The Better Man - February 1, 2026

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast.

I have made the Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6.19, Pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me, so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's plan for your life.

Talk to you just a few minutes about the ideal man.

Oh, I saw some young single ladies there. They peaked up at that moment.

I did a little research this week. And whenever I do research,

it's dangerous because sometimes I find some interesting things.

I'll leave it up to you to determine if this is interesting or not.

But throughout time, the ages, here are the traits, the qualities that each

age has looked for in the ideal man.

Let's start with the ancient Greeks and Romans. The ideal man was muscular and

lean, with a focus on athletic beauty and a sculpted physique.

You see some of this represented in the statues of the time.

When you get to the Middle Ages, so a few centuries later, you see that beauty

was linked to religious and moral ideas with sobriety and austerity in appearance valued.

So I would say not much makeup for some of the ladies in this time.

The austerity, the piety even of the Middle Ages. Plus the fact that,

you know, how often can you walk around with coal dust on your face?

There's a lot of work being done by different kinds of people.

You get to the Renaissance area. So the reawakening, the revival time of the arts.

Artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, they represented man as an

idealized being with perfect proportions and a balance between strength and grace.

It's a little bit different than the Romans and the Greeks, but you get to the Victorian era.

All right, we're getting closer to us.

Male beauty was closely tied to masculinity with composure and seriousness and

authority being valued.

So they didn't care that you looked so handsome and such, but did you have power?

And more importantly, did you have money that went along with the power?

That was prized during the Victorian era.

We get to the modern area, and this is kind of where we're at,

but it started hundreds of years ago.

The diversity of male beauty has been appreciated, fashion and pop culture playing

the key roles to determine what is attractive and what an ideal man would be like.

And so I did this, a quick study on the last four generations of people,

which would fit a lot of you in here, I do believe.

And what I asked in my research here, and yes, I did use artificial intelligence, but,

So take it for what it's worth. I asked, who is the ideal male figure for each

of these generations? Are you ready?

For those baby boomers, those that came after the generations,

after they came home from World War II and started having babies,

if you're one of those babies, you're the baby boomers. Guess what?

The ideal man for you all was Elvis Presley.

Must have been in blue suede shoes, I'm telling you. Go on to the next generation

The greatest generation, I think Gen X Yeah Okay, that didn't go over I heard from my Gen X folks,

The idealized man for this generation Is a guy named Brad Pitt A young Brad

Pitt So I can just leave it there Again, this is from AI It's not mine, all right?

For you millennials, those that came after me in my generation,

the idealized male figure is a man, an actor named Ryan Gosling.

Oh, an interesting response there. And last but not least, because we don't

get too much lower than Gen Z, because then you're talking about kids and that just doesn't mix right.

And who knows what they're going to like. But when you get into Gen Z,

and I can attest to this because there's a poster, there was a poster of this

person downstairs in my basement. And I didn't put it there.

But the idealized Gen Z ideal male is a guy named Harry Styles.

Thank you for the affirmation. Again, I did not put the poster up.

I think it must be gone by now, but I will have to check when I get home.

Take it for what it's worth In this research The historical research I would

not approve of some of these Although Elvis, you know, he's pretty cool My mom

was in that generation She had a thing for Elvis, I think,

But what I want you to take from this is, you know, this is about appearance,

about what you look like, about the exterior that you can see.

But we know that appearance is not what makes a man. The exterior does not make who the person is.

And really, it's not about the appearance. It's not what's on the outside,

it's been said, that makes a man or a person, but it's about what's on the inside, right?

And so what is on the inside of a man?

What is on the inside of a woman? What's on the inside of a person, of a human being?

That's what matters. And that's kind of the focus of the sermon today as we

get into Hebrews 2, verses 5 through 9.

Hebrews 2:5–9

You see, what I want you to hear today is that Jesus is the better man who became

what we could not to win back what we could not get back.

And so I want you to hear the word of the Lord today from Hebrews chapter 2, verses 5 through 9.

