Miss THIS and You'll Miss Everything

It all hinges around this crucial question who am I? You submit your plans and desires to him. It's about his kingdom and pleasing him more than your passions and your talents and your ambitions and your pursuits. The fact is, if we don't get the answer to this question right, it will lead to a lifetime of you're listening to the Provoke and Inspire podcast. What's up guys? This is Ben from Provoke and Inspire. Learning how to follow Jesus in a broken world. As you may have gathered already from the peace and quiet, it's just me today. But fear not. Despite the fact that the guys are in countries all over the world busy doing the ministry that we are all a part of. I'm still here and I'm faithful. And I have something to say to you that I think is going to greatly encourage you. And it's all around the idea of success. Now, this is a topic I talk about quite a bit because I care. I want to make the most of my life, and I'd imagine you feel the same. And so it keeps coming up as something that I bring up now. Today, I want to come at it from an angle that I think is absolutely vital. In fact, how you answer this question ultimately drives what you will do with your life, and that will then truly determine whether you are successful in God's eyes or not. So I'm excited to dig into that. But just before I do, I want to mention a couple of things. First, as I'm sure you're aware, this podcast is part of a missions organization called Steiger. And the reason why I bring that up is it really embeds everything that we do in this larger context. We are active in over two hundred and fifty cities around the world, raising up young missional leaders who are reaching people in their cities who would not walk into a church. It's a very dynamic ministry. And if you check it out more, I know you'll be encouraged. If you go to Steiger dot org, S t e I g e r dot org, you can find out more about that. Also, for those of you who have listened to this for a while, you'll know that at the very beginning, this started out much more heavily focused on art and creativity and evangelism. And over time, it's evolved. but I've really felt this burden to bring back that side of what we do. And so we started revolutionary art. We are in the process of rewriting the book that David and I wrote about ten years ago called Revolutionary Ten Principles that Will Empower Christian Artists to Change the World. And also I started a Substack, which if you're not sure what that is, that's just a blog hosting site, basically an article hosting site. And every single week I drop a new article about this subject, how to glorify God and change the world through the things we make that interests you. You subscribe. It gets delivered to your mailbox every single week, and you can be part of this conversation. We'll put the link for that Substack in the show notes if you're interested. But otherwise, let's get on to the conversation. How can I be successful in God's eyes? Now, I really believe that God puts in our hearts a desire for significance. That's not an animalistic thing. That's a uniquely human thing. In fact, it's a divine inheritance thing. When he made us in his image, he gave us this desire to want to make our lives count. Now, despite that being true, that doesn't necessarily mean we are going to automatically walk in that. What I've discovered is that in order to get there, and of course, this is an ongoing process that I certainly have not mastered. But there are some things I've learned along the way. Some areas of surrender that I think need to take place in the life of a follower of Jesus. If we are going to have the full life that God intends for us to have. And it all hinges around this crucial question who am I? The fact is, if we don't get the answer to this question right, it will lead to a lifetime of wanting the wrong things, pursuing the wrong things, and ultimately ending up in the wrong place. And so we really have to wrestle with identity. I think it is absolutely crucial. Today we are told to define ourselves by what we do, by our passions, by our pursuits, especially in Western culture. And this is a product of the secularism that we are all steeped in. Now, this idea that God is no longer real, or if he is real, he's sort of marginalized and privatized. He's not really core to who we are. In fact, in all ways that matter, I am God. Right? I get to define reality. I get to decide what's right and wrong, what's true. I get to choose my own destiny. You know, this is a message that we are constantly being bombarded with, you know, by not only by philosophers and teachers and the media, but also the entertainment industry. Cartoons and kids movies are constantly perpetuating this idea that ultimately personal autonomy and expressive individualism, the idea that inward psychological happiness is paramount and that ultimately I just need to do whatever I feel like doing, whatever makes me happy. And so because of this, because of this shift of identity, being surrounded by and based on the things that I do, we are often quick to define ourselves that way. I mean, you think about Western culture After being asked your name, what is the next question you're asked? Well, what do you do? Right. This is pretty foreign to history and to many other cultures around the world. But that is the big next question. And so naturally, we answer, well, I'm an entrepreneur. I'm a musician, I'm a parent, I, I'm a content creator. I'm an athlete. Whatever it is, we very naturally define our identity in the things we do. Now, the core foundation, from what I have learned of being a successful person, being someone who lives a fruitful, meaningful life is that you see yourself first as a follower of Jesus and absolutely everything else. Second, Jesus follower first, everything else second. What this means is you care more about what God thinks of you. He defines you. You submit your plans and desires to him. It's about his kingdom and pleasing him more than your passions and your talents and your ambitions and your pursuits. It means that your relationship with God is not just this self-determined life, and you just ask him to sort of sign the bottom of the cheque, right? It's like you get to decide what to do. You get to pursue whatever you want. And we just sort of ask God to bless it on the side. Now, as followers of Jesus, I think we may recognize this. Academically, we may say it on some level, but it's so easy to fall into the patterns of the world. For most of my life, I have been a musician. I've been part of creativity and art. On some level, it's been a very core part to who I am. Like I often say, my