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Trinity Community Church
Trinity Community Church
The Passion Project - A Promise And A Signature
What if the change you’ve been praying for isn’t meant to happen around you—but in you?
In A Promise and a Signature, part of The Passion Project series, Pastor Mark Medley explores Nehemiah 10 and the deeply personal process of spiritual transformation. While the early chapters of Nehemiah focus on rebuilding walls, chapters 8 through 10 reveal God’s true renovation project: rebuilding His people from the inside out.
Mark traces how transformation begins when we encounter the Word of God. In Nehemiah 8, the Israelites rediscover Scripture, and it cuts through apathy like a sword. As they listened, conviction stirred. In chapter 9, that conviction led to heartfelt repentance. They weren’t just sorry—they were surrendered. They owned not only their sin but the generational patterns of rebellion that had marked their history.
Then comes chapter 10, where the people draw up a covenant—signing their names to a fresh commitment to God. They vowed to honor Him in every area of life: their relationships, their time, their business practices, their finances, their worship. Their zeal was real. Their desire to change was genuine.
But Mark doesn’t stop there. He points out what history reveals: they would fall short again. Their passion couldn’t carry the weight of lasting obedience. Paul’s words in Romans 7 ring true: “I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep doing.” We’ve all been there.
So what’s the answer?
Mark points us to the better covenant—sealed not with ink, but with blood. The new covenant in Christ isn’t dependent on our promises to God but on His promise to us. As Hebrews puts it: “I will put my laws on their hearts… I will remember their sins no more.” Jesus is the one who both initiates and completes our faith.
If you’ve been exhausted by trying harder, this message is for you. Let go of striving and receive what Jesus has already accomplished. Believe the promise. Live from the promise. Because real transformation begins where self-effort ends.
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So I want to begin with a question, and the question is are you praying for something to change in your life? This is the question that the Lord laid on my heart this week earlier, and it's pretty amazing. I think this is what he's doing in this service already, isn't it? Are you praying for something to change in your life? That's the question. And most likely God wants to change us more than our circumstances. Sometimes he intervenes, remember. He comes in and does things we can't do. Sometimes he interacts, interacts, he works with us to do things, and sometimes he interacts, he works inside of us.
Mark Medley:Whether anything changes or not, something changes and our perspective changes, and what we're really talking about in this book of Nehemiah is really a process of change. How do things change? That's what we're really talking about in this book of Nehemiah is really a process of change. How do things change? That's what we're talking about, and we've been through chapters one, through seven, and that was all about building a wall, and chapter eight began a different kind of construction project, and it's inside of God's people. And that's us, us right. So we had in chapter eight, we had the word of God rediscovered. In chapter nine, we had this change of heart, this repentance, and in chapter 10 we're going to see this fresh commitment to God. There's a there's a process. Okay, this happens in a certain order. So Kelly was great a few weeks ago teaching us about how the Word of God was rediscovered, and Ezra read the Word of God and the power and the Word of God that awakens our heart. The Word of God awakens our faith. It like wakes us up and it helps us to see clearly and it brings an encounter with God that changes us on the inside and then, as we are going to see today, it changes things on the outside as well. But what brings change is that the Word of God interacts with your heart and it brings repentance. It works in us. A repentant heart. It changes us. This is where every change happens. It starts here, it starts here and it comes out. Whatever it is you want to change. So the word of God. You know what the Bible says about.
Mark Medley:The Bible says about the Bible. It says that it's a hammer and it breaks in pieces the rocks. It says it's a sword. It's two edged and it doesn't matter which edge you're using. It cuts. It cuts all the way down to the thoughts and the intents of our heart, all the way into who we really are, because the core of our will and our decisions are what change our entire life. The Word of God goes down there. It's not here only, it's all the way down there. What's more important, by the way? Information or transformation? I think you're right, transformation, but you really can't have transformation without information. Right, so they go together. But if you have information without transformation, what good is that? And so this is what we're talking about a process of change.
