Cross Examination Part 3

Next week — today I'm going to be ending a series I started a few weeks ago, calling — I called it Cross-Examination. And what I've been doing is going through Paul's letter to the church at Corinth. And there's a lot to unpack, but I took a few specific passages out of that letter and was trying to show us how he's constantly encouraging the church to view your life through the lens of the cross.

I don't know if you've ever thought about this, but it's crossed my mind a few times, as I would think about the very high price that Jesus paid at Calvary for me. I've thought my — to myself, am I worth the price he paid? Am I worth what he did? Am I worth all the suffering and all the pain? And when I look at my life and how I'm trying to live my life, and I look at my mistakes, and I look at my failures, and look at my shortcomings, often I reflect back at the cross, and I'm so thankful for mercy and love and grace that's there. But it also brings into perspective, man, what am I doing? What am I doing with my life? Am I — am I doing anything worthwhile?

I don't know about you, but I've had those thoughts. And I feel like probably, at some point or another, you too have had those thoughts. And — and my goal with this series, the message, is to show that — that he's pointing out, Paul, when he's writing to the church, that we should allow our lives to be filtered through the image of that cross. And I use this verse in First Corinthians chapter number 1, verse 18. It says this is: "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God."

A lot of times, people who have not been around a church, or have really any knowledge about God, other than there's just a God — they — they can look at a life being dedicated, and they can scratch their head a little bit and say, that seems like a lot. That maybe even sounds a little bit foolish. There's nothing new about that thought. Paul obviously is addressing that all the way back in the Bible, all the way back in New Testament times. He's writing to the church, and he's saying people think what we're doing is foolish, but we understand there's power there. There's power in the cross. There's power and understanding the resurrection, and that he did that to bridge a gap that you and I couldn't bridge.

And in part one, we studied about the cross of Calvary, that Jesus died for you and I, and that every day we have choices and decisions that we should be viewing the — through the lens of the cross. And then, this past Wednesday night, we answered a couple of questions, as we went into First Corinthians chapter three. Those two questions were: what are we using to build our lives with? And what is our — and what is the foundation that we're building on? And today I plan on wrapping up this series. We're going to dive into the fourth chapter of First Corinthians and look and discuss. And I want to show you that each one of us have four selves. Not shelves, but selves. There are four selves. Four versions of who we are. Four dimensions of our identity that tell the whole story. And the first self is one that — that everybody knows. The — the second self is — is the self that nobody knows. The third — the third self is — is the — is the one that you don't even really know. And then there's the fourth. And I'm excited about the fourth, and I hope you will be too.

Life's a journey. It makes a good bumper sticker and t-shirt, but there's a lot of truth to that. Life is a journey. Along the way, we encounter different things to help shape us and form us, and you're either right now on your way to —

Moving towards that fourth self, or you're moving away from it. So if you have your Bible, I want to turn on me to First Corinthians chapter four. I'm going to read the first five verses here and set the tone with us. Again, if you're a guest, we're so thankful that you are here. We hope that you consider maybe making this your church home.

I'm going to be a little bit different in my approach today. Normally I get pretty ramped up, and the home folks will tell you that I — I can get really, really excited when I preach. And I feel like I'm going to get a little excited today. But I'm — I'm — I'm also aware that sometimes it's good to slow down and just teach what the word of God has to say. Sometimes we can slow down, because it's something we need to digest and apply to our life. And I equate it this way: that sometimes you go to a really nice place to eat, nice steakhouse — you don't want to just throw that nice piece of — piece of steak right in front of you, you just swallow it all in one bite. You take your time. You cut it up. You enjoy.

So for those of you who like it when I get really amped up and geared up and swing off the chandelier — even though we don't have one — hang on. I'm still the same person. But I feel in my spirit today, I'm gonna go a little bit slower. And I feel like there are individuals in this room that need to hear — you need to hear what God's wanting to tell you today, about really understanding who you are, whose you are, and who you can become. Understanding who you are, whose you are, and who you become. So today I preach part three, and it's simply entitled this way: The Four Selves.

First Corinthians chapter four, verse number one, says: "Let a man so consider us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful. But with me it is very small thing that I should be judged by you or by human court. In fact, I don't — I do not even judge myself." Verse number four: "For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this, but he who judges me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of the darkness and reveal the counsels of the heart. Then each one's praise will come from God."

