Second Corinthians. We're going to be in Second Corinthians chapter five for like five weeks. So we're going slow here. It's an amazing chapter. As you turn there, you got some questions to think about. Just kind of run into this text a little bit. Have you ever looked at your spouse or maybe your kids or a co worker or some friends and thought you're being really selfish right now? Like, have you ever noticed that in other people where it just feels like you're making everything about yourself, you're kind of wanting your way? Does anybody feel like the person they're sitting next to right now is selfish? Often. Okay, by the chuckles, I think you agree with that. You're gonna have to kind of work that out on your way home. How about in yourself? Have you ever noticed in yourself I'm being very selfish? Like, I just want my way all the time. You kind of see that tendency in yourself. Like, it doesn't take much time talking with people in the midst of conflict to find underneath a lot of that is selfishness. It gets a real problem that we deal with. It's just kind of there present, like whatever the conflict is or whatever the issue is. If you talk long enough, it's like, oh, selfishness. I see it. And often the conflict is intense because selfishness exists in both parties and both parties are kind of pulling in opposite directions. And selfishness is a huge problem. It's a huge problem in our life, It's a huge problem in our world, and we feel the effects of that. I mean, can you imagine a society where everybody is just out for their own interest and you're like, yeah, it's called our society, but let's get more personal. Can you imagine a family or a marriage where everybody's just out for their own interest and just thinking of their preferences first and fighting for them first? Can you imagine a church where everybody is just passionate about their own preferences and their own desires and just full of selfishness? How do we get beyond selfishness? And that's an important question because everybody in this room deals with selfishness on some level. Like, we struggle with that. And nobody in this room wants to be more selfish. Like, that's nobody's ambition of, like, if I could just get more selfish this year, it's kind of my New Year's resolution. Like, we don't want to be selfish, but we would recognize that it is a problem that we deal with. So how do we get beyond selfishness and beyond selfishness to what? Like, what Are we going after? And what's strong enough to pull us out of self centered living more than just our desires? Because all of us would have a desire not to be selfish, but yet we still deal with it. So how do we get beyond selfishness? And the goal is not that we would just be selfless in a way that's like I'm putting others before myself and I'm just trying to be nice to people and I'm just trying to consider other people better than myself so we can have a better society. That's not the ultimate goal. That's too weak of a goal to actually pull us out of selfishness. I'm talking about how do we make our life not about ourself, but about Christ, how do we live for Christ? Which by the way includes putting others above yourself and considering the interests of others more important than yourself. But that's so much a stronger pull like to make your life about Christ than just to be less selfish. Because making your life about Christ both confronts our self centeredness and appeals to it. And what I mean by that is it confronts our self centeredness and say like life's not about you, like you're not the center of the universe, but there is something that is good for you, there is glory for you to enjoy, there's rewards from a judge that was just in our section before for you when you live for him. So actually making your life not about you, but about God is what's best for you. So it has this strong pull to pull us out of selfishness. And I think we see that in our text today. In fact, my hope today is to help us see practical directions to get beyond self centered living to Christ centered living. So let's get into our text. Second Corinthians, chapter five. We have 11 through 15 this morning. Let me read it again and then we'll back up and take it slower as we have been doing. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you cause to boast about us so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. If we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us. Because we have concluded this that one has died for all. Therefore all have died and he died for all. That those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised. There it is, see, did you see it at the end? That we might live no longer for ourselves, but for him who for their sake was died. Like he's talking about, this is the goal, that we would no longer have a life built around ourselves, that we no longer have self centered living, that we're going to move beyond selfishness. And beyond selfishness is a life that is devoted to Christ. That's what we want. A life that's not marked by living for ourselves, but a life that is marked for living for Christ. And guys, that's like the mark of a Christian. Like if you want to look like. What does a Christian's life look like? Oh, it looks like somebody who doesn't live for themselves but lives for Christ because they've concluded that Christ died for me, so my life is now for him. Like that's Christianity 101 getting lived out practically. But how do we get there? How do we grow in it, in our life? Because Paul's calling them, and I believe us as