WEBVTT 00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:09.599 What we're going to do for the next three weeks is think together, just for three weeks, about God centeredness. 00:00:09.599 --> 00:00:11.279 What does it look to be? 00:00:11.279 --> 00:00:14.099 God centered as a Christian. 00:00:14.099 --> 00:00:18.980 So we're going to talk today about Christianity and the gospel. 00:00:18.980 --> 00:00:23.120 We're going to talk next week about Christianity and listening. 00:00:23.120 --> 00:00:27.000 It's a little different, listening. 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:31.280 And the third week we're going to talk about Christianity and hope. 00:00:31.280 --> 00:00:32.280 Christianity and hope. 00:00:32.280 --> 00:00:35.479 Three weeks, kind of practical God centeredness. 00:00:35.479 --> 00:00:40.000 Thank you so much to Dr. James Federly for this privilege and the elders. 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:41.439 I do appreciate it. 00:00:41.439 --> 00:00:44.460 I'm thankful for him and I'm thankful for this opportunity. 00:00:44.460 --> 00:00:51.039 So the Christian and the gospel or Christianity and the gospel, I think I've already given you two different titles. 00:00:51.039 --> 00:00:56.320 So we're off to a rip roaring start this morning. 00:00:56.320 --> 00:01:04.319 The point of this seriously, by the way, is just to take stock at the beginning of 2024 and get our bearings. 00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:16.400 This is a good thing to do and just, you know, make sure the compass is pointed true north and get a good sense of where we're headed in the year to come. 00:01:16.400 --> 00:01:18.920 Many Christians value the gospel. 00:01:18.920 --> 00:01:28.599 All true Christians do in fact, but I think sometimes we are tempted to have a deficient understanding of the gospel. 00:01:28.599 --> 00:01:37.879 And by this, I mean we might think of the gospel as an artifact of our past. 00:01:37.879 --> 00:01:44.040 Once upon a time, the gospel got us saved and that's what the gospel is for. 00:01:44.040 --> 00:01:48.140 The gospel is there for us to get saved by. 00:01:48.140 --> 00:01:50.859 And I'm not here to say something different this morning. 00:01:50.859 --> 00:02:03.400 That is what the gospel does and praise God that the gospel saves the good news that Jesus died for sinners and rose to give us eternal life. 00:02:03.400 --> 00:02:08.159 That good news saves sinners as a message. 00:02:08.159 --> 00:02:13.280 And that is primarily what the church exists to proclaim. 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:14.759 That is why we live. 00:02:14.759 --> 00:02:18.560 We live literally for the gospel. 00:02:18.560 --> 00:02:27.879 But there's a way of thinking about the gospel that sees it in the rear view mirror almost exclusively. 00:02:27.879 --> 00:02:29.159 What do I mean? 00:02:29.159 --> 00:02:48.199 I mean, if you grew up in a humble Baptist church like I did and you were a kid and you got a Bible at some point from the church as I did in Coastal, Maine about 30 plus years ago, when you flip to the first page, there was not actually Genesis 1. 00:02:48.199 --> 00:02:58.439 But the first page that was set in that Bible, there was often a little dedication page and it said this commemorates when blank, blank, blank came to faith or these sorts of things. 00:02:58.439 --> 00:03:01.560 And so you wrote the date as best you could remember. 00:03:01.560 --> 00:03:09.800 Does anyone know what I'm talking about in terms of like writing down the day of your salvation in your Bible? 00:03:09.800 --> 00:03:11.439 Can you be bold and raise your hand? 00:03:11.439 --> 00:03:12.840 Who knows what I'm talking about? 00:03:12.840 --> 00:03:13.840 Okay. 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:14.840 All right. 00:03:14.840 --> 00:03:19.120 I covered more than I initially was able to there. 00:03:19.120 --> 00:03:25.879 That's not in any way a bad understanding of Christianity and getting a Bible and writing your name in it. 00:03:25.879 --> 00:03:28.599 That's a wonderful thing to try and do actually. 