So let's launch right in. If you're a note taker, there's a good spot to take a note right now. We're going to talk about self number one, and that is your public self. The public self is — is who you think I am. This is my outer self. This is the image that I project. It is the me that gets praised or criticized by other people. When I try to idolize my public self — and I have a tendency to do this; in fact, most everybody has the tendency to do this — when I do this, what I'm doing is, I'm hiding all of the bad qualities, and I exaggerate my good qualities, and make my life all about being impressionable, about the — how I'm managing my life. I'm about self-promotion, and I become a prisoner to other people's opinions of me. That sounds crazy, but that's exactly what we do, without even really being aware of it. When we're — when we're very concerned about this public self, we will find ourselves being imprisoned by what our critics say.

You should say, oh my. I know. I feel the same way. Paul doesn't think this is a good way to live our life. In fact, he says in one of the verses I just read to you, that it was "a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by human court." To me, I think that's just an absolutely remarkable statement, that —

He's saying, I don't really care what you think. I don't really care. You can drag me into court. I don't even care what the court has to say about me.

I think we could do this right now. Turn to the person next to you, in a very kind way, say this. Say, "I carry very little about what you think about me." Now — now — now, here we go. There's a few of you that — that — that — that was hard. So I'm going to give you another opportunity. We're all going to do this together, okay? All right. Now, some of you are like, I can't say that. And the reason you couldn't say it is because you feel like you're lying. But as an exercise in freedom today, I want you to turn to them and say, "I carry very little of what you think about me." Some of you are still like, man, it's hard. Right off the bat, I've already showed that there are some people who struggle with that in the room, because you really do care what people think. You care so much that it keeps you imprisoned. Oh, it's going to get good today.

In Corinth, the idolization and the promotion of the public self was the way of life. They lived a life of boasting about what they had, and what they had accomplished, and who they had rubbed shoulders with, and who dined at their house that evening. It was all about everything that — that elevated who they were in society. Kind of sounds like the world we live in today. Do you ever boast? Do you — do you ever find yourself doing a little self-promotion? Worst of all, have you ever boasted about your abilities, and then the person that you were boasting about your abilities to was way better than you were ever be at those abilities? Anybody besides me ever done that? Anybody? Yeah, I know. I know. I got a few nods, and got a few little people who are nervous. And Jalen is the honest one on the front row. Yeah.

There's been — there's been a few times in my 45 years in this — this — this life, where I've said a few things, only to realize that the person I said those things to — it was — it was just utter stupidity, because they were way better than I could ever, ever dream to be, about what I was just boasting about. That happens to us. You might be surprised to learn that the Bible has a great deal to say about boasting, especially here to the church at Corinth. Just a couple of numbers to maybe qualify what I just said: 59 times in the New Testament, and 55 of those 59 times by Paul, he talks about boasting. 39 of those 55 times, it's to the church at Corinth. I feel like he's maybe saying, you guys are doing a little too much bragging. You're really building yourself up to be something that you're not. You — you guys are going overboard. You get extra points on bragging about who you are.

When I studied this out, I — I realized that boasting here, it was — was referring to the verbal technique that was used to pursue status and honor in society. They — they refer to it in a technical way. You ever — ever seen that in our day? You ever — ever heard of a politician boasting, or celebrities, or CEOs, or on and on we could go? Yeah, it happens. Well, in Corinth, well, it was — it was commonplace. Matter of fact, even in — in ancient of days, during — during the time when the Bible was being written about the New Testament church, there was a — there was a lot of — of bragging going on. Matter of fact, the — the — the single most famous inscription in ancient Roman world was carved on two pillars in Rome, and it was called the Deeds of the Divine Augustus. And there was a copy of the Deeds of the Divine Augustus, and this is what it said — quoting: "Below is a copy of the deeds of the divine Augustus —"

"By which he subjected the whole world to the dominion of the Roman Empire." Does anybody want to guess who wrote the Deeds of the Divine Augustus? It was Augustus, in case you didn't catch that. Yeah. For 35 paragraphs, he reaccounts the offices that he held, the battles he won, the titles that were his, and the wealth he dispersed. And it ends with him saying, and I quote, "I received by the decree of the Senate the title Augustus. The doorpost of my house, a republican deck with laurels, a civic crown was fixed above my door, and a golden shield was bestowed upon me by the Senate and the Roman people, on account of my valor, clemency, justice, and piety. And after all that, I excelled in all others in dignity." Killing it. Hashtag blessed. Humblebrag. Or at least that would be the way it would be on Twitter today, wouldn't it? Yeah. I don't want to brag, but you know, I've accomplished — hashtag.

