SPEAKER_02: Our sermon this morning comes from the book of Colossians, chapter 1.
SPEAKER_02: You'll find it printed in your bulletin.
SPEAKER_02: Colossians chapter 1, the first 14 verses.
SPEAKER_02: We are in a sermon series entitled Arise, A Life of Stewardship.
SPEAKER_02: Two weeks ago we began this sermon series.
SPEAKER_02: We looked at Jesus Christ's resurrection as the very foundation of our life.
SPEAKER_02: If Christ was not raised, then we are still in our sins and there is no foundation on which to stand.
SPEAKER_02: But because Christ arose, as we saw last week, we can rise.
SPEAKER_02: Last week we looked at new life that we have because Jesus Christ arose, and as the Holy Spirit works in us, he raises us up.
SPEAKER_02: The word arise.
SPEAKER_02: Get up.
SPEAKER_02: We can rise spiritually.
SPEAKER_02: This morning we're going to look at another aspect.
SPEAKER_02: Not only are we alive in Christ because the Holy Spirit regenerated us, but we need the Holy Spirit to renew us because we can't do this on our own.
SPEAKER_02: And so this morning we looked at what the Apostle Paul had to say about being renewed by the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: Writing to the church at Colossae, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae, grace to you and peace from God our Father.
SPEAKER_02: We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of this you have heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing, as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant, he is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, and has maintained has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: And so from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
SPEAKER_02: He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_02: This is the reading of God's holy, infallible, inerrant word.
SPEAKER_02: Let's give all attention and due reverence.
SPEAKER_02: Ask the Spirit to bless us.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, we thank you for this message that you gave to your apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_02: Spirit of God, we pray just as you use these words and these truths to transform the saints in Colossae, would you please do so in Alexandria in Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_02: This morning, we pray in the name of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: This morning we're going to really focus on one verse, Colossians chapter 1, verse 6.
SPEAKER_02: This is the text, the verse that I preached on, the 10th anniversary of Alexandria Presbyterian Church, and the 25th anniversary of Alexandria Presbyterian Church.
SPEAKER_02: This verse has meant so much to me over the years of my own spiritual growth and understanding.
SPEAKER_02: I believe this passage captures the heartbeat of APC.
SPEAKER_02: This powerful gospel bearing fruit and growing in us, through us, changing us, transforming us, our city, our world.
SPEAKER_02: I know you've heard me say this many times, some of you.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not going to stop saying it.
SPEAKER_02: God wants this gospel to go further in us.
SPEAKER_02: God wants this gospel to go higher, for us to go higher up, as C.S.
SPEAKER_02: Lewis put it.
SPEAKER_02: Lewis said, further in, higher up.
SPEAKER_02: This is how the gospel renews us.
SPEAKER_02: This gospel is powerful when it is truly understood.
SPEAKER_02: Did you catch that verse?
SPEAKER_02: Truly understood.
SPEAKER_02: Another translation of that is understood in all of its truth.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, the idea here is there is so much depth to this gospel.
SPEAKER_02: You know, one of my favorite parking garage illustrations is a DC parking garage.
SPEAKER_02: You go in and you go down, eh?
SPEAKER_02: You go in at salvation, but there are so many deeper levels that God wants us to go out into.
SPEAKER_02: As we learn to believe the gospel more and more.
SPEAKER_02: There are further levels of the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: There are deeper levels of the gospel that God intends for every one of us.
SPEAKER_02: I would say to some extent, a church goes as the pastors go.
SPEAKER_02: The gospel must go deeper in the pastors, the gospel must go deeper in the leaders, the elders, and the deacons.
SPEAKER_02: The gospel must go deeper in those who proclaim the word, who teach the word, who counsel the word.
SPEAKER_02: That's just the way it works.
SPEAKER_02: Yet it renews us.
SPEAKER_02: This gospel is powerful when it is truly understood.
