We are on our second teaching session on this topic of... I had a moment where I was like searching, searching, searching. And I see it as a problem. The question is how do we make faith to God through it? How do we solve often times, wrestling through moments of our lives where life is very much around?

Now, what I'd like you to do is turn back in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 8. And then, once you're there... We're going to take a look at the tail end of that chapter. We read portions of it. We saw how God was warning them. Look, in this journey as you walk with me, there are going to be moments when your perspective is way off.

And in your arrogance, you're going to think, "Oh, I do this." Or, in your easily distracted, easily swayed mind and heart, you're going to want other things. You're going to forget. Within that, you're going to challenge and admonish them and say, "I am building you up for your good." The discomforts, the stress, the feeling of not having enough.

Where are we going? What is all this? I did this purposely, God said. Now, what's very interesting about this is... Please turn to the bottom. Verse 18-20. And God gives a very sobering statement. Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 18. He says, "But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who has given you power to take wealth.

That He may confirm this covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. It shall come about if you ever forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them. I testify against you today, you will surely perish. And the nations that the Lord makes perish before you, so you shall perish.

Because you would not listen to the voice of the Lord your God." Let's take a moment to pray. Father, we do pray that you grant to us wisdom. Father, would you grant to me clarity of speech. Because the topic that we're about to address right now is massive. And I hope to convince it, God, in a way that is not necessarily palatable, but however understandable.

And I pray, Father God, all the more, God, that through understanding a worldview, through understanding a perspective that is appropriate to you, would we, Father God, then have the power to overcome momentary difficulties in our lives. We thank you, it's in Christ that we pray. Amen. Okay. So, by way of review, we talked about the various descriptions of the grind, of the difficulties that we experience, and you guys talked about them.

Then, we remember that these moments are not just haphazard moments where, yes, things are difficult, but that's not all it is. For example, the nation of Israel, they were in the most difficult of circumstances. Namely, they were dying at the hands of the Egyptians. They were being treated as property, thrown into building projects.

Their bones and bodies helped support the structures that the Egyptians built. They were oppressed. That is a real life scenario. Somebody asked me over the break, "Hmm, is it wrong to ever then even mention the difficulties we experience?" Because, obviously, I don't want to complain about them, so do I even mention it?

And the fact of the matter is, yes. Why? Because they're realities. Right? But the thing we don't want to do is use them for excuses why we quit. We don't want to use them for purposes of running away, hiding, whatever it may be. Purposes of turning to our own devices.

We are desiring to grow from these as God intended it, which is to build us. These are tests to build. That's what we talked about. Right? But one of the things that we left off with is the thought that these tests then have results. And typically, even if we take exams, we don't always get 100%.

Even if you got a 90%, that means there's 10% you don't know and you got wrong. My challenge was, are you so convicted that you want to grow, that then, yes, I want to grow the 10% I missed. Right? And I sit there celebrating, "Woo! 90%!" Right? You got to think, "How can I grow to 10?" That was a challenge from the last time.

Now, what I'm going to say then is reiterating or jumping off from that, moving forward from that, the problem with these difficult circumstances in our lives, and isn't so much difficult circumstances, because you won't have them here for until you die. Do you think retired people don't go through a grind?

Oh, yes, they do. I mean, it's strange, but I'm now sometimes sitting down with older individuals, trying to counsel them through loneliness, counsel them through physical ailments, counsel them through how do you persevere and stay faithful when your body keeps giving up. And the pain and agony of just the everyday chores become to you a literal grinding.

Yeah? Okay. In thinking through that then, the problem in the midst of our struggles isn't just the struggle in and of itself, but the problem in our weakness. Here, this afternoon, what we're going to focus on is this, my purpose statement, the main structural statement I have for you is this.

The problem of the grind is your lack of motivation and your wrong interpretation that allowed it. You have to get the whole thing. Are you ready? The problem of the grind is your lack of motivation and your wrong interpretation that allowed it. And all of that is very important.