See, if that's how you find validation, you're going to find yourself always feeling empty and hollow. If the public self is always about the accolades being poured on you, what you'll find and discovers, there's never enough to satisfy. It's — it's going after something, and a goal, that will never, ever end. And when I read about what Paul is talking to this church, he deals very specifically and pointed with it, when he goes out and basically says, if you're going to counteract this public self and get it to where it needs to be, you're going to have to die to it.

There in Corinth, they compared everything that they did with somebody else. What their neighbor has: a neighbor got a new car, they got a new car. Well, if the neighbor got a new chariot, they got a new cherry. They got new sandals, they got new sandals. Everything was being compared. There's nothing new. There's nothing new. We may think they didn't deal with the same things that we deal with today. Wrong, wrong, wrong. They did. Paul's addressing a same kind of modern culture and modern society there, that was going on. And he's not talking just to the city of Corinth. He's talking to the church in Corinth. And he's laying this stuff out, and he's saying: don't get so caught up in your public persona that you miss the life that God has for you. And that's a real, true word for all of us today, that we can get so captivated by what — what — but what I have accomplished, by what I have acquired, by what I have done in my life. And without even really knowing it, we get so built up inside our self, that we constantly crave affirmation. But the reality is this: that's not really who — who we are.

Now, just to level the playing field, I'm going to ask everybody here in a moment to raise your hands. Is anybody here — don't raise your hand yet. I'll tell you when. Anybody here ever been criticized? And I want you to think about all the areas of life: your — your appearance, your athletic ability, or lack thereof, your work, your personality, your habits, the way you treat other people, the way you drive, the way you deal with anger, your words. And then I want you to think about the people in your life. Unless you think about your parents, your teachers, your coaches, your bosses, your friends, your enemies, your relatives, people that you're dating, people that you used to date, people that you try to date. Now, how many of you have ever been criticized by one of those scenarios, or one of those people? Let's keep it up for a second. Now just — just turn your head and look around the room. Wow. We've all — thank you so much. We — we have all felt the criticism. Now, by show of hands again, how many of you enjoyed it? Nobody. Interesting, isn't it? Criticism is inevitable. It's inevitable in life. It was inevitable in Corinth. It's inevitable here in our world today. But people then and people —

Now have devoted their life, their public self-enhancement, and they turned it into a project that has gotten so out of control that they've lost themselves, trying to find themselves. That goes on and on, world today. And Paul talks about that: how they're constantly trying to posture and appear to be smart, and rich, and strong, and have all the honor, and they're super spiritual. In fact, they've even turned the things into the church. And the reason he's talked so much about it to the church at Corinth is because they were turning their spiritual walk into a competition. How crazy is it that that seeped into the church? Now, you would think that memorizing scripture and having things committed to God would be a great thing, except they turned it into a competition. And who knew more? And they shamed others when they were not able to compete with them.

By the way of contrast, look at how Paul goes on to describe his own life in this moment. Chapter 4, verse number 10: "But we are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise." He's talking about the church, right? He's talking about where he is. He's trying to lead him. He's like, well, we're just fools, but — but — but you are wise in Christ. "We are weak, but you are strong. You are distinguished, but we are dishonored. To the present hour, we both hunger and thirst." He's talking about where he is right now. Like — like the church and Corn — they're like — they're — they're church, right? They've got everything going on. Everything's perfect. And Paul's like, well, you — you have all the honor; we're dishonored. You know it all; we're just a bunch of fools. In fact, let me tell you where I am right now: "To this present hour, we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and we've been beaten, and we're homeless." Wait, I don't sound like a church you want to join up with, would it? Verse 12: "And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we blessed. Being persecuted, we endure. Being defamed, we entreat. We have been made" — listen to these words — "as the filth of the world." He didn't really paint a great picture there, does he? He's being very specific and very pointed with his words, as he's addressing a problem that's in the church about their public persona. You're so built up. And Paul says, let me just tell you where we're at: we're getting beat. I don't have the latest fashion on. We're still having to work out here with our hands. But you guys got it all together. You look the part. But he's addressing a problem that is there.

