SPEAKER_01: This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_01: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_02: Full.
SPEAKER_02: God, because of your sacrifice, our debt is paid in full.
SPEAKER_02: And we now come in to the merit that we did not earn.
SPEAKER_02: Holy Spirit, would you please have us in this room as we worship, as we continue to worship, have that truth sink deep down inside of us.
SPEAKER_02: God, thank you for the cross.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for sending your son to pay for my penalty and then rise to give me power, and then one day you're gonna rid the world of the presence of sin.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for you then through the cross.
SPEAKER_02: And God, as we continue to worship through the reading of your word, I pray that you can open up our hearts and open up our minds, that we can accept these truths, and they can sink down to the bottom of who we are, as to change who we are.
SPEAKER_02: Help us to walk out of here, walking in our identity in you that you've purchased.
SPEAKER_02: I pray that as we read your word, that chains can start snapping and breaking.
SPEAKER_02: That's my prayer.
SPEAKER_02: And I pray these things in your name.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: You can be seated.
SPEAKER_02: Good morning.
SPEAKER_02: How are we good?
SPEAKER_02: Hey, here Bibles, we'll just grab those, go to 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, 2nd Corinthians chapter 5.
SPEAKER_02: If you don't have a Bible, you can just relax as the text I'm gonna be reading from is gonna appear here on the screen.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna go, we're going through a series, a short series called Simple Truths, Big Difference.
SPEAKER_02: Because and I'm very excited for today.
SPEAKER_02: This is week three.
SPEAKER_02: So far, I've told you what this is.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I've told you that this is God's word, and then you and I are revelation receivers by nature.
SPEAKER_02: You and I are meant to run on the words of God.
SPEAKER_02: So I've told you what this is, and then last week I told you who he is.
SPEAKER_02: That the simple truth was God is the greatest, and that was the seatbelt of David's life.
SPEAKER_02: And you and I are invited to the intimacy with God that David actually had.
SPEAKER_02: And today it's exciting because I get to tell you who you are.
SPEAKER_02: I get to tell you who you are in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: I get to tug at your name tag as a reminder.
SPEAKER_02: Now, um, two weeks ago after service, um, I drove, my wife and I drove to college station and to go swimming with some friends.
SPEAKER_02: There you go.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't even say that school, I just said college station.
SPEAKER_02: But I went there to swim with some friends.
SPEAKER_02: And when it comes to swimming, I hate to fulfill a stereotype, but I'm not the strongest of swimmers in the world.
SPEAKER_02: I think I have this, I think it's my biceps that weigh me down.
SPEAKER_02: I think that's what it is.
SPEAKER_02: I've decided that by faith.
SPEAKER_02: Nevertheless, I um I'm still I'm 30 and I'm still fun, so I cannonballed in.
SPEAKER_02: And when I cannonballed in, I did my signature move.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I just started waiting.
SPEAKER_02: I just started going.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: And then my wife and her friend Cody start giggling at me, and they go, You're tall enough, you can stand up.
SPEAKER_02: And lo and behold, I stopped striving, and I just stood up and I started walking.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, that image has been in my head all week.
SPEAKER_02: I get to remind you who you are so you can stop trying striving, be still, and stand up.
SPEAKER_02: That's the power of knowing your um identity.
SPEAKER_02: That's the power that it can do.
SPEAKER_02: Now, um, we're gonna be we're gonna jump right in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verses 11 through 21.
SPEAKER_02: Just by way of context, um, Paul has just finished explaining to them what's at the finish line.
SPEAKER_02: He has just started talking, stop talking about the finish line.
SPEAKER_02: He said, Listen, he's a tent maker.
SPEAKER_02: So hey, listen, God is gonna strike this earthly tent.
SPEAKER_02: You are in your earthly tent.
SPEAKER_02: In this tent we groan, but not for long.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, not for long.
SPEAKER_02: And then he concludes that section by talking about the best seat in the house, the judgment seat of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And that's where we're gonna all one day be in front of Jesus and face a review of our lives and be rewarded accordingly.
SPEAKER_02: Now, what he what you think he's about to do, you think he's about to tell us how to act.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, this is the trophy.
SPEAKER_02: Play hard.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, this is the trophy.
SPEAKER_02: Here's how you get the trophy.
SPEAKER_02: But instead, he tells his audience who they are.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, he gives a reason, give reasons for his ministry, and then he tells Christians who they are, because he understands the correlation between identity and activity.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, he knows that when you know who you are, you'll know what to do.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, and in this scripture, this cluster of scripture, there's this a reservoir of encouragement here when it comes to our identity.
SPEAKER_02: So just looking at verse 11 through 21.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.
SPEAKER_02: But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.
SPEAKER_02: We are not commending ourselves to you to gain, but but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance, and not what about is in what's in the heart.
SPEAKER_02: For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God.
SPEAKER_02: If we're in our right mind, it's for you.
SPEAKER_02: For the love of Christ controls us.