Hebrews 2:5–9

And in hearing this, I pray that the Lord will speak to you.

And so if you're willing and able, would you stand?

You're already standing, praise the Lord, as we read the word of the Lord.

It is not to angels that he, God, has subjected the world to come,

about which we are speaking.

But there is a place somewhere someone has testified, What is man that you are

mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?

You made him a little lower than the angels. You crowned him with glory and

honor and put everything under his feet.

And putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subjected to him.

Yet at present, we do not see everything subject to him.

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels,

now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace

of God, he might taste death for everyone.

Heavenly Father, thank you for your word today. Thank you for the author of

Hebrews and the inspired words of his, of yours, God, that came through him that we have today.

Lord, be with us as we think about these things. God, as your Spirit testifies

to these things in our midst today.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.

There's three things I want to talk about today as it relates to this passage specifically.

I want to talk about God's original design for human beings,

for mankind, for humanity.

I want to talk about our present condition, where we all stand as human beings.

And then I want to look at what Jesus did to give us the victory that we can

share in. And so if we think about the first point this morning,

God's original design for mankind, for human beings everywhere.

God didn't design us for what we're experiencing now. I can confidently say that from Scripture.

You see, the writer of Hebrews, in that very first section here,

he says he's talking, or he emphasizes that the world to come is not subjected

to angels, but to humans, to humanity.

That the world that's a far off, the one we're thinking about,

the world that we're supposed to live in, that we're supposed to be,

it's not what we have now, but really that humanity, human beings were created for something greater.

We were created for glory, for honor, and for dominion.

In the original creation, all the way back to Genesis, this is what we were created for.

In Genesis 1, 26 through 28, then God said,

let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish

of the sea and the birds of the air, over livestock, over all the earth and

over all the creatures that move along the ground.

So God created man in his own image.

And the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and increase in number, multiply.

Fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of

the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.

That's our job. That's what the Lord had planned for all human beings everywhere. Can you see it now?

The fall of human beings, if sin had not entered into the world,

what it was going to be like. Hey, the world wasn't just going to be Adam and Eve.

The command was be fruitful and multiply.

Have a lot of kids. Fill up the earth. And it said, subdue it.

Steward it, take control of it.

And man, can you just imagine what work must have been like without weeds in

the ground, without thorns, without thistles, without stuff growing up where

you planted something different.

I mean, imagine your work, your job, if you didn't have the headaches that you

have, everything working smoothly time after time, nothing in a way.

Can you imagine what humanity could have grown into and not just in the garden

taking care of everything, but the advancement of technology.

I mean, you talk about the wonder of the heavens.

You talk about dealing with animals and how smooth everything would have went without the fall.

That's what we were designed to live into and worship and praise and honor and

glory, a glorifying God, if I can spit out my words today.

Sometimes my heart gets too excited and my brain gets too excited and the words

don't come out like they should.

So, I'm kind of in one of those states today because I'm just excited about the word here.

Humanity's intended dominion was to rule over everything together,

not in separate kingdoms, but under one God, under one king.

And I got to tell you, that's still where this whole economy of God is heading,

to one king having dominion, to one kingdom, to one ruler.

But you know, when we think about, we tear into this a little bit.

The author of Hebrews, using kind of a rhetorical style of the Grecian period

there, he does something kind of neat.

He said, but there's a place where someone has testified.

Of course, he knows it's Psalm chapter 8. But for the literary device here,

Psalms 8 · chapter mention

he says, somewhere it says, doesn't it?

What is man that thou are mindful of him? Thou hast made him a little lower

than the angels and crowned him with glory and honor.

And we know this is a prophecy that talks about Jesus, but before that,

it's talking about all of humanity together.

Listen to this. Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth,

Romans 8, Psalm 8, 1. You have set your glory in the heavens.

Through the praise of children and infants, you have established a stronghold

against your enemies to silence the foe and the avenger.

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place, What is mankind or man that you are mindful of

them, human beings that you care for them?