SPEAKER_02: When it is truly understood, it gives us new spiritual life and regeneration, as we saw last week, but also in renewal after we are saved.
SPEAKER_02: We have always strived to be a church of people with fresh testimonies.
SPEAKER_02: Do you know what I mean by that?
SPEAKER_02: Fresh.
SPEAKER_02: Like fish caught every day.
SPEAKER_02: We don't want to be a church of people whose testimonies have to go way back, years back.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you have heard those testimonies many times.
SPEAKER_02: Well, let me tell you my testimony.
SPEAKER_02: My testimony of how I got saved, oh, it happened about 10 years ago, or 20 years ago, or 30 years ago.
SPEAKER_02: Praise God.
SPEAKER_02: But what I want to know is what's your testimony today?
SPEAKER_02: What's my testimony today?
SPEAKER_02: What has God been doing in the present because of what he did in us in the past?
SPEAKER_02: Not only a testimony of how God saved us, but a testimony of how God is saving us.
SPEAKER_02: Am I suggesting a salvation by works?
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: How God is saving us from ourselves today.
SPEAKER_02: How God is saving us from our orphan spirit, the ways that we, our old nature is just fighting the work that the Holy Spirit wants to do in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: That's what I mean.
SPEAKER_02: With a focus on inward spiritual transformation.
SPEAKER_02: When the gospel is working in by the work of the Holy Spirit, by faith, taking the truth of God's word, the Holy Spirit has to open our heart, our mind, and apply this truth to wherever our orphan spirit is struggling at the moment.
SPEAKER_02: That is gospel renewal.
SPEAKER_02: That's how we are renewed.
SPEAKER_02: When the Spirit is at work in our sanctification, and sanctification is just the word of how you grow as a Christian.
SPEAKER_02: When we are growing in our sanctification, the Spirit is revealing more and more what is in our own hearts, but just as importantly, he's revealing what is in God's heart.
SPEAKER_02: He's opening up new vistas, new views of God's love and mercy and majesty and holiness and justice.
SPEAKER_02: God is becoming more beautiful to us as the Spirit is opening our eyes.
SPEAKER_02: That's how we grow.
SPEAKER_02: It makes us more honest about ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: We're not a church where we have to have it all together.
SPEAKER_02: That may be new to you.
SPEAKER_02: You may have been in churches where you feel like you have to have it all together.
SPEAKER_02: You can't ever let people see you sweat.
SPEAKER_02: You can't ever let people hear you confess your sins.
SPEAKER_02: That is not a gospel church.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not saying they're not a Christian church.
SPEAKER_02: If you're in a church where people cannot confess their sins, the gospel is not renewing them.
SPEAKER_02: Martin Luther said it well in the first of his 95 theses.
SPEAKER_02: The first theses he said, the Christian life is one of faith and repentance.
SPEAKER_02: Can you confess your sins?
SPEAKER_02: No, I'm serious, I mean it.
SPEAKER_02: Because I think a lot of Christians probably don't.
SPEAKER_02: When was the last time you confessed your sin?
SPEAKER_02: Not only to God, but to another brother or sister.
SPEAKER_02: And if you're your if your first thought is, well, I can't remember, that's not a good sign.
SPEAKER_02: If your first thought is, well, I'm sure I used to do that, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_02: Did you outgrow that?
SPEAKER_02: I I used to do that when I needed to, but then I I really got to know the Bible, and I know so much of the Bible now that I just really frankly don't need to confess my sin.
SPEAKER_02: Brother, sister, that's not a good sign.
SPEAKER_02: If you were at a spiritual doctor's office getting a spiritual physical, I'm afraid that your doctor would have some very sobering news to give you.
SPEAKER_02: Or how many Bible verses we've memorized.
SPEAKER_02: I'm all for that.
SPEAKER_02: But that's not enough, is it?
SPEAKER_02: The way we define spirituality in this church is not I need Jesus less because I know more, Bible.
SPEAKER_02: The way we define spiritual maturity is I need Jesus more.
