WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:02.000 But we're taking a break from the book of Acts. 00:00:02.080 --> 00:00:08.320 We've been going through the first half of the book of Acts and maybe gotten in, I don't know, five sermons or so, six sermons, I'm not quite sure. 00:00:08.480 --> 00:00:11.519 But we're taking a break from that because we're in the season of Advent. 00:00:11.759 --> 00:00:16.960 The season of Advent is the season, four weeks leading up to Christmas. 00:00:17.120 --> 00:00:21.519 It's about uh it's about desire for what is to come, but it's not here yet. 00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:23.120 So it's a season of waiting. 00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:27.600 It's a season that asks us, are you ready? 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:34.000 To ask you to prepare you for the coming of Christ? 00:00:34.240 --> 00:00:39.600 Are you ready to remember the incarnation of God into humanity in the birth of Jesus? 00:00:39.759 --> 00:00:43.039 And there are other questions, waiting questions of the season. 00:00:43.679 --> 00:00:45.119 Are you ready with all your shopping? 00:00:45.200 --> 00:00:46.240 Are you ready with your tree? 00:00:46.399 --> 00:00:47.840 Are you ready for your lights? 00:00:48.079 --> 00:00:49.840 There's other more general questions. 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:52.320 Are you ready for cousin Eddie to come visit? 00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:54.719 Are you ready, even more general? 00:00:54.960 --> 00:00:57.920 Are you just ready for like your finals if you're in school? 00:00:58.240 --> 00:01:00.399 Are you ready for your kid to leave for college? 00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:14.480 Are you ready for, you know when you click on Netflix, if you're a Netflix watcher, you click on Netflix and it goes from 1 to 90% in like two seconds, and it hits 90%, then it just starts circling. 00:01:14.640 --> 00:01:20.799 And you're sitting there waiting because you know there's 10 million other people at that exact moment waiting to watch Stranger Things. 00:01:20.959 --> 00:01:22.079 Like the exact moment. 00:01:22.239 --> 00:01:23.519 You know it, and you're waiting. 00:01:23.680 --> 00:01:25.040 10 more percent. 00:01:25.359 --> 00:01:32.159 1 to 90 in one second, the last 10% takes 30 seconds, and the time you're waiting. 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:34.079 And what does it reveal? 00:01:34.879 --> 00:01:37.200 You're horrible at waiting, is what it reveals. 00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:43.599 It's what waiting always reveals for all of us is that what we realize is that we're not always in control. 00:01:44.560 --> 00:01:48.239 And even when we think we're in control, we're not really in control. 00:01:48.400 --> 00:01:55.359 And we're not good at waiting, which means we really need the one we're waiting for, who is in control. 00:01:55.920 --> 00:02:02.480 This past week, Christy and I got into a conversation about what we like to do on weekends when we were in college. 00:02:02.719 --> 00:02:03.040 Right? 00:02:03.120 --> 00:02:06.239 Because the weekends in college were always so very different than the weekdays. 00:02:06.319 --> 00:02:08.560 And we got in a conversation about like, well, what was our routine? 00:02:08.639 --> 00:02:09.680 What did we like to do? 00:02:09.919 --> 00:02:11.520 Did we stay in our college town? 00:02:11.680 --> 00:02:12.879 Did you like to go home? 00:02:13.039 --> 00:02:22.400 And she said she liked to go home because she liked, on Sundays, she loved going over to see her family and to eat lunch at Nana's. 00:02:23.439 --> 00:02:42.479 And I'd spent some time at Nana's before Nana and Granddaddy passed away, and I would show up, I'd walk through the carport door, and I would show up at their little house, and you walk straight into the kitchen, and as soon as I walked in, granddaddy would walk out the back door because granddaddy knew I liked a cold Coca-Cola with my lunch. 