00:03:28.599 --> 00:03:33.439 But if you're not careful, you can think that's all the gospel's for. 00:03:33.439 --> 00:03:49.520 The gospel was for April 3rd, 1997 or January 10th, 2011 or July 23rd, 1941. 00:03:49.520 --> 00:03:51.759 I'm just spitballing at this point. 00:03:51.759 --> 00:04:06.319 And so the gospel was really important that day when you got saved, when you were conscious that God saved you, but I mean, doesn't really have that much practical effect today. 00:04:06.319 --> 00:04:19.600 If you have ever stayed in a modern hotel, you will know that you get a keycard and you are always faced with a dilemma when you check in, how many keycards do we want? 00:04:19.600 --> 00:04:25.079 Sometimes you think to yourself as a dad, you think we should probably get more than two key cards because we are going to lose these key cards. 00:04:25.079 --> 00:04:29.439 The Strand family stayed at a hotel a few months ago in California. 00:04:29.439 --> 00:04:31.399 I think we went through 11 key cards. 00:04:31.399 --> 00:04:34.639 I don't, we're like, we were losing them as fast as we got them. 00:04:34.639 --> 00:04:36.180 I don't know where they went. 00:04:36.180 --> 00:04:41.100 It's like there's a little keycard monster somewhere underneath the bed who just gobbles up key cards. 00:04:41.100 --> 00:04:44.100 Sounds like something Pixar would come up with, but it's true. 00:04:44.100 --> 00:04:50.240 If we're not careful, we can think of the gospel like a defunct keycard. 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:51.240 Here's what I mean. 00:04:51.240 --> 00:04:53.279 20 years ago, swipe. 00:04:53.279 --> 00:04:54.279 You swiped it. 00:04:54.279 --> 00:04:55.279 The door opened. 00:04:55.279 --> 00:05:00.800 You walked through and you became a Christian, but you have that keycard today. 00:05:00.800 --> 00:05:02.160 You try to go back to that door. 00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:06.519 I very much hope this is the case at Hilton or Marriott or Hyatt or whatever it is. 00:05:06.519 --> 00:05:07.959 You go back to that door. 00:05:07.959 --> 00:05:11.040 You try to swipe that keycard right from 10, 20 years ago. 00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:12.040 Does it work? 00:05:12.040 --> 00:05:14.180 No, no, it better not. 00:05:14.180 --> 00:05:16.240 That is a very bad situation. 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:19.879 If that works in this scenario, okay, I'm angling it. 00:05:19.879 --> 00:05:22.600 Anyway, it doesn't work, right? 00:05:22.600 --> 00:05:24.879 10 years ago, keycard doesn't work. 00:05:24.879 --> 00:05:28.680 It might be valuable then, but it's not really valuable now. 00:05:28.680 --> 00:05:35.279 That is not a right understanding of the gospel as a defunct but valuable keycard. 00:05:35.279 --> 00:05:41.060 You swipe the gospel keycard every day of your life. 00:05:41.060 --> 00:05:43.600 That's what Romans 1, 16, 17 points us to. 00:05:43.600 --> 00:06:23.040 If you want to turn there with me this morning, the apostle Paul in these familiar and glorious word says this, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for in it, in the gospel and the gospel alone," I think we can say by extension, "the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith as it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith.'" Habakkuk 2, 4 being cited there by Paul. 00:06:23.040 --> 00:06:32.199 Okay, so what I'm at pains to say is this, the gospel is not only for our hass. 00:06:32.199 --> 00:06:37.639 For our moment of conversion, the gospel is for all of life. 00:06:37.639 --> 00:06:40.579 The gospel is for every day you live as a Christian. 00:06:40.579 --> 00:06:44.480 The gospel counts you righteous through God-given faith. 00:06:44.480 --> 00:06:52.980 And as verse 17 says, "How do the righteous live?" The righteous live by faith. 00:06:52.980 --> 00:07:07.420 So what you exercise when God saves you, when God regenerates you, saving faith in Christ is what you exercise every day of your life, faith in Christ. 00:07:07.420 --> 00:07:12.560 This isn't some weird theological rendering of the text that isn't really found in the Bible. 00:07:12.560 --> 00:07:32.060 The Bible says to us Old and New Testament, "The righteous shall live by faith." So the instrument of our conversion, if you like technical language, is the instrument of our sanctification. 