WEBVTT 00:00:01.600 --> 00:00:04.080 Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast. 00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:08.960 We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ. 00:00:09.199 --> 00:00:10.320 Thanks for tuning in. 00:00:12.480 --> 00:00:19.519 If we haven't gotten a chance to meet yet, my name is Roland, and I get the honor and privilege of serving as our church's youth director. 00:00:19.839 --> 00:00:21.600 Uh thank you guys. 00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:23.920 Doesn't that make you want my job? 00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:35.200 Uh anyway, well, like we said, it's really fun to kick off the new year together, and it's no secret right after this weekend uh that we made it to 2022. 00:00:35.679 --> 00:00:37.759 And yeah, alright. 00:00:38.399 --> 00:00:42.079 And with it comes all the typical New Year's traditions, right? 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:52.240 The ball dropping, maybe some small get-togethers, uh reminiscing on the last year, maybe new gym memberships, or a new fitness watch. 00:00:52.640 --> 00:01:01.920 Uh but really what I love about the new year and any like typical American holidays is all the like pithy sayings and all the cliches we say around this time. 00:01:02.399 --> 00:01:03.520 Uh here are a few, right? 00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:05.439 Like new year, new me, right? 00:01:05.519 --> 00:01:06.640 Everyone knows that one. 00:01:06.799 --> 00:01:09.840 Uh I'm going to be more serious about working out. 00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:13.680 Or like I'm gonna start going to church more this year. 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:19.359 Um, or this is gonna be my year, which I think we stopped saying in 2020, right? 00:01:19.519 --> 00:01:20.719 No one says that anymore. 00:01:20.879 --> 00:01:23.120 Uh but this one's my personal favorite. 00:01:23.519 --> 00:01:31.040 Uh this this one goes like this May all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions. 00:01:31.359 --> 00:01:32.000 Amen. 00:01:33.280 --> 00:01:33.840 Amen. 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:35.840 And I'm poking fun at it, right? 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:53.680 But our language around this time, it typically revolves around wanting change, uh, about new rhythms and goals and resolutions, um, which I totally get because I think around this time we we all start to catch the bug, but but I caught the bug a little bit earlier this time around. 00:01:53.840 --> 00:01:57.439 Uh I wanted all that back in October. 00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:00.480 A few things lined up just right in September. 00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:07.439 Um, first thing, right, I had to go to my first in-person seminary class for the first time in like during the pandemic. 00:02:07.599 --> 00:02:11.759 And if you've ever been to Western Seminary's campus, you know you have to go up these flight of stairs. 00:02:11.840 --> 00:02:23.360 So I had like my three like small textbooks, and I walked up the stairs, and I got to the top, and I was huffing and puffing, and then I remember, I remember getting to the top before I opened the door, I was like, oh no. 00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:24.800 I'm tired. 00:02:24.960 --> 00:02:26.319 Like, that was hard. 00:02:26.560 --> 00:02:28.879 That same month, right, September. 00:02:29.039 --> 00:02:31.439 Uh, Awakening Youth is just like kicking off. 00:02:31.520 --> 00:02:33.599 So we're getting into the full swing of things. 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:38.960 And I think what had happened is we ate a lot of pizza that month, and I was really starting to feel it. 00:02:39.120 --> 00:02:40.319 It was not good. 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:51.759 But the kicker was uh in that towards the end of that same month, Ari, right, my wife, she showed me uh that someone had completed a perfect fitness month on their Apple Watch. 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:55.840 And if if you don't know like how an Apple Watch works, what it does, is it does a few things. 00:02:55.919 --> 00:03:06.960 It try when it comes to your fitness, the way it displays all that is it tracks like how long you stood up, uh how much how much time you spent exercising and how many calories you supposedly burned. 00:03:07.120 --> 00:03:10.800 And Ari showed me someone that completed it for like a whole month straight. 00:03:11.039 --> 00:03:15.120 And my competitive nature and myself is like, oh, I I can do that. 00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:20.000 In fact, I think I need to do that, but more importantly, I can do that. 00:03:20.719 --> 00:03:22.479 So October came, right? 