00:02:42.639 --> 00:02:47.039 And the cold Cokes were kept in the fridge in the shed in the backyard. 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:49.120 And so as soon as I walked in, he walked out. 00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:51.599 He'd come back in and he'd be like, here's your Coke. 00:02:51.759 --> 00:02:53.840 They'd been, they'd been that whole morning. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:55.120 They wouldn't go to church. 00:02:55.199 --> 00:02:56.159 They were cooking for you. 00:02:56.319 --> 00:03:02.400 You went to church so you could come to their house and have like a Thanksgiving meal every Sunday. 00:03:02.639 --> 00:03:06.479 And they fed you and they served you and they pleaded with you to take a nap. 00:03:06.639 --> 00:03:07.919 Please stay, take a nap. 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:10.240 Or you gotta take a nap, please take a nap. 00:03:10.400 --> 00:03:14.159 And then go walk around their yard and look at their flowers. 00:03:14.319 --> 00:03:17.759 And this is what it always was, and this is what it was for Christian college. 00:03:19.039 --> 00:03:20.719 So what's going on here? 00:03:20.960 --> 00:03:23.759 Why would she want to come back to this? 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:25.919 This thing she grew up with? 00:03:26.159 --> 00:03:27.520 Why would she want to come back to it? 00:03:27.680 --> 00:03:29.919 Because there's nothing sweeter, right? 00:03:30.080 --> 00:03:33.919 Nothing sweeter than being reminded who you are. 00:03:34.080 --> 00:03:39.360 And Nana and Granddaddy knew very little about what Christy was studying at college. 00:03:40.080 --> 00:03:43.840 They weren't educated people, but they knew how to love. 00:03:44.560 --> 00:03:54.719 And it turns out what we need, what we need the most, and what we need constantly, is to be reminded that we're already loved. 00:03:56.000 --> 00:03:58.479 See, this is the thing that we're constantly forgetting. 00:03:58.639 --> 00:04:03.039 Counselor and author, Paul Tripp, he says we have identity amnesia. 00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:14.240 We forget who we are, and frantically we look at insufficient places to find a grounding, a sense of meaning, justification before God, before each other. 00:04:14.479 --> 00:04:19.199 And every time you do it, you carry a burden that you were never meant to carry. 00:04:19.439 --> 00:04:23.839 Paul Tripp says this you are in a constant conversation with yourself. 00:04:24.319 --> 00:04:29.360 No one is more influential in your life than you are. 00:04:30.160 --> 00:04:32.720 Because no one talks to you more than you do. 00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:36.319 So who do you tell yourself you are? 00:04:36.959 --> 00:04:39.759 And how are you forming that conclusion? 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:44.800 How are you forming the thoughts that you are telling yourself you are? 00:04:45.199 --> 00:04:47.040 Are you your success? 00:04:47.839 --> 00:04:53.120 And at what point, what measure of success does it create worth for you? 00:04:53.279 --> 00:04:54.800 Are you your failure? 00:04:55.680 --> 00:04:56.879 What about relationships? 00:04:56.959 --> 00:05:03.759 Have you ever put so much emphasis on a person to give you worth that you smother the person? 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:09.279 You know, like all I want, all I want is for him to see me. 00:05:09.519 --> 00:05:12.000 All I want is for her to observe me. 00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:18.000 All I want is to finally be for them, for him or her to make me happy. 00:05:18.879 --> 00:05:26.639 And I've been married 13 years, so not extremely long, but I have learned that I do not always make my wife happy. 00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:31.360 And I have learned that she does not always make me happy, right? 00:05:31.519 --> 00:05:36.800 Like that guy and that girl will never be the source of your belovedness. 00:05:37.360 --> 00:05:44.720 Your belovedness, already received by the grace of God to you, is the thing that helps you love that imperfect person. 