SPEAKER_02: Because we have concluded this that one has died for all, therefore all have died.
SPEAKER_02: And he died for all.
SPEAKER_02: And those that those who live no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
SPEAKER_02: From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.
SPEAKER_02: Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
SPEAKER_02: The old has passed away, behold, the new has come.
SPEAKER_02: All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_02: That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting the trespasses against them, entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.
SPEAKER_02: God making his appeal through us.
SPEAKER_02: We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
SPEAKER_02: For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, this text answers the question: what do you need to know about you?
SPEAKER_02: What do you need to know about you?
SPEAKER_02: Okay, this is a simple question to answer, but but this these implications are gigantic.
SPEAKER_02: Who do you actually think you are?
SPEAKER_02: Now, this isn't just a hot button topic because of pronouns.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, this was relevant during the garden.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, how did Satan temptate Adam?
SPEAKER_02: Hey, whenever you eat of this fruit, you're gonna get really, really strong.
SPEAKER_02: Or whenever you eat of this fruit, it's gonna be really, really delicious for your mouth?
SPEAKER_02: No, but he told him is this hey, when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God.
SPEAKER_02: Satan's first temptation was really a temptation to define our identity on our own terms, to make our own name tags.
SPEAKER_02: He's saying, Hey, do this and be like God.
SPEAKER_02: Take matters into your own hands and form your identity for yourself.
SPEAKER_02: That was for the first Adam.
SPEAKER_02: This happens for the second Adam as well.
SPEAKER_02: When Jesus is getting tempted in the wilderness, how does Satan start every temptation?
SPEAKER_02: If you're the son of God, if you're the son of God, if you're the son of God, what's he doing?
SPEAKER_02: He's trying to punch him right in the identity.
SPEAKER_02: And what's relevant here for us, okay, but because of Jesus knew who he was, he knew what to do.
SPEAKER_02: He didn't budge, he stood.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, he knew that he was the unblemished Lamb of God who was to stay unblemished, and he so he acted accordingly.
SPEAKER_02: Now the enemy is still jabbing at identities today.
SPEAKER_02: And this passage shows us the good news about who you are in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: So, number one, in Christ, your identity, your new identity is not received, but it's it's yeah, your new identity is received, not achieved.
SPEAKER_02: Your new identity is received, not achieved.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verses 17 and 18.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
SPEAKER_02: The old has passed away, and behold, the new has come.
SPEAKER_02: All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, your identity starts with God's identity.
SPEAKER_02: It should revolve around who God is and what he has done.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, what you're about to see about who God says we are has nothing to do with your awesomeness or your effort, but it's because of who he is and what he's given.
SPEAKER_02: So in this passage, um Paul is trying to make blatantly clear this pattern of God working and us benefiting.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, God working and us benefiting from his work.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verse 14.
SPEAKER_02: It says this.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, one has died, therefore all of that.
SPEAKER_02: What this is saying here is that all have that meaning the penalty was paid for us.
SPEAKER_02: Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_02: God's working, us benefiting.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 15, same thing.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, it says this.
SPEAKER_02: And he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
SPEAKER_02: So Christ died, and you and I are now enabled to not just live for ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: In order to actually claim the identity that God has purchased for us, you have to get out of your out of yourself.
SPEAKER_02: The abundant life starts outside of your self-obsession.
SPEAKER_02: It starts outside of yourself.
SPEAKER_02: So we're we're free, Jesus frees us from our relentless focus on ourselves to real humility.
SPEAKER_02: And real humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.
SPEAKER_02: And Christ makes that possible by dying for our sins.
SPEAKER_02: And then verse 18, same thing.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 19, same thing.
SPEAKER_02: We're given the word of reconciliation because God reconciled the world.
SPEAKER_02: And in verse 21, we become the righteousness of God because he made him to be sin.
SPEAKER_02: So you have this blatant pattern of God working in us benefiting from his work, and that's just tell the reader identity from Christ is received, it's not achieved.
SPEAKER_02: You are to base who you are on who he is and what he's done.
SPEAKER_02: And friends, that is the safest, most responsible thing to do because you change.
SPEAKER_02: You change a whole lot.
SPEAKER_02: From mood swings to age and life changes, you and I consistently change, and he does not change.
SPEAKER_02: So who he is does not change.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, Hebrews chapter 13 says this um Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
SPEAKER_02: That's really, really good news.
SPEAKER_02: In the world of updates and upgrades, everything from your apps on your phones to your wardrobe in your closet, everything is an update and upgrade.
SPEAKER_02: But right now, this passage shows us that God is infinitely good in this moment and needs no update.
SPEAKER_02: That he is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
SPEAKER_02: And furthermore, what he has done will not change.
SPEAKER_02: The relevance will not change.
SPEAKER_02: Meaning, um, in the last book of your Bible, Jesus is consistently referred to as the Lamb.
SPEAKER_02: Literally, in even in the last page of your Bible, he's referred to as the Lamb.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, this right here is sacrificial language.