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:31.120 October came and I set out to reverse some of the damage that I had done to my body that I blamed on the pandemic, not my own doing, it was all the actors around me. 00:03:31.360 --> 00:03:35.680 So for 31 days, I became a little bit obsessive. 00:03:35.840 --> 00:03:38.159 I started going on runs at like 10 p.m. 00:03:38.319 --> 00:03:40.719 My mom came to visit and I was like, hey, I think I'm gonna go on a run. 00:03:40.800 --> 00:03:42.560 I'll be back in like six miles. 00:03:42.719 --> 00:03:48.719 Uh I started doing jumping jacks in our living room to like trick my watch into thinking I was working out. 00:03:48.960 --> 00:03:51.759 Um I hate to admit this in front of my bosses. 00:03:51.919 --> 00:03:56.800 I was at the office and I would like take more bathroom bakes so I could get those standing hours in. 00:03:57.439 --> 00:04:00.879 All the all these things I had to do to get a perfect month, but you know what? 00:04:00.960 --> 00:04:01.759 I did it. 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:02.719 I did it. 00:04:02.879 --> 00:04:03.680 I got 31. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:05.039 Don't don't cheer yet. 00:04:05.199 --> 00:04:07.360 I did it, I got it all done. 00:04:07.680 --> 00:04:10.879 But the second November 1st came, you know what happened? 00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:12.800 It all went down the drain. 00:04:13.199 --> 00:04:15.360 It all just was all for nothing. 00:04:15.599 --> 00:04:25.680 Because, truth be told, once November 1st hit, uh I hate to admit this as well, but I can count on less than one hand how many runs I've been on since. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:26.720 It was bad. 00:04:26.879 --> 00:04:35.920 And the only thing that really kept me pushing through that competitive nature of me, sure, was really though to have a sweet Instagram post at the end of the month. 00:04:36.079 --> 00:04:38.240 And a sweet Instagram post I had. 00:04:38.800 --> 00:04:42.639 Um, but through all the sore stress and silliness, that that's what happened. 00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:45.199 And I'm being silly about it, right? 00:04:45.360 --> 00:04:53.279 But after making and breaking resolutions, right, that whole month that I had, that's typically how a lot of our New Year's resolutions go. 00:04:53.439 --> 00:05:01.120 We're happy that it lasts for a week, a couple weeks, a month, and for the really like studious, like maybe a couple months. 00:05:01.360 --> 00:05:14.319 And I'm being silly, but after making and breaking resolutions for decades now, I know I'm older than I look, I've become somewhat hardened to the idea that these things really have like everlasting change. 00:05:14.480 --> 00:05:14.800 Right? 00:05:14.959 --> 00:05:22.800 We set out the new year and we have all these wants and desires for a new me, a new better, a new and improved version. 00:05:22.959 --> 00:05:27.120 We see the all the like flaws, and we're like, okay, we need to work on that this year. 00:05:27.600 --> 00:05:38.480 And what's happened, right, is I think I've become pretty cynical to the idea of making resolutions around this year because usually, like my fitness month back in October, they don't last. 00:05:39.519 --> 00:05:41.439 And I know it's true for all of us. 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:46.399 We we all want to see growth, change, joy, career advancement, purpose, right? 00:05:46.480 --> 00:05:47.600 That's what we all want. 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:51.519 We we want to learn, improve, create a plan, be better. 00:05:52.319 --> 00:06:06.079 And yet, like the new Apple watches, the gym memberships being renewed, all the promises we make to ourselves, all of our planners and all that, we're often constantly met with disappointment, right? 00:06:06.399 --> 00:06:15.519 Or we we strive and strive and strive, but we throw our hands up in the air because of how unsustainable that pace is or that grit becomes. 00:06:15.759 --> 00:06:22.079 And I know it's only January 2nd today, and I know most of us are still strong on our New Year's resolutions. 00:06:22.720 --> 00:06:28.240 But what happens when we don't feel that same way at the end of the month or in February or March? 00:06:29.279 --> 00:06:35.920 What's really worse, or what what's really problematic, I guess, is that disbelief about change in our life. 00:06:36.079 --> 00:06:46.879 Uh, that that disbelief about seeing change that'll last in the things that we want to see happen in our lives, that that actually seeps into our discipleship to Jesus. 00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:47.600 Right? 00:06:47.759 --> 00:06:52.160 It happens in the weightier things, the deeper things, the things that we really care about. 00:06:52.560 --> 00:06:57.600 Uh as we think about being more generous or compassionate and loving, gentle, and kind. 