The word translated "fool" is — is "morose," the Greek word "morose," where we get — he's saying, look, we're just a bunch of dummies. But you guys got it all together. And then it gets even better: he says, we'll be made as the filth of — the word "filth" is the Greek word "pere ripsama," "peripsima," which is so extreme that the Bible translators — if you — if you go to digging down, they have a hard time translating this word. It's a word that — for what gets swept up from the filthy floor. Dirt removed from the body. It's like — it's like ear wax and belly button lint, is what he's talking about right there. I mean, the peripsima — if it was a bumper sticker, it'd be "peripsima happens." Dramatic. He's making a point of how — how they are treated by the world. But he's looking at the church, saying, but you guys got it all together. We're just — we're — we're just filth. We're — we're just still working with our hands. But you — you got your public persona. And he — he's getting very, very pointed. He's dramatic for a reason. He's trying to let them know that you're trying to manage the wrong self.

I heard it said one time, and I like the way it says: don't let your critic be your judge. Don't let your critic be your judge. But how often we allow the critic to determine —

The life we're going to live, because we don't want to hear what the critic has to say. We — we — we will bow to them. But — but I — I love how there's a difference between the two, and it's important to understand: a critic offers an opinion, but a judge imposes a sentence. A critic can offer a word, but a judge has the final word. It's good to listen to my critics, but I'm not to allow them to become my judge. Paul loved the Corinthians, and he's not going to let them judge. In fact, Paul goes on to say, I don't even judge myself.

This brings us to the second self that we live. The first one is the public self, and that's — that's who you think I am. But the second one is the private self: who I think I am. Now — now, there is a me that I don't want anyone else to see: the things that I've done, the things I'm ashamed of, the anger, the jealousy, the disappointment, the greed, the — the — the complexity that I tried to hide. Now, there are times when my public self and my private self overlap. And in fact, the truth of the matter is this: the more my private self is congruent with my public self, the more authentic and sincere and honest and truthful I am.

You ever been around someone that you thought you knew, until you discovered their private self? You ever been around someone that they had — they had this public, and you're like, oh wow, they seem to — this is this great person. They're so nice. They're so kind, and they seem to always do this. But when you see them when they think no one's looking, and it — and it's — it's completely the opposite: they're harsh, and they're mean, and they're cruel, and they're very cutting with their words. And all of a sudden, you're like, yeah, I don't even know what goes on, because there's — there's — there's a total distinct difference between the public and the private. You need to be very careful. Right? I'm — I'm speaking — I feel God moving right now, on me. If there is a vast difference between your public and private personas — if you're constantly living in fear that someone's going to see the private you — that should be a huge indication that you are out of touch with the reality of where you are.

Now, I'm not saying there aren't moments, right? I mean, we all wake up with bed head, morning breath, right? And there's this — you know, there's — there should only be just a few that ever see that. You should be married to them, or they're kids. Not saying there's a — a — a few instances where there is something that is outside the public, that — that is — that is — it is be held more private. But what I'm saying is, if the public and the private you are completely opposites — if you have such a great difference between those two — there's something deeper going on inside, something deeper down, that — that God's got to deal with you on, to bring those — because those things should overlap in such a way that there should be very subtle differences between the public and the private. If they're greatly different, something's going on. There should be a very close alignment between public and private.

Now, I can think of my public self and my private self as overlapping because they should. But — but here's the deal: the strategy with how I take care of the private, and make it — make it to where it needs to be, is: I don't hide. I don't fake. I don't pretend. I don't indulge the desire to look better than I really am. And you and I can only be loved to the extent that we are actually known. I'm going to say that again: that you and I can only be loved to the extent that we are actually known. Because how can you love — how can you be loved, if they don't know you? That's where you see this go wrong, because there are people —

Who have these public personas, and these public images, that — that where they are revered to those who — who only know them on the surface. But — but when something tragic happens, or they — a loss of life comes early, and then the families ask about them, the family doesn't love, because the public and the private didn't match. And often times, the public is left scratching their heads, saying, I don't know, they seem like such a good person. But to those that were closest to them said, but you didn't know them. You didn't — you didn't know them. I can only be loved to the extent that I'm actually known.

There's a term that Paul uses to describe the temptation of a private self. He says this, there in chapter four, verse number six: "Now the things, brethren, I have figuratively transferred to myself and Apollos for your sex, that I may learn in us not to think beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up." Interesting language here: don't think more than what's written, so that you don't get puffed up. You don't have an inflated ego. That you don't try to look bigger than you really are. And the people that can't struggle with this — and the people in our world struggle with it, too. In fact, he repeatedly goes on and says, in verse number 18 in the same chapter, that some of you become puffed up. In chapter five, he says you're puffed up. In chapter eight, it says knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. What kind of knowledge puffs up? Any kind of knowledge. Are we just supposed to be a bunch of dummies? No. It has nothing to do with knowledge itself. It has to do with how you use it. And if you use it in such a way, even if it's spiritual knowledge, to make someone feel less than, then you're puffed up for no reason, and you're thinking more of yourself than what you — what you really are.