There is a connection between what you are motivated by, okay? So you have motives in your life that make you do what you do. A motive brought you here to this retreat, okay? As far as it was, some of you guys drove three, four hours. As tiring as you knew it would be, as cold as it, you know?

Some of you guys are very allergic to cold. As cold as it may be, you had a motive to come. Everything you are doing in life, there's a motive. Even the strange vices we have in our lives, certain addictions people have in their lives, there is a motive. And behind that motive is an interpretation of your reality that allows it, that makes you believe it's good enough to do.

That make sense? That is a worldview. It encapsulates the big drives in your life that cause you to do what you do, and the beliefs in your lives that allows for it to happen. Now, moving forward then, here. The problem is not so much than the grind, but your weak motives, okay?

Your lack of motive. That's the first point, major point. What are we talking about here? Listen, we talked about the various things that are really bad, okay? And that's fine, because those can be all states of reality. You may have a boss who literally knows a lot less than you.

And that could be an objective truth. Fine. You may have difficult circumstances in your lives that are genuinely stressful. I have heard from some of you guys that yes, you've been sleeping at the office, or that some of you guys go in, you don't come out, and you're like, "I didn't see the daylight today." You know?

You're just sad, okay? Fair. Fair enough. However, even then, there's still a motive for you to go into the office next day. Yes? Now, within this, while you are going through these grinds and struggles of your life, God is challenging you to question, to evaluate, and see your motive to be faithful to Him.

Yes? So what's happening? Within the context of a certain snapshot of your reality-- and I'm kind of getting a little bit like talking about reality, motives, interpretations, I'm getting a little philosophical here. Very conceptually, yes. But it's all important, okay? Because it's all right there in your head, all right?

Now listen. What you realize then is there are competing motives in your mind. Some of them are small, and some of them are huge. Do you realize that? Yes? At any given snapshot moment in your life, as you go through difficulties, and as you're struggling to do what God is calling you to do, there are competing motives.

And what God is trying to do through these tests, what chapter 8 clearly taught you, was God was trying to make sure you understand and you keep a pulse. Not God, because He knows. Yes, He says, "I'm going to see," but God already knew. As a matter of fact, you read the whole book of Deuteronomy, they're having an object lesson.

It's kind of like this. They're having a powwow. They're having a service, and God is teaching the nation, "Heads up, I need to teach you this, because I know what you struggle with." And He says, "Let me show you, you need to have a heart pulse on your motivation to be faithful to Me.

Will you obey Me?" I want you to take a moment to think about that. Within the various contexts of your striving, your grind, and things like that, do you currently have a pulse? How strong is my motive to follow, prioritize, and obey my God? How strong is my motive, my dedication, and desire, the simple question of what do you want?

How strong is that? How strong is your desire to serve my God, my Lord and Master? You've got to take a moment to meditate on that. And I'm assuming, I am assuming that the nation of Israel stood before Moses and said, "We're good. Of course we'll obey. We're headed into the Promised Land." That's happened so many times.

Do you recall the history, Joshua chapter 24? The famous, famous passage where Joshua says, "Choose for yourself this day whom you will serve. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. If it seems good to you to serve the gods of the Amorites and the Amalekites, then do it.

But if you think that it is good to serve the God of Israel, then put it all aside." Do you guys remember what the people said? "We'll do it. Far be it from us that we should ever serve the gods of the Amalekites." Like, "But you just did." It was really bad.

But the people said, "Far be it from us. Of course we'll serve God." And then Joshua said, "Will you really? Will you?" Seriously, look that up on the passage later when you get a chance. And the people said, "You're my witness. You're my witness. Joshua, you're our witness. Let our children be witness.

We will serve God. We'll do it." And then the next chapter-- you know how it goes. You know how it goes from there. Why do I bring this up? It's because I am trying to show us if we are honest with ourselves, that right there, our motive to be faithful to God is regularly tested, regularly tempted, and constantly attacked.