00:07:32.060 --> 00:07:42.439 We believe on Jesus Christ in faith as God works in our heart, and we keep believing on Jesus Christ by faith every day we live. 00:07:42.439 --> 00:07:44.319 It's said differently. 00:07:44.319 --> 00:07:47.000 We need the gospel every minute we breathe. 00:07:47.000 --> 00:07:51.800 We didn't need it 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago, and now we don't need it. 00:07:51.800 --> 00:07:57.360 We need it every day because the just shall live by faith. 00:07:57.360 --> 00:07:58.620 But how do we do this? 00:07:58.620 --> 00:08:00.439 How does the gospel impact us? 00:08:00.439 --> 00:08:04.639 Four ways the gospel shapes our everyday life. 00:08:04.639 --> 00:08:07.439 Four ways the gospel shapes our everyday life. 00:08:07.439 --> 00:08:20.279 Ordinary, run of the mill, anonymous, grinded out, Christianity of the kind that you are living now in 2024, and I am living just one foot in front of another. 00:08:20.279 --> 00:08:21.279 Four ways. 00:08:21.279 --> 00:08:25.199 First, the gospel shapes how we think about our identity. 00:08:25.199 --> 00:08:28.439 It shapes how we think about our identity. 00:08:28.439 --> 00:08:32.440 I think here I'm just going to go to some different text under each of these four truths. 00:08:32.440 --> 00:08:36.320 So this isn't an exposition, but more of kind of theological teaching. 00:08:36.320 --> 00:08:56.120 I think of 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 11, where Paul tracks various forms of unrighteousness, sexually immoral, 1 Corinthians 6, 9, idolaters, adulterers, men who practice homosexuality, thieves, greedy, drunkards, revilers, swindlers, all these will not inherit the kingdom of God. 00:08:56.120 --> 00:08:57.120 What does he say then? 00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:05.879 "To the Corinthian church, and such were some of you," verse 11, "but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified. 00:09:05.879 --> 00:09:19.080 In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God." For our purposes, the key here is that we do not think of our identity in terms of our past. 00:09:19.080 --> 00:09:24.759 Our identity today is found in Christ as the church. 00:09:24.759 --> 00:09:26.399 That's where your identity is. 00:09:26.399 --> 00:09:36.840 We still battle the flesh in a visceral way, and we have to take sin seriously every single day we live as a Christian. 00:09:36.840 --> 00:09:39.159 We need nothing other than the power of God for it. 00:09:39.159 --> 00:09:41.159 More on that in just a minute. 00:09:41.159 --> 00:09:48.860 However, according to the word of God itself, we are no longer defined by any sin pattern. 00:09:48.860 --> 00:09:55.000 No sin defines you as a Christian. 00:09:55.000 --> 00:10:07.840 Nothing you got mixed up in, in your unbelieving life, whether that was 60 years in the rear view mirror, or whether that was six days ago and you've only just come to faith in Jesus. 00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:14.539 None of that sin pattern or sin patterns that you engaged in defines you. 00:10:14.539 --> 00:10:20.879 You are defined as a Christian by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:10:20.879 --> 00:10:26.440 You have literally taken on the name of Christ, Christian. 00:10:26.440 --> 00:10:27.440 Christian. 00:10:27.440 --> 00:10:31.019 So that's your identity. 00:10:31.019 --> 00:10:41.360 This is a day and an age, I don't think I need to spell this out at length, when we are tempted to define our identity in anything but Christ. 00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:50.360 And people all around us tell us that we are cruel and hateful to them even if we do not define them by, for example, their sexual preferences. 00:10:50.360 --> 00:10:51.360 Yes? 00:10:51.360 --> 00:10:53.039 Are you familiar with this? 00:10:53.039 --> 00:10:59.820 And we are here to say in love, fundamentally, not anger, but in love, you are not defined. 00:10:59.820 --> 00:11:02.720 You are not to be defined by your sin. 00:11:02.720 --> 00:11:06.360 In Christ, you can have such a greater identity. 