00:05:44.879 --> 00:05:49.600 And their belovedness, already received by the grace of God, is the thing that helps them love you. 00:05:53.360 --> 00:05:58.000 Should the clothes be turned right side out before you wash them? 00:05:58.399 --> 00:06:02.879 Or should they be turned right side out after they come out of the dryer? 00:06:03.120 --> 00:06:08.399 I gave a long earnest speech to my wife about this two weeks ago. 00:06:08.639 --> 00:06:12.879 That is when I realized I do not always make her happy. 00:06:13.839 --> 00:06:15.680 Now, what about money? 00:06:16.160 --> 00:06:26.160 You don't have to raise your hand here, but does anybody in this room have enough money or enough things to bring your heart relief from the idea that you're not enough? 00:06:27.199 --> 00:06:28.879 What about people's approval? 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:34.240 You help a lady load her groceries into her minivan at Kroger. 00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:40.800 It takes you a minute and a half, and you tell six people about it in the course of the next two days. 00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:41.920 Right? 00:06:42.079 --> 00:06:47.279 You go for a jog on a Tuesday morning and it's raining and you run 11 miles. 00:06:47.600 --> 00:06:48.399 Impressive. 00:06:48.560 --> 00:06:53.680 And you get to the top of Kennesaw Mountain and you think this is something I should share with everybody. 00:06:53.920 --> 00:06:57.279 Everybody should know what I have done this morning. 00:06:57.439 --> 00:07:12.319 And so you take your picture and you post it and you say, what a great jog, outbeating the day, and then you obsessively check it for the entire day to see if everybody has agreed with you. 00:07:13.360 --> 00:07:16.720 And it's just like, just enjoy the run, right? 00:07:16.879 --> 00:07:18.000 Like, just enjoy the run. 00:07:18.399 --> 00:07:19.600 You can be free of that. 00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:22.319 You don't have to do that, just enjoy the run. 00:07:23.519 --> 00:07:25.680 Or we use our spirituality. 00:07:26.319 --> 00:07:28.319 Maybe you love to know the most. 00:07:29.120 --> 00:07:34.319 Or if you're like me, you like to be seen as thinking maybe you know the most. 00:07:35.040 --> 00:07:36.160 Or to be right. 00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:44.079 When we forget who we are, we try to get things to tell us who we are. 00:07:44.800 --> 00:07:52.639 And it creates all the mess that we're gonna see going on in this church, in this town called Corinth. 00:07:52.800 --> 00:08:07.519 And this is 1 Corinthians, and we're getting these passages the next four weeks from uh from preset passages from the historic church that has formed the season of Advent and it's given us passages for us to follow. 00:08:07.759 --> 00:08:10.720 So 1 Corinthians 1, 3, and 4. 00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:14.800 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:08:15.040 --> 00:08:20.160 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus. 00:08:20.319 --> 00:08:24.639 Now, there's going to be nothing new in this sermon, uh, for those of you who are regular here. 00:08:24.720 --> 00:08:26.240 I'll just go ahead and break the news. 00:08:26.399 --> 00:08:27.439 Because here's point number one. 00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:28.720 You'll be like, yeah, he says this all the time. 00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:33.120 Point number one, the way to change people is to begin with gratitude and grace. 00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:36.639 So in the New Testament, there's this ancient church in the Corinthian church. 00:08:36.720 --> 00:08:48.080 The Apostle Paul started this church, he gets to this town, he starts showing up in the Jewish synagogue, and the Jewish people, they're stuck in ritual and law so to be accepted by God. 00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:48.559 Right? 