SPEAKER_02: And what that means is even in the internal state, even trillions of years from now, we are still gonna be thanking God for the cross.
SPEAKER_02: The cross will still be relevant then.
SPEAKER_02: So who he is and what he has done will not change.
SPEAKER_02: Base your identity on the unchanging truths of God.
SPEAKER_02: God ought to be the source of our identity, nothing and no one else.
SPEAKER_02: But Satan's crafty, very crafty.
SPEAKER_02: Here's what he's not gonna do.
SPEAKER_02: He's not gonna go, hey, leave Christ and become a Satanist.
SPEAKER_02: Come on.
SPEAKER_02: That's not what he does.
SPEAKER_02: But he whispers different identities for us, like this.
SPEAKER_02: This is the American one.
SPEAKER_02: You are your work.
SPEAKER_02: This is finding your identity through performance.
SPEAKER_02: And in this view, okay, offices and laptops are the new temples and churches.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, friends, if your income, your job title, or your prestige of your workplace are the things that you're dying to tell people every time you first meet, you're probably living out of this identity.
SPEAKER_02: You are your work.
SPEAKER_02: Or here's another one that has a stranglehold in the West right now.
SPEAKER_02: You are your sexuality.
SPEAKER_02: This is identity through passion.
SPEAKER_02: In this view, um, your sexual desire is the most basic reality about us, and it determines how we interact with the rest of the world and conceive ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: By the way, this is the great tragedy of pride parades.
SPEAKER_02: This is the great tragedy right here.
SPEAKER_02: Because these are people that are declaring, hey, my sex life is Lord.
SPEAKER_02: And whenever you put your sexuality at the core, at the bottom of who you are, okay, you can't deny yourself any sexual proclivities.
SPEAKER_02: Because to deny your sexual activity is to deny the truth, truest form of yourself.
SPEAKER_02: And without the Holy Spirit, you will not do that.
SPEAKER_02: You cannot do that, it's out of the question.
SPEAKER_02: But he'll whisper, you are your sexuality, or you are your history.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, based on your background or your family life or your social connections or your denomination, you are your pedigree.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, if Jesus' little brother had the wherewithal to call himself a servant of Christ, he didn't even, he had the same DNA and blood of Jesus, but he um uh he he um related to him.
SPEAKER_02: That's my Lord and Savior first.
SPEAKER_02: If he did that, we ought to do that as well.
SPEAKER_02: You are your work, you are your sexuality, you are your history.
SPEAKER_02: These are a flimsy dead end.
SPEAKER_02: David Strain, who writes about this, says this um we need to train ourselves to hear in these proposals the echo of the serpent's words and the words to Eve in the garden.
SPEAKER_02: You will be like God.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: Now you can keep going.
SPEAKER_02: You are your mistakes, or you are your worst moment, or you are your looks, or you are your mental health disability.
SPEAKER_02: The point is, at every moment you are living out of an identity.
SPEAKER_02: Which one is it today?
SPEAKER_02: Okay, which one has taken a deeper root in your heart?
SPEAKER_02: The one Satan whispers to you, or the one you've received from Christ?
SPEAKER_02: John chapter 1, verse 40 and 42 say this.
SPEAKER_02: One of the two that heard John speak followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
SPEAKER_02: He found his he first found his own brother Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah, which means Christ.
SPEAKER_02: He brought him to Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus looked at him and said, You are Simon, the son of John, and you shall be called Cephas, which means Peter.
SPEAKER_02: Before Dwayne Johnson, okay, Peter was the rock.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus met him and changed his name.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, he didn't earn it, and he couldn't lose it.
unknown: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: Matter of fact, if if I was Jesus, there's been at least a couple times I would have taken that name back out of my listen.
SPEAKER_02: There's another rabbi up the street.
SPEAKER_02: Go there.
SPEAKER_02: You're done.
SPEAKER_02: But whenever he lived out of his given identity, the world literally changed forever.
SPEAKER_02: There's no book in your Bible called first and second Simon.
SPEAKER_02: First and second Peter.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: So in Christ, our identity is received, not achieved.
SPEAKER_02: Furthermore, um, your identity is more than what meets the eye.
SPEAKER_02: Your identity is more than what meets the eye.
SPEAKER_02: Now we live in a world that consistently believes that hey, what you see is what you get.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, what you see is what you get.
SPEAKER_02: So that's why advertising works so incredibly well because you and I are visual creatures who believe what you see is what you get.
SPEAKER_02: There's an entire industry of people right now whose main job is to put makeup on food.
SPEAKER_02: Literally.
SPEAKER_02: Like I found this out yesterday and it broke my heart.
SPEAKER_02: I was looking at uh how commercials are made, and there's a cereal commercial, and they did with how they do, um, whenever you sit a cereal in a commercial, it's not usually milk in there, it's usually glue.
SPEAKER_02: And it's meant to keep the cereal perfectly still for the shot, and it's meant to give off that radiant white to make your mouth water.