00:11:06.360 --> 00:11:08.759 You can take on the name of Jesus. 00:11:08.759 --> 00:11:21.679 In fact, Paul goes so far as to say in Colossians 3, 4, this, "When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." What's the key focus here for us? 00:11:21.679 --> 00:11:32.360 When Christ who is your life for the Christian, the sum total of our very existence is Christ. 00:11:32.360 --> 00:11:36.639 Paul equates, this is careful math that I'm doing here. 00:11:36.639 --> 00:11:39.879 You ready for this equation? 00:11:39.879 --> 00:11:43.799 Our life equals sin. 00:11:43.799 --> 00:11:45.600 Christ. 00:11:45.600 --> 00:11:47.120 That's it. 00:11:47.120 --> 00:11:50.200 All the questions of identity then are settled. 00:11:50.200 --> 00:11:52.000 You're not raging. 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:56.799 You're not scrambling, scrambling around trying to find your true identity. 00:11:56.799 --> 00:12:01.600 As a Christian, your identity is Jesus. 00:12:01.600 --> 00:12:07.320 There's no better name that could be given to you, applied to you than this. 00:12:07.320 --> 00:12:14.919 So this is really the central battle of the Christian life, to remember who we are and whose we are. 00:12:14.919 --> 00:12:19.159 That's the central battle of the Christian life, to remember who we are. 00:12:19.159 --> 00:12:20.519 Wait, wait, wait, wait. 00:12:20.519 --> 00:12:22.519 Okay, this is not my best day. 00:12:22.519 --> 00:12:24.360 That was not my best hour. 00:12:24.360 --> 00:12:27.440 That was not my best conversation. 00:12:27.440 --> 00:12:29.000 But who am I? 00:12:29.000 --> 00:12:30.500 Oh yes. 00:12:30.500 --> 00:12:31.659 I've been washed. 00:12:31.659 --> 00:12:33.080 I've been sanctified. 00:12:33.080 --> 00:12:40.600 I've been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of the living God. 00:12:40.600 --> 00:12:43.639 That is who I am. 00:12:43.639 --> 00:12:47.759 Second truth about the gospel and Christianity. 00:12:47.759 --> 00:13:01.440 And there, by the way, was a form of gospel centeredness that cropped up in some evangelical circles in the last 10 or so years ago that wasn't always applied, I would say, very well. 00:13:01.440 --> 00:13:07.639 And there were some good intentions with that term, but the term got a little bit wonky and came to mean some different things. 00:13:07.639 --> 00:13:10.159 I don't have time to talk about that in depth. 00:13:10.159 --> 00:13:17.919 So there's a certain kind of skepticism that some folks might have towards even the term gospel centered or gospel centrality or something like this. 00:13:17.919 --> 00:13:27.159 And I understand some of that, but I want to say just from the Bible itself, gospel matters to us, whatever term we specifically use. 00:13:27.159 --> 00:13:33.279 The second way the gospel affects the Christian, I'm thinking about Christians here with you this morning. 00:13:33.279 --> 00:13:36.279 The gospel shapes how we think about our sin. 00:13:36.279 --> 00:13:41.120 The gospel shapes how we think about our sin. 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:49.279 We have to, as believers, very carefully define our relationship to sin. 00:13:49.279 --> 00:13:54.440 It's actually a good bit more complex than we might initially think. 00:13:54.440 --> 00:14:14.559 On the one hand, in theological circles, you have people who would emphasize that in sanctification, in becoming more godly, you can effectively pray a very powerful prayer in like a big service and you can kind of consecrate yourself once and for all to God. 00:14:14.559 --> 00:14:28.759 And if you will just do that often in a very emotional setting, then you can basically achieve a state of it's called different things, but entire sanctification or the victorious life or other realities. 00:14:28.759 --> 00:14:31.360 So if I'll just pray, I've got a sin pattern. 00:14:31.360 --> 00:14:32.799 I've got to get out of this. 00:14:32.799 --> 00:14:34.240 I consecrate everything. 00:14:34.240 --> 00:14:41.559 If I'll just pray a prayer like that, I'll become basically functionally sinless. 00:14:41.559 --> 00:14:47.179 Okay, so that's one way to approach sin in Christian circles. 