00:08:48.720 --> 00:08:52.879 So they're not, they don't believe they're accepted by God until the ritual and the law. 00:08:52.960 --> 00:08:57.600 So they're using ritual and law so to be accepted by God, to be righteous. 00:08:57.840 --> 00:09:01.440 And Paul shows up and says, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is ended. 00:09:01.679 --> 00:09:03.360 There has been a final sacrifice. 00:09:03.519 --> 00:09:06.159 God's grace to us has ended this. 00:09:06.399 --> 00:09:10.960 Jesus the Christ ended this, the grace of God to us. 00:09:11.440 --> 00:09:21.440 We are free, you are free, from using your own goodness and merit for acceptance, and through the Christ, people can live already accepted by God. 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:25.600 So a church starts in this little town called Corinth. 00:09:25.759 --> 00:09:28.480 Paul eventually leaves this church and he goes elsewhere. 00:09:28.799 --> 00:09:33.279 Like any good days of our lives episode, the drama begins. 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:43.840 Word circles back around to Paul that this church has grown, different teachers have shown up, and sort of chaos and division began. 00:09:44.559 --> 00:09:47.519 Some people like this teacher more than that teacher. 00:09:47.759 --> 00:09:52.879 Some people had more money than other people, and the people with the money wouldn't associate with the people who didn't have money. 00:09:52.960 --> 00:10:00.559 And so there's elitism combined with confusion, combined with laxity of belief, combined with laxity of behavior, and they were fascinated. 00:10:00.720 --> 00:10:05.039 They were fascinated by the spectacular and think that they always needed something more. 00:10:05.279 --> 00:10:12.960 They always need a little bit more knowledge, some other knowledge, or they needed the next sexual experience, or they needed another material thing. 00:10:13.039 --> 00:10:14.159 What's going on here? 00:10:14.399 --> 00:10:15.600 What's going on? 00:10:16.639 --> 00:10:25.279 They were defined by a confused, chaotic culture rather than being defined by the path of love defined in truth. 00:10:26.320 --> 00:10:30.240 And it's no different for us, no different for me or for you. 00:10:30.480 --> 00:10:36.799 So I'm reading this text this week, and I'm thinking, okay, well, you know, I with a small group of people started a church. 00:10:36.879 --> 00:10:47.679 Now let's imagine I move away and I hear back that this junk is going on in the place where I labored and I preached. 00:10:47.919 --> 00:10:50.480 And I think, how would I start my letter? 00:10:51.279 --> 00:10:54.960 Well, it would probably begin much more self-absorbed than Paul started his. 00:10:55.120 --> 00:10:58.080 It would start off like, how dare you ruin the thing we built? 00:10:58.240 --> 00:10:59.759 Like, how dare you? 00:10:59.919 --> 00:11:02.639 Did you not hear anything I said? 00:11:03.679 --> 00:11:07.919 How could you ruin your community and your family with that belief or that thought? 00:11:08.159 --> 00:11:08.960 I'm coming back. 00:11:09.039 --> 00:11:11.200 I'm gonna come back, I'm gonna straighten you all out. 00:11:11.360 --> 00:11:12.960 That's what I would write. 00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:18.080 Possibly if I was getting a little more generous, there might be something like, I'm so, I'm sorry to hear this. 00:11:18.240 --> 00:11:20.000 This is breaking my heart. 00:11:20.480 --> 00:11:24.960 But Paul begins by going, like, I am so grateful for you. 00:11:25.600 --> 00:11:30.399 Like, this is a group of people that have walked away from a lot of what Paul has said. 00:11:30.480 --> 00:11:34.720 This is a group of chaotic, confused, lax people. 00:11:36.240 --> 00:11:39.519 And he says, gratitude and grace to you. 00:11:39.679 --> 00:11:43.840 I mean, he gets brutally truthful with them later on, but he begins. 00:11:45.279 --> 00:11:54.559 He begins with gratitude and grace because he knows the way to change people is not by beginning with demand, but by gratitude and grace. 00:11:54.720 --> 00:11:57.200 This is why Christie went to Nana's house. 