God says here through the psalmist, hey, you've been placed just a little bit lower than the angels.

You're not down here with the created animals.

Now, we have a certain philosophy, a certain science that says we all came from

one-celled organisms, but not according to scripture, we are created and set

in the place where we're set.

We've been crowned with glory and crowned with honor, not from ourselves.

It's not something we've earned or deserved, but it's something that has been

placed upon us as human beings, the crown jewel of God's creation.

That is who you are in Christ, but that's God's design for you.

It's that you would realize that, would recognize that.

When we think about that phrase, you have made him a little lower than the angels,

crowned him with glory and honor.

God's plan for human beings was to rule over creation as God's image bearers,

bearing the very image of God.

Well, to reflect God in that perfectness,

to reflect God in all of His qualities, to all of the universe.

Boy, that's a big order, isn't it?

That's a tall order of business for us to reflect the purity,

the holiness of God, to reflect the freedom of choice that ends up in something

good, to reflect the eternal nature of God.

I mean, we could go on. That's a whole nother sermon that I'll probably preach at another time.

But God's plan for us was that we would rule creation as his image bearers.

You've heard the phrasing before. Oh man, yeah, Uncle Jimmy,

he's got Jason and Jason is a spitting image of his dad.

That's God's design for us that we be, maybe not the spitting image,

but that we be the pure reflections of God.

Let that sink in for a minute. God in all of His radiance, God in all of His holiness.

God in all of His love, His pure, selfless love, reflected in us,

in our lives, reflected in our actions, in our behaviors, reflected in all.

That's God's plan, that image of God.

We think about that. It says.

In verse 8, thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet.

That's our role is to rule. I mean, throughout history, why do you think there have been so many wars?

Why do you think people have fought about stupid things? Why do you think in

churches that churches have split because of the colors of pews or carpeting or paint?

Because we have this innate desire to rule over something.

And sometimes that goes awry because of what I want to talk about next.

And that is it's the frustration of reality.

The frustration of the here and now is because of our present condition.

You see, that's what we are designed for. That's what we're meant for even now.

But there's a stark contrast between the ideal of man, of what God and who God

says we are, and the reality of where we are now.

You see, at the end of verse 8, it says, but now we see not yet all things are put under him.

So, while that's the design and while that's God's plan, it's not fully that

way because of something that happened.

Instead of reigning, human beings, we're bound.

We're like tied up. We're tied to sin. We're tied to brokenness, some to addiction.

We're tempted, we're defeated, and ultimately, we know that we're conquered by death, by the grave.

So we know we haven't lived up to the standard how God has created us.

We're bound up, we're tied up.

Man's sin has brought us to this place. The fall shattered our intended mastery.

If you look at Romans, we won't look right now.

Again, if I get started in Romans, it's going to be another great sermon.

But I want you to get home before three o'clock today. But it talks about the

first Adam and his inability to live up to God's standard because of the fall.

But there had to be a second Adam, a second pure man that came along and was

able to rectify what the first Adam busted.

Please read that passage this week. It's powerful.

It's inspiring. It's astounding. You don't have to go far to realize that all

the evidence of the fall of human beings, all the evidence of sin run rampant throughout our world.

You think about history books. You think about just daily life and who you rub

elbows with, who you bump into at the store innocently, but then they get all

mad and fly off the handle because you made a mistake.

There's violence. There's moral collapse everywhere.

There's a famous author who lived some years ago. He said, G.K.

Chesterton, man is not what he's meant to be.

I have a book in my office that's called, This Is Not the Way We Were Meant to Be.

And it's a whole study of sin and the effects of sin and how sin has affected

humans ever since Genesis 3, when Eve was tempted by the serpent and gave in, and then Adam gave in,

and then the punishment for that and the effects of it that we still feel today.

There's evidence of that human failure that continues through the generations.

No matter how precious your grandchildren are, at some point,

their sin is going to show their true colors.

That's why we got to teach our families about Jesus in this stark reality that

we know deep down, this isn't who I'm supposed to be.