Mark Medley:The Bible says that the word of God reveals our hearts, it changes us. It says that it's perfect, it converts the soul. It says that it's forever settled in the heavens, it stands forever, it will never fade away. Jesus said sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. There's a sanctifying process that comes from here into us. In fact Jesus.
Mark Medley:In chapter 5 of Ephesians, paul says that Jesus washes his church with the water of the word. He's washing us. He's going to wash us this morning I think he already has washed us this morning and he's washing. This is what he's doing. He's cleansing us. And the psalmist says your word I've hid in my heart so that I may not sin against you. Do you get that? There's an object, the word, there's an action. I hid it. There's an object, the word, there's an action. I hit it. There's a place in my heart. There's an outcome. The result is I won't sin against you. You see this process of change.
Mark Medley:God's word always does what he wants it to do. In fact, let me read this to you from Isaiah 55. He says this For, as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there, but waters, the earth he says this to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. God's word always does what he wants it to do. It's doing that right now, this morning in my heart. It's doing that this morning in your heart. It's powerful, it's living and it's powerful and it's doing something. Okay, so it starts with the word of God, chapter eight right, and what happened after that? You're praying for something to change in your life.
Mark Medley:The word of God brings a repentant heart, it works in us a repentance heart, and repentance is the process of owning our sin. And that's what they did in chapter nine. And this is so great. What a great job that Scott did two weeks ago, talking to us about that in chapter 9. It was a response.
Mark Medley:The people understood this cycle of sin that had been going on in their forefathers for years and years, and they repented for it. They owned their sin, they came to God. They also saw not only the failure of their forefathers, but they saw the faithfulness and the kindness of God In the midst of all that. He's kind to us even when we fail, and his kindness leads us to repentance. This is beautiful. This is the heart of our God here. It's not his condemnation leads us to repentance, it's his kindness. Our sin condemns us. We don't need a condemner. We have the devil and we have our own selves condemning ourselves. We have the word of God that shows us our heart. The kindness of God brings repentance. It's beautiful. So, by God's grace, they're able to get perspective and they're able to respond to that, and chapter 10 is the carrying out of that response.
Mark Medley:Word of God. Repentance, now what? Now what? Because the Bible says that repentance looks like something. It says bring forth fruit, works that are fruit, the fruit of repentance. Repentance looks like something. There's something that God is taking us into, not just out of. He wants to release this grip of sin in our life, take us out of this bondage. But there's a land he's taking us into, out of bondage, into something okay.
Mark Medley:So here, chapter 10, this is that response. They're ready to enter into this covenant of repentance and this construction project is not only the walls surrounding the city but the hearts of his people. So are you aware that God is constantly doing construction? It's kind of like Alcoa Highway, I think. Basically it will be done, but maybe not in my lifetime. I think my grandchildren will see it Constant. There's like these orange barrels all over our hearts and God is like constantly big flashing signs. There's something going on here. Right, he's always doing it and he's doing it through the word of God and repentance, changing mind that changes our lives. Are you praying for something to change in your life? This is the way it happens.
Mark Medley:So in chapter nine, what we saw is that they're recounting the history of Israel. They recounted the calling of Abram, the covenant that God made with Abram and how God saw the affliction of the people in Egypt and drew them out, and the Mosaic covenant, the law and the sacrifice, because we couldn't keep the law and the choice to follow or not, all of those things. But their fathers did not follow. But God was ready to forgive and they turned away again. But God was patient and faithful to his promise and they turned away again and God restored them. And it's over and over and over.
Mark Medley:So now we come to chapter 10. Here we are, and chapter 10 starts with 27 verses of names. There are 84, as best I could count, 84 names. They're all very real. Go for it, I will not 84 names. These are real people with real stories, real lives, and they're real important and their names are real hard to pronounce. So I'm going to let you go home and read those names if you want to. All those 27 verses I'm going to skip and I'm going to start at verse 28, if you'll read with me.