well, to that kind of lifestyle, calling us to live that way. And the way that he's doing that is he's telling us, hey, this is how I've done it. This is how it's happened in my life. These are the things that have impacted me, that have led me to not live for myself, but to live for Christ. So let's look closer at what that looks like. Go back to the beginning. Let's look at verse 11, or at least the first part. It says, therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. Now persuade others. We're actually going to come back to that in a few weeks. Because when we get further into chapter five, we get this commission that we've been given a ministry of reconciliation, that we are ambassadors for Christ to implore other people be reconciled to God. Like that's our mission, to persuade others. And here he says, this is what I do, I'm trying to persuade others. And we're going to focus more on that when we get to that passage. We'll reach back to this phrase, phrase here. But it is something we do need to talk about. There was a Barna study in 2019 that said 40%, or, excuse me, 47% of millennials who practice Christianity or would be practicing Christians think evangelism is wrong, that it's wrong to try to persuade someone else to be a follower of Christ. But it's like, well, Paul's doing that. In fact, he's saying we should all do that. So we need to take some time to talk about that. So he says it here. I'm not skipping it. I'm just telling you we're going to reach back to this in some weeks to come, and we need to. And he starts off this section with therefore. So it's connected to the thoughts or the things he's been talking about. Ahead of that, you always want to notice those words, small words. Therefore is not necessarily a small word, but small words are really important in Bible reading, you know, because for. And. But like, those really bring out meaning. You get the therefore here. And it's connected to the thoughts before. And it's actually connected to this call to persuade others. So we'll look more at that in weeks to come, too. But I want us to look at knowing the fear of the Lord, knowing the fear of the Lord. We don't talk about the fear of the Lord enough. And we tend to paint God as more of this, like, really nice grandpa who loves us and wants to give us everything that we want. And fear is seen as a negative thing. Like, you're afraid of snakes and spiders. You don't want to put God in that category. And it's like, we think of fear of the Lord, like, that's no. Why would you fear the Lord? But actually, the Scripture talks a lot about fearing the Lord in a way that's very positive. It's a good thing. It's all over the Proverbs. Like, when you read through the proverbs, you see that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Like, if you want to have a good, wise life, here's where you start. Fear of the Lord, like, that's the beginning of it all. We see in Proverbs that fear of the Lord leads to life, like life, to the fullest fear of the Lord. The person who fears the Lord is blessed. The Lord delights in those who fear him. So it's seen as this positive thing. Now, there are terrifying aspects of the Lord. He's God. He's God Almighty. He spoke the galaxies into existence. And he will bring just judgment upon the earth. Like, if you ever wonder, like, read the Book of Revelation, like we should. There is appropriate fear of the Lord that will happen in a terrifying way, even to people that don't believe in God. So there is an aspect of the Lord as a consuming fire, which it says in Hebrews. But most often when the scriptures talk about fear the Lord, it's talking about having a reverence For God. Like this respect and awe, like kind of like Isaiah talks about, to tremble at the word of God. Like, this is God's word and God is holy. And there should be this kind of awe inspired respect and reverence. Like, we don't just approach God flippantly, we approach God freely because of Christ, but we don't approach God flippantly. He's God Almighty. And we can never lose that kind of reverence that's talked about with the fear of the Lord. Now we see two main motivators driving Paul's lifestyle in this text. And the lifestyle in the text is a lifestyle that's not about yourself, but about Christ. That's not a self centered living, but a God centered living. And the first one is the fear of the Lord. Paul saying, hey, you want to know the way why I am the way I am? Let's start here. The fear of the Lord. And it says knowing. Knowing the fear of the Lord. And that word knowing doesn't just carry an idea of awareness, but an idea of appreciation. So Paul's saying, I'm not just aware that God is holy. I appreciate his holiness. I'm in awe of his holiness. I love his holiness. I know to value his holiness, it's very different than just an intellectual understanding of, oh yeah, God's holy. It's like, no, I appreciate it. I'm so captivated by the holiness of God. Or I have this fear of the Lord, this reverence for God, this respect for God. And here are some ways that it shows. Let's continue reading. So it's therefore knowing the fear of the Lord. We persuade others, but what we are is known to God. And I hope it is known also to your conscience. So you gotta remember the context here. Paul is a lot of Second Corinthians. Is Paul defending his ministry? Because his ministry is getting attacked. He's getting attacked by what is he refers to as super apostles, these people that have kind of undermined Paul's credibility. Paul's not a very flashy guy. He has a life of suffering. He's