00:11:57.440 --> 00:12:00.960 It was a place, it was that place, it was a place of gratitude and grace. 00:12:01.039 --> 00:12:06.960 It's what we need the most to be reminded of what is true about ourselves as beloved children of God. 00:12:07.120 --> 00:12:11.440 It's why Paul begins by reminding them who they are. 00:12:12.240 --> 00:12:13.120 Let's keep reading. 00:12:13.200 --> 00:12:14.159 Verse 5. 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:30.799 That in every way you were enriched in him, in Christ, in all speech, and all knowledge, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any gift. 00:12:31.440 --> 00:12:36.240 As you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end. 00:12:36.639 --> 00:12:45.679 Guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, God is faithful, by whom you are called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 00:12:45.919 --> 00:12:49.600 So, point number two, you already have everything you need. 00:12:50.399 --> 00:12:53.120 This is what this whole Paul's saying in a bunch of different ways. 00:12:53.279 --> 00:12:56.000 You already have everything you need in Jesus. 00:12:56.720 --> 00:12:59.759 Let's say you and your friend Janet are going to go on a ski trip. 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:03.039 You're a regular skier, you ski every year, no problem for you. 00:13:03.200 --> 00:13:05.519 Janet has never been skiing. 00:13:05.600 --> 00:13:06.720 It's a bit intimidating. 00:13:06.799 --> 00:13:08.960 There's a lot of gear with skiing. 00:13:09.279 --> 00:13:11.679 And so, you know, the night before it, you get the phone call. 00:13:11.840 --> 00:13:19.360 Janet's looking at her suitcase, she's looking down, and she's just asking, she's wondering like, do I have everything I need? 00:13:19.600 --> 00:13:20.799 Do I have everything I need? 00:13:20.960 --> 00:13:24.879 All this anxiety, all this fear, there's just a lot to remember. 00:13:25.039 --> 00:13:26.399 And so you console her on the phone. 00:13:26.559 --> 00:13:28.159 Hey, we've been through this before. 00:13:28.480 --> 00:13:30.480 You have everything you need, Janet. 00:13:30.720 --> 00:13:32.000 We went to REI. 00:13:32.240 --> 00:13:34.559 We blew your retirement savings on all this stuff. 00:13:34.720 --> 00:13:35.519 I mean, you got it. 00:13:35.759 --> 00:13:37.279 You have your long underwear, yes. 00:13:37.440 --> 00:13:38.960 You got your ski bib and jacket, yes. 00:13:39.039 --> 00:13:39.600 Do you have your socks? 00:13:39.679 --> 00:13:43.120 Yes, you got your gloves, your goggles, your hat, your sunglasses, sunscreen, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:13:43.360 --> 00:13:45.279 Janet, you have everything you need. 00:13:45.440 --> 00:13:46.320 Calm down. 00:13:46.720 --> 00:13:50.000 Go watch Stranger Things with the rest of the United States. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:57.840 See, you already have all the things you're ultimately worried about. 00:13:59.120 --> 00:14:06.480 Absolution, enrichment, righteousness, word, belovedness. 00:14:06.879 --> 00:14:08.159 It's already yours. 00:14:08.399 --> 00:14:11.120 You have to go find it everywhere else. 00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:12.960 And I want this to be really clear. 00:14:13.039 --> 00:14:14.240 I want you to see it in the text here. 00:14:14.399 --> 00:14:17.039 Verse 5, you're enriched in him. 00:14:17.519 --> 00:14:20.720 Verse 7, you're not lacking any gift. 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:24.240 Verse 8, he will sustain you. 00:14:25.279 --> 00:14:28.159 Again in verse 8, he holds you guiltless. 00:14:28.399 --> 00:14:29.279 No guilt. 00:14:29.600 --> 00:14:31.279 And he is faithful. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:42.240 This means Jesus, the incarnate God for us to know, who took our sin upon himself on the cross and gave us his righteousness, in him we are enriched. 00:14:42.399 --> 00:14:46.080 In him we are made forever rich in God. 00:14:47.279 --> 00:14:54.080 You can stop looking for more and more and simply remember you already have it. 00:14:55.600 --> 00:14:59.840 The secret to life is not to find the next thing that will finally redeem you. 