I — uh, here's where we go. Okay, who in here likes to lose? None of us. Nobody. And we struggle with this, right? Because we don't like feeling less stand. And this is what happens. This is what happens when — if you're not careful. And we — we see this, right? Our kids are next door. So when my girls were little — I still have one that's nine. She's gonna be 10 here in a couple weeks. When — when you — with Emory, right now, if you play a game with her, she does not like to lose. Like, it's just bad. Like, she'll quit the game. But if she realizes that there's no way out — and then, of course, you know, we're good parents. I'm like, "Sit down." Yeah, we don't live in a world where everybody gets a trophy. There's a winners, and there are losers. And you're a loser right now. I'm building your character up.

But here's the deal: we don't — and see, we — we were just at our planning retreat. And we — we were there, and — and we — we decided that we were going to do games, interactive time with each other. It was a lot of fun. But here's the deal: I don't like to lose, ever. So I have to balance out this — this private self that says, I have to beat their brains out, and the public self that says, but you have to look humble while you do it. Now, I'm a little bit funny with that, but I'm a whole lot serious, because that's what goes on in me. I don't know about you, but that's how it is. I know I have to line those things up. I have to be a gracious person when I don't win, even though inside I'm dying a thousand deaths, because I don't like to lose. But where are you? I'm giving my confession, that I'm trying to continue to keep my public and private life together, so that they are closely associated, with very little differences. But our world says, you can't show that. Just keep it hidden. Always look your —

Best. Always be your best. Always put it on. Fake it till you make it. Most never make it, and all they did was fake it, and there was no substance to their life. And it goes on long enough, they lose themselves. They don't even know who they are, because they've lived a lie so long that the lie became the reality. The lie became the truth. But it's all fake. It's all a farce. It doesn't make sense. And that's why people are so messed up right now, is because the enemy comes in and continues to try to push in, to question even their very identity and existence. And Paul's addressing these same things. And he's telling you: get lost when you don't understand which self you're dealing with.

So we have the public self. We have the private self. And that brings us to the third self, and that's simply the real self. My real self. And this is the self that only God knows, because most of us are blind to it, our own, on our own. But God knows who we are. God knows where we are. God knows what we're going through. So what he does is, he's using our life, if we will allow it — the circumstances of our life, if we will allow it — to get us to become who it is he wants us to be. But the truth is: there's the public self. There's the private self. But there's the real you, and there's the real me.

The Corinthians were Paul's critics, but he wouldn't let them be his judge. Paul was his own biggest critic. He examined his life quite carefully. In fact, in one of his most famous laments, he says, that which I would do, I don't do, but that which I would not do, I find myself doing. And I'm like, amen. Because so many days, I'm that same way. I didn't want to do this, but I'm doing it. And the thing I wanted to do, the person I wanted to be, I'm not. I fall short. And Paul says, that's me too. I'm struggling too. He was quite critical. And Paul — he admitted, I'm not my own judge. But he says this in chapter 4, verse 3 and 4. He says, "I don't even judge myself. For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified this — by this. But he who judges me is the Lord." In other words, Paul is saying, I'm not qualified to be my own judge, because I'm going to skew it. I'm going to mess it up. I — I already know that I won't be fully honest with myself, because I have the tendency to always tilt the scale in my favor.

And this — this isn't new. Because you and I, we have the capacity for — for self-deception, and it's great. But we won't admit it. We won't admit it. My conscience might be clear, but that doesn't mean I'm innocent. And nor are you. Today, in modern psychology, you can read about the idea that — that we don't think highly enough of ourselves. And I'm like, what? How's that even possible? Like, we need to think higher? I'm sorry, the research consistently shows that we think of ourselves more highly than we are. We — we, all of us — we, all of us, collectively, will accept more responsibility for success than our failures. We will misremember how great it was. "Well, you know, I'm true. Well, back when I was in high school, we were playing ball, like, I could do that." No, you couldn't. You rode the bench. How you remember those things, that wasn't that way. No, no. But what — the older we get, the better I was. So many of us are that way. You remember for voting for people that you never voted for, outcomes — it just didn't happen, because we tend to always lean towards what looks better for us. We're all that way. Don't believe you? Just go fishing with somebody, then ask them next week how big it was. High school students surveyed in this study, 70 percent —

Believe that they were above average in leadership. 800,000 high school students, zero percent believe that they were below average. What's wrong with y'all? Fifty percent are average or below, but zero percent thought they were below average. Not only that, majority of drivers believe that they are above average. Even the ones who are in the hospital for an accident they cause believe that they're above average. All of us believe that we're going to beat the mortality rate. You think about that when church is over and you're eating that big old — yeah, all of us.