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:07.120 Some sometimes, and dare I say, oftentimes, when we s when we set out on these really noble and godly things, we find ourselves in a rut. 00:07:07.439 --> 00:07:07.680 Right? 00:07:07.839 --> 00:07:10.959 Maybe we go strong for a little bit and we find ourselves stuck. 00:07:11.279 --> 00:07:17.439 We go to group, we come to church, we try reading our Bibles in a year, and yet there's no change. 00:07:17.680 --> 00:07:17.920 Right? 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:24.319 We we try to muster all that we have inside of ourselves only to make it all fizzle out. 00:07:24.800 --> 00:07:29.439 As hard as we try to make our lives look like Jesus, and it's like our New Year's resolutions, right? 00:07:29.680 --> 00:07:31.040 They just fizzle out. 00:07:31.279 --> 00:07:36.079 And we feel stuck and we start to think, maybe I'm the one that God can't change. 00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:37.600 Maybe it maybe it's just me. 00:07:37.680 --> 00:07:41.600 Maybe I'm the like exception for God to change my life. 00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:43.199 Do you ever feel that way? 00:07:43.519 --> 00:07:52.240 Do you feel that way about when you follow Jesus that it's just hard, that you feel stuck, that you ever feel in a rut, that things just aren't changing despite your best efforts? 00:07:52.560 --> 00:08:00.160 I know it's true in my life, and probably true for you, if you follow Jesus long enough, that would be true at some point for you as well. 00:08:01.120 --> 00:08:07.839 Well, today, church, as as as we celebrate the new year and take communion together, there's good news. 00:08:08.079 --> 00:08:13.199 There's good news if if you feel like you're stuck in your spiritual life. 00:08:13.360 --> 00:08:20.160 If you feel like you've tried everything to make make God-honoring change, uh and a month from now you can't keep all of it. 00:08:20.319 --> 00:08:21.759 There's good news for you. 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:27.439 There's good news if there's these resolutions that you've made that you can't keep for more than a couple weeks. 00:08:27.680 --> 00:08:35.200 There's good news as we open up our scriptures together, uh, if you feel the need for maybe something new. 00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:41.759 Uh if you've got your Bibles, what we're gonna be doing is this morning we'll be turning to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 00:08:41.919 --> 00:08:47.279 But as you get there, um, what's going on is the Apostle Paul is writing this letter. 00:08:47.519 --> 00:09:00.879 And in it, where we're gonna start is he's having found this new life in Christ, he writes on kind of this discontent that we feel towards the end of the month, or around this time, or when we start to break some of these resolutions. 00:09:01.120 --> 00:09:07.519 He talks about this discontent that we have, and he offers us some truth in the midst of trying to change. 00:09:07.840 --> 00:09:09.919 He actually gives us some hope. 00:09:10.159 --> 00:09:10.480 Right? 00:09:10.559 --> 00:09:19.360 And often during the new year, we feel like we just need new rhythms or a clean slate, and often we take that same mindset and try to apply that to our spiritual lives. 00:09:19.440 --> 00:09:22.559 We just need new rhythms and maybe just a clean slate. 00:09:23.360 --> 00:09:49.360 But when it comes to our sanctification or this like fancy theology word uh for becoming more like Jesus, when it comes to that, uh the apostle Paul he writes that instead of instead of maybe that just new slate or new rhythms or just this happening or this like lining up the right way, he says instead through a new perspective, a new reality, and a new activity, we can find our hope anchored in Jesus. 00:09:50.080 --> 00:09:56.720 So in this passage of scripture, Paul, what he's doing, right, he's reflecting on the power of Christ, of Jesus in our personal change. 00:09:56.879 --> 00:10:09.440 And in these verses, what he's doing is he's helping, he's he's exploring the hope that we can have in Jesus and not just wish for change, not just like hope for change, but expect it in our lives. 00:10:09.759 --> 00:10:14.080 So if you're you've turned there with me in chapter five, we'll start in verse 16. 00:10:14.480 --> 00:10:16.159 This is what he writes. 00:10:16.399 --> 00:10:29.600 From now on, therefore, and the therefore that Paul's talking about, uh, he's referring to the death and resurrection of Jesus and the controlling power of Christ's love in his life and how it's changing everything in him and affecting the way he lives. 00:10:29.679 --> 00:10:31.440 That's the therefore he's talking about. 00:10:31.679 --> 00:10:35.679 Therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. 00:10:36.080 --> 00:10:42.879 Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 00:10:44.080 --> 00:10:48.559 So when it comes to transformation in Jesus, where does Paul start? 00:10:48.639 --> 00:10:48.799 Right? 