This isn't the way I'm meant to live God has a greater plan God has something more for me.

We realize that the pinnacle of this judgment, the pinnacle of our understanding

of how costly sin was, came at Calvary.

The ultimate judgment, the ultimate showing our true colors as the human race

came to bear there, as humanity judged itself by rejecting the only sinless human to be born.

Rejected Jesus. You see, the cross exposes the depth of human fallenness. Just think about it.

There's going to be a drama production about, well, I won't tell you too much.

It's going to be awesome. You got to be a part of it.

You got to come and watch it, invite other people to it. It's going to tell the story of Jesus.

And in that, we see the ugliness of humanity.

We see the failure. When you think about what happened at the cross,

there was two condemnations that happened, and they worked together in this.

First of all, there was the pinnacle of human justice at the time.

And the pinnacle of human justice and human government at the time was the Roman Empire.

Oh, the incredible Roman Empire, how they had risen to power globally and what

they were able to do in their time. It's amazing.

But it's the Roman Empire that ultimately came against the sinless one,

that came against Jesus, that put Jesus upon the cross.

But it wasn't the Romans who acted alone in this. It wasn't just the representative

of humanity and their governance.

It was also the Israel, the Jews, the Israelites,

the Jewish leaders, the religious ones, the pinnacle of religion at the time

when Christ came was Israel, the Jews, the Hebrews, who the author of Hebrews is writing to.

And it's at this point that the government and that religion came together to

kill the only sinless human that had the way, pointed the way to God,

pointed the way to solve all these governmental human problems,

pointed the way how we're going to solve all of these spiritual problems,

the religious problems.

And when the sinless one came, he was crucified.

Put on a cross, and his life taken. That's what human beings did with Jesus, the Son of God.

That's the depravity of human beings. Rather than try to live up to who Jesus

showed us how to be, we wanted to kill him because he was the icon.

He was the perfect example.

And we couldn't have that because none of us could live up to his standard.

And that's true. None of us can live up to the standard that Jesus has put forth

for us, the standard that we see in his word.

And so we know that Jesus died as a result of our sin.

So let's see where we're at right now. Okay, we have God that created everything

and then spent some time creating human beings.

The first one, of course, was Adam, formed out of the dirt of the ground,

breathed into with the breath of life, was a living human being,

started doing everything God wanted him to do, but then found he was deficient in that.

And so God made him a helper, a woman.

Whoa, man. I love that.

That was Adam's expression, right? When he saw Eve, whoa, man.

Okay, if you got to explain it, it's not funny. Created Adam and Eve and together

gave them a commission, be fruitful and multiply, subdue the earth,

take care of all this that I've created for you.

And then we know sometime in there, there was a great battle in heaven and Satan,

one of the chief angels, booted out of heaven with a third of the heavenly hosts.

And we know in Genesis 3 that Eve was tempted, that Adam was tempted.

They gave into that temptation and it shattered that image of God that he had,

that plan of God that he had for Adam and Eve and all their descendants to live

in holiness and sinlessness, to live to the fullest of their capacity.

We see the effects full of that sin when Jesus died on the cross.

But that's not where this passage stops.

That's not where the story stops because we know it continues.

You see, in verse 9, if I could read that again, it starts out, But we see Jesus.

Look at where that phrase comes in. God left nothing that is not subject to

him, yet at present, we don't see everything subject to him.

So the author of Hebrews says, hey, God left everything to human beings,

but we don't see that happening right now. But what do we see? We see Jesus.

We see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory

and honor, because he suffered death so that by the grace of God,

he might taste death for everyone.

We see Jesus. We see what Jesus did. Christ entered our condition.

Man, it was our problem. It was the problem of all humanity.

And Jesus entered into that. God himself entered in to our brokenness.

Entered in to the yuck that's all around.

Entered in, especially at the time of his birth, to something that would lead

to greater taxation, greater oppression.