00:14:47.179 --> 00:14:54.980 The other end of the spectrum, the other extreme would be I am so sinful that I have no power over sin. 00:14:54.980 --> 00:14:56.879 I have no control over it. 00:14:56.879 --> 00:14:59.879 Literally, I can't make any progress in it. 00:14:59.879 --> 00:15:08.039 In fact, there are some on the other side who will say repentance isn't even really a part of the Christian life. 00:15:08.039 --> 00:15:31.240 That's become a viable form of theology that was associated sadly with Dallas Seminary some years ago, some decades ago, not that everybody at Dallas believed it and not that Dallas didn't do a bunch of good work because Dallas did, but that came to be associated with some at Dallas, the Free Grace Movement, it's sometimes called. 00:15:31.240 --> 00:15:33.639 So you've got two ends. 00:15:33.639 --> 00:15:37.639 One you effectively don't sin as a Christian. 00:15:37.639 --> 00:15:42.200 The other you don't really have to repent or different forms of this. 00:15:42.200 --> 00:15:44.519 You're so broken, you can't make any progress. 00:15:44.519 --> 00:15:46.559 You're just kind of trapped. 00:15:46.559 --> 00:15:49.480 You're saved, but you're trapped. 00:15:49.480 --> 00:15:54.960 Here's what I want to give you as best I can, the biblical perspective. 00:15:54.960 --> 00:15:57.840 Sin is a problem for all of us. 00:15:57.840 --> 00:16:06.159 It's a problem for every single person in here, all of us, but sin has met its match in the blood of Jesus. 00:16:06.159 --> 00:16:10.480 Jesus has cleansed our sins as Christians. 00:16:10.480 --> 00:16:21.659 So we go to God and we freely confess our sins, not in fear, not thinking that we're about to lose our salvation, not something like this. 00:16:21.659 --> 00:16:26.960 We hear the witness of 1 John 1, 7 through 9, 1 John 1, 7 through 9. 00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:36.059 "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. 00:16:36.059 --> 00:16:40.080 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 00:16:40.080 --> 00:16:59.799 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Now the point here is not that you and I would now become perfectionists of confession. 00:16:59.799 --> 00:17:01.799 None of us confess a sin as we should. 00:17:01.799 --> 00:17:03.480 Let that be said. 00:17:03.480 --> 00:17:05.160 We won't. 00:17:05.160 --> 00:17:10.880 Even in our confession of sin, we will sin is what I'm saying. 00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:22.119 However, the focus in the text is on being cleansed from our sin, confessing our sin honestly and God being faithful. 00:17:22.119 --> 00:17:26.960 Look at how John points us to the character of God, doesn't he? 00:17:26.960 --> 00:17:40.220 Verse 9, "He is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse." Over and over and over again, God's character never changes. 00:17:40.220 --> 00:17:46.039 God never stops being faithful and just to forgive and cleanse. 00:17:46.039 --> 00:17:48.359 You don't run out of grace. 00:17:48.359 --> 00:17:50.359 You don't run out of mercy. 00:17:50.359 --> 00:17:52.240 You don't run out of love. 00:17:52.240 --> 00:17:56.319 It's an ever flowing fountain from the cross of Christ into your life. 00:17:56.319 --> 00:17:59.079 You never run dry. 00:17:59.079 --> 00:18:01.400 That's not a license to sin. 00:18:01.400 --> 00:18:02.960 That's not at all a license to sin. 00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:06.359 That's the wrong way to think about sin. 00:18:06.359 --> 00:18:08.400 Christians want to please their heavenly Father. 00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:10.500 That's the right way to think about sin. 00:18:10.500 --> 00:18:15.180 And yet you never run out of grace. 00:18:15.180 --> 00:18:45.160 And so that means, friends, that this week, Monday to Saturday, when you get into some stuff, whether in your own individual mind or through a device or through a family member or through a coworker, a friend or a roommate or whatever it may be, when sin shows up in your life, you bring the gospel to that and you bring confession of sin with you and you recognize that God is faithful and just to forgive you. 00:18:45.160 --> 00:18:49.380 And so you recognize that you are not defined by your sin. 00:18:49.380 --> 00:18:53.079 You are defined by Christ. 