In fact, even Freud told a story about a husband and wife, when he was talking, and said, "If one of us dies, I think I'm going to go to Paris." That's funny. Some of y'all get that later.

So there's this overlapping — there's this truth. There's the public, there's the private, and then there's the reality of where I am. And — and then this is where we have to have help. And the only way I know to maybe make this example make sense is — is — is to try to pull this in. Have you ever seen one of these singing competitions that are so popular now? And then they find the person that stands in front of the judges, and they get up there, and they're going to sing their rendition of the — you know, Whitney Houston's "Greatest Love of All," whatever it is. And they get up there, and they open their mouth, and what comes out sounds like what a cat would sound like in a blender. And it's just this noise. And everybody's there is like, why? Why are you singing? Why is your mouth open? But — but to them, right, they are — what? Oh man, it's a mo. And you're like, if I could just be in your head to hear what you're hearing, because what we are hearing, it's just not there.

Now, we laugh about this. But ladies and gentlemen, oftentimes this is what we do in life, when we are blinded to the real you and I. God knows. God knows who we are. God knows where we are. God knows what we struggle with. And he's trying to reveal that to us, through circumstances that he allows to come into our life. But we don't see it. Instead, we try to pray away the very thing he's trying to use, to get us to become who it is he wants us to become, which is the fourth self. I'm gonna get there in just a minute. But we fight, and we kick, and we push, and we grind, and we complain, and we get caught up in the public life, and we don't want anybody know about the private life. And the whole time, God's trying — I'm trying to reveal to you who you really are, so that I can then show you who you can become.

David understood this. He said in Psalms 19 and 12, "Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from my secret faults." Only God is thoroughly qualified to be my judge, and be your judge. You can't do it for me, and I can't do it for you. Only God can, because he knows everything about me. He knows my outer actions. He knows my inner thoughts. He knows my public words. He knows my private desires. He knows the wounds that I have inflicted on others, and he knows the wounds that I have received. He knows me, and he — and he alone have the ability to judge me, and to judge you.

I've been reminded so vividly that everybody sees — everybody that you and I see is fighting a battle that we don't see and know. How quickly you and I want to drop the hammer on why they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, when all we're seeing is the public life. We don't always see the private life. Sometimes it gets exposed. But here's the reality: we hardly ever see the real. We hardly ever know the back story. We hardly ever understand the circumstances that have led them —

To the point and position they are in this life. But oh, don't we love to cast down judgment. "Well, if you would just do this, and this, and this, your life would be better." And you have no idea what that person's been through. Paul's talking about it here. He said, I don't really care what you think. And you can drag me into court. It doesn't matter. I don't even judge myself. It's for him. It's for him. That's what Paul says: to judge nothing before the appointed time, because God's going to make everything clear.

We got to be careful, because there's going to come a time when everything's going to be transformed. I talked about this on Wednesday night, when I talked about that you got to be careful what you're building your life — whether you're doing it with — with gold, silver, and precious jewels, because they'll stand the fire, or as it would hay and stubble. Because there's going to come a time — it doesn't mean you can't be saved. It's just, you're going to suffer loss. This is directly timing. This is the next chapter. And he's talking about: be careful what you're doing in your judgmentalism, because there's going to come a time when God's going to reveal some stuff, including yours, and including mine. And there's a transformation that he's trying to get us — from the public and the private, to who we really are — and that — and that is to get us to the fourth self, which is the sanctified self. This is the God — this is — this is what God has had set forth, when he was forming you in your mother's womb. He put in you what he wanted to pull out of you. I'm going to say that again: he put in you what he wanted to pull out of you.

Now, he loves it when we discover those things and we bring him out on our own. But if we don't, he will allow circumstances into our lives that — that are trying to reveal what he put in there on purpose. But when our public life is all about what people think about me, not about what he thinks about me, and my private life is to keep things hid, so that no one knows what's really going on — he's standing there the whole time, saying, I know who you really are. And I don't like where you are. And if you'll follow after me, I'll get you from where you are to where I know you can be. The — I can get you from where you are to what I can do through you, for my kingdom. And that process, ladies and gentlemen, is called sanctification.