working his own job. He's a tentmaker on the side. He's doing this ministry, but he's ministering in a culture in Corinth which values wealth and power and image and prestige. So he comes in there and he's not very flattering. And there's these other people that kind of come along, these super apostles, and they attack Paul and attack his credibility. Like, I don't think we should really follow Paul. He has so much suffering Opposition, not somebody we want to be like. And they valued what you look like on the outside, which comes up later in this text. So he's getting attacked by the leaders in this church. And he does say, hey, I hope. I hope you know who I am. Like, he's talking to his church that he helped plant, that he led to Christ. And he's saying, like, I hope you trust me. I hope you know who I am. I hope you know the genuineness of my heart. Like, I hope you give me the benefit of the doubt. I hope you understand who I am. But I know that God knows who I am. So, yeah, I hope that's true of you. But also God knows who I am, and I'm good with that. Like, I am known by God. In fact, he addresses the same issue in first Corinthians. This is First Corinthians, chapter four, the first five verses. He says, this is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. But with me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you. Isn't that sweet? He's like, for me, it's a really small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, this is crazy. I don't even judge myself. Anybody struggle with being judged by others and just being wrecked by what other people think of you. How about this? Anybody just kind of wrecked how you seem to judge yourself and just kind of the negative thoughts that you have about yourself. Paul's like, I don't even judge myself. In fact, I don't even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. And that's in our context as well, because we ended our text last week. By who? The judgment seat of Christ, that we're going to be judged by Christ. Therefore, do not pronounce judgment before the time judgment is coming. But now's not the time before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God. So he said, I don't even judge myself. And what you think of me is not a big deal. And you see him kind of saying the same thing again here. Just because I know who I am before God, I know what God thinks of me. I know what you say about me. Hey, sometimes I even know what I say about me. But you know what's more important, what God says about me. And this is where he has this confidence. Paul has such a reverence for God that he cares most about God's view of him. Not the Corinthians. And you could add in there not even himself. One indicator that you have a reverence for God or that you know the fear of the Lord in, like, an appreciative way that his view of you matters more to you than other people's view of you. His view of you is weightier than other people's view of you. You can sleep well at night because of what God has said about you and what he has declared to be true. And I think let's just admit that for a lot of us, if not all of us, we can just find ourselves caring way too much about what other people. People think. We can just kind of get wrapped up in kind of this projection that we're somebody that has it all together. And we do that because it's. I want you to like me. I want you to think well of me. I want you to respect me. And when you don't, it can be devastating. Like, we're just kind of wrapped up in that a bit. Even if it's not in a prideful way, maybe even in insecurities. One way that selfishness expresses itself is through insecurities. I'm awful. I'm terrible. I'm ugly. I'm not like, whatever you, like, kind of fit into. Like, all of that is just still thinking about who yourself. Whether you think good of yourself or bad of yourself. There's this being consumed with yourself. And Paul is saying, like, I don't even have time for that. Like, I'm so captivated by what my God has said about me. The way that Paul found freedom from that is through the fear of the Lord or reverence for God. It's like, I'm so captivated. I'm so in awe with God and His holiness and what he's declared. I don't have time to give your opinion of me too much weight. I don't have time to give my opinion of me too much weight. Or what you think of me pales in comparison to what God has said about me. Or I'm not living my life for your judgment. What did he say in our text before? My aim is to please who? The Lord, because he's going to judge me. So I'm really captivated by what God thinks of me. I'm not so captivated by what you think of me now. I hope that you trust me. I hope that you think well of me, but I'm not dependent upon it. I don't need it. I don't need you to like me. I don't need you to approve of me because God knows who I am. Guys, the way out of kind of just an obsession with what other people think of you is a fear of the Lord. And what I mean by a fear of the Lord is a greater weightiness to his view of you that you would truly make it your aim to please him and understand that you'll be judged by Him. So any human court is not ultimately what matters. But do you possess that fear of the Lord, that kind of reverence and awe and embracing and having a weighty view of what he says and will say someday in judgment? You know, too many church going people believe in God but are not captivated by Him. They believe in God, but they're not captivated by Him. We're not appreciating the fear of the Lord. We're not. We're not just in awe