SPEAKER_02: Or if you ever see a commercial um where someone perfectly rips out a piece of pizza, okay?
SPEAKER_02: What typically happens is someone goes in and literally nails down the two pieces around it.
SPEAKER_02: Because in real life, when you grab a piece of pizza, it stuck like four more, but you have to karate chop it off.
SPEAKER_02: That's an entire industry, people who make food look delicious because they know that you're gonna think your brain's gonna make the connection, okay.
SPEAKER_02: If it looks delicious, it must be delicious.
SPEAKER_02: So when you go through a drive-thru and see those pictures, those have been doctored to make your mouth water and so you can make the connection.
SPEAKER_02: If it looks delicious, it must be delicious.
SPEAKER_02: And there is an entire industry of people who make trailers for movies or make Photoshop, and it's effective.
SPEAKER_02: Because you and I are discipled to believe that what you see is what you get.
SPEAKER_02: Now look at verse 11 and 12.
SPEAKER_02: Says this.
SPEAKER_02: But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.
SPEAKER_02: We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be answered, be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, with everything Paul is about to say about his identity, what he's saying here in these two verses, and this is listen, I'm not bragging about myself.
SPEAKER_02: As Paul, I'm not bragging about myself.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, God knows I'm sincere, and I hope that you do too.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not bragging about myself.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just giving you ammo and answering the people who will call me fake because I don't look awesome.
SPEAKER_02: So, in this context, in Corinth at the time, there were these religious people at the time in Corinth that looked like they were killing it.
SPEAKER_02: When they were preaching, their togas would just fly in the wind.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul sarcastically nicknamed them superapostles.
SPEAKER_02: These are the super apostles.
SPEAKER_02: He's using sarcasm because they were false teachers.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, they were bold, they were boastful, and they were skilled speakers, but they're false teachers.
SPEAKER_02: And they cared to glory for themselves and enjoy popularity.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul calls them the superapostle because outward appearance, they look like the successful ones.
SPEAKER_02: They look like the one that was actually sent from God, and he looks like the failure.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, Paul's ministry lacked outward or signs of outward success and blessing.
SPEAKER_02: And in a chapter before this, he says he's afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, struck down.
SPEAKER_02: And friends, this creates a problem for visual creatures.
SPEAKER_02: So you have two groups.
SPEAKER_02: One group, super apostles, preaching, large following, look like they're killing it, making money off their preaching, look like they're killing it.
SPEAKER_02: And you have Paul over here, every time he preaches, he gets beat up and thrown in jail.
SPEAKER_02: So who are you gonna follow?
SPEAKER_02: Okay, visual, this presents a problem for visual creatures.
SPEAKER_02: So you can imagine Paul preaching in this context, and people raising their hand, like, uh, excuse me, apostle?
SPEAKER_02: You have fresh bruises and fresh scars on your body right now.
SPEAKER_02: Apostle?
SPEAKER_02: Weren't you just in jail?
SPEAKER_02: You're an apostle?
SPEAKER_02: Okay, well, you you how are you gonna so you mean to tell you God make you made you an apostle and then gave you a message that every time you share it, it gets you beat up or thrown in jail?
SPEAKER_02: Friends, you know what that sounds like?
SPEAKER_02: Nazareth?
SPEAKER_02: Can anything good come out of Nazareth?
SPEAKER_02: Friends, the thing about identity is it's often eyes will lie to you.
SPEAKER_02: It isn't that appearance is unimportant, but compared to the heart, it almost is.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, look at verse 16.
SPEAKER_02: From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.
SPEAKER_02: Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, he's saying this.
SPEAKER_02: At one time, we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view.
SPEAKER_02: We saw Christ just from a horizontal angle.
SPEAKER_02: We thought of him just from a merely human point of view.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the problem with that.
SPEAKER_02: 700 years before Christ, okay, this was the prophecy about Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Says this, Isaiah 53 says this.
SPEAKER_02: He grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of a dry ground.
SPEAKER_02: How glamorous is that?
SPEAKER_02: A root out of a dry ground.
SPEAKER_02: He had no form or majesty that we should look at him.
SPEAKER_02: That's why, whenever there's underwear models with white teeth playing Jesus on TV, I'm like, uh, no.
SPEAKER_02: He was despised and rejected by men.
SPEAKER_02: A man of sorrow is acquainted with grief.
SPEAKER_02: And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, despised, and we esteemed him not.
SPEAKER_02: There was nothing about Jesus' outward appearance that would make you double take.
SPEAKER_02: You'd walk right past him.
SPEAKER_02: According to the flesh, he was just the leader of a new sect.
SPEAKER_02: He wouldn't even made the super apostles.
SPEAKER_02: But according to the spirit, from a vertical view, he was an absolute giant.
SPEAKER_02: So I have a picture here for you.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so typically, whenever people, um, wait for that.
SPEAKER_02: So people, whenever people go to Italy, they take the super original picture right here.