SPEAKER_02: Because I'm seeing more of my sin.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm seeing more of the grace of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: How much he not only saved me from then, do you ever think about how much he has saved you from since then?
SPEAKER_02: How much sin has he saved you since you became from, since you became a Christian?
SPEAKER_02: I became a Christian as a young boy.
SPEAKER_02: Boy, what a joy it was for the elders to hear the testimonies of our children who just finished the communicate membership class.
SPEAKER_02: We heard your testimonies this last Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus has saved me from so much more of my sin.
SPEAKER_02: I'm a Christian.
SPEAKER_02: How about you?
SPEAKER_02: Is this true gospel leading us to deeper levels of faith and repentance?
SPEAKER_02: Or are we still trying to convince ourselves and convince others that we're so strong that we can't be weak?
SPEAKER_02: Remember when Jesus told the story about the publican, the tax collector, and the Pharisee?
SPEAKER_02: They were standing near the temple near each other?
SPEAKER_02: And do you remember the prayer of the Pharisee?
SPEAKER_02: With a smug arrogance about him.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I thank you that I'm not like him.
SPEAKER_02: And you remember the prayer of the tax collector?
SPEAKER_02: Lord, have mercy on me.
SPEAKER_02: A sinner.
SPEAKER_02: The sinner is really what it says.
SPEAKER_02: Do you know what?
SPEAKER_02: There are only two ways to stand before God.
SPEAKER_02: We either stand before God as the Pharisee, or we stand before God as the tax collector.
SPEAKER_02: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_02: Nobody stands with one foot here and one foot there.
SPEAKER_02: When we come to God, we either come rejoicing in our forgiveness and the grace of Jesus Christ, or we come standing in our own righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: Richard Lovelace, who studied the dynamics of spiritual renewal as much as anybody I know, professor for years in a seminary, said this: only a fraction of the present body of professing Christians are solidly appropriating the justifying work of Christ in their lives.
SPEAKER_02: Many Christians have so light an apprehension of God's holiness and of the extent and guilt of their sin that consciously they see little need for justification, although below the surface of their lives they are deeply guilt-ridden and insecure.
SPEAKER_02: Many others have a theoretical commitment to this doctrine, but in their day-to-day existence they rely on their sanctification for their justification, drawing their assurance of acceptance with God from their sincerity or their past experience of conversion or their recent religious performance or the relative infrequency of their conscious willful disobedience.
SPEAKER_02: Few Christians, it seems, today know enough to start each day with a thoroughgoing stand upon Martin Luther's platform that you are accepted, looking outward in faith and claiming the whole alien righteousness of Christ as the only ground for your acceptance.
SPEAKER_02: Resting in that quality of trust, which will produce increasing sanctification as faith is active in love and gratitude.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the truth, let me put it very succinctly.
SPEAKER_02: We are sanctified by the gospel just as much as we are justified by the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: That is the truth that the evangelical church today simply seems not to grasp.
SPEAKER_02: Our own orphan heart tells us, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_02: No, you're gonna grow because of what you know.
SPEAKER_02: You're gonna grow because of how much you've learned.
SPEAKER_02: You're becoming stronger and all, and I'll tell you this, what I've seen over all my years as a Christian, too many times I've been in the presence of people that have just talked about how much they know and how close their walk with the Lord is, but I wonder why nobody really seems to want to be mentored by them.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that sad?
SPEAKER_02: Something's dramatically wrong with that.
SPEAKER_02: Do we know how to confess our pride, our unbelief, our self-righteousness, our defensiveness?
SPEAKER_02: Only as the Holy Spirit is taking the truth of God, showing us the beauty of God and his love.
SPEAKER_02: The finished work of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And the Holy Spirit lifts that up and puts it in front of us.
SPEAKER_02: And we say, God forgive me for too often living for my own record.
SPEAKER_02: God forgive me for too often living for appearances.
SPEAKER_02: God forgive me for too often thinking it's about me.