of God's holiness. We don't have this big view of God where it's like, oh, what he thinks of me matters so much because of his holiness and his greatness. Like, we don't have this kind of big view of God. And I think church leaders have to look in the mirror on that, especially teachers of God's word. I don't think we talk about God's holiness enough. We don't talk about the bigness of God, the holiness of God, the greatness of God in a way that people would hunger and thirst for God in a way that people like, oh, I really care what he thinks in way of God. Like, we haven't maybe set people up well for that. And a result can seem like we believe in God, we openly believe in God, we try to live for God, but we're more captivated by the world. We're more captivated by public opinion. We're more captivated by the things of this world and what we look like, what we do, what we make, how we're perceived. That has a lot of weightiness for us. It matters a lot. It's a big deal and it shapes our life and it could look like on the outside. My aim in life is to please this person or please this person or please this group of people, not please the Lord. And in fact, that's what Paul is saying about his opponents. Like when he comes to describe his opponents, these super apostles who by the way, profess faith in Christ. But his description of them is an attack and goes to their values. Here's how he describes them. Look at verse 12. We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you cause to boast about us so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not what is in the heart. So Paul's kind of the bow stock can be confusing. What he's saying is, we're giving you information so that you can defend our ministry to the people that are attacking our ministry. I'm giving you an inside look into my heart and where I'm coming from so that when we're attacked, you have something to answer back. Like, you can defend our ministry to those who attack us, but who's attacking him? How does Paul describe those who are attacking him? It's those that care about the outward appearance. Like, that's the description he gives them. Oh, those super apostles that come in and they care a lot about what other people think. They care a lot about how they look. They care a lot about how they're perceived. They care a lot about their status in the church or the community. Yeah, those people, like, they're on the other side. And when you wonder, like, okay, what does he mean by they care about their outward appearance? It could mean literally their outward appearance, like, how they look. It could also mean their rhetoric, because especially if you're a leader in the church, like, the speaking to a group of people was a little bit like performant arts. Like, they didn't have television. Like, you gather and it's like, who's a great orator who can get up and just kind of really impress everybody with their speech and how they are you and how they talk. And Paul in other places, like, I get it, I'm not that great of a preacher, you know, but these people, they come in and they just like, really impressive. So it could mean looks or it could mean how somebody speaks. I think it's both. Like, it's just kind of wrapped up in, like, people that care how they come across. People that are trying to impress you all the time. People that care about their status and how they come across and their image. It's like, that was their issue. That was their issue, but it's not a new issue. In fact, the language that Paul uses in this text, like, kind of rings some bells or sound some alarms to another issue, especially if you're Jewish, because this is what he says. We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you cause to boast. About us. So that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. So he's talking about people who value the outward appearance rather than the heart. Well, major turning point in Jewish history is we want a king. We want a king to be like other nations. And who do they pick to be their king? Somebody who is tall and impressive and handsome and is like, this is our king. It was King Saul. But how did that work out? I mean, King Saul would be like a super apostle. Like, this guy's legit. You walk into a room, Saul, everybody's impressed with you. Everybody would be like, that's our leader. Right. He's impressive on the outward appearance. But David comes along and how's. David described a man after my own heart. Because God does not look at the outward appearance, but he looks at the heart. So he uses these words and they're like, yeah, ding, ding. Like that. Yeah. Okay. So you stop looking at the outward appearance and you start looking at the heart. And right now, don't follow people who put so much stock in the outward appearance. So it's not a new issue. It's also not a new issue to us. I mean, don't we still struggle with that? Just putting a lot of stock in the outward appearance. What other people think of us, how we come across. Now, chances are the fact that you care way too much about what other people think of you bothers you, too. I bet in moments of honesty, you would feel like, why do I care so much when they said that? Why does that bother me so much when I think that they think bad of me? Why does that wreck me so much? When you find yourself trying to project on social media because you want this kind of attention. I want people to like my picture. And they didn't like, or you didn't get as many likes as you thought you wanted to get. Like. And you're just bothered by that. You're