00:10:48.960 --> 00:11:05.120 For Paul, he says the salvation found in Jesus, what that has done, it has ceased him, it has stopped him altogether from making these superficial outward judgments about people simply based on like the exterior or their appearances. 00:11:05.360 --> 00:11:05.679 Right? 00:11:05.759 --> 00:11:10.799 Because of this, Paul can say, we regard no one according to the flesh. 00:11:11.120 --> 00:11:13.759 And when he's saying this, right, what does that really mean? 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:30.000 Well, what he's what he's saying is social status, physical fitness, money, even charisma, uh over-emphasizing all of that, it it's putting all of our value in things that don't last or don't really matter or should be lower on the totem pole. 00:11:30.320 --> 00:11:32.080 They're all on non-lasting things. 00:11:32.240 --> 00:11:38.480 And essentially, right, he's saying that the things of this world is not what we should ascribe worth to. 00:11:38.720 --> 00:11:41.120 Social status, etc., what we just said. 00:11:42.240 --> 00:11:44.799 And that's not new for most of us to hear, right? 00:11:44.879 --> 00:11:48.559 We we cut if you've come to church long enough, you've heard that and you know that. 00:11:48.879 --> 00:12:05.279 But the insidious thing, the easy thing for us to do in this new year is to forget that, uh, is to try and make these new resolutions and find our worth in them, to use uh our goals as a measuring stick uh in January around this time. 00:12:05.519 --> 00:12:13.039 If we aren't losing the pounds, if we're not making the right amount of money, if we're not reading the number of books we set out to read, we feel like we're failing. 00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:25.840 But what Paul says, right, is when it comes to our resolutions and even our godliness, that we must first put our worth uh in who Jesus says we are. 00:12:26.480 --> 00:12:27.840 That's where we have to start. 00:12:28.159 --> 00:12:31.759 And the best way I can explain this is how someone's explained it to me. 00:12:32.159 --> 00:12:34.720 Has anybody ever seen a$100 bill? 00:12:35.039 --> 00:12:36.960 Some of us, one of us. 00:12:38.879 --> 00:12:46.320 The worth, right, of a of a$100 bill in the US, it's not determined by its shape, size, or color. 00:12:46.559 --> 00:12:56.480 And concurrently, right, or at the same time, the the uh$1 bill, it has the same shape, size, color as the$100 bill. 00:12:56.720 --> 00:13:07.039 And in the States, right, we know that if you want to know the value or the worth of a certain dollar bill, what matters is whose image is on it, right? 00:13:07.759 --> 00:13:13.360 So if you have George Washington's image on this little green piece of paper, you know you have a$1 bill. 00:13:13.440 --> 00:13:20.399 And if you have a Benjamin Franklin image on your little green piece of paper, then you know you have a$100 bill. 00:13:20.960 --> 00:13:23.440 So how how do you determine your worth, right? 00:13:23.600 --> 00:13:26.559 It's you need to know whose image you bear. 00:13:28.080 --> 00:13:30.480 With uh with the money analogy, right? 00:13:30.559 --> 00:13:32.960 How much is a crisp, clean,$100 bill worth? 00:13:33.200 --> 00:13:33.600 $100. 00:13:34.080 --> 00:13:42.399 How much is a crumpled, dirty, maybe a little wet, you found it in your couch, I don't know who does this$100 bill. 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:46.879 Also worth$100, right? 00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:47.679 Why? 00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:53.200 Because the image might be hard to see, might need a little bit of cleaning, but the image is still there. 00:13:53.360 --> 00:13:54.720 It's still worth the same. 00:13:54.799 --> 00:13:55.840 It's still worth$100. 00:13:57.039 --> 00:13:58.720 And the same is true for us. 00:13:58.879 --> 00:14:06.879 How much more for us who follow Jesus, who bear Christ, who bear the image of God, that is where our worth starts. 00:14:07.039 --> 00:14:15.919 So what Paul is telling us with these opening lines as he starts this passage, he says our value is based on what? 00:14:16.080 --> 00:14:18.159 The righteousness of Jesus alone. 00:14:18.480 --> 00:14:25.120 It's not based on our own merit, our own righteousness, our accomplishments, our perfect attendance at church. 00:14:25.679 --> 00:14:26.639 It's not on that. 00:14:26.720 --> 00:14:30.559 It's on what Jesus has done and is doing in our lives. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:34.639 And this is true of how we view others as well, right? 00:14:34.720 --> 00:14:38.320 It's true of how we view others, but also how we see ourselves. 00:14:38.639 --> 00:14:44.000 Our success, our lack of success, uh it doesn't define our worth. 00:14:44.960 --> 00:14:57.519 Um, like no matter how much we pray, how much we read our Bibles, whatever amount of gym like membership, perfect attendance that you have, it doesn't change a thing. 