But yet we see Jesus, the incarnation, just the thought of the incarnation made

a lot of religious people sick.

How can you say a holy God would give up all of that holiness,

would give up all that purity, would give up all that power and allow himself

to be born as a little helpless baby to a young maiden?

How? The thought of the great God confining himself into a little child drove people bonkers.

Couldn't figure it out intellectually, emotionally, for them spiritually,

because God would not allow himself to do that.

But yet, guess what God did?

He did exactly that. Philippians chapter 2 is a great passage to read about

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

the incarnation, God putting on flesh, God coming.

And I know we celebrated this just a few months ago at Christmastime.

But Jesus' death, to go back for a minute, it wasn't accidental, but it was purposeful.

There was a purpose behind Jesus' life, behind Jesus' death,

behind Jesus' burial and His resurrection.

Shortly after Jesus rose from the grave. He was walking along a road disguised from two disciples.

And these disciples were talking all about the events that had happened with the crucifixion.

And they were going on this road down to a place called Emmaus.

And they were talking about all these things. And Jesus was right there walking.

They didn't recognize Jesus, but he was walking along with them.

And in Luke chapter 24, verses 25 through 26, Jesus talked about why the Messiah had to suffer.

Luke 24:25–26

Jesus said to these two guys who were trying to figure out all of what had happened,

Jesus says to them, how foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all

that the prophets have spoken.

Did not the Christ, that is the Messiah, have to suffer all these things and then enter his glory?

And it goes on to say, and beginning with Moses and all the prophets,

he explained to them what was said in the scriptures concerning himself.

Jesus said the Messiah had to suffer all these things. He had to die.

And yet he even had, and he did, raise again.

That's the beauty of sacrificial love, the sacrificial love of a Savior for us,

the sacrificial love of a God who saw the pinnacle of his creation in distress

generationally because of a bad choice that they made.

Adam and Eve and everyone after them choosing to sin, and having that innate

nature, that broken nature that wasn't as God intended for them to live into,

that God's seeing this and loving and having compassion on His creation.

He could have just wiped out everything and started over, but He did not.

Why? Because He loves you. He could have taken your life years ago.

Why didn't He? Because He loves you.

Why didn't you succumb to the sin that you were involved with,

The sin that should have destroyed your life Why did God rescue you from that

Through Jesus It's because he loves you.

Why did Jesus die on a cross for us? Well, the scripture says that greater love

hath no one than this, than one lay down his life for his friends.

Jesus loves you. There's a story that's told of a mom with an infant.

Back in the days when candlelight was kind of the thing, you didn't have the

electricity available everywhere.

And one night, a little baby girl in her nightgown, laying, as they often did,

right by the bed or on the bed.

A mother awoke to see the candle down on the ground, a flame everywhere,

and the baby's gown on fire.

Panicking from this, what would mom do? Of course, she did only what she could

do and start to pat out the flames that were engulfing the child by now.

This was a time when there wasn't a fire retardant material and all that.

But this baby was burning alive, and mom did what she had to do.

She tried her best to smother the fire with her bare hands.

And in doing that, she saved the baby's life. The baby, miraculously, had no harm come to her.

The mama, on the other hand, took the brunt of the injury, and her hands were

all twisted up and burnt.

I'm sure third-degree burns everywhere and twisted, and so she didn't have a

normal hand like those that didn't go through something like that would have.

And she raised this little girl. When this girl was six years old,

just as honest as any six-year-old would be, she told her, Mom,

you have the ugliest hands that I have ever seen.

I've never seen anyone with uglier hands than you.

Your reaction would be my reaction hearing that. What?

But the mom, with her love for the child, remembering what had taken place with

her decrepit hands, said, let me tell you why they're this way.

And she went on to tell the child of the story of how her life was saved because

of her using her hands to put out this fire.

Upon hearing this, the six-year-old girl, tears began to flow in her eyes.

She took her mom by the hands and began to kiss each hand. Oh,

mother, she said, these are the most beautiful hands that I've ever seen.