00:18:53.079 --> 00:18:58.039 Third truth, the gospel shapes how we think about our growth. 00:18:58.039 --> 00:19:02.359 The gospel shapes how we think about our growth as believers, I'm saying. 00:19:02.359 --> 00:19:08.920 Sometimes Christians think that the primary way they grow is by drenching themselves in law. 00:19:08.920 --> 00:19:20.079 Let this be said, the word of God instructs, convicts, corrects, edifies, and builds up in righteousness, the whole counsel of God, the whole Bible. 00:19:20.079 --> 00:19:27.220 We need to consider and even confront the moral imperatives and moral priorities of God's word. 00:19:27.220 --> 00:19:28.440 Every Christian does. 00:19:28.440 --> 00:19:37.200 Doing so teaches us and exposes sin to be very sure and we all need that in an ongoing basis. 00:19:37.200 --> 00:19:38.359 Not once every six months. 00:19:38.359 --> 00:19:41.519 Let's take a little peek at God's moral priorities. 00:19:41.519 --> 00:19:43.640 Am I living up to these? 00:19:43.640 --> 00:19:44.640 Nope. 00:19:44.640 --> 00:19:47.200 Well, sorry, I'll be back in six months to see that. 00:19:47.200 --> 00:19:52.640 No, this is part of why we do things like Bible reading plans. 00:19:52.640 --> 00:19:55.119 You don't have to do a Bible reading plan. 00:19:55.119 --> 00:19:57.640 You're not justified by your Bible reading plan. 00:19:57.640 --> 00:20:01.559 However, Bible reading plans are good. 00:20:01.559 --> 00:20:04.160 We've started them in our household. 00:20:04.160 --> 00:20:05.160 It's been good. 00:20:05.160 --> 00:20:08.680 I had a nudge from my wife to do the Bible reading plan. 00:20:08.680 --> 00:20:11.000 We're reading some big sections of scripture. 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:12.200 It's so good. 00:20:12.200 --> 00:20:13.200 It's so good for us. 00:20:13.200 --> 00:20:16.079 It's part of what happens when you're reading chunks of scripture. 00:20:16.079 --> 00:20:20.240 There's different styles and speeds you can read the Bible, of course. 00:20:20.240 --> 00:20:34.759 But when you are in different places of the Bible on a daily or regular basis, whatever your specific reading plan is of scripture, isn't it amazing how random texts will convict you and expose sin? 00:20:34.759 --> 00:20:36.880 You're not even looking for it. 00:20:36.880 --> 00:20:39.200 This is what the Word of God does. 00:20:39.200 --> 00:20:41.559 But that's only the first part. 00:20:41.559 --> 00:20:43.680 That's only the first part. 00:20:43.680 --> 00:20:54.599 The primary instrument of growth in the Christian life in the New Covenant is gospel grace mediated through the power of the Holy Spirit. 00:20:54.599 --> 00:20:55.839 Gospel grace. 00:20:55.839 --> 00:21:01.900 That's the primary means of growth for the Christian. 00:21:01.900 --> 00:21:07.240 You think of numerous texts, I think, that teach this in different forms. 00:21:07.240 --> 00:21:12.839 Connecting New Covenant to gospel to Christ theologically here. 00:21:12.839 --> 00:21:14.599 Ezekiel 36, 27. 00:21:14.599 --> 00:21:16.359 This is the promise of the New Covenant. 00:21:16.359 --> 00:21:27.039 I will put my spirit within you, God says to his people, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. 00:21:27.039 --> 00:21:31.799 Did you hear that strong sovereign language? 00:21:31.799 --> 00:21:37.039 Cause you to walk in my statutes. 00:21:37.039 --> 00:21:43.119 That is tremendously encouraging. 00:21:43.119 --> 00:21:45.160 I will cause you. 00:21:45.160 --> 00:21:46.799 Do we love the sovereignty of God? 00:21:46.799 --> 00:21:48.599 Do we want the sovereignty of God? 00:21:48.599 --> 00:21:49.599 Yes, we do. 00:21:49.599 --> 00:21:53.640 We want a God who causes us through his spirit to walk in his ways. 00:21:53.640 --> 00:21:56.519 Philippians 2 in the New Testament 12 and 13. 00:21:56.519 --> 00:22:06.000 Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. 00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:07.160 There it is again. 00:22:07.160 --> 00:22:20.240 It's God who is working in you to make you want to read that Bible day after day after day who is making you want to confess your sin over and over again and on it goes. 00:22:20.240 --> 00:22:21.359 Colossians 1, 29. 