00:14:58.240 --> 00:15:02.159 Our value is still based on whose image we bear. 00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:10.159 And the good news, right, of Jesus' gospel is that uh we can we don't have to worry about those things anymore, right? 00:15:10.240 --> 00:15:16.240 We don't have to like have this record of this is how much I'm worth today, or this is how much I was worth last week. 00:15:16.399 --> 00:15:18.960 It's all the same because of whose image that we have. 00:15:19.120 --> 00:15:23.120 And that's the new perspective that Paul wants us to start with. 00:15:23.360 --> 00:15:24.639 But he goes on, right? 00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:33.679 He he in this new perspective, Paul goes on though and says that in the same way, we also need a new perspective on who Jesus is, right? 00:15:33.840 --> 00:15:37.360 This new attitude towards who we see Jesus as. 00:15:37.840 --> 00:15:42.080 And what Paul is trying to do is he's saying we need to move away from seeing him, right? 00:15:42.159 --> 00:15:45.440 When he says we need to not regard him according to the flesh anymore. 00:15:45.600 --> 00:15:50.720 We need to move away from seeing Jesus as just some good teacher or some religious leader. 00:15:51.120 --> 00:15:56.480 Because, right, when we do that, he's just some teacher with good ideas, right? 00:15:56.720 --> 00:15:59.840 Some teacher that just wants to make our lives better. 00:16:00.240 --> 00:16:05.840 But instead, what Paul's saying is we need to see Jesus as God become man, right? 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:07.600 Regard him no longer according to the flesh. 00:16:07.679 --> 00:16:13.519 We need to see him as the long-awaited Messiah that we just celebrated Christmas just a couple weeks ago. 00:16:14.159 --> 00:16:24.320 See, if if we regard Jesus according to the flesh, then he's just some teacher with axioms or or values for us to maybe inherit and make our lives better, maybe some advice to take. 00:16:24.559 --> 00:16:43.440 But if we shed that and take on the perspective Paul is offering us, then we remember that Jesus doesn't just have uh some some good advice, but he has the power to make a dead body alive, and the same power uh is available to us as we try to change and look more like him. 00:16:44.639 --> 00:16:49.840 So with this new perspective, right, Paul's like, take this new perspective. 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:54.159 No longer regard anyone according to the flesh, Jesus included. 00:16:54.399 --> 00:17:01.039 You need to see that your value is not in in what you can or cannot do, it's in Jesus, in God alone. 00:17:01.360 --> 00:17:05.359 With that, he moves, he leads us to a new reality, right? 00:17:05.519 --> 00:17:06.240 A new reality. 00:17:06.319 --> 00:17:10.000 So verse 17 and 18, it goes like this. 00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:16.720 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. 00:17:17.279 --> 00:17:18.720 The old has passed away. 00:17:18.960 --> 00:17:20.079 Behold, the new has come. 00:17:20.160 --> 00:17:20.880 Verse 18. 00:17:21.359 --> 00:17:29.519 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. 00:17:30.960 --> 00:17:36.000 Paul says, right, for for all those who follow Jesus, we can have hope. 00:17:36.480 --> 00:17:37.359 We can have hope. 00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:37.920 Why? 00:17:38.160 --> 00:17:46.640 Because with our perspective changed on who Jesus is and where our human value comes from, we don't just have to have this wishful hope. 00:17:47.119 --> 00:17:51.839 We have this anchored hope, this strong and sturdy hope in eternal glory. 00:17:51.920 --> 00:17:52.079 Right? 00:17:52.160 --> 00:17:54.880 He says the old has passed and the new has come. 00:17:55.440 --> 00:17:57.039 And where does it all come from? 00:17:57.200 --> 00:17:59.519 It comes from God above through Christ. 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:04.400 The same yesterday, today, and forevermore, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. 00:18:04.559 --> 00:18:09.680 It's the one true living God that we have hope for new creation. 00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:14.000 And sometimes I forget this, right? 00:18:14.160 --> 00:18:19.039 Sometimes I when when it comes to hope for change in my life, I forget this. 00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:39.359 But this is really important, awakening church, for for us to get this because uh when I go to the Father and I ask him to transform the jealousy or the greed or the bitter bitterness in my life, when I seek for a more loving and giving heart, that I can actually ask with certainty. 00:18:39.599 --> 00:18:46.000 I think far too often when I approach God with these things, I approach him more like a slot machine. 00:18:46.240 --> 00:18:48.799 You'll learn about what that is some other day. 00:18:50.319 --> 00:18:52.160 We often approach him like a slot machine. 