Mark Medley:The rest of the people. So all those names, all those names were the leaders of the priests and the Levites, but now the rest of the people, that's everybody the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants and all who have separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the law of God. Their wives, their sons, their daughters, all who have knowledge and understanding, join with their brothers, their nobles, and enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God's law that was given by Moses, the servant of God, to observe and to do all the commandments of the Lord, our Lord, and his rules and his statutes. We will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons. And if the peoples of the land bring in goods or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we will not buy it from them on the Sabbath day or on Holy Day and we will forego the crops of the seventh year and the exaction of every debt.
Mark Medley:We also take on ourselves the obligation to give yearly a third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God, for the showbread, the regular grain offering, for the regular burnt offering, for the Sabbath, new moons, the appointed feast, the holy things and all the sins offerings to make atonement for Israel, for holy things and all the sins offerings to make atonement for Israel for all of the work of the house of God. We, the priests, levites and the people, have likewise cast lots for the wood offering to bring it. They're going to cut wood and bring it in, bring it to the house of God, according to our father's houses, at times appointed, year by year, to burn on the altar of the Lord, our God. As it is written in the law, we obligate ourselves to bring the firstfruits of our ground and the firstfruits of all the fruit of every tree, year by year, to the house of the Lord. Also, to bring to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God, the firstborn of our sons and our, the priests who minister in the house of our God, the firstborn of our sons and our cattle, as written in the law, the firstborn of our herds and our flocks. To bring the first of our dough and our contributions of the fruit of every tree and the wine and the oil to the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God. And to bring to the Levites the tithes from our ground, for it's the Levites who collect all the tithes in all of our God. And to bring to the Levites the tithes from our ground, for it's the Levites who collect all the tithes in all of our towns where we labor. And the priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive the tithes and the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes to the house of God, to the chambers of the storehouse for the people of Israel and for the sons of Levi, shall bring the contribution of grain and wine and oil to the chambers where the vessels of the sanctuary are, as well as the priestly minister and the gatekeepers and the singers. We will not neglect the house of our God. So help us, god.
Mark Medley:They drew up a covenant and they had all these leaders sign it. 84 of them signed it, the leaders in the name of all the people of Israel. It's like a declaration of independence. Right, you got this. And down at the bottom, you got all the names. Right, they're signing it. This is it, this is our declaration. It's not a declaration of independence, it's a declaration of intention. We're going to do it.
Mark Medley:And look what they said. So if you look at, you kind of break this down. They basically what they were saying was every part of our lives we're going to give to you. The first thing they said is my relationships are submitted to God. Okay, so we're living with a mind toward the things that influence us. When they say we will not take the sons of the other lands or the daughters as our sons' wives. We'll not intermarry. What they're doing is they're saying we're going to be separate, we're going to be different people, we're going to live differently, we're not going to be influenced. That's what that was about Influence from other places. We're going to build a wall. We're going to build a wall, a big, beautiful wall. Sorry, I don't know, it just came into my head. That's not a political statement. We're going to build a wall around our hearts. Can we edit that? I'm just kidding. We're going to build a wall around our hearts so that influence doesn't come inside.
Mark Medley:Being careful what are you letting in your gate to influence you? That's what I'm asking this morning. What is it? What are the influences? What voices do you allow to speak into your life? Music, what podcasts are speaking into your life? What YouTube videos? What YouTube sermons? Lord have mercy. Some of those are not good either. You have to line it up beside this and say is it good or not? What is it? What kind of gossip? What things are you allowing to persuade your thinking and living other than the word of God? We're going to keep ourselves pure from sin and sinful influences. Okay, that's also that's part of it. Watching who is influencing my life, number one. Number two this also has to do with relationships. We're going to be careful to sanctify marriage. Marriage is crucial to God. This is God's first thought man, wife together, from that family, from that all of humanity. This is God's first thought. It's marriage, and so we're going to sanctify this thing. No intermarriage with pagan peoples. So we're going to be faithful in our romantic relationships. Interesting what Rodney said, what everyone said this morning, we're going to be faithful in our romantic relationships and our sons and daughters.