00:22:21.359 --> 00:22:24.279 It's almost like this is a theme. 00:22:24.279 --> 00:22:32.579 For this I toil struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. 00:22:32.579 --> 00:22:35.720 Is that how you think about your sanctification? 00:22:35.720 --> 00:22:38.599 God is powerfully working within you. 00:22:38.599 --> 00:22:39.599 God is. 00:22:39.599 --> 00:22:41.240 It's not driven by your effort. 00:22:41.240 --> 00:22:42.440 It's not jump started by you. 00:22:42.440 --> 00:22:44.839 It's not even dependent on you. 00:22:44.839 --> 00:22:46.940 It's dependent on God. 00:22:46.940 --> 00:22:50.279 God is powerfully working within Christians. 00:22:50.279 --> 00:22:52.519 This is what the Bible says. 00:22:52.519 --> 00:22:54.720 Second Timothy 2 verse 1. 00:22:54.720 --> 00:23:02.400 Finally, "You then my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 00:23:02.400 --> 00:23:06.920 Be strengthened by grace." It's there. 00:23:06.920 --> 00:23:09.400 It's in Christ Jesus for you. 00:23:09.400 --> 00:23:10.480 It's available. 00:23:10.480 --> 00:23:15.319 It's not kept behind lock and key in a vault. 00:23:15.319 --> 00:23:26.400 And you have to know a guy who knows a guy who knows the combination and once in a while he'll venture to open the vault and take out a little vial and drop a little drop of grace in your life. 00:23:26.400 --> 00:23:33.079 So it's a rushing torrential fountain of grace in your life and it strengthens you. 00:23:33.079 --> 00:23:36.220 And that is how you can honor God. 00:23:36.220 --> 00:23:38.259 That is how you can obey God. 00:23:38.259 --> 00:23:41.240 That is how 2024 can be a year. 00:23:41.240 --> 00:23:46.400 Whatever comes in terms of trials and challenges and they've already started to come haven't they? 00:23:46.400 --> 00:23:52.079 They've already started to knock on the door for you and for me in different forms. 00:23:52.079 --> 00:23:59.279 And yet grace is strengthening all who are in Christ Jesus. 00:23:59.279 --> 00:24:04.279 Fourth the gospel shapes how we think about our future. 00:24:04.279 --> 00:24:10.079 The gospel shapes how we think about our future. 00:24:10.079 --> 00:24:18.559 Colossians 1 23 a text I've referenced a few times in recent months from this very pulpit. 00:24:18.559 --> 00:24:21.759 The gospel is not a burdensome message. 00:24:21.759 --> 00:24:24.480 It's not a burden laid on your shoulders. 00:24:24.480 --> 00:24:26.839 It's the relief of a burden. 00:24:26.839 --> 00:32:02.200 The gospel gives hope as Paul tells the Colossians if indeed you continue in the faith stable and steadfast not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven and of which I Paul became a minister much there as with all these texts leaving much fruit on the vine so to speak and yet what's the focus for us this morning that we would not shift from the condemnation of the gospel from the burden of the gospel from the sadness of the gospel from the soap the gospel gives you unending hope circumstances don't you look to your circumstances sometimes they may feel hopeful sometimes they may not I'm doing some youth basketball coaching for example and I'm reminding myself or getting reminded I should say I should use the passive voice there just how up and down the coaching and sporting life can be I am plunged back into the world of 12 year old boys basketball and suffering defeats for example on occasion and being reminded just how my emotions can be up and down with a 12 year old boys basketball game you know let alone much bigger things in life honestly I've had moments with a boys basketball season where I've needed to preach the gospel to myself and say I need the hope of the gospel the hope of my life is not this team and its record I can make it that functionally we all can do this we all find our hope and something circumstantial something shifting something fading something temporary something small or something medium or something even that feels big but none of these things is as big as the gospel that is where Paul an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ says to find your hope and there is ever flowing hope