SPEAKER_02: This is the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: This is the whole gospel.
SPEAKER_02: Not just the way that you're saved.
SPEAKER_02: This is the way that we're being saved every day from ourselves and from the flesh.
SPEAKER_02: The whole gospel for the whole world, that's what Paul's saying in verse 6.
SPEAKER_02: All over the world, this gospel is growing and bearing fruit, just as it has been doing among you since the day that you first heard the grace of God and all of its truth.
SPEAKER_02: Now, how could Paul say that?
SPEAKER_02: The gospel wasn't all over the world at that point, but it was spreading.
SPEAKER_02: Because it was going in, it was going deep, it was going out.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul knew that it was only a matter of time until this gospel message was heard in every country and it was being lived out in every city in a radical way.
SPEAKER_02: One way to think about what he's saying is the gospel must be local first.
SPEAKER_02: The gospel has to be going deeper in me before it can go deeper through me to you.
SPEAKER_02: And it's that's true for you.
SPEAKER_02: If you want this gospel to have a powerful impact on the people that you work with or the people that you live with, it starts with me.
SPEAKER_02: It starts with you.
SPEAKER_02: Bearing fruit and growing.
SPEAKER_02: This is a metaphor for a tree that bears fruit at the end of the season and puts forth the buds for the next season.
SPEAKER_02: The bearing fruit and the growing cycle repeats itself over and over.
SPEAKER_02: Is bearing fruit, is growing.
SPEAKER_02: The power is in the gospel, not us.
SPEAKER_02: And in looking to Jesus, undoubtedly I see what I lack, what he wants to supply.
SPEAKER_02: This is a gospel church.
SPEAKER_02: When people seek God, what people seek from God is enough grace to be strong in themselves.
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: It's too easy to not really seek God's grace out of our weakness.
SPEAKER_02: If we're seeking grace from God to be strong in ourselves, he's not going to give it.
SPEAKER_02: Why would he?
SPEAKER_02: Those folks don't want a constant flow of grace living under from heaven.
SPEAKER_02: Because the gospel renews us.
SPEAKER_02: The gospel's going out.
SPEAKER_02: It's going out of this church.
SPEAKER_02: We have the privilege today of partnering with 24 missionaries all around the world, 11 different countries.
SPEAKER_02: The gospel's going out through Alexandria Presbyterian Church.
SPEAKER_02: It's going out in the city.
SPEAKER_02: Again, one of our newest ministries we're partnering with for the nations.
SPEAKER_02: I've heard some wonderful testimonies of what God is doing already in that ministry for the nations.
SPEAKER_02: It's going out.
SPEAKER_02: It is.
SPEAKER_02: Tonight we're going to gather together and 70 different people that have signed up for sonship this year.
SPEAKER_02: Again.
SPEAKER_02: Tonight we're going to talk about the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: Again.
SPEAKER_02: We're going to talk about the friendly prosecuting attorney, the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Again.
SPEAKER_02: We're going to talk about how the Holy Spirit is the one that we often mistrust.
SPEAKER_02: Misinterpret.
SPEAKER_02: We think that he's our enemy.
SPEAKER_02: We think that he's after us.
SPEAKER_02: He's after us to rob us of what God wants to give us.
SPEAKER_02: He's the friendly prosecuting attorney.
SPEAKER_02: He's not coming after us, showing us our sin, to defeat us, discourage us, but rather to free us in new ways.
SPEAKER_02: Renewal and mission always go together.
SPEAKER_02: Renewal leads to mission.
SPEAKER_02: Mission requires renewal for mission to be effective.
SPEAKER_02: That's just the way it works.
SPEAKER_02: Whereas Jack Miller used to say, the glory of God is the difference between what you normally would do or who you would normally be and what God enables you to be or to do as you repent and believe the gospel in new ways.
SPEAKER_02: That's the glory of God.
SPEAKER_02: That's what people see as something radically different.