probably bothered with yourself. Why am I so bothered by this? And it's like, we don't like it, but we participate in it. And you'd be like, hey, don't hate the player. Hate the game. It's like, yeah, but you're playing the game like, that's the way that you're functioning in this world. And we need to understand that what the way out of this is to care more. The way to care less is to care more. Now, let me explain what I mean by this. If you want to care less about what other people think of you, if you want to care less even about some of the negative thoughts you have about you, then you have to care more about what God has to say. Like, the way to care less is to care more. Sometimes we think the way to care less is just to care less. And when we feel convicted about it, what we do is like, I just need to stop caring so much what people think of me. I just need to stop caring so much what they think of me. I just need to stop caring so much about the conclusions that they make about me. And we just. We genuinely want to, and we try and we fail. And it's like, I want to stop caring. Why do I keep caring? Because you haven't redirected your care. You're just trying to stop something, but you haven't redirected it. And if you want to stop caring so much about what other people think of you, you need to start caring more about what God thinks of you. You need to actually redirect your care to care more about the holiness of God and his opinion and aim to please Him. That's how you break the grips of other people's opinions. And then he says this, verse 13. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. If we are in our right mind, it is for you. So that phrase beside ourselves, it could be a phrase that's either positive or negative. In fact, in Scripture, it's used both ways. In Mark, chapter three, it's used in a negative way towards Jesus. I think it was his family talking about it. When his family looked at all the ministry he's doing, he's like, he's out of his mind. Like, he's crazy. Like, why is he doing all that? He's beside himself. But it's also used in a positive way. In fact, in Acts, chapter 10, when Peter's up on his roof and he has kind of this vision from the Lord. You guys remember that story? This is like when the Gospel first goes to Gentiles, and he kind of gets this imagery of a sheet of unclean food. And God says to Peter, take, kill and eat. It's one of the best passages in the Bible. He's like, no, no, not me. It's like, it's kind of saying like, no, don't call unclean what I've made clean. Well, when he has that trance or that vision, it's the same word that he was beside himself. So it could be like, hey, you just look crazy. Or it could be like, are you having, like this vision from the Lord? And either way, it could be like, hey, Paul, do people think you're crazy? Or are you just kind of weird because you're God's talking to you. And later on in this book, he talks about, I've been caught up to the third heaven. But the way he even says it, he's like, I don't really want to reveal that it's me. So it's like he has these revelations from God. But if it means that what he's saying is like, hey, that's between me and God. I'm not trying to impress you. I'm not up here talking about all my visions so that you'll like me like these super apostles, so that I get more social credit. That's between me and God. I'm trying to be in my right mind for you. So it could mean that. But I think more likely Paul's talking about people's opinions of him. More like the word was used in Mark, chapter three to Jesus. People look at your life, Paul, and they think you're crazy. Why do you live that way? Why are you that devoted? Why are you sacrificing? What do you go through so much suffering, like you're out your mind? That's the modern translation. Like you are beside yourself. Like, they think that you're just crazy. But why is he doing it? It's for God. He's like, oh, yeah, I understand that you think I'm crazy because I'm not living for you. I'm not living for your opinion. I'm not aiming to please you. I'm living for God. And that certainly can seem crazy to you. Now we're going to come back and look at that last part of that sentence. To be in our right mind is for you when we talk about evangelism. But for now, what we need to see is Paul knows the fear of the Lord and it changes the way he lives. Paul knows the fear of the Lord and it has led him to live differently. It has given him different values than what the world has. But that's not the only motivator for Paul's lifestyle. Let's look at verse 14. So it's for the love of Christ controls us. Or maybe your translation says compels us. The second motivator for Paul's lifestyle is the love of Christ. It's the love of Christ. In fact, he comes right out and says it. He says, the love of Christ controls me. It is controlling my life. My life is being controlled by the love of Christ. Now, that word can have two meanings. It could Mean like constrain, restrict movement, hold back. Like it's controlling me because it's got me on this leash. Or it could mean compel, like it's encouraging movement. It's inspiring me. So which one does Paul mean here? Both. Both apply because he's saying, the love of Christ controls me. And sometimes the love of Christ keeps me from doing things I ought not to do. And I don't do it because I love Christ, not because it's just wrong. I don't do it because I love Christ. And it's keeping me from doing that stuff my own heart wants to do. But I'm being controlled or restrained or. Or pulled back