And if we're very honest, if I'm very honest, and I'm being very honest with you, that motive is so shaky. I know I'm a pastor, but let me be honest with you right now. There have been days where I'm sitting just tired, and then I end the day, and so I go, "Hey, I'm just going to turn off my brain and go peruse the interweb, you know, interweb, for stuff, materials." I go on Slick Deals.

You guys do that? Kill your time on Slick Deals? I do. And then you do that stuff, and the next thing you know, the next time you browse the web, those products show up on your website, like all the advertisements and stuff. One time, I did that. My mistake.

Just kidding. That was in my heart. I looked at trucks, okay? I was looking at trucks and cars and stuff like that. I'm just going to confess to you openly right now what happened, okay? I sat there, and I was looking at this truck. It was beautiful. It had everything I wanted.

It was a 4x4 off-road Tacoma, crew cab. Of course, you got to take the whole family with you. Long bed because you got to haul stuff. It had a roof rack, running boards. It had this thing called the Pro Grille, special grill, and beefy tires, right? I said, "Dang!" The price on that thing was ridiculous.

And I went, "No!" Okay. That moment right there, my motive for life was tested. No joke. This is how weak my heart is. I started thinking, "You know what I could do is I could probably make some money doing X, Y, and Z. If I could make $300 per month, I could totally buy this car." I'm just being completely honest with you.

That was my break, right? The thing about it is, you guys know, I have no time in my life right now. I barely sleep, right? What am I going to do with a side job, side hustle, than making $300 a month? But I was thinking that. As soon as I started thinking that, I was like, "Stupid!

I would have to work so hard to make $300 a month. If I just did this, I would make this much money." My career choice was on the line in that moment. No joke. And the next thing I knew, I started thinking, I started wishing, because you guys know, I've confessed many times that I love working on cars.

Right now, one of my cars, I wanted to do this thing. I bought the pieces. I never got to work on it. There was this little desire in my heart. If I had a different profession, I would have weekends to work on my car. And then later, I don't know what I was thinking, it just started rolling in my head.

It just started rolling in my head. I had to walk over to Bia, and I was like, "Dude, Bia, there's like, idolatry in my mind. And it's so mean, because it's a car." It's so crazy. It was dictating my life choices. It was dictating my fantasy. It was dictating, potentially thinking, "What if I had a different profession in life?" You guys know, I would, I love being a pastor.

I love counseling. I would do it all day. But just that one moment gripped my arm, and my motive was lost. Do you see what I'm saying? Okay, I'm pretty sure you guys can relate to that. Now, within all this, within all this, I believe, it's not moments of intense persecution, like, you know, "Those pagans are after us, and now my motives are being shaken." No, no, no.

It's actually in the numbness of the grind of your lives. It's actually in the kind of monotonous, purposeless, what seems to be purpose-living, where your desires are inspired for other stuff. Right? It's especially when you're frustrated at your work, and you want that other job, and you want that other stuff, where those inspirations pop up on your feet, mentally.

And all of a sudden, you can entertain and picture your life going that way. And now you live in fantasy land, like, "God, if you could somehow snap your magical finger and give me this alternate universe where I could be there." Now your heart is set. But God is challenging you.

"Can you still be faithful to me here?" Because that's what I've called you to do. I have called you to be faithful to me here and now in the desert, when you're hungry, when all you have is one pair of clothes. You've got nothing but your family and your community with you.

"Can you be faithful to me, or do I have to magically snap my finger and put you there in order for you to love me and to listen to what I say?" That's a huge convicting question, right? And that's a challenge to us. Why? Because sometimes, in our complaining and griping about our wilderness now, our grind right now, we will say, "But look!

All we have is this. We barely have anything!" But let me challenge you now. The other night, I asked you guys to compare with each other who has the greatest number in terms of score of fatigue. And you guys are sharing with each other, "I'm a 5, I'm a 6," and whatever, right?

And then you guys have been kind of following this trail that I've been saying sometimes what we do in our young adult work life and stuff like that, is we compare our work lives and then we compete who has it the worst, right? And when we do that, though, sometimes the danger is it's okay.

