Identity

The search for recognition hinders faith. We cannot believe so long as we are concerned with the "image" we present to others. When we think in terms of "roles" for ourselves and others, instead of simply doing the task given us to do, we are thinking as the world thinks, not as God thinks. The thought of Jesus was always and only for the Father. He did what He saw the Father do. He spoke what He heard the Father say. His will was submitted to the Father's will.

Marines follow orders. They take all their strength and apply it to someone else's will - the mission that has been assigned to them.
Situation: They approach the Situation and analyze it.
Mission: They keep in mind the Mission (5 W's).
Execution: During Execution they task the maneuver and combat support units, keeping it all coordinated, working as a team and following the rules of engagement.
Service Support: They have a plan for Service Support - how to restock supplies, care for the injured, etc.
Command Signal: They know where Command is located, they know the succession of command. They know how and when to Signal, so that communication with Command is not hindered.
Marines complete missions or die trying, and they do not leave men behind. They honor their commander in chief. Jesus' role was that of a Marine; he came here to fulfill a specific purpose. You might say He was on a mission. In each situation that he was in - from speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well to his conversation with Pontius Pilate, He had a plan, and followed it precisely. He followed the rules of engagement by committing no sins. When necessary he went out in the wilderness or otherwise off by himself. And he never lost communication with Command.

Reporters stand back, observe the work being done, and critique it loudly, although they usually have little or no personal knowledge or experience in the work they are criticizing. They worry about their image, because they see themselves as public figures instead of serving the public. They generally see themselves as a superior, elite class. Reporters are Pharisees.

My church had a couple of sermons last year on the role of Christians in the world - The Church... Cruise Ship or Battleship and The Church... Cruise Ship or Battleship? Part 2.
They addressed the fact that Christianity is spiritual warfare, and we're not here to have a good time.

2 Tim 2:3-4 Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.

John Piper put it very well:

In other words, life is war. ... But most people do not believe this in their heart. Most people show by their priorities and their casual approach to spiritual things that they believe we are in peacetime, not wartime. ... In wartime, the newspapers carry headlines about how the troops are doing. In wartime, families talk about the sons and daughters on the front lines, and write to them, and pray for them with heart-wrenching concern for their safety. In wartime, we are on the alert. We are armed. We are vigilant. In wartime, we spend money differently - there is austerity, not for its own sake, but because there are more strategic ways to spend money than on new tires at home. The war effort touches everybody. We all cut back. The luxury liner becomes the troop carrier. ..... Very few people think that we are now in a war greater than World War II, and greater than any imaginable nuclear World War III. Or that Satan is a much worse enemy than Communism or militant Islam. Or that the conflict is not restricted to any one global theater, but is in every town and city in the world. Or that the casualties do not merely lose an arm or an eye or an earthly life, but lose everything, even their own soul and enter a hell of everlasting torment (Revelation 14:9-11). .... Until people believe this, they will not pray as they ought. They will not even know what prayer is.

So I do not tire of saying to our church, the number one reason why prayer malfunctions in the hands of a believers is that they try to turn a wartime walkie-talkie into a domestic intercom. ... Until you believe that life is war, you cannot know what prayer is for. Prayer is for the accomplishment of a wartime mission. It is as though the field commander (Jesus) called in the troops, gave them a crucial mission ("Go and bear fruit"), handed each of them a personal transmitter coded to the frequency of the general's headquarters, and said, "Comrades, the general has a mission for you. He aims to see it accomplished. And to that end he has authorized me to give each of you personal access to him through these transmitters. If you stay true to his mission and seek his victory first, he will always be as close as your transmitter, to give tactical advice and to send in air cover when you or your comrades need it." .... But what have millions of Christians done? They have stopped believing that we are in a war. No urgency, no watching, no vigilance, no strategic planning. Just easy peacetime and prosperity. And what did they do with the walkie-talkie? They tried to rig it up as an intercom in their cushy houses and cabins and boats and cars - not to call in fire power for conflict with a mortal enemy, but to ask the maid to bring another pillow to the den.
John Piper, “Prayer, the Work of Missions”