SPEAKER_02: That's where people see as dying to sin and living to righteousness, as our catechism says.
SPEAKER_02: The whole gospel.
SPEAKER_02: Again, as Jack would say, open the cage and let the lion, the lion of Judah, run.
SPEAKER_02: He is powerful.
SPEAKER_02: What does the lion want in me?
SPEAKER_02: From me?
SPEAKER_02: What does the lion want from this church?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is the lion.
SPEAKER_02: Or not.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to close with an illustration that Michael Horton writes about centuries ago, Duke George, as the king's son, was dying.
SPEAKER_02: Duke George shared the gospel with him that it's all by grace.
SPEAKER_02: His dying son's wife was listening to the conversation.
SPEAKER_02: And she said to her father-in-law, Father, why have we not heard these truths before?
SPEAKER_02: That God saves us by grace through faith.
SPEAKER_02: He said, Dear, these truths are for the dying.
SPEAKER_02: No, they're not.
SPEAKER_02: They're for the living.
SPEAKER_02: What he was saying was he didn't want, he didn't think that we should teach real grace because people might go crazy.
SPEAKER_02: Well, if God saves me from my sin, then I can live any way I want.
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: That's not what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_02: But there's an awful lot of churches today that are teaching that.
SPEAKER_02: You're saved by grace, but you're sanctified by trying harder.
SPEAKER_02: Learning more.
SPEAKER_02: Doing better.
SPEAKER_02: No, you're not.
SPEAKER_02: You're sanctified by grace, by running to Jesus every day.
SPEAKER_02: We are sanctified by grace just as much as we are justified by grace.
SPEAKER_02: All the power comes from the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: As we believe that, watch what Jesus will do in your life in a new way.
SPEAKER_02: You will become a more useful person.
SPEAKER_02: You will become less a lecturer.
SPEAKER_02: Do you struggle with that?
SPEAKER_02: Do you struggle with just doing a lot of talking trying to fix people?
SPEAKER_02: You'll become less of a lecturer, a fixer, and you'll become more of a listener, and you'll have more power to be able to actually have spiritual impact in a new way in other people's lives because it'll be the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: It'll be Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That's the way it works.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to close my sermon now.
SPEAKER_02: This morning I thought I think the Lord just led me this week to ask a couple different people in both services to share a recent experience of their own gospel journey.
SPEAKER_02: And I've asked John Erickson, one of our deacons, to come and share how the gospel has been renewing, John.
SPEAKER_02: Please come.
SPEAKER_01: So Tom asked me to consider providing a testimony of how the gospel has grown in my life over the past several years.
SPEAKER_01: I will talk about three gospel changes in my life.
SPEAKER_01: Number one is prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Number two is learning to be vulnerable.
SPEAKER_01: Number three is learning to live by faith and not by self-interest.
SPEAKER_01: To back up one step before this ask, I just walked off a plane from Dulles Airport on a flight from the West Coast, and I had a voicemail from Pastor Tom requesting that I call him back.
SPEAKER_01: The first three things that went through my head and heart before I began this conversation with him were fear that I didn't know what was going to be asked of me, and I didn't know how I was going to respond.
SPEAKER_01: Number two was fear of speaking in front of this congregation.
SPEAKER_01: And number three, faith that Tom had prayed for this request, and that is why he called me.
SPEAKER_01: That night I prayed, Lord, please provide the words for my testimony so they can be used for your will.
SPEAKER_01: I want to point this out as the most important and specific heart change in my life.
SPEAKER_01: Over the past several years, I started beginning tasks, uh, requests, or every other event in prayer, asking for his wisdom and guidance for me, advice mine.
SPEAKER_01: This may sound simple, straightforward, and self-explanatory, but I'm still not doing this in all facets of my life.
SPEAKER_01: However, I am continuing, continually bringing this question up to myself over and over again and praying over my daily activities more and more.
SPEAKER_01: Four years ago, my parents were hospitalized in separate accidents 24 hours from each other.