It's okay that you guys talk about your hardships. Because actually, I love it when you guys are able to minister to each other through your hardships, right? If you feel weak, you should be able to ask for help. If you feel like you're not really striving after the Lord, you should reveal, "These are the things that are hard for me," and you need encouragement, okay?

But then the danger on the other side is you use these as excuses why it makes sense that you're not striving, right? However, there are people who would win. Who would win in the game, in the competition, of who has it the worst. And who is that? Christian slaves.

The nation of Israel are slave people. Have you ever thought about that? If there are people who have an excuse to act up a little bit, to maybe enjoy the freedoms that they just recently earned, to maybe do stuff that they never got to do before, we were deprived, man.

Some of these Israelites knew nothing but slavery. They were there 400 years. They knew nothing but slavery. I want you to think about that. If you ever find yourself keep pointing at your circumstance as the excuse why you're not growing as you should and you're not as mature as you should be, you lose to the Christian slave.

Because even in the New Testament, God expected slaves to be faithful, growing, mature. Some of you guys I've talked to, yeah, you just straight up say, "Because of the stuff that has happened in my life, I'm not where I should be." I get that on a human level. God challenges you to more.

He challenges you to more. Turn in your Bibles with me to Ephesians 6, verse 5. Ephesians 6, verse 5. Did I say that out loud? Oh, no. It's because when I look down, sometimes I have seven pages of notes. After 20 minutes, I'm only through one page. And I'm like, "Oh, no." Because if you do the math on that, 20 minutes per page is not good for you.

All right. We'll get through this. Okay? Okay. Ephesians 6, verse 5. Look at this. It's crazy. If you ever meditate on this stuff, it's crazy. Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ. Meditate on that, guys. What kind of incredible strength does a slave need to obey his earthly master with fear and trembling as to Christ?

For those of you who are working right now with horrible bosses who know nothing of what maturity means, some of you guys have bosses who are vulgar. Right? Have you guys ever worked under people like that? I have. It's awkward. They act like children. Their mouths are vulgar. Their mentality is childish.

I literally don't understand how they got to the position they were in. What is the Christian call? Seriously, right? With meekness, with fear, with respect, then, with a sincere heart like you really, really want to, as though the person who has the character of Christ to obey in that manner?

Let me pose it in another way. I asked this question. What kind of strength does this slave need this Christian slave to obey his earthly master? Put it in another way. What would motivate this person to endure that grind? Think about it. What would motivate this Christian slave to endure that grind?

Is there a promise? Do it for five years, and it's glory! Freedom! No, there is no promise of any kind of temporary kind of power. There is no temporary kind of freedom up ahead. There is no silver lining. There is nothing said right there. Except this is the expectation of God upon you.

Now, turn to another passage. 1 Peter 2, verses 18-20. 1 Peter 2, verses 18-20. Another passage written to servants. The term there means slave again. Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.

What? He just flat out says it. You need to be submissive to all. Oh, man. That's crazy. But, but, but, but, that pause. So annoying. Okay, you cannot point at the circumstance because God has higher expectations of you. But take a look at verse 19. This finds favor. You better highlight that.

The reason why I want you to do this is because this finds favor. The cause of your submitting to an ungodly individual is because this finds favor. If for the sake of conscience toward God, a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly, for what credit is there if, when you sin and they're harshly treated, you endure it with patience, but if when you do what is right and suffer for it, you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.

Notice how this finds favor is written twice. Important, emphatic for you and me. Right? He is saying to you, if everything makes sense humanly, your boss is lovely and wonderful, there's appreciation work day on every Friday of the week, they let you do what you want, they give you freedom, nobody supervises you, nobody's hunting you, no, like, you know, hovering over your shoulders, they lift you up, pay you well, and you're happy there, totally makes sense.

