The creator is by nature a servant, and the only way that we will express that true servanthood is not by imitating it, but by expressing it, when his life will be revealed, know this also, that when his life will be revealed, it will not always be to your liking, I don't know how many Jews I've insulted, I don't know how many Christians I've insulted, not because I'm a mean old guy, but somehow when the Lord jabs and reaches in a way that's unsuspecting, it's salutary, there's a life -giving thing, they gasp, so it's not that I'm cleverly employing devices of that kind, it issues, I'm often surprised if not astounded or astonished what comes out of my mouth, but the thing is I will never suppress it, because it offends my sensibility or my moral standards, that's why the greatest hindrance to the operation of this life is your spirituality, the image, your image of your spirituality, and if so long as you want to protect that, you'll find yourself in conflict with the issue of the operation of this life, because you can't be, you can't know how far God will go, remember Elijah taunting the false prophets of Baal, where is your God, maybe he's on the john, what we're reading is a King James domesticated version of the scripture, but the naked and the original scriptures are quite insulting, where did he get that, was it because he's that kind of a perverse character, he got it by the same God who said, build an altar and saturate it with 12 barrels of water, I'll consume it by fire, if I've done these things according to your wording, oh God he cried, then now come and show these people that you're God, by the same God who gave him that pattern, is the same God who gave him that insult, we mustn't limit the Lord, because the Lord's great admonition and injunction against Israel, you have limited the Holy One of Israel, and in my observation 42 years in the faith, the greatest limitation that comes from the church, is its own image of itself, its own concern for its spirituality, its own self -esteem and acceptance, on the basis of how it likes to perceive itself, so long as that's a criterion, you'll find yourself not expressing the life, if the life chooses to be insulting in any particular moment, I think I've done more for Jews with insult than with any accommodation or compliment, they flew me in once to some place to meet with a Jewish businessman, who's supposed to be quite an opinionated and informed man, who has been reducing the local believers to dust, and now he will have met his match with me, and so we met in the restaurant, and he was continually blabbing, I was quietly eating, I had not said a word, finally we came to the end of the time, he says, have you nothing to say, I said, all I can say is that I find this the most expensive lunch I've ever eaten, my silence was more important than my answer, another time a woman brought her Jewish husband to a meeting, I saw his face as we came to the end, turned off, but lo and behold, I was taken out to eat, and there they were at the same restaurant, so I took my plate knife and fork, and I moved right up to his table, and we had a conversation, he was a lawyer, a philanthropist, a humanist, telling me of all of his good works, and what he had done for Israel, that if there's a God, surely he recognizes his virtues, and we went on like that, and finally at the end, when we stood apart and shook hands, I said something like, so long as I have breath in my body, and have opportunity, I will contend against your self -satisfaction, for if you continue in it, you will surely make yourself a candidate for hell, I forgot what I said, because I drew back, one statement out of the life of God, will not return to him void, but will you make that statement, or will you find it offensive, because you're more concerned to find approval and acceptance among Jews, and not to excite their disapproval, because you need that acceptance, why, because you're not yet quite dead, and hit with Christ and God, the, what's the Latin word for an absolutely essential condition, sine qua non, the sine qua non of the apostolic life, is to be dead, only death will free you from that inordinate need to be recognized, to be admired, to be approved, if not only by others, but equally by yourself, death is that complete separation from that need, where you can suffer reproach, indifference, rejection, it's all the same, and then his life will be revealed when he chooses, and when it will be revealed, it will be revealed unto glory, for it's never given as an expedient, it's never given to ease our distress, or our embarrassment, or to take us out of a situation, it's to serve his purpose, it's ultimate, it's the issue of his glory, can you imagine a whole church living like this, and living like this consistently, not just in the great issues that are before it, but in the everyday issues that are before it, because listen, who's capable of being a father, who's capable of being a husband or a wife, who's capable of being a brother in the church, who's capable of being a minister, is there any aspect of that for which we're called, for which we are sufficient in ourselves, maybe yes in a get -by way, but the issue is not get -by, the issue is the glory of God forever, so we need to consciously desist from just falling into responses and answers that are mediated out of our own humanity, always there to be drawn upon, and convenient, familiar, trustworthy, tested, but to trust the life is the risk, it's a death, if it will come, when it will come, what expression will it take at that time, so it's a continual reiteration of death and resurrection, what happened to the waters today, establishes for all time the reality, but the reiteration of that reality, the reckoning of yourself dead is the tension of faith into which every baptized believer is continuing to live, whether every issue before him is a choosing of reckoning dead himself, dead alive unto God, or falling back again on that very available human's sufficiency.