SPEAKER_01: I was in their hospital recovery rooms and remembered saying, Dad, I don't know how to pray for this.
SPEAKER_01: His words were simple and impactful.
SPEAKER_01: Pray to God like you're talking to me.
SPEAKER_01: This leads me to heart change number two, learning to be emotionally vulnerable with my loved ones and friends.
SPEAKER_01: Later that year, my father passed.
SPEAKER_01: The time leading up to this, I suppressed all emotions to quote unquote be there for my family and show them how strong I could be under the circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: Then, weeks after my father passed, I recalled being heartbroken, that I wasn't crying or feeling emotions of a loss of a great friend and a father.
SPEAKER_01: I realized that most of my life I had compartments for feelings and seldom let any of the feelings out without significant thought to control the perception of me.
SPEAKER_01: I was more concerned what others thought of me and how they perceived me.
SPEAKER_01: Did they see me as weak, incompetent, a train wreck, or did they see me as strong, confident person, problem solver?
SPEAKER_01: And what other description that served me positively?
SPEAKER_01: This is what I wanted.
SPEAKER_01: Regretfully, I was completely blind to the effect that this was causing to my relationship with God, my wife, my children, my family, and others.
SPEAKER_01: After his passing, my prayer partner and I prayed for not only the return of emotions into my life, but also the sinful control issues that I had put in place to prohibit these emotions to begin with.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't for several years later that I started thinking about these behaviors more selflessly and started asking the question: who is the man that God wants me to be, not only in these circumstances, but also every day in church, work, home, in store, in the store, and in our neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01: I started thinking through the behaviors I was modeling for my children, and I didn't like the answer.
SPEAKER_01: My self-assessment was this was not what Christ had modeled for us.
SPEAKER_01: Fast forward to this past Thursday.
SPEAKER_01: When I told my wife, son, and daughter that I'm scared, anxious, and nervous on speaking and sharing the testimony in front of this congregation.
SPEAKER_01: What an amazing opportunity to open up to my family and share something with them that they had no clue that I struggled with.
SPEAKER_01: Was I weak or was I strong?
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: What matters is that Christ-centered focus and the opportunity for family prayer.
SPEAKER_01: We had an opportunity to pray as family and grow together.
SPEAKER_01: I will continue to pray that no matter how simple or complicated the problem, that God will use these opportunities to grow not only me, but also my family and his word.
SPEAKER_01: The final gospel heart change I will discuss is attempting to live by faith and removing self.
SPEAKER_01: The most impactful event occurred two and a half years ago when I was spending more and more time consumed with resolving problems and finding solutions at work.
SPEAKER_01: I was making a difference and I was thriving under the stress.
SPEAKER_01: The issue was the more time I was separated from my family, the worse my son's behavior became.
SPEAKER_01: Through much prayer and discussions, I departed from that job and I took a new one.
SPEAKER_01: I'm confident and saying that I would not have been able to make a change in this life and for me and for my family had it not been for the stripping of the ornaments of pride and selfishness, independence and reputation, had this not already begun.
SPEAKER_01: I would like to encourage all of you to start praying for what it means to live by faith in all facets of your life.
SPEAKER_01: I continue to have fear for my own prayers on what answers will come.
SPEAKER_01: I give up these fears to the Lord, and I ask him for his warm embrace and comfort to get me through this.
SPEAKER_01: I will leave you with two questions from previous sermons.
SPEAKER_01: What is the storyline that is driving my life or your life?
SPEAKER_01: What is the gospel?
SPEAKER_01: How is the gospel continuing to transform your life today?
SPEAKER_01: So thank you for letting me share this testimony.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I just want to share that um having written this down, it has been uh immensely just impactful for not only me but my family sitting over there, where I got to share this with them the other night and just uh for us to to grow together as a family.
SPEAKER_01: So thank you for letting me share.
SPEAKER_02: I want to stop here and I want to ask uh Matt Coombs to come up, one of our elders to share his testimony in the first service.