in this gospel we need to conclude a few closing applications first relentlessly make the gospel your focus just over and over again talk about it as a couple talk about it in your family talk about it with your friends fellow church members roommates as a single person whatever it may be whatever your station in life is strategize together strategize together is the gospel our focus right now how are we doing with keeping God's grace these things again are kind of synonymous how are we keeping how are we doing with keeping Christ the center how are we doing is gospel grace looming large in our family we're all going to dip but how are we doing okay let's go back to this let's relentlessly make the gospel our focus not ourselves not our sin not the law gospel grace it's the banner over the Christian line for every believer second in families in families now point of application here specifically men must lead in applying the gospel we men and we all falter in this too we men need to lead in carving out and fighting for and championing a gospel focus and we need to lead in applying the gospel and here's one practical application if we are talking a big game about confession and repentance to the next generation our kids need need to know the gospel and repent based on it we need to be modeling repentance we need to model confession of sin I don't mean every 15 minutes we gather the family for a huddle and say well dad in the last 11 minutes you know I wasn't I wasn't focused we can't do that that that won't be productive okay so I'm not talking about some kind of crazy wild-eyed focus in this sense but I am talking about a regular rhythm of confession and repentance of sin and we we don't just lead in family worship on the nights or days we're able to do that some days are better than others we lead in confessing it's easier to teach this from here to say this in public than it is to do it and yet we've got to lead in applying the gospel as men third we've got to remember we can't force people to embrace Christ we can't force people can't force our kids to embrace Christ can't make them embrace Christ we can't do it we can't make our neighbors we can't make our co-workers embrace Christ you know what's going to be really appealing to our kids to our co-workers to people in Conway or surrounding environs a gospel saturated life with a whole lot of God's grace in our testimony that will have an effect that will have just a natural organic effect it's not so much program it's icing out your witness and how you're gonna do this and a 29 step process it's more just living as a Christian and showing people the joy of the genuine Christian life that will have an effect it will be attractive to people and appealing to them and finally finally watch your heart carefully watch your heart carefully so you live in gospel hope watch your heart carefully so you live in gospel hope it's 2024 it's an election year it's gonna get hot out there okay we're all gonna be tempted to cast about for political solutions we're gonna get tempted to ramp things up I'm not saying there's not a place for a conviction witness and taking a stand and voting and getting involved in the public square because there definitely is but I am saying our hope is not in politics our hope isn't even in this country our hope isn't in any earthly thing our hope isn't in overtaking the culture our hope isn't in Christianizing the nation our hope is in the gospel that is where our hope is found our hope is in Christ and here's some good news Christ is undefeated Christ is going to win this whatever comes in these wild days in a ribbon civilization like America and and we pray for this to endure we pray for common grace put all your hope in Jesus that's what happened in the moment of your conversion and that's what you do every single day of your life let's pray father please help us to live out these things it's easier to say these things it's easier to sit here and listen to these things than it is to live out these things and apply these things we need your spirit for that please father strengthen us through your spirit we pray in the name of Jesus amen. 00:32:02.200 --> 00:32:02.700 Amen. 00:32:03.200 --> 00:32:07.180 [ Silence ]