Mark Medley:This was addressed to the parents because in those days it was the parents who set up the relationships. Right, it still happens in some parts of the world. I was with, a few months ago, my friends in India and Sri Lanka. These pastors, every one of them, had arranged marriages. They did not choose their wife. Every one of them, their parents chose their wife for them and I don't know, from what I saw, it was working out pretty good. How much faith do you have in your parents? I don't know. I mean today, I mean our culture. Maybe they would have, maybe they would have. You know, this may have been addressed to the individual, but in that culture it was addressed to the parents. The parents. We will not let our, we will not give the people of other nations to our sons and daughters. Okay, you know.
Mark Medley:So what I'm saying is can we sanctify our romantic relationships? Can we sanctify our love life? I mean, it's something like you get baptized and you, like you, like you, just all of you are going under the ship. You're holding that one hand out. That ring finger ain't going under the water. It's like I'm going to hold the ring finger out of the water because I don't want to give that to Jesus. You can have it all, jesus. Have it all, except who I'm going to marry. Man. That's the beginning of a lot of woeful tales. Right there, my ring finger's going under the water too. One man, one woman, united in faith and values, coveting together forever. That's marriage. Lord, we will sanctify marriage. That's the first thing. Second thing is we'll sanctify I'm going to sanctify my time and my business practices.
Mark Medley:They belong to God. We will not do business on the Sabbath. Two things, number one. Number one keeping the Sabbath, which is a commandment with a promise, which is the gift of God. Sabbath, sanctifying time to detach, to stop work, to rest in God, to delight in God. That's Sabbath and that is a gift. Man is not made for the Sabbath, the Sabbath is made for man. This is not a law, this is a blessing and we're going to sanctify it. That's what they say we're going to. We're going back to it. Sabbath holy. Sabbath is holy. Living in rest, living in margin Okay. So stopping to rest Okay. But this also speaks of business. We're not. If anybody wants to come and sell us their stuff on the Sabbath, we will not do it. This is their covenant, even if it makes no business sense. I'm going to honor God in my work.
Mark Medley:And here is where I have to throw some kudos to our friends Chick-fil-A, because this is not corporate sponsorship. We get no money from this, okay. But Chick-fil-A I just looked it up this week McDonald's has over 43,000 stores worldwide. They're everywhere. Chick-fil-a only has about 3,200, 3,200. So McDonald's makes more money overall, but Chick-fil-A's average unit volume, which is revenue per store, is way higher than McDonald's. They're killing it Almost three times higher. Revenue per store, okay. Per location, okay. So if you were going to? Okay.
Mark Medley:So if you're a banker and I'm a businessman, and I come to you and I say, hey, I got this great idea. I want to sell chicken sandwiches. By the way, chick-fil-a sold over half a billion chicken sandwiches last year. I don't know where the chickens come from. That's a whole other question. That's a lot of chicken man, I don't know. It kind of disturbs me to think about that. I'm not sure. But okay, they sold, okay.
Mark Medley:So I've come to you and I'm going to say I've got this great business plan and this is it. Oh, it looks really good. Quality and service, and this is it. Oh, it looks really good. You know quality and service. And this is it. We're going to do this thing. Except, you know, I've got one thing that we really have as a value, and that is that we're going to. You know, for almost two months out of the year, we're shutting down. We're going to be a business that doesn't do business for 52 days out of the year. Are you going to lend me money for that business? I don't know, maybe not, but Chick-fil-A is killing it because God honors those who honor him. So you should try that.