SPEAKER_02: Uh John Erickson, one of our deacons, shared his testimony of how the gospel has been renewing him.
SPEAKER_02: And um Matt, come up here and share with us.
SPEAKER_02: Would you have a question?
SPEAKER_00: So uh thanks for the opportunity to share.
SPEAKER_00: Um Katie is gonna start the clock because I'm only given a certain amount of time.
SPEAKER_00: So if I get to six minutes, just give me the cut.
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, I was asked to share what gospel renewal looks like uh in me, and so I just want to kind of start that gospel renewal in me looks like me willing being willing to come up here and share about gospel renewal.
SPEAKER_00: Um so what do I mean by that?
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm a work in progress and I got a long way to go.
SPEAKER_00: Um but I'm up here today able to admit that I'm a recovering Pharisee.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor Tom just talked about two types of people.
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm the man who is a recovering rule follower, a lawkeeper.
SPEAKER_00: Uh my wife and kids know I'm a I'm a brilliant lawmaker.
SPEAKER_00: I was brought up to be obedient, to do my duty, to serve, to have discipline and self-control.
SPEAKER_00: That was sharpened by joining the military, where all those things are taught, reinforced, and even rewarded.
SPEAKER_00: As the gospel takes hold of my heart, though, I'm I'm growing in my honesty about who God is, but also about who I am.
SPEAKER_00: Growing in my brokenness as I see like we sang about that I'm thirsty and I'm empty.
SPEAKER_00: Um I'll be honest, I'm a mess.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not just a mess, I'm a hot mess.
SPEAKER_00: There's a difference, I'm told.
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, I uh I took many attempts to try to fix myself, but fail over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: Um that brokenness though has resulted in a growing willingness to surrender.
SPEAKER_00: To surrender to God, to give up on my self-reliance and my own quest for perfection and rest in Christ's perfection alone.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, I'm growing in my experience of God's goodness and love for me, which is resulting in me loving Him more and those around me.
SPEAKER_00: So I'd like to share three examples of what that really looks like uh and how that's changing me, growing me in my faith, repentance, and and my desire to cling to Christ alone.
SPEAKER_00: Even as I continue to struggle with pride and unbelief, self-righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: The first example is of service and and my role here uh in greeting.
SPEAKER_00: Most people at this second service uh probably don't know I'm really more of an introvert um than you think.
SPEAKER_00: I'm terrible, uh absolutely terrible with names.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not outgoing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm pretty reserved, I don't open up, I don't talk with people uh that I don't know well.
SPEAKER_00: And if I did talk to people at church or at fellowship time, it'd people it'd be people from my Covenant Fellowship group or people from my circle, people that I know uh pretty well.
SPEAKER_00: So despite me serving in ways that you could see on the outside, what you wouldn't have seen was a heart full of pride.
SPEAKER_00: A heart full of pride that led to criticism, judgment, resentment.
SPEAKER_00: Wondering why all you good people aren't serving as much as I am.
SPEAKER_00: Why you're not serving in the exact same ways that I am or the ministries that I'm serving in.
SPEAKER_00: So the gospel is changing all that.
SPEAKER_00: Most of you now see me greeting and asking questions because I want to welcome you into a community like God welcomed me into his community to fellowship with him.
SPEAKER_00: As God reveals the pride in my life and changes my heart, it's becoming more about him and less about me.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be encouraging and loving and have a growing desire to serve.
SPEAKER_00: Not to earn salvation, but not to earn or do duty or obedience, but out of a gratitude and a love for a loving and gracious Father that sent a son that washed away my sin.
SPEAKER_00: That gave me his righteousness and a Holy Spirit that prepares my heart, regenerates, renews, and transforms my heart and grows my heart to love God and others even more.
SPEAKER_00: The criticism, judgment, and resentment are melting away.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm finding security and significance in God, not in my self-righteousness or my need for reputation or approval from others.