SPEAKER_02: They have this super creative picture right here.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, where they they the leaning tower of what is it, pizza?
SPEAKER_02: Not pizza, what is it?
SPEAKER_02: Pisa.
SPEAKER_02: So they go there and they take this picture right here, and it looks as from this angle, it looks as though she is as tall as the tower.
SPEAKER_02: However, from a vertical point of view, okay, she would be a lot smaller, almost incomparably small to the tower.
SPEAKER_02: Well, Paul's saying here is this since his conversion, he has stopped looking at Jesus Christ horizontally and started looking at him vertically.
SPEAKER_02: And he does that with other people as well.
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't look at them horizontally anymore like this.
SPEAKER_02: He said he started looking at people vertically.
SPEAKER_02: Why do I say this?
SPEAKER_02: Well, Christian, when you look in the mirror, you should stop doing the same as well.
SPEAKER_02: You should stop doing the same as well.
SPEAKER_02: King Saul's problem in the Old Testament, he was small in his own eyes.
SPEAKER_02: So I wonder how many people here are in their 60s or 70s or 80s who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_02: The Holy Spirit that has not gotten tired since the Bible was written, but they see themselves as useless because they don't look like they did back when they were effective.
SPEAKER_02: Or I wonder how many new moms are in the room.
SPEAKER_02: Your body has completely changed, and your schedule has completely changed.
SPEAKER_02: Your sleep schedule has completely changed, your life has completely changed.
SPEAKER_02: And you've resigned yourself, even though you're indwelt by the Holy Spirit, you've resigned yourself.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna be an audience member in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna be a bystander in the kingdom of God instead of a daughter ready to make impact for the world.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, when it comes to your identity, looks aren't everything.
SPEAKER_02: And that's not just dating advice for young people.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: What we usually do, we we stuff our face with hyper realities on social media or look in the mirror, and then we look in the mirror and see no big deal.
SPEAKER_02: Underware that the people, the person that's looking back is filled with the Holy Spirit, ready to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not trying to puff you up.
SPEAKER_02: I want to build you up in this.
SPEAKER_02: This is not me saying, hey, you are enough.
SPEAKER_02: No, all this is purchased by Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, some of us are problems is you're too small in your own eye.
SPEAKER_02: So believers should not evaluate Christ or anyone else according to the flesh, including yourself.
SPEAKER_02: So your identity is more than what meets the eye.
SPEAKER_02: So identity is received, not achieved.
SPEAKER_02: Your identity is more than what meets the eye, and lastly, your identity is glorious.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna spend the bulk of our time here.
SPEAKER_02: Your identity is glorious.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verse 17.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
SPEAKER_02: The old has passed away, and behold, the new has come.
SPEAKER_02: This is huge because this is a promise, it's very, very, it's very inclusive and also very exclusive.
SPEAKER_02: So, first off, it's for anyone.
SPEAKER_02: The most vile of vile sinners, there for anyone, any class, any race, any nationality, any language, any level of uh intelligence, any age, anyone.
SPEAKER_02: But it's also exclusive for those who are in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: This is not a promise for those who are in themselves or in religion or in the law or in someone or something else.
SPEAKER_02: You don't progress into this.
SPEAKER_02: You don't just grow up into this, you don't just mature up into this.
SPEAKER_02: But this right here says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a what?
SPEAKER_02: New creation.
SPEAKER_02: Not a nicer person, not a more moral person, a more religious person, a more determined person, not even a newer person, but a new creation altogether.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so friends, this is the saved are not just forgiven, they are transforming into something utterly new completely.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, he or she becomes a new creature.
SPEAKER_02: So the word here for new is the word chainos, who literally recently means recently made or fresh or recent or unused or unworn.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, this is an instant miracle and a process.
SPEAKER_02: You can't work your way into it, you can only receive it whenever you are born again.
SPEAKER_02: Now, there is some continuity.
SPEAKER_02: I came to know Christ, my junior-ish year of high school, and I didn't change my name.
SPEAKER_02: I still look pretty much the same as I did in high school.
SPEAKER_02: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, however, my appetites are different.
SPEAKER_02: My aim in life is different.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: My marching orders are different.
SPEAKER_02: My love has changed.
SPEAKER_02: My life has changed.
SPEAKER_02: I am new.
SPEAKER_02: I am completely new.
SPEAKER_02: I was not on pace for this.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, yes, I was a goody good growing up, but I was not on pace for this at all.
SPEAKER_02: I have been completely made new.
SPEAKER_02: Now, you and I, one of the spiritual disciplines that gets forgotten is the spiritual discipline of contemplation.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, Paul later on says, hey, keep a close watch on yourself.
SPEAKER_02: Keep a close watch on yourself.
SPEAKER_02: Now, this pastor says, Behold, the old has passed away and the new has come.
SPEAKER_02: Our task is to behold.
SPEAKER_02: Consider.
SPEAKER_02: Think about this.