These are lovely hands. These are life-saving hands.

And you know, that's what Jesus did for us. He saved our life when we couldn't

save it, when we were helpless, when we were dead in our sin, in our trespasses.

God came, was born as a baby, grew up to be a man, lived a sinless life,

died on the cross, not for any of his sins, but for my sin, for your sin,

for the sin of every human being who has ever lived.

Jesus died on the cross for those sins and scarred.

Scripture alludes to the fact, says the fact that his face was unrecognizable

because they had ripped out his beard.

They had whipped his back so severely that the muscles, the flesh,

I'm sorry to gross you out, but this is the reality of it. The flesh was hanging off of his back.

And finally, as he was hanging on a cross and he breathed his last breath,

they stuck him in the side with a spear.

And that's all not to mention the horrible death that crucifixion was.

The worst kind of punishment the Roman Empire could dole out was crucifixion.

Jesus endured all that because of his love for you.

There's a song that sung, When he was on the cross, I was on his mind.

Puts into just a great, beautiful song, a great form of Jesus died because he loves you.

Jesus died because he wants you to be restored to that place of honor amongst

all creation, to truly live as God has created human beings to live.

And that's what the Christian life is all about, living, living in that holiness.

Well, God, how can I do that? I'm not holy. I know my sin. I know my weakness.

I know my tendency to cross the line. God, how can I do that?

Well, you can't do it on your own.

You need Jesus. You need His Spirit guiding you, tempering you,

crucifying that flesh, living into the new life.

The power of the love of God who would give up His own Son, and that Son would

give up His life for you and me.

People that probably said, you have ugly hands. They're the ugliest hands I've ever seen.

That was you and that was me. But have we come to the place to where we love

those hands that were nail scarred for us?

That we love Jesus who gave up his life. You see, the cross was once a symbol

of shame and of punishment.

But today we sing all kinds of songs about the cross. Why?

It's like making up songs about the electric chair.

Why has the meaning changed?

Meanings change because of what Jesus did on that cross.

The cross is now a sign of hope. It's a sign of victory.

It's a sign that because of Jesus' death, it's not over because that's still

not the rest of the story.

We know Jesus rose from the grave after being taken down from that cross.

See, Christ's triumph becomes our triumph if we trust him in faith.

Are you trusting Jesus in faith today?

Have you given him your sin? Have you confessed that and said,

Jesus, forgive me, cleanse me of all that?

Have you given your life to Christ? Today is not too late.

Because Jesus tasted death for every man, the scripture says he is now crowned with glory and honor.

And it's through Jesus in his humanity that our destiny is restored.

Our destiny to live as God created us to live. Isn't that awesome?

That's how God wants us to live. Live in victory.

Victory over sin. Not just some future event, but now.

Victory over those temptations you always face and seem to give into.

You can have victory over that today. I'll tell you, victory over addiction, praise the Lord.

Whether that's a program you go through or instantaneously, God can do it either

way. What kind of faith do you have for God to do that in your life?

Victory to live a life of pure love like Jesus lived to live.

And when someone does something against you, you don't assign ill intent to that.

But you say, this must have been a mistake. How can we work through this together?

Victory lies with Jesus. And it's because of Jesus.

So I said all this that I've said today, just to say that what we lost with

Adam and Eve, we gained back through Jesus.

And it's still available to us today to live as God would have us to live.

People that are the image bearers of God.

Now, every once in a while, if we're going to reflect God, we got to clean that

mirror off. I always chuckle because they sent up a great telescope years ago.

Millions, maybe billions of dollars. I don't have the figure.

But they sent this great telescope up to probe the heavens, and they got back

some distorted images because the mirror wasn't cleaned off,

because it may have been warped.

If we're going to truly reflect the image of who God is, we've got to make sure

that we're aligned with the lighting source, which is God, which is revealed from the Scripture,

and that we're allowing ourselves to be cleansed by the Holy Spirit of God,

that if sin shows up, if we give into temptation, we ask for forgiveness,

we let God cleanse us, and we move on, and we don't go back to that.