But guess what? If that's the case, then God is hidden. However, however, if you're being mistreated, work is tough, doesn't even make sense that you're there, they're kind of totally taking advantage of you, but you're holding up for righteousness, you're holding your character, you serve with joy, you're submissive to people that doesn't make sense to be submissive for, now there's a question, why?

What are you doing? That's when you get to answer and give your reason, because I have a God, because I have a master in heaven, this is to you your light, this is to you your great testimony, that's how it happens, you get to tell people your motivation. And so, the motivation, this is a major point here, what is the motivation?

If earlier, this long, long, drawn out point that I've given you was, the fault in our circumstance is not just the hardships, the fault in our circumstance is your faulty motive, your weak motive, your fickle motives, right? Then what must be the motive that stands the test of time?

What must be the motive that stands a year, two, three, four, five years of hardship? I want to make sure that every Christian that are in our midst, understanding these parts of scriptures, would be those who even after 40 years of the desert, would have strong motive to be faithful to God, right?

That's what we need, because the vast majority of you in here, you're going to be working for the next 30, 40 years. So, as we think about this, as we think about motivation and what it means, we have to understand how important it is that for us, we have to interpret and see appropriately, the same kind of motive that is driving this Christian slave, to go obey his unreasonable master.

It comes down to, for the sake of God. I desire, and have this incredible ambition in my heart, to please my heavenly master. Now, is that the first time you guys have ever heard that? Probably not. Let me ask you a question though. When was the last time you verbally said it?

When was the last time you moved yourself by that motive, and said, "I am here now doing what I'm doing, because I have my great ambition to please God." If you go through your Bibles over to 2 Corinthians 5, there's an important passage that summarizes that. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 9.

(Pause) Look at this. It says, "Therefore, we have as our ambition, whether at home or outside, to be pleasing to Him, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deed in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." This is the operating understanding.

This is the operating worldview by which the Christian slave is saying, "I'm going to still do it." Why? Because I am placing trust in the fact that when I do this, I please my God. Now, in as much as I want to pound this pulpit and try to drive this point home, please understand that I am, again, really hoping that we understand this.

For me, as a pastor, sometimes it's great, because when I'm counseling individuals, when I'm preparing sermons, for me, one of the great privileges of being a pastor is, I can see how this has a connect with God. Alright, now, think with me here and meditate, okay? This idea for us, thinking about what is, like, why is motivation so important?

And why is it so important for us to not only have this great ambition to please the Lord, to have this in the Scriptures, to have this in our notes, and have this on our walls, but to have it in your heart. Why is it so important? We know why it's so important.

Because we've seen ourselves drag our feet. We've seen ourselves be slow to do the things that we want to do. And you guys know what that looks like. You know when you're not motivated to study. You know when you're not motivated to work. You know how sometimes, some days, it takes like four hours to send four emails.

You could have done it in like ten minutes, right? For those of you guys who are studying, I know, I've seen you guys when you're not motivated to study. You read a page, you finish a whole bag of chips. You read another page, you go talk to your friends.

Like, that's just how it is, right? Okay. Now is that why, you know, why it's so important to think about going to church? No, I don't think so. The reason why is because our Christian life is all about faith. What we are doing is operating by what we believe.

So here and now is a big conceptual thing that I had to do, and I want to walk you through it, okay? Alright. Oh, sorry. Listen carefully to this part, okay? Right now, I just made a big push saying your motivation should be to please the Lord. You get that.

Question. Why is that so hard? Question. What is the biggest stumbling block in order for you to get there? Question. What is happening in your head that even for, again, earlier I gave you my confession. I gave my life to serve my God. I was ordained by this church.

I studied, like, years and years and years to get to this position. Why would it be so easy for me to let go of that from one small material object? What in the world is happening in my head? Okay. I had to sit there and just wrestle. God, show me what happened in my mind.

Okay. This is where I want to be helpful. My next major point to you is going to be this. Remember at the proposition I said there is a worldview, there is a mentality, there is an interpretation that allows for your motivation to be weak. Right? Let me tell you something.