because of a love for Christ. And sometimes it leads me to do things I don't really want to do, but I do it because I love Christ. So both aspects apply to his life. It is controlling him. Now, why is it controlling him? Or also we can get into how it's controlling him. Look at the next line here. For the love of Christ controls us because. And this because speaks both to the why and the how. We'll get into that later because we have concluded this, that one has died for all. Therefore all have died. And he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised. Now, in three weeks, if you guys remember this, in three weeks, we're going to get down to the last verse of chapter five, verse 21, and we're going to try to better understand what exactly did Christ accomplish on the cross. And at that time, we're going to reach back into those verses that we just read and try to better understand that. So there's some gold there that I'm not talking about today, but. But we're going to come back to it in weeks to come because there's something that we need to understand a little bit ahead of that. The conclusion here is Christ's work of love changes the way we live. Christ's work of love changes the way that we live. But we need to see both together because the two main drivers or the two main motivators that Paul highlights, like, hey, you want to know why I'm the way that I am? It's these two things. It's the fear of the Lord and the love of Christ, and both of those together. It's like chemistry class. You mix two things together, you're going to get an explosion. If I paid attention in chemistry class, I could probably tell you two things that you shouldn't mix Together. I don't know them. I don't. I didn't even take time to look it up. But you guys get the picture. Like, there's some things that you mix together. It's going to cause a reaction and an explosion. And Paul's saying, I mix the fear of God and the love of Christ together. And it blew up in my heart. And it has resulted in a life that's not for myself, but for God. Both of those matter. Paul wanted the Corinthians and us to know that he is the way he is because of the fear of the Lord and the love of Christ. You can think of, like, this devotion is stirred up by both the holiness of God and the love of God. Both the holiness of God and the love of God. And if we just fear the Lord, but we don't know the love of Christ, then we might. We might obey him. We might, like, try to do what he says. Because, I mean, he's God. He's fearful. Like, don't disobey. We may do that, but we won't love Him. Like, we won't worship him. We'll just try to be obedient. It's kind of like the parable of the talents, where the landlord gives, like, talents to different servants and the last servant does what? He just buries it. And why does he bury it? Because he says, well, I know you're a hard man. Like, I have a fear, respect for you. But he also didn't know the kindness of his master, so it just led him to kind of lock down. Like, if you just know the fear of the Lord but not the love of God, then, yeah, you may try to obey him, but you won't love him. Or if you just know the love of God but not the fear of the Lord, which is probably a greater threat for us, then you may be excited about Jesus and you may sing some songs about Jesus, but you won't build your life around him. In fact, you will expect him to build his life around you. Because he's somebody to be thankful for, but he's not somebody to tremble at. He's not somebody to worship. Think of it like this. Being impacted by both the holiness of God and the grace of God produces a life rightly devoted to God. You can't just have one without the other. And this is the mistake of Christianity. There's groups that it feels like, oh, you have this high reverence for God and you don't know the grace of God. And then there's groups that's like, oh, you're so passionate about the grace of God, but you don't know the holiness of God, but you don't have genuine Christianity. It's both. It's this mixture of both. It's like I am so captivated by the fear of the Lord. He is holy and grace is real and the love of Christ is clear. Being impacted by both the holiness of God and the grace of God produces a life rightly devoted to God. Let me show you this in two other places that I think will help clarify it. This is Romans, chapter 11. I'm going to start. In verse 33. It says, oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his weights. He's talking about the holiness of God. For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? The answer is no one. No, he's beyond everybody. Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? Nobody. He's beyond everybody. And then he says, for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever. Amen. He's talking about the reverence, the holiness, the bigness of God. And then he goes into chapter 12 and he says, I appeal to you, therefore. Therefore, in light of that, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Now, what does the therefore refer to? Two things he says, by the mercies of God. So all the way up in this point in the book of romans, the first 11 chapters, you're talking about the grace of God, the salvation of God, the mercies of God, how He rescuers, rescues sinners. But you also get to chapters nine and 11, and specifically the end of 11. We're just like, hey, God is beyond your comprehension. He's going to do what he wants because he's God and he can. And nobody has given him anything that he needs to be repaid. Nobody can be his