SPEAKER_02: As you think about your routines, your daily reactions, your habits, your dreams, ideas, plans, loves, and desires.
SPEAKER_02: Ask yourself, okay, is this right here old me or new me?
SPEAKER_02: Am I on autopilot as the old me or is this new me?
SPEAKER_02: That's a part of spiritual maturity.
SPEAKER_02: A part of spiritual maturity, a part of growing up is asking yourself, old me, is that you?
SPEAKER_02: That's a part of part of the game.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to your spouse.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, listen to how you talk to your spouse and ask, is this newness of life?
SPEAKER_02: Okay, young people, um, one of the things that you're gonna be tempted with is this.
SPEAKER_02: So just because something is popular and expected doesn't make it wise or good.
SPEAKER_02: You have to when you see the masses going this way, ask yourself, is this the newness of life?
SPEAKER_02: Or is this appealing to the old me that died when Jesus died?
SPEAKER_02: Bottom line is this the more you experience your newness and walk in your newness, the less you experience your sin.
SPEAKER_02: If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
SPEAKER_02: Now, verse 18 and 19, look at verse 18-19.
SPEAKER_02: It says this all this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_02: That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: You and I, right now, we are reconciled messengers.
SPEAKER_02: You are reconciled messengers.
SPEAKER_02: This is telling us that.
SPEAKER_02: Reunited.
SPEAKER_02: And it feels so good.
SPEAKER_02: That song should hit a little different for us.
SPEAKER_02: Because listen, your default settings, no matter how cute your baby pictures are, your default settings is hatred of God.
SPEAKER_02: You're born as an enemy of God.
SPEAKER_02: That's so that's the first page, the first three pages of the Bible, it's not a fable.
SPEAKER_02: That's what Adam did.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, when Adam sinned, you get his guilt and you get his teeth.
SPEAKER_02: Meaning you have the same sweet tooth addiction to this chocolate-covered grenade called sin.
SPEAKER_02: You're born with that.
SPEAKER_02: You have that.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: And what's happened here is that in Christ, God forgave us.
SPEAKER_02: He with Christ, he's reconciled us.
SPEAKER_02: And not only he's reconciled us, he doesn't just put us in a corner and say, okay, wait till heaven, he has empowered us.
SPEAKER_02: He has empowered us to be ministers of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_02: Ministers of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, this means two things.
SPEAKER_02: Very simple.
SPEAKER_02: This means two things.
SPEAKER_02: Number one, walking in this identity means you have a PhD in forgiveness.
SPEAKER_02: Use it.
unknown: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: I'm learning right now, marriage is a training camp for forgiveness.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: I literally apologize 10 minutes before I got on the stage.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Well, because that's that's our story.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, verse um 19 says this um not counting their trespasses against them.
SPEAKER_02: He was not counting our trespasses against him.
SPEAKER_02: In that same way, love keeps no record of wrongs.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that the same?
SPEAKER_02: Yes, it is hard.
SPEAKER_02: But we have the Holy Spirit, which that means is you can now do things that you could not do without the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: God calls you to things according to the capacity He's already given you.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: So first thing, being as a minister of reconciliation, this means that you have a PhD in forgiveness.
SPEAKER_02: What this also means is that walking in your reconciled identity means gospel eagerness.
SPEAKER_02: I gotta tell somebody about this.
SPEAKER_02: We are couriers of the best news ever.
SPEAKER_02: We are messengers of the best news ever.
SPEAKER_02: Think of a UPS truck or Amazon or whatever.
SPEAKER_02: Think of somebody that's just in that truck driving super fast, ready to get to their destination, knowing their package is about to change somebody's life.
SPEAKER_02: That's our story.
SPEAKER_02: We're going out, we leave these doors, we're heralding this news.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, we are heralding the best news.
SPEAKER_02: We don't get the credit, we don't get the credit.
SPEAKER_02: It's not about us.
SPEAKER_02: God gets the glory, but you and I are reconciled messengers.
SPEAKER_02: Furthermore, let's keep reading.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verse 20.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.
SPEAKER_02: God making his appeal through us.
SPEAKER_02: We implore you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God.
SPEAKER_02: Now, I was reading a sermon by Charles Spurgeon, and he says this this right here, being ambassadors, this implies the amazing mercy of God.
SPEAKER_02: The amazing mercy of God.
SPEAKER_02: Like when Adam and Eve sinned, what did God have the right to do in that moment?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, over.
SPEAKER_02: Like it could have opened up a trapdoor, both of you fall in, boom, starting over.
SPEAKER_02: Could have flooded the world right there.
SPEAKER_02: But what you see there, he's he's walking back into the garden in the cool of the day, okay, and he's asking them questions.
SPEAKER_02: He's drawing them out.
SPEAKER_02: That's that's mercy.
SPEAKER_02: I have the right and the power to do this, but at a benefit for you, I won't.
SPEAKER_02: That's mercy.
SPEAKER_02: In that same way, okay, he walks back into the rebellious garden, but in that same way, instead of using questions from his from himself right now, but he's using us.
