Do Not Be True to Yourself: Countercultural Advice for the Rest of Your Life

By Kevin DeYoung

Countercultural Yet Biblical Advice for High School and College Students, Ideal for Graduation and Birthday Gifts
Most speeches addressed to high school and college students follow a similar theme: march to the beat of your own drum. This may sound encouraging on the surface, but Scripture exhorts believers to submit their lives to the will of God, not their own desires. Christian students need gospel-centered truth to guide them on their journey toward independence.
In this collection of inspiring sermons and graduation speeches, Kevin DeYoung delivers a motivational, biblical call to young people: serve God faithfully—and if necessary, counter-culturally—in the next season of your life. Do Not Be True to Yourself includes practical advice for cultivating a Christ-centered worldview in every area of adult life, including relationships, work, church participation, and spiritual growth, making it a transformational resource for mentoring students. 

- Written by Kevin DeYoung: Pastor and bestselling author shares relevant wisdom from past commencement speeches and sermons
- Concise, Engaging Chapters of Counter-Cultural Advice: Christ-centered guidance that includes developing spiritual habits, prioritizing church attendance, fighting sexual sin, and temptation, and making godly decisions. 
- Includes Reading Guide: DeYoung suggests 12 classic Christian books every person should read, from writers including John Calvin, G. K. Chesterton, and R. C. Sproul 
- Perfect for graduation gifts, birthdays, or small group discussion

• Language: English
• Publisher: Crossway Books
• Release date: Apr 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9781433590085

Kevin DeYoung

Kevin DeYoung (PhD, University of Leicester) is the senior pastor at Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, North Carolina, and associate professor of systematic theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte. He has written books for children, adults, and academics, including Just Do Something; Impossible Christianity; and The Biggest Story Bible Storybook. Kevin’s work can be found on clearlyreformed.org. Kevin and his wife, Trisha, have nine children.

Book preview

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"Kevin DeYoung writes with inspiring clarity and pastoral love as he summons a generation of Christians to courage and nerve. As he puts it, ‘The choice that matters most is actually a lifetime of choices.’ This will be the book to give to your graduating high school and college students. But please don’t pigeonhole this book. Do Not Be True to Yourself is a brilliant and succinct call to all Christians to reject the spirit of the age in favor of the courageous Christian faith."

Rosaria Butterfield, Former Professor of English, Syracuse University; author, The Gospel Comes with a House Key

"Kevin DeYoung’s Do Not Be True to Yourself is a helpful antidote to a culture of self-obsession. If we’re learning anything about human nature in the age in which we live, it is that outsized focus on oneself produces disabling anxiety, disorienting ‘identities,’ and dizzying confusion about man’s ultimate end. It turns out, secular man’s chief end of glorifying himself is producing the very opposite of joy. This book shows why and shows a better, godward way forward."

Andrew T. Walker, Associate Professor of Christian Ethics, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Do Not Be True to Yourself

Do Not Be True to Yourself

Countercultural Advice for the Rest of Your Life

Kevin DeYoung

Do Not Be True to Yourself: Countercultural Advice for the Rest of Your Life

© 2023 by Kevin DeYoung

Published by Crossway

1300 Crescent Street

Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Published in association with the literary agency of Wolgemuth & Associates, Inc.

Cover design: Jordan Singer

First printing 2023

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-9005-4

ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-9008-5

PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-9006-1

Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-9007-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: DeYoung, Kevin, author.

Title: Do not be true to yourself : countercultural advice for the rest of

your life / Kevin DeYoung.

Description: Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway, 2023. | Includes bibliographical

references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022041416 (print) | LCCN 2022041417 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433590054 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781433590061 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433590085 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Christian life. | Virtues. | Philosophy of mind. | Theology, Practical.

Classification: LCC BV4501.3 .D496 2023 (print) | LCC BV4501.3 (ebook) | DDC 248.4--dc23/eng/20230112

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022041416

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022041417

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

To Ian,

our firstborn and the first to leave for college,

we love you and miss you.

Contents

Introduction

1  Don’t Be