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:02.080 Oh, this is finally gonna do it. 00:15:02.320 --> 00:15:11.279 The secret is to learn that you've already been accepted and redeemed the entire time by God's grace. 00:15:11.919 --> 00:15:13.679 Point number three, last point. 00:15:13.919 --> 00:15:19.519 Your way forward is to always remember whose and who you are. 00:15:21.360 --> 00:15:29.360 At the core, the core of you, you either define yourself vertically or you end up defining yourself horizontally. 00:15:29.919 --> 00:15:33.200 So horizontal identity is I am my success. 00:15:33.440 --> 00:15:39.360 I am my relationships, I am my righteousness, or my resume, or my bank account, or my possessions. 00:15:39.519 --> 00:15:41.120 Those things are me. 00:15:41.840 --> 00:15:45.120 Vertical identity is I receive. 00:15:45.919 --> 00:15:48.080 I receive my identity. 00:15:48.159 --> 00:15:51.519 I do not earn it, I do not accumulate it, I receive it. 00:15:51.600 --> 00:15:52.639 It is given. 00:15:52.799 --> 00:15:57.519 I receive my belovedness, I receive my righteousness by the grace of God. 00:15:57.679 --> 00:16:06.559 Therefore, I am free from using horizontal things to define me or save me or justify me. 00:16:06.799 --> 00:16:13.840 In this verse 8, this word guiltless, maybe in your Bible, a different translation, maybe it might say blameless. 00:16:14.159 --> 00:16:21.279 It means that you cannot, you will not, you don't have to give an account for your life. 00:16:21.840 --> 00:16:24.879 You're not going to die and give an account for your life. 00:16:26.639 --> 00:16:30.960 Not if you've awakened to Jesus' saving grace for you. 00:16:31.039 --> 00:16:32.240 That's already been handled. 00:16:32.399 --> 00:16:35.039 The account for your life has already been handled. 00:16:35.519 --> 00:16:39.279 Those who have been awakened in Christ, we are absolved. 00:16:39.440 --> 00:16:41.279 There's no accounting for you to give. 00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:46.000 You will not be reporting to God at the end of your life all the good things you've done. 00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:48.879 That's not Christianity, that's moralism. 00:16:50.399 --> 00:16:58.399 How spiritual you are, or moral or giving or successful you are, how perfect you kept your house, or how perfect you kept your relationships. 00:16:58.639 --> 00:17:04.559 You are not defined or saved by any sort of horizontal reckoning. 00:17:05.359 --> 00:17:15.039 This is what grounds you, this grace, this relief, the sufficiency of Jesus for us, this is what grounds us, the core of who we are. 00:17:15.200 --> 00:17:22.319 It saves us, absolves us in a world that is confusing and shaky. 00:17:22.960 --> 00:17:40.799 Friends, there's a creator God of love and creativity and power who holds all things together and is redeeming all things in time, and you are a part of that great redemption movement that we know in Jesus the Christ. 00:17:41.599 --> 00:17:54.079 So, my brothers and sisters, may you rest as we walk through the season of Advent, as the God of grace and truth frees you from having to find your identity anywhere else. 00:17:54.480 --> 00:17:55.759 Let's pray together. 00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:14.160 God, thank you for your grace and mercy to us, which we need in Jesus because we love to find our identity elsewhere, and we love to get caught up in confusion and chaos like these Corinthians. 00:18:14.400 --> 00:18:21.119 And we need the reminder, like Paul gave to them, that we are enriched in you. 00:18:21.519 --> 00:18:23.279 We have everything we need in you. 00:18:23.599 --> 00:18:25.039 We are sustained by you. 00:18:25.279 --> 00:18:29.279 We are guiltless by you and your work for us, and not our work. 00:18:30.559 --> 00:18:32.880 Help us to live and surrender. 00:18:35.359 --> 00:18:37.599 God help us to live and surrender. 00:18:37.920 --> 00:18:40.079 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:18:40.319 --> 00:18:40.960 Amen.