As a preacher once said, you mark that mud hole and you don't step in it again.

Don't even go near it with your pure clothes of righteousness on.

Those come from Jesus, by the way. You can't get them at Walmart.

Humanity's story is not merely about falling and being frustrated now and living

a life to where we hope one day everything's gonna be restored.

Our story is about redemption and it's about restoration, being restored to

the original plan that God has for us.

We can sense part of that now we know what time's coming when that will be completely how the world is.

But right now in the here and now, here's what you can trust.

In Christ, the original glory of humanity is reclaimed.

And though we do not yet see all things under our feet, we know that all things

are under Christ's feet.

And as the scripture said, we do see Jesus.

And that's the beginning of everything good that God has promised to us.

As we prepare our hearts to receive the Lord's Supper this morning,

I just wanna give you three things to take with you.

First and foremost this morning, I want you to remember that you have a God-given

identity as his image bearer. You have value.

You have worth as someone that God has created. Don't let anyone tell you any different.

You got a whole world out there, a whole culture out there.

Increasingly, more and more, they're becoming more bold to put down Jesus, to put down Christ.

Something weird happened this week. As I was scrolling through Facebook,

a story came up about a lady that was hiking in the foothills in Boise,

and she came to the cross and said, this is great scenery around here,

except for this religious monstrosity.

I mean, the cross has been there my whole life, that lights up at night and

everything. And I did something stupid and started reading all the comments.

Boy, did I become righteously indignant.

How many people were putting down not just the cross, but putting down Christians,

believers, those that follow Christ out of a post that was originally about hiking.

It doesn't take much for people to start to try to muddy your mirror of reflection of who Jesus is.

Tries to shatter that image within you again.

Jesus, in Jesus, that mirror's put back together. You can reflect the image of God.

So remember, your identity is in God. It's in Jesus. It's in that original creation.

Maybe read through Psalm 8 and let that shape. If you're having trouble with

knowing who you are, let God tell you who you are in His Word.

Furthermore, let God tell you who you are in Jesus and the wonderful creation.

Wonderful creation that you are. If you're a believer in Jesus,

you're not just saved, but God has gifted you with these gifts,

not just naturally with your talents and such, but with spiritual gifts that

he wants you to use to bless others,

to let others know, hey, you got to be part of this family, to let others know

that you love them, that they can experience this transformative love of God.

So remember, your God-given identity is as an image bearer of God.

A second thing to take with you, face the reality of human brokenness with honesty.

What do you mean by this? I mean, if there's sin in your life,

identify it and take care of it.

Put it under the blood of Jesus where it belongs. Don't let it rule and reign

in your life, in your heart.

Sometimes these things, they like to hide. They don't want to be eradicated.

I mean, they're like a rat that you got in your house that you can't find,

and it's chewing up everything.

Get rid of that. Ask the Lord to come in to shine his light,

as the scripture says, into all the dark crevices.

Let him get that out. Be honest about it. Acknowledge the gap between the one

who created you and where you're at now, and ask God to help you close that gap.

Sometimes God will do it all by himself, but you've got to be willing to give

up some things you're holding on to that you don't need.

Remember, you can't look within yourself and fix it. You've got to trust God

to do the work, but you've got to trust God to do the work.

Fix your eyes on Jesus when life gets you defeated, when you feel defeated.

Hebrews says, we do not yet see all things under our feet, but we see Jesus.

We don't see all things under the authority of Christ, although they are,

but we see Jesus and we know that life's going to be awesome with him,

that life can be awesome even now, even in all the midst of all this brokenness.

So when circumstances feel chaotic, discouraging, shift your gaze from the stuff

going on around you, fix your eyes on Jesus.

As we'll study later in Hebrews, it says he is the author and finisher of our faith.

Fix your eyes on Jesus and what he has done for us and allow the cross to redefine

what victory looks like.