childhood was spent in punk clubs all throughout Amsterdam and eventually Europe and the world. Watching Jesus change lives in those contexts. So for me, art, music, and creativity have just been part of the era I have breathed my entire life. Now, this continued through my childhood and my adolescence. I started drumming at a pretty young age, and this was a core part of what I did, But sort of my journey from a childhood hobby into something more serious was kind of more of a funny story, because I was in college minding my own business, and I get a phone call from my dad and I'm about to graduate. And I always kind of had the expectation that eventually, on some level, I would join the band. My dad started no longer music, but I figured it'd be maybe as a drummer or I don't know exactly what I thought it would be. But when he called me up, he said, Hey Ben, our guitarist bailed from the tour this summer. Can you play guitar now? For whatever reason? Call it youthful confidence. I said, oh yeah, sure, I can do that. And then as soon as I hung up the phone, I was like, what? What have I done? I mean, I had kind of noodled around on a guitar, but I had never really taken it that seriously. And now, within just a matter of months, I was going to have to play guitar on huge stages in front of huge crowds. So, you know, the nerves set in. The panic set in, and I tried to learn as fast as I could, but of course, you can't get that good in just a matter of months. An instrument that can take years to master. So we hit the road and I was not good. I remember my first show being at a huge festival here in the US, big stage, all these amazing artists playing at this festival. And then there was me. And I just remember feeling like such a. I remember feeling like such a fraud. Like as I was playing, I could just see all the eyes seeing right through me, like, what are you doing up there? Did you win some sort of raffle? Like what happened? You know, and I made it through that. And but this continued throughout the tour. Everywhere I went, I just had this perception like, you don't belong here. This is ridiculous. And I remember going on a long walk in some random city somewhere in the world and kind of complaining to God. I was like, God, why? Why did you do this? Why did you put me in this position? Couldn't you have given me a cool role or something I was good at? Or just maybe zapped me and given me incredible guitar skills? And it's almost like I felt like God say I knew what I was doing. Because, you see, when I start to move and lives start to change, I want you to know from the very beginning that it has nothing to do with your guitar playing skills or your identity as a musician, and it has everything to do with me. I don't need you to be a great guitar player. I just need you to be a good son. And this was such a powerful moment for me. And I'm not saying all of the emotions went away, and I never dealt with imposter syndrome ever again, but this was just a pivotal moment for me. Realizing that my identity cannot be is not in anything I do in the successes, the failures, the skills, the lack thereof. It does not matter. I am a follower of Jesus first. So why is this so important? Why is it so important that we get this identity piece right? Well, it's because who you think you are will determine what you chase. Look, it's why the world is filled with so many miserable and dissatisfied people who are constantly trying to define themselves by what they do. They're the slaves to the meritocracy. This idea that you are what you achieve. But again, it's back to secular humanism, right? We live in a world without God. Supposedly, it's up to me to define reality, to determine my own path. I have to find meaning. I have to find success and satisfaction in the things of this world. What other options are there? If there is no God, there's nothing transcendent. But King Solomon warned us that it will never work. He was the wisest man in history. He also had more wealth, more power. He experienced more pleasure than anybody else. And looking back on all of this as an old man, he says this. I have seen all things done under the sun. All of them are meaningless. A chasing after the wind. Solomon uses this very interesting phrase under the sun. And essentially, I think what he means is everything made by God, but not God himself created things, not the creator. And his point is quite simple. Nothing in this life can satisfy us the way that God only can. And when we try to fill it with material things, external pursuits, the achievements of our career, our bodies, our following, the achievements of our kids, whatever it is, we will be left deeply unsatisfied. That's because we were made for something beyond the sun. C.S. Lewis brilliantly articulates this when he says, if I find in myself a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. Our desire for significance can only be satisfied by God Himself. So once again it comes down to who do I believe I am? But again, until we know who we are, we will chase the wrong things. So who am I? Well, Jesus gives a really clear picture in John fifteen five. He says, yes, I am the vine. You are the branches. Those who remain in me and I in them will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. You're a branch. You are a branch, not the vine. Which means that your job, quite simply, is just to remain connected to God. Now remain this idea of to stay, to abide, to dwell. It signifies a continuous and ongoing connection with something or someone. And in this case, Jesus himself. Practically, this means he's in charge. He comes up with a plan. He makes it happen, and he gets the credit. Our job is simply to remain in him, and if we do that, we will be satisfied. We will be successful. So if you want to be the kind of follower of Jesus who makes a difference in your life, who can look back on all of it and say, oh man, that was not perfect, but that is a life of no regret. You need to become a world class abider. Get really, really good at remaining. Because an identity based on performance or success as a follower of Jesus will suffocate you and it will suffocate your passions. But God has something so much better. Consider these words in second Chronicles sixteen nine the eyes of the Lord roam throughout the earth, that he may strongly support those whose hearts are completely his. What an extraordinary promise. God does not need your talent or your access or your sincere effort. He isn't looking for finished products or perfect people. He's looking for sons and daughters who know who they are and who give him their whole hearts.

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