, owner, slave. It doesn't work. You can say it with your words, but if you don't show it with your life, it actually shows what your true identity is. So too, in Matthew chapter 7, verses 21 through 23, he says, Now this certainly doesn't mean we earn our salvation. It's not do God's will and you can earn a spot in the seat of heaven. in the kingdom of heaven. Instead, it's if you genuinely believe in who Jesus is, the God of heaven and earth who came down to save you when you were his enemy, when you were a rebel, when we were hostile towards him and wanted nothing to do with him, and Jesus said, I want you. I love you. That radically changes who you are. When you place your trust in Jesus and give your life to him, bow down to him, you now start to walk in a new identity. Not as master of your own destiny, but underneath the lordship of Jesus. So we have to evaluate ourselves. And he says, many on that day will come to him and say, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, perform any mighty works in your name? And then he said, I will declare to you, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. He says, your life was characterized by doing your will, not my father's will. He was not your master. You were still your master. You lived for yourself. You lived for sin and not for Jesus. So are we genuinely living out our identity as a servant of Jesus? Because it's the greatest, most abundant, most joy-filled, fulfilling life you can ever experience. So today we're going to remind ourselves of who we are because of whose we are. The first thing that I want to see is the call. Following Jesus means becoming a servant. This is his call to you. Following Jesus means becoming a servant. Living a self-sacrificial, servant-hearted life is not for the second-tier Christians after you, you know, work your way up a little bit and you become a disciple and a servant. The very invitation to follow Jesus is an invitation to die to self and to become a servant of his. Let's look at this passage in Matthew chapter 16, verse 24. It's one of my favorite passages, and it's something that, as I'll talk about later, I remind myself of this passage literally every morning, almost without exception, as I'm getting ready for the day, whatever time that is. If I'm taking a shower at 8 o'clock, I'm brushing my teeth, or I have a really early morning, I get up at 4.30, I'm out of the house by 5.15, whenever that is, I remind myself of who I am and Jesus' invitation to me to surrender my heart anew every day. Because you know what? We're forgetful. We have to ground ourselves in the identity of who we truly are because if we don't think of ourselves properly in light of our identity, we'll never live it out. It's just not going to happen. So Jesus says this. He says, Jesus told his disciples... If anyone, say anyone. If anyone, not just some people, not most, not the super Christians. If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself and pick up his cross and follow me. Deny himself, pick up his cross and follow me. Now the context to this passage is this. Peter has just made an incredible confession of faith which Jesus affirms as having come from God the Father himself. He says, who do you say that I am? And Peter says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. So he's got the who right. He knows who Jesus is. What he doesn't understand yet is what that means. And because he doesn't understand what it means for Jesus to be the Messiah as the suffering savior, the surrendered servant, the crucified king, he has misunderstanding of what it means to follow him. The disciples over and over say things like, Jesus, can we see that you're right and left hand? Is this a time, what's our position going to be when you take over and you're the king and you're the ruler? Their expectations is that ultimately Jesus the Messiah is going to be the victor, not the victim of crucifixion. So this doesn't make sense in their minds. And Jesus has to reorient their understanding of what it means for him to be the Savior who came for them. So he tells them immediately after Peter's confession that he's going to go to Jerusalem, be rejected by the chief priests and elders. He's going to be spit on and beat and killed. And after three days, he'll rise again. Now, this is so counterintuitive to Peter that he takes Jesus aside and rebukes him, which implies correction. Don't try to rebuke God. It's no good. If we don't understand, just submit to him in humble trust and obedience. But Peter doesn't get it. And, you know, Peter being who he is, pulls Jesus aside and corrects him. And this is Jesus' response to Peter. It says, Peter, you don't even understand what's about to happen with me, and therefore what is expected of you to follow me. It says, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. So what does this mean? This is a beautifully succinct passage that describes the Christian life. Jesus says, one, deny yourself. This is not just a one-time repentance, turn to sin, turn to God, and now that was my denial. No, this is a daily self-denial. You no longer live for yourself. You live for me, Peter. Because you live for me, you're going to live your life for others. Self-denial. Jesus, my life is yours. Ask me to do anything. But the second thing I think is so vital to understand, he says, pick up your cross. Now, what does that mean? You see, Jesus spoke this before he was crucified. So what was he intending that they would understand, or what did they hear when he said this? Obviously, there's meat and depth and richness that comes after understanding even more fully Jesus, the crucified one, who we're supposed to follow in his footsteps. But the thing is, his disciples who lived in the Roman Empire would have understood what he meant when he said, pick up your cross. Not just anybody was crucified in the Roman Empire. It was criminals, not just because of the severity