Mark Medley:My time and my business practices are submitted to God. The last thing is all that I own is submitted to God. I'm going to bring, I'm going to live with open hands. That's really what they're saying. I'm going to live with generosity. I'm going to give to the house of God. That's what they're saying. This is their point of reference for serving God. They're going to bring it in freely, bring the first fruits of all that we have which comes from the Lord, which already comes from the Lord in the first place. He gave it all. We're just giving a little back to him. That's all. Produce, livestock, bread, fruit, wine, oil, everything, everything that we need to live. We're going to give back to God for the purpose of the house of God, for everything that's going on there, to support everything that's going on there the bread offering, the grain offering, the burnt, offering, the wood, the Sabbath, the new moons, the appointed feast, oil for the holy things, all of these things. And we're going to bring the tithes into the storehouse. We will not neglect the house of God, which is being rebuilt. First the walls, now the house of the Lord being rebuilt. So after the project, the wall is being built. That's done.
Mark Medley:After the project, we're going to continue in a long obedience. A long obedience. It's just not a project. This is our lives. We're giving it all. Okay, all right, we're going to give, submit to God, my relationships, my time, my business practices and everything I have. That's pretty good, isn't it? Is that something we should do? Yeah, it should. Yeah, it's great.
Mark Medley:They were literally promising to set apart everything to god. And they say at the end of chapter nine because of all this, we make a firm covenant in writing. We're gonna do it. We're gonna do it. Our fathers could do it, but we're gonna do it. We're writing this out, we're signing it with all of our leaders. We're making a solemn, solemn covenant with you. We are serious this time, god. This time we're gonna do it. It's a good thing, right, but realistically, does anybody really believe that it's going to change like that they're going to be any different from their fathers, that they could keep the commands that their fathers could not keep? I mean, was it real? Was that really doable? And in the end, they did exactly what their fathers did. They made a promise and they failed to keep not only their own expectations but the actual commands of God themselves.
Mark Medley:And there's not one of us in this room that can't relate to that. We all have experienced this kind of good intentions falling short. Right, all of us have, and sometimes it leads to frustration, like, why even try? It just keeps failing. Why should I even try? And even the apostle Paul felt this tension in himself.
Mark Medley:Let me read this to you, in Romans, chapter seven, for I do not understand my own actions. I love, I love Paul. He's real. This is a man who planted churches, who raised the dead, who healed the sick, who saw Jesus, who went to the third heaven, who saw things he couldn't even. This is him.
Mark Medley:I don't even understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now, if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good. The law is good. So now it's no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. That's the problem, for I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh, for I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want. But the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now, if I do what I do not want, it's no longer I who do it, but it's sin that dwells in me. That's the problem. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand, for I delight in the law of God in my inner being, but I see in my members another law, waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. That's the problem. Oh, what a wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death? And it doesn't stop there, thank God, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. He's speaking, a reality for all of us. But we're not stuck there.
Mark Medley:You turn the page and chapter eight starts with this promise that, though the spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes us free from the law of sin and death, the spirit of God dwells in us, and so we can be free from that. So Romans 6 and Romans 8 show us the great news that we can be free from that. Romans 7 helps us to connect with it, because we all feel that frustration. And Paul is teaching there about a better covenant, the covenant that God makes with us. It's not our promise to do better. I'm going to do it this time. I'm going to do it. It's God's promise to change my heart, to deal with the sin, to change me inside and cause me to follow after him.
Mark Medley:And the writer of Hebrews says it this way this covenant I will make with the house of Israel, after that time declares the Lord God's making a covenant with us. I will put my laws in their minds, write them on their hearts. I will be their God, they will be my people. And then, in chapter nine, verse 14 and 15, how much more then, will the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal spirit, offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from the acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God? For this reason, christ is the mediator of a better covenant, and here's what I want you to get this morning.
Mark Medley:They wrote this down. They made a promise, they made an oath, they called a curse on themselves if they did not keep this promise. We're writing it down in ink, lord, before you were serious. Or whatever they wrote with. I don't know, was it ink, I don't know. Whatever it is. They wrote it down. It's something that passes away. I know that we're going to do it. Here it is. And God says I'm going to do some writing of my own. I'll cleanse you with the blood of my son, son, and I'll write my law on your hearts.