00:18:52.319 --> 00:18:53.119 I know I do, right? 00:18:53.200 --> 00:19:00.799 Is that we just throw prayers up and then we kind of just pull this lever and hopefully, maybe it'll all work out. 00:19:01.200 --> 00:19:01.599 Right? 00:19:01.839 --> 00:19:03.200 That's usually how we go, right? 00:19:03.279 --> 00:19:09.440 We we go to this thing and we're like, maybe I don't have much hope in this, but it would be nice if it worked out. 00:19:09.680 --> 00:19:14.079 That's often how we approach God when we lose uh this reality. 00:19:16.799 --> 00:19:20.240 But that's not that's not the God of the Bible, right? 00:19:20.319 --> 00:19:23.839 That's not how we are to approach the God of the Bible. 00:19:24.160 --> 00:19:30.480 No, we go to the Fa we don't have to go to Him with that New Year's cynicism that I have. 00:19:30.640 --> 00:19:36.160 We we can come with great expectation that the old is past and the new has come. 00:19:37.039 --> 00:19:48.640 And when it comes to new habits and attitudes in our life, Paul reminds us elsewhere, right, he that he who began a good work, right, is faithful and just to complete it. 00:19:50.319 --> 00:19:58.480 And right, when I think of that, time and time again, every single time, I will take God's faithfulness over my own. 00:19:58.960 --> 00:20:05.599 And that's what Paul's inviting us to do, is would you take God's faithfulness even when you can't be faithful? 00:20:06.720 --> 00:20:08.960 This is what I know to be true, at least, right? 00:20:09.359 --> 00:20:11.920 That Jesus, Jesus finds a way. 00:20:12.240 --> 00:20:13.359 Jesus finds a way. 00:20:13.519 --> 00:20:18.960 That when it comes to changing our lives, there's usually some kind of desire underneath it, right? 00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:31.200 There's something when we when we make resolutions and goals, or even when we make godly like wanting to like be more sanctified and more look more like Jesus, there's often this desire that's underlying all of it. 00:20:32.400 --> 00:20:39.200 And I know to some degree that Jesus, right, wants to take care of each desire of our heart. 00:20:39.440 --> 00:20:43.519 But let me be clear when I say that Jesus wants to take care of each desire of our heart. 00:20:43.920 --> 00:20:45.440 Don't get stuck on the outcome. 00:20:45.599 --> 00:20:49.680 Jesus doesn't want to make everything that we want in our hearts to come true, right? 00:20:49.759 --> 00:20:50.480 Because that would be silly. 00:20:50.559 --> 00:20:52.240 That would actually be a bad idea. 00:20:53.119 --> 00:20:56.960 But what he does want to do uh is take care of those desires. 00:20:57.359 --> 00:20:58.640 Some examples, right? 00:20:59.119 --> 00:21:09.440 Maybe behind that desire for finding a life partner is really a desire for deep companionship, right, which which Jesus offers in his church. 00:21:09.759 --> 00:21:18.720 Maybe that desire for career advancement or climbing the wrongs on the company ladder is really a desire for purpose, which Jesus can give us. 00:21:19.519 --> 00:21:27.039 Maybe those desires for those fitness goals or whatever it is, uh, is really a desire to be admired. 00:21:27.119 --> 00:21:32.240 And there's nothing like finding admiration from our Heavenly Father. 00:21:33.200 --> 00:21:36.079 Don't get caught up on the specific outcome. 00:21:36.319 --> 00:21:40.880 Instead, be expectant on how Jesus wants to meet those desires. 00:21:41.359 --> 00:21:45.599 Have you been expectant on Jesus' promises this year, this last year? 00:21:46.400 --> 00:21:55.200 Where in your desires to reach certain goals and resolutions in life can actually be found in God, in Jesus, in his church, in his people. 00:21:55.680 --> 00:21:59.440 Where have you lost hope where God says, find hope in me? 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:02.880 To trust me, to trust my faithfulness. 00:22:04.799 --> 00:22:11.759 I love what the late, great pastor and author Eugene Peterson says in one of his books about hoping. 00:22:12.319 --> 00:22:18.880 He says this hoping does not mean doing nothing, it's not a fatalistic resignation. 00:22:19.119 --> 00:22:26.720 It means going about our assigned tasks, confident that God will provide the meaning and the conclusions. 00:22:27.599 --> 00:22:32.799 He goes on, it is not compelled to work away at keeping up appearances with a bogus spirituality. 00:22:32.960 --> 00:22:33.680 It's the opposite. 00:22:33.759 --> 00:22:38.880 It's the opposite of desperate and panicky manipulations, of scurrying and worrying. 00:22:39.440 --> 00:22:48.160 And hoping, he goes on to say, is not dreaming, is not spinning an illusion or fantasy to protect us from our boredom or our pain. 00:22:48.319 --> 00:22:54.720 It means a confident, alert expectation that God will do what he said he will do. 00:22:54.960 --> 00:22:58.640 It is imagination put in the harness of faith. 