counselor. How unsearchable are his judgment. So you get both the mercies of God and the holiness of God. And then he says, respond to that. And what should be the response to that? A living sacrifice. And what's a living sacrifice? Worship. Worship is your response to the holiness of God and the grace of God. Let me put it this way. The way out of selfishness is worship. The way out of selfishness is worship. And the connection here, worship is stirred up by both the holiness of God and. And the love of Christ. They come together at that point in Romans. You know, another place we see this? It's the verses that worship team had us read in the beginning. Isaiah, chapter six. King Uzziah dies. The country's in panic. Isaiah has a vision. He's caught up to the throne room of God. He sees the holiness of God. You have angels that look funky and scary. We won't go into their descriptions screaming to one another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord. It's filled with. It's shaken and little old. Isaiah does what? What does he say? Woe is me. I'm done for. I'm ruined in front of the holiness of God. Because, listen, holiness without grace doesn't lead to worship. It leads to death. It leads to like, we can't. We can't handle the holiness of God. Isaiah is seeing the holiness of God and his reaction is, oh, no, I'm in trouble. But what happens? An angel flies and takes a coal and kind of puts it on his lips. Kind of similar, like, you've been made clean. You've been atoned for it. Like, he experiences the holiness of God, and then he experiences the grace of God. And how does Isaiah respond? God's like, well, who should we send? Who's going to go for us? And Isaiah is like, me, Send me. You know what Isaiah is doing right there in that moment? Being a living sacrifice. He didn't even know where he's going. But I'm in. I've been so impacted by your holiness. I've been so impacted by your grace that now I'm going to worship as being a living sacrifice. Holiness with grace leads to worship, guys. Grace is what turns God's holiness from terrifying to enjoyable. You guys ever see the movie? I know it's been out for a while. The Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was some age. Show me your hands. Like, okay, so most of you millennials go, I was gonna go rent it, but you can't do that. Hit up your blockbuster, get that movie or whatever. So in that movie, they find the Ark of the Covenant. You know, this was like God's cedar chest. It wasn't cedar, but it's like you put the holy things of God in there. They've been looking for the ark. They find the ark. The. The Nazis find the ark. You know, in Indiana Jones and his lady friend kind of get captured, and they get tied around this pole, and they're going to open the ark. And when they open the ark, kind of the holiness of God, which looks like ghost for some reason, don't get your theology from this movie, but kind of fly around and all the faces of the Nazis are melting. So that's exciting. But Indiana Jones is like, close your eyes. I'm like, guys, closing your eyes is not gonna rescue you from the holiness of God. Like just don't look at it, you're in trouble. But we take that approach. I don't wanna talk about the holiness of God. I'm just gonna pretend it's not there and I'm gonna live my life however I wanna live. It's like, that's not gonna help. The holiness of God is still there and closing your eyes is not gonna help. But Jesus Christ will help. He is a covering that allows you to open your eyes and look upon the holiness of God and something that was terrifying, that if you saw it, you'd be like, woe is me. Now you can look upon him and be like, I'm with him and you can enjoy him or the way you were meant to enjoy him. The way out, hear me now. The way out or the way not. To have a self centered life is to have a God centered life through the grace of God, to have your eyes open to the holiness of God and be captivated by it and enjoy him. But hear me, the way out of selfishness is not to make the gospel self centered. And this is a mistake we often make. We take the gospel and we think like, how much am I loved? How special am I? Look what God has done for me. Look at, I kind of put me at the center. But it's not a gospel of self esteem esteem. It's a gospel of self forgetfulness. Like in light of the gospel, I don't have to be so captivated by me. I forget about me. I'm so captivated by God and through Christ Jesus he has opened my eyes. You go back to chapter four with the God of the this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. While with Christ our eyes are open and we can see it. It's about him, not you. But it benefits you. Like it pulls you out of selfishness and it's also the best thing for you. And if you can't find your way out of selfishness, you will self destruct. You will make your life about you and you will discover that life's not about you. And someday in the judgment seat of Christ, you will stand before holy God and in that moment you might say, woe is me. Or you could say, here I am. I've been so waiting to see you. I've been cleansed by the blood of Christ. So here's what we need to do. I wrote you a poem. That's what I do all week. I just write you guys poems. I love you. Right. I wrote you a poem. I want, like, how do we. How does this stick? So here's. Here's my poem. I hope it means much to you. To run the race, dwell on God's holiness and grace. It's a short one, but hopefully it sticks. To run the race, dwell on God's holiness and grace. Now, the race is a metaphor that Paul used in