SPEAKER_02: He's filling us up and sending us into a rebellious world.
SPEAKER_02: We get to herald the we get to be the people who walk back into the garden as his ambassadors.
SPEAKER_02: Now, right here, Paul is talking about himself and the other apostles, but you and I inherit this title when we come to Christ.
SPEAKER_02: We are ambassadors for Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: First off, this means you're not from here.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: Don't make yourself comfortable in this world that's passing away.
SPEAKER_02: You are an immigrant in this world, and this is not your final destiny either.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: But ambassador, this is more than a messenger.
SPEAKER_02: This is a representative.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, this is a term used to describe envoys whenever they're sent from nation to nation to either ask for favors, make alliances, protest wrongs, or to offer terms of peace.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: Christians have been called by their king to serve as ambassadors in the world that is rebellion against him.
SPEAKER_02: So there's a world that is rebellion, and we get to interrupt that rebellion by hey, saying, be reconciled to God.
SPEAKER_02: This is God's mercy on the world that's sending us out.
SPEAKER_02: This is this is huge.
SPEAKER_02: This is a big, big honor.
SPEAKER_02: God has given us representative a message of peace and reconciliation.
SPEAKER_02: We are ambassadors for Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And lastly, look at verse 21.
SPEAKER_02: For our sake, he made him to be sinned who knew no sin.
SPEAKER_02: So that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, we might become the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_02: This is the great exchange.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, the great exchange.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus took our sin and gave us his righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: That song we just sing all sufficient merit.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, our sins were on Jesus, his righteousness is on us.
SPEAKER_02: It's a tremendous exchange, and it's all prompted by God's love for us.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, what we get from the cross is better than a clean slate.
SPEAKER_02: It's better than just cleansing.
SPEAKER_02: Clean slate's great, cleansing is great, but it's better than a clean slate.
SPEAKER_02: So I have a picture here for you.
SPEAKER_02: Um, this right here tends to be how most people relate um to God when it comes to the cross.
SPEAKER_02: All those negatives in my life, and he cleaned me up.
SPEAKER_02: All those negatives, and he cleaned me up.
SPEAKER_02: However, okay, this passage does not say, okay, you and I, he made him to be sin, hununosin, so that in him we might become neutral before God.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, you know what human beings do with clean slates, right?
SPEAKER_02: You know what we do with fresh starts.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: We know that.
SPEAKER_02: You've lived long enough.
SPEAKER_02: We know what we do with these things.
SPEAKER_02: But this is not necessarily how we, this passage is saying.
SPEAKER_02: So, but you actually get this picture right here.
SPEAKER_02: This is righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so you go from cleansing to you have righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: So you aren't just forgiven, you are actually right now, if you are in Christ, you are given the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: That means that the perfect report card that Jesus had for perfect obedience, even obedience unto death, you get that drenched on you right now.
SPEAKER_02: First John chapter 3 says, Oh, what great love is this that he lavished on us?
SPEAKER_02: That's the lavishing right there.
SPEAKER_02: You get the pluses are the righteous, you get this lavish on you.
SPEAKER_02: Now, what does God see, friend?
SPEAKER_02: What does God see when he sees you?
SPEAKER_02: Ask yourself the question, what does God see when he sees me?
SPEAKER_02: Is the answer ever when God looks at me, he sees the perfection of Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: When God sees me, he sees the perfection of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, how much does the father love the son?
SPEAKER_02: Let's think about it.
SPEAKER_02: How much you see the all throughout the gospel, how much does the heavenly father love the son?
SPEAKER_02: Do you really believe that the father loves you as much as you loves Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: Well, that even makes me nervous.
SPEAKER_02: But look at John 17.
SPEAKER_02: John 17 says this, okay?
SPEAKER_02: This passage right here says, the glory that you have given me.
SPEAKER_02: So he's praying, Jesus is praying, he's praying that he's saying this, the glory that you have given me, I have given to them, the disciples, the believers, that they may be one even as we are one.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I in them, you in me, that they may be perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me, and watch this, and love them as you have loved me, and love them as you have loved me.
SPEAKER_02: You are not God and never will be.
SPEAKER_02: But you are the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_02: That's what he sees when he looks at you.
SPEAKER_02: He says he sees the son or the daughter that he loves, compatible with the love that he has for Jesus himself.
SPEAKER_02: And that's scary to even think or even talk about, but listen, either you're unified with Christ or you're not.
SPEAKER_02: Either you are righteous before God or you are not.
SPEAKER_02: That's what in Christ means.
SPEAKER_02: We are in him through faith, he's in us with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: We have unity with him, so we get his righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: Look at Isaiah 61 says this he has clothed me with garments of salvation, and he has covered me with the robe of righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: Christian, you are the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_02: Because of what Christ said, you are the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_02: It's in a self-righteousness bought for you at the cross.
SPEAKER_02: So you're a new creat new creation, reconciled messenger, ambassadors, and you're the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_02: Now compare that to you are your work.