00:22:58.799 --> 00:23:08.559 It is a willingness to let God do it his way and in his time is the opposite of making plans that we demand that God put into effect. 00:23:09.200 --> 00:23:11.599 Telling him both how and when to do it. 00:23:11.759 --> 00:23:15.039 That is not hoping in God, but bullying God. 00:23:15.599 --> 00:23:18.640 Oh man, doesn't that just hurt a little bit? 00:23:19.839 --> 00:23:27.119 But Paul, with Peterson, he reminds us that we can trust and hope in what God is doing. 00:23:27.759 --> 00:23:36.400 With a new perspective and a new reality, Paul he he goes to the last part of our scripture with this, verse 20. 00:23:36.799 --> 00:23:40.640 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. 00:23:41.119 --> 00:23:43.920 God making his appeal through us. 00:23:45.680 --> 00:23:49.440 We implore you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God. 00:23:51.200 --> 00:23:57.440 Paul, what he does, right, is he ends with this new kind of activity to take over our lives. 00:23:57.599 --> 00:24:04.880 No longer are our strivings just for personal gain, no longer are our achievements just so we can be better. 00:24:05.440 --> 00:24:16.240 Instead, when we inherit this new reality, this new perspective, the things that happen in our lives, uh it has this communal, this corporate effect. 00:24:16.480 --> 00:24:16.720 Right? 00:24:16.880 --> 00:24:30.880 When we no longer regard people according to the flesh or the outward appearances, when we're expectant of Jesus to work in our lives, to make all things new, when that happens, we become better representatives of Jesus' miracle working. 00:24:31.200 --> 00:24:36.640 Miracle working in our lives in a world desperate to see miracles happen. 00:24:37.119 --> 00:24:44.319 Paul's saying that God's plan for redeeming people is through people, through you and through me. 00:24:44.480 --> 00:24:46.000 And that's really good news. 00:24:46.079 --> 00:24:49.680 I think that's really good news, especially for us sitting in church right now. 00:24:50.319 --> 00:25:01.039 Because if it's not that, if it is not Jesus changing our lives and in turn changing others, then it's just this my this personal activity. 00:25:01.119 --> 00:25:02.480 It's just religious in nature. 00:25:02.640 --> 00:25:04.480 It's just these things that we do. 00:25:04.880 --> 00:25:22.160 But if our new activity is rooted in Jesus and His power to change our lives in the places where we don't expect it to happen, where we often don't expect it to happen, then it's dependent on His commitment to us and no longer our commitment to ourselves. 00:25:23.200 --> 00:25:29.839 And it's been in our youth ministry where God has really reminded me about this, right? 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.720 This new perspective, this new reality, uh, and this new activity. 00:25:35.680 --> 00:25:42.319 Uh years ago, when I started as our youth director, uh we had this student start coming around to awakening youth. 00:25:42.559 --> 00:25:58.000 And I'm not sure how much experience or how much time a lot of you have spent around youth groups, but you know, there's sometimes that student who's super fun, who's really cool, who's great to be around, but is really just showing up because their parents are making them come, right? 00:25:58.160 --> 00:26:01.680 That's not true anymore, but this was back in the day. 00:26:02.559 --> 00:26:12.480 Well, one of these students, right, was was coming around and years passed until eventually they graduated high school and moved on from my youth ministry. 00:26:12.720 --> 00:26:20.160 And again, maybe it's just the New Year's cynicism that I have in my heart and the lack of expectation that I had from God. 00:26:20.480 --> 00:26:28.319 But this student became one of those people uh that we all have in our lives that we just don't think they'll ever have a saving faith in Jesus, right? 00:26:28.400 --> 00:26:30.319 We do we all have that kind of person in our life? 00:26:30.480 --> 00:26:33.200 That's the kind of student that this person was. 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:40.240 So again, a couple more years passed as they graduated, and a few months ago I got this text out of the blue. 00:26:40.480 --> 00:26:53.200 And in this text from this student, he said he suddenly became more interested in Jesus, in spiritual things, in fasting, and reading his Bible. 00:26:54.240 --> 00:26:58.400 And what he wanted was some help and some guidance on what to do next. 00:26:58.559 --> 00:27:02.000 And with all of that newfound stuff that he had. 00:27:03.359 --> 00:27:04.400 Doesn't that blow your mind? 00:27:04.480 --> 00:27:05.359 Like, think about that. 00:27:05.599 --> 00:27:16.960 Someone that you know that you never expect to know Jesus, let alone desire to know Jesus, years go by, and all of a sudden you get a text like this. 00:27:17.279 --> 00:27:18.400 Ain't that amazing? 00:27:18.559 --> 00:27:19.920 Isn't that incredible? 