You will be only motivated by that which is pleasing to you. Okay. You only want the stuff you like. Wow. Big novel thought. The thing about it though is it's so true. Okay. We are not going to stick out our hand and do something that we think is going to be to us an evil or painful.

We are only going to go and grab that which we think is going to be good. It is our interpretation of what is good that is going to cause us to actually be motivated by it. Okay. Think about this. I am going to talk about pornography. Okay. Every single individual in this room knows that it is a vice, it is sinful, it is ultimately going to wreck people's lives, it is messing with your brain and yet so many people struggle with it, both ladies and men.

Why? Simple fact. It is very pleasing. That's it. It is pleasing to you and therefore it is yours. You do it, you grab it. Now, I want you to take a moment to think about this. Okay. Alright. Try to piece together a couple of thoughts. Here I am saying your motivation comes from your interpretation that this thing is good.

So guess what? What you have to do is have this mentality where you are reinterpreting what is actually good for you. You have to wash your mind. Your greatest sanctification is going to be for you to truly do a mind change about what you believe is actually good and pleasing to you.

Yes? Okay. So help us think about this. For us, we have just talked about how the nation of Israel were slaves. Are we not? Are we more civilized individuals? Are we managers? Are we CEOs? Are we VPs and presidents of our companies? When in the world did we stop thinking that all of a sudden we weren't a slave?

Scripture is absolutely clear. You and I are slaves of Christ. It is an absolutely wrong, unsanctified thing for me to dictate my own good pleasure. Yes? What needs to happen in the mind whenever we are hitting certain walls, what needs to happen in the mind when we see weak motivations, what needs to happen in the mind when we see competing motivations.

If I'm looking at a truck and saying, "I want that so much that I'm going to now change my course of path," it's not just easy for me to say, "Hey, I need to go put this away. I need to go put this aside. Stop staring at it." That's not enough.

It's never going to be enough. And if you, you're struggling with stuff, whether it be pornography, whether it be idols of other stuff, whether it be idols of things like homes, whether it be idols of cars, whether it be idols of other jobs. You're not going to win by telling yourself, "See no evil, hear no evil." You're not going to win like that.

Why? Because in your head, you've already deemed it to be good for you. That's all. Does that make sense? And we have to understand that we as slaves, our subjected, our humble position must be, "Lord, you dictate what is pleasing and good. Lord, you determine what is glorious." And so therefore, you have to reinterpret everything that is good.

Are you only good and God honoring when you are the greatest version of yourself like you have been taught all your lives? Are you only glorifying God when you are being respected at work and you are promoting every year and you're being appreciated as you go? Will you not be glorifying God if you were a t-shirt seller for the rest of your life for 30, 40 years?

Would you not be pleading unto the Lord if you were suffering, if you were mistreated? Is that what the scripture says? No. And yet, and yet for us, that is going to be some of the hardest things. So scripture says, I'm going to read to you 1 Peter chapter 1.

Why don't you turn there and read along with me? 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 13 through 17. "Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.

For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. Act as free men and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as what? As a cover for evil. And do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

Do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. Do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

Do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. Do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil.

And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. And if you are a slave of the Lord, do not use your freedom as a cover for evil. Go in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 7, verse 17-24. Let me read that passage.

1 Corinthians chapter 7, verse 17-24. As you turn there, think about this. Does a slave have fears? Think about it from a slave's perspective. Think about it from your perspective. Is this going to be my life? Being the gopher for this ungodly man? Is this going to be my value?

Being the object of another human being? This could be for some their worst case scenario. Think about your other fears. God is calling you to do things in your life that you have fears about whether you can do or not. I am not qualified for this. I don't have the skills for this.

You have fears. Now take a look at this. 1 Corinthians chapter 7, verse 17-24. And we should probably start to wrap things up a little bit. Verse 17. "Only as the Lord has assigned to each one." Are you guys there? I can still hear some pages. "Only as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each in this manner, let him walk.