his first letter to the Corinthians to talk about the Christian life. Like, let's run the race, and let's run to win. Like, let's be passionate about the life that's set before us. How well to do that? Like, to run this race, to live this Christian life in a way that's not about you, but about Christ. We need to dwell on God's holiness and grace. And to dwell is to give thought to something until it has made the journey from our heads to our hearts. Dwelling is different than just kind of, oh, I thought about it or I know it, or to dwell on it is like, no, I'm going to keep thinking about it. I'm going to, like, mentally stay there until it makes this journey from I know it, till I know it, till I understand it, till I'm impacted by it. And when Paul says, we live not for ourselves, but for Christ, for our sake, died and was raised again, it's because if you go back to verse 14, because I said we'd go back to that word, we have concluded this. We've concluded this. Well, here's what that means. It means we've become convinced of it. Or the Word can also mean we esteem it, we resolved in it, or we approve of it. What he's talking about, it's like, I have dwelled on this truth so much, it has shaped my life. I've dwelled on the love of Christ. I've dwelled on the fear of God, and now it shapes how I live. Guys, don't underestimate the power of the life of the mind in the Christian life. Scripture often commands our thoughts. The very first command in the whole book of Romans doesn't come until chapter six, and it's considered. Consider, like, just think about what I've said. He goes on in chapter eight, says, you know, set your mind on the things of the spirit, not the things of the flesh. Later, in Colossians, Paul says, set your minds on things above, not on things below. We're told to take every thought captive for obedience to Christ. Peter gets in and says, gird up your loins or prepare your minds for action. Like, prepare your minds for action. If we don't learn this aspect of the Christian life, we will just be busy but not transformed. Do you get what I mean when I say that? If we don't get the life of the mind in our Christian life, then we're going to be busy but not transformed. We're going to do a lot of things we should do, but we're not going to feel a lot of things we should feel. It's going to be empty. Got to feel. God commands our emotions. How does he do that? Because he first commands our minds. And if we command our minds to think about what we're supposed to think about, it's going to reach our heart. Like, you dwell on this, you will feel this, and when you feel this, you will do that. Don't underestimate the power of the life of the mind. We need to appreciate the fear of the Lord, to be captivated by his greatness. We need to be compelled, controlled by the love of Christ, to be completely taken back by what he's done for us. In fact, we're commanded to do so in communion when we celebrate the Lord's Supper. The command that Jesus gave us is, do this and what remembrance. He's like, I know what's going to happen. You're going to get caught up in this life. You're going to have all kinds of distractions. You're going to be tempted to make life about things life's not about. Here's what I want you to do, and I want you to do it often. Remember me. Remember me. Remember me. Remember me. Dwell on who I am and what I've done. Here's some symbols to help you remember me. Here's some elements to help you know what I've done. So when we take communion, don't just do it. Dwell on it. Dwell on it until it impacts your heart, until it impacts your heart in such a way that it motivates your life. And, guys, there is no greater place that we see both the holiness of God and the love of God than the cross of Jesus Christ. Because on the cross of Jesus Christ, God clearly says, I will not tolerate sin. And it will be dealt with and it will be punished. And it is severe and it's the death of his son. But it's in place that we deserve to be. And we see God's grace and love, that we look at the cross. When you hold that cracker and juice that represents a body that was broken and blood that was shed, you ought to dwell on this. Should have been me. Should have been me. Woe is me. How awful is my sin and how great is God's love? How great is God's love? And when we consider both of those truths that God is holy and he loves you and his grace is sufficient for you. Might it motivate us to live a life that's not all about us? Might it set us free from caring so much about what other people think of us and just be captivated by God and make it our aim to please Him? Amen. Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would do what only you can do, and that's give us spiritual sight. That you would open our eyes to your beauty, your goodness, your holiness, your grace. That we would be more captivated by you than the things of this world. I pray for your Holy Spirit to provide a clarity of thought and a peace of mind that only you can bring. As we look at some juice and bread that represents your body that was hung on a cross for us and your blood that was shed for us, that we would actually take time to dwell on it, dwell on all that it represents and all that it means. So much so that it impacts our hearts that we would have feelings about you that we're supposed to have. That you deserve a feeling of love and gratitude and reverence and respect. Respect and awe and wonder and worship. And would that direct our lives to be lived not for ourselves, but for you? Pray this in your name. Amen.