of their crime, but this type of crime that they committed, most typically insurrectionists, those who were going against the very kingdom of Rome. So what they did is they made public spectacles of these people to say, this is what happens when you come against the kingdom of Rome. Come against the kingdom of Rome and get crucified. So they would do it in a public place. It was the most torturous and humiliating sort of death that you could experience in that time. This is the context that Jesus is speaking into. Now what's important to understand is that when criminals would be crucified, they would carry their own cross. Not the full thing. Usually when we see pictures of Jesus, you know, before he passes the cross off to Simon of Cyrene, it's the whole thing. But what it would be is a horizontal cross beam. The criminal would carry to the place where the vertical cross beam stayed. They had places where they would crucify criminals all the time. And this was carrying your own means of death along with you. So Jesus says, if you want to follow me... Carry your cross around with you because today might be the very day that I call you to give your life for me. So self-denial is saying, Jesus, my life is yours. Pick up your cross daily means, Jesus, I will go as far as you call me to. Whatever you ask of me, no matter the pain, no matter what it requires, I am willing even to the point of death, even death on a cross. So is this the way that we live our lives? You know, I picked this up at Menards, and I carried it around the store like this. And I was getting weird looks for just doing that. Like, people are like, put it on the cart, man. Like, what are you doing? But imagine the sort of looks we would get if we did this literally. And two... How different we would live and how people would react if we genuinely carried our cross every day and said, Jesus, literally anything you call me to, I'm willing to give my life for you, so I'm willing to live my life for you. You see, often I think, we think of the incredible martyrs of the faith and the missionaries who literally give their life in that way, and we say, man, could I do that? Would I have the grace and the empowerment of the Spirit to lay down my life in that way? But I think when we look at lives like this, this didn't just bubble up and happen in a day. That was the next step in a life that had been given to Jesus where they're dying to self over and over again, and it's just the next decision in that path. So for us, yes, we need to be willing to even go to that extent, but what this actually looks like is that being a servant means a lifestyle of dying to self by a thousand daily decisions. Moment by moment. Is it going to be about me? Is it going to be about God? Is it going to be about me? Is it going to be about Nikki? Is it going to be about Ezra? Is it going to be about Shiloh? Is it going to be about Ajit? Who am I laying down my life for? Because if I love Jesus and I'm responding to the way that he laid on his life for me, I should be doing the same thing for my brothers and sisters. So is that what we're doing? Because that's our identity. We are servants and this is the sort of lifestyle we're called to. But is that really what we're doing? I've got to take a step back and evaluate my heart in this too, because you know what? None of us are there. None of us have reached the perfection of living out the self-sacrificial life of Jesus, but he calls us into it. Now, I suggest it is a calling. This is our lives, and this is our command from Jesus if we are a follower of his. What would it look like for you to live this out in your daily life? How would it impact your family? How would it impact your friends? How would it impact your coworkers? How would it impact the people that you're sitting next to on the train? As we look for the spirits leading in our lives to direct us and prompt us on how to do this, it first starts by a willing heart that surrenders our will and says, Jesus, anything for you. Anything for you. So the call is to follow Jesus means being a servant. Now Jesus offers the perfect model of this. So the second thing we're going to get into is the model. We're not just commanded to do this because God thinks it's a good idea. We are welcomed into this lifestyle because Jesus did this himself. We are called not just to obey his commandment to become a servant, but imitate his lifestyle of being a servant. So the model is to imitate the radical self-sacrificial love of Jesus. This is the life he lived out and invites us into. We see this beautiful connecting between what we're called into and the perfect demonstration of this lifestyle by Jesus in Philippians chapter 2, verses 3 through 8. Paul says this, do nothing, everyone say nothing, nothing, not some things, not do most things, do nothing from selfish ambitions or conceit. The Greek word there, like the literal translation, is vain glory, empty glory. We do it for our own, you know, puffing up because it's vain. It literally is like a myth. Don't do it for empty conceit. But in humility, lower yourself, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Now, if that stopped there, it would be like, great. I mean, this is incredible. Imagine how we could change the world if we genuinely lived this out. I've got to lower myself. Consider those who are my equals, my brothers and sisters in Christ, as more important than me. I'll humble myself. I'll consider them first. I'll lay down my life for them. But then look at where this instruction comes from. What is it rooted in? What is it grounded in? Paul says, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. Or another way to translate it is, which was also in Christ Jesus. This was his mindset. This is his frame of thinking. This is who he was and he lived it out perfectly. Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. But he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Amen. He says, even though he was equal to God the Father, God the Son says, I'm not going to use that equality and say, you're going to ask me to ask somebody else. No, the Father points him and commissions him in this way and he humbles himself though they were equals. And he says, I will go and do your will. Your will be done, not mine. And he did this with a heart of love and willingly. He becomes a servant. He takes on the form of of man and he becomes a servant. That talks of posture. It talks of identity. And we see as well, we're going to go forward just one slide, even in Mark 10, 45, we see this being grounded in his purpose in coming. For even the Son of Man come, came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. So Jesus came not to be served, though he could have been. He should have been. He's deserving of it. We're going to serve him for the rest of our lives and even his invitation to follow him is to become servants. But he came to serve. And the way that he most clearly demonstrates that heart is by giving his life for us. He was willing to obey the Father, if we go back one slide. He's willing to obey the Father and to become obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. So Jesus calls us to the same sort of lifestyle and posture as what he lived out. Are we willing to become obedient even to the point of death? Because if we're willing to go that far, then anything less he asks of us is actually him not asking that much. So if we're willing to die for him, then shouldn't we be willing to die to self and live for him? This is the life that Jesus calls us to. And like I've already said, it's the life of joy. When we get internally focused and trapped in ourselves, life doesn't go well. when we try to maintain control, when we demand that others serve us and do what our interests are, there's no satisfaction in that. It's fleeting. And so we have to check our hearts. And as I thought about this, I think one of the best ways to see where my heart posture is at is, again, not, am I willing to go to India this year? No, it's like, am I taking the garbage out so my wife doesn't have to? Seriously, am I doing the dishes because she's had a long day? Seriously, as simple as that. And a life of sacrifice and surrender when it's lived like that, that changes communities. That changes families. A community of people living in that way changes the world. Who we are in our homes, in our workplaces, ultimately the best version of who we genuinely are. If we're not living out our walk with Jesus at home, what does it really mean that we do so at church for two and a half hours on Sunday? Who are we really? So Jesus calls us into a radical lifestyle of this. I love Jesus' pattern of this, and we don't have these up here, but John chapter 5, verse 19 through 21, Jesus says, I only do what I see the Father doing. And as he shows it to me, I do it exactly as he does. So he only does what he sees the Father doing. He only says what the Father gives for him to say. In John 5.30, he says, I do not seek my own will but the one of him who sent me. He's living not in accordance with his will but God's will. And in John 8.29, he says, I always do what is pleasing to my Father. Imagine what a life of even half of that, even if we made a 15% increase from where we are, would look like. Always doing what is pleasing to the Father, not living for your will, but living for his, only doing what you see him doing, only speaking what you hear him saying to you. How would life radically change if this was the pattern? Well, this is how it would change. Look at this passage in Philippians 2, verses 14 through 15. Paul says, do all things without grumbling or disputing, and don't grumble over that. Okay, that's hard. Do all things without grumbling or disputing so that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted in generation. Now catch this. Among whom you shine as lights in the world. Jesus died for us, like we heard earlier, so that we might no longer live for ourselves but live for him. Which means that all of the world, until they are released by the cross of Christ into a life of freedom to live for God and others, are in bondage to self. So when they see you living for other people and doing it not out of duty but out of delight, Not out of obligation, but out of overflow, with a joy and a smile on your face, you illuminate the darkness of this world. Because they say, I don't know anyone else that does that. Because everyone lives for themselves. So when there's somebody who's doing it not begrudgingly, like, oh, this is what my church told me to do. Jesus says I should, but like, oh. But you do it with joy. Yes. Without grumbling, without disputing, this is how we shine as lights in the world. And you know what, guys? This makes sense. Because what is Jesus' new commandment? He says, this is my commandment to you, that you would love one another just as I have loved you. But then what does he say? This is essential. He says, this is how the world will know that you are my disciples. Amen. if you love one another. So what does the world think of us if they don't see us loving one another? If they don't see us pouring out our lives from one another, ultimately we're not distinguished from any other people in the world. But if we want to be seen clearly as not just by our words, saying I believe in Jesus, but say these people, they have to be followers of Jesus because nobody else lives this sort of life of radical self-sacrificial love except those who follow him. This is how we change the world, everyone. And that starts with you. We can't wait for everyone else to do that. You ever seen, you know, been on the line at Starbucks and somebody pays for your coffee? That ever happen? I thought about doing it the other day for the person who was in front of me and then they ordered like $40 of food and I was like, oh Jesus, I don't know about this. I