It was a few months ago — I was preaching a series called United We Stand, and I spend one whole entire Sunday talking about a message. It's called Show Me Your Glory, if you want to go look it up. I spent that whole sermon talking about sanctification. But to break it down today, for this — for this moment in this message — and I'm getting ready to end. And I know this isn't a typical Sunday morning message, thou, that I preach here, this church. But I felt in my spirit, God was — was directing us to this moment in time. He knew he was going to be here. He knew he was here. You were going to be here. It's not accident you're here. The word of God says that no man can come to him unless the spirit draws. There was a drawing led you here today. You may have confused it for something else, but I promise you, the spirit was drawing you.

This sanctification — this is the — this is the end. This is the self that God wants you and I to become. Your sanctified self is the person God wants us to be. Your sanctified self is the person that God had in mind when he formed you and created you. In Corinth, they were trying to make their public self their glory self, their sanctified self. And this — there's a problem here, because ladies —

And gentlemen, this goes back to the original sin. For it was in the garden that they were told, you can be like God. And when we try to go about our public life in a wrong manner, in a wrong way, to be built up so that nobody thinks anything — they just think I'm perfect, and all I do — that I'm — I'm the best at this, I'm the best at that, I never have any trouble, never have any problems — got to be careful, right? And what has only — what has only had an increased, exacerbated this in our society is social media. Because we see these perfect little glimpses into everybody's life, and then we look at the — what we're living in, and we're like, why can't I be that way? And then all we do is, we try to turn around and make sure that anything that gets put into a public persona looks perfect.

How many of you have taken 75 pictures? You spent an hour and a half over one minute, because you wanted the whole world to know that that one minute was a perfect moment. That's quiet, because I got on all y'all. I've said it before: we get over there with our girls on vacation. "You get over here and smile. Put a smile on your face, now. Quit touching your sister. You look happy. I'll kill you." And there it is. What you don't see is the moment before that. All you see is the moment where it was like, yeah, 30 seconds before that. But what happens is, that public persona is put out there, and then we look at that, and we're like, why is my life not like that? You're looking at a — a highlighted moment, and you judge your day, or your week, or your month, based off of one moment, and you allow that to destroy what he's trying to do.

You go and see anybody that works with precious metals, as they're forming them and shaping them. It's an ugly process. The melting, the draws, the pulling out all the impurities, is there. All what we see is the finished product, right? We're looking like, oh, that's so beautiful. And it is, in that moment. But the sanctification process is often ugly. Nobody glorifies or grandizes that. Now, some of you know exactly what I'm talking about, because you yourself have lived enough life to know that these things that I go through — I don't always like them. But when I come out on the other side, in these moments, I think about Job, who says: I look left, I look right, I look up, I look down, and look all around behind. I can't find him. But he knows my ways. And after he has finished me, I will come out as pure gold. That, ladies and gentlemen, is sanctification.

If you'd asked Job, in Job chapter 1, when — when all the accolades were going out about that he was a perfect man, and upright, and he — he pushed away evil, and always did what was right. He prayed, and he gave. He took care of his kids. He sacrificed for them. I mean, he's just like — he's on the cover. He's Time's greatest person ever, for about six verses. And then everything is stripped away from him. Things are taken away. Kids are lost. Status is lost. Friendships are called into question. Somewhere along that process, he even gets mad at God, and calls him into a verbal debate. And God shows up and says, "Challenge accepted. Where were you when I was forming the foundations of this world? Where were you when I was putting the snow in its storehouses? Where were you when I was four —" And Job's just like — it was in that moment he realized, this is more than about the moment you're in, Job. Because in the end, he got twice everything he had, but he wasn't notified of that at the beginning. Who he — we — you, me, we — we like to look and make sure everything works out on the scale. We love that word "fair." Well —

It's just not fair. It's just not fair that life turned out this way. It's just not fair that I'm not taller and have a higher metabolism. It's just not fair that I'm vertically challenged. It's just not fair that I'm follicly challenged. It's just not fair. If I only had more money. If I only had more education. If I only had more stats. If I only had — and what do we do? We — we all do this. It's just not — it's just not fair that I had to suffer that loss. It's just not fair that that was taken away from me. And I'm not trying to — I'm not trying to downplay anything. It's just not fair that I got that diagnosis. And it all feels real. It all hurts. It all stings. But when we only compare into what I can see in this moment, when there's a God who's standing outside of eternity, saying, I have so much for you. I have so much that's beyond anything that you could possibly dream up or comprehend. And what he's trying to do in this life is to bring you through some things, so that he can work stuff out of you, and work stuff into you, to make you the best you you can be. And even though I don't understand, I'm brought to the crossroads of: can I trust? Because that's what this is about. Can I trust that my God knows better than me how I should live my life? Can I trust that he knows better than me how I live my life?