And so I direct in all the churches, was any man called when he was already circumcised? He is not to become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? He is not to be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing. And uncircumcision is nothing. But what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God.

Each man must remain in the condition in which he was called. Were you called while a slave?" I want you to highlight this. Do not worry about it. What in the world? Next. "But if you are able to also be free, rather do that. For he who was called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's free man.

Likewise, he who was called while free is Christ's slave. You are a bond with the Christ. Do not become slaves of men. Brethren, each one is to remain with God in that condition in which he was called." Someone's going to come up to me and be like, "Oh shoot.

I just applied for another job. Should I stay?" If you can do it, just do it. It does not matter. If you have the freedom and the liberty to go get another higher paying job, just do it. That is not really what he is talking about, is it? He is talking about this fear.

He is talking about this fear. I am going to be a slave for the rest of my life. I am going to be a low level, entry job for the rest of my life. What is your fear? I am going to be this for the rest of my life?

Is this all I am going to amount to? The world might be like, "Is that all you amount to?" You are like, "Shut up." You have this fear. Do not let that rule you. He straight up says, "Do not let it trouble you." If you were a slave, if you said this outside the church walls, people would be like, "What?

The Bible is dumb. The Bible is weird." Especially in this highly racialized culture even now, you bring this up like, "You know, you read this verse outside of our context, this sounds offensive. How do you dare tell a slave, 'Were you a slave? Do not worry about it.'" How do you say that?

You can only say that to a Christian. Does that make sense? So for you and me, when we reinterpret our good and when we reinterpret our fears, you know what we are doing? We are practicing our faith. We are practicing our trust. I said to you earlier, this is so important.

It took me a long road to get here, but please listen up. So I am going to look around. If you are looking sleepy, I am going to call your name. Do not look sleepy because I am going to call your name. I am not sleepy right now. Okay, listen up.

The question was asked, "How do you remain faithful?" Define for me what is faith. Faith is, God said it, I am putting it to the test and obeying it. That is faith. God said so. Listen, you may be being mistreated right now, but when you exemplify the character of Christ, I am so pleased in that.

You better test that. Is God pleased by that? He said He is, so I am going to do it. God has said, you may think that you are sitting in your room in the dark so alone, but He says do not worry. Do not worry because you are my free man.

Because you are my child. God said it, so I am not going to worry. Your faith is taking God at His word and testing it to be true. When you are in the midst of your grind, and God tells you, do not worry, I will see you through this grind.

The results are in my hand. That is you exercising your faith. Amen. That is what it comes down to for us, where we interpret. I am going to read for us again by way of conclusion, 1 Peter chapter 2. Scripture says, servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.

For this finds favor. If for the sake of conscience towards God a person bears up under sorrows with suffering and unjustly, for what credit is there if when you sin and are harshly treated you endure with patience, but if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.

Brothers and sisters, I am not telling you to fake happy when you are in the grind. We are challenging to a saying, stay on the course of being faithful to God. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we want to take a moment Father God to ask of you, Father to have grace upon us that Lord you would truly motivate our hearts to long for you, to seek your good pleasure, to desire to be pleasing and to find favor with you.

Father God, in this day and age, even our Christian community has done us a disfavor by saying that God there is nothing about you being either more pleased or less pleased with us, but clearly Lord your scripture says that when we are enduring the grind, God this pleases you.

When we exhibit Christ like character through the grind, that God this glorifies you. And so I pray Father that God would put that to the test and Lord we would be found faithful. Lord, I want to take a moment because I know there are some people who are struggling.

They are struggling with discouragement. They are struggling Father God with their own weakness and I know many of us struggle with our own fears of what we are becoming, but I pray Lord that you would provide your holy presence, help us to see you in our picture, help us Father God to see you as the biggest thing in our interpretation, help us Father God to see you as the most powerful thing, the most weighty, the most important thing, the greatest thing in all of our minds, so that God you saturate everything that we are about.

We thank you Lord Jesus Christ and we pray. Amen.