00:27:20.240 --> 00:27:26.319 Oh, I share this story, right, because I think it's at that moment where that this sermon kind of made sense to me, right? 00:27:26.559 --> 00:27:32.079 I was reminded of the ability for God to do more than I could ever expect or imagine. 00:27:32.240 --> 00:27:36.079 And more than that, right, we're in this new kind of activity. 00:27:36.559 --> 00:27:39.759 God didn't just do something in someone else's life to change their life. 00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:48.160 That activity in this former student's life encouraged my own faith, challenged me in my own, in what I was doing, right? 00:27:49.359 --> 00:28:00.640 Because as this former student shed the old humanity, embraced the new, the new perspective, new reality, a new activity, all the more I wanted to seek those things in my own life. 00:28:01.359 --> 00:28:06.880 And I'm gonna invite the band up now, but what we're gonna do next is we're gonna take communion. 00:28:07.119 --> 00:28:25.759 We're gonna take communion together because I can't think of any better way for us as a church to celebrate Jesus' commitment and power to change us and our lives and celebrate the new humanity that we have in Him than taking communion together. 00:28:26.319 --> 00:28:32.319 Because at the end of the day, uh this term it doesn't lead us to wanting to accomplish our goals. 00:28:32.559 --> 00:28:39.759 It doesn't uh lead us into wanting to make more resolutions or to try harder to keep all of them, spiritual or not. 00:28:39.920 --> 00:28:48.799 The reality is that we'll all fall short as we make these goals for our lives, as we try to follow Jesus, as we try to become more like him. 00:28:49.119 --> 00:28:52.400 We're all gonna fail, we're all gonna mess up at some point. 00:28:53.359 --> 00:28:57.759 But in that failure, we are reminded of Jesus' victory, right? 00:28:58.160 --> 00:29:01.279 Of Jesus' victory over sin and death. 00:29:01.680 --> 00:29:06.480 And instead, this passage should lead us to the communion table. 00:29:06.880 --> 00:29:15.680 Paul writes later on in 2 Corinthians, for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you procla you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. 00:29:16.319 --> 00:29:26.880 So at the communion table, uh what we remember is that a new perspective and a new reality was made possible because of Jesus' commitment to his people. 00:29:27.119 --> 00:29:32.559 Commitment and obedience that led him to a cross, to bear death. 00:29:32.960 --> 00:29:35.200 But it doesn't end there, right? 00:29:35.279 --> 00:29:44.799 It ends in resurrection and a new life, a place for us to find ourselves in Christ, in union or in step with him. 00:29:45.599 --> 00:29:52.880 In Christ, we get to identify with him, and that's all made possible by his blood, death, or his death and resurrection. 00:29:53.359 --> 00:29:58.000 In all our hardships, our ruts, our worries, Jesus walks with us. 00:29:58.319 --> 00:30:02.240 He equips us, he powers, empowers us, he gifts us. 00:30:02.799 --> 00:30:08.559 So would communion today lead you to a new perspective of the world, a new reality in Jesus, a new activity that points to him. 00:30:08.720 --> 00:30:11.279 And what I'm gonna do next is I'm gonna pray for us. 00:30:11.440 --> 00:30:14.160 Uh, Robbie and the band, they're gonna lead us in a couple songs. 00:30:14.400 --> 00:30:17.359 I want to invite you to remember this as we take communion together. 00:30:17.680 --> 00:30:19.039 Join me in prayer. 00:30:22.799 --> 00:30:30.799 Father in heaven, God, we um, man, we we owe our lives to you. 00:30:31.359 --> 00:30:36.559 We owe all the things that uh we have, it's it comes from you. 00:30:38.000 --> 00:31:01.279 Uh as we start the new year with the fervor we have for for change and um for resolutions to be kept, uh, for us to look more like your son Jesus, we pause and say that our best efforts uh are pale in comparison to uh what Jesus has already done for us. 00:31:01.920 --> 00:31:07.519 So instead, God, would you help us to experience grace and peace? 00:31:08.079 --> 00:31:20.400 And would that empower us uh to be your people, to live the way you've intended us to live, to love others and to love you the way you intended us to love. 00:31:20.799 --> 00:31:22.240 God, we need your help to do that. 00:31:22.400 --> 00:31:23.839 Would your spirit help us? 00:31:24.000 --> 00:31:28.160 Would your spirit remind us of this grace that you offer all people? 00:31:29.039 --> 00:31:35.119 Uh so Father, as we take this communion together, uh, would we remember your son Jesus as a church? 00:31:35.440 --> 00:31:37.039 All of God's people said, Amen. 00:31:38.160 --> 00:31:40.480 We hope you are blessed by this message. 00:31:40.799 --> 00:31:45.680 Please subscribe to our podcast for access to every episode as they're uploaded. 00:31:45.920 --> 00:31:48.240 And hey, we'd love to connect with you. 00:31:48.400 --> 00:31:54.240 Take a next step by filling out our virtual connection card at awakeningchurch.comslash card.