Mark Medley:You see, here's the problem. The covenant that they were making was based on what they would do, not on what God has done. It was signed by ink, by the authority of their own names and their own will. But listen to what happens through Christ. In the same way also, he took the cup after the supper saying this cup is a new covenant in my blood. This better covenant is a covenant that's written in blood, based on the works of the perfect one, jesus.
Mark Medley:Are you praying for something to change in your life? You may have to make a shift. The old covenant was based on our performance and our deserving. The better covenant, the new covenant, is based on the work of Jesus and it's about believing and receiving. It's really important this morning if you're praying for something to change in your life. So you see, god's covenant with Abram was that he would give him a land. That's covenant with Abram was that he would give him a land, that he would give him a name, he would give him a nation and a blessing. And he said you just had to walk before me, be separate, come apart and be holy, similar to these promises that these people made that we read about this morning.
Mark Medley:But it's important for us to understand that this covenant was a covenant that God made with Abraham. Abraham didn't come to God and say, hey, I got an idea. Nor did Moses, nor did David. They didn't come with their ideas. God initiated the covenant. What these people were recommitting to was not a relationship on their own terms. You don't negotiate your own covenant with God. You submit to the covenant that he offers you. We align with what he says, what he's established. So it's not me and God have our own thing going, man, when I hear that, I just think these people know nothing about God or the Bible, or themselves or human nature. They know nothing or they're not thinking about it at all. Me and God, we understand each other. We don't make him into our image. We don't conform him to our thoughts. We're made in his image. Our problem is we try to make him in our image, and that's a that is a problem. No, we accept the covenant he makes with us.
Mark Medley:Listen to the words of a Pharisee, a leader of Israel who knew this law most of it by memory, maybe all of it by memory the apostle Paul. Here's what he said about this Romans, chapter 10, verses one. Through four Brothers, my hardest desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved, for I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, for being ignorant of the righteousness of God, they seek to establish their own. They did not submit to God's righteousness, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. To everyone who believes. So a question have you been trying to establish your own righteousness before God? Follow-up question how's that been going for you? Has it brought the change in your life you've been hoping for? There's a new covenant that's written in blood.
Mark Medley:I think the deal is all at the root of really probably human existence. But in our hearts, deep in our hearts, we all have a struggle for righteousness and identity. We really want to be right and we're trying to find our identity in something and we long and we work for acceptance and approval and security and significance and even provision all these things we're longing for. But sin has separated us from God, who created us to find all of those things in Him and anything that we look to to provide those things for us. Besides, god is an idol. We're looking to someone else. God is here, but we've displaced him and put something else above him, and we're looking for our identity or our righteousness or our security in something else. And that includes our own works, sometimes our own performance, so we pretend that we're better than we are. Sometimes we try to perform to gain the acceptance that we already have in Jesus. Okay, so we're going to let the word of God do some work in our hearts.
Mark Medley:I'm going to read a passage from Hebrews 10. It's a little bit long, if you want. If you're praying for change in your life, it's going to be worth reading it. Okay, hebrews, chapter 10. Speaking about the work of Jesus, starting at verse 5.
Mark Medley:Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sin offerings, you've taken no pleasure. Then I said behold, I've come to do your will, o God, as it's written of me in the scroll of the book. Behold, I've come to do your will, o God, as it's written of me in the scroll of the book. When he said above, you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings. These are offered according to the law. Then he added Behold, I have come to do your will. He does away with the first in order to establish the second, and by that, by that will, the will of God.
Mark Medley:We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, and every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us. For after saying this is the covenant that I will make with them. After those days, declares the Lord, I will put my laws on their hearts, I will write them on their minds. And he adds, I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. Where there is forgiveness of these, there's no longer an offering for sin. Where there's forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. We don't have to make an offering.