And that's the four selves. We wrestle with the public, the private, the real, and then there's the sanctified. But make no mistake: the process of sanctification comes with a commitment and a dedication. Paul talked about it this way, in Second Corinthians 3:18: "But we all, with unveiled face, beholden as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, just as by the spirit of the Lord." You have the real self, that is you, as you exist right now, with all of your fallenness and all of my fallenness, that only God knows for sure. But you also have the sanctified self that we are to become. And we only get there through the process of sanctification. Uh, in this way — musicians come, singers come — because God — God wants to do something here.

Every new creative day in your life is an opportunity for the word of God to guide you and transform you. Every new creative day. You cannot undo one thing that happened yesterday. You can't, nor can I. We can't not take back one thing we regret. We cannot make anything better than it was. We cannot make anything worse than it was. It has already passed us by. But I have the now. I preached a few weeks ago about the greatest moment in your life: it's right now. Of course. The only moment you have is right now.

Peter explains the process of sanctification, of God's ever-increasing addition to us, this way, in Second Peter chapter one, verse number 3: "According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and — and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue." Did you catch that? He's called you and I to a life of glory and virtue. "Four, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature." You and I get to be a part of that. That's what it says: that we get to partake in this. "Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. First five, and besides this, giving all diligence" — here we go — "add to your faith virtue." Paul's saying that faith's got you here. But faith — faith got to take you somewhere. Faith's teaching you something. Faith's gonna — so if you want your public and your private life to line up, so that you can enjoy the sanctified life, and the —

Real life, and they all line up, and they perfectly knit together — you gotta allow faith. Faith is saying, God, I know you know better for me than I know for me. And he's talking about this here, to the — to — in this letter, Peter's giving us what's going on. He says, you're going to add to your faith virtue. Until you — virtue, knowledge. Into your knowledge, temperance. And to your temperance, patience. And to your patience, godliness. And through godliness, brotherly kindness. And brotherly kindness, charity — which is also the same word as love.

"For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind." You're blind to yourself. You can't see. You're blind. You can't see. You're trying to keep everything propped up. And — and what I want to say to someone here today: aren't you tired of trying to keep that public persona that doesn't match the private person? That's very exhausting. Aren't you tired? The process of sanctification is working every day in us. From faith comes virtue. Virtue, knowledge. Knowledge tempers — temperance, patience. Patience, godliness. Godliness, love. God's desire has been, and we'll continue to be, on this side of heaven, for us to allow his spirit, his Holy Ghost, inside of us, to continue the process of maturing, so that with each new creative day, it brings less of me and more of him. It's less of me and more of him. That sanctification is — there's less me. I hope that — that tomorrow there's less me and more of him. I hope that next time you see me, that you see more of him than you see today. Because that's what sanctification is.

John sees this. My last scripture for you: Revelations 21. John sees this. He says, "And I saw there no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb or the temple. And the city had no need of the sun, neither the moon is shining, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." When — if you make it to heaven, it's going to — because you fleshed out. It's because you fleshed out, is that you learn how to kill this flesh off enough, to allow that sanctification process to be — to get you from where you are to where he wants you to be in your life.

The public, the private, the real, and the sanctified. God, I love you so much. Lord, I know today I was a little slower, a little longer in my approach. But Lord, I know what you laid on my heart to preach to this, your church, today. God, we have to match our lives up and align it with your word, what you want us to be, and who you want us to become. Now, there's no doubt in my mind, there are those here today that are just weary with propping up a life that doesn't match. They're — public and their private selves, they don't match. Lord, I pray that you would let them feel you — you drawing them, to a place where they can take this moment, make the changes they need to make, to align themselves up with your perfect will and plan for their life. God, I pray your drawing power will deepen the relationship with you, so that we truly can be led by your spirit in all we do. Move as only you can, in Jesus' name. These altars are open. If you would like to make sure your life is where it needs to be, I would invite you to come down to an altar —