got a gift card but it's got like $14 on it. I don't know about this. But have you ever seen the trickle or the ripple effect that happens? One person does it and they buy it for the person behind them and they say, wow, that made my day. That's incredible. I want to do it for the person behind me. Be the person that starts the ripple effect of love in your community, okay? Flows from our identity. Because the cross is not only what saves us, it has to be what shapes us. Do we live a cross-shaped life? A cruciform life that when we live, we are carrying our cross and willing to go to the furthest extent to love others and lay ourselves down for them. living like a servant starts with thinking of yourself as a servant We have to know that ultimately that's our identity, and that we have to remind ourselves of what that identity is so that when we're called to action, we say yes, again, not out of obligation, but out of the overflow of our hearts of who we are, and over time, we live into this identity, and the things go from happening where we're wrestling with do I lay myself down here, do I do this, to happening naturally as who you lay yourself down as because it's just who you are. The third point is this, it's the why. And this is so essential because, and what I've been praying for is that you would hear this part more than anything. Because if we don't understand the why, we'll end up doing a lot of things that are servant-like, but it burns out unless the why is properly oriented. Because if we start doing things for God's approval or to please him or so that others would see us a certain way, it fizzles out. So the why. We serve from his love, not for his love. We serve from his love, not for his love. How can we not but respond to the cross of Christ but by laying down our lives for him and for others? How can we not but do this? Have we forgotten how incredible the cross truly is? Familiarity drowns out amazement. It's easy for something that is literally the greatest act of love in human history to become commonplace to us because we know the information that's in scripture. We've been around it for as long as we have. But do you remember who you once were? Far from God, without hope and without God in the world, the child of wrath, enslaved to your sin, content to live in rebellion against God. No matter how old you were when you came to know Jesus, this was either what was at the core of your heart and waiting to unload, or was the very life that you were living from the time you woke up to the time you went to bed. This is who we were. And the beauty of a verse like John 3.16, for God so loved the world, is not how big the world is, but how wicked the world is. And it's not a them thing, guys. This is an us thing. And if we forget how desperately wicked we were and without the grace of Jesus would still be every moment, we become like Jonah. who runs away when God says, go and preach to them so that they might not be destroyed and judged but saved. And Jonah's like, but do you know them? Do you know what they've done? Because he's lost focus on who he is. Him and all of Israel by that point in history had lost sight of the grace that they had received freely from God that he then called them to live in light of. Jesus loved you so much that he was willing to pay the price for you so that you didn't incur his wrath. So that you, who were his enemy, could be at peace with him. Who pays the peace treaty of the offending party? That doesn't happen today. Would we do that for the people that sin against us? That's an interesting question, isn't it? Because that's actually what we're called into as well. And that's the sort of radical love where people can be awakened to the depth of Jesus' love for them because Jesus loves people through his people. This is the life he invites us into. But unless it is flowing from the cross, it will ultimately end up burning out. This is the importance of remembering the cross. We have to live in light of the cross. Think back to the early church in Acts chapter 2 at the end of it, verses 42 on. And it says that they would get together, and there are four specific things that they would do together. They would pray together. They would eat together. They would listen to the apostles' teaching. But the one thing that they would do is, it says, the breaking of bread. Now what does this mean? Were they just having pita? No. They would remember the cross day by day as they met together because they needed a reminder of who they were based on whose they were to ground reality in their true identity. How often can we be forgetful and forget the price that Jesus paid to bring us to where we are today so that we might live for him in light of that? So as we respond, this is an essential part of how that we do this. So the fourth thing that we're going to get into as we land the plane here is the charge to live out your identity as a servant. This is who you are as a follower of Jesus. And Jesus desires for us to be fully immersed in that identity so that his love might overflow like a river into this world and bring healing to the hurting, to bring water to those who are dry, to bring life to what is dead. But we have to be immersed into this. And I want to end with just a short story. On October 6th, this past year, I had a radical encounter with the Lord. To be honest, I was feeling a bit burnt out. I was weary. And I went on a half day of spiritual retreat. And to be honest, when I committed to doing that, I just wanted to lay down and go to bed. I was like, I'm so tired. I don't even know if I can just sit at the feet of Jesus. I'm just so exhausted. And I went down to the Kankakee River, which is also the place Nikki and I got our engagement photos, which is a beautiful thing to have that connection. And I hadn't been there since then, but I was like, I'm going to go down here and just spend some time sitting at the feet of Jesus