Didn't seem to look like a victory when Jesus breathed his last breath on the

cross. That looked like defeat.

Oh, I'm sure all of hell was rejoicing. All the demons were, yeah, we killed him.

The Jews, Jewish leaders, religious leaders, yeah, we got him.

Now these people will stop following him.

Didn't know what was coming. They didn't know what was going to happen.

And yet it happened. The cross is simple of victory.

Sometimes our victories, it doesn't seem like a victory. It just seems like

a small decision we've made, but we don't change that decision.

We make another decision, all these steps in following Jesus.

And before we know it, we've started here, making these small steps to follow

God, to leave back any sin, to leave back any trespass or bad relationship or

any problems, anything we know that God doesn't want for us.

And we just make these little steps day by day.

We're making these steps to follow God. We're fixing our eyes on Jesus.

Jesus says, hey, come this way. And so we take these little steps.

We're following Jesus and we're walking and we're walking step by step.

We look back and all that stuff's in the past now.

All those sins, they're gone. We're not giving into that anymore.

Those temptations, we've overcome them.

I don't have to go back to that anymore.

We've walked away from the moat hole. We've walked away from the cesspool.

But it takes those decisions daily, one step at a time. Maybe you're here this

morning and there's a step you want to take.

Maybe you've identified find something in your life where you're like, why am I doing this?

Every time I do this, I feel bad about myself.

I feel like God hates me. And I don't want to darken the door of a church because

I'm afraid everyone's going to know about this.

When you decide, hey, I don't need that anymore, you decide to take a step toward Jesus.

God filled this void in my life with Jesus, more of Jesus, more of his spirit.

We come to the Lord's Supper today.

Communion. In a minute, this is going to be passed out to all those who want

to participate, but this is a reminder of what Jesus did for us so we could live in victory.

Live in victory.

Man, a couple weeks ago, there was a football team that won the national championship, Indiana.

Do you know that they were known not for a great victorious football program?

I mean, more basketball, but they were known for having a losing football program.

But yet, they're the national champions.

Maybe in your life, you've been known for being a loser, being a sinner.

Falling in to stuff that you just wonder how you got here, but you can't get out.

Well, this supper shows our victory over that.

In Jesus, you can have a different reputation. And Jesus, you can have all your

sin canceled out, taken away.

The scripture says, the old is gone. Behold, the new has come.

And maybe you're one that said, yeah, I'm one of the ones, the new has come.

But man, my clothes are getting dirty.

I feel like one of my boys who might be in the sanctuary right now,

who doesn't care what he wears, and he just wants to get to church. Yeah.

Care what you wear. We just want you to get to church. If your clothes are dirty,

if your life's dirty, you're in the right place.

All it takes is for you to say, Jesus, will you forgive me?

Jesus, will you cleanse me of the sin? I confess that I'm a sinner.

I confess I'm in need of a Savior.

And that's what this meal is all about. It's about that confession that we have made.

You see, whenever we eat this bread, we drink this cup, in Corinthians,

it says we are proclaiming the death of Jesus until he comes.

What does that mean? It means we're proclaiming victory until he comes up, shows up as the victor.

I want you to have victory in your life. We sing a hymn, victory in Jesus, don't we?

Are we faking it? Or we really mean we want victory in Jesus.

So when we take this this morning, let's remember the words of Jesus from Matthew.

Let me read it, and then I'll invite the ushers to get ready.

In Matthew 26, verse 26 says, While they were eating, this is the Last Supper,

Matthew 26:26

Jesus took the bread and gave thanks and broke it.

He gave it to his disciples saying, Take and eat. This is my body.

An expanded version on this says, That was broken for you. Another account in the Gospels.

It says, then he took the cup and gave thanks and offered it to them,

saying, Drink from it, all of you.

This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

I want to thank you for joining today's sermon podcast. You can find a copy

of today's sermon, as well as other sermons,

and the sermon outline from today on our church's website, www.mvcnaz.org,

It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes the authority of the Bible.