SPEAKER_02: Or you are your looks, or you are your whatever.
SPEAKER_02: Through the gospel, we get these glorious, glorious identities.
SPEAKER_02: So our identities, okay, your identity is glorious.
SPEAKER_02: Your identity is not your own.
SPEAKER_02: You have received it, and your identity, um, yeah, it is it is glorious.
SPEAKER_02: So now a major part of your faith is telling your feelings where they get off.
SPEAKER_02: Some of us in this room are now you don't feel like the righteousness of God, you don't feel like a new creature.
SPEAKER_02: You don't feel like a reconciled messenger, you're equipped for that, you don't feel like an ambassador of heaven.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, but I invite you to walk in these realities.
SPEAKER_02: The same way that when I was in the pool striving, I decided to stop and stand up.
SPEAKER_02: I invite you to stop and stand up.
SPEAKER_02: This was purchased for you.
SPEAKER_02: That's our simple truth today.
SPEAKER_02: Your identity is glorious.
SPEAKER_02: Friend, be who you've supernaturally been called to be.
SPEAKER_02: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_02: I thank you for the all-sufficient merit.
SPEAKER_02: It is finished means it's finished.
SPEAKER_02: Fully paid means fully paid.
SPEAKER_02: Holy Spirit, point out parts of our lives where we're living in the old, old us, not new us.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus, now will you please work in our hearts as we consider these truths?
SPEAKER_02: It's in your beautiful name I pray.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Um, or if you're new, um, welcome and thank you for being here this morning.
SPEAKER_02: So, what we typically do.
SPEAKER_02: is we teach the Bible, like teach the Bible, and what we do is we give you some space just to mentally worship.
SPEAKER_02: So we have some questions here about what you just heard heard and just give you some soul space to think about.
SPEAKER_02: You can take a picture of it and think about it throughout your week.
SPEAKER_02: Or right now you can just look at one, lock in on one, and you and the Holy Spirit can venture off and just think these things through.
SPEAKER_02: But ever let's I'm gonna step back and just give you some space and give the Holy Spirit some space to work in here and consider what you have just heard.
SPEAKER_02: Holy Spirit I the beautiful thing about this is you get to do all the work.
SPEAKER_02: I am just a reconciled messenger again Lord I pray that these truths can sink down into us and even if they have a latent effect God I pray that you can snap chains friends this is uh God I pray that this is not just um another sermon or another Sunday Holy Spirit would you please just contend with us as we consider these truths we are desperate the flesh has no help desperate for your Holy Spirit it's in your beautiful name I pray amen again thank you so much for being here my name is Leo Ahmade I'm the teaching pastor here at um Grand Parkway um if you're new here welcome um you matter to God before you matter to us and after this service um we're gonna have some people here at the front some pastors here at the front ready to pray with you process with you and answer any questions you might have about the sermon or just overall the church um just ready to pray for you as well so if you're new as well we love for you to text us welcome to this number right here this gives us a record of your visit and gives us a chance to connect um with you and if this is your church home and this is a place you consider your church home um and this is the day you worship through the through through giving um there are some boxes around the room that you can do so now um we always like to keep you aware of what's happening in life of our church so pay attention to what's happening on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: If you're new text welcome to 281-626-5707 this way we can know you're here and get you connected with the church get your serve on and support an ongoing mission of Grand Parkway right here on campus.
SPEAKER_00: We teach ESL 30 Tuesday nights from 6 to 830 p.m classes start in August and end in May with four dinners throughout we need teachers and conversation partners no experience or training necessary all preparation is done for you.
SPEAKER_00: If the Holy Spirit is nudging you to serve the people of this community please contact ESL at grandparkway.org ESL leaders will be available at the Mission Center in the lobby at the end of both services.
SPEAKER_00: They will be able to answer any questions regarding volunteer opportunities.
SPEAKER_00: We're calling all fourth through sixth graders to our bridge mission weekend this weekend July 21st and 22nd.
SPEAKER_00: There will be team building and training game building gospel sharing and cooling down at the pool.
SPEAKER_00: Sign up now at Grantparkway.org the spots are limited.
SPEAKER_00: Speaking of the bridge today we'll be adding the fourth grade to our bridge ministry and so it'll then be comprised of fourth, fifth and sixth grade students.
SPEAKER_00: Please note that only students that are currently in the fourth grade will make the move today.
SPEAKER_00: If your student currently meets with the third graders they will continue to do so until promotion Sunday on August 6th.
SPEAKER_00: Also our bridge ministry will begin meeting in the gathering room in the adult building there will be signs outside leading the way and someone by the front desk in the adult building to assist with questions.
SPEAKER_00: We now have Bible studies for adults at 9 and 1030 a.m to find a class that's a fit for you come to the adult building and try one out or contact Blake at grandparkway.org if you have any questions or want someone to pray for you find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service will you please stand your feet and receive this benediction put your hands out for me