by the water. And he called me, I felt prompted in the spirit. I was sitting at the far end of this picture to come down to this area where there were rapids. And I'm sitting there and just praying. I'm like, God... My prayer was I want to be immersed in the life and the spirit. I want to hear your voice. I want to hear your direction and to walk in it. I want my life to be fully controlled and directed by you. I don't want to live for me anymore. And I'm standing there at the river and I'm praying this. I want to be immersed in the spirit. And I hear the spirit say in my heart, then go immerse yourself in the water. And I'm like, whew, it's cold out. It's October 6th, you know, it's probably in the 60s. It's not like it's today. I'm like, man. And so I'm like, all right, God, if this is the first step, I'll take it. So I go into the water, and, you know, I'm about ankle deep at first, and then I get to knee deep, and I start to see... You know, this is deep. It's not too deep, though. Like, this could be hard. If I'm going to get in here, it's going to be challenging. And so I get down on my knees. And I find a point where it's about up to here. But I still, like, I can't just, like, duck over and go full under. And I can feel, I mean, the current is huge. It's pushing against me. And I'm having to, like, ground myself with my feet and my knees to even keep the current from taking me. But something beautiful that I didn't intend to happen happened when I went under fully. I went under the surface of the water, and the instant I did, my knees and feet came out from underneath me. And I started being pulled down by the river. You say, that sounds terrifying. No, it was actually really beautiful and peaceful. It felt like life slowed down into slow motion. He said, this is what it's like to be taken by the current of the spirit and fully controlled by him. But you can't keep trying to find ground to hold on to yourself. You have to let yourself go fully and let me take control totally. And so this is the sort of thing I want to call you into, regardless of where you're at. Because to be honest, at that place, I wasn't in a period of spiritual backsliding or anything like that. But there's always more to experience. There's always more to lay down and to give to experience Jesus fully. So as we get to our why in the road today, this is what I want to call you to. Is... Living out this life of surrender. Every day you have a why in the road that you face. Will I live for myself or live for Jesus as a servant today? So I want to invite you into something that I practice every morning. I have an olive wood cross that I take off and put back on every single morning. And I have Matthew 16, 24 memorized. It's only a couple of verses, and I'd encourage you to do this and to make this a part of your morning routine each week or each day this week. And strive for five, but try it all seven. You'll see how radically it can change you. But these are the three things I want to call you into as you build a daily prayer of surrender into your morning routine. The first thing is to pause and remember the cross because this is what it all flows from. Remember the cross and what Jesus has done for you, the love that he has poured out for you. Then the second thing is surrender your will. The way that I do this is by reciting that verse and praying along with it. Jesus, you say, if anyone wishes to come after you, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow you. Jesus, I surrender my life to you today once again. My life is yours. My will is yours. Direct me. And I'll go as far as you call me, whatever you want, even if it's to lay down my life for you in martyrdom today. My life is yours, and anything in between, you show me where and I'll do it. But the third thing past this is to respond to the Holy Spirit. To be attentive, to listen for him, to see the people he brings into your life, the opportunities he gives to you in each day, to lay down your life and actually live out this life of being a servant. Because it's one thing to know it. It's one thing to even be compelled and stirred by this in a service. But guys, if we want to see the world radically transformed by the love of Jesus, then we have to radically love the world with the love of Jesus. And this happens through daily surrender. So once again, I want you guys to incorporate into your morning routine, whatever that's like, before the shower, while you're brushing your teeth, whatever it is, as you're getting dressed for work, A prayer of surrender where you remember the cross, you surrender your will, and then the rest of the day you look for the leading of the Spirit and respond to his leading. I'm going to lead us in a prayer of surrender right now as we then transition into communion. Gracious Lord, I come before you, I thank you for this opportunity to be reminded of what you've done, your love for us and our identity as followers of you as servants. Lord, you say if anyone would come after you, He must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow you. So Jesus, I in each of us today desire to live a lifestyle of radical surrender for you. We deny ourselves because you have purchased a beautiful life of no longer living for ourselves but for you, for us through the cross. And so Jesus, our life is yours today and every day. And we say, Jesus, as far as you desire for us to go, whatever it is, we pick up our cross today and we will carry it and live on mission for you. Guide us and direct us by the power of the Holy Spirit that we might genuinely see where you're calling us. See what you're doing and enter into it with you. Hear what you're doing and enter it in with you. so that we might live a life in accordance with the words of Jesus, who says, your will be done and not mine. Jesus, you are worthy. And so we give you all the praise, not just with our lips, but with our lives. In Jesus' name, amen.