SPEAKER_00: I'm growing in knowing the truth in my head, I'm growing in knowing the truth in my heart and down to the depths of my very soul.
SPEAKER_00: And it's setting me free to serve him and others in new ways.
SPEAKER_00: The second example in a way this is affecting me is opening up to others.
SPEAKER_00: A few months back I was asked to join a small group of men.
SPEAKER_00: What would we in the group be doing or talking about?
SPEAKER_00: Sharing our lives with each other, real life with each other, heart struggles with each other, sharing the ugly inside, the part of my life that I'm really, really good at hiding from other people.
SPEAKER_00: So we meet and we're real and we're open.
SPEAKER_00: We get to know each other and we attempt to point each other to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta say that I'm loving it.
SPEAKER_00: If you'd have asked me though, two or three years ago if I wanted to do something like that, the answer would have been no.
SPEAKER_00: Not only that, uh my kids would say that'd be a hard pass.
SPEAKER_00: Um I'd have thought the person asking me was crazy.
SPEAKER_00: Um as I grow in my faith, layers of pride are being cut away.
SPEAKER_00: I'm growing and uh in the gospel boldness, not in my own boldness.
SPEAKER_00: I'm growing in my courage to take a gospel risk and step of faith.
SPEAKER_00: And a couple years for the first time in my life, I asked another man to be my mentor to disciple me.
SPEAKER_00: And we still meet regularly.
SPEAKER_00: Gospel renewal in my life looks like me desiring to share real life and the gospel with others, like my mentor shares his life and the gospel with me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm opening up in our covenant fellowship and in sonship small groups.
SPEAKER_00: I'm opening up in one-on-one meetings.
SPEAKER_00: I'm opening up my heart to God and others so that we can walk together, we can grieve together, we can pray for each other and rejoice together.
SPEAKER_00: The final area of my life that's significantly changed and been impacted by gospel renewal is prayer life.
SPEAKER_00: My prayer life is more of a time of conversation with the Lord, less me dictating to God my plan and then asking for the sign-off.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm running to him.
SPEAKER_00: I'm running to him now, not just when I'm in a real bind.
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm not just uh praying anymore and the type of person that would say, Hey, yeah, I'll pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Um and then I might think about you later that week, but I wouldn't really pray.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's more than just getting a prayer list from church.
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm actually praying and opening up my heart to God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm praying things like Psalm 139, 23 and 24.
SPEAKER_00: Search me, O God, and know my heart.
SPEAKER_00: Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any grievous way in me.
SPEAKER_00: Lead me in the way everlasting.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I gotta say, uh my life is changing drastically.
SPEAKER_00: I'm repenting and asking God to forgive me and change me.
SPEAKER_00: In my life, uh, I'm apologizing a lot more.
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking my wife, uh, Katie, and my four kids to forgive me when I mess up.
SPEAKER_00: And believe me, there's ample opportunity for that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm getting the cut sign, so I'm gonna go right to the final closing.
SPEAKER_00: And and that is my life isn't all cupcakes and roses.
SPEAKER_00: But the gospel renewal is giving me a fever.
SPEAKER_00: I'm finding the only prescription is more gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking God to pursue me, change me, and make me fall more deeply in love with him every day.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not embarrassed to say that I am crying a lot more than I ever cried before.
SPEAKER_00: My youngest Woodrow told me the other day it took him ten years to see me cry.
SPEAKER_00: It was during a sermon at this second service.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't cry all the time, but I do cry more.
SPEAKER_00: I cry singing songs and hymns, I cry during prayer.
SPEAKER_00: I cry bec I cry for joy because he saved this uh thirsty, empty, and broken man.
SPEAKER_00: I cry because even though I've hurt the people I love the most, and that pains me.
SPEAKER_00: I know he loves me.
SPEAKER_00: I cry because even though I'm a lot worse than I thought I was, and that's pretty convicting.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel's far greater than I can imagine.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what gospel renewal looks like in my life.