Mark Medley:Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter in the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way that he has opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, with our hearts being sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water from an evil conscience. And our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope, without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. This is good news. What is our confession? We're going to do it this time, god. I'm writing it down, I'm signing it. I'm going to do it this time, god. I'm writing it down, I'm signing it. I'm going to do it. Dug on it. No. Our confession is he is faithful. Jesus is faithful. When I am unfaithful, he is faithful. Should we desire to live in the way that God commands? Of course. Are we able to pull this off in our own power? Of course not. So Paul says to Timothy in chapter 2 of 2 Timothy, verse 13, if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. This is how change happens. We repent and we believe. God takes away our heart of stone. He puts into us a heart of flesh, he puts his spirit inside of us. He causes us to follow. He causes us to follow. We're not signing a declaration of independence, we're not signing a declaration of intention. We're not signing a declaration of intention. We're signing a declaration of dependence. I know that sounds un-American, probably, but a declaration of dependence because he who promised is faithful.
Mark Medley:These restored children of Israel had good intentions about recommitting to God and obeying his law, but they couldn't do it within themselves. You know, jesus was asked one time basically, what's the one thing I need to do to grow or to be right with God? Or we could say, what's the one thing I need to do to grow as a Christian? And in John, chapter six, the crowds ask him that what shall we do to do the works of God? What does God want from us? And here's what he said. They said to him what must we do to be doing the works of God? Jesus answered them this is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent. This is the work of God. This is it. Yeah, we strive to do what's right to make our time holy, to make our business practices holy, to give our love lives to Jesus, to separate everything to him. We strive for that. This is what we want. This is in our hearts because he's put it there.
Mark Medley:But the way you get it, the way change happens, is repenting and believing. This is the first words, first words of Jesus was repent. This is the message of the gospel Repent and believe the good news and this is the good news this morning. Every command of scripture points us to our own inadequacy. It points us to the holiness of God and it points us to the privilege of God and the provision of God that he has made for us. It causes us to look to Jesus as the one who forgives our disobedience and enables our obedience. This is what it says.
Mark Medley:Look unto Jesus. He's the author, he's the finisher. You get that. He's the author, he's the finisher. It's real important. You get that. He's the author, he's the finisher. It's real important. I have to tell you I didn't grow up that way. I grew up in a church culture that is jesus is the author, I'm the finisher, and you know that's kind of our default setting anyway, and sometimes this is what we've been taught. But this is not what the bible says. He's the author and the finisher, he's the alpha, he's the omega. He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it to the day of Jesus Christ, and that's why he gets the glory. He gets the glory, wow, praise God.
Mark Medley:So are you praying for something to change in your life? Here's the process of change. The word of God convicts us. I identify the surface sins. I allow the Holy Spirit to show me the idol, the root sins of those things. I repent, I believe in the work of Jesus and I worship Jesus for the victory over that idol and I look for scriptures to build myself a tower of truth to run to whenever there's some kind of temptation. That's it, and God, who began a good work, will be faithful to complete it. Okay, I want to pray for you. I think this is God's announcements this morning. The announcement is it is finished, the work is done. It's done. It's done. Our work is to believe.
Mark Medley:So, father, you know us, you know our backgrounds, you know what we've been taught, you know our tendencies, you know the pride of our hearts and we want to perform, or we want to pretend that we're something we're not, and all those are just fancy ways to go about establishing our own righteousness, and, lord, that's not what we want.
Mark Medley:We want to live in the righteousness that you have provided us in Jesus. You have, through your body, through your flesh, through one sacrifice for all, made us right with God. So, god, would you just do the work inside, would you just reveal to us this stuff, lord? Give us an apocalypse, a revelation, not of what is going to come, lord, but what has already been done. Give us an understanding, lord, and help us to understand, to repent and to relieve, to receive your power. You're the one that enables our obedience and, god, I thank you that, as we're walking in, that you allow us to share that with other people too. This is going to take your Holy Spirit to set our habits, our thinking, right, lord, but we do it. We change, we turn, not in the ink on paper, lord, but with the blood that was shed that this new covenant is written in. We turn to you. We thank you for what you've done, and may our lives give glory to you, maximum glory to you, in all that we do. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.
